Nextracker Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 10, 2023

There are 14 speakers on the call.

Operator

Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Nxtracker 4th Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. This call is being recorded on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Don Quineby, Director, Finance and IR.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to NEXTracker's inaugural earnings conference call for our Q4 and full year fiscal 2023 results. With me today is our Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Dan Sugar our President, Howard Wenger and our Chief Financial Officer, Dave Bennett. All three will give brief remarks followed by Q and A. Slides for today's call as well as a copy of the earnings press release and summary financials are available on the Investor Relations section at nextreker.com.

Speaker 1

This call is being recorded and will be available for replay on the Investor Relations section of our website. As a reminder, today's call contains forward looking statements, which are based on our current expectations and assumptions. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For a full discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see the cautionary statements in our presentation, press release or in the Risk Factors section of our most recent filings with the SEC. Note, this information is subject to change, We undertake no obligation to update these forward looking statements.

Speaker 1

Please note, we will provide non GAAP measures on today's conference call. The full non GAAP to GAAP reconciliations can be found in the appendix slides of today's presentation as well as in the summary financials posted on the Investor Relations section of our website. All growth metrics will be on a year over year basis unless otherwise stated. Now, I'd like to

Speaker 2

turn the call over to our CEO. Dan? Thank you for joining NEXTracker's first earnings call since our IPO on February 9. We will review our full fiscal year 2023, including the Q4 recently completed and also provide guidance. I'm pleased to be joined today by our President, Howard Wenger and Chief Financial Officer, Dave Bennett.

Speaker 2

Given this is our first earnings call, we will spend extra time to We created X Tracker 10 years ago with a vision of a world powered by renewable energy. Our mission for achieving that was to provide the most intelligent, reliable and productive solar power systems. As a company and together with our industry colleagues, We've made significant progress advancing our vision. Today, solar leads new power plant additions in many grids around the world. Slide 5.

Speaker 2

So what does NeXtracker actually do? We design, manufacture and delivered Solar trackers, control systems and software. Our technology helps customers achieve higher profitability by increasing their energy production, lowering operation costs and protecting the equipment in extreme weather. Our trackers enable up to 30% more energy to be produced annually compared with stationary solar arrays. The tracker, typically over 300 feet long, rotates the solar panels to follow the sun during the day.

Speaker 2

Solar panels, electrical inverters and switchgear are provided by others to the customer. Slide 6. For a sense of scale, consider a 3 25 megawatt project using NeXT Tracker, such as the project we see in this image.

Speaker 3

This is a big system,

Speaker 2

but we have single sites that are 5 times larger. This typical project Covers roughly 4 square miles with thousands of trackers. On average, we delivered a system of this size every week last year. Slide 7. NEXTracker has been the global leader in the market as measured by shipment volume, Revenue and profitability for the last 7 consecutive years.

Speaker 2

But achieving market share metrics is not an objective for Market share is a byproduct of what we are really focused on innovation, Operational excellence and customer success. This focus has resulted in more than 80% of our sales orders coming from Repeat this. As of today, we've delivered over 2,000,000 trackers to dozens of countries. In total, our systems support over 74 gigawatts of solar power plants, the equivalent power generating capacity of about 85 We achieved these metrics through innovation that will be covered by Howard, a global footprint and relentless focus on customer service. NixTracker's greatest strength is our team and culture.

Speaker 2

Our executive leaders have over 20 years of solar experience on average. 6 of my 6 co founders are still with the company 10 years later, which reflects well on our high performance culture of teamwork. We have strong trusted customer relationships and understand the needs of developers, independent power producers and contractors due to our deep Industry domain expertise. Slide 8, we completed our fiscal 2023 on March 31. We optimize our business for annual, not quarterly metrics, and our results validate our approach.

Speaker 2

Last year, we achieved record annual revenues of $1,900,000,000 and EBITDA

Speaker 4

of $209,000,000

Speaker 2

Year on year, we achieved a 30% growth in revenue and more than doubled our EBITDA, while generating over $100,000,000 of free cash flow. We also achieved phenomenal sales results, finishing the year with record backlog of $2,600,000,000 We define backlog as firm orders with deposits. A few months ago, amidst turbulent conditions in the financial markets, NEXTracker completed a successful IPO. We offer our sincere appreciation to our IPO stakeholders, starting with our global customers. We thank each of our customers for your ongoing confidence and doubling down with NEXTracker, enabling our backlog to grow 90% over the prior year.

Speaker 2

We value our business partners from contract manufacturers, independent engineers, banks and consultants that have enabled us to scale and reliably serves the global market. And we are extremely appreciative of our investors who funded our IPO, which was a success for the entire renewable power industry. We believe it is our responsibility to deliver strong investment returns through disciplined performance and ferocious focus on customer satisfaction. In addition to delivering for our investors, We believe this will demonstrate solar is an attractive investment sector such that additional capital is invested to our industry necessary for realizing our vision of a renewably powered world. And finally, we thank our entire NexTracker team for your professionalism, Customer focus and dedication.

Speaker 2

Slide 9. Now let's focus on key industry drivers. Paramount is Solar's tremendous cost reduction progress. Lazard, a leading financial advisory firm, Regularly publishes a comprehensive analysis comparing the production cost of power generation technologies. Their latest report shows a new power plant On an unsubsidized basis is lower cost than new coal, Nuclear or gas power generation in most of the world.

