For joining this special ClearVue Shareholder Q&A. I will be your moderator for today. I am Lisa Dreher, and I am excited to introduce our CEO and Managing Director, Doug Hunt. Welcome to the Q&A session, Doug.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining.
For those of you attending online on LinkedIn or YouTube, you can use the chat or comments function in order to add questions to our queue. We have a long list of questions that have come in already, so we will go ahead and get started with those straight off the bat. The one question that's come in, probably more than any other, is we're going to start with this one question, and that is, when will we see more revenue? You've shared an update about a big pipeline, but when will this turn into sales?
Sorry, guys, I'm just looking at my other screen. Yes, we've got a big pipeline. In fact, the pipeline's increased substantially over the last three or four months, as we mentioned in our announcement. It is important to understand that building business takes a long time, and there's very little you can do about that. Buildings need to be engineered. They do not fall down, they do not catch fire, they do not do all these things because there's a lot of engineering inside. However, having said that, we got our certifications, as everybody knows, I guess, in July before last. There are a number of projects we've been working on for well over a year. I believe that 2026 is going to be the year that we're going to see ClearVue really take the first significant steps to commercialization.
I think we have not got too much longer to wait. I think that the number of projects we have got and the sort of timelines in those projects are telling me that 2026, we should see some substantial revenue. Everything being well, we do not have too many delays. We do not have any delays in development applications and all these other things. I think now we are certainly, without question, in the best position we have ever been going into a year. Many, many jobs we have already done 12 or 18 months' work on. I think you will start to see those crystallize. Not too much more patience required, I do not think.
Okay, great. Moving on to our next question, that is, what development or milestone in the past six months makes you most confident ClearVue is on the cusp of commercial scale?
I think there's a few of those. I think that it's basically tenets of business, right? If you have the best product on the market and you can sell that product at a competitive price, then this is going to work. I think if I look at the particular milestones, version three was clearly a big leap. The reduction in the cost and the increase in the power makes the particular Vision Glass product we're talking about much more saleable, reduces the payback, maybe the payback is sort of like 25% or 30% of what it was before. This is significant. Also, the ability to be able to coat the windows so it matches the reflective finishes that we all see on high-rise buildings.
This is a very important milestone because, as we know from our other products and as part of our strategy has been to make BIPV disappear in a building, this is very important for the Vision Glass segment. In fact, those of you that are coming to the AGM in person, there will be some samples. We will be able to see a version three window that has the coatings applied. I think when you see that, I think that'll be pretty impressive. In terms of other products, the development of the ClearVue Double Glazed Spandrel Power Pass-Through is another big one. The development of the junction boxes is a big one, which they're now in testing, by the way. We are only a few months away from having those certified.
The last product, of course, which we mentioned in our investor presentation, we did not give a lot of detail on, is hopefully we will have the world's first one-hour fire solar panel. What does that actually mean? At the moment, if you Google BIPV and you have a look at how it is deployed, what you will often see is that the BIPV is deployed on a concrete wall. In a tower, this concrete wall is doing the job of being the one-hour fire barrier. If we can pass this next lot of testing, we should be able to have this product certified in Q1. Once we do that, we will have the only product in the world that can be the wall.
This is quite a big difference in the way the building will be constructed and, of course, making it much, much cheaper to put BIPV on a building. It will be a world-first product, and I do not know of anyone who is even close to developing this other than us. I think all of these things in total are just going to the same place of removing the barriers a bit to BIPV and improving the commercial payback on all of our products.
Great. Thank you. Okay. The next question is, is there anything in the current commercial pipeline, deals, pilots, partnerships that you believe the market has significantly undervalued or misunderstood?
I think that one of the difficulties in communicating the worth of this company, I suppose, is the level of technical detail that you need to go into to explain why our products have a competitive advantage. That is always a challenge. When we are pitching the product, the more qualified the people we pitch to, the more engineers are in the room, the more building people are in the room, the easier it is for us. I think that there are many things in the current pipeline that the market undervalues. I guess part of that is due to the history, I guess. I think that both in terms of product and both in terms of commercial potential, our company is not being valued correctly by the market as we stand today.
Okay, great. There are several questions that have come in regarding the pipeline. With this, we'll talk about a particular question that came in, and that was, you've said incoming demand is strong. Can you describe how the profile of the customers you're dealing with today compares to the customers from a year ago? Your recent announcement suggests the pipeline is becoming quite impressive. Without going into specifics, can you give a sense for the types, size, scale of these projects, and the product mix currently requested in these projects?
Okay, let me think about it for a second. I think the demand definitely is strong. There's no doubt about that. Whether I would say there's been a difference in the quality of the customer, I would say in the last 12 to 18 months, we've had very high-quality customers and/or partners in delivering a project. Some of the biggest facade companies in the world and working with some of the larger building companies in the world. I think that this is just getting better and better. Major industry players are talking to us today that I don't think we would have been able to talk to a year ago. I think that as we go along and as we continue to expand the pipeline, the projects that are coming, we should see that being quite evident.
