CGI Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to CGI's second quarter fiscal 2023 conference call. I would like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Kevin Linder, SVP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Linder.

Thank you, Julie, and good morning. With me to discuss CGI's second quarter fiscal 2023 results are George Schindler, our President and CEO, and Steve Perron, Executive Vice President and CFO. This call is being broadcast on cgi.com and recorded live at 9 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. Supplemental slides, as well as a press release we issued earlier this morning, are available for download along with our Q2 MD&A, financial statements, and accompanying notes, all of which have been filed with both Cedar 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 MD&A and press release, as well as on CGI.com. We recommend our investors 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. I'll now turn it over to Steve to review our Q2 financials, and then George will comment on our business and market outlook. Steve.

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to share with you the results of our second quarter of fiscal 2023. In Q2, we delivered $3.72 billion of revenue, up 13.7% year-over-year, or up 11.4% when excluding the impact of foreign exchange. The following segments generated double-digit constant currency growth. Western and Southern Europe, up 28%. Finland, Poland, and Baltics up 14%, UK and Australia up 11%, and Asia Pacific up 21%. Notably, we continue to see an increase in overall demand for our global delivery, especially offshore. As a result, our offshore operations are now 23% of our total employee base, up from 22% in Q2 of last year. From an industry perspective, we had constant currency growth across all sectors. Notably, financial services grew 16%, government grew 12%, and manufacturing, retail, and distribution also grew 12%. From an IP perspective, IP as a percentage of total revenue was 21% in the quarter. We continue to see strong demand for our business solutions, supported by an increase in IP revenue in seven of our eight proximity geographic segments in Q2. Notably, Canada's IP revenue grew by 39%. Western and Southern Europe's IP revenue grew by 32%. And Scandinavia and Central Europe's IP revenue grew by 28%. The number of our consultants and professionals increased year-over-year by 7,000, representing an 8.3% increase, totaling now 91,000 worldwide. We booked $3.8 billion of contract wins in the quarter, representing a book-to-bill ratio of 103% compared to 101% in the same quarter last year. On a trailing 12-month basis, our book-to-bill ratio reached 109%, with seven of our eight proximity geographic segments having a book-to-bill ratio above 100%. Led by UK and Australia with a book-to-bill ratio of 128%. U.S. commercial and state government with a book-to-bill ratio of 120%. And Finland, Poland, and Baltics with a book-to-bill ratio of 117%. Our Q2 IP book-to-bill ratio was strong at 118% given the strong value proposition for CGI's business solution. This is reflective of the ongoing investment in our IP, which is now generating larger and longer-term IP engagements. Overall, our global backlog reached a record of $25.2 billion, representing 1.8 times revenue. Turning to profitability, earnings before income taxes were $564.5 million, up 13.2% year over year, for a margin of 15.2%. Adjusted EBIT in Q2 was $601 million, up 14.7% year-over-year. This represents an EBIT margin of 16.2%, up 20 basis points year-over-year and up 10 basis points sequentially. The year-over-year increase was driven by the combination of strong revenue growth and operational discipline. we delivered strong EBIT margins in the following segments. Asia-Pacific at 30.9%, Canada at 21.7%, and Western and Southern Europe at 16.7%. Our effective tax rate in Q2 was 25.7% compared to 25.4% in the prior year. We continue to expect our tax rate for future quarters to be in the range of 24.5 to 26.5%. Net earnings improved to $419 million for a margin of 11.3%. This compared to $372 million in Q2 last year. Diluted EPS was $1.76, representing an increase of 15% year over year. When excluding integration and acquisition costs, net earnings improved to $435 million for a margin of 11.7%. This compared to $374 million in the same quarter last year. On the same basis, diluted EPS was $1.82, an accretion of 19% when compared to $1.53 in the same quarter last year. This improvement was mainly driven by the successful execution of our build and buy profitable growth strategy. In the quarter, cash provided by operating activities was $469 million compared to $473 million in the prior year. DSO was 41 days compared to 42 days last year, well within our target range. For the last 12 months, Cash provided by operating activities was $2 billion, or 14.5% of revenue. In Q2, we invested $107 million into our business and $400 million to buy back our stock, repurchasing 3.3 million shares at a weighted average price of $119.58. As of the end of March, we had the authorization to buy back up to an additional 15.4 million shares under our current program. In the quarter, we continue to deliver a strong return on invested capital at 15.6%, demonstrating our efficient deployment of capital. Looking ahead, Our focus continues to be on delivering value to our shareholders by investing back in our business, pursuing accretive acquisitions, and repurchasing our stock and are paying down our debt. With a net debt to capitalization ratio of 24% at the end of March, as well as $2.8 billion of cash readily available and access to more if needed, CGI as the strength and capital resources to continue to power our build and buy profitable growth strategy. Now, I will turn the call to George to further discuss insights and outlook for our business and markets. George?