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spk01: of our teams across the country. This momentum continued into 2024, bolstered by favorable weather that reduced the seasonal downtime and allowed work to commence earlier than previously thought, and in some cases through the winter. The first quarter delivered impressive year-over-year growth in earnings and revenue. This shift of work to earlier in the year is not expected to impact our volumes for the remainder of the year with more than sufficient work available to execute the company's record backlog and pending backlog. In the first quarter, we delivered 28% revenue growth with almost $700 million of work executed, bringing our trailing 12-month revenue to almost $3 billion. Adjusted EBITDA improved year over year to $24 million, or 3.5% of revenue, up 3% from the first quarter of 2023. The company reported $10 million of net income and earnings per share of $0.19. We grew our cash flow from operations and our backlog with a positive book-to-bill, both reflecting significant increases on a year-over-year basis. Our diverse and well-balanced combined backlog of work remains over 90% low to medium risk, with over 75% being collaborative in nature. Overall, we are pleased with the quarter, marking a strong start to 2024. We continue to expect considerable overall revenue growth for the remainder of the year with significant improvements to earnings and cash flow when compared to the 2023 as our margin profile continues to improve. BERT added $700 million in securements to its backlog in the first quarter, closing the quarter with $3.5 billion in backlog. Depending backlog of awarded but not yet contracted work increased to $3.4 billion at quarter end. and continues to include almost $1 billion of master service agreements and other recurring revenue. Our portfolio of MSAs spans the energy, mining, and nuclear sectors. Pending backlog was further bolstered through our acquisition of NORCAN in January, one of Alberta's leading electrical service providers. Our combined backlog remains highly collaborative and diversified across many sectors. This robust foundation of work provides significant visibility into 2024 and beyond. both for revenue growth and further margin improvements. It underscores our confidence in the continued demand for our services, particularly in sectors critical to the energy transition, population growth, and infrastructure modernization. The company is committed to enhancing profitability through our focus on disciplined project selection, collaborative contracts, improving margins in our core business, and expanding self-perform and cross-selling opportunities. Margin improvement will also be supported through our M&A strategy, focusing on sectors with higher margin profiles and adding self-performed capabilities. Opportunities to further leverage our cost structure remain as we continue to grow and invest in productivity and efficiency enhancements. We continue to diversify and grow by capitalizing on our strong reputation for delivery of complex projects growing across key sectors and pursuing accretive M&A opportunities. Our strategy is driving growth across multiple sectors, including nuclear, mechanical, electrical, civil infrastructure, and utilities, with an emphasis on energy transition and data-related infrastructure. Supporting our focus on growth is our intention to retain over two-thirds of net income for continued growth post-24, ensuring sustainable financial strength and expansion while maintaining a healthy return to shareholders. The current strong demand environment further boosts our bottom and top-line growth expectations, fundamental changes to our business strategy over the past three to four years have established a resilient foundation for the future, supporting stronger performance even in periods of more normalized industry activity. BIRD remains well positioned to capitalize on the sustained demand and robust bidding environment in our core markets. Our strong reputation for collaborative delivery of complex work combined with a strong suite of self-performed capabilities ensures we can pursue the right opportunities. We remain focused on key sectors that have longer-term cycles, such as electrification, increasing power generation through renewables, hydro and nuclear, multi-year industrial and mining projects, infrastructure developments for growing population, and building upgrades for decarbonization. Having a strong presence across these markets, we are competitively positioned to meet this positive long-term outlook. where it continues to pursue new work selectively, ensuring strategic alignment between capabilities, project type, and delivery model. Most recently, we were pleased to enter into an alliance development agreement to work collaboratively with Metrolink to deliver the East Harbor Transit Hub in Toronto. Under our 50-50 joint venture with Atkins Realis, this will be one of the first major projects in Canada to be procured using an alliance model. The project is a testament to our leading reputation and experience as a collaborative contractor. The outlook for investments in clean power generation, power distribution, and electrification remain exceptional. While electricity demand is projected to increase two- to three-fold by 2050, BERT has a strong competitive advantage to capitalize on