Black Diamond Group Limited

Thank you for standing by. This is the Chorus Call Conference Operator. Welcome to Black Diamond's first quarter 2021 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode and the conference call 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 and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jason Jang. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you for attending Black Diamond's first quarter 2021 results conference call. With us on the call today is our CEO, Trevor Haynes, and CFO, Toby Labrie. We are also joined today by COO, Modular Space Solutions, Ted Redman, and COO, Workforce Solutions, Mike Ridley, as well as CIO and EBP, Patrick Melanson. Our comments today may include forward-looking statements regarding Black Diamond's future results. We caution that these forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Management may also make reference to non-GAAP financial measures in today's call, such as adjusted EBITDA or net debt. For more information on these terms, please review the sections of Black Diamond's first quarter 2021 management's discussion and analysis entitled Forward-Looking Statements, Risks and Uncertainties, and Non-Gap Measures. This quarter's MD&A news release and financial statements can be found on the company's website at www.blackdiamondgroup.com, as well as on the CDAR website. Dollar amounts discussed in today's call are expressed in Canadian dollars, unless noted otherwise, and are generally rounded. I'll now turn the call over to Trevor Haynes to review the quarter.

Thank you, Jason, and good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss our first quarter of 2021 results. We've had a strong start to the year, and I'd like to thank all of our team members for their hard work and resiliency in the face of some increased pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic. We have continued to execute on our plan to grow and diversify our business and believe the first quarter results are yet another positive data set demonstrating our progress in this regard. Highlights include another record quarter for rental revenue generation in our modular space solutions business unit, record booking volumes within LodgeLink, and strong contract wins in our workforce solutions business unit that have increased contracted revenue by over $55 million so far this year. Total adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $13.3 million, an increase of 34 percent from Q1 2020. We also reported positive earnings of $2.7 million in the quarter, or 5 cents per share on a diluted basis, compared to a net loss of $.1 million in the comparative quarter. In the MSS segment, Rental revenue grew to $13.9 million, or by 56%, from Q1 2020, which is a fifth consecutive quarterly record. Our first quarter results include a full three months of contribution from Vanguard Modular, which we acquired in November of 2020, the integration of which is ongoing. The outlook for MSS remains positive as we are seeing ongoing opportunities to put organic growth capital to work at attractive rates of return and contract duration across North America. We expect steady and continued growth in rental revenues driven by strong utilization, increasing rental rates, ongoing fleet additions, and increased penetration of our value-added products and services, or VAPs. Our WFS segment is showing further signs of recovery and benefiting from our efforts to diversify by end market and geography. As mentioned, since the start of 2021, WFS has added more than $55 million of new contracted revenue, which includes our previously announced Australian contract, additional assets and services in support of the Coastal GasLink project, and further contracts with mining customers in Eastern Canada. A number of these contracts will begin generating rental revenue throughout the latter part of the second quarter, which should provide strong momentum in rental revenue growth into the second half of the year. Our Australia market continues to perform well and with the recent contract award is experiencing strong utilization with good contract durations and strong rental rates across the business. We remain well positioned with respect to the Goldboro LNG project, should it receive a positive final investment decision by the project proponent in the coming months. Last, but certainly not least, we remain very excited about LodgeLink, our digital marketplace offering that is bringing innovation to the crew travel industry. LodgeLink set another quarterly record in room night bookings, with approximately 48,000 room nights booked despite pandemic-related headwinds for travel services. This was up 109% from the comparative quarter and 36% sequentially from Q4 2020. At the end of the quarter, the platform had approximately 3,600 listed properties representing roughly 330,000 rooms servicing 662 distinct corporate customers. We believe the platform is positioned for continued growth this year. Given the contracts awarded to date and continued positive momentum throughout the Black Diamond businesses, which is driving increased visibility, we are optimistic that the balance of the year will show improving results across the business as we make further progress on our strategic objectives of growing and diversifying our MSS business unlocking operating leverage from our existing fleet of remote accommodation assets in WFS, and scaling our LodgeLink travel tech ecosystem. I will now turn the call over to Toby for some further details on the first quarter financial results.