Full Transcript: NanoXplore Q4 2026 Earnings Call

NanoXplore (TSX: GRA ) released fourth-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Tuesday. Read the complete transcript below. APIs provide real-time access to earnings call transcripts and financial data. Visit to learn more.

The full earnings call is available at Summary NanoXplore reported a robust cash position and a $35 million pipeline of graphene-enhanced solutions, with high-margin opportunities in various markets. The company launched a state-of-the-art facility in North Carolina for Club Car and formalized a partnership with Chevron Phillips Chemical to promote Tribograf revenues. Future outlook includes significant revenue growth with expectations of becoming free cash flow positive, driven by high-margin opportunities such as drilling fluids, insulating foams, and industrial films.

Operational highlights include the launch of D Series graphene technology into commercial production, and a new partnership for graphene-enhanced polyurethane foams. Management highlighted a positive trajectory for fiscal 2027, with revenue guidance between $130 and $140 million, driven by new graphene sales and a full-year impact from the Club Car business. Full Transcript OPERATOR Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q4 2026 NanoXplore Earnings Conference Call.

At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised.

To withdraw your question, please press star one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker for today, Liam Turner. Please go ahead.

Liam Turner, Investor Relations Bonjour à tous et bienvenue à la conférence téléphonique de NanoXplore. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining the discussion of NanoXplore's financial and operating results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. The press release reporting these results was published after market close today and can also be found on our website, along with our financial statements and MD&A. These documents are also available on SEDAR+.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that today's remarks, including management's outlook and answers to questions, contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent our expectations as of today, September 15, 2026, and accordingly are subject to change. Such statements are based on assumptions that may not materialize and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially and listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

A description of the risk factors that may affect future results is contained in NanoXplore's annual information form available on our corporate website and in our filings with the Canadian securities administrators on SEDAR+. On the call with me today we have Rocco Marinaccio, our Chief Executive Officer, and Pedro Azevedo, our Chief Financial Officer. After remarks from Rocco and Pedro, we'll open the call to questions from financial analysts. Let me now turn the call over to Rocco.

Rocco Marinaccio, President and Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Liam, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm Rocco Marinaccio, President and CEO of NanoXplore, and I'm pleased to have you with us today to discuss our fourth quarter 2026 results. Reflecting on fiscal 2026, our company made some tremendous breakthroughs and advancements, and I can say with confidence that NanoXplore is in the strongest position we have ever been in as a company.

We have a solid cash position, a robust $35 million pipeline of graphene-enhanced solutions business launching over the next 18 months, and a set of exceptional high-margin graphene opportunities developing across multiple end markets. We started the year slower as volumes in our solutions business were recovering from their lows, but the momentum we built from there was significant. We launched our state-of-the-art facility in Statesville, North Carolina, supplying exclusively for Club Car. We formalized our partnership with Chevron Phillips Chemical, or CP Chem, and are actively promoting and driving commercial Tribograf revenues.

Most importantly, we advanced our proprietary dry process, or D Series graphene technology, from development into commercial production, engineering and commissioning a dedicated production line entirely in house. This capability has already resulted in the launch of new D Series products, opening new markets for the company. We also successfully completed a CEO leadership transition while strengthening our team through the promotions of Nima Moghimian to Chief Technology Officer and Ilia Chliapnikov to Chief Operating Officer. None of these advancements happen without our people.

Our team members across every facility are the foundation of everything we've accomplished this year, and I want to recognize their dedication and hard work. 10. And that commitment to a safe workplace goes hand in hand with the operational discipline that's driving our results. NanoXplore is the global leader in graphene.

With up to 5,000 tons of annual capacity, there is no other company that can produce commercial-scale graphene while maintaining quality and consistency. We hold over 100 patents and patent applications protecting our IP, product, and process knowledge, and we are one of very few companies legally permitted to produce and sell graphene in Canada, the United States, and Europe, holding Environment and Climate Change Canada, Health Canada, EPA, and REACH certifications. NanoXplore's regulatory position in this industry is unmatched. When we built our initial 4,000-ton capacity facility in 2020, we designed it for scale.

