Gilat Satellite Networks Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Gilat's 4th Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. All participants are at present in listen only mode.

Operator

Following management's formal presentation, instructions will be given for the question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded February 26, 2024. By now, you should have all received the company's press release. If you have not received it, please contact Gilat's Investor Relations team at EK Global Investor Relations at 1-six forty six-six eighty eight-three thousand five hundred and fifty nine or view it in the News section of the company's website, www.silot.com. I would now like to hand over the call to Mr.

Operator

Ehud Helft of EK Global Investor Relations. Mr. Helft, would you like to begin?

Speaker 1

Yes. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for the last 4th quarter 2023 results conference call and webcast. A recording of this call will be available beginning at approximately noon Easter Time today, February 26, as a webcast on Gilat's website for a period of 30 days. Also, please note that investors are urged to read the forward looking statements in Gilat's earnings release with a reminder that statements made on this earnings call are not historical facts and may be deemed the forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Speaker 1

All such forward looking statements, including statements regarding future financial and operational results, involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond the control Pilaz and which may cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results. Pilaz is under no obligation to update or alter these forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, and the company expressly disclaims any obligation to do so. More detailed information about risk factors can be found in Gilat's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And with that said, let

Speaker 2

me turn to the action 2 introductions.

Speaker 1

On the call today are Mr. Alif Fadia, Gilat's CEO and Mr. Gilberto Gimini, Gilat's CFO. I would now like to turn the call over to Adi. Adi, we're ready to begin.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Ehud, and good day to everyone. I want to thank you for joining us today to discuss our 4th quarter and full year 2023 results. Before discussing the quarter's business results, I want to reemphasize my comments from the previous quarter that Gilat is a strong global company with operation and development centers worldwide. Our operations remains unaffected by the recent events in Israel. Now let's move to the business review of the Q4 of 2023 and the full year results.

Speaker 2

We are very pleased with our Q4 20 23 full year results. We ended 2023 with strong Q4 results. We are reporting 4th quarter revenues of $75,600,000 bringing us to a full year revenues of about $266,100,000 which is year over year growth of 11%. Most importantly, we are particularly proud of the strong improvement in our profitability across the board, with 4th quarter adjusted EBITDA of about $9,400,000 bringing us to a full year adjusted EBITDA of 30 $6,400,000 which represents a significant year over year growth of 44%. This is a solid demonstration of the operating leverage inherent in our business model combined with a more favorable revenue mix sold during this year.

Speaker 2

I'm pleased with our Q4 achievements in the IFC and defense verticals. In the IFC, we managed to gain 2 new awards from strategic customers that extended our product portfolio. In the defense vertical, we ended the year with important wins for SSP8, transportable hubs and the first order for our next generation military modem. The 4th quarter was also strong quarter operations in Peru with a more than $17,000,000 award from Bonatel to expand the Amazonas regional project. Looking back over the year, we progress with our strategy to be the partner of choice for the satellite operators by winning and extending key strategic VHTS and NGSO deals.

Speaker 2

We also progressed significantly with our strategy to expand our market share in the defense vertical with the acquisition of DataPath in the United States, which we believe will be a significant long term growth asset for Gilat. We extended our market leadership in the in flight connectivity vertical and our dominance in the satellite based cellular backhaul vertical. We continue to release new exciting products in all of our business lines. Overall, 2023 represents a key growth year from both a strategic and financial perspective. And over the next few minutes, I will summarize our progress.

Speaker 2

Our solid revenue growth and strong adjusted EBITDA performance in 2023 were due to the continued growing market interest in the satellite communications sector, specifically for our solutions. Looking ahead to 2024, we expect another year of top line and profit growth. Our guidance for 2024 is as follows. We expect revenues of between $305,000,000 and $325,000,000 representing approximately 18% year over year growth at the midpoint. We expect an adjusted EBITDA of between $40,000,000 to $44,000,000 representing year over year growth of 15% at the midpoint.

Speaker 2

Acquisition of DataPath was concluded in mid November. The acquisition is a major milestone in Gilat's strategic initiative to increase its presence in the growing defense communication market powered by satellite connectivity. It allows us to better penetrate to the United States Department of Defense and Government sectors as well as into international government and defense markets. DataPath is a U. S.-based system integrator and a market leader in secure communication systems services and end to end solutions for mission critical operations over satellite.

