UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM
(Mark One)
OR
For the fiscal year ended
OR
OR
Date of event requiring this shell company report _______________
For the transition period from _______________ to _______________
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(Name, Telephone, Email and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person)
Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act.
Title of each class |
| Trading Symbol(s) |
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VMAR | The |
Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act. None
Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act. None
Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of business of the period covered by the annual report.
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐
If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Yes ☐
Indicate by check mark whether Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or an emerging growth company. See definition of “accelerated filer,” “large accelerated filer,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large Accelerated Filer ☐ | Accelerated Filer ☐ |
Emerging Growth Company |
If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.
† The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the
effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐
Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing: ☐ U.S. GAAP ☒
If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow: Item 17 ☐ Item 18 ☐
If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b 2 of the Exchange Act): Yes ☐ No
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 20-F (the “Annual Report”) contains statements that constitute “forward-looking statements”. Any statements that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These statements appear in a number of different places in this Annual Report and, in some cases, can be identified by words such as “anticipates”, “estimates”, “projects”, “expects”, “contemplates”, “intends”, “believes”, “plans”, “may”, “will”, or their negatives or other comparable words, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements in this Annual Report may include, but are not limited to, statements and/or information related to: strategy, future operations, projected production capacity, projected sales or rentals, projected costs, expectations regarding demand and acceptance of our products, availability of material components, trends in the market in which we operate, plans and objectives of management.
We believe that we have based our forward-looking statements on reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions made in light of our experience and our perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that we believe to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. Although management believes that the assumption and expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we may have made misjudgments in preparing such forward-looking statements. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: our expected production capacity; labor costs and material costs, no material variations in the current regulatory environment and our ability to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which may have been used.
Such risks are discussed in Item 3.D “Risk Factors”. In particular, without limiting the generality of the foregoing disclosure, the statements contained in Item 4.B. – “Business Overview”, Item 5 – “Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” and Item 11 – “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk” are inherently subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ significantly. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include but are not limited to:
● | general economic and business conditions, including changes in interest rates; |
● | our ability to develop our electric powertrain system in a timely and costly manner, if we can develop it at all; |
● | the COVID-19 global pandemic and other natural phenomena; |
● | actions by government authorities, including changes in government regulation; |
● | uncertainties associated with legal proceedings; |
● | changes in the electric vehicle market; |
● | future decisions by management in response to changing conditions; |
● | our ability to execute prospective business plans; |
● | misjudgments in the course of preparing forward-looking statements; |
● | our ability to raise sufficient funds to carry out its proposed business plan; |
● | developments in alternative technologies or improvements in the internal combustion engine for recreational maritime vehicles; |
● | dependency on certain key personnel and any inability to retain and attract qualified personnel; |
● | inability to reduce and adequately control operating costs; |
● | failure to manage future growth effectively; and |
● | labor and employment risks. |
Although management has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements might not prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements or we may have made misjudgments in the course of preparing the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We wish to advise you that these cautionary remarks expressly qualify, in their entirety, all forward-looking statements attributable to our company or persons acting on our company’s behalf. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting such statements, except as, and to the extent required by, applicable securities laws. You should carefully review the cautionary statements and risk factors contained in this Annual Report and other documents that we may file from time to time with the securities regulators.
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OTHER STATEMENTS IN THIS ANNUAL REPORT
Unless the context otherwise requires, in this Annual Report, the term(s) “we”, “us”, “our”, “Company”, “our company”, and “our business” refer to Vision Marine Technologies Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
All references to “$” or “dollars”, are expressed in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated.
All reference to “U.S. dollars”, “USD”, or to “US$” are to United States dollars.
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PART I
ITEM 1. IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS
Not Applicable.
ITEM 2. OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE
Not Applicable.
ITEM 3. KEY INFORMATION
A. | [Reserved] |
B. | Capitalization and Indebtedness |
Not applicable.
C. | Reasons for the offer and use of proceeds |
Not applicable.
D. | Risk Factors |
An investment in our securities carries a significant degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risks, as well as the other information contained in this Annual Report, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report, before you decide to purchase our securities. Any one of these risks and uncertainties has the potential to cause material adverse effects on our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results which could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements expressed by us and a significant decrease in the value of our common shares. Refer to “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”
We may not be successful in preventing the material adverse effects that any of the following risks and uncertainties may cause. These potential risks and uncertainties may not be a complete list of the risks and uncertainties facing us. There may be additional risks and uncertainties that we are presently unaware of, or presently consider immaterial, that may become material in the future and have a material adverse effect on us. You could lose all or a significant portion of your investment due to any of these risks and uncertainties.
Risks Related to our Business and Industry
There is limited public information on our operating history.
Our limited public operating history makes evaluating our business and prospects difficult. Although we were formed in 2012, we did not provide public reports on the results of operations until our 2020 fiscal year. We only have five years of audited financial statements. Your investment decision will not be made with the same data as would be available if we had a longer history of public reporting.
We currently have no net income, and if we are unable to achieve and grow our net income in the future our ability to grow our business as planned will be adversely affected.
We have made significant up-front investments in research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses to rapidly develop and expand our business. We had a net loss of $13.1 million in our 2022 fiscal year as compared to a net loss of $15.1 million in our 2021 fiscal year and a net loss of $2.3 million in our 2020 fiscal year. We may never achieve net income or if we do it may fail to grow or even decline in certain circumstances, many of which are beyond our control. Our revenues might not ever significantly exceed our expenses, and may even be lower than our expenses. It may take us longer to obtain net income than we anticipate, if at all, or we may only do so at a much lower rate than we anticipate. Failure to obtain net income may mean that we will have to curtail our planned growth in operations or resort to financings to fund such growth in the future.
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Our plan of operations entails promoting a product that we may never launch or which may not be commercially accepted if launched.
We have concentrated the majority of our research and development efforts on developing electric powertrain systems that we intend to rent and sell to Original Equipment Manufacturers (“OEM”) of boats. We expect the electric powertrain systems to represent the majority of our revenue in our coming accounting periods. We have built prototypes of our electronic powertrain. We do not know if OEMs will find our product candidate to be an attractive component in their boats or if they will find the price of our electric powertrains to be acceptable. We do not currently have any significant customers for our electric powertrains. Although we have received LOIs from OEMs for over 1,000 powertrains through the year ended August 31, 2024, such LOIs are non-binding and may never result in any actual sales. Even if we do develop such relationships, we might not be able to maintain them or grow them as anticipated. At the time of our initial public offering, we had expected to begin the commercialization of our electric powertrains in 2020 but were not able to meet that preferred timeline and we may not meet our new timelines. Additionally, we had anticipated developing a 300 horsepower within 18 months of our last annual report but currently we may need additional 18 months from the date hereof. If we are not successful in commercializing our product or if sales of our electric powertrain are less than we estimate, our business may not grow as expected, if at all, and we may fail.
To carry out our proposed business plan to build up inventory for order fulfilment, increase brand awareness and develop a new powertrain for our engines, we will require a significant amount of capital.
If current cash, cash equivalents and revenue from our business are not sufficient to cover our cash requirements, we will need to raise additional funds through the sale of debt or equity securities, in either private placements or additional registered offerings. If we are unsuccessful in raising enough funds through such capital-raising efforts, we may review other financing possibilities such as bank loans. Financing might not be available to us or, if available, only on terms that are not favorable or acceptable to us.
Our ability to obtain the necessary financing to carry out our business plan is subject to a number of factors, including general market conditions and investor acceptance of our business plan. These factors may make the timing, amount, terms and conditions of such financing unattractive or unavailable to us. If we are unable to raise sufficient funds, we will have to significantly reduce our spending, delay or cancel our planned activities or substantially change our current corporate structure. We might not be able to obtain any funding, and we might not have sufficient resources to conduct our business as projected, both of which could mean that we would be forced to curtail or discontinue our operations.
Terms of subsequent financings may adversely impact your investment.
We may have to engage in common equity, debt, or preferred share financings in the future. As a result, your rights and the value of your investment in our securities could be reduced. Interest on debt securities could increase costs and negatively impact operating results. Preferred shares could be issued in one or more series from time to time with such designation, rights, preferences, and limitations as determined by the Board. The terms of preferred shares could be more advantageous to those investors than to the holders of common shares. In addition, if we need to raise more equity capital from the sale of common shares, institutional or other investors may negotiate terms at least as, and possibly more, favorable than the terms of your investment in our common shares.
Our future growth depends upon consumers’ willingness to purchase electric powerboats.
Our growth highly depends upon the adoption by consumers of, and we are subject to an elevated risk of any reduced demand for, electric powerboats. Without such growth, sales of our electric powertrain, if any, and our electric boats may not grow at the rate that we anticipate, if such sales grow at all. If the market for electric powerboats does not develop as we expect or develops more slowly than we expect, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results will be negatively impacted. Despite the long history of electric powerboats, the market for them is relatively new, rapidly evolving, characterized by rapidly changing technologies, price competition, additional competitors, evolving government regulation and industry standards, frequent new electric powerboat announcements and changing consumer demands and behaviors. Powerboats with conventional gas-powered motors may be deemed preferable to electric powerboats as they tend to be more powerful, have a longer range and/or cost less. Other factors that may influence the adoption of electric powerboats include:
● | the decline of an electric powerboats range resulting from deterioration over time in the battery’s ability to hold a charge; |
● | concerns about electric grid capacity and reliability, which could derail our efforts to promote electric powerboats as a practical solution to powerboats which require gasoline; |
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● | improvements in the fuel economy of the internal combustion engine; |
● | the availability of service for electric powerboats; |
● | the environmental consciousness of consumers; |
● | volatility in the cost of oil and gasoline; |
● | consumers’ perceptions about convenience and cost to charge an electric powerboat; |
● | the availability of tax and other governmental incentives to manufacture electric powerboats; and |
● | perceptions about and the actual cost of alternative fuel. |
Any of the factors described above may cause current or potential customers not to purchase our electric powerboat, which would materially adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.
Our future growth depends upon consumers’ preference for outboard motors.
We envision the majority of our growth deriving from the sale of our electric powertrain for an outboard motor. If consumer preferences lead to a decline in outboard motors, the OEMs we intend to sell our electric powertrain to may produce less electric boats, and we may not be able to sell as many electric powertrains as we anticipate, if we sell any at all. We may not be able to adapt the technology behind this powertrain for inboard motors or may only be able to do so in a way that is not cost effective.
We rely on a limited number of suppliers for key components of our finished products.
Although we manufacture all of our powerboats, we do so by assembling the component parts that we acquire from third-party suppliers rather than by producing any of those component parts ourselves. We materially depend on some of those third-party suppliers for certain components that we obtain from a limited number of suppliers, namely:
● | hulls: we purchase all of our hulls from Aqualux and Abitibi & Co.; |
● | motors: for our electric powertrains, we intend to purchase motors from Danfoss Technologies and Dana TM4 and for our boats, we purchase approximately 30% from Min-Kota, 35% from E-Tech and 20% from E-Propulsion; |
● | powertrains: we purchase approximately 5% of our powertrains from Piktronik, an Austrian-Slovenian company specialized in the research, development and production of components for electric vehicles and electric powerboats (which provides the powertrain used in our Bruce 22); and |
● | battery packs: we purchase our lithium-ion batteries from Relion Batteries (“Relion”), who in turn rely upon Samsung cells, and we purchase our lead batteries (approximately 85% of all batteries we purchase) from Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. We have agreements with Octillion Power Systems (“Octillion”) to provide marine specific batteries to power the E-Motion powertrain. |
As we purchase our components and parts through purchase orders and informal arrangements rather than long-term purchase agreements, we have not contractually secured a supply chain for these components and parts. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of our third-party suppliers have experienced delays in delivering parts and components for our products. If as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic we continue to experience delays in receiving our supplies from these third-parties, if they significantly increased the cost of these components or if they ceased offering us these components, we may have to find new suppliers, which might not be possible on a timely basis, or cease production of the products in which the components are included.
In June 2021, we acquired EB Rental, Ltd. (“EBR”), and the acquired company may not perform as we expect.
In June 2021, we acquired all of the equity interests of 7858078 Canada Inc. which wholly-owns EBR, an electric boat rental company operating at Lido Marina Village in Newport Beach, California. Integrating businesses is a difficult, expensive, and time-consuming process. Our principal executive offices and manufacturing facility are located in Quebec, Canada and EBR’s operations are conducted, and its employees are mostly located, in California. Failure to integrate successfully EBR’s business and operations with ours could lead to inefficiencies, the loss of staff or revenues below what we anticipated at the time of the acquisition.
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Revenues from EBR may be affected by a variety of factors that are outside of our control.
Revenues from EBR represented 65% of our total revenues in our fiscal 2022. Future revenues from EBR may be affected by factors that are outside of our control, including:
● | Lido Village Marina’s appearance, safety, economic health and ability to continue to attract visitors willing to rent electric vehicles; |
● | the continued desirability of boat rentals as a leisure activity; and |
● | the local economic condition in and around Newport Beach, California. |
If EBR’s revenues decrease significantly, it may cease to be profitable or our revenues may not be as large as we currently project.
A portion of our assets consist of debentures in a third-party, and the ability of that third-party to repay those debentures is outside of our control. If those debentures were not to be repaid in full, our assets could be significantly reduced
On May 14, 2021, we purchased $3,400,000 in debentures (the “Debentures”) from The Limestone Boat Company Limited (“Limestone”). Limestone is a North American designer and manufacturer of recreational and commercial powerboats. The Debentures bear interest at the rate of 10% per annum and mature in three years from issuance. Although the Debentures are convertible into Limestone common shares at the price of $0.36 per share, on November 25, 2022 the closing share price of Limestone’s common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange was $0.01 with a relatively low trading volume. As a result, we may never be able to convert the Debentures at more than their principal and could be entirely dependent on Limestone repaying the debentures in cash. If we do not convert and Limestone is unable to repay such Debentures and the interest due thereon in full and in cash, our assets will be significantly reduced and we may be forced to alter our proposed use of assets or raise additional funds.
The range of electric powerboats on a single charge declines over time which may negatively influence potential customers’ decisions whether to purchase our boats or boats containing our electric powertrains.
The range of electric powerboats on a single charge declines principally as a function of usage, time and charging patterns. For example, a customer’s use of their powerboat as well as the frequency with which they charge the battery can result in additional deterioration of the battery’s ability to hold a charge. During the lifetime of the lead acid batteries in powerboats, 500 to 1000 recharge cycles are possible, and our lithium battery pack will retain approximately 85% of its ability to hold its initial charge after approximately 3,000 charge cycles and 8 years, which will result in a decrease to the boat’s initial range. Such battery deterioration and the related decrease in range may negatively influence potential customer decisions whether to purchase an electric boat, which may harm our ability to market and sell our boats. Likewise, if such reasoning deters potential customers from purchasing boats made by OEMs that use our electric powertrains, they may order fewer electric powertrains from us, if they ever order any at all.
Developments in alternative technologies or improvements in the internal combustion engine may materially adversely affect the demand for our electric powerboats.
Significant developments in alternative technologies, such as advanced diesel, ethanol, fuel cells or compressed natural gas, or improvements in the fuel economy of the internal combustion engine, may materially and adversely affect our business and prospects in ways we do not currently anticipate. For example, fuel which is abundant and relatively inexpensive in North America, such as compressed natural gas, may emerge as consumers’ preferred alternative to petroleum-based propulsion. Any failure by us to develop new or enhanced technologies or processes, or to react to changes in existing technologies, could materially delay our development and introduction of new and enhanced electric powerboats, which could result in the loss of competitiveness of our boats, decreased revenue and a loss of market share to competitors.
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If we are unable to keep up with advances in electric powerboat technology, we may lose our competitive position in the industry.
We may be unable to keep up with changes in electric powerboats technology, particularly developments with powertrains. As a result, we may lose our competitive position in the industry. Any failure to keep up with advances in electric powerboat technology could result in a loss of our competitive position which would materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition. Our research and development efforts may not be sufficient to adapt to changes in electric powerboat technology. As technologies change, we plan to upgrade or adapt our electric powertrain. We would additionally upgrade our boats and introduce new models to take advantage of these changes. However, our technology and boats may not compete effectively with alternative technology or powerboats if we are not able to source and integrate the latest technology. For example, we do not manufacture lead or lithium battery cells, and as a result, we are dependent on suppliers of battery cell technology for our battery packs.
Demand in the powerboat industry is highly volatile.
Fluctuations in demand for recreational powerboats and electric powerboats may materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition. The markets in which we compete have been subject to considerable volatility in demand in recent periods. Demand for recreational powerboat and electric powerboat sales depends to a large extent on general, economic and social conditions in a given market. Historically, sales of recreational powerboats decrease during economic downturns. We have fewer financial resources than more established powerboat manufacturers to withstand adverse changes in the market and disruptions in demand.
Unfavorable weather conditions may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations, especially during the peak boating season.
Adverse weather conditions in any year, in any particular geographic region, may adversely affect sales in that particular geographic region, especially during the peak boating season in such particular geographic region. Sales of our products are generally stronger just before and during spring and summer, which represent the peak boating months in most of our markets, and favorable weather during these months generally has a positive effect on consumer demand for our products. Conversely, unseasonably cool weather, excessive rainfall, reduced rainfall levels, or drought conditions during these periods may close area boating locations or render boating dangerous or inconvenient, thereby generally reducing consumer demand for our products. Unseasonably cool or wet weather may also adversely affect a consumer’s decision to rent one of our boats. Our annual results would be materially and adversely affected if our net sales were to fall below expected seasonal levels during these periods. We may also experience more pronounced seasonal fluctuation in net sales in the future as we continue to expand our businesses. Additionally, to the extent that unfavorable weather conditions are exacerbated by global climate change or otherwise, our sales may be affected to a greater degree than we have previously experienced.
