ITM Power Trading Update - 10th June 2021

ITM Power plc

(“ITM”, "ITM Power", the “Group" or the "Company")

Trading Update

ITM Power (AIM: ITM), the energy storage and clean fuel company, provides a trading update for the year to 30 April 2021. This update also includes progress on the contracts backlog and tender pipeline, the Bessemer Park Gigafactory, ITM Linde Electrolysis GmbH ("ILE"), ITM Motive, ITM Support and ITM Academy, as well as the outlook for the current financial year to 30 April 2022 and beyond.

Highlights:

• Contracts backlog of £154.0m (£52.4m) constituting 290MW of electrolysers up 194% YoY
• £35.4m (£21.8m) Work in Progress up 62% YoY representing 43MW of electrolysers
• 10MW of the Work in Progress is the Refhyne project recognised on stage of completion
• The balance of the Work in Progress is expected to be delivered in FY22
• Tender pipeline of £607m (£263m), up 131% YoY, value to ITM Power is £364.2m
• Tender pipeline constitutes 593MW of potential electrolysis demand
• Bessemer Park Gigafactory positions ITM Power strongly to meet rapidly growing demand
• Installation of the 10MW Refhyne project completed, with inauguration on 2 July

Market Progress:

• Rapid hydrogen market development, with projects now at the 100MW scale
• Eight governments stated explicit electrolyser targets totalling 144GW by 2030
• Number of reports suggest further acceleration of hydrogen market development
• The IEA report “Net Zero by 2050: A roadmap for the Global Energy Sector” published on 18 May states that a “global electrolyser capacity of 3,585GW needed by 2050.”
• The Aurora “Hydrogen Market Attractiveness Report” published on 11 May states that the current pipeline of potential electrolysis projects is over 200 GW, 85% of which is in Europe

New Contract awards:

• 24MW sale to Linde Gas for the Leuna Chemical Complex in Germany
• Additional aggregate sales of 10MW across Germany, Austria, Japan, Tasmania and France
• New market sectors: semiconductors, multi MW scale wind coupling
• €5m EU funding for OYSTER (offshore electrolysis) with Orsted and Siemens Gamesa

New projects under negotiation or preferred supplier status:

• Partnership with Snam to develop projects with preferred supplier status for the first 100MW of electrolysers
• Planned 100MW expansion of Shell Refhyne to 110MW - subject to securing match funding
• Plans submitted for the 20MW Whitelee project in Glasgow with ScottishPower (Iberdrola)

Corporate:

• ITM Motive established as a separate company, wholly owned by ITM Power
• Tom Rae and Katherine Roe appointed as Non-Executive Directors of ITM Power
• Recruitment of key talent to maintain market leadership continues

Unaudited Financials:

• The Company currently expects to produce (and recognise revenue for) 50MW of electrolysers in the financial year ending 30 April 2022
• Of this, 33MW are already contracted in the backlog, with the balance of 17MW in advanced stages of contract negotiation
• Recognised revenue will be strongly weighted to the second half of the financial year given manufacturing lead times
• The Company now has significant manufacturing and operational capacity, and a blueprint to substantially increase that capacity, to address market demand for its developing suite of products as the market continues to move at pace towards large scale projects

Dr Graham Cooley, CEO, ITM Power plc, commented: "Traction in the electrolyser industry has been even more rapid than we were anticipating. At the same time, we moved into a gigawatt factory in January, which positions us strongly to meet rapidly growing global demand reflected in a contracts backlog and tender opportunity pipeline materially ahead of our original expectations. We are very much looking forward to welcoming customers and investors to a very busy Bessemer Park as soon as we are able."

There will be an analyst and investor presentation today at 1400h BST on the Investor Meet Company platform: https://www.investormeetcompany.com/itm-power-plc/register-investor

Also today, ITM Power's partner Linde will be holding a green hydrogen seminar between 0900h and 1130h BST (1000h-1230h CET) which will cover the Company's JV with Linde, ILE GmbH. Those wishing to attend should register at: https://www.engineering.linde.com/green-hydrogen-seminar2

For further information please visit www.itm-power.com or contact:

ITM Power plc
44 (0)114 551 1205
James Collins, Investor Relations

Investec Bank plc (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
+44 (0)20 7597 5970
Jeremy Ellis / Chris Sim / Ben Griffiths

Tavistock (Financial PR and IR)
+44 (0)20 7920 3150
Simon Hudson / Edward Lee / Tim Pearson

About ITM Power plc:

