nLIGHT, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the NLIGHT fourth quarter 2021 earnings 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 star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. I would now like to turn the conference over to Joe Corso, Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. With us today are Scott Keeney, Enlight's Chairman and CEO, and Ron Barakat, Chief Financial Officer. Today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements, including financial projections and plans for our businesses. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, including the risks and uncertainties described from time to time in our SEC filings. Our results may differ materially from those projected on today's call, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement except as required by law. During the call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. We have provided reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in our earnings release, which can be found on the investor relations section of our website. I will now turn the call over to Scott.

Thank you, Joe. Starting on slides three and four, 2021 was an important year for Enlight. Year-over-year growth in each of our end markets enabled us to generate record annual revenue of $270 million. Overall revenue in 2021 grew approximately 21% in line with our long-term compound annual growth rate of 23%. To put that in perspective, Total revenue is nearly double what we generated in 2017, the year immediately prior to our IPO. We continue to execute on our strategy of increasing sales to industrial customers outside of China and in aerospace and defense. Over the long term, we continue to believe that we can meet or exceed our historical revenue CAGR of 20% and product gross margins of 40-plus percent. To meet these long-term objectives, we will continue to invest in automated capacity in the U.S. and optimize our manufacturing footprint in China. While this important operational transition will result in pressure on our gross and operating margins for the next few quarters, as we look beyond 2022, we believe it will enable us to achieve higher levels of profitability as we scale to address anticipated robust customer demand. Turning to slide five, 2021 was an important year for our transition in our geographic focus. Our results illustrate how our business has evolved since our IPO in 2018. In just a few years, we've migrated from a strategy that had included significant focus on both operations and markets in China to a strategy that's primarily focused on both operations and markets outside of China. In 2021, revenue from customers outside of China grew 41 percent year-over-year to approximately 215 million, which represented approximately 80 percent of our total revenue. Turning to slide six. In Q4, revenue from customers outside of China grew by 26% year-over-year to approximately $60 million, or 89% of total revenue. We have doubled our revenue outside of China since Q4 2019, and for the first time since we went public in 2018, all of our top 10 customers were from outside of China. While our geographic focus has transitioned, our strategy remains focused on leveraging our vertically integrated business model to enable key growth markets. Slide 7 provides an overview of our vertically integrated business model that begins at the semiconductor chip level where we produce high brightness, high power laser diodes. Over time, we've extended our technology stack into fiber-coupled semiconductor lasers, optical fiber, and fiber lasers. A deep understanding of each of these technologies and improvements across this vertical integration enables us to design products that are optimized for specific applications. With the acquisitions of Neutronics in late 2019 and Plasma earlier this week, We further expanded our technology capabilities to include beam control for both defense and industrial applications. Our ability to direct, adjust, monitor, and control the laser beam enables us to extract the most efficient and economical use of energy from our lasers. We believe that broad adoption of lasers will increasingly require integrated lasers with beam control to continue the displacement of legacy technologies. In addition to our continued expansion of differentiated products, we are well positioned to capitalize on multiple attractive long-term growth opportunities. And in 2021, our revenue grew in each of our end markets. Turning to slides 8 through 10, where I will discuss each of these markets further. In microfabrication, we had a strong year with 36% year-over-year growth. Our industry-leading high-power, high-brightness semiconductor lasers are often the critical enabling component of our customers' products. As laser-based manufacturing processes continue to proliferate, we believe we will continue to benefit from wider adoption in a range of applications in the automotive, consumer, communications, electronics, display, medical, and semiconductor end markets. In Q4, the demand environment in microfabrication remained strong and we grew revenue approximately 34% year-over-year to $17.3 million, representing 25% of total revenue. In aerospace and defense, our revenue grew 21% year-over-year in 2021 to a new record of 105 million, representing 39% of total sales. 2021 marked the fifth consecutive year of annual A&D revenue growth. We saw relatively consistent demand for our core long-term A&D customers and programs throughout the year, and we believe there are many additional long-term opportunities for our laser technology. Although new programs often take time to develop, we believe that we are well positioned for future long-term growth in this part of our A&D business. We were also pleased with our progress in directed energy as we achieved several critical technical milestones during the year. We were one of four award winners of the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative, HELSI for short, which is a U.S. government program to develop a 300-kilowatt laser. Although the timing of future programs of record is not yet clear, we remain steadfast in our belief that directed energy will be a key part of the United States military modernization efforts. Our vertically integrated business model, coupled with our deep understanding and work in defense, positions us well for future success in this market. In the fourth quarter, our defense revenue declined approximately 1 percent year-over-year to $28.5 million, representing 42 percent of total revenue. Development revenue, nearly all of which is related to directed energy projects, increased approximately 18 percent year-over-year, but was lower than our quarterly guidance due to supply chain issues. Finally, turning to the industrial end market, industrial revenue grew 12 percent year-over-year in 2021. More importantly, industrial revenue from customers outside of China increased 66 percent year-over-year. In the fourth quarter, while overall industrial revenues declined 9 percent year-over-year, revenue from industrial customers outside of China increased by 57 percent year-over-year to 18.7 million, and nearly doubled versus the same period in 2019. On a percentage basis, Q4 industrial revenue from customers outside of China increased to 86% versus 50% in the same period in 2020. This growth outside of China was driven by continued expansion of strategic customers in cutting, welding, and additive manufacturing. As we have discussed, we have prioritized deep engagement with these customers, and many of our current design wins took multiple years to secure and we believe serve as a strong foundation for future growth. In cutting, we saw continued adoption of our programmable and high-power lasers in leading machine tool manufacturers in U.S., Japan, Korea, and Europe. In welding, we continue to see long-term opportunities, especially in electric vehicles. Our programmable lasers, coupled with new software and sensor technology we acquired via the plasma transaction, will support continued customer engagement and long-term opportunities in this market. Finally, in metal additive manufacturing, we saw a significant increase in customer engagement, design wins, and sales of our additive manufactured specific lasers. We believe this market is at an inflection point, as multiple laser tools combined with further improvements in our programmable lasers will further drive improvements to display its legacy machining and casting. I will now turn the call over to Ron to discuss Enlight's full year and fourth quarter financial results.

