LiqTech International, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Lick Tech third quarter fiscal year 2023 results 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 store then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Robert Bloom with Lithum Partners. Please go ahead.

All right. Thank you very much, Andrea. And good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss Lick Tech International's third quarter 2023 financial results for the period ending September 30th, 2023. Joining us on today's call from the company are Fei Chen, Company's Chief Executive Officer, and Simon Stadel, Company's Chief Financial Officer. Before I turn the call over to management, let me remind listeners that there will be an open Q&A session at the end of the call today. Before we begin with prepared remarks, we submit for the record the following statement. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements reflect the good faith and judgment of management, The forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those discussed during the conference call. The company, therefore, urges all listeners to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made in the reports filed with the Securities Exchange Commission, including risk factors that attempt to advise interested parties on the risks that may affect our business, financial condition, operations, and cash flows. If one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, the company's actual results may vary materially from those expected or projected. The company therefore encourages all listeners not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which pertain only as of this date and the date of the release and conference call. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, to reflect any events or circumstances that that may arise after the date of this release and conference call. That said, I'd like to turn the call over to Fei Chen, CEO of LickTech International. Fei, please proceed.

Thank you, Robert, and good day to everyone on the call. I am excited to get the opportunity to speak with you and to share with you our good progress. During the third quarter, we made continued progress executing against our strategic plan to drive the business towards profitability. We saw revenue increase of 53% compared to third quarter last year. Gross margins improved from 3% last year to 19% in this year's third quarter. And our net loss improved by 0.4 million Importantly, our adjusted EBITDA was just a negative 0.8 million as we moved the business towards profitability. These improved results are due to the enhanced business strategy we enacted last year with focus on delivering revenue on our established business areas and we're driving growth through expansion into new targeted markets. To put it in other words, we are looking to protect and expand our established businesses, such as commercial pool systems, ceramic membranes, diesel particulate filters, and components, and hunt and develop our target businesses, which includes areas such as phosphoric acid oil and gas, and our overall strategic focus to increase our service business. As I mentioned in my recent cooperative presentations, the key word here is focus. We are focused on making sure that we can have a sustainable business by protecting and defending our position in key markets where LIKTECH has a demonstrated history of success. We are enabling high upside growth in exciting markets where we can leverage our core silicon carbon technology and system design capabilities. This dual approach ensures that we are not reliant on any one project or customer for us to be successful. Taking a step back, at LICTED, it is our vision to become a leading provider of advanced and sustainable filtration solutions. These key megatrends of water cleaning and reuse, greenhouse gas emission reduction and the overall circular economy are all key to save the world's scarce resources and protecting the environment. Beyond protecting the environment and preserving resources, our solutions provide real economic benefits to our customers. Whether it is the increased years through product purification of our phosphoric acid systems, decrease the cost through the ability to reuse water in our produced water, oil and gas solution, or lower energy consumption and the chlorine dosing needs in the case of our aqua solution for commercial swimming pool products. The recent sales wins that we have achieved and distribution agreements we have signed are all due to this key idea of providing value to customers. Let me take a minute to talk about some key developments that took place over the past few months. Let's start with our commercial swimming pool products. We successfully delivered 10 swimming pool systems during the third quarter and have recently received orders for three more systems which we anticipate delivering during the fourth quarter. Year to date, we have shifted 18 systems compared to 6 systems in 2022, with a geographic focus in UK, Spain, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand. With the great progress we have made in these new geographic areas, we have been looking at ways to broaden our sales footprint. by entering into distribution agreements with key partners. Following a thorough process, we entered into two key agreements, one with VAR and REIT, a UK and Dubai-based group to cover key areas of the Middle East, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. As their CEO mentioned, liquid pool filtration system is statistically a perfect match with the binary cutting edge work in the design and the build of the most prestigious state-of-the-art leisure centers and spas. We also entered into an agreement with Waterco to cover Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. Waterco is a well-established player in the swimming pool market and has worked with Victics successfully over the past three years to bring solutions to their joint customers. We look forward to working with these two well-respected companies to broaden our reach and make a substantial impact in the global aquatic and water treatment industries in these key territories. Within