Ocean Power Technologies, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Ocean Power Technologies fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2024 earnings conference call. A webcast of this call is also available and can be accessed by a link on the company's website at www.oceanpowertechnologies.com. This conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay shortly after its completion. On the call today are Dr. Philip Stratman, President and Chief Executive Officer of and Bob Powers, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following the prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Now, I am pleased to introduce Bob Powers.

Thank you, and good morning. After the market closed yesterday, we issued our earnings press release and filed our annual report on Form 10-K for the period ended April 30, 2024. Our public filings are available on the SEC website and within the investor relations section of the OPT website. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements that are within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may include financial projections or other statements of the company's plans, objectives, expectations, or intentions. These statements are based on assumptions made by management regarding future circumstances over which the company may have little or no control and involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Additional information about these risks and uncertainties can be found in the company's Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the SEC. The company disclaims any obligation or intention to update the forward-looking statements made on this call. Finally, we posted an updated investor presentation on our IR website. Please take a moment to review it as it provides a nice overview of our company and strategy. Now, I am pleased to introduce Dr. Philip Stratman.

Thank you, Bob, and good morning. We appreciate you joining us. Fiscal 2024 was a great year and a significant step towards positive cash flow in calendar year 2025 for our company. This year saw substantially complete the research and development stage in our journey to profitability and build upon the significant increases in revenue, gross margin, pipeline, and backlog we achieved during fiscal 2023. Today, I will focus on the significant developments occurring over the past year and the resulting confidence they provide toward achieving further material progress in fiscal 2025. First, we had several technological breakthroughs. During Q2, we revealed a groundbreaking milestone, the successful demonstration of the WAM-V attaching itself remotely to a buoy and establishing a connection that will enable charging. This achievement underscores our commitment to reshaping autonomous maritime operations by leveraging renewable energy for sustainable charging solution and paves the way for a future where autonomous vessels can operate for extended durations, opening doors to various applications within the maritime domain. We also recently announced we're approaching 15 megawatt hours of renewable energy production from our family of power buoys. The recent launch of our next generation PB off the coast of New Jersey has materially accelerated average energy production by combining solar, wind, and wave energy production capabilities. These numbers show that non-grid connected marine energy production is not just for the R&D community, but is a commercially available solution. Finally, and potentially most significantly, we announced MEROS, our groundbreaking artificial intelligence capable consolidated solution offering comprehensive ocean surveillance. Through MEROS, we're able to integrate OPT's roaming technologies such as the WAM-V, with resident technologies, like the power buoys, to offer an unparalleled level of surveillance and data analysis capability. MEROS sets OPT apart because of its ability to enhance data collection capabilities and provide artificial intelligence-capable solutions. With the launch of MEROS, we're not just introducing an overarching solution offering, but a pivotal shift in how we view and protect our oceans. Ocean security is national security, and through MEROS, OPT is dedicated to providing the technologies and insights necessary to secure our maritime domains by safeguarding the world's oceans through advanced technology and innovation. Each of these innovations stands as a testament to OPT's dedication and leadership role in supporting the security and protection of global waterways and positions us to capitalize on the expected growth in these areas while solidifying the company's unique position as a groundbreaking systems provider. In addition, we advanced strategic alliances with a number of complementary industry leaders. In April 2024, we announced a strategic alliance with Redcut Holdings Inc., a leading aerial drone technology firm specializing in the integration of robotic hardware and software across military, government, and commercial sectors. This collaboration signifies a material step forward in enhancing maritime domain awareness capabilities for air, sea, and subsea defense and security missions. Through this relationship, OPT's PowerBui and WAM-V platforms will be integrated with REDCAT's drones, facilitating a new era of autonomous vehicle deployment. By combining our sustainable, ocean-powered solutions with REDCAT's advanced drone technology, we are setting a new standard for naval and border protection operations. Also, in April 2024, we signed a teaming agreement with a major international defense contractor to provide our narrow suite of solutions with a focus on certain geographic regions. Under the terms of the agreement, the defense contractor will have exclusive rights to provide OPT's MDAS solution within certain international geographic regions. Leveraging OPT's cutting-edge technology