Good morning and welcome to the HydrogenOne Capital Growth Investor Presentation, and apologies for the slight delay in starting the meeting today. Throughout this recorded meeting, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged, and they can be submitted at any time displayed in the Q&A tab that is situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review the questions submitted today and publish responses when it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Dr. J.J. Traynor. Good morning to you, sir.
Good morning. Thanks for joining the webcast this morning, and apologies for the delayed start. We have one or two technical issues. I am J.J. Traynor, one of the managing partners at Hydrogen One, and joined by Richard Hulf. Good morning, Richard.
Hi. Good morning .
Also a managing partner of the firm. We'll take you through the fourth quarter results and the portfolio, and as always, plenty of time for your Q&A. The disclaimer statement. Look, here's the agenda for the call. I'll take you through the results, then Richard will deep dive into the portfolio, and then, as I say, we'll come back for the Q&A at the end of the session. Just in terms of a summary of the quarter, NAV per share is now just over 90 pence per share, and that's lower than third quarter 2024 and lower than a year ago. NAV is now sitting at GBP 116 million in total. This result, this NAV includes a reduction of 8.4 pence per share, or GBP 11 million for the write-down of HH2E, which is an event that we announced in November 2024.
There is nothing new in terms of the HH2E numbers. We are really just doing the bookkeeping here for the announcements that were made in November of last year. The figures also include the exit from Gen 2 Energy, which was announced with our third quarter results. Looking at the remainder of the portfolio, we saw a resumption in financial growth. Good to see that. Portfolio revenues up 11% year- over- year to just over GBP 85 million, and there is continued momentum in the portfolio, which we will talk about in a moment. Cash now sitting at just over GBP 3 million at the end of the quarter. Pleased to confirm that the investment advisor is in the process of being sold to Cordiant, which brings enhanced capabilities for us as an investment advisor and with better access to markets for our investors.
A summary of the fund: six private positions in the portfolio, concentrated portfolio, high conviction positions. Where are we investing? Revenue-generating supply chain companies. We like to co-invest with strategic industrials and other institutions. We look for diversity in the portfolio. It means global allocation across the full value chain. Of course, we look for clear exit strategies from these companies through IPOs or trade sales to generate cash and NAV back for our investors. Turning to the financial highlights for the quarter, we use IPEV guidelines, very standard, very rigorous valuation guidelines, IPEV guidelines to value all of the portfolio on a quarterly basis, which is reviewed and approved by our board once per quarter and reviewed by our auditor, KPMG, on an annual basis. Portfolio weighted average discount rate at the end of last year, 31 December 2024, was 12.8%.
That's higher than the 30th of September 2024, which was 12.5%. That discount rate effect has taken 2.4 pence per share out of the NAV. Cash holdings at the end of December, GBP 3 million, just over GBP 3 million, following the divestment from Gen 2 Energy. The divestments and secondaries are expected to continue to fund working capital requirements in the company and potentially some fresh investments. This slide shows portfolio NAV portfolio movement in a bit more detail. You can see where we were at Q3, where we are at the end of Q4. You can see fairly steady valuations in most positions with the write-off of HH2E clearly in those numbers and the exit from Gen 2 Energy, going from 30th of September - 31st of December with the Gen 2 proceeds reappearing as cash in the books.
This chart just shows the moving parts of the results in a little bit more detail. On the left-hand side of the slide, you're seeing the NAV movements in Q4 2024 versus Q3 2024 on a pence per share basis. The main movement in the numbers was the write-off of HH2E, which took away GBP 0.084 per share. As I say, this was a reduction that was announced in November 2024. Now, HH2E entered self-administration at the end of last year following delays to its Series B funding round, so the funding round that was underway in the business, and following a decision by the major shareholder in HH2E, Foresight, to halt further funding for the business. Those two things together resulted in HH2E going into self-administration. We do not, unfortunately, expect recovery, financial recovery for our shareholders in that administration process.
There is more information on this set out for you in the RNS that we put out this morning and in the updates that we released in late 2024. Elsewhere in the portfolio, we saw a small decline in holding values for portfolio companies from Q3 - Q4 as a result of higher discount rates with positive portfolio effects and offset, of course, from fund costs, all of that totaling around GBP 0.02 per share, leaving the NAV per share at GBP 0.19 per share. That is where we are on the results. Richard, over to you on the portfolio.
