Andrew Chanin on UFO ETF Rebound & Evolving Space Opportunities

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
It's time for our Watchlist ETF Segment here. Joining me right now, Andrew Chanin, CEO, co-founder of Procure AM, and we take a look at the UFO ETF that you have. We've gotten in news from SpaceX and Rocket Labs. In fact, SpaceX is up about 30% this month. Rocket Lab's probably about 25%.
What's the outlook for space and UFO here, Andrew?

**Andrew Chanin** (0:26)
Space has been certainly in headlines. We've seen a lot of great news. We've also seen some volatility since the SpaceX IPO. And I think a lot of people are kind of taking a pause to determine which stocks they want to own or if they want to just own a basket through something like UFO. But we've been seeing a lot of great headlines for the industry of late.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:47)
And UFO itself has done very well. As we look over the one year, I believe it was up about 58%.
Just want to double check that number here. But that big picture is a pretty nice return here on space. When you see demand, you're talking about backlogs used to be somewhat worrisome. Now, it's really a sign that there's just so many orders they continue to try and fulfill, right?

**Andrew Chanin** (1:13)
Yeah, so when you look at the earnings, in a lot of these companies, you see losses, but it's because they're spending. They're spending because they're trying to position themselves for where they believe that this industry is going to be moving towards in the future.
So a company like Rocket Lab that came out, they're still trying to bring on their next generation Neutron, which is going to have larger payloads and help them service clients with larger demands. But they've also been doing other types of integration, M&A, like the pending Iridium deal, which is also going to essentially line up a launch client for them that they would own. A lot of these companies, including SpaceX, you have to include them in any space conversation these days. They're putting a lot of money towards a lot of these very big ambitious projects, some of them could have very large opportunities for them as well.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:56)
You said overall, while there was volatility surrounding SpaceX itself, there are new government contracts, commercial contracts, M&A activity, new money being spent that folks shouldn't worry about space and these companies because they continue to grow.
You were also looking at names like AST and a few others like Global Star, Firefly. I just saw Garmin up there, Series XM. Pick out one or two that really stand out to you right now and tell us a little something about the companies that you think is most interesting since you're the expert in this space.

**Andrew Chanin** (2:33)
Well, I think one company that people are starting to pay a lot of attention to now and it's picked up gradually over the last two years, but certainly with the SpaceX Starlink Mobile kind of information that was shared during the earnings report.
ASTS is one of these companies that's helping other mobile carriers as well.
Satellite to cell communications are clearly something that satellite providers are offering now and that cell providers are looking for for their client base. Is SpaceX going to eat the lunch of AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone and others, or will it just be another option that's out there? We'll see, but AST Space Mobile is a company that has struck numerous deals with the likes of AT&T and Verizon as well. So time will tell how those shake out, but it's something that is becoming very important to watch now because if Starlink Mobile does become a major competitor to existing cell carriers, that's going to be something that could certainly move markets. And then a company like Garmin, something that people don't necessarily think of automatically when they think of space, is very important when you think about GPS. So things like maritime navigation and things like that. If you take the space out of it, all of a sudden, your devices is really not what you purchased it for. So there's a lot of companies that are doing things in space. Some that are obvious, oh yeah, that's a space company. Other ones where they're fully enabled by space based technologies. But it's going to be really exciting to see what happens with things like orbiting space stations, replacing the International Space Station when that's decommissioned. And you've got a company like Voyager, which is a little bit further down our holdings list, which is trying to come up with their own solutions with Starlab.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:14)
And look, ASTS, you were talking about that remote, it's up 22 percent this month and there's a lot of talk about new revenue targets going forward when you see expansion with satellites and the like. Andrew Chanin, great to see you, CEO, co-founder Procure AM and we'll continue to watch the ETF there, UFO.