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spk06: Greetings and welcome to the Callion Group's first quarter 2021 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Kevin Ford, CEO of Callion Group. Thank you. You may begin.
spk01: Thank you, Daryl, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. With me this morning is Patrick Houston, our CFO, and we'd like to welcome you to CALIAN's first quarter 2021 conference call. Please note that certain information discussed today is forward-looking and subject to important risks and uncertainties. The results predicted in these statements may be materially different from actual results. I'm pleased to announce another strong quarter that continues our trend of quarterly revenue over $100 million for the four straight quarters. Our first quarter consolidated revenue was a record for Q1 at $116 million, up 17% from the same period last year. The results demonstrate that our growth framework, and specifically embracing our diversity, continues to keep Talion on a growth trajectory. In the previous quarter, we spoke about growing our non-government revenues by entering new commercial sectors. In the current quarter, we not only continued with this trend, but have also seen increase in our revenues internationally. Revenues in Europe have grown by 253% when compared to the previous year. This is a result of progress in our learning and advanced technology segments over the last year. Revenue in Europe represented 11% of our consolidated revenue in the quarter. The quarter also marked our 77th consecutive profitable quarter, highlighting that we continue to maintain profitability as we execute our growth plan. The ongoing public health crisis has had some continued short-term impacts on some of our segments, while others have seen this as a new off-market opportunity which they've been able to capitalize upon. This continues to demonstrate the strength of our diverse business. where costs and execution difficulties have impacted the results in certain elements of advanced technologies. We've been expanding the scope of services with both existing and new customers in our health segment and winning new contracts in response to COVID-19. I'd like to spend a moment and provide an update on each of our segments. Our health segment saw another quarter of tremendous growth in the first quarter, continuing strong demand from last fiscal year. Revenue has increased by 57% compared to the previous year. This has been the result of multiple initiatives, the first being our growth in pharmaceutical services through our acquisition of Allio Health, which has seen strong early returns, continued growth and scope expansion with new customers. And finally, we continue to win new contracts and deliver products and services in response to COVID-19. Callion Health has become a trusted partner who was able to deliver in challenging times while maintaining Callium's reputation and quality. Our learning segment has seen growth of 19% in the current quarter. This is a direct result of the acquisitions of CTS and Cadence, both located in Europe. Their early success has us very optimistic about our larger ambitions to establish our Callium learning brand in Europe. The impact that we're experiencing in the learning segment due to COVID-19 and the stay-at-home orders that have been predominantly addressed through return of work arrangements with our customers to ensure continuity of service are now in place. Our advanced technology segment slowed in the first quarter of 2021. Revenue has declined by 7% when compared to the same period of the previous year. This was a result of lower pace in our large North American ground system project, which is now in deployment stage, and lower revenue from our wireless products division. This was offset by our recent acquisition of Talisman which has shown strong early performance as they continue to expand their presence in the GNSS antenna market. Finally, our information technology group saw a slight decline in revenue this quarter. This is a result of lower project revenue in the quarter as we completed existing projects and saw a decrease in demand in some of our core customers. Our recent acquisition of NSEC has begun to contribute and we look forward to the synergies this acquisition will add to our cyber practice. I will now ask Patrick to review the quarterly numbers. Over to you, Patrick.
spk00: Thank you, Kevin. We're pleased with our financial performance this quarter. Our revenue momentum has continued, despite Q1 generally being our most seasonal quarter due to holidays and associated time off. This speaks to how much we have diversified our sources of revenue over the last 12 months. With consolidated revenue growth of 17%, we continue to see the results of our investments both organically through R&D and our recent M&A investments. Organic growth for the first quarter was 2% and acquisitive growth contributed 15%. We also completed the acquisition of Cadence partway through our first quarter, as well as Inertronics in early January. These two acquisitions will contribute additional revenue growth in the coming quarters. Our ability to win new contracts with existing and new customers continued with new signings of $122 million in the quarter. Our realizable backlog at the end of our quarter remains at over $1.3 billion. We saw good progress among many key performance indicators, including revenue, gross margins, EBITDA, and adjusted net income this quarter. Gross margins ended the quarter at 23%, which has increased by 3% from the same quarter of the previous year. Our inquisitive strategy has demonstrated the ability for M&A to contribute and meaningfully impact our consolidated gross margins. EBITDA for the first quarter of 2021 was up 24% when compared to the same period of the previous year. This brings our EBITDA percentage of revenues to 9% for the quarter. Adjusted net income, which reflects the impacts of depreciation, IFRS 16 lease accounting and income taxes was up 28% compared to the last year. Our balance sheet remains a strength. Cash was up 6 million in the quarter. We also close a new debt facility in early January, which provides us with additional liquidity. This facility has a term of three years with availability of 80 million and an additional accordion of 40 million. This leaves our total liquidity on hand at over 110 million to deploy on our strategic growth objectives. I'll now turn the call back over to Kev.
