CAE - Q1 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the CAE first quarter conference call. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Andrew Arnovitz. You may now proceed, Mr. Arnovitz.

Andrew Arnovitz (SVP, Investor Relations and Enterprise Risk Management)

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that today's remarks, including management's outlook and answers to questions, contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent our expectations as of today, August 9, 2023, and accordingly are subject to change. Such statements are based on assumptions that may not materialize and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially, and listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. A description of the risk factors and assumptions that may affect future results is contained in CAE's annual MD&A, available on our corporate website and in our filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators on SEDAR and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR. On the call with me this afternoon is Marc Parent, CAE's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Sonya Branco, our Chief Financial Officer, is unfortunately under the weather today, so I'll be covering off her remarks. Also on hand with us is Constantino Malatesta, our Corporate Controller. After remarks from Mark and me, we'll open the call to questions from financial analysts, and at the conclusion of that segment, we'll open the line to members of the media. Let me now turn the call over to Marc.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Thank you, Andrew. Good afternoon to everyone joining us on the call. We're off to a strong start to the fiscal year, with first quarter results driven by double-digit year-over-year growth in Civil, continued strengthening and transformation in Defense, and increased profitability in Healthcare. We made excellent progress to secure CAE's future growth with over $1 billion in total order intake for a record $11.2 billion backlog. We also further bolstered our financial position, and we're on track to meet our leverage target by mid-fiscal year. In Civil, our markets are thriving, and we're addressing a greater share of our customers' training and operational needs, as evidenced by our long-term training services agreements that now include nearly every major U.S. airline.

We booked $730 million of orders with customers worldwide for a 1.35 times book-to-sales ratio, including 22 full-flight simulator sales and a range of multiyear training contracts in commercial and business aviation. We delivered 6 full-flight simulators during the quarter, and average training center utilization was 77%, up from 71% last year. As this increase suggests, commercial and business aviation training demand was strong across all regions, particularly as customers got their required training sessions done ahead of the busy summer travel period. While airlines in Asia Pacific are still not yet back to full capacity on international routes, they continue to make rapid progress to restore their operations to 2019 levels and beyond.

During a recent Paris Air Show, several of our airline partners inked sizable aircraft orders to be able to execute on their growth plans, and we're excited to be in a position to serve their needs over the next several years. Also significant here during the air show was our announcement of a strategic alliance with Boeing, whereby CAE will become a Boeing-authorized training provider and the first to offer its competency-based training and assessment curriculum. With this arrangement, Boeing and CAE will expand accessibility to high-quality, innovative flight training to commercial aviation customers worldwide. We're immensely proud of this collaboration with Boeing, first and foremost in our mission to advance safety by bringing forth solutions that will revolutionize the future of training. As you can imagine, we welcome any and all opportunities to help advance the industry forward.

We also used the occasion of the Paris Air Show to release our 2023 aviation talent forecast, which anticipates the global need for 1.3 million new aviation professionals to join the industry as pilots, aircraft maintenance technicians, and cabin crew over the next 10 years to support the expected growth of the commercial and business aviation markets. In Defense, performance was in line with our expectations, and we're making excellent progress to transform our business, as particularly demonstrated by our recent large strategic program wins and a record $5.4 billion Defense backlog. These involve larger and more profitable opportunities that we now have the capabilities to bid and win.

This quarter, we booked the orders across multiple, multiple domains for training and mission support solutions, with the funded portion of orders valued at $238 billion for 0.5x book-to-sales. Given the large size and number of major program wins in the U.S. this quarter, the unfunded portion of contracts awarded was even more significant at more than 3x the funded portion. In total, these represent an additional $779 million contribution to adjusted backlog. Notable awards include the contract we announced in May to support FWFTSS at Fort Novosel, Alabama, and the U.S. Air Force IFTR contract for initial helicopter flight training out of our existing training center in Dothan, Alabama.

Both programs involve delivering simulation and training solutions that are very similar to what we offer in commercial aviation, except of course, for Defense customers instead of airlines. Defense was recently awarded a contract in the land domain that is critical to the U.S. Army's mission, namely phase two of their rapid prototyping effort, supporting the Soldier Virtual Trainer program for the replacement of 800+ legacy training systems.

Since the end of the quarter, Defense has continued to leverage CAE's Dothan Training Center and our industry's leading business aviation training expertise to provide mission-critical solutions for the U.S. Army, with a contract for simulation-based training for the Army's key next-generation ISR system, called HADES, meaning the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System, which is based on the Bombardier Global 6500 business jet, a platform for which we are the global authorized training provider in civil aviation. At the end of July, the government of Canada announced the selection of Skyline, a partnership between CAE and KF Aerospace, as the preferred bidder for the Future Aircrew Training program, or FACT, to provide next-generation pilot training and aircrew training for the Royal Canadian Air Force. This is a major development for CAE and underscores my excitement for our future in this space.

