My name is Chris LeBlanc. I'm the CFO at Nova Leap Health Corp. I recognize that some of you may be familiar with Nova Leap, and for others, the story may be new to you. As opposed to going through a detailed company overview, I'm going to really focus on the investment case. Five different things we want to accomplish over the next 20 minutes or so. One, give a summary of why we think Nova Leap is an attractive investment opportunity. Have some financial numbers to back that up. Talk a little bit about capital allocation and management's approach to that, as well as shareholder value. Then we'll talk a little bit about the company and how we got here and where we think we're going from there. Those not familiar with Nova Leap, we're a provider of home-based and community-based care services.
We operate in various regions across the U.S. and in Nova Scotia, Canada. Our head office is based in Nova Scotia, and we trade on the TSXV and the OTC. For those that are familiar with Nova Leap, I hope you'll see a company that has strengthened its operating financial results, improved its balance sheet, and built a platform that has set us up for future growth. A few themes that you'll probably hear repeated over the presentation, all of which we think are very relevant. Record operating results, positive cash flow, disciplined capital allocation, the creation of a strong acquisition platform, and multiple opportunities to grow going forward. With that, I'm going to start with talking a little bit about the investment case. I had to do that in a fairly summarized way.
The items to highlight are the fact that we operate in an industry supported by powerful long-term demographic trends. More and more individuals are turning 65 every day, and we only expect that to increase going forward, which is obviously going to increase our demand. We participate in a highly fragmented market that creates meaningful consolidation opportunities for a company like Nova Leap. Most owners in this industry are mom-and-pop types. Many are nearing retirement age, and looking to sell. We built a proven acquisition platform, and we've completed 23 acquisitions over the past 10 years, our most recent being in May in Nova Scotia. We're generating record revenue and EBITDA. We're generating positive operating and net cash flow. We maintain a strong balance sheet, and management and directors own more than 42% of the company. Those generally are what we would consider the foundations of our investment case.
Talk a little bit more about financial performance. You can see by the graph, we've seen increasing revenue and EBITDA over the past three years. Our most recent results are from Q1 2026, which generated trailing 12-month revenue of CAD 32 million and trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA of CAD 2.2 million. If we look at the trend, not only are we seeing growth, but importantly, we're seeing EBITDA grow at a pace that's higher than revenue, which is effectively a result of the leverage we've created in our model. Beyond revenue and EBITDA, cash is extremely important, and we've generated positive operating cash flow every quarter going back to 2024 and positive net cash, going back to 2024 as well. Just one final point on this slide. These numbers, as I said, are as of the end of March of 2026.
We did complete an acquisition in Nova Scotia in May that had 2025 revenue of CAD 3.8 million and CAD 785,000 in EBITDA. The earnings power of the business today is already greater than the reported numbers, and what you're seeing here. Talk a little bit about capital allocation. While we've seen growth isn't our only objective. Creating shareholder value is ultimately the most important objective. Since 2022, Nova Leap has not raised any equity capital. Instead, we funded growth through the prudent use of debt and internally generated cash flow. We've done that, like I said, without diluting our shareholders. As of the end of March, we had approximately $1.6 million in cash on our balance sheet.
Following the acquisition of Parkwood in May, which we funded with CAD 1 million in cash and CAD 2.5 million in debt, we still maintain strong liquidity, and we still have $3 million in acquisition capacity on our existing bank facility. Our leverage ratio, which was 0.88 times at the end of Q1, remains strong even after the acquisition that we completed in May. We believe maintaining financial flexibility creates optionality going forward for the company. A little bit about capital markets and ownership, and specifically for those not familiar with Nova Leap. At recent trading levels, we're at a market cap that's approximately $25 million or CAD 32 million. As I said, management and directors own more than 42% of the company, which we believe obviously creates strong alignment between management and shareholders.
Our debt levels remain modest, our liquidity remains strong, and we believe the business today is stronger than ever, and our focus remains on continuing to execute and create value. Stepping back a little bit and just talking about the industry. I don't think anything in the next slide or two will come as a significant surprise, so I'll just stay relatively high level here. As I said, the home care sector is really benefiting from very strong demographic trends. Approximately 12,000 Americans turn 65 every day. We see the percentage of Americans 65 or older only increasing going forward. Most seniors indicate they would prefer to remain in their house as they age, and at the same time, home-based care often comes at a lower cost than institutional care. Those trends support long-term growth for our business. Equally important is the fragmentation of the market.
