Norway's sovereign fund, which is the largest in the world, announced on Monday that it had acquired from RWE a 49 percent stake in two offshore turbine farms currently under construction in Denmark, Germany, and Sweden for 1.4 billion euro ($1.5 billion).

Norges Bank Investment Management is expected to complete the purchase of RWE's Nordseecluster wind project and Thor by the end of the third quarter. This leaves Germany's largest utility responsible for construction and operation.

RWE stated in a separate press release that both projects are expected to produce enough electricity for more than 2.6 millions households in Germany or Denmark.

Bernstein analysts noted that the deal reduced RWE's net cash investment share in projects by approximately 4 billion euros, resulting in a gain of around 150 million. They also said it was a premium of 12% over capex already spent.

They wrote: "Today's announcement of the farm-down is a significant step in reducing RWE’s net capex, as announced with FY24 results. It also de-risks further capex risk on these projects." "However RWE retains the market-price-risk on these projects for the first fifteen years ..."

RWE announced earlier this month that it would reduce its investment program that runs through 2030 by 10 billion euro, or more. The company said that the conditions in renewable energy had made it harder to meet its return targets. $1 = 0.9235 Euros (Reporting and Editing by Rachel More, David Evans and Stine Jacobsen)

(source: Reuters)