Wallbox Reports Q1 2026 Results: Full Earnings Call Transcript

Wallbox (NYSE:WBX) held its first-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday. Below is the complete transcript from the call. This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation. The full earnings call is available at https://www.webcaster5.com/Webcast/Page/3124/53846 Summary Wallbox reported a 12% decline in Q1 2026 revenue to €29.7 million, missing guidance due to a slowdown in DC and AC sales linked to pending refinancing. The company improved adjusted EBITDA loss by 18% quarter over quarter to €6 million, attributing this to operational efficiency improvements. Gross margin was 37.3%, slightly below the anticipated range, affected by lower DC sales, which typically have higher margins. Wallbox secured €11 million in interim financing through a refinancing plan, enhancing financial visibility and stability. The company plans to focus on growth acceleration in future quarters, with Q2 2026 revenue guidance set between €33 million and €36 million. Full Transcript OPERATOR Hello everyone and welcome to Wallbox's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen only mode to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' prepared remarks, there will be an opportunity for a question and answer session. Analysts who wish to ask a question can place themselves into the queue by pressing star one. I would now like to turn the call over to Michael Wilhelm from Wallbox. Michael, please go ahead. Michael Wilhelm Thank you and good morning and good afternoon to everyone listening in. Thank you for joining today's webcast to discuss Wallbox first quarter 2026 results. This event is being broadcast over the web and can be accessed from the Investors section of our website at Investors Wallbox. I am joined today by Enrique Asucian, Wallbox CEO and Isabella Vestro, Wallbox CFO. Earlier today we issued a press release announcing results from the first quarter ended March 31, 2026, which can also be found on our website. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made on today's call are forward-looking that may be subject to risks and uncertainties relating to the future events and or the future financial performance of the company. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated. The risk factors that may affect results are detailed in the Company's most recent public filings with the SEC, including the Annual Report on Form 20F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 filed on April 9, 2026. We will be presenting unaudited financial statements in IFRS format that reflect management's best assessment of actual results. Also, please note that we use certain non IFRS financial measures on this call and reconciliations of these measures are included in the presentation posted on the Investors section of our website. Also, a copy of these prepared remarks can be obtained from the Investor Relations website under the Quarterly Results section so you can more easily follow along with us today. Enrique Asucian (CEO) So with that out of the way, I will turn it over to Enrique. Thank you Michael and thanks everyone for joining us today. We will start today's call with an Overview of our first quarter 2026 results, provide our perspective on the EV market and spend time discussing our operational improvement. Isabel will offer a closer look at our financial results, key financial metrics and our current financial position, including updates on the recently signed refinancing. After, I will close the conversation to highlight what we are focused on for the upcoming quarters. Q1 revenue was softer than expected, but overall we had a solid first quarter as adjusted EBITDA improved sequentially due to continuous operational efficiency improvements. Total revenue landed at 29.7 million euros below guidance and down 12% compared to the previous quarter. The primary driver of the decline is DC sales which are down 28% quarter over quarter. Although this is a disappointing result, customer feedback shows this is not product related but rather the requirement to have clarity on Wallbox Refinancing process With the signing of the refinancing plan, we immediately secured 11 million euros in interim financing and are now able to provide better long term financial visibility to our customers, vendors and shareholders. The other business activities, AC sales and software service and others also experienced a slowdown compared to last quarter related to the refinancing but with a less significant impact from a geographical perspective, the North American market due to a significant decline in EV sales, APAC and South America due to the shift in resources and priorities, all have been down sequentially. In total, during the first quarter we delivered over 30,000 AC units and 79 DC units. It is important to note that although revenue declined quarter over quarter, the ratio of revenue to labor costs and operating expenses improved significantly compared to the same period last year. Gross margin was 37.3% in the first quarter in line with the previous quarter but landing below the 38% to 40% guided range. The main reason for the guidance miss relates to the lower than expected DC sales resulting in a negative impact from the product mix. However, we have achieved another quarter with inventory improvement which provides bill of material cost improvement