Inseego - Q2 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Hello, and welcome to Inseego Corp's Q2 2024 financial results conference call. Please note that today's event is being recorded. All participants today will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity for questions and answers. To ask a question, you may press Star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press Star, then two. On the call today are Phil Brace, Executive Chairman of Inseego's Board of Directors, and Steven Gatoff, the company's Chief Financial Officer. During this call, certain non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the earnings release, which is available on the Investors section of the company's website.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

An audio replay of this call will also be archived there. Please also be advised that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts, but rather are based on the company's current expectations and beliefs. For a discussion on factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations, please refer to the risk factors described in the company's Form 10-K, 10-Q, and other SEC filings, which are available on the company's website. Please also refer to the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements section contained in today's press release. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Phil Brace, Executive Chairman of Inseego. Please go ahead.

Philip Brace (Executive Chairman)

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you today. I'd like to cover three topics with you today. First, I'd like to provide a high-level view of the Q2 results. Second, I'd like to share my perspective on the accomplishments that we made improving our capital structure. And third, I'll comment on the current quarter and focus areas. I'll then turn the call over to Steven, and we'll wrap up with some Q&A. Q2 2024 was a very strong quarter for Inseego. Revenue came in at $59 million, above our guidance, and helped by strong year-over-year growth in our mobile business and the effects of the previously discussed renewal of our subscribe management platform at a major customer.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

Q1 Adjusted EBITDA came in at $8.3 million, which was also better than expected and was driven by strong gross margin percentage and solid OpEx control. During the quarter, the company continued to add leadership capability to the teams in both new sales and operations executives, and we are already seeing the impact of these additions. During the quarter, we made significant progress on addressing our capital structure. Improved financial performance enabled a series of transactions that resulted in restructuring the majority of our outstanding convertibles for a mixture of cash, new favorable long-term debt, common equity, and warrants. This is a very positive outcome for the company, and we received strong support from our largest bondholders and our largest stockholder. As Steven will talk about in his prepared remarks, the pro forma impact in these transactions results in significantly less debt and a very manageable leverage profile.

While we still have some work to do, I'm very pleased with the progress today. I'd like to mention briefly our CEO search. As you saw earlier in the week in our filing, I was pleased to extend my term as Executive Chairman of the Board in order to provide some time to finish the restructure work, as well as continue supporting the good momentum in the business. The board and I are taking a deliberate and methodical approach to the search. The company is currently working well, and I have an excellent engagement with the executive team and the board to drive things forward. On this last front, the outlook for the quarter is for continued year-over-year growth in revenue, profit, and cash generation.

On the product front, our next generation products are well in development, which I believe will continue to advance our capabilities and provide increased value to our customers. With the new capital structure, improved financial performance, a strong product roadmap, and large growing markets, the future for Inseego is bright. With that, I'd like to thank the team at Inseego, who work every day to make these things happen. I'm glad to take any questions in a few minutes, but right now I'd like to pass the call over to Steven.

Steven Gatoff (CFO)

Thanks, Phil. Good afternoon, everyone. I look forward to covering three things with you today. First, I'll take you through the details of our Q2 2024 financial results. Second, I'd like to share some more information on the important transactions that we executed to restructure our convertible notes and improve our capital structure. And third, I'll provide some color on the business and guidance for Q3. As Phil mentioned, as we always do, we'll of course wrap up by opening the call to your questions. With that, let's start with our Q2 results. As Phil highlighted, total revenue came in well above guidance at $59.1 million.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

Revenue grew sequentially over Q1 by more than $14 million or 31%, and for the first time in nearly 3 years, total revenue grew year-over-year, coming in at positive 10% over Q2 2023. The two primary growth drivers were, one, strong performance in the carrier mobile hotspot business on the product side, where Q2 revenue was up 37% year-over-year on our carrier partner, MiFi promotion that we mentioned on the last call.

... and two, growth in our subscribed SaaS offering from the contract renewal that went into effect April first, and that we also mentioned last call. Looking at FWA product revenue, that came in at essentially the average of the past several quarters. A last time 4G buy helped shore up the quarter as our newly implemented channel program takes some time to ramp up, and our new team builds pipeline and drives their initiatives in the space. Rounding out services and other revenue, our telematics business came in at a consistent and record-high level, as it did in the previous quarter, on good continued global demand and execution in the business. Moving on to gross margins. Q2 gross margin percentage came in at 39% on a Non-GAAP basis, consistent with the prior quarter and among the highest level in the past two years.

