Watson, Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised Industrielle Werke Basel (“IWB”) on the acquisition of the “Les Champs aux Chats” wind farm in the département Pas-de-Calais in northern France. The wind farm was acquired from the German project developer OSTWIND International (“OSTWIND”).

WFW advised the Swiss energy provider IWB on the acquisition of all shares in the wind farm's operating company regarding all relevant legal and tax aspects in Germany and France.

The 12 MW “Les Champs aux Chats” wind farm, which is now operational, is already the fifth wind farm IWB has acquired from OSTWIND. IWB’s portfolio to date consists of 19 wind farms in France and Germany, which cumulatively produce more than 420 GWh of electricity annually.

In March, IWB completed the December 2012 agreed purchase of the 42 MW wind farm portfolio “Atrébatie” from OSTWIND, with the acquisition of the fourth and last wind farm in this portfolio. A WFW cross-border French-German team also advised on the acquisition of the Atrébatie portfolio.

As the energy provider for Basel and northwest Switzerland, since 2011 IWB’s investment strategy has been to establish a geographically and technically differentiated power plant portfolio in Switzerland and Europe, in line with the performance mandate of the canton Basel-Stadt.

WFW’s team was led by partners Laurent Battoue (Regulatory, Paris) and Dr. Marcus Bechtel (Corporate/Energy, Hamburg). They were supported by partners Laurence Martinez-Bellet (Finance, Paris) and Romain Girtanner (Tax, Paris) as well as associates Tanja Mado (Corporate/Energy, Hamburg) and Jean-François Tournier (Finance, Paris).

Partner Laurent Battoue comments: “We are delighted that we were able to advise IWB anew, on their ambitious expansion of their international renewable energy portfolio in France and Germany. With the well-tried cooperation between the transactions teams of IWB and WFW, we were able to complete the transaction smoothly and efficiently.