Speaker 2

Datapas and Gilat brings strong competencies and synergies in system engineering, software development and mechanical engineering. DataPath is a key enabler to the US DoD and government mission critical sector. It provides and maintains its subsystem systems such as portable and transportable ground stations and related services. I'm happy to say that we already see a good level of business progress at DataPath as witnessed by booking of more than $20,000,000 since we closed the acquisition in mid November until today. Looking at some of the other market verticals we support.

Speaker 2

In the very high throughput satellite, the VHTS and the non geostationary satellite, the NGSO constellation business, we continue to lead with follow on multimillion dollar orders from our strategic partners for MEO and Jio Networks. Furthermore, we are competing on additional large scale opportunities for next generation MEO and LEO platforms and user terminals. This platform signals the digital transformation of ground system to the cloud, 5 gs and the stage transition to all software offering. Network expansions and deliveries of Gilat Multi Orbit next generation platform, SkyEdge 4, are taking place globally to support multiple applications such as in flight connectivity, cellular background, enterprise and social inclusion. 2023 was another record year for Gilat cellular backbone solution over satellite.

Speaker 2

We received a renewal and extension of a contract of approximately $20,000,000 from Tier 1 MNO in the United States. We are continuing this multiyear agreement as end to end managed service provider of satellite vessel or backhaul and emergency response for this long term leading delivery and operation capabilities. Our superior technology enables smooth transition to 5 gs backhaul over multi orbit constellation and VHTS satellites. During the Q4, Gilat, SCS and one of the largest MNOs in the world demonstrated the operation of the Sky's 4 platform for 5 gs cellular backhaul on MEO constellation that delivered more than 600 megabit per second speed directly to the handset. In mobility, we are progressing both in IFC and cruise verticals.

Speaker 2

We see growth potentials with new operators and system integrators globally. Our waste tube subsidiary is making significant progress with 2 new awards from strategic customers, 1 very large system integrator and another large IFC terminal manufacturer that is extending its portfolio to also support IFC terminal auxiliary. Earlier in the year, we won a strategic ESA deal for the business aviation with Satcom Direct, and we are optimistic about the growth of this market. As I have just mentioned, we are putting significant focus on the defense market segment and data pass acquisition is a prime example. We are seeing good progress in this area and expect this extra focus will bear fruit soon.

Speaker 2

We expect our database revenues to exceed $45,000,000 in 2024. We recently announced that the U. S. Army awarded our U. S.

Speaker 2

Based subsidiary, WayStream, a $20,000,000 contract for the sustained anytime, anywhere satellite connectivity program. We will provide an additional 51 ks APEM box for the long term sustainment of thousands of mobile satellite transportable terminals, enabling a continued communication on the POS solutions across diverse climate and harsh condition around the globe. We also received a multimillion dollar order for our SkyEdge 4 system from a leading military government organization. This is the first order we have received for our SkyEdge 4 platform for the defense vertical. The SkyEdge 4 can potentially become an important part of the net centric battlefield.

Speaker 2

Moreover, we embarked on developing a next generation military modem to succeed our GLP product line. This modem will use state of the art resilience waveform to allow secure communication anywhere. In addition, through WaveStream, we're introducing a new high power SSCA product line called Endurance. The Endurance pack is hot swappable rackmount design that can cover multiple commercial and military frequency bands with a switchable up converter. We believe that the Endurance product line will take market share from the current products based on TWTA technology, installed base and future upgrades.

Speaker 2

Our enterprise customers worldwide continue to depend on us to enhance their business and new opportunities continue to arise. The industry is facing intense competition from Starlink. To overcome this challenge, we are working with our partners to explore the multi service capabilities of our deployed platforms and use common network and expect more in 2024. In Peru, we are progressing with the construction of the Amazonas networks. We aim to deliver the network to Quantel and moving to fully operational mode during the Q2 of 2024.

Speaker 2

During the last quarter, we received more than 17 $1,000,000 expansion to the Amazonas network from Quantel, expanding the network deployment, including a service agreement for 10 years to address the growing needs of Internet in additional parts of the Amazonas region. The expansion will include connectivity to 35 new localities and dozens of new public institutions, including schools and health centers. We are expecting additional progress in Peru over the next few months. Includes the maturity of several large program RFPs with Bonatel and the Peruvian government and several project extensions. To conclude, I'm happy with our strong progress for both a strategic perspective and a financial one in 2023.