spk01: Thank you, Patrick. I'd like to spend a moment to talk about the acquisitions we've completed since our last update. We've continued our growth in the quarter and subsequent to the quarter with acquisitions in both periods. Cadence, who was acquired in November of 2020, grows our learning footprint in the UK and across Europe with their strong track record and work with NATO. Intertronic, who was acquired in early January, provides state-of-the-art high-precision antenna solutions that include high-accuracy, high-speed motion systems. Their customer base, primarily located in North America, span military, scientific, and commercial verticals. Applications of their innovation solutions include radio astronomy, radar, electronic warfare, deep space and satellite communications. We're excited about the synergies that we've already begun to see in working together with Inertronic and our existing advanced technologies business. We welcome these acquisitions to Kalyan and are excited to grow together in the coming years. Lastly, while the traditional markets which Kalyan operates are managing through this pandemic, Management expects organic revenue and earnings growth opportunities in most or all of our segments through the successful execution of our growth strategy. However, we must caution that revenues realized are ultimately dependent on the extent and timing of future contract awards, customer utilization of existing contract vehicles, and any impacts due to COVID-19, specifically government regulations related to social distancing, stay-at-home orders, and broader global travel restrictions. Based on currently available information of contract backlog, sales opportunities, and our assessment of the marketplace, we expect to continue our growth posture in the coming year. Our guidance does not incorporate any additional M&A activity, and should we close on any new M&A opportunities, their contributions would be incremental. We've updated and increased our guidance for the fiscal year to reflect the acquisition of electronics, our continued momentum in our health segment, and slower intake in some areas of our advanced technology segment. I believe our diversified segments with a mix of domestic and global customers continues to position us well for a strong year. We expect revenues in the range of $460 million to $500 million, adjusted EBITDA in the range of $42.3 million to $45.8 million, and adjusted net profit in the range of $27.5 million to $30.1 million. Please see our press release in MD&A for detailed reconciliation of our guidance. So with that, Daryl, I'd like to open up the call to questions.
spk06: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. One moment, please, while we poll for your questions. Our first questions come from the line of Doug Taylor with Canaccord Genuity. Please proceed with your questions.
spk03: Thank you. Good morning, Kevin and Patrick. Regarding the advanced technologies unit, understanding the segment has some variability given the large contracts and deployments. Can you talk a little bit about the bid pipeline and the deal funnel? Specifically, maybe you could shed some light on whether, you know, the sales forecast, some of the newer products that you've launched related to DOCSIS or otherwise. And then last question as part of that would be, you know, has the recent enthusiasm for sort of all things space related translated into anything material in terms of your pipeline of opportunities for ground station equipment or other components?
spk01: Yeah, thanks, Doug, for the question. And a few elements with regard to our advanced technologies business. So number one, to your point, I was going to start where you finished. On the space side, you're right. We do see continued pipeline, whether for legacy infrastructure upgrades or new infrastructure opportunities in our ground system segment, both in the context of MEO and GEO satellites, but also the LEO constellations. Clearly, with our acquisition of Indertronic, we became even more relevant, frankly, in the LEO constellations with regard to the antennas and the type of antennas and ground systems they build. So, actually, we see the pipeline as quite strong in our legacy in that ground system, LEO, MEO, GEO orbit, satellite capability, and have numerous bids out right now, frankly, that we're waiting to hear on. So, still very confident in that area. As far as the new innovations on DOCSIS, again, working with organizations like VCT Delta to Europe, we do see some uptake on that. COVID has slowed down the pace of implementation, but it has not negated the opportunity. So we're still very optimistic that as we move out of COVID, that the DOCSIS becomes something that is going to be a positive impact to our growth trajectory. And then just generally, I would say, you know, our events technologies group has got quite a few elements in there. We have nuclear engineering. We have a legacy test aerospace and defense business. All of them are running very strong. My recent review with Patrick and the team and Pat Thayer and the team, I was very impressed by just how much work there is ongoing with Funnel and every one of those components. So I'm still very optimistic in our advanced technologies group. I don't look at this as a long-term trend at all. I think this is just a reality of timing, as you said. And now with Talisman, Intertronic, You know, SatService, which is, frankly, a review last week, was very, very strong, strongest they've ever been as they grow their footprint in Europe. Still very, very positive in advanced technologies moving forward.
