Desert Control AS
OSE:DSRT
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Welcome to the Desert Control Q3 2024 Company Update Webcast. It will cover the Q2 report and interim financial results from the fiscal period that ended on September 30, 2024. Some updates from the Q4 year-to-date will also be included, and a Q&A session will follow the presentation. And we invite you to use the Q&A function to submit questions.
Before the official Q3 update agenda, Desert Control CEO will share a brief introduction.
Thank you.
Desert Control specializes in nature-based solutions to combat desertification, soil degradation and water scarcity. Our leading innovation, Liquid Natural Clay, LNC, in short, enables sand and light, thirsty soils to retain water and nutrients and improves soil health. Our clients span agriculture, landscaping and forestry sectors. With over 12 years of R&D, complemented by 5 years of independent validation and field pilots, we have established a presence with commercial deployments in the United States and the Middle East, where licensed operator partners extend our reach. Our solutions have proven to save water by 35% to 50%, while simultaneously improving plant health and crop yields.
Thank you for joining us. I'm Ole Kristian Sivertsen, CEO of Desert Control, and I will take us through today's agenda for the Q3 and year-to-date company update, which has 4 points. First, I will present highlights and achievements so far this year. Next, our CFO, Leonard, will take us through the financial update. Then I will share a brief outlook before we close with the Q&A session.
Let's start with an overview of key achievements of the quarter. These highlights will lay the foundation for what we will explore in more depth in the following slides. But first, our commercial traction has accelerated in the U.S. and the Middle East. The milestone agreement that we achieved with Berkeley Country Club is our first binding commitment for a complete golf course.
Next, our first licensing royalties from the Middle East mark another milestone, showing that years of groundwork in the region have started translating into tangible revenue. In the UAE, a new commercial contract has also been secured and the Saudis are also making good progress. On technology development, we're moving closer to reaching unprecedented capacity with our next-generation production system, aiming for over 120,000 liters per hour capacity. This is critical as we look to deliver LNC at scale.
To ensure that existing units also continue to deliver maximum value, we're also planning upgrade kits for 2025. Our collaboration with Syngenta is also off to a good start, showing synergistic impact potential for our LNC innovation. Progress in the R&D area will help us open new markets and extend value significantly beyond water savings. And finally, both we and our partners have strengthened our teams.
The addition of Executive Chair, Lars Eismark, brings invaluable world-class leadership that will help sharpen our strategy and attract support from new stakeholders to take Desert Control to the next level. We also reinforced our R&D and soil science expertise to drive further innovation, strengthened commercial skills. And lastly, I'm also honored and excited to see our Middle East partners investing heavily in dedicated LNC teams, allowing us to scale across the region and drive market expansion with focused sales and marketing efforts.
The following slides will explore the key topics in more detail and discuss how they're setting us up for even greater success. Let's look at the commercial side first. And I want to start with the recently announced agreement with Berkeley Country Club, which is a pivotal step for Desert Control. It represents our first binding commitment for a full-scale golf course deployment in the U.S., and the introduction of a scalable outcome-based revenue model designed to drive recurring revenues while creating a true partnership with the client.
It's important to note that while the agreement is binding for the client, it includes a validation step for us. As we are taking on the financial risk, this step allows us to confirm and fully validate that we can achieve a meaningful enough water-saving impact to make the deployment attractive for us in alignment with the financial model outlined in graph below. This will be the step where we will validate the irrigation reduction that we can achieve how much water we can save that will put up the foundation for this model.
Also, this is our first deployment in the Bay Area and soil textures vary somewhat from region-to-region. So by including this step, we are taking a prudent approach to dial-in LNC formulation to ensure that the solution performs optimally in this new environment. Meanwhile, I can tell you that the client is ready and eager to deploy immediately as water costs have become their single large operational expense as for most golf courses in California. Operationally, the deployment will use the prototype unit that we already have, which has been field tested with verified capacity to complete this job effectively. But don't forget that this is a prototype unit, which means it's under development, spending time in our engineering facility while making frequent trips to the field to produce for testing.
So, what's next with Berkeley? After the initial validation, we want to do now on the golf course, the full-scale application will take place during one of their 2- to 3-day maintenance windows, which occurs twice a year in spring and autumn. This is when they run their aerification process, where the turf is aerated with small holes, which is perfect for the LNC deployment as it enables the ground to absorb large volumes very quickly, minimizing run-off, which is important for us, especially in sloped and undulated areas. And timing our application with these maintenance windows is the ideal solution for applying LNC effectively through the established irrigation systems of the golf course.
Looking at the broader opportunity. Most golf courses follow a similar seasonal maintenance schedule. With our current prototype alone, we believe we could likely handle 2 to 4 courses per maintenance window and with additional units and team members, this capacity can grow significantly. By coordinating maintenance days within these windows amongst courses in close proximity, we can maximize efficiency and cover even more clients per season. We are confident that this model will resonate with many golf courses, particularly those with very high-water costs.
By eliminating the need for upfront investments, this approach accelerates the transition from pilot phases to full-scale deployment. This creates a clear pathway for several full-scale deployments in 2025, establishing Desert Control as a trusted partner in water-intensive sectors like golf and landscaping. Financially, the potential is clear. With 20 to 30 contracts like this alone, our U.S. operation would represent the solid cash flow positive business. This agreement highlights how the outcome-based business model aligns our success with the clients, addressing their critical needs to reduce water costs without upfront financial barriers while securing reliable revenue streams for Desert Control.
Now, let's move to the next section where we will discuss the progress of our pilot programs and the impact on pipeline of future contracts. Our U.S. pilot results are driving confidence and it's paving the way for larger contracts. And we're also seeing generation of a growing incoming interest by the word of mouth created by the clients that are piloting our solution.
