Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Calian First Quarter 2022 Conference Call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Kevin Ford, CEO. Sir, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Kate, and good morning, everyone. As mentioned, I'm Kevin Ford, Chief Executive Officer at Calian. With me this morning is Patrick Houston, our Chief Financial Officer, and we'd like to welcome you to Calian's first quarter 2022 conference call. Please note that certain information discussed today is forward-looking and subject to important risks and uncertainties. The results predicted in these statements may be materially different from actual results. The first quarter saw revenue of CAD 129 million, an 11% increase compared to the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net profit both grew year over year at 34% and 41% respectively. Our gross margins came in at 26%, a sign of our continued progress of innovation and diversification.
We have continued to see momentum in new contract signings this quarter with CAD 185 million in new wins, leaving us with a backlog of CAD 1.3 billion. Dividend levels remain unchanged at CAD 0.28 per share. We continue to live our four pillar strategy of customer retention, customer diversification, innovation, and improvement with meaningful progress in this past quarter. We signed CAD 90 million in contracts with long-term customers as signed customers trust us to continue to partner with them to execute their business. With the acquisition of SimFront in October, we have diversified our learning practice into virtual reality and commercial customers. The market reception of the SimFront acquisition has been very strong, and the combination with Calian should lead to many promising opportunities. We have launched an innovation hub with local tech accelerators to develop new capabilities on our existing health tech offerings.
Finally, our strategy of introducing more technology into everything we do and entering new markets drove strong margins in our first quarter. Our four-piston engine showed the strength of its diversity with three of our four segments posting impressive growth. I'd like to spend a moment sharing an update on each of our segments. Advanced Technologies delivered very strong results. Gross margins were up to 26%. This is compared to 23% of the previous year and 20% in 2019 fiscal year. EBITDA margins were also up to 13% from 11%, and we continue to see strong demand in several elements of our Advanced Technologies business. Our software engineering, which solves complex satellite and communication challenges, is seeing significant demand, and we are looking to expand capacity based on a strong pipeline.
Our engineering services saw strong growth based on a new project with National Defense to assist in tracking their assets across the globe. Finally, in response to more demand for precise location services, our global navigation satellite system antennas continue to see strong demand. We expect further growth in the coming quarters as large customers continue to increase their demand for custom design antennas and our software engineering capability. For health, while revenue decreased 10% this quarter as a result of reductions in revenue related to COVID-19 response, the team was able to find further efficiencies to deliver a similar level of EBITDA of the previous year. Our teams have developed a trusted relationship and reputation during the last two years and remain prepared to assist as the response to COVID-19 evolves.
We were able to secure new wins with the Canadian pharmaceutical customers for contract research as well as contract extensions with several customers across Canada. Our pipeline remains robust with several new initiatives across Canada, where our network and delivery capabilities should be a differentiating factor. We have also seen early uptake as we evolve our health tech platforms, and we look forward to providing an update on our investor call next week. Our learning segment showed impressive revenue growth this quarter, achieving CAD 23 million and a potential annualized run rate near CAD 100 million. This is a significant milestone given we were approximately CAD 57 million in 2020. The growth has come from several initiatives. The acquisition of SimFront in October has yielded early returns, and the pipeline of opportunities as a part of the Calian is very promising.
Our existing customers in military training continue to look to Calian to help them remain deployment ready, and a continued effort to grow in Europe is showing consistent quarter-over-quarter gains. For IT and cyber business, the IT and cyber solutions saw the largest increase in revenue growth this quarter. Our continued focus on expanding our cyber business as well as our health tech presence is delivering strong results. In addition to strong revenue growth, we have seen significant increase in gross margins, which were up from 18% to 26% this quarter, and EBITDA margins were three times higher than the same period of the previous year. Our pipeline remains healthy, and the teams are working hard to increase our capacity to meet this pipeline in a very competitive market.
