Danish pension funds acquire stake in offshore wind farm
DONG Energy has signed an agreement to sell 50% of the 252 MW German offshore wind farm project Gode Wind 2 to a consortium of Danish pension funds that will make 840,000 pension savers co-owners of the wind farm.
The total sales price amounts to approximately €600 million (US$811 million), which will be paid in the period from 2014 to 2016. At completion of the transaction, PKA will, acquire 24.75% of Gode Wind 2, with Industriens Pension acquiring 10.5%, Lærernes Pension 8.75% and Lægernes Pensionskasse 6%.
Construction of Gode Wind 2 is expected to commence in 2015, and full commissioning for this and the neighbouring wind farm Gode Wind 1 is expected in 2016.
The parties have agreed that DONG Energy will provide operation and maintenance services to Gode Wind 2 from DONG Energy’s O&M base in Norddeich. Furthermore, the parties have agreed that DONG Energy will provide a route to market for the power production of Gode Wind 2.
Samuel Leupold, EVP in DONG Energy Wind Power stated:
We are very pleased to enter into an offshore wind partnership with PKA for the second time and at the same time welcome the other Danish pension funds, which we have not partnered with before, as co-owners to Gode Wind 2. It is integral to DONG Energy’s business model that institutional investors consider a partnership with DONG Energy an attractive investment opportunity. By 2020 we want to have tripled our installed capacity of offshore wind compared to the 2.2 GW we have built today.
The transaction is subject to approval by the competition authorities. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2014.
The 252 MW Gode Wind 2 wind farm will be able to supply carbon free power equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 260,000 households. The offshore wind farm will be constructed in the German part of the North Sea, approx. 45 km off the north-western coast of Germany. DONG Energy announced the final investment decision for this project and the Gode Wind 1 project in November 2013.
