Aimia Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the AMIA Inc. fourth quarter 2023 results conference call. At this time, all lines are in 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. This call is being recorded on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Joe Racanelli. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. With me are AMIA's Executive Chairman, Tom Fink, and our Chief Financial Officer, Steve Leonard. Before we begin, I'd like to point out a couple of items. First, we issued our financial results for the fourth quarter in the U.N. periods earlier this morning. All of our materials, including the news release, MD name, financial statements, are available from our website and CDAR+. We will be using a presentation today, and for those listening to our discussion by phone, a copy is also available from the IR section of our website. Some of the statements made during today's call may constitute forward-looking information about our future results, and our future results may differ materially from what we discussed. Please refer to the risks and uncertainties that may affect our future performance that are referenced in our presentation and in our MD&A. In addition, we will be making note of GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation of these is provided. Following today's presentation, please reach out to me if you have any outstanding questions or require any clarification on the matters discussed today. So with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Tom. Please go ahead, Tom. Thank you, Joe.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. Since becoming Executive Chairman in January, I've had the pleasure of speaking with many of you. For the benefit of those who have not yet to meet, I'd like to begin my remarks with a brief introduction of my experience and a summary of the reasons why I decided to invest in AMIA and join the board as chairman. My career has been spent in the banking asset management industry, most recently as chairman and CEO of Barings LLC, a $350 billion global asset management company. This experience trained me how to evaluate companies, work with management teams to achieve strategic objectives, and most of all, how to unlock value for investors. It's from this lens that I viewed AMIA as an undervalued company when I decided to participate in a private placement closed in October of last year. Developments in 2023 and more recently have reinforced my belief in AMIA's potential upside. However, This will only be achieved through responsible investment decisions and a focus on achieving our operating goals at our majority-owned subsidiaries. Our presentation today is one that will set the baseline for AMIA going forward, given the significant changes in our portfolio in 2023. Most notably, we made two transformative acquisitions last year. Lizetto, a sustainable specialty chemicals company, and Tough Ropes, an industrial ropes manufacturer. Last year, we also facilitated the merger of Tough Ropes with Cortland Industries, creating a global ropes business which has been rebranded Cortland International. In the partial year we have owned these companies, Bozzetto's results were in line with our expectations. At Cortland, we look to improve performance by focusing on integration initiatives and prudent capital investments. Steve will expand on these items in his section. Since becoming the executive chairman, I've often been asked what impact recent management changes have had on our strategy and focus. The simple answer is that we are now laser focused on executing on our operating strategies at Bosetta and Cortland, prudently monetizing the minority investments held in the holding company segment, and strengthening the balance sheet at the holding company. Achieving these goals will take time. Some things we can do in 2024, some will take longer to realize. That said, everything we do will be focused on value creation for shareholders. Let me spend a couple minutes to review our path to value creation. Slide seven presents our path to value creation, illustrating our four key pillars. First and foremost, we are focused on operating our company in a transparent and disciplined manner and establishing clear investment and capital management strategies. Next, AMIA is focused on assisting the management teams at Bozzetto and Cortland to help them achieve their strategic objectives and growth goals. In addition to our focus on managing our core holdings, AMIA will continue to pursue the monetization of minority investments in the holding company portfolio. Steve and I will go into more details about this portfolio later. Finally, as we realize on our non-control investments, we will seek to strengthen our balance sheet so we can implement a responsible capital allocation and investment strategy. Slide 8 is a summary of the major acquisitions that AMEA completed in 2023. We acquired Bozzetto for $258 million for a 94.1% stake in the company. This acquisition was driven by Bozzetto's compelling business model and its consistent history of profitability. Roberto Carreri and his team are proven operators in their industry and have demonstrated the ability to achieve their growth objectives, even in the face of economic headwinds. We also acquired Top Roads. a manufacturer of synthetic ropes and netting solutions, and integrated it with the tuck-in acquisition of Cortland Industrial. Combined, the acquisitions totaled $263 million and have been rebranded at the corporate level as Cortland International. In November, Stuart Jenke, a 30-year veteran in the ropes industry, was promoted to CEO. He and his team are focused on the integration of Cortland and Tuff Ropes and executing on sales channel strategies that we are confident will improve performance going forward. As previous mentioned, a cornerstone of our strategies is to invest in our core platform companies to help drive growth. Bozzetto's acquisition of Starchem, presented here on slide nine, is an example of this approach. This tuck-in acquisition, which closed in early January of this year, was valued at $24.1 million for 65% of the business. The acquisition is strategic on a number of levels. Most significantly, the acquisition allows Bozzetto to expand its market presence in North America and strengthen its customer relationships in the textile industry. Initial results have been encouraging, and we look forward to the continued integration. On slide 10, we provide an example of how we are opportunistically monetizing our minority investments. Capital A operates AirAsia, and we acquired shares in the company following the sale of our equity stake in the airline's loyalty program in 2021. Since October 2023, we have sold approximately 23 million worth of shares, of which 11.1 million was sold in the fourth quarter. As of last week, we still hold more than 56 million shares of capital A. I will now turn the call over to Steve to discuss our financial highlights for the fourth quarter in the fiscal year.