CGI Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to CGI's third quarter fiscal 2026 conference call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Kevin Linder, SVP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Linder.

Thank you, Joelle, and good morning. With me to discuss CGI's third quarter fiscal 2026 results are Tim Hurlebaus, 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, July 29, 2026. Supplemental slides as well as a press release we issued earlier this morning are available for download along with our MD&A financial statements and accompanying notes, all of which have been filed with both Cedar Plus 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. Now I'll turn the call over to Steve to review our Q3 financials and then Tim will comment on our business and market outlook.

Steve. Thank you Kevin and good day everyone. In our third quarter of fiscal 2026, we are pleased with our revenue growth, delivery of strong EPS accretion, and cash generation. In the quarter, we delivered $4.2 billion of revenue, up 2.5% year-over-year, or up 1.3% when excluding the impact of foreign exchange. Growth was primarily driven by our recent business acquisitions representing approximately 2.5%. Our clients, particularly those in financial services within North America, continue to utilize our global delivery centers contributing to organic growth in our APAC segment of 9.7% in the quarter. In our Western and Southern Europe segments, with our acquisition of APSID, growth was 8.6%. And as expected, our U.S. federal segment improved sequentially, reporting year-over-year organic growth of 2.5% in Q3. Bookings in the quarter were $4.2 billion, or a book-to-bill ratio of 100%, with U.S. federal at 115%, followed by Germany at 114%. On a trading 12-month basis, bookings totaled $17.8 billion for a book-to-bill ratio of 108%. Managed services had a book-to-bill ratio of 115%, and the SINC book-to-bill ratio was 100%. Our contracted backlog stands at $31.8 billion, or 1.9 times revenue. Of the $31.8 billion, we have just over $12 billion in already contracted revenue to be realized over the next 12 months. This is a 5% increase compared to Q2. Turning to profitability. Adjusted debit in the quarter was $682 million, up 2.3% year-over-year, or a margin of 16.3%, consistent with the prior year. Earnings before income taxes were $634 million for a margin of 15.1%. Our effective tax rate in the quarter was 26.5%, an increase from the 26% in the prior year when excluding the tax impacts from acquisition and related integration costs. The increase is mainly explained by the new corporate tax surcharge in France representing $3 million. Based on enacted rates at the end of the quarter and our current profitability mix, we expect our tax rate for future quarters to be in the range of 26 to 27%. On a gap basis, net earnings were $465 million, up $57 million for a margin of 11.1%. The looted EPS was $2.23, an accretion of 22.5% when compared to Q3 last year. Adjusted net earnings were $478 million, up $8 million for a margin of 11.4%. On the same basis, the looted EPS was $2.29, an accretion of 9% when compared to Q3 last year. Turning to cash. In Q3, we generated $605 million, representing 14.4% of total revenue. Our cash on a trailing 12-month basis was $2.6 billion, representing a very strong 15.8% of revenue. The ESO was 43 days unchanged when compared to the prior year. In Q3, we continued to deploy our capital and invested $105 million back into our business, which includes strategic investments in Advanced AI, $50 million for business acquisitions, $413 million to buy back our stock, and in addition, we returned $36 million to our shareholders under our dividend program. Yesterday, our board of directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of 17 cents per share. This dividend is payable on September 18, 2026 to shareholder of records as of the close of business on August 14, 2026. At quarter end, CGI at $3.2 billion in capital resources readily available and a net debt leverage ratio of just over 1. Our capital allocation priorities have remained consistent and focused on our value creation stream for our shareholders. Investing back in the business to drive revenue growth through managed services, SINC and IP, pursuing accretive acquisitions, share buybacks where we continue to be active in our share repurchase program, and quarterly cash dividend distributions. Now, I will turn the call over to Tim to further discuss insights on our performance and the outlook for our business. Tim?

Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. CGI's results in the quarter continue to reflect our positioning to meet client demand as well as our operational excellence, both of which contributed to revenue growth, EPS accretion, strong cash generation, and a rising opportunity pipeline. These outcomes reinforce our competence in CGI strategy and team. Thank you to our consultants around the world for earning the trust of our clients every day. Your expertise, insights, and commitment made these results possible. I'd like to take a moment to give a special message to our colleagues and clients in northwest Spain and southwest France who have been dealing with the wildfires. We understand this morning that the government has given the okay to move back into the evacuated areas. And most importantly, as far as we're aware, there was no impact to human life, which is the thing that really matters. But know that we are with you as you get back up and operational after this devastating event. Today, I will focus on performance highlights before turning to the business environment and growth outlook. For the first three quarters of fiscal 2026, revenue was up 4.4% or 2.1% on a constant currency basis to $12.4 billion. Adjusted EBIT was up 4% to $2 billion. Adjusted EPS was up 8% to $6.67. and on a trailing 12-month basis, cash from operations was up 18%, totaling $2.6 billion, strengthening our financial capacity to execute our profitable growth strategy. Clients are turning to CGI for enterprise-scale initiatives with advanced AI embedded. This client trust drove bookings of $17.8 billion over the past year, up by $1.2 billion compared to the previous year. On this same trailing 12-month basis, book-to-bill was 112%. Backlog also remains strong, representing nearly two years of annual revenue propelled by ongoing multi-year managed services and IP engagements. Client demand for managed services remains high. Given the nature of these larger and longer-term engagements, we assess the health of managed services bookings on a trailing 12-month period, giving the typical step growth nature of this business. On this basis, managed services wins reached $10.3 billion, up 5% over the previous period for a book-to-bill of 115%. Notably, the demand for our managed services, which integrate AI and IP, is also evident in proposals already submitted. Compared to this time last year, the number of proposals pending client decision has more than doubled. and the total contract value is more than 50% higher. Given the strength of our value proposition, our win rate on managed services engagements is high. These are positive indicators we expect to contribute to bookings and revenue momentum in the quarters ahead. In Q3, the renewed strength in systems integration and consulting continued. with strong client awards across financial services, government, and manufacturing, each with book-to-bill ratios of 103% or higher. At the core of this improvement is demand for CGI's industry understanding and technical expertise, both of which are required to help clients operationalize AI. Specific to consulting services, client awards in the quarter were up 11% year over year, This uptick contributed to a rise in the trailing 12-month book-to-bill, now at 108%. This increase was driven by offerings for change management, CIO advisory, security and risk advisory, as well as our proven consulting approach to help clients align their business strategy, operating model, and transformation roadmap. In addition to driving shorter-term revenue, CGI's SIMC services often set the stage for future managed services engagements as clients shift from design and development into implementation. Representative Q3 bookings illustrate the breadth of CGI's full services portfolio. For example, The U.S. General Services Administration awarded CGI a U.S. $251 million modernization contract, which combines CGI's momentum platform in a secure AWS environment with AI-powered automation to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and advance the secure operations of their financial management environment. SSAB, a global steel manufacturer, expanded its strategic partnership with CGI to modernize business-critical IT operations in Finland and Sweden, strengthening business continuity, supply chain reliability, and AI-enabled manufacturing transformation. The UK Ministry of Defense expanded its relationship with CGI to modernize and operate mission critical electronic warfare and intelligence capabilities, reinforcing our role as a trusted partner for supporting national security and defense readiness. Orage, a leading global telco, named CGI a strategic partner for the first wave of its IT transformation with focus on application modernization, cloud adoption, and enabling data and AI capabilities across critical business and network operations. The city of Munich selected CGI to advance digital government services, improve administrative efficiency, and strengthen technological sovereignty through services including digital transformation consulting, System Development, and IT Security. Posty, a leading Nordic transportation and logistics company, awarded CGI an expanded agreement spanning the full communications value chain, extending our role in delivering integrated omni-channel communications with greater reach, delivery reliability, and cost predictability. and CGI is one of two companies selected by Poland's social insurance institution to support the continued development of one of the country's largest public sector IT systems using AI-enabled capabilities to improve software development efficiency and accelerate delivery of secure, citizen-focused digital services. As these new awards demonstrate, and as I've heard consistently from client executives over the past few months, AI is not changing what organizations want to accomplish. Clients want to grow their businesses, serve customers and citizens, improve productivity and manage risk. What has changed is how quickly they expect technology to help them achieve those objectives. As was the case in previous technology cycles, AI is moving from experimentation into everyday operations just at a faster pace and with a higher expectation for return on investment. Client conversations are increasingly centered on how to deploy AI securely, operate it responsibly and cost-effectively, and embed flexibility to evolve as technology advances. With this shift in mind, we see several demand trends reshaping how clients procure, partner, and deliver IT services. are increasingly seeking fewer strategic partners to help them navigate technology change over the long term. Their capacity to evolve becomes as important as the technology itself. This is where CGI has always had an advantage. We are not defined by a single platform, product, or service. Our teams help clients make the right decisions for their organization, implement those decisions successfully, and continue adapting in line with technology innovation. We believe that independence is becoming increasingly important as innovation accelerates. We're seeing this advantage for CGI reflected in procurement initiatives. During the quarter, we were selected as a strategic partner through multiple vendor consolidation initiatives in the U.S. with clients in financial services, airline operations, and retail. As advanced AI matures, clients are starting to move beyond the technology itself to focus more on how to scale successfully. Modern data, cybersecurity, engineering, organizational readiness, and cost management have become central to this discussion. Increasingly, clients want a partner to help govern and manage AI effectively and economically in order to drive sustainable value. These demand patterns are also driving some client organizations to more deeply embed external technology expertise. While this may now be described as being forward deployed, it is well aligned with CGI's model. Our professionals work alongside clients as an extension of their teams, combining technical expertise with a deep understanding of how their organizations and industries operate. As AI becomes embedded in daily work, that proximity becomes even more valuable because successful adoption depends on continuous collaboration, not a one-time implementation. To deepen our client capabilities close to clients, we are expanding CGI's sovereign AI capabilities through new high-security platforms and sovereign cloud partnerships. These investments help clients adopt AI while maintaining control over sensitive data and addressing both regulatory compliance and national security requirements. Taken together, these trends reinforce a key observation. Enterprise AI success will increasingly be measured by what organizations can operationalize and sustain over time. That is how long-term business and mission value will be created. This evolution aligns well with CGI strategy and with the IT services investment patterns we see across industries. Clients are investing in four categories, typically starting with improving their current operations. Then, they modernize the technology foundation needed to scale advanced AI and other innovations. From there, they build new AI-first products, services, and business capabilities that create competitive advantage or better serve their constituents. Across each of these categories, they also need strategic guidance to adapt their operating models as technology evolves. These four categories reflect where we continue to invest and where we see the greatest opportunities to drive future growth. This is demonstrated in the rising pipeline of opportunities that are expected to close over the next year. Specifically, our managed services opportunity pipeline is up by 20% compared to this time last year, and SINC opportunities are up by more than 30%. The total pipeline of IP opportunities, which are embedded across these major lines of business, is up more than 30%. Across all four categories, demand is rising for CGI talent. Hiring is up more than 10% on a sequential quarter basis and 50% compared to Q3 last year. This is led by our U.S. segments, where strong year-to-date bookings are being staffed as projects ramp up. In addition, we see an increase in year-over-year hiring and open billable positions in Asia Pacific based on our value proposition, which combines industry domain and technology expertise, as well as proven global capability center models. As Advanced AI continues to to be increasingly embedded as part of our deals and offerings, CGI's overall pipeline of opportunities over the next 12 months is up by more than 10% year over year, as is the proportion of opportunities where AI is embedded in our services. Specifically, the segment of the total pipeline with AI-based services is now nearly $10 billion, double in size since last year. One of CGI's enduring strengths is our capacity to invest through every business cycle. Our financial strength provides flexibility to continue investing in our business, pursuing strategic acquisitions, and returning capital to shareholders while maintaining a discipline that has consistently differentiated CGI. Our buy strategy remains critical to how we build and grow for the future. Our focus remains on deepening our industry expertise, strengthening our capabilities, and expanding our metro market presence and client relationships. CGI's M&A pipeline remains active across both metro market and larger strategic opportunities. As always, we will remain disciplined in our approach. Every opportunity must strengthen CGI strategically, complement our culture, and create accretive value for all of our stakeholders. In closing, as AI and other emerging technologies continue to become part of how enterprises operate, Client needs are naturally expanding. Through more than 50 years of technology innovation, we have learned that lasting value rarely comes from solely adopting new technology. It comes from evolving the organization as those technologies offer new ways to create business value. This is increasingly the role clients need their partners to play, and it is why CGI continues to be best positioned as a partner of choice. Thank you for your continued interest and support. Let's go to the questions now, Kevin.