A few weeks ago, we announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Computex, a U.S.-based provider of IT and cyber solutions. This acquisition presents us with many exciting elements, an existing footprint in the U.S., a team of highly qualified experts, a track record of delivery and customer success, and a strong recurring revenue base. With combined revenues nearing CAD 175 million, our IT segment will be a leading provider of IT and cyber solutions across North America, focused on solving complex IT and cybersecurity requirements for enterprise and public sector customers of all sizes. We expect this transaction to close towards the end of our second fiscal quarter. Now, our Chief Financial Officer, Patrick Houston, will discuss results and key performance indicators. Patrick.
Thanks, Kevin. Over the past two years, we've continued to drive double-digit revenue growth, all while growing our gross margins and EBITDA margins at a pace ahead of our revenue growth. This is evident again this quarter with revenue growth of 11%, while our margins in EBITDA were up 28% and 34% respectively. This has been achieved through disciplined deployment of capital through M&A and R&D, as well as seeking more efficiencies as we have scaled the company. Acquisitive growth was strong this quarter due to the contributions of SimFront and Dapasoft, which are both trending above our estimates in delivering strong revenue and profitability. New contract signings were strong again this quarter and outpacing our revenue. Backlog stands at CAD 1.34 billion and will increase further next quarter with the anticipated close of Computex.
In addition to strong operating metrics, our net profitability, as seen in our adjusted net income, increased this quarter to CAD 9.6 million, from CAD 6.8 million of the previous year. This quarter, 7.4% is above our 2021 and 2020 levels of 5.9% and 5.4% respectively. Our balance sheet remains a strength. This strength was an important factor allowing us to move forward with the Computex definitive agreement. Post that acquisition, we will continue to have approximately CAD 150 million of cash and debt capacity to deploy on additional M&A and investment to drive incremental growth. On guidance, I must caution the revenues realized are ultimately dependent on the extent and timing of future contract awards, customer realization of existing contract vehicles, and any impact due to COVID-19.
Based on currently available information of contract backlog, sales opportunities, and our assessment of the marketplace, we expect to continue our growth posture in the coming year. Our guidance does not incorporate any additional M&A activity, and should we close on any new opportunities, their contributions would be incremental. At this time, we are reiterating our guidance for our 2022 fiscal year, originally provided in late November and representing our fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth. Our guidance for the fiscal year, ending September 30, 2022, expects revenues in the range of CAD 550 million-CAD 590 million, adjusted EBITDA in the range of CAD 57 million-CAD 61 million, and adjusted net income in the range of CAD 39.25 million-CAD 42.75 million. Please see our press release in MD&A for a detailed reconciliation of our guidance.
We will update our guidance for the acquisition of Computex when that transaction closes, and we expect that to happen towards the end of our second fiscal quarter. I'll now turn the call back over to Kevin.
Thank you, Patrick. On March thirteenth, we will cross the two-year mark of having Calian operate through COVID-19. I wanna once again thank our staff for the amazing efforts over these years. Why should investors have confidence in Calian? This quarter was another example of us living and delivering on our strategy of growing our business, both organically and through acquisition. We continue to have a strong balance sheet. We are expanding globally into new areas. Where we feel we can be successful immediately, both in global diversification and innovation, we're doing exactly that. Previously, I have discussed Calian's pivot to an innovative global growth company. I believe we have achieved that pivot. My team and I, we're looking forward to seeing you in person at our upcoming investor event.
Due to COVID-19 realities, we have shifted the business update to a live broadcast event on February 16 at 10:30 A.M. Eastern. Patrick and I and our team are looking forward to showing you highlights of the many complex challenges our teams are solving for our customers and the exciting innovation occurring across all of our segments. I invite you to register for the event in advance at our website. With that, Kate, I'd like to now open the call to questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is now open for questions. If you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone now to enter the queue. We do ask that if you are listening via speaker phone, to please pick up your handset for optimum sound quality. Once again, if you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone to join the queue. Please hold a moment while we poll for questions. Our first question today is coming from Amr Ezzat at Echelon Capital Markets. Your line is live. You may begin.
