Titomic Limited (T04.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to Titomic's Half Year Financial Results Webinar. We're excited to share Titomic's results for the first half of FY '24 and some commentary. We're joined today by Managing Director, Herbert Koeck; and Jon Nield, Titomic's CFO; in addition to Dag Stromme, the Chair of the Board of Titomic. [Operator Instructions] So today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements. Information provided is for general purposes only and is not advice, financial or otherwise. Viewers should conduct their own due diligence and consider all available information before making investment decisions. I'll now hand over to Herbert Koeck to begin the presentation and take us through the highlights.

Thank you very much, Ben, and good morning, everyone. It's definitely a pleasure to be able to be here back and report out to you about the progress which we have made in the first half of fiscal year '24. Before going into the details, I would like to ground ourselves a little bit in the background of what Titomic is all about and what kind of technology and business we are commercializing, okay? Think about it. The cold spray technology. So the acceleration of metal particles to generate metal components can be used in 2 specific categories. And the applications thereof, we are commercializing right now. Application number 1 is, we want and we are commercializing today as a technology manufacturer, the production of metal components. At the same time, this technology, as many of you know and have heard in the past, we use the same technology to repair and service existing equipment. And it's definitely a pleasure that I can say. So we made progress in both areas in both categories. Then if we can go to the next slide, where I would like to highlight the summary of what you have seen there. So on the revenue side, we saw a very great increase of 51% in the first half. Needless to say that some of the projects, some of the deals we have won where you have seen the orders being disclosed, for example, like Sabanci at the very beginning of the year are not reflected yet in the revenue numbers here as this is going to come in the second half of the fiscal year. At the same time, I also want to make sure is that you see the progress we have been making over the course of the half as we received in total 75 different orders from customers. So these are not orders from different customers, but 75 orders in total from the business which we are driving at the moment. This is a significant increase, and it also means that derisking the business as business now stands on a much broader base than we had a year ago. At the same time, what we also saw there is we made progress both in the machine sales, but also in the manufacturing and production of parts. Boeing, very small a year ago, now has reached already the number of, as you can see here, of $320,000 just in the first half and you're going to see more to come in the second half of the year. It's just showing so that the work we are doing within the manufacturing space, in the qualification of powders, in the production of different use cases is increasing and because of the positive feedback we are getting, we are getting more and affecting more and more of these orders. But at the same time, this also means, and this is something which really excites me that we are attracting now new customers which are coming to us and saying is, yes, we have heard that you can do this and that, and we are interested can we also do it together. And what you saw there is a big step forward also in our aerospace engagement overall in the entire industry where we went on and beyond what we are doing together with Boeing already today where we could achieve an order from Airbus in the first half. Airbus has selected us in a very diligent process, which was dented over the last 3 years, which we have won, where we could succeed against all the competitors out there. And we have been chosen as being selected as the provider of cold spray solutions for airplanes from Airbus. And at this stage, they have awarded us with a business, which is one machine which is going to Toulouse in France and another machine, which Airbus is paying, which we are building up at our site in Holland, where we are qualifying and certifying repair processes for airplanes from Airbus. This is a great step forward. And in all these cases, the real reason why this is so important and why we are doing this, is because we want to go on and beyond the qualification and the certification to get into the generic production in the standard repair services. To do so, we need to qualify, we need to certify first as soon as this is done, and a couple of these things are happening right now leads to orders. And then at the end of the day, we can reach out to all the repair centers of Airbus. And at this stage, they have 40 major repair centers across the globe. At this stage, we are starting now with the qualification work, which is ongoing for the rest of the year. At the same time, you also can see there is a couple of more institutions, which awarded us with their business. You may recall that last year, I said, we are also interested in working with research labs and universities because they are very important for our business because they develop applications and use cases on their own and help us to make the cold spray technology even more attractive to more customers and help us to spread the work of what cold spray can do. Success stories. You can see up on the chart, Perron038 is a research lab in Holland. EPCOR is a service provider for KLM in Holland. The University of Sabanci in Turkey, a very large field, which at this point in time is installed as we speak, and which will be completed before the end of the year. It's another research and education institution, which is helping us to spread the work of the possibilities of cold spray. At the same time, we also continue to apply all possible discipline on our cost spending. As you can see also that our operating loss has significantly been reduced compared to last year. So we continue on the path to tightly control and manage our costs while at the same time, expanding our revenue streams on the path to reach a cash positive situation in the next months ahead. Please go to the next. Now with that comes obviously also what I said before. As we are creating these data points, that the part which we can produce, do have the quality which are expected from our customers, that attracts new customers. You see the long list of these customers. Airbus, we talked about already, Volvo as an entrance from our site together with some other car manufacturers in the automotive industry. You saw Sabanci, you saw EPCOR. But also in the repair services, beside aerospace and defense, we got to sell a machine, for example, in the Goldfields in Rockdrilling operations in Western Australia. We are engaged at the moment in multiple sites, also in all parts of the world where we are showcasing the productivity which our machinery can provide to our customers. And most importantly, there are also a couple of undisclosed manufacturing companies where we are doing production, which we cannot name because these are high-tech controlled or expert controlled because we are dealing here with defense companies. So we got a lot new customers which awarded us their business. At the same time, we also made progress with existing partners and new partners. Existing partners, you know our collaboration with Repkon, where the joint venture company now is legally established in Turkey. Actually, technically, I'm also on the Board of that company. Board meeting is to come in the days ahead. And with that one, we also can set the stage on the assets, the employees and starting the production for the barrels, which we have agreed together with Repkon. At the same time, also, we gained a new partner, Stärke AMG, a very sophisticated provider of metal machinery in South Australia in Adelaide, but they are also present 80 kilometers south of Detroit. So together with Stärke, now we also have a foothold in the U.S. on top of the existing base they have in Australia. Then if we can go to the next one, the next slide. We continue on diversifying our customer base. As you know, the point is that we always had a strong foothold in Australia, but on top of that one, we also have been expanding in Europe and in the U.S. And some of you may know that they also move my residents back to Europe because this is the fastest-growing area of our business in combination with the progress we are doing in the U.S. Confirming data points. Our website traffic has gone up significantly, which is just a short proof. And all the work we are doing is yielding results now. Customers are coming back and we are getting a lot of demand now coming off our website where we are highlighting the work we are doing with showcases and use cases, which you also can read. If you haven't done so, please give it a chance and show -- get on our website and go through the use cases we have at this stage, this attracts a lot of customer demand. The biggest increase on customer demand we are seeing, as I said before, in the U.S. so also from our website. So the web overall has turned into one of the biggest sources on our sales and marketing machinery. Coverage is also going up, which has recently expanded our sales force in the U.S. by adding 2 new employees. So while in total, we could maintain and even reduce our cost. We have been increasing in the U.S. going forward with the support engineer and another salesperson in the U.S., which were hired. The area, quite frankly, where I'm not satisfied with the progress we have been doing because we have done a lot of work also to expand our reseller network. At this point in time, we made basically 2 steps forward and 1 step backwards. But because we also have sorted out resellers, which didn't perform according to the lines. But this is a usual step when you build up a reseller network because, a, it takes some time to expand. At the same time, you need to tightly manage the performance of the resellers, so every now and then it also yields to cancellations. Then if we can go to the fourth page, this is the summary of the focused work we are doing. What you see in the different columns is a perfect description on the work we are doing, both from an industry perspective, the applications we are tackling and the metals we are dealing with. What you see there, and this is -- 2 things I would like to highlight on that chart. A lot of the work in the manufacturing is done with commercially pure titanium, which is a very cost-effective way to produce titanium parts and attract at the moment, a lot of customers, both in the aerospace world but also in the defense world because it is a way to produce cost-effectively titanium parts. On the other side, also the big learning which we had is that while the focus we have applied was great. We have been even -- narrowing even further down. And at this stage, we have a very narrow set of applications where we have data to prove the fact. And with this data, which we have now in our hands, which are available also to our customer, we can accelerate the work and take the benefits basically of the hard work, which has been doing in the last couple of years. With that one, I would like to hand over to Jon Nield and ask him to give you a quick overview on the financials. And after Jon Nield, I would like to come back, make a couple of comments, and then I will also ask Dag Stromme, the Chairman of the Board, to make a couple of comments and his view on where Titomic is right now. Jon, the stage is yours.

