Orsted Raises $9.4 Billion to Offset Hit From US Wind U-Turn

By William Mathis and Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro (Bloomberg) —

Orsted A/S raised 60 billion Danish kroner ($9.4 billion) through a rights offering that’s critical for the company to tackle the downturn facing the wind-power industry.

The fundraise, the biggest for a European energy company in more than a decade, will allow the state-backed Danish firm to shore up its balance sheet after the Trump administration’s moves against offshore wind upended Orsted’s business model. 

Investors took up 99.3% of the more than 900 million shares in the heavily discounted offering, with demand “extraordinarily high,” the company said in a statement late Monday.

“We now have a robust financial foundation, but it will be the long haul for us to deliver on our plan,” Chief Executive Officer Rasmus Errboe said in an interview Tuesday. Shares in the company rose as much as 1.8% in early trading in Copenhagen.

Orsted had the backing of its largest shareholder — the Danish government, which owns a 50.1% stake — to carry out the deal. Norwegian energy giant Equinor ASA, the second-biggest shareholder, also pledged to maintain its 10% holding. 

The company’s shares plunged by roughly a third when it announced the capital raise in August. Less than two weeks later, the stock hit another low after the Trump administration ordered Orsted to halt work on the Revolution Wind farm it’s building off the coast of Rhode Island. 

But the company sued to block the order and soon won an injunction allowing it to resume work on the project. Since then, the shares have rallied, and are now up more than 20% from the low they reached after the stop-work order first came into effect.

While the US was once seen as a major growth opportunity for the company, that bet has gone from bad to worse in recent years. Soaring costs and supply-chain issues led Orsted to cancel two major American projects, and the Trump administration subsequently halted work on another project owned by Equinor.

While that wind farm was also ultimately able to proceed, the developments have left investors wary of the sector, making it impossible for Orsted to sell a stake in the Sunrise Wind project it’s building off the coast of New York. That left a hole in the company’s finances, pushing it to turn to its investors for cash instead.

With the new funds, Orsted says it will be in a strong position to deliver a series of projects currently underway in the US and Europe by the end of 2027. The company aims to finish two key projects in the US in the coming years and then refocus on the more established and stable European offshore-wind market. 

A rights issue is a form of capital increase that gives shareholders the option to buy stock at a discounted price in proportion to their current holding. Shareholders can either exercise their rights to avoid being diluted or sell them to other investors.

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

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