FDE secures a new EUR 20 million green bond for the development of its low carbon energy solutions in Europe

Pontpierre, France, October 3^rd, 2022 – FDE (Euronext: FDE – ISIN: FR0013030152), a carbon negative energy producer, is proud to announce the issuance of a second green bond for the development of its low carbon energy portfolio in Europe. Following up on its successful bond issuance last year, the financing has been secured with its long-term financial partner, Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EDRAM), a leading energy and infrastructure investment manager.

An additional sizeable financing to support FDE’s development strategy

This green bond will fund the Group’s existing energy portfolio as well as the strong pipeline of high value Liquefied BioGas (LBG) and Bio-CO2 projects currently being developed by its subsidiary Cryo Pur.

The financing amounts to EUR 20 million and is in addition to the EUR 40 million green bond issued in September 2021 with the EDRAM’s Infrastructure Debt Platform, BRIDGE. The financing qualified as a “Green Bond” and the issuance has been assessed as compliant with the ICMA (International Capital Market Association) Green Bond Principles via the second-party opinion by EthiFinance, a renown independent expert.

The bond has an attractive 7-year bullet tenor, thanks to FDE’s track record in constructing and operating best-in-class assets, with high visibility on cash generation on the back of strong offtake contracts. This robust business model allows the Group to secure attractive returns on the capital deployed on each production site…

FDE has therefore all the financial resources required to accelerate its development strategy and reach FY 2026 targets of over EUR 100 million revenues, an EBITDA exceeding EUR 50 million and to reinforce the Group’s environmental contribution by avoiding over 10 million tons of CO2eq emissions per annum.

The growth plan is well under way

While FDE is still waiting for the French state’s final approval to capture Abandoned Mine Methane (AMM) on new sites in Northern France and the green light from the Ministry of Ecologic Transition on FDE’s application to produce its certified reserves in Lorraine, the Group has made significant progress on other fronts.

The first 15MW solar farm in Tritteling is now ready to start production in the next couple of weeks and shall benefit from very attractive selling price conditions.

Following the recent acquisition of Cryo Pur, the company’s restructuring and implementation of FDE’s operator model is progressing rapidly in order to fast track the deployment of Cryo Pur’s leading technologies across Europe and to strengthen the Group’s position on strategic biogas and CO2 markets.

In addition, Cryo Pur has been granted a new patent, bringing the number of major families of international patents owned to 8. The recent patent relates to a very promising cryogenic process that allows carbon capture contained in liquid methane, a solution that would be key to efficiently extract CO2 associated with large scale LNG facilities.

A long-term partnership to accelerate investments in low carbon energy projects

“The successful placement of our second green bond is the testimony of our solid financial position and the confidence Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management has in Cryo Pur’s potential and FDE’s FY 2026 strategic plan announced last July. The transaction will allow the Group to finance all its low carbon projects in Europe, in line with our commitment to be a leading negative carbon footprint energy producer. We are extremely grateful to Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management for entrusting us with additional capital and for its ongoing support”, welcomes Julien Moulin, Chairman of FDE.

Jean-Francis Dusch, CEO of Edmond de Rothschild UK, CIO of Benjamin de Rothschild Infrastructure Debt Generation (BRIDGE) and Global Head of Infrastructure, Real Assets & Structured Finance explains: “EDRAM is proud to extend its support to FDE, an emerging leader in low carbon energy solutions in Europe. The long-term relationship EDRAM is building with FDE fully illustrates our approach to sustainable investment through concrete, long-term actions in favor of companies such as FDE with a business designed to solve environmental challenges. For us, sustainability is, more than ever, a priority in the face of a rapidly changing world”.

LPA-CGR as legal counsel. EDRAM was advised by BENTAM as legal counsel.

FDE is very confident to achieve by FYE 2026, revenues exceeding EUR 100 million with an EBITDA over EUR 50 million, combined with 10 million tons of CO2eq emissions avoided per annum.

Next announcement:

October 20^th, 2022 – FY2022 Annual results