Speaker 2

In fact, solar with an average cost of $60 per megawatt hour unsubsidized is about half the cost of a new coal plant and about a third the cost of a new nuclear plant. A new gas plant at $70 per megawatt hour is slightly higher cost than standalone solar and slightly less expenses than solar plus battery storage at $74 per megawatt hour on average. Slide 10. We just reviewed Solar's competitive economics today, which have decreased in cost about 600% over the last 15 years. When you consider the availability of solar incentives in some markets, it's straightforward to understand why economics are the major factor driving solar demand.

Speaker 2

Additional policy tailwinds complementing growth are decarbonization, The desire for energy independence further amplified by the Ukraine war, the U. S. Inflation Reduction Act with similar policies overseas and appetite to invest in renewable energy and electrification programs. There are 2 major headwinds impacting solar growth in the U. S.

Speaker 2

The first are trade barriers to importing solar panels, especially those with Chinese content. While the situation is improving, industry growth has been materially impacted and many project schedules has extended until panels become available. The second major headwind is delays with electrical interconnection and permitting projects for While these issues are usually solved on an individual project basis, they can delay the project implementation significantly. In aggregate consideration of the cost and policy factors, it's insightful to see that since 2010, Solar has increased from about 10% to half of new power generation capacity added annually in recent years. Slide 11.

Speaker 2

We covered that NEXTracker has maintained leading global share. The most recent regional share data from 3rd parties is shown here, superimposed with the estimated total available market through 2030. NEXTracker has lead share in North America, Latin America, Africa and Australia. There is also meaningful markets in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In most of these locations, Nxtracker has regional offices with sales, engineering and service to support customers.

Speaker 2

Slide 12. NixTracker has intellectual property and know how regarding manufacturing our products, but our strategy has been to outsource almost entirely with manufacturing partners, which is why our depreciating assets are so minimal. The prior chart illustrated the regional solar markets. This chart shows how we map our supply chain to align with those local markets. In totality, NEXTracker has Over 50 partners across 16 countries and 5 continents.

Speaker 2

This global diversification provides customers with confidence we deliver and also provides us international trade optionality that mitigates risk. We believe NEXTracker has built by far the largest capacity and the most geographically diversified position in our sector. Slide 13. Let's take a deeper look at our U. S.

Speaker 2

Supply chain. During the pandemic, Commodities such as logistics and steel suffered steep inflationary cost pressures and port congestion impacted our ability to deliver on time. We made a decision early on to leverage our know how to massively ramp U. S. Capacity.

Speaker 2

Last summer, we celebrated 3 factory dedication events in Texas, Arizona and Pittsburgh. At the time, we reported on 10 gigawatts of reported capacity with additional plans Progress. In response to strong demand and the IRA incentives, we further increased capacity in these plants and work with additional domestic manufacturers and select overseas partners to relocate equipment to the USA. In fact, we have another factory announcement with a key partner coming next week. At the end of fiscal 2023, We have over 25 gigawatts of capacity under contract with over 15 U.

Speaker 2

S. Suppliers. Many of these plants are shipping finished goods today and ramping as they add shifts to personnel. Now I turn the call to Howard to share details about our operations, technology and customers.

Speaker 3

Let me echo Dan by congratulating the NeX Tracker team. We could not be more pleased with the company's many accomplishments. We had a very strong finish in Q4 with momentum that has put us in a great position for our new fiscal year ahead. Let me provide some background into our technological innovation, which coupled with the best in class team Dan discussed, allows us to win business across all regions and terrains. Please turn to Slide 15.

Speaker 3

We can break down our innovations into 3 categories covering over 3 50 patents issued and pending. These innovations are designed to work together to enhance lifetime energy production at the lowest possible capital cost and operations and maintenance cost of the entire solar power plant, while also assuring the highest reliability and control to protect the system. The industry characterizes this as LCOE, which is defined as levelized cost of energy. Offering a lower LCOE is one of Primary factors that enable X Tracker to win in the market. As you can see from the next Slide 16, Our inventions resulted in a leading balanced tracker that enables each tracker to be independently powered and controlled.

Speaker 3

This tracker architecture has unlocked a series of innovations that further differentiate us. For example, Our patented TruCapture software optimizes energy yield uniquely for every tracker row. We have over 190 projects with TruCapture around the world, and we believe we lead the industry by far in this category. Our unique balanced tracker design also enables optimum light capture for bifacial solar panels that are now the standard for large scale systems. Our extreme terrain following tracker Called XTR can eliminate all site grading and enables installations on rolling hills and more challenging terrains.

Speaker 3

We have sold and deployed XTR on over 65 projects globally, again leading the industry. Our Navigator software platform connects all of our trackers back to a central hub that enables single button control for panel stowing and cleaning as well as site vegetation management, all backed by an onboard UPS for every single tractor in the field, assuring connectivity and control of the entire solar field even during grid power outages. In summary, Our integrated tracker architecture provides advantages that allows us to win business across all regions and site conditions, all climate zones in all varieties of terrain around the world. This is illustrated on the next Slide, number 17, where you can see NEXTracker projects deployed across the United States. We win business in large sunny flat regions like Texas and the deserts of California and Nevada.

Speaker 3

We went in more diffuse light regions in the south and in the wet rolling hills of the southeast. We went in colder and higher latitude regions in the Midwest And also in the Northeast, where sites frequently are more constrained with the regular boundaries. This highlights the flexibility of our tracker hardware and software system architecture. With various innovations and extensions of our flagship Horizon Tracker System solution, we can win everywhere. Please turn to Slide 18.

