Matrix Service Company

and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Matrix Service Company conference call to discuss results for the first quarter fiscal 2023. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. So ask the question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker for today, Kelly Smythe. You may begin. Thank you.

Good morning and welcome to Matrix Service Company's first quarter fiscal 2023 earnings call. Participants on today's call will include John Hewitt, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Kevin Cavanaugh, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The presentation materials we'll be referring to during the webcast today can be found under Events and Presentations on the Investor Relations section of MatrixServiceCompany.com. Before we begin, please let me remind you that on today's call, we may make various remarks about future expectations, plans, and prospects for Matrix Service Company that constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those discussed in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and then subsequent filings made by the company with the SEC. To the extent we utilize non-GAAP measures, reconciliations will be provided in various press releases, periodic SEC filings, and on our website. I will turn the call over to John Hewitt, President and CEO of Matrix Service Company.

Thank you, Kelly, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today is the day the United States is holding its midterm elections. Let's remember that voting is a right not afforded to so many people elsewhere in the world. Regardless of your party affiliation, get out and vote. Make your voice heard. This coming Friday, November 11th, is also Veterans Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in Canada, Australia, and elsewhere. It's a day that has been set aside since the end of the First World War to honor our military veterans and give thanks for their willingness to sacrifice for the common good. I'd like to thank the men and women of our military for their dedication and commitment to keeping us all safe. Now to our business update. During our last earnings call, we spent substantial time reviewing the key macro drivers to our markets, as well as our project opportunity pipeline and confidence in our strategy and outlook for the future. We also stated that we expected to see a significant near-term uptick in project awards. I'm pleased to report that our expectations are unfolding, as reflected in the awards of $235 million in our first quarter, which resulted in a book-to-bill of 1.1, and in the month of October, we have already received awards of $150 million. Project awards in the first quarter were the second highest we have achieved in the last eight quarters and backlog is the highest it has been in over two years. In storage and terminal solutions, where we are seeing the largest individual opportunities, our first quarter book-to-bill was 1.7 on awards of 132 million. Included in these awards is a large-scale specialty vessel for a long-standing client. In our utility and power infrastructure segment, our book-to-bill was a .9 on awards of 43 million, the majority of which is for electrical infrastructure work. Finally, in process and industrial facilities, our book to bill was .7 on awards of $60 million. Among the projects received during the month of October are two large capital awards. These projects, which will be included in our second quarter backlog, include a second large-scale specialty vessel of similar size and scope as that received in the first quarter, and the upgrade of an existing LNG peak shaving facility for a large public utility located in the Mid-Atlantic region, which was recently announced by press release. These projects, which are only a portion of the awards expected in the second quarter, are very encouraging, particularly since these types of projects provide better margins, cash flow, and long-term foundational support to our backlog. As we discussed in our last call, concerns about energy security globally and reliability domestically have come to the forefront to drive many of our clients' spending decisions. Also, the call to action for cleaner forms of energy and renewables is a strong driver of spending. We continue to see increases in our project opportunity pipeline, and as of September 30, this pipeline has increased to $6.5 billion. Our clients' low-carbon objectives are evident in the types of infrastructure projects that comprise most of our opportunity pipeline. These projects, which include increased infrastructure investment supporting LNG, ammonia, hydrogen, and other renewable fuels, as well as midstream gas and electric infrastructure, all projects that Matrix is well equipped to support. From an operating perspective, first quarter results, which Kevin will discuss further, continue to underscore the increasing momentum in our business. We expect this momentum will be reflected in improving performance as we move through the fiscal year and beyond. Based on the commitment of our people and their attention to quality, the benefits provided by our streamlined organization, and increasing volume of quality projects in both backlog and the opportunity pipeline, we are confident in our ability to deliver. I will now turn the call over to Kevin to discuss our results, and then we will open for questions. Thanks, John.