ATCO Ltd. ($ACOX)

[Audio Gap] Katie Patrick, Chief Financial and Investment Officer; and Adam Beattie, President of ATCO Structures. Before we move into today's remarks, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the numerous traditional territories and home lands on which our global facilities are located. Today, I am speaking to you from our ATCO Park head office in Calgary, which is located in the Treaty7 region. This is the ancestral territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy comprised of the [indiscernible], the Kini, the Pagani and the Sutina nation and [indiscernible] nations, which include the Chiniki, [indiscernible] First Nations. I also want to recognize that the city of Calgary is home to the [indiscernible] Nation of Alberta, Districts 5 and 6. We honor and respect the diverse history, languages, ceremonies and culture of the indigenous peoples who call these areas home. Today's remarks will include forward-looking statements. that are subject to important risks and uncertainties. For more information on these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our filings with the Canadian securities regulators. During today's presentation, we may refer to certain non-GAAP and other financial measures, including adjusted earnings and adjusted EBITDA. These measures do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS and as a result, they may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other entities. And now I'll turn the call over to Katie for her opening remarks.

Thanks, Colin, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Despite the ever-changing geopolitical landscape across the world, we continue to execute and deliver on our strategy across the ATCO portfolio. Some of you may have seen our refreshed brand launch, which rolled out last week, energy, housing, defense. It's hard to think of 3 more relevant trends in the world today, and ATCO has a long history and is extremely well positioned in each. Our long-term investment focused and diversified nature of our assets positions our businesses to drive growth for the total portfolio, generating stable earnings and dividends for shareowners. We often talk about our strategy related to housing through ATCO Structures and energy through Canadian Utilities. But today, I thought we will begin by talking a bit more about the defense opportunity ahead of us and how ATCO is positioned. In particular, as you can see outlined on the slide, there is a landscape of growing opportunities in Canada's North. The federal government has shared its commitment to invest in Canada's defense sector, with a significant focus on the Arctic. This includes $35 billion of funding towards defense infrastructure upgrades, new northern operational support hubs, modernizing and upgrading Arctic airports, civilian infrastructure and key economic hub developments. Aligned with our expertise, we see Canada's North as a critical development opportunity. ATCO has a demonstrated history of success in what we feel are the 4 critical elements to success. First, Arctic experience; second, defense experience; third, construction experience; fourth and most importantly, indigenous participation and partnerships. For close to 40 years, ATCO Frontec has operated in the most remote parts of North America's Arctic. We are a trusted defense partner who operates and maintains critical defense infrastructure like the North Warning System, a joint Canadian and United States radar network monitoring Arctic airspace, and the Alaska Radar system, where ATCO Frontec provides comprehensive operational support, site services, facility maintenance and logistics. We also have trusted indigenous partnerships built over the course of many years operating in the north. To be specific, across ATCO, we currently have 73 partnerships, MOUs and arrangements with indigenous groups. This is something we are incredibly -- incredibly proud of and aligns with our history and ongoing commitment of collaborating with indigenous communities. As a demonstration of the types of investments we are talking about, in March, we announced a $10 million investment in West Katicniat Resources, or WKR who will develop the Grays Bay Road and Port project in Nunavut. This critical project is highlighted in the federal government's nation building projects list. While it is very early days. Today, this partnership should be thought of as a growth investment. We believe WKR will one day develop into a strong foundational investment for ATCO. The Grays Bay Road and Port project strongly aligns with ATCO's existing expertise and strategy in the North, while building on our growth-oriented assets across the housing, energy and defense sectors. Now moving to the quarter's results. ATCO achieved adjusted earnings of $165 million or $1.47 per share in the first quarter of this year. This is up 3% year-over-year and in line with our expectations for the quarter. Results were driven by growth in the utilities as well as increased sales and leasing activity in Canada at ATCO Strutures. The quarterly results reiterate the benefits of our diversified portfolio of investments. Looking at the specific businesses, ATCO's investment in Canadian Utilities Limited delivered adjusted earnings of $127 million for the quarter, up $5 million year-over-year. Higher adjusted earnings were primarily driven by growth in rate base at ATCO Energy Systems as well as higher rates and favorable CPI adjustments at ATCO Gas Australia. As mentioned on this morning's CU call, there is significant momentum across our utility assets in Alberta, and we expect earnings growth on a full year basis. ATCO Structures & Logistics delivered adjusted earnings of $28 million, up 4% year-over-year. Adjusted earnings at ATCO Structures were driven by the space rentals portion of the business, along with earnings from our Stibnite project, which Adam will speak to in his remarks. Looking at the full year 2026, we expect to see strong organic earnings growth across the portfolio of investments. With that, I will now pass the call over to Adam to discuss our ATCO Structures and Logistics business.

