“The constraints linked to the pandemic have practically disappeared since this summer. » It has only been a few weeks since Orège said it had resumed the execution of two projects frozen two and a half years ago, in Germany and Japan, because of the Covid. However, she warned ten days ago, when publishing her first half accounts, “No turnover will be generated in 2022 on these two projects. »
Motors, pumps, valves…
The commercial take-off of this cleantech is constantly delayed. The Yvelin company, which has made a specialty of treating sludge from wastewater treatment plants, had to adapt to disrupted supply chains. She indicates that the global pressure [sur les chaînes] has strengthened over the last few months (price, delivery times, availability of certain electronic components and automatons…). »
Orège’s SLG (“Solid, Liquid, Gas”) technology is innovative in that the physico-chemical and rheological characteristics of the sludge are modified and their volume is significantly reduced, which allows treatment cost savings that can go up to 60%. The solution also makes it possible to eliminate odors and improve the quality of sludge for its recovery, in particular for composting and spreading. And, another advantage in the current context that Orège points out: its technology is “low in energy”, knowing that “the ‘energy’ item of the treatment plants weighs very significantly on their operating account. For the company, the energy crisis is a source of” opportunities “.
But this technology requires motors, pumps, valves… which require electrical and electronic components, as well as raw materials such as steel and stainless steel.
Tens of millions in debt
Over the first six months of the year, Orège, which develops fixed and mobile equipment, recorded growth in its turnover (+36%) which reached, at the end of June, just over 1 million euros. , against 790,000 euros a year earlier, but still insufficient to cover the costs. Net loss increased to 2.91 million euros, compared to -2.76 million at the end of the first half of 2021, as the cost of debt increases and operating expenses increase (+14%), reflecting the increase in activity.
The main markets for cleantech are, at present, the United Kingdom, in bad economic shape, and the United States. Across the Atlantic, the two projects signed with municipal utilities, in La Crosse in Wisconsin and Eastley in South Carolina, will be largely completed in 2022, which should generate revenue for the year of around 700,000 euros. Orège also announced that the project ” important “ of an industrial wastewater treatment plant in Houston, Texas, initiated in collaboration with the Swedish group Alfa Laval, world leader in sludge and wastewater treatment equipment, was under construction. “It should contribute significantly to the turnover of the year 2022.”
These announcements were made Friday, October 21, after the close of trading. Since then, Orège’s stock market price has been falling further. The value of its shares fell 20% last week and this morning they lost up to 9% again, falling to a new all-time low of 0.416 euros (-70% on 2022, down sharply for sixth consecutive year). Since their IPO in 2013, at a price of 3.24 euros, Orège shares have erased almost 90% of their value.
Cleantech has a very deteriorated balance sheet, a consequence of the accumulation of deficits while in 2020, before the pandemic, the company was aiming for 7 to 8 million in turnover in 2021 and the balance of the gross surplus of operating (Ebitda). It is not enough to have an innovative technology, which moreover fits perfectly with the challenges and current priorities of water depollution and corporate social responsibility, it is also necessary to sell it. Today, the financial debts amount to 32.5 million euros. Equity is negative. If the company still manages to finance itself, it is thanks to the support of its main shareholder, Eren Groupe, recognized in renewable energies. The latter confirmed in 2020 its support until 2023.