Kevin, Patrick, good morning. Congrats on a strong quarter.
Thanks, Amr.
On the guidance update, you guys elected to update it once the Computex acquisition is closed. Is there like uncertainty with the timing of closing or other factors behind this decision?
No, not really. I mean, they're going through their closing procedures and a shareholder vote, which they've already secured more than 50% of the votes, so it's really more just a process working through the SEC and the required dates. We're expecting it to close mid-March. Really, it's more just wait until we get to that point, and then we'll know exactly how much they'll contribute for this fiscal year.
Okay, great. That's good to hear. You guys spoke a bit about Omicron, and you know, like when I think about other variants and how it's sort of impacted your business in the past, we had headwinds in advanced tech and learning, but good tailwinds for health. How do we think about Omicron and its impact on your business? I mean, you guys are reiterating your guidance. Does that imply it's overall neutral on a consolidated basis? Is that fair?
Yeah, I appreciate the question, Kevin. I think for me to say it's neutral would not be fair to our team, Amr, because you know, restating our guidance, frankly, from my viewpoint with the continued, you know, and I know we're seeing different, you know, different geographies react differently. The reality is, you know, supply chain, finding parts, deploying satellite antennas, none of that's frankly any easier. You know, to be able to sit here and say, I'm gonna hold my guidance based on, you know, another growth year, my view is that we still, as many organizations are, running through the ups and downs and the turbulence of this variant and hopefully no new ones, but we're working through it. Right now I would say, yeah.
Right now it is neutral in the context that it's definitely not hindering our growth, but it definitely is something where our team is once again stepping up despite the challenges of Omicron to meet our customer commitments. Right now it's neutral to negative, I would say, but it's the team that just continues to be the positive in this whole story.
Okay. No, that's fantastic. In your prepared remarks, in MD&A, in fact, you guys like spoke to a decline in the CRO business. What is driving that, just timing?
Yeah. I think it's more project based, so we do win projects and run them off, and as they come off, we've won. We did sign one larger contract this quarter. That was in the signings that you saw that's gonna start up here next quarter. I think it was just really a temporary decline based on project ending. I think we should see year-over-year growth here with these new projects kicking in.
Okay. Maybe one last one, and I'll pass the line. As you guys pointed in the prepared remarks, nearly on all fronts, your gross margin performance has been excellent. In fact, you know, like a record gross margin of 26% this quarter. Outside of Computex, which might change the gross margin profile for IT, are there any sort of moving parts we should be looking out for that might impact gross margins such as inflation or do you guys feel you could sort of pass that on to your customers?
Yeah. I mean, we're working hard to manage the cost, whether it be supply chain things or labor changes. So we're working hard to manage that. But you know, we're in a growth mode right now. We've got lots of pipeline and opportunity, we need to respond to that. So we're trying to be responsive there, making sure we have the capacity and then you know, to what extent can we pass that on through the pricing. So I think you'll see some variability there, but I think the general trajectory of consistent growth should continue here as we you know, continue to get more diversified and you know, more technology. I think the trend will continue. You know, it just might see slight up and down on that path.
Just to follow on that, Kevin, is that the diversification of our customer base has been a key element on that margin. As you know, we had a lot of government business which we still value and we still continue to grow our government business. When you look at it as a percentage of our revenues, it continues to decline. We're almost at 50/50 right now between commercial. Our ability to affect price and when I mean price, I mean value. You know, the value that we can bring into the commercial sector, I think is gonna help offset any pressures we see on our longer term contracts or in the government. We're still pretty confident we can do that.
Frankly, as you look at our acquisition profile, we continue to acquire organizations with much higher margin and our R&D profile, we continue to invest in new technologies that should continue to push that up. That's the goal, Amr.
Great. Thanks. I'll pass the line.
Great question. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Doug Taylor at Canaccord Genuity. Your line is live. You may begin.
