Eurazeo and Societe Generale are pleased to announce they will be working together towards an innovative solution to support the sustainable transition of the shipping sector.
Leveraging their respective shipping sectorial and asset financing expertise, the objective is to enable shipowners to transition towards a greener future through a sale and leaseback scheme that will target both new vessels with alternative propulsion systems and existing on-the-water fleet upgrades.
The objective is to help shipowners match their financial and operational objectives with the reduction of their environmental impact.
The offering will formally be launched to clients by Eurazeo within 2023. As a founding member of the Poseidon Principles, which promote a low carbon future for the global shipping industry by integrating climate considerations into bank portfolios and credit decisions, and the UNEP-FI Net Zero Banking Alliance, Societe Generale is committed to working with its clients and partners across sectors to align its portfolios on trajectories to contribute to global carbon neutrality by 2050.
Eurazeo has been incorporating ESG into its business model for almost 20 years, positioning itself as a pioneer. It was also the first Private Equity player in Europe to commit to defining a decarbonization pathway with the Science Based Target initiative SBTi (both for the Group and for eligible portfolio companies). Eurazeo is also a founding member of initiative Carbone 2020 (renamed initiative Climat international), the first international initiative of the Private Equity industry focused on working towards achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement. More recently in 2021, Eurazeo successfully launched ESMI (Eurazeo Sustainable Maritime Infrastructure fund) aiming at supporting SMEs of the maritime sector in their decarbonization pathway. This new joint initiative with Société Générale dedicated to larger maritime players is fully complementary.
By working with Eurazeo, Societe Generale is reaffirming its long-term commitment to supporting the energy transition and looks forward to supporting current and prospective new clients in meeting their own reduction emissions targets.
