Cleantech Investor

First published in Cleantech magazine Fuel Cell Special Sept/Oct 2010

There has been a significant divergence in the performance of fuel cell stocks in the US and Europe so far this year. Some of the European listed stocks have performed well, notably several AIM-listed companies. However, the performance of stocks comprising the US fuel cell sector has been extremely weak.

Companies such as Acta SpA and ITM Power, both listed on AIM, have seen strong share price rises - in the case of Acta 325%, while ITM Power’s shares have more than doubled. Ceres Power, in contrast, performed against the generally better trend for stocks in the UK, with its share price losing 53% during the year to date.

AIM- listed Ceramic Fuel Cells’ shares have lost 11% this year, but the company has successfully managed to raise funding of £10 million (AU$17.4 million) through a share placing and subscription. Ceramic Fuel Cells is now the largest pure quoted fuel cell company by market capitalisation, ahead of Canada’s Ballard Power Systems. Ballard’s share price has lost 8% year to date, but has dramatically outperformed most of its US counterparts. US-listed Plug Power shares have lost 45% this year and Hydrogenics Corporation has lost 57% of its value. Elsewhere in the US the share price falls have been even more severe, with stocks such as Pacific Fuel Cell dropping 83% and Fuel Cell Energy falling 69%.

Although the share prices of the UK-listed companies may have performed reasonably this year, the recession has also taken its toll on the UK sector, with several companies having delisted during the recession, including CMR and PolyFuel.