Aemetis Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 7, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Financial inflection point: Q1 revenue rose 27% YoY to $54.6M, the company returned to positive gross profit ($2.8M) and cut operating loss ~60%, signaling improved underlying margins across all segments.
  • Positive Sentiment: LCFS pathway approvals: CARB approved 7 new RNG pathways at an average CI of -380 (vs -150 default) with 6 more nearing approval, which materially increases LCFS credit generation per MMBtu and should boost revenue as production scales.
  • Positive Sentiment: Capital projects advancing: Dairy pretreatment skids delivered under a $27M contract and the $40M MVR project at Keyes is under construction with major equipment on-site; management expects MVR commissioning later this year to displace ~80% of plant natural gas and add roughly $32M of annual cash flow.
  • Positive Sentiment: India operations & IPO plan: Q1 India biodiesel revenue rebounded to $10.5M, management has retained advisors for an IPO of Universal Biofuels and expects improved, cost‑plus contract pricing and higher utilization to support the offering and expansion funding.
  • Negative Sentiment: Financing and 45Z dependency: Large projects (notably the 80M gallon RD/SAF facility) have permits and market interest but financing timing and final economics hinge on the DOE publishing the updated 45Z CF‑GREET calculator and securing long‑term financing, creating near‑term uncertainty.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Aemetis Q1 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Aemetis Q1 2026 earnings conference call. Joining us today are Eric McAfee, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Todd Waltz, Chief Financial Officer, and Andy Foster, President of Aemetis Advanced Fuels. I will now turn the call over to Todd Waltz.

Todd Waltz
Todd Waltz
CFO at Aemetis

Thank you, and welcome, everyone. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that during the call, we'll make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risk and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Please refer to our earnings release and SEC filings for a discussion of these risks. For the Q1 of 2026, revenue grew 27% to $54.6 million, compared with $42.9 million in the Q1 of 2025, with growth across each of the three reportable operating segments. Gross profit was $2.8 million in the quarter, a year-over-year improvement of nearly $8 million from the gross loss of $5.1 million in the Q1 of 2025.

Todd Waltz
Todd Waltz
CFO at Aemetis

Operating loss improved approximately 60% to $6.3 million, compared with $15.6 million in the prior period. Net loss improved to $21.7 million compared to $24.5 million in the Q1 of 2025. Production tax credits under Section 45Z contributed $4 million of operating income during the quarter, $1.4 million in dairy RNG and $2.6 million in California ethanol, representing our Q1 of ongoing credit generation tied to quarterly production since 45Z eligibility was established in the Q4 of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was negative $1.3 million, reflecting typical winter seasonality, with stronger revenue and margin performance later in the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA and reconciliation of EBITDA to net loss is described in our earnings release issued earlier today.

Todd Waltz
Todd Waltz
CFO at Aemetis

Cash and cash equivalent at the end of the quarter were $4.8 million comparable to year-end 2025. Capital investments in carbon intensity reduction and dairy digester construction totaled $6.5 million during the quarter. With that overview, I'll turn the call over to Eric.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Thank you, Todd. I want to highlight three key takeaways from the Q1 of 2026. First, Q1 was a financial inflection point. We grew consolidated revenue 27% year-over-year, posted positive gross profit, and improved operating loss by more than $9 million. All three of our reportable operating segments contributed to this result. Second, we benefited from the California Air Resources Board approval of seven new Low Carbon Fuel Standard pathways for our renewable natural gas business at an average carbon intensity score of -380 compared with the -150 default, which has been providing additional revenue at the higher LCFS value each quarter since Q3 2025. Six additional biogas digester pathways are nearing approval.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

These LCFS pathways approvals substantially expand the LCFS credit generation per MMBtu of RNG produced and will continue to drive meaningful revenue increases as we scale production. Third, our capital projects are advancing. We received the initial deliveries of dairy biogas pretreatment skids in April under our $27 million fabrication contract. Major equipment for the $40 million mechanical vapor recompression project at our Keyes California ethanol plant has arrived on-site, and construction has begun. In dairy RNG, we sold 110,000 MMBtus in Q1, a 55% increase over the same quarter last year. With H2S cleanup and biogas compression equipment contracted for 15 additional digesters and four of the equipment units already delivered by the vendor, we are on track to double our operating dairy network with construction into 2027.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

