Noble Environmental Power looks to take wind farms public in $375M IPO

Wind farm developer Noble Environmental Power LLC has filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a $375 million initial public offering.

The Essex Conn.-based company plans to trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol NEPI. Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan are serving as co-lead underwriters. A date for the offering has not been set.

Noble Power currently operates 282 megawatts of wind power and expects to have more than 4,000 megawatts under management by 2012. The company's current and future projects are located predominantly in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Texas, Minnesota and Michigan.

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Though founded in 2004, the company's first wind parks, in upstate New York, did not begin operations until March 2008.

As of the end of 2007, the 152-person firm had generated no revenue, but posted a $42 million loss for 2007. The firm expects to generate revenue from the sale of power and capacity to power companies, as well as through the sale and trading of renewable energy credits.

The company has been financed by almost $927 million in long-term debt from a variety of sources, including The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and JPMP Wind Energy, a private equity division of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Noble Environmental Power has also signed more than $1.5 billion worth of purchase agreements with GE Energy to buy more than 870 1.5 megawatt turbines.