The third business quarter of 2023 was marked by another loss for Plug Power. The EPS (earnings per share) was at -0.47 US dollars, while a loss of 0.300 US dollars was recorded in the same period last year. Analysts' expectations for the loss per share were at -0.305 US dollars, which, however, was not met. At the same time, Plug Power could generate a revenue of 198.71 million US dollars, which corresponds to an increase compared to the previous year of 10.11%. Nevertheless, the company stayed below the expectations of analysts, who had forecast a turnover of 219.6 million US dollars.

The bad news from the hydrogen sector in the US is not only affecting local companies, but is also leaving deep marks on European firms. Supply shortages in the production of fuel cells and high outflows of liquidity at the US company Plug Power led to a drop in the stock price on the NASDAQ by 33.56 percent to 3.94 US dollars. This is the lowest level in more than three years. European providers from the industry such as thyssenkrupp Nucera and SFC Energy were also affected. The shares of the thyssenkrupp subsidiary, which went public in July this year, lost 5.5% on Friday, while the shares of SFC Energy fell by 6%.

The reason for the particularly strong share price losses of Plug Power is primarily due to the fact that the company is currently valued at 2.5 billion US dollars, but is spending significant amounts of money. According to RBC analyst Chris Dendrinos, it was nearly 400 million dollars in the third quarter alone. By the end of the quarter, Plug Power still had 1.3 billion dollars of operating capital available, as the industry expert wrote in a recently conducted study.

Therefore, the management has already considered several options to secure liquidity, including a $1.5 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy and various capital measures. Dendrinos predicts that a transaction will take place this quarter. He estimates the capital requirement for the next twelve months at least $750 million.

The news from Plug Power also had effects on other European stock exchanges. The shares of Nel from Oslo lost just under nine percent and the London-based company ITM Power recorded a loss of almost five percent. Nel offers a wide range of services related to hydrogen - from production to storage to distribution. ITM Power specializes in electrolyzers and hydrogen for fuel cells.

The once hyped green hydrogen is now over. Two years ago, a stock of Plug Power cost over 40 US dollars, today it's only worth a tenth of that. Thyssenkrupp Nucera went public in July of this year at a price of 20 euros per share and has since lost 30 percent of its value. The shares of Munich-based company SFC Energy have almost halved in the last two years. Stocks of ITM Power, which cost over 700 pence at the beginning of 2021, are only available at 60 pence today.