Yeah, thank you. Good morning. You mentioned in your prepared remarks that Dapasoft is operating above your initial estimates in the IT and Cyber unit. I wonder, as we look ahead at this Computex close, if you'll walk through the similarities and differences between, you know, the assets and I guess the playbook, so we might consider your ability to, you know, enjoy the same success with Computex.
Yeah. Sacha is gonna speak at our investor event next week. He's going to definitely talk about what the combined entities look like. As a preview, yeah, I think there are some synergies there. I think there's certainly other service offerings that the iSecurity team has that Computex doesn't. We're looking at how we can get that down there into that customer base and how the two teams work together as they scale kind of some of their business and. I think it's interesting that they each have different strengths, which is great, and now we need to converge them here over the next couple of years and get the benefit of that. I think there certainly is there, and I think Sacha will expand on that next week.
Doug, great question 'cause, you know, I'm excited about this, and here's why. Number one is as Patrick just mentioned, you know, there is some complementary capabilities between Computex and the iSecurity organizations. But the vision Sacha has as well as now the leadership we have on achieving more in the context of managed services and cybersecurity, managed services in the context of the desktop, data center, you know, recurring revenue opportunities. That by itself is exciting, and I think we're gonna see some some great work in the initial, you know, sitting in on some of these meetings, the synergies between the team is excellent. The other thing I'm excited about, frankly, is, you know, if you look at Computex revenue, 25%, for example, is in the health sector.
What can we be doing with our, you know, health tech assets going into this area? How do we start cross-fertilizing our business units into the U.S.? How do we, like, take advantage of technologies? They have a heavy oil and gas presence as well. For me, the cyber and IT is exciting, but as equally exciting to me is the opportunity now to have a footprint in the U.S. across sectors that are gonna be totally relevant to all of our business units.
Well, I look forward to hearing more about that next week. Shifting gears. With respect to the health unit, I'd just like to understand, you know, to what degree, you know, we should think of, you know, the COVID-related maybe one time or temporary work, you know, still showing up in the numbers. I think we're all hoping that kind of work is temporary, but I just wanna understand what, if any, contributions you feel you're still getting in the health unit from that kind of work. Or is this now, you know, back to what you'd consider, you know, a baseline or a normal run rate, you know, excluding COVID?
Yeah, we had a little bit this quarter, but obviously significantly lower than we did last year, which I think is what we kind of guided our investors going into the year. I think, you know, we did see some activity, but it was certainly not at the same extent. I'd say this is kind of a more normalized run rate. We're still seeing pipeline opportunities in terms of, you know, people wanna get ready for what does it look like post in terms of airport screening and things like that, which we could potentially participate in, but those are still longer term opportunities, which obviously with our track record, we hope to be able to participate in. You know, if we win those, we'll obviously update the market on what that means.
Yeah. Again for me, it's interesting because, you know, what's happened over the last two years is the strength of our health brand has just gone through the roof, frankly. Our ability. I think we're up to now over 500,000 Ontario vaccinations we've done. We've done Nunavut. Our health brand nationally has only gotten stronger. The pipeline is new customers that are moving on from COVID. The other thing is that our psychological assessment business as well continues to be growing. We expect to backfill that COVID business with really, you know, our clinician services that we've had in the past, our psychological services, our contract research, our pharma business, and as well, as you'll hear next week, some of the health tech exciting things we're doing on our platforms.
We think that's really the trajectory that we're gonna see going for health moving forward.
Okay, one last question from me. I mean, bookings stand out as a strong positive here. Can you maybe break this down a little bit as to what's tied to, you know, the renewals of multi-year contracts versus what's considered kinda new business development and growth related? You know, in particular in the health and learning units where you've got some very large, you know, multi-year contracts. That'd be helpful.
Yeah. High level, Doug, was about 50/50. About half of it was either extending existing contracts or renewing contracts with existing customers we've had for a long time. Positive there from, you know, customers still enjoy what we're doing and wanna continue to work with us. The other half was kind of net new business across whether it be learning or Advanced Technologies, which had strong quarters. Yeah, it's a mix of both.
