Earnings Call Transcript - SUNE Q1 2025

Operator, Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. My name is Argy, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the SUNation Energy First Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Devin Sullivan of The Equity Group. Please go ahead.

Devin Sullivan, Investor Relations

Thank you, Argy, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for SUNation's first quarter 2025 financial results conference call. Our speakers for today are Scott Maskin, Chief Executive Officer, and James Brennan, the company's Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Maskin will open with prepared remarks followed by a question-and-answer session. Before we get started, I'd like to remind everyone that prospects at SUNation Energy Inc. are subject to uncertainties and risks. Statements and remarks on today's call contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as they are based on our current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions. The company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbor provided by the foregoing sections. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations or forecasts of future events, which can be affected by inaccurate assumptions and are subject to various business risks and known and unknown uncertainties, a number of which are beyond the control of management. Therefore, actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this call. The company cannot predict or determine after the fact what factors would cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements or other statements. Participants should consider statements that include words such as believes, expects, anticipates, intends, estimates, plans, projects, should, or other expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events or trends to be uncertain and forward-looking. We caution investors not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements. This call will also contain certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, which we believe is a useful supplemental measure that assists us in evaluating our ability to generate earnings, provide consistency and comparability with our past performance, and facilitate period-to-period comparisons of our core operating results. A reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures where possible and definitions of those indicators are included in our financial results release. Please note that our definition of these measures may differ from similarly titled metrics presented by other companies. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date in which they are made, and the company does not undertake to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additional information regarding risks and other factors that could materially affect the company and its operations are contained in the company's filings with the SEC, including its most recent Form 10-K filed with the SEC on April 15, 2025, and its Form 10-Q, which was filed with the SEC on May 15, 2025. Copies of each document can be found on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. With that said, I'd now like to turn the call over to Scott Maskin, Chief Executive Officer of SUNation Energy. Scott, please go ahead.

