Transcontinental Inc. ($TCLA)

Welcome to the TC Transcontinental Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. today, June 4, 2026. I would like to turn the conference over to Yan Lapointe, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Treasury. [Foreign Language] Mr. Lapointe, please go ahead.

Thank you, Joelle, and good morning, everyone on the call. Welcome to Transcontinental Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Before we begin, please note that you can find on our website our quarterly report, including financial statements and related notes as well as the slides supporting management's remarks. A replay of this conference call will also will be available on our website shortly after the call. We have with us today our Chief Executive Officer; Sam Bendavid; and our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Donald LeCavalier. As referenced on Slide 2, some of the financial measures discussed for the course of this conference call are non-IFRS. You can refer to the MD&A for a definition and reconciliation of these measures to IFRS. In addition, this conference call might also contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the current expectations of management and information available as of today. Forward-looking statements also involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown. The risks, uncertainties and other factors that could influence actual results are described in the fiscal 2025 annual MD&A and in the latest annual information form. With that, I will turn the call over to Sam.

Thank you, Yan, and good morning, everyone. I am pleased to join you on this call, my first as CEO of TC Transcontinental, and I look forward to engaging with many of you in the weeks and months ahead. Over the past 2 months, I visited several of our facilities. What stands out from these visits is the strong energy and engagement across the organization, a solid foundation for what lies ahead. Recent developments have contributed to a sense of momentum across the company. Following the completion of the sale of our packaging business, and I want to congratulate our teams for a great job managing all aspects of this complex transaction successfully, our financial reporting structure has evolved. As of Q2, we're now reporting 2 sectors: the retail services and printing sector and the book and education sector, which brings together TC Media and our book printing activities. Let me share a few observations on the momentum I'm seeing, starting with retail services and Printing. In our Content and Business Intelligence group, artificial intelligence is transforming how we and our clients work together. By driving greater efficiency, deeper insights and the more personalized solutions, AI strengthens the value we deliver. In our marketing and information group, the upcoming nationwide rollout of raddar marks a major milestone. raddar is a cost-effective mass media platform that pairs national scale, roughly 11.6 million copies per week, reaching approximately CAD 3 and 4 with local precision across 537 unique zones. This combination positions raddar as a compelling solution, not only for national retailers and brands, but also for small- and medium-sized businesses and publishers. Early bookings are encouraging, and we expect a strong start mid-June. We value the quality of our partnership with Canada Fones for the distribution of raddar, and we welcome the endorsement of collective agreements by postal workers announced on Monday. Our transformation will see raddar evolving into an increasingly tech-enabled platform, layering analytics and data-driven audience targeting, extending into omnichannel touch points and applying AI-powered personalization to deliver the right message to the right audience with greater precision. In addition, the multiyear agreements we recently signed with Postmedia and Glacier Media, together with our ongoing cost optimization initiatives should strengthen the financial performance beginning in the third quarter. In our in-store marketing and Specialty Group, the integration of our recent acquisitions is progressing well, expanding both our offerings and customer portfolio. The additions of MirasZ and Group PDI have significantly strengthened our presence in Eastern Canada and enhance our ability to serve national clients. Turning now to books and education sector. In our Book Printing Group, we're facing a challenging year-over-year comparison against a large onetime contract last year. Even so, our sales team has secured several new customers and grown existing accounts, and we expect to deliver a solid year for the platform. In PC books and Education, sales momentum should translate into a busy second half of the year. Our education technology efforts are also gaining recognition, most recently with Acolads at the U.S. EdTech Awards. Thanks to the initiatives we've put in place to improve profitability, we're on track to deliver a solid performance in the second half of the year. Adjusted operating earnings before depreciation and amortization from continuing operations are expected to remain stable relative to fiscal 2025. In conclusion, I am confident in our strategic direction, our momentum and the strength of our teams. Donald, over to you.

