North American Construction Group Ltd (NOA) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the North American Construction Group conference call regarding the first quarter ended March 31, 2024. (Operator Instructions)

早安，女士們，先生們。歡迎參加北美建設集團關於截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日的第一季的電話會議。（操作員說明）

The company wishes to confirm that today's comments contain forward-looking information and that actual results could differ materially from conclusions, forecasts, or projections contained in the forward-looking information. Certain material factors or assumptions were applied in drawing conclusions or in making forecasts or projections that are reflected in the forward-looking information.

該公司希望確認今天的評論包含前瞻性訊息，實際結果可能與前瞻性資訊中包含的結論、預測或預測有重大差異。在得出結論或做出前瞻性資訊中反映的預測或預測時應用了某些重大因素或假設。

Additional information about those material factors is contained in the company's most recent management's discussion and analysis, which is available on SEDAR and EDGAR, as well as on the company's website at nacg.ca.

有關這些重要因素的更多資​​訊包含在公司最新管理層的討論和分析中，可在 SEDAR 和 EDGAR 以及公司網站 nacg.ca 上取得。

I will now turn the conference over to Joe Lambert, President and CEO.

我現在將會議交給總裁兼執行長喬·蘭伯特 (Joe Lambert)。

Thanks, Enrico. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. I'm going to start with a few slides showing our Q1 operational performance before handing it over to Jason for the financial overview, and then I will conclude with our 2024 operational priorities, bid pipeline, backlog, outlook for 2024, and finish up with our capital allocation plans before taking your questions.

謝謝，恩里科。大家早安，感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。我將首先用幾張投影片展示我們第一季的營運績效，然後將其交給Jason 進行財務概述，然後我將總結我們2024 年的營運優先事項、投標管道、積壓工作、2024 年展望，最後以在回答您的問題之前我們的資本分配計劃。

On slide 3, our Q1 safety performance remains well below our industry-leading target frequency of 0.5, and we have reduced our lifesaving rules violations by 50% from Q1 last year. These statistics now include our Australian incidents and work hours. We currently are focusing our safety efforts on frontline leadership training, improving our peer-to-peer recognition program, and increasing leadership visibility in the field.

在投影片 3 上，我們第一季的安全績效仍然遠低於業界領先的目標頻率 0.5，而且我們的救生規則違規行為比去年第一季減少了 50%。這些統計數據現在包括我們在澳洲的事故和工作時間。目前，我們的安全工作重點是第一線領導力培訓、改進我們的同儕認可計劃以及提高領導力在該領域的知名度。

On slide 4, we highlight some of the major achievements of Q1. Our recently acquired Australian business continues to deliver strong and consistent results even after some heavy rain impacted summer months, and the backlog down under increased significantly with the award of a $500 million, five-year contract extension with our long-term metallurgical coal producing client.

在投影片 4 上，我們重點介紹了第一季的一些主要成就。即使在夏季遭受大雨影響後，我們最近收購的澳洲業務仍繼續取得強勁而一致的業績，並且與我們的長期冶金煤生產客戶簽訂了價值 5 億美元的五年期合同，積壓訂單顯著增加。

With our integration team now resident and our Australian bid pipeline showing continued strong demand, we remain confident that the Australian market will play a dominant role in maximizing our fleet utilization and return on assets.

由於我們的整合團隊現已駐紮，並且我們的澳洲投標管道顯示出持續強勁的需求，我們仍然相信澳洲市場將在最大限度地提高我們的機隊利用率和資產回報率方面發揮主導作用。

The first equipment transfers to Australia have reached their store, and we're excited about the long-term opportunities we see in the Australian market. Our Fargo and Moorhead flood diversion project smoothly ramped up in Q1 in advance of its first big summer construction season, and we remain confident in our overall project plan.

第一批運往澳洲的設備已到達他們的商店，我們對在澳洲市場看到的長期機會感到興奮。我們的法哥和穆爾黑德分洪工程在第一個大型夏季施工季節之前在第一季順利推進，我們對整體專案計畫仍然充滿信心。

Our telematics system continues to provide maintenance savings, achieving a record quarterly saving of almost $2 million in Q1, and we're evaluating some Australian assets for an initial rollout of telematics in Q3. And last but not least, we were awarded a three-year contract in oil sands, which generated about $225 million in 2024 backlog.

我們的遠端資訊處理系統繼續提供維護節省，在第一季實現了創紀錄的季度節省近 200 萬美元，我們正在評估一些澳洲資產，以便在第三季首次推出遠端資訊處理。最後但並非最不重要的一點是，我們獲得了一份為期三年的油砂合同，該合約在 2024 年的積壓訂單中創造了約 2.25 億美元的收入。

On slide 5, we show fleet utilization by region. Australian utilization remains strong with Q1 ending on a March high note after a few high rainfall impacted summer months. In Canada, our utilization suffered from mobilization of fleets between oil sand sites in February and lower volumes of winter reclamation work.

在投影片 5 上，我們按地區顯示了機隊利用率。澳洲的利用率仍然強勁，在夏季受到幾次高降雨量影響後，第一季的利用率達到了 3 月的高點。在加拿大，我們的利用率受到 2 月份油砂場地之間船隊調動以及冬季填海工程量減少的影響。

We remain on trend and confident in our ability to hit our Canadian target range of over 75% by the end of this year, and we'll also be looking to similarly increase our Australian fleet to over 85% during the same period. I'm sure some may believe our Canadian utilization targets are stretched after coming off that February low.

我們仍然保持趨勢，並有信心在今年年底前達到加拿大 75% 以上的目標範圍，我們還將尋求在同一時期將我們的澳洲機隊增加到 85% 以上。我確信有些人可能認為我們的加拿大利用率目標在脫離二月的低點後已經超出了目標。

However, if you consider the units we expect to transfer and some sales of smaller assets, combined with improving mechanical availability and no further anticipated fleet mobilizations, our math still suggests we are capable of exceeding our target before year-end.

然而，如果考慮到我們預計轉移的單位和一些較小資產的銷售，再加上機械可用性的提高和沒有進一步預期的車隊調動，我們的數學仍然表明我們有能力在年底前超過我們的目標。

With that, I'll hand over to Jason for the Q1 financials.

這樣，我將把第一季的財務數據交給傑森。

Thanks, Joe. Good morning, everyone. Getting right into it and starting on slide 7. The headline EBITDA number of $93 million and a correlated 27% margin were driven by a successful second quarter from Australia since the change of control on October 1, 2023.

謝謝，喬。大家，早安。直接從投影片 7 開始。自 2023 年 10 月 1 日控制權變更以來，澳洲第二季的成功推動了 EBITDA 達到 9,300 萬美元，相關利潤率為 27%。

Our margin, in particular, along with the combined gross profit margin of 18%, illustrates a strong operational quarter. All business units contributed to this margin, with the exception of Nuna, which posted EBITDA margin of less than 10% in the quarter when factoring out the one-time costs that were incurred as part of the restructuring during the quarter.

尤其是我們的利潤率，加上 18% 的綜合毛利率，說明了我們季度的營運強勁。所有業務部門都對此利潤率做出了貢獻，但 Nuna 除外，在剔除本季重組所產生的一次性成本後，該公司本季的 EBITDA 利潤率低於 10%。

The EBITDA margin illustrates project execution risk in the joint venture and is a metric indicative of why a change was needed. Restructuring efforts were completed during the quarter and the projects in Northern BC and the Northwest territories were finalized. Restructuring expenses incurred and added back for adjusted earnings purposes relate to severance costs and one-time expenses required to complete legacy projects.

EBITDA 利潤率說明了合資企業的專案執行風險，也是顯示為何需要變革的指標。本季完成了重組工作，BC省北部和西北地區的專案也已完成。為調整收益目的而產生並加回的重組費用與遣散費和完成遺留項目所需的一次性費用有關。

Moving to slide 8 and our combined revenue and gross profit. As we will have for two more quarters, MacKellar provided a step change in the quarter-over-quarter variance. On a total basis, we were up $53 million quarter over quarter. MacKellar and DGI, which we combined in Australia in our results, were up $128 million, almost identical to the Q4 variance, which could have been higher if the rainfall in January and February have been less severe.