Thanks. I look forward to next week.
Thanks, Doug.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Nick Agostino at Laurentian Bank Securities. Your line is live. You may begin.
Yes, good morning. This is Salman Rana on behalf of Nick Agostino. First of all, congratulations on the very strong quarter, Kevin and Patrick.
Thank you.
Yeah.
My first question is on the large ground systems project. As the one in the U.S. wraps up and, on the other hand, the one in Europe goes into full swing, how much of a margin lift can we expect in the Advanced Technologies segment beyond the current 13% mark?
Yes. I think we're still, you know, we're right at the end of that, the one in the U.S., so we're wrapping that one up, and it should be done here in the coming months. I think you're starting to see that margin uplift already. I think, you know, I think the trajectory continues to be up and to the right here for Advanced Technologies, both from a growth margin and EBITDA margin. We're excited about some of the pipeline opportunities we're seeing for additional ground systems business. We're hoping in the next few quarters we're able to secure more business for the end of this year and into next year. I think, you know, I think the trajectory is gonna continue.
Okay, that's very helpful. Just following up on the previously asked questions in the health segment. First of all, is the company post Q1 seeing any uplift from stronger demand from Omicron related health services? Apart from that, what kind of a normalized margin range should we thinking of once all of the COVID related revenues subside?
Yes. I think, you know, we didn't have any very significant COVID revenue this quarter. We had, you know, a small amount, but it wasn't significant. I'd say, you know, minus those things, I think we can maintain the margins kind of as you see them now, plus or minus a few percentages here. Then obviously as we win new business, we're trying to do it at a higher margin. I think again, you know, holding for now and then longer term improving as we introduce kind of new health tech services and more pharmaceutical business.
Okay. Just one last question from my end. Last quarter, I believe, Kevin, you mentioned how the company was largely able to successfully navigate around, you know, having trained staff shortages. Any thoughts on staff shortages right now? Is the company seeing any higher wages being offered to workers as a result? Thank you.
Yeah, thanks. I think the whole industry now in certain pockets of talent, you know, I'm working with Sue Ivay, our Chief Human Resources Officer, literally has a tiger team on this almost daily now. There's definitely pockets where we're seeing increased demand, increased competition for sure, software engineering, certain elements of our healthcare area, healthcare practice. What we're doing is we're really trying to take a proactive approach on both on our retention of our staff, as well as looking at new mechanism, how to attract people to Calian. You know, frankly, we're dealing with what every tech company is dealing with now. We're seeing some increase and again, in certain areas, and so far as Patrick explained earlier, we've been able to manage that.
To be honest, you know, the exciting part of a Calian is that when people understand what we do and our core purpose of helping the world communicate, lead healthy lives, stay safe, that still resonates. I wanna say that because I think a lot of the time everyone feels this is just a salary shootout. When we talk about the crazy innovation we've got going on and creating across this company, you know, being relevant in space, relevant in health tech, relevant in learning, relevant in IT cyber and helping the world, you know, accomplish our core purpose, we still have that as a differentiator. There's not too many companies that can offer the variety of what we do, and the opportunity for people to have those experiences.
We're still trying to lean heavy on that versus just trying to cut bigger checks every time this goes up. Yep, we're absolutely living with it. We're working through it. There's certain areas that are a daily challenge, but I think overall the team's been doing a good job getting through it. Where we have, you know, capacity gaps, our team's just been stepping up to make sure we don't miss our customer requirements. Again, credit to the team. We're working through it and hopefully we'll start to see some sanity get back into the market soon over time, but we're also cognizant that this could be going on for a period of next year or so.
Okay. That's great color. Thank you again.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone now. Our next question today is coming from J.F. Lavoie at Desjardins Capital Markets. Your line is live, you may begin.
Hey, good morning, gentlemen. Patrick, I was wondering, you mentioned that the large satellite ground system contract was coming to an end soon. I was just wondering if you could update us on the, let's say, the impact on working capital for Q2 and maybe Q3, please.
