Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to Dexterra Group's third quarter 2023 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Karima Amlani, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Carl, and good morning. My name is Karima Amlani, and I am pleased to join you as the Interim Chief Financial Officer of Dexterra Group Inc. With me today on the call are Mark Becker, Chief Executive Officer, and our Board Chair, Bill McFarland, who will provide some brief introductory comments. After a brief presentation, we will take questions, with the call ending by 9:50 A.M. Eastern Time. We will be commenting on our Q3 2023 results with the assumption that you have read the Q3 earnings press release, MD&A, and financial statements. The slide presentation, which supports today's comments, is posted on our website, and we encourage participants to access the slides and follow along with our presentation. Before we begin, I would like to make some comments about forward-looking information.
In yesterday's news release and on slide two of the presentation that we have posted to our website, you will find cautionary notes in that regard. We claim their protection for any forward-looking information that we might disclose on this conference call today. I will now turn it over to Bill McFarland for his introductory comments.
Good morning. Thanks, Karima, and thank you to everyone for joining the call. The company delivered record results in Q3 and will exceed in fiscal 2023 our previously announced medium-term goal of achieving CAD 100 million EBITDA and CAD 1 billion in revenue. This is an important milestone and accomplishment for the company, and a big thank you goes out from the board to all of our employees for their dedication and hard work in making this a reality. Our team is energized and has the platform and building blocks in place for strong EBITDA growth in IFM in Q4 and continued WAFES success, using its superior brand to expand its diverse book of business while using a capital-light model. The company is also very well financed, providing flexibility to take advantage of future market opportunities.
All of this is underpinned by a disciplined approach, a culture of empowerment and support, and a profitability focus with the goal of building a strong long-term business with all stakeholders engaged, and one that provides superior shareholder returns. I will now pass it over to Mark for his comments.
Thanks, Bill. Good morning, everyone. As Bill said, we've delivered outstanding results in Q3, our strongest and most profitable quarter ever for Dexterra. Our focus continues to be on execution and profitability, driving growth organically and through strategic and accretive acquisitions. Overall, we've continued to deliver strong results on all key fronts of our 2023 business plan. Our focus on disciplined execution and profitability is bearing fruit. In general, market activity remains strong across the target segments germane to the majority of our business. Our ability to win profitable new business and capture market share continues to gain momentum in our two primary business segments, IFM and WAFES. Our 2022 acquisitions, Dana and HRL, are successes and are responsible for much of the IFM growth.
On the operational front, we've seen recent abatement of inflation pressures in a number of key commodities and some improvement of labor availability. Two of our biggest cost elements are people and food. These and other inflationary pressures do persist. However, our relationships with customers, operational initiatives, and our proactive approach to managing client contracts and pricing are helping us reduce the impact and is supporting our improved results. Growing the business and continuing to drive improved profitability remains a key focus for us, both for new and existing business. Turning now to the IFM business unit details on slide six. The IFM business has grown strongly in 2023, with just over 20% increase in year-to-date revenue compared to 2022, primarily due to significant new education contract wins, as well as growth in the hotel, rail, and leisure sectors.
Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue, is up significantly from 2022 due to profitable organic growth and our focus on disciplined execution and margin improvement, including rationalization of our client and contract base for unprofitable contracts over the last nine months. Our adjusted EBITDA in Q3 was consistent with Q2, given the normal lower education sector summer activity. We successfully mobilized several new significant post-secondary education contracts in the latter part of Q3, and we expect to produce a significant uplift both in IFM and EBITDA margin and absolute dollars in Q4, with the education year now in full swing.
Our sales pipeline is strong across all target markets and business lines in IFM that will continue to support significant organic growth. With our continued focus on profitability improvement, we expect to approach and achieve our target of net 7% annualized IFM EBITDA margin in the near term. And last, but certainly not least, we remain active in exploring accretive IFM acquisition opportunities. As you will appreciate, accretive acquisitions are more challenging in today's higher interest rate environment. However, our disciplined approach and strong Dexterra brand will help us find the right partners to expand our reach and capabilities. Moving to WAFES on slide seven. One of our biggest headlines this year has been the unprecedented wildfire activity across Canada.
