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spk01: Good morning, everyone. I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Advent Technologies' first quarter earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session for Advent's analysts. On the call today, we are joined by Dr. Facilis Gregorio, Advent's chairman and CEO, and Kevin Brackman, Advent's CFO. Before we begin the prepared remarks, we would like to remind you that Advent issued a press release announcing its first quarter 2023 financial results shortly before market opened today. You may access the materials on the investor relations section of the company's website, www.advent.energy. I would also like to remind everyone that during the course of this conference call, Advent's management will discuss forecasts, targets, and other forward-looking statements regarding the company's future customer orders, and the company's business outlook that are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 for forward-looking statements. While these statements represent management's current expectations and projections about future results and performance as of today, ADVAN's actual results are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expectations. In addition to any risks highlighted during this call, important factors that may affect ADVANCE's future results are described in its most recent SEC report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including today's earnings press release. Except as required by applicable law, the company undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this call. Lastly, information discussed on this call concerning the company's industry competitive position in the market in which it operates is based on information from independent industry and research organizations, other third-party sources, and management estimates. Management estimates are derived from publicly available information released by independent industry analysis and other third-party resources as well as data from the company's internal research and are based on assumptions made upon reviewing such data, and with knowledge of such industry and markets, which it believes to be reasonable. These assumptions are subject to uncertainties and risks, which could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates. Please note this call is being recorded. Kicking off the call will be Dr. Vassilis Grigoriou. Dr. Grigoriou, I'll turn it over to you.
spk02: Thank you, Operator. Good morning to everyone listening in, and thank you for joining us on ADVENT's first quarter 2023 earnings call. On today's call, I will provide an update on the business. I will then hand over to Kevin, who will give a review of our financial performance and outlook in more detail. During my last update on March 31st, I highlighted that ADVENT has further consolidated its business operations and was focusing on the core sectors of mobility and stationary power. This has continued in the first quarter. We remain focused on expanding and executing our commercial pipeline with a view to embed our technology and product portfolio in these key power sectors. The opening of our new facility at Hood Park in Boston represents a significant milestone achievement for Aspen because This will provide a firm anchor to our business growth in North America. Food Park encapsulates R&D and production facilities, as well as our headquarters. Its commission has expanded our global footprint for manufacturing. We also continued our capital investment program in state-of-the-art equipment that's required to complete our scale of production capacity. We intend for this progress to continue towards large-scale manufacturing as soon as our Green HIPAA project commences. The broad support for the energy transition through legislation and economic incentives is snowballing globally. We believe that the future demand for Advent's high-temperature PEM technology and related products will create a significant opportunity, and we believe Advent would be ideally positioned to capitalize on this. In the first quarter, we continue to execute on our strategy of innovation commercial focus, and market permeation. We look forward to growing our commercial activities and achieving long-term profitable growth. Our business focus is on the production of advanced fuel cell materials leading to direct sales, the development of advanced fuel cell systems, and joint development agreements in collaboration with OEMs, which enables to enter long-term licensing agreements. is expected to deliver revenue consisting of milestone payments and royalties, which will provide the upside to our business. I will now give you an overview of key business updates. In March, Aden and Hyundai announced the conclusion of a successful technology assessment. The assessment evaluated Aden's proprietary MEA technology for supplying Hyundai's high-temperature fuel cell needs, and following its success, the two companies entered into a joint development agreement. This agreement solidified the interest of one of the world's leaders in fuel cell technology to further develop the high-temperature PEM technology in collaboration with Aden. The first step of the JDA focuses on the MEA. Aden's goal is to provide its MEAs and its high-temperature PEM fuel cell development expertise to co-develop with automotive manufacturers the next generation of fuel cell systems for heavy-duty mobility. ADVEN will pursue strategic joint development agreements to achieve its goal of supplying QMEA components and technology to the mobility market. In the maritime sector, in February, ADVEN