Alithya Group inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Aletheia Second Quarter Fiscal 2025 Results Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, November 14, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Aletheia Management. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you once again for joining us for Alethea's second quarter fiscal 2025 results conference call. The press release and MD&A with complete financial statements and related notes were issued this morning and are now posted on our website. The webcast presentation can also be found on our website in the investors section. Please be advised that this call will contain statements that are forward-looking and which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These statements include, without limitation, our estimates, plans, expectations, and other statements regarding the future growth, results of operation, performance, and business prospects of Aletheia that do not exclusively relate to historical facts. These statements can also refer to future events, including those regarding our expectation of our clients' demands for our services, our ability to take advantage of business opportunities, to leverage our service offering, IP, AI, and expertise to meet clients' needs, to stand out and excel in a competitive market, and to meet our goals set in our three-year strategic plan, as well as our ability to deploy our smart shoring capability. For more information, please refer to the cautionary note in our presentation and to the forward-looking statements and risks and uncertainties section of our MD&A, available on our website. All figures discussed on today's call are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise stated, and we may refer to certain indicators that are non-IFRS measures. Please refer to the cautionary note in our presentation and to the non-IFRS and other financial measures section of our MD&A for more detail. Presenting this morning are Paul Rimmel, ELITAS President and Chief Executive Officer, Bernard Dockrell, Chief Operating Officer, and Debbie DiGregorio, Interim Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Paul.

Paul? Thank you, Benjamin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'd like to begin by highlighting three notable achievements from the second quarter of our fiscal 2025 year. I will then turn things over to Bernard to bring down the specifics of our operational performance, followed by Debbie to cover some of the financial highlights. First, I want to commend our team for the continued improvement in our profitability and for delivering a double-digit adjusted EBITDA increase. This was done in a difficult economic environment for discretionary technology spending and Given our current client base and type of work, you could say that most of our strategic and critical projects would fall in the discretionary spending category. When we take a closer look at our large digital transformation projects, once they get started, we know they seldom stop, and we deliver on our promises, which is reflected in the excellent scores we receive on our client satisfaction surveys, which contribute to our high-value reputation and future work. However, Because of the current economic environment, newer projects, especially the large ones, are much slower to kick off, and this impacts our quarterly bookings. As a reminder, while we stay focused on moving opportunities down our funnel on a daily basis, our trailing 12 months booking and total backlog are better measures of our future success. So despite this economic environment and seasonally softer summer months, we have delivered year-over-year growth in all areas of the business except within our Quebec client base, and our backlog is strong. Furthermore, we have significantly improved our adjusted net earnings, which amounted to $5.3 million in Q2, an increase of $5 million year over year. This is the result of our team's continued focus on reductions in SG&A expenses and higher value services mix. As we continue to deleverage and to diligently manage our net cash from operating activities, we are better positioned to address acquisition opportunities that may present themselves. Second, our gross margin as a percentage of revenue increased again year over year. This achievement was fueled by increasing demand for aletheia's higher margin services, improved utilization of our workforce, and continued SmartShore progress. And third, Despite growth challenges with a handful of clients in Quebec, we saw continued share gain across many of our business lines, particularly in the Canadian renewable energy sector, as well as in our Oracle and Microsoft implementations. We continue to grow and solidify our partnerships with industry-leading technology providers, And as we gain greater traction in higher margin segments, Alethea's reputation as a trusted advisor with increasingly specialized expertise continues to grow. And on that note, I will now turn things over to Bernard to provide more details about our second quarter operational performance. Bernard?