Bird Construction Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 15, 2024

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Berg Construction First Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call and Webcast. We will begin with Terri McKibbin, President and Chief Executive Officer's presentation, which will be followed by a question and answer session. Analysts who wish to ask a question should have their webcast muted when they dial into the conference number provided. At any time during the presentation today, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad to be placed into the question queue. Before commencing the conference call, the company reminds those present that certain statements which are made express management's expectations or estimates of future performance and therefore constitute forward looking information.

Operator

Forward looking information is necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that while considered reasonable by management are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Management's formal comments and responses to any questions you might ask may include forward looking information. Therefore, the company cautions today's participants that such forward looking information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual financial results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from the company's estimated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking information. Forward looking information does not guarantee future performance. The company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward looking information, whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise.

Operator

In addition, our presentation today includes references to a number of financial measures, which do not have standardized meanings under IFRS and may not be comparable with similar measures presented by other companies and are therefore considered non GAAP measures. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Terry McGibbon, President and CEO of Bird Construction.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our Q1 2024 conference call. With me today is Wayne Gingrich, Byrd's Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to recognize the collective effort of our team to commemorate Safety Week across the country last week.

Speaker 1

At Burt, our most important corporate value is we put safety first. Our commitment to safety builds a culture that prioritizes the well-being of all personnel involved in our projects, while supporting our leadership in the construction industry. Through our rigorous health and safety systems, we ensure the health of our teams as we drive excellence and innovation across all aspects of our operations. Turning to today's presentation, the past year was a period of significant achievement for Bird marked by robust revenue growth and further margin improvement. These results reflect the strength of our strategic plan and the dedication of our teams across the country.

Speaker 1

This momentum continued into 2024, bolstered by favorable weather that reduced the seasonal downtime and allowed work to commence earlier than previously thought and in some cases through the winter. The Q1 delivered impressive year over year growth in earnings and revenue. This shift to work to earlier in the year is not to impact our volumes for the remainder of the year with more than sufficient work available to execute the company's record backlog and pending backlog. In the Q1, we delivered 28% revenue growth with almost $700,000,000 of work executed, bringing our trailing 12 months revenue to almost 3,000,000,000 dollars Adjusted EBITDA improved year over year to $24,000,000 or 3.5 percent of revenue, up 3% from the Q1 of 2023. Company reported $10,000,000 of net income and earnings per share of $0.19 We grew our cash flow from operations and our backlog with a positive book to bill, both reflecting significant increases on a year over year basis.

Speaker 1

Our diverse and well balanced combined backlog of work remains over 90% low to medium risk with over 75% being collaborative in nature. Overall, we are pleased with the quarter, marking a strong start to 2024. We continue to expect considerable overall revenue growth for the remainder of the year with significant improvements to earnings and cash flow when compared to the 2023 as our margin profile continues to improve. Bird added $700,000,000 in securements to its backlog in the Q1, closing the quarter with $3,500,000,000 in backlog. Bending backlog of awarded but not yet contracted work increased to $3,400,000,000 at quarter end and continues to include almost $1,000,000,000 of master service agreements and other recurring revenue.

Speaker 1

Our portfolio of MSAs spans the energy, mining and nuclear sectors. Pending backlog was further bolstered through our acquisition of Norkan in January, one of Alberta's leading electrical service providers. Our combined backlog remains highly collaborative and diversifying across many sectors. This robust foundation of work provides significant visibility into 2024 and beyond, both for revenue growth and further margin improvements. It underscores our confidence in the continued demand for our services, particularly in sectors critical to the energy transition, population growth and infrastructure modernization.

Speaker 1

The company is committed to enhancing profitability through our focus on disciplined project selection, collaborative contracts, improving margins in our core business and expanding self perform and cross selling opportunities. Margin improvement will also be supported through our M and A strategy focusing on sectors with higher margin profiles and adding self perform capabilities. Opportunities to further leverage our cost structure remain as we continue to grow and invest in productivity and efficiency enhancements. We continue to diversify and grow by capitalizing on our strong reputation for delivery of complex projects growing across key sectors and pursuing accretive M and A opportunities. Our strategy is driving growth across multiple sectors including nuclear, mechanical, electrical, civil infrastructure and utilities with an emphasis on energy transition and data related infrastructure.

