North American Construction Group Ltd (NOA) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the North American Construction Group conference call regarding the second quarter ended June 30, 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 6 月 30 日的第二季的電話會議。（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 a conclusion, forecast or projection contained in that forward-looking information. Certain material factors or assumptions are applied in drawing conclusions or in making forecasts or projections that are reflected in the forward-looking information. Additional information about those material factors is contained in the company's most recent management discussion and analysis, which is available on SEDAR and EDGAR as well as on the company's website at nacg.ca.

該公司希望確認今天的評論包含前瞻性訊息，實際結果可能與該前瞻性資訊中包含的結論、預測或預測有重大差異。某些重大因素或假設適用於得出結論或做出前瞻性資訊中反映的預測或預測。有關這些重要因素的更多資​​訊包含在公司最新的管理層討論和分析中，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, Ray. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call today. I'm going to start with a few slides showing our Q2 operational performance before handing it over to Jason for the financial overview, and then I'll conclude with our 2024 operational priorities, bid pipeline backlog, and finish up with our updated outlook for this year before taking your questions.

謝謝，雷。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二季的營運績效，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，並最後介紹我們的最新前景今年在回答你的問題之前。

On slide 3, our Q2 trailing 12-month recordable injury rate remains below our industry-leading target frequency of 0.5, and we continue to advance our safety programs, including timely training on wildfires and air quality and advancements in increasing training access and coverage in regards to mental health. It's easy to gloss over this quickly, but this consistency below a target that few in our industry could hit even for one year, is one of our most meaningful and proudest achievements.

在幻燈片3 上，我們第二季度過去12 個月的可記錄傷害率仍然低於我們行業領先的目標頻率0.5，我們繼續推進我們的安全計劃，包括及時進行野火和空氣品質培訓，以及在增加培訓機會和覆蓋範圍方面取得進展。很容易很快就掩蓋這一點，但這種低於我們行業中很少有人能夠達到的目標（即使是一年）的一致性是我們最有意義和最自豪的成就之一。

Our workforce hours have grown 340% since the wildfire lows of 2016 and are up 60% from the 2020 pandemic lows. And as we approach the 6 million annual manhour mark, we continue to maintain our focus to get everyone home safe. Although as a company, we see this as simply our core value and an inherent moral obligation to our workforce, it's nice to have the hard work and efforts of our employees recognized.

自 2016 年野火低點以來，我們的工作時間增加了 340%，比 2020 年大流行低點增加了 60%。當我們接近每年 600 萬工時大關時，我們將繼續專注於讓每個人安全回家。儘管作為一家公司，我們認為這只是我們的核心價值和對員工固有的道德義務，但很高興員工的辛勤工作和努力得到認可。

And on the following slide, you can see we were recently awarded the John T. Ryan National Safety Award, which was presented at this year's CIM in Vancouver. This is the second time we have won this award, and I'm tremendously proud of our workforce and their continued focus on keeping themselves and their coworkers safe.

在下面的幻燈片中，您可以看到我們最近榮獲約翰·T·瑞安國家安全獎，該獎項是在今年溫哥華 CIM 上頒發的。這是我們第二次獲得此獎項，我為我們的員工以及他們持續致力於保護自己和同事的安全感到非常自豪。

On slide 5, we highlight some of the major achievements of our Q2. Our Australian business continues to deliver strong and consistent results, including MacKellar's best monthly result in company history achieved in May and an impressive 10% growth in the quarter from the first quarter of 2024. Our overall integration is progressing smoothly with the ERP system planned to go live here in Q3.

在投影片 5 中，我們重點介紹了第二季的一些主要成就。我們的澳洲業務繼續取得強勁且一致的業績，包括 MacKellar 在 5 月份取得了公司歷史上最好的月度業績，並且該季度較 2024 年第一季度實現了 10% 的令人印象深刻的增長。我們的整體整合進展順利，ERP 系統計劃於第三季上線。

I visited our Australian operations a few weeks ago and had a chance to see and talk to our employees and leadership teams across Australia, including our MacKellar business in Queensland, our Western plant hire team in Western Australia, and our DGI team in New South Wales. I also got to meet with some of our key clients. And while our operations integration team's focus and efforts were impressive, the positive feedback from our clients was even more impressive and gives me confidence that we have the solid relationships and clear client contractor alignment that is key to continued growth and profitability.

幾週前，我參觀了我們的澳洲業務，並有機會見到我們在澳洲各地的員工和領導團隊並與之交談，其中包括我們在昆士蘭州的MacKellar 業務、我們在西澳大利亞州的工廠租賃團隊以及我們在新南威爾斯的DGI 團隊。我也會與我們的一些重要客戶會面。雖然我們的營運整合團隊的專注和努力令人印象深刻，但來自客戶的正面回饋更令人印象深刻，這讓我相信我們擁有牢固的關係和明確的客戶承包商聯盟，這是持續成長和盈利的關鍵。

On the JV business side, our Fargo-Moorhead flood diversion project is in the midst of its biggest summer construction season, and the overall project that has hit 40% completion remains on plan. After almost a year of poor performance, our Nuna partnership returned to profitability in Q2 and in particular, returned to historical monthly margins in June that had not been achieved for almost three years. There is plenty of work still to be done, but we are pleased with the progress and plans the new leadership team at Nuna has made. Our telematics system achieved two milestones in the quarter, establishing initial mobile data infrastructure and testing in Australia, and advancing the system functionality across equipment brands.

在合資業務方面，我們的法哥-穆爾黑德分洪工程正處於最大的夏季施工季節，整體工程已完成 40%，仍在按計畫進行。經過近一年的糟糕表現後，我們的 Nuna 合作夥伴在第二季度恢復了盈利，特別是在 6 月份恢復了近三年來未曾實現的歷史月度利潤率。還有大量工作要做，但我們對努納新領導團隊所取得的進展和計劃感到滿意。我們的遠端資訊處理系統在本季實現了兩個里程碑，在澳洲建立了初始行動數據基礎設施和測試，並推進了跨設備品牌的系統功能。

On slide 6, we show fleet utilization by region. Australian utilization remains strong with consistent high demand and mechanical availability already exceeding our end-of-year utilization targets two of the last four months. In Canada, our utilization suffered in Q1 from fleet mobilization between oil sand sites and lower winter reclamation work and Q2 brought extensive loss days due to wildfire protocols and abnormal rainfall. While our target of exceeding 85% utilization in Australia is on track, our target range for Canada of over 75% is now planned for early 2025.

在投影片 6 上，我們按地區顯示了機隊利用率。澳洲的利用率仍然強勁，需求持續高漲，機械可用性在過去四個月中有兩個月已經超過了我們的年底利用率目標。在加拿大，我們的利用率在第一季因油砂場之間的車隊調動和冬季填海工程的減少而受到影響，而第二季度由於野火協議和異常降雨而帶來了廣泛的損失。雖然我們在澳洲的利用率超過 85% 的目標正在步入正軌，但我們目前計劃在 2025 年初為加拿大實現超過 75% 的利用率目標。

Some of the improvements to come in Canada will be addition by subtraction. For example, we had 90 units in the 100-ton truck fleet, of which 50 have been parked for a while. These 50 trucks make up about 3% of our entire fleet, but constitute 40% of our parked assets. We reallocated 13 of these units to Australia and are actively bidding and expect to win work for about 25 in late Q4 or early Q1. That left 12 trucks. We contacted our main reseller, which is a well-known public company and the largest auction house for big equipment.