spk03: Okay. I'll switch gears to the health unit, which was a standout this quarter. First, could you just talk a little bit about the $5 million new contract and the help in that business, a little more detail there, and perhaps an update on where we stand with the you know, the MRCU contract and potential with that type of business as well.
spk01: Yeah, thanks. So what we're seeing in our health business right now is really a combination of two things. Number one is, you know, despite COVID, you know, we're still growing our health footprints outside of COVID and more customers, more capability. We have strong demand right now with our health services contract and national defense contract. Veterans Affairs RCMP, we're seeing, continue to see increased demand there. And then as far as new business, the COVID response, definitely we have been engaged in numerous areas, whether it's screening airports, you know, northern immunizations, Nunavut. we are getting asked to deploy in very short time periods. And I think that's the change we're finding from a government perspective. The procurement cycles are quite, you know, it can be quite long normally, but just shortened procurement cycles where from phone call to contract, we're talking weeks, if not, you know, a month. So very, very strong. And that 5 million really represents a few contracts that we've now put in to support, you know, COVID response in different areas. As far as the SNC and the MRCU contract, the mobile hospitals, you know, we have worked to have ready to roll, I understand, two hospitals. And we're just waiting for the call. And there's lots of discussions going on, as you know, in capacity right now for the health care system as to where these potentially could be implemented. So we're just standing by on that. We're not confident yet that there's going to be more, but we're standing by. And again, that could change depending on the intensity of the virus.
spk03: Okay. Last question for me then. I mean, a lot of puts and takes related to COVID here. Could you provide us any kind of view qualitatively, perhaps quantitatively if you can, on to what the degree, you know, the net impact of this has been on your guidance and perhaps versus the last update that you provided.
spk00: Hey guys, Patrick. I mean, we reflected, obviously, electronics, which is a significant contributor for us in the guidance, I think. All the other elements, I think we're ahead of where we were at the last quarter when we spoke to you. I think we have some risk that we've been able to retire. We've seen some momentum on deals. So I think we're ahead of where we were three months ago. And obviously, Inertronics is a good contributor to the guidance, which is why we felt comfortable increasing it. And we still think there's upside opportunity here as we go finish this year.
spk01: Yeah, and Mike suggested... Yeah, go ahead, Doug. Yeah.
spk03: I was going to say, just to be crystal clear, what you're saying is that even without the M&A you've announced since, you think your guidance would have moved to the right a little regardless?
spk01: Yes. Okay. And my viewpoint too, Doug, on COVID is after almost a year now, we've been able to really work through alternative work arrangements. Our learning business took a hit last year just because it took time to replatform learning from in-person to virtual. And I think the team's done an amazing job of working with their customers to do that. Healthcare, really same, you know, just deployment of PPE, getting people out there, getting protocols in place. Our advanced technologies group, the biggest challenge we continue to have is the travel. You know, we're implementing ground systems in the U.S., as you can imagine, logistically now with the new guidelines, new restrictions on both sides of the border. You know, my credit to that team that continues to work hard to get that done. In our IT business, frankly, we're just seeing that was not very much, it wasn't affected highly last year, and we continue to work here. All we're just seeing right now is some customers are slowing a bit of demand as they continue to work with this COVID challenge.
spk03: Okay, thank you. I'll pass the line and look forward to a more fulsome update tomorrow as well.
spk01: Thanks, Doug.
spk06: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of MR Azat with Echelon Partners. Please proceed with your questions.
spk04: Good morning, Kevin and Patrick. Congrats on the quarter. I've got a couple of follow-ups on the health segments. First on Alio, it looks extremely positive. You guys are adjusting the earnouts upwards again. I'm just looking to understand what is driving that outperformance relative to last quarter to warrant another earnout to bump Then also on Allio, can you speak to the launching of your first patient support program in Europe and what the opportunity looks like there relative to Canada?
