Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Aecon Q2 2020 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Adam Borgatti. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Tacang. Good morning, everyone, thanks for participating in our second quarter 2020 results conference call. This is Adam Borgatti, SVP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations speaking. Presenting to you this morning are Jean-Louis Servranckx, President and CEO, David Smales, Executive Vice President and CFO. Our earnings announcement was released yesterday evening, we have posted a slide presentation on the investing section of our website, which we will refer to during this call. Following our comments, we will be glad to take questions from analysts. We ask that analysts limit questions to one or two each to give others a chance, that they re-queue should they have any follow-up questions. As noted on slide two of the presentation, listeners are reminded that the information we are sharing with you today includes forward-looking statements.
These statements are based on assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Although Aecon believes that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to be correct. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dave.
Thanks, Adam. Good morning, everyone. I'll touch briefly on Aecon's consolidated results, review results by segment, address Aecon's financial position before turning the call over to Jean-Louis. Turning to slide three, disruption to Aecon's business as a result of COVID-19 impacted a number of sectors and operations in the second quarter. Revenue for the three months ending June 30, 2020, of CAD 779 million was CAD 88 million or 10% lower compared to the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of CAD 24 million, a margin of 3.1%, decreased by CAD 33 million or 57% compared to adjusted EBITDA of CAD 57 million, a margin of 6.6% in Q2 last year. Second quarter operating loss of CAD 1 million was CAD 29 million lower compared to an operating profit of CAD 28 million in the same period in 2019.
Diluted loss per share of CAD 0.10 in the quarter compared to diluted earnings per share of CAD 0.31 in the same period last year. Overall, we estimate that COVID-19 impacts in the quarter reduced revenue by approximately CAD 160 million, adjusted EBITDA by approximately CAD 40 million, and operating profit by approximately CAD 30 million. Reported backlog of CAD 7.3 billion represents the highest backlog position in Aecon's history and compares to backlog of CAD 6.8 billion a year earlier, representing an increase of 7%. Turning to results by segment. As noted on slide four, construction revenue of CAD 778 million in the second quarter was CAD 69 million or 8% lower than the same period last year.
Revenue was lower in civil operations and urban transportation systems, driven by decreases in major projects in both Eastern and Western Canada due to the impact of slowdowns and suspensions related to COVID-19, partially offset by an increase in road building projects in both regions. Revenue is also lower in nuclear operations, driven by work on the next unit of the main reactor refurbishment at the Darlington nuclear facility in Ontario being delayed from the second quarter to later in the year, again related to COVID-19. Partially offsetting these decreases was higher revenue from utilities operations due in large part to the acquisition of Voltage Power announced in February, and higher revenue in industrial operations primarily due to increased activity on mainline pipeline projects in Western Canada.
Adjusted EBITDA in the construction segment of CAD 28 million, a margin of 3.6%, decreased by CAD 16 million compared to CAD 44 million, a margin of 5.2% in Q2 2019. This was primarily due to lower revenue, as discussed. New contract awards of CAD 1.1 billion in the second quarter of 2020 were CAD 226 million higher than the same period last year, driven primarily by new awards in industrial and utilities operations. Construction backlog at the end of the quarter was CAD 7.2 billion, which is CAD 483 million higher than at the same time in 2019. Turning to slide five, concessions revenue for the second quarter was CAD 9 million, a decrease of CAD 52 million or 86% compared to the same period last year.
This was a result of the slowdown and then suspension of commercial flight operations on March 20th and throughout the second quarter at the Bermuda International Airport due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a related decrease in construction activity related to the project. Adjusted EBITDA in the concession segment of CAD 5 million was CAD 18 million lower compared to CAD 23 million in the same period last year, primarily related to the COVID-19 impact on airport operations.
Turning to slide six, Aecon's financial position, liquidity, and capital resources remain strong and are expected to be sufficient to finance operations and working capital requirements for the foreseeable future. At June 30th, Aecon had CAD 20 million of cash on hand, excluding cash in joint operations and restricted cash, and a committed revolving credit facility of CAD 600 million, of which CAD 30 million was drawn and CAD 5 million utilized for letters of credit.
