Westport Fuel Systems Inc

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westport Fuel Systems Q2 2024 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ashley Newell, VP, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Westport Fuel Systems' second quarter conference call for 2024. This call is being held to coincide with the press release containing Westport's financial results that was issued yesterday. On today's call, speaking on behalf of Westport, is Chief Executive Officer and Director, Dan Selay, and Chief Financial Officer, Bill Larkin. Attendance on this call is open to the public, but questions will be restricted to the investment community. You are reminded that certain statements made on this call and our responses to certain questions may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. and applicable Canadian securities laws. And as such, forward-looking statements are made based on our current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties. With that, I will turn the call over to you, Dan.

All right, thanks, Ashley, and good day, everyone. Today, I'll be recapping our progress and results in the second fiscal quarter of 2024, providing updates on our 2024 strategic priorities, including an update on the JV with Volvo, introducing our new reporting segments, and touching on the success of our July 4th event before turning the call over to Bill to walk us through our Q2 results and new segment reporting structure in more detail. Q2 was a solid quarter, demonstrated by improvements in our margins. Impacting results was the launch of the JV with the Volvo Group. During the quarter, we were excited to close this HPDI JV transaction, which resulted in us recognizing two months of revenue from the heavy-duty business in our results. Beginning in June, the HPDI JV was accounted for under the equity method of accounting for investments. The improvement in our margins and adjusted EBITDA we saw in the quarter reflects the initiatives we have undertaken to reduce costs and streamline our business, along with initial results from our more recent growth initiatives, such as our LPG fuel system sales to our OEM customer. Our evolving business strategy has long recognized the value of strategic partnerships. million, plus up to an additional $45 million of the earn-out subject to performance of the joint venture. We know our partnership with Volt is just beginning, and we are excited to continue working together. Also in June, we shared our 2023 ESG report, which highlights our commitment to environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and strong governance. We are dedicated to sustainable operations because we see the value it brings to our customers. Guided by our core values of integrity, respect, and perseverance, we're especially focused on reducing carbon emissions in transportation to help clean the air and build a more sustainable future. We continue to make advancements against our three main priorities for 2024 and beyond. As a reminder, those priorities include, one, driving success via our HPDI joint venture with Volvo, two, improving operational excellence, and three, reimagining a hybrid-powered future. Regarding our first priority, as I mentioned, we closed our HPDI joint venture in June of 2024. Although closing the JV with Volvo was a significant milestone, the hard work is still ahead of us. We have a lot to accomplish together to ensure that the JV results in the acceleration of the globalization and global adoption of of the HPDI fuel system technology for long-haul and off-road applications. Thankfully, the work has already begun. As we progress, we actively promote and develop markets for our technologies and sectors that are challenging to decarbonize, thereby expanding the joint venture's reach into the future. As I have said before, our pursuit of profitability and cost-cutting is not a priority. It is essential. In Q2, we closed the amended Westport in JV with the restructuring in India. It is expected to transition this initiative to generating positive cash flow. We have a number of things to resize the business and cut costs where we can. Many of these changes won't be visible in the financials immediately. However, in Q2 2024, we began to see some of our initiatives materialize. Our margins grew from 17% of revenue in Q2 of 2023 to 21% of revenue this quarter, which was achieved by implementing tighter controls and beginning to see the benefits of our newer growth projects supported by strong margins. One of the significant changes in our recast financial segments is the additional transparency we now offer our growing high-pressure controls and systems business. Here, we are at the forefront of the clean energy revolution, designing, developing, and producing high-demand components for transportation and industrial applications. This includes fuel containment and fuel pressure management components for fuel storage and fuel delivery systems. We partner with the world's leading fuel cell and hydrogen manufacturers and companies committed to decarbonizing transport, offering versatile solutions that serve a variety of fuel types. While hydrogen is the key to the future, decarbonization and export, our components and solutions are already powering emission-reduced innovation today across a range of gas fuels, including both PNG and hydrogen. With decades of experience, market-leading brands, and unmatched engineering expertise, we are leading the march. While we're still small, our strategic position and innovative capabilities focus on the cusp of significant growth, ensuring we're the go-to choice for those shaping the future of clean energy today. and tomorrow. In the supplementary information we provide this quarter, aligning our historical results with the past under the new segments, let's show the business narrative of $20.23 million, representing approximately $70 million in additional revenue to be generated in the latter part of the decade. Westport is excited to play a part in an innovative industry in which alternative fuels are seeing increased support in investments. We are poised to deliver now, providing alternative fuel solutions to support transport and industrial applications and are prepared to capture the growth as hydrogen develops into the fuel source of the future in the mobility sector. On July 4th, Volvo and Westport marked a defining moment in the journey of our newly formed joint venture. The two companies celebrated the official launch of our partnership with an exclusive event at the University of British Columbia, the birthplace of Westport's HPDI fuel system technology. Leaders from both companies joined in in the celebration of this milestone, emphasizing the significance of the partnership in driving forward HPDI's breakthrough technology in tackling the urgent challenges of climate change. By combining Volvo's extensive expertise in commercial vehicle and power system manufacturing with Westport's innovative fuel system technology. We are creating a powerful force for change that can make a meaningful contribution to reduce carbon emissions immediately. With that, I'll hand the mic over to Bill, who'll talk you through the results.