Thanks, J.J. So what I'm going to do is take us through a little bit more detail on the fund, talk about Cordiant as well, another key part of our news flow over the last period and going forward into this year, and then get into sort of final conclusion. So summary of the fund, where do we invest, and a sort of a breakdown by percentage. Private assets, of course, dominate 99%, with a remainder in GBP 3 million cash, as J.J. mentioned. Invested into revenue-generating supply chain companies, 60% in the EU, as you can see there on the donut chart, and the U.K., 40% with high weighting in the cash-generating companies, Sunfire, HiiROC, and Elcogen, as you can see just there. Just a reminder of the other co-investors with us in these companies.
I guess a key part of HH2E is there was only a single investor, so we'd like to reassure investors about the sort of portfolio effect of other shareholders in the other companies in the fund from Strohm at the top down through Sunfire, HiiROC, Bramble, and Elcogen. One of the things that we've been doing is trying to highlight what else are those other investors who invested into those companies doing with us. You can see the investors on the right-hand side there, and we're sort of showcasing what Safran is doing. Safran is a co-investor with Cranfield Aerospace.
This is a sort of showcase for liquid hydrogen and shows what they've been doing on their Grenoble tech campus in France, which sort of indirectly cross-fertilizes into what we're doing with Cranfield as well, using liquid hydrogen and developing the infrastructure for that hydrogen and proving that it can work in a gas turbine engine. It is very interesting to see what other people are doing and we will update in the next quarter with one of our other investors. Some key news flow, the autumn news flow sort of captured here. I am not going to go through every single one, but just on the highlights, Bramble met a significant power density milestone, making more compact and cheaper PCB-based fuel cells that will find great traction in the tier one auto sector, and more of that later this year.
Gen 2, we disposed of at NAV, sort of a small amount of money, but a key point about realizing value at NAV, and we should consider that when reading through to the rest of the portfolio. Another touchpoint from HiiROC, we're working with Cemex on site and Rugby deployed the thermal plasma unit there on site. A real example of a real technology coming off of the drawing board and finding a real sort of practical applications. HH2E, J.J. mentioned, we can talk about that more at the end if you like. Elcogen received EUR 5 million and Sunfire EUR 200 million more funding at the end of the year there, showing that there is still widespread support for the hydrogen sector outside of ourselves as an investor. Just thought we would show you a bit more about HiiROC.
The process on the left-hand side there, this is an interesting play on perhaps what might be regarded more as an energy transition play rather than a pure green hydrogen play, because what HiiROC are doing is using gas plasma electrolysis to split methane into carbon and hydrogen. You can see on the site there, we're trying to show you real applications with cranes and lifting gear pulling this technology in place to start working in this case with Cemex, because this application, there's a lot of methane being used in the cement, the steel sector, and energy storage and management, and that's demonstrating a great application for what HiiROC do. There was a recent investment from a U.S. gas company, which hopefully sees the market in the US open up for this sort of technology.
The runtime of the units is now only restricted by the carbon handling capability. You produce five times as much carbon as you do hydrogen in this process. You can see that in the brief test unit on the right-hand side there. That is HiiROC. As J.J. mentioned, we want to renew the focus on the remaining parts of the portfolio and to really highlight the revenue-generating capability within these companies. On the left, revenue growth since the original investment has been pretty good. Even the later investments like Strohm have grown their revenues by four times, and the early investments of Sunfire and Bramble are up there on the top right. A turnaround back on the trend for portfolio companies, the supply chain storage playing a role in the sector from control systems all the way through the whole value chain.
On a 100% basis, the portfolio revenues on the right-hand side there recovered to GBP 85 million in revenues in the last part from the equivalent period in 2023. I think what we experienced previously is a slowdown in the supply chain for the components that were going into the sector where there was high demand and there was sort of a revenue slowdown because of that, not because there was not demand, but because there just was not enough material to go into the process. Just we need to mention Cordiant. Cordiant Capital has agreed to purchase the company's advisors. That is us, J.J., myself, and the rest of the team as the advisor to the PLC. Cordiant is a specialist global infrastructure investor into real assets with USD 4 billion of assets under management worldwide.
