Erste Group Bank, together with The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Banca Comerciala Româna (BCR), is providing €76m financing for the construction of the 108MW Crucea North wind farm in Romania.

As a mandated lead arranger, Erste Group Bank will provide €49m for the project in a parallel term loan structure with EBRD, while BCR will provide a€27m VAT facility.

Erste Group Bank is also acting as facility and security agent and sole hedging provider to Crucea Wind Farm, which is owned by STEAG. Its commercial loan facility benefits from cover by Eksport Kredit Fonden, the Danish export credit agency.

The senior loan facilities have a tenor of 14 years, including the construction period and feature various structured finance elements.

To be located in the Dobrogea region on the Romanian Black Sea coast, the Crucea North wind farm will have 36 Vestas wind turbines of 3MW each. Vestas Romania and EnergoBit are the balance of plant suppliers for the project. Around €200m will be invested in project.

Construction of the wind park is in its advanced stage and its commercial operation date is set for the end of 2014.

STEAG CFO Michael Baumgärtner said: “STEAG is very pleased having achieved signing of the Crucea North transaction, which represents the first project of the company in Romania and is the result of the first and fruitful cooperation of STEAG with EBRD, EKF, Erste and BCR.”

The project expects to sell both electricity and Green Certificates (GC) on the OPCOM day-ahead and the GC market respectively.