Boralex Inc.

Bonjour, Mesdames et Messieurs, et bienvenue à la conférence téléphonique portant sur les résultats financiers du troisième trimestre et du deuxième trimestre de Bourg-Alex. Veuillez noter que toutes les lignes sont en mode d'écoute uniquement. À la fin de la présentation, il y aura une période de questions-réponses au cours de laquelle les analystes financiers, actionnaires et investisseurs seront invités à poser leurs questions en appuyant sur étoile 1 et 1 sur votre téléphone. Veuillez également noter que cette conférence est enregistrée. For the participants in the webcast, you can also ask questions during the conference, but these will be answered by mail after the call. Finally, the representatives of the media who have questions are invited to contact Camille Laverture directly, external communications advisor at the indicated coordinates at the end of the quarterly communique. I would now like to pass the floor to Mr. Stéphane Milot, Chief Director of Relations with Boralex Investors. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Boralex third quarter of 2023 Financial Results Conference call. Please note that all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session in which the financial analysts, shareholders, and investors will be invited to ask their questions. To ask a question, please slowly press star 1 and then 1 on your telephone. Also note that the call is being recorded. For webcast participants, you can also ask questions during the conference, but they will be answered by email after the call. Finally, media representatives are invited to contact Camille Laverture, advisor at Xenocommunications. Her contact information is provided at the end of the quarterly press release. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Stéphane Milot, Senior Director, Investor Relations for Boralex. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. So welcome to Bar-LX third quarter resource conference call. Joining me today on the call, Patrick Dacoste, our president and chief executive officer, Bruno Guilmette, executive vice president and chief financial officer, and other members of our management and finance team. So Mr. Dacoste will begin with comments about market conditions and the highlights of the quarter. Afterwards, Mr. Guilmette will carry on with financials highlights, and then we'll be available to answer your questions. As you know, during this call, we will discuss historical as well as forward-looking information. So when talking about the future, there are a variety of risk factors that have been listed in our different filings with security regulators, which can materially change our estimated results. So these documents are all available for consultation at cdar.com. In our webcast presentation document, the disclosed results are presented both on a consolidated basis and on a combined basis. Unless otherwise stated, all comments made in this presentation will refer to combined basis figures. So please note that combined is non-GAAP financial measure and does not have standardized meaning under IFRS. Accordingly, combined may not be comparable to similarly named measure used by other companies. So for more details, see the non-IFRS and other financial measures sections in the MD&E. So the press release, the MD&E, the consolidated financial statements, and a copy of today's presentation are all posted on the Bodex website at bodex.com on the investor section. So if you wish to receive a copy of these documents, please contact me. So Mr. Dacoste will now start with his comments. Please go ahead, Bodex.

Thank you, Stéphane, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure for me to present our results and achievement for the third quarter. As you have noticed, we continue to vigorously execute on our growth and diversification strategy during the quarter. 600 megawatts of storage project in preparation for the upcoming request for proposals next January in Ontario and 111 megawatts of wind and solar project in France were added to our pipeline. 139 MW of projects, including our Lime Kiln wind project in Scotland, transitioned into the construction or ready-to-build phase of our growth path, with commissioning expected for 2024. This proves we have invested at the right time in the expansion of our development teams, with recent and expected changes in regulations to further accelerate the development of renewable projects, we are expecting to continue delivering strong growth additions to our pipeline and growth paths. Please note that our third quarter results include a provision relating to the adoption on August 16 of a new 2022 Supplementary Budget Act in France regarding additional revenues recognized for certain feed-in premium since the start of the fiscal year. A provision was therefore recorded of which 28 million relates to revenue generated in the first half of 2022. This provision largely explained the decrease of our quarterly ABDA. However, for the nine months period ending September 30, our ABDA grew slightly reaching 379 million compared to 372 million in the same period last year. Production in the quarter was down compared to last year and to anticipated production mainly due to difficult wind conditions in France as well as unfavorable conditions in hydro and solar in the U.S. Looking ahead, we