Legend Power Systems Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Legend Power Systems Fiscal 2025 Q1 Investor Call. I'm Randy Buckmer, Legend's Chief Executive Officer. We're really pleased to have you join us in the call today to discuss our corporate progress and financial results for the first quarter of Fiscal 2025, which were the three months ending December 31st, 2024. Please note that certain statements in this call may be forward-looking in nature. These include statements involving known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. For more information about Legend's forward-looking statements and risk factors, please see our management discussion and analysis, which was filed on CDAR yesterday, under our company profile at cdarplus.ca. I'm pleased to be joined by Florence Tan, who is our CFO, Paul Moffitt, our COO, and Mike Ciosi, who is our VP Sales and Marketing. Florence will provide a financial overview of the quarter. Paul will update you on the great progress made while managing in a tight cash environment. The team continues to reduce operating costs. cost of goods, strengthening margins, and improving supply chain and production capabilities. Additionally, he will share our approach to addressing potential U.S. tariffs. Mike will update you on the exciting progress with the five key relationships or pillars that continue to show they will be the driving forces of Legends' future sales growth. The sales team has secured several outstanding partners that are keen to grow their business with Legend Solutions. I also want to take a moment and thank Sean Peasgood and Jonathan Lansky for leading our $1.6 million private placement, which was completed late 2024. Thank you to those who participated in the placement also. The private placement funds and deposits on orders will be used for working capital and supporting backlog and sales opportunities. Additionally, we are reducing operating costs by about $30,000 a month without impairing any of our sales opportunities. We have operated in a tight cash environment for the last couple of years, yet G1 was a particularly tight cash quarter as we had to reduce salaries and in some cases ask people to defer salaries for a few months. While some part orders were put on hold, we successfully managed our backlog by leveraging existing inventory to continue fulfilling commitments. Despite these hurdles, we've maintained strong supplier relationships, thank you, Paul, who have been supportive and patient. We're now steadily paying down outstanding accounts while prioritizing payroll and other critical needs. And for me, as a CEO, I think the dedication and resilience shown by the Legend team during a difficult Q1 has been truly commendable, and thank you, Legend team members. And collectively, we see more opportunity than ever before and see a bright Legend future. And the Legend team is absolutely committed to make Legend Power a success story. We always talk about and believe our five pillars for success are going to make Legend a very strong brand in the active power management marketplace. And just for recollection, The five pillars are the U.S. GSA or General Services Administration and Green Proving Ground, the U.S. Department of Defense, the energy performance contracts which are produced with the ESCOs or energy service companies, the City of New York led by BCAS, Department of City Administrative Services, But additional large opportunities are also being developed there, and those will be discussed later on. And finally, the fifth pillar, the GSA multiple awards schedule, and there'll be an update on that too. So what we're seeing is tangible wins across the five strategic pillars that form the backbone of our growth. Each of these pillars represents a standalone revenue growth opportunity, but together they form a synergistic foundation that will drive significant revenue growth for Legend over the next few years. and you can continue to expect exciting five-pillar progress news in 2025 and beyond. Our reseller partners hold long and deep relationships with most of our target market decision makers, and the partners are starting to increase their introductions to their customers with power challenges, which legend solutions can solve. It's a key piece of our strategy to leverage partners' key customer relationships, which decrease our sales cycle and grow the sales quickly. We're seeing great progress with our partners, and that will be discussed in detail too. The U.S. electric grid and grids globally are facing increased power quality challenges due to aging infrastructure, growing renewable penetration, and rising demand for electrification. Their grid was originally designed for centralized, one-way power flow, but today's environment requires a more dynamic, bidirectional, and resilient system. However, this shift is introducing significant power quality issues, commonly referred to as dirty power or power quality challenges driven to create demand for the smart gate system solution. And we're finding the performance of our smart gate systems in the field continue to exceed expectations, driving strong customer satisfaction and repeat business. And importantly, while the green investing sector has faced political challenges, Legend Power Systems' value proposition transcends political narratives by delivering lower costs, increased profitability, reduce risks, we provide enduring, value-rooted, and traditional business fundamentals. On that note, on to Florence.

