Eurazeo ramps up support for solar PV firm(2)

The French private equity firm has invested a further €15m in Fonroche Energy following an initial €25m equity investment in April last year. Fonroche has also signed a €52m credit line with a banking syndicate led by Credit Agricole.

Eurazeo, the Euronext Paris-listed private equity firm, has committed an additional €15 million equity tranche to Fonroche Energy, a solar photovoltaic (PV) firm based in Roquefort in southern France. A statement said the investment would “support its rapid growth” following Eurazeo’s initial €25 million equity commitment to the company in April 2010.     

In addition, Fonroche has agreed a €52 million credit line with a banking syndicate led by Credit Agricole. In a statement, Eurazeo said the financing would allow Fonroche to build 20 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic greenhouses producing solar energy.

Fonroche, which was established in 2008, is negotiating the construction of photovoltaic power plants in several countries around the world “allowing it to grow rapidly despite the regulatory slowdown in France”. It has also signed several construction projects for biogas power plants in a move to expand the range of its energy production.

Within the photovoltaic sector, Fonroche focuses on upstream activities – research and development, turnkey delivery of power stations to customers and proprietary operation of power stations – as well as downstream activities through its photovoltaic panel assembly plant, which is the largest in France with an annual capacity of 90 MW.

One of Europe’s largest listed private equity companies, Eurazeo has more than €4 billion in assets under management.