When combined with an additional CAD 700 million performance security guarantee facility to support letters of credit provided by EDC, Aecon's committed credit facilities for working capital and letter of credit requirements total CAD 1.3 billion. Aecon has no debt or working capital credit facility maturities until the second half of 2023, except equipment loans and leases in the normal course. Finally, as referenced in our outlook, as a Canadian employer whose business has been affected by COVID-19, Aecon expects to submit formal applications for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy in the third quarter of 2020 for eligible entities. At this time, the company isn't able to reasonably estimate the entitlement amount for this subsidy due to certain clarifications required, as well as proposed further changes to the legislation governing this program.
As such, no amount has been included in the consolidated results of operations for the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2020. At this point, I'll turn the call over to Jean-Louis.
Thank you, Dave. Turning now to slide seven. Despite the impact of COVID-19 on Aecon's second quarter results, our ability to respond with agility to these challenging times to deliver our services effectively while ensuring the health and safety of our dedicated employees demonstrates the resilience of our business. We remain confident that Aecon's diversified portfolio, strong financial position, and safety-first culture will be of great benefit as we continue to navigate those evolving market conditions. The construction segment is aligned to the significant infrastructure investment commitments by all levels of government across Canada, as well as by the private sector. The concession segment is pursuing a number of large-scale infrastructure projects that require private finance solutions, and participating as a concessionaire on the five P3 projects identified on this slide.
The majority of governments across the jurisdictions in which Aecon operates have deemed the types of construction projects that constitute the majority of Aecon's contract to be essential services, and therefore, operations are broadly continuing. Although, in many cases, on a modified basis. As this situation may continue to evolve for some time, shifting directives and policies from clients and governments are expected to continue. Turning now to slide eight. The current backlog and level of new awards year to date have remained robust, as evidenced by the record backlog of CAD 7.3 billion at the end of the second quarter. The timing of work to be performed for projects in backlog as at June 30th, 2020 is based on current project schedules, taking into account the current impacts of COVID-19 and related slowdowns, rescheduling, and in some cases, suspension of work and agreed future restart dates.
It is possible that these schedules could change in the future as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves. In addition, certain projects that were expected to be available to Aecon to bid on to secure new revenue have been delayed. Any such delays are currently expected to be temporary. To date, there are no projects that were previously recorded in Aecon's backlog that have been canceled due to COVID-19. Trailing 12-month recurring revenue was down 11% compared to last year, primarily as a result of the slowdown and then suspension of commercial flight operation on March 20, 2020, and throughout the remainder of the second quarter at the Bermuda International Airport. Turning to our outlook on slide nine.
While the impact of COVID-19 on Aecon's operating environment has stabilized during the second quarter, operations continue to be impacted, either by client decisions related to schedules or operating policies, or due to broader government directives to modify work practices to meet health and safety standards related to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this second quarter, the Montreal REM LRT and Site C projects, where construction had been suspended, restarted, albeit gradually, particularly with respect to Site C and with modified work practices. In the second half of the year, the main impacts are expected to be from the slow ramp-up starting in early July of commercial operations of the Bermuda International Airport, as well as in nuclear operations, where a ramp-up on the next phase of work on a number of projects has been delayed until late in the third quarter and into the fourth quarter.
While the impact to these projects, as well as others, will be to reduce revenue and normal operations resume. There is no guarantee that all related costs will be recovered, and therefore it is possible that future project margin could be impacted. Aecon expects that demand for its services will remain strong following the COVID-19 pandemic, as the federal government and provincial governments across Canada have identified investment in infrastructure as a key source of economic stimulus once the country reaches the recovery phase. In closing, I want to personally thank all of Aecon's employees, in particular our frontline workers, for their dedication, commitment, and professionalism during this challenging time. Thank you. Be safe. We will now turn on the call over to analysts for questions.
As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone. To withdraw your question, please press the pound or hash key. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Yuri Lynk of Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi. Good morning, gentlemen.
Morning.
Good morning.
Given the obviously a lot of uncertainty out there in terms of your ability to recover some of these excess costs that you're incurring on projects that are delayed one way or another due to COVID. In light of that, should we still expect core margins and construction to be able to grind higher? Do you think a more measured forecast would be appropriate? Any way you can kind of quantify what we might be looking at in terms of excess cost that you might have to absorb?
Okay, maybe I will make the first part of the answer, Yuri, and then David will complement it. We have two kind of operations. I mean, the one where the clients have been suspending our works. On those one, we have no real issues about negotiating compensation in time or in cost. The second one is when our clients have not officially suspended, but the pace of our works have been altered, the productivity of our works has been modified. For those one, first of all, what we have been assessing from March 15 is that we have put in place a lot of stringent health and safety measures. When those measures are followed with discipline, it works. It means that we have very few positive cases during the last month since from the beginning of this pandemic.
