On Thursday, Bird Construction (TSX:BDT) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.
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The full earnings call is available at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/8p9ojtak
Summary
Bird Construction reported strong financial performance with a 9.2% year-over-year growth in construction revenue, stable margins, and improved adjusted earnings.
The company announced two major strategic partnerships: one with Martin Falls First Nation and another with Bell AI Fabric, aimed at enhancing infrastructure and data center projects respectively.
Bird Construction maintains a strong backlog of $5.4 billion, with a diverse portfolio across sectors including defense, energy, and infrastructure, supporting visibility into future revenue and margin progression.
The company reaffirmed its 2027 strategic plan targets, including an 8% adjusted EBITDA margin, supported by its balanced business model and robust backlog.
Management expressed confidence in the company’s capacity to manage growth through disciplined project selection and a strong team structure, ensuring execution capability for large-scale projects.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Bird Construction first quarter conference call and webcast. We will begin with Terry McKibben, President and Chief Executive Officer’s presentation which will be followed by a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, analysts will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded and at this time all participants are in a listen only mode. Before commencing with the conference call, the Company reminds those present that certain statements which are made express management’s expectations or estimates of future performance and thereby constitute forward looking information. Forward looking information is necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Management’s formal comments and responses to any questions you might ask may include forward looking information. Therefore, the Company cautions today’s participants that such forward looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual financial results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from the company’s estimated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward looking information. Forward looking information does not guarantee future performance. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward looking information, whether as a result of new information events or otherwise. In addition, the presentation today includes references to a number of financial measures which do not have standardized meanings under IFRS and may not be comparable with similar measures presented by other companies and are therefore considered non GAAP measures. I would like to turn the call over to Terry McKibben, President and CEO of Bird Construction.
Terry McKibben (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Good morning everyone and thank you for joining Bird’s first quarter 2026 conference call. With me today is Wayne Gingrich, Bird’s Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I’d like to acknowledge our teams across the country who recognized Safety Week last week and the National Day of Mourning on April 28th at Bird Safety is fundamental to how we operate. It’s about ensuring our people return home safely every day and it is inseparable from strong execution and operational discipline. Our focus on safety underpins consistent performance and supports long term strength of the business. Thank you to our teams for the continued commitment to working safely and to delivering excellence. Our business is aligned with some of the most significant long cycle investment programs in Canada’s history getting underway across the country including defense, nuclear and renewable energy, oil, gas, lng, health care and educational infrastructure, land and marine infrastructure, mining and community development and data centers. Distinct vertical platforms designed with purpose built teams strategically developed with the overall benefit to not be overweight in any particular sector subject to economic volatility. In summary, it’s an exciting time to be at Bird and we are built for this. Bird continues to carry significant backlog pending backlog and our teams are winning work across our target sectors that visibility supports disciplined planning and execution while advancing progress toward our 2027 strategic plan objectives. We’re starting to see a meaningful shift in how capital is approaching infrastructure investment in Canada. Recent federal actions including the Sovereign Wealth Fund, investment in Skilled Trades, the Major Projects Office 1 project 1 review agreements and reinforced NATO defense spending are moving policy into execution. Together, these measures support projects advancing into construction and we expect this to improve line of sight on project progression nationally. Third delivered a solid start in 2026 with strong revenue growth, stable margins and improved year over year adjusted earnings. As we discussed at year end we expect revenue growth and margin accretion to accelerate in the second quarter and second half of the year. This is still on track. First quarter results reflect solid execution, a diverse and growing backlog and clear cadence for margin accretion as our record work program converts. Construction revenue returned year over year growth of 9.2% while adjusted EBITDA increased 8.9% with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 4.7%. Adjusted earnings and adjusted EPS also increased year over year. The quarter reflected strong organic growth in buildings and year over year growth in infrastructure supported by both organic activity and and contributions from FRPD. Industrial revenue tracked as expected with a modest year over year decline ahead of an expected ramp up in the second quarter and second half. Backlog growth during the quarter reinforced performance trends as securements and conversions increased visibility and supported a favorable margin profile. Subsequent to quarter end we announced two transformational partnerships which I will discuss further in the following slides. We remain focused on disciplined project selection and continued progress towards a more balanced mix across industrial buildings and infrastructure. Our combined backlog continues to be a key strength. Robust demand drove 1.1 billion of backlog securements and conversions during the quarter resulting in record contracted backlog of 5.4 billion up 23.8% year over year pending backlog total 5.6 billion and this includes approximately 1.5 billion of MSA and other recurring revenue expected to be earned over the next five years through our industrial maintenance and environmental remediation businesses. A high proportion of our backlog is delivered under collaborative contract structures that align incentives and help mitigate cost escalation while supporting consistent margins. Overall backlog remains well balanced and reflects higher embedded margins than a year ago, supporting revenue and Margin progression through 2026 and 2027. Margin progression continues to be driven by our fundamentals revenue mix, increased exposure to more complex and higher margin sectors, strong execution and increased self perform content and operating leverage as volume scale in the quarter revenue mix reflected a higher proportion of buildings revenue which typically includes less self performed work. Our full year expectations are unchanged and we remain confident in achieving our 2027 strategic plan objective of an 8% adjusted EBITDA margin. Turning to execution, our focus remains on safe delivery and predictable