De Pardieu Brocas Maffei has advised the arrangers Crédit Agricole Brie Picardie and Atlante Gestion, the lenders Arkéa Banque Entreprises et Institutionnels, Banque CIC Nord-Ouest, Crédit Agricole Brie Picardie, Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe, Société Générale with respect to the senior debt and Atlante Gestion, through its fund Atlante Silva 1 with respect to the junior bonds, on the setting-up of the Picardie Granulation project’s financing.

Led by Simon Linéatte and Jean-François Saujet, the project involves the design, construction and operation-maintenance of a manufacturing plant of wood pellets intended for the domestic market, with an initial capacity of 100,000 tons per year to be located on the former Lunor industrial site in Chaulnes (80). The project will create around thirty local jobs. The wood pellets produced by the plant will be made from local biomass (high-quality by-products and related products from local sawmills and forestry operations). The Picardie Granulation plant’s output will heat at least 70,000 homes.

To finance this project, Picardie Granulation has raised a senior bank financing from Arkéa Banque Entreprises et Institutionnels, Banque CIC Nord-Ouest, Crédit Agricole Brie Picardie, Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe and Société Générale, and a junior bond financing from Atlante Gestion, through its vehicle, Atlante Silva 1.

The project has also benefited from public support, with subsidies from ADEME’s Fonds Chaleur, a junior financing component provided by Atlante Silva 1, funded by participatory financing raised via the Enerfip platform, and a financing from Bpifrance.

The balance of the financing was provided by Picardie Granulation’s founding partners (Pierre Berthe, Pascal Dupont, Dominique Lemire, Simon Linéatte, Jean-François Saujet, Philippe Destenbert and Stanislas Ancel).