Eve Holding, Inc. (EVEX) Q4 2025 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good day, and welcome to the Eve Holding, Inc. Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lucio Aldworth, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. This is Lucio Aldworth, the Director of Investor Relations at Eve, and I wanted to welcome everyone to our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. Our CEO, Johann Bordais; and CFO, Eduardo Couto, are joining me on the call today. After their prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions. At which point Luiz Valentini, our Chief Technology Officer, will also join us to address more technical questions. We have a deck with a few slides and additional pictures and videos that showcase our achievements in the quarter, including, of course, the initial stages of the test flights of our full-scale prototype. The deck is available on our website at ir.eveairmobility.com. So please feel free to download it and follow along. Let me first mention that today's conference call includes statements about events or circumstances that have not yet occurred, these are primarily based on our current expectations and projections regarding future events and financial trends that will affect our business and future economic performance. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause financial results to differ substantially from those expressed or implied in this conference call. We undertake no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements because of new information, future events or other factors. For a more detailed list of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our SEC filings, which are available on our website. With that, I will now hand over the presentation to our CEO. Johann?

Thank you, Lucio. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2025 Conference Call. This was a very special quarter for us. As many of you have seen, we concluded the first flight of our engineering prototype last December after we completed an extensive series of ground test on all of its system. Although the first flight was short and lasted about a minute, we are evolving quickly into other phases of the flight campaign. We are going to show more data further in the presentation. We have performed a total of 28 flights and accumulated more than an hour flight time. The prototype has recently completed a 2-week schedule load calibration test in preparation for continued expansion of the flight envelope that is part of the upcoming phases in the campaign and is ready to resume flight testing. In parallel, we continue highly engaged with ANAC on the final terms of the certification plans and also suppliers from whom we are already receiving some of the components of the first conforming prototype. Going into a bit more details. As you can see on the picture on Slide 3, we successfully conducted our first flight on December 19. This was obviously a major milestone for us. It confirmed that not only the proof of concept of the configuration, but also the integration of key systems, including the fifth-generation fly-by-wire and the fixed pitch lifter rotors. During the flight, we exercised the control laws, verified the integration of the eight lifters and assessed the energy management, the aircraft dynamic response and the noise footprint. The prototype behave as predicted by our models and we will, with this data point, expand the envelope and progress to our transition to wing-borne flight. The next phases will be conducted in a disciplined manner and ramping up to around 300 flights throughout 2026 and building the knowledge required for TOP certification. This brings us to the next slide, #4. As you can see, we quickly engaged into a consistent and intense flight campaign. So far, we have flown our aircraft 28 times with a total of 1 hour and 6 minutes of accumulated flight time. As mentioned previously, the high quality of the flights with important test points being validated in each of every flight allow us to continue progressing and expanding the envelope of the flights. We are now performing longer flights at higher altitudes. Also, we are now performing on-air maneuvers with side-to-side movements, some horizontal displacement and rotation on its own axis. Some of the videos available on our website will show you these maneuvers. Lastly, weather permitting, please keep in mind that this is the rainy season in Brazil, our aircraft is being put on a test twice a day. To date, there were 7 different days in which we could fly twice. At the current pace, we should be in position to make around 300 flights as planned for the year. Slide #5 details a bit better what the flight campaign will look like for the prototype this year. In total, we are planning our four distinct phases, each building up on knowledge and experience gain in the previous one. The first stage is hover and some maneuvers. This is a critical phase to validate characteristics of vertical flights, which was the first for us. In this phase, the prototype performed vertical takeoff and landing. The flights gradually evolve to a longer time and also higher altitude but remain at a fixed position with some maneuvers with the use of the lift propulsion system only. This phase is now completed, and we're moving to transition flights where we will start to fly the aircraft horizontally, initially at the speed below 30 knots and using our pusher motor and perform initial synchronization lifters because during this phase, the lifters will be powered at all time, we sometimes refer to the partial transition, and we expect to conclude it until the end of the first semester. The third phase is what we call the cruise flight in which after a takeoff of the aircraft will move beyond the transition speed. At this point, the air moving through the wane will produce all the lift required to maintain the aircraft airborne. For the landing procedure, we will gradually slow the aircraft below the transition speed the lifter will be engaged automatically to maintain vertical control and the pilot in the remote pilot station, the RPS [ truck ], will maneuver the aircraft vertically to its landing site. In a nutshell, this is the same set of maneuvers from the take off to the cruise, but in a reverse order, all of which controlled by our fifth generation fly-by-wire. As in previous phase, speed altitude and distances will be all increased gradually, and we're planning completing this phase early in the second semester. Last but not least, we will introduce the failure into the system such as unplanned motor shutdown to test how the system reacts to validate and refine the safety procedures and the protocol of the pilot. Now the Slide #6 shows the level of engagement with our suppliers. We regularly meet them and visit their sites, and there has been a noticeable uptick in activity recently. We have some of the components for the first of our series of certification compliant aircraft. The tooling for the pilot and some composite materials of other systems are already being manufactured as the doors, propellers, and a wing tooling. Importantly, we can see the mechanism that is designed to fold the propeller in its full form. This is a notable achievement because we introduced the four blade system to reduce vibration and sound emission more recently and the folding mechanism is necessary to reduce drag and improve aerodynamic profile as much as possible. We are also working with our suppliers to conclude the Critical Design Review, what we call also CDR to freeze the specification of each component and release the drawing from them to start manufacturing each part. This, as a name suggests, is a critical phase of the design process and will kick start the production process for the remaining components of our certification compliant vehicles. Slide #7 gives more details of the latest firm orders we signed early February with Japan AirX, this is our second binding contract that includes two firm aircraft and the option for other -- another 48 aircraft. This is a very important market for us with strong potential. As a reminder, we believe that Japan can absorb as many of 390 eVTOLs to transport 3 million passengers per year. There are multiple use cases from the airport shuttle, ecotourism or point-to-point commute in its many large cities. AirX already operates in 10 of them. So it is a strategic partner for Eve. Slide 8 shows our total preorder backlog that stands around 2,700 aircraft for a total value of close to $13.5 billion based on the list price 2025. This includes non-binding letters of intent from 27 different customers as well as Revo and AirX firm orders. Out of the 27 customers, we also secured contract with different customers, 14 total for our Eve TechCare Suite of the aftermarket product and services, which could bring up to $1.6 billion in revenue to Eve over the first few years of operations. As you can see, we also have 21 different customers for our air traffic management solution called Vector. And I believe this reflects the market-leading value proposition we bring to our customers. Now I would like to invite our CFO, Edu, to review the financial results and some of the 2026 coming milestones.

