amsc20240331_10k.htm
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
Form 10-K
For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024
OR
For the Transition Period from to
Commission file number 000-19672
114 East Main Street Ayer, Massachusetts 01432
(Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:
(978) 842-3000
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, $0.01 par value per share AMSC Nasdaq Global Select Market
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by checkmark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by checkmark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐
1
Indicate by checkmark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☒
Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☒
Emerging growth company ☐
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐
Indicate by checkmark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant on September 30, 2023, based on the closing price of the shares of Common Stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on that date ($7.55per share) was $219.5 million.
Number of shares outstanding of the registrant’s Common Stock, as of May 24, 2024 was 36,994,517.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the definitive proxy statement for the annual meeting of stockholders scheduled to be held on August 2, 2024, to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), are incorporated by reference in answer to Part III of this Form 10-K.
2
AMERICAN SUPERCONDUCTOR CORPORATION
INDEX
Item Page
PART I
1. Business 5
1A. Risk Factors 12
1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 20
1C. Cybersecurity 20
2. Properties 21
3. Legal Proceedings 21
4. Mine Safety Disclosures 21
PART II
7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 33
8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 34
9A. Controls and Procedures 64
9B. Other Information 66
9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 66
PART III
10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 66
11. Executive Compensation 66
13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions and Director Independence 66
14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 66
PART IV
15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 67
3
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Any statements in this Annual Report that relate to future events or conditions, including without limitation, the statements in Part I, “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and in Part II under “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and located elsewhere herein regarding industry prospects, our addressable markets, our competitive position, the benefits of our acquisitions, financial results and financial condition, expectations for when our products become operational, capabilities and potential uses of our products, steps taken to enhance liquidity, or our prospective results of operations or financial position, may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements represent management’s current expectations and are inherently uncertain. There are a number of important factors that could materially impact the value of our common stock or cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include the important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in Part 1. Item 1A of this Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, which among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by forward-looking statements made herein and presented elsewhere by management from time to time. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
American Superconductor®, Amperium®, AMSC®, D-VAR®, PowerModuleTM, D-VAR VVO®, PQ-IVR®, SeaTitan®, GridtecTM Solutions, WindtecTM Solutions, Smarter, Cleaner...Better EnergyTM, orchestrate the rhythm and harmony of power on the gridTM, actiVAR®, armorVARTM, NEPSITM, NeeltranTM and SafetyLOCKTM are trademarks or registered trademarks of American Superconductor Corporation or our subsidiaries. We reserve all of our rights with respect to our trademarks or registered trademarks regardless of whether they are so designated in this Annual Report on Form 10-K by an ® or TM symbol. All other brand names, product names, trademarks or service marks appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are the property of their respective holders.
4
PART I
Item 1. BUSINESS
Overview
American Superconductor Corporation (together with its subsidiaries, “AMSC®” or the “Company”) was founded on April 9, 1987. At AMSC, we believe that our creativity can meet today’s challenges and help us progress to a better future. That means using future-facing technologies to harmonize the world’s desire for decarbonization and clean energy with the need for more reliable, effective and efficient power delivery. Already, our transformative power solutions are moving the world forward.
We are a leading system provider of megawatt-scale power resiliency solutions that orchestrate the rhythm and harmony of power on the gridTM, and protect and expand the capability of the Navy’s fleet. Our system level products leverage the Company’s proprietary “smart materials” and “smart software and controls” to provide enhanced resiliency and improved performance of megawatt-scale power flow.
Right now, we are powering the evolution of a grid that is fit for the future: a more reliable and resilient grid that can incorporate renewable energy sources and our pioneering products, software and control solutions are creating more cost-effective ways for renewables to deliver a cleaner, less carbon-intensive tomorrow. This exciting energy future also depends on computer chips, batteries and fuel cells that are built from silicon, lithium and carbon. All of these building blocks must be mined, processed and assembled. Industrial manufacturers of these essential materials as well as semiconductor manufacturers must be able to power their factories in ways that scale without adding complexity or size. Our voltage compensators, capacitors, transformers and rectifiers can power the energy-intensive factories of the future while reducing the risk of costly power interruptions that could hinder this journey to a better future.
What's more, in an age of increasing global tensions, we are helping to move U.S. Navy ships into the future by installing protection systems that help them stay hidden from our enemies. We help protect and expand the capability of the U.S. Navy surface fleet with advanced superconductor-based systems that provide superior performance advantages to the traditional methods of mine field protection. We see the nascent business serving the Navy as an extension of what we do with our Grid business – this ship is a microcosm of the grid. Our products help manage power with a purpose.
In the wind power market, we enable manufacturers to field highly competitive wind turbines through our advanced power electronics and control system products, engineering, and support services. Our power grid and wind products and services provide exceptional reliability, security, efficiency, and affordability to our customers.
Our power system solutions help to improve energy efficiency, alleviate power capacity and other constraints, improve system resiliency, and increase the adoption of renewable energy generation. Demand for our solutions is driven by: the growing needs for modernized grids that improve power reliability, security, and quality, the U.S. Navy’s effort to upgrade in-board power systems to support fleet electrification, and the need for increased renewable sources of electricity, such as wind and solar energy. Concerns about these factors have led to increased spending by corporations and the military, as well as supportive government regulations and initiatives on local, state and national levels, including renewable portfolio standards, tax incentives, and international treaties. We estimate that the total annual addressable global market for our products and solutions is nearly $9 billion.
Our Company’s addressable market is driven by (i) the nearly $500 billion investment in renewables to update the aging grid for better support in the adoption of intermittent renewable power sources, (ii) the nearly $100 billion investment in the mining and processing of materials as well as the $160 billion investment in semiconductor capacity—both of which are driven by the electrification of transportation, the need to prioritize energy security and bolster domestic supply chains—and (iii) the over $30 billion investment by the U.S. federal government in U.S. military ship systems and capabilities to help ensure performance and security amid geopolitical uncertainty.
Market opportunities
We provide solutions that address four key drivers of our business:
• the global demand for renewable energy;
• the electrification of the Naval fleet to enhance capability.
This all requires an electric grid that is fit for the future.
The Global Demand for Renewables:
We design wind turbines and provide electrical control systems for inside the turbine that control the wind turbine’s voltage, current, frequency, pitch and yaw. At the substation level, we provide interconnection solutions that allow wind farms to meet utility’s grid code requirements for voltage, power factor and dynamic performance of the plant during unforeseen system disturbances, by utilizing our dynamic voltage management solutions as well as our static voltage management solutions and harmonic filters. We provide field service and spare parts to our global installed base of over 17 Gigawatts ("GW").
The Global Demand for Materials and Electric Vehicles:
We provide transformation, rectification, voltage management and harmonic filtering systems at the substation level that manage input power from the grid and control power for the operation of large-scale industrial equipment such as furnaces, chemical plants, or semiconductor fabrication plants. Our capabilities to control and convert power help ensure continuous flow of stable high-quality power for our customers.
The Global Demand for Semiconductors:
We provide sag mitigation systems, which are a substation level power conditioning system. These systems protect and isolate the factory’s critical processes from power system events that could otherwise trip these sensitive processes causing severe disruptions and loss of a customer’s manufactured products. These systems monitor the semiconductor fabrication plant’s incoming electric supply very closely and react in sub-cycle time frames to mitigate voltage sags and swells to provide a conditioned power to the processes. These sag mitigation systems can include both our dynamic and static voltage management as well as our harmonic filter solutions which are specifically designed to improve the facility's overall power factor and harmonic compliance needs.
The Electrification of the Navy Fleet:
We provide advanced ship protection systems, that are designed to help fleets increase system efficiencies, enhance warfare capabilities, and boost reliability, performance, and security. We are developing additional solutions for this important market which may include power management and power generation similar to what we do for electric grids.
Our power system products address the renewable power generation and electrical grid and power infrastructure markets:
Our fiscal year begins on April 1 and ends on March 31. When we refer to a particular fiscal year, we are referring to the fiscal year beginning on April 1 of that same year. For example, fiscal 2023 refers to the fiscal year that began on April 1, 2023. Other fiscal years follow similarly.
5
Competitive strengths
We believe our competitive strengths position us well to execute on our growth plans in the markets we serve.
Strategy
Building on these competitive strengths, we plan to focus on driving revenue growth and enhancing our operating results through the objectives defined below.
Grid market overview
It is widely believed that the electricity grids around the world require modernization through widespread technology upgrades if they are to maintain reliability while solving rapidly evolving challenges such as more frequent severe weather, threats of physical- and cyber-attacks, expanded renewable generation (both large and small scale) and new types of customer loads such as electric vehicles. In fact, a series of reports written by the Electric Power Research Institute ("EPRI") in 2016 emphasize the need for increased resiliency, flexibility and connectivity in electric grids. According to the EPRI reports, the number of geophysical, meteorological, hydrological, and climatological events in the U.S. rose to an all-time high of 247 events in 2010 – up from approximately 200 in 2009 and less than 200 in all years combined from 1980 to 2010. Available data further indicate that the existing U.S. electrical grid has been stressed by U.S. wind power generation increasing from 6 GW in 2003 to approximately 149 GW in 2023, and photovoltaics ("PV") power generation increasing from almost zero in 2003 to approximately 103 GW as of the end of 2023.
Growth in both wind power and PV is expected to continue with the vast majority of such intermittent generation sources unsupported by energy storage, placing stress on the power grid. Finally, the Edison Electric Institute estimates that the number of electric vehicles on the road in the U.S. is projected to reach 18.7 million in 2030, up from more than 1.0 million at the end of 2018. These facts and the dependence on the safety, security and economy of the electricity grid have prompted broad recognition worldwide of the need to modernize and enhance the reliability and security of power grids.
The Biden Administration’s energy plan could positively impact the demand for our new energy power systems solutions. The energy plan intends to reform and extend the tax incentives that generate energy efficiency and clean energy jobs as well as to develop financing mechanisms that leverage private sector dollars to maximize investment in the clean energy revolution. We plan to seek to collaborate with top tier wind turbine manufacturers to provide new wind farm connectivity to the U.S. power grid.
The Biden Administration also intends to spur the installation of millions of solar panels – including utility-scale, rooftop, and community solar systems. Our systems are primarily focused on addressing renewable energy installations for project developers and wind turbine manufacturers. Because solar power is dynamic and intermittently variable in nature, distribution grids will need to enhance their network’s capabilities to accommodate this new resource, while maintaining efficiency and power quality for their customers. Our system offers electric utilities superior power quality, environmental benefits, and significant cost-savings over traditional solutions.
The Biden Administration's energy policy also focuses on the next generation of electric grid transmission and distribution, which has been the heart of our long-term growth strategy. We believe our new energy power systems products are well suited to address this enormous challenge.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “Inflation Reduction Act”) was enacted in August 2022, in part, to address the challenges of climate change. The Inflation Reduction Act is expected to result in the investment of $369 billion in climate solutions and environmental justice. The goal of the Inflation Reduction Act is to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2030 while restoring U.S. credibility to lead climate action on the global stage.
The Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act of 2022 (the “CHIPS Act of 2022”), also was enacted in August 2022 and is intended to enable the re-shoring of critical manufacturing capability to the U.S., which is expected to be beneficial to our business. The CHIPS for America Fund, provides $52.7 billion of funding for the development of U.S. manufacturing, research and development (R&D), and workforce development programs. From this $52.7 billion, $39 billion is allocated to be spent on financial assistance to build, develop, or modernize domestic semiconductor facilities in order to bolster U.S. leadership in the semiconductor industry.
We believe we are well positioned to seize the numerous opportunities presented by the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act of 2022.
6
Power grid operators worldwide face various challenges, including:
Our solutions for the power quality and grid infrastructure market
We address these challenges in the grid market by providing services and solutions designed to increase the power grid’s capacity, resiliency, reliability, security and efficiency. Our solutions orchestrate the rhythm of power on the grid. Our solutions include:
7
Marine market overview
Defense spending has increased over the past seven years as the U.S. military moves to rebuild and retool for competition against other great powers. In March 2023, the U.S. Navy’s 2024 shipbuilding plan covering government fiscal years 2024 to 2053, calls for a larger and more distributed fleet. To achieve that goal, the Navy would buy 290 to 340 ships over the 2024 to 2053 period: 237 to 267 combat ships and 53 to 73 combat logistics and support ships. For a description of risks related to our government contracts, see Part I, Item" 1A, “Risk Factors – Our contracts with the U.S. government are subject to audit, modification or termination by the U.S. government and include certain other provisions in favor of the government. The continued funding of such contracts remains subject to annual congressional appropriation, which, if not approved, could reduce our revenue and lower or eliminate our profit."
