Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”), has advised Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (“CIP”) on the expansion of its existing partnership with Dutch transmission system operator TenneT Holding B.V. (“TenneT”) regarding a portfolio of four German offshore grid connections with a total transmission capacity of c. 2.8 GW transmitting wind energy from the North Sea to Germany.
The portfolio comprises the BorWin1, BorWin2, HelWin2 and DolWin2 transmission lines and converter stations, which were the first HVDC systems to connect offshore wind farms to the grid. All have reached commercial operations with some minor construction ongoing to connect them to further wind farms.
The transaction was made via the acquisition by CI Artemis II K/S fund, advised by CIP, of a minority stake in joint venture companies related to the operation of the four grid connection systems. This investment is subject to the same regulatory framework as the investment into the German offshore grid connection system DolWin3 for which CI Artemis K/S entered into a related joint venture with TenneT in 2014, on which WFW also advised CIP.
Founded in 2012, CIP is a Danish fund management company focussed on energy infrastructure including offshore and onshore wind, solar PV, biomass and energy-from-waste, transmission and distribution, and other energy assets such as reserve capacity and storage. With five funds currently managing assets of c.€7.8bn, CIP has approximately 110 employees and offices in Copenhagen, London, New York, Tokyo, and Utrecht. The CI Artemis II K/S fund was established in 2020 with a long-term investment strategy and a total capacity of c€300m.
The multi-disciplinary WFW Germany team that advised CIP was led by Hamburg Corporate Energy Partner and WFW Germany Head Dr Marcus Bechtel. He was supported by Partners Dr Wolfram Böge (Corporate/Energy, Hamburg), Dr F Maximilian Boemke and Dr Christine Bader (both Regulatory, Hamburg), Sven Fretthold (Finance, Hamburg), Jörg Walzer (Tax, Hamburg), Eckrolf Berg (Real Estate, Hamburg), as well as Managing Associates Carolin Woggon and Dr Malte von Seht (both Corporate/Energy, Hamburg) and Dr Jule Martin (Regulatory, Hamburg) , and Associates Dr Sandra Figgen, Christian Schindler (both Corporate/Energy, Hamburg), Paul Philipp Greef (Regulatory, Hamburg), Jakob Paluszkiewicz (Finance, Hamburg) and Marie-Theres Recifo (Finance, Munich).
Marcus commented: “We are pleased to have had the opportunity to once again advise CIP, especially on such an exciting transaction involving a complex project in a highly regulated sector. We were able to help CIP bring the deal to a smooth and successful conclusion thanks to both our long-standing established relationship with them and the firm’s extensive experience advising on complex energy and infrastructure projects”.
