Macquarie units agree to deals worth over €6bn in Germany and UK

Macquarie Group has agreed to three deals in Germany and the UK thought to be worth about €6.2 billion across a number of divisions.

The firm’s €6 billion Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 6 has agreed to buy chemical park supplier Currenta from German chemical giants Bayer and LANXESS in a deal with an enterprise value of €3.5 billion – including a transferred real estate portfolio by Bayer – before a deduction of net debt and pension obligations.

The deal, which is also understood to include equity from Macquarie’s €4 billion MEIF5, sees Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets take over a company which operates energy supply and other infrastructure at the chemical parks in Leverkusen, Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen. This includes electricity, steam and natural gas covered by long-term contracts with Bayer thought to be for about 10 years, Macquarie said in a statement. Currenta also has waste management and water contracts.

Bayer, which held a 60 percent stake in the company, is also selling “extensive” infrastructure and real estate for €180 million, it said. Its portion of the deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. However, LANXESS, which has agreed to provide operational expertise in the months following the transaction, will as a result complete its portion of the deal by April 2020.

Currenta is MEIF6’s second investment and brings the fund to 20 percent invested. The vehicle’s other asset is the UK broadband group KCOM, which it acquired for £627 million ($758.5 million; €676.4 million) last month.

Offshore wind splash

Also in Germany, MEIF5 bought Ocean Breeze Energy, the owner of the 400MW Bard offshore wind farm, from UniCredit. The asset became operational in July 2013 and was Germany’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm. However, it experienced delays coming online and was taken over by UniCredit in 2014 when the original owner ran into financial troubles. The project has since returned to operations.

Macquarie declined to comment on the purchase price for the asset, although it is understood to be around €1 billion. Macquarie’s investment is also believed to include an equity contribution from the Lombard Macquarie Infrastructure Fund, an OECD-focused vehicle managed by Macquarie since 2007 on behalf of Swiss bank Lombard Odier.

The deal for Bard and the investment in Currenta are thought to be the last investments from MEIF5.

The Green Investment Group, which MEIF5 owns alongside Macquarie Capital and the Universities Superannuation Scheme, has also agreed to a €1.7 billion deal to buy 40 percent of the 714MW East Anglia One project from Scottish Renewables, owned by Spanish utility Iberdrola.

The site remains in development and will be operational in mid-2020, although Macquarie said Iberdrola has been developing it for over 10 years.

It is understood that the equity for this acquisition has been provided by Macquarie Capital and not by MEIF5.

East Anglia One was awarded a contract for difference by the UK government in 2015, meaning it will receive fixed price payments of £119 per MWh.