Anterix Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 2, 2023

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Antares Investor Conference Call. All participants have been listening After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Natasa Veccharelli. Please go ahead, madam.

Speaker 1

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I'm Natasha Vecarelli, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, and I welcome you to the Antares' First Quarter Conference Call. Joining me today are Rob Schwartz, President and CEO Ryan Burbrand, COO Tim Gray, CFO and Chris Gutman McKee, Chief Regulatory and Communications Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that we will make forward looking statements during this call regarding future events and our anticipated future performance, such as our commercial outlook and guidance. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Speaker 1

Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Additionally, we do not undertake any duty to update any forward looking statements. Important factors and risks That could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations are disclosed in our most recent SEC filings. These files can be accessed on our website or on the SEC's website. After Rob provides his prepared remarks, Kim will provide a quick update and we'll open the call for questions.

Speaker 1

With that, I'll turn the call over to Rob.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Natasha. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Our most recent call in April focused on the signing of the LCRA deal, providing them with broadband spectrum in Counties of their approximately 73,000 square mile service territory in Texas. We highlighted that LCRA is unique to our previous customers unimod. As it's a public power generation and transmission utility and also water management utility, creating a new universe of private broadband use cases that's already attracting additional Now before I start, I want to acknowledge that the frustration investors with the Cautious pace of utility sector and our lagging stock price is not lost on us.

Speaker 2

We share in these frustrations. We do remain laser focused on continuing to capture valuable customer contracts that we will further demonstrate to the market The substantial value of our spectrum asset and our full business opportunity. With that, today I'll focus on 2 areas. First, I'll provide an update on our demonstrated intent scorecard, providing at the request of investors to give a market pulse of customer progress And second, I'll give you an update on a range of activities and accomplishments There are important building blocks in our mission to become the utility industry's de facto wireless broadband solution. We introduced demonstrate intent or DI in February to address the challenge of communicating interim progress with customer contracts, Given the slower than anticipated pace of the market, longer sales cycles and resulting prolonged length of time between agreements.

Speaker 2

This transparent and fact based DI scorecard is intended to measure and quantify the meaningful signs of customer intent that we see before we get to a contract. This tool aligns well with our goal of providing investors with a consistent and measurable way to see the combined impact and development Our target customers complementing the standalone phases of our sales pipeline we previously reported. We also believe this tool provides a detailed picture of prospective customer progress towards contracting for our 900 megahertz spectrum and supports our resulting confidence in the strength and potential value of our pipeline. For this analysis, Every targeted customer in our sales pipeline representing over $3,000,000,000 in contracted proceeds is tracked and measured on a on 20 individual indicators of intent to pursue a 900 megahertz private wireless network. Each of these 20 indicators is individually weighted Based on our assessment of its importance.

Speaker 2

These include, for example, rate case filings, participation on panels or interviews, experiment on licenses, membership in our Utilities Strategic Advisory Board, participation in UBA and more. We'll continue to use the same indicators consistently from quarter to quarter. If that total weighted score places utility over a specific threshold, This indicates that a customer has demonstrated substantial intent to move forward with enterix on a 900 megahertz contract. This data provides Three key metrics that we'll share. The number of utilities that are scoring above the specific DI threshold, along with the total dollar value of the potential contract proceeds associated with those utilities.

Speaker 2

And lastly, the net increase in the total number of individual indicators In our first demonstrated intent report shared in February of this We highlighted that 15 utilities had crossed the threshold, representing over $800,000,000 in potential contract proceeds. In late April, we provided our 2nd DI update. At this time, just after announcing the LCRA contract for $30,000,000 14 utilities still remained above the DI threshold, representing approximately $800,000,000 in potential contract proceeds. And in June, we provided a 3rd update on our DI scorecard when there were still 14 utilities that had crossed the threshold. We also reported progress on a significant number of additional indicators of MVMT.

Speaker 2

Since our last report in June, We measured additional activity across our accounts. As of today, there are now 15 utilities that have crossed the DI threshold representing more than 850,000,000 in potential contract proceeds. And beyond that, the next three utilities that are close to crossing the DI threshold represent more than $275,000,000 in potential contract proceeds. In additional measurement of progress below the DI threshold, We've seen a total of 13 incremental demonstrated intent indicators across 8 utilities that have been recorded on our DI scorecard since June. Several of you have also asked to report on the total progress since we introduced the DI scorecard in February.

