MDA Space Ltd.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to MDA Space conference call and webcast. This call is being recorded on March 7, 2025 at 8.30 a.m. Eastern Time. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. For those viewers listening via webcast, please note that the company will be using a presentation. Webcast viewers can advance the slides by using the arrows seen in the presentation window. If anyone has difficulties hearing the conference, please press star followed by zero for operator assistance at any time. I'd now like to turn the call over to Shireen Sahawi, head of investor relations at MDA Space.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to MDA Space fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings call. Mike Greenlee, our CEO, and Guillaume Lavoie, our CFO, will lead today's call and share some prepared remarks before taking your questions. A couple of housekeeping items before we begin. Today's call is accessible via webcast on our Investor Relations website. All our disclosures, including the press release, MD&A, and financial statements, are available from our Investor Relations website and from CDAR+. I would also like to remind you that today's call will include estimates and other forward-looking information which may differ from actual results. Please review the cautionary language in today's press release and public filings regarding various factors, assumptions, and risks that could cause actual results to differ. In addition, during this call, we will refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Although we believe these measures provide useful supplemental information about our financial performance, These measures do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS, and our approach in calculating these measures may differ from that of other issuers and therefore may not be directly comparable. Please see the company's quarterly report and other public filings for more information about these measures, including reconciliations to the nearest IFRS measures. And with that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Mike.

Thank you, Shireen. Good morning, everyone, and thank you to those joining us today to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results. There's a lot to share today as we finish one year and guide to another. So bear with us and we will get through a lot of information. Before we get into our Q4 update, I want to start by acknowledging and thanking the MDA Space team for delivering another strong year of performance. Our team delivered for our customers, our shareholders, and our company with strong growth and execution, further solidifying our position as a trusted mission partner and leader in the expanding space industry. In 2024, we secured $2.4 billion in new awards, which included the next phases of Canadarm3, in addition to other strategic awards across the three business areas. We grew our revenues to $1.1 billion, an increase of 34% year over year, and expanded our adjusted EBITDA to 217 million, up 25% versus last year's levels, exceeding our guidance for the year for these two metrics. Our full-year adjusted EBITDA margin of 20% was robust and in line with our expectations. We generated operating cash flow of $816 million and free cash flow of $615 million, consistent with our expectations to turn free cash flow positive one year ahead of our prior plan. Throughout the year, our teams continue to execute well in our programs, with notable developments, including the successful completion of the preliminary design review for the Telesat Lightspeed LEO constellation program, a critical milestone for that program. We also continue to advance the manufacturing of MDA-CORUS, our next-generation Earth observation constellation. Additionally, the MDA space team also successfully conducted the preliminary design review for the Canadarm3 program, another important engineering milestone. Operationally, to support current and future growth, we continued to focus on talent and recruitment, and in 2024, we added approximately 950 new staff. We also deployed $200 million in capital expenditures which included research and development spending on technologies related to MDA Chorus and other growth initiatives. Our research and development efforts are a critical differentiator for MDA Space. Market research firm Research InfoSource, which is focused on the Canadian R&D ecosystem, recently ranked MDA Space as 33rd in its ranking of Canada's top 100 corporate R&D spenders based on 2023 data. Q4 and the subsequent period was also a busy one for MDA Space. In Q4, the MDA Space team delivered another strong quarter driven by solid execution. Our Q4 revenues totaled $347 million, up 69% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA was $71 million, up 68% versus last year. And adjusted EBITDA margin was a solid 20.5%. Operating cash flow was strong at $383 million, and we ended the quarter in a net cash positive position as we continue to deliver our balance sheet. Our backlog of $4.4 billion at quarter end provides us with good revenue visibility for 2025 and beyond. Recent awards bring our backlog closer to the $5 billion level today. We continue to make progress on our major programs, including Telesatellite Speed, Canadarm3, MDA Chorus, and Global Star. Post-quarter end, we announced that MDA Space has been awarded a $1.1 billion follow-on contract from Global Star to manufacture its next generation low Earth orbit constellation, which will include over 50 MDA Aurora digital satellites. This is our third LEO constellation contract in three years, and the second constellation with Global Star further highlighting the continued momentum we are seeing in our satellite systems business, driven by strong customer demand for our differentiated technology. In summary, 2024 was another year of strong growth for MDA Space, and I am extremely proud of how the team executed. With the growing space market as our backdrop, today we are introducing our 2025 financial outlook. We expect 2025 to be another year of strong growth for the company, For the full year, we expect revenues to be $1.5 billion to $1.65 billion, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 45% at the midpoint of that guidance. We expect full-year adjusted EBITDA to be $290 