As of November 6, 2023, the Navy included 291 battle force ships—aircraft carriers, submarines, surface combatants, amphibious ships, combat logistics ships, and some support ships.
Since WWII, the Navy fleet has protected its warfare vessels with copper-based degaussing systems. Our HTS-based degaussing system provides world class mine protection while reducing the weight of the degaussing system by an estimated 50-80%, and reducing energy consumption.
We believe that our HTS systems are an enabling technology for the Navy in its mission to create an all-electric ship (Super Ship). Our HTS-based SPS degaussing system has been designed into the San Antonio-class amphibious warfare ship platform, with the first system delivered in January 2022 to be deployed on the USS Fort Lauderdale. AMSC and the U.S. Navy continue to collaborate on AMSC’s advanced HTS-based ship protection systems. The core components of the ship protection system are common and transferable to other applications being targeted for ship implementation.
Navy fleets worldwide face various challenges, including:
Our solutions for the marine market
Each Navy ship can be thought of as having its own power grid. We provide advanced ship protection systems, power management, and power generation systems that are designed to help fleets increase system efficiencies, enhance warfare capabilities, and boost reliability, performance and security. Our systems support the Navy’s mission to “electrify the fleet”. Our systems allow for the ship to generate a large amount of electrical power and distribute the power through an onboard power system to a propulsion motor by way of a much smaller, lighter, and higher performing HTS cable system, enabling a more advanced, reliable, and secure solution with a smaller footprint. Our solutions include:
8
Wind market overview
The global energy mix is transitioning towards an increasing amount of renewable energy, including wind power. Wind power is unlimited in supply and its generation is a zero-emission process. Wind power has become a major pillar of power supply throughout the world. Wind power is expected to play a key role in the achievement of the objectives of the Paris Climate Change agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.
According to GlobalData, a research firm, nearly 92GW of wind generation capacity were added worldwide in calendar 2023, as compared to 78 GW in calendar 2022. GlobalData anticipates that more than 102GW of additional capacity will be added in 2024.
According to GlobalData, annual wind installations in India for calendar 2023 were 4.3 GW and for calendar 2024 are estimated to be above 4 GW.
Several factors are expected to drive the future growth in the wind power market, including substantial government incentives and mandates that have been established globally, technological improvements, turbine cost reductions, the development of the offshore wind market, and increasing cost competitiveness with existing power generation technologies. Technological advances, declining turbine production cost and fluctuating prices for some fossil fuels continue to increase the competitiveness of wind versus traditional power generation technologies.
Our solutions for the wind market
We address the challenges of the wind power market by designing and engineering wind turbines, providing extensive support services to wind turbine manufacturers, and manufacturing and selling critical components for wind turbines.
Our approach to the wind energy markets allows our customers to use our world-class turbine engineering capabilities while minimizing their research and development costs. These services and our advanced ECS provide our customers with the ability to produce standardized or next-generation wind turbines at scale for their local market or the global market quickly and cost-effectively. Our team of highly experienced engineers works with clients to customize turbine designs specifically tailored to local markets while providing ongoing access to field services support and future technological advances.
Customers
We serve customers globally through a localized sales and field service presence in our core target markets. We have served over 100 customers in the grid market since our inception, including Commonwealth Edison, Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding, the U.S. Navy, Capital Power Corp., Targa Resources Corp., Micron Technology Inc., SSE plc in the United Kingdom, Consolidated Power Projects (Pty) Ltd in South Africa, Fuji Bridex in Singapore, and Ergon Energy in Australia. Additionally, our sales personnel in the United States are supported by manufacturers' sales representatives. We have designed wind turbines for and licensed wind turbine designs to wind turbine manufacturing customers including Inox Wind Limited ("Inox") in India and Doosan Heavy Industries (“Doosan”) in South Korea.
In fiscal 2023, Inox accounted for 13% of our total revenues. In fiscal 2022, Fuji Bridex Pte Ltd accounted for 15% of our total revenues. No other customer accounted for more than 10% of our total revenues in each of fiscal 2023 and 2022.
Facilities and Manufacturing
Our primary facilities and their primary functions are as follows:
• New Milford, Connecticut — Grid segment manufacturing
• Pewaukee, Wisconsin — Grid segment research and development
• Queensbury, New York — Grid segment manufacturing
• Richland, Washington — Grid segment research and development
• Westminster, Massachusetts — Grid segment manufacturing
Our global footprint also includes sales and/or field service offices in Australia, India, South Korea, the United Kingdom and McLean, VA.
The principal raw materials used in the manufacture of the Company’s products are nickel, silver, yttruim, copper, brass, and stainless steel. Major components are insulated gate bi-polar transistors, heatsinks, inductors, enclosures, transformers, and printed circuit boards. Most of these raw materials are available from multiple sources in the United States and world markets. Generally, the Company believes that adequate alternative sources are available for the majority of its key raw material and purchased component needs, however, the Company is dependent on a single or limited number of suppliers for certain materials and components.
9
Sales and Marketing
Our strategy is to serve customers locally in our core target markets through a direct sales force operating out of sales offices worldwide. In addition, we utilize manufacturers’ sales representatives in the United States and Canada to market our products to utilities in North America. The sales force also leverages business development staff for our various offerings as well as our team of wind turbine engineers and power grid transmission planners, all of whom help to ensure that we have an in-depth understanding of customer needs and provide cost-effective solutions for those needs.
Segments
We segment our operations into two market-facing business units: Grid and Wind. We believe this market-centric structure enables us to more effectively anticipate and meet the needs of power generation project developers, the Navy's ship protection systems, electric utilities and wind turbine manufacturers.
Competition
We face competition in various aspects of our technology and product development. We believe that competitive performance in the marketplace depends upon several factors, including technical innovation, range of products and services, product quality and reliability, customer service and technical support.
We face competition from other companies offering FACTS systems similar to our D-VAR products. These include adaptive VAR compensators, Dynamic voltage restorers (“DVRs”), and STATCOMs produced by ABB, Hitachi, Siemens, Mitsubishi, and Ingeteam, and battery-based uninterruptable power supply (“UPS”) systems offered by various companies around the world.
We face competition from other companies offering medium-voltage metal-enclosed power capacitor banks and harmonic filter banks for use on electric power systems similar to our NEPSITM products. These include Southern States, Controllix PowerSide, Elgin Power Solutions, Scott Engineering and QVARx.
We face competition from other companies offering DC power supply systems similar to our NeeltranTM products. These include SCR Controlled Rectifiers, IGBT-controlled choppers produced by ABB, Siemens, Friem, Dynapower, and Nidec offering systems around the world.
With our HTS-based REG product, we are offering a new approach that provides alternatives to utilities for power system design. Therefore, we believe that we compete with traditional approaches such as new full-sized substations, overhead and underground transmission, and urban power transformers.
We believe we are currently the only company that can offer HTS-based SPS products that have been fully qualified for use aboard U.S. Navy surface combatants. Therefore, the primary competition for our SPS products is currently coming from defense contractors that provide the copper-based systems that our lighter, more efficient HTS versions have been developed to replace. Companies such as Ultra Maritime, L3 Harris, and Raytheon have the bulk of the copper-based business today.
Our power module conversion equipment and our electrical control systems are designed and integrated into our wind turbine designs in a way to achieve maximum performance of the turbine. Typically, we are the exclusive provider of the power module conversion equipment and electrical control systems for our wind turbine designs. As a result, our power conversion equipment and electrical control systems see limited competition. Other companies that serve the wind turbine components industry include ABB and Hopewind. We also face indirect competition in the wind energy market from global manufacturers of wind turbines, such as Siemens Gamesa, General Electric, Vestas and Suzlon. We face competition for the supply of wind turbine engineering design services from design engineering firms such as Aerovide and W2E.
Patents, licenses and trade secrets
Patent Background
An important part of our business strategy is to develop a strong worldwide patent position in all of our technology areas. Our intellectual property (“IP”) portfolio includes both patents we own and patents we license from others. We devote substantial resources to building a strong patent position. Together with the international counterparts of our patents and patent applications, we own a robust portfolio of patents and patent applications worldwide and have rights through exclusive and non-exclusive licenses. We believe that our current patent position, together with our ability to obtain licenses from other parties to the extent necessary, will provide us with sufficient proprietary rights to develop and sell our products. However, for the reasons described below, we cannot assure you that this will be the case.
Despite the strength of our patent position, a number of U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications of third parties relate to our current products, to products we are developing, or to technology we are now using in the development or production of our products. We may need to acquire licenses to those patents, contest the scope or validity of those patents, or design around patented processes or products as necessary. If companies holding patents or patent applications that we need to license are competitors, we believe our patent portfolio will improve our ability to enter into license or cross-license arrangements with these companies. We have already successfully negotiated cross-licenses with several competitors.
Failure to obtain all necessary patents, licenses and other IP rights upon reasonable terms could significantly reduce the scope of our business and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. We do not now know the likelihood of successfully contesting the scope or validity of patents held by others. In any event, we could incur substantial costs in challenging the patents of other companies. Moreover, third parties could challenge some of our patents or patent applications, and we could incur substantial costs in defending the scope and validity of our own patents or patent applications whether or not a challenge is ultimately successful.
Grid Patents
We have received patents and filed numerous additional patent applications on power quality and reliability systems, including our D-VAR products. Our products are covered by patents and patents pending worldwide on both our systems and power converter products. The patents and applications focus on inventions that significantly improve product performance and reduce product costs, thereby providing a competitive advantage. Our grid patents will begin to expire in 2027, with the latest set to expire in 2040.
10
HTS Patents
Since the discovery of high temperature superconductors in 1986, rapid technical advances have characterized the HTS industry, which in turn have resulted in a large number of patents, including overlapping patents, relating to superconductivity. As a result, the patent situation in the field of HTS technology and products is unusually complex. We have obtained licenses to patents and patent applications covering some HTS materials. We currently have non-exclusive rights to a fundamental U.S. patent (U.S. 8,060,169 B1) covering 2G and similar HTS wire and applications and may elect in the future to allow our rights under this license to lapse. In addition to our owned patents and patent applications in 2G HTS wire, we have obtained licenses from (i) MIT for the MOD process we use to deposit the YBCO layer, and (ii) Alcatel-Lucent on the YBCO material. However, we may have to obtain additional licenses to HTS materials. Our HTS wire patents will begin to expire in 2024, with the latest set to expire in 2039.
In addition to HTS wire patents, we have extensive patents and patents pending covering applications of HTS wire, such as HTS fault current limiting technology including our fault current limiting cable, HTS rotating machines and ship protection systems. Our HTS application patents will begin to expire in 2027, with the latest set to expire in 2038. Since the superconductor rotating machine and the fault current limiting cable applications are relatively new, we believe that we have a particularly strong patent position in these areas. At present, we believe we have the world’s broadest and most fundamental patent position in superconductor rotating machines technology. We have also filed a series of patents on our concept for our proprietary fault current limiting technology. However, there can be no assurance that that these patents will be sufficient to assure our freedom of action in these fields without further licensing from others. See Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” for more information regarding the status of the commercialization of our Amperium wire products.
Wind Patents
Under our WindtecTM Solutions brand, we design a variety of wind turbine systems and license these designs, including expertise and patent rights, to third parties for an upfront fee, plus in some cases, future royalties. Our wind turbine designs are covered by patents and patents pending worldwide on wind turbine technology. We have patent coverage on the unique design features of our blade pitch control system, which ensures optimal aerodynamic flow conditions on the turbine blades and improves system efficiency and performance. The pitch system includes a patented SafetyLOCKTM feature that causes the blades to rotate to a feathered position to prevent the rotor blades from spinning during a fault. Our wind patents will begin to expire in 2025, with the latest set to expire in 2039.
Trade Secrets
Some of the important technology used in our operations and products is not covered by any patent or patent application owned by or licensed to us. However, we take steps to maintain the confidentiality of this technology by requiring all employees and all consultants to sign confidentiality agreements and by limiting access to confidential information. We cannot provide any assurance that these measures will prevent the unauthorized disclosure or use of that information. In addition, we cannot provide any assurance that others, including our competitors, will not independently develop the same or comparable technology that is one of our trade secrets.
Human Capital
We aim to provide a safe and positive work environment for our employees that emphasizes respect for individuals and high standards of integrity. The health and safety of our employees is of utmost importance to us. Recognizing and respecting our global presence, we strive to maintain a diverse and inclusive workforce everywhere we operate. As of March 31, 2024, we employed 337 persons. None of our employees are represented by a labor union.
