Taaleri and Masdar to launch a joint venture to accelerate wind and solar renewable energy development in Central and Eastern Europe

TAALERI PLC                                 PRESS RELEASE                            15 January 2019                          09:25 EET

Taaleri and Masdar to launch a joint venture to accelerate wind and solar renewable energy development in Central and Eastern Europe

Taaleri Energia, a Finnish wind and solar developer and fund manager, and Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, signed an agreement for the establishment of a joint venture with the aim of developing renewable energy projects in Central and Eastern Europe on 15 January 2019. The joint venture aims to build upon of the success of Masdar and Taaleri’s ongoing activities in the Western Balkans by expanding their collaboration through the joint development of onshore wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) projects.

The joint venture agreement was signed by Karri Haaparinne, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Taaleri Plc, and Bader Al Lamki, Executive Director of Clean Energy, Masdar, on the sidelines of the World Future Energy Summit (WFES), which is being organized as part of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) 2019 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC).

Bader Al Lamki, Executive Director of Clean Energy, Masdar, said: "What we’ve accomplished in partnership with Taaleri in Serbia and Jordan is a testament to the important role that strong partnerships play in unlocking access to renewable energy. We are proud to build on the experiences gained through our strong collaboration, to help countries in Central and Eastern Europe meet their renewable energy goals.”

Masdar and Taaleri have decided to jointly pursue the development of renewable energy projects in the Central and Eastern Europe region, due in part to the forecasted growth of renewable energy in the region and the substantial volume of opportunities. This includes the Polish onshore wind market, where more than 3 gigawatts of new capacity is expected to be added over the next few years. At the same time, multilateral institutions have recently urged the West Balkan countries to consider replacing a significant portion of their 9 gigawatts of aging coal-fired generation capacity with renewables, while Greece has announced plans to add up to 2.3 gigawatts of new solar and wind capacity by the end of 2020.

Karri Haaparinne, Deputy CEO of Taaleri Plc, said: "We are pleased to build upon our successful experience of investing in Serbia alongside a highly-professional, world class partner such as Masdar.”

Kai Rintala, Managing Director of Taaleri Energia, continued to articulate the underlying strategy for the venture by saying: "Working together with Masdar in this joint venture we will generate high quality deal flow in Central and Eastern Europe which will provide the funds that we manage opportunities to invest in the region in attractive projects with high calibre investment, financing, equipment and construction partners and counterparties.”

The proposed joint venture between Masdar and Taaleri will further strengthen the companies’ strategic alliance in renewable energy. The Taaleri Energia SolarWind I fund has invested alongside Masdar in Cibuk 1, the 158MW wind farm in Serbia, and in the Baynouna Solar Energy Company, which is constructing a 248MWp solar PV plant in Jordan, the largest in the country.

Masdar has steadily expanded its renewable energy portfolio in the Balkans through investments in large-scale onshore wind projects. In addition to the Cibuk 1 wind farm in Serbia, Masdar announced in 2017 that it had acquired a 49 per cent stake in the 72MW onshore Krnovo wind farm, which became Masdar’s second wind farm investment in the Western Balkans.

About Masdar

Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar is advancing the commercialization and deployment of renewable energy, sustainable urban development and clean technologies to address global sustainability challenges. Wholly owned by Mubadala Investment Company, the strategic investment company of the Government of Abu Dhabi, our mandate is to help maintain the UAE’s leadership in the global energy sector, while supporting the diversification of both its economy and energy sources for the benefit of future generations. Masdar’s renewable energy projects are located in the UAE, Jordan, Mauritania, Egypt, Morocco, the UK, Serbia and Spain.

About Taaleri Energia

Taaleri Energia is a Finnish- based wind and solar developer and fund manager. Taaleri Energia has one of the largest dedicated wind and solar investment teams in Europe. Taaleri Energia develops, invests in and manages utility-scale wind and solar investments, primarily in Europe and the US.

Taaleri Energia is part of the Taaleri Group, which is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki stock exchange.

Taaleri Plc

Communications

Additional information Taaleri:

Managing Director Kai Rintala, Taaleri Energia, tel. +358 40 162 5711, kai.rintala@taaleri.com

Masdar Contacts:

E-mail: press@masdar.ae

Tel enquiries in Arabic: +971 2 653 3333

Tel enquiries in English: +971 2 653 6014

Taaleri in brief

Taaleri is a Finnish financial service company, whose parent company Taaleri Plc is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki's main market. The Taaleri Group comprises three business areas: Wealth Management, Financing, and Energy. Taaleri provides services to institutional investors, companies and private individuals. The Group’s operational subsidiaries are: Taaleri Wealth Management Ltd and its subsidiaries, Taaleri Private Equity Funds Group, Taaleri Investments Group, Taaleri Energia Oy Group and Garantia Insurance Company Ltd. In addition, Taaleri has associated companies Fellow Finance Plc, which offers peer-to-peer lending services, Ficolo Oy developing data centers, and Turun Toriparkki Oy and Munkkiniemi Group Oy that are real estate project companies.

At the end of June 2018, Taaleri had assets under management totalling EUR 6.0 billion and 4,600 asset management customers. Taaleri Plc has some 4,100 shareholders. Taaleri’s operations are supervised by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority.

More information about our company and services: 

www.taaleri.com/en
www.fellowfinance.fi/en
www.garantia.fi/en

Sophie Jolly, Head of Communications and IR, sophie.jolly@taaleri.com, tel. +358 40 828 7317