spk00: Sure. Morning, Aaron. Yeah, I think obviously the first year of earn-out for Allio ends on January 31st, so we're just coming to the end here. But they've been on a pretty aggressive growth path if you think of The revenue from the year before we bought them to the first year with us, their growth is going to be close to 100%. We'd love to see businesses that can grow that quickly. Every month, it continues to scale up as they brought on new customers with new programs. Really, we're seeing excellent momentum on that business. Congrats to the team there. They really worked hard to scale that business over the last 12 months. We're really glad to have them as part of Calium. With respect to Europe, this is an interesting opportunity. It's an existing customer of ours that we service in Canada. They're doing a drug trial in Canada to get approval. They decided to go ahead and get the same approval across Europe and they came to us because they were impressed with our capability in Canada and have asked us to run their patient support program for this medication in Europe. So we're launching in six countries this year. and it's an exciting opportunity for us to extend our health services, which traditionally was all in Canada, to new countries. So I'm really excited about this opportunity.
spk04: So in Europe, are you guys going to be targeting organically opportunities there, or it's always going to be a case of a client that's sort of taking you there?
spk00: Well, it's nice when the clients take you there. It makes it a lot easier, but certainly we're looking at Europe to say, okay, how do we get in front of... the set of clients that we're interested in there and explain to them kind of our value proposition and why, you know, we're effective at delivering these programs on their behalf. And, you know, I think that this new opportunity will be a proof point for us that we can, you know, go around and show other customers that we're able to do it efficiently in Europe.
spk04: Great, great. Okay. Again, on the health segment, on the ghost margin side, it looks like a record quarter. I know there's probably a bump from last quarter on revenue mixed with less mobile respiratory care units. Is it fair to assume that the rest of the outperformance is really coming from Alio or is there anything else driving these margins up like that?
spk00: Alio is certainly a contributor. I mean, we've seen because of, you know, as Kevin mentioned, the short cycle, I think the margin opportunity is higher in terms of people who can respond quickly to opportunities. So we've seen some margin improvement there. And I think our efficiency, as we keep getting larger and larger, we're able to deliver these programs much more efficiently because we're reusing the same teams and delivery platforms that we have. And so I think there's an efficiency there as we just keep growing that business, which, you know, a year ago it was under $100 million, and now we're pushing $150 million.
spk04: Okay. Then I know you guys don't give guidance on segment margins, but if I'm trying to get a sense of what the long-term gross margin potential is here, like let's say two or three years out, Can you guys, like, provide, like, a high-level sort of range? You know, like, is that 23% as high as it gets? Or can we see you guys, like, north of 25%, 26%, 27%? Yeah, it's Kevin.
spk01: So I think for me, if you look at our four-pillar growth framework, both on customer diversification and innovation specifically, the goal of our innovation pillar is is to continue to bring more differentiation through innovation as far as technology enablement. If you think about the Alio All Phase acquisition, we were excited by that because they brought a software platform that allowed us not only to be more efficient, but differentiate our services, which allows us in turn to drive higher margin opportunities. So right now, the clear message I want to send, it's about increasing our margins, both at gross margins and EBITDA margins. And our whole strategy is about, whether it's through organic investment, through R&D, or through acquisition, is to move those up. So, to your point, you know, we have a large contract with National Defence, so it's hard to move, you know, consolidated margins and health up drastically because we're dragging through the, you know, we're working through that contract. But the goal is definitely to increase AMR. So, I think a single point here and there over the next couple of years for sure, but Rest assured, our M&A engine is all about finding opportunities to push that, continue to push that higher.
spk04: Fantastic. Then maybe one last housekeeping item. On your advanced tech, on the G&A expense, it came in at $2 million for the quarter. You guys typically ran it at $1.5 million, $1.6 million. I know there's the addition of talisman, but I'm just looking to understand if there's anything else in that number, any exceptionals for the quarter?
spk00: No, it's mostly Towson related. They're a much higher margin business, so they do have some OPEX, but generally driving gross margins in excess of 50%. So that was the driver on the OPEX increase.
spk04: Great. Thanks. Look forward to your update tomorrow.
spk06: Thanks, Amber. Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Benoit Poirier with Desjardins. Please proceed with your questions.
