Crown Electrokinetics Corp. (CRKN) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Crown Electrokinetics Corporation first-quarter 2023 conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow management's remarks.

大家下午好，歡迎參加 Crown Electrokinetics Corporation 2023 年第一季度電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於只聽模式。管理層發表講話後將舉行問答環節。

This conference call is being recorded. A replay of today's call will be available on the Investor Relations section of Crown's website.

本次電話會議正在錄音中。今天電話會議的重播將在皇冠網站的投資者關係部分提供。

I will now hand the call over to Jason Assad for introductions and the reading of the Safe Harbor statement. Please go ahead.

我現在將把電話轉交給賈森·阿薩德，讓其作介紹並宣讀安全港聲明。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Crown's first-quarter 2023 call. With us on today's call are Doug Croxall, Crown's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman; and Joel Krutz, Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝你，接線員。大家下午好，歡迎參加 Crown 2023 年第一季度電話會議。參加今天電話會議的有皇冠首席執行官兼董事長 Doug Croxall；首席財務官喬爾·克魯茨 (Joel Krutz)。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that today's call contains certain forward-looking statements from our management made within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. Words such as may, should, projects, expects, intends, plans, believes, anticipates, hopes, estimates, and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the first quarter of 2023 filed with the SEC.

在開始之前，我想提醒您，今天的電話會議包含我們管理層根據 1933 年證券法修訂案第 27A 條和 1934 年證券交易法修訂案第 21E 條的含義做出的某些前瞻性聲明。 。諸如“可能”、“應該”、“預計”、“預期”、“打算”、“計劃”、“相信”、“預期”、“希望”、“估計”等詞語以及這些詞語的變體和類似表達旨在識別前瞻性陳述。這些聲明受到許多條件的約束，其中許多條件超出了公司的控制範圍，包括公司向 SEC 提交的 2023 年第一季度 10-Q 表格季度報告的風險因素部分中列出的條件。

Copies of these documents are available on SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this call, except as required by law.

這些文件的副本可在 SEC 網站 www.sec.gov 上獲取。實際結果可能與此類前瞻性陳述明示或暗示的結果存在重大差異。除非法律要求，否則公司沒有義務在本次電話會議之後更新這些聲明的修訂或更改。

Now at this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Doug Croxall, CEO and Chairman of Crown. Doug?

現在，我很高興向您介紹 Crown 首席執行官兼董事長 Doug Croxall。道格？

Thanks, Jason. I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today for our first-quarter '23 conference call. The first quarter of 2023 was extremely busy for Crown with our fiber optics M&A activity, numerous transactions associated with the $7 million finance that was raised and the $100 million line of credit that we secured.

謝謝，傑森。我要感謝大家今天參加我們的 23 年第一季度電話會議。 2023 年第一季度對於 Crown 來說非常繁忙，我們的光纖併購活動、與籌集的 700 萬美元融資以及我們獲得的 1 億美元信貸額度相關的大量交易。

While our financials are in good shape, we've elected to file an extension on filing our Q so that the company and our auditors can have a thorough review process. We'll be filing our Q before next Monday, May 22.

雖然我們的財務狀況良好，但我們選擇延長提交 Q 的時間，以便公司和我們的審計師可以進行徹底的審查過程。我們將在 5 月 22 日下週一之前提交問題。

So I want to turn to the electrokinetic business to start. We announced in our shareholder letter a couple of weeks ago that we were able to produce our very first prototype that measure 7 feet by 2 feet. Huge announcement. It's a big accomplishment frankly for our team in Corvallis, Oregon. It allows us now the path to get the first-generation smart window insert built and out the door.

所以我想從動電業務開始。幾週前，我們在股東信中宣布，我們能夠生產出第一個 7 英尺 x 2 英尺的原型。巨大的公告。坦率地說，這對於我們俄勒岡州科瓦利斯的團隊來說是一項巨大的成就。它現在為我們提供了構建第一代智能窗嵌件並推出市場的途徑。

We're targeting somewhere in the next three to four months to be able to achieve that. We will give you an update as we get closer to those dates.