We believe our employees are the foundation of our success and that our future growth depends, in part, on our ability to continue to attract and retain the best and brightest talent, including key management professionals, scientists, engineers, researchers, manufacturing personnel, and marketing and sales professionals. In order for us to attract the best talent, we provide a collaborative, inclusive and innovative work environment, competitive compensation, and opportunities for our employees to grow. We are focused on continuing to build an inclusive culture that inspires leadership, encourages innovative thinking, and supports the development and advancement of all.
Our human capital management objectives include attracting, incentivizing, and integrating our existing and future employees. We strive to attract and retain talented employees by offering competitive compensation and benefits that support their health and financial well-being. We use a combination of fixed and variable pay including base salary, bonuses, performance awards and stock-based compensation. The principal purposes of our equity incentive plans are to attract, retain and motivate employees through the granting of stock-based compensation awards. We offer employees benefits that vary by country and are designed to address local laws and cultures and to be competitive in the marketplace.
Available information
Our internet address is www.amsc.com. We are not including the information contained in our website as part of, or incorporating it by reference into, this document. We make available, free of charge, through our website our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to these reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such materials with, or furnish such materials to, the SEC.
We intend to disclose on our website any amendments to, or waivers of, our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics that are required to be disclosed pursuant to the SEC or the rules of the Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC.
Information about our Executive Officers
The table and biographical summaries set forth below contain information with respect to our executive officers as of the date of this filing:
Name Age Position
Daniel P. McGahn 52 President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Daniel P. McGahn joined us in December 2006 and has been chief executive officer and a member of our board of directors since June 2011 and chairman of the board since July 2018. He previously served as president and chief operating officer from December 2009 to June 2011, as senior vice president and general manager of our AMSC Superconductors business unit from April 2008 until December 2009, as vice president of our AMSC Superconductors business unit from March 2007 to April 2008 and as vice president of strategic planning and development from December 2006 to March 2007. From 2003 to 2006, Mr. McGahn served as executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Konarka Technologies. We believe Mr. McGahn’s qualifications to sit on our board of directors include his extensive experience with our company, including serving as our president since 2009, experience in the power electronics industry and strategic planning expertise gained while working in senior management as a consultant for other public and private companies.
John W. Kosiba, Jr. has served as senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer since April 4, 2017. Mr. Kosiba joined us as managing director, finance operations, in June 2010. He then served as vice president, finance operations, from September 2011 to May 2013. Prior to his appointment as senior vice president and chief financial officer, Mr. Kosiba served most recently as senior vice president, Gridtec solutions and finance operations, where he was responsible for (i) overseeing finance and accounting operations, budgeting, strategic planning and financial planning and analysis for the company, and (ii) managing the day-to-day business operations of our Gridtec solutions’ business segment. From January 2008 until June 2010, Mr. Kosiba served as division director and controller of Amphenol Aerospace, a division of Amphenol Corporation and a manufacturer of interconnect products for the military, commercial aerospace and industrial markets. In this role, Mr. Kosiba was responsible for overseeing finance, accounting, budgeting, audit and all aspects of financial planning and analysis for the division.
11
Item 1A. RISK FACTORS
Risks Related to Our Financial Performance
We have a history of operating losses, which may continue in the future. Our operating results may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and may fall below expectations in any particular fiscal quarter.
We were not profitable in fiscal 2023 and have recorded net losses for the last three fiscal years. We may not be profitable in fiscal 2024 or future years.
There remains substantial uncertainty in our business, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business and future prospects. In addition, our operating results historically have been difficult to predict and have at times fluctuated from quarter to quarter due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result of all of these factors, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful, and you should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance. In addition, we have in the past provided, and may continue to, provide public guidance on our expected operating and financial results for future periods. Such guidance is comprised of forward-looking statements subject to the risks and uncertainties described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other public filings and statements. Our actual results may not always be in line with or exceed the guidance we have provided. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of investors or any securities analysts that follow our company in any period or we do not meet our guidance, the trading price of our common stock would likely decline.
Our operating expenses do not always vary directly with revenue and may be difficult to adjust in the short term. As a result, if revenue for a particular quarter is below our expectations, we may not be able to proportionately reduce operating expenses for that quarter, and therefore such a revenue shortfall would have a disproportionate effect on our operating results for that quarter.
We have a history of negative operating cash flows, and we may require additional financing in the future, which may not be available to us.
At March 31, 2024, we had approximately $92.3 million of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, and during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, $2.1 million in cash was provided by our operating activities. We have historically experienced net losses and negative operating cash flows. We plan to continue to closely monitor our expenses and, if required, will further reduce operating costs and capital spending to enhance liquidity.
Our liquidity is highly dependent on our ability to profitably grow our revenues, control our operating costs, and secure additional financing, if required. We may require additional capital to conduct our business and adequately respond to future business challenges or opportunities, including, but not limited to, the need to develop new products or enhance existing products, maintain or expand research and development projects, collateralize performance bonds or letters of credit, acquire new businesses or assets, and the need to build inventory or to invest other cash to support business growth. In order to raise additional capital, we may offer shares of our common stock or other securities convertible into or exchangeable for our common stock. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of each of our existing stockholders will be diluted, and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our common stockholders.
In the event that additional liquidity is required, there can be no assurance that such financing would be available or, if available, that such financing could be obtained upon terms acceptable to us, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and prospects.
In addition, the Company maintains the majority of its cash and cash equivalents in accounts with major U.S. and multi-national financial institutions, and our deposits at certain institutions exceed insured limits. Market conditions can impact the viability of these institutions. In the event of failure of any of the financial institutions where we maintain our cash and cash equivalents, there can be no assurance that we will be able to access uninsured funds in a timely manner or at all.
Our technology and products could infringe intellectual property rights of others, which may require costly litigation and, if we are not successful, could cause us to pay substantial damages and disrupt our business.
In recent years, there has been significant litigation involving patents and other intellectual property rights in many technology-related industries. There may be patents or patent applications in the United States or other countries that are pertinent to our products or business of which we are not aware. The technology that we incorporate into and use to develop and manufacture our current and future products, including the technologies we license, may be subject to claims that they infringe the patents or proprietary rights of others. The success of our business will also depend on our ability to develop new technologies without infringing or misappropriating the proprietary rights of others. Third parties may allege that we infringe patents, trademarks or copyrights, or that we misappropriated trade secrets. These allegations could result in significant costs and diversion of the attention of management. If a successful claim were brought against us and we are found to infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights, we could be required to pay substantial damages, including treble damages if it is determined that we have willfully infringed such rights, or be enjoined from using the technology deemed to be infringing, or using, making or selling products deemed to be infringing. If we have supplied infringing products or technology to third parties, we may be obligated to indemnify these third parties for damages they may be required to pay to the patent holder and for any losses they may sustain as a result of the infringement. In addition, we may need to attempt to license the intellectual property right from such third party or spend time and money to design around or avoid the intellectual property. Any such license may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all. An adverse determination may subject us to significant liabilities and/or disrupt our business.
Changes in exchange rates could adversely affect our results of operations.
Currency exchange rate fluctuations could have an adverse effect on our revenues and results of operations, and we could experience losses with respect to hedging activities. In fiscal 2023, 37% of our revenues were recognized from sales outside of the United States. In addition, approximately 14% of our revenues in fiscal 2023 were derived under sales contracts where prices were denominated in the Euro. Unfavorable currency fluctuations could require us to increase prices to foreign customers, which could result in a lesser number of orders, and therefore lower revenues, from such customers. Alternatively, if we do not adjust the prices for our products in response to unfavorable currency fluctuations, our results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, most sales made by our foreign subsidiaries are denominated in the currency of the country in which these products are sold, and the currency they receive in payment for such sales could be less valuable at the time of receipt as a result of exchange rate fluctuations. However, we cannot be certain that our efforts will be adequate to protect us against significant currency fluctuations or that such efforts will not expose us to additional exchange rate risks.
We may be required to issue performance bonds or provide letters of credit, which restricts our ability to access any cash used as collateral for the bonds or letters of credit.
While we have been required to provide performance bonds in the form of surety bonds or other forms of security and letters of credit in the past, the size of the bonds and letters of credit was not material. In recent years, we have entered into contracts that require us to post bonds and to deliver letters of credit of significant magnitude, such as our prior $5.0 million irrevocable letter of credit (secured by a $5.0 million deposit in an escrow account, subsequently released upon completion of our obligations) as part of the agreement with Commonwealth Edison Company (“ComEd”) to install the Resilient Electric Grid (“REG”) system in Chicago. Similarly, in many other instances, we have been required to deposit cash in escrow accounts as collateral for these instruments, which is unavailable to us for general use for significant periods of time. Should we be unable to obtain performance bonds or letters of credit in the future, significant future potential revenue could become unavailable to us. Further, should our working capital situation deteriorate, we would not be able to access the restricted cash to meet working capital requirements.
12
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements could be impaired and may lead investors and other users to lose confidence in our financial data.
Maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to produce reliable financial statements. If material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting are discovered or occur in the future, our consolidated financial statements may contain material misstatements and we could be required to restate our financial results.
If we are unable to maintain effective internal controls, we may not have adequate, accurate or timely financial information, and we may be unable to meet our reporting obligations or comply with the requirements of the SEC or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which could result in the imposition of sanctions, including the inability of registered broker dealers to make a market in our common stock, or an investigation by regulatory authorities. Any such action or other negative results caused by our inability to meet our reporting requirements or to comply with legal and regulatory requirements or by our disclosure of an accounting, reporting or control issue could adversely affect the trading price of our securities and our business. Significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting could also reduce our ability to obtain financing or could increase the cost of any financing we obtain.
Risks Related to Our Operations
We may not realize all of the sales expected from our backlog of orders and contracts.
We cannot assure you that we will realize the revenue we expect to generate from our backlog in the periods we expect to realize such revenue, or at all.
In addition, the backlog of orders, if realized, may not result in profitable revenue. Backlog represents the value of contracts and purchase orders received for which delivery is expected in the next twelve months. Our customers have the right under some circumstances and with some penalties or consequences to terminate, reduce or defer firm orders that we have in backlog. In addition, our government contracts are subject to the risks described below. If our customers terminate, reduce or defer firm orders, we may be protected from certain costs and losses, but our sales will nevertheless be adversely affected, and we may not generate the revenue we expect.
Although we strive to maintain ongoing relationships with our customers, there is an ongoing risk that they may cancel orders or reschedule orders due to fluctuations in their business needs or purchasing budgets.
This has had, and may continue to have, an adverse effect on our ability to grow our revenues. In addition, current and future suppliers may be less likely to grant us credit, resulting in a negative impact on our working capital and cash flows.
Our contracts with the U.S. government are subject to audit, modification or termination by the U.S. government and include certain other provisions in favor of the government. The continued funding of such contracts remains subject to annual congressional appropriation, which, if not approved, could reduce our revenue and lower or eliminate our profit.
As a company that contracts with the U.S. government, we are subject to financial audits and other reviews by the U.S. government of our costs and performance, accounting, and general business practices relating to these contracts. Based on the results of these audits, the U.S. government may adjust our contract-related costs and fees. We cannot be certain that adjustments arising from government audits and reviews would not have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
Our U.S. government contracts customarily contain other provisions that give the government substantial rights and remedies, many of which are not typically found in commercial contracts, including provisions that allow the government to:
All of our U.S. government contracts, as well as certain of our contracts with third parties that are dependent on U.S. government contracts, can be terminated by the U.S. government for its convenience. Termination-for-convenience provisions typically provide only for our recovery of costs incurred or committed, and for settlement of expenses and profit on work completed prior to termination. In addition to the right of the U.S. government to terminate its contracts with us, U.S. government contracts are conditioned upon the continuing approval by the U.S. Congress of the necessary spending to honor such contracts. Congress often appropriates funds for a program on a fiscal year basis even though contract performance may take more than one year. Consequently, at the beginning of many major governmental programs, contracts often may not be fully funded, and additional monies are then committed to the contract only if, as and when appropriations are made by the U.S. Congress for future fiscal years. In addition, government shutdowns could prevent or delay such contracts from being funded. Failure by the U.S. Congress to further suspend or increase the debt ceiling could delay or result in the loss of contracts for the procurement of our products and services, and we may be asked or required to continue to perform for some period of time on certain of our U.S. government contracts, even if the U.S. government is unable to make timely payments.
13
We cannot be certain that our U.S. government contracts, or our contracts with third parties that relate to projects for the U.S. government will not be terminated or suspended in the future. The U.S. government’s termination of, or failure to fully fund, one or more of our contracts would have a negative impact on our operating results and financial condition. Further, in the event that any of our government contracts are terminated for cause, it could affect our ability to obtain future government contracts which could, in turn, seriously harm our ability to develop our technologies and products.
