Greenland Technologies Holding Corp. Q2 FY2022 Earnings Call

Thank you for standing by. And welcome to the Greenland Technologies Holding Corporation reports Second Quarter and First Half 2022 Unaudited Financial Results Conference Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference over to Julia Qian. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Welcome to Greenland Technologies' second quarter and the first half 2022 earnings conference call. Joining us today are Mr. Raymond Wang, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Jing Jin, Chief Financial Officer. We've released the results early today. The press release is available on the company's IR website at ir.gtec-tech.com, as well as on Newswire Services. A replay of this call will also be available in a few hours on our IR website. Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under Safe Harbor provision of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's actual results may be materially different from the expectations expressed today. Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in the company's corporate filings with the SEC. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law. Also, please note unless otherwise stated, all the figures mentioned during this conference call are in US dollars. With that, let me now turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. Raymond Wang. Please go ahead, Mr. Wang.

Thank you, Julia. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We have much to discuss during this call. I want to begin by expressing my gratitude to my team for their hard work and commitment to our mission at Greenland Technologies, which focuses on delivering high-quality products and developing innovative solutions for our clients, shareholders, and local communities. The second quarter has been challenging for the company, as we generated $20.6 million in revenue, marking the first quarter without positive year-over-year growth since our NASDAQ listing in 2019. This decline is largely due to the renewed COVID restrictions and shutdowns in China, some of which lasted over a month. While we were fortunate to avoid shutdowns at our facilities, several key clients were not as lucky, resulting in weeks-long operational closures. This led to delays in orders as requested by our clients and ultimately affected our Q2 sales and revenue. I want to emphasize that this is a short-term disruption. I firmly believe that our long-term strategy will result in profitable growth and value for the company. Looking at our first half results, you'll see that despite losing a month of sales due to the COVID restrictions, we remain on track with last year's performance, achieving $49.9 million in revenue compared to $52.8 million in 2021, and $5.6 million in net income this year versus $5.3 million last year. If not for the COVID restrictions, we would have continued our trend of growth. Additionally, our gross margin has improved by 330 basis points to 23.5%, indicating that we are on the right path, and we will maintain our focus on our current strategy. Clients affected by closures have created a significant backlog of orders for our drivetrains and components, positioning us for a strong second half of 2022, with our component business expected to match or exceed last year's results. We continue to reach important milestones in our heavy division, which manufactures electric industrial heavy equipment. This quarter, we launched the GEL-5000, a five-ton rated load, lithium-powered wheeled front loader, which became available for demonstrations and sales in July. The GEL-5000 is generating considerable interest on our website, and we have scheduled multiple demonstrations as part of our sales efforts. Additionally, this quarter, we secured our first assembly site in Baltimore, Maryland, which we expect to open at the end of this month. When fully operational, this facility will produce over 500 units annually, and our sales focus for our heavy division will be on the Mid-Atlantic region to provide adequate support to our future customers. While we are not yet at our desired sales level, this is not due to a lack of demand but rather a lack of infrastructure. Initially, we positioned our equipment along DCFC charging networks, but we discovered that the rollout of new charging stations has been slow and often too expensive for local businesses. Accessible charging infrastructure is critical for the adoption of electric vehicles and is still in the early stages across our markets. To address this, we are developing our own line of mobile chargers that will enable our customers to charge our products without needing to invest in on-site charging stations. We will offer multiple charging solutions for sites with power ranging from 110 volts to 480 volts. These chargers can fully recharge our equipment in eight hours or less, which, while longer than DCFC chargers, will still align with many prospects who can simply charge overnight. These chargers are expected to enter production by the end of Q3 this year, supporting our strategy to drive equipment sales by making our products easier to integrate into existing operations. Furthermore, we closed a $10 million fundraising round through a combination of direct registration and private placement with Aegis Capital at the end of last month. With global markets facing recession risks and without strong short-term tailwinds, it is crucial for companies to strengthen cash reserves to withstand current challenges. This fundraising enhances our ability to navigate market conditions while allowing us the flexibility to seize emerging opportunities. Some funds will accelerate the expansion of our heavy division through talent acquisition, inventory growth, and facility ramp-up, while others will be reserved for promising opportunities to further grow our product and service channels. Despite a challenging second quarter, Greenland continues to achieve positive results and deliver value to our shareholders. Our components business is on track for another successful year with a robust backlog and favorable industry trends. Our heavy division is reaching the milestones outlined in our strategy while remaining adaptable to industry challenges as we lead in this new technology, and our balance sheet stays strong thanks to business performance and recent fundraising. At Greenland, we remain committed to executing our strategy for long-term profitable growth for the company and our shareholders. Now, I will hand the call over to our CFO, Jing Jin, for more details on our financial performance. JJ, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Raymond, and thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. I will now go over our financial highlights for the second quarter and the first half of 2022. For the full details of our financial results, please refer to our earnings press release. Challenges from the first quarter continued into the second. Our team did a great job working with customers and our supply chain to reduce the impact of China’s COVID-19 shutdowns and the global supply shortage. We also faced headwinds from an unfavorable foreign exchange and global inflation. For Greenland, we ended the quarter in a strong financial position. Demand remains robust for our industrial EV models, and we are executing our long-term growth strategy. Even with the short-term challenges, we drove a 330 basis point expansion in our gross margin year-over-year to 23.5% during the period, and further enhanced our balance sheet with $10 million in proceeds from Registered Direct and Private Placement Offerings in July. This will allow us to support the next phase of our growth without having to go back to the market over the near term. In terms of our results, revenue in the first half of 2022 was $49.9 million. The slight decrease from $52.8 million in the prior year reflects the impact of China’s pandemic shutdowns. It was the case of the customer not being open and able to place orders. That demand moves into the second half and led to our higher backlog reduced in Q2. On an RMB basis, revenue decreased by about 5% from the first half of 2021. The number of transmission products fell 10% to 17,841 units during the period. We continue to drive cost savings across our operations which will prosper. As a result of our strong supply relations, combined with the lower sales volume, we were able to reduce our cost of goods sold by 8% to $38.7 million, and we generated gross profit of $11.2 million, up 4% from $10.8 million in the first half of 2021. We continue to benefit from our strategy to shift towards higher-value products with a 200 basis point year-over-year expansion in the first half gross margin to 20.5%. The total operating expenses rose 25% to $5.6 million, primarily due to our investment in support of our growth strategy. Operating expenses as a percentage of total revenues, however, increased only by 2.8 percentage points to 11.3% compared with 8.5% in the first half of 2021. Within that, selling expenses increased 32% to $1.2 million. General and administrative expenses increased 52% to $2.5 million, while research and development expenses were related to the prior year. We generated $5.6 million in income from operations, down 12% from the first half of 2021. Net income was $5.3 million, a decrease of 5% from $5.6 million in the prior year. In summary, Greenland remains well positioned. We are excited – we are executing our product roadmap, expanding our production footprint, and focusing on profitable growth. Underlying cash remains firmly in place, which strengthens our balance sheet and makes us excited for the second half of 2022, as we continue to execute our long-term business strategy. So that concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we can now open the call for questions.

Thank you all, again. This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful day.

Great. Thank you very much. So I want to thank everyone for joining the call and for your continued interest and support in Greenland and our mission here. We will continue to execute. That is our promise. We will continue to deliver and do the best that we can in this market to continue to generate growth and value for shareholders, for our clients, for our company, and for our local communities. And for that, I just want to thank everyone for all of your continued support for the company.