We're now entering discussions with the Canadian government and our partners, and the award is anticipated in 2024. In context of securing CAE's future growth, we expect the FACT program to become our largest contract win to date, representing a multibillion-dollar generational training opportunity that will ensure work for CAE over the next quarter century. Turning now to Healthcare. We continued to gain share in the simulation market, delivering above-market revenue growth and higher profitability with our dynamic team and highly innovative solutions. We had notable contract awards for our learning space center management solution for the Thomas F. Frist Jr. College of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, and a contract from the University of North Dakota for a multi-sim, sim sale to outfit their simulation and motion mobile education system.

By leveraging our technology and subject matter expertise, Healthcare delivered or entered an agreement with Abbott Laboratories to develop a training program to support the launch of a new commercial pacemaker. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Andrew, who will provide additional details about our financial performance. Andrew?

Andrew Arnovitz (SVP, Investor Relations and Enterprise Risk Management)

Thanks, Marc. Consolidated revenue of $1.05 billion was 13% higher compared to the first quarter last year, and adjusted segment operating income was $145.1 million, compared to $60.9 million in the first quarter last year. Our quarterly adjusted EPS was $0.24, compared to $0.06 in the first quarter last year, which included a $0.07 negative EPS impact from contract profit adjustments in Defense. We incurred restructuring, integration, and acquisition costs of $15 million during the quarter, relating mostly to the Air Center acquisition. Net cash from operating activities this quarter was negative $49.3 million, compared to negative $162.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2023.

Free cash flow was negative $104.9 million, compared to negative $182.4 million in the first quarter last year. The increase was mainly due to higher cash provided by operating activities and a lower investment in non-cash working capital. Free cash flow performance in the quarter was in line with our expectations and outlook. We usually see a higher investment in non-cash working capital accounts in the first half of the fiscal year, as in previous years, we expect a portion of this to reverse in the second half. We continue to target 100% conversion of adjusted net income to free cash flow for the year.

Capital expenditures totaled $90.6 million this quarter, with approximately 60% invested in growth, to specifically add capacity to our Civil global training network to deliver on our long-term training contracts that are in our backlogs. Income tax expense this quarter was $8.2 million, for an effective tax rate of 11%. The adjusted effective income tax rate was 13%, which includes a one-time favorable impact to income tax expense from a tax court decision related to the SADE program. This, by the way, was offset by a one-time negative impact from higher interest expense related to the very same matter. As such, net finance expense this quarter amounted to $54.1 million, which is up from $51.4 million in the preceding quarter and $36.2 million in the first quarter last year.

The increased finance expense relative to both prior periods mainly reflects the impact of higher interest rates on our variable rate debt instruments and also the aforementioned tax court decision. Our net debt position at the end of the quarter was approximately $3.2 billion, for a net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 3.22 times at the end of the quarter. With this continued strengthening of our financial position, we're on track to meet our expected leverage ratio of about 3 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA by the middle of the fiscal year. Now turning to our segmented performance.

In Civil, first quarter revenue was up 12% to $540.3 million compared to the first quarter last year. Adjusted segment operating income was up 37% to $119 million versus the first quarter last year, for a margin of 22%. As we expected, we're seeing the benefit of some mix improvements in the quarter, with a greater proportion of revenue coming from training services overall. Compared to Q1 last year, we had higher training utilization and increased volume from some of the recently deployed simulators in our network. This was partially offset by lower simulator deliveries, which, as we previously indicated in our outlook, are profiled more to the back half of the fiscal year. In Defense, first quarter performance was in line with our expectations and outlook for the fiscal year.

We generated revenue of $471.7 million, which is up 14% over Q1 last year. Adjusted segment operating income was $24.3 million for the quarter, giving us an adjusted segment operating income margin of 5.2%. This compares to a loss of $21.2 million in the first quarter last year. Defense revenue growth stems mainly from a higher level of activity on programs, while the higher adjusted segment operating income reflects the adjustments that we made last year, and also the ongoing progress we've been making to execute on legacy contracts and mitigate costs, as well as the effects of a gradually easing of economic headwinds. In Healthcare, first quarter revenue was $42.4 million, up from $39.6 million in Q1 last year.

Adjusted segment operating income was CAD 1.8 million in the quarter for an adjusted segment operating income margin of 4.2%, which is up quite nicely from Q1 last year. With that, I'll ask Mark to discuss the way forward.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Thanks, Andrew. Our outlook continues to be bullish for the fiscal year and beyond. We're delivering tangible success in driving strong order flow with our significant and growing backlog. Our customers in each of our markets have a greater need for innovative training and operational support solutions to succeed in ever more complex environments. As we look into the period ahead, we continue to be highly encouraged by the secular tailwinds in all segments and the growth that we expect to deliver by harnessing our global market technology leadership and the power of one CAE. In Civil, if you've traveled at all over the last few months, you'll know firsthand that demand for air travel is as strong as ever.

