In the largest private placement in Europe this year, H2 Green Steel has raised over €1bn for a GW-scale electrolyser project in Sweden.
The developer has raised €1.5bn in equity from an investor group led by Altor, GIC, Hy24 and Just Climate.
The proceeds will finance the construction and development of H2 Green Steel’s flagship large-scale green steel plant in Boden, Sweden. Groundworks have been ongoing on site in Boden since summer 2022 and H2 Green Steel is working towards start of operations end of 2025.
The private placement is co-led by new investor Hy24, together with existing investors Altor, GIC and Just Climate.
The transaction also includes new investors Andra AP -fonden and Temasek as well as a group of existing investors that continue to support H2 Green Steel with additional equity funding, including AMF, Cristina Stenbeck, Hitachi Energy, IMAS Foundation, Kinnevik, Schaeffler, Vargas and Wallenberg Investments holding company FAM.
The plant will deliver steel with up to 95% fewer CO2 emissions compared to steel produced with traditional blast furnace technology.
This is made possible by replacing coal in the production process with hydrogen, produced on-site with an electrolyser, using electricity from renewable sources.
“This marks the start of industrial scale decarbonization of basic materials production.
“The sector will require substantial investments over the coming decades to enable our customers to produce green end products and, thereby, meet their climate targets.
“We hope this financing will contribute towards accelerating the much needed, broad participation of capital markets in the transformation of hard-to-abate industries”, said Otto Gernandt, CFO of H2 Green Steel.
Since launch in 2021, H2 Green Steel has raised more than €1.8bn in equity in three financing rounds.
The company closed its series A equity round of €86m in May 2021 and announced the close of its series B1 round of €260m in October 2022.
On the debt side, H2 Green Steel announced in 2022 the structure for its debt financing of over €3.5bn and renewed commitment letters in July 2023.
Morgan Stanley acted as sole financial advisor to H2 Green Steel in the private placement.