Transcript
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our Q3 earnings call. This is the first time we're doing this in our space, and it's great to have everyone involved. Joining me is Gian Luca Spriano, our Interim CFO. We'll wait another two minutes before starting the call. Thank you for being here. It's wonderful to see so many participants on the call. It's been a busy week with our shareholder meeting. As you all know, we opted for a reverse split of 150:1, effective December. We also increased the authorized shares to assist with M&A activities. Additionally, we streamlined our capital by canceling the share B that expired last August. The response from our shareholders has been fantastic, and it's encouraging to see how much they care about the company. Speaking of the company, I have Gian Luca Spriano with me, our CFO, who has been with me since the beginning. I think this is his first time joining one of my sessions, and it's important to have him here today. Gian Luca, would you like to say a few words? Thank you.
Thank you, Salvatore. I am delighted to share the progress that we are making towards enhancing profitability and long-term financial stability. Our strategic approach has been comprehensive, focusing on both efficient cost management and aggressive revenue growth. One example that comes to my mind is the city of Tampa. We just launched this past week, and our unique business model has set a benchmark for success. We have strategically minimized fixed costs, which has significantly boosted our profitability in this market and will serve as a blueprint for our operation in other regions, showcasing our ability to adapt and thrive in varied market conditions. Alongside our success in Tampa, the growth of our retail stores and long-term rental services has been nothing short of exceptional. The continuous increase of subscription highlights the market's positive reception of our products and services. This will put us in a stronger position and is also a strong indicator of our brands' growing appeal and the effectiveness of our marketing strategies. Our retail expansion is not just a sign of growth but also a driver of it. Each new store increases visibility, allowing us to tap into new customer segments and further solidify our presence in different markets. The increasing number of long-term rentals demonstrates our ability to meet the evolving needs of our customers, offering them value and convenience that keep them coming back. We also keep investing in technology, and our financial strategies are underpinned by a commitment to sustainability and corporate responsibility. We understand that longer-term profitability goes hand-in-hand with environmental stewardship and social responsibility. Therefore, we are integrating sustainable practices into our operations and engaging with the communities to build a better future. In closing, the path of profitability is clear and well-charted in front of us. Successes like Tampa and the expansion in our retail footprint show and will show in the next weeks the growth in the retail services. I'm confident that with our focused approach and dedicated team, we will achieve our financial goals and set new standards in our industry. Thank you very much.
Okay, Gian Luca, thank you so much for your statement. I want to talk to you a little bit more about Tampa. When you say Tampa, the new Tampa operation that we have, can you explain a little bit more about that? What do you think is going to be the way that brings us to profitability? I'm keep repeating here, and maybe a lot of people lost confidence in what I'm saying because, of course, it was a difficult time, but you can explain a little bit more about that.
Well, first of all, Tampa is a big success that we started almost 2 years ago because we applied to the city and followed a legal case for winning and starting to operate in the city. So that's the first success we had. Second of all, we had the chance to partner with a sort of third-party company that will basically engage with us, concentrating on operations. This will show us the possibility of lowering costs and not having that burden of operation under our roof that has so far put us in a financial situation that could be kind of dangerous. So we are very happy about this model. It's working. We saw that in the first few days, there was a significant increase in rides and usage of our vehicles. We believe that from now on, this, let's call it the Tampa model, can work pretty well across the United States.
Okay. And Gian Luca, just to explain a little bit more about our B2B and long-term rental service that we offer also from our retail. Can you explain a little bit more about why it's much easier to get profitability there?
Well, for sure, having a location, a flagship store or somewhere where people can go inside and ask questions and solve problems that may arise when renting a vehicle puts us in a position where we are like a dedicated and neighborhood-friendly shop. Here, you can not only see someone face-to-face but really experience what we are doing. In any case, for any kind of problem you may have, you can be directed to our warehouses and basically have the full experience that before was kind of left alone in the middle of unsafe streets. Our customer service agents and people from the stores are super well trained. They know how to engage with people and resolve any issue that can arise with the vehicle on the spot.
Yes. Another thing that I would like to speak today that our numbers show very firm is how we are reducing costs for the company. We carry a lot of operation costs and we're trying to make everything profitable. Can we talk a little bit more about this and why we are cutting costs tremendously to ensure we achieve profitability?
It's a strategy that we decided to use moving forward for our partners that support our operation and not, let's say, burden our shoulders with excessive costs and more work, but rather believe in the process and trust what we are doing to grow together and push in the same direction. This means having a better connection with everyone and having money that can be invested in other stores, for example, like long-term rentals, and having visibility that supports every single future project we are working on. We really believe it's something that can change the strength of the company and will definitely drive us toward profitability, engaging better with communities and building the real future we envision in this market, which is very important to us.
Okay, great. I think we touched on every point. Gian Luca, thank you so much for being part of this space. Maybe we should talk a little bit about the next M&A that we want to pursue, possibly the Hopium brand hydrogen. Can you elaborate a little on how you see hydrogen fitting with Micromobility and help us understand our visionary direction?
We truly believe that the future lies in batteries for vehicles, as they are the most crucial component. Integrating hydrogen will enhance the battery's performance, particularly its lifespan, which is currently limited. Therefore, we think that forming a partnership and pursuing an acquisition in this field could significantly advance our progress and open up new possibilities that we hadn't previously considered. This is critically important for our team and everyone who supports us. I see this as a major step forward for all of us and for the future we envision in this market.
Perfect. At the same time, we'll give a separate update on the M&A at the beginning of next week, if we can, also on Friday. Let's see how we will be, and we are moving really fast on different conversations we have. We are thinking really big. So I'm sure we will get there. As soon as we are ready, we will be happy to update all of you. Gian Luca, thank you again for joining us. As mentioned in our private conversation, Gian Luca will join this space more often to ensure our visions align and you all have another voice to hear that we are moving in the same direction. I see a lot of people connected. Thank you so much for all of you who believe in the company and continue to believe in what we're doing. Thank you, guys.
Thank you.