A ONE-THIRD stake in Britain’s biggest portfolio of windfarms has been put up for sale by Englefield Capital, the independent European private-equity group.

The business, called Zephyr, owns 17 windfarms in England, Scotland and Wales, including Britain’s first major offshore windfarm in North Hoyle, off the north Wales coast.

The whole company is thought to be valued at about £850m. The equity is worth about £450m and there is some £300m of debt.

Englefield’s equity stake is understood to be worth £150m. The rest of the business is owned by RWE, the energy company, and Arcapita, another private-equity group. They are retaining their stakes.

Englefield invested in Zephyr in February 2004 and is expected to make a huge return on its investment. It has hired Lexicon, the corporate-finance advisory firm, to handle the sale. The stake is expected to be attractive to infrastructure funds and pension funds.

There are 140 windfarms in Britain, generating 2000MW of power. The Zephyr portfolio generates 390MW.

Wind capacity — the amount of power created by wind technology — is growing at about 20% a year in Britain.

The wind sector is becoming increasingly attractive to investors as interest grows in renewable forms of energy.

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