I mean, in the pipeline, of course, there's a mixture of projects. Some are quite small, sort of like 50-100 panels type thing, and some are very large. I think our largest one in the pipe at the moment is somewhere between AUD 8 million and AUD 10 million. There's a wide mixture. In terms of the products quoted, we've got a number of projects where we're quoting the entire suite of a product on a build to do an entire building, every surface. I would say probably if I was probably going to—I have never actually done that analysis because to me, they're all our products and they all have a particular ClearVue source that makes that product better. I would think that the cladding is the most quoted product, would be my guess.
The other product that's quite popular is the balustrade glazing. Really, on most projects, we are quoting more than one product. Sometimes it's roof light and balustrade. Other times it's cladding and balustrade for residential projects. Normally there's a mix because in alternative energy, it's always about the combination of things. There's no product in the world at the moment that by itself is going to do what we need it to do. Typically, the solution is a combination of products, and that really does deliver very large percentages of the building's power demand and stuff for the client. I think as we sort of grow up over the next 12 months, we'll see more and more where we are looking at doing every surface.
Okay. What is the single biggest bottleneck stopping ClearVue from scaling right now? Is it manufacturing capacity, certifications, installation partners, or customer acquisition? What specific actions are you taking in the next 90 days to remove that bottleneck?
I would say that in this area, that's a pretty good question, really, I guess. I guess let's just go through them one at a time. Manufacturing capacity, we have significant manufacturing capacity. We can produce in total of all the product range, something in the order of 90,000 sq m a month. This is definitely not a bottleneck. In terms of certification, we have a lot of stuff going into certification now, including version three. Even then, I don't think that's a bottleneck in terms of receiving orders because the lead time in construction projects is usually long. If we were even to get an order tomorrow morning for something that isn't certified yet, the reality is that by the time we were shipping that product, we would have enough time to get it certified.
I don't really think that that is a barrier. Particularly given that in the two major products we're certifying at the moment, which would be version three and the junction boxes, the junction boxes we designed and engineered along with the certification authority. There's very little risk in that certification because we've engineered it with their help. In the V3 certification, because we're using the same core technology that we used in version two for the seal pass-through and stuff, this is also a very low-risk certification. I don't think that that's really a barrier to where we are now. Installation partners, you will see—we have installation partners already in Hong Kong and Australia, but you will see this area of the business expand. That is roughly it.
This is maybe a—so when we are doing a building, of course, the building already has its own master contractor. I would say there's probably 70% of the time the building's master electrical contractor wants to do the electrical install. About 30% of the time, we need to provide an install option. We will definitely be expanding our install partner network, particularly in the Middle East. Also in Australia, I think we'll add a couple more installer partners in the near future. While I don't think that's a barrier for us at the moment, we will need to take action and make sure we expand on that base to make sure it doesn't become a barrier in the future.
You will start to see some preferred installer agreements coming out in all of the markets that we've recently entered, particularly New Zealand, South Korea, and the Middle East.
Great. Marketing has been.
Have I answered all that yet, did I? Oh, customer acquisition. Customer acquisition, I think it's important everybody understands this. Our customer acquisition, that isn't really a problem for us either for the moment. It would be nice to have more, of course, because the more we have in the beginning of the pipe, the more is going to materialize later. For the moment, we're taking actions to be able to handle the level of inquiry that we've got now. This is the reason we decided to make the bid team in Manila. This is not a five-minute job. We've already interviewed the staff, and there's a short list. I probably will go to Manila sometime in December to do the final interviews myself because I think these people will be key to us going forward.
I think there's a lot of validation in our Manila strategy because many of our partners, including Airbus and Alutech, operate large engineering centers in Manila. This is because we can get very good education, good English language skills, and a high level of technical skill for a price that we can afford. We could not afford to do this in Australia and wait for the revenue to come. This, from a value-for-money perspective and a customer service perspective, I think will help us a lot. I fully expect that in building, normally from mid-December to the end of January, not much happens, particularly in Australia. This will be a time for us to employ these people and train them and to get them to the point where they can do our proposals and add some expertise that we currently don't have.
On our shopping list in the Philippines is a facade engineer, an electrical engineer, another couple of architectural people. I'm thinking we're going to have four or five to start, and this will give us a lot more bandwidth to be able to improve our proposal preparation time. There are many, many proposals that are coming, and we already know we have a lot more next year. I think we've done six or seven for Colliers so far. We're going to have the Cebu ones coming. As we bring our new licenses online, these will also bring more proposals. I think we have to be able to employ these people. I would say the answer to the, if there's any bottleneck, that would be it. Going back to my prior comment, once we start this proposal process, the pathway is typically pretty long.
If we can put enough, for want of a better term, meat in the front of the sausage machine, in the end, the sausages are going to come out the other end. That is what I think our strategy is for the next few months.
Okay, great. Next question. Marketing has been a long-standing issue for shareholders that they continue to raise with material feeling often uninspiring, substandard in quality, and inconsistent in frequency. This is damaging the brand and unfairly diminishes the perceived value of the product in the market. How do you plan to immediately build a polished professional marketing capability that shareholders can be proud of, that properly promotes the product to the world and is sufficiently resourced to support meaningful commercial growth?
Okay, so there's a few points in that, I suppose. Number one, before we finished our most recent capital raise, we didn't really have any spare money to be throwing at Lisa and her team. We've already done a revamp of the website, a minor one, but you can expect to see a completely new website by the end of quarter one next year. We haven't been sort of super focused on customer acquisition, basically because we've really been struggling over the last month and a half to handle the inquiry level that we've been receiving anyway.
