CGI Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the CGI first quarter fiscal 2021 conference call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Mayor Yagi, Vice President Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Yagi.

Thank you, Sharon, and good morning. With me to discuss CGI's first quarter fiscal 2021 results are George Schindler, 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, January 27, 2021. Supplemental slides, as well as the press release we issued earlier this morning, are available for download along with our Q1 MD&A financial statements and accompanying notes, all of which have been filed with both SIDAR and EDGAR. 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 mdna and press release as well as 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. We are also hosting our AGM this morning. So we hope you will join us live via the broadcast at 11 a.m. I'll turn it over now to Francois to review our Q1 financials, and then George will comment on our operational highlights and strategic outlook. Francois?

Thank you, Mayer, and good morning, everyone. I'm happy to share with you the results of our first quarter 2021. Our results in the quarter demonstrate the ongoing resilience of CGI's business model and the relevance of the services we provide for our clients despite continued pandemic-related shutdowns. Overall, we are pleased with our first quarter results as we turned the corner on revenue while at the same time saw strong growth in our bookings, profitability, and cash generation. We delivered revenue of $3 billion, down 1.2% when compared to last year, representing a constant currency decline of 3.6% year-over-year. This is an improvement over last quarter, where we saw a 4.5% decrease year-on-year. As we mentioned last quarter, we continue to expect a gradual improvement in the months and quarters ahead and reiterate our expectation of returning to revenue growth in the second half of fiscal 2021. Total bookings were up 23.5% year-over-year, representing $3.4 billion in new contracts for a book-to-bill of 113% of revenue and lifting our 12 months book-to-bill to 103%. New business was 28% of bookings, an increase from the previous quarter's 22%. IP bookings in the quarter were up 58% year-over-year. IP was 21% of revenue in the quarter, the same as last year, despite the continued pressure on lower transaction volumes in both payroll and travel-related services due to the pandemic. Our global backlog remains healthy at $22.8 billion, or 1.9 times revenue, the vast majority of which is comprised of long-term managed services engagements. Adjusted EBIT in Q1 was up 4.6% from the year-ago period at $496 million, while EBIT margins increased to 16.4%, up 90 basis points compared to Q1 last year. The year-over-year increase was mainly the result of savings from our restructuring plan, lower discretionary expenses, and the benefits of synergies achieved through the integration of prior years' acquisitions. As highlighted last quarter, our restructuring costs, including actions taken in response to the pandemic, total $155 million and were completed during our fiscal year ended September 30, 2020. As such, I'm pleased to report that we did not incur any additional restructuring costs this quarter and do not foresee additional pandemic-related actions at this time. Our effective tax rate in Q1 was 25.9%. This compares with 25.1% last year when excluding integration and restructuring expenses. This is within our expected range for the year. Net earnings were $343 million for a margin of 11.4%, and diluted earnings per share were $1.32, representing an increase of 24.5% year-over-year. Excluding integration and restructuring costs, net earnings were $347 million for a margin of 11.5%, and diluted earnings per share were $1.33, compared to $1.23 in the same quarter last year, for an accretion of 8.1%. We continue to generate strong cash flow. In the quarter, cash provided by operating activities was $597 million, or 19.8% of revenue, representing an increase of $132 million compared with Q1 last year. This improvement was driven by a DSO of 44 days compared to 47 days last quarter. For the last 12 months, cash provided by operating activities was $2.1 billion, or 17% of revenue. In Q1, we continue allocating capital with discipline. We invested $56 million back into our business, largely in IP and managed services engagements. After a pause in the last two quarters, we resumed share buybacks in Q1, investing $436 million for the purchase and cancellation of 4.7 million shares of CGI. And in line with our build and buy strategy, we acquired the HMB Professional Services Division, enabling us to deepen our presence within the Columbus, Ohio metro market. Net debt to capitalization decreased due to a higher level of cash generation from 24% in Q4 to 23% at the end of December. Consistent with previous years, we reviewed our capital return program to formulate the most effective capital deployment strategy to maximize shareholder returns. Buying back CGI stock has been an accretive and flexible way to return capital to shareholders. As such, our Board of Directors approved yesterday the extension of the program until February 2022, allowing us to purchase up to 19.2 million shares over the next 12 months. Looking ahead, our cash allocation priority remains the same, which is to focus our investments on growing our business. With cash of $1.7 billion on hand and a $1.5 billion revolver that remains fully accessible, We now have $3.2 billion readily available to pursue this profitable growth strategy. Now we'll turn the call over to George to provide more details on the operations and on the outlook for our business and markets. George?