Hy24 Closes World’s Largest Clean H2 Infra Fund
Hy24 announced the closing of its first impact fund at EUR 2 billion of allocations, exceeding its initial ambitions. It is the world’s first and largest infrastructure fund to invest exclusively in the entire clean hydrogen value chain, the company says.
Through its funds, and notably the first one ‘the Clean H2 Infra Fund’, Hy24 is providing financial capital to fund credible, large-scale clean hydrogen infrastructure projects world-wide. Hy24 drives the essential scale-up of the hydrogen economy through its selective support of both supply- and demand-generative projects.
The Clean H2 Infra Fund’s creation has been supported by the founding anchor investors Air Liquide, VINCI Concessions, TotalEnergies, Plug Power, Chart Industries and Baker Hughes. It has then attracted more than 50 prominent investors from 13 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia, including major industrial companies, corporations, banks, pension funds and insurance companies – industrial anchor investors, including LOTTE Chemical, Airbus, and Snam, Enagás, GRTgaz (together as one anchor partner), and the financial anchor investors AXA, Crédit Agricole Assurances, CCR, Allianz, CDPQ and JBIC – as well as other key investors, including Ballard, Schaeffler, Groupe ADP, EDF, Caisse des dépôts, DBJ and Itochu.
The Fund closes now with a new key industrial investor the CMA CGM Group, and new key financial investors Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, Nuveen, ERAFP, Groupama, Société Générale Assurances, BBVA and Norinchukin. The Fund leverages a unique blend of sector know-how and financial firepower to position Hy24 as a true catalyst at the heart of the hydrogen ecosystem, with 50% of its commitment provided by industrial investors.
“Hy24, through the Clean H2 Infra Fund, has rapidly gathered an impressive group of industrial and financial leaders committed to moving the hydrogen agenda forward significantly. With EUR 2 billion of commitments, this fund will spur on the deployment of up to EUR 20 billion in assets of strategic value to the industry in the next six years, performing for our investors and helping to decarbonize the global economy. This creates the right support for the new and critical hydrogen policy frameworks in our key geographies,” Pierre-Etienne Franc, co-founder and CEO of Hy24, said.
“We are extremely grateful for the trust and support of our investors. The combination of Ardian’s unique investment and asset management expertise, FiveT Hydrogen’s industry knowledge, the diversity of our investors and our ability to leverage Hy24’s strong deal flow will put us in a unique position to grow this industry at scale into a decisive asset class,” Laurent Fayollas, Deputy Head of Infrastructure at Ardian and President of Hy24, added.
Hy24 is driving the scale-up of the clean hydrogen economy with first-mover investment in sustainable projects. It is helping to realise hydrogen’s global potential as the low carbon energy vector of the future by investing in the entire hydrogen value chain, from upstream projects such as renewable and low carbon hydrogen production to downstream projects such as captive fleet and refuelling stations. The EUR 2 billion Fund capital aims to be committed within the next six years. The Fund is an Article 9 Fund under European SFDR regulations, which classify funds that meet stringent environmental and social criteria.
The capital raised through the Fund has already started to be deployed: The Fund has participated in the EUR 110 million fundraising of H2 MOBILITY Deutschland, the operator of Europe’s largest network of hydrogen stations. In addition, the Fund has participated in the EUR 200 million financing round of Hy2Gen, an operator of production sites for decarbonized hydrogen and its derivatives, with CDPQ as a co-investor. The Fund has also acquired a 30% stake in Enagás Renovable, a leading developer of renewable hydrogen projects, subsidiary of Enagás, the Spanish Transmission System operator.
The climate crisis and geopolitical turmoil in energy markets require accelerating the development of hydrogen as the vector most suited to decarbonize heavy mobility and energy-intense industries. From the U.S.’s Inflation Reduction Act to the E.U.’s RePowerEU, governments around the world have acknowledged the need for the deployment of clean hydrogen at a scale and pace conducive to reaching net-zero ambitions. It is estimated that clean hydrogen solutions could represent up to 20% of the final energy demand within the 2050 net-zero agenda.
