Q3 2021 Blink Charging Co Earnings Call
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Blink charging company third quarter 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen only mode and the floor will be opened for questions and comments. After the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host Ali.
Uh Huh, Vice President of Investor Relations, Sir the floor is yours.
Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to Blink charging third quarter 2021, investor call on the call today, we have Michael <unk>, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brendan Jones, President and Michael Rama Chief Financial Officer. Please.
Please note that there is a slide presentation accompanying today's earnings call whereby viewers can follow along the slides can be accessed on the investor Relations section of the blank charging web site.
I would like I would like to take a moment to read the safe Harbor statement.
This conference call contains forward looking statements as defined within section 27, <unk> of the Securities Act of $19 33, as amended and section 20 <unk> of the Securities Exchange Act of $19 34 as amended these forward looking statements and terms such as anticipate expect intend may.
<unk> will should or other comparable term involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future.
Those statements include statements regarding the intent belief or current expectations of Blink and members of its management as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, including those described.
<unk> periodic reports filed with the SEC and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward looking statements, except as required by Federal Securities Law link undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward looking statements to reflect changed conditions.
I will now turn the call over to Michael <unk> CEO of <unk> charging go ahead Michael.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us.
Let me start by highlighting some of our achievements in Q3.
Which was a very strong quarter for Bluelinx as.
As you can see revenue grew to $6 4 million a record for the company fueled by strong performance in both product sales and service revenues. This was a 607% increase I'm going to repeat that 607%.
Compared to the same quarter last year, and a 47% increase sequentially from Q2.
We are making tremendous strides increasing one network with property partners and signing exclusive multi year contracts as we continue to gain traction we ever growing EV infrastructure market.
In the quarter, we contracted sold or deployed over 3000, commercial and residential Chargers and have grown the number of commercial bank loan charge institutions by more than 100% compared to the same quarter last year, which aligns with our strategic focus on expanding our blink on charging footprint.
We continue to target deployments in high density high volume venues like municipal locations mixed use centers hotels multifamily residential and health care facilities.
This will best position us to maximize the utilization rates of our charters as more individual drivers and fleet transition to greener transportation.
Our international growth strategy remains on track highlighted by new corners. Most recent contract with Kane, you will look to extend our charging stations to various locations across Belgium.
Throughout the quarter. The company has also been very successful winning new grant of EBIT Awards from various government programs, bringing our total award just $25 million.
This year alone.
And lastly, we continued to add the most people in the industry to support our expected growth with over 20, new employees added in this quarter.
As we see in the next slide the EV industry is in its early stages of massive growth for the foreseeable future and we are well positioned at the forefront of this industry expansion.
The International Energy agency projects Global EV sales to grow from 3 million vehicles in 2020 to about 25 million vehicles in 2030.
20, 24% CAGR growth rate in this period alone with sales of EBIT transportation segments expected to grow exponentially there'll be an ever increasing need for additional charging infrastructure.
According to the U S Department of energy the country reached a milestone with its 100 100, thousands EV charging station earlier this year.
Industry analysts had guardhouse insights forecasts that we won't need a total of $120 million I'm going to repeat that 120 million charges globally by 230.
Industry Hasnt even started this.
This is providing tremendous opportunity for us to greatly extend our charging footprint.
A key driver of this anticipated growth has been and will continue to be favorable legislative environment surrounding EV adoption on both a national and global scale.
As I'm sure. Many of you are aware just last week U S. Congressional lawmakers passed a $1 two trillion dollar bipartisan infrastructure Bill.
Of which seven and a half billion dollars.
Its just focused and targeted on EV charging buildout.
Infrastructure.
This bill aligns with the President's aspirations have half of the vehicles sold in the United States in 2030 to be zero emission vehicles and to have 500000, EV charging stations in place that same year.
The bite administration looks at charging stations as one looks at gas stations, where you'll have many pumps or charges at those locations. So those 500000 charging solutions actually translates into two 3 million individual Chargers.
We believe this legislation is a game changer for our industry and will provide opportunities distantly celebrate.
The development and deployment of an expansive EV charging networks in the U S.
Looking at slide six we believe blink is uniquely positioned to deliver shareholder value driven by four competitive advantages first our products are built with the most advanced technology in the industry.
One of our products with future innovation in mind, so they employ cutting edge technology and can be utilized for many years to come and not become obsolete like many competing charges on the market today again, we have a different model.
We own and operate our charging solutions, we build our charging stations to less in the field for a very very long time, our competitors are driven by upgrades.
And for their customers to have to put new charges in the ground every couple of years, we built a better box because we own it and want it to be in the field for a very very long time.
We offer our customers multiple deployment methodologies to choose from providing them with the ideal solution to match their specific needs. In addition to the flexible model options for our customers. We provide best in class products through long term exclusive contracts with automatic extensions. These agreements allow blinked too.
Establishing a market presence at our customers' locations and a charging stations at our discretion.