Looking at Non-GAAP operating expenses, while a slight uptick in sequential spend from Q1, sound expense management and efficiency efforts saw Q2 total OpEx spend come in lower than it was year over year, both in terms of aggregate dollars and as a percentage of revenue. OpEx was 32% of revenue in Q2 2024, down favorably from 39% in the prior quarter, and down favorably from 37% sequentially in Q2 of 2023, year-over-year, I apologize. We realized efficiencies on a percentage of revenue basis in all areas of OpEx in Q2, from sales and marketing to R&D to G&A. It's notable that this strong expense outcome was achieved even after including an accrual this quarter for an annual cash incentive bonus for the terrific Inseego employee base.

We shared a bit about this on the last call, and so far as it being new incremental spend this year, noting that cash bonus expense hasn't been included or paid in the past several years. Now it will be, and it is self-funded. Putting this all together, the favorable revenue performance and focused operating expense management resulted in Q2 Adjusted EBITDA dollars coming in at more than double the prior Q1 quarter at $8.4 million, and at a record-high margin of 14%. It was also the sixth consecutive quarter of positive Adjusted EBITDA. These improved operating results allowed us to deliver GAAP operating and net income for the first time in more than 5 years. Wrapping up our Q2 results with the balance sheet. Cash improved meaningfully from Q1, coming in at $49 million at June 30.

Our cash on hand benefited from three positive dynamics. One, the ongoing higher profitability and net cash generation of the business in Q2. Two, the advantageous April 2024 $15 million upfront payment on the multi-year subscribed SaaS contract renewal that we mentioned. And three, as I'll talk about more in a few minutes, there was a timing benefit from the short-term loan that we took out to repurchase a large convertible bondholder at a discount that funded $16.5 million on that Friday, June 28th, the last business day of June. Accordingly, that funded loan cash shows up on our balance sheet at the June quarter end.

With the $32 million purchase of the bonds occurring on the next business day, on Monday, July 1, that use of cash and the resulting reduction of debt was technically in Q3 and will be reflected in our Q3 2024 balance sheet. As we also discussed briefly on our last call as a subsequent event, in Q2, we voluntarily paid off and terminated the relatively restrictive and expensive ABL credit facility. This action had a number of benefits, including freeing up capital and providing good operating flexibility, and that enabled us to enter into the various transactions to address our convertible bonds. The final point to make on the balance sheet is that with the convertible notes now being due within a year, you'll see them presented in the short-term liability section of the balance sheet.

The good news is clearly that we purchased or refinanced nearly 90% of the bonds, and with the support from some of our largest and longest-standing stakeholders, we achieved a solid outcome. With that, let's move on to my second topic and look at the convertible note restructuring and capital structure improvements that we accomplished in the past few months. As you heard us say over the past several quarters, we've been methodical about driving a thoughtful and optimized outcome for our stockholders and relevant stakeholders in restructuring the convertible notes and reducing our overall debt levels. This has been a multi-step process with a lot of considerations.

Over the past 75 days, we engaged with all of the top 10 holders of the convertible notes, and we have either purchased or entered into binding agreements to exchange the remaining bonds for long-term debt and/or equity that covers $142 million or 88% of the $162 million in face value of the bonds. Pro forma for these transactions, there was only $19.9 million of convertible notes remaining outstanding, with new long-term debt of $36.6 million and a short-term loan of $19.5 million. That brings pro forma total debt to $76 million on LTM Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $20 million. Our pro forma net debt is an even lower leverage ratio of less than three times.

This is a meaningful reduction in debt and a far more appropriate leverage profile for the company. As a final note on the debt restructurings, we want to also call out an advantageous feature that we were successful in structuring. As part of these transactions, the warrants that were issued to bondholders who exchanged their convertible bonds for new long-term debt and equity are cash pay. That means that upon their exercise, the company will receive approximately $32 million in cash proceeds, a further enhancement of liquidity and financial flexibility. We're pleased to have executed these transactions and accomplished a meaningful reduction of debt and right sizing of our capital structure. Adding that positive dynamic to our profitable operations, free cash flow generation, and continuing growth, we see the company as now very well positioned and financially strong to support driving further stockholder value.

So with that, let's turn to the third topic on what we're seeing in the business in the current quarter and provide our guidance for Q3. Overall, we're bullish on delivering revenue growth and expect to continue to show improvements in terms of year-over-year performance. On mobile broadband, we have good visibility and confidence in our ability to deliver robust year-over-year growth again in Q3, as we're continuing to drive our mobile broadband products through our large carrier partner promotion. We'll see the extent to which Q3 yields the same robust quarterly results that Q2 produced. On FWA, we continue to invest in building pipeline and the overall channel program and expect marginally lower FWA revenue in Q3, considering the FWA last time 4G buy I mentioned that occurred in Q2.

