CGI Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the CGI fourth quarter and fiscal 2020 conference call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Yagi, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Yagi.

Thank you, Julie, and good morning. With me to discuss CGI's fourth quarter fiscal 2020 results are George Hindler, our President and CEO, and François Boulanger, Executive Vice President and CFO. This call is being broadcast on cgi.com and recorded live at 9 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, November 11, 2020. Supplemental slides, as well as the press release we issued earlier this morning, are available for download along with our 2020 MD&A, financial statements, and accompanying notes, all of which have been filed with both CDAR and ADGAR. Please note that some statements made on the call may be forward-looking. Actual events or results may differ materially from those expressed or implied, and CGI disclaims any intent or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. The complete safe harbor statement is available in both our MD&A and press release, as well on CGI.com. We encourage our investors to read it in its entirety. We are reporting our financial results in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS. As always, we will also discuss non-GAAP performance measures, which should be viewed as supplemental. The MD&A contains definitions of each one used in our reporting. All of the dollar figures expressed on this call are Canadian, unless otherwise noted. So with that, I'll turn it over to Francois.

Thank you, Mayor, and good morning, everyone. Let me start by acknowledging that today is Remembrance Day in Canada and in many countries across Europe, as well as Veterans Day in the U.S. I want to recognize all those who have served or are serving in the defense of their nations. Thank you. So let us now go to the Q4 results. Despite the widespread disruptions that the pandemic has caused to world economies, Our results in the quarter demonstrate the resiliency of CGI's business model and the value that we provide to our clients, helping them emerge stronger from this very difficult period. Overall, we are pleased with our fourth quarter results underpinned by strong bookings, profitability, and cash generation. Revenue came in at $2.9 billion, down 1.1% when compared to last year and representing a constant currency decline of 4.5% year-over-year. IP as a percent of revenue was 22% in the quarter, up from 21% in Q3. Revenue increased in transaction-based IP for trade, collections, and insurance, partly offset by lower volumes in our IP engagements related to areas affected by the pandemic, such as lower payroll volumes and travel restrictions. We booked a healthy $3.5 billion in new contracts in Q4, or 119% of revenue, with particular strength in North America. This demonstrates the value of our services despite the pressure on world economies. Adjusted EBIT in Q4 was stable from the year-ago period at $458 million, while EBIT margins increased to 15.6%, up 10 basis points compared to Q4 last year. The year-over-year increase was mainly the result of lower SG&A discretionary expenses, synergies in our infrastructure business, savings from our restructuring plan, and $8.5 million related to IFRS 16. Restructuring expenses were $84 million in the quarter as a result of actions taken in response to the pandemic as we outlined in Q2. We do not expect additional restructuring related to the pandemic at this time. Our effective tax rate in Q4 was 25.4% or 25.5% when excluding non-deductible restructuring expenses. This compares with 25.1% last year and was within our expected range for the year. Net earnings were $252 million for a margin of 8.6%, and diluted earnings per share were 96 cents. Excluding integration and restructuring costs, Earnings were $318 million for a margin of 10.9%, and diluted earnings per share were $1.22 compared to $1.21 in the same quarter last year. We are especially pleased with the continuing trend of strong cash generation. In the quarter, cash provided by operating activities was $492 million, or 17% of revenue, representing an increase of $87 million compared with Q4 last year. This improvement was driven by lower DSOs coming in at 47 days compared to 50 days in the same period last year as a result of better collections and a positive impact from the adoption of IFRS 16. Net debt to capitalization decreased sequentially due to strong cash generation from 28% in Q3 to 24% at the end of September, offering us increased flexibility to execute our build and buy strategy. Turning now to our fiscal 2020 full-year results. Revenue was $12.2 billion. On a constant currency basis, revenue was stable year over year. Bookings for the year totaled $11.8 billion, or 97% of revenues. Our global backlog remained healthy at 1.9 times revenue, or $22.7 billion, the vast majority of which are comprised of long-term managed services engagements. Adjusted EBIT was $1.9 billion, representing a margin of 15.3% for a full fiscal year, up 20 basis points from last year. Then earnings were $1.1 billion for a margin of 9.2%, and diluted earnings per share were $4.20. When excluding acquisition, integration, and restructuring-related expenses, net earnings for the year total $1.3 billion, and earnings per share were $4.89, 19 cents higher than last year, representing growth of 4%. For the full year, operating cash flows were $1.9 billion, or 15.9% of revenues, an improvement of $305 million versus $1.6 billion last year. Throughout fiscal 2020, we made a number of accretive investments, $315 million back into our business, $267 million in acquisitions, and we invested $1 billion repurchasing 10.6 million CGI shares. Looking ahead, we plan to utilize our strong cash position to drive growth in the business. At our disposal are $1.7 billion of cash on hand and a $1.5 billion revolver, which we will use to drive investment in our internal IP, M&A, and share buybacks. With 23 active discussions ongoing and others in the pipeline, we continue to engage with potential M&A targets in order to accelerate both our metro market strategy as well as potential transformational acquisition opportunities. Now I will turn the call over to George to provide more details on the operations, our strategy, and on the outlook for our business and markets.