Walney is a 367 MW offshore wind farm located 15 km of Walney Island in the East Irish Sea. The project was developed by Dong Energy, who is still majority owner and operator. The wind farm, which was fully commissioned in 2012, consists of 102 Siemens turbines each with a capacity of 3.6 MW. The wind farm produces over 1.3 TWh of electricity per year, enough to supply 340,000 UK households.
Green Giraffe successfully advised PGGM and Ampere Equity Fund, acting jointly through a dedicated investment vehicle, OPW, on the refinancing of their 24.8% stake in the project. The deal reached financial close in December 2012. A group of 4 commercial lenders: Lloyds, RBS, Santander, and Siemens Bank, together with the UK Green Investment Bank, provided between them a long term facility in an amount of GBP 224 M.
The financing marked the first loan by GIB to the UK offshore wind sector and was the first financing of a project minority stake in the commercial banking market. PGGM won the ‘2012 Global Financial Sponsor of the Year’ award from PFI.
Project highlights
- 367 MW offshore wind farm, completed in June 2012
- GBP 1.2 billion investment for the whole project
- Approximately 14 km off the Northwest coast of England in the Irish Sea
- Will produce over 1.3 TWh of electricity per annum
Financing highlights
- GBP 224 million in senior facilities, provided by commercial banks and the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB)
- Transaction closed on 18 December 2012
- First project to be financed at the minority shareholder level without any ECA guarantee
- First offshore wind project with the participation of the GIB
- First offshore wind project for PGGM
Awards
- PGGM is Global Financial Sponsor of the Year 2012 (PFI/ThomsonReuters)
“Perhaps the greatest demonstration of its sophistication is PGGM’s investments in wind power at the greenfield stage. In recent weeks PGGM and Ampere closed a £240m project financing for their minority stake in the Walney offshore wind farm. The minority ownership angle meant that the final deal was far from vanilla.”