Thank you, Katie, and good morning, everyone. I'll focus my comments on ATCO Structures and how our first quarter performance reflects the operating metrics you see in today's material. ATCO Structures delivered $27 million of adjusted earnings in the first quarter, making our fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year earnings growth. This performance reflects the durability of our diversified model across space rentals, workforce housing and permanent modular construction and is a credit to the teams across our operations. Earnings in the quarter were supported by strong space rentals activity, permanent modular construction sales and contributions from our progress on the Stibnite Gold project. Importantly, our results continue to be underpinned by disciplined execution and a focus on deploying the right mix of rental fleet and manufacturing capacity to meet our customers' needs. During the quarter, we increased our global space rentals fleet by 5% while maintaining our desired utilization target. The average rental rate increased by 7% year-over-year to $863 per month on average, reflecting price discipline across our key geographies. The improvement in fleet performance contributed to the $65 million of adjusted EBITDA generated in the quarter, which grew 5% over the prior year. The modular industry continues to benefit from demand for fast delivery, higher certainty on schedule and quality versus traditional construction, particularly in affordable housing, education, community infrastructure and resource development. ATCO Structures serves these areas well because of our scale, our ability to offer end-to-end solutions and our established branch and manufacturing network that keeps us close and responsive to our customers. Additionally, this quarter, ATCO Structures invested in the launch of a national advertising campaign throughout Canada, showcasing our expertise across multiple module of residential, commercial and industrial construction applications. This campaign garnered considerable positive feedback and generated an increase in inbound leads for our Canadian operations. I'll pause on the scale of our platform because it is a meaningful differentiator in the modular industry. Globally, we operate 44 branches and 13 manufacturing locations across 5 countries. Over the last several years, we have expanded our operations and manufacturing footprint through organic growth, targeted acquisitions and investment in lean manufacturing process optimization. Leveraging this scale and efficiencies, we have increased our ability to serve customers globally better than ever. The integration of NRB Modular Solutions is another good example of how we can add capacity and capability efficiently and strengthen our reach and serviceability for existing and new customers. We are also advancing the expansion of our Grimsby, Ontario manufacturing facility. This factory expansion has been designed to increase our throughput and create operating synergies across our vertically integrated business segments with a more efficient production flow and expanded product mix, and nearly double the production capacity. Our integrated model, which includes design, manufacturing, delivery, installation and in many cases, ongoing operations and services allows us to provide turnkey solutions that customers value, particularly with speed, safety, cost and delivery certainty and logistics complexity matter. The mix of offerings also supports a more resilient earnings profile across cycles. The Stibnite Gold project remains a key execution priority for our U.S. business. This is our largest dollar value contract in the U.S. today, and it showcases our industry-leading ability to deliver complex, large-scale workforce housing solutions. As a reminder, this scope includes a 1,000-person turnkey workforce accommodation village and associated office facilities in Idaho. Manufacturing is well underway with approximately 1/3 of units already built. We continue to execute to our budget and quality standards with work progressing across design, manufacturing and site readiness in coordination with the customer. The next phase involves completing the remaining manufacturing scope and advancing site installation and service tie-ins. As we move through these stages, our focus remains on safe execution, scheduled discipline and managing interfaces to support a smooth project handover process. Beyond Stibnite, we continue to see healthy bid activity and customer demand across our key markets, and we converted a number of those opportunities into awards during the quarter. With this secured backlog entering the peak construction season in North America, which has seasonally heightened demand, we see clear opportunities to continue our growth profile. In the first quarter, we secured $113 million of new projects across our key geographies, including Canada, the United States and Australia. These awards reflect continued demand across our modular products, manufacturing and service capabilities, and they are a selective representation of the type of work we execute day in and day out. In Canada, we continue to see opportunities supported by government commitments such as increased financial commitments to defense, housing, by Canada initiatives and customer demand for high-quality, quickly delivered homes and community spaces. With our Canadian origins, scale, geographic footprint and experience delivering modular solutions, we believe we are well positioned to compete. During the quarter, we secured multiple contracts in Canada, totaling $73 million in highlighted awards. Of note on the slide, you can see a rendering of the second affordable housing contract with secured with attainable Homes Calgary. In the United States, while we continue to progress work on Stibnite, we also secured an additional $23 million in new sales and lease contracts during the quarter. These awards reflect opportunities across industrial infrastructure and energy-related end markets. Moving to Australia. Our platform continues to benefit from demand in both Queensland and Western Australia, and our expanded manufacturing presence supports our ability to respond. In the first quarter, we secured $17 million of nominated contracts in the region and we are seeing increased demand for housing, energy, infrastructure and resource opportunities. I'm very proud of our team's work to continue to drive growth and secure new opportunities for our business. Our teams continue to secure opportunities aligned with the sectors where Modular delivers clear advantages. Subsequent to the quarter end, we were awarded a new $55 million contract to design and construct a 400-person accommodation village in Western Australia. We also received a limited notice to proceed for early-stage works, including infrastructure planning, camp design and securing manufacturing line time for a large mining development in Western Canada valued at approximately $45 million. Together, these conversions underscore ongoing customer demand and the breadth of our capabilities across our geographies. I'll wrap up my remarks by reiterating what differentiates ATCO Structures in a modular industry that continues to expand as customers look for speed, certainty and quality. We deliver quality, custom modular manufacturing solutions catering to customers' needs and market demands. And as shown on this slide, compared to peers, ATCO Structures is differentiated across spectrum of products and services, and we pair that with a track record of delivering. We're proud of the demonstrated performance of executing projects both large and small in scale, on time and on budget. We have the modular advantage with the capacity and capabilities needed built from over -- from 80 years of proven industry-leading performance. And with that, I'll now pass the call back over to Katie.