Thank you, Randy. During this quarter, revenue recognized was $82,000 compared to $2,000 in Q1 of fiscal 24. And our gross margins for the quarter was 15% compared to a negative margin in Q1 24. Negative margin in the prior year were a result of allocated fixed costs incurred. Deferred revenue as at December 31st, 2024 is $413,000 compared to $365,000 at the end of our fiscal at September 30th, 2024 as additional sales orders were received. The company ended the quarter with $661,000 in cash, no debt, and $939,000 in working capital. And as Randy previously mentioned, we also closed a second tranche of financing in January 2025, further strengthening our working capital position. We continue to focus on the priorities critical to attaining our projections while managing our resources to support our sales growth plans and deliver for our shareholders. I'll now pass it to Paul our COO to provide some operational highlights.

Thank you, Florence. Good morning, everyone. Hello to everyone on the call. Our current backlog of systems remains very strong. We have systems complete, ready to ship or begin assembly. We're upwards of 15 systems in process right now, so proceeds from these systems continue to strengthen our working capital position over the coming months. which is excellent. We have and did have slightly lower revenues in the last quarter. So our gross margin was lower. However, I do, again, fully expect positive trends as our sales increase and our throughput becomes more predictable. We're now ordering lots of materials from lower cost suppliers. We're now going to realize those gross margin benefits, which is excellent, as those materials are received and incorporated into the finished product. And as well, with a lot of great improvements made, in factory efficiency and capacity, those fixed costs are going to be spread over even greater numbers of systems. So we'll see a positive gross margin trend in the near term and over the next 12 to 24 months. So I'm very excited about that. Work continues, as always. As you know, I've talked a lot about outsourcing and the work we've done from the beginning of my role here with Legend on looking at other regions, Canada, US, Mexico, in preparation for larger production quantities. Lots of work is behind us on that, and we have lots of partners, especially in the US, in the panel shop industry. That's basically a contract manufacturer who focuses on cabling, cable harnesses, control panel assembly, enclosure assembly, transformers right down our alley. And those are all lined up for our growth. But of course, if we need to act quicker and make those moves to avoid some tariffs, we're completely prepared to do that. So I'm happy that that work is behind us and we're in an excellent position to address any potential tariff needs. We'll have to see if energy savings and building protection systems like ours will be classified by the harmonized tariff schedule or not. But again, if we are, we're well prepared for that. Operating costs, as Randy mentions, have been further reduced. Again, very happy about that. Without impacting any of our operational or sales capabilities, just further continuous improvement and reductions where we can. We do have plans to invest strategically where needed as our backlog grows. And we have made further improvements in the way we source services, a whole variety of services to the company. So we've reduced in areas where those services are no longer needed, or we've switched or optimized the providers that we have. So there's been a great effort done there. And that's part of the $30,000 per month saving that Randy, additional that Randy mentioned. As we talked about in December, cash from the recent announced private placement warrants, ongoing deposits and accounts receivable will support our operational expense beyond fiscal 2025. So all those streams, of course, are very important. Continued deposits, continued deliveries, the support from our shareholders with private placements and the accounts receivables. We'll continue to keep our cash throughout the fiscal year. The completion and shipment and installation of our backlog, the 15 that I mentioned and the installations that we have planned and underway will bring a further $1.7 million of cash into the business. And that's beyond the deposits already received. So on top of the deposits that Mike will bring in through his sales efforts, all of this is supporting our cash position. And some great developments on the system and software development area, the functionality of our platform as we near finalization of some new enhancements. And that's going to further support all of the strategic sales pillars that Randy has mentioned, and also some of our new customer requirements. And these new software and this new functionality is added right into the existing platform. So that's a great benefit and an opportunity for recurring revenues. So I'm very happy again that operations is meeting all of today's challenges and very excited that we're completely ready for the pillar business and the new business that Mike is going to be bringing on. So we're clearly prepared for the demand that's ahead of us. Thank you. And I'll pass it over to Mike.

