Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Groupe Casino, Bpifrance, and Tikehau Capital (Paris: TKO) to acquire a majority stake in GreenYellow, a French pioneer in decentralized energy, serving the energy transition of its customers in France and abroad. The transaction values the company at €1.4 billion. Casino Group, Bpifrance, and Tikehau Capital have reinvested alongside Ardian.
GreenYellow was founded within the Casino Group in 2007, with the aim of accelerating the low-carbon trajectory of large companies around the world. Since its inception, the company has been led by Otmane Hajji (President) and Philippe Hours (Chief Officer in charge of Operations).
GreenYellow offers a complete range of services to help companies make the transition to greener and more efficient energy solutions. The company provides access to low-cost green energy and helps companies optimize their energy consumption.
In 2018, Tikehau Capital and Bpifrance invested € 150 million in GreenYellow to support its development. Today as a market leader, GreenYellow has experienced strong growth and now operates in more than 15 countries on four continents.
Ardian has deep experience in the renewable energy sector, with more than 7.5 GW installed worldwide, as well as in new technologies such as battery storage and green hydrogen. It will use its expertise to provide GreenYellow and its management team with the necessary resources to support its ambitious development plan.
As part of the transaction, the Casino Group, incubator and reference shareholder of GreenYellow since 2007, will retain a minority stake and will remain a leading business partner for the company. Similarly, Bpifrance and Tikehau Capital, who became shareholders in 2018 when they identified GreenYellow’s growth potential, will reinvest part of their proceeds in the company. Ardian’s and the historical shareholders’ plan also includes the participation of the management team and all employees in the capital.
“The quality of GreenYellow’s managers and teams, and the company’s positioning at the heart of the energy transition issues have convinced us. We are certain that the decentralized energy production and energy efficiency solutions proposed by GreenYellow will play a key role in achieving the decarbonization and energy sobriety objectives of companies and communities. We are looking forward to supporting GreenYellow, the French leader in the sector, in its development prospects in France and internationally alongside its historical shareholders, namely the Casino Group, Tikehau Capital, and Bpifrance, with whom we share the same ambitions.” declared Mathias Burghardt, Member of the Ardian executive committee and Head of Ardian Infrastructure.
Emmanuel Laillier, head of Private Equity for Tikehau Capital added: “GreenYellow was one of the first investments of our private equity strategy dedicated to the energy transition launched in 2018, and which has invested €900 million in 10 leading European SMEs and ETIs in the sector since then. Thanks to the investments made, in 4 years GreenYellow has strengthened its leadership position in its core markets. With its robust platform, we are confident that GreenYellow will continue its growth path. We share the strategic vision of its management team and look forward to reinvesting to support them in their next phase of development.”
“Bpifrance is thrilled to continue to support the company in this new phase of development with Ardian. Since our investment in 2018, the company has grown strongly and has succeeded in consolidating its position as the French leader in the decentralized energy production and energy efficiency market, thanks to its cross-functional expertise and its capacity for innovation. Supporting GreenYellow, a leading player in renewable energies, is fully in line with our Climate Bank strategy.” comments Charles-Henri Boyer, Head of participations at Bpifrance.
The proposed transaction is subject to a consultation process with the relevant employee representative bodies. It is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2022, subject to regulatory approvals for merger control and foreign investments.