轉到投影片 8 以及我們的合併收入和毛利。正如我們將在接下來的兩個季度中看到的那樣，麥凱勒提供了季度環比方差的階躍變化。總體而言，我們季度環比增長了 5300 萬美元。我們在澳洲的結果中將 MacKellar 和 DGI 合併起來，增加了 1.28 億美元，幾乎與第四季度的變異數相同，如果 1 月和 2 月的降雨不那麼嚴重，這一數字可能會更高。

This rainfall impact can be seen in Australia's equipment utilization, which got back to 80% in March after being in the mid-70s for the first two months of the year. This positive variance was offset by the lower equipment utilization in the oil sands region.

降雨的影響可以從澳洲的設備利用率中看出，該設備利用率在今年前兩個月處於 70% 左右的水平後，在 3 月恢復到 80%。這一正差異被油砂地區設備利用率較低所抵消。

Our share of revenue generated in the quarter by joint ventures was a net $29 million lower than Q1 2023. The Fargo-Moorhead project had a steady operational quarter, was up $10 million and achieved project metrics and milestones required of the project schedule.

本季合資企業產生的收入份額比 2023 年第一季淨減少 2,900 萬美元。Fargo-Moorhead 專案的季度營運穩定，成長了 1000 萬美元，並實現了專案進度所需的專案指標和里程碑。

More than offsetting this positive, though, was the variance impact of the completion of the construction project at the gold mine in Northern Ontario in Q3 2023, which led to lower quarter-over-quarter revenues within the Nuna Group of companies. Combined gross profit margin of 18%, despite another challenging quarter posted by Nuna, reflects the strength of a diversified business.

不過，2023 年第三季安大略省北部金礦建設項目完成的差異影響足以抵消這一正面影響，導致 Nuna 集團公司的季度收入下降。儘管 Nuna 的季度業績又充滿挑戰，但綜合毛利率仍達到 18%，這反映了多元化業務的實力。

Gross profit margins benefited both from the operations in Australia, which were higher than 20% in the quarter and is normal, of course. And from Northern, whose fleet lowers our internal costs as well as generate strong margins from services provided to external customers.

毛利率均受益於澳洲業務，本季毛利率高於 20%，這當然是正常的。還有北方公司，其機隊降低了我們的內部成本，並透過向外部客戶提供的服務產生了豐厚的利潤。

Moving to slide 9. Record Q1 adjusted EBITDA was consistent with and reflective of the revenue commentary. The 27% margin we achieved reflects an effective operating quarter and with the positive 2023 trend from the Q4 and Q3 margins of 25% and 22%, respectively, is indicative of where we see our business trending and operating adds. Included in EBITDA, general and administrative expenses were $11.1 million in the quarter, equivalent to 3.8% of revenue, which remained under the 4% threshold we've set for ourselves.

轉到投影片 9。第一季調整後 EBITDA 創歷史新高，與收入評論一致並反映了收入評論。我們實現的 27% 利潤率反映了一個有效的營運季度，而 2023 年第四季度和第三季度利潤率分別為 25% 和 22% 的正面趨勢表明我們看到了我們的業務趨勢和營運成長。本季計入 EBITDA 的一般和管理費用為 1,110 萬美元，相當於營收的 3.8%，仍低於我們為自己設定的 4% 的門檻。

Going from EBITDA to EBIT, we expensed depreciation equivalent to 14% of combined revenue, which reflected the depreciation rate of our entire business, including the equipment fleet at the Fargo-Moorhead project. When looking at just the wholly owned entities and our heavy equipment in Canada and Australia, the depreciation percentage for the quarter was 14.8% of revenue and reflected the addition of the Australian fleet as well as first-quarter operations in the oil sands, which require higher idle time due to the cold weather.

從 EBITDA 到 EBIT，我們的費用折舊相當於合併收入的 14%，這反映了我們整個業務的折舊率，包括 Fargo-Moorhead 專案的設備組。僅考慮加拿大和澳洲的全資實體和重型設備時，本季的折舊率為收入的 14.8%，反映了澳洲機隊的增加以及第一季油砂業務的增加，這需要由於天氣寒冷，閒置時間較長。

Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter of $0.78 was $0.18 down from Q1 2023 as the impacts of higher interest are factored in. The average interest rate for Q1 was over 9% in the quarter, the highest rate we've paid in a long time and remains a compelling indicator for us as we look to pay down debt in the back half of 2024.

由於考慮了利息上漲的影響，該季度調整後每股收益為 0.78 美元，較 2023 年第一季下降 0.18 美元。第一季的平均利率超過 9%，這是我們長期以來支付的最高利率，對於我們希望在 2024 年下半年償還債務而言，這仍然是一個令人信服的指標。

Moving to slide 10. Net cash provided by operations prior to working capital was $74 million and generated by the business, reflecting EBITDA performance net of cash interest paid. Free cash flow usage of $36 million was driven by the $62 million draw on working capital accounts, and $60 million spent on our front-loaded sustaining capital maintenance and replacement programs.

轉到投影片 10。營運資本之前營運提供的淨現金為 7,400 萬美元，由業務產生，反映了扣除支付的現金利息後的 EBITDA 業績。自由現金流使用量為 3,600 萬美元，這是由營運資金帳戶提取的 6,200 萬美元以及用於前期維持資本維護和更換計劃的 6,000 萬美元推動的。

Moving to slide 11. Our PPE of $1.2 billion is up $470 million from the pre-MacKellar September 30, 2023, balance, on the $430 million worth of assets we purchased in 2023, and $20 million of gross assets purchased this quarter in Queensland and Western Australia.

轉到投影片 11。我們的PPE 為12 億澳元，比MacKellar 之前的2023 年9 月30 日餘額增加了4.7 億澳元，我們在2023 年購買了價值4.3 億澳元的資產，本季度在昆士蘭州和西澳大利亞州購買了2,000萬澳元的總資產。

Net debt levels ended the quarter at $781 million, an increase of $58 million in the quarter due to the $36 million of free cash flow usage as well as the investment in growth assets. Net debt and senior secured debt leverage ended at 2.0 times and 1.6 times, respectively, and are considered reasonable levels six months after a transformative, fully debt-funded acquisition.

本季末淨債務水準為 7.81 億美元，由於 3,600 萬美元的自由現金流使用以及對成長資產的投資，該季度增加了 5,800 萬美元。淨債務和優先擔保債務槓桿率分別為 2.0 倍和 1.6 倍，在完全債務融資的變革性收購六個月後被視為合理水準。

With that, I'll pass the call back to Joe.

這樣，我會將電話轉回喬。

Thanks, Jason. Looking at slide 13, this slide summarizes our priorities for the year. This slide is unchanged, so I'll just hit the high points. The MacKellar integration continues to progress smoothly. As I mentioned in my letter to shareholders, we are thrilled with the Australian market in general and see great opportunities for growth and continued efficiency improvements with our stronger systems and processes in place.

謝謝，傑森。請看投影片 13，這張投影片總結了我們今年的優先事項。這張投影片沒有變化，所以我只講要點。MacKellar 整合持續順利進行。正如我在致股東的信中提到的，我們對整個澳洲市場感到興奮，並看到了透過我們更強大的系統和流程實現成長和持續提高效率的巨大機會。

Under the second point, we highlight our ongoing efforts to win strategic projects for our business. As we look to sustain and grow our infrastructure business, we will need to win the infrastructure work and with a strong fit potential US infrastructure in the bid pipeline, we have initiated a partnership with a known international construction company and set this year's priority to qualify on one major infrastructure project.

在第二點下，我們強調我們為贏得業務策略專案而不斷做出的努力。當我們希望維持和發展我們的基礎設施業務時，我們需要贏得基礎設施工程，並且在投標管道中具有強大的潛力的美國基礎設施，我們已與一家知名國際建築公司建立了合作夥伴關係，並將今年的優先事項定為合格一項重大基礎設施項目。

The second part of this priority is when a meaningful project that uses our smaller mining assets that are currently underutilized in our oil sands business. We have several active tenders that would utilize these smaller assets, and we expect to win one of these projects this year.

該優先事項的第二部分是當一個有意義的項目使用我們目前在油砂業務中未充分利用的較小採礦資產時。我們有幾個利用這些較小資產的活躍招標，我們預計今年將贏得其中一個項目。

Item three prioritizes continued expansion of our operational and maintenance expertise. We will prioritize new technologies such as our telematics system and continued in-house and vertically integrate our maintenance services and supply, including near-term focus on identifying and sharing best practices between our Canadian and Australian businesses.

第三項優先考慮的是繼續擴展我們的營運和維護專業知識。我們將優先考慮新技術，例如我們的遠端資訊處理系統，並繼續內部和垂直整合我們的維護服務和供應，包括近期重點確定和分享我們的加拿大和澳洲業務之間的最佳實踐。

We believe this prioritization and focus will continue to lower cost and improve equipment utilization, resulting in increased competitiveness and likelihood of winning the tenders mentioned in the previous item two.

