SgurrEnergy Advises on 50% of Westermost Rough Financing

Leading renewable energy consultancy, SgurrEnergy, has supported the project financing of Westermost Rough offshore wind farm to financial close.

The project involved providing lenders’ technical advisory services to the commercial banks involved in the non-recourse financing of WMR JV Investco Limited’s, a UK company jointly owned by Marubeni Corporation and wholly state-owned UK Green Investment Bank plc, stake in the wind farm. The remainder of the wind farm is owned by DONG Energy.

The participating banks include The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Mizuho Bank Ltd., Siemens Financial Services and the technical bank Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking.

The construction of the 210MW wind farm is underway, with foundations already in place for all of the 35 Siemens 6MW wind turbines that will make up the wind farm. These are the largest to be installed commercially in the offshore wind industry and Westermost Rough is expected to generate enough energy to power over 200,000 homes.

As the lenders’ technical advisor, SgurrEnergy has undertaken a detailed technical, contractual and financial review of the project and identified and mitigated the technical issues which could have affected the ability to successfully reach financial close. SgurrEnergy, part of Wood Group, is also engaged in construction monitoring of the project now that the technical due diligence process is complete.

Director of advisory services at SgurrEnergy, Simon Luby, said: “The project presented a number of commercial, technology and construction risks to the lenders, and has been one of our more important assignments in recent months. However, by bringing our world-leading knowledge to bear we have very much enjoyed the opportunity to work with these key lenders to ensure financial close was successfully reached.

The deployment and successful financing of the Siemens 6MW turbine is a key step forward for the industry. This has a highly positive impact for other offshore wind investment and financing processes also being finalised at this time, and we are pleased to have played a central role in this process.”

Keith Williamson, project manager of the technical due diligence commented: “This was a demanding assignment given the deployment of a new turbine and the complexity of the structure of the transaction. However, it was a pleasure to support the lenders, including both established and new entrants to the project financing of offshore wind farms, in achieving a commercially acceptable deal which was reflective of the risk profile of the project.”

Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking Managing Director, Allan Baker, commented: “The SgurrEnergy team has been working closely with Societe Generale, as technical bank, and the lenders to successfully complete the technical due diligence of this project which involves the first application of the new Siemens 6MW turbines in a project financed transaction. We thank all members of the SgurrEnergy team for contributing to the success of this project.”

Situated around 8km off the Holderness coast, approximately 25 km North of Spurn Head at the river Humber estuary, the Westermost Rough offshore wind farm is due to become operational in 2015.