Morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Orbit Garant Drilling's Fiscal 2026 Second Quarter Results Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following management's remarks, we will conduct a Q&A session. Please be aware that certain information discussed today may be forward-looking in nature. Such forward-looking information reflects the company's current views with respect to future events. Any such information is subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. For more information on the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions relating to forward-looking information
Please refer to the company's latest MD&A and annual information form, which are available on SEDAR+. Management may also refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Although Orbit Garant believes these measures provide useful supplemental information about financial performance, they are not recognized measures and do not have standardized meanings under IFRS. Please refer to the company's latest MD&A for additional information regarding non-IFRS financial measures. This call is being recorded on Thursday, 12 February 2026 . I would now like to turn the floor over to Mr. Daniel Maheu, President and CEO of Orbit Garant Drilling. Welcome, sir.
Thank you, Jim, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. With me on the call is Pier-Luc Laplante, Chief Financial Officer. Following my opening remark, Pier-Luc will review our financial results in greater detail, and I will conclude with comments on our outlook. We will then welcome questions. As expected, our results for our fiscal second quarter reflect the full resumption of certain projects in Canada and South America that were temporarily delayed in Q1 and the continued ramp-up of new drilling projects in Canada. Aside from a customer-initiated delay on one drilling project in South America and unexpected modification to another during the Q2, we had increased overall drilling activity in the quarter in both Canada and South America, including a higher proportion of specialized drilling in Canada.
Our revenue and margin for the quarter were somewhat constrained by the temporary delay on these two projects in South America. Competitive pricing on new project and contract renewal remained during the quarter. Overall, revenue for our fiscal second quarter was up by 10.5% compared to Q2 a year ago, and our adjusted gross margin was 18.5%, compared to 21.5% in Q2 last year. Our drill utilization rate in the quarter reached the highest level in more than two years and support by new drilling contract and contract renewal. We expect further increase in our drilling utilization rate in our fiscal third quarter, which we can come up with minimal mobilization cost.
Do some of these increased utilization gain may not be fully realized until our fiscal fourth quarter due to the various challenges caused by the severe winter weather conditions we have experienced in Canada in January and into February. We also expect to continue to benefit from the continued advancement of our ramp-up activity on new projects in Canada, as projects typically yield lower gross margin during the ramp-up period.
While we have experienced some unexpected project delay in the first half of the year, these projects are all back online now, and we are well positioned to continue increasing our drilling utilization rate to drive revenue growth. Demand for our drilling services in both Canada and South America remains strong, supported by record gold prices and elevated copper prices , and billing activities on new projects remain at a high level. I will now turn the call over to Pier-Luc to review our financial results for the second quarter in greater detail. Pier-Luc?
Thank you, Daniel, and good morning, everyone. Revenue for the quarter totaled CAD 47.9 million, up from CAD 43.5 million in Q2 last year. Canada revenue was CAD 33.8 million in the quarter, an increase of 9.8% compared to Q2 last year, reflecting increased drilling activity and a higher proportion of specialized drilling. International revenue totaled CAD 14.1 million, an increase of 12.1% compared to Q2 a year ago, reflecting increased drilling activity in both Chile and Guyana. Though our revenue was constrained in the quarter by a customer decision to temporarily delay one project and unexpected modifications to another drill program, the project that was temporarily delayed by a customer decision was fully resumed in January 2026.
Gross profit was CAD 6.5 million, or 13.5% of revenue, compared to CAD 7.2 million, or 16.5% of revenue in Q2 2025. Adjusted gross margin, excluding depreciation expenses, was 18.5% in the quarter, compared to 21.5% in Q2 last year. The decreases in gross profit and adjusted gross margins are primarily attributable to lower drilling productivity on certain projects in Canada, a competitive pricing environment on new contracts and contract renewals, and to customer-initiated delay and modifications to certain drilling programs in South America. Adjusted EBITDA totaled CAD 5.1 million, up from CAD 4.5 million in Q2 last year.
Net earnings for the quarter were CAD 1.3 million, or CAD 0.03 per share diluted, compared to CAD 0.5 million or CAD 0.01 per share and diluted in Q2 last year. Increases in Adjusted EBITDA and net earnings were primarily attributable to lower income tax expenses and a favorable foreign exchange variation, partially offset by lower operating earnings. Turning to our balance sheet. We repaid a net amount of CAD 3.3 million on our credit facility in the quarter, compared to a repayment of CAD 2.4 million in Q2 a year ago. Our long-term debt under the credit facility, including the current portion, was CAD 16.0 million at quarter end, down from CAD 19.3 million at the end of Q1, but up from CAD 14.0 million as at our fiscal 2025 year end.
Our increased debt in the first half of fiscal 2026 is the result of our yearly shipments of equipment and inventory for our operations in Nunavut and Nunavik. We expect to continue to pay down debt on a net basis throughout the remainder of fiscal 2026. On December 22, 2025, the company entered into a sixth amended and restated credit agreement with National Bank and the lenders in respect of the credit facility. The credit facility consists of a CAD 30.0 million revolving credit facility, along with a credit facility in the unused amount of $5.0 million, utilized for the purposes of standby letters of credit. The credit facility expires on December 22, 2029.
