Q4 2024 Blink Charging Co Earnings Call
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Speaker Change: Greetings. Welcome to the Blink Charging 4th quarter, 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Vitalie, Stelea, VP of Capital Markets, and FPNA. You may begin.
Vitalie Stelea: Thank you John and welcome to Blink's fourth quarter, 2020 for our names called.
Apologist for the slide delay due to technical difficulty.
Vitalie Stelea: But with us today on the call, we have Mike Battaglia, President and Chief Executive Officer and Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer. Today's discussions will include non-GAAP references which are reconciled to the most comparable U.S. GAAP measures in the appendix of our earnings deck.
Vitalie Stelea: You may find the deck along with the rest of our earnings materials and other important content on Blink's Investor Relations website.
Vitalie Stelea: Today's presentation may also include forward-looking statements about our expectations, actual results may differ from those stated and the most significant factors for those differences are included on page 2 of the 4th quarter of 2024 earnings deck.
Unless Otherwise Noted, All Comparisons Are Year Over Year
Vitalie Stelea: And now, regarding the investor relations calendar, Blink will be participating in the Roths Capital Investor Conference in Dana Point, California on the 17th of March. In addition, please follow our announcements and our website for other events in the future.
Vitalie Stelea: And at this point, I will turn the call over to Mike Battaglia, President of the CEO of Blink Charging. Go ahead, Mike.
Mike Battaglia: All right, great. Thanks for telling. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today.
Mike Battaglia: As most of you know, I officially soon the CEO role on February 1 after my tenure as CEO and so far a month and a half into it. I'm even more excited about where our company is headed in the future for Blink.
Mike Battaglia: We are moving very fast as an organization to build a winning global EV infrastructure company.
Mike Battaglia: 2024 headed challenges, but we made solid progress on many fronts.
Mike Battaglia: For example, in 2024, Blink continued to significantly grow its service revenue, delivering record full-year results and increasing our footprint of Blink-owned Chargers, which is the future of Blink.
Mike Battaglia: With respect to hardware and product sales, we intensify our efforts to successfully develop alternative sales jams.
Mike Battaglia: and while there's still work to be done, we have established a solid foundation to build from.
Mike Battaglia: And as we relentlessly pursue profitability, we initiated a variety of cost reduction actions that resulted in significant savings in operating expenses and lower cash consumption.
So with that, please turn to slides four and five.
Mike Battaglia: Our fourth quarter, 2024 consolidated revenue, was $30 million, a sequential increase of 20% when compared to the third quarter of 2024.
Mike Battaglia: Service revenues grew 24% in the quarter to $9.8 million, compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, and network fees increase 9% to $2.4 million year-over-year.
Mike Battaglia: During the quarter, we dispersed 42.5 gigawatt hours of energy across all blank networks.
Mike Battaglia: A year-over-year increase of over 100% and a new Blink record.
For the full year, our total revenues were $126 million.
Mike Battaglia: We had mentioned last quarter, and I want to note again, that 2024 product sales were faced with a challenging and calm, as we had significant decent fast charger sales to auto dealerships in 2023.
Mike Battaglia: However, throughout 2024 we focused on other sales verticals such as large electrical distributors, multi-family properties, commercial fleets,
Mike Battaglia: Local and State Governments, Offices, Hospitals and Schools, just to name a few, which provide blank with profitable and sustainable revenue.
Mike Battaglia: Service revenue for the year was $35 million, also a Blink record, driven by increased utilization, a greater number of Blink-owned chargers in the field, and an increasing mix of DC fast chargers, which is another key focus area for us.
Mike Battaglia: Gross Margin for the full year was 32% and we continue to have confidence in our margin profile going forward.
Mike Battaglia: Before I move to the next slide to discuss growth of our service revenues, I want to spend a minute on current market conditions surrounding electric vehicles and charging.
Mike Battaglia: Electric vehicles are seeing strong demand from consumers, as Cox Automotive reported that new electric vehicle sales in the month of January 2025 were up nearly 30% compared to January 24.
Mike Battaglia: In fact, January 2025 marked the 10th consecutive month of more than 100,000 EV sold in the United States.
Mike Battaglia: This was following the month of December , where USEV sales reached the highest level ever.
Mike Battaglia: As the market matures, we are confident that the proliferation of lower-cost EVs and used second-hand EVs that are entering the market will continue to drive the wider transition to electric vehicles in both the mid and long term.
