Equitix and The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) have acquired minority equity interests in the Hornsea 1 offshore wind farm off east England.
Equitix chief investment officer Achal Bhuwania said: “With its material contribution to net zero, inflation linked government backed subsidies and best in class supply chain partners, this investment provides an excellent fit to our diversified portfolio of income focused core infrastructure assets.
“Huge thanks to all our team who have been involved in the transaction.”
Equitix and TRIG have previously partnered on the Sheringham Shoal and Beatrice offshore wind projects.
“We look forward to working alongside TRIG and our other co-shareholders Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and Orsted for the continued success of the Hornsea 1 asset,” Bhuwania added.
As well as the acquisition of a 7.8% equity interest in the operational facility, TRIG is proposing to issue new ordinary shares by way of a non-pre-emptive tap issuance.
The fundraise will support “new attractive” opportunities across TRIG’s core markets.
These include an Iberian solar project and TRIG is in “exclusive negotiations” to invest in the project.
Additionally, the start of 2022 has seen strong wind levels and significantly elevated power prices, TRIG stated.
Production and captured power prices have been above budget in the two-month period to 28 February 2022, with particularly strong wind resource in February.
This is estimated to contribute an additional one pence per share above budgeted performance to TRIG’s net asset value (NAV) since 31 December 2021.
Hornsea 1 benefits from an inflation-linked Contract-for-Difference (CfD) subsidy with 13 years remaining.
It is the world’s largest operational offshore wind farm and covers an area of 407 square km.
The wind farm is located approximately 120 km off the Yorkshire coast, England, and has demonstrated strong operational performance since operations commenced in 2020, TRIG said.