We intend to increasingly use our network of independent dealers, and we will face increasing competition for dealers and have little control over their activities.
Currently, most of our sales are directly placed with us online, but approximately 35% of our sales in our 2022 fiscal year were derived from our network of independent dealers. We have agreements with dealers in our network that typically provide for terms of between 1 and 3 years. While we will continue to market direct sales through our website, we seek to increase revenues and diversify our sales points by expanding our network of independent dealers. We envision an increase in the number of dealers supporting our products and the quality of their marketing and servicing efforts being essential to our ability to increase sales. We may not be successful in our effort to grow our network of independent dealers.
Competition for dealers among recreational powerboat manufacturers continues to increase based on the quality, price, value and availability of the manufacturers’ products, the manufacturers’ attention to customer service and the marketing support that manufacturers provide to dealers. We will face intense competition from other recreational powerboat manufacturers in attracting and retaining dealers, and we might not be able to attract or retain relationships with qualified and successful dealers as well as our competition, if at all. We might not be able to maintain or improve our relationship with dealers or our market share position. In addition, independent dealers in the recreational powerboat industry have experienced significant consolidation in recent years, which could inhibit our ability to retain them or result in the loss of one or more of our dealers in the future if the surviving entity in any such consolidation purchases similar products from a competitor. If we do not establish a significant network of dealers, our future sales could fail to meet our projections, and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.
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We envision that our success will depend, in part, upon the financial health of our dealers and their continued access to financing.
We seek to increase revenues and diversify our sales points by expanding our network of independent dealers. The financial health of our current and any future dealers is critical to our success. Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected if the financial health of dealers that sell our products suffers. Their financial health may suffer for a variety of reasons, including a downturn in general economic conditions, rising interest rates, higher rents, increased labor costs and taxes, compliance with regulations and personal financial issues.
In addition, dealers require adequate liquidity to finance operations, including purchases of our products. Dealers are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could unfavorably affect their liquidity positions, including, among other things, continued access to adequate financing sources on a timely basis on reasonable terms. These sources of financing are vital to our ability to sell products through our distribution network. Access to floor plan financing generally facilitates dealers’ ability to purchase powerboats from us, and their financed purchases reduce our working capital requirements. If floor plan financing were not available to our dealers, our sales and our working capital levels could be adversely affected. The availability and terms of financing offered by dealers’ floor plan financing providers will continue to be influenced by:
● | their ability to access certain capital markets and to fund their operations in a cost-effective manner; |
● | the performance of their overall credit portfolios; |
● | their willingness to accept the risks associated with lending to dealers; and |
● | the overall creditworthiness of those dealers. |
Changes to trade policies, tariffs, and import/export regulations may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Although we manufacture our products in Canada, in our last fiscal year approximately 90% of our sales and rentals occurred in the United States, a percentage that could increase as our operations expand. Changes in laws and policies governing foreign trade could adversely affect our business. As a result of recent policy changes, there may be greater restrictions and economic disincentives on international trade. We anticipate that we will be affected by the agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (commonly known as USMCA), if ratified by all participants. Such agreement has the potential to adversely impact the global and local economies, our industry and global demand for our products and, as a result, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Interest rates and energy prices affect marine products’ sales
Although our products are not frequently financed by our dealers and retail powerboat consumers, we envision this becoming more common as we expand our operations and grow our network of distributors. This may not occur if interest rates rise because higher rates increase the borrowing costs and, as a result, the cost of doing business for dealers and the cost of powerboat purchases for consumers. Energy costs can represent a large portion of the costs to manufacture our products and can increase their ultimate sales price. Therefore, higher interest rates and fuel costs can adversely affect consumers’ decisions relating to recreational powerboating purchases.
We have a large fixed cost base that will affect our profitability if our sales decrease.
The fixed cost levels of operating a recreational powerboat manufacturer can put pressure on profit margins when sales and production decline. Our profitability depends, in part, on our ability to spread fixed costs over a large number of products sold and shipped, and if we decide to reduce our rate of production, gross or net margins could be negatively affected. Consequently, decreased demand or the need to reduce production can lower our ability to absorb fixed costs and materially impact our financial condition or results of operations.
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We depend on certain key personnel, and our success will depend on our continued ability to retain and attract such qualified personnel.
Our success depends on the efforts, abilities and continued service of Alexandre Mongeon, our Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Bobby, our Head of Performance & Special Projects, Kulwant Sandher, our Chief Financial Officer, and Xavier Montagne, our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer. A number of these key employees and consultants have significant experience in the recreational boating, manufacturing and electric vehicle industries. A loss of service from any one of these individuals may adversely affect our operations, and we may have difficulty locating, or may not be able to locate and hire a suitable replacement. We have not obtained any “key person” insurance on certain key personnel.
We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws and any breach of such laws may have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.
We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws, including statutes, regulations, bylaws and other legal requirements. These laws relate to the generation, use, handling, storage, transportation and disposal of regulated substances, including hazardous substances (such as batteries), dangerous goods and waste, emissions or discharges into soil, water and air, including noise and odors (which could result in remediation obligations), and occupational health and safety matters, including indoor air quality. These regulations also apply to any contamination that our powerboats cause in the lakes and rivers in which they operate. These legal requirements vary by location and can arise under federal, provincial, state or municipal laws. Any breach of such laws and/or requirements could have a material adverse effect on our company and its operating results.
Our powerboats are subject to mandated safety standards and failure to meet those standards could have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Given the inherent dangers involved with powerboats, all powerboats sold must comply with federal, state and provincial safety standards. Additionally, most powerboats sold in the United States meet the safety standards set by the American Boat and Yacht Counsel (“ABYC”), a non-profit, member organization that develops voluntary safety standards for the design, construction, maintenance, and repair of recreational powerboats and the National Marine Manufacturers Association (“NMMA”). Our powerboats have been certified by the United States Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard, meet the ABYC safety standards and have received CE marking indicating their conformity with health, safety, and environmental protection standards within the European Economic Area. Loss of any of these certifications or failure to obtain them for future products could have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.
If we are unable to meet the service requirements of our customers, our business will be materially and adversely affected.
We do not offer warranties or provide service for our boats and do not intend to offer warranties on our powertrains systems. Instead, the purchasers of our boats and of our powertrains may rely upon the warranties and services of the manufacturers of the components used in our boats and powertrains. As all such warranties are provided by third-party suppliers, the quality and timeliness of such service is outside of our control. Additionally, the terms of such warranties, including the length of time of coverage, and servicing terms, including locations and labor cost, are not uniform. If our purchasers and potential purchasers believe that warranties and servicing capabilities provided by our third-party suppliers are inadequate, the reputation of our brand will suffer and business and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.
If we are unable to meet our production and development goals, we may need to change our business plans or the timeline in which we expect to carry them out.
Our ability to carry out our business plans depends upon meeting our production and development goals. Delays or failures in meeting these goals could require us to reassess our business plans and the timeline that it will take us to implement those plans. In the past we have not always met our production and development goals. For example, we expected to manufacture approximately 50 powerboats, and begin commercialization of our electric powertrains in calendar 2023, and we will not meet these goals. Additionally, we have had to suspend the development of our recently launched fifth powerboat, the Phoenix 290. If any such delays or failures were to cause a material change to our proposed business plans, such change could result materially adverse changes in our projected revenues or expenses.
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We may not succeed in establishing, maintaining and strengthening the Vision Marine brand, which could materially and adversely affect customer acceptance of our boats and components and our business, revenues and prospects.
Our business and prospects heavily depend on our ability to develop, maintain and strengthen the Vision Marine brand and the brands of our powerboat models. Any failure to develop, maintain and strengthen these brands may materially and adversely affect our ability to sell our products. If we are not able to establish, maintain and strengthen our brands, we may lose the opportunity to build our customer base. We expect that our ability to develop, maintain and strengthen the Vision Marine brand will also depend heavily on the success of our marketing efforts. To further promote our brand, we may be required to change our marketing practices, which could result in substantially increased advertising expenses, including the need to use traditional media such as television, radio and print. Many of our current and potential competitors have greater name recognition, broader customer relationships and substantially greater marketing resources than we do. If we do not develop and maintain strong brands, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results will be materially and adversely impacted.
Increases in costs, disruption of supply or shortage of raw materials, in particular lithium-ion cells, could harm our business.
Although we do not materially use raw materials in the production of our electronic powerboats, we purchase the necessary parts and components for our boats from third-party suppliers that do. Were those third-party suppliers to experience increases in the cost or a sustained interruption in the supply or shortage of raw materials, the corresponding parts and components could become more costly or less available (if still available at all). For example, our supply chain has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as some of our third-party suppliers have experienced delays in delivering parts and components for our products. We are particularly exposed to a supply-chain risk as we have not contractually secured long-term supply commitments at fixed prices with our third-party suppliers. The prices for these raw materials fluctuate depending on market conditions and global demand for these materials and price fluctuations and material shortages could adversely affect our business and operating results. For instance, we are exposed to multiple risks relating to price fluctuations for lithium-ion cells. These risks include:
● | the inability or unwillingness of current battery manufacturers to build or operate battery cell manufacturing plants to supply the numbers of lithium-ion cells required to meet demand; |
● | disruption in the supply of cells due to quality issues or recalls by the battery cell manufacturers; and |
● | an increase in the cost of raw materials, such as cobalt, used in lithium-ion cells. |
Our business depends on the continued supply of battery cells for our boats. We do not currently have any agreements for the supply of batteries and depend upon the open market for their procurement. Any disruption in the supply of battery cells from our supplier could temporarily disrupt the planned production of our boats until such time as a different supplier is fully qualified. Moreover, battery cell manufacturers may choose to refuse to supply electric boat manufacturers to the extent they determine that the boats are not sufficiently safe. Furthermore, current fluctuations or shortages in petroleum and other economic conditions may cause us to experience significant increases in freight charges and raw material costs. Substantial increases in the prices for our raw materials would increase our operating costs and could reduce our margins if we cannot recoup the increased costs through increased electric boat prices. We might not be able to recoup increasing costs of raw materials by increasing boat prices. We publish the price for the base model of our powerboats. However, any attempts to increase the published prices in response to increased raw material costs could be viewed negatively by our potential customers, result in cancellations of orders and could materially adversely affect our brand, image, business, prospects and operating results.
If our suppliers sell us parts or components containing conflict minerals, we may be required at significant expense to find suppliers that do not use conflict minerals.
In 2010, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”) requiring the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to issue rules specifically relating to the use of “Conflict Minerals” within manufactured products. Conflict Minerals are currently defined by U.S. Law as tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold (also known as “3TG”) and related derivatives. Within a year of becoming a public company, the SEC rules require any SEC registrant whose commercial products contain any 3TG (“3TG Product”) to determine whether the 3TG in the 3TG Product originated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (“DRC”) or adjoining countries (collectively, the “DRC Region”) and, if so, whether the 3TG is “conflict free”. “3TG Conflict Free” means that the supply chain is transparent and the 3TG in 3TG Products does not directly or indirectly benefit armed groups responsible for serious human rights abuses in the DRC Region. By enacting this provision, Congress intends to further the humanitarian goal of ending the extremely violent conflict in the DRC Region, which has been partially financed by the exploitation and trade of 3TG originating in the DRC Region.
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We will need to expend time and money on determining whether our products contain conflict minerals. If our suppliers use conflict minerals in the production of the parts and components that we purchase from them, we may need to find alternative suppliers. If possible, this may only be possible at significant expense or with material delays in production.
Our software to control our electric powertrain systems contains “open source” software, and any failure to comply with the terms of one or more of these open-source licenses could negatively affect our business.
We use software to control our electric powertrain systems that relies upon “open source” licenses and intend to use such software in the future. Although we do not believe that the open source code we have used imposes any limitations on the use of the software that we have developed, the terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by United States or other courts, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a manner that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our solutions including requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the open source software or license such modifications or derivative works. In addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open-source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open-source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on origin of the software. We cannot be sure that all open source is submitted for approval prior to use in our solutions. In addition, many of the risks associated with use of open source cannot be eliminated, and could, if not properly addressed, negatively affect the performance of our electric powertrains and our business.
We rely on network and information systems and other technologies for our business activities and certain events, such as computer hackings, viruses or other destructive or disruptive software or activities may disrupt our operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Network and information systems and other technologies are important to our business activities and operations. Network and information systems-related events, such as computer hackings, cyber threats, security breaches, viruses, or other destructive or disruptive software, process breakdowns or malicious or other activities could result in a disruption of our services and operations or improper disclosure of personal data or confidential information, which could damage our reputation and require us to expend resources to remedy any such breaches. Moreover, the amount and scope of insurance we maintain against losses resulting from any such events or security breaches may not be sufficient to cover our losses or otherwise adequately compensate us for any disruptions to our businesses that may result, and the occurrence of any such events or security breaches could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. The risk of these systems-related events and security breaches occurring has intensified, in part because we maintain certain information necessary to conduct our businesses in digital form stored on cloud servers. While we develop and maintain systems seeking to prevent systems-related events and security breaches from occurring, the development and maintenance of these systems is costly and requires ongoing monitoring and updating as technologies change and efforts to overcome security measures become more sophisticated. Despite these efforts, there can be no assurance that disruptions and security breaches will not occur in the future. Moreover, we may provide certain confidential, proprietary and personal information to third parties in connection with our businesses, and while we obtain assurances that these third parties will protect this information, there is a risk that this information may be compromised. The occurrence of any of such network or information systems-related events or security breaches could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If the governmental grants and tax credits that we receive were to be no longer available, our net income would be materially reduced.
We receive governmental benefits in connection with our operations. In connection with the production of our powerboats and our research into green technology, we have been able to receive tax credits and grants provided by the Quebec provincial government and the Canadian federal government. In our 2022, 2021, and 2020 fiscal years, we recognized grants and investment tax credits amounting to $1,458,632, $921,658, and $491,704, respectively, of which $1,408,840, $859,516, and $445,776 respectively, is presented against research and development expenses. We intend to continue applying for such grants and receiving such tax credits. Without such grants and tax credits, our net loss in each of the past two fiscal years would have been larger. If they were no longer available, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.
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The unavailability, reduction or elimination of government economic incentives could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
Although we are unaware of substantial governmental economic incentives, such as tax credits and rebates, that customers may receive in connection with the purchase of our products, there are certain governmental regulations whose repeal could affect the desirability of our powerboats. In particular, local and regional restrictions of internal combustion engines on certain waterways, make electric boats an attractive alternative for use in such lakes and rivers. Any reduction, elimination or discriminatory application of such rules because of policy changes or other reasons may result in the diminished competitiveness of electric boats generally. This could materially and adversely affect the growth of our market and our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.
If we fail to manage future growth effectively, we may not be able to market or sell our powerboats or powertrains successfully.
Any failure to manage our growth effectively could materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition. We plan to expand our operations in the near future. Our future operating results depend to a large extent on our ability to manage this expansion and growth successfully. Risks that we face in undertaking this expansion include:
● | training new personnel; |
● | forecasting production and revenue; |
● | expanding our marketing efforts, including the marketing of a new powertrain that we use; |
● | controlling expenses and investments in anticipation of expanded operations; |
● | establishing or expanding design, manufacturing, sales and service facilities; |
● | implementing and enhancing administrative infrastructure, systems and processes; and |
● | addressing new markets. |
We intend to continue to hire a number of additional personnel, including design and manufacturing personnel and service technicians for our electric boats and powertrains. Competition for individuals with experience designing, manufacturing and servicing electric boats is intense, and we may not be able to attract, assimilate, train or retain additional highly qualified personnel in the future. The failure to attract, integrate, train, motivate and retain these additional employees could seriously harm our business and prospects.
Our business may be adversely affected by labor and union activities.
None of our employees are currently represented by a labor union. It is common in Quebec for employees of manufacturers of a certain size to belong to a union. Although we do not believe that we are currently of a size where our employees will unionize, were they to do so now or in the future, we would be at risk for higher employee costs and increased risk of work stoppages. We also directly and indirectly depend upon other companies with unionized work forces, such as parts suppliers and trucking and freight companies, and work stoppages or strikes organized by such unions could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition or operating results. If a work stoppage occurs among our key suppliers or our network of distributors, it could materially reduce the manufacture and sale of our boats and have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, operating results or financial condition.
Our ability to meet our manufacturing workforce needs is crucial to our results of operations and future sales and profitability.
We rely on the existence of an available hourly workforce to manufacture our products. We cannot assure you that we will be able to attract and retain qualified employees to meet current or future manufacturing needs at a reasonable cost, or at all. For instance, the demand for skilled employees has increased recently with the low unemployment rates in the regions where we have manufacturing facilities. Also, although none of our employees are currently covered by collective bargaining agreements, we cannot assure you that our employees will not elect to be represented by labor unions in the future. Additionally, competition for qualified employees could require us to pay higher wages to attract a sufficient number of employees. Significant increases in manufacturing workforce costs could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We compete with a variety of other activities for consumers’ leisure time.
Our powerboats are used for recreational and sport purposes, and demand for our powerboats may be adversely affected by competition from other activities that occupy consumers’ leisure time and by changes in consumer lifestyle, usage pattern or taste. Similarly, an overall decrease in consumer leisure time may reduce consumers’ willingness to purchase and enjoy our products.
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Product liability, warranty, personal injury, property damage and recall claims may materially affect our financial condition and damage our reputation.
