CAE Inc. (NYSE:CAE) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Marc Parent: Well, it’s case by case. It depends on what I mean by that is sometimes, the request for equitable adjustment may be submitted to the government itself and sometimes to an intermediary, which we contract with on behalf of the government. So again, case by case, we do have to, as you might expect, we do have to make our case and a lot of documentation related to that, but we have that documentation. We are putting those cases forward. There is no specific time line for them to recovery. As I said, one thing that encourages me very much is and as I said previously, we had a lot to do with it ourselves, our government affairs people in Washington did a very good job on this that in recent DoD budget, there is funding specifically granted to address inflation in the industry.

So, we’re working with our customers and working to prepare our own claims with regards to that increased budget. So, but again, there’s no timing on that, but I fully expect some of that will come fruition.

Fai Lee: Okay. And would you describe the rest or the response has been reasonable or conversations like they haven’t been unreasonable. Have they?

Marc Parent: No, I don’t think there’s anybody being unreasonable, but you have to make your case. But yes, we have made our case. We have simulators that were literally delivering across the country in one contract. It’s about 180 transport trucks with armed guards crossing in the United States that were bid when gas was $2 a gallon, but we all know that not gas is not $2 a gallon anymore. So, you could just imagine that just on that basis alone, you say, well, let’s be fair here. That’s not exactly a 2%, kind of natural growth in the contract and they’re receptive to that kind of thing.

Fai Lee: And then my second question, back in Q1, what are the charges that you took with for a Navy contract, I believe it was that expired and have been extended? And if I remember correctly, you were hoping to have it re-contracted in better terms. I’m just wondering, has that happened? Has it been re-contracted on better terms? Or are you still waiting?

Marc Parent: We’re still waiting on that one. And to me, we can’t really talk about that. I mean, in the end it’s a contract that we’ve submitted the bid and they haven’t selected anybody as far as I know.

Fai Lee: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Okay. Thank you very much. And we’ll proceed to our next question on the line from Anthony Valentini with Goldman Sachs. Go ahead.

Anthony Valentini: Hey all. Thanks so much for taking my question . I’m looking at the utilization rates in the 73% here in the quarter, comparing that back to pre-pandemic levels, and it looks like you guys are actually at or in some cases above where you were. I’m curious in terms of how you guys think through like the capital allocation process of how high that number can go, right? Because I think there needs to be some sort of slack in the system. And when you get to that number, whatever it is, how you think through putting new simulators into your network, if that makes sense?

Marc Parent: Yes. Look, the short answer is, as we said in the remarks, we deploy capital and lock step with demand. You can well imagine because we’re the market leader here and have been for a long time, both in simulators and simulator-based training, we know the market very well, and we know our customers very well, and we’re in constant dialogue with them both in the airline sector and the business aviation sector. So, we have a pretty good and informed idea of how much demand will be required because remember, it’s a regulated market. People €“ there’s a €“ you can just look at how many flights people expect to make, how many deliveries are coming out of the OEMs, and you will be able to establish what is the demand requirement across the world approximately.

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