Thanks, Paul. Appreciate that. And thank you very much, everybody, for your time today and for attending today's update. We've been making some very strong progress across multiple fronts. And today I want to walk you through some of our biggest developments, some challenges and where we're headed next. But before we get into the details, I want to highlight something that's proving to be a real game changer for us. And that is our new voltage adherence risk rating. This powerful new tool helps customers understand the risk and the extent of poor voltage supplies in their buildings. This shifts the conversations from simple payback cost justifications to necessary risk mitigation. And it's already proving its value. In fact, our first presentation using this new risk rating, we closed the deal in just three weeks. And that's a significant acceleration from our typical sales cycle. While we don't expect three weeks to become the standard, this approach is clearly helping customers act faster. So we're now in the process of retroactively applying this risk assessment to the previous power impact reports that we've done to expedite some of those pending deals. So we're very excited about the progress we're making there. And as Randy and Paul have mentioned, I want to talk a little bit about our five pillars. But before I do, I also want to mention that we are now solidifying a potential sixth pillar, and those are partnerships. On the partnership front, we have finalized a strategic partnership with one of the largest electrical contractors in one of the most influential real estate markets in the world. This firm, which generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue, services an elite portfolio of commercial real estate, including some of the most recognizable financial institutions and property developers. Their goal is to drive tens of millions of dollars in smart gate sales in the first year, with significant expansion beyond that. This partnership includes multiple deal structures from simple referrals to fully partner-led sales and installations. This firm is deeply invested, committing executive and technical resources, and sees Smartgate as a critical value add for their high-profile clientele. They've even suggested potential product enhancements, which we are actively reviewing. One of the first major opportunities we're working on together is a multi-billion dollar mixed-use development in a global financial hub. This massive new complex is already plagued by severe power quality issues. This complex has the potential for between 10 and 30 Smartgate systems in the initial phase. Beyond that, it serves as an unparalleled showcase site, giving our partner the ability to bring their other major clients to see Smartgate in action, actively working to solve critical operational issues, including elevator performance through reduced elevator entrapments. Additionally, this placement will also allow us to demonstrate our solutions in one of the most prestigious facilities in the region, bolstering our credibility and driving further sales. Furthermore, as part of a global multi-billion dollar energy and infrastructure conglomerate, this electrical contractor has over two dozen affiliated companies across North America, each generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. We've already engaged with two of the sister companies and are actively working to expand our presence with them. In parallel, we're making strong inroads with another major facilities management and services provider, which operates across North America and beyond. Their electrical and HVAC franchise network represents a vast pipeline of potential customers facing the exact power quality challenge the smart gate solves. After attending their recent industry event, we connected with nearly 20 partners, all of whom expressed interest in conducting power assessments for their customers to solve their challenges. Additionally, we are finalizing agreements with two other key partners that will begin selling SmartGate as part of their portfolio. The key takeaway here, third-party validation is a crucial accelerator. When a trusted advisor recommends SmartGate, it dramatically reduces skepticism and shortens the sales cycle. And as Randy mentioned, on our GSA multiple award schedule, the process is progressing well. We've submitted additional requested documentation in January, and we remain under active review. Given the nature of this process, we do expect some additional questions as very few of these approvals go through without some form of scrutiny. Once finalized, this approval will provide a streamlined purchasing path across federal, state, and local government agencies. Significantly accelerating our sales efforts. We anticipate this to be a major revenue driver with millions of dollars of new bookings expected in the first 12 months and continued growth beyond that. As soon as this approval is in place, we are ready to move aggressively. On the greenhouse proving ground front, I'm sorry, on the green proving ground front, we have faced some setbacks during the installation of a high security government facility, a government contractor error resulted in damage to the smart gate and repairs are underway. We can expect to get back on track soon. Additionally, administrative changes within the program have caused the 90 day delay across multiple projects, not just ours. While the second site has been selected, funding is currently paused during this time. However, our local government contractors at the first installation site are considering using internal funding to move forward rather than waiting for the release of these funds. This is a strong indicator of the demand for Smartgate's capabilities. As far as the DOD or Department of Defense goes, we continue to make steady progress with them. We are actively engaged at a key military base in the Caribbean where federal efficiency initiatives have slowed spending, but viable funding options still remain in play. We expect to convert between one and three systems and affirm orders from the initial letter of intent during this quarter, again, pending final approvals. At another major Pacific region military installation, one of the world's largest ESCOs is leading a 20-year energy infrastructure overhaul. We are working to be included in phase one, and once our multiple award schedule is finalized, procurement will become even significantly easier. On the ESCO front, we are continuing to gain momentum. A major global energy solutions provider is moving forward with the public sector in the Northeast. with Smartgate already included in the final selection phase and submitted for funding. Additionally, we are finalizing commissioning on four systems for another major ESCO. Once these initial projects are complete, they have indicated the intent to include another million to million and a half dollars worth of Smartgates and projects that are currently in their pipeline. We are also in discussions with two new ESCOs focused on private sector energy optimization. Unlike traditional ESCOs, these firms are less reliant on strict energy saving thresholds and are more focused on improving building operations, which, of course, aligns perfectly with our value proposition. So where does this leave us? Strategic partnerships are opening massive new sales channels. The GSA multiple award schedule will be game-changing once approved. DOD and ESCOs and municipal projects continue to move forward despite some delays with administrative changes. Voltage adherence risk is giving us new edge in sales conversations and accelerating deal closures. The team is committed to driving as many deals as possible, and despite challenges, we are well-positioned for substantial growth. Thank you all for your continued support, and we are excited for what's ahead for Legend Power Systems. Randy, back to you.