Mike Battaglia: In addition to the increase in new electric vehicles on the road, another major factor that is driving demand for charging services are used in these.
Mike Battaglia: Cox Automotive reported that used EV sales grew by nearly 31% year-over-year in January 25th
Mike Battaglia: These sales results for both new and used electric vehicles are encouraging as they form the foundation of ED Charging Demand.
Mike Battaglia: Another point that is important to address is the recent terror announcements and their effect on Blink.
Mike Battaglia: In short, we do not expect tariffs to be a significant burden on our gross margin as we primarily source components and third-party finished goods within the United States and from India, where our two production facilities are located.
Mike Battaglia: But this is obviously a moving target so we need to continue to monitor political developments and market conditions and we'll adjust according.
Mike Battaglia: So with that, let's move to Slide 6, which ties into what we just described earlier.
Mike Battaglia: Blink ended 2024 with 6,867 company-owned charges, which is a 33% increase compared to 2023 year-end.
Mike Battaglia: These chargers were the primary reason driving Blink's 2024 service revenue to nearly a 32% increase year over year to almost $35 million.
Mike Battaglia: We saw record-charging revenue which grew 37% to 21.4 million.
Mike Battaglia: This impressive growth is due to the increased number of Blink owned units, better site selection, and inclusion of more DC fast chargers into our portfolio. Again, this is the future of Blink and its bright spot.
Mike Battaglia: As we've highlighted, we are increasingly focused on growing our DC fast charger Blink-owned portfolio. In fact, revenue from our DC Blink-owned Chargers went up nearly 500% in 2024 when compared [inaudible]
Mike Battaglia: This focus is evident in our recent announcements such as our agreement with World Farms, a mid-Atlantic regional fueling and convenience store chain where Blink owns and operates 76 DC Fast Charging
Mike Battaglia: This exemplifies the type of partnerships and revenue growth that will drive our focus into the future.
Looking at slide A.
Mike Battaglia: Blink has the third largest EV charging network in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Our scale is important, especially now as we see industry consolidation in both the U.S. and European charging industries.
Mike Battaglia: This consolidation represents an attractive growth opportunity for Blink either through organic benefits or through acquiring assets.
Mike Battaglia: Across the Pond in Europe , we are one of the leading providers of charging services with significant operations in the United Kingdom and Belgium.
Mike Battaglia: This is a corporate strength as our operations there provide revenue and profitability diversification especially with a consistent transition to electrified transportation across the continent.
Mike Battaglia: In the UK, for example, almost one out of five vehicles sold in 2024 were electric.
Mike Battaglia: and the used electric vehicle market saw a 57% increase in sales.
Mike Battaglia: Similarly in Belgium, 2024 was a record breaking year for EV sales where electric vehicles made up nearly 30% of new car sales, resulting in a 36% increase in registrations.
Mike Battaglia: The growing adoption of EVs was primarily driven by corporate fleets, which accounted for nearly 87% of new fully electric registrations in 2024.
Mike Battaglia: and we continue to make progress enhancing the capabilities of our global network. We are nearly complete with the consolidation of our European software networks into our global Blink 2.0 network, which will provide operational and cost efficiencies.
We are also taking actions to improve network throughput.
Mike Battaglia: For example, we replaced a number of legacy DC and L2 chargers this past quarter with more advanced equipment.
Mike Battaglia: This action will not only improve the customer experience, but will also lead to increased charging revenues.
Speaker Change: And now, before I turn it over to Michael Rama, I wanted to emphasize the progress that Blink made in 2024 in reducing our cash burn and operating expenses.
Michael Rama: Through cost avoidance and optimization actions, total operating expenses as adjusted for non-cash items were reduced by 24% in 2024.
Michael Rama: Sequentially, our Q4 operating expenses were down 17% when compared with Q3 of 24.
Michael Rama: This was primarily driven by a $4.3 million dollar or 28% reduction in compensation expense.
Michael Rama: Compensation expense for full year 2024 was reduced by 37% compared to prior year, and most importantly, our cash firm was reduced by 51% in 2024.
Michael Rama: On a quarterly basis, we reduced operating cash firm from $18 million per quarter at the end of 2023 to $9 million per quarter at the end of 2024.
Michael Rama: We reduced our cash burn by half, and we're definitely not done yet.
Michael Rama: I will come back at the end of the presentation with more details about some of the current actions we're taking to position Blink for profitability and long-term success.
