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SSC Security Services Corp. Announces Q1 FY2025 Results with Increased Gross Margins and Continued Share Buybacks

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REGINA, SK, Feb. 11, 2025 /CNW/ – SSC Security Services Corp. (“SSC” or the “Company) (TSXV: SECU) (OTCQX: SECUF), a national provider of cyber, physical and electronic security services to commercial, industrial and public sector clients across Canada, is pleased to release its results for the first quarter ended December 31, 2024. All figures are presented in Canadian dollars. 

“Our first quarter results came in as expected.  We are seeing improved profitability from stronger margins as a result of careful expense management. We continue to buy back our shares and take a disciplined approach to acquisitions.  Our objective is always to protect our cash and be opportunistic in our efforts to grow the company. We continue to be well capitalised and debt free”, said Chairman and CEO Doug Emsley.

Key Highlights for Q1 2025:

Improved Margins- Gross profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 was $5.0 million (17.1%) up from $4.9 million (15.7% of revenue) during the same quarter last year. 

34th Consecutive Quarterly Dividend- During the quarter we paid $0.03 per share in dividends to shareholders.

Share Buy-backs- During the quarter we bought back 161,400 shares of the Company at an average of $2.61 per share (cancelled 157,400 shares with 4,000 shares held in Treasury to be cancelled early January 2025).  

Consistent Revenues- During the first quarter ended December 31, 2024, revenue was $29.2 million, consistent with revenues last quarter (fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024: $29.6 million).  Revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2023 were $30.9 million.

We finished the quarter ended December 31 with:Cash and cash equivalents of $11.4 million equal to $0.62 per share;Working capital of $26.3 million;Total shareholders’ equity of $63.4 million; andNo long-term debt.  

Key Performance Indicators for the comparable periods are summarized below:  

Key Performance Indicators

Quarter ended

Dec 31

2024

2023

Revenue

29,195

30,882

Cost of Sales

24,198

26,029

Gross Margin

4,997

4,853

Gross Margin (%)

17.1 %

15.7 %

Comprehensive net (loss) income

(125)

66

Comprehensive net (loss) income per share (basic)

$(0.01)

$0.00

Adjusted EBITDA

1,171

1,377

Adjusted EBITDA per share (basic)

$0.06

$0.07

REVENUE, GROSS PROFIT & NET INCOME 

Revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 were $29.2 million compared with $30.9 million during the quarter ended December 31, 2023, a decrease of $1.7 million (revenue decrease of 5.5%). The decrease in revenues was primarily due to higher temporary contracts in the prior year.  These temporary short-term contracts can fluctuate from one period to another, but the Company’s long-term recurring monthly revenues remain strong. 

Gross profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 increased to $5.0 million (17.1% of revenue) from $4.9 million (15.7% of revenue) during the same quarter last year.  The year-over-year increase in gross margin is a result of our continued focus on higher operational efficiencies and cost savings initiatives.  

Comprehensive net loss for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 was $0.1 million (loss of $0.01 per share), compared to comprehensive net income in the same quarter last year of $0.1 million (income of $0.00 per share).

ADJUSTED EBITDA 

Adjusted EBITDA is the primary KPI used by the Company to measure the financial performance of the Company. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, was $1.2 million ($0.06 per share), consistent with the average adjusted EBITDA per quarter over the past twelve months. 

A reconciliation of earnings to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA is provided in the Non-IFRS section of the MD&A published concurrently with this press release.*

BALANCE SHEET 

Key balance sheet items are summarized below: 

Statements of Financial Position

As at

As at

31-Dec-24

31-Dec-23

Cash

11,422

9,779

Accounts receivable

22,578

25,298

Legacy business assets

6,203

7,707

Working capital

26,255

27,808

Long-term debt

0

0

Total assets

80,800

82,755

Total liabilities

17,367

15,872

Total shareholders’ equity

63,433

66,882

Common shares outstanding

18,546

19,193

UPDATE ON NORMAL COURSE ISSUER BID 

During the quarter ended December 31, 2024, we bought back 161,400 shares at an average price of $2.61 per share (Same quarter last year: 128,100 shares at an average price of $2.59 per share).  We cancelled 157,400 shares with 4,000 shares held in Treasury to be cancelled early January 2025.  

We continue to believe that our shares have been trading in a price range which does not adequately reflect their value and that the purchase of shares under the NCIB will enhance shareholder value in general.  Over the past eight fiscal years, the Company has bought back and cancelled roughly 47% of the outstanding shares.

OUTLOOK 

We are seeing continued growth in demand for the kind of innovative and cost-effective security services and solutions that we offer at SSC. Our ability to combine physical and electronic security services in a fully integrated way is the future of our industry.  Additional growth may also come via acquisition, as we look to acquire other profitable companies in the Canadian security industry. Acquisitions may help us reach our growth targets more quickly, but we will not rush to complete new deals, and we will maintain our financial conservatism throughout.  

