ClearSign Technologies Corporation

Good morning and welcome to the ClearSign Technologies fourth quarter and full year 2024 conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press the star key and then the one on your touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew Selinger of Firm IR Group. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and thank you, operator. Welcome, everyone, to the Clearsight Technologies Corporation fourth quarter and full year 2024 results conference call. During this conference call, the company will make forward-looking statements. Any statement that is not a statement of historical fact is a forward-looking statement. This includes remarks about the company's projections, expectations, plans, beliefs, and prospects. These statements are based on judgments and analysis as to the date of this conference call and are subject to numerous important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties associated with the forward-looking statements made in this conference call include, but are not limited to, whether field testing and sales of ClearSense products will be successfully completed, whether ClearSign will be successful in expanding the market for its product, and other risks that are described in ClearSign's filings with the SEC, including those discussed under the Risk Factors section of the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2024. Except as required by law, ClearSign assumes no responsibility to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or actual outcomes and does not intend to do so. So on the call with me today are Jim Deller, ClearSign's Chief Executive Officer, and Brent Hines, ClearSign's Chief Financial Officer. At this point, I would like to turn the call over to Brent Hines. So, Brent, please go ahead.

Thank you, Matthew. Thank you to everyone joining us here today. Before I begin, I'd like to note that our financial results on Form 10-K was filed with the SEC on March 31st. With that, I'd like to give an overview of the financials for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024. For the fourth quarter of 2024, ClearSun recognized approximately $590,000 in revenues, compared to $1.3 million for the same comparable period in 2023. The year-over-year difference in revenues was driven by a decrease in business activity. During the fourth quarter in 2023, we shipped eight process burners and completed two customer witness tests for our California refinery customer. Whereas, during the fourth quarter in 2024, we shipped two boiler burners and executed a process burner engineering study. Now, keep in mind, this process burner engineering study led to a follow-on purchase order of 26 burners, as noted in our November 27, 2024 press release. For the full year of 2024, we recognized record revenues of approximately $3.6 million compared to $2.4 million in 2023. This is approximately a 50% increase year-over-year. This increase was driven by overall year-over-year increase in business activity. 2024 revenues were predominantly generated by the shipment of 25 process burners to two separate California refineries, whereas in 2023, revenues were predominantly generated from the shipment of eight process burners and three separate customer witness tests. Our gross profit margin for the year ending 2024 was approximately 31.1% compared to 34% during the comparable period in 2023. This year-over-year decrease in margin was a direct result of our large 1,200 horsepower, 2.5 ppm boiler burner installation. Since this was the first installation of the boiler burner this size, we incurred greater than expected startup costs during the first quarter of 2024. Now I'd like to shift focus from revenue to cash. Our net cash use and operations for the year ended December 31st, 2024 was approximately 4.4 million compared to approximately 3.2 million for the same comparable period in 2023. This $1.2 million year over year decrease was driven by a million dollar decrease in contract liabilities, which basically represents monies received from customers prior to revenue recognition. Now turning our focus from cash to the full year income statement. Our net loss for the full year of 2024 was approximately $5.3 million, which is an increase of approximately $100,000 compared to the same period in 2023. This increase in net loss was due in part to a one-time non-recurring expense of approximately $400,000 related to our decision to place our China entity into a dormant status. Now, I need to note that yesterday, on April 1, 2024, we received a letter from NASDAQ stating that we no longer meet the minimum bid price of $1 per share. As set forth in NASDAQ's listing rules, according to the rules, we have been given a period of 180 calendar days or until September 29, 2025, in which to regain compliance. To regain compliance, our common stock's closing price must be at least $1 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days during the 180-day cure period. As of December 31st, 2024, we had approximately $14 million in cash and cash equivalents, with approximately 50.2 million of shares of common stock outstanding. From a financial perspective, we believe we are well positioned to meet current customer demands deliver on our project pipeline, and scale our business to profitability. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Jim Deller. Jim?