我們的目標是在未來三到四個月內實現這一目標。當臨近這些日期時，我們會向您提供最新消息。

We continue to have discussions with our customers. Again, to remind everybody, our primary focus is to create a smart window insert, which will be installed in US office buildings. And our intent is to be able to do that, like I said, in the next three to four months.

我們繼續與客戶進行討論。再次提醒大家，我們的主要重點是創建智能窗嵌，它將安裝在美國辦公樓中。正如我所說，我們的目的是在未來三到四個月內做到這一點。

As we continue to talk not only to our customers, we're continuing to have discussions with strategic partners who can assist in -- if necessary, assist in the manufacturing of our film and potentially assist in the assembly of smart window inserts. So we'll continue to push forward.

我們不僅繼續與客戶交談，還繼續與戰略合作夥伴進行討論，他們可以在必要時協助我們的薄膜的製造，並可能協助智能窗嵌件的組裝。所以我們將繼續推進。

We still have a very active process with our customers. There's definitely a need. This is an energy savings product for them, and it's also a cost reduction product for their buildings. And we look forward to getting that first product out the door in the next three to four months.

我們仍然與客戶保持著非常活躍的流程。肯定有需要。這對他們來說是一個節能產品，對他們的建築來說也是一個降低成本的產品。我們期待在未來三到四個月內推出第一個產品。

Turning our attention to our newly created fiber optics division. For those of you who may be new to the company, in January of this year, we announced an asset purchase agreement in which we picked up some contract, some equipment, and some other assets to allow us to move into a new area, and that's fiber-optic construction.

將我們的注意力轉向我們新創建的光纖部門。對於那些可能是公司新人的人來說，今年一月，我們宣布了一項資產購買協議，其中我們獲得了一些合同、一些設備和一些其他資產，以便我們能夠進入新的領域，並且這就是光纖結構。

How we got to the fiber optic construction is really an interesting story. While we were meeting with a US office building owner in New York, they had mentioned that they would like to talk to Crown about potentially buying a distributed antenna system from Crown.

我們如何實現光纖建設確實是一個有趣的故事。當我們在紐約會見一位美國辦公樓業主時，他們提到他們想與 Crown 討論購買 Crown 分佈式天線系統的可能性。

Our smart window insert has the capability of taking data, weather data, sunlight, position of the sun. And it takes that data through a communication system that we put in the building. And it allows us to help the building run that smart window insert smarter, allowing them to save more money.

我們的智能窗插件能夠獲取數據、天氣數據、陽光、太陽位置。它通過我們安裝在建築物中的通信系統獲取這些數據。它使我們能夠幫助建築物更智能地運行智能窗插入件，從而使他們節省更多資金。

That telecommunications system that we put into the building led to a conversation with one of our prospective customers about building a distributed antenna system, which is really just fiber optic cables and antennas put throughout a building in order to propagate a cell signal more deeply and more clearly within a building. That conversation led us into this entire world of fiber construction, which has led us to where we are today.

我們在大樓中安裝的電信系統引發了與我們的一位潛在客戶關於構建分佈式天線系統的對話，該系統實際上只是在整個建築物中放置光纖電纜和天線，以便更深入、更廣泛地傳播蜂窩信號。清楚地位於建築物內。那次談話帶領我們進入了纖維建設的整個世界，這使我們取得了今天的成就。

And I'd like to announce at this moment that we signed our fourth MSA in the Northwest region. This is now the third new customer that we have acquired since we announced the acquisition of our assets in January of this year. It's a three-year contract.

我想在此宣布，我們簽署了西北地區的第四份 MSA。這是自今年一月宣布收購資產以來我們獲得的第三個新客戶。這是一份為期三年的合同。

We should have a purchase order coming from this contract hopefully within a week or so. And we'll obviously make that announcement as to what that will mean to our revenue generation once that -- once we have that in hand. And again, we're hopeful to have that sometime in the next week or so.