opportunities for the long term. Labor cost and operating expenses landed at 17.1 million euros improving 22% quarter over quarter and 31% compared to the same period last year. This is the result of the continuous efficiency efforts of the last quarters. It not only reflects cost improvements but also shift in resources and investment in sales and services. With optimized cost base, we believe there is opportunity to grow the top line while continuing to work on operational improvements in processes and systems by centralizing certain activities and reducing the operational complexity. We are leaner and more flexible in responding to the volatile EV market both to scale up in EV markets where there are opportunities and scale down in EV markets which experience headwinds. Adjusted EBITDA loss for the first quarter of 2026 was 6 million euros missing our guided range but improving 18% quarter over quarter compared to the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA loss improved by 23% softer than expected. Sales due to the refinancing process were the main reason for missing guidance this quarter, but considering this revenue level the bottom line improvement is impressive. We continue to execute our plan ToWards profitability based on 1 continuous operationally efficiency improvements, 2 implementations of the restructured balance sheet for long term financial visibility and three re establishing our growth by leveraging our product portfolio with more sales and service capacity. The implementation of the refinancing is almost completed. We have made solid progress on operational efficiency improvements and expect to see the results of our investments in sales and service soon. We have a more optimized organization with a stronger financial position and believe that operational profitability is within reach assuming revenue improvement. For the first quarter of 2026, Europe or EMEA contributed 22.6 million euros of consolidated revenue or 76% of total top line. This reflects an 8% decrease compared to the last quarter which is in line with the EB market in the first quarter which was down 9% in Europe after several strong quarters. In parallel, we continue to focus on recapturing market share by improving our capacity in the sales and service teams to better support our distribution partners and our end customers. We have started to see the initial effects but require more ramp up time before we see the full impact on revenue. North America contributed 6.7 million euros or 23% of the total revenue, reflecting a decrease of 41% compared to the same period last year. The drop can be attributed to the softer North American EV market which was down 27% year over year and limited DC sales. However, we recorded a strong result in Canada reflecting solid growth compared to last quarter. Looking ahead, we see opportunities to grow sales with Quasar2 which is already commercially available and the CTEP certified Pulsar which will be available soon for commercial applications. APAC and Latam Carly remains more reason for Walwalks consistent with the last quarter as attention and resources have been shifted to key markets. APAC sales were almost negligible this quarter and latam sales landed €387,000 or approximately 1%. The shifting of resources is a conscious decision and part of our present improvements efforts towards profitability. We continue to sell through distribution partners allowing us to potentially accelerate growth in these markets in the future. AC sales of 21.1 million euros including AVL and Quasar represented approximately 71% of our global consolidated revenue and down 8% compared to last quarter. Pulsar Max continues to be the best sold product with the Pulsar Max AVL growing the fastest as we continue to support cross selling other products including Quasar 2 show us more contribution to overall results than last quarter. In general, AC sales also experience impact from the noise around the refinancing process as distributors and commercial partners stock up or less inventory than is typical. We aim to reverse this trend. Now we have the refinancing in place assuming we receive required court approval and as we ramp up our efforts to complement the strong value proposition of our products with improved sellout support and service coverage. DC sales landed at 2.5 million euros or 8% of sales and was down 28% compared to last quarter. In the case of DC the refinancing process has had the largest impact as customers require long term financial visibility and support from their suppliers. With the signing of the refinancing agreement at the beginning of April, Wallbox can now provide the required clarity and this resulted immediately in new order. We have a strong fast charging product portfolio which provides customers with a wide range of different and scalable charging configurations including battery storage options. With the introduction of the Supernova Power ring, we expanded the product portfolio with a charger that can go up to 400 kilowatts per outlet. Our reliable and user centric chargers prove to be a competitive option for chargepoint operators and we believe we can establish growth in this category. Software Services and others generated 6.1 million euros for the fourth quarter or 21% of the total revenue, declining 16% quarter over quarter. The larger drive of the decrease was installation and service activities which