Speaker 3

Our Tracker Solutions global scale, financial stability and long time industry experience have enabled deep and trusted customer partnerships. Over 80% of our revenue comes from repeat customers. This underscores how we partner with our customers for mutual success, a model we have deployed across the world to continually win business. For example, on the next Slide 19, we show a selection of global project wins from the last fiscal quarter, Quarter 4. Although this is a small subset of our project and customer wins from the quarter, this highlights the breadth of our global reach and portfolio We have a healthy combination of new and repeat customers from North America to South America, from Europe to Asia and Oceania.

Speaker 3

These sample Q4 project wins also reflect the which brings me to our backlog. On Slide 20, we ended the year with a record backlog of $2,600,000,000 up 90% from the prior year. We define our backlog as signed contracts for specific projects with deposits from customers. By the end of fiscal year 2023, our backlog includes over $1,800,000,000 of project specific purchase orders and over $670,000,000 of DCAs or volume commitment agreements comprising multiple specific projects. VCAs are signed contracts with deposits from developers, plant owners and EPCs These are engineering, procurement and construction companies.

Speaker 3

We believe our VCA program, which began last year in fiscal year 2023 provides even greater visibility into our future revenue and growth. In general, legacy backlog contracts take 3 to 5 quarters to cycle into revenue. While our BCA agreements typically cycle into revenue from 3 to 8 quarters, in summary, as our backlog demonstrates, We are seeing significant demand strength in all of our core markets around the world, where our global revenue mix continues to be comprised of roughly Two thirds U. S. And One third Rest of World.

Speaker 3

Now let me turn the call over to Dave Bennett, our Chief Financial Officer, to review the financial details of the quarter and to discuss our guidance for fiscal 2024.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Howard, and thank you all for joining us today. Please note that all numbers referenced in my remarks are on a non GAAP basis, Unless otherwise stated, a reconciliation to comparable GAAP metrics and a list of the reasons why the company uses these measures can be found in today's earnings release, which is available on our website and as an exhibit to our Form 8 ks filed with the SEC. Please turn to Slide 22. Before we get into our quarterly and annual performance as well as guidance for fiscal 2024. I'd like to provide some key historical financial information.

Speaker 2

Note, our fiscal year ends on March 31. Due to the nature of our business, I encourage you to evaluate NexTrucker's performance on a full year basis. The exact timing of project deployments can vary based upon factors such as weather, component availability and project specific factors, which may impact the timing of revenue recognition between quarters. We report revenues in 2 segments, the U. S.

Speaker 2

And the rest of the world. For fiscal 2023, the revenue split was approximately 2 thirds U. S. And 1 third rest of the world. Revenue from TruCapture, our software solution, has trended historically at approximately 1% to 2% of total revenue.

Speaker 2

For income taxes and depreciation. Adjusted EBITDA of $209,000,000 for fiscal 2023 was a record with margins stepping up towards historic levels. To understand our margin opportunity, it's important to look at the past few years. We ended fiscal 2021 with $179,000,000 of EBITDA at a 15% EBITDA margin. We see fiscal 2021 as the last normal year before the industry began incurring higher costs associated with logistics and freight issues.

Speaker 2

The $92,000,000 of EBITDA in fiscal 2022 reflects the higher operating costs from these supply chain constraints. While the 6.3% EBITDA margin was not optimal, maintaining profitability during a historic downturn validated our disciplined financial execution. Turning to fiscal 2023. We saw improving sequential EBITDA and margin due to higher pricing, cost reductions and improved execution. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 11% for fiscal 2023 with sequential increases from 7.9% in the first quarter to 14% by Q4, which is trending closer to our margin profile prior to the pandemic.

Speaker 2

Now please turn to Slide 23 for our fiscal 2023 Q4 results. We closed the quarter at a record $518,000,000 of revenue, an increase of approximately 18% year on year versus the Q4 of fiscal 2022. It is worth noting that rest of the world revenue was up over 42%, driven by continued strong demand in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and India. Adjusted EBITDA increased 50,000,000 $73,000,000 from the Q4 of fiscal 2022, an increase of 2 27%. Looking at our fiscal 2023 versus fiscal 2022 results on the next slide.

Speaker 2

For full year 2023, Revenue was $1,900,000,000 an increase of $444,000,000 30% from the prior year. Revenue in the U. S. Was $1,200,000,000 up $329,000,000 Rest of the world revenue was up 115,000,000 The continued challenges with panel availability in the U. S.

Speaker 2

Impacted our software revenue in the second half of the year, which was at the low end of our 1% to 2% of revenue goal. Adjusted EBITDA increased $116,000,000 $209,000,000 from the prior year, an increase of 126%. Again, we are very pleased to have achieved increased EBITDA every quarter during the year. Fiscal 2023 adjusted free cash flow was over $100,000,000 an increase of approximately $250,000,000 from the prior year. Net working capital as of March 31st with approximately 13% of revenue.

Speaker 2

Turning to Slide 25, cash and liquidity. We believe that financial strength is an important differentiator and that our capital structure, including a strong balance sheet and ample liquidity is a key competitive advantage. In addition, we outsource our manufacturing to partners, which limits our capital expenditures. In conjunction with the IPO, we closed on a debt syndicate led by Tier 1 institutions, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi and Barclays. We executed a $150,000,000 term loan and a $500,000,000 revolver, which further ensures NeXT Tracker and execute independently from Flex and manage our networking capital.

