Atlas Critical Minerals Corporation

Hello and welcome to the Atlas Technical Consultant's first quarter 2022 conference call. Currently, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, you may press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Jonathan Parnell, Chief Strategy Officer of Atlas. Thank you. You may begin.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. We hope that you've seen our earnings release issued after market closed yesterday. Please note that we have also posted an updated investor presentation, which can be found in the investor section of our website at ir.oneatlas.com. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that today's call may include forward-looking statements. Any statements describing our beliefs, goals, plans, strategies, expectations, projections, forecasts, and assumptions are forward-looking statements. Please note that the company's actual results may differ from those anticipated by such forward-looking statements for a variety of reasons, many of which are beyond our control. Please see our recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which identify the principal risks and uncertainties that could affect our business, prospects, and future results. We assume no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements. In addition, we'll be discussing or providing certain non-GAAP financial measures today, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margins, adjusted net income, and adjusted EPS. Please see our earnings release and filings for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measure. I'll now turn the call over to our CEO, Joe Boyer.

Thank you, Jonathan, and I appreciate everyone joining us today. On today's call, I'll provide an overview of our first quarter results and an update on our strategic priorities, including the benefits we are seeing from our recent acquisitions. David will continue with the discussion of our first quarter financial results and our outlook for the remainder of the year, and then we'll open up the call for questions. The first quarter was a strong start to the year for Atlas with 10% revenue growth, including an acceleration in organic growth, 13% adjusted EBITDA growth, 24% backlog growth, and the completion of two strategic acquisitions. Operating results in the quarter were in line with our expectations given our normal seasonality, and we believe we are on pace for continued revenue growth, margin expansion, and improved cash flows leading to another record year for Atlas in 2022. In the first quarter, we enjoyed a robust 6% organic revenue growth rate, which was driven through a combination of solid in-market fundamentals and the strong backlog growth we generated in 2021. Additionally, we continue to see benefits from the acquisitions we completed over the last several years as we offer our customers a broader set of highly technical services across all our key geographic regions. I'll come back to this shortly with more specific examples of how our acquisitions are contributing to our organic growth. Backlog at the end of the quarter reached another record level at $851 million. up 5% from last quarter and 24% from last year, driven by continued organic backlog growth and contributions from acquisitions. Our awards continue to be driven by environmental and infrastructure markets from both our public and private sector customers, supported by secular trends such as the aging of the nation's infrastructure and an increased focus on environmental sustainability. Beyond our current backlog, we have approximately $110 million of awards pending contract execution. This figure is lower than the last several quarters, as we've had some very large outstanding contracts convert into backlog, such as the $50 million pen access project we announced last quarter. This figure is likely to vary quarter to quarter, and its trajectory from one quarter to the next does not change our view of the overall in-market environment. Last quarter, I indicated I was as optimistic as ever about the outlook and fundamentals driving our business, and I reiterate that statement today. Construction spending has hit record levels in recent months, driving demand for planning and permitting, engineering, project management, and testing and inspection services nationwide. We're seeing strong demand in our state and municipal markets as our customers' tax revenues remain healthy and they increase volume of program management contracts that will ultimately allow them to allocate additional funding related to the infrastructure bill over the next several years. And on the private sector side of our business, with large national clients like Sam's Club and 7-Eleven, we're seeing continued demand as they invest in areas such as environmental compliance, clean energy, and a digital transformation of their assets. As we grow Atlas to scale, broaden, and enhance our technical service offerings and strengthen our geographic footprint across the U.S., we're seeing more and more potential to provide our services on larger programs and with more national customers. We recently announced an award with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to provide environmental capital construction support services for their major capital projects and property improvement projects over the next three years. The contract has a maximum value of $86 million, and we've put $12 million into backlog with the potential for additional bookings as work is released and awarded by the customer. We're excited about the potential magnitude of this project. We're also excited about what it means strategically for Atlas, as this was a prime example of cross-selling opportunities across our acquired companies. This is a high-profile infrastructure improvement program and another example of Atlas's ability to work on some of the nation's largest and most critical infrastructure and environmental projects.