WSP Global Inc. (WSP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, [Foreign Language] It's a pleasure to have you today present with us. Thank you for joining us virtually for today's Power & Energy Teach-in session. I'm Quentin Weber, Global Head of Investor Relations, and we appreciate your flexibility as we had to pivot to a virtual setting today. Today's agenda is very exciting. We have a great roster today. And the agenda will be split between two main blocks of presentation with one Q&A period. For reference, you can access the supporting presentation in the Investors section of WSP's website. [Operator Instructions] We will have a small break after the first block of presentations. All the associated materials, transcripts and replay will be available after today's event. During the teach-in, we will make forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ from those expressed or implied. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Relevant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements are listed in our latest MD&A, which can be found on SEDAR+ and on the website. Additionally, we may refer to specific non-IFRS measures during the Investor Day. These measures are also defined in our latest MD&A. Our MD&A includes reconciliations of non-IFRS measures to the most directly comparable IFRS measures. Management believes that these non-IFRS measures provide useful information to investors regarding the corporation's financial condition and results of operations as they provide additional critical metrics of its performance. These non-IFRS measures are not recognized under IFRS, do not have any standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS and may differ from similar-named measures reported by other issuers and accordingly, may not be comparable. These measures should not be considered as a substitute for the related financial information prepared under IFRS. With that, I would like now to welcome to the stage, Alexandre L'Heureux, President and CEO. Thank you.

Thank you, Quentin, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our Power & Energy Teach-in. Today, I want to talk about one of the important strategic decisions we have made in WSP's recent history. And a little more than 3 years ago, we came to a simple conclusion. The world was entering a period of infrastructure investment unlike anything we had seen in generation. Not just an energy transition,not just a digital transformation, but the convergence of both. On one side, we are seeing the electrification of economies around the world, transportation, buildings, industry and entire cities are becoming increasingly dependent on electricity. On the other side, AI, cloud computing and digital infrastructure are creating entirely new sources of demand that require unprecedented quantities of reliable power. Neither can exists without the other, every data center, every semiconductor facility, every advanced manufacturing plant, every AI application ultimately depends on a resilient, expandable and intelligent energy system. We believe this conversion would become one of the defining economic forces of the 21st century. And we believe WSP had an opportunity not simply to participate in it, but to actively shape it. Today, we believe WSP has built the most complete Power & Energy practice among our global engineering and design peers. We saw this opportunity developing, build differentiated expertise against it. We can now apply that expertise at scale and integration across WSP makes the model difficult to replicate. That matters because our clients are not asking for isolated services. They are asking for integrated solutions across generation, delivery, energy strategy, digital grid, permitting, program management and execution. Today, I want to explain why our integrated platform gives WSP a distinctive right win. We covered the full life cycle, bring specialized know-how under one roof and help clients move from strategy through energization when execution capacity has become the constraint. If there is one idea I would like you to take from this morning, it is this integrated services, global scale, full value chain. That is the thesis, that is the advantage. Let me anchor us briefly. WSP is one of the world's leading engineering, science and infrastructure solution firms operating in 50 countries with approximately 85,000 professionals. Within that platform, Power & Energy is one of WSP's defining global businesses. And in our view, the most complete integrated power and energy practice amongst our global competitors. That is the point I would like -- I would ask you to hold in mind. Power & Energy is no longer a promising adjacency. It is a global leadership platform for WSP, integrated services deliver at scale across the entire power value chain. And it happened for a reason, with a structural opportunity early, we invested in a deliberate way, and we build the platform before the market demanded it. So why Power & Energy and why now? For roughly 2 decades, electricity demand in mature economies was essentially flat. Efficiency gains offset economic growth and that era has ended. Global demand for electric power is expected to increase by 20% to 25% over current levels. The equivalent of adding 100 New York cities of demand to the world by 2030. That demand is being driven by 4 forces that reinforce one another. AI and data centers, industrial re-shoring, the electrification of transport and buildings and energy security. But the larger challenge is not demand. It is infrastructure. Much of the grid serving North America and Europe was built for a different world, a world before AI, a world before mass electrification, a world with entirely different expectation around resilience and reliability. Today, the bottleneck is no longer generational alone. The bottleneck is permitting. It's transmission, it's distribution its grid modernization, program execution, taking all together infrastructure, and that is exactly where WSP operates and the capital response is already underway. U.S. utility capital expenditures are expected to reach approximately $1.3 trillion over the next 5 years. To put that in perspective, that is roughly comparable in magnitude to the entire U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a landmark federal infrastructure program often referred to as IIJA. That is the opportunity we saw and that is why we invested. Of course, seeing the opportunity was important, but building the capability to capture it was even more critical. Today, WSP's Power & Energy business include approximately 10,000 professionals across 6 continents. More than 7,000 are located in the United States, currently the most active power market in the world. And in the United States, this is not a marginal exposure. Power & Energy represent approximately 35% of WSP's U.S. net revenues making it one of the largest and most strategically important parts of our U.S. business. We believe we have assembled one of the most comprehensive Power & Energy platform anywhere in the industry, and that position was built in a deliberate way, through organic growth, through disciplined M&A through decades of technical excellence and more importantly, it was built with intention. Our objective was never to become bigger. Our objective was to become more valuable to clients. The slide behind me is about the architecture of the platform. When you look at our journey, you see a consistent pattern. Each acquisition address a specific strategic objective. POWER Engineers strengthen our engineering depth across power generation, transmission, and distribution. Ricardo expanded our Advisory and Energy Consulting capabilities and TRC enhance our distribution, [indiscernible] grid, environmental and program management capabilities. Each transaction expanded our relevance, each transactions deepen our expertise and each transactions increase our ability to solve more complex client challenges. The result is something significantly greater than any individual acquisition. It is a platform, one capable of supporting clients across every major phase of the energy transition and digital transformation. And it means WSP can integrate services globally at scale, across the entire value chain. That distinction matters because power infrastructure is becoming too, complex too interdependent and too mission-critical to be managed in silos. Clients increasingly need a partner who can help them define the strategy, secure approvals align stakeholders, design the system, manage program, deploy digital tools and support execution. And this is what we mean by One WSP Umbrella. One global platform, one client relationship and the ability to bring the right expertise from anywhere in the world to the right problem at the right moment in the life cycle. For investors, that matters because integrated platforms capture more of the client relationship, participate earlier in capital planning and are better positioned for larger programmatic mandates. It also makes the platform more difficult to replicate. A competitor can build scale in one discipline, it is much harder to build cross-disciplined debt, regulatory credibility, client trust and delivery capacity across the full life cycle. Unlike many participants in this sector, our opportunity is not dependent on a specific energy outcome. We are not making a bet on one generation technology versus another. We are participating in the infrastructure required regardless of which path ultimately prevails, and that is the strategic architecture. And let me show you what it covers and practice. Our platform cover 5 areas that together spend a full power life cycle. Power Generation, Thermal, Wind, Solar, Hydro, Battery Storage and Nuclear supported by advisory feasibility, owners, engineers, balance of plan design and interconnection expertise. There is a perception that only a handful of firms matter in nuclear. In fact, we are involved in many of the industry's most important projects across siting, permitting, licensing, program management and delivery, which makes us a much more unique participant than many investors realize. Power Delivery, Transmission, Distribution, Substation, HVDC, Underground and Underwater Transmission, Grid Modernization, Microgrids, Reliability and Resilience. If I move to Energy Solutions, Electrification, Hydrogen, Carbon Capture, District Energy, Distributed Energy Resources, Demand Site Programs, Energy Efficiency and Decarbonization. Moving on to Digital and Intelligent Grid. Automation, analytics, grid technology, low management, asset intelligence and AI-enabled tools that help clients operate increasingly complex system. And finally, Program Management, the governance, controls, sequencing, stakeholder coordination and delivery discipline required to execute multiyear capital programs at scale. What we have built is unique because it expands that entire life cycle. From Advisory, and Planning all the way through operations. And our clients are responding to that breadth. Our client portfolio now includes top 60 investor-owned utilities in the U.S. covering the vast majority of the market. And outside the U.S., our utility client base continues to grow. 15 in the U.K., 10 in Canada and Continental Europe and 15 more across Latin America, Australia and the Middle East. These clients are not coming to us for engineering alone. That matters because increasingly, the greatest challenges are not technical. They are strategic regulatory, environmental, social, commercial and the most valuable partner is often not the firm that design a project, it is the firm that makes a project possible and can then design and deliver it. When you assess WSP, I would encourage you to look beyond size. Scale alone does not create competitive advantage. Our advantage begins with expertise. It continues with institutional knowledge accumulated through decades of project delivery. It is reinforced by trusted relationship with clients, regulators, communities and governments. And when you compare us with other large engineering firms, including those with strong infrastructure or nuclear credential, our differentiation is simple. It is the combination. It is the integration of all of these capabilities at scale around the world, across the entire power and energy value chain. Some companies are very strong in select part of that chain. What makes WSP different is our ability to connect it, end to end from strategy, siding and approvals to engineering, grid integration, digital enablement and program delivery. These skills cannot easily be replicated and increasingly they are becoming more valuable. Then scale amplifies every one of those trends. It allows us to combine global expertise with trusted local execution. It allows us to deploy specialists across disciplines, geographies and sectors. It allows us to embed advanced digital tools and artificial intelligence in our workflows. But the impact goes well behind operational leverage, scale changes the economics of the client relationship. When clients undertake multibillion dollar capital programs, they increasingly seek partners capable of supporting them across multiple phases of the investment cycle. From strategy and permitting through design, program management and execution our platform enabled us to participate more broadly engage earlier and remain involved longer. As a result, we are often competing for individual projects and increasingly for programs portfolios and long-term strategic relationship. And that distinction matters. Programmatic mandates tend to provide greater visibility, deeper client engagement and more opportunities to deploy the breadth of our expertise across the full WSP platform. And the benefit extends far beyond Power & Energy. A transmission investment will require environmental permitting, earth sciences, transportation, infrastructure, advisory services and program management. A data center project will require power buildings, water, transportation and environmental equities. A nuclear program will require geotechnical buildings, transportation, environmental, advisory and delivery capabilities. These are not separate opportunities. There are different dimensions of the same client challenge, and that is where scale becomes a strategic advantage. It allows us to capture a larger share of client spending, deepened relationship and create stronger opportunities for sustained growth over time. Above all, scale allows us to deliver with certainty. In today's environment, certainty has become one of the most valuable outcomes we can offer. Clients are being asked to execute increasingly complex multibillion-dollar programs, while skilled labor remains scarce. Supply chains remain constrained and regulatory requirements continue to grow. The whining execution gap is precisely what this platform was built to address. In other words, expertise create the advantage and scale multiplies it. Integration makes it very difficult to replicate. So let me close where I begin. This morning is not simply about Power & Energy. It is about strategy. It is about recognizing profound change before it becomes obvious, and it is about having the conviction to invest ahead of that change. Several years ago, we concluded that electrification, energy security and digital infrastructure were not independent trends. They were converging to create one of the most significant infrastructure investment cycle of our generation. We believe the future would require more than power generation, more than transmission, more resilient grids, more digital infrastructure and far greater execution capacity. So we acted, we invested $6 billion and EBITDA of WSP increased by 50% in the last 36 months. We expanded our capabilities. We strengthened our expertise and we build a platform designed for the opportunity we saw ahead. Today, we believe WSP is uniquely positioned at the intersection of those powerful sources or forces, I should say, not because we are making a bet on a particular technology, not because we are dependent on one market. But because we help clients build infrastructure that enables progress regardless of which technologies ultimately prevail. The next decade will be defined by the rebuilding of energy system, the modernization of grids, the expansion of digital infrastructure and the pursuit of great resilience across economies around the world. These investments will influence how societies grow, how industries compete and how innovation advances. Our conviction is straightforward. Organizations combine deep technical expertise, trusted relationship, multidisciplinary capabilities and global scale will help shape that future. We believe WSP is one of those organization, and we believe the decision we made years ago have positioned us to create durable value for our clients, our people and our shareholders. We are positioning WSP for the next decade. Thank you very much. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mike.

