TPI Composites, Inc. (NASDAQ:TPIC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Andrew Percoco: Great. Thanks so much for taking the question. Most of them have been answered, but I just want to follow up quickly on the margin cadence. Can you maybe just give us a sense for what’s baked in for the Red Sea dynamic? I think it was mentioned that having an impact on freight costs. So can you just give us some sense for what you’re baking into your margin guidance for elevated freight costs? And maybe just remind us what your contract structure looks like in terms of passing those costs through to customers.

Bill Siwek: Yes. So I can’t give you a precise percentage that we baked in. Again, we’re not impacted that significantly quite frankly. It’s relatively few raw material SKUs, if you will. And we have looked – and we do have alternative suppliers to avoid that route to some extent. So it’s actually a pretty minimal impact. And – however, to the extent it does impact, our pricing is on total delivered cost. So to the extent we have price increases as a result of logistics that would get baked into the blade price as well.

Andrew Percoco: Okay. That’s helpful. And then maybe just to come back to working capital for a second. Can you just give us a sense for what that looks like in the first half of the year as you transition some of these lines? And maybe just give us a sense for on the liquidity front, it sounds like you’re focusing on managing cash, but what are some of the levers that might warrant some additional capital to be brought into the balance sheet to manage through this transition?

Ryan Miller: We’re not planning on bringing incremental capital onto the balance sheet at this point in time. I think there still is a little room to work in our existing plants that we have mature blades and we’re producing. I think there’s still some room out there that we can bring some of that working capital down, particularly around our inventory balances and contract assets, which is what we executed on the fourth quarter. But you will see a modest increase in working capital because we have a lot of lines that are ramping up here in the first half of the year. So that consumption of cash that I talked about in the prepared remarks, was really focused in on some of those areas that we have and we have production that will be ramping up. So that will consume some of that working capital. But we’re going to continue to go after everything we can on the balance sheet as far as getting as efficient and disciplined as we can.

Andrew Percoco: Great. Thanks so much.

Operator: The next question is from Kashy Harrison from Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Kashy Harrison: Thank you for – good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking the questions. Maybe a follow-up to Mark. So how much of your revenue guidance is derisked by your current supply agreement? And then while we’re under the discussion of revenues, what is the level of revenue required in 2025 to get to $100 million of EBITDA?

Bill Siwek: Yes. So the – all of our revenue is derisked in 2024. I mean it’s all under contract. So that’s pretty straightforward. Revenue, I mean, we’re not going to give you guidance for 2025 at this point in time, clearly, but think of it as…

Ryan Miller: Yes. I would think, Kashy, mid-single digits is where we plan to be at the second half of the year. I think as we enter 2025, we’ll be on that pace. And as volumes start accelerating, that’s where we start to get on that walk to get up to our high single digits that we expect to be on a pace to be there as we exit 2025 and go into 2026. So still working through the timing on some of those starts and transitions, but I would think about us being on at least a mid-single-digit EBITDA type business as we get into 2025.

Kashy Harrison: Got it. I appreciate the color there. And then just my follow-up question. You guys have highlighted the IRA clarity as the driver of project delays. Can you remind us what exactly customers are waiting on? When do you expect to get that clarity? And then I guess maybe just another question is, why is it that solar development has moved forward regardless of IRA clarification and while Wind has taken longer has that – taken longer to move forward post IRA?

Bill Siwek: Yes. So on IRA, there’s still – even though guidance has come out on domestic content, there’s still a lot of clarification that’s needed, obviously, on the green hydrogen piece, which could drive a significant amount of wind in the long term. There’s still a lot of clarification around that. The initial guidance was not that favorable. Those are just a couple of examples. On the solar side, it’s a good question. I think part of it is development of solar might be perceived as being a bit easier. I think inflation has impacted solar a little bit differently than it has wind. I think wind does take longer to permit in some locations. So it’s a whole bunch. It’s a whole combination of different factors, Kashy. I can’t just point to one, but it’s a number of different factors.

Kashy Harrison: Got it. Thank you.

Bill Siwek: Yep.

Operator: The next question is from William Grippin with UBS. Please go ahead.

William Grippin: Hi, good evening. Thanks for the time. My first question was just around the strategic alternatives for the Automotive business. And if you can speak to just any potential outcomes or maybe a range of outcomes here as you move towards possibly completing it, it sounds like by June here.

Bill Siwek: By range of outcomes you mean structure or – I mean, I think we’ve talked about it before, it could be – we could be talking about joint venture, partnership, any combination of those things that would provide capital to that business to execute on a lot of the development programs we have and the growth we expect.