We are engaged in a business that exposes us to claims of product liability and warranty claims in the event our products actually or allegedly fail to perform as expected or the use of our products results, or is alleged to result, in property damage, personal injury or death. Our products involve kinetic energy, produce physical motion and are to be used on the water, factors which increase the likelihood of injury or death. Our products contain Lithium-ion batteries, which have been known to catch fire or vent smoke and flame, and chemicals which are known to be, or could later be proved to be, toxic carcinogenic. Any personal injury or wrongful death claim could, even if not justified, prove expensive to contest.
We do not provide warranties for our powerboats but instead rely upon the warranties provided by the third-party manufacturers from whom we purchase the components for our powerboats. Although we maintain product and general liability insurance of the types and in the amounts that we believe are customary for the industry, we are not fully insured against all such potential claims. We may experience legal claims in excess of our insurance coverage or claims that are not covered by insurance, either of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Adverse determination of material product liability and warranty claims made against us could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and harm our reputation. In addition, if any of our products or components in our products are, or are alleged to be, defective, we may be required to participate in a recall of that product or component if the defect or alleged defect relates to safety. Any such recall and other claims could be costly to us and require substantial management attention.
Our intellectual property is not protected through patents or formal copyright registration. As a result, we do not have the full benefit of patent or copyright laws to prevent others from replicating our products, product candidates and brands.
Apart from trademark applications that we filed with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for our logo and the brand name “E-Motion”, we have not protected our intellectual property rights through patents or formal copyright or trademark registration, and we do not currently have any patent applications pending. As we intend to transition into the production of electric powertrains to OEMs, we envision our intellectual property and its security becoming more vital to our future. Until we protect our intellectual property through patent, trademarks and registered copyrights, we may not be able to protect our intellectual property and trade secrets or prevent others from independently developing substantially equivalent proprietary information and techniques or from otherwise gaining access to our intellectual property or trade secrets. In such an instance, our competitors could produce products that are nearly identical to ours resulting in us selling less products or generating less revenue from our sales.
Confidentiality agreements with employees and others may not adequately prevent disclosure of trade secrets and other proprietary information.
We rely on trade secrets, know-how and technology, which are not protected by patents, to protect the intellectual property behind our electric powertrain and for the construction of our boats. We do not yet use confidentiality agreements with our collaborators, employees, consultants, outside scientific collaborators and sponsored researchers and other advisors to protect our proprietary technology and processes. We intend to use such agreements in the future, but these agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of confidential information and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover trade secrets and proprietary information, and in such cases we could not assert any trade secret rights against such party. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.
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Any patent applications that we file may not result in issued patents, which may have a material adverse effect on our ability to prevent others from interfering with our commercialization of our products.
To date, we have not filed any patent applications, and we might not ever file patent applications. The registration and enforcement of patents involves complex legal and factual questions and the breadth and effectiveness of patented claims is uncertain. If we ever file patent applications in connection with our electric outboard powertrain systems or other matters, we cannot be certain that we will be first to file patent applications on those or other inventions, nor can we be certain that such patent applications will result in issued patents or that any of our issued patents will afford sufficient protection against someone creating competing products, or as a defensive portfolio against a competitor who claims that we are infringing its patents. In addition, patent applications filed in foreign countries are subject to laws, rules and procedures that differ from those of the United States, and thus we cannot be certain that foreign patent applications, if any, will result in issued patents in those foreign jurisdictions or that such patents can be effectively enforced, even if they relate to patents issued in the United States.
We do not have registered trademarks for our products and trade names.
Although we have submitted applications for registered trademarks for our name and the brand name “E-Motion” for our electric powertrain and for the logos for each with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, we do not have any registered trademarks for any of our brand names and logos in the United States or elsewhere. Any trademark applications that we file with a relevant governmental authority for brand names/logos might not be approved. Failure to obtain such approval could limit our ability to use the brand names/logos in those territories or lead our products be confused with, and/or tarnished by, competing products. Even if appropriate applications were made and approved, third parties may oppose or otherwise challenge such applications or registrations.
We may need to defend ourselves against patent or trademark infringement claims, which may be time-consuming and would cause us to incur substantial costs.
The status of the protection of our intellectual property is unsettled as we do not have any patents, trademarks or registered copyrights and have not applied for the same. Companies, organizations or individuals, including our competitors, may hold or obtain patents, trademarks or other proprietary rights that would prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to make, use, develop, sell or market our powerboats and electric powertrains or use third-party components, which could make it more difficult for us to operate our business. From time to time, we may receive communications from third parties that allege our products or components thereof are covered by their patents or trademarks or other intellectual property rights. Companies holding patents or other intellectual property rights may bring suits alleging infringement of such rights or otherwise assert their rights. If we are determined to have infringed upon a third party’s intellectual property rights, we may be required to do one or more of the following:
● | cease making, using, selling or offering to sell processes, goods or services that incorporate or use the third-party intellectual property; |
● | pay substantial damages; |
● | seek a license from the holder of the infringed intellectual property right, which license may not be available on reasonable terms or at all; |
● | redesign our boats or other goods or services to avoid infringing the third-party intellectual property; |
● | establish and maintain alternative branding for our products and services; or |
● | find-third providers of any part or service that is the subject of the intellectual property claim. |
In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us and our failure or inability to obtain a license to the infringed technology or other intellectual property right, our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. In addition, any litigation or claims, whether or not valid, could result in substantial costs, negative publicity and diversion of resources and management attention.
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You may face difficulties in protecting your interests, and your ability to protect your rights through the U.S. federal courts may be limited because we are incorporated under the laws of the Province of Quebec, a substantial portion of our assets are in Canada and the majority of our directors and executive officers reside outside the United States.
We are constituted under the laws of the Business Corporations Act (Quebec) (the “Business Corporation Act”), and our executive offices are located outside of the United States in Boisbriand, Quebec. Our officers and the majority of our directors reside outside the United States. In addition, a substantial portion of their assets and our assets are located outside of the United States. As a result, you may have difficulty serving legal process within the United States upon us or any of these persons. You may also have difficulty enforcing, both in and outside of the United States, judgments you may obtain in U.S. courts against us or these persons in any action, including actions based upon the civil liability provisions of U.S. Federal or state securities laws. Furthermore, there is substantial doubt as to the enforceability in Canada against us or against any of our directors and officers who are not residents of the United States, in original actions or in actions for enforcement of judgments of U.S. courts, of liabilities based solely upon the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws. In addition, shareholders in Quebec corporations may not have standing to initiate a shareholder derivative action in U.S. federal courts.
As a result, our public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests through actions against us, our management, our directors or our major shareholders than would shareholders of a corporation incorporated in a jurisdiction in the United States.
Global economic conditions could materially adversely impact demand for our products and services.
Our operations and performance depend significantly on economic conditions. Global financial conditions continue to be subject to volatility arising from international geopolitical developments and global economic phenomenon, as well as general financial market turbulence, including a significant recent market reaction to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and growing inflationary concerns, resulting in a significant reduction in many major market indices. Uncertainty about global economic conditions could result in
● | customers postponing purchases of our products and services in response to tighter credit, unemployment, negative financial news and/or declines in income or asset values and other macroeconomic factors, which could have a material negative effect on demand for our products and services; and |
● | third-party suppliers being unable to produce parts and components for our products in the same quantity or on the same timeline or being unable to deliver such parts and components as quickly as before or subject to price fluctuations, which could have a material adverse effect on our production or the cost of such production; and |
accordingly, on our business, results of operations or financial condition. Access to public financing and credit can be negatively affected by the effect of these events on Canadian, U.S. and global credit markets. The health of the global financing and credit markets may affect our ability to obtain equity or debt financing in the future and the terms at which financing or credit is available to us. These instances of volatility and market turmoil could adversely affect our operations and the trading price of our common shares.
Our business may be materially affected by the COVID-19 Outbreak
The continued novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including variations from new strains, may disrupt our business and operational plans. These disruptions may include disruptions resulting from (i) shortages of employees, (ii) unavailability of contractors and subcontractors, (iii) interruption of, or price fluctuations in, supplies from third parties upon which we rely, (iv) restrictions that governments impose to address the COVID-19 outbreak, and (v) restrictions that we and our contractors and subcontractors impose to ensure the safety of employees and others. Although we have not noticed any decrease to orders that we would attribute to COVID-19, we believe that COVID-19 is impacting our supply chain by increasing the amount of time between ordering third-party materials needed for our boats and their delivery. Continued delays in our supply chain could adversely impact our production and, in turn, our revenues. Further, it is presently not possible to predict the extent or durations of these disruptions. These disruptions may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Such adverse effect could be rapid and unexpected. These disruptions may severely affect our ability to carry out our business plans for 2023 and 2024.
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Fluctuations in currency exchange rates may significantly impact our results of operations.
Our operations are conducted in the United States and Canada, but approximately 90% of our sales and rentals have occurred in the United States. As a result, we are exposed to an exchange rate risk between U.S. and Canadian dollars. The exchange rates between these currencies in recent years have fluctuated significantly and may continue to do so in the future. In our fiscal 2022, the monthly average exchange rate as published by the Bank of Canada ranged from a high of US$1.00:$1.2942 to a low of US$1.00:1.2437. An appreciation of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar could increase the relative cost of our products outside of Canada, which could lead to decreased sales. Conversely, to the extent that we are required to pay for goods or services in U.S. dollars, the depreciation of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar would increase the cost of such goods and services.
We do not hedge our currency exposure and, therefore, we incur currency transaction risk whenever we enter into either a purchase or sale transaction using a currency other than the Canadian dollar. Given the volatility of exchange rates, we might not be able to effectively manage our currency transaction risks, and volatility in currency exchange rates might have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
If we experience material weaknesses or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our common shares.
For our fiscal year ended August 31, 2022, we identified that we did not maintain effective processes and controls over the accounting for and reporting of complex and non-routine transactions. Specifically, we determined that there was a lack of sufficient accounting and finance personnel to perform in-depth analysis and review of complex accounting matters and non-routine transactions within the timeframes set by us for filing our consolidated financial statements. Because of this deficiency, we concluded there was a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis at August 31, 2022.
If we fail to identify or remediate any future material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting, if we are unable to conclude that our internal controls over financial reporting are effective or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting when we are no longer an emerging growth company, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our common shares could be negatively affected. As a result of such failures, we could also become subject to investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, and become subject to litigation from investors and shareholders, which could harm our reputation and financial condition or divert financial and management resources from our regular business activities.
Our financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis and our financial status creates a doubt whether we will continue as a going concern.
Our financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis under which an entity is considered to be able to realize its assets and satisfy its liabilities in the ordinary course of business. Our future operations are dependent upon the identification and successful completion of equity or debt financing and the achievement of profitable operations at an indeterminate time in the future. There can be no assurances that we will be successful in completing an equity or debt financing or in achieving or maintaining profitability. The financial statements do not give effect to any adjustments relating to the carrying values and classification of assets and liabilities that would be necessary should we be unable to continue as a going concern.
Risks Related to Our Securities
Our executive officers and directors beneficially own approximately 40.4% of our common shares.
As of November 21, 2022, our executive officers and directors beneficially owned, in the aggregate, 40.4% of our common shares, which includes shares that our executive officers and directors have the right to acquire pursuant to share options which have vested or will vest within the next 60 days. As a result, they are able to exercise a significant level of control over all matters requiring shareholder approval, including the election of directors, amendments to our Articles of Incorporation, as amended (the “Articles of Incorporation”) and approval of significant corporate transactions. This control could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company or changes in management and will make the approval of certain transactions difficult or impossible without the support of these shareholders.
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In addition, Nasdaq provides a “controlled company”, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power for the election of its directors is held by a single person, entity or group, with exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirement that a majority of its board of directors consist of independent directors. While we are not a “controlled company”, two of our directors each beneficially own approximately 25.4% of our common shares through a commonly controlled entity. Any future concentration of voting power among these directors or other persons could result in our becoming a “controlled company”. If we become a “controlled company,” we may elect to rely on certain exemptions from Nasdaq’s corporate governance rules. In such case, you may not have the same protection afforded to shareholders of companies that are not “controlled companies.”
The continued sale of our common shares will dilute the ownership percentage of our existing shareholders and may decrease the market price for our common shares.
Our Articles of Incorporation authorize the issuance of an unlimited number of common shares, also referred to in our Articles of Amendment as common shares, which are issuable in four series, of which an unlimited number are designated as Voting Common Shares - Series Founder, an unlimited number are designated as Voting Common Shares - Series Investor 1, an unlimited number are designated as Voting Common Shares - Series Investor 2 and an unlimited number are designated as Non-Voting Common Shares. All of our currently issued and outstanding common shares are Voting Common Shares - Series Founder, Voting Common Shares - Series Investor 1 and Voting Common Shares - Series Investor 2, and there is no difference in the rights and obligations of the holders of shares of those classes. The issuance of any such common shares may result in a reduction of the book value or market price, if one exists at the time, of the outstanding common shares. If we do issue any additional common shares, such issuance also will cause a reduction in the proportionate ownership and voting power of all other shareholders. As a result of such dilution, if you acquire common shares, your proportionate ownership interest and voting power could be decreased. Further, any such issuances could result in a change of control or a reduction in the market price for our common shares.
Certain provisions of our Articles of Incorporation may make it more difficult for a third party to effect a change in control.
Our Articles of Incorporation authorizes our board of directors (the “Board”) to issue an unlimited number of preferred shares, in one (1) or more series, each series to consist of such number of shares as may before issuance thereof be determined by the Board, with such designation, rights, restrictions, conditions and limitations to attach to the preferred shares as the directors of the Corporation may determine. While no preferred shares have been issued to date, these terms may include voting rights including the right to vote as a series on particular matters, preferences as to dividends and liquidation, conversion rights, redemption rights and sinking fund provisions. The issuance of any preferred shares could diminish the rights of holders of our common shares, and therefore could reduce the value of such common shares. In addition, specific rights granted to future holders of preferred shares could be used to restrict our ability to merge with, or sell assets to, a third party. The ability of our Board to issue preferred shares could make it more difficult, delay, discourage, prevent or make it more costly to acquire or effect a change-in-control, which in turn could prevent the shareholders from recognizing a gain in the event that a favorable offer is extended and could materially and negatively affect the market price of our common shares.
The market price of our common shares may be volatile and may fluctuate in a way that is disproportionate to our operating performance.
Our common shares began trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market in November 2020. Since then until November 25, 2022, the closing price of our common shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market has ranged from a high of US$16.21 to a low of US$3.35. The market value of our common shares will continue to fluctuate due to the impact of any of the following factors:
● | sales or potential sales of substantial amounts of our common shares; |
● | announcements about us or about our competitors; |
● | litigation and other developments relating to our proprietary rights or those of our competitors; |
● | conditions in the marine product industry; |
● | governmental regulation and legislation; |
● | variations in our anticipated or actual operating results; |
● | change in securities analysts’ estimates of our performance, or our failure to meet analysts’ expectations; |
● | change in general economic trends; and |
● | investor perception of our industry or our prospects. |
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Many of these factors are beyond our control. The stock markets in general, and the market for marine product companies in particular, have historically experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. These fluctuations often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. As a consequence, there may be periods of several days or more when trading activity in our shares is minimal or non-existent, as compared to a seasoned issuer which has a large and steady volume of trading activity that will generally support continuous sales without an adverse effect on share price. A broad or active public trading market for our common shares may not be sustained.
We do not intend to pay dividends, and there will thus be fewer ways in which you are able to make a gain on your investment.
We have never paid any cash or share dividends, and we do not intend to pay any dividends for the foreseeable future. To the extent that we require additional funding currently not provided for in our financing plan, our funding sources may prohibit the payment of any dividends. Because we do not intend to declare dividends, any gain on your investment will need to result from an appreciation in the price of our common shares. There will therefore be fewer ways in which you are able to make a gain on your investment.
FINRA sales practice requirements may limit your ability to buy and sell our common shares, which could depress the price of our shares.
FINRA rules require broker-dealers to have reasonable grounds for believing that an investment is suitable for a customer before recommending that investment to the customer. Prior to recommending speculative low-priced securities to their non-institutional customers, broker-dealers must make reasonable efforts to obtain information about the customer’s financial status, tax status and investment objectives, among other things. Under interpretations of these rules, FINRA believes that there is a high probability such speculative low-priced securities will not be suitable for at least some customers. Thus, FINRA requirements may make it more difficult for broker-dealers to recommend that their customers buy our common shares, which may limit your ability to buy and sell our shares, have an adverse effect on the market for our shares and, thereby, depress their market prices.
Volatility in our common shares price may subject us to securities litigation.
The market for our common shares may have, when compared to seasoned issuers, significant price volatility, and we expect that our share price may continue to be more volatile than that of a seasoned issuer for the indefinite future. In the past, plaintiffs have often initiated securities class action litigation against a company following periods of volatility in the market price of its securities. We may, in the future, be the target of similar litigation. Securities litigation could result in substantial costs and liabilities and could divert management’s attention and resources.
We are a foreign private issuer within the meaning of the rules under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and as such we are exempt from certain provisions applicable to United States domestic public companies.
We are a foreign private issuer within the meaning of the rules under the Exchange Act. As such, we are exempt from certain provisions applicable to United States domestic public companies. For example:
● | we are not required to provide as many Exchange Act reports, or as frequently, as a domestic public company; |
● | for interim reporting, we are permitted to comply solely with our home country requirements, which are less rigorous than the rules that apply to domestic public companies; |
● | we are not required to provide the same level of disclosure on certain issues, such as executive compensation; |
● | we are exempt from provisions of Regulation FD aimed at preventing issuers from making selective disclosures of material information; |
● | we are not required to comply with the sections of the Exchange Act regulating the solicitation of proxies, consents or authorizations in respect of a security registered under the Exchange Act; and |
● | we are not required to comply with Section 16 of the Exchange Act requiring insiders to file public reports of their share ownership and trading activities and establishing insider liability for profits realized from any “short-swing” trading transaction. |
Our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important and are accustomed to receiving from U.S. reporting companies.