For the first quarter of this calendar year alone, worldwide passenger traffic increased by 58% compared to last year, and in the United States, the TSA reported a new daily record for passenger screening at the end of June. Yet, not all of our airline customers are back to their 2019 operating levels, specifically in Asia, where international traffic is still lagging on nearly 75% of pre-pandemic activity. We see significant demand ahead for air travel in the remainder of the cyclical recovery and beyond. We're proud to be the world's largest provider of Civil Aviation training services, and we're on track this year to deliver approximately 1.2 million hours of training in our broad global network of training centers.

No matter where you fly, chances are that your pilot or first officer has been trained in a flight simulator designed and built by CAE or in one of our training centers around the world. Our highly differentiated solutions in the aviation market, including the most extensive global training network, world-leading simulation products, unique technology and software solutions, and strength in training partnerships with operators and OEMs, positions us very well for the long term. We expect the pace of change in aviation to be substantial over the next few years. The demand for trained aviation professionals is greater than ever and continues to be driven by air traffic growth, personnel require retirements, and by the number of new aircraft deliveries. Consider the fact that over half the commercial and business pilots who will be active a decade from now, have yet to even begin their training.

These growth dynamics in a highly regulated market, together with our ability to win a bigger share of our customers' training needs, are indeed very significant drivers for CAE. Given that context, we expect our Civil business to continue growing at above market rate for the foreseeable future. In fiscal 2024, we maintain our expectations for low to mid-teen % annual growth in Civil adjusted segment operating income. With a higher level of flying activity this summer, especially in Europe, we also continue to expect a more typical seasonal pattern for training demand this fiscal year, weighted more heavily to the second half. Additionally, we still plan for about three-quarters of our approximately 50 annual full-flight simulator deliveries to occur in the second half.

Turning to Defense, we expect to continue executing on our multi-year transformation, which we expect to culminate in a substantially bigger and more profitable business. As we've shown with the recent F-FSTSS and Hades wins with the U.S. Army, we're uniquely positioned to leverage the full range of CAE's Civil aviation training expertise in the Defense market. In fact, the solutions that we're providing on these two contracts are very similar to what we deliver to our airline and business jet customers. We're in a very good position with our recent strategic and generational wins, record $5.4 billion adjusted backlog, $8.8 billion pipeline of bids and proposals outstanding, and continued order momentum. To me, these are all positive signs of the transformation that is underway.

As we look to the remainder of fiscal 2024, we continue to expect Defense to renew its backlog with larger and more profitable programs, whilst simultaneously working its way through a critical mass of lower-margin legacy contracts. We're highly focused on execution. For the fiscal year, we expect Defense to drive continued year-over-year quarterly performance improvements with a heavier weighting to the second half, consistent with its historical seasonality. In Healthcare, simulation-based training is one of the most effective ways to prepare Healthcare practitioners for the moments that matter, treating patients, handling critical situations, and enhancing patient safety. We're on a path to accelerate value creation by continuing to gain share in the simulation and training market and driving top and bottom-line growth. We have a very strong team. I expect to see Healthcare's positive momentum continue.

In summary, I continue to be excited about the future, and we're on track to our targeted 3-year EPS compound growth rate in the mid-20% range. I'm very pleased with the important progress we've made in the first quarter and expect this to continue for the fiscal year and beyond. With that, I thank you for your attention, and we're now ready to answer your questions.

Andrew Arnovitz (SVP, Investor Relations and Enterprise Risk Management)

Thanks, Mark. Operator, we'll now open the line to members of the analyst community for questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. If you are an analyst and would like to register a question, please press the one-four on your telephone. You will hear a three-tone prompt to acknowledge your request. If your question has been answered and you would like to withdraw your registration, please press the one followed by the three. One moment, please, for the first question. Our first question comes from Konark Gupta with Scotiabank. Please proceed.

Konark Gupta (Equity Research Analyst)

Thanks, operator. Good afternoon, everyone.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Yeah, hi.

Konark Gupta (Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, good afternoon. just first question on the Defense contract, Marc, you mentioned about a couple of these big wins recently. They had very similar attributes to airline training contracts. Can you explain us what the similarities are? Is it in respect of margin profiles, in terms of execution, or customer quality? Any background on that, please?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Well, I think there are elements of all that. Let me just illustrate a little bit. If you think about, first of all, let me just go back a step to the story, which, which I really love and excited about, is what we're doing in Lower Alabama. That's, you know, big training base for the U.S. Army, of course, Fort Novastell, and right down the road is our training center in Dothan, Alabama. I go back to that, you know, a few years ago, as you'll remember, that in 2015, we invested to create a turnkey training facility, where we put, you know, a green field, because literally it was a peanut field when we set it up.

We put buildings there, we put simulators, we bought aircraft, and we won the contract to train all of the U.S. Army's fixed-wing pilots. Recently, this year, we won the recompete after that, after seven years. That's good. We're good for another seven years there. And then, it was a strong win, you know, so basically, it credence to kind of the expectations we have with regards to margin expectations that we set out there in the market. Think about what we're doing now. The recent contract that we've won, let me start by just the contract that we won with IFTR. IFTR is now with the Air Force, U.S. Air Force now. We've won the contract to train all of their rotor wheel wing pilots, and we'll be doing that at our facility at Dothan.