It gives confidence to our workers and, of course, the way of working has changes, in terms of not sharing tools, not gathering on the front of works, preparing probably better the jobs. All those works at essential services are progressing. This being said, it's not evident and quick to assess exactly the impact on productivity. It means that the negotiation about time and cost compensation with our client just takes a little longer. This is where we are at the moment. Maybe, David, you want to add something?
Yeah. In terms of specific numbers, we obviously don't give margin guidance, on a consolidated basis, obviously, the continued impact in Bermuda will be a drag on margins at a consolidated level. As you were saying, kind of the key comparison will be construction segment like for like. I think clearly we're back to something approaching more normal operations in Q3 relative to where we were in Q2. I think the impacts Jean-Louis referred to aren't particularly material, and in most cases, we are getting cooperation from clients who obviously understand the issues. I don't think there's a major impact in Q3, certainly nowhere near the extent that we saw in Q2. There will be a mix impact.
Obviously, nuclear continues to be at a very low run rate through the third quarter before we ramp up on the next reactor refurbishment, and there's a few other mix impacts. Generally, Q3 will be stronger than Q2, and we'll start to look a bit more like a normal quarter in the construction segment, with a couple of exceptions, nuclear being the main one.
Okay. Can you give us any update on how traffic is trending at the Bermuda Airport quarter to date?
It's very slow at this point in time. There's a few airlines that have started up flights again, so Delta, British Airways, and Air Canada. As of July 1st, July 2nd, when we reopened, effectively, the airport opened at roughly 5%-10% of normal capacity. That's the starting point, and it will slowly ramp up from there. We're anticipating new flights being added in August and ongoing from there. At this point, it's a very low level, and it will ramp gradually over the next few months. Beyond that, I guess it really depends how things play out more broadly in terms of the development of the virus and people's comfort level with traveling and things like that. It will certainly be an ongoing impact through Q3. We're not expecting things to bounce back quickly during Q3.
Okay. I'll turn it over there. Thanks, guys.
Your next question comes from the line of Frederic Bastien of Raymond James. Your line is open.
Good morning.
Morning.
With respect to the CAD 1 billion of contract awards you announced being added to backlog, to my knowledge, I haven't seen any big press releases apart from the Coastal GasLink one with respect to some compressor and metering work. Can you discuss a bit more in detail these contracts and what they mean in the grand scheme of things?
Yes, Frederic, it's a very interesting question because although impacted by COVID during this Q2, what you have noticed is that the work program continues to grow, and this CAD 1.1 billion in the quarter of new award is extremely interesting. Effectively, you have not seen big announcements because most of these jobs are medium jobs, industrial jobs, utilities jobs, pipeline jobs. This is what makes it interesting. As you know, I'm always saying that what creates the strength and the resilience of Aecon is its balanced activity. Balance between concession and construction. Within construction, balance between the different sectors, balance between East and West, and we have seen more jobs coming out and being awarded in the West part of Canada. Balance between small, medium, big jobs, unit price, target cost, or lump sum, and this is what is interesting.
Medium job, industrial, utilities, this is what makes the CAD 1.1 billion.
Okay, thanks for that color. Just to follow up, this Coastal GasLink contract is in two locations, but obviously one of them is in Kitimat, which positions you in a very tight territory, and there's not a lot of contractors there. With, obviously, a lot of dollars being spent through the LNG Canada project, how are you positioning yourselves for follow-on work in Kitimat?
We are working on Coastal GasLink. We have been acquiring and being awarded a certain number of compressor station and additional pumping station near Kitimat, but also in Wilde Lake. This is what we do at the moment, and it's our core competency. For the rest of the program of LNG Canada, we shall see on the way when some new works or building works will be released, what will be our position, and if we think we have a competitive advantage to position ourselves there.
Okay, thanks for that color. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Chris Murray of ATB Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Yeah, thank you. Good morning.
Good morning.
Just my first question really is maybe for David, and just going back and maybe some of the mechanics around the changes you guys made around the airport in the financials. Can you just walk us through a little bit your changes? It looks like you may have rejigged depreciation, and I'm also trying to understand exactly what's left in backlog for the construction of the new terminal.
