MONTREAL, March 31, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (http://pyrogenesis.com) (TSX: PYR) (NASDAQ: PYR) (FRA:8PY), a high-tech company, (the "Company", the “Corporation” or "PyroGenesis") that designs, develops, manufactures and commercializes plasma atomized metal powder, environmentally friendly plasma waste-to-energy systems and clean plasma torch products, is pleased to announce today its financial and operational results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31st, 2020.
“We are happy to announce Q4, and fiscal year end, results for the period ending December 31st, 2020, which continue the historical trends began earlier in the year. Our full year revenues of $18MM reflects the successful processing of backlog from signed contracts previously disclosed. The Board’s choice of strategy has been validated with the reporting of the second profitable quarter in a row. Further validating this strategy, net income from operations (before share-based expenses) was $3.3MM for the year which is quite significant given the uncertain environment that 2020 was, and during which the Company not only retired virtually all of its debt, but also uplisted to the Toronto Stock Exchange and positioned itself for a NASDAQ listing in Q1 2021,” said Mr. P. Peter Pascali, CEO and Chair of PyroGenesis. “The successes of 2020, when combined with the results from our strategic investment, have contributed to a basic EPS of $0.16 for the quarter, and $0.28 for the year, both of which have exceeded previous guidance. With a strong balance sheet and approx. $27MM of cash-on-hand as at this writing, the Company is well positioned to execute on its strategy of growth and solidify its position as an emerging leader in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and as such, we expect these trends established in 2020 to continue.”
2020 results reflect the following highlights:
- Revenues of $17,775,029, an increase of 269% over $4,813,978 posted in the prior year,
- Net earnings and comprehensive income of $41,768,404 an increase of $50,939,521 over 2019,
- Net earnings and comprehensive income from operations (before share-based expenses) of $2.9MM during fiscal year 2020 vs ($7.9MM) posted over the same period in 2019,
- Gross margin of 58%, an increase of 21% year over year,
- Cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2020 of $18,104,899 (December 31, 2019: $34,431),
- Backlog of signed contracts of $30MM,
- Basic Earnings per Share (EPS) of $0.28 for 2020 as compared to ($0.07) in 2019,
- Total Assets at December 31, 2020 of $74.5MM (December 31, 2019: $9.6MM),
- Shareholders’ Equity at December 31, 2020 of $59.4MM (December 31, 2019: ($6.1MM)).
OUTLOOK
Given the success over the last 18 months, PyroGenesis is well positioned, with a clean balance sheet, and approx. $27 million cash-on-hand (as of this writing), to execute on all its organic growth strategies as well as actively pursuing growth through synergistic merger and acquisitions.
PyroGenesis has recently focused, and repositioned its offerings, to highlight the GHG emissions reduction benefits associated with the majority of its products. Interestingly enough, PyroGenesis’ product lines do not generally need to incorporate GHG/environmental benefits to make sense economically. In other words, they do not require GHG/environmental incentives (tax credits GHG certificates, environmental subsidies) to make sense from a business perspective. We believe these incentives will be a tailwind that will add directly to shareholder value.
We consider this repositioning to be timely as many governments around the world are considering stimulating their respective economies by promoting environmental technologies. As such, Management expects that this repositioning will result in increased revenues.
Organic Growth:
Organic growth will be spurred on by (i) the natural growth of our existing offerings which can now be accelerated given our strong balance sheet and (ii) leveraging off our “Golden Ticket” advantage.
We have described in the past our Golden Ticket advantage as one which occurs when one sells directly, or is engaged directly, with the end user and, as a result, is “inside the fence”. A Golden Ticket affords the opportunity to either, (i) cross sell other products or, ideally, (ii) identify new areas of concern that can be addressed uniquely by PyroGenesis. We call the latter our Coffee and Donuts strategy (if you are selling coffee you could generate additional revenues, with little additional effort, by adding on donuts).
Over the past several years, PyroGenesis has successfully positioned each of its business lines for rapid growth by strategically partnering with multi-billion-dollar entities. These entities have identified PyroGenesis’ offerings to be unique, in demand, and of such a commercial nature as to warrant such unique relationships. We expect that these relationships are now positioned to transition into significant revenue streams.
DROSRITE™
Within the DROSRITE™ offering, the Company is aggressively exploring horizontal growth opportunities. The Company is currently bidding on an RFQ, valued at approx. $40MM (estimated award date: within 4 months; estimated time to completion: approx. 15 months). Management notes that it has been very successful in the selection process to date, but does not yet consider it to be a high-probability outcome at this stage, and provides such as an example of its commitment to this strategy.
Additive Manufacturing
With respect to our Additive manufacturing offering, we expect to see significant year over year improvements in our 3D metal powders offering as our production kicks into gear by incorporating all the previously disclosed benefits (increased production rates, lower capex, lower opex) locked into our production line. There are major top tier aerospace companies and OEMs in both Europe and North America eagerly awaiting powders from this new state of the art production line. Whereas in the past we have been primarily targeting the very demanding Aerospace industry, we have recently expanded the target market to also address the unique needs of the electric vehicles marketplace who have recently approached us with their powder needs.
Plasma Torches
With respect to the Company’s plasma torch offerings, we expect this offering to be significantly impacted by continued developments in the iron ore pelletization industry, where serious consideration is being given to replacing the fossil fuel burners, currently being used throughout the industry, with PyroGenesis’ proprietary plasma torches, in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint.
To date, everything is proceeding as expected. Initial discussions have evolved into confirmation stages which typically consist of a computer simulation followed by a small torch order. These confirmation stages are expected, if successful, to result with a roll-out program to replace fossil fuel burners with PyroGenesis’ plasma torches in the iron ore pelletization industry, in which PyroGenesis is patent protected.
PyroGenesis is proactively targeting other industries which are experiencing significant pressure to reduce GHGs, and which utilize fossil fuel burners as well.
Separately, the Company also offers plasma torches to niche markets where there is a high probability of on-going sales from successful implementation. One such example is the previously announced contract with a small company to produce a plasma torch ideal for tunnelling. PyroGenesis is currently re-evaluating its relationship with respect to this opportunity as there may be evidence that the real plasma-based tunnelling opportunity could lie outside of the scope of the current agreement.
As sales of PyroGenesis’ plasma torches increase, the Company will also benefit from providing proprietary spare parts from which the Company expects to generate significant recurring revenue, thus complementing the Company’s long-term strategy to build upon a recuring revenue model.
HPQ/PUREVAP™
With respect to HPQ, the goal is expanding our role as HPQ technology provider for the game changing PUREVAP™ family of silicon processes which we are developing exclusively for HPQ and its wholly owned subsidiary HPQ Nano Silicon Powders Inc, namely:
