According to Equinor, the refinancing for the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm includes both commercial bank debt and senior secured notes privately placed with institutional investors. The Norwegian energy giant claims that the two tranches have been oversubscribed.
Dudgeon Offshore Wind chair and director Beate Myking said: “Dudgeon is a unique project with strong operational performance.The excellent collaboration with our partners and advisors has enabled the successful refinancing.
“The A- (EXP) credit rating and investors’ keen interest further underpins the market confidence in Dudgeon and is strong evidence of Equinor’s competence and capacity to successfully develop and operate offshore windfarms.”
The refinanced debt comprises £1.27bn in fully-amortizing senior-term loans, made up of about £561m in commercial debt to go along with a £706m private placement of senior secured notes, which will mature in June 2032.
Also included in the financing is about £150m in ancillary facilities arranged through commercial bank commitments.
Masdar CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi said: “Our congratulations to all the parties involved in the successful refinancing of this iconic wind energy asset.
“This reconfirms the strong bankability of Dudgeon and further reflects the market appetite for large-scale assets which have a robust credit profile, transparent economics and are subject to stable regulatory environments.”
The £1.4bn Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm, which is located 32km off the Norfolk coast in England, was commissioned in October 2017. Made up of 67 turbines, the wind farm generates 1.7TWh of electricity annually, to meet the power consumption needs of about 410,000 UK homes.
Each of the turbines has a capacity of 6MW each and put together are capable of offsetting 893,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Equinor is the operator of the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm with a stake of 35%. Masdar, which is an Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy company, holds a stake of 35% while Chinese conglomerate China Resources Group owns the remaining stake of 30%, which it acquired from Statkraft last year in a deal worth £555m.