Michael Rama: But for now, I will turn the presentation over to our CFO , Michael Rama. Michael?
Thank you Mike, and good afternoon everyone.
Now turn to slide 11.
Michael Rama: Our queue for 2020 or 24 revenues were $30.2 million. Total revenues for 2024 were $126.2 million to pair to $140.6 million for the full year 2023.
Michael Rama: Product revenues for the fourth quarter were $17.2 million, and $81.7 million for the full year.
Michael Rama: Fourth Quarter Service Revenues, which consists of charging service revenues, network fees and car sharing revenues were $9.8 million in increase of 24% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.
Michael Rama: Full-year 2024 service revenues were $34.8 million, representing a year-over-year growth of 31.8%.
Gross Profit
Michael Rama: with $7.5 million or 25% of revenues compared to gross profit of $10.6 million or 25% of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Michael Rama: Q4 gross profit was impacted by an acid adjustment of 2.9 million dollars which was primarily related to product upgrades as Mike mentioned earlier.
Michael Rama: Without the impact of this charge, Gross margins would have been over 35% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Michael Rama: Full year, 2024 gross profit was $40.8 million or 32% of revenues compared to gross profit of $40.2 million or 29% in the full year 2023.
Michael Rama: Excluding the impact of asset adjustments related to product upgrades, full-year 2024 gross margins would have been 35%.
Michael Rama: Operating expenses excluding non-cash in-parent and change in fair value charges decrease 21% to 23.1 million dollars compared to 29.5 million dollars in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Michael Rama: Sequentially, operating expenses decreased by $4.7 million or 17% compared to Q3 of 2024, primarily driven by decreased compensation expense.
Michael Rama: Full-year 2024 operating expense also adjusts for non-cash impairment and changes in fair value charges decreased $35 million or 24% to $111 million compared to $145 million in the prior year.
Michael Rama: Lost per share for the fourth quarter was 73 cents per share compared to a 28 cents in the prior year period. For full year 2024, lost per share was $1.96 compared to $3.21 in the prior year.
Michael Rama: Adjusted loss per share for the fourth quarter improved to 15 cents compared to 28 cents in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Michael Rama: Adjusted lost for share for the full year 2020 floor improved to 61 cents compared to $1.42 in the full year of 2023.
Michael Rama: Now, adjusting EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2024 was a loss of $10.6 million compared to a loss of $14 million in the prior year, in improvement of 25% year-to-year.
Michael Rama: Adjusted even out for the full year of 2024 was a loss of $49.5 million, compared to an even a loss of $7 million in 2023. This is an improvement of 13% year-over-year.
Michael Rama: As of December 31, 2020-24, the company had cash liquidity of $55 million, which includes liquid marketable securities and no cash debt.
As for our outlook, based on current visibility, Blink.
Michael Rama: believes service revenues will continue to increase throughout 2025. We expect product revenue in the first half of 2025 to be similar to product revenue levels in the back half of 2024 and anticipate product revenues to improve during the second half of 2025.
Michael Rama: We have provided an adjusted EBITDA target on previous calls. However, given the current macro dynamics, we expect to have better visibility around our timeline to reach adjusted EBITDA profitability as a year progresses and will update you accordingly.
Michael Rama: As a company, we remain focused on continuing to grow revenues while reducing property expenses and cash firm in order to drive towards profitability. I'll now turn the call back over to Mike for his final commentary. Go ahead, Mike.
Mike Battaglia: Great. Thank you, Michael. As we move through 2025, our industry is experiencing a challenging landscape, and we are focused on embracing operational strategies that will position Blink to effectively navigate the near term with a focus on driving long-term growth.
Speaker Change: With that in mind, we are introducing Blink Fold, our strategic focus for sustained success.
Speaker Change: First and foremost, our plan is focused on promoting our relentless pursuit of profitability with a sharp focus on reducing operating expenses.
Speaker Change: We reduced cashburn by 51% in 2024, compensation expenses by 37% and total adjusted operating expenses by 24%.
Speaker Change: However, there is more to be done and we are looking at every business department and cost center to ensure a path to profitability.
Speaker Change: The first pillar in Blink Forward is to continue our commitment to offer flexible customer-centric business models.
Speaker Change: We'll focus on being a constructive partner, understanding customer pain points, and providing solutions, whether it's through our reliable equipment and network, or software that controls energy management.
Speaker Change: Next, we have been shifting to and will continue to expedite the growth of our portfolio of Blink-owned DC Fast Chargers in attractive locations.