these opportunities through our commercial systems and utilities, our civil infrastructure, industrial construction, and industrial maintenance teams. We have extensive experience in Canada's power generation sectors, including hydro, renewables and nuclear. Our team possesses substantial self-perform expertise in civil, mechanical, electrical, telecommunication and data systems, contributing to significant projects across the country. We continue to engage in key markets such as wind, hydroelectric, nuclear, critical mineral and uranium mining essential for nuclear production, as well as battery manufacturing, and other EV supply chain support infrastructure. Given Byrd's reputation and our history of serving top-tier energy and power clients across Canada, we are a sought-after partner across the energy landscape. Companies' demand outlook remains robust. Contributing factors include a renewed interest in Canadian LNG as a greener fuel source, the rise of modular solutions in addressing Canada's affordable housing crisis, and Canada's commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050 with $160 billion investment in a net zero economic plan, including $93 billion in incentives by 2035. Requirements to increase Canada's electricity supply for electrification, along with an infrastructure deficit ranging from $110 to $270 billion, underscores the need for investments in clean energy, power distribution, and efficiency improvements. Public transport is an area of substantial investment across the provinces along with other public infrastructure to support growing communities driven by immigration and population growth. Opportunities in the nuclear sector alongside a robust commodities market further enhance our positive outlook including multi-year opportunities in critical minerals and uranium. In the province of Ontario, the government's 10-year capital plan of 190 billion is set to support investments in various sectors including highways, transit, hospitals, and education. The region is enhancing its electric vehicle and battery supply chain with over $28 billion in investments, as well as adding support for critical minerals in the mining sector. Looking ahead, these significant tailwinds are poised to propel our business forward over the medium to long term. In addition, Byrd's transformed business model is creating value through collaborative frameworks, enhancing our increased self-reform and cross-selling abilities. Our discipline project selection and strategic focus on higher margin market sectors, coupled with further leverage on our cost structure, are contributing to our sustained business performance and to our positive outlook for continued bottom and top line growth. Along with our financial results today, BIRD released its fourth annual sustainability overview. It provides an overview of BIRD's ESG initiatives underway across the country, and information on how we are striving to maximize our positive social and environmental impact, utilizing a strong corporate governance framework. The report can be found on our website. With that, I'll hand it over to Wayne, who will provide more detailed insights into our financial performance.
spk06: Thank you, Terry. Building on strong momentum from 2023, BERT achieved significant year-over-year growth in earnings and revenue in the first quarter, with operating cash flows proportional to this growth. In the first quarter, Byrd reported construction revenue of $688.2 million compared to $536.5 million in the prior year quarter, representing a 28.3% increase year-over-year. The growth was over 90% organic, with Norcan joining the team in mid-January. The company's margin profile improved from the prior year, with gross profit percentage increasing to 8% from 7.4%, The increase in growth profit margins continues to be driven by higher embedded margins on newer work resulting from disciplined project selection and cost control, growing self-performed capabilities and cross-selling opportunities, as well as higher proportion of industrial construction executed in the quarter compared to the prior year. General and administrative expenses were $40.1 million or 5.8% of revenue compared to $31.6 million or 5.9% of revenue in the first quarter of 2023. G&A included compensation costs that reflected the significant appreciation of Byrd's common share and total shareholder return during the quarter, resulting in an additional $3.9 million of share-based compensation costs being recognized in Q1 that are non-recurring in nature. Net income and earnings per share were $10 million and 19 cents per share, compared to $5.1 million and 10 cents per share in 2023, representing an increase of 94%. Adjusted earnings and adjusted earnings per share were $10.6 million and $0.20 per share compared to $5.3 million and $0.10 per share in 2023. The weighted average shares outstanding for the first quarter of 2024 was also higher by approximately 121,000 shares, primarily related to the NORCAN acquisition. Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter was $24.2 million compared to $16.1 million in the prior year, reflecting a 50% improvement year over year. The adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 3.5% for the quarter. The year-over-year increase was consistent with higher gross profit, partially offset by growth-related increases in general and administrative expenses, including compensation costs, and the higher share-based compensation I referenced earlier. The additional share-based compensation impacted the adjusted EBITDA margin in the first quarter by approximately 60 basis points. While delivering sustained margin accretion and revenue growth, Bird remains focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet. With significant liquidity and strong operating cash flow generation, Bird is positioned to support strategic growth initiatives, including flexibility to pursue attractive M&A opportunities that exist in the current environment. Our liquidity position remains strong at the end of the quarter, with $133.6 million of cash and cash equivalents. and an additional $205.5 million available under the company's syndicated credit facility. The seasonal decrease in accessible cash during the quarter was primarily due to investments in working capital to support the company's work programs and investments in equipment, productivity, and technology enhancements. We expect Byrd's cash performance to be a continued differentiator as we deliver operating cash flows commensurate with our growth. Even factoring in further investments in non-cash working capital to support the company's growth through the year, we expect to deliver positive operating cash flows. At quarter end, the company had working capital of $218.6 million compared with $234.0 million at December 31, 2023. The company's acquisition of NORCAM had minimal impact on working capital as the $9.4 million cash proceeds was financed through new long-term debt. Even after closing NORCAM, which is off to a great start, we have significant optionality to pursue further M&A opportunities should they arise. Supported by the strength of the balance sheet and syndicated credit facility, the company has sufficient working capital and liquidity to execute its backlog and to accommodate expected growth in its diversified work program. Overall, our liquidity and leverage ratios and our very positive return metrics remain aligned with expectations. The company's current ratio is 1.26. Our adjusted net debt to trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA ratio stood at 0.46 times, and our long-term debt-to-equity ratio is 22%. The company's capital allocation strategy aims to drive business growth, robust profitability, and enhance long-term shareholder value through a blend of M&A, smart capital investments, and returning capital to shareholders through dividends. Through this balanced approach, the company expects to invest in excess of two-thirds of net income to support growth initiatives. BERT invested $8 million in equipment in the first quarter of 2024 to support the company's rapidly growing industrial and mining work programs for the year, while also returning $5.8 million to shareholders through our monthly dividends. BERT also completed the acquisition of NORCAN in the first quarter and continue to experience robust performance from earlier acquisitions upholding our reputation as a strong integrator and delivering accretive transactions for shareholders. M&A remains a key element of Byrd's capital allocation and growth strategy. Our M&A strategy is targeted, seeking to integrate firms with specialized offerings that complement our existing services, expand our geographic footprint, and focus on strategic sectors like civil infrastructure, process mechanical, electrical, MRO services, utilities, and renewables. With significant investments in the business over the past few years, supporting both the shift to higher margin sectors and organic margin improvements, we are positioned for continued strong performance and expect a momentum to carry through the year. I'll now turn the call back to Terry to comment on the outlook for the company.
spk01: For its focus on higher margin sectors, discipline project selection and collaborative contracting continues to drive higher embedded margins in the company's backlog. We continue to expect considerable overall revenue growth for the remainder of the year, significant improvements to earnings and cash flow compared to 2023. Our expectations for longer-term earnings accretion are supported by the robust demand across BIRD's target sectors and by macro trends in critical areas aligned to longer-term investment cycles, including energy transition, population growth, and infrastructure modernization. BIRD's highly valued team is delivering on clients' expectations safely reinforcing the company's reputation for collaborative delivery of sophisticated complex projects. With that, I'll turn the call back to the operator for questions.
spk00: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Analysts who wish to ask a question may press star then 1 on their telephone keypad to join the question queue. You'll hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star then two. Anyone who has a question may press star then one at this time. The first question is from Jacob Bout with CIBC. Please go ahead.
spk05: Good morning, Terry and Wayne. This is Rahul and Regina. Good morning. Morning. So very strong revenue growth to start the year. Just wanted to touch on the impact from favorable weather to the first quarter and the early start to the programs. Is it possible to quantify how much of the 28% revenue growth you saw in the quarter was a factor of that?
