TPI Composites, Inc. Announces Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Results – Net Sales Increase by 23.5% - Net Income of $42.4 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $49.1 million – Provides 2020 Guidance

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Nov. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TPI Composites, Inc. (Nasdaq: TPIC), the only independent manufacturer of composite wind blades with a global footprint, today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2020.

Highlights

For the quarter ended September 30, 2020:

• Net sales of $474.1 million
• Net income of $42.4 million or $1.13 per diluted share
• EBITDA of $27.2 million
• Adjusted EBITDA of $49.1 million

1. Number of wind blade sets (which consist of three wind blades) produced worldwide during the period.
2. Estimated megawatts of energy capacity to be generated by wind blade sets produced during the period.
3. Utilization represents the percentage of wind blades invoiced during the period compared to the total potential wind blade capacity of manufacturing lines installed at the end of the period.
4. Number of wind blade manufacturing lines that are dedicated to our customers under long-term supply agreements at the end of the period.
5. Number of wind blade manufacturing lines installed and either in operation, startup or transition at the end of the period.
   

“We achieved strong revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth in the third quarter attributable to increased production and high utilization,” said Bill Siwek, President and CEO of TPI Composites. “We also have benefited from a strong demand environment from our customer base and improved operational execution.”

“Strong current demand prospects in the U.S. and other emerging markets, driven by the economics of wind as well as the acceleration of energy transition and decarbonization initiatives, give us confidence in our global wind strategy as we continue to serve our customers in an efficient and cost-effective manner across our global manufacturing footprint.”

“We are also seeing strong performance out of our field services business. While still a relatively small piece of the overall business, we continue to build out the pipeline as we see a path to more significant revenue and margin contribution over time.”

“We are still closely monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic and preparing for potential resurgences in all of our geographies as we have seen a recent upturn in the number of positive cases in several of the regions where we operate. However, as of today, we continue to operate all of our plants near or above capacity as we continue to make up for lost production during the first half of the year, and therefore we are pleased to provide 2020 guidance.”

“We remain encouraged by the growth opportunities in the wind and transportation markets and will continue to leverage our global footprint and scale to continue our profitable growth over the coming years,” concluded Mr. Siwek.

Third Quarter 2020 Financial Results

Net sales for the three months ended September 30, 2020 increased by $90.3 million or 23.5% to $474.1 million compared to $383.8 million in the same period in 2019. Net sales of wind blades increased by $97.9 million or 27.8% to $450.1 million for the three months ended September 30, 2020 as compared to $352.2 million in the same period in 2019. The increase was primarily driven by a 20% increase in the number of wind blades produced during the three months ended September 30, 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 as a result of increased production at our China, Mexico, Iowa, and India facilities. This increase was also due to a higher average sales price due to the mix of wind blade models produced during the three months ended September 30, 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. The fluctuating U.S. dollar against the Euro in our Turkey operations and the Chinese Renminbi in our China operations had a favorable impact of 0.7% on consolidated net sales for the three months ended September 30, 2020 as compared to the same period in 2019. Although our net sales increased for the three months ended September 30, 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, we estimate that our net sales were adversely impacted by approximately $8 million, based on several wind blade sets, which we had forecasted to produce in the period under non-cancellable purchase orders associated with our long-term contracts but were unable to do so as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Total cost of goods sold for the three months ended September 30, 2020 was $433.6 million and included $5.2 million related to lines in startup and $3.4 million of transition costs related to lines in transition during the quarter. This compares to total cost of goods sold for the three months ended September 30, 2019 of $357.9 million and included $13.1 million related to lines in startup and $9.0 million of transition costs related to lines in transition during the quarter. Total cost of goods sold as a percentage of net sales decreased by approximately 2% during the three months ended September 30, 2020 as compared to the same period in 2019, driven primarily by the decrease in direct materials, the impact of savings in raw material costs, the decrease in startup and transition costs, and foreign currency fluctuations. The fluctuating U.S. dollar against the Euro, Turkish Lira, Chinese Renminbi and Mexican Peso had a favorable impact of 1.1% on consolidated cost of goods sold for the three months ended September 30, 2020 as compared to the same period in 2019.

General and administrative expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2020 totaled $9.3 million, or 2.0% of net sales, compared to $10.6 million, or 2.8% of net sales, for the same period in 2019. The decrease as a percentage of net sales in both periods was primarily driven by lower travel and training costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Income taxes reflected a benefit of $32.3 million for the three months ended September 30, 2020 as compared to a provision of $18.8 million for the same period in 2019. The decrease in the provision during the three months ended September 30, 2020 was primarily due to the impact of a change in the forecasted annual effective tax rate and the earnings mix by jurisdiction in 2020 as compared to 2019.