Thank you, Scott, and good afternoon, everyone. Beginning on slide 12, Enlight delivered record revenue for the full year of 2021, driven by a 41% year-over-year increase from sales to customer outside of China. Full year 2021 revenue increased 21% to $270.1 million. Developed revenue increased from $37.9 million in 2020 to $64 million in 2021, driven by higher revenue associated with direct energy development projects. Fourth quarter revenue was approximately 67.5 million. Q4 revenue from customers in our core strategic market outside of China grew 27% year-over-year to approximately 60.1 million. In China, Q4 revenue decreased approximately 60% year-over-year, which was offset reduction in sales of our fiber laser product to customer in China. Q4 development revenue was 16.5 million versus 14 million in Q4 2020. Turning to slide 13 to provide more detail into our gross margins. For year 2021, gross margin was 28.6% compared with 26.6% in the full year of 2020. Product gross margin was 35.6% for the full year 2021, compared to 30.6% in the full year of 2020. The 500 basis points year-over-year improvement in product gross margin in 2021 was driven mainly by higher sales to customers outside of China, a more favorable product mix, and better utilization, offset partially by increased manufacturing costs. In Q4, we experienced a 280 basis points reduction in product gross margin compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. This reduction was driven by additional overhead expenses as we invested in additional automated capacity in the United States and a low factory utilization in China. Moreover, we experienced additional costs related to labor, freight, and materials. Turning to slide 14, non-GAAP operating expenses were $18.8 million during the fourth quarter compared with $18.1 million in the prior quarter and $14.7 million in Q4 2020. The year-over-year increase in R&D was related mainly to higher overall investment to support our product roadmap and long-term growth activities. The year-over-year increase in SG&A was driven by increased headcount, compensation costs, and increased professional fees. As we continue to shift our strategic focus to customers and market outside of China, we also evaluate the appropriate level of operating expenses for our business. Turning to slide 15. Non-GAAP net income for full year 2020 was 10.7 million, compared with 7.3 million during 2020. Non-GAAP EPS for full year 2021 was 23 cents per diluted share, compared with 17 cents in 2020. On a GAAP basis, net loss per share for full year 2021 was 17 cents, compared with a loss of 55 cents during 2020. Fourth quarter 2021 non-GAAP net loss was $200,000 versus fourth quarter 2020 non-GAAP net income of $5.2 million. Fourth quarter 2021 non-GAAP net loss per share was $0.01 versus fourth quarter 2020 non-GAAP EPS of $0.12. On a gap basis, EPS for the fourth quarter was a loss of 20 cents compared with a loss of 12 cents during the fourth quarter of 2020. Full year 2021 adjusted EBITDA was 22.6 million or 8.4% of revenues. This compares to 18.2 million or 8.1% of sales during 2020. Our year-over-year improvement in adjusted EBITDA in 2021 was a result of higher gross profit offset by continued investment in operating expenses. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was 3.1 million or 4.6% of sales. This compares with 8.4 million in Q4 2020. Our decline in adjusted EBITDA in Q4 was a result of lower gross profit and higher operating expenses versus the fourth quarter of 2020. During 2021, we used approximately $7.4 million of operating cash versus $13 million of cash from operations in 2020. In the fourth quarter, we used approximately $10.1 million of operating cash versus $1.7 million of cash flow from operations in Q4 2020. Cash used in operations during the quarter was related mainly to the increase in working capital to mitigate supply chain disruptions. Our capital expenditure for full year 2021 was 19.3 million versus 23.4 million in 2020. Capital expenditures as a percentage of sales was approximately 7%. Going forward, we expect to continue to invest in CapEx related mainly to facility automation, infrastructure, and manufacturing capacity in the U.S. Turning to slide 16. We ended Q4 with cash and cash equivalents of approximately $147 million and no debt. DSO for the quarter was 52 days. Inventory at the end of the quarter was $74 million, representing 131 days. We continue to carefully manage inventories through strategic purchases to mitigate potential supply chain disruptions. Turning to slide 17 for our outlook for Q1. Based on the information available today, we expect Q1 to be in a range of 61 million to 67 million. At the midpoint of 64 million, this includes approximately 49 million of product sales and approximately 15 million of development sales. Turning to gross margin, Q1 product gross margin is expected to be in a range of 26% to 30%, and development gross margin to be approximately 6.5%. resulting in an overall gross margin range of 21 to 25%. While we were pleased with our gross margin improvement during 2021, our strategic investment in additional automated capacity in the U.S., and excess capacity in China, coupled with headwinds such inflation, higher labor costs, increase in material costs, and supply chain constraints, will make it difficult for us to significantly improve our gross margin in the next few quarters. However, we remain confident in our ability to achieve 40% plus product gross margin as we optimize our manufacturing footprint and continue to increase our revenue in strategic markets. For the first quarter, assuming today cost structure, we expect adjusted EBITDA to be approximately break-even. We expected Q1 average basis share to be approximately 43.5 million and non-GAAP diluted share to be approximately 47.8 million. Before turning the call over to Scott, I would like to take a moment to thank Scott, the Enlight board, and the rest of the Enlight employees for the opportunity to have served as Enlight CFO for the past four years. I'm proud of what we have built since taking the company public in 2018, and I believe that the company has a bright future. I also look forward to working with Joe over the next several months as he begins his post as the CFO on March 1st. With that, I will turn the call back over to Scott.

