AtkinsRéalis Group Inc.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Good morning and welcome to Atkins-Realis first quarter 2024 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in a 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 one 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 Denis Jasmine, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Bonjour tout le monde. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. For those dialing in, we invite you to view the slide presentation that we have posted in the Investors section of our website. which we will refer to during this call. Today's call is also webcast. With me today are Ian Edwards, Chief Executive Officer, and Jeff Bell, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to ask everyone to limit themselves to one or two questions to ensure that all analysts have an opportunity to participate. You are welcome to return to the queue for any follow-up questions. I would like to draw your attention to slide two. Comments made on today's call may contain forward-looking information. This information, by its nature, is subject to assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, and as such, actual results may differ materially from the views expressed today. For further information on these assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, please consult the relevant findings on CIDAR+. These documents are also available on our website. Also during the call, we may refer to certain non-IFRS financials, Reconciliation of these amounts to the corresponding RFRS financial measures are reflected in our earnings relief and MD&A, which can be found on CEDAR Plus or Lite. And now I'll pass the call over to Yann Edwards. Yann? Thanks, Denis.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. I'm going to begin by providing an overview of our performance in the first quarter. Our growing backlog and the success we are seeing in our four engineering services regions and nuclear businesses. I'll then pass it over to Jeff to provide more detail on our financial results and our updated guidance before we open it up for Q&A. So let's get started on slide three. We started 2024 on a strong note. The first quarter results driven by the growing demand for our services to address the energy transition At Ageing Infrastructure, the measures we have taken to de-risk the company and focus on our core strengths is continuing to bear fruit. This was proven again this quarter by our top-line and bottom-line improvement over the first quarter of last year. Atkins Reality Services revenue increased 19%, with segment-adjusted EBIT increasing 19.5% to approximately $187 million today. driven by robust demand across our businesses. Backlog at the end of the first quarter of 2024 was approximately $15 billion and represents another record high for the company as it grew 26% year over year. Operating cash flow was $37 million, a significant improvement compared to the first quarter of 2023. And in line with our expectations, of delivering over $400 million for the full year. Net limited recourse and recourse debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio at the end of the quarter was 1.7 times, remaining in a 1.5 to 2 times target range. Our recent results reinforce our position in the marketplace. The demand for our services is fueled by the need to replace an aging infrastructure and provide clean, affordable, and secure energy solutions. Our historical execution track record makes us the partner of choice for public and private entities achieving their net zero goals. On slide four, we can see the progression of our backlog growth for Atkins Realist Services over the last year. Our 26% growth year over year was driven by key bookings across our core engineering services and nuclear businesses. The most significant contribution to the backlog in the quarter was due to taking over the Shun O&M contract, one of the largest hospital centres in Canada. We will be maintaining all of the hospital systems in support of medical operations, as well as the lifecycle replacement management of all of the equipment Additionally, we saw strong backlog growth in the UK and the US engineering services regions in the quarter. We also continued to capture projects across many of the end markets and regions in which we operate. In the US, we continue to strengthen our relationship with the Georgia Department of Transportation, and in the UK, we continue to provide design and construction management services for the rail network signalling. Turning to slide five, our engineering services business continues to generate robust organic top line growth as we witnessed an 18% increase year over year in the first quarter. Our revenue generation was driven by the continuation of our ability to secure new wins across our geographic scope. Segment adjusted EBITDA over net revenue margin improved 15% during the quarter. we continue to increase our backlog, which now stands at just below $12 billion, representing a 19% growth versus our backlog as of March 31, 2023. And as mentioned on our last earnings call, we have changed our operational structure. And therefore, starting on slide six, we will provide an overview of each of our four regions and of their performance. So, starting with Canada, organic revenue grew 22% year over year, as we saw continued strength in our ability to service the transportation, industrial and power renewables end markets. Segment-adjusted EBITDA was $22 million, representing an approximately 12% margin. We are having success in attracting and retaining high-quality employees. bolstering our position in the marketplace with deep expertise across our talent base. Looking ahead, we continue to see a pipeline full of opportunities. Our leading position provides a strong foundation as we continue to grow customer relationships and capture additional wallet share through our end-to-end capabilities across the entire lifecycle of projects. As we focus on enhancing the depth and breadth of our team in Canada, we see an opportunity to increase our position in provinces across the country that are focused on bolstering their transport, properties and net zero goals. In the UK and Ireland, we continue to capture key wins, particularly in the defence, water, transportation and power and renewables end markets. Organic revenue grew to 5% versus the first quarter of 2023, while segment-adjusted EBITDA grew to $74 million, representing a margin over net revenue of 15.5%. We saw continued backlog growth during the first quarter to $1.7 billion, primarily through new work orders in the transportation and market. This was particularly the case in the Network Rail project, which is a key transportation line for more than 20% of UK citizens in their daily commute. In addition to this project, we're