Ørsted Acquires Deepwater Wind
Ørsted has entered into an agreement with the D.E. Shaw Group to acquire a 100% equity interest in Rhode Island-based Deepwater Wind at a purchase price of EUR 440 million. The two companies’ offshore wind assets and organisations will be merged into the leading US offshore wind platform with the most comprehensive geographic coverage and the largest pipeline of development capacity.
Martin Neubert, CEO of Offshore Wind at Ørsted, says, “With this transaction we are creating the number one offshore wind platform in North America, merging the best of two worlds: Deepwater Wind’s longstanding expertise in originating, developing and permitting offshore wind projects in the US, and Ørsted’s unparalleled track-record in engineering, constructing, and operating large-scale offshore windfarms. Today’s announcement consolidates Ørsted’s position as the global market leader in offshore wind with a strong foothold across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.”
Thomas Brostrøm, CEO of Ørsted US Offshore Wind and President of Ørsted North America, adds, “Deepwater Wind has done a fantastic job as a first-mover in US offshore wind, and I look forward to joining and integrating the two US organisations. We have exciting times ahead of us delivering large-scale clean energy projects to households and businesses along the Eastern Seaboard. Ørsted will maintain a strong presence in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and will, of course honor the local commitments associated with Deepwater Wind’s projects along the East Coast.“ “Ørsted is one of the world’s great clean energy companies and real pioneers in the offshore wind sector. We could not be more pleased with this combination, which will bring together two great teams to realise an enormous clean energy resource for coastal populations in the US,” Jeffrey Grybowski, CEO of Deepwater Wind, comments.
Founded in 2007, Deepwater Wind delivered Block Island, the first-ever offshore windfarm in the US and has built-up a portfolio of 810MW of development stage assets with long-term revenue contracts awarded, with a further 2.5GW potential capacity. Ørsted entered the US in 2015 and sees the US renewables market as an attractive, strategic growth opportunity. Ørsted currently has development rights for the up to 2GW Bay State Wind site off the coast of Massachusetts, and for the up to 3.5GW Ocean Wind site off the coast of New Jersey. Ørsted recently acquired Lincoln Clean Energy, a leading US developer of onshore wind farms. In addition, Ørsted is active in battery storage and solar development and last year established an office in Austin, Texas, to lead those efforts.
After closing of the transaction, the name of the new organisation will be Ørsted US Offshore Wind. The new organisation will be represented by a local management team headed by Ørsted US Offshore Wind CEO Thomas Brostrøm, Co-CEO Jeff Grybowski, President and CFO David Hang both from the Deepwater Wind team, and COO Claus Bøjle Møller from the Ørsted team. The transaction is subject to clearance by the US competition authorities and is expected to close by end of 2018.