Written by Megan Dempster
LGB investors were recently invited to participate in the IPO for Clean Power Hydrogen plc (CPH2). The IPO, led by Cenkos Securities plc, was over-subscribed and raised gross proceeds of £30.5m before expenses. The company was admitted to AIM on 16 February 2022 with the code CPH2.
At LGB & Co. Limited our investment approach is centred around four overarching themes, with CPH2 being an interesting proposition in the context of our theme of decarbonisation. The company’s IPO presentation was interesting, not just for the company itself, but as a comparison with existing fuel cell companies, and as a reminder that there are a plethora of emerging technologies.
CPH2 is a UK-based electrolyser business, so a generator of green hydrogen using electricity (hopefully green electricity). The company, founded in 2012, was largely owned by its existing management and founders. Although the company was relatively early-stage compared to some of its competitors, it had a substantial technical partner in the large German engineering company KCA Deutag. The company has also already won a commercial tender with Northern Ireland Water and has entered into a partnership with Octopus Hydrogen, demonstrating there is a clear demand for its unique approach and technology.
This market is already being addressed by fuel cell manufacturers such as ITM, where the founders of CPH2 cut their teeth. CPH2’s technology is differentiated by using a membrane-free electrolyser and cryogenic separation of hydrogen and oxygen. This avoids the problems of performance degradation that have delayed fuel cell development, and reduces build costs, also avoiding fluorine and platinum group metal usage. The company intend to offer 25 year warranties on its installations. CPH2 has IP both in the membrane free cell and in the cryogenic separator.
The company is delivering a first installation to Northern Ireland Water this month and is manufacturing a first (1MW order) unit for Octopus Hydrogen. The intention is for the company to both manufacture itself (in Doncaster and Northern Ireland) and to license out production. It already has a pipeline of >2GW by 2030. The German alternative energy firm BayWa r.e. AG have now signed a letter of intent with Octopus to build hydrogen generating plants for Octopus, so they are clearly pushing on with the project.
Management is very ambitious and believe they can achieve 10% market share of the projected 40GW European 2030 market. At the time of writing, Cenkos have the company breaking even at EBITDA and at net level in 2023 and generating £22m of EBITDA in 2024.
The company has also been awarded the London Stock Exchange’s Green Economy Mark, which recognises companies that derive 50% or more of their total annual revenues from products and services that contribute to the global green economy.
If you are interested in becoming a client of LGB, please get in touch for more information. Furthermore, we continue to work with companies in the digitisation, the new age consumer, the future of healthcare, and the decarbonisation sectors. We would be pleased to hear about compelling companies with validated business models in this space.
