ITM Power: Troubled hydrogen specialist hopes to win over shareholders as results meet expectations
Hydrogen firm ITM Power (ITM) has delivered results in line with company expectations, in its bid to reassure shareholders that its turnaround plan is viable after months of cost-cutting.
The London-listed company has been scrambling to simplify its business and ensure its three flagship projects are delivered – and has suffered an avalanche in its share price amid rising debts and production difficulties.
Ahead of trading this morning, it is trading at 87.12p per share, plummeting from 402p per share last October.
Based in Sheffield, ITM Power specialises in making electrolysers, devices which use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen – a fundamental part of green hydrogen generation.
Once feted as a rising hydrogen player, it has struggled to transition to a volume producer of its electrolysers.
It has now posted full-year revenues of £5.2m – below the £5.6m its recorded last year – and ahead of the company’s £2m guidance.
ITM Power’s pre-tax losses have risen from £39.8m to £94.2m, at the upper end of the £85-95m expectations, and above the £39.8m posted in 2022.
It also revealed net cash at the year end of £283m, which was below £366m in 2022 but ahead of guidance of £245m to £270m.
While the hydrogen company has posted declines in its headline figures, meeting outlined expectations contrasts with multiple profit warnings and the pushing back of its results – which cover up to April 2023.
Now nearly four months into the next year of trading, it has posted optimistic expectations for the current operating window.
Revenue is expected to increase to between £10m and £18m from commercial projects in execution, and pre-tax losses are on course for improvement in the range of £45m to £55m.
Net cash at year end of April 2024 expected to be in the range of £175m to £200m after significant capital investment in capacity expansion, including power supply upgrades.
New chief executive Dennis Schulz , who joined late last year, has undertaken a 12 month improvement plan.
This has included offloading assets from the portfolio such as a recent deal to dispose its stake in a refuelling joint venture with Motive Fuels, intense cost management including over 100 job cuts and expanding its main factory in Sheffield, alongside investment into ITM Power Germany.
The company has also revealed it is now deploying electrolysers at its three biggest projects – Linde in Leuna, for Yara in Porsgrunn, and for RWE in Lingen.
Schulz said: “We are deploying our electrolysers for some of the largest and most prominent green hydrogen projects under execution worldwide today. These projects will serve as important reference plants and play a crucial role in building confidence with customers for even larger deployments in the future. The big demand for green hydrogen lies yet ahead, and ITM will be ready!”