Orège is a clean-tech company founded in 2006 and listed on Euronext in 2013. It has developed an innovative, patented technology (SLG) to significantly reduce sludge treatment costs and improve environmental sustainability of the treatment process.
Investment summary
Orège’s proprietary and patented SLG technology reduces sludge treatment costs for utilities by up to 80%, with a strong investment case for clients (payback period <3 years) and large environmental sustainability advantages. We estimate a €439m pa addressable market for SLG technology in North America, UK, Germany and France. In July Orège announced the results of its rights issue, with €39.6m subscribed (€33.9m through the conversion of a receivable by Eren Industries and €5.7m in cash) which will be used to strengthen its balance sheet and accelerate commercial development. Following H1 results highlighting delays in the UK commercial development, we reduced our forecasts to reflect our assumption of a one-year delay in the revenue ramp-up for Orège. An acceleration of revenue growth would be the main catalyst for a potential re-rating.
SLG offers a technological innovation to a market characterised by well-established and consolidated technologies. Frost&Sullivan estimates the market for the business areas where Orège operates generates $9.5bn revenues pa (excluding services associated with the equipment sale, which we estimate at 50–100% of the equipment business). Global Water and Intelligence estimates the global wastewater market is growing 5–6% pa.
