Sequans Communications SA Sponsored ADR Aktie

Welcome to the Second Quarter 2026 Sequans Earnings Conference Call. My name is Jonathan, and I will be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions].

Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to David Hanover, Investor Relations. David, you may begin.

Thank you, operator, and thank you to everyone participating in today's call. Joining me on the call from Sequans Communications are Georges Karam, CEO and Chairman; and Norman Brodt, CFO.

Before turning the call over to Georges, I would like to remind our participants of the following important information on behalf of Sequans.

First, Sequans issued an earnings press release this morning, and you'll find a copy of the release on the company's website at www.sequans.com under the Newsroom section.

Second, this conference call contains projections and other forward-looking statements regarding future events or our future financial performance and potential financing sources. All statements other than present and historical facts and conditions contained in this release, including any statements regarding our business strategy, cost optimization plans, strategic options, the ability to enter into new strategic agreements, expectations for sales, our ability to convert our pipeline to revenue and our objectives for future operations are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 as amended.

These statements are only predictions and reflect our current beliefs and expectations with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainty and subject to change at any time. We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not rely on or place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements. More information on factors that could affect our business and financial results are included in our public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And now I'd like to hand the call over to Georges Karam. Please go ahead, Georges.

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone.

Before discussing our core business, I'd like to begin with an update on our capital structure as we have now substantially concluded our Bitcoin treasury strategy.

As we have announced on May 28, we completed the full redemption of our remaining convertible debt, funded through the sale of a portion of our Bitcoin holdings. Since then, we have continued to systematically reduce our Bitcoin position in a disciplined and opportunistic manner.

The Bitcoin market has been volatile over the past several months. And throughout that period, we have remained patient, strategic and deliberate in managing our digital assets. During June, despite a challenging price environment, we made the decision to sell a portion of our holdings to further strengthen our cash position.

As a result, we ended the second quarter with approximately $21 million in cash and 314 Bitcoin remaining on our balance sheet. At current market prices, those remaining Bitcoin represent approximately $20 million of additional value.

With our IoT business continuing to perform well and our balance sheet in a strong position, we have the flexibility to monetize these remaining holdings opportunistically and when it's the best interest of the company to do so.

Our priority going forward is squarely on executing our IoT semiconductor strategy, scaling our product business, expanding our presence in the defense and drone markets and advancing our 5G eRedCap roadmap to create long-term shareholder value.

As we enter the second half of 2026, we do so with a strong debt-free balance sheet and the required financial flexibility to support our operations and invest in future growth.

Now turning to our IoT semiconductor business.

We continued to build momentum in the second quarter. Revenue for the quarter was approximately $7.5 million, exceeding the guidance we provided last quarter and representing a 23% increase from the first quarter.

The vast majority of that revenue came from product sales, which increased by more than 80% year-over-year, demonstrating the continued acceleration of our core business.

We also saw strong order momentum across our customer base with several key accounts scaling meaningfully into the second half of the year and beyond.

To date, we have more than 40 design win projects that have reached mass production. several of which we expect will each generate more than $4 million in annualized revenue beginning in 2027.

These programs are contributing to a strong and growing backlog that now extends into 2027, providing us with increasing visibility and confidence in our product growth trajectory for both this year and next.

More importantly, this reflects the continued conversion of our design win pipeline into projects in production with committed orders to come.

Our design win pipeline measured by potential three-year product revenue also continues to expand beyond the more than $300 million reported at the end of 2027. We'll provide an updated figure at year-end. But today, 55% of that figure is in mass production and generating revenue, representing approximately $165 million of design wins in production at quarter's end, a more than 3x increase year-over-year.

We expect that percentage to continue increasing as additional customer programs move into production.

Across our product portfolio, we continue to see encouraging momentum across each of our key technology families.

CAT M remains a core growth driver for the business, led by asset tracking and smart metering applications. Multiple design win projects are now in production and continue to perform ahead of plan, supporting the strong product revenue growth we delivered during the quarter.

CAT 1bis this is also gaining traction with customer ramps across telematics, security and industrial applications expected to continue building through the second half of the year.

We remain encouraged by the level of customer engagement and the new IoT opportunities we see as existing design win projects move towards production. During the second quarter, we secured 10 new project wins, leveraging our CAT M and CAT 1bis technologies, while transitioning a similar number of projects into mass production. Design activity across our pipeline remains healthy, and we expect to add additional wins throughout the remainder of the year. Our RF transceiver business is also gaining momentum. We continue to see strong demand from existing customers, while interest from new prospects in the defense and drone markets continue to grow.

During the quarter, we began shipping our SQN9506 development kit platform to several prospective customers evaluating our RF technology for these applications. I'm also pleased to report that we secured our first drone program with product shipments expected to begin early next year.

While still at an early stage, we believe this represents an important milestone as we continue to expand into this new market. Development of our 5G eRedCap solution also remains on track. Our test ship is now in-house, and we continue to target customer sampling during the second half of 2027. As the IoT market transitions from 4G to 5G, we continue to believe eRedCap will become a key industry standard and an important pillar of our long-term strategy.

Beyond the product opportunity itself, we believe our investment in eRedCap further strengthens our technology leadership, enhances the value of our intellectual property portfolio and creates additional opportunities for future licensing and services revenue. Although product revenue from our eRedCap platform is expected to begin in 2028, we believe meaningful services and licensing revenue can be generated well in advance of commercial product launches.

That brings me to our broader licensing and services business. Our licensing and services business continues to represent an important source of high-margin revenue, although the timing of individual engagements can vary from quarter-to-quarter.

While it represented a modest contribution to revenue in the second quarter, we expect a meaningful increase in the second half of the year as one or more of the significant license opportunities currently under discussion converts into signed agreements. Today, we have several active licensing and strategic engagements under discussion with global customers and partners across a range of end markets and geographies.

The potential revenue contribution from these opportunities ranges from several hundred thousand dollars to well over $10 million, underscoring the significance of this part of our business. Beyond their potential financial contribution, these engagements continue to expand our strategic reach into new markets and applications while providing meaningful upside to revenue and supporting our path towards breakeven.

Because many of these discussions involve confidential commercial relationships and sensitive end markets, we are not in a position to provide customer-specific details at this time. However, we remain encouraged by the level of activity across our licensing pipeline and we'll provide updates as we reach definitive agreements.

As our product business continues to scale, maintaining a reliable supply chain remains equally important. We continue to operate in a challenging supply environment. While memory remains the primary constraint, we are increasingly seeing pressure across the broader semiconductor supply chain, including silicon and packaging. Based on what we are seeing today, we expect these supply constraints to persist beyond 2026.

To address these challenges, we have continued to strengthen our supply chain strategy. Apart from wafer fabrication at TSMC, we are implementing multiple sourcing options across key components and manufacturing materials. This reduces our dependence on individual suppliers, improves supply security and better positions us to support our expected growth in the years ahead.

We also remain focused on managing cost pressures. Where appropriate, we continue to pass through higher component costs to our customers while working closely with our supplier to adapt to changing market conditions. This remains particularly important with memory chips, where pricing continues to be volatile and can change significantly even from month to month.

Based on our current planning assumptions, we believe supply is secured for our baseline demand through the remainder of 2026. Our focus is now shifting towards securing the capacity we will need to support continued growth in 2027. As our financial priority remains focused on disciplined cost management and reducing cash burn with the continued objective of moving towards a breakeven operating run rate as revenue continues to scale. We made some progress this quarter and expect to make more in the second half of the year.

Overall, the second quarter reflected continued progress across the business. We strengthened our balance sheet, continued to grow our semiconductor business, advanced our product roadmap and further simplified our capital structure, positioning Sequans for continued growth.

Regarding our outlook for the third quarter, we currently expect revenue to be in the range of $8.5 million to $10 million, reflecting continued momentum in our core product business with the upper end of the range, further supported by the potential contribution from closing one of the significant licensing opportunities currently under discussion.

Based on our growing backlog, continued production ramps and the strength of our design win pipeline, we continue to expect the business to build through the second half of the year. While the timing of licensing revenue can vary from quarter-to-quarter, we remain encouraged by the level of activity across our sales pipeline and continue to believe we are well positioned to deliver sequential growth as we execute our strategy.

Looking ahead, we believe the fundamental building blocks of the business continue to strengthen. We have a simplified near debt-free balance sheet with meaningful liquidity and the financial flexibility to support our long-term strategy.

Our IoT semiconductor business continues to demonstrate a strong underlying momentum, supported by a growing backlog and a design win pipeline that continues to grow and convert into production revenue.

Finally, our differentiated portfolio of 5G and RF technologies remains one of Sequans' most important long-term strategic assets, creating opportunities across both products and licensing revenue.

Our priorities remain clear.

We continue scaling our IoT semiconductor business, advancing our 5G eRedCap roadmap, expanding our licensing opportunities and executing against the initiatives we believe will unlock the full long-term value of Sequans.

Before handing the call over to Norman, I'd like to take a moment to recognize an important leadership transition that took place at the end of June.

After 19 years with Sequans, Deborah Choate retired as our Chief Financial Officer. Deborah has been part of Sequans through many of the company's most important milestones. She played a significant role in strengthening our financial foundation and supporting the strategic initiatives that have positioned the company for where it is today.

On behalf of our Board of Directors and everyone at Sequans, I would like to sincerely thank Deborah for her many contributions over the years and wish her all the best in her retirement.

I'm also pleased to welcome Norman Brodt as our new Chief Financial Officer. Norman joined Sequans as Vice President of Finance in January 2025 and has been deeply involved in our financial planning, capital allocation strategy, and operational initiatives over the past 1.5 years.

Many of the decisions and initiatives we have discussed on today's call, have benefited from his leadership and involvement, making this a natural transition for the company. I'm confident that Norman's experience, financial discipline and knowledge of our business will serve Sequans well as we continue executing our strategy.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Norman to review our second quarter financial results in greater detail. Norman?

Thank you, Georges, and good morning, everyone. Before reviewing our financial results, I'd like to say a few words. I assumed the role of Chief Financial Officer at the beginning of July following Deborah's retirement after 19 years with Sequans.

I want to thank Deborah for the strong foundation she built and for ensuring a smooth transition. I'm pleased to have the opportunity to speak with you today for the first time as CFO.

Now let me turn to our second quarter financial results. Total revenue for the second quarter was $7.5 million, an increase of 23.2% compared to the first quarter of 2026.

Compared to the second quarter of 2025, revenue declined 8.4%, primarily because the prior year quarter included a significant contribution from license and services revenue associated with the 2024 Qualcomm transaction.

Excluding this impact, our revenue grew 84.2% year-over-year. Revenue in the quarter was primarily product related with product sales up 39% sequentially and almost doubling year-over-year, reflecting the continued growth of our IoT business.

That reflects sustained conversion of our design win pipeline into production revenue and with more than 40 projects now in mass production and the backlog extending far into 2027, we have strong visibility into continued growth.

Gross margin was 32.9% compared to 37.7% in the first quarter and 64.4% in the second quarter of 2025. The sequential and year-over-year decline primarily reflects the higher mix of product revenue relative to license and services revenue, which naturally carries a different margin profile.

As a reminder, the second quarter of last year includes meaningful license and services revenue associated with the Qualcomm transaction, making the year-over-year comparison less meaningful.

Operating expenses, consisting of research and development, selling, general and administrative expenses were approximately $11.9 million compared with $11.8 million in the first quarter. We continue to execute on our cost reduction initiatives and remain on track to achieve lower operating expense levels in the second half of the year.

During the quarter, we recorded a noncash impairment on our Bitcoin holdings of $3 million, now down significantly from $29.3 million in the first quarter, along with a realized net gain of $5.3 million on Bitcoin sales compared to a realized net loss of $11.7 million in the prior quarter.

Operating loss was $7.2 million compared to losses of $50.5 million in the first quarter of 2026 and $8.5 million in the second quarter of 2025. Net loss for the quarter was $9.6 million or $0.65 per diluted ADS compared to net losses of $76.2 million or $5.23 per diluted ADS in the first quarter and $9 million or $3.53 per diluted ADS in the second quarter of 2025.

Please note that we adjusted Q1 2026 financial income and expenses to the reevaluation of the convertible debt upon the amendment in February to permit the full redemption of the debt, which resulted in an increase of the financial expenses of $21.9 million.

During the past quarter, debt-related net interest expense was $2.4 million, down from $4.9 million in the first quarter, reflecting the wind down of our convertible debt. On a non-IFRS basis, excluding noncash impairments, stock-based compensation and noncash items associated with the convertible debt and its embedded derivative, non-IFRS net loss was $4 million or $0.27 per diluted ADS.

This compares to a non-IFRS net loss of $20.6 million or $1.41 per diluted ADS in the first quarter and a non-IFRS net loss of $8 million or $3.14 per diluted ADS in the second quarter of 2025.

Turning to the balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents at June 30 totaled $21 million, up from $10.6 million at March 31. For the first 6 months of the year, cash used in operating activities was $23 million.

Investing activities provided $127.7 million, driven primarily by the proceeds from Bitcoin sales, while financing activities used $97 million, reflecting the full repayment of the convertible debt associated with our Bitcoin treasury strategy.

As of June 30, we held 314 Bitcoin valued at approximately $18.4 million, all of which is unrestricted and available for sale.

This compares to 1,514 Bitcoin at March 31 valued at $103.2 million at the end of March, of which 1,217 Bitcoin was pledged as collateral for the convertible debt.

With the redemption of our convertible debt completed and the repayment of our COVID-related loan during the quarter, Sequans now has a clean unencumbered balance sheet.

Together with our $21 million cash position and 314 unrestricted Bitcoin, we believe the company is well positioned to support its operating and strategic priorities going forward.

Before I hand the call back to Georges, I want to briefly echo his comments on our licensing pipeline.

We have several discussions that are well advanced, and we believe a number of these have the potential to contribute meaningfully to revenue in the second half of the year. As Georges noted, the timing of licensing revenue recognition can be difficult to predict, and that variability is reflected in our Q3 guidance range.

With that, I'll turn the call back to Georges.

Thank you, Norman.

So as we close, our priorities remain clear. We are focused on executing and scaling our IoT semiconductor business while expanding our presence in software-defined radio applications, including drones and defense.

We continue to see encouraging momentum across the business, supported by a growing backlog, a growing design win pipeline, an increasing number of design win projects transitioning into production and a maturing pipeline of licensing and services opportunities.

Together with continued strength across our CAT M, CAT 1bis and RF product families and the progress we are making with 5G eRedCap, we believe Sequans is well positioned to deliver continued growth while moving steadily towards cash flow breakeven.

At the same time, we have taken important steps to strengthen our financial foundation.

With the redemption of our convertible debt and the successful transition away from our Bitcoin treasury strategy, we have significantly improved our financial flexibility and sharpened our focus on our core semiconductor business.

Going forward, we'll continue to manage our remaining Bitcoin holdings in a disciplined and opportunistic manner while maintaining the liquidity needed to support operations, invest in innovation and execute our long-term growth strategy.

Overall, we believe Sequans is entering an important new chapter. We have a stronger balance sheet, improving visibility into future product revenue, a differentiated technology portfolio and multiple avenues for growth. We remain focused on disciplined execution and believe we are well positioned to create long-term value for our shareholders.