Beginning in the spring in Ontario and Quebec, our activity in this area continued to expand significantly in Alberta, BC, and the Northwest Territories in Q3, with about CAD 30 million in revenue for wildfire support services in the quarter. We provide a range of fire services, including mobile camps, support labor, equipment and maintenance, as well as evacuee camps. We're proud to support the provincial agencies and affected communities during these times of crisis. We're also engaged and give back to these and other communities, including our employment training program for Indigenous Youth, that provides training and development opportunities for nearly 200 youth in 2023.
Excluding the impact of the wildfires, we had about a 10% growth in WAPS over the same time frame, year, 10% in year-to-date growth in WAPS over this, in 2023 over the same time frame in 2022, with many new wins across our portfolio of services. The overall natural resources market is strong and active in energy as well as gold and metals mining across Canada. Our open camp and client camp occupancies and equipment utilization, as well as activity levels and access matting and space rentals, are strong across the board. Our Crossroads Lodge in Kitimat is running at capacity, which we expect to continue for the balance of the year. Sales momentum and market share capture continues to be strong, with significant contract wins in 2023.
New major project contracts are mobilizing in Q4 and early 2024 that will serve to offset our current significant projects that are reaching completion, such as the Coastal GasLink pipeline project. We continue to diversify and expand the WAPS footprint, Northwest and now in Atlantic Canada, leveraging our strong brand across all business lines, focused on low capital, long cycle operational contracts, is maximizing our fleet utilize-- fleet asset utilization. In Modular, on slide eight, we're making progress on our business turnaround plan, improving systems, processes, execution, and commercial practices. We are moving through the backlog of BC-based, fixed-price, affordable housing contracts, with CAD 16 million in associated project revenue in Q3 at an expected nil margin. We expect to substantially complete this group of BC contracts by year-end. Normalizing Q3 for these projects, the remaining portfolio of business delivered about 5% EBITDA.
Our profitable school business portables business is expanding and is delivering strong results in 2023. Our project backlog has been impacted primarily by delays in affordable housing projects, approvals by various levels of government and other agencies, although municipalities have recently been advised of awards. We have a number of projects under active discussion. Rebuilding backlog is a primary focus, and there are a range of broader opportunities under active pursuit, including industrial and other commercial projects. With that, I will turn it back to Karima for comments on our financial position.
Thank you, Mark. I'll speak about our financial position and capital markets on slide 10. In the quarter, non-recurring items included CAD 2 million for an onerous IFM contract, a CAD 2.2 million impairment on held-for-sale camp assets, and CAD 0.5 million in CFO transition costs. Our net earnings rose despite these items in Q3 2023 to CAD 14 million and to CAD 29.6 million year-to-date, demonstrating strong improvement over 2022. Our financial position and liquidity are very strong. Our new debt facility closed as planned in August, including an expanded available limit of CAD 260 million, plus an uncommitted accordion of CAD 150 million, that provides flexibility to pursue accretive acquisitions. Adjusted free cash flow year to date was CAD 26.3 million, compared to CAD 17.1 million in Q3 2022.
An improvement primarily from better results, but offset somewhat due to related investments in working capital associated with the high business activity. We expect strong free cash flow conversion in Q4, with working capital levels reduced and debt levels at year-end slightly above CAD 100 million, absent any acquisitions. Adjusted free cash flow conversion of EBITDA is expected to be approximately 50% on an annual basis. The strength of our balance sheet and free cash flow conversion stands out among our peers in IFM and WAPS. Our leverage ratio is among the lowest and provides flexibility for growth as opportunities arise.
In connection to the ongoing NCIB, Dexterra repurchased 323,700 common shares in Q3 2023, at a weighted average price per share of CAD 5.82, for a total cash cost of CAD 1.9 million. In light of our current significantly discounted share value, we plan to remain opportunistic on share buybacks within the capacity of the current NCIB vehicle, which allows for 1.3 million shares to be repurchased up to May 2024. Lastly, Dexterra declared a dividend for Q4 2023 of CAD 0.0875 per share for shareholders of record at December 31, 2023. This dividend will be paid on January 15, 2024, and equates to about a 6% return at our current market price. I will now turn it over to Mark for closing comments.
