Hamburg, Germany - March 1, 2021. Astris Finance opens German office in Hamburg to cover Europe’s largest renewable energy market.
Astris Finance, the leading independent financial advisory firm specialized in infrastructure and energy, announces the opening of its German office out of Hamburg. The German renewable market is the deepest renewables market in Europe, with a current installed capacity in excess of 110 GW and a target capacity of 200 GW by year 2030.
Over the past 5 years, Astris has been increasingly active in Western Europe through its Paris and Madrid hubs. 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.
The effort will be led by Arnaud Germain, head of France and Germany, and Theoharis Saroglou, the newly appointed director of our Hamburg office. Theoharis joins Astris from PwC where he spent ~8 years in the infrastructure and renewable energy practice. Prior to this, he spent 7 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.
Fabrice Henry, CEO of Astris, explains: “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. On one hand, 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 craft new revenue schemes, by participating in renewable auctions following a repowering, sourcing a corporate PPA, or simply selling in the spot market. On the other hand, the massive investment program ahead – with a target in excess of 10 GW per year until 2030 – is likely to create a need for capital structure optimization and asset rotation for German developers; it will also require the injection of fresh liquidity by new investors at a competitive cost. In this dynamic market context, we hope to use our deep experience in renewable markets globally to help create value for our clients – developers and investors alike.”
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.