Orion Group Holdings, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Orion Group Holdings second quarter 2023 earnings conference call and webcast. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. On today's call, management will provide prepared remarks and then we will open up the call for your questions. To ask a question, Analysts may press star, then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the key and to draw your questions, please press star, then 2. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Margaret Boyce, Investor Relations for Orion. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Justin, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss Orion Group Holdings' second quarter 2023 financial results. We issued our earnings release after market last night. It is available in the investor relations section of our website at oriangrupholdingsinc.com. I'm here today with Travis Boone, Chief Executive Officer of Orion, and Scott Banish, Chief Financial Officer. On today's call, management will provide prepared remarks, and then we'll open up the call for your questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today's comments will include forward-looking statements under the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements that are identified by words such as will, be, intend, believe, expect, anticipate, or other comparable words and phrases. Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Our actual financial condition and results of operations may vary materially from those contemplated by such forward looking statements. Discussion of the factors that could cause our results to differ materially from these forward looking statements are contained in our SEC filings, including our reports on form 10 Q and 10 K. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Travis. Travis, please go ahead.

Thank you, Margaret. and welcome to everyone joining our call today. In the second quarter, we made substantial progress against our strategic plan, and Scott and I will cover the details in our prepared remarks. Before that, I want to give you more context around our second quarter performance. As you saw in our press release, revenue came in at $182.5 million. Our loss per share was a penny, and adjusted EBITDA was $3.7 million. Last quarter, we told you that we expected second quarter results to be better than the first quarter. And they are a significant improvement over last quarter, reflecting the progress we are making to improve our long-term performance. We expect continued improvement through the back half of the year. I'll start with our concrete business. As you've heard me say before, our immediate priority was to improve concrete's profitability. When Scott and I came on board, the concrete business had been losing money for too long. Since we started the transformation of our company in September, we implemented disciplined bidding processes, made leadership changes, added more rigor in our project delivery, exited the unprofitable Central Texas market, and focused our resources on our Dallas and Houston markets. As a result of these actions, our concrete business returned to profitability in March. That profitability continued in April, May, and June, and we expect that trend to be sustainable. Right now, we have a large volume of work that has been bid, which reflects very strong demand in our core markets. We won't win all that work, especially if it doesn't meet our bid margin thresholds, and some customers are delaying decisions until the cost of capital stabilizes. Even so, we feel concrete is in a strong position for the rest of 2023 and beyond. While concrete was a bright spot this quarter, Our volume challenges in the marine business continued, primarily in our dredging operation. For context, our dredging business has historically been roughly 20% of our revenue and 30% of our profit. When that business is slow and we don't have work to bid, it has a big impact on us. The Army Corps of Engineers has the responsibility, the mandate, and the funding to maintain U.S. waterways along the Gulf Coast. They are very aware of the pressing need to dredge major shipping channels to keep commerce moving efficiently along the coast and to the ports. Delay of this maintenance activity has far-reaching consequences on the Gulf economy and the U.S. supply chain, potentially disrupting shipping, goods handling, warehousing, and ground transportation. While we are excited about the potential to see significant opportunities in this space in the long run, our near-term bidding opportunities continue to be limited relative to historical levels. In this environment, our focus is on carefully managing our costs and maintaining bidding discipline. In the second quarter, we were successful in winning a $27 million dredging contract from the Corps, and just last week, we won another $18 million contract with the Corps for dredging in Louisiana. These wins will help to get our dredges busier in the latter half of the year. We have several large outstanding bids for marine construction, and we remain confident that our opportunities to grow will continue. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure act was passed two years ago, and while only a very small portion of the work has started, it is coming. Our project to build a dry dock at Pearl Harbor is underway, and we are mobilizing equipment and resources to Hawaii. We expect our portion of the work on this $435 million contract to continue over the next two and a half years. Orion is now fundamentally stronger and better positioned for accelerated profitable growth. We laid out our three-point strategic plan earlier this year, and we have made substantial progress in a short time. We are committed to doing what we say we will do and delivering on our plan to transform our business. We began with a long checklist and have ticked off many of the boxes, all focused on de-risking the business to clear the path for long-term and sustainable growth. We shored up our balance sheet and liquidity. In many ways, this was one of the most critical objectives we faced. We secured a new $103 million ABL credit facility and have thus far monetized $25 million of assets with substantially more under contract. We have attracted great talent to focus on business development and growth. Building stronger customer relationships is a critical element in driving future growth. Casey Stavanoa joined us to lead business development for our efforts in Louisiana, which is an important state for us considering that $50 billion is earmarked for Louisiana coastal restoration. Alan Eckman joined us in July to lead corporate growth and strategy, reporting directly to me. These individuals bring years of experience and proven results to Orion. We will continue to invest in key resources focused on growing our business. We're also investing in training and tools that will allow our people to reach their full potential. Our goal is for our people to clearly understand our business objectives, embrace a growth mindset, and speak about the business in the same way. This is an important step in strengthening our culture and leveraging best practices, driving synergies, and cross-selling capabilities. Looking ahead, we are extremely excited about the future. In the remaining months of 2023, we will continue to build momentum in the execution of our strategic plan and expect quarter over quarter improvements in performance. After establishing a foundation for the new Orion this year, 2024 will be a very different year for the company. We are fortunate to have the most exceptional people in the industry and two businesses with different catalysts for growth, concrete more driven by the private sector and marine by the public sector that can balance one another during challenging times. When both are performing well, as we expect in 2024, they can deliver dramatic growth. Now I'll turn the call over to Scott for his review of the financials and operations.