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Good morning, and welcome to the GreenPower Motor Company, Inc.'s Third Quarter Earnings Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. And I would now like to turn the conference over to Michael Sieffert, CFO. Please go ahead.

Thank you. This is Michael Sieffert, Chief Financial Officer of GreenPower Motor Company. I'd like to welcome everyone to our call to discuss GreenPower's financial results for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2024, and to provide an update on GreenPower's operations and manufacturing. I'm here today with our Chief Executive Officer, Fraser Atkinson, and our President, Brendan Riley. During today's call, we may make comments or statements about our future expectations, plans and prospects, which may constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the safe harbor provision under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed by these -- indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in our quarterly interim results and MD&A filed on SEDAR and on EDGAR. In addition, these forward-looking statements relate to the date on which they are made. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments may cause the company's views to change. GreenPower disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Also during the course of today's call, we may refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Reconciliation of these non-IFRS measures can be found in our MD&A. For additional information on the results of operations for the period ended December 31, 2024, you can access the financial statements and MD&A posted on GreenPower's website as well as on sedarplus.com or filed on EDGAR. I will now pass the call over to GreenPower's CEO, Fraser Atkinson.

Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining our call to review GreenPower's operations and discuss the results of the third quarter. As I look at the financials of the third quarter, I'm encouraged with the improvement in our gross profit. GreenPower has from quarter-to-quarter being one of only a handful of EV OEMs that have enjoyed a gross profit with the sale of its products. We knew there would be a reduction in that overall percentage as the West Virginia facility got fully up to speed. Now that we are reaching higher output at the South Charleston facility in West Virginia, as Brendan will discuss, we expect that gross profits will improve over time. Since the election last November, the market has seen some uncertainty. While political wins are still shaking out, clearly, the demand for all electric school buses across the nation has never been greater. A survey conducted recently by Highland Electric Fleets found that 65% of parents would prefer their child ride on an electric school bus than a diesel-powered one. The survey captured data from parents of children aged 5 to 17 who ride a school bus. Data showed support for electric school buses largely tied to parents' concerns about their children's health. In fact, 89% of parents rank air quality and a safe and healthy commute to school among their highest concerns. And research shows that all electric school buses are less likely to produce harmful emissions than diesel-emitting school buses. The growing demand for electric school buses is also rooted in the school bus driver shortage nationwide. First Student, a leading private contractor of school transportation, reports that school districts are using the deployment of electric school buses to attract and retain drivers. They prefer the smoother ride, the quiet nature of the vehicles and the reduced behavioral issues seen among students. These are two reasons why electric school buses make sense and a-third is grid resiliency. As GreenPower focuses on B2G, which is vehicle-to-grid options among deployments, electric school buses are becoming the answer to creating grid stability in communities. We will have more on this on future calls. GreenPower is the only EBM -- OEM that has a purpose-built Class IV Type A school business with our Nano BEAST and the larger Type D school bus with our BEAST, providing a cleaner and safer transportation options for student transportation. While exact incentive programs at both the federal and state level will go through changes, the support for this mode of transportation will continue and funds will be there to support the transition from dirty school buses to clean school buses. GreenPower has continued to prepare its operations for this growing demand. I'll now turn it over to Brendan Riley, GreenPower's President.

Hello, Brendan. If you are speaking, your line may be muted.

Good morning. Thank you, Wyatt.

No problem.

Thank you, Fraser. GreenPower spent the quarter continuing to increase its output from the West Virginia manufacturing facility. As a result of the work that we did during the quarter, we are now set to deliver one BEAST per week from the South Charleston facility with the production increasing to two units per week by April plus the Nano BEAST production. This will allow us to better meet the timely demand for orders on the East Coast from places like New York and West Virginia. To support this growth, we strengthened the leadership of our production team with the addition of James Redd as our new West Virginia production manager. Working alongside Vice President of Production, Wendell White, James has been instrumental in laying the groundwork for an increase in production output by focusing on the first shift productivity and by adding a second shift to the plant, positioning GreenPower to meet rising demands and to scale efficiently. On the West Coast, GreenPower finalized its plans to expand its California manufacturing footprint into one facility located in the Inland Empire of the L.A. Basin, consolidating our operations from three separate locations and five different facilities spread out through California into one plant that's larger and allows for higher quality, greater cost savings and increased efficiency. Having California operations under one roof will provide for better collaboration between our engineers and our production staff. It will also provide an opportunity for GP Truck Body to grow exponentially as it builds closer working relationships with the manufacturing team at GreenPower. Moving operations to Riverside also gets us closer to a larger customer base, provides us with better and more efficient access to suppliers and provides us with a city partner that is dedicated to supporting local companies. All in all, we remain focused on the manufacturing objective, increased output in a more efficient manner that increases gross profit. These efforts are just the beginning of our story; dedication to continuous improvement of our cost, our quality and our output. Now, I'd like to turn the call back over to Michael Sieffert to discuss the quarterly earnings specifics.

Thank you, Brendan. For the three months ended December 31, 2024, GreenPower generated revenue of $7.2 million, a 35% increase over revenue generated during the prior quarter. Our cost of sales for the quarter was $6.2 million, generating a gross profit of approximately $1.05 million or 14.6% of revenues. Revenue was generated from the sale of 13 BEAST Type D all-electric school buses, one Nano BEAST Type A school bus, from the sale of 14 EV Star model vehicles, as well as revenue from leases from the sale of parts and from our truck body division. GreenPower's gross profit improved in the third quarter compared to the first two quarters of the year due to contributions from BEAST and Nano BEAST sales in California and Oregon, and from the sale of various EV Star models across the country. This improvement was partially offset by lower-than-target gross profit margins from the truck body division and from West Virginia new manufacturing operations and sales. Going forward, management has taken steps to reduce its overhead costs through the consolidation of its California operations into a single facility. This -- the move into a single facility will bring manufacturing, sales, engineering and truck body manufacturing under one roof. This consolidation started in January, and we expect these efforts will continue through the beginning of this summer and lead to improved management oversight, lower G&A expense and contribute to improvements in gross profit margin over time. In West Virginia, management continues to work on improving manufacturing throughput and managing costs in order to improve the financial results of this division. For the quarter ended December 31, 2024, compared to the quarter ended December 31, 2023, sales, general and administrative expense costs declined by $443,000 or 7.8%. The reduction in these expenses was primarily due to reductions in professional fees, share-based payments, salaries and administration, as well as from recoveries and allowance for credit losses, which were partially offset by increases in other expenses. We continue to utilize the EDC revolving credit facility to fund production during the quarter, with approximately $1.2 million in available liquidity on the facility at quarter-end. In addition, GreenPower continued to use EDC-backed letters of credit to fund production payments with nearly $3.9 million in capacity for additional letters of credit to support continued short-term production funding. Both the revolving credit facility in the letters of credit continue to be an important source of capital to fund GreenPower's manufacturing investments. In October, we completed an underwritten offering of 3 million common shares, raising gross proceeds of $3 million. The net proceeds from this offering are being used for the production of all electric vehicles, including B school buses and EV Star commercial vehicles, product development, with the remainder, if any, for general corporate purposes. Finally, we continue to receive important and much needed financial support from GreenPower's Directors and Officers during and after the quarter. We'd now like to open up the call to any questions from the listeners.

[Operator Instructions] And the first question will come from Craig Irwin with ROTH Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. So first, I should say, in this environment, this is a really solid quarter. You beat my expectations consensus. It's definitely a great way to start calendar 2025. So, I wanted to ask specifically about the different opportunities for fiscal support for your customers out there. I understand that a lot of your backlog, a lot of your bookings in this last year have been focused on things that are funded by state-level programs, particularly California and Oregon, you mentioned, we expect those to remain strong. Can you maybe comment a little bit about the mix as far as state funding? And then, can you update us on federal funding? Have you been able to get the checks from EPA for your customers? What are you hearing about the opportunity for some of these grants that were not fully executed to potentially be resolved? Is this freeze and unfreeze that happened around the funding potentially going to impact the trajectory this year, or are you comfortable enough with sort of the state-level funding and things where you already have certainty?

Well, I'll break that down into federal and state level, Craig. And at the federal level, it's so fluid that we really need more time to see how this would all shake out. And we have had a number of our dealers that have been successful in drawing down some of the funds from the Clean School Bus Program. But in terms of the -- who's going to be able to fully complete the contracts that are in place between the EPA and dealers or our dealers, we're going to need more time to see how all that shakes out. At the state level, speaking first on California, their funding plan for 2025 differs from the past and that their focus is on those areas and sectors that struggle to get incentives or funding for their particular program, which actually bodes well for the smaller fleets that are seeking commercial vehicles like our Class 4 EV Stars or the school bus space. And they -- on the school buses, the zero-emission school bus initiative that had $500 million or has $500 million, $375 million of which is for the purchase of electric school buses is that the applications or that program closed at the end of November, so that's funding that's going to be used to deploy electric school buses through this year and well through next year as well. So, there's strong support in California. And then, in New York, of course, there is the New York School Bus Incentive Program, and that has -- initially, it was $300 million, and they topped it up with an additional $200 million. So, there is $500 million to support adoption of electric school buses in the state over the next few years.

That's really good. Well, I'm glad to hear there's green shoots. To change gears a little bit, in the December quarter and the third fiscal quarter, your general and administrative expenses were $2.9 million. I mean that was up from the $2.2 million in the preceding quarter and $2.3 million in the year ago quarter. Now, Fraser, I know you and Michael and the team there is pretty frugal. You don't usually spend on things unless there's a direct return. Can you maybe talk us through the sequential increase, $2.2 million to $2.9 million? Were there any one-time items in there? Is this maybe related to some of the hiring and some of the consolidation of your operations that you're going through? Any color there would be helpful.

Well the -- sorry, go ahead, Michael.

I was going to say -- thanks, Craig. I would say the primary driver of the increase year-over-year would be definitely headcount. We do anticipate, though, going forward, that some of the salary expenses will be reducing over time as a result of some of the consolidation that we're undertaking in California. And there certainly is a focus on our other operations as well in terms of managing that salary cost. So Fraser, yes, please go ahead, if there's more you'd like to add there.