At our ethanol plant, the MVR project is on track for completion later this year. The system will use on-site solar and grid electricity to displace approximately 80% of the fossil natural gas consumption at the plant. We expect MVR commissioning later this year to add approximately $32 million in annual cash flow from operations, including additional 45Z and LCFS uplift from the expected reduction in the carbon intensity of the ethanol produced by the plant and cost savings on natural gas. In India, biodiesel revenue rebounded to $10.5 million in Q1 with the resumption of oil marketing company shipments under new contracts. This revenue growth supports our planned initial public offering of the India subsidiary, Universal Biofuels Private Limited, for which we have retained legal, accounting, and IPO advisors.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Looking ahead, our focus for 2026 is scaling production, monetizing the stacked credit value of our renewable fuels platform, completing the India IPO, and the refinancing of existing debt into long-term financing. The principal catalyst we are tracking through the year include the publication of the updated 45ZCF-GREET model by the Department of Energy to significantly increase revenues and margins, commissioning the MVR at the Keyes Ethanol plant, rising LCFS credit prices caused by continued quarterly credit deficits, and ,progress on the India IPO. Thank you to our shareholders, analysts, and partners for your continued support. Operator, let's take some questions.

Operator

Certainly. The floor is now open for questions. If you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone at this time. We ask that while posing your question, you please pick up your handset if listening on a speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Please hold for just a few moments while we poll for any questions. Your first question is coming from Matthew Blair with TPH. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Matthew Blair
Managing Director, Refiners, Chemicals, and Renewable Fuels Research at TPH

Thanks, good morning, Eric. Certainly a lot of things going on at your company, but I was hoping you could talk about the possibility of the RD and SAF plant that has been on the table for a few years now, just in light of the very robust 2026 and 2027 RVO that materially increased the biomass-based diesel requirements. How are you thinking about that RD and SAF project? Maybe you could refresh us on, you know, how much it would cost and what kind of capacity it would provide. Thank you.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Thank you, Matt. The capacity is 80 million gallons a year of SAF, or if we run it only in renewable diesel mode, it's 90 million gallons, and as you know from previous reports, we have 10 different airlines we signed definitive agreements with, et cetera. We got full permitting approval for construction to begin in 2024. However, market conditions in renewable diesel and SAF were hampered by a new president being hired. That of course happened in late 2024. That caused the financing markets to take a delay in looking at SAF and RD. You have done a very good job covering margins at renewable diesel producers. Just yesterday in California, Phillips 66 announced that they're running above their nameplate capacity on their renewable diesel plant.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Certainly, the events since March 1 have driven the price of the molecule up substantially. L.A. quotes SAF in neat form at $9.80 a gallon as of yesterday. The market conditions have moved in our favor significantly compared to where we were in late 2024 with a new president being hired who had had certainly had a policy position that needs some clarification. We are definitely in a position right now in which there is are frankly a lot of interest in new SAF production.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

I would say that the uncertainty in the last few months has given new certainty to the need for domestic production of renewable fuel and a clarity that airplanes are not gonna fly on hydrogen, batteries, nuclear power or any other sort of energy source other than liquid fuels for the foreseeable number of decades. We position this project specifically for the conditions we're in right now, high price of crude oil alternatives, and frankly, coalescing enthusiasm for the renewable version, which is sustainable aviation fuel. We are definitely making progress on the financing. That is actually the only remaining part of this. We have the authority to construct permit in place for the facility, and market conditions continue to be in favor of that.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

That 80 million gallons, of course, if we're selling at $9.80 a gallon, is almost $800 million additional revenue, and I think the industry today is reporting roughly $1.60 a gallon of operating margin, so obviously, a very positive improvement in our company's overall revenue and EBITDA growth. I'm gonna wrap this up by saying that there are actually four different sources of revenue for that plant, and 45Z, the clean fuels provision, is still an un-unknown. We don't have the updated 45Z. It is absolutely expected anytime soon, certainly before June, that the Republicans need to post it.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Since there are four revenue streams, you sell the molecule, you sell the California credits, the federal credits, and then receive the 45Z production tax credit. That is having an impact on the timing of our financing in that most lenders especially are interested in knowing what the 45Z revenue is for this project. Federal laws passed, Treasury adopted their guidance in February 2026 for 45Z, but the actual calculator on the Department of Energy website is going to be necessary. That spreadsheet needs to be posted with the updated rules in the spreadsheet in order to finalize that fourth leg of the stool. Wanna put that note on the table that that's having an impact. Of course, right now the business works great without 45Z. People are curious to know what your total revenue is if we're doing a project of that size.

