Gulf Energy Development has acquired Germany's Borkum Riffgrund 2 (BKR2) offshore wind farm, worth more than 19 billion baht, in a move to expand its renewable energy business in Asia and Europe this year.
Wholly owned Gulf International Holding (GIH) made the share purchase, worth more than €548 million, with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Gulf said when reporting the deal to the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Tuesday.
GIH acquired GIP's entire shareholding in Frankfurt-based Borkum Riffgrund 2 Investor Holding GmbH, entailing 50% of shares in Borkum Riffgrund 2 Offshore Wind Farm GmbH & Co Ohg, which co-operates the wind farm with the other shareholder, Orsted A/S.
The agreement came into effect on July 3, said Gulf executive director and chief financial officer Yupapin Wangviwat.
BKR2, located in the North Sea, is designed to have a capacity of 464.8 megawatts. The farm started operations in 2019 under a power purchase agreement (PPA) and operation and maintenance agreement with Orsted for 20 years.
Ms Yupapin said the BKR2 farm receives a guaranteed feed-in tariff backed by the German government for 9.5 years and is also given a guaranteed floor price, resulting in long-term revenue stability.
The share purchase will enable her company to form a strategic partnership with Orsted, a global market leader in offshore wind farms.
Orsted, which has 25 years of experience in the business, generates 6.8 gigawatts from offshore wind farms globally. The company also has a new facility build-out, with combined capacity of 3.1GW, planned towards 2022 across various countries such as Britain, Germany, Denmark and the US.
Gulf is looking forward to raking in revenue immediately after the transfer of shares, which will significantly boost the company's revenue and profit base.
The latest share deal follows Gulf's announcement last week that it would buy wind farms in Vietnam for about US$200 million.
The company wants to buy Dien Xanh Gia Lai Investment Energy Joint Stock (DGI), the developer and operator of onshore wind farm projects Ia Pech 1 and Ia Pech 2, each with capacity of 50 megawatts.
Ms Yupapin said Gulf is eager to make new asset purchases during this time, as prices look set to decrease after energy firms cut financial costs because of lower interest rates since early this year.