Speaker 2

We continue to lead with our next generation platform in the Gwen satellite connectivity market, our Skyj IV platform, which supports multiple orbits and verticals, including our strategic markets of mobility, cellular, backward and defense is making great inroads and seeing strong and growing traction among existing and new customers. In particular, we are very excited about the new potential in our defense business, especially given the closing of the DataPath acquisition and our next generation military modem initiative. We continue to secure new opportunities for our SSPI business, especially in the IFC vertical and are seeing increasing opportunities in this line of business. Overall, as we move into 2024, we believe it will be a year in which many opportunities of the LEO vertical will turn into wins and orders. We have a strong pipeline and expect the materialization of important deals over the coming months quarters.

Speaker 2

And with that, I hand over to Gil Biniyamini, our CFO. Gil, please.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Adi. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone. I would like to remind everyone that our financial results are presented both on a GAAP and non GAAP basis. We regularly use supplemental non GAAP financial measures internally to understand, manage and evaluate our business and to make operating decisions. We believe these non GAAP financial measures provide consistent and comparable measures to help investors understand our current and future operating performance.

Speaker 3

Non GAAP financial measures mainly exclude, if and when applicable, the effect of non cash stock based compensation expenses, amortization of purchased intangibles, amortization of intangible assets related to acquisition transactions, lease incentive and amortization, impairment of held for sale assets, other expenses, one time changes of deferred tax assets, one time tax expense related to release of historical tax draft earnings, other operating expenses or income and the income tax effect on the relevant adjustments. The reconciliation table in our press release highlights these data and our non GAAP information presented excluded these items. I will now move on to our financial highlights for the Q4 of 2023 followed by our full year 2020 3 highlights. Overall, as I did mentioned earlier, we are very pleased with our performance in 2023. We ended the year with a continued improvement in headwinds and geopolitical challenges, our performance shows that we have been able to mitigate most of these issues without a significant impact on our profitability.

Speaker 3

And even though 2024 may contain some potential macro challenges ahead, we believe that we're well positioned to overcome these challenges and continue to improve our financial performance as we move through 2020. This was significant quarter for Gilat as we closed the strategic acquisition of DataPath, which we believe will accelerate our growth. In terms of our financial results, revenues for the 4th quarter were $75,600,000 4% higher of those of the Q4 of last year, which were $72,600,000 This DataPath acquisition, which closed on November 16 this year, contributed modestly to our quarterly revenue in line with expectations. For the year, revenues were $266,100,000 up 11% versus $279,800,000 in 2022. The improvements were driven by growth in all of our segments and mainly from the VHTS and NGSO, IFC and solar backhaul verticals.

Speaker 3

In terms of revenue breakdown by segments, Q4 2023 revenues of the Satellite Network segment segment were $53,500,000 compared to $36,400,000 in the same quarter last year. Q4 'twenty three revenues of the Integrated Solutions segment were $9,500,000 compared to $16,300,000 same quarter last year. The decline was mainly due transformation periods between strategic and large projects in the segment. Q4 revenues of the Networks Infrastructure and Services segment were $12,600,000 compared to $19,900,000 in the same quarter last year. The decline was mainly due to deliveries that slipped to 2024.

Speaker 3

I would now like to summarize our 4th quarter results, first on a GAAP basis and then I'll cover the non GAAP numbers. Our GAAP gross margin in Q4 2023 remained similar to the last year, 38.2 percent. GAAP operating expenses in Q4 'twenty three were $26,000,000 in the quarter compared with $21,600,000 in the same quarter last year. The increase is mainly due to higher R and D expenses incurred in order to support our current and future growth. GAAP operating income for the quarter was $2,900,000 compared to $6,100,000 in the same quarter last year.

Speaker 3

GAAP net income in the 4th quarter was $3,400,000 or diluted income per share of $0.06 This is compared to GAAP net loss of $6,000,000 or loss per share of $0.11 in the same quarter last year. Moving to non GAAP results. Our non GAAP gross margin in Q4 2023 improved to 39.1% compared to 38.3% in the same quarter last year. Non GAAP operating expenses in Q4 'twenty three were $23,400,000 compared with $20,700,000 in the same quarter last year. Non GAAP operating income in Q4 'twenty three was $6,100,000 compared to an operating income of 7 point $1,000,000 in the same quarter last year.

