Wind power: Areva acquires a 51% stake in Multibrid

AREVA announced the acquisition of a 51% stake in Multibrid, a designer and manufacturer of multi-megawatt off-shore wind turbines based in Germany. With this acquisition, AREVA has entered into a joint venture with Prokon Nord, a German off-shore wind turbine and biomass plant developer and current owner of Multibrid. This transaction values Multibrid at euro 150 million. AREVA plans to rapidly further develop Multibrid's activities by giving the company access to its industrial resources, financial base and international commercial network. In return, Multibrid will provide AREVA with its leading-edge technology which, developed for 5 MW turbines, can achieve a very high output while reducing operating costs thanks to a simplified maintenance system. With this stake in Multibrid, AREVA aims to increase its presence on the offshore wind market that meets land settlement requirements and that should grow significantly in the years to come (from 300 MW in Europe today to an expected 1400 MW by 2011). As an exclusive supplier of Prokon Nord, Multibrid will participate in projects such as Borkum West (30 MW), the first offshore project in Germany, Borkum West 2 (400 MW), and Cote d'Albatre (105 MW), the first offshore wind farm project in France. The stake in Multibrid strengthens AREVA's strategic positioning on the CO2-free energy market, thanks to complementary solutions ranging from nuclear technologies to renewables. A number of recent achievements illustrate this strategy: - bio-energy (crucial energy supply in numerous rural areas): delivery of turnkey biomass power plants; ongoing construction of 10 plants in India, Thailand and Brazil; future development plans in fast-growing regions, such as Latin America; - wind power: Multibrid adds to the Group's stake in REpower and to its partnership with Suzlon for which AREVA is the number one supplier of transmission and distribution solutions for wind power; - hydrogen and fuel cells: design and manufacture of power systems at Helion, a dedicated subsidiary; wide range of potential applications (emergency generators for hospitals and communication systems, clean urban transport)