Norsk Titanium AS (84F.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. My name is John Andersen. I'm the Chairman of the Board of Norsk Titanium, and welcome to this third quarter operational update. I know that you are all eager to hear from our new CEO, Fabrizio Ponte. But since Fabrizio joined us only 4 weeks ago on October 6, we thought it was appropriate that I make some introduction on our performance in the third quarter before leaving the floor to him. We also have online our CFO, Ashar Ashary. Ashar is unfortunately unable to travel due to a back injury, but he will be able to participate in the Q&A session. So just a quick reminder of our position in the additive manufacturing space. Norsk Titanium has a proprietary technology validated by the OEMs with large installed capacity. This is our starting point. We have a significant value proposition, and we do have manufacturing capacity installed and ready to serve our customers. We operate in what we would describe as a large market. As of today, we estimate the addressable market to be at USD 7 billion. Now you might argue that, that's quite a bit to work with in itself. But clearly, this market will continue to grow over time for 2 reasons. First of all, we see increasing build rate in our core markets, first and foremost, aerospace, defense, and then on the other hand, we continue to expand on our capabilities, so we will be able to serve a growing proportion of the market as we continue to expand on these capabilities, both in part size and into new metals. And finally, we have an established customer base. We have frame agreements with the leading OEMs. And our focus now is really to make sure that we can grow the business under these framework agreements, the existing ones and the ones to come. So this is really our starting point, a qualified technology, a certified technology, installed capacity, it's all about commercial execution, and you will hear more about that later in the presentation. What happened in the third quarter? Well, first and foremost, we did transition 2 additional industrial parts into serial production. I openly admit that this was less than we expected and less than we hoped for. It doesn't mean that opportunities have disappeared. But as you have seen before, it do take time to convert these opportunities into serial production. So what happened in addition? First of all, we continued to progress our discussions with Airbus. These are discussions in the short term about the third production order that we know many are following closely and waiting for. These discussions continue to progress with a wide range of stakeholders in Airbus, and Fabrizio will speak in somewhat more detail about that later. In addition, we also work with Airbus under a longer-term road map. And when Fabrizio talks about that later, please have a look at how the interaction between Airbus and ourselves map to the road map that Airbus has announced publicly about how they intend to expand the utilization of additive manufacturing. Then we had strong -- then we see strong momentum in defense, which is no surprise, I think, to -- for people following that sector today. Governments increased their spending in defense and time is of essence for obvious reasons. We have an ongoing discussion with ICAM, which is the Innovation Capability and Modernization Office under the Department of Defense. They have named our technology a key enabler to be able to drive increased capacity for defense products across a number of domains in the U.S. So we are hopeful that this will increase our revenues short term because these are paid development activities. And at the end of this development time line, 18 months, there will be increased serial production. And this is a good illustration of what defense offers, right? They offer funded development activities as well as significant parts manufacturing opportunities. Then we continue to expand in industrial markets. This is also something that Fabrizio will talk a bit more about later. But of course, the 2 parts that I mentioned is targeted in those specific markets. We did raise $22 million to strengthen our balance sheet and to strengthen our financial position first in a private placement and then in a repair issue closely thereafter. Under the same heading, we have also, after having made initial investments in the first half to make sure that we have the capabilities needed to convince our customers, we have also then taken a more careful approach to our cash burn in the third quarter, and you should expect those activities also to continue to make sure that our costs are aligned with our revenue development. Clearly, as I started with, our #1 challenge, our #1 priority is to convert our technology position, our industrial position into the commercial opportunities. And that's an excellent segue into my introduction of Fabrizio Ponte. Why did we feel that it -- that he had the right profile to lead this company forward? It's about commercial execution. It's about operational readiness. It's about financial discipline. And you will hear now from Fabrizio in his own words, how he feels that his background makes him very well equipped to take on this challenge going forward. So with that, Fabrizio, please.

