Clifford Chance has advised infrastructure investor Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) on the financing of the acquisition of a 50 percent stake in the offshore wind park Borkum Riffgrund 2, which is currently being constructed. The seller of the stake with a total volume amounting to EUR 1,170 billion is Danish incorporated energy supplier Ørsted A/S (formerly DONG Energy A/S).

A consortium led by Talanx placed a senior bond with a total volume of more than EUR 832 million in order to finance the acquisition. The bond has a term of approximately ten years. It is expected that the bond will be certified as a "green bond" and thus officially be rated as a sustainable bond. In addition to German insurance companies and asset managers, further institutional partners include banks and European institutional investors, amongst them: DekaBank, Edmond de Rothschild AM’s BRIDGE platform, La Banque Postale Asset Management, NN Investment Partners and Wiener Städtische Versicherung.

Borkum Riffgrund 2 comprises the construction of 56 wind turbines with a combined output of 450 megawatts. With this capacity, it is envisaged to be able to provide power for about 460,000 homes. The turbines will be installed approximately 30 kilometres north of Borkum with technical completion planned for 2019.  Ørsted will operate the wind farm and market its energy.

GIP is a leading global, independent infrastructure investor. It invests in the energy, transport and water/waste sectors and currently manages approximately USD 43.4 billion for its investors.

The Clifford Chance project finance team comprised partner Dr. Florian Mahler, senior associate Dr. Axel Schlieter and associate Deniz Sunay (all Banking and Finance), partner Dr. Björn Heinlein, counsel Dr. Martin Weitenberg and associate Torben Lührmann (all Energy and Infrastructure) as well as counsel Dr. Werner Brickwedde (Corporate/M&A) – all Düsseldorf.

Clifford Chance had already advised GIP on the acquisition of its 50 percent stake in Borkum Riffgrund 2 in August 2017.