International law firm Clifford Chance has advised EnBW on the sale of a 49.9 percent stake in the planned offshore wind farm “He Dreiht” in the North Sea. The buyer is a consortium consisting of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP and Norges Bank Investment Management. “He Dreiht” is one of the largest offshore wind farms in Germany and one of the largest energy transition projects in Europe.
The wind farm will be built about 85 kilometers northwest of Borkum and about 110 kilometers west of Helgoland and is supposed to go into commercial operation at the end of 2025. “He Dreiht” is expected to generate green electricity for the equivalent of 1.1 million households. The investment volume is around €2.4 billion.
Dominik Heß, Corporate/M&A partner at Clifford Chance in Düsseldorf: “This transaction once again shows the importance of investing in the energy transition and the role of Clifford Chance’s cross-practice team.”
Björn Heinlein, Corporate/Energy-Of Counsel at Clifford Chance in Düsseldorf: “In addition to advising on M&A and financing aspects, a major focus of our advice was on the structuring of power purchase agreements (PPAs) and the negotiation of long-term power purchase agreements (corporate PPAs), since ‘He Dreiht’ is one of the first offshore wind farms to receive no state funding. The latter have already been concluded with well-known companies such as Fraport, Evonik, Salzgitter and Bosch and a total volume of 335 MW.”
The Clifford Chance team for EnBW comprised partner Dominik Heß, counsel Tobias Kamerling and associate Yannick Niedergethmann (all Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf), partner Mathias Elspaß, of counsel Björn Heinlein, senior associate Zaid Mansour as well as associates Laura-Isabell Dietz and Duy Tuong Huynh (all Corporate/Energy, Düsseldorf), partner Florian Mahler (Düsseldorf), counsel Andreas Ruthemeyer (Frankfurt), senior assoicates Pamela Schaarschmidt (Düsseldorf) and Emer Kelly (Frankfurt), associates Birte Hüller and Marius Fritz as well as transaction lawyer Rima Lenders (all Düsseldorf) (all Finance). Partner Liesbeth Buiter (Corporate) and senior associate Philip Walsh (Finance) from the Clifford Chance office in Amsterdam also advised. Pascal Weber (Düsseldorf) and Doris Wannenmacher (Frankfurt) supported and coordinated the entire transaction team as legal project professionals.
