Swedish Ingka Group, a strategic partner of the IKEA franchise system, officially announced on Friday (September 13) that it bought 80% of seven wind parks in Romania from Danish group Vestas.

The two sides have already signed the deal, which is subject to clearance from the relevant local authorities (Competition Council). Vestas announced at the end of August that it sold 80% of its wind parks in Romania for EUR 136 million, without mentioning the buyer.

The acquisition was carried out by Ingka Group’s investment arm – Ingka Investments, which is also the biggest private owner of forests in Romania. The wind parks include 64 turbines with a total capacity of 171 MW.

“The combined performance of the wind parks represents the equivalent of the consumption of over 65 IKEA stores or 150,000 households in Romania, and it is higher than the consumption of the IKEA supply chain in Romania,” the group said in a press release.

IKEA currently has two stores in Romania.

“We are delighted to enter the renewable energy market in Romania through this acquisition. The 80% stake supports our target to generate as much renewable energy as we use, and this investment brings us one step closet to reaching this objective in 2020,” said Krister Mattsson, Managing Director Ingka Investments, Ingka Group.

The group currently has 900,000 solar panels and 534 wind turbines in 14 countries. Ingka Group, whose name comes from IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, operates 367 IKEA stores and 45 shopping centers that include IKEA stores.

(Photo: Pixabay)

editor@romania-insider.com