The Deutsche Bucht (DeBu) offshore wind farm project, located approximately 95 km North West of the island of Borkum in the North Sea was completed in September 2019. It has a capacity of 252 MW and comprises 31 MHI-Vestas V164 wind turbines. Green Giraffe was the sole financial advisor to DeBu, which was initially owned by Highland Group Holdings and is now 100% owned by Northland Power Inc.
Green Giraffe was first mandated by Highland on DeBu in 2012 and has worked on the project since, including advising on a successful bid for additional capacity. From 2015 Green Giraffe was focused on managing the commercial aspects of the project, overseeing the negotiation and signing of the main project contracts for turbine supply, balance of plant, and operations and maintenance, advising on the sale of the project to Northland Power Inc, whilst arranging in parallel a non-recourse debt financing. Both the equity and debt transactions (in an amount of EUR 988 M provided by 10 commercial banks) closed in August 2017.
Project highlights
- 252 MW offshore wind farm
- EUR 1.3 billion
- Will produce over 1 TWh of electricity per annum
- The original 210 MW site is complemented by an additional 42 MW won in an auction organised by BNetzA in 2015
Deal highlights
- 100% sale from Highland Group Holdings to Northland Power Inc.
- Equity transaction closed on 17 August 2017
- Project financed transaction with only commercial lenders
- Debt transaction closed on 18 August 2017
- First financing of an MHI-Vestas turbine in Germany
