Ceres dips after raising £103m to accelerate fuel cell production for data centres
Ceres Power Holdings PLC (LSE:CWR, OTC:CPWHF) shares fell 2.4% to 595p after the clean energy technology group raised almost £103 million from investors in a combined institutional placing and retail share offer.
The hydrogen and fuel cell technology developer has secured enough demand to issue 18 million new shares at 570p each, a 6.5% discount to the previous day’s close. It will increase the share count by about 9.2%.
The fundraising comprised a placing that raised around £101 million, alongside a retail offer and director subscriptions. Chief executive Phil Caldwell and four non-executive directors participated in the deal.
Ceres said the proceeds would strengthen its balance sheet, support growth and enable selective investment to help manufacturing partners scale up production of its solid oxide fuel cell technology.
The company pointed to growing demand for power from artificial intelligence and data centres, arguing that solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are “increasingly recognised as a credible solution to the ‘behind the meter’ power gap”, as grid connections face lengthy delays.
SOFC systems are more readily available than other high-performance power systems, which Ceres said is “becoming a key differentiator in the data centre power market”, with demand forecast to reach 22 gigawatts a year by 2030.
Part of the proceeds will be used to develop a facility supplying critical components to manufacturing partners, marking a greater operational role than the company’s traditional asset-light licensing model.
The statement also highlighted that strong financial resilience is an important factor for partners entering into long-term agreements.
Analysts at Panmure Liberum said the oversubscribed raise demonstrated strong investor support and could help de-risk partner roll-outs by strengthening the balance sheet and supply chain.
However, they suggested the fundraising looked “opportunistic” given Ceres already held £78.7 million of cash and short-term investments at the end of May.
They added that investors “may also question whether this signals that commercial adoption timelines remain longer than anticipated and that the licensing model is proving more capital intensive than previously expected”.
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Ceres dips after raising £103m to accelerate fuel cell production for data centres, source