spk01: It's not significant. You know, it could be something like 5%, but it's just a factor of some of the things that we experienced. The quarter was reasonable. So for us, it wasn't a significant impact.
spk05: Right, right. Okay, that's helpful. And you've mentioned that you don't believe that impact should impact volumes for the balance of 2024. So how should we be thinking of growth for the balance of the year? And should it be still somewhat similar to your prior expectation of approaching that low double-digit type growth?
spk06: Yeah, I think that's right for kind of the remaining nine months of the year. And then when you average that in with the 28% in Q1, probably raise the average for the year to mid-teens. And that would be organic and inquisitive growth kind of factored in there with NORCAM. Okay, great. Thank you very much.
spk05: I'll pass it over. Thank you.
spk00: The next question is from Ian Gillis with Stifel. Please go ahead.
spk03: Morning, everyone. Morning. It's probably a bit early, but as we start thinking about 2025 and the backlog of work we have or BERT has looking into next year, do you think another year of double digit revenue growth is possible in 25 at this juncture, just given the work scopes you're seeing today.
spk01: It feels that way. And I tell you also why I think the, the scale of the projects that we're interested in is getting larger and they're, they're maintaining that collaborative, you know, sort of framework, which gets us interested. So I think that alone gives you some confidence to more longevity of, you know, future opportunities that are, evolving and certainly takes out some of the cyclicity and economic ebbs and flows, which we're obviously interested in stemming.
spk03: As we think about potential headwinds, are you seeing any initial signs of private capital slowdowns due to interest rates, cap gains taxes, any of those items that seem to be catching a lot of headline news today?
spk01: No, we've been focused on sectors that, you know, are long-term that don't have that, you know, that pressure and it's really paying off for us because those sectors just have so much momentum. So, you know, despite some headwinds in certain areas, we've, you know, we've been able to pivot and we pivoted a couple of years ago, you know, away from some of those sectors just because we First of all, some of the sectors had lower margin profiles, so we pivoted away from those, and that's really paid off for us.
spk03: Okay. And then obviously with the improvement in the share price, obviously valuation gets a bit better. You've been very disciplined around M&A. But does it change the way you approach that part of the business now? Do you have a bit more capacity to go after larger assets now? Or do you continue on the path you're on, just given that it's been working well over the last number of years?
spk01: I think for us with M&A, we look at opportunities as they evolve. And, you know, there's going to be, you know, the smaller tuck-in opportunities. Every once in a while, there's a larger opportunity. Larger opportunities don't come around very often. So, you know, I think we're open for business when it comes to, you know, the right opportunity if it fits our focus and fits our areas that, you know, we think we can enhance our current offering. And most importantly, it's considerably accretive, you know, to the performance of the business. So, you know, I think, you know, the tuck-ins are, you see those more frequently. And we have, you know, obviously had a really good track record, which is increasing the interest in companies, you know, looking for a longer term partner with BERT. So, but, you know, every once in a while something comes along that we look at more seriously. It's got to be more scale. If it fits the profile that we're interested in, obviously we'll engage.
spk03: No, that's helpful. Thanks very much. I'll turn the call back over. Thank you.
spk00: Once again, any analyst who has a question may press star then 1. The next question is from Frederic Bastien with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
spk04: Sorry about that. Sorry about the interruption. Your margins are tracking nicely higher. I think if I go back many, many years in my model, your margins peaked at 9% back in the late 2009, I appreciate we're in different times, but what do you expect or what do you think the upside potential and the margin is given where you stand today with respect to end market conditions, your better risk profiles in the projects you're bidding on, and also the fact that you're self-performing a lot more work?
spk01: Thanks. Yeah, I think we've been reasonably open about this. Obviously, we're focused on a rolling improvement in our strategic plan, trying to find that annual accretion and where that lands. Again, it's conducive to the demands that are out there and the specialized types of work. Is that achievable to get back to those margins over time? Yeah, absolutely. So that's our focus. And obviously, most impressively, we're growing top-line revenue while increasing the accretion of the bottom line, and that's not easy. So the team is doing a tremendous job as we move the business forward.