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As an “emerging growth company” under applicable law, we will be subject to lessened disclosure requirements. Such reduced disclosure may make our common shares less attractive to investors.
For as long as we remain an “emerging growth company”, as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”), we will elect 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 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. Because of these lessened regulatory requirements, our shareholders would be left without information or rights available to shareholders of more mature companies. If some investors find our common shares less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for such securities and their market prices may be more volatile.
If we are, or were to become, a passive foreign investment company (a “PFIC”) for U.S. federal income tax purposes, U.S. investors in our common shares would be subject to certain adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences.
In general, a non-U.S. corporation will be a PFIC for any taxable year if (i) 75% or more of its gross income consists of passive income or (ii) 50% or more of the average quarterly value of its assets consists of assets that produce, or are held for the production of, passive income. We do not expect to be a PFIC for our current taxable year or in the foreseeable future. However, there can be no assurance that we will not be considered a PFIC for any taxable year. If we were a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. investor held common shares, such investor would be subject to certain adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences, such as ineligibility for any preferred tax rates on capital gains or on actual or deemed dividends, an additional interest charge on certain taxes treated as deferred, and additional reporting requirements under U.S. federal income tax laws and regulations. If we are characterized as a PFIC, a U.S. investor may be able to make a “mark-to-market” election with respect to our common shares that would alleviate some of the adverse consequences of PFIC status. Although U.S. tax rules also permit a U.S. investor to make a “qualified electing fund” election with respect to the shares of a non-U.S. corporation that is a PFIC if the non-U.S. corporation provides certain information to its investors, we do not currently intend to provide the information that would be necessary for a U.S. investor to make a valid “qualified electing fund” election with respect to our common shares.
ITEM 4. INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY
A. | History and development of the Company |
We were incorporated pursuant to the Business Corporations Act (Quebec) on August 29, 2012, under the name Riopel Marine Inc. On April 23, 2020, we changed our name to Vision Marine Technologies Inc. Our principal business is to manufacture and sell or rent electric boats. We have two wholly-owned subsidiaries.
The Company’s registered agent in the United States is Corporation Service Company. The address of the Company’s registered agent in the United States is 251 Little Falls Drive, Wilmington, DE 19808.
On November 27, 2020, we issued 2,760,000 common shares in our initial public offering. After deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and offering expenses, the net proceeds from the offering were approximately US$24,940,000. In connection with the offering, we listed our common shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “VMAR”.
On June 3, 2021, we acquired an electric boat rental business in Newport, California for approximately $9,020,271, of which $5,546,039 was paid in cash and $3,474,232 of which was paid in the form of common shares. In our 2022 fiscal year, our rental business generated approximately $4,874,702 of revenue.
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Our principal executive offices are located at 730 Boulevard du Curé-Boivin, Boisbriand, Quebec J7G 2A7, Canada. Our phone number is 450-951-7009. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The address of that site is http://www.sec.gov. Our website address is https://visionmarinetechnologies.com. Information contained in, or that can be accessed through, our website is not a part of, and shall not be incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report. We have included our website address in this document solely as an inactive textual reference.
B. | Business Overview |
General
We are in the business of designing and manufacturing electric outboard powertrain systems and our related technology and the renting of electric boats. We believe that our electric outboard powertrain systems are significantly more efficient and powerful than those currently being offered in the market today. In particular, we have recorded powertrain efficiencies of more than 94%, well above the 54% efficiency that we recorded for our principal competitor’s product. Increases in powertrain efficiency allows for more power and range, both of which are highly desirable characteristics for consumers in the marketplace. Although our primary focus is on electric outboard powertrain technology, we will continue to design, manufacture and sell our high-performance, fully-electric boats to commercial and retail customers. According to Allied Market Research, the global electric boat market will reach US$16.60 billion in 2031 up significantly from US$5 billion in 2021, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 12.9% from 2022 to 2031.
We have developed our first fully-electric outboard powertrain system that combines an advanced battery pack, inverter, high-efficiency motor with proprietary union assembly between the transmission and the electric motor design and extensive control software. Our technologies used in this powertrain system are designed to improve the efficiency of the outboard powertrain and, as a result, increase range and performance. We believe our approach in marketing and selling our powertrain technology to boat designers and manufacturers will enable us to leverage their distribution and servicing systems with minimal capital outlay. We expect our core intellectual property contained within our outboard electric powertrain systems to form the foundation for our future growth and for such systems to represent the majority of our revenue.
We continue to manufacture hand-crafted, highly durable, low maintenance, environmentally-friendly electric recreational powerboats. In our last two fiscal years 2022 and 2021, we manufactured 58 and 49 powerboats, respectively, and we expect to manufacture approximately 60 powerboats in calendar 2023. We sell powerboats to retail customers and operators of rental fleets of powerboats through which we seek to build brand awareness. We intend to continue to build brand awareness by partnering with marina operators to offer rental fleets of electric boats. We conduct our transactions directly to customers through our website or through a network of marinas, distributors and show rooms.
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In an effort to improve air quality and protect local water habitats, cities and local municipalities are beginning to ban or restrict the use of gasoline- and diesel-powered boats from local waterways, lakes and rivers. For example, Teal Lake in Michigan, USA, bans the standard use of powerboat motors fueled by gasoline or diesel. This trend is beginning to take hold in other parts of the United States, including Washington state, which has provided clear examples of the harm that gasoline products cause on local waterways, and New Hampshire, where the Department of Safety has published restrictions on the use of gasoline and diesel-powered boats across its state.
In our fiscal year 2021, we expanded our business to include rentals of electric powerboats by acquiring EBR, an entity that rents electric boats at the Lido Marina Village in Newport, California. In addition to generating revenues from the rental of our powerboats, EBR builds brand awareness and acts an open-water showroom for potential buyers.
Our Electric Outboard Powertrain Systems
A powertrain system is a vehicle’s infrastructure that converts energy into movement. In an electric boat, that infrastructure starts at the battery pack, continues with an inverter, goes to the motor and ends with the propeller. Electric powertrains have less moving parts than powertrains for boats with an internal combustion engine and, as a result, tend to break less and require less complex servicing.
The efficiency of a powertrain system determines the range of a boat on a single battery charge and the speed at which the boat operates. We find existing electric powertrain systems unsatisfactory because of their insufficient yields and limited power range. In 2015, we decided to research technology to take advantage of this vacuum and develop an in-house system, relying on existing third-party components where possible. We noted the need for innovation in the following areas:
● | optimizing the electric motor to improve efficiency and range by customizing the power to the motor from different battery suppliers; |
● | developing optimization software that reads and calibrates the controller to suit the current use of the outboard electric powertrain system; |
● | using appropriate components, including the battery; |
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● | customizing gears and propellers to a boat’s specifications. We have recorded the efficiency of our principal competitor’s electric powertrain system as 54%, meaning that only 54% of the power leaving the battery pack reached the propeller. Our proprietary union and direct transmission system allow our prototype powertrains to have an efficiency of 94% which provides a competitive advantage over current electric outboard motors. We have also chosen a propeller design which when combined with the efficiencies obtained using our proprietary union and transmission system, provides optimal results; and |
● | developing an innovative controller, in particular, one that: |
o | improves control over thermal overheating and thus protects the electric powertrain system; |
o | incorporates a dual electrical and mechanical cooling system allowing for a better performance of the electric powertrain system; |
o | detects possible operating problems (for example cavitation); and |
o | reduces jolts and noise. |
Our electric powertrain is designed to have 180 hp (horsepower) and 236 Lb. ft at 94% load. Furthermore, the electric powertrain system will be liquid cooled as compared to air cooled.
In October 2021, we entered into a Manufacture and Supply Agreement with Linamar Corporation, a provider of manufacturing solutions and a developer of highly engineered products. Under the terms of the agreement, we intend for McLaren Engineering, Linamar’s technology and product development team for its advanced mobility segment, to manufacture and assemble our E-Motion™ technology through testing, parts, tooling development, and designing the union assembly for mass production of our electric powertrain at Linamar’s facility in Canada.
Once we have scaled up the production of our electric powertrain, we intend for the Linamar Corporation to produce our electric powertrain for mass commercialization. Although we believe that we can produce up to 300 electric powertrains per year in our current facilities in addition to producing 150 boats per year, we believe that contracting out the production of the electric powertrains will allow us to dedicate more time and resources to the development of additional electric powertrains.
The production of our electric powertrain will consist of assembling components from third parties, including battery packs, inverters and high-efficiency motors. We intend to use advanced batteries in our battery packs but do not envision depending on a limited number of suppliers as we will be able to use a wide range of batteries. Consequently, we have not entered into long-term contracts for the supply of batteries. We will source the inverters from UQM (Danfoss Editron) and motors from UQM (Danfoss Editron) and Dana TM4.
In January 2022, we announced our partnership with Octillion to develop a customized high voltage 35 KW high density battery. Octillion will manufacture a new advanced electric battery system, “Polar 35” to power our E-Motion™ outboard powertrain. The configuration of the battery pack is smaller than that of a typical fuel tank, which in turn makes it easier to custom fit in virtually any boat.
During that same period, we partnered with Nextfour Solutions Ltd. to further develop a customized multifunctional display to be integrated within our E-Motion™ 180 fully electric powertrain system.
In February 2022, we partnered with Weismann Marine, LLC to design and develop a lower unit (or gearcase) assembly for the Vision Marine’s Hellcat boat which achieved a world record speed of 109 mph
Our electric powertrains will be controlled by control software developed in house. We have used open-source software code to develop our own battery management system software that will be tailored to regulate the power from the battery pack to the electric motor and its related systems.
We have received governmental support in connection with our development of electric powertrain. In our 2022, 2021, and 2020 fiscal years, we recognized grants and investment tax credits amounting to $1,458,632, $921,658, and $491,704, respectively, of which $1,408,840, $859,516 and $445,776, respectively, is presented against research and development expenses.
In July 2022, we launched a partnership with Group Beneteau to integrate our outboard motors onboard several models across Group Beneteau’s brand portfolio. The initial commercial offering with Groupe Beneteau will be launched under the Four Winns brand, with deliveries expected to be available in spring 2023. The technology will also be rolled out by other brands within Groupe Beneteau, both in North America and Europe.
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Specifications of our First Outboard Electric Powertrain
We have developed our first fully-electric outboard powertrain system that combines an advanced battery pack, inverter, high-efficiency motor with proprietary union assembly between the transmission and the electric motor design and extensive control software. We set out below the current specifications of this outboard electric powertrain.
Maximum power | 180 HP, 135 kW | ||
Max torque | 250 ft.lb, 340 Nm | ||
Continuous power | 90 kW | ||
Voltage | 650 V | ||
Efficiency | 94% | ||
Weight | 413 Lbs., 188 kg | ||
Lithium Battery | 60 - 420 kW | ||
Shaft Length | S – XL | ||
Cooling | Water | ||
Control | Can bus |
As we develop our electric powertrain systems, we envisage a 300-horsepower version of our electric outboard engine to be released within the next 18 months.
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Our Powerboats
We manufacture four models of electric powerboats and are preparing to launch a fifth model. Each model is available in different standard variations or may be customized according to a purchaser’s specifications. The following table sets out the specifications of our different models, although the specifications of any specific powerboat within that line would depend on the variation purchased or the customizations requested.
| Bruce 22 | Volt 180 | Fantail 217 | Quietude 156 | Phantom |
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Starting Price | $73,995 | $44,995 | $49,995 | $35,495 | $25,995 |
E-Propulsion Power | 5 HP | 5 HP | 5 HP | 5 HP | 5 HP |
E-Motion Power | 180 HP | 180 HP | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Capacity | 5-8 passengers | 11 Canada, 14 US | 8-10 passengers | 4 passengers | 10 passengers |
Dry Weight | 1088 Kg (2400 pounds) | 720 kg (1600 pounds) | 775 kg (1705 lbs.) | 800lbs | 1,072Ibs |
Hull Material | Fiberglass | Fiberglass (Infusion Sandwich) | Fiberglass | Fiberglass | Injection moulding |
Overall Length | 6.7 m (22′) | 5.4 m (17’9”) | 6.6 m (21’7”) | 4.7 m (15’6”) | 5.03 m (16’6”) |
Overall Width | 2.08 m (6’6”) | 2.13 m (7’) | 2.03 m (6’8”) | 1.5 m (4’11”) | 1.89 m (6’ 0”) |
Draft | 0.45 m (18”) | 0.30 m (12”) | 0.43 m (20”) | 0.18 m (8”) | 0.305 m (12”) |
Homologation | USA, Canada, EU | USA, Canada, EU | USA, Canada, EU | USA, Canada, EU | USA, Canada, EU |
Woodwork | Mahogany, Teak | Synthetic | Synthetic | Synthetic | n/a |
Propulsion | Minn Kota, Torqeedo or Piktronic | Minn-Kota or Torqeedo | Minn-Kota, E-Tech engine, E-Tech Propulsion, Torqeedo salt-water engine | Minn-Kota | Minn-Kota |
Battery Type | Lithium ion | Lead Acid, Lithium Relion or Lithium BMW | Lithium Relion or Lithium BMW | Lithium | Linn |
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For each of our boats, our consumers are able to customize certain aspects including color (for the hull, striping, interior and deck), radio and covers and other storage options. In addition, there are customizations that are just available for some boat models, including propulsion and batteries.
Bruce 22
Reaching speeds of up to approximately 41 miles per hour (66 kph), the Bruce 22 is our flagship boat. We offer three variations of the Bruce 22: a Hatchback Classic (a 100 kWh five-seater starting at $279,995), an Open Utility (a 100 kWh eight-seater starting at $289,995) and the Bruce22 T (a 4 kWh eight-seater starting at $73,995). In addition to the customizations that are available for each of our boats, purchasers may customize the Bruce 22 by choosing among various options including type of propulsion (Piktronic, Torqeedo or Min-Kota), inserts (mahogany, permatek and fiber glass) and other options (including ski pole, underwater light and a swim platform). In our 2022 fiscal year, we did not sell any Bruce 22s. |
Volt 180
Reaching speeds of up to approximately 30 miles per hour (48 kph), the Volt 180 is a powerful boat that can be used for various watersports. In addition to the customizations that are available for each of our boats, purchasers may customize the Volt 180 by choosing among various options including the power of the motor (available in 2, 3, 6, 10, 60 and 125 kilowatts), accessories (including racing seats, fish rod holder, depth finder and anchor) and other options (including bumper, types of canopies and a premium sound system). In our 2022 fiscal year, we sold 20 Volt 180s. |
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Fantail 217
| We designed the Fantail 217 with a view towards relaxation rather than speed. The Fantail 217 starts at $49,995, seats up to ten people and has a maximum speed of approximately 10 miles per hour (6 kph). In addition to the customizations that are available for each of our boats, purchasers may customize the Fantail 217 by choosing among various options including the type of motor (Torqeedo Salt Water, E-Tech, Min-Kota or E-Propulsion), number of batteries (up to eight), type of canopy (aluminum, stainless steel or fiberglass) and other options (including night navigation light, a double horn and bottom paint). In our 2022 fiscal year, we sold 31 Fantail 217s. |
Quietude 156
As the name suggests, we designed the Quietude 156 with an eye towards tranquility over speed or power. The Quietude 156 starts at $35,495, seats four passengers and reaches a top speed approximately 5 miles per hour (8 kph). The Quietude 156 comes with a Min-Kota 36V motor, but purchasers may still customize other aspects of the Quietude 156 by choosing among various options including the type of table to be used, the type of canopy and electronics that can be included (such as a Bluetooth marine radio and a depth meter). In our 2022 fiscal year, we sold 7 Quietude 156s. |
Phantom
We designed the Phantom specifically for the boat rental market. The Phantom starts at US$20,000 for the hull only, seats up to ten passengers and reaches a top speed approximately 5 miles per hour (8 kph). The Phantom is made out of recyclable plastic and is US Coast Guard approved. We launched the Phantom in our 2023 fiscal year. In our 2022 fiscal year, we sold no Phantoms. |
Sales
We currently generate over 35% of our revenue from the sale of our electric power boats. In our 2022 fiscal year, we sold 58 of our electric powerboats for revenue of $2,557,085, in our 2021 fiscal year we sold 49 of our electric powerboats for revenue of $2,080,110 and in our 2020 fiscal year, we sold 47 of our electric powerboats for revenue of $2,249,107. Our sales are to retail customers and operators of rental fleets of powerboats.
Although we have yet to commercialize our electric powertrains, we have received non-binding letters of intent from OEMs for the purchase of such powertrains. Under the LOIs, OEMs have indicated their interest in purchasing over 1,000 powertrains through the year ended August 31, 2024. Such LOIs are non-binding and may never result in any actual sales. The projected sales price for our first electric outboard powertrain system is $100,000.
Sales of New Powerboats to Retail Purchasers
We sell our powerboats to retail purchasers. In our 2022, 2021, and 2020 fiscal years, we sold 21, 22, and 22 powerboats to retail customers, respectively, which was approximately 36%, 45%, and 48%, respectively, of all sales.
