Pontpierre, France, October 21^st, 2021 – La Française de l’Énergie (Euronext: LFDE – ISIN: FR0013030152), producer of energy with a negative carbon footprint, closes its FY 2020/2021 with a significant improvement of its main financial aggregates. This confirms the profitability of its activity with an EBITDA up by 177% yoy reaching €2,9M and an operating income of €1,4M up from a €143K loss in FY2019/2020. These results confirm the Group’s strategy and business model as well as its ability to ramp up its developments.

The Board of Directors of La Française de l’Énergie, held on October 19, 2021, has approved the annual accounts on June 30^th, 2021.
The Group’s Statutory Auditors carried out their due diligence on these accounts and their reports are being issued.

Strong growth in financial indicators, driven by increased production volumes and control on operational costs

The 2020/2021 financial year has been characterized by a significant increase in revenues, mainly driven by an improvement in gas, electricity and heat sales volumes. The recent low-carbon energy production sites of Béthune and Creutzwald have also contributed to the revenues increase and so did the surge in gas prices in France (+ 36%) and in electricity prices in Belgium (+ 42%).

These excellent operational performances enable the Group to record a turnover of €10,2M, up 30% yoy and over c.900,000 tons of CO_2eq emissions were avoided during this financial year.

All the same, the improvement in production volumes combined with an excellent operating and administrative costs control has resulted in a further 12% yoy reduction in the Group’s production cost per MWh. Group’s EBITDA is up at €2,9M, translating into an EBITDA margin of 29% (vs 14% in 2019/2020). Operating profit has also improved significantly to €1,4M. This performance therefore confirms the Group’s ability to grow its activity while fostering its cost structure.

Despite an increase in financial charges, mainly related to the addition of new loans dedicated to new projects, the net income has more than doubled to reach €274K.

Reinforced financial structure to support the Group’s developments

La Française de l’Énergie confirms its ability to generate positive operating fluxes in the order of €5,3M over the year (up €4,5M yoy) and sees an improvement in its cash position, thanks to new additional loans:

– €2M in advance loan and project financing between Cellcius and Caisse d’Epargne, including a loan of €1,3M with a 20-year maturity at 1,5% for the Creutzwald thermal solar project, and

– €8,8M in 4 and 5-year crowdfunding bonds raised by Gazonor Béthune and EG NPC (for the 2 additional combined heat and power plants (CHPs) in Avion) maturing in at 4,75% to finance the equity required by the Group, thus enabling La Française de l’Énergie to further reduce its cost of capital.

As of June 30^th, 2021, the Group has therefore posted a cash balance of €7M (up by €3,2M yoy) and has kept its investment capacity intact with a conservative net debt / equity ratio of 36%.

Growth prospects and revenue progression confirmed for 2022

The Group has maintained a sustained investment policy during the year with investment flows of nearly €9,5M, a 300% increase compared to last year. Key investments included the construction and commissioning of the largest solar thermal plant in France with injection into an district heating network and the Béthune project where gas, electricity and heat are delivered to the local municipality.

La Française de l’Energie in on track to deliver on its 2022 roadmap while strengthening its unique positioning in France and Belgium. The deployment of new local low-carbon energy solutions keeps ramping upwith the commissioning of 5 new 1,5 MW CHP plants on the Avion (3 MW) and Anderlues (4,5 MW) sites, i.e. 7,5 MW of additional capacity by the end of the year, as well as an initial development of 6 CHP plants under the new concession called Sud Charleroi, i.e. 9 additional MW which will be installed at the end of FY 2021/2022.

The Group has also launched the construction work on its 15 MW solar plant at Tritteling-Redlach in Moselle and plans to commission it at the end of the 2021/2022 financial year.

The €40M green bond issued in September 2021 with Edmond de Rothschild AM, of which an initial instalment of €25M has already been made available for the development of FDE’s low-carbon energy portfolio in France and Belgium, allows the Group to engage significant financial resources to accelerate its growth and reach 49,5 MW of installed capacity by the end of December 2022. Thanks to the implementation of these projects, 3 million tonnes of CO_2eq emissions will be avoided annually.

In Lorraine, the Group has finalized the analysis of the opportunities related to the development of gas in the form of carbon-free hydrogen and the sequestration of CO₂. Environmental, technical and economic aspects have been analysed by La Française de l’Energie’s team supported by experts from Schlumberger, CNRS, Enerka and the University of Lorraine. The two strong strategic angles selected by the company are linked to the production of hydrogen by pyrolysis of methane and the development of a significant CO₂ storage capacity in deep coals.

La Française de l’Énergie has therefore validated its participation in two ambitious industrial consortia in France and Belgium, which will eventually see the setting up of pilots of low carbon hydrogen production by pyrolysis on several of its sites, ahead of a possible industrial development.

At the same time, La Française de l’Energie is finalizing the pre-feasibility studies on the injection and storage of CO₂ in coal before launching tests on an existing site.

Through these new developments, La Française de l’Energie is strengthening its position as a leading player for reducing the carbon footprint of the regions where the Group operates.

La Française de l’Energie therefore confirms its objective of achieving annualized revenue of €35M and an EBITDA margin of over 45% by the end of 2022.

Next announcement :
October 25^th, 2021 – Q1 2021/2022 sales

^[1] Does not include Green Certificates obtained thanks to its Belgian production since 2019. FDE continues its efforts to activate their contribution to turnover.

^[2] Results of the companies Cellcius dedicated to the operation of the Creutzwald thermal solar plant (51% owned by FDE and 49% by Énes) and FalkenSun dedicated to the construction and operation of the photovoltaic solar plant of FalkenSun (75% owned by FDE and 25% by Mercury Advisors)