Acuren Corporation

Hello and welcome to the Akron Corporation fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the form of presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, you may press star then zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Dan Scott, Investor Relations with ICR. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. Joining me on today's call are Tal Paise, Accurance President and CEO, Kristen Schultes, Accurance Chief Financial Officer, and Robbie Franklin, Accurance Co-Chairman. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that certain statements in the company's earnings press release announcement and on this call are forward-looking statements which are based on expectations, intentions, and projections regarding the company's future performance, anticipated events or trends, and other matters that are not historical facts. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In our press release and filings with the SEC, we detailed material risks that may cause our future results to differ from our expectations. Our statements are as of today, March 27, 2025, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements we may make except as required by law. As a reminder, we have posted a presentation detailing our fourth quarter financial performance on the investor relations page of our website. Our comments today will also include non-GAAP financial measures and other key operating metrics. A reconciliation of other information regarding these items can be found in our press release and our presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Tal.

Thank you, Dan, and good morning, everyone. I'm excited to be here for our inaugural earnings release as a public company. I'm proud of our team for delivering another year of record revenue and adjusted EBITDA. As ACTRIN continues its journey in the public market, I want to take a moment to highlight a core tenant of our culture, one that has driven our success and positions us to continue to create value for shareholders. Since 2009, our company's tagline has been a higher level of reliability. This mindset guides us and shapes how we operate on a daily basis. Reliability is one of those attributes you can never have too much of. Unlike confidence, which can tip into arrogance, or attention to detail, which can lead to inefficiency, reliability is always a virtue. It builds trust, ensures stability, and drives consistent results. At Acurin, a higher level of reliability means we don't settle. We push to be better tomorrow than we are today, more precise, more efficient, and more dependable. Our customers depend on us to ensure the reliability of their equipment and operations. Many of the teams we work for are literally called reliability departments because their job, like ours, is to prevent failures that could lead to catastrophic events. Our inspections aren't discretionary. They're essential. They are a small fraction of our customers' budgets, yet they protect them against immense risk. That's why, in good times and bad, our services remain essential. This same principle of reliability also applies to our employees. We strive to be a company that our employees can count on, a place where paychecks are steady, careers are built, and safety is paramount. We remain grateful for the hard work of our more than 6,000 team members and their dedication to Akron. Our commitment to a higher level of reliability isn't just a slogan. It's our business model, our culture, and the reason why Akron is built to be strong and an enduring investment. Building on those themes, I'd like to take a minute to introduce Akron to those new to the story. Akron is a leading North American provider of asset integrity services, specializing in non-destructive testing, or NDT, access solutions, including rope access, and engineering services. The company employs over 6,000 people across more than 130 offices throughout North America and the UK. Our primary business involves extending and protecting our customers' assets through inspection methods that assess equipment condition without destroying it. The company has grown significantly over the past five years, increasing revenues from 700 million to over 1 billion and nearly doubling EBITDA during that same period. Looking back over our 30-year history, Akron has achieved significant organic growth supplemented by strategic and accretive acquisitions. Our team has a proven track record of identifying, executing, and seamlessly integrating acquisitions. We have successfully added 14 companies over the past five years. Our customer base is highly diversified across several end markets, including industrial facilities, energy processing, and midstream energy infrastructure, with energy transition a smaller but growing contributor to revenue. We do operate an asset-light business model, typically spending 3% to 4% of revenue on capital expenditures. We believe that Accurate's competitive advantage lies in our scale, competitive service offering, and a culture of operational excellence. Our ability to rapidly mobilize a highly skilled workforce generally allows us to meet peak customer demands while maintaining strong utilization. With expertise across advanced NDT engineering and access solutions, including the industry's largest rope access team, we provide tailored high quality services. We believe our commitment to reliability while world class and cost efficiency allows us to deliver superior value while driving profitable growth. I will now turn to our results. In 2024, our team delivered progress against several key financial objectives. First, our revenue grew by 4.5% to a record $1.1 billion for the full year, roughly half of which came through acquisitions. This growth was offset by the exiting of certain customer relationships as we focused on improved profitability as a public company. a theme that will be repeated in 25. Second, we delivered adjusted EBITDA of 187 million, up 11.5% from the prior year. And third, we expanded adjusted EBITDA margins to 17%, representing an increase of 110 basis points compared to 15.9% in 2023. Our growth was driven by deeper service line penetration with recurring customers, targeted new sales in our key markets, and pricing initiatives implemented in 2023. These results are even more notable given the transformational year we had. In January, we began preparations to sell the business, developing investor materials and telling our story to many potential buyers. After extensive diligence, we completed the transaction with Admiral in July, which set the stage for an accelerated five-month public company registration and listing process. Through it all, our operations team remained focused, ensuring seamless service delivery while we built the foundation for long-term success as a public company. Looking ahead, we are optimistic about the opportunities across our key markets. We continue to see strong potential in the industrial energy processing sectors with increased demand from the mining industry and from renewable energy. Our Canadian revenue base remains on a strong growth trajectory, benefiting from broad-based momentum. To date, uncertainty surrounding tariffs has had no material impact on our business. I suspect that is given to our limited exposure to automotive, lumber, agriculture, and consumer goods. On the energy front, our Canadian customers are benefiting from selling their products in US dollars while managing costs in Canadian dollars. With a weaker Canadian dollar, energy customers have been profitable. Note that Accurate has virtually no currency transaction exposure, just translation exposure. In the U.S., we are optimistic about the current administration's commitment to energy initiatives and to the re-industrialization of the country as these efforts promote sustainable growth, strengthen domestic manufacturing, and enhance the nation's energy independence. With that overview, I'd like to hand over the call to Kristin to discuss her financial results in more detail.