Thank you, Sam, and good morning, everyone. Please note that my comments this morning will focus on our continuing operations. Moving to Slide 5 of the earnings call presentation. For the second quarter of fiscal 2026, revenues were 5% lower versus the same quarter last year, mainly as a result of lower volume in our traditional activities, partially mitigated by our recent acquisitions in ISM and also from a stronger U.S. dollar. Regarding profitability, consolidated adjusted EBITDA at $45.4 million was slightly lower than last year. The slight decline was mainly due to lower volume, partially offset by lower incentive compensation and administrative expense, the recent acquisitions and also a favorable exchange rate. The lower incentive compensation and administrative expense are mainly related to the departure of executives and the timing of expenses. We don't expect a similar tailwind in the second half of the year. Looking ahead, financial performance is improving. With the recent contracts we announced and the impact of cost reduction initiatives, we expect stronger results in the second half of the fiscal year and remain confident in our outlook. Net financial expenses increased by $2.2 million to $9.9 million, mainly due to the impact of exchange rates despite having a lower debt level following the sale of our packaging activities in March and strong cash flow generation in the last 12 months. Adjusted income tax decreased by $0.6 million to $4 million and represented an effective rate of 20%. This led to adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations at $0.19 compared to $0.20 in Q2 last year. Before turning to Slide 6 for the sector review, I wanted to highlight the change we've made in our sectors following the sale of our packaging activities. The books and education sector now combines our book printing with our educational publishing activities as their products are similar in nature. Our retail services and printing sector serves retailers, brands and newspaper publishers. Under the marketing and information group, we're combining flyers with our newspaper activities as they use the same platform. Regrouping our ISM activities with specialty products also makes sense as they are similar in nature. In the coming weeks, we will post on our website historical segmented information to help you with your models. On Slide 6, revenues for the retail service and printing sector decreased by 3.8% to $219.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by $8.2 million to $41.1 million. The decrease is in revenues and adjusted EBITDA are mainly due to lower volumes for the flyer printing activities, partially mitigated by our recent acquisitions. We expect a stronger performance in the second half of the fiscal year following the impact of the multiyear agreements recently signed with Postmedia and Glacier Media, improved results from our ISM activities and cost reduction initiatives. Moving to books and education sector on Slide 7. As mentioned in our last call, this sector had a very solid performance in the second quarter of fiscal 2025. Despite a tough comparable, the sector delivered good results with revenues of $50.1 million down from $55.9 million the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by $0.5 million or 6.7% to $7 million. We expect a strong performance of the sector in the last 6 months of the fiscal year in line with normal seasonality. Now turning to cash flow. In the second quarter of 2026, we had $56.3 million in negative working capital. The unfavorable change was mainly due to accounts payable and accrued liabilities. We expect some of the negative working cap to reverse in the second half of the year. Our CapEx at $12.9 million were in line with last year and our target is to be around our guidance of $55 million to $60 million for the full year. Finally, we used the proceeds of the sale of our packaging activities for a special distribution of $20 per share to shareholders and also to reduce debt by around $330 million. Our net debt ratio at the end of the second quarter was 2.14x. If we include the sale of our Bouchelveill warehouse at the end of April, our net debt ratio will be slightly under 2x at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2026. We expect the strong cash flows in the second half of the year to bring this ratio lower for year-end around 1.75x, excluding potential acquisitions. Our financial position is solid. The Board has approved yesterday a regular dividend for the new TC at $0.05 per share per quarter. On that note, we will now proceed with the question period.

[Foreign Language] Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]

Your first question comes from Sean Steuart from TD Cowen.

A couple of questions. And I want to start with some of the agreements and initiatives you've announced recently, both the National raddar rollout and the agreements with Postmedia and Glacier. I'm hoping you can provide some perspective on incremental sales contributions and margin contributions associated with those initiatives, just so we can factored into our forecast appropriately.

Thank you. The National raddar rollout Torly to tell as the deployment is going to be mid-June, so for us, it's hard for us to provide. .

What you've seen on that front and your perspective on ability to preserve margins as you observe that inflation?

Sure. So we've got some solid contracts on the paper and ink side. We don't expect any margin erosion due to the increase in raw material, so any increase would really be insignificant. .

[Foreign Language] Your next question comes from Hamir Patel with CIBC Capital Markets.

Sam, could you give us some more visibility on how the various initiatives to reduce corporate costs are progressing and how far along you think you are in that process?

Thanks, Hamir. So they're progressing very well. We're well on track to establish our run rate with 1 caveat that we still have a transitional service agreement to render to ProAmpac. So we will complete the plan within the next let's say, 6 to 12 months as the TSA they resolve.

Okay. Great. And Donald, any update on the other smaller real estate divestitures in the pipeline, I believe 1 was a sense and Tomo? .

Yes. Yes, you're right. both are sale for sale. I'd say there's some movement on the 1 on the U.S. side, Hamir. That's not a big impact in terms of dollar, but we're very proactive at that level. And Santa I will say a little bit quiet right now. So we'll adjust with the market. But we just did a great deal for Buchele. We were patient and we're happy with the price we get. So sometimes, it's better to wait a bit to make sure we receive the best price.

[Foreign Language] Your next question comes from Adam Shine of National Bank Financial.