No, I think that covers it.

Okay.

And are there any specific charges related to the consolidation or any lease exit expenses or things like this that you might be able to estimate for us at this time? Or will these basically be non-cash and expense when incurred?

Yeah, the expenses I would characterize as definitely SG&A, things like transportation and additional services related to moving some of the property, plant, equipment between locations and inventory, things of that nature. But there aren't any one-time charges to speak of anything significant in the nature of breaking leases or anything like that.

Excellent. And last question -- sorry.

I was going to say, overall, very straightforward. Sorry, Craig. Go ahead.

Yeah. So, last question for me is the EV Star, I was pleasantly surprised that we've continued to see a gradual improvement in sales there. Can you maybe frame out for us the sales prospects for '25? What do these look like right now? Is this a business where you feel like you're gaining traction as you look at a business like away from where you did business over the last couple of years? Are there any specific end use cases we really need to look at closely to understand why we are seeing this improvement?

Brendan, do you want to start or...

Yeah. Thanks, Craig. This is Brendan. Good morning to you, and good morning to all those on the call. The EV Star, we've had a lot of interest lately in actually vocational applications for the vehicles. A lot of the fleets have some number of electric vehicles right now across the entire country that they're basically evaluating and figuring out where they fit in their operations, which is typical if you look at adoption cycles. So, we continue to sell, have follow-on orders for customers that have started to electrify their fleet. And now, we're starting to see some of the vocational. What we mean by vocational vehicles, we're talking about a garbage truck would be a vocational vehicle, a fueling truck, vehicles that have one purpose outside of basically pickup and delivery and then actually do some work might have steps involved in the vehicle itself and how they're operated. So, the electrification in our space is a medium-duty fleet size vehicles where we really think that electrification makes a lot of sense and can pencil very quickly. You have meaningful payload in a meaningful range and you don't have a price point that will kill you. On top of the fact that the vehicles don't tax the grid as much as the larger vehicles that are out there. So, the answer to your question from my perspective, Craig, is, yes, we are seeing this kind of wave of the follow-on orders people have bought some to try them out. We're getting now follow-on orders. We're starting to look at other places that will be electrified, need to be electrified. On top of that, in places like California where we're getting close to the mandates, for larger percentage of electrification, especially among the municipalities and other fleets, we are seeing renewed activity in the acquisition or the -- getting information about these vehicles. So, we are very bullish on the EV Star line commercially. Again, the beauty of our EV Star line is that not only do we leverage it for commercial vehicles, we also leverage the same product essentially for our school bus. So, it really allows us to, in a way, double dip in two different sectors with the same product.

Excellent. Well, thank you for that. Congratulations on the momentum here. I'll go ahead and hop back into the queue.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Tate Sullivan with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Fraser and Brendan, can you give some comments on how the -- how many electric school buses are on the road actively transporting students now, your electric school buses? And how has performance been? How is the feedback from customers in terms of ranges and charging? Are parts replacement has all been as you expected, please?

Fraser, I can start, and then maybe you could follow on. So, GreenPower has taken a very, very conservative approach to deploying our battery electric school buses. We deploy them where we believe they'll have the best opportunity for success from the weather, the terrain and the operators. So, of the, let's say, the 100 vehicles from West Virginia, we've delivered about 10 of those so far. But now we're starting to deliver one a week and soon two a week, and we should have those delivered here, all entirely delivered relatively soon. Those are doing great, and we're expecting to expand that deployment and continue to do great. As far as places like California, where we've been delivering for a while, I think Fraser's got the exact numbers of the vehicles that have been deployed in California, but we have a strong backlog, and we're delivering those at a regular run rate. And those, knock on wood, have been very solid deployments with very satisfied customers and, in often cases, really giving us follow-on orders. Our strategy now moving forward is going after the places where we see the vehicles having meaningful partner, an excellent atmosphere for deployment. Also with the infrastructure in places we have markets that we're moving into. Arizona has been strong for us. Oregon has been strong for us. We're expecting some activity in Washington state here. So, Tate, to be perfectly honest, we're very -- we're in a measured way, in a sustainable way, we're deploying our school buses in places where we believe they can be successful. And Fraser can, I'm sure, give us some more specifics, or Michael, on the total exact number.

I think I'd add that to your point, Brendan, that the deployment in order to support and have a long-term plan in place with various geographic areas, you've got to have a strong service and support network. So, pushing out parts supply through our dealer network and our support network as well as building out our service desk are part of those requirements to help the end customer with the adoption of electric school buses.

Okay. Great. Thank you for that. And then, there were some -- in the MD&A document some comments on increasing your gross profit margin from here. And can you talk about what drives throughput in your truck body division? I believe it's linked to an acquisition from a couple of years ago. At this point, is it Europe, mostly your vehicles? Is it -- can you talk about that?

Yeah, I can touch on that. Go ahead. Yeah. So, I can talk about that. So, the truck body division, I would say, the split is primarily third-party vehicles that, that division is building truck bodies on. What we've seen in that division, if we go back three years ago, there was a lot of demand for that type of work across the industry. And so, the market dynamics at that time were such that if we took one of our cabin chassis to a competitor to have a body built on it, we may have a wait time of over nine months, nine to 12 months. And as you can appreciate, that type of wait time would have a negative impact on our customer sales experience. And so, the acquisition at that time made a lot of sense and really helped us prioritize our truck body needs for our particular vehicles. What we found is that if fast forward to today, there's actually overcapacity in the sector. And as a result, there's frankly, less demand for these builds than we've seen in the past. And as a result the throughput, it was just not there that we anticipated. So, as part of the consolidation that we're doing, we will be closing that location that we had for the truck body division. We will be consolidating that into all of our operations, and we do anticipate that there'll be measured efficiencies from doing this, because building truck bodies, we certainly have the in-house expertise. We have the employees who can handle this. And by folding that into our other operations, we just see a number of efficiencies from that.

Does the gross profit margin depend more on the efficiencies would you say, Michael, from consolidating California operations, or also it relies on the higher risk throughput on the truck...

It's really the higher throughput that will be driving this. The consolidation of the operations will have an impact. But that's the primary focus. This consolidation as well as the efforts that are happening in West Virginia. So that throughput will certainly -- as that improves over time, we anticipate that they'll be a measured improvement here in the gross profit margin.

Okay. Thank you, all.

With no further questions, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Fraser Atkinson for any closing remarks.

Thank you. We continue to see strong mandate supporting the adoption of our all-electric vehicles combined with an evolving landscape of incentive programs to support this adoption. We continue to work on the throughput in West Virginia with the result in increase in sales and improvement with our gross profit. Finally, we're very excited about bringing all of our operations in California under one roof in Riverside, as this is not only going to provide operational efficiencies, but more importantly, having all of our team, our production, engineering, technical, support, bringing them all together provides for a much stronger collaboration and team approach to producing high-quality products for the marketplace. Thank you for your continued support, and this ends today's call.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, and welcome to the GreenPower Motor Company's Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would like now to turn the conference over to Mr. Michael Sieffert, Chief Financial Officer of GreenPower. Please go ahead.

Thank you. This is Michael Sieffert, the Chief Financial Officer of GreenPower Motor Company. I would like to welcome everyone to our call to discuss GreenPower's financial results for the 3 and 6 months ended September 30, 2024, and to provide an update on GreenPower's operations and manufacturing. I'm here today with our Chief Executive Officer, Fraser Atkinson; and our President, Brendan Riley. During today's call, we may make comments or statements about our future expectations, plans and prospects, which may constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in our quarterly interim results and MD&A filed on SEDAR and on EDGAR. In addition, these forward-looking statements relate to the date on which they are made. We anticipate subsequent events and developments may cause the company's views to change. GreenPower disclaims any intention or obligation to update or to revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Also, during the course of today's call, we may refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Reconciliation of these non-IFRS financial measures can be found in our MD&A. For additional information on the results of operations for the period ended September 30, 2024, you can access the financial statements and MD&A posted on GreenPower's website as well as on www.sedarplus.com or filed on EDGAR. I will now pass the call over to GreenPower's CEO, Fraser Atkinson.

Thank you, Michael. I'm going to start with GreenPower's strategy and the recent election. We still don't know the extent of changes that will be made to federal programs. However, it's safe to say that it won't be the status quo. We are expecting changes with the EPA Clean School Bus program and the $40,000 IRA tax credit to name a few. The perception of many is that the change in the administration and the Senate doesn't bode well for the EV sector. While that might be true for some EV OEMs, that's not the case with GreenPower. For over a year, our strategy has been to be opportunistic with federal programs in the short term, but the longer-term focus has been on states that have put policies and plans in place to provide a cleaner, healthier ride for students through the deployment of electric school buses, states like California and New York and regions like the Southwest. Many of these states have already indicated that they will continue to push for the electrification of school buses and commercial vehicles. GreenPower has over 300 live orders and qualified leads for our all-electric school buses and are well positioned to add to these. Next, I want to give you a quick snapshot of our current quarter. Earlier today, we announced that we had shipped 8 of our EV Stars to Wash U in St. Louis. There will be 2 more EV Stars delivered to Wash U for a total of 10, which is a follow-on order to the 5 EV Stars that we delivered around 2 years ago, a great testament to our EV Star with the follow-on order. Combined with the deliveries of 9 Type D BEAST all-electric school buses, 1 Type A Nano BEAST and 2 EV Star passenger vans in the first half of this quarter, we are close to surpassing the total number of vehicles delivered during the September 30 quarter. Lastly, we have talked recently about our tradable credits. California's Advanced Clean Truck regulation, the EPA's Phase 3 GHG regulation and NHTSA's fuel consumption credit program, along with other state-level mandates each include credit trading programs that provide manufacturers enhanced compliance flexibility and the opportunity for reduced compliance costs through the acquisition of credits. Being a manufacturer of all-electric vehicles, GreenPower has no internal deficits and is thus positioned to trade every credit it generates. The medium heavy-duty or as we refer -- or as it's referred to, the MHD market, is new. According to the California Resource Board, only 2 trades have been completed to date as opposed to the light-duty sector where companies like Tesla have been trading credits for years. In their most recent quarter, they reported revenue of $739 million. Close to 25% of Tesla's gross profit is due to the sale of their credits. GreenPower has generated hundreds of tradable credits and will continue to generate significant numbers of tradable credits. We have signed several NDAs with OEMs and have engaged a broker who is a seasoned veteran with trading credits with manufacturers of light-duty vehicles. So we are working on monetizing these credits. I'll now turn it over to Brendan to discuss our operations.

