Medical Facilities Corporation

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Medical Facilities Corporation's 2024 Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. After management's remark, this call will include a question and answer session whereby qualified equity analysts will be permitted to ask questions. Before turning the call over to management, listeners are reminded that today's call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of Canadian Provincial Securities Laws. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Certain material factors or assumptions are implied in making forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. For additional information, please consult the MD&A for this quarter, the risk factors section of the annual information form, and medical facilities other filing with Canadian securities regulators. Medical facilities does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements. Such statements speak only as of the date made. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Jason Redman, President and CEO of Medical Facilities.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone.

Joining me on the call is our Chief Financial Officer, David Watson. Earlier this morning, we reported our fourth quarter in year-end results. News leaves, financial statements, and MD&A are available on our website and have been filed on CDAR+. MFC had a very strong year in 2024. We had solid increases in income from operations, adjusted EBITDA, and net income for the year. But it should be no surprise that the biggest highlight was the sale of Black Hills to Sanford Health in November. While we weren't necessarily looking to sell Black Hills, the opportunity to enhance the value for our scalers and physicians was simply too compelling. For MSC's majority ownership position of Black Hills, we received cash proceeds of $96.1 million, net up transaction costs of $0.9 million. Additionally, we recorded a net receivable of $0.7 million for working capital adjustments and escrow reserve, which was collected subsequent to year end. The transaction also significantly strengthened our balance sheet. It resulted in the elimination of the exchangeable interest related to Black Hills in the amount of $17 million and drove our year-end cash balance to a record high of $108.5 million, enhancing our ability to return capital to shareholders while allowing us to refine our focus on the remaining core assets. Throughout the year, we continued to prioritize shareholder returns, and under our normal course issuer bid, we repurchased approximately 1.7 million common shares, or about 6.9% of the total shares outstanding we had at the start of 2024, returning $16.6 million to our shareholders. We also continued our substantial debt repayments. In 2023, we repaid $20 million on our corporate credit facility, which reduced the balance to $16 million by the start of 2024. This past year, We were paid the entire $16 million in full, bringing the balance to zero. In addition, at the close of business yesterday, we announced the results from our substantial ISPR bid, which we initially launched in January of 2025. Under the SID, we were purchased approximately 3.4 million shares for an aggregate purchase price of $60.7 million Canadian. The shares repurchased under the SIB represented approximately 14.7% that were issued in outstanding common shares on a non-diluted basis as of February 24, 2025, when the revised terms of the offer were announced. Now that the SIB has concluded, any remaining cash not utilized to repurchase common shares will be distributed to shareholders by way of a special dividend. We are very proud to report that following the closing of this SIV, since 2022, MFC has been able to return $126.2 million to our shareholders through a combination of SIVs, NCIVs, and dividend payments. Looking ahead, we remain focused on operational excellence and delivering the highest quality of care to our patients while continuing to evaluate options to optimize shareholder returns. And briefly, on the topic of quality of care, I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to the team at Arkansas Surgical Hospital for recently receiving the 2024 Press Ganey Human Experience Guardian of Excellence Award for the fifth year in a row, placing them among the top 5% of hospitals across the U.S. for outstanding patient experience. Additionally, our Arkansas and Sioux Falls facilities were recently recognized as among the top orthopedic hospitals for women in the U.S. by marketing research company, Women's Choice. I would now like to turn the call over to David to review our financial results for the quarter. David?