Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the first quarter of 2022 for Great Lakes Dredge and Drop Corporation Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Tina Baginski, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you, and please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to our first quarter conference call. Joining me on the call this morning is our President and Chief Executive Officer, Lassa Pettersson, and our Chief Financial Officer, Scott Kornblau. LASA will provide an update on the events of the quarter, then Scott will continue with an update on our financial results for the quarter. LASA will conclude with an update on the outlook for the business and the market. Following their comments, there will be an opportunity for questions. During this call, we will make certain forward-looking statements to help you understand our business. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. Certain risk factors inherent in our business are set forth in our earnings release and in filings with the SEC, including our 2021 Form 10-K and subsequent filings. During this call, we also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, which are explained in the Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation attached to our earnings release and posted on our Investor Relations website, along with certain other operating data. With that, I will turn the call over to Lhasa.

Thank you, Tina. As stated in our earnings release, although we reported solid results for the first quarter of 2022, we did not fully meet our expectations as we experienced delays from abnormal weather events, production impacts on various jobs, and some lingering costs from the COVID-19 pandemic that began to diminish as the quarter progressed. In our last earnings call, we discussed two bomb cyclones that brought heavy snow and coastal flooding to the northeast in January, and strong sustained winds impacted several projects in the southeast, pushing production into later quarters. Climate change continues to impact our nation, and our coast continues to see damage as a result of severe storms and rising waters. Although these weather events have short-term impacts on our operations, the resulting damage add to the recurring nature and increased long-term demand for dredging and related projects. As we noted previously, planned dry dockings of six vessels will have an impact on our overall 2022 results, as the vessels in dry dock are high-revenue generators. The large hopper dredge, Liberty Island, was in scheduled dry dock the entire first quarter, but will be returning to work in the second quarter. and our largest vessel, the hopper dredge Ellis Island, is scheduled for dry docking in the second half of the year. In addition, two of our cutter dredges were partially idle during the quarter due to delays in mobilizing on several projects. As we continue to renew our fleet, we are focusing on initiatives that improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Currently, we're upgrading the cutter suction dredge Carolina and the company's largest booster station, the Buster, which we expect will reduce NOx and particulate emissions by more than 80% from these two units. These vessels will both commence work in June on the first phase of the Houston Shipping Channel widening project, where the mechanical dredge, our Dredge 54, has already started working. in April. In addition, engines throughout a fleet are being replaced with new and more efficient models that will help conserve fuel and reduce emissions. A new building program, which consists of a new build hopper dredge, which is a mid-size hopper dredge, remains on schedule and on budget and with an expected delivery in the first quarter of 2023. And we have an option for a sister ship with delivery scheduled for 2024. After decommissioning several of our oldest dredges in 2017, we have invested in productivity upgrades to our best-performing vessels, and combined with our ongoing fleet renewal program, we have positioned as well to meet current and future market demands. Our 2021 ESG report has been posted today. It provides an overview of the initiatives we undertook and the progress we achieved in environmental protection and improvements, the safety and well-being of our employees and business partners, our community contributions and partnerships, fleet improvements, governance practices, and our rapid and thorough response to the COVID pandemic. As part of our engagement with stakeholders and partners, we recently signed an agreement with the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University to provide funding and technical support for what will become the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Laboratory for Dredging and Coastal Studies. Great Lakes has had a long and robust relationship with Texas A&M, That has included research, participation in and teaching of dredging short courses, and advocacy for the ocean and coastal engineering profession, and this agreement will allow us to formalize and build on that relationship. Turning to the exciting news we announced yesterday. Equinor and Allwater Great Lakes are first major contract in the new offshore wind generation market. Equinor and a partner BP has chosen the Great Lakes and Van Oort consortium to perform the subsea rock installation work for the Empire Wind 1 and 2 wind farms off the east coast of the U.S. This project is estimated to provide over 2 gigawatts of renewable energy to the state of New York. The renewable power generated by the two wind farms will power more than 1 million households in New York. This project is considered a flagship offshore wind development, shaping the future of this industry in the US. And this award is significant for our entry into this new market. The project team will be mobilized and start work this year with the installation of rock and scour protection starting in 2025. This award will also provide a solid foundation as we build the backlog for a new subsea rocket station vessel to be delivered from the Ark of Philly yard in the second half of 2024. Great Lakes will be generating local content, employment, and economic benefits in the state of New York by purchasing rock from domestic New York quarries and using its marine logistics base in Staten Island for its site operations. I will now turn the call over to Scott to further discuss the results of the quarter and the year, and then I'll provide a commentary on the market as it goes forward.