Earnings Labs

Plug Power Inc. (PLUG)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Fri, Mar 14, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Plug Power Fourth Quarter 2013 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Ms. Teal Vivacqua, Director of Marketing Communications for Plug Power. Thank you. You may begin.

Teal Vivacqua

Management

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Plug Power 2013 fourth quarter and year-end conference call. This call will include statements that are not historical facts, and are considered forward-looking within the meaning of Securities 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including but not limited to statements regarding our expectations for 2014 business and financial performance, including expected sales orders, revenue, gross margin, EBITDA, operating cash burn rate, geographic and market expansion, inorganic growth, and our expectations regarding the acceptance, performance, and impact of our GenKey Offering, including a more predictable business model and revenue stream. These forward-looking statements contain projections of our future results of operations or of our financial position or state other forward-looking information. We believe that it is important to communicate our future expectations to our investors. However, there may be events in the future that we are not able to accurately predict or control, and that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations we described in our forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on forward-looking statements, because they involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those discussed as a result of various factors including, but not limited to the risks and uncertainties discussed under item 1A Risk Factors, and Plug Power’s annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2012 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 1, 2013; and is amended on April 30, 2013. And the reports Plug Power filed from time-to-time with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the day on which the statements are made, and are not guarantees of future performance except as may be required by law, we do not undertake or intend to update any forward-looking statements after this call.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Thank you, Teal. Good morning, everyone. This is Andy Marsh. A lot has happened since our last earnings call. And when I step back and look at it all, I’m more bullish than ever that Plug Power is in the early stages of a very rapid growth market. I’m also bullish that we will make our goal and EBITDAS breakeven in 2014. I really feel that we are now well-positioned that being a long-term profitable market leader, and a driving force in the hydrogen fuel cell market. But viewing this in optimism is the sales and financing momentum we’ve seen since we reported in the third quarter of 2013 earnings in November. In the fourth quarter, new order bookings are more than $32 million from new and expanding customers including Walmart, Kroger, BMW, and Mercedes fueled that growth. In addition, with strength in our balance sheet from fund raising and the exercising of warrants as a result, we have $66 million in cash at this present time. Also in the fourth quarter, we announced our GenKey suite of hydrogen fuel cell products and services, which I can confidently say is an important product for the future of Plug Power. Our first GenKey order was booked in the fourth quarter from Kroger. In February, we’ve also received our largest order ever, which was a GenKey order from Walmart. While we’re here to talk primarily about the results from the fourth quarter, and the full year 2013, I wanted to mention that this Walmart agreement helped us to exceed our first quarter 2014 sales booking target of over $32 million. As some of you know, Walmart has been working together with Plug Power since 2007, entered successful fuel cell beta trials led Walmart to purchase GenDrive units for their food distribution center…

David P. Waldek

Management

Thank you, Andy, and good morning, everyone. The financial information we just released and are discussing this morning consist of preliminary estimates prepared by Plug Power’s management, and as such maybe subject to final adjustment. Therefore actual results may differ from these estimates. The final financial information will be included in our filing of the Form 10-K on or before March 31, 2014. As Andy noted, we now have approximately $66 million in cash on hand after our 22.4 million registered stock offering, which closed this past Tuesday. We also have had 46.2 million warrants exercised from 2013 to-date, leaving 456,000 warrants outstanding, plus the 4 million warrants issued in January of this year at a $4 stock price. During the fourth quarter of 2013, we shipped 279 GenDrive units. Our backlog as of December 31, 2013 was over $50 million, and was comprised of 1,445 unit orders, as well as our GenCare and GenFuel service orders. Currently, our unit backlog is over 3,000 units. Product and service revenue for the fourth quarter was $7.8 million compared to $5.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2012. Research and development contract revenue for the quarter was $267,000 compared to $226,000 during the fourth quarter of 2012. The gross margin for products and services for the fourth quarter 2013 was a loss of $2.8 million, an improvement compared to the gross margin loss of $3.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2012. The gross margin loss in the fourth quarter of 2013 resulted primarily from fixed overhead costs associated with a number of units shipped compared to our capacity, as well as cost incurred to service the installed base. In our operating expense categories, selling, general and administrative expenses were $3.5 million for the quarter compared to $4 million in the fourth…

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Okay, I think the lines to be opened for questions. Melissa, I guess, we should be pooling for questions.

