Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Bird Construction fourth quarter and full year 2022 results conference call and webcast. We will begin with Teri McKibbon, President and Chief Executive Officer's presentation, which will be followed by a question and answer session. Analysts who wish to ask a question should have their webcast muted when dialing into the conference number provided. At any time during the presentation today, you may press Star then one on your telephone keypad to be placed into the question queue. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. When we are ready for questions, you'll be introduced into the conference in the order that you were received. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press Star then two. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the webcast is being recorded.
Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal the operator by pressing Star then zero. Before commencing with the conference call, the company reminds those present that certain statements which are made express management's expectations or estimates of future performance and thereby constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Management's formal comments and responses to any questions you might ask may include forward-looking information. Therefore, the company cautions today's participants that such forward-looking information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual financial results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from the company's estimated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information.
Forward-looking information does not guarantee future performance. The company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise. Our presentation today includes references to a number of financial measures which do not have standardized meaning under IFRS and may not be comparable with similar measures presented by other companies and are therefore considered non-GAAP measures. I would now like to turn the call over to Teri McKibbon, President and CEO of Bird Construction.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fourth quarter and year-end 2022 conference call. Joining me on today's call is Wayne Gingrich, Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I wanna bring attention to International Women's Day and recognize and celebrate the inspiring women within Bird. It's also important to acknowledge the ongoing struggles in the pursuit of gender equity. Bird promotes the importance of diversity and allyship in the workplace through our Women at Bird employee resource group and partnerships with organizations such as Women Building Futures. Together, there's still work to do. We are dedicated to enhancing inclusion and creating a more equitable and inclusive industry. We are pleased with a strong finish to 2022, demonstrating the results of the company's strategy to reposition itself over the past several years.
Fourth quarter and full-year performance reflect our team's efforts, embracing the collaborative approach and driving our diversified risk balance model forward. During 2022, our performance was supported by larger scopes on self-performed work, greater depth of cross-selling opportunities, and a vast majority of revenues generated from lower-risk contract types. The diligent focus of our One Bird team ensured we maintained a strong financial position, ending the year with significant financial flexibility and liquidity to support the company's future growth and disciplined capital allocation approach. Turning to slide six, our team delivered a significant organic revenue growth of just under 10% for the fourth quarter, with revenues of $657.2 million. We generated an Adjusted EBITDA of $30.6 million or 4.7% of revenues, compared to $28.4 million or 4% of revenues in Q4 2021.
While Adjusted Earnings and Adjusted Earnings Per Share were CAD 15.5 million and CAD 0.29 respectively, which equates to a 19% increase to Adjusted Earnings year-over-year. Along with the significant revenue growth, we generated increased cash flows from operations before changes in non-cash working capital in the quarter of CAD 33.5 million, up almost 30% from 2021. On a full year basis, the record 2022 revenue of CAD 2.4 billion was driven by both acquisitive and organic growth, representing a 7% increase year-over-year. The growth was balanced across the company's work programs, with organic growth accounting for approximately 5% of the increase, which included Dagmar growth in the last four months of the year.
In 2022, we delivered an Adjusted EBITDA of CAD 101.2 million, or 4.3% of revenues, compared to CAD 108.1 million recorded in 2021. Adjusted Earnings and Adjusted Earnings Per Share were CAD 46 million and CAD 0.86 in 2022, compared to CAD 51 million and CAD 0.96 per share in the prior year. One of our key strategic priorities is to achieve a higher overall margin profile. Our business model allows Bird to better manage and share inflationary impacts on cost of construction, and this has and will continue to support enhanced margins. Increased self-perform activity, strategic growth in key markets, acquisitions performance and disciplined cost management also support margin expansion.
The solid 2022 performance was achieved despite pandemic-related impacts and the challenges in the first half of 2022 with labor disputes, permitting delays and supply chain challenges. These eased throughout the year and had limited impact in the fourth quarter of 2022. No CEWS recoveries were recorded in the current year to offset pandemic-related impacts compared to CAD 21.9 million of CEWS recoveries recorded in 2021. We continue to see high demand for our services and self-perform scopes, leading the company to set a record for combined backlog and pending backlog at December 31. The record combined backlog and pending backlog of risk balanced contracts and awards with over 70% in a collaborative delivery contract structure uphold our confidence for the upcoming year. This type of shift does not happen overnight.
Our concerted efforts and discipline over the past few years have positioned the company with a strong foundation that we are leveraging today to achieve continued growth and enhance profitability. These efforts have solidified the key fundamentals that set Bird apart in our sector, outlined on slide 7. We are confident in our revenue growth expectations for 2023, underpinned by our diverse active work programs operating in a high demand and high growth sector. The record combined backlog and pending backlog comprises a diverse mix of collaborative risk-balanced contracts and awards. Margin improvements will be driven by our disciplined project selection, which has generated highly collaborative and low risk platform today, allowing us to better manage inflationary impacts on our cost of construction. Cross-selling our integrated solutions, large scopes of self-perform work, and strategic diversification in key sectors further support margin expansion.