spk05: Hey, good morning, Patrick. Good morning, Kevin, and congratulations for the quarter. Could you maybe come back a little bit on the large ground system contract? I know you were expecting to recognize about $25 million of revenues in fiscal 21. Just wondering whether in Q1 there was some revenues that were recognized and whether it pushed a little bit further throughout fiscal 21.
spk00: Yeah, we've recognized, I mean, our plan is still to try to finish that project in this fiscal year and recognize that entire $25 million to end the project. So I think we're still on that pace. So I don't think that's changed. You know, the environment that we talked about last quarter where it's just hard to do this and increase costs, I don't think has changed. And, you know, the restrictions on flights and things like that has made it, you know, even more difficult for us to deliver this contract. But, you know, the team's committed to doing it. I think we're still on track to finish it this year.
spk05: Okay. And, Kevin, you mentioned that the pipeline for advanced tech is quite strong. Still very confident about that. How do you feel about the opportunity to replace this contract with other opportunities? I'm looking here at fiscal 22. How confident are you to replace that over the next, let's say, 12, 18 months?
spk01: uh actually still very confident i think to me the the confidence is really born from benoit two things number one as i said that there's a quite uh quite a lot of activity right now in our ground system segment with regard to proposals either in process or out for evaluation number two is that with the combined uh sat service talisman intertronic um acquisitions we're seeing Frankly, quite a few synergies coming out of the gates on those three opportunities working with our legacy advanced technology business. So I'm still very confident. Actually, if you think about Benoit last year, we had a very high ground segment project revenue base last year. And coming into this year, we're still showing growth as a company. And you know us better than anyone, Benoit. Historically, when we've had these ground systems, the large ones go through, we kind of take a step back. we're not going to take a step back you know we're going to keep moving forward here and i'm still very confident our ability to backfill that both with new rs ground system projects and as well as the contributions of recent acquisitions okay that's great color and when we look on the i.t side uh the the slight decrease came from a large one-time product sale that's happened
spk05: almost a year ago and a slight reduction in the service delivery for some services. So could you quantify a little bit what was the one-time product sale a year ago and maybe quantify the scale back in the budget reduction and the opportunity maybe to get back those delayed projects?
spk00: Yeah, we had some product sales last year in Q1 relating to our cyber business. We're still confident in those and we're trying to lock those down again in Q2 here coming up. So I think we're still pretty optimistic about our cyber business in IT. Some of the bigger IT projects that we had last year, obviously some of them concluded and we've been bidding on a lot of projects to start up. But the award of those have been delayed a little bit. A lot of these either provincial or municipal businesses have been extremely taxed with responding to COVID, and some of these IT projects have slid to the right of it. But we still have a lot of opportunities there, and we're hoping to close those this year and get going. So I think it's more of a timing issue right now than a trend.
spk05: Okay. And looking at the intertronic, I was wondering, are there some synergies with And maybe if you could expand also about the opportunity to tap the European defense market with your latest acquisition. If you would maybe quantify the market, the strategy, and maybe the timing to kind of tap this European defense market now that you have beefed up your product offering.
spk01: Yeah, thanks, Benoit. As far as intertronic and intergrain, not as much synergies in the context of – you know, technology platform. You know, with Intergrain, we continue to evolve our product base. We did a review recently looking to how do we re-platform, continue to platform that into more of a SaaS-based model with that team, and very excited by Tanner and the crew out there, the work that they're doing. With the Inertronic piece now, and SaaS service, and the question of military in Europe, you know, we're really excited about that opportunity. You know, we haven't done formal market research as far as the size Benoits in progress, but I can tell you, coming out of the gates right now, and I look at the current contract that's at service and the wins, they'd really never focused on the military market in Europe. And we're seeing great success because now they can bring the Callian story into Europe. So our legacy with Defence, you know, is very strong across everything that we do. So that's resonating. The Canadian brand is very well regarded and recognized globally. And it's something as Canadians I think sometimes we forget. But it is something that we believe that the combination of our defense business, our stories, the capabilities to harvest assets from Canada and go into Europe, we're seeing that working very, very well. So while I can't give you a specific number, I can tell you for SatService, they're winning business that they've never won before in defense. Intertronic only strengthens that because of the fact of their platforms and tenant capability. Then you tie that to our legacy test servers based in the fence business based out of Saskatoon. We're very excited with the European marketplace, both NATO and the nations that form Europe in the context of their military offerings and capabilities. So stand by. We're going to continue to double down on Europe, and we think longer term it's going to continue to be a great growth pillar for us going forward. Okay.
