Earnings Call Transcript - BLNK Q2 2025

Operator, Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Blink Charging Company Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Vitalie Stelea, Vice President of Capital Markets and FP&A. Sir, the floor is yours.

Vitalie Stelea, Vice President of Capital Markets and FP&A

Great. Thank you, Matthew, and welcome, everyone, to Blink's Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. With us today, we have Mike Battaglia, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Michael Bercovich, our Chief Financial Officer. Today's discussions will include non-GAAP references. These are reconciled to the most comparable U.S. GAAP measures in the appendix of our earnings deck. You may find the deck along with the rest of our earnings materials and other important content on Blink's Investor Relations website. Today's discussions may also include forward-looking statements about our expectations. These results may be different from those stated, and the most significant factors that could cause these results to differ are included on Page 2 of the second quarter 2025 earnings deck. Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons are year-over-year. And now I will turn the call over to Mike Battaglia, President and CEO of Blink Charging. Please go ahead, Mike.

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

Thank you, everyone, for joining us this afternoon. We have a number of developments to cover. Before we look into our financial performance for the second quarter, I want to take a moment to welcome some new members to the Blink leadership team who bring valuable experience aligned with our strategy to establish Blink as a profitable leader in EV charging. We began these personnel changes in February, introducing Chris Carr as our new Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development. Chris and his team are already showing significant progress in expanding our sales reach and win rate, evident in our Q2 revenue results. I also want to welcome Michael Bercovich, who joined Blink as our new Chief Financial Officer on June 23. Michael has over 20 years of global experience in finance and accounting and has a strong track record in creating value. In his brief time with us, he has already implemented a new level of financial discipline at Blink. Likewise, we recently welcomed Harmeet Singh as our new Chief Technology Officer, who came to us through our recent acquisition of Zemetric, where he served as Founder and CEO. Harmeet's background in EV charging innovation will be crucial as we advance Blink's technology platform. Additionally, Alex Calnan has been promoted to lead our European operations, succeeding Miko de Haan. These appointments reflect our dedication to building an effective, forward-thinking leadership team to drive Blink's transition into a profitable EV charging company. Although some of these leaders have only been with us for a short time, they are already making a noticeable impact. Now, regarding our second quarter results, as we noted in our previous call in May, product sales began slow in early 2025 but gained momentum entering the second quarter. With this resurgence in product sales, combined with strong service revenue, our second quarter results showed significant sequential growth. In fact, in Q2, total revenues grew by 38% sequentially, with product revenues increasing by 73% compared to Q1 of 2025. Service revenue rose by 46% year-over-year and by 11% from the first quarter, with other revenues also growing by 47% year-over-year. The 73% growth in product revenue was largely due to the strong demand for our DC fast chargers and Level 2 Series units. We saw signs of increased demand in April, May, and June. Our surge in service revenue reflects the growing demand for our charging and network services in both Europe and the U.S., and we continue to identify opportunities to invest in profitable charging sites, particularly for DC fast charging. This trend is also demonstrated by the record 49 gigawatt hours of energy delivered by Blink, marking a 66% year-over-year increase. In the second quarter, our service revenue reached $11.8 million, up 46% year-over-year and increasing 11% sequentially from Q1. This growth reflects higher charger utilization and an expanding portfolio of Blink-owned assets, particularly our DC fast chargers, which saw revenue increase by over 300% year-over-year, driven by greater utilization and an increased number of operational chargers in the U.S. Turning to our BlinkForward initiative, we have been making strides in reducing operating expenses while maintaining a focus on preserving liquidity. As Michael Bercovich will explain shortly, we did incur approximately $16.5 million in nonrecurring, noncash charges in the second quarter related to inventory write-offs and other asset impairments, which are largely one-time charges. Importantly, we achieved a 22% reduction in compensation expenses in the same quarter. Our second-quarter operating expenses included about $8 million in nonrecurring expenses, which will be eliminated in future quarters as we complete our planned workforce reduction and scale back on external consulting engagements. Our primary focus remains on aligning our costs and cash burn with our long-term goals, enhancing operational efficiency, and positioning the company for consistent revenue growth and eventual profitability. In July, we announced the acquisition of Zemetric, a company that provides charging solutions for fleet, multifamily, and commercial applications. We recognized a critical gap in our product offerings, particularly for price-sensitive segments of the market. Zemetric's intelligent and interoperable AC Level 2 chargers will fill this gap and are expected to achieve UL certification soon, with volume production slated for October. Their AI-driven software, designed for fleets, simplifies integrations while reducing overall ownership costs. Furthermore, both the Blink and Zemetric platforms support interoperability with open standards for easier integration. On July 17, 2025, we signed a nonbinding term sheet with Axxeltrova, a private equity firm, to create a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, to facilitate EV infrastructure deployments under the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program in the U.K. We have already acquired multiple contracts with local councils, which will allow us to meet the demands of the LEVI program. This structure supports our strategy to utilize non-dilutive off-balance sheet capital, reinforcing our commitment to profitability. Lastly, we have resolved the uncertainty regarding our Envoy subsidiary by amending our merger agreement with Envoy's former shareholders. This agreement releases Blink from payment obligations in exchange for stock and performance-based warrants. The accrued obligations are satisfied with $10 million in common stock and warrants valued at $11 million, releasing us from all claims. We are pleased to have finalized this agreement, which allows us to reaffirm that Blink remains debt-free. I will now turn the call over to Michael Bercovich for more details on our financial performance for the quarter.

