Shell-led trio looking to sell 45% in Borssele III & IV - report

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (AMS:RDSA), Eneco Holding NV and Mitsubishi Corp (TYO:8058) are running a sale process for a combined 45% stake in the Borssele III & IV offshore wind projects in the Dutch North Sea, Bloomberg reports.

The three companies seek to reduce their participation in the two offshore wind schemes so that they could redeploy the cash in new projects with the potential for higher returns, the news agency said, quoting two sources. One of the insiders has noted that one new equity partner has already been chosen.

The consortium, which also includes Van Oord NV, won the tender to build the two offshore wind parks totalling 700 MW in December 2016 with a bid of EUR 54.50 (USD 64.0) per MWh. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Van Oord wants to keep its current stake in the projects.

Eneco has said in a statement cited by the news agency that the consortium is assessing how to best fund this and future offshore wind projects for the long term.

The size of the partners’ individual stakes in the development has not been revealed officially, but one of Bloomberg’s sources has said that Shell has 50% and Eneco 30%, while Van Oord and Mitsubishi each hold 10%.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that the two wind parks will cost a total of USD 1.4 billion, which means that a 45% stake is worth some USD 630 million, the report says.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.175)

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