SRT Marine Systems plc (SRT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to another SRT webcast. I'm Simon Tucker, the CEO of SRT. For those of you that are joining us for the first time. The rules of the game here are the -- the purpose of this webcast is for me to give you an update on SRT, on our operations, what we're doing, what have you, beyond that of RNS's and things like that. But I'm not going to make you or anybody else inside. And obviously, I have to protect the confidentiality of our customers. We have AGM next Tuesday on the 19th. That starts also with an Investor Open Day. And the reason you need the webcast now is that I know that a number of people [indiscernible]. And this year, we were not televising the AGM. It's quite a difficult event to actually televise and because it goes on quite a bit. There's lot of interactive questions. We can't film people. People couldn't see me pointing at the presentation stuff. So today is for those of you that can't send and hopefully, to encourage those that were perhaps on the edge of attending or not to make the effort to come down. See our products, use our products, there's a full demo system live of our maritime domain awareness system, come out look at NEXUS and our products. And I think most importantly, talk to somebody else other than me -- the success of SRT is a product of a whole team of people and they will be there. And unfiltered conversations then really cooperate what we're doing with your investment in our company and the future prospects and things. So I think it's a pretty invaluable day, and I really do encourage you to make the effort. The open day starts at 9 o'clock and the AGM starts at 11. There's lovely cakes, tea and coffee and the lunch. You don't need to be a shareholder just come along. So hopefully, we'll see you there. So let's talk about an update. So we had a super busy operational first half, preparing for a lot of product deliveries on our systems and on our transceivers in the second half. So let's talk about our transceivers business first. So on the development side, we have NEXUS. We've been making steady progress with that. I'd say, steady. It's a complicated product. And we want that to be a superlative product when it comes out of the gate. We are well into testing of that product. So when you're developing a transponder, you have to -- there's a hardware and a software component. And then you have to smooth that software and how that's going to work for the user. We've developed that completely from scratch to be a WOW product when that comes out. So what you do is you start with all the hardware testing. That is now all started. That will then fuse into more software testing, more user testing. And we expect that, that testing program now, which we extended will be completed in April next year. It will then go into a further user testing program, which will be about really polishing the user experience, which we expect to end -- at the end of the summer when we will then start shipping. The objective here is that the functionality of [ NEXUS] is pretty unique, which is basically integrating Maritime data and voice communications with mobile devices on a vessel and multiple mobile devices on a vessel. Because it's most people using their iPads and mobile phones now for navigation and communication and what have you, must be seamless, Apple standard seamless. And that is what we're seeking to achieve, and we're not going to compromise on that. And that is why you've been hearing about NEXUS for some time and it might seem like a long development, it is a long development, but the ultimate thing here is to produce a superlative product. We will be starting our launch program at METS in November, which is a Marine Electronics Exhibition Show in the Netherlands, that's pretty much the world attend. That is the first time that our dealers and distributors, of which we now have about 5,000 will see that product in the flush and be able to start to register their interest and maybe take preorders. So it's a pretty exciting period of time for NEXUS over the next 6 to 9 months. And those of you that come to the AGM will be able to see that. In the meantime, we're also launching some updates on our B900, which is the em-trak AIS transceivers. Again, around connectivity, making it easier and more fluid for the user to connect to their mobile devices and get the data from that. And also a multiplexing facility where the transponder can multiplex information from other sensors on the boat and combine that into a single data stream onto the user's phone. So things like weather information, monitoring of other boat systems and stuff all onto their phone. This will also be available from later this month within the B900 series. And last but not least, our DAS program, particularly our DAS Express, which is a real innovation on how lanterns, which go on to buoys, navigation buoys can be automatically monitored using a DAS transponder and transmitted both to the vessel and also to the port and [indiscernible] way monitoring system. The way we've done that is we've developed an innovative center system that basically sticks onto the outside of the Lantern, monitors the performance of the Lantern. Communicates back to the transponder and transponder transmits that on. Previously, until now, you've had to be able to wire into the Lantern, which is quite an event, if you can imagine a boy at sea, which creates a huge expense, a huge barrier to do that for users whereas with DAS Express, which we've now launched that is literally a few minutes and you have that monitoring. And already, we've had quite a lot of interest from the market for that. So the first half performance for our transceivers business is as expected. We expect, as usual, a heavier weighting revenue-wise during the second half, and that will be driven by growth in our transceivers business that we continue to see on vessel transponders. And at the same time, a greater contribution from gas which actually is now being driven by a dedicated salesperson who has recently joined us. So this our transceivers division. On our systems division, we're now on what we call Release 13 of the SRT-MDA system. The SRT-MDA system is built around a suite of software that we call GeoVS. The GeoVS software sits on the hardware of the system. And basically delivers all the functionality. So it uses all the data from the different sensors. It manages the data flows between all the different nodes of the system and serves up that data either raw or partially processed to the operator consoles and then the power's the functionality that the operators have through their consoles. So we're on Release 13, and approximately once every 6 months, we do a new release, and some of that is refining existing functionality and some of that is then building starting new functionality. And the way we look at it within the company is we have certain pillars of functionality where we're building sub-functionality. So for example, analytics is a main pillar, functionality pillar. And within that, you will have sub-functionality. So for example, the detection of dark vessels. Well, it is basic level, the detection of a dark vessel is very easy. It's a very easy analytic for us these days. But you can actually get a lot of false positives. You can -- we want to look at how we really refine the prediction of where a dark vessel is once it goes dark and it's quite easy to detect the vessels going dark little bit more tricky to know where the guy has gone. And so within that pillar of analytics, you