Wind giant Orsted raises $9.4 bn in rights issue

Danish wind giant Orsted said Monday it had raised $9.4 billion in a rights issue aimed at bolstering the struggling company amid US President Donald Trump’s opposition to the wind power sector.

The US administration has frozen federal permitting and loans for all offshore and onshore wind projects, as Trump has repeatedly expressed his distaste for wind power.

Orsted had planned to sell a stake in its delayed Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York, but announced in August that it would not be possible to complete the partial divestment following “the recent material adverse development in the US offshore wind market”.

Orsted said it would not be able to sell the stake on terms that would give the company the necessary funds to support its business plan, and said it would seek to raise $9.4 billion through a rights issue.

It said late Monday that 99.3 percent of shareholders had subscribed to the rights issue.

“The rights issue strengthens Orsted’s financial foundation, allowing us to focus on delivering our six offshore wind farms under construction, continue to handle the regulatory uncertainty in the US, and strengthen our position as a market leader in offshore wind,” chief executive Rasmus Errboe said in a statement.

Orsted was once considered a success story.

In less than a decade — from 2010 to 2019 — it went from a traditional energy company that relied on fossil fuels for energy production to instead have 86 percent come from renewable sources.

It was the first company to invest massively in offshore wind power in the United States, securing fixed-price projects in a low-rate environment.

But it was dealt a $4 billion blow in 2023 when it cancelled its Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects that were due to be installed off the coast of New Jersey.

In May, Orsted said it was shelving plans to build a massive wind farm off the UK coast due to rising costs.

The company scored a small victory last month when a US court allowed it to resume work on its massive Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island that had been blocked by US officials in August, despite 45 of 65 planned turbines already having been installed.