Thank you, Herbert, and good morning, everyone. All of those good things that you've just heard outlined from Herbert reflected in some way in the financial results that we've just published and I'd like to take you through a summary of those now. Starting with the profit and loss statement. As you can see there, the main total revenue line has increased by $1.4 million compared to the same period last year, that's up 51% on prior year. And the next slide there with that increased revenue and increased activity, we've managed to hold our expenses fairly flat with prior year. And the reason -- main reason behind that is our significant business restructuring that we completed in April, May of 2023. That continues to show benefits in terms of lower expenses in the business. So overall, when you look at the increased revenue with flat expenses, that should falls through to about another $1.4 million increase in profit. But importantly, breaking out the revenue line a little bit further, we've got revenue from customer sales in there of $2.3 million out of the $4.2 million and that represents an increase of 59% on prior year. So that's a significant increase and supports everything that Herbert is saying, and you can see it flowing through as increased revenue from customers. Looking further down the P&L, we've got a net profit after tax, which is lower. It's a lower loss of $1.3 million. And then when you back out a number of nonoperating items, it's actually a $2.4 million improvement. So it's a lower loss than prior year of $2.4 million. So a significant improvement all the way through the P&L statement. Next one, please, Ben. Looking at how that translates into cash flow. You can see the top line there of customer and grant receipts is up by $1.9 million compared with prior year. So the $1.4 billion that I mentioned before of revenue is flowing through into the cash line as well with an increase of $1.9 million. And that -- then you deduct the payments from supplier to suppliers and employers -- employees, sorry, and that's down by $1.5 million. So we've got the improvements on both sides of the equation there, higher cash receipts and lower payments to run the business. Clearly, the summary of the cash statement there with operating cash flows are $3.3 million better than prior year. Investing cash flows are around about the same. Financing cash flows were up $2.2 million. And overall, net cash flow is up by $5.1 million. A big part of that being the capital raise that we completed in June, July of '23. Down at the bottom there, the statement of financial position or the balance sheet. There's not a lot to comment on really there other than to say that it's pretty stable against prior year, and we're still not carrying any debt. So stable balance sheet with positive cash flows, I think, is -- reflects a good position where our financials are at the moment. Back to you, Herbert.