Scott Maskin, CEO

Thank you, Devin. Good morning, everybody, and happy Friday. I want to thank each of you for joining today. Please stick around after Jim speaks for my closing comments right around the time that we take questions as well. It's been about a month since our last public conference call, although I've heard from many of you since then. If I had to characterize our results for the first quarter, the word I would use is progress. Many of the actions that we've taken over the last several quarters are beginning to have a meaningful impact on our results. We told you what we're going to do, and we're doing it. That is the ethos of this company and it extends across the organization from employees to customers, vendors and, of course, our shareholders. Whether times are good, challenged, or somewhat in between, we always strive to do the right thing and be transparent while doing so, no matter how difficult the circumstances. During the first quarter, we lowered our operating costs, gained efficiencies, and increased our cash position. We repaid nearly $10 million in high-cost debt and continued to meet our other debt obligations during the second quarter. We grew our cash position from year-end. In short, our financial position has improved. There's still a lot of work to do, but we are miles ahead of where we were just a few short months ago. Once again, I have to give credit to my incredible colleagues at SUNation Energy and our extended family of advisors. They have done an incredible job addressing a very difficult situation, and I thank them all, including our Board of Directors. Let's talk a little bit about the business. Our SUNation New York business, which serves Long Island and the surrounding region, has maintained our position as one of the leading installers of solar energy and battery attachments. After a seasonally slow Q1 for our residential business, which was exacerbated by terrible weather in February, we had a strong April, which we believe bodes well for the balance of 2025. We are seeing marked improvement in sales. We have a lot of pent-up demand from residential consumers for solar, which has resulted in a stronger-than-usual springtime push. With both contract and install activity rivalling the growth we saw during the post-Inflation Reduction Act boom period before interest and financing rates took off. Even with the recent uncertainty within global financial markets due to potential changes in federal tariff policies, we expect Q2 to remain strong as homeowners look to capitalize on locking in pre-tariff pricing. Now, with Congress debating the future of solar incentives, this adds yet another layer of urgency for customers to move forward with their projects. Based on 20 years of experience dealing with an uncertain incentive picture, remember up until 2022, each year, the federal incentives would wind down gradually. We fully expect this debate over the future tax incentives for solar will lead to a push for homeowners to install before the end of the year so they can receive the maximum incentives from the federal government. Our residential business in Hawaii, a more mature market, is expected to rebound from a sluggish 2024 due to solar battery incentives that took effect in May 2025, thanks to the recent action taken by the State of Hawaii's Public Utilities Commission. Electric rates on Long Island are among the highest in the nation. Our systems have paid consumers more than $70 million, money that goes back into their pockets and into their communities. On the commercial side, we entered the second quarter with a commercial backlog that ranks among the strongest in the company's history, thanks to a variety of projects currently in various stages of development with our institutional partners. We've recently announced separate LOIs for deployment of over 2.35 megawatts of solar power at two school districts on Long Island. Collectively, these installations are designed to deliver 3 megawatt-hours of clean solar energy across 10 buildings that would offset a substantial majority of each district's energy needs. We are exploring opportunities to expand our service and maintenance business in the New York metro region to support thousands of homeowners whose systems have been orphaned by solar providers that are no longer in business. This presents a meaningful opportunity to broaden our customer base, support our continuing use of solar, and potentially benefit from historically high-margin service revenues. Building these types of relationships drives referrals and lowers customer acquisition costs. I'm hoping some of you are going to ask me questions about my feelings about Sunnova and SunPower. With the help of our remarkable team, we are building an incredibly resilient and efficient organization that can respond to whatever the market throws our way. We have focused, simplified, and stabilized SUNation Energy to the point where we can truly begin to focus on what lies ahead instead of devoting so much of our time and resources on fixing the issues that were dropped in our laps. We are focused on the customer, delivering the highest quality products, dependable services, and a promise to stand behind our work, no excuses. With a strengthened capital base, a streamlined capital structure, and a vision for our future, we are ready to grow in a thoughtful and impactful manner. We see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's not an oncoming train; it is appropriately enough daylight. Thank you for your time today, and I'll turn things over to our CFO, Jim Brennan, to discuss our further results.

