ITM Power's Data-Centre Talk Cuts Both Ways as Peel Hunt Trims Its Target
Published on 11/03/2026 at 15:21 | Editorial boerse-global.de
ITM Power has spent the past week collecting formal approvals and floating a fresh use case for its electrolysers. Neither development tells investors much about whether the Sheffield-based company can turn interest in hydrogen into signed orders — and that gap is where the real story sits.
Take the data-centre angle first. According to media reports, ITM Power spoke on 21 October about possible hydrogen applications for data centres, while at the same time flagging limited commercial development so far and limited incentives. That caveat deserves as much weight as the opportunity itself. Talks can open a door; they do not prove a business model carries its own weight in this field. Anyone who lifts the phrase "data centres" out of the statement and leaves the company's own caution behind has skipped the important part.
The same discipline applies to the governance news. ITM Power said yesterday that shareholders had approved every resolution put to its annual general meeting, including authorisations to issue shares and to disapply pre-emption rights, alongside the re-election of board members. Such powers create room to manoeuvre. They are not a share issuance already carried out, still less a capital raise completed. Management now holds backing for decisions it may take; whether that backing is ever used well is a separate question, settled in operations rather than at the ballot box.
A further filing came on 27 October, when ITM Power updated a block admission application for 299,638 ordinary shares, with effectiveness expected on or around 28 October. An announced or anticipated step must not be booked in a valuation as an accomplished result. Shareholders should also mark the calendar: a further general meeting is scheduled for 13 November, announced roughly a week ago. Its announcement alone answers nothing about the commercial limits of hydrogen applications.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying ITM Power?
Peel Hunt Cuts Its Target
The more telling signal came from Peel Hunt on 22 October, when the broker lowered its price target to 88 pence from 92 pence. For fiscal 2027, the analysts put the emphasis on execution and on converting demand into orders rather than on demand itself. That distinction gets to the heart of the investment case: interest in projects is not a substitute for contracts. Peel Hunt also pointed to risks from the timelines of hydrogen projects. Reuters reported that ITM Power shares fell after the target cut.
The financial frame comes from preliminary figures for fiscal 2026, published about two weeks ago. ITM Power reported revenue of £43.6 million, an adjusted EBITDA loss of £20.2 million and cash of £215.6 million at the end of the financial year. Those numbers need reading together. The liquidity position is a meaningful part of the starting point, but it does not prove the company can make its business more profitable. Equally, a loss is no argument that every extra bit of entrepreneurial freedom is worthless. What management does with it remains the test.
Options and Authorisations on Separate Tracks
Compensation disclosures do not shift that yardstick either. On 28 October, a total of 431,157 options under the long-term incentive programme became exercisable, benefiting chief executive Dennis Schulz and chief technology officer Simon Bourne, at an exercise price of £0.05 per ordinary share. Such notices belong in any assessment of management, but they should not stand in for business performance. Neither exercisable options nor approved share authorisations answer how reliably demand becomes firm orders. Pay structure, capital powers and operating delivery each deserve their own review.
Weighed up, the AGM gives the leadership backing, not a commercial breakthrough. The wider room for manoeuvre is a fair positive. The investment story becomes more convincing only with progress on orders and execution — and until then, the operating result carries more weight than a formal show of shareholder support. The data-centre discussion makes a possible future for ITM Power tangible; the company's own reservations cap how much that possibility can be read into the share price.
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