Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Crown Capital Second Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. Please note that today's call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, as well as other factors that may cause actual financial results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the estimated future results, performance, or achievements expressed, implied by those forward-looking statements. For a description of the risks associated with Crown's business, please refer to the company's most recently filed annual information form and its filings for Q2 2023 at SEDAR or on the company's IR website. For your information, today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn it over to your host today, Mr. Chris Johnson. Please go ahead. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please stand by. We will resume shortly. We thank you for your patience. We will resume shortly. Please stand by. We are experiencing technical difficulties. We will resume shortly. We thank you for your patience. Ladies and gentlemen, we will hear music. In the meantime, we thank you for your patience. We will resume shortly. Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for your patience. I will now like to turn the call back to Mr. Chris Johnson. Please go ahead. All right, well, thank you, operator, and sorry for the wait. Internet connection in the office here, just, just at that exact moment, cut out. I'm on my cell phone. Apologize for the poor audio. Good morning, everyone. The Network Services and Distribution Services segments of our company that are now by far the two biggest drivers of our business today, and we continue to advance their growth initiatives in the second quarter, which will translate into meaningful increases in revenue and profits over time. In the near term, however, we are expecting continued variability in results as we still build in ramp-up mode on both segments. The revenue from our Network Services group was up slightly year-over-year, representing 37% of Crown's total revenue in Q2. While still profitable in the quarter and year-day operations, we've seen some near-term reduction in this segment in income due to both the ongoing contraction of WireIE's business. To remind you, this is a somewhat legacy technology of microwave as fiber continues to expand, which we're seeing in our other community partners business. The WireIE business is contracting because of that, as well as we have seen some movement in the high-margin contracts at Galaxy. Offsetting these factors, we are continuing to see the growth in community partners as we bring the high-speed internet to small, underserved communities in Canada. We've had some modest schedule slippage in Ontario Connects, the network we're building in Ontario, but overall, things are going well. The engineering designs for our first product, sublot, have been approved, and construction is scheduled to begin later this month, with additional sublots close behind. This is a very significant milestone for our team, and we're excited to kick off our marketing efforts over the next few weeks. On the Brooks project, Alberta, construction is proceeding well and network is performing as expected. We have a strong backlog of customers awaiting their connections, and the team is working diligently to commit, connect as many customers as we can this fall. This does have a seasonal aspect or, unlike Northern Ontario, where most of our infrastructure is on poles, aerial construction, in Brooks, it's, it's all buried. When the frost sets in, we, we have to suspend the drops for the fall, for the season. In the quarter, we closed on a new partnership with the Regional Municipality of York to invest and help build out the YorkNet, a fiber to the premise network throughout York Region. Crown will be investing CAD 15 million, alongside an investment of more than CAD 100 million contributed by York Region, the Government of Canada, and the Province of Ontario. We're expecting to gain upwards of 14,000 subscribers on this network. Overall, we continue to build a very significant pipeline of fiber projects that, as they're constructed, will drive revenue and earnings for our business. Our Galaxy series continues to launch upgraded services using new satellite infrastructure. These are the low-earth orbit satellites we've talked about previously. We successfully deployed infrastructure in the first five communities in support of our internet network in Nunavut. We've also been successful with major customer RFPs for this service in the, in the North as well. As large customers integrate these services in their networks and are, it's more of a commercial offering, sales efforts take place in those five communities. We expect to see a significant growth in 2024. The largest contributor to total revenue is our distribution services platform, namely, Go Direct. This segment now represents just over 50% of our total revenue in Q2, and was up 6% over the previous quarter, mainly due to the increased capacity utilizations that we're filling, at facilities that we opened last year. The segment did contribute a net loss in the period, but with clear line of sight to increase profitability as we're actively adding new customers. These translate directly into revenue and profits. Current profits are not indicative of normal operations. We expect to see that essentially the first full quarter after achieving a full capacity. In addition to filling the capacity at our primarily Columbus and Reno facilities, we've been focused on just general process improvements, getting more efficient as we go and more profitable, and creating some IP around some of that. It's, it's, it's operating, but it's also technology we're utilizing for that, and