UGE International Ltd. (UGE:TSX.V; UGEIF:OTC) has been growing rapidly. The company was awardedin June the largest contract in its history to engineer and build 15 new solar systems with Peterborough Utilities in Peterborough, Ontario, located about 1.5 hours from Toronto. According to UGE, the company was selected through a competitive process to “provide all engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning services on the projects based on UGE’s extensive experience, having successfully completed more 500 kW ground-mounted FIT projects than any other company in Ontario.”
According to UGE, under the Province of Ontario’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program, “customers install solar components and sell the energy back to the government of Ontario, which purchases the energy at a premium.”
The project is valued at approximately CA$20 million, a figure not far off from UGE’s current market cap of $23.9 million.
UGE also announced that it has secured “two power purchase agreements that will see solar systems installed at office buildings in New Jersey. The contracts are with a rapidly growing real estate ownership group.” The roof-mounted systems at two office buildings “are expected to generate more than 600 MWh of clean energy annually, resulting in significant energy cost savings.”
In the Annual Information Form (AIF) that UGE filed on July 31, the company noted that it has several key advantages over its current competitors:
1. UGE’s experience spans from 2008 to the present, and it has “over 330 megawatts of completed projects.”
2. UGE was first-to-market in building the first community solar project in New York City and was the first international solar company in the Philippines.
3. UGE’s “economies of scale and strong relationships with component suppliers allow it to have a competitive cost basis as it secures and builds solar projects.”
4. UGE’s “relationships with financiers and long-term investors allow the company’s clients to benefit from solar with no upfront cost.”
The company also stated in the AIF that it is focusing on three markets: Canada, particularly Ontario as it has “historically represented the vast majority of the Canadian solar market by installed capacity”; the northeastern U.S., “in both development of solar projects and in the engineering, procurement, and construction thereof”; and the Philippines, where it has “already developed several commercial solar projects in this market and will continue to scale up its local operations in the Philippines to expand its customer base.”
In Q1/17, UGE reported revenues of nearly CA$5.5 million, a figure that was nearly equal to the revenue for the entire year of 2016, CA$5.8 million. The company is expected to release Q2 revenues next week.
UGE International was featured as one of Canaccord Genuity’s Sustainability picks earlier this year. Analyst Raveel Afzaal commented that “UGE prereleased Q4/16 revenues of US$3.5M compared to cumulative revenues of US$2.5M over prior four quarters as it digested the acquisition of Endura (an EPC [Engineering, Procurement & Construction] firm). With integration complete, UGE is forecasting sharp revenue growth in 2017 based on its 12 to 18 months contracted backlog of US$35M.”
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