Unifergie - Union pour le financement des économies d'énergie products, services and reviews

About Unifergie - Union pour le financement des économies d'énergie

Unifergie (Union pour le financement des économies d’énergie) is the Crédit Agricole Leasing & Factoring business line dedicated to financing energy and environmental infrastructure in France, with a focus on renewables (onshore wind, solar PV, small hydro, biomass and methanisation), energy efficiency (public lighting, building retrofits, energy performance contracts) and related utilities (water and waste). It provides debt and leasing solutions tailored to project companies, developers, corporates, farmers and local authorities, including long-term project finance loans (often limited or non-recourse), crédit-bail and other leasing formats for asset procurement, VAT bridge facilities during construction, and refinancing of operational portfolios. Structures are typically asset-backed and amortising, with tenors aligned to feed-in tariffs or power purchase agreements, security over project assets and contracts, standard reserve accounts, financial covenants such as DSCR tests, and hedging requirements where interest is floating. Eligibility commonly hinges on permitted projects with grid connection, bankable revenue frameworks (regulated tariffs or PPAs), robust EPC and O&M arrangements, and compliance with environmental and planning standards; borrowers are generally SPVs or professional counterparties rather than consumers. Pricing is not publicly listed and is determined case by case; borrowers should expect arrangement and commitment fees, risk-based interest margins, ancillary costs for due diligence and security, and potential breakage or prepayment penalties. Origination and execution are handled by specialised teams, with timelines driven by technical, legal and insurance due diligence, KYC/AML controls and credit approvals; advisory support is typically required and closing can run several months from mandate to first drawdown. For public-sector or quasi-public clients, Unifergie can finance energy performance projects and equipment upgrades via leasing or long-tenor loans configured to public procurement constraints. As part of Crédit Agricole Group, transactions are carried out by regulated entities supervised in France under the ACPR/ECB framework; the platform serves professional clients and does not offer retail deposit or everyday banking services. Key considerations for borrowers include construction and commissioning risk, regulatory and tariff changes, merchant price exposure where applicable, counterparty performance under EPC/O&M and offtake contracts, and the implications of covenant breaches or underperformance on lender step-in rights. Contact is via corporate channels (regional teams and online forms), and documentation follows French project finance market standards.