Leading European financial institutions support H2 Green Steel's €3.5 billion debt financing

STOCKHOLM, Oct. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- H2 Green Steel announces it has received support from leading European financial institutions for its €3.5 billion debt financing. The institutions intend to support the company and its hydrogen-powered green steel plant in Northern Sweden through debt and credit guarantees.

H2 Green Steel will finance the construction of its hydrogen-powered green steel plant in Northern Sweden through a combination of equity and debt financing. The debt financing support consists of the following:          

• H2 Green Steel has executed conditional commitment letters for €3.3 billion in senior debt with AB Svensk Exportkredit (SEK) and the commercial banks BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit, Societe Generale and KfW IPEX-Bank.           

• The European Investment Bank has received board approval for €750 million of senior debt funding for the H2 Green Steel project.           

• Leading export credit agencies, including Euler Hermes, have issued letters of intent to provide export credit-linked guarantees* of €1.5 billion of H2 Green Steel's intended senior debt.           

• The Swedish National Debt Office has issued a letter of intent to provide a green credit guarantee** of €1 billion of H2 Green Steel's senior debt.           

• H2 Green Steel has executed a conditional commitment letter with a leading infrastructure fund comprising large Nordic investors in connection with their lead participation in a circa €500 million junior debt facility.

"These strong commitments to our debt financing show how far we have come on our journey, in a very short time. We are impressed by the collaborative approach of these institutions and the leadership they are displaying in financing the transition. The support from the European Investment Bank, Swedish National Debt Office and some of the world's leading export credit agencies and banks, not only underlines our business case and debt carrying capacity, but also highlights the willingness to support initiatives that will help fulfil the target of the Paris agreement," says Henrik Henriksson, H2 Green Steel's CEO.

This milestone has been enabled by a thorough due diligence process that was initiated in Q4, 2021. It represents a strong statement of support of H2 Green Steel's ambition to reduce carbon emissions in hard-to-abate industries, as well as the technical and economic merits of the Boden green steel plant by some of the world's leading financial organizations. The commitment letters and approvals remain subject inter alia to completion of final due diligence and documentation, with a further round of syndication anticipated given the substantive interest in the financing from a wide range of other commercial banks and investors.

Societe Generale is acting as lead financial advisor on the senior and junior debt facilities. KfW IPEX-Bank is acting as joint financial advisor on the senior debt facility. BNP Paribas, ING and UniCredit are acting as Pathfinders for the financing as respectively market, documentation and technical banks.

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* covering 95 percent of €1.5 billion

** covering up to 80 percent of €1 billion

CONTACT:

For further information: Karin Hallstan, Head of Public and Media Relations, phone: +46 76 842 81 04, email: press@h2greensteel.com

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