Thank you, Fraser. I'd like to remind the listeners on this call that our mantra at GreenPower is creating compelling EV products offered at compelling prices, all while generating a gross profit. This past quarter, we have been developing a path so that our products are made in a timely manner. We have added a new large volume paint booth and have been busy doing a relayout of our production floor, which has added space for more simultaneous school buses on the line. While you don't see it in our deliveries yet, we have been increasing the number of units on the factory floor. This increase in production, coupled with manufacturing process improvements is expected to result in higher gross profit margins and cost reductions on a per unit basis as the throughput improves. Throughout the last quarter, we have held multiple job fairs that have yielded excellent production talent, and we have added all of these to our ranks. We have seen seasoned production staff graduate from BridgeValley College with certificates leveraging a program that we, at GreenPower help developed. Our goal is to increase production so that we are consistently building and shipping 20 units per month. Steady, measured growth, a foundation of GreenPower's model is critical for maintaining quality throughout the production process. This has to be done profitably and efficiently. And here at GP, our goal is to lower production and material costs while increasing volume and maintaining quality. Now I'd like to hand it over to Michael to discuss financial highlights.

Thank you, Brendan. For the three months ended September 30, 2024, GreenPower generated revenue of $5.3 million, which was a 78% increase over revenue generated in the first quarter. Our cost of sales for the quarter was $4.9 million, and we generated a gross profit of approximately $460,000 or 8.6% of revenues. Our revenue was generated from the sale of 11 Type D all-electric school buses, 6 EV Star Cargo Plus and 5 EV Stars as well as revenue from leases from the sale of parts and from our Truck Body division. Our lower-than-anticipated gross profit margin this quarter was primarily due to negative gross profit margins at the company's Truck Body division, and this was caused by lower throughput compared to prior periods in this division. Management expects gross profit margin to increase as throughput at the Truck Body division increases. For the quarter ended September 30, 2024, compared to the quarter ended September 30, 2023, our SG&A costs declined by $630,000 or 12.1%. The reduction in these expenses was primarily due to reductions in professional fees and share-based payments and salaries and administration costs as well as some recoveries and allowance for credit losses, and these were partially offset by increases in other expenses. We continue to utilize the EDC revolving credit facility during the quarter to fund production, and we finished the quarter with approximately $850,000 remaining in available liquidity of the facility. This facility, along with EDC letter of credit guarantees, continue to be an important source of capital for our company, and they allow us to fund investments in inventory over time. In October, we completed an underwritten offering of 3 million common shares, raising gross proceeds of $3 million. The net proceeds from this offering are intended for the production of all-electric vehicles, including RV school buses and EV Star commercial vehicles for product development with the remainder, if any, for general corporate purposes. Finally, we continue to receive important and much needed financial support from GreenPower's directors and officers during and after the quarter. I'll now pass the call back over to Fraser.

At this time, we'll open it up for any questions that our listeners have.

[Operator Instructions] the first question comes from Mr. Tate Sullivan of the Maxim Group.

And to start, I'm looking at the October 28 press release with the update on the EPA funding for 50 electric school buses. What are the logistics of getting that funding? Does it go to the districts buying the buses? Is there any way to get that funding in the door before delivery of the buses? Or is it still a work in progress or in negotiation, please?

Well, we -- it's a state that we have a dealer in. And so it's -- the EPA contract is with the dealer and our arrangement is with our dealer. So we're one step removed, if you will, from the EPA contract. And then as far as the timing of funding and so on, I think your characterization of work in process would be quite appropriate.

Okay. Understood. And can you update on the cab and chassis units in inventory? Are these still potentially going to a certain number of customers or a single customer? How should we look at that unit delivery opportunity going forward?

So we have a tranche of cab and chassis that we have put through for production of both Nano BEAST and our EV Star Plus or mobility access, which is the shuttle vehicle that uses a very similar build and body as our Type A Nano BEAST. So we are utilizing them for that purpose. And then with a number of the qualified leads that we have -- and when we say qualified leads, we're talking about an order that is up to a point where we're sorting out infrastructure, we're getting the -- the funding may already be in place for it, but there's other logistical issues or approvals required. So for some of those, we -- there are -- these are also for Type A Nano BEAST that we would need to increase production in order to fulfill.

Okay. And on the tradable credit effort -- and look, I mean, they -- they're within -- I mean, Tesla does a good job breaking them out and the growth in that revenue stream for Tesla. Are there -- have you seen other companies recognize? Or would you be one of the few companies besides Tesla that could monetize this effort?

Well, to the best of our knowledge – and to give you context, there’s 24 manufacturers that are listed by California for the medium and heavy-duty sales that would give rise to either a deficit or a credit that would potentially offset a deficit. And these include companies like Isuzu, Stellantis, Daimler, Paccar and so on, so some traditional as well as a number of pure EV players. But in the medium and heavy-duty space for all those, we haven’t encountered any that have disclosed either the purchase of tradable credits or the sale of tradable credits. But at the light duty, not just Tesla, but Rivian has certainly – they have made trades or have disclosed trades and reported them on their financials just like Tesla. So the light-duty space is, I would characterize as fairly advanced. There’s a market. There’s hundreds of millions of dollars trade on a quarterly basis, not even just an annual basis anymore. Whereas on the medium and heavy duty, according to CARB, there have only ever been just 2 trades, and those were earlier this year for tradable credits.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Fraser Atkinson for any closing remarks.

In closing, as we stated earlier this fiscal year, we expected to see a step-up in our deliveries each quarter. Halfway through our current quarter, we’re close to surpassing the total deliveries in our most recent September 30 quarter. As you heard today, we’re also making advancements with our manufacturing process in West Virginia. While there have been headwinds in the EV sector, we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of numerous opportunities in the medium and heavy-duty EV sector. Brendan, Michael and I are available for any follow-up questions you might have. Thank you for your support. This ends today’s call.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good day and welcome to the GreenPower Motor Company First Quarter Earnings and Update on GreenPower Sales Pipeline Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions]. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Michael Sieffert, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you. This is Michael Sieffert, the Chief Financial Officer of GreenPower Motor Company. I would like to welcome everyone to our call to discuss GreenPower's financial results for the period ended June 30, 2024 and provide an update on green Power's sales pipeline. I'm here today with our CEO, Fraser Atkinson, and our President, Brendan Riley. During today's call, we may make comments or statements about our future expectations, plans and prospects, which may constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the Safe Harbor Provision under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in our quarterly interim results and MD&A filed on SEDAR and on EDGAR. In addition, these forward-looking statements relate to the date on which they're made. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments may cause the company's views to change. GreenPower disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Also, during the course of today's call, we may refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Reconciliation of these non-IFRS measures can be found in our MD&A. For additional information on the results of operations for the period ended June 30, 2024, you can also access the audited financial statements and MD&A posted on GreenPower's website, as well as on www.sedar.com or filed on EDGAR. I'll now pass the call over to GreenPower CEO, Fraser Atkinson.

Thanks Michael. And good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report that since our most recent quarter, GreenPower has turned an important corner. Our most recent quarter is not indicative of where our business is positioned today. While uncertainty over state regulations and federal incentives, combined with other global economic factors, slowed some EV markets earlier this year, the increase in orders and quotes GreenPower is now experiencing shows that the demand for all electric vehicles is still there and that the market is rebounding with significant growth potential. We have the inventory and the production to meet the increased demand. Consequently, we see a step up in our revenue from our most recent quarter through each of the remaining quarters this fiscal year. Earlier today, we announced deliveries of our all-electric purpose built school buses in California, with follow-on deliveries over the next few weeks in California and Oregon. This activity complements our recent announcement on sales on the East Coast. Brendan will discuss our activities in the school bus sector in more detail later on this call. We have seen a significant uptick in the past few months with our sales pipeline for GreenPower's all electric commercial vehicles, including 28 specialty vehicles for deployment in Canada, which would utilize our current inventory of EV Star Cab & Chassis. This represents inventory we have on our books, generating cash flow requiring little additional cash outflow, markedly improving our liquidity. We've also received orders for EV Star passenger vans in a variety of seating configurations and EV Star Cargo Plus vehicles consisting of more than 20 vehicles. We anticipate delivering most of these vehicles by the end of this calendar year. Many of these orders and quotes have follow-on orders, providing exponential growth with our sales pipeline. Now an observation on our competitive landscape. Our go-to-market strategy consists of the horizontal market for medium duty Class 4 vehicles where we have our own all-electric cabin chassis, passenger vans, shuttle buses, and a range of commercial vehicles, as well as the vertical market for school buses with our Class 4 Type A all-electric Nano BEAST school bus and our heavy duty Class 8 Type D BEAST all-electric school bus. Over the past year, there has been an interesting trend in that the number of EV OEMs with medium duty Class 4 all-electric offerings have been dwindling as measured by the eligible vehicles listed on California's HVIP incentive program. There are fewer Class 4 Type A school buses, fewer Class 4 passenger vans, and fewer Class 4 commercial vehicles listed on the program. We believe this trend will continue over the short term. California has introduced legislation requiring roughly 10% of new purchases of Class 4 vehicles by fleet operators to be zero emission, creating demand for GreenPower's EV Star line of commercial vehicles. This requirement will increase to 75% over the next 10 years, amounting to a multibillion dollar annual market opportunity. We believe this increased demand will flip the supply/demand in favor of EV OEMs within the medium duty Class 4 space, and that we are starting to see the early days of this new dynamic. I'll now hand it over to Brendan for discussion on operations.

