A consortium led by Commerz Real and Ingka Group has acquired a majority stake in the second-largest German offshore wind farm in a deal worth more than €2bn.
Commerz Real and Ingka as the largest stakeholders in the consortium, will each pay more than €200m for a stake in the project company for the Veja Mate offshore wind park in the North Sea.
In total, the consortium, which also includes funds from German investment companies wpd invest and KGAL Group, will own around 80% of the shares in the wind farm company.
Together with debt financing, the transaction volume is worth around €2.3bn.
The asset was sold by project developers and owners Highland Group Holdings and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, as well as Siemens Financial Services.
Siemens continues to hold the remaining 20% in the project.
Veja Mate has a total of 67 wind turbines and a total installed capacity of 402MW.
Johannes Anschott, a member of the board of managing directors of Commerz Real, said: “Veja Mate has an optimum risk-return ratio. A future technology that is already very well established was commissioned on schedule and to budget; it produces stable cash flows and also makes an effective contribution to achieve the climate protection targets.”
Commerz Real said it will add the Veja Mate asset to a closed-ended special alternative investment fund.
Krister Mattsson, the head of Ingka Investments, said with this 25% stake, Ingka has made another step towards its 2020 target about renewable energy production exceeding its energy consumption.
“It supports our sustainability targets, where renewable energy and energy independence play an important role. Investing in wind farms is part of our activities to support the financial strength of the company and contributes to our climate positive ambition.”
Georg Obert, a managing director of wpd invest, said: “We are very happy that we succeeded in putting together this consortium, now successfully closing the second offshore wind transaction and putting to work more than €250m for our investors in the first year of its inception.”
Michael Ebner, a spokesman for the board of KGAL Investment Management, said: “Veja Mate will stabilise the performance of KGAL’s current institutional infrastructure fund ESPF4 due to its stable, regulated cash-flows.
“KGAL is building a European portfolio of renewable energy assets for KGAL ESPF 4 and has already committed more than 250 million euros of equity to RE-projects across Europe.”
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