Hi, Chris. I'll talk to the amortization piece first. The amortization in Bermuda is related to the concession right that we have on the balance sheet that really reflects the fact that we have a concession to operate the existing terminal before we then transfer over to the new terminal, when we'll start to amortize the construction cost of the new terminal over the remaining life of the concession. Obviously because there's been no operations at the airport, the amortization related to that, the way the accounting works there is the amortization goes hand in hand with the operations. While operations are suspended, there's no amortization of the concession right because that effectively gets pushed out into the future. That's about a CAD 8 million or CAD 9 million reduction in amortization cost as a result of that. Sorry, I forget the second part of the question now.
Could you just remind me?
The remaining construction backlog.
Yeah, the remaining construction backlog is pretty small. We're really down to the final fit out of the terminal, and commissioning of the systems, and really getting the whole thing ready to open. It's a very small amount, immaterial in the grand scheme of things through the balance of the year.
Okay. It's still fair to think that construction should be completed by year-end. Is that still the thought?
That's the goal. Obviously, that will be driven by the availability of being able to bring people back to the island. Obviously now the airport is open again, we're able to do that. Barring any future waves or changes in the current landscape, then yes, that's the intention.
Just along those lines, if I look at Q2 in the concessions business, is it fair to think that what we actually saw reported in both revenue and earnings, would that be reflective of the pace that you're actually moving in terms of concessions outside of Bermuda? Is that the right way maybe to think about it?
To some extent, although don't forget we have some SG&A in that group as well. It's not just the contribution from Canadian concessions, it's that contribution less the normal SG&A that we have, which is the concessions team that are bidding new concessions, including the P3s in Canada, as well as managing all our current concession portfolio. It's not just pure contribution, it's also less the ongoing SG&A that we have in that group.
Okay, great. My final question, I don't know who wants to take this one, the comment about some delays in project bidding. We talked about this actually on the last call, part of that was some uncertainty around funding. Some of that was just folks trying to determine where things are going. Very healthy book-to-bill number in the quarter, which was surprising, it sounds like good quality of contract. Just any thoughts around how we should be thinking about bookings through the second half of the year, any other thoughts around if there are potential delays?
Okay, I will take this one. What I can say is that the bidding pipeline is extremely robust. There had been, at the beginning of the pandemic, some pushback. Everything is coming back to normal. This is primarily driven by the half a million newcomers arriving in Canada every year. Those people need transport, they need energy, they need clean water, they need highways, and this will not stop. We are not that much worried about this. We are very happy about this CAD 1.1 billion during the second quarter, and we are also very happy about the quality of what we have been acquiring and the diversity of what is being acquired. We don't have that much of worries about what is coming, about the funding.
You all understand that infrastructure is favored by our government, and we will go on bidding with a lot of discipline. As you have seen, we have a record backlog of CAD 7.3 billion as of today. We are not starving at all. We can choose exactly where do we want to fight, where do we have competitive advantage, and how do we organize our estimation and then our operation, where are we going to post our best team, and life is going on.
Okay. Fair to think that you're not seeing any major delays or push-outs on any project bidding?
No, we are not seeing this at the moment.
Okay. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Maxim Sytchev of National Bank Financial. The line is open.
Hi, good morning, gentlemen.
Hi, Maxim.
Just wanted to follow back on Bermuda. Obviously, Q2, there's no traffic at all, so I can appreciate that you have the ability to sort of match the costs to the revenue opportunity. As things are slowly opening up, just trying to think about sort of the embedded margin profile, or is there anything incrementally you can do from a cost management perspective for Q3, Q4? My point is that, can the profitability actually get worse as you don't have enough traffic that goes through the airport? Just trying to better understand kind of the curvature of the nascent recovery from a traffic perspective.
Good question, Max. No, any incremental traffic effectively drops straight to the bottom line. The way the fee structure works there is really fees for traffic coming in and out, and passengers. There's not really a change to the cost structure. Obviously, the management of the airport, because even when the commercial flight operations were shut down, we still need to keep the workforce there because there are still freight planes coming in and out. There's still regulations that you have to meet and things like that. There's very little change in the cost structure going forward, and any incremental volume will drop straight to the bottom line. No, we shouldn't see any further dip. We should see things slowly start to recover from a profitability perspective.
