Telesat Corporation

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the conference call to report the second quarter 2024 financial results of Telesat. Our speakers today will be Dan Goldberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of Telesat, and Andrew Brown, Chief Financial Officer of Telesat. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. James Ratcliffe, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Ratcliffe.

Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. This morning, we filed our quarterly report for the period ending June 30th, 2024 on Form 6K with the SEC and on CDAR+. Our remarks today may contain forward-looking statements. There are risks that TELUSAT's actual results may differ materially from the results contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of known risks please see TELUSAT's annual report and updates filed with the SEC. TELUSAT assumes no responsibility to update or revise these forward-looking statements. I will now turn the call over to Dan Goldberg, TELUSAT's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Okay, thanks James and good morning to everyone. Q2 and the first six months of this year have unfolded consistent with our expectations. As a result, we're reaffirming all of our guidance for the year and keeping focused to make sure we meet those objectives. When we hosted our first quarter call in early May, we indicated we were seeking to conclude our Lightspeed funding agreements with the governments of Canada and Quebec by the end of this summer. This is obviously a key priority for us. I'm happy to say that we've had good and sustained engagement with government representatives, and we are optimistic that we remain on track to achieve this timing. We'll make a separate announcement once the definitive funding agreements are concluded. Beyond that, we're making strong progress executing on the Lightspeed program. As MDA, our prime satellite contractor, noted on its earnings call last week, they've now selected and onboarded 90% of the suppliers for the Lightspeed program, and they remain on track for their full-year ramp-up plan. We've increased our own headcount since the start of the year by nearly 20% as we staff up to execute on light speed, and the team is making excellent progress on the program. As we noted in today's earnings release, our focus this year remains twofold. For our geo activities, the emphasis is on maximizing EBITDA and cash flow by doing what we can to mitigate anticipated revenue declines and rigorously managing our cost structure. And on LEO, it's all about execution, closing our funding agreements, staffing up, building out all the various elements of the Lightspeed network, including the satellites, the ground infrastructure, and the software that we need, and commercializing it in the key verticals we're focused on. I'm very pleased with the progress we're making in all of those areas. We're hugely bullish on our prospects in the market, as well as our ability to deliver an extraordinary value proposition for our customers, and significant value creation for our shareholders. With that, I'll hand over to Andrew and then look forward to taking any questions.