The other point I think is that as we bring our partners online, particularly these new ones that we've signed in the last three or four months, as we bring our partners online, we will be throwing some money at cooperative marketing with those guys to make our dollar go a little bit further. I think our strategy will be that we probably want to be a little bit steady, steady until our new website is ready, ideally once our new website is launched. I think when you guys as shareholders see the new website launch, you'll understand exactly what I mean. It's difficult to explain, I suppose, but our website is lacking in many areas compared to our competitors, and we're going to fix that.
Once we have that, it'll be worth, I think, starting to kick the marketing money out to drive traffic to that website. I think our strategy will be to be able to sort of two or three X our marketing spend with our partners to get better traction. You guys can look forward to seeing the beginning of that, perhaps starting at the end of February.
Okay, great. When can shareholders realistically expect ClearVue to deliver consistent quarterly revenue above $1 million and what operational milestones need to occur between now and then?
I think the shareholders can look forward to consistent revenue next year. I do not know whether it will be quarter two or quarter three, but I believe that we will start to see some consistent revenue next year. I think maybe that number should be above $1 million a quarter, really. Operationally, it is not really operational milestones. What it is, is working with our clients. At the moment, a typical process for us is first we meet the architect, then everything going well, we get specced on a building. That means that all the contractors that are quoting to build that building come to us for a proposal, for the cost proposal to include in their quote. We have a number of projects in that position at the moment for next year. It is more about going through the process.
We are a building material, and we're a new building material. We're a building material that the market only partially understands for the moment. Part of our sales process is really education. How do we wire it? How does it fit into normal construction methodology? Most importantly, how do we pass the fire engineering of a building? We've got several projects that we've passed that hurdle on now that hopefully will crystallize next year. It's just a question of the process. Operationally, we have set the company up, I think, for success. We have very strong OEM manufacturer. We have high quality. We have a competitive advantage against every other product in the world, typically, either being deployment or quality of silicon or warranty or better design of our panels, better fire certifications even today. There is not really an operational barrier.
What the barrier is, is that we just have to go through the process. We just have to do what we need to do to get our stuff on a building. I wish there was a simpler answer, but this is not like sort of selling Girl Guide cookies, and it is not like even selling big capital goods. If you were selling a dump truck to a mine, that might be $250,000. The dump truck is already made. It is already all certified. You can drive out there and give the guy another $20,000 off to try and get an order. That is not how our business works. How our business works is that first we have to cover off all of the engineering.
We've got to cover off why the wheels won't fall off in the dump truck example, why it's going to last for 30 years, why it's going to be okay if the building catches fire, how the power will be distributed, how do we do the reporting. All of these things are stuff we have to carry off. I know it can be frustrating, and I know that I feel anyway that certainly in the past, there was some stuff said that was maybe a little aggressive on timing and stuff. Today, we are working with some of the biggest players in the industry, and we're on projects, and we're doing all this work, and it will come to fruition. Just a matter of time.
Okay, great. Thank you. The company has never disclosed a board skills matrix, but it is clear that there are still gaps in the board's overall skill set and effectiveness. How do you plan to strengthen the board to ensure it has the right mix of capabilities to add value and support the company's next stage of growth? Of course, without disclosing specific details, what key skills are you looking to add and when do you expect the board renewal process will be complete?
I think the most important thing is to add industry people, and we started that with the recent appointment of Mr. Xi, who is a globally recognized solar engineer. In the next two or three months, you should see two more industry appointments from the building construction industry, and I'm hoping that these guys will improve our credibility in the market for the building business and help us get more projects, not only in Australia but also in Asia. It's important to understand, I think, why I'm the subject of credibility. We have to build our credibility block by block. In the building industry, credibility is mission-critical.
If we do a project today, if we win a project today or one of the ones we've already won, so Tattersalls, for example, if we don't deliver that product in the right quality and on time, the cost of that to the client is many times the cost of our products themselves. All of the people can't work on a building site if we're waiting for materials. If the quality is bad and we have to replace them, that could be a three- or four-month delay. They're paying interest. They're paying all these costs. That is why credibility is so important, because when someone wants to put you on a building, we have to have that. They have to be able to believe that we're going to deliver quality products on time.
I think we've already evidenced this in the small number of projects we've done so far. Hundreds and Georges was delivered on time. The Nigerian project was delivered on time. Prefabulous was delivered on time. Tattersalls won't deploy until mid-next year, but we are on track to deliver that on time as well. All of these things are extremely important in terms of our industry credibility. As we move along and we get better and better and better, this will equate to more and more inquiry and more and more sales. As I said, it's a slow process, but part of the board structure should be to the board members we appoint. One of the reasons we should appoint them is to build our credibility. In terms of governance, I want to talk specifically on that.
We are actually going to have some director training next year and training for the next level down, all of our C-suite level employees on corporate governance. Now, as I've said before to a lot of you guys, I think my knowledge of public companies, you can write on the back of a patient stand with a texto, and that can't continue if I'm going to do a good job for you guys. Myself and a couple of the directors we're going to appoint next year, as well as some of our board members now, will all be doing director training next year, including the Australian Institute of Directors course. We'll be investing in our people and investing in ourselves time-wise to make sure that our governance program and that when we execute our responsibilities as a director, as we're supposed to do.
