Norsk Titanium AS (NTI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Operator Instructions] And with that, I'll hand over to Fabrizio.

Thank you, [indiscernible]. So first of all, good afternoon, good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Norsk Titanium first half presentation. I think, actually, you can move into the next slide. All right. So -- we started -- last year, we started a rigorous strategy review, followed by a definition of a road map linked to the strategy review. And then we started to execute on it very rigorously. And I'm happy to report that we have positive trends across the board from the financial standpoint. Revenues are increasing both on the parts manufacturing and on the development part of our business. We were able to improve our cash burn with quite a bit of rigorousness on working capital and also making sure that we have the right people on the right spot. And we had a successful capital raise before summer. Also on operation, we are making progress towards our milestones. We continue to expand our relation with Airbus. We signed a new collaboration agreement at a group level with Airbus, which is very important. We placed our first machine in Varel, Germany, which is a first for Norsk Titanium, and it's really getting our RPD ecosystem strategy started. And we see that the lower frame fittings, which is the largest additive manufacturing parts ever produced and commercialized in aerospace, is ramping up very, very nicely. Also important, we started our first production contract with Northrop Grumman. This is a landmark part on one of the crown jewels of the U.S. Air Force. We are very, very excited about that. And we were finally awarded $4.2 million by the U.S. Department of War to develop our technology for submarine and heavy applications. Last but not least, also our Industrial segment is helping us with Hittech, I'd say, growing multiple fold versus last year and projecting consumption of our parts to double again next year. So all in all, a very positive trend from the financial and from the operational standpoint. Ashar, move to the next slide, please. Okay. A quick refresher on our strategy. As you may remember, we structured our strategy across 3 different verticals, focusing on our core OEM programs, both in commercial aerospace and in defense, focus on short-cycle sales in order to identify opportunity that we can translate into revenues, profitable revenues in a short period of time. And again, the RPD ecosystem, which is a brand-new business model that we are currently defining and structuring, which is meant to allow selected OEMs to in-source our technology to be put at the core of their industrialization effort when it comes to additive manufacturing. Next slide. So we have been also completing our technology readiness level. I think we achieved at least 2 very important milestones in the first half of this year. So number one, RPD and Norsk were listed in the MMPDS handbook. Just again, a quick refresher. The MMPDS handbook is the bible for aerospace and defense engineers. So for RPD to be listed in the MMPDS puts them in the position to design parts using all the data that are certified and included on MMPDS. We can see that this is already helping to gain more business and helping the design engineers to design parts on RPD. Also, we were -- we achieved the Nadcap accreditation. This is fundamentally important for aerospace and defense. So now we can claim that Plattsburgh, which is our production center in North America, is Nadcap accredited and this really puts Norsk Titanium years ahead of competition in terms of technology readiness and accreditation with both agencies and authorities in the aerospace and defense industry. Last but not least, we were awarded the Innovation Award by Safran. This is, again, testament to who Norsk Titanium is. We are a company based on innovation. We are a disruptive company, and we were recognized by Safran Landing [ Systems ] as such. So we are very proud of this achievement, and this really proves that Norsk Titanium is gaining ground with multiple OEMs in the aerospace industry. Ashar, so now, deep diving into the 3 different segments. We're going to talk first about Aerostructures. Again, here, we see increase in part manufacturing and sales, of course, across the board, Airbus, Boeing, Leonardo and others that we cannot disclose. They are all growing in volumes with a very positive outlook. The lower frame fitting, which is currently flying on the A350, received certification also from the FAA. It was certified by EASA. Now it's certified by the FAA and EASA. So now this can be used across the board and across the globe on any A350 that is produced. We are very active in discussion with Airbus on the Wave 3 production order, very intense discussion even across the summer with both manufacturing and procurement. As anticipated by the award, we continue to work with Safran landing gear systems [ Safran Landing Systems ]. And we are also very active on engine with one of the key OEMs where we are working really across the board to identify a number of parts that have a great fit with our technology RPD so that we can move forward introducing RPD also in engines, which, by the way, has a great potential for additive manufacturing in aerospace. Ashar? So now moving forward on defense. Defense is even more exciting than Aerostructures or as exciting as Aerostructure. We are now in production with 2 primes, Northrop and General Atomics. This is great for multiple reasons, not just because we're going to generate revenues, but this is because this is going to unlock the opportunity to translate across those platforms at Northrop and General Atomics. Number two, we were awarded $4.2 million by the Department of War. This is a landmark development and is meant to -- for Norsk Titanium to develop applications and be qualified with the Department of War so that this can open the gate to applications in the Department of Defense. And we are getting funded to do that, which is a little bit different than in the past. So we are very excited. We have started -- this program is going to last 18 months. And after that, we are going to be in a very different position within the Department of Defense. We also won an award with America Makes. This is kind of similar in nature, if you look at the DIB-EDGE award, is we are here -- we are going to train a number of defense departments on RPD and our technology. And we are going to achieve qualified supplier status on titanium parts at the end of the 12 months program. Very exciting. During our March Investor Relations presentation, we were talking about large opportunities. You can see here, we highlighted as undisclosed defense prime opportunities. I can tell you that we are in 2 key programs focused on the replenishment of what the U.S. has deployed in the last 12, 18 months. This is very exciting, is very, very active discussions and technical qualifications. As I said back in May, we expect to know if we are going to win and how much we are going to win by the end of the year, and we are fully a target in order to do that. If yes, this is even more exciting than a couple of months ago. Ashar, so from the industrial side, again, the development that we did along with Hittech is now bearing its fruit. We are growing this part of the business multiple fold versus previous year. We are going to double that next year. This is really proof that the RPD technology can go beyond aerospace and defense. We are in discussion with Hittech on expanding this development in semiconductor and outside. It's great to have partners like Hittech, and we are very excited about going beyond aerospace and defense. I mean it's -- for us, this results in much shorter cycle development which is a relief if you consider that aerospace and defense always require long development cycles, being in semiconductor, being in oil and gas, being in energy type of applications, while it's still very special and commands premium in terms of pricing and value is much shorter to realize. So we are building a pipeline. And in the next few months, we will be able to report on that pipeline. Ashar, okay. So we talk about the third leg of our business, which is the RPD ecosystem. We placed -- we now have a machine in Airbus in Germany. This is the first for Norsk Titanium. It's the first time that we place a machine outside of our premises. This comes, of course, with quite a bit of learning. But so far, I have to say the team has been really focused and working with Airbus in order to make this a success. We expect this machine to be fully accepted on site by Airbus by Q3. So October, beginning of October, November, we are going to be there. And then the process qualification process will start. This is exciting because although we have already qualified in a number of parts and today, we are qualifying part by part. Look at the example of the lower frame fitting. The goal here is to qualify our process. And when our process will be qualified, the qualification part by part is going to become much quicker than it is today. On top of that, Airbus engineers will be able to design parts on RPD to start with. So this is a landmark development, and we are fully committed to execute that within the next 18 months in order to bring this to conclusion. Very exciting. Production -- hold on a second. Ashar, have a couple of more messages about Airbus. We are very active in discussing Wave 3. We have been very active throughout the summertime with exchanges and very heated exchanges with both manufacturing and procurement. We responded to a number of RFQs, and we are working very diligently and with a very high sense of urgency in order to translate that into the biggest package possible for Norsk Titanium. Okay. The floor is yours, Ashar.

