Amaero Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Amaero (NASDAQ:AMRO) held its third-quarter earnings conference call on Monday. Below is the complete transcript from the call.

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Summary

Amaero Inc. reported a 35% increase in Q3 revenue to $4.1 million, with nine-month revenue growing 170% to $11.5 million and a backlog up 180% from the previous year.

The company highlighted its strategic focus on the US defense industrial base, reshoring manufacturing and adopting advanced manufacturing, with significant investments in expanding production capacity for metal powders and PM HIP technology.

Amaero issued guidance for Q4 2026, expecting revenue between $4.5 and $5.0 million, which would result in full-year revenue growth of 154% to 162%, driven by increased production capabilities and strong market demand.

Operational highlights include commissioning the largest US domestic production capacity for titanium and refractory alloy spherical powders and the resumption of titanium production after a safety review and system optimizations.

Management emphasized the importance of customer relationships and continued production scaling, with plans to introduce argon recycling and a fourth atomizer in 2027 to further enhance operational efficiency.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Welcome to Amaero Inc. third quarter 2026 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star-0 on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Shannon Devine, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Shannon Devine (Investor Relations)

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining Amaero’s third quarter 2026 earnings call. I am Shannon Devine. Joining me today are Hank Holland, Amaero’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Brett Allen Paduch, Amaero’s Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this afternoon, Amaero issued its earnings release and posted its earnings presentation, both of which are available on the investor relations section of the company’s website. Before we begin, please note that today’s discussion will contain forward-looking statements regarding Amaero’s business, financial performance, outlook, and future operating plans. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed today. Please refer to Amaero’s earnings materials and SEC filings for a discussion of factors that could cause actual results to differ.

Any forward-looking statements that are made on this call speak only as of the date of this call, and Amaero disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law. Certain non-GAAP financial measures will also be discussed. Information regarding Amaero’s non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, can be found in Amaero’s earnings release and supplemental materials available on Amaero’s investor relations website. With that, I will now turn the call over to Hank.

Hank Holland (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you, Shannon. Welcome. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us, and good morning to those joining from Australia. Welcome to Amaero’s third quarter 2026 earnings conference call and the inaugural earnings call as a NASDAQ-listed company. Our first earnings call as a NASDAQ-listed company also marks our first results reported in US dollars under US GAAP, so comparative figures may differ from those we previously reported on the ASX, where our CDIs continue to be quoted under the symbol 3DA.

To our new shareholders, welcome and thank you for your confidence. To our long-standing shareholders, thank you for your support over the past four and a half years. Because many of you are new to Amaero, I want to begin with a bigger picture: the opportunity in front of us, why we believe that Amaero has a differentiated market position, and why we believe the company is at an inflection point. Then I’ll highlight the financial results in the third quarter and revenue guidance for the fourth quarter. Then Brett will take you through the financials in more detail.

Amaero sits at the intersection of three enduring themes: rebuilding the US defense industrial base; reshoring and scaling sovereign manufacturing; and the adoption of additive and advanced manufacturing. For the first time in decades, aerospace and defense are simultaneously experiencing peak demand. The Columbia and Virginia class submarine programs, the advent of hypersonic weapons, the replacement of the Minuteman ICBM with Sentinel, and the build-out of missile defense are driving generational investment.

At the same time, the war in Ukraine exposed how thin our domestic capacity is in large castings and forgings—among the most constrained links in the defense supply chain. I want to emphasize: all these themes are structural, not cyclical. The United States allowed its defense industrial base to atrophy over three decades. Rebuilding it and bringing critical supply chains home is both a national security imperative and sound economic policy. Amaero’s corporate strategy has been driven by a demand pull that’s a direct result of these thematic forces. Within that backdrop, Amaero addresses two specific bottlenecks. The first is in high-value spherical metal powders. Powder is a consumable of metal 3D printing—the ink cartridge to the printer—so as the installed base of metal 3D printers expands, powder demand expands with it. It’s a pick-and-shovel business. Titanium alloy powders serve defense, aerospace, medical, and consumer applications.

Refractory alloy powders such as niobium C103 serve high-temperature applications in high-growth verticals that include the defense, space, and nuclear energy sectors. The second is PM HIP, or powder metallurgy hot isostatic pressing, a mature technology that was developed over seven decades ago and has the benefit of military specifications and mature data sets. Amaero’s technical team has done much of the pioneering work over the past two decades for producing large, complex, near net shaped parts as an alternative to constrained castings and forgings.

