Nel ASA's Order Pipeline Swells While the Top Line Shrinks — and a Leadership Handover Looms
Published on 10/28/2026 at 06:21 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Nel ASA has a demand problem in reverse. Orders are pouring in, yet the money those orders represent has yet to reach the income statement. That mismatch — a swelling backlog set against a shrinking revenue line — is the backdrop against which the hydrogen specialist will hand over its chief executive role in the coming months.
The numbers from the third quarter of 2026 lay out the tension plainly. Order intake climbed 339% year on year to NOK 253 million, while revenue from customer contracts fell 63% to NOK 112 million. The backlog rose 34% to NOK 1.314 million — roughly NOK 1.3 billion — and EBITDA came in at a loss of NOK 93 million.
Those figures describe two different stages of the same business. Orders booked represent work still to be delivered; revenue reflects what has actually been earned. A larger backlog does not, on its own, answer the question of future profitability, and the persistent weakness in the alkaline segment further limits how much the positive order trend can be read as a signal for the group as a whole.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Nel ASA?
A US Order and a German Letter of Intent
Two announcements from roughly two weeks ago illustrate the distinction between firm business and something more tentative. Nel Hydrogen US secured an order for several containerised PEM electrolysers plus associated services from an unnamed global technology company based in the United States. The contract is worth about USD 12 million, with delivery expected in 2027. Because the work lies ahead rather than behind, its value cannot be read as a direct answer to the weak quarterly revenue.
The second item sits in a different category altogether. Nel and Rheinmetall signed a letter of intent to explore possibilities for decentralised production of low-carbon synthetic fuels, combining Nel's electrolyser technology with Rheinmetall's Giga-PtX concept. The collaboration opens a potential commercial avenue, but it is explicitly exploratory — not a confirmed order, and not comparable to the US booking.
New Leadership, Same Operating Test
It is into this setting that the company's planned management transition falls. CFO Kjell Christian Bjørnsen is to take temporary charge of the company from 1 November 2026, with Torbjørn Berg, currently VP Finance, serving as interim CFO during that stretch. Morten Holum is slated to succeed Håkon Volldal as CEO no later than 1 May 2027.
The personnel reshuffle does not alter the economic yardstick. What matters is whether Nel can convert its enlarged order book into realised revenue and narrow its losses. Bookings provide the foundation for that recovery; they do not yet constitute proof of one. For investors, execution — not the pace of new orders — is the metric to watch.
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