Danish offshore wind farm developer Orsted A/S (ORSTED.CO) said on Tuesday it signed an agreement to sell 50 percent of the 1,218-megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm Hornsea 1 to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
Orsted said the total price of the transaction is about 4.46 billion pounds ($5.86 billion), which includes sale of the 50 percent stake and a commitment by GIP to fund 50 percent of the payments under an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the entire wind farm.
Hornsea 1 is under construction off the English coast in the North Sea, and when commissioned in 2020 it will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Orsted said.
Under the agreement, Orsted said it will construct the wind farm under a full-scope EPC contract and provide long-term operations and maintenance services along with a route to market for the power generated by Hornsea 1.
Orsted said GIP will partially finance its acquisition using a multi-tranche financing package of more than 3.5 billion pounds, containing a mixture of investment grade-rated project bonds issued to a consortium of blue-chip institutional debt investors with a strong UK presence, commercial bank loans and mezzanine debt provided by the Danish pension fund PFA, with some tranches guaranteed by EKF, Denmark’s Export Credit Agency.
GIP also holds 50 percent ownership shares of two of Orsted’s German offshore wind farms, Gode Wind 1 and Borkum Riffgrund 2, the Danish wind farm developer said.
Source: Reuters.com