TFI International Inc. (NYSE:TFII) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 9, 2024 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Alain Bedard - Chairman, President, and CEO

Conference Call Participants

Scott Group - Wolfe Research

James Monigan - Wells Fargo

Ravi Shanker - Morgan Stanley

Jordan Alliger - Goldman Sachs

Jason Seidl - TD Cowen

Ken Hoexter - Bank of America

Walter Spracklin - RBC Capital Markets

Tom Wadewitz - UBS

Brian Ossenbeck - JPMorgan

Konark Gupta - Scotia Capital

Ben Mohr - Deutsche Bank

Kevin Chiang - CIBC World Markets

Cameron Doerksen - National Bank Financial

Benoit Poirier - Desjardins

Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to TFI International Fourth Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]

Please be advised that this conference call will contain statements that are forward-looking in nature and subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Also, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded on Friday, February 9th, 2024.

I will now turn the call over to Alain Bedard, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of TFI International. Please go ahead, sir.

Alain Bedard

Well, thank you, operator and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Our results released yesterday after the close reflects strong performance by our talented team, beating our expectation and once again, we're entering a new year in the strongest position in our company's history.

This comes despite weaker market demand throughout much of the year and is a testament to our adherence to long-standing operating principle, regardless of cyclical freight demand.

In particular, I've referred many times to our overarching focus on profitability and cash flow, which is apparent in the fourth quarter results that I'll walk us through. It's this profitability and cash flow that permits us to execute on overarching principles of our growth strategy, which involve investing in the business, pursuing attractive M&A opportunities, and consistently returning capital to shareholders and doing all of this even when the market is weak.

This approach to the business is apparent in our fourth quarter results and indeed our performance throughout 2023. In fact, we were able to allocate roughly $2 billion of capital to announce acquisition and share repurchase during the year.

Let's turn to fourth quarter results, which include operating income of just under $200 million compared to $217 million in the year ago quarter. Our operating margin of 11.8% compared to 13.4% a year earlier and I should mention that these results include a $23 million reduction in the contribution from assets held for sale.