Ballard Reports Strong 2010 Results and Provides 2011 Outlook
- Strong growth - revenue up 39%, product shipments up 104%, order book
up 54%
- Major progress towards profitability - improvements of 33% in
Adjusted EBITDA(1) & 30% in cash flow from operations
VANCOUVER, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD; NASDAQ: BLDP) today announced preliminary results for the year ended December 31, 2010 and provided an outlook for 2011. All results are unaudited and amounts are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted.
John Sheridan, President and CEO said, "Ballard delivered strong results in 2010, with 39% revenue growth and major progress towards profitability, while maintaining a solid liquidity position with cash reserves of $74.4 million." He added, "This performance provides a clear validation of our strategic transformation over the past three years and is further evidence of the bullish growth prospects for clean energy fuel cell products."
Key 2010 Results
Preliminary Financial (Unaudited)
---------------------------------
- Revenue of $65.0 million for the full year, representing growth of
39% and meeting guidance.
- Gross margin for the full year of 16%, compared with 13% in 2009.
- Adjusted EBITDA(1) of ($26.0) million for the full year, an
improvement of 33% over 2009.
- Cash flow from operations of ($29.3) million for the full year,
representing a decline of 9% over 2009.
- On a comparable year-over-year basis, excluding Dantherm
Power's cash loss of $6.2 million and negative foreign exchange
impacts of approximately $4.0 million, cash flow from
operations was ($19.1) million, an improvement of 30% over
2009, meeting guidance.
- Cash reserves of $74.4 million, with no bank debt.
Ballard expects to release audited 2010 financial results in early March
2011.
Growth
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- Fuel cell stack shipments of 3,014 for the full year, representing
growth of 104%.
- Backup power shipments grew 40% to 1,716 fuel cell stacks.
- Material handling shipments grew 6-fold to 1,100 fuel cell
stacks.
- Of the Company's six growth milestones for 2010, four were met or
exceeded and two were not achieved:
- Booked the first CLEARgen(TM) distributed generation system
sale utilizing by-product hydrogen - milestone was met with K2
Pure Solutions.
- Delivered a 1 megawatt CLEARgen(TM) system to FirstEnergy
Generation Corp. in Ohio - met in November.
- Deployed Dantherm Power backup power systems in one major new
network - met with Wind Mobile.
- Grow the volume of stack shipments in material handling, in
line with Plug Power's 2010 shipment target - exceeded with a
6-fold increase to 1,100 units.
- The milestone to book contracts in support of the deployment of
25 fuel cell buses was not achieved. The Company booked
contracts in support of 19 buses.
- The milestone to begin shipments of Ballard's fuel cell stacks
for deployment of IdaTech's reformate-based supplemental power
systems for the India telecoms market was not achieved.
However, IdaTech began shipping its new generation methanol-
fueled product, powered by Ballard's FCgen(R)-1020ACS, to other
Asian markets in December.
- Beyond these growth milestones, Ballard posted the following key
market achievements:
- Backup Power - established a direct channel to this market with
acquisition of a controlling interest in Denmark-based Dantherm
Power.
- Distributed Generation - signed the Company's first FCgen(R)-
1300 stack supply agreement, for a one-megawatt system in
Singapore.
- Bus - signed bus module supply agreements for zero-emission
fuel cell buses in London and Brazil and was selected by the US
FTA to power buses under the US National Fuel Cell Bus Program.
- Material Handling - extended the supply agreement with Plug
Power under a mutually exclusive relationship for the North
American market through 2014.
- Increased the twelve-month rolling order book to $35.0 million at
year-end, up 54% from the 2009 level.
2011 Business Outlook
Ballard's 2011 outlook builds on the Company's strong 2010 results, which
were delivered after a transformation initiated in 2008 that:
- Changed strategic focus from automotive fuel cell research and
development programs, to commercial markets for clean energy, fuel
cell products;
- Fundamentally re-set the cost base; and
- Strengthened the liquidity position through three key transactions.
Ballard will continue to aggressively focus on growth and profitability in
2011, with three over-arching priorities that will be reported on each
quarter:
- Significant revenue growth through execution of its multi-market fuel
cell product strategy;
- Maintenance of the cash operating cost base at current run-rate of
approximately $40 million; and
- Continued improvement in gross margin towards its 30-35% target.