Changes in U.S. government defense spending could negatively impact our financial position, results of operations, liquidity and overall business.
We have several contracts with the U.S. government, including defense-related programs with the U.S. Department of Defense. Changes in U.S. government defense spending for various reasons, including as a result of potential changes in policy positions or priorities that may result from the U.S. presidential and congressional elections, could negatively impact our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity. Our programs are subject to U.S. government policies, budget decisions and appropriation processes which are driven by numerous factors including: (1) geopolitical events; (2) macroeconomic conditions; and (3) the ability of the U.S. government to enact relevant legislation, such as appropriations bills. In recent years, U.S. government appropriations have been affected by larger U.S. government budgetary issues and related legislation. In prior years, the U.S. government has been unable to timely complete its budget process before the end of its fiscal year, resulting in governmental shut-downs or providing only enough funds for U.S. government agencies to continue operating at prior-year levels. Significant changes in U.S. government defense spending or changes in U.S. government priorities, policies and requirements could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity.
Pandemics, epidemics, or other public health crises may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The occurrence or reoccurrence of regional epidemics, a global pandemic or other public health crises, such as COVID-19, may adversely affect our operations, financial condition, and results of operations. The extent to which a public health crisis impacts our business going forward will depend on factors such as the duration and scope; governmental, business, and individuals' actions in response to the public health crisis; and the impact on economic activity, including the possibility of recession or financial market instability. Measures to contain a public health crisis may intensify other risks described in these Risk Factors.
We rely upon third-party suppliers for the components and subassemblies of many of our Grid and Wind products, making us vulnerable to supply shortages and price fluctuations, which could harm our business.
Many of our components and subassemblies are currently manufactured for us by a limited number of qualified suppliers. Any interruption in the supply of components or subassemblies, or our inability to obtain substitute components or subassemblies from alternate sources at acceptable prices in a timely manner, could impair our ability to meet the demand of our customers, which would have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
In order to minimize costs and time to market, we have and will continue to identify local suppliers that meet our quality standards to produce certain of our subassemblies and components. These efforts may not be successful including as quality standards evolve. For example, there are increasing expectations in various jurisdictions that companies monitor the environmental, social, and/or geographic provenance of their supply chain; complying with such expectations may cause us to incur additional costs, subject us to increased scrutiny, reduce the number of acceptable suppliers, or otherwise impact our business or operations. In addition, any event that negatively impacts our supply, including, among others, wars, terrorist activities, cyberattacks, natural disasters and outbreaks of infectious disease, could delay or suspend shipments of products or the release of new products or could result in the delivery of inferior products. Our revenues from the affected products would decline or we could incur losses until such time as we are able to restore our production processes or put in place alternative contract manufacturers or suppliers. Even though we carry business interruption insurance policies, we may suffer losses as a result of business interruptions that exceed the coverage available under our insurance policies.
Uncertainty surrounding our prospects and financial condition may have an adverse effect on our customer and supplier relationships.
Our relationships with our customers and suppliers are predicated on the belief that we will continue to operate. Our customers, particularly in the utility industry, are generally risk averse and may not enter into sales contracts with us if there is uncertainty regarding our ability to support working capital needs of large-scale projects.
Our success is dependent upon attracting and retaining qualified personnel and our inability to do so could significantly damage our business and prospects.
We have attracted a highly skilled management team and specialized workforce, including scientists, engineers, researchers, manufacturing, personnel, and marketing and sales professionals. Hiring and retaining good personnel for our business is challenging, and highly qualified technical personnel are likely to remain a limited resource for the foreseeable future. We may not be able to hire the necessary personnel to implement our business strategy. In addition, we may need to provide higher compensation or more training to our personnel than we currently anticipate. Moreover, any officer or employee can terminate his or her relationship with us at any time. Losing the services of any of our executive officers or key employees could materially and adversely impact our business.
14
A significant portion of our Wind segment revenues are derived from a single customer. If this customer’s business is negatively affected, it could adversely impact our business.
A significant portion of our Wind segment revenues have historically been derived from Inox and a significant decrease in revenues from Inox could adversely impact our Wind segment. Revenues from Inox are supported by supply contracts to purchase wind turbine ECS, and licenses to make, use and supply, wind turbines based on our designs. Inox has been active in the new central and state government auction regime in India and has a cumulative order book of over 2.6 GW. However, we cannot predict if and how successful Inox will be in executing on these orders or in obtaining new orders under the new central and state auction regime. Any failure by Inox to succeed under this regime, or any delay in Inox’s ability to deliver its wind turbines, could result in fewer ECS shipments to Inox. Inox has historically failed to post letters of credit and take delivery of forecasted ECS quantities.
Our success in addressing the wind energy market is dependent on the manufacturers that license our designs.
Because an important element of our strategy for addressing the wind energy market involves the license of our wind turbine designs to manufacturers of those systems, the financial benefits to us from our products for the wind energy market are dependent on the success of these manufacturers in selling wind turbines based on our designs. We may not be able to enter into marketing or distribution arrangements with third parties on financially acceptable terms, or at all, and third parties may not be successful in selling our products or applications incorporating our products.
Our business and operations would be adversely impacted in the event of a failure or security breach of our or any critical third parties' information technology infrastructure and networks.
We rely upon the capacity, reliability, and security of information technology hardware and software infrastructure and networks (collectively, "IT Systems"), and our ability to expand and update IT Systems in response to our changing needs. We manage certain IT Systems but also rely on IT Systems and various products and services provided by critical third-party vendors and others in the supply chain. We also collect and store sensitive and confidential information ("Confidential Information") in the ordinary course of our business. Any failure to manage, expand, or update our IT Systems or any disruption to or failure in the operation of such IT Systems could harm our business. In addition, the costs associated with updating and securing our IT Systems are likely to increase as such security measures become more complex, which may harm our operating results and financial condition.
Despite our implementation of security measures, we face numerous and evolving cybersecurity risks that threaten the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our IT Systems and Confidential Information. Our IT Systems, and those of the third-party vendors we rely on, are vulnerable to disruption, compromise and damage from computer viruses (including malware and ransomware), bugs, misconfigurations or vulnerabilities, social engineering/phishing, natural disasters, human or technical error, intentional conduct, cyberattacks, unauthorized access and other similar disruptions. Because we rely on certain third party vendors that support our operations, successful cyberattacks that disrupt or result in unauthorized access to third party IT Systems can materially impact our operations and financial results. There can also be no assurance that our cybersecurity risk management program and processes, including our policies, controls or procedures, or the processes of third-party vendors we rely on, will be fully implemented, complied with or effective in protecting our IT Systems and data. Our business is also subject to break-ins, sabotage, and intentional acts of vandalism by third parties as well as employees. We cannot guarantee the security or protection of any IT Systems. Threat actors, such as ransomware groups, are becoming increasingly sophisticated in using techniques and tools including artificial intelligence that are designed to circumvent controls, evade detection and remove or obfuscate forensic evidence. As a result, we and our third-party providers may be unable to timely or effectively anticipate, detect, investigate, remediate or recover from cyberattacks in the future or avoid material impact to our IT Systems and our business. We also face increased cyber risk due to the number of our and others' employees who are (and may continue to be) working remotely due to the challenges associated with managing remote computing assets and security vulnerabilities that are present in many non-corporate and home networks.
Any adverse impact to the availability, integrity or confidentiality of our IT Systems or those of third parties upon which we rely could result in disruptions to our operations, loss, damage or compromise to our data, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential information. Any or all of the foregoing could harm our reputation, result in substantial remediation, incident response, system restoration and compliance costs, lead to lost revenues and business opportunities, lead to regulatory investigations and enforcement and/or litigation (such as class actions), and related fines or penalties, increase our insurance premiums and have other materially adverse effects on our business and results. Our insurance policies may not cover, or may be insufficient to cover, any or all costs, losses and liability associated with any cyberattacks, security incidents or other disruptions and we cannot guarantee that applicable insurance will be available to us in the future on economically reasonable terms or at all. Any or all of the foregoing could materially adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We may acquire additional complementary businesses or technologies, which may require us to incur substantial costs for which we may never realize the anticipated benefits.
Our recent acquisitions have required substantial integration and management efforts. As a result of any additional acquisition we pursue, management’s attention and resources may be further diverted from our other businesses. An acquisition may also involve the payment of a significant purchase price, which could reduce our cash position or dilute our stockholders and require significant transaction-related expenses.
Achieving the benefits of any acquisition involves additional risks, including:
• difficulty assimilating acquired operations, technologies and personnel;
• unforeseen liabilities of the acquired business;
• limitations on rights to indemnity from the seller;
We cannot provide any assurance that we will realize any of the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, including our NEPSI acquisition completed in October 2020, and Neeltran, Inc. acquisition completed in May 2021, and if we fail to realize these anticipated benefits, our operating performance could suffer.
Failure to comply with evolving data privacy and data protection laws and regulations or to otherwise protect personal data, may adversely impact our business and financial results.
We are subject to many rapidly evolving privacy and data protection laws and regulations in the United States, Europe and around the world. This requires us to operate in a complex environment where there are significant constraints on how we can process personal data across our business. The scope of these laws are changing, subject to differing interpretations, and may be inconsistent among jurisdictions. For example, European General Data Protection Regulation, the California Consumer Privacy Act, Massachusetts Data Privacy Law and the data protection and security laws of other jurisdictions impose onerous obligations — including around transparency, data breach reporting, and international data transfers — with respect to our processing personal data of individuals. We are also subject to certain contractual obligations related to privacy, data protection and data security. The legal and regulatory framework for privacy, data protection and data security worldwide is, and is likely to remain for the foreseeable future, uncertain and complex, and it is possible that these or other actual or alleged obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that we do not anticipate or that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another, and may conflict with our other legal obligations or our practices. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy, data protection and data security obligations may result in substantial fines, regulatory investigations or enforcement, reputational damage, orders to cease/change our use of data, enforcement notices, as well as potential civil claims, including class action type litigation, and could result in significant liability (including monetary penalties or requirements to alter our operations), and otherwise materially and adversely affect our reputation and business. Further, any significant change to applicable laws, regulations or industry practices regarding privacy, data protection, and data security could increase our costs and require us to modify our operations, possibly in a material manner.
Many of our revenue opportunities are dependent upon subcontractors and other business collaborators.
Many of the revenue opportunities for our business involve projects, such as the installation of our ship protection systems and electrical system hardware in wind turbines, in which we collaborate with other companies, including suppliers of cryogenic systems, manufacturers of electric power cables and manufacturers of wind turbines. As a result, many of our current and planned revenue-generating projects involve business collaborators on whose performance our revenue is dependent. If these business collaborators fail to deliver their products or perform their obligations on a timely basis or fail to generate sufficient demand for the systems they manufacture, our revenue from the project may be delayed or decreased, and we may not be successful in selling our products.
15
If we fail to implement our business strategy successfully, our financial performance could be harmed.
Our future financial performance and success are dependent in large part upon our ability to implement our business strategy successfully. Our business strategy envisions several initiatives, including driving revenue growth and enhancing operating results by increasing customer adoption of our products by targeting high-growth segments with commercial and system-level products. We may not be able to implement our business strategy successfully or achieve the anticipated benefits of our business plan. If we are unable to do so, our long-term growth and profitability may be adversely affected. Even if we are able to implement some or all of the initiatives of our business plan successfully, our operating results may not improve to the extent we anticipate, or at all. In addition, to the extent we have misjudged the nature and extent of industry trends or our competition, we may have difficulty in achieving our strategic objectives. Any failure to implement our business strategy successfully may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, we may decide to alter or discontinue certain aspects of our business strategy at any time.
Our ability to implement our business strategy could also be affected by a number of factors beyond our control, such as increased competition, legal developments, government regulation, general economic conditions, including as a result of the ongoing wars between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas, or increased operating costs or expenses.
Problems with product quality or product performance may cause us to incur warranty expenses and may damage our market reputation and prevent us from achieving increased sales and market share.
Consistent with customary practice in our industry, we provide various warranties or guarantees relating to our products, such as that our products and/or services will be free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use and service. We generally provide a one- to three-year warranty on our products, commencing upon installation. A provision is recorded upon revenue recognition to cost of revenues for estimated warranty expense based on historical experience. The possibility of future product failures or issues related to services we provided could cause us to incur substantial expenses to repair or replace defective products or re-perform such services potentially in excess of our reserves. Furthermore, widespread product failures may damage our market reputation and reduce our market share and cause sales to decline.
Many of our customers outside of the United States may be either directly or indirectly related to governmental entities, and we could be adversely affected by violations of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar worldwide anti-bribery laws outside the United States.
