WSP Global Inc.

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the WSB Global Inc. Second Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-answer session. To ask a question during the session, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To revert your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to conference over to your speaker, Mr. Weber, Global Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good day, everyone. Thank you for joining our call. Today, we will be discussing our Q2 2025 performance, followed by a Q&A session. Alexandre Rue, our President and CEO, and Alain Michaud, our CFO, are joining us this morning. Please note 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 ended June 28, 2025, 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 year ending December 31, 2024. Our MD&E includes reconciliation of non-IFRS measures to the most directly comparable IFRS measures. Management believes that these non-IFRS measures provide useful information to investors regarding this corporation's financial condition and results of operation 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 for the related financial information prepared by IFRS. With that, I will now turn the call over to Alexandre.

Thank you, Cathay, and thank you all for joining us today. Let me start by saying that I am very pleased with our performance in Q2 2025. We have robust profitability, increased cash flow generation, and a historically low DSO for a second quarter. We are also enhancing our 2025 financial outlook. Let's dive into a few highlights. First, on net revenues. In Canada and the UK, we delivered high single-digit organic growth, and considering our backlog, the pipeline of opportunities and the recent economic stimulus announcement we feel positive on the outlook. In the US, power engineers delivered a solid 16% organic growth and significant revenue synergies opportunity, and the integration is progressing as planned. When considering the organic growth of power, we delivered high single-digit organic growth in the US this quarter, and our backlog is solid. In the Nordics, we have seen an uptick in the activity level, and our backlog is growing. And in Australia and New Zealand, our ride-sizing activities are largely completed, our backlog and pipeline of opportunities are expanding, and we expect a progressive return to growth in the second half of the year. All in all, we delivered solid growth while keeping our business fit for purpose, which continues are a testament of the strength of our diversified platform. Second, on profitability, adjusted EBITDA grew by 22% in the quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 80 basis points as we continue to own in our productivity and project performance. I am particularly pleased with the fact that we delivered margin expansion across each of our reportable segments despite absorbing optimization and right-sizing costs which impacted our overall margin by approximately 50 basis points in the quarter. Excluding these costs, our focus on operational excellence delivered 130 basis point improvement in the quarter. Third, following a strong cash generation performance in Q1, Q2 performance was even stronger. In fact, free cash flow increased by almost 400 million versus Q2 2024, and over 600 million versus last year for the first six-month period. Our DSO stands at 69 days, making a historically low level for a second quarter. Our leverage ratio now stands in the middle of our target range, and further deleveraging is expected in the second half of the year, which puts us in a favorable position to seize opportunities. On the M&A front, we continue to pursue opportunities and strategically deploy capital. In Q2, we announced the acquisition of Lexica, a UK-based consulting firm specializing in healthcare and life sciences. This acquisition adds experts to our planning, property, and advisory business in the region, forming a new healthcare and life sciences advisory team. WSP also announced the acquisition of Ricardo. Headquartered in the UK, this consultancy firm delivers strategic advisory and engineering solution that intersect the global transport energy and environment agenda. Ricardo operates across Europe, Australia, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. On July 15, the shareholders of Ricardo approved a scheme at the shareholders meeting held in connection with WSP's acquisition. The acquisition received overwhelming support with over 90% of shares voted in favor of the scheme. This step marks an important milestone towards welcoming the team to WSB. Closing the acquisition remains subject to obtaining the required regulatory approval and the sanctions of the scheme by the UK court, all of which is expected to occur in Q4 2025. Now allow me to elaborate on the dynamics across our four core market sectors. The transportation infrastructure sector continues to perform well in Q2. In particular, our leading tunnel teams continue to win new business, including a Virginia Department of Transportation mandate to provide project management services for two tunnels as part of the Empton Roads Bridge Tunnel Extension Project. Water continues to benefit from investment across most of our geographies. Of note, WSB secured a role in the substantial expansion of Ontario's Portright wastewater treatment