In landscaping, pilots have achieved over 25% irrigation savings, with some sites seeing reductions above 50%. These results are compelling in high-cost water markets like California, where water savings directly translate to substantial financial savings, strengthening our position, as I say, for larger contracts. In agriculture, yield data from a pilot at an LNC treated date farm in Arizona indicates nearly double yield compared to untreated areas. While yield improvement needs to be valid over multiple seasons, it proves LNC's economic value for farmers even where water is relatively cheap, which we will look more into in the next slide.
So just for context, when it comes to water costs, keep in mind that Berkeley Country Club pays nearly $4,000 per acre foot of water, while farmers in Yuma may pay as little as $10 to $20 per acre foot. However, looking ahead, anticipated water policy changes in The Colorado River Basin for 2026 when the old law of the river and the old water rights systems will expire, are driving farmers' interest to pilot LNC now. As water right frameworks will shift, we expect higher water costs and restrictions, making conservation solutions like LNC even more critical.
This slide illustrates the business case for LNC in agriculture. It's based on results from a pilot on a 5-acre date farm in Abu Dhabi. This region is known for extreme conditions and high-water stress, where the results demonstrates that LNC can deliver solid financial returns in challenging environments. And as we see here, also deliver results where water is cheaper than it is in this scenario. So for an initial LNC investment of $11,500 for this small 5-acre date farm, the payback period is within the first year when including water costs and just over 2 years if the water cost was excluded.
With LNC, the annual gross profit for the farmer nearly doubles through increased yield revenue, reduction in fertilizer use and less energy costs for pumping and running irrigation systems and stuff. So combined, this shows a significant value, as I say, even before we add the final block of the water savings here. So to summarize, these results demonstrate that yield improvement alone can justify the investment even in regions with low water costs such as Yuma.
Now, your immediate question by looking at this is probably, well, with such a compelling business case, why isn't Desert Control's order book already full? The answer to that lies in agriculture's longer validation cycles. Farmers are cautious with new technology and require multiple seasons to validate results across varying conditions, especially for large upfront capital expenditures. However, if and when water goes from cheap to expensive, implementing a solution to conserve water becomes urgently critical. This is why we're seeing increasing incoming interest in piloting our LNC solution even in the lower water cost regions in the U.S. Southwest today.
In summary, LNC provides a strong business case with solid financial returns and high scalability potential, positioning Desert Control for significant growth potential as our pilot programs continue to validate the long-term multi-season yield impact, and it will accelerate further as water scarcity and costs continue to drive the demand.
This slide is a familiar one. Each quarter, we've shown it to update you on our growing pilot portfolio, which now includes 42 active projects across 3 stages. As the pilot program matures, it's structured to guide projects through a clear pathway from early-stage validation to the larger-scale commercial deployments. So, Stage 1 is the technical pilots. This stage is simply about proving that LNC holds water on small plots without harming plants. We currently have 22 agricultural projects and 12 landscaping projects in this Stage 1, covering applications from permanent crops and various agricultural applications to landscapes and golf courses.
For the Stage 2, this is the extended pilots. In this stage, we're expanding it to larger areas where we demonstrate LNC's economic benefits over these areas. This stage includes now 4 agricultural pilots and 2 landscaping ones, allowing these clients to firsthand see the impact of LNC at scale in real context at their own grounds. Then following successful Stage 2 validations, we move to Stage 3 with the larger-scale deployments. This is where we are now looking to convert full-scale properties like we now have the first commitment to move towards with Berkeley Country Club, and we also have the Limoneira ranch in Yuma already started in Stage 3, which will be a staged long-term deployment program as we've discussed previously.
As our project portfolio grows, we recognize that simply sharing these project numbers doesn't fully capture the value of our pipeline. So moving forward, we will be shifting to an approach that better visualizes the pipeline's full potential, including projected LNC volumes and the incremental growth that we see from our sales efforts and the conversion from one stage to another. I will introduce this in a few slides to help you better understand how these projects build real value. So, this is likely the last time you'll see this slide because with an enormous amount of growth in projects, it's not going to give you much value. But as we transition to an approach, you will see a much more clear picture of the pipeline's commercial potential going forward.
But first, let's take a moment to look at the scale of growth as projects progress through each stage in our pilot program. So, this visualization highlights that moving from Stage 1 to Stage 3 isn't just about increasing the number of projects. It's about exponential growth in value and scale. Each stage represents a significant step in deployment size and LNC volume with larger pilots in Stage 2 and full property deployments in Stage 3. As the projects progress through the stages, the potential value of each deployment grows substantially. Stage 1: focus, as we talked about on the technical validation on very small plots. But already in Stage 2, we're seeing demonstrating tangible economic benefits over larger areas that drive higher LNC volumes as well. By the time the project reaches Stage 3, they're ready for commercial scale impact over substantially larger areas within that very same client, which builds significant volume and revenue potential. So, this shift in scale is essential to understand to see how our pilot portfolio builds the incremental value as the projects move through the stages.
So, keep this in mind as we move to the next slide, where I'll introduce how we are looking to keep you informed on our pipeline development and its potential for revenue growth going forward. So with that understanding in the back of our mind, this slide presents a clearer view of our expanding U.S. pipeline and its commercial opportunity. Starting with ongoing engagements, we ended 2023 with 24 active projects, representing a potential LNC demand of approximately 950 million liters. That is reflecting the total addressable acreage of all of these clients combined at full conversion.
Now moving into 2024. We've added 18 new engagements as highlighted by the yellow bridge, and we've deployed around 4.5 million liters of LNC year-to-date in these projects. But the total addressable acreage of these 18 client engagement, if fully converted, represents a potential demand of 380 million liters. Altogether, this brings us to the 42 projects year-to-date that we recognized from the previous slide, representing a combined potential demand of 1.3 billion liters based on total client acreage at full conversion.
