Anaergia Inc. (ANRG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's Anaergia Q4 2024 and Year-end Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Drew, and I'll be the operator on today's call. After today's prepared remarks, we will have a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] It's now my pleasure to hand over to Darlene Webb, Investor Relations for Anaergia. Please go ahead when you are ready.

Thank you very much, operator, and good morning, everyone. On this call, we'll be discussing our earnings for Anaergia's Fourth Quarter 2024, which ended December 31, 2024. If you're following along with our slides, my comments are directed to Slides 1 through 3. And on Slide 2, you'll see that for our call today, I am joined by Mr. Assaf Onn Anaergia's Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Greg Wolf, Anaergia's Chief Financial Officer; and Dr. Yaniv Scherson, Anaergia's Chief Operating Officer. Before beginning our formal remarks, we would like to refer listeners to Slide 3 of the presentation, which contains a caution on forward-looking information and a note on the use of non-IFRS measures. Listeners are reminded that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements that reflect current views with respect to future events. Any such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Anaergia does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except as may be required by applicable laws. Listeners are urged to review the full discussion of risk factors in the company's prospectus which is filed with Canadian securities regulators. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Assaf.

Thank you Darlene, and good morning, everyone. We are currently on Slide 4. I'm pleased to be here today to reflect on the pivotal year for Anaergia and share how we are positioning the company for a long-term success. When I stepped into this role, Anaergia was at a turning point. We faced significant challenges, but also significant opportunities. Over the past year, we took bold, decisive steps to stabilize our financial position, refined our strategy and we build trust with our investors. Today, I can confidently say Anaergia is stronger, more focused and better positioned than ever. 2024 was about deliberate action, not just small improvement but foundational changes to ensure our long-term success. And as we close the year, I want to highlight some of the most meaningful progresses we have made. The successful $41 million strategic investment from Marny Investissement marked a turning points for Anaergia, certificately improving our balance sheet and providing the capital need to execute on our strategy. With this investment came new controlling shareholder is [indiscernible] a new management team, a refreshed board and a new chairman reinforcing governance and positioning us for substantial growth. As we took steps to enhance transparency and better aligned with investors by converting Anaergia multiple voting shares into single-class common share structure. These changes ensure that we are not only financially stronger but also more accountable and shareholder focused. Moving to Slide 5. When the structural changes in place, we launched Anaergia 2.0, a strategy focused on financial discipline, operational excellence and sustainable growth. For the just a shifting direction. Anaergia 2.0 is about focus, doubling down on what we do best and executing with purpose. We prioritize capital sales, building on our successful core business, leveraging our proven expertise to drive revenue with lower capital intensity while focusing on profitable projects. This shift is already gaining traction, supported by a strong pipeline of well-funded strategic customers who recognize the value of our organic waste-to-energy solutions. At the same time, we reduced debt and improved financial flexibility, ensuring that we can pursue growth while maintaining a disciplined approach to investments. Strategic partnerships has played a key role in this effort, allowing us to share project risk, strengthen executing capacity and broaden our market reach through our collaboration with trusted regional players. We also worked to make our operation more efficient, rightsizing and streamlining the business and SG&A to rely with our capital-light model and reducing head count by 35%. These efficiencies have contributed to improved profitability and greater financial resilience. As well, our geographic