Speaker Change: And as mentioned earlier, owning and operating charging assets is the future of Blink, especially as we get the benefit of significant charging demand growth in Europe and the US.
Speaker Change: Third, we are prioritizing services and recurring revenue streams as we invest in future growth.
Speaker Change: For example, our network fees were $8.7 million in 2024 and generated 72% gross margin. This is the type of revenue we will pursue going forward.
Speaker Change: Fourth, we are attuned to opportunities to capitalize on the market consolidation that is happening across the industry. This consolidation could benefit Blink through market share gains or consolidating assets into the Blink network.
Speaker Change: And finally, we are looking to preserve cash, optimize operations, and wear needed to secure a low cost, preferably non-delutive capital to support our growth strategy.
Speaker Change: We have internally introduced these strategic priorities and have already begun executing on them.
Speaker Change: We look at the current industry landscape as an opportunity to demonstrate our resilience and to position Blink to be the best well-runed charging company in the industry.
Speaker Change: As I mentioned at the start of this call, 2024 was a challenging year. However, it has also been a rewarding year in terms of progress. It has made us a better company and we are implementing steps for Blink to achieve profitability and free cash flow.
Speaker Change: I would like to thank the Blink team for their efforts and we look forward to keeping you updated as we move forward. So with this, let's move on to Q&A, operator.
Speaker Change: Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press your store one on your telephone keypad.
Speaker Change: A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question cue. You may press start too if you'd like to remove your question from the cue.
Speaker Change: One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Once again, please press star one if you have a question or comment.
Speaker Change: Our first question comes from Sameer Joshi with H.C. Wainwright, please proceed.
Samir Josie: Hey, good afternoon, Michael, my congratulations on your first full call as CEO . Just a few questions from me, couple actually. In terms of 2025 outlook that was provided,
Samir Josie: How do you see the product sales visibility beyond the next six months? And also should we expect sort of year-over-year growth in product sales or other revenue sales to be offset by some shortfall in product sales and a flat-year overall?
Samir Josie: Yeah, so thanks for a question. I certainly expected that. So, so first of all, you know, as we indicated in the comments, the bright spot in the future of Blink is as a CPO interoperator.
Our business is expanding there. We're very encouraged.
Samir Josie: And you know, one of the things to point out is while my comments were, you know, I mentioned DC Fast Starts in quite a bit, that's not to the detriment or exclusion of L2. Blink has always been an L2 company and we're an L2 company at a poor, but we're going to balance out the mix.
Secondly,
When it comes to product sales,
Speaker Change: This is actually a great opportunity for me to brag about Chris Carr.
Samir Josie: Who is our new senior vice president of sales and business development so we were very lucky to land Chris. [inaudible]
Samir Josie: He was brought in to do some very specific things. His job is certainly to grow the owner operator side of the business but it's also to take advantage of the product sales opportunities in the market. Thank you.
Samir Josie: So he has already put plans in place. He has shifted resources around to optimize the skill set of our salespeople. So some salespeople are better at selling products, some salespeople are better at the owner operator side of the business.
So, we've already put that in place [inaudible]
Speaker Change: So from a product sales perspective, we are actually quite optimistic about the second half of the year. It's just that Chris has just gotten on board and the first half is, I would say a little bit cloudy, but we're hoping to, you know, have better visibility and guidance on that topic as we go forward.
Undisturbed.
Speaker Change: Shifting gears a little bit and talking about your efforts to capitalize on market consolidation, Blink has historically been an acquisitive company.
So, the short answer is yes.
The longer answer is, we have companies.
Under consideration that we're looking at, there's nothing solidified.
Speaker Change: But there are some very interesting opportunities that are presenting themselves in the market.
We have the luxury of being-
Speaker Change: Being able to be very selective, we've been approached by a number of companies but we're certainly very very focused on making sure that if we go down this road that they are absolutely the right companies, the right assets.
Speaker Change: The right fits for Blink and quite frankly that we don't overpay because there's no reason to overpay in this market for assets that perhaps are struggling a bit.
Speaker Change: And then just maybe one last one I can squeeze in. Do you have a timeline on the NYU IPO and how is that process going?
Speaker Change: Yeah, it's all obviously we publicly announced our intentions to IPO on Void. We continue to work towards an IPO in the spring. All I can tell you is, you know, from an administrative standpoint etc. we're on track but, you know, more to come on that.
Anderson. Thanks a big my questions and good luck.
