The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) and Dutch pension investor APG have agreed to acquire the 396MW Merkur offshore wind farm in the German North Sea.
The transaction, which is subject to customary regulatory approvals and consent from lenders, is expected to close in the first half of 2020.
TRIG will own 36% of the wind farm and APG will acquire the remaining 64%.
Once the sale completes, TRIG will sell down a share to minority co-investors managed by InfraRed, leaving it with an approximate 25% equity interest in Merkur.
Once completed, the investment is expected to represent approximately 8% of TRIG’s portfolio value.
TRIG chairman Helen Mahy said: “The Board of TRIG is delighted to announce the company’s third offshore wind investment and our second investment in Germany.
“We are pleased to be growing our presence in the European offshore wind market which is making an increasingly important contribution to the decarbonisation of energy usage.”
Merkur Offshore, based in Hamburg, has been responsible for the planning and construction of the offshore wind farm, located 45 km north of Borkum Island in the German North Sea.
The project, featuring 66 GE Haliade-150 6MW offshore wind turbines, was fully commissioned in June 2019.
Merkur benefits from a guaranteed feed-in-tariff until 2033 and GE Renewable Energy is servicing the turbines for 10 years.
Consortium member DEME said the transaction could lead to a potential capital gain in excess of €50m for the company, when the sale closes.
Bank of America Securities acted as exclusive financial adviser to the selling consortium.
Merkur’s current consortium of owners comprises of funds managed and, in some cases, advised by Partners Group (50%), InfraRed Capital Partners (25%), DEME Concessions (12.5%), GE Energy Financial Services (6.25%) and ADEME, acting on behalf of the French Investments for the Future programme (6.25%).