are in a very solid position to pursue our growth with over nine hundred million in available cash and authorized financing. We will also benefit from new contract sign to optimize our revenue starting in the fourth quarter this year. Market conditions continued to rapidly evolve by region during the quarter. In August, the United States announced its most ambitious climate bill, putting the country on track to achieve a 40% reduction in emissions by the end of the decade. The bill includes $370 billion in grants and tax incentives and aims to increase investments in renewable energy, electrification of the economy, and clean energy generation in the United States to help reduce inflationary pressures. In Canada, the federal government announced that the Department of Finance would engage with experts to establish an investment tax credit of up to 30% for investment in clean technologies with a focus on net zero technologies, battery storage solution, and clean hydrogen. The credit would be available as of the day of budget 2023 and no longer in effect at the start of 2035, subject to a phase-out starting in 2032. The full economic statement is an affirmative response to the United States IRA, specifically the decision to make the 30% credit refundable. The adoption of these provisions will increase interest in renewable and storage across Canada. The credits would likely have a significant impact on our project already under contract. SBX, DENESH, and APRIT will also increasing The opportunity for other projects like Ontario Storage, corporate PPAs as province and large consumers realize the credit will reduce the cost of renewable energy. In Quebec, Premier Legault was re-elected on October 3, 2022. His party has committed itself to adding 3 gigawatts of wind power on top of the RFP of 300 megawatts underway and on the 1 gigawatt gigawatts announced recently. In Ontario, the Independent Electricity System Operator will be called upon to develop procurement mechanisms to meet the new needs for power confirmed for the years from 2025 onwards. RFPs are expected to be launched soon. In France, we are waiting to get the latest details of the various measures to accelerate renewable energy development. This information, the information we have at this point are the following. First, concerning the cap on merchant electricity price, France is looking at a cap of 180 euro per megawatt hour as was proposed by the EU with the possibility to establish different caps by technology. It is not clear at this point how this cap would apply and which type of contract it would cover. We should get more clarity in the coming weeks. For the moment, the proposed legislation indicates this gap would apply starting from December 1st, 2022 until the end of 2023. Second, we are still waiting to get the price threshold on which revenue sharing will apply for the feed-in premium contract. As you have noticed in our financial results, As the price threshold is not known, we had to estimate it as well as the implementation guidance of the new law. Finally, we are also waiting to get more information on the application of the 18 months period before activating a contract after the commissioning of a new plant. In the United Kingdom, the policy of decarbonizing the electricity mix by 2035 and the desire to resolve the energy crisis, particularly by increasing energy production, are favourable to the development of renewable energy, mainly solar power in England and onshore wind power in Scotland. I will now rapidly review the main variances in our portfolio of projects and growth paths. The 47 MW in the early stage came from the addition of a new wind project and four new solar projects totaling 111 MW in Europe. The increase of the expected capacity of two wind projects and five solar projects in Europe for a total of 71 MW. These increases were partly offset by the discontinuation of certain projects and the transition of projects to the mid-stage phase. Projects in the mid and advanced stages continue to progress with some adjustment between phases and no material changes to report. In total, our pipeline now comprise project totaling 3.9 gigawatts of wind and solar project and 792 megawatts of storage project, including the addition of 600 of storage project in the third quarter. Let's review changing changes to the growth path now. Three projects from the secured stage transition to the ready to build phase. These projects are 13 megawatt solar project of Chris and the 20 megawatt wind project of Elfo in France as well as the 106 megawatt wind project Lime Kiln in Scotland. These three projects will benefit from long-term corporate contract with commercial counterparties. The first two projects are expected to be commissioned in the first half of 2024, while Lime Kiln is expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2024. Finally, the Bougainville Repowering project was commissioned during the quarter, bringing our total installed capacity to 2.5 GW. I won't cover in detail the progress made in our four strategic directions, as I have already talked about the major points, but please note we continue to optimize maintenance during the quarter. This completes my part. I will now let Bruno cover the financial portion in more detail, and we'll be back later for the question period. Bruno.