Speaker 1

Supporting our focus on growth is our intention to retain over 2 thirds of net income for continued growth post 2024 ensuring sustainable financial strength and expansion while maintaining a healthy return to shareholders. The current strong demand environment further boosts our bottom and top line growth expectations. The fundamental changes to our business strategy over the past 3 to 4 years have established a resilient foundation for the future, supporting stronger performance even in periods of more normalized industry activity. Bird remains well positioned to capitalize on the sustained demand and robust bidding environment in our core markets. Our strong reputation for collaborative delivery of complex work combined with a strong suite of self performed capabilities ensures we can pursue the right opportunities.

Speaker 1

We remain focused on key sectors that have longer term cycles such as electrification, increasing power generation for renewables, hydro and nuclear, multi year industrial and mining projects, infrastructure developments for growing population and building upgrades for decarbonization. Having a strong presence across these markets, we are competitively positioned to meet this positive long term outlook. Byrd continues to pursue new work selectively ensuring strategic alignment between capabilities, project type and delivery model. Most recently, we're pleased to enter into an alliance agreement developer alliance development agreement to work collaboratively with Metrolinx to deliver the East Harbour Transit Hub in Toronto. Under our fifty-fifty joint venture with Atkins Realis, this will be 1 1st major projects in Canada to be procured using an alliance model.

Speaker 1

Project is a testament to our leading reputation and experience as a collaborative contractor. The outlook for investments in clean power generation, power distribution and electrification remain exceptional, while electricity demand projected to increase 2 to 3 fold by 2,050, Bird has a strong competitive advantage to capitalize on these opportunities through our commercial systems and utilities, our civil infrastructure, industrial construction and industrial maintenance teams. We have extensive experience in Canada's power generation sectors including hydro, renewables and nuclear. Our team possesses substantial self perform expertise in civil, mechanical, electrical, telecommunication and data systems contributing to significant projects across the country. We continue to engage in key markets such as wind, hydroelectric, nuclear, critical mineral and uranium mining essential for nuclear production, as well as battery manufacturing and other EV supply chain support infrastructure.

Speaker 1

Given Bird's reputation and our history of serving top tier energy and power clients across Canada, we are sought after partner across the energy landscape. Company's demand outlook remains robust. Contributing factors include a renewed interest in Canadian LNG as a greener fuel source, the rise of modular solutions and addressing Canada's affordable housing crisis and Canada's commitment to carbon neutrality by 2,050 with $160,000,000,000 investment in a net zero economic plan, including 93,000,000,000 dollars in incentives by 2,035. Requirements to increase Canada's electricity supply for electrification along with an infrastructure deficit ranging from $110,000,000,000 to $270,000,000,000 underscores the need for investments in clean energy, power distribution and efficiency improvements. Additionally, public transport is an area of substantial investment across the provinces along with other public infrastructure to support growing communities driven by immigration and population growth.

Speaker 1

Opportunities in the nuclear sector alongside robust commodities market further enhance our positive outlook, including multiyear opportunities in critical minerals and uranium.

Speaker 2

In the

Speaker 1

province of Ontario, the government's 10 year capital plan of $190,000,000,000 is set to support investments in various sectors including highways, transit, hospitals and education. The region is enhancing its electric vehicle and battery supply chain with over $28,000,000,000 in investments as well as adding support for critical minerals in the mining sector. Looking ahead, these significant tailwinds are poised to propel our business forward over the medium to long term. In addition, Bird's transformed business model is creating value through collaborative frameworks, enhancing our increased self perform and cross selling abilities. Our disciplined project selection and strategic focus on higher margin market sectors coupled with further leverage on our cost structure are contributing to our sustained business performance and to our positive outlook for continued bottom and top line growth.

Speaker 1

Along with our financial results today, Bird released its 4th annual sustainability overview. It provides an overview of Bird's ESG initiatives underway across the country and information on how we are striving to maximize our positive social and environmental impact utilizing a strong corporate governance framework. The report can be found on our website. With that, I'll hand it over to Wayne, who'll provide more detailed insights into our financial performance.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Terry. Building on strong momentum from 2023, Bird achieved significant year over year growth in earnings and revenue in the Q1 with operating cash flows proportional to this growth. In the Q1, Bird reported construction revenue of $688,200,000 compared to $536,500,000 in the prior year quarter, representing a 28.3% increase year over year. The growth was over 90% organic with Norkan joining the team in mid January. The company's margin profile improved from the prior year with gross profit percentage increasing to 8% from 7.4%.

