Earnings Call Transcript - WBX Q3 2024

Michael Wilhelm, Moderator

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Wallbox’s Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Charlie, and I will be coordinating today’s call. I’d now like to turn the call over to Michael Wilhelm from Wallbox. Michael, please go ahead. Thank you, Charlie, and good morning and good afternoon to everyone listening in. Thank you for joining today’s webcast to discuss Wallbox third quarter 2024 results. This event is being broadcast over the web and can be accessed from the Investors section of our website at investors.wallbox.com. I’m joined today by Enric Asuncion, Wallbox’s CEO; and Luis Boada, Wallbox’s CFO. Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing results from the third quarter ended September 30, 2024, which can also be found on our website. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made on today’s call are forward-looking and may be subject to risks and uncertainties relating to future events and/or the future financial performance of the company. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated. The risk factors that may affect results are detailed in the company’s most recent public filings with the SEC, including the annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, filed on March 21, 2024. We will be presenting unaudited financial statements in IFRS format that reflect management’s best assessment of actual results. Also, please note that we use certain non-IFRS financial measures on this call, and reconciliations of these measures are included in the presentation posted on the Investors section of our website. A copy of these prepared remarks can be obtained from the Investor Relations website under the quarterly results section, so you can more easily follow along with us today. So with that out of the way, I will turn it over to Enric.

