Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking advised and acted as Mandated Lead Arranger on the amended financing of the German “Merkur” offshore windfarm

Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking (SG CIB) is pleased to announce it has acted as financial advisor, Mandated Lead Arranger (MLA) and restructuring & market hedge coordinator in the amended financing of the German 396 MW “Merkur” offshore windfarm. Merkur’s senior debt has been successfully amended on competitive terms, with a total financing volume of 1.5 Bn €.

The financing enables Merkur to benefit from the current competitive debt market environment and to optimize debt pricing, leverage and tenor in the future post construction of the project. The existing facilities have been amended to enable a syndicate of 13 international lenders to participate.

In parallel with the amended financing, Merkur has switched from the “compressed tariff” to the “base tariff” under the German Renewable Energy Act (“EEG”), therefore enabling the project to benefit from a longer period of guaranteed and stable income stream.

Merkur is a joint venture owned by funds managed and/or advised by Partners Group (50%), Infrared (25%), DEME (12.5%), and Coriolis (12.5%), which is a joint venture of GE and L’Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie (“ADEME”) acting in the name and on behalf of the French State.

The project is located about 45 km north of the island of Borkum in the German North Sea. Once completed, the offshore windfarm and its 66 GE Haliade 6MW turbines generate enough green energy to supply approximately 500,000 households per year.

Sven Schulemann, Managing Director of Merkur, explained : “Due to its leading position in the offshore wind industry and its accurate view of the market SG CIB is certainly always the right choice when it comes to financing in offshore wind. The team of SG CIB, however outperformed all our expectations and definitely had an enormous part in successfully delivering this complex transaction against the given very tight deadline.”

Yann Le Bot, Director, Energy Finance, SG CIB, commented : “We are delighted to have further accompanied Merkur and its shareholders on their exciting journey. After having acted as MLA and documentation bank in 2016 for the project’s initial financing, we are very glad to have been chosen to advise Merkur. Successfully breaking new ground by implementing a refinancing during construction of an offshore wind project is a first and something of which we can all be proud.”

 

Press contact :
Florence Schwob - +33 (0)1 42 13 23 49 - florence.schwob@socgen.com -  @SG_presse
 

Notes to editors :
With a global presence and acknowledged energy sector expertise, Societe Generale is also fast becoming a leader in renewable energy.
Last December, Societe Generale has decided to take strong new measures in favour of a less carbon-intensive economy, with the objective to contribute to raising €100 billion in financing for the energy transition by 2020.
The Group will provide, through advisory and financing, a contribution of approximately €15 billion to the renewable energy sector - a sector in which the bank is one of the world leaders - and aims to direct (or co-direct) Green Bond issues for a nominal amount of approximately €85 billion on the same period. Societe Generale undertakes to regularly report the amounts realised.

Read the press release : Societe Generale strengthens its commitments in the fight against climate change

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