Dissectioner.
Up next is Chris Pierce with Needham, please proceed.
Chris Pierce: Hey, good afternoon. I'm just as curious as you shift more towards honor operator, you know, I guess if we see some of the sort of change and
Chris Pierce: regulatory administration and product sales sort of becomes more of a...
Chris Pierce: You know, when she grows there, would you shift back to product sales or, because I know you guys have sort of had a multi strategy approach I just kind of want to get a sense of if this is fully pulling the bandaid off or if this is just reacting to what's going on in the market right now.
No, I don't, you know, [inaudible]
Chris Pierce: I don't know that we are reacting in any way, shape or form to what I would call, you know, short term.
Dynamics, right? Maybe the best way to put it.
You know, we have always [inaudible]
said that.
Chris Pierce: What Blink wants to be in the long term is an owner operator of charging assets.
Chris Pierce: And that's, so that's never changed. Perhaps you're hearing the message a little bit more sharply, maybe a little bit more well defined. But our intention is to accelerate growth of the owner operator business, but certainly not give up on the product side by any stretch. I mean the product side is still a strength for us. And as I've said in previous calls...
Chris Pierce: We want to serve the whole market. There are a set of customers that all they want to do is buy products.
Chris Pierce: and we want to be there to sell them that product.
Chris Pierce: But there is another set of customers that they are interested in having somebody else manage those charging assets at their location. And we want to be there for that. That I would simply delineate it as.
Chris Pierce: We're expressing the strategy, perhaps more clearly, and also introducing a bit more emphasis on D.C. Fast Trojans.
Speaker Change: Okay, and then just for the other, Michael, how should we think about, you know, margins through the year as you lean more into the owner operator model, and you lean more into DC fast charging in the owner operator model.
Speaker Change: No, I think, you know, we'll still, obviously, we didn't give any guidance on margins, right? I haven't given any guidance, but I still think that, you know, as you've seen over the past, even this year, even for 24 as our product.
Speaker Change: Sales were down, our margins overall were still up, right? So what that shows is the strength in the orange-operate side with margins as well as being more efficient with our product.
Speaker Change: This expectation is we don't see much impact on the overall product mix.
Ruka, thank you and good luck.
Speaker Change: The next question comes from Craig Irwin with Roth Capital Partners. Please proceed.
Craig Irwin: Good evening, thanks for taking my questions. So 33% growth in Blink on Chargers, but 112% growth in gigawatt hours and throughput. So you're obviously seeing nice improvements in overall utilization across the network.
Craig Irwin: Are we already seeing tailwinds from you guys putting out some of the Tesla and Naxx connectors out there, given that's two pairs of the fleet, or is that something that can maybe help you with utilization on the Blink network, or the next number of quarters as you start
Craig Irwin: Yeah, it's the latter Craig. So we haven't deployed that many NACS connectors yet, but you know certainly that's the focus going forward. So I would say that, you know, to the degree to which we'll see an uplift on native next connectors on the chargers, we really haven't even seen that yet.
Wow, okay, that's, that's good to hear, that's good to hear. So then, um...
Craig Irwin: I just evidenced the easiest metric for us as we track your cost-out progress.
You know, it was a really nice differential improvement.
Craig Irwin: and your frictional costs, salaries, SNA, etc.
or obviously coming down fairly significantly.
Craig Irwin: Can you help us maybe get a little bit more quantitative or give us some color?
Craig Irwin: Do we seize dramatic, you know, 50% reduction in salary and comp again, you know, how much more is in their room.
Craig Irwin: to squeeze these different line items and any other information you can share with us to help us understand the path to positive EBITDA.
Craig Irwin: Yeah, yeah, certainly expected this question, Craig, and you know, thanks for asking it. So let me, let me start by saying
Craig Irwin: In this industry there has been a lot of talk about getting to EBITDA positive and getting to free the casual positivity.
Craig Irwin: And there's been a lot of talk and there hasn't been a lot of delivery.
So, as I get into this role,
Craig Irwin: One of the things that I want to do is if we're going to come out and put a number out or a day out as to when we're going to get there, I want to be damn sure we get there.
Craig Irwin: So we need two things to happen. We need the top line to grow more aggressively than it's growing today.
Craig Irwin: and then secondly, we need to take additional costs out of the business. So what is the magnitude of that cost?
Craig Irwin: I'm not going to put a number on it but what I would say is that
Craig Irwin: It's not just people, you know, we're evaluating every aspect of our cost structure, our team.
