North Star wins £275m finance deal to expand offshore wind fleet

The Aberdeen-based offshore infrastructure specialist said the financing will pay for existing shipbuilding commitments while creating headroom for additional vessel acquisitions and newbuild programmes as demand for long-term offshore wind support continues to grow across Europe.

The refinancing follows North Star’s purchase of the SOVs Goelo Enabler, Boreas Enabler, Nordri Enabler and Sudri Enabler from Norway’s Edda Wind earlier this year. Unlike speculative newbuild orders, the vessels entered the fleet with long-term charters already secured on major offshore wind projects, immediately increasing North Star’s operational capacity and strengthening its contracted revenue base.

The four ships are among the most capable vessels operating in the offshore wind market. Designed to remain on station for weeks at a time, they provide accommodation for technicians together with workshops, spare parts storage and motion-compensated gangways that allow safe transfers to offshore turbines in harsh North Sea conditions. As turbines move further offshore and increase in size, demand for these highly specialised vessels has grown sharply, making modern SOVs one of the maritime sector’s most sought-after asset classes.

Fleet and financing

The acquisition has increased North Star’s offshore wind fleet to 14 SOVs, with four more vessels currently under construction, taking the company another step towards its long-term ambition of operating 40 SOVs by 2040.

Since entering the offshore wind market in 2021, the company has invested more than £750 million (€875.5 million) in the fleet, securing contracts with major developers including Dogger Bank, RWE, EnBW and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.

The new financing broadens North Star’s lending group, with Rabobank, KfW IPEX-Bank and LBBW joining existing lenders RBS, AIB, the Scottish National Investment Bank and RBC. The package is structured in both sterling and euros to reflect the company’s growing operations across the UK and continental Europe.

Chief financial officer Fraser Dobbie said the transaction reflected the company’s increasing scale and strengthened balance sheet, while giving customers confidence that North Star could continue delivering vessels committed during competitive tender processes.

“This deal reflects the scale we’ve built and the path we are on,” he said. “As the business has grown, so too has our ability to attract new lenders and secure better pricing and terms, a dynamic that keeps reinforcing itself. Rabobank, LBBW and KfW IPEX-Bank are exactly the calibre of new partner we want, alongside the banks and institutions that have backed us for years.

“For our clients, this package means further certainty on our ability to deliver the vessels we commit to during the tendering process, which matters more as competition for offshore wind contracts intensifies. Confidence in our balance sheet is now as much a part of our story as our reputation for high-performance SOVs and experienced crews.”