Nel ASA's CEO Departure Casts a Pall Over a Pivotal Product Launch

Nel ASA's CEO resigns weeks after unveiling a new alkaline electrolyser, sending shares down 22% in a month amid weak orders and a leadership vacuum.

Nel ASA's new-generation alkaline electrolyser, unveiled in May after more than eight years of development, was meant to reset the narrative for the Norwegian hydrogen specialist. The platform promises to slash turnkey project costs to below $1,450 per kilowatt — a 40 to 60 percent reduction versus earlier solutions. Yet just weeks after that commercial launch, the company is facing a leadership vacuum that has amplified investor unease.

Chief executive Håkon Volldal announced his resignation on June 15, triggering a 8.65 percent plunge that drove the share price to €0.22. Volldal, who has led Nel since July 2022, will stay on during a six-month notice period while the board searches for a successor. The company insists its strategic direction remains unchanged, but the market is clearly unconvinced: the stock has now slumped more than 22 percent over the past month and trades 40.77 percent below its 52-week high of €0.37, reached only on May 25.

The timing could hardly be worse. Commercialising a new electrolyser platform demands uninterrupted leadership, and Nel's financial foundations are already showing cracks. In the first quarter, order intake collapsed 73 percent year-on-year to just 85 million Norwegian kroner. The total order backlog shrank 24 percent to 1.113 billion kroner, while quarterly revenue edged down 5 percent to 148 million kroner. The EBITDA loss narrowed to 100 million kroner, a 15 million kroner improvement, but the weakness in top-line indicators overshadows that progress.

Compounding the challenge, the company's annualised 30-day volatility hovers near 90 percent. The relative strength index sits at 33.3, close to oversold territory, and further downside could test the 200-day moving average at €0.21, a level hinted at by analysts if order momentum does not improve.

Nel still has breathing room. Liquidity stands at 1.443 billion kroner, and the EU Innovation Fund has pledged up to €135 million to support the ramp-up of production capacity at Herøya to one gigawatt per annum. The company has also secured an initial million-dollar order from the United States. But these are slender reeds against the backdrop of a dwindling backlog and a leadership transition.

The next hard data point arrives on July 15 with the half-year report. Until then, the fate of the new electrolyser platform — technically compelling but commercially unproven — will remain tied to the search for Volldal's successor and the company's ability to demonstrate that its technology can attract the orders that have so far eluded it.