European Commission approves Vestas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries exchange of stakes deal

Vestas Wind Systems A/S (Vestas) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has entered into an agreement that will expand their partnership in sustainable energy. The strengthened partnership entails that Vestas will acquire MHI’s shares in the MHI Vestas Offshore Wind (MVOW) joint venture, and MHI will acquire 2.5% in Vestas and be nominated to a seat in Vestas’ Board of Directors.

The transaction between Vestas and MHI was subject to regulatory approvals by the competition authorities and with reference to Company Announcement No. 42/2020 of 27 November 2020, the two companies today received the official approval of the transaction from the European Commission.

Since the announcement, planning of integration of MVOW into the Vestas group has been initiated, focusing on smooth integration of employees and systems and realizing synergies in sales, technology, manufacturing footprint and procurement to sustain customer relationships, lower costs and build a strong shared Vestas culture.

Following the closing of the transaction, full planning of the integration will commence. Vestas aims to create a shared culture embracing everyone who wants to accelerate the energy transition and live by the Vestas values of Passion, Accountability, Simplicity, and Collaboration. The integration will focus on paving the way for the harmonious integration of processes and systems across Vestas and MVOW while building avenues towards the overall unification of both companies to leverage our strengths. However, first and foremost, the focus is to plan a smooth and welcoming onboarding to the new colleagues from MVOW.

The final closing of the transaction is expected to take place before year-end. Until closing, Vestas and MVOW will continue to execute as two independent companies, with just a small number of Vestas employees engaged in planning the future integration of the two companies.