加拿大即將進行的一些改進將是加減法。例如，我們100噸卡車車隊有90輛，其中50輛已經停放了一段時間。這 50 輛卡車約占我們整個車隊的 3%，但占我們停放資產的 40%。我們將其中 13 個單位重新分配給澳大利亞，並正在積極投標，預計在第四季度末或第一季初贏得約 25 個單位的工作。剩下 12 輛卡車。我們聯繫了我們的主要經銷商，這是一家知名的上市公司，也是最大的大型設備拍賣行。

And they actually had a buyer that was looking for 12 trucks and were able to make a deal within two weeks. There were other trucks on the market, and our reseller had loads of recent sales data to confirm our pricing was fair and correct. The units sent to Australia have arrived, and we expect them to start working in late Q3, early Q4, and when the other 25 parked units are engaged in newly won work in Q4 or Q1, then we will have matched our 100-ton truck fleet to our expected demand and nothing will be parked.

他們實際上有一位買家正在尋找 12 輛卡車，並且能夠在兩週內達成交易。市場上還有其他卡車，我們的經銷商擁有大量最新銷售數據，以確認我們的定價公平且正確。發往澳洲的機組已經抵達，預計三季末、四月初開始工作，當其他25台停放的機組在第四季度或一季度從事新贏得的工作時，我們就可以匹配我們的100噸卡車車隊滿足我們的預期需求，不會有任何東西停放。

With that, I'll hand the call over to Jason for the Q2 financials.

這樣，我將第二季財務資料的電話交給 Jason。

Thanks, Joe, and good morning, everyone. Starting with slide 8, the headline EBITDA numbers of $87 million and a 26% margin were driven by a third consecutive successful quarter from Australia since the change of control on October 1, 2023.

謝謝喬，大家早安。從投影片 8 開始，自 2023 年 10 月 1 日控制權變更以來，澳洲連續第三個季度取得成功，帶動了 EBITDA 達 8,700 萬美元和 26% 的利潤率。

Our overall margin of 26% correlates to the combined gross profit margin of over 18% and illustrates strong operational performance. We included a comment on this slide of our oil sands business, which although it did not post the top line revenue we had expected, did experience more consistency from Q1 to Q2 than we've historically had. This is due to the nature of the contracts in the oil sands, which are now less seasonal and focused on more steady time material and rental arrangements.

我們 26% 的整體利潤率與超過 18% 的綜合毛利率相關，體現了強勁的營運表現。我們對油砂業務的這張幻燈片發表了評論，儘管它沒有公佈我們預期的營收，但從第一季到第二季確實比我們歷史上的情況更加一致。這是由於油砂合約的性質決定的，現在油砂合約的季節性較少，並且側重於更穩定的時間材料和租賃安排。

Moving to slide 9 and our combined revenue and gross profit. As we will have for one more quarter, MacKellar provided a step change in quarter-over-quarter variances. On a total combined basis, we were up $52 million quarter-over-quarter, a very similar mark to Q1, which was up $53 million over 2023. MacKellar and DGI, which we combine as Australia in our results, were up $138 million on a steady, consistent quarter during which MacKellar posted an impressive 82% equipment utilization peaking in May at 88%.

轉到投影片 9，我們的合併收入和毛利。正如我們將在接下來的一個季度中看到的那樣，麥凱勒提供了季度環比差異的階躍變化。總體而言，我們的季度環比增長了 5,200 萬美元，與第一季非常相似，第一季比 2023 年增長了 5,300 萬美元。MacKellar 和 DGI（我們在業績中將其合併為澳洲）在一個穩定、一致的季度中成長了 1.38 億美元，其中 MacKellar 的設備利用率達到令人印象深刻的 82%，5 月達到高峰 88%。

This encouraging topline positive variance was offset by lower equipment utilization in the oil sands region, which was hampered by poor weather conditions in both May and June. Our share of revenue generated in Q2 by joint ventures and affiliates was a net $30 million lower than Q2 2023.

這種令人鼓舞的收入正差異被油砂地區設備利用率的降低所抵消，而油砂地區的設備利用率因五月和六月惡劣的天氣條件而受到阻礙。我們在第二季由合資企業和附屬公司產生的收入份額比 2023 年第二季淨減少了 3,000 萬美元。

The Fargo-Moorhead project had a strong operational quarter, was up $15 million quarter-over-quarter, and achieve the progress metrics and milestones required of the project schedule. More than offsetting this positive was the variance impact of the completion of the construction project at the gold mine in Northern Ontario in Q3, which led to much lower quarter-over-quarter revenues within the Nuna Group of companies.

Fargo-Moorhead 專案的季度營運表現強勁，環比增長 1,500 萬美元，並實現了專案計劃所需的進度指標和里程碑。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積極影響，這導致 Nuna 集團公司的季度收入大幅下降。

Combined gross profit margin of 18.3% includes a onetime loss on equipment disposal and was 19.6% when adjusting for that transaction. Gross profit margins benefited both from the operations in Australia, which were higher than 20% in the quarter, and from ML Northern whose fleet lowers our internal costs as well as generates strong margins from services provided to external customers. Despite lower-than-expected revenue, the Canadian fleet posted solid margins while managing costs during the operationally difficult months of May and June.

綜合毛利率為 18.3%，其中包括設備處置的一次性損失，對該交易進行調整後，綜合毛利率為 19.6%。毛利率既受益於澳洲業務（本季高於 20%），也受益於 ML Northern，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強勁的利潤。儘管收入低於預期，加拿大機隊在營運困難的 5 月和 6 月期間在管理成本的同時實現了穩健的利潤率。

Moving to slide 10, Q2 EBITDA beat the previous record by 70% as a result of the MacKellar acquisition. As mentioned, the 26% margin we achieved reflects an effective operating quarter and is indicative of where we see our business operating following two quarters where we posted 25% and 27% margins. Included in EBITDA is general and administrative expenses, which were $12.8 million in the quarter and equivalent to 4.6% of revenue, which is slightly over the 4% threshold we've set for ourselves. The percentage overage is due in equal parts to lower revenue as well as some higher accounting and legal costs associated with the MacKellar acquisition.

轉到投影片 10，由於收購了 MacKellar，第二季 EBITDA 比之前的記錄高出 70%。如前所述，我們實現的 26% 利潤率反映了一個有效的營運季度，並表明我們在利潤率分別為 25% 和 27% 的兩個季度之後的業務運營狀況。EBITDA 中包括一般費用和管理費用，本季為 1,280 萬美元，相當於收入的 4.6%，略高於我們為自己設定的 4% 門檻。超額百分比部分歸因於收入下降以及與收購 MacKellar 相關的會計和法律成本上升。

Going from EBITDA to EBIT, we expensed depreciation equivalent to 12.2% 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 14.3% of revenue and generally consistent with the Q1 2024 rate of 14.8%.

