Duke Energy Corp. agreed to sell a big portfolio of wind and solar farms to Brookfield Renewable for $2.8 billion in a move intended to boost cash.
Duke expects net proceeds from the transaction to be about $1.1 billion, the company said in a Monday statement.
US utilities are racing to unload unregulated power assets outside of their home markets after Wall Street began prioritizing slimmed businesses focused on their core territories. Investors now prefer that utilities invest locally, with returns guaranteed by the passage of spending costs to their customers.
American Electric Power Co. last year began a sales process for a renewables portfolio. Soon after, Consolidated Edison Inc. agreed to sell a large clean-power portfolio for $6.8 billion.
In February, Duke took a $1.3 billion writedown on the assets. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company attributed the impairment charge to a reevaluation of asset value following the collection of project tax incentives.
