Aton per il Progetto

Who owns Aton per il Progetto?

Aton per il Progetto is an Italian Energy company, currently owned by Vauban Infrastructure Partners since 2016.

About Aton per il Progetto

Aton per il Progetto is an Italian energy-infrastructure concession company based in Udine that built, owns and operates a high-efficiency tri-generation cogeneration plant and the associated urban district heating network serving the city. The asset supplies heat, cooling and electricity to anchor public users, principally the Santa Maria della Misericordia hospital and the University of Udine, under a long-term concession, positioning the company as a core, availability-based utility rather than a merchant power producer. The trigeneration facility has a thermal capacity of roughly 38 MW, and the district heating grid extends approximately 10 km across Udine. The network has progressively connected additional public buildings, including three upper-secondary schools that together represent about 20 percent of total heat delivered, for an estimated 5,000 MWh per year, and it is presented as one of the first district heating schemes in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region.

Ownership journey

Aton per il Progetto was established in Udine in 2015 as the dedicated concession vehicle for the city's cogeneration and district heating scheme, delivering the service in partnership with an industrial facilities operator, Siram. Vauban Infrastructure Partners backed the company through its Core Infrastructure Fund I, holding the asset from 2016 as a long-duration core infrastructure investment aligned with the concession's availability-based, contracted cash flows. Vauban remains an active shareholder and the company is still held within the fund, and no exit or secondary transaction has been recorded. Consistent with a core infrastructure strategy, the ownership has been oriented toward operating the concession over its full term rather than a near-term disposal.

Under PE ownership

Under the investment the platform was managed for expansion, incremental connections and balance-sheet optimisation rather than radical repositioning. The district heating network was extended to further municipal users, including the connection of three upper-secondary schools in Udine, deepening utilisation of the trigeneration plant and delivering estimated cost savings for connected customers. In July 2022 the company refinanced roughly EUR 70 million of project debt through a facility provided by Natixis CIB and AG Insurance, combining long-term bank debt, a fixed-rate project bond and a debt service reserve facility, extending maturities and locking in fixed-rate funding for the concession. The refinancing reflected the asset's stabilised, contracted profile and supported continued operation and maintenance of the cogeneration and district heating infrastructure.