Operational Highlights

• Work continued on the Airbus-sponsored project to benchmark HT-PEM fuel cell MEAs in aviation for the second quarter. The project continued as planned without delays.

• Met milestones with the U.S. Department of Defense on two previously awarded contracts for portable power systems.

• Continued Technology Assessment Work for four of the largest 15 automotive manufacturers in the world.

• Continued streamlining operations to significantly reduce OPEX and non-R&D development costs, primarily associated with overhead, facilities, and administrative personnel.

LIVERMORE, Calif., Oct. 15, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Advent Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADN) (“Advent” or the “Company”), an innovation-driven leader in the fuel cell and hydrogen technology space, today announced consolidated financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2024. All amounts are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted and have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”).

Q2 2024 Financial Highlights

(All comparisons are to Q2 2023, unless otherwise stated)

• Revenue of $0.8 million and income from grants of $0.7 million, for a total of $1.5 million.

• Operating expenses of $10.0 million, a year-over-year decrease of $1.2 million, primarily related to the streamlining of operations.

• Net loss in Q2 of $(11.3) million or $(4.28) per share.

• Unrestricted cash reserves were $0.7 million as of June 30, 2024, a decrease of $0.1 million from March 31, 2024.

“We are on the road to becoming a much leaner and focused company with the goal to substantially reduce our cash burn. We aim to soon rely mostly on customer revenue and R&D grants for our operations rather than on fundraising. Towards that goal, we are focusing our activities on our Livermore and Patras offices that are leading the US Army, Airbus, and R&D product development efforts. Technology-wise, we have made great progress with the Advent MEA and expect to announce strong performance improvements to the market by year-end. I am thankful to our employees in the USA and Greece for performing excellent work during these hard financial times and meeting all customer milestones and requirements,” said Dr. Vasilis Gregoriou, Chairman and CEO of Advent Technologies.

Business Updates

Airbus: The second quarter milestones were completed successfully, and the cooperation between the two companies continues to be strong. Aviation has by far the most challenging requirements compared to any other market. Advent believes that the benchmark performance achieved through this project will also be instrumental in achieving the performance requirements of other markets, especially stationary power, marine, and automotive.

The project aims to accelerate the development of Advent’s MEA and benchmark the Ion Pair MEA against aviation requirements and current/expected technological limits. HT-PEM MEAs operating at temperatures higher than 180°C (360°F) aim to solve one of the largest challenges in aviation fuel cell use: thermal management. High-temperature fuel cells allow increased performance, increased passenger carrying capability, and increased range compared to low-temperature fuel cell stack technology.

US Army: Work continued at a good pace in the two new contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense (“DoD”) ($2.2m and $2.8m awarded in 2023). Advent has successfully met all program milestones so far (on time or with minor delays) and the demanding mission requirements of the U.S. Army. These contracts are the continuation of a series of past contracts with the U.S. DoD, and their primary objective is to further optimize Advent’s proprietary Honey Badger 50? (“HB50”) portable fuel cell system by integrating the Company’s innovative Ion Pair MEA technology. Upon the completion of these contracts, Advent and the U.S. DoD aim to reinforce their long-term collaboration by focusing on the further optimization of the HB50 and also on low-volume production manufacturing capacity.

Advent continued work for the ten EU-received R&D grants that are already ongoing and met milestones in multi-partner projects focused on further developing its technology and accelerating its product development roadmap.

Advent continued work on developing the Advent MEA with the goal to eventually achieve three times (3x) the power density performance and the 3x the lifetime performance of the legacy MEA that has been used for the last years across the line of Serene products. Advent believes that the development of the MEA is essential to continue and precede mass market efforts. The experience with the Serene systems is that despite their design and system maturity they remain too expensive for the markets intended (especially telecom power backup in Asia and Africa). The expected introduction of the Advent MEA into new fuel cell systems codeveloped with OEMs can bring the cost three times down effectively creating an inflection point for mass adoption.

Other Updates

Reverse Stock Split: On May 1, 2024, Advent announced that it would move forward with a 1-for-30 reverse stock split of its issued and outstanding common stock. The reverse stock split was approved on April 30, 2024 by Advent’s Board of Directors, following approval by the Company's stockholders at a special meeting held on April 29, 2024. The reverse stock split brought Advent back into compliance with Nasdaq's $1.00 per share minimum bid price requirement for continued listing and to make the Company's stock more attractive to a broader range of institutional and other investors. On May 9, 2024 Advent announced that it would file a Certificate of Amendment to its Second Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation with the Secretary of State of Delaware after the close of business on Monday, May 13, 2024 to effectuate its previously announced 1-for-30 reverse stock split of its issued and outstanding common stock (the “Reverse Split”).

Dr. Gregoriou concluded, “We have continued our work on important projects with Airbus, US Army, Hyundai, and other automotive manufacturers. We are happy to report that despite financial difficulties, we have put our full focus and effort into these projects, and we have done our best work to date, meeting all the milestones. On the contrary, the Advent Denmark subsidiary has had poor financial and technology delivery performance, leading us to implement more cuts there. We intend to continue to reduce costs and focus our operations and people on what is truly world-changing and a competitive advantage for the company, and that is our Advent MEA technology. Furthermore, we are currently in talks with OEMs with the intention to enter into technology transfer agreements.”

