Boralex Inc.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the telephone conference on the financial results of the fourth quarter and the 2024 BORALEX exercise. Please note that all lines are in listening mode only. At the end of the presentation, there will be a question and answer period during which financial analysts, shareholders and investors will be invited to ask their questions by pressing star 1 and 1 on their phones. Please also note that this conference is recorded. Pour les participants à la webdiffusion, vous pouvez également poser des questions au cours de la conférence, mais celles-ci obtiendront réponse par courriel après l'appel. Enfin, les représentants des médias qui ont des questions sont invités à contacter directement Camille L'Aventure, conseillère principale affaires publiques et communications externes chez Boralex, aux coordonnées indiquées à la fin du communiqué trimestriel. J'aimerais maintenant passer la parole à Stéphane Milot, vice-président relations avec les investisseurs de Boralex. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Boralex fourth quarter and fiscal 2024 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 financial analysts, shareholders, and investors will be invited to ask their questions by pressing star 1 and 1 on their telephone. Please also note that this conference call is being recorded. For webcast participants, you can also ask questions during the call, but they will be answered by email after the call. Finally, media representatives are invited to contact Camille L'Aventure, Senior Advisor, Public Affairs and External Communications at Boralex. 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, Vice President, Investor Relations for Boralex. Please go ahead.

Well, thank you, operator. Merci beaucoup. So, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Boralex's fourth quarter and year-end results conference call. So, joining me today on the call, Patrick Dacoste, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Bruno Guilmette, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and other members of our management and finance teams. So, Mr. Dacoste will begin with comments about market conditions and the highlights of the quarter. Afterward, Mr. Gilmette will carry on with financial highlights, and then we will be able to answer your questions. As you know, during this call, we will discuss historical as well as forward-looking information. 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 cdarplus.ca. In our webcast presentation document, the disclosed results are presented both on a consolidated basis and on a combined basis. When talking about the results, we generally refer to combined numbers, and when referring to cash flow and balance sheet, we generally refer to consolidated numbers. So please note that combined is a non-GAAP financial measure and does not have standardized meaning under the 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 section in the MD&A. So the press release, the MD&A, consolidated financial statement, and a copy of today's presentation are all posted on the BioLex website at biolex.com under the investor things. If you wish to receive a copy of these documents, please contact me So Mr. Dacasse will now start with his comments. Please go ahead, Patrick.

Thank you, Stéphane, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure for me to present our results and achievements for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024. In an environment with a lot of noise, we stayed focused on the execution of our plan in the past year, creating value in our four key geographies, Canada, the UK, the US, and France. We have developed strong expertise and competitive advantages in this region, and we will continue to capitalize on our project pipeline to produce cost-competitive renewable energy at rate of returns in line with our objectives and market expectations. We close the record 1.2 billion Canadian in long-term financing, including bridge loans for federal investment tax credit in Canada, for our projects under construction. We continue to optimize all aspects of our business and we maintain a very solid financial position. Recent acquisitions of public companies by private investors show that the value of renewable companies remains strong, driven by the increasing demand for electricity in many regions. In terms of financial performance, overall for fiscal year 2024, combined production was 2% lower than in 2023 and 8% below anticipated production. Wind conditions in France and to a lesser extent in Canada have been weaker than expected for a good part of the year. Our diversification in the US helped us in 2024 with wind conditions in this region being higher than expected. As a result, our financial performance in 2024 is below our expectations with a combined operating income of $267 million and a combined EBITDA of $670 million down one person from 2023. Bruno will cover later in more details our fourth quarter results. During the year 2024, we made good progress on the construction of our Lime Kiln project in Scotland and our APWIT project in Quebec. I'm very pleased to announce that Lime Kiln is connected to the grid after a small delay from the grid operator in Scotland. The project is now successfully going through the testing phase and should be fully commissioned beginning of April. The commencement of operations at our first wind farm in Scotland marks a significant milestone for Boralex. I would like to acknowledge our team's efforts and accomplishments over the past years. Starting in 2025, we will benefit from increased revenue and cash flow diversification. During the last quarter of 2024, we also closed the acquisition of a 50% participation in Clashing the Hawk Extension project, a 145 megawatt wind project under development, and the adjacent 50 megawatt battery project located in Scotland. Our UK team already has an extensive experience in this area and is looking forward to bring Clash in the Hawk through the remaining stages of development. Finally, we are preparing ourselves to submit bids in the AR7 RFP later this year. Regarding the construction of our APWIT project in Quebec, we have faced some difficulties on-site with one of our contractors, which combined with harsh winter conditions delayed the COD by a few months. This experience enabled us to reinforce our project management and controls for upcoming projects. In particular, our Dénèche Sud wind project, for which commissioning is scheduled in 2026, will benefit from our learnings. It entered construction phase with the start of onsite work for roads leading to the base of the turbines. In Ontario, the construction of our two battery storage projects, Eggersville and Tilbury, are advancing as planned with commissioning scheduled by the end of this year. We announced the financing of both projects during the last quarter of the year on very good terms, including bridge loan to finance the investment tax credit to which the project are eligible. Finally, on the development side, 2024 was a very good year for Boralex. Our portfolio of projects under development and growth path is now totaling over 8 GW in high-growth potential markets, a 1.2 GW increase over 2023. I would like now to cover market conditions by region, starting with the United States, where there is a lot of uncertainty on potential policy changes. so far the executive orders that were signed by the new u.s administration have no direct impact on our operations and we don't expect major changes in law that would affect our activities but we remain vigilant as electricity demand in the united states is increasing mainly driven by growth in u.s manufacturing and the expansion of data centers We believe overall that this situation could even bring opportunities and that we need to stay focused on our long-term strategy. In Canada, Quebec and Ontario remain strong potential growth markets for Boralex. We are in discussions with Hydro-Québec about partnerships for large projects as well as RFP to come for smaller projects. We are well positioned in this market with strong local expertise and good relationships with First Nations and communities. Our three times 400 megawatt projects in partnership with Hydro-Québec and Énergir, Dénèges Sud, Charlevoix and Dénèges West, are very good examples of how Hydro-Québec would like to develop large projects going forward. In Ontario, the government has increased the target for additional capacity from 5 gigawatts to 7.5 gigawatts by 2034 to meet soaring the energy demand. In 2024, with the selection of the Oxford Storage Project, we consolidated our position as a leading developer in the battery storage technology in Ontario. Our team there is now building a pipeline of wind project to be ready for the upcoming rounds of RFPs. In Europe, the Labour Party's election in the UK is very promising for the renewable energy sector. The government objective over the next five years is to double the onshore wind capacity from 14 to 28 gigawatts. and increased battery storage installed capacity by five times from 5 to 25 gigawatts, along with significant investments in the modernization and expansion of the electrical grid. I will now rapidly cover the main variances in our portfolio. In 2024, the pipeline of development projects increased by over 1.1 gigawatt totaling 7 gigawatts the pipeline change was a result of the addition of wind solar and storage projects in europe and north america in the early stage for roughly 1.8 gigawatts and the transition of project to the mid advanced and secure stage in europe and north america the gross pass now consists of nearly one gigawatt of wind solar and battery storage project the evolution of the growth path mainly include included the transition of two storage projects and one wind project in north america to the under construction or ready to build stage the commissioning of three wind project and one solar project in europe for 84 megawatts I have already talked about our major achievements in line with our strategic directions and long-term objectives, but you can find additional details in the slide of the webcast and in our MD&A. 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.