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McapMediaWire --iQSTEL, Inc. (OTC: IQST) today released a transcript and arecorded link of the annual shareholder meeting conducted yesterday,January 31, 2023. The meeting included the election of the company’sboard of directors and the ratification of the company’s independentregistered public accounting firm to audit iQSTEL’s 2022 financialperformance. The meeting also included a management discussion andanalysis of the company’s business operations and strategy as wellas response to shareholder questions.
The transcript can be viewed in its entiretybelow. To listen to a recording of the shareholder annual meetingfollow this link: iQSTELAnnual Shareholder Meeting Recording
2022 AnnualShareholder Meeting Transcript From Tuesday, January31 st , 2023:
PRESENTER
Good day, everyone, and welcome to the firstiQSTEL’s Shareholder Meeting Conference Call. Participants are in alisten-only mode. This conference call is being recorded. A replay oftoday’s call will be available on the Investor Relations section ofiQSTEL’s website and will remain posted there for the next 30days.
Before webegin, I would like to remind you that today’s call contains certainforward-looking statements from our management made within the meaningof Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
Words such as“may”, “should”, “projects,” “expects”, “intends”,“plans”, “believes”, “anticipates”, “hopes”,“estimates” and variations of such words and similar expressionsare intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statementsare subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond thecontrol of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factorssection of the Company's annual report on Form 10-Q, filed withthe SEC. Copies of these documents are available on the SEC'swebsite at www.sec.gov. Actual results may differ materially fromthose expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. TheCompany undertakes no obligation to update these statements forrevisions or changes after the date of this call, except as requiredby law.
Thank youfor joining the annual shareholder meeting.
I will now hand thecall over to Mr. Iglesias for introductions and to start with themeeting. Please go ahead.
CEO - Introduction
Hello and welcome toour first iQSTEL shareholder´s meeting.
Today, is January 31 st ,2023.
My name isLeandro Iglesias, and I am the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer ofiQSTEL.
I amjoined today by
- Alvaro Quintana our Chief Financial Officer and member ofour Independent Board of Directors
- Raul Perez member of ourIndependent Board of Directors, and the Head of the AuditCommittee.
- Jose Antonio Barreto member of our IndependentBoard of Directors, and the Head of the Code of EthicsOffice.
- Italo Segnini member of our Independent Board ofDirectors, and the Head of the Executive CompensationCommittee
- Tony Abdo our CEO of our Internet of Things BusinessLine and our Fintech Division, and Business Development VicePresident
- And our Presenter is Brad Listermann our InvestorRelations Vice President and Head of our AmbassadorsGroup.
Thisevent today is a substantial milestone for iQSTEL. It is our firstlivestream shareholder´s meeting and in and of itself a major stepforward in the advance of our management practices and procedurestaking us one step closer toward our Nasdaq up-listing goal.
In advance of themeeting today, we have published a number of press releases with areview of our 2022 performance and achievements, and our 2023objectives. We have also included details on the agenda for today. Wealso emailed all shareholders of record with an agenda for today’smeeting and provided a link to facilitate voting prior to today’smeeting.
I amvery proud of everyone working here at iQSTEL and I am equallygrateful for all the shareholder feedback and support that we havereceived over the last year that has led us to achieving or surpassingevery goal and objective we set. I want to recognize and thankeveryone working at iQSTEL, and our subsidiaries in addition torecognizing and thanking all our shareholders.
Since we have put outthree press releases in the last ten days reviewing our 2022performance, I will recall just few things about iQSTEL’sachievements this past year.
iQSTEL is expanding a core telecommunicationsoperation both organically and through merger and acquisitions. We arefocused on the international services market, and building afoundation in the domestic services market too, while continuing toprioritize the growing global migrant population.
At this point isimportant to remark that the acquisitions of Whisl and Smartbizinjected business competitive energy as did SwissLink, QGlobal anditsBchain in the past, and specifically our partners in each of oursubsidiaries have enriched our commercial, technical and negotiationskills in a determinant way. Thanks to all our partners.
Our Flagship, thetelecommunication division is only the beginning of our strategy toexpand. We expect exponential growth to come from our diversificationstrategy.
We areleveraging our telecommunication foundation to enter new markets withless competition and higher margins. 2022 was an important year forour diversification strategy. We have established notable and, in someinstances, even award-winning traction from our efforts to enter thesmart Internet of Things market, the Fintech market, the Blockchainplatforms market as well as the huge electric vehicles markettoo.
Afterbeating our $90 million revenue forecast for 2022 and reachingprofitability a full quarter ahead of expectations, I hope you can seethat our $105 million 2023 revenue forecast is a base upon which wecan build. You will likely see an increase to our base forecast in theevent we close on another acquisition that results from our ongoingacquisition campaign.
At the same time, we are going to generate revenues from allour new business lines: Internet of Things, Fintech, BlockChainPlatforms and Electric Vehicles.
Talking about Net Income, our TelecommunicationDivision generates enough profit to support all our new businesslines, and the Pubco expenses. In this way we plan to show more than$1 Million of Net Income at the end of this year.