When do usage increases and demand requires we largely focus on charging stations that are blink owned because that enables us to benefit from and take advantage of valuable recurring revenue streams for many many years to come due to the breadth and depth of our offerings Blink as the only fully vertically integrated EV.
Charging infrastructure company in the U S. Today.
Third our company is laser focused on expanding our charging footprint both domestically and internationally. We are intent on finding partner locations in high density areas that will not only meet the needs of current any drivers or position was also to capitalize on a steady transition away from gas powered vehicles to Evs Euro.
Has more quickly adopted the shift to Evs and our recent acquisition of Blue corners are really extending our presence on the continent. We look forward to the continued expansion of our footprint through both organic efforts and M&A opportunities and finally as EV adoption accelerates throughout the world.
Find with our expanding footprint of strategically placed charging stations. We believe utilization will continue to improve at a faster growth rate leading to higher recurring service revenues in the future.
Altogether. These four key advantages are what sets us apart from our competitors and provides blink with attractive long term economics for our stakeholders.
In summary, we're excited to have achieved record revenues in Q3 and.
And we're making great progress on many aspects of our business. Thanks to the tremendous efforts made by all of our dedicated employees and our employees are with brinks made of.
It is important to remember that we are at the beginning of the easy transition with much more to go which is why we're strategically investing across our business to ensure we capitalize on all of the opportunities. We're seeing in this amazingly booming market 2021 has been a busy and exciting year, thus far and we look forward to finishing the year strong and carrying our momentum.
Into 2022, now I'll turn the call over to Brendan Jones, President of Blink disrupt some of our recent developments go ahead Brendan.
Thank you Mike good afternoon, everyone.
It is a pleasure to speak with everyone today.
We are seeing consistent and growing interest in our company's products and services, resulting in many new contract wins in Q3 slide eight shows some of our notable U S wins, which include partnering with the city of San Antonio to deploy 200 to Blink owned lead.
<unk> II charging stations and three DC fast charging stations throughout the city with the first deployment taking place a few weeks ago at the San Antonio Xu.
Also expanding blinked mobility via our Blue L. A car sharing program with the city of Los Angeles to deploy and operate 300 additional charging stations, bringing the total under the program to 500, which will be placed at a 100 locations throughout Los Angeles and <unk>.
Entered into a five year agreement with Greenlight communities to deploy 58, Blink Allen charging stations within their multifamily residential communities across Arizona, and we're looking forward to providing them with additional charging stations as new communities are built and expand it.
Now turning to slide nine we've entered into three new reseller agreements that allow us to access the distribution channel the bar partners and increase our market reach we entered into a supplier contract with source well a self sustaining government organization that offers contract.
<unk> solutions, capturing the potential buying power of over 50000 organizations, we signed a reseller agreement what rubies performance parts and online North Carolina based leading automotive provider for the resale of blinked Chargers across the distribution channels and we are.
So partnered with traffic and parking control company known as Topco, a Wisconsin based custom traffic safety and parking solutions provider for the distribution of blinked charges now if we turn to slide 10 within the last 12 months Blake has contracted sold deployed or acquire.
Third over 12000 charges, both domestically and international.
Bringing the total charge account for the company to over 28000 since <unk> inception.
We have a healthy mix of deployments in the United States and abroad with 63% of total blinked Chargers deployed in the United States and 37% deployed internationally predominantly in Europe through Blue corner. In addition, as of the third.
Third quarter Blink provide service to over 250000 registered members and unique users throughout the world. We expect the increasing demand we are seeing for our charging stations as well as the expansion of our footprint on a global scale to drive strong revenue growth both near <unk>.
And long term for blank.
Now if we move on to slide 11.
We are aggressively deploying charging stations in key geographic locations throughout the United States and Europe locations are strategically determined based on several factors, including EV penetration and driving habits population and density figures historical and forecasted.
Traffic patterns and future market growth potential this quarter, we deployed charging stations across seven U S States and territories working with both local and state government agency and numerous companies.
On the international front, we continue to grow our charging footprint overseas through our.
European subsidiary Blue corner, which most recently won a multiyear contract with Ku live in one of Europes, leading research institutes to provide and operate charging stations at their campuses across Belgium, while we have broad and diverse coverage across the U S. We continue.
To remain focused on expanding our charging footprint in various countries throughout the world.
Turning now to slide 12 in the third quarter, we were awarded five government grants at the local and state level levels totaling tens of millions of dollars. A case in point is the $12 $5 million Grant we received from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection now this.
Award is for the deployment of 50 to 175 kilowatt DC fast Chargers with battery and solar powered PV shade systems at 25 locations along Florida's major Interstate highways. We are very excited to have won this award from our home state and our <unk>.
To see that more and more government officials are placing a higher priority on building out <unk> infrastructure and choosing blank as their partner of choice grants and rebates provide an excellent opportunity to significantly expand our charging footprint across a larger geographic.
Region, while minimizing billings total cash outlay for deployment, thereby decreasing the payback period and improving the return on investment we placed a greater emphasis on securing grants and rebates to help fund the deployment of our Chargers, while simultaneously assisting these agents.
