EverGen Infrastructure Corp. ($EVGN)

Welcome to the EverGen Infrastructure Fourth Quarter Year-End and 2025 Earnings Results Presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Before we begin, I would like to direct all participants to our website at www.evergeninfra.com, where you will find a copy of the fourth quarter 2025 earnings presentation. Please allow me to remind you that our discussion today contains forward-looking statements. Actual results may vary materially from results. Additional information is contained in the fourth quarter 2025 management discussion and analysis. I will now turn the call over to Chase Edgelow, EverGen's Chief Executive Officer, to begin.

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining our Q4 and 2025 year-end call. For EverGen, 2025 marked a period of transition. Following the recapitalization transaction that occurred in May 2025, our focus for the remainder of the year as a management team was on completing our refinancing and stabilizing the business, optimizing our existing assets by putting in place lasting sustainable operating systems and culture as part of a platform reset and starting to look ahead to the future for growth. In terms of the platform reset, our focus was really on driving disciplined optimization across our team, our people, our assets and our systems. And I think kudos to our operating team and the people in our business, we started to see the fruits of those labors in Q4. We began to see those benefits from the turnaround and the optimization initiatives take hold in the form of record RNG production, improved operating performance across our RNG assets and in terms of financial results, which Maria will touch on here next. Our goal is to build a stabilized platform that has resilient EBITDA tied to 20-year contracts with our offtake partners and ultimately building a very strong infrastructure foundation for growing EverGen into our future assets and being able to do that on a repeatable basis in 2026 and beyond. So with that, I'll turn it over -- before we get to that, I guess, maybe we'll start with just a corporate snapshot here. We'll go back just to say where we're at today for those that maybe weren't following the recapitalization transaction. We -- so with the recapitalization, there was a $5 million investment made in May 2025. Following that transaction and following the subsequent financing that was completed in January, management and Board now hold 41% of the company's shares and are aligned for long-term shareholder value creation with 31% additional shareholder base coming from pensions, institutional shareholders and other family offices. So together, we see it as a very aligned business, very different from a lot of other publicly listed companies. And from a market cap standpoint, we currently have a market cap of approximately $10.2 million. Now I think worth pointing out, we completed our second tranche of the total $7 million that was put into the business over the last 12 months in January at a share price of $0.60, and that is where recent Board management and shareholders have come into the company at in terms of private placement pricing. Where we stand from an asset perspective in terms of debt perspective or debt load perspective, that is primarily held at the asset level now. We completed in January a transaction with Farm Credit Canada to take our corporate debt and delever it at the corporate level and bring that debt down to a more attractive facility with Farm Credit Canada that's primarily tied to Fraser Valley Biogas. So that was a huge lift by our team, by Maria and by the supporting team in our finance group and ultimately gives EverGen the flexibility to finance projects as it goes forward as it seems fit, but also operational flexibility day-to-day. So with that, I'll turn it over to Maria to walk through our Q4 and 2025 results.

