Greencoat UK Wind is investing £400m (€476.6m) to buy a stake in Hornsea 1, the world’s largest offshore wind farm.
The UK-listed listed renewable infrastructure fund said it has agreed to buy the 12.5% stake in Hornsea 1 from Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
GIP and Danish energy firm Ørsted currently own a 50% stake each in the wind farm located 80 miles off the Yorkshire coast in the North Sea.
GIP’s stake is funded by £2.9bn debt. Greencoat UK Wind said its pro-rata share of the debt is £700m, giving a total enterprise value of £1.1bn for Greencoat UK Wind’s net 12.5% stake.
Hornsea 1 comprises 174 Siemens 7MW turbines and has a grid export capacity of 1.2GW.
Shonaid Jemmett-Page, Greencoat UK Wind’s chairman, said: “This transaction, once completed, will add another high quality operating asset to our portfolio and increase our net generating capacity to over 1.6GW.
“We continue to see an attractive pipeline of projects, both onshore and offshore, and given the size and scale that the company has attained over recent years, we remain strongly positioned to deliver more value-accretive acquisitions and extend our track record of strong shareholder returns.”
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