Spark Power Group Inc.

Greetings. Welcome to the Spark Power Corporation Investor Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now like to turn the conference over to your host, Richard Perry. You may begin.

Good morning and thank you for joining Spark Power's fourth quarter and fiscal 2022 conference call. Joining me on the call today is Richard Jackson, Spark Power's president and CEO. On today's call, we will discuss the company's fourth quarter and annual performance, including key business drivers. We will also provide an update on some of the key strategic initiatives that we have been undertaking to streamline our business and position Spark Power for long-term profitable growth and value creation. In a moment, I will hand the call over to Rich Jackson, who will comment on our business highlights for the fourth quarter and full year, including updates on our key strategic initiatives. I will then provide a financial overview of the quarter and full year and will conclude by briefly detailing some of the reasons why we believe Spark Power is well-positioned for long-term success. Following our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for Q&A. Before proceeding, I would like to remind listeners that our presentation contains certain forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and are subject to several risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Further information identifying risks, uncertainties, and assumptions And additional information on certain non IFRS measures referred to in this call can be found in the disclosure documents filed by Spark Power with the securities regulatory authorities available on CDAR.com. Forward looking statements are made as of the date of this call Wednesday, March 29, 2023. Except as expressly required by applicable law, Spark Power assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. With that, I will now hand the call over to Rich Jackson, President and CEO of Spark Power.

Thank you, Richard, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. We are pleased with the progress we made in 2022 as it relates to improving Spark's financial and operating performance. In 22, we made progress on improving our overall revenue mix, gross margin performance, and in the second half of the year, improving our performance and focus related to working capital management. In Q4, we closed with divestiture of Bullfrog. Our team did a great job leading the process from within and working with the buyer to get us to a mutually beneficial result. As reported, the sale of Bullfrog supports our focus on streamlining Spark's core business, while at the same time giving Spark additional capital, which we were able to allocate towards long-term debt and improve liquidity. For the fourth quarter, we continued to drive solid revenues across our technical services and renewable segments, with solar services driving the majority of the growth in renewables. This is an important achievement for our organization, given our intentional shift in focusing our revenue mix to fewer large projects and only work we deem in alignment with our targeted go-to-market plan. The mix of wind-related work in our renewable segment was down in Q4 due to a reduction in large wind projects from prior periods. And speaking of our go-to-market plan, I was extremely pleased with my team and the exciting work completed in 2022 towards a new three-year strategic plan for SPARC. Our new Let's Grow Better 2025 strategy is now fully launched inside our organization and we have begun the work on executing our first year in 2023. The go-to-market plan is a cornerstone of the new strategy and really propels Spark to become more commercialized and targeted on our customer base and the markets we intend to focus on over the strategic cycle. Coupled with our go-to-market, another very focused theme within Spark is our ongoing implementation of standardized key business processes and technology. The previously announced Project Darwin is well underway and supports our strategic pillar, operational excellence. I look forward to reporting out further in the coming months our progress towards maturing our business processes and continuous improvement aimed at driving shareholder value and improving our long-term view on free cash flow generation. In Q4, a major focus of my team was on shortening our total cash cycle and seeking ways to reduce working capital. Our team really placed effort on reducing our contract assets, collecting on cash even more diligently, and working to reduce our billing cycle time. I am pleased with this ongoing focus and with our new business processes and technology coming on, I believe our ability to generate free cash flow and reduce working capital will continue to improve throughout 2023. Throughout 2022, one of our key focus areas was to complete the transition to a one spark operating model through restructuring efforts that resulted in a flatter organizational structure, cost reduction initiatives allowing for profitable growth, and a fully integrated service model that would allow us to optimize available opportunities in the market. To date, we have realized approximately $6.5 million of pro forma annual SG&A cost savings through our various initiatives, and we expect to realize the full benefits of these initiatives through 2023. The majority of our integration work is now completed, and I'm pleased to share that our journey as a OneSpark enterprise continues to gain momentum and become institutionalized in the business. As part of the new strategy, we will intentionally leverage the OneSpark foundation to transform to a Spark way, which is best described as a set of common goals, practices, and purpose to achieve our newly formed vision, mission, and plan strategic priorities as Spark prepares to unlock the next phase in its maturity, supported by a foundation of operational excellence. As I reflect on our accomplishments in 2022, I'm excited about the opportunities that lie ahead of us in 2023. We've experienced expansion across our entire portfolio despite the challenging macroeconomic environment. We are now positioned to continue on our growth strategy and deliver ongoing value creation for all our stakeholders through Let's Grow Better, which we look forward to sharing as we continue to execute on the strategic plan. I want to take a moment to thank all of our employees for their continued hard work and commitment to the company. Once again, they have demonstrated tremendous patience and perseverance over the last year, and I'm extremely proud of their accomplishments. I also want to thank our shareholders for the continued trust you have put into our board and management as we continue to navigate Spark through the maturity curve. I'll now turn the call back over to Richard to discuss the Q4 financial results.