Thank you, John. All Right. So maybe I take control. Can you hear me okay? So good morning, everybody. I'm Fabrizio Ponte. I'm the new CEO of Norsk Titanium. And I can tell you, I'm really excited to be here in Oslo and to have joined Norsk Titanium. A little bit about my background. I've been -- I spent the last 30 years replacing metal with very special polymers, okay? And now I made a jump on the dark side, joining a very special company in very special processes, making very special metal parts, replacing forgers, okay? So I know the drill. I know what it takes to get from point A to point B and push it across the tipping point. Why am I excited about Norsk Titanium? I mean, first and foremost is the technology. I mean, it's a game changer. From the outside, before joining, I studied a lot. I saw the potential for this technology. But then as soon as I joined, I started to hear about the pull that we have from the market, aerospace structures, defense and many other industries. And this gives me really, really a lot of confidence for the future of Norsk Titanium. What do I bring to the table? As I said, I've been working on replacing metal. So I know how to set up operation, scale operation and work with the markets, multiple markets in order to make technological changes. And this is very, very exciting to me. I think this is what I bring to Norsk. And I think with all the expertise that we have and the commercial expertise that I bring, we are going to be very, very successful in the coming years. As a leader of Norsk Titanium, I mean, I'd like to share a little bit what I believe. And first of all, quality and safety for me are nonnegotiable cultural traits. It is important that especially when you operate in aerospace and when you operate in defense, quality is nonnegotiable, okay? So you need to make sure that everything you do meets the standards of your customers. So this is going to -- I think it is, but it will remain a very important feature of Norsk Titanium. The second most important thing that is always in my head are customers. I have, I say, customer obsession. I really believe on working and everything has to be done with the customer in mind. I mean we exist because we have customers. So we need to serve our customers and working with them, gaining their trust and developing partnership is very important, especially in markets like this, where it takes time to develop and you need to have working in partnership together because together, you're going to cross the finish line. I believe on accountability. I believe in team play, but at the same time, I believe in accountability. So we are going to set clear targets that we're going to work very hard to deliver. I really believe that we have the right expertise in place. I saw that in my first month in the job. And this gives me also a lot of confidence. All right. So that's a little bit about me and a little bit about why am -- I joined Norsk Titanium and what I believe in. What is going to happen -- what has happened in the first 30 days? What is going to happen in the next 60 days? We had a plan for my first 3 months. No questions about it. There is a lot that I need to learn. As I said, I come from a very similar background, specialty products, replacing technologies and making advances in the market and scaling operation. But at the same time, titanium and special alloys are different than polymers. So of course, I need to learn. And the first -- and I'm really trying to be a sponge. I've been working very hard in the first 30 days internally. I'll continue to do that in the coming months. I mean, I believe I will learn from my colleagues and my team at Norsk, but I also will learn from customers. And I can tell you, as soon as I'm finished here in Norway, next week, my tour with customers will start with a number of very important discussion already lineup. This will help me to understand where we are, what we do and what our customers think of Norsk Titanium and what is in the future. Now what is the plan here? The plan is laid out across 3 different dimensions. Number one is commercial execution. I'm lucky enough to have joined Norsk Titanium with a rich pipeline of work. So it's not that I'm starting from scratch. So Norsk has been around for quite some time and advanced the technology and the customer relationship quite a bit. So I take advantage of all that. But I'm really trying to understand and digest what really our status is and what is going to take in order to really go across the finish line from the commercial standpoint. To me, that's my priority #1 in the first 3 months. In parallel, I'm working with operation. We want to be ready when we will need to serve large volumes with our operation. And scaling is always a big challenge. You never know what is going to happen. I mean -- but you need to be prepared, you need to get to a certain level. And then when it's going to hit, you need to know what the plan is and what to do. So I'm working with my operation to understand the strong points, the weak points and work towards making sure that we are ready when we need to be ready, which is going to happen very, very soon. Last but not least is financial discipline, okay? We have a finite funds available, and we know that we need to work with that in mind. So it is important that the entire company is aware of that and it works with the right discipline from the financial and the cash standpoint. So this is critical, and I'm positive we are in the right direction here. All right. So let's jump into the business. And I'll do my best to provide you an update. Please -- and I know that I can use this excuse only once, so I'm using it today. So -- but I've been with the company for 30 days now. It's actually the 6th. I mean, it's 1 month today, okay? So it's my birthday today, 1 month with the company. But I'll do my best to provide you an update of what happened in quarter 3 and a little bit of an outlook for the future. And -- okay, I'd like to say that quite a bit happened, okay? So of course, we continue to deliver parts to Boeing and Airbus. It's not huge, as you saw from the numbers. But nevertheless, we are making parts that are currently flying on different airplanes. So that's a very good starting point. But what I think made a difference in this quarter is really the ongoing discussion that we had with Airbus. This is really I'd like to think, a partnership between Norsk Titanium and Airbus. Airbus is focused on implementing additive manufacturing within their processes. They see additive manufacturing as a key enabler to the next-generation airplane. And they know that in order to get there, they need to translate parts now in order to be ready. And this is where Norsk Titanium comes into play. So Norsk Titanium is one of the key players in the technology at Airbus. We have -- you can see here the road map that Airbus has developed, and you can recognize some of our parts already there. So this is very comforting. You can see our position with Airbus. I don't have to explain that to you. Very -- I think we've been very active and with a lot of intense discussion, you understand that commercial aerospace is a very regulated market. You need to go through the steps and the steps are controlled by the OEM. Our job is to support them, help them, push them sometimes to stay at target. But these