D-Box Technologies (TSX:DBO) held its first-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday. Below is the complete transcript from the call.

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Summary

D-Box Technologies reported strong financial performance for Q1 FY2027 with total revenues of $13.4 million, a 3% increase year-over-year, despite a 7% decline in system sales.

The company's strategic shift towards recurring revenue is evident as rights for use, rental, and maintenance revenues grew 25% year-over-year, contributing to a gross margin increase to 59%.

D-Box Technologies expanded its footprint to 1,233 active screens globally, reflecting a 17.8% year-over-year growth, with new partnerships with major U.S. cinema chains enhancing its market presence.

The company reported an adjusted EBITDA margin of 32%, demonstrating strong operating leverage due to its largely fixed-cost structure and recurring revenue model.

Management emphasized continued growth potential with less than 1% global cinema screen penetration and highlighted a strategic focus on expanding the D-Box footprint and maximizing shareholder value.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Good day and welcome to the D-Box Technologies first quarter of fiscal year 2027 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, President and CEO of D-Box Technologies, Naveen Persad. Please go ahead.

Naveen Persad, President and CEO

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. This is D-Box's first public earnings call, and it represents an important milestone for the company. Over the past year, we've introduced a clear new strategy and maintained a strong focus on execution. Today marks another step forward as we begin engaging with the investment community on a more regular basis, and we have a lot to share. We delivered a strong first quarter, we continue to make real strategic progress and, importantly, we're seeing the operating leverage in our business model translate into stronger profitability.

You'll hear more about each of those areas today. Joining me is David Read, our Chief Financial Officer, who will take you through the quarter's financial results in more detail before we open the call to your questions. A quick reminder on a disclaimer before we begin. This presentation contains forward-looking information about our future plans, strategy and financial performance. It involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from what we discuss today.

We also refer to non-IFRS measures, including adjusted EBITDA, which has no standardized meaning under IFRS and may not be comparable to measures used by other companies. Full detail is in our MD&A and continuous disclosure filings on SEDAR+. With that, let's turn to the business. At our core, D-Box is a haptic motion technology company. For more than 25 years we've been engineering immersive motion experiences across cinema, simulation and entertainment.

Here are three things I want to highlight. We are the fastest growing premium theatrical format in the world by screen counts. Our royalty revenue is growing even faster than our footprint. And with $17.8 million of cash as of June 30, we have a strong balance sheet and the flexibility to invest in our growth. We are exactly where we said we would be. Since this is our first earnings call, let me take a minute to explain our business and how the pieces fit together.

We serve three distinct customer groups on one common technology platform. Theatrical is our largest and most established business, with D-Box premium motion seats and 1,233 active screens across more than 40 countries as of June 30. Simulation and training serves defense and industrial customers where precision and realism are mission critical. And our sim racing business expands our platform into gaming, esports and experiential entertainment through both commercial sim centers and personal rigs globally.

The important point is these are not three separate businesses. They share the same core motion technology, engineering talent, manufacturing and supply base. That gives us genuine economies of scale without duplicating R&D or infrastructure. Each market makes the other two more efficient. Three end markets, one platform. With that context, let me show you how we make money. We do that through three interconnected steps. First, hardware sales. We sell our proprietary motion systems to cinema exhibitors and simulation customers around the world.

Each installation brings D-Box into a new venue and establishes the foundation for everything that follows. Second, haptic code design. For every new film released in D-Box, we work with our studio and distributor partners to design the motion profile that synchronizes seats to the action on screen. This is skilled, proprietary work. And third, and most important to long-term value, is royalty revenue. Every time a D-Box-enabled title plays in a D-Box-enabled auditorium, we earn a royalty.

It is recurring, high-margin revenue and it compounds with every screen we add. That is the engine of this business. Last year we introduced a shift in our corporate strategy designed to position D-Box for sustainable, profitable growth. One year later, we now have the benefit of continued screen growth, expanding recurring revenue, margin improvement and stronger profitability. Those results give us confidence in the strategic framework. We've established a clear, actionable roadmap for capital allocation, growth and value creation built on the unique strengths of our model.