我們相信這種優先順序和重點將繼續降低成本並提高設備利用率，從而提高競爭力和贏得前第二項提到的招標的可能性。

The final area prioritizes returning Nuna back to operational excellence and setting it up for growth and consistent performance. This work commenced earlier this year, and I'm confident the changes made that Nuna will be back on its feet in time for their big summer projects and growing off a much stronger and stable foundation before the end of the year.

最後一個領域的重點是讓 Nuna 恢復卓越運營，並為其成長和穩定的績效做好準備。這項工作於今年稍早開始，我相信努納所做的改變將及時恢復正常，開展大型夏季項目，並在年底前打下更強大、更穩定的基礎。

Moving on to slide 14. Our bid pipeline has grown significantly with over $500 million in additional projects under tender. While we anticipate strong demand in oil sands to continue for many years, the diversified opportunities in Australia and the strong demand for heavy equipment also present avenues for further diversification and improved return on assets. There's a handful of these bids that are integral to our business.

繼續看投影片 14。我們的投標管道顯著增長，正在投標的其他項目已超過 5 億美元。雖然我們預計油砂的強勁需求將持續多年，但澳洲多元化的機會和對重型設備的強勁需求也為進一步多元化和提高資產回報率提供了途徑。其中有一些投標是我們業務不可或缺的一部分。

Two projects in oil sands consisting of -- one consisting of typical summer civil works that should be awarded imminently and a big stream diversion project, which we expect to submit in Q2 with award in late Q3, are important projects for improving near-term utilization on our smaller mining assets.

兩個油砂項目是提高近期利用率的重要項目，其中一個是典型的夏季土木工程，應立即授標，另一個是大河改道項目，我們預計將在第二季度提交並在第三季末授標。

Longer-term opportunities to fully utilize these smaller mining assets have been tendered in multi-year projects in the Quebec iron ore mine and a South Australian magnetite mine. Our larger mining assets, which remain in high demand and utilization, but are in general uncommitted beyond 2024, have been tendered into opportunities for five-year commitments in New South Wales and Queensland coal operations. We are excited about these opportunities and a couple of wins would provide meaningful insight and stability into our projections for 2024 and beyond.

魁北克鐵礦和南澳大利亞磁鐵礦的多年期項目已對充分利用這些小型採礦資產的長期機會進行了招標。我們規模較大的採礦資產仍處於高需求和高利用率，但在 2024 年之後一般不會投入使用，但已被納入新南威爾斯州和昆士蘭州煤炭業務的五年承諾機會。我們對這些機會感到興奮，一些勝利將為我們對 2024 年及以後的預測提供有意義的見解和穩定性。

On slide 15, our backlog stands at $3 billion. This includes the recent award of a major metallurgical coal mine in Queensland and the regional oil sands contract balanced by our typical quarterly drawdown from executed work. This backlog enhances our confidence and predictability, particularly in our Australian operations. Slide 16 reiterates our outlook for 2024 and is unchanged from our last presentation in March.

在投影片 15 上，我們的積壓訂單達到 30 億美元。這包括最近授予的昆士蘭州一個大型冶金煤礦和區域油砂合同，並通過我們典型的季度削減已執行工作來平衡。這種積壓增強了我們的信心和可預測性，特別是在我們的澳洲業務中。第 16 張投影片重申了我們對 2024 年的展望，與 3 月的上次簡報相比沒有變化。

Lastly, slide 17 focuses on capital allocation. We continued our interest rate. We expect to use our projected free cash flow of $160 million to $185 million for deleveraging while maintaining an open mind for more favorable risk return opportunities that may arise. We continually analyze all options to ensure that our capital allocation decisions are both opportunistic and aligned with our long-term strategic goals.

最後，幻燈片 17 重點關注資本配置。我們繼續維持利率。我們預計將使用預計的 1.6 億至 1.85 億美元的自由現金流來去槓桿化，同時對可能出現的更有利的風險回報機會保持開放的態度。我們不斷分析所有選項，以確保我們的資本配置決策既具有機會性又符合我們的長期策略目標。

With that, I'll open up for any questions you may have.

至此，我將回答您可能提出的任何問題。

(Operator Instructions) Tim Monachello, ATB Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）Tim Monachello，ATB 資本市場。

Hey. Good morning, everyone.

嘿。大家，早安。

Good morning, Tim.

早安，提姆。

Good morning, Tim.

早安，提姆。

I just wanted to touch on the commentary on transferring assets and potentially selling some of the underutilized ones. Can you say how many assets you would view as structurally underutilized in the Canadian market that might be up for transfer or sale?

我只是想談談關於轉移資產和可能出售一些未充分利用的資產的評論。您能否說出您認為加拿大市場上有多少資產在結構上未被充分利用，可能需要轉讓或出售？

We'd be looking about 100 of them, Tim. Some of them that aren't committed into next year and some of them that aren't being used right now. So there's some smaller ones we expect to get engaged in this summer work, like I mentioned, and we see opportunities next year in a few different areas.

提姆，我們會尋找大約 100 個。其中一些尚未承諾明年使用，另一些目前尚未使用。因此，就像我提到的那樣，我們預計今年夏天會參與一些較小的工作，並且明年我們會在幾個不同領域看到機會。

So those five major projects that are under tender now we think would get the utilization of that fleet if we want a couple of those into the high ranges we expect to be in. But it's about 100 units. I'd say, more weighted towards the smaller end of the fleet. So there's -- it's disproportionate to where the smaller units are a bigger chunk of that 100.

因此，如果我們希望其中幾個項目達到我們預期的高水平，我們認為現在正在招標的這五個主要項目將得到該船隊的利用。但也就100台左右。我想說的是，更偏重於機隊較小的一端。所以，這與較小的單位在這 100 個單位中所佔的比例是不成比例的。

Okay. And would that -- that wouldn't include the 20 that you already transferred or are currently transferring?

好的。那不包括您已經轉移或目前正在轉移的 20 個嗎？

Yeah, that would be part of it.

是的，這將是其中的一部分。

Okay. So 80 is the additional units that you're looking at?

好的。那麼 80 是您正在考慮的額外單位嗎？

Yeah, we expect the ones we sent will actually get some utilization in late Q3.

是的，我們預計我們發送的那些實際上會在第三季末得到一些利用。

Yeah. Great. I was encouraged to see that those were going to work with contract -- are those going -- are those going to existing sites or new sites in Australia?

是的。偉大的。我很高興看到那些將按照合約進行工作——那些將要進行——那些將前往澳洲的現有站點還是新站點？

They're pretty much supporting existing sites.

他們幾乎支持現有的網站。

Okay.

好的。

There were just opportunities. They're not all going one spot. There are three here, four there, where there were opportunities where we didn't have fleet either Western Plant Hire or MacKellar.

只是有機會。他們不會都去同一個地方。這裡有 3 個，那裡有 4 個，這些地方有機會，但我們沒有 Western Plant Hire 或 MacKellar 的車隊。

Okay. And could you -- I mean, put some bookends around like what the net asset value of those -- that fleet would be like the stuff that you view as underutilized?

好的。你能否——我的意思是，放一些書擋，例如它們的淨資產價值——那支車隊就像你認為未充分利用的東西一樣？

I don't have that off hand, I can probably get that for you later. Yeah. We're looking at the number of your -- the net asset value just depends on which units we pick, and it can vary dramatically between two different units of the same fleet based on what value is left in the component life of those assets. So 200-ton trucks can vary by -- can differ by twice as much on what the net asset value is based on what components are in it.

我手邊沒有那個，也許我可以稍後幫你拿。是的。我們正在研究您的數量 - 淨資產價值僅取決於我們選擇的單位，並且根據這些資產的組件壽命中剩餘的價值，同一艦隊的兩個不同單位之間的資產淨值可能會存在巨大差異。因此，200 噸卡車的淨資產價值可能會因其中所含組件的差異而相差兩倍。

Right. Okay. That makes sense. And then in Canada, obviously some weak utilization in Q1, but some optimism around growing utilization through the rest of the year. Curious if you could comment on how utilization for the Canadian fleet exited Q1 and is trending in Q2?

