saved by the bell. Ángel Haro and the Catalan Godia family, main owners of Prodiel, They managed to save the group specializing in the construction and development of photovoltaic parks by refinancing 144 million euros from suppliers and banks. The company saw its sales drop in 2021 to 304 million, which led it to record an EBITDA of -105 million euros and a net result of -167 million euros.
“It was a difficult seven-month process to refinance the financial and commercial debt, but finally an agreement was reached without having to go through the commercial court, which always has a reputational cost,” he says. Miguel Somé, CEO of the Prodiel group, who remembers that the company had to make strong disposals to obtain 80 million euros which went to debt reduction and the realization of projects.
Given the rising prices of raw materials, energy, transport and the paralysis of projects, the company has decided to focus on the development of 15 GW of photovoltaic power plants in Spain and the rest of the world. Europe, renouncing to build 4 GW of photovoltaic power plants for the losses it would incur. Now he’s renegotiating with Ener, Smartenergy and Everwood new prizes for these projects, and is looking for a partner for its photovoltaic park construction company.
In summary, 2021 has been a “horribilis” year for Prodiel, who after reduce its workforce to 594 employees, is now working hard to complete the construction of photovoltaic parks. “We deliver on projects without delay or penalty,” says the company’s CEO, who admits that seven or eight months ago the company’s situation was so delicate it was hard to believe it could to arrive.
In 2019, the Sevillian group specializing in the promotion and construction of photovoltaic power plants, completed a syndicated loan and guarantees of 179 million euros to deal with working capital. Participated in this loan Santander, CaixaBank, Bankinter, Ibercaja, Novobanco, Aresbank, Liberbank and Abanca. Now, 99.6% of these financial entities have participated in the refinancing of the 114 million of the drawn loan, agreeing to a grace period of twelve months and the amortization of all the debt until June 2025. How are you going to pay this debt ? Prodiel does not want to build castles in the air and has guaranteed the payment of the debt with the guaranteed income from the divestments, according to company sources.
On the other hand, Prodiel reached a payment agreement with commercial creditors, to whom it owed one hundred million euros in early 2022. “We paid them 70 million euros thanks to the divestments made and we have refinanced the remaining 30 million euros, to be paid between 2022 and 2024″, explained Miguel Somé, CEO of the company, who assures that the company is no longer in “failure” thanks to this restructuring.
Now the company is working on the search for an investment partner to recapitalize the company and move forward with the promotion in Spain and the rest of Europe of projects totaling 15 GW. “Without this partner, it will not be possible to do so”, admits Somé, who predicts “that by the end of the year or January 2023, we will have already found this partner who enters the capital”. Financial adviser Lazard, BBVA and Santander have been working for a year on the search for a new partner.
Losses on provisions
The company has been very conservative with regard to the filing of its 2021 accounts, to the point that Somé announced that it had provisioned itself as if it was not going to carry out any of the photovoltaic park construction projects under contract and that she resigned for the cost increase up to 40%: 2 GW with Enel, 1 GW with Smartenergy and 1 with Everwood. In addition, he depreciated the value of the subsidiaries, giving them a value of “zero” euros. Despite this, Somé ensures that the company is not in a situation of bankruptcy thanks to the good year it recorded in 2020, when it invoiced 661 million and generated a net result of 91 million euros.
In recent years, Prodiel has experienced a process of expansion which came to a halt in 2021, forcing it to seek more liquidity through the sale of renewable energy project packages and leaving the companies it had created with large groups in the sector to its own international expansion. Thus, it saw its turnover drop from 661 million euros in 2020 to 304 million euros in 2021, which forced it to revise its billing forecasts of 1,000 million in 2022, a complicated year. by rising material prices, rising fuel and international transport costs, disruption of the supply chain…
Until now, Prodiel was made up of three companies: Prodiel EPC (builder of photovoltaic power plants), Solar DVP (50% with the Ewerwood Capital fund (promotion of farms and a subsidiary that markets energy). The Sevillian company Prodiel, which has become third in the world ranking of photovoltaic power plant construction companies, is now trying to find a partner for its construction, even if it is at the expense of the current shareholders who are reducing their stake. For the moment they are part of Prodiel Ángel Haro through the company Bathi Sana (45%), the Godia family with Made Technology (45%) and Avimasur, owned by Vicente Suro (10%).
investments
On the other hand, due to a lack of cash to execute projects, the Everwood Capital fund retained in February 2022 100% of DPV Solar, a company they had created in June 2021 for the development of large-scale photovoltaic parks. DPV Solar remained primarily with the international business, while in the exit Prodiel retained 4 GW of projects throughout Spain.
From now on, the group is made up of two companies: Prodiel EPC, which includes the energy marketer, and Envatios World, Prodiel’s photovoltaic park developer, shared by the same partners. In Envatios World is Greenfield pcthe company created this year by Prodiel and the Swiss company Smartenergy to develop photovoltaic parks in Spain.
By 2022, Prodiel expects to register losses again, although Somé specifies that this will depend on the speed of the administrations to deal with the bottleneck of the renewable projects presented. The future of the sector will change, he says, so that there is a risk/benefit balance for the wind farm builder, with whom there are likely to be no more fixed-price projects and cost increases will be shared. .