Bloom Energy NYSE:BE, a fuel cell company, climbed 7.4% in pre-market trading Thursday after pushing back against short-seller Hunterbrook Capital's allegations about its financial results, accounting, and supply chain. The company said it categorically rejects what it described as false and misleading claims, while directing investors to the disclosures in its most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q.
The dispute appears focused on whether Bloom Energy depends on Chinese suppliers for scandium oxide, a material tied to its fuel cell production. Hunterbrook had alleged that Bloom Energy was hiding its reliance on Chinese scandium suppliers, which it said conflicted with comments from CEO K.R. Sridhar that the company did not rely on China's supply chain.
Bloom Energy said it has enough scandium oxide supply to meet current fuel cell demand and backlog, and added that it does not depend on China for supply or future scandium oxide scaling. The company also said it has visibility into its supply chain to support production of 25 GW of fuel cells per year, a statement investors may view as an effort to ease concerns around execution risk, accounting confidence, and future capacity.