Concrete Pumping Holdings, Inc.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Concrete Pumping Holdings financial results for the first quarter ended January 31st, 2020. Joining us today are Concrete Pumping Holdings CEO, Bruce Young, CFO, Ian Humphreys, and the company's external director of investor relations, Cody Slaw. Before we go further, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Slaw to read the company's safe harbor statement within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that provides important precautions regarding forward-looking statements. Cody, please go ahead.

Thank you. I'd like to remind everyone that in the course of this call, to give you a better understanding of our operations, we will be making certain forward-looking statements regarding our business and outlook. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. For information concerning these risks and uncertainties, see Concrete Pumping Holdings' annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly report on Form 10-Q, and other publicly available filings with the SEC. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. On today's call, we will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures including adjusted EBITDA, net debt, and free cash flow, which we believe provide useful information for investors. We provide further information about these non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the comparable GAAP measures in our press release issued today or the investor presentation posted on the company's website. I'd like to remind everyone this call will be available for replay later this evening. A webcast replay will also be available via the link provided in today's press release, as well as on the company's website. Additionally, we have posted an updated presentation to the company's website. Now I'd like to turn the call over to the CEO of Concrete Pumping Holdings, Bruce Young. Bruce?

Thank you, Cody, and good afternoon, everyone. We sincerely hope that you and your families remain safe and healthy at this time. I wanted to thank our team for their continued commitment to safety and in delivering exceptional service to our customers, while continuing to navigate the lingering effects of COVID-19. Today's discussion focuses mostly on our first quarter 2021 performance and once again our headline financial results highlight our continued operational strength and business resilience against COVID-19 disruptions. We continue to execute our plan of capturing market share in a large and growing yet highly fragmented market. Importantly, our scale, diversified regional and end market exposure, and our highly variable cost structure demonstrate the value of our operating business model. During the first quarter, revenue was down slightly when compared to a year ago as we are still experiencing COVID-19 impacts in our UK and US markets, whereas the first quarter of last year was completely was completed entirely before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Softness in some of our commercial work is being largely offset by continued strength in residential construction, as well as a pickup in our infrastructure markets, which really highlights our agility and the value of being well diversified across end markets and geographically. Infrastructure has been an area of focus since the election, and while the details and timing are unknown at this point, President Biden has been clear that this will be a priority for his administration. And as the economy continues to recover, CPH is in a strong position to benefit from an increase in market spending, including infrastructure. Infrastructure is a market we have been pursuing more aggressively for the past several quarters, and we are seeing success not only in our infrastructure project heavy UK market, but also in our US markets. These projects include bridges, schools, wastewater treatment plants, hospitals, or any industrial projects supported by public funding. The residential improvement is a theme we have discussed in prior calls, and that momentum from prior quarters has certainly continued. To paint the end market picture in numbers in U.S. concrete pumping compared to end market of fiscal 2020, our commercial business moved from 57% of revenue to roughly 50%, whereas residential increased from 30% to 34% and infrastructure stepped up from 13% to 16%. As Ian will address shortly, this shift in our business mix has not impacted the discipline of strength of our gross margin structure, as variable costs for lower job tickets such as residential also flex downward. Our ability to pivot while maintaining our gross margins is a unique value driver of our business model and we are very pleased in our ability to continue finding opportunities to gain market share. For our concrete waste management business, our Q1 winter period is usually a slower growth quarter due to typical seasonal trends. However, even with the contracted construction market, when compared with our 2020 first quarter volumes, we were able to drive revenue expansion on continued organic growth, price improvements, and the expansion of our roll-off service. We have added to our sales force so that we continue to be focused in what could be a heavier virtual selling environment in the short term. Last but certainly not least, in January, we took advantage of our financial strength and favorable capital markets to restructure our debt facilities. We have been closely tracking the capital market trends for some time, and following robust fiscal year 2020 results, we believe the timing was right to pursue a refinancing and improve our debt facilities. The refinancing transaction has allowed us to substantially improve our liquidity profile and the structural flexibility of our debt facilities and lock in favorable interest rates through 2026. In 2020, our cash interest costs largely related to the repaid term loan facility were approximately $33 million. Going forward, the annual cash interest costs related to the high yield bond will be approximately $23 million. a $10 million savings. By further strengthening our balance sheet, doubling our liquidity from the 2024 quarter, and reducing our average cost of debt, we have enhanced our ability to pursue accretive investment opportunities. This strategic debt modification supports our overall long-term growth strategy, and we are actively making great progress exploring several accretive growth opportunities. In fact, we currently have multiple NDAs in place with companies suitable for acquisition criteria that we're pursuing across the U.S., and I will return to discuss more about this subject later. Given our operational momentum and financial strength, we remain committed to executing on our strategic priorities and maximizing shareholder values through fiscal year 2021. Now I'd like to hand the call over to Ian so he can provide a detailed overview on our first quarter 2021 financial results. I'll then return to provide some color on our market expectations for this fiscal year. Ian?