The Renewable Energy Risk That Paid Off

Serge Savasta has long focused on the energy transition – fittingly, as his career has moved from engineering to banking to private equity and now even the world of motorsport. Savasta, the self-described “young dinosaur” of the renewable energy sector, is the latest member PE Europe CenterDealmakers to Watch series, was prepared to take over the family business, a small French civil engineering firm. “I wasn’t prepared to do that,” said the current CEO of Omnes Capital. “I had a soft spot for finance.”

Savasta’s career in financial markets began in banking at Crédit Lyonnais, which was acquired by Crédit Agricole in 2004. He left shortly thereafter to pursue an MBA at HEC Paris Business School, where he immediately took over the school’s finance club. Savasta had heard buzz about the potential of renewable energy and private equity. “I saw private equity as a cross between finance and entrepreneurship,” he said. “I get my entrepreneurial DNA from my family.”

While at Crédit Agricole Private Equity in 2006, Savasta started something no one else had done in France: the renewable side of the private equity business. “It was a bit of a gamble,” Savasta said. “We were convinced that the market would sustain itself because there were huge subsidies at the time. But we didn’t know how long it would take to break even.”

From the start, Savasta and his colleagues focused on companies rather than pure asset deals because they saw renewables as a corporate sector, not an infrastructure sector. “I always said I was preaching in the desert because I was trying to convince the community around me that the right approach was to invest in private equity in infrastructure and renewables would become an asset class,” Savasta said. When the term “corporate infrastructure” was coined, the broader public came to understand the concept.

“If there is a name, it exists,” he added.

Change of circuit

Omnes Capital was formed from the purchase of Crédit Agricole Private Equity by Coller Capital, a secondary market specialist, in 2012, which later led to the spin-off of Omnes. “Our independence made it easier for the LP to get in and not have to worry about potential conflicts of interest with the shareholder,” Savasta said. “It’s a story that many PE firms are familiar with.”

When Omnes left the Crédit Agricole umbrella, the firm had around €1.7 billion in assets under management. Now Omnes, which has offices in Paris, Brussels, Zurich and Munich, has around €6 billion in AUM.

The company underwent another evolution in 2023. IDI, another French private equity firm, bought Omnes’ buyout business, taking a minority stake of more than 40 percent. The Omnes team was unsure how the LP community would react to the deal, as the company was “changing the boundaries” of the company and opening up capital to a minority shareholder. “The reaction was very good; we wanted to raise €800 million and we raised €1.2 billion,” Savasta said.

The abandonment of the buyout allows Omnes to focus on four areas of energy and environmental transition: renewable energy, sustainable cities, deeptech venture capital and co-investment.

IDI’s entry into the game wasn’t the only change in 2023. As part of the deal, Savasta took over as CEO when previous CEO Fabien Prévost handed over the reins.

There’s plenty of work to be done on the energy transformation front for the fairly new CEO. “Since I started my journey in this market, I’ve been saying this is a transformation, and therefore it’s over,” Savasta said. “But I have to say that (we) are very far from over. There’s decades of work to be done.”

Race to win

Savasta and Omnes have formed a groundbreaking partnership for private equity. In late 2023, Omnes announced that Dutch racing driver and Formula E champion Nyck de Vries would become the company’s new global brand ambassador. For Savasta, private equity and motor racing aren’t as far apart as you might think. “Omnes is focused on financial and sustainable performance,” he said. “You’re surrounded by data to be able to operate. Motorsports isn’t that far apart.”

Formula E also has a uniquely sustainable element in that it is an electric car championship.

De Vries, who has raced a large part of the 2023 Formula 1 season, met Savasta by chance after being dropped by the Scuderia AlphaTauri F1 team. “I didn’t feel very open to a discussion at the time, but luckily Serge made a good impression and we got on well,” de Vries said.

Savasta and de Vries quickly found much in common. “What unites us is, above all, these shared values, the desire to achieve excellence at the highest level, each in his own world,” de Vries said.

“It all starts with teamwork; many people at Omnes work on different stages of fundraising, finding companies and opportunities,” he added. “The same is true in my industry – it’s about how you deal with people and how you get the most out of a unified team.”

De Vries sees similarities in decision-making in motorsport and private equity. “Maybe not at exactly the same time, but our decisions have consequences; it could be winning a race, points or taking a risk in qualifying,” he said. “Even though the consequences are different, they still have a big impact on the industry Omnes operates in.”

Since the beginning of what Savasta and de Vries call a friendship, not a partnership, de Vries has been present at one of the Omnes AGMs and will be present at the next one as well. “LP were very surprised by his charisma, humility and intelligence – as a driver, you have to have leadership so that the team follows you,” Savasta said.

Teamwork has been embedded in the Omnes culture since the beginning. Omnes is Latin for “all” or “together.”

Editor’s Note: PE Center AND PE Europe Center We launched a series of profiles called Dealmakers to Watch. We showcase private equity professionals who are tackling new challenges, such as moving to a new firm, starting a new firm, becoming a partner, launching an investment strategy, closing a significant transaction or other new venture.

For more information in this series, see the following articles: PE Europe Center:

Is there anyone you would like to see featured? Send suggestions to PE Europe Center editor Craig McGlashan