Revenue Recognition

12 Months Ended

Oct. 31, 2023

Revenue Recognition

Revenue Recognition

Note 2. Revenue Recognition

Contract Balances

Contract assets as of October 31, 2023 and 2022 were $42.1 million ($25.8 million long-term) and $20.7 million ($9.7 million long-term), respectively. The contract assets relate to the Company’s rights to consideration for work completed but not yet billed. These amounts are included on a separate line item as Unbilled receivables, and balances expected to be billed later than one year from the balance sheet date are included within Other assets on the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets. We bill customers for power platform and power platform component sales based on certain contractual milestones being reached. We bill service agreements based on the contract price and billing terms of the contracts. Generally, our Advanced Technologies contracts are billed based on actual revenues recorded, typically in the subsequent month. Some Advanced Technologies contracts are billed based on contractual milestones or costs incurred. The net change in contract assets represents amounts recognized as revenue offset by customer billings. For the years ended October 31, 2023 and 2022, a total of $12.9 million and $5.3 million, respectively, was transferred to accounts receivable from contract assets recognized at the beginning of the period.

Contract liabilities as of October 31, 2023 and 2022 were $3.1 million and $25.4 million, respectively. The contract liabilities relate to the advance billings to customers for services that will be recognized over time and in some instances for deferred revenue relating to variable consideration for previously sold products. The net change in contract liabilities represents customer billings offset by revenue recognized.

Consideration Payable to a Customer

As of October 31, 2023, the Company has recorded $6.3 million ($6.0 million long-term) as consideration payable to a customer which is included within Other current assets and Other assets on the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets. The Company received payment for the sale of an investment tax credit during the year ended October 31, 2023 and the net amount of $6.3 million will be recorded as a reduction to revenue during the period of measurement.

Contract modification

As a result of the settlement reached with POSCO Energy Co., Ltd. (“POSCO Energy”), the Company evaluated its various license agreements with POSCO Energy as well as all of the terms of the settlement agreement with POSCO Energy, which was effective December 20, 2021 (the “Settlement Agreement”).  As part of this analysis, the Company considered the accounting surrounding the execution of the Settlement Agreement, reviewed all elements related to its license agreements with POSCO Energy and the Settlement Agreement and considered any potential contingencies in these license agreements and whether any proceeds were related to the litigation settlement.

Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the Company agreed that its license agreements with POSCO Energy were not terminated, but instead were deemed to be amended such that POSCO Energy and its subsidiary, Korea Fuel Cell Co., Ltd. (“KFC”, and with POSCO Energy, collectively, “PE Group”), only have the right (i) to provide maintenance and repair services to PE Group’s then existing customers on then existing molten carbonate power generation and thermal projects under long-term service agreements then in force as well as long-term service agreements that had expired and were pending renewal as of the settlement date (collectively, “Existing LTSAs”), (ii) to supply replacement modules purchased from the Company only for their existing customers for existing molten carbonate power generation and thermal projects under Existing LTSAs and (iii) to own, operate and maintain all facilities and factories solely for the purposes set forth in (i) and (ii) above (collectively, the “Right to Service License”) and further agreed to sell modules with a service warranty pursuant to a module sales agreement to be negotiated by the parties after execution of the Settlement Agreement. As such, the Company considers the execution of the Settlement Agreement to be a contract modification as it resulted in a change in both the scope and price of a contract with a customer.  Therefore, the Company accounted for such modification under the contract modification guidance included within ASC 606 (Revenue from Contracts with Customers).  Further, the Company noted that none of the parties to the Settlement Agreement specifically acknowledged any payment of damages or reimbursement of any costs related to the matters settled under the Settlement Agreement, which supports the conclusion that the overall settlement was a form of contract modification. Additionally, the transaction price allocated to the modified contract did not exceed the stand-alone selling prices (“SSP”) of the performance obligations under the modified contract such that there was no indication of a premium that would indicate that a portion of the transaction price related to something other than the promised goods or services.

