Hut 8 Corp (HUT) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to Hut 8's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Financial Results Analyst and Investor Call. In addition to the press release issued earlier today, -- you can find Hut 8's financial statements and MD&A on the company's website at www.hut8.io, under the company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and under the company's EDGAR profile at www.sec.gov.

歡迎來到 Hut 8 的第四季度和 2022 年全年財務業績分析師和投資者電話會議。除了今天早些時候發布的新聞稿外，您還可以在公司網站 www.hut8.io、公司 SEDAR 資料 www.sedar.com 和公司 EDGAR 資料下找到 Hut 8 的財務報表和 MD&A www.sec.gov。

Unless noted otherwise, all of those referred to during this call are denominated in Canadian dollars.

除非另有說明，否則本次電話會議中提及的所有人員均以加元計價。

Any comments made during this call may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation regarding the future performance of Hut 8 Mining Corp, and its subsidiaries. The statements may reflect current expectations and as such, are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to the factors discussed in Hut 8's annual MD&A and annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2022. Except as required by applicable law, Hut 8 undertakes no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statements.

在本次電話會議中發表的任何評論可能包括適用證券立法意義上關於 Hut 8 Mining Corp 及其子公司未來業績的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述可能反映當前的預期，因此受到各種風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與當前預期存在重大差異。這些風險和不確定性包括但不限於 Hut 8 的年度 MD&A 和截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日止年度的年度信息表中討論的因素。除適用法律要求外，Hut 8 不承擔公開更新或審查任何前瞻性陳述。

During the call, management may also make reference to certain non-IFRS measures that are not separately defined under IFRS, such as adjusted EBITDA and mining profit. Management believes that non-IFRS financial information, taken in conjunction with IFRS financial measures provide useful information for both management and investors. Reconciliations between IFRS and non-IFRS results are presented in the tables accompanying our press release, which can be viewed on our website. I would now like to turn the call over to Hut 8's CEO, Jaime Leverton. Please go ahead.

在電話會議期間，管理層還可以參考 IFRS 下未單獨定義的某些非 IFRS 指標，例如調整後的 EBITDA 和採礦利潤。管理層認為，結合 IFRS 財務措施採用的非 IFRS 財務信息可為管理層和投資者提供有用的信息。 IFRS 和非 IFRS 結果之間的調節顯示在我們新聞稿隨附的表格中，可以在我們的網站上查看。我現在想把電話轉給 Hut 8 的首席執行官 Jaime Leverton。請繼續。

Thank you, Joelle. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss Hut 8's results for the 2022 fiscal year. I will start by restating the obvious, 2022 was a challenging year for our entire industry. For us, this meant that pivoting and changing was essential. This is where our balance sheet first approach, which has been in place since the early days of the previous bull market, enabled us to continue pursuing opportunistic moments throughout the year. Closing our acquisition of 5 high-performance computing data centers and integrating them into our business operations, managing through the East Merge last fall, expanding our leadership team and growing our team members to over 100 across British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, continuing to advance our ESG goals by finding innovative ways to e-recycle our miners and computing infrastructure and self-mining bitcoin throughout 2022 at modest costs despite fluctuating power prices, resulting in a 28.1% year-over-year increase in bitcoin mined and a 25% year-over-year increase in hash rate, thanks to steadily plugging in new miners throughout the year.

謝謝你，喬爾。大家早上好，感謝您加入我們討論 Hut 8 的 2022 財年業績。首先，我要重申一個顯而易見的事實，即 2022 年對我們整個行業來說是充滿挑戰的一年。對我們來說，這意味著轉向和改變是必不可少的。這就是我們自上一個牛市初期以來一直採用的資產負債表優先方法，使我們能夠在全年繼續追求機會主義時刻。完成我們對 5 個高性能計算數據中心的收購，並將它們整合到我們的業務運營中，去年秋天通過 East Merge 進行管理，擴大我們的領導團隊，並將我們的團隊成員增加到 100 多人，遍布不列顛哥倫比亞省、阿爾伯塔省和安大略省，繼續推進我們的 ESG 目標是尋找創新方法，在整個 2022 年以適度的成本電子回收我們的礦工和計算基礎設施，並在電價波動的情況下自行開採比特幣，從而使開采的比特幣同比增長 28.1%，年增長 25% -哈希率同比增長，這要歸功於全年穩定地插入新礦機。

We continue to believe in our expansion into the high-performance computing business as we renovated our flagship data center in Kelowna and refresh our data centers in the Greater Toronto area and Vancouver. We welcome to new customers, including enthusiast gaming, Zenlayer and Luxor. We're replacing our networks with new Cisco carrier-grade routing and switching hardware. We're re-architecting our network carrier uplift to provide increased resiliency, diversity and capacity. We recertified the organization under our SOC 2 compliance program, ensuring security best practices across 158 unique operational controls.

我們繼續相信我們在高性能計算業務方面的擴張，因為我們翻新了我們在基洛納的旗艦數據中心，並更新了我們在大多倫多地區和溫哥華的數據中心。我們歡迎新客戶，包括發燒友遊戲、Zenlayer 和 Luxor。我們正在用新的思科運營商級路由和交換硬件替換我們的網絡。我們正在重新設計我們的網絡運營商提升，以提供更高的彈性、多樣性和容量。我們根據我們的 SOC 2 合規計劃對組織進行了重新認證，確保在 158 個獨特的操作控制中實現安全最佳實踐。

As we look ahead, we are confident that 2023 will be a year of extraordinary growth. As announced last month, we look forward to the future where Hut 8 Mining Corp. and US Bitcoin Corp will combine in an all-stock merger of equals to grow into a highly diversified U.S. domiciled, publicly traded organization. The combination will see us with established self-mining operations at 5 mines, 2 in Canada and 3 in the U.S., running a total of 5.6 exahash, with 244 megawatts of total energy available, and will give us 6 exahash of installed hosting capacity powered by 220 megawatts of hosting infrastructure at our site in Texas, with clients that include some of the largest miners in the industry. It will take us into the very nascent space of managed infrastructure operations at 2 U.S. sites where US BTC has pioneered a new business model to capture untapped value from the mining ecosystem, which is incredibly exciting.

