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Filed pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4)
Registration No. 333-217415

PROSPECTUS

4,500,000 Shares

 

LOGO

Common Stock

 

 

The selling stockholders identified in this prospectus, which include certain of our executive officers, are selling shares of common stock in this offering. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares to be offered by the selling stockholders.

Our common stock is listed on The NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “TPIC.” On May 11, 2017, the last reported sale price of our common stock on The NASDAQ Global Market was $16.70 per share.

We are an “emerging growth company” under federal securities laws and, as such, are subject to reduced public company disclosure standards. See “Prospectus Summary—Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company.”

Investing in our common stock involves risks that are described in the “ Risk Factors ” section beginning on page 18 of this prospectus.

 

 

 

    

Per Share

      

Total

 

Public offering price

   $ 16.35        $ 73,575,000  

Underwriting discount (1)

   $ 0.8175        $ 3,678,750  

Proceeds, before expenses, to selling stockholders

   $ 15.5325        $ 69,896,250  

 

  (1) See “Underwriting” beginning on page 158 of this prospectus for additional information regarding total underwriter compensation.

The underwriters may also exercise their option to purchase up to an additional 675,000 shares from the selling stockholders at the public offering price, less the underwriting discount, for 30 days after the date of this prospectus.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

The shares will be ready for delivery on or about May 17, 2017.

 

 

 

J.P. Morgan     Morgan Stanley

Cowen and Company

 

Raymond James    

  Canaccord Genuity

 

 

The date of this prospectus is May 11, 2017.


Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

    

Page

 

Prospectus Summary

     1  

Risk Factors

     18  

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

     48  

Use of Proceeds

     49  

Market Price of Common Stock

     50  

Dividend Policy

     51  

Capitalization

     52  

Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data

     53  

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

     56  

Our Industry

     91  

Business

     103  

Management

     118  

Executive Compensation

     129  

Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions

     139  

Principal and Selling Stockholders

     144  

Description of Capital Stock

     148  

Shares Eligible for Future Sale

     152  

Certain Material U.S. Federal Income and Estate Tax Considerations to Non-U.S. Holders

     154  

Underwriting

     158  

Legal Matters

     166  

Experts

     166  

Where You Can Find More Information

     166  

Index to Consolidated Financial Statements

     F-1  

 

 

We, the selling stockholders and the underwriters have not authorized anyone to provide any information other than that contained in this prospectus or any free writing prospectus prepared by us or on our behalf. We, the selling stockholders and the underwriters are not making an offer to sell these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date on the front cover of this prospectus regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or of any sale of our common stock.

 

 

INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA

This prospectus contains statistical data, estimates and forecasts that are based on independent industry publications, such as those published by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), International Energy Agency (IEA), MAKE Consulting (MAKE), Energy Information Administration (EIA), Lazard Ltd (Lazard), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Wind Energy Foundation (WEF), Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), or other publicly available information, as well as other information based on our internal sources. Although we believe that the third-party sources referred to in this prospectus are reliable, neither we nor the underwriters have independently verified the information provided by these third parties. While we are not aware of any misstatements regarding any third-party information presented in this prospectus, their estimates, in particular as they relate to projections, involve numerous assumptions, are subject to risks and uncertainties, and are subject to change based on various factors, including those discussed under the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus and does not contain all of the information that you should consider in making your investment decision. Before investing in our common stock, you should carefully read this entire prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. You should consider, among other things, the matters described in “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” in each case included elsewhere in this prospectus. Unless the context otherwise requires, we use the terms “TPI Composites,” “TPI,” “we,” “us” and “our” in this prospectus to refer to TPI Composites, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

TPI Composites, Inc.

Company Overview

We are the largest U.S.-based independent manufacturer of composite wind blades. We enable many of the industry’s leading wind turbine original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), who have historically relied on in-house production, to outsource the manufacturing of some of their wind blades through our global footprint of advanced manufacturing facilities strategically located to serve large and growing wind markets in a cost-effective manner. Given the importance of wind energy capture, turbine reliability and cost to power producers, the size, quality and performance of wind blades have become highly strategic to our OEM customers. As a result, we have become a key supplier to our OEM customers in the manufacture of wind blades and related precision molding and assembly systems. We have entered into long-term supply agreements pursuant to which we dedicate capacity at our facilities to our customers in exchange for their commitment to purchase minimum annual volumes of wind blade sets, which consist of three wind blades. As of April 28, 2017, our long-term supply agreements provide for estimated minimum aggregate volume commitments from our customers of approximately $2.7 billion and encourage our customers to purchase additional volume up to, in the aggregate, an estimated total contract value of approximately $4.2 billion through the end of 2023. This collaborative dedicated supplier model provides us with contracted volumes that generate significant revenue visibility, drive capital efficiency and allow us to produce wind blades at a lower total delivered cost, while ensuring critical dedicated capacity for our customers.

Our OEM customers include General Electric International, Inc. and its affiliates (GE Wind), Vestas Wind Systems A/S (Vestas), Gamesa Wind US LLC (or Gamesa, which, on April 3, 2017, was merged along with its parent company, Gamesa Corporatión Tecnológica, with Siemens Wind Power) and Nordex SE (or Nordex, which, in April 2016, acquired Acciona Windpower, S.A. (Acciona) for whom we also manufacture wind blades). Prior to 2013, we had one OEM customer that, according to data from MAKE, represented approximately 10% of the global wind energy market based on megawatts (MWs) of energy capacity installed. Although we do not supply all of their wind blade volume, according to data from MAKE our OEM customers collectively accounted for approximately 42% of the global onshore wind energy market and approximately 63% of that market excluding China over the three years ended December 31, 2016, based on MWs of energy capacity installed. The wind power generation industry is experiencing significant growth in countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as well as in emerging growth markets. To meet this growth in demand reliably in a capital-efficient and cost-effective manner, many OEMs are shifting from manufacturing wind blades themselves to the outsourced manufacture of their wind blades. Our collaborative approach, advanced composite technology and global manufacturing footprint have allowed us to capitalize on this trend by replacing or augmenting the in-house capabilities of our customers and efficiently delivering wind blades when and where required. Our facilities in the United States, China, Mexico and Turkey create a geographically-diverse, global production platform to meet our customers’ needs in key large and growing wind markets. We intend to continue expanding in certain existing markets and in new locations that

 



 

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represent growth opportunities for the wind energy market and our customers. We believe our geographic and customer diversification, together with our long-term agreements, allow us to take advantage of growth trends and help to insulate us from potential short-term fluctuations or legislative changes in any one market.

Global Wind Energy Market

The wind power generation industry has grown rapidly and expanded worldwide in recent years to meet high global demand for clean electricity. According to BNEF, from 2000 to 2016, the cumulative global power generating capacity in gigawatts (GWs) grew at an average annual rate of 24%. Cumulative installed capacity is led by China (approximately 162 GWs), the United States (approximately 82 GWs) and Germany (approximately 50 GWs). In addition, from 2008 to 2016, the cumulative global power generating capacity of wind turbine installations in GWs increased by more than four times. According to GWEC, wind energy is now used in over 90 countries, 29 of which have more than 1 GW installed. The rapid growth in the wind power generation industry has been driven by population growth and the associated increase in electricity demand, widespread emphasis on expanded use of renewable energy, the increasing effectiveness and cost-competitiveness of wind energy and accelerated urbanization in developing countries, among other factors. We believe that recent U.S. and global policy initiatives aimed at reducing fossil fuel consumption through the expansion of renewable energy, coupled with corporate commitments to cost-effective environmentally and socially responsible electricity consumption, will drive additional growth. In 2016, U.S. corporate, non-profit and government entities procured an aggregate of 1.6 GWs of wind capacity via power purchase agreements, which represented 39% of the total capacity contracted in 2016 according to AWEA. The Paris Agreement achieved at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the long-term extension of the Production Tax Credit for Renewable Energy (PTC) are recent examples of policies that promote the growth of renewable energy. Overall, renewable technologies, including hydroelectric, are projected to increase their share of global electricity generation from 24% in 2015 to 45% by 2040 according to BNEF. Additionally, according to BNEF, onshore wind is expected to experience the largest increase in global market share over the same period, growing from 4% to 13% of the market.

 



 

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LOGO

Source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Regional onshore and worldwide offshore figures presented for 2016 only.

In 2016, the wind industry added approximately 54 GWs of generation capacity. According to BNEF, market diversification increased as a result of demand from newer markets in Asia, Latin America and non-EU Europe, which collectively represented approximately 47% of capacity in 2016, as compared to approximately 45% in 2015. Although Europe and the United States led early wind development, since 2010, the majority of wind turbines have been installed in non-OECD countries, particularly in Asia and Latin America, where wind generation capacity is growing. For example, cumulative wind generation capacity from 2013 to 2016 grew by approximately 105% to 3.3 GWs in Mexico and by approximately 115% to 5.9 GWs in Turkey, underpinned by strong wind resources, high electricity prices, robust energy demand and key regulatory policies tailored to incentivize usage, among other factors.

Onshore wind LCOE—which reflects the levelized cost of energy per megawatt hour of a generation project over its lifetime—is already on par with new combined cycle gas turbines and substantially below solar photovoltaic, according to Lazard. The advancement of wind turbine technology, including larger rotor diameters and higher hub heights, has increased energy capture, thus reducing LCOE for onshore wind. For a further discussion of LCOE, see “Our Industry—Global Wind Energy Market.” The proliferation of cost-effective wind generation enhances energy resource diversity and mitigates the price volatility associated with fossil fuels, thereby helping to stabilize overall electricity costs in the long term. Wind energy projects do not require any fuel, such as natural gas or coal, during operation, and we believe that they are generally constructed within a substantially shorter period of time relative to conventional generation resources. According to Lazard, the cost of onshore wind has declined by over 66% in the last seven years. Costs are expected to continue to decline an

 



 

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additional 26% by 2025 according to IRENA 1 , due to progress in reducing the costs of wind turbines, improving capacity factors and lower operating and maintenance costs.

The wind turbine industry, which constitutes our direct customer base, is concentrated among a limited number of established players, with the top ten OEMs accounting for approximately 74% of the total global onshore market for the three years ended December 31, 2016 based on MWs installed, according to data from MAKE. We believe MWs installed is the most widely followed measure of market share in the wind turbine industry and also reflects the OEMs’ demand for wind blades. We currently have long-term supply agreements with four of these top ten OEMs and are developing new relationships with additional OEMs to grow our business. In addition, we expect growth in the industry itself – by the end of 2020, cumulative global installed wind capacity is projected to be over 727 GWs, with China accounting for approximately 35% of this capacity, according to BNEF. This represents a five-year compounded annual growth rate of approximately 12% for the global wind market including China, and a similar growth rate of approximately 11% for the global wind market excluding China.

 

LOGO

 

 

1   © 2016 IRENA, The Power to Change: Solar and Wind Cost Potential to 2025 .
2   Figures are rounded to nearest whole percent.
3   Figures for Siemens/Gamesa are pro forma for the April 2017 merger of Gamesa Corporatión Tecnológica and Siemens Wind Power.

 



 

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LOGO

Historically, many wind turbine OEMs manufactured their own wind blades in-house to ensure a high level of quality and dedicated capacity, reflecting the importance of the wind blade supply to turbine production, concerns over protecting their proprietary wind blade designs and the scarcity of independent wind blade suppliers with sufficient manufacturing expertise and capacity. During 2007 and 2008, the U.S. and China markets grew at a rapid pace, which created additional demand in the wind turbine manufacturing supply chain. To balance supply and demand, many leading wind turbine OEMs established a production footprint in high-growth regions.

The current globalization of the wind industry presents a new set of challenges and opportunities for wind turbine OEMs. As opposed to establishing a manufacturing presence in each new core growth market, wind turbine OEMs are now focusing on supply chain efficiencies and their core competencies in the design, marketing and sale of wind turbines. In doing so, many wind turbine OEMs are increasingly outsourcing the production of key components, such as wind blades, to select manufacturers to remain competitive, address growth markets and manage global talent constraints. Despite this ongoing trend of outsourcing of wind blade production by wind turbine OEMs, General Electric Company (GE), the parent company of GE Wind, completed its acquisition of LM Wind Power (LM), our largest competitor. We expect that GE Wind will utilize LM for a substantial percentage of its wind blade production in the future.

This outsourcing approach enables wind turbine OEMs to lower their capital costs and shift the production components to manufacturers that possess highly specialized expertise in advanced composite, production and process technology. From a product perspective, wind turbine OEMs have adopted a variety of strategies, including the introduction of new turbine models with improved technology, warranty terms, more stringent performance guarantees, and tailor-made turbines for specific countries or regions. During the past three years, all of the top ten wind turbine suppliers in the world have introduced wind turbines with longer wind blade lengths and taller towers designed to capture more energy at the lower end of the wind speed scale. We believe that installation of wind turbines in regions with lower wind speeds is encouraged due to proximity to energy

 



 

 

1   Figures are rounded to nearest whole percent.
2   Figures for Siemens/Gamesa are pro forma for the April 2017 merger of Gamesa Corporatión Tecnológica and Siemens Wind Power.

 


 

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demand centers, thereby reducing the amount of transmission infrastructure required. We expect this trend of expansion to regions not traditionally classified as high wind resource regions to continue, which we believe will help us continue to expand our global footprint.

According to BNEF, the total wind blade industry generated $11.9 billion in revenues in 2014 and is projected to grow to $19.7 billion by 2040. As the wind energy market continues to expand globally and wind turbine OEMs continue to shift towards increased outsourcing of wind blade manufacturing, we believe we are well-positioned to continue the expansion of our global footprint.

Competitive Strengths

Our long-term success will be driven by our competitive strengths. The key elements of our competitive strengths are as follows:

 

    Wind industry leader with cost-effective, global footprint. We are the largest U.S.-based independent manufacturer of composite wind blades and have developed a global footprint to serve the growing wind energy market worldwide. We currently have nine advanced wind blade plants in strategic locations in the United States, China, Mexico and Turkey. We also have facilities in the United States and China that manufacture precision molding and assembly systems for wind blades. This geographically diverse footprint enables us to leverage our global scale and technological capabilities, serve regional markets and export to ports around the world in a cost-effective manner, thereby enabling our customers to capitalize on the benefits of outsourced wind blade manufacturing. We believe our extensive experience with delivering high quality wind blades to diverse, global markets creates a significant barrier to entry and is the foundation of our leadership position in the independent market for wind blade manufacturing. Moreover, the expansion of our manufacturing footprint in coordination with our customers allows us to scale our capacity to meet demand as well as ensure dedicated manufacturing capacity for each of our customers in our existing facilities or in new facilities located to optimize labor and transportation costs.

 

    Positioned to capitalize on significant growth trends in the wind energy market. We believe that our reputation as a reliable, global wind blade manufacturer and our focus on developing replicable and scalable manufacturing facilities and processes positions us to continue to capture opportunities in large and growing wind energy markets. Our ability to capitalize on recent growth trends in the wind energy market and OEM outsourcing has allowed us to grow our revenue 135% from 2014 to 2016 while expanding our global manufacturing footprint over the same period by opening four additional advanced wind blade manufacturing facilities. We believe this global growth and the emergence of new wind markets will continue to create opportunities for us as most of our customers focus on supply chain optimization and wind blade outsourcing as a critical component of their strategy.

 

   

Advanced composite technology and production expertise. Our significant expertise in advanced composite technology and production enables us to manufacture lightweight and durable wind blades with near-aerospace grade precision at an industrial cost. We have developed and use high-performance composite materials, precision molding and assembly systems, including modular tooling techniques, and advanced process technology, as well as sophisticated measurement, inspection, testing and quality assurance tools, which, as of March 31, 2017, have allowed us to produce approximately 32,000 wind blades since 2001 with an excellent field performance record in a market where reliability is critical to our customers’ success. With our culture of continuing

 



 

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innovation and a collaborative “design for manufacturability” approach, we continue to address increasing physical dimensions and the need for rapid model changes, demanding technical specifications and strict quality control requirements for wind blades, which today are generally 50 to 60 meters or more in length. We also invest in ongoing simplification and selective automation of production processes for increased efficiency and precision. We have partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy, government laboratories, universities and our customers to innovate through cost sharing Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Initiative. In 2015, we received an award of $3.0 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy to lead a team of industry and academic participants to design, develop and demonstrate an ultra-light composite vehicle door for high volume manufacturing production in conjunction with other industry and university participants. Our primary research and development facilities are in Fall River, Massachusetts and Warren, Rhode Island. We also conduct research and development in our various manufacturing facilities around the world. As of December 31, 2016, our highly experienced engineering and technical workforce includes professionals holding 540 engineering and technical degrees, most of whom have specialized in composites and wind energy for many years and have deep familiarity with the manufacturing of wind blades.

 

    Collaborative dedicated supplier model. Our deeply collaborative dedicated supplier model engenders stable, long-term relationships with customers, driving capital efficiency and helping to insulate us from potential short-term fluctuations or legislative changes in any one market. Our collaborative approach to manufacturing wind blades to meet our customers’ unique specifications, coupled with their investment in model-specific tooling in our facilities, promotes significant customer loyalty and creates higher switching costs. Our focused factory model, in which we contractually dedicate production lines to a specific customer in exchange for their commitment to purchase minimum annual volumes, also serves to protect the confidentiality of our customers’ proprietary wind blade and turbine designs. Our ability to manufacture the model-specific tooling for our customers further strengthens our role as a “one stop shop” for our customers, provides an efficient solution to their wind blade supply needs and allows us to produce high-quality wind blades at a lower total delivered cost. We work to continue to drive down the cost of materials and production through innovation and global sourcing, the benefit of which we share with our customers contractually in a manner that reduces LCOE for the customer and improves our margins, further strengthening our deep customer relationships. We manufacture wind blades for four of the largest global wind turbine suppliers: GE Wind, Vestas, Gamesa and Nordex. According to data from MAKE, our customers represented approximately 42% of the global onshore wind energy market and approximately 63% of that market excluding China over the three years ended December 31, 2016, based upon MWs of energy installed. Additionally, our customers represented 99.8% of the U.S. onshore wind turbine market over the three years ended December 31, 2016, based on MWs of energy capacity installed.

 

   

Long-term supply agreements provide significant revenue visibility. In our collaborative dedicated supplier model, we enter into long-term supply agreements that provide significant incentives for our customers to maximize the volume of wind blades purchased, through increased pricing at lower volumes that contribute to profitability at minimum volume levels. As of April 28, 2017, our existing wind blade supply agreements provide for estimated minimum aggregate volume commitments of approximately $2.7 billion and encourage customers to purchase additional volume up to, in the aggregate, an estimated total contract value of approximately $4.2 billion through the end of 2023, which we believe provides us with significant future revenue visibility and helps to insulate us from potential short-term fluctuations or legislative changes in any one market due in part to the annual minimum purchase commitments of our customers contained in those agreements. These annual minimum purchase commitments generally require our customers to

 



 

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purchase a negotiated percentage of the manufacturing capacity that we have agreed to dedicate to them. Generally, this percentage begins at 100% and declines after the first few years pursuant to the terms of the supply agreement, but generally remains above 50%. It is our experience that our customers will generally order wind blades from us in a volume that exceeds the annual minimum purchase commitments in our supply agreements. Although certain of our supply agreements, including some of them with our majority customer, may be terminated by our customers by paying an early termination fee, we believe our strong relationships with leading global turbine OEMs, underpinned by these long-term supply agreements, provide significant stability and visibility into our future performance and growth.

 

    Compelling return on invested capital. We believe our highly efficient manufacturing processes and customer arrangements are critical to achieving compelling returns on invested capital. We manufacture our customers’ unique wind blade models at locations where we invest in the plant facility and equipment, while our customers invest alongside us by purchasing model-specific tooling from us or other sources. This focused factory model allows us to concentrate on efficient manufacturing practices and drives cost saving initiatives throughout our facilities. Moreover, our customer relationships and long-term supply agreements result in relatively low sales and marketing and other similar general expenses. The focused factory model is replicated in each of our wind blade manufacturing facilities and is key to our strategy to expand our footprint in specific markets.

 

    Experienced management team with a strong track record of delivering growth. Our senior management team has significant experience managing high growth, international operations. Over the course of the past decade, the team has successfully positioned us as the largest independent U.S.-based manufacturer of wind blades and has developed and deepened customer relationships with leading OEMs in the global wind energy market. At the same time, our team has built a global manufacturing network with nine wind blade factories and two precision molding and assembly systems facilities across three continents and has demonstrated the ability to enter new markets quickly and efficiently. Our executives are recognized as thought leaders in the wind energy industry and hold leadership positions in industry organizations, such as AWEA.

Business Strategy

Our long-term success will also be driven by our business strategy. The key elements of our business strategy are as follows:

 

   

Grow our existing relationships and develop new relationships with leading industry OEMs. We plan to continue growing and expanding our relationships with existing customers who, according to data from MAKE, represented approximately 42% of the global onshore wind energy market, approximately 63% of that market excluding China, and over 99.8% of the U.S. onshore wind turbine market over the three years ended December 31, 2016, based on MWs of energy capacity installed, as well as developing new relationships with other leading industry OEMs. We are presented with opportunities to expand our existing relationships and develop new relationships with industry OEMs as they seek to capitalize on the benefits of outsourced wind blade manufacturing while maintaining high quality customization and dedicated capacity. In 2016, we extended the term of our existing Iowa and Mexico supply agreements with GE Wind and entered into a new supply agreement with GE Wind to supply them with wind blades from our third manufacturing facility in Mexico, which became operational in January 2017. In March 2017, the Company and GE Wind announced that the parties do not intend to renew the Turkey supply agreement. In January 2016, we also entered into a new supply agreement with Gamesa whereby we will continue to supply wind blades to them from our existing manufacturing facility in Mexico as well as from our second Mexico manufacturing facility. We also extended the term of our

 



 

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existing Turkey supply agreement with Nordex and entered into a new supply agreement with Nordex to supply them with wind blades from our second manufacturing facility in Turkey. In January 2017, we extended the term of our existing China supply agreement with Vestas and also amended our existing Turkey supply agreement with Vestas. In March 2017, we entered into a long-term agreement with Gamesa to supply wind blades from one of our manufacturing facilities in Izmir, Turkey through 2022.

 

    Expand our footprint in large and growing wind markets, capitalize on the continuing outsourcing trend and evaluate strategic acquisitions. As the wind energy market continues to expand globally and many wind turbine OEMs continue to shift towards increased outsourcing of wind blade manufacturing, we believe we are well-positioned to continue the expansion of our global footprint. We utilize our strengths in composites technology and manufacturing, combined with our collaborative dedicated supplier model to provide our customers with an efficient solution for their expansion in large and growing wind markets. Our quality, reliability and total delivered cost reduce sourcing risk for our customers. In addition, our demonstrated ability to expand into new markets and the strength of our manufacturing capabilities afford us the optionality either to build new factories or grow through strategic acquisitions.

 

    Focus on continuing innovation. We have a history of innovation in advanced composite technologies and production techniques and use several proprietary technologies related to wind blade manufacturing. With this culture of innovation and a collaborative “design for manufacturability” approach, we continue to address increasing physical dimensions, demanding technical specifications and strict quality control requirements for our customers’ most advanced wind blades. We also invest in ongoing simplification and selective automation of production processes for increased efficiency and precision. In addition, we plan to leverage our history of composite industry-first innovations to grow our business in the transportation market, in which we believe there is a demand for high precision, structural composites manufacturing.

 

    Continue to drive down costs of wind energy . We continue to work with our customers on larger size wind blade models that maximize the capture of wind energy and drive down the levelized cost of energy. We also continue to utilize our advanced technology, regional manufacturing facilities strategically located to cost effectively serve large and growing wind markets and ability to source materials globally at competitive costs to deliver high-performing, composite wind blades at a lower total delivered cost. Our collaborative engineering approach and our advanced precision molding and assembly systems allow us to integrate our customer’s design requirements with cost-efficient, replicable and scalable manufacturing processes. We also continue to collaborate with our customers to drive down the cost of materials and production, the benefit of which we typically share with our customers contractually in a manner that reduces LCOE for customers, further strengthens our customer relationships and improves our margins.

Recent Developments

In April 2017, we entered into a multiyear supply agreement with Vestas to supply wind blades from two manufacturing lines at a new manufacturing facility that will be constructed in Matamoros, Mexico. We also granted Vestas an option to add additional manufacturing lines to the scope of the supply agreement. We expect that the manufacturing facility will open for production in the first half of 2018 and that the wind blades produced at this manufacturing facility will primarily serve wind markets in Mexico, Central America and South America.

 



 

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Risks Related to Our Business

Our business is subject to many risks and uncertainties of which you should be aware before you decide to invest in our common stock. These risks are discussed more fully under “Risk Factors” in this prospectus. Some of these risks include, but are not limited to, the following:

 

    GE’s acquisition of LM, our largest competitor, may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations and may cause the price of our common stock to decline.

 

    The results of the 2016 United States presidential and congressional elections has created regulatory uncertainty for our business and the wind energy sector, and may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

    A significant portion of our business is derived from a small number of customers, and one wind blade customer in particular, therefore any loss of or reduction in purchase orders, failure of these customers to fulfill their obligations or our failure to secure long-term supply agreement renewals from these customers would materially harm our business.

 

    Defects in materials and workmanship or wind blade failures could harm our reputation, expose us to product warranty or other liability claims, decrease demand for our wind blades, or materially harm existing or prospective customer relationships.

 

    We have experienced and could in the future experience quality or operational issues in connection with plant construction or expansion, wind blade model transition and wind blade manufacturing, which could result in losses and cause delays in our ability to complete our projects and may therefore materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

    Demand for our wind blades may fluctuate for a variety of reasons, including the growth of the wind industry, and decreases in demand could materially harm our business and may not be sufficient to support our growth strategy.

 

    We may not be able to manage our future growth effectively, which may materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

    We operate a substantial portion of our business in international markets and we may be unable to effectively manage a variety of currency, legal, regulatory, economic, social and political risks associated with our global operations and those in developing markets.

 

    Our financial position, revenue, operating results and profitability are difficult to predict and may vary from quarter to quarter, which could cause our share price to decline significantly.

Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company

We qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the JOBS Act). As an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of specified reduced disclosure and other requirements that are otherwise applicable generally to public companies. These provisions include:

 

    an exemption from compliance with the auditor attestation requirement on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting;

 



 

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    an exemption from compliance with any requirement that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board may adopt regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements;

 

    reduced disclosure about our executive compensation arrangements; and

 

    exemptions from the requirements to obtain a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation or a shareholder approval of any golden parachute arrangements.

We may take advantage of these exemptions for up to five years or such earlier time that we are no longer an emerging growth company. We would cease to be an emerging growth company on the date that is the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenues of $1.07 billion or more; (ii) the last day of our fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the completion of our initial public offering (IPO); (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three years; or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We may choose to take advantage of some but not all of these exemptions. We have taken advantage of reduced reporting requirements in this prospectus. Accordingly, the information contained herein may be different from the information you receive from other public companies in which you hold stock. We have irrevocably elected to “opt out” of the exemption for the delayed adoption of certain accounting standards and, therefore, will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

Company and Other Information

We were founded in 1968 and have been providing composite wind blades since 2001. Our knowledge and experience of composite materials and manufacturing originates with our predecessor company, Tillotson Pearson Inc., a leading manufacturer of high-performance sail and powerboats along with a wide range of composite structures used in other industrial applications. Following the separation from our boat building business in 2004, we reorganized in Delaware as LCSI Holding, Inc. and then changed our corporate name to TPI Composites, Inc. in 2008. Today, we are headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, and we have expanded our global footprint to include domestic facilities in Newton, Iowa; Fall River, Massachusetts; Warren, Rhode Island; and Santa Teresa, New Mexico and international facilities in Dafeng, China; Taicang Port, China; Taicang City, China; Juárez, Mexico; and Izmir, Turkey. Together, as of March 31, 2017, we have approximately 3.5 million square feet of manufacturing space and nearly 8,000 employees, including materials and process engineers, manufacturing process engineers, quality assurance personnel and production workers.

Our wind blade and precision molding and assembly systems manufacturing businesses accounted for over 99% of our total net sales for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and for each of the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014. We also leverage our advanced composite technology and history of innovation to supply high strength, lightweight and durable composite products to the transportation market. For a further discussion regarding our wind blade and precision molding and assembly system businesses, refer to the discussion in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations” included elsewhere in this prospectus.

In July 2016, we completed an initial public offering of 7,187,500 shares of our common stock at a price of $11.00 per share, which included 937,500 shares issued pursuant to the underwriters’ exercise of their option to purchase additional shares. Certain of our existing shareholders, a non-employee director and executive officers purchased an aggregate of 1,250,000 shares of common stock in the IPO included in the total issuance above. The net proceeds from the IPO were $67.2 million after deducting underwriting discounts and offering expenses. Immediately prior to the closing of the IPO, all shares of the then-outstanding redeemable preferred shares converted into an aggregate of 21,110,204 shares of common stock and the redeemable preferred share

 



 

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warrants converted on a net issuance basis into 120,923 shares of common stock. In addition, concurrent with the closing of the IPO, certain subordinated convertible promissory notes in the aggregate principal and interest amount of $11.9 million were converted into 1,079,749 shares of common stock at the public offering price of $11.00 per share.