Thank you for listening, and we can now open the call for questions.

And our first question for today comes from the line of Scott Searle from ROTH.

Georges, congrats on the product momentum kind of going in the right direction. And Norm, congrats on the new role. Maybe to start, Georges, in terms of 55% of the design win pipeline now ramping into production and it continues to grow beyond that $300 million mark implies $13 million, $14 million plus at full production. I think you've been targeting the first half of next year is when you'll be getting to operating breakeven. Is that still the plan? And given how things are rolling into production, are you on track for that mark?

Yes. Scott, indeed, your remarks, I mean, honestly, when you compare to last year, as we said, we have like 3x improvement in projects in production. So they are solid, and we have visibility, as we mentioned many times, even towards the first half of next year 2027 from all those projects in production.

So this is really becoming much more, I would say, predictable, if you want, like when the projects are moving and ordering, so we can predict much easier. So we expect definitely sequential growth, the growth to continue on our product. And to support our breakeven is essentially, it takes two other elements, obviously, continue controlling our cost structure, which is something definitely we are committed to, and we will continue doing this as we move forward in the second half.

But also, obviously, there is a second component which can a little bit play on the margin, which is the services revenue. So yes, with these 3 points, that's the target to be next year in a position very close to breakeven, if not breakeven on a yearly basis globally.

And if I could follow up then, Georges, on the licensing front, it sounds like there are more opportunities or irons in the fire at this point in time. I think previously, we've been talking about two or three. It sounds like it may have expanded beyond that. Wide range of opportunities. Is that the correct interpretation?

And I think you've hinted at it in the past as well, given where the balance sheet is today that some of these licensing opportunities, given how they tend to be front-end cash loaded, that would finance operations until the anticipated breakeven. Is that still the expectation?

Yes, absolutely. I mean the opportunity we have in hand, they are maturing. Definitely, they are closer, I would say, as predicted, we already, from the beginning of the year, we estimated that this will happen in the second half. So we are on track on this.

Now obviously, what's important is really signing the deal. Revenue itself, depending on the timing, you could take some revenue in any quarter or the other based on the revenue recognition rules. But we definitely have a handful of projects very, very advanced in discussion.

And hopefully, we can conclude one or more in the second half to meet our target. This is really the only point we see it for the year, if you want, and we'll be completely on our plan that we set at the beginning of the year. In addition to this, we should mention as well when we are talking about breakeven as well, is like there is always the cash from the government, which is the grant from the government, which as you know, it's a little bit -- we have technically around $4 million plus on a yearly basis.

But this amount is not smooth every quarter, and we have a chunk of $3 million plus that should happen in the second half as well when you complete the cash.

And lastly, if I could, just on the RF front, very exciting opportunity now that's starting to ramp up. I'm wondering if you could frame the size of the opportunity, maybe in terms of revenue expectations in '26 and '27. And a quick one for you, Norm. Just in terms of the OpEx running over $11 million this quarter. I'm wondering if you could remind us where the target is. I think it was below $10 million, but just are you comfortable to get to that bogey in the second half of this year?

I mean on the RF, definitely, we have very solid RF portfolio. And this is somehow related to the acquisition we did boosted, I would say, the position of the company. We always had this technology in the company. The acquisition of ACP that we did a year ago boosted us, put us in a very strong position where we have a couple of customers with whom we do a couple of million dollars, $3 million in a predicted way, I will say, every year.

But we took this product really to address larger space of software-defined and more focused on drone and defense. Today, the pipeline of this, we're talking about more than 20 opportunities that we are dealing with. I mean, not to give exact number, but really, we have a large number and many people interested in our technology. All the feedback we are getting is extremely positive. And we already signed one deal and to whom we will start shipping beginning of next year. I believe their product is quite advanced.

We have many others in the evaluation process to whom we start shipping to them the development kit, the technology that they need for them to conclude their design win and move on. So I'm expecting in the second half of the year to get more and more from those designs secured. Now the potential of this, honestly, it's big if we are able to reach to all those customers.

And we're still in our early phase to really estimate exactly where we can go there. But thinking like this is a business that can scale to $10 million, $20 million per year with a margin closer to 90% plus. We're talking about very high-margin sales. So this is really very important for us, and we are focusing on it every day, and we have the full team committed to this. Now where we will be next year, definitely, hopefully, maybe we should be approaching on the RF more than $5 million for sure and scale this to $10 million and plus the following year. That's what I hope at minimum.

Scott, so on the OpEx, as you certainly have seen, we've made some progress on the OpEx already. We had last year at the same time, about $13 million, but more than that, we are down to $11.9 million this quarter. So there is progress on the reduction of that. Now we are still targeting on a $10 million per quarter OpEx on a recurrent level. So we're having plans on our page and working on that towards that target.

And our next question comes from the line of Owen Rickert from Northland Capital Markets.

Just quickly on the Bitcoin holdings. What's the intended end state for that? Is this full liquidation the goal? And how are you thinking about timing given the current market conditions?

Yes. I mean thanks for the question. Honestly, as you know, obviously, we are out of the strategy. So the intention of the company is not really, I would say, to build any strategy around this. So it's an asset in hand. The most logical way is to turn this to cash as soon as possible.

On the same time, we don't need really the cash immediately, and we were talking about licensing deal that we could have as well with more money. We have money from the government coming in. So we don't really see, feel the pressure where we are today to go and liquidate at the price we are today. Now obviously, you can say where this is going to go and is it going to go lower or higher. I mean we remain opportunistic there. And definitely, you will hear at some time that the idea is really to clean it and get the balance sheet where we don't have dependence on Bitcoin. So timing for this, nothing definitive, if you want. We are more opportunistic looking to the best we can do for the interest of the company.

Got it. Got it. Super helpful. And then secondly for me, can you just give us a quick sense of how much of the organic growth was volume-driven versus pricing driven? And how sustainable that growth rate is into the second half of the year?

Yes. I mean it's a good question because, obviously, there is an impact of cost, which means we have some price increase. To be honest, our price increase was not too big in Q2 because the impact for us was it's a little bit more complicated to implement this rapidly, I would say, overnight, I would say, with all those memory issues. So, we have a little bit to deal with every customer to impact this in the second half. So we'll see it more in the second half.

But still, we didn't have an increase similar to what you see in memory where the people are doubling and tripling. So we're talking about, I believe, we don't have an exact number, but it's really below 5%. That's so far what we impacted our product pricing. But there is more maybe to come in the near future because it continues to increase. It's very painful because you cannot set a policy once forever with your customer.

You need to deal with this almost on a quarterly basis. But the majority of the growth is really coming from new projects turning to production. And obviously, this is where it's coming. And the growth, we are positioned to continue growing. Back to the simple rule. I know that many shareholders in the past when we were talking about our pipeline, me and all the shareholders were extremely nervous and we would like, I would say, we wanted to be not too much patient, I would say, to convert those design wins to revenue. And unfortunately, in the IoT business, it takes time because customers take a lot of time to move from design win to get their product ready, certified and shipping.

But what's good about it is once it's there, it's there and it's sticky and stays for many years, 5, 6, 7 years. So we have many projects in this situation, and this is what the 55%, $165 million three years revenue. So in average, we are talking about $55 million as a product revenue on a yearly basis. And this will continue to grow because in the second half of the year, more projects convert and this 55% will go higher. And if you put this into perspective where we are in product revenue and next year, so the growth trend should continue next year at least at similar level.

Great , Thank you.

And our next question comes from the line of Fedor Shabalin from B. Riley.

Norman, congratulations on the appointment. My question is kind of follow-up questions for previous ones. Georges, you cited many design win projects now in mass production, and I have a question about this 55% of $300 million three year product pipeline. What would be the expected cadence for the remaining 45% to convert? And does that pipeline figure get revised upward with the new drone defense win? Or was that already embedded in this guidance?

Yes. I mean, just if I take it like at the beginning of the year, we were like at 44% of $300 million. And in 6 months, we turned the 44% it becomes 55. So added like 10 points. Obviously, it's not a rule, but I'm giving it here if you want. But just to give you, I don't know if the future will be like the past because it all depends on the project, right? I mean, we have some customers, surprisingly, they move fast. Some others could be slow and take longer. I should say today, our CAT M technology in general, people are moving very, very fast on the CAT M. CAT 1bis, which is really ramping, still has more room there to convert to design win.

So, technically, I don't know if I should say towards the end of the year, we should add another 10 points. This will be my own target, if you like, if I look to the past. But obviously, we're pushing to converge much more than this.

And my follow-up is about Bitcoin remaining holdings. I know you want to monetize it opportunistically, but if you can confirm the year-end target for this? And also, what are the immediate needs for financing your core semiconductor business? And if is it kind of urgent or not urgent? So just trying to figure out when you are dependent on monetizing these Bitcoin holdings near term or not?

Yes. I mean, honestly, there is no urgency if we take it like this, from the end of the year, we're not in a rush on this. So we'll be opportunistic. I would like here to highlight one point. Obviously, we are a small company. We're dealing with suppliers, and suppliers would like to look to us and wash the balance sheet. And unfortunately, for many of those suppliers, Bitcoin doesn't count. So to some extent, saying that you have $20 million in Bitcoin, even if the Bitcoin could be at $25, it could be at $100 and you say I have $31 million equivalent, they don't give the same weight in the front of your supplier as when you say I have them in cash.

So for this reason, we have really a lot of interest of converting this as soon as possible. Other as well, like as well, I heard many shareholders, they don't like to have this dependence on volatility on the stock, so they get it to cash. For us, the fact that you don't need this money for S&P, and based on the history of Bitcoin and whatever you could predict, we believe it's not maybe the best timing and better to wait. But we will not keep this on board forever. At some time when the price will be decent, much better than where it is today, we'll convert and take it all to cash.

Unfortunately, we missed the window because when we redeemed the debt, my idea was to sell all, to be honest. But the Bitcoin was not available because they were in the collateral. So we had to conclude the transaction. And at the time to conclude the transaction, Bitcoin went down, and we lost immediately like $15,000 per Bitcoin due to the volatility. Then we waited on this, and we didn't convert. So that's a story. But the strategy for the company is really to take it all to cash as soon as possible, even if we don't need this money now, but factor in a little bit, be patient in a couple of few months to see where we have the best price, and sell.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Jacob Stephan from Lake Street Capital Markets.

I'd like to extend the congratulations to Norman as well. Maybe just first on the margin front, maybe you could kind of quantify for us or give a little bit more color on product mix versus kind of the memory input cost pressure and kind of what impact they had on margins? And maybe looking forward, how can we expect the gross margin line to trend?

Jacob, I mean, a few things, I would say. As you know, we have the licensing business when it's there; this has a very high margin. And obviously, depending on this contribution, it pushes sometimes our gross margin to be higher than 50% globally because, obviously, it helps on the product. If we focus only on the product, the rule for us is like, let's say, what we are trying to achieve is like to be on the chip gross margin above 50% on the module gross margin to be above 30%. This is more or less the rule of the industry. And then it depends on the mix of the two because we sell our product, the two, it can give us some gross margin on the product that can vary around 35% to 40%, if you want, if we project. This is in normal days.

Now, if you add to this, you need to factor there is another component, which should improve over time. Which is the fixed cost. In our gross margin today, we have like three, four points related to fixed cost. Obviously, when you are making $7 million product revenue, the fixed cost is high for this number. If we go next year to the 15 plus and going to 20, we can gain just only on the pro forma basis because this fixed cost doesn't scale. It's really the number of people we use to run our operation and amortization of the masks and so on. So there are like three, four points impacted there.

So this is how we should think about it going forward. Now if we factor into the cost increase, definitely with the supply pressure that we have, sometimes even to get access to the technology, right? I mean, we didn't anticipate many things at the beginning of the year. So, and we are trying to catch up; sometimes we are not able to impact the price of our customer immediately while the supplier is impacted immediately. So we could have those variations impacting us from quarter to quarter. But hopefully, all this will stabilize over time when we start planning.

Okay. Got it. Very helpful. And then maybe just touching on guidance, $8.5 million to $10 million. You said the high end is kind of more gated on potential licensing agreements. But maybe if you could help us think through, like I guess, when would the licensing agreement need to be signed?

In licensing agreements, we have many, as I mentioned. We have several, I would say; they tend to be a few hundred thousand dollars to a couple of million dollars, and we have other four or maybe more that tend to be more than $10 million, just to give you the spectrum where we have. Obviously, the smaller deals are much easier to convert faster because they are less negotiation, and you can get them faster. The larger deals take a little bit more time because there is more strategic discussion around it. So that's where we are.

Definitely, if we put something in the guidance is that we believe that something could happen this quarter somehow. The challenge about it, like when you sign something, let's say, if you sign something at the end of September, you may sign it, and you will not take too much revenue of it. Even if you sign a deal of $20 million in license, it will be hard to take any revenue. If you sign it earlier, you can take much more than the guidance that we have. So we can have an upside.

But factoring if you want the small deal that we have and potentially a larger, medium-sized deal, we could be, that's why we said that the high end assumes some services revenue, not only product. But if we do only product, it will be hard to reach the $10 million this quarter. But there's still significant growth of our product revenue quarter-to-quarter because the low end is almost pure product, if you want.

This does conclude the question-and-answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Georges for any further remarks.

Yes. Many thanks, operator, for handling this call, and thanks to all of you. Looking forward to meeting you in person on another opportunity. Thank you very much.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the First Quarter 2026 Sequans Earnings Conference Call. My name is Howard, and I will be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the conference over to Mr. David Hanover, Investor Relations. David, you may begin.

Thank you, operator, and thank you to everyone participating in today's call. Joining me on the call from Sequans Communications are Georges Karam, CEO and Chairman; and Deborah Choate, CFO.

Before turning the call over to Georges, I would like to remind our participants of the following important information on behalf of Sequans. First, Sequans issued an earnings press release this morning, and you'll find a copy of the release on the company's website at www.sequans.com under the Newsroom section.

Second, this conference call contains projections and other forward-looking statements regarding future events or future financial performance and potential financing sources. All statements other than present and historical facts and conditions contained in this release, including any statements regarding our business strategy, cost optimization plans, strategic options, the ability to enter into new strategic agreements, expectations for sales, our ability to convert our pipeline to revenue and our objectives for future operations are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended.

These statements are only predictions and reflect current beliefs and expectations with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties and subject to change at any time. We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time.

Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not rely on or place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements. More information on factors that could affect our business and financial results are included in our public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And now I'd like to hand the call over to Georges Karam. Please go ahead, Georges.

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin with a brief update on our capital allocation strategy, including how we are approaching the management of our digital asset holdings alongside the continued execution of our IoT semiconductor business.

Our priority remains clear. We are focused first and foremost on executing our IoT strategy, scaling our product business and advancing our 5G road map in a disciplined way to create long-term shareholder value.

In parallel, we have continued to manage our Bitcoin holdings with a pragmatic and opportunistic approach. In light of current market conditions, we made the decision earlier this year to eliminate all debt-related risk by negotiating an early redemption agreement with our debt holders. This allows us to fully redeem the $94.5 million of convertible debt by June 1, 2026, funded through the sale of Bitcoin that had been held as collateral.

As of today, we have already redeemed approximately 62% of this debt, and the remaining balance will be redeemed in the coming weeks. By June 1, we expect to have a near debt-free balance sheet with at least 600 Bitcoin held as unencumbered asset.