James Brennan, CFO

Thank you, Scott, and good morning, everyone. We are also joined today by Kristin Hlavka, SUNation Energy's Chief Accounting Officer and Treasurer. We issued our press release after the close yesterday and also filed the 10-Q with the SEC. For the quarter, consolidated revenue declined 4% to $12.6 million from $13.2 million compared to last year's first quarter. Commercial revenue rose 28% from last year's first quarter, which offset declines in residential revenue and total service revenue. On a consolidated basis, while overall kilowatts installed on residential projects increased 7% in the first quarter of 2025, we did see a 13% decline in per watt pricing due to lower battery kilowatts installed within our HEC segment. With the May 2025 commencement, as Scott just shared, of the new battery program in Hawaii, we hope to see a rebound at HEC as the year progresses. On the commercial side, we ended the first quarter with a commercial backlog of $7.4 million, which is a 32% increase over March 31, 2024. Consolidated gross margin for the quarter declined slightly from 35.1% to 36.4%. HEC's gross margin remained flat. SUNation New York's gross margin decreased 38.5% from 40.5% due to higher costs in our commercial segment, which was a result of higher unanticipated project costs at a large project during that quarter. A series of cost optimizations, as Scott mentioned, and efficiency measures we implemented in 2024, which helped drive savings for us in the first quarter, reflected by the 9% decline in SG&A expense from $6 million to $6.6 million in the prior year. We continue to believe that these measures will produce annual SG&A expense cost savings in 2025 of approximately $2 million. Total operating expenses also declined by nearly 6% to $6.6 million from $7.0 million. We lowered our first quarter interest expense by $200,000 and expect annual interest expense to decline by $1.4 million for 2025, which is due to the recent elimination of nearly $12.5 million in expensive debt. Net loss was $3.5 million compared to net income of $1.2 million from last year's first quarter. For context, net income from last year benefited from a $3.7 million gain associated with the fair value remeasurement of warrant liabilities versus no such benefit in this year's first quarter. Therefore, our adjusted EBITDA was flat year-over-year. Moving to the balance sheet, I am very pleased with the progress that we have made on several key metrics. Cash and cash equivalents rose $1.4 million from $800,000 on December 31, 2024, with restricted cash unchanged at $300,000. Cash on 3/31/25 did not include the $5 million gross proceeds raised as part of the offering that closed in early 2025. Total debt, which includes earnout considerations of $2.1 million, declined 51% due to $9.3 million of total debt of $19.1 million on December 31, 2024. We made additional debt payments of more than $2 million during April, and as a result, the total debt on June 30, 2025, is expected to decline an additional $1 million to $2 million from March 31, 2025. Other areas of improvement include: accounts payable decreased $1.5 million from December 31, 2024; current liabilities decreased $6.9 million from December 31, 2024; long-term liabilities decreased $700,000 from December 31, 2024; and stockholders' equity increased by $6.3 million from December 31, 2024. We recently restructured the $5.5 million of long-term debt and entered into a yet unused $1.0 million line of credit as a bridge until we establish a more formal commercial banking relationship. As you may recall from prior announcements, that $1 million line of credit was provided by Scott Maskin, our CEO, which should reinforce our confidence in the business. In summary, we have eliminated $12.6 million of secured debt and other long-term contractual obligations, removing an average annual recurring cash drain of approximately $3.4 million through 2027. I'll echo Scott's comments that we still have a lot of work to do; however, our debt payments and liquidity initiatives have removed a significant impediment to our ability to grow organically, better serve our customers, become better partners to our vendors, and consider strategic acquisition opportunities. We now have the confidence to provide guidance for 2025. For 2025, we expect total sales of $65 million to $70 million, a projected increase between 14% and 23% from total sales of $56.9 million in 2024. Also, adjusted EBITDA of $500,000 to $700,000 compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss in 2024. We look forward to keeping you apprised of our progress. I want to thank you for your time, and we'll turn things back to Scott.

Scott Maskin, CEO

Thank you, everybody, and thank you, Jim and team. What I'd also like to add is some remarks that I put together myself. First of all, thanks for sticking around, and then we'll open it up for questions. We build our relationships around transparency. And in that spirit, I want to take a few minutes to clarify some of today's information and share my thoughts on the current ITC situation. It's important for our shareholders, employees, and stakeholders to understand the difference between what we can control and what we cannot control. Let me say that again, some factors are simply out of our control, but we work hard every day and the actions of others impact us. Today, we also shared guidance on where we believe 2025 will land. That's transparency and accountability, two things I believe are in short supply these days. I'm sure much of what I will say will end up on the message boards. Well, game on. I have tough skin and I refuse to change how I lead. Let's take a look back quickly. Jim and I assumed leadership of what was then Pineapple Energy on May 06, 2024, and just last week we marked our one-year anniversary rebuilding the company. When we took over, it was a ship headed straight for bankruptcy, defaults on obligations, a repressive capital structure, unsustainable debt, and operating expenses that had gutted the business units. The industry as a whole was in free fall in 2024. In my 22 years in solar, not even COVID compared to the storm we just endured, and the industry results being 25% to 40% off down; if you even survived 2024, regrettably, it's sad but true, but we not only had to fight through our own problems but we had to fight an industry that was just in chaos. So, it's also critical to understand that shareholder equity is inextricably linked to the success of our business units, our employees, and our clients. One cannot succeed without the others. And while we have no control over how our stock is traded, we believe that a few solid quarters will begin to restore confidence, and that's our plan, that's our focus. From day one, Jim and I, guided by our newly formed Board, set a deliberate, calculated course to save this company, preserve jobs, and rebuild shareholder equity. Let's not forget, Jim and I were the first and biggest financial losers in this. We saw $4.5 million of our own equity wiped out. Our theory is, we bleed first, that's how we roll. Every step we've taken has been intentional, compliant, and necessary to avoid bankruptcy and to fight another day. We worked together alongside Nasdaq, our auditors, bankers, legal and accounting teams, and every shareholder vote we brought forward has passed by overwhelming margins. One year later, we're still standing. The ship has some dents and scratches for sure, but it's mechanically sound and heading into calmer waters. The iceberg is behind us as far as I'm concerned. I've also personally provided the business with a bridge loan and established a line of credit to support operations if needed. You will not find a CEO more invested financially and emotionally. I'm not looking for medals; I'm just asking for a fair shot at winning. And as I see it, we have three active paths: raise additional capital to roll up great companies; pursue strategic mergers with accretive small cap public companies; and merge with other companies. There's no shortage since we cleaned up our own company of other companies that want to come into us. I also want to briefly address the federal administration's stance on the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and solar storage policy. Yes, change is likely. That's exactly why I've emphasized diversification in every single call for the last year. Residential, commercial, service, and roofing, we are strategically prepared to adapt if the ITC landscape shifts. With Sunnova now following SunPower into bankruptcy, we see an opportunity to serve a wave of orphan systems. Our commercial pipeline, as I said, is strong and our national developers have told us they are not changing course. Depending on where the residential ITC lands, we can pivot quickly, dominating in third-party owned markets or continuing to lead in the loan-based systems. Either way, our clients trust us and trust is something our competition lacks. If there's one thing I've earned in 22 years in this solar coaster, it's confidence. I received it from my peer set, from my team, and I hope with today's recap of progress and transparency, I've earned your confidence, the shareholders. I'm fired up and more determined than ever to deliver. And as always, I do my best to answer every email. I truly do care. With that said, I'd like to open the line up for calls.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. Your first question comes from Justin Clare of Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Justin Clare, Analyst

