NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. – Aspen Aerogels Inc. widened its loss by 405.6 percent in the first quarter to $9.1 million, or 39 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.8 million, or 8 cents per share, during the same year-ago period, the company said in its earnings release on Thursday.
Revenue fell 29.9 percent to $23 million from $32.8 million a year ago, the energy technology company said Thursday.
Don Young, president and CEO of Aspen Aerogels, said first-quarter earnings reflected the impact of constrained capital investment and low activity levels in global energy markets, adding that the ensuing results were as expected.
Young blamed continued softness in its downstream and subsea businesses, as well as the end of shipments to a South Asia petrochemical project on the revenue decrease. He said that decline in revenue, paired with more expenses associated with patent enforcement actions, led to the decrease in net income.
However, he said the company made “solid progress” during the first quarter on efforts to diversify its markets and expand its aerogel technology platform reach.
“We saw strong activity in the district energy and LNG markets and remain on track to introduce products optimized for the power market in the second half of 2017,” Young said in a statement.
“We also remain committed to sustaining our investment in new aerogel technologies, innovative products and strategic partnerships to drive long-term growth in a diversified set of markets. During the quarter, we continued work on our joint development initiatives with BASF focused on the building materials market. We see our efforts with BASF as a blueprint for additional partnerships with world class companies to expand the markets served by our aerogel technology platform. We believe these product and market development efforts and strategic partnerships will position Aspen for strong long-term growth,” Young added.
Aspen entered into a strategic partnership with the German chemical company BASF SE in July to create new product and market opportunities.
Looking ahead, Aspen expects total revenue between $102 million and $112 million in 2017, and a net loss between $18.2 million and $21.2 million. The net loss per share is expected to range between 78 cents and 91 cents.
Lori Stabile is the PBN Web Editor.
