Acciona Energía to expand MacIntyre wind farm in Australia to 2.000 MW; most important project to date

Acciona

Renta 4|Acciona Energía has announced the expansion of the MacIntyre wind energy complex which is currently under construction in Queensland, Australia. It will reach a total installed capacity of 2000 MW.

The MacIntyre complex is divided into two wind farms, where Acciona Energia owns 70% of 923 MW, while 103 MW belong to Queensland state-owned company CleanCo.

Valuation: Positive news. This is the most important project to date of all those developed by Acciona Energía. It will require additional investment of 1.2 billion euros.

The complex, together with the expansion, accounts for 10% of the total capacity which the company hopes to have in operation in 2025 (20 GW), and 18% of all installed capacity to date.

The first 137 MW will be operative in Q4’22, while the rest, 787 MW, will be finalised in 2023. If the extension construction is started afterwards, we can assume this will happen in 2024, with operations beginning end-2025.

Separately, Morgan Stanley said in a note that EDP is their analysts’ favourite stock in the Iberian renewables sector, given they expect a strong uptick in profits in 2023 due to the normalisation of hydraulic volumes with high electricity prices. EDPR is in value and Acciona Energía drops to EW after a good performance in 2022 and with little growth potential over and above what is already discounted.

Acciona Energía Renovables, from OW to EW, from €42 to €38: This has been the pure play in renewables which has had the best run in 2022 of all the stocks we cover. In fact, it currently trades at 11xEV/EBITDA 2025e, in line with its main competitor, EDPR, (which up to now had been trading with a premium). Although earnings have been supported by high energy prices, our economists see less upside to consensus estimates for net profit (4% 2022-23) from now on. They remain convinced about the company’s capacity to create value, given its skill in transferring the increase in costs in the main geographical area. And they continue to like the growth story justified by a strong pipeline. That said, they warn of some risks in the short term (timing of the hike in capacity) and the uncertainty surrounding the approval of projects in Spain next year.

 

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