Cavendish Hydrogen ASA (CAVEN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Cavendish Hydrogen's Second Quarter Presentation. My name is Robert Borin, and I am the CEO of Cavendish Hydrogen. And with me today, I have our CFO, Marcus Halland. The presentation will last for approximately 20 minutes, and there will be a live Q&A session after the presentation. Most of you know us well by now, but for those of you who are new to our company, I will start out with an introduction and briefly introduce you to what we do before the second quarter business update. In Cavendish Hydrogen, we are in the business of ending emissions from mobility, and we do this through reliable hydrogen fueling solutions across the world. So why is it that we are focusing on hydrogen mobility and not other solutions like electricity or biofuel? Well, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have strong advantages over combustion engine vehicles like, for instance, no emissions, which we consider to be a hygiene factor in the modern mobility business. On top of that, fuel cell electric vehicles have advantages over, for instance, battery electric vehicles like the longer driving range, where a long-range truck today need to have a range of about 800 kilometers in one charge or refill, a refill that should not take more than 15 minutes. And finally, the grid connection needed to install a hydrogen fueling station for heavy-duty mobility is significantly smaller than the grid connection needed for a heavy-duty electrical charger able to charge a truck in the comparable time. And with the increased electrification of our society, the limitations of the grid is becoming a growing problem to the extent where it is already showstopper on many European markets where you need to wait many years to get even smaller grid connections. In Cavendish, we offer the complete scope of equipment required for installation of a fueling station or trailer filling panel. We start out with the connection panel out to the left here, and this is where the hydrogen comes into the station from the source. Then we have the storage where the size of the storage is very much depending on the type of the source. If you have a pipeline as source, the storage is smaller. If you have an electrolyzer, the storage can be larger, et cetera. Then we have the fueling station, which is sort of the main event where we are keeping all the technology that we have. This is where the cooling, compression and the control is happening. Finally, we have the dispenser and the dispenser is primarily what the consumer sees when using the station. On top of that, we are also providing services ranging all the way from design and manufacturing to maintenance and operational services. And on that note, I will now take you through the latest business update for the events in Q2. So in the second quarter, we announced an order in Luxembourg with our French EPC partner, MPH. This contract represents a new market entry for Cavendish and supports our continued expansion across the European continent. It is also a testament to our strong collaboration with our French EPC partner, MPH. We are also very happy to have announced a strategic partnership and EUR 4.8 million cornerstone investment from the Austrian company, BHDT. This investment corresponds to a 15% ownership post transaction. We see this partnership and investment as a validation of Cavendish Hydrogen's technology and strategy. And we have already moved from transaction to active collaboration in relation to technology development and R&D. As an additional testament to the technical strength of our organization, Cavendish was awarded EUR 1.3 million in European funding. The funding is related to acceleration of development of the next-generation compressor technology, and I will come back to this a little bit later in the presentation. And finally, we are very pleased to announce that we have reached a full and final settlement in the U.S. case versus Iwatani Corporation of America, which is fully eliminating future legal costs and risk related to this case. Taking a look at the hydrogen market development. We see increased activity in the market, but decision cycles are still long and especially in new markets. Policy deployment and financing are on the horizon for FIDs in mid-2027, which gives long-term trust in the market. However, it creates a gap for the rest of 2026 and the early 2027. The regulatory landscape is taking shape, but project time lines, especially regarding permitting remains volatile and especially local regulations are not yet fully in place. More hydrogen vehicle producers are actually entering the market, but vehicle availability is still lower than expected. If we then look at the positive side, we see a 100% oversubscribed funding call in Germany, where applications for more than 70 stations were submitted here in June. This is a EUR 220 million funding program designed to support bundling of stations and vehicles in one application, which makes it significantly easier for projects to get the full financing in one place rather than going to several different entities. In the Netherlands, the SWiM funding program was completed with a total of EUR 45 million awarded for build-out of hydrogen infrastructure. This program was earlier announced to become an annual program or an annual award in the Netherlands, which, of course, is a great news for the future as well. And finally, we see that the geopolitical situation with the risk of higher oil prices is, of course, accelerating the development towards alternative fuels and energy resilience. Looking a bit closer at the time line and the impact of the German and Dutch funding programs. The application deadline was passed here at the end of the second quarter, where we saw a 100% oversubscription of the German program. In total, applications for 71 stations were submitted in Germany, which is approximately double what the program is budgeted for as we see right now. So that, of course, says -- or shows that it's a great demand for building stations out there. A EUR 45 million program was awarded in the Netherlands, which is corresponding to approximately 12 stations to be built. The funding award is expected to be announced in the last quarter of 2026 and subsequently, the tendering process is expected to start shortly thereafter. And finally, FIDs and supplier awards are expected in the second quarter -- second and third quarters of 2027. And of course, this is the time line for when Cavendish is in contention for the awards naturally. So coming back to the EUR 1.4 million project in Luxembourg. Cavendish Hydrogen supplies the station in cooperation with long-standing partner Mesure Process, MPH, who acts as the EPC and maintenance contractor. The customer is a leading European energy company and the project aims to decarbonize mobility and is part of a major initiative funded under the European Commission's Horizon Europe program. This project does not only give Cavendish high visibility recognition as a leading technology supplier, but it is also expanding Cavendish's footprint into a new European market. As stated earlier, we are, of course, also now very pleased to announce that the long-term U.S. litigation process starting in early 2024 finally has come to a full and final settlement. This is not only removing further legal risk and spending, but it's also freeing up resources to focus on the capitalization of Cavendish position as the technology leader in the business. Another positive development from the quarter was the funding awarded in the European HyMEGA program. The HyMEGA program aims at developing the next-generation highly energy-efficient compressor technology. As a leader of the development consortium, Cavendish has been awarded EUR 1.3 million, which will cover a large part of the development cost. Since lower energy consumption and compression costs translate directly into lower cost of hydrogen for the consumer, this project will not only strengthen Cavendish's leading position within hydrogen compression technology, but also continue -- or contribute to the competitiveness of hydrogen as the best alternative for heavy-duty transport. The target of the development is a more than 50% reduction of energy consumption, putting Cavendish well ahead of the competition. So exciting news here, of course. And we are, again, very happy to have announced a strategic partnership and a EUR 4.8 million cornerstone investment from the Austrian company, BHDT. This investment corresponds to a 15% ownership post transaction and the cash for the transaction was received in the second quarter. BHDT is a leading Austrian specialist in high-pressure equipment and now also a long-term anchor shareholder and industrial partner, combining Cavendish's system expertise with BHDT's manufacturing capabilities. Cavendish Hydrogen and BHDT are now deepening the partnership and are exploring for synergies. As an example, Cavendish is assessing BHDT's storage technology as a potential complement to our own systems. And on top of that, our 2 companies now continue to explore further collaboration across BHDT's broader group. So beyond the capital injection, this partnership is a clear vote of confidence in Cavendish from a well-established industrial player. If we look into the details of this quarter's dispense hydrogen volumes, we continue to see a trend that the latest installations are contributing with the largest numbers where some stations are dispensing at full capacity. Again, this reemphasizes the trend that new build stations are no longer demo stations, but actually commercially backed stations installed to fill real volumes of hydrogen to real fleets of vehicles. This is obviously a very positive trend, indicating that hydrogen mobility is continuing to move into the group of financially sound and bankable projects, and this is especially clear in the European market. Looking at ongoing projects in the second quarter, one station was handed over to our customer in Poland. This station was earlier presented as a capacity extension station -- of a station already in operation, which was delivered by Cavendish in 2023. The customer can now fill more than twice the amount of buses on the same location. The 2 latest stations in Italy have completed installation and are soon going into commissioning. The Luxembourg project awarded in the second quarter is scheduled for installation in 2027. And finally, the German bus project, OVAG, where Cavendish is having the full installation scope has now successfully completed the permitting phase and is moving on to the equipment delivery and installation phase. So with that, I would like to hand over to our CFO for a quick walk-through of the financials. So please, Marcus, go ahead.