Prior to the IPO, in July 2016 we amended our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to effect a 360-for-1 forward stock split of our common stock. As a result of the stock split, we have adjusted the share amounts authorized and issuable under our share-based compensation plans. All share and per share common stock information (including those related to our share-based compensation plans) referenced throughout the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto have been retroactively adjusted to reflect this stock split. The stock split did not cause an adjustment to the par value of the authorized shares of common stock.

Our principal executive offices are located at 8501 North Scottsdale Road, Gainey Center II, Suite 100, Scottsdale, Arizona 85253 and our telephone number is (480) 305-8910. Our website address is www.tpicomposites.com . The information contained on our website or that can be accessed through our website is not part of this prospectus, and investors should not rely on any such information in deciding whether to purchase our common stock.

This prospectus contains references to our trademarks. This prospectus contains additional trade names, trademarks and service marks of other companies. Those other trade names, trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. We do not intend our use or display of other companies’ trade names, trademarks or service marks to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, these other companies. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and trade names in this prospectus are referred to without the ® and ™ symbols, but such references should not be construed as any indicator that their respective owners will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, their rights thereto.

 



 

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THE OFFERING

 

Common stock offered by the selling stockholders

4,500,000 shares

 

Common stock to be outstanding immediately after this offering

33,736,863 shares

 

Option to purchase additional shares from the selling stockholders

The selling stockholders have granted the underwriters an option for a period of 30 days to purchase up to an additional 675,000 shares of common stock at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts.
 
 

 

Use of proceeds

The selling stockholders, which include certain of our executive officers, will receive all of the proceeds from the sale of shares in this offering. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares in this offering.

 

Concentration of Ownership

Upon the completion of this offering, our executive officers and directors and stockholders holding more than 5% of our capital stock, and their affiliates, will beneficially own, in the aggregate, approximately 68% of our outstanding shares of common stock.

 

Dividend Policy

We currently intend to retain earnings, if any, to finance the development and growth of our business and do not anticipate paying cash dividends on the common stock in the future.

 

NASDAQ trading symbol

“TPIC”

 

Risk factors

You should read “Risk Factors” beginning on page 18 and other information included in this prospectus for a discussion of factors that you should consider carefully before deciding to invest in our common stock.
 
 
 
 
 

The number of shares of common stock to be outstanding after this offering is based on 33,736,863 shares of common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2017 and excludes:

 

    3,309,818 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding options as of March 31, 2017 at a weighted-average exercise price of $12.72 per share;

 

    636,120 shares of common stock issuable upon the vesting of restricted stock units outstanding as of March 31, 2017;

 

    160,424 shares of our common stock reserved for issuance in connection with the exercise of our outstanding warrants to purchase common stock issued on December 29, 2014 (the Common Warrants) which we issued in connection with our subordinated convertible promissory notes issued in December 2014 (the Subordinated Convertible Promissory Notes); and

 



 

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    4,958,767 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our Amended and Restated 2015 Stock Option and Incentive Plan (the 2015 Plan) and which contains provisions that automatically increase its share reserve each year.

Except as otherwise indicated, all information in this prospectus:

 

    assumes no exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to an additional 675,000 shares of common stock from the selling stockholders in this offering; and

 

    assumes no exercise of the outstanding options described above.

 



 

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SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL AND OTHER DATA

We have derived the summary consolidated statements of operations data for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of March 31, 2017 from our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements were prepared on a basis consistent with our audited financial statements and include, in the opinion of management, all adjustments, consisting only of a normal recurring nature, that are necessary for a fair presentation of the financial information set forth in those statements. We have derived the summary consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 and the summary consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016 from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. The following summary consolidated financial and other data should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

    

Three Months Ended
March 31,

   

Year Ended December 31,

 
    

2017

   

2016

   

2016

   

2015

   

2014

 
     (unaudited)                    
     (in thousands, except per share data)  

Consolidated Statements of Operations Data:

          

Net sales

   $ 191,602     $ 176,110     $ 754,877     $ 585,852     $ 320,747  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cost of sales

     167,423       159,866       659,745       528,247       289,528  

Startup and transition costs

     6,159       3,306       18,127       15,860       16,567  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total cost of goods sold

     173,582       163,172       677,872       544,107       306,095  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Gross profit

     18,020       12,938       77,005       41,745       14,652  

General and administrative expenses

     8,306       4,749       33,892       14,126       9,175  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Income from operations

     9,714       8,189       43,113       27,619       5,477  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Other income (expense):

          

Interest income

     19       21       344       161       186  

Interest expense

     (3,026     (3,912     (17,614     (14,565     (7,236

Loss on extinguishment of debt

     —         —         (4,487     —         (2,946

Realized loss on foreign currency remeasurement

     (1,381     (439     (757     (1,802     (1,743

Miscellaneous income

     320       190       238       246       539  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total other expense

     (4,068     (4,140     (22,276     (15,960     (11,200
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Income (loss) before income taxes

     5,646       4,049       20,837       11,659       (5,723

Income tax provision

     (2,101     (2,303     (6,995     (3,977     (925
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income (loss)

     3,545       1,746       13,842       7,682       (6,648

Net income attributable to preferred shareholders (1)

     —         2,437       5,471       9,423       13,930  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income (loss) attributable to common shareholders

   $ 3,545     $ (691   $ 8,371     $ (1,741   $ (20,578
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Weighted-average common shares outstanding:

          

Basic (2)

     33,737       4,238       17,530       4,238       4,238  

Diluted (2)

     33,827       4,238       17,616       4,238       4,238  

Net income (loss) per common share:

          

Basic

   $ 0.11     $ (0.16   $ 0.48     $ (0.41   $ (4.86

Diluted

   $ 0.10     $ (0.16   $ 0.48     $ (0.41   $ (4.86

 



 

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Three Months Ended
March 31,

    

Year Ended December 31,

 
    

2017

    

2016

    

2016

    

2015

    

2014

 
     (unaudited)                       
     (in thousands, except other operating information)  

Other Financial Information:

              

Total billings (3)

   $ 211,360      $ 174,538      $ 764,424      $ 600,107      $ 362,749  

EBITDA (3)

   $ 12,482      $ 10,951      $ 55,491      $ 37,479      $ 11,714  

Adjusted EBITDA (3)

   $ 15,570      $ 11,390      $ 66,150      $ 39,281      $ 13,457  

Capital expenditures

   $ 16,922      $ 10,888      $ 30,507      $ 26,361      $ 18,924  

Total debt, net of debt issuance costs and discount

   $ 120,489      $ 131,163      $ 123,155      $ 129,346      $ 120,849  

Net debt (3)

   $ 7,095      $ 101,392      $ 6,379      $ 90,667      $ 87,547  

Other Operating Information:

              

Sets (4)

     636        486        2,154        1,609        966  

Estimated megawatts (5)

     1,460        1,113        4,920        3,595        2,029  

Dedicated manufacturing lines (6)

     44        38        44        34        29  

Total manufacturing lines installed (7)

     39        32        33        30        22  

Manufacturing lines in startup (8)

     9        —          3        10        9  

Manufacturing lines in transition (9)

     —          3        3        11        8  

 

(1) Represents the annual accrual of dividends on our convertible and senior redeemable preferred shares, the accretion to redemption amounts on our convertible preferred shares and warrant fair value adjustments. Immediately prior to the closing of the IPO, all preferred shares were converted into shares of our common stock and as a result, the accrual of dividends ceased.

 

(2) For the three months ended March 31, 2017 and the year ended December 31, 2016, the weighted-average diluted shares outstanding include the conversion on a net issuance basis of our common warrants and the stock options issued under the 2008 Stock Option and Grant Plan. For the three months ended March 31, 2016 and the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, the weighted-average common shares outstanding are the same under the basic and diluted per share calculations since we had a net loss in each period presented.

 

(3) See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below for more information.

 

(4) Number of wind blade sets (which consist of three wind blades) invoiced worldwide in the period. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information.

 

(5) Estimated megawatts of energy capacity to be generated by wind blade sets invoiced in the period. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information.

 

(6) Number of manufacturing lines that are dedicated to our customers under long-term supply agreements. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information. Dedicated manufacturing lines may be greater than total manufacturing line capacity in instances where we have signed new supply agreements for manufacturing facilities that are under construction or have not yet been built. In April 2017, we entered into a multiyear supply agreement with Vestas to supply wind blades from two manufacturing lines in a new manufacturing facility in Matamoros, Mexico. See “Prospectus Summary—Recent Developments.”

 

(7) Number of manufacturing lines installed and either in operation, startup or transition. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information.

 



 

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(8) Number of manufacturing lines in a startup phase during the pre-production and production ramp-up periods. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information.

 

(9) Number of manufacturing lines that were being transitioned to a new wind blade model during the period. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information.

 

     March 31, 2017  
    

(unaudited)

 
     (in thousands)  

Consolidated Balance Sheet Data

  

Cash and cash equivalents

   $ 115,541  

Total assets

     477,941  

Total debt, net of debt issuance costs and discount

     120,489  

Total liabilities

     365,875  

Total shareholders’ equity

     112,066  

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to providing results that are determined in accordance with GAAP, we have provided certain financial measures that are not in accordance with GAAP. Total billings, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and net debt are non-GAAP financial measures. We define total billings as the total amounts we have invoiced our customers for products and services for which we are entitled to payment under the terms of our long-term supply agreements or other contractual agreements. Under GAAP, we do not recognize revenue on our wind blade sales until they have been delivered to our customers. In many cases, customers request us to store their wind blades for a period of time after we have invoiced them. The revenues associated with these transactions are deferred and recognized upon delivery but we are contractually entitled to payment for those wind blades and, accordingly, invoice them when the blades are placed in storage.

We define EBITDA as net income (loss) attributable to the Company plus interest expense (including losses on the extinguishment of debt and net of interest income), income taxes and depreciation and amortization.

We define adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA plus any share-based compensation expense, plus or minus any realized gains or losses from foreign currency remeasurement.

We define net debt as the total principal amount of debt outstanding less unrestricted cash and cash equivalents. The total principal amount of debt outstanding is comprised of the long-term debt and current maturities of long-term debt as presented in our consolidated balance sheets adjusting for any debt issuance costs and discount.

Our use of total billings, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and net debt have limitations, and you should not consider total billings, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA or net debt in isolation from or as a substitute for measures such as net sales, net income (loss) or total debt, net of debt issuance costs and discount reported under GAAP. See the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used by Management to Measure Performance” for the related reconciliations of total billings, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and net debt.

 



 

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RISK FACTORS

An investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully the following risks and other information contained in this prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before you decide whether to buy our common stock. If any of the events contemplated by the following discussion of risks should occur, our business, results of operations, financial condition and growth prospects could suffer significantly. As a result, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of the money you paid to buy our common stock. The risks below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks that we currently do not know about or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also impair our business. Certain statements below are forward-looking statements. See “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in this prospectus.

Risks Related to Our Wind Blade Business

GE’s acquisition of LM Wind Power, our largest competitor, may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations and may cause the price of our common stock to decline.

In April 2017, GE completed its acquisition of LM Wind Power, our largest competitor. We currently have entered into five supply agreements with GE Wind providing for the supply of wind blades from our Iowa facility; two Juárez, Mexico facilities; our original Turkey facility; and our Taicang Port, China facility. In October 2016, we entered into (i) an amended and restated supply agreement for the continued supply of wind blades from our Iowa facility through December 31, 2020, (ii) an amendment to our existing supply agreement for the continued supply of wind blades from our original Juárez, Mexico facility through December 31, 2020 and (iii) a new supply agreement with GE Wind for the supply of incremental wind blades from our second manufacturing facility in Juárez, Mexico through December 31, 2020. Although we recently extended and expanded certain of our supply agreements, GE Wind may decide to utilize LM for more of its wind blade production as a result of the acquisition of LM. As such, GE Wind may not continue to purchase wind blades from us at similar volumes or on as favorable terms in the future. In addition, our current supply agreements with GE Wind for the supply of wind blades from our Turkey and Taicang, China facilities expire on December 31, 2017. In March 2017, the Company announced that it does not intend to renew the Turkey supply agreement with GE Wind, and GE Wind or the Company may elect not to renew the China supply agreement. GE Wind also may elect to terminate our Iowa supply agreement at the end of 2018 or 2019 by providing us with 12 months’ advance notice and paying us a specified termination fee. GE Wind may also elect to terminate our two Mexico supply agreements with 15 days’ notice and pay us a termination fee. If GE Wind elects to utilize LM for more of its wind blade production, reduce the volumes of wind blades it purchases from us or terminates any of our supply agreements, it may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, GE Ventures Limited (GE Ventures), a GE affiliated company, owns 8.4% of our outstanding common stock as of March 31, 2017. GE Ventures’ lock-up agreement with our IPO underwriters expired on January 17, 2017 and as a result of GE’s recent acquisition of LM, GE Ventures may be more inclined to sell all or a portion of its shares of our common stock. If GE Ventures sells all or a portion of its holdings of our common stock pursuant to Rule 144 or otherwise, it may cause the price of our common stock to decline.

The results of the 2016 United States presidential and congressional elections has created regulatory uncertainty for our business and the wind energy sector and may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

U.S. President Trump, certain members of the U.S. Congress, and key U.S. administrative officials and policy makers have suggested renegotiation of The North American Free Trade Agreement and the implementation of tariffs, duties, border taxes or other similar assessments that could impact the level of trade between the U.S. and Mexico. President Trump also has publicly stated that he may seek to impose tariffs, duties,

 

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border taxes or other similar assessments on products imported from China. A substantial amount of the wind blades that we manufacture in our Mexico and China facilities are imported into the United States. If any such tariffs, duties, border taxes or other assessments are imposed on our wind blades that are imported into the United States, it would increase the total cost of our wind blades and may decrease demand for our wind blades. In addition, we may not be able to fully pass on the added cost of such tariffs, taxes, duties or assessments to our customers and may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

President Trump also has made comments during his presidency and the presidential campaign suggesting that he is not supportive of various clean energy programs and initiatives designed to curtail global warming. In March 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that requires, among other things, that the EPA withdraw the Clean Power Plan and draft new regulations to replace it. It remains unclear what impact, if any, this executive order will have on the demand for wind energy domestically and internationally. In addition, it remains unclear what specifically President Trump would or would not do with respect to these programs and initiatives, and what support he would have for any potential changes to such legislative programs and initiatives in the Unites States Congress, even though both the House of Representatives and Senate are controlled by the Republican Party. If President Trump and/or the United States Congress take action or publicly speak out about the need to eliminate, modify or further reduce the PTC, the Clean Power Plan or other legislation, regulations and incentives supporting wind energy, such actions may result in a decrease in demand for wind energy in the United States and other geographical markets and may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

A significant portion of our business is derived from a small number of customers, and one wind blade customer in particular, therefore any loss of or reduction in purchase orders, failure of these customers to fulfill their obligations or our failure to secure long-term supply agreement renewals from these customers would materially harm our business.

Substantially all of our revenues are derived from four wind blade customers. One customer, GE Wind, accounted for 44.3%, 50.3%, 53.3% and 73.2% of our total net sales for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. In addition, Vestas, Nordex and Gamesa accounted for 23.2%, 17.5% and 13.7% of our net sales for the three months ended March 31, 2017, respectively, and 20.1%, 17.5% and 10.8% of our net sales for the year ended December 31, 2016, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2015, two customers, Nordex and Gamesa, accounted for 26.5% and 10.3% of our net sales, respectively. Accordingly, we are substantially dependent on continued business from our current wind blade customers, and GE Wind in particular. GE Wind and other customers may not continue to purchase wind blades from us at similar volumes or on as favorable terms in the future. See “GE’s acquisition of LM Wind Power, our largest competitor, may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations and may cause the price of our common stock to decline.” If GE Wind or one or more of our other wind blade customers were to reduce or delay wind blade orders, fail to pay amounts due or satisfactorily perform their respective contractual obligations with us or otherwise terminate or fail to renew their long-term supply agreements with us, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially harmed.

Defects in materials and workmanship or wind blade failures could harm our reputation, expose us to product warranty or other liability claims, decrease demand for our wind blades, or materially harm existing or prospective customer relationships.

Defects in our wind blades, whether caused by a design, engineering, materials, manufacturing or component failure or deficiencies in our manufacturing processes, are unpredictable and an inherent risk in manufacturing technically advanced products. We have, in the past, experienced wind blade testing failures and defects at some of our facilities during the startup manufacturing phase of new products, and we may experience failures or defects in the future. We have also experienced wind blade failures in the field. Any such customer qualification and wind blade testing failures or other product defects in the future could materially harm our existing and prospective customer relationships. Specifically, negative publicity about the quality of our wind

 

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blades or defects in the wind blades supplied to our customers could result in a reduction in wind blade orders, increased warranty claims, product liability claims and other damages or termination of our long-term supply agreements or business relationships with current or new customers. In addition, we have recently started wind blade production at new facilities in Turkey and Mexico which may expose us to greater risk of warranty claims as these facilities ramp up to serial production levels.

We may determine that resolving potential warranty claims through a negotiated settlement may be in the best interest of the business and long-term customer relationships. For example, in June 2016, we entered into a settlement agreement and release with Nordex relating to the April 2015 wind blade failure. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Other Contingencies” for more information. Wind blades may also fail due to lightning strikes or other extreme weather, which could also result in negative publicity regarding our wind blades and wind energy in general. In addition, product defects may require costly repairs or replacement components, a change in our manufacturing processes or recall of previously manufactured wind blades, which could result in significant expense and materially harm our existing or prospective customer relationships. Further, defects or product liability claims, with or without merit, may result in negative publicity that could harm our future sales and our reputation in the industry. Any of the foregoing could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

We have experienced, and could in the future experience, quality or operational issues in connection with plant construction or expansion, wind blade model transitions and wind blade manufacturing, which could result in losses and cause delays in our ability to complete our projects and may therefore materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We dedicate most of the capacity of our current wind blade manufacturing facilities to existing customers and, as a result, we may need to build additional manufacturing capacity or facilities to serve the needs of new customers or expanded needs of existing customers. We recently entered into lease agreements with third parties to lease new manufacturing facilities in Mexico and Turkey, and commenced operations at these new facilities in the third quarter of 2016. We have also entered into a new lease with a third party for a third manufacturing facility in Juárez, Mexico, and we commenced operations at this facility in January 2017. The construction of new plants and the expansion of existing plants involves significant time, cost and other risks. We expect our plants to generate losses in their first 12 to 24 months of operations related to production startup costs. Additionally, numerous factors can contribute, and have in the past contributed, to delays or difficulties in the startup of, or the adoption of our manufacturing lines to produce larger wind blade models, which we refer to as model transitions, in our manufacturing facilities, including permitting, construction or renovation delays, the engineering and fabrication of specialized equipment, the modification of our general production know-how and customer-specific manufacturing processes to address the specific wind blades to be tested and built, changing and evolving customer specifications and expectations and the hiring and training of plant personnel. If our production or the delivery by any third-party suppliers of any custom equipment is delayed, the construction or renovation of the facility, or the addition of the production line would be delayed. Any delays or difficulties in plant startup or expansion may result in cost overruns, production delays, contractual penalties, loss of revenues and impairment of customer relationships, which could materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our long-term supply agreements with our customers are subject to termination on short notice and our failure to perform our obligations under these agreements or the termination of agreements would materially harm our business.

Our current long-term supply agreements expire between the end of 2017 and the end of 2023. Some of our long-term supply agreements contain provisions that allow for the termination of those agreements upon the customer providing us with 92 to 365 days’ advance written notice or, in two instances, upon no advance notice, or upon a material breach that goes uncured for up to 15 to 30 days. Additionally, our long-term supply agreements contain provisions allowing our customers to terminate these agreements upon our failure to deliver

 

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the contracted wind blade volumes or our failure to meet certain mutually agreed upon cost reductions. Our customers may not continue to maintain long-term supply agreements with us in the future. If one or more of our customers terminate or fail to renew their long-term supply agreements with us, it would materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We operate in an industry characterized by changing customer demands and associated transition costs, which could materially harm our business.

The wind energy industry is competitive and is characterized by evolving customer demands. As a result, we must adapt quickly to customer requests for changes to wind blade specifications, which increases our costs and can provide periods of reduced revenue and margins. For instance, in 2015 in order to satisfy GE Wind’s need for bigger wind turbines with larger wind blades, at GE Wind’s request, we implemented model transitions at our U.S., China, Mexico and Turkey facilities, resulting in unplanned delays in wind blade production and associated transition costs at each of these facilities. We expect to have five to six lines in transition during 2017. We are generally able to share transition costs with the customer in connection with these changing customer demands, but any sharing is the subject of negotiation and the amount is not always contractually defined. If we do not receive transition payments from our customers sufficient to cover our transition costs or lost margins, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially harmed.

The concentration of customers in our wind business could enable one or more of our customers to attempt to substantially influence our policies, business and affairs going forward.

Our dependence on four wind blade customers, and GE Wind in particular, for substantially all of our revenues could encourage GE Wind or these customers to attempt to impose new or additional requirements on us that reduce the profitability of our long-term supply agreements with them or otherwise influence our policies, choice of and arrangements with raw material suppliers and other aspects of our business. Our customers could also attempt to influence the outcome of a corporate transaction if the transaction benefits a customer’s competitor or is otherwise perceived as not advantageous to a customer, which could have the effect of delaying, deterring, or preventing a transaction that could benefit us. In addition, consolidation of some of our customers may result in increased customer concentration and the potential loss of customers. For example, GE Wind acquired Alstom S.A.’s power business in 2015, Nordex completed its acquisition of Acciona in April 2016 and Siemens A.G. (Siemens) and Gamesa completed the merger of Siemens Wind Power with Gamesa in April 2017. Although we are not constrained by any exclusivity agreements with any of our existing wind blade customers, they may resist our development of new customer relationships, which could affect our relationships with them or our ability to secure new customers.

Demand for our wind blades may fluctuate for a variety of reasons, including the growth of the wind industry, and decreases in demand could materially harm our business and may not be sufficient to support our growth strategy.

Our revenues, business prospects and growth strategy heavily depend on the continued growth of the wind industry and our customers’ continuing demand for our wind blades. Customer demand could decrease from anticipated levels due to numerous factors outside of our control that may affect the development of the wind energy market generally, portions of the market or individual wind project developments, including:

 

    general economic conditions;

 

    the general availability and demand for electricity;

 

    wind energy market volatility;

 

    cost-effectiveness, availability and reliability of alternative sources of energy and competing methods of producing electricity, including non-renewable sources such as natural gas;

 

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    foreign, federal and state governmental subsidies and tax or regulatory policies;

 

    the availability of financing for wind development projects;

 

    the development of electrical transmission infrastructure and the ability to implement a proper grid connection for wind development projects;

 

    foreign, federal and state laws and regulations regarding avian protection plans, noise or turbine setback requirements and other environmental laws and regulations;

 

    administrative and legal challenges to proposed wind development projects; and

 

    public perception and localized community responses to wind energy projects.

In addition to factors affecting the wind energy market generally, our customers’ demand may also fluctuate based on other factors beyond our control. Any decline in customer demand below anticipated levels could materially harm our revenues and operating results and could delay or impede our growth strategy.

Changes in customers’ business focus and strategy could materially harm our business and results of operations.

Changes in our customers’ business focus could significantly reduce their demand for wind blades. For instance, GE, the parent corporation of GE Wind, is a highly diversified company that operates in a number of different industries and could decide to devote more resources to operations outside of wind energy or cease selling wind turbines altogether. In addition, we expect that GE Wind will utilize LM for a substantial percentage of its wind blade production in the future. If any of our customers change their business focus, including a strategic shift to insource a material portion of its wind blade production requirements, it could materially harm our business and results of operations.

We have experienced in the past, and our future wind blade production could be affected by, operating problems at our facilities, which may materially harm our operating results and financial condition.

Our wind blade manufacturing processes and production capacity have in the past been, and could in the future be, disrupted by a variety of issues, including:

 

    production outages to conduct maintenance activities that cannot be performed safely during operations;

 

    prolonged power failures or reductions;

 

    breakdowns, failures or substandard performance of machinery and equipment;

 

    our inability to comply with material environmental requirements or permits;

 

    inadequate transportation infrastructure, including problems with railroad tracks, bridges, tunnels or roads;

 

    damage or production delays caused by earthquakes, fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, extreme weather conditions such as windstorms, hailstorms, drought, temperature extremes, typhoons or other natural disasters or terrorism; and

 

    labor unrest.

 

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The cost of repeated or prolonged interruptions, reductions in production capacity, or the repair or replacement of complex and sophisticated tooling and equipment may be considerable and could result in damages under or the termination of our long-term supply agreements or penalties for regulatory non-compliance, any of which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

We operate a substantial portion of our business in international markets and we may be unable to effectively manage a variety of currency, legal, regulatory, economic, social and political risks associated with our global operations and those in developing markets.

We currently operate manufacturing facilities in the United States, China, Mexico and Turkey, and we intend to further expand our operations worldwide to meet customer demand. We recently entered into lease agreements with third parties to lease new manufacturing facilities in Mexico and Turkey, and commenced operations at these new facilities in the third quarter of 2016. We have also entered into a new lease with a third party for a third manufacturing facility in Juárez, Mexico, and we commenced operations at this facility in January 2017. For the three months ended March 31, 2017 and for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, 76%, 75%, 74% and 55%, respectively, of our net sales were derived from our international operations and we expect that a substantial portion of our projected revenue growth will be derived from those operations. Our overall success depends, in part, upon our ability to succeed in differing legal, regulatory, economic, social and political conditions. The global nature of our operations is subject to a variety of risks, including:

 

    difficulties in staffing and managing multiple international locations;

 

    increased exposure to foreign currency exchange rate risk or currency exchange controls imposed by foreign countries;

 

    the risk of import, export and transportation regulations and tariffs on foreign trade and investment, including boycotts and embargoes;

 

    taxation and revenue policies or other restrictions, including royalty and tax increases, retroactive tax claims and the imposition of unexpected taxes, including border adjustable taxes;

 

    the imposition of, or rapid or unexpected adverse changes in, foreign laws, regulatory requirements or trade policies;

 

    restrictions on repatriation of earnings or capital or transfers of funds into or out of foreign countries;

 

    limited protection for intellectual property rights in some jurisdictions;

 

    inability to obtain adequate insurance;

 

    difficulty administering internal controls and legal and compliance practices in countries with different cultural norms and business practices;

 

    the possibility of being subjected to the jurisdiction of foreign courts in connection with legal disputes and the possible inability to subject foreign persons to the jurisdiction of courts in the United States;

 

    the misinterpretation of local contractual terms, renegotiation or modification of existing long-term supply agreements and enforcement of contractual terms in disputes before local courts;

 

    the inability to maintain or enforce legal rights and remedies at a reasonable cost or at all; and

 

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    the potential for political unrest, expropriation, nationalization, revolution, war or acts of terrorism in countries in which we operate.

In particular, our operations in China are subject to a variety of specific risks, which may adversely affect our business, including:

 

    the promotion by the Chinese government of indigenous businesses, through the implementation of favorable tax, lending, purchasing and other programs and through local content requirements (which require that wind turbine equipment purchased for wind farm projects in China contain at least a majority of locally-made components) and the uncertainty and inconsistency in the promotion of foreign investment and enterprise in China;

 

    the deterioration of the diplomatic and political relationships between the United States and China resulting from such factors as the opposition of the United States to censorship and other policies of the Chinese government, China’s growing trade surpluses with the United States and the potential introduction by the United States of trade restrictions that would impact Chinese imports and any retaliatory measures that could ensue;

 

    the uncertainty of the Chinese legal regime generally, and in particular in protecting intellectual property and contractual rights, in securing future land use rights, and the recent adoption of new labor, environmental and tax laws, the impacts of which are not yet fully understood; and

 

    various restrictions on our ability to repatriate profits from China to other jurisdictions. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to our Business as a Whole—We may have difficulty making distributions and repatriating earnings from our Chinese manufacturing operations, which may also occur in some of our other locations.”

We also operate in developing markets, which have, in the past, experienced, and may in the future experience, social and political unrest. For example, Turkey has experienced problems with domestic terrorist and ethnic separatist groups and attempted military coups. The issue of civil rights for Kurdish citizens remains a potential source of political instability, which may be exacerbated by continuing instability in the Middle East.

In addition, Juárez, Mexico, the location of our three Mexico manufacturing facilities, has in the past been subject to violence related to drug trafficking, including kidnappings and killings. This could negatively impact our ability to hire and retain personnel, especially senior U.S. managers, to continue to work at these facilities, or disrupt our operation in other ways, which could materially harm our business.

As we continue to operate our business globally, our success will depend, in part, on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these and other related risks. We may be unsuccessful in developing and implementing policies and strategies that will be effective in managing these risks in each country where we do business or conduct operations. Our failure to manage these risks successfully could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Although a majority of our manufacturing facilities are located outside the United States, our business is still heavily dependent upon the demand for wind energy in the United States and any downturn in demand for wind energy in the United States could materially harm our business.