我們希望在一周左右的時間內收到來自該合同的採購訂單。一旦我們掌握了這一點，我們顯然會宣布這對我們的創收意味著什麼。再次，我們希望在下週左右的某個時候實現這一點。

In our shareholder letter that we announced a few weeks back, we had talked -- and actually in our earnings call that we had at the end of March, we had discussed what we believe we're going to do in revenue and what we think we will generate in EBITDA, all coming primarily from the fiber optic division. In light of this new contract that we've just signed and in light of the fact that we should have a pretty significant purchase order that comes from that contract, we're going to hold off on recasting any of our projections at this point.

在我們幾週前宣布的股東信中，我們進行了交談，實際上在三月底的財報電話會議上，我們討論了我們認為我們將在收入方面做什麼以及我們的想法我們將產生 EBITDA，全部主要來自光纖部門。鑑於我們剛剛簽署的這份新合同，以及我們應該從該合同中獲得相當大的採購訂單這一事實，我們將暫時推遲重新制定任何預測。

We will have another shareholder letter that we will draft and have out sometime in the next two to three weeks which will give the investing public guidance on what we think we'll be doing in revised revenue and EBITDA for calendar '23.

我們將起草另一份股東信，並在未來兩到三週內發布，這將為投資公眾提供指導，說明我們將在 23 日曆年修訂收入和 EBITDA 方面採取哪些措施。

The macro tailwinds for the fiber optic division remain very strong. There's a lot of efforts around the country to deploy fiber optic network in order to get not just fiber optic to the home, to the business, but also to get 5G signals rolled out across the country. So we're the benefactor frankly of pretty strong demand from the consuming public in voice, data, and video. And we have a very robust pipeline that we're building, not just with our own efforts, but also efforts that we have with other individuals and other companies that we're working with in the fiber optic network.

光纖部門的宏觀推動力仍然非常強勁。全國各地都在部署光纖網絡，不僅是為了讓光纖進入家庭、進入企業，也是為了讓5G信號在全國范圍內鋪開。因此，坦率地說，我們是消費者對語音、數據和視頻的強烈需求的受益者。我們正在建設一條非常強大的管道，不僅通過我們自己的努力，而且還通過我們與光纖網絡中合作的其他個人和其他公司的努力。

Frankly, from a business standpoint, we've never seen opportunities of this size greatly outsized what we thought we would do within the smart window insert business and it's pretty exciting, frankly. So we're going to continue to update the shareholders as we have updates. But obviously, the big takeaway from this call is the fourth contract that we've signed, three-year contract, and we will announce the purchase order once we have that executed and in hand.

坦率地說，從商業角度來看，我們從未見過如此規模的機會，遠遠超出了我們在智能窗插入業務中的預期，坦率地說，這非常令人興奮。因此，我們將繼續向股東通報最新情況。但顯然，這次電話會議的最大收穫是我們簽署的第四份合同，為期三年的合同，一旦我們執行並掌握了採購訂單，我們將宣布採購訂單。

Literally 45 -- about an hour ago, we received an e-mail notifying us that NASDAQ has accepted our proposal and that we are -- have been granted an extension through to August 28 for those -- just to review, there were two issues that we had to deal with in order to maintain our NASDAQ listing.

大約 45 小時前，我們收到一封電子郵件，通知我們納斯達克已接受我們的提案，並且我們已獲准將這些期限延長至 8 月 28 日，只是為了審查，有兩個問題為了維持我們在納斯達克的上市地位，我們必須處理這些問題。

The first issue is the bid price. We have to trade above $1 in order to satisfy that ongoing listing requirements for NASDAQ. And the second issue was the equity rule. We have to maintain a $2.5 million balance in our equity account in order for ongoing NASDAQ listing. We believe that once we file the Q this week, we will have resolved the equity issue with NASDAQ. And we already have the shareholders' permission to do a one -- up to 1-for-15 reverse, if needed, in order to achieve the $1 minimum bid price.

