GILT

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Gilat's first quarter 2026 results conference call. All participants are at present in listen only mode. Following the management's formal presentation, instructions will be given for the question and answer session. For operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded May 13th, 2026. By now, you should have all received the company's press release. If you have not received it, please view it in the news section of the company's website, www.gilat.com. I would now like to hand over the call to Mr. Sanjay Harry of Alliance Advisors IR. Mr. Harry, would you like to begin, please?

Thank you, Hila. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Gilat Satellite Networks earnings conference call for the first quarter of 2026. With us on the call today are Mr. Adi Sfadia, Gilat's CEO, and Mr. Gil Benyamini, Gilat's Chief Financial Officer. Before turning the call over to management, I would like to remind everyone that some statements made during this conference call contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results could differ materially from those projected as a result of various risks and uncertainties.

The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially include uncertain global economic conditions, reductions in revenues from key customers, delays or reductions in U.S. and foreign military spending, acceptance of the company's new products on a global basis, and disruptions or delays in its supply of raw materials and components due to business conditions, global conflicts, weather, or other factors not under the company's control. The company cautions investors to not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements which reflect the company's analysis as of today's date. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Further information on these factors and other factors that could affect Gilat's financial results is included in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its latest quarterly report.

In addition, on today's call, management will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that management considers to be useful and differ from GAAP. These non-GAAP measures should be considered supplemental to corresponding GAAP figures. With that, I'd like to turn the call now to Gilat's CEO, Adi Sfadia. Please go ahead, Adi.

Thank you, Sanjay, and good day, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Gilat's first quarter results. I am pleased to report that we opened the year with solid execution across the business, reflecting strong performance. Our results underscore the competitiveness of our portfolio across the satellite communication landscape and strong year-over-year revenue growth and profitability. As satellite operators and government customers advance next generation programs from VHTS satellites to NGSO constellations, we are seeing our capabilities translate into new orders, expanding customer engagement and growing opportunities. This momentum is closely tied to the progress we continue to make in technology development as we invest in advanced and interoperable system designed to support the evolving requirements of next generation satellite communication networks.

During the quarter, Gilat Defense conducted a live demonstration of its virtualized SATCOM gateway modem architecture at SATELLITE 2026 in Washington, D.C., in collaboration with Amazon AWS, SES Space and Defense, and the WAVE Consortium. The demonstration showcased a flexible cloud-based and software-defined gateway architecture designed to improve scalability, resiliency, and agility for defense and government networks, and represent a significant step forward in how future SATCOM gateways will be deployed and operated. In parallel, we successfully conducted a 5G Non-Terrestrial Network demonstration, highlighting how satellite systems can integrate with future 5G-based architectures. Together, this milestone reflects our continued investment in technology solutions that will support next-generation satellite and hybrid networks across both commercial and defense markets.

First quarter revenues reached $110.5 million, 20% year-over-year revenue growth, and first quarter Adjusted EBITDA reached $15.1 million, almost double the same quarter last year. Overall, the first quarter reflects continued traction and position us well for the remainder of the year. On to the business review. I will start with the defense business. We are seeing significant increase in interest for transportable and portable SATCOM solutions, driven by the growing importance of mobility, rapid deployment, and operational flexibility. As militaries and government users increasingly operate in dynamic and contested environments, the value proposition of highly mobile, resilient SATCOM solutions continue to strengthen. This demand translate into meaningful orders during the quarter.

In February, we announced a $16 million order from a European Ministry of Defense for our DKET transportable solutions, reinforcing our leadership in high-performance, rapidly deployed systems. These orders also reflect increased penetration into the European market, driven in part by the evolving geopolitical environment and higher defense readiness requirements across the region. In Israel, we continue to strengthen our relationship with the Ministry of Defense. During the quarter, we announced an order of $9 million, further expanding the deployment of our solution and reinforcing our long-term strategic partnerships. The order includes next-generation defense modems built for mission-critical operations to ensure reliable connectivity across a wide range of operational scenarios. During the quarter, we received an order for over $7 million for our new EnduroStream solid-state power amplifiers to support the U.S. Defense Program.