I think the key message here is that we have secured the key pillars. They're placing orders or about to place orders. The opportunities are huge. And obviously we're really excited about the growth potential of each of them. The key message though is secure. There are wins already achieved. There's execution underway. Our key pillars are individually powerful, but the combination create a transform engine of growth. So how we see ourselves today is with a proven technology, a growing pipeline, a clear path, a strong revenue growth over the next number of years. We're poised to redefine the future of power optimization. And for those invested in our journey, the future is extraordinarily bright and the best is yet to come. The team is very positive, very excited about our future, and we're each very committed to making Legend Power a leading power management company. I want to thank each of you as shareholders or people evaluating the organization and our team and directors for your trust and partnership as we continue this remarkable transition. At this point, we would welcome questions. Dan, if you have anything you're wondering about or any questions, please feel free to ask us.

Randy, there are some questions flowing into the Q&A tab. The first question is, how is Doge affecting SmartGate rollout?

I mean, I could touch on that. Then, Mike, you can add any narrative questions. We're seeing a 90-day hold on some categories of expenditure. I don't know if that's directly into the DOG, but I think it's with the administrative change. What we're hearing is that it's not unusual to have a change and everything to be reviewed, et cetera. So we are having a slight delay. We're hearing that departments, as Mike touched on, are looking at rather than pulling things up the 90 days for clarification, other budgets they have, et cetera. I think the most important question is if there's some delays, are we having any cancellations? And the answer is we are not seeing any cancellations. Anything you want to add there, Mike?

No, I think that nails it, Randy. Again, When we look at the Doge efforts, we have seen the Green Proving Ground state that there's a 90-day moratorium on communication with external parties. So we do see a 90-day delay, but again, nothing is canceling. So we're very excited about that. And again, part of what makes the U.S. federal government important landscape so complex is all of the different funding mechanisms that they have. the base that we're currently working with, they have between five and seven different funding mechanisms that they have access to. And a few of those have been paused, but a few of those are still active. So what we're working on doing right now is trying to figure out which is the most efficient and effective funding program that's still available to them to be able to move forward. So again, it's making a complex environment a little more complex, but they're not going away for sure.

And the second question, one year ago, the unrisked order pipeline stood at $150 million. Comments on that, Mike, please.

Yes, we're north of that today. We're working with the regulators on what we're allowed to communicate. But again, if we look at that original number, all of those are still present. And when we look at the partnerships that we're adding, that's continuing to grow, to go up from there. So we're, we're continuing to see a very, very nice growth in our, on our potential.

And Martin had not a question, just suggested that he appreciates the team's efforts and we appreciate your support, Martin long, long-term shareholder. Thank you very much. Horst, his question is you have five ordered units and finished goods, Mr. Moffitt, ready to ship. What is holding back their shipment?