Thank you, Fraser. And good morning, everyone, on the call. Two years ago this month, GreenPower took possession of its manufacturing facility in West Virginia. That decision to manufacture there was based on the need to increase the company's production capacity well beyond California to the East Coast. Today, the pipeline of GreenPower all-electric purpose-built zero emission school bus orders has more than 30 vehicles slated for delivery in California and Oregon over the next 90 to 120 days. These orders complement the 88 school buses previously announced for the East Coast. So the east-west strategy of manufacturing and delivering products nationwide as the company envisioned two years ago when the West Virginia plant was added is coming to fruition as planned. Today, according to the listings under California HVIP program, GreenPower is the only school bus OEM that is manufacturing an all-electric, purpose-built, Class 4, Type A school bus and an all-electric Type D school bus. While that has significant impact on incentives in California, it's also notable from a market standpoint nationwide. Combining this fact with our unique production capabilities on both the East and West Coasts, GreenPower is perfectly poised to take full advantage of the mandates which have been implemented in many states and take advantage of the more than $8 billion in monies from state and federal level, all of which are impacting the transition to and deployment of all-electric school buses. During the quarter, GreenPower has been called upon to service an EV product expert and thought leader in the national discussion on EV school bus deployment. During STN Indy and STN Reno, I personally had the opportunity to make the presentations on the contemporary materials and methods and systems and structures for EV school bus safety. In Reno, GreenPower was also asked to participate in a discussion on preparing for the 2030 mandates and the increased regulations coming on diesel with a focus on how to prepare for the change via electric products. We also participated in a roadmap conference at the WRI – that's the World Resource Institute – looking at the barriers to 100% zero emission school bus deployment and how to overcome them. Later today, leading national organization impacting policy related to the deployment of zero emission vehicles in general, ZETA – that's the Zero Emission Transportation Association – has asked me to participate in the discussion on the economic impact and workforce implications of the EV industry. Before closing, I want to amplify Fraser's comments on the commercial side of GreenPower's business. Much like the east-west production strategy on school bus production, that makes us more nimble and more able to respond to market demands and changes. Our combining offering of school buses and commercial vehicles provide the flexibility to weather the conditions Fraser mentioned having occurred in early 2024. We have filled our pipeline, increased our quotes and have seen an increase in commercial demand. Just yesterday, I was at a ride and drive in Oakland with CARB, CalStar and our dealers where I noticed a much higher interest level compared to earlier in the year. Lastly, as it relates to our commercial products, during the quarter, we introduced a very modern refrigerated box that utilizes our EV Star Cab & Chassis. This refrigerated box is called the EV Star ReeferX. It's a modern design and a look that complements the modern EV platform. The EV Star ReeferX is purpose built, fully customized with a lighter body to allow for increased payload, runs off of high voltage and is considered one of the most energy efficient and is now becoming one of the more desirable EV refrigerated boxes. Designed to serve the mid to last mile refrigerated delivery and catering applications, the EV Star ReeferX moves goods that need to be temperature controlled such as frozen foods, flowers, pharmaceuticals, all doing that in the zero emission method. The vehicle's body features one interior wall structure and allows for seamless sanitation, consistent insulation throughout the entire vehicle and a much longer life. Now I would like to return the call to Michael Sieffert.

Thank you, Brendan. For the three months ended June 30, 2024, GreenPower generated revenue of $3 million with a cost of sales of $2.8 million, generating a gross profit of approximately $222,000. Our lower-than-anticipated gross profit margin this quarter was primarily related to overhead costs incurred on the limited throughput in West Virginia and from lower realized gross profit margins on sales of prior model year inventory. We expect the gross profit margins will increase when throughput improves in our West Virginia facility, which will improve the allocation of a plant overhead on a per unit basis. Turning to our liquidity, we raised gross proceeds of $2.3 million before fees and expenses in a unit offering during the quarter and we continue to utilize our operating line of credit and revolving credit facility with EDC to fund investments in working capital. We ended the quarter with nearly $2 million in available liquidity on the EDC revolving credit facility and we've continued to utilize the facility to push forward production for existing sales contracts since quarter end. This facility continues to be an important source of capital for our company. We finished the quarter with nearly $14 million in working capital, including $33.7 million in inventory, of which $13.4 million was finished goods. Many of the opportunities we're currently working on involve sales of existing finished goods inventory, which only require very limited additional capital outlays. Finally, we've been fortunate to have the continued support from GreenPower's directors and officers, who have provided important and much needed financial support for our company over time. I'll now pass the call back to Fraser for some final remarks.

Michael, we'll open the lines for the Q&A, and I'll provide a summary at the end.

Thank you. Operator?

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Craig Irwin of ROTH Capital Partners.

I wanted to maybe unpack a little bit the book of orders in hand. So, in your press release today, you said 28 Cab & Chassis that are going into Canada. I guess 20 EV Star Cargo Plus and passenger vans, and then 30 school buses for California and Oregon. With what's going on in West Virginia, different areas of the country, my intuition leads me to think you've got an order book quite a bit bigger than the 78 units that you're calling out directly. Can you maybe update us on a gross number or a range that you think is fair based on orders in hand or commitments in hand that might be matched with EPA vouchers or HVIP funding?

Well, that's a multi-part question, so let's start at the top there for you, Craig, is on the specialty vehicles and the passenger vans. In many of those, we have follow-on orders. In other words, we'd be working with them to place the initial order. And then there's a follow-on order for a like or similar number of vehicles. And the follow-ons don't have the full set of approvals where we would put it at the top of our sales pipeline. So it would be lower down in terms of the probability, as we would need to deliver the first tranche and then move on to the second phase, or in even one case, a third phase, for orders that a particular customer is looking for. So the attributes in the second and third tranche aren't quite the same as the first one, but the magnitude of the follow-on is greater than what we're looking at in the first tranche for the specialty vehicles and the passenger vans.

To ask the question simply, you called out some specific numbers in your release. Is it credible to say that there's a much broader pipeline than the 78 units you identify that we could have a multiple of that in interest, but as far as commitments…

That's what I was saying.

This is a lumpy business. Quarter to quarter, deliveries are difficult to predict. Very difficult. Can you maybe talk us through what you would see as a natural margin now for your products? Does this differ dramatically between Cab & Chassis and the EV Star Cargo Plus and then the school buses? Do we see sort of richer products on the gross margin side and products that are less profitable? How should we think about potential gross margin progression later on this year?

Well, traditionally, our gross profit has been in the high teens – 16%, 17%, 18% on a quarterly basis. I think Michael articulated the impact of the current quarter that when you have just a handful of vehicles going through a large facility, as we have in West Virginia, the allocation of the plant overhead has a limited number of vehicles that absorb that overhead. So as we increase throughput, which we are doing right now, we're currently working through the 37 school bus orders in West Virginia. Facility looks a whole lot busier today than it does three, four months ago. So, consequently, we see that as having a favorable impact on that allocation which improves or increases our gross profit over time.

Last question for me. In your remarks, you indicated that some of the units you expect to deliver can be served out of inventory, that there's a number of vehicles that are finished in inventory. Can you update us on the finished vehicles and inventory? What type of vehicles are these? Can you maybe share the number of the different types?

Well, I'll provide the overarching comment, the first part of your question, and let Michael speak to the metrics within the finished goods inventory. For those vehicles, like a specialty vehicle, like a box truck that we would build on our EV Star Cab & Chassis, or similar type vehicle, or even the Reefer that Brendan talked about that was recently launched, all of those are built on our own EV Star Cab & Chassis, and we have an inventory of those. And consequently, that inventory is fully paid. So that allows us to crystallize or utilize the inventory and generate cash flow with little or no cash outflow.

This is Mike here. In terms of our finished goods inventory, the largest category right now would be our EV Star Cab & Chassis, although that's a category that is depleting quite rapidly, which is a positive thing due to the sales that we've seen over the last little while. So we anticipate that that's going to be declining over time. We also have approximately or over 40 EV Stars of various types. That does include secondhand vehicles that we have repossessed or have been returned after lease. And then the other major categories would be our Nano BEASTs. We have over 10 of those. And we have received additional BEASTs since quarter-end. So at quarter end, we didn't have many BEASTs available for sale, but since quarter-end, we have received additional BEASTs that we're now in the process of delivering.

It's good to hear the customers are showing increased enthusiasm.

Our next question comes from Tate Sullivan of Maxim Group.

Brendan, did I hear you mentioned more state subsidies in West Virginia as production increases? Or have you already received those subsidies or have to apply for any? Can you cover that landscape, please?

I'm sorry, Tate, I couldn't clearly hear your question.

Do you have available subsidies in West Virginia as production increases?

We do. We have numerous subsidies in West Virginia on top of subsidies we enjoy with the state for training employees where the state actually covers cost of new hires that go through the GreenPower and BridgeValley training program. We have tax subsidies. We have multiple subsidies in West Virginia that that we'll be able to continue to take advantage of over the next few years, up to and including the fact that our building in West Virginia is essentially a rent to own option where the state has purchased the building and we are buying it through the lease payments.

Have you already received actual checks from the government or does that come as you increase production or the offsets to taxes? How do most of those work?

That would be a question from Michael Sieffert to answer, I believe, on whether we've received the physical checks or if they're credits.

I think in terms of the support we've received from the state, how I would characterize it is that they are the major end customer for a lot of the units that we're selling. So we are clearly selling to school districts, but the state itself has supported those sales and it has also supported, very importantly, some pilot projects which have helped us develop and improve our vehicles as well as prove their ability to operate in some of the challenging conditions that exist there. So you have mountainous terrain, you have winter conditions and so all of that has been helpful. And as Brendan mentioned, we do have a sale leaseback on a facility there, which, again, is the facility that we've been able to produce. Finally, we have received support from the state in the form of training our workforce. And so, we're employing, I think, currently over 40 individuals at that point. And the state has been supporting, importantly, some important training for those staff. So we would characterize this as a great relationship and one that I think works well, certainly, for our company, but hopefully the state sees benefit in terms of employment that we're offering there.

