Energy Infrastructure Partners has completed a debt raise to partially fund its purchase of a 49% stake in the 350MW Wikinger offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea.
EIP has raised €400m of loans from Goldman Sachs, Rabobank and SEB having agreed to pay Iberdrola €700m for the shares in September.
The transaction was structured as a HoldCo financing and involved extensive discussions between the lenders and Iberdrola on adapting the shareholder agreement.
The debt package will run for around 12 years and comprises a term loan, decommissioning letter of credit, debt service reserve and working capital facilities.
Goldman Sachs acted as mandated lead arranger on the transaction. Tha bank also arranged a financing of EIP’s 25% stake in the 378MW Arkona offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea in 2019.
SEB acted as facility agent, security agent and account bank, while Rabobank acted as letter of credit issuing bank.
Stefan Kilgus, a partner at law firm Watson Farley Williams that advised Goldman Sachs on its role, said: “We are proud of our contribution to this exciting project which once again demonstrates our role as one of the leading law firms in the offshore wind sector both in Germany and worldwide.”
Located northeast of the island of Rügen, Wikinger offshore wind farm consists of 70 Adwen AD 5-135 wind turbines that have been spinning since 2017.