Thank you, Ron. I'd also like to again say thank you to Ron for four great years of service to Enlight. It's been a privilege to work with you. I want to sincerely thank you for all your hard work and dedication. I wish you all the best in your retirement. With that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your touch-tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Greg Palm with Craig Callum Capital Group. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good afternoon, and thanks for taking the questions. Ron enjoyed working with you, and Joe, congrats, and look forward to working with you more.

Thank you. Thank you.

I guess just starting on the gross margin line, I'm curious if you can quantify specifically the overhead costs from the investments in automated capacity for Q4 specifically, and also what is inherently baked in the guidance in Q1 as well.

Yeah, I will take it. You know, it's hard to quantify exactly what was the impact. But what we can tell you that there was some impact in Q4 and definitely in the guidance that we provided for Q1 for two main things. The first one is the excess capacity that we have in China. The reduction in volume in China occurred even faster than what we anticipated. And as a result of that, we have an excess capacity in China that we are maintaining for now while we are building automated capacity here in the U.S. So in one hand, you have an excess capacity in China. In another hand, we invested in capacity here in the U.S., which is mainly, maybe only, automated capacity that are not fully utilized. That definitely impact our margin in Q4 and will impact our margin in Q1 and going forward in the next few quarters. Add to that As I mentioned in my opening remarks, you know, some headwinds like inflation, labor costs, freight costs, and other supply chain disruption that impacted our margin in Q4, and we anticipated it would impact our margin in Q1 as well.

Yeah, I think you meant Q2 as well. What's your visibility beyond that? the next couple quarters. I mean, can you get back to more of that more recent gross margin in the second half, or is it going to take some time? I assume a lot is probably dependent as well on volumes and the excess capacity you have in China. But what's your thinking as of right now?

So, again, I don't think that it's the right thing to do. try to predict exactly when we will go back to the margin that you saw, product margin, I mean, that you saw in Q2, Q3 last year. As you mentioned, the impact on the gross margin will be very from the volume, from the mix, and that additional overhead cost that we have currently. But I think that, again, we're always talking about the long run, as I mentioned, as Scott mentioned, We believe, again, for the long run, it will take a few quarters, as we mentioned, but for the long run, we believe that we can go back to the 40 or we can reach to 40-plus percent product gross margin.