Looking ahead, we do not intend to further pursue our treasury strategy. Instead, our objective will be to monetize these holdings over time in a disciplined manner, balancing market conditions with our broader capital needs. Importantly, we remain focused on maintaining a strong cash position to support operations, invest in our 5G IoT road map and provide stability as we scale the business.

Turning now to the operational side of the business. Our IoT semiconductor business continues to demonstrate solid underlying momentum.

For the first quarter, we generated $6.1 million revenue. This performance is broadly in line with our expectations and reflects continued strength in product revenue despite supply challenges, partially offset by variability in the timing of services revenue. Looking ahead, we continue to benefit from a strong backlog, which provides good near-term visibility.

Our order backlog continues to build with approximately $22 million in revenue, primarily product-related, already secured for the year, along with early indications of orders extending into the first quarter of next year. This provides us with increasing confidence in the trajectory of the business as we move through 2026 and confirms the healthy nature of our design-win pipeline and related KPI we track.

Our full year outlook continues to be supported by an increasing number of design-win projects transitioning to production. We entered the year with more than $300 million in potential 3-year product revenue from design-win projects. Of these, 44% had already reached the production phase and are generating revenue.

During the first quarter, 3 additional design-win projects transitioned into production, and we expect additional projects to follow in the second quarter. As a result, we continue to anticipate that more than half of our current design-win pipeline will be in production by the end of June, representing approximately $150 million in potential 3-year revenue.

We are also seeing strong momentum with the new customer engagements. In the first quarter, we engaged more than a dozen new customer projects with 6 already confirmed as design wins. These programs are expected to contribute to growth, beginning in 2027 and beyond.

Our product pipeline remains primarily driven by our 4G, CAT-M and CAT-1bis technologies. It also includes our RF transceiver product, which supports a wide range of software-defined radio applications, including defense and drone use cases. In addition, we have initiated early engagements around 5G eRedCap, which will be the future successor to 4G and cellular IoT deployments. Smart metering, telematics and asset tracking continue to represent our strongest verticals, followed by security, e-health and medical and other industrial applications.

Turning now to product ramps and key drivers. Cat-M continues to be a meaningful growth driver in 2026, led primarily by asset tracking and smart metering deployments. This business is scaling in line with expectation, supported by strong visibility and steady ordering patterns as many Cat-M design-win projects are now in production with key customers deployment underway.

CAT-1bis is positioned for a breakout year, supported by multiple customer ramps across telematics, security and some metering use cases. We are already seeing revenue contribution from several design wins with additional projects expected to enter production in the second half of the year. We're also seeing incremental opportunities driven by current market dynamics, which are creating opening for Sequans to gain share.

In our RF transceiver business, we continue to see stable demand from existing customers, supported by committed backlog, and we expect additional contribution in the second half of the year. At the same time, we are engaging with a number of new prospective customers, particularly in defense and drone applications, and we expect to begin securing some of these opportunities in the near term. We are also advancing discussions around licensing and collaboration opportunities, which could further expand the reach of our RF portfolio.

More broadly, our product pipeline continues to mature with several design-win programs progressing towards production. We are also seeing new generation product opportunities with existing customers, which provide incremental upside with our installed base. At the same time, we are actively preparing for the next major transition in IoT connectivity, which is the migration from 4G to 5G.

Market demand for our 5G eRedCap solution continues to strengthen, particularly as mobile network operators look to refarm 4G spectrum and accelerate broader 5G deployment. Importantly, IoT applications represent the final phase of this 4G to 5G transition. And these applications require long device life cycle, often 10 years or more, making a seamless and future-proof migration path essential.

Unlike the 4G era, where the market became fragmented across multiple cellular technology categories, we expect the 5G IoT landscape to be more streamlined, centered around eRedCap as the primary standard. This creates a more efficient and scalable ecosystem for both customers and suppliers.

Sequans is well positioned in this transition. We already have an established customer base across our 4G portfolio, and we expect to leverage these relationships as we introduce our 5G solutions. In many cases, customers will be able to transition using solutions designed to be compatible with existing deployments, enabling a smoother upgrade path.

We continue to make strong progress on our 5G eRedCap program. During the quarter, we received our first engineering test chips, which are now in-house and under evaluation. This represents an important milestone as we advance toward customer sampling, which we continue to target for the second half of 2027.

Looking ahead, we believe 5G IoT will represent a significant long-term growth opportunity, both in terms of market size and value per device, supporting improved pricing dynamics relative to 4G.

Now turning to services and licensing. Our services and licensing business continues to represent an important source of high-margin revenue, although timing of revenue recognition can vary from quarter-to-quarter.

On this front, we have several ongoing discussions that could contribute to revenue over the course of 2026. These include engagements with large global partners, licensing and collaboration opportunities, leveraging our RF and 5G IP portfolio as well as a range of smaller service agreements.

These opportunities provide potential upside to our product-driven revenue base while also expanding our reach into new markets and applications. We remain focused on converting these discussions into revenue while managing expectation around time.

On the supply chain side, we continue to operate in a dynamic cost and supply environment. We are seeing significant increases in memory pricing, which are impacting the cost of both our chips and modules. We are actively working to address these cost pressures while ensuring we can meet customer demand.

At the same time, we have taken proactive steps to secure supply, including multi-sourcing across key components such as memory and packaging. Based on our current plan, we believe supply for our 2027 baseline demand is secure, although we continue to monitor potential upside scenarios.

Overall, while cost pressures and supply challenges are real, they are manageable and consistent with the broader industry trends.

As we move through 2026, we remain focused on disciplined cost management and reducing cash burn. Our objective continues to be reaching a breakeven run rate by the end of the year as revenue scales.

We implemented the cost reduction plan at the end of last year. And while the full benefits will not be realized until midyear, we are confident in achieving our expense targets in the second half.

Working capital dynamics will continue to evolve alongside growth, particularly as we support production ramps and manage supply chain requirements. These dynamics may create short-term variability, but they are aligned with long-term revenue growth.

Overall, our performance underscores the progress we are making in strengthening our core IoT business, improving financial discipline and maintaining flexibility in our capital strategy.

Regarding our outlook for the second quarter, we currently expect revenue to be in the range of $6.8 million to $7.4 million, driven predominantly by product revenue, with potential upside if new licensing deals are closed.

Based on our backlog and continued momentum across our design-win pipeline, we expect revenue to build sequentially throughout the remainder of the year. We also remain focused on reducing cash burn and continue to believe we can approach cash flow breakeven by the end of the year as the business scales.

Looking ahead, we continue to evaluate strategic alternatives that could accelerate profitability and unlock additional value for shareholders. What's clear to us is that we are operating from a position of strength. We have a solid balance sheet, a growing and increasingly productive IoT business and a differentiated 5G and RF IP portfolio that we believe will be a key driver of long-term value.

As we discussed earlier, the transition from 4G to 5G in IoT represents a fundamental shift in the market. With eRedCap expected to become the primary standard, we believe this will create a larger, more unified and more scalable market than what we saw in the 4G cycle.

Sequans is uniquely positioned to benefit from this evolution. We expect to leverage our existing 4G customer base as a natural entry point into 5G, enabling a more efficient transition for our customers while accelerating our own time to market.

Combined with the expected premium pricing and expanded market opportunity, we believe this positions us to drive meaningful long-term growth and improved profitability.

In parallel, we will complete the redemption of our debt by June 1 and continue to manage our capital allocation with discipline, maintaining a strong cash position while preserving flexibility to act opportunistically as conditions evolve.

Overall, we remain focused on scaling our IoT business, advancing our 5G road map, developing our new RF transceiver business and executing against the key drivers that we believe will unlock the full value of Sequans over time.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Deborah to review our financial results in greater detail. Deborah?

Thank you, Georges. Hello, everyone. I'll begin by reviewing our first quarter financial results and then provide an update on our balance sheet and digital asset holdings.

During the first quarter, our financial results continued to reflect the underlying momentum in the IoT business, along with the impact of actions taken earlier this year to strengthen our balance sheet and simplify our capital structure.

For Q1 2026, total revenue was $6.1 million compared to $6.9 million in the fourth quarter. As Georges mentioned, revenue in the quarter was primarily driven by product sales with ongoing variability and licensing and service revenue timing.

Gross margin for the quarter was 37.7% compared to 41.4% in the fourth quarter and reflects the ongoing impact of supply chain dynamics and especially revenue and product mix.

Operating expenses in the quarter, including R&D and SG&A expenses, were $11.8 million compared to $12.3 million in the fourth quarter. We continue to make progress on our cost reduction plan and remain on track to achieve lower operating expense levels in the second half of the year.

During the quarter, we recorded $29.3 million of noncash charges related to the mark-to-market valuation of our Bitcoin holdings compared to a loss of $56.3 million in the fourth quarter. As a reminder, these charges are driven by market price movements and do not reflect underlying operating performance.

We also recorded $11.7 million of realized losses on the sale of Bitcoin during the quarter compared to $6.1 million of losses in the fourth quarter, primarily associated with the ongoing redemption of our convertible debt.

As discussed previously, the convertible debt and associated embedded derivatives continue to be remeasured each reporting period, resulting in noncash impacts to the P&L. In addition, IFRS accounting requires us to recognize noncash interest expense associated with the 0% coupon instrument.

Reflecting these factors, we reported an IFRS net loss of $54.3 million for the quarter compared to an IFRS net loss of $76.4 million in the fourth quarter.

On a non-IFRS basis, excluding significant noncash items, we reported a net loss of $20.7 million or $1.42 per ADS compared with a non-IFRS net loss of $16.2 million or $1.04 per ADS in Q4.

The comparative numbers for Q4 and Q1 2025 have been adjusted from the unaudited figures published in February 2026 and May 2025. In finalizing the 2025 audit, we made adjustments related to the timing and amount of revenue recognized, the accounting for the compound financial instruments issued in July 2025 and related embedded derivatives, finalization of the ACP purchase accounting and other adjustments attributable to normal year-end closing procedures, audit adjustments and the completion of management review.

We are currently still finalizing with our auditors the documentation and disclosure of the impairment test for ACP, goodwill and other acquired intangibles on the balance sheet. The ongoing discussions regarding determination of the cash-generating units to be evaluated and the most appropriate valuation models resulted in delays in issuance of the audit report, and therefore, we filed a statement indicating we would need to extend our filing deadline. We expect to file our Form 20-F this week.

Turning to cash flow. Normalized cash burn for the quarter was just under $10 million compared to approximately $7.7 million in the fourth quarter, including working capital movements. As Georges mentioned, working capital can fluctuate as we support production ramp and secure supply.

During the quarter, we continued to execute on our balance sheet strategy. As of March 31, 2026, we had redeemed $28.3 million of the $94.5 million face value debt that was outstanding on December 31, 2025. As of April 30, we had redeemed approximately 62% of this convertible debt, funded through the sale of 800 Bitcoin, leaving a balance of approximately $35.9 million due, which we expect to redeem in full by June 1, 2026.

At the end of Q1, we held cash and cash equivalents of approximately $10.6 million compared to $13.4 million at the end of 2025. As of the end of Q1, we held 1,514 Bitcoin compared to 2,139 Bitcoin at year-end 2025. And as of April 30, we held 1,114 Bitcoin and expect that we will hold at least 600 Bitcoin after full redemption of the debt, all of which will be fully available for sale. Following completion of the debt redemption, we expect to have a near debt-free balance sheet with a simplified capital structure and increased financial flexibility.

Overall, our financial results for the quarter reflect continued progress in scaling the IoT business, improving cost discipline and strengthening the balance sheet.

Before turning the call back to Georges to conclude, I'd like to cover a few housekeeping matters. We expect to conclude the final audit procedures with our auditors this week and be in a position to file our annual report on Form 20-F. Since we filed an extension notification last week, as long as we file by May 15, we will still be considered a timely filer.

We are currently preparing for our Annual Shareholders Meeting on June 30, 2026. You should expect to see voting materials by early June. Most of the resolutions will be our normal recurring resolutions that you see each year.

One of these resolutions is to ask for authorization for a capital increase. This year, we will ask for authorization to issue up to 7.5 million ADS, including up to $15 million in the form of convertible debt. We would like to clarify that we are asking for this authorization only to provide flexibility in the event that we have a strategic opportunity that would require issuance of convertible debt or equity.

We currently have no plans to do any equity raise to finance operations. In fact, the shelf registration statement and ATM program that we filed in August 2025 were filed when we had the market cap to be an accelerated filer and were automatically effective. Upon the filing of the 2025 annual report on Form 20-F, we will no longer satisfy the requirements for using an automatic shelf, and therefore, we can no longer issue equity under that August shelf registration or the ATM program.

With that, I'll turn the call back to Georges.

As we close, I want to reiterate that our primary focus remains on executing and scaling our IoT business and expanding to software-defined markets such as drones and defense. We are seeing solid momentum across the portfolio, supported by a growing backlog, a maturing design-win pipeline, an increasing number of projects transitioning into production and several advanced licensing and services deals.

With continued strength across Cat-M, Cat-1bis and RF transceivers, and with early engagement around 5G eRedCap, we believe the business is well positioned to drive sequential growth while maintaining a clear path towards cash flow breakeven.

At the same time, we have taken decisive steps to simplify and strengthen our balance sheet. By eliminating our convertible debt and transitioning away from the treasury strategy, we are increasing financial flexibility and sharpening our focus on the core business.

Going forward, our priority is to monetize our remaining Bitcoin holding in a disciplined way while ensuring we maintain the liquidity needed to support operations and invest in our 5G road map.

Overall, we believe we are entering an important phase for the company with a stronger financial foundation, improving operational visibility and a clear path to long-term value creation.

Thank you for listening. We can move now, operator, to the questions, if you don't mind.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question or comment comes from the line of Luke Horton from Northland.

This is Luke on for Mike Grondahl. Just wanted to touch kind of on the 5G road map and pipeline you have there. And I guess, specifically with RedCap, I guess, how large do you expect this opportunity to be relative to the existing kind of Cat-M, Cat-1 business?

Yes. Luke, I mean, just not to be confused, you said RedCap, I'm talking about eRedCap. eRedCap is really the standard that's going to replace literally CAT-M and CAT-1bis. When you look to the 4G -- the 4G IoT, we had like 4 technology used in 4G: NB-IoT, mainly in China, but you have some in Europe and even in Australia and other place; Cat-M, mainly U.S., Japan and half of Europe, I would say; CAT-1bis is -- and CAT-1, which is the fourth one.

And as you see, this is really because IoT -- cellular was for the first time entering IoT and for the good and the bad, they ended by having almost competing technology, not 100% competing, covering some application, but there is also a piece of it competing. And this fragmented the market.

Obviously, now the carriers, starting in the U.S., and obviously, this will be followed by other region of the world, the carriers, they would like to finish their deployment of 5G. And in other words, they need to refarm the 4G spectrum to use it on 5G and one day switch off the 4G.

To do this, you can do it today for all applications on the phone, but you cannot do it for IoT because all the IoT runs on 4G. That's why there is a push to come with the IoT -- 5G IoT, and this is the eRedCap. So eRedCap, by definition, will come and replace [indiscernible] all those Cat-M, NB, CAT-1 and CAT-1bis. You will have like kind of supporting low speed and medium speed. The same technology is able to do this.

