Brookfield Business Partners L.P. (NYSE:BBU) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 4, 2023 9:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Alan Fleming - Head-Investor Relations

Cyrus Madon - Chief Executive Officer

Anuj Ranjan - President

Jaspreet Dehl - Chief Financial Officer

Patrick McHugh - Chief Executive of Scientific Games

Conference Call Participants

Gary Ho - Desjardins Capital Markets

Andrew Kuske - Credit Suisse

Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank

Devin Dodge - BMO Capital Markets

Nik Priebe - CIBC Capital Markets

Operator

Welcome to Brookfield Business Partners’ Second Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Alan Fleming, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Fleming.

Alan Fleming

Thank you, operator, and good morning. Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that in responding to questions and talking about our growth initiatives and our financial operating performance, we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, and future results may differ materially. For further information on known risk factors, I encourage you to review our filings with the securities regulators in Canada and the U.S., which are available on our website.

Joining me on the call today are Cyrus Madon, our Chief Executive Officer; Anuj Ranjan, President and Jaspreet Dehl, our Chief Financial Officer. We’re also joined today by Pat McHugh, the Chief Executive of Scientific Games or rather services and technology operation.

Cyrus will lead off the call today and provide an update on our strategic initiatives followed by Anuj who will discuss the evolution of our technology strategy. Patrick will provide an update on scientific games and Jaspreet will finish with the review of our financial results. The team will then now be available to take your questions.

And with that, I’ll pass the call over to Cyrus.

Cyrus Madon

Thanks Alan, good morning everyone. Thanks for joining us on the call today. We had a good quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased 15% over the last year and our adjusted EBITDA margin continues to improve. Our largest businesses are performing well. Most of these are industry leaders that are critical to their customers. They can’t be easily replaced and they have strong pricing power which is really important during periods of inflation and this has all contributed to their stable earnings and resilient cash flows. While the operating environment still has its challenges today, things seem to be normalizing. Energy costs have eased in most cases, in most cases, material prices are down from last year. Freight rates are well below where they were below peak levels and the worst of the global supply chain issues seem to be behind us.