Speaker 2

Total liquidity as of March 31, 2023 was $630,000,000 We have no significant maturities until our fiscal 2028. Note that we are currently operating at a debt to EBITDA ratio of less than 1. It's important to note that NEXTracker did not retain any proceeds We ended the fiscal year with $130,000,000 of cash. Please turn to the next slide for our fiscal 'twenty four guidance. In developing guidance, I want to point out a few factors that influence our outlook.

Speaker 2

As Dan discussed, we think the first half of fiscal twenty twenty four will continue to We expect our adjusted tax rate to raise between 15% 20% of adjusted pretax income based on the current ownership structure. We continue to invest in the business, including further expanding our supply chain, developing our team and product offerings. This is reflected in our EBITDA outlook. We have not factored in additional profitability resulting from the Inflation Reduction Act. With that context, our full year fiscal 2024 guidance is as follows: revenue is expected to be between 2,100,000,000 to $2,300,000,000 an increase of approximately 16% at the midpoint.

Speaker 2

Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $265,000,000 to $305,000,000 an increase of 36% at the midpoint. GAAP EPS is expected to be between $1.20 to $1.40 and includes approximately $0.15 related to stock based compensation and intangible amortization. Adjusted earnings per share is expected to be between $1.35 to 1 $0.55 based upon 146,500,000 weighted average shares outstanding. Our Q1 fiscal 2024 outlook is as follows. Revenue is expected to grow 15% to 20% versus Q1 fiscal 2023.

Speaker 2

EBITDA margin is expected to be between 12% to 13%, up 400 basis points to 500 basis points compared to the same period last year. I will now turn the call back to Dan for some concluding remarks. Thank you, Dave and Howard. I've been fortunate to be working in solar since the 1980s and I've never been more excited about our industry than today. We look forward to your questions.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct a question and answer session. Please be advised to limit to one question and one follow-up. One moment please for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of Mark Strauss from JPMorgan.

Operator

Your line is now open.

Speaker 5

Great. Good afternoon. Thank you guys and welcome to the public markets. So my first question, so it's good to see the bookings momentum continuing here. Curious if you can kind of break that down between What you're seeing U.

Speaker 5

S. Versus internationally, just curious if you're seeing any kind of temporary slowing of the sales cycle just as some of your

Speaker 3

Hi, Mark. This is Howard Wenger. I'll take the question. So We're really happy with where we ended up at the year, up 90% on our backlog to 2.6 $1,000,000,000 year on year growth. We finished very strong Q4 in terms of bookings.

Speaker 3

So we have a lot of momentum that we're carrying into the next year. The as Dave mentioned in his remarks and I did as well, our business has recently been comprised of 1 third rest of world, 2 thirds U. S. In terms of revenue, historically, we've gone as high as fifty-fifty. And the backlog is reflective roughly of our current ratio there.

Speaker 3

In terms of the Slowing of bookings related to Aira, we're just not seeing that.

Speaker 5

Okay. Okay. Thanks, Howard. And then if I can just sneak in one more. On the domestic content, Hearing from some folks that that might be getting closer, who knows, but just curious for an update there Since the IPO, as far as what percentage of the overall bill of materials you think you might be able to offer customers.

Speaker 5

I know the exact definitions are still to be determined, but any update there? And then maybe kind of how you're positioning the supply chain for different scenarios there? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Sure, Mark. This is Dan Sugar. I'll take that. As you noted, the Treasury Department I haven't defined the rules of what constitutes U. S.

Speaker 2

Domestic content under the IRA, so we can't give Specific informed answer for IRA purposes until those rules are issued. We Do intend to do what the customer needs to qualify for the ITC adder. In general, for customers that require domestic content, We can accept orders for about 70% to 80% of domestic content. These percentages are approximate. They can fluctuate as a function of commodity costs and other factors.

Speaker 2

We're also working with manufacturing partners For other components and we expect to be able to accept orders next year for over 90% domestic content for customers required. In addition, we are using U. S. Steel, meaning steel that's melted, processed encoded in the United States in our primary components like tubes that are produced domestically. Finally, I would add that in addition to mechanical components, we have proprietary electronic Tracker controllers that are manufactured domestically.

Speaker 3

Very helpful. Thank you. Your

Operator

next question comes from the line of Joanne Bumonlin Smith from Bank of America. Your line is now open.

Speaker 6

Hey, thank you team. Appreciate it. Maybe just two follow ups on the last question, Seth. First off, Just going back to you talk about pre pandemic levels and margins, etcetera, obviously making good headway against that. Can you talk a little bit about What that trajectory looks like and the cadence getting back to that at this point?

Speaker 6

I mean, well, I'll leave it there.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Julian. This is Dave Bennett. In terms of the margin trajectory, getting back to What we call normal, the 15% EBITDA in fiscal 2021. And as you can see, coming out of The low fiscal 2022 into fiscal 2023, our Q4 closed at 14% EBITDA. That's due to just us closing relative to the quotes, better execution, some cost reductions that would include logistics.

Speaker 2

But the year came in at 11% EBITDA. That we expect to step up to 13% at the midpoint On our way to that historic margin without any IRA uplift, we're on track with that, But we're really prudent with how we're looking at going forward because we are continuing to reinvest in the business. That investment includes R and D, expanding our supply chain, building out our team and innovating our product.

Speaker 6

Got it. Okay. So it sounds like it's in the cards, but not quite defined yet. And then Vis a vis the IRA uplift, you guys I think alluded a moment ago, Dan, to a further expansion of U. S.

