Siemens and AES put their executives in Fluence's top jobs as a $6.4 billion backlog suit nears deadline
Siemens and AES have put their own executives into Fluence's top two jobs on interim terms while the executives they replaced stand as defendants in a fraud suit over a $6.4 billion backlog. The next test is fixed: fiscal 2026 results on November 23.
Richard Tang · 3 min read
Fluence Energy's+8.09% — Fluence Energy, up 8.09 percent today chief executive and chief financial officer both left on October 30, and the two owners replaced them with their own people 12. Siemens and AES, which formed Fluence as a 50-50 joint venture in 2017, each appointed a veteran: Axel Meier, a board member since 2020 who served as Siemens's designee, became interim CEO on November 2 at a $1.015 million base salary 12. Ricardo Roizen, chief financial officer of AES Andes, was seconded in as interim CFO for up to 90 days, with AES Andes still paying his salary 12.
The men they replaced, Julian Nebreda and Ahmed Pasha, are named defendants in the securities fraud suit filed September 28 over Fluence's $6.4 billion backlog 3.
Fluence shares fell from 18.95 dollars in February to 5.21 on the day the owners took over
Three guidance disclosures did most of the damage
Data
| FLNC close | |
|---|---|
| Feb 5, 2026 | $18.95 |
| Aug 6 | $13.21 |
| Sep 17 | $7.66 |
| Nov 2 | $5.21 |
The suit says the backlog was never deliverable
The suit alleges the backlog that was supposed to "secure" fiscal 2026 revenue depended on contract factories that were unfinished or could not produce at the volumes the guidance assumed, and that remediation failed, including at the Houston facility where automated welding gave way to manual work 45.
Three guidance events carried the losses: a 34.63% drop on February 5, then cuts on August 5 and again on September 16, when the fiscal 2026 adjusted EBITDA guide went from negative $10 million to negative $200 million 4. Shares closed at $5.21 on November 2, a market value near $1.06 billion against that $6.4 billion backlog 78.
Fiscal 2025 revenue fell 16% to $2.26 billion, the first annual decline
Data
| Revenue | |
|---|---|
| FY2021 | $0.68B |
| FY2022 | $1.2B |
| FY2023 | $2.22B |
| FY2024 | $2.7B |
| FY2025 | $2.26B |
What the owners did not say
What the owners did not do is tell investors the mess is over. The November 2 release did not reaffirm fiscal 2026 guidance and pushed fiscal 2027 guidance to after the year-end call, which BMO Capital called "viewed negatively near term"; Goldman Sachs+3.37% — Goldman Sachs, up 3.37 percent today stayed at Neutral while cutting its target to $7 from $9 67.
The decision is a date
Fiscal 2026 results land after the close on November 23, and the lead-plaintiff deadline in the class action is November 30 14. Watch who is named permanent CEO: if Siemens hands the job to Meier outright, the owners are running their industrial franchise; either way, the print on November 23, not the leadership release, prices the Houston ramp 12.
Why this is a manufacturing failure, not a demand failure
For readers of this network, the chain is worth naming: data-center demand for grid-scale storage is real and Fluence still holds record orders, so this is a manufacturing failure, not a demand failure. The link that failed sits in the middle of the chain, the ramp of the contract factories that turn a signed backlog into delivered and billed equipment 24.
The market is now asking the owners' bench to rebuild that link, and the interim team is paid to do exactly that: Meier's bonus is tied to placing a permanent CEO, and the board's new oversight committee exists to watch manufacturing performance and customer delivery 12.
For the stock, hold or short decisions sit with the November 23 print and the November 30 deadline, and with who gets the permanent job. The owners have bought themselves time. What to watch on November 23 is whether the new team can show the Houston ramp turning: deliveries moving into fiscal 2027 and a credible fiscal 2027 plan behind them.
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