alongside the international contractor's extensive expertise in defense, homeland security and commercial programs, the collaboration should strengthen the contractor's capabilities in maritime security and surveillance. This collaboration underscores the opportunity and our commitment to enhancing maritime security globally and positions us to achieve remarkable advancements in this field. In June 2024, we announced the signing of an original equipment manufacturer agreement with Teledyne Marine, a key supplier in maritime technology inclusive of connectors, instruments, and vehicles. This strategic partnership should enhance OPT's product offerings and drive innovation within the industry, providing customers with a turnkey system. Joining forces with Teledyne allows us to leverage Teledyne's best-in-class offerings to deliver superior sensor and ocean technology products to our customers. We believe this partnership further accelerates our growth and enables additional revenue streams. We recently partnered with Unique Group, a UAE-headquartered global innovator in subsea technologies and engineering, to collaborate to deploy OPT's WAMVs in the UAE and other regions in the Gulf Collaboration Council region. Integrating OPT's commercially available vehicles with Unique's leading position in the offshore energy industry in the UAE should accelerate the adoption of USVs in the region. Working with Unique Group should further accelerate our efforts to deploy USVs globally. The GCC in general and the UAE specifically are rapidly becoming a major focus area for us as we continue our growth in both the defense and security and offshore energy industries. Back home in the USA, we signed a reseller agreement with Survey Equipment Services Inc., a specialist in the supply of marine survey and navigation equipment. The agreement focuses on the provision of OPT's WAMVs domestically. This agreement allows us to leverage SES's offering of survey and navigation equipment and deploy WAMVs to SES's customer base. This partnership further accelerates our growth and enables additional revenue streams. Most recently, we entered into a memorandum of understanding with OTC at the Port of Los Angeles. The joint aim is to explore exciting opportunities within the blue economy, and partnering with O2C provides additional opportunities for staging our renewable energy power buoys and WAM-V and manned surface vehicles for projects in the Pacific Ocean. Lastly, we continue to work closely with various departments and agencies of the U.S. government. With many veterans in our workforce, we are proud and humbled to support our brave warfighters, be that in the areas of mine countermeasures, counter unmanned underwater vehicle efforts, or autonomous swarming. Now I would like to transition to another topic. As many of you are aware, during fiscal 2024, we faced challenges from a dissident shareholder who engaged in a proxy battle and initiated three lawsuits against the OPT board and the company in an effort to seek control of the company without following appropriate governance standards and without offering fair value to the stockholders. Despite his efforts, The dissident shareholder was unsuccessful in his attempts to influence the company's strategic direction. His proposals did not gain sufficient support from other shareholders, reflecting their confidence in our current leadership and strategy. The dissident shareholder subsequently filed to dismiss one of the lawsuits he had initiated. It has become clear that he is attempting to advance his own agenda at the expense and to the detriment of the broader shareholder base. His actions included disseminating misleading information and attempting to undermine the company's reputation. Addressing this situation incurred significant costs, impacting our results for fiscal 2024, which Bob will detail momentarily. Moving forward, we have taken steps to strengthen our corporate governance and improve our shareholder engagement strategies to prevent similar situations in the future. Our focus remains on driving growth and delivering value to all our shareholders. We are committed to maintaining open and constructive communication with our investors to ensure their concerns are addressed proactively. Despite the challenges posed by the dissident shareholder, we have remained resilient and focused on our long-term goals. We will continue to channel our resources and attention towards executing our strategic plans and capitalizing on growth opportunities. In closing, our business is performing well. As a result of the foundation and opportunities I've just described, we remain on track to achieve our previously stated goal of attaining profitability during the second half of calendar 2025. To achieve this, we have very recently implemented a set of measures that include further headcount optimization, material reductions in third-party spend, and efforts to tightly control and contain costs. These measures are fully implemented and focus particularly on non-revenue generating engineering and GNA. These measures enable us to continue delivering for our customers, operate the business, and execute the strategy we have laid out. Moving forward, we plan to leverage the opportunities in front of us to increase our market presence, expand our geographical focus, and improve operational efficiencies. We are confident that these efforts will drive sustainable growth and create long-term value for our shareholders. Thank you. Before I hand back to Bob for his update on the financials, I want to remind you that we are holding a special meeting of the shareholders on August 30th to vote on an increase in our authorized shares to enable us to participate fully in the rapidly evolving autonomous ocean operations market. Now I will hand over to Bob to discuss our financial performance in more detail.