We have developed a global footprint to serve the growing wind energy market worldwide and have wind blade manufacturing facilities in the United States, China, Mexico and Turkey. Although a majority of our manufacturing facilities are located outside of the United States, historically more than half of the wind blades that we produced were deployed in wind farms located within the United States. Our Iowa and Mexico manufacturing facilities manufacture wind blades that are generally deployed within the United States. In

 

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addition, we export wind blades from our China manufacturing facility to the United States. Demand for wind energy and our wind blades in the United States could be adversely affected by a variety of reasons and factors, and any downturn in demand for wind energy and our wind blades in the United States could materially harm our business.

Our focus on wind energy markets in a limited number of geographic areas could result in a material harm to our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The wind energy industry continues to be dependent on developments within a relatively small number of markets and we have developed our global manufacturing footprint and long-term growth strategy to serve these markets. We cannot assure you that these wind energy markets will continue to demand increasing amounts of wind energy going forward. For example, the connection or access of wind turbines to a power grid is very important when locating wind turbines. In each of these markets, there are various laws, rules or regulations that govern the connection or access of wind turbines to the power grid. If the customers of our customers fail to obtain a connection or access to power grids on a timely basis and on economically reasonable terms and enter agreements to sell the electrical energy generated or the number of MW hours that any of these markets consumes declines, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially harmed. In addition, if one of those markets does not develop in line with our expectations, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially harmed.

We may not achieve the long-term growth we anticipate if wind turbine OEMs do not continue to shift from in-house production of wind blades to outsourced wind blade suppliers and if we do not expand our customer relationships and add new customers.

Many wind turbine OEMs rely on in-house production of wind blades for some or all of their wind turbines. Our growth strategy depends in large part on the continued expansion of our relationships with our current wind blade customers, and the addition of new key customers. The majority of our customers possess the financial, engineering and technical capabilities to produce their own wind blades and many source wind blades from multiple suppliers. Our existing customers may not expand their wind energy operations or, if they do, they may not choose us to supply them with new or additional quantities of wind blades. Our collaborative dedicated supplier model for the manufacture of wind blades is a significant departure from traditional vertically integrated methods. As is typical for rapidly evolving industries, customer demand for new business models is highly uncertain. For instance, although we have entered into long-term supply agreements with three customers, Vestas, Gamesa (which, in April 2017, merged with Siemens Wind Power) and Nordex, that also produce wind blades for their wind turbines in-house, we may not be able to maintain these customer relationships or enter into similar arrangements with new customers that produce wind blades in-house in the future. In addition, although GE Wind has historically outsourced all of their wind blade production requirements, we expect that GE Wind will utilize LM for a substantial percentage of its wind blade production in the future. Our business and growth strategies depend in large part on the continuation of the trend toward outsourcing manufacturing. If that trend does not continue or we are unsuccessful in persuading wind turbine OEMs to shift from in-house production to the outsourcing of their wind blade manufacturing, we may not achieve the long-term growth we anticipate and our market share could be limited.

A drop in the price of energy sources other than wind energy, or our inability to deliver wind blades that compete with the price of other energy sources, may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We believe that a customer’s decision to purchase wind blades is to a significant degree driven by the relative cost of electricity generated by wind turbines compared to the applicable price of electricity from the utility grid and the cost of traditional and other renewable energy sources. Decreases in the prices of electricity from the relevant utility grid or from renewable energy sources other than wind energy would harm the market for wind blades. In particular, a drop in natural gas prices could lessen the appeal of wind-generated electricity.

 

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Technological advancements or the construction of a significant number of power generation plants, including nuclear, coal, natural gas or power plants utilizing other renewable energy technologies, government support for other forms of renewable energy or construction of additional electric transmission and distribution lines could reduce the price of electricity produced by competing methods, thereby making the purchase of wind blades less attractive to customers economically. For example, in March 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that is intended to promote the domestic coal industry, which may make the cost of electricity generated from coal more cost competitive. The ability of energy conservation technologies, public initiatives and government incentives to reduce electricity consumption or support other forms of renewable energy could also lead to a reduction in the price of electricity, which would undermine the attractiveness of wind turbines, and, in turn, our wind blades. If prices for electricity generated by wind turbines are not competitive, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially harmed.

If any precision molding and assembly systems needed for our manufacturing process contains a defect or is not fabricated and delivered in a timely manner, our ongoing manufacturing operations, business, financial condition and results of operation may be materially harmed.

We custom fabricate many of the precision molding and assembly systems used in our facilities. Our customers also have the option of using third-party manufacturers to produce their custom tooling. If any piece of equipment fails, is determined to produce nonconforming or defective products or is not fabricated and delivered in a timely manner, whether produced by us or a third party, our wind blade production could be interrupted and we could be subject to contractual penalties, warranty claims, loss of revenues and damage to our customer relationships, among other consequences.

Our long-term supply agreements and our backlog are subject to reduction within contractual parameters and we may not realize all of the expected revenue.

Our current long-term wind blade supply agreements generally establish annual purchase requirements on which we rely for our future production and financial forecasts. However, the timing and volume of purchases, within certain parameters, may be subject to change by our customers. In some instances, our customers have the contractual right to require us to reduce the number of manufacturing lines committed to them and correspondingly reduce their minimum annual purchase requirements. Additionally, our minimum annual purchase commitments could potentially understate the actual net sales that we are likely to generate in a given period or periods if all of our long-term supply agreements remain in place and pricing remains materially unchanged. Such minimum annual purchase requirements could also potentially overstate the actual net sales that we are likely to generate in a given period or periods if one or more of our long-term supply agreements were to be terminated by our customers for any reason. As a result, we may not realize the revenue we expect under our long-term supply agreements or pursuant to our backlog, which we define as the value of purchase orders received less the revenue recognized to date on those purchase orders. In addition, fulfillment of our backlog may not result in profits.

The long sales cycle involved in attracting new customers may make the timing of our revenue difficult to predict and may cause our operating results to fluctuate.

The complexity, expense and long-term nature of our supply agreements generally require a lengthy customer education, evaluation and approval process. It can take us from several months to years to identify and attract new customers, if we are successful at all. This long sales cycle for attracting and retaining new customers subjects us to a number of significant risks that may materially harm our business, results of operation and financial condition over which we have limited control, including fluctuations in our quarterly operating results. In addition, we may incur substantial expenses and devote significant management effort to develop potential relationships that do not result in agreements or revenue and may prevent us from pursuing other opportunities.

 

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We encounter intense competition for limited customers from other wind blade manufacturers, as well as in-house production by wind turbine OEMs, which may make it difficult to enter into long-term supply agreements, keep existing customers and potentially get new customers.

We face significant competition from other wind blade manufacturers, and this competition may intensify in the future. The wind turbine market is characterized by a relatively small number of large OEMs. In addition, a significant percentage of wind turbine OEMs, including most of our current customers, produce some of their own wind blades in-house. As a result, we compete for business from a limited number of customers that outsource the production of wind blades. We also compete with a number of wind blade manufacturers in China, who are growing in terms of their technical capability and aspire to expand outside of China. Many of our competitors have more experience in the wind energy industry, as well as greater financial, technical or human resources than we do, which may limit our ability to compete effectively with them and maintain or improve our market share. Additionally, our long-term supply agreements dedicate capacity at our facilities to our customers, which may also limit our ability to compete if our facilities cannot accommodate additional capacity. If we are unable to compete effectively for the limited number of customers that outsource production of wind blades, our ability to enter into long-term supply agreements with potential new and existing customers may be materially harmed.

We could be affected by increasing competition from new and existing industry participants and industry consolidation.

The markets in which we operate are increasingly competitive and any failure on our part to compete effectively on an ongoing basis could materially harm our business, results of operations or financial condition. The key factors affecting competition in the wind energy industry are the capacity and quality of products, technology, price, the ability to fulfill local market requirements and the scope, cost and quality of maintenance services, training and support.

Competition in the wind energy industry has intensified in recent years as a result of a number of factors, including international expansion by existing industry participants exploiting new markets, particularly as political will around the issues of global warming and the environment become more prominent to the political agenda in those new markets. There has also been increasing pressure from Asian manufacturers rapidly improving the quality and reliability of their technologies, and considering moving out of their local markets and into international cross border transactions. Market entry by certain large industrial groups, including those previously unconnected to the wind energy market, through acquisitions and license agreements and numerous greenfield establishments in certain markets, also poses a competition risk.

The competitive environment in the wind energy industry may become more challenging in the years ahead, particularly in the event of greater consolidation in the industry, leading to greater market power and “economies of scale” by such market players which translate into being able to offer greater “cost of energy” savings to wind power plant customers. For example, GE completed its acquisition of LM in April 2017 and also acquired Alstom S.A.’s power business in 2015; Nordex completed its acquisition of Acciona in June 2016, and Gamesa merged with Siemens Wind Power in April 2017. These transactions or further consolidation in the wind energy industry may have an adverse impact on our business in the future, including, without limitation, reduced demand for our products and services, product innovation, changes in pricing and similar factors, including any competitor’s attempt to duplicate our collaborative dedicated supplier model. Such events could materially harm our business, results of operations, financial condition or prospects.

Significant increases in the prices of raw materials or components that cannot be reflected in the price of our products could negatively affect our operating margins.

The prices of our raw materials and components are subject to price fluctuations resulting from volatility of supply and demand in world markets. Under our long-term supply agreements, our customers generally commit to purchase minimum annual volumes and prices for wind blades are generally set as of the

 

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date of our supply agreements and adjusted annually, or in some cases more frequently, for the cost of raw material and our operating expenses in certain cases. As a result, the competitive nature of the wind blade market and our long-term supply agreements with our customers may delay or prevent us from passing cost increases in raw materials and components on to our customers. Significant increases in the price of raw materials or components used in our manufactured wind blades that cannot be reflected in the price of our products, could negatively affect our operating margins and materially harm our business, operating results or financial condition.

We could experience shortages of raw materials or components critical to our manufacturing needs, which may hinder our ability to perform under our supply agreements.

We rely upon third parties for raw materials, such as fiberglass, carbon, resins, foam core and balsa wood, and various components for the manufacture of our wind blades. Some of these raw materials and components may only be purchased from a limited number of suppliers. For example, balsa wood is only grown and produced in a limited number of geographies and is only available from a limited number of suppliers. Additionally, our ability to purchase the appropriate quantities of raw materials is constrained by our customers’ transitioning wind blade designs and specifications. As a result, we maintain relatively low inventory and acquire raw materials and components as needed. Due to significant international demand for these raw materials from many industries, we may be unable to acquire sufficient quantities or secure a stable supply for our manufacturing needs. If shortages or delays occur, we may be unable to provide our products to our customers on time, or at all. In addition, a disruption in any aspect of our global supply chain caused by transportation delays, customs delays, cost issues or other factors could result in a shortage of raw materials or components critical to our manufacturing needs. Any supply shortages, delays in the shipment of materials or components from third party suppliers, or changes in the terms on which they are available could disrupt or materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Certain of our long-term supply agreements are highly dependent upon a limited number of suppliers of raw materials.

Our ability to perform under certain of our long-term supply agreements is currently, and may continue to be in the future, highly dependent on a limited number of suppliers of raw materials. For instance, our agreements with certain customers require us or our customers to purchase raw materials from a single supplier unless additional suppliers are evaluated and found to satisfy the requirements set out in those agreements. In 2015, for example, our ability to supply wind blades to one of our customers was constrained because our customer, who under our agreement was required to procure a sufficient supply of a specific type of material, was unable to procure the material from a single source supplier. Should any of these suppliers of raw materials experience production delays or shortages, have their operations interrupted or otherwise cease or curtail their operations, this may disrupt or materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Significant increases in the cost of transporting our wind blades could negatively affect the demand for our products.

A significant portion of our customers’ costs are transportation costs related to the transport of our manufactured wind blades to their customers’ wind farms. Demand for our products could be negatively affected if the costs our customers bear to transport our wind blades increase.

The nature of our manufacturing processes and unanticipated changes to those processes could significantly reduce our manufacturing yields and product reliability, which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

The manufacture of our wind blades involves highly complex and precise processes which may be dictated by our customers’ requests requiring production in highly controlled environments. Changes in our

 

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manufacturing processes or that are required by our customers could affect product reliability. Furthermore, many of our processes are manual to facilitate production flexibility and compliance with customer requirements. A manually dependent manufacturing process can limit capacity and increase production costs. In some cases, existing manufacturing techniques may be insufficient to achieve the volume or cost targets of our customers. For example, our manufacturing processes may at times require a quantity of raw materials greater than the quantity for which we have contracted, making it difficult for us to achieve the targeted cost levels negotiated with our customers. In order to achieve targeted volume and cost levels, we may need to increase the quantity of raw materials for which we contract or develop new manufacturing processes and techniques. While we continue to devote substantial efforts to the improvement of our manufacturing techniques and processes, we may not achieve manufacturing volumes and cost levels in our manufacturing activities that will fully satisfy customer demands, which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our reserves for warranty expenses might not be sufficient to cover all future costs.

We provide warranties for all of our products, including parts and labor, for periods that typically range from two to five years depending on the product sold. If a wind blade is found to be defective during the warranty period as a result of a defect in workmanship or materials, or if we are required to cover remediation expenses or other potential remedies, in addition to our regular warranty coverage we may need to repair or replace the wind blade (which could include significant transportation, installation and erection costs) at our sole expense. Our estimate of warranty expense requires us to make assumptions about matters that are highly uncertain, including future rates of product failure, repair costs, shipping and handling and de-installation and re-installation costs at customers’ sites. Our assumptions could be materially different from the actual performance of our products and these remediation expenses in the future. The expenses associated with wind blade repair and remediation activities can be substantial and may include changes to our manufacturing processes. If our estimates prove materially incorrect, we could incur warranty expenses that exceed our reserves and be required to make material unplanned cash expenditures, which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

We may not be able to meet our customers’ future wind blade supply demands, which may hinder our customer relationships and reputation.

Historically, our existing customers’ demand and MW capacity goals have mirrored the anticipated growth of the wind energy industry. Given the importance of wind energy capture, turbine reliability and cost to power producers, the size, quality and performance of wind blades have become highly strategic to our OEM customers. If we are unable to maintain future manufacturing capacity at levels that meet our customers’ increasing demands, including with respect to volume, technical specifications, or commercial terms, our existing customers may seek relationships with, or give priority to, other wind blade manufacturers or may use or develop their own internal manufacturing capabilities to meet their increased demand, which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, our reputation could be materially harmed if we are unable to satisfy the requirements of our customers.

We rely on our research and development efforts to remain competitive, and we may fail to develop on a timely basis new wind blade manufacturing technologies that are commercially attractive or permit us to keep up with customer demands.

The market for wind blades is subject to evolving customer needs and expectations. Our research and development is invested in developing faster and more efficient manufacturing processes in order to build the new wind blades designed by our customers that more effectively capture wind energy and are adaptable to new growth segments of the wind energy market. Research and development activities are inherently uncertain and the results of our in-house research and development may not be successful. In addition, our competition may adopt more advanced technologies or develop wind blades that are more effective or commercially attractive. We believe that our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to be at the forefront of technological

 

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innovation in the wind energy industry and to rapidly and cost-effectively adapt our wind blade manufacturing processes to keep pace with changing technologies, new wind blade design and changing customer needs. If we are unable to do so, our business, operating results, financial condition and reputation could be materially harmed.

Many of our long-term supply agreements contain liquidated damages provisions, which may require us to make unanticipated payments to our customers.

Many of our long-term supply agreements contain liquidated damages provisions in the event that we fail to perform our obligations thereunder in a timely manner or in accordance with the agreed terms, conditions and standards. Our liquidated damages provisions generally require us to make a payment to the customer if we fail to deliver a product or service on time. We generally try to limit our exposure under any individual long-term supply agreement to a maximum penalty. Nevertheless, if we incur liquidated damages, they may materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

We depend on third parties for certain construction, maintenance, engineering, transportation, warehousing and logistics services, and failures of those third parties to perform their obligations may in turn impede our ability to perform our obligations.

We contract with third parties for certain services relating to the design, construction and maintenance of various components of our production facilities and other systems. If these third parties fail to comply with their obligations:

 

    we may experience delays in the completion of new facilities or expansion of existing facilities;

 

    the facilities may not operate as intended;

 

    we may be required to recognize impairment charges; or

 

    we could experience production delays, which could cause us to miss our production capacity targets and breach our long-term supply agreements, which could damage our relationships with our customers and subject us to contractual penalties and contract termination.

Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition. Our customers also contract with third parties for the transportation of the products we manufacture. In particular, a significant portion of the goods we manufacture are transported to different countries, which requires sophisticated warehousing, logistics and other resources. If our customers fail to contract with third parties for certain construction, maintenance, engineering, transportation, warehousing and logistics services, or there are any disruptions, delays or failures in these services, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.

Various legislation, regulations and incentives that are expected to support the growth of wind energy in the United States and around the world may not be extended or may be discontinued, phased out or changed, or may not be successfully implemented, which could materially harm wind energy programs and materially decrease demand for our wind blades.

The U.S. wind energy industry is dependent in part upon governmental support through certain incentives including federal tax incentives and renewable portfolio standard (RPS) programs and may not be economically viable absent such incentives. Government-sponsored tax incentive programs including the PTC, and to a lesser extent, the Investment Tax Credit, are expected to support the U.S. growth of wind energy. The PTC provided the owner of a wind turbine placed in operation before January 1, 2015 with a ten year credit against its U.S. federal income tax obligations based on the amount of electricity generated by the wind turbine.

 

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Although the PTC was extended in December 2015 for wind power projects through December 31, 2019, as currently contemplated, the PTC rate is being phased out over the term of the PTC extension. Specifically, as currently contemplated, the PTC will remain at the same rate in effect at the end of 2014 for wind power projects that commence construction by the end of 2016, and thereafter will be reduced by 20% per year in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

In 2015, the EPA enacted the Clean Power Plan, which is also intended to promote the growth of renewable energy. However, in February 2016, the United States Supreme Court issued a stay of the EPA’s implementation of the Clean Power Plan until the D.C. Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals reviews the merits of multiple lawsuits challenging the legality of the Clean Power Plan. If the Clean Power Plan is not successfully implemented, demand for our wind blades may be materially decreased. In addition, in March 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that requires, among other things, that the EPA review the Clean Power Plan and publish a rule to either suspend, revise or rescind it.

In addition, many state governments have adopted measures designed to promote wind energy. For example, according to AWEA, at the state level, as of December 31, 2016, 29 states, as well as the District of Columbia, have implemented RPS programs that mandate that a specific percentage of electricity sales in a state come from renewable energy within a specified period. However, RPS programs have been challenged lately and they may not continue going forward. These programs have spurred significant growth in the wind energy industry in the United States and a corresponding increase in the demand for our manufactured wind blades. However, although the U.S. government and several state governments have adopted these various programs that are expected to drive the growth of wind energy, they may approve new or additional programs that might hinder the wind energy industry and therefore negatively impact our business, operating results or financial condition. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Wind Blade Business—The results of the 2016 United States presidential and congressional elections has created regulatory uncertainty for our business and the wind energy sector and may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

China is currently implementing its 13 th 5-Year Plan with a goal of 15% energy from non-fossil fuel sources and targeting 210 GWs of grid-connected wind capacity by 2020, according to its National Development and Reform Commission, and employs preferential feed-in tariff schemes, in addition to local tax-based incentives. Mexico has established strict targets, aiming for 35% renewable energy by 2024 and 50% by 2050, according to MAKE, which it is facilitating through tax incentives. Large European Union members have renewable energy targets for 2020 of between 13% and 49% of all energy use derived from renewable energy sources, according to MAKE. Turkey enacted Law No. 5346 in 2005 to promote renewable-based electricity generation within its domestic electricity market by introducing tariffs and purchase obligations for distribution companies requiring purchases from certified renewable energy producers. The World Bank also provided to Turkey an aggregate of $600 million of loan proceeds to encourage investors to construct generation plants with renewable energy resources. These programs have spurred significant growth in the wind energy industry internationally and a corresponding increase in the demand for our manufactured wind blades. However, although foreign governments have adopted various programs that are expected to drive the growth of wind energy, they may approve new or additional programs going forward that might hinder the wind energy industry and therefore negatively impact our business as a result. For example, foreign governments may decide to reduce or eliminate these economic incentives for political, financial or other reasons. They may also favor other forms of energy, including current and new sources of energy such as solar, nuclear and hydropower.

Because of the long lead times necessary to develop wind energy projects, any uncertainty or delay in adopting, extending or renewing these incentives beyond their current or future expiration dates could negatively impact potential wind energy installations and result in industry volatility. There can be no assurance that the PTC, the Clean Power Plan or other governmental programs or subsidies for renewable energy will remain in effect in their present form or at all, and the elimination, reduction, or modification of these programs or subsidies could materially harm wind energy programs in the United States and international markets and materially decrease demand for our wind blades and, in turn, materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

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We may not be able to obtain, or agree on acceptable terms and conditions for, government tax credits, grants, loans and other incentives for which we have in the past applied or may in the future apply, which may materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

We have in the past and may in the future rely, in part, on tax credits, grants, loans and other incentives under U.S. and foreign governmental programs to support the construction of new plants and expansion of existing manufacturing facilities. We may not be successful in obtaining these tax credits, grants, loans and other incentives, and the tax and other incentives that have already been approved may not be continued in the future. Our ability to obtain funds or incentives from government sources is subject to the availability of funds under applicable governmental programs and approval of our applications to participate in these programs. The application process for these funds and other incentives is and will be highly competitive. We may not be able to satisfy the requirements and milestones imposed by the granting authority as conditions to receipt of the funds or other incentives, the timing of the receipt of the funds may not meet our needs, and, even if obtained, we may be unable to successfully execute on our business plan. Moreover, not all of the terms and conditions associated with these incentive funds have been disclosed to us, and once disclosed, there may be terms and conditions with which we are unable to comply or that are commercially unacceptable to us. Further, participation in certain programs may require us to notify the federal government of certain intellectual property we develop and comply with applicable regulations in order to protect our interests in that intellectual property. In addition, these federal governmental programs may require us to spend a portion of our own funds for every incentive dollar we receive or are permitted to borrow from the government and may impose time limits during which we must use the funds awarded to us that we may be unable to achieve. If we are unable to obtain or comply with the terms of these tax credits, grants, loans or other incentives, our business, operating results and financial condition may be harmed.

Adverse weather conditions could impact the wind energy industry in some regions and could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our business may be subject to fluctuations in sales volumes due to adverse weather conditions that could delay the erection of wind turbines, the installation of wind blades and the ability of wind turbines to generate electricity efficiently. Moreover, any remediation efforts we could be required to undertake pursuant to wind blade warranties could be delayed or otherwise adversely impacted by poor weather. Although our customer base and manufacturing footprint is geographically diversified, enduring weather patterns or seasonal variations may impact the expansion of the wind energy industry in certain regions. A resulting reduction or delay in demand for the wind blades we manufacture for our customers could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

In mid-2015, our Audit Committee conducted an internal investigation into allegations of improper business dealings in China. While the investigation did not substantiate the allegations, we ultimately terminated our former Senior Vice President—Asia, then serving as a consultant to the Company, in January 2016 for material violations of his agreements with us and of Company policies, which came to light subsequent to the completion of the internal investigation. Any misconduct that the initial investigation or our subsequent review of the activities of our former Senior Vice President—Asia failed to uncover could have a material adverse effect on our operations generally.

In June 2015, our Audit Committee was notified of allegations that, among other things, our former Senior Vice President—Asia requested personal compensation from suppliers in return for doing business with the Company in China and made excessive payments for capital expenditures. The Audit Committee directed a U.S.-based law firm, assisted by a forensic accounting firm and a law firm with local resources in China, to initiate an investigation into the conduct of the former Senior Vice President—Asia. Although the investigation did not uncover any illegal conduct, the investigation did not disprove the allegations. We subsequently accelerated the implementation of enhanced operational procedures, processes and controls relating to our China operations pursuant to recommendations arising out of the internal investigation and our review of our China operations. This process is currently ongoing.

 

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Although the results of the internal investigation were inconclusive regarding the allegations relating to our former Senior Vice President—Asia, in early August 2015, we entered into a transition agreement with our former Senior Vice President—Asia pursuant to which he transitioned out of his role as Senior Vice President—Asia at the end of 2015. Pursuant to the transition agreement, he was to serve in a consulting capacity to facilitate an orderly transition of operations in China through 2016 and 2017. In January 2016, we subsequently determined that our former Senior Vice President—Asia, then serving as a consultant to the Company, had materially violated the terms of the transition agreement, including the non-compete provisions, and had materially violated Company policies. Following our discovery of these violations, we terminated his consultancy for cause in January 2016 pursuant to the terms of the transition agreement and he is no longer associated with the Company. Subsequent to his termination, we found further evidence that our former Senior Vice President—Asia and three of his subordinates in China, who we also terminated in January 2016, likely engaged in improper conduct involving the misuse of funds in violation of Company policies.

Additional facts or allegations may exist that the internal investigation or our subsequent review did not uncover. The persons that our investigative teams interviewed may have omitted facts or may have been untruthful, and the investigative teams may not have had access to all relevant documents or persons relating to the subject of the investigation. If new evidence concerning the allegations is found in the future, or if new allegations are made or other similar issues arise or are uncovered, our Chinese operations could be materially disrupted, our suppliers and customers may cease to do business with us, our reputation in the marketplace may be materially harmed, we may be required to terminate additional key employees, and we may need to incur substantial legal and accounting costs in investigating and resolving these matters. If any of these risks materialize, we could be subject to fines, penalties, prosecution or other impacts, which could result in a decline in our stock price or materially and adversely affect our business, operating results, liquidity and financial condition.

Our long-term growth and success is dependent upon retaining our senior management and attracting and retaining qualified personnel.

Our growth and success depends to a significant extent on our ability to attract and retain highly qualified research and development, management, manufacturing, marketing and other key personnel including engineers in our various locations. In addition, we rely heavily on our management team, including Steven C. Lockard, our Chief Executive Officer; Mark R. McFeely, our Chief Operating Officer; William E. Siwek, our Chief Financial Officer; and other senior management. The inability to recruit and retain key personnel or the unexpected loss of key personnel may materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition. Hiring those persons may be especially difficult because of the specialized nature of our business and our international operations. If we cannot attract and retain qualified personnel, or if we lose the services of Messrs. Lockard, McFeely or Siwek, other key members of senior management or other key personnel, our ability to successfully execute our business plan, market and develop our products and serve our customers could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, because of our reliance on our management team, our future success depends, in part, on its ability to identify and develop talent to succeed its senior management. The retention of key personnel and appropriate senior management succession planning will continue to be critical to the successful implementation of our future strategies.

Risks Related to Our Business as a Whole

We may not be able to manage our future growth effectively, which may materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

We expect to continue to expand our business significantly to meet our current and expected future contractual obligations and to satisfy anticipated increased demand for our products. To manage our anticipated expansion, we believe we must scale our internal infrastructure, including establishing additional facilities, improve our operational systems and procedures and manufacturing capabilities, continue to enhance our

 

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compliance and quality assurance systems, train and manage our growing employee base, and retain and add to our current executives and management personnel. Rapid expansion of our operations could place a significant strain on our senior management team, support teams, manufacturing lines, information technology platforms and other resources. Difficulties in effectively managing the budgeting, forecasting and other process control issues presented by any rapid expansion could materially harm our business, prospects, results of operations or financial condition. Our inability to implement operational improvements, generate and sustain increased revenue and manage and control our cost of goods sold and operating expenses could impede our future growth and materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

We have a history of net losses and may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future.

We have a history of significant net losses, including a net loss of $6.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2014. For the three months ended March 31, 2017 and for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, we had net income of $3.5 million, $13.8 million and $7.7 million, respectively. As a result of past operating losses, the effect of redeemable preferred share cumulative dividends earned and the accretion to redemption amounts, we had an accumulated deficit of $180.0 million as of March 31, 2017. Although we were profitable for the three months ended March 31, 2017, we may not be able to achieve profitability for the current or any future fiscal year. In addition, we expect our operating expenses to increase as we continue to seek new customer relationships and expand our operations. Our ability to achieve and maintain profitability depends on a number of factors, including the growth rate of the wind energy industry, the competitiveness of our wind blades and our ability to successfully build new and expand existing manufacturing facilities and increase production capacity at existing plants. We may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including due to the other risks described elsewhere in this prospectus, and we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications and delays and other unknown events. In addition, as a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. As a result, our operations may not achieve profitability in the future and, even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to maintain or increase it.

Our financial position, revenue, operating results and profitability are difficult to predict and may vary from quarter to quarter, which could cause our share price to decline significantly.