All right. Thank you, Alex. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I'm Mike Case, U.S. Power & Energy business line executive at WSP. Over the past 2 decades with WSP, I had the privilege of building my career in the power sector and help shaping the transformation of our Power & Energy business, including the integration of POWER Engineers and most recently, TRC. I'm pleased to be joined today by leaders from both organizations as we discuss the exciting future of our business. Before we begin in our discussion, I'd like to frame what we believe is the most compelling infrastructure investment opportunities in North America. The transformation of the U.S. power sector and WSP's unique position to capitalize on it. Simply put, the United States is entering a once-in-a-generation electric infrastructure super cycle. With our expanded platform that Alex just shared, deep technical expertise and market-leading client relationships, WSP is exceptionally well positioned to be the long-term leader in this market. So to set the scene, what is driving this super cycle. For decades, power demand in the U.S. was relatively flat. That dynamic has fundamentally changed. The rapid growth of data center is fueling AI, re-shoring in manufacturing, electrification of transit and buildings, grid modernization and energy security initiatives are driving unprecedented demand for new generation, transmission, distribution and large-scale program delivery services. As Alex mentioned, industry forecasts point to more than $1 trillion of utility capital investment through the end of the decade, creating sustained demand for engineering, advisory, environmental, digital and program management services. Starting with the grid itself. Much of the U.S. transmission and distribution network was built for a different load profile and a different climate. Grid modernization and expansion isn't discretionary spend. It's a multi-decade rate-based back investment cycle, and it's the most visible driver of utility capital plans today. Second, back to that demand growth. Data centers and energy [indiscernible] industry are adding loads faster than the interconnection queue can absorb it. These are creditworthy round-the-clock customers willing to sign long duration contracts and increasingly to pay for speed. The constraint has shifted from finding demand to finding deliverable power and whoever controls interconnect position, land and firm capacity controls the economics. Third, the generation mix is being re-optimized around location and dispatchability, not just cost per megawatt hour, intermittent resources, while still vital to meet the demand alone can't serve 24/7 load which is why gas storage, nuclear and behind the meter generation are all back in the investable set. Fourth, balancing affordability, reliability and economic growth are all factors that continue to fuel capital expenditures, facilities and developers in both the regulated and competitive landscape. A fundamental that is driving partnerships and long-term commitments to meet these increasingly challenging variables in the equation. The challenge facing the market is not simply building more infrastructure, its delivering increasingly complex capital portfolios faster with greater certainty while navigating regulatory, environmental, workforce and supply chain constraints. That challenge plays directly to WSP's strengths. With approximately 7,000 Power & Energy professionals across the United States, WSP has the scale, technical depth of expertise and geographical reach to capitalize on the accelerating investment in energy infrastructure and to meet this challenge. Together, WSP and TRC achieved the #1 position in U.S. E&R Power Rankings establishing a clear leadership position in the largest and fastest-growing power infrastructure market globally. Given the scale and duration of the U.S. power demand build-out, this creates a stronger platform for sustained growth and market share expansion. This position, combined with our leading position in Earth and environment provides a platform to deliver integrated solutions that are difficult to replicate and increasingly valuable to clients, such as a few trusted partners shown here. They're navigating this complex multiyear programs, and this position will help our clients meet the challenges of this power sector super cycle. Leveraging that integrated solutions platform, let's turn to whom we serve because the strength of our platform is matched by the [indiscernible] of this client base. Our core clients fall into four groups. First, utilities, which are largely the top 60 investor-owned utilities with significant sustained capital programs; second, project developers or independent power producers who pair real estate, finance, construction, our utility expertise with investor capital to bring projects to life. With competitive transmission solicitations across various regional transmission operators underway as well as the need for additional generation capacity to support the demand growth, the long-term investments to support these developments are strong. Third, grid and market operators, the entities that run the grid and the wholesale markets, but don't own generation or serve customers directly. And finally, EPC contractors who are often not the asset owner, but control design execution, delivery risk, schedule and subcontractor selection on major power projects, making them a gateway to large complex opportunities in many regions. What makes this client base so attractive is the nature of the work itself. These are large, complex, locally-infused projects with long-duration capital spends, immediate needs paired with a 5-plus year investment horizon. And critically, we can engage across the entire asset life cycle. Advisory, development, preconstruction, construction, operations and maintenance and ultimately, decommissioning and asset transition. That life cycle view is where our opportunity really compounds. Every entry point becomes a platform for the next. The chance to scale, to cross-sell and to link WSP's broader capabilities to our core power offering. That means faster delivery, real project synergies and more value for our clients, positioning us to lead with a truly integrated platform that matches what these clients actually need. With that backdrop, we'll now dive into our fireside chat, where I'm joined by Holger Peller, Global Director of our Power & Energy for WSP and former POWER Engineers President as well as Matt Green, Senior Vice President of Integrated Planning and Advisory with TRC. Holger, Matt, welcome.

Thank you, Mike. Good to be here.

To start, you both have lengthy careers and different [indiscernible] within Power & Energy. If you could please briefly share your background and what are you most excited about with regard to what WSP has assembled. Holger?