<unk> to promote <unk> adoption to make sure we win as many of these opportunities out there, especially as the incremental funding is set aside for EV charging stations as part of the new infrastructure Bill we are expanding our in house brand and rebate team. This will enable us to have.
Additional resources necessary to capture increased available funds to widely deploy EV charging stations across the country.
Wrapping up we experienced significant sequential and year over year growth in the third quarter of 2021 the.
The consistent growth in our deployment numbers product sales and revenues are excellent indicators of what's ahead for both blink charging and the industry as a whole we remain confident in our ability to be a leader in the global EV charging infrastructure industry.
Thank you and I'll now turn it over to our CFO, Michael Rama to run through some of the specific results for the quarter.
Michael.
Thank you Brendan and good afternoon, everyone.
Now turning to slide 14, you'll see that total revenues in the third quarter of 2021 grew to $6 4 million a record for the company and an increase of 607% compared to the third quarter of 2020. In addition, third quarter revenues were up 47% sequentially.
Over the second quarter, primarily driven by increasing demand for our global EV charging infrastructure and higher service revenues product sales in the third quarter of 2021 were $4 8 million increase of 766% over the same period in 2020.
Customers purchased greater volumes of our commercial charters DC fast Chargers and residential Chargers as well as revenues generated through our blue corner acquisition.
Third quarter 2021 service revenues, which consist of charging service revenues network fees and ridesharing revenues were $1 4 million, an increase of 425% compared to the third quarter of 2020.
This year over year growth was primarily driven by greater utilization of our Chargers and increased number of charges on our blank network revenues associated with the Blink.
The Blink mobility Rideshare program.
And revenues from the Blue corner acquisition, we feel combining these three service lines.
Into the total service revenue amount makes it easier to differentiate between the product and service aspects of our business and aligns with our company's strategic goal of increasing the service component of our revenue mix and growing our recurring revenue base.
In time as EV adoption accelerates in the utilization of our charging stations improve we anticipate seeing a larger mix of revenues come from services.
Gross profit for the third quarter of 2021 was approximately $900000 an increase of 143% over the same period in the prior year and up 39% sequentially from Q2.
Margins margins remain healthy and we continue to look at ways to reduce our component costs, especially in light of the ongoing supply chain disruptions occurring globally now.
Operating expenses in the third quarter of 2021 were $16 7 million compared to $4 3 million in the prior year period.
The $12 $4 million increase year over year was primarily due to three factors first as I've discussed on previous calls we continue to make investments in hiring new talent in order to meet the ever increasing demand for our products and services, we are strengthening our sales operations marketing.
And cause.
And customer service functions as well as growing our in house Grant and rebate team as Brendan just mentioned.
So we can capitalize on many EV infrastructure opportunities that lie ahead.
We recognized $6 $1 million and higher share based compensation expense, mostly related to a special performance option equity award, we anticipate a similar noncash share based compensation to be recorded in the fourth quarter with this special performance option equity awards to be fully expensed by Jan.
During 2022.
And third the.
Operating expenses from our three most recent acquisitions Yugo Blue light Blue corner are included in the third quarter third quarter 2021 results, whereas these expenses were predominantly absent in the prior year's numbers I do want to reiterate that that we will continue to invest in new.
<unk> and talent across the business, but will ensure expenses our closely watched.
This quarter. We are also introducing a new financial metric adjusted EBITDA going forward. Our management team believes this non-GAAP measure is useful in evaluating our companys core operating performance because it excludes items that are either significant noncash or nonrecurring expenses as such adjusted.
EBITDA for the third quarter of 2021 was a loss of $8 4 million compared to a loss of $3 $7 million in the prior year period, largely due to the higher up higher operating expenses as I. Just mentioned, however, third quarter 2021, adjusted EBITDA improved sequentially from Q.
Two as we continued to make progress towards scaling the business now turning to slide 15, you can see that both our revenue and gross profit have performed quite well over the last several quarters with the trend showing an upward growth trajectory.
As we drive our owner operated strategy combined with greater demand for EV infrastructure and increased utilization rates, we have the opportunity to dramatically improve both revenue and gross profit even further over time.
Moving to our cash position, we ended the quarter with approximately $187 million of cash and marketable securities compared to $22 million. We ended with last year. We believe we have sufficient cash on hand to fund our strategic initiatives.
Initiatives include building innovative product and software platforms Onboarding additional talent, extending our market reach globally and potentially acquiring businesses that could either accelerate the company's growth or expand blinks vertical integration within the broader EV infrastructure ecosystem.
I'm pleased with the record revenues in the third quarter and the direction many of our financial metrics are headed.
We're still in the early stages of the EV evolution and still have much work to be done.
But we believe blink is well positioned to take advantage of the EV infrastructure growth the industry is poised to deliver.
I will now turn the call back over to Michael <unk> with some final remarks.
I would like to end this call emphasizing that our primary focus had link has been and will always be on securing the best locations and extending our relationships with property partners and location managers.
