Owner Scorecard


← All companies ← VIV Manual VOD → ← UTL Multi-Utilities WEC →

VIVO, VivoPower PLC

Multi-Utilities capital-intensive Regulated utilityUnprofitableDistress / turnaroundCapital build-out

VivoPower is an award-winning global sustainable energy solutions B Corporation company focused on electric solutions for customized and ruggedized fleet applications, battery and microgrids, solar and critical power technology and services.

The Company's core purpose is to provide its customers with turnkey decarbonization solutions that enable them to move toward net-zero carbon status.

The Critical Power Services segment, previously represented by VivoPower's wholly owned subsidiary Aevitas and its subsidiaries Kenshaw Electrical Pty Limited ("Kenshaw") and Kenshaw Solar Pty Ltd (formerly J.A.

Latest annual: FY2025 20-F/A · US listing is the ordinary share
VIVO · VivoPower PLC
I

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025
$61K
+281.3% YoY · −72% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM
Cash & investments $10M
Cash burn · annual $6M
Runway 1.7 yrs

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is
Revenue is Electric vehicles (87%) and Digital Assets (13%).
Situation
Regulated utility. Returns are set by regulation on an approved rate base; the capital spending regulators approve becomes the growth, recovered through allowed rates. Unprofitable. No meaningful revenue yet; the record is the cash on hand against the burn. Distress / turnaround. Thin interest coverage, or operating cash burned against real debt, across the record. The balance sheet carries this situation; the debt schedule sets the clock. Capital build-out. Capital spending has surged to 1615% of sales, today's earnings are charged less depreciation than tomorrow's will be.
What moves the needle
Operating margin has reached 54% at its best but run negative through the cycle (median −23%) on a 16% gross margin — so the question is which reading is truer: whether the median was pulled below zero by one-off charges, by the cycle, or by spending it is still growing into, and whether it settles back at a profit. The cash cycle has run negative through the cycle (a median of −103 days): the operation is paid before it pays, so working capital releases cash as the business grows rather than tying it up. Read this kind of business on rate base and the allowed return. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −15%, above 15% in 0 of 6 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 20-F →

The largest slice of sales is Electric vehicles at 87%, but the profit engine is Digital Assets: 13% of revenue and 100% of the profitable segments' operating profit. Electric vehicles ran a $2M operating loss.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025
Operating profit profitable segments only
  • Electric vehicles87%$53Kloss of $2M
  • Digital Assets13%$8K100% of profit
By geographyAustralia87%United States13%