You can rest assured that there will be a little bit of investment there and a lot of investment of our personal time to get those qualifications locked away.
Excellent. Thank you. The 3 million director rights appear substantial, particularly given they were issued at a null cost or null cost to directors who have limited day-to-day operational output. Why not allocate the same amount through the recent capital raise to strengthen cash reserves and fund full-time resources in underperforming areas or alternatively direct performance shares toward employees who have a direct influence on the company's future through their day-to-day work?
Okay. I think one thing that we all need to remember is when we do these changes, it was not exactly without risk for people to become a director of this company. Now, it is probably, but back then it was not because we had not secured the capital that we needed, and that was some hard work. I would point out, and maybe some of those comments are valid, and certainly we will need an effective employee share program. There is no question about that. We did think about putting it in the current notice of meeting, but I do not think we were really ready, and we had not sort of polished the corners off. I think we will probably hold an EGM sometime in the first half next year once we have got that done.
It is worth saying that as far as the directors are concerned, these at least are alongside what I said in the webinar a long time ago where I said that any share option program, whether it be for the directors or for the staff, has to be linked to the share price. I think these options vest or these performance rights vest, excuse me, these performance rights vest, the first ones vest at AUD 0.30, which I think is roughly a third of it or 300,000 shares each for Theresa and Michael. They then vest at AUD 0.50, AUD 0.75, and AUD 1.00. The underlying thing is, I guess, that if their input helps us get to those share prices, I think this is something that is probably worthwhile for all of our stakeholders.
Because at the end of the day, with our current trading price, even AUD 0.30 is double where we are today. Now, as I said, I completely think that the company is massively undervalued at that. In the end, there is not a free lunch here. I think that if we can get to a dollar, these sort of share option numbers are probably not, to my mind anyway, at least not too unreasonable. As far as the ESOP is concerned, again, this ESOP will be completely transparent. Shareholders will need to vote on this. This is not something that we can decide as a board or that an ESOP has to be voted by the shareholders.
The principle of the ESOP basically is that we need to be able to attract the best talent, and we need to be able to reward the talent that we've got if they perform. In the end of the day, in a public company, performance is best measured by the share price. As I said before in the last webinar, any ESOP will be linked to the share price. If we're going to turn this company into a billion-dollar-plus entity, then we're going to need some good people. The right ESOP is important to be able to attract those resources and retain them. Anyway, this will be no doubt discussed at length next year as we ask you guys to approve it for us.
Hopefully, we'll be in a position to talk to all you guys about what we've got in mind before we hold an EGM next year.
Okay. Moving on. Could you please commit to a quarterly webinar and Q&A as it gives shareholders an important opportunity to hear progress directly from management?
I think we can do that. I think an appropriate time for that is probably about like we're doing now, I guess, maybe two or three weeks after each quarterly. I'd be happy to do that. If you guys want me to do that, I'm good with that. No problem.
Okay. Great. Where do you see the company in 12 months' time in terms of commercial traction and operational progress?
I see that the company is going to be in a different place by the end of 2026. There's just so much going on at the moment in so many ways, so much of acceptance of our products, so many people who are supporting us. I really think that next year is going to be our year. I believe if we're sitting down again at this time next year, the discussion and the questions will be somewhat different to what they are now, I believe.
Thank you. What is your view on why the share price has retraced so sharply, and what do you believe is needed to rebuild investor confidence?
I think there's a few elements to that. The first is, as much as when we did the raising, we tried very hard to take the best deal for shareholders and to get them some solution. I think we raised at one cent lower than the closing price, but of course, it was back with an option. Typically, once you've done a raise, the share price does take a bit of a beating to some number that's below the raising price. I think also there's been a bit of canvassing going on for this AGM, which I think has given us a little bit of instability, which I don't think has helped the share price. I think we are still pulling a bit of weight from last year. I guess what is really going to change the share price is performance.
I think you guys will see that performance is going to start to come in terms of sales in particular. I think any independent assessment of what we've achieved in the last three months, the number of announcements, the number of stuff, all the stuff that we've done, I think you'd have to say is a reasonable performance. We've still got a bit more to go before Christmas, hopefully. In the end, I think it's going to be the revenue generation. I mean, everybody asked me that question, and that's what everybody's waiting for. I think that in the coming months, you're going to see that. I think that will make a huge difference to the share price.
I think the one thing that I sort of struggle with a bit on the share price, and like I said, I do not know anything about public companies, so I am no expert on this. I think right now, our technology is also quite undervalued. I just came back from a trip to Europe and the Middle East, and I met with some of the world's largest glass companies, really big glass companies. One makes 600,000 sq m of float glass a day, for example. The reception for our product and our product engineering was really, really good. In fact, I have a follow-up meeting in Hong Kong with those guys in two weeks' time.
I think that because of it's very hard for me to explain it in simple terms, but what I can say is, engineering-wise, we have the best products in the world. I do think that that is being remarkably undervalued by the market for the moment. I guess that that is my problem for not communicating that well enough. What I can tell shareholders is that I have a program of shareholder engagement. We are not going to do investor relations as it was done in the past where we call people when we got money, when we need money. What we're trying to do now is to make it a professional program of engagement where we're out there talking to investors all the time. It's going to take me a little bit of time.