the marine scrubber market, we saw the return of our first new marine scrubber system orders in more than 18 months as we deployed an upgraded modular design system through our recently enhanced distribution relationship with Yoyo in China. Our dialogue with customers and partners has confirmed that DTEK's modular design marine squabble water treatment system is highly reliable and delivers strong returns on their investments. Furthermore, our new generation design reduces OPEX for owners significantly by largely reducing day-to-day operational and maintenance costs. This tank has more than 160 installations in the marine scrubber market, which occurred primarily between 2018 and 2020. This new order not only demonstrates the continuous confidence from the market and the customers in our solutions, but also validates Our enhanced commercial strategy I mentioned a few moments ago as we focus on driving revenue in established business verticals where Leetex has proven technical capabilities and installations. With a renewed focus on the market, corporate with capable distribution partners, I believe there is an opportunity to regain our position in this market in the future. Finishing out our established business contributors, from a membrane element standpoint, we continue to deliver ceramic membrane orders during the third quarter and receive new orders which will be set for delivery in quarter four. On the DPF side, we experienced stable revenue contribution. We don't expect tremendous growth here, but looking persistently into new application areas to hold this business steady. On the plastic side, in the third quarter, we did experience a bit of a sequential pullback as we wrapped up a large order we received at end of last year. in the area of biological-based material development. We continue to look for opportunities to grow this area into the future. Finally, we did see significant increases in the sale of spare parts in Q3. As we have more systems in operation, this will become a nice recurring business opportunity for us. Our role, we are pleased with the progress being made on our established business areas. Across all of the key areas I mentioned, we have improved our pricing discipline through enhanced cost visibility and elevated mass intelligence, which is delivering increased gross profit and ultimately bring little closer to profitability. Where we are pleased with the traction generated from our established business, we recognize that there is a very large accessible market opportunity for our solutions in a wide variety of markets that can potentially drive growth for Leetech. These large system solutions in the areas of industry water treatment, oil and gas filtration, acid purification, and other industrial applications are ideally suited for these solutions in the long run. As we have stated, the downside is that this area has much longer sales cycles, but I believe progress is being made. Within the oil and gas markets, our collaboration with NASA is moving ahead. We are currently building what I would define as a pilot system, specifically for NASA to utilize in various demonstrations. We are similarly in close dialogue with two to three target customers in the Middle East for produced water solutions where our solution could be applied. Hope to have more to share with you in the coming quarters. We think for storage ethics. We delivered and recognized revenue during the third quarter on our pilot unit to silicon feature in China. We believe this pilot unit will enable our partners in the region to demonstrate that our ultrafiltration technology can effectively help their customers enhance their process efficiency and the product quality. We look to further build up this pilot and our US-based installation to drive further phosphorus acid system sales into the future. During the third quarter, we also delivered and recognized the revenue of a natural cooling system here in Denmark. We are not a large market opportunity. It highlights the capabilities of our solution across a wide range of opportunities and the validation by yet another large international company. Finally, on the monoethylene glycol or MEG fund, our first offshore installation in the Mediterranean with a large oil and gas client continues to perform well. As I mentioned last quarter, this is the first of a two-part order for the offshore project with expectations for follow and orders shown. That's it due to the location of the platform, which is off the coast of Israel. There is some uncertainty on the timing due to the current conflicts in the region. We should know more in the coming weeks on whether or not this will be shifted in fiscal 2023 or slip to 2024. In summary, as we look to the rest of the year and into 2024, we see a number of opportunities in our targeted business segment, particularly with Phosphorus Acid as well as produced water components of oil and gas markets. that we believe will be key contributors to growth hopefully in 2023 and certainly in 2024. Further, our newly established partnerships within the commercial swimming pool markets are expected to expand our growth in this key market segment for us moving ahead. Where there is always uncertainty, such as what we are in company with our MEG installation in the Mediterranean, we feel confident in the guidance for the full-year 2023 revenue of 19 to 21 million. Further, we also believe that we remain on track to achieve our full-year gross profit margin expectations in the range of 15 to 20%. Please remember that our gross margin last year was only 3.5%. We have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us to leverage our highly unique technological advantages, brand competencies and sustainability value to build a growing and profitable business. In 2023, we have succeeded in making continued progress in each quarter, and I am extremely pleased that with this good performance and anticipate continued progress in the quarters to come. With that, let me turn the call over to Simon to review the financials in more detail, after which I will wrap up with a few comments and then open the call to your questions. Simon, please proceed.

