Vestas Wind Systems A/S (Vestas) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) have agreed to form a joint venture (JV) dedicated to offshore wind energy. The JV will combine Vestas’ and MHI’s current capabilities within offshore wind turbines.
Vestas will transfer the development of the V164-8.0MW, the V112 offshore order book, existing offshore service contracts and approximatly 300 employees to the JV. MHI will inject € 100 million in cash into the JV and will inject another € 200 million based on certain milestone achievements reflecting the natural early product life cycle of the V164 turbine. As part of the JV it has been agreed between the parties that Vestas is contracted by the JV to finalise the planned development of the V164-8.0MW on behalf of the JV. In addition, Vestas and MHI will provide various services to the JV. The JV will start its business with the current V112 offshore and the V164-8.0MW turbines. At a later stage, the JV will explore the possibilities of integrating the MHI hydraulic DDT technology into the 8MW platform. The head office of the JV will be located in Aarhus, Denmark, from where the company will handle all aspects from design, further development, procurement and manufacturing related to the V164-8.0MW turbine as well as all marketing, sales and after-sales service related to offshore wind. Vestas will continue to manufacture and supply the V112 turbines which the JV will offer for offshore projects. Masafumi Wani will become Chairman of the Board of Directors (Executive Senior Vice President and Head of Power Systems of MHI), Anders Runevad Vice Chairman (Group President & CEO of Vestas) and Jens Tommerup CEO of the JV (currently President of Vestas Asia Pacific & China). Equity ownership ratios will be 50 per cent for each of MHI and Vestas with an option for MHI to change the ownership ratio to 51 per cent for MHI and 49 per cent for Vestas in April 2016. The transaction is expected to take place around the end of March 2014.