On services and other revenue, we expect to have another solid quarter in Q3 and come in at levels consistent with Q2 2024 on a dollar basis. As far as gross margin, Q3 2024 non-GAAP gross margin percentage is expected to be relatively consistent with the prior Q2, noting that the final revenue mix in Q3 between mobile broadband, FWA, and services and other will be the ultimate determinant. Q3 non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be relatively flat over Q2 in the $19 million range. Considering all this, we're providing the following guidance for Q3 in 2024: total revenue in a range of $54 million-$58 million, and Adjusted EBITDA in a range of $6.5 million-$7.5 million.

In closing, we're glad to see the strong growth and profitability delivered in Q2, and we're encouraged by the positive dynamics in the business that are driving continued revenue growth and profitability as we move through 2024. With that, we appreciate your time and support, and we're glad to open the call for any questions. Operator?

Operator (participant)

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Once again, that was star, then one to ask a question. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. Our first question will come from Lance Vitanza of TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Lance Vitanza (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Thanks, and congratulations on a strong quarter. On the revenue side, I was particularly impressed with the mobile hotspot sales growth. I'm wondering, do you have much visibility into end-market demand and sell-through? And presumably, the quarter saw a lot of restocking or stocking up, but is it possible to talk about underlying strength or weakness in final demand?

Philip Brace (Executive Chairman)

Yeah. Hey, Lance, this is Phil. I mean, we kind of teased this on a little bit of the call. We had we kind of initiated collectively with one of our big carrier partners a program, and frankly, the program has gone really, really well. And you'll see that our inventory has actually gone down through the quarter as well, kind of representing us, kind of shipping you know a lot of product there in that space. Our demand looks to be, looks to be strong for the quarter. You know, some of these, some of these things, I would say, are a little bit perishable, right? There's a product, there's a promotion going on, and they're executing well, and we're delivering well. And I'll say right now, we are we're scrambling for parts, right?

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

We are exercising our supply chain, and the demand has gone up such that we're scrambling for parts. So right now, the demand and our visibility to the demand is good, and we're just trying to take advantage of the opportunity while it exists.

Lance Vitanza (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks. So, and then turning to the gross margin side, very impressive performance there, you know, up nicely year-over-year. I like to think as much in terms of the incremental gross margin you achieved as revenues expanded. So revenues were up $5.6 million year-on-year, while gross profit was up $3.9 million on a non-GAAP basis. So that's like a 70% incremental margin, which I gotta think means that you've removed, you know, a decent amount of fixed costs from the business. I don't think I can remember seeing a 70% incremental margin at Inseego, and if it was, it wasn't anytime recently.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

So nice job there, but can you talk about, I know you mentioned they were coming in all areas, but is there anything more granular that you can tell us that would help us gauge, you know, how durable these changes might be in subsequent periods and yeah?

Philip Brace (Executive Chairman)

Yeah. You know, I'll try just a high level, and then Steven, you wanna just help with some of the details. I mean, look, at a high level, year-over-year, I would characterize it as three things. One, you're seeing good OpEx control, okay? So year-over-year, we did make some. We don't have a ton of fixed costs necessarily, but I think our cost structure has improved, and I think we've been disciplined on how we do that. I think you've also seen mix improvement, and you've also seen just core product gross margin improvement there as well. So I would say there's probably three big things that drive that.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

Whether it's sustainable, I mean, look, I think the OpEx stuff is gonna be sustainable, where we're, you know, we're pretty focused on that as a company, and I think the Gross Margin going forward is gonna really be dominated by mix, I would say, the mix in between the products. So I don't know if Steven-

Steven Gatoff (CFO)

Yeah. Yeah, Lance, it's a really good question, and, and, Phil, good points. If you look at least two of those big buckets on the cost side, which was a big driver, looking back year-over-year, my Q1 here in Q3, we immediately implemented a cost restructuring, and we really hunkered down and looked at the business and took out a lot of costs, just wholesale. And so you saw an uptick in margins pretty much right after that, you know, beginning in Q4. So that was part of the structural cost structure that Phil mentioned. So that's part, and that, that's pretty sustainable, right? That's, you know, up to us to continue to manage that.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

Then two, the nitty-gritty behind Phil's points are that, you know, we basically have now higher margin 5G mobile products, as opposed to the back half of last year, certainly most of the year actually, lower margin 4G was more the mobile broadband. And so that structurally has changed, and so that's a bit of an uptick in margins on a fairly sustainable basis.