We've got two sites left, J.F., so we're getting right to the end here. We didn't make significant progress on the working capital in this past quarter. We're expecting probably around CAD 13 million-CAD 15 million to come in in our Q2 and then about similar amount in Q3. I think it's coming back. It's obviously taken a huge step back from, you know, this position last year where the working capital was north of CAD 60 million. I think it's brought back and should be able to close it off in the next two quarters.
Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. Looking at the expansion that you're planning in Saskatchewan, I was wondering if you could talk a bit more about the pipeline of opportunities. You seem quite excited about all the contracts that might be won by Advanced Tech. Just wondering if there's any more color you could provide on that front.
Yeah, Advanced Tech pipeline. I think, yeah, we're seeing strength. I mean, our software business is, you know, we're completely pinned. We've got more work than we can do. To Kevin's point on staffing, we're trying to bring in more capacity there. Very busy on the ground system bidding. We're waiting to hear whether we're successful on some of those. Our GNSS antennas is again, kind of, you know, we're trying to catch up to the capacity in terms of demand. I think those are good positions to be in. Now we just need to get there and deliver.
Yeah. It's great with our you know Advanced Tech business because you would talk about Calian's 4-piston engine, but Pat Thera was here, who runs that group. He'd be talking about a 12-piston engine and all the things that we're doing in Advanced Tech. Integrating continues to do well. Our nuclear business, you know, we're becoming the company to go to for small modular reactor consulting. You've got our engineering services. I've mentioned the defense program we're doing with on inventory management, ground systems, software, GNSS antennas. You know, frankly, I could probably speak this whole conference call on what's going on with Advanced Tech as I could with each one of our segments.
We're still pretty pumped on what's happening there as we are with all of our segments, and that's why I'm just so excited about trying to get to the investor day next week and give you folks an update because it's we're well overdue for an update, and I think people will be excited with what they see.
That's great. I'm looking forward to it. Then, Patrick, looking at those opportunities, assuming that you have a firm successful win rate on those, looking at the margin profile of the Advanced Tech for next year, let's say, would it be fair to expect something going back to historical margin profile of 15%-17%? Is it achievable, you think?
I think it is. It depends on the mix of the business that we win. Some of it is, you know, closer to the margins where it is today, and others it's significantly higher, like in our GNSS antennas, et cetera. I think it depends on mix, but I certainly think that it's an achievable one based on the pipeline that we have.
Okay. That's right. One last for me on the health front, the margin profile was very, very strong. Kudos to the team. I was just wondering, do you think it's sustainable as we progress through FY 2022?
Yeah, like my earlier comment, I think, I think longer term as we introduce kind of health tech and more CRO business, I think it is. I think, you know, we might see some temporary, you know, setback a little bit depending on some cost profile as Kevin spoke to. But I think longer term, I think we can maintain it and grow it over time.
Okay. That's great. Thank you very much, and looking forward to the Investor Day in September.
Thanks, J.F.
Thanks, J.F.
Thank you. We have no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Kevin Ford for any closing remarks.
Okay, great. Thank you, Kate, for facilitating the call. Much appreciated. Thanks for everyone who attended. I hope you're sensing the enthusiasm in my voice. I hope you're sensing my continued passion for all the crazy good things that are happening here, and I hope you're also sensing the passion I have for our team to continue to work through incredible challenges. Really this is where you wanna highlight again February sixteenth, 10:30 A.M. Eastern. Don't miss it. Be there, 'cause we've got a lot of good things happening. Michelle, our CCO, is working with her team to give you an update across all of our segments. Even more importantly, you're not gonna hear much from me.
You're gonna hear from all the crazy innovators that we have here at Calian, the talent, and we're gonna expose those to our investors probably for the first time. So look forward to that discussion. Hopefully see you all on February sixteenth. With that, Kate, we can close the call.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's event. You may disconnect at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation.