Riverstone buys Babcock’s North American Energy Group

Energy and power specialist Riverstone Holdings has bought the management team of Babcock & Brown’s North American Energy Group, the firm said in a statement.

The deal gives Riverstone a team of 80 professionals across offices in San Francisco, Houston, San Diego and New York, as well as rights to a development pipeline of 4,000-megawatts of wind power in 11 states and four countries and several transmission projects. The group will be rebranded as Pattern Energy.

Riverstone did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction, but it said it will commit $400 million to expand and support Pattern’s project pipeline.

“As we move forward, we will be developing our own projects to own and operate,” Beth O’Brien, a spokesperson for Pattern, told sister news site InfrastructureInvestor.com.

She said the new firm will function as an independent US-based renewable energy and transmission development firm owned by Riverstone.

“Our intent is to be a fully integrated energy company that owns and operates projects for the long term,” O’Brien said.

The counterparty to the transaction – Babcock & Brown International Pty Ltd (BBIPL) – was the main operating entity of Babcock & Brown Limited, the Australian Stock Exchange-listed asset manager that went into administration in March.

BBIPL itself is not in administration but has agreed with its lenders to sell its assets over a two-to-three-year period to pay down debt. The Riverstone deal is part of that asset sell-down.

BBIPL was advised on the transaction by boutique energy and infrastructure investment bank Marathon Capital.