The Company identified two performance obligations in the Settlement Agreement which included the sale of 20 modules and an option to purchase an additional 14 modules. The Company assessed the SSP of the modules utilizing a cost-plus margin approach to arrive at $3.0 million per module which was recognized upon transfer of control of such modules to KFC via title transfer consistent with the Company’s established revenue recognition policies.  The Company is also providing a performance guarantee for up to seven years with each module to cover any annual output penalty that would need to be paid by PE Group to a customer. The Company determined that this performance guarantee represented variable consideration and estimated a value of $0.65 million per module, which resulted in accrual of $13.1 million as of October 31, 2022 upon the sale of twenty modules during the year ended October 31, 2022. A portion of this variable consideration was recognized as revenue when it was determined that there were no amounts due under the performance guarantee. In its analysis at the time of execution of the Settlement Agreement, the Company determined that it was probable that KFC would exercise its option to purchase an additional 14 modules (with a performance guarantee) beyond the firm order of 20 modules, to which it was contractually committed. KFC’s right to purchase the additional 14 modules expired without being exercised on December 31, 2022, and as a result $9.1 million was recognized as product revenue during the year ended October 31, 2023.

The Company signed a long-term service agreement (“LTSA”) with Noeul Green Energy Co., Ltd. (“Noeul Green Energy”) in July 2023. Under this LTSA, once the Company, KFC/Posco International Company, and Noeul Green Energy (the “LTSA Parties”) agreed to the technical transfer specifications under a Final Acceptance Test (the “FAT”) with respect to the transfer to Noeul Green Energy of 16 of the 20 modules previously sold by the Company to KFC pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, the LTSA Parties signed a document that released KFC/POSCO International Company from any obligations to service these modules, and concurrently transferred that obligation to the Company. The FAT is effective for 16 of the 20 modules sold to KFC pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, which are now used by Noeul Green Energy. Because the Company is no longer obligated to perform any service or other obligations under the Settlement Agreement with respect to the 16 modules now used by Noeul Green Energy, the Company recognized a ratable portion of the previously accrued variable consideration of $13.1 million which resulted in recognition of $10.5 million of product revenue during the year ended October 31, 2023.

EMTEC Joint Development Agreement

Effective as of October 31, 2019, the Company entered into a Joint Development Agreement (as amended, the “EMTEC Joint Development Agreement”) with ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company (formerly known as ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company) (“EMTEC”), pursuant to which the Company has engaged in exclusive research and development efforts with EMTEC to evaluate and develop new and/or improved carbonate fuel cells to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from industrial and power sources, in exchange for (i) payment by EMTEC of certain fees and costs (including research costs of up to $45.0 million) as well as certain milestone-based payments, and (ii) certain licenses.

In Amendment No. 1 to the EMTEC Joint Development Agreement (“Amendment No. 1”), which was executed on October 29, 2021 and effective as of October 31, 2021, the Company and EMTEC agreed, among other things, to extend the term of the EMTEC Joint Development Agreement to April 30, 2022. Amendment No. 1 allowed for the continuation of research intended to enable incorporation of design improvements to Company fuel cell design in order to support a decision to use the improvements in a potential future demonstration of the technology for capturing carbon at an ExxonMobil refinery located in Rotterdam, Netherlands (such demonstration, the “Rotterdam Project”) and provided additional time to achieve the first milestone under the EMTEC Joint Development Agreement.

In a related letter agreement between the Company and EMTEC, dated as of October 28, 2021 and executed on October 29, 2021 (the “2021 Letter Agreement”), the Company agreed to invest with EMTEC in the Rotterdam Project, should EMTEC move forward with the Rotterdam Project. In the 2021 Letter Agreement, the Company agreed that, if (i) the Company achieved the first milestone under the EMTEC Joint Development Agreement (which occurred in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, resulting in a $5.0 million payment to the Company which the Company received in the second quarter of fiscal year 2022) and (ii) EMTEC and the Company execute a contractual agreement to proceed with the Rotterdam Project, then at EMTEC’s option, the Company will either make an investment in the amount of $5.0 million in the Rotterdam Project or discount EMTEC’s purchase of the Company’s fuel cell module and detailed engineering design, as agreed to by the parties, required for the Rotterdam Project by said amount.

