Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On December 19, 2019, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of seven banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) — entered into a €828.34 million EUR ($908.07 million USD) syndicated loan agreement with Sage Holdings S.à.r.l — a Luxembourg-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) jointly owned by Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 5 L.P. / Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 5 S.C.S.p. (MEIF5) (75% equity stake) and Lombard Odier Macquarie Infrastructure Fund L.P. (LMIF) (25% equity stake), two funds managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) — for the 400 MW BARD Offshore 1 Wind Farm Acquisition Project. This loan was divided into five tranches: a €641.00 million EUR ($702.70 million USD) term loan tranche with a maturity period of seven years and a final maturity date of December 12, 2026; a €65.75 million EUR ($72.08 million USD) revolver tranche with a maturity period of seven years and a final maturity date of December 12, 2026; a €36.59 million EUR ($40.12 million USD) letter of credit tranche with a maturity period of 21 years and a final maturity date of December 12, 2040 provided by exclusively UniCredit S.p.A.; €50.00 million EUR ($54.81 million USD) term loan tranche with a maturity period of three years and a final maturity date of December 12, 2022 exclusively provided by UniCredit; and a €35.00 million EUR ($38.37 million USD) term loan tranche with a maturity period of eight years and a final maturity date of December 12, 2027 provided exclusively by UniCredit }. BOC contributed €82.75 million EUR ($90.71 million USD) to the €641 million EUR term loan tranche. Record ID#102287 captures BOC's contribution. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed to the €641 million EUR term loan tranche: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (€144.10 million EUR; $157.97 million USD), ING Group N.V. (€45.00 million EUR; $49.33 million USD), KB Kookmin Bank (€12.72 million EUR; $13.94 million USD), Norinchukin Bank (€122.28 million EUR; $134.05 million USD), Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) (€56.74 million EUR; $62.20 million USD), and UniCredit (€177.50 million EUR; $194.58 million USD). BOC contributed €8.49 million EUR ($9.31 million USD) to the €65.75 million EUR revolver tranche. Record ID#102288 captures BOC's contribution. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed to the €65.75 million EUR revolver tranche: Goldman Sachs (€14.78 million EUR; $16.20 million USD), ING Group (€4.62 million EUR; $5.06 million USD), Kookmin Bank (€1.30 million EUR; $1.43 million USD), Norinchukin Bank (€12.54 million EUR; $13.75 million USD), SEB (€5.82 million EUR; $6.38 million USD), and UniCredit (€18.21 million EUR; $19.96 million USD). The proceeds were to be used by the borrower to finance the acquisition of Ocean Breeze Energy GmbH & Co. KG, the owner and operator of the 400 MW BARD Offshore 1 Wind Farm (OWF BO1), an 80 x 5 MW turbines operational offshore wind farm supplying about 463,000 households with energy annually, located 89 kilometers northwest of Borkum in the North Sea, associated inter-array cabling, a transformer station, the jack-up barge 'Wind Lift I', and the two-turbine onshore wind farm Rysumer Nacken, from UniCredit. Ocean Breeze Energy owned and operated the farm beginning in November 2013, when the original sponsor, Bard Engineering, declared bankruptcy. UniCredit, a creditor of Bard Engineering, claimed ownership for the asset, which was then several years behind schedule and over budget at €2 billion EUR. Then, in March 2018, UniCredit launched a sale process for the wind farm. As of April 2019, the sale had not made progress. There were several issues with the sale, including the high asking price of €1.2 billion EUR, the feed-in-tariff for the farm expiring relatively soon in 2023, and because of the technical aspects of the turbines (Bard produced its own 5 MW turbines, which as of 2019 were no longer in production and the manufacturer dissolved). Then, on August 1, 2019, the MIRA-managed consortium entered into a €1 billion EUR ($1.09625 billion USD USD) sale and purchase agreement with UniCredit to purchase BARD Offshore 1, a €179 million EUR loss for UniCredit which had initially sought a sale price of about €1.2 billion EUR for the farm. The acquisition included about 10 surplus turbines. On or around September 25, 2016, the European Commission approved the acquisition. The acquisition closed on September 26, 2019.