Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the conference call to report the third quarter 2022 financial results for Telesat. Our speakers today will be Dan 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, Director of Treasury and Risk Management. Please go ahead, Mr. Bolitho.

Thank you, and good morning. This morning, we filed our quarterly report on Form 6-K with the SEC and on SEDAR. 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, seek Telesat's annual and quarterly reports 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.

Okay. Thanks, Michael. Good morning, everyone. This morning, I'll share some thoughts on our results and give an update on the business. I'll then hand over to Andrew, who will speak to the numbers in detail, and then we'll open the call up to questions. Q3 came in very much in line with our expectations, and we continue to expect to exceed the revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance we gave at the outset of the year. The overall operating environment feels pretty stable from a demand and pricing perspective, and I was pleased to see our capacity utilization tick up slightly in the quarter. We disclosed last quarter that we have an anomaly on our anik f2 satellite that reduces its station-kept lifetime from 2025 and to more like the end of this year. We noted that anik f2 represents approximately 8% of our total revenue and that absent finding ways to provide continuity of service for our customers using the satellite, we anticipated revenue could be reduced by roughly one third versus what we previously expected it to be for next year 2023. We noted also that we are working closely with our customers to evaluate and implement measures to offer them continuity of service and mitigate the adverse revenue impact on the company. I'm pleased to say that our team, working hand in glove with our customers has developed a range of plans to continue to support the services now provided on anik f2. These plans include making changes through antennas communicating with the satellite in order to extend service, relying on other Telesat and third-party satellites, and even purchasing an existing Inorbit C-band satellite from another satellite operator that's expected to be repositioned and co-located with anik f2 in the coming months. Assuming all of these things…

Thank you, Dan. Good morning, everyone. I would now like to focus on highlights from this morning's press release and filings. In the third quarter of 2022, Telesat reported revenues of $180 million, adjusted EBITDA of $137 million, and generated cash from operations of $92 million with $1.7 billion of cash on the balance sheet at quarter end. For the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, revenues decreased by $12 million to $180 million. Operating expenses decreased by $4 million to $56 million and adjusted EBITDA decreased by $19 million to $137 million. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 76% compared to 81.1% to 2021. Between 2021 and 2022, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rate had a positive impact of $4 million on revenues, a negative impact of $1 million in operating expenses, and a positive impact of $3 million on adjusted EBITDA. But adjusted for the changes in foreign exchange rates, revenues decreased by $16 million for 2022 compared to 2021. Operating expenses decreased by $5 million and adjusted EBITDA decreased by $22 million. The revenue decrease was primarily due to a reduction on renewal of a long-term agreement with a North American DTH customer and revenues from short-term services provided to another satellite operator at 2021, which did not recur in 2022. This was partially offset by higher revenues from mobility customers and the asset communication services project program. The decrease in operating expenses was primarily due to lower non-cash share-based compensation, partially offset by higher ages. Interest expense increased by $6 million in the third quarter compared to the same period in 2021. The increase was due to an increase in interest rates on the U.S. Term Loan B facility, combined with the foreign exchange impact on the conversion of U.S. dollar-denominated…

[Operator Instructions] First question is from Walter Piecyk from LightShed.

This is [ Joe ] on for Walt. A couple of questions, please. Is there any more color you can provide about the process with the ECAs and the suppliers kind of like any details? Maybe are there specific parts or components that are available now that weren't before that maybe give Telesat a little better visibility? And then second, the OpEx for LEO appears that it was effectively flat quarter-over-quarter. And when should we expect that to ramp? And are any expenses for LEO being capitalized currently? And then finally, Amazon showing some progress. One Lib has been launching and then there's some smaller start-up that seem to be having some progress. Do you feel like Telesat is getting behind a little bit, given the delays.

All right. It's Dan, Joe. I'll try to -- so there's sort of a 3-part question. Let's see. So the first part was about -- do we have any more insight on kind of where Telesat is from a supply perspective and whatnot? No, there nothing's changed. We've said, I think, on our last couple of calls that we did a whole lot of work with Talos and they did a whole lot of work with their supply chain over the past year to sort of update the program, update schedule, update pricing. And all of the work that we did in connection with that with Talison that they did with their supply chain, it also holds. We're not hearing anything different from Dallas about yes, there are expectations around supply chain schedule, anything else. So that -- and on the lenders, we said, I think, on our last call that we were engaged with them that we're hoping to have a much better sense of where things stood by around the end of this year. And that remains to be the case as well. I'd say since the last earnings call we hosted. We've had a lot of engagement with the financing sources that we've been talking to with the lenders, I should say, including with the lenders, lots of intense sessions, trying to move the ball forward. So that's all taking place right now, and that continues. And then on the last questions around light speed, I think it was OpEx and whether things are being capitalized. Oh, actually, you also had a question about kind of the competitive environment. So I'll answer the competitive environment one. And then maybe, Andrew, you can talk to the LEO expense one. No, we're not seeing anything out there in terms of the competitive environment that makes us think differently about our ability to be successful with Lightspeed. Certainly, OneWeb is getting their program back on track and that they had to pause their launch campaign because of sort of Ukraine Russian activity. So we're seeing that, but there's nothing that they're doing or you had mentioned Amazon that we're seeing Amazon doing that changes the way we think about our ability to be successful with Lightspeed. I mean it is -- we continue to engage with the customer community very closely on Lightspeed. We continue to see a huge amount of enthusiasm from the customers about the value proposition that we'll be bringing with Lightspeed. And yes, there's nothing that we're seeing that changes our thinking about that. So Andrew, do you want to talk about that?