Craig Irwin: Globally is engaged in that exercise and when you start to get momentum with people throughout the organization
Craig Irwin: Digging for and raising cost reduction actions, it becomes a bit infectious.
Craig Irwin: So we're starting to see that happen so you know what compensation expense come down a bit yeah it probably will hopefully mostly through attrition and but there's going to be some other other costs outside of outside of comp that come down as well.
Craig Irwin: That definitely makes sense. So then Gross margins, 24, your product revenue contracted, but you had pretty nice margin expansion there. I know there have been a lot of moves to sort of. But I'm.
Craig Irwin: Go to a more efficient footprint, the more efficient manufacturing in your expanded facility in Bui.
Craig Irwin: But is there, you know, if we take a cautious view on just moderate growth in product sales in 25?
Craig Irwin: Is there room for these actions that you've taken to continue to contribute to positive margin?
Craig Irwin: Potential Mars in Expansion even in 25 or I guess this last quarter is that more of a starting point for us to see progress from as we move through the year.
Craig Irwin: Yeah, so I think where you would see margin potential, let me use that word potential margin expansion.
Craig Irwin: is on the owner-operator side where we have more control over fees.
Craig Irwin: So, think about, you know, critical transaction fees and session fees and price per kilowatt hour and things like that. So, we're starting to analyze that data in a much more sophisticated way than we ever have. So, think about perhaps like dynamic pricing based on demand throughout the day.
On the product side, we're focused on
Boyce, frankly, doing a better job managing our inventory.
Craig Irwin: So, we, our ambition is to turn our inventory at a greater rate. It is to manage the working capital associated with inventory more efficiently.
Craig Irwin: And so, you know, we need to strike, you know, I mean, Craig, you know, I came up to the sales organization and, you know, you always need to strike that balance between moving volume and margin.
Craig Irwin: and I would say that we're still playing with that a little bit, but I expect that product margin to be pretty consistent with where it has been.
Excellent. And then...
Speaker Change: I guess this might be a multi-part question, but business mix has kind of been in your favor the last couple years, right? Level two, never faced the big structural headwinds of, you know, the confusion around around...
for the Navi money.
Speaker Change: and some of the things going on the stage. You guys always did really well with corporate customers. I guess like Starbucks and I guess I can say that because I've seen it outside.
Speaker Change: You're charged with outside so many different Starbucks as I stopped for coffee.
Um.
Speaker Change: But, you know, you've focused on things like New York State.
Speaker Change: The Direct Buy There, where you don't have the uncertainty of federal money. So it seems like maybe business mix can be a little bit favorable, or continue to be a little bit more favorable to you, particularly on level two versus level three.
Speaker Change: Are you optimistic for some of these tailwinds that have worked for you for a longer term perspective?
Speaker Change: Specifically, the state support to keep helping you in 25. Do you think that this can help deliver product growth in 25, which I guess is a big question investors have in their heads? Yeah, yeah, so so we're fortunate to have
Speaker Change: Several state contracts where we're a name supplier on those contracts. One great example is in New York. So yes, I mean, we expect.
Speaker Change: We expect to do more on those state contracts, but we also expect to do more in Europe . And I think that that is also perhaps a little bit of an underdog or...
Speaker Change: Stealth area for us in 2025. We have some really interesting things happening in Europe and you know what example is
The U.K.'s version of Navi.
Speaker Change: and I'm not making this up, is the program called Levy, L-E-V-I, and there's 340 odd million pounds.
Committed to that program from the UK Government.
and we feel well-positioned.
Speaker Change: We, in fact, we just recently had a press release on one opportunity which you can take a look at.
Speaker Change: So, you know, there's there there's that we're also seeing some very large owner operator opportunities in Belgium. So, you know, it's really I want investors to think about.
Speaker Change: The fact that Blink is diversified and that it's not, this company is not just dependent on the United States or even one second in the United States, we can pivot to, you know, to different markets.
Speaker Change: Excellent. Last question, if I may, I guess the balancey question.
Speaker Change: How much room is there to go? Can you guys continue to squeeze working capital and make improvement on payment terms with your customers and vendors? Is this really an opportunity for tailwinds on that 50% reduction in cashews last year?
Craig Irwin: Yeah, I'll jump in on that. Yeah, I'll take that Craig, yes, and to quote Mike, the short answers. Yeah, no, there's...
