Air Liquide has raised €500m ($543.5m) by issuing a green bond to finance or refinance key energy transition projects in the low-carbon hydrogen and air gases sectors.
It comes as the French industrial gas major’s third green bond after it issued two €500m raises in 2021 and 2024.
The latest raise was said to be “oversubscribed” by investors and was undertaken through the firm’s Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) programme.
The bond has a 10-year maturity at a yield of 3.570% per year.
Green bonds are a fixed-income investment which are exclusively used to finance or refinance sustainability projects.
Jérôme Pelletan, Chief Financial Officer at Air Liquide, said the bond reflects investor confidence in the company’s business model.
“The funds raised will contribute to financing our investment decisions, which reached a record level in 2024, enabling us to implement projects with and for our clients, particularly in the area of energy transition.”
Last month, Air Liquide CEO François Jackow issued a measured message to investors about the company’s approach to clean hydrogen – highlighting its focus on the energy carrier’s role in decarbonising “selected industries” like refining.
It followed the ousting of Seifi Ghasemi as the boss of rival Air Products for a CAPEX-heavy approach on potentially risky clean hydrogen projects.
“We have been focused on providing value to selective industrial sectors, making sure that we help our customers to decarbonise whenever it makes economic sense, and to make sure that we base our projects at scale and with a good and strong economic case,” he said.
According to gasworld’s H2 Intelligence, Air Liquide plans to introduce more than 1.4 mtpa of clean hydrogen production by 2033.
In February, it announced €1bn ($1.09bn) plans to build two large-scale electrolyser projects in the Netherlands to supply TotalEnergies’ refining operations with clean hydrogen.
