Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and state investor Temasek have invested in Sweden-based green steel manufacturer H2 Green Steel’s €1.5-billion ($1.6 billion) private placement, the largest in Europe this year.
The private placement was co-led by new investor Hy24, together with existing investors Altor, GIC, and Just Climate, according to a release.
New investors such as Andra AP-fonden and Temasek as well as a group of existing investors, including AMF, Cristina Stenbeck, Hitachi Energy, IMAS Foundation, Kinnevik, Schaeffler, Vargas, and Wallenberg Investments holding company FAM, participated in the funding.
The funding round will finance the construction and development of H2 Green Steel’s flagship large-scale green steel plant in Boden, Sweden, which will be the world’s first large-scale green steel plant and Europe’s first giga-scale electrolyser.
The plant will produce steel with up to 95% less CO2 emissions compared with traditional blast furnace technology.
“We will continue to support the management as they work towards this first-of-its-kind project in the hard to abate industry. As a long-term investor, we are committed to providing capital to develop solutions that help decarbonise the real economy,” said Choo Yong Cheen, Chief Investment Officer of private equity at GIC.
Since its launch in 2021, H2 Green Steel has raised more than €1.8 billion of equity in three financing rounds. The company closed its Series A equity round of €86 million in May 2021 and Series B1 round of €260 million in October 2022.