NTR HAS incurred a loss of up to €35 million on the closure of its biodiesel unit in Germany, which has filed for insolvency as a result of regulatory and tax changes in that market.
News of the loss emerged last night after the utility company declared that it had re-entered the US wind energy sector by taking a controlling stake in Wind Capital Group, a Missouri-based wind farm operator.
This investment - only months after NTR realised almost €850 million from the sale of Airtricity's US and European wind farms - follows its purchase last week of a 51 per cent stake in Arizona solar power company Stirling Energy Systems for $100 million.
The Local Court of Berlin-Charlottenburg has appointed an insolvency assessor to Emerald Biodiesel Holdings, a unit of NTR's Bioverda subsidiary.
NTR decided not to provide further equity financing to this business after it concluded the investment of new capital would not guarantee its financial future.
Some 60 staff remain with Emerald pending efforts by the insolvency assessor to to sell the operation.
However, NTR cast doubt over the prospects of any sale of Emerald Biodiesel by the liquidator, stating that the business was "inherently unprofitable" as a result of changes introduced by the German authorities.
"The regulatory environment changed dramatically, unexpectedly. The tax benefits that applied to bioenergy were removed and the mandate for biodiesel use was also removed. Fundamentally, the the industry was rendered unviable," said NTR finance director Michael Walsh.
"We gave it our best. we saw no relief to the regulatory dynamic on the horizon . . . Being the good business people that we are, sometimes we have to take difficult decisions."
NTR's return to the wind energy sector indicates that the company was not restricted by non-compete clauses when it sold Airtricity's US wind farms to Eon and its European assets to Scottish & Southern.
"It's a space that we really like and we think there's significant amount of structural growth opportunity left in the US onshore sector," Mr Walsh said.
The company's equity position in Wind Capital, which has its headquarters in St Louis, is "north of" 50 per cent.
"Basically what we have is a relatively young company, but with a very good track record of assembling development sites and building them out."
Wind Capital's pipeline of development projects amounts to some 2,000 megawatts (MW) of wind power in eight central states.
NTR's $100 million investment will see the business through to the latter part of 2010 when 200 MW of capacity will be in operation, Mr Walsh said.
"The investment they are making will help Wind Capital Group expand beyond the midwest and become a major player in wind energy development across North America," said Tom Carnahan, Wind Capital president.
Asked about a mooted "liquidity event" for investors following the Airtricity sale, Mr Walsh said the situation would be clarified "in due course".