Michael Bercovich, Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to join you today in my first earnings call as the CFO of Blink. It's been an energizing and educational few weeks transitioning into the company. And what became immediately evident was the commitment to innovation, excellence, and collaboration throughout the organization. The culture that Mike and the leadership team have built is a strategic asset, one that underpins both our customer-centric approach and our focus on execution excellence in a fast-evolving market. Since joining, I've been engaged with the team in detailed reviews of our operations, finance structure, and strategic priorities. My focus is not only on driving efficiencies but also in ensuring that every decision supports long-term growth, operational excellence, and our drive to profitability. I am confident that by working together, we can unlock Blink's full potential and deliver some incredible growth. With that said, let's turn to Slide 11. Our Q2 2025 revenues were $28.7 million compared to $33.3 million in the second quarter of the prior year. Product revenues for the second quarter of 2025 were $14.5 million compared to $23.6 million in the second quarter of 2024. As Mike mentioned, sequentially, product revenues grew 73%, driven by stronger demand for DC and L2 chargers. Second quarter service revenues, which consist of repeat charging service revenues, recurring network fees, and car-sharing revenues increased 46% to $11.8 million compared to $8 million in the second quarter of 2024. Other revenues were up 47% year-over-year to $2.4 million in the second quarter, primarily driven by an increase in our warranty revenue. Gross profit was $2.1 million or 7.3% of revenues compared to gross profit of $10.7 million or 32% of revenues in the second quarter of 2024. The decline in gross profit can be explained by several noncash nonrecurring items, which include $4.7 million in inventory adjustments related to the removal and disposal of obsolete inventory identified during field operations. These items were either sold at reduced value or removed entirely from the operational cycle as a part of our ongoing product and service optimization. In addition, $1.7 million related to a noncash write-down of capitalized costs associated with older incomplete projects. These assets originally held in PP&E pending completion, no longer align with our strategic or operational requirements and have been fully disposed. Excluding the impact of this noncash adjustment, gross profit for the second quarter of 2025 would have been $8.5 million or a gross margin of 29.7%. Operating expenses in the second quarter of 2025 were $34.3 million compared to $31.4 million in the second quarter of 2024. In the first six months of 2025, operating expenses were $62.8 million compared to $62.3 million in the first half of 2024. Operating expenses in the second quarter of 2025 include approximately $10.1 million in noncash charges associated primarily with the increased reserve for doubtful account receivables as well as an asset impairment charge. Excluding the impact of these charges, operating expenses in the second quarter of 2025 would have been $24.2 million or a year-over-year improvement of 23%. Operating expenses in the second quarter of 2025 also included various compensation and professional services expenses of approximately $5 million that we eliminated on a going-forward basis and as a part of the BlinkForward initiative. Loss per share for the second quarter was $0.31 compared to a $0.20 loss in the prior year period. Adjusted loss per share for the second quarter was $0.26 per share compared to a $0.18 loss in the second quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2025 was a loss of $24.4 million compared to a loss of $14.7 million in the prior year. As of June 30, 2025, cash and cash equivalents totaled $25.3 million compared to $55 million as of December 31, 2024. Blink had no cash debt as of June 30, 2025. During the first half of the year, we used approximately $30 million in cash. Looking ahead, we expect that this burn rate to decrease in the second half of the year, driven by three key factors: revenue growth. Based on the current visibility, Blink expects revenue to show continued sequential growth in the second half of 2025; lower operating expenses, reflecting disciplined cost management and the benefit of efficiency initiatives already in play; and lastly, improved working capital practices, particularly around receivables management, where we have already implemented stronger practices to accelerate receivables collection and reduce aged balances. I will now turn back over to Mike for his final commentary. Go ahead, Mike.

