CALGARY, Alberta, May 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Questor Technology Inc. (“Questor” or the “Company”) (TSX-V:QST) is pleased to announce it’s financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2018.
Highlights
(Stated in Canadian dollars except per share and unit data)
| For the three months ended March 31, | 2018 ($) | 2017 ($) | Change (%) | |||
| Revenue | 5,996,936 | 3,023,279 | 98 | |||
| Gross profit(1) | 3,840,344 | 1,460,982 | >100 | |||
| Comprehensive Income | 1,925,486 | 419,311 | >100 | |||
| Adjusted EBITDA(1) | 3,492,783 | 847,118 | >100 | |||
| Earnings per share - Basic and Diluted | 0.07 | 0.02 | >100 | |||
| Total assets (end of period) | 24,520,794 | 16,505,705 | 49 | |||
| Working Capital (end of period) | 7,305,454 | 7,280,859 | (6 | ) | ||
| Total equity (end of period) | 20,810,018 | 15,224,118 | 37 | |||
(1) Non-IFRS financial measure. Please see discussion in the Non-IFRS Financial Measures section of Questor’s Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2018.
Revenue in the first quarter of 2018 was $6.0 million, an increase of 98 percent from the same period in 2017. The Company’s rental revenue increased to $4.3 million from $1.5 million due to higher activity in the United States. The Company invested $8.2 million in rental unit expansion since March 31, 2017 resulting in 150% more rental units compared to the first quarter in 2017. The Company continued to realize stong rental utilization during the three months ended March 31, 2018 which was consistent with the same period of 2017.
Gross profit increased by 163 percent as result of higher rental revenue and its impact on revenue mix. Rental revenue mix increased from 50% in 2017 to 72% in 2018, rental revenues carry lower cost of sales which resulted in improved overall margins and gross profit.
During the three months ended March 31, 2018 , the Company renegotiated its existing Operating Loan Facility (“Operating Loan”), secured an additional Capital Loan Facility (Capital Loan”) and Export Development Canada (“EDC”) Secured Letter of Guarantee Facility. The Company’s operating loan has been increased to a maximum of $1,000,000 (previously $560,000), the availability of which is subject to specified margin requirements. The capital loan was secured to assist in the financing of capital expenditures. The facility makes available a revolving demand capital loan to a maximum of $5,000,000. The EDC facility was secured to assist in the financing of the day-to-day operations of the Company through the issuance by the Bank of letters of guarantee, standby letters of credit and performance bonds.
The Company invested $2.3 million into the rental fleet for the three months ended March 31, 2018. The new rental equipment has been mobilized to the United States region.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Questor’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Audrey Mascarehas commented on the financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2018. “We invested $2.3MM this quarter to continue to grow the rental fleet in Colorado to assist our clients in meeting Regulation 7, which mandates enclosed combustion like Questor’s for oilfield operations to deal effectively with emissions. In addition to providing rental units for flow backs, we continue to deliver hybrid units to the Colorado market to solve the emission requirements in the production and operations phase. The hybrid units allow our clients to purchase a base level of capacity and rent additional capacity to meet the shorter term demands of high initial production or limited gas pipeline take away capacity. The benefits to the client are lower capital and operating costs, reduced lease footprint and clean enclosed combustion to meet stringent emission regulations in a capital constrained environment.
Recently, Questor’s Q5000s were independently tested on a client’s site at over 99.99%. The significance of this live test under normal flowing conditions is that clients are now able to increase their permitted VOC destruction from the default 95% to 99%, when they use a Questor incinerator. This translates directly into an increase in oil production or sufficient operating room within their new air permits. Questor already has new clients benefitting from this performance uplift.
In addition to meeting industry’s requirements for emissions control resulting from drilling, fracturing and production operations, Questor is seeing a significant demand for emissions control for well abandonment operations. Recent Colorado State regulations require producers to abandon inactive wells prior to being eligible to receive permits for drilling new wells. Colorado has mandated the use of enclosed combustion for all Plugging and Abandonment (P&A) operations. To address these needs Questor redirected part of the 2018 capital budget to design, built and deploy three new specially designed P&A hydraulic trailer-combustor set-ups this quarter, all of which have been rented. With continuing demand Questor will add new P&A units which allow clients to set up and demobilize in minutes while being transported from site to site.
Questor is proud to be recognized and selected for its cost effective solutions and will continue its pursuit of earning the confidence and business of existing clients as well as new customers. Our solid equipment performance, ease of setup and user friendliness has given us a reputation for best in class. With our strong balance sheet, we will continue to commit capital to grow our presence in regions where producers are looking for high performing, cost-effective technologies to manage their waste gas and fugitive emissions. Other States in the US are in the process of implementing similar rules to those in Colorado to deal with emissions. Questor has demonstrated in Colorado that our technology cost effectively deals with methane emissions and other hazardous air pollutants.
We are pursuing opportunities in jurisdictions where regulations mandate not just clean combustion but the beneficial use of the gas. Our diverse technologies such as power and water treatment from waste heat, are key components to meeting that mandate and important to our strategy for diversification and differentiation.
Questor’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing is actively diversifying our customer base and Questor is fully engaged in providing solutions for the complete life cycle. We have established a strong supply chain and vendor network to scale up in a timely way that has been tested and can respond and grow with us. The young age of our rental fleet provides the platform for sustainable revenue generation. Our strong balance sheet will allow us to take advantage of the opportunities we see in the pipeline for Questor in 2018”.
Questor’s consolidated financial statements and notes thereto and Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2018 will be available shortly on the Company’s website at www.questortech.com and through SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
ABOUT QUESTOR TECHNOLOGY INC.
Questor Technology Inc. (“Questor” or the “Company”) is incorporated in Canada under the Business Companies Act (Alberta). Questor is a public, international environmental Cleantech company founded in 1994 and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, with field offices located in; Grande Prairie, Alberta; Brighton, Colorado; and Brooksville, Florida. The Company is active in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia and is focused on clean air technologies that safely and cost effectively improves air quality, support energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reductions. Questor designs, manufactures and services high efficiency waste gas combustion systems; as well as, power generation systems and water treatment solutions utilizing waste heat. The Company’s proprietary incinerator technology is utilized worldwide in the effective management of Methane, Hydrogen Sulphide gas, Volatile Organic Hydrocarbons, Hazardous Air Pollutants and BTEX gases ensuring sustainable development, community acceptance and regulatory compliance. Questor and its subsidiary, ClearPower Systems are providing solutions for landfill biogas, syngas, waste engine exhaust, geothermal and solar, cement plant waste heat in addition to a wide variety of oil and gas projects in Canada, throughout the United States, the Caribbean, Western Europe, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia and China.
Questor trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol ‘QST’.
| Audrey Mascarenhas | Dan Zivkusic |
| President and Chief Executive Officer | Chief Financial Officer |
| Phone: (403) 571-1530 | Phone: (403) 539-4371 |
| Facsimile: (403) 571-1539 | Facsimile: (403) 571-1539 |
| Email: amascarenhas@questortech.com | Email: dzivkusic@questortech.com |
Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements. When used in this news release, the words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "seek", "propose", "estimate", "expect", and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements with respect to, among other things, business objectives, expected growth, results of operations, performance, business projects and opportunities and financial results. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the Company’s current views with respect to future events based on certain material factors and assumptions and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, changes in market, competition, governmental or regulatory developments, general economic conditions and other factors set out in the Company’s public disclosure documents. Many factors could cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to vary from those described in this news release, including without limitation those listed above. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in this news release and such forward-looking statements included in, or incorporated by reference in this news release, should not be unduly relied upon. Such statements speak only as of the date of this news release. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
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