And because it supports 5G, it will have a little bit higher ASP. And because it supports the low speed and the high speed, so it will be really benefiting from the continuation of the IoT business in cellular and it will be expanding over time as well increasing in the price and increasing the size.

So definitely, the opportunity will be, let's say, at least the sum of the 4 opportunity of Cat-1, Cat-1bis, Cat-M and NB-IoT today, plus some premium, let's say, 10%, 15% related to ASP increase because of the 5G.

Okay. Got it. I appreciate the color there. And then I guess on the kind of $300 million pipeline that you called out with about 50% of that expected in the next 3 years. And then also just kind of given the sequential growth acceleration, kind of quarterly cadence throughout this year, I guess, where does that confidence come from? And could you provide any other color around those?

Yes. Sure. Luke, I mean, the $300 million, this is what we had, let's say, on January this year as design win in hand, and we said like first 4% of them were in production, which means generating revenue. And we expect to be, by June, 50% of them in production, which will be $150 million. In other words, if you take $150 million in average over 3 years, this is $50 million yearly revenue in average. Obviously, there will be a ramp depending on the project, year 1, year 2, year 3.

And the confidence there continues to build. And literally, when you look to our backlog, if you compare this to beginning of the year, this year in Q1, as I'm speaking, we have backlog securing close to $22 million for the year, this year, in product revenue. And we have even portioned, like $2 million, $3 million already in hand for Q1 next year. This backlog is coming from existing design win in production. And this means all our analysis on the fact of our design-win pipeline is really true and accurate, if you want, reflected in the ramp of our customers. So that's why we have really strong confidence on this.

Now obviously, we need to continue the conversions from design win to full mass production. That will happen in the second half of the year, I would say, in June and beyond June, let's say, for the second half of the year. And to some extent, if you look to Cat-M business, Cat-M business today is really -- versus our target, we feel almost secured. I don't want to say 100%, but maybe 90% of our plan is already in hand. Why? Because on the Cat-M is really -- a big portion of the Cat-M is design win in production. The Cat-1bis, we have design win, not all of them in production, and this is the piece where we're still working on to ensure the ramp is going to continue in the second half of the year in terms of product revenue.

Okay. Great. And then just lastly for me on the digital asset strategy after the June 1 redemption, how do you think about Bitcoin holdings on the balance sheet and kind of capital allocation strategy, I guess, kind of specifically in different crypto market situations, like if there were to be another bull run in crypto versus kind of digital asset pricing pulling back again?

Yes. I mean, Luke, I mean, we went through digital asset thinking seriously that we can develop this business and we can trade above NAV. And then after this, maybe separate the 2 business, which is the core business, IoT from the digital assets because they cannot live together forever. I mean it was really -- my plan was if the 2 -- if digital asset is working in addition to the IoT, knowing that IoT will be working, we'll have, at some time, to separate them and do something there.

Unfortunately, for many, many reasons, the digital assets didn't work in a sense like we were not able really to create -- to benefit from the leverage of the debt and be able to get our NAV higher than [ 1 ] , allowing us to keep scaling. So any digital asset strategy needs to have the ability to scale in number of Bitcoin and so on. And unfortunately, because we realized on top of this, the pressure on the Bitcoin, put us almost at risk. And I believe many people were nervous at the beginning of the year if this can hurt the IoT business as well.

For all those reasons, we decided really to take out the risk by redeeming the debt. And obviously, from there, have a balance sheet which is clean, no debt. We'll have there, obviously, Bitcoin after -- in June 1. From there, the question becomes, are we going to go and buy Bitcoin? I don't believe so today. This is what I'm clear on it. Now we will have a holding, more than 600 Bitcoin.

Are we going to sell them on June 2? I don't believe we'll be doing this on June 2, but we will be taking our time to monetize those Bitcoin in the coming, I would say, couple of quarters, knowing that the purchase price of this Bitcoin, I mean, is higher. And obviously, the trend we are seeing today that the Bitcoin is going into the right direction. So we would like to benefit from this if we can.

But in any case, we'll not sacrifice IoT. And in other words, we secure enough cash on the balance sheet to be sure that the company can operate independent of the variability that you could see on the Bitcoin.

Our next question or comment comes from the line of Scott Searle from ROTH Capital Partners.

Maybe just to dive in, Georges, on the RF business, it sounds like there's a lot of momentum building. Could you calibrate us in terms of where that is from a current revenue standpoint, what the backlog and opportunity looks like as you think about '26 and '27? And then as it relates to the RedCap -- eRedCap licensing opportunity, it sounds like there are a number of opportunities in the pipeline. I wonder if you could provide a little bit more color in terms of the magnitude and time line that you could see some of these deals materializing maybe a little bit in terms of how you're thinking about different vertical markets on that licensing front?

Yes. Scott, thanks for the questions. Indeed, as you know, one of the nice surprise we saw this year, which is we acquired the ACP and by acquiring ACP, the original goal was there to get the IP of the RF and accelerate our 5G eRedCap road map. And this is really executed on. As I said, we have already a chip in-house, and this has all the RF and all the analog and everything is working well as we are speaking.

So this is -- we did it. But at the same time, we have, let's say, as a bonus on top of this, a product -- RF product that can be sold on stand-alone to existing customer. And when we dig in, we realized that this product is really a great product to go to drone market and defense market where you have very high ASP, very high margin and the market is booming.

From this, we obviously secure the existing customer we have. And I could say today, around those customers, we could be doing close to, maybe this year, $5 million or $4 million, $5 million. They are not -- they are -- I'm putting inside this as well the royalty we collect with our Chinese RedCap. But let's call it, outside of this regular IoT business, we have around $5 million almost secured for the year and maybe we can do a couple more, depending, in the second half, if the backlog will confirm versus forecast.

But the good news as well there is like we expanded to go to this defense market and drone market. And here, since we announced the Iris family, this product, we had like a dozen of leads across the world, really from many, many countries. And we realized that we have really great product, very competitive in terms of feature set, and people are really happy to use it and test it and engage projects.

And as I'm speaking, I have at least several -- a few of them very advanced to consider it a design win. I don't qualify it yet a design win, but a few of them are there. So the potential of this RF business, honestly, could be -- when we're talking about the market, it's very hard to size this market around defense and drones, if you take only the transceiver business, but we are talking about maybe $100 million plus per year potential market. And as you know, this is really very high margin. We're talking about 99% gross margin.

So we believe like it makes sense for us to capture a nice market share from there, whether 20%, 30%, we'll see how good we are. but this is really a very nice potential for the company, coming almost with very minimum investment. The only investment we are doing is really in support, marketing because the R&D is already done. So this is on the RF.

And then if I look to the licensing and in general, those opportunities, licensing remains very important for us, specifically if we want really to achieve our cash flow breakeven in Q4. Even if the product revenue is really growing nicely, and if you look to our number in Q1, 90% plus is product and my guidance for the Q2, same. So we are really moving to almost product revenue, but we still have several deals under discussion, maybe more than 5 of advanced discussion covering RF covering the eRedCap or let's say, the modem portion as well as the protocol for satellite communication.

So on those, we are advanced with many of them. We hope we'll close something in Q2. We're not -- timing sometimes, it's not obvious how much revenue you can take it if you close at end of June. But we are looking to close at least 1 deal this quarter and maybe another 1 or 2 in the second half. And those deals, they vary. I mean there is -- obviously, we have some smaller ones. I'm not mentioning this. It could be a few hundred thousand dollars, but those are really associated with the product revenue in general.

But pure service revenue, we're talking about deals here, they could be from a couple of million dollars up to $15 million, 1-5, that we are contemplating there. So potential is big. But obviously, they are binary. I mean, if you get them, you get the $15 million, if you don't get them, you get 0. But we have, as I said, several of them quite advanced. So that's why we are optimistic that we can secure something this year that can help us support -- that add to the product growth in the second half of the year.

And then, George, looking to the second half of this year, you're talking about getting cash flow breakeven. That obviously implies that the product revenue ramps considerably in the second half of this year. Could you expand a little bit on your confidence level on that front? Certainly, that $300 million pipeline is helping, but it sounds like new wins are starting to ramp as well. And could you give us an idea about where you expect product to ramp to by the end of this year? The backlog supports some of that current visibility. But just kind of maybe help us out a little bit with some end markets and the competitive landscape as well. Cat-1bis is very, very hot right now. Kind of where you guys stand from a win rate on that front?

It's really -- the confidence is coming with the maturity of the design win, means those design wins are already in production. Everything which is in production today, and we start to have a sizable number of projects, and as I mentioned, mainly in metering and tracking. These are the 2 markets where we are very good at in a matured way. All those are coming, scaling. Last year, we did some number. This year, we plan to do something that's already secured. So the confidence level is really coming very strong from everything in production.

So if I look to my ramp for everything in production, I'm more than 90% sure about it. Everything really shipping. It's really good. We have backlog and we have forecast from customers, and we should have no big surprise in the second half on this.

The other piece, which is really where really the risk is or, let's say, where we have a little bit of challenge of timing, not to lose the customer. But if we are planning, obviously, and mainly in the Cat-1bis space because the Cat-M is much more mature today, more than 90% of the Cat-M -- of our Cat-M plan this year is already done, as I said, while maybe in terms of Cat-1bis, we are at 30%, let's say, if I give it a number.

Why? Because the Cat-1bis is a product that we introduced after the Cat-M, which means the design wins we have there came later and those guys are not yet all in full production. Some are in full production, and we continue to win in security and telematics and they start moving and we start getting order. But obviously, we're expecting to have more in the second half.

So this is the risk really or, let's say, the point to observe if those Cat-1bis projects come on time in terms of moving to production in the second half of the year. But we are optimistic because they are happening and the customer is serious, the projects are moving. And if there is a shift, it will be really minor delay with the customers taking a month or 2 delay, but this will happen at the end of the day.

And then if I look to the RF, I told you already, I mean, we are in good shape there because all what we have in hand, we secured maybe 60% power plant in RF already. Still the remaining needs to happen in the second half based on forecast, not yet an order, but based on forecast. So all this give us strong confidence, to be honest. And when you compare to the last year, it has nothing to do -- I mean the company really now -- we talk about many, many customers, many projects, repeating order, established customers to whom we ship -- we ship to them maybe in the last 2 years already, maybe a little bit and growing. And some we started shipping last year and now growing strongly this year.

So that's why we are really very, very positive on the ramp of our product revenue in the coming quarters.

Very helpful. Georges, maybe just quickly, the competitive landscape right now for Cat-1bis and kind of what your win rate is. And Deborah, if you could remind us, I know that there -- you've got cost reduction efforts, but there are a lot of moving parts in the world today with currency fluctuations, et cetera. What should we be thinking about in terms of where that OpEx is in the second half of this year and therefore, the breakeven?

Yes. I mean on the competitive landscape, there is not a big change, to be honest, Scott. It's the same thing. Even if -- I saw in the Cat-1bis, Nordic announcing a product, I believe they got it through IP licensing from somewhere, without saying more on this. But you need to understand that Cat-1bis in the U.S. is closed. There is no more certification of new module in Cat-1bis. So any new Cat-1bis will be coming more to address Europe and not in the U.S., not North America. And there, if you go to North America, it's left between Qualcomm and us, to be straight on this.

And the challenge of all this, again, you need to imagine that starting in 2029 and maybe not that far, maybe 2030, if this shifts a little bit, you're going to see all the market will be pushing to get eRedCap support, 5G support and you will not be able to deploy new product with 4G without having the 5G. So -- and here, obviously, the competitive landscape is who has 5G technology. And as you know, we benefit from all the investments we have done in the 5G, and we believe we'll be leading in the eRedCap in the market and take a strong position there.

Yes. And on operating expenses, we expect those to keep coming down. We're targeting to have cash operating expenses below $10 million, targeting $9 million by the end of the year.

Our next question or comment comes from the line of Jacob Stephan from Lake Street Capital Markets.

Maybe first, I want to touch on the balance sheet, kind of post June 1. Obviously, $10.6 million in cash. Just kind of help walk us through that a little bit. I know you're going to have roughly 600 Bitcoin, but the collateralized number of 817 that you guys cited in the press release, I guess when you kind of subtract the current holdings from that number, you get like 300. So can you kind of walk us through that a little bit?

Yes. I mean, Jacob, you're right. I mean it's a little bit tricky because we have some Bitcoin already free. We have around 300 Bitcoin in hand that they are free. They are not part of the 800 that Deborah was mentioning. When we talk about the 800, we're talking about the piece which is in the collateral. And obviously, the deal we have with our debt holders is we're keeping all the amount of Bitcoin in collateral until we redeem all the debt. So obviously, once we redeem all the debt, we get all what's left in there.

So the more than 600 -- we'll be at least 600, I believe, we should have more. Mainly if the Bitcoin stays where it is today, maybe we'll have a nicer number. It's just only the fact that you pay what's left -- you sell the Bitcoin, you pay what's left. And then when you combine what's left from the collateral plus what we have already in hand, free Bitcoin, we'll end above 600 Bitcoin.

So in a very simple way, don't matter the detail there. On June 1, we'll pay all the debt. We'll have more than 600 Bitcoin. And we'll have almost debt-free company, maybe we have $1 million or $2 million.

The only remaining debt after that will be related to government, like R&D funding that's 0 or low interest.

More short-term debt.

Got it. So the actual collateral, the $62 million or so is really just security for the $36 million of debt. But once you pay the $36 million of principal off, that's the remaining.

Yes.

Okay. I got you. Second, I just want to touch on the supply chain. I know you guys talked a lot about it with the memory costs increasing, but what's kind of your confidence level you can procure any additional supply, should any of the kind of upside opportunities that you mentioned to the full year present themselves?

Yes. I mean the -- you're absolutely -- you're mentioning a good point, Jacob. On one side, what I said, like for our, what I call it, baseline, we are good today. We were not -- last quarter, we were a little bit worry about Q4. Now we are fine. I mean maybe we'll not -- however, we are short in terms of covering upside, depending how big is the upside, right? I mean if we have a big deal and we need to serve it in Q4, we'll be short if I look to the number today.

However, we have capacity to increase, we will be paying more in reality. So there is always some supply capacity that will cost you more, like you lose on margin and so on. So we are contemplating this. We are working on those angles. We believe there is a potential of upside that we can cover it, but maybe this will come with a reduced margin if we have to get it because we'll be paying more.

And on the memory supply, as you know, this is an industry problem today and mainly driven by AI demand. But just to make it very simple, for me, even if there is -- even if AI is taking all the capacity of memory, if this is true at the end of the day, AI will not work neither, right? Because you cannot have all the electronic only running with the AI processor, right? I mean you need a lot of things around it, some communication and so on, and you need memory.

So there is availability of memory, just only people benefiting off the cycle. And I can tell you, you have crazy price increases. We're not talking in percentage. You talk about multiple -- you can talk about 2x, 3x, some memory, sometimes more than this. So that's what we are seeing. And obviously, this is the industry trend. We cannot fight for it. But however, we have good relationship with the supplier, and we are securing our capacity. So we are not missing capacity.

We also introduced some second sources on some of them. We have one memory, which was really key. We have already a second source already available and shipping to some customers, not to everybody. And obviously, over time, this gives us a chance as well to secure supply, but also keep pressure on the pricing not to pay -- at least to pay based on what the market is setting as a price for memory.