Yes, on the question on the OpEx. And that obviously, as you see what a high margin of almost 78% that we control the OpEx very, very tightly. And so as we're advancing our discussions with the ECA and other sort of investor support, we're very focused on hiring and OpEx and expanding. So we manage that very, very closely. Obviously, when the program gets going, then of course, we would expect to see an increase coming from that. And just in terms of the capitalization, that is typically what you would do with a capital program that you would indeed capitalize those costs. So that's where we are.

Okay. So we shouldn't -- like will some of the OpEx lead ahead of the actual finalized program before you actually implementing it will ramp up a little more. That's what I'm trying to...

Yes, we would expect it to ramp up more. I mean we have going back until we got the delays at Thales, obviously, with our engineering and support teams in terms of design and dealing with Thales, et cetera, that we indeed are put in the appropriate people we need to get going. But once we have the supply chain delays, then obviously, with that ramp, we actually sort of held back on, as you would expect us to do. But once the day we get going, then we will obviously where are other areas that we need to provide support to the program.

The next question is from Dan De Bono [ph] from Invesco Credit Management.

I'm looking at the segment information, Item 5, which is on Page 10 of the supplement. And I would love to get some color on the enterprise side for the quarter. Looking at growth rates and thinking of where we're running, if you could -- it's a pretty diverse segment. If you could talk a little bit about some of the wins and losses and how you feel about that for the next couple of quarters. That would be helpful.

Looking at my colleague, John Flaherty, I'll make a start at this. I mentioned in my opening remarks that yes, the operating environment has been -- yes, I'd say kind of on the one hand, consistent with our expectations for this year, too favorable. I've been pleased that we've been able to grow the utilization of the fleet over the year. I think, in particular, so far this year, we've seen strong interest, particularly from the mobility segment that would be aeronautical and maritime. A lot of that was predictable. I mean, those were the sectors that were kind of held back during the -- during COVID, and as the restrictions of eased and more and more people are traveling again, it was predictable that those sectors would come back. But they came back probably even stronger than we expected. I think if we have a problem kind of taking advantage of the opportunities there, it's mostly because of capacity limitations in the areas where the most demand exists. That would be sort of key maritime routes, places like the Med, the Caribbean for the cruise market, some of the key flight paths for the Aero segment. So yes, I don't know. And then just thinking regionally, where we've seen harder conditions like Africa, like Latin America, I'd say those markets continue to be challenging, but no more challenging than they were, frankly, over the past couple of years. And I think, particularly in Latin America, we're doing a nice job getting renewals, winning business, maintaining utilization, and the like. So in any event, that's off-the-top observations. And John, I don't know if you'd add anything.

No, I think you pretty much hit all of the major points, Dan.

The next question is from Brandon Karsch from Kennedy Lewis.

I was wondering, just following up on the last question with the mobility gains. Are you seeing any significant new business wins there? Is it more just recovery or any kind of other organic expansions of existing customers not really to be cope?

I'd say certainly in the first half of the year, we had capacity come back into inventory when DISH just did the partial renewal with us. And we're really pleased that almost overnight, we took that capacity and put it to work in the mobility market, there was that. And we had another big win earlier in the year with another customer that was more on the aero side. So -- and then as I mentioned beyond that, it's more like, I don't know, singles and doubles just given the capacity constraints that we have. Yes, that's what it feels like...

Okay. That's helpful. And with all the headlines around the potential Shaw and Rogers merger, do you anticipate any impact in your business from that on the broadcast side or elsewhere?

We don't think so. No, we don't think so.

Okay. And then on the LEO side, is it possible to provide maybe any more detail in terms of what types of financing you're looking for? Is this -- are you fully focused on private financing? Are you talking to government agencies about further financing? And if you're unable to secure it given market conditions over the next couple of months, is there a point where you think that maybe you're too far behind and that this bill maybe becomes untenable after already scaling it back?

So on the financing side, there are sort of 2 paths that we're active on right now. One is trying to complete the discussions and the financing with the export credit agencies. And I mentioned that there's been a lot of activity with them over the past quarter, and we're focused on driving all those negotiations to a successful conclusion. And then we mentioned on our last call that we're looking at securing some additional financing, just given some of the increases in the program costs coming from the combination of inflation and just kind of a longer schedule and the incremental costs that come with that. And coupled with the fact that we had always said that we are going to need some incremental financing as part of the program. At one point, there was, I don't know, some consideration potentially to doing something now that we're public, that was what was certainly a path that we could consider in the past issuing some equity if we needed to. But given where the markets are trading right now and we're Telesat's trading right now, which we believe is below fair market value, we're sort of less interested in that. So we mentioned on our last call that we're looking at some other financing sources. We talked about that as being kind of at the LEO kind of subsidiary level and making sure that that was all subordinated to the ECA lenders who are very focused on being senior in the capital structure over on the LEO side and making it subordinate to the investments that we're getting from the government of Canada and the government of Quebec and making sure that as we seek to secure it, that it's accretive to the overall kind of company profile. And so that continues to be our focus. I mentioned that we're making progress on that front mentioned that we're in advanced discussions right now. But I don't think we'll add anything beyond that at this stage

Okay. Then I guess the last part of my question that I had asked was if you're unable to...

Yes,. Right now, that's -- we're not asking ourselves those questions right now. We're very focused on closing up the financing that we need in the time frame that we've telegraphed to everyone. So yes, that's the focus right now. And fundamentally, we've said this consistently. We got a great program. We got a great constellation. We've got an enormous amount of support from our shareholders, our board, an enormous amount of support from our government partners here in Canada, got a significant amount of backlog already on the constellation and are having really good discussions with the customer communities. So that's our focus is finishing the financing, getting the program going and getting out there in the market with Lightstream.

There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the meeting back over to Mr. Goldberg.

Okay. Operator, thank you very much, and thank you all for joining us this morning. We look forward to chatting when we issue our Q4 and full year numbers. So thank you very much.

The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.