Cosmo Oil Co. said Tuesday it will make a major push into the wind power generation business by taking over EcoPower Co., a major player in the field, around late March.
Cosmo said it will acquire a 98.8 percent equity stake in the subsidiary of Ebara Corp. for ¥1 while taking over the wind power firm's debts worth some ¥15 billion, after Ebara injects ¥4.85 billion worth of capital into EcoPower.
Through the acquisition, Cosmo will gain control of the firm's 25 wind farms in Japan.
The facilities, including those coming onstream in March, are capable of generating 147,000 kw of power for sell to electric utilities. But glitches have kept the capacity utilization rate low, saddling EcoPower with an estimated ¥15 billion in debt.