Swedish pension provider AMF is taking a 49% share in Vattenfall’s Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm, situated off the UK coast, for SEK3bn (€324m).
Vattenfall, one of Europe’s largest electricity producers, and which is wholly owned by the Swedish state, will continue to operate the wind farm as majority shareholder. Ormond has been generating low carbon power since 2012.
The wind farm is a 30 turbine, 150MW site in the Irish Sea is one of four offshore wind farms Vattenfall operates in the UK.
Peder Hasslev, head of asset management, AMF, said: “AMF manages the pension funds of four million customers, giving us the responsibility of creating good, secure pensions through long-term investments. As the Ormonde wind farm investment is sustainable with good returns, it therefore fits us very well.”
Hasslev continued: “Conditions for offshore wind power in the UK are favourable, and together with Vattenfall’s profound knowledge of the wind sector, we feel confident about making this investment.”
Magnus Hall, president and CEO at Vattenfall, said: “The market has shown a considerable interest in Ormonde, the main reason being that the wind farm is profitable and considered to have good prospects for stable and continuous profitability.”
He added: “Our partner AMF is a serious and long-term investor. We are therefore very pleased with the completion of this deal.”
Vattenfall announced its partnering strategy in 2014 in order to raise funds to support growth in its renewables business. It currently plans to invest around SEK50bn in new wind power generation by 2020, and to triple wind capacity to at least 6GW in the next 10 years.
Gunnar Groebler, Vattenfall’s senior vice president, business area wind, said: “Our partnering strategy is now paying off and delivering additional funds to fulfill our ambitious growth targets within the wind area, thereby supporting Vattenfall’s overall strategy to transform our production portfolio towards renewables.”
