Peter McArdle

Title
Head of Renewable energy group

Experience
Peter joined Grant Thornton in 2006 from a Big Four firm where he established a reputation as Ireland’s leading financial advisor for wind projects advising on transactions in excess of €150m.

Since joining the firm, Peter has been mandated as lead advisor to 22 wind farm projects with a build cost in excess of €300m. A number of these windfarm projects were constructed in 2008 and early 2009.
 
Sector experience
Some recent assignments include:

Energy/infrastructure

  • acted and acting as lead of a multi-disciplinary team on numerous wind projects;
  • strategic planning for an offshore wind farm developer;
  • secured financial closure (involving debt, tax  and equity funding) on numerous wind projects;
  • advising a number of independent wind developers on projects at various stages of the development cycle;
  • acted as lead adviser on the sale of the development rights for two wind farm projects with a total capacity in excess of 55MW;
  • equity raising for several windfarm transactions; and
  • financial adviser to one of Ireland’s largest proposed transmission connected wind farm projects.

Property/general advisory/corporate finance

  • advised the Department of Public Enterprise on the development strategy for the Digital Hub Project in Dublin and devised a project oversight model;
  • carried out a review of current project monitoring systems in relation to spend in public transport within the former Department of Public Enterprise; and
  • advised on the financing of a number of property schemes including tax based funding structures.

Professional affiliations and memberships
Peter is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in Ireland (ACCA).