Operator

Operator

Yes. Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Matt Koranda with Roth Capital. Please proceed with your question. Matt Koranda – ROTH Capital Partners LLC: Good morning, Andy and Dave. Thanks for taking my questions.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Good morning, Matt. Matt Koranda – ROTH Capital Partners LLC: Just wanted to start out with the 3,000 units in your 2014 guidance, can you break out the percentage of the shipments that you expect where the sites for these units have the hydrogen infrastructure already installed versus where it needs to be installed? What percentage of the shipments, how does it break down?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Well, it's a good question, Matt, and I don't have – I'm going to give you a rough estimate Matt. And I would say, today, probably in those sites it's probably 25% have the equipment installed already, a good year. We have very strong orders from people like Walmart and Kroger where a large number of units are being shipped which we're building infrastructures as we speak. Matt Koranda – ROTH Capital Partners LLC: Okay. That's helpful Andy. And then, so you said that you would achieve 25% gross margins, is that for the full year 2014, Andy and can you talk to us about gross margins trend during 2014 as volumes begin to pick up?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Sure, Matt. The big – there will be a – I think that from the prod point of view, product margins by the fourth quarter will be over 30%. We've really made some changes, improvements in the product performance. I'd expect product margins in the first quarter to be zero or slightly negative enhancing in the second quarter ramping further in the third. We're in good shape for Q2 and Q3. One item that I don't know if you caught during the call I promised on the two next update calls in April and on the earnings call in May, I'll really review where we are, with shipments during the quarter and revenue and provide some insights into the best I can into where we view the margins at that time. But our factory at the moment is really beginning to pump out units for the second quarter, so it's pretty exciting time. Matt Koranda – ROTH Capital Partners LLC: Okay. Great. And then in terms of bookings, you mentioned $150 million in potential new orders in 2014, with about $60 million already booked for the year.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

I committed to that already. That's not – I had mentioned. I had committed to that, Matt. Matt Koranda – ROTH Capital Partners LLC: Yes. Just to clarify that, that's why you’d committed. You know when you strip out the $60 million that has already been booked for the year. I'm getting a $90 million potentially in bookings for the remainder of the year. Maybe could you just break out how you expect this to kind of trend between the remaining quarters in 2014?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

No, Matt. I tried to – that's a good question. I would think about the second quarter being in the $20 million to $25 million range in the third and fourth quarter, increasing to $30 million in the third quarter to $35 million in the fourth quarter. No, I don't – I've been a – as I think people in the call now have been pretty conservative over the last six months about orders. And these are numbers that we're very, very confident enough and we're – quite frankly, we're targeting to do more large deals like the Walmart deal with customers and like to have a dramatic impact put on the numbers, but we want to give people on the Street a clear view of what's achievable without stretching the company. Matt Koranda – ROTH Capital Partners LLC: Great. That's it for me, Andy. Thanks.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Okay, thanks, Matt.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rob Stone with Cowen & Company. Please proceed with your question. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: Good morning guys. Andy, I wonder if you could just spend a minute on helping us to understand the timing difference between booking and shipping – you booked a bunch of business in Q4, shipments remained relatively low and you're guiding for a lower revenue in Q1. So for a new full site order, what's involved, what's the lead time? I mean if you could comment on what amount of your business comes from incremental orders with customers who already have sites and what the lead time is for that sort of thing. Thank you.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Sure, Rob. So I think I'll use an example of order we received from Kroger, we received in December. And that unit is those systems are being shipped as we – will be – being shipped and delivered in the May timeframe. And for new sites, and there can't be variations there, Rob, just because sometimes, customers may want to push out some deliveries and have some initially delivered. But I think for new sites, you can think in terms of four to five months from the time of orders. For customers who already have units, I think that it's usually about 13 to 14 weeks, and it can be earlier, depending upon what the mix is. But that's the delivery time. And I think, Matt – and I think, Rob, that's kind of again why we have these and I know they won't continue forever, the monthly update calls that we're trying to put in place. And I, I personally know during this ramp cycle that the best thing I can do is to have a regular dialogue about what's going on our factory, what's being delivered to customers, what orders are coming in, and that' a commitment I've made to people. We've been doing it since October and we'll continue to do that. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: A follow up, Andy, if I may. You talked a lot about things you're going to do to improve product costs this year. I know one thing you've talked about, this longer range is second-sourcing and also internal stack development.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Yes. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: Can you provide any update there?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Sure. We have been – we try to give some people guidance. We have a good partnership with Ballard. But we are looking to develop second sourcing and we – our target is to start shipping units in the late 2014 with second source stacks and shipping units with our own stacks during 2015 and that's a current plan internally. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: Okay. Thanks very much. And...