Speaker 2

In this period of less than 6 months, We've recorded positive movement by customers on about 50 new measurable indicators of intent throughout our DI scorecard. Additionally, Beginning in June, we created an infographic that captures these updates and is available on the Investor Relations page of our website. The individual results recorded on our DI scorecard are directly attributable to our broader efforts to become the de facto wireless broadband solution for the utility sector. We have been successful to date closing 100 percent of the contracts within the 5 utilities that have committed to wide area private wireless broadband Since we've had our broadband spectrum available, we strongly believe this outcome is based on our focus of being a partner to utilities. Through our work with the Utility Strategic Advisory Board, our Enterix Active Ecosystem and the Utility Broadband Alliance and more.

Speaker 2

Through our Utility Strategic Advisory Board, we've had the unique ability to collectively identify and pursue solutions that are key priorities of our current and potential customers. The Board consists of a senior level executive From 9 utilities, including Amarin, Evergy, Exel, LCRA, Exelon, Dominion, Southern, Northwestern and we're excited to report the new addition of New York Power Authority. In addition, we We continue to aid the development and growth of the Utility Broadband Alliance or UBBA, a collaborative industry dedicated to advancing the adoption of private broadband networks in the industry. In June, UBBA announced that it had surpassed 100 members With CenterPoint Energy, Duke Energy and LCRA listed as its newest utility members. Enterix couldn't be any prouder of the SaaS of Abba since our co founding of this critical industry organization.

Speaker 2

And finally, another program that passed the 100 member Our own Antares Active Ecosystem program, which turned 2 in May and now has more than 100 leading innovator companies collectively focused is on offering the broad array of equipment, solutions and services that utilities require to plan, build, operate and capture value from their 900 megahertz Private wireless broadband network investments. It's a who's who of wireless and utility technology and service leadership. I'll conclude with an update on our increasing thought leadership presence in the industry, an important element of our near and long term strategic positioning. Beyond the work with our ecosystem, the Utility Strategic Advisory Board and UBBA, as pioneers of a new market, our goal is consistently educate our key stakeholders on the necessity and value of private broadband networks. It's a big industry And that sort of educational effort is no small undertaking.

Speaker 2

For Enterix, it means we need to be nothing less than diligent, providing insightful, trusted thought leadership at every opportunity, not just getting the word out, but explaining why 900 Megahertz Private LTE is the right answer For each specific utility, its customers and its regulators, as well as for the industry, the region and the nation. In the last few months alone, from EEI, NAARC, IEEE to our own industry insights and more, We have participated on panels and spoken at conferences, broadcast webinars and written a number of pieces in industry publications. Our team's profile is high enough now that Enterix is sought out as a thought leader on utility communications, not only by utilities themselves, but also by regulators and the media. We believe it's the cumulative impact of all these efforts that will continue to drive customer contracts is reflected in our demonstrated intent scorecard It will lead to our goal of becoming the de facto broadband solution. And with that, I'll turn it over to Tim for a brief financial update.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Rob. I'm pleased to share that after delivering our first Receive roughly $80,000,000 of additional near term proceeds based on the delivery of additional milestones to our current customers Spread across the remainder of this fiscal year. We remain debt free, are fully funded and forecast to have free cash flow for fiscal 2024. As a reminder, we have approximately $26,000,000 available to repurchase shares in our current program and we anticipate efficiently using this plan During the remainder of the quarter by leveraging a majority of the funds we received last week from Exel. Additionally, We intend to put a significantly more robust plan in place prior to the expiration of the current plan subject to Board approval.

Speaker 3

With that, I'll turn it over to the operator for questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question comes from Simon Flannery from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you very much. Tim, thanks for the clarification on the buybacks. Maybe you can just remind us on what you think an appropriate cash balance is for the company. And then Rob, And you opened with talking about the frustrations with the delays with the utility industry.

Speaker 4

Can you Give us an update on what the key issues here are. Is it sort of just the layers of management, the layers of approval? Is it syncing with Others in the whether it's equipment providers or other parts of a broader grid modernization, just how do we think about Listen and why even now it's still taking longer than you expected.