EnduroStream delivers reliability and operational resilience required for mission-critical environments as defense customers transition away from legacy technologies. Also in the United States, we continue our long-standing support of the U.S. Army. During the quarter, we received an order of approximately $6 million for field and technical services, reflecting our continued reliance on Gilat Defense to support mission-critical SATCOM operations and ensure system availability in the field. Our defense pipeline remains strong, supported by sustained global demand and our continued investment in R&D, advanced system architectures, and customer engagement. Turning to our commercial business. In the first quarter, our commercial business continued to show solid performance, supported by ongoing customer engagement and steady execution across our programs. As satellite operators and service providers move forward with next-generation network, they are increasing focus on platforms that offer scalability, flexibility, and multi-orbit support for our mobility applications.

Gilat remains well-positioned within this evolving landscape. In-flight connectivity remains one of our key growth engines. Demand for IFC continues to increase, driven by our airline expectations for consistent high-performance connectivity, growing passenger usage, and the industry's transition towards NGSO and multi-orbit networks. This environment strongly aligns with Gilat technology roadmap and product portfolio. As of today, we have delivered approximately 750 Sidewinder ESA terminals, of which more than 570 are already installed and in service. During the quarter, Boeing and Gilat reached an important key in-cabin milestone to offer Sidewinder ESA terminal as a line-fit solution available to airlines and IFC service providers. Certification is on track, and deliveries of the first units are expected in Q4 this year. In addition, we are starting a process to achieve a line-fit availability with Airbus.

During the quarter, we announced $39 million in orders for our Sidewinder ESA terminal. These awards reinforce the market confidence in its performance, low-profile design, and multi-orbit capability. We have also expanded our ESA portfolio with the ESR 2030, which is now commercially available. ESR 2030 is designed to support commercial and defense applications over the OneWeb LEO constellation, complementing our Sidewinder offering and broadening our addressable market. With growing interest in LEO services, we believe ESR 2030 position us well to support new programs and as operators move from network deployment towards commercial service. We also received a multimillion-dollar order from a leading IFC integrator for solid-state power amplifiers to support connectivity solutions on commercial aviation aircraft. Across the industry, operators are operating grounded infrastructure to support a wider range of services across multiple orbits.

SkyEdge IV is built for this shift, providing a scalable software-defined platform that enable efficient management of complex multi-service satellite networks. A recent example is our strategic multimillion-dollar partnership with Nelco in India to deploy SkyEdge IV in support of India's first Ka-band service deployment using the GSAT-N2 HTS satellite. India represent an important growth market for Gilat and a central part of our expansion strategy in the Asia Pacific region. The deployment will enable scalable high-performance connectivity across multiple services, including IFC, cellular backhaul, and enterprise connectivity, delivering the performance and flexibility required for Ka deployments. Overall, the commercial pipeline remain healthy, supported by continued IFC demand alongside longer-term investments in advanced satellite networks architectures. Our Peru business continued to execute very well with strong operational progress across our national connectivity programs.

We expect to complete that upgrade project that were announced a few quarters ago ahead of schedule in the second quarter of 2026, demonstrating Gilat Peru's ability to deliver large-scale complex infrastructure projects reliably and on time. These results strengthen our position as a trusted partner for national digital inclusion initiative and provide a solid foundation for continued activity in the region. We expect additional large RFPs and follow-on orders during the year. I am pleased to say that we continue to have a strong backlog and a healthy pipeline. We feel comfortable reiterating our 2026 annual guidance. We expect 2026 revenues of between $500 million-$520 million and Adjusted EBITDA of between $61 million-$66 million. Technology development remain a core pillar of our strategy across defense and commercial markets.

