The Hy24 fund dedicated to investment in decarbonated hydrogen infrastructure has raised two billion euros, “more than initially planned”, to finance the development of the hydrogen industry, said Monday its CEO Pierre-Etienne Franc when announcing the closing of the fund.
The Hy24 fund, a joint venture between the FiveT Hydrogen investment platform and the Ardian fund, is unique in that it brings together leading industrial players in equal numbers with financial investors, mainly from France, the United States, Japan, Korea, Spain and Germany.
On the industrial side, Air Liquide, TotalEnergies, Vinci, Airbus, EDF, GRTGaz, Enagas, Plug Power, Chart Industries, Baker Hughes and Lotte Chemical are contributing their financial and technological expertise.
On the financial side, Axa, Crédit Agricole Assurances, Allianz, Caisse des Dépôts, Société Générale, the Japanese development bank DBJ, the Spanish banking group BBVA and the American asset manager Nuveen have also committed to the “largest global fund of its kind,” Franc said.
A dozen of them have invested an entry ticket of 100 million euros, the others “between 10 and 50 million euros,” Franc said. ”
This mix of private funds from industry and finance is unique, and will have the means to achieve a catalytic effect on the sector,” said Mr. Franc, alongside the vast public plans announced by the French and German governments, the European Union and the United States to develop hydrogen.
Its role will be to invest its 2 billion euros “in the next 5-6 years” on the entire value chain of decarbonized hydrogen, from upstream (production of hydrogen without fossil energy) to downstream (captive fleets or hydrogen stations) through networks and transport infrastructures.
Hy24 has already announced three investments in Europe: it participated in the €110 million financing round of H2 Mobility Deutschland, the German operator of the largest network of hydrogen refueling stations in Europe (which already counts 95).
It has positioned itself as a minority investor in Hy2Gen AG, a German operator of carbon-free hydrogen production sites, which is involved in the conversion of the Gardanne coal-fired power plant in southern France into a carbon-free hydrogen production unit.
Finally, Hy24 has acquired a 30% stake in Enagas Renovable, the subsidiary of the Spanish gas transmission network operator Enagas, a leader in the development of carbon-free hydrogen in Spain.
