Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised EWE AG (“EWE“) on all legal and tax matters for the joint venture development of the German offshore wind farm Borkum West II – 2nd phase. The joint venture partners of EWE are Trianel GmbH, as well as 22 public utility companies of the Trianel group. WFW has advised on all joint venture and company agreements, as well as the project development agreements, due diligence and structuring of the project.
In conjunction to the founding of the joint venture (and the future project company Trianel Windkraft Borkum II GmbH & Co. KG), WFW also advised EWE on the infrastructure agreements between the phase 1 operating company and the phase 2 project company regarding the joint use of infrastructure facilities.
EWE, located in Oldenburg, is an innovative regional service provider in the energy, telecommunications and information technology sector. The company develops and operates intelligent energy systems and designs individual energy supply solutions for its private and business clients providing them with innovative products, paying special attention to sustainability, efficiency and reliability. With more than 9,000 employees and revenue of more than €8 billion, EWE is one of the largest energy providers in Germany. The majority of shares in EWE lie in the hands of municipalities. EWE delivers energy to approx. 1.3 million customers in the north-west of Germany, Brandenburg and the island of Rügen as well as internationally to Poland and Turkey. In addition it supplies approximately 7.7 million clients with gas and 700,000 clients with telecommunication services, resulting in EWE and its group companies operating more than 200,000 km of energy and telecommunication networks.
The WFW project team was led by Hamburg-based partner Dr. Marcus Bechtel (Corporate/M&A), supported by partners Stefan Hoffmann (Corporate/Projektverträge), Gerrit Bartsch (Tax), Dr. Christine Bader (Regulatory/Antitrust) and Sven Fretthold (Finance). Senior associate Tanja Mado (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg) and associates Carolin Woggon (Corporate, Hamburg), Dr. Manuel Rolfes (Corporate, Hamburg), Daniel Hiemer (Tax, München), Dr. Gabriel Baumstark (Regulatory, Hamburg), Alexander Schroer (Real Estate, Hamburg), Dr. Malte Koch (Corporate, Hamburg) and Thomas Rieck (Corporate, Hamburg) also advised.
WFW lead partner, Dr. Marcus Bechtel commented: “We are delighted to have advised EWE on this challenging transaction, which is our first mandate for EWE. The deal emphasises our prominent position as advisor in the offshore wind sector as well as in complex energy-related M&A and joint venture transactions. This project fits in seamlessly with our previous offshore projects, in which we have advised both banks and investors; most recently we have advised the banking consortium on the financing of the Offshore Wind project “Veja Mate”.”
Dr. Jörg Buddenberg (EWE ERNEUERBARE ENERGIEN GmbH, CEO), and Sibylle Eck (corporate development) led EWE on the project. Lawyers Lasse Böhrnsen and Peter Schultz (deputy head of legal) acted as in-house counsel on the project and Dr. Manfred Klostermann advised as in-house tax counsel.
Mr. Michael Erler (Offshore Management GmbH) advised EWE on the project regarding strategic and financial aspects.
