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GIB takes 20 per cent stake in Sherringham offshore windfarm for £240m

The Green Investment Bank (GIB) will take a 20 per cent stake in the Sherringham Shoal offshore windfarm for £240 million, it said on Thursday.

The GIB said it will buy the stake in project owner Scira Offshore Energy from joint-investors Statkraft and Statoil before transferring the acquisition to its proposed GIB Operating Offshore Wind Fund as a seed asset, it said.

“This is an important investment for the UK offshore wind sector in two respects,” said GIB chief executive Shaun Kingsbury in a statement.

“Firstly, it allows two strategically important investors, Statkraft and Statoil, to take part of their investment in an operating project and reinvest it in other projects.

Secondly, we intend, in time, to transfer the asset to our proposed Operating Offshore Wind Fund, which is intended to attract new investors and new capital to the UK,” he said.

Statoil and Statkraft both agreed that the deal would allow them to realize value from the operational project to enable “further investments in project development”.

“It also demonstrates that investments in the UK renewable business are attractive,” Statoil’s senior vice president for renewable energy Siri Espedal Kindem added.

The 317MW offshore wind project has been operating for two years off the Norfolk coast and generates over 1.1 TWh of net renewable electricity annually.