Thanks, Karima. The points on slide 11 serve to summarize what we've covered today and our key focus areas for the balance of the year and into 2024. My focus, and the focus of the Dexterra team, is to continue to drive strong execution, improving margins and profitability through the effective management of our business. We will continue to leverage our strong sales momentum to deliver organic growth, top and bottom line, in our target markets. Our financial position and liquidity may remain strong, and we have the financial capacity to pursue a disciplined approach to strategic acquisitions, to build our IFM platform and enhance the services we offer to our clients. We believe that this approach will translate into improved shareholder returns as the market recognizes the value we are creating.
This concludes our prepared remarks, and I'll turn things back over to Carl for our Q&A.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, you may press Star then One on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. In the interest of time, each analyst is kindly requested to limit themselves to two questions each. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from Aaron MacNeil of TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Hey, morning, and thanks for taking my questions. Mark, you referenced it in the prepared remarks, but TC Energy announced the mechanical completion of Coastal GasLink today, and commissioning is wrapping up by year-end. So I'm just wondering if you can give us a sense of the impact of the wind down of that project, both in terms of the Crossroads camp as well as the upstream camps associated with the pipeline. And then, what sort of order of magnitude is that from a revenue and EBITDA perspective, and what have you backfilled so far?
Yeah, thanks for the questions, Aaron. Good morning. I guess talking about Coastal GasLink, you know, we've had two large camps on Coastal GasLink. One is in the demobilization process, the other is in a pretty high occupancy. So our assets and our camps are typically needed even into the commissioning phase on those projects. So that is continuing through to year-end, and we may, w ell, we know we'll see some spillover into the new year in terms of occupancy on one of those two camps. Crossroads Lodge is really connected to the LNG Canada project, as well as other clients that we have out in Kitimat.
You know, obviously, the big LNG project is still completing construction, and then they're going to be moving into commissioning as well. So we're supporting them with capacity in there. And I guess in terms of, you know, those projects completing, and I think, you know, you'll see it in our materials. You know, we have secured some new projects in WAFES. Some of them are mobilizing currently, actually, large projects, you know, similar size to Coastal GasLink, in oil sand space as well as in mining and conventional natural gas space. Those are ramping up, and those will continue to ramp up in 2024.
So we are going to see, you know, a really good backfill there related to those larger projects coming on stream. And part of the positivity around those projects is they're not so much fixed project, but more long-term style operations. So we're happy to see those, and, you know, we're going to largely see kind of the Coastal GasLink become backfilled with what we're bringing on early in 2024.
The next question comes from Chris Murray of ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Good morning, this is Kyle Brock on for Chris. Hoping you provide a bit of color on the CAD 2 million charge recognized for the challenged contracts in your facilities business, as well as the margin expectations for the business over the next few quarters?
Yeah. Morning, Kyle. Regarding that charge that we took in in Q3 here, it's for a large federal defense style contract that we've had, and it's running through to mid-next year, where it will be rebid, and we'll be rebidding on it. You know, as we've talked about more broadly, you know, we've been working on kind of rationalizing some of our contracts and offsetting inflationary issues. That's one area, that's one project where we've had some difficulty doing that, and some of it is just sort of the parameters and the nature of the client that's in play there. So, that's the nature of that.
You know, we expect that to be contained to the number that we've identified, and that gets us through to the end of the contract. We are optimistic that we are gonna, you know, win that contract back, but at a substantially better economics around the project. As it relates to the IFM margins, you know, as we said in our materials, in the MD&A, we are seeing, you know, uplifts and improvement in our margins in IFM. Some of that is related to some of the new contracts that we've brought on, some of them post-secondary education contracts that mobilized here in the latter part of Q3, and then are now, you know, with the school year on in Q4.