From the segment footnote of the company's own 20-F. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of the profitable segments' operating profit (a loss-making segment carries its loss in dollars in the legend, not a share of the bar), before unallocated corporate costs.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMJun 2025
Income statement
$32M$34M$39M$33M$24M$10M$4M$16K$61K$61KRevenueRevenue
15%16%16%18%7%−6%18%18%Gross marginGross mgn
$17M($8M)($5M)$2M($5M)($15M)($12M)($9M)($9M)($9M)Operating incomeOp. inc.
53.7%−22.6%−13.9%6.9%−20.9%−146.7%−289.5%n/mn/mn/mOperating marginOp. mgn
$6M($28M)($11M)($5M)($8M)($22M)($24M)($47M)($13M)($13M)Net incomeNet inc.
Cash flow & returns
$6M$9M($2M)($5M)($15M)($5M)($5M)$1M($6M)($6M)Operating cash flowOp. cash
$651K$1M$1M$947K$1M$1M$2M$749K$157K$2MDepreciationDeprec.
$144K$36M$8M($417K)($9M)$16M$17M$47M$7M$5MWorking capital & otherWC & other
$94K$1M$348K$884K$937K$1M$1M$609K$985K$985KCapexCapex
0.3%3.3%0.9%2.7%3.9%11.5%25.4%n/mn/mn/mCapex / revenueCapex/rev
$6M$8M($2M)($5M)($16M)($6M)($6M)$884K($7M)($7M)Owner earningsOwner earn.
19.5%23.2%−4.9%−16.5%−68.0%−62.0%−159.6%n/mn/mn/mOwner earnings marginOE mgn
$6M$8M($2M)($5M)($16M)($6M)($6M)$884K($7M)($7M)Free cash flowFCF
19.5%23.2%−4.9%−16.5%−68.0%−62.0%−159.6%n/mn/mn/mFree cash flow marginFCF mgn
$200K$200K$300KDividends paidDiv. paid
-11%-12%-7%-27%-28%-19%-19%ROICROIC
9%-75%-47%-29%-19%-102%-650%-64%-64%Return on equityROE
Balance sheet
$11M$2M$7M$3M$9M$1M$553K$10M$10M$10MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$20M$8M$10M$13M$13M$9M$7M$10M$73M$73MReceivablesReceiv.
$0$0$2M$2M$2M$2M$1M$1MInventoryInvent.
$8M$14M$18M$15M$9M$15M$15M$38M$40M$40MAccounts payablePayables
$12M($6M)($8M)($3M)$6M($4M)($5M)($26M)$35M$35MOperating working capitalOper. WC
$31M$21M$30M$20M$24M$22M$10M$18M$61M$75MCurrent assetsCur. assets
$12M$21M$21M$20M$13M$23M$19M$54M$55M$55MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
2.5×1.0×1.4×1.0×1.8×0.9×0.5×0.3×1.1×1.3×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$30M$24M$22M$22M$26M$18M$18M$2M$2M$2MGoodwillGoodwill
$101M$76M$65M$62M$77M$70M$61M$37M$97M$97MTotal assetsAssets
$20M$18M$18M$25M$22M$23M$30M$21M$17M$17MTotal debtDebt
$9M$16M$11M$22M$13M$22M$29M$11M$7M$7MNet debt / (cash)Net debt
28.8×-2.2×-1.7×0.8×-2.0×-1.8×-1.7×-1.4×-1.2×-1.2×Interest coverageInt. cov.
$65M$37M$24M$18M$40M$22M$4M($41M)$20M$20MShareholders’ equityEquity
Per share
15.2M13.6M13.6M13.6M16.3M2.1M2.5M3.1M6.7M18.5MShares out (diluted)Shares
$2.12$2.48$2.88$2.44$1.47$4.90$1.64$0.01$0.01$0.00Revenue / shareRev/sh
$0.37$-2.06$-0.83$-0.38$-0.46$-10.63$-9.87$-15.17$-1.92$-0.69EPS (diluted)EPS
$0.41$0.58$-0.14$-0.40$-1.00$-3.04$-2.62$0.29$-1.01$-0.36Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$0.41$0.58$-0.14$-0.40$-1.00$-3.04$-2.62$0.29$-1.01$-0.36Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.08$0.06$0.05Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$0.01$0.08$0.03$0.07$0.06$0.56$0.42$0.20$0.15$0.05Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$4.24$2.73$1.77$1.31$2.48$10.42$1.52$-13.17$3.02$1.09Book value / shareBVPS

Share counts before 2018 are restated ×2 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.

The diluted share count moved ×1/7.86 into 2022 — shares retired, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×2.16 into 2025 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×2.78 into TTM — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
8-yr5-yr
Revenue / share−49.3%/yr−67.3%/yr
Dividends / share−25.4%/yr (2-yr)−25.4%/yr (2-yr)
Capital spending / share+48.8%/yr+17.8%/yr
Book value / share−4.1%/yr+18.3%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked. Share counts on the current split basis.

Share count
7Mpeak FY2021
ROIC
−19%low FY2023
Gross margin
18%low FY2023
Net debt ÷ owner earnings
12.1×peak FY2024

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

($7M)owner earningsvs.($13M)net incomelow FY2021

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

Each year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.

FY2017FY2024

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business turned a $13M loss into ($7M) of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income($13M)($47M)($24M)($22M)($8M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$157K+$749K+$2M+$1M+$1M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$7M+$47M+$17M+$16M−$9M
Cash from operations($6M)$1M($5M)($5M)($15M)
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow−$985K−$609K−$1M−$1M−$937K
Owner earnings($7M)$884K($6M)($6M)($16M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue-11039%5525%-160%-62%-68%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position .

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 20-F/A · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

  • Does not cover its interest
    Operating income ($9M) ÷ interest expense $7M
    What this means

    A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.

  • Net debt against an operating loss
    Cash $60K + ST investments $10M − debt $17M
    What this means

    Netting $10M of cash and short-term investments against $17M of debt leaves $7M owed, with no operating profit this year to measure it against — understand that combination before anything else about the company. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • Long (60+ days)
    DSO 437773 + DIO 8402 − DPO 290584 days
    What this means

    Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

  • Below average through the cycle
    6-yr median, range -28%–-7%; -19% latest = NOPAT ($7M) ÷ invested capital $37M
    Industry peers: median 6%
    What this means

    The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 6 years (it ran -19% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.

