Macdonald Dettwiler & Associates CEO Discusses Q3 2010 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Macdonald Dettwiler & Associates (
)
Q3 2010 Earnings Call
October 27, 2010 05:30 pm ET
Executives
Daniel Friedmann - President and CEO
Anil Wirasekara - EVP and CFO
Analysts
Steve Arthur - RBC Capital Markets
Thanos Moschopoulos - BMO Capital Markets
Paul Lechem - CIBC
Paul Steep - Scotia Capital
Sera Kim - GMP Securities
Scott Penner - TD Newcrest
Jeff Rath - Canaccord Genuity
Naser Iqbal - Salman Partners
Blair Abernethy - Stifel Nicolaus
Presentation
Operator
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Good afternoon, my name is Christina. I'll be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the Macdonald Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. Q3 2010 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions).
This earnings conference call and web cast which includes a business update third quarter 2010 results and question-and-answer contains certain forward-looking statements and information which reflects the current view of Macdonald Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. MDA with respect to future events and financial performance.
Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as may, will, expect, intend, anticipate, plan, foresee, believe or continue or the negative of such terms or variations of them or similar terminology.
Any such forward-looking statements are based on MDA's current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions made in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends. Any such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and MDA's actual results of operations could differ materially from historical results or current expectations. The risk that could cause actual results to differ from current expectations include but are not limited to, inherent risk in the information systems market and in the information products market including general, economic, regulatory and competitors changes, changes in government priorities, funding levels, contract regulation, susceptibility of customers and property trends faction related industry, failure of third parties and sub contractors for long-term construction contracts of which the company is the prime contractor.
Failure to recruit required management and employees and other factors described in the MDA's most recent annual management discussion and analysis. Annual information form and other documents on file with the Canadian Securities Regulatory Authorities, available on SEDAR or www.sedar.com or www.mdacorporation.com.
The forward-looking statements and information contained in this earnings conference call and webcast represent MDA's views only as of today's date. MDA disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law, rule or regulation. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Mr. Freedman, you may begin your conference.
Daniel Freedman
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and thank you for joining us today for MDA's third quarter 2010 conference call. The good news is I think my speech is a little shorter than the forward-looking statements there. With me is Anil Wirasekara, our Chief Financial Officer.
I will be discussing some of the key business events that have taken place in the past months, Anil will review our financial results for the third quarter and then we'll open the line to your questions.
In the surveillance and intelligence sector, MDA continued to progress according to plan on the design phase of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission. Looking at the RADARSAT II business, MDA signed a multi-million dollar contract to supply digital alleviation products derived from RADARSAT-2 for the government of Indonesia. Also in this area, MDA signed two contracts with CLS, a French company providing value added radar information services. Under the first contract, MDA will provide another RADARSAT ground station solution, the third such solution to the same client and the second quarter extends the provision of RADARSAT-2 information that began in 2008 and until mid 2012.
This information is used to detect illegal and regulated and unreported fishing ships in the South Indian Ocean. In the United States, the US Army Geospatial Center awarded MDA a contract provide a demonstration system to use MDA's RADARSAT-2 and Digital Globe's data using a very small practically deployable mobile ground station.
In future, the Army may procure multiple units for international and domestic deployment. MDA also signed a contract to provide RADARSAT-2 data information to the United States National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA. The administration requires MDA to deliver the information within three to six hours of acquisition in order to enhance its maritime monitoring and forecasting capabilities. MDA's unmanned aerial vehicle service business continues to perform well, both our Canadian and Australian customers continue to log extra surveillance hours above the base contract level.
Moving on to the advanced technology sector, in the communications area the work on our advanced technology solutions for the Russian AM5 and 6 satellites is proceeding well. Preliminary design reviews for the customer were successfully completed in August and we have commenced the detail design space.
The Ukrainian satellite program is also advancing in its early stages albeit somewhat slower than we had expected due to frequency coordination issues with neighboring satellites which remained to be finalized by our customer. During the quarter, MDA signed a quarter to provide advanced technology solution that will be integrated into a satellite that will provide increased broadcast capacity for the Americas and Europe and add new capacity support maritime and aeronautical services.
In the space exploration area, MDA's US operation concluded a four year program to design and deliver to NASAs jet propulsion laboratory and advanced solution for use on a Mars science laboratory Rover, the upcoming mission to Mars.
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