As I said, the majority of our providers are small and are independently owned. That creates significant opportunity for a company like Nova Leap that has the operational infrastructure and the acquisition experience needed to consolidate. We believe Nova Leap is well positioned to capitalize on that opportunity. Nova Leap was founded in 2016 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We started as a startup with one location, and we've evolved into a platform within various regions across North America. We've completed, as I said, 23 acquisitions, we've invested in systems and infrastructure, and we built a shared services platform capable of supporting future growth. This is our operations map. As you can see, and it's obviously the areas that are circled in red. We have quite a significant presence in Nova Scotia and also in New England.
We also operate in Florida, the Midwest around Kentucky, Ohio, and in the Texas, Oklahoma area. Item to highlight here is really our strategy, and it's increasingly focusing on density going forward. We're looking at the benefits that that can create and focusing on that strategy. We're not focused on being everywhere. Looking ahead, our growth strategy is built really around three complementary pillars. I'll go through each of these. The first is organic growth. We continue to focus on increasing service hours and growing within our existing markets. We do that by deepening referral relationships, we do it by increasing hours in existing locations, and we do that by opening new offices within regions that we already operate. The advantage to that is that we already have the leadership, and we already have the infrastructure. We have brand recognition in those markets.
Ultimately, we see that it's a better investment and a reduction in risk as opposed to entering into new markets. The most recent example of an office opening is we opened an office in 2025 in Lexington, Kentucky. We already had offices in Louisville, in Cincinnati, which now has just created effectively a triangle, each office within 90 minutes of each other. We've seen the benefits, obviously, of already having that platform in place with opening that office. The second growth strategy is service line expansion and something we've been more focused on recently. Historically, our foundation really has been pure home care. Really, we're focusing now on expanding the continuum of care through initiatives such as care management and palliative care. Both were launched early in 2026.
We do continue to review a launch of private nursing in 2027, as was previously communicated, which would be a further extension of services that we provide. Ultimately, service expansion is attractive as it allows us to participate in a larger part of a client's journey. It improves client retention and creates opportunities for cross-referral. It strengthens referral relationships and leverages our existing capabilities and infrastructure. The third pillar is acquisitions, and while not our only growth engine, it remains an important part of the strategy and where we've developed a significant amount of expertise. As I've said numerous times, we've completed 23 acquisitions since 2016. We've developed a repeatable process for identifying, evaluating, and integrating acquisitions. Integration includes addition to share services model, financial reporting enhancements, consistent branding, training, quality assurance, and compliance.
To summarize our acquisition philosophy, we're looking for operationally straightforward businesses, those that would be financially accretive. Our target multiple is 3-5x EBITDA. We're looking for opportunities that enhance density and that are strategically aligned. As I've mentioned, we recently completed an acquisition in May. This is an example of our most recent acquisition. Total purchase price was CAD 3.5 million based on trailing a 12-month EBITDA of CAD 785,000 and CAD 3.8 million in revenue, representing an EBITDA of approximately 4.5 times. The acquisition strengthens our position in Nova Scotia, increases density within an existing market, and leverages infrastructure that's already in place. A key strength of Nova Leap is our operating platform. While care delivery remains local, many support functions are centralized regionally or through our head office, which again is in Nova Scotia.
Some of these functions include billing, payroll, accounting, IT, compliance, and risk management. This creates operating leverage as the company grows, and as you can see by this slide, we can see increasing margins over time. As the company grows and we're able to take advantage of the shared services and the platform we have in place, we would expect that trend to continue. We're supported by an experienced management team and board of directors with backgrounds in healthcare, acquisitions, and governance. Anyone familiar with Nova Leap is likely familiar with our President and CEO, Chris Dobbin, who founded the company in 2016. To come back to the investment thesis. We've gone through several characteristics or areas of the company that we see as very attractive. I'm just going to summarize those again.
Record revenue, record EBITDA, positive operating cash flow, positive net cash flow, low leverage, strong insider ownership, multiple growth drivers, and meaningful acquisition capacity. At the same time, we operate in a market supported by long-term demographic trends and substantial consolidation opportunities. With that, I'll leave you with one final thought. Our primary objective is to create long-term shareholder value through disciplined growth, disciplined capital allocation, and disciplined execution. Everything we've discussed today is measured against that objective. Appreciate your interest in Nova Leap and happy to take any questions that anyone has.
[Audio distortion] Mostly, going back to this criteria you mentioned, you're targeting about 3- 5 times EBITDA. This seems like a secular growth industry. I'm just kind of wondering why someone would sell their business to you for that low of a valuation? The second question was, how do you guys compete with Skilled Nursing Facilities? I know SNFs go for CAD 3 million in EBITDA. I'm just kind of wondering if you have competitive advantages over SNFs.