Thank you, Adam. With Adam highlighting the growth within ATCO Structures and its competitive advantages compared to peers, we believe that ACO Structures continues to be undervalued by upwards of $2 billion on a sum-of-the-parts basis when compared to peers. Overall, ATCO's results were in line with our expectations. And again, the results highlight the strength of our diversified portfolio of investments. That concludes our prepared remarks. I will now turn the call back to Colin.

Thank you, Katie, and thank you, Adam. In the interest of time, we ask that you limit yourself to 2 questions. If you have additional questions, you are welcome to rejoin the queue. I will now turn it back to our conference coordinator, Asha, for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Rob Hope with Scotiabank.

Appreciate all the commentary on the opportunities in Kansas North and do acknowledge that the government is keenly focused on this area. When you think about your opportunity sets here, it does appear that everything is relatively longer dated? Or when you think about how your earnings could grow in this region, are there some more near-term opportunities we should be looking to?

Yes. Thanks, Rob. I do agree. A lot of these investments will be longer term, longer dated. That being said, I think the government has a pretty aggressive stance on, particularly on upgrades of some of the existing defense facilities that they have in the north, and they have committed to fast time lines for the RFP process for that. So I think there is some opportunity for near-term earnings, but this is a -- certainly for Canada and for ourselves, a longer-term investment in upgrading the north that will take quite some time to fully roll out.

Okay. Appreciate that. And then I guess in the spirit of the new corporate branding and a focus on defense, you highlighted a number of the opportunities also in the North. But when you think about the broader opportunity in the defense sector, anything incremental that you're looking at in terms of business lines or geographies?

No. I mean, I would just highlight ATCO Frontec, as I said in my remarks, has had a long history of operating in the defense sector. So -- and it's done a variety of different things on the facilities operations and maintenance for a long time. We have a very diverse resume, so to speak, of the different types of operations that ATCO Frontec can handle. So I think stay tuned, but I think there's a lot of different ways that ATCO Frontec can help in the defense sector. And also, I should add, sorry, that there's clear opportunity and maybe I'll let Adam talk to that on the Structure side from a defense perspective as well.

Rob, yes, there's certainly also a lot of defense opportunities below the Arctic in terms of defense housing and just the basis across Canada upgrades. And that will also drive, I think, there's 7,500 houses required across 25 bases within Canada. So that's another opportunity for us.

The next question comes from Ben Pham with BMO.

I want to follow up on that last question on the ATCO [indiscernible] strategy. You categorized it as a growth investments. Can you remind us that bucket, what that means versus your yield and balance categories?

Ben, sorry, you were breaking up just a little bit for some reason. I wonder if you could just repeat the question, and I don't know if this will help, but maybe you can just lean into your microphone a little bit.

Okay. I'll try one more time and maybe because I'm unplugged the cord there. My question is on the Northern strategy. You categorized it as a growth investment. Can you remind us what growth investment is defined for ATCO and how it compares to your yield and balance categories?

