Project financing for offshore wind farm EnBW Baltic 1 structured and completed

Frankfurt am Main (ots) -

- Mandated lead arrangers: EIB, KfW IPEX-Bank, LBBW and NIBC Bank
N.V.
- Debt capital financing amounting to EUR 138 million
- Renewable power from the Baltic Sea for 50,000 households

Already since May 2011 the wind farm EnBW Baltic 1 has been
delivering green power from the Baltic Sea - since Friday its
long-term financing is also in place: a banking syndicate comprised
of the European Investment Bank (EIB), KfW IPEX-Bank, Landesbank
Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) and NIBC Bank N.V. will extend a loan
amounting to EUR 138 million to the joint project company EnBW Baltic
1 GmbH & Co. KG from EnBW and 19 municipal utilities. The long-term
project financing replaces a prefinancing.

The total investment costs for Germany's first commercial offshore
wind farm amount to about EUR 200 million. The EIB, KfW IPEX-Bank,
LBBW and NIBC Bank N.V. - for the financing all in the function of
mandated lead arrangers - are now providing the debt capital
financing via long-term loans. In this regard, the loan already
committed by the EIB in March amounting to EUR 80 million will be
incorporated into the structured finance and partly guaranteed by the
commercial banks. In addition, KfW IPEX-Bank, LBBW and NIBC Bank N.V.
are providing a loan amounting to EUR 58 million. In this
transaction, KfW IPEX-Bank functions as documentation agent as well
as technical and modelling bank. LBBW will take on the role as
facility and security agent. NIBC Bank N.V. acts as insurance bank.

According to Dr Matthias Kollatz-Ahnen, Vice President of the
European Investment Bank, the project EnBW Baltic 1 provides a strong
signal for the further development of the offshore wind sector in
Germany. "The EIB finances offshore wind power in a targeted manner
in order to speed up technological maturity. This in turn will enable
broader participation of investors in future projects."

Markus Scheer, member of the Management Board of KfW IPEX-Bank,
highlighted the wind farm EnBW Baltic 1 as an important step for
German climate protection efforts: "Ambitious projects such as EnBW
Baltic 1 give the energy turnaround its face. KfW IPEX-Bank is making
its contribution to realising this by supporting such renewable
energy projects through long-term structured financings." "The
challenges on the path to achieving a CO2 neutral energy supply
system are enormous. So we are all the more pleased that with EnBW
Baltic 1 our customer EnBW was able to realise its first offshore
wind farm in the Baltic Sea so successfully", said Andreas Sahl, Head
of Large Corporates at LBBW. And Matthias Meyer, head of
Infrastructure & Renewables Frankfurt at NIBC Bank N.V. adds: "Baltic
1 exemplifies, that well structured projects can also be financed in
difficult times."

EnBW 1 is operated by EnBW Erneuerbare Energien GmbH, a subsidiary
of the power supply company EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG. Since
August 2011, 19 municipal utilities primarily from Baden-Württemberg
are participating with a total of 49.7 per cent in EnBW Baltic 1
through a holding company. The now concluded project financing
completes the last important step of the participation model between
EnBW and the municipal partners.

"We are pleased with the confidence of the capital market, which
confirms the technical and economic quality of our project. The
conclusion of the agreement with this group of distinguished
financing partners is an important milestone, also for the financing
of our forthcoming offshore wind projects," commented Stefan Thiele,
Spokesman for the Managing Board of EnBW Erneuerbare Energien GmbH.

The offshore wind farm lies 16 km off the coast of
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, north of the peninsula Darß/Zingst in
the German 12 nautical-mile zone of the German Baltic Sea. Spread
over an area of about seven square kilometres, 21 Siemens wind
turbines generate a peak capacity of 48.3 megawatts. The energy
produced at sea nets about 185 gigawatt hours annually and is fed
into the public power grid. This can meet the demand for the
equivalent of 50,000 households.

About the KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH

KfW IPEX-Bank is responsible for international project and export
finance within KfW Bankengruppe. Its function of providing financing
in support of the German and European economy is derived from the
legal mandate of KfW Bankengruppe. The focus of its business lies on
the provision of medium and long-term financing to support key
industries in the export economy, on the development of economic and
social infrastructure and on the financing of environmental and
climate protection. It operates as a legally independent group
subsidiary and is represented in the most important economic and
financial centres around the world.

About the EIB

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending
institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It
makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to
contribute towards EU policy goals.

About LBBW

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) is both a commercial bank and
the central bank of the savings banks in Baden-Württemberg, Saxony
and Rhineland-Palatinate. With total assets of EUR 387 billion and
around 12,400 employees (as of 30 Sep. 2011), LBBW is one of the
largest banks in Germany, and in its core market Baden-Württemberg it
is by far the most important one. Its core activities are the private
customer business and the business with corporate customers, in
particular small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as savings
banks. A further focus is placed on real-estate financing as well as
the customer-oriented capital market business with banks, savings
banks and institutional investors. Together with its regional
customer banks Baden-Württembergische Bank (BW-Bank), Rheinland-Pfalz
Bank and Sachsen Bank, LBBW services more than one million private
customers and 25,000 corporate customers in more than 200 branch
offices.

About NIBC Bank

NIBC was founded in 1945 in order to support the reconstruction of
the Netherlands after the second world war. Today the bank
successfully offers its clients a broad range of services through its
divisions Merchant Banking and Specialized Finance. Merchant Banking
offers a combination of advice, financing and co-investment in the
Benelux and Germany. Specialised Finance has an international sector
focus and operates in shipping & intermodal, oil & gas services,
infrastructure & renewables and real estate. The bank also offers
residential mortgages and online retail saving deposits via NIBC
Direct in the Netherlands and Germany. NIBC has offices in The Hague,
Brussels, Frankfurt, London and Singapore.

About EnBW

With some six million customers and more than 20,000 employees,
EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG generated annual revenue in excess
of EUR 17 billion in 2010. As the third-largest energy company in
Germany, we focus on the electricity business - in the generation and
trading segment and the grid and sales segment - and the gas as well
as energy and environmental services business. We are committed to
Baden-Württemberg and Germany as locations and these are the focal
points of our activities. We also operate in other European markets.

Press contact EIB

Eva Henkel
Press Officer
European Investment Bank
100, Boulevard Konrad Adenauer
L-2950 Luxembourg
T.: +352 4379 82147
F.: +352 4379 61000
email: e.henkel@eib.org
www.eib.org

Press contact LBBW

Bernd Wagner
Press Officer
Landesbank Baden-Württemberg
Am Hauptbahnhof 2
D-70173 Stuttgart
T.: +49 711 127-76402
F.: +49 711 127-79122
email: Bernd.A.Wagner@LBBW.de
www.LBBW.de

Press contact NIBC

Koen van Zijl
Corporate Communications
NIBC Bank N.V.
Carnegieplein 4
2517 KJ Den Haag
T.: +31 70 342-5625
email: koen.van.zijl@nibc.com
www.nibc.com

Press contact EnBW

EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG
Corporate Communications
Durlacher Allee 93
76131 Karlsruhe
T.: +49 7 21 63-14320
F.: +49 7 21 63-12672
Email: Presse@enbw.com
www.enbw.com

Contact:
KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH, Palmengartenstraße 5-9, 60325 Frankfurt
Pressestelle: E-Mail: thomas.krick@kfw.de
Tel. 069 7431-8454, Fax: 069 7431-9409, E-Mail:
info@kfw-ipex-bank.de,
Internet: www.kfw-ipex-bank.de