Our quarterly revenue, operating results and profitability have varied in the past and are likely to vary significantly from quarter to quarter in the future. For example, our quarterly results have ranged from an operating profit of $17.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2016 to an operating loss of $2.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015. The factors that are likely to cause these variations include:

 

    operating and startup costs of new manufacturing facilities;

 

    wind blade model transitions;

 

    differing quantities of wind blade production, including the amount subject to storage arrangements;

 

    unanticipated contract or project delays or terminations;

 

    changes in the costs of raw materials or disruptions in raw material supply;

 

    scrap of defective products;

 

    warranty expense;

 

    availability of qualified personnel;

 

    employee wage levels;

 

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    costs incurred in the expansion of our existing manufacturing capacity;

 

    volume reduction requests from our customers pursuant to our customer agreements; and

 

    general economic conditions.

As a result, our revenue, operating results and profitability for a particular period are difficult to predict and may decline in comparison to corresponding prior periods regardless of the strength of our business. It is also possible that in some future periods our revenue, operating results and profitability may not meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors. If this occurs, the trading price of our common stock could fall substantially, either suddenly or over time, and our business, operating results and financial condition would be materially harmed.

The fluctuation of foreign currency exchange rates could materially harm our financial results.

Since we conduct a significant portion of our operations internationally, our business is subject to foreign currency risks, including currency exchange rate fluctuations. The exchange rates are affected by, among other things, changes in political and economic conditions. For example, an increase in our Turkey sales and operations will result in a larger portion of our net sales and expenditures being denominated in the Euro and Turkish Lira. Significant fluctuations in the exchange rate between the Turkish Lira and the U.S. dollar, the Turkish Lira and the Euro or the Euro and the U.S. dollar may adversely affect our revenue, expenses, as well as the value of our assets and liabilities. Similarly, an increase in our China sales and operations will result in a larger portion of our net sales and expenditures being denominated in Chinese Renminbi. The Chinese government controls the procedures by which the Chinese Renminbi is converted into other currencies, and conversion of the Chinese Renminbi generally requires government consent. As a result, the Chinese Renminbi may not be freely convertible into other currencies at all times. If the Chinese government institutes changes in currency conversion procedures, or imposes restrictions on currency conversion, those actions may materially harm our business, liquidity, financial condition and operating results. In addition, significant fluctuations in the exchange rate between the Chinese Renminbi and U.S. dollars may adversely affect our expenses as well as the value of our assets and liabilities. To the extent our future revenues are generated outside of the United States in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, including the Euro, the Turkish Lira, the Chinese Renminbi or Mexican Peso, among others, we will be subject to increased risks relating to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations which could materially harm our business, financial condition and operating results.

Our manufacturing operations and future growth are dependent upon the availability of capital, which may be insufficient to support our capital expenditures.

Our current wind blade manufacturing activities and future growth will require substantial capital investment. For the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, our capital expenditures were $40.5 million and $31.4 million, respectively, including assets acquired under capital lease in 2016 and 2015 of $10.0 million and $5.0 million, respectively. We have recently entered into lease agreements with third parties to lease new manufacturing facilities in China, Mexico and Turkey. Major projects expected to be undertaken include purchasing equipment for and the expansion of our Dafeng, China and Taicang China facilities and new facilities in Mexico and Turkey. Our ability to grow our business is predicated upon us making significant additional capital investments to expand our existing manufacturing facilities and build and operate new manufacturing facilities in existing and new markets. We generally estimate that the startup of a new six line manufacturing facility requires cash for net operating expenses and working capital of between $15 million to $25 million and additional capital expenditures for machinery and equipment of between $15 million to $25 million. In addition, we estimate our annual maintenance capital expenditures to be between $1.5 million to $2.0 million per facility. We may not have the capital to undertake these capital investments. In addition, our capital expenditures may be significantly higher if our estimates of future capital investments are incorrect and may increase substantially if we are required to undertake actions to comply with new regulatory requirements or compete with new

 

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technologies. The cost of some projects may also be affected by foreign exchange rates if any raw materials or other goods must be paid for in foreign currency. We cannot assure you that we will be able to raise funds on favorable terms, if at all, or that future financings would not be dilutive to holders of our capital stock. We also cannot assure you that completed capital expenditures will yield the anticipated results. If we raise additional funds by obtaining loans from third parties, the terms of those financing arrangements may include negative covenants, or other restrictions on our business that could impair our operational flexibility, and would require us to fund additional interest expense. If we are unable to obtain sufficient capital at a reasonable cost or at all, we may not be able to expand production sufficiently to take advantage of changes in the marketplace or may be required to delay, reduce or eliminate some or all of our current operations, which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

As a U.S. corporation with international operations, we are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, which could impact our ability to compete in certain jurisdictions.

As a U.S. corporation, we are subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA), which generally prohibits U.S. companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business. We have manufacturing facilities in China, Mexico and Turkey, countries with a fairly high risk of corruption. Those facilities are subject to routine government oversight. In addition, a small number of our raw materials and components suppliers are state-owned in China. Moreover, due to our need to import raw materials across international borders, we also routinely have interactions, directly or indirectly, with customs officials. In many foreign countries, under local custom, businesses engage in practices that may be prohibited by the FCPA or other similar laws and regulations. Additionally, we continue to hire employees around the world as we continue to expand. Although we have recently implemented certain procedures designed to ensure compliance with the FCPA and similar laws, there can be no guarantee that all of our employees and agents, as well as those companies to which we outsource certain of our business operations, have not taken and will not take actions that violate our policies and the FCPA, which could subject us to fines, penalties, disgorgement, and loss of business, harm our reputation and impact our ability to compete in certain jurisdictions. In addition, these laws are complex and far-reaching in nature, and, as a result, we may be required in the future to alter one or more of our practices to be in compliance with these laws or any changes in these laws or the interpretation thereof. Moreover, our competitors may not be subject to the FCPA or comparable legislation, which could provide them with a competitive advantage in some jurisdictions.

We may have difficulty making distributions and repatriating earnings from our Chinese manufacturing operations, which may also occur in some of our other locations.

A material portion of our business is conducted in China. As of March 31, 2017, our China operations had unrestricted cash of $14.8 million, most of which will be used to fund our future operations in China. Our ability to repatriate funds from China to the United States is subject to a number of restrictions imposed by the Chinese government. We repatriate funds through Technology License Contracts and corporate/administrative Service Agreements. We are compensated quarterly based on agreed upon royalty rates for such intellectual property licenses and quarterly fees for those services. Certain of our subsidiaries are limited in their ability to declare dividends without first meeting statutory restrictions of the People’s Republic of China, including retained earnings as determined under Chinese-statutory accounting requirements. Until 50% ($5.2 million) of registered capital is contributed to a surplus reserve, our Chinese operations can only pay dividends equal to 90% of after-tax profits (10% must be contributed to the surplus reserve). Once the surplus reserve fund requirement is met, we can pay dividends equal to 100% of after-tax profit assuming other conditions are met. As of December 31, 2016, the amount of the surplus reserve fund was $4.4 million. Any inability to make distributions, repatriate earnings or otherwise access funds from our manufacturing operations in China, if and when needed for use outside of China, could materially harm our liquidity and our business.

 

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Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and effectively address fraud risks.

We maintain a system of internal controls to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with GAAP. The process of designing and implementing effective internal controls is a continuous effort that requires us to anticipate and react to changes in our business and the economic and regulatory environments and to expend significant resources to establish and maintain a system of internal controls that will be adequate to satisfy the reporting obligations of a public company. The effectiveness of our internal controls depends in part on the cooperation of senior managers worldwide. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Wind Blade Business—In mid-2015, our Audit Committee conducted an internal investigation into allegations of improper business dealings in China. While the investigation did not substantiate the allegations, we ultimately terminated our former Senior Vice President—Asia, then serving as a consultant to the Company, in January 2016 for material violations of his agreements with us and with Company policies that came to light subsequent to the completion of the internal investigation. Any misconduct that the investigation or our subsequent review of the activities of our former Senior Vice President—Asia failed to uncover could have a material adverse effect on our operations generally.”

Any system of controls, however well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, and not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the system are met. Any failure to maintain that system, or consequent inability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis, could increase our operating costs and harm our business, and lead to our becoming subject to litigation, sanctions or investigations by The NASDAQ Global Market (NASDAQ), the SEC or other regulatory governmental agencies and bodies. Furthermore, investors’ perceptions that our internal controls are inadequate or that we are unable to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis may harm our stock price.

We have in the past experienced material weaknesses. While we have successfully remediated those material weaknesses, we could experience control deficiencies in the future or identify areas requiring improvement in our internal control over financial reporting.

The state of financial markets and the economy may materially harm our sources of liquidity and capital.

There has been significant recent turmoil and volatility in worldwide financial markets. These conditions have resulted in a disruption in the liquidity of financial markets, and could directly impact us to the extent we need to access capital markets to raise funds to support our business and overall liquidity position. This situation could affect the cost of such funds or our ability to raise such funds. If we were unable to access any of these funding sources when needed, it could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards may be subject to limitation and may result in increased future tax liability.

Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code), contain rules that limit the ability of a company that undergoes an “ownership change” to utilize its net operating loss (NOL) and tax credit carry forwards and certain built-in losses recognized in years after the ownership change. An “ownership change” is generally defined as any change in ownership of more than 50% of a corporation’s stock over a rolling three-year period by stockholders that own (directly or indirectly) 5% or more of the stock of a corporation, or arising from a new issuance of stock by a corporation. If an ownership change occurs, Section 382 generally imposes an annual limitation on the use of pre-ownership change NOLs, credits and certain other tax attributes to offset taxable income earned after the ownership change. The annual limitation is equal to the product of the applicable long-term tax exempt rate and the value of the company’s stock immediately before the ownership change. This annual limitation may be adjusted to reflect any unused annual limitation for prior

 

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years and certain recognized built-in gains and losses for the year. In addition, Section 383 generally limits the amount of tax liability in any post-ownership change year that can be reduced by pre-ownership change tax credit carryforwards. This could result in increased U.S. federal income tax liability for us if we generate taxable income in a future period. Limitations on the use of NOLs and other tax attributes could also increase our state tax liability. The use of our tax attributes will also be limited to the extent that we do not generate positive taxable income in future tax periods. As a result of these limitations, we may be unable to offset future taxable income (if any) with losses, or our tax liability with credits, before such losses and credits expire. Accordingly, these limitations may increase our federal income tax liability.

Although we have not experienced an ownership change since 2008, it is possible that future transactions may cause us to undergo one or more ownership changes. As of December 31, 2016, we have U.S. federal NOLs of approximately $57.5 million, state NOLs of approximately $77.2 million, foreign tax credits of approximately $2.6 million and Turkey investment tax credits of approximately $0.3 million available to offset future taxable income. In 2008, we had an “ownership change” and the pre-ownership change NOLs existing at the date of change of $25.6 million were subject to an annual limitation of $4.3 million. As of December 31, 2016, the pre-ownership change NOLs are no longer limited. Certain of these NOLs may be at risk of limitation in the event of a future ownership change.

We have U.S. federal and state NOLs. In general, NOLs in one country cannot be used to offset income in any other country and NOLs in one state cannot be used to offset income in any other state. Accordingly, we may be subject to tax in certain jurisdictions even if we have unused NOLs in other jurisdictions. Also, each jurisdiction in which we operate may have its own limitations on our ability to utilize NOLs or tax credit carryovers generated in that jurisdiction. These limitations may increase our federal, state, and/or foreign income tax liability.

Our current credit facility with HPS Investment Partners, LLC and Capital One, N.A. contains, and any future loan agreements we may enter into may contain, operating and financial covenants that may restrict our business and financing activities.

We have a $100.0 million amended and restated credit facility (the Restated Credit Facility) with HPS Investment Partners, LLC and Capital One, N.A., consisting of a $75.0 million term loan and a $25.0 million revolving credit facility, which includes a $15.0 million letter of credit sub-facility (increased to $20.0 million in April 2017). As of March 31, 2017, the aggregate outstanding balance under the Restated Credit Facility was $76.9 million. The Restated Credit Facility is secured by substantially all of our assets. In addition, from time to time, we enter into various loan, working capital and accounts receivable financing facilities to finance the construction and ongoing operations of our advanced manufacturing facilities and other capital expenditures. The Restated Credit Facility contains various financial covenants and restrictions on our and our operating subsidiaries’ excess cash flows and ability to make capital expenditures, incur additional indebtedness and pay dividends or make distributions on, or repurchase, our stock. The operating and financial restrictions and covenants of the Restated Credit Facility, as well as our other existing and any future financing agreements that we may enter into, may restrict our ability to finance our operations, engage in business activities or expand or fully pursue our business strategies. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, and we may not be able to maintain appropriate minimum leverage ratio and fixed charge coverage ratio requirements in the future. A breach of any of these covenants could result in a default under the applicable loan facility, which could cause all of the outstanding indebtedness under such facility to become immediately due and payable by us and/or enable the lender to terminate all commitments to extend further credit. In addition, if we were unable to repay the outstanding indebtedness upon a default, our lenders could proceed against the assets pledged as collateral to secure that indebtedness.

 

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Our indebtedness may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our indebtedness could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition by, among other things:

 

    requiring us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to pay principal and interest on our debt, which would reduce the availability of our cash flow to fund working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, execution of our growth strategy and other general corporate purposes;

 

    limiting our ability to borrow additional amounts to fund debt service requirements, working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, execution of our growth strategy and other general corporate purposes;

 

    making us more vulnerable to adverse changes in general economic, industry and regulatory conditions and in our business by limiting our flexibility in planning for, and making it more difficult to react quickly to, changing conditions;

 

    placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared with those of our competitors that have less debt and lower debt service requirements;

 

    making us more vulnerable to increases in interest rates since some of our indebtedness is subject to variable rates of interest; and

 

    making it more difficult for us to satisfy our financial obligations.

In addition, we may not be able to generate sufficient cash flow from our operations to repay our outstanding indebtedness when it becomes due and to meet our other cash needs or to comply with the financial covenants set forth therein. If we are not able to pay our debts as they become due, we could be in default of the Restated Credit Facility or other indebtedness. We might also be required to pursue one or more alternative strategies to repay indebtedness, such as selling assets, refinancing or restructuring our indebtedness or selling additional debt or equity securities. We may not be able to refinance our debt or sell additional debt or equity securities or our assets on favorable terms, if at all, and if we must sell assets, it may negatively affect our ability to generate revenues.

Much of our intellectual property consists of trade secrets and know-how that is very difficult to protect. If we experience loss of protection for our trade secrets or know-how, our business would be substantially harmed.

We have a variety of intellectual property rights, including patents, trademarks and copyrights, but much of our most important intellectual property rights consists of trade secrets and know-how and effective intellectual property protection may be unavailable, limited or outside the scope of the intellectual property rights we pursue in the United States and in foreign countries such as China where we operate. Although we strive to protect our intellectual property rights, there is always a risk that our trade secrets or know-how will be compromised or that a competitor could lawfully reverse-engineer our technology or independently develop similar or more efficient technology. We have confidentiality agreements with each of our customers, suppliers, key employees and independent contractors in place to protect our intellectual property rights, but it is possible that a customer, supplier, employee or contractor might breach the agreement, intentionally or unintentionally. For example, we believe a key former employee may have shared some of our intellectual property with a competitor in China and this former employee or the competitor may use this intellectual property to compete with us in the future. It is also possible that our confidentiality agreements with customers, suppliers, employees and contractors will not be effective in preserving the confidential nature of our intellectual property rights. The patents we own could be challenged, invalidated, narrowed or circumvented by others and may not be of

 

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sufficient scope or strength to provide us with any meaningful protection or commercial advantage. Once our patents expire, or if they are invalidated, narrowed or circumvented, our competitors may be able to utilize the inventions protected by our patents. Additionally, the existence of our intellectual property rights does not guarantee that we will be successful in any attempt to enforce these rights against third parties in the event of infringement, misappropriation or other misuse, which may materially and adversely affect our business. Because our ability to effectively compete in our industry depends upon our ability to protect our proprietary technology, we might lose business to competitors and our business, revenue, operating results and prospects could be materially harmed if we suffer loss of trade secret and know-how protection or breach of our confidentiality agreements.

If the transfer pricing arrangements we have among our subsidiaries are determined to be inappropriate in one or more jurisdictions, our tax liability may increase.

In many countries, including the United States, we are subject to transfer pricing and other tax regulations designed to ensure that appropriate levels of income are reported as earned in each jurisdiction in which we operate. These regulations require that any international transaction involving associated enterprises be on substantially the same basis as a transaction between unrelated companies dealing at arms’ length and that contemporaneous documentation be maintained to support the transfer prices. We have transfer pricing arrangements among our subsidiaries in relation to various aspects of our business. We consider the transactions among our subsidiaries to be substantially on arm’s-length terms. If, however, a tax authority in any jurisdiction reviews any of our tax returns and determines that the transfer prices and terms we have applied are not appropriate, or that other income of our affiliates should be taxed in that jurisdiction, we may incur increased tax liability, including accrued interest and penalties, which would cause our tax provision to increase, possibly materially. In addition, if the jurisdiction from which the income is reallocated does not agree with the reallocation, both jurisdictions could tax the same income, resulting in double taxation. If tax authorities were to allocate income to a higher tax jurisdiction, subject our income to double taxation, or assess interest and penalties, it would increase our consolidated tax liability, which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our insurance coverage may not cover all risks we face and insurance premiums may increase, which may hinder our ability to maintain sufficient coverage to cover losses we may incur.

We are exposed to risks inherent in the manufacturing of wind blades and other composite structures as well as the construction of our facilities, such as natural disasters, breakdowns and manufacturing defects that could harm persons and damage property. We maintain insurance coverage with licensed insurance carriers that limits our aggregate exposure to certain types of catastrophic losses. In addition, we self-insure for a portion of our claims exposure resulting from workers’ compensation and certain events of general liability. We accrue currently for estimated incurred losses and expenses, and periodically evaluate and adjust our claims accrued liability amount to reflect our experience. However, our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover the full amount of potential losses. In addition, there are some types of losses such as from warranty, hurricanes, terrorism, wars, or earthquakes where insurance is limited and/or not economically justifiable. If we were to sustain a serious uninsured loss or a loss exceeding the limits of our insurance policies, the resulting costs could have a material adverse effect on our business prospects, results of operations and financial condition. Further, our insurance policies provide for our premiums to be adjusted annually. If the premiums we pay for our policies increase significantly, we may be unable to maintain the same level of coverage we currently carry, or we will incur significantly greater costs to maintain the same level of coverage, including through higher deductibles.

We may be subject to significant liabilities and costs relating to environmental and health and safety requirements.

We are subject to various environmental, health and safety laws, regulations and permit requirements in the jurisdictions in which we operate governing, among other things, health, safety, pollution and protection of

 

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the environment and natural resources, the handling and use of hazardous substances, the generation, storage, treatment and disposal of wastes, and the cleanup of any contaminated sites. We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, capital and operating expenditures to comply with such laws, regulations and permit requirements. While we believe that we currently are in material compliance with all such laws, regulations and permit requirements, any noncompliance may subject us to a range of enforcement measures, including the imposition of monetary fines and penalties, other civil or criminal sanctions, remedial obligations, and the issuance of compliance requirements restricting our operations. In addition, the future adoption of more stringent laws, regulations and permit requirements may require us to make additional capital and operating expenditures. Under certain environmental laws and regulations, liabilities also can be imposed for cleanup of currently and formerly owned, leased or operated properties, or properties to which we sent hazardous substances or wastes, regardless of whether we directly caused the contamination or violated any law. For example, we could have future liability relating to any contamination that remains from historic industrial operations by others at our properties. Additionally, some of our facilities have a long history of industrial operations and, in the past, contaminants have been detected and remediated at our Turkey facility.

There can be no assurance that we will not in the future become subject to compliance requirements, obligations to undertake cleanup or related activities, or claims or proceedings relating to environmental, health or safety matters, hazardous substances or wastes, contaminated sites, or other environmental or natural resource damages, that could impose significant liabilities and costs on us and materially harm our business, operating results or financial condition.

Claims that we infringe, misappropriate or otherwise misuse the intellectual property rights of others could subject us to significant liability and disrupt our business.

Our competitors and third party suppliers of components and raw materials used in our products protect their intellectual property rights by means such as trade secrets and patents. In the future we may be sued for violations of other parties’ intellectual property rights, and the risk of this type of lawsuit will likely increase as our size, geographic presence and market share expand and as the number of competitors in our market increases. Any such claims or litigation, whether meritorious or not, could:

 

    be time-consuming and expensive to defend;

 

    divert the attention of our technical and managerial resources;

 

    adversely affect our relationships with current or future customers;

 

    require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements with third parties, which may not be available on terms that we deem acceptable;

 

    prevent us from operating all or a portion of our business or force us to redesign our manufacturing processes or products, which could be difficult, time-consuming and expensive;

 

    limit the supply or increase the cost of key raw materials and components used in our products;

 

    subject us to significant liability for damages or result in significant settlement payments; and

 

    require us to indemnify our customers or suppliers.

Any of the foregoing could disrupt our business and materially harm our operating results and financial condition. In addition, intellectual property disputes have in the past arisen between our customers which negatively affected such customers’ demand for wind blades manufactured by us. If such intellectual property disputes involving, or between, one or more of our customers should arise in the future, our business could be materially harmed.

 

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We may form joint ventures, or acquire businesses or assets, in the future, and we may not realize the benefits of those transactions.

We have, in the past, entered into joint ventures with third parties for the manufacture of wind blades. For example, we entered into joint ventures with third parties in both our Mexico and Turkey locations. We may create new or additional joint ventures with third parties, or acquire businesses or assets, in the future that we believe will complement or augment our existing business. We cannot assure you that, following any such joint venture or acquisition, we will achieve the expected synergies to justify the transaction. We may encounter numerous difficulties in manufacturing any new products resulting from a joint venture or acquisition that delay or prevent us from realizing their expected benefits or enhancing our business. If we enter into joint ventures or acquire businesses or assets with respect to promising markets, we may not be able to realize the benefit of those joint ventures or acquired businesses assets if we are unable to successfully integrate them with our existing operations and company culture.

Work disruptions resulting from our collective bargaining agreements could result in increased operating costs and materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Certain of our employees in Turkey, which represented approximately 15% of our workforce as of March 31, 2017, are covered by collective bargaining arrangements, which we entered into in May 2016 and have a three-year term. This agreement resulted in an average increase in pay of approximately 20% for employees covered by the agreement. In addition, beginning on July 1, 2017, these collective bargaining arrangements will also cover similarly situated employees at our second Turkey facility, which represented approximately 7% of our workforce as of March 31, 2017, at which we recently commenced production. Additionally, our other employees working at other manufacturing facilities may vote to be represented by a labor union in the future. For example, our employees in Iowa attempted unsuccessfully to unionize in 2013. There can be no assurance that we will not experience labor disruptions such as work stoppages or other slowdowns by workers at any of our facilities. Should significant industrial action, threats of strikes or related disturbances occur, we could experience a disruption of operations and increased labor costs in Turkey or other locations, which could materially harm our business, operating results or financial condition. Any such work stoppage or slow-down at any of our facilities could also result in additional expenses and possible loss of revenue for us.

Our information technology infrastructure could experience serious failures or disruptions, the failure of which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Information technology is part of our business strategy and operations. It enables us to streamline operation processes, facilitating the collection and reporting of business data, in addition to internal and external communications. There are risks that information technology system failures, network disruptions and breaches of data security could disrupt our operations. Any significant disruption or breach may materially harm our business, operating results or financial condition.

We will incur significant increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to compliance initiatives.

As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and NASDAQ, impose various requirements on public companies, including requiring establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting and changes in corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, we expect these

 

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rules and regulations to make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance. We estimate that we will incur approximately $2.5 million to $3.0 million in expenses annually in response to these requirements.

Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires annual management assessments of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, starting with the second annual report that we file with the SEC. However, as long as we remain an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We will take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an emerging growth company and will incur additional expense and time related to these efforts at that time. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenues of $1.0 billion or more; (ii) the last day of our fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the completion of our IPO; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three years; or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer” under SEC rules.

Our testing, or the subsequent testing by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives, diverting their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, and we may not successfully or efficiently manage our transition into a public company. We will also need to upgrade our systems, implement additional financial and management controls, reporting systems and procedures, hire an internal audit group and additional accounting, auditing and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge. We have significant operations in China, Mexico and Turkey and may have difficulty hiring and retaining employees in these countries who have the experience necessary to implement the kind of management and financial controls that are expected of a U.S. public company. In this regard, for example, China has only recently begun to adopt management and financial reporting concepts and practices like those in the United States. If we are not able to comply with these requirements in a timely manner or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the market price of our stock could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by NASDAQ, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources.

We are faced with increasingly complex tax issues in many jurisdictions, and we could be obligated to pay additional taxes in various jurisdictions.

We may be subject to taxation in many jurisdictions in the United States and around the world with increasingly complex tax laws, the application of which can be uncertain. The amount of taxes we pay in these jurisdictions could increase substantially as a result of changes in the applicable tax laws, including increased tax rates or revised interpretations of existing tax laws and precedents, which could harm our liquidity and operating results. In addition, the taxing authorities in these jurisdictions could review our tax returns, or authorities in jurisdictions in which we do not file tax returns could assert that we are subject to tax in those jurisdictions, and in either case could impose additional tax, interest and penalties. Further, the authorities could claim that various withholding requirements apply to us or our subsidiaries or assert that benefits of tax treaties are not available to us or our subsidiaries, any of which could have a material adverse impact on us and the results of our operations.

The current U.S. presidential administration has made public statements indicating that it has made tax reform a priority, and key members of the U.S. Congress have conducted hearings and proposed a wide variety of potential changes. Certain changes to U.S. tax laws, including border adjustable tax provisions as well as limitations on the ability to defer U.S. taxation on earnings outside of the United States until those earnings are repatriated to the United States, could affect the tax treatment of our foreign earnings, as well as cash and cash equivalent balances we currently maintain outside of the United States.

 

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Risks Related to This Offering and Ownership of Our Common Stock

The price of our common stock may fluctuate substantially and your investment may decline in value.

The market price of our common stock is likely to be highly volatile and may fluctuate substantially due to many factors, including:

 

    actual or anticipated fluctuations in our results of operations;

 

    our ability to provide products due to shipments subject to delayed delivery and deferred revenue arrangements;

 

    loss of or changes in our relationship with one or more of our customers;

 

    failure to meet our earnings estimates;

 

    conditions and trends in the energy and manufacturing markets in which we operate and changes in estimates of the size and growth rate of these markets;

 

    announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts, developments, acquisitions, strategic partnerships or divestitures;

 

    availability of equipment, labor and other items required for the manufacture of wind blades;

 

    changes in governmental policies;

 

    additions or departures of members of our senior management or other key personnel;

 

    changes in market valuation or earnings of our competitors;

 

    sales of our common stock, including sales of our common stock by our directors and officers or by our other principal stockholders;

 

    the trading volume of our common stock; and

 

    general market and economic conditions.

In addition, the stock market in general, including NASDAQ, as well as the market for broader energy and renewable energy companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies affected. These broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In the past, securities class-action litigation has often been instituted against a company following periods of volatility in the market price of that company’s securities. Securities class-action litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs or damages and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could materially harm our business and operating results.

A significant portion of our total outstanding shares may be sold into the public market in future sales, which could cause the market price of our common stock to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time after the expiration of the lock-up agreements described in the section entitled “Underwriting.” These sales, or the market perception that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the

 

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market price of our common stock. As of March 31, 2017, we had 33,736,863 shares of common stock outstanding. All shares can now be sold, subject to any applicable volume limitations under federal securities laws.

In addition, as of March 31, 2017 there were: (i) 160,424 shares subject to outstanding common stock warrants, or approximately 0.5% of our outstanding shares; (ii) 3,309,818 shares subject to outstanding options, or approximately 9.8% of our outstanding shares; (iii) 636,120 restricted stock units, or approximately 1.9% of our outstanding shares; and (iv) 4,958,767 shares reserved for future issuance, or approximately 14.7% of our outstanding shares under the 2015 Plan that will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by any applicable vesting requirements and Rules 144 and 701 under the Securities Act. Moreover, holders of an aggregate of 27,247,725 shares of our common stock, have rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders. We also have registered all shares of common stock that we may issue under our employee equity incentive plans. These shares can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance and subject to the restrictions imposed on our affiliates under Rule 144.

In the future, we may also issue our securities in connection with investments or acquisitions. The amount of shares of our common stock issued in connection with an investment or acquisition could constitute a material portion of our then-outstanding shares of our common stock. Any issuance of additional securities in connection with investments or acquisitions may result in additional dilution to you and may cause the market price of our common stock to drop significantly.

None of the proceeds from the sale of shares of common stock by the selling stockholders in this offering will be available to fund our operations.

We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of our common stock by the selling stockholders in this offering. The selling stockholders, which include certain of our executive officers, will receive all proceeds from the sale of shares. Consequently, none of the proceeds from such sale will be available to fund our operations, capital expenditures or acquisition opportunities. See “Use of Proceeds” and “Principal and Selling Stockholders.”

The exercise of options and warrants and other issuances of shares of common stock or securities convertible into common stock under our equity compensation plans will dilute your interest.