expansion has been another important pillar of the strategy. We extended our presence into high potential markets, including Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Japan and North America, region were regulatory incentives, sustainability methods and the demand for RNG are driving adoption. We are positioning Anaergia to be a preferred solution provider in this rapidly evolving markets. Together, these actions has transformed our ability to compete, win and grow. We now turn to Slide 6. The [ removal ] of our going concerned note marked a critical inflection point. This milestone, we opened opportunities that were previously frozen and restored our ability to secure bonding capacity for new contracts. Most importantly, it allowed us to pursue sustainable backlog growth of previously delayed projects, enabling us to capitalize on long-term revenue opportunities that had been on hold. This backlog provides clear visibility into future growth and reinforce our strong financial trajectory. We are now on Slide #7. Our commercial momentum began accelerating in Q4, driven by a major contract business that validate our strategy and reinforce our role as a global leader in organic waste-to-energy solutions. These contracts are not just about revenue. The real force credibility, expand our market reach and support our long-term growth plans, among more significant Q4 wins our Pepsico Colombia, a flagship organic waste-to-energy projects for a global food and beverage leader, Monterey One Water in the U.S., a significant O&M expansion at East California that we expect will generate more than $3 billion annually. And already in early 2025, we are seeing further traction. QGM Italy, two biometry production facilities under EPC contracts that we announced yesterday valued over $46 million. The City of Fermo, Italy and newly announced Anaerobic Digestion Project for a municipal client, reinforcing our growing presence in Italy public sector. Valued at over $9 million. University of California, Davis, have a new project to upgrade on-campus anaerobic digester facilities, supporting North America leading institutes in its sustainability goals, a contract value at approximately $7 million. Techbau, Italy, a multi-plant biomethane agreement to develop 5 biometry facilities. JGC Holding Japan, a major step into the Japanese RNG market. These projects are more than just revenue. They represent the trust of global partners, but in [ basis ] of Anaergia's capabilities and the strong indicators of the momemtum that we are building. Moving on to Slide 8, the reduced confidence in Anaergia is evident, not just on our partners, but also from leadership and investors. Insight purchase from our largest shareholders Marny Investissement and Dr. Benedek as well as 2 Board members and our CFO demonstrate clear alliance and conviction in the company's trajectory. We have also taken steps to reengage institutional investors and build analyst coverage, helping to ensure that the market better understands Anaergia's long-term potential. And the financial markets took notice. Anaergia stock delivered a remarkable 260% return in 2024, making it the best-performing Canadian cleantech stock of the year as recognized by the financial press. We are now on Slide #9. While we are proud of these accomplishments, we recognize that 2024 was a transitional year, a year of rebuilding, repositioning, realigning Anaergia for the future. We have stabilized our financial position, improved operational efficiency and lay the foundation for long-term profitable growth. But most importantly, we have momemtum. Our capital sales building business is gaining traction. Our operating model is shopper, and we are winning business with well-funded strategic partners. This momentum, combined with the renewed confidence of our investors, positioning Anaergia to accelerate growth in 2025 and well beyond. I also want to take a moment to thank the entire Anaergia our team, from our engineers and project managers to our corporate and operational staff. We have worked tirelessly to deliver results. We are a team of doers and that mindset has made all the difference in this past year. We are committed to execute Anaergia 2.0 delivering profitable projects, expanding into key markets and creating the lower term value for our shareholders. I look forward to keeping you updated. With that, I will turn the call over to Greg to go over the financial results. Greg?