Most of our remaining legacy assets are expected to convert to cash over the next year. Our objective is to make these resources available for the expansion of our security business.  

We also plan to continue to distribute capital to shareholders via our dividend, operate with minimal to no debt while maintaining solid liquidity, focusing on maintaining strong margins, and maximizing our Adjusted EBITDA per share. 

ABOUT SSC 

SSC Security Services Corp. is a national provider of cyber, physical and electronic security services to corporate and public sector clients across Canada. For more information, please visit www.securityservicescorp.ca

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. 

Forward Looking Statements  

This release includes forward-looking statements regarding SSC and its business. Such statements are based on the current expectations and views of future events of SSC’s management. In some cases the forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as “may”, “will”, “expect”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “potential”, “estimate”, “believe” or the negative of these terms, or other similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting SSC, including risks regarding the security industry, the agricultural industry, economic factors and the equity markets generally and many other factors beyond the control of SSC. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement or information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements or information. Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and SSC undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. 

*Non-IFRS Measures 

SSC measures key performance metrics established by management as being key indicators of the Company’s strength, using certain non-IFRS performance measures, including: 

EBITDA, EBITDA per share, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA per share. 

The Company uses these non-IFRS measures for its own internal purposes. These non-IFRS measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS, and these measures may be calculated differently by other companies. The presentation of these non-IFRS measures is intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. The Company provides these non-IFRS measures to enable investors and analysts to understand the underlying operating and financial performance of the Company in the same way as it is frequently evaluated by Management. Management will periodically assess these non-IFRS measures and the components thereof to ensure their continued use is beneficial to the evaluation of the underlying operating and financial performance of the Company.  For more detailed information, please refer to the Company’s Management Discussion and Analysis dated February 11, 2025 available on the Company’s website at www.securityservicescorp.ca and on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.  

SOURCE SSC Security Services Corp.

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JAMS Launches AI for Enterprise Job Scheduling: JAX and JAMS MCP, on the Model You Choose

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A new AI agent and an open-standard connector let IT teams query, diagnose, and manage automation in plain language, on the model they choose, with operational data staying inside their own network

LONDON, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — JAMS Software, an orchestration solution for scheduled and event-driven automation, today announced the general availability of two AI capabilities for enterprise job scheduling: JAX, an AI agent built into the JAMS Web Client, and JAMS MCP, a connector built on the open Model Context Protocol standard that brings JAMS into external AI coding tools. Both capabilities ship at no additional cost as part of JAMS Web.

Automation environments grow faster than the teams that run them. Jobs multiply across SQL Server, Azure Data Factory, Airflow, SAP, JDE, and Banner, and when one fails, finding the root cause often means searching several consoles at once, frequently outside business hours. At the same time, IT leaders carry pressure to adopt AI while staying accountable for where operational data goes. JAX and JAMS MCP close both gaps together.

Full details on how JAX and JAMS MCP work, including the control model behind every action, are available at jamsscheduler.com/product/ai.

JAX is an AI agent that runs inside the JAMS Web Client. It finds jobs, troubleshoots failures, and answers how-to questions in plain language, with each response grounded in the JAMS user guide and checked against a built-in glossary. JAX acts only when a user asks it to. Reads flow freely, and every write action pauses for the user’s explicit approval before it runs. JAX does not learn between sessions, and conversations are not retained on the server.

JAMS MCP is a connector, built on the open Model Context Protocol standard, that brings JAMS into the AI tools engineering teams already use, including Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Codex. Users query jobs, investigate failures, and manage runs in plain language without leaving their tool.

Both capabilities run inside the customer’s own network and act as the signed-in user, with that user’s exact JAMS permissions. There is no elevated AI account: whatever a user cannot do in the JAMS interface, JAX and JAMS MCP cannot do on that user’s behalf. Every JAX and MCP operation is recorded in its own dedicated log, and changes made through the JAMS API land in the JAMS audit trail like any other change. Customers choose their own AI model, whether a commercial provider such as OpenAI or Anthropic or a model running entirely on their own hardware, and JAMS never trains on customer data. In the current release, neither feature edits or deletes a job, folder, schedule, or agent definition. For teams that must keep operational data within a defined boundary, JAX runs on a local model entirely inside the customer’s own network, so nothing leaves at all.

“Adopting AI usually means giving something up, most often visibility into where your data goes,” said Pete Hegland, Chief Executive Officer of JAMS Software. “We built JAX and JAMS MCP so that trade does not have to happen. Every action runs as the signed-in user, every change waits for approval, and the model itself can run entirely inside your own network.”

