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Macquarie has halted the sale of offshore wind companies due to lack interest, according to sources

Two people familiar with the process have confirmed that Macquarie, a major Australian bank, has canceled the sale of a large offshore wind developer due to lukewarm interest. This is despite the Trump administration's opposition to renewable energy sources.

The global tariff war has caused the markets to be roiled, and dealmaking has been halted.

Macquarie hired advisers to help find a buyer last year for Corio Generation. Corio Generation oversees a 25 gigawatt pipeline of offshore wind project in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Sources spoke under condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.

It will instead downsize the project. Corio Generation, refocusing their global operations due to the challenging market conditions of the offshore wind sector is prioritising the development of smaller portfolios of projects that have the most clear route to construction," said a Corio spokesperson.

This will also require that the organization be restructured to reflect this change in strategy. The spokesperson said that they are currently discussing the matter with their project partners as well as staff members who could be affected by this change.

Macquarie's spokesperson declined to comment.

Offshore wind has been a challenging market with many projects requiring revaluation due to escalating construction costs, rising interest rates and supply-chain snags.

The construction of offshore wind farms has slowed in the U.S. Energy companies, especially since U.S. president Donald Trump stopped new offshore wind leasing in his first day in the Oval Office back in January.

Corio, headquartered in London, is a Macquarie Asset Management portfolio company with offshore wind farms located in Britain, Europe and the Asia-Pacific Region, as well as the United States, Brazil, and the United States.

The majority of Corio’s projects are still in the development phase, and require billions of dollars of investment to become operational.

Samuel Leupold replaced Jonathan Cole as CEO of Corio Generation earlier this year. (Reporting and editing by Anousha Saoui, David Evans and Andres Gonzalez)

(source: Reuters)