Thank you, Assaf, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I'd like to echo Assaf's gratitude for the exceptional work of our team in executing Anaergia 2.0 and setting the stage for sustainability and profitable growth. Today, I'll walk you through our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year. Results that reflect not just improving fundamentals, but the impact of disciplined execution, sharper focus on our core business and the early returns from our strategic reset. Let's now move to Slide 10 and 11, our financial results for the period ending December 31, 2024. Revenue for Q4 2024 was $34.1 million, a sequential increase of 1.9% from $33.4 million for the same period in 2023. On a full year basis, revenue was $111.6 million, down 24.2% or $35.6 million from $147.2 million in 2023. The year-over-year decline was primarily due to the completion of the Italian and North American capital sales projects, some customer-driven project delays and an interim slowdown in new capital sales project signings. In addition, revenue declined because of the sale of [indiscernible], a food project in Italy, which was divested in August 2023 as well as the idling of the Charlotte facility in February 2024, a decision that was made by us to minimize operating losses while we prepare the site for construction. Gross profit for Q4 2024 was $9 million, reflecting a $157.8 million increase or up $5.5 million from $3.5 million in Q4 2023. Full year gross profit was $25.6 million, a 29.9% or a $5.9 million improvement from $19.7 million in 2023. The increase was driven by a strategic focus towards more profitable capital sales and operating and maintenance contracts plus our continued progression and ramp-up of our existing boot projects, combined with our disciplined project execution approach. Gross margins for Q4 2024 expanded substantially to 26.4%, up from 10.5% in Q4 2023. On a full year basis, gross margins also increased to 23%, up from 13.4% in 2023. This kind of expansion reflects the early payoff from our shift towards more profitable projects, tighter cost controls and production oversight. It shows that our capital-light strategy and cost disciplines are beginning to flow through the bottom line in a meaningful way. SG&A expenses for the fourth quarter increased to $18.6 million from $13.8 million in Q4 2023. This increase was mainly driven by year-end compensation and executive severance accruals, external professional fees regarding our year-end audit, increased insurance costs and other year-end related expenses and reserves. For the full year, SG&A expenses were $66.8 million, a decrease of $8.5 million or 11.3% from $75.3 million in 2023. This improvement reflects the impact of the business actions we took throughout the year, including a reduction in head count and other cost reduction measures aimed at lowering our overhead cost structure. Net loss for Q4 2024 was $15.4 million, a 54.7% improvement or $18.6 million from the $34.1 million loss in Q4 2023. This $18.6 million improvement was driven by a notable increase in gross margins during Q4 2024 compared to the same period last year, coupled with losses on the deconsolidation of Rialto that occurred in Q4 2023. On a full year basis, net loss significantly improved to $55.9 million, representing a 71% improvement compared to $192.8 million in 2023. This $136.9 million improvement was primarily due to a prior year onetime charge related to the disposition of the company's subsidiary, ATA and the deconsolidation of Rialto, both of which were partially offset by the sale of Tonder. Additionally, 2024 benefited from the large improvements in gross margin and reduction in SG&A expenses as noted. Adjusted EBITDA for Q4 2024 was a loss of $6.3 million, an improvement of 18.2% or $1.4 million compared to a loss of $7.7 million in Q4 2023. The majority of adjusted EBITDA improvement relates to a substantially higher gross margin achieved in Q4 2024 compared to Q4 2023 as noted earlier. Full year adjusted EBITDA loss improved 23% or $8 million to $26.9 million compared to a loss of $34.9 million in 2023. This marks a notable improvement driven by higher gross margins, reduced SG&A expenses and continued financial discipline throughout our system. And now let's move to Slide 12. As we close out 2024, we're reintroducing our revenue backlog, which gives us a clear picture of the business we have in hand. This includes signed contracts across our capital sales and O&M service segment. With a conservative approach to backlog bookings, for capital sales, for example, we include only signed contract values and for O&M services, we modeled just 3 years of revenue as backlog, even though several of these agreements extend beyond 10 years. Under this refined definition, our backlog at year-end stands at $90 million in capital sales and $13.3 million in O&M services contract for a year ending backlog of $103.3 million. This figure is as of December 31 and does not reflect contracts announced since that date. Beyond that, across various stages of the sales cycle, we are actively pursuing and are negotiating additional contracts that collectively exceed $250 million in capital sales and over $15 million in O&M services. With this solid backlog and a large growing pipeline of new deals, we are not only securing work for the near term, we're laying the foundation for sustainable revenue growth and long-term stability. Moving to Slide 13. Our current operating build-own operate facilities in SoCal and Rhode Island, both continue to increase performance with SoCal biomethane, operating profitably and getting closer to full capacity and Rhode Island also continuing to ramp up production. Our other development stage projects, including Charlotte and Riverside, remain in various stages of development. In 2024, we took actions to minimize losses at our Charlotte facility by idling operations as we prepare the site for future construction. Riverside also continues to be ready for construction as we complete development work under our existing capital sales contracts. Both projects will be constructed under our capital-light model whereby we are seeking a financial partner to fund the CapEx for these R&D developments. Both of these development projects are anticipated to begin construction in 2025 once a financial partner is selected. In summary, our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year reflect clear tangible progress under Anaergia 2.0. We've taken meaningful steps to stabilize our financial foundation, improve operational discipline and position the company for long-term value creation. We are productively managing risk, strengthening our internal controls and focusing on execution and margin enhancement growth. In early 2025, we already see a much greater opportunity in our pipeline. And because we are the market leader in RNG technology and a complete turnkey solution, this makes us the perfect choice for our customers. We believe this will lead to sustainable long-term returns for our shareholders. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Yaniv to share operational highlights to provide further context on our strategic execution. Yaniv?

