Whether Encevo has made a good or a bad deal is anyone’s guess until July 2024 and the next annual results. On Monday 17 July, the Luxembourg energy group announced in an that it had bought the Nexxtmove business of Belgian company Powerdale for an undisclosed sum.

The company was declared bankrupt on 27 June by the Brussels Commercial Court. And three or four of its major customers, including the Luxembourg-based Encevo, have been actively lobbying to buy back some of the company’s assets. Encevo was somewhat obliged to do so: the Nexxtmove platform is the one used for the Luxembourg network of 3,000 Chargy electric charging points.

“These activities take over the management, operation and exploitation of a platform, which manages on a daily basis some fifty thousand recharging points and as many users of electric recharging cards, as well as applications linked to electromobility. This application, which is used by major groups in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, among others, will be operated by diego Luxembourg S.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Encevo through Teseos Luxembourg,” explains the press release.

€18.6m turnover

Less than a month ago, the Belgian company announced not 50,000 but 80,000 users, 850 corporate customers and a turnover in 2022 of €18.6m (+50% compared with 2021).

The links between the Belgian company and the Luxembourg operator date back to 2018, when Nexxtlab was set up in Luxembourg, and to which Creos--consolidated in the Encevo group--and the Belgians contributed €500,000. Last March, after another year of deficits (almost €500,000 in losses carried forward), the two parties put €900,000 back into the machine, €450,000 euros each (i.e., a modest €950,000 for the Encevo group) to enable the 14 employees to continue their activity.

According to the group’s annual reports, Nexxtlab also benefited from a credit of €130,000 per year. “Nexxtlab is not directly affected by Powerdale’s bankruptcy,” says Encevo. “It is a 50-50 subsidiary of Creos Luxembourg and EM2, Powerdale's parent company.”

“,” the two partners enthused on Creosnews in 2019. “Following the launch of this project, we quickly asked ourselves whether we could go further and act more effectively to accelerate the energy transition sought by our government,” commented Alex Michels, chairman of Nexxtlab and head of asset management at Creos. “We organised brainstorming workshops with Powerdale’s management. These led to the creation of Nexxtlab, a flexible structure halfway between an ideas laboratory and a startup, capable of bringing innovative projects to fruition in a short timeframe for network operators.”

“With more than 3,000 publicly accessible charging points for a total fleet of more than 30,000 registered electric cars, the grand duchy continues to have one of the densest charging networks in the European Union. It is vital that the number of charging stations continues to grow in line with the number of electric vehicles. What’s more, ultra-fast charging stations like this one at the Pontpierre area are crucial for long-distance journeys across Europe in a 100% electric car,” commented transport minister (déi Gréng) on 27 June as the first public SuperChargy . It’s the same day that the Belgian firm Powerdale declared bankruptcy.

This article was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.