Speaker 3

The increase in gross profit margins continues to be driven by higher embedded margins on newer work resulting from disciplined project selection and cost control, growing self perform capabilities and cross selling opportunities, as well as higher proportion of industrial construction executed in the quarter compared to the prior year. General and administrative expenses were $40,100,000 or 5.8 percent of revenue compared to 31,600,000 or 5.9 percent of revenue in the Q1 of 2023. G and A included compensation costs that reflected the significant appreciation of Bird's common share and total shareholder return during the quarter, resulting in an additional $3,900,000 of share based compensation costs being recognized in Q1 that are non recurring in nature. Net income and earnings per share were $10,000,000 and $0.19 per share compared to $5,100,000 and $0.10 per share in 2023, representing an increase of 94%. Adjusted earnings and adjusted earnings per share were $10,600,000 $0.20 per share compared to $5,300,000 $0.10 per share in 2023.

Speaker 3

The weighted average shares outstanding for the Q1 of 2024 was also higher by approximately 121,000 shares, primarily related to the Norkan acquisition. Adjusted EBITDA in the Q1 was $24,200,000 compared to $16,100,000 in the prior year, reflecting a 50% improvement year over year. The adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 3.5% for the quarter. The year over year increase was consistent with higher gross profit, partially offset by growth related increases in general and administrative expenses, including compensation costs and the higher share based compensation I referenced earlier. The additional share based compensation impacted the adjusted EBITDA margin in the Q1 by approximately 60 basis points.

Speaker 3

While delivering sustained margin accretion and revenue growth, Berg remains focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet. With significant liquidity and strong operating cash flow generation, Bird is positioned to support strategic growth initiatives, including flexibility to pursue attractive M and A opportunities that exist in the current environment. Our liquidity position remains strong at the end of the quarter with $133,600,000 of cash and cash equivalents and an additional $205,500,000 available under the company's syndicated credit facility. The seasonal decrease in accessible cash during the quarter was primarily due to investments in working capital to support the company's work programs and investments in equipment, productivity and technology enhancements. We expect Bird's cash performance to be a continued differentiator as we deliver operating cash flows commensurate with our growth, Even factoring in further investments in non cash working capital to support the company's growth for the year, we expect to deliver positive operating cash flows.

Speaker 3

At quarter end, the company had working capital of $218,600,000 compared with $234,000,000 at December 31, 2020 3. The company's acquisition of Norkan had minimal impact on working capital as the $9,400,000 cash proceeds was financed through new long term debt. Even after closing Norkan, which is off to a great start, we have significant optionality to pursue further M and A opportunities should they arise. Supported by the strength of the balance sheet and syndicated credit facility, the company has sufficient working capital and liquidity to execute its backlog and to accommodate expected growth in its diversified work program. Overall, our liquidity and leverage ratios and our very positive return metrics remain aligned with expectations.

Speaker 3

The company's current ratio is 1.26. Our adjusted net debt to trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA ratio stood at 0.46 times and our long term debt to equity ratio is 22 per shift. The company's capital allocation strategy aims to drive business growth, robust profitability and enhance long term shareholder value through a blend of M and A, smart capital investments and returning capital to shareholders through dividends. Through this balanced approach, the company expects to invest in excess of 2 thirds of net income to support growth initiatives. Bird invested $8,000,000 in equipment in the Q1 of 2024 to support the company's rapidly growing industrial and mining work programs for the year, while also returning $5,800,000 to shareholders through our monthly dividends.

Speaker 3

Bert also completed the acquisition of Norkan in the Q1 and continued to experience robust performance from earlier acquisitions, upholding our reputation as a strong integrator and delivering accretive transactions for shareholders. M and A remains a key element of Merge Capital Allocation and Growth Strategy. Our M and A strategy is targeted, seeking to integrate firms with specialized offerings that complement our existing services, expand our geographic footprint and focus on strategic sectors like civil infrastructure, process mechanical, electrical, MRO services, utilities and renewables. With significant investments in the business over the past few years supporting both the shift to higher margin sectors and organic margin improvements, we are positioned for continued strong performance and expect the momentum to carry through the year. I'll now turn the call back to Jerry to comment on the outlook for the company.

Speaker 1

First, focus on higher margin sectors, disciplined project selection and collaborative contracting continues to drive higher embedded margins in the company's backlog. We continue to expect considerable overall revenue growth for the remainder of the year, significant improvements to earnings and cash flow compared to 2023. Our expectations for longer term earnings accretion are supported by the robust demand across Bird's target sectors and by macro trends in critical areas aligned to longer term investment cycles, including energy transition, population growth and infrastructure modernization. For its highly valued team is delivering on clients' expectations safely, reinforcing the company's reputation for collaborative delivery of sophisticated complex projects. With that, I'll turn the call back to the operator for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question is from Jacob Bout with CIBC. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Good morning, Terry and Wayne. This is Rahul on for Jacob. Good morning. Good morning. So very strong revenue growth to start the year.

