Ardian's Kallista completes €155m refinancing

The €155m debt package was supplied jointly by Franco-German bank Landesbank Saar and BPI France Financement. The facility was arranged by the former, which has a background in renewable financing projects such as a €100m SME scheme launched alongside the European Investment Bank (EIB) in 2011.

The loan was split into individual senior portfolio project facilities. Each package was provided to one of the wind farms, together representing an aggregate 180 MW in installed capacity.

According to market sources, the transaction did not involve a dividend recap for Kallista's shareholders. 

It will replace the debt which was put in place in 2009, when Ardian invested via its infrastructure fund to wholly acquire Kallista Energies Renouvelables and Kallista France via the Holding Energies Renouvelables newco from Sydney-headquartered investment firm Babcock & Brown for an estimated €100-250m.

With the pan-European GP as a shareholder, Kallista has expanded across France via a build-up strategy. Growth began with the acquisition of Neoelectra's wind farm assets in Brittany, which helped Kallista strengthen its footing in the French market as its facilities went from 15 to 19.

The company then entered the Picardie region via the purchase of power facilities in Bougainville and Saint-André from HgCapital-backed Enercon in April 2013. At the time, Kallista was thought to have become France's third-largest wind farm operator.

Ardian, which helped finance the above bolt-on via its €1.75bn third infrastructure fund, claims Kallista's wind power capacity has almost doubled under its six-year ownership to around 320 MW.

Company
Kallista Energy Group is a wind farm operator headquartered in Paris. The business currently manages more than 30 facilities across the French regions of Beauce, Burgundy, Brittany, Champagne-Ardenne, Languedoc-Roussillon, Lorraine, Normandy and Picardy.

People
Saar's work on the deal was coordinated by structured finance director Daniel Koebnick. Frédéric Roche is CEO at Kallista.

Advisers
Debt – Linklaters, François April (Legal).

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• Topics
• France
• Restructuring
• Industrials
• France
• Ardian (formerly Axa PE)