John Laing Group announces first investment in wind farm repowering project in Germany

UK's infrastructure developer John Laing Group plc has announced that it will invest approximately €45-50 million to acquire a 100% interest in the Klettwitz wind farm in Brandenburg Schipkau, Germany from Ventotec GmbH, the developer of the site.

John Laing said that the final value will be confirmed at financial close.

In addition to John Laing’s investment of €45-50m, the Klettwitz wind farm will be refinanced with new project finance. The acquisition remains conditional on securing satisfactory project financing and certain other conditions.

Total installed capacity is 89 MW from 27 wind turbines after repowering, replacing previous total installed capacity of 59 MW from 36 turbines at the legacy wind farm previously in operation at the site. The project benefits from a feed in tariff for up to 20 years.

Financial close is expected before 30 November 2015.

Olivier Brousse, Chief Executive Officer of John Laing, said:

“Our investment in Klettwitz takes John Laing into renewable energy in Germany for the first time and provides us with an attractive project. Investing in wind turbine repowering is an area where we believe there are likely to be further opportunities to capitalise on the major advances in wind turbine technology made in recent years. We remain on track to achieve our stated investment target for this year."