Okay. That's very helpful. Do you mind just reminding us in terms of how the debt attached to the concession sort of works? Are there any automatic repayments over the next six or nine months, or is it 12 months out? Just if you can provide a bit more color there.
No, nothing that kicks in in the short term. The debt repayment schedule is over many years and starts to kick in a few years into the future. There's really no change in that schedule. There's no mechanism to kind of change that. It's not accelerated, it's not delayed, but it's a few years out, yeah.
Right. I guess a couple of quarters ago you were discussing potentially attracting an outside party to provide a bit of a mark to market on Bermuda. Is it fair to assume that all these things are on hold right now? Maybe do you mind commenting on some potential additional business development opportunities on the concession side specifically?
Yeah. With respect to Bermuda, that was a theoretical answer to a question of what might we do with that concession in the future. We certainly weren't indicating that we are in the process, or were in the process of doing any kind of marketing of that or looking for an investor. It was a theoretical answer to that, exploring what the future options could be. All those options are still on the table. The three options that were kind of raised were, would you sell it? Would you keep it? Or we raised a third option, which was potentially sell a minority stake in it. We're not active on any of those fronts right now. We're just focused on completing the airport, ramping operations back up, and we'll look at what our options are down the road.
I wouldn't expect to see any developments on that front anytime soon. In terms of other business development opportunities, obviously, we're still active bidding P3s in Canada. The P3 pipeline remains strong. That model remains something that governments are committed to at this stage. Internationally, yeah, obviously, governments are kind of pausing to figure out what the longer term impacts might be of the current situation. Generally, we're still interested in international concessions and moving those dialogues forward, as we can. Again, there's nothing imminent on that front at this stage.
Okay, fair enough. That's it for me. Thank you very much.
Your next question comes from Jacob Bout of CIBC. Your line is open.
Good morning.
Morning.
Morning.
How prepared do you think the construction industry or Aecon is for a second potential wave of COVID-19?
Evidently, much better prepared than for the first wave. What I've been saying is that we have just realized that once all our workforce follow the rules on our job sites, it works. It's about hand washing, it's about social distancing, it's about wearing masks, it's about not sharing common areas. Not only it works, but we are just discovering now that it may improve our way of executing the work. We prefabricate more, we prepare more. We don't lose time discussing, and everybody is very much focused on his task, and this is good. We also know that we have been able to work remotely for all our support functions very quickly, and this also has been efficient. We are much more ready. Now, there will not be any learning curve or ramping up if there is a second phase.
I would say, although we are not wishing this phase 2, we are ready for it.
I wanted to go back to the project bidding activity. You talked about certain projects that have been delayed as far as the ability to bid. Order of magnitude, how much work are we talking about? Maybe if you can also talk a bit about, is there any evidence of fast-tracking of government projects?
Okay. Frankly speaking, what has been delayed most of the time is about negotiating with our future eventual clients clauses to cover us in front of a second wave or in front of any pandemia. You probably remember that the way we were covered in the former contracts was diverse.
It may be change in law, it may be force majeure, it may be compensation even with partial time relief or partial cost relief. We are now extremely careful, and our clients also are extremely careful. On each of the projects, it has taken a few weeks to recalibrate our contractual clauses in order to cover us better. No big deal. No project has been canceled. We are still with, in front of us, a pipeline of something like CAD 40 billion of major projects in infrastructures, plus all the medium and small projects. You have noticed that within the CAD 1.1 billion, most of them are medium projects and small ones. This is where we are at the moment.
In terms of the net-
Jacob, in terms of the second piece of the question in terms of any potential acceleration that we've seen, certainly within that CAD 1.1 billion that you saw in Q2 of new awards is a decent amount of road building work in both Eastern and Western Canada. As we said, a quarter ago, that is the area where governments can most quickly get dollars flowing. We've certainly seen, in two major markets, Alberta and Ontario, the transportation authorities in those areas increase their budgets and get dollars flowing. Yes, we're seeing it in the sectors we expected to see it. In terms of major projects, they obviously take a little longer. There is certainly a willingness by governments to ensure that the pipeline is active, and there's lots coming behind it.
Thank you. I'll leave it there.
Your next question comes from the line of Michael Tupholme of TD Securities. Your line is open.
Thank you. Good morning.
Good morning.
Appreciate the detail you provided in terms of your assessment around what impact COVID-19 had on your revenues and EBITDA. I'm just wondering if it's possible to break those two numbers down between the two segments.
