Secure Waste Infrastructure Corp.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Secure Energy Q2 2023 results conference call. At this time, online is in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, July 27, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Alison Prokha, Director of Corporate Planning. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Welcome to Secure's conference call for the second quarter of 2023. Joining me on the call today is Rani Amaro, our Chief Executive Officer, Alan Grange, our President, and Chad Magus, our Chief Financial Officer. During the call today, we will make forward-looking statements related to future performance, and we will refer to certain financial measures and ratios that do not have any standardized meanings prescribed by GAAP and may not be comparable to similar financial measures or ratios disclosed by other companies. The forward-looking statements reflect the current views of SECURE with respect to future events and are based on certain key expectations and assumptions considered reasonable by SECURE. Since forward-looking information address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to numerous factors and risks. Please refer to our continuous disclosure documents available as they identify risk factors applicable to secure, factors which may cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements, and identify and define our non-GAAP measures. Today, we will review our financial and operational results for the second quarter of 2023, followed by our outlook for the remainder of the year. I will now turn the call over to Rennie for his opening remarks.

Thank you, Alison, and good morning, everyone. Our results in the second quarter continue to demonstrate the strength and consistency of our core business operations. We achieved strong adjusted EBITDA of $119 million or 40 cents per basic share, despite the impact of temporary facility shut-ins and lower customer production due to widespread wildfires across Western Canada. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to emergency responders, staff, industry partners for the hard work in protecting our communities during the wildfire situation. Year-to-date, our operations delivered adjusted EBITDA of $270 million or $0.90 per share, a 10% increase compared to the same period last year, while maintaining a strong adjusted EBITDA margin of 35%. Positive impact from cost-saving synergies related to the Terena merger and higher revenue leading to improved fixed cost absorption have more than offset the impact of inflation. We continued to make significant progress in delivering on our capital allocation priorities during the second quarter. We have returned 175 million of capital to shareholders in the first half of the year through our Tencent quarterly dividend and strategic share repurchases. In total, we have repurchased 5.5% of our outstanding common shares this year. In addition, We invested $67 million in capital expenditures year-to-date to advance previously announced infrastructure projects that are backed by strong commercial agreements, providing consistent cash flows throughout all business cycles. All this was achieved while continuing to maintain a solid debt to EBITDA cabinet ratio of 1.9x. Overall, we remain committed to maintaining a strong balance sheet. unlocking additional shareholder value through increased return to shareholders and sustainably growing our business through our capital investment program. We also released our 2022 sustainability report and our task force on climate related financial disclosures in May, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to transparent reporting our philosophy when evaluating ESG and climate related projects designed to support the energy transformation is there is focused on applying good business practice to everything we do, which means they are beneficial to secure our customers, the environment and provide a healthy financial return on investment. On June 19th this year, we appealed the competition tribunal decision, which was heard based on errors of law and errors of fact by the Federal Court of Appeal. We remain optimistic that the appeal arguments will be successful. Chad will now go through the financial highlights from the second quarter of 23.