Cape Wind taps French, Dutch lenders to finance project

FRENCH LENDER Natixis and Dutch lender Rabobank have joined the Cape Wind project as lead arrangers and will contribute more than $1 billion to the project. Both companies have experience financing offshore wind projects in Europe.
FRENCH LENDER Natixis and Dutch lender Rabobank have joined the Cape Wind project as lead arrangers and will contribute more than $1 billion to the project. Both companies have experience financing offshore wind projects in Europe.

BOSTON – Cape Wind and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. have brought on Natixis and Rabobank to lead senior debt financing and contribute more than $1 billion to the wind farm project, the renewable energy developer announced Wednesday.

Natixis – a subsidiary of Groupe BPCE, the second largest banking group in France – has helped finance offshore wind projects in the Netherlands and Germany. Rabobank, a Netherlands-based global financial services provider, is a leading financier in the North American and European renewable energy sector and has financed offshore wind projects in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Ted Roosevelt IV, managing director for Cape Wind financial adviser Barclays, said the decision to add Natixis and Rabobank as the project’s lead arrangers represented a major financing milestone toward the Cape Wind project construction.

“We are pleased that Natixis and Rabobank will join us in this landmark transaction,” said Takaki Sakai, project finance director for BTMU. “Further, there is considerable interest in Cape Wind among other commercial banks active in project financing, and we expect to complete the commercial bank syndication in the near future.”

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Construction on the Cape Wind onshore cable route will begin by the end of this year, following financial closing. Ocean construction is slated to begin in 2015, and Cape Wind expects to start commercial operations in late summer 2016.

“New England urgently needs the jobs and clean energy that Cape Wind will produce,” said Cape Wind President Jim Gordon. “We are pleased that these experienced offshore wind lenders are supporting our efforts to diversify our region’s energy mix and helping to launch the U.S. offshore wind industry.”

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