BackLuxembourg / Warsaw – 16/09/2021 – Today Marguerite closed the sale to PreZero Warszawa, member of Schwarz Group, of its 50% interest in PreZero Zielona Energia, the SPV operating the Energy-from-Waste plant in Poznań.
In 2011 Marguerite and SUEZ Polska joined forces to bid in the tender for the first large PPP in the waste sector in Poland, the EfW plant in Poznań. The following year the City of Poznań awarded to the special purpose company set up by SUEZ and Marguerite the contract to design, build and finance a modern waste processing facility capable of processing 210 thousand tonnes of mixed municipal waste per year and to operate it during 25 years. The sponsors managed to raise long-term non-recourse project financing in the difficult post financial crisis period from three Polish banks: Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, PKO Bank Polski and Bank Pekao S.A. The project also benefitted from the EU Cohesion Fund which improved its affordability for the City of Poznań and ultimately Poznań inhabitants. The plant, located in the industrial zone of Karolin, was constructed on time and within budget and started full commercial operations in 2017. Since then, it has processed municipal waste from Poznań and 8 neighbouring municipalities associated in the Poznań Agglomeration Waste Management Association, while always complying with strict EU and national environmental requirements. The project received several industrial awards, including European Waste Deal of the Year 2013 from Project Finance Magazine, Golden Award by the European PPP Expertise Centre as well as the Ecological Investment of the Year award in Poland in 2014. Now, after ten years of involvement in the project and nearly five years of successful operation Marguerite is selling its stake in the project to its co-shareholder, PreZero Warszawa.
“We are proud to have been involved in this ground-breaking project since the procurement stage and through financing, design, construction and early years of operation. Through our involvement in the project we were able to contribute to the delivery of a modern facility which improved waste management in Poznań as well as to the development of the PPP framework and market in Poland. As a greenfield fund we are keen to contribute to the development and delivery of further landmark infrastructure projects in Poland also in other sectors such as renewables, energy, transport and telecommunications”, said William Pierson, Managing Partner at Marguerite.
“Waste-to-energy plant in Poznan is a priority project for PreZero in Poland. Further development of the thermal waste treatment market in Poland is essential on our way toward a circular economy, which fits perfectly into our mission. We treat waste as valuable secondary raw materials, and thanks to our innovative solutions, we minimize the amount of waste that cannot be recycled. However, for the non-recyclables, too, we must provide environmentally friendly solutions that, at the same time, will allow us to limit the landfilling”, declared Thomas Sroka, CEO at PreZero in Poland.