Paris/Frankfurt — Bird & Bird LLP has advi­sed French inves­tors Hy24 and Mirova on the acqui­si­tion of stakes in German Hy2gen AG, a pionee­ring green hydro­gen company. The record invest­ment of EUR 200 million is the largest private capi­tal increase in the green hydro­gen sector to date and is provi­ded by Hy24 and Mirova toge­ther with Caisse de dépôt et place­ment du Québec (CDPQ) and stra­te­gic inves­tor Tech­nip Energies.

Hy24, a joint venture between Ardian, a leading global private invest­ment firm, and FiveT Hydro­gen, an invest­ment mana­ger focu­sed exclu­si­vely on clean hydro­gen invest­ments, is the world’s largest clean hydro­gen infra­struc­ture plat­form. Mirova is a subsi­diary of Nati­xis Invest­ment Mana­gers that focu­ses on sustainable investments.

Hy2gen AG, based in Wies­ba­den, Germany, deve­lops, finan­ces, builds and opera­tes plants world­wide for the produc­tion of green hydro­gen and hydro­­­gen-based e‑fuels. These products are used to create carbon-neutral and compe­ti­tive fuels and indus­trial solu­ti­ons. The capi­tal from this finan­cing round will be used to build faci­li­ties in seve­ral count­ries that produce green hydro­­­gen-based fuels, or “e‑fuels,” for marine, land trans­por­ta­tion, avia­tion and indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. In southern France, the company foun­ded by Cyril Dufau-Sansot has been opera­ting a produc­tion faci­lity for Sustainable Avia­tion Fuels (SAF, Hynovera project) since Octo­ber 2021. The fresh capi­tal is to be used to open up many more loca­ti­ons — for exam­ple in Canada and Norway.

Advi­sors Hy24 and Mirova: Bird & Bird
Part­ner Sibylle Weiler, Lead (Finance & Energy, Head of the inter­na­tio­nal Bird & Bird Hydro­gen Group and coun­sel in France and Germany), Coun­sel Olivier Fazio (Due Dili­gence and leading multi­ju­ris­dic­tional legal due dili­gence, to review projects in France, Germany, Norway and Canada), Part­ner Xavier Leroux (Corpo­rate), all Paris.
The German team consis­ted of the part­ners Dr. Hans Peter Leube, LL.M. (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Dr. Marc Seeger (Corporate/M&A), Dr. Matthias Lang (Energy) and Dr. Stephan Wald­heim (Anti­trust, all Düssel­dorf) as well as Coun­sel Dr. Chris­tina Lorenz (Corporate/M&A, Munich) and Asso­cia­tes Jan Medele, Felix Spind­ler (both Corporate/M&A), Anja Holter­mann (Energy) and Tamy Tietze (Anti­trust, all Düsseldorf).

Nomura Green­tech acted as exclu­sive finan­cial advi­sor to Hy2gen.
Société Géné­rale acted as exclu­sive finan­cial advi­sor to Hy24 and Mirova.
Legal advi­sors included Baker Tilly on behalf of Hy2gen, Bird & Bird on behalf of Hy24 and Mirova, Jones Day on behalf of CDPQ and Clif­ford Chance on behalf of Tech­nip Energies.

About Bird & Bird
Bird & Bird is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,400 lawy­ers in 30 offices in 21 count­ries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia Paci­fic and North America. In Germany, we are repre­sen­ted by more than 250 lawy­ers in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt, Hamburg and Munich. We focus our consul­ting in parti­cu­lar on indus­trial sectors that are deve­lo­ping new tech­no­lo­gies and helping to shape digi­ta­liza­tion. www.twobirds.com.