Speaker 6

Manufacturing, I think that's what you were alluding to, I think, in the next few weeks. Can you try to follow-up a little bit and describe maybe in totality, if you can, early On the total quantum of domestically manufactured capacity, you might be looking at a pro form a for that further addition.

Speaker 2

Julia, Dan Sugar. So in our slide deck on Slide 13, we speak to our U. S. Supply chain in more granular detail. So We have over 25 gigawatts of contract capacity for primary components, 10 manufacturing plants currently shipping We will be having another factory announcement next week.

Speaker 2

And so please stay tuned for that. Thank you for your question.

Speaker 3

All good. That's it. Thank you. We'll take the next question please.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Christine Cho from Please, your line is now open.

Speaker 7

Hi, good evening. Thank you for taking my question. I thought I would maybe ask the backlog question a different way. You said you ended the year 2 thirds U. S, 1 third rest of world.

Speaker 7

If I just kind of compare it to what it was last It would seem that the U. S. Backlog went up about $100,000,000 quarter over quarter and a bigger jump in rest of world. Am I sort of in the Parked there, which I guess would sort of fit with what you have on Slide 19. And then are BCAs mostly in U.

Speaker 7

S. Or Rest of World?

Speaker 3

Okay. I'll take the second part of the question first. Dave will answer the first part. So VCAs are focused right now in the U. S.

Speaker 3

We do have Activity outside of the U. S, but the ones that are signed and contracted are in the U. S. Gabe?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thanks for the question. I think as you can think about our backlog and how we're growing it and then the velocity of how it Flows out into revenue. You would think what Howard prepared is a weighted average. So It differs rest of the world because we have different markets and when they come in.

Speaker 2

So it's really hard to answer in terms of breaking out our backlog by quarter, by segment. So I think it's best to think about it in aggregate with a 3 to 5 quarter rollout on our legacy backlog And then with the VCAs rolling out over 3 to 8 quarters.

Speaker 7

Okay. Ben, I didn't really see any guidance for gross margins and it looked like you hit 19% this quarter. You've seen continuous improvement over the last year. How much more running room does this have to move higher? Should we expect this to creep?

Speaker 7

And was there anything in the quarter that was a benefit that might not recur? If we could also get sort of the impact of FX on top line and EBITDA.

Speaker 2

Okay. So let me start with the end. No real one time benefit, no significant impacts from FX on that. In terms of run rate and increase, As we talked about our fiscal 2021, 15% EBITDA with a run rate of about 5% on SG and A It's around 20% gross margin. That's the target we're tracking towards that target.

Speaker 2

We do expect to We continue to improve margins on that path. We're not committing to the exact time to get there, but we are committing to going from around a 13% EBITDA for fiscal 2023, which is about 18% gross margins and that's up From the prior year, 200 basis points on both of those. So we're committing to the continued increase. In terms of the timing, you know the target.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Christine. We'll take the next question please.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jordan Levy from Truist. Your line is now open.

Speaker 8

Afternoon all. I thought maybe I'd start on just asking the Competitive landscape you're seeing out there. I know there's been some smaller names come up in certain applications here in the U. S. How does that environment look both domestically and international markets?

Speaker 3

Well, it's capitalism works. It's a competitive world. We're very focused on our customers, our technology, our company and running a sound business. Our backlog increase of 90% reflects that focus. But There are new competitors.

Speaker 3

They have significantly less share in the market and they have a different Customer base. So it's interesting that we actually don't run into some of the new entrants into the market. We also I'll just add that we have a lot of pricing discipline in the company. What do I mean by that? We want to grow, but we want to grow profitably.

Speaker 3

So we're not chasing business. We're focused on Tier 1 customers and going after solid business that the kind of business that we like to Do over and over again as we talked about 80% of our customers are repeat business. So that's the landscape. You have a follow

Speaker 2

on question, please?

Speaker 8

Yes. Just a quick follow on. Just flipping over to the TruCapture side, it seems like there's been some Good traction there with the Atlas announcement. I just wanted to get your thoughts on how the reception feedback has been as you're growing that business and then Some of the supply chain challenges you're working through on that side?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Jordan. Appreciate the question. As Dave mentioned, we are typically 1% to 2% of revenue. We're tracking on the lower end of the range. Bookings are still very strong for TruCapture.

Speaker 3

There's a lot of uptake for the software. It's been validated by multiple independent Customers, it provides tangible value. So there is Some delays in commissioning projects that are impacting the True Capture recognition of revenue that It is principally driven from delays in mounting the final PV panel on the whole power system. But again, bookings for TruCapture is strong. Revenue recognition is lagging a bit.

Speaker 3

Really appreciate the questions, Jordan. Next question please.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Sten Richardson from Scotiabank. Your line is now open.

Speaker 9

Hey, good evening, guys. Howard, Just to follow-up on maybe an earlier question about seeing projects move out to the right in anticipation of IRA. Really appreciate that maybe you're not Seeing that at all in your existing book, but maybe to ask it another way, thinking about top of the funnel activity or discussions with customers, I mean, Do you sense or are you seeing early indications of pent up demand such that when we do have domestic content clarity, You would see order flow accelerate. I mean, just yes, any comments on top of the funnel would be helpful.

Speaker 3

Sure. Our entire funnel is robust. Let me put it that way, the top and the bottom. So, and honestly, we're seeing very strong demand in the U. S.