Thank you, Robert. I will take you through the financial highlights for the second quarter of 2026. The revenues ended at EUR 4.4 million, which is an increase of 57% from the previous quarter. The revenues have improved from the first quarter due to more equipment deliveries. Specifically, we delivered equipment for the 2 new hydrogen stations in Italy. The current ongoing projects, they are all in Europe. And this period, we have finalized the upgrade project of an existing station in Poland, and we have started the installation and commissioning projects of the 2 new Italian stations. This will be our second and third station in operation on the Italian market. The service business is generating stable revenues in line with previous quarters. The EBITDA of negative EUR 5.9 million is significantly impacted by extraordinary costs for the settlement and related legal fees to finalize the U.S. legal case. By excluding the extraordinary costs, the underlying EBITDA is negative EUR 2.1 million, and that is a significant improvement from previous quarters. The gross margin from equipment deliveries were as expected and specifically, the service business had a good quarter where improved operational performance and fewer stations under warranty contributes to improved profitability. However, the main driver for the underlying EBITDA improvement is the reduced indirect cost base related to previous restructuring efforts with lower headcount and the more focused approach on the European market. If we look at the order intake, Cavendish sold one new station to MPH for a project in Luxembourg. And together with renewed service contracts and service repair jobs, that amounts to an order intake of EUR 2.4 million this quarter. Our revenue was higher than our order intake in the quarter, something we would like to see the other way around. And we end the period with an order backlog of EUR 9.6 million. At the end of this period, Cavendish had a cash balance of EUR 16.4 million, and that is a minor decrease from the previous quarter, and that is driven by the investment of EUR 4.8 million from BHDT. There is a negative development from net working capital items due to timing of payments contributing negatively to the cash usage this period. But moving into the upcoming period, the lower indirect cost base and an expected improvement in working capital elements will reduce the underlying cash usage in the second half of the year. If we look ahead on the revenue based on the current order backlog, it is expected that revenue levels are somewhat lower in the second half of 2026 compared to the first half, and this is mainly due to fewer expected equipment deliveries. The revenue from our ongoing installation project and service business is expected to perform according to the current level. There will, of course, be some volatility between the quarters due to the timing of the revenue recognition of the order backlog. And that concludes the financial part of the presentation. And I will leave the word back to Robert to summarize and finalize the presentation.