Understood. And then I guess just last one for me. You've only guided here for Q1, and, you know, at the midpoint, it's, quite a bit lower than kind of your, I think you're kind of your 15% annual growth bogey. I even think last quarter you made the comment about, you know, 20% being sustainable over the longer term. How should we think about the remainder of the year in that context?

You're talking about top line or you're talking about top line?

Yep. Sorry. Correct. Top line.

So, again, look at 2021. 2021, we grew 21% despite the fact that China went down significantly. And we mentioned several times, by the way, since the IPO, and it was the case since the IPO, even prior to the IPO, that Enlite grew more than 20% CAGR. And we believe that for the long run, it will be the case as well. Again, there are many, many – it's a transition year. 2021, 2022, it's going to be a transition year, meaning in 2022, the revenue from China, from cutting, is going to be very, very minimal. In 2021, we had a revenue from cutting from China. So we will continue to grow, maybe in some area in the business, faster than 20%. But you need to take all of that into consideration to see how 2022 will look like. And that's, by the way, one of the reasons why we are not talking about specifically, it's too early to talk about specifically the 2022 growth. However, again, from model perspective, it is the right thing to look at Enlight as a 20% plus CAGR for the future.

Okay. Great. Back in the queue. Thanks and good luck.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Patrick Ho with Spiegel. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much. And likewise, Ron, I want to congratulate you. Thanks for your efforts. And Joe, I look forward to working with you more on a going forward basis.

Thank you.

Maybe first off for Scott, obviously with your diversification strategy taking hold, we're seeing the growth in other markets. regions, as well as your new products. As you just look at 22, just for this year, which of those three variables, whether it's markets, region, or new product expansion, which do you see as being the biggest driver for Enlite, at least from that breakdown?

Yeah, I think, you know, as we look ahead, we see strong continued growth opportunities, both in industrial and in defense. In industrial, you know, we've launched a number of new products in 21. We'll be launching more products in 22. Just announced this acquisition of Plasmo that'll enhance the products. So we see strong opportunities to continue to grow outside of China in those industrial markets. You know, notably, I think one market that we see very nice overall growth and growth in our business is in additive manufacturing, where the economics of laser additive manufacturing is, you know, inflecting. And then in defense, we see continued opportunities for growth. How those hit the top line in 22, you know, that's always harder to predict. given that it takes time for those programs to hit in terms of programs to record. But we see strong growth opportunities in both of those markets and continued secular growth in the microfabrication space.

Great. That's helpful. And maybe for the team, whoever wants to answer this, the supply chain and the input costs have been a struggle for a lot of technology sectors. over the past six months or so. From your vantage point, are you seeing more pressures from, quote, supply chain shortages, or are the input costs, whether it's related to paying more for components or freight and logistics costs, which of those variables are having, I guess, the biggest headwinds, at least for you in the near term?

Yeah, Patrick, we see challenges in all of those areas. There's not one that we would highlight. But yeah, it is a difficult time to be managing when we're dealing with, you know, shortages. And it could be a very small component that causes a problem for us or one of our customers. Certainly, freight is challenging. And then just, you know, inflationary uncertainties also. And on top of that, with, you know, continued, you know, COVID, you know, continued, hopefully, will evolve, but continued issues, just managing a company through this. So we see, you know, across that entire spectrum that you outlined, there's nothing we would highlight that is, you know, the single sort of material impact to the business, but it is challenging.

Great. Thank you again, and good luck, Ron. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Tom Disler with DA Davidson. Please go ahead.

Yes, good afternoon. Thanks for the question. First of all, I guess when you look at the fourth quarter decline, the sequential decline, largely just explained by lower revenue in China. I'm curious what you're seeing there. Is it just the Chinese market was a little bit softer? Were there supply chain issues, or was it just your choice to de-emphasize that market and walk away from potential business?

I think all of those factors, Tom, some level, I think the overall, you know, economy and industrial sector in China in Q4, I think was softer across the board. But in addition to that, it's, you know, the intentional decision that we've made, you know, some time ago. to be, you know, very careful about which markets we serve there. And they, you know, there's a limited set of markets that are truly attractive markets there. So it's both, you know, our decisions and indeed a softer, you know, economy in China.