Thank you, Faye, and good morning, everyone. Let me add some color on the financial highlights for the third quarter. The reported revenue of 5.1 million increased 53% compared to the 3.3 million reported in the third quarter of 2022. It also marked a modest, however important, increase compared to the most recent quarter ended June 30. Broken down by vertical, sales were as follows. System sales and related services of 2.6 million, up more than 200% compared to 0.8 million reported in Q3 last year, and up 24% compared to the most recent sequential second quarter. Looking at our ceramics business, BPF and membrane sales ended at 1.6 million, down 13% compared to the quarter ended September 30 last year, reflecting a dedicated focus on improving profitability by carefully managing our revenue mix. And finally, plastics revenue and externally funded R&D projects of 0.9 million, up 25%, compared to 0.7 million reported in Q3 last year, with stable plastics activity and progress on key external R&D projects. In summary, the development in revenue is directly correlated with our strategic focus to strengthen the established business lines. More specifically, our core ceramics and system businesses with shorter sales cycles and a new complementary dedicated aftermarket strategy. To be specific, the key revenue drivers during the quarter was the record delivery of 10 pool systems shipped to clients across Europe and Asia, but also the delivery of our first phosphoric acid pilot to China. continued progress on key projects with oil and gas and metal cooling, and finally increased aftermarket sales with uptick in orders for both marine and asset applications leveraging our global installed base. Zooming in on our components business, our ceramics and plastic businesses executed on incoming orders post-summer with decisive focus on improving throughput and cutting lead times. In terms of guidance, and as Faye mentioned, we expect full year revenue in the range of 19 to 21 million compared to the 16 million reported last year, with a gross margin rate of 15 to 20%. It's evident that we are pleased with the progress on both top line and profitability. However, we are carefully monitoring the escalating geopolitical unrest amid the conflict in Ukraine and Gaza, which in turn may fuel uncertainty or directly impact our business. This in particular in industries such as oil and gas or countries that are directly exposed. Turning to our gross margin and more insight on our journey towards break-even. The third quarter echoes the strong progress reported over the last couple of quarters with reported gross profit of 0.9 million and an implied gross profit margin of 19% compared to just 3% in the comparable period last year. The positive development is a result of increased activity levels and equally important, a stringent focus on optimizing our revenue mix and company-wide pricing discipline. As reported earlier this year, we are pleased to see that profitability remains robust across both our established business lines and new target business within oil and gas and phosphoric acid. From an operational perspective, we decided to onboard incremental staff towards the end of the quarter to help accelerate the ramp up of our ceramics manufacturing throughput and compress delivery times to help execute on our order backlog. Profitability was also underpinned by new quality and production optimization efforts, seeking to standardize our manufacturing and system delivery platforms, which again will allow our business to reduce scrap and increase yield. Taking a quick look at our contribution margin, We remain focused on closely monitoring this important KPI to ensure we develop a profitable and sustainable business with an accelerated focus on meeting our financial objectives of breakeven. During the quarter we back out fixed costs. Our contribution margin was approximately 45% and thus well above the 33% reported in the third quarter last year. Our contribution margin has historically been very volatile as it directly correlates with the underlying revenue mix. However, as reported so far this year, we have succeeded in significantly improving and stabilizing our contribution margin well above 40%. On that note, we do maintain our quarterly break-even target measured on an Anjusted EBITDA basis of approximately 7 million in revenue and potentially lower the right revenue mix. Turning topics. Total spend for the quarter was 2.6 million, compared to 2.4 million in the comparable third quarter of last year. The increase reflects the onboarding of additional sales reps, combined with investments in IT and marketing to help accelerate and scale our business. To reiterate, we remain focused on running a lean business by monitoring costs and carefully evaluating our spend to ensure we do not jeopardize our financial objectives. On that note, I am pleased to see that our OPEX came down 0.2 million from the quarter ended June 30th, hence evidencing that we are very diligent when it comes to managing our OPEX spend. All the income of 0.3 million came down compared to 0.5 million last year, with the development explained by reduced gain on currency transactions, partially offset by increased interest income as we benefit from more favorable deposit rates on our US-denominated excess cash. Concluding on the P&L, we reported a net loss of 1.4 million compared to a net loss of 1.8 million in the same period last year, again benefiting from top-line growth and increased profitability in a period where we invest in building a strong elite check from both an organisation and operational perspective. Competing briefly on our adjusted EBITDA, excluding non-cash items, we reported an adjusted EBITDA of negative 0.8 million compared to a negative of 1.3 million in a comparable quarter last year. Considering the reported revenue, it's evident that breakeven remains achievable when adding an incremental revenue of approximately 2 million per quarter at a plus 40% contribution. Thus, this remains our key focus. Finally, let me briefly comment on our cash flow and balance sheet before summarizing and handing over to Faye. We ended the quarter with 11.8 million in cash, down 0.8 million compared to the second quarter, as we took delivery of key manufacturing equipment at our ceramics facility in Copenhagen. More specifically, new extruders and kilns. From a cash flow perspective, this quarter marks the end to the investment cycle initiated back in 2021 with planned capacity expansion both abroad and domestically in Denmark. Hence, near to medium-term cash capex will be confined to maintenance and smaller investments. Also, I'm pleased that we during the quarter negotiated improved terms with our core banking partner, reducing our cash collateral and securing incremental lease financing for the equipment delivered during the quarter. Furthermore, as mentioned in our release, we also proactively addressed our June 24 maturity related to our senior commissioner notes. and was successfully extended to Jan 26 on terms mirroring the original agreement. In summary, the underlying cash flow profile is improving as we are showing progress on both top line and profitability, which combined with less cash capex and the benefits of the improved capital structure will further support our path towards positive cash flow generation. Thanks for your continued support and over to you, Faye.

