Trends and BNP Paribas Fortis highlight the performance of a Belgian financial director with this award, which was presented for the eleventh time on 1 June. Recticel won the 'Deal of the Year' award.

_{Photographer: Christophe Ketels}

Karim Hajjar, CFO of the Solvay Chemicals and Materials Group, accepted the 'CFO of the Year' award at the Brussels Expo on Wednesday evening following Ingrid Daerden from Aedifica. The 59-year-old Brit has been the financial rock in Solvay’s branding for nine years, and has helped transform the traditional chemical group into a world player in high-tech plastics.

Fighting spirit and drive

In 2013, Hajjar joined Solvay as CFO. He first worked under CEO Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, with whom he completed over fifty deals. Since 2019, Hajjar, a father of five, has been assisting Clamadieu's successor Ilham Kadri through the pandemic and other crises, and streamlining the group. As part of this streamlining, a breakup of Solvay is planned for the second half of next year. One part, provisionally called EssentialCo, would include historical activities such as soda ash and the Silica branch, which focuses on the car tyre sector. The other part, SpecialCo, will include the fast-growing special polymers for

smartphones, the composite business in the aerospace and automotive industries, among others. “A no-brainer”, says Hajjar, who has faced much hotter fires in his life. Born in Beirut, he grew up during the Lebanese civil war. His family lost everything, which formed the breeding ground for Hajjar's fighting spirit and drive.

Karim Hajjar won out over four other strong candidates: Kristiaan De Beukelaer (Media House), Maud Larochette (N-Side), Geert Peeters (Greenyard) and Johan Vankelecom (Belfius).

Recticel wins the 'Deal of the Year 2022'

For the fourth time Trends also awarded a 'Deal of the Year' award. All mergers, acquisitions and capital operations (stock market introduction, capital increase, private placement, etc.) involving a Belgian company in 2021 were eligible. The most important criterion is the financial and strategic added value that the operation created for the stakeholders.

There were five deals in the running, and the one from Recticel emerged as the winner. This major player in polyurethane solutions is active in the furniture, automotive and construction sectors and sold its Engineered Foams division to the American company Carpenter for a final net proceeds of 606 million euros. This was an exceptionally strategic operation, with which Recticel was able to avert a hostile takeover attempt by the Austrian Greiner.

Partnership

Since 2012, BNP Paribas Fortis and Trends have been putting the spotlight on the exceptional qualities of a CFO of a top 500 company in Belgium. In 2019, the 'Deal of the Year' award was created. Because rewarding and encouraging contributors to our economy is also Positive Banking.

Congratulations to the winning CFO, the team behind the winning “Deal of the Year” and to all the other candidates.

Read the full interview with Karim Hajjar, CFO of Solvay (Dutch, French), and Olivier Chapelle, CEO of Recticel (Dutch, French).

With this award, which was presented on 20 October for the tenth year in a row, Trends and BNP Paribas Fortis are highlighting the achievements of a Belgian CFO.

Ingrid Daerden of Aedifica won the award this year, succeeding Nicolas De Clercq of Kinepolis. She owes this to a miracle 2020 in which, despite corona, Aedifica raised more than 700 million euro and got a Bel-20 listing.

In addition, the Walloon biotech group Univercells received the award for ‘Deal of the Year 2021’. Univercells raised 120 million euro from a number of prestigious investors and is preparing an IPO.

Ingrid Daerden’s great track record at Aedifica

The jury named Ingrid Daerden ‘CFO of the Year’ because of her contribution to the strategic development and financing of Aedifica’s growth. Since she joined Aedifica as CFO three years ago, the healthcare real estate specialist has enjoyed remarkable growth. During that time, the 47-year-old commercial engineer paved the way for seamless financing and built her finance team into a solid foundation for Aedifica’s growth. In 2020, the healthcare real estate company became a fixture on the Bel-20, raising over 700 million euro in capital. In June this year, it raised another 286 million euro, and in September Aedifica issued a 500-million-euro bond. In times of COVID-19 this all went smoothly. The jury also saw the integration of sustainability and ESG criteria in the financial policy.

Ingrid Daerden won over four other outstanding candidates: Charles Jacques of Masthercell, Jean-Pierre Mellen of Recticel, Nadia Messaaoui of Technord and Geert Peeters of Greenyard.

Univercells wins the 'Deal of the Year 2021'

For the third time, Trends also awarded a prize for the ‘Deal of the Year’. All mergers or acquisitions and capital operations (initial public offering, capital increase, private placement, etc.) in which a Belgian company was involved in 2020 qualify for this award. Univercells received the award. The Walloon biotech group managed to persuade KKR, an American investment company, and funds linked to the foundations of Bill and Melinda Gates and Georges Soros, to enter into its capital. This complex operation earned Univercells the ‘Deal of the Year 2021’ award.