Ballard has issued the following guidance for 2011:
- Growth in revenue in excess of 30%; and
- Improvement in Adjusted EBITDA(1) in excess of 40%.
2010 Financial Highlights
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(Millions of Three months ended Twelve months ended
U.S. dollars) December 31, December 31,
% %
Improve- Improve-
2010 2009 ment 2010 2009 ment
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GROWTH
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Revenue:
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Fuel Cell Products $13.4 $7.7 74% $32.8 $24.1 36%
Contract Automotive 3.4 4.5 -24% 11.2 9.2 22%
Material Products 4.3 4.3 0% 21.0 13.4 57%
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Total Revenue $21.1 $16.5 28% $65.0 $46.7 39%
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Fuel Cell Stack
Shipments*
(units) 1,119 551 103% 3,014 1,476 104%
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12-Month Rolling
Order Book $35.0 $22.7 54%
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PROFITABILITY
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Gross Margin 24% 14% 16% 13%
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Adjusted EBITDA(1) ($3.1) ($6.4) 52% ($26.0) ($39.0) 33%
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Cash Flow from
Operations $2.0 $1.6 25% ($29.3) ($27.0) -9%
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LIQUIDITY
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Cash Reserves $74.4 $82.2 -9%
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* Total fuel cell stack shipments, including backup power, distributed
generation, material handling, bus and automotive applications.
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Endnotes:
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(1) EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP measures used to assist in
assessing Ballard's financial performance and liquidity. Non-GAAP
measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and
are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented
by other companies. EBITDA measures net loss attributable to Ballard
Power Systems Inc. after excluding interest expense, income taxes
expense, depreciation of property, plant and equipment, amortization
of intangible assets and goodwill impairment charges. Adjusted EBITDA
measures EBITDA adjusted for stock-based compensation, investment and
other income, transactional gains and losses and acquisition costs.
EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA include the impact attributable to
Ballard's controlling interest in Dantherm Power. Ballard believes
that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA assist investors in assessing actual
and future performance. For a reconciliation of EBITDA and Adjusted
EBITDA to the Consolidated Financial Statements, please refer to
Ballard's Management's Discussion & Analysis, which is scheduled to
be released in early March 2011.
Conference Call
---------------
Ballard will hold a conference call on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 8:00 a.m. PST (11:00 a.m. EST) to review preliminary 2010 results and 2011 outlook. The live call can be accessed by dialing +1.604.638.5340. Alternatively, a live audio webcast can be accessed through a link on Ballard's homepage (www.ballard.com). Following the call, the audio webcast will be archived in the Investor Events & Conference Calls section of Ballard's website.
About Ballard Power Systems
Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD; NASDAQ: BLDP) provides clean energy fuel cell products enabling optimized power systems for a range of applications. To learn more about Ballard, please visit www.ballard.com.
This release contains forward-looking statements, including estimated revenue and cash flow from operations for 2010; and business outlook for 2011, including estimated revenue, operating costs, Adjusted EBITDA and gross margins; which are provided to enable external stakeholders to understand Ballard's expectations as at the date of this release and may not be appropriate for other purposes. These forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Ballard's management and reflect Ballard's current expectations as contemplated under section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such assumptions relate to Ballard's financial forecasts and expectations regarding its product development efforts, manufacturing capacity, and market demand, and include matters such as generating new sales, producing, delivering and selling the expected number of units, and controlling its costs. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause Ballard's actual results to be materially different, including, without limitation, the condition of the global economy, the rate of mass adoption of its products, product development delays, changing environmental regulations, its ability to attract and retain business partners and customers, its access to funding, increased competition, its ability to protect its intellectual property, changes in its customers' requirements, foreign exchange impacts on its net monetary assets and its ability to provide the capital required for product development, operations and marketing. For a detailed discussion of these risk factors and other risk factors that could affect Ballard's future performance, please refer to Ballard's most recent Annual Information Form. Readers should not place undue reliance on Ballard's forward-looking statements and Ballard assumes no obligation to update or release any revisions to these forward looking statements, other than as required under applicable legislation.
CONTACT: Public Relations: Guy McAree, +1.604.412.7919, [email protected]; Investor Relations: Lori Rozali, +1.604.412.3195, [email protected]
SOURCE Ballard Power Systems Inc.
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