FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 6, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Scott Patterson - CEO

Jeremy Rakusin - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Michael Doumet - Scotiabank

Stephen Sheldon - William Blair

Stephen MacLeod - BMO Capital Markets

Frederic Bastien - Raymond James

Tom Callaghan - RBC

Operator

Welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded. Legal counsel requires us to advise that the discussion scheduled to take place today may contain forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results may be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements contemplated in the forward-looking statements.

Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the company's annual information form as filed with the Canadian Securities Administration and in the company's annual report on the Form 40-F as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Today is February 6, 2024.

I would like to turn the call over to Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Scott Patterson. Please go ahead.

Scott Patterson

Thank you, Justin and welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to our fourth quarter and year-end conference call. I'm on with Jeremy Rakusin, our CFO. Thank you for joining us today. We're very pleased with how we finished the year and with our momentum, as we head into 2024.

Before I jump into the quarterly results, I want to make a few comments about the year. We closed out 2023 with our revenue up 16% over 2022 and our EBITDA up 18%. Very strong results. Organic growth for the year at 10% accounted for over half of our top-line increase. And importantly, the organic growth was balanced equally across our divisions. Both FirstService Residential and FirstService Brands grew organically by 10%.

We've had some time now to reflect on these results for the year, and we could not be more proud of our teams for how they performed. 2023 represents the third consecutive year with organic growth at 10%, and that is a reflection on our teams and their ability to consistently gain market share.

Now I'll turn to the fourth quarter. Total revenues were up 6% over the prior year and right in line with our internal expectations. The growth for the quarter related entirely to acquisitions. Organic growth was 0 due to a very strong Q4 last year, driven by significant loss claims activity from hurricanes Ian and Fiona that led to outsized revenues for our restoration brands. EBITDA for the quarter was flat at $103 million and again, right in line with our expectations. Jeremy will jump into the margin and earnings per share detail in his comments.