we intend to use this across all of our facilities. Within our distributed power platform, we had six operating projects quarter end, additional seven under development. Fairly disappointed with the speed at which projects are moving, but they're all very, very close. We're expecting these to become operational through the rest of 2024, primarily. We're excited that we're in the final commission of the largest project in the, in the pipe, well, it's going to be a very significant profit generator, particularly at current profit, power and gas prices. With that, we'll be able to resume distributions in the Crown Power Fund later this year. As we bring more of these projects across the finish line, we continue to evaluate our strategic options, which does include the sale of some or all the assets. In our real estate development subsidiary, PenEquity, we extended the development contract for the project in London, Ontario, which is a continued source of strong revenue for PenEquity. We also were successful to increase the maximum permitted density at our multi-county site in Barrie, Ontario, and we are now exploring strategic options for this site, including the sale of the property. On the alternative lending side, there was good progress made in Q2 on winding down the Crown Capital Partners Fund, with repaying of one loan and the liquidation of the warrants from another loan. The loan had previously repaid, two years ago, and we, we held warrants that had an exercise price of CAD 0.25, and we sold it at CAD 3.25. It was a very strong exit. There are only two loans remaining, the largest of which is working through a restructuring process. We continue to monitor this process closely and hopeful that the management can deliver on near-term profitability and debt reduction. Those are the major initiatives. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mike to review the financials. All right, thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone on the line. Q2 financial statements and MD&A were all filed last night. Again, I'll keep this brief. Let's start with revenues. Compared with the same period last year, total revenue for Q2 was up significantly to CAD 17.3 million with that increase due almost entirely, of course, to the addition of our Distribution Services business, Go Direct, which had a very minimal contribution to last year's Q2 numbers based on the timing of the acquisition late in that quarter. Distribution Services was actually the largest contributor to Q2 revenues, Chris mentioned, with revenue of CAD 8.9 million in the quarter. That's up 6% compared with Q1 of this year. Again, as Chris mentioned, we are seeing ongoing growth in that business. From a profitability perspective, the segment had a net loss before income taxes of $1.2 million in Q2. That includes depreciation expense of $1.3 million and $0.5 million related to Go Direct Supply Chain Solutions, the legacy business in Mississauga. As capacity utilization increases during 2023 and ongoing productivity improvements recently implemented to take hold, we are expecting to see ongoing improvement in both revenue and profitability from this line of business. Network services, as a segment, is our second-largest source of revenue, and in Q2, revenue was just a little bit better than flat compared with Q2 of last year, which, as Chris mentioned, was the result of a growing contribution from Community Network Partners being offset by an anticipated decline of revenues from WireIE and the wind down of certain high-margin contracts at Galaxy. For the quarter, network services, as a segment, contributed net income before income taxes of CAD 0.5 million, including depreciation expense of CAD 0.7 million. That was down from net income before income taxes of CAD 0.8 million in Q1 and CAD 1 million in last year's Q2. Although we're navigating some near-term variability in the results, the segment continues to be well-positioned for expansion in both top and bottom line, based on a good pipeline of large fiber optic and satellite-based projects. As for the other revenue categories, interest revenue, which now solely includes revenues from Crown Power Fund, was just over CAD 600,000 in the second quarter, up from about CAD 350,000 last year. And fees and other income were CAD 1.4 million in the quarter. It's more than double the CAD 606,000 of last year, with that increase due mainly to the addition of property development revenues at PenEquity, which- As Chris mentioned, acquired a significant development contract from the old PenEquity Realty Corp during the quarter, in exchange for a reduction in the loan payable by PenEquity Realty to Crown. For Q2, our share of earnings of Crown Partners Fund totaled CAD 0.9 million versus CAD 0.3 million in last year's Q2. Our investment in Crown Partners Fund decreased to CAD 24 million at quarter end, from roughly CAD 35 million at year-end. Again, that reduction is due entirely to distributions being paid out by the fund, as a flow-through of the proceeds it in turn has received from the repayment of loans or the sale of certain equity investments. All of this amounts to a net loss in the quarter of CAD 1.2 million, or CAD 0.21 per basic share. It compares with net income of CAD 0.5 million, or CAD 0.08 per basic share in the same period last year. Total equity at quarter end was CAD 48.6 million. That's down from CAD 50.7 million at the end of 2022, reflecting the net loss attributable to shareholders. Total equity per share decreased to CAD 8.66 per basic share from CAD 8.98 at year-end. At quarter end, in a consolidated basis, we had cash of CAD 13 million, and the balance outstanding on the credit facility was CAD 25 million. The net of the unamortized deferred financing costs, we report that as CAD 24.2 million. Our operating loan remains undrawn at this point. Lastly, we completed an important process in May with the approval of a package of amendments to our convertible debentures, including an extension of the maturity date to December of 2024, an increase in the interest rate from 6% to 10%, a removal of conversion rights, and a removal of our ability to repay principal through the issuance of common shares. I think that sums it up. In closing, thanks again, for your time and continued interest in Crown. We look forward to updating you on our developments with Q3 earnings in November. With that, operator, I'm going to turn it over to questions, please. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct the question-and-answer session. If you have a question, please press the star key followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a tone prompt acknowledging your request. If you would like to cancel your request, please press star followed by two. Please ensure you lift the handset if you are using a speakerphone before pressing any keys. We have a question from Mr. Nick Corcoran from Acumen Capital. Please go ahead. Yes, go ahead, sir. Your line is now open. Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. The first question is just on Distribution Services. Can you give any details on where you're at with capacity in each of your warehouses? Yeah. Hi, Nick. Going from fullest to least full, Toronto facility is actually remains over 100% capacity today. The Calgary warehouse has been running over capacity. Actually, if you remember, we opened it last fall, a little slow, but got into an overcapacity scenario earlier this year, and in fact, recently been expanding that marketplace. Just we'll be adding capacity later this fall. Yeah, that's a very profitable market for us today. The facility in Columbus is... It really is two. It's one facility, but we look at it as two because we have one customer who's in a cost-plus contract that takes about 40% of the building, and then the other 60% is diversified. Of the 60%, we're, I think, a little bit past half on that. I will just note that some of that is not the most ideal clients for us. Like, if, like, capacity is only one measurement we look at. The, like, that client-specific is a, is more of a storage client, and we don't get as many outbound fees and freight fees and kitting jobs and all the other places we make money at. It's, it's just, it's probably a customer will be turning over as we continue to sell out that facility. Reno is, is around probably 30%, but again, similar to Columbus, we have at least one of those customers would fit that definition of more of a temporary client, we're, we're gonna likely change over. We are in the process of onboarding four, but there's really three decent-sized clients and a 4th, smaller client right now in August. That's, that's about the maximum that we can manage to onboard at single time. Just think through the... There's an IT integration that has to happen when you bring it in, and then the physical receiving of goods, and, and put away. It happens in training, so that, that is gonna stress teams. Those, those clients are going into Reno and into Columbus over the course of the next month. We are gonna see that capacity go up a fair bit. Then when we start outbounding, is when we will see the, the more of the, the fee generation. Like, we make money on receiving, we make money on storage, but if you look through the, you know, where we make money, it's, it's the activity of processing orders and sending orders out is where we make actually more money. Can you give any indication of when you expect to be profitable in Distribution Services? Oh, this quarter, for sure. I, I can already see it. Like, yeah, June, we saw some good progress in all the three main facilities. I say the main because Reno is still expected to be in the building phase. Yeah, I think June and July, we're seeing the pivot come already. There, there's work we would have added in the early part of the year and just the growth of existing clients. And the fourth quarter is generally busier, just as effectively, we're part of the cog that supports the retail channels, all of them. You know, the fourth quarter is always busier. Yeah, it's... We'll see, we'll see positive EBITDA and cash flow from this, from this division in Q3, and, and hopefully, really good numbers this, this Q4. Yes. Then switching gears to Network Services, Ontario Connects, I think you had indicated that you'd expect shovels in the ground in the second quarter. Is it fair to say you're about a quarter behind? I think it's maybe even as much as two quarters behind. The delay has been in engineering and approval of engineering design. This is not a Community Network Partners problem alone. This is something that's affecting all of the participants in Ontario Connects. So much so that Infrastructure Ontario, who's the government sponsor, who's behind this program, has 2x now held meetings with the participants in Hydro One to figure out how they would speed it up. As far as we're told, we're amongst the. They tell us we're the fastest, most far along, which we have a hard time believing, but let's just say we're amongst the most farthest along. There's a recognition that unless the process changes, this thing will never get built in time in the timeframe they're looking for. I, I think a couple of things are happening. One, I think we are doing the best we can to navigate the challenges to get on other people's infrastructure. Secondly, I think the, call it, the, the... If there is an 800-pound gorilla, it would be the Government of Ontario, and they're, they're, they're the sponsor, they, they are changing the process for everybody, and I think we are expecting