PARIS (Reuters) – A year and a half after leaving the management of Eurazeo, Virginie Morgon is launching her private equity firm dedicated to the “transition towards a sustainable economy” and called Ardabelle Capital, the company said in a statement on Friday.

Ardabelle Capital, which will be based between Paris and New York, aims to raise €500 million in 2025 to launch a first fund focused on “carbon and environmental transformation” targeting mid-sized companies involved in the value chains of “major consumer brands”.

This fund should comply with Article 9 of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which requires the publication of certain environmental or social information.

Ardabelle intends to help fill what it identifies as a gap in private equity in the environmental transition. By working with players in the value chain of large groups, it intends to influence “scope 3”, i.e. indirect greenhouse gas emissions, emitted upstream or downstream of their activities, which constitutes the largest source of emissions in most sectors of activity.

In France, the law requires large companies to quantify these “scope 3” emissions, but this quantification, which is complex, often remains incomplete.

To launch Ardabelle Capital, Virginie Morgon surrounded herself with the former human resources director of Danone Bertrand Austruy, a former head of environmental strategy at Suez, Noemie Flammarion, the former financial director of the World Economic Forum Julien Gattoni as well as Cara Kennedy-Cuomo, who comes from impact investing.

According to Ardabelle’s statement, all four will be “co-founders” and partners alongside him. Two other partners, whose names have not been made public, are participating in the project.

A recognized figure in French finance, Virginie Morgon left Eurazeo in February 2023 following disagreements with the group’s main shareholder, the Decaux family.

(Written by Florence Loève, edited by Blandine Hénault and Sophie Louet)

Copyright © 2024 Thomson Reuters