Speaker 3

Hey, Simon. This is Tim. On the cash balance piece, traditionally, I'd like to have at least to cover a year of our OpEx, but I don't look at that like that as a standalone. Also look at the cash flows that we are going to have coming in from the contracts that we have got. We have got of the $238,000,000 we have signed to date, We received $102,000,000 and we've got $136,000,000 coming in still with $80,000,000 of that this year.

Speaker 3

So I'm comfortable with where our cash position is With being able to buy back shares with the current cash balance.

Speaker 4

Great. And just remind us what you think a year of cash

Speaker 3

Roughly $40,000,000 $45,000,000 Thank you.

Speaker 2

And Simon, to your second point, AniMood. I think we went into probably more detail in our April call about kind of some of the process issues that we're Seeing and our learnings along the way, these are cautious customers, cautious institutions that run our nation's electric grid. And when they make decisions, they make them for multiple decades, right? And so they while it takes a long time on the front end of those decisions, because of the complexity of the organizations and the way they have to get agreement from the regulators, they also at the same time are committing as you know to multi decades, 20, 30, 40 year terms that we have in our current agreements. So long front end, but Equivalently long back end of contracts.

Speaker 2

Part of it is, as you know, we really have, you know, we set it out 10 years ago to be the de facto provider here. We've really seen what I see as the thought leaders and pioneers step forward, who in my mind are inspiring The followers, this is a very unique industry that they're influencing each other. And while it takes time to get that progress and momentum going, You can now see through the activity in all of the organizations that I just talked about, the participation. I mean, open participation Senior executives that are now working as part of our USAAB, for example, Utility Strategic Advisory Board that are not yet customers, but are committing their time to move forward in learning from other signed customers. That's a great sign.

Speaker 2

Designated intent, as we've talked about, Whether they're doing pilots, whether it's through the USAAB, through other efforts of how they need to bring their complex organizations. The larger deals that we're doing in our pipeline, 9 figure deals, those require more work. There are multiple OpCos as we talked about back in April, IMOID. Each of them have their own state regulatory environments, their own leadership, and need to make their individual decisions that then roll up into a broader holding decisions. So they are complicated, but again, these are customers once we're embedded as we can see from the 5 that we've got we've signed, all 5 that have made these wide area decisions For private LTE over the last 3 years, we're batting 1,000.

Speaker 2

It's unfortunate that it takes a while to get a new sector going like this, But we're happy to see the whole progress. We're working on closing an entire sector here, not just one at a time. And so, While it's frustrating at the speed at which it's happening, the indications that we're seeing, including as measured from demonstrate intent, give us strong optimism.

Speaker 4

And anything on the water opportunity? You mentioned the opportunity kind of sort of expanding your address

Speaker 2

Originally of ways in which we could monetize our spectrum and Simon you've been following us for a long time. We're clearly committed as I like to say our bull's eye is the utility sector. It's where The spending is to be fair, right? The utility sector is spending over $150,000,000,000 a year in capital expenditures. There's few sectors that you can look at that have that opportunity To monetize within them.

Speaker 2

And so as you know, when you look across the other sectors, if you added up everything else going on in the private markets, Most likely, it doesn't even equal what we've already signed for contracted proceeds and service territory in the 15 states the 5 utilities that we have now.

Speaker 5

Ryan, do you

Speaker 4

want to add?

Speaker 5

Yes, Simon. Hey, it's Ryan here. One thing I'll add to, I think, the company's relationship with that, as we've just been continuing To grow the set of use cases that ultimately drive the underpinnings of why utilities push forward broadband networks in the first place. And We've captured now, and I think LCRO is a great example of this, a new relatively unique company in the public power space that brings in additional use cases Focus on transmission distribution and water management through the lower Colorado River that they're responsible for. But all of these just add to this Rolodex of value.

Speaker 5

When a value gets Established through these different use cases and we get a lot of attention from the utilities as we're working with them through the pipeline as they explore How do use cases ultimately underpin what they need to do most importantly as a utility and a big part of the work that we do in establishing how to build a business case The utility is rooted in that foundation of use cases. So kind of whether it opens up a brand new market or not, they're all valuable in the cumulative because they help a utility

Speaker 6

understand the full scope of the potential of driving

Speaker 5

this kind of a transformation on broadband. The full scope of the potential of driving this kind of a transformation on broadband. Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Walter Piecyk from Light Street. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Thanks. Rob, I don't know if Chris is on the call, but Can you just kind of remind us and review again what government programs are out there, not necessarily to fund purchases of or Leases of your spectrum but to help these utilities upgrade the grid in order to reach Biden's goal. And then I'm just curious like

Speaker 8

how sticky some

Speaker 7

of that stuff is if we have a change. I mean given the long lead time and a lot of this stuff, It may ultimately result in getting into a new administration. How much of that funding Falls away or maybe what new opportunities would we have if the administration changes in the upcoming election?

