GDF Suez to sell off power station stake

French gas and power company GDF Suez has agreed to sell 50 per cent of a portfolio of power generation assets in Portugal to Japanese trading house Marubeni Corporation.

GDF did not reveal how much Marubeni paid for the stake but said the sale would result in a reduction of around €600 million (£518m) in its net debt this year and €300m in 2014.

The French company will keep a 50 per cent stake in the assets, which include coal and gas-fired thermal power plants with a capacity of 2,400 megawatts (MW) and renewable assets – mainly wind – with a capacity of 900MW.

Marubeni also yesterday confirmed it is taking a 25 per cent equity stake in a €100m deal with Dublin-based green energy developer Mainstream Renewable Power, which is behind £1.4 billion plans to build a wind farm off the Fife coast.

Marubeni’s UK interests include electricity purchaser and supplier SmartestEnergy, which has an office in Glasgow and buys power from a number of renewable generation projects in Scotland.