wind farm sale for 2.4b aus, page-5

Now for some proper analysis.........

So that will be A$1.2B each for BNB and BBW. Maybe less some expenses and fees for whoever brokered it, possibly some tax (although the assets are held in a Luxembourg company so maybe the tax will be limited). Cracker cash inflow for both BNB and BBW.

In the half year financial report Note 12, it classifies these assets as follows:

"As announced to the ASX on 28 February 2008, Babcock & Brown has commenced marketing for sale a number of its European wind assets including its investment in the “Enersis” operating wind portfolio. As at 31 December 2007, the investment in Babcock & Brown Riva Holdings Sarl (referred to as “Enersis”) was classified as an investment in associate. The transaction is forecast to be completed during the second half of 2008. These assets, and the liabilities directly associated with these assets, have been classified as ‘non-current assets held for sale’ and ‘liabilities directly associated with non-current assets held for sale’ in accordance with AASB 5 “Non current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations”.

The .... assets and liabilities held for sale at 30 June 2008 are:

ASSETS............$886,801,000

LIABILITIES.......$419,101,000"

That is net assets of $465M that is up for sale and there looks like there is A$1.2B chugging in over the horizon for BNB and also for BBW. That amount of money is going to go a long way to helping to repair the BNB balance sheet and also provide a very large accounting gain with which to write down other assets. They should also be able to take off a good chunk of corporate debt with that money.

They are not out of the woods yet but this would be a massive forward step and I am sure there are some big writedowns coming in their Dec 31 full year accounts, but if they have an A$5-600m accounting gain to absorb a whole chunk of these losses plus if they have taken a massive chunk out of their corporate debt and also they stick with no dividend and no bonuses, then they could be on their way to survival. The key thing is not to breach the parent company lending covenants. If they get by this on Dec 31, then they have another whole year to carry on restructuring. Maybe if they sold one or two more jewel assets for a big gain, prob in 2009 now, this will allow them to completely restructure.

Interesting.............