Good morning, ladie and gentlemen. Welcome to the AFC Energy Investor Update. Throughout this recorded update, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time ing the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Please simply type in your questions and press send. Due to the significant attendance on today's call, the company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to CEO John Wilson. Good morning.
[Good morning.] Good morning. Welcome, everyone, to this introductory presentation from me, John Wilson, the new CEO of AFC Energy. With me today is Karl Bostock, our new Chief Financial Officer. Although we've only recently joined AFC, we wanted to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves and give shareholders an overview of what we see as our key priorities for AFC. Thank you also for submitting so many questions, and we'll look forward to answering those in a moment. Firstly, a bit about me. I'm an engineer and technologist by background and experience, and specialize in conceiving and scaling businesses through innovation and differentiation. I joined AFC from Bulgin, which is now a private equity-backed connectivity solutions developer, where I was the CEO, having previously led an MBO for this business and then a subsequent sale.
Before that, I led Elektron Technology PLC for nearly a decade, where I worked to transform the fortunes of the business through building a differentiated product and commercial offering that increased shareholder value by more than 10 times and grew the operating margins of its largest business by over 20 times. These are obviously successes, which I hope to replicate here at AFC. I have bought and sold numerous businesses in the last 15 years or so. In addition, I sit on the boards of two other AIM businesses: Volex, a $1 billion turnover integrated manufacturer of critical data and power transmission products as a non-executive director, and InsigAI, a scale-up artificial intelligence technology provider as a non-executive chairman. I have broad little experience of businesses across all stages of business life cycle. I'll now hand over to Karl for him to introduce himself.
Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. My name is Karl Bostock. I'm the newly appointed CFO here at AFC Energy. A little bit about me. I've over 15 years of experience as a CFO in manufacturing businesses, holding roles at Bulgin, where I worked alongside John, and Coveris UK Food and Consumer. During my career, I've always had roles that are broader than just pure finance. I was responsible for internal sales and pricing at Coveris, and when working alongside John at Bulgin, I was responsible for supply chain and operations. On top of the usual CFO responsibilities, I really enjoyed driving improvements that either, one, made the environment in which our teams work safer, two, made the experience we give our customers better, and three, made the business we operate more efficient.
I've been super fortunate that all the businesses I have worked in have experienced high levels of growth. This has resulted in the need for systems and processes to be developed at pace as each organization experiences and overcomes growing pains to enter new markets or reset their strategies. AFC is on a very similar journey as it transitions from being a business focused on developing market-leading technology to one commercializing the benefits of that technology. I'm super excited to have the opportunity to be part of the team to make this a reality.
Thank you, Karl. Now to move on to our business and our sector. Undoubtedly, hydrogen will lead the clean energy transition, and the only question is when, not if. However, the challenge this transition faces is multifaceted, the key elements of which are the availability and cost of supply of hydrogen, the resistance to new technology adoption, and the cost of hydrogen fuel cell generators compared with diesel. These serve to create a barrier to mass adoption, but these challenges are not unusual in disruptive innovations. For example, it took almost 30 years for the car to be widely adopted, which was overcome through productionization and its economies of scale to rapidly reduce price entry point. My attraction to AFC was motivated by the technology the business has, the abundant talent within the team, and the sheer size of the market opportunity.
We are positioned to remove these barriers through our differentiated approach and our offering. Since I joined and following Karl joining, we have been focused on understanding the technical and commercial challenges to aid with the formulation of a strategy to drive commercial success, and are working through our approach to this with our executive team. When I was appointed CEO, the board was clear on our priorities: to leverage the relationships built over the past number of years to prioritize and focus efforts on verticals with the lowest barrier to adoption and to drive scale. This is critical to accelerating commercialization and driving revenues. The construction industry has demonstrably been identified as a first mover, and the vast majority of our commercial efforts are now focused on supporting our joint venture partner, Speedy Hire, in training and building the infrastructure to remove barriers to deployment.
These include the issues already mentioned, but also timing of zero-emission projects, for example, HS2 and Low-Attempt Crossing, where new tenders clearly mandate zero-emission energy sources. Undoubtedly, achieving market acceptance within this vertical will result in a level of proliferation across further verticals in which we have worked to build relationships. Secondly, Hyamtek has the potential to be transformational to the clean energy transition through its ability to disrupt conventional views around hydrogen infrastructure and supply and price. A key focus for our executive team is continuing to generate IP to protect this advantage and accelerate its route to market and deployment with partners. Our primary focus at present is very much the Speedy Hire joint venture, where we are working to unlock obstacles to deploy further generators to customers and meet the demand there is from the UK construction industry for diesel-free generators.
I've already had a number of conversations that confirm this demand. However, replacing incumbent technologies in existing contracts at a significantly higher price point takes a high degree of pragmatism, and we are working with Speedy to accommodate this. We continue to work with all partners that have previously been out, such as Acciona and ABB. These trials have been invaluable in proving our technology and verifying it is not the limiting factor. The technology works, and these ongoing partnerships have been and continue to be critical as we evolve our product offering. Our focus is on early adopters and the revenue-generating opportunities these provide. Elsewhere, we are increasing engagement with government, recently hosting our local MP, Jeremy Hunt, holding meetings with MPs in Parliament, and looking forward to a site visit from DESNZ next month.