Partnership

Since 2012, BNP Paribas Fortis and Roularta have been highlighting the exceptional qualities of CFOs in Top 500 companies in Belgium. The jury’s choice is primarily determined by the strategic vision and leadership shown.

Read the full interview with Ingrid Daerden, CFO of Aedifica (FR-NL), and with Hugues Bultot, CEO of Univercells, and Vincent Vanderborght, CFO of Univercells (FR-NL).

Source: Trends

Producing biogas through fermentation of agricultural waste? That is exactly what they do at Biomethane du Bois d'Arnelle, Belgium's largest production facility in Hainaut.

You can spot the three large grey domes and a cone-shaped roof from a distance in the countryside around Frasnes-lez-Gosselies. This is a biogas production unit. It took its creator and CEO, Jérôme Breton, 12 years to complete this project due to the lack of a legal and administrative framework. But today, the unit is operational, producing 70,000 MWh of energy.

Turning food waste into biomethane

"We recycle food waste and agricultural materials, livestock manure, straw, beet leaves, peelings, etc. from farmers in a 15-km radius around the site", says Jérôme Breton. "We work with 100 farmers for whom this represents additional income. In digesters, i.e., concrete tanks that are heated to 40°C, bacteria digest the material and produce biogas, consisting of 45% CO₂ and 55% CH₄ methane. We recover this biomethane through filtration, before injecting it into the natural gas distribution network. Fermented matter or digestate, a black liquid that is rich in organic matter, which is very nutritious for crops, is spread as a fertiliser in the surrounding region, where it is used to permanently store CO₂ in the soil and completely replaces chemical fertilisers."

Unrivalled performance

About 15% of the biogas is converted into electricity and heat, half of which is used for the unit’s own needs. The remaining 85% is purified and transformed into biomethane. Once it has been injected into the grid, this biomethane can be used as fuel or as a raw material for petrochemicals. It can also be used to power turbines, and the heat generated can be recovered, just like in a car engine. “While a cogeneration engine, which produces electricity and heat simultaneously, has a total efficiency of between 40 and 80%, our system allows 99.5% of the biogas produced to be injected into the grid”, the young entrepreneur explains. "The pressure varies in a distribution network. That way, the infrastructure can absorb injections without the need for additional investments to store them."

Growing to valorise

The company also grows maize, beets and cereals to valorise them as biogas: "We made a deliberate choice to grow 600 hectares of energy crops to offer farmers a complementary diversification pathway. This accounts for 30% of our raw materials. These crops are stored to allow us to 'smooth' the inflows into our digesters, which depend on agricultural and food activity, on a seasonal basis."

BNP Paribas Fortis, the only bank with such advanced skills

Jérôme Breton says the project would not have been possible without the support of BNP Paribas Fortis. "We would not have gotten funding if it wasn't for the work of their expert. It is the only bank to have such high-level skills in-house. All the other partners also benefited from the analyses and information that he provided to us! A strong, lasting relationship of trust has developed as a result. In my model, I didn't want to rely on public financing for what I do. At the same time, I wanted to produce at the right prices. We produce and sell our biomethane at 100 euros per megawatt hour, while market prices were close to 350 euros last August."

Entrepreneurial success

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we are particularly proud to be supporting passionate, inspiring entrepreneurs. Because building the entrepreneurship of the future together is also an example of Positive Banking!

Elessent EMEIA is on a mission to make the chemical industry more environmentally friendly and sustainable through innovative methods and cleaner production processes.

"We strive to create cleaner, carbon-free production processes for our customers. Innovation is at the heart of what we do", says Sara Alvarez, Finance Manager at Elessent EMEAI. "We suggest less polluting alternatives to traditional industrial methods, allowing our customers to continue to develop products that are essential to our daily lives while significantly minimising their impact on the environment, particularly in terms of pollutants and CO₂ emissions."

4 key technologies

The metals, fertiliser, chemical and refinery industries make up the majority of the company’s customers, with Elessent EMEAI able to deliver complete turnkey production sites. Tjaart Van Der Walt, Director of Elessent EMEAI: "We have four flagship technologies. The first concerns the manufacture of a compound that is widely used in industry, from fertiliser manufacturers to pigment plants, namely sulphuric acid. This is obtained by burning sulphur. We have 90 years of expertise in site design – we have delivered more than a thousand sites – and process and energy recovery. These processes will be key to producing cleaner batteries."

Increased quality and yield

The company also has alkylation technologies (a reaction that is commonly used in organic chemistry) which is used to produce high octane fuels, for more efficient engines. These compounds are valuable for the petrochemical and refinery industries. "We operate at more than 100 alkylation sites around the world", continues Van Der Walt. "And 25 hydrocarbon hydrotreating sites. This is a crucial step in the refining process, during which some elements are removed from the oil. This includes reducing sulphur and nitrogen content to improve stability. Our proprietary soft hydrocracking technology allows us to recover more value from crude oil."

