Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Bremen-based wpd group on the financing of the Butendiek offshore wind farm. The overall investment amounts to approximately €1.3 billion. The wind farm is situated in the German North Sea, some 30km west of the island of Sylt, and has 80 Siemens turbines providing a total capacity of 288 MW. The wpd group is project developer and shareholder, besides an investor group consisting of Marguerite Fund, Siemens Project Ventures, Industriens Pension and PKA.
The offshore project is being financed with loans totaling €937million from a banking consortium headed by KfW IPEX-Bank, UniCredit and Bremer Landesbank, and which includes the European Investment Bank, the Danish export credit insurance company EKF and nine commercial banks. It is the third financing of KfW under its Offshore Wind Energy Programme.
“The successful completion of this complex project financing for our client after more than one year of preparation will stimulate further projects for the German energy turnaround,” says White & Case partner Florian Degenhardt.
White & Case has significant expertise in the area of renewable energy and has acted as legal advisor in a number of other German offshore wind farm projects.
The White & Case team was led by partner Florian Degenhardt and included counsel Dr. Beate Treibmann and associate Veit Sahlfeld from the Firm’s project finance practice team in Hamburg.