Under our existing equity compensation plans, as of March 31, 2017, we had outstanding options to purchase 3,309,818 shares of our common stock and 636,120 restricted stock units to our employees and non-employee directors. From time to time, we expect to grant additional options and other stock awards in accordance with the 2015 Plan. The exercise of options and warrants at prices below the market price of our common stock could adversely affect the price of shares of our common stock. Additionally, any issuance of our common stock that is not made solely to then-existing stockholders proportionate to their interests, such as in the case of a stock dividend or stock split, will result in dilution to each stockholder by reducing their percentage ownership of the total outstanding shares. If we issue options or warrants to purchase our common stock in the future and those options or warrants are exercised or we issue stock, stockholders may experience further dilution. In addition, as of March 31, 2017, there were 160,424 shares of our common stock subject to outstanding common stock warrants which could result in further dilution to the stockholders.

Our executive officers, directors and their affiliated entities will continue to have substantial control over us and could limit the ability of other stockholders to influence the outcome of key transactions, including changes of control.

Our executive officers, directors and their affiliated entities, in the aggregate, beneficially own approximately 74% of the outstanding common stock, or approximately 60% after this offering, excluding any exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional shares, based on 33,736,863 shares of common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2017. Our executive officers, directors and their affiliated entities, if acting

 

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together, will be able to control or significantly influence all matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and the approval of mergers or other significant corporate transactions. In addition, certain of our stockholders are affiliated with certain of our customers. These stockholders might have interests that differ from yours, and they might vote in a way with which you disagree and that could be adverse to your interests. The concentration of common stock ownership could have the effect of delaying, preventing, or deterring a change of control of our company, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their common stock as part of a sale of our company, and could negatively affect the market price of the common stock.

If equity research analysts issue unfavorable commentary or downgrade our common stock, the price of our common stock could decline.

The trading market for our common stock relies in part on the research and reports that equity research analysts publish about us and our business. We do not control the work performed by these analysts. The demand for our common stock could decline if one or more equity analysts downgrade our stock or if those analysts issue unfavorable or inaccurate commentary. If such analysts cease publishing reports about us or our business, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our share price and trading volume to decline.

We do not currently intend to pay dividends on the common stock, which may hinder your ability to achieve a return on your investment.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. The continued operation and expansion of our business will require substantial funding and thus we currently intend to retain any future earnings and do not expect to pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. Accordingly, you are not likely to receive any dividends on common stock in the foreseeable future, and your ability to achieve a return on your investment will therefore depend on appreciation in the price of the common stock.

Provisions of Delaware law or our charter documents could delay or prevent an acquisition of our company, even if the acquisition would be beneficial to our stockholders, and could make it more difficult for you to change management.

Provisions of Delaware law and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated by-laws may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. These provisions may also prevent or delay attempts by stockholders to replace or remove our current management or members of our board of directors. These provisions include:

 

    a classified board of directors;

 

    limitations on the removal of directors;

 

    advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals and nominations;

 

    the inability of stockholders to act by written consent or to call special meetings;

 

    the ability of our board of directors to make, alter or repeal our amended and restated by-laws; and

 

    the authority of our board of directors to issue preferred stock with such terms as our board of directors may determine.

The affirmative vote of the holders of at least 75% of our shares of capital stock entitled to vote, and not less than 75% of the outstanding shares of each class entitled to vote thereon as a class, is necessary to amend or repeal the above provisions that are contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. In

 

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addition, absent approval of our board of directors, our amended and restated by-laws may only be amended or repealed by the affirmative vote of the holders of at least 75% of our shares of capital stock entitled to vote.

In addition, we are subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which limits business combination transactions with stockholders of 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock that our board of directors has not approved. These provisions and other similar provisions make it more difficult for stockholders or potential acquirers to acquire us without negotiation. These provisions may apply even if some stockholders may consider the transaction beneficial to them.

As a result, these provisions could limit the price that investors are willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock. These provisions might also discourage a potential acquisition proposal or tender offer, even if the acquisition proposal or tender offer is at a premium over the then current market price for our common stock.

We are an “emerging growth company” and will be able to avail ourselves of reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies, which could make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We cannot predict whether investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If they do, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile. We may take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an emerging growth company. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenues of $1.0 billion or more; (ii) the last day of our fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the completion of our IPO; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three years; or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer” under the rules of the SEC.

Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can also delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, we are subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

 

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this prospectus, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar words. Forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus include, but are not limited to, statements about:

 

    growth of the wind energy market and our addressable market;

 

    the potential impact of GE’s acquisition of LM Wind Power upon our business;

 

    our future financial performance, including our net sales, cost of goods sold, gross profit or gross margin, operating expenses, ability to generate positive cash flow, and ability to achieve or maintain profitability;

 

    the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity needs;

 

    our ability to attract and retain customers for our products, and to optimize product pricing;

 

    competition from other wind blade and wind blade turbine manufacturers;

 

    the discovery of defects in our products;

 

    our ability to successfully expand in our existing markets and into new international markets;

 

    worldwide economic conditions and their impact on customer demand;

 

    our ability to effectively manage our growth strategy and future expenses;

 

    our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our intellectual property;

 

    our ability to comply with existing, modified or new laws and regulations applying to our business, including the imposition of new taxes, duties or similar assessments on our products; and

 

    the attraction and retention of qualified employees and key personnel.

These forward-looking statements are only predictions. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to materially differ from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We have described in the “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this prospectus the principal risks and uncertainties that we believe could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements. Because forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as guarantees of future events.

The forward-looking statements in this prospectus represent our views as of the date of this prospectus. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or developments after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events except to the extent required by applicable law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date after the date of this prospectus. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures, or investments we may make.

 

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USE OF PROCEEDS

The selling stockholders, which include certain of our executive officers, are selling shares of our common stock in this offering, including any shares that may be sold in connection with the exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares. See “Principal and Selling Stockholders.” Accordingly, we will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of our common stock in this offering. We will bear all costs, fees and expenses in connection with this offering, which are estimated to be $850,000, except that the selling stockholders will pay all underwriting commissions and discounts. See “Description of Capital Stock—Registration Rights” and “Underwriting.”

 

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MARKET PRICE OF COMMON STOCK

Our common stock has been listed on The NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “TPIC” since July 22, 2016. Prior to that date, there was no public trading market for our common stock. The following table sets forth for the periods indicated the high and low intra-day per share sale prices for our common stock as reported on The NASDAQ Global Market:

 

     High      Low  

Year Ended December 31, 2016

     

Third quarter (from July 22, 2016)

   $ 22.72      $ 11.31  

Fourth quarter

   $ 23.30      $ 13.27  

Year Ending December 31, 2017

     

First quarter

   $ 20.99      $ 15.31  

Second quarter (through May 11, 2017)

   $ 20.85      $ 16.56  

On May 11, 2017, the last reported sale price of our common stock on The NASDAQ Global Market was $16.70 per share. As of March 31, 2017, we had 13 stockholders of record of our common stock. The actual number of stockholders is greater than this number of stockholders of record, and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners, but whose shares are held in street name by brokers, trusts and other nominees.

 

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DIVIDEND POLICY

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on shares of our capital stock. We currently intend to retain earnings, if any, to finance the development and growth of our business and do not anticipate paying cash dividends on the common stock in the future. Any payment of any future dividends will be at the discretion of the board of directors, subject to compliance with certain covenants in our loan agreements, after taking into account various factors, including our financial condition, operating results, capital requirements, restrictions contained in any future financing instruments, growth plans and other factors the board deems relevant.

 

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table describes our cash and cash equivalents, as well as our capitalization, as of March 31, 2017. You should read this table together with the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, as well as the sections titled “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” that are included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

    

March 31, 2017

 
    

(unaudited)

 
    

(in thousands, except 

par value data)

 

Cash and cash equivalents

   $ 115,541  
  

 

 

 

Debt:

  

Current maturities of long-term debt

   $ 32,474  

Long-term debt, net of debt issuance costs, discount and current maturities

     88,015  
  

 

 

 

Total debt

     120,489  
  

 

 

 

Shareholders’ Equity:

  

Common shares, $0.01 par value, 100,000 shares authorized and 33,737 shares issued and outstanding

     337  

Paid-in capital

     294,570  

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

     (3,585

Accumulated deficit

     (179,256
  

 

 

 

Total shareholders’ equity

     112,066  
  

 

 

 

Total capitalization

   $ 232,555  
  

 

 

 

The table above excludes the following:

 

    3,309,618 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding options as of March 31, 2017 at a weighted-average exercise price of $12.70 per share;

 

    636,120 shares of common stock issuable upon the vesting of restricted stock units outstanding as of March 31, 2017;

 

    160,424 shares of our common stock reserved for issuance in connection with the exercise of our Common Warrants; and

 

    4,958,767 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2015 Plan, and which contains provisions that automatically increase its share reserve each year.

 

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SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL AND OTHER DATA

The following selected consolidated statements of operations data for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of March 31, 2017 have been derived from our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. In our opinion, these unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared on a basis consistent with our audited financial statements and contain all adjustments, consisting only of a normal recurring nature, that are necessary for a fair presentation of such consolidated financial data. The consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016 and 2015 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The consolidated statements of operations data for the year ended December 31, 2013 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2014 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included in our final prospectus filed with the SEC on July 22, 2016. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. The selected consolidated financial and other data in this section are not intended to replace the consolidated financial statements and are qualified in their entirety by the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus and in our final prospectus filed with the SEC on July 22, 2016 and should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements, related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this prospectus and in our final prospectus filed with the SEC on July 22, 2016.

 

    Three Months Ended
March 31,
    Year Ended December 31,  
    2017     2016     2016     2015     2014     2013  
    (unaudited)                          
    (in thousands, except per share data)  

Consolidated Statements of Operations Data:

           

Net sales

  $ 191,602     $ 176,110     $ 754,877     $ 585,852     $ 320,747     $ 215,054  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cost of sales

    167,423       159,866       659,745       528,247       289,528       200,182  

Startup and transition costs

    6,159       3,306       18,127       15,860       16,567       6,607  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total cost of goods sold

    173,582       163,172       677,872       544,107       306,095       206,789  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Gross profit

    18,020       12,938       77,005       41,745       14,652       8,265  

General and administrative expenses

    8,306       4,749       33,892       14,126       9,175       7,566  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Income from operations

    9,714       8,189       43,113       27,619       5,477       699  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Other income (expense):

           

Interest income

    19       21       344       161       186       155  

Interest expense

    (3,026     (3,912     (17,614     (14,565     (7,236     (3,474

Loss on extinguishment of debt

    —         —         (4,487     —         (2,946     —    

Realized loss on foreign currency remeasurement

    (1,381     (439     (757     (1,802     (1,743     (1,892

Miscellaneous income

    320       190       238       246       539       140  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total other expense

    (4,068     (4,140     (22,276     (15,960     (11,200     (5,071
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Income (loss) before income taxes

    5,646       4,049       20,837       11,659       (5,723     (4,372

Income tax benefit (provision)

    (2,101     (2,303     (6,995     (3,977     (925     3,346  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income (loss) before noncontrolling interest

    —         —         13,842       7,682       (6,648     (1,026

Net loss attributable to noncontrolling interest (1)

    —         —         —         —         —         2,305  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income (loss)

    3,545       1,746       13,842       7,682       (6,648     1,279  

Net income attributable to preferred shareholders (2)

    —         2,437       5,471       9,423       13,930       14,149  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income (loss) attributable to common shareholders

  $ 3,545     $ (691   $ 8,371     $ (1,741   $ (20,578   $ (12,870
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Weighted-average common shares outstanding:

           

Basic (3)

    33,737       4,238       17,530       4,238       4,238       4,238  

Diluted (3)

    33,827       4,238       17,616       4,238       4,238       4,238  

Net income (loss) per common share:

           

Basic

  $ 0.11     $ (0.16   $ 0.48     $ (0.41   $ (4.86   $ (3.04

Diluted

  $ 0.10     $ (0.16   $ 0.48     $ (0.41   $ (4.86   $ (3.04

 

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     Three Months Ended
March 31,
     Year Ended December 31,  
     2017      2016      2016      2015      2014      2013  
     (unaudited)                              
     (in thousands, except other operating information)  

Other Financial Information:

                 

Total billings (4)

   $ 211,360      $ 174,538      $ 764,424      $ 600,107      $ 362,749      $ 221,057  

EBITDA (4)

   $ 12,482      $ 10,951      $ 55,491      $ 37,479      $ 11,714      $ 6,502  

Adjusted EBITDA (4)

   $ 15,570      $ 11,390      $ 66,150      $ 39,281      $ 13,457      $ 8,430  

Capital expenditures

   $ 16,922      $ 10,888      $ 30,507      $ 26,361      $ 18,924      $ 7,065  

Total debt, net of debt issuance costs and discount

   $ 120,489      $ 131,163      $ 123,155      $ 129,346      $ 120,849      $ 36,562  

Net debt (4)

   $ 7,095      $ 101,392      $ 6,379      $ 90,667      $ 87,547      $ 26,590  

Other Operating Information:

                 

Sets (5)

     636        486        2,154        1,609        966        648  

Estimated megawatts (6)

     1,460        1,113        4,920        3,595        2,029        1,173  

Dedicated manufacturing lines (7)

     44        38        44        34        29        16  

Total manufacturing lines installed (8)

     39        32        33        30        22        14  

Manufacturing lines in startup (9)

     9        —          3        10        9        2  

Manufacturing lines in transition (10)

     —          3        3        11        8        2  

 

(1) In 2012, we commenced operations in Turkey as a 75% owner of those operations and in 2013, we became the sole owner with the acquisition of the remaining 25% interest.

 

(2) Represents the annual accrual of dividends on our convertible and senior redeemable preferred shares, the accretion to redemption amounts on our convertible preferred shares and warrant fair value adjustments. Immediately prior to the closing of the IPO, all preferred shares were converted into shares of our common stock and as a result, the accrual of dividends ceased.

 

(3) For the three months ended March 31, 2017 and the year ended December 31, 2016, the weighted-average diluted shares outstanding include the conversion on a net issuance basis of our common warrants and the stock options issued under the 2008 Stock Option and Grant Plan. For the three months ended March 31, 2016 and the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, the weighted-average common shares outstanding are the same under the basic and diluted per share calculations since we had a net loss in each period presented.

 

(4) See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below for more information.

 

(5) Number of wind blade sets (which consist of three wind blades) invoiced worldwide in the period. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information.

 

(6) Estimated megawatts of energy capacity to be generated by wind blade sets invoiced in the period. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information.

 

(7) Number of manufacturing lines that are dedicated to our customers under long-term supply agreements. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information. Dedicated manufacturing lines may be greater than total manufacturing line capacity in instances where we have signed new supply agreements for manufacturing facilities that are under construction or have not yet been built. In April 2017, we entered into a multiyear supply agreement with Vestas to supply wind blades from two manufacturing lines in a new manufacturing facility in Matamoros, Mexico. See “Prospectus Summary—Recent Developments.”

 

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(8) Number of manufacturing lines installed and either in operation, startup or transition. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information.

 

(9) Number of manufacturing lines in a startup phase during the pre-production and production ramp-up periods. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information.

 

(10) Number of manufacturing lines that were being transitioned to a new wind blade model during the period. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics Used By Management to Measure Performance” for more information.

 

    March 31,
2017
    December 31,  
      2016     2015     2014  
   

(unaudited)

    (in thousands)        

Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:

       

Cash and cash equivalents

    $115,541     $ 119,066     $ 45,917     $ 43,592  

Total assets

    $477,941       437,206       329,920       273,704  

Total debt

    $120,489       123,155       129,346       120,849  

Total liabilities

    $365,875       330,699       322,287       271,448  

Total convertible and senior redeemable preferred shares and warrants

    —         —         198,830       189,349  

Total shareholders’ equity (deficit)

    $112,066       106,507       (191,197     (187,093

 

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF

FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and other financial information appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this prospectus, including information with respect to plans and strategy for our business and related financing, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those described in or implied by these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those discussed below and elsewhere in this prospectus, particularly those under “Risk Factors.” Dollars in tabular format are presented in thousands, except as otherwise indicated.

OVERVIEW

Our Company

We are the largest U.S.-based independent manufacturer of composite wind blades. We enable many of the industry’s leading wind turbine OEMs, who have historically relied on in-house production, to outsource the manufacturing of some of their wind blades through our global footprint of advanced manufacturing facilities strategically located to serve large and growing wind markets in a cost-effective manner. Given the importance of wind energy capture, turbine reliability and cost to power producers, the size, quality and performance of wind blades have become highly strategic to our OEM customers. As a result, we have become a key supplier to our OEM customers in the manufacture of wind blades and related precision molding and assembly systems. We have entered into long-term supply agreements pursuant to which we dedicate capacity at our facilities to our customers in exchange for their commitment to purchase minimum annual volumes of wind blade sets, which consist of three wind blades. As of April 28, 2017, our long-term supply agreements provide for minimum aggregate volume commitments from our customers of approximately $2.7 billion and encourage our customers to purchase additional volume up to, in the aggregate, a total contract value of approximately $4.2 billion through the end of 2023. This collaborative dedicated supplier model provides us with contracted volumes that generate significant revenue visibility, drive capital efficiency and allow us to produce wind blades at a lower total delivered cost, while ensuring critical dedicated capacity for our customers. Our wind blade and precision molding and assembly systems manufacturing businesses accounted for over 99% of our total net sales for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and for each of the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014. In recent years, we have experienced significant growth in our OEM customer base, as according to data from MAKE, our OEM customers collectively accounted for approximately 42% of the global onshore wind energy market and approximately 63% of that market excluding China over the three years ended December 31, 2016, based on MWs of energy capacity installed. Additionally, our customers represented 99.8% of the U.S. onshore wind turbine market over the three years ended December 31, 2016, based on MWs of energy capacity installed. We believe this figure demonstrates the leading position of our existing OEM customers, as well as our opportunity to develop relationships with new OEM customers as additional OEMs seek to capitalize on the benefits of outsourced wind blade manufacturing while maintaining high quality customization and dedicated capacity. We believe that these trends will help us to strengthen our current customer base, grow our business worldwide, increase our revenue and improve our business prospects.

We divide our business operations into four geographic operating segments—the United States, Asia, Mexico and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) as follows:

 

    Our U.S. segment includes (1) the manufacturing of wind blades at our Newton, Iowa plant, (2) the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems used for the manufacture of wind blades at our Warren, Rhode Island facility, (3) the manufacturing of composite solutions for the transportation industry, which we also conduct at our Rhode Island and Massachusetts facilities and (4) our corporate headquarters, the costs of which are included in general and administrative expenses.

 

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    Our Asia segment includes (1) the manufacturing of wind blades at our facility in Taicang Port, China and at our two facilities in Dafeng, China, (2) the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems at our Taicang City, China facility, (3) the manufacture of components at our second Taicang Port, China facility and (4) wind blade inspection and repair services.

 

    Our Mexico segment manufactures wind blades from our three facilities in Juárez, Mexico, one of which commenced operations in 2014, the second during the third quarter of 2016 and the third in January 2017. In April 2017, we entered into a multiyear supply agreement with Vestas to supply wind blades from two manufacturing lines at a new manufacturing facility that will be constructed in Matamoros, Mexico.

 

    Our EMEA segment manufactures wind blades from our two facilities in Izmir, Turkey. We entered into a joint venture in 2012 to produce wind blades at our first Turkey plant and in 2013 became the sole owner of the Turkey operation with the acquisition of the remaining 25% interest. Our EMEA segment commenced operations at our second facility during the third quarter of 2016.

Key Trends Affecting our Business

We have identified the following material trends affecting our business:

 

    In April 2017, GE completed the acquisition of LM Wind Power, our largest competitor. Although we entered into a new Mexico supply agreement and extended our existing Iowa and Mexico supply agreements with GE Wind in 2016, we will not extend GE Wind’s Turkey supply agreement, which expires at the end of 2017. With respect to the GE China supply agreement, we expect to reach agreement in the second quarter of 2017 to either extend the supply agreement or if necessary backfill the four mold slots from our demand pipeline in China. We expect that GE Wind will utilize LM for a substantial percentage of its wind blade production in the future.

 

    The wind power generation industry has grown rapidly and expanded worldwide over the last 16 years to meet high global demand for electricity and the expanded use of renewable energy. Our sales of wind blades to our wind turbine customers have grown rapidly over the last several years in response to these trends. In that time, we have entered into long-term supply agreements with customers in the United States, China, Mexico and Turkey with terms extending to 2020, 2021, 2020 and 2023, respectively.

 

    During the last several years, wind turbine OEMs have increasingly outsourced the production of wind blades and other key components to specialized manufacturers to meet this increasing global demand for wind energy in a cost-effective manner in new and growing markets. That shift, together with the overall expansion of the wind power generation industry, has increased our addressable market. As a result, we have hired more than 5,600 additional new employees since the beginning of 2014 and have expanded our customer base from one OEM customer to four OEM customers over the last four years in response to the growth and expansion of the wind energy generation industry generally as well as the specific trend of wind turbine OEMs increasing the outsourcing of the manufacturing of wind blades.

 

   

We expect that a substantial portion of our future revenue growth will be derived from our international operations. We have expanded our manufacturing facilities internationally over the last several years, including opening facilities in China, Mexico and Turkey, to meet the needs of our customers. We recently entered into lease agreements with third parties to lease new manufacturing facilities in Mexico and Turkey, and commenced operations at these new facilities in the third quarter of 2016. We have also entered into a new lease with a third party for a third manufacturing facility in Juárez, Mexico, and we commenced operations at this facility in January 2017. The portion of our net sales that were derived from our international operations increased to

 

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76% for the three months ended March 31, 2017 from 75% for the year ended December 31, 2016, 74% for the year ended December 31, 2015, 55% for the year ended December 31, 2014 and 25% for the year ended December 31, 2013. We believe we will continue to derive a substantial portion of our future net sales growth from our international operations.

 

    Our long-term supply agreements with our customers generally encourage our customers to maximize the volume of wind blades they purchase from us, since purchasing less than a specified amount triggers higher pricing, as well as provide downside protection for us through minimum annual volume commitments. Some of our long-term supply agreements also provide for annual sales price reductions reflecting assumptions regarding increases in our manufacturing productivity. We work to continue to drive down the cost of materials and production through innovation and global sourcing, a portion of the benefit of which we share with our customers contractually, further strengthening our deep customer relationships. Wind blade pricing is based on annual commitments of volume as established in the customer’s contract, with orders less than committed volume resulting in additional costs per wind blade to customers. Orders in excess of annual commitments may but generally do not result in discounts to customers from the contracted price for the committed volume. Customers may utilize early payment discounts, which are reported as a reduction of revenue at the time the discount is taken.

 

    The long-term supply agreements we sign with our customers provide us with significant visibility of future production demands due in part to the annual minimum purchase commitments of our customers contained in those agreements. These annual minimum purchase commitments generally require our customers to purchase a negotiated percentage of the manufacturing capacity that we have agreed to dedicate to them. Generally, this percentage begins at 100% of the manufacturing capacity that we have dedicated to a particular customer for the first few years of the supply agreement, and the percentage declines over time in subsequent years according to the terms of the agreement, but generally remains above 50%. It is our experience that our customers will generally order wind blades from us in a volume that exceeds (sometimes substantially) the annual minimum purchase commitments contained in our supply agreements, particularly in the later years of a supply agreement when the annual minimum purchase commitment percentage declines. As of April 28, 2017, our long-term supply agreements provide for estimated minimum aggregate purchase commitments from our customers of approximately $2.7 billion and encourage our customers to purchase additional volume up to, in the aggregate, an estimated total contract value of approximately $4.2 billion through the end of 2023. As noted elsewhere in this prospectus, some of our long-term supply agreements, including some of those with our largest customer, are subject to termination by our customers on short notice or, in one instance, no advance notice, but including termination fees. We caution investors that the annual minimum purchase commitments in our long-term supply agreements can understate the actual net sales that we are likely to generate in a given period or periods if all of our long-term supply agreements remain in place and pricing remains materially unchanged, and they could potentially overstate the actual net sales that we are likely to generate in a given period or periods if one or more of our agreements were to be terminated by our customers for any reason. See “Business—Wind Blade Long-Term Supply Agreements” elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

   

We expect our new manufacturing facilities to generate operating losses in their first 12 to 24 months of operations due to startup costs and expenses as they initially operate far below capacity during the pre-production and production ramp up periods. As a result, this generally has a negative impact on our results of operations during these ramp-up periods. These losses include initial operating losses and pre-production expenses such as the selection of the plant site, infrastructure investment, build-out cost, customer qualification and associated legal, regulatory and personnel costs. In addition, construction of new facilities and expansion of existing facilities, including the fabrication of precision molding and assembly systems to outfit those facilities, is complex and

 

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involves inherent risks. For planning purposes, we generally estimate that the startup of a new six-line manufacturing facility requires cash for net operating expenses and working capital of between $15 million to $25 million. We also estimate that additional capital expenditures primarily related to machinery and equipment for new facilities or facility expansions of between $15 million and $25 million will be required.

 

    We recently commenced operations at new manufacturing facilities in Turkey and Mexico and for the reasons described in the preceding bullet, we believe that over the first 12 to 24 months of operations these facilities are likely to generate operating losses during pre-production and production ramp-up periods, which are likely to have a negative overall effect on our consolidated net income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA. However, over the longer term, and once these new manufacturing facilities and new manufacturing lines are operating at capacity, we expect this expansion in lines, facilities and purchase commitments to have a positive overall effect on our consolidated net income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA in future periods.

 

    Changing customer demands, including shifts to bigger wind turbines with larger wind blades, have driven some of our customers to require us to transition to new wind blade models one or two times during the term of a long-term supply agreement. Although we do receive transition payments to compensate us for the costs of the impact of reduced volumes during these transitions, these payments may not always fully cover the transition costs and lost margin. As a result, these transitions have and may continue to have a short-term, negative impact on our consolidated operating results and cash flows. However, our precision molding and assembly manufacturing business increases as we transition to larger wind blade models and larger wind blades generally have a higher average selling price, so that the transition to larger wind blades may increase our net sales over time. As we transition to new wind blade models, we also often extend our existing supply agreements.

 

    As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and NASDAQ, impose various requirements on public companies, including requiring establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting and changes in corporate governance practices. We estimate that we will incur approximately $2.5 million to $3.0 million in expenses annually in response to these requirements.

COMPONENTS OF RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Net Sales

Net sales reflect sales of our products, including wind blades, precision molding and assembly systems and transportation products, as well as transition revenue received. Several factors affect net sales in any period, including customer demand, wind blade model transitions, general economic conditions and weather conditions. We currently derive an immaterial amount of net sales from our transportation business. Under GAAP, we do not recognize revenue on our wind blade sales until the wind blades have been delivered to our customers. Under our long-term supply agreements with our customers, we invoice our customers for wind blades once the blades pass certain acceptance procedures and title passes to our customers. Our customers generally pay us for the wind blades between 15 to 65 days after receipt of the invoice based on negotiated payment terms. However, in many cases, our customers request that we store their wind blades until they are ready to assemble wind turbines at a particular wind farm project. We have no control over when our customers decide to ship wind blades from our storage sites, and in some cases, our customers have stored large numbers of their wind blades at our sites for six months or more. Even if the customer has paid us for the wind blades and title has passed to the customer, we do not recognize revenue for these wind blades until the wind blades are delivered. Instead, these transactions are recorded as deferred revenue in our consolidated financial statements.

 

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Cost of Goods Sold

Cost of goods sold includes the costs associated with products invoiced during the period as well as unallocated manufacturing overhead costs associated with startup and transition costs. Cost of sales includes all costs incurred at our production facilities to make products saleable, such as raw materials, direct labor and indirect labor and facilities costs, including purchasing and receiving costs, plant management, inspection costs, product engineering and internal transfer costs. In addition, all depreciation associated with assets used to produce composite products and make them saleable is included in cost of sales. Direct labor costs consist of salaries, benefits, share-based compensation and other personnel related costs for employees engaged in the manufacture of our products.

Startup costs represent the unallocated overhead related to both new manufacturing facilities as well as new lines in existing manufacturing facilities. Transition costs represent the unallocated overhead related to the transition of wind blade models at the request of our customers. The startup and transition costs are primarily fixed overhead costs incurred during the period production facilities are under-utilized while transitioning wind blade models and ramping up manufacturing, which are not allocated to products and are expensed as incurred. The cost of sales for the initial wind blades from a new model manufacturing line is generally higher than when the line is operating at optimal production volume levels due to inefficiencies during ramp-up related to labor hours per blade, cycle times per blade and raw material usage. Additionally, manufacturing overhead as a percentage of net sales is generally higher during the period in which a facility is ramping up to full production capacity due to underutilization of the facility. Manufacturing overhead at each of our facilities includes virtually all indirect costs (including share-based compensation costs) incurred at the plants, including engineering, finance, information technology, human resources and plant management.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses are primarily incurred at our corporate headquarters and our research facilities and include salaries, benefits and other personnel related costs for employees engaged in research and development, engineering, finance, information technology, human resources, business development, global operational excellence, global supply chain, in-house legal and executive management. Other costs include outside legal and accounting fees, risk management (insurance), share-based compensation and certain other administrative and global resources costs.