正確的。好的。這就說得通了。然後在加拿大，第一季的利用率顯然有些疲弱，但對今年剩餘時間利用率的成長持樂觀態度。好奇您是否可以評論加拿大機隊的利用率如何退出第一季以及第二季的趨勢？

Well, it was definitely at a low in February when we're moving fleet around and then started picking up in March. And yeah, we expect that to continue through Q2, and we expect to achieve that 75% by the end of the year.

嗯，當我們移動車隊時，二月肯定處於低點，然後在三月開始回升。是的，我們預計這種情況將持續到第二季​​度，並且預計到年底將達到 75%。

Okay. And then big working capital build in the quarter, Jason, curious, can you talk a little bit about what the drivers of that were and how you see that playing over the rest of the year should that unwind?

好的。然後本季會建立大量的營運資金，傑森，很好奇，你能談談這方面的驅動因素是什麼，以及你如何看待今年剩餘時間的情況會有所緩解嗎？

Yeah. We do expect it to unwind. It was primarily in Canada with a really busy March. We booked some pretty sizable accounts receivable in the month and collected that in April. So we expect that to work itself out. MacKellar had the same thing, although not as big a working -- or an accounts receivable build in March, but they had a bigger March than January and February and billed accounts receivable as well.

是的。我們確實預計它會放鬆。主要是在加拿大，三月非常繁忙。我們在本月預訂了一些相當大的應收帳款，並於四月收回。所以我們希望這能自行解決。MacKellar 也有同樣的情況，儘管 3 月份的工作或應收帳款建設沒有那麼大，但他們的 3 月份業績比 1 月和 2 月更大，而且也開具了應收賬款。

So yeah, I expect it to unwind and hope for 2023, working capital full year was kind of neutral, and we kind of expect that for 2024 as well. It won't all unwind in Q2 but expect it to unwind over the nine months.

所以，是的，我預計它會放鬆並希望 2023 年全年營運資金保持中性，我們預計 2024 年也是如此。它不會在第二季度全部緩解，但預計會在九個月內緩解。

Okay. Very helpful. Thanks a lot. I'll turn it back.

好的。很有幫助。多謝。我會把它轉回來。

Thanks, Tim.

謝謝，蒂姆。

Aaron MacNeil, TD Cowen.

亞倫·麥克尼爾，TD·考恩。

Joe, I know you mentioned the bid opportunities for smaller mining assets, but it looks like some of the bigger bid opportunities in your pipeline don't occur until 2025? I know it's early, but as we think about 2025, what do you see as the big puts and takes year over year? Like does it look a lot like '24 with maybe the benefit of some fleet reallocation? Or are there other major factors that we should be thinking about?

喬，我知道您提到了小型採礦資產的競標機會，但看起來您的管道中的一些較大的競標機會要到 2025 年才會出現？我知道現在還為時過早，但當我們考慮 2025 年時，您認為逐年的重大看跌期權和需求是什麼？就像它看起來很像'24，也許有一些機隊重新分配的好處？或者有其他我們應該考慮的主要因素嗎？

I think those opportunities in fleet allocations are not just to improve utilization, but -- and it's just inherent that you get more opportunities to put more hours on equipment in Australia just because of the weather and the way the projects are set up. So we do think there's upside in not just getting park assets moving, but getting long-term commitments for stuff that was uncommitted in 2025 that may be highly utilized now.

我認為機隊分配的這些機會不僅僅是為了提高利用率，而且，由於天氣和專案設置的方式，您有更多機會在澳洲的設備上投入更多時間，這是固有的。因此，我們確實認為，不僅讓公園資產轉移，而且對 2025 年未承諾但現在可能得到高度利用的資產做出長期承諾，這都有好處。

I have looked at what the net impact of that would be top line. I think we've always expected a 5% annual improvement rate. I have embedded that with these actual numbers. They are some -- there's some big projects. The coal ones I was talking about in Australia, we're in the magnetite, they're $300 million, $400 million jobs.

我研究了這對營收的淨影響。我認為我們一直期望每年 5% 的改進率。我已將其與這些實際數字一起嵌入。他們有一些——有一些大項目。我在澳洲談論的煤炭業，我們在磁鐵礦領域，它們創造了 3 億美元、4 億美元的就業機會。

And we would look at those, say, 30 or so of our 100 assets going to any one of those projects for opportunities where we can put -- that use underutilized equipment to work. I mean it won't be the entire fleet, and there'll probably be some ads in here and there for growth capital for matching shovels or things like that. But we see it as a great opportunity to meet that growth curve.

我們會查看我們 100 項資產中的 30 項左右，這些資產將用於這些項目中的任何一個，以尋找我們可以利用的機會——利用未充分利用的設備來工作。我的意思是，這不會是整個車隊，而且可能會到處都有一些廣告，以獲取成長資本來匹配鏟子或類似的東西。但我們認為這是實現成長曲線的絕佳機會。

So the 30 you just mentioned, would that be incremental over and above the 20 that you've already sent over there?

那麼您剛才提到的 30 個，是否會比您已經發送到那裡的 20 個增加？

Yes.

是的。

Got it. And then for the balance, I guess, 20 plus 30, minus 100 is 50 remainder, like where do you think the most likely end markets for those remaining 50 end up if you had to guess?

知道了。然後對於餘額，我猜，20 加 30，負 100 就是 50 餘數，如果你必須猜測的話，你認為剩下的 50 個人最有可能的最終市場在哪裡？

I would say we place half of them into summer works in oil sands this year and possibly into iron ore or Australian magnetite next year. And I think the remaining, say, 20-odd units are likely ones that we would look at selling as is or rebuilding and selling.

我想說，我們今年將其中一半投入油砂夏季作業，明年可能投入鐵礦石或澳洲磁鐵礦。我認為剩下的，比如說 20 多個單位，我們可能會考慮以原樣出售或重建並出售。

I do think there's some opportunities for our maintenance team to value-add to those and rebuild, and we're evaluating those markets right now. It wouldn't be a huge dollar amount. I'd say -- I think I said something like $20 million.

我確實認為我們的維護團隊有一些機會來增值和重建，我們現在正在評估這些市場。這不會是一個巨大的美元金額。我想說——我想我說了大約 2000 萬美元。

Got it. Joe, that's very helpful. Thanks. I'll turn it over.

知道了。喬，這很有幫助。謝謝。我會把它翻過來。

No worries. Thanks, Aaron.

不用擔心。謝謝，亞倫。

Jacob Bout, CIBC.

雅各·布特，CIBC。

Good morning, Joe and Jason, this is a (inaudible) on for Jason.

早安，喬和傑森，這是傑森的（聽不清楚）。

Hello.

你好。

Good morning. So looking at slide 5 targets of fleet utilization of about 85% in Australia and 75% in Canada. So you touched a bit about this in the prepared remarks, but what would you say are the biggest factors that would help you base those targets?

早安.因此，看看投影片 5 的目標，澳洲的機隊利用率約為 85%，加拿大的機隊利用率約為 75%。您在準備好的發言中談到了這一點，但您認為幫助您確定這些目標的最大因素是什麼？

I think the biggest factor is within our own control, and it's maintaining our high level of maintenance support for the fleet. So keeping that fleet operational when the demand is there. And then secondary, it's getting these underutilized fleets put to work in winning those couple of bids, I said, -- but you got to -- it's maintaining the fleet and even if demand there if you can't have mechanical availability to keep it running, you won't get the utilization.

我認為最大的因素是在我們自己的控制範圍之內，它是我們對機隊保持高水準的維護支援。因此，當有需求時，請保持該車隊的運作。其次，它讓這些未充分利用的機隊投入到贏得這幾個投標中，我說，但你必須這樣做，它正在維護機隊，即使有需求，如果你沒有機械可用性來保持它運行時，您將無法獲得利用率。

So the biggest part of this is always within our control, and it's why we continue to push our maintenance team to continue improving and to continue their strong performance. And then the rest of it is about getting these assets placed where we think they've got long-term opportunities to continue to improve on utilization.

因此，其中最大的部分始終在我們的控制範圍內，這就是為什麼我們繼續推動我們的維護團隊繼續改進並繼續保持強勁的表現。然後剩下的就是將這些資產放置在我們認為有長期機會繼續提高利用率的地方。

Right. That's helpful. And then maybe just a question on Nuna. So you mentioned that restructuring was effectively done in Q1, and you've brought a new leadership. I would appreciate if you could talk a bit more about the steps that have been taken there at Nuna? And do you still see margins at Nuna now getting back to normalized levels by the summer?

