Orsted offloads 50% of Walney 3

Orsted has agreed to offload 50% of its under-construction 659MW Walney 3 offshore wind farm to Danish pension funds PKA and PFA in a £2bn deal.

The investors will each take a 25% share in the Irish Sea project, which is due online in the second half of 2018.

Macquarie provided more than £500m to a £1.3bn senior secured debt facility used to fund the acquisition.

Orsted – formerly Dong Energy – is building the wind farm under a full-scope EPC contract and will provide long-term O&M services from its base in Barrow-in-Furness.

It will feature a split of MHI Vestas and Siemens Gamesa turbines.

Chief executive Henrik Poulsen said: “We already have a strong partnership with PKA on three other offshore wind farms and we look forward to building an equally long-lasting relationship with PFA on what will be the world’s biggest wind farm when completed.

“Both partners are committed to the green energy transition and I’m pleased that our offshore wind assets continue to be attractive to institutional investors.”

The company said the divestment “fully confirms our expectations of the value creation in the project. The transaction price is another proof that the market shares Orsted’s view regarding the value of its projects.”

Orsted has increased its guidance for the full-year on the back of the deal, and expects 2017 underlying profit (EBITDA) to be up to Dkr21bn from the previous upper limit of Dkr19bn.

EBITDA was 10% lower in the third quarter than in the same period of 2016 due to higher “partnership income” in the year-ago period. EBITDA across the first nine months of the year was up 11% to Dkr9.5bn. 

The company said: “In Q3 2017 we increased generation from our offshore wind farms and at the same time we strengthened our long-term development pipeline with the world’s largest offshore wind farm Hornsea 2 with a capacity of 1.4GW, which will be completed in 2022.”

Image: Orsted