WSP Global Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the WSP Global third quarter 2024 results conference. At this time 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 the session you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question please press star 1 1 again. Please be advised, today's conference is being recorded. We'd now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Quentin Weber. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Sarah. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the call. Today, we will discuss our Q3 2024 performance, followed by a Q&A session. Alexandre Lerue, our president and CEO, and Alain Michaud, our CFO, are joining us this morning. Please know that this call is also accessible via webcast on our website. During the call, we will make forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ 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 the MD&A for the quarter that ended September 28, 2024, which can be found on CDARplus and on our website. In addition, during the call, we may refer to specific non-IFRS measures. These measures are also defined in the MD&A for the September 28, 2024 quarter. Our MD&A 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 the results of the reparations as they provide additional critical 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 reported by other issuers, and accordingly, may not be comparable. These measures should not be considered as a substitute but the related information prepared by AFRS. With that, I will now turn the call over to Alexandre.

Thank you, Quentin, and good day, everyone. I'm delighted to provide you with further details on our solid third quarter performance. We have demonstrated robust net revenue growth, enhanced profitability, and strong operational cash flows. I'm also pleased with our record high backlog, which underscores our continued success of positive market momentum. We accomplished a lot this quarter and three key factors drove our strong results. First, we saw a 10% increase in net revenues compared to the corresponding quarter in 2023. Organic growth was solid at 7.2%, driven by strong market momentum in Canada and double digit organic growth in the Americas led by our US business. Second, adjusted EBITDA grew by 12% and adjusted net earnings per share by 13%. We delivered a 40 basis point increase in adjusted EBITDA margin, reflecting our continued focus on unlocking efficiencies in our platform. And third, we delivered superior cash flows with trailing 12 months of free cash flow increasing by approximately $590 million versus the comparable period last year. This illustrates our continued commitment to strong cash flow generation. Before we dive into Q3 in more detail, I am pleased to announce a significant milestone in our organizational structure. Effective January 2025, Martin A. Smith, our current president for the EMEA region, will be appointed Global Chief Operating Officer. Drawing on his 35 years of leadership experience at WSP, Marc will oversee global operation and promote growth, financial performance, and collaboration while further leveraging the global scale of the business, ensuring we deliver sustainable financial performance. With this strategic move, we are laying a solid foundation at the onset of our next strategic cycle. building on our competitive advantages and maintaining our trajectory of success. In line with our goal of becoming the undisputed leader in our industry, it is important to recognize that 95% of our revenues are generated in sectors where we hold leading position according to highly recognized industry ranking, such as engineering, news record, and environment analysts. I'm sorry. More specifically, for the fourth consecutive year, we achieved the number one position in ENR top 225 international design firm list. We also reaffirm our leadership in several of ENR's market and region specific ranking for 2024. On that note, allow me to briefly share some key three highlights from each of our four leading sectors, i.e. power and energy, earth and environment, and water. transportation infrastructure and property and buildings. Let's kick things off with our power and energy sector and more specifically with an update on the power engineers acquisition recently closed on October 1st. By joining forces, we are working towards establishing the preeminent pure play global consulting firm in the world's energy transition. The integration is progressing well and is on plan. We are already benefiting from global collaboration and have successfully brought our teams together, focusing first on our clients. Our teams combined expertise and resources and relationship have allowed us to identify over 70 opportunities in the month of our integration. For example, we are now pursuing a high voltage direct current offshore wind opportunity together and expanding the service offering for an existing solar renewables project to include substation design while exploring significant opportunities to support data centers expansion. Turning now to our earth environment sector. Demand for services designed to drive the green transition is strong across all regions. These services include, amongst others, environmental baseline studies permitting site selection, corridor optimization, and geotechnical and biodiversity activities, all of which are highly strategic to any project. For instance, we are extensively involved in the Great Grid Upgrade in the UK, one of our marquee power and energy projects providing environmental studies permitting a nature-positive solution. And in Australia, we have recently