announced a new collaboration with Siemens Energy, offering sustainable solutions across the entire energy value chain. ADVEN and Siemens Energy will work together to develop a 50 kilowatt to 500 kilowatt maritime fuel cell solution for a range of super yachts, which will provide a sustainable and reliable source of auxiliary power and offer improved power density. This maritime fuel cell solution is initially expected to be used as a hybrid power source, enabling clean electricity generation instead of using conventional diesel engines and generators for procedures such as anchoring and maneuvering. As part of the agreement, the similar energy has placed an initial order of 20 of Advent's methanol-powered serine fuel cell systems. Following the completion of the project, the two parties will explore the potential of developing similar solutions for a wide range of business applications beyond maritime, such as industrial power solutions. In March, AVEN announced at the opening of the new R&D and manufacturing facility at Hood Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at the heart of one of Boston's newest innovation and R&D communities, the Hood Park facility will enable AVEN to scale up and deliver on the increasing global demand for electrochemical components in the clean energy sector by including state-of-the-art coating machines to support the seamless transition from prototypes to production runs for advanced membranes and electrodes, a complete analytical facility dedicated to quality control, performance analysis, and improving product lifetime. Fuel cell and water electrolysis test station for statistical process control and development of next-generation MEA materials, and a mechanical engineering lab for developing automated assembly processes for MEAs. One of the products we manufacture at Hood Park is the ion pair admin MEA, which is currently being developed within the framework of the Linovator, the company's joint development program with the U.S. Department of Energy. ATEN intends that these proprietary fuel cell products, such as serine and honey budget 50, will incorporate the ion-pair NDA beginning in 2024. The company expects the introduction of the ion-pair NDA will significantly reduce the cost of our serine flagship products, and thus expand the immediate addressable market. Furthermore, the expected system increase in power density and lifetime will highly differentiate Advent's fuel cells in the heavy-duty mobility industry. In May, Advent and BASF Environmental Catalyst and Metal Solutions, a global leader in precious metals and catalysts, jointly announced a new agreement to join efforts in building a closed-loop component supply chain of fuel cells and enter discussions to extend the partnerships into the field of water electrolysis. For 20 years, BHF Environmental Catalyst and Metal Solutions has been a leader in membrane and MDA technology for high-temperature PEM fuel cells, with a strong foundation in precious metal service and catalysts. High-temperature PEM fuel cells operate at 120 to 180 degrees Celsius. offer a broad operating window and tolerate impurities in the hydrogen fuel source. The fuel cells also enable simplified cooling and need no humidification. Adren offers competitive fuel cell systems for stationary and portable applications based on and on-site . In the future, high-temperature fuel cells will also be available for heavy-duty mobility and maritime power. The scope of the agreement includes role in scaling up MDA production and Advent's plan, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Western Macedonia, Greece, while offering Advent its full portfolio of products and services to enable circularly equipped materials. Both companies will cooperate on BASF's latest member development, Celltech-Z, and the new ion pair MDA by Advent, aiming for improved performance, lifetime, and cost competitiveness. Finally, turning to GreenHippo, I was elected as the chair of the EU Important Projects of Common European Interest High-to-Tech Facilitation Group. The election took place at the first General Assembly for High-to-Tech and High-to-Use, two of the European Union's IPCIs. The General Assembly was held in March in Berlin and was attended by executives from companies with projects ratified by the European Union under the IPCI framework as well as government and EU officials. Athens Green HIPO project received a notification in June 2022 for up to 782.1 million euros in funding from the Greek state, the highest amount of funding received for a project under IPCI I210. The European Union officially ratified the project in July 2022. Green HIPO will be based in the Western Macedonia region of Greece where a state-of-the-art facility will be established for the R&D production of innovative fuel cells and electrolyzer systems for the production of power and green hydrogen, respectively. We have already progressed to identify a suitable site and have now purchased the site and commenced planning. Alvin is actively working with the Greek state for the timely sign of the contract. We look forward to reporting on future progress. Advent is well positioned to take advantage of the growing focus on clean energy. We're continuously developing our technologies and consolidating our operations to address new and key opportunities. We have a product portfolio that's focused to enable a greener economy, one that will evade the reliance on fossil fuels and will disenfranchise the energy supply market, therefore providing energy security to communities and economies. With that, I would like to hand over to our CFO, Kevin Brackman.
