Northstar Clean Technologies Inc. (ROOF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Excellent. Well, everybody, welcome to the Q3 2024 Financial Results and Investor Update from Northstar Clean Technologies. I'm Aidan Mills. I'm the CEO of Northstar. I'd like to thank Kin, as always, for hosting the call for us. We've actually had a bit of a technical issue with the slides from our end. So Kin are not only going to be helping us collect the questions, but they're also going to be moving through the slides as well today. So thanks for -- Natalie, for helping with that. I'm joined by Chris Park, the Interim CFO, for the quarter, who will take us through the financials. So usual setup, please ask questions. And today, we will [Technical Difficulty] from Kin, who will be asking the questions. So the agenda today, we're going to cover kind of 5 things. So firstly, we'll cover the financials. Then we'll cover the key deliverables. So I'll talk through kind of what we have achieved kind of through Q3 and Q4. I'll also give a bit of an update on Calgary and where we are with that. I'm always very excited when I'm doing these calls, as you guys know, plenty of energy. But one of the things that's most exciting for today is, of course, the Hamilton facility announcement, the press release we put out this morning. So we'll chat about that. And then I'll do a little bit of a wrap-up of 2024, chat about the accomplishments for this year and then what we're looking forward to in 2025. And so, without any further ado, I'll hand over to Chris Park to chat about the financial results. So Nat, can you go to the financial results page, please? There we go. Thank you. Chris, over to you.

Thank you very much, Aidan. This was a transformative quarter for Northstar as the company continues to develop and construct its first commercial facility in Calgary in Alberta. Cash at the end of September 30, 2024, was $15.5 million and reflects significant financing transactions completed during the quarter, which include a $14 million convertible Royalty Debenture with CVW Cleantech, which closed in September, and the company drew $1.6 million from its $8.7 million senior secured debt facility with the Business Development Bank of Canada. In addition, subsequent to the end of the quarter, the company also drew an additional $2.7 million from its BDC debt facility. As of September 30, the company had incurred $15.1 million in cumulative costs relating to its Empower Calgary Facility, which include development and both direct and indirect costs of constructing the facility. Significant sources of financing the company has access to, to fund the remaining construction and commissioning of Empower Calgary include: $5.7 million from Emissions Reduction Alberta; $2.4 million from TAMKO upon achieving certain operating milestones; and $4.5 million from BDC as of the date of this call. In addition to the sources of financing described, the company also collects shingles as it prepares for facility commissioning and operations. Fees received from shingle collections are reported as revenue, with the company reporting $165,000 for the quarter and $475,000 year-to-date. G&A expenditures of $1.5 million for the quarter remained reasonably consistent with previous quarters and include noncash charges of depreciation and share-based compensation of $409,000. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Aidan.