Yes. Thanks, Mike, for that overview of the WSP platform. That summary really put it into perspective. A little bit about me. I've been in the T&D space, my entire career. I started out as an engineer and did work hundreds of projects across the U.S. and internationally, primarily focused on substations, distribution, transmission line, as well as some hydro generation, natural gas generation and solar and wind. My focus has been large transmission line build-out always on the consultant side, working with our clients to deliver the significant infrastructure build-out required to support the expansion of the grid. What excites me most is less about the size and more about the capabilities that mirror the way you [indiscernible] executives think about their business. Utilities don't experience transmission, generation, customer programs, digital transformation, permitting or program delivery as separate challenges. They experience them as one interconnected challenge. WSP is now one of the few firms that can bring all those capabilities under one single roof.

Great. Thanks, Mike. My background is a bit different than Holger, but similarly, I've spent my entire career in T&D. I spent about 20 years on the utility side, working for a major U.S. utility. And I've had the opportunity to see the business from many different seats. I started as an engineer in transmission and grid planning, working on everything from connecting new load to major 500 kV transmission projects. From there, I led across planning, engineering and operations, energy procurement, strategy technology and ultimately served as our Chief Information and Digital Officer. For most of my career, I was the client, deciding what we needed to build, how we justified it and which partners we trusted to help us do it. Today, I lead our Energy Planning & Advisory Services business for TRC, a member of WSP. What excites me most about [indiscernible] assembled here is that we can help clients decide what to build, where, when and why and then bring engineering, environmental permitting and program delivery capabilities to execute it. That's exactly the kind of partner I would have wanted when I was sitting on the client side.

Great. Thank you both. Holger, what can WSP offer a major utility today that none of WSP power or TRC could have offered independently 3 years ago. How are clients expressing their needs right now? And how are we proactively responding?

Yes. The real differentiator is really not simply size. It's the ability to deliver the utility's entire transformation agenda through one partner. 3 years ago, a utility might have hired one firm to do transmission engineering, another for customer programs, another for environmental permitting another for digital modernization and another for program management. Today WSP can bring those capabilities together under a single accountable team, reducing interfaces, accelerating delivery and helping utilities respond to load growth grid modernization, electrification and data center demand at enterprise scale. We evolved from being a leading engineering consultant to becoming a strategic utility transformation partner.

I completely agree, Holger. And I'll add, it's not just what we can offer that's changed. The problems our clients are trying to solve have become increasingly more complex. Utilities are being asked to add enormous amounts of capacity, improve reliability and resilience and deal with real affordability pressure as customer bills rise faster than many customers can absorb. And those aren't independent problems. The obvious answer to capacity or resilience can make affordability worse. The lowest cost [indiscernible] may not provide the flexibility that's needed 5 or 10 years from now. So increasingly, clients are looking for help to understand the trade-offs and finding the investments that can solve multiple problems at once. At the same time, entirely new buyers are entering the market. Data centers, manufacturers and other large energy users are making decisions around siting, power supply, generation and grid infrastructure that has historically sat with large -- largely with utilities. That combination of more complex decisions and new decision makers creates a much bigger role for advisory, particularly when it's connected directly to the engineering and delivery capabilities that Holger discussed.

Great. Matt where have you already seen [indiscernible] change the conversation with clients or open opportunities that weren't previously accessible?

That's a great question, Mike, and I'm really excited about this. The biggest difference I've seen is that we're really being invited into a broader conversation with clients. Historically, we may have entered through a specific need, such as a transmission line or a planning study. Increasingly, though, we can engage while the client is still trying to understand the problem itself and the range of solutions that may be available, looking across transmission, distribution, generation, customer programs and even technology solutions rather than with a predetermined answer. That's becoming particularly important because of the sheer scale and complexity of the programs our clients are trying to deliver. They may have multiple engineering firms, environmental and permitting teams, program manager and internal organizations, all working on different pieces of the same problem. At some point what we are seeing is that the clients own capacity to integrate all of this becomes the constraint itself. Where I think the combination really changes the conversation in this intersection. The value isn't simply having more capabilities, its that we can take responsibility for connecting more of those pieces together rather than asking the client to serve as the integrator, and then we can bring those capabilities needed to actually execute the solution.

I agree with you, Matt. We can now engage utilities on questions such as -- how do I use technology, customer programs and grid investments together to manage explosive load growth. That's a broader and more strategic conversation than a traditional engineering scope.

Fantastic. Holger, as you look at what clients need over the next 5-plus years, which capabilities are hardest to replicate? And where does the combined WSP platform provide the greatest advantage?

Over the next decade, as Alex mentioned, the hardest capability for competitors is to replicate not just engineering talent alone. It will be the ability to integrate planning, regulatory strategy, environmental permitting, customer programs, digital grid modernization, program delivery, all into a single utility transformational platform. Most firms can excel in one or maybe two of these areas, very few can credibly bring all of that together at scale.

I completely agree Holger on the breadth of our capability and how critical that is. The second lens I would add is judgment. So theoretically, a utility may have 10 technically viable investments in front of it. And the harder question we're seeing lately is which of those, say, 3 out of the 10 should it actually build, in which sequence and why? Increasingly, those investments aren't solving one problem at a time. A product may need to address capacity, reliability and resilience simultaneously, and it may need to perform across multiple possible futures rather than a single forecast. So the differentiator isn't simply having all of these capabilities. It's having the experience and judgment to connect them, understanding the trade-offs and then have the technical depth that, that advice can actually be used to deliver. And that combination is really difficult to replicate.

Fantastic. I'd like to thank you both for a great conversation here this morning. I know it was brief. But if I may summarize what I've heard from you both as to what's next for WSP. We've assembled the capabilities to address what is a complex utility grid. We've matched our large program capabilities with our deep technical expertise. We've enhanced our capabilities to engage clients at an earlier, more strategic level, and finally, leveraging WSP's platform, we've truly created an end-to-end full life cycle platform for the industry and our clients. I can confidently share that is truly what excites the three of us about WSP's future. Again, thank you, Holger. Thank you, Matt. I'll now turn it back over to Quentin.

Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Holger. Thank you, Matt. Much appreciate it. I think it was a good fireside chat here. So approaching the end of the first section of today's teach-in. So we will actually take a short break, a 10-minute break. We will be back at 9:50 Eastern Time, 9:50 a.m. Thank you for tuning in, and we will be right back. [Break]

Thank you all. So welcome back. So we'll be kicking off with the second section of today's Teach-in. [Operator Instructions], and because a couple of people asked, there is a recording that will be made available and a transcript. So all documents will be on the Investor Section on WSP's website. So now we'll kick it off. So I'll pass it off to Steve. Thank you.