Yes. We didn't -- I think this is one of the first quarters where we actually don't have the pyramid that kind of highlights the way that we think about our portfolio from a financial perspective. So just a reminder, at the base, we have the foundational investments, which include our utilities that provide stable cash flows. And then in the middle of the pyramid, we have what we would call value investments that would have a balance of faster growth than potentially the utilities with some yield that is dividends coming from that. And in the top, and this is where you're going to, I think, Ben, we talked about our growth investments. And really, when we talk about our growth investments, those are investments that do require some capital commitment before they start to deliver cash flow generation back to us. So as it relates to the North, I think the North is definitely a growth area, just generically the term growth, but potentially Grays Bay, I would put in that growth investment category where obviously, there will be some required investment and cash flows going into that to yield long-term stable foundational cash flows in the longer term from that particular investment.

Okay. So it sounds like I'm just unpacking a bit it sounds like you have a timing difference on investment versus contribution. But is there differences on returns or size the opportunity in that category?

No, not necessarily. The -- in that top category, we could have things that could have very quick return profiles, but they need capital investment in the short term or they could be much longer term with potentially more infrastructure-like returns. We don't necessarily differentiate there.

Okay. And are you thinking about building this Northern [indiscernible], which you already have a presence there. Is there anything you need to do in a manufacturing side, setting up new sites for manufacturing or redeploying human capital in terms of positioning that from a long-term perspective?

I can just generally talk [indiscernible] I'll let Adam talk to ATCO Structures. As you would know, the Northeast is pretty remote. There's not a lot of industrial activity right now. So at least in the near term, overall from an ATCO perspective, I think a lot of what we would be doing would be leveraging our strong base in the South of Canada to try and provide the services and products that we need to help build the infrastructure in the North. But maybe I'll turn it over to Adam specific to Structures.

Yes. Ben, as you're aware, we've got 5 manufacturing facilities across Canada. So our geographical placement on where our manufacturing capacity currently sits is well positioned to service the North, both from road access and also access to ports as you shipping product and demand. So I think with our expanded capacity over the last few years, we're very well positioned to provide competitive logistical and manufacturing capacity to access the North. And as you well aware probably is that limited labor force that currently resides within the Arctic. So there's going to be -- as these projects progress over time, there's going to be a huge demand for workforce accommodation, and probably side offices within that region as these projects start to formulate over time as well. So we think both our fleet position, our manufacturing locations to access those regions are very well placed.

The next question comes from Maurice Choy with RBC Capital Markets.

If I could start with your investment in WKR. You mentioned this could be a foundational investment for ATCO. Should we view this in the same way as what Neltume ports mean to ATCO? Or if this is different, can you paint us a big picture view about what this platform could be for you, say, in 10 years?

Yes, for sure. I think, we wanted to be very clear. This is a -- thanks, Maurice, for the question. This is a $10 million investment for a 40% stake in the company. So this is not a big investment, obviously, at this time. But right now, the projected spend is $1.5 billion to develop out what's being talked about there in terms of the airport, the road and the port. And that could be more, obviously. So I think this obviously would be a large capital project, and we probably will have other partners involved. But if you think about that, and this is out to 2035, right? So this is a long-term investment. But once that is operational up and running it very well would look similar to some of the [indiscernible] investment that we have. Obviously, it's going to be -- the intention is to have a joint defense and commercial operation. And so I think there's a lot of opportunities. There's a lot of critical minerals in the north there that need access to ports. And so there's been a demand developing to try and get that port built so that those miners can get their minerals out. So I think, there's a lot of good things around it. As I said, it's been referred to the major projects office. And I think the federal government is very committed to trying to get that moving, and we are working closely with them to try and advance it. So long story short, yes, it could be a large infrastructure project that in the long term has strong foundational benefits for ATCO.

Understood. If I could just have a quick follow-up to that. I appreciate that you mentioned the critical minerals settlement in that region. There was a [indiscernible] if I'm not mistaken, also is involved with a portfolio of mineral properties. So as your relationship and investment in WKR limited to just this road and port project? Does it involve those mineral properties? Or is it just, I guess, isolate to this and other infrastructure?

Yes. No. We are investing in the WKR entity. And yes, they do have some smaller investments in some of the mineral activities in the region. But the primary benefit that we add is helping them to advance on that project, but that's not necessarily going to be the end of the relationship in that entity, and we'll see where things develop. But that's obviously where we have the stronger interest in the infrastructure development.

So I shouldn't take this as being that ATCO is moving into that side of the business, specifically on minerals, mining and so on and so forth? Or is it that...

I wouldn't -- I mean I wouldn't say no, this is not a diversification expansion as a mining company for ATCO. I think it's part of their portfolio, but that's not -- as I said, was not the primary driver of our interest in that investment.