Excellent. Thanks, Chris. So now can we go to the key deliverables slide? Perfect. So let me chat through a couple of key deliverables from Q3. And actually, there's also a bit of a theme with respect to some of this. So the first thing, obviously, we received the front-end patent from the Canadian Patent Office. As you know, the IP has been patented in the U.S., first 2 parts of the process in the U.S. and some follow-on down there. And now this is the -- this was excellent news that we're following the same process here in Canada. And secondly, of course, as Chris mentioned, we announced the CVW deal. Look, I think the feedback has been good from our shareholder base and also the CVW shareholder base. This is seen as a very strong, strategic financing arrangement for Northstar. Of course, the next 2 facilities are part of this arrangement, and we obviously have the flexibility to add to this as we go. So it provides a very good flexible financing alternative for Northstar as we think about how to roll the plants out as we go. So great to have a strategic partner like CVW. Of course, as Chris said, we've got the $1.6 million in here from BDC and then obviously, subsequent event, $2.7 million from BDC. Look, one of the things, and Chris didn't mention it in detail in his description here, but one of the things that BDC require to pay money out is the validation of the spend by actually QSSi, who are the quantity surveyor that come in and do the measurement, provide the report to BDC. So QSSi, over this period of time, not only did a validation of all the equity that we had spent on acquiring equipment, but also have come in since that point to validate that the equipment is there, it's in place, et cetera, et cetera, and the spend has been made. So from an investor perspective, that's really, really important because if you see money coming from an entity like BDC with a process in place with respect to the quantity surveying, you can be guaranteed that, that has been through a significant assurance process with respect to the money being spent and the equipment, therefore, being there. So that's something that's super important. And the last thing I want to touch on in this slide is the announcement of senior management, and I want to chat a little bit about that. So I'd actually like to thank Chris for all the work that he's been through with us in the last year as the Interim CFO. Chris has got a really strong project cost control background, and it's been essential, as we've gone through this capital spend program, to have the assurance in place with the measurement and the process and systems set up, and Chris has done a great job there, which has been super helpful to us. So thank you for that. And also, as I described earlier, the BDC process is a complicated one, and the Emissions Reduction Alberta process is a complicated one, which needs clear validation of our processes, and Chris has led the setup of that. So it's put us in a super good -- in a good place. Look, I'd like to welcome, as you know, that PR outlined, I'd like to welcome Greg Phaenuf, who comes in as our new CFO and VP of Corporate Development, strong oil and gas background, strong mining background and also strong background with capital markets. And so, it's going to be great to have him lead the finance side. And he's joined in finance by Lynda Paananen, who I worked together with at MEG and astonishing that she still wants to come and work with me, but coming to Northstar, but she's got great experience. It's been great the time that I worked with her in the past, and it's super to have her on the team here. And then lastly, of course, Kellie Johnston, who, of course, has been with us on the legal and sustainability side, leading that, but has now got a broader function role. So adding HR, adding branding and marketing, adding government and public affairs, and of course, she's not allowed to give up her legal or sustainability work. So that's all part of the portfolio as well. And I think as we think about the transition of this company out of '24 and into '25, and we'll talk a little bit about '26 as well today, then this is starting to build a team that's going to deliver this company moving forward. Yes. So exciting times for that. Now can you go to the next slide? So project status. This is kind of a bit of a year in review of all the pictures from our PR since the start of the year. But look, Calgary, at the beginning of the year, we demonstrated to the market and talked to people about where our feedstock was coming from. Then we started to see long lead items arrive. The Rotochopper was the first of it. Then we started the work on the site itself, not only from the development of the site, but also kind of the inventory collection. In September, we started to see the long lead items that we have arrive. And then in October, we started to construct. So you can see walls going up and the long lead item equipment being installed for some of the cases before the walls went up and the roof went on. I've been asked repeatedly about what the time line looks like for Calgary. I can say with good confidence that we expect to be mechanically complete at the facility by the end of the year, electrical completion then in Q1 and into commissioning. You know what, we've set ourselves a target of midyear 2025 for the operation of the Calgary facility. And a number of people have said to me and our investors have said, well, that seems like a bit of a long time. Listen, when we go to commission Plant 4 and Plant 5 and Plant 10, we will already have the set points of exactly how to set this equipment up. Like literally, you punch them in and you go. So it could be a month to commission these. This is the first one of its kind, so we need to get this right. So we've been pretty judicious about how we are going to step through the commissioning program. And it's really, really important to do that with this facility. And so, judicious operation is the way we're going to get to, and we expect to get there by the middle of the year. One of the things, as you know, many people on the call will know is that we started some videos kind of outlining what we're doing as we construct. We'll do exactly the same through commissioning. So you will start to see videos come out through that construction and commissioning series through to kind of full operation in the middle of the year. Nat, do you want to go to the next slide? Okay. So this is the exciting news we chatted about earlier. PR wrote about this morning. So we've signed a letter of intent for a long-term lease for our planned site in Hamilton. As many of you know, and I've chatted about this in a number of different calls, we have searched through the kind of GTA in Southern Ontario for the best site. And we're really delighted to actually sign this agreement with HOPA. They've been a very strong partner and have worked with us in terms of siting and access and et cetera, et cetera. And so not only do we get a site out of this agreement, but also a building, which is great. Look, Hamilton is a great fit for light industrial processing like ours. We are close to a number of our key partners. We're close to rail and port infrastructure. I mean essentially rail facility, about 100 meters to the right and port infrastructure about 200 meters to the left. So fantastic access and also access to significant supply in the area. And one of the most important things from an investor perspective is you can't talk to -- sorry, that's not strictly true. You can talk to the government in Ontario and the federal government about what you imagine your facility in Ontario is and they'll listen to that conversation. And then the answer to the conversation is always, well, where is your site going to be? So the critical thing about this decision is we now have a site that we can, number one, start the permitting process on; and number 2, start the government engagement process on from both the federal and the provincial perspective. And so, this launches that development program, which is critical, obviously, as we look to develop this through 2025 and 2026. So great announcement for us today in terms of next steps in Southern Ontario. And then on the next slide. So a number of people have seen me present a slide where I've kind of chatted about here's how far we've come from the IPO in July '21 when I joined through to now. But actually, we highlighted in red here kind of the full year of 2024 and what we've delivered. So we chatted about CVW, so a major strategic investor added. We talked about the supply from IKO and Ecco. We talked about the first U.S. facility identified to supply TAMKO in Maryland after we'd done the work with them. And we have the full construction of our first facility underway and obviously, the 2 patents added. One of the things that's interesting about this slide for 2025 as well as building on that is not only with kind of -- not only with the strategic investors, but also with the Ecco supply that has the potential to be significant enough to -- with the collection in Calgary to step us up to 24/7 in Calgary into 2026. The IP, there'll be follow-ons in the U.S. and follow-ons in Canada. And so, there's a number of different elements of this, which will continue to grow in 2025. And Nat maybe go to the next slide. And the next slide, of course, is where people are kind of the questions are, well, like, what does this look like with respect to your focus? So 2025, as we've chatted about on the Calgary slide, is all about delivering Calgary. That's essential for the technology. It's essential for the market. It's essential for the way we're running the business. And that, of course, is the plan and that's the focus for the first half of 2025. But also -- and I've said this before, also in 2025, we can't start Calgary and then go, okay, what are we going to do next? So that's why the Hamilton announcement is really important. That's why the supply of the TAMKO plant at Maryland is really important. That's why we're investigating the retrofit of Vancouver. And look, as we think about what that plan looks like, the target for us as we lay out the time line is to have those built and operating in 2026. So if you think about Calgary in 2025 and then Vancouver, Hamilton, and U.S., one in 2026, that's kind of what we're thinking about in terms of what the deliverables should be as we go forward here. So then, look, the last slide I've got is the stock price. And often in these calls, I have really not talked about the performance of the share price. But I think it's worth referencing this now because I think this is the market starting to identify the amount of work we have actually done to get to this place. Often people have heard me say that the business now, as we came out post CVW deal, we're now at the tipping point whereby in 2025, delivering Calgary and delivering all the development work for the 2026 plants that we outlined earlier, that's what it's all about. But actually, this reflects the benefit of our IP, the derisking of the technology, the strategic customers we have added who have helped us in that derisking and the financing. So just again, back to the earlier slide, look, I joined in July of 2021, 3 years ago, as the IPO was completed and $12.2 million was collected. Since that time, Northstar has raised $55 million. And of that, $30 million of that has been nondilutive. And so given the environment, for us to get to this point and have a fully funded plant that is literally about to commission is a great place to be. We've got our first facility being constructed. We have identified our first U.S. locations in terms of supply for TAMKO, and we've just secured our next Canadian location. So not only have we got the interim deliverable for 2025 ready, but we've got the steps for 2026. And so, this stock is at a tipping point and this business is at a tipping point. And hopefully, we'll get to see kind of much more improvement on the current level as we are today as we go through 2025. So 2025 will be a huge year for us, production in Calgary, developing the next wave of the Northstar facilities, and hopefully, we'll see the stock price perform in the same way. The last thing I would say for this year is thank you very much for your support. There are a number of people on this call who've been in the Northstar story prior to me and were investors in the IPO and are still very supportive of this story. So I wanted to say thank you for them. And I know there are some people who are prospective investors on the call as well. And hopefully, this will continue to deliver in 2025 and be an attractive business to invest in. So Trenton, I think that's all I've got to say. I'll fire it over to you for some questions.