Thank you, Quentin, and good morning. My name is Steve Kiser, Senior Vice President, WSP's Global Energy Sector Lead for our Global Client program. I've been with WSP and serving the power market, my entire career, nearly 30 years in the industry. And I'd like to share a little bit about my role as the energy sector lead for our global client program because it shapes everything I'm going to share with you over the next few minutes. The Global Client Program is how WSP manages its most strategic relationships, the largest grid owners, utilities and energy companies in the world as a single global relationship rather than a collection of local projects. As the Energy Sector Lead for that program, my job is client-facing. I spend my time with the executives who own these capital plans, in their boardrooms, at their planning sessions and on their projects. That gives me something I think is generally valuable to this audience. I don't have to speculate about what our clients care about. I hear it directly, and I hear consistently across markets. I hear where they see growth. I hear what's keeping them awake at night. And I hear very candidly what they need from WSP that they aren't getting from anyone today. That feedback loop is how we decide where to invest, what capabilities to add and where the acquisitions of POWER Engineers and TRC fit into the picture. So what I want to do in this section is take you on to the grid. You've heard the market drivers and the platform story. This section is about the hardest part of the energy transition, moving the electrons. As we say, you can't have energy transition without transmission. The grid is where demand growth meets physical constraint and it is where the capital is going. So I'll cover four things. First, the growth engines, expanding our addressable market. Second, our combined platform lets us enter earlier in the project life cycle and stay longer. Third, how we leverage global relationships and global capability to deliver locally. And fourth is the proof who our clients are and what we're delivering for them right now. So let's start with the addressable market and how it's expanding, not just growing, but broadening. As I mentioned, I've been in this market for nearly 30 years, and I've never seen a market with this many expansion areas progressing simultaneously. First is new generation, every gas plant, every solar and wind farm, every new nuclear unit has to be connected. Generation gets the headlines, the grid work is the necessary condition for any of it to deliver a single megawatt hour. Second is the 765 kV backbone. This is the ultra-high voltage and it's reemerging as the answer to moving bulk power across long distances and relieving constrained regions. This is highly specialized work. Very few firms in the world have genuine 765 kV designed depth. Third is grid resiliency. It's extreme weather, wildfire risks and simply aging assets are driving sustained hardening, replacement and modernization programs heavily weighted to distribution. This is the most durable spend on the page because it's largely rate recoverable and doesn't depend on any one technology winning. Fourth is digital and security. Automation gives grid operators visibility and control they've never had, but every sensor and every control point expands the attack surface. Cyber resilient design is no longer a bolt-on, it's an integrated part of our engineering scope. But here's the important part. None of these is a stand-alone project type. Each one creates interconnected needs across planning, permitting, engineering, delivery and operations. Growth is moving beyond simply adding more assets toward building a stronger, smarter and more secure power system. And that shift favors firms who can work across the whole chain in highly specialized areas. As mentioned this morning, the combination of POWER Engineers, TRC and WSP has transformed our Power business, and here's where it changes. It is tempting to describe it as simply scale and scale clearly matters in a power grid market facing unprecedented investment. But as important for investors is that this combination changes WSP's position on the project life cycle. Many competitors participate in one or two parts of that chain, WSP can now compete differently. We can enter at the needs analysis stage before a route exists, before our budget is fixed and then stay with the client through commissioning and operations. That early entry is a real differentiator. For the client, that means risk is identified and priced into the project at feasibility not discovered in year 3. For WSP, it means we are positioned before the major capital decisions are locked-in. Early entry also creates relationships with the people that matter most over the long term. Trust earned during visibility, routing, community engagement and permitting is often what converts a single-line project into a broader program level seat at the table. And this is where our combined delivery platform is especially powerful together. So that is the growth thesis. Early entry, raises capture rates on every phase that follows, broader scope increases revenue per relationship and longer participation makes that revenue more durable, leading parts uniquely integrated. That is what is hard to replicate. The message is clear, early entry, broader scope, longer participation and a more advantaged position in one of the world's most attractive infrastructure markets. But integration only matters if the client feels it locally. So this is the operating model that carries that capability to the job site, local delivery, enhanced by global expertise. It's the same local staff in front of the regulator consistently over time, with the depth of a global firm standing behind them. Now later on, what almost no one else can bring. Through our strategic partnership with PowerGrid India, we have genuine 765 kV ultra-high-voltage depth drawn from one of the largest 765 networks in the world. That shows up as a technical credential edge, peer reviews, standards refinement and first-of-a-kind problem-solving on the projects where getting it wrong is expensive. Only a handful of firms can [indiscernible] that and we bring it without sending the work away. Behind that sits our global Subject Matter Expert Network and our global capability centers or GCCs in a constrained talent market, they give us surge capacity, specialty expertise, independent peer review and standards assurance on demand. And critically, they are an owned, integrated part of WSP, not a subcontracted vendor bench. Same system, same standards, same quality system. So let me be direct about the question this usually raises. This is not off-shoring. Execution, design, leadership and accountability stay local. Global team support and augment and the GCC model improves our win rates by making us both faster and more competitively priced. We have the ability to take on and win more work given that ability to scale quickly. As one of our clients put it, "an electron in the U.S. is the same as electron in Paris, London or Sydney, the physics travel". So we bring proven global solutions to local problems. That differentiated offering has positioned WSP strongly with the largest grid owners in the world. So what you're looking at is the top 15 power delivery companies globally ranked by 5-year planned capital expenditure, shown by home country and development territory, client names remove for confidentiality. The largest runs to roughly $100 billion and every one of them is above USD 45 billion. Taken together, these 15 capital plans represent more than $1 trillion of planned spend over the next 5 years, effectively where the world's grid capital is being deployed. Now only 14 of these 15 companies are WSP clients. So we are already well positioned inside more than $950 billion of that $1 trillion opportunity. And these are not transactional relationships. Every 1 of these 14 sits within WSP's Global Client Program, meaning the relationship is strategic, governed at the executive level, with account leadership and a coordinated global team rather than project by project. The majority of these relationships span 15 years or more through multiple rate cases, multiple capital plans and multiple leadership teams. And that combination is a differentiator. Being in the Global Client Program gives us visibility into these programs long before the work goes to market, a seat in the planning conversation, and an incumbent position that is genuinely hard for a competitor to displace. Depth of relationship is what converts a published capital plan and to booked repeatable work. And note that this client base spans North America, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain and beyond, and we serve them with global scale but deliver locally. So what does that position actually look like in practice. These three programs are where it becomes real, multibillion-dollar capital plans and 15-year client relationships translated into named, funded work on the ground. And each one, an incumbent relationship got us in early, and our full life cycle capability kept us there for the life of the program, rather than a single phase. First on the list is the Propel New York Energy Project. So it's a $3.3 billion program with permitting, engineering, program management and community outreach for 90 miles of underground and submarine cables plus 3 new substations. This is the full arch I described earlier on one of the most complex urban corridors in North America. Second is the Champlain Hudson Power Express where WSP provided environmental, permitting and delivery support for a 339-mile HVDC link, bringing Quebec Hydropower in to Astoria, Queens. This project provides almost 20% of the power to New York City and was just energized this year. Third is Svenska Kraftnat in Sweden. This is a framework agreement across 5 expertise areas with cross-border WSP delivery across 5 different countries and running up to 11 years. Long duration frameworks like this are the shape of things to come, the client isn't buying a project, they're buying capacity. So let me leave you with the four things that position WSP strongly for growth in the PowerGrid market. First is the spending environment. We're seeing record-setting capital spend across the grid. And critically, this sits inside a cost recovery framework. This is durable, multiyear demand with visibility we rarely get in this industry. Second this is not a generic infrastructure market. It is a highly specialized one, and that specialization is exactly where WSP wins, whether it's a 765 transmission, digital solutions, intelligent grid or distribution resilience. Third is our integrated platform, we enter earlier and we stay longer from planning, siting and permitting, all the way through engineering, hardening and operations. Getting into the front end shapes the scope and the back end gives us recurring work long after the build. That's how a single project becomes a decade-long client relationship. Fourth, we can deliver it at scale. The PowerGrid 765 partnership and our GCC ramp-up give us global capacity to convert demand into repeatable multiyear client programs without capacity becoming a constraint on growth. So the takeaway is simple. Funded visible demand, a specialized market that plays to our strengths, a platform that extends revenue per client across the full life cycle and the delivery capacity to scale it profitably. That combination is what underpins our confidence in the durable above-market growth in PowerGrid. And with that, I thank you for listening, and I'll turn it over to Paul Compton.

