KBC supports the Belgian offshore wind park Rentel as from an early stage of the project.

Rentel is a Belgian offshore wind park located 40 km north of Ostend. With a capacity of 309MW, Rentel is a landmark project for the Belgian Climate Plan and renewable energy sector. Once operational, Rentel will cover the electricity demand of on average 285.000 households. The project will consist of 42 Siemens wind turbines generators, each with a power capacity of 7.35MW, installed on monopile foundations supplied by DEME.

Rentel is being developed by Otary NV. Otary NV gathers eight Belgian companies, including DEME, Aspiravi, Elicio and Green Offshore, joining forces to become a strategic competence center in offshore wind. Otary NV participates in two out of three of the remaining Belgian concession areas in development, being Seastar (246 MW) and Mermaid (266 MW; 65% Otary and 35% Electrabel).

Rentel has reached financial close in October 2016 and had completed the installation of the foundations by end 2017. KBC supported Otary and Rentel at a much earlier stage of the project by providing letters of credit (LCs) to the benefit of Rentel’s main contractors and by providing other ancillary banking services. The successful cooperation between Project Finance and Business Center Antwerp resulted in mandates for KBC as account bank, LC issuing bank and global facility agent for the senior lender syndicate next to a substantial participation in the senior debt facilities as mandated lead arranger. By providing such credits, KBC continues to support the core activities of its clients and actively takes up its social responsibility.

“Offshore wind is a capital intensive and complex industry. Raising financing with banking partners that truly understand our business and that are committed to a better environment is a challenge and a key to success essential for the development of our projects. We were extremely glad to be able to count on the support of KBC throughout this journey and beyond." - Nathalie Oosterlinck, CEO of Rentel