Hi, Horst. Yeah, thanks for the question. Yeah, we're working with, this is one of our large Canadian customers. They're actually looking at some potentially additional systems. And the order that they previously made for 10, we are just aligning the building addresses with where these systems will go. So it's just a simple matter of let's get the ship address and we'll ship these off. All the deposits have already been paid and these systems will be shipped probably within the next several weeks and installed by the customer at the final locations.

Great, thank you. We have the other question, the smart gates for the federal buildings being deployed.

Mike? The federal triangle buildings have not been deployed yet. Those are the ones that are on hold. They've gone through all the final design. They've gone through the RFP. They've selected who's going to be installing it. And right now, with the 90-day pause, the installation of that has been put on hold. But the other facility, again, is 90% installed, and we have to remedy the error that was made by their contractor in order to get that operational.

Right.

Horse has a question about the potential U.S. manufacturer self-adventure with some questions in there. Just to give some color to it, and then Paul, anything I missed, please add. We have probably for a couple of years talked about potential times to outsource. Currently now we have products coming from Mexico, for example, two major components shipped to San Diego. We pay duty, pay freight. San Diego to Vancouver, duty, freight. assemble in Vancouver, ship to the US, duty, freight. So it's not a great method to keep your costs in line. There's a lot of shipping and duty that's accessed there. However, one has to have the volume to drive relationships that make it economic for any partners to work with. So Are we negotiating a contract? We already know that we can reduce our costs by at least 10%. That's just off the top. Our goal is to continue to fine tune that relationship, also to parallel some offers that are additional offers in that arena. So the answer is we have an NDA with a partner that we can move ahead with immediately if we so desire. Obviously, volume will continue to drive the cost down as it would with us. We would benefit from some of the shipping and duty costs right away. So there is increased margins there. It is something we will do. The question is exactly when. When Paul was doing his update, he added that if we were pushed ahead with tariffs or something, that's one of the avenues we may move forward. However, we also have other ways. I don't want to get too much detail on it, but basically we have a system. We have services performed. Services are not tariff eligible, and our mix and pricing on those can be selective in a way that's very advantageous to us. So that's how I would talk about that at this point in time. But again, something we've been looking at not relating to tariffs. We've been looking at it for a couple of years and there's some different excellent avenues for us to go forward with based on cost and volume. Anything I'm missing there, Paul?

No, that's great, Randy. But I'll just add that they visited our plant, so they see what we're doing in our layout. And with the NDA, they have our assembly and test documentation. So they've got a great understanding of what would be required to put the system together and to test it. And all of their capabilities match with what we do here in Vancouver. So we're well set up to proceed.

Yeah, we're advanced on that particular area of responsibility for sure. The next question is about capital raise, etc. I will remind people that we have, you know, almost $3 million in warrants, 25 cents due July of this year. So, you know, you're looking at roughly six months or so for those. It is our... plan today is to deliver, uh, demonstrable success and news with our partners and direct business that will raise our value of the organization and allow us to, uh, get some of that capital, if not all exercise in the warrant. So that's clearly what we're looking at at this point in time. Uh, next question from Daryl was, uh, Can you elaborate on your recently announced relationship with Unity? Over to Mike. You're on mute, Mike.

I apologize. Thanks for that, Randy. Yes, I did discuss the progress we're making with that major partner. So we're progressing very nicely with them. Again, when we look at the weight that they hold in the city of New York, they're opening doors that have typically been closed to us. So we're very pleased with the commitment and the level of activity that we have with them. And then again, being part of Equan's global, a $19 billion global electrical and MEP contractor. Massive opportunities there. We've already met with some of their sister companies that service other markets. So we're very excited about the progress we're making there.

Yeah, I would just add, I think, to elaborate on Daryl's question, What we're seeing is we've always had interest from partners, but what we've always wanted is for them to take us into the customers that have power challenges that they already have the relationships with. And I think what Mike's done a great job with his team is we're now seeing sell-through. We're seeing... We're being invited as a category expert to go in and analyze the power challenges of a lot of these partner customers and provide smart gate solutions. I think that's the fundamental shift we're seeing is we're getting taken into a lot of opportunities. Mike talked about a very large, prestigious facility in New York. That was an example of being taken in by a partner company. that we had not talked to before or could not talk to those decision makers. So the sell-through aspect I think is the key. And obviously that's been a driving force of our sales strategy for a number of years. On that note, do we have any more questions? From... Jonathan, we have, are you seeing a higher incidence of power quality problems in potential customers? And do you think this will drive a shorter sales cycle? I'm going to put that over to Mike. But, Mike, you might just want to parallel that with the new risk, voltage risk that you've included. I think that's really coupled with that question would be a good answer.

