ITM Power Aktie

Good morning, and welcome to the ITM Power plc Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions]. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll.

I'd now like to hand over to the team at ITM Power plc. Good morning.

Good morning, and welcome to our Capital Market update. Financial year '26 was a strong year for ITM Power, in which we delivered our highest ever annual revenues of GBP 43.6 million, representing a 68% increase year-on-year and a more than 700% increase over 3 years. We have continued to strengthen our position as a leading supplier of electrolyzers, underpinned by our proprietary stack technology, deep manufacturing expertise, strong reference plants and a product portfolio trusted by industrial customers.

Today, Amy, Simon and I want to cover a wide range of topics. First, a bit of setting the scene and then a deeper dive into the market we operate in. Following a short recap of our business model, I would like to then draw attention to the Hydropulse project we announced last week. We will then continue with a project execution update before going into more details about our collaboration with Rheinmetall. Simon will then update on the U.K. government investment in ITM and on our Chronos program. Amy will report our financial year '26 results and provide guidance for FY '27.

Let's kick off with a look on the market and competition, which I will keep brief as the next slide is going into more detail. Macroeconomically, the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East continue to highlight the structural fragility of fossil fuel-dependent energy systems. Geopolitical shocks, price volatility and supply chain disruptions underscore that energy security cannot be taken for granted. The strategic rationale for accelerating the energy transition has become clearer and more urgent. Scaling clean, sovereign and resilient regional energy systems enables to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels.

Electrolytic hydrogen plays a key role in these systems of the future. It offers critical grid balancing and energy storage capabilities and extends decarbonization into hard-to-abate sectors like steel, chemicals, fertilizers and synthetic fuels, including for defense purposes. As previously reported, Europe remains the most attractive market for green hydrogen and our products with robust policy frameworks, substantial pipeline and wider infrastructure investments and a growing push for made in Europe.

Of course, other regions are progressing their hydrogen ambitions as well, including, for example, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Canada, but Europe remains the focal point with projects advancing at scale and at pace. From refineries replacing fossil-derived hydrogen to energy companies converting renewable power into hydrogen to supply industry, ITM has evolved into a trusted partner with proven performance and a strong reference plant situation. In an environment of fierce competition and market consolidation underway, operational data from sizable reference plants with credible customers and execution experience do matter. As a result, we are seeing strong customer engagement, in particular, for Alpha 50, NEPTUNE V and Hydropulse.

Operationally, we have never been in a stronger position, be it on core technology, project execution capabilities or manufacturing. Our competitive and comprehensive product portfolio has enabled us to win important projects in the year, including a NEPTUNE V project with Westnetz in Germany, and NEPTUNE II project with a cement producer in Spain, a Poseidon contract with MorGen in the U.K. and the NEPTUNE V contract with Octopus Energy Generation.

We also secured important project supplier selections for opportunities progressing towards FID, including with Uniper for the 120-megawatt Humber project, with a confidential customer in Asia for a project larger than 300 megawatt and with German Stablegrid for 2 projects totaling 710 megawatts. In addition, we entered into a 150-megawatt capacity reservation with RWE. I will skip the U.K. government investment and our Rheinmetall partnership for now as we will talk about that later in the presentation. Project execution has progressed at pace across multiple flagship projects, including RWE's 200-megawatt Lingen plant, Linde's Leuna project and Shell's 100-megawatt REFHYNE II. Our list of high-profile reference plants keeps growing.

Next up is our financial position, which I will keep short because Amy will talk about it later in the presentation. It is worth highlighting, though, that we closed the year with more cash than we entered it. Our strong balance sheet remains a clear competitive advantage, particularly in light of the ongoing market consolidation. Our order backlog remained at a healthy level despite recognizing record revenues in the year and is now consisting of 83% profitable contracts, up from 60% at the start of the financial year. This brings us to our strategic priorities, which have proven right over the year and remain valid.

Technology leadership and competitiveness continue to be central to our strategy. Full ownership of core science, IP and manufacturing enables rapid innovation, supply chain resilience and product differentiation. In October last year, we reinforced this leadership by the successful launch of Alpha 50, our scalable 50-megawatt full scope hydrogen plant. Alpha has generated strong customer engagement as it aligns with the market's appetite for standardized industrial scale hydrogen solutions from trusted technology providers with convincing reference plants.

In support of our long-term vision to build an integrated hydrogen company, we launched Hydropulse in 2025. Hydropulse is our new build, own and operate business model, which is poised to fundamentally transform the financial profile of our company. I will pause here because I'm updating on Hydropulse later in the presentation.

Let's now take a closer look on the market we operate in. The outlook for electrolytic hydrogen as an essential building block of the energy systems of the future remains compelling with significant growth forecasted over the next years. That said, many final investment decisions short FID continue taking longer than anticipated. In contrast, the underlying fundamentals have strengthened. A phase like this is naturally favoring companies with the discipline to focus on project execution, the preservation of capital and to relentlessly build the capabilities needed for the future. Just getting on with it effectively and efficiently, this is how we build a resilient market leader.

On this slide, I would like to focus on the bottom bit, which attempts to illustrate growth momentum by use case as we experience it right now. We are seeing the biggest demand pull from refineries today. Refineries are turning to green hydrogen to cut emissions and to meet the binding RED III targets, including 42% RFNBO use by 2030. Refineries require hydrogen to remove sulfur and impurities from oil products and to convert heavy hydrocarbons into diesel, petrol and jet fuel. REFHYNE II with Shell is such a project, as is Lingen with RWE, which will supply the Total refinery in Leuna via pipeline. Refinery applications, whether directly or indirectly dominate our sales pipeline today.

The second growth area, although much less mature, is defense, meaning synthetic fuels, which can be produced independent from fossil fuels and offer unparalleled sovereignty and resilience advantages. We will explain that in more detail later in the presentation. Interest in mobility-related applications has moderately declined though, over the recent months. Looking back over the last couple of years, mobility-related applications were making up a big portion of our sales pipeline. These projects are typically small, say, 2 to 10 megawatts. And while there still are these projects, the trend is undeniably going for larger scale applications instead.

Don't let the gray horizontal arrows fool you when it comes to the next 3 items. We are seeing continued but unchanged in trend, demand from energy companies who aim to convert especially surplus renewable energy into hydrogen. The amount and cost of curtailed renewable energy are mind-blowing today, and it will continue to get worse from here. We expect an increasing demand from this segment in the future. Industry continues to offer a wide range of use case opportunities such as for steel, cement or chemicals. We are not seeing a major trend here in our sales pipeline, neither a material decline nor a material increase in demand.

The same applies to derivatives such as ammonia for fertilizers. This is actually surprising as recent crises have exposed, for example, in the U.K., a dangerous dependence on imported fertilizers. Domestic green hydrogen-based sovereign fertilizer production could strengthen food security, reduce geopolitical dependencies and cut emissions. We, therefore, expect the penny to drop in the future and demand to pick up substantially in this segment.

In the capital market update in January this year, I showed you this slide and explained our business model. I won't go through everything again, but want to highlight the Hydropulse model briefly once more. ITM is originally coming from the core technology. And over the years, we acquired the capability to design and manufacture market-leading electrolyzer products, which we sell to our customers. We also built the EPC capabilities required to integrate our technology into full plants and on customer sites. These capabilities form the basis for our strategic evolution into becoming a build, own and operate company as well.

Under the brand Hydropulse, we will invest, build, own and operate hydrogen production plants to serve industrial offtakers under long-term contracts. This business model is not only significantly profitable, but also highly cash generative and it offers long-term contracted recurring revenue streams, which will fundamentally transform the financial profile of our company. The introduction of Hydropulse represents an important strategic move, broadening our route to market and addressing key barriers to quicker hydrogen adoption.

By eliminating customers' CapEx and mitigating perceived operational and technology risks, the model has resonated strongly with prospective customers. This market traction is evidenced by the signing of heads of terms for large-scale green hydrogen project between Hydropulse and a leading oil refinery in the European Union. We announced the deal last week alongside a dedicated capital market video. At 150-megawatt capacity and with a planned 10-year contract duration for the operational phase, the project demonstrates the massive scale and potential of our BOO model.

Our customer is planning to provide land and utilities, including power, mitigating our exposure to electricity price risk. A joint FEED study is already underway, and we are targeting FID in 2027 with hydrogen production targeted to start already in 2029. As explained last week, financing discussions are moving ahead constructively. If progressed through FID, it would represent by far the largest contract of ITM to date and establish a material long-term contracted revenue stream for the group. And this is just one of many Hydropulse projects we are progressing.

For industrial customers to take it seriously for such massive projects like the Hydropulse one, you don't only need a robust technology, but a track record of deployed reference plants of comparable size. We are beyond proud that we have written history by successfully deploying the largest PEM electrolyzer in the world and Europe's largest operational electrolyzer of any technology. The first 100-megawatt project in Lingen for RWE has marked an important milestone for us. The second 100-megawatt project for RWE on the same site is already in commissioning with 60 megawatts already done.

Shortly, we will have delivered the biggest electrolyzer in Europe twice and most importantly, to a happy customer. This should also end the false debate about alkaline technology being the most suitable technology for large-scale deployments. As I said earlier, we are simply getting on with stuff, and we are continuing to prove what's possible instead of just talking about it.

And another happy customer, 101-year-old family company, Guttroff, has been our first NEPTUNE V customer, and they have overseen us complete the unit and put it through extensive customer-witnessed factory acceptance testing short FAT. FAT went smoothly and the unit's performance is exceptional with efficiency and hydrogen production rate better than contractually committed, providing our customer with a valuable business case upside. We thank Guttroff for their trust and look forward to more joint projects, some of which are already in development.

This brings us to another exciting topic, our strategic collaboration with the German Rheinmetall. Together, we combine proven industrial scale hydrogen technology with defense and Power-to-X integration to strengthen fuel security, military operational resilience and supply chain sovereignty. We plan to achieve that by building decentralized synthetic fuel production plants, which will utilize locally produced green hydrogen with captured CO2. The result is drop-in diesel, jet and marine fuel fully compatible with existing NATO equipment, including vehicles, aircraft, vessels and fuel infrastructure.

Our collaboration focuses on the U.K. and Germany, the 2 most important nations for Europe's fuel backbone. Joint discussions are underway with both governments. These discussions are happening on the back of an increasing threat level to European security from the East. The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have yet again demonstrated that fuel and energy infrastructure are primary military targets and that dependence on fossil fuel supply chains would severely limit our defense capabilities.

The underlying program driven by Rheinmetall is called Giga PtX, and it aims to partner with NATO members to build a distributed network of several hundreds of modular Power-to-X plants for synthetic fuel production across Europe. This makes the network inherently resilient and difficult to attack with no single point of failure. Rheinmetall works with selected technology champions to ensure local content where possible.

I will now hand over to Simon, who will explain you synthetic fuel and how it compares to conventional fuel.