Hey, Scott. Hey, Jeff. Thanks for taking the questions here. I just wanted to start out on the guidance here. So, you're expecting positive EBITDA in 2025. And just wondering if you could talk through how you expect adjusted EBITDA to trend in the quarters ahead for the remainder of the year. Do you anticipate potentially being able to achieve positive EBITDA in Q2 as a result of the stronger seasonality? It'd be great to just hear a little bit more detail on that.

James Brennan, CFO

I'm glad to provide some insight on that. However, we're not offering quarterly guidance at this time. There's a lot of uncertainty in the industry and the U.S. economy right now, and given the situation in Washington, it would be imprudent for any company to do so. To address your question, we typically see lower performance in Q1 compared to the other quarters. In New York, where we're based today, our business is affected by weather-related challenges during January, February, and March. In Hawaii, while we don't face severe weather, there is a significant surge in business at the end of Q4, making it impractical to take days off during that period. Consequently, after pushing through a heavy workload at the end of Q4, we experience a slowdown in Q1, and this trend has been consistent year over year. Our New York operation has been running for 22 years, and while I dislike the cyclical nature of our business, it remains a reality every year. In summary, Q1 performance is lower, but we see improvement ramping up in Q2, Q3, and Q4.

Scott Maskin, CEO

I will add one thing, Justin. In Hawaii, what Jim was referring to are storms like snowstorms. They experience a significant amount of rain that affects them. From our analysis, we have maintained a consistent pattern for 22 years.

Justin Clare, Analyst

Got it.

James Brennan, CFO

Good question. Thanks.

Justin Clare, Analyst

That color is helpful. And then, just on your operating costs, you lowered costs in Q1. Just wondering how you're thinking about where you are today. Are there further opportunities to take cost out, or are you more comfortable with where things stand? Appreciate any more color on that.

James Brennan, CFO

Yeah, we have some strategic initiatives in-house in both the business units on ways that we can streamline some costs. We also, as you know, Scott just mentioned, that the mission of our business is to roll up regionally strong companies like SUNation or like HEC in Hawaii. Every time we do that, it's an opportunity to squeeze out some costs that both companies are currently paying, or all three companies at that point are currently paying. So, our model includes doing some acquisitions this year. I'm not committing to any of them today, but we certainly have many on our target list. And so, once we bring in the next and the next and the next, we certainly will be shaving a lot more costs.

