Emeren Group Ltd

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome and thank you for standing by for Ameren Group Limited third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Please note that we are recording today's conference call. To ask a question during the session, you'll 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. I will now turn the call to Gary Dvorak Managing Director of the Blue Shirt Group. Please go ahead, Mr. Tvorczak.

Hey, thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss third quarter 2024 results. We released our shareholder letter after the market closed today, and it's available on our website at ir.emron.com. We also provided a supplemental presentation that's posted on our IR website that we'll reference during our prepared remarks. On the call with me today are Mr. Yumin Liu, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Ke Chen, Chief Financial Officer. Before we continue, please turn to slide two. Let me remind you that remarks made during this call may include predictions, estimates, or other information that might be considered forward-looking. These forward-looking statements represent Emory Group's current judgment for the future. However, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Those risks are described under risk factors and elsewhere in Emory Group's filings with the SEC. Please do not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect Emory Group's opinions only as of the date of this call. Emory Group is not obliged to update you on any revisions to these forward-looking statements. In addition, please note that all financial numbers discussed in this call are unaudited. Also, please note that unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned during the conference call are in U.S. dollars. With that, let me now turn the call over to Mr. Yumin Liu. Yumin, go ahead.

Thank you, Gary. Thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. To start, I'll provide an overview of our operational performance for Q3 2024. Then our CFO, Ke Chen, will walk through our Q3 financial results and our outlook. In Q3, our company executed on its bottom-line focus achieving solid profitability despite softer than anticipated revenue resulting from delays in closing scheduled project sales. With $12.9 million in revenue, we achieve a gross profit of approximately $5.6 million, yielding a solid gross margin of 43.8%. $2.1 million in operating profit and 4.8 million in net income attributable to Evergreen Group Limited's common shareholders. Strong EBITDA of 8.5 million further reflects our commitment to sustainable profitability and core business resilience. Our net income was supported by a foreign exchange gain exceeding 4.6 million as the euro strengthened during the quarter. offsetting a similar foreign exchange loss early in the year. With Europe generating a majority of our revenue in Q3, we benefited from a strong euro. Besides, our focus on high margin growth remains robust. The independent power producer or IPP segment generated 9.4 million, driven by seasonal strength in European assets. Our development service agreement, or DSA model, also expanded in key markets, adding $1.3 million from Italy, $1 million from France, and $0.9 million from our first battery energy storage system, our best project portfolio in the US. Revenue was lower than anticipated due to a timing issue. Politically, delays in government approvals for three projects in Europe. These remain in our pipeline and are expected to contribute to revenue once approvals are secured. Let's move to the progress of each of our business segments. First, the borrower DSA. In Q3, we executed a 394 megawatt batch DSA with PLT Energia and completed the sale of 57 megawatt solar projects to China through a mixed DSA slash SPA structure. Our DSA approach is a game-changing, reliable, and scalable business model that enables us to monetize projects at early to mid-stages while securing high-quality contracted revenue. This strategic model delivers unique benefits, including positive cash flow and effective risk mitigation throughout the project lifecycle. Building on this momentum, we also signed our first DSA contract in the US for our 72 megawatt-based project portfolio in California. As of September 30, we have secured DSA contracts with nine partners, including Glenmont Partners, Matrix Renewables, and PLT Energia, covering 28 projects totaling over 2.1 gigawatts. with 84% allocated to battery energy storage system, or BES, and 16% allocated to PV, resulting in an expected contracted revenue exceeding 69 million to be monetized within the next two to three years. Additionally, over two gigawatts of DSAs are under negotiation, estimated to bring another 100 million in revenue. This robust DSA pipeline, encompassing both contracted projects and potential agreements, and with nearly 90% based in Europe, underlines our strengths in markets that favor renewable energy, driving our financial stability and growth. In November, we announced a DSA with Appinga for a 300 megawatt battery storage portfolio in Southern Italy. This partnership, our force with an Italian ESG focus leader, strengthens our position in Italy's battery storage market, where we have approximately two gigawatts in the permitting process. The collaboration supports Italy's clean energy transition goals and aligns with our focus on high value growth opportunities in battery storage market. Second, Regarding our solar power project development, in Q3, we successfully closed the sale of our solar project portfolio of 42 megawatts in Spain to CVE Spain. Over the past few years, this portfolio is projected to generate approximately 92.8 gigawatt hours of solar power annually, offsetting nearly 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Additionally, we sold a 57 megawatt solar project portfolio to Trina Solar, showcasing the strengths of our European development efforts. Due to project delays, the sales of our US community solar project portfolio and some projects in Spain and Italy did not get closed by the end of Q3. For example, certain closings expected with CVE in Spain were delayed due to lengthy local administrative approvals. Some of these delayed projects sales are expected to close in Q4. Last but not least, our IPP assets demonstrated robust growth and profitability throughout the third quarter, contributing approximately 73.2% of our total revenue for the period. We continue to optimize operations across our solar farms, including Branston, reinforcing the IPP segment as a cornerstone of our business model that offers dependable, stable, and predictable cash flow. In September, we energized a 4.5 megawatt solar power plant at LuxShare iTech, a major facility of LuxShare Precision Industry Corporation Limited. a public company listed in Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China, and a prominent Apple supplier active in Apple's supplier clean energy program. This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to environmental responsibility and Emirates expanding renewable energy presence. In Q3 2024, we connected 7.2 megawatt of solar projects across China, while our certified megawatt our battery storage portfolio was fully integrated into Huaneng Power International's virtual power plant platform. In consideration of our strategy to grow IPP assets, we decided to retain a 52.4 megawatt project portfolio in Hungary, previously planned for sale as an IPP asset today. 30 megawatt of the portfolio is already operational. with a remainder set to be energized by the year end. This decision leverages strong project returns, Hungary's positive economic outlook, and significant foreign investment into the country. Hungary's commitment to renewables, evident in AMBISA's solar goals and updated energy plan, further enhances the portfolio's value as an IPP. While this shift impacts four years' revenue, it aligns with our long-term growth and value creation goals amid favorable market conditions. Furthermore, with supportive local policies in Hungary's energy storage market, we see expanding opportunities in the country, and battery storage facilities are now planned for several projects within this portfolio. As we approach the close of 2024 and look to 2025 and beyond, we are strengthening our presence in some of the world's fastest growing solar and battery storage market, which are supported by increasing demand for clean energy, favorable government policies, and advancing technologies. Our primary objectives remain clear. Advancing early stage projects expanding our DSA partnerships across Europe and US, and refining our strategies to unlock the full potential of our development portfolio. While certain project sales in Europe may extend into 2025 due to the delays in government approvals, our core business lines remain robust, and we are confident in our ability to deliver substantial growth in the fourth quarter. driven by a strong pipeline and favorable market conditions. With that, let me turn the call over to our CFO, Ke Chen, to discuss our financial performance and guidance. Ke?