We estimate the US addressable market across our three product lines at approximately $737 million in 2026, growing to approximately $1.5 billion by 2030. That’s large enough to build a significant business, yet specialized enough to attract limited competition, which supports a specialty margin structure. As the largest shareholder, that combination is the thesis that led to my investment into Amaero, and it continues to guide our forward-leaning strategy.

Amaero has commissioned the largest US domestic production capacity for titanium and refractory alloy spherical powders, co-located with PM HIP manufacturing in an AS9100D-certified facility near Chattanooga, Tennessee. The competitive landscape is narrow. In titanium powder, our two primary competitors operate in Canada; we have no primary competitor in the United States. In refractory powders, we have one primary competitor. In PM HIP, others make simple parts, but our proprietary know-how and experience with complex near net shaped components is highly differentiated.

Our advantage rests on three things that are difficult to replicate. First, technology and know-how. We operate IGA premium atomizers, a crucible-free process that the Air Force Research Laboratory has called the industry standard for reactive and refractory materials. But equipment alone does not make commercially viable powder. Our technical team, anchored by Eric Bono, our Chief Technology Officer, has made modifications to the equipment and optimized the process parameters to deliver roughly twice the usable yield while consuming about half the argon gas of conventional atomizers.

That matters because yield determines how much feedstock and labor go into every kilogram of sellable powder—our two largest variable costs—and argon is a significant input in its own right. Our argon recycling system targets a further reduction in argon cost of at least 77%. Second, qualifications—the highest barrier to new entries and to production contracts. Our C103 has been qualified to a manned spaceflight standard, and we closely collaborated with the US Navy, BPMI, and the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program for development, first articles, and qualification of critical submarine components.

Third, customer relationships built on demand pull. Shortly after we moved to Tennessee, we committed to dedicate an IGA premium atomizer to refractory alloys including niobium, tungsten, tantalum, and molybdenum. This was a direct response to the long lead times from a sole supplier that was slowing down the development of hypersonic programs. Months later, we began close collaboration with leading stakeholders in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program to develop PM HIP as a substitute for long lead time forgings.

Following a roundtable convened at our facility last December, the Navy’s Maritime Industrial Base Program office issued a formal letter of support validating our PM HIP manufacturing as a viable and technically ready alternative to castings and forgings. In July, we received our first low-rate initial production contract with BPMI. On the commercial side, we’ve structured long-term agreements with leaders in high-growth verticals, several naming Amaero as exclusive supplier, and in July we were awarded a $4.5 million Department of Defense contract to develop alternative refractory alloy powders that reduce cost and reliance on foreign raw materials.

As other companies are beginning multi-year capital programs to address these bottlenecks, we have largely completed ours. Amaero is now shifting from build-out to scaling production. Through September 30th, we had invested $52.2 million in plant and equipment. We operate three IGA premium atomizers with approximately 680 metric tons of annual capacity—480 metric tons of titanium and 200 metric tons refractory—and our fourth atomizer, expected in June 2027, takes total capacity to 920 metric tons.

In August, we commissioned a custom-designed titanium sieving system that, together with our third atomizer, doubled our titanium throughput capacity. In our first full year of commercial production, the 12 months ended June 30th, we generated $12.5 million of revenue. Trailing 12-month revenue through September 30th was $13.5 million, up 191%, and our backlog as of September 30th of $13.4 million is roughly equal to that. Because our fixed production costs are largely in place, we expect revenue growth to drive operating leverage.

I also want to directly address safety. Following safety incidents earlier this year, we committed to lean in. We paused titanium production and completed a comprehensive process, system, and facility safety review with Jensen Hughes, a leader in safety, dust hazard, and risk-based engineering. We engaged Jensen Hughes to identify risk mitigation strategies that were utilized by larger-scale industrial operations with dust hazards such as the sugar industry, paper mills, and grain operations.

We implemented resulting improvements, and titanium production resumed in late July after an approximately six-week pause—no order cancellations and no employee attrition. As for Q3 highlights and outlook, turning to the quarter, third quarter revenue grew 35% to $4.1 million, landing near the top of the previously disclosed range, and nine-month revenue grew 170% to $11.5 million. We ended the period with a backlog of $13.4 million, an increase of 180% from September 2025 and approximately 100% of trailing 12-month revenue. Operating cash used for the quarter fell $1 million year over year to $6.3 million. Commercially, the Department of Defense award and our first BPMI contract advanced both of our production lines in defense—refractory powders and PM HIP.

