(Boursier.com) — Euronext Bpifrance, CDC Croissance, the French Tech Mission and the Cliff provide a cross-functional bouquet of responses to the critical issue of the listing of French and European Tech companies.
These actions are in line with the conclusions of the Bourdillon-Lagarde report on the listing of French unicorns carried out in 2021 by CDC Croissance, management subsidiary dedicated to listed SMEs of Caisse des Dépôts, and Bpifrance in close collaboration with Euronext aiming to strengthen the attractiveness of the Paris marketplace for fast-growing Tech companies.
Euronext today unveiled the outlines of its new Euronext Tech Leaders initiative, with the creation of a segment bringing together more than 100 fast-growing European listed Tech companies, including 41 Paris-listed companies. Among these jewels of French Tech are 11 cleantech, 7 life sciences companies and 23 companies in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sector. The overall capitalization of these companies listed in France reaches 258 billion euros. They have raised more than 7 billion euros over the past 3 years on the Euronext markets.
As a result of the creation of this new initiative, Bpifrance, CDC Croissance and the French Tech Mission contribute to the system with complementary initiatives:
1. Caisse des Dépôts Asset Management, the leading institutional investor in French listed SMEs, is working on setting up an investment fund to support the listing of French unicorns on the stock market. Square in Paris. From 2022, this financial vehicle will be endowed by Caisse des Dépôts with 300 million euros with a target of 1.5 billion euros over five years. It will participate in a logic of long-term investor mainly in IPOs of domestic technology companies and may occasionally intervene on the secondary market, for example on the occasion of the lifting of lock-ups. The fund will be managed by CDC Croissance in the form of a SICAV. Its launch is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2022.
2. Bpifrance will mobilize an envelope of 500 million euros in order to play an active role in future IPOs of French scale ups, as a corner stone investor or as a follower investor. Through this initiative, Bpifrance completes its action to develop a French ecosystem of crossover funds.
Bpifrance also announces the creation of a “Cornerstone Investors Club”, an informal meeting place between private equity funds and institutional asset managers specializing in Tech. This club will make it possible to initiate and facilitate exchanges between French Tech companies and corner stone investors, which are essential to ensure the success of an IPO.
3. The French Tech Mission, in charge of supporting the growth of the ecosystem of French start-ups within the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty (DGE), will offer French start-ups members of Euronext Tech Leaders an accompaniment intended to support their development. They will benefit in particular from the support of State services via the network of French Tech correspondents in different administrations, but also from opportunities in terms of visibility in France and internationally.
4. Le Cliff, the French association of financial communication professionals, will offer future Euronext Tech Leader companies a support program including training and mentoring from experienced investor relations managers.
These institutional initiatives aim to create a ripple effect and will be followed in the coming months by concrete actions on the part of private sector financing players. Thus, Amiral Gestion, which has already deployed nearly 800 million euros in Tech companies, announces that it will participate in the Euronext Tech Leaders initiative. The launch of a fund dedicated to financing and promoting French and European Tech is part of this dynamic.
Stéphane Boujnah, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board of Euronext: “Euronext is building, through the Euronext Tech Leaders initiative, an interconnected European financial ecosystem to support listed and unlisted Tech companies, leaders in their field and experiencing strong growth. We are delighted that the actors of the Paris market are taking advantage of Euronext Tech Leaders to build together the benchmark stock market for European Tech.”
Olivier Mareuse, Director of Asset Management at Caisse des Dépôts and Chairman of CDC Croissance: “With the launch of a dedicated fund, we are strengthening our support for the strategic technology sector in order to ensure a continuum of financing for unicorns French companies and to promote a better balance of the valuations of French technology stocks at the time of the IPO.”
Paul-François Fournier, Executive Director of Innovation at Bpifrance: “With these various investment and support initiatives, Bpifrance is helping to strengthen the French Tech ecosystem by promoting the establishment of a funding continuum. We are delighted to be able to thereby helping to strengthen the attractiveness of the Paris marketplace for fast-growing Tech companies.”
Clara Chappaz, Director of the French Tech Mission: “In 2021, as part of the Scale-Up Europe initiative launched by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, the European technological ecosystem recommended strengthening the environment in favor of IPOs of technology companies. The Euronext Tech Leaders initiative fully meets these challenges and represents a structural change in the support and financing of technology companies carrying out IPOs. This is particularly important for French start-ups, which already occupy a non-negligible place in this segment. It was therefore natural for the French Tech Mission to be fully associated with this initiative, alongside Euronext and its partners.”