Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (AMEX:OPTT) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Philipp Stratmann: Yes. I can’t directly comment on how each individual agency, or a division of the government is going to deal with maintenance, specifically. The way we look at it and this itself, we’ve mentioned this before, similar to data-as-a-service. Also, on the vehicle side, we’ve been offering robotics-as-a-service for a while. So we will provide operators that can support the onboarding, and in service training of our systems, with our customers. And if there is a desire by the customer, to maintain that service, we will obviously maintain that service. And, equally, if there’s a desire by our customer, specifically in certain spaces of the government to move into maintenance and servicing by that agency or service itself. We will provide a train the trainer approach, where we will support and upskill the government and then provide, spare parts and logistics maintenance as and when is required going forward.

Shawn Severson: So, my last question is regarding the customization of the big data, big data size, very interesting, obviously, subscription business. How much can you manage and customize what you’re looking for, I’m assuming it’s a function of this instrumentation, right, what you’re putting out on there. So if you know that there’s a big demand for service a, you can equip them with the correct instruments and be able to provide that service. But I’m just trying to understand how do you figure out what you — how you commercialize, and what do you market to potential customers for big data?

Philipp Stratmann: So on the proprietary side, obviously, we have our maritime domain awareness solution, which at the moment, at the propriety part of that is primarily surface surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance focused. But as long as it fits within the power budget, I mean, we’ve stated this before, we’re sensor agnostic. So when to the extent that anybody wants to integrate other sensors into it, be there surface or subsea, we will accommodate any of those customer requests. We obviously collecting a large amount of data from our deployments that we have internally, and to the extent where customers allow us to retain some of the data that we can collect from deployments that we were doing on behalf of others. And so yes, and we continue to use that data to refine approaches and provide additional insights to the customer base as we scale up and continue rapidly scaling up the deployments that we have globally.

Shawn Severson: Great. Thank you.

Philipp Stratmann: Thanks, Shawn.

Operator: Thank you. The next question is coming from a Private Investor. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst: Hey, guys. Just a quick question on the projected 9 million of revenue, will you be cashflow positive, with potential 9 million of revenue?

Philipp Stratmann: Thanks, John. I appreciate the question. The 9 million of bookings that we are forecast for the current fiscal year are forming the basis of further growth. As Bob mentioned, during our earnings announcement, we’re continuing to manage our SG&A and our margins in general. And we will be building on the 9 million which will put us on a solid path forward to achieve cashflow positive operations going forward.

Unidentified Analyst: So is that a 2024 cashflow positive? And with that another question on why the delay in the annual meeting.

Philipp Stratmann: So the delay in the annual meeting is very straightforward. It was simply the fact that we were about 1 million votes short for quorum. Our corporate bylaws dictate that at least 50% of our shareholders to have their say, on the items we put to vote, and we were a million — just about a million votes short of that, we’ve got just under 56 million shares outstanding. And yes, we’re just slightly short of the quorum. So we are giving our shareholders an opportunity to continue putting their votes in for or against the proposals that we’ve put out there and reconvene on January the 13.

Unidentified Analyst: And the first question 2024, does that mean cashflow positive?

Philipp Stratmann: We’re not providing any additional guidance right now other than the guidance that we’ve put out in the earnings release.

Unidentified Analyst: Thanks.