Enric Asuncion, CEO

Thank you, Michael, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Before we discuss the highlights of the third quarter 2024, I would like to take the time to put in perspective where Wallbox is today in light of the current EV market sentiment, especially in Europe. Year-to-date, up until the end of the third quarter, we had revenue of €126 million, which reflects a 26% growth compared to the same timeframe last year. If we look at the EV market in the main regions we operate in, Europe, North America, and the rest of the world, we have outgrown the market significantly as the EV market year-to-date only grew 3% year-over-year. In the same period, we have reduced labor costs and operating expenses by 14% and capital expenditure spending by 48%, even after incorporating the ABL, clearly reflecting how we are improving our efficiency while continuing to grow and develop our products. We are a global leader in electric vehicle charging and energy management solutions. We have sold over 1 million chargers in more than 100 countries, and we believe that we continue to play a key role in the transition towards electric mobility. It is clear that this transition is happening, but it is going through a much slower cycle toward mass adoption, and this is impacting the entire industry, including our competitors. We continue to work hard to adapt to the continuously changing factors ranging from regulations, subsidies, new technologies, EV market, customer preferences, product requirements, the macro environment, and more. This volatility on our way to becoming leaders in a more mature industry is a fact and it impacts our results. We have already been doing a lot in the last two years, but I would like to share with you the key initiatives we are working on to remain agile against this market backdrop and how we plan to thrive. First, we have adjusted our organizational structure to be business unit-driven. The core business units are common business and fast charging, including software solutions and manufacturing. Each business unit has different kinds of customers, requires different kinds of support, and has different sales cycles. With this new structure, we create a more effective approach to each segment we operate in, allowing us to unlock the full potential of our solutions, shape a more focused customer experience, align resources more efficiently, and solidify our path to profitability. Second, we continue to optimize the organization according to the current market environment as we look to 2025. This means creating visibility on the top line, which we have been improving by doing detailed analysis of our sell-in versus sell-out data, speaking with our key customers, and strengthening our pipeline. Based on this demand, we are matching the cost base of the organization to support our path to profitability and cash generation. The aforementioned business unit structure will play an important role here where dedicated focus will help identify the best and most efficient way to serve a particular segment. Third, we have clear action plans to improve our gross margin across all our product groups. Due to our efforts to increase visibility, we believe we are in a better position to optimize our procurement process and manage our inventory levels. There is a detailed bill of materials analysis underway to further identify cost reduction opportunities, and we are in the late stage of entering into strategic partnership agreements with industrial partners to improve our sourcing. Lastly, on top of the revenue we have visibility on with our plans to further expand our sales with an improved commercial strategy and introduction of new products. As the EV market is developing differently region by region, country by country, and segment by segment, we are realigning our commercial strategy to ensure we optimize our sales channels and best capitalize on the opportunities in the market. Besides, we aim to drive revenue by continuously innovating our existing product portfolio and with the commercialization of new products. Examples of new products that are expected to come into commercialization soon include the Quasar 2 and the Eichrecht certified Supernova 220. Both segments, bidirectional charging and public DC fast charging in Germany, open up new markets in which we didn’t operate previously or only limitedly. In Germany alone, promotion projects expect more than 150,000 public DC chargers to be installed between 2025 and 2035. Now we will go into the highlights of the third quarter and share our perspective on the market. Afterwards, Luis will offer a closer look at our financial results and our key financial metrics. Finally, I will conclude the conversation and provide Q4 guidance. Q3 revenue was €34.7 million, up 7% year-over-year driven by strong AC sales in North America, but impacted by a softer market in Europe for all product categories and due to a one-off revenue charge of €1.6 million from a return related to a historical bill and hold agreement with a specific customer. We are excited about our growth in North America. The European market growth was subdued to everyone’s expectation, and this impacted our results. For European DC, we now see a similar trend as we previously saw in AC, where our CPO customers have been building up inventory as their focus has shifted from a highly accelerated roll-out towards profitability. In North America, the demand for the Supernova 108 remains steady as we continue to ramp up sales efforts and add new partners. As we are starting from a smaller base in DC than many of our competitors, we see ample opportunity to grow as we mature our position in the market. In total, during the third quarter, we delivered more than 38,000 AC units globally and 169 units of DC during the period. Gross margin was 23% in the third quarter, heavily impacted by one-off inventory provisions as we continue to develop and improve our different product families; certain components become obsolete or much slower to sell, so we choose to provision them, setting the business on the right footing for future success. It is important to highlight that this is