Let me take you through it. The framework rests on four pillars: whitespace potential, technology leadership, our recurring revenue engine and profitability. The thesis is simple: expand our footprint in a significant, underpenetrated market; protect that footprint with technology that is difficult to replicate; turn every new screen into a long-term royalty stream; and let a large fixed cost base convert revenue growth into outsized profit growth.

All four show up directly in our Q1 results. Let me take each in turn. The most compelling part of the investment case is the scale of the opportunity still ahead of us. D-Box is installed in 1,233 of the world's more than 200,000 cinema screens—less than 1% penetration. And in North America, our most proven market, we earn fewer than 2% of the more than 40,000 screens available to us. This is a proven product with a proven economic model, in front of an extraordinary runway.

Exhibitors are prioritizing premiumization—higher per-patron yield, differentiated offerings and experiences audiences cannot get at home. D-Box delivers on all three. It is cost-effective, operationally simple, content agnostic, and something consumers pay a premium to access. And we are seeing that translate into new relationships. Since our last earnings release, we've announced the addition of DMV Theaters and Marcus Theaters to our exhibitor network—two major U.S. exhibitors with strong regional footprints. Those wins are evidence that our renewed focus on theatrical is translating into results. And just last night we announced another significant addition, Outfield Theaters, one of the largest cinema circuits in the United States, with an initial deployment across 13 screens and four theaters. Taken together, we believe these wins demonstrate accelerating momentum. They broaden our exhibitor network, validate the business case for D-Box, and create additional pathways to recurring royalty revenue.

Underlying that growth is a strong competitive moat. Our haptic motion technology is patented, proprietary and the product of more than 25 years of innovation. But importantly, what protects our position extends well beyond the technology itself. It includes longstanding relationships with the major Hollywood studios, a growing library of encoded content, a large install base, and deep in-house engineering and content expertise. These are all difficult and time-consuming for a competitor to ever replicate.

Our model also offers exhibitors a more capital-efficient approach. Unlike premium formats that require auditorium-wide renovations, D-Box allows exhibitors to concentrate their investment in the highest occupancy, highest-return seats. That lower, more targeted investment reduces upfront risk and allows exhibitors to deploy D-Box across multiple auditoriums. Many of our complexes now reach up to six D-Box auditoriums. And in certain networks, D-Box is installed in as much as 15% of the total screens.

That is the flywheel. More installations drive greater content availability. Greater availability drives awareness and attendance. And attendance supports exhibitor returns and further deployment. Now to the most powerful financial characteristic of our business. Every theatrical installation represents a long-term royalty stream. Rights-for-use, rental and maintenance revenues scale directly with the installed base at margins structurally superior to hardware.

This chart shows how durable that growth is. In fiscal 2025, North American box office declined 5%. Our royalty revenue still grew 27%. In fiscal 2026, box office grew 14% and our royalties grew 32%. And in the first quarter, royalty revenues grew 25% year over year against an 11.2% increase in North American box office—more than double the pace of the underlying market. Our three-year royalty CAGR is 19.6%. Whichever way the box office moves, our royalty revenue keeps compounding because every screen we add widens the base it is earned on.

This is not a spike. It is a structural shift towards higher-margin, more predictable income. And because the cost base is largely fixed, each incremental royalty dollar flows through to EBITDA at a very favorable rate. Another important part of that recurring revenue engine is our content leadership. We believe that elite premium theatrical formats tie to encoded content, and our content goes well beyond the blockbusters historically associated with D-Box.

In the first quarter, that included Disney's The Devil Wears Prada 2 alongside the other major releases audiences expect from us. That breadth comes from a relationship built with every major studio and distributor over more than two decades. Rentrak's recent announcement that D-Box's box office performance will now be reported independently from the rest of the auditorium is further evidence of that standing. For the first time, exhibitors and studios can more clearly measure the performance of D-Box as a premium offering.

Content and footprint reinforce one another—more encoded content makes every screen more valuable, and a larger footprint makes every studio partnership more valuable. And that brings us to profitability, where the impact of the strategy becomes very clear. Look at the progression of our adjusted EBITDA margin: 5% in fiscal 2023, 8% in fiscal 2024, 17% in fiscal 2025 and 27% for full fiscal year 2026. In absolute dollars, that's $1.8 million growing to $15.4 million.

