Wind sails ahead in renewable energy awards

London, 28 September: Transactions in the wind energy sector dominated this year's Global Renewable Energy Awards.

Indian wind turbine manufacturer Suzlon Energy won 'IPO of the Year' for its flotation in September 2005 that raised close to $308 million and was more than 46 times oversubscribed, while Spanish construction group Acciona won the 'M&A of the Year' award for its €1.4 ($1.8) billion deal to acquire wind energy firm Cesa.

The Euromoney and Ernst & Young award series recognises the projects and companies that contributed the most to the renewable energy industry, and that demonstrated best practice in renewable energy finance and development.

Jonathan Johns, global head of renewables at Ernst & Young, said: "Themes emerging from this year's awards have been the high profile IPOs such as that of Suzlon, Suntech Power and REC, the emergence of an active M&A market, with increased participation by infrastructure funds and the increased innovation in the financial sector in terms of debt instruments. Both BP and John Deere, as household names, have aggressively entered the wind market."

The complete list of winners is:

IPO of the Year – Suzlon Energy, for its float that raised nearly $308 million and was at least 46 times oversubscribed.

M&A of the Year – Acciona, for its €1.4 billion acquisition of Spanish wind energy firm Corporation Eoilca (Cesa).

Private Equity Deal of the Year – Babcock & Brown, for its €412 million takeover of Portuguese hydro and wind firm Enersis.

Senior Debt Deal of the Year – Hypovereinsbank, for structuring and underwriting the acquisition of 330MW of wind capacity for investor Christofferson, Robb & Co.

Entrepreneurial Developer of the Year – Germany's WPD for raising and syndicating investments of more than €1 billion on more that 80 wind farms over the past year.

Corporate Developer of the Year – China Light and Power, for developing hydro and wind power projects in the Asia-Pacific region.

Emerging Technology of the Year – Choren Industries, which launched the automotive biofuel SunDiesel, in partnership with Shell.

Most Enterprising New Market Entrant of the Year – BP Alternative Energy, which aims to create a low-carbon power business over the next ten years with annual revenues of around $6 billion.