Thanks, Johann. If ended last year with a very comfortable financial position. Our liquidity reached $541 million at the end of 2025 with $390 million in cash and another $150 million in undrawn credit facilities with the Brazilian Development Bank, BNDES. These are important to help preserve our cash position. Also, when adding a new loan secured early this year with a syndicate of banks, total liquidity is even higher, now at $641 million. This is the highest cash level ever for Eve. And although the syndicated loan and brought $150 million, our liquidity grew by $100 million because we refinanced $50 million of an existing loan to extend our amortization schedule better matching our cash flow needs as we approach certification and enter into service. Last year, and as you can see on Slide 9, our operations consumed $175 million, but I wanted to note that we had a $21 million working capital gain last quarter. as some of our engineering payments to Embraer is slipped into the first quarter of this year. If these invoices had been paid in 2025, our cash consumption would have been $196 million in 2025. Given that, our cash consumption in 2025 was very close to the low end of our guidance of $200 million to $250 million, and it continues to reflect our robust yet simple structure, cost discipline and the main synergies we enjoy by being part of the Embraer Group. Now moving to Slide 10. Eve is a pre-operational company and our financials reflect mostly the costs associated with our program development. That said, I would like to highlight some of our numbers. Eve invested $59 million during the fourth quarter 2025 in research and development activities and $195 million in the full year. The majority was directed towards the development of our eVTOL. We also deployed $8 million in SG&A during the quarter and $31 million in the full year, including R&D and SG&A, Eve reported a net loss of $64 million in the fourth quarter 2025 and $224 million for the full year. Finally, we ended fourth quarter with $393 million in cash and $541 million in total liquidity, as already discussed. We expect cash consumption to intensify this year because of increased development activities. We are now in a full fledged and intense flight campaign with our engineering prototype, we're increasing engagement with suppliers as we progress towards the assembly of our six certification conforming prototypes. All of these efforts will involve greater engagement with Embraer engineering, infrastructure and testing facilities and supplier payments. In the end, we expect our operations to consume between $225 million and $275 million in 2026. We remain in a comfortable financial position and our liquidity is enough to cover our capital needs well into 2028. With that, we conclude our remarks, and I would like to open the call for questions. Operator, please proceed.

[Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Savi Syth with Raymond James.

Maybe first off, just wondering if you could give a little bit more color on the cash consumption, just a breakout between how you think that R&D, SG&A and CapEx generally kind of progress this year?

Yes, sure. The $225 million to $275 million, it's mostly R&D, right? We're trying to keep SG&A at kind of the levels we had last year, right, around $30 million. So the remaining portion is mostly for the development service that we pay to Embraer and all the development activities that we have with suppliers, right, a lot of activity on the suppliers. There's also a structure from Eve, but that's a small CapEx. CapEx should be around $20 million to $30 million specifically about the plant. But by far, the big chunk of the cash consumption this year is on the development, mostly Embraer and the several other suppliers we have.

That's very helpful. I appreciate it. I was also wondering, I'm not sure on the means of compliance. I think originally, the thought process was maybe that would be accepted in '25. And so just kind of curious what feedback you've received from ANAC on that front? And if that has any kind of impact on the timing of the CDR review completion.

Savi, this is Luiz Valentini. So we have some work currently going on the means of compliance mostly on two fronts. One is noise for which there is some specific regulation that's still being discussed both with ANAC and the but also with some means of compliance that are related to the certification of the product in many aspects. In the sense that there was not too long ago, new AC published by the FAA, and we are adapting or modifying some of the means of compliance that we had previously agreed with ANAC to be more in line with this regulation that was issued by the FAA. This helps us although it's some rework now, it helps us in the future when we have the ANAC TC and go into the validation process with the FAA, it will be more streamlined with the requirements being more similar. So it's work that we had not expected to be doing now. But again, it's something that accelerates in the future, the process of validating TC. It doesn't have much impact on the CDR because it doesn't change the product. It's just mostly the way of showing compliance with the requirements.

The next question comes from Andres Sheppard with Cantor Fitzgerald.

Congratulations on all the great progress. I wanted to maybe just touch on the six ANAC conforming aircraft that you're building. Wondering if you could maybe give us an update there? How are you thinking about timing for those different phases, different steps. And I guess if I could just combine that, are those the ones ultimately to deliver to Revo as part of that first delivery.

Yes. Andres, thanks for the call. So thanks for the question. So the prototypes will not be delivered. These will be only for testing the point that we are in the right now is that we have some of the long lead time items already being manufactured. So you saw there -- one of the slides show some of the parts already being started in production and also some of the tooling for some of the composite parts already being made. That's part of the, let's say, the initial production -- so then when we have more parts like these, we can start assembling components and then go to the final assembly of the prototypes. These will be used only for certification campaign, as I mentioned, development and certification, right, but not for delivering to customers.

Got it. Okay. That's very helpful. And then Johann, I'm wondering if we can maybe get an update on the service and support and maintenance segment. Any sense of when you might target to kind of begin ramping that up and maybe emphasize that a bit more? Just curious on kind of what the strategy there is.

Since the very beginning of solution. It's not only the product, but it's also the customer support and services. We know how important it is to make sure that we have a clear between to start with, especially with Revo, as you can imagine, we're focusing on this in terms of service. But all the others, we recently announced that the last week at VERTICON, a partnership with vertiports and also Alt Air in Australia. So as you can see, this is part of the whole ecosystem building customers want to make sure that the OEM is involved. I want to make sure that they'll have the availability and the right operating cost. So we have this duty to be engaged. And it's exactly what we're doing with each of our customers. And it's almost city per city, right? I mean it's really operation and per operation. So this is what we're really focusing on, and this is why you see more and more announcement related to this ecosystem readiness.

The next question comes from Ellen Page with Jefferies. Thanks for the question.