Most of our product presentations usually run for two and a half hours. There is a lot of data to transmit in these investor presentations. I am speaking at an investor conference in Sydney next week. I already have, I think, seven appointments to pitch funds where I can explain to them what the benefits of our technology are and why they should invest in ClearVue. What I can say about the share price is that we will always be in, from now on at least, we will be continually talking to funds and to people to promote the company and to promote our technology. I hope that that is going to assist to drive the share price.
Excellent. Okay. Moving on. You kind of went into this just a little bit already, but let's talk about some more. There appears to be a growing interest from Hong Kong and other parts of Asia. Could you shed more light on the opportunity in these regions, particularly given the scale of older buildings and the challenges they face in severe weather events such as typhoons? How is ClearVue positioning itself to meet these needs in high-density markets?
Asia is a very, I think, is a really interesting market for us, Hong Kong and Singapore in particular. Often, you guys will have seen us talk about buildings of 40% of the world's carbon emissions. In Singapore and Hong Kong, they're 66%. There is no getting to net zero in Hong Kong and Singapore without doing something about the built environment. These markets, to me, South Korea too. One thing that in South Korea, for example, since we signed the agreement with Kukyoung, that opens the door for us in South Korea. In South Korea, there are very large government subsidies. You guys may remember the announcement we made to the ASX about the EMSD testing in Hong Kong where our archetype would have had a payback of 2.6 years. In Korea, that number would be 18 months.
Korea has some unique challenges which revolve around local content to qualify for these subsidies. As we bring Kukyoung on board next year and the fact that they'll be double glazing locally and they'll be, I also think we will probably manufacture the purlins and the framing system for our car park stuff in Korea, this will cross the local content Rubicon and make our products more attractive. Now, in Hong Kong, Hong Kong not only has 66 percent of its emissions being based on buildings, but it also has climate resilience issues. What does that mean? What's climate resilience? Climate resilience is as weather conditions worsen and as they get more typhoons and the typhoons that are coming are stronger, it means that the building standards where a lot of the building park or PARC park in Hong Kong, the facades are quite old.
Also, the quality of the glazing in the facades is usually pretty poor. There is a lot of single glazing, and that is not good for the building thermally. For example, we did a site inspection on a building where we are going to do, hopefully, a refacade next year that had blue-tinted glass. This glass was shocking for the building's thermal performance. There is a big opportunity in these markets for our product provider. We can deliver the thermal benefits and we can deliver the generation. As I have said many times, ClearVue's products are about reducing the energy use of a building. That is not just the generation. It is also how the product has better thermal performance to reduce the need for air conditioning and stuff. There is a big opportunity in Hong Kong.
We've already been doing some work on some special stuff. A little-known fact, for example, is if you're refacading a building in Hong Kong, because of the climate resilience issue, the wind load standard the original facade was built to is no longer valid. You have to build the, we have to strengthen the facade to be able to accept 30% higher wind load performance. We've already worked on a design and how to do that, how to strengthen an existing Malian system. We will be engaging in Hong Kong to a much deeper level next year. More Green Building Council stuff. Hopefully, we're going to put together a steering committee from the industry and government to start removing the barriers to BIPV in sort of funny tax things and stuff that exist up there.
I think that Singapore and Hong Kong and South Korea will be very, very good markets for us in the next year or so. We need to do the work and do the work underneath to take the barriers away from deploying our products and to do so they can go where they need to go. There is no net zero in Hong Kong unless the built environment is fixed. We need to be an integral part of that process.
Fantastic. Okay. The team has been active across several countries in recent months. Without sharing any sensitive or confidential detail, can you explain which regions the team has been visiting and the general purpose behind these trips in terms of future business opportunities and market development?
There's been a fair bit of travel. I mean, personally, I had a one-on-one meeting with the Chief Executive of Alutech. Alutech are a very, very large company. That was very good in terms of improving our interface. We're already working about six projects with them, but there's going to be a lot of good stuff coming there next year. We also met with some of the largest facade companies and largest glass companies, whether it be coating. In one case, we met with a coating. There are two types of coating in glass. We met with, there's a pyrolytic coating or hard coating, which is we work a lot with it already. We went to a factory that is the world's best at that particular technology. We went to another factory for soft coating.
Soft coating is put on after the glass is processed. I needed to understand exactly the vacuum pressures, the temperature application, the methodology so we can design a widget that will enable us to soft coat a solar panel after it's made. All these people, when we make a presentation, we never get told, "Your stuff isn't any good." We gave, I think, five or six presentations in Switzerland, in Germany, in Poland, and in Qatar on the last trip. The general feedback from those presentations is that it's the best presentation we've ever seen on BIPV. That's why I think I'm so confident in our engineering and in our products because these guys are not small players. They've forgotten more about glass than I've ever known, certainly.
If you're getting that feedback from major industry players, this cannot be a bad thing, both on the facade side and on the glazing side. I think, as I said in the beginning of this Q&A session, if our products are the best and if we can maintain a competitive advantage by R&D and we can deliver them at commercial paybacks, the business will work. It just will.
Okay. Are you going to raise more money in the next 12 months? Given the cash burn, it seems like every 9 to 12 months you will need to raise more money. What steps are you taking to protect shareholder value if you need to continue raising funds?
