Ørsted Picks Greater Changhua Financing Team

Ørsted has appointed the Bank of Taiwan, Cathay United Bank and BNP Paribas as lead arrangers for financing the Greater Changhua offshore wind projects in Taiwan.

The deal for the targeted five-year NT$ 25 billion syndicated revolving credit facility is expected to be signed during the first quarter of 2019.

Ørsted said it aims to have at least 10 banks in the final deal, mostly including local Taiwanese banks.

“Ørsted will fund the Greater Changhua projects by capital contributions from the Ørsted Group combined with debt capital sourced from local Taiwanese financial institutions – backed by a Ørsted A/S parent company guarantee,” said Matthias Bausenwein, President for Ørsted Asia Pacific.

According to Bausenwein, Ørsted intends to finance up to 50% of its CAPEX needs in local currency from the Taiwanese bank and bond market, which will give local banks and lifers a great opportunity to participate in the offshore wind sector with very low-risk exposure.

In addition, the Danish developer has a desire to use the new regulation to issue New Taiwan Dollar green bonds, Bausenwein said.

“We see the local bond market as our long term primary source of funding in Taiwan and thus will look to issue bonds regularly over the coming years. We expect the first bond to be issued during 2019, with the exact timeline depending on our Final Investment Decision for the Greater Changhua 1&2 projects.”

The Greater Changhua projects include four sites located 35 to 60km off the coast, with a total capacity expected to be 2.4GW.

In April, Ørsted won the rights to build two offshore wind farms, the 605MW Changua 1 and the 295MW Changhua 2.

The company subsequently secured further 920MW capacity for its wind sites offshore Changhua. The projects are scheduled to be built between 2021 and 2025.