As we engaged with a broader range of end markets, it became clear that different applications demand different graphene characteristics, and that insight has shaped our platform strategy. Our traditional graphene grades, or X Series, have a high aspect ratio. Put simply, these are thin, long sheets of graphene that offer attributes such as lubricity, thermal conductivity, and barrier properties. Our newly launched D Series grades have high surface area, offering attributes such as electrical conductivity, EMI shielding, and UV protection.

8% when our customers require it. Our platform allows us to tailor grades to specific customer needs so we're not overprocessing material, which allows us to price our products appropriately and in line with market expectations. Let me bring this platform strategy to life with an example. Concrete and cement are multibillion-dollar global industries.

Back in 2018, a widely cited study highlighted the performance improvements graphene can bring to cement. We worked with multiple companies at the time, achieved excellent lab results, but ultimately could not translate that into commercial traction with our X Series graphene. Our D Series grade has revived that opportunity, and we're now working with one of the top five cement producers globally to bring graphene into mainstream cement applications. We'll provide more details as the partnership advances, but I caution that it will take several months.

We're still in the early stages, and our product is being validated. Before I walk through our individual growth opportunities, I want to take a moment to explain the strategy behind NanoXplore's acquisitions over the years because I think it's important context for how you should think about our margin profile going forward. We've acquired several operating companies, and we've done so for two reasons. First, to generate a profit.

Developing and commercializing a new material from the ground up is time-consuming and expensive, and these operating businesses provide a source of revenue and cash flow along the way. Second, and more importantly, to demonstrate the value and real-world importance of graphene in actual applications. NanoXplore has successfully integrated graphene into most of the products we produce and sell today, and that track record is a big part of why customers trust us to deliver at commercial scale.

The graphene benefits recognized by our customers are the reason we have a large pipeline of business launching over the next 18 months, a pipeline that we expect will build on our EBITDA-positive foundation and move NanoXplore towards sustained free cash flow generation. That said, I want to be clear about how this mix shows up in our margins today. Many of the products sold through our existing operating companies carry a lower overall margin profile because graphene represents a relatively small portion of the finished product, typically under 5% loading. As our newer graphene opportunities begin to scale, we expect that mix to change meaningfully.

These applications generally involve higher graphene content and therefore carry substantially stronger margins. Tribograf is a good example. It is sold as 100% powder without the same raw material pass-throughs or transformation costs that dilute margins in some of our finished product businesses. Masterbatches also sit higher on the value curve, combining plastic with meaningfully higher graphene loading levels than we see across most of our existing operating company products.

As these newer higher-loading and higher-margin applications convert into revenue over the coming years, we expect them to become a major driver of margin expansion for NanoXplore as a whole. With that context in mind, I want to walk you through five specific opportunities. We're seeing this platform strategy translate into real commercial momentum, starting with drilling fluids and our Tribograf technology. I want to be candid with you because we know this is an area where investors have been watching closely.

As a reminder, on September 18, 2025, we announced a multiyear supplier agreement with CP Chem for the sale of Tribograf, our proprietary carbon-based formulation additive for drilling fluids. That agreement was the product of more than 18 months of close collaboration between our two teams, spanning extensive lab testing and field well trials. The results were exceptional. Tribograf delivered meaningful cost reductions for operators, and CP Chem has taken the product to market under their own brand, Nanoslide.

I want to be transparent with you on where things stand. CP Chem's initial activity forecast reflected the strength of those well trial results. Since then, CP Chem informed us that they lost a major prospective customer, and based on what they have shared with us, that loss was related to commercial issues on the customer side rather than Nanoslide's performance. So where are we today?

CP Chem has shipped Nanoslide samples to several potential customers who are currently at various stages of evaluation, and critically, every customer that has completed lab testing to date has validated that the product performs as intended. What we're seeing now is the natural sales cycle in this industry where validated lab performance needs time to translate into field well trials and ultimately adoption at scale. So while the pace of rollout has been slower than our early expectations, we think it's important to separate pace from conviction.

Both CP Chem and NanoXplore remain firmly convinced that Nanoslide is a high-performance, cost-effective solution, as demonstrated continuously by the test results from every customer who has conducted lab testing, and we believe it will start to capture substantial market share as customers move through testing and adoption. We're focused on supporting CP Chem as they convert that proven lab performance into well trials and long-term volume. We ask investors to view this the way we do—as a high-conviction opportunity where the fundamentals—a proven performance, a strong multiyear partner in CP Chem, and a real cost advantage for operators—remain firmly intact.

