HSH Nordbank plans to expand its renewable energy business in 2013

More than 30 transactions in the deal pipeline

Hamburg/Kiel, April 4, 2013 - As HSH Nordbank's renewable energy business performed better than expected last year, the Bank would like to follow up on these successes in 2013 and expand the business further.

HSH Nordbank is now one of the leading German providers of finance in this segment. “Last year we financed more than 20 new projects. New business last year amounted to around EUR 800 million, which is better than we had expected,” said Patrick Miljes, Head of the Project Finance department.

The pipeline is already well filled with new projects For the current financial year. “At the moment we are handling more than 30 deals, of which 10 alone are wind projects in Ger-many and 15 in France (wind and solar),” said Lars Quandel, Head of Renewable Energy at HSH Nordbank. He added that for fiscal 2013 HSH Nordbank forecasts new business amounting to around EUR 800 million, which would put it at the same high level as last year. All told, this comes to a net increase in the size of the portfolio.

Four transactions were concluded, two of them in Germany in the first three months of the year. Apart from the offshore wind farm “Butendiek” in the North Sea and the Teutleben wind farm, these involved two solar projects in France, Solstice and Ortaffa. HSH Nordbank’s latest German project, the Teutleben wind farm in Thuringia, has a total capacity of 15 megawatts with five new V112s from Vestas. “This finance with a volume of EUR 28 million showed once again that clients appreciate our many years of expertise,” says Lars Quandel as HSH Nordbank was able to asset itself against several competitors. After all, the Bank has been active in the renewable energy segment for more than 25 years, making it one of the pioneers in the sector.

HSH Nordbank will also continue to focus on the proven areas of business, wind (70 %) and solar (30 %). However, the Bank is also open to the exploitation of new sub-markets such as hydroelectricity and geothermal energy. Whereas in Germany the Bank funds mainly wind energy projects, in France finance is split approximately equally between wind and solar farms. The Bank is also active in North Italy, Belgium and Holland as well as increasingly in the UK, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. The portfolio currently comprises more than 180 projects with a total volume of more than three billion euros.

HSH Nordbank is optimistic about the further development of wind energy in Germany. “In spite of the sluggish expansion of the offshore sector, Germany is quite able to maintain its leading position in the European wind market ranking,” says Head of Renewable Energy Lars Quandel. Although the German government’s expansion targets for offshore wind farms (to 13 GW in the North Sea and Baltic Sea by 2022) can no longer be met, in the onshore segment more than 30 GW have already been installed (German government’s target: 45 GW by 2020). He added that the federal states in both South and North Germany were developing further areas for the production of wind energy. Additional growth from repowering is possible particularly in the North of the country, where many turbines are more than 10 years old.