Earnings Call Transcript - BLNK Q2 2020

Operator, Operator

Greetings ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Blink Charging Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. John Nesbett of IMS Investor Relations. Thank you sir, you may begin.

John Nesbett, Investor Relations

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Blink Charging's second quarter 2020 investor call. On the call today we have Michael Farkas, Blink Charging's Founder and CEO; Brendan Jones, Chief Operating Officer; and Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to take a moment to read the Safe Harbor statement. This conference call contains forward-looking statements as defined within section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. These forward-looking statements and terms such as anticipate, expect, intend, may, will, should, or other comparable terms involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. These statements include statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations of Blink and members of its management, as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, including those described in Blink's periodic reports filed with the SEC and actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by federal securities law, Blink undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements or reflects change conditions. Okay, I will now turn the call over to Michael Farkas. Go ahead, Michael.

Michael Farkas, CEO

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us for an inaugural quarter of the earnings call. We are pleased to have this opportunity to review our results for the second quarter of 2020. Let me begin by saying that this is an incredibly exciting time in our industry. As many of you may know, Blink was founded in 2009. Since then we have been known as pioneers in electric vehicle charging technology. Some would say we were ahead of the curve. In fact, in many ways we still are. So although we have a lot to do, it is particularly gratifying to see the recent momentum in the EV industry. It is evident that EVs are better for the earth and the environment than their traditional internal engine counterparts and their adoption is a huge step forward in our stewardship of the planet. This is an important element of our business. But I also started the company because I've always been a car enthusiast as well as an entrepreneur, and the opportunity to combine these pursuits was irresistible. I said the word car just after I said the word mom. My father never forgave me for it, and I've loved the evolution of the automobile and the electric cars and their increasingly effective performance since their inception. I knew that as EVs became more accessible to the general public, there would be a massive need for infrastructure to support the inevitable sea change that would follow. I also saw a potentially amazing business. Historically, if you look at the transportation market, 99% of car manufacturers have gone bankrupt. It is the few who started the business where there is real growth and where companies have truly thrived and been very profitable. That is what we are building here at Blink for the EV space. This was an amazing quarter and first half of 2020 for us. Besides the economic challenges of COVID-19 in the first six months of 2020, we have already surpassed our revenues for all of 2019. That is an amazing feat. But it is more important to understand that to be successful in the industry we must have our equipment deployed in the right spots in order to have that utilization. It is setting a land grab of sorts. With that in mind, we are laser focused on rolling out our network of charging stations across the country and globally. This will be a key to driving our long-term value. We have now deployed more than 23 charging stations throughout the U.S. and we have the knowledge and experience to build that number exponentially. We have registered memberships at more than 180,000 EV drivers and growing as more consumers choose electric. While very focused on our planned growth we have made six acquisitions since our inception and acquisitions are a very important part of our strategy. To that end, in the 10-Q we just filed we announced that we are now buying certain assets of another EV charging operator that was done subsequent to the closing of the quarter. I can't really say much on this project, although I would love to, but I can tell you that it is a strategically amazing fit for us as we look to expand our network. The company that we are acquiring has some substantial grants and that will allow us to develop and build out more charging stations using government capital, free money. It is very exciting and there is more of this to come. As we are looking at the broader industry, the EV industry is set to emerge from COVID-19 stronger than ever before. Demand for electric vehicles continued to grow and lawmakers in many states, including our home state of Florida have taken notice. They are publicly committing their money to building out EV infrastructure. They are passing EV infrastructure legislation and that will only further impress upon the importance and the timeliness of our business and pave the way forward for Blink's success. At Blink we are excited to see a recent market report by BloombergNEF project that the need for charging points will top 290,000 by 2040, that's over a value of $500 billion worldwide. Another forecast from Research and Markets estimates that the global EV charging infrastructure market will reach $140 billion by 2030. It is growing at an estimated 31% CAGR until then. Unlike traditional automobile makers, who have had to deal with the oil market's volatility, the EV industry can, by and large, side-step the commodity turmoil. Whether oil prices are high or low, electric vehicles remain a significant and cleaner alternative to traditional vehicles and are widely considered the next significant evolution in transportation. The big oil companies and utilities are taking notice. Giants like BP, Shell, Total are making major investments in EV charging as they recognize an industry transformation is well underway. As more EVs take to the road, more charging stations will be needed. In the coming months, car companies have announced plans to unleash a wave of new plug-in models in an effort to catch up with Tesla and meet government's tightening restrictions related to vehicle pollution levels. We are excited about the momentum we are experiencing in the EV space, which drives increased interest in our products and services. As electric vehicles become more accessible and commonplace on the road, charging station locations become increasingly critical. In fact, Apple recently announced that its new Apple Maps on iOS 14 will include EV charging routing - which will include routing to our Blink charging stations. This investment by Apple signals a significant shift in electric vehicles becoming mainstream. I would like to close by saying we have also strengthened our capital position to support our growth and in total through August 10, we have sold 3.4 million shares of common stock under our ATM program for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $17.8 million. As of August 12, we have a cash position of approximately $16 million. I would like now to turn the call over to Brendan Jones, our Chief Operating Officer.