Thank you, Fabrizio. Just to go through some of the key financial highlights for the first half of 2026. I'll start with the income statement here. As Fabrizio mentioned, revenue and other income in the first half of 2026 increased to 2.9% (sic) [ $2.9 million ] compared with the same period in 2025. That's approximately a 38% growth. This growth is driven by serial production revenue of about $1.1 million in first half of 2026, which is approximately 29% growth over the same period. This serial production growth was due to increased volumes of parts in serial production with Airbus, but also recovery in the Hittech volumes in 2026. The second part of the revenue, development revenue, was $1.7 million in the first half of 2026. This is approximately 50% growth over the same period in 2025. And this is driven by activity development activity we have ongoing with Boeing, but also additional activities that we have going on with Safran as well. On the expenditure side, we remain quite cost disciplined. Our operating expenses came down to $15 million or negative $15 million from negative $17.2 million in the same period last year. This ended with an EBITDA loss of $12.1 million, which is an improvement of approximately $3 million when compared to the same period last year. Net losses is extremely -- when compared to the same period last year, extremely much lower. This is -- I just want to remind the viewers that in first half of 2025, we had a net loss on the foreign exchange, a noncash loss on foreign exchange between the -- on the intercompany loan between the parent company, Norsk Titanium AS and the subsidiary, Norsk Titanium U.S. So that was a noncash foreign exchange difference. So when you reverse those impacts out, our comprehensive income in the first half of 2026 was -- or comprehensive loss in first half of 2026 was $12.2 million compared to a comprehensive loss of $14.5 million in 2025. So this is an improvement of approximately $2.3 million. On the cash flow side, we started the year with $19.3 million in cash. During the period -- during the first half of 2026, we used about $11.8 million of cash in operations. This was down about -- from $16.8 million in the first half of 2025. Net financing inflows, as Fabrizio mentioned earlier, we did a private placement. We were -- we executed and realized $13.2 million from the first tranche of that $27.3 million private placement in -- before the end of the period on June 30. So we ended the period with $19.6 million in cash and which represents -- and well, when you exclude the financing activities, this represents a $2.1 million monthly average cash burn rate. Which is down to about -- which is down from $2.9 million in the same period last year. This again shows that we are able to be disciplined in our expenditures and control our cash burn and anticipate the cash and anticipate cash burn and how we control it as we ramp up into higher volumes of sales. As I mentioned, cash balance ended at $19.6 million as of June 30. But we also wanted to give a reflection or at least reflect on the -- if we were able to complete the entire $27.3 million private placement in this half of the year, we would have had a pro forma cash balance of approximately $35 million if we were able to realize the entire proceeds in -- by June 30. Okay. Fabrizio, back to you.