Sam, maybe starting with the flyers. This might be a bit moot, given that the nature of that business is going to transition quite a bit with the new national scale for raddar. But can you talk about what drove some of the step down flyer volumes this quarter? And then you talked about new business initiatives on the book side. Can you talk about where that's coming from? Because I know there's been efforts, obviously, some success last year, albeit temporarily on the U.S. book printing side of the equation. I think you were also looking for opportunities, perhaps even in Europe, whether that touched on book and/or perhaps more on educational book publishing. So if you could talk to how things are unfolding there? And then just lastly, for you, Donald. If you could just maybe update us on what you think corporate costs will be this year because, obviously, there were a lot of moving pieces in this Q2. Just curious if there's an update there.

Great. Thanks for the question. Let me address first the volume for the retail flyer. This has been a trend we've been the past few quarters that the decline in volumes. So nothing new here, and this is something we've planned for it. The solution that turns, that changes the economic model for us and for our customers is definitely the deployment of raddar, or very happy to then that to adjust that believe. So hopefully, that answers your question on the volume side. On the book side, plenty of initiatives by the teams. Number one, when we look at the increased business we get. This comes from Comix and increase in the Comix volume we are receiving from our customers, current customers and new customers. number one. Number two, there are still opportunities as we -- as companies are looking at onshoring some of the year, some of their printing we're in discussion with many other publishers to be able to gain some new business there, still early innings, but progressing.

Adam, yes, for your model, I guess, the year-to-date cost for corporate represent a better pro forma to you for the rest of the year. Some of the one-timer and Q2 will disappear, but also some of the positive noise we had were negative noise in Q1. So this is why if you look at it right now, it's better to look at year-to-date. Obviously, there will be some cost cutting, as Sam mentioned, but we will be more active on that side to the rest of -- close to the rest of the year. So use the year-to-date for your model will be a better benchmark.

[Foreign Language] Your next question comes from Drew McReynolds with RBC.

Two for me. Just on the educational publishing, not something necessarily that gets discussed each quarter, but obviously, now is more explicit in that second segment. Just wondering kind of what your expectations are for this business, not just for fiscal 2026, but just what does the growth outlook look like when you look at a little further, -- and then second, good to see the tuck-in M&A on the ISM side. Just an update on that M&A environment and what your pipeline currently looks like? .

. Thanks. Thank you. So on the educational publishing side, I probably know the second half of the year is mostly where the activity happened -- and though we expect a strong second half of the year. Longer term, what we see for this business is marginal growth, GDP-style growth on the publishing side. That's number one. Number two, you've mentioned the ISM acquisition. We're adjusting the current ones we've done in the recent past. The integrations are going well. The synergies are delivering, and we're very happy that this enabled our platform to have national scale. We are looking and still looking to acquire in that space. The pipeline is good, but we will be selective of when and what we acquired to make sure this creates value for us.

[Foreign Language] Your next question comes from Nevan Yochim with BMO Capital Markets.

Nevion for Steve today. Just went in the RS&P sector. Can you provide some incremental detail on volumes and organic growth for the ISM business this quarter? And as well as discuss your updated expectations for organic ISM growth for the full year?

Yes. Thanks for the question. So Q1 was negative organic growth was a slow Q1. Q2 is a relatively flat in terms of growth. And that, for us, turns the page into a strong Q3 and Q4 in terms of bookings and pipelines that we can see. So strong second half of the year for our ISM business organically. .

Okay. Great. And then just nice to see the multiyear contracts with Postmedia and Glacier -- are you able to provide a bit more context on how this opportunity came about and whether you see similar opportunities currently being pursued? .

Yes. So we have the most cost-efficient printing platform, probably -- definitely in Canada, probably in North America. It does make sense for everyone who prints and air for every publisher to come to us and outsource. Obviously, they will save tremendous amount of money, and it's very profitable for us. So -- we are well positioned to capture smaller opportunities. There are some opportunities out there that are smaller in nature and that we would be -- we're going after them. That being said, there is nothing really for us, much of scale like the Postmedia glacier that we currently announced. So opportunities, yes, but smaller ones. .

[Foreign Language] Your next question comes from David McFadden with ATB Cormark.

A couple of questions. So just on the books and education, -- so I imagine that the vast majority of that organic decline in Q2 was the U.S. contract that you talked about. When do we -- or when do you, sorry, expect to lap the impact of that? .

Hard to say the full impact of -- as Sam mentioned, we're glad that we were able to replace part of that business that we lost and not a business we lost actually the onetime contract that we had last year. And we're able to compensate part of it with good business with margin business. So hard to say when we will be able to compensate. But part of the plan is to have a second strong -- a very second -- strong second half for the year for both book and education. So we're catching as we speak. -- and very proactive, especially with the dollar still very weak U.S. dollar -- Canadian dollar being very weak as we speak.

Okay. So clearly, you've won some new contracts right? So clearly, you've won some new contracts then to give you your optimism for the second half. Okay. And then on the Retail Services and printing side, I mean, I'm just wondering like -- so you say in your MD&A that, that decline is mainly due to lower volume and flyer printing and just wondering when will we lap that as well. .