that to accelerate the other sub-lots we have. We, we, we have a, a couple that are starting imminently, and then we have another bunch that are kinda in the next queue to go through approval. Yeah, we, we are- Is there something? We are gonna catch up. Is that something you, you expect to provide an update on next quarter? Yeah. This, this is a, this is a big, this, this is part of the biggest initiative in the company, which is to build earnings from the fiber to the premise business. Obviously, we can't add customers till it's built, we are very excited. Like, this is, look at what our Dubeauville Broadband project we built last year, very well-received in the community. Initial penetration rates were over 60%, you add from there. That's very, very strong, it just highlights the need for good quality broadband internet in these communities. The customers are waiting. We certainly want them. Some of these are not complicated construction. It, it's complicated in the sense there's a lot of pole attachments, but some of our sublots get built in 10 days. Like, it's not like we're talking about, you know, months long, you know, building infrastructure. We're attaching wires to poles, and dropping some electronic equipment in. Like, we do think next year will be very exciting to add, and even this year, we'll see some customers on that network. Good. Then you mentioned, York is in the pipeline as well. Can you give any indication on the timeline to convert that to revenue? Yeah, I think we'll see some progress this year. We're not, like, we're, we're not, quote-unquote, "the developer" in that one. We're just a participant. I say just because we're very active in that project, but, like, we are, we are working together a partner, YorkNet, who's a fully owned subdivision of York Region. There's a little bit, in one sense, it's a buried project, so it doesn't rely on third-party infrastructure like the Hydro One poles. In one sense, it's more controllable, but it's a big project. It's a big construction project. That one is a big construction project, and there's, you know, there's a lot of other people around to do it. YorkNet's been building their network for years already. They're, they're just expanding it now. There's, there are some sections we can jump off on that we're trying to operationalize now. They're obviously not the connections to the people's homes yet, but in terms of backbone infrastructure, a lot of, a lot of it is in place, and now we just got to get the electronics and the and the drops and some of the kind of connections completed. But yeah, we expect to see some action and customers on that network this year. That's good, color. Thanks for taking my questions. No problem, sir. Thank you. Our next question comes from Brad Conacher, from Richardson, Richardson Wealth. Please go ahead. Hey, guys. Thanks for the question, taking the question. Just could you just update me on your intentions on the redemption, your early redemption of the debentures? You know, the press release announcing the proposed amendments, you know, stated clearly that your intention was to redeem them as soon as possible. With CAD 13 million on the balance sheet there, I would have thought maybe we might see something there. If you could just give me a comment. Thanks. Sure. Why don't I take that, Mike? Sorry, Brad. The, yeah, clearly, you got the right details there. We did mention that we are looking anxious to prepay it as quickly as we can. You know, it is, it is a CAD 2 million a year interest company, and we're sitting with CAD 13.5 million of cash right now. We're trying to square away still. There's the other moving pieces are, what cash is coming in from our residues, which cash is going out on our projects, and where are we gonna be at with bank ratios? As you can see from, you know, do the calculations, we are close to limits in terms of bank ratios, and we are on site in Q2. We are in discussions and in terms of what happens if we slip over. It's, we have to get all those things in alignment before we can do it. We have cash and also reading through my notes, we have a couple initiatives underway in our power division and our real estate division that are gonna be freeing up some cash. We are still continuing to free up cash in our debt fund as well. All those sources are pointed at the convertible debenture. It's just I think we just need a little bit more time sort of see how things are gonna settle out this quarter and get the feedback we need, and then we'll be starting to chip away at that. Okay. any, one other question, any, nibbles or any progress on the, the Barrie property sale? that would sort of speed things up, I would assume. Well, it's for sale. So it's, you know, I don't wanna sorta go too far in detail on that, but it is for sale. It's a, it's a, it's... It is a very good property. It's, it is getting a fair bit of interest and exposure in it, and, and, and, yeah, I think the macro I perceive is that this- I don't know how you live in Ontario and don't know that there's a housing crisis going on, and, and, Barrie's a very strong market for that. They're, they're one of the principal areas that's very underbuilt in terms of their plan, planned population. I think, so I, I do think, I do think it's gonna garner reasonably good interest, and it will be sold. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Once again, if you have a question, please press star and then one using your touch-tone phone. Thank you. At this moment, I show no further questions. Thank you. All right. Well, thanks, everyone, and as always, please don't hesitate to reach out to either Mike or I, and we look forward to talking to you next quarter. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference. Please disconnect.