Operationally, we restarted titanium production and doubled titanium throughput capacity with commissioning an expanded, custom-designed, fabricated sieving system, and in the capital markets, we began trading on NASDAQ on October 15th, receiving aggregate net IPO proceeds of $17.0 million, and amended our Ex-Im Bank credit agreement to release $2.1 million of restricted cash and move the liquidity covenant test to 2028. As of October 31st, we had $19.3 million of cash and cash equivalents after October operating cash use and capital expenditures.

Today we are issuing our first formal guidance as a US-listed company. We expect Q4 2026 revenue of $4.5 to $5.0 million, which would result in a quarterly increase of 121% to 146% year over year. Combined with our results to date, that would result in full-year 2026 revenue of $16.0 to $16.5 million, up 154% to 162%. Our priorities are clear: convert backlog into revenue, expand the breadth and depth of our commercial partnerships, and bring argon recycling and our fourth atomizer online in the first half of 2027. With that, I’ll turn it over to our CFO, Brett, to provide more detail on our financial results.

Brett Allen Paduch (Chief Financial Officer)

Thank you Hank and good afternoon. I’ll start by tying our actual financial results back to our previously disclosed ranges and to provide more detail to our financial performance. Revenue of 4.11 million was near the top end of 3.96 to 4.12 million. Range cash of 4.96 million and backlog of 13.44 million landed within the range. Net loss attributable to stockholders of 9.06 million, operating cash use of 6.34 million and adjusted EBITDA of negative 7.11 million all came in modestly favorable to the range.

Turning to revenue, Q3 revenue rose 35% to 4.1 million with growth in both product lines. Metal powders contributed 3.2 million, up 19%, reflecting the continued ramp of our atomization capacity and the expansion of new and existing customer relationships. PM HIP contributed 0.9 million, up 146% including the first revenue attributable to our LRIP contract with BPMI. Looking beyond any single quarter, nine month revenue through Q3 grew 170% to 11.5 million from 4.3 million and trailing 12 month revenue grew 191% to 13.5 million from 4.7 million.

Backlog as of September 30th of 13.4 million is up 34% from 10 million at June 30th, up 96% from 6.9 million at year end 2025 and up 180% from 4.8 million a year ago. It includes 4.4 million attributable to the Department of War development contract and it spans both powder and PM HIP. Turning to the income statement, cost of revenue in Q3 was 8.5 million compared with 3.1 million in Q3 2025, resulting in a gross loss for Q3 2026 of 4.4 million. I want to be clear about what drove that. The increase reflects the continued scale up of our Tennessee operations together with titanium production in the quarter running below installed capacity, first because of the restart in late July and then because optimizing the new sieving system reduced throughput and yields.

As a result, our portion of production labor and fixed production costs were not absorbed into inventory and were expensed in the period and lower yields increased the cost of titanium powder sold. Our fixed production costs consisted principally of plant salaried labor and overhead, depreciation on manufacturing equipment and leasehold improvements, and the lease on our Tennessee facility. With the equipment and the plant operating and technical teams for both product lines largely in place, we do not expect those costs to increase in proportion to revenue.

That is why we expect revenue growth to drive continued operating leverage and gross margin improvement. SG&A in Q3 was 4.3 million, up 0.5 million compared to the prior year period. The increase reflects 0.6 million of non-ordinary course redomiciliation and IPO-related costs, primarily legal, tax, and audit fees, together with higher corporate legal and audit fees, partially offset by a 0.5 million decrease in stock-based compensation. Q3 R&D was 0.1 million, loss from operations was 8.8 million and net loss attributable to stockholders was 9.1 million or $0.38 per share compared to 4.1 million or $0.20 per share in the prior year period.

Adjusted EBITDA in Q3, which excludes stock-based compensation of 0.3 million and 6 million of redomiciliation and IPO-related costs, was negative 7.1 million compared with negative 3.1 million in Q3 2025. For the nine months ending September 30, 2026, revenue grew 170% from the prior year periods to 11.5 million and adjusted EBITDA was negative 15.6 million versus negative 10.7 million in the prior year period. Let me close with four takeaways. First, quarterly revenue grew 35% year over year. Second, forward visibility has improved, backlog at quarter end was 2.8 times its level a year earlier and our guidance implies full year revenue growth of 154% to 162%. Third, with our fixed production cost base largely in place and titanium throughput capacity doubled, we expect higher titanium output to drive operating leverage and gross margin improvement. And fourth, our next capacity additions, Argon Recycling in the first quarter of 2027 and our fourth IGA atomizer in June 2027, remain on schedule, funded in part by our IPO proceeds.

