H2 Green Steel attracts EUR 1.5bn for pioneering green steel plant

H2 Green Steel has raised about EUR 1.5 billion (USD 1.6bn) in equity to advance construction of the world’s first large-scale green steel plant in Boden, Sweden, which will include Europe’s first giga-scale electrolyser.

Groundwork activities at the Boden site have been in progress since the summer of 2022 and the fundraise represents a big step towards the plant’s start-up at the end of 2025, the company said today.

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The equity round, said to be Europe’s largest private placement this year, was co-led by new investor Hy24, a joint venture between private investment house Ardian and FiveT Hydrogen. This is the biggest investment for Hy24's hydrogen infrastructure fund so far.

The investment was also led by existing investors private equity firm Altor, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and climate-led investment business Just Climate.

The transaction also brought in new investors Andra AP -fonden and Temasek, along with continued support from existing investors AMF, Cristina Stenbeck, Hitachi Energy, IMAS Foundation, Kinnevik, Schaeffler, Vargas and Wallenberg Investments holding company FAM.

The green steel plant will replace coal in the production process with hydrogen, which will be generated on-site. H2 Green Steel has signed a contract with Thyssenkrupp Nucera AG & Co KGaA (ETR:NCH2) to reserve electrolyser production capacity of 700 MW for the plant in Boden.

The Swedish firm’s chief executive Henrik Henriksson said the appetite to invest in H2 Green Steel proves both its business case and the market demand for green steel.

“We hope this financing will contribute towards accelerating the much needed, broad participation of capital markets in the transformation of hard-to-abate industries,” added chief financial officer Otto Gernandt.

Since its creation in 2021, H2 Green Steel has secured more than EUR 1.8 billion of equity, including an EUR-86-million series A equity round and a EUR-260-million series B1 round.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.073)