Scott Maskin, CEO

Hey, Justin, I just want to add also that we talked about levelizing the quarter-over-quarter; we actually take that into consideration when we look at our target acquisitions as well, like who can really execute in Q4 or Q1 to levelize some of the other areas.

James Brennan, CFO

That's exactly right. Who would have thought it that a Northeast company and a Hawaii company would have the same cyclical cycle of Q1 being lower than the other quarters, but here we are.

Scott Maskin, CEO

Yeah. And we also just came off of 2024 where everything that we did with all the restructuring was expensive. We're not expecting to have those kinds of things happen again.

James Brennan, CFO

Sorry, which were all part of the adjustments. I'm sorry, Justin, I didn't hear your last comment.

Justin Clare, Analyst

Well, I was just saying on the seasonal effect of Hawaii and the Northeast, you wouldn't necessarily expect them to be the same, but it sounds like they are. I did want to follow up on just the strategy that you have in terms of acquisitions. Are there particular characteristics that you're looking for in an acquisition? Or are there particular markets that you're looking to expand in that you think are attractive opportunities?

Scott Maskin, CEO

I appreciate that. After 22 years, it’s clear that well-managed companies rise to the top. The best always succeed. On the residential side, I’ve long advocated that balancing between residential and commercial is the key to growing the business. Companies like Sunrun and Sunnova are predominantly residential. While Sunnova tried to enter the commercial space, it didn’t pan out as expected. There are significant strategic differences among companies, but diversification helps even things out. When we examine potential companies for acquisition, there are numerous opportunities available, and valuations are under pressure. My relationships with commercial developers are strong because we consistently deliver on time and within budget. They often reach out to me for projects, and that shows we can not only execute but also generate revenue and work for our business. Diversification across all business areas will be crucial for any company we look to acquire. They don’t need to be as skilled as SUNation, but our business has shifted from approximately 80% residential and 20% commercial to about 60% residential and 30% commercial, with service increasing from 2% to 7%. These shifts provide us with significant growth opportunities.

James Brennan, CFO

Justin, I would add that we have a pretty defined target acquisition profile. Typically, we're looking for businesses that are north of $20 million in revenue, and we purposely do that so that the business has some sort of workflow process flow. It's not a Chuck in the Truck kind of operation. They've gone through some serious hurdles; they already have all the licenses and everything they need. We like all of them to be EBITDA positive. Right now, we're not looking for any rehab projects, and although we have the skill set in-house to fix those, as we've proven over the last year of restructuring SUNation Energy, that's not what we're looking for right now. So, all projects will have to be accretive. We also like, as Scott just mentioned, when companies have multiple revenue streams, because at one point throughout the year, residential could be slower, commercial could be higher, or vice versa, depending on the workflow of that business or the project flow of the big commercial projects especially. We like when companies have put some attention and devotion into service work because we think that's a huge opportunity with the likes of SunPower and Sunnova trending south, and there's an opportunity there to pick up tens of thousands of service projects. We also look for companies that have great reviews. The reason we do that is that those that have great reviews tend to have the lowest cost of brand new lead acquisition.

Scott Maskin, CEO

And here's what we won't do: it is inconsistent for SUNation to go and acquire a company and jam the way we do things down their throat in their region. These are all people that have invested in the communities, have large referral rates and so on. The last thing we want to do is upend the company. We just want to add value. All right, does that answer that question?

Justin Clare, Analyst

Yeah. No, that's really helpful. I appreciate that. And then just one more I have here. I wanted to touch on tariffs. And I know tariffs have been lowered here to a large extent, but I'm wondering how that might be affecting your business. I think right now tariffs on batteries might be affecting things there more so than for solar. So, just wondering what your exposure is and what you're seeing at this point?

