(News Bulletin 247) – The specialist in electrolyzers and charging stations to produce and distribute low-carbon hydrogen has indicated that its German client has decided to suspend an order in Guyana. The impact on turnover is estimated at two million euros by the company.

McPhy faces a blunder beyond his control on one of his flagship projects. The specialist in low-carbon hydrogen production and distribution equipment (electrolyzers, charging stations) announced on Friday after the market closed that Siemens Energy had activated a clause allowing it to suspend the execution of an order.

This order concerns the supply of the 16 megawatt electrolyser within the framework of the CEOG project (for “electric power plant in western French Guiana”). This project in Guyana should make it possible to supply 10,000 households in the west of the French overseas territorial community. The plant is made up of both a photovoltaic solar park and an energy storage unit in the form of hydrogen.

This plant must “consume” only sun and water to produce only electricity and water vapour. Its commissioning is scheduled for mid-2024.

The suspension of Siemens Energy’s order is “outside McPhy’s control and is unrelated to the company’s performance of the contract,” the company said in a statement.

A significant impact on first-half revenues

“The completion of the project to date has already enabled a significant learning effect for the scaling up of McPhy’s tool and industrial experience. The company is ready for the takeover of the execution of the project as soon as its customer, Siemens Energy, expresses the will”, continued the company in its press release.

The decision of the energy division of the German industrial conglomerate cuts part of the company’s income. McPhy retains at this stage a negative impact of 2 million euros in the first half of the 2023 financial year, which according to Royal Bank of Canada corresponds to 40% of the value of the project. McPhy had already accounted for 60% of the turnover of the CEOG project as of December 31.

Still in the first half, the French group expects at this stage that its revenues will be in a range of between 6 million and 8 million euros.

A difficult stock market journey since 2021

On the stock market, the McPhy share is sanctioned following this announcement, but moderately. The title fell 2.5% around 10 a.m., in very low volumes, after falling 3.3% at the very start of the session.

Driven by the enthusiasm for stocks linked to the energy transition, and in particular hydrogen, McPhy saw its share price jump until the end of 2020, when the stock joined the SBF 120. But delays in the execution of certain projects as well as in order intake led it to issue a warning on its revenues in 2021 and then to change its managing director. It was at this point that the group’s good stock market momentum came to a halt. McPhy then struggled. In March, the company left the SBF 120.