Brendan Jones, COO

Well, thank you, Michael. Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to speak with everyone today. As you might imagine, we have been very busy at Blink as demonstrated by many of the recent developments at the company. I'd like to take this time to review some of those highlights with you. As we start, one of the key ways that we can scale our business is through the identification and the execution of our strategic partnerships. As such, Blink has entered into some very noteworthy relationships over the past few weeks and I am going to go over those. We recently announced an exciting multiyear joint venture agreement with Envoy Technologies. Now Envoy is a leading provider of shared on-demand community-based electric vehicles. The venture brings electric vehicles and EV charging to urban residents across the United States by deploying charging stations at every Envoy property location. Envoy's community-based electric vehicle mobility platform grew an astonishing 350% over the past two years, and we think our charging technology will be a great complement to their operations. Additionally, we had another great announcement recently regarding the Virginia Clean Cities Association. They have been a long-term partner of ours. Blink was awarded a grant to deploy 200 Blink IQ 200 19.2 kW charging stations across the mid-Atlantic region. Now this is an exciting initiative that brings together local and regional partners to create what we like to call an enduring regional ecosystem to promote the support and the use of electric vehicles through the build-out of convenient EV charging stations and we are really proud to be part of that activity. To add even more good news, we recently signed a partnership with Cushman & Wakefield, and that has a lot of us here at Blink very excited. For Blink, the relationship with Cushman, who is a leader in real estate across the United States, this agreement provides marketing and deployment opportunities for Blink charging stations and services across all their client locations. Through the agreement, Cushman & Wakefield will engage their brokerage team and the expansive network of property managers to offer Blink equipment and services as an amenity to the commercial properties they represent, which is an astonishing amount. Given the reach of Cushman & Wakefield's platform, this agreement is a huge opportunity for Blink to sell additional chargers and services over an extended period of time. Also, as we shift to the technology front, we recently announced a development agreement with EnerSys, the global leader in stored energy solutions for industrial applications. Now this agreement is a little different. What it will do is help Blink in developing high-powered wireless and enhanced DC fast charging solutions with battery storage capability. We are going to combine this with Blink's inductive parking bumper technology, which is under development, and this will enable EV owners to charge their vehicles without physically interacting with the charging station while providing a faster and even more effortless charging experience. By developing DC fast charging stations with what we term next-generation integrated energy storage capabilities, we can make state-of-the-art charging technologies more affordable and even more accessible. I want to shift a little bit and focus on internationally where we continue to expand our footprint by making progress with our ongoing deployments in the Dominican Republic, Israel and our joint venture with Eunice Energy in Greece. Blink's charging stations are now deployed across six countries and three continents and we fully intend to leverage our strategic partnerships and advanced charging station technology to expand our worldwide presence even further. We have made a lot of structural improvements to the company across the board, including expanding and improving our sales, service operations, and product development teams. We are now very well positioned to support anticipated growth ahead of us as mentioned by Michael earlier, and as you can see recently, the progress has been realized through multiple avenues. These avenues will drive growth going forward. I want to end by saying I'm very proud of our team for making this progress possible, especially during the constraints of COVID-19 and they've done a great job. I'm now going to turn this over to Michael Rama, our CFO, to run you through some specifics for the results of the quarter. Here you go, Michael.

