By Business & Finance 
Fergal Leamy, CEO, Coillte
The commercial forestry company appoints financial advisers in order to gain key partnerships in maximising its role in the Irish renewable-energy field.
Coillte announced the process also involves increasing the value of existing wind assets, which includes a potential sale of part or all of its existing wind assets to fund/co-fund new future opportunities. In doing this, Coillte has provisionally appointed IBI Corporate Finance and Capricorn to advise them on business affairs going forward.
The ambitious announcement looks to develop a target of 1 gigawatt (GW) of future wind projects.
CEO of Coillte Fergal Leamy commented: “Our approach to maximising the potential of our future renewable energy plans and our existing assets is an integral part of the company’s transformation strategy designed to enable Coillte to become the best forestry and land-solutions company in Europe. This is being achieved through a relentless focus on operating cash and return on capital in each of our business divisions. We are making very good progress on achieving our ambitious strategy and this is a natural next step for us.
“Coillte’s extensive land bank has enabled the company to develop a pipeline of 25 projects exceeding 1GW and the profile of these projects demonstrates significant diversity in terms of geographic split, size and wind resource. To put the scale of our ambition into context, 1GW would represent approximately 33% of Ireland’s current renewable energy production, providing enough power to fuel up to a million households annually and shows our commitment to sustainability and making a significant contribution to delivering Ireland’s renewable energy targets.
“Guided by the expertise and experience of the financial advisers we have appointed today, I am confident we will determine the best approach and maximise the return from our renewables business for both Coillte and our shareholders.”
Relevant companies in the future will be invited by Coillte and its financial advisers to participate in a competitive process to conjure up the best-available partnerships and joint-venture models. Once complete, this will lead into a tender process next year.
