Centrica plc, a UK-based international energy and service company, and Stadtwerke München GmbH have reached an agreement to combine Centrica‘s European oil and gas exploration and production with Bayerngas Norge AS to form a newly incorporated joint venture and create a leading independent European E&P company. Centrica will own 69 % and Bayerngas Norge’s existing shareholders, led by Stadtwerke München GmbH and Bayerngas GmbH, will own 31 % of the joint venture.

Leading global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Beijing Gas Group on the successful completion of its first major investment in the Russian energy market through agreements with Russian state-owned company Rosneft. The transaction has been completed alongside other work for the company - in May this year, a team led by Beijing partner Zhong Wang and Hong Kong partner William Ku assisted Beijing Gas Group on a successful US$500 million five-year bond issue, the proceeds of which have been used to fund the acquisition.

Slaughter and May is advising Centrica plc on its agreement with Stadtwerke München GmbH (SWM) to combine Centrica’s European oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) business with Bayerngas Norge AS (Bayerngas Norge) to form a newly incorporated joint venture (Joint Venture) (Transaction) and create a leading independent European E&P company.

DLA Piper has advised the Italian listed company, Falck Renewables S.p.A., on an agreement with Svelgen Kraft Holding AS, a Norwegian power generation company with a strong track record in renewable energy, to acquire a majority participation into Vestavind Kraft AS.

Vestavind Kraft AS holds two wind power consented projects in Norway – Hennøy and Okla with capacity of approximately 70MW.

The team from DLA Piper was led by Kaare Oftedal (Oslo, Partner) and Fredrik Lindblom (Oslo, Partner).

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Enertronica S.p.A (Enertronica), an Italian listed company, on the sale of 70% of the corporate capital of two Namibian project companies (Sertum Energy Namibia and Unisun Energy) to a Namibian company owned by Canadian Solar.

Sertum and Unison have the rights to build, connect and operate two solar PV parks currently under construction in Namibia. Enertronica will retain its role as EPC contractor and operate and manage the parks for five years post construction.

Slaughter and May advised Ultra Electronics Holdings plc (Ultra) on the placing of approximately 9.99% of its current issued share capital (the Placing) to part-fund its proposed acquisition of Sparton Corporation (Sparton) (the Acquisition). Slaughter and May is also advising Ultra on the English law aspects of the Acquisition.

Ashurst advised Whalsay Energy Limited (formerly Xcite Energy Resources plc) (the 'company') and the liquidators of its parent company, Xcite Energy Limited ('XEL'), on the balance sheet restructuring of the company and the sale of the company by XEL, which completed on 30 June 2017.

The company is the holder of the licence for the Bentley oil field in the North Sea. The buyer, Whalsay Energy Holdings Limited, is a company owned by the holders of senior secured bonds issued by the company in June 2014, in the aggregate amount of approximately $155 million.

We advised Royal Dutch Shell plc on an agreement for the sale of shares in Shell E&P Ireland Limited, that holds a 45% stake in the Corrib gas venture. The transaction includes an initial consideration of €830m and additional payments of up to €250m between 2018-2025, subject to gas price and production.

This transaction represents Shell’s exit from the upstream business in Ireland and, subject to partner and regulatory consents, is expected to complete in Q2, 2018.

Siemens Gamesa will supply and service 94 units of their 8MW wind turbines for the 752MW Borssele project and is owned by DONG Energy. The offshore wind farm is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2020.
The wind farm's total capacity of 752MW will enable it to cover the annual power consumption of approximately one million Dutch households.

Green Bond exceeded expectations with oversubscribed book printing €300m instead of €200m