Nel ASA, First Hydrogen, Nordex - Hydrogen with tailwind, storm at Nordex!

First Hydrogen - Cross-selling with filling station network

While most shares in the hydrogen sector have been stuck in a correction loop for months and, in some cases, have lost more than 50% of their market value, First Hydrogen has clearly outperformed its peer group since the end of this year, with a price increase of around 60%. Nevertheless, the Canadians' market capitalization of CAD 138 million or EUR 95 million is still moderate compared to France's McPhy Energy, which weighs in at EUR 445 million.

The Vancouver-based Company recently announced the expansion of its business model. As early as 2021, an agreement was reached with FEV Consulting GmbH of Aachen, Germany, to design and build a customized hydrogen refueling station prototype. The wholly-owned subsidiary NetZeroH2 has now been founded for this purpose. Strategically and commercially, the expansion of the value chain is advantageous.

First Hydrogen's goal is to become the leading designer and manufacturer of zero-emission, long-range hydrogen-powered vehicles in the UK, EU and North America. To achieve this, the Company is pursuing a best-of strategy, which means integrating existing technologies and a proven chassis. Extensive partnerships have also been forged with AVL and Ballard Power. Over the next six months, strategic partnerships for the vehicle concept, architecture and production will be evaluated through close collaboration with AVL. In the process, prototype delivery is scheduled for the third quarter of 2022.

In addition, First Hydrogen was able to increase the quality of its management significantly. Steve Gill has been appointed as director of First Hydrogen UK Limited and chief executive officer of the automotive division. Robert Campbell takes the position of non-executive director of First Hydrogen UK Limited. He has been senior vice-president and chief commercial officer at Ballard Power Systems since 2017. Arguably taking on the most critical position is Nicholas Wrigley. He has risen to Chairman and Director of First Hydrogen UK Limited, responsible for the global development of the light and medium commercial vehicle business. He is also responsible for the development of hydrogen refueling stations in cooperation with FEV Consulting GmbH.

You can read a detailed report about First Hydrogen here.

Nel ASA - Further downgrade

The stock market star of 2020, the Norwegian hydrogen specialist Nel ASA does not come to rest. After the share price lost around 60% of its value since last year and reached a low of EUR 1.05, the value has recovered with difficulty by almost 20% to currently EUR 1.25. However, various analysts do not see much upside potential.

Thus the British investment bank HSBC downgraded the Norwegians from "Buy" to "Hold" and cut the target price from 22 to 13 Norwegian kroner, equivalent to EUR 1.79. The sentiment picture shows that investors are currently clearly turning away from hydrogen stocks like Nel, wrote analyst Tarek Soliman. He sees a risk that the first half of the year will not hold many positive price drivers for them. Competition in the alkaline technology sector made the expert skeptical about Nel.

Nordex - New low in sight

A continued headwind for the wind turbine manufacturer Nordex. Here, too, a rather pessimistic analyst opinion from Bank of America caused another sell-off. Analyst George Featherstone sees a continuing burden on the wind energy sector due to supply chains. The rating was lowered from "Buy" to "Neutral," and the price target was reduced from EUR 22 to EUR 14.50.

In the past, we had often pointed out the margin problem of the Hamburg-based company. Due to rising commodity prices, it should be clear to every investor that 2022 will also be a challenging year for Nordex. The share chart shows a clear direction. Currently, the share price is heading for the low for the year of EUR 12.30 with a storm warning. New lows would not be surprising.

Despite the price setbacks of some shares, hydrogen and fuel cell technology enjoys the confidence of politicians and the business community. First Hydrogen is establishing itself as a new player with its best-of strategy and has considerable upside potential. Nel ASA is downgraded, and margins are getting tighter at Nordex.