Interim reports | The losses of Plug Power, which is planning billion-dollar investments in Finland, increased – the stock plummets

Economic|Interim reports

To Finland the losses of the US company Plug Power, which is planning huge hydrogen investments, increased even more in the second quarter of the year.

The company’s losses before interest and taxes increased to almost 234 million dollars, while in the same period last year it was just under 147 million dollars. The company’s losses therefore increased by approximately 59 percent.

The result of the company aiming for significant growth is also burdened by product development costs of around 30 million dollars and sales, administration and other general expenses of around 100 million, but its core business is also loss-making.

In the second quarter, Plug Power’s turnover rose to about 260 million dollars from about 151 million euros in the comparison period, but it spent about 338 million euros to achieve this turnover. The company’s gross profit was thus approximately USD 78 million in loss.

The company despite the largest quarterly turnover in history, Plug Power’s result did not seem to convince investors. The company announced its results on Wednesday after the end of the actual trading on Wall Street.

On Thursday at 5 p.m. Finnish time, the company’s stock was down more than 12 percent.

According to the Yahoo Finance website, the company’s result fell short of analysts’ expectations. According to Yahoo, a consensus of 25 analysts expected Plug Power to post a second-quarter loss of $0.26 per share, but the company reported a loss of $0.40 per share on Wednesday.

Plug Power said at the beginning of summer that it is planning three large hydrogen plants in Finland by the end of the current decade. The plants would be built in Kokkola, Kristiinankaupunki and Porvoo.

CEO of Plug Power Andy Marsh told HS at the time that the value of the investment is expected to be somewhere between $4.2 billion and $7.8 billion.

The company plans to make a final investment decision on hydrogen plants in 2025–2026. In the most recent results announcement, the company says that it is still planning hydrogen plants in Finland, but does not say anything more about the progress of the plans.

The facilities planned for Finland would be an exceptionally large investment for Plug Power, so the company’s financial situation is also of interest in Finland.

Company has never made an annual profit in its more than 25-year history. The company says in its results announcement that it is focusing on scaling its business and cutting its expenses in order to improve its profitability.

“The company has clear short-term goals to improve profitability in the second quarter of the year and to further reduce costs through 2024, when we significantly increase our sales volumes,” Plug Power writes in the investor letter sent in connection with the results announcement.

For now, the majority of Plug Power’s turnover still comes from the sale of its hydrogen-based fuel cells. The sale of fuel cells is the only one of the company’s business segments that makes a profit.