European Commission clears sale of 396MW offshore wind farm in Germany

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of Merkur Offshore GmbH by APG Asset Management N.V. and InfraRed Capital Partners Limited (IRCP) from a consortium of Partners Group, DEME Concessions, GE Energy Financial Services, ADEME and a private fund managed by InfraRed Capital Partners.

The commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given the companies' moderate combined market positions resulting from the proposed transaction. The transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure.

Merkur Offshore GmbH owns the 396 MW Merkur offshore wind farm located approximately 35 km north of the islands of Borkum, Germany, in the North Sea. It consists of 66 GE Haliade 150-6 megawatt offshore turbines and generates approximately 1,750 GWh annually, enough clean energy to power around 500,000 homes. The 177m-high wind turbines with 150-m diameter rotor are installed on a grounded monopile of 6-7.8 meter diameter.

APG will own about 64% stake in the project and InfraRed Capital Partners, the investment manager of The Renewables Infrastructure Group Ltd (TRIG) will acquire 36% stake.

Once the acquisition is complete, TRIG will divest an 11% share to minority co-investors managed by InfraRed, and keep about 25%.