Thank you very much, Jon. Ben, if we can go to the slide with the logos of the customers, as I would like to summarize before handing over and asking Dag to comment on. As you can see, the slide is getting now very, very busy, okay? We are adding basically a new customer logo every other day. And -- but coming back to the original work which you have seen there is what we are really out there and we have been in this work now for many, many years where we are qualifying parts in industries like the aerospace industry, in the defense industry and oil and gas. A lot of the work is hard leg work at the end of the day because you need to qualify, you need to engage with these customers, you need to prove these customers that the quality of the components you can produce is as good as what they have already because otherwise they would never change your existing manufacturing processes. But as soon as you've proven that then you are getting into the rollout of a significant volume of parts. Think about it as a couple of examples I could share with you, but -- as you may know, we have been producing all kind of titanium tanks, other components in other industries, and some of them I simply can't talk about it because it's defense-related, and we are tied into agreements not to talk about it. But the way it works is that you start to manufacture prototype. After you have a prototype, you get to produce a couple of samples and after the samples getting tested, you are in manufacturing. And that's the direction we have to go to, and that's the direction we want to have. So with that in space, with that in line, we are in the midst of this qualification with quite a few of these projects, some of them are coming to an end, which means that we have the opportunity then to build the capacity and also get the business of really big manufacturing. With that said, Dag, I would like -- if you can share a couple of words in your thoughts as the Chairman of the Board of Titomic, what you think about where we are with the business and what the opportunity and the great outlook for Titomic is. Dag?

Thank you, Herbert and Jon. Good morning, everyone. As I hope you are all seeing the company, despite this difficult history, which we fully recognize, and the [ 4-stars ] are now behind us. I firmly believe that Titomic has turned the corner. And as highlighted by Herbert, we are now focused on the right commercial applications and building quality in every step of our business from -- in Melbourne, in Holland, as well as in the U.S. The energy level in Melbourne, Holland and U.S. with our employees is just fantastic. They are working 24/7 these days on exciting real commercial projects. The TKF 3250R machine, which was funded by the Space Grant is operational in Melbourne. It is already busy doing real work for Boeing and other companies. It's great to see, and it's very confident for all of us as managers and shareholders. The markets that we look at, the aerospace, defense, resources and manufacturing, the markets that we targeted -- targeting, the customers we're working with, there's a huge pending demand for the services and the products that Titomic can provide. And the wins that we have now with world-class companies such as Boeing, Airbus and Volvo are just the beginning. As also highlighted, we are now working with operating people at these organizations. We are moving from R&D phase to operating people on real commercial products. This takes time. We are still being qualified in terms of setting up the right processes, but we are being paid for it. We are moving forward, and we are on track. As you all know, I have invested in Titomic myself. I'm a shareholder. I'm extremely encouraged by the progress that's being made. I think we have a great story ahead of us. You will see that we're going to have a robust order intake and continued increase in activity in the months ahead. This will be on both the smaller D523 and D623 machines as well as the larger TKF machines, while at the same time, we are adding more manufacturing work on our own. So this company, Titomic will be a very different company at the end of the year than we are right now. It's the -- we have a solid industrial technology, we have increased activity, we have customers on real commercial projects, and I'm very, very positive on the future.