We genuinely don't have visibility into exactly when customers will move from validated lab results to well trials and adoption. What we know is that it will take longer than we originally expected, but nothing we have seen changes our confidence in the commercial potential of the opportunity. I want to spend some time on a very exciting new growth vector for NanoXplore in insulating foams. Several years ago, we began collaborating with a Fortune 500 producer of insulating foam to incorporate graphene into the formulations to enhance insulation performance.

That work has matured, and their formulation is now being optimized ahead of final plant trials targeted for 2027. What's particularly exciting is that the knowledge we've gained through that application has translated directly into broader market traction. We now have active development programs underway with major producers representing roughly 80% of North American market share in this category—a testament to how differentiated our graphene technology is in this application. We're encouraged that several of these programs are on track to commercialize during fiscal 2027.

One major customer in particular is moving to replace their current additive with our graphene product outright and is in the final stages of approvals to begin purchasing volumes for what we expect to be an immediate conversion. Based on the demand signals we're seeing from that customer, we anticipate 1,000 tons of masterbatch at 30% graphene loading levels in the first full year of production, with room to expand from there as the relationship matures. We expect to start supplying graphene-enhanced masterbatch later this year.

Beyond that lead customer, several others are in advanced plant trials, and the results we're seeing so far are very encouraging for further commercialization over the next year. We're also pleased to share that NanoXplore recently signed a letter of intent with a leading global producer in the field of graphene-enhanced polyurethane foams, or PU foams. Under this arrangement, this partner would purchase graphene powder from us and produce shelf-stable liquid dispersants in polyol, the precursor for PU foam production. S.

and Europe, and importantly, they've helped us identify a compelling value proposition in the European foam market—graphene's potential to functionally replace a widely used halogenated flame retardant that's facing increasing regulatory pressure and is expected to gradually phase out over the coming years. This positions us well to ride a genuine regulatory tailwind in a market that's actively searching for alternatives.

Taken together, we believe insulating foams represent a substantial, multipronged growth opportunity for NanoXplore, spanning masterbatch, powder, and now dispersion applications, and we're excited about the momentum we're building across the value chain. I'll now turn to what we believe could be one of our most transformative opportunities: industrial and consumer plastic films. On June 15, 2026, we announced a technical innovation alongside Techmer PM, our long-standing partner in graphene-enhanced plastics.

To put the addressable market in context, industrial films include landscape liners, protective films, pallet wraps, and heavy-duty industrial bags, while consumer films include various types of plastic bags, trash bags, and a wide range of nonfood consumer packaging. This is a massive, everyday-use category. The results speak for themselves. Our graphene enhancement has demonstrated more than a 70% improvement in mechanical strength, and we believe it may enable film producers to reduce thickness by up to 20%, generating real material cost savings while fully maintaining tensile, tear, and structure performance.

We've also seen the potential to significantly increase the amount of recycled content that can be incorporated into film formulations without sacrificing performance, a critical advancement for packaging manufacturers navigating tightening sustainability mandates and circular economy targets. This breakthrough is driven specifically by our D Series graphene, which has unlocked performance that our X Series graphene simply could not achieve in this application. We see this as a real point of differentiation for NanoXplore. Techmer brings a broad and well-established customer base that already supplies extensively into this industry, giving us an efficient path to market.

Since our June 2026 announcement, we've seen strong engagement. Multiple customers have already requested and received samples for testing. We expect that testing to conclude over the coming months, and we're targeting the start of graphene order flow in the second half of fiscal 2027. The scale of the opportunity here is significant.

The trash bag industry alone represents a multibillion-dollar global market, and our ambition is to demonstrate graphene's value proposition to the industry's most iconic brands—companies like Hefty, Glad, and others who set the standard in this space. I'd like to emphasize that while the graphene addition rate in these film applications is low, usually under 1%, the selling price per kilogram is significantly higher than our other graphene products. That combination points toward meaningfully higher product margins as this business scales, making thin films not just a large opportunity, but a highly attractive one from a profitability standpoint.

Let me also highlight our progress in the conductive grade graphene space.