Scott Maskin, CEO

Yeah. We're pretty strategic about working with our commercial developers. Many of these guys supply their own equipment for us to build. We're fine with that. We did see a little surge when the administration hit Canada. A lot of the racking that we get for some of the commercial projects got slapped, and we have a pass-through on that kind of thing. What we're not going to do is try to put margin on top of these things. I think it's short-term. On the residential side, I'll just tell you a quick story. One of the battery manufacturers that we use in Hawaii was like, 'The sky is falling.' It's pretty obvious what I'm talking about. Franklin was the battery manufacturer; I love the product and the CEO, that's what they use, great. But with the tariffs, it felt like we wouldn't be able to sell it. A month later, it changed. Franklin is going to absorb the minimal few percent that the tariff involved. I think that it's consistent. We've seen that the administration throws the guillotine all the way to one side and then reasonably comes back to center to get their way. So, we're not exposed right now. We're prepared for it, but it's sort of a wait and see, not a panic. And like I said before, our industry was prepared to go from 30% to 25% to 22%. So, we're cautiously optimistic, taking it a day at a time and watching the trends, but we're not in panic mode at all.

James Brennan, CFO

The percentage references that Scott just shared of 30% to 25% to 22% is when Trump was in office the first time.

Justin Clare, Analyst

I see. Okay. All right. I appreciate the time. Thank you.

Scott Maskin, CEO

Thanks, man. Appreciate you.

James Brennan, CFO

Justin, thanks for jumping on so early.

Scott Maskin, CEO

Who's next?

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of an indiscernible speaker. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

Hey, Scott. How are you doing? I appreciate being open and taking the questions. I just have a question as far as Bitcoin. I know you guys have made reference to that in the past. I'm trying to see where you guys stand on that now.

Scott Maskin, CEO

Yeah.

James Brennan, CFO

So, we adopted a bitcoin treasury strategy a few months ago, and the definition of that in that announcement was a certain percentage of our excess cash would be put into bitcoin. We've actually set up the brokerage accounts to do all that, but right now, we don't have what we would define as excess cash, which is six months of forward cash flow needed to run the business to do it today. As the year progresses, perhaps that stance will change. Q1 is typically a cash drain on the business, and then Q2, Q3, and Q4 are when we stockpile cash throughout the year, much better cash throughout the year. We typically end the year on a cash-positive basis, so perhaps at the end of the year, I'll have what we would define as excess cash to put into bitcoin. We like that strategy. Thanks for bringing it up.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks for answering that question. Thanks.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mark Lacy, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst, Analyst

Good morning. I appreciate your comments at the end. They provided the insight I was seeking about your company. I suggest you consider putting those comments in writing, perhaps as an executive letter, even though I know you released something a couple of months ago. I was very impressed with the call today, and that’s all I wanted to say. All my questions have been addressed.

Scott Maskin, CEO

I appreciate that, man. Again, we work hard every day. I have pretty thick skin. I make myself available to every shareholder, every employee. I always say, you may not like the answers, but you're going to get honesty and transparency. I'm just looking to go to work every day and build this thing back up, and it's important. Thank you for the positive mojo. You made my Friday, my friend.

James Brennan, CFO

Thank you, Mark. Those were very kind of you.

Operator, Operator

That's all the question I have, and we appreciate your participation. I will now turn the call over to Scott Maskin, CEO of SUNation Energy. Please go ahead.

Scott Maskin, CEO

Hey, thank you, everybody, for the call and for giving me some of your time on Friday. As I said, we're going to work hard every day as we do. We're very accessible, very transparent. I really, really think that the work we've done this year is mind-blowing, and I'm looking forward. I'm really energized because I think the market is right for us to really, really explode. I know people may think that these are the toughest times. My father gave me some advice when I was a kid: there are two types of people. When a house is on fire, there are people that stand on the sidewalk and talk and take pictures, and then there are people that run into the fire and help. That's the kind of people that we are. So, I hope I've earned your confidence, and thank you for your time today.

Operator, Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.