Lance Vitanza (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Great. And then I guess the last one for me, you know, you did make a bunch of notable hires in the quarter and year to date, and I'm just, I think that's great in terms of aligning the company for further growth. I'd imagine that that's also an important priority for you. Should we expect, will there be any sort of near-term compression in the, you know, kind of below the gross profit line margin, so to speak, you know, just our SG&A going up in the short term, perhaps to sort of accommodate the incremental personnel and so forth? Or is that not all that noticeable?

Steven Gatoff (CFO)

The punchline is that the folks we added, and brought in, and recruited, and headcount adds were done very, very decidedly, surgically, and kind of a rifle shot, if you will. And in many cases, there was some organizational changes, pruning, and it was a switch out, so they were not all gross adds. So it's a good question. I'm glad you clarified it, Lance. Like, these are not a step function increase in the cost structure. These are really adding folks and skills for the direction that we're headed, and there are some that we didn't need in what we had done in the past. And so we, you know, we maintain control over total headcount and compensation to do that.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

So we do look at it as, something that we're focused on adding while we drive growth, but also maintain profitability. And so net-net, the, the punchline also on OpEx is, I... And I think I mentioned this a little bit in, in the script, if you will, that total OpEx, we expect to be pretty flat on a, on a total dollar basis, Q2 to Q3, and, and probably even going forward. Yeah, maybe sales and marketing is a little bit higher, but then we have some savings on, on, G&A, and so there are a little bit trade-offs, but, but net-net, we're, we're managing it pretty tightly.

Lance Vitanza (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Great. All right. Well, thanks for taking the questions.

Steven Gatoff (CFO)

Yeah, sure. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Scott Searle of Roth Capital. Please go ahead.

Scott Searle (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Great job on the quarter, guys. It's phenomenal what you've done and I guess over a three-quarter period. Hey, I apologize, I got on the call late, so I hope I'm not being redundant here. But, you know, looking at the services line, it's a big step up sequentially. Steve, is there a one-time item in there or something of note, or is that a sustainable level? And then as we're looking out to the September guidance, I'm wondering if you could just give us directionally some of your thought processes of how hotspots access and services, and then I had a couple follow-ups.

Steven Gatoff (CFO)

Awesome. Hey, Scott, I got the first one, on services and revenue, but I apologize, it was choppy on our end. I didn't get the question on the mobile hotspot business for Q3 guidance. I didn't get what the question was.

Scott Searle (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Oh, my apologies. Sequential outlook, Steve, you know, for hotspots, fixed wireless access.

Steven Gatoff (CFO)

Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, Phil and I will tag team. I'll maybe start with some of the numbers and color and then macro it up for Phil to take. The punchline on services and others, we were really pleased at the beginning of the quarter, the end of last quarter, to renew our Inseego Subscribe, which is a billing subscriber billing and subscriber management platform with a large carrier customer, and we were able to secure an uptick in the pricing of that. We mentioned that on an earlier call, just so no one's surprised by it. It went into effect this quarter, though. So April 1st is when it went into effect. So you saw a full quarter's impact in Q2, and therefore, the step up in revenue from Q1 to Q2.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

That is a 2-year, essentially fixed, contract, and so that is probably the definition of sustainable. And so we're pretty pleased with that all the way around. It's a really great customer relationship with them and are doing some great work, and so we're pleased to go extend that out. So that kind of adds a lot of color and kind of good substance to services and other. And then as we talked a little bit about on the mobile broadband side, we're seeing really nice uptake in the product overall, and even specifically through one of our large carrier customer promotions that did, you know, really well in Q2. We're engaged with them again in Q3, and so, you know, we have high hopes and expectations and have good visibility, and we'll see.

You know, we're a little bit into the quarter, so that's helpful, and it's going well. We have, obviously, two more months left, so we'll see to what level that reaches. We do expect a strong quarter for mobile broadband solutions for Q3. We'll see to what extent that comes to the Q2 levels, you know, as we move forward.

Scott Searle (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Very helpful. You know, in terms of diversification, you still remain fairly concentrated with a couple of large mobile operators in North America. I'm wondering, you know, how you guys are progressing in terms of your diversification efforts, both for mobile hotspot and fixed wireless access, if there's any insight you could give us on that front?

