ATN (ATNI) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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DATE

Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 10 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — Naji Khoury
• Chief Financial Officer — Carlos Doglioli

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TAKEAWAYS

• Total Revenue -- $182 million, a nearly 2% increase, with growth primarily from business and carrier services.
• Core Telecom Revenues -- Grew 3% after excluding construction and subsidy loss impacts, reflecting underlying performance strength.
• Operating Income -- $11.7 million, up $9 million, driven by revenue growth, cost management, and reduced depreciation and amortization.
• Net Loss Attributable to Stockholders -- $3 million, or $0.29 per share, improving $6 million compared to the prior year's $9 million net loss.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $49 million, representing a 10% year-over-year increase.
• Adjusted EBITDA Margin -- Improved 200 basis points to 26.7%, demonstrating enhanced cost discipline.
• International Segment Revenue -- $96 million, up 2%, led by carrier and postpaid mobility growth offsetting fixed consumer declines.
• International Segment Adjusted EBITDA -- $34 million, a 6% rise, with margin rising 140 basis points to 35.7%.
• Domestic Segment Revenue -- $86 million, up approximately 2%, fueled by higher carrier services and fixed business revenue.
• Domestic Segment Adjusted EBITDA -- $19 million, an 11% increase, attributed to revenue growth and cost controls.
• Cash and Equivalents -- $123 million at quarter-end, increasing $6 million since year-end.
• Total Debt -- $570 million, an increase of $5 million, with three-quarters structured as nonrecourse subsidiary debt.
• Net Debt Ratio -- Improved to 2.3x from 2.36x, reflecting higher adjusted EBITDA.
• Net Cash from Operating Activities -- Decreased by approximately $6 million, primarily due to timing of certain government payment programs.
• Capital Expenditures -- Flat at $21 million; reimbursable CapEx declined to $14 million from $22 million.
• Tower Sale Proceeds -- Expectation to use $70 million of initial proceeds to repay the revolving credit facility, preserving liquidity and flexibility.
• Tower Portfolio Transaction -- Initial closing expected in Q2 with gross cash proceeds of $250 million to $270 million; subsequent closings of $27 million to $47 million anticipated within 12 months, contingent on milestones.
• 2026 Adjusted EBITDA Outlook -- Projected range of $190 million to $200 million, excluding impact from tower sale.
• Tower Sale EBITDA Impact -- Anticipate $6 million to $8 million annual reduction in adjusted EBITDA following initial closing.
• 2026 CapEx Guidance -- Net of reimbursable spending, expected between $105 million and $115 million.

SUMMARY

The call introduced new CEO Naji Khoury, who highlighted intent to pursue operational simplification and disciplined capital allocation, signaling a sharpened strategic approach. Management reaffirmed that proceeds from the sale of the tower portfolio will first be used to repay $70 million of revolver debt, with further investment options under continued evaluation. Updates revealed over $140 million in BEAD-related provisional awards for Southwest and Alaska, enabling access to about 10,000 homes, yet management stated that revenue impact from these programs will not affect 2026 results. The outlook confirms capital expenditure will remain aligned with prior guidance, and core financial priorities continue to focus on margin expansion, cash flow generation, and balance sheet strength.

• Carlos Doglioli said, "BEAD is going to be more like the next -- the coming years. It's not going to have any significant impact or impact on 2026."
• CFO clarified that full-year guidance includes monetization of prior subsidy programs but excludes future BEAD-related revenues, confirming staged timing for government program contributions.
• Disclosures for total broadband homes passed and subscribers were discontinued, with management explaining focus has shifted to high-speed subscribers, eliminating reporting for decommissioned legacy products.
• Management identified execution in migrating copper subscribers as a current operational emphasis, attributing near-term performance to ongoing adoption of fiber and high-speed services.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• BEAD: Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, a U.S. federal initiative supporting broadband infrastructure with competitive awards for underserved areas.
• Reimbursable CapEx: Capital expenditures that are eligible for reimbursement under government or third-party funded network build programs.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Naji Khoury: Thank you, Michele. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. It's a pleasure to be here. It's only been a few weeks since I joined, and I'm very excited about the opportunity. While I will not be providing a financial operational update on today's call, that will be covered by Carlos. I would like to share some initial observations from my early days in the role. Over the past several weeks, I've had the chance to spend time with our team across many of our markets and throughout the organization.

I am encouraged by what I've seen so far, and it's evident to me that the organization has a solid operating foundation in place and meaningful business momentum to build upon. At the same time, I see further opportunities to simplify the way we operate, which I believe will help us optimize performance across each of our business and segments. I can say that we will remain focused on disciplined capital allocation and ensuring that our investments are aligned with long-term value creation.

