Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX: FMG) shares are rising again on Friday.
At the time of writing, the iron ore giant's shares are up 0.5% to $25.33.
This means its shares are now up almost 7% in the space of a week. This compares to a 1.2% gain by the ASX 200 index.
Why are Fortescue shares beating the ASX 200?
A strong iron ore price has been one reason, another could be the announcement of a brand new business that is as far away from Pilbara iron ore as it possibly gets.
Yesterday, the company announced the formation of Fortescue Capital, headquartered in New York City.
The company notes that Fortescue Capital is a new green energy investment accelerator platform and an integral next step in its commitment to deliver green energy projects and decarbonisation investments.
It will be led by Robert Tichio as chief executive officer and managing partner. He spent over 17 years at Riverstone Holdings, a New York-based private equity firm, that has seen total capital raised across a variety of private equity and related products exceed US$42 billion.
Fortescue Capital is being developed as a fiduciary for third-party capital. While funding models will differ on a project-by-project basis, it expects to hold equity stakes between 25% and 50% in each project with third-party investors. These potential capital partners include sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and ultra-high net worth family offices.
Commenting on the formation of Fortescue Capital, Fortescue Energy CEO, Mark Hutchinson, said:
Fortescue is taking its global pipeline of green hydrogen and green ammonia projects to Final Investment Decision, and in doing so has communicated our intention and desire to bring additional equity investors onboard. Further, Fortescue has previously communicated its planned investment to decarbonise its Pilbara operations, and we see Fortescue Capital as an essential tool of engagement as we embark on both missions.
New US manufacturing facility
Finally, in other news, this morning Fortescue revealed that it is expanding its global manufacturing capabilities by investing US$35 million to kickstart a US Advanced Manufacturing Center in Michigan.
The facility has the potential to create up to 600 jobs in its first phase and is expected to become a major hub for Fortescue's production of automotive and heavy industry batteries, hydrogen generators, fast chargers, and electrolysers.
