NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Ida Marie Windrup, Magnus Tønseth, Markus Nilssen and Daniel Jovanovic, BAHR
much better standing in the bankruptcy, such transac- tions where new security is granted for old debt are susceptible to be set aside by the bankruptcy estate if they have been undertaken within a certain time frame before bankruptcy was opened.
more to see if a private solution could reduce costs of construction as compared to a fully governmentally managed project, as opposed to providing access to financing. Under the current political landscape there is also a trend towards a decreased level of private services, for example in relation to healthcare and nursery homes. Although not strictly a PPP, there was a trend for some years whereby public authorities and municipalities sold public infrastructure and buildings to private investors, which either leased the assets back or sold the relevant service back to the vendor. Although now in reverse, the authors believe that this trend may come back at some point in time. There are a variety of public regulations and require- ments associated with governmental activity in Nor- way, so any significant transaction with any govern- mental authority or a company which is wholly owned by such needs to be carefully assessed. Any breach of, for example public procurement legislation, may be challenged by competing interests. 8.3 Governing Law In relation to the new offshore wind projects, the Nor- wegian ministry responsible for granting offshore wind licences is considering imposing a condition that the licensed offshore wind activities must be governed by Norwegian law contracts. There is no direct sug- gestion that such requirement would extend to the financing of the relevant project. 8.4 Foreign Ownership At the outset, there are no foreign ownership restric- tions on real estate, provided that there are no impli- cations with regard to sanctions, or the ownership is not related to certain regulated industries, which are regarded as critical to Norwegian natural resources (or strategic interests). This could, for example, relate to ownership of real property over land-based seafood, which requires a concession from the authorities. Please also note that there are ownership restriction rules applicable (both to Norwegian and non-Nor- wegian owners) in certain other industries related to resources of the ground or from the seabed, such as for hydropower plants. As a general rule, however, obtaining security would require a licence from the relevant authorities upfront. Whilst a security inter- est would not automatically be set aside, the relevant
8. Project Finance 8.1 Recent Project Finance Activity
Project financing in Norway has been used extensively in asset-based financings, such as within real estate or shipping and offshore. It has, to a certain extent, also been used for financing other types of projects with an agreed cash flow, such as renewable energy projects (particularly related to onshore wind projects) and to some extent public communication and infra- structure through public–private partnership (PPP) transactions. With the energy transition and the emergence of new capital-intensive industries this is about to change. In the years to come, project financing is set to play a key role as source of capital for financing the energy transition, and Norway is no exception in that regard. Offshore wind is a prime example. Norway has major ambitions within offshore wind with a stated goal to award areas having the potential to produce 30 GW by 2040. In 2024, Norway’s first large scale offshore wind project, the Sørlige Nordsjø II 1,500 MW project, were awarded through a competitive auction to Ventyr, a joint venture between Parkwind and INGKA. Ven- tyr entered into Norway’s first contract for difference (CfD) with the Ministry of Energy. 8.2 Public-Private Partnership Transactions PPPs have been used to some extent in Norway, although somewhat on and off, which is mostly due to different governments having diverging political opinions on the benefit of using private capital to deliver public services. For many years, PPPs have been used to finance various selected construc- tion projects for new roads and bridges in particular. Although the trend is increasing, the pace has been somewhat slower than in other jurisdictions where this has been a more sought-after source of financ- ing. In Norway, the object of a PPP has often been
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