Scott Perry
Analyst · CIBC. Please go ahead
Okay. Thank you, John and good morning, ladies and gentlemen and thanks for joining our call. As John mentioned, we have a webcast presentation on our website, I am just going to be referencing that in terms of making some of my opening remarks, and I would like to just starting off on Slide #5. So just, Slide 5 here really just recaps some of the key highlights from the fourth quarter as well as the full year 2016. I think I really would like to start off the call referencing safety as we mentioned in previous calls, it’s been a real a sort of doubling down on our safety leadership programs throughout the company, one of the Centerra branded safety leadership programs that we are rolling out everywhere at all of our assets and business units is our Work Safe, Home Safe program. This is well underway. We have started this program at Kumtor and we are getting – it’s resonating very well with the workforce and just positioning us that much better for zero harm in terms of our operations moving forward. In terms of some of the key operating results, in terms of gold output, on a company-wide basis, we produced just under 599,000 ounces of gold for the full year. The key contributor here was obviously, Kumtor, which produced just under 551,000 ounces. Kumtor had a very strong quarter as well as full year performing very well relative to guidance. The consolidated number does include the stub period, if you will, in terms of gold output from Mount Milligan from when we closed the transaction in October, up till the end of the calendar year. In terms of our operating cost profile, I think this is where Kumtor in the company really excelled. Our final results of the calendar year was $682 per ounce on a company-wide basis and Kumtor itself finished the year at $640 per ounce is really good execution by operations team. This result most notably favorably outperformed even our revised guidance. In terms of how all of this flows into the financial statements, we had a strong year in terms of profitability, a full year net earnings result of $151.5 million or a corresponding $0.60 per share. In terms of the fourth quarter results, the net earnings result was $63.6 million or corresponding $0.23 per share. In terms of cash flow, very strong result, cash flow from operations on a companywide basis was approximately $371 million or $1.48 per share. Kumtor itself, at the actual operating asset level on a free cash flow basis, this year Kumtor generated $237 million of free cash flow, so another strong year of profitable production, recalling that in 2015, generating a $158 million. So, it’s voluntarily exceeded that again this year, obviously, driven by a slightly higher gold price environment as well as stronger gold output. Mount Milligan, during the stub period in terms of Centerra ownership, generated free cash flow of $8 million. In terms of the balance sheet, we finished the year with $409 million worth of cash and I will touch on this in my next slide. And then obviously, one of the key milestones during the year was the closing of the Thompson Creek Metals acquisition. With the acquisition of Thompson Creek, this is well underway in terms of our integration and what have you. And we put forward to the very transformative transaction for the company, especially in terms of more favorably re-domiciled geopolitical risk profile. On a consensus basis now, roughly half of Centerra’s value is now domiciled in North America, so again, a very transformative acquisition. This also very favorably increased our gold reserve inventory count and Gord will touch on this. We also last night released our reserves and resources for the full year, and you will note that our company-wide reserves have increased by some 90%, which is primarily due to the addition of Mount Milligan as well as the resources at our Greenstone joint venture project being upgraded into reserve category following the release of our feasibility study in November. Just moving on to the next slide, on Slide 6, just a few charts here, just sort of graphically illustrating some of the key financial aspects from our year end results. You can see the chart here in the top left of Slide 6 is just a waterfall chart, where we have looked to, I guess, pictorially breakdown our cash flow statement. So, just looking at the key increments and decrements starting from the left, you can see we commenced the year with $542 million in cash. Kumtor again, very strong year, in terms of cash flow generation, providing $237 million in cash. Mount Milligan, during the stub period of our ownership provided $8 million of free cash flow. And then the other – the remaining cash flow increment there is the drawdown on our EBRD credit facility, which provided $74 million in cash flow. In terms of how that cash flow is appropriated, if you will, obviously, the key investment during the year was the Thompson Creek acquisition. This is being illustrated here as $318 million investment, because if you reference the footnote, we are netting this off with the credit facility and the equity financings that we put in place to facilitate this acquisition. I mean, you can see the other key sources of cash utilization be at other projects, G&A and dividends resulting in us finishing the year with $409 million in cash. The pie chart there on the top right further just reinforces that same just in terms of the net debt position for the company. So again, balance sheet finishing the year with $409 million in cash and corresponding debt balance of around $475 million, so net debt of approximately $66 million. The share count in the bottom left, it’s always been relatively stable throughout the year. It’s again just reinforcing the same that Centerra when you look at our assets, our balance sheet everything has been funded from profitable production, obviously with the acquisition of Thompson Creek. We did issue shares to facilitate this transaction, which has resulted in our share count growing to 291.3 million shares outstanding. What I would note is it was a $1.1 billion transaction. And approximately 25% of that of those proceeds was funded with Centerra equity shares. Approximately, the remaining 75% being funded with cash be it from our balance sheet or the credit facilities. Retained earnings in the bottom right, again is the strong track record of profitability, continued with the 2016 results. We grew our retained earnings balance to approximately US$856 million. Just moving to the next slide, on Slide 7, just want to touch on some of the operational results relative to guidance, and again, just reinforcing our internal branded theme of operational excellence and Gord will touch on this in more detail. You can see the chart here on the left it was a very strong year. In terms of execution, the first column on the left adds in terms of our gold output guidance. And this is the midpoint of our gold production guidance. It was 515,000 ounces as we made our way through the year. We quickly revise that guidance given the favorable production performances that we were seeing at Kumtor. So we revised that favorably to 540,000 on the midpoint. And then you can see the column illustrated is actual, is where we have actually finished the year. So again, very strong execution from our operations team. But I think the more stronger theme is the next chart to the right, which is our corresponding operating cost profile in terms of the all-in sustaining costs per ounce metric. So again, the original guidance in the gold column was $860 per ounce. On the midpoint again, we favorably revise that for approximately during the mid-year to a new midpoint target of $692 per ounce. And then here of our actual results, we have favorably outperformed that guidance coming in at $640 per ounce. Really what this speaks to is, Kumtor is firing on all cylinders, if you will, be it in terms of productivity, its unit cost efficiencies, we have got a number of business process improvement initiatives have been rolling out. We have also had some favorable macro tailwinds, if you will, in terms of diesel fuel price environment, exchange rate environment and this really resonating in terms of Kumtor’s profit generation and cash flow generation. Anyway credit to the operating team and perhaps that’s a good segue to pass it over to Gordon Reid, our Chief Operating Officer.