Metatek-Group Ltd.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Meditek-Group Ltd. Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for analysts to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may reach an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dennis Fong with Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. On the call today are Mark Davis, Meditek's CEO, and Nick Morgan, CFO. Before we begin, Meditek would like to remind listeners that certain information discussed today may be forward-looking in nature. Such forward-looking information reflects the company's current views with respect to future events. Any such information is subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions relating to forward-looking statements, please refer to Meditek's public filings, which are available on CDAR. During the call, we will reference certain non-IFRS financial measures. Although we believe these measures provide useful supplemental information about our financial performance, they are not recognized measures and do not have standardized meanings under IFRS. Please see our MD&A for additional information regarding our non-IFRS financial measures, including for reconciliations to the nearest IFRS measures. Please note that unless otherwise stated, all references to any financial figures are in US dollars. And with that, I'll hand the call over to Mark.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. This morning I'll provide some colour on the operational activity during the quarter, discuss how recent deployments and contract awards provide visibility towards our schedule for the second half of the year, and then spend a few minutes on our plans to expand capacity and support future growth. Let me start with Nigeria, where we moved our largest contract to date into the execution phase during the quarter. This program comprises more than 210,000 line kilometers of advanced EFTG acquisition, processing, and interpretation, and is expected to be executed in three phases over approximately two years. While mobilization took longer than originally anticipated, as we worked closely with our in-country partners to finalize the operational framework of the contract, Edwin operations commenced late in the second quarter and have now continued into the third quarter. Following completion of the current phase, the EFTG is now mobilizing to undertake two projects in Southeast Asia, one a repeat nation customer before returning to Nigeria for future phases of this multi-year program. More broadly, Nigeria is a good example of how sovereign resource mapping programs develop over time. Clients often begin with an initial survey and then expand coverage as they see the results and gain a better understanding of their resource potential. That is an important part of our model, and it is why repeat customers on multi-phase programs continue to be such a meaningful driver of backlog and long-term visibility. In Q2, we also generated revenue from the sale of additional EFTG data acquired in Angola. where we had previously completed work for a consortium of clients. The transaction illustrates our ability to create value from acquired datasets beyond the initial survey phase. Turning to the DFTG, as we discussed last quarter, the system was deployed to Dubai for its first live customer project earlier this year. From a technical standpoint, the system performed better than expected, but operations were halted due to regional military activity and airspace restrictions. During the second quarter, the aircraft was demobilized from the region and moved to Europe for maintenance. Following that demobilization, we advanced an alternative DFTG project in West Africa to utilize available capacity. While the project ultimately was postponed by the government clients in the final stages of its negotiation, discussions remain ongoing. While these timing issues impacted revenue in the first half of the fiscal year, demand for the DFTG platform remains very high, and we are now back on schedule to deliver the utilization levels we expect through the second half. For Q3, the DFTG is being mobilized through Azerbaijan for airborne data acquisition activities under recently announced contracts with Soca and a Canadian energy company. Those contracts include a follow-on award from SOCA after a successful 2025 test program, as well as additional work for an industry customer operating in Azerbaijan. One thing that becomes increasingly evident over recent months is the growing interest we are seeing from major energy companies alongside our traditional sovereign customer base. Our core focus remains sovereign and government-led resource programs. That remains the largest part of our backlog and pipeline. Governments and national entities continue to invest in understanding and developing their natural resource base, whether from energy security, critical minerals, or broader national resource planning. Those drivers remain firmly intact. Recent awards from commercial energy companies in Azerbaijan and North Africa demonstrate that the expertise we have developed during those sovereign initiatives is increasingly being recognized by our industry customers as well. Over time, this broader mix of sovereign and commercial demand can provide additional flexibility in how we schedule and deploy our systems. Government-led programmes will continue to be at the centre of our business, but industry-led projects can move on different timelines and may help reduce some of the seasonality associated with government, budget and approval cycles. That matters because As we have said before, demand is not the constraint in this business. Capacity and execution are the key constraints. This was reinforced by a recently announced signing of a major contract with the Department of Energy of the Government of the Philippines. As one of Southeast Asia's largest and most geologically prospective countries, the Philippines has significant potential across a broad range of mineral and energy systems. While exploration has been undertaken in many regions, substantial areas have yet to benefit from modern, high-resolution airborne geophysical surveys. Through this program, the DOE will establish an important new geoscience foundation to support future exploration, investment, and resource development. The continued growth in the Dursley Backlog reflects both the expansion of existing customer relationships and the addition of new opportunities across multiple geographies. At the end of the second quarter, adjusted backlog stood at approximately $89 million, up from $77 million at the end of the first quarter. Today, both of our FTG systems are active, with growing backlog on recently awarded contracts across multiple regions, We're entering the second half of 2026 with momentum building across the business, increased visibility into contracted activity, unexpected utilization levels, and a strong schedule for the balance of the year. That visibility supports the full fiscal 2026 guidance we introduced this morning. Supporting that growth while maintaining execution quality is why capacity expansion remains such an important focus for the business. With the proceeds from the IPO, we are actively working with Lockheed Martin to finalize the contract for the provision of our next two EFTG systems, which is expected to be completed shortly. In addition, we expect the refurbishment of our IFTG system for marine applications will be completed by early fiscal 2027. These initiatives should significantly expand our operational capacity at the time when demand across both sovereign and commercial markets continues to build. Today, we are seeing a growing number of opportunities across our pipeline, and in many cases, project time is increasingly being driven by platform availability. The addition of new systems will provide greater flexibility in how we deploy our fleet, support existing customer programs, and pursue new opportunities across multiple geographies. As those systems come online, we believe they will position Metatek to convert a larger portion of its pipeline into backlog, strengthen long-term revenue visibility, and support the next stage of our growth for the business.