discussions are ongoing on a daily basis, okay? So next week, one of my first stop is going to be exactly with these guys. And because I look at Airbus as a very strategic and relevant customer and opportunity, which is going to really unlock the potential for us. What is even more remarkable is, as I said, the Airbus is looking into using additive manufacturing as a pivotal technology for the future. There are a lot of discussion on how Norsk Titanium can support Airbus to do that. This really goes beyond the third production order that John referenced. So of course, the third production order is the step that is going to take us over there. But even more exciting to me for the future is the fact that they want to work with us in order to define the standards of additive manufacturing. So that's very comforting and very exciting for me as a CEO and for Norsk Titanium as a whole. Last but not least, also to help you to understand how we work in the industry and what we need to do in order to really cross the finish line. I think this was a couple of months ago, we organized a very strategically important meeting with all the regulators, North American and European and Airbus. And altogether around the table, we discussed how to sort everything out and how to make progress towards part manufacturing with our technology and in additive manufacturing. So I think this is very unique when a company is able to bring around the table the key stakeholders that are going to make the decisions and define plans with key milestones in order to move forward is really a remarkable thing. I'm very excited about commercial aircraft. I think I'm excited about structures. I'm excited about other application we are working on like in engines and other parts in the aerospace. It's very, very good, okay? Second, defense. Defense is changing. It's a new industry. I mean it used to be as conservative and as regulated as aerospace. Now the situation is, because of geopolitical drivers, is a little bit different. So the industry is trying to acquire speed. The industry understands the need to change the way it makes parts and develops technologies that will make parts faster, stronger and in a much larger scale. We are an enabler to that, okay? And as John mentioned, we've been selected by ICAM, so the Innovation Capability and Modernization Program within DoD on 18 months program to validate our technology. So they're going to work in order to qualify us and validate us. When they qualify the technology, then to go and make parts, it becomes much, much easier, okay? So we are going to work very hard in order to succeed in these 18 months. And when we are at the end of the program -- and by the way, we are going to work with a number of primes there. We're not just there by ourselves. Then we're going to go and start to enable part manufacturing in a number of, let's say, sectors within the defense, air, land, sea, these are all targets that we're going to go for. And I think this is going to provide quite a bit of surprise -- positive surprises to us. Number three is all the industrial part. So we have a good starting point. We are already in semiconductor. I've been operating in semiconductor in a previous life. This is an important part. It is a wafer carrier. It goes to one of the -- if not, is one of the most important OEMs in the semiconductor industry. I'm very excited about this. They had a slowdown. Now things are picking up again. I'm going to be meeting these guys next week, too. And I think semiconductor is going to be also an opportunity. It's the first, let's say, industrial application that we are in production and gives me comfort that our technology has a play outside of just pure aerospace. As you read from the summary, we also converted other 2 parts in 2 other industrial applications. So all this tells me that we are on the right track. We -- before my time, so I will enjoy that, too, we set up -- we have started to set up a commercial team. We have dedicated and focused sales and [ biz ] development managers working in industrial. We mapped the entire industry. We understand what the priorities are. And we have a number of focused discussion with key OEMs in a number of industries, energy, again, semiconductor, oil and gas and a few others. So this will bring quite a bit of diversification. As I said, we've been all in aerospace, which is heavily regulated with a long development cycle for quite some time. All these markets are less regulated than that. There are going to be faster cycle, and I think they're going to bring opportunities in a shorter period of time and make up to the delays that oftentimes we have to bear within the aerospace industry. So to conclude, okay? So I'm the new CEO in Norsk Titanium. I'm very excited to be here. I like to believe I'm really the right person for this very moment in Norsk Titanium. I come exactly in the time where we need to go across -- we need to push it a little bit, go across the tipping point and then really start to scale it, and I know how to do that. So I'm very excited about this. I think I worked in the last 30 years to get to this opportunity. So I really think that my background helped me to be here, and I'm really energized to go after this challenge and take Norsk Titanium to the next level. I see this as the opportunity of my lifetime. We are really focused across 3 different work streams, okay? Commercial, operation and financial. Commercial to me, I always say starts first, we need to make sure that we secure our revenues, profitable revenues. So we need to -- in the next months and years, we need to work with our customers in order to secure our revenues and make the jump that Norsk Titanium needs to make. This is the priority #1. Everything else follows, okay? Operation, being ready in an efficient way, but also being able to scale it. And in additive manufacturing, it's slightly different than in other industries. So you scale in a different way that, for instance, you scale in the polymer industry, okay? But you need to be sure that you do that ahead of time. You cannot be caught off guard when you are there. And then financial discipline, very important across the entire industry. Finally, obviously, modest near-term revenue. I mean you saw that this year as certainly we cannot claim a victory and -- but having said that, we made solid steps towards success. I'm very positive about that. I mean when people ask me, what you see. And what I see is I'm very confident about the future and the outlook. I have no doubts about that. So I always say it's not a matter of if, but it's a matter of when. My job is to make sure that this when comes as fast as possible, and I will work diligently and with a lot of energy in order to make sure that, that happens. Thank you for today. I really hope this was informative. I hope you know me a little bit better. You started to know me a little bit better. I think in the coming quarters, this will continue, and we're going to get to know each other and work together for the future and to make Norsk Titanium very successful. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, Fabrizio and John. I think we'll move over to the Q&A section. So we'll start with the audience here in Oslo. Please raise your hand if you have any questions. And please state your name before you ask the question.

