Secular Trends Across the Utility Industry Serve as a Catalyst for Growth
BURNABY, BRITISH COLUMBIA – March 8, 2021 – Smart grid technology leader Tantalus Systems (TSXV: GRID) today provided guidance regarding its Q4, 2020 results.
Q4 ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2020 OVERVIEW GUIDANCE (unaudited):
- Based on preliminary results, Tantalus anticipates reporting Q4, 2020 revenue of US$9.0 million to US$9.5 million compared to US$10 million for the same period in 2019. While the overall revenue performance is lower year-over-year, the strong finish to 2020 reflects improving conditions despite economic and operational difficulties witnessed across the utility sector throughout the calendar year due to the impact of COVID-19.
- Gross Profit increased to approximately 52% in the quarter as compared to 46% for the same period in 2019 due to product mix and increasing contributions from software and services. Gross Profit increased to approximately 49% for year-end 2020 as compared to Gross Profit of 44% in 2019 reflecting operating leverage in Tantalus’ business model and continued scaling of revenue contributions from enterprise software and professional services.
- Tantalus also secured 20 new deployments during 2020, increasing Tantalus’ user community to over 185 public power and electric cooperative utilities across Canada, the United States and the Caribbean Basin.
- Tantalus is preparing several new product introductions in the coming months including a next-generation Fiber-to-the-Home solution to help utilities access real-time power quality and consumption data and offer broadband services to address the digital divide, an advanced Momentary Outage Analytics software application helping pinpoint issues on feeder and circuit lines and an expansion of Tantalus’ meter integration partners, all of which are expected to contribute to Tantalus’ growth in the coming years.
- In addition to the strong financial performance in Q4, Tantalus supported seven utilities across Texas during the recent energy crisis and helped those members of our user community mitigate the impact of rolling black-outs caused by the severe storm which brought the electric and water grids across the state to a grinding halt. Tantalus salutes the essential energy personnel working around the clock to restore power and appreciates their confidence in leveraging Tantalus’ solutions in support of their communities.
- Full unaudited quarterly results will be released on or about April 16th, 2021.
“We are extremely pleased with our Q4, 2020 results as we finished out the year with strong revenue and higher gross profits. Despite the impact of COVID-19 which unfolded throughout 2020, we delivered our fourth consecutive year of positive EBITDA which demonstrates Tantalus’ ability to navigate unforeseen challenges at a macro-level,” said Mr. Peter Londa, President & CEO. “The compelling value proposition of our purpose-built solutions continues to be validated across our market segment as we have grown our user community by 19% annually over the past nine years. Our new product introductions, current sales backlog, expanding user community of utilities and the strong secular drivers to transform the electric grid will further enhance our growth in the coming year and beyond,” Mr. Londa continued.
About Tantalus
Tantalus is a smart grid technology company that transforms aging one-way grids into future-proofed multi-directional grids that improve the efficiency, reliability and sustainability of public power and electric cooperative utilities and the communities they serve. Our solutions are purpose-built to allow utilities to restore power quickly after major disruptions, adapt to rapidly shifting consumer expectations and population shifts, innovate new solutions based on the adoption of distributed energy resources and evolve their grid infrastructure at their own pace without needless cost or complexity. All this gives our user community the flexibility they need to get the most value from existing infrastructure investments while planning for future requirements.
Forward Looking Statements:
This news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is generally identifiable by use of the words “believes”, “may”, “plans”, “will”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “could”, “estimates”, “expects”, “forecasts”, “projects” and similar expressions, and the negative of such expressions. Forward-looking information in this news release includes statements regarding: Tantalus anticipates reporting Q4, 2020 revenue of US$9.0 million to US$9.5 million; Tantalus is preparing several new product introductions in the coming months, all of which are expected to contribute to Tantalus’ growth in the coming years; full unaudited quarterly results will be released on or about April 16th, 2021; and, Tantalus’ new product introductions, current sales backlog, expanding user community of utilities and the strong secular drivers to transform the electric grid will further enhance Tantalus’ growth in the coming year and beyond.
In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, Tantalus has made numerous assumptions, regarding, among other things: the expected impact of COVID-19 and the expected timing of new product introductions. While Tantalus considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies. Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause Tantalus’ actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Known risk factors include, among others: the impacts of COVID-19 are unpredictable and could have significant impacts on Tantalus’ financial performance; sales cycles to Tantalus’ customers can be lengthy and unpredictable and require significant employee time with no assurances that a prospective customer will select Tantalus’ products and services; and Tantalus’ financial and operational performance significantly depends on its ability to attract and retain customers and its ability to develop new products and to enhance and sustain the quality of existing products to retain such customers;.
A more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties facing Tantalus is disclosed under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Tantalus’ Filing Statement dated January 28, 2021, as well as the Tantalus’ continuous disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities available at www.sedar.com. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and Tantalus disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law.
This news release includes reference to “EBITDA”, which is a non-International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) financial measure. Non-IFRS measures are not recognized measures under IFRS, do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Tantalus defines EBITDA as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. EBITDA has no direct comparable IFRS financial measures. Tantalus has used or included this non-IFRS measure solely to provide investors with added insight into Tantalus’ financial performance. Readers are cautioned that such non-IFRS measure may not be appropriate for any other purpose. Non-IFRS measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS.
This news release contains information that constitutes a “financial outlook” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The financial outlook has been approved by management of Tantalus as of the date of this news release. The financial outlook is provided for the purpose of providing readers with an understanding of Tantalus’ expected financial performance for fiscal 2020. Readers are cautioned that the information contained in the financial outlook may not be appropriate for other purposes.
###
Contact Tantalus:
Jacquie Hudson
Marketing Communications Manager
Tantalus Systems Inc.
613-552-4244 | jhudson@tantalus.com
W: www.tantalus.com
Twitter: @TantalusCorp
Investors:
Linda Armstrong
Investor Relations
647-456-9223
Linda@adcap.ca