Thanks, Chase, and thanks, everyone, for joining us again for the Q4 and year-end earnings call. As Chase has already alluded to, the fourth -- in the fourth quarter, we delivered our strongest quarter of 2025, largely driven by our record RNG production and also carbon credit revenue realized in the quarter, making this the fourth consecutive quarter of record RNG production since the recapitalization in May 2025. We also completed construction of the PCR screening building during the quarter as well. Turning to the numbers. So first of all, for revenue for Q4 2025, these increased 34% compared to Q4 of the prior year, reaching $4.2 million. This is primarily driven by strong carbon credit sales of $1.2 million in the quarter compared to nil in Q4 2024 as well as continued RNG production growth at Fraser Valley Biogas and GrowTEC, which saw RNG revenue increase 35% year-on-year. The full year did see a decrease of revenues to $11.7 million for 2025. This primarily reflects the decreased tipping volumes received at the organic and waste processing facilities in the first 9 months of the year due to the project site cleanup and asset optimization activities. And these were also offset by increased RNG production and carbon credit revenues. Compared to Q3 2025, again, there was an increase across revenues from $2.8 million -- sorry, a decrease in revenues. This was driven by carbon credit sales again recognized and reported and again the RNG production growth. Turning to adjusted EBITDA, and this came in at $1.3 million for Q4 2025, which is a $1.2 million increase when compared to Q4 2024, largely driven by the already mentioned and discussed higher revenues and some lower direct operating costs. For the full year of 2025, adjusted EBITDA flat at $2.5 million compared to $2.9 million in 2024. So a slight decrease here, but generally positive despite having lower tipping revenues due to those lower volumes at the composting sites for the first 9 months of the year and then some higher G&A costs. These were partially offset by favorable carbon credit sales in the year and a reduction in some direct operating costs. When compared to prior quarter, we saw an increase in adjusted EBITDA of $0.8 million, again, largely due to the favorable revenues combined with those slightly lower direct operating costs. And on the balance sheet, our liquidity position has improved during 2025. And subsequent to year-end, and as Chase has already mentioned, in January 2026, we formally closed the previously announced $13 million asset level debt facility at Fraser Valley Biogas, and we repaid the majority of the corporate level term loan. And we also closed out on the second tranche of the private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $1.9 million. Together with these transactions, the balance sheet has seen a strengthening and it provides a strong foundation as we move through into 2026. The results for the quarter, especially and the improvements throughout the year reflect the progress that the new management team has made in stabilizing and optimizing our core asset base, and we believe that EverGen is in a good position to improve and stabilize EBITDA for the rest of the year. And with that, I'll turn it back to Chase to continue with the earnings presentation.

Great. Thank you, Maria. Well said. I think subsequent to the quarter end, we've press released a couple of transformational deals that were really important for balance sheet health. I think where we stand now with the previously mentioned debt facility closed with Farm Credit Canada is we've got a healthy and rightsized balance sheet in terms of the equity that was invested. We closed the second tranche of the $0.60 private placement for about $1.9 million of proceeds as well in January. And we entered into the 20-year term with Fortis on our offtake agreement at Fraser Valley. So that agreement took effect. Those 3 things really have put in place a stable financial position for the business, and we'll continue to see increased revenue from our RNG sales through that offtake agreement. Can we go to the next slide. Where we stand today versus where the company has come from, I think it's important to see here maybe it looks like a small change on this chart from, call it, 150,000 gigajoules in 2024 to 200,000. But what that really represents is our facilities operating much closer to their capacity and therefore, increased EBITDA margins. So when we're operating at 70% at an RNG facility, we are covering costs. We are making a little bit of money when we're operating at 100% of nameplate capacity, that's when we start to see the real torque in the EBITDA generation. I think the other thing to note here is that we've started to rebuild our growth pipeline. We have a number of projects that would be organic growth, so adding on to our existing assets across the portfolio. So the Pacific Coast Renewables project that we completed the screening building on, we are preparing for an updated and renewed FID on that project. We have been working on all of the key tenements of project development to be ready to make that decision. But I think most notably, we continue to advance the permitting on that project, which has been the major delay for the business in terms of investing that capital. That RNG expansion at Pacific Coast Renewables would add about 100,000 gigajoules. Then across the portfolio, GrowTEC has a number of different expansion options that we're reviewing at this time. Our goal is to take that facility to 120,000-plus gigajoules from around 70,000 today. So an addition of about 50,000 gigajoules on top of this base. And then lastly, I'll mention Project Radius in Ontario. There are -- it continues to be important project development work that's done on that project, and we expect to be able to announce and talk about that in the near future. With -- when we look across the portfolio, I think the other thing to note is that at Fraser Valley Biogas, this is the template for the organic growth that we talk about in our portfolio. So what we did at Fraser Valley, where we invested approximately $12 million in our RNG expansion. And we now have what we see through our COO, Ron Green, as a repeatable operating philosophy and including systems, including critical spares being something that we have budget for and seeing the fruits of those labors. Fraser Valley Biogas is operating at close to 97% uptime, which we believe is best-in-class in the RNG space and really speaks to where EverGen is a little bit different. Our goal here is that we sit in the intersection of waste processing and renewable energy production. And we want to bring the best of Canada's long history as an energy producer into a smaller, more fragmented market in the RNG space and I think we've been able to do that. A lot of our team comes from an oil and gas background and applying those same skills to -- on a smaller scale, but on a higher value scale in terms of the price that we get paid for our gas is turning out to be a successful formula. GrowTEC, similar in terms of we've been able to apply a lot of the learnings at Fraser Valley Biogas into the GrowTEC asset and see uptime increase in -- across the board. And the same operating philosophy will be applied to the Pacific Coast as we move into our expansion project there. So what's in store for future, and then I think we'll turn it over for questions. I think what you've seen from us in the last almost 12 months is a real focus on cleaning up our balance sheet, underpinning our performance with strong operations and the very early stages of building out both organic growth and inorganic growth opportunities. So building a pipeline of projects that we can operate and that we can develop and that we can do in a formulaic way that's repeatable and where we've got the trust of counterparties in the business. So I think looking forward, look for a PCR RNG expansion announcement coming from us, look for Project Radius continued development there and look for other organic and inorganic growth opportunities coming to bear for the company.