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

You're welcome. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: With respect to the new market, you got three activities there with R&D funding, what are the next milestones we should be looking for in terms of activities this year?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Yeah, that's actually good and instead of giving you just a flipped answer, I think I'll promise this in the – that at the update call and I think the key item is to delivery time when there's units delivered and the deployment start. And I think the key item is – the next key item I think is company's decision whether it's an area that more money should be invested in and to help you and I think that's really a different question rather to help you, I'll provide guidance in April on that. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: Okay.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

I like to sit down with the staff and put it down in writing. So, we all shake our heads, that's right. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: You are affecting some units this year though, to be deployed in each of those series?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Oh absolutely. Absolutely, and as a matter of fact I expect you to deploy in all three this year. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: Two quick housekeeping questions for Dave if I may, could you give us the split between product revenue and service revenue?

David P. Waldek

Management

We are actually providing that detailed information will be in our 10-K. We're in the process of breaking that out and you'll look forward and we could follow up on that in next conference call on questions you might have on there but it will be in the 10-K that we filed. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: Okay. And roughly how many shares are outstanding as of now? Given all the foreign exercise and recent offerings and so forth, end of this quarter where might you be on fully diluted shares?

David P. Waldek

Management

Approximately, about $130 million. That will be in the K as well. I believe I don't have that number right in front of me but it should be approximately $130 million. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: Okay. Thanks very much.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Thanks, Rob.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Alex Blanton with Clear Harbor Asset Management. Please proceed with your question. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: Good morning. I'm new to the stocks. So keep that in mind I might ask some questions that people already know the answers too. But what is the dollar capacity that you mentioned the capacity at 10,000 units a year in your current plant. What's the dollar amount of that?

David P. Waldek

Management

That's $250 million annually. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: $250 million? Okay. And did I hear you right that you said that you would, at the volumes you're talking about have a 25% EBITDA margin?

David P. Waldek

Management

No, you did not. You heard that for the year that product gross margins will exceed 25%. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: Gross margin. Okay.

David P. Waldek

Management

Right. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: All right. And let me just check some numbers that you gave earlier. You said for the year, $70 million in sales as your guidance and was it $1.5 million to $3 million in EBITDA?

David P. Waldek

Management

That is correct. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: Okay. And the D&A part of that is about $4 million in the year correct?

David P. Waldek

Management

I'm sorry. I didn't hear the last question. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: The depreciation and amortization is about $4 million?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

That is correct. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: Thank you, Dave. I think, Dave – let me get it right, Dave. I think it may be a little higher than that, correct, when you take the stock comp?

David P. Waldek

Management

Yeah. Just the depreciation, amortization is about the $4 million, but with the stock compensation, yeah, that's up to about $6 million.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Yeah $5.5 million to $6 million. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: Yeah. But the one that's half the $3 million, does that include stock compensation?

David P. Waldek

Management

No. So let me... Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: It's before that?

David P. Waldek

Management

It's about – it's $4 million with depreciation, amortization and about I believe the number is actually between $5.5 million to $6 million with – when you add in stock compensation. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: I guess what I should ask really is what the EBIT alone?

David P. Waldek

Management

Okay. So EBITDAS will be between $1.5 million to $3 million on $70 million this year and we've guided people that we expect that if you think about $100 million business, it'll be in the 10% to 11% range. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: 10% to 11% on...

David P. Waldek

Management

Right. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: Okay.

David P. Waldek

Management

On a $100 million and approximately 17% on $1.50 million is the guidance we told you. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: 17% on $150 million.

David P. Waldek

Management

Right. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: Okay. Good. And you said about $8 million loss in the first half...

David P. Waldek

Management

I'm sorry. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: And so you'd have something like $11 million in the second half, correct?

David P. Waldek

Management

I'm sorry. Could you ask that question again? Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: Yeah. You said – I think you said for the first half, the first two quarters of the year and about an $8 million loss in total.

David P. Waldek

Management

Yes. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: And then for the year, say $3 million so you'd have a profit of $11 million the second half on $47 million of sales.