So, you know, typically, you know, in that post-secondary market and client set, you know, you'll see some flatness during Q3, during the summer, and then things really pick up when the school year comes on in Q4 and then Q1. We're expecting some uplift in Q4, you know, both, I guess, in terms of margin, you know, EBITDA yield and percentage, but also absolute EBITDA in IFM in Q4, carrying through into Q1. You know, really taking us through to that annualized 7% margin in IFM, which is what we're gonna be seeing broadly across the business in the near term.
Okay, great. Thanks for that. Also, hoping you can confirm for us what the CAD 14 million working capital add back to your free cash flow figure pertains to, and sort of like, you know, what the rationale for the add back is. Thank you.
Yeah, really, primarily, Chris, sorry, Kyle, you know, primarily connected to the, to the growth of the business, and the amount of business activity we had this year, is primarily what that's related to.
Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. The next question comes from Zachary Evershed of National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Congrats on the quarter.
Thanks, Zach. Morning.
So on the impairment of CAD 2.2 million related to excess camp equipment, can you give us a little bit more color around that? And I mean, it doesn't sound like it, based on your previous comments, but are you seeing the base Wasp business turning down, related to the asset rationalization?
Yeah, I think more, Zach, more of a one-time type thing that we've seen there. And it was really related to a, you know, a specific installation that we had went in a location, and we relocated it, relocated it to a different spot. And, really just kind of the valuation in terms of how the install cost was versus sort of the valuation of the assets. Generally speaking, we're seeing a lot of activity around camp assets, demand for camp assets. We're seeing positive pressure, upward pressure around the value of assets, both rental as well as sales assets.
So, really, we're not seeing any kind of downturn in Wasp related to, you know, both, activity related to occupancies or the demand for assets, the demand for projects. In fact, everything is fairly strong, and that's pretty much right across the board, whether it's energy, the mining space, infrastructure, and really across all geographies across Canada. We're still seeing very strong activity levels. And everything we're seeing in terms of intel kind of points to continued strength in that space.
Great info, thanks. And for my second one, you're not disclosing the CAD 40 million in recurring contracts in the backlog anymore. Is that shrinking? Or, is it a different type of business that you're bringing on, maybe not as recurring in the new wins?
Keeping in mind the modular space. The recurring, you know, business that we do have in the modular space is still there, and if anything, it's growing, really related to our school portable business. For example, in Ontario, some of the commercial stuff, we're seeing that, you know, maintaining or even growing. So I think it might be, Zach, and we can certainly take this offline, just might be a little bit around the partitioning of how the backlogs are quoted. But no real change there. In fact, if anything, probably growth in that space.
The next question comes from Frederick Bastien of Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Good morning. My question, maybe for Mark. Can you discuss the opportunities and challenges you're seeing in social, affordable housing? Cities and municipalities need it more than ever, but it seems to be really getting slow to get going. So, just wondering if you could just give us an update here. Thank you.
Yeah, appreciate that, Frederick, and good, good poignant question. As you pointed out, you know, we are seeing the demand for social, affordable housing and affordable housing. You know, we're still seeing a lot of federal grants, a lot of federal government funding, provincial government funding being announced related to that. And those funding awards are happening, as I mentioned in my remarks, and they are being awarded to, you know, municipalities, not-for-profits, you know, kind of the usual channels that do those projects. In fact, you know, for example, in Western Canada, you know, there's been 22 municipalities that we're actively talking to that have, you know, RHI or other funding source awards.
And really, it's just transitioning from that. Yeah, you're successful on a funding grant and then transitioning into an active project where you're going through the kind of the contracting process with clients and in some cases, RFP process. And that's really the state that we're in. We do see projects happening, and to your point, there is a lot of demand. So it's a matter of working things through that system and how that comes through. But we are seeing. We will see those kinds of projects coming into our space. We're also seeing projects in modular. You know, we're still active in the U.S., we're active in Eastern Canada, or pardon me, Western Canada and Central Canada, you know, across commercial and other sectors.
So, it's really just the affordable housing thing, working through that system of getting projects on the ground and awarded, and it's us, but it's absolutely every other, you know, modular producer and modular builder in the space. We're all kind of in the same boat if you look across the competitive environment in terms of the situation. So, really, it's that—that's about all I can say with that now. I mean, we will see things; we are expecting to see things change in terms of backlog and new projects coming on. It's just really a matter of timing around that.
You know, I guess related to the overall profitability of the business, you know, modular is an important part of our business, but it's also, you know, a smaller part of our profitability as well. So we kind of factor that into kind of our overall thinking around the business.
Okay. And, you know, you noted some good development in education. Is that across provinces, or is there a specific region that is showing particular strength?
Yeah, pretty much, pretty much everywhere, Frederick. A lot of our new wins, though, have been in Atlantic Canada as well as here in Ontario. We've got some substantial new postsecondary facilities that we've won new contracts in. Our Dana brand is really working well in the postsecondary environment, and we're finding a lot of success to you know winning new contracts, taking over contracts from others. But you know, we're really seeing opportunities and conversations happening really across Canada, but a lot of the actual contracts that we are you know winning and actual contracts that are turning over into the market are Atlantic Canada, kind of through to Central Canada.
The next question comes from Terry Reynolds of Acumen Capital. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Just, you guys mentioned the spillover of the wildfire support services into Q4. Maybe just kinda what sort of impact we can expect from that?
Yeah. Morning, Terry. Some, but not a lot. I mean, there is a bit of carryover, and I mean, you know, I guess for the sake of the communities that have been impacted, I mean, the fires are abated now at this point in the season. But we do have a bit of carryover activity that you'll see within Q4. I think, probably more the, you know, the characterization of Q4 that I would say is, you know, I think we will show some revenue and EBITDA growth in Q4, you know, say, compared to last year, in Q4, with that. But also, you know, our underlying business, both IFM and Wasp, is pretty strong.
So we will see a little bit of a stronger situation there in Q4. I think from both sides of that, from the underlying business and a little bit of minimal carryover from the fires.
Okay. And then just on the acquisition pipeline, you kind of highlighted in the prepared remarks that it's slowed down a bit. Maybe is it more competitive out there? Or maybe just highlight what you're seeing on that side of things.
Yeah, appreciate that question. I certainly wouldn't say slowed down, and I would say for us, lots of activity, and we're active on kind of a number of fronts around deals and potential deals. Of course, you know, kind of in a high interest rate environment adds a little more challenge to it. But you know, we're trying to, we're staying disciplined on this. You know, we're really focused on finding the right opportunity, you know, the market sector connection that we're looking for, you know, geographic footprint that we're looking for, and then all the important things around talents and skills and capability and client access, cultural fit. But we are quite active on a few fronts.
We just wanna make sure we do find the right fit and the right deal. You know, of course, we can't really announce anything until we kinda have a signed deal. So, you know, I guess all I can really say is stay tuned. But the only thing I would reinforce is, Terry, just they're very active for us and continues active.
The next question comes from Zachary Evershed of National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Hey, just a quick follow-up. Was wondering if you could comment on what the margin profile for WAFES was like, excluding the outsized contribution from the fire support services, and where you see that going, into next year?
Yep. Good, good question as always, Zach. You know, I mean, there... To your point, there, there was a bit of an outsized, you know, margin yield, EBITDA yield related to, to WAFES, obviously, in Q3. And, you know, as I think, as we've talked about before, you know, our target for that business unit, you know, will continue to be kind of that 15% EBITDA yield from, from WAFES. And, you know, some of the things like our asset utilization is, you know, kind of through the roof right now, you know, towards your other question there. You know, it's in the high 90s.
We've never, you know, in the probably the history of the company, seen it that high, and we expect that to continue because we see a lot of demand, as, as I mentioned, to it. Some of the new projects, some of the new major projects we've brought on, you know, kind of outside the Coastal GasLink and LNG Canada space, you know, are also, you know, driving that utilization for us, meaning they are, they do engage our, our existing camp assets, and, and, that helps us with that margin. So, you know, Zach, I think, you know, we're really, really focused on that 15% margin and, and carrying that forward.
Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session and today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.