HICL Infrastructure consortium Ofcom's preferred bidder for Race Bank

Listed infrastructure investment company HICL Infrastructure Company said on Thursday that Diamond Transmission Partners - a consortium comprising itself and Diamond Transmission Corporation, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation - had been selected by Ofgem as the preferred bidder to own and operate the offshore transmission link to the Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm project.

The FTSE 250 firm said the offshore transmission owner regime covered regulated assets where the OFTO took ownership of an operational transmission asset, and received contractual, availability-based revenues over a 20-year period.

It said the OFTO did not have exposure to construction risk, electricity production or power price risk.

“The Race Bank OFTO represents the second successful bid by the partnership of HICL and Diamond Transmission Corporation, the first being the Burbo Bank Extension OFTO which recently reached financial close,” HICL’s board said in it statement.

It said consideration for HICL's 50% share of the interest in Race Bank OFTO was expected to be up to £30m, with completion of the acquisition expected in early 2019.