Thank you, Steve. Good morning, and welcome. I'm Paul Compton, I'm Senior Vice President of Project Development for WSP's Generation team. Over the past 35 years, I've had the opportunity to work across the engineering, the procurement and construction of major power generation facilities. And throughout my career, I have never seen a market with a level of opportunity and the investment and transformation that we're experiencing today. It is truly a special time to be in our industry, working on projects that move the needle, supporting the next generation of power projects. As mentioned previously, WSP is uniquely advancing these technologies and projects forward. Power sector is entering multi-decade growth cycle by AI, data centers, electrification with electricity demand expected to grow at approximately 3.6% annually through 2030. Meeting that demand will require significant investment across multiple technologies from generation, storage, transmission, grid modernization, creating an estimated $4 trillion in global market opportunity. Now reliability remains a critical focus, driving continued investment in thermal generation, nuclear energy storage alongside of renewables. Increasingly, these utilities aren't the only ones having to own their own power delivery and reliable uptime. Customers are managing their own power mix and building complex behind the meter, all of the above strategies. Ultimately, market availability of small nuclear technologies will be a significant disruptor for the Power & Energy business. For WSP, these market dynamics align directly with our capabilities across engineering, project delivery, grid modernization and strategic consulting, positioning us to participate across a full spectrum of power infrastructure investments worldwide. What's fundamentally different about today's power market is the composition of load growth. This isn't being driven by a single sector or speculative generation development like we saw in 2000s. We're seeing multi-demand drivers occurring simultaneously. AI and data centers are certainly the most visible. They're bringing very large concentrated loads with extraordinary requirements for reliability and speed to power. But that's only one part of the story. At the same time, we're seeing re-shoring, advanced manufacturing semiconductors, LNG and other industrial loads, along with continued electrification and transportation, buildings and industrial processes. And then there's the fourth driver that is equally important, grid reliability, coal retirements, the continued addition of intermittent renewable generation, our aging infrastructure and extreme weather are creating the need for additional firm capacity before we account for new load growth. So the key takeaway is that it's -- this is no longer simply a generation market. It is becoming a much broader power infrastructure investment cycle, requiring utility scale generation, behind the meter power, renewables, storage, transmission, grid modernization and controls. The breadth is what makes this current market, particularly significant for WSP. We can participate across virtually the entire power value chain from early development and permitting through engineering, owners engineering services, transmission and ultimately, execution. So what differentiates WSP is the breadth of our power generation capabilities. Our ability to support a project from concept to finishing. We operate across virtually every major segment of the generation market, firm dispatchable thermal generation, renewables, energy storage, nuclear and carbon capture. That breadth is increasingly important because of the future power systems. It's not going to be built around a single technology. Our clients are developing integrated portfolios that combine gas generation, renewables, storage, increasingly nuclear and carbon capture to deliver affordable low carbon power. Equally important is the breadth of the services we bring to these markets. We can engage at the very beginning of a project, helping a client evaluate a site, we can select the technology, establish cost and schedule, assess feasibility and develop the project strategy. As the project advances, we transition into an owner's engineer procurement and EPC support. We act as engineer of record and detailed engineering program and project management and ultimately construction and commissioning support. So rather than participating in just one piece of that value chain, WSP has the capability to remain with our clients throughout the entire investment life cycle from concept to commissioning. That creates opportunities for long-duration client relationships, larger and more diverse scopes of work and the ability to bring expertise from across WSP to increasingly complex generation projects. This illustrates how the power solution for large data centers are changing. Increasingly, these facilities are being developed with their own behind-the-meter ecosystem, rather than just relying solely on the utility grid. Firm thermal generation provides reliable baseload while solar and renewable and battery storage add flexibility and resiliency. The key is the energy management system, which allows these technologies to work together continuously balancing generation, storage and data center loads and the connection to the utility grid. For WSP, this represents a very important evolution in our market. The opportunity is shifting from designing individual assets to designing integrated entire power ecosystems. We bring together our generation, our renewables, storage, transmission, controls, environmental and mission-critical capabilities into an integrated solution. And more importantly, this isn't conceptual. We're already working on leading edge of this market. This project, WSP continues to incorporate technologies such as carbon capture to meet today's generation requirements as illustrated here in one of the largest combined cycle, carbon capture projects in North America using Mitsubishi Advanced Gas Turbines and Mitsubishi Carbon Capture technology. Blue Energy, WSP has been supporting Blue Energy in a first-of-a-kind gas-to-nuclear modulized power plant near the Port of Victoria. The project will utilize GE Vernova HA.02 gas turbine technology and GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 small nuclear reactors. Again, this is leading-edge project showcases WSP's full complement of technology expertise when it comes to power generation. Guernsey Project. WSP provided complete detailed design for this 3-unit combined cycle power project, one of the largest at 1,875 megawatts using highly efficient advanced gas turbine technology. Additionally, WSP's power delivery team designed and executed a 765 kV transmission line and substation. This project received Power Magazine's top plan of the year at the time of execution. So let me close with four key takeaways. First, unprecedented demand growth and technology diversification supports WSP's full complement of services. Second, WSP brings extensive thermal expertise to programs powering both data center energy parks and utility scale generation. Third, our ability to design and deliver complex energy management schemes aligns closely with the evolving needs of behind-the-meter applications. And finally, the generation expansion we are seeing today in the United States is a leading indicator of the broader growth we expect across global power markets. Taken together, this is a significant long duration opportunity for WSP, one that plays directly to our breadth of our capabilities and our ability to support clients from concept to commissioning. With that, I'll turn it over to Sara.

Thank you, Paul. Good morning. I'm Sara Michaels, and I lead our Program Management sector for Power & Energy. Paul, I really like that second to the last takeaway you had about how WSP's ability to design and deliver complex solutions for our clients. That's exactly what I'm here to talk about, how we deliver complex programs at scale for our clients. I'm excited to share with you how we are seeing the needs of our clients evolving and how WSP is well positioned to help our clients with the challenges they are facing. Before we dive in here, though, I thought I'd share a story with you. Earlier this year, we hosted our annual Power Delivery Design Conference that draws attendees for many of the large utilities. For the first time this year, we added a program management focused workshop, to give our clients a chance to meet with their peers and share what they're seeing ahead as it relates to project delivery. Some of the visuals in the presentations they gave were telling. One client had a visual of a posted note monster chasing him in his dreams and the other a visual of a cart at the top of a roller coaster about to drop. This is how our clients described they felt until they engaged WSP for program management services. My colleagues have done a great job sharing how the capital spend in our industry is increasing. But it's not just the fact that the spend is increasing -- it's that the spend is taking the form of large multiyear capital programs and mega projects. Even small execution errors can materially impact company performance when you're dealing with multibillion-dollar portfolios. Not every capital project is created equal. Small routine projects can use light touch oversight with exception-based governance. Midsize projects need centralized functional support and standard stage gate reviews. But these major multibillion dollar projects demand a dedicated integrated team with a multitiered governance structure. These are first of kind programs for our clients, and the governance to run them doesn't exist yet. That's the gap. Our clients need a structure that protects their investment without slowing delivery, and building that is where we come in. Here on the right, you can see that in April, S&P increased their CapEx forecast to roughly $1.3 trillion. You've heard that statistic earlier today. But that was an 11% increase in the prior forecast they had developed just 4 months earlier. Capital plans are growing and shifting faster than utility organizations can adapt and the projects are at a scale that most utilities have not seen before, creating a widening execution gap, greater complexity coupled with greater urgency, increases the value of an integrated proven execution partner. In addition to scale, schedule compression is adding complexity to project delivery. Our clients are being tasked with delivering projects faster than ever before. You can see here a comparison of the traditional linear execution model compared to becoming -- compared to what is becoming the new normal, the nonlinear model. In the traditional model, everything runs in sequence. But the nonlinear model, activities overlap throughout the life cycle, finishing in this case, 25% faster, but introducing two key risks to the project. This new execution model requires more execution planning and governance, coordination, strategic contracting, proactive risk management, documented change management, early stakeholder involvement and digital tools that keep everyone aligned and enable to make critical decisions. These fundamentals aren't yet standard at even mature utility PMOs and it's causing them to seek partners for help. This is exactly why we built POWER360. It's our AI-enabled program management platform. [Audio Gap] digit growth with first-of-kind projects in terms of complexity and scale. Utilities, even those that have mature PMOs, don't have the resources to do this work in-house and can't keep up with how quickly their capital plans are evolving. Project in-service dates are pushing the need to complete projects and time lines that have never been done before to meet demand. These complexities are breaking the traditional procurement models, and forcing utilities to look for partners that can deliver end-to-end solutions. The integrated delivery partner model. This is a model that started in the U.K. on large infrastructure projects. Following its success, it spread to the U.S. initially through the transportation industry. This model gained traction because it shifted relationships from traditional adversarial vendor contracts to fully integrated collaborative teams. We're now seeing this model be deployed within the Power & Energy industry with the largest utilities. This diagram here is meant to illustrate how in this model we integrate with our client to fill the gaps in the program life cycle and work as a team. Each client is a little different and will want their resources engage where they have strengths, but we'll need support in others. And oftentimes, what we find, we see these engagements evolve over the life of a program and some of those gray boxes to red. The good news here is that this model is not new to WSP. We've been doing it for decades with our T&I business, and we have expertise and resources throughout the entire life cycle from planning to close out, so we can be a one-stop shop for our clients. This map here illustrates the program management engagement WSP has or is currently delivering. As noted on the past slide, WSP has decades of program management experience in transportation and infrastructure, the dark red bubbles on this map. Our Power & Energy engagements are in the lighter red. If you had looked at this map just 1 year to 2 years ago, the number and scale of the P&E programs would have been less prevalent on the map. The takeaway is simple. This isn't a capability we're building. It's a capability we already have proven at scale. With decades major program delivery behind us and a rapidly growing P&E footprint, WSP is positioned today to step in as a delivery partner for our clients' largest and most complex programs. So why is this so exciting? Program management engagements like this delivery partner model evolve the relationships with our clients. It changes our engagements from transactional project by project awards to engagements across the full asset life cycle from early planning through construction and operations. Instead of getting engaged after key planning decisions are already made, we have a seat at the table. Instead of competitively bidding each phase of work, we have long-term engagements. And instead of our scope being limited to only design and engineering deliverables, we now have expanded scope and it can include higher-value services like advisory and planning. This shift expands WSP's addressable revenue per program, trading its actual design fees for long-term partnerships. So our key takeaways, this is exciting. Utility capital spend is outrunning their ability to execute projects. The scale and complexity of the projects on the horizon have grown beyond what traditional execution models can handle. Integrated delivery partner model will help close the gap that utilities have in project execution and presents an attractive revenue stream for WSP. WSP is uniquely positioned to support our clients, due to our extensive program management experience, the skill of our team and our breadth of expertise throughout the entire project life cycle. And now I'd like to hand it over to Karen.