展望未來，我們相信 2023 年將是非凡增長的一年。正如上個月宣布的那樣，我們期待 Hut 8 Mining Corp. 和 US Bitcoin Corp. 將通過平等的全股票合併合併，成長為一家高度多元化的美國註冊上市公司。該組合將使我們在 5 個礦山（2 個在加拿大和 3 個在美國）建立自挖礦業務，總共運行 5.6 exahash，可用總能量為 244 兆瓦，並將為我們提供 6 exahash 的安裝託管容量供電通過我們位於德克薩斯州的站點的 220 兆瓦託管基礎設施，客戶包括業內一些最大的礦工。它將帶我們進入美國 2 個站點的託管基礎設施運營的新興空間，US BTC 在這些站點開創了一種新的商業模式，以從挖礦生態系統中獲取未開發的價值，這非常令人興奮。

With managed infrastructure operations, the team goes into a miner's existing sites -- site or sites and runs the day-to-day operations, manages the property, performs maintenance, and importantly, optimizes performance using US BTC's purpose-driven software, which provides real-time monitoring capabilities to optimize the energy consumption of thousands of machines across the site. It also enables profitable participation in demand response programs, and can help to balance the grid, improving grid stability, while reducing energy costs.

通過託管基礎設施運營，團隊進入礦工的現有站點——一個或多個站點，並運行日常操作、管理財產、執行維護，重要的是，使用 US BTC 的目的驅動軟件優化性能，該軟件提供實時監控功能，以優化整個站點數千台機器的能源消耗。它還使參與需求響應計劃有利可圖，並有助於平衡電網，提高電網穩定性，同時降低能源成本。

And speaking of energy, the U.S. bitcoin team brings outstanding energy sourcing, management and hedging capabilities to new Hut, significantly enhancing our ability to better plan around stable and predictable energy usage and mitigate fluctuating prices across markets. We look forward to the expected completion of the business combination in Q2 and beginning to work together as a team. I'm very proud of our team's commitment to operational excellence across the business and the trajectory of Hut 8. We look forward to continued success in 2023 as a further diversified digital asset mining, hosting, managed infrastructure operations and high-performance computing organization.

說到能源，美國比特幣團隊為新 Hut 帶來了出色的能源採購、管理和對沖能力，顯著增強了我們更好地圍繞穩定和可預測的能源使用進行規劃並減輕市場價格波動的能力。我們期待著第二季度業務合併的預期完成，並開始作為一個團隊一起工作。我為我們的團隊致力於在整個業務中實現卓越運營以及 Hut 8 的發展軌跡感到非常自豪。我們期待在 2023 年作為一個進一步多元化的數字資產挖掘、託管、管理基礎設施運營和高性能計算組織繼續取得成功。

Before I turn it over to Shenif Visram, our CFO, who will review our key financial results, I would like to thank our Board for their support and guidance, our executive team for their incredible leadership and our team across the country for their execution across all of our business lines. I would also be remiss if I didn't take a minute to thank our investors for their continued commitment to Hut 8. 2022 was an incredibly dynamic time for bitcoin and the broader industry, and your support of our organization is very much appreciated. Shenif, over to you.

在我將其交給我們的首席財務官 Shenif Visram 之前，他將審查我們的主要財務業績，我要感謝我們的董事會的支持和指導，感謝我們的執行團隊的卓越領導，以及我們在全國各地的團隊的執行力我們所有的業務線。如果我不花一點時間感謝我們的投資者對 Hut 8 的持續承諾，我也會失職。2022 年對比特幣和更廣泛的行業來說是一個充滿活力的時期，非常感謝您對我們組織的支持。 Shenif，交給你了。

Thanks, Jaime, and good morning, everyone. Let's begin with the full year results for 2022. We achieved revenue of $150.7 million for the year, a $23.1 million decrease relative to the prior year of $173.8 million. This year-over-year decrease was driven by the reduction in price of bitcoin, which more than offset the expansion of our bitcoin mining fleet and incremental contributions from the high-performance computing business we acquired in Q1 of 2022. Revenue from digital asset mining activities was $133 million as we mined 3,568 new bitcoin. This compares to $165.4 million of digital asset mining revenue in 2021 when we mined 2,786 bitcoin. We increased our mining production by 28% compared to 2021, and our average cost to mine each bitcoin reduced by 7% relative to the prior year, reflecting more efficient miners deployed, partially offset by higher energy prices in the year.

謝謝，Jaime，大家早上好。讓我們從 2022 年的全年業績開始。我們全年實現收入 1.507 億美元，比上一年的 1.738 億美元減少 2310 萬美元。這一同比下降是由比特幣價格下跌推動的，這大大抵消了我們比特幣挖礦機隊的擴張以及我們在 2022 年第一季度收購的高性能計算業務的增量貢獻。數字資產挖礦收入我們開采了 3,568 個新的比特幣，活動價值 1.33 億美元。相比之下，2021 年我們開采了 2,786 個比特幣時，數字資產開採收入為 1.654 億美元。與 2021 年相比，我們的挖礦產量增加了 28%，我們開採每個比特幣的平均成本與上一年相比降低了 7%，這反映出部署了更高效的礦工，部分被當年能源價格上漲所抵消。

Our high-performance computing business contributed an additional $16.9 million of revenue in 2022, the majority of which is monthly recurring revenue. Cost of revenue for the year was $175.6 million compared to $85 million in the prior year, and consists of depreciation and site operating costs. The increased depreciation expense from $23.3 million in 2021 to $93.9 million was driven by the increased number and overall cost of miners deployed during the year, and $5.1 million of additional depreciation from the newly acquired HPC business.