Our next question or comment comes from the line of Fedor Shabalin from B. Riley.

Georges, Once the convertible debt is fully redeemed, how should we think about the preferred use of the proceeds from the sale of remaining Bitcoin? How would you rate funding operational expenses versus maybe share buybacks?

Yes. Fedor, I mean, it's a good point to mention on this. Obviously, we still have the share buyback plan in hand, and we can execute on it. And in Q1, we did some share buyback already. Honestly, we don't need all this money on our balance sheet. And as I'm speaking, we'll be turning -- we don't need it in a sense for operation, for cash burn. Our cash burn should be reduced and be limited, and this will put the company in a very strong position in terms of balance sheet.

The option of buying opportunistically, we could be looking to this. We're not giving up on this, making some buyback. Obviously, it depends on the business evolution in the second half, on the licensing deal we secured, let's assume we secure a big licensing deal and we add -- because maybe on revenue, we will not take all the deals now, but this can add a lot of cash because in the licensing deal, you have always some upfront payment that could be significant.

There, maybe we feel like we have enough cash to -- and if the share is not performing, to come and support the share and make some buyback. So this is really on the agenda of the Board, and we can execute on it opportunistically, based on the market condition.

That's helpful. And my follow-up is about -- you did a great job outlining revenue pipeline and timing and cadence for 2026, and the same for operating expenses. I would like to dig a little bit deeper into details on operating expenses side. You mentioned that you would expect decrease in OpEx for the year. And I remember you mentioned $9 million, something like that, the number by the end of 2026. Where most of the savings come from on the OpEx side? That's the question.

Yes. I mean, Fedor, last year -- to be honest, now the company is in, I would say, efficient mode. But as you remember, last year, with all the movement of the company with the deal we did with Qualcomm and we had the acquisition of ACP, and we have a lot of even exceptional items related to Bitcoin, digital strategy in general as well. So all this, let's say, got cleaned, we cleaned it in Q4. Some of it was not effective in Q1. So -- and some will be effective in Q2. And for sure, by end of Q2, we'll get the full benefit of what we have. And we continue watching this.

But in general, the focus was really -- we have our -- if I take in terms of R&D, our 4G product is maturing. There is only need for support on the 4G product. So in other words, we moved all the spending in 5G -- sorry, in R&D to 5G and with very minimum 4G, just all what we need for the support. This was an angle of saving. The investment into the 5G was aligned with time to market. We could go much faster if we want. We can go slower.

And this was the decision based -- we need to be just in time. We don't want to be, with our eRedCap, 1 year ahead of time because this will not benefit for the company. And we don't want to be late. So -- and this also give us a variation, if you want, that a level -- a variable that we can play with. And obviously, in general, I would say all the G&A spending...

Yes. I don't think -- there's not one particular item, but across the board, we've had some planned headcount reductions, basically people leaving that we're not replacing. We have -- we work with a certain number of contractors that gives us leverage there when we are -- to reduce that number as different R&D projects finish. We've also looked at just the overall structure in terms of rent, basically, overall, all of the G&A expenses are being reduced across the board.

I'm showing no additional questions or comments in the queue at this time. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Georges Karam for any closing remarks.

So thank you all for joining the call and for all your questions. Looking forward to see you in the near future. Bye-bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a wonderful day.

Welcome to the fourth quarter and full year Sequans' Earnings Conference Call for 2025. My name is Shannon, and I will be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to David Hanover, Investor Relations. David, you may begin.

Thank you, operator, and thank you to everyone participating in today's call. Joining me on the call from Sequans Communications are George Karam, CEO and Chairman; and Deborah Choate, CFO.

Before turning the call over to George, I would like to remind our participants of the following important information on behalf of Sequans. Frequence issued an earnings press release this morning, and you'll find a copy of the release on the company's website at www.sequans.com under the Newsroom section.

Second, this conference call contains projections and other forward-looking statements regarding future events or our future financial performance and other potential financing sources. All statements other than present and historical facts and conditions contained in this release, including any statements regarding our business strategy, cost optimization plans, strategic options, the ability to enter into new strategic agreements, expectations for sales our ability to convert our pipeline of revenue and our objectives for future operations are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended.

These statements are only predictions and reflect our current beliefs and expectations with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties and subject to change at any time. We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not rely on or place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements. More information on factors that could affect our business and financial results are included in our public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And now I'd like to hand the call over to Georges Karam. Please go ahead, Georges.

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start a brief update on our capital allocation framework and how we are balancing the execution of our IoT semiconductor business with the management of our digital asset treasury, all in support of long-term shareholder value creation.

First and foremost, we remain focused on executing our IoT strategy and advancing our 5G product road map in a disciplined manner. Our objective is to unlock the full strategic value of the IoT business for our shareholders and that remains our top operational priority. At the same time, we continue to manage our Bitcon digital asset treasury thoughtfully with the goal of extracting the full value underlying our Bitcoin holdings and our treasury structure. Since launching our Bitcon strategy, we have been deliberate in how we assess market conditions and the tools available to us, always with a focus on actions we believe can create per share value in an accretive way.

In the current environment where many digital asset treasury peers are trading below an mNAV of 1, we believe the most value-accretive lever available to us has been repurchasing ADS when our share price implies a significant discount to our net cash and net digital asset line. During the fourth quarter, we repurchased approximately 9.7% of the company's outstanding ADS. In addition, our Board has approved a new ADS repurchase program authorizing the buyback of up to an additional 10% of the outstanding ADS. Overall, we are taking a balanced and disciplined approach to capital management.

This includes rightsizing our operating expenses, continuing to invest in our most important R&D program, which is our 5G eRedCap capture, and allocating capital to the treasury only when it's clearly accretive while maintaining flexibility to evaluate our options as market conditions evolve.

To provide some context around our balance sheet with Bitcon Holdings end of Q4 and Bitcon currently at approximately $70,000, our Bitcoin NAV is about $150 million. After adding our end of Q4 cash balance and netting out convertible debt, our net cash equivalent position exceeds $68 million. Importantly, beyond our Bitcoin and cash assets, the company's valuation should also reflect the significant value represented by our IoT revenue pipeline and our 5G and RF transceiver IP portfolio. We intend to remain patient and optimistic, staying disciplined and focused on actions that we believe can drive long-term per share value.

Turning now to the operational side of the business. Our IoT Semiconductor business continues to build momentum. In the fourth quarter, it generated $7 million in revenue, which was in line with our prior expectations. Revenue in the quarter was predominantly product-based with more than 94% coming from product sales and roughly 6% from services, reflecting strong incremental growth in the product shipments.

For the full year 2025, total revenue was approximately $27.2 million. This figure includes a meaningful amount of nonrecurring Qualcomm-related revenue, resulting from the deal we closed with them in 2024. On an adjusted basis, the underlying business was closer to $20 million. And our fourth quarter run rate clearly demonstrates the ramp we have been driving throughout the year.

Looking ahead to 2026. Our internal plan currently targets approximately $40 million to $45 million of total global revenue, supported by improving visibility and a significant order backlog. Our outlook is further supported by the strength of our design win pipeline and the increasing percentage of projects now in production. We are exiting 2025 with the revenue funnel exceeding $550 million in a potential 3-year product revenue, including over $300 million from design win products. Of those design wins, 44% have already reached production and are generating revenue, up from 38% end of Q3. Assuming no changes to customer forecast, this represents approximately $132 million of potential 3-year revenue from production stage projects alone.

During the fourth quarter, we added 9 new customer projects to our design win pipeline and 3 existing projects transition into production. We expect this momentum to continue through 2026 with a target of having over 50% of our current design win projects in production by the end of June. Our product pipeline continues to be driven primarily by our 4G Cat M and Cat 1bis technologies as well as our RF transceiver product which supports a wide range of software defined radio applications. We are also seeing early engagements around 5G eRedCap, which we view as the successor to and IoT deployments.

Smart Metering, Telematics and Asset Tracking remain our strongest verticals, followed by Security, e-Health and Medical and other industrial applications. From a product family perspective, Cat M remains a meaningful growth driver in 2026 a led by asset tracking and smart metering deployments, including extended program now entering production with customers such as Honeywell and [ Hydro ]. Cat 1bis is positioned for a breakout year in 2026, supported by multiple customer ramps in Telematics and Security.

In RF transceivers, we have committed backlog in place with additional demand expected in the second half of the year. We also expect to begin seeing meaningful revenue from our 5G licensee partner in China. Demand for 5G in eRedCap continues to strengthen. Mobile network operators in the U.S. are accelerating the transition from 4G to 5G to reform spectrum and IoT applications remain the final bottleneck in completing that transition. This is why having a 5G eRedCap solution as early as possible is critical. We continue to make strong progress on this program and expect to receive or first chips this quarter, with customers sampling beginning in mid-2027.

Our IP Licensing and Services business is now fully integrated into our go-to-market strategy and represent attractive high margin upside in 2026. We are currently engaged in discussions with multiple potential partners with individual opportunities ranging from approximately $2 million to $10 million or more, depending on scope. Beyond revenue, these opportunities expand our reach into new markets and regions.

For the supply chain side, we continue to operate in a dynamic environment. While not indicative of demand, these factors can influence shipment timing and costs quarter-to-quarter. We're addressing substrate constraint by adding suppliers to reduce single source exposure and improve resiliency. We are also seeing memory pricing and capacity pressures, which affect both our track and our customers' devices. We are working to pass through these cost increases where appropriate, while maintaining stronger summer relationships. Also, we are coordinating closely with customers on ordering and delivery scales.

At this stage, we expect little to no impact on our business in the first half of 2026, a limited impact in the second half. Looking ahead, we are focused on reducing cash burn over the course of the year with the objective of reaching a breakeven run rate by Q4. We are taking a disciplined approach to operating expenses, rightsizing where appropriate while protecting the innovation that underpins our differentiated position. Working capital dynamics may create short-term cash flow variability, but these effects are tied directly to long-term growth.

Overall, the fourth quarter underscores our progress in strengthening the core IoT business, improving financial discipline and maintaining flexibility in our capital strategy as we position the company for sustained growth in 2026 and beyond.

For Q1 2026, we currently expect revenue to be around $6.5 million, reflecting normal seasonality with the risk that approximately $1 million of revenue could shift into Q2 due to manufacturing and shipment timing planned for the end of Q1. Based on our backlog and design win pipeline, we expect revenue to ramp through the remainder of the year and continue to believe we can approach cash flow breakeven in Q4. We continue to evaluate strategic alternatives that could have profitability and unlock additional value across both the IoT business and our treasury strategy. The Board is actively reviewing options, and we remain committed to unlocking shareholder value without rushing decisions, particularly at a time when the company is in its strongest position today.

I'll now turn the call over to Deborah to review our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results in a greater detail. Deborah?

Thank you, Georges, and hello, everyone. I'll begin by reviewing our fourth quarter financial results and then discuss our Bitcoin Holdings. During the fourth quarter, we experienced several significant events that impacted our statements. These included a substantial increase in product revenues, a reduction in operating expenses, the early redemption of half of the convertible debt issued in July 2025, the launch of our ADS buyback program and the sale of Bitcoin to finance these 2 nonoperating initiatives.

In Q4 2025, revenues increased to 72.6% sequentially, driven primarily by growth in product revenue. Gross margin for the quarter was 37.7% and was impacted by provisions for slow-moving inventory. Excluding these provisions, gross margin would have been approximately 43% compared to 42.4% in the prior quarter. R&D and SG&A expenses declined to a combined total of $11.5 million in Q4, down from $13.6 million in the third quarter. We maintain our goal of continuing to reduce operating expenses over the course of 2026 in order to support our breakeven goals for operating results and cash burn.

We recorded a noncash impairment charge of $56.9 million related to the mark-to-market value of our Bitcoin holdings in the fourth quarter compared to an $8.2 million charge in Q3. We also recorded an $8.4 million net realized loss on the sale of Bitcoin. This sale funded the redemption of half of the convertible debt and the repurchase of 9.7% of our ADS.

The July issuance of convertible debt and warrants resulted in the recognition of an embedded derivative, which is remeasured at each reporting period. Changes in its value affect our P&L, but are entirely noncash. Similarly, while the convertible debt carries a 0% coupon in the first year, IFRS accounting requires us to recognize significant noncash interest expense.

At the end of October, we redeemed half of the outstanding convertible debt ahead of its normal July 2028 maturity. This resulted in a $29.1 million loss on early redemption of debt that was primarily noncash. Reflecting these factors, we reported an IFRS net loss of $87.1 million in Q4 compared with an IFRS net profit of $900,000 in the prior quarter. On a non-IFRS basis, excluding significant noncash items, we reported a non-IFRS net loss of $18.5 million or $1.19 per ADS compared with the non-IFRS net loss of $11.3 million or $0.81 per ADS in Q3. The realized loss on the sale of Bitcoin of $8.4 million is included in the non-IFRS net loss. So we would have been just over $10 million in non-IFRS net loss without this element.

Normalized operating cash burn in Q4, including primary working capital movements in inventory and trade payables and receivables was approximately $7.7 million. After completing Bitcoin purchases totaling $3.4 million early in the quarter, we later sold that coin to fund $101 million of debt redemptions and a $9.4 million ADS buyback -- sorry, $9.4 million ADS buyback.

At year-end 2025, we held 2,139 bitcoin with a market value of $187.1 million. Of this 1,617 Bitcoin valued then at $141.5 million were pledged as collateral for the remaining $94.5 million of convertible debt due in July 2028. The remaining 522 Bitcoin valued at year-end at $45.6 million are unencumbered.

And with that, I'll turn it back over to Georges.

As we close, I want to reiterate that our primary focus remains on executing the IoT business. The fourth quarter reflected continued momentum with revenue predominantly driven by product shipments. We are encouraged by the depth and quality of our design win pipeline with more than 44% of projects now in mass production and additional ramps expected throughout the year.

With solid demand across Cat M, Cat 1bis, RF Transceivers and early engagement around 5G eRedCap, we believe the IoT business is positioned to continue scaling, while our cost discipline supports a clear path towards cash flow breakeven by the end of 2026. At the same time, we have taken a disciplined and value-driven approach to capital allocation.

During the fourth quarter, we took actions to repurchase shares where we believe our valuation does not reflect underlying asset value, and we continue to have board authorization in place to pursue additional repurchases at a appropriate. These actions reflect our focus on unlocking value on a per share basis, while maintaining flexibility to evaluate additional capital allocation options as market condition evolves. With that, let's now begin with the Q&A session. Operator, if you don't mind?

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question comes from the line of Scott Searle with Roth.

And thanks for all the detail on the call related to some of the product development activity ongoing. Georges, just to quickly dive in on the guidance. I'm wondering how you're thinking about licensing in terms of that $40 million to $45 million figure. And I'm wondering if you could reiterate again what you expect the percentage of design wins to be in production at that point in time? I missed that number. And it looks like just to add a quick first cut. $15 million, $16 million exiting the year is kind of what gets you to cash flow breakeven? And then I had a couple of follow-ups.