Thanks, Greg. We're now on Slide 14. We're driving a fundamental shift in how organic waste is managed, energy is produced and how the circular economy has strengthened. Going forward, we ensure that each project we take creates long-term value, both financially and environmentally, reinforcing our leadership in sustainable infrastructure. Our partnership with PepsiCo in Colombia expands our partnership to 3 continents where we continue to support decarbonization solutions from major industrial players. Going forward, we expect continued demand for on-site decarbonization solutions from large industrial players seeking to reduce scope 2 emissions. In California, we continue to expand our operations footprint to new agreements with Monterey One Water and the Rialto Bioenergy Solutions facility. Both projects aligned with California Senate Bill 1383 organic waste recycling mandate and leverage Energy as vertically integration of design, technology and operations. These projects provide recurring revenue and strengthen our ability to scale operations efficiently in the North American region growing municipal and industrial segments. In Japan, our new office and recently announced LOI with JGC Holdings marks a strategic entry into one of Asia's most forward-thinking energy markets. Japan has had clear goals for carbon neutral gas by 2030, and with government-backed incentives and the introduction of the clean gas certificate system, there is growing demand for RNG solutions like ours. This move expands our global footprint and establishes Anaergia as a key player in Japan's transition to low carbon energy. In Italy, we recently secured an agreement with Techbau for 5 new biomethane plants expanding energy of scale in the high-growth European market. These plants will process 270,000 tonnes of organic waste annually. We are focused to capitalize on the rapidly expanding European energy security initiatives and leverage repower EU incentives that support sustainable biomethane development across the EU. Moving on to Slide 15. Beyond individual projects, our build-own operate and capital sales pipeline continues to gain momentum with strong policy tailwinds, including the clean fuel regulation in Canada, SB-1383 and SB-1440 in California and repower EU in Europe. Anaergia is well positioned to accelerate growth in the global organic waste to energy market. And on to Slide 16. Why does all this matter? Because our execution translates into long-term revenue growth, stable margins and increased cash efficiency. Our capital-light strategy ensures we focus on financially healthy projects that reduce financial risk, while expanding in markets where we already have strong momentum. This disciplined approach positions Anaergia for scalable and sustainable profitability, making us more resilient in evolving global energy markets. Anaergia 2.0 is not just about transformation, it's about execution. We're proving that our business model works, and we are poised to capture growing opportunities in the global organic waste-to-energy market. With that, I'll turn the call back to Assaf for his closing remarks.

Thank you very much, Yaniv. As you have just heard, we are making clear measurable progress in moving Anaergia forward, financially, operationally and strategically. 2024 was a year of stabilization, a time to be, we focus on our core strengths and lay the groundwork for long-term success. We have taken decisive action to improve our financial position, streamline our business model and place Anaergia on the path to profitable disciplined growth. But our work is far from done. As we look ahead to 2025, our focus we made on execution, converting our growing pipeline into signed contracts, advancing strategic partnership and counting on building a financial resilience. With a strong team, a focused strategy and an expanding presence in key markets, and Anaergia is well positioned to drive sustainable growth and create value for our shareholders. With that, I will return back the call to Darlene to close.

Thank you, Assaf. Operator, I believe we're now able to open the call to questions.

Apologies. We will now start today's Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] It looks like we have no questions registered at this time, so I'll hand back over to Darlene Webb for closing remarks.

Thanks, again, operator. And thank you, everyone. As always, for additional information or should you have any questions, please do contact the IR team at [email protected] or visit us online @anaergia.com. Thank you all for your time today. And operator, you may now end the call.

Thank you. That concludes today's call. You may now disconnect your lines.