During the quarter, we advanced software-defined system capabilities that enable more scalable and resilient satellite networks while also continuing our work on integrating satellite networks with future 5G NTN frameworks. Together, these efforts support next generation satellite system serving defense, mobility, and commercial applications. Demand across our core markets continue to develop favorably and our strategic focus on mobility, multi-orbit architectures and next generation systems is translating into tangible momentum across our business. Gilat Defense continue to see strong customer interest as defense and government organizations expand investment in mobile resilient SATCOM capabilities. We continue to see growing engagement across the United States, Europe, and Israel, supported by robust pipeline and ongoing investment in advanced architectures that address evolving defense requirements. IFC remain one of our key growth engines supported by increasing airline demand and continued adoption of VSAT-based solutions.

We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet and financial flexibility while remaining disciplined in our capital allocation. Mergers and acquisitions continue to be a key element of our defense and long-term growth strategy with a focus on opportunities that complement our core technologies, strengthen our defense portfolio and support sustainable value creation. Overall, we delivered a solid start to 2026, validating the strength of our diversified portfolio across our business. With growing backlog, a healthy pipeline and a continued investment in technology leadership, Gilat is well-positioned to sustain growth and create long-term value. With that, I will hand over the call to Gil Benyamini, our CFO. Gil, please go ahead.

Thank you, Adi. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone. Before I dive into the numbers, I would like to remind everyone that our financial results are presented on both GAAP and non-GAAP basis. I will now walk through our financial highlights for the first quarter of 2026. As Adi mentioned, we delivered a strong first quarter with 20% revenue growth, margin expansion and a significant increase in profitability, reflecting continued execution across all three segments and continued momentum into 2026. Revenues for the first quarter were $110.5 million, representing a 20% growth compared with $92 million in Q1 2025. The growth was driven by all three segments. The revenues for the commercial segments in Q1 2026 were $72.8 million compared with $64.2 million in the same quarter last year.

The 13% growth year-over-year was primarily driven by the in-flight connectivity vertical. Revenues for the defense segment in the first quarter of 2026 were $25.4 million, 10% higher than $23 million in the same quarter last year. In Q1 2026, revenues for Peru segments were $12.3 million compared with $4.8 million in Q1 2025. The increase was mainly driven by the higher revenues related to the new upgrade projects in four of the six regions in which we operate, reflecting the continued expansion of our long-term Peru programs, which provide multi-year recurring revenue streams. Our GAAP gross margin in Q1 2026 was 34%, compared with 31% in Q1 2025. The increase is primarily attributable to a favorable deal mix as well as better margins of Stellar Blu.

GAAP operating expenses in Q1 2026 were $33.3 million compared with $31.1 million in Q1 2025. As a result, we delivered a significant improvement in profitability with GAAP operating income of $4.4 million compared to a loss of $2.7 million in Q1 2025, representing a year-over-year swing of $7.1 million. GAAP net income in Q1 2026 was $5.2 million or a diluted income per share of $0.07 compared with GAAP net loss of $6 million or a diluted loss per share of $0.11 in Q1 2025. The improvement was driven by the higher operating income as well as higher financial income associated with our stronger net cash position and lower tax expenses. Turning to non-GAAP results. Our non-GAAP gross margin Q1 2026 was 36% compared with 32% in Q1 2025.

Non-GAAP operating expenses for the quarter were $26.8 million compared with $24.1 million in Q1 2025, and non-GAAP operating income in Q1 2026 was $12.5 million compared with $5.2 million in Q1 2025. The non-GAAP net income in Q1 2026 was $13.6 million or a diluted income per share of $0.18 compared with net income of $1.8 million or income per share of $0.03 in Q1 2025. The Adjusted EBITDA reached $15.1 million, nearly doubling year-over-year, reflecting strong operating leverage on higher revenues. Moving to our balance sheet and cash flow. Over the past several quarters, we significantly strengthened our balance sheet and liquidity position.