Thank you, Yiming, and thanks everyone again for joining us on the call today. Our third quarter revenue totaled $12.9 million, coming below expectation due to delayed project closing. pending government approvals. Nevertheless, revenue was boosted by strong performance in our high-margin IPP segment and expanding DSA activity across Europe and the US. With a robust pipeline, we are well positioned for growth as these delayed projects are sold. Turn to our revenue by segment. IPP was the primary driver, contributing 73% of our total revenue. followed by DSA at 10%. Notably, DSA includes revenue generated from development service throughout the project lifecycle, while revenue from DSA project ownership transfer is generally recognized as project development revenue. Regarding our gross profit in Q3, it was 5.6 million compared to 9.4 million in Q2 2024. and $5.7 million in Q3 2023. Gold's margin was 43.8% compared to 31.2% in Q2 2024 and 40.8% in Q3 2023. The year-over-year increase was due to the favorable margin within the revenue from DSA and IPP projects. Our operating expenses were 3.5 million down from 6.4 million in Q2 2024, and 9.6 million in Q3 2023. The decrease was mainly due to lower G&A expenses, thanks to our continued cost optimization program. That income attributed to Ameren Group LTT's common shareholder was 4.8 million, A significant rebound from a lead income of 0.4 million in Q2 2024, as well as a lead loss of 9.4 million in Q3 2023. Diluted lead income attributed to Emerald Group LTD's common shareholders per ADS was 9 cents, compared to diluted lead income of 1 cent in Q2 2024, and diluted lead loss of 17 cents in Q3 2023. Cash used in operating activity was $5.6 million, cash used in investing activity was $4.2 million, and cash used in financing activity was $2 million. Moving to balance sheet, cash and cash equivalent at the end of Q3 2024 were $35.8 million compared to $50.8 8 million in Q2 2024. Our debt-to-asset ratio at the end of Q3 2024 was 10.18% compared to 10.22% at the end of Q2 2024. Shifting gears to our outlook, for Q4, we anticipated revenue between 40 and 45 million, with a project growth margin of 20 to 25%. in line with the strategic move from sales to IPP for the 52.4 MW Hungary projects and the revised timing of some project sales. We have adjusted our four-year revenue guidance to a range of 97 to 102 million, with an expected gross margin of approximately 30%. We do expect to achieve EBITDA of 15 million to 20 million in 2024. Our IPP and DSA segments are demonstrating solid progress. For 2024, we reaffirm our expectation for IPP revenue to be between $24 million and $26 million, with gross margin of around 50%. We expect our DSA to contribute more than $20 million in revenue during 2024. by maintaining a disciplined approach to cost efficiency and operational excellence. We remain focused on advancing our renewable energy initiative and capture new opportunities for sustainable value creation. In 2025, EBITDA contribution from IPP and the DSA segment are expected to exceed 50 million. With that, let's open up the call for any questions. Operator, please go ahead.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by as we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Philip Shin of Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. First one is on the election results. We have a red sweep officially now, and the Inflation Reduction Act could be changed. So I was wondering, you know, you just signed a DSA in the U.S., with a partner in the US and was wondering if you have any automatic adjusters or how are you accounting for this potential risk to the ITC as you try to sign more DSAs in the States? Thanks.