我們的高性能計算業務在 2022 年貢獻了 1690 萬美元的額外收入，其中大部分是每月經常性收入。本年度的收入成本為 1.756 億美元，上年為 8500 萬美元，包括折舊和現場運營成本。折舊費用從 2021 年的 2330 萬美元增加到 9390 萬美元，這是由於年內部署的礦工數量和總體成本增加，以及新收購的 HPC 業務的額外折舊 510 萬美元。

Site operating costs increased by $20.1 million to $81.8 million from 2021. Within the digital asset mining operation, site operating costs increased by $11.7 million, consistent with our expansion of mining fleet and increased power costs. We incurred $8.4 million in operating costs related to the high-performance computing operation, all of which are incremental year-over-year.

從 2021 年開始，場地運營成本增加了 2010 萬美元，達到 8180 萬美元。在數字資產挖礦業務中，場地運營成本增加了 1170 萬美元，這與我們擴大挖礦機隊和增加電力成本相一致。我們產生了 840 萬美元的與高性能計算操作相關的運營成本，所有這些成本都在逐年增加。

In terms of margin, our digital asset mining operation generated profit of $60.4 million versus $108.1 million in the prior year, reflecting the combination of lower bitcoin prices and increased electricity costs.

就利潤率而言，我們的數字資產挖礦業務產生了 6040 萬美元的利潤，而上一年為 1.081 億美元，這反映了較低的比特幣價格和增加的電力成本。

General administration costs for the year were $49.8 million compared to $40.3 million in the prior year. The increase was primarily due to the combination of higher personnel costs, insurance premiums and other costs largely in support of the high-performance computing line of business.

與上一年的 4030 萬美元相比，本年度的一般行政費用為 4980 萬美元。增長的主要原因是人員成本、保險費和其他主要用於支持高性能計算業務線的成本增加。

We recorded a net loss of $242.8 million for the year compared to a net loss of $72.7 million in the prior year. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the company conducted impairment testing of its 3 digital asset mining, cash-generating units, also known as CGUs, Medicine Hat, Drumheller and North Bay. Due to depressed digital mining economics, specifically the decline in price of bitcoin throughout periods during the year ended December 31, 2022, the company recorded an impairment charge on its digital asset mining CGUs. The difference between the pre-impairment carrying value and the recoverable amount of the company's digital asset mining CGUs is $98.6 million.

與上一年的淨虧損 7270 萬美元相比，我們今年的淨虧損為 2.428 億美元。 2022 年第四季度，公司對其 3 個數字資產挖礦、現金產生單元（也稱為 CGU）、Medicine Hat、Drumheller 和 North Bay 進行了減值測試。由於數字礦業經濟低迷，特別是比特幣價格在截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日的整個期間的下跌，該公司對其數字資產礦業 CGU 記錄了減值費用。公司數字資產挖礦CGU減值前賬面價值與可收回金額之間的差額為9860萬美元。

In addition, due to Ethereum emerged during the year ended December 31, 2022, where the Ethereum network changed its consensus mechanism from proof of work to proof of stake, the company recorded an impairment charge on its GPU mining group assets as a result of being unable to find an alternative digital asset to mine with profitable mining economics. The difference between the pre-impairment carrying value and the recoverable amount of the company's CGU mining group of assets is $15.2 million. The combined impairment booked in 4Q 2022 was $113.9 million. As a reminder, this is a noncash entry.

此外，由於以太坊出現在截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日的年度內，以太坊網絡將其共識機制從工作量證明更改為股權證明，因此該公司記錄了其 GPU 挖礦集團資產的減值費用，因為無法找到替代的數字資產來開採具有盈利的採礦經濟學。公司CGU礦業集團資產減值前賬面價值與可收回金額之間的差額為1520萬美元。 2022 年第四季度記入的合併減值為 1.139 億美元。提醒一下，這是一個非現金條目。

Also impacting the net loss, we recorded a $134.8 million noncash loss on the reevaluation of our digital assets as a result of a decrease in the price of bitcoin. We incurred a noncash gain of $98.8 million on revaluation of our warrant liability compared to a $114.2 million noncash loss in 2021. The remainder of the net loss was primarily driven by the lower revenue from digital asset mining operations and higher cost of revenue in 2022.

同樣影響淨虧損的是，由於比特幣價格下跌，我們在重新評估數字資產時記錄了 1.348 億美元的非現金損失。與 2021 年的 1.142 億美元非現金虧損相比，我們在重估認股權證負債時產生了 9880 萬美元的非現金收益。淨虧損的其餘部分主要是由於 2022 年數字資產挖礦業務收入減少和收入成本增加所致。

Reflecting the operating results discussed previously, Hut 8 achieved adjusted EBITDA of $32 million for 2022 compared with $96.6 million in the prior year.

反映之前討論的運營結果，Hut 8 2022 年的調整後 EBITDA 為 3200 萬美元，而上一年為 9660 萬美元。

Our balance sheet remains healthy, with minimal debt and a cash balance of $30.5 million as at December 31, 2022. On August 17, 2022, we entered into an equity distribution agreement, pursuant to which we establish an at-the-market equity program with maximum proceeds of up to USD 200 million, approximately CAD 270.9 million. As of December 31, 2022, we raised USD 32.8 million net proceeds, approximately CAD 44.1 million under this program. We have now seized issuance under the ATM program given the currently proposed business combination with US BTC.