Good morning, and thank you, Dan. I'll start off by walking through the new segment reporting structure. As Dan mentioned, we find the way we view and report our business operations. Beginning with this quarter, we're reporting financial results under five new segments. These segments are the HPDIG, light duty, high-percentage controls and systems, heavy-duty OEM, and corporate. Financial results from the HDI joint venture are being counterformed under the equity method and are also supported by enhanced disclosures in our MD&A, as well as in the notes to the financial statements. Before I go over the quarterly results, I want to delve deeper in walking through what is included in each of our new segments. First, the HPDI-JV represents our recently closed joint venture with Volvo Group. The Financial Information Presenter represents one month activity during the second quarter. The Light Duty segment manufacturers LPG and CNG fuel storage solutions and supplies fuel storage tanks to the aftermarket OEM, and other market segments across a wide range of brands. The light-duty segment includes the consolidated results from our delayed OEM, independent aftermarkets, light-duty OEM options, fuel storage, and electronics businesses. Our high-pressure controls and systems segment designs, develops, produces, and sells high-pressure components for the use of hydrogen and CNG fuels in transportation and industrial applications. Finally, our heavy-duty OEM segment reflects the results from the HPDI business for the first five months of the year until the formation of the HPDI GAB, which occurred on June 3, 2024. And going forward, the heavy-duty OEM segment will reflect revenue earned from a transitional service agreement in place with the HPDI joint venture. This TSA is intended to support the HPDI joint venture in the short term as the organization transitions to its own operating entity. Therefore, after completing the completion of the activities of the TSA, there will be no additional activity in the segments. So to get a complete picture of the HPDI business presented for the quarter, combine HPDI-GAV in the heavy-duty OEM segments. As Dan mentioned, the new segments are designed to support Westport's strategic priorities and provide heightened disclosure. Specifically in areas of our business where we see outsized future growth. We hope that the additional transparency provides our investors and analysts information to more accurately model and evaluate Westport. To support this, we have included a recast of historical financials and supplementary information of our Q2 press release. Moving on to our second quarter results. In the quarter, we generated $83.4 million in revenue, a 2% decrease compared to the prior year period. This is primarily driven by decreased sale lines that are delayed OEM and fuel storage businesses. This is partially offset by increased sales volume to electronics, high pressure controls and systems, light duty OEM, and heavy duty OEM revenues in the quarter. A reminder, this is the first quarter with the HPDI joint venture, which impacted our Q2 revenue as Q2 reflects two months of HPDI sales activity in our financials, with June activity being accounted under the equity method of accounting for investments. Gross margin increased to $17.1 million, or 21% of revenue, in the quarter. This is up from $14.4 million, or 17% of revenue, in Q2 of 23. This is largely driven by increases in sales to our European customers and a reduction in sales to developing regions in our light-duty business, in addition to seeing the initial results from our cost-cutting initiatives. We continue to demonstrate improvement in our adjusted EBITDA. This quarter recorded a loss of $2 million, which was an improvement by $2 million as compared to the same quarterly period last year. The improvements in this margin drove positive improvements in our adjusted EBITDA. However, these improvements were partially offset by higher G&A costs in the second quarter, which included $2 million in consulting and legal fees related to analyzing the HPDI joint venture. Light duty revenue for Q2 of 24 was $69.5 million, as compared to $73.7 million for Q2 of 23. This increase was driven by lower sales in our delayed OEM, independent aftermarket, and fuel storage businesses, and was partially offset by increased sales in our light duty OEM and electronics businesses. As expected, our delayed OEM business continued to see a lower revenue in the quarter as a key customer continued to work through their existing inventory. However, we began seeing sales to the key customers progressively increase through the quarter. Gross margin and light duty business increased in the quarter to 15.1 million or 22% of revenue as compared to 12.7 million or 17% of revenue in Q2 of 2023. This is primarily driven by a change in sales mix with an increase in sales to European customers and a reduction in sales to developing regions. This includes a full quarter of deliveries of Bureau 6 LP fuel systems to our global OEM partner. High pressure controls and systems revenue for Q2 of 24 was $3.4 million, which was an increase of $600,000 as compared to $2.8 million for Q2 of 2023. Now, this was primarily driven by increased sales volumes and product and service revenue. Gross margin increased slightly in the quarter to $700,000, or 21% of revenue, compared to $600,000 or 21% of revenue in Q2 of 23. The heavy duty OEM revenue for second quarter of 2024 was $10.59. This is up $2 million compared to the prior year. The revenue increase was driven by an increase in product sales and engineering services for the two months in the quarter when the company wholly owned the HPDI business. Additionally, we recorded one month of inventory sales from the company to the HPDI for 500,000 under our transitional services agreements. First margin dollars in our heavy duty OEM business in the second quarter of 24 is up slightly to 1.3 million or 12% revenue, compared to 1.1 million or 13% of revenue in Q2 of 23. Regarding liquidity, our cash and cash equivalents at June 30, 2024 was $41.5 million. This decreased $2.4 million as compared to the end of Q1 of 24. With respect to our cash balance, there's $8.4 million related to the closing of the HPDI joint venture that was received in July. Therefore, this amount is not reflected in our cash balance at the end of the quarter. Net cash provided by operating activities was $1.5 million. This is an improvement of $2.1 million over Q2 of last year. This improvement was achieved through continued reductions in net working capital. Net cash provided by investing activities was $5.8 million. Now, this included the proceeds from the sale of our investments of $20.4 million related to partial sales of our ownership interest in the HPDI-JV and the Minda Westport JV. This was partially offset by capital contributions to the HPDI JV of $9.9 million and capital expenditures of $5.4 million. In the quarter, net cash used in financing activities was $8.9 million. During the quarter, we reduced our use of the revolving credit facility by $5.2 million and made $3.7 million of principal payments. As a reminder, in Q2 of 2023, we were paid $8.79 million to settle our long-term royalty obligation with Cartesian. Going forward, we'll continue to do what is necessary to ensure we are actively and fully capitalized. We remain focused on our project pipeline designed to enhance our liquidity as we continue to prioritize solidifying our balance sheets. We've been actively implementing cost savings initiatives and we're already seeing positive results. With that, thank you, and I will turn it back to Dan.