In addition, we're advancing in discussions with 19 additional prospects, with pilots anticipated to begin over the next 12 months. If fully deployed, these 19 clients represent a total demand of 750 million liters. So in total, our current opportunity pipeline, including ongoing engagements and the advanced prospects, it comprises 61 projects and prospects, representing a total potential demand exceeding 2 billion liters. The total potential contract value of this pipeline is estimated at around USD 100 million.
Now, disclaimer. It is important to note that this estimate reflects the full deployment across all identified acreage at a 100% conversion. Realistically, deployment and revenue will likely occur in stages over a 3- to 5-year horizon, depending on achievable conversion rates, client needs and engagement structures, some upfront, some phased and some through recurring revenue models like the Berkeley Country Club agreement.
So to summarize, we've achieved strong year-over-year growth, driven by solid sales efforts. Year-to-date, we've added, as we've noted, 18 new engagements and deployed approximately 4.5 million liters, which means that LNC volume and revenue has doubled year-over-year. And as we can see, so has the total pipeline value from the sales efforts that we have and our sales team will, on top of the 19 that we're talking about here with their efforts, keep growing our pipeline going forward. This performance marks a remarkable milestone for Desert Control, positioning us with strong momentum heading into the new year. I really want to recognize our team's dedication and hard work in achieving these amazing results. A huge thank you to everyone.
Then let's move to the Middle East that I'm also very proud of. Our license operating model for the region is building strong momentum, marked by several key achievements in the quarter. So, we've recorded the first royalty income in the region in Q3 2024, as I said. Although modest, it shows that the groundwork that we've put in over years is now starting to pay off and establishing a foundation for revenue generation from this high potential market. Our UAE partner also secured another 1.8 million liters contract for a real estate deployment project in the UAE, reflecting growing demand in the landscaping and sustainable development sectors.
Nursery pilots and other strategic projects in early stages, both in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are also proving really LNC's effectiveness, further supporting market adoption and future growth. And I can say I'm very inspired by conversations, by visiting the region, by phone calls from our partners that is sharing feedback from the ongoing pilots and engagements where the clients are also showing great excitement. I want to extend our gratitude for the significant investments that our Middle East partners have made this past quarter, strengthening dedicated LNC-focused organizations, building solid sales teams and launching effective marketing initiatives. These efforts are really setting the stage for continued growth across the region.
We're further experiencing incoming interest from several additional countries in the broader MENA, Middle East and North Africa region. This could represent opportunities for additional partners or market expansion with our existing partners in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. There is also meaningful value potential from partners interest in paying upfront for exclusivity rights in certain countries, markets or sectors that we will explore in the coming quarters. Finally, I want to thank our Middle East partners for their significant investments and the passionate work that is being done. Together, we are putting in efforts to position us all for continued growth in this region.
Now, moving on to exciting technology developments. This slide illustrates Desert Control's tremendous progress in scaling up our technology, and it shows what being a technology forward-driven company really means for commercial readiness. First and foremost, scalability. We've taken LNC from a lab scale output of 120 liters per hour to an expected 120,000 liters per hour by 2025. This 1,000-fold increase is a breakthrough that allows us now to target high-demand sectors like golf and other specialty large agriculture areas, where high volume and rapid deployment to be able to do big jobs in a very short and tight time-limited window is essential.
Cost efficiency and ROI are also key here. As we've increased capacity, we've dramatically reduced time and energy consumption, and the cost per unit of LNC produced as we see here in the examples. And this example is just showing a comparative view on -- by the different stages and technology capacities that we've had, how long it would have taken to produce LNC for a 50-hectare area comparable to a large golf course, which is a relevant reference example. So with the capacity of the next-generation production system, we will, for the first time, be able to complete large-scale applications on such properties within the limitation of their typical 2- to 4-day maintenance windows, as we talked about earlier. And this is enabled by new high-throughput technology development on the capacity side and is also unlocked by being able to deploy LNC through existing irrigation systems, which you may remember as a major breakthrough that we achieved in the second quarter of this year.
Additionally, we will be future-proofing our technology with planned upgrade kits for 2025. These kits will allow for our existing fleet, especially units deployed by our partners in the Middle East to benefit from our capacity advancements, and this approach will maximize the value of deployed CapEx and enhance long-term value. In short, these advancements in scalability, cost efficiency and technology readiness is really the key to positioning us for scalability and growth across multiple sectors. I have a lot of exciting things that we will be talking about in the coming quarterly updates when it comes to automation and how that's going to enable us to drive even more scalable growth, but more to come on that.
This slide connects the previous one by also showcasing the remarkable impact of our technology development as demonstrated by the journey that we've had with Limoneira. So, we began in July 2022 with a Stage 1 pilot for just 50 trees. And when we did that project, it required, as we see here, 3 manhours per tree to execute this project. And by April 2024, when we delivered the 6,000 trees project, we reduced this time from 3 hours to 2.5 minutes per tree, which is just a massive leap in efficiency. When we look ahead to 2025 and onwards with the capacity we'll have there, we expect to be able to bring that down in this scenario for large-scale deployments to 2.4 seconds per tree. This represents a transformative leap in scalability, along with significant improvements in energy efficiency and the cost per unit of LNC produced and applied, as I highlighted in the previous slide. So the Limoneira journey underscores really how our technology development is transforming operational capabilities, paving the way for large-scale deployments at unprecedented speed and cost efficiency. This scalability is essential as we expand to serve major clients across these high-value markets. And I also want to pause and give a warm thank you to Limoneira for being such great partners in this journey with us.
Then to our R&D priorities, and they continue with clear focus in 2 areas of increasing value of our LNC innovation and expand our markets. So on increasing value, we're focused on enhancing the effectiveness of LNC by, for example, integrating it with biologicals and holistic soil health solutions. This includes mitigating soil salinity, which is a crucial factor in desert and arid regions and also reducing fertilizer leaching and other soil health improvement initiative, which doesn't just improve the efficiency of farming, but also supports significantly more sustainable farming practices.