Thank you, Dennis. The proposition Rheinmetall are pursuing is the production of conventional hydrocarbon fuels by using renewable power, water and carbon dioxide. Via the process we're all very familiar with, electrolysis uses renewable power to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen, while the CO2 is made available from industrial or even ambient air sources. These are the 2 key ingredients which feed the Fischer-Tropsch process, which joins the hydrogen and carbon atoms together into long hydrocarbon chains, which ultimately make up the fuels, fuels that carry the benefits and convenience of the conventional diesel and aviation fuels that we're familiar with.

This application is about bringing together established technologies to produce fuels that are already validated for use. And in doing so, it becomes feasible to produce conventional fuels in close proximity to where they're needed, while distributing the fuel infrastructure and therefore, making it far more difficult to attack and reducing the complexity and risk associated with fuel logistics. Put simply, electrolysis used as part of this process creates synthetic liquid fuels that go with the grain of existing engines while presenting strategic options for NATO.

As you've heard from Dennis earlier in this presentation, we're demonstrating success in large-scale project execution. We're surpassing customer expectation during factory acceptance testing of our new NEPTUNE V product and attracting a range of new opportunities. All of that is based on the leading performance delivered by our Trident stack platform but we're not complacent. Using the capabilities we've developed over our 25-year journey, we're progressing numerous core technology improvements and the larger stack platform called Chronos. Together, these bring cost performance and footprint benefits, which all contribute to further reduce the cost of green hydrogen for our customers.

By way of a quick reminder, we announced in April this year a government support package of GBP 86.5 million to underpin the validation of Chronos and to establish its manufacturing line to be capable of 1-gigawatt per year. This will be additive to our existing Trident manufacturing line. The GBP 85.6 million came in the form of a GBP 40 million investment in ITM by Great British Energy, together with a GBP 45.5 million grant from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero. This was the outcome of a long and detailed process, and we consider it a strong win-win position.

It brings obvious advantage to ITM while being strongly aligned with the U.K.'s hydrogen ambitions and its view of hydrogen as a key pillar to energy sovereignty and resilience. It also positions ITM as the natural partner for hydrogen projects in the U.K.

The Chronos program itself is progressing to plan. The core technology continues to offer outstanding performance, and it's underpinned by over 20,000 hours of operation at component, cell and short stack level. The Chronos bill of materials is defined and the manufacturing processes are undergoing robust validation. A crucial process given the level of automation to be adopted. Chronos will be manufactured in our Sheffield facility, enabling us to take advantage of several synergies with existing Trident manufacture and testing processes. In developing the factory, we've given particular attention to make versus buy decisions.

As you may know, I'm passionate about maintaining control over elements that define cost, performance and longevity of our core product. We'll continue to operate according to that philosophy. The flow of the factory is mapped and is being coded into a flexible digital twin, and that will be used to fine-tune the layout and optimize material movements. The program as a whole benefits from strong and collaborative relationships with both GBE and DESNZ. We've made a number of key appointments, in particular, for the production engineering function, which is leading the effort to realize the Chronos production line.

Early on in my career, I was once told by a very experienced engineer that it's important to measure twice and cut once. This is the approach that we'll continue to adopt to ensure that Chronos is an industrialized and robust stack platform manufactured to the high-quality standards our customers expect from ITM.

Thank you, Simon. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I am delighted to take you through a strong set of results for the year ended 30th of April 2026, demonstrating the significant progress we continue to make in transforming ITM into a financially stronger, more profitable and increasingly scalable business. This follows an extensive first year audit with our new auditors, BDO. I will then take you through our guidance for the year ending 30th of April 2027, which reflects our confidence in the continued growth and improving financial performance of the business.

We are pleased to report record revenues of GBP 43.6 million, marking the third consecutive year in which ITM has achieved its highest ever revenue. This represents a growth of more than 700% over 3 years, demonstrating the scale of the transformation that we are delivering. This performance was primarily driven by equipment sales of GBP 40.7 million with a further GBP 2.9 million generated from engineering studies, maintenance, replacements and spare parts. As our product portfolio has evolved, so too has the way in which we recognize revenue. It now reflects the product that is sold along with specific commercial terms of individual contracts.

The completed contracts method has been used historically, whereby revenue is recognized at a specific milestone towards the end of a project. This milestone could be delivery, testing or commissioning, depending on the individual contract terms. Sales of the Trident products or other standardized repeatable products continue to fall within this category. For our Neptune, Poseidon and Alpha projects, where there is any customization or significant site integration, we now apply a percentage of completion approach, allowing revenue to be recognized progressively over the life of the contract.

Of the equipment sales recognized in the period, GBP 36.8 million related to legacy contracts recognized at a point in time. Importantly, we also recognized GBP 3.9 million of revenue from Neptune and Poseidon contracts under the percentage of completion method. All of these contracts were secured on a profitable basis and continue to show positive project margins. This represents an important milestone for ITM as we begin to see the financial benefits of our improved commercial discipline and the transition towards a higher quality profitable revenue base.

Turning to gross loss. We have delivered a step change improvement with our gross loss reducing from GBP 23.7 million in the prior year to GBP 6.1 million. The improvement reflects production volumes, continued cost discipline and importantly, the significant progress we have made in executing our legacy contracts. In particular, strong progress on Lingen 1 and Lingen 2 and the robust performance of our products has provided us greater certainty over the remaining cost to complete, allowing us to release provisions established in previous periods. These improvements have flown through to our adjusted EBITDA loss, reducing significantly from the previous year of GBP 33 million to GBP 20.2 million.

Throughout the year, we have maintained strong focus on cost and cash discipline while making excellent progress on all our projects. These results demonstrate that our transformation is delivering an improved financial position. We are delivering record revenues, materially reducing losses and building a stronger financial foundation from which to accelerate our growth and progress towards profitability.

Turning now to our contract backlog. We have ended the year with a contract backlog of GBP 144 million compared to GBP 145.1 million at the previous year-end. Maintaining our contract backlog level while delivering significant revenue growth during the year and more than 700% growth over the past 3 years is a clear demonstration of the underlying strength of our order book and our ability to replenish revenue as we execute existing contracts.

As a reminder, our contract backlog comprises firm customer orders for which revenue has not yet been recognized. This provides important visibility over future revenues and gives us a strong platform from which to continue delivering growth. What is particularly encouraging is that we are not only maintaining the scale of our backlog, but fundamentally improving its quality and profitability in a competitive and consolidating market environment. And that brings me to the next topic.

This slide demonstrates what I believe is one of the most important achievements in ITM's financial transformation, the fundamental change in the profitability of our contracted backlog. Looking back to January 2023, when Dennis joined and started the company transformation, 100% of our order book was comprised of loss-making contracts. By April 2025, we had made substantial progress with 60% of the backlog comprised of profitable contracts. Today, I am delighted to report that as at the end of April 2026, 83% of our contracted backlog comprised of profitable contracts. This is a significant achievement and reflects the structural improvements we have made to the business.

We have fundamentally reset our approach to pricing, commercial risk allocation and project selection, ensuring that new contracts are secured on terms that support sustainable profitability. At the same time, our operational teams have made excellent progress in delivering some of the larger legacy projects, steadily reducing the proportion of historical loss-making contracts within our backlog. The remaining 17% of our order backlog relates to legacy projects, which are expected to be recognized over the next year.

As previously communicated, these contracts do not contribute to margin but are fully provided for. We continue to apply rigorous project governance, cost control and execution discipline across all of our projects. And now on to cash. We ended the year with a cash position of GBP 215.6 million, representing a net increase of GBP 8.6 million in the year. Throughout the year, we have maintained a disciplined approach to cash management, carefully controlling expenditure and ensuring this investment is aligned with operational requirements and strategic priorities. In early April, we were delighted to receive a GBP 40 million equity investment from Great British Energy, resulting in net cash proceeds of GBP 39.2 million, strengthening our balance sheet.

Looking at the chart in the top right, we are also seeing increasing stability in our inventory management. We have maintained a consistent balance between raw materials and work in progress and finished goods, reflecting improved production planning and control over the timing of working capital expenditure. This is particularly important as we continue to scale our operations, ensuring that growth is supported by disciplined cash management.

Capital expenditure increased modestly to GBP 13.2 million during the year, reflecting continued progress on Chronos and the successful installation of our auto stacker equipment. This represents another important step in increasing automation, improving manufacturing efficiency and preparing our production operations for future scale. Our financial position remains a significant strategic strength. We have a substantial cash balance, a disciplined approach to expenditure and the financial capacity to continue investing in the technologies and capabilities that will underpin our next phase of growth.

Finally, turning to our guidance for the year ending 30th of April 2027. Our guidance reflects our confidence in the continued growth of ITM, supported by our strong contracted backlog, improving project profitability and disciplined operational execution. We expect revenue of between GBP 50 million and GBP 60 million. This represents further year-on-year growth and an increase of more than 900% over 4 years. Importantly, the composition of this revenue is changing significantly.

For the first time, profitable contracts are expected to account for the majority of our annual revenue at approximately 2/3. This revenue will be predominantly recognized progressively through the percentage of completion methods on our Poseidon and Neptune projects. The revenue that remains, which is approximately 1/3 of the total, is expected to relate to legacy contracts, which are fully provided for and not expected to contribute to gross profit.

Turning to EBITDA. We expect an adjusted EBITDA loss of between GBP 17 million and GBP 20 million, representing another year of improving financial performance. This reflects the increasing contribution from profitable contracts alongside the expected completion of the vast majority of our remaining legacy projects. At this stage of our development, our losses are primarily driven by factory utilization with our manufacturing infrastructure and cost base established to support a higher production volume. We remain firmly focused on controlling production costs, executing projects efficiently and maintaining discipline across our overhead base.

Finally, we expect to end the year with cash of between GBP 170 million and GBP 180 million. Our guidance reflects continued financial discipline with expenditure carefully managed and aligned to our operational and strategic priorities. It also includes our first forecast capital expenditure on the new Chronos manufacturing line and important investments in the next generation of ITM's technology and future manufacturing competitiveness.

That concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention and for your continued support.

[Operator Instructions]

I'd like to remind you the recording of the presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A can be accessed via investor dashboard. I'd now like to hand you over to Justin Scarborough, Head of Investor Relations, to host the Q&A. Justin, as you can see, we've received a number of questions. Could I, therefore, please ask you just to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the end.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the call. Without any further ado, we'll crack on with the questions. The first question is for Amy. Congratulations on the 150-megawatt Hydropulse announcement. How much cash will it use from ITM's balance sheet?

Okay. Well, thank you. We're very happy that we've been able to announce heads of terms on the Hydropulse deal. It's a very exciting time for us and the deal if it turns into a contract that could fundamentally change our future. Let me just take a moment to explain the financing and the cash flow profile of a Hydropulse deal and then what we might do to finance that.

So first of all, importantly, it's very different from our traditional equipment sales. Our traditional equipment sales come with a, at worst, cash flow neutral position. So we don't require any level of financing upfront. We use customer inflows to finance our outflows. Hydropulse is very different to that. So we go through a 2- to 3-year build phase where we're not receiving cash from the customer upfront. So without any financing, that would be a cash outflow for 2 to 3 years.

