Bosch to increase holding in Ceres to 18% to extend strategic relationship

LONDON: Ceres Power Holdings announced that Robert Bosch GmbH (Bosch) will increase its equity shareholding in Ceres from c.4% to c.18%.

This is a significant strategic step forward in the partnership established in August 2018 and follows successful collaboration on technology development and manufacturing in both the UK and Germany.

Since signing a strategic agreement in August 2018, Ceres and Bosch have been successfully collaborating in the development of fuel-cell stacks for stationary power applications. This has enabled Bosch to start initial low-volume production of pilot systems in late 2019 in Bamberg, Germany.  Bosch’s increased stake in Ceres is intended to further support the collaboration towards potential future scale up and mass manufacture of the Ceres SteelCell for multiple applications.

The Board of Directors believes that there is significant future value for shareholders in broadening the application of Ceres’ technology and further strengthening its relationship with Bosch.

The Ceres Board is delighted to have two commercial partners, Weichai and Bosch as significant strategic investors in the Company and believes that this transaction is in the best interests of all existing shareholders. The Ceres Board believes that this transaction further strengthens its relationship with Bosch and also demonstrates Bosch’s commitment to its partnership with Ceres.

Over the past 12 months, Ceres has strengthened its position as the partner of choice in SOFC technology for global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).  As a clean energy technology licensing business, it is essential that Ceres remains at the forefront of developing new innovative products for its OEM customers.

The gross proceeds of £38.0m raised through the Bosch Subscription, along with the Group’s existing cash balances, will allow the Group to both consolidate its position as a leader in solid oxide fuel cell systems, expanding into high power applications, and also to diversify its technology into complementary areas which align with its core purpose of providing clean energy technology to address climate change and improve air quality and help reduce emissions to net zero.

One promising additional application for Ceres’ SOFC technology is solid oxide electrolysis, essentially the process of reversing fuel cells to produce hydrogen and e-fuels from renewable energy.  Early stage testing on the application of Ceres’ technology as a solid oxide electrolyser (SOEC) has delivered encouraging results.

Dr. Christian Fischer, member of the Bosch management board responsible for the Energy and Building Technology business sector reiterated his earlier support for the collaboration between Bosch and Ceres: “Bosch strongly believes that the highly efficient fuel cell has an important role to play in energy systems’ security of supply and flexibility.

Together with our development partner Ceres, Bosch has made good progress in the development of fuel cell stacks for stationary power applications. With this enlarged investment in Ceres, we intend to further strengthen our successful collaboration with our development partner Ceres.”

Phil Caldwell, Chief Executive of Ceres said: “We welcome this investment by Bosch which is further endorsement of our technology and the work done by our respective teams over the past year. Our successful partnership with some of the world’s leading OEMs, including Bosch, has seen us develop fuel cell applications for home, commercial and heavy transportation applications and establish Ceres as one of the leaders in the fuel cell industry.

This new investment will allow us to build upon this strong position and grow the business further into new areas which are needed for the energy transition such as electrolysis for hydrogen and synthetic e-fuels and developing higher power applications while also continuing to focus on the commercialisation of our core power systems.”