During the quarter, we used approximately $12.2 million in operating cash, primarily driven by working capital timing while generating approximately $15 million over the trailing 12 months. We ended the quarter with strong liquidity position of $171 million, comprised of cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term deposits. DSO were 112 days excluding Peru construction activity and remain within our expected range. During the quarter, we reached an agreement with the former shareholders of DataPath to satisfy the share link component of the earn-out associated with our 2023 acquisition of the company before the end of 2026. Under the original terms, this component called for Gilat to issue up to 3.1 million shares tied to DataPath's performance from 2024 through 2026.

Under the agreement with the former shareholders of DataPath, we issued a total of 2.5 million shares in full satisfaction of the portion of the earn-out at an average price of $15.45 per share. The remaining bonus earn-out component, capped at $9 million in cash or shares per Gilat discretion, is unchanged and continues to be evaluated each quarter based on the performance against agreed targets through its settlement by the end of 2026. Our shareholders' equity as of March 31st, 2026 totaled $536 million, compared with $500 million on December 31st, 2025, resulting mainly from issuance of shares for DataPath earn-out and net earnings. Looking ahead, based on our strong backlog and visibility, we are reiterating our full year 2026 guidance.

Revenues are expected to be between $500 million-$520 million, representing 13% growth year-over-year at the midpoint. We expect an Adjusted EBITDA of between $61 million-$66 million, 19% growth at the midpoint. That concludes my financial review. I would now like to open the call for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

The first question is from Ryan Koontz of Needham & Company. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks for the question. Maybe starting with the commercial segment here. Sounds like Stellar Blu is executing pretty well. You talked about better margin improvement. You know, how are you seeing the overall demand environment for the Stellar Blu product? You know, what's behind some of the gross margin improvements? You know, how are you thinking about this business kind of over the medium term and into next year? How's the visibility looking relative to backlog, et cetera? Thank you.

Hi, Ryan. Stellar Blu is performing well. We, you know, we are not providing explicit guidance on Stellar Blu, but we can say that we see nice year-over-year growth. We expect them to do better performance this year. They reached the threshold of EBITDA, so now they are profitable. Gross margin is a bit better, mainly because of sharpening the supply chain. We replaced one of the units with internal units, which provide better margins. We do expect margins to be much better towards the end of the year once we start to delivering line-fit units.

Great. those line-fits, is that, starting initially with Boeing there?

Correct. With Boeing, we passed the in-cabin certification, waiting to the full certification, probably, if not by the end of the quarter, early Q3, and we expect to deliver first units during Q4, if not earlier than that.

Great, Adi. Thank you. Maybe on, continuing on commercial, relative to SkyEdge IV, you know, nice win in India here, as well as, you know, the demo for the virtualize with AWS. You know, how are you thinking about that transition from kinda hardware to a software-based platform? Any updates you can share with us about, you know, how you think that business evolves over the next year or two?

I think year or two, it's a, it's a short-term, so, I'm not sure we'll see significant evolvement in the year or two. SkyEdge IV is a software-defined platform, meaning at day one, you get, give or take, all the hardware you need for the gateway and all the upgrades, and expansion is done through software licenses. Moving to commercial off-the-shelf, hardware and running on virtualized platform, I guess it's three to four years now, and it's combined together with the plans of shifting the waveform from DVB-S2X to 5G NTN.

Perfect. Makes sense on that. Maybe shifting to defense, you know, any other color you can provide? You talked about, you know, some traction with other countries. Is this for the mobility products you talked about, or is that more of a U.S., you know, a U.S. need for your mobility defense products?

I think it's combination of the two. I think that everyone understands.

War with Iran that a mobility solution, portable and transportable solution are crucial. We saw that some of the U.S. gateways over the Middle East got hit, and they will need to replace them, and we believe that the replacement will be done with a mobility solution, so you can move the gateway on a daily basis to another place and give you some kind of advantage. DataPath is the leader with that such a product portfolio. We're already starting to see significant order for our transportable solution, $16 million in Europe, which is also a very big market that is growing, and our presence over there is very important, and this penetration to a new MOD is crucial for our future growth.

