KfW IPEX-Bank participating in the financing of the Merkur offshore wind farm
KfW IPEX-Bank is contributing a EUR 97.4 million loan to the financing of the Merkur wind energy project in the North Sea. KfW IPEX-Bank has assumed the role of Technical Bank within an international consortium comprising ten banks, which are jointly providing debt capital totalling approx. EUR 1.2 billion. The borrower is the project company Merkur Offshore GmbH, a joint venture between the financial investors Partners Group, the global private markets investment manager (with a 50% equity share on behalf of its clients), and a fund managed by InfraRed Capital Partners in the UK (with a 25% equity share on behalf of its infrastructure investors), as well as DEME Concessions Wind, the infrastructure investment arm of the DEME Group (12.5%), GE Energy Financial Services, the energy investing arm of the industrial company (6.25%) and L’Agence de l’environnement et de la maîtrise de l’énergie (ADEME), acting in the name and on behalf of the French State (6.25%).
The total volume of investment in the North Sea wind farm amounts to approx. EUR 1.6 billion. The farm is to be built some 45 kilometres north of the island of Borkum in a water depth of 28-34 metres and will consist of 66 Haliade 150-6 MW wind turbines, which GE is producing in the French city of Saint-Nazaire. With its installed capacity of 396 megawatts the wind farm, which is scheduled for commissioning in 2019, will generate clean energy for around 500,000 households.
In addition to KfW IPEX-Bank, KfW, the group parent company, is also financing the Merkur project with more than EUR 360 million through its Offshore Wind Energy Programme.
