Gulf Energy Development, a Thailand based energy giant, has reportedly announced the acquisition of BKR2 (Borkum Riffgrund 2) offshore wind farm in Germany, worth over $608.8 million. The company took this step with an aim to extend its renewable energy business across Asia and Europe.

While reporting the transaction to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Gulf stated that its wholly-owned arm, GIH (Gulf International Holding), acquired the shares worth over €548 million, with GIP (Global Infrastructure Partners).

GIH purchased GIP’s complete shareholding in BKR2 Investor Holding GmbH, based in Frankfurt, Germany, entailing half of the shares of BKR2 Offshore Wind Farm, which operates the wind energy farm with Orsted A/S, the other shareholder.

Yupapin Wangviwat, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director, Gulf Energy, stated that the acquisition agreement was effective from July 3, 2020.

BKR2 is situated in the North Sea and is specifically designed to hold a capacity of more than 464.8 megawatts. The wind farm began its operations in 2019 under a PPA (power purchase agreement) and maintenance and operation agreement with Orsted that would span a period of 20 years.

Wangviwat also stated that the BKR2 farm gets guaranteed feed-in-tariff, supported by the government of Germany for 9.5 years. The farm has also been given a guaranteed floor price by the government further resulting in its long-term stability in terms of revenue.

This share purchase would also allow Gulf Energy to create a new strategic partnership with leading offshore wind industry giant, Orsted, the second shareholder in the farm.

Orsted, holds a 25 years’ worth of experience in the industry and generates about 6.8 gigawatts of energy from offshore wind farms across the world. Orsted also has a novel facility build-out, with an impressive combined capacity of more than 3.1GW, planned by 2022 throughout several countries like the US, Denmark, Germany, and Britain.

The latest agreement comes after Gulf’s recent announcement that it would purchase wind farms based in Vietnam for approximately $200 million.

Source credit: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1947604/gulf-energy-buys-german-wind-farm