SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 22, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TPI Composites, Inc. (Nasdaq: TPIC), today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2022.

“We finished 2022 strong and I am proud of our team for the results TPI delivered in a very challenging operating environment,” said Bill Siwek, President and CEO of TPI Composites. “Recently announced partnerships and long-term strategic agreements with key customers such as Vestas, GE, Nordex and ENERCON further solidify the importance of TPI in the wind ecosystem for many years to come.”

“While we continue to see some inflationary headwinds for the entire industry along with persistent permitting and transmission challenges, we believe we are positioned for success in 2023 and stand ready to serve our customers' capacity needs as demand begins accelerating again. Even though we are still waiting for formal implementation guidance to the Inflation Reduction Act, we are already seeing signs of demand coming back in the United States fueled by the expected benefits of this legislation. Blade volume will be down slightly in 2023 as we have ceased operations in China, however, we expect to deliver year-over-year sales growth in the high single to low double-digits in 2023 from the rest of our global footprint.”

“The future for TPI is bright. We are focused on mitigating near-term macro challenges and continue to make necessary operational changes to improve efficiency and profitability. This, with the addition of supportive policy both in the United States and the EU, provides optimism for TPI and the wind industry. At reasonable utilization levels, we expect to eclipse $2 billion of wind revenue within our existing manufacturing footprint in the next couple of years,” concluded Mr. Siwek.

2022 and Recent Business Highlights

• Adjusted EBITDA from continuing and discontinued operations for the year ended December 31, 2022, totaled $73.6 million and for the three months ended December 31, 2022, totaled $40.8 million.
• Net loss attributable to common stockholders was $124.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, and $57.8 million for the three months ended December 31, 2022. The net loss attributable to common stockholders includes $58.9 million and $15.2 million of preferred stock dividends and accretion in 2022 and for the three months ended December 31, 2022, respectively.
• Extended our supply agreement with ENERCON in Türkiye through 2025.
• Extended supply agreements with GE Renewable Energy (GE) through 2025 in Mexico and exploring additional capacity options.
• Signed an agreement with GE which enabled a long-term lease extension of the manufacturing facility in Newton, Iowa, with expectations to begin production beginning in 2024 and committed to collaboration with GE on their next generation blade types.
• Agreed to a long-term global partner framework agreement with Vestas.
• Agreed in principle with Nordex to extend 4 lines in Türkiye through 2026 (with two other lines to be extended through 2024) and add two additional lines in India.
• Collaborated with WindSTAR to design a composite manufacturing process based on a digital twin approach.

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 during 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 during the period.

Fourth Quarter 2022 Financial Results

In December 2022, we committed to a restructuring plan to rebalance our organization and optimize our global manufacturing footprint. Changing economic and geopolitical factors, including increased logistics costs and tariffs imposed on components of wind turbines from China, including wind blades, has had an adverse impact on demand for our wind blades manufactured in our Chinese facilities. In connection with this plan, we ceased production at our Yangzhou, China manufacturing facility as of December 31, 2022, and plan to shut down our business operations in China. Our business operations in China comprised the entirety of our Asia reporting segment. This shutdown will have a meaningful effect on our global manufacturing footprint and consolidated financial results. Accordingly, the historical results of our Asia reporting segment have been presented as discontinued operations in our Consolidated Statements of Operations and Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Net sales from continuing and discontinued operations for the three months ended December 31, 2022 totaled $461.8 million as compared to $389.5 million in the same period in 2021, an increase of 18.6%, primarily due to a $53.1 million increase in net sales from continuing operations, and a $19.2 million increase in net sales from discontinued operations.

Net sales from continuing operations for the three months ended December 31, 2022 increased 15.2% to $402.3 million as compared to $349.2 million in the same period in 2021, primarily driven by an adverse cumulative catch-up adjustment in the prior comparative period as a result of deferring revenue related to extensions of our customer contracts and revised estimates to complete these contracts. In addition, the increase in net sales from continuing operations was partially due to higher average sales price due to the mix of wind blade models produced and the impact of inflation on blade prices, an increase in volume at our two Türkiye manufacturing facilities, and an increase in volume at our Nordex manufacturing facility in Matamoros, Mexico. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in volume at our facilities that shut down at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, and foreign currency fluctuations.

Net sales from discontinued operations for the three months ended December 31, 2022 increased 47.8% to $59.5 million as compared to $40.3 million in the same period in 2021, primarily driven by an increase in volume prior to ceasing production at the end of 2022.

Net loss attributable to common stockholders was $57.8 million for the three months ended December 31, 2022, compared to a loss of $93.3 million in the same period in 2021.

The net loss per common share was $1.38 for the three months ended December 31, 2022, compared to a net loss per common share of $2.39 for the same period in 2021.

Adjusted EBITDA from continuing and discontinued operations for the three months ended December 31, 2022, totaled $40.8 million as compared to a loss of $28.3 million during the same period in 2021. Adjusted EBITDA margin from continuing and discontinued operations increased to a total of 8.8% as compared to negative 7.3% during the same period in 2021, primarily due to an adverse cumulative catch-up adjustment recorded in 2021, a favorable cumulative catch-up adjustment recorded in 2022, favorable foreign currency fluctuations, reduced startup and transition costs, and improved operating cost efficiencies as compared to the prior period. These increases were partially offset by cost challenges at our Nordex facility in Matamoros.