截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，我們的資產負債表保持健康，債務最少，現金餘額為 3050 萬美元。2022 年 8 月 17 日，我們簽訂了股權分配協議，根據該協議，我們建立了一個市值股權計劃最高募集資金高達 2 億美元，約合 2.709 億加元。截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，我們根據該計劃籌集了 3280 萬美元的淨收益，約合 4410 萬加元。鑑於目前提議的與美國 BTC 的業務合併，我們現在已經根據 ATM 計劃扣押了發行。

Our Bitcoin holdings are marked at fair value and totaled $203.7 million as at December 31, 2022, based on 9,086 bitcoin held in reserve.

截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，我們持有的比特幣以公允價值計價，總計 2.037 億美元，基於儲備中的 9,086 比特幣。

I will now turn to our Q4 results and provide some additional commentary. Our fourth quarter results for 2022 were impacted by the reduction in bitcoin prices, and our ongoing dispute with Validus related to our North Bay mining facility, where we stopped mining in mid-November. We achieved quarterly revenue of $21.8 million compared to $57.9 million in the prior year's quarter. Revenue was impacted by a substantial drop in bitcoin prices. The average bitcoin price in the quarter was approximately $24,600 compared to approximately $70,400 in the same quarter a year prior. We mined 698 bitcoin this quarter compared to 789 bitcoin in Q4 2021. The reduction in mined Bitcoin is due to electrical issues at the Drumheller location and a higher-than-normal level of curtailing due to a sharp increase in power rates. We also generated $4.5 million in revenue from the high-performance computing business in the quarter, while we generated $2.4 million in revenue from hosting during the same period in 2021.

我現在將轉向我們的第四季度結果並提供一些額外的評論。我們 2022 年第四季度的業績受到比特幣價格下跌的影響，以及我們與 Validus 就我們的北灣採礦設施發生的持續糾紛，我們於 11 月中旬停止了該設施的採礦。我們實現了 2180 萬美元的季度收入，而去年同期為 5790 萬美元。收入受到比特幣價格大幅下跌的影響。本季度比特幣平均價格約為 24,600 美元，而去年同期約為 70,400 美元。我們本季度開采了 698 個比特幣，而 2021 年第四季度為 789 個比特幣。開採比特幣的減少是由於 Drumheller 地點的電力問題以及由於電價急劇上漲導致的高於正常水平的削減。本季度我們還從高性能計算業務中獲得了 450 萬美元的收入，而在 2021 年同期我們從託管中獲得了 240 萬美元的收入。

Cost of revenue was $45.2 million in Q4 2022 versus $27.3 million in Q4 2021, with the increase driven by increased depreciation expense as a result of our expanding our mining fleet. The cost of mining each bitcoin for Q4 2022 was approximately $20,100 compared with approximately $22,800 in the same period a year ago.

2022 年第四季度的收入成本為 4520 萬美元，而 2021 年第四季度為 2730 萬美元，增加的原因是我們擴大挖礦機隊導致折舊費用增加。 2022 年第四季度開採每個比特幣的成本約為 20,100 美元，而去年同期約為 22,800 美元。

General and administrative expenses were $14.8 million for the fourth quarter versus $14.1 million in the prior year period. We had a reduction in sales tax due to lower purchases in Q4 compared to Q4 2021. This was offset by the inclusion of SG&A related to the HPC business.

第四季度的一般和行政費用為 1,480 萬美元，而去年同期為 1,410 萬美元。與 2021 年第四季度相比，由於第四季度的採購量減少，我們的銷售稅有所減少。這被與 HPC 業務相關的 SG&A 納入所抵消。

We reported a loss for the fourth quarter of $186.7 million compared to a loss of $99.1 million in the prior year's quarter. As previously discussed, we took an impairment charge of $113.9 million this quarter. In addition, we recorded a $37.2 million noncash loss on the reevaluation of our digital assets as a result of a decrease in the price of bitcoin.

我們報告第四季度虧損 1.867 億美元，而去年同期虧損 9910 萬美元。如前所述，本季度我們計提了 1.139 億美元的減值費用。此外，由於比特幣價格下跌，我們在重新評估數字資產時記錄了 3720 萬美元的非現金損失。

In Q4 2021, we booked a $114.2 million noncash loss on the revaluation of warrant liability compared to a gain of $4.3 million in the current quarter.

2021 年第四季度，我們在認股權證負債重估方面錄得 1.142 億美元的非現金損失，而本季度為 430 萬美元的收益。

Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $3.9 million versus a positive EBITDA of $35.3 million in the prior year's quarter. For the 3 months ended December 31, 2022, adjusted EBITDA was negatively impacted by 3 factors. Firstly, the shutdown of North Bay mining site impacted our bitcoin mined in the quarter. Secondly, we saw a sharp increase in power rates at our Drumheller site in the quarter, which resulted in lower profitability, higher-than-normal levels of curtailing and fewer bitcoin mined. Lastly, a further reduction of bitcoin prices had a negative impact on our revenue and adjusted EBITDA.

調整後的 EBITDA 為虧損 390 萬美元，而上一季度為正 EBITDA 3530 萬美元。截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日的三個月，調整後的 EBITDA 受到三個因素的負面影響。首先，北灣礦場的關閉影響了我們本季度開采的比特幣。其次，我們看到本季度我們的 Drumheller 站點的電價急劇上升，這導致盈利能力下降、削減水平高於正常水平以及開采的比特幣減少。最後，比特幣價格的進一步下跌對我們的收入和調整後的 EBITDA 產生了負面影響。

Our balance sheet remains healthy. We closed the year with $30.5 million in cash. Our debt continues to be relatively low. Our bitcoin holdings are marked at fair value and totaled $203.6 million as of December 31, 2022, with 9,086 of bitcoin in custody.

