Telesat Corporation (NASDAQ:TSAT) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call March 28, 2024 10:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Michael Bolitho - Senior Director of Treasury and Risk Management
Daniel Goldberg - President and CEO
Andrew Browne - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Chris Quilty - Quilty Space
Arun Seshadri - BNP Paribas
Mike Pace - JPMorgan
Marcello Chermisqui - Ares
Joe Ghergurovich - Sixth Street

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Conference Call to report the Fourth Quarter 2023 Financial Results for Telesat.

Our speakers today will be Mr. Dan S. Goldberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of Telesat; and Andrew Browne, Chief Financial Officer of Telesat.

I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Michael Bolitho, Senior Director of Treasury and Risk Management. Please go ahead, Mr. Bolitho.

Michael Bolitho

Thank you and good morning. This morning we filed our annual report for the year ending December 31, 2023, on Form-20F with the SEC and on SEDAR Plus. Our remarks today may contain forward-looking statements. There are risks that Telesat's actual results may differ materially from the results contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of known risks, please see Telesat's Annual Report filed with the SEC. Telesat assumes no responsibility to update or revise these forward-looking statements.

I will now turn the call over to Dan Goldberg, Telesat's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Daniel Goldberg

Okay. Thanks, Michael.

I'll say a few words this morning about our performance last year, share some thoughts about our expectations for this year, and then give an update as to progress to date on the Lightspeed program. I'll then hand over to Andrew to speak to the numbers in more detail, and then we'll open the call up to questions.

I'm very pleased with our performance and the things we achieved in 2023. We did a really effective job in staying focused, in beating our adjusted EBITDA guidance, maintaining our operating discipline and industry-leading operating margins, securing the C-band clearing proceeds, and executing what I believe were some value-enhancing debt repurchases.

But far away, the most important thing we did last year was find an innovative and highly accretive path forward for Telesat Lightspeed, including landmark agreements with MDA and SpaceX as well as important financing arrangements with our government partners in Canada.

The satellite user community fully consistent with our long-standing expectations is transitioning to LEO network and this transition will accelerate over time. For that reason, moving forward with our transformational Telesat Lightspeed program is our highest priority.