This is key, given the incentive schemes that are in place for our industry and the potential for further incentives, given the government's net-zero ambitions. Our view, however, is the government's approach to subsidizing the production of hydrogen is inherently wrong. We are proving we can provide hydrogen at scale substantially below current market costs and believe subsidies should be applied to capital equipment, therefore removing this barrier to entry and serving to accelerate economies of scale benefits. We must also continue to engage with government to educate them regarding the benefits of ammonia as a fuel. We are lobbying to make this point heard. The hydrogen revolution has already begun, but widespread adoption has yet to occur. The prize, therefore, available to AFC is commercialization of a disruptive end-to-end technology product and service offering. Delivering on this is vital in creating and maximizing shareholder value.
We recognize that the share price performance is a frustration. Our focus will be on delivering as a business, giving realistic guidance, and communicating effectively with the market. If we deliver on that, we believe the share price will respond. I'd just like to take this opportunity to touch on the financials. As disclosed in the year-end trading update, we had GBP 15.4 million cash as at the 31st of October 2024, and revenue recognized in the 2024 financial year was GBP 4 million. Based on my first two weeks in the organization, I am pleased to be able to say that it appears that John and I have inherited a robust reporting system along with a talented and energized team.
It is clear that my predecessor, Peter, significantly strengthened the finance team as well as introduced key business processes as AFC Energy began its transition from a startup to a scale-up organization. In my opinion, there is still significant opportunity to make the organization more efficient, and we will continue this journey in the current financial year with the goal of being able to accelerate financial reporting in future years, although this year we expect to announce the full year results in March as usual. That has been a quick introduction, but we do want to underscore our commitment to maintaining effective communication with shareholders and recognize from the questions that have been submitted this has been a concern in the past. We've had many, many questions pre-submitted, the majority of which cover similar themes, so we've attempted to merge these into fewer questions in order to address the main topics and concerns.
Okay, we will start to take some questions. There's been a number of questions that have come in, as I mentioned. We've had several questions on the status and progress of the Speedy Hire joint venture. I will take that one. As I've mentioned, this is our number one priority. The first run of generator sets are built, and we sold those into the joint venture. It's important to note that Speedy are responsible for the customer deployments, and we're working with them to support those deployments, with matters such as health and safety, for example. It's also important to note that Speedy are very committed to this.
They're well invested, and there is significant demand from their end customer base. We are working together to overcome any barriers to deployment so this can be accelerated. We are focused on displacing diesel gen sets in the UK construction industry as this is the fastest route to commercial scale-up, driven by customer net-zero targets and regulation. The largest construction projects across the UK are committed to zero carbon, as I mentioned, such as HS2, the Heathrow expansion, and many others. We have first-mover advantage in this space, and our strategy is to prove the business plan in the UK before looking to replicate it across other geographies. A question on Hyamtek. You have asked when we expect to see initial revenues and whether there is a plan to spin out Hyamtek. Alongside Speedy, Hyamtek is an area of focus moving in parallel with our fuel cell business.
Continuing to generate IP and file patents is critical to protecting our commercial advantage, and this has been the priority of the business thus far. One of the key challenges for the hydrogen industry globally is the lack of cheap and plentiful supply of hydrogen to the sites where it's needed. Hyamtek can solve this problem, and for AFC, it will allow us to offer customers, such as Speedy's clients, an end-to-end one-stop solution. Although the Hyamtek brand is new, the technology is well advanced, and we aim to fast-track its commercialization. There are no plans to spin this out, to spin out this business. We created a separate brand to raise awareness and for marketing purposes. We have also created a structure which enables us to look at bringing in funding at the Hyamtek level rather than the Topco PLC level.
Hyamtek is and will continue to be a part of AFC Energy. To be clear, the fuel cell and the fuel processing parts of the business are symbiotic, mutually beneficial in driving our efforts to disrupt the hydrogen processing and off-grid energy from hydrogen supply. The hydrogen industry struggles with pricing compared to existing fuel sources, and we need to focus on scaling up our cracker business as this is one of the solutions to widespread industrial adoption of hydrogen. Our target is to provide cost competitiveness with diesel without the need for government subsidies. Next question. A number of people have asked for an update and an outlook on the various memorandums of understanding and joint ventures that have been announced in the past.
To be absolutely clear, our current focus is on the Speedy joint venture and Hyamtek because that's where the quickest revenues and commercialization opportunities are, and that will be the focus for the foreseeable future. That said, the previous collaborations have been very useful to raise the profile of the business, the technology, and to get feedback, and will likely lead to commercial opportunities in the future, but they are not first movers in this space. As I said, the focus is very much on how we generate revenues and drive those revenues most quickly. Now we're targeting our resources on revenue generation from those early adopters. Another question, which I think I'll ask Karl to answer. We've been asked to comment on cash and revenue expectations for the next couple of years, Karl.
