5N Plus Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the 5N Plus, Inc. Fourth Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. At this time, note that all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, please press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. And if you require bated assistance for the operator, please press star 0. Je vais maintenant céder la parole à Richard Perron, Chef de la Direction Financière. And I would like to turn the conference over to your speaker today, Richard Perron, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Bonjour à toutes et à tous. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our Q4 and full-year 2024 results conference call and webcast. We will begin with a short presentation, followed by a question period with financial analysts. Joining me this morning is Gervais Jacques, our President and CEO. We issued our financial results yesterday and posted a short presentation on the investors section of our website. I would like to draw your attention to slide two of this presentation. Information in this presentation and remarks made by the speakers today will contain statements about expected future events and financial results that are forward-looking and therefore subject to risk and uncertainties. A detailed description of the risk factors that may affect future results is contained in our management discussion and analysis. of 2024, dated February 25, 2025, available on our website and in our public findings. In the analysis of our quarterly results, you will note that we use and discuss certain non-IFRS measures, which definitions may differ from those used by other companies. For further information, please refer to our management's discussion and analysis. I would like now to turn the conference over to Gervais.

Thank you, Richard, and thank you all for joining us on the call this morning. I am pleased to report strong operational and financial results for the fourth quarter, confirming 2024 as another outstanding year for 5N+. At this time last year, we gave ourselves the objective to break our 2023 adjusted EBITDA record, and I am proud to say we went even further. We generated annual adjusted EBITDA of 53.3 million, a 39% increase from the previous record year. Across both segments, we continued to deliver on our margin expansion efforts. We sustained an elevated backlog, particularly in specialty semiconductors. where the backlog continues to be maxed out. We also ended the year with a solid balance sheet, providing for flexibility to invest in our business growth. From a financial perspective, our specialty semiconductors business had another stellar year, with strong demand driving volume growth in our strategic sectors and continued margin expansion. From an operational standpoint, we accomplished a lot in 2024. I want to acknowledge our teams, both in Montreal and at our Eisenhüttenstadt and Heilbronn locations in Germany, for their impeccable execution. We made targeted investments and increased capacity at several sites to meet demand. In Montreal, new semiconductor compound capacity was commissioned in Q3 of last year. Installed capacity has now tripled from 2022 levels and will enable us to meet the strong demand we're seeing, including to serve our strategic client in this sector. As you know, we renewed our multi-year agreement with this client in early 2024 with favorable terms and a 50% volume increase compared to the previous agreement. At Azure in Heilbronn, we completed a program to increase space solar cell production capacity last year ahead of schedule. It is now 35% over 2022 levels, 5% more than initially targeted, and we're not done. As announced last year, we are growing capacity by another 30% with minimal additional investment, a work that is now well underway. This puts us in a strong position to stay competitive in two high-growth sectors, terrestrial renewable energy and space solar power. We expect that demand will remain the rule in both of these end markets. Demand for energy is rising, especially in the U.S., and solar energy, which is both clean and fastest to market, is part of the solution. In the space solar power market, there is also unprecedented growth, from telecommunication and national security to scientific research and exploration, the space revolution is in full swing. We also anticipate continued growth in imaging and sensing applications for the security, defense, and medical sectors. On the medical imaging front, photon counting detector technology which is set to replace traditional scintillator detectors, represents the next frontier. In 2024, we work closely with several major corporations in their product development ahead of this transition. This work will continue in 2025, and we expect this to provide an additional growth avenue in the medium term. Turning now to performance materials. An improved product mix and solid operational execution also contributed to strong profitability in this segment. Despite flat revenues, this segment generated outstanding gross margins and good earnings generation, reflecting on our continued focus on value add over volume. In performance materiel, growth will continue to be primarily driven by the health and pharmaceutical sector, where we expect demand for bismuth chemicals to keep increasing in line with GDP. We are well positioned to capture this opportunity with our state-of-the-art facilities in Lubec. and since we already supply what we estimate to be the lion's share of global demand for bismuth chemicals. As we celebrate our 25th anniversary milestone later this year, we are determined to pursue both organic and external growth and further cement our position as a trusted partner in growing markets. We will continue to build on our 2024 momentum and forge ahead on our profitable growth path in 2025, as reflected in the upward revision to our 2025 adjusted EBITDA guidance. The rapidly evolving trade environment has injected additional uncertainty in some of the jurisdictions where we have operations or do business. but we believe that we have the right strategy and competitive advantages to navigate the headwinds ahead. We will maintain our focus on higher margins, value-added advanced materials, a critical supplier without being a critical cost to customers operating in high-growth markets. With our more resilient and agile business model and clear strategy, I am confident in our ability to continue on our path of long-term value creation to the benefit of our stakeholders. Richard, over to you for a review of our financial results in more detail.