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Expansion: Astris Finance Opens New Office in Hamburg

Hamburg, Germany - Astris Finance, the independent international financing and transaction advisor for infrastructure and energy, is opening a German office in Hamburg.

Astris has previously advised its clients in Western Europe through its Paris and Madrid hubs and has expanded this business significantly in recent years. In the renewable sector, Astris has managed more than 70 transactions, both in the debt financing space where the firm has raised in excess of € 5 bn of senior debt, and in the M&A space where the firm has managed 35 processes in France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Italy and Germany. With its new presence Astris targets the setup of a local hub for German and international investors and developers.

The new Hamburg office will be led by Arnaud Germain, head of France and Germany, and Theoharis Saroglou, the newly appointed head of the Hamburg office. Saroglou previously spent eight years at PwC in the Infrastructure and Renewable Energy practice. Prior to this, he spent several years with the project finance teams of HSH Nordbank, WestLB and NordLB. Theoharis comes with extensive experience in German renewables and infrastructure, where he has executed transactions representing over € 5bn in cumulative investment.

Astris is currently acting as sell side advisor to a Tier-1 German asset manager in connection with a portfolio of operating wind assets in Germany.

"We are very excited to launch our German office with an experienced team on the ground in Hamburg. We believe the German renewable market is at a crossroads", said Astris CEO Fabrice Henry. On one hand, he said, older projects have started exiting the guaranteed revenue regime established by the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) of 2000 – to the tune of 3 to 5 GW per year. These projects will need to generate new revenue by participating in renewable tenders as part of repowering, entering into a PPA or pushing sales on the spot market. On the other hand, the upcoming massive investment program in Germany - with a target of more than 10 GW per year by 2030 - is likely to create a need for capital structure optimization and asset rotation for German developers, Henry added.



Source: IWR Online, 15 Mar 2021

 


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