not a cash out. Excluding this impact, the gross margin was higher and closer to historical results. We keep pushing for unmatched product quality and operational excellence to create gross margins in the range of 38% to 40%. Luis will provide more detail on gross margins shortly. On a consolidated group level in Q3 2024, we saw a slight year-over-year reduction in labor costs and operating expenses, down 2%, continuing the trend in cost reduction. Again, it is important to remember that we were able to achieve these cost reductions despite ABL’s contribution to our cost base. We see additional opportunities to review our cost base as we continue to optimize operations across the group and leverage synergies. The third quarter adjusted EBITDA loss landed at €21.8 million. This quarter broke the improvement trend seen in the last quarter due to the inventory provision. We see this as a one-off quarter with a unique sales adjustment and inventory provision on our path to making the business profitable. For future quarters, we expect to resume top line and, most importantly, significant margin accretion. There continues to be progress with new products, new commercial efforts, cost reductions, and gross margin improvements which are not yet reflected in the numbers we report today but which we expect to benefit from in the near term. For the third quarter 2024, Europe contributed €22.9 million of consolidated revenue or 66% of total revenue and grew modestly with 1% from the year-ago period. Compared to a 13% decline of the EV market in Europe, this was significantly better. North America continues to show strong progress with 45% year-over-year growth. While the EV market in the region grew by 4% and contributed €9.7 million or 28% of total revenue. We are excited to see our progress in this region and how we are leveraging our complete portfolio in home, business, and fast charging, which we now have in place. APAC contributed €1.2 million or 4%, and LatAm was approximately €800,000 or 2%. We see clearly an increase in our relative exposure to the U.S. versus Europe as we further diversify our global geographical footprint. AC sales of €23.7 million, including ABL, represented approximately 68% of our total consolidated revenue. The AC portfolio remains the most important revenue-weight category for Wallbox, containing both the Home and Business segments. We start at home, and we continue to leverage our strong position in this segment, as announced partnerships are starting to pay off. One exciting new partnership is with Engie, as Wallbox has been chosen as the only recharger provider for their new EV charging offer, My Smart Charge. In France, specific regulations require chargers to have an integrated connector without a cable, and this makes Wallbox Pulsar Plus socket the perfect solution for our partners. This is another example of how our broad product portfolio is allowing us to capture opportunities in different markets. In parallel, Wallbox is making quick ground in the business segment with eM4 and Pulsar Pro. We are signing up new distributors and leveraging existing partners with the aim to optimize the cross-selling opportunities in our sales network. DC sales were €4.4 million, representing 13% of the revenue in the third quarter, and was impacted by an expected order delay by a customer due to excess inventories. In the DC segment, the sales cycles are longer and therefore can create volatility between strong quarters and slower quarters. As I mentioned, we see the charge point operators currently focused on profitability and network utilization much more than expanding the network by reach or by ports deployed. This means that charge point operators are working through existing charger inventories and ordering less frequently. However, we continue signing up new customers and expanding our customer base in operations. Software, services, and others contributed €6.6 million for the third quarter, representing 19% of our total revenue. These activities continue to be solid compared to last quarter, with Electromaps, our public software activities, showing 55% quarter-over-quarter growth. If we exclude the inventory provision impact mentioned before, the gross margin on a product level was solid. We also see opportunities to improve as we introduce new cost-out versions of our products. With the focus on quality, reducing our bill of materials costs, and leveraging our strategic partners to improve our procurement process, we see upside to the 38-40% gross margin target in the future. We believe this improvement will be accentuated further when the market demands larger volumes. Last earnings call, we mentioned that we remain positive on our long-term growth and the future potential of the EV market, which we continue to do so. However, it is clear that the transition to EVs will take longer than everyone expected and that current growth is slowing. As reported by Rho Motion in the third quarter, there were 1.47 million EVs sold in our core markets, which are North America, Europe, and the Rest of the World. If we compare this with the same period last year, this represents a 2% decrease in those markets combined. Our long-term view on EV transition and the opportunity that comes with it remains solid, and we are more optimistic as we enter 2025. Hundreds of billions have been invested by car manufacturers. New, more affordable EV models are being introduced. Charging infrastructure continues to be installed, and in the EU, new regulations come into effect. We have a diversified position, both geographically and commercially, making us less vulnerable to local or regional volatility. At the same time, we see that competition without a similar diversified position and scale is struggling, increasing our market share and creating more opportunities for us. We believe that we are only at the beginning of the adoption curve. In the meantime, we will continue to focus on what we can control. There are clear headwinds in the industry, but we are focused on maximizing our growth and achieving long-term profitability. Luis, I’ll turn it over to you to comment further on our financial details.

