HIH Invest Real Estate has acquired a wind farm near Steinheim in the north-eastern part of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The acquisition was completed on behalf of the HIH Green Energy Invest fund.
The vendor is German business Energiequelle, which developed Windpark Belle and handled its construction as general contractor.
The 25-Megawatt wind farm consists of five wind turbines made by the company Enercon. All of the plants were completed and connected to the electricity grid by June 2023, and are already operating.
HIH Green Energy Invest is an investment fund that applies a strategy pursuant to Article 9, Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (EU), and focuses on photovoltaics and wind power plants.
The fund volume in the amount of €750 mln is being invested in existing plants and in projects ready for construction. Primary target countries are Germany, France, Italy and Spain. However, the fund will also consider investments in the BeNeLux countries, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, and the Nordics.
Alexander Eggert, managing director of HIH Invest, said: 'We acquired Windpark Belle to supplement the portfolio of our HIH Green Energy Invest impact fund.
'It gives our institutional investors the chance to expand their commitments in the area of renewable energies and thereby to help bring about the energy transition. Aside from these sustainability aspects, this asset contributes 7% return on investment to our funds, so that it is also a rather lucrative investment.'
Kristof Krull, head of infrastructure at HIH Invest, added: 'The Windpark Belle wind farm will generate attractive revenues via the direct marketing of the produced energy, an approach that is secured by a government-guaranteed feed-in tariff over an operating period of 20 years. This enables us to ensure stable long-term earnings for the HIH Green Energy Invest fund.'
Legal advice for the transaction was provided by the Vesthaus law firm in Hamburg, while RSM Ebner Stolz mbH, also based in Hamburg, handled the fiscal due diligence. Technical due diligence was carried out by renerco plan consult in Munich.
