The joint owners of the 288MW Butendiek offshore wind farm have announced a successful conclusion of the refinancing for the project valued in excess of EUR 950 million.
wpd, Marguerite Fund, Siemens Financial Services, Industriens Pension, Pensionskassernes Administration (PKA), Caisse des Dépôts, and ewz (Elektrizitätswerk der Stadt Zürich) secured the refinancing deal with a syndicate of domestic and international banks together with the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Helge Rau , Head of Mergers and Acquisitions at wpd, said: ”The package has been very attractive for the banks, so that the transaction has been significantly oversubscribed.”
Michael Dedieu, Chairman of the Butendiek Investment Committee and partner of Marguerite Fund, has been with the project since the beginning and is pleased with the positive project development which makes the refinancing possible.
“The success of the Butendiek wind farm – the smooth course of the wind farm’s construction on the one hand as well as the very good performance on the other hand – has been the basis for the successfully implemented refinancing,” Dedieu said.
wpd operates the 80 offshore turbine project located just off the island of Sylt and was its project manager during the development and construction phase.
Offshore construction works began in March of 2014, with the first turbine put into operation eleven months later.
The EUR 1.3 billion wind farm has been operating at full capacity since the summer of 2015.