For the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016 and for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, our research and development expenses (included in general and administrative expenses) totaled $0.3 million, $0.3 million, $1.5 million, $0.9 million and $0.8 million, respectively.

Other Income (Expense)

Other income (expense) consists primarily of interest expense on our credit facilities and the amortization of deferred financing costs and beneficial conversion features related to debt borrowings. Other income (expense) also includes realized gains and losses on foreign currency remeasurement, interest income and miscellaneous income and expense. During the year ended December 31, 2016, we expensed $2.4 million of deferred financing costs and $2.1 million of prepayment penalties related to the refinancing of our previous credit facility. During the year ended December 31, 2014, we incurred a $2.9 million loss on the extinguishment of our senior term loan. This loss included prepayment penalties, an end of term fee and the write off of the remaining debt issuance costs under our previous senior term loan.

Income Tax Benefit (Provision)

Income tax benefit (provision) consists of federal, state, provincial, local and foreign taxes based on income in jurisdictions in which we operate, including in the United States, China, Mexico and Turkey. The

 

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composite income tax rate, tax provisions, deferred tax assets and liabilities vary according to the jurisdiction in which the income (loss) arises. Tax laws are complex and subject to different interpretations by management and the respective governmental taxing authorities and require us to exercise judgment in determining our income tax provision, our deferred tax assets and liabilities and the valuation allowance recorded against our net deferred tax assets.

Net Income Attributable to Preferred Shareholders

Net income attributable to preferred shareholders relates to the accrual of dividends on our convertible and senior redeemable preferred shares, the accretion to redemption amounts on our convertible preferred shares and warrant fair value adjustment. Immediately prior to the closing of our IPO, all preferred shares were converted into shares of our common stock and as a result, the accrual of dividends ceased.

KEY METRICS USED BY MANAGEMENT TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE

In addition to measures of financial performance presented in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP, we use certain other financial measures and operating metrics to analyze the performance of our company. The “non-GAAP” financial measures consist of total billings, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and net debt, which help us evaluate growth trends, establish budgets, assess operational efficiencies, oversee our overall liquidity, and evaluate our overall financial performance. The key operating metrics consist of wind blade sets invoiced, estimated MWs of energy capacity for wind blades invoiced, manufacturing lines dedicated to customers under long-term supply agreements, total manufacturing lines installed, manufacturing lines in startup and manufacturing lines in transition, which help us evaluate our operational performance. We believe that these measures are useful to investors in evaluating our performance.

Key Financial Measures

 

     Three Months Ended
March 31,
     Year Ended December 31,  
     2017      2016      2016      2015      2014  
    

(unaudited)

     (in thousands)                

Net sales

   $ 191,602      $ 176,110      $ 754,877      $ 585,852      $ 320,747  

Total billings (1)

   $ 211,360      $ 174,538      $ 764,424      $ 600,107      $ 362,749  

Net income (loss)

   $ 3,545      $ 1,746      $ 13,842      $ 7,682      $ (6,648

EBITDA (1)

   $ 12,482      $ 10,951      $ 55,491      $ 37,479      $ 11,714  

Adjusted EBITDA (1)

   $ 15,570      $ 11,390      $ 66,150      $ 39,281      $ 13,457  

Capital expenditures

   $ 16,922      $ 10,888      $ 30,507      $ 26,361      $ 18,924  

Total debt, net of debt issuance costs and discount

   $ 120,489      $ 131,163      $ 123,155      $ 129,346      $ 120,849  

Net debt (1)

   $ 7,095      $ 101,392      $ 6,379      $ 90,667      $ 87,547  

Key Operating Metrics

 

     Three Months Ended
March 31,
     Year Ended December 31,  
         2017              2016          2016      2015      2014  

Sets (2)

     636        486        2,154        1,609        966  

Estimated megawatts (3)

     1,460        1,113        4,920        3,595        2,029  

Dedicated manufacturing lines (4)

     44        38        44        34        29  

Total manufacturing lines installed (5)

     39        32        33        30        22  

Manufacturing lines in startup (6)

     9        —          3        10        9  

Manufacturing lines in transition (7)

     —          3        3        11        8  

 

(1) See below for more information and a reconciliation of total billings, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and net debt to net sales, net income (loss), net income (loss) and total debt, net of debt issuance costs and discount, respectively, the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.

 

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(2) Number of wind blade sets (which consist of three wind blades) invoiced worldwide in the period.

 

(3) Estimated megawatts of energy capacity to be generated by wind blade sets invoiced in the period.

 

(4) Number of manufacturing lines that are dedicated to our customers under long-term supply agreements. Dedicated manufacturing lines may be greater than total manufacturing line capacity in instances where we have signed new supply agreements for manufacturing facilities that are under construction or have not yet been built. In April 2017, we entered into a multiyear supply agreement with Vestas to supply wind blades from two manufacturing lines in a new manufacturing facility in Matamoros, Mexico. See “Prospectus Summary—Recent Developments.”

 

(5) Number of manufacturing lines installed and either in operation, startup or transition.

 

(6) Number of manufacturing lines in a startup phase during the pre-production and production ramp-up periods.

 

(7) Number of manufacturing lines that were being transitioned to a new wind blade model during the period.

Net sales and total billings

We define total billings, a non-GAAP financial measure, as the total amounts we have invoiced our customers for products and services for which we are entitled to payment under the terms of our long-term supply agreements or other contractual agreements. We monitor total billings, and believe it is useful to present to investors as a supplement to our GAAP measures, because we believe it more directly correlates to sales activity and operations based on the timing of actual transactions with our customers, which facilitates comparison of our performance between periods and provides a more timely indication of trends in sales. Under GAAP, we do not recognize revenue on our wind blade sales until they have been delivered to our customers. Under our long-term supply agreements with our customers, we invoice our customers for wind blades once they pass certain acceptance procedures and title passes to our customers. Our customers generally pay us for the wind blades between 15 to 65 days after receipt of the invoice based on negotiated payment terms. However, in many cases, our customers request that we store their wind blades until they are ready to assemble wind turbines at a particular wind farm project. We have no control over when our customers will ship wind blades from our storage sites, and in some cases, our customers have stored large numbers of their wind blades at our sites for six months or more. Even if the customer has paid us for the wind blades and title has passed to the customer, we do not recognize revenue for these wind blades until the wind blades are delivered. Instead, these transactions are recorded as deferred revenue in our consolidated financial statements. However, we are contractually entitled to payment for those wind blades and, accordingly, invoice them when the blades are placed in storage.

Our use of total billings has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

 

    Total billings includes wind blades that have not been delivered and for which we are responsible if damage occurs to them while we hold them; and

 

    Other companies, including companies in our industry, may define total billings differently, which reduces its usefulness as a comparative measure.

EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA

We define EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, as net income or loss plus interest expense (including losses on the extinguishment of debt and net of interest income), income taxes and depreciation and amortization. We define adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA plus share-based compensation expense, plus or minus any realized gains or losses from foreign currency remeasurement. Adjusted EBITDA is the primary metric used by our management and our board of directors to establish budgets and operational goals for managing our

 

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business and evaluating our performance. In addition, our previous credit facility contained minimum EBITDA (as defined in the previous credit facility) covenants with which we were required to comply. We monitor adjusted EBITDA as a supplement to our GAAP measures and believe it is useful to present to investors because we believe that it facilitates evaluation of our period-to-period operating performance by eliminating items that are not operational in nature, allowing comparison of our recurring core business operating results over multiple periods unaffected by differences in capital structure, capital investment cycles and fixed asset base. In addition, we believe adjusted EBITDA and similar measures are widely used by investors, securities analysts, ratings agencies, and other parties in evaluating companies in our industry as a measure of financial performance and debt-service capabilities.

Our use of adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

 

    adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;

 

    adjusted EBITDA does not reflect our cash expenditures for capital equipment or other contractual commitments;

 

    adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the interest expense or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments on our indebtedness;

 

    adjusted EBITDA does not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us;

 

    although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and adjusted EBITDA does not reflect capital expenditure requirements relating to the future need to augment or replace those assets;

 

    adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the realized gains or losses from foreign currency remeasurement in our international operations;

 

    adjusted EBITDA does not reflect share-based compensation expense on equity-based incentive awards to our officers, employees, directors and consultants;

 

    adjusted EBITDA does not reflect losses on extinguishment of debt relating to prepayment penalties, termination fees and the write off of any remaining debt discount and debt issuance costs upon the repayment or refinancing of our debt; and

 

    other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA differently, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures.

In evaluating EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, you should be aware that in the future, we will incur expenses similar to the adjustments in this presentation. Our presentations of EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as suggesting that our future results will be unaffected by these expenses or any unusual or non-recurring items. When evaluating our performance, you should consider EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including our net income (loss) and other GAAP measures.

Net debt

We define net debt as the total principal amount of debt outstanding less unrestricted cash and cash equivalents. The total principal amount of debt outstanding is comprised of the long-term debt and current maturities of long-term debt as presented in our consolidated balance sheets adjusting for any debt issuance costs and discount. We believe that the presentation of net debt provides useful information to investors because our

 

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management reviews net debt as part of our oversight of overall liquidity, financial flexibility and leverage. Net debt is important when we consider opening new plants and expanding existing plants, as well as for capital expenditure requirements.

The following table reconciles our non-GAAP key financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures:

 

    Three Months Ended
March 31,
    Year Ended December 31,  
    2017     2016     2016     2015     2014  
   

(unaudited)

    (in thousands)              

Net sales

  $ 191,602     $ 176,110     $ 754,877     $ 585,852     $ 320,747  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Change in deferred revenue:

         

Blade-related deferred revenue at beginning of period (1)

    (69,568     (65,520     (65,520     (59,476     (20,646

Blade-related deferred revenue at end of period (1)

    89,319       65,027       69,568       65,520       59,476  

Foreign exchange impact (2)

    7       (1,079     5,499       8,211       3,172  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Change in deferred revenue

    19,758       (1,572     9,547       14,255       42,002  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total billings

  $ 211,360     $ 174,538     $ 764,424     $ 600,107     $ 362,749  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income (loss)

  $ 3,545     $ 1,746     $ 13,842     $ 7,682     $ (6,648

Adjustments:

         

Depreciation and amortization

    3,829       3,011       12,897       11,416       7,441  

Interest expense (net of interest income)

    3,007       3,891       17,270       14,404       7,050  

Loss on extinguishment of debt

    —         —         4,487       —         2,946  

Income tax provision

    2,101       2,303       6,995       3,977       925  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

EBITDA

    12,482       10,951       55,491       37,479       11,714  

Realized loss on foreign currency remeasurement

    1,381       439       757       1,802       1,743  

Share-based compensation expense

    1,707       —         9,902       —         —    
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted EBITDA

  $ 15,570     $ 11,390     $ 66,150     $ 39,281     $ 13,457  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

(1) Total billings is reconciled using the blade-related deferred revenue amounts at the beginning and the end of the period as follows:

 

    Three Months Ended
March 31,
    Year Ended December 31,  
    2017     2016     2016     2015     2014  
   

(unaudited)

    (in thousands)              

Blade-related deferred revenue at beginning of period

  $ 69,568     $ 65,520     $ 65,520     $ 59,476     $ 20,646  

Non-blade related deferred revenue at beginning of period

    —         —         —         —         757  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total current and noncurrent deferred revenue at beginning of period

  $ 69,568     $ 65,520     $ 65,520     $ 59,476     $ 21,403  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Blade-related deferred revenue at end of period

  $ 89,319     $ 65,027     $ 69,568     $ 65,520     $ 59,476  

Non-blade related deferred revenue at end of period

    —         —         —         —         —    
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total current and noncurrent deferred revenue at end of period

  $ 89,319     $ 65,027     $ 69,568     $ 65,520     $ 59,476  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

(2) Represents the effect of the difference between the exchange rate used by our various foreign subsidiaries on the invoice date versus the exchange rate used at the period-end balance sheet date.

 

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Net debt is reconciled as follows:

 

     March 31,     December 31,  
     2017     2016     2016     2015     2014  
    

(unaudited)

    (in thousands)              

Total debt, net of debt issuance costs and discount

   $ 120,489     $ 131,163     $ 123,155     $ 129,346     $ 120,849  

Add debt issuance costs

     2,147       3,808       2,290       4,220       4,256  

Add discount on debt

     —         2,263       —         3,018       6,034  

Less cash and cash equivalents

     (115,541     (35,842     (119,066     (45,917     (43,592
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net debt

   $ 7,095     $ 101,392     $ 6,379     $ 90,667     $ 87,547  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Key Operating Metrics

Key operating metrics consist of sets invoiced, estimated megawatts of energy capacity for wind blade sets invoiced, dedicated manufacturing lines, total manufacturing lines installed, manufacturing lines in startup and manufacturing lines in transition. Sets represents the number of wind blade sets, consisting of three wind blades each that we invoiced worldwide during the period. We monitor sets and believe that presenting sets to investors is helpful because we believe that it is the most direct measurement of our manufacturing output during the period. Sets primarily impact net sales and total billings. Estimated megawatts are the energy capacity to be generated by wind blade sets sold in the period. Our estimate is based solely on name-plate capacity of the wind turbine on which our wind blades are expected to be installed. We monitor estimated megawatts and believe that presenting estimated megawatts to investors is helpful because we believe that it is a commonly followed measurement of energy capacity across our industry and provides an indication of our share of the overall wind blade market. Dedicated manufacturing lines are the number of manufacturing lines that we have dedicated to our customers pursuant to our long-term supply agreements. Total manufacturing lines installed represents the number of manufacturing lines installed and either in operation, startup or transition. We monitor dedicated manufacturing lines and total manufacturing lines installed and believe that presenting both of these metrics to investors is helpful because we believe that the number of dedicated manufacturing lines is the best indicator of demand for our wind blades from customers under our long-term supply agreements in any given period. Dedicated manufacturing lines primarily impacts our net sales and total billings. We believe that dedicated manufacturing lines provide an understanding of additional capacity within an existing facility and that total manufacturing lines installed provides an understanding of the number of manufacturing lines installed and either in operation, startup or transition. Manufacturing lines in startup is the number of dedicated manufacturing lines that were in a startup phase during the pre-production and production ramp up period, pursuant to the opening of a new manufacturing facility, the expansion of an existing manufacturing facility or the addition of new manufacturing lines in an existing manufacturing facility. We monitor and present this metric because we believe it helps investors to better understand the impact of the startup phase of our new manufacturing facilities on our gross profit (loss) and net income (loss). Manufacturing lines in transition is the number of dedicated manufacturing lines that were being transitioned to a new wind blade model during the period. We monitor and present this metric because we believe it helps investors to better understand the impact of these transitions on our gross profit (loss) and net income (loss).

 

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RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Three Months Ended March 31, 2017 Compared to Three Months Ended March 31, 2016

The following table summarizes certain information relating to our operating results and related percentage of net sales for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016 that has been derived from our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

     Three Months Ended  
     March 31,  
     2017     2016  
     (unaudited)  
     (in thousands)  

Net sales

   $ 191,602       100.0   $ 176,110       100.0
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cost of sales

     167,423       87.4       159,866       90.8  

Startup and transition costs

     6,159       3.2       3,306       1.9  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total cost of goods sold

     173,582       90.6       163,172       92.7  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Gross profit

     18,020       9.4       12,938       7.3  

General and administrative expenses

     8,306       4.3       4,749       2.7  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Income from operations

     9,714       5.1       8,189       4.6  

Other expense

     (4,068     (2.1     (4,140     (2.3
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Income before income taxes

     5,646       3.0       4,049       2.3  

Income tax provision

     (2,101     (1.1     (2,303     (1.3
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income

     3,545       1.9       1,746       1.0  

Net income attributable to preferred shareholders

     —         —         2,437       1.4  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income (loss) attributable to common shareholders

   $ 3,545       1.9   $ (691     (0.4 )% 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net sales for the three months ended March 31, 2017 increased by $15.5 million or 8.8% to $191.6 million compared to $176.1 million in the same period in 2016. Net sales of wind blades increased by 11.9% to $184.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 as compared to $164.7 million in the same period in 2016. The increase was primarily driven by a 15% increase in the number of wind blades delivered during the three months ended March 31, 2017 compared to the same period in 2016 primarily from our Mexico and China plants, partially offset by a decline in the average sales prices of the same blade models delivered in both periods as a result of savings in raw material costs, a portion of which we share with our customers, slightly lower wind blade volume in Turkey and foreign currency fluctuations in Turkey and China. Net sales from the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems during the three months ended March 31, 2017 decreased to $4.6 million from $9.9 million in the same period in 2016. This decrease was primarily the result of our customers requiring less precision molding and assembly systems from our Rhode Island facility during the three months ended March 31, 2017. Total billings for the three months ended March 31, 2017 increased by $36.8 million or 21.1% to $211.4 million compared to $174.5 million in the same period in 2016. The impact of the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Euro at our Turkey operations and the Chinese Renminbi at our China operations on consolidated net sales and total billings were reductions of 0.9% and 1.3%, respectively. The impact of the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Euro and the Chinese Renminbi on consolidated net sales and total billings for the three months ended March 31, 2016 was not significant.

Total cost of goods sold for the three months ended March 31, 2017 was $173.6 million and included aggregate costs of $6.2 million related to startup costs in our new plants in Mexico and Turkey. This compares to total cost of goods sold for the three months ended March 31, 2016 of $163.2 million, including aggregate costs of $3.3 million related to the transition of wind blade models in our original plant in Mexico. Cost of goods sold

 

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as a percentage of net sales of wind blades decreased by three percentage points during the three months ended March 31, 2017 as compared to the same period in 2016, driven by improved operating efficiencies, the impact of savings in raw material costs and foreign currency fluctuations. Similar to the impact to net sales above, the impact of the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Euro, Turkish Lira, Chinese Renminbi and Mexican Peso reduced consolidated cost of goods sold by 3.2% for three months ended March 31, 2017, compared to a reduction of 1.9% in the same period in 2016.

General and administrative expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2017 totaled $8.3 million as compared to $4.7 million for the same period in 2016. As a percentage of net sales, general and administrative expenses were 4.3% for the three months ended March 31, 2017, up from 2.7% in the same period in 2016. The increase was primarily driven by share-based compensation costs of $1.5 million recorded in the 2017 period (none was recorded in the 2016 period prior to our IPO in July 2016) as well as additional costs incurred to enhance our corporate support functions to support our growth and public company governance.

Net income for the three months ended March 31, 2017 was $3.5 million, as compared to $1.7 million in the same period in 2016. The increase was primarily due to the reasons set forth above.

Net income attributable to preferred shareholders was $2.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016 and there was none in the 2017 period as following our IPO in July 2016, all of our preferred shares were converted to common shares.

Net income attributable to common shareholders was $3.5 million during the three months ended March 31, 2017, compared to a loss of $0.7 million in the same period in 2016. This was primarily due to the improved operating results discussed above. Diluted earnings per share was $0.10 for the three months ended March 31, 2017, compared to a loss of $0.16 for the three months ended March 31, 2016.

Segment Discussion

The following table summarizes our net sales and income (loss) from operations by our four geographic operating segments:

 

     Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
         2017              2016      
     (unaudited)  
     (in thousands)  

Net Sales

  

U.S.

   $ 46,540      $ 51,761  

Asia

     66,732        64,352  

Mexico

     46,931        25,540  

EMEA

     31,399        34,457  
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total net sales

   $ 191,602      $ 176,110  
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

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     Three Months Ended
March 31,
 
         2017              2016      
     (unaudited)  
     (in thousands)  

Income (Loss) from Operations

  

U.S. (1)

   $ (10,111    $ (661

Asia

     14,704        15,542  

Mexico

     1,947        967  

EMEA

     3,174        (7,659
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total income from operations

   $ 9,714      $ 8,189  
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

(1) Includes the costs of our corporate headquarters totaling $8.3 million and $4.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

U.S. Segment

Net sales in the three months ended March 31, 2017 decreased by $5.2 million or 10.2% to $46.5 million compared to $51.8 million in the same period in 2016. Net sales of wind blades were $40.2 million during the three months ended March 31, 2017 as compared to $40.3 million in the same period of 2016 on a comparable number of wind blades delivered in the two periods. Net sales from the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems during the three months ended March 31, 2017 were $3.7 million compared to $9.9 million during the same period in 2016. This decrease was primarily the result of model-specific tooling equipment manufactured in our Rhode Island facility in the 2016 period as required by our customers due to the transition to larger wind blade models for use in our Mexico plant as well as for use at the plants of another U.S. wind blade manufacturer.

The loss from operations for the three months ended March 31, 2017 was $10.1 million as compared to a loss of $0.7 million in the same period in 2016. These amounts include corporate general and administrative costs of $8.3 million and $4.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively, with 2017 including $1.5 million of share-based compensation costs as described above. Notwithstanding these costs, the operating results were negatively impacted by the lower precision molding volume discussed above as well as lower gross profit on wind blades delivered during the three months ended March 31, 2017 as compared to the 2016 period.

Asia Segment

Net sales in the three months ended March 31, 2017 increased by $2.4 million or 3.7% to $66.7 million compared to $64.4 million in the same period in 2016. Net sales of wind blades were $65.8 million in the three months ended March 31, 2017 as compared to $64.4 million in the same period of 2016. The increase was the result of a 5% increase in the number of wind blades delivered during the three months ended March 31, 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. These increases were partially offset by a change in the mix of wind blade models sold, lower average sales prices of blades due to savings in raw material costs, a portion of which we share with our customers and the unfavorable impact of the fluctuation of the U.S. dollar relative to the Chinese Renminbi of 1.1%. Net sales from the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems totaled $1.0 million during the three months ended March 31, 2017 compared to no sales during the three months ended March 31, 2016.

Income from operations in the Asia segment for the three months ended March 31, 2017 was $14.7 million as compared to $15.5 million in the same period in 2016. In addition to the factors noted above, the decrease reflect higher overhead costs in the 2017 period as compared to 2016 partially offset by the favorable impact of the fluctuation of the U.S. dollar relative to the Chinese Renminbi of 4.8%.

 

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Mexico Segment

Net sales in the three months ended March 31, 2017 increased by $21.4 million or 83.8% to $46.9 million compared to $25.5 million in the same period in 2016, reflecting a 68% increase in wind blade volume at our first Mexico plant and the beginning of wind blade production in our second plant, partially offset by lower average sales prices of blades. Net sales of wind blades represents the entirety of net sales in the Mexico segment in the 2017 and 2016 periods.

Income from operations in the Mexico segment for the three months ended March 31, 2017 was $1.9 million as compared to $1.0 million in the same period in 2016. The improvement in income from operations was due to the increase in wind blade volume in the 2017 period as compared to 2016, savings in raw material costs and the favorable impact of the fluctuation of the U.S. dollar relative to the Mexican Peso of 2.2%. This was largely offset by the startup losses incurred at our two new Mexico facilities.

EMEA Segment

Net sales during the three months ended March 31, 2017 decreased by $3.1 million or 8.9% to $31.4 million compared to $34.5 million in the same period in 2016. The decrease was driven by a 17% decrease in wind blade volume at our first Turkey plant, the mix of blades as well as overall lower average sales prices of blades due to savings in raw material costs, a portion of which we share with our customers, notwithstanding the unfavorable impact of the fluctuation of the U.S. dollar relative to the Euro of 3.1%. The decrease in sales volume was partially offset by the beginning of wind blade production in our second plant. Net sales of wind blades represents the entirety of net sales in the EMEA segment in 2017 and 2016.

Income from operations in the EMEA segment for the three months ended March 31, 2017 was $3.2 million as compared to a loss of $7.7 million in the same period in 2016. The increase was primarily driven by a large warranty reserve accrual in the 2016 period and the favorable impact of the fluctuation of the U.S. dollar relative to the Turkish Lira and Euro of 7.7%.

Year Ended December 31, 2016 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2015

The following table summarizes certain information relating to our operating results and related percentage of net sales for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015 that has been derived from our consolidated financial statements.

 

     Year Ended December 31,  
     2016     2015  
     (in thousands)  

Net sales

   $ 754,877        100.0   $ 585,852        100.0
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

Cost of sales

     659,745        87.4       528,247        90.2  

Startup and transition costs

     18,127        2.4       15,860        2.7  
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total cost of goods sold

     677,872        89.8       544,107        92.9  
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

Gross profit

     77,005        10.2       41,745        7.1  

General and administrative expenses

     33,892        4.5       14,126        2.4  
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

Income from operations

     43,113        5.7       27,619        4.7  

Other expense

     (22,276      (3.0     (15,960      (2.7
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

Income before income taxes

     20,837        2.7       11,659        2.0  

Income tax provision

     (6,995      (0.9     (3,977      (0.7
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

Net income

     13,842        1.8       7,682        1.3  

Net income attributable to preferred shareholders

     5,471        0.7       9,423        1.6  
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

Net income (loss) attributable to common shareholders

   $ 8,371        1.1   $ (1,741      (0.3 )% 
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

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Net sales for the year ended December 31, 2016 increased by $169.0 million or 28.9% to $754.9 million compared to $585.9 million in the same period in 2015. The increase was primarily driven by a 38% increase in the number of wind blades delivered during 2016 as compared to 2015, partially offset by a reduction in net sales from the manufacturing of prevision molding and assembly systems. Net sales of wind blades were $706.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 as compared to $535.2 million in the same period in 2015. These increases were primarily the result of additional wind blade volume at each of our plants impacted by lower average sales price due to geographic mix, blade mix and the result of savings in raw material costs, a portion of which we share with our customers, partially offset by foreign currency fluctuations in Turkey and China. Net sales from the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems during the year ended December 31, 2016 decreased to $39.1 million from $47.3 million in the same period in 2015. This decrease was primarily the result of reduced demand from our customers for precision molding and assembly systems from our China facility. Total billings for the year ended December 31, 2016 increased by $164.3 million or 27.4% to $764.4 million compared to $600.1 million in the same period in 2015. The impact of the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Euro at our Turkey operations and the Chinese Renminbi at our China operations on consolidated net sales and total billings were reductions of 1.1% and 1.0%, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2016, with reductions of 4.8% and 4.1%, respectively, in the same period in 2015. Similar to the impact to net sales above, the impact of the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Euro, Turkish Lira, Mexican Peso and Chinese Renminbi reduced consolidated cost of goods sold by 3.5% for year ended December 31, 2016, compared to 4.7% in the same period in 2015.

Total cost of goods sold for the year ended December 31, 2016 was $677.9 million and included aggregate costs of $18.1 million related to startup costs in our new plants in Mexico and Turkey. This compares to total cost of goods sold for the year ended December 31, 2015 of $544.1 million which included aggregate costs of $15.9 million related to startup costs in our Mexico and Dafeng, China plants as well as the transition of wind blade models across all of our plants. Cost of goods sold as a percentage of net sales of wind blades decreased by 4.3% in the year ended December 31, 2016 as compared to the same period in 2015 driven by improved operating efficiency in China and the U.S., which was partially offset by higher operating costs in our Turkey and Mexico plants due to the startup costs incurred with the opening of new plants in both those segments. Cost of goods sold as a percentage of net sales from the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems increased slightly during the year ended December 31, 2016 as compared to the same period in 2015.

General and administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2016 totaled $33.9 million as compared to $14.1 million for the same period in 2015. As a percentage of net sales, general and administrative expenses were 4.5% for the year ended December 31, 2016, up from 2.4% in the same period in 2015. The increased expenditures for general and administrative expenses were driven primarily by share-based compensation costs of $8.4 million recorded in 2016 as well as the costs of enhancing our corporate support functions during this period of growth.

Other expense increased to $22.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 from $16.0 million for the same period in 2015. The increase was primarily due to the expensing of $4.5 million of deferred financing costs and prepayment penalties related to the refinancing of our previous credit facility in 2016.

Income tax provision increased to $7.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 from $4.0 million for the same period in 2015. The increase was primarily due to the improved operating results in China and Mexico and an increase in China’s statutory rate.

Net income for the year ended December 31, 2016 was $13.8 million, as compared to $7.7 million in the same period in 2015. The increase was primarily due to the reasons set forth above.

Net income attributable to preferred shareholders decreased to $5.5 million during the year ended December 31, 2016 from $9.4 million during the same period in 2015. This decrease was primarily due to the fact that immediately prior to the closing of the IPO in July 2016, all shares of the then-outstanding redeemable preferred shares converted into an aggregate of 21,110,204 shares of common stock.

 

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Net income attributable to common shareholders increased to $8.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2016 from a loss of $1.7 million in the same period in 2015. This increase was primarily due to the improved operating results discussed above as well as the decrease in the net income attributable to preferred shareholders. Diluted earnings per share for the year ended December 31, 2016 was $0.48 compared to a loss of $0.41 for the year ended December 31, 2015.

Segment Discussion

The following table summarizes our net sales and income (loss) from operations by our four geographic operating segments:

 

     Year Ended December 31,  
     2016      2015  
     (in thousands)  

Net Sales:

  

U.S.

   $ 190,092      $ 149,614  

Asia

     301,893        206,779  

Mexico

     129,756        97,912  

EMEA

     133,136        131,547  
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total net sales

   $ 754,877      $ 585,852  
  

 

 

    

 

 

 
     Year Ended December 31,  
     2016      2015  
     (in thousands)  

Income (Loss) from Operations:

  

U.S.