ITM Power plc manufactures integrated hydrogen energy solutions for grid balancing, energy storage and the production of renewable hydrogen for transport, renewable heat and chemicals. ITM Power plc was admitted to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in 2004. In October 2019, the Company announced the completion of a £58.8 million fundraising, including an investment by Linde of £38 million, together with the formation of a joint venture with Linde to focus on delivering renewable hydrogen to large-scale industrial projects worldwide. ITM Power signed a deal to deploy a 10MW electrolyser at Shell's Rhineland refinery. In November 2020, ITM Power completed a £172m fundraising, including a £30m investment by Snam, one of the world’s leading energy infrastructure operators. ITM Power operates from the world's largest electrolyser factory in Sheffield with a capacity of 1GW (1,000MW) per annum. ITM Power received an order for the world’s largest PEM electrolyser of 24MW from Linde in January 2021. Other customers and partners include Sumitomo, Ørsted, Phillips 66, Scottish Power, Siemens Gamesa, Cadent, Northern Gas Networks, Gasunie, RWE, Engie, GNVert, National Express, Toyota, Hyundai and Anglo American among others.

Introduction

Global demand from industry for electrolysers to decarbonise production processes, and from utilities and power companies to store renewable energy, is accelerating - the potential scale of demand originally underpinned the Company’s decision to invest in a step change in capacity at the new Bessemer Park facility. ITM Power is well positioned to take advantage of the acceleration in demand - our investments in the Bessemer Park facility have yielded not only the largest PEM electrolyser production facility anywhere in the world today with a significant 1GW per annum capacity, but can also serve as a blueprint to further scale production as and when required.

Pipeline

The contracts backlog today stands at a record level of £154.0m (£52.4m) constituting 290MW of electrolysers, up over 194% YoY; comprising £35.4m (£21.8m) of projects under contract and in progress and a further £118.6m of awards in the final stages of negotiation or subject to preferred supplier status.

The full system tender opportunity pipeline stands at £607m (£263m), up 131% YoY, of which the value to ITM Power would be £364.2m; this constitutes 593MW of full electrolyser systems comprising 68 active commercial tender responses over the last 12 months with an average project size of £8.9m (£7.2m), reflecting strong industrial demand for larger systems. For ITM Power to add a bid to the tender pipeline, it needs to be a financed project, quoted within the last 12 months and expected to be contracted in the next three years. ITM Linde Electrolysis and ITM have jointly responded to GWs of early stage enquiries over the last 12 months providing indicative pricing, which do not yet form part of the tender pipeline.

ITM Linde Electrolysis GmbH (ILE)

As a 50/50 joint venture, ILE can access the capabilities of both ITM Power and Linde Engineering. In so doing, the business has an extremely strong value proposition from feasibility to plant realisation. As such, ILE is uniquely able to offer large-scale, turnkey solutions to the market including full EPC capability.

ILE has enjoyed a successful period winning feasibility, front end engineering design (FEED) contracts and execution projects and is currently conducting three such FEED studies. Notable among the execution projects are the sale of a 24MW electrolyser which will be operated at a Total facility in Leuna, Germany and the completion of a 100MW FEED study for Orsted and Philipps 66 that will act as a blueprint for further 100MW+ projects. Both are representative of the rapidly growing demand for larger electrolyser systems, which is where the ILE offering is particularly compelling.

Collaboration between ITM Power, Linde Engineering and ILE is intense and productive. ILE currently has 14 full time staff, up 367% over the last 12 months and as a consequence, the market offering has developed rapidly. Crucially for ITM Power, the relationship enables the business to focus on electrolyser standardisation and modularisation. This in turn allows ITM Power to accelerate development, cost reduction and the transition to a high volume specialist manufacturer. By focusing on its core competencies in this way, ITM Power can effectively and rapidly scale the business.

Snam S.p.A. (Snam)

The strategic partnership between ITM Power and Snam signed in October 2020 is proceeding well. ITM Power and Snam have a constructive dialogue around several green hydrogen projects leveraging on their respective knowledge and strengths. Snam has supported ITM Power’s Strategic Advisory Committee on key decisions on commercial activities and the Company’s Technology Management Committee has also benefited from Snam’s input into research and development roadmaps, by reflecting Snam’s understanding of hydrogen markets. Snam’s secondments to the ITM Power team in Sheffield are enabling the two companies to foster synergies for the development of new projects, as well as technology and manufacturing improvements.

Unaudited Results

Revenue for the financial year to 30 April 2021 is expected to be £4.0m. This was the first year in which ITM Power worked with Linde as part of the joint venture, ILE, which resulted in sales contracts being secured with a value of £12.8m. These contracts were ongoing at year-end and therefore no revenue was recognised from the efforts of the JV in the financial year. The revenue performance was also impacted by some project delays, particularly in Australia, in relation to Covid-19 restrictions. Had these restrictions not impacted revenue, it would have stood at £5.5m. These Australian projects are expected to conclude in Q1 FY22.