Matthew Blair
Managing Director, Refiners, Chemicals, and Renewable Fuels Research at TPH

Sounds good. The India biodiesel operations, nice to see them restarted in the Q1. It looks like profitability is essentially breakeven, maybe a little bit below. Could you talk about your expectations for the Q2? Do you think volumes will be in a similar range as the Q1 and I think we typically see some margin improvement in the Q2 as you're able to shift to different feedstocks. Do you think that'll happen in the Q2 this time around? Thank you.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Thanks, Matt. Let's talk about the overall trend in India, because it's very important for investors to understand that India is a country that's a socialist country, and they have elections that occurred in the first week of May, and in order to support the existing government, a decision was taken by the government to set the price of diesel at the same price in March and in April as it was in January and February does nhere's no change in the price of diesel. I think most people on this call would understand that the price of diesel and crude oil dramatically increased in both March and April, but in India, it did not. As of today, when you go to the pump in India, you don't know that the Iranian war happened from the price of the diesel at the pump.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

That means that the government is running a very large negative from their expected tax collections from diesel, and the Oil Marketing Companies are losing a very large amount of money every single day on selling diesel because they're buying crude oil at high prices and then selling it at prices below cost in India. That is about to change, and it should happen in the next few days that the price of diesel in India dramatically increases. The Oil Marketing Companies and the Ministry of Petroleum have known about this for two months and have been proactively meeting with the biodiesel and renewable diesel, and sustainable aviation fuel producers or to-be producers in the country in order to come up with a much more solid program for us to be able to utilize all of our production capacity.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

We have an 80 million gallon plant that's been operating at, you know, recently at 10% capacity, so there's been a renewed focus on domestic renewable fuels in India with the policies are already in place. National Policy on Biofuels is at 5% blend of biodiesel in a 25 billion gallon market. That's about 1.25 billion gallons. They're unfortunately not at 5%. They're at 0.5% blend right now, and that is rapidly changing. You asked about Q2. I would put in the context of during the trend of this year, we're seeing dramatic increases. Frankly, signing larger contracts and, frankly, having going back to the cost-plus contract model is what is in process right now in India.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

During the course of the next few months, I think you'll see that kind of certainty come into play. Our IPO is really being built around us working on that reality, that those policies need to be known and need to be adopted, and so we're setting up our IPO to be directly correlated with when those policies are adopted. I think it'll have a very positive impact on not only the valuation of our business, but how much money we raise, and we're seeking it for the IPO in India to be truly a breakout opportunity.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

We're looking to build the first global, diversified renewable fuels business ever to go public in India and certainly, anticipate that that will be the positioning we have, and that the events of the last two months are having a very significant impact on India and focusing them on redirect themselves to these policies that they've already got on the books, but they haven't been fully enforcing.

Matthew Blair
Managing Director, Refiners, Chemicals, and Renewable Fuels Research at TPH

Sounds good. Thanks for your comments.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Sure. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Nat Pendleton with Texas Capital. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Nat Pendleton
Nat Pendleton
VP at Texas Capital

Morning. Can you provide more color around the financing commentary from the release? Just looking to better understand some of the options that are available to you on addressing the debt broadly. Then more specifically, what are you looking at with regard to Keyes and then the status of the REAP funding for the dairy RNG projects?

