Sandbrook, a private investment firm dedicated to building businesses crucial to transforming the world’s energy infrastructure, alongside co-investors PSP Investments and the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO), announced they have signed an agreement to acquire NeXtWind, a German renewable energy company specializing in acquiring and repowering onshore wind farms, from a syndicate led by Crestline Investors (“Crestline”), an investment management firm head-quartered in Fort Worth, Texas.
As part of the transaction, Sandbrook, PSP Investments and IMCO will commit up to €685 million of equity capital to NeXtWind to acquire its existing portfolio of operating wind assets and to fund future growth.
Ewald Woste, Co-Founder of NeXtWind, said: “We have been focused on the repowering opportunity in Germany for over 6 years now. With this newly announced acquisition and partnership, we have the capital to match our business development and operational expertise and grow the amount of renewable energy produced from older wind sites, helping the energy transition and also increasing Germany’s energy security.”
Founded in 2020, NeXtWind’s management team, led by its founders Ewald Woste, Werner Süss and Lars Meyer, have decades of experience in the German power market, having worked as executives and board members at companies such as E.ON, Vattenfall and STEAG. Following the transaction and with a significantly strengthened balance sheet, NeXtWind will be well positioned to execute on its strategy of acquiring and repowering German wind assets and becoming a leading renewable energy company in Germany and beyond. Germany is the largest onshore wind market in Europe with ~58GW of installed capacity at the end of 2022. Approximately 30% of this capacity (~13,000 turbines) has been in service for more than 15 years, presenting a large addressable market of older turbines that will need to be repowered.1
Ken Ryan, Sandbrook co-founder and partner, said: “We are thrilled to partner with the NeXtWind management team as well as PSP Investments and IMCO to grow this platform in Germany. We have been looking to enter this space for several years and are confident we have the right team and capital base to become a leading player in the German renewables market.”
Patrick Samson, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Real Assets Investments at PSP Investments, added: “Onshore wind repowering represents an important lever in enabling Germany’s energy transition. We are proud to join forces with NeXtWind’s highly experienced team to deliver on their repowering strategy and to reinforce our commitment to using capital and influence to support the transition to global net-zero emissions by 2050.”
“We are delighted to partner with NeXtWind and co-investors to support NeXtWind’s mission to rejuvenate Germany’s renewable energy asset base. This is IMCO’s first investment in the German wind energy sector, and demonstrates our commitment to boost renewable energy production and enable the global energy transition, in alignment with IMCO’s Climate Action Plan,” said Matthew Mendes, Managing Director, Head of Infrastructure at IMCO.