Our annual business planning process provided good visibility for our outlook for 2023 and combined with the positive momentum of 2022 led our board to approve an increase to our monthly dividend of 10% commencing with the March 2023 dividend payable in April. Bird is delivering a top quartile return profile on such metrics as return on equity and return on invested capital. These have long-standing importance and are tied to executive performance. In addition to the robust return profile are our strong balance sheet and competitive compelling growth outlook enhancing our shareholder value. We have the financial flexibility, low leverage, and low net debt to invest in operations and acquisitions and maintain our balanced approach to capital allocation. The acquisition of Trinity Communications completed subsequent to year-end was funded 90% through cash with balance from common shares.
It is aligned with our strategies to seek out tuck-in, specialized or high-margin potential offerings, additional self-perform capabilities, and sound organic growth potential post-acquisition. Bird's environmental, social, and governance program continues to mature in response to business, client, and industry demands. Bird's robust self-perform capabilities have repositioned us to deliver energy transition projects such as renewables, nuclear, waste-to-heat projects, as well as sustainable new builds and retrofits. Overall, these factors position us to deliver steady growth and an expanded margin profile. Business continues to evolve in the right direction, building our revenue and EBITDA trends on Slide 8. We are positioned with the appropriate balance of contracts in place, diversified across sectors and clients, both public and private. Our balanced work between institutional, commercial, and industrial remains relatively consistent and in line to drive more robust growth.
The company is well-positioned in the current economic climate with a risk-balanced work program where the majority of contracts are considered low to medium risk. At December 31, 2022, the company carried a record combined backlog and pending backlog of risk-balanced contracts and awards, bolstering our confidence in revenue and earnings growth for the upcoming year. Pending backlog was CAD 2.4899 billion compared to CAD 1.6247 billion at December 31, 2021, an increase of CAD 865.2 million or 53.3%. The company's backlog was CAD 2.6365 billion, down slightly from its record level in the first quarter of 2022 due to timing of project conversions from pending backlog. Our backlog and pending backlog provide good visibility into future revenue and growth.
The collective demand for Bird's specialized self-perform capabilities in infrastructure, renewables, nuclear, environmental, telecommunications, as well as our institutional construction capabilities, is expected to drive steady growth in 2023. In addition, we have fully offset the revenue and margin contributions from the company's LNG Canada phase one work program. Over 70% of contracts in our backlog and pending backlog have a collaborative delivery model, and Bird has developed a strong reputation for delivering sophisticated projects in these types of frameworks. As the company is awarded more of these projects, our participation at early stages of the project development cycle can result in significant amounts of work of awarded project value being reflected in pending backlog for longer periods of time before transitioning to backlog.
However, once transitioned to backlog, collaborative contracts provide more predictable cost and price structures with less downside risk due to the mutual alignment of desired outcomes. Growth in recurring revenue streams further supports our overall outlook, providing visibility to future revenues. As we have highlighted in the past, we have a significant portfolio of master service agreements and other multi-year service contracts valued at over CAD 900 million at December 31, 2022. Our high-performing maintenance, repair, and operation team executes much of this work. However, in 2022, re-received notice to proceed on our first multi-year task order for environmental remediation of nuclear sites.
This expands our recurring revenue stream within the energy sector and positions us for future work on one of Canada's largest remediation projects. The company remains focused on pursuing the right opportunities and projects that reflect an appropriate risk balance and align with Bird's combined capabilities across the country. Bird's 2022-2024 strategic plan focuses on the further development of Bird's team, strong project execution and performance, and the diversification of service offerings across Canada. We are executing well on our strategy and see key focus areas such as growing self-perform, expanding cross-selling opportunities through M&A and internal partnerships, and disciplined project selection contributing to the enhanced fundamentals and our positive outlook.
A highlight in 2022 was Bird becoming a founding member of the Canadian Construction Safety Council, which aims to raise safety standards and performance across the industry with like-minded partners and aligns with our safety-first mindset. In 2022, we continued to elevate our culture of learning, an essential driver of engagement and performance. Bird's learning culture is a growth culture that seeks collaboration on new ideas, methods, and opportunities to engage and innovate together. Attracting and retaining top qualified personnel remains an important differentiator. We announced several meaningful contract wins during the year and subsequent to year-end, representing a diverse range of sectors and geographies. Subsequent year-end, Bird was awarded a Progressive Design-Build contract for a net-zero processing facility in Ontario with a total project value of over $200 million.
The steady growth expected in 2023 is supported by this healthy backlog and our ability to acquire new work in competitive markets. Slide 11 demonstrates Bird's expanded self-perform capabilities and comprehensive service offerings. Bird can maximize cross-selling potential through this nationwide platform and leverage our integrated and innovative client solutions to pursue and deliver projects across many sectors. Recent strategic M&A has further enhanced our ability to secure and execute projects of increased scale and complexity. Subsequent to year-end, Bird acquired Trinity Communication Services Limited, a diversified telecommunications and utility infrastructure contractor based in Ontario that specializes underground, aerial, commercial inside plant, and multi-dwelling unit installations. These self-perform capabilities enable cross-selling opportunities for Bird's sizable national client base and serve as a growth catalyst for the company's utilities portfolio.
Bird's growing power and sustainable energy portfolio is leveraging Bird's collaborative, innovative, and solutions-focused approach to help our clients to meet their sustainability goals. The pivot to cleaner energy is largely dependent on enhanced electrification, where Bird has well-established capabilities and is positioned to capture opportunities for our business. In addition, we're not new to the future energy and sustainable project environment, having self-performed a significant number of projects in these sectors over the past years. Bird's mechanical, electrical, and instrumentation and civil and structural capabilities are delivering sustainability projects ranging from hydroelectric infrastructure and other large utility scale renewables to work programs on all of Ontario's nuclear sites. From waste heat recovery at Toronto Western Hospital to various wastewater and organic waste processing facilities across the country. Bird is also executing net-zero agri-food processing facilities.