Michael Rama, CFO

Thank you, Brendan and good afternoon everyone. Blink had a great second quarter, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. I thought it would be helpful to provide you with a quick overview of our business model. One unique advantage of the Blink business model is that we provide multiple options for our customers. This flexibility is key in our ability to quickly expand our network. Blink offers four business models for EV charging equipment and connectivity to our cloud-based EV charging network. We work with our property partners to help design a program that fits their needs. I will give you an overview of each of these models. First, we have the Blink Owned Turnkey model, which is utilized in high traffic locations with significant potential for high utilization. In this model, Blink provides the equipment, installation, operations, and administration of the EV charger and shares a portion of the charging revenue with the host. Next is our Blink Owned the Hybrid model, which is our most common business model and fits more EV charging station locations. The hybrid option allows the location to quickly provide the charging station to their customers in a cost-efficient manner. Blink covers the cost of equipment, operations, and administration, whereas the host location is responsible for making the site ready for electrical wiring. Charging revenue is shared under the hybrid model. Third is our Host Owned model, which is for those who want to be the owner/operator of EV charging stations. The host location is solely responsible for the costs associated with the deployment of EV charging stations. This includes the electrical wiring, cost of the equipment, annual network fees, and costs of maintenance and operations. In the Host Owned option, the host location receives the entirety of the charging revenue minus network and processing fees. The fourth option, which is our newest business model, is Blink as a Service, which is an exciting option for host locations that want the flexibility of setting the EV charging rates on the equipment, but prefer not to have the upfront capital expenditure associated with purchasing the equipment. Blink provides the equipment, maintenance, and operations for a low monthly cost for the duration of the contract. The host location receives the entirety of the charging revenue minus network and processing fees. Now moving on to some financial results for the second quarter of 2020. Revenues for the second quarter of 2020 grew 120% to $1.6 million compared to $716,000 for the second quarter of 2019. Hardware sales drove the revenue increase for the period with an increase to $1.3 million for the quarter, up from $282,000 last year. This increase was attributable to increased sales from our Gen 2 chargers, as well as our increased sales in our DC fast chargers when compared to the same period in 2019. Revenues for the six months ended June 30, 2020 grew 122% to $2.9 million compared to $1.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2019. What is noteworthy here is that total revenues in the first half of 2020 surpassed the total revenues for the entire year of 2019. In terms of expenses, operating expenses for the quarter increased to $3.4 million from $2.7 million, primarily driven by increased compensation expenses as we continue to retool, reposition and strengthen our executive, marketing, sales, IT and operations departments. We are unquestionably investing in people in preparation for, and in part to create, the dramatic growth we anticipate. Our net loss was $3 million for the second quarter of 2020, compared to a net loss of $2.2 million for the second quarter of 2019. And now a few comments on our cash and liquidity. At the close of the quarter, we had $4 million in cash and marketable securities. Our financial condition has strengthened and the capital markets environment in the EV space has never been stronger. During the second quarter of 2020, we created a $20 million ATM program. Since April 17, 2020 through June 30, 2020, we sold an aggregate of 1.7 million shares of common stock under the ATM for aggregate proceeds of $4 million. However, in total through August 10, 2020, we sold 3.4 million shares of common stock under the ATM for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $17.8 million. As of August 12, 2020 we had cash of approximately $16 million. With that, we would now like to open the call for questions.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Sameer Joshi with H.C. Wainwright. Please proceed with your question.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

Hello, Michael, Mike, Brendan nice to talk to you. Thanks for taking my questions. Congratulations on a good quarter. The 662 units that you sold this quarter, under what model were they sold? Were they sold as owned by the owner or was it one of the other models?

Michael Rama, CFO

I will take that. This is Michael Rama, thanks for joining the call today. Those units were actually deployments between our turnkey and hybrid model units, that are exclusive of any hardware sales that we did. Those are strictly deployments of new in the Blink-owned services.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

Okay, okay. The utilization, do you have any metrics on the utilization of units that you have already installed? I think you have around 15,151 units deployed. Do you know how much they're being used by location?

Michael Rama, CFO

Sameer, at this time we're not disclosing utilization numbers. We may do so in the future, but at this point we're not. It's sensitive business information, so we need to keep that close to heart at this point.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

Understood, that's fair. As far as all these agreements that you have been signing, and your good relationships with online platforms and Cushman & Wakefield, do you have any projections for the next 6 to 12 or 24 months regarding the scale of deployment and the expected revenues or number of units that you anticipate to deploy at these locations, including the Greek relationship?

Michael Farkas, CEO

To get into any specific numbers would be somewhat difficult right now. All we could tell you is the business is growing at substantially the same rate as we've been growing before. Now with COVID being a little more under control, we should see even greater strides ahead of us.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

One last one before I jump back in the queue. The charging service revenue understandably was lower, I guess because of less people driving. But, going forward, or rather in July, August, have you seen any revival in that? It was $87,000 for this quarter relative to roughly $340 to $320 average last year, over the last five quarters.

