Good afternoon, and welcome to SPI Energy's Q2 fiscal 2022 conference call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded, and all participants are in a listen-only mode. The call will be open for questions and answers following the presentation. I will now pass the call over to Randy Conone, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Finance. Mr. Conone, you may begin.
Thank you, Laura. Joining me on the call today are SPI Energy's Chairman and CEO, Denton Peng, as well as our COO, Hoong Khoeng Cheong. Before we begin, the company would like to remind everyone that various remarks about future expectations, plans, and prospects constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. SPI cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause their actual results to differ materially from those indicated, including risks described in the company's filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements made on this conference call speak only as of today's date, Tuesday, August 16th 2022, and SPI does not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after today.
I'd now like to turn the call over to SPI's Chairman and CEO, Denton Peng, for opening remarks. Please go ahead, Denton.
Thank you, Randy, and good afternoon, everyone. Our team continued to deliver its strong performance in the Q2 of 2022, generating top-line growth across our divisions and delivering our long-planned goals of carving out Phoenix Motor Inc. in a Nasdaq IPO. Meanwhile, our solar module facility at Sacramento has started pilot production, and our first made-in-California solar module delivered to customers. Overall, we have built solid foundations in high-growth markets that are positioning SPI for accelerating growth moving forward as we capitalize on the rapidly expanding demand for renewable and clean energy solutions. Our world-class team is building on a multi-decade track record of success. We further augmented this already impressive team in the Q2 with the addition of William Chen as Chief Operating Officer of SolarJuice.
William brings over 20 years of experience as executive in the construction management area and was a CEO of one of the largest residential solar integrators in the U.S. for more than 10 years. He's another great addition to our team and is already providing strong value as we continue to expand our SolarJuice operations. I'm confident that our strong foundation, combined with growing industry tailwinds, place us in a great position to rapidly increase market share across each of our business units, ultimately enabling us to unlock new value for our shareholders as we accelerate growth in the quarters ahead. I now turn the call over to HK to cover our operations and key successes in great details. HK.
Thank you, Denton, and good afternoon, everyone. As Denton has noted, SPI had a strong quarter with multiple milestones achieved across all facets of our business. I'll begin with some further insight into our accomplishments in our solar and battery storage business unit. We began another major solar project in our home state of California with the initiation of development for a 7.2 MW, 8.39 MW DC community solar project on the 34 acres land in Southern California. We also continue the expansion of our solar module manufacturing capacity at our flagship facility in McClellan Park, California, and expect to reach a capacity of 650 MW of production capacity by the end of this year. Indeed, we have already started solar module delivery to customers starting from Q3 this year.
Our expanding capacity at this state-of-the-art solar module manufacturing facilities, which combines California's highly skilled workers with machine-to-machine connectivities, features a high degree of precision automation that will drive continuous improvement of our solar module manufacturing. Also, it's in our plan to further increase our solar module production capacity to 1.2 GW. We also signed a 2 GW supply agreement during the Q2 with Sungrow, a global leading inverter solution supplier for renewables.
With COVID restriction continuing to wane, we had an opportunity to meet face-to-face with buyers at two key events, showcasing our latest SolarJuice product offerings at Smart Energy 2022, Australia's premier event for solar storage and energy management, as well as our solar and renewable energy product, including solar panels, residential energy storage system, and EV charger at the RE+ Texas Solar and Energy Storage trade show in San Antonio, Texas. Lastly, I want to note we further strengthened our intellectual property within this division of the company through the filing of two provisional patents. One regarding machine learning technologies to improve solar module manufacturing processes and a second patent application for an innovative apparatus to improve the efficiency and accuracy of solar module IV testing process.
On the EV side of our business, obviously the major news was the completion of the Phoenix Motor IPO on Nasdaq, which raised gross proceeds of more than $15 million. We continue to retain approximately 80% ownership in Phoenix post IPO, and importantly, we began delivery of our new Phoenix Motor lithium-ion forklifts during the Q2 and have been very pleased with the initial customer response. With a successful showcase of this next generation forklifts alongside our electric bus, solar powered pickup truck and EV charging solution at the ACT Expo in May, we anticipate continued strong sales growth from this product line moving forward. We also relocate our corporate headquarters to Sacramento County during the Q2, bringing our senior management into close proximity to our solar module manufacturing facility.
As sales continue to grow from our increased production capacity, we believe this will improve access, will provide tremendous strategic value creating positive synergies across our solar and renewable energy business development efforts. I will now hand the call back to Randy for a discussion of our financial performance in the Q2, as well as a review of our guidance for 2022. Over to you, Randy.