From an EBITDA perspective, it was roughly 50/50 between construction and concessions. At the operating profit level, it was more two-thirds construction, one-third concessions because of that amortization difference on the concession side. That's kind of the split at the profitability level. At the revenue level, the lion's share of it is construction, kind of 80%, 90% of it was construction-related revenue.
Okay. That's helpful. Thanks, Dave. Second question. Last quarter, you suggested that you had eliminated all non-essential spending, reduced discretionary CapEx, and were evaluating various cost savings opportunities in light of the pandemic. With some stabilization in the operating environment now, have any of those expenses started to come back up? Do you expect that those savings and expense reduction initiatives will remain in place for the foreseeable future?
Obviously, as you said, most of the operations are up and running, so there are limits to how deep we can go on those initiatives. Certainly, where we can continue to reduce discretionary or non-essential spend or defer things while we still have impacts from Bermuda, for example, and nuclear delays and things like that's an ongoing effort. I wouldn't expect further cuts over and above, but in terms of maintaining some of the reductions, that's certainly the goal as we go through the second half.
Just to follow up on that, as far as CapEx, looks like it's sort of running flat with where it was last year. Do you have a full year number in mind? Does that look lower by the time we get to the end of the year?
Yeah, overall, by the end of the year, in terms of our typical CapEx spend, which is mainly equipment driven, it will be lower. We did have higher CapEx in Q1 before the pandemic hit, which was in large part due to the purchase of a facility, a property that houses all our equipment and maintenance facilities in Ontario. That, for the full year, kind of has an impact on the overall comparison. If you exclude Q1 and just look at the balance of the year, we do expect CapEx overall to be a fair bit lower than 2019.
Okay. Lastly, can you comment on the Voltage Power acquisition, how that's going? It looks like it generated CAD 23 million of revenue in the second quarter, which on a run rate basis, seems to be trending well above the CAD 60 million of annual revenue that it generated over the last 3 years before you acquired it. Is that step up reflective of revenue synergies, or is there some seasonality we need to think about? Just trying to understand, if you can comment on what's driving seemingly very strong performance there.
Yeah, you're right, Mike, in terms of the run rate relative to kind of historic. Having said that, the run rate would've been stronger still without COVID-19. There were some projects in the Voltage business that were pushed out to the right a little bit in terms of some delays through the second quarter. We're still happy with that business and how it's developing. There were some impacts on the revenue through Q2, and there is a fair bit of seasonality in that business as well. Much like the pipeline business, it can be kind of up and down between quarters. It's not a business that is very smooth over time. Yeah, so far so good in terms of how that business is developing. Still very early days, obviously.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Your next question comes from Mona Nazir. Your line is open.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions.
Hi, Mona.
Hi. I'm just looking at the quarter and just hearing your comments today. I mean, you made a tuck-in acquisition, although it was small on the telecom side. Revenue was ahead. Backlog was up 4% sequentially, and Bermuda is now reopened. I'm just wondering, as you have greater clarity on COVID's impact, do you think that you're going to be giving yourself some more breathing room or perhaps you're more optimistic in your outlook, given perhaps the worst period is likely in the rear view mirror?
As contractors, we are always optimistic, we try to cope with condition, it's sure that Q2 has been heavily impacted. You have seen it. As I have been saying, business is going on. Pipeline is strong. Aecon is getting stronger and stronger due to its balance activity, due to all the efforts we do about operational excellence, about training our people, about our Aecon University. Yes, we have optimism, we will try to go on our path to complement our existing activities with other one that make us more resilient and stronger.
Okay, thank you. Just secondly, I appreciate your comments surrounding the Bermuda Airport and possible long-term outcome scenarios. I'm just wondering, have you received any external interest in the airport over the last few years?
We're active in the concessions business. We're talking to people all the time about opportunities, about different things, but no, there's been no serious inquiries. There's been no serious discussions around the future of the airport other than internal. No, nothing of any note. No.
That's great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Sabahat Khan of RBC Capital. Your line is open.
Hey, thanks, good morning. Just on the D&A side, I think in the past you made some comments about kind of the flip between when the new terminal opens, the D&A is expected to moderate, but interest goes up. In light of some of the push out on the construction side, can you maybe help us think about when we expect to get that flip between sort of D&A and interest, and how you expect D&A to evolve maybe over the next few quarters?