從 EBITDA 到 EBIT，我們的費用折舊相當於合併收入的 12.2%，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，該季度的折舊率為收入的 14.3%，與 2024 年第一季 14.8% 的折舊率基本一致。

Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter of $0.78, identical to Q1, was $0.31, up from Q2 2023, given all the positive factors previously mentioned, but offset by the impact of higher acquisition-related interest. The average interest rate for Q2 was 7% and remains a compelling indicator for us as we look to pay down debt in the back half of 2024.

考慮到前面提到的所有積極因素，本季調整後每股收益為 0.78 美元，與第一季相同，為 0.31 美元，高於 2023 年第二季度，但被收購相關利息增加的影響所抵消。第二季的平均利率為 7%，對我們來說仍然是一個引人注目的指標，因為我們希望在 2024 年下半年償還債務。

Moving to slide 11, net cash provided by operations prior to working capital of $69 million was generated by the business, reflecting EBITDA performance net of cash interest paid. Free cash flow usage of $2 million was driven by another $10 million draw on working capital accounts and $18 million spent on capital work in progress.

轉到投影片 11，該業務在營運資本之前提供的淨現金為 6,900 萬美元，反映了扣除支付的現金利息後的 EBITDA 表現。自由現金流使用量為 200 萬美元，是由營運資金帳戶中另外提取的 1,000 萬美元和用於正在進行的資本工作的 1,800 萬美元推動的。

Moving to slide 12, net debt levels ended the quarter at $833 million, an increase of $52 million in the quarter due to growth assets purchased as well as the change in the Australian exchange rate. Of the $833 million, $419 million or roughly half is denominated in Australian dollars but is naturally hedged with the heavy equipment assets we own in Australia. Net debt and senior secured debt leverage ended at 2.2x and 1.7x, respectively, and remain reasonable levels nine months after a transformative debt-funded acquisition and halfway through a year for which free cash flow generation is expected in the second half.

轉向投影片 12，本季結束時的淨債務水準為 8.33 億美元，由於購買的成長資產以及澳洲匯率的變化，該季度增加了 5,200 萬美元。在這 8.33 億美元中，有 4.19 億美元（大約一半）以澳元計價，但自然是用我們在澳洲擁有的重型設備資產進行對沖。淨債務和優先擔保債務槓桿率分別為 2.2 倍和 1.7 倍，在債務融資轉型收購完成九個月後以及預計下半年產生自由現金流的一年過半後仍保持在合理水平。

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

這樣，我會將電話轉回喬。

Thanks, Jason.

謝謝，傑森。

Turning to slide 14, our priorities for this year are unchanged. We continue to progress the overall MacKellar integration as planned, with ERP go-live scheduled for the end of Q3. Several projects to improve operational reporting and management systems are being implemented in the second half of the year with those requiring ERP systems data scheduled later in Q4.

轉向幻燈片 14，我們今年的優先事項沒有改變。我們繼續按計劃推進 MacKellar 的整體集成，ERP 計劃於第三季末上線。多個旨在改善營運報告和管理系統的專案將於今年下半年實施，需要 ERP 系統資料的專案計劃在第四季度稍後實施。

The timing of these systems improvement plans coincides with further growth and additional assets coming from Canada, and we remain confident that MacKellar will be fully integrated heading into what we believe will be its best year ever with continued opportunities to grow the business in 2025. The second half of the year continues to include plans to win a large-scale mining or civil construction project to provide work for our remaining underutilized assets and also to qualify with our partners on a major infrastructure project, which we believe could provide a smooth transition as our current structure project in Fargo, North Dakota ramps down in a few years.

這些系統改進計劃的時機恰逢加拿大的進一步增長和額外資產，我們仍然相信 MacKellar 將完全整合，進入我們認為有史以來最好的一年，並在 2025 年繼續有機會發展業務。下半年繼續包括贏得大型採礦或土木建築項目的計劃，以便為我們剩餘的未充分利用的資產提供工作，並與我們的合作夥伴一起獲得大型基礎設施項目的資格，我們相信這可以實現平穩過渡我們目前在北達科他州法哥的結構項目將在幾年內逐步縮減。

We have already submitted tenders and have additional active tenders soon to be submitted that give us confidence in winning and qualifying for this work. We continue to advance our maintenance systems and processes to increase our uptime and achieve utilization targets. As mentioned earlier, our Australian business looks to achieve equipment utilization targets earlier than planned with Canadian targets planned for Q1 2025. We may still achieve the 75% Canadian target in the month of December if successful in winning a larger share of reclamation work than last winter.

我們已經提交了標書，很快還將提交其他活躍標書，這使我們有信心贏得並獲得這項工作的資格。我們繼續改進我們的維護系統和流程，以增加正常運作時間並實現利用率目標。如前所述，我們的澳洲業務希望早於計劃於 2025 年第一季實現加拿大目標的設備利用率目標。如果成功贏得比去年冬季更大份額的填海工程，我們仍有可能在 12 月實現加拿大 75% 的目標。

And the potential to do that has improved as this year's reclamation volumes being tendered have increased significantly year-over-year. The final priority of returning Nuna to profitability and operational excellence advanced meaningfully with Q2 demonstrating a return to profitability in June in particular, demonstrating a return to historical EBITDA margins. The second half of the year at Nuna will be focused on driving consistency across the business and winning work for 2025.

隨著今年招標的填海量逐年顯著增加，實現這一目標的潛力也有所提高。Nuna 恢復盈利和卓越營運的最終優先事項取得了有意義的進展，第二季度尤其是 6 月份恢復了盈利，恢復了歷史 EBITDA 利潤率。Nuna 下半年將重點關注推動整個業務的一致性並贏得 2025 年的工作。

Moving to slide 15, our bid pipeline remains robust, and we more than replenished the bidding opportunities lost or deferred. Our oil sands opportunities include our annual oil sands, heavy civil regional services contract for 2025, which on an initial review appears to be about the same level of demand with slightly lower unit rate work being offset with increased large truck and shovel rentals. We also received several reclamation tenders in oil sands in Q2 that we will bid this quarter that show a meaningful increase in volume as mentioned previously, and also some year-round projects for this work that is typically only done in winter conditions.

轉向投影片 15，我們的投標管道仍然強勁，我們不僅補充了失去或推遲的投標機會。我們的油砂機會包括我們的年度油砂、2025 年的重型民用區域服務合同，初步審查顯示，需求水平大致相同，單位費率工作稍低，但大型卡車和鏟車租金增加所抵消。我們在第二季度還收到了幾項油砂回收招標，我們將在本季度進行投標，如前所述，這些招標顯示數量顯著增加，並且還有一些通常僅在冬季條件下進行的全年專案.

We have several active bids in new oil sands regions, including one which we submitted in Q2 but have not closed yet. These bids include the large stream divergent construction project that I mentioned on the Q1 call. This project is a large civil construction project for an existing client and is expected to be awarded in Q3. Outside of oil sands, we continue to see improved demand from the resource market, including a good-sized tender for an expansion of our British Columbia copper mine.