The growing civil infrastructure team, catalyzed by Dagmar, is developing rail projects and supporting the development of public transportation networks. For our buildings teams, the transition to a lower carbon future presents many opportunities to apply our well-developed sustainable building solutions including mass timber and modular, deep energy retrofits, net-zero buildings, innovative special projects, and smart building technology. Overall, Bird is competitively positioned in this sector, which is expected to gain more significance in the future. The company's existing culture and robust governance structures, combined with dedicated work over the past few years to build our long-term ESG strategy, ensure internal readiness for forthcoming disclosure requirements. We look forward to sharing more about our sustainability journey in the upcoming 2022 sustainability overview. With that, I'll turn it over to Wayne to go over our financial results.
Thank you, Teri. Despite the challenges that we faced in the first half of the year, we wrapped up 2022 with a strong fourth quarter of revenue growth, profitability, and cash flow generation, making for a solid year overall. For the fourth quarter, we reported a 9.9% increase in construction revenue to CAD 657.2 million compared to CAD 597.8 million in 2021. Gross profit for the quarter is CAD 58.1 million or 8.8% of revenues. This compares to CAD 51.3 million or 8.6% of revenues in Q4 2021. General and administrative expenses in the quarter were CAD 34.5 million or 5.3% of revenues, compared to CAD 37.1 million or 6.2% of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Adjusted EBITDA in Q4 2022 amounted to CAD 30.6 million or 4.7% of revenues, compared to CAD 28.4 million or 4.8% of revenues in 2021. Adjusted earnings and Adjusted Earnings Per Share for the quarter were CAD 15.5 million or CAD 0.29 respectively, compared to CAD 13 million and CAD 0.24 in Q4 2021. Turning to our full year results, we reported construction revenues of CAD 2.4 billion for 2022. This represents a 7.1% increase year-over-year compared to CAD 2.2 billion for the full year 2021. The year-over-year growth was driven by acquisitive and organic growth with strong performance by Dagmar throughout the year.
Gross profit for the full year 2022 was CAD 201.8 million, reflecting an 8.5% margin, up from 8.4% in 2021. Our increasing gross profit margin was complemented by decreasing general and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue, representing 5.6% of revenues as opposed to 5.7% in 2021. Adjusted EBITDA for 2022 was CAD 101.2 million, representing a 4.3% margin. This compares to Adjusted EBITDA of CAD 108.1 million or a 4.9% margin for full year 2021. Adjusted Earnings for the full year 2022 was CAD 46 million or CAD 0.86 per share, compared to CAD 51 million or CAD 0.96 per share in 2021.
In the second quarter of 2022, Bird received a one-time CAD 7.6 million gain related to the settlement of historical construction billings and related interest charges with a customer. This was excluded from adjusted earnings due to the one-time nature. However, it was a positive outcome for shareholders. As a reminder, 2021 included the impact of CAD 21.9 million of CEWS recoveries that helped offset the impacts of pandemic-related project delays and additional costs. No similar recoveries were recorded in 2022, resulting in pandemic-related impacts being absorbed in current year results. CEWS impacts will no longer impact year-over-year comparisons on a go-forward basis. Bird remains committed to maintaining a strong balance sheet with significant financial flexibility and liquidity.
In December, the company successfully amended its syndicated credit facility, extending the maturity of the facility to December 15th, 2025, and increasing amounts available under the committed revolving facility by CAD 35 million - CAD 220 million. The fourth quarter generated significant cash flow as non-cash working capital was released, resulting in a year-end cash balance of CAD 175 million. In addition, we had CAD 172 million of available capacity under our committed syndicated credit facility. At December 31st, 2022, the company had working capital of CAD 184.6 million, an increase of CAD 32.8 million or over 20% year-over-year improvement driven by the company's performance. The company's current ratio at year-end further improved to 1.23x compared to 1.21 x at year-end 2021.
Bird's balance sheet and available liquidity creates a strong foundation to support continued growth and drive robust return metrics. Our capital management measures are well within our comfort levels at year-end. Bird's capital allocation priorities remain balanced between capital investment in the business, dividends, M&A, and debt repayments. For the fourth quarter, we generated cash flow from operations before non-cash working capital of CAD 32.4 million. We reinvested CAD 7.7 million by way of CapEx in the quarter, bringing us to CAD 27.8 million for the year. The increase in capital expenditures was reflective of project requirements and greater availability of equipment to purchase in the current year. We also distributed CAD 20.9 million in dividends to shareholders throughout the year.
The strength of the company's balance sheet and access to financing supports our disciplined approach to investing in Bird's future growth, both organically and through opportunistic tuck-in acquisitions. We are well-positioned to pursue accretive tuck-ins in key sectors and remain open to larger opportunities where it makes sense. In December 2022, the company announced a 10% dividend increase, raising the monthly dividend to CAD 0.0358 per share, commencing with the March 2023 dividend to be paid in April. The company anticipates significant growth in earnings per share and Adjusted EBITDA in 2023, sufficient to achieve an expected dividend payout ratio below 40% of net income for the year. Overall, I'm pleased with our financial strength, ability to capitalize on organic and inorganic opportunities, and our respected position within the Canadian construction industry. With that, I'll turn it back to Teri.
