AtkinsRéalis Group Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Atkins Realist first quarter 2026 conference call. At this time, all participants are in listening mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1-1 on your touchstone telephone. Please note, this call is being recorded. I would like to turn the call over to Dennis Jasmine, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please begin.

Thank you, Michelle. 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 investor section of our website, which we will refer to during this call. To this 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 NNS 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 company's relevant filings on CEDAW+. These documents are also available on our website. Also during the call, we may refer to certain non-RFRS financial measures. Reconciliation of these amounts to the corresponding RFRS financial measures are reflected in our earnings release and MD&A, which can be found on CEDAW Plus and our website. And now I'll pass the call over to Ian Edwards. Ian?

Thank you, Denis, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm going to begin today's call by providing an overview of our performance for the first quarter. Before I pass it to Jeff to provide more detail on our financial results, we'll then open it up for questions. Our focus on helping clients address long-term global energy security and aging infrastructure needs drove a strong first quarter. We began the year with continued momentum from 2025, as total revenue grew 18% year over year, or 13% on an organic basis. Overall demand remains robust and resulted in record quarterly revenues for our nuclear business. We also grew adjusted EBITDA by 18%, which helped to translate to a 27% increase in adjusted EPS year over year. We continue leveraging efficient and innovative delivery models powered by AI, which are improving safety, quality, and productivity through all corporate functions and our operational business. We see AI as a strong enabler to our business. Engineering is a judgment-based profession that uses data and design to apply it to the built environment and, in our case, on nuclear power plants and complex structures. An example of progress in that field this quarter is our collaboration with NVIDIA on nuclear-powered AI factories which I will speak about shortly. Demand for our unique capabilities remains strong as we secured numerous wins in Q1 to further strengthen our $20 billion backlog. Subsequent to quarter close, we announced three acquisitions, WGA and Corus, Australian engineering and project management consultancy firms. These will expand our presence in this high growth region where rapidly building scale and capability. And additionally Tobin, an Irish engineering and project management consultancy firm, which will further strengthen our footprint in a growing and attractive Irish market. 2026 is off to a great start and we are proud of our accomplishments this quarter. Year two of our delivering excellence and driving growth strategy will continue to highlight our shareholder value creation opportunities. Turn into slide four. First quarter revenue in our engineering services regions business increased by 12% year over year. On an organic revenue basis, engineering services regions grew 5% year over year within our full year 2026 outlook range. Segment adjusted EBITDA over net revenue margin was 14.2%. As a reminder, Q1 is typically the lowest margin quarter. and we expect margin to step up on a quarterly basis over the balance of 2026. The year-over-year decline in margin was primarily due to the reprioritization and wind-down of high-margin projects in the Middle East and reduced federal emergency work in the US. Notably, the combined backlog for all regions has increased by 3% to $13.2 billion versus our backlog as at March 31, 2025. Beginning on slide five, we provide an overview of each of our four regions and their performance this quarter. In Canada, revenue in the first quarter increased 16% organically year over year, while segment-adjusted EBITDA grew to $28 million with a 13% margin. A 220 basis point increase highlighting our ongoing efforts on our margin improvement plan. Across Canada, despite a lower backlog due to strong revenue delivery in Q1, we continue to see solid demand and growth across all end markets. In addition to opportunities in power and renewables and industrial, we're also seeing opportunities for more defense contracts. This stems from recent announcements by the federal government that it plans to allocate approximately $35 billion to fund defense spending in the Arctic and northern regions. We are also well-equipped to capture transportation opportunities, as our unique end-to-end capabilities continue to position us as a critical partner in supporting new infrastructure projects. For instance, we were, through a consortium, recently named preferred proponent for one of the new some cities system contracts, a vital rail project in Quebec City. And lastly, as noted by our sustained margin enhancement, we are executing on our improvement initiatives through cost optimization, enhanced bid discipline, and more efficient project delivery. We anticipate this work will continue to yield consistent results. In UK and Ireland, first quarter revenue grew 13% and organically grew 10% year over year. driven primarily by continued strong demand in water, aviation, and defense projects in the UK. Segment-adjusted EBITDA grew to $105 million in the quarter, representing a 17.9% EBITDA margin. We are focused on improving the utilization of our concentrated presence in this growing region. This work, particularly in the transportation and market, drove strong margins for a second consecutive quarter. Backlog grew 10% year on year to $2 billion, driven mainly by wins in transportation, rail, water, and aviation markets. These end markets continue to demonstrate strong client demand underpinned by long-term commitments and supportive regulatory drivers. In transportation, rail and transit remains positive, with recent wins to support work on the Midland Rail Hub and Northern Powerhouse Rail. Highway work also continues to be contracted as we secured a strategic win on the National Highway's commercial and project management services framework. Overall, market conditions remain resilient, with a strong pipeline of opportunities in growing customer and markets. For instance, the UK government highlighted and its infrastructure strategy that it expects defense spending to rise from 2.3 to 2.5% of overall economic output by 2027, including intelligence services. Our proven experience in this market is leading to increased opportunities for us, not just in the UK and Ireland, but across the globe. First quarter USLA revenue was $529 million, up 22% year over year. Underlying performance in the quarter reflected sustained strength in transportation, while the pace of revenue conversion in other areas were more measured. Overall, the market backdrop remains constructive, and we continue to see healthy demand across our core end markets. Segment adjusted EBITDA was $47 million, representing an operating margin of 11% compared with 14% in the prior year. While the margin performance in the quarter reflected solid execution across much of the portfolio, supported by ongoing cost discipline, this was offset by market expansion and staff-related cost, as well as significantly lower emerging response work. Backlog