Thanks, Tim. Joelle, we can now poll for questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. and our first question comes from Jérôme Dubreuil with Desjardins. Your line is now open.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. First of all, Tim, congrats on the new role. I want to ask about any strategic tweaks that we should be expecting going forward. You know, in recent past, CGI has been perceived externally as being a relatively prudent organization. Any strategic tweaks we should be expecting going forward?

Thanks for your question, Jerome, and thanks for the welcome. Much appreciated. Prudent is an interesting adjective. It's mostly positive, but it has an element of conservatism, I suppose. When I think of how we operate and how that adjective is a fair, perhaps, description of the way we've approached the market, I think it means that when I think of ready, aim, fire, We try to be thoughtful in the way we engage with clients. And so I'll give you a really successful example of how we've engaged with a large telecom client, international telecom client, in the last two and a half years as they've entered the world of, and again, I call it advanced AI, meaning generative and agentic AI because AI has been around for decades. I know the term of art is just AI, so there's my translation for you. As they've engaged in these generative and agentic tools, they've set up a master services agreement that we're a part of where we run a number of use cases with their chief data officer, apply these tools to the use cases, and before we start, We define specific measures of return on investment. And then we run these exercises. Sometimes they're a couple months, sometimes they're four months, but they're of a specified duration with a specified expectation of return on investment. And the expectation is that some won't return on investment and some will, but the ones that don't are stopped after three months, four months, and then the effort is redirected to those that are returning the return on investment. and that's been a great model for channeling the use of these tools versus just handing out thousands of licenses and letting everybody see what happens. And so if prudent means that we take a measured approach with our clients focused on business value, then that description fits. In terms of of strategic priorities. I think our fundamental strategy remains the same in terms of what we do next, what's the next most important thing. That's where we adapt, whether it's working in partnership with some of these frontier tools to deliver capabilities to our clients sooner, or whether it's working with hyperscalers to help somebody transform their environment. Those priorities obviously will continue to adapt as our client demands.

