Japanese giant JERA in $1.7bn swoop for offshore wind 'independent' Parkwind
Asian group to buy 100% of developer from Belgian owner that last year said sector now favours deep pockets
Japan’s biggest power company JERA made a major move into European offshore wind with a deal to buy Parkwind, one of the sector’s pioneering developers.
JERA will acquire 100% of Parkwind from Virya Energy, the offshore wind arm of Belgian retail group Colruyt, for a final price expected to be at least €1.55bn ($1.67bn) net of debt.
Parkwind has 771MW in operation and a 1.2GW development pipeline spanning Belgium, Germany and Ireland.
Parkwind is seen as one of the few ‘independent’ offshore wind groups still active in a market increasingly dominated by huge utilities and oil supermajors. The Belgium-based developer has most capacity operating off its home coast and projects underway in Ireland and Germany, where it is currently building the 257MW Arcadis Ost 1 project.
JERA is a joint venture of Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) and Chubu Electric Power, and has set out its stall as a major player in offshore wind and other renewables at home and abroad as it pursues a goal to have 5GW of clean capacity in place by 2025.
The deal is due to close later this year subject to approvals.
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