extended longer than originally anticipated before airborne operations commenced later in the quarter. At the same time, the DFTG did not undertake project activity during the quarter following its demobilisation from Dubai and the postponement of an alternative project in West Africa. While these factors affected second quarter revenue, both DFTG systems are now deployed and we expect utilisation to materially improve throughout the second half of the fiscal year. Cost of sales for the quarter was $1.8 million, compared with $2 million in the same period last year. These costs related primarily to the deployment of the EFTG in Nigeria during the quarter, as well as costs associated with the DFTG following its demobilization from the Middle East and subsequent maintenance activities in Europe. While the DFTG did not generate project revenue during the quarter, the costs associated with maintaining the aircraft, instrument, and operating crew generally continued to be incurred. As a result, gross profit was £1 million compared with £2.6 million in the second quarter of 2025, while gross margin was 36% compared with 57% in the prior year period. Importantly, we do not believe the margin realised during the quarter reflects the underlying economics of the business under normal operating conditions. Historical results achieved under target utilisation levels have generated gross margins of approximately 60%. As utilization improves across both operating platforms, we would expect gross margins to trend back towards those historical levels in the coming months. Operating expenses for the quarter were 3 million, compared with 1.7 million in the prior year period. The increase primarily reflects investments made to support the continued growth of the business, including additional personnel, public company costs, and business development activities across multiple geographies. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $1 million compared with positive adjusted EBITDA of $1.4 million in the second quarter of 2025. The underlying drivers of profitability and cash flow for this business remain unchanged. With both FTG systems currently deployed and utilization expected to increase through the second half of the fiscal year, we believe the company is well positioned for improved financial performance in the periods ahead. Turning to the balance sheet, We ended the quarter with $11.9 million of cash and cash equivalents and $4.9 million in combined of trade and other receivables and contract assets and minimal debt. During the first half of the year, operating cash flow reflected the timing of project activity, including the payment of expenses relating to the IPO. Cash flows over six months were dominated by the raising of capital as part of the IPO in Q1 and paying down of debt using part of those proceeds. Our financial position remains strong to support both ongoing operations and our planned capacity expansion initiatives. As we've discussed previously, our primary capital allocation priority remains expanding the company's operating capacity. We currently expect the timing of milestone payments for the order of two additional EFTG systems from Lockheed Martin to take place in Q3 2026 and early 2027 respectively. In addition, refurbishment of our ISTG system for marine applications continues to progress and remains on track for deployment in early fiscal 2027. We expect this refurbishment investment to be incurred progressively over the balance of fiscal 2026. These initiatives are expected to significantly expand our operational capacity at a time when demand across both sovereign and commercial markets continues to build. Expanding our fleet will provide greater flexibility in how we deploy our systems, support additional customer programs, and position the company to convert a larger portion of its pipeline into backlog and future revenue. During the quarter, the company also implemented a normal course issuer bid. As utilization increases across the fleet, we expect the business to generate significant operating cash flow. While our primary focus remains on investing in growth and capacity expansion, The NCIB provides additional flexibility to repurchase shares if we believe the market does not fully reflect the long-term value being created by the business. Taken together, the continued growth in adjusted backlogs, the recent momentum in contract awards across both FTG systems, and the expansion of our opportunity pipeline reinforce our confidence in the trajectory of the business as we move through the balance of fiscal 2026. Before concluding, I'd like to briefly touch on the full year fiscal 2026 guidance released this morning. Based on our current contracted activity, expected utilization levels, and operating schedule for the balance of the year, we are forecasting revenue between 28 million and 32 million and adjusted EBITDA between 11 million and 13 million. While the first half of the year was impacted by global events, Mobilization delays and project timing, activity levels have increased meaningfully as we enter the second half of 2026, and we have remained disciplined in managing costs, supporting our outlook for the full year. That concludes our prepared remarks today, and with that, we'd be happy to take questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the analyst question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. And today's first question comes from Russell Stanley at Beacon Securities. Please go ahead.