Thanks for this. A follow-up question for me is you've been putting a lot of emphasis on the pipeline in your prepared remarks. Kind of contrast somewhat with the bookings we're seeing in the quarter. Are you seeing some sort of inflection in the conversations you're having with the clients?

Not particularly. I think we did have 100% bookings in the quarter, so they were there. We tend to look at bookings, especially on the managed services side, from a trailing 12 months perspective. But by the nature, I think we called it in the remarks, the step growth nature of those products, you know, where there's a transition period where everything's on the balance sheet and then there's a ramp up after that. Oftentimes when you get those bookings, it takes a while for them to show up in revenue growth. And so we think trailing 12 months is a better barometer. And you heard us, you know, tout those numbers, which are pretty healthy. And then, you know, the emphasis on the pipeline really just means there's more to come. and, you know, pipeline is pipeline and booking is a booking and revenue is revenue and that's the order they go in. And so I'm not telling you that everything in the pipeline will become a booking, but it certainly is promising to have a bigger pipeline than we've ever had before. And given our traditional observed win rates, we think that's a very positive sign for future revenue growth. Thank you. Appreciate it. Sure. Thank you.

Your next question comes from Stephanie Price with CIBC. Your line is now open.

Good morning, Kim. I'll echo my congratulations on the rule. As you kind of step into the seat here, wondering how you think about the opportunities you see for future growth at CGI and what gets you the most excited and maybe conversely, what are some of the risks that you're watching that maybe are a bit underappreciated by the market here?

Yeah, good question Stephanie and thanks again. Thanks also for the welcome. You know, I think what you heard a bit of in our remarks and what I'm most excited about, because it's what I have experienced over several decades here as part of CGI, is that it's becoming clear that the real power of these new technical tools, specifically generative and agentic AI, the power is real, but it relies on understanding you know details about a specific industry and even a specific domain within that industry. and so that's where we've lived for forever is being close to our clients with our proximity model and then having industry expertise that is relevant to what they do, whether that's energy and utilities or government satellite or financial payments. Having that expertise allows us to understand what they're really trying to do, what their constraints are, whether they're regulatory Procedural or what they might be and how we can best apply these tools to actually accelerate them in the right direction. You know, acceleration by itself just means you go faster If you go faster in the wrong direction, then you just end up lost faster, to be colloquial about it. But I think helping people accelerate in the right direction and helping them do more faster is what I'm most excited about. And I'm seeing that acceleration happen. Our revenue trend is moving in the right direction because of that acceleration. So to your question, I'm very optimistic about that looking forward. In terms of risks, it's an ongoing life risk. We just need to stay close to our clients. That sometimes takes effort. If you think about having an old friend, the old friends stay old friends because you make the effort to keep in contact. Same with our clients. We need to make a constant effort to be with them, to be listening to them. to understand where they're trying to go and to bring them what we're learning from across the globe and across the industry, lessons learned that are relevant to them and provide insight that maybe our competitors aren't and that's how we keep our competitive advantage. So it's really just incumbent upon all 94,000 of us to take that on every morning when we wake up and have that energy around and client focus.

Thanks for the call, and maybe a follow-up for me just on the demand environment. You mentioned strong hiring in the U.S., but I think last quarter there was a bit of caution around delayed decision-making in Europe. Just curious how we should think about the overall demand environment here and any changes from last quarter.

Yeah, good question. In the U.S., really, like I mentioned in the script, we've had some strong bookings, and so we're really hiring to fill the needs generated from those bookings, both in the federal market and in the private sector and state and local market. There's a few places in the and our private sector clients in the U.S. where we've been juniorizing our staff. They've been kind of remaking the services we're providing. And so that's created some kind of puffed up hiring needs this quarter in particular that drove those stats a little bit. You know, in Europe, there is demand in certain industries. It just depends on where we did have a little bit of a delay in in decision-making on a couple deals up in the Nordics this quarter, but we're optimistic that those will come in in the current quarter. So there's nothing in particular about that that worries me at the moment, other than just the normal course of business. Thanks for the question, Stephanie.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Doug Taylor with National Bank. Your line is now open.

