On August 11, 2016, the Merkur Offshore Wind Farm project reached financial close.
The 400MW Merkur Offshore Wind farm is located off the coast of Hamburg, Germany. The project has secured all necessary permits and will receive a feed-in-tariff subsidy. Construction is expected to start immediately following financial close and full operation is anticipated for early 2019.
The investor consortium, consisting of Partners Group, InfraRed Capital Partners, DEME Concessions, GE and the French Government, agreed to acquire Merkur in January 2016 from German offshore wind developer Windreich, which had filed for insolvency in 2013.
€1.2 billion of debt was raised by the investors from a consortium of banks to cover 70% of the project’s capex. The banking club comprises SMBC, KfW Ipex, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Société Générale, Natixis, ABN AMRO and SEB.
Operis was please to undertake an audit of the financial model which included a review of the model’s tax and accounting treatments.
