Bpifrance Builds up Stake in Arkema through Lac1
Posted on 11/03/2020
Bpifrance disclosed it had bought 5.08% of chemicals group Arkema S.A. in the first investment of its new equity investment fund Lac1. One of the goals of Lac1 was to support French companies.
Since June 2020, Bpifrance channeled €348 million into Arkema.
Bpifrance manages Lac1 and has committed €1 billion of its own to it. Mubadala Investment Company also committed €1 billion to the fund, as well as other French investors.
Arkema is a specialty chemicals and advanced materials company headquartered in Colombes, near Paris, France. Created in 2004, when French oil major Total restructured its chemicals business, Arkema was introduced at the Paris stock exchange in May 2006. In October, Arkema placed its first-ever Green Bond fully dedicated to the financing of its new world-scale plant in Singapore to manufacture 100% bio-based Rilsan polyamide 11. For a total amount of €300 million, this Green Bond has a maturity of 6 years and an annual coupon of 0.125%. On June 1, 2020, Arkema finalized the sale of its Functional Polyolefins business to SK Global Chemical, a subsidiary of South-Korean group SK.