Thank you very much, Marcus. I will now try to summarize the quarter that went. Starting out with the Q2 highlights. So the strategic investment from BHDT was completed, and the partnership is now moving from transaction into active collaboration. The Iwatani litigation has reached a full and final settlement, removing a legacy financial risk. The European HyMEGA EUR 1.3 million funding award is reinforcing our competitive position. Moving on to the markets, which remain cautious but are advancing. The regulatory landscape is taking shape and is improving rapidly, but local regulations are still delaying project time lines. Germany's EUR 220 million June funding program was heavily oversubscribed, which is super positive and shows positive signals, of course, for the future. And the EUR 45 million SWiM program in the Netherlands was completed in Q2 with a continuation expected on an annual basis, which is also sort of giving us a little bit continuity over time. Cavendish is well positioned since our proprietary technology and track record sets us apart from the competition, where we own our own designs. Our financial position is stable, and we are now operating from a significantly leaner cost base. That concludes our presentation. Thank you, everyone, for watching and listening in. We are looking forward to seeing you all again at the Q3 report in November. And we will now go on to the Q&A session. Before we start, I would like to repeat the practicalities. [Operator Instructions]

And now please let us know if there are any questions. I can see that there is one question in the chat from Anders Rosenlund and well, actually, there are 3 questions. The first question is, what is your annual revenue capacity with the current setup, number of employees? And yes, the quick answer to that is, of course, that we are continuously adapting the staffing level of employees that we have right now. We have a technical capacity, which is significantly higher than what we are currently producing at. We could easily produce up in the hundreds of stations. But we are on a continuous basis, of course, adapting the workforce to make sure that we are keeping the cost levels at the right level. In case of heavily increased order flow, then of course, we are able to quite rapidly increase the workforce to adapt to the situation. And the second question was, do you expect material costs as a percentage of revenues to remain at 50% going forward? Marcus?

I can try to answer that. It depends a bit on the revenue mix. In, for example, this quarter, we have quite a few equipment deliveries, and that would lead to a slightly higher material cost share. In the upcoming quarters, we -- the delivery of equipment will be lower and project service business are higher. And then the material cost might be slightly lower in percentage of the revenue at least. So it's not going to fluctuate significantly, but depending on the revenue mix, it can move a little bit from the 50%.

Yes. And the third station -- the third question is how many stations do your current backlog of EUR 9.6 million represent? Currently, the EUR 9.6 million comprise approximately 50% of service revenue, so recurring revenue and the remaining is the equipment deliveries that we have to OVAG and MPH and the remaining on the projects for mostly then the Italian project and also then MPH and OVAG. And some minor equipment deliveries for upgrades and so on for stations around the world. Yes. Any additional questions? Yes, Anders, again, you raised your hand. So please unmute your phone.

Yes. I just want to dig further into my first question on your revenue capacity. You have a cost base of roughly EUR 17 million a year on personnel expenses and other operating expenses. What kind of revenue capacity does that represent with full utilization? Is it EUR 20 million, EUR 50 million, EUR 100 million?