Thanks, Wayne. We're pleased to finish 2022 on a high note, closing the year with strong revenue growth, profitability, and cash flow generation. We have a diversified and risk-balanced business model with extensive self-performed scopes, cross-selling opportunities, and a highly collaborative portfolio of contracts. Increasing levels of self-performed work, accretive acquisitions, and cross-selling opportunities in the robust bidding environment that allows us to be selective when pursuing no-new opportunities are drivers of future margin improvement. Additionally, we expect to leverage the current cost structure further to improve margin as the company grows. Bird makes strategic investments in construction technologies leading to optimized productivity, safety, and collaboration that enables us to delivery of innovative solutions for clients. As we move through 2023, we expect to maintain our mid to high single-digit revenue growth for the year, capitalizing on the company's record, combined backlog, and growing recurring revenue streams.
We expect the seasonality of revenues and earnings to return to more normalized patterns in 2023, with modest revenue growth in the first and second quarter and more robust performance in the third and fourth. We were excited to welcome Trinity Communications to our team in February. Our focus is on integration and working together on future growth potential through cross-selling and new services to our national client base. Our foundation is set, it is strong, and we're well-positioned to achieve profitable growth and enhance shareholder value in 2023. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Analysts who wish to ask a question may press star then one on their telephone keypad to join the question queue. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please ensure you lift the handset before pressing any keys. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star then two.
Anyone who has a question may press star and then 1 at this time. The first question is from Chris Murray from ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks, folks. Good morning.
Hi, Chris.
Just maybe turning to some of the disclosure around the backlog. Teri, I'd love, you know, your perspective on some of these things. book-to-bill in the quarter in Q4 was actually probably a little bit weaker than we would have expected given where you're at. I guess a couple pieces of this. If I look at your disclosure around recurring revenues, you know, that certainly seems to be growing. How should we be thinking about backlog in the coming quarters as you take on more of these collaborative design projects? Maybe, you know, if you wanna maybe address, there was a project I think you guys were doing for OPG. There was a mass timber building that perhaps got changed or canceled.
If you can maybe address how that would play through backlog, maybe as an example, that would be helpful.
Certainly, with the collaborative nature of the projects that we are currently heavily focused on, there are times it can be a bit more heavily weighted in pending, you know, as a project evolves in that regard. You know, I think you're seeing, you know, a bit of that, and it's if you look at quarter to quarter, you know, at times there can be some variability from a quarter to a quarter. You know, if we were simply booking fixed lump sum design build projects, it would be more definitive, less pending. The pending side certainly is affected by, you know, projects like that. Yeah, we were disappointed, obviously, that OPG didn't proceed with their massed mass timber assignment.
We were pleased to win, obviously, against the toughest competition in the country. Sometimes that, those things happen and things ebb and flow, and that's why those types of projects are in pending.
Yeah. Can I just say, Chris, too, that OPG project is not in any of our year-end reported numbers. It's removed from those figures.
That's fair. I guess along those lines, is it fair to think that we'll probably see. Like historically, pending's always been sort of MSA contracts inside the next five years. It's fair to think that the pending bucket will be more about your interpretation of where you think some of these Progressive Design-Build projects will end up over time. Is that maybe the right way to think about it?
Yeah. Like, we're finding that, as you win, some of these collaborative contracts, it just takes longer to finalize the design and get the owner to sign off on everything. While we've been awarded on it, we've been given, limited notices to proceed to maybe start some early works or those types of things. The final scope of the project, it takes a little longer to finalize. Once that's finalized, that's when you contract it and when we bring it in. You know, you'll see a nice increase in our pending backlog in Q4. We were awarded some nice projects.
You know, the ironic part about collaborative contracts is now, you know, when it comes to doing a press release, there's a lot more groups of people to collaborate with, and it takes longer to get the announcement out. We did have some nice wins.
I think the other part of it is when you're in an, you know, inflationary environment, you're sometimes going back to the drawing board to redesign to, you know, offset those inflationary impacts. If we were sitting in a lump sum environment, we'd be wearing that, and we'd be, you know, working feverishly to try and offset that. You know, one of the benefits of working in a collaborative environment is the client's got that risk. One of the downsides is that sometimes it takes you longer to fully contract because you're working through alternative materials and alternative designs to get FID. Certainly a lot of activity. The OPG assignment's pretty rare that we have something that gets to a point of, you know, of being announced in our pending backlog and then doesn't proceed.
It was logical when the GM building became available right around the corner, it made a lot of sense that they should consider that as opposed to building something new. It would've been nice to build a state-of-the-art mass timber building at Darlington.
Yeah. Okay. I guess what I'm trying to get at or try to make sure I understand correctly is even though firm backlog is down, you still feel comfortable about that single digit type growth number in 2023 because-
Yeah
... Your sources of revenue are gonna be coming from areas other than just out of your fixed backlog that you'll burn down over the next year, is the best way to think about it.
Yeah. I think the pace of business right now, the activity level is higher than, you know, we've seen. We're very confident, at the current pace that, you know, we'll have a very strong year in 2023.
