Vestas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) have signed an agreement for Vestas to acquire MHI’s shares in the MHI Vestas Offshore Wind joint venture.
As part of the deal MHI will acquire a 2.5% stake in Vestas and is being nominated to a seat on Vestas’ board of directors.
Closing of the transaction is expected to take place within either the fourth quarter of 2020 or the first quarter of 2021.
Vestas is to acquire MHI’s 50% share of the joint venture against 5,049,337 shares in Vestas that will be issued at closing of the transaction, corresponding to 2.5% of Vestas’ nominal share capital after the capital increase.
The transaction has a value of approximately €709m, based on the volume-weighted average of the price for shares in Vestas as quoted on Nasdaq Copenhagen the last five days up to and including 28 October 2020.
Vestas’ planning of the expected integration of MHI Vestas into the Vestas group will commence immediately and run until transaction closing, focusing on “synergies in sales, technology, manufacturing footprint and procurement to sustain customer relationships, lower costs and build a strong shared Vestas culture”.
Johnny Thomsen takes over a chief executive of the offshore turbine business, replacing Philippe Kavafyan who has left the company after two and a half years in the role.
Until transaction closing, the executive management of Thomsen, Tatsuichiro Honda, the co-CEO and chief financial officer, Kentaro Hosomi, the deputy chairman and CEO, of MHI Energy Systems and Henrik Andersen, the chairman of MHI Vestas and group president and CEO of Vestas.
On a stand-alone basis, MHI Vestas is expected to report a consolidated revenue for 2020 of €1.4bn, with an EBIT margin of around 4%.
Vestas said the “emphatic long-term move” in offshore is “to become a leading player in offshore wind by 2025”.
“A new offshore wind turbine platform will also be imminently introduced to improve efficiency and drive the levelised cost of energy further down,” said Vestas.
Vestas chief executive Henrik Andersen said: “Vestas is the leader in onshore wind, but to accelerate the energy transition and achieve our vision we must play a larger role in offshore wind.
“On behalf of all of Vestas, I’m therefore very excited that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shares Vestas’ vision to become a leading player in offshore wind energy in the long term and will strengthen our partnership by becoming a large shareholder and part of Vestas’ Board of Directors.
“Offshore wind is key to creating a sustainable planet for future generations and offers unique growth, and with today’s announcement we underline that we want to be an integral part of both.”