Michael Rama, CFO

Yes, we've definitely seen an uptick in the utilization of the charging stations. We're starting to see people getting out and starting to do things again, and so we expect that to continue as we work through the pandemic and the issues related to it. We're definitely starting to see an uptick in the utilization of the charging stations.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

Got it. Thanks for taking my questions and congratulations on a good quarter. Thanks.

Michael Rama, CFO

Thank you.

Michael Farkas, CEO

Thank you.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

Thank you.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Shawn Severson with Water Tower Research. Please proceed with your questions.

Shawn Severson, Analyst

Thanks, good afternoon, gentlemen. I had a question regarding the international side of the business and wanted to dig into that a little deeper. One, can you help us understand what the mix is today, and do you have a target or longer-term target? And then second to that, which of the four models seems to be the most successful? Do you anticipate being more successful internationally, and are there any energy services opportunities on the back of some of those bad grid locations where you might be deploying units and managing units?

Michael Farkas, CEO

In most of our international deployments, we're selling hardware and we have a recurring revenue model. In our Greek relationship, we participate in the deployment of that hardware with ongoing revenue participation. So it is not just the hardware sale. We're trying to model our business outside the U.S. similar to the way we do it domestically, and we want to ensure that we provide our customers with a solution that's right for them. If you look at our current deployments, due to the fact that we have amazing hardware that surpasses any of our competitors, we are seeing a significant uptick as you can see from the numbers of hardware sales, and we expect that to continue. We do want to focus our efforts on deploying as much hardware as possible without having to dilute our current shareholders.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

I guess that's a good lead into my next question regarding services versus hardware. Long-term service business is very attractive from cash flow and usually consistency as well. I mean, how does it work when you approach a new customer? Are they getting the sense that they want to keep more of that services revenue or do you think there's a real value proposition that you can pitch to them that you both can make a lot of money and do well with the services side? I'm just trying to understand if they are getting the mindset that they want to capture this themselves or whether you're able to continue pushing a higher value proposition.

Michael Farkas, CEO

What we try to do is give the customer what they want. Property owners have their own models. Some of them want to own all infrastructure in their locations; that's their model, while others prefer to outsource various services. We really look and evaluate what the customer is currently doing with all the other types of deployments, and then we try to fit in accordingly.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

Okay, so last one, just on the acquisition strategy. Can you give us an idea of what the pipeline looks like? I assume there is a lot of fragmentation in the market and many opportunities, but are you looking at a pipeline of 10 deals or 2 deals or 20 deals that you would be interested in from a consolidation standpoint?

Michael Farkas, CEO

As mentioned earlier, we were the original consolidator, the first phase of consolidation done in this space with Blink being involved in six companies in Austin. We believe that there's a tremendous future in not only organic growth as we've been achieving, but really being able to buy some of our competitors. There are more than a handful of really good potential acquisition targets out there and we're constantly looking for the right partners from the perspectives of technology and footprint, number one, and also very importantly, people. There are a lot of small businesses in this industry that unfortunately, can't finance their growth properly. One of the things I mentioned before was about having grants for smaller companies, minority businesses that are able to get these grants, but unfortunately, they don't have the capital to put down, wait 90 days and then get reimbursed. So we're going to be able to take advantage of a lot of opportunities out there. The team is very, very experienced in M&A, and I believe that as in the past, we grew through acquisitions. I believe that is a central focus of ours.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

Thanks, guys. I’ll step back in the queue.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Pam Stanley with Carter Management. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

Hi, congratulations on the quarter first. My question is about the Cushman & Wakefield deal. It's certainly very exciting, but could you provide a bit more insight into how you are collaborating with them and what the breadth of the opportunity is?

Michael Farkas, CEO

The opportunity is tremendous. For us, Cushman is really a very natural partner. They have control over a tremendous amount of real estate that needs infrastructure. They're going to be using their sales staff to go to all of their properties—whatever type of property it is across the board from A to Z—and they are going to sell Blink's services for us. There are also going to be opportunities for them to handle from A to Z not only site acquisition but fulfillment and deployment of infrastructure. Cushman has tremendous reach. They have a lot of capabilities and we believe that it's going to be a game changer for the company.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

Great, okay, thank you. That's all from me now.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jennifer Wolford with Comstock Partners. Please proceed with your questions.