Like us, share the vision for hydrogen and see hydrogen as a great growth play in a great growth sector. This is a very good sanction of what we are, a very good backing of what we are doing here in the hydrogen sector. The transaction, we expect to accelerate our access to markets, to private capital, to more capabilities compared to the standalone strategy that we were pursuing previously. The current team from the investment advisor, our team, will become part of Cordiant when we complete this transaction in the coming weeks and days and continue to provide the investment advisory services to H and the PLC. As I said, the completion is expected imminently with this transaction. It is great for us to have someone like Cordiant sharing the vision of seeing the upside in the hydrogen market that we expect to realize going forward.
I'll just round off there, just a summary of the NAV of 90 pence compared to our share price in the 20s. We clearly think there's mispriced at this level. We've already demonstrated that we can sell assets at NAV with Gen 2, and we expect to go on doing that into the following year. GBP 3 million in cash supports the ongoing operations, and we expect to bear the costs with Cordiant because a lot of the services that we're paying for will go in-house at Cordiant, so we immediately see a cost reduction benefit in working with Cordiant and then others to come. This is a revenue-generating portfolio in hydrogen. It's not about hydrogen in the future. It's about hydrogen investing now to companies that are growing now.
We're well positioned to provide energy security through the hydrogen sector in Europe and other regions where clean air and energy efficiency are a priority. I'd like to draw the presentation to a conclusion now and get into the Q&A in a moment. Thank you very much.
Perfect. J.J. Richard, thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions, and you can do that just by using the Q&A tab that's situated on the top right-hand corner of your screen. Just while the company takes a few moments for you, the questions that have been submitted today, I'd like to remind you that the recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can be accessed via your investor dashboard. As you can see, we have received a number of questions throughout today's presentation. Richard, if I could just hand over to you to read out those questions, that'd be great, and I'll pick up from you at the end.
Thank you. Yeah. Okay. The first question is, how did the managers propose to narrow the discount to NAV? Surely any monetization is better used in a share buyback instantly, being accretive to shareholder value rather than reinvesting in hydrogen assets, which trade at such a huge discount to book. Let me have a go at that one first of all. I think really the fact that hydrogen assets are so cheap at the moment would mean that if we did generate cash, we would want to invest that back into the hydrogen sector. We really have to demonstrate that these assets have got value that is way above the current share price, and we intend to do that as we move into 2025 with Cordiant by working with other investors on the same assets, and we think that is going to be a solution.
J.J., do you want to add to that?
Yeah. I mean, just to add, I mean, the way the fund was designed was and is as a growth proposition. The natural first use of divestment proceeds is reinvestment in growth propositions. Having said that, we do have the facility for a share buyback. That is clearly set out in the prospectus, which was put out when we did the IPO. As and when cash proceeds arrive, the board at that time will want to take a view as to the appropriate allocation of that cash.
J.J., next question. Your NAV has declined from around 100 to around 20 in five years. Why should I invest? Do you want to take that?
Let me have a go. I understand the question. I think just to—thanks for asking the question—just to calibrate on the numbers, the NAV at IPO was the IPO proceeds, which was GBP 103 million, and the NAV today is GBP 116 million. So the underlying assets of the business have actually grown since the IPO from that 103 number to the 116 number that I just described. The share price at IPO was GBP 1 per share, and it is now—the share price has now deteriorated to the GBP 0.20-0.25 range that we will be trading in recently. I think there are two different sets of numbers in here. There is a disconnect here between what we see as a steady progression of the NAV of the business with ups and downs because of the HH2E effect that we described because of discount rate changes and so on.
There's a disconnect between that and the development of the share price. Share price we see as disconnected across the growth investment trust sector. We are obviously part of that, but the sector around us has seen a move to a discount trading, and this is to do with interest rate cycles and the market appetite for risk on and risk off in growth sectors. That is sort of one piece. I think the second piece is we would be the first to say that there has been a slowdown in some segments of the hydrogen sector. You look at listed hydrogen share prices of companies like ITM, Plug Power, Bloom Energy, and you can see those share prices have deteriorated. We are not obviously immune from that.