我們在新的油砂地區有幾個活躍的投標，其中包括我們在第二季度提交但尚未結束的投標。這些投標包括我在第一季電話會議中提到的大流分散建設項目。該項目是現有客戶的大型土木工程建築項目，預計將於第三季授標。除油砂外，我們繼續看到資源市場的需求有所改善，包括不列顛哥倫比亞省銅礦擴建的大規模招標。

As training opportunities and strong demand for heavy equipment continue to grow, we continue to see new and expanding operations seeking contractor equipment into Queensland and New South Wales metallurgical and thermal coal markets and are now regularly receiving contract mining and equipment rental opportunities in copper, gold, silver and iron ore. We continue to expect to win one or more major contracts outside of oil sands this year, which we expect will provide a clear path for reallocating our remaining underutilized fleet in 2025.

隨著培訓機會和對重型設備的強勁需求持續增長，我們不斷看到新的和不斷擴大的業務正在尋求進入昆士蘭州和新南威爾士州冶金和動力煤市場的承包商設備，並且現在定期收到銅、金礦的合約採礦和設備租賃機會、銀礦和鐵礦。我們仍然預計今年將贏得油砂以外的一項或多項主要合同，我們預計這將為 2025 年重新分配我們剩餘的未充分利用的船隊提供一條明確的道路。

On slide 16, our backlog stands at $2.8 billion. We expect our backlog build in late Q3 or early Q4 of contract awards in Canadian oil sands, Australian coal and other resource markets in both countries. Slide 17 details our updated outlook for 2024 and represents an essentially unchanged outlook for EBITDA and EPS in the second half of the year combined with actuals for the first half. We expect Q4 to be better than Q3 and 2025 to continue the upward trend as we get full year contributions from our 2024 growth capital.

在投影片 16 上，我們的積壓訂單達到 28 億美元。我們預計加拿大油砂、澳洲煤炭和兩國其他資源市場的合約授予積壓將在第三季末或第四季初增加。投影片 17 詳細介紹了我們對 2024 年的最新展望，並表示下半年 EBITDA 和 EPS 的展望與上半年的實際情況基本保持不變。我們預計第四季度將好於第三季度，隨著我們從 2024 年成長資本中獲得全年貢獻，預計 2025 年將繼續呈上升趨勢。

Although I'm disappointed we could not offset the operational interruptions incurred in the first half of the year, I can assure you the NACG team is focused and motivated on delivering strong results. And when you look at the implied Q4 financial estimates, and add on to that the 2024 growth capital full year impact to 2025, it should be fairly straightforward to see what generates my optimism moving forward and my eagerness to execute the work we have in front of us.

儘管我對我們無法抵消上半年發生的營運中斷感到失望，但我可以向您保證 NACG 團隊專注並積極地交付強勁的成果。當你查看隱含的第四季度財務預測，再加上 2024 年成長資本對 2025 年的全年影響時，應該很容易看出是什麼讓我對未來持樂觀態度，並渴望執行我們面前的工作我們。

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) Yuri Lynk, Canaccord Genuity.

（操作員說明）Yuri Lynk，Canaccord Genuity。

Joe, just to clarify, does the guidance for the back half of the year require you to win one of the ex-oil sands awards that you're targeting? Or that's more going to bolster 2025?

喬，我想澄清一下，下半年的指導是否要求您贏得您所瞄準的前油砂獎項之一？或者說這更有利於 2025 年的發展？

It's more 2025. We don't have them forecasted. There's some potential that we get some early reclamation work in Q4, but that's not what's in the forecast.

已經是2025年了。我們沒有對它們進行預測。我們有可能在第四季進行一些早期的填海工作，但這不是預測中的內容。

Okay. And then how has the bid funnel kind of shifted around the last few months? I see there's a large oil sands extension in there that's included in early 2025. I know you were chasing some work in Ontario. Just maybe a quick update on what's new and what's kind of dropped out of the bid funnel.

好的。那麼過去幾個月出價管道發生了什麼樣的變化呢？我看到那裡有一個大型油砂延伸項目，將於 2025 年初包括在內。我知道你正在安大略省找工作。也許只是快速更新一下新內容以及從出價管道中刪除的內容。

Yes. There were three projects in Ontario we were bidding and we're actively bidding, one really big one and two smaller ones. One of the smaller ones we were unsuccessful on, that's one that came off of that. We've received some increased interest in a couple of other opportunities, so I think what I would say is outside of oil sands, we've pretty much added to the bid pipeline from what was either lost, awarded or deferred.

是的。我們在安大略省競標了三個項目，並且正在積極競標，一個很大，兩個較小。我們沒有成功的較小項目之一，就是由此而來的。我們對其他幾個機會的興趣有所增加，所以我想我想說的是，除了油砂之外，我們幾乎已經從失去的、授予的或推遲的項目中增加了投標渠道。

And inside of oil sands, we have a lot of active tenders with the regional contract and then winter reclamation. During the quarter Q2, I'd say we saw -- we'd originally anticipated a bit more summer civil construction for smaller equipment, and it was really slow on that front. There was very little work that was done this summer in oil sands for civil construction.

在油砂領域，我們有許多活躍的招標，包括區域合約和冬季填海工程。在第二季度，我想說我們看到了——我們最初預計夏季將為小型設備進行更多的土木工程，但在這方面進展非常緩慢。今年夏天用於土木建築的油砂工作很少。

Okay. Last one for me. Just on the write-down of the assets held for sale, are those the 12 trucks that were auctioned off? And can you just confirm that that $4 million is in your adjusted EBITDA? I.e., if we were to add that back, you'd be more around $91 million?

好的。最後一張給我。就待售資產的減記而言，那12輛卡車是被拍賣的嗎？您能否確認這 400 萬美元包含在您調整後的 EBITDA 中？也就是說，如果我們將其加回來，您的收入將達到 9,100 萬美元左右？

Yes. We can confirm those are the trucks, but no, it is already added back as part of the -- from reported to adjusted earnings. It's already in the $87 million.

是的。我們可以確認這些是卡車，但不是，它已經作為報告收益和調整收益的一部分添加回來。已經是8700萬美元了。

And those were the 100-ton trucks I was talking about, Yuri. Unfortunately, that particular asset class is just an oversaturated market with very small demand. It is the only rigid frame truck class we have that's like that. And as such, even when we went to sell them, there was lots of trucks on the market, so the pricing was very much established already. We got what the market was giving and if we didn't sell them for that, somebody else would have.

那些就是我所說的 100 噸卡車，尤里。不幸的是，該特定資產類別只是一個過度飽和的市場，需求非常小。這是我們唯一的剛性框架卡車類別。因此，即使我們去出售它們，市場上也有很多卡車，因此定價已經非常確定。我們得到了市場給予的東西，如果我們不賣掉它們，其他人就會得到。

Aaron MacNeil, TD Cowen.

亞倫·麥克尼爾，TD·考恩。

Joe, just a follow-up to Yuri's question. You mentioned Canada hitting the utilization target by early 2025. I know you walked through the equipment transfers, the sales, the bids. But do you expect to hit that target just seasonally or on an annual basis? And do you need to win that additional work to hit the goal?

