FLNC - Fluence Energy Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results

ARLINGTON, Va., May 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fluence Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: FLNC) (“Fluence” or the “Company”), a leading global pure-play provider of energy storage products and services as well as digital applications for renewables and storage, today announced its results for the three months ended March 31, 2022.

Strategic and Operational Highlights

Second Fiscal Quarter Ended March 31, 2022

• Robust demand trends driving project wins across the organization:
  • Entered into 582 MW of energy storage product contracts during the quarter, illustrating strong demand during a historically low order intake quarter due to seasonality;
  • Entered into 343 MW of energy service contracts during the quarter; and
  • Entered into record 2,791 MW of Fluence IQ digital contracts during the quarter;
• Achieved substantial completion on four Gen 6 products totaling 191 MW during the quarter.
• Signed first contract to optimize pumped hydroelectricity storage solutions for 1,200 MW, expanding the Fluence IQ bidding technology to a new and growing asset class.

Recent Developments

• Entered into an agreement to acquire Nispera AG, an AI-Enabled Software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, enhancing Fluence’s digital leadership position with a combined digital portfolio of 15,000 MW contracted or under management.
• Completed the first-ever pilot program with Google to deploy an emissions-free battery backup solution for its Belgium data center, laying the groundwork to build on future opportunities for Fluence.
• Finalized agreement with U.S. based contract manufacturer that is expecting initial production of Fluence products in early FY 2023.
  

Financial Highlights

• Second quarter financial results showcase strong order intake and backlog conversion.
  • Record revenue of $343 million in the second fiscal quarter, up 249% from the same quarter last year.
  • Net loss for the second fiscal quarter was $(61) million, compared to net loss of $(24) million for the same quarter last year.
  • Adjusted EBITDA* for the second fiscal quarter was $(53) million, compared to $(21) million for the same quarter last year.
  • Total cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash increased by approximately $44 million compared to December 31, 2021, to a total of approximately $723 million as of March 31, 2022.
• Total backlog of $2.2 billion as of March 31, 2022, comprised of approximately $1.8 billion from energy storage products, and approximately $0.4 billion from recurring revenues businesses (energy storage services and Fluence IQ). This is compared to our December 31, 2021 total backlog of $1.9 billion.

*Non-GAAP Financial Metric. See the section below titled “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for more information regarding the Company's use of non-GAAP financial measures, as well as a reconciliation to the most directly comparable financials measure stated in accordance with GAAP.

Executive Summary

Commenting on the quarter, Manuel Perez Dubuc, the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said “I’m pleased to report the progress we have made in delivering on our commitments to our customers, resulting in record quarterly revenue of $343 million, representing a 249% increase from the same quarter in the prior year. Our strong order intake reflects robust demand for our energy storage products, services, and digital applications. In particular, Fluence IQ continues its advancement by growing capabilities that we believe are driving strong customer interest and future cross-selling opportunities. Overall, we are pleased with our efforts and believe the market’s sustainable and growing demand for our products leaves us well-positioned to create long-term value for our shareholders.

In April, we entered into an agreement to acquire Nispera, a leading SaaS company based in Switzerland that helps customers monitor, analyze, forecast, and optimize the performance and value of renewable energy assets. As a result of the acquisition, we now have a combined 15 GW of assets contracted or under management within Fluence IQ. Our acquisition of Nispera accelerates our plan to grow our digital capabilities and expands our digital geographic footprint to 25 countries. We believe that this expansion also provides us with powerful cross-selling opportunities and serves as a launching point for Fluence IQ’s entrance into the European market.

As we look to the second half of this fiscal year, we are encouraged by the progress we have made and steps we have taken to deliver our customers best in class storage solutions. We remain mindful of the latest COVID-19 driven lockdown in China, delaying production of certain components scheduled for the near term. That being said, we will continue to implement initiatives that ultimately mitigate delays, control costs, and deliver our products and services in a timely manner.”

Commenting on the Company’s financial results, Dennis Fehr, the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, said “During the second fiscal quarter, we made solid progress towards completing several key projects, resulting in stronger top-line performance and reduced impacts on margins from short-term headwinds. We will continue to further reduce these impacts in the coming quarters. At the same time, the new supply chain environment has elongated our expectations for project completion and revenue recognition for the balance of this year and throughout fiscal year 2023. Still, we are encouraged by our growing backlog, which is more than $2 billion as of the end of the second quarter, providing us visibility to future financial performance.”

Fiscal Year 2022 Total Revenue Guidance

The Company reaffirms previously provided fiscal year 2022 total revenue guidance between $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion. Based on the ongoing COVID-19 related lockdowns in China resulting in energy storage product shipping delays, we see an increased risk that some of our anticipated project-related revenue will shift into the next fiscal year. As a result, we anticipate that our fiscal year 2022 total revenue will trend near the lower end of our previously announced guidance range. This guidance assumes that ongoing headwinds will be lessened during the second half of 2022.

Share Count

The shares of the Company’s common stock as of March 31, 2022 are presented below:

⁽¹⁾ Before incentive compensation award plans

Conference Call Information

Fluence will conduct a teleconference starting at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday, May 12, 2022, to discuss the second fiscal quarter results. To participate, dial +1 (866)-374-5140 and refer to conference passcode 91422397# approximately 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

The teleconference will be simulcast in a listen-only mode at: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/cwjcki2hor or on https://ir.fluenceenergy.com/news-events. Supplemental materials including the quarterly earnings presentation may be referenced during the teleconference will be available on our website.

