Good afternoon, and welcome to the 2026 annual meeting of shareholders of Canfor Corporation. Please note that the meeting is being recorded. I would like to introduce John Baird, Director and Chairman of the Board and Chair of today's meeting. Mr. Baird, the floor is yours.
Good afternoon. It's now 12:00 noon. I would like to ask this meeting to please come to order. I will be acting as chairman for this meeting. I am very pleased to extend a warm welcome to all of you today for Canfor Corporation's 44th AGM. Please ensure you remain connected to the Internet during the course of this meeting. If you need technical assistance, please see the section entitled Voting Process and Meeting Technical Assistance in the management information circular respecting this meeting. This meeting has been convened as the annual general meeting of shareholders, has been called for the principal purposes of receiving the consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2025, together with the auditor's report and the reports of the directors to the shareholders.
Fixing the number of directors at 10, electing the directors for the coming year, and appointing the auditors for the coming year. I've asked Pat Elliott, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary, to act as Secretary of this meeting. I would now like to introduce you to the other directors of Canfor Corporation joining us at this meeting. Ryan Barrington-Foote, Cheryl Yaremko, Santhe Dahl, Dieter Jentsch, Dallas Ross, Frederick T. Stimson, Sandra Stuart, Dianne Watts, and Susan Yurkovich. They have all worked diligently and effectively with the management team at Canfor, and we appreciate their wise counsel. On behalf of both the board and the management of Canfor, I wish to extend our sincere thanks to Fred Stimson and Santhe Dahl, who are retiring from the board and will not be standing for re-election.
Fred has been a director of Canfor since 2021, and Santhe Dahl has been a director since 2023. We are grateful for your service as directors. At this time, it is a pleasure to introduce you to Mr. Michael Garcia and Mr. Måns Johansson, who are proposed nominees for the board of directors of Canfor. On behalf of the board, I am very pleased to acknowledge our appreciation for the contribution that all of the company's personnel have made during the last year. With the consent of the meeting, I hereby appoint TSX Trust Company to act as scrutineer of the meeting. I will now call on Mr. Elliott to deal with the notice of this meeting.
Mr. Chairman, a notice calling the meeting was mailed to all shareholders of the company entitled to re-receive such notice. TSX Trust Company has provided us with a certificate as to the mailing, and a copy of the certificate will be kept with the records of the meeting.
Mr. Secretary, would you please summarize the preliminary scrutineer's report?
Pleased to report that there are 57 shareholders holding 100,880,084 common shares represented in person or by proxy at this virtual meeting. This represents 85.2% of the total 118,405,079 shares issued and outstanding.
As chairman of the meeting, I adopt the preliminary scrutineer's report and declare the attendance at this meeting to be as they are set forth. I direct that when delivered, the final scrutineer's report be kept with the records of this meeting. In accordance with the preliminary scrutineer's report, I declare a quorum to be present and the meeting to be duly constituted for the transaction of business. Based on the preliminary scrutineer's report, a sufficient number of proxies have been deposited with TSX Trust Company voting in favor of all resolutions in the circular in order to pass each item of business in this meeting. I propose that we deal first with all of the formal business requirements of the meeting.
After the formal portion of the meeting has concluded, Susan Yurkovich, the company's President and CEO, will say a few words, and there will be a final opportunity for questions from registered shareholders and proxy holders, which can be submitted online. As this meeting is being held virtually, I would like to remind you that voting on all matters described in the management's information circular for the meeting will be conducted by electronic ballot. To allow sufficient time for voting, the polls for all matters being voted on will be opened following these introductory remarks and closed at the end of the formal portion of the meeting. Only registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders who have been properly logged into the meeting will be able to vote at this meeting.
I also remind you that if you are a registered shareholder and you have already voted by proxy, you do not need to vote again unless you wish to change your vote. If you plan to vote at the meeting, you may choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait to cast your vote until after the motion for an item as is proposed. Once all items of business before the virtual meeting have been put forward, I will give our registered shareholders and proxy holders an opportunity to discuss these items of business, make comments and ask questions, and provide an opportunity to enter their votes on the open polls if they haven't already done so, and then declare voting closed on all resolutions. In order to expedite the proceedings today, I will be proposing and seconding all motions.
For any motions not included in the circular, the motions will be determined based on the preliminary scrutineer's report in reliance on the discretionary authority granted in the proxies deposited for this meeting or on a poll at my discretion. I now declare the polls open for all resolutions included in the management information circular for the meeting. The first item of business is to place before the meeting the consolidated financial statements of the company for the year ended December 31, 2025, together with the auditor's report and the report of the directors to shareholders. These statements and reports are contained in the company's annual report and are available on SEDAR+ or from the company upon request. I will regard the statements and reports as received by the meeting. The next item of business is to fix the number of directors of the company.
I propose the number of directors be fixed at 10. I direct that a poll be conducted on the motion and that the scrutineer report the results. If you haven't already cast your vote online or by proxy, please cast your vote now. The next item of business is the election of directors. I propose the following individuals be nominated to act as directors of the company to hold office until the next annual general meeting. John Baird, Ryan Barrington-Foote, Michael Garcia, Dieter Jentsch, Dallas Ross, Sandra Stuart, Dianne L. Watts, Måns Johansson, Cheryl Yaremko, and Susan Yurkovich. These persons are management's nominees for election as was stated in the information circular mailed to shareholders of the company. There being no further nominations, I declare the nominations closed. I direct that a poll be conducted on the motion and that the scrutineer report the results.
