Struggling penny stock firm with light cash reserves lands major wind power agreements.
Led by two former Accenture executives who spearheaded the 2003 privatization of BC Hydro and Power Authority’s back-office operations, a little-known, three-and-a-half year-old company with negligible cash reserves and an accumulated deficit in excess of $41 million scored a stunning win two weeks ago when it was awarded four much sought-after electricity purchase agreements from the province’s largest Crown corporation.
Finavera Renewables Inc. was picked by Hydro on March 11 to develop four wind farms in north-eastern B.C. — three near Tumbler Ridge, and another outside Chetwynd. Together, they are expected to generate over 800 gigawatt hours of electricity annually once construction is completed in 2014.
Seven years ago, Peter Leighton, Finavera’s president and chief operating officer, was executive vice-president and chief financial officer at Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership (ABS). The company was a subsidiary established by Accenture — a world-wide consultancy firm, then-headquartered for tax purposes in Bermuda — to take over B.C. Hydro’s administrative and business support functions.
The privatization was negotiated primarily by John Icke, then president of another Accenture subsidiary, Accenture Business Strategies for Utilities Inc.
