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Research Frontiers Incorporated (REFR)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Sat, May 7, 2016

$0.96

+0.55%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Research Frontiers’ Investor Conference Call to discuss First Quarter of 2016 Results and Recent Developments. [Operator Instructions] This conference is being recorded today. A replay of this conference call will be available starting later today in the Investors section of Research Frontiers’ website at www.smartglass.com and will be available for replay for the next 90 days. Please note that some of the comments made today may contain forward-looking information. The words expect, anticipate, plans, forecasts and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions that are part of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements reflect the company’s current beliefs and a number of important factors could cause actual results for future periods to differ materially from those expressed. Significant factors that could cause results to differ from those anticipated are described in our filings with the SEC. Research Frontiers undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements to reflect new events or uncertainties. The company will be answering many of the questions that were e-mailed to it prior to this conference call either in their presentation or as part of the Q&A session at the end. In some cases, the company has responded directly to e-mail questions prior to this call or will do so afterwards in order to answer more questions of general interest to shareholders on this call. [Operator Instructions] Also we ask that you keep your question brief in the interest of time. I would now like to turn the conference over to Joseph Harary, President and Chief Executive Officer of Research Frontiers. Please go ahead, sir.

Joseph Harary

Analyst

Thank you, Arenson and good afternoon everyone and thanks for being here today. Joining me today is Seth Van Voorhees, who is our CFO and also heads up our VariGuard division. Today’s call will be concise and focused mostly on our two largest markets, automotive and aerospace. There is activity in our other markets architectural, marine and museum and we may touch on these as well. Less than two months have passed since our last conference call when we discussed 2015 results of operations. On that call, we announced the marketing initiative that we had started in conjunction with Mercedes and its dealers. This initiative is underway and I will give more details on the success of this later on in the call. As we noted in our last conference call, we expect to see the increase in revenues in the automotive market from this initiative begin in the second half of this year. This is when the next order cycle for cars by dealers, kicks in. 2016 has started out to be a very active year for us our licensees and their customers. Let’s review some of these developments so far in the first third of the year. First, in January, the giant German automotive supplier, Continental Automotive, started the year off at the Consumer Electronics Show with a highly successful exhibition at the Consumer Electronics Show. There they outfitted a Ford Mondeo with all 12 pieces of SPD-SmartGlass in it being controlled by Continental’s Intelligent Glass Control system. Specially invited members of the press, the automotive industry and even their senior executives and Board of Directors were present for this important event. Since then, Continental has presented their Intelligent Glass Control system and the fully equipped SPD-SmartGlass Ford Mondeo station wagon at additional technology fairs and exhibitions with…

Operator

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Alan Denzer of Stifel. Please go ahead.

Alan Denzer

Analyst

Yes. It’s Alan Denzer. Joe, how are you?

Joseph Harary

Analyst

Hi, Alan. How are you?

Alan Denzer

Analyst

Okay. I just needed to mention to you that I have went to the largest auto dealership yesterday in Westchester County as you know are very wealthy county up here in White Plains of Happy Motors and I was a little dismayed your marketing program evidently hasn’t reached them yet?

Joseph Harary

Analyst

Yes. We started in the south. We started in the south where the bulk of the S-Classes are sold.

Alan Denzer

Analyst

Yes. Okay. Well, they didn’t even have one car there that had the MAGIC SKY CONTROL option in their inventory and they didn’t have any mention of it in their marketing materials in the interactive displays that they have. And the salesman that I spoke to said in effect gee, why did they ever put this on a convertible car, you don’t really need this. And of course I had to tell him that’s it’s now in the sedans and he looked in his computer and said oh, yes, well that will be due in June or July, okay. So, evidently we are very much at the beginning of the learning process here at least in the Northeast.