You announced the AirX order -- firm order for two aircraft in February, congrats on that second customer in the firm order book. How do you think about the pace of further firm orders as you kind of progress through flight certification. And also, can you just level set us on your current expectations for certification and entry into service?

This is Johann. Since the very beginning, we've announced we've made LOIs. We understood that at the time, it was very important to sign LOIs not so much about the number of aircraft, obviously, that comes with it because it reflects the need of each operator in their own respective region, but also showing that we had the right solution. And that's the trust that the customers are putting by signing an LOI to say, "Look, you come up with the aircraft, your certified, you have the right customer support, the right suite of solution as a vector for ATM, different modules, then, I'm in, I believe in this urban air mobility be fully electrical and I'm in". And this is what we've built over the years, the last 5 years, and I think this is now. We're at the crossfade right now where we need to convert because we're 2 years away from the first delivery. Obviously, we're starting to do what we call the SIOP right, which is really seeing what are the sales, what are the slots of the production will come in, in the first ramp-up of production. So this is natural, and this is exactly what happened with Revo. But it's not so much because of getting the aircraft ready for production, it's also because the customer needs to really engage the -- get the authorities, the partners for the ecosystem to be ready. It takes time to get the power line, for example, to the vertiports, transforming helipad to a vertiport, get the right authorities or authorization for firefighters, for example, procedures for the vertiport and ramp operation. So this is also needed for the operators and then they can come back to the local authority. So look, I signed a contract. We need to get ready also. You also need to get ready also, you also need to get ready as much as the OEM. Otherwise, we'll be delivering a vehicle that we want to make sure that it has the right operations support. So this is natural. We elected Revo, Revo elected us to start the operation in Sao Paolo. I always say Brazil and Sao Paolo is the place where UAM will be showing what is a true OEM operation, especially when you have a customer like Revo, that already is doing urban air and mobility with helicopters, right? And then AirX, it's another consequence of a market where you can see that authorities, government, private initiatives, understand that and they see the future and the urban air mobility and they believe in it. And now they know that it's time to also convert. So this conversion rate is natural. We have 2,700 vehicle signed under LOI. It can go up and down. I've said it in previous calls that we're not looking for more LOI unless it really makes sense for Eve in strategic regions or specific customers or a mission fit. And also, really, the focus is to start having this conversion happening together with the aftermarket and ecosystem preparation. I think this is the key because we want to really make sure it becomes a between, right?

The next question comes from Marcelo Motta with JPMorgan.

Two quick questions. The first, if you can provide some additional color regarding this deferral of payments to Embraer? Why that happened? We haven't seen that before in the earnings. So just wondering if something that could happen in the coming quarters? And the second is also a little bit more color on the backlog. I mean if we are correct, there was a very small contraction in the number of orders and in the value. So just wondering what was the driver for one of the clients to take its LOI out if it was related to, I don't know, timing of evolution of any milestones that you need to reach or if it was maybe a financial issue of the client. I mean, whatever you can tell us that would be appreciated.

Thanks, Motta. Let me take first the payment to Embraer. The way we pay Embraer is they invoices every quarter, right, once the quarter ends, they take around 15 days to get all the expenses, then they send us an invoice and we have 45 days to pay. So that means we end up paying Embraer, for instance, for the fourth quarter of last year, we end up paying at the end of the following quarter, which is the 45 days plus the 15 days that they take to send us the invoices. In the fourth quarter, right, which was actually the invoice of the third quarter, it took us a little bit longer, and we ended up paying at the beginning of January. So there's nothing special was, as I said, sometimes it slips a little bit. We have to do some -- we have to check all the expenses, everything, but it's it was unusual. We do not expect to see other invoices slipping. But in the fourth quarter, there was this $20 million. And as I said, we already paid in the beginning of January.