At the point where it gets to an operational phase, so after that initial build phase, we will go into a 10-year operational phase. From the start of that, that is cash flow positive on an operational basis. So every year, we will increase the cash that we receive cumulatively. But at that point, we've still got the debt to pay off for the first 2 years. So it would take a small number of years to become cumulatively cash flow positive.

Now that's what it would look like without any financing on it. We're then looking at how we would fund that. So if this was a small deal, if it was maybe 10 megawatts, we have the balance sheet strength to fund that ourselves. Clearly, 150 megawatts is a different proposition and a different scale. So we're looking at different options, and we've been progressing talks with banks to do that. First of all, that 2- to 3-year build phase needs some financing, and we're looking at some kind of working capital, a typical project type financing for that. So that would be financing us during that 2- to 3-year period where we're not receiving any cash receipts.

And there's options for how we pay that back. The first option is to pay that back over a number of years as we start receiving revenues in the operational phase. That would reduce the amount of cash that we -- net cash we have every year until it's paid back, but would take a small number of years to pay it back, and then we go into a cash flow positive overall position. So that's option one, which is a traditional project financing type arrangement.

The second one is to have the working capital finance and to combine that with bringing forward customer receipts. So at the start of the 10-year operational phase, we effectively revenue finance the project, so bring forward some significant cash receipts to do a couple of things. Firstly, pay off the debt. Secondly, give us some cash to fund the rest of the 10-year operational phase. And the third element would be to potentially invest back into other projects depending on our overall needs at any given time.

So that's what we're looking at. So there's different options to that, and we're progressing those talks with banks alongside progressing the contract with the customer.

Thank you, Amy. The next question is for Simon. How do you see the competition between alkaline and PEM technology playing out?

Okay. So we've talked about this many times before. Look, I mean, both technologies, as we've said many times, have their pros and cons. Alkaline has long been considered to be the traditional large-scale electrolyzer technology and PEM being much smaller, much more capable of reacting to renewable energy profiles. But look, I mean, we're now in a position where Lingen 1 is now operational. That's the plant that we've deployed with Linde for RWE. It's 100 megawatts in size, and it's the largest electrolyzer that's operational in Europe today of any technology.

And I think that speaks volumes. Quickly behind it, we've got Lingen 2 and REFHYNE II and also the Hydropulse deal that we've talked about already. So for me, it is no longer a question of PEM versus alkaline. It is PEM is delivering today at large scale and still has huge potential to improve even further. So it's PEM for me.

Thank you, Simon. A question for Dennis. Which world regions do you see as the most attractive for ITM going forward?

Yes, I don't think that has changed much recently. I still believe Europe remains the most attractive region for ITM going forward. When I say Europe, that always includes the U.K. and the Nordics. Within Europe, I think Germany will continue to be the biggest market as it has been for us, and I do see that continue. We also see quite a lot of movement in Spain or the wider Iberian region, the Nordics and since recently as well Poland. The U.K. is a bit behind the expectations and developing a bit slowly. We see delays in HAR1 and HAR2, the government funding programs, but I'm sure we will speak later a little bit more about the U.K. market.

Other world regions, the U.S. under Donald Trump remain challenging. We don't see much potential there for the time being until there is a new government in place. Asia, wider Asia, including Australia, is interesting. There is potential, but it's in terms of development, significantly behind Europe. So we see the future for ITM to remain in Europe. I'm often asked about the Chinese market as well. The Chinese market is a bloodbath. Competitors are underbidding each other at low cost levels, and we expect many of them to drop out over the next couple of months, be it just based on cost, be it on performance of the kit or on safety of the equipment.

Thank you, Dennis. Back to Amy for another financial question. Given the EBITDA outcome relative to guidance for FY '26, could you shed any further light on the factors that significantly improved the EBITDA performance?

Yes, of course. We were really pleased to be able to upgrade guidance for that metric. So the main thing that's impacted us within that is actually our progress on both Lingen 1 and Lingen 2. So what that has allowed us to do is true up our provisions for events that were in place at the end of the year that we have come to light since. So our project progress operationally and the fact that we've got 100-megawatts on Lingen 1 working and operational means that we are a lot more certain of our costs on those loss-making projects. So we've been able to release some provisions accordingly.

Thank you, Amy. Back to Dennis. How confident are you about converting your sales pipeline into contracts? And do you see any trends in product split or markets?

It's an important question, I guess. So I already spoke today about the industry segment trends which we see, where I said mobility is declining a little bit. And I would say, wider industry, especially refineries, we see to increase in terms of demand. Now with refineries, steel and other larger applications becoming more interesting, we also see the size of projects becoming bigger. This has 2 effects. It naturally favors NEPTUNE V, but especially Alpha-based plants or large-scale product deployment, where we are also venturing into more EPC services ourselves.

And the other element is that -- or the other effect is that it takes a bit longer to get to FID. Larger projects usually require a FEED, oftentimes together with the customer and they have a longer lead time from first discussion with the customer through negotiation all the way to FID. Now this means that the prize gets a bit bigger. So the revenue and the order intake we get from these projects is bigger. At the same time, the downside, which is emerging is that it's pretty black or white in terms of lumpy order intake. And that can happen in a given financial year. It can go into the next financial year. But it means that there's not a constant stream of smaller orders, which sometimes we would prefer to be fair, but a fewer number of very large projects.

A positive from that is that the amount of electrolyzer companies who are capable to deliver large projects of that magnitude is much smaller than for smaller projects. So we are talking about a smaller pool of competitors being able or being credible enough to do that. Simon just mentioned Lingen, REFHYNE II and now the 150-megawatt Hydropulse deal. I think we are playing in a small group of a handful of companies who is able to deliver that, which means we believe we will get a bigger piece of the cake.

Thank you, Dennis. Back to Amy. Could you explain why ITM released the FY '26 results so much later than in previous years?

Yes, of course. So we have been in our first year audit with our new auditors, BDO. There's 2 pieces to this really. Firstly, we chose a partner in the first instance with BDO to work with who, as it was running up to year-end, unfortunately, had to take some time out of work due to personal reasons. So we had to swap partners. So BDO gave us a new partner to work with. That clearly caused a little bit of a late learning curve and a little bit of an extension in terms of getting everybody up to speed.

And then unfortunately, first year audits are just difficult and do take time as there is a lot to learn and a lot more to test than an auditor that's been around 8 years. So it just did take a little bit longer than we would have ideally liked.

Thank you, Amy. One for you, Simon. Could you update us on the Horizon time line? And have you taken FID yet?

Sure. We have taken FID. We're moving forward positively with that program. And perhaps I should explain, Horizon is the project that is the validation of our new 2-megawatt stack platform, Chronos, but also all of the manufacturing equipment to produce that in our ITM facility. So we, of course, are taking every capital investment on a case-by-case basis as we progress through the project, but we're well underway and progress is on track.

And a follow-up, Simon. When do you expect to release Chronos commercially?

Okay. So I'm kind of going to say what I did last time. We're not guiding for a commercial release date of Chronos, and that is really to avoid us cannibalizing sales of Trident-based products. Trident is performing extremely well in the field and is doing very well. We don't want to interfere with that. So no release date just yet, I'm afraid.

Thank you, Simon. Amy, regarding last week's Hydropulse announcement, when will the project be profitable?

Okay. So the very simple answer to this is that the Hydropulse project will be profitable from day 1 of operation. So what I explained earlier was the cash flow profile. But what happens from day 1 of operation is we will start invoicing revenue. The revenue is flat. It has an inflationary element every year. But essentially, we're invoicing an amount every month that stays consistent. And our operational costs are relatively consistent and stable as well. There may be some months where we do a little bit more on site than others, but in the grand magnitude of it, the stable operational costs as well. So from day 1 until the end of the contract, it will be profitable.

Thank you. Back to you, Dennis. You mentioned the U.K. earlier. Is there any update you can provide on the progress of the U.K.'s hydrogen allocation round # 2 plans?

Yes, it has certainly gotten a bit quiet on HAR2. So maybe for those who are dialing in from not within the U.K. So the HAR the hydrogen allocation round program is the U.K.'s funding program for incentivizing project developers to bridge the cost gap a little bit between gray hydrogen and green hydrogen. And HAR1, which was the first phase already saw quite significant delays. I think it was delayed for more than a year. We have seen first projects being awarded, especially also to us.

HAR2, as I said, it got a bit quiet. The messages we received from government, also from the new administration now, is going in the direction that is still going ahead, which would be important for us because we have been selected as a supplier for many of those projects, and some of them are very decent in size, like the Uniper 120-megawatt Humber project, which we announced, but also many, many others which we haven't yet announced. Interestingly, there's also first engagement on HAR3, so the subsequent phase where companies are now already invited to submit interest or submit first projects.

It's not great that -- I mean, I just want to be straightforward, right? It's not great that the government is so slow in awarding funding to these projects because this neither helps the business developers nor the offtakers nor does it help the business cases behind these projects. If I had one wish to make, it would just be -- I mean, government, just crack on and award the HAR2 funding so that our customers can build the projects for their offtakers deploying our technology. That would be very helpful.

Thank you, Dennis. Amy, could you explain how the DESNZ grant process works and when ITM expects to start drawing down on it?

Of course. So the good news is the grant is now fully awarded. We announced that a few months ago now. We have to report to DESNZ regularly. And then we do a quarterly report of all our spend that submits quite a detailed not only financial statement, but project progress as well. And based on that, DESNZ pay us based on our spend. So it's just a quarterly submission and a receipt of cash after that. And in terms of when we start drawing down on it, we're actually doing our first submission over the next few weeks. So then it will be regularly quarterly after that.

Thank you, Amy. And staying on the subject of U.K. government relationships. How is your relationship with GBE developing as they are now a shareholder in ITM?

Yes. So we've certainly kept in contact a lot with GBE. We have various touch points throughout the organization. We have lots of great working relationships. They similarly get updates on the Horizon projects and our spend levels and GBE have been really proactive with helping us if we need any further government contacts, if we need help with anything. So they've been a really active member of our shareholder community. We are still waiting for a nominated representative to be put on our Board, but that should be coming at some point soon. So I would say they are being very positive with us.

Thank you, Amy. Another one for you, third.

Maybe if you allow me to comment on that.

Sorry.

I think it's also fair to say that both sides, and I think we said that last time, see this investment as a start of a joint journey. And we are also in very positive discussions about, I would say, wider engagement between GBE and us to further advance and boost the hydrogen industry in the U.K. I think there's lots of potential opportunities to work alongside GBE to do something very interesting for the economy as a whole.

Thank you, Dennis. Third in a row for you, Amy. Regarding ITM's future revenues, could you provide a split of the revenue expected to be booked a point-in-time basis versus percentage of completion?

Of course. And it normally doesn't take this many questions for me to get on to the topic of revenue recognition in one of these updates.

You can relate it back to the points to say we're going for larger projects potentially.

So I'll just do a reminder of our revenue recognition policy on the product suite. So where we just sell Trident into bigger plants, so that's a standard product. That is generally a point-in-time revenue recognition, whereas if we're selling Neptune, Poseidon, Alpha, then that is a percentage completion basis. So that means from the moment we start producing or buying for those projects, then we are able to recognize revenue.