I’ll turn it back to Hank.

Hank Holland (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you, Brett. Let me close where I began. The themes behind our business. Rebuilding the defense industrial base, reshoring sovereign manufacturing, and the adoption of additive manufacturing. These are enduring and Amaero is positioned at their intersection. Our foundational build out is complete. Our capacity is commissioned. And AS9100D certified, the qualifications, the highest barrier in this industry, are well advanced. PM HIP has moved into production for the submarine industrial base.

And a Department of War program is advancing. And revenue is ramping against a backlog equal to a full year of trailing revenue. Our job now is execution. Continue to scale production, convert backlog into revenue. Bring Argon Recycling, our fourth atomizer, online the first half of 2027. We believe that this is how we build durable value for our shareholders and make a durable contribution to US national security. Thank you for your time today. Brett and I are happy to take your questions.

OPERATOR

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is from Peter Armit with Baird. Please proceed.

Peter Armit (Analyst)

Yeah, good afternoon, Hank and Brett. Nice results. Hey, Hank, good to see titanium process restarted. Could you maybe talk about just how you’re seeing the process? Have things stabilized and then, you know, is the new sieving system, like, fully optimized, how we should be thinking about any remaining bottlenecks there?

Hank Holland (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much, Peter. As you’ve seen firsthand, the sieving system that we install, we believe to be the largest system of its type in the world outside of China for reactive metals. And the sieving is the bottleneck process about powder production. As you stated, we restarted titanium production the end of July, and that has gone quite well. We had already commissioned the third atomizer, the second dedicated titanium, in June.

And then in the month of August is when we commissioned the sieving system. I would say that by the time we got into early to mid September, most of the parameter optimization was dialed in. We’re continuing to make small tweaks, and I would expect that through the very end of this year, we’ll be making small tweaks. But I would say from a yield standpoint, the yield was below optimal for last quarter, and I would expect this quarter. Over the course of the quarter, we will begin to approach where we would expect it to be longer term.

Peter Armit (Analyst)

Got it. That’s helpful. And just Brett, a quick one on just, I know you’re not guiding to gross margins or anything for Q4, but just given that maybe some of these startup or restart costs maybe are a little bit behind, should we expect to see some of that leverage begin to show up here in Q4?

Brett Allen Paduch (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, I would say our fixed, you know, the fixed cost in our cost of goods sold is significantly scaled at this point. You know, that includes both the rent, depreciation, it includes our technical and operating teams. So as our revenue grows into Q4 and beyond, we would not expect a commensurate rise in those fixed production costs, which is where we would start seeing that operating leverage lead to improvement in our gross margin moving forward.

Hank Holland (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)

Peter. The one thing that I would add to what Brett said, which is exactly right. The other thing is there tends to be about a six week lag of inventory. And so, you know, the inventory cost that will come into Q4 of this, the current quarter that we’re in, you know, there will be a number of weeks of that inventory from last quarter that will be impacted by some of the same issues from yield and so forth. So I would expect to see an improvement in gross margin, but we really won’t begin to see the favorable trend as we expect until we get into the next calendar year because of that modest lag.

Peter Armit (Analyst)

Okay, and then just a quick one. Just regarding your backlog, is there anything that’s like unfunded as we’re still in a continuing resolution in the US for fiscal 27, or do you have all the funding you need for what’s in backlog?

Hank Holland (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, I’ll take that briefly. All of the backlog as reported is contracted firm orders, all of which is expected to be recognized prior to June 30, with the exception of there are two payments on the Department of War contract that I believe total about $700,000. So most of that backlog will be recognized before June 30, all of which are firm commitments and all of which funding is in place. I will tell you that obviously none of us know exactly what will happen with the FY27 defense appropriation budget, particularly given the midterm elections when that might be approved.

I would not see it having an impact on us so long as we eventually got the FY27 budget approved. That is, even if it was in February or March of next year. We’ve got a significant pipeline of opportunities that have already received funding at our tier one supplier level. And so I would not expect, you know, any, any CR in the short term to impact what we see in calendar year 27 or first half of calendar year 27 revenues.

