Ameresco, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q1 2019 Amoresco Incorporated Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star, then zero on your touchdown telephone. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Ms. Lela Dillon, Vice President of Marketing. Ma'am, you may begin.

Thank you, Daniel, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your joining us for today's call. Joining me here are George Sakolaris, Amoresco's Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Mark Chiplock, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Before I turn the call over to George, I would like to make a brief statement regarding forward-looking remarks. This call contains forward-looking information regarding future events and the future financial performance of the company. We caution you that such statements are predictions based on management's current expectations or beliefs. Actual results may differ materially as a result of risks and uncertainties that pertain to our business. We refer you to the company's press release issued this morning and to our SEC filings. These documents discuss important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the company's projections or forward-looking statements. We assume no obligation to revise any forward-looking statements made on today's call. In addition, we will be referring to non-GAAP financial measures during this call. These non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A gap to non-gap reconciliation, as well as an explanation behind the use of non-gap financial measures, is available in our press release and in the appendix of the slides, which can be downloaded from our website. With that, I will now turn the call over to George. George?

Thank you, Leila, and good morning, everyone. Taguia is off to a great start. The financial results were ahead of our expectations, We improved our profitability, and most importantly, we significantly expanded our pipeline of assets in development. Revenue, net income, EPS, and adjusted EBITDA were all above our expectations. Gross margin and adjusted EBITDA as a percent of revenue were both higher than a year ago. Looking forward, we are very excited about our business. One reason of that excitement is the growth in our pipeline of energy assets in development and the expanded market opportunity. The pipeline built was simply outstanding. We ended Q1 with 267 megawatts in development. This is a 50% jump over the course of the quarter. The size of this pipeline built is an early indication of the strength of our platform and the wisdom of our strategy to invest in energy asset development across all our regions. By putting in place the resources, the talent, and the capabilities to design, develop, build, and operate energy assets nationwide, we are starting to see the intended acceleration of our portfolios. Our development teams are now penetrating new industries and new geographies. For example, historically, our energy assets were concentrated in a handful of states, especially in the Northeast. We now have sizable wins across our business units throughout North America. The new asset awards span a variety of industries and national accounts. And even as we penetrate new geographies, we continue to build momentum in more established regions. In Massachusetts alone, we recently announced new solar awards totaling over 12 megawatts of capacity. We continue to deepen our commitment to energy infrastructure. In January, we announced the hiring of an industry leader to become our new vice president of energy storage, complementing the vice president of microgrid technology who we hired last year. We acquired Maximum Solar, a solar O&M specialist that deepens our capability in operating solar power assets. Energy assets help to create a foundation of high-margin recurring revenues that underpins our business model. We now have 236 megawatts of operating energy assets, including the Phoenix Green Gas Plant, which was placed into service in Q1. Our operating portfolio has visibility on over $900 million of contracted revenue and incentives over the next 20 years. If we combine our assets in development and uncontracted revenue sources, we have line of sight to over $3 billion of high margin revenue. The other major high margin recurring revenue stream operations and maintenance also performed well. Revenue was up and we added another $5 million of new O&M work to our backlog, bringing our total O&M backlog to $918 million. The recurring profits of managing sales in O&M is only one of the many attractive elements of our business model. is the cash generated by our core project business, which we reinvest back into energy asset development. In Q1, our project performance was solid as well, and we again built visibility in our backlog. Total project backlog grew 3% from the start of the quarter and is again over $2 billion. Growth was balanced. with both awarded and contracted expenditures. Importantly, our anticipated gross margin on the backlog is about one percentage point higher than a year ago, driven by large and more complex projects. A great example of a technically advanced and comprehensive project is a new award in Canada with an existing customer. This is a $9 million utility services agreement where we supply power, gas, and water. We will develop, construct, and operate a distributed generation which includes solar and geothermal. All of the sources will be fed into a campus microgrid. The microgrid includes battery storage for load leveling and backup. This project is attractive on its own. However, it's also proof that these advanced technologies bring new growth opportunities to our existing customer portfolio. Another example of a project using advanced technologies is our award for phase three of the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. This $14 million energy savings performance project includes 4.3 megawatts of solar generation along with ongoing operation and maintenance. The solar is a fortified design for cybersecurity, corrosion, and hurricane resistance. We use a single access tracking system to increase output by over 20%. The Canadian microgrid and NASA WALPS projects are the latest examples in a growing portfolio of projects that utilize advanced technologies to create robust energy infrastructures. Across our project portfolio, we are seeing a growing interest in intelligent controls, resiliency, and microgreens. We are seeing these advanced technologies become a larger part of our projects. Microgreens that use renewable power and battery storage for resiliency and load leveling are becoming a critical element of energy infrastructure across a wide range of facility types, including higher education, military bases, commercial industrial customers, and the like. The energy savings performance model in which efficiency savings held to pay for the infrastructure upgrades is allowing our customers to include these newer technologies. Let me conclude by reiterating that 2019 is a growing and technically strategic year for us. We have billions of dollars of revenue visibility from our core energy infrastructure business, asset portfolio, and O&M backlog. Perhaps more importantly, we have tremendous growth prospects in an expanding total addressable market. We are putting in place the resources to capture these opportunities, maintain our leading market share, and accelerate future growth without I will now turn the call over to Mark for comments on our financial performance and outlook. Mark?