EBITDA and EBIT losses in the financial year to 30 April 2021 are expected to be broadly in line with management expectations. This result reflects in part the impact of Project Accelerate, whereby the Group is targeting next generation products two years early. To facilitate this, headcount has increased from 189 at 30 April 2020 to 275 today, up 46%. This enhancement of capability has accelerated the technology development, allowed for a homologation exercise to happen for all target markets (due to conclude in FY22) and led to further investment in production skills, product improvements, after-market service capability and business development.

Total net current assets excluding stock at the year-end were approximately £176m (£50.7m as at 30 April 2020), comprising £176.1m (£39.9m) of cash and deployed working capital (debtors less creditors) of £nil (£9.7m).

Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic

The health and safety of our employees and their families, our suppliers and customers remains paramount. Consequently, in accordance with government guidelines, all non-essential work was stopped at ITM Power locations until Government restrictions were lifted.

As previously announced, many customer sites where ITM Power is working to install and commission equipment were closed for periods, causing delays to project delivery, which has impacted revenue recognition for these contracts. The Company worked closely with partners, suppliers and staff to get back on site as soon as possible in all cases, and has recently had teams in Germany, France, Netherlands and Australia. Staff were COVID tested prior to any travel to ensure their safety and the safety of our customers.

ITM is working in full COVID compliance with production and essential services on site at our Gigafactory in Sheffield, where staff are encouraged to enrol in the UK testing and vaccination program, and COVID testing is available onsite. Work is progressing to allow remaining staff to return to site as the lockdown is lifted, with the expectation that the lifting of restrictions on 21 June will allow all staff access to our new facility.

The Bessemer Park Gigafactory

The Company moved into Bessemer Park in January 2021, and the factory has been in production for the last three months. The historic ITM sites closed, with dilapidations complete, and all staff are under one roof. The strategy of becoming a standardised products manufacturer is being realised at Bessemer Park, with parts being built to stock to reduce lead times. The Company has also deployed and resourced its remote support centre, with technical specialisations available 24/7 to support customer products anywhere in the world and provide best-in-class service. The move to, and development of, Bessemer Park has also provided ITM with an effective blueprint for future large-scale manufacturing facilities, including identification of scope for further automation.

Technology

ITM Power continues to place strategic focus on the development of its technology. The opening of Bessemer Park earlier this year saw the Product Development and Technology teams relocate into the new Technology Centre. The additional space provides an excellent location to build on the Company’s 20 years of experience and accelerate key development activities. The ITM Power technology roadmap is focused on reducing cost, increasing efficiency and expanding production capacity of our electrolyser stacks and products.

Over the last period particular emphasis has been placed on verification of improvements at the stack level. These have included improved membrane materials, ultra-low catalyst loadings and in-house component preparation. The now co-located technology and production teams work particularly closely together as new manufacturing machines are adopted by the business to underpin production capacity ramp up and prepare for the larger 5MW Gigastack platform.

Cost Reduction and supply market risk

Product cost reduction is an important focus area for ITM Power. Last year the Company presented a full system price reduction plan including a target to halve the average product price within five years. The strategy to achieve these improvements is centred on standardisation and modularisation of the product offering alongside fully leveraging global buying power of partners and an integrated technology roadmap. The single biggest gains are available from the PEM stack and the power conversion systems. ITM Power has brought key stack preparation processes in-house with the move to Bessemer Park. Together with semi-automation and in-line quality assurance, this has achieved both cost reduction and capacity expansion for the stack platform.

The economies achieved from scale are key to cost reduction. The move to 5MW modules from 2MW modules, the increased factory throughput achieved by increased product demand and the associated efficiencies in the supply market all lead to significant cost reduction.

Another focus area has been continued reduction of precious metal loading. Over the last 10 years, the use of precious metals within ITM Power stacks has reduced by over 80%. This core competency and vertical integration enabled ITM Power to achieve the 2030 EU target of 0.4mg/W for precious metal loading for electrolysers in 2019 and significant further progress has been made since then. As a manufacturer of its own catalyst inks, ITM Power has been working on the reduction, recycling and reuse of precious metal catalyst loading for 20 years. As part of the Company’s existing cost reduction plan, these developments will be rolled out in phases, subject to ITM Power’s well-established verification process. This long running activity makes an important contribution to cost reduction and provides some insulation against the risk of supply constraints in the precious metal supply chain.

