WSP Global Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to WSP's fourth quarter and fiscal 2020 results conference call. I would like to now turn the meeting over to Quinton Webber, Advisor, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Webber.

Good morning. We hope that you're all safe and doing well. Thank you for taking the time to join the call. during which we will be discussing our Q4 and fiscal 2020 performance, our outlook for 2021, followed by a Q&A session. With us today are Alexandre Lerue, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Alain Michaud, our Chief Financial Officer. Please note that this call is also accessible on our website via webcast. During the call, we will be making some forward-looking statements, and actual results could be different from those expressed or implied. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Relevant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements are listed in our most recent management discussion and analysis. Also, during the call, we may refer to certain non-IFRS measures. These measures are defined in our management discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31st, 2020, which can be found on CDAR and on our website. Our MD&A also includes reconciliations of non-IFRS measures to the most directly comparable IFRS measures. Management believes that these non-IFRS measures provide useful information to investors regarding the corporation's financial condition and results of operation as they provide additional key metrics of its performance. These non-IFRS measures are not recognized under IFRS, do not have any standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS, and may differ from similarly named measures as reported by other issuers. and accordingly may not be comparable. These measures should not be viewed as a substitute for the related information prepared in accordance with IFRS. With that, I will now turn the call over to Alexandre.

Thank you, Quentin, and good morning, everyone. Let me first start by saying that despite unprecedented circumstances, I am really proud of our accomplishment in 2020. Thanks to the dedication and resilience of our teams, we demonstrated our ability to rise to the challenge, the agility of our platform, and the strength of our foundation. Above all, we ensured the safety of our employees while staying focused on our strategic objectives. Looking back at the last 12 months results, we are reporting solid year-end results that are in line with our expectations. We maintained good margins and a healthy backlog and safeguarded our financial position. We also delivered above expectations in terms of adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, and DSO. Our ability to stay focused on our strategic objectives also materialized at the end of the year with the announcement of WSP agreement to acquire Golder. global leader in earth sciences and environmental services with approximately 7 000 people together we are creating the leading global environmental consulting firm with approximately 14 000 of our 54 000 professionals which will be dedicated to accelerating the world's green transition in connection with the equity financing of the gold acquisition we established long-term relationships with new strategic investors, being GIC, one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, one of Canada's largest institutional investors. As we are expecting the transaction to close in the first half of Q2, our current focus is planning for successful integration across functions and regions and the smooth transitions for Goldverse people as they join the WSP family. Our combined strengths will uniquely position us on the rapidly growing ESG trends, the driving demand for environmental services and sustainable infrastructure development, and we are eager to start winning projects and working together. Additionally, on the M&A front, we recently announced three strategic acquisitions, totaling approximately 500 people, bringing new client relationships, market leading positions, and an increased geographic footprint in the United States. First, we acquired KW Mission Critical Engineering. which expands our complex building sector capabilities in the high-growth data center and healthcare and science technology markets in the United States, while also significantly increasing our presence on the West Coast and providing a platform to expand our data center capabilities in Europe and in Asia with our global clients. We also acquired TK1, a mechanical electrical engineering firm based in Irvine, California, which reinforce our U.S. property and building business in the healthcare, science, and technology markets. Finally, this week, we just announced the acquisition of Ercon, which strengthened our capabilities in strategic environmental engineering and consulting services while further expanding our geographic presence in southern eastern United States. M&A is an integral part of our strategy and so is our commitment to ESG. For example, at the beginning of the year, WSP became the first professional services firm in the Americas to secure sustainability linked terms for its syndicated credit facility. This year, We will be disclosing data using guidance from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, or TCFD, and the framework issued by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, or SASB. And we are planning to update our climate ambitions to align with current science, as we recently committed to align our future ambitions with science-based target initiatives, or SBTI. We look forward to providing more details on our progress later in 2021. I would now like to highlight a few of the major wins during Q4, showcasing a sample of our expertise from across the globe. Starting with a key win in the US, I am thrilled to share that we were just awarded a significant multi-year program management services contract with the US Postal Service building on a 30-year established business relationship. Our team of seasoned professionals will support USPS in their strategy, which includes a focus on the retail of the future, as well as a variety of services to their delivery platform and systems across USPS 32,000 facilities nationwide to enhance the efficiency of their operation as they indulge close to half of the world's mail volume. Moving on to Canada, at our Q3 2017 results presentation, I announced we had won the Centre Block Rehabilitation Project, and I am delighted today to announce the extension of this significant contract. This is not only our largest project in Canada, but also our largest buildings project in our portfolio. we expect our involvement will likely continue until at least 2028. Under this agreement, we have the responsibility to rehabilitate and expand the most recognized and valued building in Canada, Centre Block, the home of Parliament and the symbol of Canadian democracy. In addition to providing building engineering design services, A considerable part of our work relates to earth and environmental science services, including archaeology, designated substances, geotechnical and sustainability. As a flagship project for the Government of Canada, this project offers a unique opportunity to update and improve the sustainable performance of one of the most culturally significant sites in Canada. shaping one of the most recognizable and symbolic Canadian buildings. The project will demonstrate leadership in alignment with the government's priority for low-carbon and enhanced sustainable performance. Moving on the highly growing mission-critical market, we drew a pipeline with many data-centered projects wins during Q4 2020 in Norway, France, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, demonstrating yet again our global reach. The pandemic has accelerated a boom in the creation of new data center facilities to cope with the rising demand from online shopping, remote working, online education and online events, among other things. Latest forecasts from research and markets predict the global data center construction will grow from 27 billion Canadian in 2020 to 36 billion Canadian by 2027. With the recently announced acquisition of KW Mission Critical Engineering, WSP is uniquely placed and positioned to further take advantage of this rapidly growing market, combining KW, expertise with WSP global footprint means we can now offer best in class mission critical services to our clients throughout the US and worldwide. We now have in three centers of expertise in the US, UK, Hong Kong, having the ability to serve this market worldwide. We are already seeing revenue synergies from KW in respect of their US clients investing in Europe and through increased capacity to lead the largest mission critical facility projects for cloud service providers. In summary, I am very pleased with the way we finished the year. In addition, We seize many opportunities in 2020 by completing key strategic acquisitions, expanding our exposure to promising markets, and securing exciting projects. Alain will now review our financial results in more detail and discuss our 2021 outlook. Alain, over to you.