第一個問題是投標價格。我們的交易價格必須高於 1 美元才能滿足納斯達克持續的上市要求。第二個問題是公平規則。為了繼續在納斯達克上市，我們的股本賬戶必須保持 250 萬美元的餘額。我們相信，一旦我們本週提交Q，我們將解決與納斯達克的股權問題。如果需要的話，我們已經獲得了股東的許可，可以進行最多 15 次逆轉，以達到 1 美元的最低出價。

And in all respects, we have until August 28 to accomplish both of those goals. Really good news, frankly. And we had always thought that they would grant us the extension, but it's nice to officially get it. And we will have an 8-K filed sometime in the next day or two that outlines this in more detail.

從各方面來看，我們必須在 8 月 28 日之前實現這兩個目標。坦白說，這確實是個好消息。我們一直以為他們會給予我們延期，但很高興正式獲得延期。我們將在接下來的一兩天內提交一份 8-K，其中更詳細地概述了這一點。

And we also are actively trying to clean up our balance sheet, both in repaying and retiring and exchanging debt so that we have a clean cap structure going forward. We're very optimistic obviously about the future of the company, specifically as it relates to the fiber optic division, but also as it relates to the smart window insert. We've had some great breakthroughs with that, and we're really excited to get the first product out and in our customer hands later this year.

我們還積極嘗試清理我們的資產負債表，包括償還、退休和交換債務，以便我們未來擁有一個乾淨的上限結構。我們顯然對該公司的未來非常樂觀，特別是因為它與光纖部門相關，而且還與智能窗嵌件相關。我們在這方面取得了一些重大突破，我們非常高興能在今年晚些時候推出第一個產品並交到客戶手中。

We don't have any analysts that cover the company right now. We have engaged in conversations with analysts that are on the telecommunications infrastructure side of the business. And so hopefully, we'll pick up coverage from one of the analysts over the next three to six months.

我們目前沒有任何分析師關注該公司。我們與電信基礎設施業務方面的分析師進行了對話。因此，希望我們能在接下來的三到六個月內得到一位分析師的報導。

And so it's hard to set up, you know, analyst calls for our earnings call. But what we've decided to do is we get questions on a daily basis, typically through our info@crownek.com e-mail. And so Jason has taken a lot of those questions and kind of categorize them into one of about looks like five different questions.

因此，很難安排分析師召開我們的財報電話會議。但我們決定每天都會收到問題，通常是通過我們的 info@crownek.com 電子郵件收到。因此，傑森（Jason）提出了很多這樣的問題，並將它們分類為大約五個不同的問題之一。

So I'm going to read the question and then provide the answer that hopefully will help keep everybody informed about the company.

因此，我將閱讀這個問題，然後提供答案，希望能夠幫助每個人了解該公司。

Question number one: can you please talk about the delay in the gen one inserts delivery?

問題一：您能談談第一代插入件交付延遲的問題嗎？

So we've addressed this a little bit in some of our previous earnings calls and press releases. In order to deliver a gen one insert, we need to be able to produce our film at a wider width than what we've been able to in the past. The breakthrough that we announced, the 7 by 2 foot insert obviously has allowed us to manufacture film at a greater width than what the standard width was, which was about 6 inches.

因此，我們在之前的一些財報電話會議和新聞稿中對此進行了一些討論。為了提供第一代插入件，我們需要能夠生產比過去更寬的薄膜。我們宣布的突破，7 x 2 英尺的插入件顯然使我們能夠製造比標準寬度（約 6 英寸）更大的薄膜。

And so this will open up our delivery schedule. We're trying to get first product out sometime in the next three to four months. We won't be shipping a lot of the smart window inserts, but enough to sprinkle into some of our customers' building so that we can start getting good feedback for our gen two insert.

這將開放我們的交貨時間表。我們正努力在未來三到四個月的某個時間推出第一個產品。我們不會運送大量的智能窗嵌件，但足以散佈到我們的一些客戶的建築物中，以便我們可以開始為我們的第二代嵌件獲得良好的反饋。

The next question: has the technical issue been resolved and when will the first units be received by the customer?