We've always known that there would be multiple opportunities to monetize our trophy locations that we've developed over the last 12 years.
More than just EV charging services and we're excited to announce at this time another way of monetizing our portfolio locations.
We're unveiling new innovative products at CES in early January this coming year. These new products feature state of the art technology with large high resolution screens that will allow blink and it's property partners to monetize locations immediately by generating advertising revenues.
<unk> will be in addition to the charging revenues regime.
Unlike others in our space Youll give away charging services, which will now create yet another valuable recurring revenue stream potential for blink and for our stakeholders. We look forward to rolling out this new product globally in 2022, so I encourage everyone to come see our booth at CES. This year with that we will now open the call for questions.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen, the floor is now open for questions.
You have any questions or comments. Please press star one on your phone now.
If you wish to withdraw your question you May press star two to leave the Q.
We do ask that if you are listening via speakerphone. Please pick up your handset for optimum sound quality. Once again, if you have any questions or comments. Please press star one now please hold for a moment, while we poll for questions.
And our first question today is coming from Matt Summerville at D. A Davidson.
Your line is live you may begin.
Good afternoon. This is Brian jellison on for Matt Summerville today.
I wanted to begin by talking about charging service.
Because it's a pretty impressive ramp from the second quarter. I was just wondering if you could provide any color as to where that charging service number came in relative to what you were expecting 90 days ago and as well.
You can provide any color on the mix between what was what incremental revenue was generated from new stations themselves versus an increase in utilization.
Hello, This is Michael <unk>.
Again, obviously, we're seeing more people traveling today and thats going to impact charging.
<unk> station revenues considerably.
There are more people on the roads and as you could see from EV sales Youre seeing more evs, specifically on the road so that's been pretty impactful.
Michael you want to you want to grab.
The second part of the question.
If you could repeat that.
Yes, yes.
Wrong second or third quarter growth in our charging station.
After over quarter from the third quarter of last year.
Part of it was the ramp up because of the.
Because obviously.
Lower utilization from Covid and 2020.
But we have a lot more a lot more charters that are also in the ground that we're that we're operating in that we own and operate so.
And also a contribution to that as borgwarner wherever they're there they're mix. They are also owner operator business like we are in selling.
As well as selling charters. So there was a contribution that comes so we've had a mix we don't have a specific percentage are aware.
It came from all over the place so we're very encouraged with the continuous.
The growth in that charging revenues, obviously very excited and.
And we expect obviously as more and more charges or put in the ground that we own and operate.
See that continued trajectory.
Understood, Okay and then.
My follow up pivoting to to supply chain, which I'm sure you felt to some degree along with most everyone else in the world. This quarter can you provide any any commentary as to where you might have those challenges.
Thinking about either logistics versus component sourcing.
And where you expect those challenges to take you in fourth quarter and into 2022.
Okay, we've been fortunate enough not to be heavily impacted today.
By some of these component shortages other than.
Releasing newer technology.
There is a protocol that's being implemented throughout the industry.
Let's close the charge certainly mobile applications and you don't need RFID cards. Unfortunately, that's being impacted right now, but for us getting more charging stations out there without some of that newer technology, we're doing okay.
But shipments do take a bit longer than we expect.
So that is impacting us a bit.
We hope that it's going to be cleared up by.
Mid <unk>.
Mid to late second quarter of 2022.
Understood. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you our.
Our next question today is coming from Craig Irwin Roth Capital Partners. Your line is live you may begin.
Good evening, Thanks for taking my questions.
You've been at this game for quite a while right.
And you've been a public company for a number of years.
There was another.
The company that reported in the last couple of days.
They gave guidance based on a holiday season, maybe causing a contraction in the.
The miles driven with Tvs and maybe demand for charging can you maybe talk a little bit about the historic trends you've seen in the holiday season, and whether or not you think that people are actually starting to drive longer distances with their evs use them more.
To show them off to their family members.
When these holiday events come around.
We're not experiencing the same issue as some of our competitors.
Correct. We are doing this for a long time, a very long time, we've been doing longer this longer than.
Pretty much any of our competitors, especially from an owned and operated position we kind of invented the space.
Yes, you did so.
So the second question I know you guys are always a little bit shy.
No.
Sorry.
I'm sorry, Mike Michael I was just ask my second question is I know you guys are always a little bit shy talking about utilization on the network side. If we could maybe talk in generalization is here.
It looks like you're more than double the utilization this past quarter than any preceding quarter actually I would say pushed at two 5% above the utilization peak.
That you hadn't any preceding period is that approximately accurate.
Okay.
I'm not sure we lost Michael.
Well this is it.
Go ahead, Michael Rama why don't you answer the question, Yes no.
Yes, Youre right were seeing the increase in utilization obviously, we're still.
In general.
As we've mentioned before <unk> the percentage of Tvs.
All vehicles is still low right and the ecosystem, but we're seeing that trajectory start to increase.
Oems as more vehicles on the road and we are seeing that that that increase in utilization.