Tate, we have received checks.

Fraser, with the 80 orders on the East Coast, are all of those school buses? Are all those destined for West Virginia or have you increased your state footprint for school buses since starting production in the West Virginia facility?

I believe that includes some orders that will be going into New York.

Correct.

Last for me, Michael, did you say $2 million of availability at the end of the quarter on the EDC facility? Did I catch that…?

That's correct. Approximately $2 million. It's on our balance sheet of slightly – a drawn balance of slightly over $3 million at quarter-end. And it's a $5 million facility.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Fraser Atkinson, Chief Executive Officer, for any closing remarks.

Thank you. To recap, we have seen a significant uptick in the past few months with our sales pipeline for GreenPower's all-electric school buses, EV Star passenger vans and specialty vehicles which utilize our current inventory of EV Star Cab & Chassis. The latter represents inventory we have on our books, generating cash flow, requiring little additional cash outflow, markedly improving our liquidity. Many of these orders and quotes have follow-on orders providing exponential growth with our sales pipeline. We have the inventory and the production to meet the increased demand. Consequently, we see a step up in our revenue from our most recent quarter through each of the remaining quarters this fiscal year. Thank you all for your support. And this ends today's call.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good morning and welcome to the GreenPower Motor Company Year-End Earnings Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Michael Sieffert, CFO. Please go ahead.

Thank you. This is Michael Sieffert, the Chief financial officer of GreenPower Motor Company. I would like to welcome everyone to our call to discuss GreenPower's financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024. I'm here today with our CEO, Fraser Atkinson, and Brendan Riley, our President. During today's call, we may make comments or statements about our future expectations, plans and prospects, which may constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the Safe Harbor Provision under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in our quarterly interim results and MD&A filed on SEDAR and on EDGAR. In addition, these forward-looking statements relate to the date on which they're made. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments may cause the company's views to change. GreenPower disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Also, during the course of today's call, we may refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Reconciliation of these non-IFRS measures can be found in our MD&A. For additional information on the results of operations for the year ended March 31st, 2024, you can access the audited financial statements and MD&A posted on GreenPower's website, as well as on SEDAR and or filed on EDGAR. I'll now pass the call over to GreenPower CEO, Fraser Atkinson.

Thank you, Michael. GreenPower has accomplished a great deal in the past year and I'm proud to be working with the team at GreenPower, as we've set a new path for our business. Today GreenPower has two fully operational production facilities; one on the West Coast in Porterville, California; and one on the East Coast in South Charleston, West Virginia. This positions GreenPower as a national company with production, sales and service from coast to coast. With the full line of commercial vehicles and the only EV school bus OEM to manufacture both a Class 4 Type A and the larger Type D all-electric purpose-built school bus, GreenPower is positioned to be a core supplier of electric vehicles in the medium and heavy-duty space. Let there be no doubt, over the past year, the EV sector has encountered significant headwinds. Despite these headwinds, GreenPower has made significant progress with our road map to transition to a production plan driven by customer orders. In the past, we've manufactured to inventory so that we were able to complete sales when we receive the customer order. Now that we are receiving large orders, including some with deposits, we must be able to produce pursuant to those customer orders. As Michael will discuss in his remarks, this provides for more efficiencies and fewer touch points, which should improve our gross profit over time. In order to make this transition, GreenPower needed to expand its manufacturing capabilities, both in California and West Virginia, make investments in GP Truck Body to provide a complete range of commercial vehicles and obtain production financing. Brendan will discuss the transition with our manufacturing and Michael, our capital structure in order to achieve this plan. Hand-in-hand with the production plan is the sales strategy that focuses on long-term prospects with mandates and money. To provide some context on mandates, when a customer is interested in the Tesla Model 3, a Rivian pickup truck pickup truck or Lucid Air automobile, they are not required to buy any of these. Because mandates do not exist for light-duty vehicles, growth in the market for these vehicles can at times stagnate. However, mandates do now exist for medium and heavy-duty vehicles like the Class 4 commercial vehicles and school buses manufactured by GreenPower. That is why GreenPower has chosen to focus on these two markets. Many states have requirements for school districts to purchase all-electric school buses by certain dates. In states like New York and California, this has to happen over the next 10 years. Those two states alone operate 80,000 school buses, represent a market opportunity of approximately $25 billion. For the Class 4 commercial space, California has recently introduced legislation requiring roughly 10% of new purchases by fleet operators to be zero-emission vehicles, creating demand for GreenPower's EV Star commercial vehicles. This requirement will increase to 75% over the next 10 years, amounting to a multibillion-dollar annual market opportunity in that state alone. Several other states are copying the California initiative, further expanding this market opportunity. While these mandates represent strong growth drivers, they are only as effective as the funding available to support the initiatives. In the case of California, the HVIP voucher program has recently introduced the small fleets plus-up, which doubles the amount of the vouchers available to purchase our EV Star products. These plus-ups amount help small fleet operators get into GreenPower commercial vehicles for nearly no cost when combined with the federal IRA tax credits. Additionally, HVIP introduced the zero-emission school bus initiative with $500 million, which is in addition to existing funding programs from air quality management districts and the school bus set-aside fund. Further, the EPA has been slow in getting out contracts for awards, but we expect to see that activity in the current fiscal year. The combined GreenPower production and cell strategy designed to meet the customer needs in the most cost-efficient manner possible, while focusing on the incentive money available where the mandates required adaptation will continue to provide for the best growth trajectory for our company. I'll now hand it over to Brendan for a discussion on our operations.

Thank you, Fraser and good morning to all those on the call. During the year, GreenPower completed the build-out of the company's South Charleston, West Virginia manufacturing facility and delivered the first all-electric school buses produced at the facility with the first delivery of our Four Nano BEASTs and Nano BEAST Access Type A school buses in December of 2023. We also commenced manufacturing of our BEAST Type D all-electric purpose-built zero-emission school buses. And subsequent to the year-end, we delivered the first Type D manufactured in West Virginia manufacturing plant to the Kanawha County School district that's in West Virginia. These production milestones should not be taken lightly. It is also no small feat to set up a US-based ground-up purpose-built EV manufacturing facility in a region not accustomed to that type of skilled manufacturing required to produce these innovative vehicles. Training of the workforce was a major undertaking, complemented by our partners at Bridge Valley Community and Technical College and the state of West Virginia. Moreover, the production line verification and validation is necessary to ensure that the products coming off the line meet the highest standards of quality and safety, especially in the school bus production. These start-up challenges were timely met and have set the stage for continued ramp-up of production at the facility. Equally as significant as the first products rolling off of our West Virginia plant is the increase in sales and deliveries of GreenPower's all-electric, purpose-built, zero emission school buses. Specifically, GreenPower enjoyed a fourfold increase in the number of GreenPower school buses sold in the 2024 fiscal year. Those sales were in markets where GreenPower school buses have been delivered in the past, as well as new states where we deploy the first GreenPower school buses. We anticipate that school bus deliveries will continue to grow in the current fiscal year as we have live orders for more than 100 GreenPower all-electric school buses, including an additional 37 being manufactured in West Virginia. And we have a qualified lead pipeline of more than 160 GreenPower school buses. This represents a potential for $100 million in revenue. Lastly, in the 2024 fiscal year, GreenPower continued to push innovation forward in the school bus sector by introducing the Mega BEAST. The Mega BEAST is a 40-foot Type D all-electric, purpose-built, zero-emission school bus that delivers class leading range of up to 300 miles on a single charge via 387 kilowatt-hour battery pack. It provides the longest range, has that biggest battery in the school bus market and provides more uphill climbing power and has the most desirable V2G capability for a more stable electric grid and community sustainability in areas where it is deployed. Turning to the production line. GreenPower has made significant investment with our in-house body division, GP Truck Body. The focus has been to improve delivery time of upfitting our EV Star Cab & Chassis with truck bodies for customers, providing a seamless one-stop shop opportunity. Though GP Truck Body -- excuse me, through GP Truck Body, GreenPower has been able to develop a comprehensive suite of products with new truck body designs, including our all-aluminum stake bed, our landscape bed, our dump truck, our utility truck service body and the new state-of-the-art refrigerated box truck, which we branded the EV Star REEFERX. The REEFERX has the X factor in that it weighs less, performs better, is built stronger and is more affordable and has a longer warranty than typical competitive products. These new design open exciting new markets for GreenPower and demonstrate the flexibility of the EV Star platform. As a result of these efforts by commercial -- our commercial truck sales team, GreenPower has increased sales of upfitted commercial EV Star line by nearly 50% during the fiscal year from 79 to 117 vehicle deliveries. GreenPower also won the 2023 Green Car Product of Excellence for the EV Star Cab & Chassis. Green Car Journal said that the award honors commercial vehicles that feature greater environmental performance through higher efficiency, the integration of advanced technology and electronics and innovative powertrains that achieve decarbonization goals with low or no carbon emissions. All-in-all, the fiscal year was a success for GreenPower with the first school buses manufactured in West Virginia, the launch of its commercial and school bus products, an increase in sales in both the company's school bus products and upfitted EV Star's trucks and vans. Next, I will turn it over to Michael Sieffert, GreenPower's CFO, who will cover the financial highlights.