Thank you, Simon. I am pleased with the progress our new leadership team has made to transform Leetech, operationally and commercially, to become a leading provider of advanced and sustainable filtration solutions around the world. We look forward to finishing 2003 on a high note and setting ourselves up for continued success in 2024. With that, operator, we would be happy to take any questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. Once again, that was star then 1 to ask a question. And at this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. And our first question will come from Rob Brown of Lake Street Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hi, Faye. Hi, Simon. Hi. Hey, Rob.

You've made nice progress in building up the distribution relationships. I just wanted to get your sense on how much more there is to go there, and are there geographies or other markets that you need to work on, or do you feel like you've kind of gotten that now in place?

Yeah, we still have quite many geographic areas to be explored. For example, we don't have any distribution in the U.S. and also some other European countries. So we will definitely continue our journey and find more distributors to extend our geographic reach.

Okay, great. You had some orders in the quarter. How's the pipeline looking for that? And do you feel like that's sort of re-engaging into next year? What's your sense on that market for the next 18 months?

So, Rob, we're not commenting on the pipeline. Clearly, we're disclosing orders as they come, if they are obviously relevant in terms of tapping into new markets or they are and reflecting a new product or a sizeable order. Now, we are diligently working through our marine portfolios, also alluded to on our conference participation back in September, where we're trying to really address that market through multiple channels. As Faye also alluded to at that point, we have onboarded a new sales rep for that market, a very experienced person that will help us build So we are working diligently to really strengthen our marine pipeline, and we'll elaborate more on that on future calls, and obviously also disclose that on relevant press releases in due time.

Thank you. And then maybe on your efforts to kind of get spares and services improving, I think you had some nice progress there, but how do you see that playing out?

and and what sort of goes into into ramping that business i mean we we do have 160 marine systems in the market and that give us a very good basis for our service business and we're also selling more systems for the oil gas and also for three acid and also even for the swimming pool system So we are actually, in the process, really looking to our service offering and to build up the proficiency on that. So we do hope, we do expect next year the service will contribute very significantly than before.

Great. Thank you. I'll turn it over.

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, then one. And our next question will come from Bill Chapman, a private investor. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you. Hi, everyone. On the phosphoric acid, one of your presentations, you said the ROI is well under one year. And is that still proving out? And then if so, what obstacles are you having to deal with for a company to adopt this? For example, they have to shut the plant down for four days and that's difficult. What are the issues that the plants have to deal with to adopt this?

It's nice to have you have seen our presentation. It is true the return of investment is very short. It's less than a year and that still stands. So the really why the sales cycle is longer for this application is we are actually going to put our ultrafiltration system into their production line. So they always want to make a pilot testing before they really put into their real system. So that's also why we have sold our pilot to us, for example, Silicon Feature, and we're going to have more pilots sending out. And when the pilot is up running, then they will become more reliable for them to really open their pipeline. So these are little bit of troubles on process because they want to be capital and they want to take the pilot process. But the return on the investment is very impressive for all the customers we have talked with.

And maybe just adding to that, Bill, I think the key thing here is also, as we mentioned, that the system is performing well. I think the quality of the system and the fact that we have a client that is really benefiting from this, I think, gives us the long-term view that this is the right market for us to focus on. But obviously, we can't control the decision process on the client side. And as Faye correctly mentioned, when we are tapping into the co-production line, it unfortunately takes time. But I just want to reiterate that the system that we have installed is performing extremely well.

Okay. Would this be considered substantial cost savings to the average manufacturing plant, or is it marginal cost savings?

I mean, it's a substantial saving because they're both saving the process cost and also the product quality increase. And that is very much value for them.

Okay, one last question. How big is the market on this? I don't think I've seen anything on that. If I did, I just overlooked it. So how big is the market for this?

I don't think we have published exactly the market size for this one, but we did in our presentation, you have seen, and for the new target business area, we're saying something about more than $2 billion U.S. dollar potential address for markets. So it's a huge market there.

Just one last question. Of all of the product offerings you have, which ones have the biggest revenue potential for the company? It's the way it seems right now to you.

You know, that's exactly why we have defined our commercial strategy as we have done today. And we do not want to take, you know, the same situation as we had before and stand on one leg. We would like to have several different segments and it's more stable for the company. So I would say all the areas we focus on, the commercial swimming pool and the marine scrubber and the phosphorus acid and oil and gas The O could be a very substantial revenue contributor for our market.

Okay.

Thank you very much. Thank you both. You're most welcome.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Thank you all very much for being with us today. We look forward to communicating with you soon again. Thank you for attending.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation and you may now disconnect.