Floating production company BW Offshore acquires floating wind company Ideol

BW Offshore will invest in Ideol and is expected to own circa 50% of the renamed BW Ideol after a capital raise and listing on the Euronext Growth market.

The company plans to complete a private placement and listing by the end of March 2021, with BW Offshore as anchor investor. BW Offshore is to invest €60M (US$73M) in BW Ideol.

The share acquisition and capital raise will be funded using BW Offshore’s existing liquidity reserves. Ideol management and employees are expected to own about 20% of the shares post listing.

BW Offshore and Ideol describe themselves as "highly complementary businesses"’ and together aim to create what they described as a "floating wind champion." They see deepwater wind energy as the key to unlocking effective renewable energy, and believe floating wind has "almost unlimited potential."

BW Offshore chief executive Marco Beenen said, “We see solid opportunities for developing offshore power production solutions to drive the energy transition at global scale.

“We are combining our four decades of offshore development, financing and operational experience with Ideol’s proven floating offshore wind technology and expertise. Together we are creating a champion in this emerging market with significant long-term growth and value creation potential.”

Ideol chief executive Paul Dupin de la Guérivière said, “Our established position in floater design and engineering, coupled with BW Offshore’s track-record of project development and deepwater expertise provides a strong platform for accelerated growth as a leader in floating wind technology and a developer of offshore renewable energy projects.”

Ideol will become a wholly owned subsidiary of BW Ideol, which the companies describe as "a fully integrated developer of large-scale floating offshore wind projects."

BW Offshore said BW Ideol “will have clear strategic targets” – growth as a technology and EPC services provider; expanding and maturing a significant portfolio of development projects; and becoming a long-term asset owner and operator.

Ideol has 60 employees, of which 90% are engineers. The company has installed two full-scale demonstrators based on Ideol’s patented Damping Pool floater design. The technology is proven with more than two years of operating experience. Ideol also has a sizeable project pipeline as co-developer in Japan, Europe and the US.

BW Offshore has 40 years of offshore energy production experience and has executed 40 floating production, storage and offloading and floating storage projects. It has a fleet of 10 such units and substantial offshore engineering, installation and operations capabilities.

The floating production company said it expects to strengthen Ideol’s development and execution capabilities, leveraging its extensive track record of offshore industrialisation projects. “A capital raise and listing are key enablers to realise an attractive project pipeline,” the company said.

As highlighted by OWJ in November 2020, BW Offshore also recently acquired a 20% stake in Oslo-listed turbine installation company Cadeler.