I would say that we are always mindful of shareholder value. To some extent, it will depend on how our share price moves because of the way we did the last capital raise with the options. It may well be if the share price performs well in the first quarter, we will not need to do any fundamental fundraising. Having said that, there is a chance we will need to do that. I guess you guys can look, we will try to do that to effect minimum dilution. I think that some of the technology we are about to deliver, in particular, the fire stuff we were talking about before, this will have a major impact on our ability to raise and the price in terms of that raise. I think it is sort of a threefold strategy.
Hopefully, we get some more sales on the board before we have to do the raise again. We will certainly have good visibility on our product suite and the next level of advancements. We've got a couple of welfare products, not just the fire ones that we'll be releasing next year. I think they all should position the companies that if we have to raise, the dilution should be minimal. We have to deal with what we have to deal with in this, and we'll try to do the best deal we can every time. That's the promise I can make to you that that is what we will do.
Okay. Are you reducing the focus on the U.S. and focusing more on Asia and the Middle East given there seems to be a willingness in these geographies? Obviously, you've already covered Asia a bit, but perhaps talk about where the U.S. is going as well as the Middle East.
The U.S., we still have an employee, at least as well as we've got two employees in the U.S. The U.S., we have cut the expenses there by about, I don't know what the percentage would be, but well over 90 percent. That's because the regulatory environment in the U.S. at the moment is not really somewhere where we think we are going to get massive sales for the moment. One problem is partially in our control, which we'll try to deal with this next year coming. That is about where we manufacture our products. If we were to manufacture our products in Taiwan or potentially in South Korea, we would have a lower tariff barrier to what currently exists in China. This is something that we probably need to look into and we will look into.
For the moment, the IRA changes in the U.S. or the Inflation Reduction Act changes means that the support for alternative energy has decreased substantially. You may have noted there are a couple of major solar bankruptcies in the U.S. as late as last week. This is a market where I think we want to maintain a presence and we want to try to grow where we can in a logical way. I do not think that, at least for the next couple of years, this will be a market where we intend to invest a huge amount of money. I just do not think that the regulatory environment and the tariff situation as it is currently is in our favor, particularly given the inconsistency. I think everyone knows in business that what you need from government is consistency.
In the U.S. at the moment, that lack of consistency because of our long lead times, we could potentially commit to a project and then in six months' time, our panels could be twice as dear as they were when we committed to it. This is not an environment where we want to take that risk. I think that what we're starting to see in the U.S. economy now is a lot of businesses are not taking that risk. I think this is much more of a watch and then act when it's the right time type scenario. In the Middle East and in Europe, however, that's different. In the Middle East, the Middle East is a unique market because it does not focus on paybacks. The U.S., because the price of power is so low in the Middle East, the payback is generally longer.
Many of the countries in the Middle East are trying to prepare their economies for lower fossil fuel sales and are trying to act more sustainably. There are many projects in the Middle East, actually. We think that this could be or will be a pretty significant market for us given the strength of our licensees in that market. In Europe, we have only just really begun. I think that we will have a lot of activity in Europe next year in terms of new license partners and in terms of, and I think that is an area where we can do something really special. There was also a bankruptcy in Europe last week or a company put into administration that used to make panels in Poland. I think all of these things are sort of going to the fact that our model is right.
Our OEM manufacturing model is right because it's sustainable and we can produce things at the right price with minimal investment. Hopefully, I think I've said before that I believe our OEM web, if you like, or network is probably one of our most valuable pieces of IP. I probably should have included that in that other question where I think the market's undervaluing us. This is another reason I think the market's undervaluing us. We've put together a wonderful supply chain that enables us to do everything at high volume, whether it be make the panel, whether it be double-glaze the panel, whether it be frame the panel. All of these industry expertises we've put together to be able to deliver the complete product if necessary. I think that, and all of that at a compelling price.
I think that this is really quite undervalued. I think when people look at our model compared to other people in the industry, our model is so capital light compared to our competitors that this puts us in a very good position, in my opinion.
Excellent. Okay. The next question is, how are you managing expenses while also managing how much you will need to raise? This kind of goes back to the whole fundraising question, but this is more of an expense question.
If you guys have looked at the last four, say, you will know that all the actions we've taken on reducing the company's expenses have not crystallized yet. That is because when we restructure, we have tails. We've got to keep paying people for notice periods and so on and so forth. I think the last of our tail finishes in December. Even the next four C will not be where we will be at the end. What we certainly have done is made major impacts on the company's cost base. I mean, we are almost half, or we will be at least, almost half of the prior burn rate. This means we can elongate the period between raises.
It also means that we are more attractive to investors because clearly, if we do not have to spend so much money, we can last longer for a given dollar before the sales come. I think the combination of what I can see happening in the sales pipeline over the next few months and the reduction in the overheads and the game-changing new technology we are going to launch, I think is going to position the company very well next year.
Super. Thank you. What steps are the new management team taking to drive sales? How does this differ from earlier on or before this team was in place?
Most mornings we're trying to get sales, I would say, by interfacing and picking up new projects. We are still picking up. I don't know what the average would be now. It's probably come down a little bit in the run-up to Christmas. Last week, I think we picked up four projects, something like that, which is still a vast improvement on where we were before. I would say what we're really trying to do really comes down to three things. Number one is we have to build our credibility. I think we're doing that off a reasonably low base, but we are getting there.