Yes. Thank you, Ashar. Flip the slide. Very good. So we have the ambition to achieve breakeven by 2028 with a 25% capacity utilization. We are also working towards achieving the first step of realizing the full value of Norsk Titanium by 2030, achieving a significant operating leverage, driving towards 30% EBITDA margin on sales. So how do we do that? And how is this possible? So first of all, we are really backed by very positive dynamics in our target markets, aerospace, defense, even semiconductor. So we are in markets that are pulling for our solutions and they are working and we are working with customers that are committed to bring our technology at the core of their industrial platforms as an enabler and as a solution to their bottlenecks. And this is a great place to be. So -- but what are going to be the levers? So number one, obviously, volume growth, okay? So we need to bring home what I call needle movers in terms of development in aerospace, in defense, and we already have one in industrial markets, okay? If we will be able to do that in the next 2 or 3 years, we are going to be in the position to breakeven in '28 and realize the first step of the full value capturing by 2030. Second, we need to make sure that we have the right revenue mix. We believe that the RPD ecosystem will support achieving the 30% revenue on sales. So this is a CapEx-light business model and will certainly boost our profitability going forward. And then last but not least, cost efficiency. Both on how we spend our cash. And I think we are making progress towards that rigorousness and being very, very cautious when we spend money, but also making sure that we remain or improved competitiveness of our technology. We are very positive on the financial side. We are certainly showing the positive trends across the board, revenues, cash burn, and we were successful on the capital raise. We remain committed to be very successful at one of our core development, which is Airbus. We are working across 3 different work streams there. Production order #3, placing our machine and certainly supporting all the business we already have, which is ramping. We don't stop there. We are working with a number of other aerostructure OEMs, including Boeing, Safran and other engine manufacturers. So very exciting there. Defense, it's a very exciting market and market dynamic, very strong pull. We are advancing discussions with a number of primes. We are working in order to define success in the next 2 or 3 months. This will be instrumental to our success. And then RPD machine, the RPD business model, the ecosystem is also making progress, okay? Place the first machine, and now we're going to expand from there to -- within Airbus and with other OEMs. So small steps, small quick steps that will help us to achieve our targets in '28 and 2030. Thank you, and I hope this was informative. Open to questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Fabrizio and Ashar. We have received a few questions. So let's start with the first question from Nicolas. When is it realistic to expect actual revenue from defense customers?

Okay. I'll take this one, Ashar. Okay. So first of all, we already have actual revenues from defense customers, okay? So these are low rate productions. So not really meaningful, if you ask me, from the revenues that we need to achieve standpoint, but still meaningful from the strategic standpoint. So we are already there. Now we are working on large and important programs, okay? If we win and depending on how big this is going to be, but this can happen very quickly, okay? So we are talking about in the next -- to start to realize sales in the next 6 to 12 months. So this is going to go very, very fast, assuming we win and we win in a big way.

Thank you. And on that topic, another question from Marcus Gavelli. Are the potential contracts with the defense primes multiyear in nature or more of a short-term replenishment?

I think we are working on both areas. So short-term replenishment, which would mean 2 or 3 years of work and then long term in other areas. So we are working on both directions.

Next question, also defense related from [indiscernible]. You have mentioned 2 Patriot-related programs and previously indicated that you expected clarity on potential awards by early October. Has the time line now shifted toward year-end for both programs? Or do they have different decision time lines? And beyond these 2, are there additional Patriot-related opportunities currently progressing?

So yes, I mean, I think the timeline has not changed -- it can be October, it can be a little bit later than that. Again, like aerospace, we try to influence the best of our abilities, our customers, but we don't do a very good job at that. I mean at the end of the day, their decision-making is outside of our control. What we can do is really to stay focused and help them make the decision. So I still believe that October is possible for sure, by the end of the year. On 1 or 2 big programs, we will know where we end up.

Then another question from [indiscernible] related to Airbus. You have said that there were several interesting discussions with Airbus over the summer. Is it fair to assume that the technical work is largely completed and that the dialogue is now increasingly focused on commercial terms and the path toward Wave 3? Do you feel Airbus is investing more time and resources in the process than before, potentially allowing Wave 3 to materialize relatively quickly?

It is a fact that Airbus is engaged heavily across the board. So manufacturing, procurement at this point, even program. So that's a fact. Over the -- we had a very busy summer. I even had to fly back through my own vacation. So, this is a testament that things are moving faster. There is full engagement and commitment to make to in-source additive manufacturing and within their industrialization process. This is certainly going to help -- this is helping today our discussion on Wave 3, which are, as I said, very active. They have been very active over the summer. They are still active as I speak. So things are certainly in a positive dynamic.

A question from Sarah K. Any news on the Boeing relationship? Can you give some color on the current development work with them?

Yes. I mean we have multiple exchanges with Boeing. You can see that Boeing is a big part of our development revenues for the first half. So it's actually a very large part of that. So of course, you can see that the discussion with them continue. We are still working in order to make sure that we have the same type of discussion that we are having with the other OEMs. I would say that with Airbus, we are certainly much more advanced, but we are working very hard to do the same with Boeing.