Rabobank and Dexia Crédit Local (Dexia) as Mandated Lead Arrangers, and Eksport Kredit Fonden (EKF), as export credit agency, have closed on 25 October 2006 the financing for the construction and operation of the Q7 wind farm.
Q7 a 120MW offshore wind park, comprising 60 Vestas V-80 wind turbine generators, located off the Dutch coast near IJmuiden. The project, owned and developed by group companies of ENECO Holding N.V. (ENECO), Econcern BV (Econcern) and Energy Investment Holdings (EIH), is built by Vestas Wind Systems A/S (Vestas) and Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors B.V (Van Oord) under separate construction contracts, and will initially be operated by Vestas Offshore, an affiliate of Vestas, under a 5-year warranty, operations and maintenance contract. Construction started this summer and is expected to be completed by 1 March 2008, for a total investment cost of € 383 million. The financing includes € 219 million, 11-year, non recourse long terms facilities and € 160 million short term construction facilities. The long term facilities are fully underwritten by the Mandated Lead Arrangers and EKF, which guarantees € 68 million to support the export of Vestas equipment from Denmark. Rabobank is the Hedging Bank, Security Agent and Facility Agent for the transaction. Dexia and Rabobank provide the construction facilities. Syndication of the long term facilities to a small number of additional banks is expected before year-end.