In addition to these processes, which optimise the quality and yield of hydrocarbons, the company also has “wet scrubbing” technologies, which are very effective in fume treatment.

Financial support and real industry expertise

"Our business is growing on a global scale. For our international expansion, we need the constant support of our bank, BNP Paribas Fortis, which, in addition to assisting us with the financial aspects, contributes its in-depth expertise in our industry", Sara Alvarez explains. "This cooperation is crucial in Morocco, Tunisia, India and South Africa, for example. For our long-term investments in these countries, we benefit from our bank’s advice, particularly in terms of resources and guarantees of payment: secured transactions, letters of credit, etc. The same goes for hedging currency risk, which is essential in the context of volatility. This partnership allows us to continue our international expansion."

Entrepreneurial success

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we are particularly proud to be supporting passionate, inspiring entrepreneurs. Because building the entrepreneurship of the future together is also an example of Positive Banking!

Founded in 1974 in Genk, Nitto is now one of the most sustainable companies in the world. By 2045 - five years before Europe -, the company wants to become carbon neutral.

Although Nitto leads by example in terms of sustainability, the public doesn't know the company or its products. "This makes perfect sense because we operate in the B2B segment", explains Sam Strijckmans, CEO of Nitto for Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA). "Our products are mainly used in production processes or as part of a finished product, so there is no direct link with the end consumer. In Genk, we produce industrial adhesive tapes that are used in cars and a range of other applications. That's why we are relatively unknown."

Laptops, tablets and smartphones

But the Nitto Group's presence in our daily lives is very real. Consumer electronics account for more than 50% of its global turnover. "We produce polarising films for all electronic devices with or without touch screen: flat screens, laptops, tablets, smart watches or (foldable) smartphones.
This means that most of the major mobile phone manufacturers are Nitto customers", he says. But there's more: Nitto is also a supplier of the automotive, pharmaceutical, steel, glass, furniture and personal care industries. The Nitto range consists of more than 13,500 products for a wide range of industries.

Platinum medal

In early 2022, EcoVadis, a rating agency that assesses corporate sustainability, awarded Nitto a platinum medal. "We are one of the most sustainable companies in the world. We are very committed to the European Green Deal, a set of initiatives aimed at making the European Union climate neutral by 2050. In fact, we are even more ambitious than the EU, as our goal is to be fully carbon neutral by 2045", Sam Strijckmans says. The Nitto CEO is strongly convinced that sustainability and entrepreneurship can go hand in hand. "Our planet has enough energy, in the form of water, sun and wind, to meet all our needs. The real challenge lies in capturing, storing and distributing this energy. The only answer to this is technological innovation, something to which Nitto is contributing.”

Optimising production processes

Nitto is continuously improving its production processes to ensure that they are more environment-friendly. "The production of protective films and adhesive tapes is a good example of our approach. The glue we use is made from petroleum solvents; when it cures, these solvents evaporate. Under the new method that we adopted, the new solvents that we distil from these vapours can be re-injected into the circuit. That way, we recover 60% of the solvents we use! Soon we will achieve zero emissions, by replacing petroleum solvents with inorganic material, but we are still experimenting with this process", he adds. In terms of electricity, the Nitto EMEA Group has gone 100% green. "But we want to go one step further. The real challenge is not to buy green electricity, but to reduce our energy requirements." Nitto has also succeeded in reducing the ecological footprint of its workforce, with a green car policy and electric lease bikes. "Any company can do this", he is quick to stress.

Energy-efficient products

Developing and offering more sustainable solutions to its customers is another major challenge for Nitto. "Here's an example. On the back of many refrigerators, you still have an evaporator, which looks like a grill. Sometimes this component will ice up, activating a heating element that defrosts it. But this is a very energy-consuming process. We have developed a coating which, when applied to the evaporator, reduces the risk of icing. The heating element is thus activated less frequently, reducing energy consumption in the process. This can amount to a reduction of 165 grammes of CO₂ per day for a fridge, or 60 kilogrammes a year. This may not seem much, but if you bear in mind that there are still two million European refrigerators with evaporators, this boils down to a total reduction of 120,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year", says Nitto EMEA's CEO.

Sustainability engrained in the company's DNA 

BNP Paribas Fortis has been Nitto’s financial partner for several decades. According to Sam Strijckmans, this makes perfect sense: "The bank shares our environment-friendly philosophy. Sustainability is ingrained in their DNA, and ours too. The new BNP Paribas Fortis headquarters, which are almost energy-neutral, are ample proof of this. And so is socially responsible investment (SRI), thanks to the bank's very broad range of sustainable financial products. But we also look to the bank for inspiration, for example through the organisation of seminars and panel discussions on eco-conscious leadership."

Entrepreneurial success

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we are particularly proud to be supporting passionate, inspiring entrepreneurs. Because building the entrepreneurship of the future together is also an example of Positive Banking!