Hello, and thanks for the question. So first, just around the DFTG system and its deployment to Azerbaijan, understanding it's mobilizing now, I guess permitting is is underway. When does that work need to start the data acquisition component in order to keep you on side with respect to the guidance you introduced? Hi, Russ. It's Nick. Thanks for the question.

We are anticipating arriving in country middle of this month with acquisition, data acquisition starting before the end of the month.

Got it. Thank you on that. and you've demonstrated some sales momentum recently, several contract wins. So with respect to the backlog, congrats on the sequential lift there. Were these contract wins, I imagine, were these already in the backlog as LOIs or might we see an additional lift in the following quarter?

The most recent win which we announced this week, which would be the contract with the Department of Energy in the Philippines, That was not an LOI in the last announcement. So that's a new addition to the backlog.

That's great. And then maybe a more general question around permitting for projects. You've had good success winning repeat business. I imagine when you start your first project in a given market or country, there's some worrying as you go as far as the nuances of permitting locally. I'm wondering, one, how much time do you think you've Save on permitting when you're doing a follow-on project in a country you have experience with, and I guess, too, does that influence how you price and how you think about taking on new business as opposed to follow-on orders?

Dealing with the second question first, it doesn't influence pricing necessarily, but it influences our planning. If we're going to a new country for a new project, we will anticipate longer amounts of time until we get to know the intricacies and the idiosyncrasies of a particular country. And yes, obviously, going back to an area that we're doing, I think, for most of the projects in this second half, where we turn, repeat. So we have a much higher level of confidence in terms of the anticipating timing and process to go through the various permitting and documentation things that we have to do.

That's great. That's all I have for now. I'll hop back in the queue. Thanks again. Thanks, Wes.

Thank you. And our next question comes from Aravinda Galapataki with Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my question. And good morning. I'll start with just getting a sense of maybe an update on the CAPEX schedule. Nick, I think you mentioned that the prepayments for the or the payments for the IFTG would be over the course of the second half and then for the two EFTG orders that there'll be the prepayments would occur in 2027. Maybe just help us with sort of the magnitude. I mean, would the payments for the two EFTG devices be essentially done by the end of 2027? or would there be some spillover into 28 as well? And I also wanted to just corroborate the 1.56 million that was paid in Q2. Was that connected to the IFTG?

Right. Again, dealing with the second question, the 1.56, that was actually capex on engines that have been installed on the DC-3. So we mentioned, I think, as early as Q1 that we started some prepayments, essentially building up stage payments on those two engines. They have been installed recently, and that aircraft is mobilized towards Japan. It went very smoothly, which was good to see. It was a decision we made to buy new engines as opposed to doing a heavy maintenance schedule on the existing just because the downtime is too long. So that's what that relates to. In terms of the new instruments from Lockheed and the anticipated CapEx investment schedule, as I said, we're going to do the first payment very shortly on the first instrument, and we expect the payment on the second instrument to happen early next year. The cadence of the payments from that point on will be subject to the final details and the speed with which Lockheed go, but for our basis, we had anticipated to get through the first instrument payments all by the end of 27, and then we'd expect to see the second instrument have a few final milestone payments in early 28.

Okay, great. Thank you. And then perhaps for Mark, I know that obviously the contract signings have been coming in a little bit faster of late, which is good to see. Maybe just to give us a sense of what the pipeline looks like, what sort of conversations are you having you know the prospects of more sizable commitments any kind of update would be helpful there sure I think we've given out the guidance today which sets out what's happening in the second half a year are you talking more about what happens beyond that point yeah I mean in terms of sort of you know new new signings new awards sort of thing I mean yeah so yeah we as you might imagine there's quite a large pipeline probably

and so on. that we think will probably drop into that backlog status. So it would be great to announce signings as we go through. The recent announced signings have been courtesy of a sort of quite intensive effort to get them finally over the line in the last few months, which has been really good to see.

And thanks, Dave. And last question. With respect to the two orders from Lockheed, I know you said that it'll close shortly. Any sort of, were the terms sort of as expected in particular with respect to exclusivity? Were there any variances to your original expectations during that sort of negotiation?

Yeah, by the way, Mark is listing, but just due to travel plans, he can't actually join. But just to let you know that the terms on the Lockheed are as expected and we're hoping and we're in discussion around some good synergies on the second order instrument so that would be positive to see and obviously something that we'll be able to talk about once we have signed but in terms of sort of exclusivity and timing and everything else that we've indicated to the market that's in line with what we're expecting Thank you very much Thank you

And as there are no further questions, this concludes the question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Nick Morgan for closing remarks.

Great. Thanks very much. Thanks for joining, and your questions are valid and interesting. Look, we look forward to keeping you updated as we move through this quarter and the second half of the year as these projects get completed. And we'll give you a full update, obviously, come Q3 in a few months' time. Thank you very much.

Thank you. This brings to a close today's conference call. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.