Speaker 5

Yes. Sure, Walt. Great question. So, there are a range of programs. I know we've talked a little bit about this.

Speaker 5

The NIMOD. BIL IIJA has a multitude of programs. The ones that are that we're focused on are on one side, the broadband side, middle mile, And on the other side, the grip programs. And what we've seen is that these programs Omot. They are over a number of years.

Speaker 5

So the ones that people just filed for were for the 1st 2 years. So we will see these programs and this money available again over the next 3 years. We're excited in that we did participate with a number of utilities in that first phase, that first 2 year tranche, those programs or those applications and concept papers We're given the green light, the thumbs up to move forward to the decision making process. We've also seen and it's been reported in the press, A number of our customers and potential customers received grants for middle mile deployments. And so, as we've said in the past, we are excited because we see these programs as opportunities to accelerate, to stimulate, to move Opportunities that may have been further back in our pipeline to move them forward.

Speaker 5

I don't see Any future where those programs don't continue, because of the way that they've gone through the process, they're fully funded and OniMood. They are ready to be used over the range of the next 3 years beyond this 2 year tranche. So I think they are sticky programs to use one of your words, And I see them being around. We are actively working with the utility community. We are working with Energy to ensure that these types of programs are as written in the legislation continue to be considered for funding.

Speaker 7

So let me ask you, I guess, more directly. So Trump couldn't come in and basically blow them up if he's not necessarily A believer in the use of electric versus some other energy alternatives out there. I mean, that should not be a casualty in terms of blowing up those programs. And then similarly, again, I would assume that Maybe I'm wrong. You're aware of something during his administration where he was into helping electric utilities, but I'm assuming that there would be probably less opportunity going forward under a Trump administration.

Speaker 5

Right. So let me start by saying, We see these programs as additive. They are not a necessity for us to drive our success. Could a new administration come in and have the Department of Energy interpret the legislative language differently? Absolutely.

Speaker 5

Onimod. But the neat thing that we were happy to see and obviously had a hand in putting in there Is a range of benefits. I think Rob calls it the Swiss Army knife is what private LTE provides. The legislative language IMOID. Renewable Energy, it can also support the integration of wildfire mitigation tools or the capture and analysis Of data or the cybersecurity benefits of private LTE.

Speaker 5

So even if an element or elements We're interpreted differently by a new Department of Energy. There are so many benefits encapsulated in that language That private LTE underpins that we're excited about pretty much however it's interpreted. But again, it's not a necessity, but we've always thought about it and set it up as additive going forward.

Speaker 7

Got it. Thank

Operator

you. Yes. The next question comes from Philip Cusick from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Hi, guys. It looks like someone or a customer Moved up from Tier 2 to Tier 3. Can you give us any more detail as to sort of what criteria changes To get that customer up and within that to the highest tier of potential customers, Anything additional you can tell us in terms of people getting closer or what sort of contracted and ready to go versus Not quite negotiated. Thank you.

Speaker 5

Yes. Hey, Phil, it's Ryan here. Excellent question. Yes, I mean, as you can imagine, I mean, what we're looking at kind of across Factors is how the utilities are progressing in a variety of these 20 different metrics that we're looking at. So It's hard to distinguish a single one even though one may move it above the threshold from a scorecard perspective.

Speaker 5

It's really the Cumulative effect of all of them that we look at that ultimately are how we measure kind of the combination effect of what those elements all mean in terms of demonstrated AniMood. Let me give you a couple of examples, because we do continue to develop the opportunities both, I'll describe it as above the line and below the line. And obviously, our primary focus every single day is to drive customers through to the end game and close contracts. That drives us to be able to I've got I'll pick like just one example of a utility that's sitting above the line as we've been continuing to work with them. A couple of the measures that we've worked on specifically with them They were progressing closer to the end state and realizing as we get closer to the end having the executive champions, AniMood.