我們的資產負債表保持健康。我們以 3050 萬美元的現金結束了這一年。我們的債務仍然相對較低。我們持有的比特幣以公允價值計價，截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日總計 2.036 億美元，其中託管了 9,086 個比特幣。

Thank you for joining us. With that, I will turn the call back to our operator for analyst Q&A.

感謝您加入我們。有了這個，我將把電話轉回給我們的接線員進行分析師問答。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Mike Colonnese with H.C. Wainwright.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 H.C. 的 Mike Colonnese。溫賴特。

First one for me. I saw that you relocated 7,000 miners from North Bay to Medicine Hat. How long do you guys think it will take to redeploy those miners there? And do you have the sufficient infrastructure and power availability to support the additional capacity?

第一個給我。我看到你們將 7,000 名礦工從北灣轉移到了梅迪辛哈特。你們認為在那裡重新部署那些礦工需要多長時間？您是否擁有足夠的基礎設施和電力可用性來支持額外的容量？

Yes. So I'll take that one. We've moved miners really into temporary storage for now, while we assess various options of where we could redeploy them. We don't currently have that much available capacity in Medicine Hat today.

是的。所以我會拿那個。我們現在已經將礦工真正轉移到臨時存儲中，同時我們評估了可以重新部署它們的各種選擇。我們目前在梅迪辛哈特沒有那麼多可用容量。

Got it. Got it. And I appreciate the clarity there. And then the next one for me, if we look at post-merge environment here, you'll be operating several different business lines. How should we think about strategic priorities for the balance of 2023 after the transaction closes, and how you intend to allocate capital?

知道了。知道了。我很欣賞那裡的清晰度。然後是我的下一個，如果我們在這裡查看合併後的環境，您將經營幾個不同的業務線。交易完成後我們應該如何考慮2023年餘額的戰略重點，以及您打算如何分配資金？

Yes, we're entirely focused on getting this transaction closed as you can imagine, and working with the combined teams to plan out the integration. So too soon for me to say where we're going to be prioritizing capital allocation.

是的，我們完全專注於完成您可以想像的交易，並與合併後的團隊合作規劃整合。所以我現在說我們將優先考慮資本配置的地方還為時過早。

Your next question comes from Joseph Vafi with Canaccord.

你的下一個問題來自 Canaccord 的 Joseph Vafi。

I know you probably can't talk too much about Validus, but is there at least a time frame that perhaps we should be looking at where we may get a resolution on that? And then I have a quick follow-up.

我知道您可能不能過多談論 Validus，但是否至少有一個時間框架，也許我們應該考慮在哪裡可以找到解決方案？然後我有一個快速跟進。

So yes, we -- to be transparent, we've had some setbacks at our North Bay site, which affected our results in the latter part of the year, an issue that we continue to be addressing. In November 2022, we delivered a notice of event of default to Validus. And as we announced in January 2023, we filed a statement of claim against Validus. In February of 2023, we received a statement of defense and counterclaim from Validus, which denies the majority of the allegations in the statement of claim and brings counterclaims. We believe the counterclaim is meritless, and intend to vigorously defend all the claims in the counterclaim, while pursuing the claim set out in our statement of claim.

所以，是的，我們 - 透明地說，我們在北灣網站遇到了一些挫折，這影響了我們今年下半年的業績，這是我們繼續解決的問題。 2022 年 11 月，我們向 Validus 發出了違約事件通知。正如我們在 2023 年 1 月宣布的那樣，我們向 Validus 提交了索賠聲明。 2023 年 2 月，我們收到了 Validus 的答辯和反訴聲明，該聲明否認了訴狀中的大部分指控並提出了反訴。我們認為反訴毫無根據，並打算在追究我們訴狀中提出的訴求的同時，積極抗辯反訴中的所有訴求。

Having said that, these matters are in the early stages of litigation, and we can't make any assessment regarding the likely outcomes with a high degree of certainty. Unfortunately, the current litigation means that the North Bay site is not currently operational as we've discussed, and miners and electrical equipment has been removed from the site. As I just mentioned to the prior question, we're assessing opportunities to energize the approximately 7,000 miners from North Bay, which represents approximately 680 petahash of capacity. But given this is a legal matter, we cannot comment further at this time, although I appreciate the question, Joe.

話雖如此，這些事項仍處於訴訟的早期階段，我們無法高度確定地對可能的結果做出任何評估。不幸的是，當前的訴訟意味著北灣站點目前無法像我們討論的那樣運行，並且礦機和電氣設備已從該站點移除。正如我剛才提到的前一個問題，我們正在評估為北灣的大約 7,000 名礦工提供能量的機會，這代表了大約 680 petahash 的容量。但鑑於這是一個法律問題，我們現在不能進一步評論，儘管我很欣賞這個問題，喬。

Sure. Absolutely, Jaime. That was a very clear answer, and I'm glad you had it ready to be -- to say. So that's fair enough. Just if you kind of look out at the landscape now, I mean, it does feel like mining today is in better shape than it was a few months ago with spot prices being higher and mining equipment pricing still have not -- hasn't responded that much at this point. How do you feel about the supply side of the business looking into 2023? I know you got a lot of moving parts. You got to finalize your merger here, but it does seem like mining rigs are attractively priced right now. I'm not sure how long they will be. And any thoughts on exploiting this pricing environment right now?

