Hannes Snellman Advises Easpring Finland New Materials Oy in EUR 514.4 Million Green Financing

Hannes Snellman advised Easpring Finland New Materials Oy (“EFNM”) in respect of the Finnish law aspects of the EUR 514.4 million green financing package relating to the development and construction of EFNM’s cathode active material (“CAM”) manufacturing plant in Kotka, in the south of Finland. EFNM is a joint venture owned by Beijing Easpring Material Technology (70%), Finnish Minerals Group (28.3%), and LG Energy Solutions (1.7%).

The financing was arranged by Société Générale as sole financial advisor and mandated lead arranger, together with Natixis as co-mandated lead arranger, and four international banks (DNB, ICBC, ING, and Standard Chartered), with support from export credit agencies Finnvera and Sinosure.

Once operational, the Kotka facility is expected to become one of the largest CAM plants in Europe, with a planned first-phase production capacity of 60,000 tonnes per year, supplying battery manufacturers across Europe including LGES, AESC, and SKOn.

Hannes Snellman’s team was led by Specialist Partner Josefina Aalto (Finance) and Partner Maria Landtman (Real Assets) and included Senior Associate Ruusa Jumppanen and Associate Kristian Suominen (Finance), Counsel Marjaana Martikainen, Associate Aleksi Maunumäki and Associate Alisa Ainonen (Real Assets), Counsel Eerika Halme Lampio (M&A) and Legal Assistant Victoria Reiter (Real Assets).