Blue Elephant Energy buys wind and solar farms that are still under construction or already in operation. The company now wants to raise additional equity for this purpose.
(Photo: IMAGO/Shotshop)
Frankfurt Hamburg-based solar and wind farm operator Blue Elephant Energy is once again looking for investors to finance its rapid growth. The company is reviewing financing options with the help of investment bank BNP Paribas, several people familiar with the situation told Handelsblatt. The company wants to collect around 300 million euros in equity for its investment projects over the next two years. Blue Elephant is talking to suppliers as well as private investment companies and infrastructure investors.
Blue Elephant Energy’s valuation could rise to more than two billion euros, including debt. Blue Elephant Energy and BNP declined to comment on the ongoing investor process. The company stated that it is constantly examining various strategic options with various possible cooperation partners in order to be able to realize its capital-intensive growth. “To cover our investment needs, we are not ruling out further capital partnerships with well-known international partners,” said company boss Felix Goedhart to the Handelsblatt.
The company benefits from the high demand for renewable energies and the state-driven energy transition. By 2030, the traffic light government wants to quadruple the output of German wind turbines at sea alone. The traffic light government had confirmed in its Easter package, which is intended to massively accelerate the expansion of renewable energies, that offshore expansion will be in the overwhelming public interest in the future.
Founded in 2016, Blue Elephant Energy is an independent power producer that buys solar and wind farms, most of which are either operational or under construction, or at least ready for construction. The company competes with Encavis, Energiekontor and Clearvise, for example. Blue Elephant currently operates solar and wind power plants with a total output of 1.3 gigawatts. In addition, the company has facilities under development with a capacity of around two gigawatts.
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Many providers are active in the fragmented market. Energy companies, private equity firms and infrastructure investors are all competing to invest in the space. You buy solar and wind park developers, operators or individual parks. While energy companies such as RWE or Shell typically also assume the development risk, infrastructure investors often only get involved once the plants are in operation.
According to financial circles, there are currently a number of renewable energy companies on the market, including the Regensburg wind farm developer Ostwind, which could be valued at around half a billion euros in a deal. Ostwind declined to comment.
Blue Elephant finances itself privately after a failed IPO
Blue Elephant Energy wanted to go public last year, but was unable to implement the plans due to volatile capital markets. Instead, Athos, the family holding company of the pharmaceutical entrepreneurs Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann behind Biontech, got involved. At the time, Goedhart described the Athos participation as an “accreditation”. In the deal, his company was valued at almost 1.5 billion euros, including liabilities of almost one billion euros.
According to a company presentation, Blue Elephant Energy achieved an operating result (EBITDA) of EUR 76 million in 2021 with sales of EUR 101 million. Annual sales growth since 2019 has been 24 percent. Blue Elephant Energy achieves an average return (IRR) of eight percent on its projects. 90 percent of sales from the existing portfolio are secured for the next 15 years.
At the same time, the share of state financing in sales is falling – in the past a reliable source of income for the planners and operators of wind and solar parks. Instead, more and more projects are being financed via so-called direct electricity supply contracts, PPAs for short (Power Purchase Agreements).
Goedhart was head of the solar park operator Encavis for nine years, but left the Hamburg company in 2015 and founded Blue Elephant Energy with the help of the Wacker (Wacker Chemie) and Jahr (formerly Gruner + Jahr) families. Around one billion euros have flowed into the company since then. The Wacker family of entrepreneurs and the former publishing family each currently hold 23.2 percent, Goedhart himself holds 15.7 percent and Athos 15.4 percent. Former Wacker boss Peter-Alexander Wacker is the chairman of the supervisory board.
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