SWS announces €500m investment plan

The SWS Group has announced plans for a €500m investment programme by its Natural Resources Division.

The programme will see it raise its renewable energy production capacity up to 500MW which provides enough power to support 325,000 homes.

For SWS, this is the first major phase of its expansion since being acquired by Ion Equity in December last.

The company has also confirmed the completion of a €100m equity and bond fund raising programme.

The programme has been supported by a number of investors and institutions including Anglo Irish Private Banking.

In the last 6 months alone SWS has acquired the rights to 8 wind farms with a capacity of 208 MW and is proceeding to develop these.

It has 100 MW of capacity already in operation or close to operation and is already highly profitable forecasting EBITDA from this division of over €12m this year.

Ion Equity acquired SWS Group from South Western Services Co-operative in December 2006.