Dan?

To advancing decarbonization across the mobility sector remains steadfast. As we look forward, we are invigorating possibilities that the future holds and are resolute in our pursuit of innovation and sustainability. I want to take a moment to thank everyone for being here. And with that, I'll turn it over to the operator to open the call for questions.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. And just to remind everyone, there will be a recording available after the call if you had difficulties hearing. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.

And our first question comes from Colin Roche of Oppenheimer.

Hey, Colin. One moment. Oh, Colin, is your line open now? Oh, one moment. We're having an issue with him.

Our first question.

I apologize.

We're having an issue with his line.

OK. Our first question comes from Eric Stein of Craig Hallam. Your line is open.

Good morning, Eric. Hi, Dan. Hi, Bill. Good morning. Can you hear me? I know there's some weird stuff going on on this call, but audio-wise. Okay, good. Well, so I know early days for the joint venture, you've had it, or it's been in place for, what, two months. You know, just curious if you could kind of rank the priorities as you see them now and You know, have they changed at all? And could you give us an update, you know, on just thoughts of a new OEM since I know that that was one of the objectives from the start?

Sure, sure. You know, in terms of priorities, we've, you know, launched this joint venture and, you know, our goals immediately are to get it functioning as a standalone business. So, you know, putting in place the The business systems, the ERP, all of those things are being put in place so that we can operate it separate from Westport. Management team was already organized around a separate entity. There's about a nine month rollout of actions that make all those things happen to standalone. So, you know, immediate priority is getting it functioning and running. But running parallel, equal in priority, is bringing on a second OEM. And that activity continues. It's been ongoing for some time. It was ongoing before, actually, we closed the joint venture and it continues to be ongoing. And we, you know, we're hoping that... we'll be able to announce something as we continue to work towards, you know, winning that second OEM, which is a priority for both Westport and VOHO.