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

The improved margins and, frankly, now recovery of confidence in the need for domestic renewable fuels is directly expanding our refinancing opportunities. We have been funded and supported for the last 18 years by roughly a $3 billion fund out of Toronto that holds our senior debt, except for the $50 million of USDA debt that we have. Our expectation is that we will continue to have very positive trends toward having municipal bond financings available to us. Municipal bonds have been used by the renewable fuels industry for a variety of basically greenfield projects. We, of course, are not greenfield, we're expansion, we are actively in the market right now actually working on a municipal bond type refinancing of our existing bridge financing we got from Third Eye Capital.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

The Rural Energy for America Program at USDA is active, but they have slowed down their expansion in renewable fuels in a portfolio review process. The timing of that, it seems to be changing on a regular basis. As they make review their portfolio goals, they'll be expanding or not expanding. It's really quite uncertain to be quite frankly, frank with you. The rapid expansion of interest in the municipal bond and even commercial credit markets, certainly private credit markets, all of which we've had active discussions with, I think are going to overshadow our Rural Energy for America Program funding. I think we'll be seeing much larger financings and moving much quicker than what the USDA REAP program currently looks like for our company.

Nat Pendleton
Nat Pendleton
VP at Texas Capital

Understood. Thanks, Eric. Then I just wanted to get your perspective on LCFS prices for a moment. While the market has flipped to deficit generation recently, prices have broadly remained quite muted. Can you talk about your expectations for that market going forward?

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

I think we're going to see a rapid price increase during the summer and early fall. What muted the deficit that's we had our Q2 deficit announced on April 30th, and that was for the Q4 of last year. There's a trailing deficit announcement. It was literally 44 months after the end of the physical quarter is when the announcement happens. The price of being muted was an expectation by traders that people wouldn't drive as much with high gasoline prices. Interestingly enough, on a formulaic basis, gasoline currently represents roughly 2% of the income of the average American. I think traders overtraded on this one. They were not anticipating, but that the Iranian war would actually not be as big of an impact on driving as what it has.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

They thought it'd have a bigger impact than what it really did. Did not have as big an impact, especially in California. LCFS credit deficits, however, are not driven just by consumption of gasoline. It's also driven by how many credits come from renewable diesel. Renewable diesel is the reason we got such a large 40 million credit bank, and renewable diesel has underperformed in Q4 last year and the first part of Q1 of this year, I expect it to underperform in credit generation. If you have fewer credits being generated, quite frankly, it was a lot more of a deficit than what was expected because there was fewer our renewable diesel credits generated. We think the LCFS price trend is absolutely upwards.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

The question of pace has been impacted by the Iranian war. That play didn't quite work out, and so we do expect increases to continue. There are plenty of credits in the market. It's not that issue. The issue is, do you want to pay $200 for it 18 months from now when there's very few in the credit bank? It's a question of major oil company traders over the next 18 months, at some point in time, reaching a tipping point, which they decide they do not wanna have to be buying $200 credits. They might as well get out there and buy whatever they can on the market.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

When that happens, you'll see a very rapid price rise. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see $150 in 2027 as traders see the cap as $268. They wanna get their book filled up as soon as possible.

Nat Pendleton
Nat Pendleton
VP at Texas Capital

Got it. Thanks for the color, Eric.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Sure. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Sameer Joshi at H.C. Wainwright. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Sameer Joshi
Sameer Joshi
Analyst at H.C. Wainwright

Hey, good morning. Good afternoon, Eric. Thanks for taking my question.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Hey, Sameer.

Sameer Joshi
Sameer Joshi
Analyst at H.C. Wainwright

Hey. On the MVR, I understand it's going to be deployed before the end of the year. Are there any additional certifications, verifications needed to be done before you can start generating that $32 million annualized return from it? I know some of it will be immediate because of lower natural gas consumption, but for the other incentive-based cash flows, do you need to do anything?

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Andy, you wanna take it?

Andy Foster
Andy Foster
President of Aemetis Advanced Fuels at Aemetis

Thank you for your question. There are no additional certifications necessary. We received an authority to construct from the air district, which is really the big number that we have to get crossed off before we can proceed with the project, and that was received last year, so we have some local permits that, you know, are sort of ongoing as you do construction, but we don't have any requirements for additional permitting or authorization in order to proceed. Construction has begun. We've begun demolition on existing concrete structures. As Eric mentioned in his comments, we've received Most of the major equipment is stateside now. We received the turbofans from Germany last week. The main evaporator was received by from Praj in India about a week ago.

Andy Foster
Andy Foster
President of Aemetis Advanced Fuels at Aemetis

It's actually currently in transit to the Keyes plant. All of the big-ticket items that take a long time to fabricate are either on site or will be on site within the next week or so.

Sameer Joshi
Sameer Joshi
Analyst at H.C. Wainwright

Got it. Thanks for that, Andy.