Now as it relates to our intended use of our proceeds from the sale of the tower portfolio, we continue to expect to use approximately $70 million of the initial proceeds to repay the outstanding balance of our revolving credit facility. This will allow us to maintain liquidity and financing flexibility. Beyond that, we're still evaluating our options for the remaining proceeds, which will include potential investments in existing operations as well as advancing select growth opportunities. I expect to provide more detail as appropriate in the months ahead. Throughout my many years in the telecom industry, I've seen firsthand that consistent operational and strategic execution is essential to create long-term value.

It's early in my assessment process, and I will have more to share with you as we translate these early observations into more concrete plan. I am excited about the opportunity to build on the progress our teams have delivered so far. With that, let me now turn it over to Carlos to walk through the quarter and discuss the financials in more detail.

Carlos Doglioli: Thank you, Naji, and good morning, everyone. Before I get started, I would like to thank our teams across all our markets as well as the broader organization for their continued commitment to building value as reflected on our first quarter performance. Turning now to our first quarter 2026 results. Overall, we are pleased with how the year started. We saw improved performance during the quarter across both our U.S. and international segments, with year-over-year growth in total revenue, operating income and adjusted EBITDA.

Our base of high-speed broadband homes passed expanded year-over-year, largely due to a fixed wireless deployment in Alaska during the second half of 2025, and our high-speed subscribers expanded year-over-year, driven by improved penetration in our Guyana fiber network. Our mobility subscriber base was up slightly versus last year as we saw growth in postpaid subscribers, which offset slight declines in our prepaid subscribers related to billing system conversions. Total revenue for the quarter was $182 million, up nearly 2% from a year ago. Adjusting our base revenues to exclude construction and the impact of the previously announced loss of the high-cost support subsidy, core telecom revenues grew 3% year-over-year.

The improvement was driven primarily by increases in business, carrier services and other ancillary revenues, which helped offset the expected subsidy-related decline. We delivered operating income of $11.7 million for the quarter, up $9 million versus last year. This improvement was largely driven by revenue growth, our ongoing cost management efforts and reduced depreciation and amortization expense. We incurred approximately $2 million of restructuring and reorganization expenses in the first quarter and expect to incur an additional $1 million to $2 million of these costs in the second quarter. As we previously stated, these actions are embedded in our adjusted EBITDA outlook.

On the bottom line, we reported a net loss attributable to ATN stockholders of $3 million or $0.29 per share, an improvement of approximately $6 million compared to last year's first quarter loss of $9 million or $0.69 per share. Across both our international and U.S. segments, we achieved growth in the quarter, bringing total adjusted EBITDA to $49 million for the quarter, up 10% year-over-year. Total adjusted EBITDA margin improved 200 basis points to 26.7% compared to the prior year period. This improvement reflects our continued focus on cost discipline and margin expansion across the business. Let me turn now to segment performance. In our International segment, we continue to see steady top line growth and margin expansion.

Total revenue increased 2% to $96 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $34 million, up 6% from the same period last year. The revenue increase reflects growth in carrier services and other ancillary revenues, combined with increases in business and postpaid consumer mobility subscribers, which offset the decline in prepaid mobility subs. Fixed consumer revenue declined year-over-year due to the anticipated end of the government support in the USDA. On a like-to-like basis, revenues grew 3% when normalizing the impact of the support revenue. Higher revenue combined with lower costs drove the increase in adjusted EBITDA and expanded the adjusted EBITDA margin by 140 basis points from 34.3% to 35.7% for the first quarter.

In our Domestic segment, revenue was $86 million, up about 2% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA increased 11% in the quarter to $19 million. Higher carrier services revenue resulting from steady progress in some of our key projects, combined with an increase in fixed business revenues more than offset the absence of construction revenues in the quarter. Normalizing the impact of construction revenues, revenues were up 3% year-over-year. Higher revenue levels, combined with cost discipline drove the increase in profitability. Now turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. We ended the quarter with a total of $123 million in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, up $6 million from year-end.

Total debt was $570 million, up $5 million from the end of 2025. Our net debt ratio improved to 2.3x from 2.36x at the end of 2025, benefiting from higher adjusted EBITDA. Approximately 3/4 of our outstanding debt sits at the subsidiary level and is nonrecourse to ATN parent. Net cash from operating activities decreased by approximately $6 million compared to Q1 last year, primarily driven by higher working capital requirements related to the timing of certain government program payments. First quarter capital expenditures were flat at $21 million versus the same period last year. Reimbursable CapEx spend declined to $14 million versus $22 million last year.

