DekaBank backs German wind farms deal

DekaBank, one of the largest asset managers in Germany, has provided €125 million of financing for the acquisition of 18 German wind farms.

The borrower, purchaser and manager of the wind farms is Swisspower Renewables Wind 1, a subsidiary of Swisspower Renewables, a holding company owned by 11 Swiss public utility companies.

DekaBank, which was the sole arranger and loan originator for the deal, said the transaction was based on a fixed-rate loan and that an unspecified portion of the financing would be placed with institutional investors “under existing asset management mandates”.

The portfolio comprises 18 independent onshore wind farms with a total of 85 turbines, an installed capacity of 150.3 megawatts and an output of approximately 280 million kilowatt hours per year – enough to provide power requirements for around 56,000 homes.

All of the 18 wind farms in the portfolio were constructed between 2002 and 2009.

In September last year, DekaBank sold a €10 million senior tranche of a project financing loan to senior debt fund Dekainfrastrukturkredit. DekaBank is the fund’s parent bank. The tranche was part of the overall financing for the Mont D’Arcis wind farm in Eastern France, a project co-financed by DekaBank and a German Landesbank.

DekaBank is part of the Deka Group, which is one of Germany’s biggest investment fund providers and had assets under management of approximately €180 billion on 30 September 2013.