AIM PowerGen
Status: SOLD
Overview
Upon graduating from university in 2001, and after seeing the breadth of wind turbines in Europe during his formative years, Jay spent a year developing a comprehensive, scalable business model for the production of wind turbines in Ontario, later founding AIM PowerGen Corp.
Over the remainder of the 2000’s, Jay and the team he built at AIM progressed from the start-up stage to becoming a leading independent wind farm developer across Canada, with operations primarily in Ontario but also Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
AIM ultimately built up a portfolio of wind farms producing 40 MW of power in 2009, approximately 2% of the aggregate Canadian capacity, and was set to double to 80 MW in 2010. Furthermore, AIM had secured a pipeline of wind turbines for a staggering 1,200 MW across Canada.
Around that time, AIM had garnered the attention of British Power International PLC (now apart of the NG Bailey Group as of early 2018), who ultimately acquired them in an all-cash deal for $119 million towards the end of 2009.
Transaction Rationale
At the time of the acquisition, the wind farm industry had been experiencing a period of rapid consolidation, and further enhanced British International Power’s portfolio outside of the U.K.
The regulatory environment at that time heavily incentivized renewable energy generation in which 20-year off-take contracts and feed-in tariffs were commonplace.
Management Commentary
Mike Crawley President & CEO, September 2009
“Over the past eight years AIM has built one of the strongest development portfolios in Canada and with this acquisition we are now in a position to move more of these projects into operation more quickly. Joining International Power is the next phase of our evolution.”