We're so... [inaudible]
Craig Irwin: implementing measures to squeeze more cash out of our AR and our balance sheet. And as we mentioned earlier as well is quicker turns on our inventory. So it's improving the working capital management if you will of our balance sheet and definitely use our balance sheet to our benefit.
Speaker Change: Excellent. Well, congrats on the progress, guys. We'll follow closely. Thank you. You're great. Thanks for it.
Thank you for watching!
Speaker Change: Once again, if you have a question or a comment, please press star one. The next question comes from Nikki Legg with Benchmark. Please proceed.
Hey guys, thanks for taking my questions.
Nicky Legg: So, you mentioned the alternative customer channels. Just curious if you could unpack that a little bit. You know, how are these discussions going and you know, what are you hearing from customers? I know.
Nicky Legg: You mention you're not going to have more visibility into product sales until later in the year, but I'm just curious if you know...
Nicky Legg: There's any bright spot among these channels whether it be multi-family or commercial fleets or anything of that nature and longer term just curious how big you think that business could grow or what it is the biggest opportunity there.
Thank you, Nikki. Thanks for joining. I would say
Nicky Legg: You know, from talking to the sales team, we've made tremendous progress with electrical
Building that electrical distribution channel is that it's more efficient.
Nicky Legg: So, you know, it's not just the Blink sales team, it's the Blink sales team interfacing with the electrical distributor who then has, you know, far broader reach. So, we are spending and our reps are spending a lot of time and effort developing that electrical distribution channel.
Nicky Legg: The second bright spot that I would say, and this is an area we've actually always been pretty good at but I think we're getting even better is in local municipalities.
Nicky Legg: and there are a lot of local municipalities that are building out charging infrastructure.
Nicky Legg: Again, they may do it for flea in which case they're purchasing the chargers or we're partnering with them on setting up infrastructure in their town city.
Nicky Legg: on an owner-operator basis or our hybrid model which is that shared investment model. So I would say I probably give those two examples or are decent ones.
Nicky Legg: Some good, uh, upside to the margins, but I'm just curious if you see any, you know, hurdles there as you grow that business and you know if there's any
Nicky Legg: Change in focus based on geography, you know. Are you more focused on growing that business in the EU as it's more mature and then taking some of what you learned over here? Just curious.
Yeah, good question. You know.
Nicky Legg: It's really interesting what's going on in the market right now because there's...
Nicky Legg: So many headlines, especially in the US, that it's hard to decipher, you know, fact from fiction.
Nicky Legg: So we tend to follow the data, which I think is the right approach, and the data says that there's a whole hell of a lot of activity in the electric vehicle market in the United States in addition
Nicky Legg: So this is not a choosing, this is not Blink having to choose between the US and Europe . This is Blink addressing both markets. So we're going to continue to invest in the US because we know that the electric vehicle growth is going to continue. [inaudible]
Nicky Legg: But to answer the first part of your question, you know, the challenge as you ask about the own or operator model is capital, right? It requires capital to deploy in order to move in that direction.
You know, we are actively pursuing—
Capital Sources, [inaudible]
Nicky Legg: Our focus is on non-doluted capital and different types of capital, so not just one particular type, but there's, you know, whether it's using our balance sheet, whether it's project based, whatever that might be.
Nicky Legg: If there was more investment in terms of equity into Blink and the share price was stronger, that would give us more flexibility.
Nicky Legg: But for the moment, based on market conditions, where are stock prices, etc. It's on the it's on the non-delutive side.
Speaker Change: Okay, okay, that's helpful. And then one more if I could just squeeze it in here.
Speaker Change: You touched on this a bit already, but could you just dig into a little bit more how you're protected from any regulatory changes and maybe terrorist related to the supply chain and everything we're hearing out there about that?
Speaker Change: Thank you. I would say I don't know that anybody's protected. I wouldn't have been able to go that far. But what I would say.
Speaker Change: is that, you know, we have a production facility here in Maryland, and so that allows us to...
Speaker Change: Shield ourselves a bit, let's say, from some of those tariffs and regulatory issues that come up because we can source, we have suppliers here in the U.S. that we can source from and we can build chargers here. But even in terms of our India production footprint.
You know, it becomes...
Speaker Change: A manufacturing unit's numbers game, in other words, yes, will we get hit with some tariffs on let's say stealing aluminum in our idea if it is good? Yes, but our cost-base.
