AFC Energy losses broadly stable as it focuses on costs

The AIM-traded company posted a post-tax loss of £17.4m, broadly in line with the prior year, while research and development investment increased to £9.5m.

Cash at year-end stood at £15.4m.

Operational highlights included the deployment of its 45 kVA H-Power generator at an Acciona construction site in Spain and the establishment of a production facility capable of manufacturing up to 250 fuel cells annually.

AFC also launched Hyamtec to commercialise its ammonia cracker technology, aimed at enabling cost-effective hydrogen production.

Since year-end, AFC said it had started deploying its H-Power generator sets to Speedy Hydrogen Solutions’ customers and shipped a unit to Tamgo for trials with Aramco.

The company also launched its Gen 3 H-Power S+ 200kW generator, now in trial deployment with Brett Aggregates.

Leadership changes saw John Wilson appointed as chief executive officer, and Karl Bostock as chief financial officer.

AFC had announced a strategic shift from a technology-led approach to a market-driven focus, prioritising cost reduction and achieving price parity with diesel generators.

The company said it was working on cutting the manufacturing costs of its S Series and S+ Series H-Power generators and had decided, in agreement with Speedy, to pause mass rollout to focus on cost reductions that could lower unit costs by up to two-thirds.

AFC said it was also advancing its Hyamtec technology, with plans to commercialise its containerised Hy5 ammonia cracker module capable of producing up to 500 kilograms of hydrogen per day from 2026.

The company had filed patent applications, and said it was scaling up its technology for large-scale industrial applications.

Looking ahead, AFC said it expected further sales of 30kW fuel cell generators to Speedy Hydrogen Solutions as manufacturing costs decline.

The company said it was engaged in advanced discussions for large-scale ammonia cracker deployments and had secured up to £3.7m in UK government grants for the 2025 financial year.

Management anticipated that its repositioning would accelerate market penetration and adoption of its hydrogen solutions over the medium term.

“Our strategy going forward is about focus,” said chief executive officer John Wilson.

“We are directing more of our resources into accelerating production of the Hy-5 and larger-scale crackers, while also driving down the cost and increasing the scalability of our fuel cell systems.”

Wilson said the company believed that would position AFC Energy for faster growth and significantly greater value creation in the years ahead.

“We look forward to updating shareholders as we execute this strategy and work towards delivering clean, low-cost hydrogen power at scale.”

At 1214 GMT, shares in AFC Energy were down 1.04% at 6.63p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.