Yes. Scott, thanks for being on the call. And so just to start with on the guidance, I believe you're reflecting about the guidance for the year. We continue -- as you see, like Q4 was, as I said, mainly product. I believe Q1 is going to be very close as well in our guidance. We are not expecting, except surprises, I would say, because we have many deals and depends which one will close. We are really currently in the backlog, I should say maybe a couple of million dollar over the year, if you want, of secured licensing.

However, we have, as I said, 4, 5 and more the -- each one ranging between $2 million and $10 million. So it's very, very hard to make a projection, if you want, on the numbers. So we're taking a very conservative approach assuming like maybe we get another $5 million of all this in the year, $5 million to $6 million. They could be secured and bring like technically $2 million to $3 million per quarter in the remainder of the year, if you will, after Q1, Q2, Q3 and so on.

So this is a little bit our guidance. So the number I gave in terms of production for the year this percentage this means we will have like 85% or so -- 80% to 85% product and only 15% services this business, 20% of this is something like this.

And then the other question was regarding the conversions of the percentage of product. So what -- we exit the year -- you need to keep in mind, we're giving those percentage. But as you know, each quarter, our design win is increasing. So we're not updating the metric on a quarterly basis just for convenience, we'll be updating this like every 6 months to avoid every quarter having sometimes to explain some the variation, maybe not linear and so on.

But we are very comfortable that the design win pipeline and the $300 million is today above $300 million, and we continue growing towards the year. And on those $300 million, our estimation, at least 50% of them will be in production in June this year. So obviously, we project year-end, you need to add, I could say, maybe 75% towards the year-end. There is no guidance on this, but for midyear, it's like more than 50% for sure.

Got you. Very helpful. And Georges, just in terms of the breakeven then in terms of where you guys are reducing the OpEx, it sounds like it's in the mid- to high teens and would be the exit rate trajectory?

I remember reman the number, which is essentially honestly, the mix of services and product can give you a different number. Obviously, we understand the margin. In our auto model, we're assuming like the [ 15, 16 ] number were $3 million of this is services fuel and the remaining product.

Got you. And if I could follow up on the transceiver front, it seems like it's one of the hidden gems in the business. I think in the past, you've talked about that maybe being north of $5 million on an annual basis. I'm wondering what the current thoughts are design activity, and how that momentum is looking into the back half of '26 and into '27. How big could that opportunity be?

We have -- as you know, the acquisition of ECP give us exactly directly a couple of customers to home today, they move into production. And we are generating revenue from them every quarter. So we have even a backlog in 2026 from them for the first half. So we'll see. Sometimes the forecast for the full year, with Chinese customers could be a little bit -- I don't want to give guidance on this.

But we believe like we could be doing this year maybe in the RF business like I mean more in the north of [ 5 ] for sure, and this can be getting up if some upside, then we'll go beyond the $7 million. So this is how we see it. And also, as you know, this -- the RF technology, we launched this with many customers, new customers. To those new customers were something now RB-board and sampling chips and they are designing products. And we have really a few Tier 1 already work on this. It's more to be honest us being able to support them and help them with what we work on this. But I don't expect big revenue in '26 from them because they are all in the application like drawn, defense, and it takes time to build those products and come to market.

But this could be meaningful. This could be a business for sure, maybe in the $15 billion, $20 billion run rate, this is doable if we are successful. We're keeping the Chinese customer and add those customers that we can get for defense and public safety application and other software-defined applications.

Got you. And lastly, if I could, Georges, you had some comments on the memory side of the business. It sounds like Indirectly, you guys are managing that well and you're not seeing too much in terms of headwinds from your end customers. I'm wondering if you could provide some expanded thoughts on that.

And then just the competitive landscape. You guys certainly have a strong position with Cat 1bis. It seems like I don't know if running the table is the right expression, but you guys are certainly winning a lot of business on that front and gaining some momentum. And so I just wondering if you could comment on the competitive landscape for Cat 1bis. And then as it relates to eRedCap, which will be the next big cycle in '27 and beyond kind of what you're seeing from a competitive aspect?

Okay. On the supply chain, just to be clear, the industry is completely today I mean, stuff like direct memory of Sequans is not our technology because, as you know, our technology is not in AI. But AI and geopolitics as well combined with geopolitics is obviously the demand on AI is eating most of the capacity. And obviously, the OSAT and all the packaging material and all this increasing price or making constraints on supply, increasing lead time and so on.

We struggle on the substrate. We continue to watch this very closely. We managed to secure at least our Q3 production, we are in good shape on this. But to dissipate this, we're working on multiple sources, but we are seeing price increase, unfortunately. And just only that's how it is. On the memory, again, we're not using the memory that you need in AI, but that's how it all this business is connected, right? I mean so if the AI big memory, the prices are getting up because there is demand, this is impacting as well smaller memory and flash, RAM and flash use next to our chip, if you want, our module and so on. So we have direct impact on this as well in supply and a pricing opportunity.

And we are working all out the price and secure the capacity with multiple partners. We have double source on the memory as well to be sure that we have the supply. But unfortunately, I believe we are going to have the cost increase is happening, and we are reflecting this to our customer. We are already discussing with our customer the [Technical Difficulty] and trying to pass those to [Technical Difficulty]. I believe we'll see more of this impact in our number in the second half of the year. The first half, we have some backlog and so on at least Q1, we are backlog for this on all the pricing. And we're not -- it's very hard to change the price when you are shipping at the same time with customers. So it's something to watch.

And as well as customers and the customer, they could be building devices where they are using the big CPU and memory, not on all the application, but in some application, they need this. And obviously, they could face shortage or challenge on the memory they need to get for their own device. So there is tension in the market. I don't qualify it like in the Covid days, but it's there. We're spending time on it. My team is working there night on securing supply, talking with the customers and so on to be sure that we can pass the '26 and '27 in good shape because it seems like this will continue out to 2028. That's what I'm hearing.

Now talking about the competitive landscape and the product, indeed, on Cat 1bis. Two guys that they have Cat 1bis business, not Chinese, Qualcomm and Sequans. So it's really the [ Opole ] market. And most of our design wins are around Cat 1bis. It's not like CAT M was not doing anything anymore. We still have Cat M business. But I believe we have a big piece of the pipeline driven by the Cat 1 business because obviously the new product ramping and because also on the competitive landscape limitation. And obviously, the customers have the choice between using Sequans technology or Sequans technology, just only whether they buy it from us or from Qualcomm. That's how it is because it's the same technology behind which is good position us, I would say, to push this technology further.

And on eRedCap, I was at CES and there is really big movements, and I will have MWC in a couple of weeks, meeting with the carriers, ET&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. All of them, they are really eager to get the 4G frequency band and move them to the 5G. And other rewards they need and they have the obligation to get those frequency. And as you know, the existing 5G network or any category for the IoT. The IoT remains on the and the broadband and the phones, they are moving to 5G. So it's easy on this side.

The IoT is more complicated mainly because there is also a commitment for 10 years business metering and so on. So it's really becoming a very, very hot topic A lot of discussion at CES were around this, where the carrier would like to see the ecosystem moving faster because the soon as they have ertaptes soon as they can transition the new devices to eat at technology, even if it's falling back to 4G, so you'll have 5G falling back to 4G, but at least the technology will be -- or the product will be future-proof. And this gives the freedom to the carrier to switch off the 4G sooner or at least on time as they plan it and not to drag this longer and they can recover the frequency to put them on the 5G.

And here again, we are -- I believe we are in a leading position from -- it's very early to -- it's very hard to talk about it when the customer didn't announce product yet. But we started the 5G, as you know, many years before, working on the broadband. We licensed the 5G to a partner. So we have a lot of those pieces of the puzzle already in hand when we kick off our eRedCap last year, we used a lot of this. And here we go after 1 year of the work, we have a chip coming to the company this quarter -- end of this quarter. And from there, we start the testing and continued development, and we believe we'll be ready for what we call it the [ IEDT ] testing with the infrastructure vendor around beginning of 2027, and we will be something to customer midyear or, let's say, the second half of 2027.

This is our time line, and we're executing on this. And we are getting a lot of push to accelerate this. Carriers would like us even to do it faster, if you want. And I believe we are in a leading position with this time line.

Our next question comes from the line of Mike Grondahl with Northland.

Georges, with $44 million of those design wins in mass production. Could you talk a little bit about the breadth of customers and just sort of like average order size?

Mike, yes, essentially those $44 million -- in other words, as I said, this is like more than $130 million 3 years revenue. So obviously, if you divide by 3, it gives you a little bit where we stand above $40 million and linear. It's ramping year 1 year to year 3 for the new projects. for all the projects, they are there in their second year. Like, for example, the tracking business is moving very well. We have customers that range like buying, again, if I take the million units, 400,000 units, 300,000 units.

The space, we are really in good shape where we have matured the product shipping, few metering finally entering into production with Honeywell and Itron and a lot on the tracking device. Tracking, we have many customers. We have some of them, as I said, they do 1 million units a year and more than 1 million units here and others, they do 200,000. So it's really variety of orders.

But when you send them all up, Mike, to get the order of magnitude, it's not like -- first of all, it's many, many projects. I mean, I don't have the number in mind, but I don't want to give you a wrong number, but it's more than 30% for sure projects. So it's diversified. On many applications, as I said, already that all the segments we are talking about. Some of them are in CATM, some of them are in CAT 1. And we have Tier 1 customers, and we have some small customers, but not too small. I mean small in a sense they [Technical Difficulty], they work while they do 50,000 units per quarter, and they are there buying every quarter and moving on.

Got it. In terms of your breakeven cash goal by 4Q, do you expect a lot of progress on the $11.5 million you got for R&D and SG&A combined?

Yes. I mean we continue driving this down. We put the guide. On an OpEx point of view, we'll be a little bit -- we believe, in the second half of the year around $10.5 million. This is our target. Obviously, this includes depreciation. So you need to take off the depreciation. When we're talking about cash flow breakeven, we are counting on a cash basis, if you want. So we'll be -- somehow we have like in this $10.5 million, maybe around $1.5 million et. So the company will be like using like $9 million if we speak in cash, I would say per quarter.

And obviously, if you had like a $3 million in service, this gives you like $6 million left because Service will be 100% margin, more or less, I mean, very close to 100%. So then you will -- the product revenue needs to cover like the $6 million. And if you have a gross margin around -- on the Product, 45%, you can do it with $13 million. So it gives you a little bit the number where we are there. Obviously, this can vary because the mix can change. We can have a gross margin higher or a little bit lower, and obviously, the services could be higher and then can accelerate the breakeven or the product would be higher than this number as well.

Got it. And then just lastly, it sounds like the progress on 5G, the eRedCap chip is going well. Revenue, do you still sort of have that penciled in mid-28? What -- any updated thoughts on there?

Yes. I believe, honestly, the -- yes, I mean, the revenue is mid-2028. Why? Because you need to think about how it's going to work in. Ericsson and all the infrastructure vendor, they are building their software release to support eRedCap and bring it to the network without giving too much detail, but this is targeted, I will say, to be in the network towards end of this year, beginning of next year in testing.

Then the carrier will deploy it. And then from there, you do -- when they are ready, we can test end to end, right? I mean another -- even if I have it ready today, it does matter. I need to have the infrastructure working. So we're synchronizing with Ericsson to come on time doing the testing, if you want soon. Once we have the testing, we have the proof that the chip is working. From there, you can have our first alpha customer engaging with us.

And if you -- depending on what they are doing, if it's definitely a replacement on existing products, this could be fast because it's not a new design. We will give them a module which has been compatible with the previous one and it will be running in Cat 1bis plus 5G. So they can go fast and in 2028, can introduce product. If you have other customers where they are building a completely new product that takes 2 years or 2.5 years to develop, and they start with 5G, obviously, you don't see the revenue in '28. You see it in '29. But more or less the way we are seeing the push the customer adopting 5G faster, we feel good about seeing revenue in 2028 from this.

Our next question comes from the line of Fedor Shabalin with Riley.

Georges and Deborah, thanks for detailed review of the quarter. You already talked about near-term guidance, but I wanted to touch a little bit for maybe midterm on 2027. How should we think about the revenue cadence heading into 2027, specifically the pace at which the remaining 60% of the pipeline converts to production revenue and whether the combination of material LTE in Cat 1bis programs alongside early 5G engagements position the company to meaningfully inflect beyond the cash flow breakeven milestone that was targeted for the end of 2026?

Yes. Fedor, yes, you're absolutely right. I mean the pipeline is there. And when we talk about those design in converting, they are there, right? I mean when they convert, they bring revenue and they stay there, they don't disappear over 1 year or 2 years. This is really a long-term business. When we talk about metering, tracking. I mean, there is no project in the company that doesn't live 5 years, if you want. And some of them, they live 10 years, 7 years, 8 years, all those metering segment. .

So what we are winning will continue to be there. And the pipeline continue converting and bring revenue. So just only if we take what we have in hand, and if you talk about we have 44% less, I would say. So this means we still have the other half. So by definition, we can double. That's how it is. The growth is big, right? I mean if you assume all this just on the convert and they will be -- we don't lose anything lose, not the customer will go to someone else.

But like you could have, I would say, some accidents, some customers planning for some big forecast and they do less and so on. but it's diversified pipeline that gives me confidence that our business will continue growing, not to give a guidance of saying it's going to be -- I mean the doubling is not it's built in the model, if you want. Obviously, you could argue how this can be developing every quarter and will continue growing. And maybe we'll be in the 60%, 60% plus growth. That's at least what I see. In terms [indiscernible], that will continue to '28 8. And in '28, we have really I believe really the eRedCap, if we execute well, you need to imagine that the eRedCap, %g, it's over. There is no Chinese at all completely. You have only a couple of players that they can bring this to the market. And this gives us an opportunity to increase our market share as well because we have now an established customer base. We're not going to win a new customer with the 5G. We're going to go to the same customer and support them with the new product line and expect expand our market share with the new customers.

So I'm very -- I believe as well that the 5G will be a great catalyst in 2028 to add another growth drivers to our revenue year-over-year.

This is very helpful. And my follow-up is about buybacks. So we just stop trading at where it is trading now and given the authorization to repurchase an additional 10% of outstanding ADSs, can you provide color on the expected pace and cadence of buybacks in Q1, specifically Q1 2026. I mean, specifically whether the current share price level has accelerated repurchased activity quarter-to-date? And how you balance the urgency of buying back stock at these levels against preserving liquidity?

Obviously, I mean, we have the authorization. We are free on doing this. Obviously, we were -- when we are in the window, which is locked, we cannot do it. We can do it when the window is open. And essentially, we're assessing really this versus -- because you need to assess 2 things. You need to assess what's happening as well on the Bitcoin to become price and the value of the share versus the net cash. So the 2 together are going to drive our, I would say, the pace.

But if you want -- the intention there is clear. We believe if our share price is not appreciated, it's good things to do to buy back shares and I would say, reduce the number of shares outstanding. So it's like giving cash, giving money to all our shareholders sticking with us. So the decision is there. We'll be executing on it. I'm not going to tell you in Q1, we'll buy all the 10% or only 3% or 5% because it depends really on many dynamics that I'm observing now with the Vidcon price and so on. So we need to watch this carefully and make a decision based on this as well.

[Operator Instructions]

Our next question comes from the line of Jacob Stephan with Lake Street Capital Markets.

