Valorem is a leading independent renewable energy development and operating company. It is one of the largest onshore wind developers in France, having developed over 600MW of capacity over the last 10 years.

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Overview

The French power market is experiencing a major transition as it looks to reduce its reliance on nuclear generation and to increase generation from renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar. The energy transition has been continuously supported by the French governments over the past decade. With in-house capabilities across the entire project cycle and a strong local footprint, Valorem is well positioned to benefit from this shift in energy mix.

Why we invested

Valorem offers exposure to a growing renewables business in one of the most attractive European markets and access to recurring, inflation-linked cash flows underpinned by a robust regulatory regime.

Led by its experienced management team, Valorem is a best-in-class developer, being the fourth largest French wind developer and the largest independent one. It has a significant pipeline of projects at an advanced stage of development that it expects to convert into operating assets, with further projects at earlier stages to bring through the development process. 

Recent developments

Valorem had a very good year with revenues from electricity generation ahead of expectations due to favourable wind conditions contributing to a value gain of £47 million. The company’s closed capacity now totals 853MW of wind, solar and hydro projects, a 10% increase from the previous year.

Valorem completed the sale of a minority stake in part of its French operational portfolio on attractive terms, demonstrating the strong appetite for its projects and raising capital to finance development of future projects. This was supplemented by issuance of euro private placement debt for the first time.

In France, the market fundamentals for renewable developers remains strong, as evidenced by the increase in recent auction tariff levels due to demand for projects exceeding supply. The construction of Valorem’s new projects in Finland and Greece are progressing according to or ahead of plan. The company has expanded its development pipeline from 5.7GW to 6.6GW, including securing partnerships for co-developments in Poland and Sweden.