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Overview

Bank of China contributes €129 million EUR to a $883.7 million USD syndicated loan for Glennmont Partners' acquisition of 50% ownership in the 900 MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 Offshore Wind Farm Project

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$139,948,554
Commitment Year•2021Country of Activity•GermanyDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•United KingdomOverseas Jurisdiction•GermanySector•EnergyFlow Type•Loan

Status

Project lifecycle

Completion

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
Oct 20, 2021
Start (planned)
Mar 31, 2022
Start (actual)
Feb 25, 2022
End (planned)
Mar 31, 2022
End (actual)
Feb 25, 2022

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Funding agencies

State-owned Commercial Banks

  • Bank of China (BOC)

Cofinancing agencies

Private Sector

  • ABN AMRO Bank NV
  • Banco Santander, S.A. (Santander Group) (formerly Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A.)
  • ING Group N.V.
  • Siemens Bank GmbH
  • Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB)

State-owned Banks

  • Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba)
  • National Westminster Bank Plc (NatWest)

Receiving agencies

Private Sector

  • Nuveen Infrastructure (formerly Glennmont Partners Limited)

Loan description

Bank of China's Frankfurt Branch contributes EUR 129 million to syndicated loan for Glennmont Partners' acquisition of 50% ownership in 900MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 Offshore Wind Farm Project

Interest type•Unknown

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

Circa October 20, 2021, a syndicate of eight banks — including the Frankfurt Branch of the Bank of China (BOC) — entered into a $883.70 million USD syndicated senior term loan agreement with Glenmont Partners Limited — a London, United Kingdom-based renewable energy manager wholly-owned by Nuveen — to finance the acquisition of a 50% ownership stake in 900 MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 Offshore Wind Farm Project. BOC contributed €129 million EUR as a mandated lead arranger. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: Bantander Santander, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB), National Westminster Bank Plc (NatWest), ING Group N.V., Helaba, ABN AMRO, and Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba), ABN AMRO Bank N.V., and Siemens Bank GmbH. In October 2021, Ørsted signed an agreement to divest 50% of its ownership to Glennmont Partners for kr.9 billion DKK ($1.41 billion USD; €1.2 billion EUR). As part of the agreement, Ørsted would construct the wind farm under a full-scope engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract (which Glenmont Partners committed to funding 50% of the EPC contract as part of the acquisition), perform operations and maintenance services for 20 years, and provide a route to market for the power and green certificates generated by Borkum Riffgrund 3. Ørsted designed a 20-year offtake agreement that would provide Glennmont with a combination of fixed price and collared prices for 15 years for the majority of their share of the volumes whilst also leaving certain volumes exposed to market power prices. A financing package that was structured and led by Ørsted, and co-arranged by Glennmont. The acquisition was completed on February 25, 2022. Borkum Riffgrund 3 was a 900 MW offshore wind farm located in the German waters of the North Sea, off the coast of Lower Saxony. It consisted of 81 Siemens Gamesa SG 11.0-200 DD wind turbines. was a combination of three offshore wind projects, namely Riffgrund West 1 (420 MW), Borkum Riffgrund West 2 (240 MW) and OWP West (240 MW). Ørsted secured the right to build the three wind farms in German offshore wind auctions held between 2017 and 2018. The company clubbed the three offshore wind projects into one and renamed the project Borkum Riffgrund 3 in September 2019. The wind farm had a 10-year fixed-price purchase power agreement (PPA) with REWE Group for a total of 450 MW. The offshore wind project was approved by the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) in October 2021. It was the largest offshore wind energy project in Germany. After the 2021 syndicated loan facility and 2022 partial acquisition by Glennmont Partners, the wind farm was expected to become operational in 2024 or 2025. Acquisition was expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022 or the first quarter of 2022. The acquisition was completed on February 25, 2022.