Speaker 3

Non GAAP net income in the 4th quarter was $6,500,000 or diluted income per share of 0 point $1 This is compared with net income of $7,900,000 or income per share of $0.14 in the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $9,400,000 compared with an adjusted EBITDA of $10,100,000 in the same quarter last year. For the year, adjusted EBITDA was $36,400,000 compared with an adjusted EBITDA of $25,200,000 in 20 20. Moving to our balance sheet. As of December 31, 2023, our total cash cash equivalents and restricted cash net of loans were $95,300,000 compared with 100.3 $1,000,000 on September 30, 2023, and compared to $87,100,000 in December 31, 2022.

Speaker 3

The reduction is mainly due to $5,700,000 that was used to the Detapak acquisition and $9,500,000 of debt we assumed part of the acquisition agreement. In terms of cash flow, we generated $10,000,000 from operating activities during the Q4 of 2023. DSOs, which excludes receivables and revenues of our terrestrial network construction projects in Peru, were 63 days, lower than the previous quarter DSO, which were of 75 days. Decrease was impacted by both increase in revenue as well as decrease in receivables due to higher collection in the last quarter. Our shareholders' equity as of December 31, 2023, totaled to about $275,000,000 compared with $244,000,000 at the end of 2020 2.

Speaker 3

Looking ahead, as Adi already mentioned, we're expecting a strong 2024 with revenue of between $305,000,000 to $325,000,000 representing year over year growth of 18% at the midpoint, GAAP operating income of between $15,000,000 to $19,000,000 and adjusted EBITDA of between $40,000,000 to 40 $4,000,000 representing year over year growth of 15% at the midpoint. That concludes my financial review. I would like to open the call for questions. Operator?

Operator

Thank The first question is from Ryan Coons of Needham and Company. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hi, thanks for the question. Let's see, some housekeeping first with respect to Q4, I assume the GAAP step up in G and A there was maybe related to acquisition expenses. Is

Speaker 3

that correct? Some of it is acquisition expenses and some of it I mean, mainly it is acquisition expenses, yes.

Speaker 4

Okay. Thanks. And on the guidance for 24, can you maybe walk us through some of the puts and takes on some of the segments? Are you still expecting in the ballpark of $50,000,000 from DataPath? And are there any other major programs or segments of the business that are contributing to upside or we talked about the macro caution, which areas of the business you think are most affected there?

Speaker 3

Yes. So in general, we expect growth in all of our business segments. We don't provide the guidance by segment, but we do expect growth in all of our segments, both organic and of course inorganic by DataPath. As I mentioned, DataPath contributed Next year, we expect about $45,000,000 as Adi mentioned, from Datapath. And of course, as it is the 1st year of acquiring it, we applied some conservative assumptions over that as well and reached our guidance.

Speaker 4

Okay. That's fair. And any updates for us on some of the big drivers there for your business, whether it's some of the LEO opportunities or some of the IFC programs you're attached to? Anything you can share there that would get investors excited about the story?

Speaker 2

Yes. I think the main progress is that those several RFPs that we are competing on are still in progress. We believe that awards or decision is going to be towards the for some of them towards the mid of Q2 and for some towards the end of the year. In fact, all of our large partners are having new RFPs for new technology and existing technology. And we expect most of it to mature during the year.

Speaker 2

In some of them, we are the incumbents, so we feel comfortable. And in some, especially on the LEO, on WhatWeb and Iris Square in Europe, we are competing against several other companies, but we believe that we have a superior technology and the potential from each and every opportunity over there is 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars and can change the future of Gilat.

Speaker 4

Sure. That's great to hear. So it sounds like you're not baking in those assumptions in your 'twenty four guidance, any of these changes in your current?

Speaker 2

It's a combination of the 2. The ongoing business with our strategic partners is baked into our guidance in a way. We are having a discussion with them and we understand what is their forecast and putting our assumption on top of it. On the LEO part, even if we get the once we get the award, it's a matter of several years of development. So the effect on 2024 will be minimized.

Speaker 2

And then we'll have around 3 years of developing the platform. It's a completely new platform. And then we'll start seeing a significant top line contribution.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. That's helpful. And in terms of Peru and the network infrastructure business, how is that tracking as far as your expectations for 'twenty four? I know you're not guiding by quantitatively, but anything you can share with us about how the program is progressing?

Speaker 2

So we have the original Amazonas network that we are in the final stages. We in acceptance process part of the network and about to finish the 2nd part of the network during Q1, and we expect to deliver the network and start operational phase by the end of the Q2. The new award of the €17,000,000 comprise of around 60% of construction, which should carry it until early next year and then additional 10 years of operation. The rule of thumb, we expect that Peru revenues to modestly grow in 2024 over 2023 results.