Thank you, Rich. In the fourth quarter, we delivered balanced performance with a focus on improving our quality of earnings and reducing working capital to generate positive cash flow. Operationally, this includes year-over-year improvements in gross margins and lower SG&A as we launch into 2023. With regards to cash flow, we work closely with the field to increase our speed to invoice and accelerate cash collections to reduce our contract asset and accounts receivable balances by 18.4 million compared to Q3. Over and above the operational results, we also executed several strategic transactions in the fourth quarter that positioned Spark for the future. More specifically, we closed the strategic divestiture of the Bullfrog Power business unit and signed a new amended credit facility with our lender. These transactions helped to materially reduce our total debt, strengthen our balance sheet, and paved the way for enhanced flexibility to execute our new three-year strategy. On a full-year basis, we are pleased with the overall performance of the business. Our targeted approach to higher-margin service work is taking hold, and we have narrowed our focus on our core segments. We are realizing the benefits of the agency initiatives across the organization, and we continue to scale our operations with a rollout of our While there is still significant work in front of us, we are confident in our ability to execute our strategy and deliver long-term value creation for all stakeholders. Revenue from continuing operations in Q4 2022 was $64.5 million as compared to $63.1 million in Q4 2021. This represents an increase of 2.3% year-over-year, reflecting an improving mix of service work and overcoming difficult comparatives due to larger projects in the prior year. For fiscal 2022, revenue from continuing operations was $272.3 million as compared to $244.6 million in fiscal 2021, representing an increase of 11.3%. In our technical services segment, revenue this quarter was $43.6 million, an increase of 6.5% year-over-year. This revenue growth is primarily related to volume growth in Western Canada and the US. On a full year basis, revenue was $181.7 million, up by 10.9% compared to $163.8 million in 2021. In our renewable segment, revenue in Q4 2022 was $20.7 million, a decrease of 5.3% year over year. We continue to capitalize on strong solar demand in the U.S. with growth of 67% in the quarter. This was offset by lower wind volumes tied to larger projects in the prior year, which did not repeat. On a full year basis, renewables revenue was up 13% to $89.3 million as compared to $79.1 million in the prior year. Our sustainability segment posted lower revenue in the quarter versus prior year primarily due to the timing of the divestiture which took place on November 30th, 2022. Gross profit margin from continuing operations excluding non-cash depreciation and amortization was 24.9% in Q4 2022. This represents an increase of 740 basis points as compared to Q4 2021 and reflects the realized benefits from the various margin enhancement initiatives executed through the year, including improved revenue mix. Compared to prior quarter, margins were impacted by seasonal volume declines, the closeout of several large carryover projects, and to a lesser extent timing impacts related to the ERP migration of our U.S. business. On a full year basis, gross profit margin from continuing operations, excluding non-cash depreciation and amortization, was 24.9%, up by 170 basis points as compared to 23.2% in 2020. Year-over-year improvement reflects the impact of favorable revenue mix the benefits of the various margin enhancement initiatives executed through the year, and the impact of estimate updates in the prior year. Gross profit margins remain a key area of focus for SparkPower, and we are optimistic about delivering consistent gross margin realization in the coming quarters. SG&A expenses from continuing operations, excluding depreciation and amortization, were $11.2 million in Q4 2022. representing 17.3% of revenue. This compares to SG&A of $14.5 million or 22.9% of revenue in Q4 2021, with the year-over-year improvement reflecting the benefits of cost actions taken by the company to streamline overhead costs and the impact of one-time provisions recorded in the prior year. More specifically, staffing costs were lower by $3.2 million for the quarter as compared to Q4 2021, in part tied to the right-sizing of our corporate cost structure combined with the timing impact of year-end provisions. This was partly offset by higher insurance costs and computer-related costs tied to our ERP migration. On a full year basis, SG&A expenses from continuing operations, excluding depreciation and amortization, were $48.2 million or 17.7% of revenue. This compares to SG&A of 19.7% in fiscal 2021. Within our corporate segment, SG&A expenses were down $1.5 million, reflecting a decline in salaries and benefits of $3 million, partly offset by higher office and administration costs related to computer-related costs tied to our ERP migration. In the fourth quarter, we continued to execute on our ERP migration, Project Darwin. The focus was on supporting our U.S. technical services business through the post-go-live phase, and in parallel, preparing the U.S. renewables business for their scheduled go-live on January 1st. We are pleased with the exceptional work completed to date by the extended project team, and we remain on track to complete the balance of the rollout in 2023. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations, excluding unrealized foreign exchange losses, was 4.3 million, or 6.7% of revenue in Q4, as compared to 2.6 million, or 4.2% of revenue in the prior year. The growth in adjusted EBITDA reflects enhanced gross margin realization and lower S&A costs. In the quarter, we recorded an impairment charge of $1.5 million for one of our operating units in Western Canada based on delayed operational improvements and the impact of higher interest rates on cash flow projections. Separately, we also recorded an increase in our credit loss provision of $1.5 million to account for potential risk related to aged accounts receivable. On a full year basis, adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations excluding unrealized foreign exchange losses was 19.6 million or 7.2% of revenue in fiscal 2022 as compared to 15.4 million or 6.3% of revenue in the prior year. The growth in adjusted EBITDA reflects higher volumes, enhanced gross margin realization and improved operating leverage tied to cost restructuring actions. In the fourth quarter, we reduced net working capital from continuing operations by $4.8 million as compared to Q3. Excluding the holdback receivable of $2.3 million related to the bullfrog sale recorded in other accounts receivable, we reduced net working capital by $7.1 million. Significant progress was achieved on converting cash tied up in contract assets and accounts receivable, and this will remain a key priority moving into 2023. Overall, cash flow from operations was a source of $2.9 million, representing the second consecutive quarter of generating positive cash flow from operations. Capital expenditures in the quarter were $2.7 million, which was a decrease as compared to prior quarter. A portion of the spend relates to the ERP project, including computer-related costs and ongoing development costs of the new platform. We also incurred 0.8 million of leasehold improvements related to our new head office. During the quarter, the company received 30 million of cash consideration for the sale of Bullfrog and used 22.6 million of those proceeds to pay down the term loan. The balance of the proceeds were used to fund working capital needs. In the quarter, the company of 2.2 million for lease liabilities. As a result, the total change in bank indebtedness was a decrease of $5.4 million for the quarter. And total debt outstanding to our prime lender as of December 31st, 2022 decreased by $27.2 million to $62 million as compared to the end of Q3 2022. Generating strong free cash flow remains a key financial objective for Spark Power as we strive to deliver increased value for our shareholders. The fourth quarter was an important step as we materially deleveraged our balance sheet and established a robust discipline through the business to improve cash conversion. To conclude, as we reflect on 2022, we are pleased with the progress made to reposition the business for sustainable earnings growth and free cash flow generation. We executed on a number of key operational and strategic initiatives with a focus on delivering improved financial results and setting the stage for a renewed focus on our core business as we move into 2023. Operationally, we will continue to execute our playbook to improve gross margin realization and streamline costs, and pursue additional opportunities to unlock the next wave of operating efficiencies with a focus on corporate overhead costs. We are excited to launch into our new three-year strategy to take advantage of the growing market demand in both our renewables and technical services segments. By design, the new strategy will deliver profitable growth through a targeted go-to-market strategy that will drive higher quality revenue mix, expand our U.S. market presence and scale our U.S. operation, leverage our scalable platform to improve margins, and generate positive free cash flow, ultimately creating value for all our stakeholders, including our customers, employees, and shareholders. In the meantime, I would like to reiterate that we believe Spark Power is in a truly unique position. We have strong competitive positioning in both of our core segments with end-to-end capabilities and with long-term industry tailwinds that support end market demand. We have a highly recurring revenue base, and we are becoming increasingly integrated with our customers as a trusted advisor. We have significant opportunities for both organic growth and margin expansion, and our scalable platform will support profitable growth over the long term. This, combined with the low CapEx requirements of our business, will support robust cash flow generation, allowing us to continue strengthening our balance sheet. We look forward to sharing updates on progress against our strategic plan and performance against our financial objectives in the coming quarters. With that, we will now open up the call for Q&A, and Rich and I would be happy to address any questions you may have at this time. Thank you.