喬，只是尤里問題的後續。您提到加拿大將在 2025 年初實現利用目標。我知道您經歷了設備轉讓、銷售和投標。但您希望僅按季節還是按年度實現該目標？您是否需要贏得額外的工作才能實現目標？

We expect to hit it annually starting in 2025. We originally thought we'd get there by the end of this year, pretty much Q4. Because we do start -- we're seeing -- as you saw in Jason's comments, we're starting to get a bit more normalized in oil sands. The seasonality of oil sands was the smaller assets, and those are the underutilized ones that we're moving out. A lot of that goes away as those assets go away. I'll give you an example.

我們預計從 2025 年開始每年都會達到這個目標。我們原本以為我們會在今年年底（幾乎是第四季）實現這一目標。因為我們確實開始了——我們看到——正如你在傑森的評論中看到的那樣，我們開始在油砂方面變得更加正常化。油砂的季節性是較小的資產，而這些資產是我們要搬離的未充分利用的資產。隨著這些資產的消失，其中許多也隨之消失。我給你舉個例子。

Several of the 100-ton trucks we moved to Australia were in water truck configurations, so they had a big water tank on the back of them. Those trucks only get used for six months in Canada, but they get used year-round in Australia. Those are some of the things that although there's a bit of timing getting stuff over, it will start to normalize the quarters. And you'll see more consistency in both utilization and revenue between quarters.

我們搬到澳洲的幾百噸卡車都是水車配置，所以後面有一個大水箱。這些卡車在加拿大隻使用六個月，但在澳洲全年使用。這些事情雖然需要一些時間才能解決，但季度將開始正常化。您會發現季度之間的利用率和收入更加一致。

Makes sense. And do you need that additional work to get there? Or do you think you can get there with the work you have?

有道理。您是否需要額外的工作才能實現這一目標？或者你認為你能透過你現有的工作到達那裡嗎？

Whether it's in oil sands or somewhere else, we need work for those smaller assets or worst case scenario, we need to get rid of some more.

無論是油砂還是其他地方，我們都需要為那些較小的資產進行工作，或者在最壞的情況下，我們需要擺脫更多的資產。

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. Jason, obviously some debt maturities in 2026. I can appreciate most of it's the credit facility, but you've got the converts in there, too. You've upped the exit leverage guidance for the quarter. You did the MacKellar transactions. I guess what sort of the capital allocation priority into 2025? And what's sort of in your job jar over the next 6 to 12 months as you think about planning the capital structure?

知道了。好的。這很有幫助。Jason，顯然有些債務將於 2026 年到期。我可以欣賞其中大部分是信貸便利，但那裡也有皈依者。您上調了本季的退出槓桿指引。你進行了麥凱勒交易。我猜2025年的資本配置優先順序是怎麼樣的？當您考慮規劃資本結構時，未來 6 到 12 個月您的工作罐子裡會包含哪些內容？

Yes. Obviously, free cash flow is paramount. We've broadcast or we've communicated that free cash flow is coming in the second half, and that will increase liquidity. We clearly have the liquidity available to us already as far as dealing with the convertible debentures, if required.

是的。顯然，自由現金流至關重要。我們已經廣播或已經傳達過，自由現金流將在下半年出現，這將增加流動性。顯然，如果需要的話，我們已經擁有可用於處理可轉換債券的流動性。

And yes, we're in the routine of extending our credit facility every year, so keeping it three years out in the future. Those are kind of the key focuses, but we'll continue to look at alternatives. But base plan is move the credit facility ahead one more year in this calendar year and then keep tracking the debentures.

是的，我們每年都會延長信貸額度，因此在未來三年內仍會延長信貸額度。這些是關鍵焦點，但我們將繼續尋找替代方案。但基本計劃是在今年將信貸安排再提前一年，然後繼續追蹤債券。

Adam Thalhimer, Thompson Davis.

亞當·塔爾希默、湯普森·戴維斯。

Joe, you said you were surprised by the amount of winter reclamation work in the oil sands. Can you just expand on that?

喬，你說你對冬季油砂填海工程的數量感到驚訝。能擴展一下嗎？

Yes. We usually get the tenders, the RFPs for winter reclamation about this time, and we have several of them. We've submitted some actually, and there are some that are still to be submitted. And just the volumes, overall volumes we see -- because you basically get tenders from everybody, so you know what the whole market volume is, and this year looks to be about 25% higher than last year.

是的。我們通常會在這個時候收到冬季填海造地的招標和徵求建議書，我們有好幾份。我們實際上已經提交了一些，還有一些尚未提交。就數量而言，我們看到的總體數量——因為你基本上會收到每個人的投標，所以你知道整個市場的數量是多少，今年看起來比去年高出約 25%。

And there's some unique opportunities. Reclamation is usually -- this is boreal forest, muskeg, it's usually soggy, and it's usually only mined in the winter because that's easier to remove when it's frozen. And this year, there's some high ground which is more sandy soil which we think could be done year-round. There's some opportunities to get some more month-to-month stability in some of that reclamation work with some of the bids that are out there.

還有一些獨特的機會。開墾通常是——這是北方森林，麝香，通常是濕漉漉的，而且通常只在冬天開採，因為當它結冰時更容易清除。今年，有一些高地是沙質土壤，我們認為可以全年進行。透過一些現有的投標，一些填海工作有機會獲得更多的每月穩定性。

Okay. And what's the -- do you have a breakout on EBITDA contribution anticipated from the trucks that you sent to Australia once they get to work?

好的。那麼，您發送到澳洲的卡車一旦投入使用，預計其 EBITDA 貢獻是否會出現突破？

I don't have it memorized. I don't know if Jason does. We do have that.

我沒有記住它。我不知道傑森是否願意。我們確實有。

Yes. I would put it at about $5 million in Q4, so meaningful and at good margins, incremental margins. I don't know if we've broadcast that in our -- in the MD&A, but I would put that at about $5 million, Adam.

是的。我認為第四季的利潤約為 500 萬美元，非常有意義，而且利潤率很高，是增量利潤。我不知道我們是否在 MD&A 中對此進行了廣播，但我認為大約是 500 萬美元，Adam。

Great. Last one for me. The trucks, the 12 trucks you sold, was that in Q2 or Q3? And what were the proceeds?

偉大的。最後一張給我。卡車，您售出的 12 輛卡車，是第二季還是第三季？收益是多少？

Yes, it's a good question. Proceeds came in in early July. It was reflected in Q2 financials, but the free cash flow of that $8 million will come in in Q3.

是的，這是一個好問題。七月初收到了收益。這已反映在第二季的財務數據中，但這 800 萬美元的自由現金流將在第三季產生。

Tim Monachello, ATB Capital Markets.

蒂姆·莫納切羅 (Tim Monachello)，ATB 資本市場。

Could you talk a little bit about the utilization of the oil sands fleet so far in Q3? Have you seen a nice uptick there?

您能否談談第三季迄今為止油砂船隊的利用率？你看到那裡有不錯的上升嗎？

Well, certainly from the low point to Q2, yes. I think we're projecting somewhere in the low 60s. May in particular, June wasn't great, but May was probably the worst month since the wildfires of 2016. We started the month with a week's worth of fire and evacuations in Fort McMurray, which were remnant of the May fires of 2016.