Thank you, H.K. This is the company's Q2 filing as a U.S. company on Form 10-Q and follows the filing of our first annual report on Form 10-K in March. This translates to increased transparency and more timely reporting of our performance metrics compared to our previous requirements as a foreign filer. For the quarter ended June 30, 2022, our net sales increased 6% to $48.6 million, up from $45.8 million in Q2 of 2021. Revenues continue to be mainly driven by increasing sales from our solar business lines, although we expect EV revenues to represent an increasing share of overall revenues moving forward.
Our cost of revenues, which consist primarily of raw materials and labor costs, increased to $44.7 million in the Q2, up from $40.6 million in Q2 of 2021. Gross profit in the Q2 was $3.9 million, giving us a gross margin of 8%. General and administrative expenses were $7.6 million or 15.7% of net sales in the Q2 of 2022, compared to $7.7 million or 16.7% of net sales in the Q2 of 2021. Total operating expenses in Q2 were $9.5 million or 19.5% of net sales, up moderately from $9.2 million or 20% of net sales in the Q2 of 2021.
Interest expense was $1.6 million during the quarter, with no significant changes in our convertible bonds and other borrowings. Together, these and other factors resulted in a net loss of $2.3 million in the Q2, a significant improvement from the net loss of $6.6 million in the Q2 of 2021. As of June 30, 2022, we had $21.3 million in cash equivalents and restricted cash. Now turning to the year ahead. As mentioned earlier, our solar and EV wholesale business, coupled with our residential solar and roofing installation business and the new American solar module manufacturing business, are expected to be the primary revenue drivers in 2022, with EV sales accelerating as the year progresses.
We believe this will ultimately drive our overall revenue to between $200 million-$220 million for 2022. This range takes into consideration ongoing logistics and supply chain challenges globally. We look forward to sharing our ongoing successes with you in future updates. We'll now open the call for questions.
At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary for you to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from the line of Tate Sullivan with Maxim Group. You may proceed with your question.
Thank you. On the solar module manufacturing facility in Sacramento, I believe you said that you started delivering to customers this current quarter. What needs to happen for you to get to capacity of 650 MW by the end of this year? Are there any additional testing or certification processes or did you need to install more equipment? How do you get to that 650 MW capacity, please?
Sure. Thanks, Tate. It's a staging process that's basically going to occur from the start of 2022 to the middle of 2023. We expect to get to about 600 to 650 MW by the end of this year, and then 1.1 GW by the middle of next year. The process is that we acquire and ship equipment over here, and then we have to install it and quality control it, and that equipment comes in several caches. We've got some of the equipment in producing panels. Other pieces of the equipment are still being quality controlled, and then still other pieces of equipment are in en route over here.
It's a staging process, but Sacramento should be at full capacity around the end of Q2 next year.
With providing what you can share, do you target, I mean, operating at a portion, a percent of that capacity initially as you stage up, or when do you expect to match production with that capacity?
Yeah.
For color for the operation side?
Yeah. I think this is HT speaking, and I would like to add a bit of color as far as this you know solar module manufacturing in McClellan Park, California. We are at phase I. Phase I we have you know 100 MW now in production capacity, and we have already started you know delivering product from this phase I production line. We are in the process of installing the second phase, which is a 550 MW you know kind of new M10 production line. That would be completed by the early part of Q4 .
We expect the ramp up will starting from the you know toward the November, December timeframe, all the way until the next year. We expect full capacity probably by the middle of next year of this phase II production capacity. We will start the expansion to the phase III, another 550 MW of production line coming on board, so that will bring us the you know total of 1.2 GW by the end of next year. It's a ramp up processes.
Absolutely. Yeah, just to make sure I understand, with that 650 to 1,100, and to 1,200 MWs, I mean, can you provide. Will you try to provide discount prices to the companies out there? I know some other solar equipment companies do give guidance per megawatt or. But it does imply hundreds of millions of dollars for that type of, for your type of facility. I mean, do we talk about a range of revenue here with that kind of megawatt capacity per.
Yeah.
At a later date.
Yeah. I mean, certainly that you know, we are still in the phase I of the production. You know, when we ramp up, we will achieve economy of scale. We expect you know, adjustment on our efficiency, you know, productivity as well as the volumes, you know, so that will reduce our costs you know, progressively throughout the year.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Tim Moore with EF Hutton. You may proceed with your question.
