BackLuxembourg / Paris, 20/01/2022 – Marguerite II, a leading European infrastructure fund, closed the acquisition of a majority stake in Keon S.A. from a pool of funds managed by Generis Capital Partners, Citizen Capital, Supernova Invest and Sigma Gestion.
As part of the transaction, Marguerite II will fund Keon’s investment plan with the goal of growing its portfolio of biomethane projects in France and abroad as well as supporting its strategy to become a major integrated renewable gas producer. Keon’s founders and management, composed of Aurélien Lugardon, Marc Bauzet, and Philippe Spannagel, will remain shareholders in the company alongside Marguerite.
The Keon group comprises three entities: Naskeo Environnement (specialised in the design and construction of biogas production plants), Sycomore (specialised in operation and maintenance) and Ter’Green, its development and investment arm.
Founded in 2005, Naskeo Environnement has built more than 60 biogas projects to date and is one of the main contractors of agricultural and territorial projects on the French biomethane market. With the creation of Sycomore in 2015, Keon decided to apply its expertise to the O&M segment in order to meet the evolving needs of project owners. Finally, Keon set up Ter’Green in 2019, which already holds four operating plants, two in construction and seven under development. Its purpose is to act as an industrial investor to accelerate the development of biomethane projects and contribute to their financing, technical and economic performance thanks to Keon’s longstanding experience in the biogas sector.
Keon has ambitious growth plans in France and internationally and biomethane is at the heart of the transition to a low carbon economy. Moreover, biomethane projects produce digestate, an environmentally friendly fertiliser, and contributes to job creation in rural areas.
This investment fits Marguerite’s strategy in renewables to back developer-led platforms to unlock long-term value. This is Marguerite II’s first investment in sustainable infrastructure in 2022 following its investments in 2021 in the intermodal freight transport operator GTS (Italy), district heating developer Rebi (Spain), green data centre operator Conapto (Sweden) and solar/storage IPP ZE Energy (France).
“Electricity represents less than 30% of the final energy consumption in France. Green gas will therefore have to play a role in the decarbonisation of the economy, complementing renewables’ uptake. We are pleased to partner with Keon’s founders and management, pioneers of biogas in France, to support them in the next stage of the company’s transformation into an integrated renewable gas producer”, said Guillaume Rivron, Partner at Marguerite.
“We look forward to starting this new journey with Marguerite. As a European fund manager with strong greenfield infrastructure DNA they are an ideal partner to support our growth towards becoming a leading IPP in France and in Europe”, said Aurelien Lugardon, CEO of Keon.
Marguerite was advised by Gottengreen (M&A), Gide (legal), Naldeo (technical and commercial), Matthias Schriewer (senior biogas expert), PwC (financial and tax), Willis Tower Watson (insurance) and Howden (W&I).