嗯，當然是從低點到第二季度，是的。我認為我們的預測值在 60​​ 年代以下。尤其是 5 月，6 月的情況並不好，但 5 月可能是自 2016 年野火以來最糟糕的一個月。本月伊始，麥克默里堡發生了一周的火災並進行了疏散，這是 2016 年 5 月火災的殘餘。

But thankfully, only lasted a week in that case because we got some great rain after that. Unfortunately, great for the fire has been unfortunate for the rest of the operations. It rained for the bulk of the remaining part of the month of May, so we had double our rainfall and just some unusual weather events in the particular quarter there.

但值得慶幸的是，這種情況只持續了一周，因為在那之後我們下了一場大雨。不幸的是，大火對其餘的行動來說卻是不幸的。五月餘下的大部分時間都在下雨，因此降雨量翻了一番，並且在特定季度出現了一些異常的天氣事件。

Okay. That's helpful. And then the MD&A mentioned some scope productions for overburden removal at Fort Hills and Syncrude. Can you elaborate on that? Is that I guess an expectation going forward? Is that sort of a Q2 specific impact? Or how should we be thinking about your go-forward role at Fort Hills and Syncrude compared to what it was under the old contract?

好的。這很有幫助。然後 MD&A 提到了 Fort Hills 和 Syncrude 的一些覆蓋層去除範圍產品。能詳細說明一下嗎？我猜這是對未來的期待嗎？這是第二季的具體影響嗎？或者，與舊合約相比，我們應該如何考慮你在 Fort Hills 和 Syncrude 的前鋒角色？

Yes. I'm not sure I followed all that, Tim. I didn't catch the first part.

是的。我不確定我是否遵循了所有這些，蒂姆。我沒聽清楚第一部分。

Just in the MD&A, it said that one of the reasons for the weakness in Q2 was scope production for overburden removal at Fort Hills and Syncrude. I'm just curious what your expectation for activity at those two sites is as compared to what it would have been under your previous contract?

就在 MD&A 中，它表示第二季疲軟的原因之一是 Fort Hills 和 Syncrude 的覆蓋層清除範圍生產。我只是好奇與您之前的合約相比，您對這兩個地點的活動有何期望？

Yes. I think we mentioned the reallocation of fleet during Q1. When we looked at the overburden agreement, it's called the Heavy Civil Regional Services Contract now, that covers off the five mine sites that are managed by the one client. Year-on-year, they look -- we just got the RFP in, but the initial volumes look very similar to what was awarded this year.

是的。我想我們在第一季提到了機隊的重新分配。當我們查看覆蓋層協議時，它現在被稱為重型民用區域服務合同，涵蓋了由一個客戶管理的五個礦場。與去年同期相比，我們剛剛收到了 RFP，但最初的數量看起來與今年授予的數量非常相似。

And with a slight change in that there was a unit rate overburden bid at two different sites last year. And the rest was bid as rental agreements for trucks and shovels, and this RFP only has unit rate work at one site, but it has more rental volumes. So it looks like they're switching one of the sites from unit rate work to rental hourly, but the overall dollars look about the same. Actually, I think this gives us an advantage because the one site with remaining unit rate work is the site we're at doing that unit rate work right now.

略有變化的是，去年在兩個不同地點進行了單位費率超載投標。其餘的則作為卡車和鏟車的租賃協議進行投標，該 RFP 僅在一個地點進行單位費率工作，但其租賃量更多。因此，看起來他們正在將其中一個網站從單位費率工作改為按小時出租，但總體費用看起來大致相同。實際上，我認為這給我們帶來了一個優勢，因為剩下的單位費率工作的一個站點就是我們現在正在進行單位費率工作的站點。

Okay. Understood. Can you talk a little bit about your consolidated EBITDA expectations in terms of the split between Q3 and Q4?

好的。明白了。您能否談談第三季和第四季之間的綜合 EBITDA 預期？

Just that Q4 is slightly higher than Q3.

只是Q4略高於Q3。

Okay. And then the free -- sorry.

好的。然後是免費的——抱歉。

No, that's the only thing I'd say. It's a slight increase in Q4 from Q3.

不，這是我唯一要說的。第四季較第三季略有成長。

Okay. And then in terms of free cash flow, I mean, Q4 has always been a pretty big free cash flow quarter, but you're expecting a pretty substantial uptick in free cash in the second half of the year. Is that the expectation that it's going to be heavily weighted to Q4? Or is Q3 also going to be expected to be a fairly substantial free cash quarter?

好的。然後就自由現金流而言，我的意思是，第四季度一直是相當大的自由現金流季度，但您預計下半年自由現金將大幅增加。這是第四季的重磅預期嗎？或者第三季也將是相當可觀的自由現金季度？

I believe we have a slight positive in Q3, but almost everything comes in in Q4.

我相信我們在第三季有一些積極的結果，但幾乎所有的事情都會在第四季出現。

Prem Kumar, private investor.

Prem Kumar，私人投資者。

Hi, Joe, Jason. Good morning. My name is Prem. I have a couple of questions. When the MacKellar acquisition was announced last year, you had a slide up with the free cash flow impact with the 2023 combined outlook, assuming the acquisition was completed in Q4 of a free cash flow of $100 million to $220 million, and then there was another one which showed the incremental impact in 2024 with the acquisition of MacKellar, incremental impact of free cash flow of about $55 million to $75 million. I just wanted to ask how is -- so far, is that estimate holding through with the acquisition in terms of free cash flow generation for Australia?

嗨，喬，傑森。早安.我叫普雷姆。我有幾個問題。去年宣布收購 MacKellar 時，假設收購在第四季度完成，自由現金流為 1 億至 2.2 億美元，那麼對 2023 年綜合前景的自由現金流影響就會下滑，然後還有另一個其中顯示了2024 年收購MacKellar 帶來的增量影響，自由現金流的增量影響約為5,500 萬至7,500 萬美元。我只是想問，到目前為止，就澳洲的自由現金流產生而言，這項估計是否符合此次收購？

Yes, Prem, what I would say is that this is the third quarter post acquisition of MacKellar, and they've pretty much exceeded, slightly exceeded all expectations financially every quarter. I don't think we've -- I think we've actually overall, I don't know of a metric that's down from what we forecasted for MacKellar since we projected those in July when the acquisition was announced.

是的，Prem，我想說的是，這是收購 MacKellar 後的第三季度，他們每個季度的財務狀況幾乎都超出了、略微超出了所有預期。我認為我們實際上總體上沒有——我不知道有哪個指標低於我們對 MacKellar 的預測，因為我們在 7 月宣布收購時就做出了預測。

Okay. Perfect. No, that's good to hear. The other question I had is on the equipment utilization. For the Canadian fleet, it ended Q2 at 42%, the target is 75%. Maybe can you expand on the difference from the target of 75% to 42%. How much of that maybe is due to the weather conditions, the fire and the rain? And also, the reduction in the overburden scope at Fort Hill or by Syncrude. Maybe can you give a breakdown to help us understand how much of that reduction in overburden scope is affecting utilization?

