President and CEO’s Message

As a true partner to our clients, we bring value that is anchored in our ability to help them face current challenges as well as prepare for the ones to come. 

Our client relationships, whether new or long-standing, have only been strengthened by this pandemic because our clients have seen firsthand our commitment to keep their projects and portfolios moving thanks to our experienced and dedicated teams. 

Delivering Strong Financial Results

The flexibility and strength of our operating model, and tremendous efforts of our leadership and teams, allowed us to end 2020 with solid results that are in line with our objectives to protect our financial position and maintain our margin, which we had set at the beginning of the pandemic.

Despite a decrease in revenues, we completed the year in a strong financial position with a healthy backlog, an improved adjusted EBITDA margin, and record cash flows, providing a solid platform for continued success in 2021.

Revenues and net revenues for the year reached $8.8 billion and $6.9 billion, respectively, down 1.3% and 0.4% compared to 2019. Backlog stood at $8.4 billion, representing 11.5 months of revenues, up $289.5 million or 3.6% compared to last year, including organic growth of 2.4%. We also reported an adjusted EBITDA of $1,053.7 million, slightly surpassing our expectations, and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 15.4%, up from 15.1% last year.

In terms of other metrics, we were pleased to report that days sales outstanding (DSO) continued to decrease and reached 63 days at the end of 2020, well below our outlook range of 73 to 78 days. Our free cash flow for the year came in at $735.3 million, representing 266% of net earnings attributable to shareholders.

Expanding Possibilities 

The initial decisions brought forward by this challenging year were made out of necessity. After ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our people, in addition to taking actions to safeguard our business, our mindset shifted to expanding on what could be possible in this new landscape to set ourselves up for long-term success.

Focusing on Strategic Growth

In the second quarter of 2020, we completed an equity financing of over $570 million, to provide us with the maximum financial flexibility to continue to pursue our strategic ambitions. We once again were pleased to count on the support of our anchor shareholders as well as other institutional investors and the broader investment community.

Acquisitions have always been an integral part of our growth story. We have a proven track record of selecting successful and accretive acquisition targets according to criteria that correspond to our present and future business needs and market conditions. Though the pandemic and corresponding economic downturn may have made these activities more complex, we continued to explore the possibilities to bring value to all our stakeholders.

We ended the year by entering into an agreement to acquire Golder, a global consulting firm with approximately 7,000 people and an outstanding reputation in earth sciences and environmental consulting. Golder marks another exciting step in our journey to become the reference in our industry, allowing us to achieve several key milestones in our 2019-2021 Global Strategic Plan.

Reinforcing our ESG commitment

In 2020, we continued to strengthen our commitment to ESG matters. In February, WSP became the first professional services firm in the Americas to secure sustainability-linked terms for its syndicated credit facility, which now includes financing terms that reduce or increase the borrowing costs on the lending facility as sustainability targets are met or missed. The terms are tied to three sustainability performance targets: a reduction in market-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across our global operations; an increase in Green Revenue (revenue from services having a positive impact on the environment); and an increase in the percentage of management positions held by women.

We also continue to demonstrate leadership and maintain an ESG program that is relevant and ambitious. 

This year, we will be disclosing data using guidance from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and the framework issued by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). We are also planning to update our climate ambitions to align with current science, as we recently committed to align our future ambitions with the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi).

Our commitment to ESG is underpinned by growth in our Earth and Environmental Consulting sector and translates to everything we do in our other sectors. During the summer of 2020, in addition to our top-tier rankings in the Transportation Sector and the Top 225 International design firms, we were named as one of the world’s largest, and fastest growing consultancies in Engineering News-Record’s (ENR) 2020 Top 200 Environmental Firms ranking. Our achievement can be partly attributed to the strategic expansion of our high-quality advisory services, supporting clients with challenges such as climate change, resiliency, and pollution. As we enter the final year of our 2019-2021 Global Strategic Plan, this strong performance reflects significant progress towards our ambition to be the premier global consultancy in our industry.

2021 and Beyond

At the onset of this pandemic, we reaffirmed our commitment to being operationally resilient to continue meeting the needs of our clients and communities. Although the horizon has been difficult to see at times, we remain focused on our strategic ambitions as the underlying principles of our Global Strategy are highly relevant. Our clients continue to be at the centre of everything that we do; we strive to provide an environment where our people can deliver on their full potential, supported by an inclusive culture that respects and maximizes the contribution of all our people; our aim remains to be a top-tier player in all our sectors as the partner of choice for clients; and finally, we continue to build upon our diversified and resilient platform. In 2020, our limits were tested as an organization, and through the diligence, passion and commitment of our leaders and employees, we came out stronger.

We were able to overcome this unprecedented adversity thanks to the support of our highly engaged Board of Directors, the trust of our clients and the loyalty of our shareholders. To our people, thank you for your unwavering dedication and perseverance. Thank you for exemplifying the possibilities in a time of tremendous uncertainty. I know we would not be where we are today without the contributions made by each one of you.

As the world recalibrates to this new reality, we look forward to developing our 2022-2024 Global Strategic Plan. This is the time to further assert our ambitions. I am filled with confidence, inspiration and gratitude for the direction we are heading in as we begin to write a new chapter in WSP’s story.