Allen & Overy advises consortium on investing in 960 MW offshore wind farm "He Dreiht"

He Dreiht is located in the German North Sea, 85 km off the coast of Emden in Lower Saxony and around 110 kilometers west of Helgoland. Upon completion, this will be one of the largest offshore wind farms in Germany with 64 turbines with an output of 15MW. Construction works are to start in 2024. He Dreiht is expected to be operational end of 2025. The investment cost is expected to total around EUR 2.4 billion.

The majority shareholder EnBW will develop and operate He Dreiht and will offtake the power generated. Upon completion, the wind farm can provide around 1.1 million households with clean energy.

For the offshore wind farm, EnBW has signed long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Fraport, Evonik, Salzgitter and Bosch, among others, covering a total volume of 335 megawatts. Talks with other companies are underway.

Allianz Capital Partners is one of the Allianz Group's asset managers for alternative equity investments and part of Allianz Global Investors. Allianz Capital Partners manages over 56 billion euros in alternative assets for the Allianz Group and third-party investors*. Its investment focus is on private equity, infrastructure, and renewable energy and its investment strategy aims to generate attractive, long-term, and stable returns for its clients.

*Data as of December 31, 2022

AIP is an investment manager dedicated to managing investments in energy and infrastructure assets supporting the energy transition in Europe and North America. The team consists of app. 80 dedicated professionals with extensive experience within investments and energy, located in Copenhagen, London, Madrid, and New York City.

Norges Bank Investment Management is the asset management division of Norges Bank, the Norwegian central bank. As manager of the Government Pension Fund Global, its mission is to safeguard and build financial wealth for future generations in Norway. Norges Bank Investment Management aims for the highest possible long-term return within the investment mandate set by the Ministry of Finance. The fund is invested globally in equity, fixed income and real assets and had investments worth 12,429 billion Norwegian kroner as of 31 December 2022.

The Allen & Overy team was led by Hamburg based partner Max Landshut (Corporate/M&A) and consisted of partners Dr Nicolaus Ascherfeld (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Wolfgang Melzer (Banking & Finance), Dr Heike Weber (Tax), Anna Masser (Dispute Resolution), Dr Udo H Olgemöller (Public Law), Dr Tim Müller (Compliance, all Frankfurt) as well as counsels Marie-Luise von Buchwaldt (Corporate/M&A), Dr René Galle, Dr Ioannis Thanos (both Antitrust), Dr Daniel Bolm (Real Estate, all Hamburg) and Dr Jan-Hendrik Bode (Banking & Finance, Frankfurt).

Furthermore, the team comprised of senior associates Dr Jan Frederik C Holst, Dr Moritz Meister (both Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Kathrin Pätzold-Schwarz, Tobias Wintermantel (both Banking & Finance) and Stefanie Günther (Public Law, all Frankfurt), associates Juliana Palavra Gorgueira, Daniel Wendler, Dr Jakob Schultehinrichs, Kornelius Lotha, Frederik Hillmann (all Corporate/M&A, all Hamburg), Alan Markgraf (Banking & Finance), Dr Stephan Bühner, Dr Dennis Jurdt (both Public Law), Dr Manuel Köchel (Tax) and Eileen Löbig (Dispute Resolution) as well as senior transaction officer Laura Thiel (all Frankfurt) and transaction officer Corvin Kieselhorst (Munich, both Corporate/M&A).

Further advice within Allen & Overy was given by partner Dan Cocker (Banking & Finance), counsel Piotr Przybylski, senior assoicate Małgorzata Jastrzebska as well as associates Julia Niedziela, Katarzyna Fus-Starzec, Michał Gałuszyński (all Corporate, all Warsaw), Tereza Veverkova and Jan Spousta (both Banking & Finance, Prague). The London team included senior associate Harshil Arora and Peerpoint Consultant Sheila Connell (both Banking & Finance). In addition, an Allen & Overy team in the US was involved.

Allen & Overy is one of the leading law firms in the renewable energy market, advising investors, sponsors, developers and financiers across the renewable energy spectrum, providing pioneering advice on the entire life cycle of offshore wind assets, from the consenting and planning process, through to the construction, financing, operation, maintenance and ultimately their refinancing, sale or purchase. The firm’s experts have considerable experience of advising on all aspects of renewables projects, including the permitting and planning procedures, construction and maintenance aspects and financing, corporate and tax aspects, as well as the environmental economic instruments that are essential in making such projects viable. In the recent past they have advised Fortescue Future Industries on its joint venture with Tree Energy Solutions to develop the Wilhelmshaven terminal, EDF on the acquisition of a photovoltaic project pipeline from MEC Energy, Iberdrola on the sale of 49% of Wikinger Offshore Windpark to EIP or asyndicate of banks in connection with the refinancing of Global Tech I, an offshore wind park in the German North Sea, with a volume of more than half a billion euros, to name just a few examples.