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Sales of Fleets of New Powerboats
We sell our powerboats to persons and entities operating fleets of rental boats. In our 2022, 2021 and 2020 fiscal years, we sold 17, 16, and 4 powerboats to rental fleet operators, respectively, which was approximately 29%, 33% and 9% of all of our sales, respectively. These sales include sales to EBR which, since June 3, 2021 has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company. We will continue to supply EBR with our powerboats, but we will no longer consider such powerboats to be sales to an entity operating a fleet. We intend to continue to build brand awareness by partnering with marina operators to offer rental fleets of electric boats.
In October 2022, we announced a partnership with Nautical Ventures Group (“Nautical”), whereby Nautical will be the sole and exclusive distributor of the Phantom in the United States. The memorandum of understanding with Nautical includes Nautical’s agreement to purchase a minimum of 50 Phantom boats.
Rentals
In our fiscal year 2021, we expanded our business to include rentals of electric powerboats by acquiring EBR, an entity that rents electric boats at the Lido Marina Village in Newport, California. We acquired this business for approximately $9,020,271, of which $5,546,039 was paid in cash and $3,474,232 of which was paid in the form of 284,495 common shares. At the time of the acquisition, our Chief Executive Officer was an affiliate of EBR.
EBR has a fleet of approximately 30 powerboats. Rental rates range from US$75 per hour to US$215 per hour, plus a booking fee, with a minimum booking of two hours. Once a powerboat in the EBR fleet has over 200 hours of sailing time, EBR offers the powerboat for sale to the public. In our 2022 fiscal year, our rental business generated approximately $4,793,860 of revenue, of which $4,793,860 was from the rental of our powerboats, as compared to $1,355,548 of revenue in 2021, of which $1,355,548 was from the rental of our powerboats.
Investment in Electric Boat Manufacturer
On May 14, 2021, we purchased $3,400,000 in Debentures from Limestone. Limestone is a North American designer and manufacturer of recreational and commercial powerboats. The Debentures bear interest at the rate of 10% per annum and mature in three years from issuance. We entered into an agreement pursuant to which Limestone agreed to purchase 25 powertrains from us, subject to the completion of satisfactory testing from Limestone, of which it has currently purchased nil. One of our directors is also a director of Limestone.
Suppliers
We purchase all of our product parts and components from third-party suppliers. Some of these parts and components are manufactured to our specifications (such as hulls and motors) while others are bought “off the shelf” (such as batteries and canopies). We do not maintain long-term contracts with preferred suppliers, but instead rely on informal arrangements and off-the-shelf purchases. We have not experienced any material shortages in any of our product parts, or components, but as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic some of our third-party suppliers have experienced delays in delivering our product parts and components in a timely manner and fluctuations in price for these supplies is a possibility if raw material pricing increases. Temporary shortages, when they do occur, usually involve manufacturers of these products adjusting model mix, introducing new product lines, or limiting production in response to an industry-wide reduction in boat demand, or, as recently experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, in finding persons able to deliver the parts and components in a timely manner.
Electric Powertrains
The most significant parts and components we intend to use in manufacturing our electric powertrains are:
● | engines – we intend to rely on two suppliers of engines, Danfoss Editron and E-Propulsion; |
● | lithium-ion batteries – we intend to use duplicate suppliers, including Relion, Neogy and Octillion, to make lithium-ion batteries we can use in our product candidate at a price and quality that we are looking for; |
● | inverter –we intend to source our inverters from Danfoss Editron; |
● | smart navigation system – we intend to rely on our partnership with Nextfour to develop a multifunctional display to be integrated with our E-Motion powertrains. |
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Power Boats
The most significant parts and components used in manufacturing our boats are:
● | engines – we use three suppliers of engines, E-Propulsion (for the Bruce 22, the Fantail 217 and the Volt 180), Min Kota (for the Bruce 22, the Fantail 217, the Volt 180 and the Quietude 156) and E-Tech Propulsion (for the Fantail 217); |
● | lithium-ion batteries – we source duplicate suppliers for our lithium-ion batteries, including Relion, Neogy and Octillion and believe that we could source batteries at a similar price from the market were these suppliers unable to meet our demand; |
● | hulls – we have two suppliers of the hulls that we use in our boats, but we believe that we could source hulls of a similar quality and at a similar price without significant delay to our production schedule were these suppliers unable to meet our demands. |
As we do not produce any of the parts of components of our electric powertrains or electric powerboats, we do not materially use, or intend to use, any raw materials in their production. The manufacturers of the parts and components that we use, however, do use raw materials, including resins, fiberglass, hydrocarbon feedstocks, steel and various minerals, especially in the production of the engines and batteries that we use. We do not control how these third parties source the raw materials that they use, and we may suffer production delays if such third parties do not have access to all of the raw materials that they need or source conflict minerals in violation of applicable regulations.
Patents and Licenses
We do not currently have any patent applications pending, and we do not have any patents. We do not rely on any licenses from third parties at this time.
Our success depends, at least in part, on our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property. To accomplish this, we intend to rely on a combination of design applications, trade secrets, including know-how, employee and third-party non-disclosure agreements, copyright laws, trademarks and other contractual rights to establish and protect our proprietary rights in our technology. We may file patent applications with respect to components of a powertrain that we are developing. We do not know whether any of our patent applications, if we file any, will result in the issuance of patents or whether the examination process will require us to narrow our claims. Even if granted, these pending patent applications might not provide us with adequate protection.
Trademarks
We use our logo as a trademark and have applied for its registration at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. We have also applied for registration of the logo in the United States with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Neither our corporate name nor any of the names of the models of our boats are currently registered trademarks.
In May 2021, we filed a trademark on our E-Motion technology with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. We have submitted the application for registration and paid the filing fee. The production date associated with our application is May 12, 2021. We have also applied for registration of a trademark on our E-Motion technology in the United States with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. We have submitted the application for registration and paid the filing fee. The filing date associated with our application is May 17, 2021.
This Annual Report contains references to trademarks and service marks belonging to other entities. Solely for convenience, trademarks and trade names referred to in this Annual Report may appear without the ® or TM symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent possible under applicable law, our rights to these trademarks and trade names. 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, any other companies.
Industry Overview
In North America, 75 million people go boating every year, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, with approximately 11.8 million recreational vessels registered with the U.S. Coast Guard in 2020. The worldwide recreational boating market size was approximately US$35 billion in 2020 and is set to surpass US$60 billion by 2027, according to a research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. Within the boating market, there is an outboard motor market and an electric boat market. Our products fall into each of those categories, and if produced, our electric powertrains will be used in boats in both those markets.
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Outboard Motor Market
An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the boat. As well as providing propulsion, outboards provide steering control, as they are designed to pivot over their mountings and thus control the direction of thrust. Outboard motors tend to be found on smaller watercraft as it is more efficient for larger boats to have an inboard system. Although outboard engines powered by fossil fuels have traditionally dominated this market and continue to do so, electric outboard motors are a relatively new phenomenon that have been growing in step with the growth in the electric boat market.
According to the NMMA, sales of outboard engines in the United States (which includes outboard motors) increased to a twenty-year high of approximately 329,500 units, up 17.6% from the prior year. Consumer demand for higher-performance engines continued to trend upward in 2020, with double digit gains in sales for engines with 200 and greater horsepower. Engines with between 200 and 300 horsepower accounted for 27% of all sales of outboard engines.
Although many recreational boats can be powered by outboard or inboard motors, many consumers prefer outboard motors. Among the reasons for their preference are that, unlike inboard motors, outboard motors can be easily removed for storage or repairs, they provide more room in the boat as they are attached to the transom outside of the boat, they tend to have a shallower draft and they can be more easily replaced in the event the motor no longer works or a desire to upgrade to a higher horsepower.
There are many manufacturers of outboard motors. Some of these manufacturers are subsidiaries of massive global conglomerates, like Yamaha, Bombardier and Suzuki, that have more resources and experience in the market than we do. Others are relatively new startups, like us, that may be more nimble and adaptive to changes in the outboard motor market than we will be. We deem our biggest competitor in the electric outboard motor market to be Torqeedo.
Electric Boat Market
Although electric boats have been available for over 100 years, interest in them was minimal until the 1990s when the first studies were conducted in the United States following the suspicion that motorboats contaminate aquatic environments significantly through loss of gasoline and lubrication oil. According to Andre Mele, recreational boats pollute as much as cars and trucks in the United States. In the early 2000’s, 8 million speedboats in the United States released 15 times more pollutants annually into the environment than the oil spill produced by the oil tanker Exxon Valdez in 1989. The sinking of this tanker in Alaska had released 11 million U.S. gallons of hydrocarbons into the environment. After conversion, this means that each boat releases an average of 78 L of hydrocarbons into aquatic environments each year. If that average is still current, we estimate that in 2019 oil losses in the environment via motorboats equaled 150,000 tons of hydrocarbon scaly leaks in Canada (based on 2 million vessels), 750,000 tons of hydrocarbon scaly leaks in the United States (based on 10 million vessels) and 450,000 tons of hydrocarbon scaly leaks in Europe (based on 6 million vessels).
This explains why some lakes and bodies of water have recently banned motorboats. The total elimination of gasoline immediately eliminates a very large source of marine pollution, with immediate results: possibility of beaches, swimming and reduction of BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) and DCO (direct chemical oxidation) of ambient water. Specifically, hydrocarbons, similar to the dirt that clings to the walls of a bathtub, contaminate the shores and banks of lakes, rivers and bodies of water, where the development of many living organisms takes place. The ecosystem is then modified with the scarcity or disappearance of certain species.
In an effort to tackle air pollution, cities around the world are beginning to ban all gasoline - and diesel-powered boats from the center of the city. One of the first cities to implement this change is Amsterdam, Netherlands. This movement to electrically powered boats has been implemented in Venice, where the city has restricted the movement of gasoline - and diesel-powered boats, while exempting electrically powered boats.
Interest in electric boats has also been driven by decreases in their cost largely as a result of a decrease in the price of the batteries used to power them. The average price per kilowatt hour of a lithium-ion battery fell from approximately US$1,200 in 2010 to below US$138 in 2020.
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The electric boat market is competitive in nature with much of that competition of late focusing on launching new E-boats that have longer range and higher speed than currently available boats. The global electric boat market in 2020 was worth approximately US$4.6 billion, according to Research and Markets which expects that market to reach US$9 billion by 2026, a cumulative annual growth rate of 12.7%. Research and Markets predicts that the growth in the electric boat market will be caused by:
· | advancement in battery technology that offers longer run-time and higher speed; |
· | decreasing battery prices; |
· | problems inherent to internal combustion engine boats, including a high pollution rate and the comparatively high fuel prices; and |
· | other noteworthy advantages offered by electric boats, such as noiseless and smokeless use and less vibration and less engine maintenance than boats that use internal combustion engines. |
The electric boat market is segmented into two categories, hybrid and pure electric boats. In 2018, hybrid electric boats represented approximately 70% of the electric boat market. The NMMA anticipates that the market shares of the pure electric boat segment will meaningfully increase during the period from 2019 to 2027 owing to advancements in battery technology. On the basis of passenger capacity, electric boats with a capacity of less than 10 passengers captured the highest share of the global electric boat market in 2018. Additionally, the same segment is the fastest-growing segment pertaining to high demand for small boats for recreational purposes from high-income earners in the United States, Canada and Western European.
Government Support
Although the recreational powerboat industry does not generally receive much direct governmental support, we have received tax credits from, and grants provided by, the Quebec provincial government and the Canadian federal government primarily in connection with our development and promotion of green technology. In our 2022, 2021 and 2020 fiscal years, we recognized grants and investment tax credits amounting to $1,458,632, $921,658, and $491,704 respectively, of which $1,408,840, $859,516, and $445,776, respectively, is presented against research and development expenses. Although we do not consider the receipt of such credits and grants as essential to our operations, if they were no longer available, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.
Competitive Advantages & Operational Strengths
We face competition from manufacturers of:
(i) | electric powertrain systems that sell to OEMs, |
(ii) | traditional fossil fuel-powered recreational powerboats in general and |
(iii) | electric recreational powerboats in particular. |
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We intend to sell our electric powertrains to OEMs for use in their boats. We are currently aware of one company (Torqeedo) that produces electric powertrains for OEMs, and as a result we believe that there is a viable and meaningful market opportunity in this market for us. Although, we believe that our electric powertrain systems are more efficient and powerful than current offerings on the market, our competitors, including Torqeedo, may have greater resources than we do and OEMs may find their designs or price to be more attractive than ours. Even if we produce electric powertrains and sell them to OEMs, other competitors may enter the field or the OEMs may decide to produce their own powertrains and cease purchasing ours.
The recreational powerboat industry is highly competitive for consumers and dealers. Competition affects our ability to succeed in the markets we currently serve and new markets that we may enter in the future. Some potential purchasers of powerboats may not have a preference as to whether they will purchase electric power boats or fossil fuel powered ones. To that end, we compete with several large manufacturers, such as Brunswick Corporation, MasterCraft Boat Holdings, Inc. and Correct Craft, that produce fossil fuel powerboats and have greater financial, marketing and other resources than we do. To the extent that OEMs incorporate our electric powertrains into their boats, those boats will also compete with traditional fossil fuel power boats. We compete with large manufacturers who are represented by dealers in the markets in which we now operate and into which we plan to expand. We also compete with a wide variety of small, independent manufacturers. Competition in our industry is based primarily on brand name, price and product performance.
The electric recreational powerboat market is evolving and companies within it must be able to adapt without jeopardizing the timing, quality or quantity of their products. We deem our principal competitors within this market to be Duffy Electric Boat Company, Elctracraft, Pender Harbour, Elco Motor Yachts Company (formerly known as Launch Electric Company), Budsin Wood Craft, Ruban Bleu Electric Boats, Frauscher Boats and Boote Marian GmbH. In addition to the matters mentioned above, we compete with other manufactures of recreational electric boats on technological developments (such as powertrain efficiency, life of batteries and battery use per charge) and partnerships with battery and motor suppliers. As electric boat technology improves, we anticipate that more manufacturers will market. As they do, we expect that we will experience significant competition.
We believe the primary competitive factors in our market include but are not limited to:
● | technological innovation; |
● | product quality and safety; |
● | service options; |
● | product performance; |
● | environmental friendliness; |
● | design and styling; and |
● | brand perception. |
Most of our current and potential competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, manufacturing, marketing and other resources than we do and may be able to devote greater resources to the design, development, manufacturing, distribution, promotion, sale and support of their products. Most of our competitors have more extensive customer bases and broader customer and industry relationships than we do. In addition, many of these companies have longer operating histories and greater name recognition than we do. Our competitors may be in a stronger position to respond quickly to new technologies and may be able to design, develop, market and sell their products more effectively.
Furthermore, certain large manufacturers offer financing options on their powerboats and also have the ability to market powerboats at a substantial discount, provided that the boats are financed through their affiliated financing company. We do not currently offer any form of direct financing on our boats. The lack of our direct financing options and the absence of customary boat discounts could put us at a competitive disadvantage.
We might not be able to compete successfully in our market. If our competitors introduce new powertrains, powerboats or services that compete with or surpass the quality, price or performance of our powertrains, powerboats or services, we may be unable to satisfy existing customers or attract new customers at the prices and levels that would allow us to generate attractive rates of return on our investment. Increased competition could result in price reductions and revenue shortfalls, loss of customers and loss of market share, which could harm our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.
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We believe that our experience, production capability, product offering and management give us the ability to successfully operate in the recreational electric powerboat market in a way that our competitors cannot. In particular, we believe that we have a number of competitive advantages, including:
● | technological innovation: we have demonstrated our capacity to develop our own products through research and development by introducing the Volt 180, which currently holds the speed record for a certified electric boat. We believe that the technological design of our electric powertrain will provide efficiency at a price that our competitors will not be able to match. |
● | product performance: the efficiency of our powertrain systems provides the boats they are in greater speed and range, results that are magnified when combined with our ultra-hydrodynamic hull designs. |
● | certification: unlike some of our competitors, our boats are certified by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard in Canada and meet the European Union’s imported manufactured products standards. We intend to have such certification for our electric powertrain systems as well as that of the ABYC and to receive CE marking indicating their conformity with health, safety, and environmental protection standards within the European Economic Area. |
● | product price: although the price of our boats depends on the customer’s specifications, we believe that our products are competitively priced across all models and with all customizations. We have not priced our first powertrain system yet but intend to do so in a way that is competitive for its performance. |
● | management expertise: our founders have extensive experience in offshore power boating and are aware of what is required by customers in regard to power and efficiency of outboard electric powertrain systems. The inherent reputation of our management team over 25 years has built our brand for quality and technologically advanced products. |
Strategy
As a designer, manufacturer, and marketer of premium electric boats and electric powertrain systems, we strive to design new and innovative products that appeal to a broad customer base. Since fiscal 2014, we have successfully launched a number of new products and features with best-in-class quality leading to increased sales and significant margin expansion. Furthermore, our unique product development process enables us to offer products with innovative offerings that we believe will be difficult for our competitors to match without significant additional capital investments, most notably our outboard electric powertrain system.
We are developing innovative electric outboard powertrain systems designed to enable us to capture market share, as the outboard powertrain industry moves to electric powertrain outboard motors to comply with local green initiatives. The NMMA estimates that total retail orders of outboard engines was US$2.9 billion in 2018, and Blueweave Research estimates that global electric boat market will reach US$18 billion by 2026.
We sell our electric boats to retail customers as well as to boat clubs and boat rental operations. We intend to continue to build brand awareness by partnering with marina operators to offer rental fleets of electric boats. We plan to further expand our sales by offering our products via third party dealerships and by attending more tradeshows. As we launch our innovative electric outboard powertrain systems, we will directly market to OEMs of boats, thereby leveraging their support and distribution systems. We will market our electric powertrains to the OEMs by attending trade shows, inviting the OEMs to test the electric outboard powertrains on a prototype boat, introducing the electric powertrain using social media avenues and advertising the electric powertrain systems in trade journals.