David P. Waldek

Management

That is correct. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: Okay. Good. One other question. I'm sure lots of people know the answer to this but what is it about the lift truck business that got you started there? Obviously, there are lots of other markets for fuel cells in mobile equipment. But what are the characteristics of the lift truck business that made you go in that direction at the beginning?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

It's actually pretty simple. I'm a firm believer that when it comes to alternative energy products, you have to find a way to save customers' money. And because of – in the forklift truck business, their batteries have to be changed every six hours by people like Walmart. That can take up to 15 minutes. Batteries decline in performance by 12% per shift that we can help eliminate the battery room and customers can see payback times in less than six months per new construction and less than two years for old construction. And it's a large market since there's over six million trucks worldwide. So we are able to offer the customer a value proposition that made sense and that's why we've been able to convince people like the number one and number two food retailers, Walmart and Kroger; the number one consumer product company in the world, P&G has four sites so that's why people have done it. They're good questions and boy, I know there's other people on the line who have questions and we'd be happy to talk to you more if you contact Teal. I'm sure we can set up a call and talk more. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: Thanks.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Okay. Alex Blanton – Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rob Stone with Cowen & Company. Please proceed with your question. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: Hi. Andy, my follow-up question is with respect to the benefit from investment tax credits, obviously that applies only to your U.S. customers but can you help us understand how much that factors into the current business and how you see addressing that change at the end of 2016 if the ITC goes right? Thank you.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Rob, first it's about 70% of our customers leverage the ITC in the U.S. today. We mentioned that there's two sites with Walmart, there is sites with IT and France at the moment with BMW in Germany, also we don't use – we don't have access to the ITC. And there's a lot of international companies in the states who haven't used it but I would say that's 70% has leveraged it. We've always ran this business assuming that it would go away and we've been dramatically reducing our product cost. I think the people are going to be surprised from the fourth quarter where we are with product cost but we see our product cost declining 10% to 12% per year and we'll be in a very strong position when the ITC is done. It's one of the reasons quite frankly; we're doing our own stack development at the moment because it can help us reduce the cost. Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: How much do you think internal stack development could help you on margins for high power stacks?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Our estimate show that you're making me give away too much information here, Rob, but... Rob Stone – Cowen & Co. LLC: Okay.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

It's significant. So it is important to us.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jerome Brown with Garcia Venture Capital. Please proceed with your question. Jerome Brown – Garcia Venture Capital: Good morning, Andy.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Good morning, Jerome. How are you today? Jerome Brown – Garcia Venture Capital: Congratulations, I'm doing great. I'm doing great. How are you today?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Very good. Jerome Brown – Garcia Venture Capital: Excellent. Excellent. Congratulations on the new GenKey customer with a major auto company. Huge, so huge.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

I think it is important because it's actually convincing manufacturers to make the change to a very, very process oriented and we went through a long due diligent process. And when I announce the name, people are going to just shake their heads saying, yeah, these are guys who wouldn't do it unless it really makes sense. And when you can convince somebody like we convinced to turn their system over us as a turnkey deal, I think it says a lot about the company. Jerome Brown – Garcia Venture Capital: Absolutely great, Andy. And my question involves another Andy. Andy Left, and really feel bad for him today. It was great news and I'm kind of glad it's going to suffer for it. But my question is, he said the Walmart deal that you're giving them the service for free. Is that true or you're receiving revenue for the service, for the Walmart deal?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Yeah. We are receiving revenue for the service for the Walmart deal. I've never talked to Andrew, so I really don't know where he got that information. But we are receiving payment for the product, the service, the hydrogen infrastructure and hydrogen fuel. And now it is a separate deal, I mean we had as I mentioned in the talk that we've already deployed 500 and plus units with Walmart. This is a brand new order, brand new opportunity. They're paying for everything and it's paying at fair market value of the product and it's over 1,700 units. Jerome Brown – Garcia Venture Capital: Excellent. It was a great deal, it is a huge success story for Plug Power. We haven't got any financials on the Walmart deal. When do you think that they will be available?

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

I think you'll be able to see them incorporating the second and third quarter results. So we're giving guidance to the second and third quarter, I mean, I don't think customers probably want – I think I'm being asked, the guidance I've given people is that the margins and profitabilities of the deal were in line with other customers in the second and third quarter.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Mr. Marsh, we've come to the end of our time for questions and I'd like to turn the floor back to you for any closing comments.

Andrew J. Marsh

Management

Thank you. I appreciate everyone joining the call today. I am looking forward to talking to you again on April 17 and at our May earnings call, as well as our shareholders' meeting in May. In what I continue to commit to the Street is that this company will be extremely transparent during this ramp because it's a – as you're growing as fast as we are it's difficult to keep track of everything and for investors and we will continue to have regular updates and provide insights and we appreciate everyone taking the time of listening to our call today. So thank you everyone.