Thank you. It was nice to see what appeared to be about 8% organic sales growth in the quarter, excluding the PDI acquisition contribution. I saw that you reiterated your revenue guidance for the year despite the continued supply chain disruptions. I'm wondering, have the supply chain disruptions and logistic delays with port congestion improved for you over the last couple months? 'Cause I believe that was a reason for the range on the guidance. I'm just wondering if it's gotten any better or if it's about the same.
Yeah. I'd say it's definitely improved, but I'll let the other guys come over the top.
Yeah. We see some improvement in the logistics, but you know, depends on which item. Some items still shortage. I think we are managing this challenge of a logistics issues.
Great. That's helpful. I have a follow-up question to the update on the Sacramento solar module manufacturing facility. I'm curious, given its very early stages, and you mentioned phase I and it's just underway the last couple months, are you seeing more traction with any specific type of customer? Are municipalities showing more interest, or is it corporates or home builders? Are you seeing any more demand from one of those types of parties that are willing to pilot and check out the quality batches?
Yeah. We are currently in the residential market through different distribution channels. We have already had dialogue with and also contracts with several large leading distribution companies in the nation for the residential market. Now we also see more and more commercial and utility customers coming to require made in U.S. solar modules. You see that the Senate that have passed the bills. They're still waiting to probably be signed that have additional incentive for the buyer customers to buy more made in U.S. products. I think this will give a lot more customers will be interested in the made in U.S. products. I think we are in a very good spot to supply the made in U.S. products from our Sacramento factory. We are ramped up, and we are ready, I think.
More and more importantly, our capacity is increasing now.
That's helpful to hear. Thanks for sharing the color on that.
Yeah.
My next question is. It's actually a two-part question.
Yeah. Sorry, yeah.
No, go ahead.
From the bill, they also have an additional incentive to manufacturing for solar module made in U.S. We see that from the bill. They also have about $0.07 for incentive for the manufacturing for solar module made in U.S. These are additional incentive for the products made in U.S. I think this is another thing to increase our capacity and also to get more customers to like to buy the products made in California, especially from our facility in Sacramento.
No, that's helpful to hear. I know the tariffs tend to be a lot from the imported ones, and it's nice to see them made in the U.S. I was wondering for my next question, are you seeing pretty good initial traction on your 450 and 550 watt commercial modules? When do you think the Sungrow supply agreement will start kicking in with shipments? Is that gonna happen this summer?
I think we start to see. Yeah, sorry, Denton, go ahead.
Yeah, as you can hear, you can go. Yeah, please.
Yeah. I think we start to see quite a bit of traction, you know, for in the residential space, 400 W, 410 W, you know, for the residential rooftop application. For the C&I space, we do see quite a bit of, you know, 550 W. These are the two main product that we see quite a lot of traction. In fact, our line are actually, you know, gear up to produce these two particular products, you know, for the rooftop application. Certainly the phase III will kick in, you know, for the bigger panel, you know, 610 W.
for our phase II, our focus has been on the 410, you know, 400 W modules, you know, for the residential space and the, you know, 550-watt module for the C&I space.
I was wondering if Sungrow, is that gonna start this summer with shipments or how does that phase in? I know that was a two-part question, sorry.
Oh, yeah. I mean, Sungrow. In fact, we have growing with Sungrow in Australia. We have been, you know, we sign to give you what, you know, contract with a lot of Sungrow new product in Australia. Sungrow has been the product for Australia focus. Mainly for the Australia focus.
Thank you for sharing that. I was just wondering if you can provide an update on the Maryland and Illinois solar projects and timing there. They're large projects. I'm just wondering, is there any kind of estimate on an update there for when they'll be more underway?
Yeah, I think, you know, it's still in the development phase, so it will probably take a little while before we hit the NTP. We are progressing as planned, you know, for these two, you know, utility-scale projects in Maryland and Illinois.
Good. Two more questions. The first one's around the electric forklifts. I read a lot about that a few months ago, and it's great product. I saw that revenues were almost $1 million in the quarter, I believe. How much in revenues do you think you can generate for that if you look out a year, and do you have enough production capacity to fulfill big orders if some big major corporates come in and decide to order a fleet of them?
Yeah. We see the demand for electric product, especially for logistics customers, for the company is increasing. We say we are trying to service more market. Currently, we only service the California market. We also try to increasing to service other markets. Definitely we'll be trying to more support electric to keep more inventory for these products and then try to service more customers. The shipment will be increasing. It will not happen in one or two months because you're building relation, building channel. It always takes some times.