The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar worldwide anti-bribery laws in non-U.S. jurisdictions generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to non-U.S. officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Many of our customers outside of the United States are, either directly or indirectly, related to governmental entities and are therefore subject to such anti-bribery laws. Our policies mandate compliance with these anti-bribery laws. We operate in many parts of the world that have experienced governmental corruption to some degree, and in certain circumstances strict compliance with anti-bribery laws may conflict with local customs and practices. Our internal control policies and procedures may not always protect us from reckless or criminal acts committed by our employees or agents. Violations of these laws, or allegations of such violations, could disrupt our business and result in a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We have had limited success marketing and selling our superconductor products and system-level solutions, and our failure to more broadly market and sell our products and solutions could lower our revenue and cash flow.
To date, we have had limited success marketing and selling our superconductor products and system-level solutions. Once our products and solutions are ready for widespread commercial use, we will have to develop a marketing and sales organization that will effectively demonstrate the advantages of our products over more traditional products, competing superconductor products and other technologies. We may not be successful in our efforts to market this technology and we may not be able to establish an effective sales and distribution organization.
We may decide to enter into arrangements with third parties for the marketing or distribution of our products, including arrangements in which our products, such as Amperium wire, are included as a component of a larger product, such as a power cable system. By entering into marketing and sales alliances, the financial benefits to us of commercializing our products will be dependent on the efforts of others.
We or third parties on whom we depend may be adversely affected by natural disasters, including events resulting from climate change, and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us or our value chain from such events.
Natural disasters (including, but not limited to tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, storms, floods, droughts and extreme temperatures) and chronic changes in the physical environment, such as changes to meteorological or hydrological patterns, could severely disrupt our operations and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. Climate change may increase the frequency or intensity of such events. If a natural disaster, power outage, or other event, including human acts such as terrorism, occurred that prevented us from fully utilizing our value chain or facilities, that damaged critical infrastructure, such as the manufacturing facilities on which we rely, or that otherwise disrupted operations, it may be difficult or, in certain cases, impossible for us to continue our business for a substantial period of time. The disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place may prove inadequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity plans, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
In addition, changes in climate change-related laws or regulations, including laws relating to greenhouse gas emissions, could lead to new or additional compliance requirements and expenditures, and subject us to additional operational costs and restrictions, including increased energy and raw material costs and other compliance requirements which could negatively impact our reputation, business, capital expenditures, results of operations and financial position. For more information, please refer to our risk factor titled “The increasing focus on environmental sustainability and social initiatives could increase our costs, and inaction could harm our reputation and adversely impact our financial results."
16
Risks Related to Our Markets
Adverse changes in domestic and global economic conditions could adversely affect our operating results.
We have become increasingly subject to the risks arising from adverse changes in domestic and global economic conditions, including as a result of political instability in the United States. In recent years, financial markets have been volatile and the state of both the domestic and global economies has been uncertain. Political instability in the United States, such as the failure to increase the federal debt ceiling, could lead to further financial market volatility and harm the economy. Adverse credit conditions in the future could have a negative impact on our ability to execute on future strategic activities. In addition, if credit is difficult to obtain in the future, some customers may delay or reduce purchases. Similarly, inflationary pressures have increased and may increase our costs or force us to increase prices for our products. In particular, in fiscal 2022, we experienced substantial inflationary pressure in our supply chain. Sustained higher prices continued throughout fiscal 2023, although we believe inflationary pressures were more stable. These events have resulted or could in the future result in higher product costs, reductions in sales of our products, longer sales cycles, slower adoption of new technologies, increased accounts receivable and inventory write-offs and increased price competition. We also purchase large amounts of commodity-based raw materials. Prevailing prices for such commodities are subject to fluctuations due to changes in supply and demand and a variety of additional factors beyond our control, such as global political and economic conditions. Any of these events would likely harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our international operations are subject to risks that we do not face in the United States, which could have an adverse effect on our operating results.
In recent years, a substantial amount of our consolidated revenues were recognized from customers outside of the United States. For example, 37% of our revenues in fiscal 2023 and 45% of our revenues in fiscal 2022 were recognized from sales outside the United States. We also manufacture certain of our products and purchase a portion of our raw materials and components from suppliers in other foreign countries. The ongoing wars between Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Hamas have caused increased raw material costs and material shortages and, as a result, adversely impacted certain of our suppliers. Our international operations are subject to a variety of risks that we do not face in the United States, including:
• increased exposure to foreign currency exchange rate risk;
• reduced protection for intellectual property rights in some countries; and
• natural disasters, pandemics, political unrest, war or acts of terrorism.
Trade tensions between the U.S. and China, the U.S. and Russia, as well as those between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico and other countries have been escalating in recent years. Such sanctions and other measures, as well as the existing and potential further responses from countries subject to such sanctions, tensions and military actions, could adversely affect the global economy and financial markets and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We cannot predict whether the United States or any other country will impose new quotas, tariffs, taxes or other trade barriers upon the importation or exportation of our products or gauge the effect that new barriers would have on our financial position or results of operations. These new tariffs or any additional tariffs or other trade barriers may cause our costs to increase, our products to be less competitive, and our business, results of operations and financial position to be materially adversely affected.
Our overall success in international markets depends, in part, upon our ability to succeed in differing legal, regulatory, economic, social and political conditions. We may not be successful in developing and implementing policies and strategies that will be effective in managing these risks in each country where we do business or conduct operations. Our failure to manage these risks successfully could harm our international operations and reduce our international sales, thus lowering our total revenue and increasing losses.
Our products face competition, which could limit our ability to acquire or retain customers.
The markets for our products are competitive and many of our competitors have substantially greater financial resources and research and development, manufacturing and marketing capabilities than we do. In addition, as our target markets develop, other large industrial companies may enter these fields and compete with us.
We face competition from other companies offering FACTS systems similar to our D-VAR products. These include adaptive VAR compensators, Dynamic voltage restorers (“DVRs”), and STATCOMs produced by ABB, Hitachi, Siemens, Mitsubishi, and Ingeteam, and battery-based uninterruptable power supply (“UPS”) systems offered by various companies around the world.
We face competition from other companies offering medium-voltage metal-enclosed power capacitor banks and harmonic filter banks for use on electric power systems similar to our NEPSI products. These include Southern States, Controllix PowerSide, Elgin Power Solutions (formally Gilbert), Scott Engineering and QVARx.
We face competition from other companies offering DC power supply systems similar to our Neeltran products. These include SCR Controlled Rectifiers, IGBT-controlled choppers produced by ABB, Siemens, Friem, Dynapower, and Nidec offering systems around the world.
With our HTS-based REG product, we are offering a new approach that provides alternatives to utilities for power system design. Therefore, we believe that we compete with traditional approaches such as new full-sized substations, overhead and underground transmission, and urban power transformers.
We believe we are currently the only company that can offer HTS-based SPS products that have been fully qualified for use aboard U.S. Navy surface combatants. Therefore, the primary competition for our SPS products is currently coming from defense contractors that provide the copper-based systems that our lighter, more efficient HTS versions have been developed to replace. Companies such as Ultra Maritime, L3 Harris, and Raytheon have the bulk of the copper-based business today.
As the HTS systems markets develop, other large industrial companies may enter those fields and compete with us. If we are unable to compete successfully, it may harm our business, which in turn may limit our ability to acquire or retain customers.
With respect to our Wind business, other companies that serve the wind turbine components industry include ABB and Hopewind. We also face indirect competition in the wind energy market from global manufacturers of wind turbines, such as Siemens Gamesa, General Electric, Vestas and Suzlon. We face competition for the supply of wind turbine engineering design services from design engineering firms such as Aerovide and W2E.
The competition in these markets could adversely affect our operating results by reducing the volume of the products we sell or the prices we can charge. These competitors may be able to respond more rapidly than us to new or emerging technologies or changes in customer requirements. They may also devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products than we do. Our success depends significantly upon our ability to enhance our products and technologies and to develop and introduce, on a timely and cost-effective basis, new products and features that meet changing customer requirements and incorporate technological enhancements. If we are unable to develop new products and enhance functionalities or technologies to adapt to these changes, our business will suffer. We can provide no assurance that we will continue to effectively compete against our current competitors or additional companies that may enter our markets.
We have operations in, and depend on sales in, emerging markets, including India, and global conditions could negatively affect our operating results or limit our ability to expand our operations outside of these markets. Changes in India’s political, social, regulatory and economic environment may affect our financial performance.
We have operations in India. Our financial performance depends upon our ability to carry on our operations and sell our products in markets such as India, as well as other emerging markets around the world. We are, and will continue to be, subject to financial, political, economic and business risks in connection with our operations and sales in these emerging markets. In addition to the business risks inherent in developing and servicing these markets, economic conditions may be more volatile, legal and regulatory systems less developed and predictable, and the possibility of various types of adverse governmental action more pronounced in emerging markets. In addition, inflation, fluctuations in currency and interest rates, competitive factors, civil unrest, public health emergencies and labor problems could affect our revenues, expenses and results of operations. Our operations could also be adversely affected by acts of war, terrorism or the threat of any of these events as well as government actions such as controls on imports, exports and prices, tariffs, new forms of taxation, or changes in fiscal regimes and increased government regulation in the countries in which we operate or service customers. Unexpected or uncontrollable events or circumstances in any of these markets could have a material adverse effect on our financial results and cash flows.
Our financial performance could be affected by the political and social environment in India. In recent years, India has experienced civil unrest and terrorism and has been involved in conflicts with neighboring countries. The potential for hostilities between India and Pakistan has been high in light of tensions related to recent terrorist incidents in India and the unsettled nature of the regional geopolitical environment.
With respect to our activities in all emerging markets, we may be impacted by issues with managing foreign sales operations, including long payment cycles, potential difficulties in accounts receivable collection and, especially from significant customers, fluctuations in the timing and amount of orders. The adverse effect of any of these issues on our business could be increased due to the concentration of our business with a small number of customers. Operations in foreign countries also expose us to risks relating to difficulties in enforcing our proprietary rights, currency fluctuations and adverse or deteriorating economic conditions. For example, the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia has caused increased raw material costs and material shortages for, and adversely impacted, certain of our suppliers. If we experience problems with obtaining registrations, compliance with foreign country or applicable U.S. laws, or if we experience difficulties in payments or intellectual property matters in foreign jurisdictions, or if significant political, economic or regulatory changes occur, our results of operations would be adversely affected.
Our success could depend upon the commercial adoption of the REG system, which is currently limited, and a widespread commercial market for our REG products may not develop.
To date, there has been no widespread commercial use of the REG system. It is uncertain whether a robust commercial market for those new and unproven products will ever develop.
In addition, we believe in-grid demonstrations of REG systems are necessary to convince utilities and power grid operators of the benefits of this technology. Even if a project is funded, completion of projects can be delayed as a result of other factors. It is possible that the market demands we currently anticipate for our REG system will not develop and that they will never achieve widespread commercial acceptance. In such event, we would not be able to implement our strategy, and our results of operations could be adversely affected. Even if a commercial market for our REG systems were to develop, commercial terms requested by utilities and power grid operators relating to bonding requirements, limitations of liability, warranty periods, or other contractual provisions, may not be acceptable to us, which could impede our ability to enter into contractual arrangements for the sale of our REG system.
17
Industry consolidation could result in more powerful competitors and fewer customers.
Competitors in the industries in which we operate are consolidating. If our competitors consolidate, they likely will increase their market share, gain economies of scale that enhance their ability to compete with us and/or acquire additional products and technologies that could displace our product offerings. Our customer base also is undergoing consolidation. Consolidation within our customers’ industries could affect our customers and their relationships with us. If one of our competitors’ customers acquires any of our customers, we may lose that business. Additionally, if our customers become larger and more concentrated, they could exert pricing pressure on all suppliers, including us. If we were to lose market share or customers or face pricing pressure due to consolidation of our customers, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
18
Increasing focus and scrutiny on environmental sustainability and social initiatives could increase our costs, and inaction could harm our reputation and adversely impact our financial results.