Okay, that's helpful. Thanks, Scott. And also, I was curious on the automation front, is this mainly long lead time custom tooling that you have to

produce or bring in house and you know what is the lead time to get the automation up and running indeed yes you know automating you know complex processes to assemble lasers as there's no off-the-shelf you know technology there it is a largely custom you know very long lead time set of projects that that we started in some cases multiple years ago and Glad that we did that several years ago, and it's great to see progress as those tools come online.

So is this an ongoing process, or do you feel like you're at fairly good capacity?

Yeah, it's ongoing. It's been one that, as I said, started more than two years ago. It's an ongoing, continued process as we advance new products that are designed for automation. and then the automation itself. So, you know, we're seeing good progress there, but it'll be a theme that we will continue for quite some time.

Great. Okay, and then, Ron, one last question for you before you leave. On the OpEx side, was the sequential increase driven by just increased costs, or did you increase headcount as well?

First of all, I'm not leaving. I'm going to be with Joe here until the end of June to make sure that we have a good transition. That's point number one. Second point, going back to your OPEX question, yeah, it's both. It's increase in labor costs. It's increase in professional fees and headcount in some cases, yes.

Great. Okay. Well, thank you all for your time.

Thank you, Tom.

Our next question comes from Chris Granger with Needham & Company. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions, and congrats, Ron. On additive, it sounds like it's picking up there, and I was just wondering if you could provide any color on the pipeline or what you're seeing in terms of demand there and whether there's any indications that the sales cycle could be compressing and any data points with respect to wins with existing customers? Thank you very much.

Yeah, I appreciate the question. So what, you know, we've been working in additive for many years, and what we're seeing is strong growth. I think you can look at the standard market reports out there that are calling north of 20% growth in that space, and indeed, that's what we're seeing. And it's a result of... significant improvements in a whole host of different technologies, but I do think the lasers play a really important role here, notably in systems where there's multiple lasers that drive throughput in these tools, and also more advanced lasers like our AFX laser. And we've posted some of the presentations that we had at the recent Formnext trade show So we see continued expansion in the overall market. We see design wins. And we see, most importantly, new applications that are now economic for laser powder bed fusion applications. And indeed, we're using these in our own products.

Great. And just on Plasmo, As you're going through the process of planning for integration, how are you thinking about integrating that product base with your existing offering? Is the Plasma offering something that we'll continue to offer on a standalone basis, or could you integrate the sensor suite with the existing power source? How are you thinking about that?

Yeah, good. It will be a product line that fits very nicely with our lasers, and it allows us to expand the product portfolio. It also allows us to engage with customers where Plasmo has had success in their own design wins in various industrial applications. So it will augment our products and also expand our channels.

Great. Thank you very much.

Again, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star, then 1. Our next question comes from Mark Miller with the Benchmark Company. Please go ahead.

Best wishes for your future. I have a question. You continue to talk about going to 40% margins long-term. What are the drivers? How do investors assess your progress, and what's the roadmap for 40% gross margins?

Sure. But just to be clear, we are talking about product gross margin. You know, the total gross margin, keep in mind that we have a portion of our revenue is coming from development revenue with 6.5% margin. But going back to product gross margin, I think that 2021 was a perfect example how can we improve our margin by better mix with product outside of China, especially with aerospace and defense and industrial outside of China application where the margin is much higher. But in order to continue to improve the margin, we need to do two main things. The first one is to some extent to adjust the excess capacity that we have today. in China and in the U.S. to the level of production. Currently, as I mentioned at the beginning, there is an excess capacity in China, an excess capacity or lower utilization in the U.S. Once we will finalize the automation here in the U.S., we can reduce the capacity in China and produce more product here with automated lines in the U.S., which definitely will help us with the margins, with the cost. So that's point number one. Second point is, obviously, continue to grow the top line and have a better utilization on our fixed costs. And the last one is continue to grow the top line, but growing the top line with application, again, like aerospace and defense and industrial products outside of China where the margin is much higher.

Okay, and what percent of sales were represented by greater than six kilowatt fiber lasers of your fiber laser sales?

Get on that standby, Mark.

Get that number for you, Mark. In the quarter, Mark, greater than six kilowatt was 40%.

What about less than two kilowatt? Do you have that?

Yeah, we have less than two kilowatts. It's actually 31% during the quarter, which is the highest it's been in a while. And I think that that is a testament to what we've done in metal additive manufacturing. Most of the lasers by power in additive manufacturing are a kilowatt and below. And most of those sales are to customers that are obviously outside of China, which is why you've seen

that tick up sequentially over the last couple of quarters thank you welcome this concludes our question and answer session as well as our conference for today thank you for attending today's presentation you may now disconnect