Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (“NORD/LB”) and Swedbank AS (“Swedbank”) on a €87m loan granted to Aidu Wind Park OÜ (“Aidu”) and its infrastructure company for the project financing of a 67.5 MW Estonian wind farm. NORD/LB acted as mandated lead arranger, agent and lender with Swedbank acting as an additional lender.
Located in Lüganuse parish, Ida-Viru County, the project comprises 15 Vestas V150 turbines and was developed by Dirkshof Estonia OÜ, a subsidiary of respected German developer Dirkshof, in cooperation with Eleon Capital OÜ. Dirkshof Estonia OÜ also acted as EPC contractor and technical and commercial manager of the project.
The multidisciplinary WFW Germany team that advised NORD/LB and Swedbank was led by Hamburg Project & Structured Finance Partner Thomas Hollenhorst, supported by Managing Associate Jakob Paluszkiewicz, Senior Associate Roman Schneider and Associate Stefan Riedmeyer. Corporate expertise was provided by Hamburg Partner Carolin Woggon, supported by Senior Associate Cathleen Haack-Asey. Frankfurt Project & Structured Finance Partner Florian Kutzbach, Managing Associate Kathy Buenaventura and Associate Anindhya Shrivastava advised on matters of English law.
Thomas commented: “We are pleased to have advised our long-standing client NORD/LB on yet another major transaction in the renewables sector. Following several recent mandates in the Baltics, this assignment underlines once again WFW’s unrivalled reputation for excellence advising on complex energy matters in that region”.
In cooperation with WFW, Estonian law firm Advokaadibüroo COBALT OÜ acted as the lenders local legal counsel, with Sweden’s Setterwalls Advokatbyrå AB advising them on Swedish law.