then have this sub thing of dark vessels. Other subcomponents of that particular pillar would be things like transshipment -- a attack threat, for example. And so we're constantly working on that. And about once every 6 months, we're upgrading that system with the functionality. So when we're delivering our projects, of which we currently got about GBP 160 million worth ahead of us, these are divided into milestones. And I know some of you know this, but I think it's worth touching back on to that. And some of those milestones are linked to invoicing the customer and being paid. Most milestones do not have a revenue attached to it. You compile sub milestones into a major milestone, which is then built to the customer. When we're delivering a project, you will have all these components of a project. So you will have data centers, command centers, co-stations. And you may have multiple data centers, multiple command centers and multiple co-stations. And a single co-station, for example, will have multiple subcomponents. A subcomponent would be a radar, an AIS, a camera, a GeoVS network hub into which the data from the radar and the cameras, et cetera, feed and then they connect into the system. So you have all these subcomponents. And when we're delivering these things, you have to buy all the components assemble those components which we do at our logistics center at SRT, shipped the subcomponents to in-country to the customer, where they are delivered. And typically, delivery of those bits of equipment then become a revenue milestone which we invoice the customer and then get paid. And then we take those components and then we start to install and commission them and commissioning them is typically also then a revenue and payment milestone. And that constant feed of buying components, assembling shipping is a sort of conveyor belt across typically if we talk about a reasonable size project over 2 years. That we're constantly doing. And when we first start those projects, you have a period of sort of 3 to 6 months of accumulating the various components assembling those and shipping those into the customers. So during the first half, we have been very busy with planning our procurement, securing the components, positioning them and getting them ready to ship into customer for 2 particular projects which combined are worth about GBP 160 million. So one in the Middle East, where previously, we have finished Phase 1, and we were moving into Phase II with an expectation to then have a Phase III afterwards. Phase 2 and 3 have now been aggregated together into a single phase. We've been preparing all the components and assembling those SRT, and we will be doing the first shipments next month into the customer and we will then start then the commissioning. Actually, we should be starting with commissioning a little bit earlier than we expected in December. And then that will then follow more shipments deliveries into country and more commissioning. And so that particular Middle Eastern project, we've been doing an awful lot of planning on during the first half. And now we will start implementing that and doing the shipping and the installations starting next month and then installation in December. And that cycle then continues, and we expect that cycle to continue for about 18 months, about 1.5 years to complete those 2 -- Phases 2 and 3 together. And that's worth about [ GBP 30 million ]. We then have our Southeast Asian project that we signed earlier this year, GBP 142 million. At the moment, we have been doing a lot of procurement work on that, preparing for the initial milestones that we will need to deliver quite quickly, particularly around the data centers and the command centers. And then looking at the longer lead time components of radars and cameras for their co-stations, which will come later on next calendar year. That has been going well. We've been able to negotiate very good pricing, which is pretty good for better than expected for our margin on that project. In the meantime, what we can do -- what's been happening is that the 2 governments have been negotiating the loan agreement. That is now, we believe, in its mature stages. So we're now ready that as soon as that loan agreement is in place between the 2 governments that we will then start that shipping of equipment and commissioning. And again, we think that we will start the first shipments of equipment in December this year. Again, a little bit earlier than we might have thought. And then we will start that commissioning. And the first commissioning will probably be from January, February time. And we hadn't actually anticipated that we would do much commissioning in this financial year. And just to give you an idea, one of the first shipment of assembled equipment that milestone is a sort of $39 million. Just alone, that 1 milestone, $39 million milestone. So we've been focused on that operationally, and that is a big task. I know it all sounds very simple the way I'm describing it. But that involves our product management teams making sure the right stuff is ordered, making sure the negotiation of the pricing and the terms, all of that comes together, and I publicly want to thank the team for doing that. At the same time, we've also been progressing our existing projects that have been underway and finishing them off, particularly our fisheries project in the Philippines with BFAR. This will come to an end in December. It's all up and running. They're monitoring their fisheries. There are, of course, always sort of political issues in fishery projects with explaining to fisherman why they need to be monitored and how it will be a benefit to them, and that is something that we work with BFAR. But our primary role is to deliver the tools, that being the system for them to operate. We are now talking to them about how they will then expand that to cover local fishing boats, which are also operating in the area of coverage of the system. And we expect that to then start to progress next year. So all of that is going well. And then we have new pending projects. And we have about GBP 1.4 billion worth of projects that we're in active discussions with. Of that, about GBP 380 million are at a mature stage that I talk about with a mature stage, where we've really stepped out the project, we know what the project is going to be. The customer has their budget and it's a question of them processing the approval to proceed with the contract. And that unfortunately does take an indeterminate amount of time. Some are closer than others, but I would hope that we would see some new contract signings in the coming months. But we are extremely busy with delivering our GBP 160 million worth of existing contracts. So in summary, we've had a really busy first half preparing for the second half on our systems side. The development of our system continues. We're adding new functionality and innovation, on our transceiver side. We've been delivering our transponders all during the first half. We will be expanding that in the second half is as usual, it is second half weighted and expanding our DAS. NEXUS has progressed well and steadily. So I think we're in great shape. I'm going to try and do a more regular webcast because I feel that because gaps between contract signing are wide I think it's easy to forget that actually, we have contracts that we're delivering against, which are then producing revenues and cash and what have you. And to talk about what's going on, on a day-to-day -- day-to-day basis. So I'm now going to look at the questions that I've been given.

