Bryan Garnier & Co acts as Joint Global Coordinator and Joint Bookrunner to Lhyfe on its landmark €110m IPO on Euronext Paris

LONDON – 23 May 2022: Bryan Garnier, the leading independent investment bank for European healthcare and technology-related companies has acted as joint global coordinator and joint bookrunner in Lhyfe’s landmark €110m IPO on Euronext Paris, with cornerstone investments from institutional and strategic investors in Portugal, Norway and France. Upon full exercise of the greenshoe, the transaction value may increase to €124m, for a market capitalisation in excess of €400m. 

Lhyfe is a leading producer and supplier of green hydrogen, a renewable form of hydrogen. Founded in 2017, the company now has operations in over 10 countries, including France and Denmark. Lhyfe develops green hydrogen production projects for use in industry and mobility.  It now has a pipeline of 93 projects across Europe, which will have a total production capacity of 4.8 GW by 2028. 

Green hydrogen is a key substitute for fossil fuels, which plays an important role in accelerating the energy transition.  

Last week, on 18 May 2022, the European Commission tripled its commitment to hydrogen in its REPowerEU Plan setting a capacity target of 350 GW of hydrogen versus their previous target of 80GW by 2030, including domestic production and imports of hydrogen, underscoring the importance of renewable hydrogen in the energy transition. This EU plan was introduced in response to the war in Ukraine and is focused on reducing Europe’s dependency on Russian energy imports. 

Matthieu Guesné, Founder and CEO of Lhyfe said: “We are extremely grateful to our deal team at Bryan Garnier. Their extensive relationships with strategic and institutional investors were invaluable to this process, which helped to ensure the success of Lhyfe’s IPO. In addition to a fantastic roster of long-only investors, having EDPR as a cornerstone investor will help us to accelerate the development of industrial projects and strengthen our position as a leading producer of green hydrogen in Europe and beyond.” 

Christophe Alleman, Partner and Co-Head of ECM at Bryan Garnier said: “We are incredibly proud to have completed Lhyfe’s IPO in such challenging market conditions. The Ukraine war, rising inflation and fears of Covid returning in China have all had a hugely negative impact on the stability of the markets and many IPOs have been postponed or even pulled as a result. The market volatility reached levels of ‘tremendous uncertainty’ on five of the ten days of bookbuilding, according to the index. During this period, Nasdaq went down by 6.5% and S&P by 5.4%.  

In addition to securing capital to realise their growth ambitions, Lhyfe will benefit hugely from strategic investors such as EDPR to accelerate their green hydrogen project rollout internationally.” 

Olivier Beaudouin, Partner at Bryan Garnier leading the Energy Transition & Sustainability franchise said: “We are thrilled to have supported such a fantastic team of entrepreneurs who are leading the charge in hydrogen project development in Europe. This marks Bryan Garnier’s seventh transaction in the hydrogen space, making Bryan Garnier the most active investment bank in this space in Europe, and cementing our leadership as the go-to advisor for European companies and investors in the energy transition and sustainability sector. Fundraisings over €100m for energy transition companies are rare, so this is an outstanding result for Lhyfe and bolsters our Energy Transition and Sustainability team’s track record, with six fundraisings above €100m in the last two years.” 

The IPO was launched with three cornerstone investors representing between €32m and €39m, the largest of which was from strategic investor Energias de Portugal Renovaveis (EDPR) who committed €25m. EDPR is a Portuguese renewable energy company that is a 75% subsidiary of EDP Group, the Portuguese national electricity producer, transporter and distributor. EDPR is the world’s 4th largest producer of wind electricity, combining onshore and offshore capacities, and also having solar capacities.  

This is the second transaction that Bryan Garnier has completed with EDP Group. In December 2019, Bryan Garnier acted as the sole financial adviser to GridBeyond on a Series B financing round that brought in leading energy industry names EDP and Total.   

Bryan Garnier is the go-to investment bank for companies and their investors focused on the energy transition and sustainability sector. This is the sixth fundraising over €100m in this sector in the past two years that Bryan Garnier has advised on: In October 2021, Bryan Garnier acted as sole financial advisor and sole global coordinator to biomethane company Waga Energy on its €126m IPO, including strategic investments from Vitol, Viva Energy and CMA-CGM.  In June 2021, Bryan Garnier advised hydrogen power company HDF Energy on its €151m IPO, with large cornerstone investment from Rubis and Teréga. Similarly, Bryan Garnier acted as sole financial advisor to Agronutris, an insect-protein company, on its €100m private placement in September 2021. Bryan Garnier also advised plastics recycling company Carbios on its €114m public offering in May 2021, and was sole advisor to McPhy, a clean hydrogen equipment provider on its €180m follow-on offering in October 2020, including strategic investments from Technip Energies and Chart Industries.