Investments and industrial partnership with Asian players might save Safra hydrogen bus business

French hydrogen bus maker Safra is facing a challenging period but is now finalizing a partnership with an Asian manufacturer, poised to bring capital to accelerate its industrial growth.

The group is split in three distinct entities. Family holding company and shopfitting subsidiary, Safra Agencement, has entered a six-month observation period under receivership due to sharp decline in revenues—from €13 million in 2022 to €3.5 million in 2023.

Safra is discussing raising investment from Asia

Meanwhile, Safra Automobile, the group’s arm for bodywork repairs and auto mechanics, remains steady. After shutting down its national operations in 2022 to concentrate on local customers, the unit recorded €2.5 million in sales in 2023, sustained by a team of 25 employees.

However, Safra SA, the group’s hydrogen bus division, has so far placed several hydrogen-powered Businova H2 buses on the road and secured 50 orders for its next-generation Hycity model. Despite a drop in turnover from €12 million in 2022 to €7 million in 2023, the division has raised €30 million in funding between 2021 and 2024, as mentioned on Les Echoes, while losing almost €10 million a year since 2021.

The group announced this week that it had entered into discussions with a consortium ‘to finalise the raising of several tens of millions of euros with an Asian investment fund by the end of the year’. The deal will be accompanied by an industrial partnership with a unnamed major Asian bus manufacturer, possibly Chinese, looking to expand into Europe, still according to Les Echoes.