Yes. A few questions about Hamilton here. I'll just kind of combine them into one. So what can investors expect as some of the next steps for the Hamilton site?

Yes, that's a great question. So a bit like happened in Calgary after we announced the Calgary location is, so there's kind of 3 things that we are progressing and have been progressing in parallel with this announcement. Obviously, one is offtake. So that's obviously critical. And the second is supply. And so, both of those are important, both of those expect to see some heads up to investors early in the new year. And then I think the third thing is government engagement. And so, as I said, now we have a site actually defined, then we can engage the government more meaningfully, both in Ontario and at the federal level. And that obviously takes longer. As you know, when we announced Calgary, Emissions Reduction Alberta wasn't until maybe kind of 9 months after that. So that takes a bit longer. But those are the 3 things that investors can expect us to be working on with respect to Hamilton.

And then I have a follow-up question on Calgary. Can you expand a little bit on what you mean by mechanically complete?

Basically, all the big pieces kept inside the building. So yes, all bolted down, piped, yes. So all the major pieces of equipment that we need for the facility, all in place, secured, and probably 90% interpiped between them.

So not waiting for any more equipment in the mail or is being shipped? Everything is on site?

Well, certainly not in the mail. But yes, everything is on site.

Okay, excellent. That about does it on the Q&A side of the equation.

Excellent. Well, listen, let me just summarize. Look, I think we're ending 2025 -- Northstar is ending 2025 (sic) [ 2024 ] with a great set of financials. I think you can see from the capital that we've spent, the BDC draws, the ERA draws, et cetera, construction is progressing really well. And as I say, we expect mechanical completion, as Trenton asked the question. We're right at the end of the year here. So I think we're on track, which is great. I think we're building a great team to deliver the vision of this business through 2025 and 2026. I think we've just secured a brilliant location for asset development in Ontario, with a really strong partner. And often, that's been key to Northstar's success. It's the key to success with McAsphalt, it's the key to success with TAMKO, it's the key to success with CVW. And now we add HOPA into that as a partner for us in Hamilton and that's excellent. I think we've had strong support from investors, a lot of the guys on this call and people who are listening to the recording, and they're hopefully excited for 2025. We're certainly very excited to continue to deliver in 2025 and continue the delivery that we've managed to achieve to date. So thank you all, and look forward to the next investor call where we'll be talking about how we're doing in 2025.