Thank you very much, Dag. Great to have this. And I want to highlight here, and Dag said it. Dag has been an investor in Titomic since the very beginning when he joined as a Non-Executive Director. That continue to invest into Titomic in all the different rounds of capital raises we have seen so far. And I'm glad that I can work now together with Dag and drive Titomic to the new world of businesses of manufacturing where we are getting into mainly in Europe and also in the U.S. With that one, I would like to close the official presentation here. And Ben, if we can ask for questions for the next couple of minutes. If you can't get your questions through verbally, please send us a mail or a note, and we will respond to your questions after the session on top, if we can't answer live right now.

Great. Thank you, Herbert, Dag and Jon. [Operator Instructions] And there's a few been coming through, which is great to see. So Herbert, the first question here is regarding the Vetropack system. So how has the Titomic glass mold coating system at Vetropack been performing? And is Titomic expecting any further sales of these systems in the near future?

So thank you very much for that question. At this stage, we are continuing to work with Vetropack to optimize the solution. There is a couple of findings. The solution responds differently to the different glass solutions. For example, if you're using transparent glass or you use a crane glass and brown class, and there is some optimization work going on right now. We get a couple of weeks of delay because on the IPG on this International Partners Research Group, IPGR, they had a change in leadership. They got the new CEO on board, Dominik Orzol, which is in place now since November. And basically, together with him, we have been restarting the project, a, to optimize the solution. There are experiments going on at the moment with different formulations on the metal coating. At the same time, we have expanded our work with companies in the U.S. on the glass solutions, and we continue to drive that one. So yes, we have strong pushing in that direction to get more solutions out in the market in the glass industry overall.

The next question here is regarding the statements from the financial year '23 webinar. So last year we spoke about capital raising, we said that it was not needed in the near future. Could you provide any further comment on that? Or has that changed at all?

No. So basically, nothing has changed at all. And I also say I had a couple of conversations with some of you who approached me over the time of the last couple of months. The fact is that our capital and cash situation is tight, okay? Absolutely, no doubt. And its tight in a way which, in some cases, is counterproductive because we have to look at every dollar spend, every dollar we have in our hands, and we have to think about it twice if we spend it or not. And when I say this can be counterproductive that in some cases, it delays our ability to deliver on some of the orders and the projects we are in. And why I'm saying this? In most of the cases, when we are selling the large machines at the moment, we are asking the customers to give us a down payment. And as soon as we receive the down payment, we reach out to our suppliers and order the components for the machines, then we build the machine, then we install the machine. Obviously, that could be accelerated and that we are holding a certain level of stock of these components internally but stock costs money, okay? And so we continue to tightly manage our cash. And at this stage, at this point in time, we do -- we are in an absolutely challenging situation right now, but we are expecting a lot of customer receipts in the months ahead. So our cash position is going up in the weeks and the months ahead. In a different world, in a different situation, later this year, there could be a situation where we are getting into demand from customers where they're saying is, "Hey, you have done all the proof of this work. We have qualified the component. Now we need to get into ongoing production, for that production, we would need, I don't know, a couple of hundred of these parts on the yearly base and to produce this couple of hundred parts on the yearly base we would need to build up a machinery 1, 2, 3, 4 machines for the production overall. That could be a reason at the end of the day then to go out to the market and ask for additional equity investments into the company so that we can accelerate the rollout. But the idea is very important that we are striving to use cash to fill the book and not asking for cash to compensate for the losses in the company, loud and clear, and this has not changed as a strategy. So if there is the opportunity that we will get large orders from customers and to accelerate delivery of this, there could be a reason to go out to the market other than that one, the Board and I are very reluctant and we are tackling managing the available cash.

I think we probably have time for 2 more questions. Firstly, an update on Repkon and if the company expects the orders for those TKF systems to be made in the near future.

Can you repeat the question, Ben, please?

Yes, Herbert. Is Titomic expecting orders for the TKF systems from Repkon [ Turkey ]?

Absolutely. If you think about it, the Repkon conversation is now that the legally -- the joint venture is legally established in Turkey, okay? Titomic received also the share certificate. So we are a broad owner of 49% of that joint venture. Actually, technically, Klaas Rozema and I are on the Board of this company. Board meeting is to follow now in March. And the next step is that we equip now this joint venture with the proper machinery to start production, not only machinery, but also employees so that we can run and operate these machines to produce what it is supposed to produce, and the joint venture is geared to produce weapons barrels going forward.

And the final question is, when does the company expect to be cash flow positive?

As I said in the past, we are not highlighting or disclosing the plans in terms of when we are reaching cash flow positive. At this stage, everything which has been said in the past is unchanged. We are seeing a lot of customer income in the months ahead, and we still want to continue that we are getting cash flow positive in fiscal year '25.

Fantastic. Thank you, Herbert. And with that, we can conclude the webinar. Thanks very much to our valued investors for their time this morning. For any further inquiries, please send those on through [email protected]. Thank you once again, and looking out for any further good news via the ASX.

Thank you very much.