At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Once again, that is star one to ask a question. One moment while we poll for questions. Your first question for today is coming from Paul Tepsich at High Rock Capital.

Morning, guys. Congratulations on achieving some of your goals here, certainly over the fourth quarter. And now that you're well on your way to margin improvement, I noticed you gave some guidance moving forward, but can you maybe put a bit more meat around perhaps the top-line growth and maybe EBITDA guidance? Maybe goalposts? Sure.

Yeah, thanks Paul for the question. So from a top-line growth perspective, you know, across our two segments, technical services and renewables, you know, we are based on the new targeted go to market, you know, we're going to be very intentional about sort of where we pursue the growth, we think that there is significant opportunity in both segments, as well as both geographical markets, both in Canada and the US. And so in terms of top line growth, you know, I think if you're thinking about sort of overall year over year growth, that is Five to 7% blended. I think that that's probably pretty indicative of where we will look for the growth. From a margin perspective, we have the ongoing initiatives in play that we've talked about at great length. I think you can see the trending in gross margin performance across the portfolio. And so I would be thinking about gross margin ratios in and around that 28 to 29% as we push forward into 2023.

And to pile on that, Paul, just to pile on the revenue piece, the new strategy we've launched, obviously we're pretty explicit about the fact that we're in the process of refreshing the mix on the business. in a very intentional way. So, you know, we, you know, through the pandemic, we obviously took on some larger project work that typically we wouldn't necessarily participate in. And so the top line growth, although it's obviously the market tailwinds are there to support it, you know, Richard and I are really pushing the organization to focus on revenue quality. and margin quality and enhanced mix around services and maintenance versus large projects. We'll always have some level of project work in our business, but it really is an intentional approach, and that's why we keep highlighting the go-to-market strategy. The new strategy for the business really focuses on a very focused place in the market in terms of the type of work we're going to take on. And that's happened in the last six, seven months, yeah.

Right, so higher margin, better quality revenue.

Yeah, exactly. That's really our real focus. I mean, we can grow. The market's there. The tailwinds are there. There's so much work going on in the electrical industry. But we've sort of settled on the fact that the business performs at its best when we're focusing on the right type of work that we do really good work at. And so you've got to think smaller project size, more service, more maintenance. less of the base build construction type work that we may have gotten ourselves into through the pandemic in a very intentional way at the time. Obviously, you know, we wanted to keep our teams busy and so on. So a much different focus going forward and specifically related to the strategy and sort of commercializing our approach to the market.

Okay. And can you give guidance on EBITDA for 2023 at all?

From an EBITDA perspective, for sure our focus is based on the margins and then the ongoing cost sort of opportunities. We do anticipate that we will see significant growth from an EBITDA perspective. We're in a position to be able to articulate sort of a specific range on EBITDA, but just know based on sort of Rich's comments there and our focus on that targeted sort of higher quality revenue, improved mix, improved rate realization, and then the cost actions that we expect more of that activity to be flowing down to the bottom line.

I think the other thing, Paul, just to pile on again, just to give you some more clarity as well, The two things on the EBITDA piece. One is this business is obviously, and you've followed it for some time now, we've had a lot of ups and downs in EBITDA results and lots of puts and takes around the non-core business versus the core business, even through the pandemic, the subsidies, et cetera, et cetera. What Rich and I are also really laser focused on is focusing in on the two core segments of the business that exists, the renewables and the tech services, and providing shareholders with a much more robust and solid view of how the business truly performs with more clarity because you've got to look at the puts and takes in the past of how our financials kind of report. So from an EBITDA standpoint, what I'm really excited about right now and so where we're positioned is just a much more robust, cleaner view on how the business truly creates value from an EBITDA perspective. And then the second thing I would comment on is We're really pushing the organization and the mindset around free cash flow. The business, obviously, we've proven that we can produce EBITDA. Where we're really, really laser focused on is how we convert EBITDA into true free cash flow. And that's, obviously, In the second half of 2022, clearly there's been a focus there. That focus continues inside the business. So it's not to say that we're not focused on EBITDA because that's the first lever, but our real true focus is creating a very consistent free cash flow profile on the business.

As it should be. That's great. Thank you. Just one more question relating to CapEx. I think you gave guidance of 6.5%, 7.5% for 2023. Is there any breakdown between kind of growth and maintenance?

Yeah, so I think, Paul, you know, think about there is some ongoing capex still related to the final stages of our ERP rollout. And so right now we're estimating that to be approximately a million to a million fives. And the balance then would, for the most part, relate to maintenance. There may be a small piece of growth within that that might be tied to some of the support as we build out some of the presence in the market from a field perspective. But the vast majority we would deem to be maintenance-related.

Okay, great. Well, congrats again. Thank you very much for your time.

Thanks, Paul. Once again, if there are any questions or comments, please press star 1 on your phone at this time.

There are no further questions in queue. I will now like to turn the call over to Richard Jackson for closing remarks.

Thanks, everyone, for participating in the call today. I again want to thank our employees. Over the last 18 months, we've spent a great deal of time integrating the acquired companies of Spark Power, bringing them onto a common platform, and obviously that's still in flight, but we have a very clear vision on getting our business to that final platform state. I'm super excited about the new strategy we've launched, the Let's Grow Better strategy. It's intentional. It's very, very well thought out. It's taken some time to get there. And I'm super excited about the path to further value generation on the business. And as I pointed out in my remarks to Paul, very focused on really improving our cash flow and our liquidity on the business, shoring up our balance sheet. and building a very sustainable business over the next period of the strategic cycle. So I really want to thank everybody on the call, our shareholders as well, for the continued patience and perseverance as well. We're really doing a lot of good things here. So thank you.

This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.