Also we see a lot of traction in Israel. All in all, we believe that the defense, the strong pipeline will drive at the end a significant booking year. It's important to remember that there is a time between booking to revenues. In the defense, it's typically projects, and it takes six to nine months from the order until you deliver the product, and in some cases, if it's a big project, it can take much more than that. We are very optimistic about our growth in defense in 2026 and more in 2027.

Helpful, Adi. Thanks very much.

Thank you, Ryan.

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

Thanks, Adi. Just to follow up, you were saying six to nine months from booking to ship. Are you seeing any changes or any indications, you know, here in the U.S., where the administration is really pushing hard on moving quickly, do you see any possibility of, you know, that order-to-ship gap closing over time?

It, it really depend on, you know, it's lead time and inventory. If we will understand that, there is a big demand for quicker turnaround, we can do that. You know, we do hold the inventory, but those units are highly expensive and sometimes are made to build based on a unique requirement. It's not that easy. Definitely if we, if, you know, with the negotiation with the customers, if we understand that, we, we have the ability to expedite.

Great. When you talk about the uptick in portable solutions, is it fair to assume that that's all coming out of the DataPath portfolio of products?

The portable and portable solutions are mainly from DataPath products, but we do see also very nice business to our modems solutions. We do hope to be able to penetrate to the DoD and the U.S. Army with our modem, the SkyEdge IV modems and our highly resilient defense modem.

Gotcha. Staying on defense, I mean, you mentioned demos with Amazon AWS and SES. I know on the Amazon side, you do some hardware into Amazon Leo, what is the connection with Amazon AWS?

The main idea is to run our gateway on AWS platform, and this is the demonstration that we showcased in a satellite in D.C. that we can do that. Of course, we need to tailor the solution based on AWS and customer requirement. I think that the demo reflects our ability to cooperate with AWS cloud.

Is it fair to assume this is a virtualized platform?

Correct. It's virtualized platform. We are running our gateway modem on the AWS platform, which connect to a standard modem at the end user site.

Very good. You know, I guess back on the traditional GEO side of the business, it appears that both Airbus and Thales Alenia Space have now kind of gotten their act together with regard to the next-gen, software-defined satellites. I think the first ones are going up next year. At what point do you start to see an uptake in equipment to support those systems?

Typically, we are getting orders give or take six to 12 months before the satellite launch. And the deployment really depend on the customer readiness to get the equipment to deploy it in the gateways. We believe we will start getting, large part of those orders this year. I'm not sure we'll need to deliver everything this year, but some of it is factored within our guidance already.

Great. Gil, the gross margins were nice in the quarter. Obviously, that was a little bit mix and a little bit Stellar Blu. On the Stellar Blu side, it's profitable, but you were shooting for 10% EBITDA exiting, you know, 2025. Didn't happen. You know, do you have a sense of where in 2026 you expect to hit that milestone?

As Adi mentioned, Stellar Blu is now fully integrated into Gilat with the operations team and R&D team and so on. I guess that if we would, you know, go back and measure it as a standalone company would be very close to that. We don't do it, we don't do it anymore, so it's less relevant. We definitely see this improvement a long time. Of course, with the line fit deliveries that as Adi mentioned, expected to start at the last quarter of this year, it will also give another improvement to the growth margins and to the EBITDA margin of this activity.

Chris, I think it's important to mention that we start investing in next generation ESA technology and terminals. R&D expenses is shifting towards Stellar Blu, which is now part of Gilat antenna and terminal subdivision. Correlation and integration between the commercial business and Stellar Blu is tightening on a daily basis. Another positive news, I think, that Stellar Blu is starting to sell their solutions also to defense application. It's not big yet, but we do expect them to have more than $10 million business with defense this year.

Oh, that's great. You know, I know you did have, you know, in the original purchase agreement and earn out agreement, you know, some large strategic wins that were part of that. How is that stuff shaping up? Is it still on the horizon here, maybe not on the time zone or timeline that you were targeting?

