Electrovaya Inc (ELVA) 2020 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Electrovaya Quarter 4 and Year-End 2020 Financial Results and Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Executive Vice President and CFO, Richard Halka. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss Electrovaya's fiscal 2020 fourth quarter and year-end financial results. Today's call is being hosted by Dr. Sankar Das Gupta, CEO of Electrovaya; and myself, Richard Halka, Executive Vice President and CFO.

On November 30, 2020, Electrovaya issued a press release concerning its business highlights and financial results for the 3- and 12-month period ended September 30, 2020. If you would like a copy of the release, you can access it on our website. If you want to view our financial statements, management discussion and analysis, and annual information form, you can access those documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

As with previous calls, our comments today are subject to normal provisions relating to forward-looking information. We'll provide information relating to our current views regarding trends in our markets, including their size and potential for growth, our competitive position, and our target markets. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ from those expressed or implied in such statements. Additional information about factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations and about material factors or assumptions implied in making forward-looking statements may be found in the company's press release announcing the fiscal 2020 second quarter results and the most recent annual information form, and management discussion and analysis, under risks and uncertainties, as well as in other public disclosure documents filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities. Also, please note that all numbers discussed on this call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

Also note that we use the term EBITDA. EBITDA does not have a standardized meaning under IFRS. Therefore, it is unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other users. We believe that certain investors and analysts use EBITDA to measure performance of the business. EBITDA is defined as loss from operations plus finance costs plus stock-based compensation and depreciation.

And now I'd like to turn the call over to Sankar.

Thank you, Richard, and good morning, everyone. This year, fiscal 2020, has been a transformative year for Electrovaya. Electrovaya ended the fiscal year with a total revenue of $14.5 million, or CAD 19 million, tripling our revenue year-over-year. Our revenue for the quarter ended 30th September 2020 was $6.9 million or CAD 9.1 million, the highest quarterly revenue in our recent history and an excellent 44% sequential growth over the preceding third quarter ending 30th June 2020, which itself was 146% sequential increase in revenue growth from Q2, the March quarter in this fiscal year.

Our EBITDA in Q4 is again positive. It grew by 60% to $800,000 or over CAD 1 million, following a positive EBITDA of $0.5 million in Q3.

An important milestone in September 2020 was the final settlement of our $15 million of convertible debt, which we repaid. Richard will discuss the financial results in more detail.

We are now powering electric trucks in about 40 locations, mainly in the U.S.A. and to large companies. We are marketing through 2 channels: through our OEM partners' distribution as well as direct sales.

How big is our addressable market in lift trucks? We understand that there are over 2 million lift trucks operating in North America, moving goods inside warehouses and factories, providing essential services in transporting groceries vital to e-commerce and many other applications. If the addressable market for intensive use lift trucks is, for example, 25% of the total, that would be about 0.5 million lift trucks. And if we take each battery to have an average price of $200,000, then the addressable market for batteries is in the order of magnitude of $10 billion in North America alone, a large potential market.

During COVID, Electrovaya is an essential company. And our very dedicated and courageous team comes to the factory every day, carrying out vital production, operations, engineering, research and admin tasks. We all admire our team's courage and dedication and their attention to details in complying to the COVID-19 guidelines. They are keeping the groceries and many vital goods moving in warehouses, cold storages and in e-commerce distribution.

Our OEM sales partner is possibly one of the world's largest companies and has access to all technology across the world, and we are humbled that they chose Electrovaya. And now, quite quickly, we are powering electric lift trucks and forklifts in 40 locations.

Most of our clients have multiple locations, tens or hundreds of them; hence, being able to seed our technology in these 40 locations has been important. We are now seeing repeat orders from a number of our Fortune 500 customers.

We believe we must be providing exceptional technology in terms of battery longevity, safety, energy, power and fast charging. The market -- this market for heavy users needed a remarkable battery, which we are delivering. Similar performance are needed for intensive use applications such as electric buses, electric trucks and electric taxis. All intensive users needs a superior battery. Our lift truck battery in many locations are operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I'm now going to hand the call over to Raj Das Gupta, our VP of Technology and Business Development, to comment on research and development efforts, in addition to our sales and marketing activities. Raj?

Thank you, Sankar. Fiscal year 2020 was a year of significant advances for Electrovaya with respect to R&D. Earlier in the year, we acquired 30 patents on ceramic composite separators and lithium ion batteries. We continue filing patents for new inventions in electrodes, cells and systems, and we believe we have a substantial intellectual property in this lithium ion battery sector in general. We have been adding research and engineering staff throughout the year, including those with PhDs and other advanced degrees, with a general push to increase our R&D activities.