spk04: And I guess the margin expansion that you're forecasting for 2024, do you think that can be replicated next year as well?
spk01: I believe so, yes, just with the nature of the opportunities that are out there and the focus we have.
spk04: Okay. So what worries you? Pardon? What worries you right now, if anything? What worries you?
spk01: Oh, what worries you? I couldn't hear what you were saying. What worries you? I think, you know, obviously, you know, our number one focus in the company is always safety and safety You know, safety is something that you continuously put a tremendous effort into, and each year you improve, and our teams are doing a tremendous job of that. But all it takes is, you know, a mistake and someone, an incident occurs. So I'd say that that's probably always the thing that's in the back of your mind, hoping that – we've done everything we possibly can to make sure nobody gets hurt. And I think our teams do a tremendous job with that, but it's still something that's, uh, even behavior, sometimes mistakes can happen. So, um, that's probably one area, but I think right now, um, we're focused in all the right areas. The, the, the opportunities that are in front of us are longterm and have, have a lot of lakes. And, and, uh, so we're, we're pretty excited about all that. And, uh, so yeah, I'd say my, My worries are more around probably safety and just making sure that we keep raising the bar and making sure nobody gets hurt.
spk04: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thanks, Fred.
spk00: The next question is from Maxine Sitjo with National Bank. Please go ahead.
spk02: Hi, good morning, Shana. Hi, Max. Hi, Max. I was wondering if it's possible to get a bit of an update on the mining land of the land and maybe LNG, just in terms of, you know, what you're hearing from the clients, sort of, you know, the bidding pipeline and that sort of stuff. And then if lastly, you can potentially quantify your exposure to these, to, you know, growing verticals, thanks.
spk01: So mining, certainly very robust cycles that we're in right now and across, many areas we've been, we've maintained our mining expertise and our teams predominantly in iron ore over the last number of years and maintained our fleet. And those were, you know, we had some tougher years through that period of time and I'm glad we stayed patient and stuck with it because we're entering into a cycle now that's very robust and it expands, you know, well beyond iron ore. So we're seeing a number of new opportunities you know, evolving across a number of different mineral types that Canada has, you know, has access to. So in that regard, you know, I think in the mining side, whether it's, you know, potash or whether it's gold or continuing further expansion in the iron ores, you know, those areas, you know, evolving opportunities in lithium. And we have the, you know, we have the teams that can essentially take a project like that from cradle to grave. So the teams have been very, very busy with proposals and early contractor involvement on a number of opportunities. On the LNG side, we continue to work with our existing work in Kitimat, and that project continues to track, you know, obviously very successfully for our clients and excited about what's ahead. Uh, we also have, uh, a large project, uh, getting underway in Squamish that I was, uh, just visiting last week. And, um, obviously it was considerable amount of scale with that project for us and the team's doing, uh, a tremendous job, a little bit different than our project up in Kinevat in terms of, uh, the uniqueness of it and water access, which is, uh, obviously something that, uh, you don't do every day. Um, So, but really, really impressed with our team and progress we've made and hearing, you know, really good feedback from our client.
spk02: Okay, excellent. That's great. And I guess in terms of overall sort of exposure right now, Terry, how would you quantify it if it's possible?
spk01: Overall exposure to LNG?
spk02: Mining and LNG.
spk01: Mining. Yeah. Yeah, it's, you know, 15% probably max would be Where we're at, it's a nice balance with everything else we're doing. And as you know, there's cycles in mining that occur. I think it feels like we're in a long cycle right now. It'll be at least three to five years, just based on the scale of the commitments that our potential clients are making.
spk02: Yeah, agreed. Okay, that's great. Thank you so much. That's it for me.
spk01: Thanks, Max.
spk00: This concludes the question and answer session. I'll hand the call back over to Mr. McKibbin for closing remarks.
spk01: Okay, I'd like to thank all of you for joining us this morning on our earnings call and a special thanks to the BIRD team for their unwavering commitment to safety and excellence. Have a nice day. Thank you.
spk00: This brings to a close today's conference call and webcast. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.
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