Speaker 3

I think that it takes 3 to 5 years to develop a project, utility scale project Into fruition. And so a lot of the activity has already begun on these projects. And Our take is that the industry is anticipating very favorable outcome. So for all systems are go On the development side, which is feeding the funnel.

Speaker 9

Thanks, Howard. And then maybe, Dave, just a follow-up. Sure. Yes, just a minor one on the 2Q commentary. Dave, is there anything we should be thinking about Nuance or project timing wise, driving sort of that sequential decline sort of implied by the year over year commentary you gave for 2Q.

Speaker 2

Sure. Tristan, you're talking calendar Q2, yes, not our fiscal Q1. Apologies,

Speaker 4

yes.

Speaker 2

Okay. Yes. You're right on the sequential decline is driven by the panel availability, visibility pushing to the second half. If you were looking at it on a sequential basis, We don't. We really look at it on a year over year basis, which is why we're guiding to the 15% to 20% year over year growth, which is how we're focused and that tracks to the annual guidance.

Speaker 2

But in terms of sequential, yes, we've seen a push out on the Due to the panel availability.

Speaker 9

Super helpful. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Sophie Karp from KeyBanc. Your line is now open.

Speaker 10

Hi. Thank you for squeezing me in here. Congrats on your first quarter as a public company. So I was just wondering if you could comment on what percentage of your backlog sort of is tied to domestically manufactured So our modules, into that degree maybe derisked from the delays in customs given them from customs? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Sophie. Could you repeat your question, please?

Speaker 10

Yes. The question is, could you comment on What percentage of your backlog is tied to projects that utilize domestically manufactured solar panels?

Speaker 2

Well, first, Our plan contemplates the PV that's available and We're not splitting out which projects have PV that's made in the U. S. Versus PV that's being imported.

Speaker 10

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Yes. If you have a

Speaker 2

follow on, I feel like I didn't want to leave your I'm not sure we fully understood your question, but did you have a follow on there, we could maybe unpack it further?

Speaker 10

I guess this is not the breakdown that you're providing. I was just wondering what percentage of that backlog is going to not really not tied to But it sounds like you're not comfortable providing that data, which is fine.

Speaker 2

Okay, great. Thank you.

Speaker 10

Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Sophie. Appreciate the words of congratulations. Next question please.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Philip Shen from ROTH. Thank you. Your line is open.

Speaker 11

Hey, guys. I'll echo that congratulations as well. Couple of more questions on backlog and bookings. How much of the $1,000,000,000 of bookings for FQ4 'twenty three is the volume commitment agreements And how much is non VCA? And then, in terms of your booking strength, to what degree has that continued into your FQ1?

Speaker 11

And how do you expect those bookings to trend in FQ1, Q2 and Q3? Thanks.

Speaker 3

Okay, sure. Well, on Slide 20 of the deck, Phil, we show that $674,000,000 of $2,559,000,000 in backlog is attributable to VCAs. So that's part 1 to your question, I believe. The second part

Speaker 11

I'm sorry. I guess, I'm trying to we're trying to figure out The incremental VCA. So for example, year end 2022 calendar, you guys had about $2,100,000,000 of Backlog, how much of that was VCA, for example? So the bookings were about $1,000,000,000 how much of those Bookings as opposed to the year as opposed to the actual backlog, what was the mix of VCA and non VCA at the bookings? Thanks.

Speaker 3

We're not giving that level of detail, Phil. And so far, we've had 2 Public announcements of VCAs, you can track those. Those happened in One of them happened in calendar year 2022, one announcement in calendar year 2023, but we have other VCAs that we've signed and Have commitments and deposits for specific projects. That's the level of detail we're providing at this time. And then you had a part 2 to your question, which is booking strengths coming into the current quarter or

Speaker 11

Yes. What kind of strength do you see ahead? Do you see more this kind of momentum carrying through into your next quarter and then even the back half of this calendar year? Thanks.

Speaker 3

Yes. Yes, to both of those. We do. There's strong momentum.

Speaker 11

And then in terms of my final question here, Looks like U. S. Steel could be defined as melted coats potentially, we'll have to see. And sorry if I missed this, but can you talk about How much capacity that you have today could qualify as melt to coat steel? And then how much could qualify by year end calendar this year or some period in the future?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thank you, Phil. I'll take that. This is Dan. As noted on, again, Slide 13 of our materials, We have over 25 gigawatts of contracted capacity.

Speaker 4

That's

Speaker 2

a large amount of contract capacity. And it's regionally distributed across the U. S. And in some cases, for example, With the J. M.

Speaker 2

Steel facility that we dedicated in April, it's co located with a steel plant. In that case, with the Steel Dynamics facility, one of the newest mills in America, 3,000,000 ton Facility which can make steel and galvanize within a mile of our contract fabrication partners So we very intentionally located these facilities. We have very strong relationships with the Most of the top steel companies in the United States and we see the ability to deliver We'll certainly deliver our plan and be able to deliver in excess of our plan With growth upside growth we could see in the United States with raw material that's melted, Coated and processed in the United States. In this case, rolled, so it's melted, it's rolled, It's galvanized. It's made in Tracker Components here.

Speaker 2

So it's very exciting story Also because the U. S. Steel is so much cleaner on average than the overseas steel and we're creating Thousands of jobs domestically, it's just a

Speaker 3

great story. Thanks for your questions, Phil.

Speaker 11

Thanks, guys.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Maheep Mandloi from Credit Suisse. Your line is now open.

