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EU Commission Approves Vestas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Offshore Wind Transaction

Aarhus, Denmark - Recently Vestas Wind Systems A/S (Vestas) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) announced an agreement to expand their partnership in offshore wind energy. The transaction between Vestas and MHI was subject to regulatory approvals by the competition authorities.

At the End of November (2020-11-27) the two companies received the official approval of the transaction from the European Commission.

The strengthened partnership entails that Vestas will acquire MHI’s shares in the MHI Vestas Offshore Wind (MVOW) joint venture, and MHI will acquire 2.5 percent in Vestas and be nominated to a seat in Vestas’ Board of Directors.

Henrik Andersen, President and CEO of Vestas, was pleased with the approval of the transaction. Vestas is now one step further in welcoming offshore business back into the Vestas family. “I’m personally very encouraged by the many dialogues I’ve had with both Vestas and MHI Vestas Offshore Wind colleagues as well as our customers and partners since we announced the strengthened partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It’s clear that everyone is excited about our bold step together towards accelerating the energy transition”, Andersen continued.

Since the announcement, planning of integration of MVOW into the Vestas group has been initiated, focusing on smooth integration of employees and systems and realising synergies in sales, technology, manufacturing footprint and procurement to sustain customer relationships, lower costs and build a strong shared Vestas culture. Following closing of the transaction, full planning of the integration will commence.

Final closing of the transaction is expected to take place before year end. Until closing, Vestas and MVOW will continue to execute as two independent companies, with just a small number of Vestas employees engaged in planning the future integration of the two companies. The closing of the acquisition will not affect Vestas’ full-year guidance for 2020.



Source: IWR Online, Dec 12 2020