Okay, great. Then maybe just moving on to maybe that recurring bucket. Can you talk a little bit about the Trinity acquisition, exactly what that brings to you and how that will work, you know, across a number of the different areas that you're working in? How does that dovetail perhaps with what you've got in Canada and out West?
Yeah. It's a really nice fit for us, because it's a high performing business first of all on a standalone basis without, you know, further integration within Bird. Obviously the business is specialized in communications and, you know, in today's world, most homes are striving for more data, so there's a high demand to create, you know, faster data, more sources of data. In many things we build today, we're putting, increasingly putting fiber optic sensors and things like that, whether that's on an industrial site or on a vertical building. There's a lot of demand for that type of capability and the specialized capabilities of splicers and things like that. We have some of those capabilities in Northern Alberta, where we service our energy clients.
It does fit together. Then on the Canem side, you know, obviously we are typically, you know, more in our lane on the electrical side if we're doing a project for a client. Obviously, having this now in our wheelhouse will increase our capabilities on projects to also offer a communication solution. Many of the projects we build today, you know, are typically for sophisticated clients that have a lot of sensors, a lot of components inside the facility that are wired and communicating on a 24/7 kind of basis, whether it's an energy facility or a monitor of, you know, everything from security to monitoring systems and things like that. It's a very nice fit.
As you know, we're also working in the U.S., predominantly in communications with another facet of our utility business. Worked across 11 states over the last couple of years, installing communication and hydro distribution for some of our clients, both in renewable projects and also in communications, you know, transmission, in various states. Obviously, the Trinity capabilities dovetail nicely into that as well. There's some overlap where Trinity has provided, you know, certainly solutions for some of our clients on an independent basis now being, you know, sort of a total solution within Bird. It's a much broader offering for many of our clients. We're really pleased. Good team, great culture, and, you know, we continue...
We expect to leverage that similar to what we've done with Dagmar.
All right. Thanks. I'll leave it there. Thanks, folks.
Thanks, Chris.
The next question is from Yuri Lynk of Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys, and congrats on a really nice quarter.
Thanks, Yuri.
Teri, it's been a key part of the success of the last few years is the collaborative contracts. I mean, at this point with inflation where it is, I mean, there's more price risk than ever. I mean, if I was a client, I'd want the contractor to continue to wear as much risk as possible. What's in it for the client to go along with these collaborative contracts, and does the fact that they're becoming more prevalent speak to perhaps a shift in pricing power, for lack of a better term, towards the contractors?
Yeah, for sure. I think that's been shifting. I also think it is a facet of, you know, some challenging P3s that we obviously read about in the paper. I think clients have realized that there just isn't a good ending, is despite the fact you think you've transferred all of the risks to the contractor, you know, you end up in, you know, extensive litigation, and there's no happy ending to it. There has to be a balance, and I think, but there's definitely with the demand in Canada for our services, we can be very disciplined and just hold our ground in negotiations, and we've been very successful in doing that.
You obviously have to be very disciplined, and you have to have an approach that you've got to be prepared to walk away, and we've got pretty good at that. The demand for sophisticated services is still very, very high. Clients, you know, obviously, have been receptive to a collaborative framework because ultimately in a, in a market like this, you're gonna pay for it one way or another, right? In that sense, you know, I think it's inappropriate.
Like, anytime you can build a mega project that's got scale and you can start work collaboratively with the team and create the design and value engineer the design and work all your way through it and work through a budget, you know, transparently and then agree to that framework, it's a really smart way to do business. I think over the years, some pretty smart entities out there that are our clients have looked at it and said, "You know, this may be a better way. It's a much more productive and a much more accurate way to contract." For many, many years, I've always believed this is a better way to contract on really sophisticated work. We tend to do really sophisticated work.
As such, you know, those types of clients are willing to find a balance, and they're also willing to accept that when the project's over, you have to be, you know, the contractor's gotta be healthy. We seek out those types of clients, and we've been lucky to, you know, to build a big portfolio of that type of interface.
I guess it wasn't that long ago, though, that, you know, there were other companies out there, international or otherwise, that would, you know, come in with an attractive fixed price offer to these clients. Are you seeing less of that now? Like, 'cause we've all read about, you know, the number of companies that have left the space. I'm just trying to draw a line towards if that really happened, are they really gone, and is that what's allowing you to take less risk and yet print some of the highest gross margins we've seen in years? Like, usually those two are inconsistent with one another.
I think there's a bit of that, Yuri. There's certainly less new international entities entering the market. The ones that are still in Canada are very mature and, you know, I think generally have an approach not dissimilar to our approach. You know, you still see the odd company come in that's, you know, that's here for the first time. You know, ultimately, you know, there's enough of a, I'd say, a track record where some of these entities have failed, that I think clients have got wiser to signing up for an unproven entity entering Canada. It's not easy to work in Canada when you're coming in for the first time, and you're starting to manage through the seasons and manage through the, you know, the various labor platforms and manage through, you know...
Also I think the subcontractors have become a lot smarter to that as well. You know, most of the big guys that come in don't really bring any resources. They've got to rely on the local resources, and the local resources are pretty tight. In that sense, it's pretty hard to get established here in the current environment just because the demand's pretty high. You know, that'll swing. That pendulum swings sometimes, and it'll swing someday, but there's just. It feels like a perfect storm of demand across many different industries. We've been lucky. Well, lucky and smart to be focused in a diversified platform.