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

All right. Great. Thank you, Michael. Regarding market conditions, I'm sure you've all been following the prolific amount of public information detailing EV sales, OEM investments in EV technology, and the performance of other EV charging companies, which seems to change almost daily. The only thing I'll mention is that we believe industry consolidation will accelerate in the coming months, and we expect the landscape to look quite different over the next year and beyond. At Blink, we are intensely focused on what we can control, staying nimble in the face of changing market dynamics and ensuring that we deliver the right products and services to our customers. When we last spoke on the Q1 call, we told you that we were seeing favorable demand signals and expected to deliver sequential sales growth in the second quarter, and we're pleased to have achieved that expectation. We also told you about a gap we had in our product portfolio related to lower-cost chargers, and we filled that gap with the Zemetric acquisition, which brought a ready-to-market product that essentially eliminated our anticipated new product development costs and significantly reduced our time to market with new value-priced products. Finally, we emphasized our focus on cost reduction actions, and we have achieved meaningful progress in that area as well. During the quarter, we initiated actions that are expected to reduce operating expenses by $8 million on an annualized basis. In the short term, those actions resulted in charges that impacted our total operating expenses in the quarter, but we believe the long-term benefits will be evident in our more streamlined and efficient organization. We are intent on positioning the company as the EV charging provider of choice for customers, partners, and investors. We are energized by the momentum we see in the business, and we expect revenue to show continued sequential growth in the second half of 2025. None of this would have been possible without a dedicated team at Blink. I'd like to thank our team for their efforts during the quarter, which resulted in Q2 revenues growing 38% sequentially, including another record quarter of service revenues. We are positioning this company for success, and we thank our customers, investors, and partners who believe in Blink. With that, let's move on to Q&A. Operator?

Operator, Operator

Your first question is coming from Craig Irwin from ROTH Capital Partners.

Craig Irwin, Analyst

First, I should say congratulations on the solid revenue results and nice to see some upside there. Michael, I wanted to ask about the gross margins, right? So you had strength in DC fast charging in the quarter, and those typically tend to be materially lower margin than the corporate average. So I was quite surprised to see adjusted margins at 30%. Can you maybe update us on whether or not this margin difference is still material? And what were the puts and takes on gross margins in the quarter?

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

Yes, I'll start with that. It's good to talk to you, Craig. The key point to highlight about this quarter, which was a concern among investors, is what would happen in the second quarter. Would the business continue to progress or follow the trend of Q1? The good news is that we are seeing momentum, and we are growing again. Our strong Q2 revenue, as you noted, reflects an adjusted gross margin of about 30%. This was influenced by a higher mix of DC fast chargers, which generally have a lower gross margin. Moving forward, we expect our DC fast charging sales to keep growing, as they are significant sales. However, from a margin perspective, our Series product line offers higher margins compared to the DC line, and the Zemetric product will also enhance our higher-margin profile. It ultimately depends on the mix going forward, and we don’t have complete visibility on that yet. However, we anticipate margins to remain at what we consider to be historically healthy levels for Blink.

Craig Irwin, Analyst

That's a good thing. That's definitely a good thing. So then you said in your prepared remarks that you expect sequential growth through the end of the year. Your charging service revenue has just been growing great, right? You've really been delivering there consistently, and that's the network and utilization working for you. Can you maybe just give us a little bit of color on product sales and then the other revenue as far as probable progression there through the end of the year? Are we expecting product sales to be the primary driver of this sequential growth for the next couple of quarters?

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

In the first quarter, I mentioned that we would improve in the second quarter, though I didn't specify how much better. I'm repeating that we expect to perform better in the second half of the year compared to the first half, although I won't comment on the extent of that improvement. We anticipate that product sales will continue to be a significant part of our growth moving forward. As shown in our Q2 results, we believe the improvements will be broad-based. We expect to see growth in product sales along with continued increases in service revenues and other revenues. We are taking steps across the business to enhance margins, both in product sales and charging services. Overall, you can expect a wide-ranging improvement, not confined to just one specific area.

Craig Irwin, Analyst

That makes sense. For my last question, you indicated in your prepared remarks that we should anticipate significant improvement in cash flows by the end of the year. Could you elaborate on how this quarter's handling of working capital has gone well? I understand there are costs involved in restructuring that include both cash and non-cash expenses. Can you clarify the factors affecting cash flow for the third and fourth quarters? While I realize you may not be able to provide exact figures, is there a possibility for substantial progress toward achieving neutral cash usage in the coming quarters?