   $ (25,099    $ (13,405

Asia

     64,393        34,998  

Mexico

     9,546        7,531  

EMEA

     (5,727      (1,505
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

Income from operations

   $ 43,113      $ 27,619  
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

U.S. Segment

Net sales in the year ended December 31, 2016 increased by $40.5 million or 27.1% to $190.1 million compared to $149.6 million in the same period in 2015. Net sales of wind blades were $160.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2016 as compared to $122.4 million in the same period of 2015. The increase was driven by an increase in the number of wind blades delivered in the year ended December 31, 2016 compared to the same period in 2015 due to the transition in 2015 to the production of larger wind blade models at our customer’s request, partially offset by lower pricing due to savings in raw material costs, a portion of which we share with our customers. Net sales from the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems during the year ended December 31, 2016 were $21.1 million compared to $23.9 million during the same period in 2015.

The loss from operations for the year ended December 31, 2016 was $25.1 million as compared to $13.4 million in the same period in 2015. These amounts include corporate general and administrative costs of $33.9 million and $14.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively, with 2016 including $8.4 million of share-based compensation costs as described above. Notwithstanding these costs, the operating results were driven by increased wind blade volume, the impact of savings in raw material costs and improved operating efficiency.

 

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Asia Segment

Net sales in the year ended December 31, 2016 increased by $95.1 million or 46.0% to $301.9 million compared to $206.8 million in the same period in 2015. Net sales of wind blades were $283.9 million in the year ended December 31, 2016 as compared to $183.4 million in the same period in 2015. The increase was the result of a 68% increase in the number of wind blades delivered during the year ended December 31, 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, which was primarily the result of the start of production for a new customer in our Dafeng facility during the latter half of 2015 as well as the addition of one manufacturing line for an existing customer, along with a change in the mix of wind blade models sold. These increases were partially offset by lower pricing due to savings in raw material costs, a portion of which we share with our customers and the unfavorable impact of the fluctuation of the U.S. dollar relative to the Chinese Renminbi of 2.7%. Net sales from the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems during the year ended December 31, 2016 were $18.0 million compared to $23.4 million during the same period in 2015. The decrease in sales was driven by the abnormally high demand from our customers for precision molding in the United States, China and Turkey in 2015 due to the transition to the production of large wind blade models at our customer’s request.

Income from operations in the Asia segment for the year ended December 31, 2016 was $64.4 million as compared to $35.0 million in the same period in 2015. In addition to the factors noted above, this increase reflects the impact of savings in raw material costs, continued increasing operational efficiencies and other improvements in our Taicang Port and Dafeng wind blade facilities relative to the same period in 2015 and the favorable impact of the fluctuation of the U.S. dollar relative to the Chinese Renminbi of 6.7%.

Mexico Segment

Net sales in the year ended December 31, 2016 increased by $31.8 million or 32.5% to $129.8 million compared to $97.9 million in the same period in 2015, reflecting a 23% increase in wind blade volume, notwithstanding the transition to the production of a larger wind blade model at our customer’s request during the period, the mix of blades and lower average sales prices on certain blades related to savings in raw material costs, a portion of which we share with our customers. Net sales of wind blades represents the entirety of net sales in the Mexico segment in the 2016 and 2015 periods.

Income from operations in the Mexico segment for the year ended December 31, 2016 was $9.5 million as compared to $7.5 million in the same period in 2015. The improvement in income from operations was due to the increase in wind blade volume in 2016 compared to the same period in 2015 and savings in raw material costs and the favorable impact of the fluctuation of the U.S. dollar relative to the Mexican Peso of 2.3%, partially offset by costs to transition to a larger wind blade model as described above.

EMEA Segment

Net sales during the year ended December 31, 2016 increased $1.6 million or 1.2% to $133.1 million compared to $131.5 million in the same period in 2015. The increase in net sales was driven by a 3% increase in wind blade volume and changes in our wind blade mix, partially offset by lower sales prices related to savings in raw material costs, a portion of which we share with our customers. Net sales of wind blades represents the entirety of net sales in the EMEA segment in 2016 and 2015.

The loss from operations in the EMEA segment for the year ended December 31, 2016 was $5.7 million as compared to a loss of $1.5 million in the same period in 2015. The increase in the loss from operations was driven by an increase in the warranty reserve in 2016 which was partially offset by the higher wind blade volume noted above, improved operating performance and savings in raw material costs and the net favorable impact of the fluctuation of the U.S. dollar relative to the Turkish Lira and Euro of 4.8%.

 

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Year Ended December 31, 2015 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2014

The following table summarizes certain information relating to our operating results and related percentage of net sales for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 that has been derived from our consolidated financial statements.

 

    

Year Ended December 31,

 
     2015     2014  
     (in thousands)  

Net sales

   $ 585,852       100.0   $ 320,747       100.0
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cost of sales

     528,247       90.2       289,528       90.2  

Startup and transition costs

     15,860       2.7       16,567       5.2  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total cost of goods sold

     544,107       92.9       306,095       95.4  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Gross profit

     41,745       7.1       14,652       4.6  

General and administrative expenses

     14,126       2.4       9,175       2.9  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Income from operations

     27,619       4.7       5,477       1.7  

Other expense

     (15,960     (2.7     (11,200     (3.5
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Income (loss) before income taxes

     11,659       2.0       (5,723     (1.8

Income tax provision

     (3,977     (0.7     (925     (0.3
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net income (loss)

     7,682       1.3       (6,648     (2.1

Net income attributable to preferred shareholders

     9,423       1.6       13,930       4.3  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net loss attributable to common shareholders

   $ (1,741     (0.3 )%    $ (20,578     (6.4 )% 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net sales for the year ended December 31, 2015 increased by $265.2 million or 83% to $585.9 million compared to $320.7 million in the same period in 2014. This was primarily driven by a 91% increase in the number of wind blades delivered in the year ended December 31, 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. Net sales of wind blades were $535.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2015 as compared to $293.0 million in the same period in 2014. These increases were primarily the result of additional wind blade volume in our plants in Mexico, China and Turkey, partially offset by lower volume in the U.S. Net sales from the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems during the year ended December 31, 2015 increased to $47.3 million from $25.8 million in the same period in 2014. This increase was a result of precision molding and assembly systems manufactured in the United States and Asia for use in our U.S., China and Mexico facilities. Total billings for the year ended December 31, 2015 increased by $237.3 million or 65% to $600.1 million compared to total billings of $362.8 million in the same period in 2014. The impact of the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Euro at our Turkey operation on consolidated net sales and total billings were reductions of 4.8% and 4.1%, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2015, with no material impact in the same period in 2014.

Total cost of goods sold for the year ended December 31, 2015 was $544.1 million and included aggregate costs of $15.9 million related to startup costs in our Mexico and Dafeng, China plants as well as the transition of wind blade models across all of our plants. This compares to total cost of goods sold for the year ended December 31, 2014 of $306.1 million, including aggregate costs of $16.6 million related to the transition of wind blades in our U.S. plant and startup costs in Mexico, Turkey and Dafeng, China. Cost of goods sold as a percentage of net sales of wind blades decreased by 3% in the year ended December 31, 2015 as compared to the same period in 2014 driven by improved operating efficiency in Mexico and Turkey, which was partially offset by higher operating costs in our U.S. and China plants due to the transition to the production of larger wind blade models at our customer’s request. Cost of goods sold as a percentage of net sales from the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems decreased by 1% during the year ended December 31, 2015 as compared to the same period in 2014. Similar to the impact to net sales above, the impact of the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Euro reduced consolidated cost of goods sold at our Turkey operation by 4.7% for year ended December 31, 2015, compared to 1.8% in the same period in 2014.

 

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General and administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2015 totaled $14.1 million as compared to $9.2 million for the same period in 2014. As a percentage of net sales, general and administrative expenses were 2.4% for the year ended December 31, 2015, down from 2.9% in the same period in 2014. The increased expenditures for general and administrative expenses were driven by the costs of enhancing our corporate support functions during this period of growth.

Other expense increased to $16.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2015 from $11.2 million for the same period in 2014. This was driven by higher interest expense from additional borrowings under our credit facilities to fund our growth initiatives, most notably our expansions and ramp-ups in Dafeng, China and Turkey. The increase also related to the amortization of the beneficial conversion feature on our Subordinated Convertible Promissory Notes during 2015.

Income tax provision increased to $4.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2015 from $0.9 million for the same period in 2014. The increase was primarily due to the operating results in China and Mexico.

Net income for the year ended December 31, 2015 was $7.7 million, as compared to a net loss of $6.6 million in the same period in 2014. The increase was primarily due to the reasons set forth above.

Net income attributable to preferred shareholders decreased to $9.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2015 from $13.9 million during the same period in 2014. This decrease was primarily due to the convertible preferred shares being fully accreted to their respective redemption amounts in 2014, partially offset by the normal period-over-period increase in the ongoing accrual of dividends.

Net loss attributable to common shareholders decreased to $1.7 million during the year ended December 31, 2015 from a loss of $20.6 million in the same period in 2014. This decrease was primarily due to the decrease in the net income attributable to preferred shareholders and net income (loss) discussed above.

Segment Discussion

The following table summarizes our net sales and income (loss) from operations by our four geographic operating segments:

 

     Year Ended December 31,  
     2015      2014  
     (in thousands)  

Net Sales:

  

U.S.

   $ 149,614      $ 145,691  

Asia

     206,779        79,325  

Mexico

     97,912        28,725  

EMEA

     131,547        67,006  
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total net sales

   $ 585,852      $ 320,747  
  

 

 

    

 

 

 
     Year Ended December 31,  
     2015      2014  
     (in thousands)  

Income (Loss) from Operations:

  

U.S.

   $ (13,405    $ (1,199

Asia

     34,998        14,771  

Mexico

     7,531        (6,567

EMEA

     (1,505      (1,528
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

Income from operations

   $ 27,619      $ 5,477  
  

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

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U.S. Segment

Net sales in the year ended December 31, 2015 were $149.6 million, up from $145.7 million in the same period in 2014. Net sales of wind blades were $122.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2015 as compared to $128.5 million in the same period of 2014. The decrease was driven by a reduction in the number of wind blades delivered in the year ended December 31, 2015 compared to the same period in 2014 due to the transition to the production of larger wind blade models at our customer’s request. Net sales from the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems during the year ended December 31, 2015 were $23.9 million compared to $15.3 million during the same period in 2014. This increase was primarily the result of model-specific tooling equipment manufactured in our Rhode Island facility as required by our customers due to the transition to larger wind blade models for use in the U.S. and Mexico facilities.

The loss from operations for the year ended December 31, 2015 was $13.4 million as compared to the loss from operations of $1.2 million in the same period in 2014, primarily driven by reduced wind blade volume discussed above as well as higher general and administrative expenses in the U.S., including at our headquarters, required to facilitate our growth worldwide.

Asia Segment

Net sales in the year ended December 31, 2015 were $206.8 million, up from $79.3 million in the same period in 2014. Net sales of wind blades were $183.4 million in the year ended December 31, 2015 as compared to $68.8 million in the same period in 2014. The increase was the result of a 160% increase in the number of wind blades delivered during the year ended December 31, 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, along with a change in the mix of wind blade models sold. This was primarily the result of the start of production for a new customer in our Dafeng facility during 2015 as well as the addition of one manufacturing line for an existing customer for a portion of the year. Net sales from the manufacturing of precision molding and assembly systems were $23.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2015 compared to $10.5 million in the same period in 2014. These sales were driven by demand from our customers for precision molding and assembly systems in the United States, China and Turkey that we manufactured in our Taicang City facility.

Income from operations in the Asia segment for the year ended December 31, 2015 was $35.0 million as compared to $14.8 million in the same period in 2014. In addition to the factors noted above, this increase reflected continued increasing operational efficiencies and other improvements in our Taicang Port and Dafeng facilities relative to the prior period and the start of production for a new customer in our Dafeng facility.

Mexico Segment

The Mexico segment had net sales of $97.9 million in the year ended December 31, 2015 as compared to $28.7 million in the same period in 2014. This increase reflects the ramp-up of production in Mexico. Net sales of wind blades represents the entirety of net sales in the Mexico segment in 2015 and 2014.

Income from operations in the Mexico segment for the year ended December 31, 2015 was $7.5 million as compared to a loss of $6.6 million in the same period in 2014. The improvement was due to the increased production levels during the year ended December 31, 2015 approaching a normalized capacity, compared to the ramp up of production in the same period in 2014.

EMEA Segment

Net sales during the year ended December 31, 2015 were $131.5 million, up from $67.0 million in the same period in 2014. The increase was driven by a 105% increase in wind blade volume and changes in our wind blade mix, which resulted in a higher average sale price. Net sales of wind blades represents the entirety of net sales in the EMEA segment in 2015 and 2014.

 

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The loss from operations in the EMEA segment for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 were each $1.5 million. The higher wind blade volume and improved operating performance was more than offset by the impact of the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Euro and Turkish Lira in 2015. The impact of the strengthening U.S. dollar reduced net sales by 21.4% and cost of goods sold by 19.7%. The impact of the U.S. dollar against the Euro and Turkish Lira reduced net sales and cost of goods sold by 2.2% and 8.2%, respectively, in the comparable year ended December 31, 2014.

LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES

Our primary needs for liquidity have been, and in the future will continue to be, capital expenditures, new facility startup costs, working capital and debt service costs. Our capital expenditures have been primarily related to machinery and equipment for new facilities or facility expansions. Historically, we have funded our working capital needs through cash flows from operations, the proceeds received from our credit facilities and from proceeds received from the issuance of stock. As discussed below, during 2016 we completed an initial public offering of common stock for which we received net proceeds of $67.2 million and in 2014 we received $6.8 million of net proceeds from preferred stock offerings (no common or preferred shares were offered during 2015 or the three months ended March 31, 2017). We had net repayments on financing arrangements of $2.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 as compared to net borrowings of $2.7 million in the comparable period of 2016. We received net proceeds from financing arrangements and customer advances of $1.6 million and $81.7 million during the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2016, we had net repayments of financing arrangements and customer advances of $15.4 million. As of March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, we had $122.6 million and $125.4 million in outstanding indebtedness, respectively, excluding debt issuance costs. As of March 31, 2017, we had an aggregate of $73.9 million of remaining capacity and $33.8 million of availability under our various credit facilities. Working capital requirements have increased as a result of our overall growth and the need to fund higher accounts receivable and inventory levels as our business volumes have increased. Based upon current and anticipated levels of operations, we believe that cash on hand, available credit facilities and cash flow from operations will be adequate to fund our working capital and capital expenditure requirements and to make required payments of principal and interest on our indebtedness over the next twelve months.

In July 2016, we completed an IPO of 7,187,500 shares of our common stock at a public offering price of $11.00 per share, which included 937,500 shares issued pursuant to the underwriters’ exercise of their option to purchase additional shares. We received $67.2 million in proceeds, net of underwriting discounts and offering expenses and intend to use the net proceeds from the public offering for our working capital and other general corporate purposes, including financing existing manufacturing operations, expansion in existing and new geographies and repayment of a customer advance. Immediately prior to the closing of the IPO, all shares of the then-outstanding redeemable preferred shares converted into an aggregate of 21,110,204 shares of common stock and the redeemable preferred share warrants were converted on a net issuance basis into 120,923 shares of common stock. In addition, concurrent with the closing of the IPO, the Subordinated Convertible Promissory Notes in the aggregate principal and interest amount of $11.9 million were converted into an aggregate of 1,079,749 shares of common stock at the public offering price of $11.00 per share. Prior to the IPO, in July 2016 we also consummated a 360-for-1 forward stock split of our common stock.

We anticipate that any new facilities and future facility expansions will be funded through cash flows from operations, the proceeds of our IPO, the incurrence of other indebtedness and other potential sources of liquidity.

At March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, we had unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaling $115.5 million and $119.1 million, respectively. The March 31, 2017 balance includes $17.7 million of cash located outside of the United States, including $14.8 million in China, $1.9 million in Turkey and $1.0 million in Mexico. The December 31, 2016 balance includes $15.7 million of cash located outside of the United States, including $12.3 million in China, $2.5 million in Turkey and $0.9 million in Mexico. Our ability

 

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to repatriate funds from China to the United States is subject to a number of restrictions imposed by the Chinese government. We repatriate funds through several technology license and corporate/administrative service agreements. We are compensated quarterly based on agreed upon royalty rates for such intellectual property licenses and quarterly fees for those services. Certain of our subsidiaries are limited in their ability to declare dividends without first meeting statutory restrictions of the People’s Republic of China, including retained earnings as determined under Chinese-statutory accounting requirements. Until 50% ($5.2 million) of registered capital is contributed to a surplus reserve, our Chinese operations can only pay dividends equal to 90% of after-tax profits (10% must be contributed to the surplus reserve). Once the surplus reserve fund requirement is met, our Chinese operations can pay dividends equal to 100% of after-tax profit assuming other conditions are met. At December 31, 2016, the amount of the surplus reserve fund was $4.4 million.

Operating Cash Flows

 

    

Three Months Ended
March 31,

   

Year Ended December 31,

 
     2017      2016     2016      2015      2014  
    

(unaudited)

    (in thousands)                

Net income (loss)

   $ 3,545      $ 1,746     $ 13,842      $ 7,682      $ (6,648

Depreciation and amortization

     3,829        3,011       12,897        11,416        7,441  

Share-based compensation expense

     1,707        —         9,902        —          —    

Other non-cash items

     143        1,167       6,388        3,741        2,995  

Changes in assets and liabilities

     6,714        (7,063     10,812        8,454        (37,005
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities

   $ 15,938      $ (1,139   $ 53,841      $ 31,293      $ (33,217
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Net cash provided by operating activities totaled $15.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and was primarily the result of net income for the period of $3.5 million, depreciation and amortization of $3.8 million, share-based compensation costs of $1.7 million and net changes in working capital. The key components of the $6.7 million increase in working capital include a $19.8 million increase in deferred revenue, a $11.2 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses, a $6.8 million decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets, a $4.8 million increase in customer deposits, a $5.9 million decrease in other noncurrent assets and a $2.0 million increase in accrued warranty. This was partially offset by an increase in accounts receivable of $28.7 million and a $15.2 million increase in inventory. The working capital changes in accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable and accrued expenses and deferred revenue are primarily the result of the material increase in and the timing of sales in the three months ended March 31, 2017.

Net cash used in operating activities totaled $1.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016 and was primarily the result of net changes in working capital, mostly offset by net income for the period of $1.7 million and non-cash depreciation and amortization of $3.0 million. The key components of the $7.1 million decrease in working capital include a $14.1 million increase in accounts receivable, an $8.3 million increase in prepaid expenses and other current assets, a $5.3 million increase in inventory and a $3.0 million increase in other noncurrent assets. This was partially offset by a $14.3 million increase in accrued warranty, a $6.8 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses, and a $2.5 million increase in customer deposits. The working capital changes in accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable and accrued expenses and deferred revenue are primarily the result of the material increase in and the timing of sales in the three months ended March 31, 2016.

Net cash provided by operating activities totaled $53.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 and was primarily the result of net income of $13.8 million, non-cash depreciation and amortization charges totaling $12.9 million, share-based compensation costs of $9.9 million and other non-cash items of $6.4 million, as well as net changes in working capital. The key components of the $10.8 million increase in working capital includes a $15.0 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses, a $6.3 million increase in accrued warranty, a $5.1 million decrease in accounts receivable and a $4.0 million increase in deferred revenue. This

 

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was partially offset by an $8.3 million increase in other noncurrent assets, a $7.5 million increase in customer deposits and a $5.0 million increase in inventory. The working capital changes in accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable and accrued expenses, accrued warranty and deferred revenue are primarily the result of the material increase in and the timing of sales in the year ended December 31, 2016.

Net cash provided by operating activities totaled $31.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2015 and was primarily the result of non-cash depreciation and amortization charges totaling $11.4 million and other non-cash items of $3.7 million, as well as net income of $7.7 million and net changes in working capital. The key components of the $8.5 million increase in working capital includes a $34.4 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses, a $7.7 million increase in accrued warranty, a $6.0 million increase in deferred revenue and a $4.2 million decrease in other noncurrent assets. This was partially offset by a $29.7 million increase in accounts receivable, an $11.0 million increase in prepaid expenses and other current assets and a $3.2 million decrease in customer deposits. The working capital changes in accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, accrued warranty and accrued expenses and deferred revenue are primarily the result of the material increase in and the timing of sales in the year ended December 31, 2015.

Net cash used in operating activities totaled $33.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2014. This cash usage was primarily the result of net changes in working capital and the net loss for the year ended December 31, 2014 of $6.6 million, partly offset by non-cash depreciation and amortization of $7.4 million. The key components of the working capital changes include a $60.3 million increase in inventory, a $31.7 million increase in accounts receivable and a $9.2 million increase in prepaid expenses and other current assets, partially reduced by $38.3 million increase in deferred revenue and a $26.1 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses. The working capital changes in accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable and accrued expenses and deferred revenue are primarily the result of the material increase in and the timing of sales in the year ended December 31, 2014.

Investing Cash Flows

 

    

Three Months Ended
March 31,

   

Year Ended December 31,

 
         2017             2016         2016     2015     2014  
    

(unaudited)

    (in thousands)              

Purchase of property and equipment

   $ (16,922   $ (10,888   $ (30,507   $ (26,361   $ (18,924

Proceeds from sale of assets

     —         —         —         146       —    
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash used in investing activities

   $ (16,922   $ (10,888   $ (30,507   $ (26,215   $ (18,924
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash flows used in investing activities totaled $16.9 million and $10.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively, driven primarily by capital expenditures for new facilities and expansion or improvements at existing facilities. The capital expenditures for the three months ended March 31, 2017 primarily related to our second wind blade plants in Mexico and Turkey as well as the expansion of our wind blade facility in Dafeng, China. The capital expenditures for the three months ended March 31, 2016 primarily related to the construction of our second wind blade plants in Mexico and Turkey as well as the expansion of our original wind blade facilities in Mexico and Turkey.

Net cash flows used in investing activities totaled $30.5 million, $26.2 million and $18.9 million in the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively, driven primarily by capital expenditures for new facilities and expansion or improvements at existing facilities. The capital expenditures for the year ended December 31, 2016 primarily related to the plant build outs of three new wind blade facilities, two in Mexico and one in Turkey. The capital expenditures for the year ended December 31, 2015 primarily related to the expansion of our China and Iowa wind blade facilities. For the year ended December 31, 2014, the capital expenditures were primarily for the Turkey, Mexico and China plant build outs.

 

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We anticipate fiscal year 2017 capital expenditures of between $75 million to $85 million. We estimate that the cost after March 31, 2017 that we will incur to complete our current projects in process is approximately $13.9 million. We have used and will continue to use cash flow from operations and debt for major projects currently being undertaken, which include the new manufacturing facilities in Mexico and Turkey discussed above as well as our continued investment in our existing China and Turkey wind blade facilities.

Financing Cash Flows

 

     Three Months Ended
March 31,
    Year Ended December 31,  
         2017             2016         2016     2015     2014  
    

(unaudited)

    (in thousands)              

Proceeds from issuance of common stock sold in initial public offering, net of underwriting discount and offering costs

   $ —       $ —       $ 67,199     $ —       $ —    

Net proceeds from (repayment of) term loans

     (938     —         (930     19,375       23,901  

Net proceeds from (repayments of) accounts receivable financing

     (1,233     6,800       (5,385     (2,472     34,450  

Net proceeds from (repayments of) working capital loans

     517       (4,958     (4,290     (12,572     5,999  

Proceeds from subordinated debt arrangements

     —         —               —         15,000  

Net repayments of other debt

     (1,155     (1,192     (4,765     (2,777     (2,130

Net proceeds from customer advances

     —         2,000       —         —         4,500  

Proceeds from issuance of preferred stock

     —         —         —         —         6,846  

Debt issuance costs

     —         —         —         (1,113     (4,818

Restricted cash and other

     331       (647 )     (499     (2,864     273  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities

   $ (2,478   $ 2,003     $ 51,330     $ (2,423   $ 84,021  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

The net cash flows used in financing activities totaled $2.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017, compared to net cash flows provided by financing activities of $2.0 million in the comparable period of 2016. The net cash flows provided by financing activities totaled $51.3 million and $84.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2014, respectively. Net cash flows used in financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2015 totaled $2.4 million. Net cash flows used in financing activities for the three months ended March 31, 2017 primarily reflects the net repayments of accounts receivable loans, the term loan and other debt. Net cash flows provided by financing activities for the three months ended March 31, 2016 primarily reflects the net proceeds received from accounts receivable loans and customer advances less the net repayments of working capital loans and other debt. Net cash flows provided by financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2016 primarily reflects the net proceeds received from our initial public offering, partially offset by repayments of working capital loans and accounts receivable loans. Net cash flows used in financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2015 primarily reflects the net repayments of working capital loans and accounts receivable loans as well as payments related to the acquisition of noncontrolling interest of our Turkey operation in 2013 and additions to restricted cash. This was partially offset by additional net proceeds from term loans. The net cash flows from financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2014 was primarily comprised of additional indebtedness provided by our senior lenders, accounts receivable financings, working capital loans and subordinated debt as well as from proceeds of preferred stock offerings.

Description of Our Indebtedness

Senior Financing Agreements (U.S.):

In August 2014, we entered into an agreement to borrow up to $75.0 million through a credit facility (the Credit Facility) in order to refinance existing indebtedness as well as to fund current operations and future growth opportunities. The initial amount drawn on the closing date was $50.0 million and an additional

 

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$5.0 million was drawn in December 2014. In December 2014, in connection with the additional $5.0 million draw, the Credit Facility was amended. In December 2015, the Credit Facility was further amended to increase the total available principal amount from $75.0 million to $100.0 million. The Credit Facility had an initial term of four years and was to mature in 2018, provided for various financial covenants and bore interest at the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) with a 1.0% floor, plus 8.0%. The Credit Facility contained various affirmative and negative covenants, including EBITDA (as defined in the Credit Facility) minimum covenants, a leverage ratio and a fixed-charge coverage ratio. The Credit Facility limited annual capital expenditures based on budgets submitted to and agreed to with the lender and there was also an annual excess cash flow sweep requirement. In connection with the December 2015 amendment, all financial covenants were revised and the measurement period changed from monthly to quarterly. Concurrent with the December 2015 amendment, we borrowed an additional $20.0 million under the Credit Facility to fund future growth and expansion. In addition, there were debt issuance costs of $4.7 million which were being amortized to interest expense over a period of 48 months using the effective interest method. As of December 31, 2015, the outstanding balances under the Credit Facility was $74.4 million.

In connection with the initial draw on the Credit Facility in August 2014, we repaid our previously outstanding senior term loan of $20.0 million plus accrued interest, a prepayment penalty and a termination fee. The prepayment penalty and termination fee amounted to $1.6 million and are included within the caption Loss on extinguishment of debt in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations. In addition, we also expensed the remaining $1.3 million of debt discount and deferred financing costs associated with the senior term loan within the caption Loss on extinguishment of debt in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations. We also repaid $5.0 million of previously outstanding subordinated convertible promissory notes plus accrued interest as well as $5.7 million of customer advances outstanding at the time of the refinancing.

In December 2016, we amended and restated the Credit Facility. The previous $100.0 million of available principal under the Credit Facility was replaced with a $75.0 million term loan and a $25.0 million revolving credit facility, which includes a $15.0 million letter of credit sub-facility (increased to $20.0 million in April 2017). The borrowings under the Restated Credit Facility bear interest at a variable rate through maturity at LIBOR, with a 1.0% floor, plus 5.75%. The Restated Credit Facility requires us to make quarterly principal payments in the amount of $0.9 million of the outstanding principal loan balance commencing in March 2017, with the remaining outstanding balance to be repaid on or before December 30, 2020. The Restated Credit Facility contains customary affirmative covenants, negative covenants and events of default, including covenants and restrictions that, among other things, require us and our subsidiaries to satisfy certain capital expenditure and other financial covenants, and restricts the ability of us and our subsidiaries to incur liens, incur additional indebtedness, enter into joint ventures or partnerships, engage in mergers and acquisitions, engage in asset sales and declare dividends on its capital stock without the prior written consent of the lenders. The obligations under the Restated Credit Facility are secured by a lien on substantially all tangible and intangible property of us and our domestic subsidiaries and by a pledge by us and our domestic subsidiaries of 65% of the equity of their direct foreign subsidiaries, subject to customary exceptions and exclusions from collateral.

If we prepay any of the outstanding principal loan balance prior to December 30, 2017, we are required to pay the lenders a premium in an amount equal to the amount of interest that otherwise would have been payable from the date of prepayment until December 30, 2017 plus 3.0% of the amount of the principal loan balance that was prepaid. If we prepay any of the outstanding principal loan balance after December 30, 2017 through December 30, 2018, we are required to pay the lenders 2.0% of the principal loan balance that was prepaid, and if we prepay any of the outstanding loan balance after December 30, 2018 through December 30, 2019, we are required to pay a premium of 1.5% of the amount of the principal loan balance that was prepaid.