These and other developments, together with the productive collaboration with Linde on product value engineering, is ensuring solid progress against cost and performance targets. Providing comparable €/kW pricing for full electrolyser systems is challenging owing to the complexity and variability in scope of supply. In addition to direct sales of containerised electrolyser systems, a significant route to market is via ITM Linde Electrolysis, whereby core electrolysis modules are supplied to Linde Engineering for integration within a wider solution tailored to the end user requirements. In this way, both companies focus on where they add value, enabling the business to be scaled effectively.

Projects

The Company currently has a portfolio of 33 live projects and a team of 12 dedicated international and multi-lingual project managers, including Italian, French and German speakers, who work closely with clients to support the delivery of projects and products to time and budget.

The Refhyne project reached a significant milestone in April with the installation of the venturi roof. Multidisciplinary teams from ITM Power and ITM Power GmbH are working on site to commission Europe’s largest PEM electrolyser in preparation for the public inauguration of the facility on 2 July 2021.

On 26 February 2021, Shell announced its development plans for its Rhineland Refinery in Germany. These include an increase in the capacity of the ITM Power PEM electrolyser plant by 100MW. Shell's partners for the Refyhne II electrolysis project are ITM Power, ITM Linde Electrolysis GmbH (ILE) and Linde. Subject to finalising contracts and securing some match funding, construction will begin next year.

The Gigastack project on Humberside has been widely recognised as the UK’s flagship renewable hydrogen project. This was particularly highlighted in the two Government publications, the “10-Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution” and the “Energy White Paper: Powering our Net Zero Future”. The Phase 2 project funded by the UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is creating a blueprint for deploying scaleable electrolyser technology across the UK. The Gigastack project is nearing an important milestone in its delivery, as project partners ITM Power, Orsted and Philips 66 are set to publish a final report in July 2021, which will outline findings and progress in key areas of focus including the 100MW electrolyser front-end engineering design (FEED) study.

The Company's Project Managers continue to work with customers and suppliers to mitigate delays resulting from Covid-19. This is expected to have an impact on the H1/H2 phasing of revenues recognised in the current financial year, but with ongoing changes to quarantine and travel rules the impact is currently too uncertain to quantify.

ITM Motive

On 4 May 2021 ITM Motive Limited (“ITM Motive”) registered in England with company number 13290733, as a separate, wholly owned subsidiary of ITM Power PLC. All English refuelling assets owned by ITM Power (Trading) Limited and resources and personnel have been transferred to ITM Motive. ITM Motive owns and operates a portfolio of 12 Hydrogen Refuelling Station (HRS) assets in the UK. ITM Motive has 13 staff in total, with four new team members joining in the next two months. The company is based in Sheffield at Shepcote Enterprise Park. ITM Motive expects to rapidly grow its network of refuelling stations in the UK with a focus on larger vehicle fleets and is already talking to potential partners which could provide investment, complementary engineering skills and access to markets.

ITM Support

ITM Power has expanded its remote operating centre as part of its transition to Bessemer Park. The facility is staffed 24 hours a day by experienced engineers to provide immediate support to clients around the world. Remote access to, and visibility over, electrolyser equipment in the field which is subject to different operating conditions provides valuable data which support learning and ongoing product improvement.

ITM Power has developed a partnership with Optimal for on-site support of its electrolyser systems in Australia. Partnering in this way enables ITM Power to ensure clients receive excellent after sales support internationally. As the number of electrolyser deployments grows, uptake of aftersales support packages will increase and is expected to develop into an attractive and recurring revenue stream.

Outlook

ITM Power’s strategy to be ready with capacity as demand increased and establish market leadership in PEM electrolysers has proved to be the right one. Governments and industry around the world are increasingly coming to the realisation that hydrogen produced by electrolysis from renewable power is the only true zero carbon footprint production process available. And water electrolysis, with its ability to couple directly to intermittent renewable power, is the only technology currently available at scale.

In terms of the outlook for the current financial year ending 30 April 2022:

• The Company currently expects to produce (and recognise revenue for) 50MW of electrolysers
• Of this, 33MW are already contracted in the backlog, with the balance of 17MW in advanced stages of contract negotiation
• Recognised revenue will be strongly weighted to the second half of the financial year given manufacturing lead times

The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on economic activity globally has produced a situation where many governments and supra-national bodies such as the EU are now seeking to combine major economic and industrial recovery plans with achieving lower greenhouse gas emissions – green recovery strategies.

These factors bode well for ITM Power’s growth prospects. The Company now has significant capacity, and a blueprint to substantially increase that capacity, to address market demand for its developing suite of products. The partnerships already in place bring increased access to markets, global reach and worldwide execution capability. ITM Power is deliberately positioned to take maximum advantage of the expected growth in its markets.