Good morning, and thanks to Sara for that great overview on program management, and that leads perfectly into our discussion on nuclear power projects, of which many -- most of them are large projects or mega projects. I'm Karen Fritz, Senior Vice President of the nuclear market in Canada. I could not be more thrilled to be speaking to you today about the growth of nuclear around the world. I spent the last 27 years in the industry, 25 of those with the utility, and at the end of the day, my job was to make clean electricity and do a lot of fun projects with a large team of nuclear professionals, and I truly love doing that every day. But I remember in the early years of my career, I almost left the industry altogether with aging plants and reactor layups and little funding to invest in asset management. How times have changed. I hear all the time from my peers working in nuclear that we wish we were in our 20s again and just starting out, so we could spend the next 25 years building the next generation of power plants. I'm so envious of the young people getting into the industry now. At WSP, I'm proud to be leading this market in Canada as we grow in this space to meet global demand for the future. The global growth in nuclear power happening right now and expected to continue through the coming decades is unlike anything we've seen in 50 years, the restarts, refurbishments, new builds, and exploration of new technologies is moving forward with the support of government, private investments and first-of-a-kind mega project successes being delivered ahead of schedule and under budget. The first SMR in Canada is currently under construction, building on the foundation of a lesson learned and robust readiness processes. And countries all over the world, even in regions where nuclear has never been deployed are exploring new sites, and they're working with experienced regulators and putting plans in place to eventually operate their own generating stations. Nuclear is a carbon-free energy solution that provides reliable baseload power needed not only for energy security but to support future economic growth across industries and we are seeing regulatory bodies and governments making changes to shorten the time to deployment, and we see private industries challenging the way nuclear has always been deployed in the past. And they are also getting ready to help with engineering mega project management, innovative data solutions and supply chain certainty. WSP has over 1,000 professionals working directly to support the nuclear industry. Our strong Nuclear Centers of Excellence are in 4 regions: the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Sweden. Our teams in these 4 regions work closely together to create a global service for clients who are at different phases in their nuclear development. In fact, I don't think there's a week that goes by where I'm not talking to leaders in those 4 countries. As part of our nuclear growth, our regions are moving to secure robust nuclear quality engineering programs, that are required to support nuclear safety-related scope and build out our skill sets and capabilities. In the U.S., our team operates under an established [indiscernible] program. Canada is developing a CSA-N299 program, and the U.K. is beginning to stand up their program. Our Swedish team has worked with nuclear utilities as a long-term partner as well. This growth will further solidify our future in the nuclear industry with nuclear engineering and training academies to embed nuclear safety culture securely in our company. As large new greenfield projects are developed, cross-sector skills are needed that are not necessarily nuclear-specific. Together with our team of nuclear experienced leaders, WSP can deliver commercially viable solutions that contribute to the cost effectiveness that is required in future nuclear deployment. As the nuclear industry readies itself for construction of both large and small modular reactors around the world with a large focus right here in North America, WSP is well suited to be a partner in these projects. In North America alone, we are involved in siting and environmental support for over 25 new small and large reactor development projects. And in the U.K., a WSP team has been embedded with our client to lead the [indiscernible] consents and permits with a team of professionals embedded with the client for over the last 10 years to manage this complex process. When you look at a new nuclear power plant site, whether it's 50 acres or 1,500 acres, WSP provides core services related to greenfield and brownfield development for these large civil nuclear projects. Every power plant needs transmission connection and switch yards with emergency power systems. WSP through the acquisition of POWER Engineers is the leading engineer in North America providing these services. Every nuclear generating station needs buildings, infrastructure, water treatment and water intake. These are all core services for us in our nuclear, industrial, power and energy, transportation and environment teams. And aside from the reactor island, nuclear power plants are like any other power plant that uses steam, water, air and hydraulic systems. WSP designs these balance of plant systems and energy projects all over the world, with WSP's growth strategy to strengthen our Nuclear Engineering Service, we can be a key integrator on these sites. And with global collaboration across sectors, WSP is well suited to partner with nuclear deployment leaders. Looking at our 4 sectors, they contribute significantly to the industry. Earth & Environment leads our environmental support, licensing, site due diligence, geotechnic and seismic work. Power & Energy delivers balance of plant design, owners engineering and program management. Property & Building Specialty is large greenfield master planning, modular designed through [indiscernible] of parts and design of buildings, and Transportation & Infrastructure covers water, surveying and transportation logistics. Some new power plants may need new ports and marine work and equipment delivery by barge. Some may need rail lines to deliver large equipment, and that's commonly used in the nuclear industry. Our Advisory & Planning team also covers technology evaluation site selection and planning, and that will help our clients meet the best investment decisions. Let's talk about why we win work. WSP is successful in leading the start of the nuclear life cycle. And as we sit at the front end, we're citing, licensing and permitting decisions are being made. Front-end positions convert into multiyear design and construction support programs, and QA-1 qualification and world-class seismic and geotechnical expertise limit the competitor set. One integrated offer across the full life cycle, repeatable across every client program management and the ability to deliver large capital infrastructure projects is what sets WSP apart. So Alex showed a similar diagram at the beginning of today. In addition to WSP's involvement in new nuclear site development, we are also engaged in services to -- directly to the power generating stations and ancillary facilities clients. Nuclear fuel production of course, is incredibly important for power plant operation, and we are seeing growth in this area with expansions and advanced fuel production to meet future demand. We support the development and maintenance of these fuel production sites with design, permitting and ongoing environmental support and monitoring. Inside the power plant and the protected area of these stations supports design optimization through our kit of parts design team and can support design of balance of plant systems with expertise in steam turbines, water systems, mechanical and control design and structural design. WSP also carries out significant scope related to source surveillance globally, supporting the manufacturing quality requirements for nuclear materials, including turbine and generator systems, reactor components and steam generators. As the demand for nuclear components increases and manufacturing shops increased their output nuclear quality professionals are a key role in the supply chain process. WSP has long been involved as a trusted adviser and consultant in radioactive waste management particularly in remediation and environmental support for these facilities, including long-term used fuel storage in deep geological repositories. We are the engineering integrator on the Canadian DGR in Ontario, having worked with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization in Canada for over 20 years. The nuclear industry's vital contribution to health care is not always widely recognized or even known. Nuclear technology enables the production of medical isotopes used to sterilize hospital equipment and for diagnostic imaging and treatment of cancer through targeted radiation therapies. WSP supports clients across the medical isotope value chain by engineering the specialized facilities and infrastructure required to deliver these life-saving treatments. Outside the regulated area of the station, WSP is a leading provider of switchyards, substations and transmission lines and have supported power and transmission clients all over the world in the areas of advisory, design and owner's engineer. And lastly, let's talk about the M in SMR. Modularization or building a kit of parts. A kit of parts is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of designing every nuclear facility as a one-off, we design a catalog of standardized, repeatable building blocks, 3D modules, 2D assemblies and components that are designed, proven and then implemented across a program. So we don't simply design a building for one project. we designed with the goal of deploying multiple buildings from a first of a kind to the [indiscernible] kind. And at WSP, this work lives in our kit of parts center of excellence in the U.K. That team is connected to our teams globally. So we're designing for manufacturing and assembly rather than designing for construction on a single site. And why does that matter for nuclear? There are three reasons. First off, it shifts the work. Labor hours move off the construction site and into a controlled manufacturing shop where quality, safety and schedule are managed differently and repeatability is achievable. Second, it shifts the mindset from project to program. When the design is standardize across regions, you stop reengineering the same thing over and over. Fewer changes, fewer approvals, less risk and a learning curve that compounds. Unit 5 is less expensive than 1. Unit 10 sees more efficiencies in cost and schedule. Third, this is what the industry needs. The nuclear build-out ahead of us, SMRs in particular, depends on mass deployment and proof that nuclear can be built on time and on budget. You cannot deploy at that scale with bespoke design. Standardization is the path to credible, repeatable cost and schedule. In short, the kit of parts is how we turn nuclear from a series of mega projects into a manufacturing program. Thank you for listening today about how WSP is growing in nuclear. And with that, I'll turn it over to Quentin.