We expect to achieveprofitability this year from three of our expansion operations,Internet of Things, Fintech and Electric Vehicles businesslines.
We decidedto be very conservative in our objectives for this 2023, but it´seasy to see we have several initiatives in the works. If we achievejust one of them, we will be surpassing our objectives and increasingthe size of the company.
In summary, we are working diligently to optimize our existingbusiness and at the same time working on our future business byidentifying the most promising technology trends to adopt which canbest evolve our services to maintain a leadership position serving thegrowing immigrant market.
We completed a revamp of our IQSTEL web site ( www.iqstel.com ), with a newsection for our investors ( www.iqstel.com/investors ),I invite to visit it and share your thoughts.
So, I will now hand thecall over to Mr. Alvaro Quintana our CFO to start with the votesaddressed in the iQSTEL definitive proxy statement filed with theSEC.
CFO –Proxy Vote
The first matter up for a vote is the election of the iQSTELboard members.
Our bylaws provide that our business shall be managed by orunder the direction of a board of directors. The Board currentlyconsists of five directors.
There are five nominees for election to the Boardat the annual meeting. Each of the five nominees, if elected, willhold office for a term that expires at the next annual stockholders’meeting. Each director shall hold office for the term for which he orshe was elected and until his or her successor is elected andqualified or until his or her earlier death, resignation, orremoval.
TheBoard has nominated each of the following individuals for election asa director at today’s annual meeting: Leandro Iglesias, myselfAlvaro Quintana Cardona, Italo Segnini, Raul Perez and Jose AntonioBarreto. Each nomination for director was based upon therecommendation of our board of directors and each nominee for directoris a current member of the board. All nominees have consented to benamed and have indicated their intent to serve if elected. In theevent any of the nominees shall be unable or unwilling to serve as adirector, the persons named in the proxy intend to vote “FOR” theelection of any person as may be nominated by the board insubstitution. The Company has no reason to believe that any of thenominees will be unable to serve as a director if elected.
The definitive proxystatement filed with the SEC set forth detailed information about eachcandidate, to include compensation and stock ownership, as well asroles and responsibilities.
In advance of today’s meeting, the company hasreceived votes amounting to over 51% of the shareholders andsufficient to elect the board members as nominated. In fact, thenominated board members were elected with more than 80% of the sharesbeing voted in their favor.
Once again, I want to issue my thanks to the iQSTELshareholders for your participation and support.
The second matter forvote is the ratification of iQSTEL’s independent registered publicaccounting firm for the 2022 fiscal year, Urish Popeck & Co.,LLC.
In advanceof today’s meeting, the company has received votes amounting to over51% of the shareholders and sufficient to ratify Urish Popeck &Co., LLC as iQSTEL’s independent registered public accounting firmfor the 2022 fiscal year. Again, more than 80% of the shares werevoted in favor of ratifying Urish Popeck & Co., LLC as independentregistered public accounting firm.
Thanks again to the iQSTEL shareholders for yourparticipation and support.
PRESENTER – Questions received
The definitive proxystatement sent out in advance of today’s meeting also invitedshareholders to introduce any other business matter for discussion andconsideration at the annual shareholder meeting.
If any matter notdescribed in the proxy statement is properly presented for a vote atthe meeting, the persons receiving proxy cards can vote in accordancewith their best judgment and discretion.
We did not receive any other matters for aproposed vote at the annual shareholder meeting in response to theemailed proxy cards. However, we did receive some questions.
- Based on the fact that the company just issued aShareholder´s Letter indicating all the Company Objectives for 2023,I would like to know if the Company plans to work in other businessarea in addition with Telecommunications & Internet of Things,Fintech, Blockchain Platforms, and Electric Vehicles?,
This question will beaddressed by our CEO Leandro Iglesias
CEO – Answer Question 1
The company endeavorsto maintain consistency in its business plan and avoid opportunity ofchance distractions. Since iQSTEL’s inception we have focused onlarge technology arenas, specifically Telecommunications, Internet ofThings, Fintech, BlockChain Platforms and Electric Vehicles.
We don’t plan toenter in any new business line at this moment. We will focus ourefforts on advancing our existing lines of business with our progressmeasured in terms of expanding revenues and delivering profits by theend of this year.
This 2023 will be a successful year, growing revenues,generating positive net income, reaching thousands of users for ourFintech platform, deploying in several industrial facilities ourproprietary internet of things solutions, completing the manufactureof the Second and Third batch of our electric motorcycles for the USand EU, and introducing our Mid Speed Car to the market.
We consider ourmanagement’s consistent focus on our business plan to be one of ourkey characteristics and instrumental to our ongoing success.
PRESENTER –Questions received
Thanks Mr. Iglesias for your answer.
Next question receivedis:
- You havebeen talking about Nasdaq Up-Listing for more than a year, what is thecurrent status and when will finally happen?
Our CFO – AlvaroQuintana will address this question.