Thank you. I prefer to leave the revenue forecasting to analysts. However, we have a full year results coming up in March where we will provide a full financial update. In the trading update, as previously mentioned, we reported we had cash of GBP 15.4 million at the year-end and the revenue for the financial year 2024 will be GBP 4 million. While I still understand the focus on revenue, it is clear from looking at our peers that we are undervalued regardless of revenue. Our plan is to focus on delivering operationally and trust that these results will drive a re-rating of the share price. We know that the construction sector is committed to hydrogen deployment and is building these solutions into project plans. The demand is huge. We are gaining traction, and we believe we have first-mover advantage. If we execute the business plan effectively, we absolutely will succeed.
We only need a small proportion of the market to deliver an absolute transformational impact for AFC. However, as you'd expect, our ambitions are far greater than this.
Thank you, Karl. Another question. At the Capital Markets Day, the stated target was to be able to build 200 generators per year by 2026 at Dunsfold. Is that realistic, and what is the current annual manufacturing capacity? In short, yes, it is realistic. We've obviously proven that we can build generators, which is the starting point. Currently, we're capable of building more than five units per month, which is 60 units per year, and are confident this could be scaled up four-fold within that time period. That will be driven through continuous improvement, lean implementation, and value engineering. We also have access to outsourcing partners, as we've previously announced, if we need to scale up more quickly than that. Another question. There has actually been a number of questions relating to the share price, which I'll look to cover together.
First point, are we going to take AFC private? There's absolutely no plans to take the company private. Presumably, this has come from the fact that Karl and I have both worked successfully in private equity-backed environments. Success in private equity is very much transferable to the PLC environment in which delivery, sense of urgency, and alignment of shareholder interest serve to maximize shareholder value. I think as a further point, there's been no conversations with the board prior to or since my appointment in this regard. There's also been a number of questions around Helikon. There's been no dialogue with Helikon regarding their short position. They seemingly hold other short positions in this space, so it could be taking a thematic view. It's obviously a question for them, but not one I'm particularly interested in asking.
If they wish to engage, as with any shareholder, we'd be prepared to listen to what they have to say. We certainly hope we can disprove their investment thesis, whatever it is, by driving the share price up and forcing them to close their short position. A final point on share price. The share price is clearly a frustration for everyone. It's important to note this is also a market-driven phenomenon. If you look to overlay and rebase the AFC share price chart for the last three years with some peers such as ITM or Ceres, it will demonstrate that we have performed pretty much in line with our peer group. That said, our focus is on delivering operationally, executing our business plan effectively, and that should cause the share price to respond accordingly. There's also been questions around future equity raise.
Can you rule out another equity raise, and have you looked at bringing in a strategic investor? There are currently no plans for an equity raise. Where we are as a company, it is clear we'll need further funding in the future to realize the tremendous opportunities that we have available to us. Until such point that our revenues generate positive operating cash flow, there are different options for achieving this, for example, bringing in a strategic investor or other financing alternatives, all of which we'll consider at the appropriate time. Question around communications. How do you propose to improve communications with retail shareholders? First, we'll simplify communications to focus on the two key elements of the current strategy that we've talked through this morning, the Speedy joint venture and Hyamtek, plus any material developments as and when they occur.
We'll look to be transparent and provide realistic guidance and demonstrate progress against that guidance. We want to ensure our announcements are clear as we look to commercialize and scale our technology. We do hope that by hosting this meeting so soon in our 10 years, we're demonstrating that we want to have a good relationship with our shareholders. We'll obviously update the market when we have things to say, but it may well be the case of less noise but more impact. A final question. Where do you want AFC Energy to be in five years? We plan to be a market leader in the provision of end-to-end fuel-to-fuel cell solutions. We plan to implement a disruptive innovation through achieving closer parity in cost of hydrogen fuel cell gen sets and incumbent diesel. We plan to prove this in the UK before geographic expansion.
I think it's important to note that there are millions of diesel generator sets the world over, and this is but one vertical, but provides insight into the scale of the opportunity. Four weeks into my tenure, my view is that our opportunity is limited only by our ambition. John, Karl, thank you ever so much for your time this morning. I'll shortly redirect investors to give you feedback, but before doing so, John, I wonder if I can get you for a couple of closing comments. Thank you. Firstly, thank you all for your time today. I know there's a lot of further questions that have come in during the live streaming of this IMC, but I think we've covered the major themes. We look forward to updating you further in March when we announce our full year results.
Thank you very much, everyone, for taking the time to listen, and we look forward to your feedback.
Thank you.
John, Karl, thanks once again. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as we will now automatically redirect you for you to provide your feedback in order that management can really better understand your views and expectations? This may take a few moments to complete, but I am sure it will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of AFC Energy, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. Good morning to you all.