GOING PUBLIC: First Wind Energy Co. IPO Planned In US

GOING PUBLIC: First Wind Energy Co. IPO Planned In US

Dow Jones
May 22, 2008: 02:30 PM EST

In a first-ever for the U.S., a company focused entirely on wind energy is planning to come public, with Noble Environmental Power Inc. registering an IPO to list on the Nasdaq later this year.

Based in Essex, Conn., Noble Environmental registered earlier this month with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise as much as $375 million through an initial public offering. The amounts actually raised in IPOs can vary dramatically from the registration figure; Noble Environmental has not set a price range, share size or date yet for its offering, which it plans to list under the symbol "NEPI."

Noble Environmental currently operates 282 megawatts of electrical generating capacity in New York state and has 950 megawatts that it expects to bring online in 2008 and 2009. By the end of 2012, it expects to have 3,580 megawatts of capacity by expanding to other states, including Maine, Minnesota and Wyoming.

No other company focused exclusively on wind power generation has ever launched an IPO in the U.S., although there have been 17 such offerings in other parts of the world since 1995, according to data tracker Dealogic. But it was inevitable that a wind-related offering would come to market in the U.S., given the growth in the industry and a rise in private investments in the sector, says Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group that promotes wind power.

...