Siemens Energy close to selling stake in Windar Renovables - sources

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -German power equipment and service group Siemens Energy is close to selling its minority stake in a Spanish wind turbine towers joint venture to British fund Bridgepoint, two people familiar with the matter said.

Siemens Energy Chief Executive Christian Bruch said this week that the company was looking to exit "peripheral" activities in the supply chain, most notably where it is only a partial owner.

Supply chain problems, competition and soaring raw materials prices have made manufacturing wind turbine components challenging in recent years, despite demand from governments banking on wind energy to wean themselves off fossil fuels.

Siemens Energy's 32% stake in Windar Renovables, a joint venture with Spain's Daniel Alonso Group, is held via its wind turbine division Siemens Gamesa.

Shares in Siemens Energy, which on Monday reported record order backlog of more than 100 billion euros ($110 billion), were 1% higher at 1029 GMT.

Siemens Energy and Windar Renovables declined to comment on the matter, which was first reported by Spain's Expansion newspaper.

The report said that Bridgepoint was close to buying a majority in Windar Renovables for $700 million, taking over Siemens Energy's 32% stake and part of the remaining 68% held by Daniel Alonso Group.

Bridgepoint was not immediately available for comment.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters in March that Windar Renovables was exploring selling a 51% stake in its Russian joint venture to partner and steelmaker Severstal.

($1 = 0.9084 euros)

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Bartosz Dabrowski and Inti Landauro; editing by Rachel More and Louise Heavens)