當然。當然，傑米。這是一個非常明確的答案，我很高興你已經準備好要說了。所以這很公平。如果你看看現在的情況，我的意思是，感覺今天的採礦狀況確實比幾個月前好，現貨價格更高，採礦設備價格仍然沒有——沒有回應在這一點上就這麼多。您如何看待 2023 年的企業供應面？我知道你有很多活動部件。你必須在這裡完成你的合併，但看起來採礦設備現在的價格確實很有吸引力。我不確定他們會持續多久。對現在利用這種定價環境有什麼想法嗎？

No problem. Yes, there -- we still see a lot of available supply in the market from a miner capacity perspective. The long pole in the tent, as I think we've discussed before, is on the access to power side, but also the power distribution infrastructure. And so, I think, we're just going to continue to assess the market, and again, really, really focused on getting our merger closed. We're incredibly excited about the increased diversification of new huts in the combined entity and the optionality that it will give us to strategically pivot as this supply environment continues to adjust.

沒問題。是的，從礦工產能的角度來看，我們仍然看到市場上有大量可用供應。帳篷裡的長桿，正如我認為我們之前討論過的那樣，是在電力接入方面，也是配電基礎設施。因此，我認為，我們將繼續評估市場，並再次真正專注於完成合併。我們對合併後的實體中新小屋的多樣化以及隨著供應環境的持續調整而賦予我們戰略性轉向的選擇性感到非常興奮。

Your next question comes from Chris Brendler with D.A. Davidson.

你的下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Chris Brendler。戴維森。

I wasn't able to tease out the exact number, but it looks like the gross margins or profit margins in the bitcoin mining side of the business were came in a lot better than I was expecting. And I saw there was, I guess, a full year number around CAD 20,000 cost per mined. Can you talk about the fourth quarter, and if you can provide some insight into average power costs? Are they increasing, are they decreasing and the outlook for '23?

我無法梳理出確切的數字，但看起來比特幣挖礦業務的毛利率或利潤率比我預期的要好得多。我看到，我猜，全年每個開采的成本約為 20,000 加元。你能談談第四季度嗎？如果你能提供一些關於平均電力成本的見解？它們在增加嗎？它們在減少嗎？23 年的前景如何？

I'm happy to turn it over to Shenif to answer your question.

我很高興將其轉交給 Shenif 來回答您的問題。

Thank you, Jaime. Thank you for the question. So the cost of mining in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year was $20,100 that compares to $22,800 in the prior year. In the fourth quarter this year, we did see an increase in the power costs that we were seeing, particularly in our Drumheller location as we saw some stark increases in the power rates there. So that impacted our numbers. The offset to that is we did have about 1.5 months of mining in North Bay. As you know, we've got favorable power rates at the time with Validus at that time, we were mining still. So those 2 factors kind of led to the $20,100 average cost of mining in the quarter.

謝謝你，傑米。感謝你的提問。因此，本財年第四季度的採礦成本為 20,100 美元，而去年同期為 22,800 美元。在今年第四季度，我們確實看到我們看到的電力成本增加，特別是在我們的 Drumheller 位置，因為我們看到那裡的電費明顯增加。所以這影響了我們的數字。對此的抵消是我們確實在北灣進行了大約 1.5 個月的採礦。如您所知，當時我們與 Validus 一起獲得了優惠的電價，我們仍在開採。因此，這兩個因素導致本季度的平均挖礦成本為 20,100 美元。

Okay. And so, going forward, you won't have North Bay, but how much does this precipitous drop in natural gas prices help out the outlook for '23?

好的。因此，展望未來，你不會有北灣，但天然氣價格的急劇下跌對 23 年的前景有多大幫助？

I really can't get too much guidance specifically about what the impact will be in 2023. Certainly, we have seen some drop in our power rates in Alberta since the end of the year. So we'll hope to see that trend continue as we move forward.

我真的無法獲得太多關於 2023 年影響的具體指導。當然，自今年年底以來，我們已經看到艾伯塔省的電價有所下降。因此，我們希望看到這種趨勢在我們前進的過程中繼續下去。

Okay. Jaime and Shenif, I'd just like to sort of ask an industry question that you may or may not be able to comment on. I'm just thinking about Silvergate and what's happening to the traditional banking system in the United States where a lot of crypto related companies have been using Silvergate as their banking partner. Where is -- how do you stand there? And what do you think it means for the industry?

好的。 Jaime 和 Shenif，我只想問一個行業問題，您可能無法評論也可能無法評論。我只是在想 Silvergate 以及美國傳統銀行系統正在發生的事情，許多加密相關公司一直在使用 Silvergate 作為他們的銀行合作夥伴。在哪裡——你怎麼站在那裡？您認為這對行業意味著什麼？

Yes. So I'm happy to take that one. Obviously, we know Silvergate and the team, although we've never had a direct working relationship with them. So we don't -- there is no direct impact to Hut in that regard. From a broader ecosystem perspective, certainly, it's not something that any of us wanted to see. It's going to have ripple effects as I think we've already seen overnight. But from a Hut perspective, there is no direct implication.

是的。所以我很樂意接受那個。顯然，我們了解 Silvergate 和團隊，儘管我們從未與他們有過直接的工作關係。所以我們沒有——在這方面對 Hut 沒有直接影響。從更廣泛的生態系統角度來看，這當然不是我們任何人希望看到的。正如我認為我們已經在一夜之間看到的那樣，它將產生連鎖反應。但從 Hut 的角度來看，沒有直接的暗示。

Okay. I want to squeeze in one more, if you don't mind. HPC revenue came in almost exactly where I had it, so solid progress there. But with all the hype around AI in the fourth quarter and for other companies indicated that HPC demand is still rising rapidly, can you give us any color on what you expect in terms of how that business looked in this year?

