WFW advises consortium on acquisition of German offshore wind farm11 December 2019

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised a consortium consisting of The Renewables Infrastructure Group Limited (“TRIG”) and Dutch pension investor APG (“APG”) on their acquisition of the Merkur German offshore wind farm from a consortium of Merkur shareholders, which includes Partners Group, InfraRed Capital Partners, DEME Concessions, GE Energy Financial Services and ADEME.

The recently completed Merkur wind farm is located in the German North Sea and covers an area of 47 km². It consists of 66 GE Haliade 150 turbines with a capacity of 396 MW. The project will save c.18 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent over its project life.

TRIG is a London-listed investment company which primarily invests in a diversified portfolio of renewable energy infrastructure assets in the UK and continental Europe, with a focus on operational projects. The company has a portfolio of 71 renewable energy assets in the UK, France, Ireland, Sweden and Germany including wind farms, solar projects and a battery storage facility with a total capacity of over 1.5 GW.

APG is the largest pension delivery organisation in the Netherlands, providing executive consultancy, asset management, pension administration, pension communication and employer services on behalf of pension funds and employers various sectors.

The cross-border WFW team advising on the transaction was led by Hamburg Corporate Partner and Global Energy Sector Co-Head Global Energy Sector Co-Head Dr Malte Jordan. He was supported by Partners Sven Fretthold (Finance), Dr Max Boemke (Regulatory), Gerrit Bartsch (Tax), Dr Andreas Wiegreffe (Employment) and Senior Consultant Klaus Schmid-Burgk (Insolvency). Managing Associates Dr Malte von Seht and Dr Jule Martin, Senior Associate Nora Fleischhauer and Associates Jan Schürmann and Paul Philipp Greef also assisted. In London, Partner Jeremy Robinson and Associate Pierre Welch advised on the merger control aspects of the transaction.

Malte said: “We are very pleased to have advised TRIG and APG on this complex, cross-border project. This transaction reinforces our excellent reputation as leading legal advisers in the renewable energy sector and illustrates our capacity to provide high level advice and seamless cooperation across our international offices”.