spk05: Thank you, Vasili, and good morning, everyone. Turning to our financials, we delivered revenue of $1 million in the first quarter and income from grants of $0.5 million for a total of $1.5 million. R&D expenses were $3.1 million in the first quarter, primarily related to internal R&D costs incurred in each of our businesses. as well as our Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Department of Energy. Administrative and selling expenses were $8.5 million in the first quarter. Combined with R&D expenses, total operating expenses were $11.6 million, a year-over-year decrease of $1 million, primarily due to administrative cost reductions implemented throughout 2022 which were partially offset by an increase in research and development expenses. Net loss in Q1 was $12 million, or 23 cents per share. Unrestricted cash reserves were $19.5 million as of March 31, 2023, a decrease of $13.4 million from December 31 of 2022, driven by R&D and administrative and selling expenses, as well as annual insurance renewals, a $2.2 million increase in inventory, and $1.9 million of CapEx spending in the first quarter. Our existing cash balances and projected operating cash flows are not expected to be sufficient to support planned operations for the next 12 months. However, as Vasile discussed earlier, we have been working actively with the Greek state for a timely implementation of the funding mechanism for the GreenHippo project. Additionally, we have been evaluating various opportunities to raise additional capital, and in April this year, we finalized an agreement for an equity line of credit with Lincoln Park Capital, which gives us the option to access up to $50 million of capital over the three-year term. The use of this equity line of credit is entirely at Advent's discretion and provides us with an effective buffer, if required, that can be used alongside other sources of capital. In the meantime, we will manage our cost structure closely and capitalize on opportunities to reduce costs where possible. I will now turn to our outlook. Advent entered 2023 with a strong pipeline of opportunities. As we all know, however, not every opportunity in the pipeline will transpire due to factors that are beyond advance control. Opportunities may not materialize or could be delayed. Due to the long-term contract nature of our business model, the timing of our revenue can also be difficult to predict. Due to the level of uncertainty caused by these factors, we are not providing a revenue outlook for 2023 on this call. However, we expect to provide an outlook for revenue and income from grants on the next earnings call. With that, I will hand back to Vasili for closing remarks.
spk02: Thank you, Kevin. ADMIN has significant opportunities for its technology, advanced materials, and fuel cell system projects. Along with Hood Park, the Green Hippo project will cement our global reach and focus in the mobility and stationary power market. Admin is a clear energy technology company developing innovation and products for key sectors that require clean energy. We look forward to growing the business and to give you a breath of development. I would like to thank you all for joining us today, and we're ready to answer questions from the company's analysts. Thank you very much.
spk01: Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star and then number one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause just a moment. And we'll take our first question from Sanjay Jha at Panmure Gordon.
spk03: Yes. Good afternoon from London. I just want to check how important is this BASF agreement in winning business for fuel cell systems? Can you give me some examples of whether this has opened doors for you?
spk02: Yeah. Thank you, Sanjay. Good to hear from you. The agreement is very significant. Because, first of all, it endorses the technology, our technology, and also secures, if you will, the supply chain. This is very essential for this long-term and the scale-up of the business. As you know, BASF is a global leader. They have been for a long time on high-temperature PEM. We collaborate with them for a long time as well. We have our products. We have a license from them. We have this tremendous opportunity with the Green Hippo Project and the new facility we're going to build to co-manufacture a lot of these things, work together also on the scale up of iron fare. So that's very important. The second very big benefit for us is the management of the precious metals. As you know, the more we start selling, all of these things become very, very important. And a closed-loop process of these materials are a key. You know, you need a giant like this along with us, in our opinion, to go to the next level, you know, get the prices down, and make the customer very happy about what they get. Because now, and I'll take the opportunity, with BASF, we have big companies. We have, you know, Hyundai, Zemmets Energy, and also big organizations like Los Alamos that are very excited to work with us. They have their own announcements. We tag along with them, and these are the long-term relationships we always wanted to have, and we're very excited to have these people with us, and BASF in particular. Thank you.
spk01: We'll go next to Jeff Gramp at Alliance Global Partners.
spk04: Hello. Thanks for the time. I have a question on the ion pair. Can you guys quantify at all, to the extent you're comfortable, kind of the cost reduction expectations you may have for this? And then regarding the rollout in 2024, I'm curious, you know, obviously we're only in May here of 23, but is there any kind of pipeline building yet at this early stage that you guys can comment on?
spk02: Yes. Yeah, thank you for the question. Now, regarding the ion pair, as you know, this is very revolutionary. It's the next level of high temp PEM. You remember the low temperature PEM requires pure hydrogen. It has environmental issues. You have to take tremendous care of the humidity. And that's when it comes to, you know, tracks and things like that. It's very difficult to have a final product as we've seen. So for that matter, all these big comments, you know, Hyundai and the other unnamed one, which is another, you know, giant, but also Alfa Laval, Siemens Energy, they all are very interesting and high temperature PEM. Now, with the existing tech, we go that far. The ion pair promises to be, you know, two times at least power density, two times the lifetime, which, as you know, immediately becomes a four times better product. And it is our belief that we're going to have these very exciting new MBAs in our products in 2024, which, as you say, is not far away. So for us, this is a big step, and we put a lot of effort there. But so far, it looks actually very, very good. Now, regarding the pipeline, let's take a look about what we're talking about. You remember before we had built the sales pipeline on the telecom, and we had that unfortunate thing that happened last year. We actually have certain telecom operators that they divested their telecom towers to tower companies. So what do we do now? We work with the tower companies themselves in order to have these sales. As you know, this is a long sales cycle. But we have successful proof of concepts. One of these things was with Vantage Tower. So one part of our pipeline will be built on that. The other is from the marine and automotive. You've seen the progress that we make there with the San Lorenzos and the Hyundai. And the third thing next year, a lot of things will depend on the defense product, the honey badger, which right now we are in the pre-production stage, if you will. And the go-no-go will be for production of a lot of the systems in 2024 pending the approval from the DOE. As Kevin said, because the IPCI is such a monumental change for the company, and it really has a lot of money associated with it, we will provide, in my opinion, a very detailed expectation for next year in our next call, you know, after the end of Q2.