Sameer Joshi
Sameer Joshi
Analyst at H.C. Wainwright

Moving to the India OMC activity there, thanks for the color that you provided, Eric, to the previous question, but in terms of pricing that will be available for you, do you expect it to be a premium pricing relative to what you got in the last year, for example, or are getting currently?

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Yes. There's definitely premium pricing actually. The next contract is already being discussed, but the structure of a cost-plus contract, which we did $112 million of revenue and about $14 million of positive cash flow last time we had a cost-plus contract. That structure is being strongly considered as a replacement for what they've done in the last couple years, which was this uncertain sort of pick a number and see what happens kind of a structure. We've covered this, I guess a couple years ago with investors, but just a reminder, the cost-plus structure was after many, many years of working with the government to come up with something that was going to expand capacity utilization in India.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

It worked very, very well. Then the India government passed a 20% tax, a 20% tariff on the feedstock that was being used by the industry, and therefore the price of the formula went up 20% after they'd issued us a contract. The oil marketing companies did not want to take a loss, so they just didn't take delivery. That created confusion in the market. That confusion's now gotten more clarified because of the very high cost of diesel and the need for them to start getting utilization in the biodiesel industry, that's the resolution that's being worked out right now, so we do expect a return to better conditions for full capacity utilization. India imports over 90% of its crude oil and really needs to expand its domestic production of renewable fuels.

Sameer Joshi
Sameer Joshi
Analyst at H.C. Wainwright

Understood. Thanks for that. Then just one last one. You did mention, you got seven annual LCFS pathways approved for the -380. Six are being worked on. Should we expect those to occur before in the H1 or is it a H2 event?

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

There's a strange delay in the process. We expect the approvals to occur, but then they are a look back a couple quarters. If we get an approval, for example, at the end of the fourth quarter, it's a look back to the beginning of the Q3, so an approval by the end of December is actually effective in July 1. Strange situation, but the reality is, yes, we do expect by the end of the year to be appropriate progress here with a look back that looks like a six-month look back because they do it the quarter after the closing of a quarter, so we will keep the market apprised of progress here, and of course, we're focusing on moving it through the process as quickly as possible.

Sameer Joshi
Sameer Joshi
Analyst at H.C. Wainwright

Understood. That would potentially sort of be a lump sum that you get if it is approved in the Q4 for the previous two quarters, and then it will be on an ongoing basis.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

It's a look back process which basically just starts July 1 if you're approved December 30th, and then yes, there might be a one quarter catch up, but in essence, it's just a delayed approval for the previous quarter. It's the way the government looks at it.

Sameer Joshi
Sameer Joshi
Analyst at H.C. Wainwright

Understood. Thanks a lot. Thanks for taking my questions.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Thank you, Sameer.

Operator

Your next question is from Dave Storms with Stonegate. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Dave Storms
Director of Research at Stonegate

Morning, thank you for taking my questions.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Hey, Dave.

Dave Storms
Director of Research at Stonegate

With the dairy. Morning. Wanted to stick with the dairy digesters. I believe you mentioned on the call you're expecting another 15, you know, doubling your digesters by 2027. Can you just remind us, when you actually get the investment tax credits related to those investments, and mYou know, maybe just your thoughts around the monetization of those tax credits.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Good question. We get the tax credits upon the completion, what they call in-service date for each single digester, so we don't have to build all 15 of them and then add 6 months to that or anything. As we build each digester and it goes in service, we generate Section 48, I'm sorry, investment tax credits. We have sold about $95 million of these tax credits. We tend to sell them in $5 million or higher increments, so that is not absolutely required, and we do expect to have a single party this year acquire each one of the investment tax credit projects that we generate, so we will be seeking to do at least once a quarter.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

There is a potential of doing it more than once a quarter, depending on how many new units are completed. We expect this to be probably a Q3 contribution, but could be quicker than that. I say could be, as in, the market's moving quickly. We have some refinancing activities going on that certainly are very positive for the business. We've already fully financed the construction of $27 million of these hydrosulfide and compression skids. The process is going on. We've received four them already, have more coming. We're rapidly executing on portions of this project right now, and the investment tax credit delay is a month or so after the in-service date if we were doing it in the ordinary flow of business. Not a whole lot of delay between when the project's completed and when we get the cash.

