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Transport & logistics
Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, TCR is Europe’s largest independent asset manager of airport ground support equipment (“GSE”). It operates at more than 210 airports across more than 20 countries. Since inception, TCR has defined the market for leased GSE, providing high quality assets and a full service leasing, maintenance and fleet management offering to its clients, which are predominantly independent ground handling companies, airlines and airports. This enables GSE operators to concentrate on their core business of ground handling.
TCR’s GSE is the essential mobile infrastructure used to service aircraft on the ground and enable airports to handle passengers, luggage and cargo, with upwards of 30 pieces of equipment required per turnaround.
Reliable GSE is critical to the smooth operation of airports and timely movement of aircraft, and TCR is able to deliver this with its access to scarce airside repair workshops, which provides a high barrier to entry. Sustainability is at the heart of the business and its mission is to deliver the most efficient and sustainable GSE services. Through its expertise in GSE fleet optimisation, “pooling” initiatives and the provision of green GSE, TCR is playing a key role in enabling the decarbonisation of airport ground operations in the airports where it operates.
TCR materially outperformed expectations, resulting in a substantial increase in value by £92 million. This performance was driven by several factors, including significant contract wins, extensions and higher fleet utilisation rates. The company is benefitting from the combination of the post-Covid aviation recovery, high interest rate environment making on-balance sheet options less attractive for customers, and the green agenda in Europe driving strong demand for new electric ground service equipment.
In February 2024, TCR completed the bolton acquisition of KES, KLM Royal Dutch Airline’s ground equipment services subsidiary at Schiphol airport, adding incremental contracted EBITDA with a flagship European carrier and positioning TCR to support Schiphol’s decarbonisation ambitions. TCR’s footprint now spans more than 200 airports, positioning it well to grow organically with its existing clients as well as increasing market penetration of its full-service rental offering. To support its next phase of expansion, TCR successfully secured additional debt from existing and new lenders on attractive terms.
Regulatory information
This transaction involved a recommendation of 3i Investments plc.
Energy
Valorem is a leading independent renewable energy development and operating company. It is one of the largest onshore wind developers in France, having developed over 600MW of capacity over the last 10 years.
Valorem had a very good year with revenues from electricity generation ahead of expectations due to favourable wind conditions contributing to a value gain of £47 million. The company’s closed capacity now totals 853MW of wind, solar and hydro projects, a 10% increase from the previous year.
Valorem completed the sale of a minority stake in part of its French operational portfolio on attractive terms, demonstrating the strong appetite for its projects and raising capital to finance development of future projects. This was supplemented by issuance of euro private placement debt for the first time.
In France, the market fundamentals for renewable developers remains strong, as evidenced by the increase in recent auction tariff levels due to demand for projects exceeding supply. The construction of Valorem’s new projects in Finland and Greece are progressing according to or ahead of plan. The company has expanded its development pipeline from 5.7GW to 6.6GW, including securing partnerships for co-developments in Poland and Sweden.
Regulatory information
This transaction involved a recommendation of 3i Investments plc, advised by 3i France.
