Nel ASA's Order Book Is Growing, but Its Income Statement Has Yet to Notice

Nel ASA has a sales story and an earnings story, and the two are moving in opposite directions. Fresh orders are piling up, yet the Norwegian hydrogen specialist is still booking far less revenue than it did a year ago — a gap that investors will have to weigh carefully when judging the stock.

Figures for the third quarter of 2026, released a little over three weeks ago, lay out the mismatch in plain terms. Revenue from customer contracts came in at NOK 112 million, down 63% from the same period last year. EBITDA for the quarter stood at minus NOK 93 million, and the net loss reached NOK 141 million. Total revenue and income amounted to NOK 138 million.

Strong Demand, Weak Billings

On the commercial side, the picture looks far brighter. Order intake climbed 339% to NOK 253 million during the quarter, and the order backlog stood at NOK 1,314 million. Those figures describe work that has been won but not yet delivered — a pipeline, not a profit.

That distinction matters more than any single headline number. A backlog represents business still to be executed; it says nothing about the margin Nel will earn when the work is finally carried out. Nor does a surge in bookings translate directly into a healthier operating result. What the negative EBITDA shows is that, at the earnings level, the company had not yet turned the corner.

A US Contract Points to 2027

A concrete example of how far ahead the revenue sits comes from Nel Hydrogen US. An unnamed global technology group headquartered in the United States ordered containerized PEM electrolysers along with associated services. The contract is worth roughly USD 12 million, with delivery expected in 2027.

The order supports the case for future shipments, but it offers no reason to assume an immediate improvement in the current business. And the contract value alone reveals little about the contribution to earnings Nel will ultimately generate from it.

New Leadership, Same Assignment

Management is changing hands as well. The transition arrangement puts Chief Financial Officer Kjell Christian Bjørnsen in the interim chief executive role until Holum takes over.

The appointment settles who will lead the company going forward, but on its own it offers no evidence of better revenue or earnings. Personnel decisions do not move an income statement. The yardstick for progress remains whether Nel can convert its existing backlog into actual deliveries while narrowing its losses — and only the combination of those two developments would mark something more convincing than a strong quarter for sales.

Tuesday's 2.0% gain in the share price does not change that calculus either. The market may be cheering the order momentum, but the economic task is unchanged: turn NOK 253 million of new business into billings, and turn those billings into profit.