CAE Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the CAE second quarter conference call. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Andrew Arnovitz. You may now proceed, Mr. Arnovitz.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that today's remarks include a notebook for fiscal year 21 and answers to questions contained following statements. forward-looking statements represent their expectations as of today, November 10, 2020, and accordingly, our subjects change. Such statements are based on assumptions that may not materialize and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially, and listeners should caution not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. A description of the risks, factors, and assumptions that may affect future results is contained in the annual MD&A, available on our corporate website and in our filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators on CDAR at www.cdar.com and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR. On the call with me this afternoon are Marc Caron, the President and Chief Executive Officer, and Sonia Branco, our Chief Financial Officer. After remarks from Marc and Sonia, we'll take questions from financial analysts and institutional investors. And following the conclusion of that Q&A period, We'll open the call to questions from members of the media. Let me now turn the call over to Mark.

Thank you, Andrew, and good afternoon to everyone joining us on the call. I'll first discuss some of the highlights of the quarter, and then Sonia will provide additional details about our financial performance. I'll come back at the end to talk about our outlook. We began the fiscal year just as the brunt of the pandemic wore down, And while we're managing through a still difficult environment eight months later, we're starting to see the results of our cost and cash actions and our initiatives to strengthen our market position. We drove solid sequential improvements in our second quarter, which is testimony to these efforts and to the resiliency of our business, which is largely recurring and driven by regulations. We delivered 13 cents of earnings per share and we generated $45 million of free cash flow, which is a good reflection of the cash generative nature of CAE's business. We also booked $668 million in new orders for 0.95 times the book to sales ratio. We saw sequential improvements across all business segments in the quarter, most notably in civil, where revenue increased 47% compared with the first quarter. This was driven by 49% average training center utilization and the delivery of 10 full-flight simulators. Demand improved in both commercial and business aviation training, with the latter recovering more rapidly, driven by the relatively higher level of activity involving the global installed fleet of business aircraft. Civil enjoys a high degree of operating leverage in training, and the higher volume helped drive his operating margin back to the double digits, coming in at 14.2%. We also continued to book new orders, with Civil signing training solutions contracts valued at $353 million. These included three full-flight simulator sales, a five-year business aviation training agreement with a charter company in the United States, a five-year exclusive training extension with Virgin Atlantic, a two-year business aviation training with ExoJet Aviation, and a two-year business aviation training extension with VistaJet. In defense, we also began to see a more positive picture than the first quarter, with some movement on programs impacted by COVID-related restrictions and a resumption of certain training operations. Defense revenue grew 8% over the last quarter, and operating margins improved to 8%. Notwithstanding a still challenging environment, defense booked orders for $278 million, including contracts to continue providing fixed-wing flight training and support services to the U.S. Army at the Sea Dozen Training Center and to support Leonardo with AW139 and AW169 full-flight simulators. other notable contracts, including providing the United States Air Force with upgrades and enhancements to both the KC-135 and C-130H Air Crew Training System programs. Defense also received orders for maintenance and logistics support services for the German Air Force's Eurofighter training devices, and to support the development of a single synthetic environment for the UK Strategic Command. In addition, we were awarded a prototyping contract to support the US Special Operations Command's Global Situational Awareness Program, which will leverage synthetic environments to fuse data into a common operational picture for improved planning and decision support. And in healthcare, revenue grew by 66% compared to last quarter and was 22% higher than last year. With the benefit of additional volume and the commitment commencement of CA air one ventilator deliveries, healthcare's margin reached 8.6%. I'm very proud to say that we're continuing to support healthcare workers in the fighting against COVID-19 with complimentary webinars and learning modules for clinicians. We recently developed a pathogens of high consequence learning module to help prepare clinicians for infectious disease outbreaks. Not only is this the right thing to do, being there for customers and frontline workers in this difficult time. I also believe it cements TE as a leader in developing training content in the healthcare space. With that, I'll turn the call over to Sonia, who will provide additional details about our financial performance. I'll return at the end of the call to comment on our outlook. Sonia?