performance and our major projects progressed as planned during the quarter. Large capital investment projects remain a core element of our strategy, providing long duration revenue visibility and opportunities to expand scope over time. Our approach is to establish early involvement, demonstrate a strong commitment to safe execution, and deepen our role as programs advance. Projects highlighted on this slide illustrate that model in practice and across several end markets. Through this model, LCLPs support margin progression, multi year growth and strategic capital deployment and remain an important contributor to to Progress against our 2027 strategic plan objectives and beyond we recently announced a majority Indigenous owned strategic partnership with Martin Falls First Nation through the formation of Panazi LP, focused on the collaborative delivery of community infrastructure that supports both near term priorities and longer term development objectives. Initial opportunities include improvements to the local airport, a solar facility with battery storage and a training center. Martin Falls traditional territory includes large areas within the Ring of Fire region in northern Ontario. The region is a significant nation building priority with Canada’s critical mineral strategy and hosts deposits of chromite, nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group metals critical to electric vehicle batteries and clean energy supply chains. Despite this, potential, development has historically been constrained by the absence of permanent all season infrastructure, particularly the access roads to remote First Nation communities and prospective industrial sites. Governments are now advancing infrastructure initiatives to address these constraints and improve access as part of a broader effort to unlock long term economic development. A number of agreements have advanced over the past year to support momentum on access and enabling infrastructure. Our partnership provides a structured framework to work with the community on infrastructure and readiness initiatives with strong emphasis on capacity building and local participation. Over the coming three to six months, we expect progress on planning design of access roads within the Martin Falls First Nation, with construction anticipated commence in 2027. Beyond access roads, the region will enable will require additional enabling infrastructure including transmission, telecommunications and digital networks to support future development. This early engagement positions Bird with potential visibility into a Significant multi year infrastructure program supporting demand beyond 2027 and backed by our partnership with the Martin Falls First Nation. This morning we announced a significant long term strategic partnership with Bell AI Fabric Bell Canada’s national National AI Infrastructure Platform. This partnership reflects the strength of our integrated self performed model and our ability to deliver mission critical infrastructure at scale underpinned by an increasingly differentiated electrical, mechanical, civil and system capability. As a leading specialty contractor under the agreement, Bert and Bell have established a structured basis from which to collaborate on future AI data center projects. This provides us with a meaningful pipeline opportunity in one of the fastest growing segments of the construction market while also giving us greater confidence in future demand. That long term view will enable us to continue investing constantly in our people supply chain relationships operational capacity required to support a transformational multi year build up program. Today, Bell has indicated line of sight to monetizing approximately 800 megawatts of power over time. The structure of the partnership is also designed to align incentives over the long term. As part of the agreement we will grant Bell warrants to acquire common shares which vest in connection with delivery milestones. This creates strong alignment between both organizations as we work together to build world class digital infrastructure nationwide. The data center environment remains a significant addressable market. Over the past five years, Bird has built a mission critical team and is well positioned to pursue large scale opportunities across Canada as reflected in this morning’s Strategic Partnership announcement with Bell. Overall, this partnership reinforces our position as the partner of choice for Canada’s largest and most complex infrastructure projects. The first project under the long term Strategic partnership with Bell AI fabric is a 300 megawatt data center announced in March in the rural municipality of Sherwood, Saskatchewan. This facility represents Bell’s largest ever investment in Saskatchewan and will be Canada’s largest purpose built AI data center. The first phase is expected to come online in the first half of 2027. Bird has been selected as the lead Construction manager for the Sherwood facility. Building on our deep roots in Saskatchewan. Since our founding In Wuxia in 1920, we have contributed to projects that generations of residents rely on every day. From hospitals and schools to industrial military facilities, energy assets and potash operations. That long standing present matters because projects of this scale and importance require more than technical capability. They require trusted relationships, regional knowledge and a proven ability to deliver in partnerships with communities and stakeholders. A core part of our commitment is our approach to Indigenous engagement not just at Sherwood, but at other critical projects like the Panazi eliminated partnership in the Ring of Fire. We believe that meaningful partnerships are built through action accountability and measurable outcomes. That includes creating opportunities for indigenous employment, procurement, training and long term community participation. We’re proud to have maintained Partnership accreditation in indigenous relations since 2013 and in 2024 we achieved the PEAR Silver Certification, a recognition that reflects years of sustained effort and continuous improvement. As we move forward with the Sherwood Project alongside Bell and our other project partners, we will focus on local and indigenous involvement throughout the life of the project. The Sherwood Project and our other partnerships are not simply about delivering infrastructure, they are about creating durable economic benefits and strengthening communities. In addition to these recent announcements, we continue to see significant depth across birds end markets. Clients are increasingly prioritizing safety, performance, delivery, certainty, self perform capability and proven execution. As a reference, the opportunity set remains broad across defense, nuclear and renewable energy, oil, gas and lng, healthcare and educational infrastructure, land and marine infrastructure, mining and community development and data centers. We are now seeing acceleration in spending in real time and we expect project flow to continue as policy commitments increasingly move to execution. Many programs are anchored in long term national priorities tied to energy security, supply chain resilience, geopolitical considerations supporting multi year construction programs with high barriers to entry due to complexity and certification requirements. Looking ahead, we remain confident in our progress towards the objectives outlined in our 2027 strategic plan. The fundamentals underpinning the plan have been in place for several years and have continued to strengthen since we formally laid out the strategy in 2024. Performance over the 2022-2024 strategic …
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