A reverse listing into 3North Partners puts a pre-revenue reactor developer on First North. The board, not the order book, is what investors are pricing.
Steady Energy, the Finnish developer of heat-only small modular reactors, is coming to First North through a share exchange in which investment company 3North Partners acquires all of its shares. Counting the investment commitments and a retail offering of up to €5 million, the company would open at a market value of roughly €345 million, against a share capital valued at about €270 million at listing after dilution from staff options.
The company has not signed a single binding delivery agreement.
Pension capital commits ahead of the first commercial milestone
3NP has secured irrevocable commitments of about €69.8 million in a directed issue. Elo, Ilmarinen and Varma are among the investors, alongside Suomen Teollisuussijoitus (Tesi) and Fortum Energy Holding B.V. The European Investment Bank has added a convertible loan of up to €40 million, its first financing for a small modular reactor project.
The participation of three major Finnish pension insurers adds institutional backing to the transaction, alongside the €115 million financing package.
The board is the instrument doing the de-risking
Pekka Lundmark, former chief executive of Fortum and Nokia, will chair the combined company. Chirayu Batra, Juha Juntunen, Petteri Tenhunen and Timo Ahopelto join him. Behind 3NP are Ahopelto and Lundmark, alongside Juha Hulkko, one of the creators of Bittium, Ilkka Paananen of Supercell and Tero Ojanperä. 3NP's chief executive Tuomo Vähäpassi was involved in taking Canatu to market through a SPAC.
The structure resembles a reverse listing: 3NP acquires Steady Energy and brings the combined company to First North. The transaction also puts a prominent group of technology and business figures around a company that remains in the product-development phase and has yet to sign a binding delivery agreement.
Founders lock up for three years and still take €850,000 each at closing
Tommi Nyman, Hannes Haapalahti and Petteri Tenhunen accept a three-year transfer restriction. They also sell shares to 3NP for €850,000 each in connection with closing, and may release a further €750,000 each once the company announces its first appointment as first-priority plant supplier.
The second release is well built. It pays only on a commercial milestone, which is where alignment should sit. The €850,000 at closing is the part worth naming plainly: founder liquidity ahead of a single signed contract, inside a lock-up structured to signal the opposite.
Retail investors are offered up to €5 million of a €115 million package, under five per cent. Nyman frames the public tranche as access and share liquidity rather than funding, which is accurate.
2028 is the date to hold the company to
The €20 million test reactor in Salmisaari should be running at the end of next year. Kuopio is the furthest-advanced project, with environmental assessment and zoning under way and Kuopion Energia as counterparty. Kerava, Jyväskylä and Helsinki follow. Nyman expects first-priority supplier selection before the end of 2028 and a first plant operating in the early 2030s.
Helsinki's tender is worth watching for a narrower reason. It examines both heat-only reactors and reactors producing heat and electricity. The LDR-50 does heat alone, which is the source of its cost advantage and also the limit of where it can compete.
The targets assume everything lands: revenue above €500 million by 2035 and €1 billion by 2040, at an adjusted operating margin of 25 to 30 per cent, across a priority market in Finland, Sweden, Poland and Czechia the company sizes at €30 billion and 230 to 300 reactors by 2050. A single unit is priced at €75 to €150 million. The French-founded Calogena is already circling the same Finnish demand.
Between here and there sit a licensing process, a construction decision and a first customer. The 2028 appointment is what converts this from a financing story into an operating one.
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5 min read
A reverse listing into 3North Partners puts a pre-revenue reactor developer on First North. The board, not the order book, is what investors are pricing.
Steady Energy, the Finnish developer of heat-only small modular reactors, is coming to First North through a share exchange in which investment company 3North Partners acquires all of its shares. Counting the investment commitments and a retail offering of up to €5 million, the company would open at a market value of roughly €345 million, against a share capital valued at about €270 million at listing after dilution from staff options.
The company has not signed a single binding delivery agreement.
Pension capital commits ahead of the first commercial milestone
3NP has secured irrevocable commitments of about €69.8 million in a directed issue. Elo, Ilmarinen and Varma are among the investors, alongside Suomen Teollisuussijoitus (Tesi) and Fortum Energy Holding B.V. The European Investment Bank has added a convertible loan of up to €40 million, its first financing for a small modular reactor project.
The participation of three major Finnish pension insurers adds institutional backing to the transaction, alongside the €115 million financing package.
The board is the instrument doing the de-risking
Pekka Lundmark, former chief executive of Fortum and Nokia, will chair the combined company. Chirayu Batra, Juha Juntunen, Petteri Tenhunen and Timo Ahopelto join him. Behind 3NP are Ahopelto and Lundmark, alongside Juha Hulkko, one of the creators of Bittium, Ilkka Paananen of Supercell and Tero Ojanperä. 3NP's chief executive Tuomo Vähäpassi was involved in taking Canatu to market through a SPAC.
The structure resembles a reverse listing: 3NP acquires Steady Energy and brings the combined company to First North. The transaction also puts a prominent group of technology and business figures around a company that remains in the product-development phase and has yet to sign a binding delivery agreement.
Founders lock up for three years and still take €850,000 each at closing
Tommi Nyman, Hannes Haapalahti and Petteri Tenhunen accept a three-year transfer restriction. They also sell shares to 3NP for €850,000 each in connection with closing, and may release a further €750,000 each once the company announces its first appointment as first-priority plant supplier.
The second release is well built. It pays only on a commercial milestone, which is where alignment should sit. The €850,000 at closing is the part worth naming plainly: founder liquidity ahead of a single signed contract, inside a lock-up structured to signal the opposite.
Retail investors are offered up to €5 million of a €115 million package, under five per cent. Nyman frames the public tranche as access and share liquidity rather than funding, which is accurate.
2028 is the date to hold the company to
The €20 million test reactor in Salmisaari should be running at the end of next year. Kuopio is the furthest-advanced project, with environmental assessment and zoning under way and Kuopion Energia as counterparty. Kerava, Jyväskylä and Helsinki follow. Nyman expects first-priority supplier selection before the end of 2028 and a first plant operating in the early 2030s.
Helsinki's tender is worth watching for a narrower reason. It examines both heat-only reactors and reactors producing heat and electricity. The LDR-50 does heat alone, which is the source of its cost advantage and also the limit of where it can compete.
The targets assume everything lands: revenue above €500 million by 2035 and €1 billion by 2040, at an adjusted operating margin of 25 to 30 per cent, across a priority market in Finland, Sweden, Poland and Czechia the company sizes at €30 billion and 230 to 300 reactors by 2050. A single unit is priced at €75 to €150 million. The French-founded Calogena is already circling the same Finnish demand.
Between here and there sit a licensing process, a construction decision and a first customer. The 2028 appointment is what converts this from a financing story into an operating one.
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