You can well imagine now the synergy, synergistic benefits of using our existing facilities, you know, whether it be hangars, personnel, management, all that. The synergy, benefits, benefit of now throwing more training at the same facility. That's one example. Now, think about the next one. I talked about Hades contract with the U.S. Army, a different contracting authority, by the way, different customer, part of the U.S. Army. That's exciting in itself. What we're going to be doing here, this is the training is for a Global 6500 business aircraft, where we've, we do the simulators, we're the authorized training provider for Bombardier customers of that aircraft. We are basically going to put...

Now, we're, we're basically going to put a Global 6500 simulator in Dothan, Alabama, and we, we're going to be now selling training, okay, to the U.S. Army, you know, for literally years to come. Again, leveraging our assets, leveraging what is a commercial simulator, you know, built here in Montreal, you can expect that the kind of, you know, margin profile that we made, because we are putting our assets there, that we can derive a better margin because, it, it's, you know, basically, we are basically furnishing the assets. In all of this, it's more business, you know, using this quasi-same asset.

Konark Gupta (Equity Research Analyst)

That, that's very good, Mark. Thanks so much. If I can just quickly follow up. Some of your peers have publicly mentioned about how they want to kind of move away from fixed price contracts and defense, and obviously, you guys and a lot of other guys are trying to, you know, cover the cost inflation, and talking to customers. Any updates on, on those fronts? How, how, how are you positioning on the new contract wins with respect to from fixed price or cost plus?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Yeah, I think the first thing I would tell you is, you know, our bid discipline is very stringent. You know, there's no secret that, and we talked about, you know, in the past year, that, you know, we executed contracts, and we still have some in our backlog, that were executed at a time, that were bid at the time where that would be a little hyperinflation or quasi-hyperinflation, part shortages, things like that. You can expect that as we bid now, especially on a fixed firm price contract, we're either going to have escalation criteria that protects us for quasi-any scenario, or we will basically, you know, execute it with, you know, having so many elements as passthroughs.

Okay. No, thanks. Thanks so much, Nicola. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Noah Poponak with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.

Noah Poponak (Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, good afternoon, guys.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Good afternoon, Noah.

Noah Poponak (Equity Research Analyst)

Marc, how, how should we be thinking about the top line growth rate Civil can see in, into the medium term? You know, you've alluded to not having yet recovered all the pre-pandemic, and, and you have some exposure to geographies that are- that have been a little slower to recover. Then once we kinda click back into 6%-7% air traffic growth, you're taking market share, you're training a lot of new pilots, you're growing a software business that's become organic. I mean, do we see multiple years beyond this year of continued double-digit organic revenue growth from Civil?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Well, I don't know, if I can, go out there and say double digits, but I can tell you, I see very, very good years for civil aviation for years to come. Absolutely.

Noah Poponak (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. On the margin in the segment, I, I wondered if you could just spend a second on the shape of the year, because it seems like given the full year target and the first quarter being the same number, the seasonality this year is maybe a little different than in the past. Is that down sequentially and then higher in the back half, or just anything you could share on the shape of the year in the Civil margin?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Well, look, I tell you that, as you said in your question, it's Q1, so we won't get ahead of ourselves. Although, you know, I, I, I'm obviously very, very pleased, with the results that we have in our Civil business in Q1, as in all of our businesses, one. So look, yeah, to, to repeating, again, what I said, and, and you've emphasized again in the question, though, is that we're, we're in a more kind of, let's call it, normal kind of flying activity, now, meaning that, you know, anybody who goes to the airport sees it, right? That airplanes are full and flights are full.

What you're seeing is, you know, when, when all the airlines are flying and having trouble meeting the demands for that's out there, you know, we're seeing less training, and that's across commercial and business aviation in the summer, as we always do in a more normal environment. What I would tell you, though, is the bookings and towards the third and fourth quarter are strong and indicative of it's gonna be another good year, but, you know, I'm not gonna get ahead of myself with Q1 here.

Noah Poponak (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Kevin Chang with CIBC. Please proceed.

Kevin Chang (Equity Research Analyst)

Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe just following up on, on some of the color you provided, Conark there, on, on some of these recent Defense wins, which, which look to be, you know, highly accretive. You get to leverage some of the fixed assets you already have in place. Does that strategically change how you think about, you know, I guess, the capital allocation in Defense? I guess historically, I've thought of that as being more of an asset-light business, where your partner typically puts in the capital, but it seems like you're having some wins here where, where you've deployed capital, and now you can leverage those fixed costs. Is there a bit of a change in thinking how you think about deploying capital into this, into this segment?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Not really. No, I think, look, we've done this before. As I was saying at the outset of the question of Konark's, we deployed a few years ago, our first facility in Lower Alabama, and at that time, we had 0% market share with the U.S. Army. Today, I would tell you we have a very high market share with it in both rotary and fixed wing contracts with the U.S. Army. That's been a very, very attractive opportunity and will be literally for years and years to come. Look, it depends on the opportunity. What you're seeing here is, is really.