That transfer should happen early in the new year if all goes according to schedule. That's when you would see that change happen. Effectively, what you should see through the second half of this year is amortization starting to increase, relative to where it was in Q2, not necessarily back to where it was in Q3 and Q4 last year. That transition happening early in Q1 should see amortization at a lower run rate than we've had historically, going forward, offset to some extent by the fact that we will, at that point, start expensing interest that through construction is being capitalized. That should all happen early in Q1.
Okay, thanks for that. I think there was a comment in the MD&A, if I caught it correctly, that some higher D&A was attributable to some new construction equipment being rolled out. I was just lining that up with kind of the directional impact on construction revenue being lower year-over-year. Just trying to figure out, was that additional equipment just new equipment being rolled out, or should we read that as there was more equipment out on the site versus last year?
It's really driven by CapEx last year that is obviously depreciated going forward. As the business is growing and as CapEx keeps pace with that, then obviously depreciation would increase commensurate. This wasn't new CapEx being purchased in Q2 that was depreciated in Q2. It's more the ongoing impact of revenue growth over time and equipment we've been purchasing through the last 12 to 18 months. A lot of that growth coming in the civil sector where there's high equipment components and things like that. It's really based on historic CapEx.
Okay, that's helpful. Just to follow up on the earlier discussion about the Bermuda Airport, as you start to ramp up, are you able to share perhaps what % utilization or number of flights you need to have at that airport for you to break even, at least on an EBITDA basis? I know you indicated you're maybe at about 5%-10%, but what's sort of the level you're looking to hit to get to break even, maybe?
To get to break even, you could operate at a reasonably low level versus a kind of normal capacity, to hit break-even. The overall fixed costs are not that significant relative to the size of the operation. We expect even operating at a relatively low level, kind of 10%-20%, we would be at least break-even at that point.
Just the last one, I guess, based on current levels or current trajectory, is that something you'd hit maybe exiting Q3 at some point, or too early to tell?
Yeah. Well, I think I said earlier, we're currently operating at 5%-10%, and we expect to see that slowly ramp up through Q3. How quickly that ramps up, it really comes down to individual airlines and how quickly they add flights and how quickly passengers come back onto those flights. Very hard for us to predict at this point in time. It is something that we see going past those numbers through Q3, but it's very uncertain at this point in time.
Great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Jean- Francois Lavoie. The line is open.
Yes. Good morning.
Morning.
Just coming back on the tuck-in acquisition you did in the telecommunications space, I was just wondering if you could provide an update on how the recurring portion of your business is performing so far in Q2, and maybe what are your expectations for the second half. Thanks.
The biggest impact on recurring revenue in the quarter was with Bermuda operations. That revenue all goes through recurring revenue. Obviously that had an outsized impact in the quarter. Outside of that, with our utilities business, which is the other major component, overall, kind of business as usual, generally in that space. The utilities business continues to perform well. Obviously, as Bermuda ramps up again, then we expect to see that come back into that recurring revenue. In utilities, we continue to see good growth opportunities there. Obviously the Voltage business is part of our utilities group. This small acquisition in Manitoba is just another example. It's very small in and of itself, but it allows us to grow in another market, similar to a small acquisition we made in the same space in Quebec, and the Maritimes last year.
We continue to build out that footprint, and we see good dynamics in that market.
Is there any other spaces or geographies where you would like to make some tuck-ins acquisition to solidify your position?
What you have seen is that telecommunication is important for us. Also expanding in territories where we are not that much present is important for us, and this is where we are at the moment.
Okay. Maybe one last for me on the NCIB side. Now that the impact of COVID-19 on operation has started to stabilize, do you intend to restart your program anytime soon, or you prefer to wait maybe to see how COVID turns out in the next quarter?
Yeah. I would say there's still obviously uncertainty around how this virus will develop through the balance of the year. We're obviously no experts on that, so we're kind of in wait-and-see mode, just like everybody else. While we have the flexibility under the NCIB to be opportunistic, I would say our general approach right now is very much wait and see.
Perfect. Thank you very much for your time.
Thanks.
There are no further questions at this time. I return the call back over to the presenters.
Thanks very much. We appreciate everyone's interest and attention today. As always, feel free to follow up with investor relations if you have questions. We encourage everybody to be safe. Enjoy the balance of your summer, and we will speak to you again in the third quarter. Take care.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.