RE: Ineos backs HydrogenOne IPO23 Jul 2021 19:42
(Hulf is an investment manager for HGEN).
‘Ultra nascent hydrogen:
Though the technologies involved are proven, clean hydrogen is very much a nascent space.
Hulf said globally barely a handful of projects globally are on-stream at the moment, but industry and governments are now rushing to build.
According to a McKinsey report for the Hydrogen Council published earlier this month, 359 large-scale hydrogen projects across industrial, transport, infrastructure and other sectors have now been announced, with 131 coming just since February.
For the portfolio, Hulf said they were in discussions over clusters of electrolyser projects around the ports in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, with end users of the hydrogen including cement and steel, as well as local bus companies.
HGEN will take stakes in these projects at the construction stage, achieving attractive yields to support the trust’s 10-15% annual total return target. Hulf said the technical risks were very low’, while engineering consultants Arup are also on board as a technical adviser.
The gap for the trust comes from being ‘one of the first movers in there from the financial sector’, given the incipient nature of the space and currently small ticket sizes, precluding many larger investors.
‘The biggest risk is not being able to get hold of the land to build the thing on, which is extremely low. And it’s getting the off-take agreement signed for the hydrogen,’ said Hulf.
The manager has some renewable energy experience from his Artemis days, as well as investing in some hydrogen and private companies. He added that Traynor’s background working at Shell (RDSB) and then later on natural gas projects in North Africa at Sound Energy was another help, given the similarity in terms of project financing, structuring and off-take agreements with buyers of the hydrogen.
While this recalls the structure of trusts in the renewable energy infrastructure sector, Hulf emphasised this is not an income fund and they plan to sell the assets once they have a track record of cash flows.
Hulf expects the relationship with Ineos, struck via the managers’ traditional energy network, to help with access. The company controlled by billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has co-investment rights in HGEN projects, while the trust will also gain the option but not right to invest in Ineos ventures.
Overall, Hulf said the response so far had been ‘very encouraging’ and expressed massive excitement for the future of the sector.
‘We’re starting from a very low starting point in terms of investment. So even if it does end up as being only 10% of the primary energy mix by 2050, there’s an awful long way to go to even get halfway there,’ he said.
‘And so that’s what this fund is trying to capture.’
The share issue, which closes on 27 July, is available on most UK investment platforms via an intermediaries offer. A prospectus is available on the company’s website. Panmure Gordon is acting as the spons