Our impact
Background
The SEA (Sud Europe Atlantique) is a new high-speed line parallel to existing congested inter-urban rail lines from Tours to Poitiers, Angoulême and Bordeaux (France’s 5th largest urban area)(1). The project is cutting down travel time on the 584km route between Paris and Bordeaux, making the door-to-door train journey faster than air travel. Approximately 21 million passengers travelled on the SEA corridor.
In 2011, Meridiam acquired SOJAS, which held at the time 22.34% of the shares in LISEA, the Project Company. Following the acquisition of an additional 2.01% (sold by Ardian) in October 2018, Meridiam owns 24.35% of the shares in LISEA.
The €905m bonds issued as part of the project refinancing were granted the “Green Bonds” label by V.E Moody’s, a global leader in ESG research.
LISEA launched foundations that have subsidized more than 300 projects (eur 10 million endowment) to foster sustainable growth:
Stage: 4 years of operation
Learn more about the project:
Green bonds to refinance the Paris-Bordeaux high-speed railway line
TGV High Speed Trains carry its first commercial passengers between Bordeaux and Paris
Passengers in 2019
from Paris to Bordeaux
(eur 10 million endowment) to foster sustainable growth
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