plant. Rail and transit also maintain robust momentum. For example, in Finland, we secured new business for several strategic projects in Nordic countries. including a segment of rail Baltica in Estonia and the renewable of the Copenhagen metro signaling system. In APAC, WSP picked up strategic wins as the market continued to show signs of recovery. The new terminal of Perth International Airport is one of the many new projects we signed recently. Let's now shift to our property and building sector. We posted strong performance in Canada, the US, and the UK, which account for approximately two-thirds of our business. And our backlog and pipeline remain healthy, which provide a positive outlook for the rest of the year. Four standout area are data centers, industry and advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and defense, all generating significant opportunities that point to future growth. For example, we continue to see strong data center investment in AI and digital infrastructure, with approximately 300 new mandates in the quarter and robust activity across all of our geographies. These mandates encompass site acquisition due diligence, campus master planning for new AI gigafactory, greenfield data center design projects, brownfield data center upgrades, and the growing power and water infrastructure demands. Let's move on to power and energy. The sector continued to demonstrate strong momentum throughout the quarter. Our thermal generation business is driving considerable growth. The transmission distribution market in the U.S. has remained active, and most of our clients are maintaining or increasing their spend projections for 2026 and beyond. Now a brief update on the ongoing integration of power engineers. We successfully achieved several milestone improvements and preparation to move power in our ERP system are in full swing. The success of this integration is evidenced by strong financial performance. The business is growing at a double-digit pace. We have a growing backlog, and with over 250 active pursuits in the pipeline today, we are accelerating our joint market presence with new and existing clients. on earth and environment sector thrive in a fluid environment. This last quarter, we secured a number of very important new wins in high demand area like power, energy, defense, technology, water, and mining, to name just a few. WSP was awarded a major PFAS project for the US Air Force in the American Midwest. This win shows our strong position in the combined defense and water markets. Moreover, our leading biodiversity and marine expertise remains a key differentiator for WSB. And in Canada, WSB has secured a new mandate for Hydro-Québec's major Gull Island hydro projects, which includes environmental studies, biodiversity assessments, and geotechnical scopes. Finally, a few updates on digital. As a reminder, At our Invest Today earlier this year, we share three priorities for our digital strategy. One, growing organic digital revenues at least twice as fast as our core business. Two, pioneer solutions that grow recurring digital revenue. And three, be a catalyst for change in our industry, working with our clients and the world innovative technology companies. We saw strong momentum around all these three focus areas for the first half of the year. We have met our internal organic growth ambitions globally and are confident for the rest of the year. Our pipeline is strong and growing across all our target offerings. For example, we have received multiple awards from clients who have requested our engineers, engineering and science expertise to organize their critical asset data, artificial intelligence application. Another example, we were awarded a multi-year contract in New Zealand to continuously monitor areas of landslide risk using specialized sensors and real-time alerting systems. Real-time monitoring of geohazard and extreme weather risk in one of several areas where we see strong growth signals for recurring digital revenues, which is in line with our second objective. We have a lot of momentum with our digital ecosystem partners as well. In addition to the Microsoft Alliance announced in February, WSP announced a strategic partnership with UrbanLogic in late May and recently won a project where domain expertise and artificial intelligence solutions will predict wildfire grist in Alberta. who are in active discussion with several other potential technology partners. We are very pleased with our progress with the Microsoft Strategic Alliance. Externally, this has resulted in several strategic wins and has led to numerous client conversations regarding how WSB and Microsoft can collaboratively address their most significant challenges. Internally, WSB has pragmatically deployed AI tools globally with strong initial impact and feedback. Several internal AI workstream are in progress with some already contributing to internal productivity improvements. In summary, we are starting strong in our digital ambitions for the strategic cycles. And now before I turn over to Alain, I am pleased to reaffirm our number one position in engineering's news record 2025 list of the top 225 international design firms, a standing WSPS proudly held since 2021, with leading position in transportation, building, power, water, hazardous waste, and sewer waste. Now over to you, Alec.