So certainly, with the product suite, we've got more products that lend themselves to a percentage of completion basis rather than a point-in-time basis now. In last year's results in FY '26, we recognized our first percentage completion on our Neptune products, and that will continue over this year as well. And as we look at the market and projects are looking like they are bigger, then Alpha and Neptune will remain on that percentage of completion. So we'd expect that to grow along the order intake as it goes as well.

If we look at the actual numbers that we've got, so we've got an order backlog now of GBP 144 million, approximately 17% of that is legacy contracts. Those legacy contracts are generally a point in time. If you do the math on that, that's about GBP 25 million worth of revenue still on a point of time in time and the rest of our order book is percentage of completion. Those point-in-time contracts will just about all be recognized in this current financial year, so FY '27. So we'll still have a split this year, but then next year, we will have more and more percentage completion.

Thank you, Amy. Dennis, thank you for the update on Rheinmetall in the presentation. When do you expect we will see the first pilot projects announced?

Good question. Together with Rheinmetall, we are exploring a number of different opportunities and locations for such kind of project, mainly in the U.K. and in Germany today. We usually don't guide for a specific date here also because I think it doesn't come as a surprise when I say that government processes can take quite long and are sometimes a bit unpredictable. But I think it's fair to say that the discussions are very positive. There's a big push from the 2 governments I just mentioned, but also others in terms of fuel sovereignty, the wider macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, which we see about fuel supply and the threats to the European security infrastructure from the East.

Now it's also difficult for us to say when such project would materialize, but we are working very closely with Rheinmetall also on the FEED on the technical details. It's maybe important to mention that at this point, it's not yet decided whether that will, in the end, materialize as an equipment sale contract or even potentially as a Hydropulse opportunity. I think that is a very attractive offering to governments to potentially do it, including an ownership investment and then operational support. And of course, we will keep the market updated as we are progressing towards something more tangible than just talking about it. I think we have now built a track record of holding back information until there's something tangible to talk about.

Thank you, Dennis. Simon, data centers and fuel cells seem to be grabbing a lot of headlines at the moment. Do you think that green hydrogen will play a significant role in this area?

Well, I think green hydrogen does have a role. Data centers are energy intensive, and they also require a lot of backup capability. But honestly, I think it's slightly overhyped at the minute. Hydrogen for decarbonizing data centers isn't incentivized in the same way as refineries, for example. Having said that, we are in discussions with some prospective end users looking at how electrolysis can best integrate with data centers and renewable power to really play to the strengths of the technology.

But we're doing that in a very structured bottom-up way rather than engaging with perhaps what I would call a little bit of overhype for this particular application. So there is some there, but it's happening in perhaps a slightly slower and more structured way than you read about in the headlines.

Thank you, Simon. We've got time for one more question, and that final one goes to you again, Simon. You often talk about ITM's unique position regarding IP and how you retain much of it in-house. Could you give an example of something that you have brought in-house recently or something you plan to bring in-house in the future?

Okay. Yes. I mean this is something I feel pretty passionately about. I mean, I've always felt it's important that ITM owns and understands the core technology that drives price performance and longevity. So having that in-house means that we're in control of our own destiny, and we can make improvements much more quickly than perhaps our peers who haven't taken the same approach.

We have brought in a number of key processes. What we have been doing is applying a higher level of automation to those processes. So there are some examples around our catalyst ink preparation, where we've had that in-house for a long time, but we've introduced a lot of automation, partly for scale, but partly for quality control purposes, making sure that we're as tight as we possibly can in those crucial manufacturing stages.

And as we've talked a little bit about Chronos, there are several of those manufacturing steps that we are bringing in-house. Now I don't want to talk in too much detail about that, but we have gone through a very rigorous process of identifying each manufacturing step, each piece of technology and making the decisions which we should in-source and which we shouldn't based on IP and based on value. So there will be more news on that as we progress through the Horizon program and look forward to making those updates in due course.

Thank you, Simon. And that concludes the Q&A session, and we'll now hand back to the guys at IMC. Thank you very much for your attention.

Justin, thank you, and thank you to the ITM management team for updating attendees today. Could I please ask investors not to close the session to be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that management can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of ITM Power plc, I'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.

Good morning indeed, and thank you for the interest in the great news we are delighted to announce today. From our RNS this morning, you would have seen that the U.K. government has decided to back ITM Power with a combination of an equity investment and a grant, which is a strong vote of confidence in our technology and delivery credibility.

It demonstrates the government's commitment to promoting the U.K.'s sovereign technology and manufacturing capability in clean energy infrastructure. Amy, Simon and I will provide you an overview of Project Horizon, including the U.K. government's rationale.

A look at the market and our product offering will then lead into our next-generation stack platform, Chronos, and how we plan to manufacture it. We will close today's presentation with our upgraded guidance for FY '26.

The U.K. government has ambitious plans for hydrogen. Through its energy company, Great British Energy, in short GBE, they aim to power Britain with clean, secure homegrown energy. DESNZ, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is a ministerial department of the U.K. government and is awarding funding to projects under the hydrogen allocation rounds, in short, HAR program.

Their mission is to make the U.K. a clean energy superpower. Together, they have decided to back ITM Power as the U.K.'s electrolyzer champion. In turn, we are helping the U.K. government to reach their decarbonization and energy resilience targets and offer the creation of new well-paid jobs and boosting the economy.

Their support package amounts to GBP 86.5 million, consisting of a GBP 40 million equity investment from GBE and a GBP 46.5 million grant from DESNZ. The grant is currently going through the usual subsidy control review, which is expected to be completed in June upon which the grant would be contracted.

The funds will enable the establishment of large-scale domestic manufacturing capability for our next-generation stack platform, Chronos. We have been working on Chronos for over 2 years now. And once launched, our new stack will represent a step change in electrolyzer technology.

Chronos is incorporating the latest technological developments and valuable lessons from our commercial projects and field data. It will deliver significant improvements in cost effectiveness and energy efficiency, enhancing our product offering and further substantiating our tech leadership.

Chronos will help us increase our market share, speed up the industrial adoption of hydrogen and accelerate our growth and path to profitability. Importantly, as part of the transaction, our Chronos program has undergone rigorous technical and commercial due diligence by an independent third party to assess the effectiveness and likely impact of Chronos.

Against the backdrop of recent geopolitical developments, clean power underpinning energy sovereignty and resilience has become increasingly critical to long-term economic success. We are grateful for the confidence and support demonstrated by the U.K. government, firmly establishing ITM Power at the very center of the U.K.'s hydrogen economy and positioning us as a natural partner for projects in the U.K.

Let's talk about ITM. With 26 years of innovation and experience, we have developed into an established leader in electrolyzer technology and hydrogen plants. Our involvement in some of the largest and most prestigious PEM electrolyzer projects worldwide, strong reference plants, our vertically integrated manufacturing and IP leave us well positioned in an expanding market.

Our robust manufacturing, supply chain and quality systems underpin our proven capability to deliver for repeat blue-chip customers, including the likes of Shell, RWE and Linde.

Today, we have around 500 megawatts of plants built or under contract and more than 550 megawatts of additional capacity reservations plus a strong sales pipeline.

Including the financial year ending this month, we will have seen revenue grow by more than 700% over 3 years. And despite these record revenue numbers, firm contract backlog has continued to grow as well, demonstrating strong order momentum.

Our capital discipline has helped us maintain a healthy cash position and balance sheet, which is a sign of long-term resilience and eases project bankability for our customers as recently demonstrated as well in the North Field project FID with Octopus Energy in the U.K.

Our continued revenue growth leads us on to the market we are operating in and how it is expected to develop from here. Whichever market study we take, whether bold or conservative, they all forecast continued and massive growth. By default, market forecasts will never be accurate, but they can at least give us a sense of direction.

The International Energy Agency, short IEA expects an 11-fold increase to 77 gigawatt in 5 years worldwide without China. If we look at Europe alone as our main target region, Hydrogen Europe forecasts a growth of more than 400% over the next years.

This market expansion is carried by strong policy support in key markets such as more than EUR 20 billion of EU funding, additional investments in pipeline and storage infrastructure, for example, in Germany, the transposition of RED III into national law of EU member states and many more programs such as HAR in the U.K.

We expect approximately 70% of future demand to originate from the decarbonization of existing hydrogen use cases like refining and ammonia and the remaining 30% from new use cases like grid balancing, natural gas blending and others.

Our strong order momentum is also reflected in our sales pipeline, which has grown from below 1 gigawatts to over 20 gigawatts of projects today. While a growing number of our peers is struggling to compete in the market, we are winning through our reference plants, real-world product performance data, customer confidence demonstrated by repeat business with leading industrial and energy companies and our comprehensive and competitive product portfolio.

Our strategic alignment with the U.K. government and their strong backing will help us to build on our strength and open the next exciting chapter on our journey in a fast expanding market.

Thank you, Dennis. Many of you will be familiar with our product range. Each product is standardized, providing modular building blocks ranging from 2 megawatts to 50 megawatts, enabling us to engage with projects of any size. NEPTUNE II and V are fully autonomous containerized systems. Everything needed is in the box, meaning deployment is straightforward, the site only needing flat ground with access to water and electricity.

The output is a reliable supply of high-pressure, high-purity hydrogen. NEPTUNE containers can be ganged together as necessary to achieve higher capacities. For reference, NEPTUNE V, the 5-megawatt container, is priced at EUR 5 million all in and widely recognized as best-in-class. It's currently our most popular product being routinely inquired for projects up to 50 megawatts in size.

The most recent announced sale was to Octopus Energy for 3 units. POSEIDON is a 20-megawatt process module. Again, it is a repeatable building block. It includes the stacks together with the associated process equipment designed for integration into wider plants. POSEIDON is the product of choice for MorGen Energy. The West Wales project was announced in March.

ALPHA is the world's first full scope 50-megawatt plant. Based on skid-mounted standardized and prefabricated modules, ALPHA is the most cost-effective solution for large-scale green hydrogen production. It can be scaled in 10-megawatt steps, enabling it to be sized to suit the application without needing to reinvent the wheel.

Launched in October last year with a sales price of EUR 50 million for the 50-megawatt system, we've had tremendous reaction from the market. Two aspects that customers find particularly valuable are full scope of supply from one source and elimination of costly on-site construction and integration.

All ITM products have Trident stacks at their heart. Trident is the leading PEM stack platform today. It has the highest current density and the highest efficiency available on the market. It also enables high response speeds, a capability that is often required for load balancing applications.

Hundreds of Trident stacks have been manufactured and tested in the U.K. and supplied to commercial projects. Our previously published infield performance data from a demanding industrial application that demonstrates a degradation rate, which already beats the EU target for 2030, and that's for both PEM and alkali technologies.

Chronos is our next-generation 2-megawatt stack platform, and it marks a genuine step change. ITM is an electrolyzer OEM that has invested deeply in research and development, and we have systematically in-sourced key technologies and processes.

While this has generated significant value and know-how, it has also been an important differentiator that has enabled the pace of technology improvement to be accelerated.