spk04: Great. Thanks for that detail. If I can sneak one more in. On the GreenHippo project, I think you guys said in your prepared remarks that you have a site purchased, which is great to see that project moving forward. Can you talk to the extent, you know, given that there's some funding, or should I say a lot of funding, obviously, but out of your control given the timeline there. Can you still kind of dual track some of the pre-planning or pre-feed kind of items to the extent you can accelerate the project given that some of the funding is obviously out of your control from a timing standpoint?
spk02: No, very good question. Thank you. Yeah, we run this project as if we're a go. And our enthusiasm, if you will, and commitment and belief comes from the fact that as the chairman of the IPCI now, I see a lot of things that are happening at the European level. We're talking about 5.4 billion that they will go. There are a lot of contracts already signed. We're not that behind, to be honest. It's just, you know, Europe does not do things, unfortunately, how can I say, the same day or something like that. So we expect that things will happen for us relatively soon. Okay, we cannot say the day for obvious reasons, but We think it's going to be soon. And also, in the meantime, we schedule all our R&D development work. We have identified the site. We bought the site. It's a beautiful site in Kozani, and we're ready to announce it when we have the signature. And also, we have entered in these agreements, which for me are very important. You know, the strategic partners like BASF that we announced, and some others we cannot announce right now, but we will announce at the appropriate site, that will show to the world that this thing is going to be a true gigafactory, if you will, that will help actually doing what we all want, you know, to reduce the price because our products are very good, but as you know, they're expensive. So in order for us to go to the next level, we have to actually scale up and manufacture is the only way to do it and with established manufacturers because keep in mind, we come from the R&D side. I think the people in our manufacturer are doing a magnificent job in, you know, Denmark and Germany primarily. But in the end of the day, when you have giants of manufacturers like VHF and the other people we're talking about, I think things will become ten times more smooth.
spk04: Great. I appreciate all the details. Thank you.
spk01: And as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. We'll pause just a moment. And we'll go back to Sanjay Jha at Panmer Gordon.
spk03: Yes, just to follow up, the contract for trucks in Asia, are you the sole supplier? And can you give us some more details about how the whole project works? is going to work out for you?
spk02: Yeah, we're very happy about it because first of all it came after rigorous testing by the customer so we're selected and it's a significant order if you think about it because of the MAP. Also it's the initial order so future orders will come and we expect to be the sole supplier because you know we build this relation. I want to take also the opportunity to say that China and India, they see methanol and biofuels as a very important fuel. Because keep in mind, in this part of the world and others, Africa as well, liquid fuels are key. We don't expect that you will build gas pipelines, hydrogen pipelines anytime soon. However, it's much, much easier to to carry around liquid fuel and the availability of these particular fuels are there. So we feel that there is a great future.
spk00: Thank you.
spk03: Thank you.
spk01: And at this time we have no further questions. That does conclude the question and answer session.
spk02: If you don't want to conclude, I want to take the opportunity to answer some of the questions from retail, if you don't mind. So give me a little bit of time. There are some questions, a lot of them we have already answered. I think, Kevin, if you want to say something about Lincoln Parker Holdings, you know, options that we have as a NASDAQ-listed company to get capital when capital is needed. So maybe you want to say a couple of things about that, and I'll go to the next.
spk05: Yeah, sure. Thank you, Vesely. So As I mentioned in my comments today, the Lincoln Park facility, the equity line of credit, gives us the option to access up to $50 million of capital over the three-year term of the agreement. But we're not required to use the facility. So it's entirely Advent's discretion on whether or not we utilize the equity line of credit with Lincoln Park. And so the way I view it is it buys us time and flexibility as we continue to evaluate and pursue other sources of capital. And so that's why we thought it was prudent to have a facility like that in place.
