Nel ASA Books NOK 253 Million in Orders While Billing Falls 63% — and Hands the Reins to an Interim Team

Nel ASA has given investors two very different pictures of the same quarter. Orders are pouring in, revenue is falling away, and the man who will ultimately be judged on closing that gap will not formally start until 1 May 2027 at the latest.

The Norwegian hydrogen group booked NOK 253 million in order intake in the third quarter of 2026, a jump of 339% year on year. Revenue from customer contracts over the same period came to NOK 112 million — down 63% from a year earlier. The bottom line showed a net loss of NOK 141 million. The order backlog stood at NOK 1,314 million at the end of the quarter.

Those figures describe two separate things: work won and work billed. A healthy backlog is a foundation, not realised business, and the gap between the two lines is where the investment case now sits.

A split performance beneath the headline

The quarterly numbers were not uniformly weak. PEM revenue climbed 65% to NOK 89 million, while the alkaline business saw sales collapse by 91%. That divergence matters because it means the order momentum and the revenue shortfall are not simply mirror images of each other — they reflect a business shifting between technologies as much as one waiting for deliveries to convert.

What the intake figure does not do is erase the revenue decline or the reported loss. For a meaningful operational recovery, Nel has to turn its existing order book into invoiced sales.

Two announcements, two levels of commitment

The agreements unveiled roughly three weeks ago illustrate how differently weighted corporate news can be, and they should not be read as equivalent building blocks of a turnaround.

Nel Hydrogen US, the group's American subsidiary, secured an order worth about USD 12 million for containerised PEM electrolyser units and associated services, with delivery expected in 2027. The customer is a global technology company based in the US that has not been named.

The memorandum of understanding with Rheinmetall carries a different status entirely. Under the Giga PtX banner, the two companies intend to examine decentralised production of renewable synthetic fuels for defence and critical infrastructure, along with scalable, modular solutions for the Norwegian market. It is a feasibility cooperation — explicitly open-ended — not a confirmed project order.

A signed supply contract carries more binding force than a letter of intent, and conflating the two would overstate how much future business is actually secured.

New names at the top, same yardstick

Against that backdrop, Nel has named Morten Holum to succeed Håkon Volldal as chief executive, with a start date no later than 1 May 2027. Until then, finance chief Kjell Christian Bjørnsen takes the helm on an interim basis, while Torbjørn Berg steps into the finance role in the same temporary capacity.

The handover does not alter the status of any project or the meaning of the quarterly figures. The measures that count remain the execution of confirmed orders and an improvement in a loss-making operation. Rheinmetall could eventually generate additional business — but while the talks stay exploratory, they are no substitute for a firm purchase order.