First Wind plans share sale as WNDY

Newton, Mass.-based First Wind Holdings, formerly UPC Wind, is heading for the public market with plans to raise up to $450 million in an initial public offering.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the wind power developer said it will sell Class A shares but has not yet disclosed the number of shares or the price per share.

First Wind plans to use proceeds from the IPO to repay debt and to fund a portion of its capital expenditures in 2008 and 2009.

Backed by the D.E. Shaw group, Madison Dearborn and UPC Wind Partners II, First Wind currently has a pipeline of 5,564 megawatts of capacity, with 92 MW of operating capacity and 182 MW under construction.

The company plans to have approximately 1,100 MW of operating capacity by the end of 2010 and is targeting approximately 2,300 MW of operating capacity by the end of 2013.

Earlier this year, when the company was still doing business as UPC Wind, it signed a deal with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to study the integration of wind technology into Hawaii's utility system (see UPC Wind, DOE setting up wind study center on Maui).

Under that agreement, the company said the lab would establish a Remote Research Affiliate Partner Site at UPC's Kaheawa Wind Farm in West Maui.

Credit Suisse Securities, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and JPMorgan will serve as joint lead book-running managers of the IPO. First Wind plans to list its Class A shares under the symbol "WNDY" on the Nasdaq.

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