Ispire Technology Q3 2026 Earnings Call - Cash Flow Inflection Point and Malaysia Manufacturing Advantage

Conference Operator: Good day, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Ispire Technology Q3 2026 earnings conference call. Today, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance during today’s call, please signal for a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press Star then two. Please note that today’s event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to James Carbonara with Hayden Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

James Carbonara, Investor Relations, Hayden Investor Relations: Good afternoon, welcome to Ispire Technology’s fiscal third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact in its announcement are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by the company in terms of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions, and expected future developments, as well as other factors that the company believes are relevant. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown uncertainties, and many factors could cause the company’s actual results or performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding this and other risk factors are included in the company’s filings with the SEC.

The company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent or current events or circumstances or changes in expectation, except as may be required by law. I will now turn the call over to Michael Wang, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Ispire Technology. Michael, you may begin.

Michael Wang, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Ispire Technology: Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining us. This quarter marks a turning point for Ispire. Our business has stabilized. Our operating model is sharper and more disciplined. We ended the quarter with $18 million in cash, up $468,000 sequentially. This sequential cash growth is one of the clearest signs of progress in the quarter. It demonstrates improving financial control and a more focused operating posture, and reinforces our confidence in becoming cash flow positive in the second half of this calendar year 2026. The transition we set out to make is behind us. Now we are executing against a phased growth roadmap. Multiple catalysts, each tied to billion-dollar markets where we have clear competitive advantages. The first and most immediate of these is Malaysia.

Our Malaysia manufacturing platform is live today, and we believe this is one of the most strategically important developments in the company’s history. In addition, Malaysia provides us with an estimated 25% tariff advantage over China, giving us both economic and strategic leverage as we pursue opportunities in the $73 billion global vape market. This is both a manufacturing milestone and a structural advantage that we believe can support margin improvement, customer acquisition, and long-term market relevance. Second, plans are underway to launch our vapor ODM initiative in July. This initiative will initially serve small and mid-sized brands with larger brand opportunities targeted for 2027. We see this as another practical commercialization pathway that can convert our manufacturing, design, and regulatory capabilities into higher value customer relationships. Beyond these near-term drivers, we continue to build long-duration optionality through differentiated technology.

Through IKE Tech, we believe our age-gating platform has the potential to help unlock the approximately $50 billion-$70 billion U.S. flavored vape market. A market that remains effectively inaccessible today under the current framework. In parallel, our G-Mesh glass technology is growing interest in a $24 billion-plus legal global market, including licensing discussions with major tobacco participants. These are proprietary assets that could materially expand our strategic and financial opportunities beginning in 2027 and beyond. The accomplishments we achieved during the fiscal third quarter are clear. We strengthened liquidity, improved operating discipline, and advanced a roadmap with multiple high-value catalysts. We believe that combination gives Ispire a stronger foundation for both profitability and long-term shareholder value creation as we move forward. I will now turn the call over to Jay for a more detailed review of our financial results. Jay?

Jay, Chief Financial Officer, Ispire Technology: Thank you, Michael. For the fiscal 3rd quarter ended March 31, 2026, Ispire reported revenue of $18.7 million, compared with $26.2 million in the 3rd quarter of fiscal 2025, and $20.3 million in the prior quarter. The modest sequential decline primarily reflected seasonal factory downtime associated with Chinese New Year and represents the most resilient 2nd to 3rd quarter performance pattern in our history. Gross profit for the quarter was $2 million, and gross margin was 10.7%. Importantly, gross profit was impacted by approximately $2.2 million of one-time product returns from legacy cannabis customer, with whom we have ceased doing business. We view those returns as part of final cleanup associated with our strategic repositioning, not a representative of the normalized earning profile of the go-forward business.

In that sense, we view this quarter as one in which reported margin observed a legacy headwind, while the underlying business mix continues moving in an improved direction. On the cost side, we continued to make meaningful progress. Total operating expenses, excluding credit loss, were $5.9 million, down 36% year-over-year from $9.3 million and down 3.7% sequentially from $6.1 million in the December quarter. This performance reflects the impact sustained cost discipline and a more focused operating structure. It also reinforce our belief that profitability is increasingly a matter of near-term execution and skill. Credit loss in the quarter was $5.6 million, down roughly $500,000 year-over-year.

