GRAND FORKS – Claims that a Chinese sovereign wealth fund owns a significant stake in the multinational parent company of the Whiskey Creek wind farm development task are incorrect, a Herald article concluded.
The China Investment Corporation does not own a very significant percentage of the French multinational Engie SA, which was based on an analysis of public knowledge about Engie’s finances and percentage structure. Engie SA is the parent company of Engie North America, which in turn counts Whiskey Creek LLC among its subsidiaries.
That moratorium expired, but Engie North America has since indicated that the allocation of Whiskey Creek could be delayed by two to four years due to the need for more in-depth studies at the proposed wind farm site.
Last month, Engie North America asked the Herald to publish a correction. An email sent through the company to the Herald says Engie SA “is not owned by China Investment Corporation, in whole or in part. ” that ENGIE has all over the world, lately there are only 3 in China. subsidiaries in which ENGIE has interests and are minority shareholders. ENGIE’s foreign business activities in China are modest and continue to decline as ENGIE plans to sell all of its operations in this market.
From the beginning, there was confusion among county officials between Engie North America and its French parent company.
“When we first heard about Engie, we didn’t know there was a difference between Engie and Engie North America,” Ford told the Herald this month. “And county officials were involved that (Engie SA) has, on paper, ties to (China Investment Corporation). “
Ford said he based his assessment on articles published by Reuters Business in 2017 as well as several oil and gas journals published in 2017 and 2018.
Those articles discuss how the China Investment Corporation then held a 30% stake in Engie SA’s exploration and production assets, which the CIC expanded to 49% as part of negotiations with Neptune Energy as the latter company sought to acquire Engie’s E&P assets.
Exploration and Production (E
Press releases published on Engie SA’s website from 2015 also show that the multinational company’s relations with China Investment Corporation began as early as 2011. Engie SA also had stakes in several Chinese corporations in 2015, according to its corporate online page.
The Herald was unable to conduct a full review of Engie SA’s portfolio, which includes dozens of subsidiaries around the world employing about 94,000 people.
However, the Herald’s review of the Reuters and industry journal articles suggests Ford misunderstood the scope of the CIC’s relationship with Engie SA and the nature of the purchase agreement between Engie SA, Neptune Energy and the CIC.
What happened in 2017 and 2018 was that Neptune, a joint venture created through two personal equity firms, effectively sought to buy E’s assets.
A spokesperson for Neptune Energy said so.
“CIC owned a stake in the E&P assets that were previously held by Engie, and Neptune purchased the E&P assets from Engie. CIC now holds a 49% stake in Neptune,” wrote global communications manager Gavin Roberts in an email.
Even if the sale was not completed, CIC at no time held a stake close to 49% in Engie SA. Public knowledge of shareholders shows that the largest individual shareholder of the company is the French government, which owns a 23. 6% stake, while no other entity can own more than a 5% stake in Engie SA under the company’s articles of association. None of its major shareholders are Chinese.
In addition, the assets — valued at 4 billion euros — sold to Neptune in 2018 are in turn dwarfed by the 153 billion euros in assets Engie SA reported at the end of 2018. The company held 235 billion euros in assets at the end of 2022.
Representatives from Engie North America told Ford in an August email their parent company still held minority stakes in three Chinese companies, and had divested from five others in the last two and a half years, with plans to divest altogether.
“The fact we were trying to share is Engie’s business presence in China is small and in fact declining,” said Julie Vitek, Engie North America’s vice president of government and regulatory affairs.
Ford and the county’s concerns didn’t come out of nowhere: Ford told the Herald that he only cared about Whiskey Creek’s parent company after an Air Force official contacted him in March to raise concerns about the wind farm’s progress because of its proximity to Grand Forks. Force Base.
That official, Foreign Investment Risk Review Director Dan Burke, later warned of “potential national security considerations related to the location of the Whiskey Creek Wind Project” in an April 21 email to Ford and Commissioner David Engen.
Ford said he and county commissioners were already on high alert for any signs of Chinese involvement in developments in the area.
Burke did not respond to a request for comment.
“It’s my understanding that the only way he and his people can come to a conclusion is to go through the whole process (of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States),” Ford said.
In August, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States designated Grand Forks Air Force Base as a “very sensitive facility,” giving CFIUS jurisdiction over foreign real estate purchases within a 99-mile radius. from the air base.
Vitek said she did not expect the new designation to affect the Whiskey Creek development, since Engie North America is still a U.S. company, and she found it unlikely the project would be designated critical infrastructure.
Documents provided by Engie North America to Ford and county commissioners indicated the company had been in regular contact with the Air Force base and the Department of Defense’s Military Aviation and Installation Siting Clearinghouse going back to 2017.
Engie Canada representative Jon Fournier told the Herald that the company is conducting additional studies on how it will connect the wind farm to the power grid, after discovering that a transmission line that already runs through the proposal would require “prohibitively expensive” upgrades. .
In the November email sent to The Herald requesting a correction, the company said it “looks forward to addressing those interconnection issues to continue to advance the Whiskey Creek task for the benefit of local property owners and all who visit Grand Forks County. “