Centrica, the owner of British Gas, is set to pocket £400m from a deal in which it will sell half its stake in the world’s largest wind farm.

The sale, which could be announced this week, is part of a wide-ranging programme of asset sales that Sam Laidlaw, chief executive, launched in July. Laidlaw had spent £3.5 billion on acquisitions in the previous six months. Centrica is selling assets to raise money for investments in gas storage projects, new nuclear plants and offshore wind farms.

The stake to be sold is in the Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farm off the Lincolnshire coast. The company hired Credit Suisse several months ago to find a buyer for a 50% share, but the sale became bogged down by the slow pace of a separate programme to raise debt against the project. It is understood the debt deal has now been completed and that Centrica is in final negotiations with an infrastructure fund that will buy an equity stake.

Cheung Kong Infrastructure, the company controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, had been the frontrunner but pulled back from the process.

Centrica will receive about £90m in cash for the equity plus about £300m from a debt syndicate pulled together by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. Centrica declined to comment.

Other utility groups have launched similar processes to find new partners with whom to share building costs. RWE Npower has hired Merrill Lynch to sell up to half its stake in the planned Gwynt y Mor wind farm off the Welsh coast. The project will cost £1.7 billion and Singapore’s Temasek is thought to be among the suitors.

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