Norwegian oil giant Equinor has built a 9.8% stake in Danish utility Orsted, making it the second-largest shareholder. Equinor acquired the shares over time via combination of market purchases and a block trade.
The market value of the holding is around US$2.5bn based on Friday’s close of DKr418 (€56) per share. Equinor intends to increase its ownership to 10%. “This is a counter-cyclical investment in a leading developer, and a premium portfolio of operating offshore wind assets,” said Equinor CEO, Anders Opedal. “The exposure to producing assets complements Equinor’s operated offshore wind portfolio of large projects under development.” Orsted has net renewables generation capacity of 10.4GW and a portfolio of 7GW of projects in execution. It aims to reach 35GW to 38GW by 2030.