spk05: And Patrick, a quick one. In terms of corporate costs, I think you were close to $5.8 million in Q1. Is it kind of a good number to use going forward? And I assume this number went up because of the latest acquisition.
spk00: Yeah, I mean, we've been continuing to invest, obviously, in M&A and other activities. We secured the credit line because we're planning on using that and deploying that capital. But I think from a going forward basis, I think it's a good planning number.
spk05: Okay. And last question for me, when we look at the dividend policy, obviously with the earnings growing up over the last years, the payout ratio came down. So how should we be thinking about the dividend policy? Are you looking at the policy on the adjusted net profit basis or net profit basis? How should we be thinking about the opportunity to revisit the dividend at one point in time?
spk00: Yeah, when we looked at this a couple of years ago, we believe our payout was too high. It was constraining some of our growth. We decided to hold the dividend and reinvest the capital to drive the growth. And I think we've seen the results of that over the last couple of years. I think our plan right now is to hold the dividend at least for this year and continue to reinvest. And we're getting, we believe, excellent returns on the deployment of that capital. And then we'll look at it again. But I think we're looking at it from how much cash earnings do we have at the end of the day and how much do we want to put towards dividends? They used to be over 50%, which we believe was too high. And, you know, I think we've grown into it. So I think we just continue on that path for now.
spk05: Okay, that's great. Congrats and thanks for the time. Looking forward to tomorrow.
spk01: Thanks, Benoit. That's great. Thanks, Benoit.
spk06: Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Deepak Krishal with Stifel. Please proceed with your questions.
spk07: Hi, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I've just got a couple of follow-ups, if I may. First, on the learning business, a clarification. It looks like you got a lot of growth in Europe, but if we strip out the European side, can you just kind of clarify what the core Canadian learning business segment is? Are we back at pre-COVID levels yet, or is that expectation for the coming quarters? Just hope you can Clarify that for me, please.
spk01: Yeah, thanks, Deepak. So, interesting. As you think about how this year and you think about Q1, so if you kind of rewind a year ago, in our Q1 last year, the COVID impact really had not been felt in our learning business. It really started in our Q2, Q3, where we had to scale back learning as we had to readjust delivery platforms. So, So right now, from a learning business in Canada, if you look at the core business, it's actually right back to where we were last year at this time. And I really want to credit National Defence and our partners on working with us to create an environment that we can do this, continue to deliver training safely. So we're right back to where we started. And knock on wood here, any other COVID restrictions, we're expecting that to continue for the year. As the military, obviously mission critical that they continue training. So I really am positive on our Canadian business this year. And also our funnel of opportunities for learning continues to grow. We continue to invest in our business development. As you know, we've launched products, Maestro and Response Ready, that are really taking the intellectual capital we have on learning and giving opportunities for organizations to license that intellectual capital in a software platform. And as well, new customers coming on board every day in our emergency management side with First Nations, municipalities. So very, very optimistic in where our learning is going, both in Canada and obviously now in Europe as we really start to put our shoulder into the European marketplace.
spk07: Great. That's helpful. Thank you. And then just on the advanced technology side, you talked a bit about the DOCSIS side, but I was wondering if you could give us an update on the wireless opportunities there. I know you had a big contract that you're deploying. What stage of that deployment or what ending are you at in that? And what does the pipeline look like for that new product segment for you guys?
spk00: Yeah, we had a strong start last year and a good contribution from that project. We've seen the order intake slow down a little bit as their deployment schedule for this Tier 1 mobile carrier in the U.S. has changed during COVID. Obviously, they've redeployed capital into different spaces. So we've seen it slow down a little bit, but we're pretty optimistic still about this product and the life it has to contribute. So still positive, but we've seen a slight reduction here in Q1 and on the order intake.
spk07: And I mean, is the pipeline for broader customer opportunities beyond the first one still there or how is that? What's the outlook for that?
spk00: Yeah, I mean, we've taken that technology and we're looking at other places we can deploy. We're doing some R&D on that right now and trying to turn that into more than just a product to one customer. And we're seeing some early returns there. So I think we'll continue to invest in that this year.
spk07: Okay, great. And then my last question, Kevin, more of a big picture question. Obviously, Europe is a big growth driver for you guys and a big focus. What's your longer-term thinking about rinsing and repeating in the U.S. market. You know, you've had some success with that wireless product there in the U.S. You were in the U.S. in the past. Maybe you can help us think a bit in the future on that.
