Norton Rose Fulbright advises Coriolis on Merkur offshore wind development project

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Coriolis on its equity investment‎ in the offshore wind farm project Merkur. Coriolis is a joint investment vehicle formed by French state-controlled ADEME for their equity investment in Merkur and the capital investment arm of the turbine supplier.

GE will supply the wind turbines for Merkur, which will be the first large-scale commercial deployment of GE state-of-the-art Haliade 150-6MW offshore wind turbine in Europe.

In 2015, Norton Rose Fulbright had already advised Alstom (prior to its takeover by GE) on the initial entry into the project prior to fundraising.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team advised on corporate, finance, regulatory, competition, insurance, insolvency and tax law.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was led by corporate partner Klaus Bader (M&A/energy) and of counsel Heiko Bertelmann (M&A) together with Uwe Eppler (tax), assisted by Sebastian Frech, Johannes Diez, Michael Gaul (all corporate), as well as partner Anne Lapierre, of counsel Thomas Rabain and Pierre Thevenin-Montefiore from the Paris office. The team further included partner Dirk Trautmann and of counsel Christian Bauer (both project finance), of counsel Felix Dinger (energy regulatory), of counsel Alexander von Reuss (tax), and partner Christian Filippitsch assisted by Max Seuster (both competition, Brussels).

Background: On Friday, 12 August 2016, Merkur Offshore GmbH confirmed financial close of the 396MW Merkur offshore wind development project. Merkur is a construction-ready wind farm located approximately 45km north of the islands of Borkum, Germany, in the North Sea. It will generate approximately 1,750 GWh annually, enough clean energy to power around 500,000 homes. A total capital investment of ca. EUR 1.6 billion was raised from equity investors and bank lenders on a non-recourse project financing basis. Close to EUR 500 million in equity was provided by the consortium of sponsors.

For further information please contact:

Louise Nelson, Senior PR Manager
Tel +44 20 7444 5086; Mob: +44 7909 684893
louise.nelson@nortonrosefulbright.com

Katrin Gneiting, PR and Communications Manager
Tel +49 89 212148 533; Mob +49 172 7697 504
katrin.gneiting@nortonrosefulbright.com

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