British Gayton le Marsh wind farm is sold to investor

Energiekontor AG has sold the Gayton le Marsh wind farm (16.4 MW) to a British investor, thus taking an important step towards achieving the forecast annual target for 2016. The wind farm is located about ten kilometres from the east coast of England in the county of Lincolnshire. The site consists of eight wind turbines with 2.05 MW each that were fully commissioned at the beginning of 2016. The proceeds from the sale are to be used to prematurely repay existing loans for Group-owned wind farms.

Peter Szabo, CEO of Energiekontor AG, remarks: “The sale of the previously Group-owned Gayton le Marsh wind farm was a strategic decision in order to accelerate the deleveraging of the Company wind farms and thus improve the Group’s equity ratio. Even though this will temporarily reduce the overall capacity of Group-operated wind farms, management still adheres to its objective to include a significant part of developed projects into the Group’s own portfolio and, hence, to expand the number of wind farms and solar parks owned and managed by the Group. However, it is not the total output in absolute terms, i.e. megawatts, that is decisive; the crucial factor is the segment result (EBT) in the Power Generation in Group-owned Wind Farms and the Operation Development, Innovation and Others segments. Here, we are still striving to double EBT in the medium term compared to the figure achieved in 2015.”

With regard to the annual results he adds: “Moreover, the sale of Gayton le Marsh contributes substantially to reaching our annual target for 2016. We assume that the repowering projects that are in the final stages of construction will also be completed by the end of December and that we will thus reach our full-year target for 2016 as forecast.”