Speaker 4

Hey, good evening and thanks for taking the questions as well. And congratulations coming to the markets in the quarter here. Just curious on the rest of the world growth over year in 2023 2020 4, FY 'twenty four. I'm just curious how should we think about that and how should we think about pricing in general in the U. S.

Speaker 4

And international markets?

Speaker 3

Thanks. Hi, Mohit. Thanks for your question. So the Both the United States and the rest of the world are growing at a good clip. As Dave noted, our guidance is to grow overall for the company At a rate of 15% to 20% year on year.

Speaker 3

And we're not giving precise Details, but you can think of it as roughly split between the U. S. And Rest of World. Rest of the world is actually growing a little bit faster in terms of the business. So and we're really well positioned in a couple of market few markets in particular as Dan noted.

Speaker 3

Brazil, in particular, is a very strong market for the company. Australia, Spain, multiple continents, Things are going quite well. And then the second part of your question had to do with Pricing. And so we had Some pricing adjustments in the double digits year over year upward to compensate Largely in part of the impacts from the pandemic and the Ukraine war in combination. And things have equilibrated to a degree.

Speaker 3

And as Dan talked about, we're rapidly scaling our domestic supply chain. We're in a good position to continue to grow and exercise extreme price discipline in all markets around the world, and we're going to keep doing that. Thank you, Maheep. Do you have a was that two questions or is there a follow-up?

Speaker 4

If I could squeeze a follow-up Just on the cash uses here, you have more than $600,000,000 of liquidity

Speaker 3

and seems to be in

Speaker 4

a free cash flow position For FY 'twenty three and likely for 'twenty four as well. So just curious like what would be the priority here for the cash uses?

Speaker 2

Yes. So thanks for the question. For fiscal 2024, we're just our strategy, our capital allocation strategy It's a focus on the fundamentals. We're going to see the growth period that we're in right now to manage our net working capital Between 10% and 15% and allow EBITDA to drive our cash up. And like you said, the

Speaker 3

Thank you for your questions. We're going to keep rolling. And just so you know, on the call, we're going to go about 10 minutes Over until 3:40 pm Pacific Time. We want to get everybody in, but we're going to try and be succinct with our answers. Next question please.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Derek Silverberg from Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is now open.

Speaker 9

Yes. Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I also wanted to ask on pricing. Have you guys been in conversation with suppliers and customers for sort of sharing in the benefits of the IRA?

Speaker 9

And can you talk a bit about How you expect that to play out? It sounds like prices have been adjusted higher a bit this year, but Is there an expectation for pricing once we get clarification on the IRA? Can you just talk about that a bit? That'd be great.

Speaker 2

Sure. My pleasure. Yes. So our plan contemplates how we expect things to play out. I'll start with that.

Speaker 2

And we are not as we mentioned fact however, we were not factoring any of the 45x Incentives that are contemplated to come. And Look, I mean, the IRA, we think it was very well structured. There's a lot of benefits, tremendous benefits to developers and owners The systems that come with that relative to domestic manufacturer, not only for trackers, but also for solar panels and other inverters, Tronics that are being made in the U. S, those we think those were right sized to really help us Significantly expand the U. S.

Speaker 2

Supply base. So the conversation is really around supply security, Supply certainty, on time delivery, we've been able to really articulate those benefits. And So that's how we see things playing out.

Speaker 3

Do you have a quick follow-up?

Speaker 9

Got it. I do. You mentioned permitting and interconnection delays in the prepared remarks. I'm curious if those If that's geographically specific to the U. S.

Speaker 9

And less so internationally, is that true? And Is there a path or timeline towards that improving over time? What needs to happen for that to improve? Any detail there would be great. Thanks.

Speaker 2

Sure. So look, these are real headwinds on the permitting. I'm sure, yes, you've done some projects at your house, you've tried to get a permit on the construction side with your local jurisdiction, Things can roll out. We're fulfilling many dozens of projects in any given moment. You can have issues where a construction permit is delayed.

Speaker 2

And but in aggregate, there are so many projects and so much demand. That's why we're seeing Our revenue keeps going up and our plan keeps going up. Relative to a much finer connection, it's a fact that The time required to achieve an interconnection Permit or authorization has increased over time significantly and this has been documented. And so it's a factor, Definitely. But the economics of solar are so strong and so many great developers and IPPs are out There are 3,000 utilities in the United States as kind of an interesting data point and there's many, many projects in your So we're seeing an army of developer and IPPs just bringing forth high quality projects We're advancing 1,000,000 of dollars to perfect their project interconnection.

Speaker 2

But it goes to why we guide to an annual plan, Just to give you a sense, right. So our plan for this year, if you look at our $2,200,000 guide on $1,000,000,000 guide on average, We're delivering over $40,000,000 a week during this upcoming period. So if you have a single So if you have a single project that our customers waiting for a permit to be able to close their materials, you can have a bit of movement around the edge of So we're really focused on annual results, meeting customer needs And delivering positive profitability for the company. And I believe our results speak to that.

Speaker 3

Thanks Derek for your questions. Next question please.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Christian Schwab from Craig Hallum Capital Group. Your line is now open.

Speaker 9

Congrats on a great quarter. I just have one question. Do you guys have any yet on panel availability for your fiscal year 'twenty five. The reason I ask is Some of our contacts are much more optimistic about 2024 than they are 2023. I'm just wondering if you have any opinion you'd like to share.

Speaker 2

You're speaking about for 2025, correct?

Speaker 9

Yes. Your fiscal year 2025, yes.