Looking back over our history, ITM has had several stack platforms, each better performing and higher capacity than the last. Chronos is not simply an upgraded version of Trident, however, it's a game changer, and here's why.

The part count has been reduced by over 50%, making it significantly easier and faster to assemble. The footprint has been reduced by over 50%, achieving an unmatched power density of 2.5 megawatts per square meter. The weight has been reduced by over 50%, making it easier to handle and transport. We are targeting a 40% cost reduction and a further 10% efficiency improvement.

This includes further reduction in precious metal loading, building on the 80% reduction already achieved in Trident. We've also ensured that Chronos is ready for the future technology improvements so that they can be implemented rapidly without the need for reengineering.

Finally, the stack has been designed with material recovery and recyclability in mind from the start, meaning over 90% of components can be recycled or reused. These are all meaningful improvements, which draw on the experience we have accumulated to date across technology, manufacture, automation, project execution and operation.

To appreciate the impact, it's important to understand that stacks account for approximately 30% of electrolyzer CapEx and over 90% of electrolyzer energy consumption. Therefore, improvements to the stack have a disproportionately large impact on the competitiveness of the complete product portfolio, reducing the cost of green hydrogen production.

The development and validation of Chronos is well underway and continues to progress to plan. We have deliberately not guided for a specific release date because we're doing this thoroughly and do not intend to interfere with existing projects. I can say, however, that we have begun engagement with existing customers regarding field trials for next year.

Before I hand over to Amy, I'd like to add a few personal remarks. The backing from U.K. government that we're announcing today represents a clear and compelling endorsement of ITM's technology as well as our capability to implement and execute.

It follows an in-depth and rigorous assessment, including extensive technical and commercial due diligence across key areas such as technology, supply chain, manufacturing, intellectual property, cost structure and commercial impact. This work was conducted by an independent third party, and it was a significant undertaking, and I'm extremely proud of the whole ITM team and the outcomes achieved.

ITM is currently operating out of 3 strategic locations, supporting both manufacturing scale and proximity to our customer base. In the U.K., our 2 co-located facilities in Sheffield form the core of our business. This site brings together R&D, manufacturing, testing and support functions. It is also the world's first and largest PEM electrolyzer gigafactory in commercial operation, which provides a strong platform for scalable growth.

In Germany, our Linden site supports European delivery, housing sales, EPC capability and aftersales services. Alongside this, spare parts and stacks are kept there to enable rapid response to our customers. Our Hydropulse business is headquartered in Berlin, positioning us at the center of a key European hydrogen market. Both German locations are supported by embedded functions as we continue to expand our EU footprint in line with demand.

Looking ahead, the Chronos manufacturing line is planned to be in Sheffield alongside our existing Trident production. This ensures we can leverage our established infrastructure while efficiently serving both European and global markets.

We plan to establish the Chronos manufacturing line within our existing Sheffield facilities, leveraging processes and operational learnings developed over the past 5 years on Trident. The project represents an investment of up to GBP 120 million, focused on scaling capacity while maintaining quality, efficiency and reliability.

Placing this alongside our current Trident manufacturing lines allows us to make the best use of synergies, skills and processes while reducing risk and allowing an efficient and reliable manufacturing process.

We will continue to progress our deep in-house value add, along with additional in-sourcing of processes, which will enhance quality, control and scalability. This will allow us to manufacture efficiently and to further control product costs.

The majority of the investment, approximately 63% will be directed towards bespoke automated production and testing equipment. This includes catalyst coated membrane manufacturing, electrode welding, platinum coating and stack assembly. Fitout and cleanroom facilities, which are essential to ensure product quality, will make up a further 13% of estimated costs.

The purchase of all validation materials, which are the materials that validate the manufacturing process for Chronos, make up a further 13% of the projected costs. The remaining projected spend is for other costs such as project delivery and cost inflation. We target commercial operation in 2028.

Trident, our current stack platform, will remain an important part of our stack technology suite. We will continue to manufacture Trident to serve our existing customers and long-term service agreements. Importantly, we will continue to innovate our Trident stack, including adopting features from Chronos, allowing current customers to take advantage of compatible improvements and the increased energy efficiency and cost competitiveness that they will bring.

This means that we will be operating the 2 different manufacturing lines together. There will be no requirement to write off existing assets.

Aftersales, including replacement stacks, is a profitable revenue stream for us. When all our current contracts are complete, we will have more than 700 stacks in operation, and we will continue to sell Trident over the coming years. This is why it's very important that not only do we keep manufacturing Trident, but that we keep improving it.

The DESNZ grant of GBP 46.5 million is currently going through subsidy control. Now just to explain what that means, that means that the grant is referred to the subsidy advice unit, which sits within the Competition and Markets Authority. This is a requirement for all grants or grant schemes.

The unit's role is to evaluate the grant against the subsidy control requirements and to publish a report. The unit's function is advisory only. It does not have the power to prohibit the making of a grant. The process takes 30 working days. We expect to take a final investment decision in June, which is when we expect the grant to formally conclude.

And now on to our guidance for our current financial year, which ends on the 30th of April 2026. Both revenue and EBITDA guidance remain in line with our last update. In February, we increased our revenue guidance to be between GBP 40 million and GBP 43 million, and we held our EBITDA loss guidance to be between GBP 27 million and GBP 29 million.

We are pleased to announce that our FY '26 cash guidance has now increased from between GBP 170 million and GBP 175 million to be between GBP 210 million and GBP 215 million. This is due to the GBP 40 million cash injection from Great British Energy. This further strengthens our balance sheet and underpins our ability to execute on growth.

That concludes our presentation for today. We thank you for your attention and for your continued support.

Good morning, and welcome to the ITM Power Plc investor presentation. [Operator Instructions] The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll.

I'd now like to hand you over to the team at ITM Power Plc. Good morning.

Good morning, and welcome. We are pleased to present a strong set of results for the first half of the financial year '26. We have yet again delivered our highest 6-month revenue performance while maintaining strict cash and operational discipline.

Today, in order to set the scene, we will start with a look at the market environment, our operational and financial situation and our sales activity. I will then explain our business model, talk about operational progress achieved and provide an update on selected projects. Simon, our CTO, will shed light on our newest product, ALPHA 50, and give insights on the levers we have and use to lower the cost of hydrogen. He will then talk about ITM's future, our game-changing next stack platform, CHRONOS. After that, Amy, our CFO, will explain our financial results in more detail and provide guidance for the full year.

Okay. Let's start with the market and our competition. Hydrogen will play an essential role in the decarbonization of industry and the energy mix, especially in hard-to-abate applications like refining, ammonia, heavy industry and industrial heat. While refineries undoubtedly show the biggest momentum right now, we start to see first hydrogen applications in cement, steel, paper and many other industries.

Despite the known macroeconomic headwinds, the momentum is undeniable. The Hydrogen Council and McKinsey have tracked clean hydrogen project investments from 2020 to 2025 and recorded an 11-fold increase from USD 10 billion to USD 110 billion. The policy situation remains favorable for our industry. And the EU, Nordics and U.K. are making the most tangible progress, while the U.S. has unsurprisingly stalled. With market consolidation continuing to put pressure on many of our peers, we continue to see a healthy level of sales engagement and strong demand, in particular for NEPTUNE V and ALPHA 50.

Let's move on to our operational situation. Commercial activity has progressed well in the first half of the financial year. We were awarded several equipment supply contracts, including for Westnetz in Germany and for cement producer in Spain. We also signed multiple engineering contracts, and we were selected for a number of small to large-scale projects, laying the foundation for future order intake. Importantly, RWE as a repeat blue-chip customer has reserved 150 megawatts of NEPTUNE V capacity with us, following on from our strong project progress on the 2 Lingen plants, each 100 megawatt in size. I will speak more about these projects later in the presentation.

While we wish that some customer FIDs could be taken a bit quicker, we remain agile and exceptionally well positioned to capitalize on the market dynamics, be it based on our comprehensive and competitive product portfolio or through our new build-own-operate business, Hydropulse.

Next up, our financial position, which remains strong, underpinned by capital discipline and our focus on operational improvements. Our balance sheet is increasingly seen as a competitive advantage by customers. Later, Simon will shed more light on this topic.

Now I don't want to take Amy's part away, but despite record revenues, our firm contracted order backlog continued to grow and in it, the share of profitable contracts as we work through the few remaining legacy projects.

As I already mentioned, sales activity has remained healthy with a notably increasing share of industrial customers in the mix. NEPTUNE V continues to be our most demanded product. And given very high early interest, we expect our new ALPHA 50 product to become just as successful. We are also pleased to see growing momentum in our home market, the U.K., where we were selected for a number of HAR1 and HAR2 government-backed projects already, including the Uniper Humber 120-megawatt project, which has been progressing well through FEED towards FID. We have also signed our first POSEIDON contract for the HAR1 MorGen Energy project, for which our customer expects to be able to take FID in the short term. Also post period end, we have seen continued momentum.

Among other successes, we were selected for 2 grid balancing projects in Germany, totaling 710 megawatts in size, and we were awarded a 12.5-megawatt contract by Octopus Energy Generation, one of the first HAR1 projects in the U.K. to have taken FID.

Our strategic priorities, you have seen them before, were shaped by a dynamically evolving market environment and unsteady macroeconomic conditions. They have served us well. And while many of our peers are struggling, they have helped us grow sustainably, steadily and with the necessary patience. And they remain fully valid. You can be assured that we will continue to closely observe the market environment and that we are staying adaptable and responsive.

Now on this slide, I'd like to explain you our business model and take you on the journey of building an integrated hydrogen company with significant growth potential. It is the journey of becoming a one-stop shop for customers who need electrolyzer equipment, complete hydrogen plants or simply just hydrogen. Today, we are proudly looking back on 26 years of innovating, designing and manufacturing electrolyzers. Electrolyzer technology, we and many of our customers believe is the best in the world.

We have learned to engineer these electrolyzers into full green hydrogen production plants. And over time, we have acquired the capability to perform the necessary EPC services by ourselves. Our newest product, ALPHA 50, is the culmination of that. We are also offering our customers comprehensive aftersales services to help them to best operate and maintain our plants and to maximize the value they can derive from the use of our products.

The newest pillar of our business model, Hydropulse, is the logical next step on our growth path. Following in the footsteps of the big gas majors of our time, once you have the leading technology and the capability to deploy it competitively, then you have a solid foundation for a build, own and operate model. Hydropulse will buy the electrolyzers and related EPC services from ITM and operate plants to supply hydrogen to industrial customers under long-term offtake contracts. This increases the group's factory utilization, provides plannable recurring income streams and is highly cash generative. Hydropulse is poised to play a key role in creating shareholder value, and we'll be able to offer green hydrogen at a cost level not seen before in our industry.

Our operations have been further strengthened. Besides countless day-to-day improvements, we were able to cut electrolysis time during end-of-line testing in half, saving precious energy costs and increasing throughput significantly. In our last update, we spoke about our planned NEPTUNE V assembly line in our adjacent second factory. It is now in full operation and the NEPTUNE containers move from build station to build station until they are completed. This efficient production line layout allows us to meet the growing demand for our best-selling product.

