Building on the success of its range of INFRABRIDGE solutions dedicated to renewable energy, RGREEN INVEST launches INFRABRIDGE III with a first closing at €105 Million, roughly half its target size, to provide short-term debt financing to key catalyzers of the energy transition and to answer to its partners’ growing demand for internationalization.
Flexible financing that keeps apace with the energy transition’s acceleration
While traditional financial institutions have adapted to react more quickly to the needs of developers for ready-to-build projects, they remain reluctant to support them on projects in the initial development phase. In this context and driven by the momentum of INFRABRIDGE I and II, which exceeded their return targets, INFRABRIDGE III provides European developers with rapid financing for projects in the kick-off phase, so they may subsequently benefit from competitive bank financing.
“Due to the competitiveness of renewable energies compared to fossil fuels, we have shifted from a subsidized world to a profitable one where the development of RE, e-mobility and storage projects is accelerating fast. RGREEN INVEST aims to fuel this acceleration by quickly supplying developers with the necessary financial tools to support them in the critical development phase”, says Nicolas Rochon, President and Founder of RGREEN INVEST.
INFRABRIDGE solutions are flexible by design to best adapt to a rapidly changing market. With their size of about €200 Million and short-term maturity, they’re adjusted to match the market’s demand and can offer investors attractive returns.
INFRABRIDGE III thus invests in short-term debt in greenfield or brownfield projects, but also at the level of the parent company, until a long-term refinancing solution takes over or the partner sells its assets, depending on the chosen strategy. While the projects and companies financed by the first two vintages are located or operate mainly in the European Economic Area, INFRABRIDGE III also looks to investment opportunities outside Europe, in OECD countries, to promote RGREEN INVEST’s historical partners’ ambitions to develop internationally.
FOCUS ON INFRABRIDGE II
Since January 2021, RGREEN INVEST contributes through its INFRABRIDGE II fund to the upscaling of e-mobility pioneer Hype, the world’s leading fleet of hydrogen-powered taxi cabs. Investing in the infrastructure company HysetCo in the form of senior debt, RGREEN INVEST facilitated the company’s acquisition of Slota, historic Parisian cab operator, thereby enabling the replacement of 600 diesel vehicles with zero-emission ones and bolstering the existing distribution network in the Ile de France region with the installation of new hydrogen stations.
“The future of mobility depends on hydrogen, a low-emission technology that can reconcile the singular challenges of transport development with the imperatives of the climate crisis. While access to this solution is still expensive today, we are convinced of its future profitability.” Nicolas Rochon, CEO and founder of RGREEN INVEST.