Iberdrola Renovables launched its takeover bid for Rokas last year, but has only now purchased the remaining shares it did not own, which are worth €175m ($223m). It has immediately de-listed the firm from the Athens Stock Exchange.

But deputy chief executive ¬Estanislao Rey-Baltar says Iberdrola expects to reduce the number of countries in which it is investing.

“The consequence of the [financial] crisis is that we will have to diminish our growth ¬potential,” says Rey-Baltar. “We will restrict where we invest to those countries that have better support mechanisms in order to mitigate risk.”

He adds that investment will be focused on the US and Europe. Within Europe, eastern countries such as Poland, Romania and Hungary are of particular interest, along with core markets like Spain and Portugal.

Iberdrola has invested more than €50bn over the past eight years, making a major international expansion push over the past two years. Chief executive José Ignacio Sánchez Galán issued a statement this week, saying that this year the group “seeks to consolidate its global leadership, driving growth and employment in the 44 countries where it has activities”. Investments of €4.2bn are already lined up.

The Rokas acquisition gives Iberdrola a wind portfolio of 217 megawatts in Greece. ¬Iberdrola Renovables first began pushing into Greece’s emerging wind market in December 2004, taking a 21% stake in Rokas. It has since increased its stake steadily.

Rey-Baltar says despite the firm’s slowdown, it will maintain its medium-term growth targets, and a wide spread in its development portfolio.

“Geographical diversification is a key advantage,” says Rey-Baltar¬, who adds that bigger companies, most of them linked to utility parent groups, will ¬enjoy a position of relative strength.

Iberdrola expects consolidation to continue, and is looking at acquisition possibilities, particularly within the US, as smaller companies feel the pressure of reduced financing.

“If there are possibilities in the market for those who have financial strength to buy assets or companies at attractive prices, then we will do this,” says Rey-Baltar. “By lower prices, I mean lower than the price that it would cost us to construct projects ourselves,” he adds.

Rey-Baltar also says he sees a clear movement of turbine prices in developers’ favour. Iberdrola is due to announce a portfolio of joint-development projects with Spanish wind-turbine-maker Gamesa over the next few weeks. The long-awaited announcement has been held up by the “legal difficulties of putting together a deal in countries with different regulatory frameworks”, but it is now near to conclusion.

Iberdrola has the world’s largest wind-project pipeline, estimated at 55 gigawatts.