OPT widens third quarter loss

Business & Finance

March 17, 2023, by Amir Garanovic

US-based marine energy company Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has increased its net loss in the third quarter of fiscal 2023, as compared to the same period a year earlier, with revenues marking a growth.

Illustration/Part of OPT’s products range (Courtesy of OPT)

OPT’s net loss was $6.1 million for the third quarter of 2023, as compared to a net loss of $5.5 million for the same period a year earlier. As for the nine-month period of 2023, net loss was $16.8 million as compared to a net loss of $13.7 million reported in first nine months of 2022.

Revenues for the quarter were $0.7 million, as compared to $0.5 million in the same period last yaer.

Revenues increased 75% to $1.8 million for the nine months ended with third quarter 2023, as compared to $1.0 million for the same period a year before. This growth has been driven by sales of WAM-V autonomous vehicles and an increase in strategic consulting services, OPT said.

Operating expenses were $6.8 million during the quarter, up sequentially from $6.4 million from the second quarter 2023, due to the timing of projects and programs. Operating expenses were $19.5 million in the nine-month period, as compared to $15.5 million for the same period in 2022, due to incremental investments in people and systems to support the company’s growth, according to OPT.

Philipp Stratmann, OPT’s president and CEO, said: “We continue to make meaningful progress towards our commercial efforts, including increasing our pipeline of feasibility studies, demonstrations, and platform sales activity.

“This development has been largely driven by our autonomous vehicles and Data-as-a-Service business lines. We are pleased to be well ahead of our order and revenue performance as compared to last year, however, we remain keenly focused on achieving our $9.0 million order target.

“Our sales team is working diligently to convert our growing pipeline into executed orders. Despite the challenging current macro environment, and our involvement in multi-party contracting, we remain encouraged by the fact that our level of commercial activity is the highest that it has been in our history.”