increased 17% year over year to a new record high of $2 billion. showing continued momentum and healthy client demand across our end markets. The timelines from procurement award to actual work order releases are improving, although timelines remain longer than in prior periods. However, continued backlog growth gives us confidence in achieving our revenue growth outlook despite these challenges. Transportation continues to be a particular source of strength in the business. especially in highways, where market demand is both large and resilient. Beyond transportation, we're seeing a broader set of opportunities develop across buildings and places, industrial, water, and minerals and metals, which reflect the benefits of the investments we have made to land and expand. We are specifically encouraged by the momentum we are seeing in data centers, advanced manufacturing, water, and power-related infrastructure. Taken together, we are confident that growth in the US is becoming broader-based and creates a robust growth outlook for Atkins Realis in the region over the long term. In EMEA, revenue was $294 million in the quarter, down 8% year over year, primarily reflecting lower revenue on major buildings and places projects in the Middle East. This was partially offset by higher revenue in Australia following the acquisition of ADG in Q4 2025. Segment adjusted EBITDA was $18 million, representing a 10% margin on net revenue compared with 14% in the prior year period. The decline was primarily driven by less favorable business mix in the Middle East, including the reprioritization and winding down of higher margin buildings and places work. In addition to these headwinds, our business in the Middle East has been affected by the ongoing conflict. Our priority remains the safety and well-being of our staff in the region, and we continue to monitor the situation closely. Although the near-term environment remains uncertain, the long-term demand fundamentals in the region remain strong. As reflected, in the 15% backlog growth we've delivered this quarter. In Australia, we're focused on capturing the benefits of our ADG acquisition and continuing to build our position in an attractive growth market. We also expect the recently announced WGA and Chorus acquisitions to further strengthen our platform and enhance our ability to capture opportunities across multiple sectors particularly power, defence and activity related to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. In Asia, we continue to see encouraging opportunities in both transportation and buildings in places, particularly in Hong Kong, where the northern metropolis development and related projects, such as the Northern Link, are expected to support future demand. More broadly, We expect other parts of the region to return to growth towards the end of 2026. I'd like to now move to slide 9 and discuss our first quarter results for our nuclear business. The business continues to demonstrate exceptional growth, achieving an organic revenue increase of 37% compared to the first quarter of 2025. Backlog. totaled 4.5 billion, down 15% from March 31, 25, primarily reflecting continued progress on the ongoing projects, particularly the OPG Pickering Life Extension project. Given the timing and phasing of major contracts, we would expect backlog to fluctuate from quarter to quarter, but with the ongoing refurbishment projects we currently have in place, we remain confident in our ability to deliver on our revenue growth outlooks for 26 and 27. Segment-adjusted EBIT grew 31% to a quarterly record high of $82 million, while segment-adjusted EBIT margin was 11%, and segment-adjusted EBITDA margin was 27%. On slide 10, we highlight some achievements across our nuclear can-do and services portfolios. In our can-do business, we are making strong progress on OPG Pickering and the Cernavoda life extension work. The refurbishment of the fourth and final can-do reactor at Darlington Nuclear Power Plant in Ontario was recently completed ahead of schedule and under budget. Our proven execution in Canada and Romania is creating new opportunities internationally. We recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkey Nuclear Energy Company in support of potential deployment of CANDU technology as the country looks to add reactors to its existing nuclear fleet. This is another good example of how successful delivery in our core markets is helping to drive broader interest in both our nuclear technology and our ability to service the entire lifecycle of an asset. In the US, we are continuing to grow our nuclear business by broadening our customer base and expanding into areas where we see clear demand, including waste management, digital, and robotics, alongside our existing federal work. We continue to see a more supportive backdrop for nuclear, which we believe can broaden the opportunity set across both reactor and nuclear services technologies and further enhance the strategic relevance of our can-do technology. In services, we are now part of the NVIDIA ecosystem, as we recently announced a collaboration with them on nuclear-powered AI factories. This is an important partnership to explore the integration of NVIDIA's technologies for the development and deployment of nuclear-powered large-scale AI factories. These technologies provide Atkins Realis with a framework to design and optimize integrated infrastructure systems in a 3D digital twin before building in the real world. This collaboration comes at a time when global AI infrastructure demand is rapidly outpacing available power supply, prompting governments and developers to pursue scalable solutions for gigawatt-class data centers. Nuclear power is emerging as a leading low-carbon baseload for AI factories. As the original equipment manufacturer and exclusive license holder of the can-do technology, Atkins Realis is well-positioned to work alongside NVIDIA for the next generation, hope supporting dedicated AI computing workloads. In the UK, growth continues to be supported by our work across nuclear lifecycle, including new build support at Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C and decommissioning activity in Sellafield. As we win more work and strengthen our position as a global leader in nuclear, we are advancing the development of our can-do monarch design alongside key clients. Importantly, the growth we are seeing in nuclear is supported by real work and real revenue today, which gives us confidence in opportunities ahead. Turning to slide 11, you can see our pictorial reminder of these near-term can-do revenue opportunities within our nuclear business. We have been working hard to bolster our backlog with high-quality wins, which reinforces the bright future we have ahead. I have spent the last several weeks traveling the world, meeting with global ministers, leaders, regarding investment in energy security. Amid continued tension in the Middle East, these discussions reinforced the strong momentum behind nuclear as a vital low-carbon and secure energy solution and underscored the significant growth opportunities ahead for our business. I also met with several hyperscalers, hyperscaler leaders in Canada and the US recently to discuss how can-do reactors can help them deliver power generation needs for data centers and AI factories. We strongly believe that can-do reactors would be a great solution for them. With that, I'll now turn it over to Jeff to discuss our financial highlights.