Recently, we announced our UL2580 listing. The UL certification was a major milestone, as it not only underscored the significant advantage we have with respect to NMC lithium ion battery technology, but also the overall systems design, including the battery management system and the electromechanical design of our battery systems. As of the -- as part of the UL certification, there was extensive destructive testing, including testing of our batteries resistance to fire propagation, where we particularly excel. Furthermore, our proprietary subcomponents, including our cell and our battery management system also now meet UL recognition for UL2580, UL991 and UL1998, respectively. We believe that the large investment for these certifications will attract further growth for our battery systems' sales, while also providing the market a clear indication for Electrovaya's technology strengths.

Safety is becoming a more topical subject of late as 2 major automakers recently announced over 120,000 vehicle recalls due to battery safety incidents.

Fiscal year 2020 also represented some significant advances for Electrovaya with respect to our development of our next-generation of high-voltage battery systems, which are targeted at the electric bus and electric truck market and has been supported by Sustainable Development Technology Canada. Due to our inherent advantages with respect to energy density, cycle life, and safety, we are well positioned to take a leadership position in this nascent but high-profile market. These commercial markets share much in common with the material handling market where total cost of ownership is at the heart of procurement decisions. This is where Electrovaya excels, providing the customers with the lowest overall cost of ownership. These sophisticated buyers are interested in the long-term savings that Electrovaya solutions provide. We expect to launch our electric bus and electric truck systems in fiscal year 2021.

With regards to our sales and marketing activities, we had some significant challenges due to COVID-19. However, despite restrictions to our ability to attend trade shows and travel in general, we continue to see new projects through our close OEM distribution relationship as well as directly to our existing and prospective customers. We expect both our OEM sales channel and direct sales channel to expand in fiscal year 2021. Currently, we are in the midst of adding new sales staff to our team in the United States and Canada as we plan to capitalize on the leadership position we have in the material handling market today.

I will now turn the call over to Richard to review our fiscal fourth quarter and full year results in general detail. Richard?

Thank you, Raj. It's been a very eventful quarter. We have taken significant steps to improve the company's liquidity and financial performance. For example, we negotiated the settlement of the CAD 15 million convertible debentures, resulting in a gain on settlement of $5.2 million or CAD 6.8 million. The settlement conserved cash of approximately USD 7.9 million or CAD 10 million. We amended the working capital facility, increased the facility limit, extended the maturity date and also raised new funds under a promissory note. We are pleased with the continued support we have received from our lender, a Canadian financial institution. This highlights the strength of Electrovaya's products and customer base. We generated strong revenue growth, continuing our trend through 2020 of double to triple quarterly sequential growth.

Revenue for Q4 fiscal 2020 was $6.9 million, CAD 9.1 million, compared to $0.5 million or CAD 700,000 in the fiscal fourth quarter, September 20, 2019. Revenue for Q4 2020 increased by 44% on a sequential basis compared to $4.8 million or CAD 6.3 million in the fiscal third quarter, ending June 30, 2020. The strong sequential growth reflects robust customer demand and scaling up of production.

Revenue for the full fiscal year was $14.5 million or CAD 19 million, a nearly threefold increase from the revenue of $4.9 million or CAD 6.4 million for the 12 months ended September 30, 2019. The company generated a positive EBITDA of $800,000 or CAD 1.1 million for Q4 fiscal year 2020, compared to negative $900,000 or CAD 1.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019.

EBITDA for Q4 fiscal year 2020 increased 68% on a sequential basis compared to $500,000 or CAD 700,000 in Q3 2020. Net profit was $1.1 million, CAD 1.4 million for fiscal year 2020 compared to a net loss of $2.8 million, CAD 3.7 million for fiscal 2019.

In summary, we strengthened our balance sheet, improved our liquidity, grew our revenue, maintained our margins and controlled our costs.

I'd like to pass the call now back to Sankar. Thank you.

Thanks, Richard. So in conclusion, fiscal year 2020 has been transformative for Electrovaya.

Summarizing, Electrovaya has been open and operating during all of this difficult COVID-19 period, and thanks to our dedicated staff. Our customers are in e-commerce, warehousing and distribution. Their demand for high-performance lithium ion batteries is increasing. It is a mission-critical application for them. We have grown quickly to 40 locations, mostly in the U.S.A. and some in Canada. We are seeing repeat sales.

