(BFM Bourse) – Originally from Yvelines, Skytech intends to accelerate its industrial and commercial deployment by opening new recycling plants for plastic resins such as ABS, which have not been recycled until now. The firm wants to rely on the stock market to become one of the European leaders in the market for regenerated plastic resins.
The current high volatility of the markets does not discourage young shoots from trying the stock market adventure. This month of May is particularly dynamic on the front of IPOs. The results of Lhyfe’s fundraising will be known on Friday evening while Broadpeak has just announced the opening of its offer to individuals, hoping to raise more than 20 million euros. Founded in 2018, the “cleantech” Skytech is part of the same dynamic. The Autorité des marchés financiers has just registered the registration document of this company specializing in the recycling of plastic products, the first step in view of an introduction on Euronext Growth Paris.
Skytech has developed a process to recycle three types of plastic resins, ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), polystyrene and polypropylene. Until now, these resins constitute waste which is usually incinerated or buried. The company, based in the Yvelines in Bonnières-sur-Seine, thus makes it possible to reuse plastic waste – in particular from end-of-life vehicles and electrical and electronic equipment – by transforming it into premium resins, ready to use and with technical characteristics similar to those of a plastic directly derived from petrochemicals.
“To be recycled, mixtures of plastic waste must be separated by chemical nature. Conventional sorting techniques such as flotation and infrared sorting do not guarantee a sufficiently precise separation of certain families of plastics due to their very similar densities and the difficulty in separating the black plastic resins. Their recycling is therefore greatly limited”, explains Skytech in its press release.
“Tribo-electricity” at the service of the recovery of plastics
After eight years of research, initiated with the CNRS and then with the laboratories of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Skytech has developed an industrial process that gives new life to this plastic waste in the absence of sufficiently effective sorting solutions to this day.
This process is based on “tribo-electricity” technology and comprises three stages. The first consists in pre-treating the waste so that it is “free of pollutants and of a uniform size” for the transition to the next stage: “tribo-electricity” consisting in applying an electric field to sort complex mixtures of plastic waste from daily consumption, by making it float in water. What other sorting techniques fail to do.
Once separated by family, the different plastics are transformed into ready-to-use granules for manufacturers, similar to those made from virgin resins. Skytech explains that its know-how “meets the specifications of plastics processors and industrialists in multiple fields of application: automotive, electrical or electronic equipment, buildings and furniture.”
Greentech opened a site in Bonnières-sur-Seine, the production of which began in December 2020. Over the past year, the annual production capacity of this first factory was 10,000 tonnes. Skytech aims to increase this year to 35,000 tonnes with the opening of a new production site in Val-d’Hazey in the Eure department, in order to meet the sustained demand for its products.
Skytech anticipates in particular a rise in demand for recycled plastics under the effect of the closure of the borders of certain countries (including China) to the import of waste where Western countries used to export their plastic waste. . The increase in regulatory constraints that will be imposed by European states and the demand for eco-responsible products from the end consumer will lead manufacturers to increase the use of regenerated plastic.
A turnover of around 200 million euros by 2025
By 2025, Skytech is aiming for a turnover of around 200 million euros and an EBITDA margin of between 17 and 20%, before raising it to around 30% in 2030.
To achieve this, the company is counting on the opening of new production sites internationally (four factories projected in 2025 and at least six in 2030).
At the same time, the company intends to maintain its technological lead and strengthen its R&D policy. Skytech also intends to contain the increase in the selling price of its regenerated resins to remain competitive with so-called virgin resins.
Sabrina Sadgui
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