European clean energy fund manager Glennmont Partners has made its first-ever investment in the Nordic market with the acquisition of an onshore wind farm in Finland.
Glennmont, on behalf of its Clean Energy Fund III, has acquired the 211.4MW Project Piiparinmäki wind farm from Ilmatar Energy for an undisclosed sum. Ilmatar Energy is a joint venture between Omnes-managed Capenergie 3 and Ilmatar Windpower.
Piiparinmäki, located in central Finland, is ready to build with construction commencing in October.
Once operational, Piiparinmäki will be the largest wind farm in Finland and one of the largest unsubsidised wind farms in Europe.
Glennmont said Piiparinmäki has agreed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Google covering a significant portion of the total production.
Ilmatar, the developer and the vendor of the project, will provide technical and commercial management services once operational. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale will provide the senior debt package as sole underwriter.
Francesco Cacciabue, CFO at Glennmont Partners, said: “Onshore wind represents a key strategic market for Glennmont and we expect our presence in this type of clean power generation to increase over the coming years.
“The investment in our first Finnish renewable energy project further underlines our experienced team’s ability at identifying and adding value for investors from assets across different areas of Europe.”
Kalle Pykälä, chairman of Ilmatar Windpower and board member of Ilmatar Energy said: “This landmark transaction is a successful vindication of Ilmatar Energy’s strategic decision to pursue a route to market for Piiparinmäki free of subsidy and to focus instead on the innovative deployment of the new Vestas EnVentus platform backed by a Google PPA.
“The transaction comes only little more than a year after the joint venture with Omnes was established and represents a major step forward in our 1GW ambition. We look forward to continuing to work with the very experienced team at Glennmont.”
Serge Savasta, managing partner of Omnes. said: “We are thrilled to have been able to support our partner Ilmatar in the sale of this prestigious asset to Glennmont Partners.
“This successful transaction validates our joint strategy with Ilmatar to acquire and develop the most cost-competitive wind projects in Europe and make them economically viable without government subsidies.”
