Plug Power Inc (PLUG)

[WeTheMarket]

HY24 PARTNERS SUCCEEDS IN RAISING WORLD’S LARGEST ROUND OF FINANCING IN HYDROGEN SECTOR
By Anela Dokso
January 13, 2023
https://energynews.biz/hy24-partners-succeeds-in-raising-worlds-largest-round-of-financing-in-hydrogen-sector/

Hy24 Partners is a recently established joint venture between FiveT Hydrogen and Ardian, the top private investment firm in the world. FiveT Hydrogen is the investment partner and investor member of the Hydrogen Council who enables clean hydrogen.

The goal of Hy24 is to support the global deployment of the hydrogen energy vector by making investments across the whole clean hydrogen value chain, beginning with infrastructure, one of the most difficult components of market scale up.

In light of this, Hy24 established “The Clean H2 Infra Fund,” a €2 billion infrastructure fund devoted to investing in vital infrastructures, and closed it within a year. The Fund will make investments in a variety of initiatives, ranging from upstream ones like the production of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen to downstream ones like captive fleet and refueling facilities.

The fund’s portfolio is geographically diversified (Europe, Americas and Asia). With the help of its major strategic investors, a seasoned team with a track record in those industries, and a unique combination of financial firepower (leveraging on debt, subsidies, and co-investment) and sector know-how, Hy24 hopes to mobilize up to €20 billion of investment capacity over the next six years.

COMBINATION OF FINANCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL INVESTORS

The founding anchor investors, Air Liquide, VINCI Concessions, TotalEnergies, Plug Power, Chart Industries, and Baker Hughes, contributed to the foundation of the Fund. Since then, it has drawn more than 50 notable investors from 13 nations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, including significant industrial businesses, banks, pension funds, and insurance companies. LOTTE Chemical, Airbus, Snam, Enagás, GRTgaz (joined as an anchor partner), and CMA CGM Group are a few examples of industrial anchor investors. AXA, Crédit Agricole Assurances, CCR, Allianz, CDPQ, JBIC, and Border to Coast Pensions Partnership are a few examples of financial anchor investors. ERAFP, Nuveen, Ballard, Schaeffler, Société Générale Assurances, Groupe ADP, EDF, Norinchukin, Caisse des dépôts, DBJ, Itochu, Groupama, and BBVA are some more significant investors. The majority of these benevolent industrial firms are Hydrogen Council members.

Given that 50% of the Fund’s commitments are made by industrial investors, which is unusual for businesses that typically deploy their own hydrogen projects, this exceptional group of financial and industrially significant investors gives Hy24 a unique position within the ecosystem.

FROM DESIRE TO ACTION

The money obtained through the Fund has already begun to be used: The Fund took part in the €110 million fundraising effort of H2 MOBILITY Deutschland, the company in charge of running the largest hydrogen station network in Europe. The Fund additionally took part in Hy2Gen’s €200 million funding round as a producer of decarbonized hydrogen and its derivatives with assets in France, Germany, Norway, and Canada. A 30% investment in Enagás Renovable, a top developer of renewable hydrogen projects and a subsidiary of Enagás, the operator of the Spanish Transmission System, has also been bought by the Fund.

Unprecedented growth in the hydrogen sector is being backed in large part by government agencies that are establishing the market’s legal foundation. In order to compete with European incentives and packages, the Biden Administration in the US signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August, giving the clean hydrogen economy a significant boost.