Colruyt sells offshore wind farms

Belgian retailer Colruyt Group is selling its offshore wind farms to the Japanese Jera Group. The deal will bring in at least one and a half billion euros.

Too popular

The Japanese energy group is taking over all the shares in Parkwind, Colruyt’s wind farms along the Belgian North Sea coast and abroad, for 1.55 billion euros. The Colruyt Group wanted to sell the wind farms because of “the recent situation on the energy market, the Green Deal and geopolitical tensions”. In the end, the wind farms became too numerous and too large, making the competition too strong and the financial risks too great, the company explains.

Through Virya Energy, it does wants to remain active in the field of onshore wind turbines and invest more in other technologies, such as solar energy and hydrogen. Colruyt also wants to expand into new activities and new geographical areas.

This is a significant financial boost for the Colruyt Group, which holds 59 % of Virya Energy’s shares. “The completion of the transaction will result in a very significant non-recurring positive impact in the consolidated net result for the financial year 2023/24”, the group says. Last year, Virya Energy already accounted for 434 million euros in Colruyt’s figures, a large part of which was attributable to Parkwind.