This improvement is another indication that the financial cleanup tied to legacy activity is moving in the right direction, and we are committed to continued discipline around receivables and working capital management. Net loss for the quarter was $9.5 million, compared with $10.9 million in the year-ago period and $6.6 million in the prior quarter. While the quarter still reflects transition-related pressure, the broader trend is encouraging. We have materially reduced our cost base while positioning the company for higher quality value streams and better operating leverage over time. We ended the quarter with $80 million in cash, an increase of approximately $468,000 sequentially. This sequential cash growth is a meaningful achievement in the context of an ongoing repositioning.

It strengths our balance sheet, support our near-term growth investments, and underpin our confidence in reaching cash flow positive performance in the second half of this calendar year 2026. From a financial perspective, the foundation for improved profitability has been built. The company is leaner, more disciplined, and better aligned with high-value growth markets. I will now turn the call back to Michael.

Michael Wang, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Ispire Technology: Thank you. This quarter marks the beginning of a new phase for Ispire. The transition in our business reflects reduced exposure to low-quality revenue and is now about converting that reset into a stronger earnings model, a stronger cash profile, and a stronger strategic position in global nicotine and compliance technology markets. Our priorities are clear. First, we are focused on profitability and the path to becoming cash flow positive in the second half of this calendar year 2026. We intend to build on the momentum we have established this quarter through operating discipline, working capital management, and the ramp of new revenue catalysts. Second, we are focused on winning from a position of strategic advantage.

Our licensed manufacturing presence in Malaysia gives us a highly differentiated foothold in a critical geography with regulatory exclusivity and tariff advantages that we believe can translate into both commercial and financial benefits over time. Malaysia is a platform for expansion. Finally, we are building a company with multiple avenues for value creation. Near-term scale commercialization through vapor ODM and longer-term upside through age-gating and G-Mesh. Together, these initiatives create a diversified roadmap that we believe is unusual in our industry and compelling from an investor perspective. Thank you for your time and continued support. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw it, please press star then two. We will now pause momentarily to assemble our. Today’s first question comes from Nick Anderson with ROTH Capital Partners. Please proceed.

Nick Anderson, Analyst, ROTH Capital Partners: Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions, and congrats on the quarter. First for me, just on the vape news and the recent flavored approval, there was discussion around the digital leash software, which maybe was a reason the FDA viewed that application favorably. I guess 2 questions off that. Do you believe proximity-based restrictions will be the path the FDA takes? If so, do you have the ability to incorporate that into your tech if you don’t have it already? Thank you.

Michael Wang, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Ispire Technology: Nick, thank you. The first part of the question, actually, I will go straight to the second part. Yes, we do have that built into our solution. From day one, that was the key differentiation between our technology and other solutions out there. More importantly, our platform is now moving out of the old app model more into a platform model. This again reinforced the continuous authentication capabilities. More importantly, because it’s a platform, we would allow for brands to customize and set their own, I guess, performance parameter, you can say.

Really brand, from brand to brand, we provide that capability because we also want to make sure brands, in dealing with the different regulations across the world, they can set the parameters differently country by country, depending on regulations too. A simple answer is yes, we have the continuous authentication capability, and it’s in our solution. The advantage really is so, many solutions out there, especially solutions developed years ago, tend to be, either having the device turned on, after initial age verification and then stay on forever, which is, of course, highly undesirable from a regulatory point of view. Or, they would have a periodic, re-authentication or verification. That also create gaps where, potential misuse of the device could happen.

That’s why from day one, our solution was continuous authentication, and that proves to be very important to regulators, not only with FDA but outside the U.S. as well. Nick, I hope I answered your question.

Nick Anderson, Analyst, ROTH Capital Partners: Yeah. That’s perfect and very encouraging. Second for me, just on partnerships, this PMTA announcement also validated age gating positioning and getting flavors to market. I know this is maybe too early, but what have you seen with discussions with potential partners in terms of potentially accelerating off of this approval? What has changed in the last few days in terms of the clients you’re talking to?

