The sponsors of the €1.6 billion ($1.79 billion), 396MW Merkur offshore wind project in Germany have reached financial close.

A consortium of five sponsors comprising Partners Group, (50%), InfraRed Capital Partners (25%), DEME Concessions Wind (12.5%), GE Energy Financial Services (6.25%) and L’Agence de l’environnement et de la maîtrise de l’énergie on behalf of the French State (6.25%) have provided €500 million in equity.

A group of ten banks committed €1.2 billion of senior secured debt to the project.

The lenders’ group comprises:

• KfW
• ABN Amro
• Commerzbank (modelling and tax bank)
• Deutsche Bank (account bank, facility and security agent, joint hedge coordinator and sole bookrunner)
• KfW IPEX (technical bank and markets bank)
• Natixis
• Rabobank (insurance bank)
• SEB
• SMBC
• Société Générale (documentation bank and joint hedge coordinator)

Merkur is a construction-ready wind farm located in the German exclusive economic zone approximately 45km north of the islands of Borkum.

DEME Concessions Wind took over the development of the project from former developer Windreich in early 2015 and was joined by GE later that year. Construction will be under a dual contract structure with GE as supplier and GeoSea as turnkey contractor for the entire balance of plant.

Offshore foundations installation is expected to begin in August 2017, with project completion scheduled for March 2019. Once constructed, Merkur will receive the German offshore feed-in-tariff.

Amsterdam Capital Partners was financial and equity adviser. Deutsche Bank was debt adviser. Legal advisory was provided by Hogan Lovells. EY was tax adviser. Marsh was insurance adviser and PMC gave hedging advice. CMS, Norton Rose Fulbright and Allen & Overy were legal advisers to the equity sponsors.

The lenders were advised by Clifford Chance (legal), Sgurr, (technical), JLT (insurance), Poÿrÿ Management Consulting (market) and Operis (model).