正確的。這很有幫助。然後也許只是關於努納的問題。所以您提到第一季重組已有效完成，並且您帶來了新的領導層。如果您能多談談努納已採取的步驟，我將不勝感激。您是否仍然認為 Nuna 的利潤率現在會在夏季恢復到正常水平？

Starting from the end, yes. And the stuff we've taken really to be bring in a lot more of the stronger project controls and processes, especially around contract administration and change management and just tune up those processes and get them up to North American standards.

從最後開始，是的。我們採取的措施確實是為了引入更多更強大的專案控制和流程，特別是在合約管理和變更管理方面，並調整這些流程並使它們達到北美標準。

And I believe we've been able to -- we've got guys in there and are extremely strong performers in these areas, and I'm very confident in that. And then I think there's some upside in continuing to look at how we can build synergies and the bench strength between our two offices because we're both right here in Edmonton.

我相信我們已經能夠做到——我們有一些人，並且在這些領域表現非常出色，我對此非常有信心。然後我認為繼續研究如何在兩個辦事處之間建立協同效應和後備力量是有一些好處的，因為我們都在埃德蒙頓。

Great. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.

偉大的。欣賞它。非常感謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Maxim Sytchev, National Bank Financial.

Maxim Sytchev，國家銀行金融部門。

Hi. Good morning, gentlemen.

你好。早安，先生們。

Good morning, Max.

早安，馬克斯。

Joe, I was wondering if you don't mind maybe expanding a little bit on MacKellar. Obviously, very strong contribution from those assets in the first two quarters. But curious to see around the integration, how that's been going, ERP thoughts and more importantly, how that will impact potential profitability, some asset utilization on a going forward basis. And maybe anything that you can mention in terms of the infrastructure opportunities in Australia. So yeah, it was sort of -- if you don't mind talking about this, it would be helpful. Thanks.

喬，我想知道你是否不介意稍微擴展一下麥凱勒的內容。顯然，前兩個季度這些資產的貢獻非常強勁。但我很想了解整合的進展、ERP 的想法，更重要的是，這將如何影響未來的潛在獲利能力和一些資產利用率。也許您可以提及有關澳洲基礎設施機會的任何內容。所以，是的，這有點——如果你不介意談論這個，那會很有幫助。謝謝。

Yeah. I guess I'll start with the infrastructure. We're still early days there. I don't have a lot of projects by name. We're really just in that research and setting up teams, I guess -- and so it's pretty early days on that, and I expect more towards the end of Q2, Q3, we'd have better information on that. The ERP system rollout has gone smoothly. We're expecting Q3 rollout of that. I do think there's -- I think we're -- there's huge opportunities for us to gain on efficiencies.

是的。我想我會從基礎設施開始。我們還處於早期階段。我沒有很多項目的名字。我想，我們實際上只是在研究和組建團隊，所以現在還處於早期階段，我預計在第二季、第三季末會有更多信息，我們將獲得更多相關資訊。ERP系統上線進展順利。我們預計將在第三季推出。我確實認為——我認為我們——我們有巨大的機會來提高效率。

It's very hard to put a number to that. But I know that when you get stronger inventory control systems and stronger work order systems and your maintenance, there is an inherent improvement in your efficiencies just because you just know a lot more about your equipment, you know a lot more about your parts.

很難給出一個數字。但我知道，當你獲得更強大的庫存控制系統、更強大的工單系統和維護時，你的效率就會得到內在的提高，因為你對你的設備、你的零件了解更多。

And I think we're going to see gains there. I just -- I doubt we'll be able to measure them because you're measuring against something that you don't know exists right now. But we've done this before. We've done it here. We've done it at Nuna, and we always identify things after the fact that we -- there were improvements that we didn't even know were there.

我認為我們將在這方面看到成果。我只是——我懷疑我們是否能夠衡量它們，因為你正在衡量一些你現在不知道存在的東西。但我們以前已經這樣做過。我們已經在這裡做到了。我們在努納就做到了這一點，而且我們總是在我們甚至不知道存在改進的事實之後才識別出事情。

And their continued opportunities and for growth are extremely strong across really all commodity markets, I'd say, except for maybe nickel and possibly lithium, that's really been the only downside in the Australian markets. The iron ore, the gold, all the coal from PCI, metallurgical to thermal, extremely strong market and blue chip clients that are willing to look at five-year terms, which is great when we're dealing with the assets of these sides. So anything that I didn't cover off there, Max?

我想說，它們的持續機會和成長在所有商品市場上都非常強勁，除了鎳和鋰之外，這確實是澳洲市場的唯一缺點。鐵礦石、黃金、從PCI、冶金到熱能的所有煤炭，極其強勁的市場和願意考慮五年期條款的藍籌客戶，當我們處理這些方面的資產時，這非常好。麥克斯，還有什麼我沒有提到的嗎？

No. And just maybe building a little bit on the opportunity on the commodity side of things because you have extended one of your major contracts in Australia. I'm just wondering if there's any other ones that are on rolling forward basis that need to be renewed. Thanks.

不。也許只是在商品方面增加一點機會，因為您已經延長了在澳洲的一份主要合約。我只是想知道是否還有其他正在滾動的基礎上需要更新。謝謝。

I don't think there's anything coming up within this year. I don't know if that slide in the back, I don't have it memorized, but I don't think there's any near-term items that need renewal. I think there's next year and after that, there's some.

我認為今年內不會有任何進展。我不知道後面那張投影片是否有，我沒有記住，但我不認為有任何近期項目需要更新。我認為明年會有一些。

And most of these mines MacKellar has been on for decades. So I think the risk of renewals is very low, especially in the major ones they're on, where they're the only supplier of equipment on -- and the two major coal mines, the one thermal and the met. So -- and everything I've heard, and I've seen is we've had extremely positive client relationships. And I think with improved systems and performance down there, that's just going to get better.

麥凱勒的大部分礦場已經開採了數十年。因此，我認為續約的風險非常低，尤其是在他們所在的主要煤礦中，他們是唯一的設備供應商，還有兩個主要煤礦，一個是熱煤礦，一個是煤礦。所以——我所聽到、所看到的一切都是我們擁有非常積極的客戶關係。我認為，隨著系統和性能的改進，情況會變得更好。

Right. Absolutely. Okay. And then maybe just one follow-up for Jason, if I may. So again, like a lot of things on MacKellar side of things are being tightened up right now. How should we think maybe around, I don't know, sort of EBITDA or free cash flow conversion from those assets like before and after if you don't mind, maybe talking directionally, how should be thinking about this. Thanks.

正確的。絕對地。好的。如果可以的話，也許只是傑森的一個後續行動。再說一次，麥凱勒方面的很多事情現在都在收緊。我不知道，我們應該如何思考這些資產的 EBITDA 或自由現金流轉換，就像之前和之後一樣，如果你不介意的話，也許有方向性地談論，應該如何考慮這個問題。謝謝。

Yeah. We've been talking in kind of the -- on the margin side with the new ERP and tightening things up in the 1% to 2% to 3% range, Max. We're not looking for step change in their margin profile. They're well over 30% as an EBITDA margin and very strong in their cost culture and operational excellence. So we don't expect a step change there as far as margin.

是的。我們一直在談論新 ERP 的利潤率，並將其收緊在 1% 到 2% 到 3% 的範圍內，Max。我們並不希望他們的利潤率大幅變動。他們的 EBITDA 利潤率遠超過 30%，並且在成本文化和卓越營運方面非常強大。因此，我們預期利潤率不會出現階躍變動。

And -- and yeah, you'll see their sustaining capital in the quarter came in kind of in the $15 million range. And so yeah, their free cash flow conversion is probably 10% to 15% higher than ours on a full-year basis. We have a front-loaded capital program as opposed to them.

是的，您會看到他們本季的維持資本約為 1500 萬美元。是的，他們的自由現金流轉換率全年可能比我們高 10% 到 15%。與他們相反，我們有一個預先加載的資本計劃。

But the run rate they've established here in the first six months, we see as being indicative, we're not expecting step changes with the ERP or even with the growth assets. It's -- they're running at a pretty optimal level. Where we got to get them is their utilization up to staying in the 80s and cresting 85.

但我們認為，他們在前六個月建立的運作率具有指示性，我們預計 ERP 甚至成長資產不會發生重大變化。他們正在以相當最佳的水平運行。我們得到它們的地方是它們的利用率保持在 80 年代並達到 85 的頂峰。

Yeah. Makes sense. Okay. That's great. Thank you so much. That's it from me.

是的。說得通。好的。那太棒了。太感謝了。這就是我說的。

Thank you, Max.

謝謝你，麥克斯。

Frederic Bastien, Raymond James.

