Christofferson Robb hedge fund to sell Thanet windfarm in Kent

Danny Fortson

THE Christofferson Robb hedge fund is in talks to sell one of Britain’s largest proposed offshore wind farms less than a year after it bought the project.
Utilities and financial buyers have bid for the £800m Thanet wind farm, off the coast of Margate in Kent, after its owner began negotiations with potential partners about the building and financing of the project. The 300MW site is expected to begin operation next year and will provide power for up to 240,000 homes, increasing the UK’s total offshore wind power capacity by 30%.
“We need a lot of debt and equity to finance this and in the course of those discussions parties have said they would like to buy it all,” said Mark Petterson of Warwick Energy, the site developer. Christofferson Robb declined to comment.
The developers have increased the value of the project in the past year, gaining planning consent, debt commitments and a connection slot to the national grid. The hedge fund paid £47m for the site last year but is expected to pocket as much as £80m if it sells.

Due to the soaring price of building offshore wind farms, construction is expected to cost up to £800m, a level beyond the means or expertise of either Warwick or Christofferson Robb. “These assets get traded preconstruction because developers just don’t have the means necessary to actually build them,” said Mortimer Menzel, a partner at Augusta & Co. “Whoever buys it is basically buying the right to build it.”
The talks come at a busy time for the industry. The Crown Estate is preparing for the auction of 11 offshore wind-farm sites.
Expressions of interest are due by the end of this month.