And then to expanding markets. Here, we're working to broaden the application and the applicability of LNC to more diverse soil types and conditions, water types, et cetera, pushing the boundaries of where our technology can be effectively deployed. Increasing the salinity tolerance of water sources, for example, is one thing we're working on here, which is crucial in regions where freshwater availability is limited and groundwater resources, therefore, are becoming more and more low quality. So, through partnerships like our ongoing collaboration with Syngenta, we're also accessing new potential market channels, further strengthening our commercial potential.
Speaking of Syngenta, early lab results in this collaboration have also shown promising synergies with LNC, including improved water efficiency, root biomass and microbial activity. These insights are paving the way for more targeted solution that enhance the resilience and productivity of soils as we move forward. And we're now setting up to be ready for field trials, replicating from lab to field, with the execution of this towards the end of the year for a field validation that will run into the first quarters of 2025.
So in summary, these R&D efforts do not only increase the direct value of LNC for our clients, but also open doors to broader markets, reinforcing our position as a strong innovator in soil health and water conservation solutions.
We will now turn to the financial update. And I pass it over to our CFO, Leonard Chaparian.
Thank you, Ole Kristian, and good morning to you all. The figures are shared in detail in the financial report published earlier this morning. These financial key figures will be covered in more detail in the following slides.
Our LNC revenue remains at double the level compared to the same period last year, consistent with the strong performance seen in the first half of the year. This growth continues to be driven by the steady rollout of new pilots in the U.S. In addition, we are pleased to report that for the first time, we have begun to see royalty income from our partners in the Middle East, marking an important milestone in our licensed operator model. EBITDA improvement as of Q3 now exceeds NOK 15 million, aligning with our earlier forecasts. The company closed the third quarter 2024 with a positive cash balance of NOK 75 million and has no interest-bearing debt. These figures include both ongoing and discontinued operations of Desert Control.
Revenue from sales in the Q3 now includes licensing royalties for the first time. For further details, please refer to Note 2. Year-to-date, our revenue from sales has reached nearly NOK 2 million compared to NOK 850,000 for the same period last year, more than doubling year-over-year. This growth has been driven by larger-scale deployments, along with an increased volume of pilot projects. In our ongoing operations, operational costs in Q3 have slightly decreased compared to the same period last year despite increasing activities in the U.S. This reflects our lean and focused approach in our daily operations.
Our financial position remains strong. And as mentioned in previous quarters, we have converted our fund investments into cash to ensure we are not overly exposed to market fluctuations. This prudent approach reinforces our commitment to maintaining financial stability and mitigating risk. Cash and funds in total amounts to NOK 75 million as of the end of Q3 2024, and we have no interest-bearing debt. Our financial resources are robust and sufficient to support both our ongoing operations and planned activities.
As previously anticipated, we remain on track for our financial runway to extend to Q4 2025, even when excluding revenue. The overall reported equity of NOK 86.3 million equals to 95.4% of our total assets. The cash flow from operating activities divided between continued and discontinued operations reflects the operational profit and loss adjusted for depreciations and amortizations, highlighting the company's cash-focused approach. For Q3, there are no standout changes in cash flow, with overall movements aligning with our expectations and previous quarters. No additional significant sources of capital have been introduced during this quarter.
In Q3, we identified certain cost of goods sold associated with the discontinued operations, specifically related to our reorganization in the Middle East as part of the transition to the licensing model. This is the only standout cost related to discontinued operations for this quarter. Otherwise, we are observing the costs are steadily trending towards 0. The subsidiary has been liquidated, with the only remaining matter being an outstanding VAT claim, which we expect to receive in the near future. For further information regarding the Q3 financials, please see the full Q3 report. To get additional information about the Desert Control share and the top 20 shareholders, please visit our web page, desertcontrol.com/investors.
Back to you, Ole Kristian.
Thank you, Leonard.
So, we will now turn to a brief outlook before we open up and close with the Q&A. So as we look ahead, Desert Control is positioned for scalable growth across high-value markets as discussed in this presentation. First, our technology is getting ready to scale. With our next-generation production system coming online in early 2025, we'll have the capacity for high-volume deployments opening doors in golf and certain other agriculture areas where water-intensive sectors are showing strong demand in places that was previously not attainable due to the limited time windows with requirements for very high capacity throughput production.
Second, we're seeing strong commercial momentum. We doubled LNC volume deployed and revenue year-over-year so far in 2024. And with our current pipeline, we're already well on track to more than double again going forward. We're confident in seeing multiple complete golf course deployments executed in 2025, alongside several Phase 2 deployments in high-value agriculture and see more growth in pilots and a growing opportunity pipeline.
Third, our Middle East partnerships are gaining traction. We've recorded our first royalty revenues. They are securing new contracts and are poised for continued growth in this high-demand region and will also be supported by upgrading systems and technology to increase capacity for their capabilities in 2025 and onwards.
Finally, our R&D and strategic partnerships with companies like Syngenta and Siemens are expanding LNC's applications and capabilities, opening new market channels and positioning Desert Control to capture more opportunities. In short, we're on a clear path towards growth with a balanced market strategy that will blend project revenues with hardware sales, licensing incomes and recurring revenues. 2025 is set to be another breakthrough year for Desert Control.
Thank you, Ole Kristian. We will now start the Q&A session, and we invite you to use the Q&A function for the questions. This time, we will start with the questions that has been sent in advance.
The first one is, does applying LNC in a golf course influence the draining capacity during heavy rainfalls?
So what we see when it comes to applying LNC in these golf course environments is that they're already using certain products called surfactants or wetting agents. The functionality of these type of products is to kind of break the hydrophobicity of the surface layer, meaning that when you put water on it, it takes time for it to be wet enough for the water to go in. So when it's hydrophobic, it's like water pearls on a completely impermeable surface. So what we've seen when we've applied LNC to these areas is that the need for such surfactants may be eliminated, at least significantly reduced. And what that means as well on heavy rainfalls, you will have a more spongy type of soil surface or turf surface that absorbs the water, brings it down to the deeper layer. And then we increase the water holding capacity in the sandy base that is underneath this kind of more softer touch layer on the top, which is important to make sure that we maintain a hard firm playing surface without becoming soggy and still be able to conserve significant amounts of water.