Yeah, sure. So compared to five years ago, we're definitely seeing more and more people aware of the problems that dirty power brings into their facility. But the challenge is that dirty power is not really a technically defined term. So it's really hard to quantify, and that's one of the things that the voltage adherence risk really does for us. It allows us to be able to quantify that dirty power. And again, just to be clear on what this is, if you look at the acceptable range that the utilities can operate in, It's a very wide range. So, for example, it literally has a 10% swing in either direction. Meanwhile, the nameplate rating on virtually all the equipment is pegged at a certain voltage. And when it's within five volts of that nameplate rating is where everything operates the smoothest. And that's really what our voltage adherence rating is all about. It's about showing them how much time are they spending per month in that optimal area versus moderate risk versus severe risk. And that's working out very well. We've got one that we're presenting next week where literally of the 730 hours per month, they are operating at severe risk 710 hours. So when we're looking at, we're seeing more customers being aware of it, but we're also able to solve it in a way that we've never solved it before. So not only can we visualize this for them, but we can actually solve it. And that's one of the big differentiators for us is the ability to be able to solve that. And we're seeing that definitely driving shorter sales cycles for sure.

Yeah, I think a good example of that would be the one that you closed last week. That was a three-week sales cycle. It was engaged to basically to, and being driven by the risk assessment. And I think what we're seeing there is financial savings, et cetera, are really great. But when you've got significant power quality problems that are affecting your tenants or your customers, those become urgent. And I think it's a great example. And it's a nice adaptation of the sales cycle to make the risk assessment and bring them into the equation. It's been far, far more compelling. And the first person you pitched, a close within the three weeks, definitely supports the question Jonathan's asking, which is, do you think this will drive a shorter sales cycle? We sure do. And the one that Mike was talking about, just to add to it, just to put it in lay person's language that I look at, Mark Peterson looked at the data for a particular opportunity, brand new opportunity presented by a reseller and they're having 10 elevator related events a month and We believe, and Mark believes, that with the smart data, 10 can go down to one or zero. He's extremely comfortable going 10 to one, and he's quite confident going to zero. But think about that. That's nine less people having an event trapped in an elevator. Very significant.

Yeah, and to follow up on that, Randy, I know that traditionally we've been very focused on ROI and particularly simple payback from energy savings. And this new metric is a game changer from that. Because when you have people that are stuck in elevators, you just have to stop it. You just have to make the building better. And that's what we're seeing as being a big mover for us is it moves us out of the simple payback conversation and into a risk mitigation conversation.

Yeah, perfect. Any more questions? If not, I see there's a comment from Mike Ciosi of Legend Power. He just says, as a U.S. hockey fan, congratulations to Canada for beating us last night. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate that.

Yes. Congratulations on winning the war, but we won the war.

So I think the key point we want to make today is that the partnerships are growing, sell-through is starting to increase, resellers have strong customer relationships, and those give us the shortest and best opportunities for business. The pipeline is growing, deals are becoming larger, and we are seeing multiple year opportunities. The U.S. electrical grid and grids globally are facing increased power quality challenges due to aging infrastructure. growing renewable penetration, and rising demand for electrification. These shifts are introducing significant power quality issues, driving demand for smart gate solutions. As I mentioned earlier, we have a committed, talented team and an outstanding active power management platform without equal. We're focusing on achieving our sales objectives, closely managing our cash with reduced operating costs and securing sales deposits. We look forward to realizing significant sales progress and continued returns in our $10 million plus investment and several years in developing Gen 3 and enhancing U.S. sales capabilities. I really believe we're going to see significant returns on those investments in 2025 and 2026. So the future looks incredibly strong for Legend and our stakeholders. Thank you. We wish you a fantastic 2025. On behalf of the team, thank you for your support and have a great legendary day.