With many of our Chargers.
And.
Yes, the increase is.
As you.
Noted, Greg Youre seeing it as well.
By the way back on sorry for that technical difficulty.
I guess the phone guys don't like me on these calls.
Yes.
You heard me I think were cut off last time, so [laughter] exactly.
I guess I'm Lucky one that youre still on.
Well, yes, maybe I guess.
Yeah.
Last question right so you're.
You're clearly investing for growth here.
How should we think about the expense burden.
In the next few quarters should we look at similar sequential growth over the next couple of quarters.
You know.
What factors do you consider.
In your hiring programs and your investment in market development.
We see growth.
Increasing across the board for the next little while in the space.
We have 6% 700% growth.
In parts of our business.
Could be.
Again, we are more conservative in our approach if we.
Over excel and do better than we expect that as rates.
But the growth is going to be in this industry as I mentioned and what I said earlier, we're talking about reaching the benchmark of about 100000 units earlier this year.
And globally, we need.
Entered 20 million charges by 2030.
We believe that we're going to be able to participate in deploying a lot of those charging stations, whether we own them and operate them to go up I think one model, where we sell our hardware to third parties. We believe we're going to participate we've been getting some tremendous validation.
Within the industry.
And as people see more and more of our charters on the streets.
Trophy locations in the buildings they live in the building to stay working.
There'll be more and more familiar with us and I think it will accelerate our growth there as well but.
This industry is going to grow for the foreseeable future and everyone really needs to take into consideration remember something.
It's inevitable probably.
Probably Monday sometime.
Our president is signing the bill.
Youre talking seven $5 billion being invested in deploying charging stations throughout the United States.
Just historically looking at how we've been able to participate on these ramps and rebates.
We should be able to extract a lot of that money.
Whether it's our customers using that capital to deploy charging stations or us getting as much of it is possible for us to deploy charging stations that we own ourselves.
So right now.
Historically, we've never seen.
Business.
That has been such a growth phase and also being showered with massive capital by the government and that's the position that we're in every one is huge in this industry right now which is to be able to take advantage of these opportunities. It just so happens that blink.
As I believe better position than most because of our experience and because of our team.
Uh huh.
Our team against any company out there today in our hands down I think I think.
We're the clear winner, we have tremendous amount of experience.
Look at our team from Brendan to meet go to rich art.
The experience that we have in just a second to none.
Great well congratulations on that revenue result, I'll hop back in the queue.
Got it thank you.
Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Sameer Joshi at Wainwright. Your line is live you may begin.
Good afternoon, guys congratulations on the great progress.
Michael.
You mentioned and looking across the business.
When you step back and look at your priorities.
Is it.
More.
Hum.
And in.
Adding more company similar to Blue Cuomo.
The next generation product development.
And most importantly.
<unk>.
It is around making sure you have a seat at the table.
$7 5 billion starts building.
Deployed on.
Distributed.
Okay.
When it comes to our M&A.
M&A plans moving forward.
We plan on growing organically and through acquisitions.
Company's meaningful it's really been always too.
Bolster their portfolio of locations.
And then we've done some other acquisitions as well.
But our main focus is really to how are we going to get more customers and how are we going to drive down the price of our fuel to get to those customers. That's our vision is really fueling customers with electricity.
And bringing down the cost of our equipment while building a.
Yeah.
Amazing box.
That's that's what we work on <unk>.
Acquisitions are going to be <unk>.
Robert.
First and foremost.
It's really extending our portfolio of locations I've been saying this for over a decade. This is a land grab this is still a land grab.
We have 100000 charges as I mentioned earlier that we achieved earlier this year.
There's a few more since then.
But there is tens of millions that needs to be installed here.
Globally as I mentioned 120 million by 2030.
Our objective and our goal is to have as many locations that we can have that we own and operate that we have long term recurring revenue streams on an exclusive basis.
And again, it's not about whether it's a level two charging station or DC fast charging station I think a lot of people just categorize us to say hey use level to that is no. It's not about that it's about getting the land.
It cost us, let's say five or $6000 to put a level two charging station there and today it may not warrant the DC fast charging but that's now on location.
Our competitors are investing in putting DC fast Chargers and some of them who have put DC fast Chargers and over the last 5678 years almost all of their entire portfolio do you see is really to be thrown in the garbage and most people don't realize in this space.
What we've done is we've invested in that location at the smallest entry point as possible and when utilization increases and it warrants spending 50 to 100 $200000 to outfit a location with DC fast Chargers, we can always pull that level, two out and putting whatever we want and our contracts when we own and operate.
Not about a piece of equipment, it's not about technology, it's about us having exclusive right to provide electric vehicle charging services at that entire location and that location consist of if youre a scooter I know it gets that granule, if you're on a bicycle E motorcycle.
An easy that you're driving or what are these drones that you are going to be flying in a few years that is our exclusive still mean at that entire address and it's not about a level two charging station or a DC fast charging stations it was about us being.
Why is enough at that point in time to spend as little amount of money to gain access to that location on an exclusive basis.