Luis Boada, CFO

Thank you, Enric. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone. Our third quarter results are not as we expected but have also been impacted by unique factors. The revenue for the quarter was €34.7 million, representing a 7% year-over-year growth. We continue to grow in North America and other selected markets, but we saw this growth offset by a softer market in Europe in both AC and DC. Besides the aforementioned, we have recorded a one-off revenue charge of €1.6 million due to a return with one specific customer. Absent this impact, we would have had double-digit growth year-over-year. With 23%, the gross margin is lower than expected. This has to do with the provision Enric talked about before, which we decided to introduce after a careful review of our inventory. We keep developing and improving our products to match new requirements and service new charging segments. As a result, some components acquired at the peak of the supply chain shortage post-COVID era are at risk of not being used in the new versions of our products. The additional inventory provision amount for the quarter is €4 million. This is not a cash out nor a write-off yet. We see an opportunity to sell some of these components and recoup part of the initial investment. We do not expect material excess and obsolete provisions in quarters to come following the careful inventory review. As already highlighted by Enric, if we excluded this additional provision, the gross margin would have been closer to our target range. Q3 labor costs and operating expenses were down 2% year-on-year. Costs are decreasing despite the ABL acquisition, which joined Wallbox's perimeter in Q4 of 2023. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA loss for the quarter was €21.8 million. Absent the aforementioned provision, we would have sustained the general sequential adjusted EBITDA improvement as the core gross margins remain intact, and we continue to reduce costs. Profitability and cash generation remain our top priorities. We ended the quarter with approximately €71 million of cash, cash equivalents, and financial instruments. Long-term debt was approximately €84 million at the end of the quarter. The last few years, we have been investing in making ourselves future-proof. We have a complete product portfolio to cover markets globally and state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities with plentiful capacity. Considering our existing capabilities to facilitate future growth, CapEx excluding capitalized R&D, once again purposely very light, with €1.7 million spent in the third quarter. This represents a 60% decrease compared to the same period last year. In Q3, approximately €340,000 was spent on Property, Plant, and Equipment. We are expecting less than €10 million of investment for the full year. We continue to reduce our inventory, and our goal is to keep bringing inventory down in quarters to come. This quarter was significantly impacted by the inventory provision discussed earlier. Inventory totaled €76.5 million, which is a 10% reduction sequentially. With all the efforts we talked about today, we set Wallbox for success and in a strong position despite the market backdrop. The goal is to align the cost structure to the current demand, and we can do that from a position of strength with sufficient cash balance. As part of the continuous optimization efforts, it is key that we focus on our core activities, and therefore, we are also reviewing strategic alternatives for non-core assets to conserve cash. As CFO, I’m 100% focused on getting the company to profitability and cash generation as soon as possible. Enric, I’ll turn it back to you to provide some closing commentary.

Enric Asuncion, CEO

Thank you, Luis. Before I share with you my closing thoughts and our expectations for the fourth quarter, earlier today, we announced the resignation of Anders Petterson as Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors and the appointment of Beatriz Gonzalez as his replacement. We would like to thank Anders for all his contributions and congratulate Beatriz on her new role. Now, I would like to leave you with the following: it is clear that the current EV market is volatile, and that this is impacting our performance. We understand that in these times, visibility on the longevity of the company is key. For that reason, we shared with you today the key initiatives allowing us to continue building out our leadership position in a sustainable way. We have been executing strategic initiatives in the past quarter, which include expanding into new countries and segments, securing new strategic partnerships, reducing costs, and strengthening our balance sheet. As part of our initial efforts, we are now adjusting the organizational structure into a business unit-driven model to better align resources with our product portfolio, improving visibility on top-line growth, identifying opportunities to expand gross margins, and continuing to drive sales. The main objective is to match the cost structure with the current demand to drive our path to profitability and cash generation. We are in a multi-decade transition, and we are laying the foundation right now. We are executing well. We have a leading position, and we are building a company that is being set up for success. From that perspective, we want to provide guidance on what we expect for the fourth quarter. Revenue is expected to be in the €40 million to €45 million range, representing an approximate year-over-year growth rate between 23% and 38%. Gross margin is expected to return to the 38% to 40% range. Combined with continued improvement in costs, expecting negative adjusted EBITDA between €7 million and €10 million. With that, we are ready to take questions from our analysts.

Operator, Operator

Our first question comes from George Gianarikas of Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open. Please proceed with your question.

George Gianarikas, Analyst

Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. I would just like to start from a – I know visibility is fairly limited and you have articulated measures through what you plan to reorganize and cut costs. But I would just like – if you could help us understand a little bit about when you hope to get back to sort of – or get to an EBITDA flat to positive situation, and if you could tie that in with your plans around strengthening the balance sheet to give the company runway to capture the future growth in electric vehicles? Thank you.

