Poland—In Q1 2021, Dentons’ market-leading Warsaw Energy and Natural Resources team closed several significant investment projects in the renewable energy sector (RES). These deals are testament to how attractive and mature the Polish renewable energy market has become, and will stimulate further growth in this sector. These deals are also indicative of the fact that investors often focus their first operations in the region on the Polish market, which in their perception is a convenient operating platform to then establish their presence in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

“We take pride in that clients put their trust in the wealth of experience we have gathered over the last decades and hire us to advise them on key projects in the energy sector. This has also become feasible owing to the flexible and versatile renewable energy sector team headed by Agnieszka Kulińska. Her philosophy, which is to keep focused on finding efficient solutions benefiting the client, has proven an immense success," said Arkadiusz Krasnodębski, Poland Managing Partner and the Head of our Energy team in Poland and Europe.

“The whole raft of projects we have completed to date shows that Poland is perceived as a very attractive market for RES investments and that this trend is likely to continue in the next few years. Clients need multi-faceted, cutting-edge legal support and for this reason they appreciate our many years of solid and proven experience in advising on wind farm acquisitions and disposals. We are happy to successfully help our customers, even in the pandemic-affected business environment,” said Agnieszka Kulińska, Partner in the Energy and Natural Resources team in Warsaw.

Most recently in March 2021, our Energy and Natural Resources team in Warsaw advised CEE Equity Partners on the sale of a 163 MW project consisting of three wind farms to Iberdrola. Agnieszka Kulińska led a team including Marcin Paliwoda, Filip Raubo, Patrycja Pakla, Lena Boczkaja, and Małgorzata Dębicka. The farms will form part of the Baltic Sea Hub (BSH), which is planned to become a hub for Iberdrola’s German, Polish and Swedish operations. To a large extent, the energy produced by BSH has already been contracted for the next 10 years.

In March, Dentons announced that it had advised Green Investment Group, a fund owned by Australia’s Macquarie Group, on the acquisition of the Ścieki windfarm from EnerCap Power Funds. The team headed by Agnieszka Kulińska provided the client with comprehensive legal support. Filip Raubo, Lena Boczkaja and Filip Ruciński dealt with energy issues, while financial aspects of the transaction were handled by Agnieszka Lipska and Łukasz Błaszczak from the Banking and Finance team.

In February, Dentons advised the investment funds Stage Capital Management Limited and Mashav Energia on the sale of the Kanin wind farm. Our work involved comprehensive transactional advice to the sellers, including the drafting and negotiating of transaction documentation, as well as assisting with the transaction closing. The project was supervised by Agnieszka Kulińska, who was supported by Filip Raubo, Lena Boczkaja and Filip Ruciński.

The team of Agnieszka Kulińska have also supported our Banking and Finance team in advising Qair Polska on one of Poland’s largest hybrid portfolio financings concerning the construction of four wind and 29 solar farms. The scope of their legal advice involved negotiating and executing financial documentation governed by English and Polish laws. In addition to Agnieszka Kulińska, Lena Boczkaja and Filip Ruciński were responsible for project-related aspects of the transaction.

“These are just a handful of the projects our team has worked on recently. Currently, we are advising on projects with a combined installed capacity of over 600 MW. We expect to close more deals in Q2 2021, also thanks to auctions supporting RES projects for the next 15 years, which will be held on June 8 and 11, 2021, for wind and solar projects, respectively.

“We are truly delighted to have our clients’ trust and appreciation, as well as high respect from our peers. We are happy to say that we achieved an excellent position in the latest edition of Chambers Europe 2021, with our Energy practice receiving the highest accolade at Band 1 level. Agnieszka Kulińska and Michał Motylewski received individual recommendations, and I am proud of the Eminent Practitioner title for yet another year running. These prestigious awards confirm our law firm’s leading position, which will inspire us to provide ever more effective support to the most demanding clients,” said Arkadiusz Krasnodębski.

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