I think we would also say that the write-down of HH2E, which we announced in November last year, was a setback for our shares. The NAV impact of that write-down, it's around 8% of the portfolio value. The share price reaction was more like 25%. We saw a stronger reaction in our share price than the actual mathematics of that write-down. I think all of those things together have resulted in this disconnect between NAV GBP 116 million and share price GBP 0.20-0.25.
Ivan B asks, "Are both of you still personally invested in the fund as shareholders, irrespective of any rewards you enjoy as employees of Cordiant? Do you expect the number of shares you own to increase over time?" Let me take that. Yes, J.J. and I still have got a lot of our personal wealth invested into Hydrogen One Capital. Why would we sell it? Yes, we would want to buy more shares going forward, but we have really cut costs in salaries and rewards to ourselves, reflecting the environment that we're in. The rest of the board as well would also be interested in buying more shares going forward. That's a matter for them. For J.J. and me, certainly, yes. Also, Ivan shares greatly appreciate the regular open access provided to the investment advisor.
Could you please confirm the date of the next opportunity for shareholders to meet with and question the fund's board, i.e., Simon Hogan and colleagues, in order for shareholders to understand the decision to partner with Cordiant more clearly? I mean, J.J., do you want to take the point about?
Yeah, let me have a go. I mean, I think in terms of our engagement with shareholders, there's a regular drumbeat of quarterly results, and the next quarterly results will be in April. You will see the two faces that you see now. You will see that then. There is an AGM, which is typically mid-year, where all of the board are physically present, and there is a physical meeting in a London office. I think if I speak for everybody involved with the fund, if you want to have out-of-round contact with us, the investment advisor or the board, drop us an email. There is an email address on our website, and we can certainly arrange a meeting.
Andrew L says, "Has the Hydrogen One Capital LLP ownership changes, i.e., Cordiant Capital, affected the fund's ongoing charges and expenses?" Yes, they have, Andrew. A lot of the services that we're paying for at the moment to external entities are managed in-house at Cordiant. Directly, the cost structure improves and costs go down for us. Dave R says, "Which of the holdings do you have a legal right to participate in future funding rounds, and would such rights transfer to the buyer upon disposal of the whole or part of the company?" J.J., do you want to take that?
All of them have the rights to what's called tag along. If there are divestments by other parties, then we can tag along to those divestments. If there are investments into the portfolio companies, then we have the right to invest at our percentage level in those rounds. The rights that we have to invest or tag would go with our shares if we were to sell them to other parties. I think for all these positions, we have rights to board seats or board observer seats. Those would transfer.
James R asks, "Could you explain how the investment manager's interests are aligned with shareholders with specific reference to the fee structure?" Let me have a go, first of all. I think, first of all, we are directly aligned with you because we hold a lot of shares personally ourselves. We invested at IPO. We want to see this being a success. In terms of the fee structure, that's just kind of a separate point. It does cost more to run an investment trust that's invested into private assets than it does into listed assets. It is sort of a separate argument. We are aligned because we want those costs to be at a minimum to generate the maximum return for shareholders, and we are a shareholder. I suppose being shareholders is what we've done in common with you. I know J.J., could you add to that?
Yeah. I mean, we both invested significant money before the IPO to start the company. We invested significant personal money in the shares at the IPO. As portfolio positions are sold, if there's a carry to be paid on those divestments, then we've committed to allocating a proportion of that carry back into the market to purchase shares with a lock-up. I think we're very aligned on the equity side. In terms of the fees, as an investment advisor, our fees are hardwired to the assets under management. We are paid a percentage fee of the AUM. I mean, to be rather specific about it, the AUM, the NAV has deteriorated by over 10% this quarter, and our fees will fall by over 10% this quarter. We feel very financially aligned with the shareholders here.
That is not going to change as we go forward, as and when we complete the transaction with Cordiant.