Speaker 4

Just wanted to touch on the impact from favorable weather to the Q1 and the early start to the programs. Is it possible to quantify how much of the 28% revenue growth you saw in the quarter was a factor of that?

Speaker 1

It's not significant. It could be something like 5%, but it's just a factor of some of the things that we experienced. The quarter was reasonable. So for us, it wasn't a significant impact.

Speaker 5

Right, right. Okay. That's helpful.

Speaker 4

And you've mentioned that you don't believe that impact should impact volumes for the balance of 2020 4. So how should we be thinking of growth for the balance of the year? And should it be still somewhat similar to your prior expectation of approaching that low double digit type growth? Correct.

Speaker 3

Yes, I think that's right for kind of the remaining 9 months of the year and then when you average that in with the 28% in Q1, probably raise the average for the year to mid teens and that would be organic and acquisitive growth kind of factored in there with Norkan.

Operator

The next question is from Ian Gillis with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Good morning, everyone.

Speaker 1

Good morning. Good morning.

Speaker 6

It's probably a bit early, but as we start thinking about 2025 and the backlog of work we have or Bert has looking into next year is, do you think another year of double digit revenue growth is possible in 'twenty five at this juncture just given the work scopes you're seeing today?

Speaker 1

It feels that way. And I'll tell you also why I think the scale of the projects that we're interested in is getting larger and they're maintaining that collaborative sort of framework, which gets us interested. So I think that alone gives you some confidence to more longevity of future opportunities that are evolving and certainly takes out some of the simplicity and economic ebbs and flows, which we're obviously interested in stemming.

Speaker 6

And as we think about And as we think about potential headwinds, are you seeing any initial signs of private capital slowdowns due to interest rates, cap gains taxes, any of those items that seem to be catching a lot of headline news today?

Speaker 1

No, we've been focused on sectors that are long term that don't have that pressure and it's really paying off for us because those sectors just have so much momentum. So despite some headwinds in certain areas, we've been able to pivot and we pivoted a couple of years ago away from some of those sectors just because we first of all, there were some of the sectors had lower margin profile. So we pivoted away from those and that's really paid off for us.

Speaker 6

Okay. And then obviously with the improvement in the share price, obviously evaluation gets a bit better and you've been very disciplined to go after larger assets? Or do you continue on the path you're on just given that it's been working well over the last number of years?

Speaker 1

I think for us with M and A, we look at opportunities as they evolve and there's going to be the smaller tuck in opportunities. Every once in a while, there's a larger opportunity, larger opportunities don't come around very often. So I think we're open for business when it comes to the right opportunity if it fits our focus and fits our areas that we think we can enhance our current offering and most importantly it's considerably accretive to the forms of the business. So I think the tuck ins are you see those more frequently and we have obviously had a really good track record, which is increasing the interest in companies looking for a longer term partner with Burke. So, but every once in a while something comes along we look at more seriously and it's got to be more scale and if it fits the profile that we're interested in, obviously we'll engage.

Speaker 6

No, that's helpful. Thanks very much. I'll turn the call back over.

Speaker 1

Thanks,

Operator

Steve. The next question is from Frederic Bastien with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Sorry about the interruption. Your margins are tracking nicely higher. I think if I go back many, many years in my model, your margins peaked at 9% back in the late 2009, 2008. Appreciate we're in different times, but what do

Speaker 4

you expect or what do you

Speaker 5

think the upside potential in the margin is given where you stand today with respect to end market conditions, your better risk profiles in the projects you're bidding on and also the fact you're self performing a lot more work? Thanks.

Speaker 1

Yes, I think we've been reasonably open about this. Obviously, we're focused on a rolling improvement in our strategic plan, trying to find that annual accretion and where that lands. Again, it's conducive to the demands that are out there and the specialized types of work. Is that achievable to get back to those margins over time? Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1

So that's our focus. And obviously, most impressively, we're growing top line revenue, while increasing the accretion of the bottom line and that's not easy. So the team is doing a tremendous job as we move the business forward.

Speaker 5

And the I guess the margin expansion that you're forecasting for 2024, do you think that can be replicated next year as well?

Speaker 1

I believe so, yes. Just with the nature of the opportunities that are out there and the focus we have.

Speaker 5

Okay. So what worries you? Pardon? What worries you right now, if anything?

Speaker 3

What worries you?

