BlackRock said the fund will acquire the stake in Lake Turkana Wind Power [LTWP]in Kenya's far north from Finnish development financier Finnfund, Danish wind turbines maker Vestas, and the Investment Fund for Developing Countries, a Danish development financier.
A regulatory filing published in the Kenyan press on Tuesday said the stake amounts to 31.25% of the shares of LTWP, a 365-wind turbine facility with a 310 megawatt capacity.
The regulatory notice defined the stake as "controlling", but BlackRock later said that was within the meaning of Kenya's energy law, not in the conventional sense of a controlling or majority stake. It did not disclose the value of the deal.
The agreement, which requires regulatory approval, represents a first private investment in Africa for BlackRock Alternatives, part of BlackRock Inc. it said.
"The LTWP project provides reliable, low-cost energy to Kenya's national grid via a 20-year power purchase agreement with Kenya Power," BlackRock said, referring to the East African nation's power distribution company.
LTWP provides just over a tenth of Kenya's power generation, offering electricity to more than 3 million people, BlackRock said.
The Climate Finance Partnership (CFP) is a public-private fund that targets emerging market climate infrastructure, bringing together BlackRock, the French, German and Japanese governments, and some U.S.-based organizations.
It has commitments of $637 million from a range of global investors, which exceeded its fundraising target of $500 million.
"The fund plans to invest at least 25% of its assets under management in Africa," it said.