Yeah, thank you. Good morning. I'll start with a question about the overall organic growth. A better comp this quarter than what we've seen in the last couple of quarters. Better U.S. federal as expected. You had also identified a couple of other specific customer situations that had been putting pressure on your growth over the last couple of quarters heading into this one. Any update generally on the status of some of these customer engagements as we think about further growth or gated growth, I should say, in re-acceleration into the second half of calendar 26, particularly with you lapping some easier comparisons and with the improving pipeline that you've spoken to.

Yeah, thanks for pointing all that out, Doug. Everything you said is right on. And so there were a few, I think what you're referring to in previous quarters, we did reference some of our larger clients who were a little bit slow, going a little bit more deliberately. Shouldn't call them slow. Deliberately and carefully in some of the transformation they were doing. and so I mentioned I think in the script there are three clients in the US where we've been on the right side of vendor consolidation and so we're just at the beginning of ramping that up and so maybe those are some that maybe were a little bit slower to evolve than we thought but provide us with some opportunities, as you say, to provide some good year-over-year growth in the next few quarters. So that's certainly a tailwind. And so I think that's probably what we were referring to. And it still remains a good news. It would have been nice for it to happen faster for sure. But the fact that it's still there and we're still selling into it and recruiting into it is a very positive sign for us.

One follow-up for me then. You referenced the trend in data sovereignty combined with your local presence orientation and theory being an ongoing good leverage point for CGI, particularly in places like Europe. Can you speak a little bit about your infrastructure set up there and the level of investment in that? I know infrastructure has not been something you've emphasized as much in recent years, but remains part of the business and how that's factoring into your customer conversations and the competitive landscape.

Yeah, that's a great question, Doug. Thanks for that. And sovereignty, we think, is a real unique opportunity where we have some unique differentiation, as you say, because of our proximity in all of those countries. We do have some infrastructure capability in the EU and in the UK in particular, and we've got some advanced AI tools already in place. We've got something called CGI AIOps Nova in the UK that's helping us and many more. So, sorry, to your specific question, so we are making the investments that are required to provide that capability, and we'll continue to do that. If and and it includes having more physical capability within the EU, we have the financial wherewithal to do that, and so we will absolutely continue make investments as are necessary to deliver into that need. One more thought about our unique situation relative to sovereignty. Sovereignty is really about specific sets of data and processes that need to be handled by people in country or with certain levels of clearance. It's not everything, but it is some things. And so having good governance is really important to being able to deliver a sovereign solution. And we have always prided ourselves on diligent governance. And that's really the first part. The fact that we have people, people who are citizens. of these countries and clearance holders in the case of government in these countries ready to do it as an advantage. We're very well represented across the countries we work in. We're not 95% residents of one country and importing everybody from there. We're well positioned. However, For the processes and data that is flexible, and almost every sovereign operation, there are some things that can be supported in other places, we provide that flexibility as well. So we're well equipped to, I think, answer the bell on the demand for sovereign operations. Thank you.

Your next question comes from David Kwan with TD Cowan. Your line is now open.

Good morning. Some of your peers talked about being impacted by shifting IT priorities and a pullback in discretionary spending particularly late in the quarter. Curious to see kind of what you had seen as it relates to any changes in customer demand and activity throughout the quarter and maybe into this month.

Thanks, David, for the question. Just by happenstance in our portfolio, we did not see that this quarter. I think it's reflected by our SINC book to bill. We seem to have some pretty good velocity on that front, but I'm familiar with that phenomenon as we have seen it in prior quarters. I think maybe what others might be referring to is With respect to advanced AI, as clients started understanding what the bills would be for token usage over the last three or four months, they've had to revisit their ROI calculations in terms of the investments they're making and the ROI it's providing. and then they invested in licenses for these new tools but didn't necessarily factor in or fully understand the cost of the compute as represented in tokens. and so it's actually provided opportunity for us where we've executed several engagements already with clients where we've helped them design their processes with the token usage in mind and so optimizing the language models that they're executing so we have helped them create things that we call like domain specific language models DSLMs as opposed to just a general large language model which focuses in on the specific function they're doing and then then uses the data set or data sets that are necessary to support that function versus the whole broad data set and thereby being measured and thoughtful about token usage. It's not a new thing in this new world, but it's not a new phenomenon in technology. We've always Thank you for joining us. And so it really addresses a number of goals that our client organizations and we jointly have. And so that is probably maybe what you're hearing from some others. And it is a legitimate phenomenon now as people try to get their hands around this newer development. But it's in this quarter provided opportunity for us kind of on a consulting basis and an architecture basis to help our clients rethink the way they're implementing these tools.

