Norwegian energy company Equinor has entered an agreement to sell a 25% ownership interest in the Arkona offshore windfarm to a funding group advised by Credit Suisse Energy Infrastructure Partners for $550m (€500m). Once approved by competition authorities, the deal is expected to take place during Q4 in 2019.
Equinor will retain a 25% share in the windfarm, alongside RWE Renewables, which will own the remaining 50% following its takeover of E.ON’s renewables division.
Equinor New Energy Solutions Pål Eitrheim said: “This divestment demonstrates Equinor’s ability to realise value from the development of offshore wind projects. Active portfolio management through the project life cycle is an important part of our offshore wind strategy.
“Arkona was delivered under budget and on time and has had strong operational performance since start-up. Now the project is de-risked and in the early phase of operations, and we are pleased to welcome Credit Suisse Energy Infrastructure Partners as a new partner.”
As a result of the deal, Equinor’s share price fell on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) from NOK169.25 ($18.50) to NOK166.55 ($18.21) a share, a fall of 1.6% which gives it a current market capitalisation value of just over NOK565bn ($61.8bn).
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By GlobalDataEquinor share price in 2019
Arkona offshore windfarm
The Arkona windfarm is the largest offshore windfarm in the Baltic Sea, with a capacity of 385MW.
Formed of 60 Siemens SWT-6.0-154 wind turbines, construction began on the project in August 2016 and was completed in April 2019. Arkona will produce enough energy for 400,000 homes and offset 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 each year.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel officially opened the windfarm on 17 April.
Equinor
Equinor has developed into a “broad energy company” with the development of several offshore windfarms in the UK, US and Germany.
Its portfolio includes the 816MW Empire Wind offshore windfarm in New York State, which was part of the largest offshore wind order in US history when announced on 19 July and should be completed by 2024.
Other projects developed by the company include the Hywind floating offshore windfarm off the coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Hywind is the world’s largest floating offshore windfarm with a capacity of 30MW and was developed with Abu Dhabi based company Masdar.