Got it. And then, you know, I have heard some talk in the market interest in HPDI in North America. And, you know, so I'm just curious, You know, maybe this hasn't changed from when it was part of Westport. But now that you are combined with Volvo in the joint venture, you know, maybe how those plans are coming together. You know, does this help in that endeavor to get it to North America and what that might look like?

Sure. So HPDI North America is one of those equal priorities, whether it's bringing on a second OEM or bringing the technology to North America through Volvo. We continue to work through engineering and development to build a system that can cross all the continents, but specifically in North America, we see The market is more C&G focused, and so we're working on a plan to fill that need and talk to other OEMs in North America. So our commercial activities will continue to move forward in building this business out. Got it.

I guess I'll stay tuned on that. And maybe my last one, just more bookkeeping. So when we think about OPEX and just the moving pieces of Westport's, going forward. So you said you had $2 million that should not repeat. Was I correct in hearing that related to the formation of the joint venture? Okay. So $2 million. And then it looks like roughly $5, $6 million of the heavy duty OEM business. That would be roughly the OPEX level that also comes out. I mean, is this kind of a all-in OPEX $15 million type of number per quarter?

We're continuing to look at that. You know, as Dan mentioned, we still have quite a few cost reduction initiatives that we're working on. And so, you know, that's across our business. You know, $15 million is about right for the current run rate, but we're going to continue to evaluate that.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks, Eric. Take care.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Chris Dendrinos of RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Yeah, good morning. Morning, Chris. Morning. I wanted to ask about, there was a comment, I think it was in the financial disclosure, the MDA, and it looked like you all exited the JV with Weichai. So if you could just speak to that and what maybe the strategy shift was there and I guess thoughts going forward with them. Thanks.

Well, I mean, it's really two separate things. You know, this is a JV that was formed a long time ago, and then, you know, more recently we had, you know, a small ownership percentage, and, you know, they finally, you know, exited totally, you know, from the joint venture. However, you know, that doesn't change our relationship with, you know, Waychi, and we continue to, you know, support their development activities.

Got it. Thank you. And then... maybe just on the light duty segment. So it's kind of like the mix of light duty OEM with more heavily weighted to Europe. And you noted a reduction in sales in some of those developing regions. Is there any sort of strategic shift going on with, I guess, maybe that business line and maybe where you're focused internationally and how that impacts your growth going forward. Thanks.

Sure, sure. So the light-duty business impacts this year, so Q1, Q2, and we'll flow through for a bit. The primary one was the OEM that imports vehicles and installs our systems. And, you know, they tripled the size of their business and they're launching 14 new models in the middle of all this. And so the issue there was they were uncontrolled sitting on a pile of inventory that they didn't realize they had. So they're bleeding that off. So the big hit we're taking there is just them bleeding off that inventory. We expect those volumes to come back. We're waiting to see exactly when they're going to come back later this year. but we do expect them to come back. The other piece was the slower launch on the Euro 6 with our OEM over there, and that has actually picked up and will be gaining volume. So we're actually fairly upbeat about the volume projections for Europe, but we're waiting to see specific numbers from the marketplace on that. So we don't see a major shift in the piece of that world that we play in. In fact, we see it getting a little bit stronger.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Colin Rush of Oppenheimer and Company. Colin, your line is open.

Thanks so much. Give this another go. Thanks so much for getting me in. So, guys, can you talk a little bit about what's going on with the vehicle customers for hydrogen on the off-road opportunity? It seems to me that as the mining industry starts to work towards zero emissions and the hydrogen industry starts to look at some dedicated facilities, that there might be a meaningful opportunity for you guys. I just want to understand how that's developing.

yeah sure so so we have been exploring opportunities in the off-road off-road is a is a gross segment both inside the joint venture for HPDI and within our high pressure components and systems world because there's a play there for for that technology we do see some interesting opportunities coming together and have been in some discussions with some customers on how to help the mining industry transform their technologies. It's early days for us on that, but it is an important priority for us and we are starting to build out the commercial plan of how to pull it off.

Thanks so much. And just on the light duty side, you know, it seems to me that there's an opportunity around potentially licensing some of the IP that you guys have and ending up with a little bit leaner model. Can you talk a little bit about that opportunity and if that's a real thing that you guys are thinking about?