Speaker 5

The executive stakeholder that takes responsibility to help promote and drive the topic in the program through is a very important part and we've talked about it here in these calls before as they're stake holding across the organization. And so that's one of the elements that we've moved with this team. The other one was formulating with what they do internally around how they assign team allocations and budget. Onimod. In this, you have to have a perspective of just utilities are relatively labor constrained in a lot of different ways and for a variety of reasons.

Speaker 5

When it comes to program allocation, I've always tracked how do utilities make conscientious decisions around how they allocate people and in turn how they allocate money As a measure to where they're putting their attention and what truly matters for them. And so it's been another indicator on one of these deals as we're trying to progress it through at the end stage To put the kind of what I call a closing team together, it's ultimately driving the decisions, the approvals, getting ready for negotiations and such As things as we're working through with them and so that's one kind of that sits above the line. We also talked about the metrics as we're continuing to grow through and promote the rest of the pipeline and how they develop IMOD. Coming up below the line, one to call out and this is where obviously we're seeing more volume of movement because there's more activity and there's just more IMOD. General utilities that sit below the threshold where we've had one customer, potential customer demonstrate movement in just in 5 indicators just the last 6 months, and that's one of the faster ones that I've seen in terms of the ability to progress them all the way through.

Speaker 5

And they've done a handful of different They've also got an executive sponsor. They've created an internal working organization, assigned budget, cost centers, these kind of things to promote the work. They've also already brought in an outside firm, which I track as an indicator of again where they're allocating budget and where they're making a commitment to invest time and external resources to be able to put together the kind of the 3rd party expertise necessary to be able to evaluate the components of putting a plan together. But so those are just examples of the types of things that I'm seeing as they're moving their way through it and amongst all of the other activity As Rob highlighted, we've seen a total of 50 movements here just since we started tracking it this way in February, mode. Which I look at positively just in terms of the big picture of how we're generally seeing things move through.

Speaker 8

Okay. Thanks, guys.

Speaker 5

Thank you.

Operator

The last question for today's call comes from George Sutton from Craig Hallum. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Thank you. We have seen Ericsson begin marketing a partnership with NRTC, which as you know represents 1500 Rural Utilities and they've said they're moving on 900 megahertz and they of course had the West Kentucky trial that was Successful. How does something like that fit into your pipeline? How would that roll out as that would move forward?

Speaker 2

Thanks for the question, George. I'll start, if anyone wants to add on. So for those who don't know, NRTC is the National Rural Telecommunications Association. Their members are Rural telcos that also often operate utilities as well. They're a great organization, happen to be led by So we've got a close alliance.

Speaker 2

As they develop opportunities, we see opportunities for us to work, continue to work with them to be able to drive what I think of as to the next segment of customers, right? They've got smaller rural co ops and municipal organizations, most of whom are not in what we talk about in the top of our pipeline. They're a great opportunity. They've been a channel for many vendors for services and products, and that could include, metering systems, Other kinds of equipment, so they've done bulk purchasing support deployment of other systems. And I think likely That's a way in which we could get to that next segment of customers.

Speaker 2

As you know, that's we're focused initially on really where the money Which is in the larger IOUs, but that's a segment that we're already starting to see demand growing and we see opportunity. Yes, I'll just add a

Speaker 5

little bit there. I mean, I've seen the announcements and stuff too and I think it's reflective of just kind of the broad industry wide needs for communications, digitalization and adding resiliency Robustness is not unique to the IUs, even though they are our primary customer that we're targeting in the pipeline. And so as Rob said, I think looking at it as Another channel potentially, and frankly, another area that we've seen some utilities start to explore is, what other advantages, this is this is an IOU for example, George. What can they do to take advantage of a to be built private LTE network in terms of looking provided like minded services to other constituents, Not uncommon in the energy landscape either where other capabilities can be ported down, they provide services to others. Southern Company is a great example of that, that Reference, who've used their network, not just for their own services, but to be able to try to offer commercialization services to other industrial customers.

Speaker 5

And so certainly we'll see few of those opportunities kind of develop as they go forward.

Speaker 6

One other question on the active ecosystem, obviously You have a gaudy number of people that are working with you, 100 companies I believe you referenced. You have 5 So obviously, those 100 companies are seeing a very different opportunity than what's represented by your current base. Can you just talk about any Sort of examples of spending being done by those 100 companies to go after this opportunity, therefore suggesting that bigger opportunity?

