SSE sells stake in Clyde wind farm for 355 million pounds

(Reuters) - British utility SSE Plc (SSE.L) said it would sell a 49.9 percent stake in a flagship wind farm in South Lanarkshire to Greencoat UK Wind Plc (UKWG.L) and GMPF & LPFA Infrastructure LLP (GLIL) for 355 million pounds.

SSE has been shedding non-core assets, including existing or in-development onshore wind farms, as part of a plan unveiled in March 2014 aimed at reducing its debt by 1 billion pounds.

European energy companies, including EnBW (EBKG.DE), RWE (RWEG.DE) and E.ON (EONGn.DE), have all started to build and sell stakes in expensive wind parks to infrastructure investors, who are keen to put billions to work as interest rates stay at ultra-low levels.

Clyde, one of SSE's flagship wind farm, currently has the capacity to generate about 350 megawatts (MW) of electricity from three locations.

SSE said it expects to expand the capacity of the farm by about 173 MW by June 2017, which would reduce the stake of the buyers' to 30 percent.

Greencoat UK, a fund that invests in wind farms, said in a statement that it would currently hold a 28.2 percent stake in the wind farm. GLIL, a pension fund investor, would hold 21.7 percent.

Greencoat said it expects to complete the deal on March 18.

SSE's shares were up 0.8 percent at 1475 pence at 0809 GMT, while Greencoat UK was flat at 108.26 pence.

(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)