The next and even bigger improvement is our new autostacker robot assembly line for our stacks. We took our time to develop a tailored machine and validated the process properly. The autostacker marks a major leap in factory automation and is capable of producing more than 2 gigawatt of stacks per year. Last time, I featured our 20-megawatt NEPTUNE V project for FDE in Norway. This time, I want to highlight a project we won just about a month ago. Octopus Energy Generation awarded us a 12.5-megawatt contract for their government-backed North Fleet project in the U.K. The green hydrogen will be used to decarbonize the papermaking process, a hard-to-abate industry at Kimberly-Clark's U.K. mill, which manufactures Andrex products. Hydrogen will replace natural gas in a new dual fuel boiler system, which can operate on either of the 2 gases, offering operational flexibility.

The second project I want to highlight is in Germany. I already spoke about RWE reserving 150 megawatts of NEPTUNE V capacity with us following their satisfaction with our delivery against the world's biggest PEM electrolyzer in Lingen. So let's talk about the project. The 200-megawatt installation is divided into 2 100-megawatt plants, Lingen 1 and Lingen 2, which we are building with our partner, Linde Engineering. The installation of the first 100 megawatt, Lingen 1 was successfully completed at the end of 2025, marking the completion of the first plant of its size anywhere in the world.

For ITM, this meant producing and shipping 50 TRIDENT skids and 150 stacks, which have all been successfully installed into the Linde [indiscernible] plant and pressure tested on site. Importantly, we have delivered everything on time for this massive plant. I hope the photos convey the scale. Lingen 2, the second 100-megawatt plant is in full construction swing with all skids and 40% of stacks already installed, yet again, all on time.

With this, I would like to hand over to Simon to talk about ALPHA 50.

Thank you, Dennis. Since the last market update, we've introduced another product to our portfolio, ALPHA 50, a full scope 50-megawatt green hydrogen plant. This was triggered by 2 key pieces of market feedback. The first was that a full scope offering from a single supplier is highly desirable. We've seen that with the success of the NEPTUNE product line, where everything from AC power and water, all of the way through to high-pressure and high-purity hydrogen is provided in one package. This minimizes integration complexities and split supplier responsibilities, making it a straightforward and more competitive deployment. The second was the demand for ever larger systems, which have previously been the domain of the EPC stick-built approach.

ALPHA 50 fills a gap in the market, providing a skid-mounted, standardized and prefabricated solution compatible with scale. As is common to all ITM products, it has the state-of-the-art TRIDENT stack platform at its heart. It has a highly optimized footprint and is designed for outdoor operation over a very wide temperature range. Being modular, it can be adjusted in 10-megawatt blocks, providing flexibility for a range of project sizes without needing to reinvent the wheel. This means, for example, that ALPHA could be configured into a 60 or 70-megawatt plant. The product was introduced in October 2025 with a price of EUR 50 million for the 50-megawatt system. Just like NEPTUNE V that Dennis referred to earlier, it's landed very well in the market, and we are already pursuing several live opportunities.

At this point, I'd like to take a step back and answer a question which we frequently get asked. Let's take a look at the factors that influence the cost of green hydrogen. I break this down into 3 categories: CapEx, how much does it cost to buy the necessary equipment? OpEx, how much does it cost to operate the equipment and customer confidence? How much risk is perceived that requires contingency in the project budget. Improvements in these areas have positive impacts on business cases, making green viable in more and more applications.

CapEx first. The cost of an electrolyzer can be broken down relatively simply. The stacks account for approximately 1/3 of the cost and the balance of plant, including the power conversion system accounts for the rest. There are several levers available to ITM to address CapEx, and I'll give a few examples.

From a technology perspective, increasing current density has a significant effect on stack cost reduction. Doubling current density doubles the hydrogen production rate from the same stack, meaning half the number of stacks are required for a given hydrogen demand. This is why ITM pioneered high current density and has been providing high current density stacks commercially for several years. I would add that in parallel to making the stacks work harder in this way, we've done so while both reducing the use of high-value precious metals and increasing stack efficiency at the same time, something that is a credit to our technical teams that continue to push the technology further.

From a supply chain perspective, standardizing the product portfolio means fewer parts to manage and more efficient repetitive processes. Strategic relationships with key suppliers ensures priority access to the best equipment at a negotiated price. Working closely with suppliers in this way maximizes joint learning, builds trust and enables both sides to work together to drive down costs and optimize the offering. A high-quality manufacturing system minimizes waste and rework costs while enabling processes to be streamlined. This also saves energy and people cost for repeated end-of-line testing. On-site construction costs are minimized due to preassembly and containerization. Smaller footprint requirements and the full scope nature of products eliminates complex on-site works.

OpEx. The operational cost of a green hydrogen plant is dominated by the consumption of electricity. While there are several power consumers in the system, the stacks account for over 90% of the electricity used. Therefore, improvements to stack efficiency have a disproportionate impact on reducing the molecule costs. Through our in-house IP and our joint research and development with Gore for membranes, our stacks benefit from a market-leading efficiency. We have also demonstrated and published extremely low rates of infield performance degradation, keeping operational costs low and predictable over long periods. The ability of the electrolyzer to modulate rapidly enables access to lower-cost electricity. The plant can also attract revenues for providing balancing services for the electricity grid and waste heat can be recovered and utilized in adjacent processes, further optimizing overall energy usage. Ongoing maintenance programs are lean and supported by a remote operating center that provides real-time support and helps maximize plant availability.

Finally, customer confidence. Every customer business case builds in buffers for risk and the main risk questions for customers and their lenders are usually technology related. That's why the increasing availability of operating data from real industrial deployments is so important. Having gained data from real-world small and large-scale applications, we've been able to show customers performance data that they can build into their models with increasing confidence. This, in turn, has enabled ITM to develop specific product guarantees that help customers achieve the certainty they need.

We are proud to have received repeat business from several blue-chip companies, and I personally see this as an important indicator of customer traction and trust. Combine this with the reference plants mentioned earlier and our strong balance sheet, the bankability dial is moving in the right direction. This is particularly important when project financing is required.

From CapEx and OpEx minimization to maximizing customer confidence, ITM has been active in all these areas. Our continued development activities, focus on real-world deliveries and operational learnings are the foundation of tangible improvements that are driving down the cost of green hydrogen production for our customers.

Let's take a look into the future. In due course, TRIDENT will be succeeded by CHRONOS, and this will be a genuine game changer. CHRONOS is our next-generation stack platform, and it benefits from all our experiences. It will be lower cost, higher performing and more compact. Now remember that the stack is the heart of all of our products, such as NEPTUNE and ALPHA. Therefore, improvements to the stack mean improvements to the full product range, making them even more competitive. Using the market-leading TRIDENT stack as a benchmark, let's take a look at some of the changes that CHRONOS will bring.

We've reduced part count by over 50% and made it significantly easier and faster to build. And none of this comes from making slight tweaks. This is the result of a major exercise rethinking each element of the stack. We're targeting 40% cost reduction, and CHRONOS has been designed to maximize component reuse and recyclability up to 90%. A single stack will be rated at 2 megawatts in base operation, tripling the capacity compared to TRIDENT, and it's capable of up to 2.5 megawatts. We're targeting a 10% efficiency improvement despite further reducing precious metal loading. The footprint is reduced by over 50%, achieving an unmatched power density of 2.5 megawatts per square meter, making it compatible with even the most congested industrial sites. The weight has been reduced by over 50%, making it easier to handle and transport. All of these attributes are focused on further reducing the cost of green hydrogen production. CHRONOS represents a genuine step change, and we'll continue to innovate and improve.

The development and validation of CHRONOS is well underway and progressing to plan. We've deliberately not guided for a specific release date because we are doing this thoroughly and ensuring that we get the most important technological foundation to all of our products right.

Thank you, Simon. Good morning to everybody, and thank you for joining us today. I will take you through a strong set of results for the half year ended 31st of October 2025 and then talk about our guidance for the year ended 30th of April 2026.

We are pleased to report revenue of GBP 18 million, representing the highest half year revenue in ITM's history. This performance was driven primarily by equipment sales of GBP 15.5 million, with a further GBP 2.5 million generated from engineering studies, spare parts, maintenance and equipment upgrades. Historically, ITM has recognized revenue using the completed contracts method at specific milestones such as delivery, testing or commissioning. These are dependent on the individual contract terms.

As our product portfolio continues to evolve, we have actively reviewed and refined this approach. While TRIDENT and standard NEPTUNE products are expected to remain under the completed contracts method, nonstandard NEPTUNEs, POSEIDONs and ALPHA projects are suited to the percentage of completion approach, allowing revenue to be recognized progressively over the life of a contract. This evolution is important. It better aligns revenue recognition with value creation, enhances revenue visibility and reduces reliance on endpoint customer actions. As a result, it supports a more predictable and higher quality financial profile as the business continues to scale.

Of the equipment sales recognized during the period, GBP 13.9 million related to legacy contracts recognized at a point in time. In addition, we successfully recognized GBP 1.6 million of revenue from a NEPTUNE V contract under the percentage of completion method, marking an important milestone in the transition to overtime revenue recognition.

The gross loss reduced to GBP 6.5 million, a significant improvement from the GBP 10.2 million in the first half of the previous financial year. This reflects both higher production volumes and continued discipline on cost control with overheads held broadly stable despite increasing operational activity. We have maintained strong focus on cash and cost discipline while continuing to enhance the capabilities and competencies and grow our level of production. These actions continue to support a clear path towards efficiency, scalability and profitability.

We ended the first half of the year with a cash position of GBP 197.8 million, representing a reduction of only GBP 9.2 million in 12 months. This reduction reflects the continued manufacturer of customer commitments for which cash was received in prior periods and demonstrates ongoing execution against contracted orders. We expect cash outflows to increase in the second half as we continue to manufacture and deliver contracted projects. Importantly, our customer contracts are structured to provide cash ahead of or in line with production outflows, meaning that anticipated half 2 outflow is both expected and fully aligns with contractual milestone timings.

The chart on the right illustrates continued progress in inventory management. As finished products are dispatched, overall inventory levels are reducing, and we have further improved the mix by lowering the proportion of raw materials relative to finished goods, which reflects tight operational control.

Capital expenditure increased modestly to GBP 6.9 million, in line with our expectations. We continue to advance CHRONOS, and we have taken delivery and completed installation of the autostacker.

As Dennis mentioned, our contracted order backlog increased to GBP 152 million despite delivering record revenues in the period. The backlog comprises only of fully contracted orders without any starting conditions. And therefore, it doesn't include MorGen energy contracts, which is still awaiting the customer to take final investment decision. Crucially, the quality of our contract backlog continues to improve. The proportion of profitable contracts has grown to 71%, increased from 60% in April 2025. This reflects the structural reset of pricing, risk allocation, project selection and execution.

The remaining 29% of the backlog relates to legacy projects, and we expect to recognize this in revenue over the next 18 months. As we've previously stated, these contracts are fully provided for, but they do not contribute to margin.

