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By Byron Kaye
SYDNEY, Dec 16 (Reuters) - China's State Power Investment Corp will buy several wind farms from Australia's largest pension fund investor, IFM Investors, a source told Reuters on Wednesday, in a sale that media had said would raise about A$1.5 billion ($1 billion).
The Chinese government investment body won a months-long auction for the wind farms in Australia and South America from a pool of 10 bidders because it made the only offer to buy the entire portfolio, the source said, without giving a sale price.
IFM and State Power representatives were not immediately available for comment. The source, who had direct knowledge of the deal, declined to be identified because it had not been made public.
The sale comes at a sensitive time for the Australian government and its handling of Chinese government-linked buyouts of infrastructure.
In October, the A$506 million privatisation sale of Port of Darwin to China-owned Landbridge earned rebukes from opposition politicians and even U.S. lawmakers, who warned the deal could threaten national security.
The federal government has since said it is reviewing the approval process for asset sales to offshore firms, while a senate inquiry is calling on bureaucrats to explain why the Port of Darwin sale was allowed to go through.
The wind farm sale also marks a major downgrade of Australian investment in wind energy, just days after Canberra signed up to a United Nations climate pact to scale back fossil fuels and boost renewables.
In September, energy retailer AGL Energy Ltd AGL.AX said it sold a half-stake in Australia's largest wind farm for A$532 million.
The IFM portfolio, Pacific Hydro, has wind farms in Australia, Brazil and Chile, according to its website. Australian media has reported that the bidding pool included parties from Australia, France, Spain and Japan.
($1 = 1.3879 Australian dollars) (Additional reporting to Winni Zhou in BEIJING; Editing by Stephen Coates)