We're taking advantage of those industries, such as, you know, the various new energy, you know, sort of markets that are evolving and such an increased focus on renewables. Mining is, you know, obviously got a lot of activity. You start adding those into the mix, and you add in ag with potash, you know, evolving and other ag processing facilities and just generally a real uptick in Canadian manufacturing. You know, industrial manufacturing really seems to be gaining a lot of momentum. When you look at all those areas and then couple that with the infrastructure projects, which is where you sort of see the internationals coming in, it's a tighter capacity.
Yeah.
We're enjoying it.
For sure. That's helpful. Before I hop in the queue, I just wanna ask a quick one on make sure I understand the guidance. Modest revenue growth in Q1 and Q2. I get that. Does that hold true for EBITDA, particularly in Q1? And I'm asking because Q1 of last year looks like a bit of a tough comp from a margin perspective. You know, could we see revenue slightly up but maybe fall a little short of last year's EBITDA, at least in the first quarter?
I think that's exactly what you're gonna see, Yuri. The reason for that is, you know, in Q1 last year, you know, we had our work program at LNG Canada in full swing. We were kinda working through some of the winter months and had good contribution of that self-perform work and those margins flowing into the quarter, which certainly helps, certainly helped our overall margin %. This year, you know, those projects have primarily wrapped up. We still certainly have some things on the go, but not to the same extent. We have announced, you know, that we have replaced the contribution and revenues from the LNG Canada with other things.
It's just, I think you're gonna see more seasonality of that, where you're gonna see that the pickup for the year is gonna be, you know, busier in the summer, you know, months. The Q1's gonna have a softer contribution from the self-perform, but it's really just gonna be a timing issue, through the quarterly flows this year.
Okay. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Yuri.
The next question is from Bryan Fast of Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning.
Hi, Bryan.
Morning.
Yeah, I was just hoping to get some comments maybe on labor availability and just labor rates. How has this trended of late, and do you feel some of those pressures that you endured over the last few years have somewhat normalized or alleviated?
Yeah, we don't feel any alleviation right now. The pressure's still there. I think we have, as we've spoken previously, we have the benefit of such a collaborative focus with our various districts that are coast to coast that we can ebb and flow and take some of the peaks and valleys out of, you know, some of that, you know, those demands. We've had good success doing that. The collaborative effort we've made at Bird to work harmoniously across all our divisions is really, really paying off. That's worked well. I'd say that, you know, the labor demand, you know, especially in big urban centers like Toronto and Vancouver are very high. You know, there's definitely a tight labor market there.
In Ontario, the labor agreements are essentially locked in now for the next three years- five years, depending on, you know, the entity you're contracted with. There's no pressure on price. It's more a function of availability. Other markets have different timing. We're not so concerned about price, you know, on, you know, in terms of cost of labor. It's more availability of labor depending on the type of work and where you're operating. We're in so many centers, we just have a real advantage to draw from communities that might not have that same demand profile.
Okay, thanks. Maybe just to follow on your comments on the U.S., you frame just how much revenue is generated south of the border and maybe just broader comments on your strategy and positioning for that market?
Yes, to be honest with you, it's been an effort to really break trail or break ground in the U.S. just to get a sense of various states. We've had, you know, about three years and we're gaining a lot of experience, typically working for clients that we work for already in Canada, you know, some of the specialized services we have. It's not significant for us, you know, in the $15 million probably range on a normal year, but growing and but most importantly, giving us a really good lens of, you know, of the attractiveness and the demands in those states and what are some of the challenges with labor and unions and things like that.
We've worked in some of the tougher states in the U.S. And some of the states that, you know, are more reasonable to come in and grow in. We've got a really good framework evolving, and we expect to continue to see growth over the medium term in the U.S..
Okay. That's it for me. Thanks.
Thanks.
Thanks.
The next question is from Maxim Sytchev of National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. This is Kazim speaking in for Maxim today. How are you, gentlemen?
Good.
Hey, good morning.
Good morning. My first question is regarding, like, future creative tuck-ins that you mentioned in your MD&A, in your outlook section. Is that the strategy that you're going forward, or are larger deals not out of the question given your net cash position on your balance sheet?
Yeah, certainly, you know, we're continuously working on smaller tuck-ins, predominantly because, you know, there's a number of them out there, and it just seems like a good environment right now. We're constantly evaluating the smaller ones. The larger ones don't ebb and flow very often. It really has to do with, you know, finding things that fit for us. You know, you typically don't see the larger transformational deals very frequently. We characterize it as the small to medium sized tuck-ins are what we're focused on predominantly because that's what's out there.
If something comes along that fits our interests and, obviously, you know, as accretive and, we've got a comfort level with our balance sheet relative to that, you know, obviously we'll transact, and we have shown that in the past. In that regard, like, we're excited about the M&A markets much stronger than it was a year ago. Seems to be, you know, a number of companies looking for succession, and a lot of these are fit nicely into our wheelhouse.
Thank you. That's good color. In terms of seasonality, I know someone asked before as well. Could you like split it up between like the first half and second half? What do you expect the split to be? We are expecting like softer revenue in the first half, and same for EBITDA.
