Amundi Energy Transition completes its first energy transition-related financing transaction

Amundi Energy Transition (AET), the asset management company jointly owned by Amundi and EDF, has completed the acquisition of a majority interest in a portfolio of gas-powered cogeneration plants from Dalkia, a leading French energy services company and EDF subsidiary. This is AET’s first transaction and is valued at over €150 million. The cogeneration assets consist of 132 facilities producing heat and power for industrial and public sector clients, and have a total capacity of 330MW.

The combined heat and power generation (‘CHP’) provides for enhanced energy efficiency and a significant reduction in primary energy consumption. It also contributes power to the French national grid supply. These facilities are able to recover heat produced as a by-product of power generation, and reuse it in a number of sectors and applications including industrial processes, producing energy for use in hospitals and public housing, as well as urban heating networks. Cogeneration plants are part of the reserve margin of the French grid and improve energy efficiency, for this reason they benefit from a specific regulatory framework for a maximum period of 12 years.

This is the first transaction of AET, which received its authorisation to operate from the French financial markets authority (AMF) last April. It demonstrates AET’s ability to structure innovative investment vehicles on energy transition that can attract major investors. These energy infrastructure products offer an investment opportunity decorrelated from traditional market performance, and contributes directly to French energy transition by financing real assets. As part of the transaction, Dalkia will maintain control of the assets in order to drive the business relationship and ensure that customers have the expected operational performance.

Matthieu Poisson, Chief Executive Officer, Amundi Energy Transition and Head of Infrastructure in Amundi, says: “We are very excited about our joint venture with EDF. This inaugural transaction matches perfectly our strategic approach for Amundi’s Real and Alternative Assets division. The selected structure, a joint shareholder and operational investment between two leading players in finance and energy, will serve as a blueprint for future funds to be developed by AET across new energy sectors.”

This first transaction also paves the way for replication in other sectors of energy transition business. A second deal, involving the acquisition of a separate 170MW portfolio of Dalkia cogeneration projects currently under construction, is in the pipeline for 2017.