Andrew L asks, "With no public news about exits via acquisition or IPO, will Cordiant Hydrogen One continue to liquidate portions of the existing portfolio to provide cash for day-to-day operations? And how long can that realistically continue without harming investors?" First of all, a point just to be clear about here is that Cordiant has brought us the advisor, and we advise the PLC. The PLC ultimately still has full control over investment strategy for Hydrogen One. The PLC still makes the decisions about what it does with the portfolio. We as now as part of Cordiant advise it going forward. J.J., anything you can add to that?
Nope. I think that's done it right.
Sorry, go back up. There was a question. Kasim says, "Do you feel there is now too much concentration risk in the portfolio given the investment policy stated no single private hydrogen asset would account for more than 20% of gross asset value?" Just let me start on that. That was not more than 20% at investment, I think. Going forward, we can sort of drift higher. Why would we not want to keep more of a good asset? Assets have grown in the portfolio according to the value that's been created within those companies. Sunfire has been a really, really good investment. We'd want to hang on to as much of that as we can going forward. We'd want to hang on less to a poorer company, I suppose. Yes, with six positions, undeniably, there is concentration in the portfolio.
From what we know and we understand of those investments at the moment, that's all good. Joseph R, is the continuity vote in 2026 passed by a simple majority? J.J.?
Yes.
Yep. Christopher H, how close are you to JCB, who seem to be attracting positive comment, read there, hydrogen-powered vehicle? Let me take that up because I've got some knowledge of that. Yes, we are. It's HyCap Investments is an investment fund set up by the Bamford family, who are also behind JCB, and we are very close to Hy Cap. In fact, we have sold some of our assets in the portfolio to HyCap , and we continue to review new investments with HyCap going forward as well. Just to make a comment about the hydrogen-powered engine, there are two ways that you use hydrogen. You either use it as a carrier to put it through electrolyzers and then produce electricity later on, or you burn hydrogen upfront, as we showed you in that engine example with Safran earlier.
It will be—it is the only way that the aviation industry can go with jet power—that will be burning hydrogen in gas turbines. That is later in 2030. Yes, in the meantime, we are interested in being part of the value chain for hydrogen in transmission and storage that will then get used as part of the JCB going forward. Miguel says, "Thanks. Will external manager contract terms remain the same, or will they change once Cordiant has acquired the external manager?
They will stay the same.
Do you expect Cordiant to co-invest with you in future funding requirements for existing holdings?" That's a very good question. J.J., do you want to start on that?
It's interesting. I mean, Cordiant is a—I mean, just to sort of stand by one. Cordiant is a large global investment platform with $4 billion of assets under management with a global footprint. North America, Europe, and in the not-too-distant future, the Middle East. This is a very different platform than the one we've been operating on until recently. It's a company that looks at the investment world through the lens of infrastructure 2.0 in agriculture, in digital, and in conjunction with us in energy transition.
It's very forward-looking. It's very thematic, and it has a very different footprint. Cordiant invests through listed funds or manages assets through listed vehicles. I should say you may be familiar with CORD on the listed on the London Stock Exchange. It also has investments through private vehicles, through SPVs in different regions and different themes.
That is a very different route to capital for us and for our shareholders than the traditional investment trust route. I think this is something we want to come back and talk to you about in more detail with actual outcomes. It is that multi-jurisdiction, multi-asset, listed and private opportunity that really attracts us to Cordiant and what that can bring to our shareholders.
I mean, let me just add something quickly to that excellent comment, J.J. and May. Cordiant are doing this because they see a lot of—they have a lot of interest from the private investment sector about long-term investments into hydrogen. They want to get close to hydrogen right now. There is no better way to do that than becoming the advisor to the only listed investment trust in the world as the seed for future hydrogen investments by these private investors.
We can't go into too much detail, but this is a fantastic opportunity for us because we are now swimming in those pools of capital of some very big global investors, believe it or not, North America, Middle East, and Europe that see the portfolio in action as the seed for future growth in the sector. Anyway, Terrence, let's get a question from him.
To improve the share price relative to NAV, don't you think you need to have more exits and then reinvest? By being a joint shareholder in projects, I assume there's little leverage that you can yourself exert. J.J., do you want to make a comment?
I agree certainly with the first part of that, that we need to continue to do exits, demonstrate our NAV, and then have the cash available for the board to make future investment decisions. We have done some of that stuff last year with the Gen 2 exit at NAV. We need to see more of that from the portfolio going forward. We are very busy working on that business model. I did not fully understand the second part of the question, I am afraid. Richard, I do not know if I have covered it.