Thank you, Karen, and thank you to the whole team for the great presentations. So in terms of where we are in the agenda today, so we will now take a 15-minute break, and then we will follow the financial update from Alain Michaud, our CFO; and then closing remarks by our CEO, Alexandre L'Heureux. So in terms of logistics, it's 10:40 right now. So we will be back at 10:55 a.m. Eastern. And as a reminder, we will also have our Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]. So again, we will be back at 10:55 a.m. Eastern. Thank you. [Break]

All right. Welcome back, everyone, and thank you again for participating to our Power & Energy Teach-in today. Before I get into the financial update, let me start with the broader context. We are operating in a dynamic environment, geopolitically, economically and technologically. For WSP, this environment reinforces the value of our model, our scale diversification and exposure to long-term structural trends matter even more in this evolving landscape. We are not dependent on one geography, one client group or one end market, and that gives us resilience, flexibility and confidence as we look ahead. With that context, as we are about to close today's event, I want to leave you with the message that matters most. WSP is performing from a stronger base, scaling in high-growth market, expanding margin, and we are confident in our ability to deliver our 2027 financial targets. The opportunity we discussed this morning are not theoretical or emerging opportunities they are already deeply embedded within WSP. Throughout today's presentations, you've heard about the unprecedented investments taking place across power generation, nuclear transmission, distribution, grid modernization, energy security and electrification. Power & Energy is a great source of opportunity for WSP and it's gaining more relevance across WSP as well. In fact, as electrification becomes increasingly central to how assets are designed, built and operated, it broadens the opportunity set across our market and discipline reinforcing the unique advantage of WSP's multidisciplinary platform. Financially, Power & Energy is generating double-digit organic growth and is contributing positively to our overall adjusted EBITDA margin. Based on the depth of client demand, the scale of investment underway and the strength of our integrated platform we do not see that momentum changing. When we combine Power & Energy with mining, digital, water, data centers, advanced manufacturing and health care. We see a strong portfolio of high-growth area. These businesses are delivering strong organic growth today and positioning WSP well for the future. Turning to our overall business. Looking at the first half of the year, two things stands out, versus 1 year ago, the momentum is better and our confidence is stronger. And this is still true today. For example, Q2 was marked by several positives, an acceleration in organic growth versus 2025, significant recruitment effort aligned with demand, backlog at a record level of $20 billion, growing organically by 6%, the highest level we've seen since 2022, and it was also marked by a solid execution with 90 basis points of margin improvement. Let me now take you through what we are seeing across our region. In Canada, demand remains healthy across transportation, energy, building, mining and critical infrastructure, including defense. The recent Canada Investment Summit, where we were an active contributor, points to the level of ambition and opportunity we continue to see in the Canadian market. In the Americas, starting with the United States, market conditions are strong across our priority sectors. That includes many of the themes discussed today as well as data center, water and advanced manufacturing, for example. Emergency Response Services have not contributed at the same level as in prior years, and with September almost behind us, historical trends indicate what to expect for the balance of the year. Our market-leading Infrastructure & Environmental businesses are well anchored in structural demand and recruitment remains active. However, project conversion is progressing at a more measured pace than anticipated, reflecting timing rather than any change in demand, strategy, competitiveness or long-term earnings power. In Latin America, our Mining business, which represents a sizable portion of our operation is performing well, supported in part by strong demand around copper mining. Turning to EMEIA. The business continues to perform ahead of expectations, led by the U.K., which represent about half of the region. In the Nordics, markets have improved, and we feel better about the outlook than we did 1 year ago. In the Middle East, despite the geopolitical environment and its related effects, the impact on our overall business has been limited. Lastly, in APAC, Australia is performing slightly ahead of plan with a healthy backlog, partially offsetting lower public spending in New Zealand. So in summary, our diversified business is delivering, and we are comfortably tracking within our most recent outlook. The fundamentals of the business are strong. Our expertise and client relationships are solid, and our strategic positioning is increasingly relevant. In early 2025, we set ambitious financial goals. Net revenue growth of 40%, EBITDA growth of 50%, EPS growth of 60% and free cash flow growth of 70%. Today, we remain on track to meet each of those targets by the end of '27. And based on our execution so far in 2025 and 2026, we see a path to reach our 19% to 20% EBITDA margin target range 1 year earlier than planned. Thank you for your continued confidence. And with that, over to you, Alex.

Thank you, Alain. Let me bring this back to where we started this morning. I opened by telling you that a little more than 3 years ago, we reached a simple conclusion that the world was entering a period of infrastructure investment unlike anything we had seen in generation. Not just an energy transition, not just a digital transformation, but the conversion of both. Everything you have heard since is evidence. Mike showed you the market for decades, power demand in the United States was flat. That era is over, data centers, re-shoring, electrification, grid modernization, energy security all of it arriving at once. More than $1 trillion of utility capital investment through the end of the decade. And WSP is entering that market with approximately 7,000 Power & Energy professionals in the U.S., the #1 position in DNR rankings. Steve took you on to the grid because you cannot have an energy transition without transmission. He showed you the top 15 grid owners in the world and more than $1 trillion of planned grid capital between them. And 14 of those 15 are WSP clients. The majority of those relationships running 15 years or more. That is not a pipeline that is a position. Paul showed you our power generation capabilities, a market growing at roughly 4% a year to 2030, a $4 trillion global opportunity and a structural change in how power gets built, behind the meter, co-located integrated. This is not a forecast, that is happening now. Sara showed you the execution gap. Capital plans are growing faster than utilities can absorb them. The projects are first of kind for our clients. The schedules are compressed and the traditional delivery models are breaking. That is precisely the gap, the integrated delivery partner model closes and it is a model we have been running in Transportation for decades. And Karen showed you our Nuclear capabilities, a generational growth cycle, unlike anything in 50 years, over 1,000 WSP professionals, 4 Centers of Excellence more than 25 reactors development projects in North America and the kit-of-parts approach that turns nuclear from a series of mega projects into a manufacturing program. Now step back and look at what those five sections have in common. None of them is a bet on the technology. Every one of them is a bet on infrastructure. The infrastructure that has to be built regardless of which generational technology ultimately prevails. That is the point I ask you to hold on from the beginning, integrated services, global scale, full value chain. Expertise create the advantage. Scale multiplies it. Integration is what makes it very difficult to replicate. A competitor can build depth in one discipline. It is far harder to build cross-discipline expertise, regulatory credibility, client trust and delivery capacity across the entire life cycle, from needs, analysis and permitting through engineering and program management all the way through energization and operation, we invested $6 billion. The amount is not the key. The timing is. And today, that platform sits inside the capital plans that are funding the grid, the generation fleet and the nuclear build-out for the next decade. The next decade will be defined by the rebuilding of Energy Systems, the modernization of grids, the expansion of digital infrastructure and the pursuit of resilience across economies around the world. We are positioning WSP for the next decade. Thank you very much. And we will now move on to the Q&A period. Thank you.

Thank you, Alex. We will just set up for the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]. I think we received a long list of questions. So we also combine a couple of them just for efficiency. So we'll kick it off. So thank you, everyone, for being present and joining the Q&A session. So the first question is related to really the concept of Integrated Services and what it entails? That concept of everything under one roof to support the power sector and also the relationship in terms of procurement, dealing with clients, their behavior, their expectations. So I think it would be great to provide some color there. Alex, maybe you want to redirect the question?

Maybe Holger, Matt and Mike, you want to take this one?

Yes, sure. I don't think we're everything to every client. I think every client is in a different place in their journey. So some clients are coming to us for just one specialty that we have, but others really have a much bigger platform and program that they have to execute, and that model doesn't work anymore. It's not efficient enough. It doesn't give the sale and the speed that they need. So those clients are the ones that we now can offer the entire platform too. So it's -- each client is kind of in a different part of their journey. And so I think what they're asking from us for is a little different.

Yes. From a procurement strategy perspective, obviously, the entire full life cycle service offering is not built for everyone, but we are seeing a fundamental shift in our clients looking at that delivery partnership and looking at opportunities to really bring together everything that the WSP platform can entail. And ultimately, we met with a utility executive shortly after the TRC acquisition. And yes, you could look at that as a potential risk, but they actually looked at it as an opportunity to really lock in the engineering resources that are necessary to build and engineer what's coming ahead of us in the super cycle that we talked about. So really, those executives are changing their mindset when it comes to how they procure -- and ultimately, to your point, Holger, it doesn't mean they have to procure at all, and we have those various end points into the organization and the delivery services that we can offer.

Yes. And maybe to add to that, Mike and Holger. My other observation, and I know we spoke about this a bit earlier today is that the industry is experiencing unprecedented growth, once in a generation really growth in energy infrastructure. And our clients are necessarily wire to be able to meet the moment of that type of scale. And so for us, integration means a single point of accountability, a combined data model and fewer handoffs and really simplified transactions for our clients. And oftentimes, that's exactly what our clients really need because they have not yet reorganized around the nature of the scale that they're dealing with. The other reality is that not every client needs every service, and that's completely fine and advantage of having such a comprehensive platform, is even our functional services we offer are able to look upstream and downstream and providing better insights on how to fit in the complex programs. And ultimately, if you're looking for just a single service, you're going to end up with better specialists on that program.

Yes. And if I could just add to what was said, it's we're not trying to be at every stage of the life cycle. So we are in permitting and planning, we are in geotech work, but we do not take construction risk, we do not operate assets. So I think that for an investment thesis standpoint, it's important to remember, WSP, we don't aspire to play in every step of the way

To add to that and to echo what you just said. And I also -- in a time where capacity is constrained and speed and certainty are what's probably one of the most crucial aspect of a project having an integrated approach is a great solution to provide that certainty to our clients.

Thank you all. Very informative. So we'll move to the second question. So regarding larger and more integrated client mandates. How has the addition of TRC changed the nature of conversations you're having with utilities and infrastructure owners?

