Norway Sovereign Wealth Fund Buys a Small Stake in German Offshore Wind Project
Posted on 03/23/2023
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) manages Norway Government Pension Fund Global. NBIM has signed an agreement to acquire a 16.6% stake in He Dreiht, a 960 MW offshore wind construction project offshore Germany.
The acquisition will be made together with Allianz Capital Partners, on behalf of Allianz Insurance Companies, and AIP Management. Together, the consortium will acquire a 49.9% interest in the project. AIP’s investors include the Danish pension funds PKA, Pensam, Akademiker Pension and Lærernes Pension, the Norwegian financial group Storebrand and a group of Swiss institutional Investors.
The agreement was signed on March 22, 2023, with closing expected in the third quarter of 2023.
Norges Bank Investment Management will pay approximately 430 million euros for its 16.6% ownership interest and its share of the capital expenditure for the wind farm.
In total, this values the project at approximately 2,600 million euros. No external debt financing will be involved in the transaction.
The seller of the interest is German utility EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, who has developed the project. EnBW will remain co-owner and operator of the project.
He Dreiht is expected to be operational by the end of 2025 and will then be the largest offshore wind project in Germany. Overall, the wind farm will produce clean energy equivalent to the electricity demand of 1.1 million German households.
Keywords: Allianz SE.