Michael Wang, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Ispire Technology: You are right. Indeed, in the last 48 hours, up to 72 hours, the ground was moving per se. That’s really encouraging to us. Donald Trump’s pressure on the FDA obviously went a long way for the industry. The immediate approval of the 4 additional SKUs for Glass sent a strong signal to the industry. I think all the key players in the industry are familiar with the pros and cons of different solutions. Collectively, we have the shared consensus that our solution is most advanced versus other technologies. With the news over the last couple of days, certainly, we got accelerated existing conversations with brands.

In a couple of situations, we actually have even moved one step further, discussing using our technology in some of their existing PMTAs, through a so-called supplemental PMTA, to accelerate the approval of their flavored products. It’s clear, the industry recognize the floodgate is opening, and the age-gating is the only way to get a flavored approval. Lastly, with everybody’s understanding for our solution being far ahead of competition. We are absolutely getting I would say, yesterday, put it this way, I worked 17 hours. That’s much longer than my typical day of 12 hours. It says a lot about the effort we put into entertaining those conversations.

Nick Anderson, Analyst, ROTH Capital Partners: That’s great to hear. If I could squeeze just one more in on the state-by-state structures. With regulators becoming more constructive around vape, how do you anticipate states will respond? Several markets still have banned flavors, some have banned foreign imports. How do you see the state landscape changing as potentially more flavors come to market in the legal market? Thank you.

Michael Wang, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Ispire Technology: I think from a flavor ban point of view, those I think five, six states literally are aligned with FDA’s flavor ban. They are just, yeah, reinforcing these bans accordingly. From that point of view, there is a consistency. I certainly hope with FDA feeling comfortable with age-gating technology and start approving flavors, those states would align as well, would support approved flavors. Of course, we all know the general flavor ban in place right now is really trying to minimize the impact of a black market from selling devices to underage users. That was a real goal by those states. I think from that point of view, there is a perfect alignment with the FDA.

I certainly hope state would follow FDA’s lead in terms of supporting approved flavors. But regarding other state-by-state situation, Texas, for example, is driving toward banning China-made vaping devices. So that is absolutely supporting our strategy of producing our product in Malaysia. So I think that’s a plus for us. But some other state-by-state restrictions I think involve in probably banning disposables. We all know disposables are not environmentally friendly approach to vaping. I think the industry is moving further into pod systems versus disposable. California, I think, as we know, banned online sales to further protect consumers. I don’t think that is going to change.

That is the right policy because online sales is so hard to regulate and verify, certify. Ultimately, the true solution in protecting underage consumers or people and to protect adult consumers from using risky, dangerous product is by FDA approving flavored devices with age gating built in. I think I’m happy for the industry, knowing Glass devices were approved, and this is a new beginning for the industry. I’m happy for consumers. Certainly, this is a major win for the regulators as well. Instead of doing nothing, for flavored products, finally, this is the right thing to do. Using technology here to solve the problem. Nick, that’s my answer.

Nick Anderson, Analyst, ROTH Capital Partners: Great. That’s it for me. Congrats, and I’ll pass it on.

Conference Operator: This concludes today’s question and answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Michael Wang for any closing remarks.

Michael Wang, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Ispire Technology: Thank you, operator. Obviously, this quarter is a low quarter in terms of revenue for us. It’s not a surprise. Q3 has always been a low quarter due to the Chinese New Year shutdown of the factories. Generally, from Q2 to Q3, we saw over 30% drop in business. For this time, it’s only 8% drop. That’s really, as Jay indicated, it’s the lowest drop in history. What I do believe, from top line and bottom line point of view, Q3 was a low point. We feel very strongly, as Jay stated, our foundation is set solidly.

We have a lot of work to do, certainly, to prove to investors that we’re over the hump, and we are now on a upward trajectory. I look forward to sharing more performance and developments with investors in the coming month. Certainly, we are here to show what we can accomplish this current quarter and the September quarter. I hope there’ll be a trend to regain some of the investors’ trust and confidence, and we’ll never look back again. Thanks again to everybody on today’s call. This conclude it all. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.