You know, we, we use the term, and I use the term a lot, one CAE, and that applies to teamwork, but it also applies to how we go to market in leveraging, you know, our advantages, whether it be in Civil, on Defense or Defense on Civil. When you think about it, really, if you, if you look at the model, I go back to the Hades model, this, where we're putting a global 6,500 simulator and we're selling training to this new part of the U.S. Army, we're doing it at mark, at, you know, at margin expectations there that are going to be, the kind of margins that, you know, we're more used to in Civil.

You know, I, I think so it doesn't really change anything with regards to how we will market. It depends on the opportunity. I mean, you've seen in, in Civil, the kind of incremental returns that we get in training, and if we're deploying assets like that for this kind of opportunity, expect the kind of, the same, the same kind of return profile, which is part and parcel of the outlook that we've given for improving margins in, in Defense, you know, per the outlook that we've given.

Kevin Chang (Equity Research Analyst)

That's helpful. Maybe just my second question, maybe just sticking with Defense. You know, I think if I go back to your last earnings call, you talked about some of these problem contracts and those broadly running off by the end of this fiscal year, which gave you that visibility to inflect into double-digit SOY margins, you know, maybe sometime in fiscal 2025. Just an update there in terms of how that run off is progressing. Is that still the broad timeline we should be thinking about in terms of margin progression in Defense this year and into next year?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Yeah, well, I, I think the first thing I'll, I'll talk about, I'll, I'll emphasize is, you know, those contracts that, that we talked about, you know, as being lower margin profile, in some cases, very low margin, is we're talking about a very small number of contracts, relatively speaking, compared to the hundreds of contracts that we execute at any given quarter in Defense. We're steadily closing out that work. We have been steadily closing out those some of those programs or advanced the progress we've made on those programs in recent quarters, again, this quarter. I would tell you, look, we're, we're, we're basically where we thought we would be, and we expected to be. We're continuing to work through our existing backlog. We're making very good progress as planned.

And even more importantly, as we've answered the previous question, we're winning new profitable business. With the bid discipline and the execution discipline, I fully expect to be able to execute those contracts at the margins at which we bid them, which again, are accretive to margin expectations that we've communicated. If I'm looking at the year, I mean, look, it takes time for these new contracts to work themselves through. I, as we've said before, we expect, you know, second half performance in Defense to step up, both in, in margin and absolute levels. I, I, I would expect Q2 to, to look similar to Q1, and, you know, in all, in, in, in broad terms, and, you know, again, things to step up in the second quarter.

As we expected, as we've communicated, a bigger inflection in margins next fiscal year.

James McGerrigle (Managing Director in Equity Research)

Thank you for the color. Congrats on a solid start for the fiscal year.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from James McGerrigle with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed.

James McGerrigle (Managing Director in Equity Research)

Hey, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my question.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Of course. Good afternoon.

James McGerrigle (Managing Director in Equity Research)

Yeah, I just wanted to ask a question on the Civil segment and, you know, kind of the impact on potential slowdown in the economy. I, I know pilot training is regulated and that, you know, travel demand is extremely strong right now. You know, would past recessions be a good indicator of, you know, what we could potentially expect on the Civil side of the business if the economy potentially slowed? Do you think some of those changes, you know, that you've made during the pandemic, some of the M&A that you did during the pandemic, kind of changes the way you think the Civil business would perform in the event of a, of a potential slowdown?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Well, look, without without being, appeared to be Pollyanna here, you know, all I see out there is unmet demand. I'm not seeing any slight of slowdown in terms of, level of training activity, in, in our forecast, either in, in commercial or business aviation training. I don't want to really hype, you know, be you know, be, hypothetic about the future. You know, look, just give you an anecdotal evidence. Look, we're ramping up to satisfy the demand. As you've seen, we deployed, I think, 23 full-flight simulators last year in both Civil and, well, across Civil. We've opened up new training centers. You know, I'm the CEO, and I got, anecdotally, this doesn't happen every day, but just give you an idea.

I got 2 text messages today during board meetings from people that I know, looking for training slots. Obviously, if they're calling me, it's because, you know, they're senior people that have flight departments or whatever. They're calling me to say, "Can you help me out?" It's really, you know, if we have slots, we're filling them. I'm not seeing any signs of, you know, basically slow down. There are a lot of people out there that I've talked to that actually would welcome a little bit so they could catch up.