Capital expenditures were $7.3 million for the three months ended December 31, 2022, as compared to $7.0 million during the same period in 2021. Our capital expenditures primarily relate to machinery and equipment and expansion and improvements to our existing facilities.

We ended the quarter with $143.2 million of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, which includes $9.7 million of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents of our discontinued operations, and net cash was $82.0 million as compared to net cash of $167.5 million as of December 31, 2021. Cash provided by operating activities for the three months ended December 31, 2022 was $22.8 million and free cash flow for the three months ended December 31, 2022 was $15.5 million. Net cash provided by financing activities decreased by $152.4 million for the three months ended December 31, 2022, as compared to the same period in 2021, primarily as a result of the issuance of preferred stock in the prior comparative period.

Full Year 2022 Financial Results

Net sales from continuing operations and net sales from discontinued operations for the year ended December 31, 2022 totaled $1,758.3 million as compared to $1,732.6 million in the same period in 2021, an increase of 1.5%, primarily due to a $50.3 million increase in net sales from continuing operations, offset by a $24.6 million decrease in net sales from discontinued operations.

Net sales from continuing operations for the year ended December 31, 2022 increased 3.4% to $1,522.7 million as compared to $1,472.4 million in the same period in 2021, primarily driven by higher average sales price due to the mix of wind blade models produced and the impact of inflation on blade prices, an increase in volume at our two Türkiye manufacturing facilities, and an increase in volume at our Nordex facility in Matamoros, Mexico. In addition, in 2021 we recorded an adverse cumulative catch-up adjustment. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in volume at our facilities that shut down at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, and foreign currency fluctuations.

Net sales from discontinued operations for the year ended December 31, 2022 decreased 9.5% to $235.6 million from $260.2 million in the same period in 2021, primarily due to a decrease in volume due to the timing of transitioned lines in early 2022 at our Yangzhou facility, prior to ceasing production at the end of 2022.

Net loss attributable to common stockholders was $124.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, compared to a net loss of $165.6 million in the same period in 2021. The net loss attributable to common stockholders includes $58.9 million of preferred stock dividends and accretion in 2022 compared to $6.0 million in 2021.

The net loss per common share was $2.96 for the year ended December 31, 2022, compared to a net loss per common share of $4.43 for the same period in 2021.

Adjusted EBITDA from continuing and discontinued operations for the year ended December 31, 2022, totaled $73.6 million as compared to $2.4 million during the same period in 2021. Adjusted EBITDA margin from continuing and discontinued operations increased to a total of 4.2% as compared to 0.1% during the same period in 2021, primarily due to an adverse cumulative catch-up adjustment recorded in 2021, a favorable cumulative catch-up adjustment recorded in 2022, favorable foreign currency fluctuations, reduced startup and transition costs, and improved operating cost efficiencies as compared to the prior period. These increases were partially offset by non-restructuring related operating costs that were associated with the manufacturing locations where production has stopped and cost challenges at our Nordex facility in Matamoros.

Capital expenditures were $18.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, as compared to $37.1 million during the same period in 2021. Our capital expenditures primarily relate to machinery and equipment and expansion and improvements to our existing facilities.

2023 Guidance

Guidance for the full year ending December 31, 2023:

Conference Call and Webcast Information

TPI Composites will host an investor conference call this afternoon, Wednesday, February 22^nd, 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 1-877-407-9208, or for international callers, 1-201-493-6784. 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 13735318. The replay will be available until March 1, 2023. 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 a global company focused on innovative and sustainable solutions to decarbonize and electrify the world. TPI delivers high-quality, cost-effective composite solutions through long-term relationships with leading OEMs in the wind and automotive markets. TPI is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and operates factories in the U.S., Mexico, Türkiye and India. TPI operates additional engineering development centers in Denmark and Germany and global service training centers in the U.S. and Spain.

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: growth of the wind energy and electric vehicle markets and our addressable markets for our products and services; 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; 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 the 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 foreign currency income or losses, any gains or losses on the sale of assets and asset impairments and any restructuring charges. 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.

We provide forward-looking statements in the form of guidance in our quarterly earnings releases and during our quarterly earnings conference calls. This guidance is provided on a non-GAAP basis and cannot be reconciled to the closest GAAP measures without unreasonable effort because of the unpredictability of the amounts and timing of events affecting the items we exclude from non-GAAP measures. For example, stock-based compensation is unpredictable for our performance-based awards, which can fluctuate significantly based on current expectations of future achievement of performance-based targets. Amortization of intangible assets and restructuring costs are all impacted by the timing and size of potential future actions, which are difficult to predict. In addition, from time to time, we exclude certain items that occur infrequently, which are also inherently difficult to predict and estimate. It is also difficult to predict the tax effect of the items we exclude and to estimate certain discrete tax items, like the resolution of tax audits or changes to tax laws. As such, the costs that are being excluded from non-GAAP guidance are difficult to predict and a reconciliation or a range of results could lead to disclosure that would be imprecise or potentially misleading. Material changes to any one of the exclusions could have a significant effect on our guidance and future GAAP results.

See Table Five for a reconciliation of certain non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP measures.

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