Jennifer Wolford, Analyst

Hi, good afternoon. You guys are obviously in a competitive space, and I'm just wondering if you could give us a little more color around the competitive landscape? Specifically, what differentiates the Blink model from some of the competitors you're seeing out there?

Michael Farkas, CEO

I'm very happy you asked that question. It's a really important question because Blink is quite unique. When we talk about competition, yes, there are competitors, but there are none that are as vertically integrated as we are. There are three different categories of EV charging companies; hardware vendors, hardware manufacturers, network companies, and owned and operated companies. On the hardware side, you have the likes of BTC, Tritium and ABB, and then you have network companies like Greenlots, which is now owned by Shell, or Drives. Many other companies provide both, like ChargePoint, SemaConnect and a couple of others. Then you have the owned and operated companies like Electrify America and EVgo. But we're the only one that does everything; and there is a certain knowledge and experience that you gain from site acquisition to host property and point of relationships, dealing with all the information and data they need. Going out there and evaluating the sites themselves, doing the installations, maintaining and operating those charging stations, and ultimately dealing with the customer who pays for the service, the EV owner. That knowledge and information that we've gathered from that stage of EV charging, we are able to incorporate into our hardware. We've really changed the game with our Level 2 AC charging stations. Our charging stations are much faster than our competitors' stations, and while they try to build in obsolescence, we try to build out obsolescence. Why? Because we own the charging stations. So we make them a little better, we sweat a little more because we want them to last longer, since that is our model. Our competitors really want to have to upgrade them or throw them in the garbage after a few years and buy new equipment. We've designed this hardware for our own use, for us to own and operate in the field, making it very simple to maintain and install, and very easy for consumers, the end-users, while having a tremendous amount of robust data that we can share with EV hosts and owners. It's about practical experience. It's much more challenging to design a piece of hardware when you're living in an ivory tower and don't know what it's like to install them and own them. That's what separates us from our competitors. While there's definitely competition, a lot of what we call competition are collaborators in many ways regarding interoperability and other aspects. But the industry is really at its, I would say, embryonic phase. Although we're about to embark on our 12th year of doing this, honestly, we are still at the beginning stage. If you look at the entire market and the amount of charging stations that are needed in the future, we haven't even started.

Jennifer Wolford, Analyst

Well, thank you for that comprehensive answer. I really appreciate all that detail. Thank you.

Michael Farkas, CEO

You're welcome.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up from Shawn Severson with Water Tower Research. Please proceed with your question.

Shawn Severson, Analyst

Hi, I just want to go back to your expansion of the overall industry and the pressure that that would put on the grid as it stands today, which brings me to your energy services business. I'm trying to understand what the opportunity is for you. I understand you're working with partners through that, but looking at micro grids and EEG as primary solutions for a lot of the upcoming strain that will be on the grid, just want your view on that and how that affects Blink and how you can profit from it.

Michael Farkas, CEO

It's a great question. When we started Blink, we really looked at the company as gaining access to different properties and we viewed it as a land grab. When we first started, there really weren't even charging stations available for installation. We predated the industry completely, but we ultimately knew that once we partnered with property owners and installed charging stations there, we built a relationship with them, that we'd be able to introduce other products or services at those locations that relate to EV charging. Whether that's being able to obtain renewable energy at that location or discounted power, or perhaps to deal with capacity issues by recommending LED conversions or some battery storage. There are many opportunities to work with the sustainability groups we interact with at these locations and introduce more services while also making money. Our plan is to assist our property owner partners that we have thousands of and help aggregate our energy volume with them to reduce their energy costs. This not only helps us but gives our customers access to cheaper EV charging sessions. So there are several ways for us to monetize our locations, and there are also opportunities that we haven't addressed in the past that we are now incorporating into our business model. We have a lot of real estate on our charging stations, and there are numerous opportunities to generate revenue even further, such as utilizing advertising capabilities on these charging stations. They are very noticeable. We aim to unlock our relationships with our property owners and have them participate in the revenues we generate, thereby increasing Blink’s revenue base by introducing other types of services through our charging stations.

Shawn Severson, Analyst

Thanks for the explanation, that's all from me.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, I would like to turn the floor back to management for closing comments.

Michael Farkas, CEO

Thank you everyone for joining us. We are very excited about the increasing interest in our EV charging offering, our extended footprint, growth of our customer base, and our new partnerships, and we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Thank you everybody.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.