Adi Sfadia
Analyst · Needham & Company
Thank you, and good day. Thank you for joining us today for our second quarter of 2024 earnings call. The second quarter of 2024 was a good quarter for Gilat in which we showed year-over-year revenue growth. This was primarily due to the strong momentum in our defense business with a significant contribution following the acquisition of DataPath. We expect this strong momentum to continue in the quarters ahead. In addition, another key achievement was our ability to increase our adjusted EBITDA by 10% year-over-year, exceeding $10 million. Most importantly, during the second quarter, we took a major strategic step and announced the acquisition of Stellar Blu Solutions, a leader and first to market in delivering electronically steerable antenna for the in-flight connectivity market. The closing of the acquisition is on track and expected around the beginning of the fourth quarter of this year. In a minute, Gil will discuss the financial elements of the deal in more detail. But before that, I want to discuss why I'm so excited about this acquisition and why this acquisition carries significant potential for Gilat. The acquisition of Stellar Blu culuminated many months of deep due diligence, looking at all aspects of the IFC market, the company, its long-term growth potential and potential synergies with Gilat's existing business infrastructure. This deal has the potential to unlock new strategic customers and create additional significant revenue for Gilat. Just recently, Stellar Blu completed qualification and a supplemental type certification on the multi-orbit side winter aero terminal We have a vision to broaden this product line with a more comprehensive suite of products for the IFC market. I can share that the company has started delivering the first ISA terminal units to its customers. As such, we expect Stellar Blu to add between $120 million to $150 million in revenues in 2025 and be accretive to our non-GAAP results. Furthermore, we estimate that once Stellar Blu reaches its target manufacturing capacity during the second half of 2025, its EBITDA margin will be above 10%. Assuming closing will happen at the beginning of Q4, we estimate Stellar Blu revenues to be between $25 million to $35 million in Q4 of 2024. I am confident in Stellar Blu's team, its leadership, its offering and its go-to-market strategy. This acquisition will position us as a market leader for aviation ESA a market that we believe is set to explode in the coming years. In the longer term, we can leverage the technology portfolio into other large adjacent markets. Overall, I believe this acquisition can transform Gilat into a high-growth company for the years to come, and I look forward to welcoming Stellar Blu's team to Gilat once we close. As for 2024 outlook, we are reiterating the guidance we gave earlier this year in February 2024. I would note that once we close the Stellar Blu acquisition, we will provide updated guidance to account for the contribution from Stellar Blu in 2024. Now let's move to the business review of the second quarter of 2024. In the very high throughput satellite, the VHTS and the non-geostationary satellite the NGSO constellations market, we continue to lead the market and grow our business with follow-on multimillion dollar orders from our strategic partners, the satellite operators, which mainly include SCS and Intercept among others. This is driven by increasing demand for Gilat's Sky edge platforms as satellite operators expand their networks and deliver a wider range of application to a growing number of users. Recently, we announced that the company was awarded over $9 million in cumulative orders from multiple satellite operators to expand their global SatCom networks by utilizing Gilat's innovative and field-proven solutions. Gilat Solutions will enable a wide range of services and applications of GEO, MEO and LEO, including in-flight connectivity, maritime, land mobility, cellular backhaul, enterprise services and more. Also during the quarter, we announced that SES OSB Empower launched its services via Gilat Sky platform. Scratch from the industry-first multi-orbit MEO-GEO system is enabling SCS OCB mPOWER software-driven constellation to deliver services with unparalleled flexibility and scale. Our increased focus on the defense market is already bearing fruits. During the second quarter, we announced that Nicole Robinson has been appointed President of DataPath. Ms. Robison is an international satellite industry executive with a proven record of driving growth, managing global sales and operational teams and deploying next-generation technology for the benefit of government and defense organizations, businesses and communities globally. Q2 was also our second full quarter of consolidating revenues from DataPath into the defense sector under the satellite network segment. Furthermore, we recently announced several new projects that we were awarded to DataPath and Wavestream. DataPath received over $9 million in orders in support of the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies participating in field service and technical service program worldwide. DataPath is deploying technical services and field services in Europe, the Middle East and the United States to support U.S. defense end users critical connectivity requirements. These orders include both contract extensions and new contracts from various partners and agencies. DataPath also awarded a multiyear contract of over $5 million from national defense organization to upgrade their ticket transportable satcom network hubs. DataPath multi-band tactical Dicaterminal delivered operation flexibility, capacity, connectivity, rapid deployability and control required to support demanding communication in remote locations. Decoterminals deliver secure, reliable communication anywhere needed to establish network connectivity to support emission with minimal manpower. In addition, Wavestream one of our U.S.-based subsidiaries received a significant order from a Tier 1 U.S. global military terminal provider for the micro stream solid-state power amplifier for satellite communication terminals sold to military throughout the world. We continue to make great progress in the mobility sector, demonstrating solid year-over growth, developing more products, adding more customers and supporting more verticals. During the second quarter, we received over $14 million in orders from several prominent service providers and system integrators for the IFC products and solutions. This includes network recruitment, VSATs, up, Solidor Amplify and additional IFC auxiliary products. These orders from new partnership and existing customers demonstrate the company's leadership position in the growing IFC market for commercial and business aviation. During the quarter, SES announced its open Orbis initiative, which will allow the use of Ka networks for global IFC connectivity. I'm optimistic that this initiative will be part of our significant growth in this market. In Peru, we are progressing faster than planned in implementing the Amazonas region $17 million expansion project. We expect to finish the implementation of this expansion before the end of the year. In addition, we expect to move to the operational phase in the 6 regions project of Ponte in the Amazonas region during the third quarter. This follows the completion of the acceptance process, which is currently underway. During the quarter, we received the follow-on orders from -- for over $10 million from Internet Para Todos IPT consortium comprised of Telefonica and Meta Facebook to deliver several backhaul services across rural areas in Peru. IPT is a global collaborative initiative to bridge the digital divide in Latin America under a sustainable model that would allow to overcome the obstacles of bringing connectivity to rural and geographic geographically complex areas. Gilat will provide access to high-speed terrestrial connectivity to over 1 million more people living in rural areas. Furthermore, in Peru, we are expecting additional progress in the next few months. This includes the maturity of several large RFPs resonate and the Peruvian government as well as several project extensions. We are very pleased with the strong pipeline in Peru for the rest of the year. To conclude, the second quarter has been very valuable for Gilat. Our acquisition of Stella Blu Solutions has been -- has the potential to be a significant growth engine for Gilat and it will establish us as the market leader for Aviation Esa a market that we believe is set to explode in the coming years. I am pleased with our second quarter results which include the contribution of our acquisition of DataPath and strong momentum in our defense business. We continue to lead with our next-generation platform, the SkyEdge IV, which support multiple orbits, verticals and applications, including our strategic markets of mobility, ferrule backhaul and defense. We are particularly proud of our contribution to the SCS OBMpower service launch. During the second quarter, we made significant progress in expanding our IFC footprint into business and commercial aviation, including the SCS open orbits initiative. We have a strong pipeline and expect a materialization of important deals over the coming months. With that, I will hand over to Gil Benyamini, our CFO.