Appetite for offshore wind investment has been underlined after developer Ørsted secured £900 million after issuing bonds to help finance its green ambition.
Hornsea Two – will be the principal benefactor – with a capacity of 1,386 MW of green energy to be brought onshore and connected to the National Grid on the South Humber Bank.
Three pots were launched, with the first to mature – for £350 million with a 2027 date – more than 3.3 times oversubscribed by the company, which has seen its market capitalisation increase from £11 billion to £26.5 billion in the past three years since flotation.
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All are being listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, with a second for £300 million expiring in 2033, again oversubscribed (1.6x), and a third for £250 maturing in 2034 also fully taken up (1.2x).
They have inflation-linked tranches, and all are settled.
The first two have fixed levels of return at 2.125 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively, with the third at 0.375 per cent and also Consumer Price Index-linked.
A spokesperson said: “Ørsted has secured nominal £900 million through the issuance of green senior bonds, to finance its green growth ambition towards 2025 including the investment in the offshore wind farm Hornsea Two in the United Kingdom with a capacity of 1,386 MW.
“The information in this announcement does not change Ørsted’s financial guidance for the financial year 2019 or the announced expected investment level for 2019.”
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It comes as the Danish world leader completes a share buy-back programme, having launched on Nasdaq Copenhagen three years ago.
It bought a maximum 191,000 shares (0.05 per cent of the entire share capital), and now holds 396,270 - 0.09 per cent of the total issued - for DKK 107.1 million (£12.6 million).
The past three years have seen Ørsted pay dividends of 6, 9 and 9.75 per cent.
The company is also celebrating full use of its name. The Copenhagen Maritime and Commercial Court has ruled what was Dong Energy can use the name.
Action was brought by seven bearers of the Ørsted name, with it being a nod to a famous Danish inventor who worked in discoveries that it now feeds in to.
Chief executive Henrik Poulsen said: “We’re very pleased that the judgment of the Copenhagen Maritime and Commercial Court upholds our claim that we have the right to use the Ørsted name. Our use of the name is a tribute to Hans Christian Ørsted, one of the greatest Danish scientists of all time. He discovered electromagnetism nearly 200 years ago and thus laid the foundation for how we produce electricity today.”
Ørsted collaborates with the Danish society HC Ørsted Selskabet and the Danish Society for the Dissemination of Natural Science, which was founded by Hans Christian Ørsted, to increase awareness of his groundbreaking discoveries.