European Commission clears Macquarie's acquisition of 400 MW BARD Offshore 1 wind farm in Germany

The European Commission has approved Macquarie Group's acquisition of Ocean Breeze Energy, which owns the Bard Offshore 1 wind farm in the German North Sea, from Unicredit.

The commission concluded that the acquisition raised no competition concerns as the companies are not active in the same or related markets.

The transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure.

BARD Offshore 1 is comprised of 80 BARD 5.0 turbines adding up a total capacity of 400 MW. It is positioned 100 kilometres off the coast of northwestern Germany. Comprised of 80 Bard 5.0 VM wind turbines spread over 59 square kilometres, the project harnesses powerful North Sea winds to supply the equivalent of approximately 463,000 households with clean electricity each year. The project has been in operation since August 15, 2013.