So I can ask does the Philippine fishery system, I believe, cover the entire nation or just 1 or 2 islands? It covers the whole of their EEZ to all 8,700 islands. They can zoom into any of those islands and see any of the boats around. And in fact, the system is also monitoring all their fishing boats out into the Western Pacific Fishery areas. So right the way across halfway across the Pacific. They can see all their boats, any that have been equipped with a transponder are displayed on their system. They can receive electronic catch reports from them to see they're catching where they're landing them. It's a full fisheries monitoring system. Do we make use of satellites at all? And if so, are they especially bespoke? Yes. We buy satellite data. Those of you who have been with us for some time, we've even thought about launching our own satellite constellation. And we decided against that, although it would have been a great thing to have done, because small satellites now are very easy to launch and lots of people are launching them. And it's what's called a LEO orbit satellite. And when they go up, they typically have a 5- to 6-year life and they come down. And what that means is that sensors are constantly being rejuvenated and renewed in the space of satellite, and we have a greater choice to buy the data we need. The result of that is the amount of data that is available is going up and the price of satellite nature is coming down. And we use satellite to provide a wide area of coverage. The thing about satellite to remember is its low resolution. So we use satellite for wide area and the system uses analytics to detect hotspots. And then what our system does is then enable them to integrate high resolution data feeds from their patrol boats, from drones and from their co-stations in those areas. I know we all watch TV and you can see the satellite zoom in and read somebody's newspaper. And I'm sure the U.S. military can do that, but that's not something that is commercially viable. So we buy satellites data from an increasing array of different operators of satellites. Will NEXUS be launched in time for METS and [indiscernible]? Yes, it will be shown at METS for the first time and launch to our dealers, and we will start registering interest in board orders from -- from November. We will not start shipping until summer of next year. We are going to continue going through that testing program. And the reason for that is it is a complex product and to have this integration with your mobile devices and to have that seamless functionality. Just to give you an example, when you press your screen and you want to talk on a VHF radio, or radio needs to instantly react and broadcast via VHF radio without any latency at all. This is a hard thing to achieve, and it has to be perfect. Will there be more [ jam ] this year? Well, I think it will be jam with the [ cakes to be ] turn up on Tuesday. But I'd just remind you, we have GBP 160 million worth of contracts. So I suppose depends on which jam you want. The jam [indiscernible] is open, and we're delivering against those, and we have more we have more coming. So -- but we obviously -- to achieve the forecast this year, it's delivering a pretty small portion of those contracts, as I've just discussed earlier on. Are we confident of our staffing capacity of the new contracts are signed this year? Yes. We have done a lot of preparation around that for nearly a year now -- and structure things we've hired, our program managers for our new Asian contracts. We've bolstered our team in the Middle East. We are still looking for new and talented people to join the team. I think if you come on Tuesday and talk to some of our team, the common message will be that we're stretched with the amount that we're doing with the number of people that we've got. And we're now building up those people. They're hard to find the right people. There's no getting away from doing that, but we have the capacity to deliver what we have on the on the slate today. So I've been asked a question here about our forecast. Well, oddly with regulation. I'm not allowed to say it because it's a broker forecast, but I think that's out in the market. I'll be confident in achieving it, yes. I'll just keep reminding people that we have GBP 160 million worth of project contracts. We have a successful transceivers business underway. And so I think you just have a look at the forecast that is out in the market and you compare it against that [ only way to show ] you're on conclusions. So I've answered all the questions here. I will be speaking to you in 2, 3 months. And hopefully, those of you that come to the AGM, you won't talk to me, you'll talk to some of the other people, the other directors who will be there, some of the other operational people that are actually achieving all of this for us and you'll enjoy the day. So any further questions that you want me to answer during the AGM, please e-mail in, and I will do so. And if you've got any other questions after this, feel free to e-mail me, and I will respond certainly within 24 hours. Anyway, thank you very much, everybody, and speak to you soon. Bye.