好的。如果你不介意的話，我想再擠一個。 HPC 收入幾乎完全符合我的預期，因此取得了穩步進展。但是，由於第四季度圍繞 AI 的所有炒作以及其他公司表明 HPC 需求仍在快速增長，您能否告訴我們您對今年該業務的預期情況？

I can't give you any forward-looking guidance. But what I can say is, we are very pleased that we did that acquisition. It's been just over a year since we diversified into that area. And then, ultimately, we're able to, not just integrate the business, but spent a significant amount of time focusing on upgrading that business. So I think we've timed the market incredibly well. and we continue to be bullish on the space and really thrilled that we're a bit ahead of the curve on that diversification strategy.

我不能給你任何前瞻性的指導。但我能說的是，我們很高興我們進行了這次收購。自從我們多元化進入該領域以來已經過去一年多了。然後，最終，我們不僅能夠整合業務，而且花費大量時間專注於升級該業務。所以我認為我們已經非常好地把握了市場時機。我們繼續看好這個領域，並且非常高興我們在多元化戰略方面領先於曲線。

Your next question comes from George Sutton with Craig Hallum.

你的下一個問題來自 George Sutton 和 Craig Hallum。

So also on HPC, just asking the question a different way. Can you talk about the key use cases that you currently have relative to the HPC segment?

在 HPC 上也是如此，只是以不同的方式提出問題。您能談談目前與 HPC 細分市場相關的關鍵用例嗎？

So as I think you know, when we purchased that business, we purchased it with an existing fleet of enterprise customers. So we've got just under 400 enterprise customers across the 5 data centers, and they're consuming a mix of products from us, which includes colocation, cloud and managed services. And those customers are from very diverse industries. I think, really, all major industries are represented in our current customer base. And when we kind of look forward and think about the demand profile that we're seeing really increase from, it's -- we're definitely seeing more inbound demand from artificial intelligence. Gaming continues to be strong. Machine learning is another area that's got traction. But I would say, the leading use case right now from a demand perspective that we're seeing in an inbound capacity is coming from AI projects.

所以我想你知道，當我們購買該業務時，我們是與現有的企業客戶群一起購買的。因此，我們在 5 個數據中心擁有近 400 家企業客戶，他們正在使用我們的各種產品，包括主機託管、雲和託管服務。這些客戶來自非常不同的行業。我認為，實際上，所有主要行業都代表了我們當前的客戶群。當我們展望未來並考慮我們看到真正增長的需求概況時，我們肯定會看到更多來自人工智能的入站需求。遊戲繼續強勁。機器學習是另一個有吸引力的領域。但我要說的是，從需求的角度來看，我們在入站容量中看到的主要用例來自 AI 項目。

So, Shenif, I wonder if you could address the Drumheller question this way. Your overall cost was $20,100. I'll use $15,000 as an equivalent U.S. dollar amount per bitcoin. Natural gas prices are down 50% year-to-date. So my assumption would be that you should be seeing those fall. And I'm getting to the curtailment question in terms of trying to understand when you ostensibly would curtail? Is it simply at the production costs number? Or are there additional considerations relative to that?

所以，Shenif，我想知道你是否可以這樣解決 Drumheller 的問題。您的總成本為 20,100 美元。我將使用 15,000 美元作為每個比特幣的等值美元金額。今年迄今為止，天然氣價格下降了 50%。所以我的假設是你應該看到那些下跌。我正試圖了解你表面上會在什麼時候削減？僅僅是生產成本數字嗎？或者是否有與此相關的其他考慮因素？

Yes. So I would just -- first of all, I would just kind of highlight the Drumheller specifically. We are invested in some electrical issues at our Drumheller site, which have reduced our overall production there. We're in the early stages of exploring some community options to mitigate the challenges, and hope we have more definitive plan ready in due course. So it's a bit more complicated in Drumheller in that you're right that we're seeing energy prices drop, but we are seeing an impact on production right now due to the electrical issues. So a bit more is going into play into the first quarter as we look into these issues that we're having at that site specifically. It's a bit more complicated than just energy price reduction.

是的。所以我只想 - 首先，我會特別強調 Drumheller。我們在 Drumheller 工廠投資解決了一些電氣問題，這降低了我們在那裡的整體產量。我們正處於探索一些社區選項以減輕挑戰的早期階段，並希望我們在適當的時候準備好更明確的計劃。所以 Drumheller 的情況有點複雜，你說得對，我們看到能源價格下降，但由於電力問題，我們現在看到對生產的影響。因此，當我們專門研究我們在該站點遇到的這些問題時，第一季度將發揮更多作用。這比僅僅降低能源價格要復雜一些。

I assume that was the case. And then finally, is there any update you can give us on the closing process in terms of things that you are awaiting in terms of stipulations or anything that we need to be aware of? And any sense of the timing of the close?

我想是這樣的。最後，關於您正在等待的規定或我們需要注意的任何事情，您是否可以就關閉流程向我們提供任何更新？對收盤的時機有什麼感覺嗎？

Great question. So I'll take that. The closing of the proposed merger of (inaudible) US BTC continues to be a top priority, as we've discussed. And we're happy to share that we have received a no-action letter from the Competition Bureau of Canada in respect of the proposed merger. The letter confirms that the Competition Bureau does not, at this time, intend to challenge the proposed transaction under the merger provisions in the Competition Act. This is a very positive development as we continue to work to obtain all necessary regulatory shareholder, exchange and other approvals required to close the transaction. So that's as much of an update as I've got for you today.

