LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) has exchanged contracts to acquire a further 11% equity interest in the Merkur offshore wind farm in the German North Sea, it announced on Tuesday.
It said the incremental investment was about 2% of its portfolio value.

The FTSE 250 company said that on completion, it would hold a 36% equity interest in Merkur, with its total stake in the project set to represent around 6% of its portfolio by value.

"The stake is being acquired from funds managed by InfraRed," the board said in its statement.

"Accordingly, the transaction process included an independent third-party valuation, which supports the transaction price, and approval by TRIG's independent board of directors."

The project benefits from long-term protected cash flows through its feed-in tariff agreement.

It also increased the company's investments in the "attractive" Germany renewables market to 11% of portfolio value.

"The project is well-aligned with TRIG's portfolio construction approach of balancing subsidised and unsubsidised revenues and achieving a broad geographical spread across its selected European countries."

TRIG said the project consists of 66 GE Haliade-150 6MW offshore wind turbines, with GE Renewable Energy providing operations and maintenance services under a 10-year contract.

The repair and retrofit works associated with the Merkur rear frame defect first reported in June last year were now "substantially complete", and operating satisfactorily.

TRIG said the compensation due under the availability warranty for the year ended 31 March 2022 had been agreed with the turbine and operations and maintenance provider, with no financial impact on the carrying value for the project.

TRIG said it also acquired a 100% equity interest in Project Spennymoor, a battery storage development project which was planned to have a total capacity of 100MW and 200MWh when completed, from RES.

Project Spennymoor is in County Durham, close to a high voltage substation connection, and was "ideally located" to alleviate grid constraints and provide balancing services for the "significant" industrial cluster in the Humber region - one of six major industrial clusters in the UK.

TRIG said Project Spennymoor is in the late-stage development phase, with RES having secured planning permission, a grid connection offer and land lease options.

The project had secured a grid connection enabling a start to operations in 2031, with work underway to bring forward the grid connection date if possible.

Construction works would be timed to begin around a year before the connection date, when finalised.

Once operational, Project Spennymoor was expected to represent 2% of TRIG's portfolio by value.

The initial development investment is approximately 10% of the total anticipated investment.

"We are pleased to be further increasing TRIG's stake in Merkur, a project we know well," said chairman Richard Morse.

"Merkur is one of six offshore wind farms in the TRIG portfolio, and an asset which reinforces our position of investing in attractive renewable energy projects that contribute to energy security and decarbonisation efforts across Europe."

At 0858 GMT, shares in the Renewables Infrastructure Group were down 0.78% at 127.4p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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