Bank of China contributes to a €1.152 billion EUR syndicated loan for the 487.2 MW Offshore Seamade Wind Farm Project

Project narrative

On December 3, 2018, financial close was reached on a deal in which a syndicate of 17 banks — including the London Branch of the Bank of China (BOC) — entered into a €1.152 billion EUR ($1.3061 billion USD) syndicated loan agreement with Offshore Wind Park Seamade N.V. — a Belgium-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) jointly owned by Otary RS N.V., an entity comprised of eight Belgian offshore wind developers (70% equity stake), Electrabel S.A., an electricity supplier and Belgian subsidiary of French multinational utility Engie S.A. (17.5% equity stake), and Eneco Wind Belgium S.A., the Belgian subsidiary of Dutch utility Eneco Groep N.V. (12.5% equity stake) — for the 487.2 MW Offshore Seamade Wind Farm Project. This loan carried a maturity period of 17.5 years and an interest rate based on EURIBOR plus a margin of 135 basis points (bps) during the construction phase (1.5 years) and then, beginning in July 2020, a margin of 125 bps until maturity. In addition to the London Branch of BOC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: the Paris Branch of Banco Santander S.A., Belfius Bank S.A./N.V., BNP Paribas Fortis S.A./N.V., Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A., de Volksbank N.V. (trading as ASN Bank), KBC Bank N.V., ING Bank N.V., KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH, MUFG Bank, Ltd., Siemens Bank GmbH, Société Générale S.A. (SocGen), the London Branch of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Limited (SMTB), Triodos Bank N.V., European Investment Bank (EIB), and Eksport Kredit Fonden (EKF). All the lenders except EKF and EIB served as mandated lead arrangers. Each lender contributed approximately €50 million EUR except the European Investment Bank (EIB) provided a €250 million EUR ($282 million USD) loan via the European Fund for Strategic Investments and KfW-IPEX Bank which provided a €160 million EUR ($181 million USD) debt facility. In addition to the London Branch of BOC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: the Paris Branch of Banco Santander S.A., Belfius Bank S.A./N.V., BNP Paribas Fortis S.A./N.V., Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A., de Volksbank N.V. (trading as ASN Bank), KBC Bank N.V., ING Bank N.V., KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH, MUFG Bank, Ltd., Siemens Bank GmbH, Société Générale S.A. (SocGen), the London Branch of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Limited (SMTB), Triodos Bank N.V., EIB, and Eksport Kredit Fonden (EKF). All the lenders except EKF and EIB served as mandated lead arrangers. EKF covered €100 million EUR of the debt {see ID#204044}}. The proceeds were to be used by the borrower for the construction of the 487.2 MW Seamade Offshore Wind Farm, located in the Belgian North Sea between the Lodewijkbank and the Blighbank, in the Belgian exclusive economic interest zone, the largest offshore wind farm in Belgium. SeaMade was developed as a combination of the 235 MW Mermaid Offshore Wind Project and the 252 MW Seastar Offshore Wind Farm. The Mermaid site, with a capacity of 235 MW and 28 turbines, was located 50 kilometers off the coast of Belgium in a surface area of 17 square kilometers adjacent to the Northwester II Wind Farm, at a water depth of about 40 meters. The Seastar site, with a capacity of 252 MW and 30 turbines, was located 38 kilometers off of Zeebrugge in a surface area of 19.54 square kilometers between the Nobelwind and Northwind farms, at an average water depth from 20 to 42 meters. 50 kilometers from SeaMade was the Otary logistical hub in the Port of Ostend, which supported the operations and maintenance of the wind farm. The project also included two offshore high voltage substation platforms (OSS) weighing 1,200 tons, connecting to each wind turbine generators (WTGs) via 28 Kilometers-long inter-array cables laid in looped string formation from the foundations of the turbines; each substation increased the voltage from 33 kV to 220 kV was then linked to the Offshore Grid operated by Elia System Operator N.V. through high-voltage cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) square millimeter aluminum submarine cables rated at up to 245 kV, these export cables having a diameter of 247 millimeters and weight 96.4 kilograms per meter. SeaMade featured a total of 58 SG 8.0-167DD 8.4 MW wind turbines from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, with a rotor diameter of 167 meters, a hub height of 109 meters, a blade tip height of 193 meters, and a swept area of 21,900 square meters. SeaMade had a potential annual capacity of 1.8 TWh, enough energy to power 500,000 Belgian households while offsetting 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year. The project had at an estimated cost of €1.3 billion EUR ($1.4 billion USD). The sponsors only provided €300 million EUR in equity. The Government of Belgium nearly cancelled Seastar and Meramid in 2016 because of the subsidy packages being too favorable as costs of offshore wind projects in Europe had fallen dramatically in 2015. However, due to the pressure to decommission its two nuclear power plants by 2025 (60% of Belgium's total capacity) and to increase its offshore wind capacity to 2 GW by 2020 to meet the European Union's emission targets, it negotiated a tariff of €79 EUR per MWh. Seastar and Mermaid merged in late July 2018 after the European Commission issued approval. In December 2018, Eneco signed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to offtake all power from SeaMade. In January 2022, Eneco signed a ten-year PPA with chemicals company Ineos for the offtake of 65.5 MW (250 GWh annually) of wind power from SeaMade. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy won the contract to supply wind turbines for the project and provide service for 17 years in December 2018. A consortium of ENGIE Fabricom, Tractebel, Smulders and GeoSea was responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) and the commissioning the two high-voltage substations and their respective substructures. ENGIE Fabricom was responsible for the overall design coordination and integration of all the systems of the substations. Tractebel was responsible for the engineering, procurement, testing, and commissioning for the high-voltage equipment. Smulders was responsible for the engineering, procurement, fabrication, and corrosion protection for the steel constructions of the topside and substructures. GeoSea was responsible for the transportation and installation of the topsides and substructures to offshore. DEME was contracted for EPIC of the turbines, foundations, inter-array and export cables and the installation of the two offshore substations. Dredging International was contracted for the engineering, construction, and installation of the turbine foundations and inter-array cables. In December 2018, Tideway-Hellenic Cables consortium won a $50 million USD turnkey contract to deliver and install submarine export cables for the offshore wind farm, with Hellenic Cables producing the cables and Tideway installing them. JDR Cable Systems was responsible for the design and supply of the inter-array cable for the project. Offshore construction was expected to begin in the summer of 2019 and be completed in 2020. Offshore construction commenced in September 2019. Export cable works were completed in December 2019. The two substations were installed in March 2020. Inter-array works began in mid-April 2020 and were completed by the end of May 2020. The first turbines were installed in June 2020. The first power generation occurred in July 2020. The final turbine was installed in November 2020. Commercial operations began by the end of 2020. The project was formally inaugurated in October 2021.