There has been increasing public focus by investors, customers, environmental activists, the media and governmental and nongovernmental organizations on a variety of environmental, social and other sustainability matters. If we are not effective in addressing environmental, social and other sustainability matters affecting our business, including any relevant sustainability goals, our reputation and financial results may suffer. While we may at times engage in voluntary initiatives (such as voluntary disclosures, certifications, or goals, among others) to improve our environmental, social, and governance ("ESG") profile or respond to stakeholder expectations, such initiatives may be costly and may not have the desired effect. For example, methodologies and data relevant to many ESG matters are evolving, in some cases quite rapidly; as a result, actions or statements that we may take based on information or processes we currently believe to be reasonable may subsequently be determined to be erroneous or not in keeping with current or future best practice. Moreover, we may not be able to successfully complete such initiatives due to factors that are within or outside of our control. Even if this is not the case, our actions may subsequently be determined to be insufficient by various stakeholders, and we may be subject to investor or regulator engagement on our ESG efforts, even if such initiatives are currently voluntary. Certain market participants, including major institutional investors and capital providers, use third-party benchmarks and scores to assess companies’ ESG profiles in making investment or voting decisions. We have limited and in some instances no visibility or control over these scores or their underlying methodologies. Unfavorable ESG ratings could lead to increased negative investor sentiment towards us or our industry, which could negatively impact our share price as well as our access to and cost of capital. To the extent ESG matters negatively impact our reputation, it may also impede our ability to compete as effectively to attract and retain employees or customers, which may adversely impact our operations. Simultaneously, there are efforts by some stakeholders to reduce companies’ efforts on certain ESG-related matters. Both advocates and opponents to certain ESG matters are increasingly resorting to a range of activism forms, including media campaigns and litigation, to advance their perspectives. In addition, this emphasis on environmental, social, and other sustainability matters has resulted and may result in the adoption of new laws and regulations, including new reporting requirements. For example, various policymakers have adopted, or are considering adopting, requirements for the disclosure of climate- or other ESG-related information, which may require significant additional costs to comply. If we fail to comply with new laws, regulations, or reporting requirements, our reputation and business could be adversely impacted. Additionally, many of our customers and suppliers may be subject to similar expectations, which may augment or create additional risks, including risks that may not be known to us.
Growth of the wind energy market depends largely on the availability and size of government subsidies, economic incentives and legislative programs designed to support the growth of wind energy.
At present, the cost of wind energy exceeds the cost of conventional power generation in many locations around the world. Various governments have used different policy initiatives to encourage or accelerate the development and adoption of wind energy and other renewable energy sources. Renewable energy policies are in place in the European Union, certain countries in Asia, including India, China, Japan and South Korea, and many of the states in Australia and the United States. Examples of government sponsored financial incentives include capital cost rebates, feed-in tariffs, tax credits, net metering and other incentives to end-users, distributors, system integrators and manufacturers of wind energy products to promote the use of wind energy and to reduce dependency on other forms of energy. In the United States, various legislation and regulations designed to support the growth of wind energy have been implemented or proposed by the federal government, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, Production Tax Credit for Renewable Energy (“PTC”) and the Clean Power Plan. Governments, including the U.S. government, may decide to reduce or eliminate these economic incentives, or curtail legislative programs supportive of wind energy technologies for political, financial or other reasons. Any reductions in, or eliminations of, government subsidies, economic incentives or favorable legislative programs before the wind energy industry reaches a sufficient scale to be cost-effective in a non-subsidized marketplace could reduce demand for our products and adversely affect our business prospects and results of operations.
Lower prices for other energy sources may reduce the demand for wind energy development, which could have a material adverse effect on our ability to grow our Wind business.
The wind energy market is affected by the price and availability of other energy sources, including nuclear, coal, natural gas and oil, as well as other sources of renewable energy. To the extent renewable energy, particularly wind energy, becomes less cost-competitive due to reduced government targets, increases in the cost of wind energy, new regulations, incentives that favor alternative renewable energy, cheaper alternatives or otherwise, demand for wind energy and other forms of renewable energy could decrease. Slow growth or a long-term reduction in the demand for renewable energy could have a material adverse effect on our ability to grow our Wind business.
Risks Related to Our Technologies
We may be unable to adequately prevent disclosure of trade secrets and other proprietary information.
We rely on trade secrets to protect our proprietary technologies, especially where we do not believe patent protection is appropriate or obtainable. However, trade secrets are difficult to protect. We rely, in part, on confidentiality agreements with our employees, contractors, consultants, outside scientific collaborators and other advisors to protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information. These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of confidential information and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets or independently develop processes or products that are similar or identical to our trade secrets and courts outside the United States may be less willing to protect trade secrets. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.
Our patents may not provide meaningful or long-term protection for our technology, which could result in us losing some or all of our market position.
We own or have licensing rights under many patents and pending patent applications. However, the patents that we own or license may not provide us with meaningful or long-term protection of our technologies and may not prevent our competitors from using similar technologies for a variety of reasons, such as:
• our existing patents may expire;
• any patents issued may be challenged by third parties; and
In particular, if any material patents expire, we may not be able to prevent competitors from producing products similar to ours, possibly at lower prices, which could adversely impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Moreover we could incur substantial litigation costs in defending the validity of or enforcing our own patents. We also rely on trade secrets and proprietary know-how to protect our intellectual property. However, our confidentiality agreements and other safeguards may not provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets and other proprietary information. If the patents that we own or license or our trade secrets and proprietary know-how fail to protect our technologies, our market position may be adversely affected.
There are a number of technological challenges that must be successfully addressed before our superconductor products can gain widespread commercial acceptance, and our inability to address such technological challenges could adversely affect our ability to acquire customers for our products.
Many of our superconductor products are in the early stages of commercialization, while others are still under development. There are a number of technological challenges that we must successfully address to complete our development and commercialization efforts for superconductor products. We will also need to improve the performance and reduce the cost of our Amperium wire to expand the number of commercial applications for it. We may be unable to meet such technological challenges or to sufficiently improve the performance and reduce the costs of our Amperium wire. Delays in development, as a result of technological challenges or other factors, may result in the introduction or commercial acceptance of our superconductor products later than anticipated.
19
Third parties have or may acquire patents that cover the materials, processes and technologies we use or may use in the future to manufacture our Amperium products, and our success depends on our ability to license such patents or other proprietary rights.
We expect that some or all of the HTS materials, processes and technologies we use in designing and manufacturing our products are or will become covered by patents issued to other parties, including our competitors. The owners of these patents may refuse to grant licenses to us, or may be willing to do so only on terms that we find commercially unreasonable. If we are unable to obtain these licenses, we may have to contest the validity or scope of those patents or re-engineer our products to avoid infringement claims by the owners of these patents. It is possible that we will not be successful in contesting the validity or scope of a patent, or that we will not prevail in a patent infringement claim brought against us. Even if we are successful in such a proceeding, we could incur substantial costs and diversion of management resources in prosecuting or defending such a proceeding.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
Our common stock has experienced, and may continue to experience, market price and volume fluctuations, which may prevent our stockholders from selling our common stock at a profit and could lead to costly litigation against us that could divert our management’s attention.
The market price of our common stock has historically experienced volatility and may continue to experience such volatility in the future. Factors such as our financial performance, liquidity requirements, technological achievements by us and our competitors, the establishment of development or strategic relationships with other companies, strategic acquisitions, new customer orders and contracts, and our introduction of commercial products may have a significant effect on the market price of our common stock. The stock market in general, and the stock of high technology companies, in particular, have, in recent years, experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations, which are often unrelated to the performance or condition of particular companies. Such broad market fluctuations have and could continue to adversely affect the market price of our common stock. Due to these factors, the price of our common stock may decline, and investors may be unable to resell their shares of our common stock for a profit. Following periods of volatility in the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company. In the past, we have been subject to a number of class action lawsuits which were filed against us on behalf of certain purchasers of our common stock. If we become subject to additional litigation of this kind in the future, it could result in additional litigation costs, a damages award against us and the further diversion of our management’s attention.
General Risk Factors
Unfavorable results of legal proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
From time to time, we may become subject to legal proceedings and claims that arise in or outside the ordinary course of business. Results of legal proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty. Our insurance coverage may be insufficient, our assets may be insufficient to cover any amounts that exceed our insurance coverage, and we may have to pay damage awards or otherwise may enter into settlement arrangements in connection with such claims. Any such payments or settlement arrangements in legal proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition. Regardless of merit, legal proceedings could result in substantial costs and significantly and adversely impact our reputation and divert management’s attention and resources, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition. In addition, such lawsuits may make it more difficult to finance our operations.
Item 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
Not applicable.
Item 1C. CYBERSECURITY
Overview
Cybersecurity risk is the business risk associated with a vulnerability to financial or reputational loss due to a cyber attack or a data breach. Our technologies, systems and networks may be subject to cybersecurity threats. Our business, like others within the energy technologies industry, is faced with growing cybersecurity threats as we increasingly rely on digital technologies across our business, some of which are managed by third-party service providers on whom we rely to help us collect, host or process information.
We recognize the significance of these threats, sometimes referred to as hacking, cybersecurity fraud, and cyberattacks, and maintains processes and procedures to protect its critical systems and sensitive information from unauthorized access. Despite our on-going efforts to improve our cybersecurity infrastructure and processed, there can be no assurance that a sophisticated cyber-attack would timely be detected or thwarted. To date, we are not aware of any material information security breaches and has not incurred significant operating expenses related to information security breaches. For more information on risks related to cybersecurity, please see the section titled “Risk Factors” included under Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Risk Management and Strategy
Our cybersecurity risk management program includes operational, technical and physical controls to protect against and respond timely to cybersecurity threats. To address evolving cybersecurity risks and corresponding regulations, our policies and procedures are benchmarked to industry, regulatory and cybersecurity frameworks (e.g., National Institute of Standards and Technology).
Management has engaged third-party vendors to assist in monitoring our cybersecurity risk management programs and identifying and responding to any incidents. Additionally, third-party vendors are routinely engaged to evaluate how effectively management as a whole manages cybersecurity risk. We also utilize third-party cybersecurity vendors to assess its protections against identified vulnerabilities.
We have developed cybersecurity training for employees concerning cybersecurity risk. This training provides information on security awareness and phishing simulations. All employees are required to attend periodic cybersecurity training. On a regular basis, our IT team shares news and articles related to cybersecurity awareness with all employees.
The Director, Global Information Technology and Financial Systems (the “IT Director”), leads an internal team and works directly with our third-party vendors to manage our cybersecurity risk management program and activities. The internal team monitors our information systems for cybersecurity threats, reviews cybersecurity incidents, analyzes emerging threats, and develops and implements risk mitigation strategies. The IT Director periodically reports on the cybersecurity program to the Company’s Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”).
Our cybersecurity risk assessment is performed annually and includes external and internal penetration testing performed by third party vendors to test for vulnerabilities in the Company’s environment.
Governance
The Board of Directors has delegated the oversight of risks from cybersecurity threats to the Audit Committee, which has delegated authority to the CFO to oversee the Company’s cybersecurity risk management, including prevention, detection and responding to any suspected cybersecurity incident.
The Audit Committee is updated at least annually by the CFO on the status of cybersecurity matters. Contemporaneous reporting is provided on an as needed basis to the Audit Committee and to the full Board of Directors on significant cyber events including response, legal obligations, and outreach and notification to regulators, and third parties when needed.
On an annual basis, the IT Director reviews the results of the current state of cybersecurity risk management, including the results of our cybersecurity risk assessment and any action plan to address any identified vulnerabilities.
20
Item 2. PROPERTIES
Our corporate headquarters and Grid manufacturing operations are located in a leased 88,000-square-foot facility in Ayer, Massachusetts. Additionally, we have Grid manufacturing operations located in a leased 77,500 square-foot facility in Westminster, Massachusetts as well as an owned 35,000 square-foot facility in Queensbury, New York and an owned 85,000 square-foot facility in New Milford, Connecticut.
We also occupy leased facilities located in Australia, Austria, India, Wisconsin, Washington and the United Kingdom with a combined total of approximately 72,000 square feet of space. These leases have varying expiration dates through January 2029 which can generally be terminated at our request after a six-month advance notice. These locations focus primarily on research and development, sales and/or field service and do not have significant leases or physical presence. We believe all of these facilities are well-maintained and suitable for their intended uses.
The following table summarizes information regarding our significant properties, as of March 31, 2024:
Location Supporting Square footage Owned/Leased
United States
Ayer, Massachusetts Corporate & Grid Segment 88,000 Leased
New Milford, Connecticut Grid Segment 85,000 Owned
Queensbury, New York Grid Segment 35,000 Owned
Westminster, Massachusetts Grid Segment 77,500 Leased
Item 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
We are not party to any material legal proceedings.
Item 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not Applicable.
21
PART II
Market Information
Our common stock has been listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “AMSC” since 1991.
Holders
The number of holders of record of our common stock on May 24, 2024 was 168.
Dividend Policy
We have never paid cash dividends on our common stock. We currently intend to retain earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business and do not anticipate paying cash dividends for the foreseeable future. Payment of future cash dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors after taking into account various factors, including our financial condition, operating results, current and anticipated cash needs and plans for expansion.
