Nel ASA's Interim Team Inherits a Simple Test: Turn 253 Million NOK of Orders Into Revenue
Published on 10/23/2026 at 06:22 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Nel ASA has handed its next chief executive a mandate that will be judged long before he settles into the chair. Morten Holum, named CEO on Wednesday, is not due to take the helm until 1 May 2027 at the latest — and in the meantime the company's interim leadership must prove that a dramatic surge in order intake can actually reach the income statement.
The Norwegian hydrogen specialist enters that transition with a split-screen set of figures. Group-wide order intake for the third quarter of 2026, reported on 15 October, climbed 339% to 253 million NOK, against 57 million NOK a year earlier. Revenue from customer contracts moved in the opposite direction, tumbling 63% to 112 million NOK. EBITDA stayed in the red at minus 93 million NOK, a deeper loss than the minus 37 million NOK posted in the same quarter last year.
A PEM bright spot against an alkaline collapse
The order momentum is concentrated in one corner of the business. PEM order intake jumped 473% to 245 million NOK, and PEM revenue advanced 65%. The alkaline segment told a different story, with revenue down 91%.
That divergence explains why the headline order number cannot be read as a group-wide recovery signal. One division is expanding while the other contracts sharply, and the combined top line is still shrinking. A single strong segment offers a foothold, not an all-clear.
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The backlog also carries a timing problem. Roughly two weeks before the quarterly update, Nel disclosed an order from an unnamed global US technology company covering several containerised PEM electrolysers from its MC series plus associated services. Delivery is expected in 2027 — a reminder that orders and revenue sit at different stages of the business cycle.
Leadership handover lands in the middle of the work
Holum's appointment, first reported by FuelCellsWorks, brings in the CEO of Hexagon Purus. Håkon Volldal steps away from his operational duties at the end of October. From 1 November 2026, finance chief Kjell Christian Bjørnsen takes interim charge of the group, with Torbjørn Berg serving as interim CFO until the permanent successor arrives.
Responsibility is therefore split between a stopgap team and a designated future leader. Neither arrangement by itself moves the operational needle. What matters for investors is whether the order book converts into sales and whether the loss-making trend can be contained while the handover plays out.
Cash reserves thin out as losses persist
The balance sheet adds urgency to that question. Nel reported a cash position of 1.08 billion NOK, down from 1.76 billion NOK a year earlier. The company still holds liquidity, but the buffer is visibly smaller.
No reliable funding runway can be inferred from that figure alone. Still, a continued drag on earnings would narrow the room for manoeuvre available to the incoming CEO. Progress needs to be visible under the interim team, not deferred until Holum's first day.
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There is also an unconfirmed upside that investors should weigh separately from the reported backlog. Nel has signed a letter of intent with Rheinmetall, but the arrangement is non-binding. It could eventually produce firm agreements; until then it represents neither a secured order nor a dependable revenue contribution.
The 19 February print is the next real checkpoint
The next hard data point is scheduled for 19 February 2027, a date that appears in the provisional calendar and is therefore not yet final. By then the key measure will be whether the gap between orders and revenue starts to close. A broader improvement across the business, combined with smaller operating losses, would support the stabilisation case.
Should execution lag or the cash balance fall further, Holum's arrival would carry less weight as a positive signal. The appointment is a starting point, not an outcome. For now, the interim leadership holds the reins — and the proof will come from the order book finally showing up in the accounts.
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