to $320 million, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 40% at the midpoint of guidance and approximately 19% to 20% adjusted EBITDA margin. We expect capital expenditures to be $210 to $240 million as we continue to invest in our growth initiatives. We also expect free cash flow to be neutral to positive for the full year. As we look to 2025, the team is energized. By the strong momentum and positive trends we are seeing in our end markets, an MDA space has the right technology portfolio to capitalize on the opportunities ahead of us. I'll now give you a view of the industry. an update on our three business areas, and then I'll pass it to Guillaume for a deep dive on the financials. Starting with the global space market, 2024 was another strong year for space, with research firm NovaSpace estimating the space economy grew to $596 billion last year, up from $509 billion in the prior year. Governments around the globe continue to invest in space, with government space investments reaching approximately $135 billion in 2024, up 10% year over year. Governments continue to allocate a higher share of their space budgets to defense programs, which today comprise the majority of budgets at $73 billion, or 54%, underscoring space's growing importance as a contested and strategic domain. We are seeing increased integration of space-based capability as a routine component of defense and military budgets driven by geopolitical tensions and demand for space-based surveillance and detection systems. Looking at the big picture, NovaSpace estimates the size of the global space economy will grow to $944 billion a year by 2033. while other recent forecasts, including those from the World Economic Forum, project that the space economy will almost triple by 2035, driven by lower costs and wider access to space-enabled technologies. In addition, we continue to see growing global interest in space exploration. In 2024, NASA added 19 new signatories to its Artemis Accords, signaling these countries' commitment to safe, long-term, and ethical space exploration. As of March 2025, 53 nations have signed up to the Artemis Accords. The Accords, which was unveiled in October 2020 to align nations on a common set of principles for space exploration, has steadily grown in size over the last four years with interest from many non-traditional space-faring nations which are now building their own national space programs. In terms of space infrastructure, spacecraft launch activity continued to unfold at a robust pace. In 2024, there were a total of 259 orbital launches, up 18% versus 2023. A total of 2,863 spacecraft launched globally, consistent with the levels seen in 2023. Communication satellites continued to dominate in terms of service type, comprising close to 77% of all spacecraft launched last year, driven primarily by growth in commercial low-Earth orbit constellations. All of this activity bodes well for MDA Space and our future opportunity set, which we estimate today to be in excess of $20 billion of opportunity in cumulative pipeline over the next five years. Now I'll turn to our three business areas. In satellite systems, we continue to see good momentum in this market, with our teams working to advance multiple requests for communication satellite solutions and a growing number of constellation projects. We are also seeing good activity levels from customers and our opportunity funnel remains strong. In Q4, our teams were busy advancing work on a number of programs. On the Telesat Lightspeed program, as I mentioned earlier, we completed the Preliminary Design Review, or PDR, which is a critical checkpoint in the program. The successful PDR completion demonstrates maturity in the design that meets the program's functional and performance requirements. As part of the process, the PDRs for multiple key subsystems have also been successfully completed. The teams are now transitioning to the program's detailed engineering and manufacturing phase, including the critical design review, which is taking place later this year. With all critical subsystems suppliers now under contract, this sets the stage for work volumes to accelerate in 2025, consistent with our program plans. We also announced post-quarter end that MDA Space has been selected by GlobalStar to be the prime contractor for the satellite operator's next-generation LEO constellation, where MDA Space will manufacture more than 50 MDA Aurora software-defined digital satellites. The contract, valued at approximately $1.1 billion, is a follow-on to an initial authorization-to-proceed contract we had previously announced on November 17, 2023, with an undisclosed customer. Approximately $350 million of the $1.1 billion contract value was added to backlog in 2023 and 2024 as part of the ATP. The team is making good progress on the engineering, development, and program procurement activities for the program and has successfully completed the preliminary design review with work now transitioning towards the critical design review taking place in the second half of this year. We also... continued to advance work on the initial Global Star program, where MDA Space is the prime contractor to enhance Global Star's LEO constellation through the addition of 17 satellites, which support SOS features and direct-to-device communication on certain Apple products. In Q4, the team progressed flight hardware production and flat-sat testing of the bus and payload systems. The team continues to advance satellite integration work following a successful spacecraft integration readiness review. We are also making good progress on our facility expansion in Quebec, which will add 185,000 square feet to our existing satellite production facility. The building shell has now been completed, and construction has commenced on the interior elements of the facility. Once complete, it will be the world's largest high-volume manufacturer facility in its satellite class, with capacity to deliver two MDA Aurora digital satellites per day. The production line is expected to be operational in the second half of 2025. Moving to our robotics and space operations business, we continue to see good traction and activity levels on both the government and commercial fronts. In Q4, we continue to ramp up work volumes on Phase C, which we were awarded along with