dentalcorp Holdings Ltd.

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to Dental Corps' first quarter 2023 results conference call. Please note that all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during that time, simply press the star key and the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star one once again. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Nate Chapulia, Chief Financial Officer of Dental Corps. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Dental Corps First Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. I'm joined here by Graham Rosenberg, our CEO, and Guy Meany, our president. Before we start, we would like to remind you all that amounts discussed on this call are denominated in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated. Please note that the statements made during this call may include forward-looking statements and information and future-oriented financial information regarding Dental Corp and its business and disclosure regarding possible events, conditions, or results that are based on information currently available to management, which indicate management's expectation of future growth, results of operations, business performance, business prospects, and opportunities. Such statements are made as the date hereof, and Dental Corp assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect events, disclosures, or circumstances, except as required by applicable securities law. Such statements involve significant risks and uncertainties and are not a guarantee of future performance or results. A number of these risks and uncertainties cause results that differ materially from results discussed today. Given these risks and uncertainties, one should not place undue reliance on these statements and information. Please refer to the forward-looking statements and information and future-oriented financial information section of our public filings. Without limitations, our MD&A and our earnings press release issue today for additional information. For those of you who have dialed into the call, the company has prepared a series of slides to complement our prepared remarks. These slides are available on the investor relations section of our website and the events and presentations section. I'll now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Graham Rosenberg, for opening remarks. Graham?

Thanks, Nate, and good morning, everyone. We're pleased to be here with you today to review Dental Corps' recent developments, as well as our financial and operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2023. For today's call, I'm going to share a number of those developments with you, and I will then hand the call over to Nate. who will discuss our financial results in detail, after which I will provide forward-looking remarks about how our business is trending. As a reminder, Dental Corp operates in a highly recurring essential healthcare industry that is cash pay, resilient through economic cycles, and insulated from disintermediation by technologies. Importantly, dental expenditures have experienced strong relative growth during periods of higher-than-average inflation. Accordingly, And in the context of the current macro environment, we believe that Dental Corp's favorable cost structure, high margins, low commodity risk, and minimal capital expenditures provide support for the company's continued delivery of balanced, double-digit growth in the $18 billion Canadian dental industry. Our confidence in the business is validated by our first quarter 2023 results and strong outlook for the second quarter and the remainder of the year. I am delighted with our results this quarter, during which we delivered record performance across the board. As you can see on slide three, this performance has been made possible by our deep and diverse network of 1,800 plus dentists, 2,400 plus dental hygienists, and 5,500 plus auxiliary dental health professionals across the country from coast to coast. Our healthcare professionals continue to deliver the highest standard of care during the reporting period, supporting more than 2 million active patients and managing more than 5 million patient visits annually. You'll see that we completed our first quarter in March 31, 2023, with approximately $1.4 billion of LTM pro forma revenue and $260 million of pro forma adjusted EBITDA for the same LTM period. Moving on to slide four. you'll see that we continued with our balanced approach to drive sustainable double-digit growth, and we intend to continue growing our business organically through a creative M&A and by driving overall business efficiencies and operating leverage over the medium to long term. This is a program that we have finely tuned over the past decade, and we believe that we are able to adapt to any short or longer-term shifts in the broader economy. With respect to M&A, We continue to leverage our leadership position in the Canadian dental industry by acquiring six practices in the first quarter for a total consideration of $35 million. These practices are expected to generate $5.5 million of pro forma adjusted EBITDA. During the quarter, and as part of our program to rationalize certain non-core standalone specialty practices, we completed the sale of 13 standalone orthodontic practices. We anticipate that the sale of these assets will have a positive impact on overall adjusted EBITDA margins allowing us to allocate resources to higher growth areas of our business. We are also encouraged that in the first quarter and so far in the second quarter that practice valuations are beginning to decline in Canada and as access to financing tightens for many buyers across the industry. We remain well positioned as a partner of choice and a capitalized partner, well capitalized partner, for independent dentists and will continue to be judicious about the practices we require. On slide five, you'll see that we continue to convert a high percentage of our EBITDA into free cash flow and without acquisitions have the potential to drive our leverage down by a quarter to a half term per annum to the mid to high ones over the medium term. On slide six, I'm pleased to report that our business once again delivered double digit growth with first quarter 2023 revenue of $358 million, up 28% over the same period in 2022, and adjusted EBITDA of almost $66 million, up 31% over the same quarter last year, with adjusted EBITDA margins coming in at 18.3%. We are very encouraged that same practice revenue growth was approximately 8.5% for the quarter, driven by a robust rebound in patient visits and a contribution of fee guide increases all of which generated 11.2% same practice EBITDA growth. During the quarter, we also delivered 19.3% growth in the EBITDA of acquisitions completed in 2022 over their comparable performance, driven by our purchasing efficiencies and the rigor of our integration program, including the implementation of our robust technology stack. The outcome of all of this was a strong adjusted free cash flow for the quarter of approximately $33 million compared to $30 million in the first quarter of 2022, despite increased financing costs driven by historical rate increases in the last 12 months. I will now pass the call over to Nate, who will walk us through the details of our financial results, and then I will share some closing remarks before we open the call to questions. Nate?