No, that makes sense and similar to what we've been hearing. And then just on the SINC side, it was down slightly this quarter. Don't know if that was related to maybe some more discretionary work getting pushed out. Can you comment on that? And then as it relates to bookings, though, which were pretty solid. What's driving that performance? Is that primarily AI-driven, helping customers with their AI deployments and helping generate better returns, or is that something else?

Well, I mean, it's a combination of many things. The bookings are – SINC bookings tend to turn into revenue more quickly. I think we highlighted that in the script. So we see that quicker, even in quarter. If you sign a contract at the end of April, you get two months of revenue on that booking, as opposed to, I described earlier, managed services, which can take sometimes months or even over a year to complete. to show up on the P&L as revenue. So in the quarter, we had SINC bookings of 105%. And so that was positive for us. And I think it gave us some of that growth in the quarter, but also portends for a positive growth going forward.

That's great. Thank you.

Yep. The next question comes from Paul Treiber with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Well, thanks, and good morning. Good to be speaking to you, Tim. You mentioned a number of times hiring is a key priority. There's a general view out there that IT services at some point would decouple from employee growth due to AI. In your perspective, is that comment a misconception of the role of employees in IT services?

Yeah, thanks, Paul. That's a great question. And maybe to put a finer point on it, there's a perception that the IT services industry in its most simplified form was people times rates times hours drives revenue. And so in that simplified form, the notion that having an advanced AI tool that could reduce the amount of effort necessary to accomplish a certain task would reduce the number of people you need to generate revenue. In other words, decoupling people from revenue. Now, maybe you're charging for the agents you create to maintain your revenue, but that's, I think, what that theory is based on. What we're seeing is a couple things. First of all, historically, we've been, you know, had areas of our business where revenue was not directly coupled to headcount. You know, our managed services, you know, Program as an example, which is 56% of our revenue-ish, 55, 56%, you know, is about outcomes and delivering to service level. So as, you know, you build it up based on, you know, needing a certain headcount to do all the functions necessary to deliver that service. But over time, as we become more efficient in delivering that service, as we implement tools to help us implement that service, to include advanced AI tools, among others, then it can reduce the headcount necessary. And then historically, over decades, our model is to share those savings with our client and then hopefully use those savings to fund advanced scope. And so that's one example. Another example is intellectual property, where We've built these solutions over time, and we leverage them across clients and even industries. And so the revenue we derive from producing value with those solutions is not directly tied to headcount. And so that's been a phenomenon that's been true for a while. But the other thing I'll say, even back to the more simple model, is people are needing help. Thank you for joining us. of systems programmers or at least business process people who were doing robotic process automation or whatever. The average person wasn't using them, and now we all are. And so it's, I think, more profound and has made the idea of what could happen more real to everybody. And so, but as people are using this, especially in the enterprise business environment, it's occurring to everybody that, okay, we still have to be thoughtful about how we accelerate. I think I said earlier, if you accelerate in the wrong direction, you just end up lost faster. And so I think we do need people. Thank you for having me. how to anticipate complex industry requirements that maybe aren't obvious to somebody who hasn't done it before. Like, for example, in payroll, think about payroll. The simple model for payroll is, you know, I have a salary and every two weeks, you know, you compute my hours or my, you know, one twenty-fourth of my salary and you cut a paycheck. But then, you know, okay, but you got to take taxes and other deductions out. And what about retroactive? You know, and when you do a retroactive pay, are you taking into account the regulations that were in effect during that retroactive period that maybe have changed that then. It gets very, very complex very quickly. and so you know the novice user maybe could do the first part but as you get into those more complex environments an audit trail just think about the requirements of audit trails on banking payment systems or any of these things and how to make sure you accurately maintain an auditor these are complex things this is why the systems that you know this is why the IT system integrator market exists because over decades you know we have helped clients understand how to best use technology to meet their needs. And that's, again, still the case. Maybe it's faster now. Maybe we can do more with a certain level of effort than we could before. I think that's certainly true. So this is all good for all of us. But certainly, you know, we're going to need IT services professionals to continue to help be successful in this endeavor, for sure.

Thanks for that explanation. The second question, just on three years ago, CGI announced a plan to invest a billion dollars in AI over three years. So we're at the end of that. What's the result of that investment? And then do you have plans to continue or expand that investment going forward?

Yeah, great question. And the answer is yes, we always continue to invest and our capabilities. The first and biggest part of that investment is in our people and giving them access to the tools and giving them training on how to use those tools with clients. So that's an important part. I mentioned just a few of the capabilities and tools we've created. I mentioned the AIOpsNOVA in the UK, the DigiOps for managed services there. We've integrated advanced AI into all of our IP platforms to help us create agents to assist the users of our IP in all the industries in which we operate. So massive investments in solutions and in people will absolutely continue. And that's why we highlight our financial strength. We have the ability. The first priority of use of our cash is investing back into our business. That's back into developing solutions to propose into the market to our clients. That's back into training our people. That's back into making sure we're investing in our alliances with our global alliances with tech partners, the hyperscalers, the frontier AI tool providers. Those all have been and will continue to be priorities for us. Great question.

