ATCO Ltd.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the ADCO Limited third quarter 2024 results conference call and webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Colin Jackson, Senior Vice President, Financial Operations. Please go ahead, Mr. Jackson.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased you could join us for ACCO's third quarter 2024 conference call. On the line with me today, we have Katie Patrick, Executive Vice President and Officer of ATCO, and Adam Beattie, President of ATCO Structures. And joining us for the Q&A portion of the call, we have Rebecca Kalmakov, the Chief Financial Officer of ATCO Structures. Before we move into today's remarks, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the numerous traditional territories and homelands on which our global facilities are located. Today, I am speaking to you from our ATCO Park head office in Calgary. which is located in the Treaty 7 region. This is the ancestral territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy, comprised of the Siksika, the Kainai, Nipigani Nations, the Tsutinu Nation, and the Stony Dakota Nations. This includes the Tuniki, Bears Paw, and Good Stony First Nations. I want to also acknowledge that the City of Calgary is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Districts 5 and 6. During the quarter, employees across Canada recognized the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by walking together to honor Indigenous communities and their experiences. May we continue to reflect, learn, and respect the diverse history, languages, ceremonies, and cultures of Indigenous peoples as we move toward understanding, healing, and reconciliation. Today, we'll hear from Katie, who will deliver opening comments on ACCO's financial results and recent company developments, followed by an update from Adam on ACCO structures. Following today's remarks, the ACCO team will take questions from the investment community. Please note that a replay of the conference call, a copy of the presentation, and today's transcript will be available on our website at acco.com following the call. Materials can be found in the investor section under events and presentation. Today's remarks will include forward-looking statements that are subject to important risks and uncertainties. For more information on these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our filings with the Canadian Securities Regulators. During today's presentation, we may refer to certain non-GAAP and other financial measures, including adjusted earnings. These measures do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS, And as a result, they may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other entities. And now, I'll turn the call over to Katie for her opening remarks.

Thanks, Colin, and good morning, everyone. Thank you all very much for joining us today. This quarter's results highlight our continued focus on our strategic growth objectives. I'm pleased to report that ACCO achieved adjusted earnings of $91 million in the third quarter of this year. This is $10 million or 12% higher than the third quarter last year. These $10 million of growth came primarily from the strong performance of our Canadian utilities business and resiliency across our other investments. At Canadian utilities, growth in the quarter was driven by an increase in the allowable ROE from 8.5% in 2023 to 9.28% in 2024. as well as continued rate-based growth across our regulated utilities. Our non-regulated assets at CU also contributed to this growth, driven by increased demand and strong seasonal spreads in natural gas storage. As discussed on this morning's CU call, we do expect a reset in our utilities' allowable ROE from 9.28% to approximately 8.97%, or specifically 8.97% for 2025. When considering this and that we will not carry forward the 50 basis points of outperformance under the efficiency carryover mechanism into 2025, we expect earnings growth to moderate for utilities next year. Over the long term, we continue to be bullish on the outlook of our utilities businesses. As population and industrial needs continue to grow, we expect to see very strong fundamentals in our core Alberta markets and opportunities to deliver even higher rate-based growth. Moving to structures and logistics, adjusted earnings were modestly lower compared to last year, primarily due to a provision for bad debt at Agco Fronten. This was partially offset by continued growth of Agco structures, where we delivered adjusted earnings of $29 million, $1 million higher than the same period last year. Atco Structure's strong base business performance was driven by increased global space rental activity, in addition to improved workforce housing trade sale performance across the U.S. and Australia. Before I turn the call over to Adam to discuss Atco Structure's results, I want to speak to the overall Atco portfolio and our strategy of investing in businesses in the essential services space. Some on the call may have heard me speak about this investment strategy in the past, but I thought it would be a good time to reorient our investors around our ASCO strategy and how it is distinct from the operational strategy of our core businesses, namely structures and CU. Essential services underpin our portfolio and our strategy consideration of continued investment in the energy, logistics and transportation, shelter, and real estate segments. These segments are tied to infrastructure. providing us a source of recurring cash flows and earnings that have proven to be resilient to changes in global macroeconomic cycles. When we look at ATCO today, with integrated and sustainable solutions to maintain our exceptional dividend resiliency, our portfolio has been constructed to provide a balance between yield and long-term growth. As you'll see on the slide, we've stratified our investment focus between three primary areas. At the base of our portfolio, we look for a stream of stable and reliable earnings and cash flows for ACTO, which supports new investments and provides surety to our dividends. We expect these investments to provide a consistent and stable yield, protection from cyclicality, and growth in line or slightly above GDP. Our ACTO energy systems and utility businesses in Australia have these characteristics. Moving up in the pyramid, our middle category, we expect these investments to provide a balance between yield and growth. These have some cyclicality, but generally have the ability to outpace overall economic growth and drive better returns. Our structures and No Too Many Ports businesses are good examples of this profile of investment. And finally, at the top of our pyramid, we look for contributions to our portfolio that are more growth-focused. typically with less ability to contribute to the current dividend because of their need for growth capital. Our Ecto Empower business, for example, continues to generate adjusted earnings while having a large pipeline of opportunities within their renewables and clean energy businesses. These investment opportunities are expected to create meaningful growth within their own business and for our portfolio over the longer term. Naturally, as the top growth-focused businesses mature, we would expect them to start contributing additional cash flows to the parent as they evolve down the pyramid and we add more growth businesses. As you can see, this will allow the cycle to carry on. We continue to have significant growth aspirations across these existing investments, and shareholders can expect the new investments we make will be tied to this proven strategy of investing in companies within the essential services space. With that, I'll now pass the call over to Adam to further discuss our ACCO Structures businesses' results.