Turning now to our guidance for the year ending 30th of April 2026. We are maintaining revenue guidance of between GBP 35 million and GBP 40 million, which represents a growth of approximately 400% over 2 years and 600% over 3. The majority of our revenue this year will continue to be recognized on legacy contracts using the completed contracts method.

Looking ahead, and as I've mentioned, we are pleased that POSEIDON, ALPHA and Bespoke NEPTUNE projects will increasingly be recognized over time, and we have already successfully implemented this approach in the first half of the year. EBITDA loss guidance stays unchanged at GBP 27 million to GBP 29 million, reflecting continued delivery of remaining legacy contracts. This represents an improvement of approximately GBP 4 million year-on-year. At this stage, remaining losses are primarily driven by factory loading, and we continue to maintain a strong control over production, project and overhead costs.

We expect year-end cash to be in the range of GBP 170 million to GBP 175 million. The higher outflow in the second half reflects the timing of milestone receipts, which are typically received ahead of or sometimes alongside cash outflows. Strong progress on projects enabled certain receipts to be collected in the first half of the year with associated payments occurring in the second half. Therefore, and counterintuitively, the lower outflow number in this first half and the higher outflow number in the second half of the year are signs of ITM execution in a disciplined and cash positive manner.

Bumpy cash inflows and outflows will never be avoidable in the business we are operating in, but will flatten over time with an increasing number of projects in delivery. That concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention and your continued support. We are excited about what lies ahead of us in 2026.

[Operator Instructions] I'd like to remind you the recording of the presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A can be accessed via investor dashboard. I'd now like to hand you over to Justin Scarborough, Head of Investor Relations, to host the Q&A.

Justin, as you can see, we've received a number of questions. Could I, therefore, please ask you just to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the end.

Thank you, Paul, and welcome, everybody. Our first question is for Simon. Could you provide an update on CHRONOS, its development and your planned launch date?

Absolutely. So the starting point for CHRONOS is TRIDENT, our existing stack platform. So it's a very good starting point because that is already performing exceptionally well. Now while there are a number of things that we can carry across from TRIDENT to CHRONOS, it's still very important to go through a very comprehensive and robust verification process, and that's exactly what we're going through at the moment.

To put a bit of color on that, recent activities have included inspection of all of the full-scale components. We've been verifying the various manufacturing processes and reviewing long-term data from the components operating in the lab. And we've already built our first stack already. We did that last year. We used that as an exercise to check all of the assembly processes. And I'm very happy with the progress of the program.

Now as I mentioned in the presentation, we've deliberately not guided towards a launch date. and that's primarily for 2 reasons. The first is that we don't want to inadvertently trigger customers to stop purchasing our existing stack, TRIDENT. That is what we're supplying today. And the second is that we will only launch CHRONOS when we have fully completed all of the validation steps that we need to go through.

As a follow-up for Simon, given the development of CHRONOS, where does TRIDENT fit in terms of ITM's product portfolio?

Well, TRIDENT remains central to ITM. We continue to build and supply TRIDENT today for existing programs and for aftersales activities. And as you've seen from the presentation, we've continued to invest in production capability and quality for TRIDENT with the autostacker. And so that very much remains a product that we continue to manufacture, and we will maintain that capability because we have an existing fleet of products that we'll need to continue to support into the future. So in due course, at the right time, we will transition from TRIDENT to CHRONOS, but we will not get rid of the TRIDENT platform.

And perhaps to add one more thing, some of the technology that we've developed for TRIDENT, we'll take a close look at that. And if it is feasible to transfer to TRIDENT, we will do so to make that available to existing TRIDENT customers.

Amy, a question for you. Regarding your adjusted EBITDA and the first half performance -- your midpoint guidance suggests a flat EBITDA loss in the second half of this year versus the second half of last year. Could you shed some light on this year-on-year expectation given the fact that the first half adjusted EBITDA loss reduced by around 30%?

Yes, sure. So firstly, our EBITDA is not achieved flatly across the year when you're comparing one half to another or even when you're comparing on a month-to-month basis. A couple of things make up that. Firstly, our revenue recognition being on completed contracts means that there are different margin levels in each period. Again, whether you're comparing a month-to-month or a half year to half year, we make every effort to flatten out manufacturing profile, but we can have variances in between different periods due to the level of production, how many hours needed on Neptune products, testing levels that can increase or reduce our electricity consumption. And then we also have some general cost increases that are probably going to affect half 2 more than half 1 as they do in any year while you're in an inflationary environment.

I think what's important to remember is we take a really conservative approach to revenue, cash and EBITDA guidance, and we will only guide to what we are certain will be achieved. That's what we believe is going to be achievable at the moment. And if there are any differences, we will update market.

Thanks, Amy. Whilst we're on the subject of EBITDA, there's a follow-up question, which is when do you expect EBITDA to be positive for the company?

Okay. So I think I've probably said this before, but we never guide beyond our current financial year. But we are confident that we know the path to profitability. We need to do a lot of what we've been doing for the last few years. So we need to really focus on winning and then executing profitable contracts. We need to retain focus on quality manufacturing and quality of our supply chain, and we need to maintain the discipline on overheads and cost control in every area of the business.

In addition, particularly important to our path is Hydropulse. So that's our build, own, operate model, which will bring recurring predictable revenues and increase our profitability.

Thank you, Amy. I think this question is probably for Dennis. The autostacker looks like it could be a game changer for your stack assembly. What redundancy have you built in, in the event of the autostacker not working for whatever reason?

That's a good question. So first, it is a very important leap in automation for our factory. I think it was one of the remaining parts, which still had quite manual involvement in the process. And I mean you've seen a little video as part of the presentation. It's quite impressive. It's quite an automated process now and proper manufacturing line, and it is definitely helping us in terms of consistency. It's helping us in repeatability, and it will minimize the risk of remaining human errors as part of the manufacturing process of stacks. Obviously, it will also save cost and increase capacity quite substantially. I mentioned the number already as part of my part of the presentation. The capacity of the robot alone is above 2 gigawatts of stacks.

Now redundancy is important. You don't want to be too dependent on one machine alone. That's why we will retain the capability to produce our previous process, which I have to say was also not bad. I mean we spoke about very high factory acceptance test rates in the past, and these we had achieved with our previous process. Now the next leap, as I said, the autostacker will take that even further and improve repeatability.

Thank you, Dennis. I think that's probably the next question is for you as well. Regarding the RWE 150-megawatt NEPTUNE V capacity reservation, when do you expect the first call-offs to be? And could this create a potential bottleneck?

I guess you would have to ask RWE when they want to sign the first contract with us. But jokes aside, we are in active contract negotiation for the first call-off under that agreement. As always, we do not guide on specific timing, not just because we don't want to, mainly because it's not fully in our control. And I think it doesn't make sense to guide for something which is outside of your control. But the negotiation is going well. It's not the first contract we are negotiating, executing together.

Maybe allow me a little bit to expand on the nature of the projects we are talking about here to give you a bit more color to the topic. The reservation agreement is aimed at, I would say, rather large contracts. And such a contract would always start with an engineering phase, usually with the aim to obtain the necessary building permits as well as government funding if applicable.

In the case we are talking about here, the government funding was already granted. So it's mainly about permits. Then subsequently, the manufacturing and delivery phase would be triggered based on the permitting. And this is when we would start to manufacture. By the way, the Lingen contract we are executing right now is following the exact same pattern. So this is a proven model we have done in the past. With regards to bottlenecks, I think that was the other question, Justin? Correct?

That's correct.

I do not see an emerging issue at this point in time. It depends obviously how many other customers are ordering NEPTUNE V containers now. But I can tell you, there's always a way to expand container assembly. This is mainly labor-driven, and you need factory space, both not very difficult to increase, especially in the Sheffield region. We could also work with integrators if really needed. But at this point in time, I do not foresee a bottleneck.

Thank you, Dennis. A question for you, Amy. Based on your order book of GBP 152 million today and your midpoint revenue guidance range for the year, your book-to-bill ratio stands at just over 4x versus about 5.5x at the end of last year. With only 3 months of the current financial year remaining, do you expect your book-to-bill to increase by the end of the financial year?

Okay. So I think to be honest, keeping 4x revenue in the order book while delivering revenues that are 600% above 3 years ago and 400% above 2 years ago is something to be really very proud of and certainly something that our peers would love to achieve and the opposite here saying. I think the important thing on the order book is it has grown in value. And the most important part of that growth is the increase in the percentage of profitable contracts as we win orders, and we continue to deliver on the legacy contracts removing those from the order book as we go.

Just to add as well that we only guide including contracted equipment sales orders. So they're fully contracted and are going to happen during the year. So in summary, I'm not going to give any guidance on how much I expect or not expect it to increase, but it's important we maintain the healthy ratios that I think we've absolutely got today.

Thank you, Amy. Simon, one for you, I think. In previous results announcements, we've spoken about FAT pass rates and how successful ITM has been in improving that. Could you provide some tangible insights on how the high pass rate translates into lower cost per stack?

Yes. And I think that's right. Previously, we have reported first-time pass rates of around 99% -- and that's no small thing given that we do very extensive testing of our stacks at the end of line. We don't just do pressure tests and leak tests. We have third-party witness tests for various compliance reasons. We electrolyze the stacks and characterize their performance over the full operating range. So it's a whole suite of tests that we're looking to pass first time through. And that statistic is a result of a focused effort to improve our supply quality, introduce additional quality checks throughout our manufacturing processes and so on. And that drive was successful, and we've put in place lasting measures to make sure that we continue to benefit from that high at first-time pass rate.

What does that mean? Well, it avoids us spending additional time examining stacks or retesting stacks that would otherwise find its way into the price of the stacks themselves. I'd perhaps add that we haven't stood still. In recent time, we have made big strides in our efficiency of our end-of-line testing. And in particular, we just over halved the amount of time we now spend doing our electrolysis testing of stacks as part of that process. So we still enjoy the high pass rate, and we're getting more efficient in parallel.

Thank you, Simon. A question for Amy again. Regarding revenue recognition, could you provide a split of your order book between completed contracts and the percentage of completion met?

Yes, of course. But before I do that, let me just take a little step through the changes that have happened in revenue recognition. So I'm really pleased that we've managed to review the recognition methods as our product portfolio grows and develops, it's really important to take that step back and make sure what we're doing is appropriate. And it's allowed us to implement different ways of recognizing revenue to the one that we've historically used. So the one that we've historically used is completed contracts. So that's where we recognize revenue at specific points in our contracts when performance obligations are met. They could be -- that could be delivery or commissioning, but generally towards the end of a contract's life.

We will still use that method for TRIDENT, and we'll still use that method for our standard NEPTUNE products. The difference is that NEPTUNEs that contain a customer modification, POSEIDONs or ALPHAs will be recognized over time as we produce the equipment. And that's really important as we'll be able to see the revenue track through the profit and loss as we are actually manufacturing and leads to a lot more predictable revenue going forward.