I think one of the big differences and one of the big reasons for the increase in inquiry we've had since we started to restructure is that the industry, I think, gives us a lot more points than they gave the prior management team, to be honest, in terms of credibility. I think that's been very helpful. We also are trying to drive it via partnership. As I said, in Hong Kong in particular, we're reviewing a heap of buildings at the moment. There are two or three projects there that we'll be doing some testing on in terms of deciding what glass spec, and I'm hoping that both of those will crystallize next year. The technical interface is a thing. The last thing is the R&D is always about sales.
We are not R&Ding anything or putting a dollar into R&D on anything that does not have a direct relationship to converting sales. We will R&D stuff that is giving us a competitive advantage and where we have a clearly identified need or gap in the market where we can make our product better than our competitors. I think we have done that very successfully over the last two years, and we are going to continue to do that. I think that will be a winning strategy. We have to have a technical lead. We need to keep that technical lead. I think really they are the three factors. In the end, if you have the best product in the market, you are going to get sales as long as the price is reasonable.
If there is one takeaway I want everyone to take from this call, it is that we do really have the best product in the market. Everybody tells us that. That is not just me making it up. We can deliver at the right price. I think that is why we are starting to get so much more inquiry. The sales will come off the back of that inquiry without question.
Thank you. Given this company is meant to be driving the future, I think some consideration should be given to having a younger face and well-spoken person in front of the camera, at least for online content and for ads.
There is one thing for sure. I'm definitely not planning to be in any ads. Shareholder calls and stuff are fine, but there is no way I'm going to be pointing at a product on a TV screen. I think that's a fair comment. We have some very smart young staff, as I guess some of you guys have met. Yeah, we'll take that on board, I think.
Okay. Now we're jumping to online questions. We've only barely scratched the surface. And just for a time check, everybody, we are going to go for as long as you are sending questions in. So stick with us. Our first online question is, why was the Kidder Williams such a short-term engagement?
Kidder Williams was David Williams is a really clever guy. Harry Lusk, who many of you met, I think, also a pretty clever young bloke. Part of their engagement was to help us with the capital raising. We took a commercial decision that the way they wanted to do it was probably not the way we wanted to do it. I think we delivered a better commercial terms for the shareholders as part of that. That was really just a commercial decision. We still have a good relationship with them. I've still got David's number on my phone. Yeah.
Okay. Who is in charge of providing maintenance of the solar glass on the electrification side? Is there software to help monitor wattage gained for each solar panel?
Yes. All of our deployment systems allow for panel-by-panel monitoring. The client can tell if there is one panel that is underperforming. That is one of the things we do electrically. The other thing we do, which is sort of part of the same system, I suppose, is we also manage for shade loss. Typically, if you have panels on your roof or something, they are usually wired in strings or daisy-chained with maybe 20 panels. What a lot of people do not appreciate is if one panel in that 20 shades, then you lose 90% of the production of the whole 20 panels, not just the one that is shaded. We use systems to separate that panel out. You only lose the power from that panel that is shaded.
In fact, one of the lines of research that we're going to do next year is we're going to do some redesigning of our stuff so that, in fact, we will have better partial shade performance. It won't add much cost to the product because it's just a different method of stringing the panel and stuff. We are going to focus on that next year. Real-world, in BIPV, there's always going to be some shade. We have to have strategies to manage it, which we've already developed. One of the reasons that our junction boxes and stuff are such a game-changing product is because we can deploy the glass with a bead seal around the edge, which makes the maintenance easy. This is why this is the most common deployment method for cladding and spandrel glass in the industry.
If you go for a walk in whatever city you're in and you look up at the building, you'll always see the cladding and the glass as a square and a line of silicon around it. This methodology is very hard to do in BIPV reliably. This is exactly why we developed the junction boxes. This means that when you're maintaining it, it's really just a question of washing it like you normally clean your windows on your building. These junction boxes deliver a very clear competitive advantage when we're talking about deployment.
Okay. It looks like we only have a couple of additional questions. If you've been holding on to your question, now is the time to send it in. The next question, though, is, which user group or individual in the food chain is most critical to securing projects? Architects, engineers, construction companies, etc.?
In truth, they're probably all equally important. The architect, in terms of the visual part and in terms of where a lot of our competitive advantage is in terms of being able to make BIPV, the architect is very important. The architect in the design of the building, one of the big advantages of our products is that the architect doesn't have to compromise when he's designing the building. Our products can be made in lots of different shapes and sizes and colors and even our latest stuff with textures. That means that the architect doesn't have their creativity restricted. Once the architect's drawn it, you have to pass the engineering. If you can't pass the engineering, it doesn't matter what color it is. It's not going to go in a building.
In terms of construction companies, both of those two are probably the most important. Construction company is also important because I think that in construction companies or facade contractors, if you sort of lump them in the same bit, these are the guys that have to deliver it on the project. These are the guys with the screwdriver and the silicon gun. If we can't explain to them exactly how this deploys and how much labor they have to need to quote in addition to any other normal panel, which in our case, fortunately, in the glazing and stuff, is zero, our only additional labor cost comes in the wiring. If we can't, we have to educate these guys. I would say they're all probably equally important. Certainly in the beginning, the architects are the most important because they give you a spec.
