Milestone on the way to the realization of the offshore windproject Merkur Offshore

The Merkur Offshore wind farm will be one of Germany's largest wind farms utilizing 66 state of the art Haliade 150-6MW offshore turbines from GE, installed by GeoSea, member of the DEME Group.

Several major tasks had to be tackled successfully since ONP's assignment in early 2015.

After re-structuring the project team and seconding experienced offshore wind experts, a re-arrangement of the group of investors and developers took place.

This resulted in the commitment of close to EUR 500 million in equity by a consortium of five sponsors, comprising of:

• Partners Group
• InfraRed Capital Partners
• DEME Concessions Wind
• GE Energy Financial Services
• L’Agence de l’environnement et de la maîtrise de l’énergie (ADEME).

The achieved commitment of approximately EUR 1.2 billion of senior secured debt to the project by a group of nine leading international and local banks, marks the latest step for a total capital investment of ca. EUR 1.7 billion into the development of Offshore Wind in Germany.

Mr. Martin Rahtge, Managing Partner of ONP, said: "ONP is very proud to have contributed to this milestone with its staff of engineers over the last 1.5 years. To have finally reached this milestone is a great success for the complete project team and all parties involved. After having accompanied and fostered the projects development over a long time, it is a satisfying proof, that with enthusiasm and commitment to Offshore Wind, we can achieve the transition to clean energy production which is bankable, payable and creates a solid heritage for generations to come."

ONP is part of the Zech Group, with its headquarters in Hamburg. The company was founded in 2014 and is delivering technical advisory and consulting services for Offshore Wind projects. ONP has more than 35 employees, who have been involved throughout their professional career in the development and installation of more than 4.500 MW of offshore wind power. Its senior experts have more than 12 years of individual practical experience in the area of project development and realization of such projects.

Mr. Arjen Schampers, project director of Merkur Offshore, added: ONP Management and its experienced and devoted staff have been a great asset for the project team in the successful technical development of Merkur Offshore. The main tasks such as handling time critical major design changes, negotiation and finalization of major contracts for Balance of Plant and Wind turbines, as well as the development of a detailed project plan where performed to our full satisfaction. We are looking forward to continuing the excellent cooperation with ONP Management in the further development of Merkur Offshore and we can highly recommend ONP Management.