EP2C acquires Oakridge: independent nuclear engineering consultancy joins the Toulouse-based group

EP2C, technical assistance for major projects worldwide

Based in Balma, on the outskirts of Toulouse, EP2C is a group specialising in technical assistance for major infrastructure projects around the world, organised into three divisions — EP2C Energy, founded in 2014, EP2C Life Sciences, created in 2022, and EP2C Nucléaire, launched in 2023. The unlisted group — backed by iXO Private Equity as a minority shareholder — generated EUR 85m in revenue in 2024 with 900 employees, more than 300 new assignments a year and a presence in around fifty countries, on a published trajectory of over 30% annual growth since 2014. Its strategy combines geographic expansion — from Singapore to Brazil — with deeper specialisation through successive acquisitions: Pharmconcept in 2023, Cabinet Russier in 2025 and now Oakridge, the engineering consultancy that lifts the nuclear division to the rank of a reference player.

Oakridge, an independent nuclear engineering consultancy

Based in Orléans, Oakridge is an independent engineering consultancy recognised in the nuclear industry, serving a client base that reflects its unusual position: reactor operators, industrial firms in the sector, research centres — and the nuclear safety authorities themselves. Its revenue is not disclosed, but its recognition is: in March 2025 the company was selected for the second cohort of the Nuclear Accelerator (Accélérateur du nucléaire), the programme run by Bpifrance, the French public investment bank, and backed by the State and the leading players of the French nuclear industry — the public seal of sector excellence. Founded and led by Cyrille Molina, it joins the group under a continuity structure published in its corporate filings: EP2C Group now chairs its governance, while the founder's holding company holds the general management — the expertise stays in charge.

What the press said

The deal, announced in mid-December 2025, is documented by the acquirer's bilingual press release and the French business press:

Why this nuclear engineering acquisition, and why this target

For EP2C, the aim was to move up the nuclear value chain: its dedicated division, created in 2023, brought execution skills — engineering, project management, construction, maintenance — but the revival of the industry is played out higher up, where independent expertise carries authority. The ambition is stated in the press release: "to become a key player in the nuclear field" — and combining with Oakridge is the means to it, bringing the group what cannot be built in two years: the standing of an independent consultancy established across the whole industry, from operators to safety authorities, and an engineering culture that complements its deployment capacity — 900 employees, around fifty countries, more than 300 new assignments a year.

On the target side, Oakridge brought the rarest asset in the industry: independent credibility. An engineering consultancy whose client base — reactor operators, industrial firms, research centres, safety authorities — shows that its expertise is a reference on both sides of the table; a recent, verifiable public recognition, its selection for the second cohort of Bpifrance's Nuclear Accelerator, alongside the players the State and the industry regard as the future of the sector; and a founder-CEO, Cyrille Molina, whose commitment to what comes next is written into the deal structure itself — his holding company holds the general management of the combined company. In a business where value lies in the experts' signature, this published continuity is the decisive asset of the deal.

The nuclear revival makes skills the new bottleneck

This deal illustrates the turnaround of the French nuclear industry: between the life extension of the existing fleet, the new reactor programme and the emergence of small modular reactors, the industry is changing scale — and its constraint is no longer political but human: safety engineers, decommissioning experts and nuclear project managers are the scarce resource of a sector that hired little for two decades. The State itself is structuring the ramp-up — Bpifrance's Nuclear Accelerator, which recognised the target, is one of its instruments — while technical services groups consolidate to offer clients platforms able to mobilise expertise at programme scale.

The deal also tells the story of an unusual French mid-sized company: a Toulouse technical assistance group that, in ten years and with over 30% annual growth, moved from energy to life sciences and then to nuclear — three acquisitions in three years, Pharmconcept, Cabinet Russier and Oakridge, each lifting a division. The consolidation is domestic — from Balma to Orléans — but its reach is not: it is French nuclear expertise, the very expertise the global industry comes looking for, that a fifty-country platform now enables to export. And the transfer takes place through an alliance rather than an outright sale: the consultancy's founder remains in operational charge, his expertise becoming the core of the group's nuclear division.

How Collaboration Capital added value on this buy-side mandate

On this deal, Collaboration Capital acted as buy-side adviser. An acquisition in nuclear engineering unfolds in four stages — and the nature of the asset, an expert signature recognised even by the safety authorities, places specific demands on each of them.