I think a joint shareholder in projects, I assume there's little leverage that you can exert. Well, there's kind of.
Yeah. That is not entirely true. I mean, we have boards. We typically have a percentage stake in the six businesses that we're invested in alongside other investors who are strategic investors or institutions. When we invested on behalf of our shareholders, we made sure to have board seats or board observer seats. It is a representation of the decision-making bodies of those companies. We're very busy actively working with those companies to shape their strategies and grow their NAVs, which we can then report back to our shareholders. Ultimately, those are the valuations that drive our exits. That is a pretty normal style of investing, frankly, rather than owning 100% of the business.
Thank you. Sorry. Andy P, the EU seems to be less focused on hydrogen more recently. What is the catalyst for relating of hydrogen assets more generally? I definitely think that's right, Andy. You might be forgiven for thinking that by looking at press releases. I mean, our own board asks us the same question. Cordiant have asked us the same question as well. Let's just take an example of what the news for the hydrogen sector in January. There were 154 major releases about hydrogen globally, and 22 of those were negative. The press only picked up on those 22, and you might believe that hydrogen was turning off. It absolutely isn't. Germany is a big focus for hydrogen in Europe, and there's a government change going on at the moment.
There is a slowdown and a stall in hydrogen policy being implemented, but that's definitely not the case. The EU continues to speed up. Michael S, can you be more specific on cost reductions? Your response was very vague.
We will look forward to coming back to you on costs. We need to complete the transaction with Cordiant. We are still working on that. Once that is done, the integration can kick off in earnest, and we can certainly have a good discussion with you about costs.
I think we can give you one example, though. We pay an external entity for our AIFM services, and Cordiant has an AIFM internally already. Now, not saying what we're going to do, but that would be obvious. Dave asks, "Has KPMG confirmed the management's assessment of NAV as at the 12/24? And if not, then in mind the reduction in share prices of listed hydrogen, do you anticipate a reduction in NAV by KPMG?" You're right. No, we haven't had the full audit by KPMG yet where we're doing it right now. We get put through the minter, as we should do by KPMG every year on this. We have a very strict and structured regime internally for doing our net asset values. We are confident, as we have in previous years, that our valuations will pass.
We haven't done it yet, but we're confident that we will be able to maintain that. Okay. Let's get in towards the end now.
I think perhaps just to add on the previous question, Richard, I mean, we're not alone in these portfolio companies. There are other investors around the table. Across 2024, there's been a number of fresh investments into these portfolio businesses, new investors coming in. The share price that those investors invested at is a very important input into the carrying value of the business, sometimes called PORI, price of recent investment. We do have those external price verifications on a number of the portfolio positions.
Ivan asks, probably a technical one for you, J.J., on NAV. NAV per share at launch was GBP 1 and was 90.39 pence on the 31st of December 2024, a decline of 9.61 pence. Is that correct? I.e., NAV has decreased? I'm trying to understand J.J.'s earlier statement that NAV has, in fact, increased.
Yeah. That's correct on a NAV per share basis. The share count, I think, is the moving part there. There was a follow-on fundraise in 2022 which adjusted the share count.
Yeah. Yeah. Another 20 million came in at that point. Okay. A question from Nathan. You mentioned the potential for new investment stemming from relationships with Cordiant. Given the share price discount to NAV, how would you be able to facilitate further capital entering the fund? I mean, the obvious main route, theoretically, is that existing fund would sell assets at or around NAV or above NAV to other external investors, other private investors associated with Cordiant going forward, doing two things: putting cash back into the fund, much needed, and, of course, demonstrating that the value of the assets already in the fund are underpriced at the share price by demonstrating that the NAV is there. I think that's pretty much it, really. There are a few others, but we've sort of covered those in our answers. Thank you very much for the questions.
Please come to us directly. Contact details in all our press release information if there's more follow-ups required. I'd like to pass back to Investor Meet.
Perfect. J.J., thank you very much for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close the session as you will now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback, in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but it will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Hydrogen One Capital Growth, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you.