Aimia Inc.

Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the AMYA Inc. fourth quarter 2022 results conference call. At this time all lines are in a listen only mode. Following the presentation we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance please press star zero for the operator. All is being recorded on Thursday, March 16, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Albert Matusik,

Thank you, Michelle, and welcome everyone to this morning's call. Today's presentation is available on CDAR and on our website. Before we get underway, I would like to remind everyone to review our forward-looking statements and the cautions and risk factors pertaining to the statement. My name is Albert Matuszek, Head of IR and Communications. With me on the call today are speakers Phil Middleman, AMIA CEO, Michael Lehman, our President, and Steve Leonard, our CFO. Phil will begin with the strategic highlights, followed by Michael, who will cover the performance of our investments, before handing the call over to Steve to take you through the results of the quarter. We will have time for your questions at the end. In addition to our earnings release and investor slides for the quarter, we have also posted an updated presentation on the Tough Ropes acquisition, which we expect to close tomorrow. With that, let me hand it over to Phil.

Thanks, Albert, and good morning to everyone on the phone and webcast today. We are excited about our recently announced acquisitions of Tuff Ropes and Bizetto for a total of $585 million. These two businesses generated $72 million in pro forma adjusted EBITDA for the most recent fiscal years, with high free cash flow conversion, providing AMIA with a strong foundation on which we will continue to build. These two companies will form the backbone of our strategy to continue to acquire businesses that generate significant cash flow for AMIA, utilizing our sizable tax assets, while presenting strong opportunities for future growth. On January 31st, we announced that we signed definitive agreements to acquire Tuff Ropes for $252.6 million. Tuff Ropes is a global leader in high-performance synthetic fiber ropes and netting solutions for global aquaculture, maritime, and other various industrial end markets. Tuffropes is expected to achieve annual revenue of approximately $130 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, with industry-leading adjusted EBITDA margins of 18.5%. With our operational improvement initiatives, as well as the optimization of product mix, adjusted EBITDA margins are expected to grow above 20% within the next two years. AMIA expects to close the Tuffropes transaction tomorrow, March 17. On March 6, Amy announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Bezzetto Group for $332.4 million. Bezzetto is one of the world's largest ESG-focused providers of specialty chemicals, offering sustainable textile, water, and dispersion chemical solutions with applications in several end markets, including the textile, home, and personal care, plasterboard, and agrochemical markets. Bezzetto achieved annual revenue of approximately $330 million and adjusted EBITDA of $48 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.5% for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 2022. This transaction is expected to close before the end of the second quarter of 2023. Turning to our financial results, we ended 2022 in a strong financial position with over 540 million of investable cash and liquid securities, a diversified portfolio of holdings that we believe are poised to deliver strong results in 2023, and tax losses of over $660 million that will help shield the sizable portion of our taxable income and capital gains for years to come. During 2022, AMIA bought back 8.3 million common shares on the open market, fully utilizing its most recent NCIB for total repurchases in 2022 of $36.5 million worth of our common stock. Turning to our holdings, Tradex's asset-light model has begun bearing fruit. and in the first months of 2023 saw margins improving. Cognitive, under the guidance of a new CEO, Tim Sullivan, has accelerated their cost-cutting efforts and has begun executing a new business plan. Clear Media is expected to enjoy a strong recovery as two years of zero-COVID policy finally ended in China. Capital A is experiencing a very strong rebound in its airline business. Moreover, as we recently announced, We are increasing our previously stated $75 million capital return target to $100 million, of which we have executed $36.5 million in open market purchases in 2022. And with that, let me turn the floor over to Mike to provide you some further updates on our investment portfolio.