很好的問題。所以我會接受的。正如我們所討論的那樣，完成（聽不清）美國 BTC 的擬議合併仍然是重中之重。我們很高興地告訴大家，我們已收到加拿大競爭局就擬議合併發出的不採取行動的信函。這封信確認，競爭局目前不打算根據《競爭法》中的合併條款對擬議的交易提出質疑。這是一個非常積極的發展，因為我們將繼續努力獲得所有必要的監管股東、交易所和完成交易所需的其他批准。這就是我今天為您提供的更新。

That was impressive off the top of our head.

這讓我們印象深刻。

You know me, I'm always prepared.

你了解我，我時刻準備著。

Your next question comes from Bill Papanastasiou from Stifel.

您的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Bill Papanastasiou。

I just want to first touch on the high-performance computing business. We've continued to see upward movements in margin performance for the business unit, and they now sit over 50%. Just wanting to hopefully get some more color on how we should be thinking about margins in the long term, and how the team is strategizing on what I believe is still excess capacity at the -- in some of the TeraGo sites?

我只想先談談高性能計算業務。我們繼續看到該業務部門的利潤率呈上升趨勢，現在已超過 50%。只是希望獲得更多關於我們應該如何考慮長期利潤率的顏色，以及團隊如何制定戰略，我認為在一些 TeraGo 站點仍然存在過剩產能？

Yes, I'm struggling how to answer that question. We've got a -- we've done a lot of work, as I talked about updating the facilities, and I went into some of the specifics already on the call this morning. We've got an incredible sales team in place that's actively driving expansion of the pipeline. But I don't know how to get into more specific details. We do have some expansion capabilities remaining in a few of the sites, not all 5 are expandable, but we'll continue to look to expand as required when the capacity that we have built out already is still up. So it's really a data center by data center question as opposed to a suite demand question.

是的，我正在努力如何回答這個問題。當我談到更新設施時，我們已經做了很多工作，我在今天早上的電話會議上談到了一些細節。我們擁有一支令人難以置信的銷售團隊，他們正在積極推動管道的擴展。但我不知道如何進入更具體的細節。我們確實在一些站點中保留了一些擴展能力，並不是所有 5 個站點都可以擴展，但是當我們已經建立的容量仍然可用時，我們將繼續根據需要進行擴展。所以它實際上是一個數據中心的數據中心問題，而不是一個套件需求問題。

Right. Great. Yes, I appreciate the color, and I understand that the data centers will be specifically focused in a particular region. So that makes sense.

正確的。偉大的。是的，我喜歡這種顏色，而且我知道數據中心將專門集中在特定區域。所以這是有道理的。

Yes.

是的。

Exactly. Yes. So shifting gears to the mining space. The company was able to see fairly strong gross money margins just given where breakeven electricity costs were. And assumed power cost may be for these sites. And it appears that things are trending in a positive direction in 2023, just based on that same analysis. Given the relationships that you guys have, and just your take on the space with manufacturers, how do you see further consolidation in the space as we approach the having -- are you planning -- do you see an improvement in overall mining economics? What's your take on 2023?

確切地。是的。所以換檔到採礦空間。考慮到盈虧平衡的電力成本，該公司能夠看到相當強勁的毛利率。並且假定的電力成本可能適用於這些站點。並且基於同樣的分析，2023 年事情似乎正朝著積極的方向發展。考慮到你們之間的關係，以及你們與製造商對這個領域的看法，你們如何看待這個領域的進一步整合，因為我們正在接近擁有——你們是否計劃——你們是否看到整體採礦經濟的改善？你對2023年有什麼看法？

Yes. I mean I wish I had a crystal ball. I think we've all been surprised by the continued growth of the hash rate and difficulty level despite relatively sideways trading of the bitcoin price in general. Obviously, a nice development that we've seen natural gas prices come down. And as Shenif mentioned, hopeful that, that will continue. But it's really, really difficult for us to make a prediction on ultimately where hash rate and difficulty are going to go, as well as bitcoin price. So what we've always tried to do as a business and a leadership team is make sure that we have optionality built into the system, which for us, only increases when we get the merger closed with US BTC. And we really believe in the diversified business model that we've kicked off, and ultimately again expands to this merger because we really cannot predict where bitcoin price is going to go or hash rate in the short term for sure.

是的。我的意思是我希望我有一個水晶球。我認為我們都對哈希率和難度級別的持續增長感到驚訝，儘管比特幣價格總體上處於相對橫向的交易狀態。顯然，我們看到天然氣價格下降是一個不錯的發展。正如 Shenif 提到的那樣，希望這將繼續下去。但我們真的很難預測哈希率和難度的最終走向，以及比特幣的價格。因此，作為一個企業和一個領導團隊，我們一直試圖做的是確保我們在系統中內置了可選性，對我們來說，只有在我們與美國 BTC 的合併完成後才會增加。我們真的相信我們已經開始的多元化商業模式，並最終再次擴展到這次合併，因為我們真的無法預測短期內比特幣價格或哈希率的走勢。

And keeping in mind, we're right about a year away from having, which has its own unique implications as I think (inaudible).

請記住，我們距離擁有它還有大約一年的時間，我認為這有其獨特的含義（聽不清）。

Right. I guess it helps to have that huge bitcoin treasury too, as we approach to having and hopefully get the upside there.

正確的。我想擁有龐大的比特幣金庫也有幫助，因為我們正在接近並希望在那裡獲得優勢。

My pleasure, any time.

我的榮幸，任何時候。

There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed.

目前沒有其他問題。請繼續。

Okay. Thank you again, everybody, for joining today, and for your continued support. We truly appreciate it, and we look forward to an exciting 2023 ahead. Have a great day, everybody.

好的。再次感謝大家今天的加入，感謝你們一直以來的支持。我們真的很感激，我們期待著激動人心的 2023 年。祝大家有美好的一天。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.

女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與，並請您斷開線路。