In connection with the Restated Credit Facility, we repaid the outstanding Credit Facility balance of $74.4 million, plus accrued interest, closing fees, a prepayment penalty and the reimbursement of certain lenders expenses incurred. The deferred financing fees totaled $2.2 million and are being amortized to interest expense over a period of 48 months using the effective interest method. In addition, we also expensed $2.4 million of the

 

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remaining deferred financing costs associated with the Credit Facility and $2.1 million of the prepayment penalty within the caption Loss on extinguishment of debt in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations. As of March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, the aggregate outstanding balance under the Restated Credit Facility was $76.9 million and $77.8 million, respectively. We cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain appropriate minimum leverage or fixed-charge coverage ratio requirements in the future.

Subordinated Convertible Promissory Notes Agreement (U.S.):

In conjunction with the additional funding under the Credit Facility in December 2014, we entered into a note purchase agreement with five of our current investors for the purchase of $10.0 million of Subordinated Convertible Promissory Notes. The notes bore interest at a rate of 12.0% per annum and would automatically mature and be due and payable on the earlier of the completion of any change of control or qualified initial public offering, or at the election of the holders of the notes at any time after the occurrence of an event of default. We had the right to prepayment without the consent of the note holders and the note holders held conversion rights upon future financing into new equity financing or convertible note financing. This note purchase agreement contained a beneficial conversion feature which was valued at $5.2 million based on the difference between the fair value of our stock as of the commitment date as compared to the most favorable conversion rate that would have been available to the investor during the term of the loan. This amount was accounted for as a debt discount and an increase in shareholders’ equity. The debt discount was being accreted to interest expense ratably over the expected term of the notes. In addition, there were debt issuance costs of $0.2 million which were being amortized to interest expense over the estimated term of the loan using the effective interest method. As of December 31, 2015, the outstanding balance under the note purchase agreement was $10.0 million.

Concurrent with the closing of our IPO, the principal and accrued interest on the outstanding Subordinated Convertible Promissory Notes were converted into an aggregate of 1,079,749 shares of common stock at the public offering price of $11.00 per share. In connection with this conversion, the remaining beneficial conversion feature, debt discount and debt issuance costs totaling $1.3 million were fully expensed as interest expense in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations.

Accounts Receivable, Secured and Unsecured Financing:

EMEA : During 2014, we renewed a general credit agreement with a financial institution in Turkey to provide up to $20.0 million (later updated to 21.0 million Euro, or approximately $22.5 million as of March 31, 2017) of short-term collateralized financing on invoiced accounts receivable of one of Turkey’s customers. Interest accrues annually at a variable rate (currently 5.75%) and is paid quarterly. In December 2014, we obtained an additional $7.0 million (later decreased to $5.0 million) of unsecured financing in Turkey under the credit agreement, increasing the total facility. All credit agreement terms remained the same. The credit agreement does not have a maturity date, however the limits are reviewed in September of each year. Amounts outstanding under this agreement as of March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 include $6.2 million and $15.1 million of accounts receivable financing and $2.7 million and $4.6 million of unsecured financing, respectively.

In December 2014, we entered into a credit agreement with a Turkish financial institution to provide up to $16.0 million of short-term financing of which $10.0 million is collateralized financing on invoiced accounts receivable of one of our customers in Turkey, $5.0 million is unsecured financing and $1.0 million is related to letters of guarantee. Interest accrues at a variable rate (currently 6.5%). The credit agreement does not have a maturity date, however the limits are reviewed in September of each year. Amounts outstanding under this agreement as of March 31, 2017 include $2.5 million of unsecured financing and no amounts under the account receivable financing. No amounts were outstanding under this agreement as of December 31, 2016.

In March 2016, we entered into a general credit agreement with a Turkish financial institution to provide up to 33.5 million Euro (later increased to 36.0 million Euro, or approximately $38.7 million as of March 31, 2017) of short-term financing of which 20.0 million Euro (approximately $21.5 million as of March 31, 2017) is

 

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collateralized financing based on invoiced accounts receivable of one of the EMEA segment’s customers, 12.5 million Euro (later increased to 15.0 million Euro, or approximately $16.1 million as of March 31, 2017) for the collateralized financing of capital expenditures and 1.0 million Euro (approximately $1.1 million as of March 31, 2017) related to letters of guarantee. Interest on the collateralized financing based on invoiced accounts receivable accrues at the three month EURIBOR plus 5.75% (currently 5.75%) and is paid quarterly with a maturity date equal to four months from the applicable invoice date. Interest on the collateralized capital expenditures financing accrues at the one month EURIBOR, plus 6.75% (currently 6.75%) with monthly principal repayments beginning in October 2017 with a final maturity date of December 2021. Interest on the letters of guarantee accrues at 2.00% annually with a final maturity date of March 2017. As of March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, there was $16.1 million and $15.8 million outstanding under the collateralized financing of capital expenditures line, respectively. Additionally, as of March 31, 2017, there was $7.7 million outstanding under the collateralized financing based on invoiced accounts receivables, with no corresponding amounts outstanding as of December 31, 2016.

Asia : During 2014, we entered into accounts receivable financing loans with a financial institution. Amounts outstanding as of December 31, 2015 were $6.6 million and interest accrued at 6.6% annually. All interest was payable quarterly. The principal on these loans was scheduled to be paid from between 12 to 36 months from each loan origination date but had been, and were anticipated to continue to be, renewed at their maturities. As of December 31, 2016, all amounts outstanding under these accounts receivable financing loans were fully repaid.

In January 2016, we entered into a credit agreement with a Chinese financial institution to provide up to 95.0 million Renminbi (approximately $13.6 million as of December 31, 2016) of short-term financing of which 85.0 million Renminbi (approximately $12.2 million as of December 31, 2016) is collateralized financing based on invoiced accounts receivables of one of our Asia segment’s customers and 10.0 million Renminbi (approximately $1.4 million as of December 31, 2016) of working capital loans collateralized by one of our Asia segment location’s machinery and equipment. Interest on the collateralized financing and the collateralized working capital loan accrues at a specified LIBOR rate plus an applicable margin and can be paid monthly, quarterly or at the time of the debt’s final maturity (January 12, 2017). As of December 31, 2016, there were no amounts outstanding under these accounts receivable financing and working capital loans. This credit agreement matured in January 2017.

In February 2017, we entered into a credit agreement with a Chinese financial institution to provide an unsecured credit line of up to 150.0 million Renminbi (approximately $21.8 million as of March 31, 2017) which can be used for the purpose of domestic and foreign currency loans, issuing letters of guarantee or other transactions approved by the lender. Interest on the credit line accrues at the LIBOR rate plus an applicable margin and can be paid monthly, quarterly or at the time of the debt’s maturity in February 2018. No amounts were outstanding under this agreement as of March 31, 2017.

Working Capital Agreements (Asia):

During 2014, we entered into several working capital loans with various financial institutions. Amounts outstanding as of December 31, 2015 were $9.5 million and interest accrued at between 5.6% and 6.9% annually. All interest was payable quarterly. The principal on these loans was scheduled to be paid from between 3 to 12 months from each loan origination date. As collateral for the above working capital loans, the financial institution received a security interest in China’s buildings and land use rights. In connection with the December 2015 amendment to the Credit Facility noted above, we repaid the outstanding indebtedness incurred in connection with our working capital loans with our lenders in China in 2016.

Equipment Lease and Other Arrangements: We have entered into certain capital lease and construction loan arrangements in the United States, Mexico and EMEA for equipment used in our operations as well as for office use. These leases bear interest at rates ranging from 4.0% to 9.0% annually, and principal and interest are

 

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payable monthly. As of March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, there was $10.6 million and $12.1 million outstanding under these arrangements, respectively.

Customer Advances: As of December 31, 2014, we had an outstanding non-interest bearing customer advance totaling $1.2 million, which was discounted using an imputed interest rate of 7.0%, which approximated the rate that we would have received on this financing in the open market. These customer advances were paid back in full during the year ended December 31, 2015. In January 2016, we entered into an agreement with GE Wind and received an advance of $2.0 million. These funds were used to expand the existing Mexico manufacturing facility to accommodate larger wind blade models. We were obligated to repay the advance, without interest, by providing future credits against a specified number of wind blade sets sold to GE Wind. If the Mexico operation failed to supply those wind blade sets by December 31, 2016, the then outstanding balance of the advance would have been immediately due and payable. The advance would have also been immediately due in full upon a change of control of the Company or within 30 days after the effective date of an initial public offering of our common stock. In August 2016, the customer advance was repaid in full.

Operating Leases: We lease various facilities and equipment under non-cancelable operating lease agreements. As of March 31, 2017, we leased a total of approximately 3.8 million square feet in Dafeng, China; Izmir, Turkey; Newton, Iowa; Juárez, Mexico; Santa Teresa, New Mexico; Taicang City, China; Taicang Port, China; Warren, Rhode Island; and Fall River, Massachusetts, as well as our corporate office in Scottsdale, Arizona. The terms of these leases range from 12 months to 120 months with annual payments approximating $16 million for the full year 2017.

Other Contingencies

Other than as noted in “Legal Proceedings,” as of March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, we were not involved in any material litigation. In the future, however, we may become involved in various claims and legal actions arising in the ordinary course of business which may have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

Our wind blades and other composite structures are subject to warranties against defects in workmanship and materials, generally for a period of two to five years. We are not responsible for the fitness for use of the wind blade or the overall wind turbine system. If a wind blade is found to be defective during the warranty period as a result of a defect in workmanship or materials, among other potential remedies, we may need to repair or replace the wind blade (which could include significant transportation and installation costs) at our sole expense.

In June 2016, we entered into a settlement agreement and release with Nordex providing for the full and final settlement of any potential claims arising from a wind blade failure that occurred in April 2015 and certain alleged defects with respect to that blade and certain other wind blades that were primarily manufactured in 2014 according to Nordex’s specifications. We expressly stated in the settlement agreement and release that we deny any and all liability related to such potential claims and Nordex acknowledged our denial of liability in the settlement agreement and release. Notwithstanding our denial of liability, we concluded that reaching an agreement with Nordex to resolve the matter was in our best interest. The settlement agreement and release provided that Nordex would release us from any and all possible claims arising out of or relating to the identified issues with the wind blades in question and any and all liabilities associated therewith. Nordex had also agreed to indemnify us against any third party claims relating to the identified issues with the wind blades in question, including without limitation, from Nordex’s customers or insurance carriers. In consideration for these releases and indemnification, we agreed and made a one-time cash payment to Nordex equal to 8.0 million Euro in November 2016. Pursuant to the settlement agreement and release, we replaced four sets of wind blades, and are in the process of making certain field repairs to 42 wind blades and retrofitting an additional 70 wind blades at our Turkey facility. The most probable aggregate cost to us of fulfilling our obligations under the settlement agreement and release was determined to be approximately $15.0 million, all of which was accrued by us as of

 

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March 31, 2016 and a substantial portion of which was paid prior to December 31, 2016. After the settlement agreement was executed with Nordex, we subsequently extended the term of our existing supply agreement with Nordex from 2018 to 2020 and entered into a new long-term supply agreement with Nordex for the supply of wind turbines from two manufacturing lines at our second manufacturing facility in Turkey. We have yet to sign an additional supply agreement with Nordex for the remaining two additional manufacturing lines contemplated by the Nordex settlement agreement. There can be no assurance that we will be able to enter into a new supply agreement or new supply agreements with Nordex for the remaining two lines, or if we do, that the final definitive agreements will contain terms as described above.

At March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, we had accrued warranty reserves totaling $21.9 million and $19.9 million, respectively.

We had no material operating expenditures for environmental matters, including government imposed remedial or corrective actions, during the three months ended March 31, 2017 or the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014.

Off-Balance Sheet Transactions

We are not presently involved in any off-balance sheet arrangements, including transactions with unconsolidated special-purpose or other entities that would materially affect our financial position, results of operations, liquidity or capital resources, other than operating lease arrangements and the accounts receivable assignment agreement described below. Furthermore, we do not have any relationships with special-purpose or other entities that provide off-balance sheet financing; liquidity, market risk or credit risk support; or engage in leasing or other services that may expose us to liability or risks of loss that are not reflected in consolidated financial statements and related notes.

In 2014, our Mexico segment entered into an accounts receivable assignment agreement with a financial institution. Under this agreement, the financial institution buys, on a non-recourse basis, the accounts receivable amounts related to one of our Mexico segment’s customers at a discount calculated based on an effective annual rate of LIBOR plus 2.75%. As these receivables are purchased by the financial institution, they are removed from the Mexico segment’s balance sheet. During the three months ended March 31, 2017 and the year ended December 31, 2016, $26.3 million and $74.4 million, respectively, of receivables were sold to the financial institution.

Contractual Obligations

The following table summarizes certain of our contractual obligations as of December 31, 2016:

 

    

Payments Due by Period

 

(in thousands)

  

Less than 1

year

    

1-3 years

    

3-5 years

    

More than 5

years

    

Total

 

Long-term debt obligations (1)

   $ 33,403      $ 20,850      $ 71,192      $  —        $ 125,445  

Operating lease obligations (2)

     16,434        27,665        21,980        41,271        107,350  

Purchase obligations

     1,157        953        733        —          2,843  

Estimated interest payments (3)

     7,998        10,884        4,776        —          23,658  
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total contractual obligations

   $ 58,992      $ 60,352      $ 98,681      $ 41,271      $ 259,296  
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

(1) See “—Description of Our Indebtedness” above.

 

(2) Our operating lease obligations represent the contractual payments due for the lease of our corporate office in Scottsdale, Arizona in addition to facilities in Iowa, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Mexico, China, Mexico and Turkey.

 

(3) Includes interest on variable rate debt based on interest rates as of December 31, 2016.

 

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CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND ESTIMATES

Our discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amount of our assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We evaluate our estimates on an ongoing basis, including those related to revenue recognition, income taxes, share-based compensation, warranty expense and goodwill and intangibles. We base our estimates on our historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making the judgments we make about the carrying values of our assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Because these estimates can vary depending on the situation, actual results may differ from the estimates.

We believe the following critical accounting policies affect our more significant judgments used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

Revenue Recognition. We record all sales of goods when a firm sales agreement is in place, when delivery has occurred (as defined by the sales contract), and collectability of the fixed or determinable sales price is reasonably assured. The basic criteria necessary for revenue recognition are: (1) evidence that a sales arrangement exists, (2) title and risk of loss have passed to the customer, (3) delivery of goods has occurred, (4) the seller’s price to the buyer is fixed or determinable and (5) collectability is reasonably assured. We recognize revenue at the time of delivery to customers.

For multiple deliverable revenue arrangements, we allocate revenue to each element based on a selling price hierarchy. The selling price for a deliverable is based on its vendor specific objective evidence (VSOE) if available, third party evidence (TPE) if VSOE is not available, or best estimated selling price (BESP) if neither VSOE nor TPE is available. We generally allocate revenue for each of the deliverables within multiple element arrangements through BESP using cost plus margin estimates prepared during contract negotiations, agreed upon sales price or VSOE for sales of similar items outside of multiple element arrangements. The precision molding and assembly systems provided for in each customer’s contract are based upon the specific engineering requirements and design of the customer relative to the wind blade design and function desired. From the customer’s engineering specifications, a job cost estimate is developed along with a production plan, and margin is applied based on the customer and complexity of the work to be performed. Precision molding and assembly systems are built to produce wind blades which are manufactured in production runs specified in the customer contract. To determine the appropriate accounting for recognition of revenue, we consider whether the deliverables specified in the multiple element arrangement should be treated as separate units of accounting, and, if so, how the price should be allocated among the elements, when to recognize revenue for each element, and the period over which revenue should be recognized. We also evaluate whether a delivered item has value on a stand-alone basis prior to delivery of the remaining items by determining whether we have made separate sales of such items or whether the undelivered items are essential to the functionality of the delivered items. Further, we assess whether we know the fair value of the undelivered items, determined by reference to stand-alone sales of such items, if available, or BESP. As each of these items has stand-alone value to the customer, revenue from sales of wind blades and precision molding and assembly systems used in the production of composite products are recognized when those specific items are accepted by the customer as meeting the contractual technical specifications and delivered to the customer. Delivery of wind blades and precision molding and assembly systems generally takes place as defined in the contract at the facility where the precision molding and assembly systems are produced at which point the precision molding and assembly systems become exclusive property of the customer. The customer is generally then responsible for transportation to their own or our wind blade production sites where the precision molding and assembly systems are placed into service. Revenue related to engineering and freight services provided under customer contracts is recognized upon completion of the services being provided. Customers usually pay directly to the carrier the cost of shipping associated with items produced, but if paid by us, that cost is included in cost of goods sold and amounts invoiced for shipping and handling are included in revenue.

 

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Our customers may request, in situations where they do not have space available to receive products or do not want to immediately take possession of products for other reasons, that their finished composite products be stored by us in one of our facilities. We will bill for the components as allowed by the contract; however, revenue is deferred for financial reporting purposes until we deliver the finished composite product and all of the other requirements for revenue recognition have been met. Composite products that have been billed by us and continue to be stored by us at one of our facilities are included at net realizable value in inventory held for customer orders included on the consolidated balance sheets. Inventory held for customer orders is physically segregated from finished goods and is accounted for separately within our accounting records.

Wind blade pricing is based on annual commitments of volume as established in the customer’s contract with orders less than committed volume resulting in additional costs per wind blade to customers; however, orders in excess of annual commitments do not result in discounts to customers from the contracted price for the committed volume. Customers may utilize early payment discounts which are reported as a reduction of revenue at the time the discount is taken.

Income Taxes. In connection with preparing our consolidated financial statements, we are required to estimate our income taxes in each of the jurisdictions in which we operate. This process involves our assessment of any net operating loss carryforwards, as well as estimating our actual current tax liability together with assessing temporary differences resulting from differing treatment of items, such as reserves and accrued liabilities, for tax and accounting purposes. We also have to assess whether any portion of our earnings generated in one taxing jurisdiction might be claimed as earned by income tax authorities in a differing tax jurisdiction. Significant judgment is required in determining our annual tax rate, the allocation of earnings to various jurisdictions and in the evaluation of our tax positions.

Additionally, we record the estimated future tax effects of temporary differences between the tax basis of assets and liabilities and amounts reported in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets, as well as operating loss and tax credit carryforwards. We then assess the likelihood that our deferred income tax assets will be realized by evaluating all available positive and negative evidence in order to determine if it is more-likely-than-not that the deferred tax assets will be realized. To the extent we believe that the realization of our deferred tax assets is not more-likely-than-not, we are required to establish a valuation allowance. In doing so we considered our recent operating history, taxpaying history and future reversals of deferred tax liabilities based upon future operating projections. As a result of cumulative losses in the United States, we have determined that a valuation allowance for all of our U.S. deferred tax assets was appropriate. We periodically evaluate all available positive and negative evidence regarding the future recoverability of our deferred tax assets and, when we determine that the recoverability of deferred tax assets meets the criteria of more-likely-than-not, we reduce the valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets. The effect of a change in judgment concerning the realizability of deferred tax assets would be included in provision for income taxes. As of December 31, 2016, we have U.S. federal NOLs of approximately $57.5 million, state NOLs of approximately $77.2 million and foreign tax credits of approximately $2.6 million available to offset future taxable income.

Federal U.S. income taxes have not been provided on $42.0 million of undistributed earnings at December 31, 2016 of foreign subsidiaries over which we have sufficient influence to control the distribution of such earnings, and we have determined that such earnings have been reinvested indefinitely. Should we elect in the future to repatriate a portion of the foreign earnings so invested, we could incur income tax expense on such repatriation, net of any available deductions and foreign tax credits. This would result in additional income tax expense beyond the computed expected provision in such periods. The amount of unrecognized deferred tax liability for temporary differences related to investments in foreign subsidiaries and foreign corporate joint ventures that are essentially permanent in duration is not easily determinable.

Sections 382 and 383 of the Code, contain rules that limit the ability of a company that undergoes an “ownership change” to utilize its net operating loss and tax credit carry forwards and certain built-in losses recognized in years after the ownership change. An ownership change is generally defined as any change in ownership of more than 50% of a corporation’s stock over a rolling three-year period by stockholders that own

 

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(directly or indirectly) 5% or more of the stock of a corporation, or arising from a new issuance of stock by a corporation. If an ownership change occurs, Section 382 generally imposes an annual limitation on the use of pre-ownership change NOLs, credits and certain other tax attributes to offset taxable income earned after the ownership change. The annual limitation is equal to the product of the applicable long-term tax exempt rate and the value of the company’s stock immediately before the ownership change. This annual limitation may be adjusted to reflect any unused annual limitation for prior years and certain recognized built-in gains and losses for the year. In addition, Section 383 generally limits the amount of tax liability in any post-ownership change year that can be reduced by pre-ownership change tax credit carryforwards. In 2008, we had an ownership change and the pre-ownership change NOLs existing at the date of change of $25.6 million were subject to an annual limitation of $4.3 million. As of December 31, 2016, the pre-ownership change NOLs are no longer limited. Certain of these NOLs may be at risk of limitation in the event of a future ownership change.

Share-Based Compensation. We have granted to our directors and senior management a combination of stock options, restricted stock units (RSUs), stock appreciation rights (SARs) and unit appreciation rights. We intend to continue to make share-based compensation awards from time to time to our directors and senior management. Historically, our equity awards, as well as any equity awards we may make in the future, will carry a compensation charge. We measure the fair value of stock options and SARs at grant date using the Black-Scholes valuation model. Share-based compensation expense is recognized over the related service period of the options or SARs. The Black-Scholes model requires the input of subjective assumptions including the expected volatility based on comparable companies, the period of time the stock option is expected to remain outstanding and the fair value of the underlying common stock on the date of grant, the expected dividend yield (if any) and the risk-free interest rate. The use of different assumptions in the Black-Scholes pricing model would result in different amounts of share-based compensation expense. Furthermore, if different assumptions are used in future periods, share-based compensation expense could be materially impacted in the future.

We measure and recognize compensation expense for share-based payment awards made to employees, consultants and directors based the fair value of share-based awards on the date of grant for employees and directors and the fair value of share-based awards to consultants on the date of vesting. We use the Black-Scholes option pricing model to estimate the fair value of our options as of the grant date using the following assumptions:

Expected Volatility. As our common stock had not been publicly traded prior to July 2016, the expected volatility assumption reflects an average of volatilities of publicly traded peer group companies with a period equal to the expected life of the options.

Expected Life (years). We use the simplified method to estimate the expected term of stock options. The simplified method for estimating expected term is to use the mid-point between the vesting term and the contractual term of the option. We elected to use the simplified method because we did not have historical exercise data to estimate the expected term due to the limited time period our common stock had been publicly traded.

Risk-Free Interest Rate. The risk-free interest rate assumption is based upon the U.S. constant maturity treasury rates as the risk-free rate interpolated between the years commensurate with the expected life of the options.

Dividend Yield. The dividend yield assumption is zero since we do not expect to declare or pay dividends in the foreseeable future.

Forfeitures. Forfeitures are estimated at the time of grant and revised in subsequent periods if actual forfeitures differ from those estimates.

Expected Vesting Period. We amortize the share-based compensation expense over the requisite service period.

 

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We granted awards of stock options and RSUs during 2016 and 2015 to certain employees and non-employee directors. These awards include a performance condition requiring the completion of our IPO and have a required vesting period of one to four years commencing upon achievement of the performance condition. As the IPO was consummated in July 2016, we began recording compensation expense in July 2016 for the requisite service period from the grant date through the IPO date with the balance of the share-based compensation to be expensed over the remaining vesting period. Total share-based compensation expense recognized during the three months ended March 31, 2017 was $1.7 million, of which $0.2 million is included in cost of goods sold and the remaining $1.5 million is included in general and administrative expenses. The amount related to restricted stock units was $0.5 million while $1.2 million related to stock options. Total share-based compensation expense recognized during the year ended December 31, 2016 was $9.9 million, of which $1.5 million is included in cost of goods sold and the remaining $8.4 million is included in general and administrative expenses. The amount recorded related to restricted stock units was $3.5 million while $6.4 million related to stock options. Approximately $3.6 million of the total share-based compensation expense recorded during the year ended December 31, 2016 related to the service period from the grant date through December 31, 2015. No share-based compensation costs were capitalized during the three months ended March 31, 2017 or the year ended December 31, 2016.

There were no share-based compensation equity awards granted during the year ended December 31, 2014 and we did not recognize any share-based compensation expense during the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014.

Warranty Expense. As discussed above, our wind blades are subject to warranties against defects in workmanship and materials, generally for a period of two to five years. We are not responsible for the fitness for use of the wind blade in the overall wind turbine system. If a wind blade is found to be defective during the warranty period as a result of a defect in workmanship or materials, among other potential remedies, we may need to repair or replace the wind blade at our sole expense. We provide warranties for all of our products with terms and conditions that vary depending on the product sold. We record warranty expense based upon our estimate of future repairs using a probability-based methodology.

Our estimate of warranty expense requires us to make assumptions about matters that are highly uncertain, including future rates of product failure, repair costs, including availability of materials, shipping and handling, and de-installation and re-installation costs at customers’ sites, among others. When a potential or actual warranty claim arises, we will accrue additional warranty reserves for the estimated cost of remediation or proposed settlement. From 2010 through 2012, our U.S. wind blade plant incurred cumulative warranty costs of $3.5 million to inspect and when required, correct wind blades that may not have met the customer’s specifications. We accrued $15.0 million during 2016 to cover the aggregate costs associated with the agreement that we entered into with Nordex to settle potential claims relating to a wind blade failure that occurred in April 2015 and certain alleged defects with respect to that wind blade and certain other wind blades that were primarily manufactured in 2014. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Other Contingencies.” Except for these costs, we have not experienced other material warranty expenses beyond the provision described above in the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014. However, changes in warranty reserves could have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.

Inventory. Inventories are stated at the lower of cost or net realizable value. Net realizable value is estimated sales price less estimated completion and transportation costs, if applicable and is compared to the carrying cost of the inventory to determine if a write-down is necessary. Cost is determined using the first-in, first-out method for raw materials and specific identification for work in process and finished goods inventories. Actual cost includes the cost of materials, direct labor, and applied manufacturing overhead. Write-downs to reduce the carrying cost of obsolete, slow-moving, and unusable inventory to market value are recognized in cost of goods sold. The effect of these write-downs is to establish a new cost basis in the related inventory, which is not subsequently written up. Inventory designated for customer orders under storage arrangements is physically segregated from finished goods and is accounted for separately.

 

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Recent Accounting Pronouncements

For a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements, see Note 1 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

We are exposed to market risk in the ordinary course of our business. These market risks are principally limited to changes in foreign currency exchange rates and commodity prices. We currently do not hedge our exposure to these risks.

Foreign Currency Risk . We conduct international operations in China, Mexico and Turkey. Our results of operations are subject to both currency transaction risk and currency translation risk. We incur currency transaction risk whenever we enter into either a purchase or sale transaction using a currency other than the local currency of the transacting entity. With respect to currency translation risk, our financial condition and results of operations are measured and recorded in the relevant domestic currency and then translated into U.S. dollars for inclusion in our consolidated financial statements. In recent years, exchange rates between these foreign currencies and the U.S. dollar have fluctuated significantly and may do so in the future. A hypothetical change of 10% in the exchange rates for the countries above would have resulted in a change to income from operations of approximately $3.8 million and $12.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and for the year ended December 31, 2016, respectively.

Commodity Price Risk . We are subject to commodity price risk under agreements for the supply of our raw materials. We have not hedged, nor do we intend to hedge, our commodity price exposure. We generally lock in pricing for our key raw materials for 12 months which protects us from price increases within that period. Additionally, the arrangements we have with our customers limit the impact of any price or cost increases. Finally, since many of our raw material supply agreements have meet or release clauses, if raw materials prices go down, we can also benefit from the reductions in price. We believe that this adequately protects us from increases in raw material prices but also enables us to take full advantage of decreases. We believe that a 10% change in the price of resin and resin systems, the commodities for which we do not have fixed pricing, would have had an impact to income from operations of approximately $3.3 million and $9.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and for the year ended December 31, 2016, respectively.

Interest Rate Risk . As of March 31, 2017, we have an aggregate of $76.9 million outstanding under the Restated Credit Facility that is tied to LIBOR and an aggregate of $23.8 million outstanding under a general credit agreement with a Turkish financial institution that is tied to EURIBOR. The Restated Credit Facility and the Turkish general credit agreement are the only variable rate debt outstanding as of March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 as all remaining unsecured financing, accounts receivable financing and capital lease obligations are fixed rate instruments and are not subject to fluctuations in interest rates. Due to the relatively low LIBOR and EURIBOR rates in effect as of March 31, 2017, a 10% change in the LIBOR or EURIBOR rate would not have a material impact on our future earnings, fair values or cash flows.

Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012

On April 5, 2012, the JOBS Act was enacted. Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. We intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We may take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an emerging

 

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growth company. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenues of $1.0 billion or more; (ii) the last day of our fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the completion of our IPO; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three years or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a