EURAZEO STRENGTHENS ITS POSITION IN INFRASTRUCTURE WITH THE ARRIVAL OF A NEW TEAM FOCUSED ON INVESTING IN THE ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMY

An acknowledged pioneer in the field of sustainable development, Eurazeo today welcomes a new team dedicated to infrastructure investments within Eurazeo’s Real Assets division.

The team’s objective is to invest in sectors supporting the numerous underlying changes currently taking place in Europe, including the necessary shift to renewable, low-carbon and competitive sources of energy, as well as digital technologies in which data will help drive the economy and lead to a more efficient use of real assets.

The first fund to be raised will focus on three sectors:

• Digital infrastructure: data centers, fibre-optic networks, telecom towers, subsea cables and IoT;
• Transition infrastructure: energy storage, smart grids, smart meters, smart city infrastructure,
  e-mobility and clean transport infrastructure;
• Renewable energies: sustainable energy production (wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, hydrogen, biomass, biogas, bioenergy), along with waste management, water/wastewater and circular economy projects.

This experienced three-person team has been working together at Marguerite for the last 10 years, and consists of:

• Laurent Chatelin, who has more than 25 years of experience in infrastructure asset financing and investment in the telecom, energy and transport sectors;
• Martin Sichelkow, who has more than 15 years of buy-side experience in infrastructure, having worked mainly in the energy sector;
• Melissa Cohen, who has more than 15 years of experience in infrastructure investment and project financing, particularly in the telecoms and transport sectors.

Together, they have invested in major projects such as FTTH networks and photovoltaic facilities in France, wind farms in Scandinavia, a motorway in Ireland and incineration plants in Eastern Europe, representing a combined enterprise value of more than €10 billion across 20+ investments.

The team will seek to raise third-party capital in order to build a balanced portfolio of sustainable infrastructure assets true to Eurazeo’s own ESG commitments and in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the new European taxonomy regulation.

This new team will be supported by Eurazeo’s in-house expertise in adjacent investment strategies and will be able to draw on the group’s international network and ESG know-how.

Renaud Haberkorn, Managing Partner and head of Eurazeo’s Real Assets division, said:

“The creation of this team fits with Eurazeo’s ambition of making long-term investments in the sustainable infrastructure needed to develop communities, and we are looking forward to implementing our strategy of being an active, responsible investor. We are delighted to welcome Laurent, Melissa and Martin into the family. Together, we will help develop infrastructure that is resilient and compatible with decarbonisation objectives. We are confident that by integrating ESG criteria into the process of analysing, investing in and developing infrastructure assets, we will be able to achieve both positive change and strong financial returns.”

Laurent Chatelin, Partner

”We are very happy to join Eurazeo, which is known for helping companies to develop in a responsible way, and to help develop the group’s portfolio of investment strategies. With this platform, we will be able to accelerate fund raising while having the capacity to invest immediately in real assets that support the energy and digital transition across Europe.”