Baylin Technologies CEO Leighton Carroll talks to Cantech Letter

Baylin Technologies (Baylin Technologies Stock Quote, Chart, News, Analysts, Financials TSX:BYL) CEO Leighton Carroll says the company is emerging from a multi-year turnaround with tailwinds strengthening across all three of its core businesses.

Carroll spoke with Ticker Take host Jon Erlichman at the 2025 Cantech Investment Conference in Toronto about how Baylin has repositioned itself for growth heading into 2026.

Baylin, headquartered in Toronto, designs and manufactures antenna and radio-frequency systems across satellite communications, embedded wireless components, and network infrastructure. Carroll described the business as “kind of a cool company,” adding that Baylin today operates three specialized divisions: satellite communications, infrastructure antennas, and embedded antennas.

The satellite group, he said, does not build spacecraft or dishes but supplies high-power amplification used in major broadcast, government, and defence applications.

“If you like golf, you like football, you like the Masters Golf Tournament, the Super Bowl, Monday Night Football, all those broadcasts you see on TV are powered by our group,” he said.

BAYLIN CEO LEIGHTON CARROLL SITS DOWN WITH JON ERLICHMAN AT THE 2025 CANTECH INVESTMENT CONFERENCE

Baylin equipment also supports “NATO government work, NASA Artemis Lunar Space Mission” and “the NORAD early warning defence system in Northern Canada.”

The embedded antenna business provides custom wireless components integrated into products from consumer electronics to public-safety equipment. Carroll described it as a “stability business” supported by long-term relationships with brands such as Netgear, Google, Verizon, AT&T, Charter and even Keurig. The infrastructure division supplies antennas to large carriers globally, covering stadium deployments, in-building wireless, small cells and elements of the macro network.

“Basically, it’s everything from stadium applications to in-building wireless, outdoor small cells, and now we’re even seeing a little bit in the large macro antenna space,” he said.

Carroll said the broader market backdrop is now aligned with the company’s capabilities, citing accelerated investment in defence, satellite modernization, and renewed network spending. But he emphasized that Baylin’s improving position is the result of a multi-year restructuring effort.

“It’s been a little bit of a turnaround story. I got here a little over four years ago, and the company was just bluntly in rough shape,” he said.

When he took over in mid-2021, Baylin had four business units, operating EBITDA of negative $15-million in the first half of the year, and $40-million in debt. The weakest unit was divested, and the focus shifted to the North American core.

“We’ve been resetting our product stack,” he said.

Carroll described the embedded division as foundational, steady, cash-generating, but not designed for dramatic spikes. Satellite communications, however, required more significant realignment. The segment faced a difficult 2025 due to a U.S. presidential transition, layoffs and tariffs across the sector, and a slowdown in government spending.

“There was almost no spending while they were bickering about the big beautiful bill,” he said. Baylin used that period to streamline costs, redesign products, and tighten its booking cycle. As spending resumed, driven by U.S. defence budgets and record levels of European Union defence investment, the pipeline improved sharply.

“The pipeline of bids we have in is the largest it’s ever been for that business,” Carroll said, adding that the rebuilt cost structure positions satellite for a stronger 2026.

Wireless infrastructure is now Baylin’s fastest-growing business, despite industry-wide capital spending slowing to its lowest point in six years (and lowest in a decade on an inflation-adjusted basis). Carroll said network usage kept rising during that lull, forcing operators to resume upgrades. New spectrum acquisitions, such as the assets purchased by EchoStar and Charlie Ergen, are also expected to drive deployment cycles. Even in the slowest spending environment in years, Baylin outperformed.

“In the lowest capital spend market in the last six, the business with the highest margin profile out of my three businesses, it only grew 40%. We’re taking market, we took a lot of share in a down market,” he said.

Carroll said this infrastructure business, once the smallest of the three, is now set to become Baylin’s largest in 2024–26. It carries the strongest profitability, and its growth is reshaping Baylin’s overall margin profile.

“When I joined, we finished 2024 all in with 15% gross margins,” he said. “We finished 2024 at 42% margins. And as we enter and finish 25 going to 26, our margin profile is continuing to improve because our infrastructure line is outgrowing everybody else.”

He added that the satellite business is also showing margin improvement as new products come online.

Carroll said Baylin has moved from a position of constraint to one with meaningful strategic and financial flexibility.

“When I joined, the company for the first half of 2021 did negative 15 in operating EBITDA… We’re [now] 6.6 million TTM operating EBITDA and we have half [the debt] from when I joined,” he said. With restructuring largely complete and market conditions improving, Carroll said the company is entering 2026 with “tailwinds” across its portfolio.

“I like the way this company is going now. The table’s been set,” he said.

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