I hope I answered all your questions.
Yeah.
Yes.
You have always appreciated you as a company that has been a itself.
On land grab.
And I'm sure you will continue to do so.
One of the one part of the question was about.
To get a seat at the table flowed that $7 $5 billion a night.
There can debate.
Remember, it's about experience in history.
You have new you have new fly by night companies that just came in and they have this thing and not doing nothing how many companies out there have actually.
Developed hardware.
<unk> has their own network and has actually put in thousands upon thousands upon thousands of units actually in the ground and has the portfolio of properties that we have I don't care, if you're talking easy, though I won't talk to you if youre talking to Electrify America look at the numbers of properties, we have versus debt versus any of them.
Nobody is even in comparison to us, but nobody's valuing the portfolio of properties that we have.
They're just looking at if you go are electrifying micro even charge for charge points doesn't anything they.
They sell a charging station I can't tell you how many locations we go in and pull out an old charging station at no charge and we now have a long term exclusive contract with them because our contracts are sticky and we want when we owned the location, it's not about that one charging station.
We have the entire parking lot every single parking space in that facility is ours. So when evs are 5%, we could have five or 10 units in there and when there were 100% I guess, two or three or 400 units in that parking slot in the parking lot and we have locations that have 13, or 14 or 15000 spots and you may need.
<unk> 30, or 40% of them ended up.
Ours are ready so because of that that gives us a seat at the table because we've done this longer than anybody we have more access to locations than anybody we have amazing legacy customers and there's nothing you can compare to the experience.
Yeah certainly.
Just one more on sort of along the same loans.
Having a landgrab.
Stickiness.
You have around 250000 registered members.
Albeit any loans too.
Is that.
We are closed.
When you when you add up all of the different.
Customers or users that we have on our network, it's considerably higher than that.
I'm not sure.
I don't remember was posted the latest Q I know youre discussing not too long ago.
I mentioned on the call today someone in the prepared remarks so.
But I just wanted to see if there are like a concrete that fluids.
To increase the stickiness without a question.
There's no question about we are going through a phase of growth.
And that is beyond my dreams.
The addition of harsh winter as our CTO, what you see today and what Youre going to see happen over the next quarter.
Following and the quarter after you're going to see a blink that no one can compete with a competitor.
The experience and the knowledge that <unk> brings to the table and the team that he has.
Nothing short of amazing, what we're doing and it's touching every single aspect of our business.
Whether it's the it in our company, whether it's the hardware itself.
The services the systems the functionality the features.
Youre going to see a different brink over the next six to 12 months do you guys, who would be very very surprised.
There's not one thing in this company, that's not going to be completely revise and taken up to levels that are not in the rest of the space.
Yeah.
And I know people say I know people say, hey, maybe Michael as being a little bit aggressive, but you also mean for 13 years I've been I've been pitching easy when everybody thought it was much.
And everybody thought I didn't know what I was talking about but the bottom line is I'm, telling you. The team that was built over the last little while and.
The outcome of their efforts are now starting to be felt and what we're going to see over the next little while is just incredible and I could speak of this because I know what my competitors are working on I know what your products are and you can see what we're going to have over the next little while it's going to be very very impressive I would just tell you sit back relax and enjoy the ride.
Thanks, and congratulations again on the river.
Thank you thank you <unk>.
Got it.
Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Gabe Daoud at Cowen. Your line is live you may begin.
Yes.
Thanks, Good afternoon guys.
Was curious if you could maybe.
Talk to or maybe guide us through a little bit of a.
What you have in the backlog in terms of stations that Blake owns and operates that are maybe in some kind of construction queue that you talked about getting to over the next couple of months is there like a number that you can maybe talk to in terms of stations that are in progress.
I don't think we've ever publicly.
Disclose information like that show.
We want really really prepared for that here.
But.
The best thing I can tell you is.
If you haven't downloaded our apps download our apps.
And without disclosing any names or having to say anything.
Screwing on the entire United States on the map.
And then push the list button. So you could see that written out by names and then start scrolling through those names.
And then you'll understand the industry validation that we're now receiving.
Without tooting our own horn.
That on your own and will speak for itself.
But the Bottomline is we havent ever.
Detailed and outlined.
Our pipeline before.
And I'd have to speak for legal and I don't know if this is the time to do it right now.
But ultimately again shrink is at such a massive growth phase, we're going to see massive massive activity now with the bite in dollars.
And none of us having to sell any of that activity.
So without a question you're going to see major major growth in this industry across the board, whether it's us or any of our competitors because of what's just going on legislatively.
The money that's available globally.
Thanks, and I hope that answered your question.
Yeah, No we could certainly take a look at that.
And then I guess just following up.
The new product that it looks like you'll you'll outline or unveil in Vegas in a couple of months here could you maybe talk a little bit about how.
How would that change the strategy these advertising.
And if you have any like demand or orders for anything like that so far.
Yes, we have a tremendous amount of interest in having a product like this available.