On April 29, 2022, the Company and EMTEC entered into Amendment No. 2 (“Amendment No. 2”) to the EMTEC Joint Development Agreement, which was effective as of April 30, 2022 and which increased the maximum amount of research costs to be reimbursed by EMTEC from $45.0 million to $50.0 million and further extended the term to December 31, 2022. In Amendment No. 2, the Company and EMTEC also agreed to conduct a joint market study to (a) define application opportunities, commercialization strategies, and development requirements, (b) identify partners for potential pilot/demonstration projects and (c) assess fuel cell/stack/module manufacturing scale-up and cost reduction.

On December 19, 2022, the Company and EMTEC entered into Amendment No. 3 (“Amendment No. 3”) to the EMTEC Joint Development Agreement, which was effective as of December 1, 2022. In Amendment No. 3, the Company and EMTEC agreed to further extend the term of the EMTEC Joint Development Agreement such that it would end on August 31, 2023 and to further increase the maximum amount of research costs to be reimbursed by EMTEC from $50.0 million to $60.0 million. Amendment No. 3 (i) allowed for continuation of research intended to enable the parties to finalize data collection in support of the project gate decision for the Rotterdam Project, (ii) allowed for the continuation of the development, engineering and mechanical derisking of the Generation 2 Technology fuel cell module prototype, and (iii) allowed for studying the manufacturing scale-up and cost reduction of a commercial Generation 2 Technology fuel cell carbon capture facility.

On August 25, 2023, the Company and EMTEC entered into Amendment No. 4 to the EMTEC Joint Development Agreement (“Amendment No. 4”), effective as of August 31, 2023. In Amendment No. 4, the Company and EMTEC agreed to further extend the term of the EMTEC Joint Development Agreement such that it will end on March 31, 2024 (unless terminated earlier) and to further increase the maximum amount of research costs to be reimbursed by EMTEC from $60.0 million to $67.0 million. Amendment No. 4 is intended to allow the parties the opportunity to continue (i) derisking of the Generation 2 Technology fuel cell module demonstration prototype and (ii) the joint marketing and sales efforts to inform development of a new business framework between the parties beyond the current joint development agreement structure.

During the year ended October 31, 2022, the Company achieved the first technical milestone under the EMTEC Joint Development Agreement and received payment of $5.0 million. At the time, the Company did not recognize revenue in connection with this milestone achievement as a result of its agreement with EMTEC to either make a $5.0 million investment in a demonstration of a Company fuel cell module for capturing carbon at Rotterdam Project or discount

EMTEC’s purchase of the Company’s fuel cell module and detailed engineering design for the Rotterdam Project by $5.0 million, should the Company enter into a contract with EMTEC to proceed with the Rotterdam Project.

In May 2023, the Company entered into a second letter agreement with EMTEC, pursuant to which the parties agreed that the conditions to the Company’s agreement to invest in the Rotterdam Project were met in April 2023 and, as a result, the Company will recognize $2.5 million of the $5.0 million milestone payment received in fiscal year 2022 as revenue across future deliverables to EMTEC. Of this $2.5 million, the Company recognized revenue of $0.3 million during the year ended October 31, 2023. The other $2.5 million of the $5.0 million milestone payment received under the EMTEC Joint Development Agreement in fiscal year 2022 was applied to discount EMTEC’s purchase of the Company’s fuel cell module and detailed engineering design for the Rotterdam Project. As of October 31, 2023, EMTEC had not yet made the decision to proceed with the Rotterdam Project.

Remaining Performance Obligations

Remaining performance obligations are the aggregate amount of total contract transaction price that is unsatisfied or partially unsatisfied. As of October 31, 2023, the Company’s total remaining performance obligations were $140.8 million for service agreements, $63.9 million for a generation PPA, $15.3 million for Advanced Technologies contracts and $0 for product revenues.