RIVE Private Investment bolters equity at Carbonex, leader in eco-friendly charcoal
RIVE Private Investment (123Venture Group & Elyseum Investment) announces financing to triple the production capacity of Carbonex, the French leader in eco-friendly barbecue charcoal.
Founded in 1991 and based in Gyé-sur-Seine (Aude) in the Champagne-Ardennes region of France, Carbonex is owned and operated by the Soler-My family. The charcoal industry is dominated by imports from areas where forests are often overexploited and working conditions difficult. This investment contributes to relocating industrial activities in France. Carbonex is now ramping up its development following a three-pronged process launched in 2012 to modernise charcoal production. It assembled a trained and qualified workforce with engineers and an R&D team; secured locally-sourced wood from forests managed in line with the most rigorous international standards; and built a cogeneration plant to master manufacturing costs and resell electricity produced during the carbonisation cycle. Charcoal is manufactured in an environmentally-friendly manner, limiting the transport of merchandise and regulating energy needs and heat flows. Also, carefully selecting the wood species used contributes to producing high quality charcoal and improving barbecuing.
With these achievements, Carbonex has won the 2013 national Stars & Business competition sponsored by Banques Populaires and the Chambers for Trades and Crafts.
RIVE Private Investment recommended investment vehicles resulting in €7 Million in mezzanine debt. It proved its ability to deliver financing solutions that are flexible, whether with industrial partners or investment funds, as sole or co-investor. RIVE Private Investment is involved both in capital and in mezzanine debt, in greenfield or brownfield projects, with variable financing maturities in infrastructure, mezzanine debt, and tangible assets. As noted by Jean-Philippe Olivier, partner at RIVE Private Investment: “We are delighted to be working with a modern industrial concern that has proven able to adapt to the times and especially to foresee the inevitable changes in its sector. We have been following Carbonex for several years and were quite impressed with its evolution. With the design and construction of a cogeneration plant that is fully integrated with the manufacturing process, Carbonex convinced us of the soundness of their strategy.”
Carbonex and RIVE Private Investment would like to thank the BPCE Group and Bpifrance, which have been working with Carbonex and helped structure this new financing.
About RIVE Private Investment
RIVE Private Investment is an independent private equity player founded in 2013 by two investment management firms (Elyseum Investment and 123Venture). RIVE Private Investment draws upon the combined resources and expertise of its shareholders in order to develop flexible, opportunistic and defensive investment solutions specifically for institutional investors and family offices.
RIVE Private Investment targets investment opportunities mainly across Europe and North America, focusing on three defensive sectors, namely infrastructure investments, asset finance and mezzanine debt financing.
Through its shareholders, RIVE Private Investment benefits from the talent and expertise of over fifty investment professionals located in four European countries. These teams have a solid track record and to date have invested over €1.0 Billion in these sectors.