MIND Technology Stock

MIND Technology, Inc. (MIND) provides technology to the oceanographic, hydrographic, defense, seismic and maritime security industries. MIND has a global presence with key operating locations in the United States, Singapore, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. The company's products and equipment are utilized in a variety of geographic regions throughout the world.

Strategy

The company focuses on its strategy to emphasize its Seamap and Klein businesses following the decision to exit the Leasing Business. The company primarily focuses on three markets within the broader marine products space, Marine Exploration, Marine Survey and Maritime Security. Customers within these market segments include marine survey companies, seismic survey contractors, non-military governmental organizations, research institutes, first responders, domestic and foreign navies, and operators of port facilities and other offshore installations.

Segments

The company operates in two segments, Seamap Marine Products and Klein Marine Products.

Seamap Marine Products Business

Seamap designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of products for the oceanographic, hydrographic and marine seismic industries. Seamap's primary products include the GunLink seismic source acquisition and control systems, commonly referred to as energy source controllers, and the BuoyLink RGPS (relative global positioning system) tracking system, and SeaLink marine sensors and solid streamer systems (collectively, the SeaLink product line or towed streamer products). Applications for these technologies include marine seismic surveys related to energy exploration, as well as other resources, ocean bottom surveys and various research activities. The company's worldwide Seamap Marine Products business includes Seamap Pte Ltd, MIND Maritime Acoustics, LLC, Seamap (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Seamap (UK) Ltd (collectively Seamap), which designs, manufactures and sells specialized marine seismic equipment.

Klein Marine Products Business

Klein primarily designs, manufactures and sells advanced side scan sonar systems for the oceanographic, hydrographic, defense and maritime security industries on a world-wide basis. Klein's family of sonar products are used in a variety of applications, including hydrographic surveys, naval mine counter measure operations, search and recovery operations, ocean bottom profiling and other underwater object detection operations. The company's worldwide Klein Marine Products business includes Klein Marine Systems, Inc. (Klein), which designs, manufactures and sells high performance side scan sonar and water-side security systems.

Seamap and Klein have overlapping customer bases in some cases and it is not uncommon for a marine survey vessel to be equipped with products from both Seamap and Klein. The technologies underlying the products of Seamap and Klein are similar, as are the engineering disciplines and challenges. The company anticipates significant engineering collaboration between Seamap and Klein and plans to jointly develop new products.

Business and Operations

Seamap Marine Products Business

Through its Seamap Marine Products business, the company develops, manufactures and sells a range of proprietary products for the oceanographic, hydrographic, seismic, defense and maritime security industries. The company has developed certain of its technology and have acquired other technology through the purchase of businesses or specific assets from others.

Seamap's primary products include the GunLink seismic source acquisition and control systems, which are designed to provide operators of marine seismic surveys more precise monitoring and control of energy sources; the BuoyLink RGPS tracking system, which is used to provide precise positioning of marine seismic energy sources and streamers; Sleeve Gun energy sources and (4) the SeaLink towed seismic streamer system. Seamap's other products include streamer weight collars, depth transducers, pressure transducers, air control valves and source array systems. In addition to selling complete products, Seamap provides spare and replacement parts related to the products it sells. Seamap also provides certain services related to its products. These services include repair, engineering, training, field service operations and umbilical terminations.

The company has recently introduced its Sea Serpent line of passive sonar arrays for maritime security and anti-submarine warfare applications. Sea Serpent is based on the company's commercially developed SeaLink towed streamer systems. Sea Serpent provides a cost-effective, robust, and capable passive sonar solution for navies, governmental agencies and other operators of offshore facilities.

Klein Marine Products Business

Klein is a supplier of side scan sonar equipment and systems. Products are marketed to governmental and commercial customers through an internal sales organization and a network of distributors and representatives around the world. Sales, engineering, production and administrative operations are performed from Klein's facility in Salem, New Hampshire.

Klein offers an extensive product line of side scan sonar systems and related products. The product line includes multi-beam and single-beam side scan sonar systems with varying levels of capability. These products are utilized in a number of applications including portable search and recovery, shallow and deep-water surveys, naval mine warfare, underwater object detection and bathymetry. These products can be deployed from vessels of varying sizes, including autonomous underwater vehicles and autonomous surface vehicles. Traditional side scan sonar imaging creates a nadir gap in the center of the image. This gap in data requires overlapping survey lines which leads to significant additional survey time to achieve 100% coverage. For the operators of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), this translates into extended mission duration. Traditional gap-filler solutions tend to be expensive or of low image .

In 2021, the company entered into an agreement with a major European defense contractor for the joint development and marketing of synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) systems. SAS is a form of sonar in which sophisticated post-processing of sonar data is used in ways closely analogous to synthetic aperture radar. In many applications and conditions, SAS can provide superior images and results as compared to traditional side scan sonar. Under the development agreement with its partner, the company is in the process of jointly developing SAS sensor systems, initially for deployment on unmanned underwater vehicles.

The company also has recently introduced Spectral Ai, which is a cutting-edge software suite for side scan sonar data. Spectral Ai consists of a series of modules for data management, annotation, mapping, and a convolutional neural network model for automatic target recognition. Spectral Ai has been designed specifically for Klein sonars.

Components for the company's marine products are sourced from a variety of suppliers located in Asia, Europe and the United States. Products are generally assembled, tested and shipped from the company's facilities in Singapore, Malaysia, Texas and New Hampshire.

Customers, Sales, and Marketing

In fiscal 2023 (year ended January 31, 2023), the company's single largest customer accounted for approximately 17% of its consolidated revenues. Together, the company's five largest customers accounted for approximately 47% of its consolidated revenues in fiscal 2023.

The company participates in both domestic and international trade shows and expositions to inform the appropriate industries of its products and services.

Intellectual Property

The products designed, manufactured and sold by the company's Seamap and Klein businesses utilize significant intellectual property that it has developed, purchased or have licensed from others. The company's internally developed intellectual property consists of product designs, trade secrets and patent applications. The company has acquired certain United States and foreign patents related to energy source controllers, hydrophone, its MA-X technology and other technologies.

Governmental Environmental Regulation

The company is subject to federal, state, local and foreign worker safety and health laws and regulations, such as the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and emergency planning and response laws and regulations, such as the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, as well as comparable state statutes and any implementing regulations.

History

The company was incorporated in 1987 as a Texas corporation and reincorporated in the state of Delaware in 2020. It was formerly known as Mitcham Industries, Inc. and changed its name to MIND Technology, Inc. in August 2020.