also at key wins in aviation, water infrastructure and climate resiliency, where our longstanding relationships with the government enabled our continued growth. We continue to add to our market share and increase our backlog as leading providers in engineering services across the region. Results this quarter and our historical execution highlight the resiliency of our business during times of economic uncertainty. In the US and Latin America, we saw a continued growth trajectory, led by our work in transportation, power renewables, minerals and metals, and markets. Organic revenue grew 13% year over year, while segment-adjusted EBITDA fell slightly to $46 million. The year-over-year decrease in profitability was mainly due to storm recovery work with FEMA during the first quarter of 2023 that did not repeat itself this year. The backlog increased approximately 9% year-over-year from its significant framework wins in transportation, and the pipeline of opportunities continues to look robust. As you will hear more during our investor day next month, Our land and expand strategy is working. We have deep relationships with several departments of transportation across the U.S., and we are methodically increasing our foothold in high-growth city centers. Looking out, we see steady volume for this business as major cities continue to address their aging infrastructure, particularly in the transportation market. The pipeline of infrastructure construction in the U.S. continues to be very strong. and it's expected to see significant annual growth over the next several years. And we will be steadfast in our approach to investing for growth to expand across the U.S. to ensure we are winning our share of potential new contracts. Moving to slide nine and the EMEA region, we welcomed Christine Healy as our new president in the quarter with a mandate to drive engineering services growth in the region She brings a wealth of operational experience and a global perspective, which will enrich our strategic approach to capitalize on growing opportunities we see in Asia, the Middle East, and Australia for our services. I'm really excited to have her join our leadership team. In the first quarter, results in the region were really strong as organic revenue grew 58% versus the first quarter of 2023. This performance was mainly driven by an increase in volume of delivered work on major projects for which we are contracted in the Middle East. Our performance in the quarter led to a segment-adjusted EBITDA of $35 million, an increase of 75% compared to the prior year, and represented an 18% margin over net revenue. Total backlog in the year grew 23% as we captured opportunities in buildings and places and transportation and markets. I'd now like to move to slide 10 and the results of our nuclear business. We continue to demonstrate robust growth with an organic revenue increase of 21% in the quarter compared to the first quarter of 2023. Our nuclear backlog is $1.8 billion. which represents an 87% growth versus our backlog as of March 31, 2023, driven by higher bookings in the second half of last year, related primarily to our can-do refurbishment and services business. Segment-adjusted EBIT as a percentage of segment revenue was 13% in the quarter. On slide 11, we highlight the achievements in each of the nuclear services that we provide. As we look across our markets, we see a continued increase in the pipeline of opportunities for large and small nuclear renewables. We're seeing strong activity in our UK operations through Winkley Point in Sineswell. In February, we successfully launched the Canadians for Can Do campaign, which promotes the deployment of Can Do nuclear technology in support of Canadian and global efforts to reach net zero emissions. So far, we have a strong support from Canadian stakeholders, and we're excited about the potential of this campaign. Additionally, we are collaborating with AECL to accelerate the development of the Kandu Monarch reactor. This intellectual property, championed by the Canadian government, is on track to be a game changer for the future of nuclear across the globe. Our exclusive rights to this technology sets us up for a long runway for growth. I am excited for our team to provide you with more information regarding nuclear at our investor day in June. In Ontario, we are actively working on can-do life extensions at Darlington and Bruce Power. We continue to see growth opportunities in Ontario as the government recently announced a programme to refurbish the Pickering nuclear power station. This will extend the plant's life by 30 years and help meet a projected surge in Ontario's electricity demand. Early work on this project is already underway. In Europe, work on our can-do recoup and refurbishment programme at the Cernovola plant in Romania is progressing well, and we continue to advance the potential opportunity for a new build contract of the Cernovola 3 and 4 unit. This is a pivotal project for the country, as it supplies electricity to approximately 20% of Romanians, and we are thrilled to be engaged in this great work. On waste management and decommissioning, we have a strong pipeline of national security work at the disposal facilities in the UK and the US. A long-standing position in these markets and our recognised expertise has allowed us to continue to win new work. The near-term and long-term nuclear growth opportunity for Atkins Realis is significant and the demand for our services continues to grow quarter over quarter. We are constantly harnessing our capabilities across the globe to be trusted partners to governments and utilities as they seek to achieve their net zero goals. Now moving to slide 12 and our links on LFDK projects and capital businesses. Our LinkedIn segment saw a 30% year-over-year organic revenue growth in the first quarter, continuing its momentum from the first quarter of 2023, and realised an EBIT of $2 million. Backlog, $1.5 billion at the end of the first quarter was 47% higher than the first quarter of last year. Commissioning and testing on our Ontario LSTK project is continuing as planned. Our backlog decreased 42% to $299 million at the end of the first quarter, primarily representing the rent project, which continues to progress well. As we finalize the LSDK projects for our clients, we continue to pursue claim recoveries that we believe we are owed, and these discussions remain ongoing with our clients. On capital... First quarter decreased mainly due to a revised estimate on a financial asset held in one of our investments. We did not receive a dividend from Highway 407 in Q1. However, traffic has continued to increase year over year, and they recently announced a dividend in the second quarter, which will be $12 million for Atkins Railways. I'll now turn it over to Jeff to discuss the financial results.