The next question is also related to golf courses. What is the most common positive or negative feedback, if any, from golfers playing on a turf treated with LNC?
Well, running this company is keeping me fairly busy. So, I haven't had the time to be playing golf and socializing with a lot of golfers. But I would say my personal dream would be to get our fellow countryman, Viktor Hovland, to try it out and be so found of it that he refuses to play on courses where there is not LNC treated and committed to support the sustainability of the golf industry, which we are extremely excited to see is important and a strong heartfelt cause also for all of the clients that we're working with, including Berkeley Country Club as well, who have a big passion for this game and wants to drive and pioneer a sustainable future here.
We have a next question. When we enter 2024, would you say that we could expect a steady increase in income of contracts, both from Saudi Desert Control and Mawarid Desert Control through the year and a larger towards the end? We haven't seen so much after the Q3 with just 1.5 months left for 2024, why the progress -- -- why is the progress in the Middle East so limited?
Well, I would say that it comes to really building a solid foundation for things. And many of you know that we've spent significant time building and doing groundworks in the Middle East and have seen that it's taken time, but there are important fundamental steps that are happening. I mentioned, for example, building and investing in sales teams. One of our partners in the Middle East has been a pretty large family-driven company that has been converted into a commercial enterprise, which means -- they didn't have a sales force. Now, they've invested in building that sales force. But throughout the year as well, we haven't seen the royalty revenues from that side because it's been smaller pilots and initiatives, building the same type of pilot backlog that I showed to you in our presentation today.
Our Saudi partners is a complete startup that started in the end of the year. They are where Desert Control was in 2017 or maybe 2019, where we had the first employees joining. So, I'm actually -- I'm eager to see and I'm impatient to see revenue picking up faster. We also have set minimum requirement targets for the licensing agreements of the partners. And those will drive significant revenue increases in 2025. So, I think what I said -- in regards to what I said in the beginning of the year that we will start to see smaller projects, yes, we will start to see smaller pilots that we don't see sort of recognized in our licensing royalties as such. And then as we are seeing more and more commercial projects coming out of those, as we saw with the previous project that was implemented in the UAE now in the past quarter, the new signed ones and a strong pipeline, we're very positive to the development.
Next question. Are Desert Control or other partners facing any difficulties for LNC units with regards to stability, maintenance and downtime? Or are they a stable partner in making the earth greener?
Well, when it comes to really running the production units hard, it requires larger volume projects. They've performed stable in the projects that have run so far. And then I think we'll -- as we apply upgrade kits and these things to our partners as well moving forward, we will extend the value and the capabilities of these units. And I look very much forward also to having discussions with our partners on what volumes of units they will be requiring for increased demand as well as we move forward.
Next question. Can the market expect that frame and structure for future contracts will include all phases and cut off saved water costs similar to the one recently announced for Berkeley golf course?
So as I said, going forward, we will see a balanced market strategy with royalties coming from partners as one thing, sales of production units and hardware kits and stuff like that as one. And then on the client side, we'll see a combination of full-scale upfront paid projects. We'll see staged projects that will be paid in phases, framework agreements that commit to a certain volume over a number of years. And we'll see these type of MRR agreements that will generate monthly recurring revenues in type of outcome-based business models like Berkeley. I do definitely see that the Berkeley model will be attractive for a very specific segment in the golf course industry, may be interesting for the future to explore how such models can be not completely replicated, but elements of them can be applied to other sectors, et cetera, as we move forward. But we're not kind of like all-in on this specific model for all segments. We're taking a phased approach to bring those to market.
Next question. The market seems to have a very hard time understanding the commercial potential for the pilots in the U.S. Have you in the quarterly presentation thought about quantifying and visualizing what full-scale contracts may lead into figures? It will definitely provide insights to investors that are sitting curious on the fence.
Yes. I believe maybe that question could have been submitted before we touched on Slide #10, I think, in the presentation today where we actually did that. And there also, I want to remind the audience here that we said previously that we were -- the only guiding we were giving in the past was around the number of pilots we were targeting to secure per quarter, right? So if you remember, we always talked about securing these 5 pilots every quarter, and that was what we've been reporting on. So, that's what we've been sharing in this pipeline slide, with also visualizing where these pilots are. And as I said today, now we're starting to get to a maturity of a lot of that pipeline, as well as such a high volume that it becomes impossible to really follow this and make any meaningful information out of it.
So, what we said as well earlier this year is that we will transition for 2025 to have a very different type of information sharing where we move from just having this 5 pilots per quarter type of guidance to start sharing the information about our actual pipeline development, the volume that it represents. And we'll start to do that in a much more granular level as well from the Q1 report. You'll still get a Q4 report where we accumulated on the year like you saw in today's presentation. But then from Q1 going forward, you'll see a much more granular type of information set, where you will see which areas we believe the most in, where the conversion rates are higher and how it's converting to revenue as we go forward.
For the Berkeley golf course agreement, do Desert Control get an income just for the cut of water savings? Or will a payment be generated with LNC is applied to the resort?
So with Berkeley Country Club, it's a pure-play outcome-based business model. And I shared very detailed information in the slide in our presentation today about how that revenue is going to be generated, and it's generated as a cut that we will earn from the water savings achieved. So, we're also looking at bridged models here, which will combine an upfront payment with a monthly recurring revenue model. So, there is more to come. It's a very exciting area.
The next question. You have consistently expressed optimism about the future, yet the market doesn't seems to share the same enthusiasm. The lack of shareholder value may impact the attractiveness and potential to investors. What steps does the company plan to take to address this gap and attract investors? And have you engaged with private industrial or institutional investors about making a larger investment?