Thank you, Brendan. For the year ended March 31, 2024, GreenPower generated revenues of $39.3 million with cost of sales of $33.9 million, yielding a gross profit of $5.4 million. GreenPower continues to be one of the few EV OEMs that consistently post a gross profit. This past year, our gross profit margin declined due to inventory write-downs as we end -- as we began production in West Virginia and delivered our first vehicles produced in the factory. We believe that transitioning production pursuant to customer orders will help alleviate the adjustments, and an increased throughput in West Virginia should reduce the fixed overhead allocation per unit, which over time should help improve our overall gross profit. For the 2024 fiscal year, we delivered 222 GreenPower purpose-built, zero-emission vehicles consisting of 122 EV Star Cab & Chassis, 18 EV Star Cargo, 6 EV Star Cargo Plus, 33 EV Star Passenger Vans, 31 Type D school buses, 10 Type A Nano BEAST and Nano BEAST Access school buses, as well as 2 EV250s. This past year has been a transition, in deliveries to a broader group of dealers and customers, as well as extending our geographic reach. Excluding the deliveries of cabin chassis to other OEMs, we enjoyed a 50% increase from 79 vehicles in the previous year to 117 in the current 2024 fiscal year. Fraser and Brendan talked about the transition with our production, and this transition has been facilitated by changes to our capital structure. During the year, we entered into a revolving $5 million term loan facility, as well as obtaining guarantees for letters of credit for a further $5 million with Export Development Canada or EDC. Both the facility and the letter of credit guarantees are used to finance the production of GreenPower all-electric vehicles pursuant to existing customer orders. And they've therefore been instrumental in our transition. EDC has supported GreenPower's production of zero-emission vehicles and has been a great partner for GreenPower. During the fiscal year, GreenPower commenced monthly lease payments on a lease purchase agreement with the State of West Virginia, through a production facility located in South Charleston with more than six acres in an 80,000 square-foot building. Lease payments totaled $600,000 for the year and these will be applied in full to the purchase of the property. The state will also provide up to $3.5 million in employment incentive payments to GreenPower for jobs created in the state, as well as for -- as production increases over time. Title to the property will be transferred to GreenPower once total lease and incentive payments reached $6.7 million. With that, operator, please open the call up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] We will now begin the question-and-answer session. The first question comes from Tyler DiMatteo with BTIG. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone and good morning. Thanks for taking the questions here. I wanted to start on the shift in the production plan and how you are thinking about managing that more towards orders. I know you highlighted some color on the inventory side of things. I'm just curious about any other tangible steps you can kind of point to here in terms of how you're thinking about exactly doing that. Any other color there? Thanks.

Well, I'll start, and Brendan and Michael can weigh in. But for example with West Virginia, this -- our production is what is known in the industry as CKD, so it's component knockdown. And that requires managing our supply chain in a fashion that we can flow the product through or manufacture the product through West Virginia as opposed to leveraging contract manufacturers less than we have in the past. So that's a pretty big shift on the production side. And while it doesn't require a big CapEx, there was a significant cost that we've incurred this past year in getting that facility ramped up to handle that kind of production as well as the processes to facilitate that. And then on the financing side, is that getting a line of credit where it is supported by finished goods, accounts receivable. In other words, the traditional metrics is very, very different than in our case, where we are looking at arranging financing for the actual production, which isn't covered by finished goods or any other form of inventory that would support a line of credit. So EDC is a great partner for us, and yet they have a facility that is very much geared towards the kind of production financing that we needed for this shift or this transition.

Okay. Great. Thanks Fraser. Really appreciate that. And then my follow-up here, I wanted to talk a little bit about the order book. I think you pointed to more than 100 in the order book units, pipeline, 160-plus call it. You also had that nice order with West Virginia for the incremental 88 units for school buses. I guess can we talk about that a little bit, maybe how you're thinking about that, the timing of those deliveries and just general update on maybe that contract?

Well, the 37 is well in process of the 88 that you referenced, and I believe Brendan commented on that earlier this morning. And so that -- our objective is to build and get those delivered within the current fiscal year. So you'll see deliveries later this year and continuing through with the delivery for all 37 of those. The big difference, just taking a step back, the difference -- big difference between live orders and the qualified leads is that the vast majority of the qualified leads are represented by orders or customer orders where funding has been either specifically secured or identified. We're working through contracts, the EPA has been particularly slow in getting their contracts out. And -- but we don't have a delivery date. So in the case of live orders, we are by and large working with production that has delivery dates or expectations on when the vehicles will be delivered to the end customers or dealers versus the qualified leads where we don't have a delivery date. And I should add that it's not just the contracts. In some cases, it's customers or dealers that want the end user to have their infrastructure in place or charging stations installed and the like.

Okay. Great. And then just one last one here I want to squeeze in. What's the -- I think that 88 was an incremental. I mean what does that bring the total contract to? Is it around 100 now?

It's over 100.

Okay, great. Thank you guys. Really appreciate the time. I’ll turn it back to the queue.

The next question comes from Craig Irwin with ROTH Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Fraser, we all completely understand the repositioning of the company towards new manufacturing and the school bus markets, which look really exciting right here with billions of dollars being allocated by our President that opportunity to give our kids clean air, right, clean air while they go to school and come home. Can you maybe talk a little bit about the challenges in the medium-term, short-term, as far as the delivery on those contracts? You have the orders, but many of these sole districts have faced issues around charging infrastructure. And there were some early issues around capital access. I believe some of this has been handled, maybe a lot of it. Can you just talk about what you are hearing from the different districts as you work with them? And can you maybe shape it for us how we should expect momentum to come together for GreenPower in this market?

Well, that's a great question. I guess one of the big challenges is that these initiatives and to some extent, mandates that are driving these at the federal level, they've been very quick at getting some of the awards out there in the announcements and press releases. But in the trenches here, as an OEM, I mean, we are waiting for contracts. And so there is been a delay on that side. Our past year didn't have $1 of revenue from EPA funded deals, even though they've been very substantial out there. So there’s been that disconnect. Going back to your question on charging, that is probably one of the biggest impediments that we continue to encounter especially in an area where we perhaps aren't dealing with a sophisticated purchaser as we would with a large fleet operator that would have a whole group dedicated to ensuring that charging infrastructure is properly scoped out and installed and works properly. Whereas with many school districts and operators of school buses for school districts, they have a mindset sometimes that well, let's get the best Level 3 charging stations and -- that are possible or available out there without realizing that they don't have enough power into their facility to accommodate their wish list. And so there really isn't necessarily a practical outlook in terms of how they are going to deploy the all-electric school buses. So still a lot of education required, still a lot of handholding and that -- going back to our order book, that has impacted how we are able to roll out the qualified leads into the live order portion of our order book.

Okay. Excellent. So is it correct that the power needs of the Mini BEAST are materially less than the BEAST, so the charging infrastructure is easier to install, easier to site. So we could see sort of more near-term strength in that area of the market maybe that the Type C school bus alternative, right the clean alternative to Type C? And do you -- can you maybe talk a little bit about your capacity to serve demand there? Is there the capability to scale up to tens or tens of units a month or more? How should we think about that?

Well, the -- our Type A school bus is the only purpose-built Class 4 school bus on the market. In California, we compete with three other companies that use a Ford E450 heavy-duty cabin chassis that they acquired from Ford. So we are in a very different category, literally a category of our own where someone wants to buy a purpose-built school bus than Type A school bus, then ours is the choice. We -- and that platform is -- I mean, we love that platform because it is built on our EV Star Cab & Chassis. So that is a proven platform that we use for -- within our commercial vehicle group and that we sell to other OEMs. And so that gives us the ability to either have a Level 2 charger or a DC fast charge. And given the battery capacity on that vehicle, in many cases, a user can fully charge the vehicle between the morning run and the afternoon run on that vehicle using a 19.2 kW Level 2 charger, which is not expensive, easy to -- much easier to install than a DC fast charge and doesn't have the same power requirements. So there is distinct advantages with that class of vehicle. And we see that, that could be our lead product within the school bus sector, where we are seen as the leader in the space.

Excellent. So my last question if I may. Your balance sheet, right? You've done a very good job managing working capital. I guess working capital down almost $10 million over the year-ago period, while for the fiscal year, your revenue was very similar. Can you talk about the ability to maybe liquidate inventory that is there? What should we think about working capital to serve the ramping school bus opportunity?

Well, we see the -- I mean there will be work in process represented by the production in West Virginia and Porterville pursuant to customer orders. But we see a continued reduction in our finished goods portion or a -- the proportion of finished goods being lower than the work in process. And we see a continued a lower percentage in our accounts receivable than our sales as a result of the mix on the sell side.

Understood. Well, congratulations on the success repositioning the company. We're hoping the spring is let loose, and we get to see the real potential as the school bus deliveries materialize this year.

Thanks, Craig.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Tate Sullivan with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you. Good morning. Back in April, along with guiding to the school bus deliveries, 88 of them in fiscal year 2025, you gave some detail on the EPA grant for $18.6 million. How -- will you get that grant money upon delivery or perhaps ahead of delivery? Can you talk about that a bit, Fraser, please?

Well, we are still waiting for the contract. So that -- until we have the – we are able to get that completed. And obviously, we’ll announce in a very timely fashion. They were – that is holding us up in terms of providing the specific or final delivery dates pursuant to that particular award.

And you're -- it's still waiting for the contract part from the EPA itself or from the school district customer in West Virginia or what is it?

From the EPA.

Okay. Perfect. And then the April comment about delivering 88 school buses in West Virginia in fiscal year 2025, is that still intact, that type of timeline there?

Well, we still – we are -- I mean, we are working right now on the 37 on the front-end of that as well as we recently and just – that was just a week ago, we delivered the first BEAST school bus out of the West Virginia facility, which shows our ability or capability of producing both the Type A school buses, as we delivered four of those in December of 2023. And so now we’ve delivered our first B school bus in the past week. So now that, that’s – that milestone is being achieved, we are continuing to work on the 37 B school bus order where those will be deliveries that occur the fall and winter and through before the end of the current fiscal year.

Thank you, great. And then, Brendan, you call it -- and then on the qualified pipeline of 160 more, so that's above and beyond the live orders for more than 100 if I heard that correctly. And then you said $100 million of revenue. Is that based on what grant money they pay for? Or is that -- I mean that implies a pretty good price tag. How do you get that number, too?

That's just the estimate of [indiscernible] revenue. So that's what we have as far as our qualified leads. If you extrapolate the value of those orders, that's the value.

All right. Great. Thank you all.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the conference back over to Fraser Atkinson, CEO, for any closing remarks.

