Macquarie Acquisition of German Offshore Wind Approved

The European Commission has approved the acquisition of Ocean Breeze Energy GmbH & Co. KG by Sage Holdings, ultimately indirectly controlled by Macquarie Group Limited.

Ocean Breeze Energy is the owner of North Sea wind farm BARD Offshore 1, from Unicredit. The 400MW offshore wind farm is positioned 100 kilometres off the coast of northwestern Germany.

Under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns as the companies are not active on the same or vertically related markets, announced European Commission.

Comprised of 80 5MW wind turbines spread over 59 square kilometres, the project harnesses powerful North Sea winds to supply the equivalent of approximately 463,000 households with clean electricity each year.

BARD Offshore 1 was Germany’s first commercial scale offshore wind farm when it entered operation in 2013. Following its initial years of operation, the project was named Germany’s most productive offshore wind farm.