Brookfield Business Corporation

Welcome to the Brookfield Business Partners fourth quarter 2021 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, simply press star and one on your touchtone phone. Should you need assistance during the call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. Now I'd like to turn the conference over to Alan Fleming, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Fleming.

Good morning, and thank you, operator. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that in responding to questions and talking about our growth initiatives and our financial and operating performance, we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, and future results may differ materially. For further information on known risk factors, I encourage you to review our filings with the securities regulators in Canada and the U.S., which are available on our website. Joining me on the call today is Cyrus Madden, Chief Executive Officer, Dennis Turcotte, Chief Operating Officer, and Jaspreet Dal, our Chief Financial Officer. I'll turn the call first over to Cyrus to provide an update on our business, and then Dennis will give us an update on our recent business operations activities. Jaspreet will finish with a review of our financial results. We'll then be available to take your questions. And with that, I'll pass the call over to Cyrus.

Thanks, Alan. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on the call today. 2021 was a very busy year for us. We invested $7 billion of capital, about $2.2 billion of that coming from BBU, to acquire six really high-quality, market-leading businesses, and we generated about $1 billion of proceeds from our capital recycling initiatives. In addition, Brookfield Asset Management recently committed $1 billion of long-term preferred equity capital to BBU, which further strengthens our liquidity position. We're really pleased with the performance of our operations. Adjusted EBITDA for the year increased to $1.8 billion, driven by a 20% increase in the performance of our existing operations over the prior year. Annual adjusted EBITDA on a run rate basis has now increased to more than $2 billion, up from $250 million annually when we created BBU, in 2016. As we've grown, the profile of our operations has also evolved through a continued focus on higher quality and larger scale business acquisitions. Each of the businesses we've acquired over the past year is either a market leader or has the potential to generate strong growth and high cash returns. We're fortunate to have acquired these businesses for what we believe is reasonable value given their exceptional quality and the strong cash yields we will generate on our capital. Since our last update, we closed our acquisitions of Dexco Global and Modulair Group, two market-leading, large-scale businesses that strengthen our global footprint. We're in the early stages of implementing our value creation plans, and later, Dennis will talk more about what we're doing to support growth at each business. We're also on track to close our acquisition of Scientific Games Corporation's global lottery services and technology business in the coming months. Last week, we reached an agreement to acquire Coupa Group, a leading provider of premium slate roofing products. Coupa has a track record of consistent organic growth supported by a market-leading position, non-discretionary replacement-driven demand, and long-term price stability. This will be a smaller investment for us, but the business will increase our footprint in Europe and should provide us strong cash returns on our capital. In addition to growth, our new business acquisitions should contribute to the substantial levels of cash flows our operations are generating today. These are cash flows that can be used to fund growth, pay down debt, or support recurring distributions up to BBU. This past quarter, our operations generated about $350 million in distributions to BBU to support our growth activities. Toward the end of the year, our Canadian residential mortgage insurer paid a $400 million dividend funded by excess cash in the business. Our share was $165 million. The business continues to operate with excess cash, which we hope to distribute through additional dividends over time. In addition, our nuclear technology services operation continues to generate strong cash flow. In line with prior years, this business paid a $300 million dividend year-end. Our share was about $130 million. In addition, our Canadian gaming and entertainment operations also paid us a $55 million dividend. As the profile of our business has evolved, We've also continued to build value within our operations. As a result, the intrinsic value per unit of our business has increased at a compound annual rate of 18% over the past five years. Most of this value creation has been achieved by acquiring high quality businesses at reasonable prices and enhancing their performance. As we continue to grow, we expect our intrinsic value per unit will also continue to increase. We're excited about how our business is positioned today. Our balance sheet is strong. Our operations are providing growing sources of liquidity. We're focused on integrating our recent acquisitions, accelerating initiatives to surface value in our existing operations, and completing the spin-out of our paired corporate entity, which we hope to do in the coming weeks. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Dennis.