Commerz Real and Ingka Group invest in Veja Mate offshore wind farm

Düssel­dorf - Commerz Real and the Swedish Ingka Group, as the largest share­hol­ders in a consor­tium, are each parti­ci­pa­ting in the project company of the Veja Mate offshore wind farm in the North Sea with more than 200 million euros. With a total of 67 wind turbi­nes and a total capa­city of 402 mega­watts, this is the second largest offshore wind farm in Germany and one of the ten largest farms in the world. Other part­ners are funds of the German invest­ment compa­nies KGAL Group and wpd invest. In total, the consor­tium is acqui­ring around 80 percent of the shares in the project company.

Toge­ther with the debt capi­tal, the tran­sac­tion volume amounts to around €2.3 billion. The sellers of the park, which has been in opera­tion since 2017, are the previous project deve­lo­pers and owners High­land Group Holdings, Copen­ha­gen Infra­struc­ture Part­ners and Siemens Finan­cial Services. The latter will conti­nue to hold 20 percent of the shares. Tech­ni­cal support is provi­ded by Siemens Gamesa Rene­wa­ble Energy under a full-service contract.

Veja Mate is loca­ted about 95 km northwest of the island of Borkum in the German econo­mic zone of the North Sea and covers an area of 51 square kilo­me­ters. In this area, the average wind speed is more than 10 meters per second. The 180-meter-high wind turbi­nes have rotors each 154 meters in diame­ter and their foun­da­ti­ons are 7.8 meters in diame­ter. At 84.5 meters in length, they are the largest of their kind manu­fac­tu­red to date. The turbi­nes are desi­gned for an opera­ting life of 25 years, the main­ten­ance contract with Siemens initi­ally runs for 15 years. Accor­ding to the Rene­wa­ble Energy Sources Act (EEG 2014), the feed-in tariff is to be paid for a total of 20 years, until 2037. Accor­ding to the opera­tors, the opera­tion of the wind farm will save around 950,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

The consor­tium, consis­ting of the IRI Invest­ments BV, a subsi­diary of the Swedish Ingka Group, ANET GmbH & Co. Geschlos­sene Invest­ment KG, KGAL ESPF 4 Holding SARL, ALH Euro­pean Infra S.C.S. SICAV-RAIF and the Green Return Fund 3 S.C.S. SICAV-FIAR, prevai­led in a bidding process. The invest­ment was acqui­red by way of a share deal from the sellers Siemens Project Venture GmbH, High­land Capi­tal Group and Copen­ha­gen Invest­ment Part­ners. The consor­tium was advi­sed in the bidding process by Watson Farley & Williams LLP.

About IRI Invest­ments BV
IRI Invest­ments BV is an invest­ment company of the Ingka Group that invests, among other things, in rene­wa­ble energy projects.

Advi­sors to IRI Invest­ments BV: Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft
Luther, Corpo­rate / M&A, Düssel­dorf: Marc Urlichs (Coun­sel, Lead)
Luther, Energy Law, Düssel­dorf: Dr. Angelo Vallone (Part­ner)
The Luther team led by Coun­sel Marc Urlichs advi­sed IRI Invest­ments BV both in connec­tion with the ente­ring into and struc­tu­ring of the consor­tium and in connec­tion with the nego­tia­ti­ons with the sellers.