Evergen Infrastructure Corp.

only mode. Participants can submit questions via the Q&A box at the bottom of the screen, which will be answered following the presentation. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Before we begin, I'd like to direct all participants to our website at www.evergeninfo.com, where you will find a copy of the third quarter 2024 earnings presentation. Please allow me to remind you that our discussion today contains forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from results projected by those forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the third quarter 2024 management discussion analysis. I will now turn the call over to Sean Hennessy, Everton Infrastructure's Chief Financial Officer, to begin.

Thanks, Jeremy, and welcome everyone to the Q3 2024 earnings call. So during Q3 2024, Fraser Valley Biogas continued increasing RNG production towards its design capacity and has now seen 15% quarterly increases in production since the expansion was completed in December last year. Revenues were also boosted compared to Q3 2023 as a result of increased organic waste volumes at our Regina facility and improved pricing at our Pacific Coast Renewables facility. As a result, we reported a 57% increase in revenues compared to last year. During the same period, our direct operating costs, after adjusting for depreciation, increased by only 18% and came in 10% lower than our expectations, mainly due to repair and maintenance costs incurred last quarter, and we are also seeing utility costs normalize at Fraser Valley Biogas. Furthermore, our G&A expenses decreased by 36% compared to last year and 28% compared to last quarter, mainly due to lower consulting costs as well as restructuring expenses incurred last year. Overall, as a result, our adjusted EBITDA increased to $1 million for Q3 2024, up from $382,000 last year. Our net loss for Q3 2024 was also improved by 57% compared to last year, The increased EBITDA, as mentioned, was offset by an increase in depreciation and finance costs, both related to the completion of Fraser Valley Biogas RNG expansion late last year. Summarizing the quarter, in Q3 2024, Fraser Valley Biogas continued to ramp up production and step closer towards the design capacity of the facility. We were also able to apply downward pressure on certain of our operating costs, and we expect to continue to see certain cost reductions as we finalize our 2025 insurance premiums and reduce utility costs through equipment optimizations. I'll now hand the presentation over to Misha to provide some additional updates.

Thanks a lot, Sean. It's been another solid quarter which we're looking forward to build on as we close out the year. There's definitely still a lot of work to do as we remain focused on achieving nameplate capacity at Fraser Valley Biogas and continuing to advance their three major development projects. It's going to be a catalyst-rich end to the year, and it all begins with operational success at Fraser Valley. where we've built up a world-class facility which has demonstrated the ability to exceed nameplate capacity when fully ramped. We're also consolidating the feedstock market in the region where favorable supply and demand dynamics remain in place and remain in our favor. As we close out the year, we expect to hit record levels of production as we work towards exceeding nameplate capacity in 2025. With Fraser Valley on track, we're advancing our development projects that have made significant headway at Grotech. As you can see here, we've re-scoped phase two to increase capacity from 70,000 to 100,000 gigajoules annually and achieve more favorable economics and mitigate the pipeline constraint risks on the line. With the recently announced $2 million ACT grant, we expect to achieve FID by the end of the year. We're also approaching FID at the Pacific Coast Renewables Facility as we've submitted all of our regulatory filings and anticipate a positive result given our positive relationships with all the regulatory authorities. We've completed preliminary design work and the project remains fully funded with a robust feedstock story. We'll be providing a full detailed update on the development of the project by the end of the year as we approach FID there. Our process at Project Radius continues to progress as we've now narrowed it down to two potential funding parties. There are a lot of greenfield projects that are struggling to get financed in this current environment, and the fact that we have managed to attract two active bidders at the table speaks to the quality of the project. as we've worked through the process that we've received the consistent feedback that this is the best greenfield rng project in canada and we have full confidence that our process will be successful so what so what does this mean for the broader picture at everton with fraser valley biogas continuing to perform and develop and development progressing across our projects we remain fully funded to achieve 13 million dollars of ebitda Concurrently, we're advancing our greenfield projects as well as several other pipeline projects in the works, which we hope to be able to discuss in the short term. We've really hunkered down and focused on our core operations over the last 12 months and are now emerging stronger with a view to bringing in new projects and contributing to the upside. Our goal is to bring two to three projects to FID on an annual basis and we remain on track to achieve that. There have certainly been some headwinds in the space, but the fundamentals remain strong and acquisition opportunities will emerge. With our track record of delivering brownfield and greenfield projects in Canada, we will be in a strong position to continue to grow and emerge as Canada's dominant RNG platform. Thanks, everyone, for your support. We'll now open it up to any questions.

Thanks, Misha. First question, with respect to RNG production and organic tonnage, can you explain the decrease quarter over quarter from last quarter to this quarter, despite Fraser Valley ramping up?

