A consortium including Highland Group Holdings Ltd., Siemens Financial Services and Copenhagen Infrastructure II, a fund managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, announced today that it arranged the successful financing of the 400 MW Veja Mate offshore wind farm project, for a total project investment of EUR 1.9 billion.
The Veja Mate offshore wind farm will operate 95 km North West from the island of Borkum and will be connected to the power grid via the existing BorWin 2 offshore sub-station managed by TenneT, the grid operator. With a production of roughly 1.6 TWh per year, the offshore wind farm will be amongst the largest in the world, meeting the annual electricity needs of approximately one million people, the developers said.
The project, which was acquired in September 2014 by investment firm Highland Group Holdings Ltd, is now owned by the aforementioned consortium. The three parties said they will contribute the total equity requirements of the project, in the form of share capital and mezzanine loans.
A “non-recourse” financing in an amount of EUR 1,275 million, the largest of its kind in Germany to date, was signed with a consortium of 8 financial institutions, including the KfW programme for offshore wind, Danish export credit agency Eksport Kredit Funden and 6 mandated lead arrangers: Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, KfW IPEX-Bank, Natixis, Santander and SMBC.
The debt amount represents 67% of the investment budget and has a maturity of 12 years post-construction of the wind farm, matching the duration of the elevated tariff the project is entitled to under the existing German law for renewable energy.
The project has engaged with experienced suppliers and is expected to be completed in 2017.
Image: TenneT