Gleiss Lutz has advised The Blackstone Group on its participation in one of the North Sea’s largest wind farm projects. With estimated construction costs in excess of EUR 1 billion Blackstone is the first major private equity firm to invest in the German wind energy market.
The project involves a partnership with Windland Energieerzeugungs GmbH. The wind farm will be one of the largest wind farms in the North Sea covering an area of approximately 40 square kilometres northeast of Helgoland. It will comprise 80 wind turbines to be erected by 2012, with a capacity of roughly 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours (KWh). When completed, the wind farm will generate approximately 1.6 billion KWh annually. This would be sufficient to supply 500,000 households with electricity, thereby eliminating approximately 1.4 million tons of CO2 that would otherwise be produced from coal-fired power generation facilities. Projects of this scale have been made possible by Germany’s comprehensive regulatory framework and incentive schemes for renewable power, as amended by German Parliament at the beginning of July, 2008. Experts see Blackstone’s investment as a success for the expansion of renewable energies.
Blackstone was advised by the following team of Gleiss Lutz lawyers: Dr. Jan Bauer (partner) and Dr. Cornelia Topf (both lead, corporate/M&A), Stefanie Dörner, Sebastian Knappe, Sharon Kahanov, Dr. Mario Stillig, Dr. Ingo Schneider (all corporate/M&A), Dr. Christian Hamann, Dr. Yvonne Kerth (both energy), Dr. Helge Kortz (partner) and Dr. Michael M. Klose (both banking/finance), Dr. Matthias Sonntag (partner), Dr. Thomas Bopp (partner) and Dr. Henrik Holzapfel (both IP/IT), Dr. Stefan Mayer (tax) as well as Dr. Martin Raible (antitrust).
Gleiss Lutz has advised Blackstone on numerous transactions in the past, most recently on its intended purchase of a stake in Evonik AG. Prior to that, Gleiss Lutz also advised Blackstone on the acquisition of plastic films manufacturer Klöckner-Pentaplast for approximately EUR 1.3 billion, the acquisition of the Hilton Hotel Group for approximately EUR 19.1 billion, the purchase of a minority stake in Deutsche Telekom AG for approximately EUR 2.68 billion as well as the public takeover of Celanese AG for approximately EUR 3.1 billion.
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