Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Shell, Diamond Generating Europe and Eneco with sale of 45% stake in offshore wind farm project Borssele III/IV to Partners Group

Clifford Chance advised Shell, Diamond Generating Europe (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation) and Eneco as sellers on the sale of a 45% stake in the 731.5 MW Dutch offshore wind farm project Borssele III/IV to funds managed and/or advised by Partners Group, a global private markets investment manager, constituting half of each seller's current stake in the project. Upon completion of the transaction, Partners Group will become the largest shareholder in the current consortium of investors consisting of Shell, Diamond Generating Europe, Eneco Group and Van Oord.

Project Borssele III/IV is an offshore wind farm that will comprise 77 9.5MW Vestas turbines placed across two sites in the Borssele Wind Farm Zone, which is 22km off the coast in the province of Zeeland, at the southern border of the Netherlands' Exclusive Economic Zone. The wind farm will benefit from the Dutch offshore feed-in tariff for a period of 15+1 years from the commencement of commercial operations in early 2021. Once it is fully operational, Borssele III/IV is expected to generate about 3,000 GWh per annum, enough electricity to power approximately 825,000 households. Clifford Chance Amsterdam is also acting as project counsel to project Borssele III/IV and currently working on achieving financial close for this project.

The Clifford Chance Amsterdam team was led by Jeroen Thijssen, working closely with Hein Tonnaer as lead counsel to project Borssele, and furthermore consisted of Tim Heerschop, Katja Busuladzic, Han Kalule, Michiel Sunderman and Stern Flik. Liesbeth Buiter and Bram Kocken provided advice on regulatory and project finance related matters, Frans Muller and Jurre Jurriëns on antitrust and regulatory matters, Quirine Eenhorst, Marierose Kouwenberg and Bart Bootsma on funds matters and Mark-Jan Arends and Laura Stegeman provided notarial assistance. The team was previously involved as lead counsel in the other large offshore wind projects Gemini and Luchterduinen.