Yep. We do have a significant progress with one of the strategic deals that initially we thought we would be able to close faster. It's progressing slower than expected. We do expect to close it within the coming year, within 2026. I'm not sure we'll be able to close it before the end of June. I'm not sure that the first order will be more than $35 million, but definitely the potential can be north of $100 million.

Very good. All right. Well, thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you, Chris.

The next question is from Sergey Glinyanov of Freedom Broker. Please go ahead.

Good day, gentlemen, and my congratulations. You provided a really great work on your gross margin side. My question is, recently you tapped on NTN solution, and I'm wondering, do you see any surge in demand on your 5G NTN solution? Have this trend got better visibility?

We do see a lot of traction in the market on 5G NTN. OneWeb Gen 2 and Gen 1.5 is talking about 5G modems. IRIS² is talking about 5G modems. Also other small LEO startups are talking on 5G modems. Here and there also GEO players are talking about 5G modems. I think that the overall requirement in the market is not mature enough. We already started the work on 5G network, mainly the main building blocks. In order to launch it, we need to tightly work with one of our big customers. We hope to close something within the coming year.

What do you expect, well, when the market conditions would be ready for full deployment of this technology?

5G NTN full deployment?

Yeah.

Right now, the first, you know, the most advanced is IRIS². I guess it's four to five years from today.

Okay. Got it. A little bit about Peru, your statement about this segment, should we think the most part of revenue leaning towards second half of 2026?

We do expect to get large awards in Peru. Once we get it, revenue will kick in. I guess the second half of the year should have a higher revenue than the first one. In general, Peru can be very volatile because of the nature of the business over there. It's usually implementation of network when you see relatively high revenues in short time and then recurring revenue over a period of three, five and sometimes 10 years.

Yeah. I would add to that. I think that one of the most important thing or takeaways about Peru is that the base level of the recurring revenues of Peru this year is higher than it used to be in previous years, the construction and implementation Are, you know, boosting it for the next years. You can see that we're in a much better position over there.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you for taking my questions.

The next question is from Louie DiPalma of William Blair. Please go ahead.

Hi, Adi and Gil. I was wondering, what is the potential timing of the Airbus partnership with the Stellar Blu system? How long do you think that will take to materialize? Will it be similar to the timeline with Boeing?

I think it will be slightly faster than the timeline with Boeing because we gained some knowledge and some of the testing are equivalent, so we can use the qualification and test that we have done. Of course, the documentation is totally different, and we need to rewrite some of them. The knowledge we gained through the Boeing process definitely give us a head start with Airbus.

Do you have any sense for the timing should it take? Should we be thinking 2027, 2028? What is your thoughts there?

I would say that we expect to finish the certification process early 2027, and ship first unit second half of 2027.

Great. Earlier in the call, did you mention that you should ship the first units to Boeing in the fourth quarter of this year?

Correct.

Great. And my second question, also, relating to the Stellar Blu development. I think for the past year you've been working on multi-beam technology, and it would also seem that the broader inflight connectivity industry is looking for multi-band technology, so a terminal that can communicate both in Ka-band and Ku-band. What is the progress for these initiatives? How far away are we from having Stellar Blu multi-beam or for multi-band tech?

Multi-beam is mainly dependent on chip availability and customer requirements. I think today with the LEO constellation, especially with Telesat in service, hopefully within the coming 18 months, Ku and Ka antenna that will do LEO has high potential. We are only looking to introduce the technologies either internally or with a third party, cooperation with third parties. I think availability for such antenna is between two to three years, including development cycle and certification cycle. I think it will be in line with the future service launch of the IFC service providers.

Great. Excellent. Thanks, everyone.

Thanks, Louis.

If there are any additional questions, please press star one. Please stand by while we pull for more questions. There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Benyamini, would you like to make a concluding statement?

I want to thank you all for joining us on this call and for your time and attention. We hope to see you soon or speak with you on our next call. Thank you very much and have a great day.

Thank you. This concludes Gilat's first quarter 2026 results conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.