Australian investment banking firm Macquarie Capital has sold 40 per cent equity interest in Lal Lal Wind Farms, two wind generation projects in Victoria, Australia, to Toronto-based private equity firm Northleaf Capital Partners (Northleaf) for an undisclosed amount.

The wind farms, acquired by Macquarie Capital last May, are scheduled to be fully operational by the second half of 2019. When complete, the projects will generate a combined output of 228MW.

Financial details of the stake acquisition were not disclosed but earlier reports said the wind farms development was expected to cost more than A$400 million ($296 million).

With the acquisition, Northleaf Capital Partners opened an office in Melbourne as part of its efforts to expand its $10-billion global private markets investment management platform.

In addition to Lal Lal Wind Farms, Northleaf has invested in Waterloo Wind Farm, an operational 131-megawatt facility in South Australia, and ANZ Terminals, a bulk liquid storage business with operations in Australia and New Zealand.

“A formal presence in Australia extends Northleaf’s worldwide network, enhancing our capabilities to provide investors with access to highly differentiated mid-market infrastructure, private equity and private credit investments globally,” said Stuart Waugh, Managing Partner of Northleaf.

Waugh added that the decision to have an office in Melbourne also reflected the firm’s ongoing commitment to private markets opportunities in Australia and New Zealand.

Northleaf’s Melbourne office is managed by Tom Irvine, Managing Director, who has been working with Northleaf since 2015. Tom was previously a Director, Infrastructure, at RBC Capital Markets in both London and Sydney.

Macquarie Capital, an arm of Macquarie Group, has also been reaching out to potential buyers for part of its 50 per cent holding in the Formosa I project in the sea off northwestern Taiwan, according to a Bloomberg report last month.

Macquarie, which owns stakes in both onshore and offshore wind farms, typically gets involved in the early stages of projects and sells down to other investors once they get closer to completion.

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