Speaker Change: on those charges is lower, so we can absorb it. And so perhaps that landed cost is, you know, really on par with, let's say, our US-based chargers, and we just have more finish goods coming in.
Speaker Change: Okay, okay, got it, that's very helpful, that's all for me, thanks guys.
Speaker Change: Okay, and the last question comes from Noel Parks with two e-brothers. Please proceed.
Noel Parks: Hi, I just had a couple. And I apologize if you touched on this and I missed it, but you had an impairment charge in the quarter. If you could just sort of big on a little bit as to what was involved in that timing and so forth.
Speaker Change: Yeah, it's up and on nice. You know, you know, the fourth quarter in November is our annual give it an annual impairment exercise. You have to go through or if there's indicators on the off quarters, if you will, during the third quarter, second quarter, first quarter, if there are indicators.
We-Bot!
Speaker Change: Summit Connect back, you know, two and a half years ago when the valuations are high, our market capital come down. You know, so this is just a byproduct of acquisitions from when the valuations are mature higher, so we had to write down that goodwill effectively.
Speaker Change: Got it. Okay, thanks for the non-cash, remember non-cash, so that's why I have my cash rates right?
Speaker Change: Right, absolutely. You were talking a little bit on an earlier question about just different verticals and how the business is going, and you also talked about...
and different channels like Electronics.
Speaker Change: and you're talking about the electronic electrical distributors. I think it's one market I was curious about is
Innam.
What's been kind of a-
Speaker Change: Fast and Furious Real Estate Market with the interest rate and environment of the last couple of years.
Speaker Change: in some parts of the country where there's been a lot of population growth is also...
Speaker Change: a lot of new construction that's been going on and coming online. And some of it, some single family subdivisions, I guess some of it probably multi-family. And I was just wondering, as you see new
Speaker Change: Projects, in this case residential being planned out, where do they come down in terms of why they're trying to satisfy their, you know, their, their own home or EV charging needs? What's, what's that been like?
Yeah, so, um,
Speaker Change: Kind of, I'm going to first it just slightly, so I want to emphasize again and we talk about this is that Blink really doesn't have exposure to the pure residential EV charging market meaning I have a single family garage and I'm buying a charger on Amazon. So that's not us.
Speaker Change: What we do a big market for us is commercial multi-family and so yes there's a lot of activity there. What you see is that more and more building codes.
Speaker Change: Are Requiring Stelebops Right? Make Ready For Certain Percentage of Parking Spots Within That Parking [inaudible]
Speaker Change: And so what that does is they may do the minimum.
Speaker Change: But that is actually an opportunity, it's actually a great opportunity.
Speaker Change: for Blink with our hybrid business model, our hybrid balloon business model. So they've already built out the infrastructure. We've come into properties like that, and we put the charger in at no cost.
Speaker Change: And then, our return on investment is the utilization of that charger and the tenants, the residents of that apartment building paying for their charging sessions. And they get the benefit of basically having, you know, affectionately a gas station at home.
Speaker Change: Oh terrific, that's interesting. And then have you been far enough along with any of those that you've seen, you know, needs for upgrades, you know, is rolling out and increased density of chargers and developments like that.
Speaker Change: Yeah, so, you know, I mean, one indicator of that is...
Speaker Change: We have, at Blink, we have what's called an additional equipment request.
And that is when a sales rep has an account.
and they have our Blink Own Chargers.
Speaker Change: And this is very anecdotal, so I'm just going to qualify, but this is anecdotal, but hopefully it clarifies where it answers what we're talking about. And the number of requests that I've received in the last few months for additional equipment have already existing sites has definitely spiked.
Speaker Change: So we are starting to see properties add to the number of chargers that they have on site.
Speaker Change: So I don't have a quantity, you know, I haven't quantified that yet, but again, anecdotally, I'm just signing more of those.
Great. Good to be here. Thanks a lot.
Speaker Change: We have reached the end of the question and answer session and I will now turn the call over to Vitalie Stelea for our closing remarks.
[inaudible]
Speaker Change: Well, thank you all for joining us on the call today as we announce record service revenues.
Speaker Change: and Strong Gap Gross Margin of 32% of the full year.
Speaker Change: We also unveiled Blink Forward, a number of strategic actions that will enable Blink to achieve profitability and position the company as a leader in the charging industry both in US and Europe .
Speaker Change: And at this time, we're going to conclude the call and we'll look forward to keeping you updated in the future. Thanks again.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Speaker Change: This concludes today's conference and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.