spk01: Yeah, no, great question, Deepak. Clearly, with the change in administration, we're looking at our U.S. strategy and just understanding, you know, the dynamics of the U.S. marketplace to The reality is right now, if you think about our advanced technologies segment, we do do work in the US. We mentioned this large ground system project that we're dealing with. Majority of the Indertronic customers are US-based customers, whether it's in space or defense. So we definitely will continue to go after the US marketplace in the context of customer base. As far as the physical presence, we're going through that analysis right now. Patrick mentioned earlier that the trial that we're doing in the PSP program from Europe, well, that customer has also asked us about U.S. And we're looking into that as we speak, a couple of states where we could potentially run that program. Clearly, with our Indertronics acquisition now and the U.S. base of customers they have, does it make sense for us to reestablish a presence for Kalyan in the U.S.? My gut is saying yes, and we're working through the dynamics of that now. I'm glad you asked this question because as we talked about our core market in Canada, we talked about Europe. You know, U.S. is clearly on our agenda. We are continuing to focus on what's the right pace of investment in our U.S. footprint. But I expect over the next 12, 24 months, it will continue to get stronger just as the reality is we have just too many customers there to ignore that any longer.
spk07: Got it. And it sounds like most of your presence there and the opportunity is commercial related, right? I know the government, U.S. government industry and the defense industry down there is really hard to tap, but you've seen some progress in Europe. Is there an opportunity there to establish a differentiated presence or is that still further down the road now?
spk01: Yeah, I think so. I think if you think about, you know, if you think about the two kind of markets, you know, the healthcare market in the U.S. with our healthcare businesses is our logical extension of our PSP, patient support program, because what we do here in Canada is definitely transferable into other countries. The defense marketplace with regard to our advanced technologies business learning clearly is an opportunity. Intertronic brings customers in that area today. And as a reminder, today in our advanced technologies group, we're in global supply chains for a good part of many OEMs. We build components in Saskatoon for organizations based out of the U.S., and have been part of their supply chains for years. So all these things are connecting back. When we exited the US last time, it was just because the size of the business at that time didn't warrant the overheads that we were dealing with as far as foreign-owned controlled interest. But I think as you grow that presence, that overhead makes a bit more sense for us to adjust and attack that again. So I expect, as I said, in the next 12, 24 months, we'll reestablish our presence in the U.S. and we'll do it at a pace that makes sense for the opportunity base at that time.
spk07: Okay, great. That's helpful. Thank you for taking my questions. Looking forward to the agenda.
spk01: Okay, thanks. Thanks, Deepak. Great to hear from you.
spk06: Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Jesse Pitlack with Foremark Securities. Please proceed with your questions.
spk02: Hey, good morning, gentlemen. Just one quick question for me, more of a housekeeping one. Just given now that the ground systems project is moving into the deployment phase, but I understand you have a number of bidding opportunities and obviously working M&A into the picture and advanced technologies, but how should we kind of think about the potential around working capital release?
spk00: Yes, we did some progress on working capital in the quarter, so that contributed to some of the cash increase that you saw. We still stand on that one about close to $50 million of working capital on that project, so that still needs to unwind here over the end of the deployment stage. So we're still expecting good contribution on working capital as we complete that and hand over to the customer.
spk02: Okay, thank you.
spk06: Thanks, Justin. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to management for any closing remarks.
spk01: Okay. Well, listen, thanks, Daryl, and thanks all for attending and the questions. It's appreciated. We do have our AGM tomorrow, so if you don't have the details, please reach out. We're happy to do that. We're going to do our formal AGM tomorrow. procedures, and then follow that by just a bit more color to borrow Benoit's term. I'll send you a quarter for that, Benoit, to add some color to just the overall state of the business and where we continue to focus as a company. So I want to thank everyone for their time today. I really also want to thank my team at Callion for another great quarter. It is not easy working in COVID environment. And I can tell you, as I mentioned last call, the team is rising to the challenge. So it would be remiss for me not to mention the incredible people and our staff at Galleon for another awesome, awesome quarter. So thank you for that. With that, Daryl, we can end the call. Look forward to the update tomorrow. Thanks, everyone. Have a good day. Stay safe.
spk06: Thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Have a great day.
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