Troubled on and offshore wind turbine manufacturer Senvion has entered into a non-binding exclusivity agreement with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy for the sale of selected services and onshore assets
The envisaged transaction includes the sale of selected services and onshore assets in Europe, but not Senvion’s offshore assets.
A creditors committee unanimously approved entering into the agreement with Siemens Gamesa. Approval of insolvency plans by a creditors’ assembly on 11 September enabled the transaction to be contemplated.
Senvion said the parties “are now entering final negotiations” and if final agreements are reached, expect the necessary decisions will be taken by the end of September.
Senvion chief executive Yves Rannou said, “This announcement means we are close to finding a safe harbour for a significant part of the business and substantial parts of its employee base. In these difficult circumstances, this is positive news. Looking ahead to the weeks to come, the management team will continue to put all efforts behind finding the best solutions possible for the rest of the business.”
In April 2019, Senvion filed a ‘self-administered restructuring plan’ and said it was discussing a financing offer with its main shareholder, lenders and bond holders.
The company Senvion is a manufacturer of onshore and offshore wind turbines and develops, produces and markets wind turbines with rated outputs of 2 MW to 6.33 MW but has a comparatively small share of the offshore market compared with Siemens Gamesa and MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, which have their own well established large offshore turbines.
GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X 12 MW turbine is due to start trials later this year in Rotterdam and is expected to be ready for commercialisation in 2021.
Senvion has been developing a large, circa 12-MW offshore turbine, but this is not yet ready to enter commercialisation. The next-generation offshore wind turbine is being developed by the company and partners under the ReaLCoE project and is said to have the potential to be capable of 14-16 MW.
It is not clear whether the technology or intellectual property associated with the ReaLCOE project could form part of any other disposal by Senvion as it is broken up.
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