Thanks for taking the questions. Paul?

Your next question comes from Sarinder Sindh with Jefferies. Your line is now open.

Thank you. Tim, just taking a step back and maybe following up on the very first question that was asked, can you maybe discuss what you plan on doing differently from your predecessor and maybe elaborate on why?

Yeah, thanks, Sarinder, for the question. You know, I get that question a lot. What's really going to do differently? And what I've figured out, Surrender, over the last two and a half months in this role, I like to tell people I'm the new guy, but they kind of smile at me and say, well, haven't you been here for like 38 years? But as the quote-unquote new guy, at least new in chair position, What I'm learning is that the fundamentals are strong, that the way we approach the market, the way we think about providing solutions to our clients is fine. But it's really how we prioritize what we do within that structure. So I've been talking to Surrender a lot about putting our energy into the fewest, most important things. and so you know making sure that we are you know we have the right capability to bid into requirements around you know if somebody is has chosen the platform on a certain hyperscaler do we have the right people with the right certifications to deliver into that demand and if we're seeing that demand across countries in a particular industry or You know, otherwise, then are we making sure that we're coordinating and making that the priority for how we're having people spend their time? So that's kind of from a technology standpoint, from an industry standpoint. making sure that we, as ever, are current on regulations. Again, it's more of the same strategy. It's really just about priority within that strategy, what we do within the construct that we have. And there's a huge amount of opportunity if you just think about your own day and what you choose to do next. There's a huge opportunity if you pick the right things and more, just as importantly, stop doing the wrong things If you have 10 priorities today, I would suggest to you that's too many. I suggest to people one is the perfect, but maybe you've got three, and maybe that's doable. And I mean priorities. So if you've got more than a few, you probably need to rethink and understand what's my role in helping CGI grow in this market? What's my role in helping this client that I'm serving grow? And so Surrender, it's really more of a focus of priorities, which are definitely changing. I think back over the last couple of years, we have prioritized our global alliance program more. They're a big part of what our clients are doing. And so making sure that we're coordinating globally and helping each other across regions and industries is with our global alliance partners. That's been something that's been a different prioritization for CGI over the last couple of years, and there are more things that are like that. I hope that answers.

That's helpful. And then I guess as a related follow-up, I mean, what is your view of maybe how the competitive environment, I guess, is evolving and then maybe how you intend to position yourself. And what I mean by that is it seems like there's two different mindsets of how the business is going to evolve. One is that you need to build a lot more IP. And so we're seeing a lot of investment in building platforms, platform solutions that you can go and take to the client. So think of it almost as a Palantir type of strategy. and then the other strategies more about kind of continuing down the current path, maybe doing a bit more custom work, maybe having a little bit more technology, but not materially different. How do you envision those two different views of the world and how you think which one CGI fits in?

Yeah, that's an interesting question, Surender. I'm not sure they're total opposites. So to the first part of creating platforms, or I think many people call them accelerators, right? That's something we're doing. So for example, I think I mentioned the term pulse earlier. So across, as you're aware, we've got IP and government and financial services and utilities. We've created a platform called Pulse that is not competing with the frontier products out there, but is sitting on top of them and providing a consistent way to integrate with all of our IP. And we've rolled that out to all of our clients. So for sure, that's what you would call it. a platform or an accelerator. Just one example. DigiOps is another example of a platform or accelerator. If I was answering your question just kind of straight up, I'd say we're certainly behaving more in the first way. But I want to qualify that by saying that's the technology answer. The business and client relationship answer is a little bit in the second, which is we still have to stay Close to our clients and understand what really creates value for a bank in the payments process. What are the key places where they can create a competitive advantage, if any? What are the key places where they need to be compliant, where they get in big trouble? Understanding those things. And as we introduce new platforms, new technology, making sure that we focus on those things, that we don't break the stuff that has to work. and that we accelerate the stuff that is truly a competitive advantage. And I think that that mindset is less about the first category you described and more about the second. So a little bit of both if that makes sense.

I think that's relatively fair. I guess what ends up happening just at the high level is I would see a much more bigger disconnect of revenues from headcounts in what I would call the tech forward strategy or the platform strategy versus kind of going down a bit more of the path in the accelerator strategy, which is a little closer to, I would argue, the status quo. At least that's how I see them. I'm not sure how you would view the differences between the two.