It's a very good question. In fact, we do have planned for this election results and our action in the us or the whole team's practice remains unchanged we see that the all the changes potential upcoming changes will cause significant negative will have significant negative impacts especially to upstream but to the downstream we believe we do have time to execute are available DSAs and the contracts to be negotiated. And the DSAs we just signed in California, including one very near term project, which will be executed starting early next year. In our humble opinion, we don't think that will be much impacted. and others will continue the development path. And I think if it's an impact to the whole industry, our portfolio will remain to be valuable in the whole development process.

Okay. You mean in terms of the potential changes we published on Monday that the base 30% ITC may require domestic content just to get the 30%. So if that kind of a change happens, have you factored that in to your planning?

In fact, after we signed the DSA, the development risk has been passed to the investor. although we are planning ahead with our partner slash investor to face the upcoming challenges. But at this time, I think we have a good handle for it. Especially, we do see the significant downside or down the price cut from the CapEx side.

Okay. Thank you. Phil, I will say we mentioned this DSA is related to the storage space. So the investors are looking at, again, the pricing overcharge. They are not depending on the credit at this moment.

Okay. So your battery DSA does not require the ITC? it does require ITC okay so if the ITC requires domestic content do you think you have the ability to meet domestic content for that battery solution we are actively seeking solutions to prepare for this challenge at this time we are working on it yeah and ultimately we don't know the details yet and we're still very early um okay so let's uh shift gears um to the revenue miss for Q3, those projects that were pushed out into Q4, I think, Yumin, you said that you expect that these projects should get approved in Q4. What is the risk that these delays sustain?

I will give you one small example that I don't know if you remember that over 12 months ago, about 14 months ago, we closed the deal in Spain, 29 megawatts solar farm we sold to a party. And we forecasted the deal will be finally closed by the end of this year. But unfortunately, after 14 months, we are still waiting. although we do have received just last week, the positive news that the final approval is to be expected as early as within this month, but the holiday season is coming. So we do expect the most likely the closing will happen in Q1 next year. So this is one example that the extended delay of more than 14 months or 15 months drag along the whole closing of the projects. And that's one example, and also we have other three projects. We received approvals in the last two weeks, but we need time to get the final use permit, which takes about six to eight weeks. If we are lucky, we can get them done by the end of the year. If not, it has to be put into January. So those are the examples that the extremely long approval process was never expected by the management team and local team. So that's the reason.

Okay. So I understand. And so when we look at your 2025 guidance, do you think... you have factored enough conservatism into your guidance. So have you increased the conservatism for this guide relative to maybe one year ago or six months ago?

Yes. Phil, again, when we're talking about the EBITDA for next year over $50 million, again, we're looking at IPP or DSA business model only because those two are very predictable. And our IPP business is very stable and growing steadily. So we're confident that will be around 18 to 20 million EBITDA next year. And we're looking at our DSA contract. We're looking at all the milestones going to happen in 2025. We're very confident the rest of them will come from the DSA business model we're talking about, like the contract is 69 million and the potential to be signed So we're conservative in terms of the rest of DSA contribution of EBITDA in 2025. So we believe that we're conservative.

Okay. Thank you. In terms of the $50 million, what percentage is IPP versus DSA for 2025?

Oh, like I said, $50 million around, I would say, $18 million to $20 million is from IPP. The rest of it will be DSA.

Okay. Uh, and then, so let's say it's, um, 20 million for IPP and then, um, 30 million, 30 million for, um, DSA. Yeah. And what percentage of that 30 million is us versus Europe?

About 90% of the whole total is coming from Europe and only a little bit less than 10% from us.

Okay. Great. Okay. As the U.S. goes through changes, I think that mixed focus on Europe is good. Great. Well, thank you for taking many questions. I'll pause here and pass it on. Thank you, Phil.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.

I am not showing any further questions in the queue.

I would like to turn the conference back to Mr. Liu for any closing remarks.

Okay. Thank you, operator. The global shift towards renewable energy is fueling strong momentum in the solar industry. Positioning solar and battery storage as a key component of the future energy mix. The demand for solar power to support energy intensive technologies like AI and blockchain is especially promising as solar provides a scalable cost-effective solution. Looking ahead, we are well positioned to capitalize on the accelerating adoption of the solar technology. With our expertise, strategic partnerships, and strong financial foundation. We are advancing towards our goal of becoming a global leader in renewable energy and excited to drive a more sustainable future.

Thank you again for joining our call today. You may now disconnect. Thank you and have a great day.