What's up? Interview with Vick Desplat
Can you introduce your activities?
I am an investment director for Aqua Asset Management whose mission is to manage investment funds dedicated to financing the ecological transition as well as transition-oriented SMEs.
Aqua Asset Management has announced that it will soon be launching a fund on heavy hydrogen mobility. Can you tell us more about it?
The fund we are launching is called Transition Hydrogène. It's both a thematic and ecosystemic fund. Thematic because it deals with all issues related to hydrogen and financing of hydrogen sector as a whole. Ecosystemic because it aims to finance both the upstream and downstream parts of this value chain: both the uses of hydrogen and the production (by electrolysis) and distribution infrastructures of the hydrogen molecule. The fund's architecture is built for the long term and aims to support companies and projects over long periods, unlike other funds which have rather limited exit horizons.
There is still work to be done to ensure that this production is sustainable... It is a big challenge! What will be the first investments?
One of the first investments will be a French company, Safra, based in Albi in Occitania, which designs and assembles hydrogen electric buses. Our collaboration was born at the TRANSITION FORUM two years ago. Safra is a great entrepreneurial adventure: the company is rapidly growing with 400 new jobs to be created over the next two years. This investment corresponds to the "uses" part, since this fund, through its infratech strategy, aims to invest in both infrastructure and technology, or in other words, the uses of infrastructure. There will be other investments of this kind with other uses. We are notably thinking of heavy logistics mobility. Another investment that is in the pipeline, which we have been working on for several months, is an investment in a hydrogen production and distribution project in the Nice metropolitan area. This project will be used to power vehicles, particularly buses. We hope that Safra buses will be among these uses.
The stakes are high... How will the fund fit into Aqua Asset Management's overall strategy?
This fund is a perfect example of the strategy we are trying to implement at the level of the company. Through its infratech approach, it aims to address issues that are both diffuse and technical. Diffuse because although many people want to finance this type of project, the fact is that these infrastructures do not actually exist. Therefore, we also need to support the development of these assets. In addition to financing, we accompany developers to help them bring these projects to life. Unlike other technologies, these types of projects are relatively complex. They are large-scale projects, on an industrial scale, with a lot of operationality. This is exactly the kind of project we like to support and finance here at Aqua Asset Management.
