PE Live: Hydrogen firms need to deliver on stock surge

Pure play hydrogen energy system companies have massively outperformed their peers, and expectations are high they will start to deliver profits well before 2030

The share prices of hydrogen-focused companies have hugely outperformed comparable energy system manufacturers in 2020 and are increasingly attracting the interest of investors and firms seeking a stake in the sector, panellists agreed on a recent PE Live webcast. Excitement is being driven by the “change in tone” across a range of companies that are “looking more seriously at billion-dollar scale investments in hydrogen technologies”, says Sean McLoughlin, Emea head of industrials research, global research, at bank HSBC. Hydrogen ‘pure play’ companies are increasingly teaming up with industrial giants to create joint ventures large enough to commercialise technologies and scale-up activitie