Well, if you won the flyer business, as you know, it's mostly rest of Canada, except Quebec and B.C. And that's the good news with the announcement that we will launch the national platform for raddar. As you may recall, that was our intention to mitigate the decrease in Flyer. And right now, part of the reason why -- we felt that decrease in past quarter is not because the product was not good. It's still an amazing product to bring people in stores, but the cost of distribution and the cost of recycling was getting we hire for our clients. And the good news with raddar is that we will be able to help our clients to reach even more clients with a cost probably similar to the current costs or even lower. So that is the important thing about raddar right now. Hard to say what will be the outlook with radar, but definitely a good news for Tonsan Natal in terms of stabilizing the distribution.

[Foreign Language] Ladies and gentlemen, [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Maher Yaghi from Scotiabank.

I wanted to ask you just on capital allocation here going forward. You mentioned that your trying to -- heading towards 2x net debt ratio, can you give us maybe some benchmarks as to where do you think the business leverage ratios should be going forward on a steady state basis, where do you think you're comfortable having it? And maybe also how much acquisition capital you can deploy on a yearly basis in retail business going forward on the M&A side? Just trying to figure out the pieces of the puzzle that will account for how you will distribute your cash that you're going to be generating going forward?

Yes. First, it's a new TC, but the new TCs like OTC, so we'll produce a lot of free cash flow in the future. That's part of the reason why we were confident and happy to announce a dividend payment yesterday. In terms of debt-to-EBITDA, I will say that we don't fix ourselves any target. But obviously, apart from acquisition, we definitely prefer to be under 2, and this is where we will finish by end of fiscal year. I would say any range between 1 and 2 is where we will be comfortable to do M&A. But as I said in previous calls, when we did Coveris, we had no debt on the balance sheet, and we were quite happy to have no debt because we put a lot of debt at that time. So it's not like we need to have that on the balance sheet, but again, we're comfortable between 1 and 2. As far as acquisition, right now, we can make acquisition. We -- in the past, we leverage ourselves up to 3x to do acquisitions. So this is something that's possible. So you can do the math regarding the size of acquisition. But I would say the next 12 months, the size of acquisition, 12 to 24 months, it should be more aligned with the acquisition we did in the past. So definitely something that we can do with our current balance sheet.

Okay. And when you step back and you look at the ISM market that you're trying to consolidate in Canada, what is your assessment about growth opportunity as a whole, as a market segment in general. And does it allow you -- when I -- when you look back into the acquisitions you were doing in the U.S. on the packaging side, the view was that the market itself was growing with GDP, and that allowed you to take up the leverage a little bit higher as you can deleverage after the acquisition. In ISM, when you think about the organic growth of that market. Is it -- can it be close to GDP or it's more closer to less than GDP as a segment group.

Thanks for the question. So 2 parts, a 2-part answer. Number one, when we look at the ISM and now we should look at ISM and visual solutions. So we do more than just the in-store within our business. and we're more diversified on a broader offering. That being said, when we look at the ISM, it's a relatively flat market overall -- but that being said, our business is over-indexed with the grocers, and that is a forecasted 3% to 4%, 4.5% growth, so probably more in line with the with GDP growth, and we intend to capitalize on those segments and those submarkets that are growing.

Okay. And when we think -- when we hear you talk about doing M&A and ISM, can you expand -- or are you specific in terms of in-store media can include also other media than printing, right? So are you still focused on the -- I want to call it the paper or way of advertising in stores? Or can you eventually look at other media that you can deploy inside the store for marketing purposes?

Absolutely. It's not that we're looking at other media we are doing other media, for example, screens that are deployed throughout the network of some of our partners where we produce the content, distribute the content as well. So this is something -- we are very much looking forward to that we're deploying and that we have a solution to propose.

Okay. How big is that business for you right now? I assume it's very small in the whole scheme of things.

First is absolutely correct versus the RevPAR business is still small in the growing piece. Obviously, we're very well positioned with the retailers and other customers to be able to offer a complete solution. So that's what they're asking and that's what we're providing.

Is there an intention to get into the hardware business? -- of advertising in stores, electronic hardware?

What do you mean? if you can we specify, meaning we buy the hardware?

Yes. Like you're in charge of installing the screens and everything.

We do installs. We haven't installed services. So to see if the retailer requires it, we will provide that service. The purchasing of the hardware screens or the like mostly a factor but installed services we do provide.

[Foreign Language] Mr. Lapointe, there are no further questions at this time.

Thank you, Joanna, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call today. Looking forward to speaking to you soon.

[Foreign Language] Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for participating. Please disconnect your lines.