Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised a consortium of international banks on the € 1.275 billion financing of the “Veja Mate” offshore wind farm located in the German North Sea. The consortium consisted of the mandated lead arrangers Banco Santander, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, KFW IPEX-Bank, Natixis and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. KfW and the Dutch export credit agency EKF also participated in the financing.
Located approximately 95 km north-west of the island of Borkum, the Veja Mate offshore wind farm will (on completion) produce 1.6 TWh of power per year and will be one of the largest in the world, meeting the annual electricity needs of approximately one million people. It will be connected to the power grid via the existing Borwin 2 offshore sub-station managed by TenneT, the grid operator. The total investment in the project amounts to approximately €1.9 billion.
WFW, together with Loyens & Loeff (Belgian and Dutch law), advised the consortium on the financing documentation and the legal due diligence.
The WFW team was led by WFW Hamburg Banking & Finance partner Sven Fretthold and Corporate partner Dr. Malte Jordan. They were supported by partners Stefan Hoffmann (Corporate, Hamburg), Dr. Christine Bader (Regulatory, Hamburg), Dr. Ivana Mikesic (Regulatory, Frankfurt), Gerrit Bartsch (Tax, Hamburg) and Daisy East (Finance, London). Associates Carolin Woggon, Dr. Manuel Rolfes, Dr. Malte Koch, Dr. Wolfram Böge (all Corporate, Hamburg), Dr. Gabriel Alexander Baumstark (Regulatory, Hamburg), Timo Kopmann (Tax, Hamburg), Alexander Wojtek, Dr. Pascal Unger, Dr. Paul-Vincent Hahn, Albrecht Schäfer, Moritz van Hövell (all Finance, Hamburg) as well as Michael Kruger and Antonia Moll (both Finance, London) also advised.
Lead partner Sven Fretthold commented: “The expertise gained in five years of advising clients on the financing of offshore wind farms was able to be brought to bear on this challenging and interesting project. This experience has allowed us to clearly see which concepts have proven to be successful in this sector over the years. Not least this experience has allowed us to successfully advise on the “Veja Mate” offshore wind farm-financing in a minimum of time.”
Dr. Malte Jordan added: “Following on from the “Meerwind” and “Global Tech I” projects, we are delighted to have again advised a consortium of international banks on the financing of an offshore wind farm in Germany. This transaction supplements our recent M&A transactions in the sector and reconfirms the breadth of our energy law practice. The financing of the “Veja Mate” project was complex and executed under serious time pressure. The success of the transaction is due to the professional and cooperative collaboration of all sponsors and banks involved, aided by our experienced and commercially-focused international energy team.”