Speaker 1

What worries you? What worries you? I couldn't hear your what you were saying. What worries you? I think, obviously our number one focus in the company is always safety and safety is something you continuously put a tremendous effort into and each year you improve and our teams are doing a tremendous job of that.

Speaker 1

But all it takes is a mistake and someone incident occurs. So I'd say that that's probably always the thing that's in your back in your mind, hoping that we've done everything we possibly can to make sure nobody gets hurt and I think our teams do a tremendous job with that, but it's still something that's human behavior sometimes mistakes can happen. So that's probably one area, but I think right now we're focused in all the right areas. The opportunities that are in front of us are long term and have a lot of lakes and so we're pretty excited about all that. And so yes, I'd say my worries are more around probably safety and just making sure that we keep raising the bar and making sure nobody gets hurt.

Speaker 5

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Fred.

Operator

The next question is from Maxim Sytchev with National Bank. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hi, good morning, Chana. Hi, Max.

Speaker 1

Good morning, Max.

Speaker 2

I was wondering if it's possible to get a bit of an update on the mining land of the land and maybe LNG just in terms of what you're hearing from the clients, the bidding pipeline and that sort of stuff? And then if lastly, you can potentially quantify your exposure to these 2 growing verticals? Thanks.

Speaker 1

So mining, certainly very robust cycles that we're in right now and across many areas. We've been we've maintained our mining expertise and our teams predominantly in iron ore over the last number of years and maintained our fleet. And those were we had some tougher years through that period of time and I'm glad we stayed patient and stuck with it because we're entering into a cycle now very robust and it expands well beyond iron ore. So we're seeing a number of new opportunities evolving across a number of different mineral types that Canada has access to. So in that regard, I think in the mining side, whether it's potash or whether it's gold or continuing further expansion in the iron ores, those areas evolving opportunities in lithium.

Speaker 1

And we have the teams that can essentially take a project like that from cradle to grave. So the teams are have been very, very busy with proposals and early contractor involvement on a number of opportunities. On the LNG side, we're continuing to work with our existing work in Kitimat and that project continues to track obviously very successful successfully for our clients and excited about what's ahead. We also have a large project getting underway in Squamish that I was just visiting last week. And obviously considerable amount of scale with that project for us and the team is doing a tremendous job, little bit different than our project up in Kitimat in terms of the uniqueness of it and water access, which is obviously something that you don't do every day.

Speaker 1

So but really, really impressed with our team and progress we've made and hearing really good feedback from our client.

Speaker 2

Okay. Excellent. That's great. And I guess in terms of overall sort of exposure right now, Terry, how would you quantify it if it's possible?

Speaker 1

Overall exposure to LNG?

Speaker 2

Mining and LNG.

Speaker 1

Mining. Yes. Yes, it's 15% probably Max would be where we're at. It's a nice balance with everything else we're doing. And as you know, there's cycles in mining that occur.

Speaker 1

I think we're it feels like we're in a long cycle right now. It will be at least 3 to 5 years, just based on the scale of the commitments that our potential clients are making.

Operator

This concludes the question and answer session. I'll hand the call back over to Mr. McKibben for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Okay. I'd like to thank all of you for joining us this morning on our earnings call and a special thanks to the Byrd team for their unwavering commitment to safety and excellence. Have a nice day. Thank you.

Operator

This brings to a close today's conference call and webcast. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

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Key Takeaways

  • Strong Q1 performance: Bird delivered 28% year-over-year revenue growth to $688.2 million and a 50% increase in adjusted EBITDA to $24.2 million, resulting in net income of $10 million ($0.19 EPS).
  • Record backlog: The company added $700 million in Q1 to finish with $3.5 billion in total backlog—over 90% low-to-medium risk and 75% collaborative work, including nearly $1 billion in MSAs.
  • Margin expansion strategy: Gross profit margins rose to 8% driven by disciplined project selection, collaborative contracts and growing self-perform capabilities, with M&A targeting higher-margin sectors to sustain ongoing accretion.
  • Robust liquidity and low leverage: With $133.6 million in cash, $205.5 million available credit, a 1.26× current ratio and 0.46× net debt/EBITDA, Bird is well positioned to fund growth initiatives and pursue selective acquisitions.
  • Positive outlook: Strong demand across energy transition, infrastructure modernization, mining and nuclear—coupled with strategic focus on electrification and public transport—supports expectations of mid-teens revenue growth and continued margin improvement for 2024 and beyond.
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Earnings Conference Call
Bird Construction Q1 2024
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