James McGerrigle (Managing Director in Equity Research)

Then another, follow-up I had was on, you know, how your team is viewing some of the organic opportunities or, you know, potentially M&A in the current environment. Obviously, you know, you just said demand has been very, very strong right now, we're seeing that in the results. Is this kind of creating any opportunities for additional organic investment or for M&A, you know, as we start to look into fiscal 2025? You know, if so, how would you kind of prioritize this investment spend, especially given some of the progress you're making on your balance sheet targets?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Well, look, I, I would tell you that there's maybe a question depends on timing. Right now, as we said before, our, our, our priority has been on deleveraging, and we're well on down on the track that we've said to reach our deleveraging target this year. We've made excellent progress. I'm very happy to see down to 3.2 this quarter, and I'm pretty confident, no, no big risk on us achieving our leverage target of 3 times mid-year. Look, that, that opens up possibilities for us in terms of capital allocation. Look, I think in terms of M&A, I'll say it again, there's nothing that we need to buy, okay? We have everything we have.

However, if there's opportunities out there, we're always looking, obviously, but, you know, think about some of the acquisitions we made that would be accretive to the growth that we have, consolidate our picture. I mean, there's not a lot of people that can bring the amount of synergy that we can bring to an acquisition. I don't, you know, I wouldn't be looking for anything in the short term. I mean, what we will do is continue to deploy assets in line with the market. You've seen us do that, and again, just highlighting what we just said in the previous call.

If you have a, you know, if you've seen some of the incremental returns that we're making out of both the commercial and business aviation training simulators that we put in the market, you know, I think, I think you would be pleased for us to deliver that capital. As, as we said before, we don't deploy that capital unless we have long-term contracts to back them up. Look, I think we'll continue to look for a balanced cap, allocation of approach from us.

Cameron Dirkson (Equity Research Analyst)

Awesome. I appreciate you taking the time, and I'll turn the line over. Thank you.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Tim James with TD Securities. Please proceed.

Tim James (Equity Research Analyst)

Well, thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Wondering first, Marc, the, the award, the Boeing Authorized Training Provider agreement, I, I think, seems to me like quite a, quite an interesting kind of position to be taking on with Boeing. As we look, you know, about training into the future, I'm just wondering if you could talk about what that agreement means to CAE and, and, and to the future, of, of commercial training and the company's positioning.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Well, I think it's great. I mean, look, to me, I couldn't be, as I said, I couldn't be more proud of the partnership we're doing with Boeing here. What this is about, you know, it's about safety. It's about safety. You couldn't be more proud of the fact that the great co- you know, company that is Boeing, is basically entrusting us to deliver the training, you know, their, their new competency-based training curriculum to the airlines of which they sell aircraft. This is a contract that, that is basically an umbrella contract covering, covering the world, if like. We're launching in India, we'll be delivering the competency-based, you know, training for Boeing in India.

As you know, there's a lot of airplanes being sold in India, so that's going to be a good business. Again, it's about safety here, this long-term training agreement, and, you know, we're very proud of it, obviously.

Tim James (Equity Research Analyst)

Is it maybe if I could just follow on to that question. Is it about scale for Boeing, helping them roll out their competency-based training to a bigger footprint through your assistance, or is it about Boeing, you know, wanting to be aligned with CAE because of the safety aspect of it, or is it both?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Look, I think it's Boeing recognizing who CAE is. You know, what we do at CAE is simulation training aircraft. Nobody, you know, we'll do 1.2 million hours of training this year. You can well imagine that the technology we bring to bear, the insights we bring to bear based on just the sheer amount of training that we do. You, you're right. Part of it is like, yeah, we're leveraging the installations that we have around the world. You know, they basically have, you know, facilities there with simulators there, that we get, that are either there or we can deploy to deliver the training delivered using our curriculum.

We're able to, as well, provide objective, data-based insights as to how well, for example, the curriculum has been assimilated so that it's, it's, you know, around the world, you know, they're selecting CAE to be able to make sure that safety remains paramount. In fact, you know, we're getting, we're basically going to the next level of safety here. Again, leveraging data and data analytics-based insights.

Tim James (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, that's really helpful. Just my last question, rather broad question, but, and, and I guess I'm thinking more about the Civil side of the business. I mean, your, your competitive position is, is, is, is quite something, is very, very good. Are you seeing any changes in the competitive environment? I mean, you know, the outlook is very strong. You're generating good results, the momentum is there. Is it attracting any moves on the competitive front that you're noting or are worth calling out?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

No, look, I, I don't see a difference. I would tell you that, certainly before I concentrate on customers and, and meeting customers' demands across our business, that's what I'm focused on, that's what we're focused on. You know, CAE, our mantra is not to satisfy customers, to delight customers. What we do see is, you've seen it, it's like airlines are much more amenable to outsourcing because we provide them the only real global, you know, alternative, globally based alternative to be able to outsource the training and deliver training that is, you know, to the level that an airline would provide, leveraging not only regulatory meeting regulatory requirements, but requirements of the airlines themselves, their standard operating procedures, as an example.