Yeah. For the year, we said, you know, mid to high single-digit revenue growth. I think you're gonna see more muted, you know, growth and certainly in the first quarter, and, you know, starting to ramp up second quarter and then, you know, to average out in that range, you're gonna be high single-digits and maybe low double-digits in the summer months. You know, I think you're gonna see a flow of EPS such that, you know, you might have 70% in the second half of the year, and you're gonna see ramp up in Q2 towards that level.
You know, you can read into what Q1 might look like, but it certainly will be less than CAD 0.12 we delivered last year, and it's really just a timing issue for us.
Great. Thank you. That's great color. Lastly, how should we, like, think about CapEx for this year and the next? I know this year we saw an uptick versus last. Was that mostly maintenance or are you focusing more on growth this year?
Yeah. I'd say it's a blend of both in that number. I think the number that you saw in 2022 reflects a more normalized environment and availability of equipment. You know, through the pandemic, we probably had, you know, more cautious approach to CapEx and really focused on maintenance. You know, this year we returned back to some of the growth CapEx and obviously maintenance as well. You know, we're also doing some work with our IT systems and capitalizing some of the intangible assets there, and that's gonna continue this year. I think when you look at 2023, you know, I don't think the CAD 28 million that we spent in 2022, I think it'll be, you know, similar to that in 2023.
Great. Thank you. Just, the last one, final one for me is, are you guys seeing any accelerated award wins for your electrical infrastructure business on the commercial side? I know there's like, a lot of trends going on towards electrifications. Are you seeing that convert in terms of award wins?
Well, certainly.
Not yet?
Yeah, it's probably a bit early days on some of that, although we're, you know, we're certainly in that space. But, you know, obviously it's a multifaceted environment with generation and transmission and distribution and all of the various facets that tie together. A very exciting future for us. You know, as we spoke previously, we employ at times over 2,000 electricians, so we've got a big army ready for that type of work. It's probably early days. We're busy with our normal course of business currently, so.
Okay. Sounds good. Great. That's it for me. Thank you, guys.
Thanks.
Thank you.
The next question is from Jonathan Lamers of Laurentian Bank. Please go ahead.
Good morning.
Hi, Jonathan.
Um.
Morning.
Just following up on the seasonality comments, Wayne, are you able to speak to the new industrial contracts that are ramping up and just provide us a little bit of color on, how you expect those to launch, maybe which months they might start in?
Yeah, I mean, certainly, if we haven't press released it, you know, by now it means we can't. Some of those are in pending backlog and, you know, further along in that pre-construction phase. You know, we hope that we'd be coming out with some press releases here in the coming months or so on those. Hard to give exact color on it. You know, we do have the work in hand. Yeah, we did have a couple nice press releases in Q4. We talked a little bit about some of the Port Hope Area Initiative work and, you know, also the one industrial plant as well recently.
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
The next question is from Naji Baydoun of iA Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. I just wanted to ask you sort of a longer term question. At the pace that you're going, you kind of look to maybe hit that CAD 3 billion a year run rate revenue within maybe a four year or five year timeframe. Can you just help us maybe, you know, what could help accelerate that pace? I mean, you've upside the credits. You upsized the credit facility, didn't need to do that, but is that just a more, sort of, more sign of more M&A? Or how could you accelerate growth and what's in the M&A pipeline today?
Yeah. We certainly expect to get to CAD 3 billion faster than your timeframe, just because of the pace of business and the amount of activity. We've been, you know, somewhat stunted with the, you know, pandemic and COVID related impacts. If you'd strip those away and you move forward, we move forward, you know, notionally, you know, even in 2023. I think the platform that we're on, the, you know, the resume that we've built coming out of over CAD 1 billion at LNG Canada has given us an outstanding resume to, you know, to be, you know, a partner of choice on a lot of the, you know, new energy growth, mining growth, bank growth in Canada, and those are longer term, you know, in that sense.
Multi-year assignments, multi-billion dollar projects evolving, whether that's in, you know, new assignments in hydrogen or LNG or, you know, future phases of LNG programs, whether it's in large mining or potash mining, like opportunities at BHP, you know, and things like that. Just generally in the ag sector. Those are exciting and I think all of that coupled together, I'm really, really pleased with the efforts our team has made to collaborate, you know, internally and, and diversify into new areas. All of that combined is giving us lots of momentum.
I guess just on the second part of the question, what kind of M&A are you targeting or thinking about to help you get to that number faster?
I think it's, you know, it's a mix of things in the, you know, in the industrial, you know, mechanical, electrical capabilities that enhance the existing work we're doing. We're certainly really excited about the Stuart Olson business we acquired, you know, in the MRO side, and there seems to be a lot of growth opportunities there. Consolidation to a certain extent in some markets that we focus on. There's opportunities in that regard. We're, you know, we're very excited about our growth in infrastructure and looking for opportunities for further growth, you know, in that sector of the company. You know, obviously there's such a...
Canada's got such a diverse energy, you know, resource base that it certainly gives us a lot of opportunity to grow in energy, you know, and capacity and capabilities, you know, in that regard. Then, you know, just in the whole, you know, communication data, you know, those areas with, you know, telecommunications, which we're, you know, we're growing in now. Obviously that's a big growth area. We just self-performed a large data center very successfully here in Ontario for Microsoft. We got things like that, you know, that are evolving. In that sense, we continue to look for agencies that, you know, can complement the focus we have in these various markets.