Appreciate. Maybe since a lot of questions have been asked, maybe help me unpack Q1 guidance a little bit. I know you said $6.5 million sounds like some of that could shift, but without affecting the balance of the year. I guess what portion of that is subject to shifting later into the year? And maybe just help us walk through that.

Yes, Jacob. Essentially, it happens like, again, going to the condition of the market, even on TSMC, even on the wafer side, there is -- we have the capacity, it's all fine, but it's really stretch and timing. It's like you're pulling in stuff, getting this accelerating even a week. It's a little bit complicated. The fab are loaded.

And technically, what I'm saying is that we have orders, right? I mean we have orders covering Q1 and Q2, and we have backlog even covering Q3 and Q4, some of our backlog. And in our guidance, some of those orders, we should be able to ship them in Q1, but they are really on the edge of Q1. And as I'm speaking, some of those dates, I'm not 100% confirmed. You see the work in progress. So in theory, they are there, but you're not at risk -- you are at risk of having a slippage of a few days. We're not talking about -- it could be really weak.

And unfortunately, I have a few order -- decent order happening there. And if they don't come in the quarter, they shift to Q2. But the net loss is just only -- this will beef up if you want my guidance. I mean you should sum Q1 and Q2 to look to the performance also on the company. So this is where we are. So just to be cautious on this. If I do the math today, I believe we should manage it, the guidance I gave, the $6.5 million -- but there is a little bit of risk. I hope this point clear in the market.

Okay. Very helpful. And then maybe touch on the price increases a little bit. For your customers, how susceptible have -- or I guess, how receptive have they been to overall price increases?

Well, surprisingly, I should say the customer -- I don't know how much -- no one is receptive for the price increase in general. But what I like it, the standard then that the learning what happened in the Covid, and the customer are reacting positive,in what's going on. In other words, they appreciate that you go and tell them that we have -- we could have a supply problem, we could have price problem and sit down with the customers and talk about the issues and so on.

Everyone is taking for granted the memory. The memory is really everyone knows and clear because the memory by people are always prepared of the memory. It gets up and down all the time. So [indiscernible] up, you read it in the news, there is everywhere. When you go to the material that the cost of the gold, even if it's everything is clear, right? I mean when you give that number, so it's a little bit more challenging. That's okay. I mean, I don't call it like -- we're managing this customer by customer. We have sometimes obligation. We have -- and -- but the reception is positive. It's not like no way.

Because at the end of the day, it's not the choice of sequence, right? I mean we're not trying to have used the system. We're flying just only to be transparent to our customer and secure supply. And this force us somehow to pay a little bit more because that's how it is the industry in Asia today. If you take, for example, all the geopolitics pushed many guys outside of China. So you have less competition in the packaging from China. So everything is happening outside of China between Taiwan mainly, but you have others obviously counting around then.

And now obviously, those guys they have demand for -- to get more -- to secure all -- they can take all the fab. We have a big customer willing to give them check and advance and so on. And at the same time, you have good reason that the material as well as -- the packaging material is getting up. So all this combined is pushing the price of the packaging up, the substrate and the packaging as well.

TSMC is still okay. TSMC, they remain on -- they didn't change anything. They are not giving signs that will do any change for now, at least for those met, which is the regular one, we use the flat, I would say [indiscernible] and even the high [indiscernible] and so on.

Okay. And just last question for me. On the Bitcoin treasury strategy, obviously, 2026, the actual interest rate goes up materially on the convertible debt. I'm just wondering how you're kind of thinking about overall the debt repurchase or redemption?

Jacob, I mean, obviously, we're evaluating this specifically as well with the price. But what I could say, we have good relationship with the main debt holder. And we -- as you saw in the past, we redeem [ 30% ] of this. So we're considering all our options. Nothing yet decided today. We're looking to the option.

But if you ask me my view on this, like in general, the way we are seeing things if Bitcoin is not rallying and going to the moon, there is no interest also to keep the debt forever and better to redeem it sooner than later review. Like if I have to look to the picture today, there is not too much value creation to be done there. But we are factoring all this, obviously, and discussing with the Board based on all our options and what we should do and what not.

And I'm currently showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to hand the conference back over to Georges Karam for closing remarks. .

Thank you very much all. Thanks for the questions and being on the call. And happy to see you next opportunity will discuss with you on next opportunity. Thank you very much. Thank you, operator. .

You're welcome. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect, and everyone, have a great day.

Welcome to the Third Quarter 2025 Sequans Earnings Conference Call. My name is Jonathan, and I will be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. I would now like to turn the program over to David Hanover, Investor Relations. David, you may begin.

Thank you, Jonathan, and thank you to everyone participating in today's call. Joining me on the call from Sequans Communications are Georges Karam, CEO and Chairman; and Deborah Choate, CFO.

Before turning the call over to Georges, I would like to remind our participants of the following important information on behalf of Sequans. First, Sequans issued an earnings press release this morning, and you'll find a copy of the release on the company's website at www.sequans.com under the Newsroom section.

Second, this conference call contains projections and other forward-looking statements regarding future events or our future financial performance and potential financing sources. All statements other than present and historical facts and conditions contained in this release, including any statements regarding our business strategy, cost optimization, strategic plans, the ability to enter into new strategic agreements, expectations for sales, our ability to convert our pipeline to revenue and our objectives for future operations are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1999, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended.

These statements are only predictions and reflect our current beliefs and expectations with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties and subject to change at any time. We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not rely on or place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements. More information on factors that could affect our business and financial results are included in our public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And now I'd like to hand the call over to Georges Karam. Please go ahead, Georges.

Thank you, David. Good morning to everyone. We announced this morning that Sequans has taken a proactive approach to reduce its debt by 50% through its strategic asset reallocation of its Bitcoin treasury. We remain fully committed to our Bitcoin treasury strategy, which we continue to believe will deliver meaningful long-term value for our shareholders. This is why we executed our major financing deal in July as the starting foundation of our Bitcoin strategy.

As you know, the financing deal included both equity and convertible debt components that introduced approximately 50% leverage into our treasury structure. Initially, we thought the shares would appreciate following the deal announcement and the debt would convert due to share price appreciation. While there is no urgency for us as we are not paying interest on the debt for the first 12 months, we have chosen to act proactively given current digital asset treasury market conditions.

With many of our peers currently trading significantly below an mNAV of 1. We find ourselves constrained by the lack of available options to meaningfully advance our treasury strategy at this time. Thus, we have opted to move forward and negotiate with our debt holder to reduce our debt exposure and provide us with greater flexibility moving forward.

As a result, we announced today that we are reducing by half our convertible debt via a tactical sale of a portion of our Bitcoin holdings. We undertook this action for the following reasons: First, it has lowered our debt-to-NAV ratio closer to the 35% range, a more appropriate level while still maintaining decent leverage on the remaining portion of the convertible debt. This puts us in a better position for issuing preferred shares in the future. Second, we have reduced some of the debt covenant constraints, increasing our ability to use all of the treasury tools at our disposal, including buying back ADS and executing on the ATM based on market conditions.

With respect to our ADS buyback program, factoring in the current valuation, selling Bitcoin on a tactical basis makes sense in this environment to fund the repurchase of our ADS, which are trading at a significant discount to our Bitcoin net value plus our net cash. Note that our current valuation does not reflect the value-creating opportunities we believe are available to us through our IoT business, which I will discuss shortly.

And lastly, we have freed up some of the Bitcoin we hold, enabling us to generate some yield with minimum risk. Such yield can be deployed to buy Bitcoin. So to summarize this move -- to summarize, this move was undertaken to unlock shareholder value and put us in a better position to execute on our treasury strategy. We intend to continue to follow a disciplined and opportunistic approach to Bitcoin accumulation.

We'll be patient with market conditions, but we remain proactive. Ongoing Bitcoin purchases could be funded by issuance of debt, equity or preferred as well as IoT business monetization and operating cash flow. We have the tools or option in place to execute the strategy. An ATM, which provides us with the option that when our share price is much higher than where it is today, we'll be able to execute opportunistically on our Bitcoin accumulation strategy in an accretive manner.

We have also an ADS buyback program in place, which has been approved by the Board. And given the current share price, we'll execute on this as soon as we are able to. We have reduced our debt exposure, which affords us the option to consider other new instruments like preferred shares in the future. Returning to my earlier point about the large valuation discrepancy in our shares, I wanted to stress that our current net equivalent cash position that includes equivalent cash of Bitcoin net asset value minus debt is above $170 million. This is approximately $12 per outstanding ADS. You can see the deep discount our shares are trading at on this basis alone.

This ignores any IoT business value we are creating and expect to create in the future. It also ignores the leverage we can create with our Bitcoin treasury strategy. While Bitcoin treasury companies as a whole may be in a transition phase that has affected current equity valuations, we continue to be fully committed to the Bitcoin treasury strategy we have initiated and are exploring all opportunities to unlock shareholder value through our Bitcoin treasury alongside our IoT operations. Our goal remains to create long-term value to our shareholders.

As for our IoT business itself, it's moving in the right direction. Our pipeline remains healthy, representing about $550 million in a potential 3 years product revenue across our 4G and RF product lines. In Q3, we won 6 new projects, and I'm pleased to announce that around $300 million of this pipeline are design win projects, a 20% increase versus our last reported figure. Some of the design win projects are in mass production phase currently generating revenue and others are under development by our customers with revenue potential in 2026 and beyond.

Our execution remains focused on increasing the design win pipeline, but more importantly, on helping our customers with projects not yet in production, finishing the development and certification of their products and turning them to revenue-generating design wins. In Q3, 3 design win projects transitioned to production. In Q4, we expect to add 5 more, positioning us to enter 2026 with over 45% of our design win projects in production and generating revenue. This aligns with the target we set at the beginning of 2025 and represents a more than 2x improvement of this key business metric.

We anticipate this positive trend to continue into the first half of 2026, supporting our revenue growth in the second half of 2026. Our design win projects span multiple verticals. Tracking, fleet management and smart metering remain the strongest verticals for us with good presence in security and e-health and medical.

Looking at smart metering, we are now shipping product for 3 projects of Honeywell and 2 of Itron and should have 2 new metering customers ramping early 2026. In fleet management, Geotab is ramping, and we will have another customer ramping in early 2026. We continue to have strong business with AsiaTEL, a channel partner addressing auto tracking and other vertical applications.

Now I will briefly review the third quarter business and discuss our fourth quarter outlook. Let me start by highlighting that Q3 was the first quarter without any remaining revenue -- revenue recognition tailwind from the Qualcomm deal closed last year. While this has an optical impact on the licensing and services revenue component, it does not affect cash flow.

Q3 product revenue was impacted by minor delays as some customer projects shifted their ramp-up scheduled to Q4. While this has postponed our expected Q3 revenue growth, we remain confident that the ramp will materialize in Q4 as planned. In addition, we faced some late production challenges with our OSAT partner and revenue fell short of our target due to substrate availability issue. The impact was around $1 million in Q3.

Substrate lead times became extended last quarter due to industry demand from AI leaders. We mitigated this by working with suppliers and anticipating orders. However, our execution timing was right on the edge of the quarter end. This ended up delaying some of our shipments by a couple of weeks. However, this issue is now under control for our fourth quarter shipments. Given our Q4 visibility, our current Q4 view is that product revenue will exceed $6 million with around $1 million incremental revenue of services and IP licensing.

We aim to finish the Q4 with revenue above $7 million by adding the 2 components. On the product development front, we launched our 4G Cat1 bis worldwide SKU module and have made very good progress on our 5G IoT. In this regard, I'm pleased to announce that we have just taped out our 5G eRedCap test chip as planned. This is a major milestone in our 5G IoT project. This program will enable us to sample our third generation of IoT chips supporting 5G eRedCap late 2026. This is an extremely advanced technology that we believe has significant value.

In summary, our 4G IoT business will grow and generate positive cash flow in 2026, becoming a profitable business line for us with the potential to grow further in 2027 by around 50% year-over-year. This business is helping to fund our ongoing investment in 5G R&D, which can start generating product revenue in 2027 and licensing revenue in 2026. We expect the IP created with this 5G investment could result in strategic deals with significant near-term value creation as we have successfully demonstrated in the past with 4G.

More generally, we have launched new IP initiatives and announced a portfolio of IP that we are willing to license. We have done a few licensing deals in the past, but here, we are shifting from an opportunistic approach to a proactive go-to-market strategy, maximizing our customer reach and accelerating the monetization of our IP portfolio, all without additional investment.

Currently, we have several opportunities under discussion, and we hope to conclude a few of them in the coming quarters. We believe services and IP licensing should contribute high-margin revenue in 2026. We further expect longer-term product revenue strength based on current design wins and order backlog of 4G chips and module and radio transceivers.

Considering the $300 million product design win pipeline, we currently have in hand and factoring that we will enter 2026 with 45% of the design win projects generating revenue, this could generate [ $45 million ] average annual product revenue over the coming 3 years. This doesn't include the growing number of projects that are expected to enter into production in 2026, the new projects we are working on to win or IP licensing and services contribution.

On the operating expense front, our goal is to limit cash burn in 2026 in order to reach breakeven in Q4. To support this, we are implementing a 20% cost reduction program across functions while safeguarding core innovation. This approach provides downside protection and preserves flexibility to scale up if upside revenue opportunities materialize.

I will now take a moment to discuss some of the IoT-related strategic alternatives we are currently evaluating. Since launching our Bitcoin treasury, we have been actively reassessing how best to position our IoT business to ensure shareholders benefit from its full value potential. Our Board is currently evaluating a range of strategic alternatives we have. While several options being explored, I can share that we are in serious discussions regarding a few strategic partnership opportunities for our IoT business. The objective is to accelerate the path to breakeven, enhance the business overall value and strengthen its cash flow generating capability.

I will now turn the call over to Deborah to review the third quarter 2025 preliminary financial results in greater detail. Deborah?

Thank you, Georges, and good morning, everyone. I'll cover our third quarter financial results and then speak more about our Bitcoin holdings. Total revenues in Q3 2025 were $4.3 million, a decrease of 47.3% compared to the second quarter of 2025 as the last license revenues from Qualcomm finished in Q2 2025. Gross margin was 40.9% compared to 64.4% in Q2, again, reflecting much lower high-margin license revenue in the mix in Q3.

Operating expenses in Q3 2025, excluding the unrealized loss on the marked-to-market of the Bitcoin treasury asset were $14 million, stable compared with Q2 2025. Both quarters included a number of nonrecurring expenses related to various legal and advisory fees related to our strategic transactions. Operating expenses in Q3 included nearly $800,000 in noncash stock compensation expense and $1.6 million in amortization and depreciation expense.

As Georges mentioned, we are putting in place cost reduction measures to reduce cash operating expenses, meaning excluding stock comp and depreciation expense to be below $10 million per quarter in 2026. Operating loss was $20.4 million in Q3 compared to an operating loss of $8.7 million in the second quarter of 2025. The operating loss in the third quarter of 2025 included an $8.2 million unrealized loss on impairment of the value of our Bitcoin asset, which was mark-to-market.

For the third quarter of 2025, our net loss was $6.7 million or $0.48 per diluted ADS compared to a net loss of $9.1 million or a loss of $3.59 per diluted ADS in Q2 2025. Net loss in the third quarter of 2025 included a noncash $20.6 million gain on the change in value of the embedded derivative related to the convertible debt issued in July and included net interest expense of $6.9 million that was also primarily noncash and related to the IFRS accounting for the convertible debt issued in July. Our non-IFRS loss in Q3 2025 was $11 million compared to a non-IFRS net loss of $8.1 million in Q2 2025.