Marcelo for a second question. This is -- like I said, I mean, we started to sign LOIs almost in -- when we started the company, 4 to 5 years ago. So it's really natural that you see the LOI especially when it's the companies actually move. Sometimes they change their strategy, sometimes some of them go bankrupt or a startup. They see an opportunity in UAM and then they go bankrupt or sometimes it also happened the reduction of the backlog -- or the preorder backlog, it's with Blade since Toby did purchase with Blade and then they obviously have another strategy when it comes to the OEM or eVTOL. So like I said, it's natural. It goes up and down when it goes to LOI. But now we're focusing really on the order conversion and moving forward to start looking at the first slots also and getting the customers really the get their ecosystem ready. So it's quite natural. I'm sorry, I think it was -- Ellen asked a question that we didn't answer was about the certification deadline, right? So Luiz, if you can give us a little more insight?

Sure. So just complementing Johann's answer earlier to Ellen about the time line, it's -- we see on the presentation today that we have significant progress in the project, right? That goes both on the work with the suppliers on the definition of the product and advancing what we see our characteristics that will be on the final vehicle. And at the same time, on the certification, I mean, the development flight test campaign that we've been doing with the engineering prototype. So these are aspects that we see that the project is moving very strongly, and we're excited about that. At the same time, we still have significant challenges moving ahead. I mentioned earlier how we are working with the authorities on setting the means of compliance, and we feel that's going well. But then there is another stage that come afterwards which is actually showing compliance with those requirements for certification. And so that involves not only work in analysis, but also testing, ground testing, flight testing. That's a big campaign, a big project, a big part of the project that will come next. So there are significant challenges that are still ahead of us in finalizing the product characteristics moving the product to the certification phase and managing to show compliance with our requirements to finalize the type certificate issuance. So in summary, we see that there are strong steps that we were able to take and progress that we are excited about in the last quarter. But still a lot of challenges that are ahead on the road to certification on the time line that we had that we're still publishing.

The next question comes from Sameer Joshi with H.C. Wainwright.

The first is about the suppliers. Have all the critical components being finalized and suppliers for them finalize. And if not, then is there a time line before which you have to freeze all the suppliers?

So all of the suppliers for the critical parts and critical components and systems are already engaged. They are working with us. So these I can mention, for example, the electrical system, the propulsion or lifters and pusher, flight control computer that we're working with Embraer. So all of the suppliers for these systems have been engaged already for quite a while in the project, and that's really important for us in the sense that they need to work in an integrated fashion, right? So the communication, for example, between the motors and the vehicle goes through the flight control computer also handles communication with the battery. So all of these need to work together, and that's why it's important that all of the suppliers have already been on the project and have been working together on these. So no significant components to be sourced at this time.

Understood. And then the second is just a sort of clarification or more insight. Of these 300 times that you are trying to -- are targeting to fly this year, is there a magic to that number in the sense that would you be able to complete based on your tests and results, these flights and -- or rather all your objectives in less number of flights? And can this be accelerated? Or do you foresee some things that you have to test multiple times and require more flights. I just wanted to see how this time line could be pushed forward or back?

Yes. Thanks, Sameer. So it's -- the 300 flights we usually mention that as a reference to help everyone understand the volume of testing that will be done with this vehicle, right? So it's just a way for us to help everybody gauge the level and the intensity of the flights that will be performed really, the way that it feeds into our development is much more gradual than that, right? So Johann mentioned we're doing the hover tests now. And already with this hover tests, we are bringing useful information for the design of the certification vehicle, right? This will be the case for all of the steps that we take moving forward with the flight test campaign. So it's something that happens gradually. And of course, as we move forward, we may find that there are some characteristics of the vehicle that require us to do some more extensive testing. This is something that happens with all of the development of aircraft. As you fly, you find that there are some characteristics that sometimes need more tuning or you find that there are some opportunities there to extract more performance, for example, so you do more testing. So it's normal to adjust the number of flights and exactly which types of flights you perform as you go along. And the 300, again, is just a reference the size of the flight test campaign, but we don't hold ourselves so much on that. It's more important to perform the scope and feed into the project as we move along this flight test campaign.

The next question comes from Austin Moeller with Canaccord.

My first question here, is ANAC planning any equivalent to the eVTOL integration pilot program? Or are you planning to participate in something similar in other countries?