22
Stock Performance Graph
The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return on our common stock from March 31, 2019 to March 31, 2024 with the cumulative total return of (i) the Nasdaq Composite Index and (ii) the Nasdaq Electrical Components & Equipment Index.
This graph assumes the investment of $100.00 on March 31, 2019 in our common stock, the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Nasdaq Electrical Components & Equipment Index, and assumes any dividends are reinvested. Measurement points are March 31, 2019; March 31, 2020; March 31, 2021; March 31, 2022; March 31, 2023; and March 31, 2024.
COMPARISON OF 5 YEAR CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURN
Among American Superconductor Corporation,
the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Nasdaq Electrical Components & Equipment Index
Fiscal year ended March 31,
Item 6. RESERVED
23
Executive Overview
We are a leading system provider of megawatt-scale power resiliency solutions that orchestrate the rhythm and harmony of power on the gridTM, and protect and expand the capability of our Navy's fleet. Our solutions enhance the performance of the power grid, protect our Navy’s fleet, and lower the cost of wind power. In the power grid market, we enable electric utilities, industrial facilities, and renewable energy project developers to connect, transmit and distribute smarter, cleaner and better power through our transmission planning services and power electronics and superconductor-based systems. In the wind power market, we enable manufacturers to field highly competitive wind turbines through our advanced power electronics and control system products, engineering, and support services. Our power grid and wind products and services provide exceptional reliability, security, efficiency and affordability to our customers.
Our power system solutions help to improve energy efficiency, alleviate power grid capacity constraints, improve system resiliency, and increase the adoption of renewable energy generation. Demand for our solutions is driven by the growing needs for modernized smart grids that improve power reliability, security and quality, the U.S. Navy's effort to upgrade onboard power systems to support fleet electrification, and the need for increased renewable sources of electricity, such as wind and solar energy. Concerns about these factors have led to increased spending by corporations and the military, as well as supportive government regulations and initiatives on local, state, and national levels, including renewable portfolio standards, tax incentives and international treaties.
We manufacture products using two proprietary core technologies: PowerModuleTM programmable power electronic converters and our Amperium® high temperature superconductor ("HTS") wires. These technologies and our system-level solutions are protected by a robust intellectual property portfolio consisting of patents and patent applications worldwide and rights through exclusive and non-exclusive licenses.
We operate our business under two market-facing business units: Grid and Wind. We believe this market-centric structure enables us to more effectively anticipate and meet the needs of power generation project developers, the Navy's ship protection systems, electric utilities and wind turbine manufacturers.
Our fiscal year begins on April 1 and ends on March 31. When we refer to a particular fiscal year, we are referring to the fiscal year that began on April 1 of that same year. For example, fiscal 2023 refers to the fiscal year that began on April 1, 2023. Other fiscal years follow similarly.
24
We continue to experience some inflationary pressure in our supply chain and some delays in sourcing materials needed for our products, resulting in some production disruption both of which have increased our cost of revenues and decreased gross margin. While the impact of inflation has been challenging, we continue to take actions to limit this pressure including adjusting the pricing of our products and services. Changes in macroeconomic conditions arising from various reasons, such as the ongoing wars between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas, inflation, rising interest rates, labor force availability, sourcing, material delays and global supply chain disruptions could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business, financial condition and results of operation.
From time-to-time we may undertake restructuring activities in order to align our global organization in a manner that we believe will better position us to achieve our long-term goals. In January 2023, we undertook a reduction in force that involved approximately 5% of our global workforce. This restructuring has caused us to incur $1.0 million of cash expense which has been fully paid as of March 31, 2024 and is expected to result in annualized cost savings of approximately $5.0 million, which we began to realize in fiscal 2023.
In February 2023, we completed the process of determining and verifying our eligibility and amount of payroll tax credits known as the Employee Retention Credit (“ERC”) under the CARES Act which Congress enacted as part of the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020. This resulted in filing certain amended payroll tax forms for eligible quarters in 2020 and 2021, which, in the aggregate, totaled $3.3 million. We recognized a receivable in prepaid expenses and other current assets and a benefit to cost of revenues and operating expenses in the quarter ended March 31, 2023. In the year ended March 31, 2024, the Company received $3.0 million in payments for the initial claims that were processed. The remaining balance is expected to be paid during fiscal 2024.
On February 2, 2024, we completed an offering of 6,210,000 shares of our common stock at a public offering price of $11.25 per share under our then-existing Registration Statement on Form S-3. We received net proceeds of approximately $65.2 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses. See Note 1, “Nature of the Business and Operations and Liquidity,” for further information about this offering.
25
Results of Operations
Fiscal Years Ended March 31, 2024 and March 31, 2023
Revenues
Total revenues increased by 37% to $145.6 million in fiscal 2023 from $106.0 million in fiscal 2022. Our revenues are summarized as follows (in thousands):
Fiscal Years Ended March 31,
Revenues:
Revenues in our Grid business unit are derived from our D-VAR product sales, Northeast Power Systems, Inc. ("NEPSI") product sales, Neeltran product sales, HTS wire sales, ship protection systems ("SPS"), government-sponsored electric utility projects and other prototype development contracts. We also engineer, install and commission our products on a turnkey-basis for some customers. The Grid business unit accounted for 84% of total revenues in fiscal 2023 and 89% in fiscal 2022. Grid revenues increased 29% to $122.1 million in fiscal 2023 from $94.6 million in fiscal 2022. The increase in revenues was driven by higher NEPSI, Neeltran, and SPS revenues than in the prior year period.
Revenues in our Wind business unit are derived from wind turbine electrical control systems and core components, wind turbine license and development contracts, service contracts and consulting arrangements. Our Wind business unit accounted for 16% of total revenues in fiscal 2023 and 11% in fiscal 2022. Revenues in the Wind business unit increased 108% to $23.6 million in fiscal 2023 from $11.4 million in fiscal 2022. The increase over the prior year period was driven by additional shipments of electrical control systems ("ECS") at increased prices.
Cost of Revenues and Gross Margin
Cost of revenues increased by 13% to $110.4 million in fiscal 2023, compared to $97.5 million in fiscal 2022. Gross margin increased to 24% in fiscal 2023 from 8% in fiscal 2022. The increase in gross margin in fiscal 2023 was due to additional revenues while minimizing fixed factory cost. Fiscal 2023 experienced a favorable product mix in the Wind and Grid business units, with increased service revenues and a sharp improvement in Neeltran project margins.
Operating Expenses
Research and development
Research and development (“R&D”) expenses decreased by 11% to $8.0 million, or 5% of revenue in fiscal 2023, compared to $9.0 million, or 8% of revenue, in fiscal 2022. The decrease in R&D expenses is primarily a result of lower total compensation expense and lower materials and consulting expenses.
Selling, general, and administrative
Selling, general and administrative (“SG&A”) expenses increased by 10% to $31.6 million, or 22% of revenue in fiscal 2023 from $28.7 million, or 27% of revenue, in fiscal 2022. The increase in SG&A expenses is primarily a result of higher total compensation expense.
Amortization of acquisition related intangibles
We recorded $2.2 million in fiscal 2023 and $2.7 million in fiscal 2022 in amortization expense related to our core technology and know-how, customer relationships, and other intangible assets. The decrease in amortization expense is primarily a result of using the economic consumption method as the basis to amortize the acquired customer relationship intangible assets related to NEPSI and Neeltran.
Change in fair value of contingent consideration
The change in fair value of our contingent consideration for the earnout payment on the NEPSI acquisition resulted in a loss of $4.9 million and $0.1 million in fiscal 2023 and 2022, respectively.
During fiscal 2023, we issued 399,999 shares of common stock and cash in lieu of a fractional share of common stock, related to the achievement of specified revenue objectives in connection with the acquisition of NEPSI at a fair value of $3.1 million. One specified revenue objective, which would have earned the selling stockholders 300,000 shares of our common stock, was not achieved, leaving 300,000 shares of common stock remaining for potential issuance upon the achievement of the last specified revenue objective by September 30, 2024. The change in fair value was primarily driven by an increased likelihood of achieving certain revenue targets and an increase in our stock price.
26
Operating loss
Our operating loss is summarized as follows (in thousands):
Fiscal Years Ended March 31,
Operating income (loss):
Unallocated corporate expenses (9,560 ) (5,847 )
Our Grid business segment generated an operating loss of $2.8 million in fiscal 2023 and $24.6 million in fiscal 2022. The decrease in the Grid business unit operating loss was due to higher revenues and gross margins, compared to fiscal 2022.
The Wind segment generated operating income of $0.9 million in fiscal 2023 and an operating loss of $2.5 million in fiscal 2022. The increase in the Wind business unit operating income was due to higher revenue and gross margins in fiscal 2023, compared to fiscal 2022.
Unallocated corporate expenses in fiscal 2023 consisted of a loss on contingent consideration of $4.9 million and stock-based compensation expense of $4.7 million. Unallocated corporate expenses in fiscal 2022 consisted of a loss on contingent consideration of $0.1 million, stock-based compensation expense of $4.7 million, and a restructuring charge of $1.0 million.
Interest income, net
Interest income, net was $1.3 million in fiscal 2023 compared to $0.3 million for fiscal 2022. The increase in interest income, net, was primarily due to increased interest rates in fiscal 2023 and higher cash balances.
China dissolution
China dissolution expense was $1.9 million in fiscal 2022. The China dissolution expense during fiscal 2022 was driven by the liquidation of our China entity, resulting in a foreign currency loss from the cumulative translation release of $1.9 million in fiscal 2022. There was no similar transaction in fiscal 2023.
Other expense, net
Other expense, net was $0.7 million in fiscal 2023, compared to $0.1 million in fiscal 2022. The increase in other expense was driven by the impacts of unfavorable fluctuations in foreign currencies in fiscal 2023.
27
Income Taxes
We recorded an income tax expense of $0.3 million in fiscal 2023, compared to $0.2 million in fiscal 2022. The increase in income tax expense is a result of higher income tax in foreign jurisdictions.
Net loss
Net loss was $11.1 million in fiscal 2023, compared to net loss of $35.0 million in fiscal 2022. The decrease in net loss was driven primarily by higher revenues and gross margins in fiscal 2023 partially offset by the increase in fair value of contingent consideration in fiscal 2023.
Please refer to the “Risk Factors” section in Part I, Item 1A, for a discussion of certain factors that may affect our future results of operations and financial condition.
Non-GAAP Financial Measure - Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss)
Generally, a non-GAAP financial measure is a numerical measure of a company’s performance, financial position or cash flow that either excludes or includes amounts that are not normally excluded or included in the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”). The non-GAAP measures included in this Form 10-K, however, should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for or superior to the comparable measure prepared in accordance with GAAP.
We define non-GAAP net income (loss) as net income (loss) before stock-based compensation, amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, change in fair value of contingent consideration, China dissolution, ERC tax benefit, and other non-cash or unusual charges. We believe non-GAAP net income (loss) assists management and investors in comparing our performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis by excluding these non-cash charges and other items that we do not believe are indicative of our core operating performance. In addition, we use non-GAAP net income (loss) as a factor to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP net income (loss) is set forth in the table below (in thousands, except per share data):
Year ended March 31,
Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles 2,158 2,784
Change in fair value of contingent consideration 4,922 70
China dissolution — 1,921
ERC tax benefit — (3,283 )
Non-GAAP net income (loss) per share - basic $ 0.02 $ (1.03 )
Non-GAAP net income (loss) per share - diluted $ 0.02 $ (1.03 )
Weighted average shares outstanding - basic 29,825 27,848
Weighted average shares outstanding - diluted 30,909 27,848
We incurred non-GAAP net income of $0.6 million or $0.02 per share for fiscal 2023, compared to non-GAAP net loss of $28.8 million, or $1.03 per share, for fiscal 2022. The improvement in the non-GAAP net income in fiscal 2023 compared to fiscal 2022 was due to an improved operating loss driven by higher revenues and gross margins.
28
Liquidity and Capital Resources
We have experienced recurring operating losses and as of March 31, 2024 had an accumulated deficit of $1,066.7 million.
Our cash requirements depend on numerous factors, including the successful completion of our product development activities, our ability to commercialize our Resilient Electric Grid and ship protection system solutions, the rate of customer and market adoption of our products, collecting receivables according to established terms, the continued availability of U.S. government funding during the product development phase of our superconductor-based products and whether Inox is successful in executing on Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited orders or in obtaining additional orders under the new central and state auction regime. We continue to closely monitor our expenses and, if required, expect to reduce our operating and capital spending to enhance liquidity.