were down 19% compared to last quarter. This was compensated by a 6% quarter over quarter increase in software compared to the same period last year. Software, which includes the electromagnet solutions, grew 91%. Looking forward, we expect this category to continue contributing significantly, especially with the strong growth in software. In our addressable market, which we define as all regions except China, 2.1 million EVs were sold during the first quarter. While this represents a 23% increase year over year, the market slowed down on a sequential basis declining 2% compared to last quarter. Zooming in our key markets which are North America and Europe, we see contrasting trends. In North America, the EV market remains soft due to a removal of incentive and tax credits discussed during the last quarter. Compared to the same period last year, the sales in the region decreased with 27% but only 3% quarter over quarter, potentially indicating we reached the plateau. While we anticipate the North American EV market will remain challenging through the year, we are optimistic about opportunities Presented by our quasi 2 and 6 pulsar, particularly in states like California where vehicle electrification is continuing to grow. Growth persists within the European EV market this quarter up by 27% compared to the same period last year. However, growth has slowed down sequentially and declined with 9%, the same trend where there is a year over year growth but quarter over quarter slowdown was visible in almost every European country except Ireland, Italy and the UK where growth remains strong across the world, the momentum in the region is expected to pick up for the remainder of the year as across the region many countries continue to incentivize electrification and new affordable EV models are becoming available. The growth in the rest of the world, which includes APAC and latam, was the strongest of the regions considered in our addressable market. EV sales in the region increased 79% compared to the same period last year. Considering our shift in resources to focus on our path to profitability instead of servicing all our addressable regions in the same way, we did not capture the market growth. However, we keep working with wide range of distribution partners and key accounts. This will allow us to keep our footprint in the region and ramp up sales efforts in the future. Overall, the EV transition continues to progress, but at the same time volatility remains. The recent geopolitical tension and subsequent price spikes in oil shows again the importance, especially in Europe, for energy independence and decreased reliance on fossil fuels. This provides an opportunity for wellbox as a provider of smart charging products and energy management solutions. The future is electric, but in the meantime it is important as an organization to remain flexible. We have made progress in creating a more lean organizational structure which is better suited to respond to market volatility as we move towards profitability. Isabel, over to you. Isabel Vestro Thank you Enrique, Good morning and good afternoon to everyone. The first quarter revenue was softer than expected and landed at 29.7 million outside our guided range and down 12% sequentially. However, relative to our cost base, revenue grew both compared to last quarter and the same period last year. The main reason we missed our guidance was an unexpected slowdown in orders for both DC and AC related to the pending refinancing. We anticipated an impact on sales as we were in the process of to finalizing the refinancing agreement and customers require long term financial clarity. Although we can provide this clarity now as the agreement recently has been signed, the impact in Q1 was larger than initially expected as DC customers postponed their orders and AC distribution partners decreased the size of their orders. We are confident that we can reverse this trend now and have already received additional DC and AC orders directly after the announcement of the signing. Gross margin for the first quarter was 37.3%. This was lower than anticipated and has a strong correlation with the slower DC sales. As our DC Fast Charger products have a higher gross margin, lower sales in this category results in a negative impact from the product mix. Shortly I will comment in more detail on our continuous inventory reduction, but with a positive impact on bill of materials cost in the long run as we rotate our existing components. Q1 labor costs and operating expenses totaled 17.1 million, reflecting a 31% improvement compared to the same periods last year and a 22% sequential improvement. This is a positive result and is a strong proof point that we can continue to improve our operating leverage. Also in the upcoming quarters, we plan to continue streamlining the organization with additional efficiencies measures, strategic capital allocation and introduction of the right processes. If you compare the historical development of our cost base compared to our revenue development, we believe we are on the right path to find the correct equilibrium between sales and cost. On top of that, with the shift of resources and investment in sales and service, we believe the cost base we are working towards allows for additional revenue growth, further enhancing the efficiency of the company. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA loss for the quarter was 6 million outside the guided range, but still a solid improvement considering the lower than expected top line result compared to the same period last year, the adjusted EBITDA loss improved 23% and sequentially improved with 18%. Also, top line revenue growth is important to reach profitability. The Q1 result reflects the outcome of our plan to shift the focus from only growth to focusing on profitability as our core objective. We have worked hard on the disciplined transformation of the organization to improve operating efficiency and now our focus can return to re acceleration of growth but with the same discipline on cost. With the investment in sales and services, I believe we can improve our sales in the upcoming quarters fueling our path to profitability. Now moving to key financial items, we have completed one of the most important milestones with the signing of the refinancing plan. The plan is submitted with the court for final approval. Additional large institutions such as HSBC and Citibank have now joined the plan and we received 11 million in interim financing. It has been great to be able to bring together all the stakeholders and align on a strong capital structure solution to provide financial stability for Wallbox and clarity for the upcoming years. We would like to thank our banking partners and shareholders for their continued support and recognition of the strategy ahead. Turning now to the Results of the first quarter, we ended the quarter with approximately $7.6 million in cash, cash equivalents and financial instruments. This is excluding the $11 million of interim financing just mentioned as it was received at the beginning of Q2. Based on the operational improvements discussed, the execution of the refinancing plan and our ongoing actions to manage capital expenditures and working capital, we believe our current cash position is sufficient for our near term needs. This assessment assumes the timely receipt of additional liquidity in upcoming quarters, including proceeds from the refinancing plan and anticipated carbon credit payments. Loans and borrowings totaled $168 million, reflecting a slight increase of 2% sequentially consisting of $44 million in long term debt and $124 million in short term debt. The increase in the debt position is related to use of working capital lines and accrued interest liabilities related to the refinancing process. Following the implementation of the renewed capital structure, long term and short term debt will be reclassified as a majority of the debt maturities will be pushed to 2030. Capex was light again this quarter and landed at 0.3 million, of which 0.1 million was related to investments in property, plant and equipment. Consistent with the last quarters, we are limiting spending on capex and are focused on leveraging our existing assets. A clear example is the effort to simplify our existing product portfolio and further innovate this portfolio and to continue to provide the latest technology and comply with the customer requirements in an evolving industry. Compared to the same period last year, capex investment decreased 55%. Inventory landed at 40.3 million, a reduction of 15% to last quarter and down 37% compared to the same period last year. This is consistently one of the most successful financial metrics and allows us to continue to release cash from inventories supporting the overall operations. In addition, we remain focused on our overall cash management related to working capital to better align ourselves with our suppliers and ensure our supply chain is organized efficiently. Waldbox's financial position has improved following the execution of the refinancing plan. In addition, we have made progress on operational initiatives that have contributed to a reduction in cash burn, including actions to optimize working capital and capital expenditures. Enrique, I'll turn it back to you to provide some closing commentary. Enrique Asucian (CEO) Thank you, Isabel. Although the refinancing process impacted top line results in the first quarter of the year, we continue to execute our plan and take steps towards our objective to achieve profitability. Adjusted EBIT the result continues to improve. We have reduced our cash burn significantly, have clarity on our new capital structure and unlock significant operational efficiencies. If we look at the objective we need to complete as part of the plan for our new wallbox we achieve 1 the continuous operational efficiency improvements and 2 completed the refinancing plan. Now we need to move from disciplined transformation to 3 reaccelerating growth. Again. We expect to see the results of our investment in sales and service in the coming quarters. It is crucial to improve Wallbox as a customer centric organization and better support our commercial partners. If we can execute the third pillar of our plan well, there is significant growth opportunity as the EV market continues to develop. With that I would like to discuss next quarter guidance for the second quarter of 2026 we have the following revenue in the 33 million to 36 million euro range, gross margin between 38% and 40% and negative adjusted EBITDA between 5 million and 3 million euros. Thank you for your time. OPERATOR Thank you everyone. There are no questions in queue. We will be closing the call. Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.