Thank you very much, Chase and Maria. I think we're going to turn over some questions now. We have a few in our chat here. First off, given the record RNG production in Q4 2025 and the recent offtake agreements in January 2026, how should investors think about the path to sustained profitability here?

Yes. I think what's important to take away from our financials is if you look at 2025 as a whole, there was a reset in the middle of that. The company was strapped for cash at the early part of 2025, and that impacted operations. I think post -- or in early 2025 and then post May, we've been able to -- it takes time to put new systems in place, and it takes time to have the sort of long-term vision come together, including budgeting, including the way that we allocate capital to the projects with the shortest payback period. All of those systems are now in place, and we're starting to see the benefits of those. From an uptime perspective, we have critical spares. We have a strong track record recently of uptime and gas production at our 2 RNG producing assets. So I would say continue to look for improvements and optimization at our core assets and then the growth that we mentioned coming from other projects adding to that.

Another one here. What is your outlook for tipping fees and market dynamics from organics in your regions?

I think one of the things that attracted us to this space in the first place was the fact that we are at this intersection of waste processing and renewable energy from waste, and we receive revenue from both the front end of our facilities, accepting feedstock and getting paid a tip fee and then producing gas from that -- those organics and getting paid on a long-term contract from a utility. The thing that's probably taken longer to come to fruition in Canada has been a tip fee market that reflects the true cost of the infrastructure that we've built and that others have built in the space. We've had tip fees almost being set by the lowest common denominator in the Greater Vancouver region, where somebody taking organics and putting them into a windrow composting on a farm can do that quite cheaply. Ultimately, the regulatory authorities have tried to steer all of the organic waste to licensed facilities. And the impact of that, we've seen a significant increase in tip fees. As an example, Metro Vancouver recently announced that they would be increasing their organic waste tip fees at their transfer stations significantly from -- historically, I think prices were -- had been escalating from a 2020 baseline, and we're sitting around just under $120 a tonne. And the most recent tip fee increase effective July 1 this year, increases those tip fees to $155 a tonne. So a significant increase well beyond inflation and I think really representing the fact that the infrastructure required to properly process organic waste is a lot more expensive than what had been reflected in the market previously.

And we have one more question here. Lastly, can you update us on Project Radius?

Yes. As I mentioned, we will have news on Project Radius soon. I think it represents how we like to develop greenfield projects. So when we got involved in Radius, it was interesting to us as a last mile development project. Now in the RNG space, a lot of things have changed since we got involved in Radius in 2022. I think one that I'll touch on is the latest budget announcement from the government of Canada offering investment tax credits for certain RNG facilities, in particular, if they are supplying gas for heat or for electricity. So there is an angle for investment tax credits that are quite interesting for greenfield projects like Radius. And then secondly, the scale of the project. Our view with Radius was that we had operational and development expertise to advance the project. And ultimately, we would bring in an alternative capital provider. And so we've been working hard with our partner in Radius on closing out a full financing solution for the project, including a combination of grant funding, debt funding and equity funding, which would result in a carried interest in the project over time and allow us to continue to preserve our capital for some of the organic projects in our portfolio.

And that looks like that's it for our Q&A. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We appreciate your time and your continued support, and we hope you have a lovely day. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks everyone.