So, I think that there are a lot of complexities of being a very early-stage public start-up company, right, before you're in the operating mode where you're continuously guiding on EBITDA improvements and standard financial KPIs, right? So, I do understand that, especially, shorter-term focused investors may look at the time it takes to convert this really exciting opportunity pipeline that we're working on that I've shared with you today, that it takes time to convert that into revenue, maybe like watching grass grow. We actually love watching grass grow and see that we can make it grow with a lot less water and fertilizer and inputs and generating more yield.
So, I think some of the complexities is related to this, as well as having a very fragmented shareholder base means that there's a lot of shareholders who have interest for being part in this journey, but we don't have the big institutional investors that make up a huge share in driving our business. Then we become with low trading volumes, of course, volatile. I think if we compare our performance in that segment to others who listed on Euronext Growth, I think we'll find that we have performed pretty well. And I think we've been very transparent and consistent with our development. And I'm also positive by encouragement from many of our existing shareholders on the development. And I hope that being even more granular on communicating the tangible value in terms of pipeline of what we're creating will create stronger engagement and interest in taking part of our journey as an investor as well.
The next question is related to golf. Have you been in contact with the Professional Golf Association to explore the possibility of securing a larger contract with them?
Yes. I will give credit to Kevin, our commercial lead who runs sales and business development for this segment. His experience in the industry is just second to none. He has an enormous credibility, huge network. He is, in addition to driving in the sales contract for us, together with Marty and Evan and the team over in the U.S., building relationship with industry associations, with water authorities and the key networks and stakeholders around what we do as well to make sure that we align with both upcoming and future incentives for water conservation that we gain access to organizations that set the standards even for how golf course management and turf management is to be done. So, we're definitely working on all these fronts. And as I said, with the introduction also of outcome-based business models that we will explore further, we're very confident that we will see several full-course deployment on a larger scale fully implemented during 2025.
The next question is related to agriculture. Which date farm in the phase -- is in Phase II? Is Griffin Ranches moving forward? Does the potential value of a full-scale implementation is in line with the NOK 200 million seeded by Arctic's analysis given the reduced costs? Could you provide a ballpark estimate potential earnings?
So, I'm not going to dive into forecasting single projects here. I said that when we come to our Q1 reporting for next year going forward, we'll give a much more granular pipeline view and details on the specific must-win battles on the larger sales opportunities, right? But when it comes to the Stage 2 deployments on the date side, we've had clients that have gone directly to Stage 2 there, as I've noted previously, and we are having very positive conversations with them on how to drive this forward.
Next question. In 2021, you ran multiple pilot projects, including a 200-hectare VIP property as well with projects with sweet corn and trees. These were set to lead the negotiations for commercial contracts. What is the current status?
Well, these are -- these, are you referring to projects in the Middle East? And several of those are still in active opportunity stage handed over to our partners. So, we have not abandoned these type of opportunities, and they have been an important reference foundation for other projects that have been won in the UAE as well, such as the deployments with Masdar City and the larger real estate deployment that was done in the past quarter as well.
You have 22 agricultural pilots and 12 landscaping pilots in operation. Can you provide the split between the U.S., the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates?
So to be very clear, it was in the headline of the slide as well. The projects there that we talk about, these 42 projects in total are U.S. only, right? So, we're here only talking about the U.S. pipeline. So, everything that is coming from the Middle East is in addition to what we've presented here.
The next question. When do you expect to achieve possible operational results? And when is the potential of royal (sic) [ royalty ] payments the next 1 and 2 years?
So, I think when it comes to the royalty payments, what to anticipate is a steady growth of the smaller-scale revenues. We do anticipate that the work that is being done to position LNC as an integrated part of regulatory frameworks for water conservation requirements will start to lead to substantial results in the UAE. We do believe that these type of initiatives will be replicated across the region. There is a significant stakeholder influence being done by our partner in Saudi Arabia comparably. So, we foresee the type of Stage 1 to Stage 2 deployments to start to continue to generate revenue, along with the type of commercial projects we've seen on landscaping programs and developments like in the UAE. And then the exciting thing about the Middle East is really the nature of these huge mega opportunities, which are very fluent in time and how these opportunities develop. But I can tell you that both of our partners are in discussions with significant, large, large, large opportunities, government driven as well as private sector.
And the moment when they start to move, it is a huge opportunity behind them. I think we've -- for those of you who follow social media, you'll see that huge landscaping contractors are excited by LNC and working with Desert Control's partners in the region to explore these opportunities. We get constant feedback that in discussions with some of these large government entities that the LNC value proposition is something that is really fully, fully aligned with many of the national priorities in the country as well. So, I'm very optimistic, but I'm also careful about overinflating expectations to say that they will happen immediately. I believe that we'll see entering more meaningful contracts towards the end of this year and into the new year that will develop this market. And I'd rather want to underpromise and overdeliver, but I'm extremely optimistic about the big potential of the region and the capabilities that our partners are developing.
The next question is, seeing the influx of government support for renewable companies, have you applied or do you expect to receive any form of government or other support?
Yes, we do. We do. These things also take time to develop and sort of go through the qualifications of. But we do see it in California now. We have identified several programs like this that we have very positive feedback that we will be a good match on. Many of the programs are also made in such a way that it's not the technology provider. In other words, it's not Desert Control who will apply for them, but many of them are made in a way where it is the client who qualifies for them and can include a Desert Control project as one of the initiatives that they will get support for. So also, as I mentioned, in the Middle East, our partners are working towards getting LNC into these type of frameworks, which could have multiple outcomes. It could be that it's incentives that help the clients cover some of the cost of these type of investments. It can be strong recommendations. And in the best case, it becomes mandatory to actually implement these type of technologies to be able to run irrigated activities.