Dave Storms
Director of Research at Stonegate

Understood. That's very helpful. Just sticking with those potential new digesters, do those come online at the -380 qualification status? I guess, how does that process look? If they don't come on at the -380, you know, what do you think the current timeline is from the negative 150 to the negative 380?

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Andy, you wanna speak to that?

Andy Foster
Andy Foster
President of Aemetis Advanced Fuels at Aemetis

Are you speaking about the?

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

The new digesters that are not built yet.

Andy Foster
Andy Foster
President of Aemetis Advanced Fuels at Aemetis

That are not built? No.

Dave Storms
Director of Research at Stonegate

Oh, correct.

Andy Foster
Andy Foster
President of Aemetis Advanced Fuels at Aemetis

They're given the temporary pathway score of -150, and then once we go through the process with CARB, which hopefully, now that they've moved to a tier one approval process, will be significantly shorter than what we've experienced in the last few years, which is this kind of 24-month to 36-month approval process. It should be more like nine months, and then we would get the benefit of that higher or lower, however you wanna look at it, CI score, so initially, it's a negative 150, and as you work your way through the approval process, and then you go to the blended rate of, you know, the negative 380.

Dave Storms
Director of Research at Stonegate

That's perfect. Thank you for taking my questions.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Thank you, Dave.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Ed Woo with Ascendiant Capital. Please pose your question. Your line is live.

Ed Woo
Ed Woo
Analyst at Ascendiant Capital

Yeah, congratulations on all the progress, guys. My question is, you know, as we are getting closer to the India IPO, what are your priorities or what have you allocated in terms of what you're gonna do with the capital raised?

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

The India IPO is primarily designed to support the expansion of the existing projects in India and in California. Our existing projects in California, specifically focused on dairy RNG would be a use of some of the proceeds of our India business. That's one of the reasons why it will be the first global diversified company, so not just biodiesel, but multiple different fuels company to go public in India. That offers the India investor access to a very well-established incentive environment here in California called the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. The fuel standard in California is matched by the Renewable Fuel Standard federal level, the 45Z production tax credit and the value of the molecule.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

The Indian investor has access to arguably one of the best markets in the world for renewable fuels, that's a diversification of the growth in the India business. Another point we've made publicly is that as the largest biodiesel producer in India, we happen to be very well-positioned to build the conversion of a biodiesel facility into sustainable aviation fuel, and so our India IPO, not only is biodiesel and dairy renewable natural gas, but also a conversion into a SAF producer in India in addition to expanding biodiesel. It's a diversified business. The India market is very deep and wide, and right now is about to have the shock of its diesel life with the increase of just an incredible % increase in diesel costs as a result of what's been going on in the world.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

It's a perfect storm for us, in favor of us as a producer in India who's been there for 18 years to open our opportunity to the public markets. We're making excellent progress, and certainly market conditions will determine the actual timing of what we do, but market conditions are certainly trending in our direction.

Ed Woo
Ed Woo
Analyst at Ascendiant Capital

Great. Well, thanks for answering my questions, and I wish you guys good luck. Thank you.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Thank you, Ed.

Operator

There are no further questions in queue at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Eric McAfee for closing remarks.

Eric McAfee
Eric McAfee
Chairman and CEO at Aemetis

Thank you to Aemetis stockholders, analysts, and others for joining us today. We look forward to talking with you about participating in the growth opportunities at Aemetis. Todd?

Todd Waltz
Todd Waltz
CFO at Aemetis

Thank you for attending today's Aemetis earnings conference call. A written and audio version of this earnings review will be posted to the investor section of the Aemetis website.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Executives
    • Andy Foster
      Andy Foster
      President of Aemetis Advanced Fuels
    • Eric McAfee
      Eric McAfee
      Chairman and CEO
    • Todd Waltz
      Todd Waltz
      CFO
Analysts
    • Dave Storms
      Director of Research at Stonegate
    • Ed Woo
      Analyst at Ascendiant Capital
    • Matthew Blair
      Managing Director, Refiners, Chemicals, and Renewable Fuels Research at TPH
    • Nat Pendleton
      VP at Texas Capital
    • Sameer Joshi
      Analyst at H.C. Wainwright
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