Metacon has completed the acquisition of Water2H2 AB. Metacon already owns 20% of Water2H2 and has a call option on the remaining 80% pending a decision on use in January 2022.
Due to the fact that both the electrolysis market and Water2H2 have outperformed expectations, Metacon has already discussed and decided to complete the merger and integration of the firms in accordance with Water2H2’s owners.
The green hydrogen market is developing rapidly at the moment and is likely to continue increasing in the coming years, owing to the transformation of the transportation sector, the steel industry, the energy sector, and fossil-free energy storage as major global drivers. Electrolysis is the leading technology for producing green hydrogen on a global scale at the moment.
Metacon co-founded Water2H2 AB with management and has held a 20% stake in the firm from its creation. Between January 1 and January 31, 2022, Metacon had the opportunity to acquire the remaining 80% of the company from other owners.
The now-agreed transaction and acquisition require Metacon to conduct a share issue, as directed by the Annual General Meeting, in which the remaining 80% of the shares in Water2H2 AB, 25,000, are acquired by replacing each share in Water2H2 with 346 newly issued Metacon shares at a price of SEK 5.00 per Metacon share. After the transaction is completed, the overall dilution to Metacon’s shareholders will be 3.26 percent, depending on the number of shares outstanding, including the previously announced acquisition of 100% of Helbio S.A.
The freshly issued shares are subject to a 12-month lock-up period during which no more than 10% of the newly issued shares may be sold.
Synergies in areas such as sales and organization motivate the purchase. Water2H2 already has a sales organization in place in various European nations that have a high level of biogas adoption and are deemed attractive for green hydrogen production via reforming. Metacon can now provide identical experience and expertise that are required in both types of large-scale hydrogen production. Additionally, because Metacon is a publicly traded business, the supplier position vis-à-vis customers can be improved, and the opportunities for beneficial trade finance solutions for the systems and projects delivered rise.
“With the earlier acquisition of entire Water2H2, Metacon is taking a major step towards becoming a complete and competitive system supplier in the hydrogen market regardless of technology choice. We will now be able to build both an organization and an offering that meets the needs of the rapidly growing international hydrogen market. Water2H2 has already proven that they can win competitive tenders and has internationally established suppliers in place. Few if any have as broad and competitive a hydrogen system portfolio as the one Metacon now can offer” commented Christer Wikner, President and CEO, Metacon.
Johan Berggren, CEO and founder of Water2H2 commented: “The development in both the electrolysis market as a whole and the number of procurements that we will be able to participate in has grown faster than we could have imagined. The model of offering turnkey hydrogen plants in collaboration with Peric, ABB and GISAB has proved successful. We now see great opportunities to enter the growth environment that Metacon can offer faster than planned and even better conditions to be able to take and conduct business in the future. With the international sales capability that we already have in place in Europe, we also see synergies with Metacon’s reforming technology for green hydrogen production from biogas“.