  • Consumes cash through the cycle
    9-yr median margin, range -11039%–5525%; latest ($7M) = operating cash ($6M) − maintenance capex $985K
    Industry peers: median 7%
    What this means

    What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's -11039% of revenue this year, a -16% median across 9 years.

  • Loss, and burning cash
    Net income ($13M) · cash from operations ($6M)
    What this means

    The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did not.

How is the cash used?

  • No surplus to allocate
    What this means

    The business didn't generate positive Owner Earnings this year, so any distributions came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not from operations.

  • Investing or harvesting? 0.62×
    Harvesting
    Capex $985K ÷ depreciation $2M
    What this means

    Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 1 of 5 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

  • Adequate size Miss
    Revenue ≥ $2B · $61K
    What this means

    Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.

  • Strong liquidity Miss
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.35×
    What this means

    Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.

  • Conservative debt Pass
    Debt ≤ working capital · $17M vs $19M WC
    What this means

    Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.

  • Earnings stability Miss
    A profit every year (10-yr record) · 9 loss years
    What this means

    Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.

  • Dividend record Miss
    Uninterrupted dividends · 3 of 10 yrs
    What this means

    An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.

  • Earnings growth
    Earnings +33% over the record ·
    What this means

    Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.

  • Moderate price
    P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
    What this means

    Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $-2.23/share (latest year $-1.02), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $1.60/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2017–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

  • Profitable years 1 of 9
    What this means

    Lost money in 8 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 8 yrs
    What this means

    A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.

  • Operating margin 6% → −22611% (3-yr avg ends)

    In the filing’s words The words explain the slip: the filing names price competition rather than pricing actions of its own — a business that looks to take its price, not set it.

    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 6% early to −22611% lately, median −23% — competition or costs are biting in.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
    What this means

    The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.

  • Worst year 2024 · −53243.8% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2024, understand why before trusting the good years.

  • Share count −1.7%/yr
    What this means

    The share count is shrinking, buybacks are quietly growing your slice of the business.

  • Dividend record rising
    What this means

    Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

In its own filing Raised, but not as a competitor

The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product; it frames AI mainly as a capability.

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat, and the company is using it that way.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of fiscal year-end, Jun 30, 2025

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$75M
  • Cash & short-term investments$10M
  • Receivables$73M
  • Inventory$1M
Current liabilities$55M
  • Accounts payable$40M
  • Other current liabilities$15M
Current ratio1.35×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.33×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.18×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$19Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Cash runway1.5 yrsthe business is consuming cash; this is how long the cash on hand lasts at that rate
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$2Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($2M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$17M$195K of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →
  • How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?
    ≈$6K · 10% of revenue on the largest customers (TTM)
    “The Group had two customers representing more than 10% of revenue for the year ended June 30, 2025 (year ended June 30, 2024: one).”verify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Multi-Utilities

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
NEENextEra Energy Inc.$27.4B28.2%6%
DTBDTE Energy Co$15.8B13.6%6%
HTOH2O America$806M22.0%5%
UTLUNITIL Corporation$536M16.9%7%-7%
ARTNAArtesian Resources Corporation$113M24.0%5%21%
YORWYork Water$77M42.9%7%28%
CDZICADIZ Inc.$16M-7%-2204.0%-22%-2458%
VIVOVivoPower PLC$61K16%-22.6%-15%-16%
Group median19.5%5%-7%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Enter the US price, in dollars: the NYSE/Nasdaq quote you hold. VivoPower PLC's US listing is the ordinary share itself. The record tables elsewhere on this page remain as filed.

VivoPower PLC is profitable, but owner earnings are negative this year because capital spending currently outruns operating cash, a build-out, so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no positive base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the steady-state profitability it demands, then set the mature margin you would believe and weigh the two against each other. Nothing leaves your browser unless you enter it in your notebook.

$
The assumptions

Revenue, delivered−51%/yr’20→’25

Enter a price to run it.

Owner earnings it must reach
Margin the price demands
Owner-earnings margin today−11039%

Two reads of one future. From your price: the owner earnings the company must reach, valued at a mature multiple and discounted back at your rate, expressed as the margin it implies on revenue grown at your rate. From your belief: the mature margin you would credit, set on the dial above. When the margin the price demands runs above the one you would believe, you are paying for a future taken on faith. For a deep cyclical at a trough, normalized through-cycle earnings are the better lens; this mode is for the genuinely unprofitable, and for the profitable business whose capital spending currently outruns its cash.

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "VivoPower PLC (VIVO), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/VIVO, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← VIV its page in the Manual VOD →

Industry order: ← UTL the Multi-Utilities chapter WEC →