[ Preben Rasch-Olsen ]. I have actually 3 questions. I hope that's okay. A few of them should be pretty easy. First, on the outlook, no mentioning of any revenue targets next year or 3 years from now. Are you finally done with that stupid guidance?

I may take this one. So okay. You say it's a stupid guidance, so I accept your constructive feedback. I've been here for 4 weeks, okay? So I'm working to understand exactly what we have in place, what our customers are saying and expecting from us. So very difficult for me to give you a firm feedback on this. I mean I'll work another couple of months. So in the next review, which is going to happen early next year, I mean, we're going to talk about that. But yes, I mean, it's -- maybe we will stop the stupid guidance...

I think that's smart. What you could guide on and would be interesting to hear is a realistic cash burn in the first half of '26. What sort of the level you can reach and should reach?

So also here, I mean, we are -- okay, we're already reducing this. I mean we were successful at going from $2.9 million to $2.4 million. Now we want to go at USD $2 million. But certainly, before the end of the year, I want to be in the position to set a target that we can absolutely achieve, which is not going to go up, but it's going to go down. What is achievable? I cannot tell you right now. But what I can tell you that I'm committed to define a very clear target that we're going to work on and deliver on an average for next year. But this is absolutely, as I said here, one of our targets. I mean we know that we need to reduce our cash burn rate, and we're going to do it, okay, one way or another one.

And last one is really on the aerospace. My understanding was that you sort of was done with all the approvals from the regulators. But you were saying you're sitting down with Airbus and the regulator...

Okay. I hear too. And you can correct me if I say something stupid, okay, [ Preben ]. So okay, It's -- okay, first of all, you know that there is a government shutdown in the U.S. This is impacting us a little bit. So right now, actually, everything is blocked and standing still until they reopen, the government. I mean they cannot progress. Aligning the FAA and EASA is not easy work, and they need to be aligned for us to be approved to go forward. So everything is done. We need to complete the paperwork. And this did not happen for multiple reasons. Hence, we decided to take the bull from the horn. We brought everybody around the table to do exactly that. This also says that, hey, we are not sitting and waiting hoping that it's going to happen. We are actively trying our best to influence and progress, which is not easy work, believe me.

So if I may add to what Fabrizio said because this is also a legacy issue, right? So you're absolutely right, [ Preben ]. The fundamental approvals, the fundamental certification is obviously there. But if you look at Airbus road map and what they want to do going forward, we cannot continue to work in the same way. We cannot continue to approve additive manufacturing parts with a forging legacy. And the regulators agree, and Airbus agrees. So this was more about how can we streamline processes going forward, how can we ensure information flow, how can we have an approach that actually is based on the fundamentals of additive manufacturing, right, not to reopen the certification process, but to make things more efficient going forward. Because if you look at the road map that Airbus has been quite vocal about, it requires a change also on the regulator side. And it's a bit unusual, right, that both the regulators sit down, as Fabrizio said, with a company like ours to actually talk about -- I mean, it's like the regulators would actually accept that we are really the point of gravity in the additive manufacturing space. We have gone through this cycle. There are no other additive manufacturing companies that have gone through this cycle. So we put them together in the same room, which they don't do often. And then we can talk about how to make this efficient going forward because otherwise, there is a risk that we will have stumbling blocks as we try to help Airbus implement their road map. That's how to think about it.

Any more questions in the audience? Okay. We'll move over to the web. With delay in revenues, what operational changes have been made to ensure better execution as revenue scales?

