GREENCOAT UK Wind has announced plans to raise £135 million through a share placing to help it continue building its portfolio.

The fund, which has a 50% stake in the 72-megawatt Braes of Doune wind farm near Stirling, as well as owning the 6MW Carcant site in the Scottish Borders, intends to use the money to pay down "part or all" of its bank facility. It said that the facility had been drawn down to £130m because of the acquisitions the fund had made in recent months.

Any additional cash raised from the placing will be used for "general corporate purposes".

The open offer, which is not underwritten, is subject to shareholder approval at a meeting next month.

Existing shareholders are able to subscribe on the basis of one new share for every two existing shares. There is also a further entitlement to ask for additional new shares under an excess application facility.

Currently, Greencoat has invested in some 10 assets, with net generating capacity of 184MW.

It said that it had identified an acquisition pipeline of more than 400MW of UK investments and that is was now "actively engaged in due diligence on a number of potential targets".

Previously, it had indicated that it was looking at assets across the UK, including in Scotland.

Greencoat UK was formed on December 4 last year and the fund completed a £260m fundraising and listed on the stock market on March 27.

It then paid an interim dividend of 1.5p in August.

Tim Ingram, non-executive chairman of Greencoat, said: "We came to the market earlier this year in our [initial public offering] with a clear, transparent, independent and high-quality proposition and since listing we have delivered on the commitments we set out. We have paid our first dividend, added four additional onshore wind assets to our portfolio, grown [net asset value] and strengthened the investment manager's team and the board by recruiting seasoned experts across operations and asset ownership."

Mr Ingram said that he was convinced the long-term prospects for Greencoat remained extremely strong.

He added: "We believe that the opportunities lying ahead for UK Wind are very exciting. The company aims to provide investors with long-term, predictable returns and enables wind farm owners to reinvest the capital into their development programmes.

"The capital raise will pay down the acquisition facility allowing the company to take advantage of these further value-accretive growth opportunities."

Shares in Greencoat closed down 1p, or 0.96%, to 103p.