Article isn’t negative actually it seems ************* are warming to AFC26 Jul 2020 17:17
Can’t post full article
Now I know that Tom Winnifrith hates green energy, and when a ************* reader asked us to take a look at AFC Energy (AFC) he passed it over to me, to see if I had a different take on the company – which he isn’t a fan of, but does accept that the world is changing and moving in that direction. I even heard a rumour that he might have started looking at possible investments in the sector himself! TW note I am playing the zeitgeist in a small way but consider myself a filthy spiv for doing so! I am ashamed of myself for owning green shares.
The company has also been making progress with its hydrogen powered, zero-emission, vehicle charging solutions, utilising the HydroX-Cell, and recently announced a collaboration with Extreme E (who were involved with setting up the FIA Formula E as well) to provide the power for the world’s first all-electric rally championship, which will be held in some very remote areas. Even the water by-product produced by this system will be used elsewhere.
I’m no expert on the technical side of things with these fuel cells, nor do I think you really need to be, as it is more about understanding whether the technology has a place in the future, and if so, then how big potentially that will be.
It sounds as though the company is making progress towards a commercial roll out in the future, and validation by Extreme E of the charging system would also likely attract interest in that, especially with the racing being shown on TV around the world – and AFC also has marketing and branding rights associated with the series.
I think the fact that the company recently managed to raise £31.6 million via a placing at 21.4p – although that was a 25% discount to the prevailing market price – shows that there is interest in the company and its tech. That money was raised via a mixture of institutional investors and a PrimaryBid offer, and it would appear that Schroders bought a substantial amount as its stake jumped to 7.66%, from under 5% previously, although most of the other large shareholders just seem to be nominee accounts holding on behalf of clients.
Certainly I found it interesting that the company was able to raise so much money in the current market conditions, albeit at such a large discount.
It means that the company now has enough funds in place to see it start to move into the manufacturing and commercialisation phase for its products/technology, and to support its ongoing costs of running the company on a daily basis, which resulted in it showing a net loss of £1.8 million for the six month period up until the end of April.
There is no doubt in my mind that hydrogen power is the future, the questions remain though as to just how big a part AFC Energy will play in that