KfW IPEX-Bank participates in refinancing of Merkur offshore wind farm

KfW IPEX-Bank is providing EUR 103.7 million towards the refinancing of the Merkur offshore wind farm in the German North Sea. The bank consortium comprises altogether eleven financial institutions, including DZ Bank and DekaBank. The wind farm operators requested the refinancing to take advantage of the currently favourable market conditions.

The total investment cost of the offshore wind project added up to approx. EUR 1.6 billion in 2016. The wind farm is being erected some 45 km north of the island of Borkum at a water depth of 28-34 metres. Merkur will consist of 66 Haliade 150-6MW wind turbines produced by GE in Saint-Nazaire in France. With a total installed capacity of 396 MW, the North Sea wind farm is expected to supply roughly 500,000 households with clean electricity once it starts operating in 2019.

The borrower is the project company Merkur Offshore GmbH, a joint venture between the financial investors Partners Group, the global private markets investment manager (with a 50% equity share on behalf of its clients), and a fund managed by InfraRed Capital Partners (with a 25% equity share on behalf of its infrastructure investors), as well as DEME Concessions Wind, the infrastructure investment arm of the DEME Group (12.5%), GE Energy Financial Services, the energy investing branch of the industrial company (6.25%) and L’Agence de l’environnement et de la maîtrise de l’énergie (ADEME), acting in the name and on behalf of the French State (6.25%).