Founded in 2005, aventron is an independent green power producer based in Münchenstein, in the Swiss canton of Basel-Landschaft. Until 2010, aventron was a holding company of several Swiss energy supply companies. After a capital increase, the company went public and launched an internationalisation strategy. In 2015, the company was already able to report a 160 MW portfolio.
Now, just about five years later, aventron AG already has a highly diversified 600 MW portfolio.
Antoine, you have been CEO of aventron since 2013 and have played a key role in shaping the company’s success story. How was it possible to ensure the impressive growth of the last few years?
Millioud:“On the one hand, thanks to our strategy: the focused diversification we have pursued has proven its worth. We invest in 3 technologies and 6 countries and stick to them. This clear line helps us enormously to concentrate on our profession and to understand exactly what we do. Our focus is on onshore wind, small hydro and PV and on Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Norway. This variability has allowed us to take advantage of different windows of opportunity.
At the same time, however, we have been able to focus on our core technologies and thus acquire in-depth expertise, for example in the area of small hydropower plants, and apply this successfully, for example in Norway. The second reason for our growth is that we have been able to realise capital increases almost every year.“
How was aventron able to secure such a regular flow of investment opportunities?
Millioud:“This is due to our continuous, transparent and in-depth review of all investments. We check our own power plants in as much detail as we check external power plants. This is the cornerstone of our investors’ trust. Above all, we see it as our duty to protect the interests of our investors. We do this extremely reliably and can thus build on mutual trust.“
How could greenmatch help aventron AG on this path of growth?
Millioud:“greenmatch Valuation is essential for us to ensure a systematic review of our projects based in different countries and using different technologies. It is also essential for us in order to spread the knowledge evenly throughout the team. New employees are trained on greenmatch and thus receive an additional finance education based on greenmatch. All employees working in project evaluation have to use greenmatch. It is particularly important for me to know how projects have been modelled. I need to be able to quickly track all projects and be sure that they have been modelled in a consistent way, regardless of who did the modelling. With greenmatch, this quality assurance is continuously possible and, above all, the technology- and country-independent reliability is always given. That is why we continue to rely on our partnership with greenmatch to achieve our goal of the 1 GW portfolio.“
We would like to thank Antoine Millioud for this insight into aventron’s successful company history and look forward to continuing our close partnership on the path to a 100% renewable future.
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Antoine Millioud is CEO of aventron AG