Yeah, maybe. I mean, like I said, our revenue mix is about 56% managed services, 44% SINC. Managed Services already tends to be less connected to headcount in terms of revenue. SINC would be typically more connected, but as you know, Saranda, we've got a lot of SINC where we're doing IP implementation. A lot of our SINC is firm fixed price, which is more outcome-based than effort-based. And so I think for some in the industry who have a larger proportion of T&M You know, Staff August type contracts that I would think that that would be a bigger phenomenon and a bigger shift for others like us who have always had a little bit of a separation between headcount and revenue. It might become less noticeable. I don't know.

Got it. And thank you for the response and welcome aboard.

Thanks, sir.

Wonderful.

Your next question comes from Thanos Moshopoulos with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Hey, Tim. Can you give us an update on M&A, just given all the disruption with AI and valuations in the market and so forth? Any changes seen in recent months in terms of opportunity sets, valuations, willingness to transact? And does your own stock valuation maybe put a higher hurdle rate for you on M&A, just given the attractiveness of potentially buying back your stock as an alternative? Thanks.

Yeah, thanks for the question, Thanos. So we've had a nice run of M&A over the last two and a half, three years, given the... Given the valuations of some of our traditional targets, we've been able to pick up some really nice complementary companies to merge in that have really helped us a great deal in a number of industries and a number of regions. So it's been good to us. We continue to be very active. We have as big of an M&A pipeline as we ever have. As always, it's a combination of large companies that span multiple regions and industries and smaller niche companies. We announced, for example, Stratfield recently in Atlanta, which helped us bump up the Atlanta Metro and particularly helped us in the retail sector. So that's been a terrific merger so far. It's early days, but terrific so far. But we've also got some much bigger ones, multi-billion dollar targets. And as ever, those come when they come. I can tell you we're working on some now. In terms of cash, we are very well positioned, and maybe I'll give it to Steve for a quick explanation on that. But we're very well positioned to be able to do the size of acquisition that comes along. And Steve, maybe you could say a couple words about that.

Yeah, as you know, our leverage ratio is quite low, so our balance sheet is really ready for any large M&A. over the last couple of quarters any excess cash we were obviously repurchasing share but we did not use our balance sheet to repurchase share and it's planned like this. We want to keep our balance sheet fully open for the growth coming from M&A and for the opportunities that we see in our pipeline. So Obviously, we continue to be disciplined. We need to do the right M&A at the right price. But as Tim mentioned, we have the capacity to execute on the M&A that we're having in the pipeline currently.

Great. I'll pass the line.

Thank you.

Thanks, Tom. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star 1. Your next question comes from Susan Sukumar with EFL. Your line is now open.

Good morning, gents. Thank you for taking my questions, and Tim, congrats on taking the helm here. For my first question, I want to touch on IT. You guys talked about the pipeline being up here, but you also talked about higher managed services proposals with higher contract values. Just wondering, how much has the ATTACH Thank you for the warm welcome.

So I think, yes, we did talk about the fact that our IP pipeline is up and our managed services pipeline is up and that we have a high win rate. Often our IP is part of our managed services pipeline. I mentioned, for example, DigiOps as something that's involved in many of our managed services proposals that are out now. And so I guess the answer to I think what your question was is it's probably up. We probably have more IP in our managed services bids than we did a year or two ago. But it's more, as Sarinder asked earlier, it's probably more in the form of accelerators. and platforms, which is what I would call DigiOps versus maybe an industry solution, although our industry solution IP has a healthy pipeline as well. But in relation to managed services, it probably tends to be more of the platform accelerator type IP in those bids. That helps.

Great. Thanks for color. My second question, I just want to touch on pricing. You guys talk about rising contract values. Is that more a function of pricing power or growing scope? And conversely, given rising AI utilization here, how has that been a factor on pricing overall?

Yeah, there's a couple questions in there. The first thing I would say about total contract value, it's more a function of scope and duration. An old colleague of mine used to say, the difference between a $100 million contract and a $200 million contract is five or 10 years. And so it's really more scope and duration more than anything. In terms of AI and pricing pressure, it's a function of just like and any other. We always have to be compelling in our offers that we're offering a fair and efficient price or else The client won't buy our solution. So that's nothing new under the sun. So we are transparent in how we're using these AI tools in our solution and the benefit it's providing to our clients, and we try to show why we'll be able to deliver something faster and more efficiently, perhaps for a better price, by integrating these tools in. So absolutely, it affects the price in that way.

Okay, great. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll pass the line. Thank you.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Kevin Linder for closing remarks.

Thanks Joelle and thanks everyone for participating. As a reminder, a replay of this call will be available either via our website or by dialing 1-888-660-6264 and using the passcode 69190. As well, a podcast of this call will be available for download within a few hours. Follow-up questions can be directed to me at 1-905-973-8363. Thanks again, everyone, and look forward to speaking soon.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. We're back in the pre-conference. Have a good day.