CFO– Answer Question 2
We have been working onthe Nasdaq Up-listing for more than 2 years. The up-listing is animportant milestone in the overall path to our objective of achievinga market capitalization for IQSTEL in excess of $1 Billion.
Since the beginning of2021 we have been ticking off one corporate governance requirementafter another in order to qualify for a Nasdaq up listing. Thisshareholder meeting today marks yet another corporate governancemilestone moving us that much closer to being prepared for anup-listing.
Thecritical path to an up listing is iQSTEL’s share price. iQSTEL mustsustain a minimum bid of at least $2.00 to qualify for a Nasdaqlisting.
Ourmanagement team and our independent board of directors believe iQSTELhas the potential to organically achieve a minimum share price tosupport an up-listing. In other words, we believe iQSTEL’s shareprice, global economy and market conditions permitting, can increaseto over $2.00 without necessitating any recapitulation of thecompany’s share structure.
We don’t believe it is the company’soperational performance that is holding us back from reaching aminimum listing price. We believe the overall prevailing marketuncertainty accounts more for the current iQSTEL share price than doesiQSTEL’s operational performance.
We anticipate that either the overall market willturn positive and lift the burden of market uncertainty that iscurrently holding back iQSTEL’s share price, or iQSTEL will finallybe recognized as the undervalued asset that it is, and the share pricewill perform in line with the company’s operational performance andcounter to prevailing market trends.
The final key to our Nasdaq up-listing is our shareprice and the key to our share price is patience. The company isperforming better than ever and sooner or later the share price willrespond accordingly.
PRESENTER – Final Words
While iQSTEL is meeting or surpassing itsforecasts, goals and objectives, and we expect to continue meeting orsurpassing forecasts, goals and objectives, the global economy as awhole is not enjoying iQSTEL’s success.
It is the opinion of management and the boardthat general economic trends are casting a shadow on iQSTEL’sotherwise stellar performance. That shadow is causing an unfavorabledisconnect between the company’s operation performance and shareprice performance.
In light of what management and the board believes to be anunfavorable disconnect, and given that we anticipate economicdifficulties and challenges to continue for the foreseeable future, weespecially encourage shareholder participation and welcome fromshareholders any suggestions for consideration that might contributeto iQSTEL reconnecting operational performance and share priceperformance ahead of a global upward economic shift.
Please email us at anytime with your comments, suggestions and even your criticisms atinvestors@iqestel.com.
I would like to thank all in attendance here for making thetime available to participate in iQSTEL’s first livestream annualshareholder meeting.
Management and the Board of Directors are committed tocontinuing to deliver on the performance expectations we have setthrough our past and present successes.
We continue in our belief that the “best isyet to come,” and we are committed to the effort required of us torealize that belief.
Thank you
About iQSTEL Inc.:
iQSTEL Inc. (OTCQX: IQST) ( www.iQSTEL.com )is a US-based publicly listed company holding an Independent Board ofDirectors and Audit Committee with a presence in 19 countries and 70employees offering leading-edge services through its four businesslines. The Telecom Division (www.iqstelecom.com), which represents themajority of current operations, offers VoIP, SMS, proprietary Internetof Things (IoT) solutions, and international fiber-optic connectivitythrough its subsidiaries: Etelix, SwissLink, Smartbiz, Whisl, IoTLabs, and QGlobal SMS. The Fintech business line ( www.globalmoneyone.com )( www.maxmo.vip )offers a complete Fintech ecosystem MasterCard Debit Card, US BankAccount (No SSN Needed), Mobile App/Wallet (Remittances, Mobile TopUp). Our Fintech subsidiary, Global Money One, is to provideimmigrants access to reliable financial services that make it easierto manage their money and stay connected with their families backhome. The BlockChain Platform Business Line ( www.itsbchain.com )offers our proprietary Mobile Number Portability Application (MNPA) toserve the in-country portability needs through its subsidiary,itsBchain. The Electric Vehicle (EV) Business Line ( www.evoss.net )offers electric motorcycles to work and have fun in the USA, Spain,Portugal, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela. EVOSS is also working onthe development of an EV Mid Speed Car to serve the niche of the 2ndcar in the family.
Safe Harbor Statement: Statements in this news release may be"forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statementsinclude, but are not limited to, statements that express ourintentions, beliefs, expectations, strategies, predictions, or anyother information relating to our future activities or other futureevents or conditions. These statements are based on currentexpectations, estimates, and projections about our business basedpartly on assumptions made by management. These statements are notguarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, andassumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomesand results may and are likely to differ materially from what isexpressed or forecasted in forward-looking statements due to numerousfactors. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date ofthis news release, and iQSTEL Inc. undertakes no obligation to updateany forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances afterthe date of this news release. This press release does not constitutea public offer of any securities for sale. Any securities offeredprivately will not be or have not been registered under the Act andmay not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration oran applicable exemption from registration requirements.
iQSTELInc.
IR USPhone: 646-740-0907
IR Email: investors@iqstel.com
ContactDetails
Leandro Iglesias
+1 646-740-0907
CompanyWebsite
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