Calfrac Well Services Ltd.

Good day and welcome to the CalFRAC Wealth Services Limited third quarter 2023 earnings release and conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Michael Olenek, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to our discussion of CALFRAC's third quarter 2023 results. Joining me on the call today is Pat Powell, CALFRAC CEO. This morning's conference call will be conducted as follows. That will provide some opening commentary, after which I will summarize the financial performance and position of the company. That will then provide an outlook for CALFRAC's business and some closing remarks. After the completion of these remarks, we will open the call to questions. In a news release issued earlier today, CALFRAC reported its third quarter 2023 results. Please note that all financial figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated. Some of our comments today will refer to non-IFRS measures such as adjusted EBITDA. Please see our news release for additional disclosure on these financial measures. Our comments today will also include forward-looking statements regarding CALFRAC's future results and prospects. We caution you that these forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, that could cause our results to differ materially from our expectations. Please see this morning's news release and CalFRAC CDAR filings including our 2022 annual information form for more information on forward-looking statements and these risk factors. As we have disclosed for a number of quarters, the company is committed to a plan to sell its Russian division and has designated the assets, liabilities and operations in Russia as held for sale and discontinued operations in the financial statements. CALFRAC is looking forward to completing this transaction as soon as possible, while complying with all applicable laws and sanctions. The focus of the remainder of this call will be on CALFRAC's continuing operations, unless otherwise specified. Now I will pass the call over to Pat.

Thanks, Mike. Good morning and thank you everyone for joining our call today. Before Mike provides the financial highlights of the third quarter, I'll offer some opening remarks. First, I want to take a minute and discuss the significant progress that we have made on our long-term financial and operational goals during the past year. The first strategic goal that I set for the company was to increase profitability. And we've made great strides in that regard. In 2023, our year-to-date net income from continuing operations normalized for the deferred tax asset and impairment reversals was approximately 8% of revenue, over five times higher than the same period last year. This significant improvement demonstrates the high quality of Calfrax customers who appreciate the quality of our services and our execution ability. The second goal was to lower our outstanding debt. The company has made significant progress in this initiative as it repaid approximately $30 million of long-term debt during the third quarter, and we continue to target further debt reduction in the fourth quarter. earlier earlier in the year the company was focused on funding its working capital requirements which have totaled approximately 135 million since the middle of 2022. and finally the third strategic initiative for calfrac was to upgrade our equipment in the field during the third quarter we have gained significant momentum with our tier 4 fleet modernization program and have deployed 23 Tier 4 DGB units so far this year, with more pumps being deployed every week. Reducing our outstanding debt while upgrading our equipment is our two-pronged approach to strengthen the balance sheet and improve our asset quality. None of this progress would have been possible without our dedicated teams across North America and Argentina. And for that, I want to commend them for their hard work and commitment to deliver on our brand promise. Now turning to the third quarter, I'm happy to report that we have navigated shifting frac schedules to generate the highest quarterly adjusted EBITDA margin thus far in 2023. Historically, the third quarter is our strongest period, and this year was no exception. One way that we were able to respond to a changing frac calendars by managing our costs, specifically our equipment repairs and maintenance. Now that we've refreshed everyone on where we've been, let's talk about where CALFRAC is going. Our Tier 4 EGB upgrade program remains on schedule and we expect to deploy 59 Tier 3 EGB pumps by the end of the first quarter of 2024 and to continue with the upgrade program beyond these initial units as finances and markets dictate. We pay close attention to the equipment transformation being happening in the industry and are excited about enhancing our position in the next generation fracturing market and meeting our customers' expectations and our ESG priorities. I believe that CalFrac's service quality is second to none and that we have the best team in the industry working together to achieve our long-term goals. As the largest Canadian headquartered pressure pumping company, we expect to leverage our geographical footprint and strong operational momentum to capitalize on the current market while remaining focused on our three strategic objectives. We do it profitably, not only for CalFrac, but also for our shareholders, employees, suppliers, and customers. And I'll pass the call over to Mike, who will present an overview of our quarterly financial performance.