We have many questions this time. So, we need to read all of them. So, are the new production units something that you plan to sell to partners? If so, what is the potential revenue from these sales?
So definitely, I mean, to our partners, we aim to support them with sales of units and components, and driving this business forward. I mentioned that once we're done with the lockdown of the final design of the production unit, one of the priorities will be also upgrade kits to make sure that we can get as most as possible out of the existing fleet and increase the value of the CapEx that is already deployed.
And what I've said earlier is that the new next-generation production system, I mean, significantly higher production capacity, lighter, more flexible units, lower operational costs, lower number of operators per unit, et cetera, will also be attractive for our partners. And they also, compared to a full cluster that we had previously, will come at a significant lower cost as well. So, these will be benefits for our partners. And we do expect to see, as I said previously, also hardware revenues as a line item in our revenues going forward.
I understand that clients do not pay upfront investment, but a fee over time. How much capital does Desert Control do to invest upfront into a project? And how far upfront investment limited the factor of growth to burden the working capital? Does Desert Control need to raise equity capital to implement projects by diluting to shareholders?
So, I mean, that's a very long question with lots of questions inside it, right? So, let me just rephrase and make sure that we're clear here. So the outcome-based where we only receive a cut of the value that we create type of business model is something that we are exploring for the first time with Berkeley Country Club. We are looking to explore that model with at least a handful of golf courses in various types of shapes and formats, right? So that may also, as I said previously, be a combination of a down payment model with an upfront payment that is not the full sales value of, if they had bought it upfront and implemented it, where the reward on the client side of the outcomes is more incentivized by paying a percentage of this upfront. But remember, this is only for a limited market. I think there may be opportunities to take elements of it into other sectors as well. But our general model in the agricultural market still remains the upfront payment model where it could be also in a stage deployment, right, where they're paying per deployment because some of these farmers may have limited availability of capital at each single occasion. So, there are multiple flexible ways to do this.
When it comes to sort of, could we take on a huge share of these type of contracts? Well, then I would go back and look at the nature of this. So, say, we took on 5, 6 of these type of outcome-based business model contracts in the landscaping segment, then we would have some capital expenditure, yes, and some outlay upfront to do these that we would see in year 1. But then as that cost is taken, those clients would generate sufficient contribution to fund the next group of 5, 6 clients in year 2, et cetera. So, there could be opportunities to more or less build a self-funding model for such a segment, right? But I also said that we have a prototype unit now and the team that we have over there, and we can deliver a set of clients with that. When we see the market is ready to really adopt at a larger rate and scale this, then we can do that by adding more units and by adding more people, et cetera. And that will naturally require investment, which I think will be exciting investments to do to keep growing our business.
Last quarter, you guided for contracts in golf and larger strategic contracts in the Middle East by the end of the year. Given that this was a new golf course, does this guidance still in hold?
Yes. So I said, we do anticipate to have our first contract for a full-scale deployment in the golf course segment before the end of the year. We have achieved that now. There could come more news before the end of the year on top of this. But this is what we've been working on and why we had reason to have strong confidence in what we said last quarter that we foresee closing the year with at least a full commitment for a full-scale deployment in the golf segment, right? When it comes to seeing larger-scale contracts in the Middle East, there is already a contract secured there now for another 1.8 million liters of LNC. That's not necessarily a mega contract, but the contract is with a mega organization that has significant, significant potential to continue rolling out even larger segments than the one we see right now.
This question starts like, do you have any news around the pilot of the World Food program early mentioned it?
Yes. So when it comes to that, we've said that we want to take a conservative approach, and we didn't include anything on it in our Q3 report as such because we want to have the contract finally signed and everything dotted up and the final structure laid out on the subcontracting part, how everything is going to be done, and it's in a very challenging part of the world, which is also why it's very valuable for the United Nations and WFP to execute such a program in the Middle East.
So once the contract is signed, it's expected to be not too far in the future. We will share information about this. And I'm very proud and excited to see the WFP having scouted Desert Control and LNC as a potential impact technology that can contribute to be a drought impact solution to prevent the disasters of famine and hunger that is driven by these type of events. So, we have high hopes for it -- for the outcomes of it. But again, also keep in mind, when you're working with governments and huge NGOs like this, this is not an over-the-night type of happening, right? It's also fairly long processes to put it into the type of structures that it needs to be ready for large-scale deployments in their initiatives.
Next question. In the Q2 report, you mentioned even more partnerships like Syngenta coming up in the Q4. Can you elaborate on this?
Well, we will report significant partnerships as we go along. We are very honored and humbled actually by seeing large organizations reaching out to us with the interest of exploring partnerships. At the same time, we also have to realize that we are not a corporate entity with hundreds of people who can actually drive these kind of initiatives and making sure that we don't spread our resources too thin so that we really build success and traction with the partnerships that we're starting is important as well. So, I think that is our priority.
Also working with these partners to look at, well, having a partnership and sort of all, everything is great, and we can create some soil health value around it and stuff like that, that can help to power our innovation development on our side. But we also need to be focused on how are we going to convert it into shared opportunities that will convert into a dollar value, right? There has to be identified the proper parallel interests where there will be increased value for both parties in a commercial setting. And I don't want to jump to a lot of other partnerships before. We actually can see the pure-play pathway of driving economic value out of the partnerships that we are starting. But I'm very, very, very honored and humbled to see that we are getting that kind of recognition.
Next question. What is the status of the United Nations and the peer-reviewed research article?
So, I think we touched already on the United Nations program. On the peer-reviewed article, we are still not through a peer review on that. We did start early. I mean, it's a 5-year program where the final report will be what the actual publication will be based on, but we're making efforts to get a publication out earlier and they do require multiple years of data sets to pass through. So, we're still working through that. It's not in the pipeline to be published yet, but still work in progress.
Next question. What is the conversion rate of projects from Phase I to Phases 2 and 3 so far?