Thank you. We expect to be very busy this summer in securing contracts for our school buses and generating orders from new markets for our commercial vehicles. This will be the start of the realization of our strategy focusing on the school bus sector and Class 4 commercial vehicles where there are mandates and money. We look forward to providing you with timely updates on our progress. In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Brendan, Michael or myself. Thank you for your continued support, and this concludes our call.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Grameenphone's First Quarter Earnings Call for the year 2024. I'm Chowdhury Tazrian Israt, the Head of Investor Relations. Joining me on the call today are Mr. Yasir Azman, our CEO; and Mr. Otto Risbakk, our CFO. Please note, in consideration of local regulations, we'll not be providing any forward-looking statements during the call. Our earnings release, financial report and other documents related to our results, can be found in the Quarterly Results section of the Investor Relations website. [Operator Instructions] With that, let's get it over to our CEO, Mr. Yasir Azman, to tell us about our results.

Thank you, Chowdhury Tazrian, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our Quarter 1 2024 earnings call. I'm Yasir Azman, Chief Executive Officer of Grameenphone. As per our regulator's report, till February 2024, the telecommunications industry has reached 191.4 million subscribers, increasing by 0.6 million subscribers from December 2023. During the same period, mobile data users decreased by 1 million, reaching 117.5 million in February 2024. Moving on some of our key business highlights for the quarter, Owing to the rise of emerging technologies and evolving needs of our customers, we have advanced our network capabilities focusing on a progressive and future-ready network that is equipped to cater personalization at core and revolutionize the digital landscape. We have continued our efforts to remain the most reliable connectivity partner that can seamlessly accommodate future capabilities for a smarter tomorrow. Our primary objective in revamping our portfolio was to prioritize on increasing customer satisfaction by implementing innovative features and streaming offers for a more convenient experience. This is what we did in Q1 in this year. Our value-driven initiatives had elevated overall experience and engagement on our network, resulting in 15.2% year-on-year growth in 4G data users this quarter. [indiscernible] to build a digital infrastructure to transform from telco to telco tech company. And in the process, we are digitally and diligently building digital assets and making strategic partnerships with different digital players within country and global partners. 136% higher data usage has been reported this quarter from digitally engaged customers with more than 24% DSTR contribution from digital channels. Grameenphone has received unified license this quarter, which is a big milestone for us and for the industry, which amalgamates existing licenses, 2G, 3G and 4G and includes a scope for 5G and beyond services. We over heartedly -- wholeheartedly welcome this timely initiative and express our deepest gratitude to all the concerns, including our regulatory body and telecom ministry. Looking at the future dominated by smart devices, AI and connected technologies will be able to concrete an ecosystem, which will serve to make our customers life, I believe, safer, healthier and happier. As we move forward, we are still facing macroeconomic challenges as we're all aware of like rising energy costs, broader inflation and particularly dollar crisis. However, we remain persistent in our efforts to address this situation and manage to deliver on top line and EBITDA, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to growth. Starting up on some of the key macroeconomic updates. Point-to-point inflation is around 9.8% as prices of goods and services stayed high, straining the purchasing power of our customers. Electricity prices have been increased from 1st of February after 3x increase in last year. As per the latest global economic prospect, the World Bank has projected GDP growth to slow to 5.6%, which is unchanged from it's October update. As per our Central Bank, the foreign exchange result of Bangladesh have gone above USD 20 billion as of March 2024. On the regulatory front, on 12 November 2023, in alignment with BTRC, GP served further time at the court on BTRC Audit and next date has been fixed on 29th September, 2024. The floor price restriction on stocks of Grameenphone was withdrawn on 3rd March, 2024 through a directive issued by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, hence, regular trade has resumed now. Now let's delve into detailed aspect of our business for this quarter. Focusing on growth through #1 network and industry-first initiatives, our focus on network investment has resulted in significant progress through spectrum deployment, site rollout and addition of sales to increase capacity. We have more than twofold increase in fiber connectivity to 41.5% in the past 2 years, which is extremely important when we move out to more data-centric business model and digital-centric business model and get ready for the future, and have rolled out over 21,000 total sites. Driven by our commitment to create a smart Bangladesh, we inaugurated our fast Tier 3 standard data center in Sylhet, a technological marvel that can set new benchmarks for our network. This future-ready infrastructure is our commitment to putting our customers first in every aspect of our work, guaranteeing a future of technological progress and reliability in delivering superior customer experience. We have introduced [indiscernible] offerings in the market, solidifying our position as a leader at the forefront. Our GPStar program has won a long journey from only 350 Dhaka-centric outlets to over 7,000 nationwide outlets right now as we talk about. We have introduced the first ever truly unlimited data offers for our customers so that they can stay connected no matter what and where. We are proud to be the first in the industry to offer access to an impressive 10 OTT platforms combined with unlimited data plan, demonstrating our commitment towards innovation and attaining our first in the telco content industry in Bangladesh. Our growing number of subscribers can attribute it to our innovative revamped offerings and efficient churn management strategies, resulting in a subscriber-base increase of 2.9 million year-on-year to 83 million this quarter. The digital landscape is experiencing a substantial growth, bringing with it immense potential, higher adoption of digitally engaged customer has been seen throughout the online platform, resulting in more than 1/3 of revenue flowing through this channel, one target. The next -- the new digital services complementing our -- obviously, our core business. We have successfully established ourselves as an integrated digital operator, identified by leveraging the valuable digital assets that we have diligently built. Our flagship channel, MyGP, continues to be the largest local app in Bangladesh with 8.2 million active users driving continuous growth through its enhanced capabilities. The improved version of MyGP 5.0 provides customers, the convenience of recharging without even Internet, recommends backed based on artificial intelligence, machine learning capability and has many other advanced features. We have launched wellness broadband solution, gpfi, to redefine and elevate some of our home Internet services, offering a holistic solution for families, seeking uninterrupted connectivity and entertainment. In the first phase of this journey, we have launched our services in Dhaka and Chittagong regions and we'll continue to grow throughout Bangladesh eventually. With the launch of 20 new innovative IoT product across various categories, this is the first time probably I'm reporting. We are leveraging on the limitless capabilities of technology and embracing a smarter way of living by introducing this range of IoT solutions. We aim to address various concern with the smart home and office solutions as well as industrial applications in the future. We continue our streak of being trail readers in the telco-content industry within Bangladesh by expanding the OTT partner portfolio, selling direct subscription to GP and non-GP users, partnering with various local and global and regional OTT players. Additionally, the OTT access has been bundled with ATL packs and gpfi for customers to enjoy top-notch premium content with best data offers. Introduced country's first cross-platform app marketplace, AppCity, aiming to transform the digital landscape. The platform connects app developers and purchasers with both B2C and B2B customers and functions as both an App Store and API hub connecting content providers and application developers with individual and corporate customers. So while building on a resilient and a stronger network to deliver on our core growth, at the same time, this has been a journey to bring in new and innovative products and services in the IoT space, ICT space and of course, AppCity. And on top of that, partnering with local, global and regional players to bring in OTT services, bundling with OTT [indiscernible] and analytics capabilities. So I'll move on to talk about a little bit of building a sustainable future that we have been always reporting every quarter. In Grameenphone, we understand our responsibility towards the environment, society and economy at large. We are deeply committed to building a sustainable future and making positive difference in the communities we serve. Our belief in sustainability goals is not just limited to ourselves, but we also strategically partner with businesses that share our values and actively support environment, social and governance initiatives. As of March 2024, 60% of our total spend to our suppliers are with partners who commit to reduce carbon footprint. We are committed to this. Grameenphone conducted a public private roundtable discussion, greening the grid to promote policy reforms concerning corporate power purchase agreements in Bangladesh, which is essential for aiding to our decarbonization goal. In our pursue to purchase renewable energy, we have signed a memorandum with USAID to collaborate to developing a policy framework for CPPA, Corporate Power Purchase Agreement in Bangladesh that will enable businesses to purchase electricity directly from renewable sources without solely relying on traditional power utilities. Online safety program, which we have been running for quite some time, has always remained a key priority in our effort to build an inclusive digital future. We have trained more than 184,000 children and 3,000 teachers from marginalized community on online safety and digital literacy during this time. To continue the education on online safety and digital skills, we extended our reach to the farthest corners of the country through collaboration with Bangladesh Community Radio Association, ensuring on community -- no community is left behind. In line with our vision of promoting gender equality in the society, marginal women from 378 unions were educated on the endless possibilities of the Internet and digitals where through our initiative, Internet Er Duniya Shobar. We have been also making continuous efforts towards accelerating the nation's future economic growth by enhancing the skills and potential of the youth. With this intent, GP Academy has recently introduced 5 new courses on freelancing. Futurenation has held master classes in 18 universities to enable students with relevant skills, provides access to employment opportunities and Empower team to embark on entrepreneurial endeavor. We believe into a sustainable society, and we are committed on our social impact projects and take the sustainability environment and governance initiatives forward with even stronger commitment in coming days. I will now welcome our CFO, Otto, to take you through our financial performance for the quarter. Otto, over to you.

Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Yes. Sorry for -- I was muted. So I -- so welcome to everybody on this call and pleased to see that so many are connected. So let me start the presentation of the financial part. I'm very pleased to report a strong start of 2024. Before I comment on the first quarter, let me recap the main trends and the macro environment at the beginning of the first quarter in '24. In Q4 '23, as you may recall, we delivered the best quarter of 2023 with 6.9% subs and traffic growth and solid financials. Towards the turn of the year, however, we saw a significant cooling of the economy due to a series of factors, including inflation and global tensions impacting energy and currencies. And that was leading to an industry-wide drop in data consumption in the last quarter of the year and a slow start of this quarter. I'm now pleased to see that the economy is picking up and that the business momentum has improved steadily during the first quarter this year. Our first quarter financial results reflect the positive momentum and Grameenphone continued to deliver a solid financial performance in the first quarter this year. This was the 12th consecutive quarter of growth and top line growth and EBITDA growth. If I look at some of the key metrics this year to give you the highlight, the S&T revenue this quarter grew at a solid 5.2% and thanks to our relentless focus on operational excellence and strict financial discipline, EBITDA margin stood at a strong 60.8%, industry-leading margins in Bangladesh and even globally. Our robust balance sheet, with no debt and strong cash flows, enabled us to continue to invest in growth and innovation and provides a solid basis for attractive and predictable dividends. Reported EPS for the quarter -- this quarter stood at BDT 9.91 from higher EBITA -- EBITDA and reversals of certain provisions, one-off tax provisions that I will explain later. So now talking about the subscriber base. After a slower Q4 last year, I'm pleased to see that our subscriber base returned to solid growth from higher gross adds and better churn management. In total, we added 2.9 million subscribers to reach 83 million, a growth of 3.6% year-on-year and 1.2% quarter-on-quarter. I'm particularly encouraged to see the development of our 4G subscriber base, supported by constant efforts to improve the performance of our leading network, 4G subscribers increased by 5 million or 15.2% to 38.2 million. Grameenphone continues to lead the industry with the highest number of 4G data users. The number of data users, which also include feature phone subscribers using data, grew by 6.5%, reaching 46.3 million. In total, our 4G subscriber base now represents 46% of the subscriber base, up from 41%, 1 year ago. As a reference, the average 4G penetration in Southeast Asia is above 70%. And in mature markets, it's above 90%. This indicates there is -- that there is still a significant upside from 4G penetration growth in Bangladesh. So now a few words on the revenue growth. It is good to see that the subscriber growth translates into solid revenue growth and that the growth comes from both subscriber growth and ARPU improvements. In the first quarter this year -- the first quarter this year's was the 12th consecutive quarter of growth, both in total revenue and subscription and traffic revenue. During the quarter, year-on-year total revenue was up 5.3% and subscriber and traffic revenues were up 5.2%. Behind the growth, we see a positive development in all revenue drivers, including subscriber growth, higher ARPU and higher data usage driven by the increase in 4G subs. So let me, in the next slide explain a little bit more about those details. During the quarter, the service ARPU increased by 1.7% compared to the last year. The year-on-year growth in service ARPU is mainly driven by the contribution from higher data consumption and demand for our digital products. We also see that the product portfolio revamp implemented during the quarter, reducing the number of products by almost half and including a significant simplification for customers has been very well received by our customers. With regards to data, during the quarter, Grameenphone data users consumed an average mega [indiscernible] use of 7 gigabytes at 9.8% growth versus last year. After the drop in Q4 last year, we are pleased to see that the growth is now coming back, and we see very good momentum going into the second quarter of 2024. The year-on-year growth in data usage is supported by a better macro trend after the election and the winter call, but also through industry-first innovative market offerings, creating better value for our customers as well as continued network improvements from site expansions and capacity improvements. Now let us see the EBITDA development. In Q1 2024, Grameenphone delivered a 12th consecutive quarter of growth in EBITDA despite challenging macro situation due to global political tension, inflation pressure and the cooling of the economy. Grameenphone's EBITDA increased by 5% in the first quarter while maintaining a strong margin of 60.8%. I'm pleased to see the resilience of our operations and our strong ability to mitigate increased cost pressure from rising inflation and energy cost through our relentless focus on operating efficiency, financial discipline and automation. Reported OpEx for the quarter stood at BDT 13 billion, a growth of 7.9% year-on-year, primarily completed by the hike in energy prices, higher sales and marketing costs and higher variable regulatory costs. The increase in sales and marketing, regulators mainly come from the higher sales and higher volume of gross adds. Now the net profit. Supported by the positive top line development, some financial discipline, resulting in a healthy 5% EBITDA growth, a strong balance sheet resulting in lower finance costs and a one-off reversal of certain tax provisions. The reported net profit for the quarter stood at BDT 13.4 billion, a growth of 72% versus last year and a margin of 24%. Excluding the one-off in the first quarter, '24 and also the certain one-offs in the first quarter of '23, the growth in net profit after tax was 13%. The net profit after tax of BDT 34 billion translate into a record high BDT 9.11 EPS for the first quarter of '24. If we now look at the cash flow and balance sheet parameters, the cash to operating cash flow for the quarter stood at BDT 16.8 billion, a year-on-year growth of 5.6%. As you have seen from the previous slide, the operating cash flow growth comes from the healthy top line and EBITDA growth. The Q1 cash flow growth is partly offset by higher CapEx as we normally try to frontload the yearly CapEx program to the first 2 quarters of the year. On the right side of the graph, you can see that the net debt stood at a record minus BDT 18 billion as of the first quarter. This balance is composed of BDT 3.6 billion short-term bank loans and [ BDT 21.3 million ] cash balance, excluding restocking cash. Thanks to the solid cash flow and strong balance sheet, we are able to adopt a long-term view with regard to investments and innovation and also to maintain an attractive shareholder remuneration policy. So summing up, I am very pleased with the good performance in Q1 despite a challenging macro environment at the beginning of the quarter. We entered now Q2 with a good momentum supported by a stronger macro and model network, which has never been better, a very attractive and innovative product portfolio, which has been very well received by the customer.

Thank you, Otto. Now let's hear it from our CEO, Mr. Yasir Azman, on the summary for this year's Quarter 1,, 2024 earnings call.

Thank you, Otto and Tazrian. Coming back on the summary of the 2024, Quarter 1 earnings calls with a strong financial performance. We see, although the macroeconomic headwinds continued to challenge us, we remain focused on our strategy and forged ahead with our investment plans to support our growth opportunities, strengthen our partnerships and improve our operations, all of which contributed to the great results we see today. We are building new data centers and taking our technology excellence near to the customers to continue to be the most reliable connectivity partner in Bangladesh. On top of connectivity, customer-centric innovation remains at the core of our initiatives. From the industry-fast offering to IoT solutions, strategic partnerships with content providers to home broadband services, we provide a spark of innovation that connects people to greater possibilities and build new business opportunities for Grameenphone and create opportunities for our shareholders and with the guidance of [indiscernible] and regulators. Our delivery and focus enforce towards nurturing diversity in our workplace and promoting inclusivity have greatly contributed to create a more dynamic work environment. As of the first quarter of 2024, the percentage of women in the total workforce reached up to 19.8%. Privacy is one of the biggest concern in this age of machines and rapidly growing era of sophisticated technologies. We understand the need for robust cybersecurity defenses across the company for which we continue fortifying our defenses, building resilience and remain resilient against evolving cyber threat. Grameenphone, as we reported earlier, in the same quarter, we built and strengthened our core services. We brought in innovative product and service to the market and preparing for the future. On the other hand, we continued our effort to deliver on our social commitment through strong social impact projects. With that, I thank you again, everyone, and we'll turn it to Tazrian for a Q&A session. Tazrian?

Thank you. Thanks to both of you for the wonderful presentation. We'll now be moving on to the Q&A part of the call. [Operator Instructions] We have a question. The first one is why GP is not getting back its subscriber market share? Azman, would you like to take that?

Yes. Yes, let me take it. We are actually growing. We are growing in subscriber base. We are growing in quality subscribers, and we are growing our 4G subscriber base in a very robust way. And at the same time, others only focusing on aggressive subscriber acquisition, GP obviously, is focusing more on improving the network experience, increasing ARPU with the existing subscribers, bringing in new services to the existing subscriber along with consistency for to simplify the products and improve the digital experience so that we can ensure that offerings are more focused and effective in meeting our customers' evolving needs. We don't need to forget that we have a large customer base that demand new product and services. As a result, GP delivered improved top line growth in Q1 2024 compared with last year Q1 growth. And as I mentioned at the beginning, we are growing in our subscriber base. Thank you.

Thank you. We are waiting for questions. There is another question. What leads to the year-on-year 8% OpEx growth? Otto, can you take that?

Yes. Okay. Yes. So the growth in OpEx is driven by certain -- primarily by energy cost and by the volume, the growth -- the top line growth. So if I take the energy costs, as you know, the electricity price was increased in February this year. And additionally, we are constantly building out our network, leading to higher consumption. So energy is one of the 3 major drivers. We also had higher cost in sales and marketing, primarily driven by the growth that Azman was referring to. And finally, revenue share, that is a pure mathematical thing that when we have top line growth, we also have a higher revenue share. So basically, these are the 3 main elements of the OpEx growth. We have, at the same time, done a series of measure to mitigate the costs. So that I'm very pleased to see actually the result of 7.9% growth.

Thank you. There is another question on our portal. Any explanation regarding previous year's tax adjustments? Otto, over to you.

Yes. So the tax adjustment is relating to the new Income Tax Act in 2023. As you may recall, on the 22nd of June last year, the new income tax asset was introduced in Bangladesh, replacing the previous Income Tax Ordinance of 1994. And due to some ambiguity in some of the new provisions in the new tax act, GP, we decided to make certain provisions in 2023 related to this and in line with IFRS. And then upon receiving a further clarification on the act now in this quarter, we were able to reverse this provision. So these provisions was made based on our conservative application of IFRS, and we don't -- we see that now we can reverse it.

Thank you. We don't have any other questions at the moment, but let's just wait for a minute, if we have any. Okay. I think we have another question here. How do you see the potential of 5G rollout in Bangladesh and GP's priority in this regard? I would request Azman bhai to answer it.

Would you please repeat the question, please?

How do you see potential of 5G rollout in Bangladesh and GP's priority in this regard?

We don't give any forward looking statement as far as any development, any investment. However, what we see, is like the network we are building today is basically 5G-ready. As I mentioned earlier that we have doubled our fiber connectivity in the country, which is now -- within the last 2 years, which is now -- which has crossed 40%, 41.8% level, which is an -- also is a readiness for future and for 5G. In case of -- obviously, when you talk about 5G in Bangladesh, we really need to be very precise on that one. That we need to find out the use cases for 5G, for our general customers, we need a very strong 4G network. But in case of airport, ports like some industrial solutions, we need to build use cases and those will be delivered through 5G in time. We have very good network of different business units in the advanced market, in the European markets. There are certain use cases has already been implemented and going to test and trial. And we are constant in learning and preparing ourselves when the time will come to bring this out to our customer or more specifically to our enterprise clients.

Thank you, Azman bhai. And with that, we would be ending the call for Quarter 1. If there are any other questions from your end, please reach out to me via text or e-mail, and we'll get back to you on them shortly. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.