November 2021 - Astris Finance congratulates its client Urbasolar, one of the largest vertically integrated solar power producers in France, 100% owned by Axpo (the largest Swiss producer of electricity from renewable sources) for the signing of the Cassiopée Transaction, which consisted of the sale of a participation in two French greenfield solar portfolios with an aggregate capacity of c. 400MW to Predica (Crédit Agricole Assurances), a leading French insurance company. Astris acted as exclusive financial advisor to Urbasolar.

The acquisition, made by a dedicated vehicle named PredUrba, is the first milestone of an ambitious partnership agreed between the two parties, in which Predica will have the opportunity to acquire up to 2.4GW of solar assets located in France and potentially other European countries in the next 3 years.

"Since the beginning of 2020, it is the fifth partnership between a renewable energy developer and a financial investor which Astris has successfully arranged. This trend illustrates the growing interest of the market for these partnerships, which are a clear win-win proposition: they allow the developer to finance its growth by accessing equity at a competitive cost from an experienced investor, and they allow the investor to deploy liquidity by accessing a diversified pool of low risk renewable projects from an experienced developer," says Arnaud Germain, Head of Astris France & Germany.