So, I think that's answered in the slide that we went through earlier today in the pipeline slide, where we showed the number of Stage 2 projects, right? So out of the 42 projects, we do have 4 agricultural ones in place in Stage 2 and the 2 landscaping ones. And then Berkeley will -- when we now get to move forward, we already have the commitment for a Stage 3 one directly with them. And we have Limoneira with their first section of commercial deployment in the Stage 3 so far.
We have the next question. Some more news from the University of Arizona? Or is a midterm report still on work situation?
Yes, no, I think that was covered in the previous question as well, where I say this is still a work in progress.
Which regulatory hurdles remain before LNC can be supported with grants in the U.S? The United States Department of Agriculture, USD, announced in October 2, up for $7.7 billion in assistance for the fiscal year 2025 to help agricultural and forestry producers to adopt conservation practices on work sites. Which -- will LNC will be relevant here?
Yes. So, I think that's what I mentioned in -- previously as well, where I do see there is an opportunity for LNC to fit into several of these programs already at the current stage. So remember that it's not Desert Control in many of these cases when you talk about these USDA programs who qualify for these type of support systems, but it is the grower, the farmer, the landowner, et cetera, who will be the one that will be applying for it and documenting it. And in many of these type of programs, it's approved on a case-by-case setting, where we are looking at sort of potentials for getting in as a more pre-approved technology in a program that will recommend or enforce certain technologies. Those are more longer-term programs. That is also on our radar for the U.S., and our partners are working actively with in the Middle East.
The next question. Will Australia be in your map moving forward during 2025 and 2026?
Well, I think Australia is a huge market. We kind of look at it on the map. It's a lot of sort of sandy areas, especially sort of the Western region, increasing water costs, et cetera. So it is a very interesting future market, and it is part of our expansion strategy. We want to make sure that we have rig things in a robust way to really enter that market and find the right strategy for go-to-market strategy, type of partners, et cetera, that will be needed to be successful, et cetera.
So it's definitely on our roadmap. I will not commit to that it's a 2025 priority. We still have a good foundation to turn into real revenue generation in the U.S. and the Middle East. And it is important not to try to boil the ocean as well. So making sure we are successful and building momentum where we are, before we then move forward and finding the right bridge points on how to start preparatory activities to truly understand the market before we land on the ground. There is also things that we will be starting much earlier, of course.
We have a next question. You have both great number of incoming clients and big partnerships coming up. Have you considered expanding the team to handle of this and also to handle a scale-up period coming up?
Yes. So, we are not overcapitalized to really just start to build the teams and expand the organization dramatically, right? So, we have to make sure that we have a well-balanced approach to this. And I think the beauty of our business model is that it's fairly capital-light compared to many others, right? And the build time of capacity is not like in some industries, you need to build a factory, which can take years just to get the land permits and stuff like that, right? For us, it's almost hit the button and a number of months later, the production capacity is spinning online. So, that gives us the opportunity to take a flexible approach where we can, based on certainty on conversion rates and signed contracts, really decide when we start to deploy more CapEx.
I think that's also the advantage that our partners are seeing in the Middle East with this type of business model. And then as you start to deploy that capacity, you also need to have a ramp-up model with people and teams and everything around it. And it becomes sort of a breakpoint at some point. Should you continue slowly and gradually to try to finance this over your operation? I mean the market is huge, right? So at some point, when we are at that stage, well, then you will want to fuel this with growth investments to really start to build and deploy capacity to really build a substantial organization at scale and so on.
There are so many questions today, but I will resume this -- I think this question resumes perfectly about the expectations for 2025, and is how will Desert Control finance the expected scaling of new projects in 2025 is going to be forward?
Yes, yes. So, well, I mean, there can be multiple lenses and viewpoints to that question, right? So when it comes to the golf course deployments that I talked about, where we're taking some investments upfront to launch this business model. We can do -- with our current financial status, we can do a number of these projects because we can do it without deploying more capital for units, et cetera, and without expanding the organization. However, the question comes into play where we see that, well, I mean, I talked about, okay, 20, 30 of these projects would be very interesting because that would put us in a very interesting position, right? So, shall we develop that gradually or slowly over time? Or do we want to accelerate and get that faster where growth investments to really fuel that becomes an attractive option, right?
So, there are multiple ways to look at this. I think the good thing is that we have -- we're not in a sense of emergency where we're running out of cash in the beginning of the year or anything. We have now a financial runway that takes us to Q4 2025. And I think looking at how we then develop our commercial opportunities and the programs that will be essential to scale this to the next stage will be the decisive ones on how to really rig this as well financially for capitalizing on those opportunities.
We have a last question. Does the United Arab Emirates government has a national strategy to combat desertification? Are your partners engaged in their initiatives?
Yes, they are. They are. They are at really all on multiple levels. And that goes both for our partner in the UAE with their initiatives with the local authorities there on this, as well as sort of lots of opportunities in the follow-up of COP28 that was hosted there. Now, we've got a desertification COP event coming up in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, where both of our partners are active. I look forward to being there and supporting them, and also myself meeting with key influencers and stakeholders in that arena. So, yes.
Thank you so much for this Q&A session. We're just going to take -- if we didn't reply to any of the questions, we will. But I think we have replied to most of them. Thank you so much.
So, I will switch back to the presentation to wrap it up then. And there were so many good questions that we are well over time in the presentation today. But thank you for great questions and good engagement in the session today.
Before we close, I want to remind you to take note of the disclaimer relating to forward-looking statements. And I close it all off with thanking you for the attention for joining us today. We will upload the presentation shortly as well to our website. And this time also, you will find our most recently updated complete company presentation as an appendix there. It can be a good refresher for those of you who have known us for a while and great for any new ones that are on the line with us today.
So again, thank you very much for joining us to this company update. And I look forward to sharing more updates with you in the Q4 update that will take place in the new year. And in the meantime, a continued success to all of you, and thanks for joining.