About Advent Technologies Holdings, Inc.

Advent Technologies Holdings, Inc. (a U.S. corporation) is an advanced materials and technology development company operating in the fuel cell, methanol, and hydrogen technology space. Advent is a world-leading company in the development of the HT-PEM technology (with more than 100 patents issued, pending, or licensed worldwide). The HT-PEM fuel cell technology developed by Advent enables off-grid power systems to produce clean power from various green fuels (hydrogen, methanol, bio and eMethanol, and renewable natural gas) and to function with higher efficiency at extreme ambient temperatures and in general extreme environmental conditions (humidity, air pollution). Advent’s main operations focus on developing and manufacturing the Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA), which is the core electrochemical element and the most critical component of the fuel cell. The MEA largely determines lifetime, power density, efficiency, and overall cost of installation and operation for all applications. Advent is working with world-leading market-leading OEMs with the goal of bringing to the market complete fuel cell systems for a range of applications in the stationary power markets (backup, off-grid, and portable power) and the heavy-duty mobility markets (automotive, aviation, marine).
For more information, please visit www.advent.energy.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “expect,” “plan,” “could,” “may,” “will,” “believe,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “goal,” “project,” and other words of similar meaning. Each forward-looking statement contained in this press release is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statement. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, among others, the Company’s ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s common stock on Nasdaq; future financial performance; public securities’ potential liquidity and trading; impact from the outcome of any known and unknown litigation; ability to forecast and maintain an adequate rate of revenue growth and appropriately plan its expenses; expectations regarding future expenditures; future mix of revenue and effect on gross margins; attraction and retention of qualified directors, officers, employees, and key personnel; ability to compete effectively in a competitive industry; ability to protect and enhance our corporate reputation and brand; expectations concerning our relationships and actions with our technology partners and other third parties; impact from future regulatory, judicial and legislative changes to the industry; ability to locate and acquire complementary technologies or services and integrate those into the Company’s business; future arrangements with, or investments in, other entities or associations; and intense competition and competitive pressure from other companies worldwide in the industries in which the Company will operate; and the risks identified under the heading “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 13, 2024, as well as the other information we file with the SEC. We caution investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. You are encouraged to read our filings with the SEC, available at www.sec.gov, for a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of this document, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Our business is subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, including those referenced above. Investors, potential investors, and others should give careful consideration to these risks and uncertainties.

Presentation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to the results provided in accordance with U.S. GAAP throughout this press release, the Company has provided non-GAAP financial measures - Adjusted Net Income / (Loss) and Adjusted EBITDA - which present results on a basis adjusted for certain items. The Company uses these non-GAAP financial measures for business planning purposes and in measuring its performance relative to that of its competitors. The Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures are useful financial metrics to assess its operating performance from period-to- period by excluding certain items that the Company believes are not representative of its core business. These non- GAAP financial measures are not intended to replace, and should not be considered superior to, the presentation of the Company’s financial results in accordance with GAAP. The use of the terms Adjusted Net Income / (Loss) and Adjusted EBITDA may differ from similar measures reported by other companies and may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures. These measures are reconciled from the respective measures under GAAP in the appendix below.

Supplemental Non-GAAP Measures and Reconciliations

In addition to providing measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, we present certain supplemental non-GAAP measures. These measures are EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income / (Loss), which we use to evaluate our operating performance, for business planning purposes and to measure our performance relative to that of our peers. These non-GAAP measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and therefore may differ from similar measures presented by other companies and may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures. We believe these measures are useful in evaluating the operating performance of Advent’s ongoing business. These measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for net income, operating expense and income, cash flows and other measures of financial performance and liquidity reported in accordance with GAAP. The calculation of these non-GAAP measures has been made on a consistent basis for all periods presented.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA

These supplemental non-GAAP measures are provided to assist readers in determining our operating performance. We believe this measure is useful in assessing performance and highlighting trends on an overall basis. We also believe EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are frequently used by securities analysts and investors when comparing our results with those of other companies. EBITDA differs from the most comparable GAAP measure, net income / (loss), primarily because it does not include interest, income taxes, depreciation of property, plant and equipment, and amortization of intangible assets. Adjusted EBITDA adjusts EBITDA for items such as one-time transaction costs, asset impairment charges, and fair value changes in the warrant liability.

The following tables show a reconciliation of net loss to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the three and six months ended June 30, 2024 and 2023.

This supplemental non-GAAP measure is provided to assist readers in determining our financial performance. We believe this measure is useful in assessing performance and highlighting trends on an overall basis. Adjusted Net Loss differs from the most comparable GAAP measure, net loss, primarily because it does not include one-time transaction costs, asset impairment charges and warrant liability changes. The following table shows a reconciliation of net loss to Adjusted Net Loss for the three and six months ended June 30, 2024 and 2023.

Advent Technologies Holdings, Inc.

Dr. Vasilis Gregoriou,
[email protected]

Source: Advent Technologies Holdings, Inc.