Nicolas Bargelès — When you put together a project like Midnight Trains, you never have a vacation. In any case, no real vacation. It’s not the kind of project you leave behind when you slam your office door to abandon yourself to August’s delights. Nor one that vanishes as soon as you put on a swimsuit. Especially when you’re still without an answer. It’s one we need to complete the financing, which has been full of twists and turns worthy of a suspense novel. Of course, we don't just enjoy the sun or the fresh mountain air. We have a small holiday to-do list which consists of moving forward on the various ongoing files. We communicate with the manufacturer, with certain strategic partners and our future financiers when necessary. The latter continue to carry out what are called due diligence checks. Or the checks prior to any major investment. It was all very standard. Until the next bombshell dropped.
Romain Payet — Indeed, on August 29th 2023, the investment bank received an email from the Northern European infrastructure fund, which unofficially gave us all the green lights. Essentially, it says their investment committee was finally able to examine our file while thinking, more generally, about the question of railway investments. The members of the committee were impressed by our business plan, as well as by the work of its managers (so were we, but this is not to boast, believe me). But – you can predict what came next – it’s impossible for them to invest in our company. Two main reasons for this. On the one hand, they believe Midnight Trains is too young. Too start-up. On the other, they believe there’s still too much to accomplish in terms of the acquisition of rolling stock, lifting the bank debt and negotiating the contract and conditions of train rental. Things which are all the more difficult to accomplish without the support of such an infrastructure fund. Finally, and this is perhaps the hardest pill to swallow, they add that generally they’re ready and willing to take risks. Just not one that involves investing in Midnight Trains.
Let's be real, the news is hard to take. At first we feel bitter. We’ve learned the hard way that there’s often a gap between our contacts within the funds and the decision-makers at the top. The former quickly gets fired up, while the latter is known to rationalise. The latter places no personal affect or interest in the projects they examine. They could take a cold, hard look at things. But in this specific case, the discrepancy is painful for us. The second feeling, which comes immediately after, is guilt regarding our shareholders. Almost two months ago, we presented them with a solid case. We asked them for enough money to last six months. And when we come back to them on August 31st 2023, it’s to tell them very bad news. We obviously never lied to them. But perhaps we should have waited a bit to ask them. Finally, the third feeling: this infrastructure fund was only one of the wheels of the team. Thanks to the extension of our shareholders, we still have four to five months ahead to replace it. Because our other future investors – the majority fund on the OpCo and the French public fund – aren’t letting us go. They have remained by our side despite this setback, so we have to get back in the saddle.
Adrien Aumont — You will not have missed this, these criticisms feel like déjà vu. We got some of them before this fund. Again and again. Starting with the most unbearable of all, in our eyes, that we’re “too start-up”. Because we’re new in the sector. Because we don't have any assets yet. And because we’re looking to disrupt part of the market. In the comments, we hear traces of certain historic railway operators: night trains are a niche, and abandoned because they’re too complex and expensive to run. To which we respond that it’s an innovative model, far from the ways our predecessors did things: on markets much larger than small land development lines, with a hybrid product between transport and hotels. Midnight Trains is a fresh take on this part of the railway world, which is hard to swallow for large funds with little knowledge of the sector. So we make two radical decisions. The first: strengthen our file so it no longer resembles that of a start-up. The second: exclusively approach market expert investors.
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