We are marketing through 2 channels, the OEM channel and direct sales channel. Our distribution agreement in mid-2019 was with The Raymond Corporation. Raymond is a 100% subsidiary of Toyota and the electric brand for their lift trucks. It is the largest OEM, I believe, in this field and has significantly increased the distribution and reach of Electrovaya's products. Our addressable market in this sector is large, several billions. We are also selling through direct channel to many customers. We are compatible with most trucks. We received the UL2580 listing and believe we are the only lithium ion, high energy density NMC chemistry in the lift truck industry with this listing, an important safety milestone. We are in an exponential growth phase, as Richard mentioned. Sequentially, we have increased revenue by 44% over Q3. Our positive EBITDA increased by nearly 70% in Q4 over Q3.

We keep increasing, in an appropriate manner, our research, engineering and operations staff. Our debt has been significantly reduced in fiscal 2020 and the balance sheet improved. We have repaid 2 term loans equaling $10 million as well as repaid the $15 million convertible debt, a total of CAD 25 million repaid this year, while we have added debt of about $7 million as promissory notes and overall reduction in term debt of over 70%.

Our operating working capital revolver has increased from $1.5 million to CAD 7 million, allowing us to meet increasing product demand. Our exceptional technology of long-cycle life or longevity, safety, energy and power is applicable to many other mission-critical applications such as automated guided vehicles, electric buses, electric trucks and electric cars, especially the hard-working electric taxis. We have delivered over 1,000 batteries for about over 1,000 AGVs, mostly being used in the Northeast at places like Boston and Washington, D.C.

We'll be launching, as Raj mentioned, our high-voltage battery suitable for electric buses and commercial trucks in this fiscal year, 2021. We have a substantial intellectual property, recently acquiring 30 new patents and continuing filing for new patents. We believe we are well positioned in this lift truck market and perhaps a leadership position.

In the sustainability and climate change mitigation area, I'm really pleased that each hard-working electric lifter, which operates 7 days a week and sometimes 24 hours a day, eliminates 12 to 16x more greenhouse gases than an electric car. As an example, 100,000 lift trucks is equivalent to 1.5 million or so electric trucks in reducing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. These electric lift trucks should be a priority application for climate change mitigation.

This has been a transformative year for the company, record revenues, improved balance sheet and 2 sequential quarters of positive EBITDA. I believe the future is very bright for Electrovaya. That is why I keep making personal financial guarantees as needed in order to satisfy the company's obligations under the convertible debentures or promissory notes. I'm confident our strategy will deliver significant value to our shareholders.

This concludes our remarks this morning. Richard, Raj and I would now be pleased to hold a question-and-answer session. Daryl, please open the line for questions.

(Operator Instructions) Our first questions come from the line of Devin Schilling with PI Financial.

Congrats on the strong quarter here. I would just like to touch base on your guys' FY '21 revenue guidance here of over $28 million. What do you believe the split will be between direct sales and customers and OEM distributors?

I really wouldn't like to go there. I think that what we've seen in the past year is probably about a 50-50 split. I would suggest that we would expect the OEM relationship to strengthen and probably get more through that channel. But at the same time, we have a very robust direct sales channel. So I wouldn't really want to speculate as to the breakdown between the customer components there.

Yes. I think we expect both sides to increase. We're adding sales staff for the direct sales portion as well.

Okay. Yes, that makes sense. You guys also mentioned -- you guys are expecting a decent amount of repeat orders here. I guess, in this guidance, should we also be expecting some new potential customer wins?

Yes. I would most definitely think so, yes. We're certainly getting a profile in the marketplace which, as we move forward, will only increase the momentum. And certainly, our existing customer base is very robust and continuing to place orders.

But Raj is probably best to speak on this.

Most definitely, we'll be seeding some new customers, which we already have been. So the revenue will be coming from a mix of both new customers as well as existing ones.

Okay. And I believe you guys mentioned that you're looking to add some new sales staff in both Canada and the U.S. Can you maybe touch base on just how many you have right now? And how many additions are planned?

Sankar here. We have a tremendous reach with our OEM and we also -- our sales staff works very, very closely with the OEM sales. So sometimes, we have a multiplier effect as against one salesperson going in. It's almost like a team sales going on, and the OEM sometimes moves away when he sees that it's upgrade happening. And so I won't quantify the numbers. It's really a team effort.

(Operator Instructions) There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to hand the call back over to management for any closing remarks.

Thanks, Daryl. That concludes our call. Thank you for listening this morning. We look forward to speaking with you again after we report our fiscal first quarter 2021 results. In the meantime, we wish you all good health, and stay safe. Thanks.

Thank you. This does conclude this morning's call. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time.