Joseph Harary

Analyst

Yes. Well, it’s hard to judge from a visit to one dealership. I visited 10 Mercedes dealerships last week. Every one of the dealers had cars with MAGIC SKY CONTROL. When I approached them, usually I started with the either the general manager or the sales manager, because they are the most familiar with their inventory and their cars. And without a doubt, every one of those sales managers knew about MAGIC SKY CONTROL and were very enthusiastic about it. Remember this is the sunbelt, where the 95% reduction in heat and the 18 degree reduction in temperature is particularly important to customers. And also what I have been told from even dealers in the Northeast salesmen is that typically a third of the salesmen are good and knowledgeable, a third are average, and a third are something else.

Alan Denzer

Analyst

Right. But you know Westchester County is where the money is so I mean you could – you can argue…

Joseph Harary

Analyst

Yes. Alan, I have been in dealers where the demographics are similar and you do see a wide variety among salespeople about their knowledge. Like I said, it’s something where we are trying to address that. And up until now, there hasn’t been a great deal of general awareness among consumers and even some of the salespeople just because the cars that were on the showroom were roadsters with their top open and it’s very hard to demonstrate it. We have actually changed that now with our initiatives, where each dealer gets a demonstration of SmartGlass that the customer can operate and we are finding that they are very warmly welcoming that tool.

Alan Denzer

Analyst

The one positive factor out of my discussion with salesmen was that it was available on the S-Class, it’s possible and likely even that if it’s successful it will migrate into the E-Class cars which will happen?

Joseph Harary

Analyst

Right. Yes, typically there is a migration of technology form the S to the E.

Alan Denzer

Analyst

Thanks.

Joseph Harary

Analyst

Anyway, thanks. I appreciate that. I will make sure when I visit Westchester to spend a little more time with them.

Alan Denzer

Analyst

In White Plains. Thank you.

Joseph Harary

Analyst

White Plains.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from George Wohanka from Retail.

George Wohanka

Analyst

On the call, it was mentioned that quarterly earnings were actually or quarterly income was actually higher, because one of the licensees got its reporting in a little late where would that show up, would that show up in accounts receivable or if that would show up?

Joseph Harary

Analyst

It will show up probably in the next quarter’s report so for the second quarter.

George Wohanka

Analyst

And how much was it?

Seth Van Voorhees

Analyst

No, just to be clear, what happened is that the reports were not issued in a timely fashion. So, they were not included in our financials and will be reflected in our second quarter results. So, what Joe was indicating is that our revenues would have been higher had those that royalty report been submitted on time.

Joseph Harary

Analyst

Right. And that was one of the major licensees like Pilkington and Asahi where we would make sure that that was included.

George Wohanka

Analyst

Okay, good enough. Thanks a lot.

Joseph Harary

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

At this time, we have no further questions.

Joseph Harary

Analyst

Okay. In that case, I would like to maybe make some closing remarks. If you look at our strategy, we have been building off strong platforms that we have particularly in automotive with Mercedez, an aircraft with HondaJet, Textron and the major helicopter manufacturers and the world’s fair in architectural. In Marine, we are building off the Cheoy Lee, Hatteras, and most recently, the production motor yacht by Silver Arrows, Marine and Mercedes-Benz Style. And the growing awareness of the SPD-Smart panels by VariGuard has also been helpful, especially the use by the Smithsonian and other museums. So, this has been a very solid strategy. We are blessed with household names that are out there using our technology and with customers want the very best. Now, that the V222 sedans with MAGIC SKY CONTROL are finally in production and in dealer showrooms, we are optimistic that customers will love MAGIC SKY CONTROL in the S-Class sedan as they do in the other cars that offer the MAGIC SKY CONTROL option. This one car loan can make us profitable depending upon the take rates. And we have met with great enthusiasm by the key Mercedes-Benz dealers for the MAGIC SKY CONTROL panoramic roof option. Remember, in 2014, we are an option on less than 30,000 cars. Last year, we were an option on the 42,000 cars. And starting just with the second quarter of 2016, we are now an option on over 120,000 cars. That’s four times as many vehicles as in 2014 and three times as many vehicles as last year. Add to that a fleet of planes produced by HondaJet and Textron with our SPD-Smart aircraft windows, another aircraft around the world and high visibility production yachts like the Mercedes-Benz design, Silver Arrow’s Marine and you could see the…

Operator

Operator

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