下一個問題：技術問題是否已解決？客戶何時會收到第一批設備？

So to some extent, the technical issue has been resolved. There are many paths that we were approaching the issue of film with. And so obviously one of those paths has worked. That's why we're able to build the 7 by 2, the 7 foot by 2 foot insert.

所以在某種程度上，技術問題已經得到解決。我們處理電影問題的途徑有很多。顯然，其中一條道路已經奏效。這就是為什麼我們能夠構建 7 x 2、7 英尺 x 2 英尺插入件。

We still have other challenges that we will constantly have to overcome moving from protoproduction to production. There's a lot of other issues that you have to deal with. You don't know what they are necessarily, but you know that they come up.

從原型製作到量產的過程中，我們仍然面臨著必須不斷克服的其他挑戰。還有很多其他問題需要您處理。你不一定知道它們是什麼，但你知道它們會出現。

And we still have other paths that we're still pursuing for web, a wide web film because you never know which path will provide the greatest opportunity for the company. So yes, we have resolved some of the issues. There are obviously other issues that we don't know of that always come up, but we're pretty confident that we'll be able to resolve those as well. And again, reiterating, we think that we'll have our first product out the door sometime in the next three to four months.

我們仍然有其他網絡路徑，我們仍在追求網絡電影，因為你永遠不知道哪條路徑將為公司提供最大的機會。所以，是的，我們已經解決了一些問題。顯然還有其他我們不知道的問題總是會出現，但我們非常有信心我們也能夠解決這些問題。再次重申，我們認為我們將在未來三到四個月的某個時候推出我們的第一個產品。

Third question: it almost seems like the volume of opportunities for Crown fiber optics is so big that it may be too much for a smaller company to handle. How do you intend to scale business to keep up?

第三個問題：Crown 光纖的機會似乎如此之大，以至於對於一家小公司來說可能難以應對。您打算如何擴展業務以跟上？

That's an incredibly legitimate concern and question. One, it's a question and a concern that definitely keeps us up. When I look at our pipeline and the dollar volume of the potential revenue in the pipeline, it's measured in the billions, frankly. And so part of the way you handle it is you pick and choose which projects you can handle. And you grow the company through kind of the old traditional means: have a good infrastructure, have a good management team, find good customers that you're working with.

這是一個非常合理的擔憂和問題。第一，這是一個讓我們不斷前進的問題和擔憂。當我查看我們的管道和管道中潛在收入的美元金額時，坦率地說，它以數十億計。因此，處理它的一部分方法是選擇你可以處理的項目。你可以通過一種古老的傳統方式發展公司：擁有良好的基礎設施，擁有優秀的管理團隊，找到與你合作的優秀客戶。

We believe that we can do a considerable amount of funding off of our purchase orders and not necessarily through the sale of equity. And so we'll look to kind of grow the business one customer at a time and one purchase order at a time.

我們相信，我們可以通過採購訂單籌集大量資金，而不必通過出售股權來籌集資金。因此，我們將尋求一次一個客戶、一次一個採購訂單來發展業務。

As far as how do we find the equipment to work on the projects? How do we find the field technicians to work on the product? There are a lot of smaller contractors out there that we can work with. The equipment is a little bit more challenging, frankly, but we have learned pretty quickly. And if you work with the right partners on this, they also have equipment of their own.

至於我們如何找到用於該項目的設備？我們如何找到現場技術人員來處理產品？我們可以與許多小型承包商合作。坦率地說，這些設備更具挑戰性，但我們很快就學會了。如果您與合適的合作夥伴在這方面合作，他們也擁有自己的設備。

So there's no silver bullet to that question. It's just good management, good funding to fund your growth, and a disciplined approach on which customers to take on.

所以這個問題沒有靈丹妙藥。這只是良好的管理、為您的成長提供資金的良好資金以及對待客戶的嚴格方法。

Question number four, can you please discuss the next steps with respect to your NASDAQ listing?