Philip Brace (Executive Chairman)

Yeah, Scott, I'll, I'll take that one. So that does remain a priority for us. Obviously, we, we love our biggest customers. We spend a lot of time there, and we continue to work hard to earn their business every single day. But we also recognize that we need to diversify ourselves a little bit. And so you've seen us make some investments in kind of building up a, a value-added reseller channel. You know, one of the things we've gotta work for there, and you, you saw in the announcements, is we've gotta actually have some slightly differentiated products there. For example, when you sell into a particular large carrier, you might imagine that the certifications are specific to that carrier.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

When you sell into a broader reseller channel, you've gotta have products that are multi-carrier capable and requires different certs, and maybe in some cases, even have some different capabilities, like multi-tenant management and things like that. So I would say, we are committed to continuing to make the investments to go on that front. You know, it's moving about as fast as I expected, but sometimes these things take some time. And so, that's gonna be an area I'd continue to ask us for, and it's gonna be an area, a watch item for us as a management team as we go forward in the quarters.

Scott Searle (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Yeah, and Phil, lastly, if I could, congratulations. It's nice to see you're gonna be sticking around for a while in the executive chairman role. You know, along those lines, and I apologize if you covered this earlier, but your priorities now going forward over the next 12 months, and as part of that, given the recap that you guys have executed over the past quarter, do you start thinking about going on the offensive from an M&A standpoint? Thanks.

Philip Brace (Executive Chairman)

Yeah, good question. I mean, look, I mean, we still have some work to do on the restructure side, okay? So priority number one for me is to kind of finish up the last few little bits of that. You know, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we are taking a, you know, a deliberate and methodical approach on the CEO search, but I've got great support from the board and from the management team. And in terms of, you know, priorities, I think what we're gonna be doing and looking at is kind of expanding our revenue diversity.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

We're gonna be looking at expanding the portfolio footprint, and, certainly, I think to the extent that we get ourselves on, you know, solid footing and growing, I certainly think we'll be looking both at organic and inorganic opportunities. But I think our priority right now is just to continue to restructure, get us to start, you know, realizing the fruits of some of that labor like we already have. And then I gotta say, it's just, it's a pleasure to be even at the point where we can consider talking about doing some of those things from where we were just a few quarters ago. So, thank you for asking the question. That made me smile.

Scott Searle (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Hey, again, congrats, and thanks so much.

Philip Brace (Executive Chairman)

Thank you.

Steven Gatoff (CFO)

Thanks, Scott.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Kyle Smith of Stifel. Please go ahead.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

Hey, guys. Kyle Smith on for Tore Svanberg at Stifel. Also wanted to extend my congrats on the strong results and improved capital structure. My first question is on geographic revenue. So any trends or surprises to note in the June quarter? And where do you see the company's geographic mix shifting over time?

Steven Gatoff (CFO)

Yes, Steven. Thanks, Kyle. The short answer is no, no surprises. The geography of the business tracks pretty closely to the businesses that we do. The vast majority is North America-centric, which is the products business and the Subscribe business. And then we have the telematics business that interestingly is not North America, right? It's Europe and ANZ. And so those businesses continue to operate well in their respective regions. And I think to Phil's good points, you know, there's a whole bunch of work that we've been doing in the last three quarters or so since we all got here, to really grow the business and grow it profitably, that we're focused on continuing to do that, that we're not looking to go do any big global shifts or expansions in the business.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

So we're kind of focusing on our knitting, and the geographic concentration kinda is what it is right now.

... Very helpful. Thanks. Switching gears a bit, the press release mentioned the Ignite Channel Program, which was also highlighted on the prior earnings call. Maybe if you could give us an update on the progress of the program and remind us of the competitive differentiation and benefits that the program provides.

Philip Brace (Executive Chairman)

Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, so really, I mean, Inseego, for the most part, you know, prior to this program being launched, had been, I would say, exclusively a major carrier product. That's how we went through that. We have brought on some new executives. We've kind of launched a new, you know, program for the resellers that included some unique packaging options. I mentioned we'll be doing some more differentiated products, including multi-carrier certifications. Really, the goal there is to expand our reach, because in many cases, a lot of these products, particularly on the FW side, but even on the MiFi side, are sold to small and medium businesses, sometimes even sold to governments, local, you know, federal, state, institutions via resellers.

Kyle Smith (Equity Research Associate)

I think our goal is to kind of expand our reach into that channel. We know that, you know, some of the competitors exist and have a robust business in that space, and I think we are coming at it, frankly, from a differentiated point of view in that we have a rugged, excuse me, a very compact design, embedded antennas that are included in there, unique packaging, and decades of experience in this space that have been validated by the major carriers. And so I think we're gonna have a unique value proposition. And, you know, some of this just takes a little time to develop, and it's gonna be a focus area that I need to continue, you know, we need to continue to hold ourselves accountable to continue to build that.

Great. Thanks, everyone, and congrats again.

Philip Brace (Executive Chairman)

Right on. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

This concludes our question and answer session. The conference has now also concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.