Plug Power, Chart and Baker Hughes join FiveT Hydrogen fund

FiveT is a new clean hydrogen only private infrastructure fund dedicated to delivering clean hydrogen infrastructure projects at scale, H2 Bulletin reports.

Plug Power, Chart Industries, Inc. and Baker Hughes will be the cornerstone investors in the FiveT Hydrogen Fund and has already obtained € 260 million (US$ 320) in combined commitments, intending to raise the € 1 billion (US$ 1.2 billion) from both financial and industrial investors.

Plug Power has committed €160 million (US$ 200 million) and Chart Industries and Baker Hughes each committed to €50 million (US$ 60 million), respectively.

The fund is led by Pierre Etienne Franc, who was, up to the 31st March 2021, the vice president of Hydrogen Energy for Air Liquide and the Hydrogen Council’s co-secretary.

FiveT will provide further details on the project in the coming days. The fund is expected to close in Q3 2021, with first cash contributed by investors by early next year, then available for investment in potential projects.

The partners plan to use the fund for financing projects in the production, storage and distribution of clean hydrogen. It will also explore opportunities related to industrial companies for developing hydrogen energy supply chain.

Andy Marsh, CEO of Plug Power, said, “We believe this fund will help accelerate the construction of hydrogen infrastructure globally, which will support rapid deployment of fuel cell applications.”

Jill Evanko, Chart’s CEO and President said, “We are participating as an early investor in the FiveT Hydrogen Fund, as we believe this fund will be an important step in the acceleration of the buildout of the global hydrogen infrastructure.”

Lorenzo Simonelli, chairman and CEO of Baker Hughes, said, “The FiveT Hydrogen Fund will combine the financial strength as well as the strategic and technical expertise of our companies to help advance hydrogen in new ways.”

Pierre Etienne Franc, CEO of FiveT Hydrogen Fund. “We expect to welcome future commitments from EU and Asian strategic partners who are actively working on infrastructure projects and initiatives.”

The FiveT website says that FiveTHydrogen started in 2021 and set out to finance the hydrogen economy’s foundation. However, FiveT Capital Ag is an independent asset manager specialising in equity-linked fund products and tailored hedging solutions, which was established in 2006, and is fully licensed to offer asset management services in Switzerland under the supervision of the SRO VQF, a self-regulatory organisation supervised by Finma.