Funding for wpd's Yunlin project is close to completion. The group of investors and banks will be finalised in a few weeks. The two processes of self-funding and external funding run in parallel with the result that the funding package for Yunlin will be completed by the end of the year.
"As with all our previous projects, for Yunlin, too, we are able to rely on strong, well-known partners as investors who can take a maximum stake of 49 percent in this project", says Board Member Achim Berge Olsen.
"Although we have discovered that there is great interest with regard to capital, not least from the Asian region, and we are many times oversubscribed, we will remain the majority shareholder with over 50 percent equity, and we will manage Yunlin with our team. On the side of the banks, we can see strong commitment on the part of the Taiwanese banks. For us it is very important to be able to integrate the know-how of the local banks," comments Berge Olsen.
As well as SMBC as finance consultant, Taiwan's largest state bank, the Bank of Taiwan, is acting as co-advisor and E-Sun as a further local consultant. "Overall, the major interest and the quality of our funding partners confirm our strategy of developing Taiwan as a market of the future."
Background information
At the end of April, wpd was awarded a total of one gigawatt by the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affair for the implementation of the Yunlin and Guanyin offshore projects. The cost of both projects amounts to around 4 billion euros. Yunlin is being constructed eight kilometers from the coast and comprises 80 turbines in the eight-megawatt class. The first half of the turbines will be installed by 2020, and the total of 650-700 megawatts is due to be commissioned in 2020/2021.
