The European Commission’s competition authority has approved Vestas’ plan to buy out Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) share in the MHI Vestas Offshore Wind joint venture.
Vestas said final closing of the transaction is expected to take place before year end.
Vestas group president and chief executive Henrik Andersen said: “With today’s approval of the transaction we are excited to move one step closer towards welcoming offshore back into the Vestas family.
“I’m personally very encouraged by the many dialogues I’ve had with both Vestas and MHI Vestas Offshore Wind colleagues as well as our customers and partners since we announced the strengthened partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
“It’s clear that everyone is excited about our bold step together towards accelerating the energy transition.”
Under the terms of the deal, Vestas will acquire MHI’s 50% share in the MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, and MHI will acquire 2.5% in Vestas and be nominated to a seat in Vestas’ board of directors.
Vestas said that since the announcement on the deal on 29 October, planning of integration of MHI Vestas into the Vestas group has been initiated, “focusing on smooth integration of employees and systems and realising synergies in sales, technology, manufacturing footprint and procurement to sustain customer relationships, lower costs and build a strong shared Vestas culture.”
It added that following closing of the transaction, full planning of the integration will commence.
The company said: “Vestas aims to create a shared culture embracing everyone who wants to accelerate the energy transition and live by the Vestas values of passion, accountability, simplicity and collaboration.
“The integration will focus on paving the way for harmonious integration of processes and systems across Vestas and (MHI Vestas), while building avenues towards the overall unification of both companies to leverage our strengths.
“However, first and foremost, the focus is to plan a smooth and welcoming onboarding to the new colleagues from (MHI Vestas).”
Until closing, Vestas and MHI Vestas will continue to execute as two independent companies, with just a small number of Vestas employees engaged in planning the future integration of the two companies.
The closing of the acquisition will not affect Vestas’ full-year guidance for 2020, the company said.
The transaction has a value of about €709m, the companies said when the deal was announced.