Understood. That makes sense. My last question is, how should I think about the general and administrative expense total for this year? It came down in the Q2, and I know that last year had integration costs, PDI, and there was some other one-off costs last year. Do you think the recent quarterly number is more indicative of a run rate going forward, or you think it'll go up as the year goes on?
Yeah. Our CapEx for the solar module definitely, you know, will be increasing just for the building and making U.S. solar module factory in Sacramento. Our operation costs for the business, because this is now most of our business is starting moving to profitable, especially our solar project development business and our selling electricity business, power lease business also. We are now also trying moving to the solar installation business, trying to move into profitable. Our renewable distribution business always be profitable. Of course, we are still challenged for the EV business. We still put a lot of R&D, still need some time to be profitable. I think our solar module manufacturing business will be very soon, very profitable in a few quarters.
I think then the company is in a very good trajectory to moving totally to a profitable business in the short term.
Well, thank you.
I think things like headcount, you know, may go up a little, but it's gonna be as the scale grows, you know, especially in the solar module manufacturing, we should get quite a bit of operating leverage going forward.
Good. Thank you. I appreciate you answering my questions, and that's it for my questions today.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Tate Sullivan with Maxim Group. You may proceed with your question.
Hi. Hi. Thank you. A couple of follow-ups, if I may. I heard you mention capital expenditures a couple of times. I'm just looking at about $2 million in 2Q 2022 to get the pilot production started. Should it decline from there, or will it actually increase based on the speed in which you're installing equipment?
In Q3, because most of the new equipment will be installed in Q3 and maybe early Q4, so this is some CapEx will be spent for the solar module manufacturing. Already you'll see some prepayments of the equipment already done, so not too much impact on the cash flow. The CapEx definitely will be increasing in Q3 and a little bit in Q4.
Yeah. Yeah, Tate, I would expect over time, you know, not kind of weeks and months, but quarters and longer periods of time, the CapEx is going to go up. Our plan over time, once we get Sacramento up to full capacity, is to replicate it. You know, the CapEx should keep growing over time.
Well, great. Well, on replicating the facility and Denton Peng also, I wanted to ask you about sources of financing for that. Is there, I mean, I think the Inflation Reduction Act and some previous acts indicate some funding for domestically manufactured solar modules. Is that a possibility that you may look to secure that type of funding in the future?
Yes, we are looking for this kind of possibility also. Now, currently, you know, we have already done most of the funds already secured. This is a, we just are planning as our ongoing. Of course, we will, through other ways, try to increase our cap. When we increase the capacity, we will probably need to continue to raise some money to do some CapEx. In the current stage, the solar module business seems very profitable.
Yeah, I think we're probably gonna pursue both, you know, public money and then, you know, funds in the capital markets up and down the stack over time as we grow.
Great. Just one last financial question for me, if I could. I mean, other income was about $3 million on the income statement in the quarter. Is that related to some of your other businesses that you've had before? Is it foreign currency, possibly? I think it was about $5.5 million in the quarter.
Can I get back to you on that, Tate?
Yeah. Yep.
Okay.
Okay. Well, thank you all for answering my questions.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of today's question and answer session. I would like to turn this call back over to Mr. Randy Conone for closing remarks.
Thanks very much, Laura. I wanna highlight the extraordinary opportunities from projected growth in the solar and EV industries over the next decade. SPI Energy has tremendous revenue and earnings growth potential if we are able to capture even a small percentage of the solar and EV TAMs going forward. Our company has a proven ability to generate revenue in the solar and EV markets, and we are implementing several strategies to exploit the growth in those markets. SPI Energy also has a history of making targeted deep value acquisitions of distressed assets and companies, and we will continue to consider such transactions in this challenging economy as we generate more cash flow and raise additional capital.
SPI Energy, through its wholly owned affiliate, EdisonFuture, also owns approximately 80% of our EV division, Phoenix Motorcars, which is publicly traded under the ticker PEV and currently has a market cap of approximately $75 million. SPI Energy perceives significant synergies between its solar and EV divisions going forward, including opportunities to sell packages of solar, EV, and green energy storage and battery equipment to customers seeking integrated green energy loops. We also believe that the new federal green energy legislation will be a tailwind to SPI Energy's solar and EV operations and that complementary private sector financing will consequently increase to the green energy sector. That concludes our remarks today. We're very glad you were able to join us and look forward to your continued interest in SPI Energy.
This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and enjoy the rest of your day.