US-based NuScale Power and Spring Valley Acquisition Corp, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, announced that steel company Nucor Corporation had committed to a $15 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) to support the NuScale-Spring Valley business combination. This increases the total PIPE commitment for this transaction to $236 million.
Nucor is the largest steel company in North America and is also the region's largest recycler, processing approximately 20 million tons of ferrous scrap annually to produce new steel that is 100% recyclable at the end of its useful life.
“The world’s need for a diverse mix of clean energy has never been more apparent, and we are thrilled to welcome Nucor and look forward to exploring potential opportunities with utilities across Nucor’s steelmaking footprint,” said NuScale President and CEO John Hopkins.
Nucor President and CEO Leon Topalian said: “As America’s largest steel producer and a significant energy consumer, we are looking for safe and reliable sources of power generation that are consistent with our sustainability goals. The continued development of small modular nuclear reactors is critical to ensure our nation has carbon-free, baseload power, which is why we are making this investment in NuScale.”
With this additional $15 million PIPE commitment from Nucor, NuScale and Spring Valley have secured $55 million in additional PIPE funding since announcing their initial business combination agreement in December 2021. In March, SailingStone Capital Partners committed to a $10 million PIPE investment, following the February announcement of the satisfaction of the previously disclosed contingency with respect to $30 million of the PIPE commitment from Samsung C&T Corporation which ensured that, pending satisfaction of remaining closing conditions, the minimum cash threshold for the business combination can be met. Including Fluor’s $110 million secondary sale to JBIC, $165 million of NuScale equity has been secured in PIPE commitments or sold by Fluor at approximately $10 per share since the announcement in December.
The $236 million in total PIPE proceeds, along with more than $232 million in Spring Valley’s trust account subject to redemptions by Spring Valley’s shareholders, will be used to bolster and accelerate the commercialisation of NuScale’s SMR technology. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022 and is subject to approval by Spring Valley’s shareholders as well as other customary closing conditions.
The previous day, NuScale welcomed a new investment from world-class partners in the Japan NuScale Innovation. Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has joined JNI in making a strategic investment of $110 million in NuScale through a purchase of equity from Fluor Corporation, who remains the majority owner in NuScale.
In 2021, NuScale secured significant investments from Japanese companies, JGC Corporation (JGC) and IHI Corporation (IHI), signaling Japanese and global growing interest in NuScale as the premier climate solution. JGC and IHI formed JNI as the conduit for its NuScale investments. With this new announcement, the investment will solidify JNI’s position as the single second largest investor in NuScale Power.
JBIC is a policy-based financial institution of the Government of Japan that conducts lending, investment and guarantee operations while complementing private sector financial institutions, and the organisation has a priority to invest in businesses that will protect the global environment.
“NuScale looks forward to having JNI as a significant NuScale investor to move the world closer toward our goals of decarbonization, while improving lives by supplying clean, affordable, reliable energy,” said Hopkins.
NuScale Power has developed a new modular light water reactor to supply energy for electrical generation, district heating, desalination, hydrogen production and other process heat applications. The NuScale Power Module (NPM), a small pressurised water reactor, has a capacity of 77MWe and can be scaled to meet customer needs. The VOYGR-12 power plant is rated at 924MWe, and NuScale also offers the four-module VOYGR-4 (308MWe) and six-module VOYGR-6 (462 MWe) plants and other configurations based on customer needs.
