Refinancing of Butendiek Offshore Wind Farm announced
Joint owners wpd, Marguerite Fund, Siemens Financial Services, Industriens Pension, Pensionskassernes Administration (PKA), Caisse des Dépôts, ewz (Elektrizitätswerk der Stadt Zürich) have announced the successful conclusion of the refinancing for the Butendiek offshore wind farm.
The amount of senior debt raised for the refinancing is in excess €950 million (US$1.02 billion) and has been provided by a syndicate of domestic and international banks together with the EIB at attractive terms.
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.”
Helge Rau, Head of Mergers and Acquisitions at wpd adds:
”The package has been very attractive for the banks, so that the transaction has been significantly oversubscribed”.
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, just eleven months after that, the first turbine was put into operation. In the summer of 2015, all participants celebrated the inauguration of the wind farm, which is now supplying renewable energy to some 370,000 households.
Key features of Butendiek offshore wind farm:
- 80 turbines with a combined output of 288 MW
- Situated in the German North Sea, some 32 kilometers to the West of the island of Sylt
- Commissioning: Step-by-step commissioning, following the installation of turbines as of autumn of 2014
- Completion of the overall Butendiek offshore wind farm in June 2015
- Energy production: Butendiek supplies energy to up to 370,000 households
- Total investment sum: €1.3 billion (US$1.39 billion)