If I could give you a real-life example, if you take the Uniper 120-megawatt HAR project in the U.K. So that's currently at the FEED process. So under the old recognition methods, the completed contract method, we would recognize a small amount of revenue as we go through that FEED study. And then effectively, you would see nothing else for 2 to 3 financial periods until we get towards the end of that contract and revenue would be recognized in one lump sum. If we transfer that to the new version of percentage completion using ALPHA or POSEIDON, we get exactly the same revenue for the FEED study, which would be recognized at the same point in time. But the difference being that at the point that we signed the contract up until delivery, we'd be able to progressively recognize revenue. So in that first financial year, you would see revenue happening for that project and in the second and then at delivery until you get to the same point in time. So it will allow us to be able to see progress through the factory in the P&L.

I think that's a massive change, if I may add. In the past, when we signed a large contract, 100 megawatt, more than 100 megawatt, for example, you would not see relevant revenue from that contract for minimum 2, 3 years, right? And then everything would come at once.

Under the new POC percentage of completion method from contract signature, you will see revenue coming in. That is important because it changes the financial profile of the company quite significantly. What it means is if we sign a new large contract during a year, now for the first time, you will see an immediate impact on guidance for the year, and you will see an immediate impact on the financial numbers of that particular year, which is something very different from the past.

Justin, if I could just answer the specific question because I realize I haven't answered it yet. The current order book is roughly speaking, 85% completed contracts and 15% percentage of completion.

Thank you very much. We've got another financial question. In the first half, admin expenses pretty exceptional and before depreciation and amortization stood at around about GBP 10 million versus just over GBP 9 million in the first half of last year. Do you expect the second half of this year to be at a similar level to that of the first half?

Okay. So as I mentioned earlier, we are in an inflationary environment. So costs are expected generally to go up a little bit one half to the other. And then we do certain things such as we don't award salary increases until partway through half 1. So there's a full year effect of that in half 2. And we've also been on a journey of increasing capability and competencies within ITM, which generally leads to a higher cost base and some of those vacancies are being filled towards the back end of half 1 and half -- into half 2. So in summary, I wouldn't expect it to be vastly different, but I would expect a slightly higher cost base in half 2 compared to half 1.

Thank you. We've had a number of questions through on Linde today. So this is trying to bucket it into a more general one and for all of you. Can you provide an update on ITM's relationship with Linde?

The relationship with Linde is a productive one, right? I mean we are in the middle of executing some of the largest electrolyzer projects globally today. So as you might imagine, there are a lot of meetings, a lot of discussions and a very active and productive relationship. So interactions with Linde are daily. And I think the progress that's been presented today on those large projects is a testament to the 2 teams working together effectively.

Yes. I mean I think if I could just add, we're also looking forward, not just execution, but we are actively working with Linde to think about how we, contracts going forward and that kind of sales arrangements that we have with them and how we proactively work together.

Yes, I think nothing to add. All has been said.

Okay, Dennis. Amy, can you explain the significant rise in trade and other receivables, about 35% and trade number payables in the first half of about 19% since the end of April?

Yes, of course. So -- we'll have a general conversation about cash and how that might impact that. So just as a reminder, we structure our customer contracts to receive cash ahead of or at the same time as payments to suppliers. Those receipts are staged throughout the life of a contract. So they'll be generally based on milestones such as contract signature, purchase of significant equipment, factory acceptance testing, and there can be various different makeups through the contract. Each is individual, but the important point is getting the cash ahead of it's going out.

We structure supplier payments in the same basis. So where we're buying a big piece of equipment, we'll have similar milestones in that contract as well. The result of that means that we can have swings in both trade receivables and trade payables, which is just normal part of the cash cycle of this business. As an example, we had some receivables in half 1 with payables going out in half 2. So you will see that balance shift in again in the full year results. But it's just a normal kind of course of a healthy way of managing cash.

And it's also very normal for our industry. I mean most of the contracts we do would foresee a down payment just at the beginning. So when you sign the contract, basically, you issue the first invoice for a down payment in order to be executing cash positively. And from contract signature within then 30 to 45 days, you would see a big spike because you have like 10%, 15% of contract value coming in at once. And then there is a time of spend phase where you then use up that money where you have cash out of the door. And depending on whether that lands now in the first half of the year, second half or slightly into the next half of the year, that is something which will always create some bumps, and that is a perfectly normal thing for an EPC type of company. That will be a bit more flatten as soon as Hydropulse becomes bigger in the mix there, we have a more stable cash in and cash out profile.

And the other thing which flattens it is the amount of contracts that we're doing at any one time. So the more that we grow and the more contracts that we have going on at one time, it will flatten itself.

Thank you. Next question for Dennis. Jurgen Nowicki has now taken over the role as ITM's Non-Executive Chairman. As your ex-boss, Dennis, what does Jurgen bring to ITM?

Well, what does he bring? Probably his excellent German humor. No. Jokes aside, he's actually quite funny. Jokes aside, I mean, he brings long-standing experience in the industrial gas segment, in particular, in plant engineering, procurement construction for EPC, but also in plant operations from the Hydropulse angle. In his role as CEO of Linde Engineering, he was basically in charge of managing thousands of people, hundreds of projects worldwide at the same time and billions in revenue every year. So I think that he will bring a lot of knowledge, which will help us to further grow the company.

I spoke about the business model earlier in my presentation. And I think his knowledge and expertise adds very well to that. He also has known ITM and supported us for many years on the Linde side, and he joins us after a 6-month cool down period from his Linde job, which I think makes sure that we see that also as separate assignments. I think it's also worth mentioning that wasn't the question, Justin, I know, but I think it's worth mentioning that we had 2 more starters to the Board in October, who both significantly strengthened the Board further. The first one being Sir Warren East, former CEO of ARM and Rolls-Royce and the second one being John Howarth with -- bringing a lot of financial knowledge being an audit partner at S&W in the U.K.

Thank you, Dennis. Another one for Amy. Are you assuming any contract signings in your cash guidance for the rest of the year?

Okay. Simple answer is no. So we don't forecast any contract signings in the cash guidance. We forecast based on what we know is going to come in and what we know is going to go out, both in terms of contracted orders, OpEx and CapEx. And we do that because as we structure the customer contracts to be cash flow neutral at a base case position, and we hope for better, but we forecast them to be neutral. So actually, it wouldn't be cash generative. And that's a very prudent way of looking at the cash flow forecast. Again, just to reiterate, if we did believe we were going to be any different to guidance on a material basis, we would update the market.

Thank you, Amy. Back to you, Simon. How does the launch of CHRONOS impact your product portfolio in terms of NEPTUNE and ALPHA 50?

Okay. Well, I think it's a good thing. And we've said earlier that the stack is the heart of the electrolyzer system. So if you have a higher-performing stack, you have a higher-performing product. So at the right time, CHRONOS gives us the opportunity to reenergize the entire product portfolio to take advantages of the improvements in the CHRONOS platform. So I think that's the first thing.

The second thing is that CHRONOS has a much more compact footprint. So it's feasible to squeeze more stacks and get more capacity into the same space envelope. So from a product evolution perspective, CHRONOS arguably makes it easier for us to address larger and larger capacity products.

Thank you, Simon. Next question, I think, is for Dennis. You mentioned in the presentation and in the release this morning, the level of interest in ALPHA 50 and you're clearly very bullish on Hydropulse. Could you provide any context on the number of customers you are speaking with and when some of these engagements may convert into contracts?

So I think people know me by now. It's not my or our time to disclose detailed sales discussions. And as I said earlier on the RWE topic, it's very difficult to forecast when customers will take their part of the investment decision, right? But what I can tell you is that ALPHA 50 has landed similarly well to NEPTUNE V. And those of you who follow us a bit longer know that NEPTUNE V has quickly emerged to become our best-selling product. I think even the best-selling product in ITM's history actually.

Seeing the very good early interest by customers, especially large-scale industrial customers on ALPHA 50, I would expect the product to be just as successful as NEPTUNE V, of course, on a much bigger scale because the product is 50 megawatt instead of 5, right?

To give you a bit of a feel on timing, again, don't take that as a specific guidance now, but as a rough estimate, for NEPTUNE V. It took us around 3 quarters to be able to announce the first signed contract and sale. I think that's a typical time horizon you see from us launching a product, then having to go into the trenches with customers and explaining them what is the product, increasing their confidence, going through safety critical documents, making sure that they believe that we can actually pull that off. And that usually takes around 3 quarters. And the only difference being that for an ALPHA product, usually you would start a project with a FEED, less often straight directly into the EPC phase just because projects are much bigger.

I would not expect to see ALPHA for anything smaller than 50 megawatt, although you could scale down in 10 megawatt, I think you said that earlier. But I think ALPHA really comes into play when it's above 50 megawatts in size and especially when you talk 100, 200, 500, then ALPHA is really interesting. And these projects usually need a bit of a FEED phase.

The other question was on Hydropulse. Hydropulse. I mentioned Hydropulse as part of my presentation already. I think we are serving a real gap in the market here by eliminating CapEx and OpEx barriers to hydrogen adoption. Customer interest has also been great. I'm conscious I say that a lot, but it's actually true. Customer interest has been great since the launch. As I mentioned, I've not given a specific price, but I can tell you that we have now done a couple of plant configurations with customers.

We really went deep into financial modeling of the full CapEx, OpEx, how much do we have to spend in terms of operational support, spare part exchange and everything. And even in the most conservative cases, the cost of hydrogen, which we can offer via Hydropulse is exceptionally competitive, something the industry has not seen on cost. And I can tell you that we have various very good project discussions ongoing with customers. But as always, projects take time to develop, especially under a build, own and operate model when we have to get confident on the site, on the site specifics, on the customer, on the specific use case. Is there a real believable long-term offtake contract in side? Are we talking 10 years plus, maybe 15 years? And then there's a permitting involved.

So these projects take some time. So in my view, patience remains key. It's not so much a question of if Hydropulse, just when and how quickly it will scale. It will definitely become a very important pillar of ITM's growth story going forward.

Thank you, Dennis. The last question now, which is for Amy. You've been at ITM for just over a year now. Has the job worked out as you expected so far?

Okay. So I'll give you something that was absolutely expected to start with, which is that Dennis is just as hard work and demanding as I thought he would be. So that's perfect. I think there's lots of things I didn't expect. So I expected things to be really busy, but the amount of activity and opportunity that's out there in the market has really exceeded my expectations. The potential that we've got to grow shareholder value is vast, being part of kind of live customer negotiations and seeing what we can do and what value we can add and not just ITM, but the entire market, what the entire market can do for the energy transition has been eye-opening.

The other thing I would say is that I think the ITM team has been amazing, and there's probably more knowledge than I ever thought was possible out there. We have a really dedicated and determined team who are going to drive this forward. And I think people always make the difference in these circumstances, and they certainly do with ITM. And then I think probably the final thing is like actually, I can exist on very little sleep, which is not something that I knew about myself.

Welcome to my world.

Thank you, Amy. And as Paul from IMC mentioned earlier, we will endeavor to work through any questions that weren't answered today over the coming week. Thank you for your attention, and have a nice day. Thank you very much.

Justin, thank you, and thank you to the ITM management team for updating attendees today. Can I please ask investors not to close the session to be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that management can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company.

On behalf of the management team of ITM Power Plc, I would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.