Peter Armit (Analyst)

Appreciate all the details guys. I’ll jump back in the queue. Thanks Hank.

Hank Holland (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks Peter.

Brett Allen Paduch (Chief Financial Officer)

Thanks Peter.

OPERATOR

Our next question is from Jason Schmidt with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Jason Schmidt (Analyst)

Hey guys, thanks for taking my questions and congrats on the solid results. Just sticking with backlog. I know you mentioned it spans both businesses. Just curious if, outside that Dow contract, are there any sort of larger chunkier awards within that or is it pretty broad based across the diverse customer base?

Hank Holland (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, I’ll take that to start. The Dow award as we’ve announced was about $4.5 million and so that is a chunk of that $13.4 million backlog. Beyond that, we do have long-term agreements in place as in 12-month purchase orders. Keep in mind, Jason, that prior to the redomiciliation our fiscal year ended June 30th and so many of those 12-month POs had been structured from a July to June basis. So by the time we get through the end of December we will have burnt off half of that 12-month PO.

We’ll obviously begin to restructure those on a going forward basis, more so on a calendar year basis. I think the other interesting thing, as you know we announced back in July, I believe it was, the contract with BPMI. It was our first LRIP or low rate production contract. It was not a particularly large contract, about $350,000. However, it was a very important contract in that it was our first production. It was the seventh contract we had with BPMI, albeit the first one that we announced.

And what we would now expect to see is that opens the door to a series of production contracts to follow. And so they’re not yet showing up in backlog. They’re showing up essentially in our pipeline. But I would expect to see some relatively chunky orders that will follow in the PM HIP business over time. The rest of it again I would say would be ordinary course of business, either spot orders or relatively short-term orders that we have, coupled with the Department of Ore contract.

Jason Schmidt (Analyst)

Gotcha. That’s really helpful. And Hank, my next question was going to be on BPMI and when we could see some production contracts. Any sense on the timeline there?

Hank Holland (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, we’re not in a position to say much more. A, we haven’t given any guidance on that. And B, Jason, as you can appreciate, a lot of times the approval of these contracts takes on kind of a life of their own. And we’re always very, very mindful to be conservative with any guidance that we give. We do think that the announcement of the BPMI contract was quite consequential and does now position us for a series of contracts to follow. That’s probably all we can say at this point though.

Jason Schmidt (Analyst)

Okay, makes sense. Thanks a lot, guys.

Hank Holland (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks, Jason.

Brett Allen Paduch (Chief Financial Officer)

Thanks, Jason.

OPERATOR

Our next question is from Doug Smith, Whitcairn and Company. Please proceed.

Doug Smith (Analyst)

Hi, Hank. Hi, Brett. Congrats on the first US quarterly report. I sort of ask about the backlog as well. And are you seeing, you know, I’ve seen some news flow regarding hypersonic programs moving forward. Are you seeing some C103 signals start to come through related to Castion and also what’s the inbound sort of look like on the titanium and how do we see that growing as we go forward?

Hank Holland (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, so beginning with C103, this is one of the areas, as you well know, Doug, and that you follow the company for quite some time. The fiscal year 25 CR and the subsequent government shutdown had a real impact on Amaero in delaying the revenue. And some of the C103 programs, I think about certain strategic missile programs, for example, were significantly impacted. And we’re only now seeing some of those programs down-select from what was probably as much as a two-year delay.

So yes, we are seeing an uptick in C103 demand from defense applications. We’re also seeing it on the space side. As you know, in the case of niobium C103, first used in the Apollo lunar landing vehicle in 1969, it’s really become the go-to high-temperature alloy. And so where we have mission-critical applications, and whether that’s particularly sensitive defense applications and/or space, it does seem to be the go-to alloy. I will tell you part of what’s exciting about our Department of War contract though is, as you well know, Doug, that one of the challenges with niobium C103—it’s comprised 10% of hafnium—and hafnium prices are up about 700% the last several years. And so the Department of War is anxious to find alternatives in the refractory high-temperature alloy space that do not include hafnium. And that’s really where our program, the DoW, is focused. And so yes, we are seeing uptick in demand for C103, but importantly, we’re also seeing uptick in demand in alternative refractories as well.

Doug Smith (Analyst)

Okay, fantastic. Thanks, Hank. That’s all from me.

Hank Holland (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks, Doug.

OPERATOR

We have reached the end of our question and answer session. This will conclude today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.

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