No company ever comes out and says “this is solely for working...

No company ever comes out and says “this is solely for working capital, we need to keep the lights on”. There’s always going to be some spin about positioning for growth, etc.

As an interested observer of this company (I like the tech and the way they’re embedded with US utilities) the messaging from management continues to stop me from pushing the buy button. First it’s the opaqueness about converting ACV into cash receipts, then there’s quarter after quarter of various delays, now two weeks after pushing that “self-funded” slide again, they’re raising capital (not that it’s a surprise, when the 4C shows 0.68 quarters of funding left it’s pretty obvious where it’s heading, post-Q cash collection notwithstanding). The big US Capex announcement smelt a bit like a prop for a disappointing quarterly, which is effectively what it became (estimating “up to 4 million poles” and with such huge variability between US$20-40 per pole, split over 10 years makes it hard to really judge how material the deal is). At least it does allow them to raise a bit higher than where they were.

But in my (hopefully unbiased) view, if they really want to attract new investors management need to sort out their messaging pronto. Cheers