Greencoat UK Wind snaps up stake in Hornsea 1 offshore wind farm

Greencoat expects to fund the acquisition of Hornsea 2, located 80 miles off the Yorkshire coast in the North Sea, from both cash flow and its existing revolving credit facility, where required.

The total enterprise value of Greencoat's stake in Hornsea 1, currently 50% owned by Orsted and 50% owned by GIP, was said to be roughly £1.1bn. The acquisition was expected to complete in the third quarter of 2022.

Hornsea 1 is made up of 174 Siemens 7MW turbines and has a grid export capacity of 1,200MW, making it the world's first offshore wind farm to exceed 1GW. The wind farm entered into full commercial operation in December 2019 and has a high load factor and also benefits from a 15-year CFD at a price of £175.25/MWh.

Chairman Shonaid Jemmett-Page said: "This transaction, once completed, will add another high-quality operating asset to our portfolio and increase our net generating capacity to over 1.6GW.

"We continue to see an attractive pipeline of projects, both onshore and offshore, and given the size and scale that the Company has attained over recent years, we remain strongly positioned to deliver more value-accretive acquisitions and extend our track record of strong shareholder returns."

As of 0810 BST, Greencoat shares were up 0.29% at 155.45p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com