It's worth noting that we manage our capital expenditures on an annual basis, and we expect spending to remain in line with our guided range for 2026. Turning now to our outlook for 2026. As a reminder, in February, we announced that our Comnet subsidiaries entered into an agreement to sell a portfolio of 214 towers and related operations in the Southwestern U.S. for up to $297 million. We remain on track for an initial closing in the second quarter with expected gross cash proceeds in the same range of $250 million to $270 million as initially communicated. Additional closings totaling $27 million to $47 million are anticipated over the following 12 months tied to construction and operational milestones.

Excluding any impact from the tower transaction, we expect full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA to increase modestly from 2025 levels in the range of $190 million to $200 million. Following the initial tower sale close in the second quarter, we would expect a reduction in annual adjusted EBITDA of approximately $6 million to $8 million. We plan to reassess and update as appropriate, the 2026 full year outlook after the initial closing. We also expect capital expenditures net of reimbursable spending to remain in the range of $105 million to $115 million for the year. Overall, we experienced momentum and saw progress in the first quarter.

Looking ahead, our financial priorities remain the same: improving margins, expanding cash flow generation and maintaining a healthy balance sheet. We're encouraged by our recent performance, and our 2026 outlook reflects the commitment towards those goals. With that, I'll turn the call back to Naji for closing comments before we open it up for questions.

Naji Khoury: Thank you, Carlos. As you've heard, we started the year on a good note. And as stated at the beginning of the call, I am encouraged by the strength of our teams, the solid foundation across the business and the revenue and profitability gains in the quarter. I see clear opportunities to simplify how we operate, sharpen execution and continue to ensure disciplined capital allocation. I am confident our team will deliver on our priorities. My focus will be to translate these observations into concrete actions that support long-term value creation. With that, we'll now open the call for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Greg Burns of Sidoti.

Gregory Burns: Just in regards to your disclosures, why did you stop disclosing total broadband homes passed and subscribers?

Carlos Doglioli: This is Carlos. Yes, we felt that it included a number of the legacy products that we were actively decommissioning. So we thought that kind of like focusing on the high-speed subs, which is where we're putting all the efforts and investment was more appropriate.

Gregory Burns: Okay. And then in terms of monetization of all the investment you've made over the last couple of years in your network, what do you think has been the biggest bottleneck in terms of driving faster growth or adoption in some of your markets? Has it been like increased competition, has it been pricing pressure? Like why haven't you've been able to drive that kind of the stronger subscriber growth now that you've kind of moved past the investment phase and we're in the monetization phase, why hasn't that monetization been stronger?

Carlos Doglioli: Yes. So look, we believe that there's been a good amount of monetization, Greg. When you look at the revenue trends, we've seen growth year-over-year. Certainly, there's been additional competition, especially on the mobility side of things. But we believe that things are tracking in the right direction. I don't know, Naji, if you want to add any comments.

Naji Khoury: Greg, I think also we have to focus on migration from subscribers in our copper network as well. So there's a bit of execution on the ground, but everything indicates that we're heading in the right direction. So at this stage, I'm not worried about our ability to add subscribers to fiber network.

Gregory Burns: Okay. And then any update around BEAD or other government subsidy programs, maybe the pipeline of opportunities there or the timing on awards that you've won, the timing of like build and monetization of the awards you've already won?

Carlos Doglioli: Yes. I think we're working through some of the programs that we already had and that we talked about in previous calls, which are in the range of a couple of hundred million bucks. In addition to that, then we have the provisional awards of BEAD that are over -- around $140 million in total between the Southwest and Alaska, and we're very excited. We believe that those are good areas that we were awarded and that they will give us access to around 10,000 or so homes and obviously, whatever we're able to access on our way to some of those locations. So we're excited about that.

Gregory Burns: Does your full year guidance for this year contemplate, I guess, the beginning of revenue monetization of some of these previous programs you've been awarded? And would BEAD be more of like a '27, '28 incremental opportunity?

Carlos Doglioli: Yes. So BEAD is going to be more like the next -- the coming years. It's not going to have any significant impact or impact on 2026. We -- there's still a process to be completed before that gets going. So we'll see that in the future years.

Operator: This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn it back to Naji Khoury, Chief Executive Officer, for closing remarks.

Naji Khoury: Thank you again for joining us today and for your questions. Our team looks forward to continuing the dialogue through upcoming conferences and in one-on-one meetings and updating you on our progress as we move through 2026. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

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