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

I'll let Michael Bercovich jump in, and I may comment. Michael, go ahead. Yes.

Michael Bercovich, Chief Financial Officer

Yes, Craig, nice to meet you, and thank you for your question. So we ended up the quarter with $25.3 million, burning $16.7 million in the quarter. This is not a normal run rate. And some of that, as we said, relates to BlinkForward initiative exit costs and some is already improved with the improvement in working capital practices. Q2 burn also included $5 million in compensation and professional services costs that are not expected to reoccur in Q3 and Q4. Additionally, our headcount reduction actions will result in approximately $8 million annualized cash cost savings going forward. We have actively been improving our AR collections and have been making significant strides in collecting our outstanding receivables. While we are not providing guidance right now, we already see improvements in cash and expect Q3 to be better than Q1 and Q2, along with other financial elements as we discussed on the call.

Operator, Operator

Your next question is coming from Sameer Joshi from H.C. Wainwright.

Sameer S. Joshi, Analyst

Welcome Michael to the team. So just a clarification on the Envoy sort of restructuring or settlement. On the balance sheet, I think there is a contingent consideration of around $23.5 million as of June 30. So this transaction basically gets rid of that, and maybe there are some warrant liabilities. But apart from that, that $23.5 million is wiped out. Is that the way we should look at this?

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

Yes. And it doesn't basically get rid of it. It gets rid of it.

Sameer S. Joshi, Analyst

Yes. It gets rid of it. Okay.

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

I just want to clarify that this is really important and has been a concern for the company. So was there an additional question there, Sameer, or...

Sameer S. Joshi, Analyst

Yes, what kind of warrant liability is left?

Michael Bercovich, Chief Financial Officer

Yes, let me take this. So as Mike explained, this transaction has 2 tails. One is the $10 million in stock that we are issuing. And then the other one is performance-based warrants. If you see in our press release, we have 3 tranches of $2.5 million, $2.5 million, and $6 million at certain performance prices. Once we hit those prices, then we will be converting the warrants. Now the other important information is those warrants also limited in time for 20 months from the issuance. And this is how the transaction has been structured. We're very pleased with the way that we settled the transaction, and it's definitely a balance sheet transaction for us.

Sameer S. Joshi, Analyst

Understood. I have a similar question regarding Zemetric. I'm not sure if you've disclosed the payment details, but the 10-Q mentions earn-outs. Is the company willing to share what was paid and what the earn-out liability will be for Zemetric going forward?

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

Yes. So Sameer, we're not going to disclose the specifics, but I will say that it was comparatively very little cash, mostly structured with stock. And the management team considered it to be a very advantageous deal structure.

Sameer S. Joshi, Analyst

Got it. And then just one last one on margins, meaning, yes, of course, congrats on the continued sequential growth in service revenues. It shows, I guess, greater utilization. But there is a European component to that. And how does the profitability on the gross margin levels in Europe fluctuate from time to time? I know electricity prices there are many times all over the place. How are you managing that profitability in Europe?

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

Yes, I'll start and then Michael can add. What we've noticed over the past few years, including this year, is that the European margins have remained quite stable. There haven't been significant fluctuations despite the high owner-operator mix in that market. Regarding growth, on a consolidated basis for both regions, I believe the U.S. growth was 47% quarter-over-quarter, while Europe grew by 26%. This indicates that the U.S. growth was actually faster than Europe's, which we found to be an interesting trend.

Operator, Operator

Your next question is coming from Chris Pierce from Needham.

Christopher Alan Pierce, Analyst

I would like to delve deeper into Zemetric. It has been mentioned a few times, and I want to comprehend the direction of product revenues at Blink. Can you clarify which product you felt was lacking at this point that prompted the need for acquisition? Additionally, does this generate charging revenue, or is it purely equipment sales? What should we anticipate moving forward? Can this be a contributing factor to equipment growth, or is that not the correct perspective? What is the best way to understand the benefits here?