Cash and cash equivalents at September 30, 2025, totaled $13.4 million compared to $41.6 million at June 30, 2025. The September 30 balance does not include the $10 million final payment from the 2024 Qualcomm transaction that was released from escrow in October 2025, giving us a pro forma ending cash of $23.4 million.

At September 30, 2025, the company held 3,234 Bitcoin with a market value of $365.6 million, all of which was pledged as security for the $189 million of convertible debt issued in July. Following the recently announced amendment of the debt agreement, 1,617 Bitcoin are being released from the pledge and the company has sold 970 Bitcoin in order to reimburse half of the debt. The remaining 647 unpledged Bitcoin remain in our treasury but are -- that are available for the previously announced ADS repurchase program if needed. I'd also like to refer you to our Bitcoin dashboard on our website at sequans.com/bitcoin-treasury, where investors can find our Bitcoin-related statistics in one location.

We now have many tools in place to pursue our Bitcoin treasury strategy and strategic options for our IoT business. We will use these to maximize shareholder value based on our own specific circumstances.

And now I'll turn the call back to Georges before we begin Q&A.

Thank you, Deborah. So to conclude this call before the Q&A, I would like to stress like the 2 points. On the Bitcoin, we continue to be committed to the Bitcoin treasury strategy we've launched. Given the current digital asset treasury market condition, we decided to adjust our treasury structure and redeem half of the debt in order to be in a better shape to execute on our Bitcoin treasury strategy.

With this move, we have now a more appropriate debt-to-NAV ratio while still maintaining decent leverage, also put ourselves in a stronger position to execute on the ADS buyback program as well as other financial instruments. On the IoT business, our design win pipeline is growing well, and we remain on track to have by end of this year, more than 45% of the projects -- of the customer projects moving to mass production and generating revenue. In parallel, we are taking all actions needed to control our OpEx and limit cash burn with the target to reach breakeven in Q4 2026.

And finally, we are seriously considering a few strategic alternatives to ensure shareholders benefit from the full value potential of our IoT business.

With that, let's now begin the Q&A session. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] our first question comes from the line of Scott Searle from ROTH.

Deborah, maybe just to dive in quickly. In the third quarter, were there any licensing or service revenues a part of the $4.3 million, trying to understand if there was a sequential uptick in the product revenues. Also, I just want to clarify the timing on the OpEx going below $10 million. And Georges, from a high level, kind of looking at where the net asset value of the company is relative to the current stock price. How aggressive will you be on the buyback? If you got another 600 Bitcoin available to pursue that strategy, given the stock is trading at $7 versus net asset value around $12, would seem like it's a pretty good arbitration move to do that. So how quickly and how aggressively do you plan to tackle that?

Yes. I mean, Scott, first of all, and just to take your last point, as aggressive as needed and as the rational makes sense, right? I mean our Bitcoin value, the Bitcoin get acquired with the share at $14. So technically, if the share is at $7, you will be making 50% gain by selling a Bitcoin that you purchased at $14 and you recover the price you paid for it at $7, right? I mean, which is your share.

So we have all in place. Board resolution is there. We were not able to execute on it in this period because, as you know, we were on the window. I mean, we were restricted and we could not act on this. But I don't know any 1 or 2 days, we will be free and we'll be moving on this. And obviously, consider depending where the stock is, but it makes full sense for shareholders today to buy back the shares of the company if it's trading low. And for the people staying with the company, we'll get the value of the NAV we have there. So we are completely committed to be aggressive on this if needed.

Scott, on the revenue side, we are about 2/3 product, 1/3 licensing and services in Q3. And in terms of the OpEx reduction, this is being put in place now. We expect it will be mostly realized in Q1, and we're looking at it fully in place by Q2, but with an overall for the year being below $10 million a quarter. And that includes the new cost of managing the Bitcoin treasury.

Okay. Very helpful. And then, Georges, maybe to follow up in terms of the pipeline building for the IoT business. It's a lot of momentum in 1 quarter where you're growing about 20% in terms of your design wins. I guess, you'll kind of enter 2026 at almost double-digit revenues, right, somewhere in that $10 million to $11 million, I guess, is the run rate off of that 45% that go into production. I think in the past, you talked about what you might be exiting 2026. Is there a figure that you're thinking about right now because it sounds like that gets you to breakeven, particularly given the OpEx reductions that you have ongoing, so we should see that by the fourth quarter of '26.

I mean, Scott, and the business, the IoT business, as you know, is many, many projects, and each project is not huge. So that mix, if you want like at the beginning, when you're ramping, it's a little bit slow and frustrating to some extent. But once the products are in shipment, our customer is shipping, it's there for 7 years in average, like if you take meters, sometimes even more than this. So -- and give us very good visibility for the future. We are -- I'm very happy as we are exiting this year close to our range of 50%.

But this will continue because, as you know, the design win project I don't qualify them like 100% secured, but we could have the risk on what we have a win in hand is very, very minimum. More than 90% based on the history of the project continue, I mean, except really some small projects or small company that you could have over the execution of projects, some surprises, but we are dealing with Tier 1 players that are there when you decide to launch a project they are in. It may take them longer than what we thought to be ready for production, but they get it there.

So we -- I believe 2026 will continue ramping, and we should be -- because the pipeline will continue, I could not say what we have in hand today, maybe close to 90% plus will be in production. But obviously, in the meantime, we'll be adding new projects. So when we exit, the pipeline should be more than [ 300 ] exit '26. And obviously, the percentage will be less than 90%. But this is what will be funding the growth we'll have in 2027, which I predict to be at minimum 40% to 50% year-over-year, thanks to this.

Just one point on Q1, we do tend to have a little bit of seasonality in.

I mean in that case, the average -- your number, you're right. I mean just to talk about the digital, I'm giving you the [ $45 million ] 3 years average, right? I mean all this is ramping. You imagine the shape because the new projects starting today is not going to yield that full revenue in the first quarter. It takes like 2 quarters or 3 quarters to go to the full revenue. So there is a ramp-up phase, obviously, with every project adding up.

And a couple of follow-ups, if I could then. Congrats on getting the tape-out on the RedCap front. I know that's a big milestone for the company. I think you've talked about licensing opportunities for RedCap. I wondered if you could elaborate on that in terms of what might be in the pipeline, kind of frame in terms of size and opportunities. And IRIS has been ramping up as well, I think, in terms of the potential opportunities. I'm wondering where that fits into the overall design win pipeline that you've talked about, the magnitude of those opportunities, particularly ramping into 2026.

Yes. I mean, obviously, in IPR licensing, we have some piece of this, which is established even in our revenue next year. We have already in the backlog revenue of royalty that we are collecting from a couple of customers to whom we did licensing with them, and we'll have other words of design win with licensing and now we're collecting a royalty in 2026. We collect even with one a little bit this year as well. But since we launched this IP strategy, we realized like at least we had more than a dozen of leads talking with us. It doesn't mean that they need the full RedCap -- the full eRedCap or RedCap solution from us.

As you know, we have a very advanced radio transceiver technology. We have layer 2, layer 3 protocol that no one have it. And obviously, we have a lot of IP in the modem. And as well, we have the full solution. So you could have customers whether looking for a full solution of modem, mainly to adapt to move from a cellular to something else, if you want, like to satellite or defense application, other radio environment. And some other, they want just only a piece of the technology what we have. So we're talking about licensing deal that could be, I would say, $3 million to $5 million license. I'm not talking about royalty like upfront. Up to these, they could be equal to $15 million, $20 million and all those under discussion, and we have really nice number in discussion. And for sure, next year, we'll have something converging and helping to feed our IP licensing revenue next year.

Got you. And lastly, if I could, George, just to follow up on the strategic comments. Can you frame that a little bit more? Are you talking about more partnerships? Or are you talking about potential outright sale of the IoT business at the current time?

Yes. Scott, I don't want to comment much on this. Obviously, the question -- take the problem like this, like, okay, the company has a serious IoT business, which is extremely valuable, in my opinion. It has as well a nice Bitcoin holding, which is extremely valuable as well. And from there, we're moving as a company to hopefully succeed on both front, building more Bitcoin and building the treasury and buying more -- accumulating more Bitcoin. And on the other side, scale the revenue and the IP potential of the IoT.

For the time being, they are not conflicting to each other. They are manageable. But if you project down the road, you could say maybe for shareholders, you can give more value by separating the tool, by doing something different, I would say that. And obviously, this take the factor as well discussing with other partners on the business front to do some strategic partnership and maybe more together. I cannot say more, Scott, I mean, allow me, but you have serious discussion there. And hopefully, when things will be close to sign or signed, we'll be able to announce it to market.

And our next question comes from the line of Mike Grondahl from Northland.

George, talk a little bit about your confidence in $7 million of revenue in 4Q and this $45 million kind of annual run rate you're striving to?

Yes. Mike, obviously, for Q4, I mean, you never say I'm 100% sure, right? I mean we're giving a number that we believe it's in the backlog, if you want, and secure out of, I would say, extraordinary accident, we are very confident about it. If we talk about the annual revenue, I want just again to stress the math I did is I took 45% of the $300 million, which will be in production divided by 3, give you $45 million over 3 years. So this is the average. Obviously, this doesn't mean necessarily that it's flat first year, flat second year, flat third year. It's the reverse. It will start lower and it will go up over 3 years because you have the ramp of those products.

And obviously, it's quite -- I'm quite comfortable with the number, even if the projection here, you're talking about longer program. You need to know that in our design win today, when I look, for example, to product shipping, I spoke, for example, about Honeywell. I can name even a smaller guy like Withings, like Coyote, like -- customer like this, that -- they are smaller, but very steady because they ship since more than 1 year. So we have history about their ramp. We know that they are -- how much they do, and we have extreme confidence in their future projection, forecast and so on.

Obviously, we can -- we take our, I would say, optimization there. We -- maybe cut 10% for the risk things, but we are very confident. When you have a new project coming in, like even a Tier 1 customer saying, okay, now my product is shipping and I'm planning to ship like per year, let's say, to do 0.5 million units. Obviously, you are going to compute the ramp. First year, maybe 200, the second 350 and then we ramp up to 500. There is still some risk not factored in, which is related to the fact if this customer, we have, if you want, experience about his previous shipment, previous forecast and so on.

So in other words, in this number, already more than half of those 4%, 5% are already in production. I'm extremely confident about them. The other half are ramping now like Q3 and Q4. There will be a little bit of risk, but measurable risk. That's why we're presenting this one.

Got it. And the cost reduction efforts, have you started those? Or do those start later this year?

We started many things. And again, cost reduction, we have a lot of stuff. We have -- even I can tell you, for example, our offices, we shave like -- we had the chance to renegotiate pieces of the OpEx, third party and so on. And obviously, some reduction here and there when it's needed. We started a little bit and some of it, not everything is implemented, but some is defined.

As I'm speaking, I know what we are going to do if you want in Q4 and Q1. And all this is set without impacting, if you want our innovation and investment into the 5G R&D. A lot of this as well, like our 4G, if you want, product line is becoming fully, I would say, mature because we were still working on some development during the year, we finished it. So we have even some reduction of effort there. And more general, I would say, on the G&A and so on controlling the spend.

Got it. Got it. And then have you disclosed what you -- what price you got per Bitcoin for the 970 you sold?

We didn't. It will be on our -- it will be showing up on our website, but I can give it to you, it will be [ $108,600 ]. Unfortunately, we didn't have the best period to sell, started selling at [ $115,000 ] ended by selling at [ $106,000 ].

Our next question comes from the line of Fedor Shabalin from B. Riley Securities.

Georges and Deborah, I completely understand the rationale behind the Bitcoin sale. You mentioned that this transaction enables our company to pursue a wider set of strategic initiatives to develop and grow the treasury. So could you provide more details on what additional initiatives you're considering beyond the ATM program and share buybacks? And any color on your strategic priorities here would be helpful.

Fedor, thanks for the question. I mean, essentially, and again, I want to stress one point. The company when -- one of the issues, if you want or the structure of the debt, there is -- it was not the risk even some people -- I don't know if people were -- because the collateral was fixed. We didn't have to readjust the price of the Bitcoin. It was just not the collateral is all the Bitcoin that we have and they are sitting there, we cannot do anything with them. If you cannot do anything with your Bitcoin, obviously, your -- the original plan was like the debt will convert at least over the first 6 months and so. And then by definition, some of those Bitcoin will be free and from there, we can use them.

So we took this initiative really not under the pressure because we have interest rate to pay or because we are afraid about having the Bitcoin at $100 and have to face any issue. The company will not face any issue even if we stay on this Bitcoin longer. However, the company was stuck. In other words, I could not do anything. I cannot buy Bitcoin. I cannot generate yield on the Bitcoin. I cannot be aggressive on buyback because you can do a buyback, but at the end of the day, I have cash, but this cash needs as well to serve the operational business and the G&A even to manage the treasury.

From this situation, we felt like even if it's not -- I will say, maybe we are the first treasury doing this, and we took the decision to act to be proactive. Maybe some people, they don't like it because no one sells Bitcoin in principle in the treasury. I mean, this is -- our aim was as well, but we felt it makes absolute sense now to change the ratio of debt, this often obviously preferred other structure of debt, which is today, I mean, it's not unusual topic for the company. But now they are possible because if your debt is around 30%, it's easy to have 10% preferred next to it. And if you reduce the debt further, you can do more. So this is one option.

If we have free Bitcoin, those can be generating yield depending on the risk you want to take there. But if you want to take a very low risk, you can generate like 4% yield, and this will be nice cash that you can use to buy Bitcoin or to fund the G&A of serving the treasury. And obviously, the buyback that gives us -- that boosts the program because we don't need to sacrifice anything on the operation. If really the share stays low, the rational means sell Bitcoin and buy shares and support the shareholders staying with us. So that's the whole logic around it. This is really on the topic that we have.

Now I know that there are other topic, if maybe you're raising for this, which is like consolidating and something with other treasury. I know that one happened in the market today and everybody saw this, I don't believe there is urgency on this. For me, honestly, there is not a clear idea currently what's the issue of the treasury strategy in general, why all this is trading below our NAV, which is not logical at the level where it is. And this is not for us, for all our peers. So we're trying to unlock it from where we are by taking -- put ourselves in a position where we are much stronger. And from there, we'll see how things will develop in the coming 6 months or so.

That is helpful. And you already partially answered my follow-up question on debt-to-NAV ratio. But I just want to understand what will be different in the treasury approach going forward? I heard you plan to issue preferred, but if you can just throw some time line on this would be helpful.

Yes. I mean, Fedor, obviously, I mean, the first priority now is really the buyback program. This is what I have on my table, if you want to execute on this and see how things will develop there. And obviously, the second one will be the preferred and the yield on the Bitcoin. These are the 3 options. No time line. Honestly, the option is there, but I don't want to give more time line when we'll do something like this because it depends on negotiation and so on.

This does conclude the question-and-answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Georges Karam for any further remarks.

Thank you, Jonathan, for helping us with this. Thank you, everybody, staying on the call and for all your questions and looking forward to see you in the next opportunity. Thank you very much.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.