Clear Blue Technologies Announces 2020 Financial Results

Q4 Revenue of $2,504,446, Gross Margin of 27%, EBITDA of $(1,167,232)

TORONTO, March 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clear Blue Technologies International Inc. (“Clear Blue”) (TSXV: CBLU) (FRANKFURT: OYA), the Smart Off-Grid™ company, today announces its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2020, with the following highlights:

Key Financial Results (all figures in Canadian dollars)

• Record quarterly revenues of $2,504,446, a 5% increase over $2,392,839 for Q4 2019;
• TFQ Revenue was $4,023,811, a 1% increase over the previous TFQ period;
• Beginning Q2, 2020, the Company began reporting Bookings (see more info below). For the period ending December 31, 2020, the Bookings were $4,158,916;
• Gross profit for TFQ was $1,266,999 or 31.5%, a 42% increase from the previous period ($891,163 or 22.4%). This was largely the result of two factors: cost reductions through supply chain and contract manufacturing; and more importantly, new smart off-grid functionalities developed and implemented by the Company which resulted in the elimination of complex and costly system components;
• Operating expenses for the TFQ ended December 31, 2020 were $4,629,224, a decrease of $1,051,437 or 19% compared to the same period in 2019;
• Non-IFRS Adjusted EBITDA for the TFQ was $(3,590,506) as compared to $(4,157,728) for the previous TFQ—a 13.6% improvement resulting from improving gross margins, various cost reduction plans undertaken by the Company as well as government Covid-19 funding support.

Outlook

While Covid-19 clearly impacted Clear Blue’s 2020 results, certain key results indicate positive positions for growth in 2021:

• Clear Blue’s gross margin in 2020 grew significantly from 22.4% in 2019 to 31.5% in 2020;
• Clear Blue’s backlog going into 2021 was $975,664;
• Recurring revenue growth is strong, led by the Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) offering for Illumient in North America. In 2021, Clear Blue will extend its EaaS offering to its international telecom vertical, further accelerating the growth in recurring revenue;
• Clear Blue’s investment in the telecom vertical and Africa is showing success, with many 2020 large rollout agreements moving forward including a project with forecasted sales of $5 million and over 400 sites, for a major infrastructure operator in Africa. With some of this order shipping in Q4, the remainder is forecasted to generate $3M in revenue in Q1 2021 compared to total revenue of $238,298 in Q1 2020, an 1100% increase in Q1 YoY;
• Additionally, the large $1.45M order Nano-grid Power Packs for Orange S.A. in Cameroon, in partnership with NuRAN was announced in Q4 of 2020. NuRAN and Clear Blue will provide Rural Telecommunications systems and ongoing operational services in Cameroon to Orange S.A., one of the world’s largest mobile network operators.
  

To support these exciting new initiatives, Clear Blue also opened an office in Nairobi, Kenya in 2020 and hired additional local talent in sales and technical support. The office is providing field Research & Development (R&D), sales and a second operations service team to support Clear Blue’s recurring Illumience and EaaS management service for full customer support, troubleshooting and technical support for systems across EMEA, in their local time zones.

Projects for Illumient solar street lights are seeing recurring projects, market expansion across North America and opportunities in new industries and applications.

“In spite of Covid-19 impacts earlier in 2020, major projects are now moving forward and Clear Blue has had its best year, so far,” said Miriam Tuerk, Co-Founder & CEO. “The Company continues to innovate to improve products and services for our customers, resulting in regular large project contracts and follow-on business across world. The successes of 2020 have driven growth in our team, process efficiencies and the ability to meet the needs of customers on an even larger scale. Our team has worked very hard to ensure that our sophisticated technology makes it simple for customers. This along with our push for even lower CAPEX and OPEX for projects has resulted in great successes in 2020 and will continue to serve us into 2021. I am thrilled and honoured to represent Clear Blue’s co-founders, management and entire team to the market.”

While there continues to be significant uncertainty over the forward outlook, particularly in supply chain and shipping, as with the world economy and budgets in general, Clear Blue continues to see strong and strategic interest in its offerings in both of its key markets—North American streetlights as well as telecom in emerging markets. Telecom, connectivity, and cleantech are key growth sectors in the world’s economy and Clear Blue continues to be positioned as a key and strategic leader in innovating technologies that make it possible to reliably and cost effectively provide clean off-grid energy to mission critical customers around the world.

Conference Call

The Company will host a conference call to discuss its latest financial results at 11:00 AM Eastern Time (Canada/U.S.) on Tuesday, March 16, 2021.

Those interested can register at: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SeZVLxghQfGlhKhcfLgpjg

Media Contact:
Becky Nye
Director
Montieth & Company
155 E 44th St., New York, NY 10017
bnye@montiethco.com
+1 646.864.3517

Investor Relations:
Miriam Tuerk
Co-Founder and CEO
+1 416 433 3952
http://www.clearbluetechnologies.com/en/investors

About Clear Blue Technologies International

Clear Blue Technologies International, the Smart Off-Grid™ company, was founded on a vision of delivering clean, managed, “wireless power” to meet the global need for reliable, low-cost, solar and hybrid power for lighting, telecom, security, Internet of Things devices, and other mission-critical systems. Today, Clear Blue has thousands of systems under management across 37 countries, including the U.S. and Canada. (TSXV: CBLU) (FRANKFURT: OYA)

Legal Disclaimer

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" and/or "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only Clear Blue’s beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of Clear Blue's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". The forward-looking information contained herein may include, but is not limited to, information concerning financial results and future upcoming contracts.

By identifying such information and statements in this manner, Clear Blue is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Clear Blue to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements.

An investment in securities of Clear Blue is speculative and subject to several risks including, without limitation, the risks discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Clear Blue's listing application dated July 12, 2018. Although Clear Blue has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

In connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, Clear Blue has made certain assumptions. Although Clear Blue believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to Clear Blue or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.