I'll just point to, you know, the fact that, six out of the top seven U.S. airlines now are now training within our network. that's versus 0 before the pandemic You see this now, do a, deal for training, Aegean, the largest Greek there, training with Qantas. I mean, these are marquee airlines. That's the dynamic that we see. The competitive regard, to me, I mean, look, I, I don't see any difference in the competitive environment from that standpoint.

Tim James (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, that's great. Thank you very much, Mark.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Cameron Dirkson with National Bank Financial. Please proceed.

Cameron Dirkson (Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, thanks. Good afternoon. Just a question on full-flight simulator orders, 22 in the quarter, obviously very strong. I just wonder if you can talk about the outlook for order activity there for the remainder of the year, because it does seem like you would be, you know, I know it's only one quarter, but very much on pace to exceed last year's total, which was also pretty strong.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

It's been a long time since we haven't had a question on the number of full-flight simulator deliveries like that. But look, I, I expect it to be elevated. Look, we've got 22 so far, you know, what, what we were always focused, Cameron, is maintaining our share, our leading share. And, you know, we're not gonna take every order if it, if it doesn't make sense. It has to be accretive to our expectations. But, you know, by and large, look, with the commanding market share that we have, and you well imagine that it's not a commodity game here. We've, we, we basically compete on the fact that, you know, again, our sims are gonna be out there for decades, and we're gonna be supporting them because that's what we do. So look, I would expect it to remain, yeah, remain elevated.

I, I said we'll deliver probably over 50 full-flight simulators for the year. I'm not gonna get ahead of myself for the demand, but I can tell you that the demand is still pretty... The demand out there in terms of what we see in the market is still pretty high.

Cameron Dirkson (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, great. That's good to hear. I just have a second question on the, the future air crew training contract, that you've been selected as preferred bidder for. Obviously, you know, a huge contract over, over a long period of time. You know, assuming that that contract actually gets awarded in 2024, I just wonder if you can talk a bit about how that kind of scales up. I mean, is that something where you'd start to see workflow in to CAE, you know, fairly quickly after contract award?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Well, I think the short answer is yes. Okay? It's going to last for quite a long time. I'm really talking a generational contract here. No exaggeration. You know, I, I'm pretty darn sure. I can tell you, I was in Moose Jaw just last Friday, with our team, and that's going to be a contract that we're gonna hire people that spend their whole careers on this contract. No exaggeration. I'm very proud of that, the fact that we're creating such an opportunity. I look, I can't go in, and I think you would understand. I'm not gonna go into specifics of contract, because now we've got to move from being selected to negotiate terms and, and, and get, get the contract signed, so can't go into details.

Look, this-- what I would tell you is that it's a meaningful expansion of the work that we do today. It will start to deliver fairly early because, you know, there's a lot of work to be done to prepare, new billings, new aircraft, new, a lot of new things, new simulators, but I won't get into absolute details right now.

Cameron Dirkson (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, fair enough. Thanks very much.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Kristine Liwag with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

Speaker 9

Great. Hey, good afternoon, guys. Mark, you know, the pilot shortage issue in the industry has been long-standing for the past few years now, and here we are. It seems like, you know, there's still tightness in the industry, and this could get worse, could get worse. Maybe a three-part question, and I apologize in advance. First, how far along is the industry in addressing this? Are we in the second inning, the seventh inning, or are we, like, spring training? Second, you know, when you talk to airline customers about their needs, what's the level of urgency that they have in trying to attract new pilots to the industry versus where they should be if they want to address the problem?

The third portion of this question would be: If the industry were to act with appropriate urgency and actions to fully address this issue, what does that look like for CAE?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Okay, a lot of questions here, but, yeah. Look, for your question on the baseball analogy, I think we're still in the early innings with customer market. That's the way I would characterize it. There's lots of room, lots of time to play this out. You know, of course, people are focused on the United States, but it's a global situation with different dynamics depending on where you are. I could tell you, there's lots of urgency amongst our customers out there, whether business aircraft, commercial airline customers, for sure. Lots, there's lots of urgency out there. You know, for us, you know, airlines are doing, you know, a lot to attract and retain pilots. You see it, you see it everywhere.

For us, look, you know, without putting a finer point on it, we just put out, as I was saying, you know, our aviation professionals forecast at Paris Air Show, and there's going to be a lot of, you know, pilots, a lot of air crews, a lot of maintenance technicians going to have to be trained over the next 10 years, and that's our business. That's what we do, and we're number 1 in the world at it. You know, I'm bullish, almost any, almost any scenario.

Speaker 9

Great. Then in terms of the actions that they take, if they actually take those, I mean, what does that mean for CAE? Could you-- would you need to open up new aviation training facilities? Can you size the market and the opportunity if they actually take that action today?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

We are doing it. I mean, you saw us, I think we launched, we launched 23 new simulators last year. I think we've either launched or broke ground on eight new simulator centers in the past few months. We're moving, and we'll continue to move in lockstep with demand. That's what we've always done, and that's what we'll continue to do. Again, I emphasize that if we're going to deploy that capacity, we're gonna do it with, it's not a question of, you know, that we're, we're gonna, like, build it, and it will come.

