Investors

InfraVia takes majority stake in French solar firm

The fund manager’s investment alongside Eurazeo will see Fonroche’s solar business siphoned off from the company’s other renewable energy business streams.

By
Zak Bentley
-

French fund manager InfraVia has bought a 53 percent stake in the solar business of renewable energy firm Fonroche alongside existing shareholder Eurazeo, a listed investment firm.

The deal will see Eurazeo increase its stake from 39 percent to 47 percent in the company to now be known as Fonroche Solaire. Eurazeo has been a shareholder in Fonroche since 2010 and has incrementally increased its investment since.

Following its exit from the solar part of the business, Fonroche will continue to develop its geothermal and biogas business streams.

InfraVia and Eurazeo will now seek to grow the Fonroche Solaire portfolio which currently stands at 110MW of owned assets. As well as a developer of projects in France, Fonroche has also invested in the solar markets of Puerto Rico and India. The new owners indicated a continuation of this strategy and Renaud Haberkorn, managing partner of real assets division Eurazeo Patrimoine, said solar assets are a promising part of “the buoyant clean energy market”.

Last year Fonroche generated €100 million in revenue from its solar investments alone. In 2015 the company posted revenues of €79.5 million across the business.