A replay of the conference call will be available after 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 12, 2022. The replay will be available on the Company’s website at https://ir.fluenceenergy.com/news-events and will remain available for the next 12 months

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We present our operating results in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. (“GAAP”). We believe certain financial measures, such as Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Gross Profit, Adjusted Gross Profit Margin, Adjusted Net Loss, and Free Cash Flows, which are non-GAAP measures, provide users of our financial statements with supplemental information that may be useful in evaluating our operating performance. We believe that such non-GAAP measures, when read in conjunction with our operating results presented under GAAP, can be used to better assess our performance from period to period and relative to performance of other companies in our industry, without regard to financing methods, historical cost basis or capital structure. Such non-GAAP measures should be considered as a supplement to, and not as a substitute for, financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. These measures have limitations as analytical tools, including that other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate these measures differently, reducing their usefulness as comparative measures. Please refer to the reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures included in this press release and the accompanying tables contained at the end of this release.

About Fluence

Fluence is a leading global provider of energy storage products and services and AI-enabled digital applications for renewables and storage. Our energy storage products are built on our sixth-generation technology stack (“Tech Stack”), which combines our modular, factory-built hardware (“Fluence Cube”) with a proprietary edge-based controls system (“Fluence OS”). Our service offerings include delivery services and recurring operational services, as well as financing structuring services, such as energy-storage-as-a-service (“ESaaS”). The Fluence IQ Digital Platform includes the Fluence Bidding Application, which delivers AI-powered market bidding optimization for solar, wind, and energy storage assets, including non-Fluence energy storage systems.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements described herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements set forth above under “Fiscal Year 2022 Total Revenue Guidance,” and other statements regarding the Company's future financial performance, expectations as to the demand for the Company's energy storage products, and the Company's business strategies, expansion plans, including the anticipated benefits of our acquisition of Nispera, future results of operations, future revenue recognition and estimated revenues, losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management. Such statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. When used in this press release, words such as “may,” ”possible,”   “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “targets,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. and variations thereof and similar words and expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events, and their potential effects on our business. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance, and there can be no assurance that future developments affecting our business will be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, which include, but are not limited to, our ability to achieve or maintain profitability, our ability to successfully execute our business and growth strategy, including realizing the expected benefits of our partnerships with ReNew, Pexapark and QuantumScape and other strategic initiatives we may enter into in the future, our ability to develop new product offerings and services, the potential adverse effects of the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, including capacity constraints within the shipping industry, increased shipping costs and delays in the shipping of our energy storage products, projects delays and site closures and cost-overruns and other factors set forth under Item 1A.“Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2021, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on December 14, 2021, Item 1A. “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2022, and in other filings we make with the SEC from time to time. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all such risk factors, nor can we assess the effect of all such risk factors on our business or the extent to which any factor or combination of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements made in this press release. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur, or which we become aware of, after the date hereof, except as otherwise may be required by law.

Contacts

Analyst
Lexington May
+1 713-909-5629
Email : InvestorRelations@fluenceenergy.com

Media
Email: media.na@fluenceenergy.com

FLUENCE ENERGY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND
COMPREHENSIVE LOSS (UNAUDITED)
(U.S. Dollars in Thousands, except share and per share amounts)

FLUENCE ENERGY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (UNAUDITED)
(U.S. Dollars in Thousands, except share and per share amounts)

FLUENCE ENERGY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (UNAUDITED)
(U.S. Dollars in Thousands)

FLUENCE ENERGY, INC.
KEY OPERATING METRICS (UNAUDITED)

The following tables present our key operating metrics as of March 31, 2022 and September 30, 2021, and for the three and six months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021.

FLUENCE ENERGY, INC.

RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP MEASURES (UNAUDITED)

The following tables present our non-GAAP measures for the periods indicated.

(a) Included awards that will be settled in shares and awards that will be settled in cash.
(b) Amount for the three months ended March 31, 2022 included a $(1.7) million reduction related to COVID-19 pandemic costs as a result of release of prior period project charges net of non-recurring excess shipping costs, and a $4.4 million loss related to the 2021 cargo loss incident.
Amount for the six months ended March 31, 2022 included $35.3 million costs related to COVID-19 pandemic including non-recurring excess shipping costs, project charges and other costs, a $8.6 million loss related to the 2021 cargo loss incident, and $0.1 million non-recurring IPO-related expenses which did not qualify for capitalization.

??? (a) Included awards that will be settled in shares and awards that will be settled in cash.
(b) Amount for the three months ended March 31, 2022 included a $(1.7) million reduction related to COVID-19 pandemic costs as a result of release of prior period project charges net of non-recurring excess shipping costs, and a $4.4 million loss related to the 2021 cargo loss incident.
Amount for the six months ended March 31, 2022 included $35.3 million costs related to COVID-19 pandemic including non-recurring excess shipping costs, project charges and other costs, and a $8.6 million loss related to the 2021 cargo loss incident.
(c) Some amounts may not reconcile due to rounding.

???? (a) Included awards that will be settled in shares and awards that will be settled in cash.
(b) Amount for the three months ended March 31, 2022 included a $(1.7) million reduction related to COVID-19 pandemic costs as a result of release of prior period project charges net of non-recurring excess shipping costs, and a $4.4 million loss related to the 2021 cargo loss incident.
Amount for the six months ended March 31, 2022 included $35.3 million costs related to COVID-19 pandemic including non-recurring excess shipping costs, project charges and other costs, a $8.6 million loss related to the 2021 cargo loss incident, and $0.1 million non-recurring IPO-related expenses which did not qualify for capitalization.