Net income for the three months ended September 30, 2020 was $42.4 million as compared to a net loss of $4.6 million in the same period in 2019. The increase in the net income was primarily due to the reasons set forth above. During the quarter we were also impacted by a realized loss on foreign currency remeasurement of $17.1 million primarily due to net Euro liability exposure against the Turkish Lira. In addition, we estimate that our net income during the three months ended September 30, 2020 was adversely impacted by approximately $2 million, net of taxes based upon the forecasted gross margin on the wind blade sets we had forecasted to produce in the period under non-cancellable purchase orders associated with our long-term contracts but were unable to do so as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.   In addition, during the period we incurred $4 million, net of taxes, of COVID-19 related costs associated with the health and safety of our associates and non-productive labor. The diluted net income per share was $1.13 for the three months ended September 30, 2020, compared to a diluted net loss per share of $0.13 for the three months ended September 30, 2019.

Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended September 30, 2020 increased to $49.1 million compared to $27.5 million during the same period in 2019. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 10.4% compared to 7.2% during the same period in 2019. We estimate that our Adjusted EBITDA was adversely impacted for the three months ended September 30, 2020 by approximately $8 million, based upon the forecasted Adjusted EBITDA margin on the forecasted wind blade sets which we were to produce in those periods but were unable to do so as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 related costs associated with the health and safety of our associates and non-productive labor.

Capital expenditures were $11.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2020 compared to $21.4 million during the same period in 2019. Our capital expenditures have primarily related to machinery and equipment for new facilities and expansion and improvements at existing facilities.

We ended the quarter with $149.4 million of cash and cash equivalents and net debt was $89.3 million as compared to $71.8 million at December 31, 2019, and we had free cash flow during the three months ended September 30, 2020 of $49.5 million.

2020 Guidance

On April 23, 2020, TPI announced the withdrawal of its fiscal year 2020 financial guidance first issued on February 27, 2020. We are now providing our full-year and fourth quarter 2020 financial guidance. These numbers could be impacted by COVID-19 due to (i) the rapidly evolving nature, magnitude and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) the variety of measures implemented by governments around the world to address its effects and (iii) the impact on our manufacturing operations. Although our plants are currently operating near or above planned capacity, many of our manufacturing facilities are operating in regions with continued high levels of reported COVID-19 positive cases. As such, we may be required to reinstate temporary production suspensions or volume reductions at these manufacturing facilities or at our other manufacturing facilities to the extent there is a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the regions where we operate or there is an outbreak of positive COVID-19 cases in any of our manufacturing facilities.

Conference Call and Webcast Information

TPI Composites will host an investor conference call this afternoon, Thursday, November 5, 2020 at 5:00 pm ET. Interested parties are invited to listen to the conference call which can be accessed live over the phone by dialing 1-800-926-5124, or for international callers, 1-212-231-2914. A replay will be available two hours after the call and can be accessed by dialing 1-844-512-2921, or for international callers, 1-412-317-6671. The passcode for the live call and the replay is 21971028. The replay will be available until November 12, 2020. Interested investors and other parties may also listen to a simultaneous webcast of the conference call by logging onto the Investors section of the Company’s website at www.tpicomposites.com. The online replay will be available for a limited time beginning immediately following the call.

About TPI Composites, Inc.

TPI Composites, Inc. is the only independent manufacturer of composite wind blades for the wind energy market with a global manufacturing footprint. TPI delivers high-quality, cost-effective composite solutions through long-term relationships with leading OEMs in the wind and transportation markets. TPI is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and operates factories in the U.S., China, Mexico, Turkey and India. TPI operates additional engineering development centers in Denmark and Germany.  

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include statements, among other things, concerning: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, effects on our financial statements and our financial outlook; our business strategy, including anticipated trends and developments in and management plans for our business and the wind industry and other markets in which we operate; our projected annual revenue growth; competition; future financial results, operating results, revenues, gross margin, operating expenses, profitability, products, projected costs, warranties, our ability to improve our operating margins, and capital expenditures. These forward-looking statements are often characterized by the use of words such as “estimate,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “plan,” “intend,” “seek,” “believe,” “forecast,” “foresee,” “likely,” “may,” “should,” “goal,” “target,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “predict,” “continue” and the negative or plural of these words and other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and our projections about future events. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements for any reason. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, the matters discussed in “Risk Factors,” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports that we will file with the SEC.

Non-GAAP Definitions
This press release includes unaudited non-GAAP financial measures, including EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, net cash (debt) and free cash flow. We define EBITDA as net income (loss) plus interest expense (including losses on extinguishment of debt and net of interest income), income taxes and depreciation and amortization. We define adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA plus any share-based compensation expense, any realized gains or losses from foreign currency remeasurement, any realized gains or losses from the sale of assets and asset impairments and any restructuring costs. We define net cash (debt) as the total unrestricted cash and cash equivalents less the total principal amount of debt outstanding. We define free cash flow as net cash flow from operating activities less capital expenditures. We present non-GAAP measures when we believe that the additional information is useful and meaningful to investors. Non-GAAP financial measures do not have any standardized meaning and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. The presentation of non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be a substitute for, and should not be considered in isolation from, the financial measures reported in accordance with GAAP. See below for a reconciliation of certain non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP measures as well as our Investor Presentation which can be found in the Investors section at www.tpicomposites.com.

Investor Relations
480-315-8742
Investors@TPIComposites.com