Speaker 2

Got it. Yes, got it. Okay. Well, first, let me just fix thought. What's happening today, we're seeing Increased panels coming into the United States with less issues with customs and border protection is a general statement and a significant increase for panels coming from India, A significant increase in panels coming from Southeast Asia.

Speaker 2

What's really exciting is also the Since the IRA was announced, according to the American Clean Power Association, over 25 PV manufacturing facilities have been announced for the United States. In some cases, those are expansions. In some cases, those are new plants. So, we're hopeful the market will respond quickly as we did on the we executed with Tremendous speed on the tracker manufacturing side. We're optimistic that we're going to see More domestic manufacturing of solar panels and all the incumbent components, while these trade barriers have been reduced to allow us to fulfill the intermediate term market.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Christian for your question.

Operator

Thanks. Next question. Your next question comes from the line of Martin Malloy from Johnson Rice. Your line is now open.

Speaker 2

Good afternoon. I just have one question as well. Are there is there any Friends, could you maybe highlight in terms of customer interest or orders for some of your different Products you've introduced the HorizonX TR, Gemini? Yes, I really appreciate that question. I want to really speak to some of the technologies that are delivering extreme value to customers.

Speaker 2

Software, TruCapture and our terrain falling technology XTR. So we introduced TruCapture over 6 years ago. And when we introduced it, we had data from multiple utility scale field trials that have been validated by independent engineers and socialize with the independent engineers that represent owners and so forth, which is why we've achieved such strong commercial traction on that technology. As Howard mentioned, over 190 Customers are using it and that's around the world, I believe on 5 continents. Similarly, for our terrain following Technology, XTR, we first deployed that in 2018 and then worked Really closely with a leading APC to field dozens of projects and then we released it globally.

Speaker 2

Today, We have over 60 projects around the world using XTR and this is really about Having real hardware backed up by real software, real firmware to be able to Extract the value, have it validated by the engineers and this stuff works. I can speak to that as an engineer. And that is definitely driving our commercial activity.

Speaker 3

Thank you for your question, Marty. Next question, please.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Thomas Martin from BNP. Your line is now open.

Speaker 12

Hi there. Thanks for taking the questions. Just a quick clarification, first of all. Are you able to indicate how much of the bottom end of your guidance range Can be covered from existing project awards in the backlog?

Speaker 10

Sure.

Speaker 2

Our existing backlog allows us to in terms of meeting our guidance, We're very comfortable that the majority is booked up. And so that's why we're providing the range that we are.

Speaker 12

Quick follow-up. Thanks. And yes, sorry, quick follow-up. You probably answered this. On the software side, panel supply, you spoke about that, has been part of the reason for your revenue recognition lacking.

Speaker 12

You've spoken about panel supply being an issue for the next quarter. We've got them coming into the market and coming through customs. However, it's perhaps in the near term

Speaker 3

not perhaps allowing all the

Speaker 12

projects to accelerated dramatically. Is this likely to be a calendar H2 normalization In terms of pound delivery also enabling you to unlock the software revenues that are currently not turned on. And are you able to give us any Quantification of what sort of level of software revenues you've got to deferred awaiting panels.

Speaker 2

Okay. I think I understand your question. You're asking the timing if our backlog For our software, which has grown, impacts the rollout of the revenue recognition related to software revenue. Is that your question?

Speaker 12

So correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding was that you also got effectively a backlog of Revenue recognition that hasn't come through on the software side related to the panel supply issues. And it sounds like the panel supply issues are getting better, maybe not in the next calendar quarter. But does your guidance assume In the second half of the year, the revenue recognition on the software side is improving quite significantly because

Speaker 2

And it will be weighted to the second half.

Speaker 3

Thank you for your questions, Thomas. Appreciate it. Next question?

Speaker 4

And I believe this is

Speaker 2

our this will be our last question. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question will be from Donovan Shafer from Northland Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Speaker 13

Hey guys, thanks for taking the questions. I want to just ask Just sort of focusing on hardware for a moment, just the hardware side of things, about kind of new product innovation introductions, if there's anything On the hardware side, you're looking at or most interested in or developing? And then just tightly related to that, It does look like a lot of companies have come out with these dual row trackers where you use a pretty simple kind of push pull set up to have 1 motor driving 2 rows. You guys are I know you guys are very Kind of pioneers of the independent row idea, but I'm just wondering if there's sort of a place for that. We've got Trina, Game Change, TV Hardware, Artec, SGN Orland, there's a lot of them out there now.

Speaker 13

And so just is there Substance to it or is there something you see where you feel like you couldn't see yourselves going there and just doesn't make sense somehow?

Speaker 2

Yes. Donovan, I appreciate the question. Let me just say we have a deep technology and product roadmap that covers each of our 3 buckets in mechanical, electronics and controls and software. And we're going to have a range of new offerings covering all three of those This year and on a go forward. With respect to the architecture of our system, we're always we're very open To evaluating different architectures, in prior companies, we Actually, we didn't invent the concept of tracking, but we commercialized it in prior companies.

Speaker 2

And so we've been working on trackers since 1980s and we're always evaluating things. We believe, as Howard mentioned, that our solutions can allow us to win across a wide range of geographies and a wide range of site conditions. And our backlog with a 90% year on year growth reflects that outcome. Thank you for your question, Donovan, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for listening in to our first earnings call, supporting the company through our journey from when we started 10 years ago on the IPO process and really the industry. We're looking forward to working with our

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may

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