In January 2024, we filed a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 that will expire three years from the date on which it was declared effective, March 15, 2027 (the “Form S-3”). The Form S-3 allows us to offer and sell from time-to-time up to $250 million of common stock, debt securities, warrants or units comprised of any combination of these securities. The Form S-3 is intended to provide us flexibility to conduct registered sales of our securities, subject to market conditions, in order to fund our future capital needs. The terms of any future offering under the Form S-3 will be established at the time of such offering and will be described in a prospectus supplement filed with the SEC prior to the completion of any such offering.
On February 14, 2024, we completed a public offering of 6,210,000 shares of our common stock at a price of $11.25 per share under our then-existing Registration Statement on Form S-3. We received net proceeds of approximately $65.2 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses.
At March 31, 2024, we had cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $92.3 million, compared to $25.7 million at March 31, 2023, an increase of $66.6 million. As of March 31, 2024, we had approximately $4.0 million in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash in foreign bank accounts. Our cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash are summarized as follows (in thousands):
Total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash $ 92,280 $ 25,675
Net cash provided by operating activities was $2.1 million compared to net cash used in operating activities of $22.5 million in fiscal 2023 and 2022, respectively. The increase in net cash provided by operations in fiscal 2023 compared to fiscal 2022 was driven primarily by higher gross margins, increased cash collections, and relief of deferred revenue from prior fiscal periods.
Net cash used in investing activities was $1.0 million and $1.5 million in fiscal 2023 and 2022, respectively. The decrease in net cash used in investing activities in fiscal 2023 compared to fiscal 2022 was due primarily to lower investment in property, plant, and equipment in fiscal 2023 compared to fiscal 2022.
Net cash provided by financing activities was $65.4 million and $0.2 million in fiscal 2023 and 2022, respectively. The increase in net cash provided by financing activities in fiscal 2023 compared to fiscal 2022 was primarily due to the equity raise in February 2024.
At March 31, 2024, we had $1.3 million of restricted cash included in long-term assets and $0.5 million of restricted cash in current assets. At March 31, 2023, we had $0.6 million of restricted cash included in long-term assets and $1.7 million of restricted cash in current assets. These amounts included in restricted cash primarily represent collateral deposits to secure surety bonds and letters of credit for various customer contracts. These deposits are held in interest bearing accounts.
We are a party to many contractual obligations involving commitments to make payments to third parties. These obligations impact our short-term and long-term liquidity and capital resource needs. Certain contractual obligations are reflected on the consolidated balance sheet as of March 31, 2024, while others are considered future commitments. We have various contractual arrangements, under which we have committed to purchase certain minimum quantities of goods or services on an annual basis. For information regarding our other contractual obligations, refer to Note 12, "Contingent Consideration," Note 14, "Debt," Note 15, "Leases" and Note 17, "Commitments and Contingencies" to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
We believe we have sufficient available liquidity to fund our operations and capital expenditures for the next twelve months. We recently raised $65.2 million, net of offering expenses, through an equity raise in February 2024. In addition, we may seek to raise additional capital, which could be in the form of loans, convertible debt or equity, to fund our operating requirements and capital expenditures. Our liquidity is highly dependent on our ability to increase revenues, control our operating costs, and raise additional capital, if necessary. There can be no assurance that we will be able to raise additional capital on favorable terms or at all or execute on any other means of improving our liquidity as described above. Additionally, the impact of global sources of instability, including the ongoing wars between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas, instability of financial institutions and political instability in the United States, on the global financial markets may reduce our ability to raise additional capital, if necessary, which could negatively impact our liquidity. We also continue to closely monitor our expenses and, if required, we intend to reduce our operating and capital spending to enhance liquidity.
Legal Proceedings
From time to time, we are involved in legal and administrative proceedings and claims of various types. We record a liability in our consolidated financial statements for these matters when a loss is known or considered probable and the amount can be reasonably estimated. We review these estimates each accounting period as additional information is known and adjust the loss provision when appropriate. If a matter is both probable to result in liability and the amounts of loss can be reasonably estimated, we estimate and disclose the possible loss or range of loss to the extent necessary to make the consolidated financial statements not misleading. If the loss is not probable or cannot be reasonably estimated, a liability is not recorded in our consolidated financial statements.
29
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
In June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") 2016-13, Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments. The amendments in ASU 2016-13 will provide more decision-useful information about the expected credit losses on financial instruments and other commitments to extend credit held by a reporting entity at each reporting date. Following the release of ASU 2019-10 in November 2019, the effective date, as long as the Company remained a smaller reporting company, was annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2022. As of April 1, 2023, we have adopted ASU 2016-13, and noted no material impact on our consolidated financial statements.
In October 2021, the FASB issued ASU 2021-08, Business Combinations (Topic 805): Accounting for Contract Assets and Contract Liabilities from Contracts with Customers. The amendments in ASU 2021-08 will improve the accounting for acquired revenue contracts with customers in a business combination. Following the release of ASU 2021-08 in October 2021, the effective date was annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2022. As of April 1, 2023, we have adopted ASU 2021-08, and noted no material impact on our consolidated financial statements.
In November 2023, the FASB issued ASU 2023-07, Segment Reporting (Topic 280): Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures. The amendments in ASU 2023-07 improve the disclosures about a public entity’s reportable segments and address requests from investors for additional, more detailed information about a reportable segment’s expenses. Following the release of ASU 2023-07 in November 2023, the effective date will be annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2024. As of March 31, 2024, we are evaluating the impact on our consolidated financial statements.
In December 2023, the FASB issued ASU 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures. The amendments in ASU 2023-09 address investor requests for more transparency about income tax information through improvements to income tax disclosures primarily related to the rate reconciliation and income taxes paid information. Following the release of ASU 2023-09 in December 2023, the effective date will be annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2024. As of March 31, 2024, we are evaluating the impact on our consolidated financial statements.
In March 2024, the FASB issued ASU 2024-02, Codification Improvements—Amendments to Remove References to the Concepts Statements. The amendments in ASU 2024-02 contain amendments to the Codification that remove references to various FASB Concepts Statements. Following the release of ASU 2024-02 in March 2024, the effective date will be annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2024. As of March 31, 2024, we are evaluating the impact on our consolidated financial statements.
We do not believe that, outside of those disclosed here, there are any other recently issued accounting pronouncements that will have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.
30
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
The preparation of the consolidated financial statements requires that we make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We base our estimates on historical experience and various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ under different assumptions or conditions. Our accounting policies that involve the most significant judgments and estimates are as follows:
Revenue recognition
For certain arrangements, such as contracts to perform research and development, prototype development contracts and certain customized product sales, we record revenues using the over-time method, measured by the relationship of costs incurred to total estimated contract costs. Over-time revenue recognition accounting is predominantly used on certain turnkey power systems installations for electric utilities and long-term prototype development contracts with the U.S. government. In addition, some contracts contain an element of variable consideration, including liquidated damages and/or penalties, which requires payment to the customer in the event that delivery timelines or milestones are not met. We estimate the total consideration payable by the customer when the contracts contain variable consideration provisions, based on the most likely amount anticipated to be recognized for transferring the promised goods or services. As a result, we may constrain revenue to the extent that a significant reversal in the amount of cumulative revenue recognized will not occur until the uncertainty associated with the variable consideration is subsequently resolved.
Significant judgement is required to estimate the total expected costs and variable consideration for projects that typically have a timeline of 12-24 months. Any increase or decrease in estimated costs to complete a performance obligation without a corresponding change to the contract price could impact the calculation of cumulative revenue to date and gross profit on the project. Similar, if we recognize revenue based upon our current estimate of variable consideration, and our estimate is later adjusted, we may be required to increase or decrease cumulative revenue to date and gross profit on the project. Factors that may result in a change to our estimate include delays in manufacturing, unforeseen engineering problems, the performance of subcontractors and material suppliers, among others.
We have a long history of working with multiple types of projects and preparing cost estimates, and we rely on the expertise of key personnel to prepare what we believe are reasonable best estimates given available facts and circumstances. Due to the nature of the work involved, however, judgment is involved to estimate the total costs to complete, and the amounts estimated could have a material impact on the revenue we recognize in each accounting period. We cannot estimate unforeseen events and circumstances which may result in actual results being materially different from previous estimates.
See Note 3, “Revenue Recognition,” for additional information.
Business Acquisitions
We account for acquisitions using the purchase method of accounting in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") 805, Business Combinations. The purchase price for each acquisition is allocated to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values at the date of acquisition. The excess purchase price over the estimated fair value of the net assets acquired is recorded as goodwill. Intangible assets, if identified, are also recorded.
Determining the fair value of certain assets and liabilities assumed is judgmental in nature and often involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions as well as the use of specialists as needed. The Company utilizes management estimates and an independent third-party valuation firm to assist in determining the fair values of assets acquired, including intangible assets and liabilities assumed. The primary intangible assets acquired include customer relationship and trade names. Intangible assets are initially valued using a methodology commensurate with the intended use of the asset. The fair value of customer relationships is measured using the multi-period excess earnings method (“MPEEM”). The fair value of the trade names is measured using a relief-from-royalty (“RFR”) approach. The basis for future sales projections for both the MPEEM and RFR are based on internal revenue forecasts which the Company believes represents reasonable market participant assumptions. The future cash flows are discounted using an applicable discount rate. The key uncertainties in the calculations, as applicable, are the selection of an appropriate royalty rate, assumptions used in developing estimates of future cash flows, including revenue growth and expense forecasts, assumed customer attrition rates, as well as perceived risks associated with those forecasts in determining the discount rate. There is inherent uncertainty in forecasted cash flows and therefore, actual results may differ and could result in a subsequent impairment charge of acquired intangibles and/or goodwill.
The consideration for our acquisitions may include future payments that are contingent upon the occurrence of a particular event. We record a contingent consideration obligation for such contingent consideration payments at fair value on the acquisition date. We estimate the fair value of contingent consideration obligations through valuation models that incorporate probability adjusted assumptions related to the achievement of the milestones and the likelihood of making related payments. Significant judgment is employed in determining these assumptions as of the acquisition date and for each subsequent period. Accordingly, future business and economic conditions, as well as changes in any of the assumptions described above, can materially impact the fair value of contingent consideration recorded at each reporting period.
31
Valuation of long-lived assets
We periodically evaluate our long-lived assets, consisting principally of fixed and amortizable intangible assets for potential impairment. We evaluate our long-lived assets whenever events or circumstances suggest that the carrying amount of an asset or group of assets may not be recoverable from the estimated undiscounted future cash flows.
Our judgments regarding the existence of impairment indicators are based on market and operational performance. Indicators of potential impairment include:
• a significant change in the manner in which an asset group is used;
• a significant decrease in the market value of an asset group;
• identification of other impaired assets within a reporting unit;
We evaluate recoverability of long-lived assets and definite-lived intangible assets by estimating the undiscounted future cash flows associated with the expected uses and disposition of those assets. When those comparisons indicate that the carrying value of those assets is greater than the undiscounted cash flows, we recognize an impairment loss for the amount that the carrying value exceeds the fair value. The Company has not made any material changes to the method of evaluating for impairment during the last three years. There were no indicators requiring further impairment testing on our long-lived assets during the fiscal years ended March 31, 2024 or 2023.
32
Goodwill
Goodwill represents the excess of cost over net assets of acquired businesses that are consolidated. We perform our annual assessment of goodwill on February 28th of each fiscal year and whenever events or changes in circumstances or a triggering event indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. An entity is permitted to first assess qualitatively whether it is necessary to perform a goodwill impairment test. Significant judgment is required to determine if an indication of impairment has taken place. Factors to be considered include the following: adverse change in operating results, decline in strategic business plans, significantly lower future cash flows, and sustainable declines in market data such as market capitalization. The quantitative impairment test is required only if the entity concludes that it is more likely than not that a reporting unit’s fair value is less than its carrying amount. We determine the fair value of a reporting unit, using a methodology which combines an income approach, using a discounted cash flow method, with a market approach. The income approach includes estimates and assumptions about revenue growth rates, operating margins and terminal growth rates, discounted by an estimated weighted-average cost of capital derived from other publicly-traded companies that are similar but not identical from an operational and economic standpoint. These estimates are based on historical experiences, our projects of future operating activity and our weighted-average cost of capital. A significant change in events, circumstances or any of these assumptions could adversely affect these estimates, which could result in an impairment.
We performed our annual assessment of goodwill on February 29, 2024 and noted no triggering events from the analysis date to March 31, 2024 and determined that there was no impairment to goodwill. See Note 4, “Goodwill,” for further information regarding our goodwill valuation assumptions.
Income taxes