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

Thank you, Chris. I’ll address this as it involves several factors. First, during 2024, our revenue numbers were declining, and while this can’t be attributed to a single reason, one contributing factor was our lack of a cost-optimized charger tailored for the lower end of the market, particularly for fleet and multifamily applications. We sensed we were losing opportunities at this segment. The Zemetric product addresses that need. When we compared the cost structure of the charger we were developing in-house with Zemetric's offerings, we believed partnering with Zemetric would enhance our position. Consequently, we expect to capture a larger share of the fleet and multifamily market moving forward with this product. Additionally, Zemetric introduces innovative network technology that could enhance the Blink network, providing a technological boost. From a revenue standpoint, this opportunity includes both product sales and what we refer to as the charge point operator or CPO business, which involves network fees. For example, Zemetric manages around 1,800 to 2,000 chargers in India, which contributes to the CPO business. We see potential to leverage the Zemetric platform for similar operations in selected markets. Lastly, and importantly, we gained exceptional talent through this acquisition. Key individuals such as Harmeet Singh, our new Chief Technology Officer, Bonnie Datta, and Kapil Singhi joined us, and we believe their addition will significantly enhance Blink’s capabilities.

Christopher Alan Pierce, Analyst

Okay. Is that a segment of the market that is as competitive as home charging, and is it just a step above that? Or is that not the right way to view it at the lower end of the market compared to home?

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

Yes, I wouldn't equate it to the residential charging market. It's not as competitive as that.

Operator, Operator

Your next question is coming from Mickey Legg from the Benchmark Company.

Michael Frederick Legg, Analyst

Congrats on the quarter, and welcome to the new members of the team. I guess I want to dig in a little more on the Zemetric acquisition as well. Just one more quick little clarification. You mentioned, I think, the volume production is targeted in October for them. If you could just break that down a little bit, give us a little more color on what that ramp looks like. I think you also just mentioned they have revenues currently. So just curious on exactly how that rollout is going to go.

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

Yes, sure. Thanks, Mickey. So first of all, Zemetric brings a dual-port Level 2 charging station that is currently being sold in the market. So their revenues come from a dual port Level 2 that's currently sold in the market, network fees, and recurring revenues associated with that, again, as a CPO. And then they have 2 chargers, single plug chargers in development, which are called the Shasta line. And the Shasta line consists of a single plug 48 amp charger and a single plug 80-amp charger. Those are currently in UL testing. We anticipate that those will make it through UL should be the end of this month, but hopefully, that timeline sticks. And then we will move the chargers into volume production with a contract manufacturing partner in October. So we're still sizing the opportunity, but we do have opportunities already in our pipeline to utilize that charging station. So this is an example of you take a product that you've acquired and you expose it to the Blink sales team, which is multiples in size of the Zemetric team, and we can get traction on that pretty quickly.

Michael Frederick Legg, Analyst

Got it. Got it. Right. Yes, it seems like it's a good fit for you guys. And then I wanted to go a little deeper on the cost savings side of things. You mentioned the $8 million eliminated in annual expenses. Can you break down a little bit where those are coming from? I think you mentioned compensation and professional service fee. And then maybe any of the synergies on the cost side that you're expecting from the Zemetric acquisition as well?

Michael Bercovich, Chief Financial Officer

Yes, absolutely. So what we did is we started, as you remember, in Q1 with the BlinkForward initiative. As a part of that, we started to reevaluate what kind of activities we want to be engaged in, what is the right level of expenses to the right level of revenue. And we've been continuously doing this for the last couple of months. We continue working on that even further with the Zemetric acquisition. It allows us to even think about that broadly because we have additional folks joining the team. The $8 million of annualized expenses, those were more on the cost reduction associated with the workforce reduction that we already executed. The $5 million that we mentioned in the second quarter that will not repeat in Q3 and Q4 spans over several metrics. Some of that is the onetime compensation expenses that we incurred in Q2. Some of that are those recurring that will go into Q3, Q4, and onward. And some of that is the professional services consulting engagement that we finished or seized and will not pursue going forward. We continue looking in all aspects of the business, and we continue looking at how to reduce operating expenses and how to align those expenses also with the level of the business going forward and drive to profitability, as Mike already talked about.

Michael C. Battaglia, President and CEO

I'll just add one short comment is we see more opportunities to take cost out of the business.

Operator, Operator

That concludes our Q&A session. I will now hand the conference back to Vitalie Stelea, Vice President of Capital Markets and FP&A, for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Vitalie Stelea, Vice President of Capital Markets and FP&A

Thank you all for joining our call today as we announced another record quarter of service revenues and product revenues that grew 73% sequentially. As it was mentioned earlier, Blink took out about $8 million in yearly operating expenses going forward, and Blink continues to execute on other additional BlinkForward initiatives in the near future. For any additional questions or requests to meet with our management, please e-mail us at [email protected]. Please also follow our website and additional announcements from Blink. And this concludes our call. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. Everyone, this concludes today's event. You may disconnect at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.