弗雷德里克·巴斯蒂安，雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

Good morning.

早安.

Good morning, Frederic.

早上好，弗雷德里克。

Guys, I know a priority of yours is to delever and bring down your debt-to-EBITDA ratio to within 1.5 times by year-end. But do share buybacks reenter the picture with your stock price trading below $30 right now?

夥計們，我知道你們的首要任務是去槓桿化，並在年底前將債務與 EBITDA 比率降低至 1.5 倍以內。但是，當您的股價目前低於 30 美元時，股票回購是否會重新出現？

It's certainly always a conversation point, Frederic. It's -- we're -- how do you measure the return. It's a risk-return discussion with the Board all the time. I would say that the return on the debt is high with us hitting our highest rates. And obviously, the risk when you pay down debt is nil.

這當然總是一個話題，弗雷德里克。這是——我們——如何衡量回報。一直以來都是與董事會進行風險回報討論。我想說，隨著我們達到最高利率，債務報酬率很高。顯然，償還債務的風險是零。

So we're comparing that against risk versus return on where you think your share price should be fairly valued. And then even looking at our growth, we'll still look at bolt-ons and smaller stuff this year. If there was a bigger project go M&A opportunity, we'll still have the discussion, but it likely would never -- not have an effect on this year because they're usually like MacKellar was 2.5 years.

因此，我們將其與您認為股價應該合理估值的風險與回報進行比較。即使考慮到我們的成長，今年我們仍然會關注螺栓和較小的東西。如果有更大的項目進行併購機會，我們仍然會進行討論，但這可能永遠不會對今年產生影響，因為他們通常就像 MacKellar 那樣是 2.5 年。

But we'll still look at any opportunities for vertical integration, even growth capital and winning some of these bids where we might have to add some fleet and balancing those risk versus returns with our base case of deleveraging and our share price.

但我們仍然會尋找任何垂直整合的機會，甚至是成長資本，並贏得其中一些投標，我們可能需要增加一些機隊，並根據去槓桿化的基本情況和股價來平衡這些風險與回報。

And yeah, there is a share price. I like to get these things to a solid metric, and there'll be something -- we'll work with the Board in our Board meeting next month to say at what price do you switch, be it share price or what return on a growth opportunity, would we switch those deleverage dollars into growth capital or share buybacks. And we expect to set those with firm numbers and have a clear understanding.

是的，還有股價。我希望將這些事情變成一個可靠的指標，並且會有一些東西 - 我們將在下個月的董事會會議上與董事會合作，說明您以什麼價格進行轉換，無論是股價還是回報率增長機會，我們是否會將這些去槓桿化資金轉換為成長資本或股票回購。我們希望設定這些數字並有清晰的認識。

Okay. Thanks, Joe! I appreciate that color. That's all I have.

好的。謝謝，喬！我很欣賞那種顏色。這就是我的全部。

Yes. Thanks.

是的。謝謝。

Adam Thalhimer, Thompson Davis.

亞當·塔爾希默、湯普森·戴維斯。

Hey. Good morning, guys. Congrats on the record Q1.

嘿。早上好傢伙。恭喜 Q1 創紀錄。

Good morning, Adam.

早安，亞當。

Is it too early to give high-level thoughts for the oil sands demand in the next peak season? I'm thinking about this Q4 and the next year's Q1.

現在對下一個旺季的油砂需求進行高層思考是否為時過早？我正在考慮今年的第四季和明年的第一季。

Yes. I mean we generally don't see our winter reclamation scopes until September or so, October. And so it's hard for us to gauge the winter programs. And they've varied our win and work. If you go back over the last four or five years, our win work has been in our small truck, like reclamation work has been high as $80 million in a winter with small truck works to as low as 20%.

是的。我的意思是，我們通常要等到九月左右、十月才能看到冬季開墾範圍。因此我們很難評估冬季項目。他們改變了我們的勝利和工作。如果你回顧過去四、五年，我們的勝利工作一直是在我們的小型卡車上，例如冬季填海工程高達 8000 萬美元，而小型卡車工程則低至 20%。

And we've seen that kind of volatility in the winter scope works. As far as the bulk work and the base overburden, we see that being steady or growing. This year's reductions were a bit of a surprise in scope. But generally, we think that's more of a deferral than an elimination.

我們已經看到冬季範圍內的這種波動是有效的。就批量工作和基礎覆蓋層而言，我們認為其穩定或成長。今年的削減幅度有點令人意外。但總的來說，我們認為這更多的是推遲而不是淘汰。

And I expect volumes and demand in big earthworks in oil sands to increase next year. But I don't have that scope. And again, we've got a three-year contract, but it's being awarded in one-year terms. And I would expect to see next year's volumes, I'm guessing sometime between July and September of this year for us to tender on for next year.

我預計明年大型油砂土方工程的數量和需求將會增加。但我沒有這個範圍。再說一遍，我們簽訂了一份為期三年的合同，但合約期限為一年。我預計會在今年 7 月至 9 月之間的某個時間看到明年的銷量，以便我們為明年進行招標。

Okay. That's perfect. I know that's a hard question to answer, but there were so many moving parts last year. So -- and then in Australia, so you've called out weather from MacKeller for a couple of quarters, even though the results have been really strong. I'm just curious -- as I think about the year-over-year comp for MacKellar, how much was weather an impact in Q4, Q1?

好的。那很完美。我知道這是一個很難回答的問題，但去年有很多變化。那麼——然後在澳大利亞，你已經連續幾個季度對麥凱勒的天氣表示不滿，儘管結果非常好。我只是很好奇——當我考慮 MacKellar 的同比情況時，天氣對第四季度、第一季的影響有多大？

Compared to the previous year or --

與上年度相比或--

No, sorry, I'm thinking --

不，抱歉，我在想--

They had significant cyclone activity in Queensland in both Q4 and Q1, especially January and February. So they incurred a pretty wet year. And when you get a lot of rain there, roads actually start getting shut down and you can't get supplies into mine sites. It's generally not the mine site's ability to operate as far as operators get in truck, it's getting supplies and people to the site because massive rains have cut off road access and that can last for a week at a time kind of thing.

第四季和第一季度，尤其是一月和二月，昆士蘭州都有顯著的氣旋活動。所以他們經歷了相當潮濕的一年。當那裡下大雨時，道路實際上開始關閉，你無法將物資運送到礦場。一般來說，礦場的運作能力並不是指操作員開上卡車就能運營，而是需要向礦場運送物資和人員，因為大雨切斷了道路通道，而且這種情況一次可能會持續一周之類的。

Yeah. And I guess I'm just thinking because of the weather, MacKellar, even though the results were good, they actually had easy comps. Because of the weather in Q4, Q1. Is that fair?

是的。我想我只是因為天氣而想，麥凱勒，儘管結果很好，但他們實際上有簡單的比賽。因為Q4、Q1的天氣。這樣公平嗎？

We would typically expect less weather-related disruptions than what we had this year. Usually, it would be more December, January centric, and we actually had November, February kind of impacts as well.

我們通常預期與天氣相關的干擾會比今年少。通常，它會更多以 12 月和 1 月為中心，實際上我們也有 11 月和 2 月的影響。

Okay. And then the high end of the revenue guide, what would have to happen for you to trend more towards the high end?

好的。然後是收入指南的高端，需要發生什麼才能使您更加趨向高端？

I'd say getting a lot of summer work in the oil sands this -- in the next few months and getting a big winter program that starts early and picking up something like that iron ore mine in Quebec work.

我想說的是，在接下來的幾個月裡，我們將在油砂領域進行大量的夏季工作，並儘早開始一項大型冬季計劃，並開展類似魁北克鐵礦工作的工作。

Okay. Well, good luck with that. We'll talk to you in a few months.

好的。好吧，祝你好運。我們將在幾個月後與您交談。

Yeah. There's a lot of moving parts right now, and that's for sure but --

是的。現在有很多變動的部分，這是肯定的，但是--

Okay. No worries. Perfect. Thanks, guys.

好的。不用擔心。完美的。多謝你們。

Thanks, Adam.

謝謝，亞當。

[Prem Kumar], an individual investor.

[Prem Kumar]，個人投資者。

Good morning, Joe. Good morning, Jason.

早安，喬。早上好，傑森。

Good morning, Prem.

