Greetings, welcome to the Velan Inc. Q3 Financial Results Conference Call. Please refer to the conference call section of the press release for the link to the company's investor relations site, where you will have access to the presentation. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. If at any time during the conference you need to reach operator, please press star zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded on Thursday, January 12th, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference, Bruno Carbonaro, CEO and President.
Good morning, everybody. Bruno Carbonaro speaking. Welcome to our conference today. I'm joined by Rishi Sharma, our CFO, as we present the results of our Q3 for the fiscal year 2023. I'll commence the highlights of the Q3 with the sales amounting to $95.2 million, which is an improvement of more than $10 million versus the second quarter, but it's less than the same quarter last year, as it's shown on the right of the slide. In terms of EBITDA, $6.1 million, which is obviously better than $1.4 million we reported during the previous quarter, but lower than also the same period of last year. It's important to notice that, when the main explanation is on the volume of sales in terms of gross profit is there.
The gross profit of Q3 this year is comparable to the same quarter last year. This EBITDA of $6.1 million translates into $2.7 million operating income for the quarter. In terms of backlog, which is extremely important for me, we keep a backlog which is shy of $500 million, at $488 million. The decrease of the backlog is mainly due to the variation of the foreign change between the euro and the dollar because most of our bookings are related to our European operations, both in France and Italy. In terms of net cash, we're at $29.3 million, so we were able to protect our position in Q2 even if we have expected a sales bump in terms of working capital.
I now turn over the mic to Rishi that will navigate you through the detailed presentation.
Great. Thank you, Bruno. Good morning, everyone, and a happy new year to you all. I'll walk you through our key financial metrics for the quarter and provide some color on where we landed for Q3. Backlog for the quarter closed at a solid $488.3 million or $11 million and 2.3% higher than prior quarter as a result of strong bookings at $99.2 million and a book-to-bill of 1.04 for both the quarter and year to date. The strong bookings in the quarter were driven mainly by securing a large order in the marine business for the North American operations, our continued growth in bookings for our nuclear business in France, and a slight improvement in the bookings for our oil and gas operations, mainly in Italy.
Of the current backlog of $488.3 million, $336.2 million of this is shippable within the next 12 months, giving us confidence in our short-term revenue stream. Although we have seen some improvements in the euro to USD rates, the backlog was nonetheless negatively impacted on the translation to USD by $21.6 million, coming mostly from our euro-based operations and backlog. If we look at page 7 for sales. Sales for the quarter, as mentioned by Bruno, amounted to $95.2 million or an improvement of $10.2 million or 12% compared to the second quarter. A decrease of $14.7 million or 13.5% versus the same quarter in the prior year.
For us, in Q3, continued focus on shipments and deliveries while managing the now stabilizing headwinds in logistics supply chain allowed us to recover from the slow start we experienced in the first half. Our North American operations continue to ramp up with $62 million of sales, improving both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, while our French nuclear operations, assuming a constant currency, also grew year-over-year. Our Italian oil and gas sales continue to be affected by the softer booking experienced in the sector at the end of full year 2022 and the first half of full year 2023. As mentioned on the previous slide, we have seen some improvements in the booking activity.
The currency impacts on our revenues were $4.9 million negative for the quarter and $15.9 million negative year-to-date, driven mainly by the average rate used to convert the EUR to USD are less. If we move to page 8 on our profitability evolution. Gross profit for the quarter amounted to $29 million or 30.4%, which is an improvement of $5.5 million or 280 basis points compared to the second quarter. A decrease compared to last year's $35.9 million or 32.6%. We are very happy with our performance in Q3, we understand and acknowledge the amount of work that remains for us to continue on to steady path of improvement.
It is, however, important to note that the Gross profits for the nine-month period of the prior year was 30.1% net of government subsidies related to COVID-19, which we did not collect this year. Our administrative costs, net of asbestos, continue to trend in the right direction with our continued focus on cost control, and have contributed in part to an EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA improvement of 480 or 400 points, respectively, compared to Q2 of the current year and compared to prior year. If you look at slide 9 on the net cash analysis, our net cash amounted to $29.3 million at the end of the quarter, which was stable versus the last quarter, but a decrease of $24.2 million since the beginning of the fiscal year.
The decrease in the net cash is primarily attributable to the lower net income, combined with the ramp-up, as you can see, on the working capital items and the ongoing repayment of our long-term debt. In the year, we have repaid $4.8 million down of our long-term debt. In the quarter, the company did draw on its credit facility in the amount of $5.4 million to support the very strong ramp up expected to see in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year. During the quarter, the company was also better able to manage its cash flows through various AR and AP initiatives and the negative impact from the customer deposits related mostly to revenues relating to one large order, as well as the timing effect of receiving advances from customer bookings secured in the later part of Q3.
