{"id":17309,"date":"2026-04-07T08:37:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T07:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/management-commentary-for-private-clients-04-07-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:47:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:47:46","slug":"management-commentary-for-retail-clients-april-07-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/management-commentary-for-retail-clients-april-07-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Management Commentary for Retail Clients – April 7, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In March 2026, the fund price fell by 8.86%, reacting to the escalation of the Iran conflict. Attacks on energy facilities in Qatar reduced LNG export capacity by around 17%, and the Strait of Hormuz was also blocked. This led to rising energy prices and renewed inflation concerns. For full performance details, please refer to our factsheet<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Portfolio Development<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

In March, eight of our portfolio holdings recorded gains, while 22 holdings saw declines. By far the largest positive contributions came from Plug Power and SMA Solar\u2014precisely those stocks that had been among the strongest loss-makers in February. <\/p>\n\n

The largest individual losses in March were attributable to Canadian Solar, Enphase Energy, Fuelcell Energy, Fluence Energy, Auman, Daqo New Energy, and PowerCell Sweden. <\/p>\n\n

At the end of March, our portfolio’s equity allocation stood at 96.8%. <\/p>\n\n

Market Environment and Fund Performance<\/strong> In the short term, renewable energies benefit structurally, but at the same time, costs for materials, transport, and projects are rising due to increased energy prices. A risk-off phase currently dominates, putting particular pressure on small caps and growth stocks, even though long-term trends such as decarbonization and energy security remain intact. <\/p>\n\n

Company Developments<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

SMA Solar<\/strong> Revenue fell only slightly by 0.9% to 1.5 billion euros in 2025. Business in the Home & Business Solutions division remained weak, while the large-scale project segment grew by 8% to 1.28 billion euros, posting a profit margin of 16.6%. This segment now accounts for 83% of revenue. <\/p>\n\n

For 2026, SMA expects a return to profitability with revenue of approximately 1.5 billion euros. The order backlog stands at 1.35 billion euros. Portfolio weighting: 5.1%. <\/p>\n\n

Plug Power<\/strong> Plug Power increased its 2025 revenue by 12.9% to approximately 710 million USD. In the fourth quarter, a positive gross margin of 2.4% was achieved for the first time in a while. Efficiency programs and cost reductions are showing results. <\/p>\n\n

Additional funds were generated through asset sales, while the focus is being placed more heavily on the core business. Growth is primarily coming from Europe with projects in the green hydrogen sector. Plug Power is the largest position at 9.35%. <\/p>\n\n

Nel ASA<\/strong> Revenue fell by 31% in 2025 to 963 million NOK, with solid liquidity of 1.6 billion NOK. The total order backlog stands at 1.3 billion NOK, with the second-highest value in the company’s history achieved in the final quarter of 2025. <\/p>\n\n

A new production line in Norway is intended to reduce costs and increase competitiveness. Portfolio weighting: 4.2%. <\/p>\n\n

Ceres Power<\/strong> Ceres will cooperate with Centrica in the future to supply industry and data centers with decentralized power. This comes against a backdrop of bottlenecks in grid connections. <\/p>\n\n

Ceres Power’s licensing model enables stable margins of around 70%. With cost reductions and an expected doubling of revenue in 2026, the company remains well-positioned. Portfolio weighting: 9.0%. <\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In March 2026, the fund price fell by 8.86%, reacting to the escalation of the Iran conflict. Attacks on energy facilities in Qatar reduced LNG export capacity by around 17%, and the Strait of Hormuz was also blocked. This led to rising energy prices and renewed inflation concerns. For full performance details, please refer to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-17309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-commentary-retail","tag-2026-q1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17309"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17390,"href":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17309\/revisions\/17390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenbenefit.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}