That is not just incremental improvement; it is a fundamental re-rating of this business's profitability, and the trend is continuing. In the first quarter, adjusted EBITDA was $4.3 million at a 32% margin. This is a scalable, largely fixed-cost platform. As royalty revenues grow, the incremental cost to deliver it is minimal and that operating leverage flows straight through to EBITDA. It also gives us flexibility to be creative, including offering sales financing to customers to manage their own capital constraints, without compromising our margin trajectory.

The takeaway is clear. We are growing our footprint, expanding recurring revenue and demonstrating the operating leverage inherent in this model. With that, let me hand it over to David to take you through the quarter's financials in detail.

David Read, CFO

Merci. Thank you, Naveen, and bonjour tout le monde. It's a pleasure to speak with you about what was by any measure a strong first quarter for D-Box Technologies. I'll cover four things over the course of this: our income statement performance for the quarter, the continued expansion in gross margins and what is driving it, the strength and flexibility of our balance sheet, and how we're thinking about capital allocation going forward. Throughout, I will try to give you the why behind each number, not just the number itself.

Now let's look at the headline numbers for the quarter. Total revenues were $13.4 million, an increase of 3% compared to $13 million in the same period last year. We delivered that growth despite a 7% decline in system sales, which came in at $8.4 million. Two factors explain that, and neither changes the outlook. The first factor was a return to what we think is normal cyclicality in exhibitor capital spending. Keep in mind this quarter is measured against Q1 of fiscal 26, which was an off-cycle quarter for theatrical system sales.

The second factor was some near-term moderation in demand from our simulation and training OEM partners. We want to remind you that hardware sales across this business are inherently lumpy quarter to quarter, but the long-term installation pipeline remains healthy. More importantly for our quarter, the system sales decline was more than offset by recurring revenues. Rights for use, rental, and maintenance revenues grew 25% year over year to a record $5 million.

That is really the story this quarter. We grew top line while shifting the revenue mix towards our highest-quality revenue. This shift flowed straight through to the bottom line. Gross profit was $7.9 million, a gross margin of 59%, up from 56% the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was $4.3 million, a 32% margin, up from roughly 26% a year ago. Net profit and net profit before taxes increased to $2.9 million from $2 million, up 51% year over year, or 1.3 cents per basic share.

Underpinning all this success is continued growth in the installed base. As Naveen mentioned, we closed the quarter with 1,233 active screens globally, up 17.8% year over year, with 32 net new screens added in the quarter alone. And I'll remind you, every one of those screens is a long-term recurring revenue asset, and that installed base is the engine behind the recurring revenue of this business. Now shifting gears, I want to spend a moment on margins because this slide speaks to the quality of our earnings.

Gross margin in Q1 of fiscal 27 was 59%. Now that's $7.9 million of gross profit on $13.4 million of revenue. For context, our full-year fiscal 26 gross margin was 53%. So we are running roughly 6 percentage points above our fiscal 26 full-year average. The driver of that increase is revenue mix. Rights for use, rental, and maintenance revenues carry a structurally higher margin than system sales because once a screen is installed, the incremental cost of earning a royalty is minimal.

At $5 million, that revenue represents a larger share of the total this quarter than it has in the past. One thing for you to keep in mind: quarterly gross margin will fluctuate with hardware timing. A large system sale quarter will pull the percentage down even as it adds gross profit and creates future royalty streams. So look at the trailing twelve-month trend rather than any single quarter. Our path ahead is clear. As the installed base grows and royalty revenue scales, we expect this margin profile to remain structurally favorable.

This is a trend we will keep highlighting for you each quarter. Returning to the balance sheet, which we think remains a real source of strength and optionality for the business, we ended the quarter with $17.8 million in cash and cash equivalents, up slightly from $17.6 million at fiscal year-end, and total assets at period end of $48.3 million. Shareholders' equity increased by $3.2 million in the quarter to $37.9 million, driven primarily by our $2.9 million net profit, and now represents 78% of our total balance sheet.

