But why did Vattenfall do this transaction? Vattenfall is a giant company with a giant balance sheet and excellent access to the debt markets. The project is already completed so they don't need a PPA to secure bank lending, even if it were financed on a project basis.
Couldn't they just have absorbed the price risk, without feeling the need to sell off half the project cheaply just to get a fixed price for the output? If worst comes to worst, Vattenfall has an immensely strong owner with a AAA credit rating, which means a rights issue to inject new equity would be no economic problem at all, even if it might be politically (and legally? EU state support rules?) fraught.
This might be a stupid question.
But why did Vattenfall do this transaction? Vattenfall is a giant company with a giant balance sheet and excellent access to the debt markets. The project is already completed so they don't need a PPA to secure bank lending, even if it were financed on a project basis.
Couldn't they just have absorbed the price risk, without feeling the need to sell off half the project cheaply just to get a fixed price for the output? If worst comes to worst, Vattenfall has an immensely strong owner with a AAA credit rating, which means a rights issue to inject new equity would be no economic problem at all, even if it might be politically (and legally? EU state support rules?) fraught.