We're very interested in having the product because it allows us to monetize locations that we've developed over the last decade plus.
In the past, we reliance solely upon charging station revenues or obviously, our hardware sales. This really allows us to incentivize property owners put the hardware and today.
Because there is instant gratification and recharging stations, a little bit further down the road.
Looking at this product both as in our own and operate model as well as being able to provide this to those that bike Chargers from us and then being able to participate on the advertising side. So we're extremely excited about this.
I'm sure most of you guys over the years you've.
Pardon me I've always talked about.
Different ideas and concepts that we're going to hopefully once we reach a certain scale start releasing and trying to monetize all these locations that we have and there's quite a few different ways to do so this is something where.
We believe we could make a very big impact of the market, we're not looking to give away free charging some of our competitors do.
We're looking to go ahead and have the property owner to be able to participate in share in the advertising revenues as well as charging station revenues.
And we believe that its an amazing product that's going to be really.
Very well received by property owners across the globe.
Yeah.
Great looking forward to more details on that and then just last one for me Michael.
Is there an updated our station count.
And then I didn't get the number on the conference call and I was curious.
Of the patients that are on network whats the percentage, what's the update on the ones that you do own and operate at this point.
Michael do you have that on here.
Yes, we have about and will be released in the Q tomorrow. When we file we couldnt filed today because of the FCC was close but but as part of the slides of the combined over 28000.
Of what's on the Blake 7200 R on the blank network.
And $44 30, our LTE publicly accessible commercial charges so.
We've been running about half and half.
Between what's.
Owned and with our own operated and what's some.
Some of the wholesales.
Got it got it okay. Thanks, guys.
Okay.
Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Stephen <unk> at Stifel. Your line is live you may begin.
Thanks, Good evening gentlemen.
Good evening. Thanks for me two things I wanted to ask about one is could you give us.
Good.
On the Blue corner transaction and just.
Maybe as part of that is there anything that you have learned from quoting them that that is applicable to the U S market.
You hadn't thought of that.
I wish I wish I was on video.
I wish I was on video because.
You asked me about Blue corner I just have this massive massive smile on my face.
One of the things about Blink is most don't know, but we've grown through consolidation acquisitions I think were a combination of about 11 or 12 companies to date.
And I used to think the equal Italian acquisition, where there was about $2 $300 million invested in the company and we bought them for $335 million in all their assets. The Blink name link technology I used to think that was the best transaction.
Blink ever did.
And most people are like.
What's wrong with Blue corner, how is it possibly you bought those guys for like 25 million Euro there must be some major issues with that company.
I have to tell you without a doubt as of today.
Blue corner was the best most unbelievable transaction this company has ever done.
The growth that they're having.
The impact that they have is just is just off the charts.
The amount that the amount of exchanging between us and them from every facet of our businesses.
It is across the board.
And if you took that company and looked at it on its own merits and it was a standalone company and it was trading on its own I would tell you the company would probably be worth $1 billion on its own.
Based upon obviously these beautiful.
Beautiful valuations that we have today in this space I don't think this company has.
Received any value for that acquisition as of yet because I think everybody is underestimated doesn't realize what we've accomplished with that deal.
It is off the charts of the company and where we're seeing it and feeling it every single day.
And we're working on right now is some to the.
Internationalize and point because today, we have a blue corner network and then we have another break International network and then we have the network in very short order you're going to have one point network that handles all of these charging stations across the globe multi currency multi language.
And we're going to see some amazing seasons to our businesses.
We acquired because of those investments to our network and everything and all the technology around it and the Blue corner transaction was just off the charts for us.
Great. Thank you.
The other question I just wanted to ask about is.
I know you don't give any specifics about the fourth quarter, but when you think about the fourth quarter from <unk>.
Seasonality perspective.
You do tend to see more.
More installations in more sales I mean, I imagine maybe more sales just because of the auto sales in general tend to be up late in the year, but.
The third quarter than.
The third quarter, typically because you have Thanksgiving and Christmas and at the end of the year and all that kind of stuff.
Typically as you can see historically.
Much of the fourth quarter. So we'll put some of the trouble is historically the fourth quarter is slower than the rest of the year.
Again, we'll see how that goes.
It hasn't been too bad, but it's definitely without a question.
Alrighty I also remember where our store equipment.
Throughout the country, there are certain cold areas that makes it a little bit more difficult to install.
We're definitely do see some seasonality in our space.
What would that just suggests slower growth, but growth sequentially or do you might want to call that.
Again, just if you look at our prior year periods.
Over the last year and then the prior periods, we're showing exponential growth from prior year periods.
A quarter of the year.
Slower than let's say other quarters of the year because of the seasonality.
And the weather itself.
I believe all the color. Thank you.
Any other questions.
Yes. Our next question today is coming from Noel Parks at Tuohy Brothers. Your line is live you may begin.
Good afternoon.
Hello.
Yeah.
One question I wanted to ask you about and you touched on it.
Earlier as that.
We do have.
Bunch of and in that international.
Players in the EV charging space.
