Nel ASA's Backlog Is Growing Faster Than Its Revenue — and a Leadership Handover Is Closing In

Nel ASA has a demand problem in reverse: customers are ordering more than the company is currently billing. That gap — between a swelling order book and a shrinking top line — is the central issue facing whoever runs the Norwegian hydrogen specialist next, and the timing of the transition makes it impossible to ignore.

A quarter where the two halves of the business pulled apart

Revenue from customer contracts came in at 112 million NOK in the third quarter of 2026, a 63% decline year on year. Nel attributed the drop to weaker activity in its alkaline segment, which more than offset stronger PEM orders.

Order intake told the opposite story. It climbed 339% to 253 million NOK, lifting the backlog to 1,314 million NOK at quarter-end. Those figures describe future potential, not money already earned — a distinction that matters given the bottom line. EBITDA for the period was minus 93 million NOK, and the net loss reached 141 million NOK.

For investors, the takeaway is a clean separation of concepts: a fuller order book is not the same as an earnings turnaround. Getting there requires orders to convert into revenue and losses to narrow.

What the US contract does and does not prove

Roughly two weeks ago, subsidiary Nel Hydrogen US booked an order worth about 12 million USD from an unnamed global US technology company. The package covers several containerized PEM electrolyser solutions from the MC series, along with associated services, with delivery slated for 2027.

The order supports the outlook for the PEM business. It says nothing about whether the alkaline weakness has been overcome, and it sits apart from the revenue already reported for the quarter. A firm purchase order, meanwhile, carries different weight than a non-binding project arrangement — a distinction that applies directly to the second announcement of the same period.

That one was signed with Rheinmetall: a non-binding letter of intent to explore decentralized production of renewable synthetic fuels under the Giga PtX project. It opens a project perspective. It is not a binding order.

A handover timed to the delivery horizon

Morten Holum is set to succeed Håkon Volldal as CEO, taking up the role no later than 1 May 2027. Until then, CFO Kjell Christian Bjørnsen will hold the group leadership on an interim basis starting 1 November 2026, with Torbjørn Berg lined up as interim finance chief.

The leadership transition and the planned US delivery therefore sit on the same business timeline. Neither changes the operational task itself: Nel holds a larger backlog alongside weak revenue and losses, and a durable improvement would need both sides to converge — orders that turn into sales, and an earnings trend that moves the right way.