Yes. Great question. Thank you. I know the [ IPP ] has been a program we have visibility. I mean we definitely support the U.S. government efforts to accelerate the future of air transportation, right, for the eVTOL integration pilot program. This is one of them. We -- we're a global company, and we've been working in different countries and it reflects also the backlog that we have. And this is not unusual to have government going through this type of program. And as a matter of fact, whether it's Japan, it's Australia or it's the Middle East or even in Brazil, we do have the similar program. So we're very supportive of this type of program. We do have our own flight test activity, just like Valentini just described, right, progressing as part of the ANAC certification progress. Also with the FAA validation, right? So they do have meetings between FAA and [ EASA ] -- and ANAC. I'm thinking of the other because eventually, we will apply there. That's why. So -- and yes, we've been working also with different states in the United States to have a similar type of what we call ConOps or pilot program that will allow to demonstrate what is UAM operation, right? So something that we do in Brazil, in the U.S., but in other many other countries.

Okay. And can you talk a little bit about the production capacity for aircraft to roll off the line that you have in your existing facilities versus what you plan to scale into as we get closer to certification?

On mute here, can you repeat that the question, sorry.

Yes. I was just wondering if you could talk about the production capacity for eVTOL that you have at your existing facility versus what you plan to scale into as you get closer to certification?

Yes. No. Thank you. Just a very beginning, we -- Eve has a modular approach when it comes to industrialization. We do have a brownfield operation we elected the Taubaté site, which is a current -- currently site of Embraer, which actually technically is not anymore because we're paying the rent. So it's our side, where it started to some premiums restructure refurbishment. And then we are actually planning to go for a first module, which is going to go -- sorry, it's modular, like I said, with 120 vehicle per year, we can go up to 480 vehicle per year, right, was beyond that number, then we will have to go into another facility, right? More than likely not on the same site. Somewhere else where even abroad where the market will be with the center of gravity, right, for derisk purposes.

The next question comes from Andre Madrid with BTIG.

Looking ahead, I mean, as you guys move through the test flight campaign, what do you expect the pace of conversion of LOIs to firm orders to be? Or do you have any expectations at all?

Ever since we signed up the contract and converted with Revo and more recently at the Singapore Airshow with AirX, we've seen the interest of customers increasing, right, from either the one that already have the LOI under contract or some new customers, right, where we're actually engaging the negotiation, not even to go through LOI, but directly to a firm order. I think it's to find the right balance between being able to show them how the program is progressing, right? And also is it the right moment for them to engage and to get a vehicle and when is that going to be, right? And to get the slots. So for 2028 and then there's a ramp up. As I just mentioned about production, we can accelerate, we can go a little slower. We have this full flexibility. So it's a ratio that we have that we're looking at what needs to be done. It's the -- what we call internally the SIOP, right? It's a Sales Inventory and Operation Process where we have the sales team together with production and procurement and finance, obviously, and looking at how is this ramp-up is going to look like. So we're not disclosing any more information on it right now, but we do expect that with the up to 300 flights as Valentini mentioned, as a target, right? And then we're progressing also the -- getting the conforming prototype, the conforming prototype, which one of them, by the way, will be a demonstrated, which I think also it's a great tool to have to demonstrate to customers and they bring usually also brings a lot of conversion at the time.

Got it. Got it. And then if I could follow up. I know you've been helpful in outlining your expected cash burn through the year for '26. But I mean, could you maybe just peel back a little bit more and explain the exact cadence quarter-to-quarter.

Yes, we're expecting in terms of cash burn, Andre? We're expecting $225 million to $275 million, right? It's an increase versus the $200 million we burned last year. The increase goes mostly to more development activities, right, not only with Embraer, but also with several suppliers. We expect -- generally, it's not evenly spread over the quarters, maybe a little bit less in the first half. And as we continue to progress on the conforming vehicles, right? It may be a more heavy on the second half, but it will be spread maybe a little bit more second half than first half.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Lucio Aldworth for any closing remarks.

Thank you, Betsy, and everyone who joined the call today. As you can see, we accomplished several milestones this past quarter. we're fully engaged and there's much more to come. As you just saw, our upcoming achievements will be more clearly visible to the investment community. So the next few months will be very exciting for us. We're going to continue to update you on all of our progress through the next few quarters. Again, it's going to be very exciting, and we look forward to meeting you in the upcoming events we're going to attend. As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to our team. Thank you, and have a great day.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.