On the other side of the ledger, total liabilities decreased $1.4 million to $10.5 million, reflecting the continued repayment of long-term debt and lease obligations. Our effective interest rate on long-term debt at quarter end was nil, down from 3.29% a year ago. So we're effectively debt-free today. Working capital increased $2.9 million to $27.6 million. We also continue to manage liquidity actively: 88% of our cash was held in high-interest savings accounts at June 30, so the balance earned some passive income while it waits to be deployed.

The takeaway here is simple. This is a clean, asset-light, debt-light balance sheet funded by our own operations. It gives us genuine optionality: investing in the screen network, supporting customers with financing, or returning capital to shareholders. Knowing that capital allocation discipline is a core part of our strategic framework, let me share how we are deploying this balance sheet strength. First, cash generation that gives us flexibility to expand: the $17.8 million in cash on hand, along with the nearly $4.1 million generated from operations before working capital items, give us significant strategic flexibility to fund growth, whether organic or opportunistic inorganic initiatives, without straining the balance sheet. Second, footprint expansion that drives profitability: the 32 net new screens added this quarter, bringing our footprint to 1,233 active screens, each expand the recurring royalty base. This remains our highest-return use of capital and is where we expect to direct the majority of our investment. Third, returning capital to shareholders: the TSX accepted our normal course issuer bid back in March of 2026, authorizing the repurchase of up to 21 million common shares.

We were active under this program this quarter, repurchasing and canceling over 500,000 shares. We see the NCIB as a tool to return value opportunistically, and it does not come at the expense of our growth investments. Fourth, our operating leverage is scalable: a 32% adjusted EBITDA margin this quarter, up from roughly 26% a year ago, demonstrates how scalable this asset-light model is. As recurring revenue grows against a largely fixed cost base, we expect to keep converting incremental revenue into margin at an attractive rate.

And with that, I'll hand it back to Naveen to talk about our outlook, and then we will be happy to take your questions.

Naveen Persad, President and CEO

Thank you, David. The opportunity in front of D-Box Technologies is significant. We have a proven technology, growing commercial momentum, and less than 1% global penetration. Every new screen expands a recurring royalty base, and as that base grows against a largely fixed cost structure, the economics become increasingly powerful. We are already seeing that in our results, including a 32% adjusted EBITDA margin this quarter, and we have a strong balance sheet that gives us the flexibility to continue investing behind that growth.

The takeaway is clear: significant runway, a proven and scalable business model, and substantial value still to be created. Thank you for your time and your interest in D-Box Technologies. Operator will now take questions.

OPERATOR

We will now begin the question-and-answer portion of today's call. Questions have been submitted in advance. Our first question: your fiscal 2026 year-end release said you expect system sales to normalize toward historical patterns. Net screen additions were 111 in fiscal 2024, 83 in fiscal 2025, and 189 in fiscal 2026. Which of those look normal to you for fiscal 2027?

Naveen Persad, President and CEO

Thanks very much for that question. The dip in fiscal year ending March 2025 is not what I'd want anybody to expect from our theater growth. As we continue to add in new clients, which we just had for three past 60 days, plus our continued growth with our existing partners, we hope that the trend continues at that higher end, and that's what we'll be working towards.

OPERATOR

Thank you, Naveen. Our next question: how much share-based compensation should we expect for the full fiscal 2027? Q2 alone was $943,000 versus $52,000 last year.

Naveen Persad, President and CEO

Thank you. We have gone through a shift in our company where I've come in, we had a shift in new executives coming in, and we needed to ensure that we were delivering compensation that was aligned to shareholder value. That was done. We have issued shares, those options and other instruments, and we expect that to be pretty much all we'll see in this fiscal. But I wouldn't suggest that there may be a few more based on anybody who comes into the company.

Again, it is all based on aligning executives to shareholder value.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question: with these new theatrical partnerships all having occurred in North America, as well as Cinemark deepening its commitment to D-Box, how should investors be thinking about North America versus the rest of the world when it comes to geographic focus of theatrical partnerships?

Naveen Persad, President and CEO

Again, another great question. For North America, it is a very big market for us. There are still other partners that we will want to bring on board in North America. But at that same time, we are talking to everyone. And when I say everyone, we're talking globally. We're methodical in our approach. We're thinking about things such as local language. But by all means, when we talk about growing our screen count, it is not just in North America. In tandem, we will be looking at the rest of the world and are active in those conversations.