Speaker 4

Okay. That's really helpful. Thank you. I'll get back

Operator

with you. The next question is from Chris Quilty of Quilty Space. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Thanks, gentlemen. I think is this the first time you've really talked about the opportunity with IRIS Squared or has that been previously in some of your expectations?

Speaker 2

No, we are talking about iris for quite some time. Last quarter, we said that we received the eligibility. We have a very large in order to be eligible to participate in the program, you need to have to be a European company. And we have a significant operation in Europe. And we strengthen our operation in Europe.

Speaker 2

And we expect to continue and increase our operation. We have large operation in Bulgaria. We are building large operation in Madrid, in Spain. We received the eligibility. And the I wish started to learn several RFI, RFPs and we started to answer them.

Speaker 2

But I think it's in initial stages and it will take time until the final RFP and award will occur. I suspect it won't happen before the end of this year.

Speaker 5

Got you. And when you were referring earlier to a 3 year development timeframe, was that referring to the Iris Squared program or was that one of the other NGSO programs

Speaker 4

you were

Speaker 2

I think as a rule of thumb, developing a new platform and not enhancement to existing platform is usually around 3 years. Now there is a request in the market to shift to cloud. There is a request in the market to move to virtualization, virtual modem, SDR modems, 5 gs NPN. So the shift like this require a lot of development. And the rule of thumb is around 3, maybe 4 years.

Speaker 5

Understand. So this is essentially the replacement future replacement for SkyEdge 4?

Speaker 2

If you will talk to the product team, they will say no. But for Iris, it will be a totally new platform. For 1Web, Gen 2, it will be a totally new platform. For our long satellite operators, Partners at the first stage, it will be a significant enhancement to the existing platform, shifting more and more capabilities into the public cloud. And later on, there will be a shift also to 5 gs.

Speaker 5

Understand. And I think last quarter, you had mentioned possible beginning of a roll out during Q3 with one of your NGSO customers. Was that did that roll out happen or what's the progress there and expectations for incremental growth in 2024?

Speaker 2

So the rollout haven't started yet. The customer is expecting to launch service during 2026. And we expect to get production unit orders towards, let's say, before the end of the year. We do have a substantial amount of units that we need to deliver as part of the original order. And I can tell you that right now, our power amplifier is the only one that is working with the test satellite that this customer launched.

Speaker 5

Great. And a question for you, Gil. Can you give us perhaps like a ballpark of DNA for this year with the Datapath acquisition?

Speaker 3

Yes. We expect to see about $3,000,000 of depreciation plus about $5,000,000 of stock based to the deal. So all in all, it should be about $8,000,000 in the GAAP expenses that we should expect to see next year with respect to distribution.

Speaker 5

And that's $8,000,000 in total or not incremental? It's incremental.

Speaker 3

It's incremental. I mean, it's included obviously in the guidance for the operating income, one of the reasons that it decreased, it's incremental. And actually, it is also affected futurely affected by the stock price of Gilat. So it might change as well. But currently, according to our expectations, it should be around $8,000,000

Speaker 5

Understand. And when you look at the IFC market, where do you see the best opportunities there? Is that with existing players? Or have you made are you targeting inroads with additional systems integrators? So

Speaker 2

we see a lot of growth with existing partners and also using our platform to shift to other application and take advantage of the fact that our platform is a multi application platform. We are seeing nice business from several new customers on the SSPH side, but also on the network and on the modem side. Not big one yet, but each one of them can become a significant revenue generator in the next several years. So we are seeing a lot of orders for our SSPA, a lot of orders for auxiliary for ESA, like frequency control unit and power supply unit and things like that. And also orders from Odembraset.

Speaker 2

I remind you that earlier in the year, we signed the agreement with Satcom Direct. And now we are in the development phase, but we expect to see deliveries towards mid next year, which support revenue growth in especially in the IFC segment.

Speaker 5

Great. And I guess final question here, looking at the DataPath acquisition, there any intention to provide a little bit more details either book to bill or backlog for that business on a go forward basis?

Speaker 2

Yes. It's something that we are considering internally. And once we will be able to share, we will share it.

Speaker 1

Got you.

Speaker 5

And final question, Gil, I know you've provided this before, but I just want to assure where DataPath is going to land in terms of segment reporting?

Speaker 3

It's included under the satellite networks segment results.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Binyamini, would you like to make your concluding statement?

Speaker 3

Yes. I want

Earnings Conference Call
Gilat Satellite Networks Q4 2023
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