IJ Awards: Renewables Deal of the Year

The Bligh Bank Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Belgium - more commonly known as Belwind - last night won the coveted title of IJ's Renewables Deal of the Year for 2009.

At €613.9 million (US$987m), Belwind is by the largest offshore wind farm to benefit from project finance.

Critically, it is a Greenfield financing, for first 165MW phase of a 330MW offshore wind farm located 46km off the coast of Zeebrugge [Projects Database]. This is the farthest distance from the coast a wind farm has been sited at.

Being Greenfield, the judges felt Belwind could truly lay claim to establishing a routemap for larger offshore projects to follow as they are increasingly rolled out around the world.

The project was also the first offshore wind deal to benefit from EIB support, and was also impressive for managing to reach financial close despite a last minute change in ownership.

Three commercial banks - Dexia, Rabobank and ASN Bank - came forward as lenders on the transaction together with the EIB as lender and guarantor and Danish ECA EKF as a risk-bearing party.

IJ Awards: Value Add

This was the first year that Infrastructure Journal offered the IJ Value Add Award, a category that was designed to recognise the organisations that "brought value" to transactions in a troubled market.

As such, IJ is delighted to announce the winner of the IJ Value Add Award is Dexia

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Dexia won the award for the role it played on getting a challenging deal - Belwind [IJ Renewables Deal of the Year 2009] - over the line in spite of the bank's capacities being hit by financial crisis and subsequent bailout.

On this deal, the Belwind sponsor went bankrupt during the negotiations of the financing, with the project being taken over by an administrator and sold to new investors before financial close could take place.

Dexia - in its role as financial adviser to the sponsor and MLA - pulled together the €500 million financing for the project in an environment where syndication was not an option.

In addition to sponsor and financing challenges [all deals had to overcome the latter] it was the first deal of its kind - limited-recourse offshore wind - for the EIB, thus requiring extra due diligence and validation at every step.

Each of the parties effectively held veto rights on every aspect of the transaction, which is all the more impressive when you look at the parties involved:

EIB
PMV - a semi-public body
EKF - the Danish ECA
five sponsors - Colruyt, SHV, Merwind, PMV, Rabo equity
three commercial banks
two contractors
the bankruptcy administrator
five law firms
Infrastructure Journal editor Angus Leslie Melville said: "Belwind is a deal that we have already singled out as an exceptional transaction for 2009. Dexia's role in getting this challenging deal to financial close was pivotal and this award recognises the role it played.

"In addition to a challenging financing climate, Dexia had to deal with a bankruptcy, introducing EIB to a completely new style of project and herding all parties through a maelstrom of ill fortune in a fledgling infrastructure sector - offshore wind."