We will continue to implement a number of initiatives to reduce our cost base and to improve the efficiency of our manufacturing process. Additionally, we have fostered a culture of operational improvement within our workforce, which will lead to further operational efficiencies. Finally, we intend to invest in further research and development to ensure that we develop innovative electric powertrain systems thus expanding the number of OEMs that will use our products.
We intend to increase our international sales and expand our network of international distributors and dealers.
Manufacturing
We produce our electric recreational powerboats and related components at our 15,000 square foot assembly warehouse in Quebec and intend to use Linamar as our production partner for the Company’s E-Motion powertrains. In our last two fiscal years, we manufactured 42 and 49 powerboats, and we expect to manufacture approximately 60 electric boats in our 2023 fiscal year. We run one assembly line and have a production capacity that allows us to produce up to seven boats a week depending on the type of boats and the specifications of each order.
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Marketing
As we intend to sell our electric powertrains to a handful of OEMs, we will market the powertrains to them in a direct and focused manner. This will entail visits to the OEMs and visits from the OEMs at our production facility as well as general exposure of our powertrains at trade shows and in trade journals.
We primarily use our website and social media to sell our boats. We support this effort by attendance at trades shows (boat shows) that exposes our products to the boat buying public and to industry specialists. We intend to continue to expand our social media presence and attend more trade shows in North America and internationally. We also rely on a network of distributors and dealers, and their marketing efforts, for the sale of our boats and seek to grow this network. We do not currently have a coordinated marketing effort with our network of distributors and dealers.
Sales and Service Model
As we do not have a direct relationship with the purchasers of the boats that incorporate our electric powertrains, we do not intend to service such purchasers directly if there is a problem with the powertrain. Rather, the OEMs of the boats incorporating the powertrains will service such purchasers, and we will provide OEMs instruction on their repair and provide training to OEM personnel at our facilities on a periodic basis, so that the OEMs can provide maintenance, repair and customer support to their customers. As we introduce new electric powertrain systems, we will continue to provide training to OEM personnel.
Currently, most of the sales of our electric boats are directly placed with us online, but approximately 14% of our sales in our 2022 fiscal year were derived from our network of independent dealers. While we will continue to market direct sales through our website, we seek to increase revenues and diversify our sales points by expanding our network of independent dealers. We envision an increase in the number of dealers supporting our products and the quality of their marketing and servicing efforts as being essential to our ability to increase sales. We may not be successful in our effort to grow our network of independent dealers.
Sales Model
We sell directly to the customer via online, social media marketing and the attendance at boat shows. We also sell our boats through a limited number of dealers and distributors. We will further expand our product offerings to third-party dealerships and by selling directly to OEMs.
Service Model
We do not offer direct servicing of our boats and do not offer a warranty for our boats. Purchasers of our boats are able to rely on the warranties provided by the manufacturers of the parts used in our boats, including the motors, the batteries and certain other components.
Government Regulation
Our operations are subject to extensive and frequently changing federal, state, provincial, local and foreign laws and regulations, including those concerning product safety, environmental protection and occupational health and safety. We believe that our operations and products are in compliance with these regulatory requirements. Historically, the cost of achieving and maintaining compliance with applicable laws and regulations has not been material. However, future costs and expenses required for us to comply with such laws and regulations, including any new or modified regulatory requirements, or an inability to address newly discovered environmental conditions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results, or cash flows.
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The regulatory programs that impact our business include the following:
Certain materials used in our manufacturing, including the resins used in production of our boats, are toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive and are classified by the federal, state and provincial governments as “hazardous materials.” Control of these substances is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state pollution control agencies under the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and related state programs in the United States, and by Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada and provincial pollution control agencies under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 and related provincial legislation in Canada. Storage of these materials must be maintained in appropriately labeled and monitored containers, and disposal of wastes requires completion of detailed waste manifests and recordkeeping requirements. Any failure by us to properly store or dispose of our hazardous materials could result in liability, including fines, penalties, or obligations to investigate and remediate any contamination originating from our operations.
The United States Clean Air Act and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act
The United States Clean Air Act (the “CAA”) and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (the “CEPA”) and corresponding state and provincial rules regulate emissions of air pollutants. Because our manufacturing operations involve molding and coating of fiberglass materials, which involves the emission of certain volatile organic compounds, hazardous air pollutants, and particulate matter, we are required to comply with Canadian federal and provincial environmental protection regulations. The hulls used in our products are all manufactured by third parties. The additional cost of complying with these regulations has increased our cost to purchase hulls and, accordingly, has increased the cost to manufacture our products.
In addition to the regulation of our manufacturing operations, the EPA has adopted regulations stipulating that many marine propulsion engines meet certain air emission standards. The engines used in our products, all of which are manufactured by third parties, are warranted by the manufacturers to be in compliance with the EPA’s emission standards. Furthermore, the engines used in our products must comply with the applicable emission standards under the CEPA and corresponding provincial legislation. The additional cost of complying with these regulations has increased our cost to purchase the engines and, accordingly, has increased the cost to manufacture our products.
If we are not able to pass these additional costs along to our customers, it may have a negative impact on our business and financial condition.
Boat Manufacturing Standards
As a manufacturer of small vessels established in Canada, we are required to ensure that:
● | our boats comply with all the applicable construction requirements of Part 7 of the Small Vessel Regulations (Canada) and Transport Canada’s Construction Standards for Small Vessels (TP 1332E); |
● | for each boat, a Declaration of Conformity is produced to Transport Canada in accordance with Part 8 of the Small Vessel Regulations (Canada) stating that the boat meets all the construction requirements and that a Compliance Notice is attached to the boat; and |
● | each boat is marked with a Hull Serial Number (HIN) (also known as a Hull Identification Number) in accordance with Part 9 of the Small Vessel Regulations (Canada). |
Boat Safety Standards
Our powerboats must be manufactured to meet the standards of certification in the jurisdictions in which they are used or to which they are imported. This means that our powerboats must meet the standards of certification required by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard in Canada and they must be certified to meet the European Union’s imported manufactured products standards in the European Union. These certifications specify standards for the design and construction of powerboats. We believe that all our boats meet these standards. In addition to those standards, we believe that our powerboats meet the safety standards set by the ABYC, a non-profit, member organization that develops voluntary safety standards for the design, construction, maintenance, and repair of recreational powerboats.
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Safety of recreational boats in the United States is subject to federal regulation under the Boat Safety Act of 1971, which requires boat manufacturers to recall products for replacement of parts or components that have demonstrated defects affecting safety. Any recall of our boats or components in our boats could result in large expenditures and tarnish our brand.
Labor regulations
The Act respecting occupational health and safety (Quebec) and the regulations made thereunder impose standards of conduct for and regulate workplace safety, including limits on the amount of emissions to which an employee may be exposed without the need for respiratory protection or upgraded plant ventilation. Our facilities are subject to inspection by Canadian, Quebec and local agencies and departments. We believe that our facilities comply in all material aspects with these regulations. We have made a considerable investment in safety awareness programs and provide ongoing safety training for all of our employees.
Research and Development
Among other factors, our boats are distinguished from their competitors as a result of design and technological features. We invest in research and development to develop and improve these features so that we may innovate future product offerings in boat and electric powertrain systems. For example, our Volt 180 was developed in conjunction with a Canadian government grant.
Seasonality
Our current operating results are subject to annual and seasonal fluctuations resulting from a variety of factors, including:
● | seasonal variations in retail demand for boats, with a significant majority of sales occurring during peak boating season; |
● | product mix, which is driven by boat model mix and higher option order rates; while sales of all our boats generate comparable margins, sales of larger boats and boats with optional content produce higher absolute profits; |
● | inclement weather, which can affect production at our manufacturing facilities as well as consumer demand, particularly for rentals; |
● | competition from other recreational boat manufacturers; and |
● | general economic conditions. |
We do not envision the sales of our electric powertrains to OEMs will be seasonal. As building a boat is a time-consuming process, we expect that OEMs will build their boats and increase their inventory even in those seasons where sales are generally lower in preparation for the seasons of higher sales.
Legal Proceedings
We are not involved in, or aware of, any legal or administrative proceedings contemplated or threatened by any governmental authority or any other party. As of the date of this Annual Report, no director, officer or affiliate is a party adverse to us in any legal proceeding or has an adverse interest to us in any legal proceeding.
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C. Organizational structure
The corporate structure of the Company and its material subsidiaries are as indicated in the following chart:
D. Property, plant and equipment
Our manufacturing and office space is located in Boisbriand, Quebec, just outside of Montreal. This space is in three adjacent units each under a separate lease with a related party. One lease is for approximately 3,600 square feet, has a monthly rent of approximately $5,700 and expires on August 31, 2026. The second lease is for approximately 8,210 square feet, has a monthly rent of approximately $13,000 and expires on April 30, 2026. The third lease is for approximately 2,800 square feet, has a monthly rent of approximately $4,400 and expires on April 30, 2026. We consider our office and manufacturing space sufficient to meet our current needs and our needs in our 2023 fiscal year.
In addition, we lease office space and marina space for our rental business at the Lido Marina Village in Newport Beach, California and office, warehousing and storage space in Huntington Beach, California. One lease is for an office space of approximately 232 square feet, has a monthly rent of approximately USD$1,945 and expires on February 1, 2027. We lease marina space of approximately four moorings, for a monthly rent of approximately USD$9,380, which lease expires on March 31, 2027. We also lease office, warehousing and storage space of approximately 4,500 square feet for a monthly rent of approximately USD$6,450, which lease expires on January 31, 2027.
On October 1, 2021, we entered into a lease agreement with the developers of Waves at Dania Beach, to rent office space as well as slip space for twenty-five electric boats, for monthly rent of approximately US$10,000, which lease expires on October 1, 2027.
We do not own any real property and do not lease any other properties.
ITEM 4A. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
Not Applicable.
ITEM 5. OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW AND PROSPECTS
This Annual Report should be read in conjunction with the accompanying consolidated financial statements and related notes. The discussion and analysis of the financial condition and results of operations are based upon the consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).
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The preparation of financial statements in conformity with these accounting principles requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent liabilities at the financial statement date and reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. On an on-going basis, we review our estimates and assumptions. The estimates were based on historical experience and other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results are likely to differ from those estimates or other forward-looking statements under different assumptions or conditions, but we do not believe such differences will materially affect our financial position or results of operations. Our actual results may differ materially as a result of many factors, including those set forth under the headings entitled “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors”.
Overview
We were incorporated pursuant to the Business Corporations Act (Quebec) on August 29, 2012, under the name Riopel Marine Inc. On April 23, 2020, we changed our name to Vision Marine Technologies Inc. Our principal business is to manufacture and sell or rent electric boats. We have two wholly-owned subsidiaries. Our head office and principal address is located at 730 Boulevard du Cure-Boivin, Boisbriand, Quebec, Canada, V7G 2A7.
Going Concern
We prepare our financial statements on a going concern basis which assumes that we will be able to realize our assets and discharge our liabilities in the normal course of business for the foreseeable future. We incurred a net and comprehensive loss of $12,802,680 during the year ended August 31, 2022 and had a cash balance and a working capital surplus of $5,824,716 and $8,727,011, respectively, as at August 31, 2022. Our ability to meet our obligations as they fall due and to continue to operate as a going concern depends on the continued financial support of the creditors and the shareholders. In the past, we have relied on the support of our shareholders to meet our cash requirements. Funding from this or other sources might not be sufficient in the future to continue our research and development. Even if we are able to obtain new financing, it may not be on commercially reasonable terms or terms that are acceptable to us. Failure to obtain such financing on a timely basis could cause us to reduce or terminate our operations.
A. | Operating Results |
Results of Operations for the Year Ended August 31, 2022 as Compared to the Year Ended August 31, 2021
Revenue
Revenue for the year ended August 31, 2022 was $7,350,946 (2021: $3,513,788); the increase of 109% resulted from the acquisition of 7858078 Canada Inc. This also resulted in an increase in gross profit to $3,285,565 (2021: $1,604,182). Excluding the revenue from the acquisition, the Company’s segment of sales of electric boats generated revenue of $2,557,085 (2021: $2,150,764); the Company experienced an increase in revenue from boat sales due to the easing of supply change issues.
|
|
| 2022 |
| 2021 | |||
Sale of electric | Rental of | |||||||
boats | electric boats | Total | Total | |||||
$ | $ | $ | $ | |||||
Canada | 557,639 | — | 557,639 | 571,216 | ||||
USA |
| 1,292,666 |
| 4,793,861 |
| 6,086,527 |
| 2,692,599 |
Other |
| 706,780 |
| — |
| 706,780 |
| 249,973 |
| 2,557,085 |
| 4,793,861 |
| 7,350,946 |
| 3,513,788 |
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Net Loss
During the year ended August 31, 2022, the Company incurred a total comprehensive loss of $(12,802,680) compared to a comprehensive loss of $(14,725,341) for the corresponding prior year period. The decrease in comprehensive loss was due to expenses for the year ended August 31, 2022, decreasing to $16,139,007 (2021: $16,612,499). The largest expense items that are included in expenses for the year ended August 31, 2022 were:
● | Research and development expenses for the year ended August 31, 2022 was $2,242,794 (2021: $1,489,953) the increase was due to the fitting of the Company’s E-Motion powertrains to third party boats which was offset by the receipt of grants related to MEI and Technoclimat. |
● | Office salaries and benefits expenses for year ended August 31, 2022 increased to $3,335,799 compared to $1,754,613 for the year ended August 31, 2021. The increase was caused by increases in staff, additional staff related to the acquisition of 7858078 Canada Inc., and increases in executive salaries. |
● | Selling and marketing expenses for the year ended August 31, 2022 increased to $1,972,306 (2021: $1,086,057) due to an increase in attendance at boat shows, increased marketing of the Company’s E-Motion powertrains and incurred additional costs related to the acquisition of 7858078 Canada Inc. |
● | Professional fees for the year ended August 31, 2022 increased to $3,590,816 (2021: $1,633,477) due to legal, accounting, fees paid to recruitment consultants, public relation agency and consulting fees. |
● | Office and general expenses for the year ended August 31, 2022, increased to $1,949,583 (2021: $1,239,457) as the Company increased its operational staff, insurance costs and incurred additional costs related to the acquisition of 7858078 Canada Inc. |
● | Share-based compensation decreased to $2,699,481 (2021: $7,121,444), as the Company granted 152,500 stock options during the year ended August 31, 2022, at an exercise price of $5.65 and $8.85 to its directors, officers, employees and consultants. The Company recognizes compensation expense for option grants based on the fair value at the date of grant using the Black-Scholes valuation model. |
● | Net finance (income)/expenses for the year ended August 31, 2022 realized a loss of $223,660 (2021: $2,256,392). During the year ended August 31, 2022, income was generated by interest income of $379,288 (2021: $nil) and a loss from debentures and currency of $418,053 (2021: $2,133,292) as the Company incurred unrealized losses from its investment in debentures and the Canadian dollar increasing its value against the US Dollar. |
Income Tax (Expense)
The Company incurred an increase in income taxes for the year ended August 31, 2022, of $258,343 (2021: $105,590), primarily caused by an increase in current and deferred income taxes related to the acquisition.
Results of Operations for the Year Ended August 31, 2021 as Compared to the Year Ended August 31, 2020
Revenue
Revenue for the year ended August 31, 2021 was $3,513,788 as compared to $2,417,173 for fiscal 2020. This increase of 45% resulted from the acquisition of 7858078 Canada Inc. This was the principal cause of our increase in gross profit to $1,604,182 for our fiscal 2021 from $604,390 four our fiscal 2020. Excluding the revenue from the acquisition of 7858078 Canada Inc., our boats sales generated revenue of $2,080,110 in fiscal 2021 as compared to $2,249,107 in fiscal 2020. The reduction in revenue from boat sales was caused by our focus on furthering our electric powertrain technology as well as global supply chain issues which resulted in longer lead times for parts.
Net Loss
During the year ended August 31, 2021, we incurred a net comprehensive loss of $(14,725,341) compared to a net comprehensive loss of $(2,275,532) for the prior year. The increase in comprehensive loss was due to expenses for the year ended August 31, 2021, increasing to $16,612,499 in comparison with expenses of $2,858,613 in our 2020 fiscal year. The largest expense items that are included in expenses for the year ended August 31, 2021 were:
● | Research and development expenses for the year ended August 31, 2021 increased to $1,489,953 due to the fitment of our E-Motion powertrains to third party boats; |
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● | Office salaries and benefits expenses for year ended August 31, 2021 increased to $1,754,613 compared to $315,138 for the year ended August 31, 2020. The increase was caused by increases in staff, directors’ fees, additional staff related to the purchase of 7858078 Canada Inc., and increases in executive salaries; |
● | Share-based compensation increased to $7,121,444 in our 2021 fiscal year from $1,312,071 in our prior year, as we granted 1,148,310 share options at an exercise price between $3.70 and $16.29 to our directors, officers, employees and consultants. We recognize compensation expense for option grants based on the fair value at the date of grant using the Black-Scholes valuation model; |
● | Professional fees for the year ended August 31, 2021 increased to $1,633,477 from $671,788 for the prior year caused by legal and accounting costs incurred due to our initial public offering, and fees paid to consultants; |
● | Advertising and promotion for the year ended August 31, 2021, increased to $927,508 (2020: $238,389) as the Company initiated a marketing campaign for its E-Motion powertrains; |
● | Office and General expenses for the year ended August 31, 2021, increased to $1,130,296 (2020: $114,508) as the Company increased its operational staff and incurred additional costs related to the purchase of 7858078 Canada Inc.; |
● | Foreign exchange losses for the year ended August 31, 2021 increased to $1,583,292 (2020: $1,295) as the Canadian dollar increased its value against the US Dollar; and |
● | Fair value adjustment relating the Company’s investment amounted to $550,000 for the year ended August 31, 2021 (2020: $nil). |
Income Tax (Expense)
The Company incurred an increase in income taxes for the year ended August 31, 2021, of $105,590 (2020: $21,309), primarily caused by an increase in current income taxes related to the acquisition of EBR.