好的。完美的。不，很高興聽到這個消息。我的另一個問題是關於設備利用率。對於加拿大機隊，第二季末的使用率為 42%，目標是 75%。也許您可以將目標 75% 的差異擴大到 42%。其中有多少可能是由於天氣條件、火災和降雨造成的？此外，還減少了 Fort Hill 或 Syncrude 的覆蓋範圍。也許您可以提供一個細分，以幫助我們了解覆蓋範圍的減少在多大程度上影響了利用率？

I mean I don't have exact numbers, but I've get a pretty good guess, Prem, in that if you just look at what we're expecting in Q3 and Q4 from Q2, it's about a 20% increase. I would say the weather and the fires in Q2 were probably around a 20% impact on our utilization.

我的意思是，我沒有確切的數字，但Prem，我有一個很好的猜測，如果你只看我們對第三季和第四季的預期，與第二季相比，增幅約為20% 。我想說，第二季的天氣和火災可能對我們的利用率產生了約 20% 的影響。

And then when we look at how we're going to get from that 60s%, low 60s% to 75% by Q1 next year, it's both we think there's some increased demand and winning some work outside of oil sands. And the other side of that is reallocating or even selling some assets like we did this quarter. And that's kind of that addition by subtraction I was talking to in the slides there. Those are the two major parts of it. And that 20% difference in Q2 is all about weather.

然後，當我們考慮如何在明年第一季從 60%、低 60% 提高到 75% 時，我們認為需求增加，並贏得了油砂以外的一些工作。另一方面是重新分配甚至出售一些資產，就像我們本季所做的那樣。這就是我在幻燈片中談到的那種加減法。這是它的兩個主要部分。第二季 20% 的差異完全與天氣有關。

Okay. Perfect. And then my question around the utilization, so if I just look at the slide, slide 6 on utilization, the target for Canada is 75% and you haven't hit that utilization target consistently in a while, like all the way into 2021. And then even if I look further back into like 2013, there may be a couple of quarters in 2019 that you've maybe hit 70%, but not 75%. I'm just curious on like how confident are you in that target of 75% of us hitting that consistently? Or is that target mostly like two quarters in a year, if you hit that, that's the 75% target?

好的。完美的。然後我的問題是關於利用率的，所以如果我只看幻燈片，即關於利用率的幻燈片6，加拿大的目標是75%，而你已經有一段時間沒有持續達到該利用率目標了，就像一直到2021 年一樣。即使我進一步回顧 2013 年，2019 年也可能有幾季達到 70%，但不是 75%。我只是好奇你對我們 75% 的人持續實現這一目標有多大信心？或者這個目標主要是一年中兩個季度，如果達到了，那就是 75% 的目標？

And then kind of like similarly for if I look at the Australian utilization too, it's at 85% if I look at the graph. We've hit that maybe twice in the last three years. How confident is the team on hitting that target consistently? And is the target consistent?

類似地，如果我也查看澳洲的使用率，如果我查看圖表，該利用率為 85%。在過去的三年裡，我們可能已經實現了兩次這樣的目標。團隊對持續實現該目標的信心有多大？目標是否一致？

Yes. I mean that's a big question. I'll tell you how it works overall, though, and splitting it into countries. Like just starting with Australia versus Canada, this is really two factors that play into this. And it's obviously -- you have to have demand first before you have utilization. If you've got strong demand, then your utilization is basically functioning off of your maintenance and your mechanical availability.

是的。我的意思是這是一個大問題。不過，我將告訴您它的整體運作方式，並將其分為國家。就像剛開始澳大利亞與加拿大的比賽一樣，這實際上是兩個因素的影響。很明顯，你必須先有需求，然後才能利用。如果您有強勁的需求，那麼您的利用率基本上取決於您的維護和機械可用性。

Australia starts with a benefit just in weather and the fact that they can operate more days of the year unaffected by weather than we can in Canada as we had exaggerated in Q2. But the big difference is, in Australia and how they've gotten there and what they're doing is, they've had extremely strong consistent demand from their clients and long-term commitments and five-year contracts so that everything else is really in their hands, which is the mechanical availability. And that's why we're already able to get up into that range two of the last four months.

澳洲一開始就在天氣方面受益，事實上，他們一年中不受天氣影響的天數比加拿大多，正如我們在第二季誇大的那樣。但最大的區別是，在澳大利亞，他們是如何到達那裡的以及他們正在做的事情是，他們的客戶有極其強烈的一致需求，還有長期承諾和五年合同，所以其他一切都真的很順利。這就是為什麼我們已經能夠在過去四個月中有兩個月達到這個範圍。

In Canada, our demand wavered. We saw a change in demand, especially in our smaller assets, starting last year and probably going back even further than that. We need to get the fleet reallocated such that the demand matches the supply, and then it's up to us on a mechanical availability side that we can maintain it to achieve that 75%. And we see that opportunity in Q1 of next year.

在加拿大，我們的需求動搖了。從去年開始，我們看到需求發生了變化，尤其是我們規模較小的資產，甚至可能更早。我們需要重新分配機隊，使需求與供應相匹配，然後由我們在機械可用性方面來維護它以達到 75%。我們在明年第一季看到了這個機會。

In other words, right now, we continue to have more assets in oil sands than we have demand that needs them. But we're reallocating those and we believe with winter work in oil sands or other potential resource bid wins outside of oil sands or in Australia, we believe that demand is going to match our fleet sizing. Kind of like I used the example of the 100-ton trucks in the presentation earlier, we see that happening in Q1 of next year.

換句話說，目前我們擁有的油砂資產仍然多於我們的需求。但我們正在重新分配這些資源，我們相信，隨著油砂冬季工作或油砂以外或澳洲其他潛在資源競標的勝利，我們相信需求將與我們的船隊規模相匹配。就像我之前在演示中使用 100 噸卡車的例子一樣，我們看到這種情況會在明年第一季發生。

Thanks, Joe. I had a last question. I was really happy to see the total return swaps that the company has taken, about 213,000 shares or about $6 million worth. Just curious, what's stopping the company from going harder at these wonderful prices? Clearly, you mentioned in your letter as well that it starts below the intrinsic value. Is that more liquidity?

謝謝，喬。我還有最後一個問題。我真的很高興看到該公司已進行的總回報互換，約 213,000 股或價值約 600 萬美元。只是好奇，是什麼阻止了該公司以如此優惠的價格加強？顯然，您在信中也提到，它的起始價值低於內在價值。這是否意味著更多的流動性？

And I could understand from a NCIB perspective that we need to pay down debt, that's understandable. But for the TRS, I was hoping maybe the company would go a little bit more deeper into the amount of shares that you have a PRS on. Can you maybe comment on that, on why it's at just $6 million?

從 NCIB 的角度來看，我可以理解我們需要償還債務，這是可以理解的。但對於 TRS，我希望公司能更深入地了解您擁有 PRS 的股票數量。你能評論一下為什麼它的價格只有 600 萬美元嗎？

Yes. Prem, I think the best correlation I can give you for that is if you look at our free cash flow, our aggressiveness coincides with our free cash flow. I don't think we're in a situation where we'd go out and get debt to conduct an NCIB. The total return swap was something we can do without pulling cash out of our pockets. And in the second half of the year as our cash flow comes in, I believe you'll see us being a lot more aggressive on that front.