Phase D in June 2024 for the Canadarm3 program. Phase C will see us completing the final design, whereas Phase D covers the construction, system assembly, integration and test of the full robotics system, as well as a ground segment for command and control. MDA Space will support commissioning of the Canadarm3 robotic system once in orbit from our new mission control facility at our Global Headquarters and Space Robotics Centre of Excellence in Brampton, Ontario. The contract also includes planning and personnel training in preparation for on-orbit mission operations. On the commercial side, we continue to explore opportunities to incorporate our robotic technology on applications to support space exploration and lunar mobility. During the quarter, we progressed the design and development of the MDA SkyMaker robotics for the Lunar Outpost Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract with NASA. We also supported the successful Starlab Commercial LEO Space Station PDR with NASA and successfully conducted lunar mobility field trials at the Canadian Space Agency. Moving to our geo-intelligence business, Customer demand for our Earth observation offering remains robust, and we are seeing increased recognition of the role that commercial Earth observation satellites can play to provide near real-time data and analytics to governments and private enterprise. In Q4, we continued to enjoy strong demand for Radarsat-2 data and analytics, with more than 20 contract awards from a broad range of commercial, space agency, and other government customers globally, with contracts ranging in value from low to high single-digit millions. We also received our first task order under NASA's Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Program, created to help acquire Earth observation data and provide related services for the agency. We also continued to work on MDA Chorus. The MDA space team fit harnesses in the main spacecraft body and progressed the integration of the first of four synthetic aperture radar antenna panels. Our solar array assemblies are complete and have started their acceptance tests. We are now well into a busy first quarter where we plan to test and characterize the first SAR antenna panel and expect to authorize shipment of the solar arrays to our facility. Overall, we are pleased with the progress to date on MDA Chorus. and continue to see strong interest from existing customers and new prospective customers, and business development discussions continue to accelerate. We are excited to deliver MDA Chorus enhanced functionality to all of our current and future customers. Shifting to operations, in 2024, the team completed the move to our new global headquarters and space robotics center of excellence in Brampton, Ontario. The purpose-built facility features state-of-the-art labs, manufacturing, R&D, and assembly, integration and test facilities. The Centre of Excellence also houses a unique space robotics mission control centre, enabling MDA to provide critical on-orbit operation capabilities to commercial and government customers worldwide. I also wanted to take this opportunity to offer some thoughts on the recently imposed US tariffs and counter tariffs announced by the Canadian government. While the situation remains fluid, we have been actively engaging government and regulatory bodies in both the US and Canada regarding tariff mechanics and have conducted a thorough review of our active contracts and ongoing proposals. We believe our potential tariff exposure is manageable. At the end of Q4, approximately 90% of our backlog of $4.4 billion derived from geographies outside of the US And when we look at our supply chain, particularly for our satellite manufacturing business, it's well diversified globally with a little over a quarter, 25% of suppliers based in the U.S., clearly demonstrating the benefits of being a global space business. In addition, we are encouraged by our customers' collaborative approach to finding solutions. In most cases, the technologies and products we are offering are differentiated and cost competitive, and as a result, not easily replaced. To date, we have not seen any dampening in the desire of customers and potential customers to engage with us as a result of the tariff developments, and our opportunity pipeline remains very strong. And similar to other companies, we are exploring strategies to mitigate the potential impact of any tariffs that might emerge. We'll be monitoring this situation closely and update you as necessary. Moving to a lighter topic, last year we were also pleased to see increased recognition for MDA Space and the progress we are making from industry and peers. To name a few of the accolades we received in 2024, MDA Space was named as one of the Greater Toronto's Top Employers for 2025. The Globe and Mail's report on business magazine named MDA Space as one of Canada's top-growing companies in its annual ranking. Luigi Pozzobon, our Vice President of Satellite Systems at MDA Space, was named an Executive of the Year by the Globe and Mail, and I was humbled and honored to accept the 2023 Satellite Executive of the Year Award from Via Satellite Magazine and the CEO of the Year for Innovation Award from the Globe and Mail's report on business magazine. In addition, Our efforts to increase gender diversity earned us a spot on the Globe and Mail's report on Business Magazine's Women Lead Here First list. We were also selected as Employer of the Year by the University of Toronto's Personal Exchange Year Co-op Program, a wonderful acknowledgement of the real and meaningful work and mentorship that our teams provide for our next generation of space leaders. And in early 2024, MDA Space was added to the TSX Competence Composite Index, an important milestone in our life as a public company. To recap, I'm very proud of what the team has accomplished in 2024 and optimistic about the opportunities that lie ahead. Our team is energized and highly motivated, and we remain laser focused on our priorities, a strong focus on execution, converting opportunities in our funnel, and expanding our leadership in core markets while maintaining strong profitability and a healthy balance sheet to help us fund our growth initiatives. With that, I'll hand it over to Guillaume to walk us through the detailed financials.