B. Liquidity and Capital Resources
Liquidity
Our operations consist of the designing, developing and manufacturing of electric outboard powertrain systems and electric boats. Our financial success depends upon our ability to market and sell our outboard powertrain systems and electric boats; and to raise sufficient working capital to enable us to execute our business plan. Our historical capital needs have been met by internally generated cashflow from operations and the support of our shareholders. Should we need further funding, equity funding might not be possible at the times we require. If no funds can be raised and sales of our outboard powertrain systems and electric boats and our boat rental income does not produce sufficient net cash flow, then we may require a significant curtailing of operations to ensure our survival.
The financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis which assumes that we will be able to realize our assets and discharge our liabilities in the normal course of business for the foreseeable future. We incurred a total comprehensive loss of $12,802,680 during the year ended August 31, 2022 and had a cash balance and a working capital surplus of $5,824,716 and $8,727,011, respectively, as at August 31, 2022. Our ability to meet our obligations as they fall due and to continue to operate as a going concern depends on the continued financial support of the creditors and the shareholders. In the past, we have relied on the support of our shareholders to meet our cash requirements. There can be no assurance that funding from this or other sources will be sufficient in the future to continue our operations. Even if we are able to obtain new financing, it may not be on commercially reasonable terms or terms that are acceptable to us. Failure to obtain such financing on a timely basis could cause us to reduce or terminate our operations.
As of November 21, 2022, the Company had 8,437,379 issued and outstanding shares and 10,290,540 on a fully-diluted basis.
We had $8,727,011 of working capital surplus as at August 31, 2022 compared to $18,626,563 of working capital surplus as at August 31, 2021. The decrease in working capital surplus resulted from the cash used in operations of $10,996,819 (2021: $8,251,438); cash used in investing activities of $964,503 (2021: $9,468,395) resulting from the additions to property and equipment, investment in debentures, a cash payment of $5,029,416 for the acquisition of 7858078 Canada Inc., which was offset by financing activities generating cash used of $(361,783), (2021: $34,570,833), due to our initial public offering on Nasdaq, which was partially offset by repayments of our lease liabilities and long term debt.
40
Cash Flows
The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods presented:
| Year ended August 31, | |||||
2022 |
| 2021 |
| 2020 | ||
$ | $ | $ | ||||
Net cash used in operating activities | (10,996,819) | (8,251,438) | (434,658) | |||
Net cash used in investing activities |
| (964,503) |
| (9,468,395) |
| (37,656) |
Net cash (used in)/provided by financing activities |
| (361,783) |
| 34,570,833 |
| 1,731,635 |
Comparison of cash flows for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2022 as compared to the fiscal year ended August 31, 2021
Operating Activities
Net cash used in operating activities increased from $(8,251,438) in fiscal 2021 to $(10,996,819) in fiscal 2022, primarily due to an increase in prepaid expense resulting from advances to key suppliers.
Investing Activities
Net cash used in investing activities decreased from $(9,468,395) in fiscal 2021 to $(964,503) in fiscal 2022, primarily due to investments in debentures and business acquisitions that occurred for the year ended August 31, 2021, but did not occur for the year ended August 31, 2022.
Financing Activities
Net cash provided by financing activities decreased from $34,570,833 in fiscal 2021 to a use of $(361,783) in fiscal 2022, primarily due to the initial public offering occurring during the year ended August 31, 2021.
Comparison of cash flows for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2021 as compared to the fiscal year ended August 31, 2020
Operating Activities
Net cash used in operating activities increased from $(434,658) in fiscal 2020 to $(8,251,438) in fiscal 2021, primarily due to an increase in prepaid expense resulting from advances to key suppliers.
Investing Activities
Net cash used in investing activities decreased from $(37,656) in fiscal 2020 to $(9,468,395) in fiscal 2021, primarily due to investments in debentures and business acquisitions that occurred for the year ended August 31, 2021, but did not occur for the year ended August 31, 2022.
Financing Activities
Net cash provided by financing activities increased from $1,731,635 in fiscal 2020 to $34,570,833 in fiscal 2021, primarily due to the Company’s initial public offering.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
As of August 31, 2022, we did not have any off-balance sheet debt nor did we have any transactions, arrangements, obligations (including contingent obligations) or other relationships with any unconsolidated entities or other persons that may have material current or future effect on financial conditions, changes in the financial conditions, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures, capital resources, or significant components of revenue or expenses.
41
Contractual Obligations
As of the date of this Annual Report, we have no outstanding commitments, other than rent and lease commitments and purchase commitments as disclosed in Note 15 and 27 of our consolidated financial statements for the year ended August 31, 2022. We have not pledged our assets as security for loans.
As at August 31, 2022, future payments required under non-cancellable leases contracted and capitalized in the financial statements are as follows:
Payments due by period | |||||||||||||||
Contractual | Less than 1 | Greater than | |||||||||||||
Obligations |
| Total |
| year |
| 2‑3 years |
| 4‑5 years |
| 5 years | |||||
Lease Obligations | $ | 2,675,511 | $ | 669,216 | $ | 1,303,758 | $ | 702,537 | $ | Nil | |||||
Bank Indebtedness | $ | Nil | $ | Nil | $ | Nil | $ | Nil | $ | Nil | |||||
Other Long-Term Liabilities Reflected on the Registrant’s Balance Sheet under IFRS | $ | 217,175 | $ | 107,337 | $ | 109,838 | $ | Nil | $ | Nil |
In addition to the obligations in the table above, we are subject to supply agreements with minimum spend commitments. The amount of the minimum fixed and determinable portion of the unconditional purchase obligations over the next three years is as follows:
| $ | |
2023 | 4,350,104 | |
2024 | 2,253,394 |
C. Research and Development, Patents and Licenses, etc.
We incur research and development costs associated with the development of our outboard electric powertrains as well as the design of new boats. We have not patented any of our technology and do not have any patent applications pending.
D. Trend Information
Due to our short operating history, we are not aware of any trends that have or are reasonably likely to have a current or future effect on our financial condition, changes in financial condition, revenues or expenses, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures or capital resources that is material to investors that has not been disclosed elsewhere in this document.
E. Critical Accounting Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with IFRS requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities and contingent liabilities at the date of the financial statements and reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Estimates and judgments are continuously evaluated and are based on management’s experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual outcomes can differ from these estimates.
Business acquisition fair value
The Company makes a number of estimates when determining the acquisition date fair values of consideration transferred, assets acquired, and liabilities assumed in a business acquisition. Fair values are estimated using valuation techniques based on discounted future cash flows. Future cash flows may be influenced by a number of assumptions such as forecasted revenues, royalty rate, selling prices, costs to operate, capital expenditures, growth rate and the discount rate.
42
Impairment of non-financial assets
Impairment exists when the carrying value of an asset or cash generating unit exceeds its recoverable amount, which is the higher of its fair value less costs of disposal and its value in use. The Company concluded the fair value less costs of disposal will yield a higher recoverable amount, which is based on a discounted cash flow (“DCF”) model. The fair value measurement is categorized within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy. The cash flows are derived from cash flow projections over a 5-year period, including future investments and expansion activities that will enhance the performance of the assets of the CGU.
As at August 31, 2021, all of the Company’s goodwill is allocated to the boat rental operation CGU, which represents the lowest level within the Company at which the goodwill is monitored for internal management purposes. For the year ended August 31, 2022, there was no impairment of goodwill.
The recoverable amount is sensitive to the discount rate used for the DCF model, as well as the expected future cash-inflows, gross profit and the growth rate used for extrapolation purposes. The post-tax discount rate of 27% used in the DCF is based on a weighted average cost of capital calculated using observable market-based inputs or a benchmark of a sample of representative publicly traded companies. The long-term growth rate of 2% used for extrapolation purposes is based on published research growth rates. Any reasonable negative change in the key assumptions used could cause the carrying value of this CGU to exceed its recoverable amount.
Financial instruments measured at fair value
In measuring financial instruments at fair value, the Company makes estimates and assumptions, including estimates and assumptions about interest rates, credit spreads and other market conditions.
Provision for impairment of inventories
The provision for impairment of inventories assessment requires a degree of estimation and judgment. The level of the provision is assessed by taking into account the recent sales experience, the ageing of inventories and other factors that affect inventory obsolescence.
Income tax
Provisions for taxes are made using the best estimate of the amount expected to be paid based on a qualitative assessment of all relevant factors. The Company reviews the adequacy of these provisions at the end of the reporting period. However, it is possible that at some future date an additional liability could result from audits by taxing authorities. Where the final outcome of these tax-related matters is different from the amounts that were initially recorded, such differences will affect the tax provisions in the period in which such determination is made.
The carrying amount of deferred tax assets is reviewed at each reporting date and reduced to the extent that it is no longer probable that sufficient taxable profit will be available to allow all or part of the deferred tax asset to be utilized. Unrecognized deferred tax assets are re-assessed at each reporting date and are recognized to the extent that it has become probable that future taxable profits will allow the deferred tax asset to be recovered.
In assessing the recoverability of deferred tax assets, the Company relies on the same forecast assumptions used elsewhere in the financial statements and in other management reports, which, among other things, reflect the potential impact of climate-related development on the business.
Share-based payments
The Company measures the cost of equity-settled transactions with employees by reference to the fair value of the equity instrument at the date at which they are granted. The fair value is determined by using the Black-Scholes model taking into account the terms and conditions upon which the instruments were granted. Judgment is exercised in determining the expected life and historical volatility. The accounting estimates and assumptions relating to equity-settled share-based payments would have no impact on the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities but may impact profit or loss and equity.
43
Lease term
The lease term is a significant component in the measurement of both the right-of-use asset and lease liability. Judgment is exercised in determining whether there is reasonable certainty that an option to extend the lease will be exercised, when ascertaining the periods to be included in the lease term. In determining the lease term, all facts and circumstances that create an economical incentive to exercise an extension option are considered at the lease commencement date. The Company reassesses whether it is reasonably certain to exercise an extension option if there is a significant event or significant change in circumstances.
Incremental borrowing rate
Where the interest rate implicit in the lease cannot be readily determined, an incremental borrowing rate is estimated to discount future lease payments to measure the present value of the lease liability at the lease commencement date. Such a rate is based on what the Company estimates it would have to pay a third party to borrow the funds necessary to obtain an asset of a similar value to the right-of-use asset, with similar terms, security and economic environment.
ITEM 6. DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEES
A. | Directors and Senior Management |
The following table sets forth the names and ages of all of our directors and executive officers.
Name, Province/State and Country of Residence |
| Age |
| Position |
| Director/Officer Since |
Alexandre Mongeon |
|
| ||||
Quebec, Canada |
| 46 | Chief Executive Officer and Director |
| August 2014 | |
Patrick Bobby |
|
| ||||
Quebec, Canada | 51 | Head of Performance & Special Projects and Director |
| August 2014 | ||
Xavier Montagne |
| |||||
Quebec, Canada | 48 |
| Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer |
| April 2021 | |
Kulwant Sandher |
| |||||
British Columbia, Canada | 61 |
| Chief Financial Officer |
| July 2019 | |
Alan D. Gaines | ||||||
Nevada, USA | 68 | Chairman | May 2021 | |||
Renaud Cloutier |
| |||||
Quebec, Canada | 58 |
| Director |
| September 2020 | |
Steve P. Barrenechea |
| |||||
California, United States | 64 |
| Director |
| September 2020 | |
Luisa Ingargiola |
| |||||
Florida, United States | 59 |
| Director |
| September 2020 |
44
Business Experience
The following summarizes the occupation and business experience during the past five years or more for our directors, and executive officers as of the date of this Annual Report:
Alexandre Mongeon, Chief Executive Officer
Alexandre Mongeon has been employed by us since 2014 as our Chief Executive Officer. From 1999 to 2015, he imported high-performance boats from the United States to Canada. During much of that time, 1999 to 2016, he also worked as a designer and contractor for a Contractor 91340489 QC and managed several new construction projects on the waterfront in and around Montreal. Mr. Mongeon is a graduate of the School of Construction in Laval, Quebec with a specialization in electricity.
Patrick Bobby, Head of Performance & Special Projects
Patrick Bobby has been employed by us since 2014, first as our Chief Operating Officer and, since December 14, 2021, as our Head of Performance & Special Projects. From 1999 to 2015, he imported high-performance boats from the United States to Canada. During much of that time, 1999 to 2016, he also worked as a designer and contractor for a Contractor 91340489 QC Inc. and created a condominium syndicate. Mr. Bobby attended Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario.
Xavier Montagne, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer
Prior to joining us, Xavier Montagne was the CEO of Mac Engineering from 2015 to 2021. In the past six years, he has helped develop 12 marine prototypes and concept-cars. While there, Mr. Montagne was the electric powerline architect of the Renault Trezor Concept-car (reward of the best concept-car of the world in 2016), the technical designer of the Zoe E-sport race car driven by Alain PROST during Formula-E races 2016-2019, the real-time system expert for Defense Department (Agenium simulator, Thalès cameras, NATO Awacs Cobham scrambler), The Senior designer in low and high voltage batteries Forsee Power, SAFT, Renault and Peugeot in Europe, a power electric architect for UQM, DANFOSS and DANA based projects, the technical supervisor for Rally Raid and Dakar race teams (France & NL) and the electric architect of the first 18-ton fully electric truck with 2-speed gearbox (FNM). Mr. Montagne received an electronic engineer diploma from IFITEP PARIS POLYTECH (France).
Kulwant Sandher, Chief Financial Officer
Kulwant Sandher is a Chartered Professional Accountant with over 25 years of experience in business and finance. Mr. Sandher graduated from Queen Mary, University of London (formerly known as Queen Mary College) in 1986 with a B.Sc. (Eng.) in Avionics. Mr. Sandher became a Chartered Accountant in England in 1991 and received his Chartered Professional Accountant designation in Canada in 1997. Mr. Sandher has considerable private and public company experience. He served as CFO of ElectraMeccanica Vehicles Corp., a Nasdaq listed electric car manufacturer from June 2016 to November 2018; as CFO of MineSense Technologies Inc. from August 2013 until July 2015; as CFO of Alba Mineral Ltd. from June 2017 to April 1, 2018; as CFO of Delta Oil & Gas from October 2008 to September 2017; as CFO of Astorius Resources Ltd. from June 2017 to February 1, 2018; as CFO of Norsemont Mining Inc from April 2018 to present day; as CFO of Intigold Mines Ltd. from December 2010 to April 2017. Currently, Mr. Sandher serves as President of Hurricane Corporate Services Ltd. is currently serving as a director of The Cloud Nine Education Group Inc since December 2015. Prior to August 2013, Mr. Sandher had also served as CFO of several publicly listed companies, including: Hillcrest Petroleum (TSX-V), Millrock Resources Inc. (TSX-V) and St. Elias Mines (TSX-V).
45
Alan Gaines, Chairman
Mr. Gaines is an experienced investment banker and entrepreneur, active within traditional renewable/sustainable CleanTech, general technology, EV/CEV battery technology/chemistry, energy storage and infrastructure, as well as traditional fossil fuels. Mr. Gaines specializes in large scale capital formation, M&A, recapitalization/restructuring, and board protocol and governance. Mr. Gaines currently serves as a Director of Auto Innovation Group, Ltd. and David Brown Automotive, Ltd., both based in the United Kingdom. Mr. Gaines has more than 35 years’ experience as a transactional investment banker and M&A advisor, having led or participated in the raising of debt and equity totaling over $100 billion. Mr. Gaines served as founder and Chairman of Dune Energy, Inc. from its inception in May 2001 through April 2010. He served as CEO through May 2007, when he stepped down, taking a far less active role following Dune’s acquisition of Goldking Energy Corporation for $540 million. Mr. Gaines resigned as Chairman in 2010. Mr. Gaines is a director of The Limestone Boat Company Limited. In 1983, he co-founded Gaines, Berland Inc., a full service investment bank and brokerage specializing in global energy markets, with particular emphasis given to capital formation and M&A advisory for small and mid-cap public and private upstream and midstream companies. Mr. Gaines sold his interest in Gaines, Berland Inc. in 1998. Mr. Gaines holds a BBA in Finance from Baruch College (CUNY), and an MBA in Finance (“With Distinction”-Valedictorian) from The Zarb School, Hofstra University Graduate School of Management.
Renaud Cloutier, Director
Renaud Cloutier has been active in the electromobility sector for over 15 years. Prior to joining Hydro-Québec’s Direction for Transportation Electrification as Senior Delegate, Mr. Cloutier occupied various senior management positions in business development and international partnerships at TM4, a world leader in the design and manufacturing of electric drivetrains. He was instrumental in TM4’s product management and international growth including setting-up a manufacturing joint venture in China. Mr. Cloutier serves on several boards of directors of key industry players in Canada including Electric Mobility Canada and the Innovative Vehicle Institute, where he was the Founder and first President. Mr. Cloutier has previously lived in Europe, where he held various management positions in the areas of strategic planning and market development at Toyota Motor Europe’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. His experience also includes managerial positions in France and Germany with Amadeus and Dun & Bradstreet Software. Mr. Cloutier has been involved in various business process reengineering initiatives in Canada and the United States for Accenture’s Montréal office. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the Université de Montréal as well as an MBA from the École des hautes études commerciales (HÉC) de Montréal.