That's good to know. And if I could just finish off with a big picture question about your themes, defense, housing and energy. When you look out the next 5 years and think about your incremental earnings growth for ATCO, is there a way to split in terms of percentage, what each of these 3 categories would be?

I don't think we've necessarily quantified that. As you know, I think, as you can see, Structures has, especially when you look at the denominator base, has a more rapid growth profile than our Energy portfolio. And so you'll see Structures continue to grow as a percentage of the overall portfolio. it should be relatively obvious from our financial statement that at the moment, the defense sector is a smaller portion of our overall portfolio, but it certainly has, on a percentage basis, the greatest ability to increase quickly. Right now, I think we're about roughly 2/3 energy, 1/3 roughly housing. And I think you'll see -- you won't see defense start to get near to those levels, but it certainly does have an opportunity to grow relatively quickly in the next few years.

The next question comes from John Mould with TD Cowen.

Maybe just coming back to the Grays Bay Road and Port project. The $10 million equity stake in WKR, I appreciate that's gradual over time. Is this kind of equity stake something we could see more of in northern infrastructure investment opportunities from ATCO's perspective? Or should we view this as more of a unique case where this kind of structure was important in advancing the initiative more broadly?

Yes. No, I would say -- thanks, John for the question. I think, absolutely, we would be interested in doing something similar to help expand the north and to help get things going related to everyone's ambitions to really have nation building projects for the Arctic. So there's nothing immediate candidly on the radar right now that would mimic that. But we would absolutely be open to similar type structures for opportunities that are complement to our existing portfolio businesses.

Okay. And then maybe just on the broader structure and logistics pipeline, you did flag $100 million of committed contracts in April and there's a specific backlog, but just sort of directionally, has the balance of the year shaping up in terms of additional firm contracts? And what does the potential dollar figure broadly would compare? Like how does it look compared to where things stood at Q1 last year, just in terms of [indiscernible] about the trajectory for the balance of the year?

John. Certainly, look, I think the good thing is that conversion rates and these few projects that we've highlighted here are isolated, really outside of our normal course of business. So we're seeing the activity pick up in terms of pipeline opportunities. So I think the [ $230 million that ] we've nominated here, what we've highlighted here are compounded with the Stibnite project, the $179 million contract, certainly bodes well for a good backlog of opportunities to compound on what's already been awarded, both into the back half of this year and then also pushing into 2027. So I think there's, I would say, a similar trend that we're seeing coming in the next quarters in terms of project pipeline. And we're seeing increased pipeline activity, and I'd say, reasonably significant increase in pipeline activity on this time last year.

The next question comes from Mark Jarvi with CIBC Capital Markets.

Just wanted to follow up on the last question in Slide 13. Just it's encouraging to see the breadth of the opportunities. Adam, just curious if you think that continues here if there's certain sort of end markets, whether it's geographic or industry markets, do you feel like we're even accelerated more than others at this point?

Sorry, can you just repeat that last bit there, Mark?

Yes. Just curious if there's certain geographies and/or end markets you're seeing even faster acceleration in terms of pipeline activity and conversion rates?

Yes. Certainly, look, I think the resource sector is very robust in all of our geographies at the moment, critical minerals, iron ore in Australia, some expansion down there. Gold is very strong. We're seeing, as we've highlighted in the U.S., a lot of data center infrastructure investments and nuclear investments there. We've got some large elements like the Olympic Games expenditure in Southeast Queensland in Australia, that's driving some infrastructure spend and a lot of government initiatives around housing funding and certainly some compounding demand in that sector, both in Canada and Australia. So I think those are key sectors that we're seeing. And the interesting things that we haven't commented on defense there, but that's a building pipeline. And the interesting thing about defense as you look at this build out of infrastructure, it really bodes well for both workforce housing and also housing itself and also our space rentals business, so I think you've seen a tick up in terms of our space rental utilization. And I think we can see that, that's going to be strong -- a continuing strength in our space rental utilization as well.

Just given those trends, Adam, utilization and also sort of diverse broad end markets, how would you frame sort of where margins can trend from here? Does it feel like the mix of business coming in is very similar to what you would have executed over the last 12 months, and therefore, margin should have largely hold steady for a year?

Yes. I think our margins will stay pretty consistent. So while the price of goods may go up, there will be some slight increases in costs. You've seen some of that pass through with some fuel price increases. So I think that's very manageable, but the margin percentage will probably stay very consistent.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Colin Jackson for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Asia. And thank all of you for participating today. We appreciate your interest in ATCO, and we look forward to speaking with you again soon.

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