Freshfields advises on €1.7bn transformation-financing for SHS Group’s Power4Steel project

Global law firm Freshfields has advised an international banking consortium on the financing of the Power4Steel project, a major green transformation initiative by German steel producer SHS -Stahl-Holding-Saar Group (SHS Group) and one of Europe's largest decarbonisation projects. The financing has a total volume of approximately €1.7 billion and covers a substantial part of the overall Power4Steel investment.

Power4Steel marks a significant step towards the decarbonisation of steel production in Europe and is a milestone project, supporting the transition to greener, hydrogen-based technologies. The project is led by SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar and represents one of the largest investments in green transformation in the industry to date.

The financing package includes export credit facilities covered by SACE, the Italian Export Credit Agency, and OeKB, the Austrian Export Credit Agency. The banking consortium comprises a large consortium of European banks, with ING Bank, a branch of ING DiBa AG acting as Documentation Agent and Bookrunner and UniCredit Bank GmbH as ECA Agent and Bookrunner. Other Bookrunners are BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Deutsche Bank AG, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschaftsbank, Frankfurt am Main and Natixis.

SHS Group with its subsidiaries Dillinger and Saarstahl is one of the leading German steel producers, headquartered in Saarland. Saarstahl specialises in the production of high-quality long steel products, such as wire rod, bar steel, and semi-finished products, which are widely used in the automotive, construction, mechanical engineering, and energy industries. Heavy plate from Dillinger is used to realize extraordinary and technically advanced projects all over the globe for example in the steel construction, mechanical engineering, offshore, offshore wind power or line pipe.

The Freshfields team was led by Partner Andreas Ruthemeyer (Energy & Infrastructure Finance, Frankfurt). He was supported by Principal Associates Laura Korndörfer (Frankfurt), Matthis Grenzer (Berlin) and Associates Iryna Karpliuk and Valentina Niegisch (both Frankfurt, all Energy & Infrastructure Finance), Eike Christian Jani (Real Estate, Hamburg) and Senior Associate Jessica O'Sullivan (Finance, London). The team further comprised:

Partners: Dr Frank Laudenklos (Finance, Frankfurt), Andreas von Bonin (Antitrust, Brussels), Fabrice Grillo (Finance, Paris), Florian Klimscha (Finance, Vienna), Francesco Lombardo (Finance, Milan), Alexander Glos (Regulatory, Frankfurt)

Counsel: Anouschka Zagorski (Finance, Frankfurt), Falko Glasow and Holger Hartenfels (both Regulatory, Frankfurt)

Principal Associate: Nicolas Sölter (Regulatory, Hamburg)

Associate: Paul B. Jahn (Antitrust, Düsseldorf/London)

Trainees: Tim Gabersek, Serra Onal (both Frankfurt, Energy & Infrastructure Finance), Maheja Mirza (Finance, London)