You know, so far the effort we've made has really paid dividends. You know, Dagmar has been a great acquisition. Trini we expect will be a great acquisition for us. The Stuart Olson piece gave us a whole series of new offerings. Continuing to augment areas that we're diversifying in is really what we're seeking and certainly a lot of demand for our services. Puts a lot of confidence into continued acquisitional growth in those areas.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Just in the investor deck, you highlighted sort of several energy transition growth avenues. Can you just maybe talk about which ones that you see the most opportunity in today? You know, how does it look like when you think about renewables versus nuclear or RNG or storage? Just thinking about positioning in those markets.
Nuclear is certainly exciting. We're working on all the large nuclear sites in Ontario. There's just such a big market and such a broad demand of things that are required. You know, we've got a really strong resume after, you know, shifting our focus away from new capital investment in oil and gas into nuclear, and that's really paid off for us. You know, if you look across other energy markets, obviously, you know, there's emerging demand for the capacity to build hydrogen facilities. There continues to be evolution in LNG. You know, things like that are happening. We would expect to see more growth in existing LNG facilities in the future, you know, which we have a very strong resume.
The renewable platform, you know, is high. We're building, you know, renewable programs today for wind and we've got an extensive platform of business in Ontario and hydro. There's those types of opportunities evolving, and there's certainly more and more hydro that is expected to be built in Canada that we'll be well-positioned for. If the energy side is more dynamic, probably more dynamic than we've seen, you know, since the big oil booms, and it's all non-oil, you know, which is really interesting. There's a lot happening and we expect that that'll be a strong demand for us for the next 5-10 years.
Okay. That also helps, kinda think about where you'd be looking to expand into. Just one last question. Not so much about 23, but just kind of a when you think about margins, is there a north star that you're aiming for? Where do you kinda see the, you know, full potential of the business, sort of over time?
Well, certainly we wanna continue on a yearly basis to grow, and have accretion of our EBITDA margin profile. We've, you know, well on our way, you know, towards that in 2023 and we anticipate that growing in 2024. You know, that's the focus. You know, a little early days to provide any kind of longer term, you know, targets, externally. We're, we're very, very focused on that, discipline of, ensuring that, we're focusing on opportunities that we can gain accretion from.
Understood. Thank you.
Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. The next question comes from Ian Gillies of Stifel. Please go ahead.
Morning, everyone.
Hi, Ian.
Morning, Ian.
The balance sheet's obviously in good shape. You've talked a lot about bolt-on M&A here, but there's also gonna be a pretty decent amount of free cash flow generation this year. Has there been any additional discussion at the board level that you'd be willing to share with us on the thoughts around putting in an NCIB, given where the stock sits today and the performance of the business?
Not at this point. You know, obviously on a quarter-over-quarter basis, our board is, you know, it certainly is a, it's a, you know, a topic that is, you know, discussed. I'd say that, you know, we've tended to focus on a, you know, a dividend platform and, you know, in that sense, whether an NCIB becomes part of the discussion, you know, we'll see. At this point, our focus has been more around the dividend.
Okay. That's fair enough. With respect to the progressive contracts that Metrolinx rolled out a little while ago, you've seen some contracts awards there. I assume you've taken a closer look at them. Has it changed your view at all or your desire to pursue some of the larger, I guess, transit-related infrastructure projects in Ontario, or how are you thinking about that specific part of your business right now?
Yeah, we're active in those where we can be complementary and have the service capacity for. You know, Dagmar's made a, you know, a huge difference for us and gives us, you know, a Toronto-based, you know, heavy civil rail contractor. We've been sought after as a partner because of that. I think our resume on, you know, building, you know, large maintenance facilities like we've built for Metrolinx at, out at East Rail, a number of years ago. You know, we've got certainly a very strong resume in that area and we're building stations, certainly, currently, successfully in Ottawa for our client there, which is the phase two team that are building the Ottawa LRT. That's gone well for us.
I'd say that, we have a, you know, a number of areas where we have capacity and offering to those projects, and as such, we're interested in those and are pursuing those that fit our capacity.
No, that's helpful. Last one for me. If you look at small and medium-sized businesses today, they're generally characterized as having succession issues. Sale processes are going to become the norm. Is that how you'd characterize some of the smaller and medium-sized construction businesses that you see and know well in Canada at this point? I know you can't paint them all the same way-
Yeah.
I'm just curious.
No. I think, it may be just coming out of COVID, it's accelerated that succession. You know, feels like there's a real uptick in that space. It could be just that, you know, they're coming out of COVID and there's a bit longer line of sight to performance. You know, it's an easier transaction. We've been focused on, you know, companies that first and foremost fit our culture. We don't like to participate in a sale process that relates to an auction. Periodically do, but we just, we're not that interested in those. We're interested in targets that wanna become part of our team, part of Bird and obviously, unlock the potential of the business, with all the skills and service offerings we have.
We're seeing that type of thing, you know, in many areas and, as such, have a team full-time focused in that area. We expect to continue to see that over the near term.
Okay. That's helpful as well. Thank you very much. I appreciate the detail today.
Thanks, Ian.
This concludes the question and answer session. I will hand the call back over to Mr. McKibbon for closing remarks.
Thank you everyone for taking the time to join our earnings call this morning and thank you to the entire Bird team. We are proud of the work executed every day, working safely, working together and building value for our company, our clients, our communities and our shareholders.
This concludes today's conference call and webcast. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.