spk02: Thank you. Now, regarding Honda, I think we answered. When it comes to some market individuals, there are questions about it. I think we have very nice video that came out the last few days. I think it shows to everybody that we have facilities that are state-of-the-art and you can keep in mind that there is always this discussion internally, you know, how much we're going to show, you know, people are going to come and, how can I say, copy our, you know, gas lines or whatever. I'm of that, you know, of the position that we have to show things as much as we can to convince people and excite people also that were there so we will have more marketing videos if you will first of all of our facilities and second about the new things that we do also in the electronics and everything. Regardless how much we believe in the company as a larger private shareholder And also, my team here, we have not sold one share. We have not sold one share in all these years. It's almost 20 years for me. So that shows the great confidence that we have in our company and in our ability to have a better future that we basically have now because a lot of the things that are happening now, it has to do with market conditions, we believe, not necessarily of how we grow. I think we grow a tremendous space, and every sale that you might see over there has to do with the stock option taxation fees. In the U.S., you get some stock options or some are used, you've got to pay the tax, but none of it is the real sale. So in that respect, we're fully aligned and 100% behind it, and we believe very much in the future of this company. Now, regarding the U.S., we do get senior people. We've got some senior people now in Livermore. We're going to get some more senior people. Keep in mind, you know, we have to have realistic expectations. I think we'll grow at a tremendous rate in very unfavorable market conditions. So we need to make sure that in the end we're going to be victorious. So we have to run it at speed. at the pace that we think is realistic and logical. Now, when it comes to renumeration policy and all that stuff, as you know, we will not get any bonus for 2022. That's our own decision, in a way, because we feel that that was the right decision to take. Now, about Hood Park. I think we discussed a lot about Hood Park. It's both R&D and manufacturing, so it's going to be our manufacturing place in the U.S. eventually, and we have great expectations from that. So now regarding the, how can I say, optimization of the workforce, absolutely. You know, we look at these things very close, and we believe that when we actually group through a couple of acquisitions. As you know, there are always things that they can be a little bit better. I think Kevin talked about this in the last couple of polls. And we both continue monitoring the situation, you know, how much we spend versus what we actually get out of it. Now, since we produce so many wonderful products, why we don't have actual sales? That's not true. We have sales. We did talk about it. The question is why we don't have more sales. The fact of the matter is that we have relatively expensive products, a product that they go, as we said before, to people that they do want the environmental advancement that we get from them. Plus, we have, we're selling to places that, in addition to environmental advantage, the the total cost of ownership, if you will, is favorable. And these are not the most advanced place. Actually, they're development world places. So what we need to do, as I said before, is we need to keep on dropping the price, keep on making more of these things. And we think in due course, our sales will come up. Now, regarding the Kozani location, I think I did talk about it. We bought the site. We're ready to go. Second-car manufacturer, we cannot talk about it because they don't allow it, but if you do your own duplicity, you'll see what it is. We don't have much update on the hydrogen to have in the U.S., just no update there so far. But in our opinion overall, that's why we're talking a little bit more about the long term. This is happening. You know, hydrogen is happening. It's going to happen in Europe mostly. And the U.S. is going to follow because of geopolitical reasons as well. So that's why we're excited to be in electrolysis. That's why we're excited to actually finally have these kind of brand names working with us, being excited to work with us. So I think this is a matter of time. I did answer the question about the honey badger. For aviation, yes, we do have a lot of discussions. We're going to again announce some good things when we can announce them. And for the electrolysis, yes, we believe very much in the alkaline membrane electrolysis. We think it's the technology of the future. It combines the two. It combines PEM and alkaline. We have very, very good tech there. I don't want to overstate, but we have very, very good tech. thanks to the efforts that have been happening in the last few years. When we saw that green hydrogen is going to grow at that rate, you know, we're talking at an amazing rate. In my opinion, it reminds us a little bit of how, you know, the internet was in the late 90s. People say it's going to grow at, you know, 10,000%, and, you know, some people believe it, and some people say, no, it's not going to happen. So that's what we believe now with green hydrogen also. Other people say, no, no, it's not going to happen. And we say, yes, yes, it's going to happen. And it's going to be massive. So we have very, very good technology there as well. And we're ready to actually make commercial products from that. In the meantime as well, we are, of course, looking at the existing technologies because there is this demand for capacity, if you will. And there's a lot of demand for today's products. we do have our strategic discussions in place, and we will announce them, I guess, in the appropriate time. So with that, I think we're ready to conclude. I don't know, Kevin, if you want to say something more.
spk05: No, I think that wraps up the call today, and we appreciate everybody joining us.
spk02: Yeah, thank you very much.
spk05: Bye-bye.
spk01: And again, that does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
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