The overall liquidity remains strong at $137.6 million available cash on hand and facilities. I'll now pass it back to Bruno for his closing comments before we take questions. Thank you. Bruno, over to you.
Thanks, Rishi. I think as a closing comment, I think we are still in a world which is full of uncertainty and with a very low visibility. It's extremely important for us to be prudent and to make sure that we navigate the times with caution and making sure that we can benefit from some good things and protect against the others. We have two big protections. A, that's the size of our backlog, which help us organize the future and help us being more disciplined and provide visibility to you. B, that's the strength of our balance sheet. That's extremely relevant, but we continue to protect that because that's really what will help us navigate these uncertain times. We are focused on being prudent and execute properly.
I think the discipline and execution are the key word in my discussion with my teams. We've seen a lot of progress in Q3, we will continue to progress in Q4, which is absolutely needed for us to deliver a strong Q4. As you saw on my first slide, I think Q4 is always a very strong quarter in the year, we expect that about the same here. This will help us compensate for a slow start of the year. We acknowledge that Q1 wasn't as good as we had expected. We put all our efforts just to have a strong end of the year. I'm now ready to take on any questions you have.
Thank you. If you would like to register a question, please press the 1 4 on your telephone. You will hear a 3-tone prompt to acknowledge your request. If your question has been answered and you would like to withdraw your registration, please press the 1 followed by the 3. One moment, please, for the first question. As a reminder, to register a question, please press the 1 4 on your telephone. We do have a question from Robert Bilo with Acquest Corp. Please proceed.
Yes. thank you and good morning. congratulations, gentlemen, on a very solid third quarter and nice to see the improvement.
Thank you.
My question, you know, gross margins are quite nice, and you're moving in the right direction, but my question is really about balance sheet. Last year you begun putting aside provisions, and as I understood it, they were largely in anticipation or to allow for asbestos issues as they arise. Correspondingly, you have current provisions, and you have non-current provisions. Am I safe in assuming that that is largely or exclusively for asbestos expenses?
That's correct, yes.
Okay. To the extent that the ones in the current category of almost $15 million, those are for the next 12 months, and the one in the non-current of about $16 and a half million dollars, those are for ones going out after 12 months. So far so good?
Yeah, Robert.
When we say after 12 months, do we mean one year or many years?
Okay. Can you hear me, Robert?
Yes. Can you hear me?
Yeah. Yeah, we did. I just tried to correct myself. On the long-term portion for the provision, yes, that's specific, and I'll get back to answer your question. On the current portion, on the financials, on the balance sheet, there's an embedded portion within there relating to asbestos, and then there's normal provisions relating to warranties and so on and so forth. I just wanna make that clarification. To your question on the long-term portion, it's long-term, so beyond 12 months. I mean, with the information available to us on hand, with the number of claims that we know of, does not determine a point of settlement. We understand it could be beyond 12 months, which is why they've been classified as long term.
Okay. I guess where I'm headed is to ask whether you believe that is sufficient for all current and future or whether that is sort of what you can see when you look at. That's what you are aware of or have been filed today, so to speak.
It's what we are aware of today for known for known claims.
Okay. As you set up the provision, the provision flows through your administrative costs on an annual basis. When I see, you know, $25 million. I'm sorry.
Yeah.
That flows through in. You take it through your administrative expenses.
That's correct.
Okay. you know, if we put aside $15 million a year on sales, that's, you know, a part of your administrative expense. Okay. Thank you.
Thanks.
Just trying to get some clarity on-.
Thank you.
That issue. Appreciate it. Good luck as you go into the fourth quarter. you know, foreign exchange is a lovely thing, but it's certainly hard for me to predict.
Same thing for us. Thank you. Thank you, Robert, for your question.
As a reminder to register a question, please press the 1,4 on your telephone. Gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. Mr. Carbonaro, there are no further questions at this time.
We can wait for one minute to close if that's what we do.
Okay. Very good.
We wait an additional minute.
Once again, as a reminder to register a question, please press the one four on your telephone. We have a question from Vincent Berard from Banque Nationale. Please press...
Hi, Vincent Berard , the National Bank Financial. Is there any buyback share plan to buy?
Yeah.
I can't hear you.
Currently there is no, there is no plan.
Okay. 'Cause there's clearly an opportunity at the about the 0.5 the book value. Is there something that you consider?
Yeah. Understood, your comment. It's obviously always considered various options...
Okay.
That we discuss, but, at this moment there's no, there's no repurchase plan.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you.
There are no further questions at this time.
Okay. Thank you. We can close. Thank you very much.
That does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your line.