What happened
Shares of fuel cell pioneer Plug Power (PLUG +3.21%) are down another 4% today (in 12:20 p.m. EDT trading). It's the stock's fourth move lower in the past five days -- and for no apparent, Plug-specific reason.
No analyst downgrades, no price target cuts -- nothing. And in the absence of any obvious "bad news" about Plug, I'm going to have to ascribe Plug's plummeting share price to another stock entirely: AMCI Acquisition Corp. (AMCI +0.00%).
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
As you've probably noticed, the fuel cell sector of the energy industry has been on fire this year, with Plug Power stock in particular up four times in price in the course of 10 months. Such stock market riches haven't gone unnoticed by special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), it seems. On Tuesday this week, one of those companies, AMCI, announced that it plans to acquire and bring public a fuel cell company of its own: Advent Technologies. It will list on the Nasdaq at an estimated $358 million in enterprise value sometime "in the fourth quarter of 2020 or early 2021," according to a press release.
Advent specializes in "next-generation fuel cell technology for the markets of transportation, aviation, and off-grid power generation," says AMCI, taking particular note of its production of "High Temperature Proton Exchange Membranes and Membrane Electrode Assemblies."
Now what
Little more is known about Advent or AMCI at this time, but here's why this IPO might prove relevant to Plug's declining stock price:
Investors have been getting all hot and bothered over the prospects of companies brought public via SPAC quickly increasing in value. Illustrative of their hopes is AMCI's promise of Advent hitting a $358 million "enterprise value" within just a few months, when AMCI's own stock is worth barely $210 million today.
If flighty fuel cell investors get distracted by this newest shiny object, the Advent IPO, it's possible they will lose interest in Plug stock -- which, yes, is up 460% over the past year but may now be suffering from "what have you done for me lately?" syndrome. This, in a nutshell, is why I think Plug stock is going down today -- and has been going down ever since AMCI made its announcement.