Steve P. Barrenechea, Director
Steve Barrenechea is an accomplished entrepreneur and advisor, with over 30 years of primary hands on expertise covering the hospitality and renewable and alternative energy industries, with a focus on electric vehicles and battery technologies. Mr. Barrenechea has held numerous senior management and primary consulting positions with both public and private companies throughout his career, with particular emphasis in corporate governance, directorships, corporate development, investor relations, and early stage operations. He has in the past sat on the board of directors of The Creative Coalition (sponsors discussion of issues such as education policy, the role of media, campaign reform), Child Guidance Center of Connecticut, and The American Red Cross. Mr. Barrenechea holds a BBA in Economics from The Stern School, New York University.
Luisa Ingargiola, Director
Luisa Ingargiola has served as Chief Financial Officer of Avalon GloboCare since 2017. From 2007 to 2016, Ms. Ingargiola served as Chief Financial Officer of MagneGas Corporation (and board member from 2016 to June 2018). Ms. Ingargiola currently serves as board member and audit committee chair of FTE Networks and ElectraMeccanica Vehicles Corp. She also serves as a board member for Globe Photos, Inc., Operation Transition Assistance Corporation and The JBF Foundation Worldwide. Ms. Ingargiola received her Bachelors of Science from Boston University and her Masters of Business Administration from the University of Florida.
Family Relationships
There are no family relationships among any of our directors and executive officers.
46
B. Compensation
During the last completed fiscal year of the Company, the Company had four named executive officers, namely, its Chief Executive Officer, Alexandre Mongeon, its Chief Financial Officer, Kulwant Sandher, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Xavier Montagne, and Head of Performance and Special Projects, Patrick Bobby.
Compensation of Executive Officers
| Non-equity | |||||||||||||
incentive | ||||||||||||||
Share-based | Option-based | plan | Pension | All other | ||||||||||
Salary | awards | awards | compensation | value | compensation | Total | ||||||||
Name | ($) |
| ($) |
| ($) |
| ($) |
| ($) |
| ($) |
| ($) | |
Alexandre Mongeon, Chief Executive Officer and Director |
| 567,016 |
| Nil |
| 14,472 |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| 581,488 |
Kulwant Sandher, Chief Financial Officer |
| 328,790 |
| Nil |
| 14,472 |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| 343,262 |
Patrick Bobby, Head of Performance & Special Projects and Director(1) |
| 411,472 |
| Nil |
| 14,472 |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| 425,944 |
Xavier Montagne, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer |
| 229,804 |
| Nil |
| 883,703 |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| 1,113,507 |
(1) Mr. Bobby had been our Chief Operating Officer through December 14, 2021, at which time he resigned from that role and became our Head of Performance & Special Projects.
Executive Compensation Agreements
Alexandre Mongeon, Chief Executive Officer
On March 1, 2021, we entered an executive employment agreement with Alexandre Mongeon with a term commencing on March 1, 2021 and expiring on February 28, 2024 (the “Mongeon Agreement”). The Mongeon Agreement replaced our prior executive services agreement with Alexander Mongeon.
Pursuant to the terms and provisions of the Mongeon Agreement: (a) Mr. Mongeon is appointed as our Chief Executive Officer and will undertake and perform the duties and responsibilities normally and reasonably associated with such office; (b) we shall pay to Mr. Mongeon a gross annual net salary of CAD$400,000 (the “Annual Base Salary”); (c) provide Mr. Mongeon with employee benefits, if and when such benefits have been adopted by us, including group health insurance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, travel accident insurance, group life insurance, short-term disability insurance, long-term disability insurance, drug coverage and dental coverage (the “Group Benefits”); (d) Mr. Mongeon is eligible to receive a discretionary bonus of between 50% and 100% of his Annual Base Salary; and (e) Mr. Mongeon will be entitled to four weeks’ paid annual vacation per calendar year.
We may terminate the employment of Mr. Mongeon under the Mongeon Agreement without any notice or any payment in lieu of notice for a serious reason. Mr. Mongeon may terminate his employment under the Mongeon Agreement for any reason by providing not less than 60 calendar days’ notice in writing to us, provided, however, that we may waive or abridge any notice period specified in such notice in our sole and absolute discretion.
The employment of Mr. Mongeon will terminate upon the death of Mr. Mongeon. Upon the death of Mr. Mongeon during the continuance of the Mongeon Agreement, we will provide Mr. Mongeon’s estate with (a) payment of any unpaid portion of his Annual Base Salary through the date of his death, (b) payment of any fully vested but unpaid rights as required by the terms of any bonus or other incentive pay plan or any other employee benefit plan or program, (c) a pro-rata share of any discretionary annual bonus to which he otherwise would have been entitled for the fiscal year in which his death occurs at no less than the target bonus percentage, paid at the time discretionary annual bonuses are paid to our still-employed executives and (d) CAD$500 per month for twelve months to help defray costs of procuring health, dental or drug insurance coverage for health care.
47
If we elect to terminate the Mongeon Agreement without a serious reason, and provided that Mr. Mongeon is in compliance with the relevant terms and conditions of the Mongeon Agreement, we shall be obligated to provide a severance package to Mr. Mongeon as follows: (a) a cash payment equating to the Annual Base Salary to be paid over a period of twelve months, less any required statutory deductions, if any; (b) that pro-rata portion of any discretionary bonus to which Mr. Mongeon would have been entitled as determined in good faith; (c) payment of any unpaid portion of his Annual Base Salary through the effective date of termination; (d) reimbursement for any outstanding reasonable business expense he has incurred in performing his duties hereunder in accordance with the Mongeon Agreement; (e) continued insurance benefits to the extent required by law; (f) payment of any fully vested but unpaid rights as required by the terms of any bonus or other incentive pay plan, or any other employee benefit plan or program and (g) CAD$500 per month for twelve months to help defray costs of procuring health, dental or drug insurance coverage for health care.
Kulwant Sandher, Chief Financial Officer
On March 1, 2021, we entered an executive employment agreement with Kulwant Sandher with a term commencing on March 1, 2021 and expiring on February 28, 2024 (the “Sandher Agreement”). The Sandher Agreement replaced our prior executive services agreement with Kulwant Sandher.
Pursuant to the terms and provisions of the Sandher Agreement: (a) Mr. Sandher is appointed as our Chief Financial Officer and will undertake and perform the duties and responsibilities normally and reasonably associated with such office; (b) we shall pay to Mr. Sandher a gross annual net salary of CAD$250,000 (the “Annual Base Salary”); (c) provide Mr. Sandher with employee benefits, if and when such benefits have been adopted by us, including group health insurance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, travel accident insurance, group life insurance, short-term disability insurance, long-term disability insurance, drug coverage and dental coverage (the “Group Benefits”); (d) Mr. Sandher is eligible to receive minimum bonus of 25% of his Annual Base salary and a discretionary bonus of between 50% and 100% of his Annual Base Salary; and (e) Mr. Sandher will be entitled to four weeks’ paid annual vacation per calendar year.
We may terminate the employment of Mr. Sandher under the Sandher Agreement without any notice or any payment in lieu of notice for a serious reason. Mr. Sandher may terminate his employment under the Sandher Agreement for any reason by providing not less than 60 calendar days’ notice in writing to us, provided, however, that we may waive or abridge any notice period specified in such notice in our sole and absolute discretion.
The employment of Mr. Sandher will terminate upon the death of Mr. Sandher. Upon the death of Mr. Sandher during the continuance of the Sandher Agreement, we will provide Mr. Sandher’s estate with (a) payment of any unpaid portion of his Annual Base Salary through the date of his death, (b) payment of any fully vested but unpaid rights as required by the terms of any bonus or other incentive pay plan or any other employee benefit plan or program, (c) a pro-rata share of any discretionary annual bonus to which he otherwise would have been entitled for the fiscal year in which his death occurs at no less than the target bonus percentage, paid at the time discretionary annual bonuses are paid to our still-employed executives and (d) CAD$500 per month for twelve months to help defray costs of procuring health, dental or drug insurance coverage for health care.
If we elect to terminate the Sandher Agreement without a serious reason, and provided that Mr. Sandher is in compliance with the relevant terms and conditions of the Sandher Agreement, we shall be obligated to provide a severance package to Mr. Sandher as follows: (a) a cash payment equating to the Annual Base Salary to be paid over a period of twelve months, less any required statutory deductions, if any; (b) that pro-rata portion of any discretionary bonus to which Mr. Sandher would have been entitled as determined in good faith; (c) payment of any unpaid portion of his Annual Base Salary through the effective date of termination; (d) reimbursement for any outstanding reasonable business expense he has incurred in performing his duties hereunder in accordance with the Sandher Agreement; (e) continued insurance benefits to the extent required by law; (f) payment of any fully vested but unpaid rights as required by the terms of any bonus or other incentive pay plan, or any other employee benefit plan or program and (g) CAD$500 per month for twelve months to help defray costs of procuring health, dental or drug insurance coverage for health care.
Patrick Bobby, Head of Performance & Special Projects
On March 1, 2021, we entered an executive employment agreement with Patrick Bobby with a term commencing on March 1, 2021 and expiring on February 28, 2024 (the “Bobby Agreement”). The Bobby Agreement replaced our prior executive services agreement with Patrick Bobby.
48
Pursuant to the terms and provisions of the Bobby Agreement: (a) Mr. Bobby is appointed as our Chief Operating Officer and will undertake and perform the duties and responsibilities normally and reasonably associated with such office; (b) we shall pay to Mr. Bobby a gross annual net salary of CAD$400,000 (the “Annual Base Salary”); (c) provide Mr. Bobby with employee benefits, if and when such benefits have been adopted by us, including group health insurance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, travel accident insurance, group life insurance, short-term disability insurance, long-term disability insurance, drug coverage and dental coverage (the “Group Benefits”); (d) Mr. Bobby is eligible to receive a discretionary bonus of between 50% and 100% of his Annual Base Salary; and (e) Mr. Bobby will be entitled to four weeks’ paid annual vacation per calendar year.
We may terminate the employment of Mr. Bobby under the Bobby Agreement without any notice or any payment in lieu of notice for a serious reason. Mr. Bobby may terminate his employment under the Bobby Agreement for any reason by providing not less than 60 calendar days’ notice in writing to us, provided, however, that we may waive or abridge any notice period specified in such notice in our sole and absolute discretion.
The employment of Mr. Bobby will terminate upon the death of Mr. Bobby. Upon the death of Mr. Bobby during the continuance of the Bobby Agreement, we will provide Mr. Bobby’s estate with (a) payment of any unpaid portion of his Annual Base Salary through the date of his death, (b) payment of any fully vested but unpaid rights as required by the terms of any bonus or other incentive pay plan or any other employee benefit plan or program, (c) a pro-rata share of any discretionary annual bonus to which he otherwise would have been entitled for the fiscal year in which his death occurs at no less than the target bonus percentage, paid at the time discretionary annual bonuses are paid to our still-employed executives and (d) CAD$500 per month for twelve months to help defray costs of procuring health, dental or drug insurance coverage for health care.
If we elect to terminate the Bobby Agreement without a serious reason, and provided that Mr. Bobby is in compliance with the relevant terms and conditions of the Bobby Agreement, we shall be obligated to provide a severance package to Mr. Bobby as follows: (a) a cash payment equating to the Annual Base Salary to be paid over a period of twelve months, less any required statutory deductions, if any; (b) that pro-rata portion of any discretionary bonus to which Mr. Bobby would have been entitled as determined in good faith; (c) payment of any unpaid portion of his Annual Base Salary through the effective date of termination; (d) reimbursement for any outstanding reasonable business expense he has incurred in performing his duties hereunder in accordance with the Bobby Agreement; (e) continued insurance benefits to the extent required by law; (f) payment of any fully vested but unpaid rights as required by the terms of any bonus or other incentive pay plan, or any other employee benefit plan or program and (g) CAD$500 per month for twelve months to help defray costs of procuring health, dental or drug insurance coverage for health care.
As of December 14, 2021, Mr. Bobby is no longer our Chief Operating Officer but instead became our Head of Performance and Special Projects. Our agreement with him for his executive services remains otherwise unchanged.
Xavier Montagne, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer
On February 23, 2021, we entered into an employment agreement with Xavier Montagne with a term commencing on April 1, 2021 (the “Montagne Agreement”).
Pursuant to the terms and provisions of the Montagne Agreement: (a) Mr. Montagne is appointed as our Chief Technology Officer and will undertake and perform the duties and responsibilities normally and reasonably associated with such office; (b) we shall pay to Mr. Montagne a gross annual base salary of CAD$215,000; (c) we shall provide Mr. Montagne with employee benefits, if and when such benefits have been adopted by us, including group health insurance, group life insurance, disability insurance, and dental coverage; and (d) Mr. Montagne will be entitled to four weeks’ paid annual vacation per reference period of May 1st to April 30th. Furthermore, we granted to Mr. Montagne an equity award of 100,000 Options under the Share Option Plan.
We may terminate the employment of Mr. Montagne under the Montagne Agreement for a serious reason upon written notice. Mr. Montagne may terminate his employment under the Montagne Agreement for any reason by providing not less than two (2) weeks’ notice in writing to us.
The employment of Mr. Montagne will terminate upon the death of Mr. Montagne. Upon the death of Mr. Montagne during the continuance of the Montagne Agreement, we will not be obligated to provide any payment to Mr. Montagne’s estate.
If we elect to terminate the Montagne Agreement without a serious reason, we shall be obligated to provide Mr. Montagne with the period of notice or the payment of such amounts in lieu of notice as may be required by applicable law.
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On December 14, 2021, Mr. Montagne also became our Chief Operating Officer, and as a result his salary increased his annual base salary to $250,000.
Director Compensation
The following table sets forth the value of all compensation paid to the directors, excluding Alexandre Mongeon and Patrick Bobby who are paid as officers and not as a directors:
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incentive | ||||||||||||||
Fees | Share-based | Option-based | plan | Pension | All other | |||||||||
earned | awards | awards | compensation | value | compensation | Total | ||||||||
Name | ($) | ($) | ($) | ($) | ($) | ($) | ($) | |||||||
Alan D. Gaines, Chairman |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| 1,494,393 |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| 294,624 |
| 1,789,017 |
Steve P. Barrenechea, Director |
| 102,991 |
| Nil |
| 41,439 |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| 304,245 |
| 448,675 |
Renaud Cloutier, Director |
| 85,830 |
| Nil |
| 41,439 |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| 127,269 |
Luisa Ingargiola, Director |
| 102,991 |
| Nil |
| 41,439 |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| Nil |
| 144,430 |
Outstanding Option-based Awards for Named Executive Officers and Directors
The following table reflects all option-based awards for each Named Executive Officer and director outstanding as at August 31, 2022. We do not have any other equity incentive plans other than our Share Option Plan.
Option–based Awards | |||||||
| Number of | ||||||
securities | |||||||
Named | underlying | ||||||
Executive | unexercised | ||||||
Officer | options | Option exercise | Option expiration | ||||
or Director |
| (#)(1) |
| price ($) |
| date | |
Alexandre Mongeon, Chief Executive Officer |
| 64,864 | $ | 3.70 | May 27, 2025 | ||
Alexandre Mongeon, Chief Executive Officer |
| 35,000 | $ | 16.29 | November 24, 2030 | ||
Patrick Bobby, Head of Performance & Special Projects (2) |
| 64,864 | $ | 3.70 | May 27, 2025 | ||
Patrick Bobby, Head of Performance & Special Projects |
| 35,000 | $ | 16.29 | November 24, 2030 | ||
Kulwant Sandher, Chief Financial Officer |
| 59,459 | $ | 3.70 | May 27, 2025 | ||
Kulwant Sandher, Chief Financial Officer |
| 35,000 | $ | 16.29 | November 24, 2030 | ||
Xavier Montagne, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer |
| 100,000 | $ | 15.75 | February 23, 2026 | ||
90,000 | $ | 5.65 | January 22, 2027 | ||||
Alan D. Gaines, Chairman | 500,000 | $ | 9.93 | May 14, 2026 | |||
Steven Barrenechea, Director | 100,000 | $ | 16.72 | November 24, 2025 | |||
Renaud Cloutier, Director | 100,000 | $ | 16.72 | November 24, 2025 | |||
Luisa Ingargiola, Director | 100,000 | $ | 16.72 | November 24, 2025 |
(1) | These options to purchase common shares were issued pursuant to our Share Option Plan which is summarized in this Annual Report in the section entitled “Executive Compensation - Share Option Plans and Share options- 2020 Share Option Plan ”. The options were granted on May 27, 2020 and vest in equal twelfths once a month for a year. |
(2) | Mr. Bobby had been our Chief Operating Officer through December 14, 2021, at which time he resigned from that role and became our Head of Performance & Special Projects. |
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Incentive Plan Awards
The following table provides information concerning our incentive award plans with respect to each Named Executive Officer and directors during the fiscal year ended August 31, 2022.
Option-based Awards – | Non-Equity Incentive | ||||
Named Executive Officer | Value Vested | Plan Compensation – Value | |||
and Director |
| During the Year ($)(1) |
| Vested During the Year ($)(2) | |
Alexandre Mongeon, Chief Executive Officer | $ | 52,379 |
| — | |
Patrick Bobby, Head of Performance & Specia |