British Wind Energy GmbH (“BWE”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northland Power Inc., has today successfully achieved Financial Close for the approximately EUR 1 (one) billion project financing of its offshore wind farm project Deutsche Bucht (“Deutsche Bucht”). The non-recourse project financing has been entered into with a consortium of 10 commercial banks, including the KfW-IPEX, Commerzbank, Natixis, Santander, National Bank of Canada, SMBC, CIBC, Helaba, Société Générale, and Rabobank.
Deutsche Bucht, located approximately 95 km northwest of the island of Borkum in the North Sea, has a total investment volume of more than EUR 1.3 billion and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019. It will have a capacity of 252 MW and comprise 31 MHI-Vestas V164 wind turbines.
A team from CMS’ Hamburg office headed by lead partners Holger Kraft, Marc Riede and Kerstin Block has advised BWE comprehensively in relation to the structuring and financing of Deutsche Bucht.
Already since the acquisition of Deutsche Bucht by Highland Group Holdings Limited in autumn 2012, CMS has been advising BWE on all matters concerning the development of Deutsche Bucht. This includes the re-organisation of the project set-up, the drafting and negotiation of the project contracts as well as advice on regulatory aspects (grid access, EEG, permit, competition) and corporate and tax law. All such advice has been provided as integral part of and in close cooperation with a core team of project advisors which, in addition to CMS, also consists of Green Giraffe and K2 Management. Given the international set-up of Deutsche Bucht, CMS Germany has in this regard also closely cooperated with CMS offices in various other jurisdictions, such as The Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Spain.
After five years of successful project development, Highland Group Holdings Limited agreed in March 2017 to sell all shares in BWE to Northland Power Inc., the closing of which took place in advance of today’s Financial Close for Deutsche Bucht. CMS has also provided comprehensive advice to Highland Group Holdings Limited on this equity transaction. This follows successful comprehensive advice given by CMS to Highland Group Holdings Ltd. in relation to the acquisition, development, financing and partial sale of the Veja Mate Offshore Wind Project in 2014 and 2015.
CMS Germany
Dr Holger Kraft, Energy/Projects
Dr Marc Riede
Dr Kerstin Block, both Project Finance, all Lead Partners
Dr Julia Runge
Carl Werner, both Counsel
Leonid Sagalov
Charlotte von Erdmann, both Associates, all Project Finance
Dr Christian von Lenthe, Partner
Charlotte von der Heydt-von Kalkreuth, Senior Associate, both Corporate/M&A
Dorothée Janzen, Partner
Matthias Sethmann
Dr Hans-Fabian Kiderlen, both Counsel
Dr Eva Haaf
Kai Ostermann
Jonas Heimbach, all Senior Associates
Susanne Keck, Associate, all Energy/Projects
Dr Fritz von Hammerstein, Partner
Dr Konrad Walter, Counsel
Clara Volkert, Associate, all Public
Dr Heino Büsching, Partner
Dr Olaf Thießen, Counsel
Dr Isabel Holly, Senior Associate, all Tax law
Dr Sebastian Cording, Partner, Intellectual Property
Jürgen Siemers
Dr Daniel Ludwig, both Partner, both Labour Law
Dr Matthias Schlingmann, Partner, Dispute Resolution
Dr Eva Margareta Wolff, Counsel, Insurance
