Wayzata Firm Sells Power Plant For $625M

MinnTex Power Holdings, which is owned by Wayzata Investment Partners, plans to sell a natural gas-fired power plant in Texas for $625 million.
 
The 1,050-megawatt power plant is located in Guadalupe County, about 30 miles outside of San Antonio. Calpine Corporation, a Houston-based power company, said Monday that it has agreed to purchase the facility and hopes to close on the cash deal in the first quarter of 2014.
 
The plant is on a 110-acre site and includes two 525-megawatt generation blocks, which each comprise two combustion turbines, two heat recovery steam generators, and one stream turbine. Calpine said the deal allows it to develop a 400-megawatt quick-start, “natural gas-fired peaker.” A “peaker” is a power plant that tends to run only during periods of peak electricity demand.
 
“We strongly believe in the potential of the Texas market as electric demand increases and reserve margins tighten,” Calpine CEO Jack Fusco said in a statement. “Acquiring this modern, flexible, and efficient plant in [The Electric Reliability Council of Texas’] south zone at a discount to replacement cost furthers our strategic objectives in this key market.”
 
Wayzata Investment Partners, via MinnTex Power Holdings, purchased the Guadalupe power plant in March 2011 for about $351 million.
 
According to the firm’s website, Wayzata Investment Partners specializes in purchasing “distressed companies” with strategies to profitably turn them around with new or existing management.
 
Wayzata Investment Partners is based in Wayzata and has additional offices in Boston, Massachusetts; Houston; London; Singapore; and Mumbai, India. The firm said it has more than $7 billion in assets under its management.
 
Calpine, meanwhile, said that it generates more electricity than any other independent power producer in the United States, with 93 power plants in operation or under construction, which represent more than 28,000 megawatts of “generation capacity.”