It will be, we could see that demand for years to come, and the contracts will be based on us being able to, you know, support that capacity profitably, in line with the expectations that we have for those segments.

Speaker 9

Great. Thank you, Mark.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Ron Epstein with Bank of America. Please proceed.

Speaker 10

Hi, good afternoon. This is Jordan on for Ron. I just had a question. On the about $800 million in unfunded backlog, could you guys give more color on when you expect that funding to come through?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Well, you know, when we talk about unfunded backlog, you really, what you're talking about is, and I'm sure you know, but it's, it's really if you win, let's say you win a seven-year contract in the United States, well, we'll only take the first year because that's the funded part of the U.S. government. You know, we fully expect the, the full contract to be realized, and I don't think I've ever seen a contract, certainly the U.S., on that definition, that has gone anywhere but that way. I'll give you an example. We were selected on the FSTSS contract.

That's a huge contract where, you know, we'll be deploying, you know, new, new simulators for, you know, all the U.S. Army training in Fort Rucker, or now Fort Noah Cell, which would be for us, like, a U.S., like, $455 million contract, and that'll deploy over 12 years. Right now, our order take is not $455 million. A very small, actually, a very small part of that is in our, is in our order intake, but of course, it'll be reflected in unfunded backlog.

Speaker 10

Got it. Thank you. Then, just one quick follow-up too. On the $8.8 billion that you guys have out for bid and proposals, what, what do you guys see as your competitive advantage for those proposals, to turn them into wins?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

I think that the first thing I would say is that we wouldn't bid them if we didn't think that we have a pretty good shot at winning them because, you know, if I take a Defense proposals, they're very costly and timely to bid, and they, they require a lot of manpower, expertise. You wanna make sure that your, your, your expertise, your, your resources are deployed on the ones that you think you can win. Look, I think that being. We expected to win them, or we have a pretty darn good shot. For us, beyond that, what are our advantages?

Well, scale, for sure, the technology, the market leadership that we have, and, and the, the fact that you look, you look at, you know, CAE in the market, we're really the only pure-play platform independent, which is important because that makes us objective defense simulation training company. That's very attractive in the market out there.

Speaker 10

Great. Thank you guys so much.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Thank you.

Andrew Arnovitz (SVP, Investor Relations and Enterprise Risk Management)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Michael Kypreos with Desjardins Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Speaker 11

Thanks, and good afternoon. Maybe on the Indigo order for 500 A320s, I know CAE currently has some exposure through the Indigo Cadet Pilot program. Maybe just when should we expect any Civil top line or simulator deliveries to be potentially impacted by this order? Is it possible that Indigo, the airline, kind of run through, run this training to be ready for when the fleet capacity actually starts to be delivered?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Well, I think we're very well exposed to that because, Indigo is-- we're partnered with Indigo, and we have been partners since the beginning, they launched the aircraft. It's not only on Ab Initio, but it's on all their simulator-based training, centers that they do. A very strong exposure to that. We're very, very happy to see, see that. I mean, Indigo, look at, they, they basically carry 50% of passengers, over 50% of passengers in India, and they fly to every airport in India. I know them well, great airline, and, you know, again, it's going to be very good for them. It's going to be very good for us.

Speaker 11

Thanks. That's great color. Maybe just on the India market in general, maybe some of the potential advantages that that has over Asia or China, where you can actually provide both on-premise training as well as the delivery of simulators.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Well, we have a number of training centers in India right now, in Bangalore, in the 2 centers in Delhi. Right off the bat, we have Ab Initio operations there as well, so we're well exposed on the ground in India right now.

Speaker 11

Perfect. That's great. Maybe just quickly, a quick one on Defense. Your margin came in slightly below sequentially at 3Q and 4Q of last year. Is that mostly due to seasonality, or was there any type of, one-time costs or other elements that impacted that?

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

No, it's in, it's in line with our expectations. What we said, there's no, it's certainly not a drop or anything. No, it's, we're, it's, it's basically what I thought it would be, as we basically talked about what the margin profile should be this year.

Speaker 11

All right. Thanks a lot. That helps.

Marc Parent (President and CEO)

Thank you.

Andrew Arnovitz (SVP, Investor Relations and Enterprise Risk Management)

Thank you. Operator, I think that's all the time we have for financial analysts. We do want to open the lines in the minutes remaining to members of the media, so I'd ask you to please openly queue to members of the media.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. If you're part of the press or media, please press the 1 4 on your telephone.

Andrew Arnovitz (SVP, Investor Relations and Enterprise Risk Management)

Operator, are there no questions from the media?

Operator (participant)

There seems to be no questions at this time.

Andrew Arnovitz (SVP, Investor Relations and Enterprise Risk Management)

Okay, well, that being the case, we will conclude the conference call. I want to thank those participants who joined us today and remind you the transcript will later be posted on CAE's website. Thank you. Au revoir.

Operator (participant)

That does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your line.