On October 28, we announced that the Toronto Stock Exchange approved our renewed normal course issuer bid, which allows us to repurchase up to 500,000 shares over a 12-month period that began on October 31, 2025. During the quarter, we repurchased and canceled 141,450 shares at a weighted average price of CAD 1.29 per share, pursuant to the NCIB program. We continue to view the NCIB as a useful tool to enhance shareholder value when the underlying value of Orbit Garant is not reflected in our share price. Our working capital was CAD 51.9 million at quarter end, compared to CAD 50.4 million at the end of fiscal 2025. I will now turn the call back to Daniel for closing comments. Daniel?
Thank you, Pier-Luc. With the record gold prices and historically high copper prices supporting strong customer demand for our drilling services, we are confident in our business outlook for the second half of fiscal 2026 and entering into fiscal 2027. The level of demand for our drilling services from senior and intermediate mining customers in both Canada and South America is increasing, and we are seeing a definite acceleration of requests for proposal from junior exploration company in Canada. Due to the sustained high level of demand in our industry, we expect to experience cost inflation with respect to supply, material, and wages. So we are going to have to work with our customers to accommodate these expect increase to our input costs with future contract and renewal. Increased demand from junior exploration company may have a positive impact on the current pricing environment.
Our overall priorities remain the same going forward: a strategic focus on senior and well-financed intermediate customers in Canada and South America, our disciplined business strategy, and continuous operational improvement program. By focusing on these priorities, we intend to capitalize on opportunities in this period of elevated customer demand to deliver enhanced profitability and value for our shareholders. That concludes our formal remarks this morning. We will now welcome any questions. Jim, please begin the question period.
Gentlemen, thank you. To our phone audience joining today, at this time, if you would like to ask a question, simply press the star followed by the digit one on your telephone keypad. Pressing star and one will place you into a queue, and I will open your lines one at a time. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, that is star and one if you would like to ask a question. We will hear first from Kerem Aksoy at Glacier Pass.
Hi, thanks for hosting the call today and taking my questions. It seems like it's an exciting time for the industry. I had a couple questions, just maybe one more routine to start. I was wondering if you could provide a little more color on the outlook for the international segment. You mentioned during the prepared remarks that the segment was impacted by a customer decision in South America. We kind of saw the margins, you know, decrease year-over-year. What should we expect for the second half of the year in that segment and maybe going on?
Thank you for this question. Essentially, in Chile, we have three customer, big copper mine, and they have some concern with budget. They have sometime some request for to move the drill, so that could take several weeks to do so. So essentially, we have long-term contract with these customer in Chile, and that that's the point. The other thing is, in Guyana, actually, the market is very strong, and customer ask us to move also equipment from a site to another site. So that creates some delay, but that's very positive for the next quarter because the market is it's increasing there. And these requests from customers, it's a good thing for us.
Thanks. That's helpful. Then maybe just kinda moving to Canada. I mean, you kind of provided some commentary in your prepared remarks, but I was wondering if you could just kinda dig into that a little bit more. Maybe just kinda big picture, when you speak to your clients, maybe on the senior side, have they provided any, you know, commentary to you about what their budgets will look like in 2026? And I'm just curious how that might have changed year-over-year, or, you know, kind of what their expectations that they've outlined to you are.
Yes, that's correct. The point is, here is our customer, as you know, probably more in Canada, more of 80% of drilling business is related to a customer in the gold industry. So with the gold price, actually, customer wants to increase their drilling exploration project, and they ask us to add several drills there and there. For example, we have customer asking for two new drills in Q2, so we add it.
And we in the quarter, we add more than, I think it's 10 drills. So we t hat's why our utilization rate comes from 56% in Q1 to 63%, 62% in Q3, in Q2. So when we expect this level of utilization rate for new contract from actual customer will increase in Q3, probably at 65% utilization rate . So, that's the market in Canada. So that's very encouraging for us. It's great.
That's helpful. Thanks. Maybe just one last one for me. You mentioned you started to see some increased demand from juniors. I'm curious. We saw a lot of financing for juniors kind of last year, maybe start of this year. Has all of that money started to flow into tenders, or do you think there's still a bit of delay and you might see, you know, a step up in demand from juniors? Or I mean, have we seen all the demand from juniors yet, or is it still, you know, to come?
What we see actually in the market, the money is coming. Right now, we have requests from juniors for more than, let's say, a small program. Let's say in the last two quarters, we have small requests for less than 5,000 meters for two to three months work. Now, we see since end of December 2025, we see a request for a longer drilling program, more six months, and it's over 5,000 meters, 15,000-20,000. So, that's interesting.
This is not our main market. We focus more on major and intermediate customer, but that means the small drillers company will go with these small requests from juniors. So that give us more space to work with or target customer for a long term and, let's say, more specialized drilling. So, at the end of the day, that's exactly where we want to go. And that's, let's say, junior, demand is positive for us on the short and long term.
Thanks. That's great. Those are my questions. Thanks for taking them, and wishing you guys the best of luck.
Thank you very much.
We'll pause for a moment to give our audience another opportunity to press star and one if you would like to ask a question today. We'll pause for a moment to give our audience the chance. Mr. Maheu, I do not see any signals from our audience. I would like to turn it back to you, sir, for any additional or closing remarks that you have.
Thank you, Jim, and thank you everyone for participating today. We look forward to speaking with you again soon.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's Orbit Garant Drilling 2026 Q2 Conference Call and Webcast. We do thank you all for your participation, and you may now disconnect your lines.