Yeah. I can't necessarily speak to the seller and why they would sell between 3 and 5, but I can say that we've done 23 acquisitions, and generally they've fallen within that, and the average has fallen within that. I think from a valuation, from our perspective, what we can do with our shared services model and our overall platform obviously makes those very valuable to us, but that's ultimately where it is. As far as competition from an institutional perspective, we are primarily private pay. Seniors are increasingly wanting care within their home as opposed to being in an institution. Obviously, we feel that gives us an advantage over institutional care, and the one-on-one care that we can provide to seniors.
Of your growth, how much of that is organic versus acquiring?
Yeah. Historically, our public filings show this, the majority has been acquisition-related. That being said, especially within the last 12 months, we've made quite a bit of investment in focusing on organic growth hence, what we've talked about with focusing both on same location, same region, expansion of service lines is a focus going forward, we're currently making investments to try to increase growth from an organic perspective. Yeah.
I just had a follow-up on that. Correct me if I'm wrong. It sounds like most of your growth will come from acquisitions, right? It almost sounds like you're paying three to five, meaning it's a seller that has scale, that doesn't really demand buying multiple, so to speak. Does that all make sense? When it comes to the strategy, if most of it's coming from acquisitions, is the game plan there, you get to a big enough size where eventually the operating leverage comes from the economies of scale and, you know, dot the line. Is it also a combination of that as well as trying to figure out, okay, how can we get more of that organic growth and with those economies of scale to help leverage?
It's both. Yeah. It's both. I think if one of the slides that I had shown near the end there showed the increasing operating leverage that was with primarily acquisition-related growth. Purely just with acquisition growth, we do see that leverage increasing, which is a benefit to us and our shareholders. That being said, on top of that, I think the focus on organic growth trying to grow organically will just further enhance results and margin for us. Okay.
During COVID, I think you guys accelerated [Audio distortion]
We took a break near the end of 2021. In 2021, we had five acquisitions. Just with the nature of the markets and a focus, really, I would say on just focusing on our current operations. We took a break, and entered back into the M&A space in mid-2024. I think from a learnings perspective, and we highlight growth is a priority, but disciplined and prudent growth is the biggest priority for us. We do have the acquisition capacity in our debt. We have cash flow, but we're going to do it in a way that makes sense for the company in the markets where we already operate and are financially attractive to us.
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If we talk about the challenges of the business, historically, caregiver availability has always been a challenge. Definitely was more of a challenge in the COVID years and has improved significantly since. That being said, it'll always be probably our biggest challenge. We've invested in both the recruitment and the retention side. Just from a human resources perspective, focusing on recruitment is in addition to technology, and then also retention, ensuring our caregivers are happy, that they're getting the amount of hours that they want, that they're being properly trained and being rewarded properly. It's a big focus of the company. Go ahead.
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Care management?
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Its meant to be revenue drivers, care management specifically, we added an individual to our leadership team earlier this year, with the focus on building that business going forward.
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Yeah. We can't speak to the specific financial implications, and we're only four months in, but we expect it to be a big part of the business going forward. Yes. Go ahead.
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No. We don't provide guidance. Obviously, you can do the math on what 5%-10% would do for us. We're trying to maximize it. We're not putting numbers on it, but we're trying to maximize it to the extent we can.
On the M&A front, there are some larger deals to scale this business quicker. Do you have basic plans on sort of three- five when you consider doing that?
Our acquisitions historically have ranged as low as CAD 1 million or even less in revenue, up to CAD 5 million. Most of them are within the CAD 2 million-CAD 3 million range. We like that. For one reason, that's where the majority of these businesses are across the country. It also reduces our risk by not adding any one too large business to our platform. That being said, if we look at opportunities as they arise, and if one made sense to shareholders, we would consider it.
I really like the centralized model. I would ask, I know that the company always looks for improving the markets. How do you improve the markets with these changes? [Audio distortion]
Yeah. I think the biggest way that we do it is by adding the platform that we talked about with shared services. We also look at pricing and some businesses we see are charging prices less than market. We'll look at all of those factors. We have a team that's experienced in it. I would say the biggest way to do that is by implementing our shared services model. Okay.
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Yeah. I don't have an average age. The majority of our customers, clients would be over that 65 age. The majority of them would be dealing with some form of dementia. Our caregivers are trained, and it's a significant focus to have training to deal with dementia-related clients.
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Yeah, dementia or dementia-related service. Yes. Yep. Okay. I think our time may be up. Okay. I'm around and happy to talk to anyone if they'd like to afterwards. Thank you