In the largest private placement in Europe this year, H2 Green Steel has raised €1.5 billion in equity from an investor group led by Altor, GIC, Hy24 and Just Climate. The round will finance the world’s first large-scale green steel plant and Europe’s first giga-scale electrolyser.

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 through this transaction H2 Green Steel takes another big leap towards start of operations end of 2025.

The plant will deliver steel with up to 95 percent less 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 Europe’s largest electrolyser, using electricity from renewable sources. Next-generation technology and digitalisation, along with an unmatched approach to both circularity and recycling will make the steel plant the first of its kind.

This marks the start of industrial scale decarbonisation of basic materials production

“This marks the start of industrial scale decarbonisation 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. €1.5 billion is the largest private placement in Europe this year and the appetite to invest in H2 Green Steel proves both our solid 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”, says Carl-Erik Lagercrantz, vice chairman of H2 Green Steel.

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.