About licensing. Okay. So, you know, we're currently, you know, building out the capitalization of IPs. Euro 6, Euro 7 technology that's going to be ramping up over the next two years, two to three years. And that's been our primary focus. In terms of licensing, I'm not sure who or what you're specifically referring to, but our goal is to expand that technology across multiple OEMs. We do see a pendulum swing back the other way as I think the world sees the hydrogen ecosystem maybe a little further out than we all want, in the middle of that we have solutions, whether it's propane gas, the natural gas groups, et cetera. And we're trying to position ourselves to be that bridge in between and bring solutions. So we're going to continue to try and commercialize that across Europe and, of course, in our aftermarket around the world. Thanks so much. I've got a couple of follow-ups, so I'll take them offline. Thanks, guys.

Yep. Okay.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. And as a reminder, if you have a question, please press star 11. One moment. And our next question comes from Rob Brown of Lake Street Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Hey, Rob. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. First questions on the sort of demand environment in the European HPDI market. That's been sort of coming back, but what's sort of your sense on how that looks over the next 12 months and some of the macro drivers there?

Yeah, I think, you know, obviously I mentioned just a moment ago the the view of where hydrogen is going to be coming in, in terms of the ecosystem, the entire ecosystem, I think the European market is starting to adjust to that future being a little further off. Therefore, they're, you know, turning back to the alternative fuels, aside from, you know, fuel cells and the battery electric solutions. Clearly, alternative fuel ICE engines are going to be gaining some momentum and some market share in Europe and we're excited about that. We're also working to figure out how to get it in North America, how to commercialize it with different OEMs in North America, including Volvo. But I think the current HPDI system on LNG has a very strong future here in Europe.

Okay, thank you. And then on the cost reduction efforts, you talked a little bit about some progress, but could you give us a sense of how far you are into that and how much is yet to go?

Yeah, we've been digging in pretty aggressively across the company, both at a corporate level for corporate costs, which Bill can talk a bit about, and then operationally across the various segments, whether it's the light duty business or even the joint venture. We're trying to make ourselves a much more right-sized and efficient business across the board And, you know, one of the challenges is I think we've talked about in previous calls is the timing of making change in operations. So, for instance, in Europe, you know, a lot of the cost savings that we want to initiate there take capital and take time. You can't just hit a switch and, you know, take costs out of a business in Europe like we could here, for instance. So, you know, are we a third of the way into it? Probably. I'd say we're a third of the way into it. And it's also a balance, right? A balance between where we're cost-cutting, where we're investing for the future to, you know, take advantage of growth opportunities. So it's a bit of both.

Okay, great. Thank you. I'll turn it over.

One moment. Our next question comes from Jeff Osborne of TD Cal, and your line is open.

Hey, Jeff. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you. Two questions. One is, do you have a sense on the kits that are in inventory at your partner in Europe, you know, what you've sold in versus the sell-through of those vehicles and how long that pressure will be there? Is that something that will be resolved this calendar year or no?

Yeah, I can answer.

So, yeah, it's heavily impacted our first quarter. We did have some impact in the second quarter, early in the second quarter. We actually started seeing the volume start ramping up throughout the quarter. And, you know, those will continue to increase throughout the third quarter, you know, as we work closely with our customers. As Dan mentioned, they've just grown rapidly and they haven't put the controls and processes in place to manage their inventory. So we've gotten more actively engaged with our customer to be able to manage that and have better foresight for their needs, their production needs, inventory needs. So that business has been recovering during the quarter and will continue in the third quarter. Perfect. And then my last question is just how to think – I think Eric asked questions on OPEX and how to think about that and how you're aiming to reduce that. But how should we think about CAPEX for the second half? That's unclear to me. Maybe it's buried in one of the documents. But what's historically been the split of CAPEX associated with the JV? Well, I think a big chunk of the CAPEX investment this year – historically, we've been in – call it the $13 to $15 million – It's going to run a little higher this year because we've been investing in CapEx to support our OEM customer for LPG components for year 06. So we've been investing heavily in new CapEx. I think for the back half of the year, it'll just be slightly lower than what we spent in the first half of the year. And then I think that'll be the bulk of the CapEx spending that we need to do to support our OEM customer for delivering Euro 6 components. And then, you know, as we go through this, you know, we'll have to recast. You know, our CapEx run going forward, you know, now all the HPDI activities are in the JV. That'll decline as well. So is it feasible that that number could be less than 10 million next year? It could be. But we're actually just kicking off our annual budget process. And as part of that process, we do a deep dive, you know, in what our CapEx needs, what are the various programs. And so we're going through that right now. Perfect. That's all I have. Thank you. Okay.

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would like to turn it back to Dan Seely for closing remarks.

I'd like to thank everybody for joining us today, and I hope we answered all your questions. I look forward to the further calls throughout the day. That's all. Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.