Without a big U S presidents who are.
In the process of entering.
But in.
In contrast in your business model most of them are just Oems, whose business does not extend to installation and generally you think in a more competition not a good thing, but I'm just wondering does the wider hardware variety that's.
On its way to getting offered in the U S is there absolutely is an opportunity or a benefit to you potentially from that.
Okay. When you mean by installations, you mean by owning and operating or actually doing the physical installations.
Actually either one.
Kind of just equipment only of the.
Like Asian, and European players that are now starting to work their way into the U S.
Okay.
Our philosophy.
So we've developed about 13 years ago almost.
Let us to the belief and understanding that all hardware becomes commoditized.
And I'll just give you a perfect example of the first charge point unit that we ever bought our first half of our lives. Some charge point they were our supplier. We're their biggest customer once you bought the equal Italian assets, we started developing our own hardware.
But prior to that.
We only owned and operated.
We bought hardware at $6200 for a single Port unit.
I think it had maybe 1.8 kilowatts of output.
And today, we're seeing stuff.
On the European side of the business, maybe 1200 per port and Youre looking at potentially 43 kilowatts of output.
So you're talking about massive commoditization massive consolidation on pricing massive compression, obviously 6200, much much much faster and much more robust much more features and youre getting down to 1000.
That's not the space that we want to focus on because that's inevitable you're gonna have charging.
Charging ports for a few hundred dollars a piece that are gonna have connectivity.
Ultimately you're going to get there.
The real future of this business is owning those locations and having the recurring revenue stream over and over and over again hardware becomes Commoditized every business, we see that across the board.
And you usually typically have a few players we built a charging station.
That can satisfy our customers and satisfy.
Our property owners and make sure that we leave the obsolescence.
And we use that and built it for our business most of our competitors should develop hardware as I mentioned earlier, they look for upgrade cycles. They wanted to get rid of that stuff completely way of building hardware.
And again take a look at the map as I mentioned earlier and you can see a lot of industry validation.
Where these are going and the reason why is because these Oems actually benchmark units I guess all of US Austin charge point, then sema and flow when any one in every one of them you can think of domestic and foreign.
And we were selected why because we build we build a better box and the reason why we do so because our model is different we own it.
Have you seen in the field for 10 20 years, if it's possible even our competitors build a different.
So differently.
A totally different model, so we'll spend a little bit more to firm up the units that are a little bit better of our components are competitors, saying, hey, we want a modem to go.
Offline and do you have to buy a whole new unit in the future. We have a different way of looking at things you'd want to make sure. If there is modems change go into that unit changed the modem will have this little boxes of outage different philosophy of building hardware, because we own and operate and we're seeing the payoff of it we're seeing people really want to buy a hardware.
I think that's going to be a very difficult market, but I think it's become commoditized and closing the interest in <unk>.
The global nature of the space.
But positioning ourselves as we have is to take advantage of the opportunities while they exist. So while theres an opportunity to sell hardware. We're a key player in that space. While there is an opportunity to provide networking services to others. Besides herself.
We're in that space, but our real business, but we look at where we're gonna be in 10 and 20 years from now is owning those charging stations and making money every single time, you fuel that vehicle.
Right right got it thanks and for the.
The AD revenue that that you're envisioning with the new products are going to be launching.
Yeah I know, it's early stage with this but is there anything you can talk about as far as what the sales channels that you you might envision for for selling be accurate.
Okay first off first of all I wanted to understand when we're deploying one of these.
Advertising pedestals, they won't be installed unless we have an advertiser who is willing to commit to pay for that advertising. So that's number one we're going to spend money to put something in there and take some risks.
What we're doing.
When we owned and operated our plan is to make sure that we have the advertisers there when we sold to a third party. They may have their own uses for it for their own advertising or will bring.
The advertisers to them and monetize it that way.
But we plan on when you look at the type of locations.
That that can use this type of service look what we are building out look how many municipal contracts we have hospitals.
Movie theaters are mixed used location shopping malls.
Streets.
<unk>.
There are certain locations that don't want them right like you might have a high end condo building, who wants a charger because honestly it doesn't having screens.
But you have a lot of others, where you have.
An apartment building, where the property owner doesn't mind, having some advertisers you could generate additional revenues.
So there are so many different locations.
That can use the service and wanted to service it.
Something really really great to have in our portfolio with every one of our locations that want to have it we're going to put it in as long as we can get a commitment from an advertiser. So that we can monetize litigation, we're not interested in having a field of dreams model with this product. This is something that we're going to have a deal in hand before we're moving to one of these medicines.
Great. Thanks, I think the important distinction thanks a lot.
Got it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Now I'd like to turn the call back to Michael <unk> for closing remarks.
Uh huh.
Thank you everyone for joining us. This is an extremely exciting time for our company and we remain focused on expanding our footprint growing our customer base.
Establishing new partnerships, we look forward to speaking with you again very soon thank you everybody.
Okay.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude todays event you may disconnect at this time and have a wonderful day, we thank you for your participation.