A lot of buildings these days, because of the drive to net zero globally, BIPV is specced by the architect anyway. Our biggest challenge is, and sometimes that BIPV is not the best way to do the BIPV either, I will say. Our challenge is to really educate the market that BIPV does not have to be a black panel stuck to the side of the building. In fact, our stuff is anything but that. Our stuff is the real building material. The replacement of the glass or the cladding panel or whatever material on a building, ours is the real building material. This, I think, is one of our challenging communications to get that out there so people understand that we are a building material company first and we are a solar company second.
Okay. Thank you. Okay. Just a couple of additional questions here. First one is, can you provide an update on the status of ClearVue's Gen 3 Vision Glass? When can you begin delivering product to the market?
ClearVue Version 3 Vision Glass, the egg is going into after the AGM, Tau and Chris will be doing the units for testing. They'll be in the ovens in January or in the chambers in January. The first certification will be the EN1279 seal certification. We'll have that in April, maybe end of March, end of March, April sort of timeline. The last one we will have probably towards the end of May. This is on schedule as far as we're concerned. We have to also refire test in that period that we will achieve an A2, S1, Zero as we did with the last glass. Same materials, same technology. As I said, I think there's very little risk because the product is using the same engineering we've already passed these tests with. We see no risk in that certification. Yeah.
Okay. Fantastic. One last question, and that is, ClearVue shared an update on projects in early August. What's happened on those projects since then? That was, I think, and you kind of mentioned some of these earlier, but Prefabulous, 100 St. George's Terrace, the World Bank in Nigeria, Tattersalls Club in Sydney. Are there any other updates on other projects?
The 100 St. George's should be complete at the end of this week, I believe. The Nigerian project, they have commenced fitting. I think that'll be finished next couple of weeks. Hopefully, we can publish some images of that. Prefabulous still haven't located the unit yet. We have to wait for them to put the unit, the whole sort of building in situ, and then we'll put the rooftop stuff on. Windows are already done, of course, but the rooftop Helios product is not on yet. Tattersall's, we're just going through the electrical schematic and doing the cable paths and stuff like that. That's on. We'll produce those panels probably after Chinese New Year in China, and they'll arrive in Australia probably May for fitment in July. Yeah.
Okay. One more question came in, and that is regarding the LandGlass relationship. Has there been any progress made on the VIG solutions with LandGlass? What is the status of the joint venture that was announced back in July?
Okay. LandGlass are already pitching our product in China, actually. We were at BAO in Shanghai on the way back from Qatar. They're already pitching our stuff, which is really good. We are doing joint testing together for a couple of projects in Hong Kong. They're sharing the cost for that. We'll do some of the testing at BCA, and then we're going to install a couple of visual mock-ups on a couple of buildings in Hong Kong so the client can see what it's going to look like. They're sharing costs with us on that. They also have made a bit of a technical breakthrough, can't say too much about, but this technical breakthrough we need to design something for. I think, well, I'm hoping by the end of the year we're going to produce a game-changing product together.
Our corporate structure for the R&D entities and Hong Kong entities should be finished in January. I'm really looking forward to something special out of that relationship next year. Not only are they already doing the sales for our current stuff, but we have a pretty aggressive R&D pathway, and I think we're going to see some really cool stuff coming out of that by the end of 2026.
Okay. One more question. They keep coming in. This one is regarding the ClearVue-Helios metal-backed solar solutions. What types of, have we seen any opportunities come in for the rooftop and/or the car park solution?
Yeah. Yes. Already we have tenders out for that. Those panels are currently undergoing CEC certification. And we're also doing structural certification on the purlin systems and in terms of the car park, the load-bearing calculations and all that sort of stuff. For Australian and international certification, that is going to be a really interesting product for us. I also have been contemplating how we may have a second line of distribution on that product, but we're still thinking about that. Yes, this is a game-changing product. We just need to finish our certifications and stuff, which should be done by February, March, I think. Let's hope we can win a couple of the proposals that we've got out there already. I think that this product has so many advantages.
The cost, the numbers are working so well on this product, I really think this is one of those things we've just got to get all our ducks in a row, and it's going to be a successful business.
Excellent. Okay. I have not received any other questions. I do want to thank everyone for joining us here today and for Doug, for you being here and giving us such great background and honest, transparent answers to all of these questions that have been asked. Any final thoughts that you want to leave us with?
No. I just want to say I think that I know it's been a hard road with ClearVue. It's been a lot of years, but the end is nigh, and stuff is going to happen in 2026. I hope you guys will stick with us and see the benefits of our labor in the coming months.
Excellent. Thank you so much, everyone. The replay of this session will be available both on our LinkedIn profile as well as on YouTube on the live section. Thank you for joining here today. We look forward to seeing you at the upcoming AGM in Perth.
Oh, one thing I do want to say, please make sure everybody votes.
Yes.
It's vitally important in this AGM for you guys to support our notice of meeting. I would really appreciate the extra effort it will take for you guys to get online and vote. It's critically important for the company that we know that we've got your support.
Absolutely. If you do have any questions about your voting or the process, you can send a note to ClearVue, sorry, to hello@clearvuepv.com. That's.