早安，普雷姆。

I had a couple of questions on capital allocation. I know the previous gentleman asked about buying back shares. My questions are on the same line, especially considering where the shares are trading and how reasonable the price is. So free cash flows of expected range for the year is around $160 million to $185 million. After -- I'm assuming even after we hit the leverage target of 1.5 and paying the dividend, there will be still quite a bit of money left on the table. How high are buybacks are on the list for this incremental capital, I guess.

我有幾個關於資本配置的問題。我知道前一位先生問過回購股票的問題。我的問題是同一個問題，特別是考慮到股票的交易地點以及價格的合理程度。因此，今年的自由現金流預期範圍約為 1.6 億至 1.85 億美元。之後——我假設即使我們達到了 1.5 的槓桿目標並支付了股息，仍然會有相當多的資金留在桌面上。我猜想，對於增量資本來說，回購的金額是多少。

Yeah. Like I said, right now, our default is to pay down debt because of the higher rates. But we're going to evaluate at whatever point in time and where the share price is. I'd also say we have more opportunity as we get later in the year just because we're so -- we're very back weighted in our free cash flow.

是的。就像我說的，現在我們的違約是因為利率上升而償還債務。但我們將在任何時間點以及股價的位置進行評估。我還想說，今年稍後我們會有更多機會，因為我們的自由現金流非常偏重。

So the bulk of that free cash flow comes in, in Q3 and Q4. And so that's really when we have more flexibility. And at this point in time, we're looking at -- we consider all those options. We consider M&A growth opportunities. We'll look at increasing dividends. We'll look at share buybacks. And everything is going to play on a balanced playing field of risk versus reward. And those are discussions we have at every Board meeting.

因此，大部分的自由現金流是在第三季和第四季流入。所以這確實是我們擁有更大彈性的時候。此時此刻，我們正在考慮所有這些選擇。我們考慮併購成長機會。我們將考慮增加股利。我們將研究股票回購。一切都將在風險與報酬的平衡環境中進行。這些是我們在每次董事會會議上進行的討論。

Okay. Thanks, Joe. And can you maybe talk a little bit about the acquisition landscape like M&A in terms of is there a pipeline of companies that you kind of keep a look on, and how are the valuations and just the landscape in general and the geography, maybe you working morely in Australia, Canada, other geographies? Or can you give a bit more color on that, Joe or Jason? Thank you.

好的。謝謝，喬。您能否談談併購等收購情況，是否有您關注的公司管道，估值如何，以及總體情況和地理位置，也許您正在工作主要在澳大利亞、加拿大或其他地區？或者喬或傑森，你能對此給予更多的說明嗎？謝謝。

Yeah, I think there is always opportunities. Again, with low share price and things like in these positions, it's very hard to find accretive deals. But certainly, if there is another MacKellar deal like available, we would certainly pursue it. We are predominantly focused in North America and Australia now, but we've also considered South America as a potential, in particular, Chile.

是的，我認為機會總是存在的。同樣，由於股價較低以及這些職位的情況，很難找到增值交易。但當然，如果有另一筆類似的 MacKellar 交易，我們肯定會追求它。我們現在主要關注北美和澳大利亞，但我們也認為南美是一個潛在的市場，特別是智利。

So if there was an opportunity there, we do see that market as having become more stable and having some growth opportunities going forward, especially with their strong copper and gold markets down there. So we keep an eye out for those. And if the opportunity comes, it's another deal that's highly accretive like that, we will certainly pursue it.

因此，如果那裡有機會，我們確實認為該市場已經變得更加穩定，並且未來有一些成長機會，特別是在銅和黃金市場強勁的情況下。所以我們會密切注意這些。如果機會來了，這是另一筆具有高度增值性的交易，我們一定會追求它。

It likely -- like I said earlier, they don't develop overnight. They're usually 1.5 years to 2.5-year kind of processes. So we really wouldn't have expected anything even if it was on our desk today to affect anything this year.

正如我之前所說，它們很可能不是一夜之間形成的。它們通常是 1.5 年到 2.5 年的過程。因此，即使今天擺在我們的辦公桌上，我們確實不會期望任何事情會對今年產生任何影響。

Okay. Thanks, Joe. That's all I have.

好的。謝謝，喬。這就是我的全部。

Thank you.

謝謝。

[Karthi Trajsalawan], private investor.

[Karthi Trajsalawan]，私人投資者。

Hi, Joe. Hi, team. Thank you so much for this conference call. It's been a fantastic run with you folks so far. Just had a question. When I look at Joe's letter, he's mentioning about the contracts becoming more about time and material. So just wanted to understand what is the implication on your EBITDA margin or any of those margin metrics that you want to talk of when you move towards contracts which are more of time and material in nature.

嗨，喬。大家好。非常感謝您參加這次電話會議。到目前為止，與你們一起度過了一段美好的時光。剛剛有一個問題。當我看喬的信時，他提到合約變得更多關於時間和材料。因此，我只是想了解當您轉向本質上需要更多時間和物質的合約時，對您的 EBITDA 利潤率或您想要談論的任何利潤率指標有何影響。

Yeah. I was in particular -- I think I went into even more detail on the year-end stuff that the -- the work in the oil sands that was typically more weighted towards unit rate work and unit rate work, we got paid a fixed price per BCM material or set unit of material we move, but we were all the operating productivity and weather risk.

是的。我特別是 - 我想我對年終工作進行了更詳細的了解 - 油砂工作通常更注重單位費率工作和單位費率工作，我們得到了固定價格我們移動每BCM 材料或設定的材料單位，但我們都面臨營運生產力和天氣風險。

We have a lot more equipment rentals, maintained rentals, maintained and operated rentals, and time and material work than historical. I'd say just rough numbers historically, we were probably 75% unit rate work. Now we're probably more like 25% to give you a scale of things. And when you go into the rental side, and it actually -- we don't have the longer-term commitments, and we don't have the upside potential, but we're also going to have the downside potential.

我們的設備租賃、維護租賃、維護和營運租賃以及時間和材料工作比歷史上多得多。我想說的是歷史上的粗略數字，我們的單位率工作可能是 75%。現在我們可能更像是 25% 來給你一個規模。當你進入租賃方面時，實際上 - 我們沒有長期承諾，我們沒有上行潛力，但我們也將有下行潛力。

So typically, what you're going to see is higher EBITDA margins and lower risk. The net margins have been the same. But because you don't have operators, labor in some of the stuff, and you're not wearing some of the operating costs, your EBITDA as a percentage of the overall rate is higher. Does that make sense to you?

因此，通常情況下，您會看到更高的 EBITDA 利潤率和更低的風險。淨利潤率相同。但因為你沒有操作員，沒有勞動力參與某些工作，而且你沒有承擔一些營運成本，所以你的 EBITDA 佔總體比率的百分比更高。這對你來說有意義嗎？

Very good. Thanks. That was very helpful. Thank you.

非常好。謝謝。這非常有幫助。謝謝。

No worries.

不用擔心。

Tim Monachello, ATB Capital Markets.

蒂姆·莫納切羅 (Tim Monachello)，ATB 資本市場。

Yes. Just a follow-up here. I'm wondering if you can help us contextualize the guidance range relative to your utilization targets. Like what's embedded in your guidance on the top and bottom.

是的。這裡只是後續行動。我想知道您是否可以幫助我們將指導範圍與您的使用率目標聯繫起來。就像您的頂部和底部指南中嵌入的內容一樣。

Well, our -- we're expecting to get -- when we talk about 75% and 85T, we're expecting to be above those marks at the end of the year. So if you want to know how it ramps up, I would just follow how we put the EBITDA split in there and follow that on utilization and with it ending at 75% or 85% in Q4. So I expect we're ramping up to probably a -- or Q3 peak, and then it fairly levels off in Q4 or a slight dip in Q4, but we expect to be right there in that range.

嗯，我們的——我們期望——當我們談論 75% 和 85T 時，我們預計到年底會高於這些標記。因此，如果你想知道它是如何成長的，我只需專注於我們如何將 EBITDA 分配在那裡，然後專注於利用率，並在第四季度達到 75% 或 85%。因此，我預計我們可能會上升到第三季的峰值，然後在第四季度相當平穩或在第四季度略有下降，但我們預計會在這個範圍內。

Okay. So like the midpoint of your guidance would include you achieving those utilization targets? Is that the right way to think of it?

好的。那麼，您的指導方針的中點是否包括實現這些利用率目標？這是正確的思考方式嗎？

By the end of the year, yeah. So it's not -- we're not going to be at 75% in Q2.

到年底就可以了所以，第二季我們不會達到 75%。

You won't do 75% on average in Canada in '24?