been contracted to assist Queensland Hydro with geotechnical related services at its Barumba pump hydro project. This critical energy storage project will support the state's renewable energy goals. Rare earth elements are also critical to the energy transition success as essential components in various industrial and high technology applications. In the Nordics, we have been assisting Rare Earths Norway with the mapping and resource estimation of mineral deposit for continental Europe's largest deposit of rare earth elements. Biodiversity continues to gain vital global attention as evidence at COP16 in Colombia. Thanks to the deep expertise of our specialists worldwide, we are at the forefront of change and delivering solutions that reshape how industries protect and restore nature. Just recently, we partnered with the United Nations Global Compact to launch a comprehensive task force of nature-related financial disclosure, a guide for businesses. In the UK, we released our first nature positive report, highlighting our commitment to embedding nature positive thinking into our operations. Through our client work, we are helping businesses drive nature positive outcomes. In Europe, we work with Brussels-based Urelectric, which represents 34 national electricity associations and companies across the continent, on a guidebook to help its members integrate biodiversity in their operation. And in Australia, we have been selected to support Transgrid, which is responsible for operating and maintaining Australia's largest electricity transmission network, on a two-year monitoring program to better understand bird species interaction with transmission lines and towers. Shifting to our transportation infrastructure sector, it remains our largest end markets and fuels work for all sectors and geographies due to the multidisciplinary nature of its projects. WSP was recently awarded work for their Oosterwiel tunnel project in Belgium which is a project our teams in the Netherlands, Spain, and South Africa are working on collectively. In New Zealand, WSP has been awarded the largest scheme tendered by the new government, the Connecting Northland scheme for a new 100 kilometers expressway project north of Auckland. Looking at key markets, rails remain strong in urban and intercity segments with significant contracts awarded across all of our geographies. This continued in Q3 with significant wins on both sides of the Atlantic, including a recent award for three new stations on the Yellow Line of the Stockholm Metro and upgrading the train control system of the municipal metro in San Francisco with state-of-the-art technology. Water continues to see an increased investment globally. In the UK, for example, the AMP investment will be more than 40% higher than the previous program. WSP is in a favorable position being on numerous frameworks with all the major water companies. The past quarter saw major wins in the water market, including a significant condition assessment for Sydney Waters Corporation pressure pipeline, and upgrades to the regions of York's water facilities, including the design and upgrade of transmission, pumping, and treatment facilities. Similarly, aviation and maritime markets continue to show resilience, supported by worldwide investment aimed at improving global logistics. This has included a recent WSP appointment to reconstruct and upgrade the airfield Gatwick Airport in London and the development of a new container terminal in South Africa. This investment cycle is expected to continue as the global supply chain readjusts to the new post-pandemic reality. Moving on to our property and building sector, which continues to show strong performance across multiple regions and market segments. We achieved exceptional results in Canada the US, and the UK, particularly in data centers, advanced manufacturing, science, and healthcare, allow me, therefore, to highlight some recent developments in these areas. In Q3, we secure projects for over 20 data centers worldwide with hyperscalers and co-developers in the US, Chile, Norway, Indonesia, Australia, Finland, Switzerland, and Canada. With power engineers now part of WSB, we are also well-positioned to enhance our support for clients' data center power infrastructure needs. Manufacturing is thriving as corporations and countries focus on building resilience and security in their supply chains. We have captured several advanced manufacturing projects, including an accessory manufacturing plant in Canada and various initiatives in the growing electric vehicle market across Europe the Americas. LCARE remains robust with significant projects occurring in Q3, including the Centre for Advanced Medicine at the University of Maryland and the Master Planning and Infrastructure project of Alkrem Medical Campus in Singapore. Another standout achievement is in the Science Capabilities of Animal Health program, a 12-year partnership with the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which includes two large laboratory facility for the real estate and hospitality market also saw numerous projects wins this quarter including the redevelopment of alliance twit ham stadium in london additionally we started design work on convention centers in indonesia and in the middle east and a five-star hotel development in macau and hong kong in a nutshell Our four core end markets are healthy, and they continue to reflect and respond to secular trends such as climate resilience, decarbonization, energy transition, aging infrastructure, and urbanization, to name a few. I'd now like to review our financial results in greater detail. Alain will.