PARIS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - French gas and power company GDFSuez has agreed to sell 50 percent of a 3,300 megawattportfolio of thermal and renewable power generation assets inPortugal to Japanese trading house Marubeni Corporation.
GDF did not say how much Marubeni paid, but added the salewould result in a reduction of around 600 million euros in itsconsolidated net debt this year and 300 million euros in 2014.
GDF will keep a 50 percent stake in the joint ventureestablished by the agreement and will continue to operate theassets, which consist of coal and gas-fired thermal power plantswith a capacity of 2,400 megawatts and renewable assets - mainlywind - with a capacity of 900 megawatts.
Marubeni also announced it is taking a 25 percent equitystake in Ireland-based green energy developer MainstreamRenewable Power.
The 100 million euro equity deal will allow the tradinghouse to have representation on the company's board of directorsalongside Barclays.
Mainstream Renewable Power builds wind and solar projectsand has over 19 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in its globalpipeline.
In Europe it is developing just under 8 GW of offshore windprojects located in England, Scotland and Germany.
Barclays (BARC)