Yeah, sure. So for the RNG production, that was the decreased quarter over quarter was mainly related to our Grotech facility. Q3 is generally a tough time at that facility with line restrictions and we ran into some issues regarding nominations versus the amount of gas that was produced. had that not been an issue, we would have had about the same overall production compared to last quarter. And we expect to be able to catch that up in Q4. Regarding organics, that was a it's a timing issue we some of the some of the contracts that we have we're sharing and some of those organics with with other with other processes and we're also we're working through a contract at our see the sky operating facility which we hope to be able to provide some more updates on shortly thanks sean

Next question with respect to weather and seasonality, did that affect production? And can you comment on how production is trending in Q4 so far?

So, yeah, as I touched on, we didn't experience any seasonality issues for RNG production at Fraser Valley Biogas. As I mentioned earlier, we saw a 15% increase in RNG production there compared to Q2. The seasonality had an impact on grow tech, and we expect that to be fully addressed as part of FID and phase two of the project.

Thanks, Sean. In the previous quarter, Evergen had guided for PCR FID towards the end of the third quarter. Can we comment on timing for this?

Yeah, so last quarter, the guidance was based on assumptions that we were going to get regulatory approvals back by a certain time. We've kind of taken a conservative approach to FID, wanting to ensure that we've got all of our regulatory approvals lined up. We've sort of been in constant communication with the three major regulatory authorities here, being the City of Abbotsford, the Minister of Environment, and the Agricultural Land Commission. They've all come back verbally telling us that they support the project. So there's just been some back and forth in terms of information flow and making sure that they have all the information they need in order to grant their approvals. So we expect that to come in, but it's just obviously taken longer than we would have liked.

Thanks, Misha. The next question with respect to Pacific Coast renewables, are there any additional hurdles to begin construction after securing full regulatory approval?

Yeah, so upon receiving full regulatory approval, we will have the full green light to begin construction. We've selected our technology providers, our EPCs. We've got the project fully scoped out. Offtake agreement, obviously, in place. So we expect it to be, or we don't expect any hurdles following regulatory approvals.

Thanks, Misha. With respect to the 2025 run rate EBITDA of 7 million, can we provide some commentary around that? Is that expected to be achieved towards the end of the year?

So that would be, that's a run rate that would more be an exit for the year. Obviously that's taking into account Fraser Valley operating at its design capacity as well as starting to see incremental EBITDA coming through from Grotech as part of the phase two expansion there. And then factoring in some of the contracts I touched on regarding our Sea to Sky soils operations and and stabilizing operations at Pacific Coast Renewables.

Thanks, John. For the next question, more broadly for the Evergen platform, can we elaborate on the expected cost improvements on a going forward basis?

Yeah, sure. So we received, as most of the participants are probably aware, a few years ago we were impacted by the flooding events at our sites in the Fraser Valley, both Fraser Valley Biogas and Pacific Coast Renewables. As a result of those claims, that's impacted our insurance premiums for the past few years. And we just received news that our insurance premiums are expected to go down about 40% because we're now past that negative claims history. And we're also at a size where we're able to attract larger insurers, which comes at a discounted rate. Also, we're working forward to improve the optimization of some of the equipment at Fraser Valley Biogas, and that may include swapping out certain equipment for more efficient equipment, which would, again, reduce our utility costs. And we would be able to provide further information on that as we reach FID at Growtech.

Thanks, Sean. For the next question, with respect to timing of construction, can we provide some commentary around Pacific Coast Renewables Grotech Phase 2 project radius?

Yeah, so for Pacific Coast Renewables, that will be a 12 to 18-month construction period. As far as capital requirements associated with that build, as we said, it remains fully funded with financing lined up, as well as with the grant and the debt facility available for that facility. And Grotech Phase 2, given the limited scope, essentially we're just increasing the size, upgrading capacity at the facility and installing a de-packager as well as some other upgrades. We anticipate that build-out will take about six to nine months with, again, being in a position to say that it's fully funded based on the grant received and the revised scope. Project radius, once we've achieved NTP, that will be about an 18-month build-out from there.

Thanks, Misha. Next question. Previously, there was commentary on the 7 million run rate EBITDA at the end of this year. Can we comment on the shift in timing with respect to that?

Yeah, I mean, there's two real reasons to that. One is the ramp up at Fraser Valley. As I touched on before, the $7 million includes Fraser Valley operating at its full design capacity, which we're still working towards. We're operating at around 75%, 80% of that capacity. at the moment. So there's still some upside there. And that incremental revenue comes with almost zero additional costs. So there's significant upside in EBITDA there. The other pieces that is kind of included in this question is Grotech. So Grotech has been, after operating it for just over a year now, we've encountered some issues regarding the pipeline capacity at working with our utility provider, ADCODE. So for phase two, we're working with them to be able to expand that pipeline capacity and inject more gas. It's primarily during the summer months, but there's a very limited room on that pipeline during the summer months. And as a result, that's why we're saying now with very little capital injection for Grotech phase two, we expect to be able to boost the production there significantly.

Great. Thanks, Sean. That concludes our 2024 third quarter earnings presentation. Thanks very much to everyone for tuning in and enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks, everyone.