So maybe I can start because this is a bit of legacy. So -- and this ties in with what we discussed earlier about burn rate, right? So we did make certain investments, which we also described in our third quarter update. We did make certain investments to be ready in the first half and hence, the slightly higher burn rate. Now we are in a position where we can manage that more carefully. So it goes to a number -- it goes to capacity, it goes to inventory. It goes to securing downstream capacity, not only in-house capacity. It goes to how we approach testing. I mean it's a wide range of operational issues that we can fine-tune and therefore, on the one hand, still be a credible supplier because that's important, right? We don't want to do anything which would give our customers the possibility to escape, if you like. On the other hand, we also need to be mindful and disciplined in how we allocate capital.

And on the other hand, I mean, we put a lot of efforts also of creating a commercial force, which is now dedicated to bring home revenues. So go out, hunt, bring them back. And I think that's really also a big change, and we're going to continue down the line to become better and better at going out and bring back opportunities that we can serve, okay? So that's a very big change.

Good. And following up on the cash burn topic. Are you self-funded with your current cash balance?

Well, I don't think that we will change the messaging because this refers back to what we did in the first half report. And I think we have no other message at this point in time. You have heard Fabrizio and his plans for the next 60 days. I'm sure that we will look for ways to accelerate. We will look for ways to be more disciplined and not go back to any specific guidance different from what we have already given the market at this point in time.

How is the diversification progressing? And what are your strategic priorities going forward?

So I think it's progressing well. I mean we mapped -- we spent, I think, a month together with a consulting firm to put together a thorough map of the opportunities, matching our technology with the different industries. We were able to identify 3, 4 key industries. And now we are focusing on those industries, and we have a go-to-market strategy in every single one of them. We have a single point of accountability for every single industry, and we are now working already with customers on projects and on parts. So they bring back their ideas, their blueprints and we come back with the pricing. And so it's, I think, progressing well, and I'm very, very happy on the execution that we have. We're going to take this now forward in a step up in the coming months.

And if I may add to that, we have talked about this also historically. Our value proposition in aerospace and in aerostructures is pretty clear. I mean, the customers are complicated to navigate, as Fabrizio talked about, but our value proposition is pretty clear and our customers value the properties of the parts. In the industrial segment, it's a little bit different. So you need to be more selective in how you identify parts, right? Because our value proposition could be a bit different from industry to industry and from customers to customers. So of course, the Hittech part, it's not like Hittech and the end customer necessarily need aerospace quality for the strength of the material, right? It's really our ability to reuse material consumption. That is the key value proposition that we offer on those particular products, right? So you have to be a bit more mindful about how you approach customer and therefore, this more deliberate approach that Fabrizio just described.

Yes. And then the positive thing is that, okay, in aerospace, the tailwinds are very clear, okay? So they need to increase their build rates. They need to change their production processes in order to meet those build rates, okay? This is very clear. I can tell you that we see tailwinds also in all those markets. I mean if you can be out there with a technology that is faster, that is more efficient, both from the raw material standpoint and the power consumption and you can work with customer in a nimble and quick way, then you have a very strong value proposition. And we see that across multiple industries, and I'm positive we'll be able to identify the areas where we can be successful fairly quickly because these are, as I said, not as regulated as aerospace. So technically, the development cycle should be much faster. So still technical because we are not in the business, I always say, of potatoes and tomatoes. We are business on selling very technical parts that make a difference and oftentimes are structural. So you need to go through the steps, which is normal for specialty products. But then these are much faster than aerospace, where you have agencies that you need to convince OEMs that you need to align and so on and so forth.

Good. You began the year with an annual recurring revenue of $12 million. Year-to-date, you have revenue of $2.6 million. And then assuming Hittech represents just a small portion of the annual recurring revenue, what explains this deviation? And maybe also remind people on your definition of annual recurring revenue.

And maybe this is a question -- if Ashar is still online, maybe this is a question that you would like to address, Ashar?

Yes. Thank you. So yes, so the -- so let's start with the definition of annual recurring revenue. As you can see from this report in Q3 that we are not guiding to an annual recurring number anymore. Hittech is actually not a small portion of that $12.8 million number that we reported. It is actually quite a significant portion of that number because of 2 things. Volumes in 2024 were quite high. And it's a fairly large part as most of you have seen, and the dollar value of that large part was significant. So out of the $12.8 million, it was -- it was a significant -- it's a significant amount -- it was a significant amount of revenue. In 2025, as we have explained in the first half report, that purchase order was dwindled down because of the demand that Hittech was seeing. We do intend to bring that -- we have a purchase order for later this -- in Q4 to deliver parts to Hittech, but it is not at the same level as we were delivering in 2024.