問題四，您能討論一下您在納斯達克上市的後續步驟嗎？

Yeah. We actually -- we just went through that. But we're in really good shape. We'll be able to meet the equity guideline, we believe, once we file our Q and we'll be able to meet the bid price guideline either on our own because we start trading above $1 or with the already approved shareholder up one -- up to a 1-for-15 split that we got in our proxy contest in December of last year. And in either regard, we have until August 28 to accomplish both of those.

是的。事實上，我們剛剛經歷過那件事。但我們的狀態真的很好。我們相信，一旦我們提交了 Q，我們將能夠滿足股權指南，並且我們將能夠自行滿足出價指南，因為我們開始交易高於 1 美元，或者與已批准的股東一起滿足買入價指南 - - 我們在去年 12 月的代理競選中得到了 15 比 1 的分割。不管怎樣，我們都必須在 8 月 28 日之前完成這兩項任務。

Question number five: do you have any best guess on when the company may achieve cash flow positive?

問題五：您對公司何時可以實現正現金流有最好的猜測嗎？

So kind of going back to what we talked about earlier about providing guidance on revenue and EBITDA. We will update that guidance. I don't want to do it now. I want to do it once we have the purchase order from this fourth contract in hand. That will give us a lot of ability to be as accurate as we can.

回到我們之前討論的關於提供收入和 EBITDA 指導的話題。我們將更新該指南。我現在不想做。我想在我們收到第四份合同的採購訂單後立即執行此操作。這將使我們能夠盡可能準確。

So again, I will provide that update likely through a shareholder letter or possibly through a press release. And at that point, we'll provide that guidance.

因此，我將再次通過股東信函或新聞稿來提供最新信息。屆時，我們將提供該指導。

That actually is all of the questions, the category of the questions that have been submitted. So I just want to say when you look back at where this company was one year ago, we didn't know anything about the fiber optic industry. We didn't know anything about the distributed antenna industry. We thought we were a lot closer to getting the first product out back then than we clearly were.

這實際上是所有問題，即已提交的問題類別。所以我只想說，當你回顧這家公司一年前的情況時，我們對光纖行業一無所知。我們對分佈式天線行業一無所知。我們當時認為我們距離推出第一個產品比我們顯然更接近。

So -- but we've come a long way. We think we've positioned the company in a tremendous industry for growth, for revenue production, for earnings production. We think we have a very unique way to help fund that growth that will not require endless amounts of equity raising, which I think is important to do clearly.

所以——但我們已經取得了很大的進步。我們認為我們已經將公司定位在一個巨大的行業中，以實現增長、創收和盈利。我們認為我們有一種非常獨特的方式來幫助為增長提供資金，而無需無休止地籌集資金，我認為明確這一點很重要。

And we're going to get the balance sheet cleaned up and get to delever the company so that the equity holders can hopefully realize some equity growth in the stock price. And we will provide updates in the shareholder letter once we have those or a press release once we have those.

我們將清理資產負債表，並對公司進行去槓桿化，以便股東有望實現股價的一些增長。一旦我們收到這些信息，我們將在股東信中提供更新信息，或者一旦我們收到這些信息，我們將在新聞稿中提供更新信息。

But the future looks really bright. Getting NASDAQ put behind us, hopefully getting some more contracts and more purchase orders. Generating some pretty significant revenue in the second half of this year is going to really help position the company to be very successful down the road.

但未來看起來真的很光明。讓納斯達克上市成為過去，希望能獲得更多合同和更多采購訂單。今年下半年產生一些相當可觀的收入將真正有助於該公司在未來取得非常成功。

I like to thank everyone for their patience and sticking with Crown, and we look forward to communicating with all of you in the very near future. Operator, I'll hand the call back to you.

我要感謝大家的耐心和對 Crown 的堅持，我們期待在不久的將來與你們所有人溝通。接線員，我會把電話轉給您。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a pleasant day.

謝謝。女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。祝你有愉快的一天。