Speaker 5

Yes. I can't speak the specifics, but you're right in that. They're participating in the ecosystem because it helps inform their understanding of the general Objectory of the market, and so by associating with the overall collective and we hold kind of an annual event With them where we get together, we invite customers and prospective customers in to speak about what they're trying to do and where their private LTE journey is going. That informs in like any product development business case, those are critical inputs for them to understand kind of volumetrically what they see in their forecast To drive the R and D investment priorities in the form of chips and end devices and infrastructure solutions and services. And so that's the particular reason why they're paying attention.

Speaker 5

Let me add one other lens to it too. On top of this, we announced the Formation of our Utility Strategic Advisory Board, which is our sea level governance structure, that is another reason why members participate in ecosystem and it's specific value proposition that utilities can extract by having an association with us and that ecosystem. And so now through that and that member group, AniMood. I'll just reflect back on as we've been having sessions with them, we were face to face with them at EEI down in Austin not that long ago. And having the opportunity to sit in the room with these C level executives from the utilities, talking and having them share their experiences, because Keep in mind, they're not all existing customers today on the spectrum.

Speaker 5

And so we've got participation there from some other large utilities Better hearing the lessons learned firsthand from the other utilities that have gone before them and more importantly collectively we're talking about the next set of priorities That those utilities collectively are seeing so that we can drive an influence through the form of something that we call collectives, just like we did with the cybersecurity collective To bring programs back into the ecosystem, so that we can create these programs that collectively we try to put our heads together to find a way to tackle, Because honestly, the big picture of where this market is developing, the point aspects of the solutions aren't necessarily where the value is extracted. The tighter that we can bring these Together and we can deliver real outcomes to the utilities, the more rapidly they're going to be able to adopt them and extract the value that ultimately helps To move forward with broadband faster, which is our goal. And George, it's Chris. You had asked About sort of how they and sort of what type of activity we're seeing from those 100 plus members, Onimod. A full third of them have been developing products.

Speaker 5

In fact, I think it's the numbers like 21 have Broadband enabled products already 900 megahertz enabled products and those are companies like GE and Cisco and Motorola and Kia Ericsson. So these are some of the behemoths in both the utility sector and the wireless sector who already have developed Products and they are commercially available and another 10 or so have like what we call showcase ready. So, 30 Plus of our 100 already have products that they can either demonstrate or actively offer to utility customers and that aligns Sensibly with what we're seeing this year, right. We're going to see networks being built this year. A Number of our utilities are building towers, are putting up RAN, deploying infrastructure.

Speaker 5

And This

Speaker 6

is going

Speaker 5

to be an exciting active year in terms of really the deployment of 900 megahertz Antares Enabled utility equipment.

Speaker 7

Got you. Perfect. Thanks guys.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

This concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Rob Schwartz for any closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, operator. Just in close, as I said earlier, the lagging stock price, the slowly developing market Frustrates us, no doubt. With that in mind, as Tim said, we do intend and we will use our proceeds from our contracts take advantage of these prices to buy back stock, but really make no mistake, We remain confident in our future. We see activity throughout our pipeline. We see consistent signs of progress and intent as we just Shared with you all and we appreciate everybody's patience and time today.

Speaker 2

Thank you very much.

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Key Takeaways

  • Antares introduced a Demonstrated Intent scorecard tracking 20 weighted customer indicators and now shows 15 utilities above the DI threshold (over $850 million in potential contract proceeds) with three more utilities close (over $275 million).
  • The company has closed 100 percent of contracts with the five utilities that committed to wide-area private LTE, and is leveraging its Utility Strategic Advisory Board (nine utilities), Utility Broadband Alliance (100+ members) and its 100-member Antares Active Ecosystem to drive further adoption.
  • Antares remains debt free, expects free cash flow for fiscal 2024 after receiving roughly $80 million in milestone proceeds, and plans to use its existing $26 million share repurchase authorization (with a stronger buyback plan under review) to enhance shareholder value.
  • The company views federal IIJA/BIL grid and middle-mile funding as additive and multi-year support, having helped customers secure grants and working with the Department of Energy to keep broadband and grid modernization programs available regardless of administration changes.
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Earnings Conference Call
Anterix Q1 2024
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