German company buying Acciona Windpower

WEST BRANCH - Acciona Energy of Spain, corporate parent of Acciona Windpower with a wind turbine plant in West Branch, has agreed to sell its wind power business to Nordex of Germany.

Nordex, the largest wind turbine manufacturer in Germany, will pay $822 million in cash and stock, according to BloombergBusiness and Reuters.

Alcobendas, Spain-based Acciona will purchase additional shares of Nordex stock after the deal is completed in 2016, making it the largest shareholder of Nordex with 29.9 percent of the shares.

Under a lock-up agreement, Acciona is prohibited from acquiring 30 percent or more of Nordex stock for three years.

Acciona Windpower designs and produces wind turbines and operates three production plants in the United States, Brazil and Spain, with another under construction in India. The company has made turbines for more than 100 wind farms in 18 countries.

The West Branch plant, which at one point employed 168 people, laid off all of the last of its assembly employees in March 2013. The company has retained about 50 people for sales, office and wind farm maintenance.

In a statement, Paul Gray, a spokesman for Acciona in Chicago, said the sale to Nordex, which is subject to regulatory approvals, should be positive news for Acciona.

'Once our partnership with Nordex is approved and finalized, it will create a more powerful force in the industry that leverages Acciona Windpower's strengths in the market,” Gray said. 'It will create new opportunities for us to improve our technology and sales.”