Enric Asuncion, CEO

Thank you for the question. This is Enric. So, I think the key and what we are trying to achieve, as I said before, is obviously profitability and cash generation. The good news is that we are growing in key markets like North America, where we are growing 45% year-over-year. But in other markets like Europe, we see a volatile market. Last quarter, we saw a 13% decrease in the EV market. Despite that, we were able to grow, which I think is very important. It shows that we are constantly increasing our market share, which is what we want to achieve at this moment. Our approach now is instead of thinking that we will catch up with revenue, we believe that revenue will grow and we will be able to continue capturing more market and more growth. Any time a company and our competition struggles, it's more market share that we get; it's more sales we achieve. We are focusing on adapting our structure to the revenue we are seeing now for the next quarter, which is €40 million to €45 million, and the historical revenue we have been experiencing. Obviously, we see an upside, but the key is that we will be profitable when we achieve this. It should not take us more than two or three quarters to align the cost structure with the current revenue. We expect 2025 to be a profitable year.

George Gianarikas, Analyst

I think you mentioned that there may be some inventory on the DC side. But what about AC, I mean that’s been a pesky issue that you have had for several quarters. Is there still inventory in your opinion in the European theater? And I think that in the U.S. market, you are growing inventory through your Generac channel. It’s a bunch of questions, but am I accurate? Is there any inventory left in Europe?

Enric Asuncion, CEO

No, I don’t think so. I don’t think in AC there is an inventory issue right now. The clear proof of that is that we are over-performing in every country and segment compared to the EV market growth. We do not see any inventory challenge. In North America, we are increasing orders with new customers and partners. Generac has become one of our top five customers in North America and one of the top in the world. We are seeing notable sell-out from Generac, but they have also been selling to their dealers, which creates some inventory there. However, Generac is ensuring they don’t maintain too much inventory. Our broad product portfolio is allowing us to capture opportunities in different markets. We continue our strong sales efforts and partnerships, and we see significant opportunities to reduce costs and improve margins.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Ben Kallo of Baird. Ben, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Ben Kallo, Analyst

Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Good day, guys. Just maybe following up on George’s question, could you talk about your expectations on EV sales across different regions for next year and maybe 2026 and anything you see that could reignite demand for EVs? And then I have a couple of follow-ups.

Enric Asuncion, CEO

Thank you for the question. When we look at different sources in the different markets, we expect growth everywhere in North America and Europe. Europe is expected to be fueled by new regulations on emissions for fleets. There is a lot of discussion right now about whether these regulations will come into effect or not. We believe they will come regardless, and we expect car manufacturers in Europe to prepare for that. We see a delay in the push for EV sales for the end of this year and expect a stronger first half of next year. We expect a strong first half due to new models being introduced and changes in regulations. Our forecast right now indicates growth, especially in the first half of next year in Europe and North America, potentially above 10% to 15% growth for the EV market. However, we are preparing for a flat market to ensure we remain profitable.

Ben Kallo, Analyst

Thank you. Just on the point of your manufacturing footprint, could you talk about both a geographic standpoint and if it still makes sense to have manufacturing in the U.S. as well as Europe? Any thoughts on moving to more of an outsourced manufacturing model?

Enric Asuncion, CEO

This is an interesting topic, especially with the business units. We believe that having our own supply chain still gives us an advantage. We see North America as a key growth vector and believe having our own manufacturing capacity there is crucial. There might be regulatory changes giving us an advantage as a North American manufacturer. We want to maintain facilities in North America and Barcelona. Outsourcing manufacturing will depend on cost and profitability. We see advantages in controlling our supply chain to achieve our margin improvement goals.

Luis Boada, CFO

The only thing I would like to add is that we have already incurred that capital expenditure. So, when you look at our footprint, we are ready for the growth to come. It’s not coming in the short term. As Enric mentioned, we expect a flattish EV market for now. When that growth comes, we already have those facilities and products. We are in a very strong position to capture the growth when it comes.

Michael Wilhelm, Moderator

Okay. That was our last question. Thank you all for joining us today. We hope you found today’s call a good use of your time. Let us know if we can help you in any way.

Operator, Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.