OPERATOR

Thank you. The other question is, over the last two months, D-Box has announced three new partnerships with top 10 North America theater chains, which is terrific. So what do you attribute the timing of these notable partnerships happening now versus in the many years that D-Box has passed?

Naveen Persad, President and CEO

Well, we can attribute it to the shift in our focus. Historically, our company has been focused on more product than growing our royalty base. What we're seeing now is the results of the work that we put in this past year, and we're quite pleased by it. It goes to show that our product has value in exhibition, and we believe that we're going to be able to grow that even further from where we are now.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question, which would be addressed to David: you highlighted creative sales financing for customers with capex constraints. Finance lease receivables went from $1.3 million to $1.7 million in the quarter. How much capital are you willing to commit to this per year, and what implicit rate are you charging?

David Read, CFO

Yeah, I don't think that we provide any guidance on how much capital, but as we mentioned, we have the financial flexibility to do many things at once, whether that be returning capital to shareholders or providing financing solutions for our customers in order to grow the footprint. We're looking to do all of these things and return the most value to shareholders as possible. Obviously, as we've mentioned, we feel that the financing solutions and growing the footprint, or organic growth as we call it, is the most important to us, and so we're looking to find those solutions as and when they come up.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question: can you talk about the capital expense to an exhibitor involved in installing your seats into an auditorium for two business-class rows? Can you compare that to 4DX, RPX, and IMAX?

Naveen Persad, President and CEO

Thank you for the question. The costs are believed to be significantly lower than those other whole auditorium conversions. It also depends on where the rows are going in, if they already have power to them, and insofar as they already have reclining seats, the costs are minimal as far as third-party setup costs. But the ROI that the exhibitors see is they all aim to make it as quick as possible, and that's what we're seeing, some great success as of late.

OPERATOR

Thank you. We have another question regarding the approximate 20% growth in screen count over the past year. How should we think about this 20% screen growth number each year going forward?

Naveen Persad, President and CEO

It is really going to be a reflection of how many new customers we bring in as well as the continued deployment of the customers that we already have. So I would like to see that number continue to grow, but at this point, at the same time, it's going to be subject to the initial testing period by an exhibitor. All exhibitors will want to, you know, while they hear everything anecdotally that our seats, you know, perform very well for other partners of ours, there's a lot that goes into it.

We take the time to work with our partners to make sure that we're maximizing occupancy rates. So all this to say we do believe that that number can be sustained and grow. We work in tandem with our exhibitor partners. Surprisingly, in some markets the back rows are actually the highest-occupancy rows. Each auditorium is designed differently, whether it's large or small, but historically theaters have been monitoring occupancy rate by the full auditorium and not to the granular level of seats. Now, in working with our partners, we're looking at heat maps, ensuring that the seats are placed in the highest-occupancy rows.

It's a benefit for us and it's an absolute benefit for our exhibitor partners. So by all means, that is a key part of the analysis that we do. Well, we don't disclose actual seat numbers, but as you can see, it all depends on the auditorium size. In larger auditoriums, those numbers will go significantly higher than the theaters that are smaller. So as far as an average, it is something we don't disclose, but it is in line with each and every auditorium. We look at it at this scope.

Thank you for that question. It's a very good question. First of all, artificial intelligence is not really what you want to consider calling it. What we do already use, having a history of encoding and designing for films, is the ability to take soundtracks and speed up the process. But I want to be very, very clear, AI will never replace the design work that our designers do. It is critical. It is artistry and we value our designers. And at no point do I believe AI will take over.

We don't provide that guidance. As we said in our presentation, there is some lumpiness to system sales for theatrical. And when you're talking about, as well, taking into account our sim racing business and simulation and training, our hope is that we can smooth out that lumpiness as best as we can. But at the end of the day, exhibitors want to be putting in their seats at low periods and want to be taking advantage of high periods of blockbusters.

So you will look at seasonality of films as probably the biggest guide.

OPERATOR

Thank you. This concludes today's Q and A session. Thank you to everyone who took the time to join us today. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.