24 年加拿大的平均成績不會達到 75%？

Not on the average, we will get to 75% by the end of the year, and we would expect to be able to hold that through next year.

不是平均而言，到今年年底我們將達到 75%，並且我們預計能夠保持到明年。

Got it. Okay. Appreciate it.

知道了。好的。欣賞它。

No worries.

不用擔心。

Phil Goodrich, Goodrich & Company.

菲爾·古德里奇，古德里奇公司。

Hi. So the tax rate gets -- seems to move around a fair bit. What could you say, just for modeling purposes, a reasonable nominal run rate for taxes would be? And how much would you call out as the cash tax versus deferred?

你好。所以稅率似乎有相當大的變動。您認為，僅出於建模目的，合理的名目稅收運行率是多少？您認為現金稅與遞延稅相比是多少？

Yeah. Great question. We're at about 30% in Australia, 25% in Canada. So you could use a modeling rate of 27.5% if you wanted to put it blended. And about half of that is cash taxable. Australia is cash taxable given their history and their -- they don't carry loss, carryforwards in the Australia regime maxes out their tax depreciation. So we do pay cash taxes in Australia, but we don't have any cash taxes in Canada this year. We expect to pay some cash taxes in Canada in 2025.

是的。很好的問題。澳洲的比例約為 30%，加拿大的比例約為 25%。因此，如果您想將其混合，則可以使用 27.5% 的建模率。其中大約一半是現金稅。考慮到澳洲的歷史和他們不承擔損失，澳洲應繳納現金稅，澳洲制度中的結轉最大限度地提高了稅收折舊。所以我們在澳洲確實繳現金稅，但今年在加拿大我們沒有任何現金稅。我們預計 2025 年將在加拿大繳納一些現金稅。

Okay. Thanks. And just review -- I know you're a different beast in you were just six or nine months ago. So help me understand the seasonal pattern that we should see play out quarter during -- over the course of the year.

好的。謝謝。回顧一下──我知道六、九個月前的你已經是個不同的野獸了。因此，請幫助我了解我們應該在一年中的每個季度看到的季節性模式。

It's -- I guess, it's a unique year. We would expect when we get into next year, we're going to be a lot more consistent quarter upon quarter because of the transition and the way the contract was awarded to equipment movements in oil sands, we're actually -- Q1 is our low this year, and we ramp up to a Q3 and with a slight drop in Q4.

我想，這是獨特的一年。我們預計，當我們進入明年時，由於過渡以及授予油砂設備移動合約的方式，我們將每個季度都更加一致，我們實際上 - 第一季是我們的今年處於低位，我們將上升到第三季度，第四季略有下降。

And we've provided quite a bit of information around 45% in front half of the year, 55% of our EBITDA in the second half -- and then I'd say that going forward in 2025, and I don't have those exact numbers, but my expectation is that it's a lot more consistent quarter from quarter, and we're not going to see 10% variances between quarters. We're going to be seeing single digit.

我們在上半年提供了相當多的信息，大約佔 45%，下半年佔 EBITDA 的 55%，然後我會說，在 2025 年，我沒有這些信息確切的數字，但我的預期是季度與季度之間更加一致，我們不會看到季度之間10% 的差異。我們將看到個位數。

Great.

偉大的。

Yeah.

是的。

Yeah. Thanks. So paint a picture of long-term capability -- growth capability for the company going over a number of years. And clearly, you have some vision to this, especially given your large backlog. How do you see the company being able to grow organically and whatever tuck-ins you have in mind over the next four or five years?

是的。謝謝。因此，請描繪出公司的長期能力—多年來的成長能力。顯然，您對此有一些願景，特別是考慮到您的大量積壓。您如何看待公司能夠實現有機成長以及您在未來四到五年內的想法是什麼？

I think most of our tuck-ins, like when we vertically integrate are more about reducing our internal cost by in-housing our maintenance. So that really -- what I would say is our growth opportunity, I've always said that I think there's 5% to 15% annual growth in our marketplaces. And if you look at the first 20% or 30% of that, we can pretty much cover with existing assets by the increased utilization of existing assets.

我認為我們的大部分投入，例如我們垂直整合時，更多的是透過內部維護來降低內部成本。所以，我想說的是我們的成長機會，我一直說我認為我們的市場每年有 5% 到 15% 的成長。如果你看看其中的前 20% 或 30%，我們幾乎可以透過提高現有資產的利用率來涵蓋現有資產。

Now obviously, those usually come with some growth capital. So I'll give you an example where we're looking at possibly placing some assets in Australia and a long-term contract, it's not just equipment we have. We have to actually go out and look at a few shovels that would complement the fleet as well. So it's not -- we don't have everything all the time.

顯然，這些通常都帶有一些成長資本。所以我會給你一個例子，我們正在考慮可能在澳洲放置一些資產和一份長期合同，而不僅僅是我們擁有的設備。我們必須實際出去看看一些也能補充車隊的鏟子。所以，我們並不是一直都擁有一切。

We have to add -- and like Jason said, we added $20 million in growth capital so far to meet the demands in the Australian marketplace. So you would get that kind of growth additions into that just by utilizing the fleet. But certainly, that first 20%-odd of growth we think we can do with existing assets and some minor top-up on growth capital.

我們必須補充——正如傑森所說，到目前為止，我們增加了 2000 萬美元的成長資本，以滿足澳洲市場的需求。因此，僅透過利用機隊就可以實現這種成長。但當然，我們認為我們可以利用現有資產和一些小規模的成長資本補充來實現最初 20% 左右的成長。

Great. So plenty on your plate now as you continue to work in MacKellar. So how long do you feel it takes to digest all of that and the plate is now empty and you're ready for something significant again at one point in the future.

偉大的。當您繼續在 MacKellar 工作時，您現在有很多事情要做。那麼你覺得需要多長時間才能消化所有這些，而現在盤子已經空了，你已經準備好在未來的某個時刻再次做一些重要的事情了。

One thing I'd say is very pleased in that we had the bench strength to place an integration team and change out leadership at Nuna all within the last six months. And I don't -- the business has been able to absorb that and not miss a beat on performance. And so I'm very comfortable with that going forward that we've got the people in place.

我想說的一件事是非常高興的，因為我們有足夠的實力在過去六個月內組建整合團隊並更換 Nuna 的領導層。我不這麼認為——企業已經能夠吸收這一點，並且不錯過任何績效節拍。因此，我對我們的人員到位感到非常滿意。

We've got a lot of things going on. We're going to turn around at Nuna, and we're doing the integration in Australia. But I think the people are there and very comfortable with the way they're performing that. I don't see a lot of anxiety of that. If something else came up. Our plate isn't empty, and nor do I are expected to be fully empty. But if something came up and there is a good opportunity, we wouldn't shy away from it because we don't have the resources. We have capability to do that.

我們有很多事情正在發生。我們將在努納掉頭，並在澳洲進行整合。但我認為人們都在那裡並且對他們的表演方式感到非常滿意。我沒有看到太多的焦慮。如果出現其他事情。我們的盤子不是空的，我也不應該完全空。但如果出現了一些事情並且有一個很好的機會，我們不會因為沒有資源而迴避它。我們有能力做到這一點。

Except for the balance sheet. So I presume that's the principal limiting factor here?

除了資產負債表。所以我認為這是這裡的主要限制因素？

I guess if we were to look at a debt-funded MacKellar tomorrow, but they don't happen at that speed. If it's -- it happens at the same speed at MacKellar did and it's two years from now, I'd be very confident we got the balance sheet by the end of this year, frankly, to start looking at bigger things like that.

我想如果我們明天看看債務融資的麥凱勒，但它們不會以那樣的速度發生。如果它以與 MacKellar 相同的速度發生，並且從現在起兩年後，我非常有信心我們會在今年年底之前獲得資產負債表，坦率地說，開始考慮類似的更大事情。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

No worries. Thank you.

不用擔心。謝謝。

This concludes the Q&A session of the call, and I will pass the call over to Joe Lambert, President and CEO, for closing comments.

電話問答環節到此結束，我將把電話轉交給總裁兼執行長喬·蘭伯特 (Joe Lambert)，以徵求結束意見。

Thanks, Enrico. Thanks again, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to providing next update upon closing of our Q2 2024 results.

謝謝，恩里科。再次感謝大家今天加入我們。我們期待在 2024 年第二季業績結束時提供下一次更新。

Thank you. This concludes the North American Construction Group conference call on Q1 2024.

謝謝。北美建築集團 2024 年第一季電話會議至此結束。