是的。普雷姆，我認為我能給你的最好的關聯是，如果你看看我們的自由現金流，我們的進取心與我們的自由現金流是一致的。我不認為我們會陷入這樣的境地：我們會出去借債來開展 NCIB。總回報互換是我們無需從口袋掏錢就能完成的事。下半年，隨著我們的現金流進來，我相信您會看到我們在這方面更加積極。

Maxim Sytchev, National Bank Financial.

Maxim Sytchev，國家銀行金融部門。

Most questions have been already asked, so I just have two kind of to smoke out. In terms of an ERP implementation, Jason, do you mind maybe talking about the potential benefits and how should we be thinking about that on a prospective basis?

大多數問題已經被問到了，所以我只有兩種要問的。就 ERP 實施而言，Jason，您介意談論潛在的好處以及我們應該如何前瞻性地考慮這一點嗎？

Yes. We see it coming through in both G&A and potentially in operating margins. We've guided people to kind of 1% on EBITDA basis improvement in 2025. It's no one single silver bullet that is going to drive that. But we see improvements in back office processes as well as better tracking on sites of inventory, work in the shops, and just overall better tracking of costs and accountability. It likely doesn't show up in the Q4 results, that would be premature, but we expect it to be in our 2025 outlook.

是的。我們看到它在一般管理費用和潛在的營業利潤方面都得到了實現。我們指導人們在 2025 年 EBITDA 基礎上提高 1%。沒有任何一種靈丹妙藥可以推動這個目標。但我們看到後台流程有所改進，以及更好地追蹤庫存地點、商店工作，以及整體上更好地追蹤成本和責任。它可能不會出現在第四季度的業績中，這還為時過早，但我們預計它會出現在 2025 年的展望中。

Okay. And then -- so the system will apply to the DGI assets as well as just MacKellar?

好的。然後——那麼該系統將適用於 DGI 資產以及 MacKellar 嗎？

Just MacKellar. It's a good question, but DGI is a different business model and will carry on with its existing ERP. We may look at that in mid-2025, but this ERP is just for the MacKellar acquisition, which is basically like-for-like, and we can install our instance there.

只是麥凱勒。這是一個很好的問題，但 DGI 是一種不同的商業模式，並將繼續使用其現有的 ERP。我們可能會在 2025 年中期考慮，但這個 ERP 只是針對 MacKellar 收購的，基本上是同類的，我們可以在那裡安裝我們的實例。

That's helpful. And then in terms of -- do you mind maybe commenting a little bit around the visibility on kind of non commodity-related work, outlook, just to replace Fargo-Moorhead project at some point in the future as you still have a couple of -- I guess a year or two of work left on that one? Thanks.

這很有幫助。然後，您是否介意對非商品相關工作的可見性、前景進行一些評論，只是為了在未來某個時候取代 Fargo-Moorhead 項目，因為您仍然有一些 - - 我猜這個還剩下一兩年的工作？謝謝。

Yes. It's -- actually, it's probably got three to four odd years there, Max. And then that's -- we would figure a major infrastructure project. And we haven't bid a huge amount. We bid Site C and we were shortlisted, but were unsuccessful. That was about a two-odd year process. Fargo was about a four-year process because it got deferred once. Right now, we're working with a partner to prequalify on a major infrastructure project in Northern California, which is a big earthworks project.

是的。事實上，它可能已經在那裡呆了三到四年了，麥克斯。然後我們會制定一個重大基礎設施項目。而且我們還沒有出價很高。我們競標C地塊併入圍，但沒有成功。那是大約兩年多的過程。《法戈》是一個大約四年的過程，因為它被推遲了一次。目前，我們正在與合作夥伴合作，對北加州的一個大型基礎設施項目進行資格預審，這是一個大型土方工程項目。

And it's damming up some water that was -- it's an area of California which has gone through cycles of flood and drought and so they want to retain some of the water during the flooding times to use it during drought. And we believe that pre-qual is going to occur right at the end of Q4, and that's our -- that's what we think is our replacement project. It really fits into our wheelhouse, and we're very comfortable with our partner on these big infrastructure projects.

它攔住了一些水——這是加州的一個地區，該地區經歷了洪水和乾旱的循環，因此他們希望在洪水期間保留一些水，以便在乾旱期間使用。我們相信，資格預審將在第四季末進行，這就是我們的替代方案。它確實適合我們的駕駛室，我們對這些大型基礎設施項目的合作夥伴感到非常滿意。

Okay. That's helpful. And Joe, I guess it's too early to contemplate anything in Australia, right, as you are still kind of focusing on the core business for the time being, right?

好的。這很有幫助。喬，我想現在在澳洲考慮任何事情還為時過早，對吧，因為您暫時仍然專注於核心業務，對吧？

With the same partner who is also one of the largest infrastructure contractors in Australia, we've just started initial discussions again on several big earth infrastructure projects. Most of them are kind of EV or transitional kind of related in that they are big solar farms. There's some pumped hydro, where they dam up Mountain Valley and pump the water up, so really, really initial. I think we're probably 6 to 12 months from getting more visibility on a reasonable project down there.

我們與同一合作夥伴（也是澳洲最大的基礎設施承包商之一）剛剛再次開始就幾個大型地球基礎設施項目進行初步討論。其中大多數是電動車或過渡型相關的，因為它們是大型太陽能發電廠。有一些抽水蓄能設施，他們在山谷築壩並將水抽上來，所以非常非常初始。我認為我們可能需要 6 到 12 個月的時間才能對那裡的合理項目獲得更多的了解。

Devin Schilling, Ventum Financial.

德文·席林，Ventum Financial。

Just real quick here, just on the wildfire situation near the Pearl mine, are you guys currently impacted? And if so, can you quantify it?

快來，關於珍珠礦附近的野火狀況，你們目前受到影響嗎？如果是這樣，你能量化它嗎？

We just went back to -- we were impacted about 1.5 weeks ago, and we went back to site on -- over the last weekend. It was about five days, but it only affected that one site which is maybe 10% or 15% of our overall revenues for one week. And that would be -- Devin, that would be like what we would expect in a normal summer that a regional fire would affect one mine site or so. And like that one affected one SAGD and then that one oil sands mining site.

我們剛剛回到——大約 1.5 週前，我們受到了影響，我們在上週末回到了現場。大約持續了五天，但只影響了一個網站，該網站可能占我們一周總收入的 10% 或 15%。那就是——德文，這就像我們在正常的夏天所期望的那樣，一場區域火災會影響一個礦場左右。就這樣，一處 SAGD 受到影響，然後又影響了一處油砂開採地點。

Okay, so not really expecting much of an impact for Q2?

好吧，那麼真的不認為第二季會受到太大影響嗎？

The other four sites we're on that constitute 80%-odd plus of our revenue were unaffected by the fire last week.

我們所在的其他四個站點（占我們收入的 80% 以上）並未受到上週火災的影響。

There are no further questions. This concludes the Q&A section of our call. And I will pass the call over to Joe Lambert, President and CEO, for closing comments.

沒有其他問題了。我們電話會議的問答部分到此結束。我會將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, Ray, and thanks again, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to providing next update upon our closing of our Q3 2024 results.

謝謝雷，再次感謝大家今天加入我們。我們期待在 2024 年第三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 second quarter 2024.

謝謝。北美建築集團 2024 年第二季電話會議至此結束。