I'll go ahead and start that conversation. So ultimately, with the addition of TRC, we're seeing an expanded service offering to mainly our utility and developer clients around distribution, additional services around testing and commissioning, really that full end-to-end, Paul said earlier concept to commissioning as well within the TRC, we're adding capabilities of intelligent grid solutions, so more of a digital offering in that space as well that ultimately, our clients are looking at that. And that opens up the buyers within our clients and really our ability as an organization to really kind of marry those service offerings across the buyers within our clients as well, too. But Matt, what have you been hearing on your side relative to the addition?

Mike, totally agree to everything that you said. And the breadth and depth of our capabilities are incredible and truly unmatched in the industry. And it's just exciting to be able to have these kind of conversations now with clients. Actually, I was speaking with a client just last month about about our new combined platform and all the services that we could offer. And the client basically said that they're choosing firms that have these types of capabilities exclusively going forward because, they just don't have the capacity to be able to pick and choose amongst different service offerings. So it's just really exciting. The other observation that I've seen is that is that we now have access to some new markets and clients where we didn't otherwise engage, including, say, transportation clients that are dealing with a tremendous amount of aging energy infrastructure that we're able to now help them serve.

Matt, as you're talking, you keep going like this. And in that workshop that I talked about at the conference we had, that's what our client said, they've got to close the scenes to deliver these programs. And so I thought it was fun. You're visually showing what that delivery model provides.

Good. Thank you. We'll move on to the next question. on nuclear, which is a very popular topic today. So Karen, most likely for you. So nuclear feature prominently today, I'd like to know how we see nuclear fitting within the broader power landscape over the next decade?

Yes. Thank you, Quentin. Thanks for the question. So nuclear is baseload power. So baseload power is important because the economic drivers that we're seeing with data centers, but also not only keeping the lights on, but keeping the most important services on in every country is important throughout weather events and energy security, people rely on electricity from nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants are designed not to cycle up and down. They're not reactive to the market. They are designed for baseload power. So all the other energy solutions that are on the market and will come on the market, they will play their part, and they will cycle up and down, and they will all provide what we need. But in terms of nuclear, it is baseload. The second thing is that it's clean. So it is a carbon-free power generating solution. And that will contribute to countries, global and climate goals around the world. The third thing is that for nuclear, they have some unique solutions. So we have large nuclear maybe, call it, over 1,000 megawatts. We have small, which could be 300 megawatts, and then we have micro. So micro 5 megawatts to 10 megawatts. And so deployment once modularized or once deployable at a mass scale becomes a very different solution. And communities say, isolated communities in north or isolated remote resource projects and resource operations, they now have different options than they had before. So I think that the landscape will look different with continued investment and continued innovation to these power plants.

Steve, anything to add?

Yes, if I can add to that. I think Karen and I have talked a lot and share the excitement and the enthusiasm for the new nuclear program. And I started my career in the early 2000s and some of the earliest products I worked on was the large-scale reactors. And definitely had some challenges. This market is different for a number of reasons that Karen, you articulated, the baseload power, the carbon-free, the modularization work, that WSP is doing with our kit of parts is absolutely critical to that scalability and repeatability of new nuclear. So it's a different environment that we're in and certainly has a lot of excitement, enthusiasm and I think WSP fits very well with that new nuclear landscape.

Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Karen. Moving on to the next question. So it's a combined question here, so on M&A. So first part of the question is if we still have a desire to grow in power or if we're at scale? And related to M&A, what is the likelihood of WSP spending against its exposure to nuclear power technologies through M&A, or would management prefer to grow organically?

I'll take this one up, Quentin. So clearly, we -- when you look at our Power & Energy sector, as I said in my opening address and my commentary, Power & Energy is no longer an adjacency. This is a sector on its own and one of the most prominent sector, of our group. Today Power & Energy in the U.S., this sector represents 35% of our top line. And when I look at on a global scale, now Power & Energy represent approximately 20% of our business. So you can see that in the rest of world compared to our U.S. business, we are in some geographies, subscale, Quentin. So yes, in the right circumstances, we would like to continue to use inorganic growth to grow our Power & Energy sector in Canada, Australia and many other parts of Europe. So -- so at the right time in the right circumstances, we would like to do that. And on nuclear power, M&A, I'm sure Karen would like me to say yes. And the answer is we are definitely open to it. Again, at the right time, the right circumstances, if we could find an opportunity to accelerate the deployment of our services in that sector, we would certainly be open to review the opportunity.

Thanks, Alex, for the good insights here. Next question is related here, and I'll read the question. So you mentioned creditworthy customers. What indicators are you tracking to assess the long-term viability of projects in a rising rate environment and hyperinflation in select areas across the electrification super cycle? And I believe this is a question for maybe Matt, that will tackle it.

Yes. I'll get started on this one. Well, first of all, we we use certainly standard financial metrics to determine worthiness for clients who are considering a major project or development. But an area that we serve as one of our main energy Advisory areas is that includes energy markets and have they procured and have long-term contracts for the energy that they actually need to access, in connection processes with utilities are a substantial portion of risk and a substantial portion of work where we help to serve developers a large load builders in determining what time lines like for interconnection. Equipment is another major area. And of course, regulatory processes cost of service and recovery models and then ultimately, stakeholder sentiment. So we work with clients every day to help address these challenges and work through them for them, and it really gives us unique insights into the type of projects that we see in the market as being successful.

I think if I could just add, maybe, Paul, you could touch on this as well, too. But in the generation space, as Matt just mentioned, there's a lot of criteria that you can look at relative to the viability of the project and truly where they stand in that development cycle. One of those is really talking with the OEMs and appreciating and understanding Paul's favorite term is kind of "following the turbines when it comes to power generation" and that ability to track that from a viability perspective with our clients.

Yes, follow the turbines has been kind of a mantra of ours because the significant investment and long lead times on the OEM equipment. We have constant interaction with the major OEMs out there. So we definitely understand where the projects and the viability of these projects as one clear indicator that they're moving forward. So that insight is critical.

Thank you, team. Moving on to the next. So, yes, there will be a recording available after the broadcast on WSP's website as mentioned previously. Next question most likely for Alex and Alain here. So without discussing guidance, what characteristics make the Power & Energy market particularly attractive from a long-term shareholder value perspective?

Well, I can take this one up. I mean, clearly, a few years ago, we decided to deploy a significant amount of capital in that sector for a variety of different reasons, the fundamental trends supporting this sector are buoyant and strong, and they will continue to be very strong, even if for a variety of reasons, we would see a slowdown in AI technology development. The need for power is so big at the moment that I see this sector to be very, very attractive from a shareholder value perspective. And again, for a variety of reasons, you asked me not to provide guidance. But I can talk about the past Quentin. And if you look at our POWER Engineer acquisition and also TRC acquisition, both firms have had double-digit CAGR organic growth rate for the last decade. So this was before AI. So -- so we see this sector as being extremely and very promising for WSP as a whole. And we continue to believe that the margins will go up because of what we've discussed all day today, the capacity constraint and the speed at which we need to deliver services and clients want to get at the top of the list, and they won their projects to be delivered -- so we see this as an incredible opportunity, and we see WSP to be uniquely positioned in that regard.

Thanks, Alex. Anybody wanted to add anything there? No, we're good. Good. Moving on to the next question, a popular topic. I'll read the question for everybody. So every week, there seems to be a newer position or roadblock to build out of data centers across many state and local markets in the U.S. While demand is very strong, how much have these delays and extended review periods impacted the ramp-up of activity levels from a WSP perspective. So I think the whole team can probably chime in. Not sure who wants to tackle that first?

I'll take a shot first. So I think, first and foremost, I don't think it has impacted any ramp-up activities relative to those delays. Ultimately, given our pipeline and the service offering that we have in this space, yes, maybe due to some of the delays or some of the market conditions that we're seeing today, we might actually shift those services to more of the advisory upfront services, to support the communities that are struggling to understand the impacts relative to water relative to environmental permitting for data centers. So really, just again, our ability to bring that strategic nature forward on that to really help inform the communities to get the buy in to get the support of those projects moving forward long term. So Matt, I don't know if you wanted to pile on to that from that ability to just leverage the full services.

Yes. Mike, I mean I think you nailed it on the fact that we really aren't seeing any slowness as a result of this. I think the thing I want to put a point on is, when you brought up considerations around land around noise, around water. And most importantly, I would [indiscernible] really who is paying these costs and how are they socialized through is, including local communities. These are solvable challenges. And so we have experts that have tremendous domain depth and expertise in these areas, and we work with clients every day to help solve these challenges. And it really reinforces how successful really WSP has been in bringing together all of the skill sets that are required to ultimately solve these challenges.