If you haven't already cast your vote online or by proxy, please cast your vote now. The next stage of business is the appointment of auditors, and it is the board's recommendation that KPMG LLP Chartered Accountants be appointed as auditors of the company. I propose that KPMG LLP Chartered Accountants be appointed auditors of the company. I direct that a poll be conducted on the motion and that the scrutineer report the results. If you haven't already cast your vote online or by proxy, please cast your vote now. That concludes the matters to be voted on. For those registered shareholders and proxy holders who have not yet raised matters for discussion, made comments, asked their questions, or voted on all of their resolutions for which the polls remain open, please do so now, as I will shortly close all such polls.
There being no further discussion at this time, the polls on all such resolutions are now closed. I direct the scrutineer to provide a report on the results of the polls. Based on the scrutineer's initial meeting report, I declare that the number of directors of the company has been set at 10. As only the required number of persons have been nominated to be elected as directors of the company, I declare that those persons nominated have been duly elected by acclamation as the directors of the company to hold office until the next annual general meeting, and that KPMG LLP Chartered Accountants has been appointed as the auditors of the company.
After the meeting, upon receipt of the scrutineer's final meeting report on the polls conducted during this meeting, I direct the recording secretary of this meeting to attach the scrutineer's final meeting report to the minutes of the meeting. All other business for which this meeting was called has been completed. Following termination of the formal part of this meeting, Susan Yurkovich, the company's President and CEO, will say a few words regarding the company's developments, and registered shareholders and proxy holders who wish to ask questions or to make comments will be subsequently invited to do so. I propose that the formal portion of this meeting be terminated. Based on the preliminary scrutineer's report, I declare the motion carried, and the formal part of this meeting is now terminated. I would now like to call upon Susan Yurkovich, the company's President and CEO, to address the meeting.
After Susan's remarks, registered shareholders or duly appointed proxy holders can ask questions using the messaging icon on the top of the virtual interface.
Thank you, John. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for today's annual general meeting. Over the past year, Canfor has continued to navigate a challenging global environment as the forest sector faced turbulence driven by geopolitical changes, trade tensions, and soft market demand. The weak global market conditions we experienced in 2024 continued through 2025 across our operating regions. In North America, concerns about around affordability and interest rates contributed to lower housing starts, while in Sweden, elevated fiber costs impacted our cost profile and operations. At the same time, ongoing political and economic uncertainty together with increased trade tensions and U.S.-imposed lumber duties led customers to take a more cautious approach to purchasing, continuing to put pressure on demand and pricing.
With these pressures weighing on our results, Canfor reported an operating loss of CAD 904 million in 2025 as compared to an operating loss of CAD 942 million in 2024. For the first quarter of 2026, the company reported an adjusted operating loss of CAD 93 million compared to an operating loss of CAD 104 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. For our lumber business, despite ongoing demand challenges, tighter supply conditions helped carry the North American pricing momentum that began in December into 2026 and resulted in an uplift in North American lumber benchmark pricing, particularly for southern yellow pine in the first quarter.
For the pulp business, global softwood pulp markets remained weak through Q1, although global pulp supply disruptions gave rise to a modest uplift in US dollar global softwood prices to China. In the face of these extremely challenging times, we've remained laser-focused on the things within our control, making disciplined decisions and consciously evolving in ways that reinforce our long-term competitiveness across our operating regions. We continued to advance key strategic priorities, making targeted capital investments in our existing operations to improve efficiency and performance. In addition, we expanded our global footprint into central Sweden with the purchase of three high-quality mills that enhance flexibility to serve our global customer base. In December, we initiated the acquisition of the outstanding shares of Canfor Pulp, not already owned by Canfor.
This transaction was completed in the spring of 2026. Work is underway to strengthen this business for the long term. Together, these actions reflect a balanced and disciplined approach to managing our portfolio with a clear focus on improving our competitiveness and resilience. While we are focused on the challenges of today's business, we are also looking ahead, refreshing our corporate strategy this year. Building on our nearly 90-year history, lumber will remain at the core of our business while we look to optimize our adjacent businesses and selectively expand our value-added products and solutions in the years ahead. As always, sustainability remains at the center of what we do. To that end, we've updated our sustainability strategies this year to ensure it reflects the broader shifts in the world around us.
The result is a more practical and integrated plan that better aligns with our business ambitions, customer expectations, regulatory and disclosure requirements, and the evolving social and political landscape. You can find more information on our 2025 sustainability report on our website. As always, we will continue to manage in accordance with internationally recognized standards, including the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, reflecting our commitment to responsible fiber sourcing and environmental stewardship. Looking ahead, we expect uncertainty to persist. Market volatility and trade disruptions will continue to challenge our industry. We believe the medium to long-term lumber fundamentals remain strong, and the improvements we've made to our asset base will enable us to capitalize on stronger market dynamics going forward. Guided by our strategy, we'll continue to pursue strategic growth opportunities where they make sense, employing a patient and disciplined approach to capital allocation.
As we navigate these challenging times, I'm grateful to our employees for their dedication and unwavering commitment and for the care they bring each day to delivering the high-quality products our customers rely on. I'd also like to thank our customers and partners for their continued trust, our shareholders for their long-term support, and our directors for their steady guidance. Thank you, John. I'll turn it back to you.
Thank you very much, Susan. This is now an appropriate point in the meeting to deal with any final discussion or questions from shareholders. Are there any questions or discussion from shareholders? As there's no further discussions or questions, this meeting is now concluded. I want to thank everyone for attending today's meeting. You may now disconnect.