The Shared Wood Company - AXA IM Alts and ENGIE minority investment

Terms

Announced

17 Feb 2022

Instrument

Equity

Amount

UndisclosedReported as undisclosed (US$500 million reported across equity, project financing and offtake)

Source

alts.axa-im.com

Parties

Project developer

The Shared Wood Company

Country

France

Capital providers

Capital providers and the amount counted for each

Party	Role	Amount	Basis
AXA IM Alts	Investor	Undisclosed	No value disclosed
ENGIE	Investor	Undisclosed	No value disclosed

Carbon

Pathway

ARR (afforestation, reforestation, revegetation)

Project type as recorded

Nature-based solutions developer: conservation, reforestation and sustainable agriculture projects in Africa, Latin America and Europe

Backed by offtakes from

• ENGIE

What happened

AXA IM Alts, the alternative investments arm of AXA Investment Managers, through its Impact Investing Strategy, and ENGIE, through its Global Energy Management & Sales business entity, have acquired minority stakes in The Shared Wood Company (SWC), a newly incorporated French developer and operator of nature-based solutions projects, announced 17 February 2022. AXA IM Alts will also provide project financing for forestry and sustainable land-use projects, and ENGIE will buy high-quality emission avoidance or removal credits from SWC projects. SWC, founded by Laurent Valiergue, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Aybar and Clement Chenost, targets conservation, reforestation and sustainable agriculture (including cocoa and coffee) under Gold Standard and Verra (VCS/CCB). Bloomberg reports the two backers are committing more than US$500 million by 2028 through a mix of investment and carbon credit offtake agreements, aiming at 40 million credits from up to eight projects in Africa and Latin America. The parties give no amount, stake size or equity figure.

Kumo note

- Two sponsors take minority equity in a newly formed nature-based developer at the same moment: AXA IM Alts also commits project financing and ENGIE commits to buy credits, so the equity, the debt and the offtake come from the same two parties. - Bloomberg reports a programme of more than US$500m by 2028 across investment and offtake, targeting 40m credits from up to eight projects; the parties do not publish the equity amount or stake sizes.

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