“IT teams across the United Kingdom and EMEA tell us the same thing: they want the benefit of AI without losing sight of where their data goes,” said Greg McLaughlin, Account Executive for EMEA at JAMS Software. “JAX and JAMS MCP let them keep operational data inside their own network and still get answers in plain language. That combination is what makes this practical for the teams I work with.”

JAX and JAMS MCP are available now to all JAMS Web customers across the United Kingdom and EMEA, with no separate licence, SKU, or additional cost. AI-assisted creation of new jobs and workflows from a plain-language description is on the roadmap for a future release, gated by the same approvals and permissions as every other action.

Learn how JAX and JAMS MCP work at https://jamsscheduler.com/product/ai.

Fast facts

JAX is an AI agent built into the JAMS Web Client for job scheduling and workflow automation.JAMS MCP is a connector built on the open Model Context Protocol standard, for Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Codex.Both act as the signed-in user, with that user’s exact JAMS permissions, and there is no elevated AI account.Customers choose the AI model, including a local model that runs entirely inside their own network.JAMS never trains on customer data.Both are available now at no additional cost as part of JAMS Web.

About JAMS Software

Founded in 1987, JAMS Software is an orchestration solution that helps IT teams centralize, automate, and manage scheduled and event-driven jobs across complex, hybrid environments. Over 850 customers rely on JAMS to run their automated workloads. JAMS Software, LLC is headquartered at 108 Patriot Drive, Suite A, Middletown, DE 19709.

Media Contact
Bobby Schmidt, Vice President of Marketing
press@jamssoftware.com
800.261.4267

 

 

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Video: CNPC offers green chemical answer

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BEIJING, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from chinadaily.com.cn:

Located on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Tarim 1.2 MTA Phase II Ethylene Project and its supporting green and low-carbon demonstration facility of PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical Company, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, are offering a new example of China’s low-carbon industrial transformation.

Watch the video to discover how CNPC is exploring a cleaner and more circular future for the industry.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/video-cnpc-offers-green-chemical-answer-302834036.html

SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn

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Shanghai Electric showcases embodied intelligence robot matrix and AI-native smart factory solutions at WAIC 2026

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Featuring humanoid robots with 41 degrees of freedom, pipe‑inspection robots with ±1mm positioning accuracy, and 51 industrial‑grade AI agents

SHANGHAI, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Operations in high-end equipment manufacturing often involve confined spaces, complex objects, and fine manipulation tasks that demand sustained and stable precision. At the recent 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance (WAIC 2026), Shanghai Electric (SEHK: 02727, SSE: 601727) showcased its comprehensive portfolio of embodied intelligence solutions tailored to a range of industrial scenarios.

Themed “AI for All: Smart Squad, Shining Without Limits,” Shanghai Electric highlighted its capabilities across embodied AI robots, robot core components, and AI-native smart factory solutions, demonstrating end-to-end capabilities spanning complete robot systems, critical parts, industrial software, and smart factory architecture.

“The true value of embodied intelligence lies in understanding real industrial tasks: combining the strength, precision, and stability of machines with human experience and judgment to drive a genuine paradigm of ‘machine-assisted, human-machine collaboration,'” said Wang Chunlei, deputy general manager of the Robotics Business Unit at Shanghai Electric Automation Group.

Shanghai Electric’s robotics portfolio covers five key industrial scenarios: connector insertion, electrical operations, flexible sorting, intelligent assembly, and pipe processing. Highlights include:

“SUYUAN” bipedal humanoid robot: With 41 degrees of freedom for enhanced mobility, it is equipped with a multimodal visual sensing system on the head and torso, along with a dual-battery hot-swap system. It is well-suited for inspection, material handling, and assembly tasks.”TUOYUAN” industrial wheeled humanoid robot: Powered by an embodied intelligence foundation model and force-position hybrid control, it is capable of multi-spec connector insertion, material sorting, and loading/unloading of automotive sheet metal parts.”Mermaid” bionic wheeled humanoid robot: Capable of autonomously identifying buttons, knobs, and air switches, it generates real-time operation paths.Autonomous pipe inner-wall chamfering robot: Designed for confined spaces, it can position and process thousands of hole edges with accuracy within 1 millimeter while transmitting data in real time.

Shanghai Electric also showcased its portfolio of core components ranging from power-output to end effectors. Among them, the planetary roller screw offers more than three times the load capacity of traditional ball screws, while the DexHand dexterous hand is designed to meet diverse gripping and manipulation requirements.

Shanghai Electric launched 51 AI models and agents under its “StarCloud Intelligent Manufacturing” series across three domains: R&D and design, production and manufacturing, and operations and maintenance—covering critical equipment processes such as process optimization and wind power facility maintenance.

These industrial agents are embedded in robotic decision-making systems and the operational logic of AI-native smart factories, transforming industrial expertise into digitized, reusable capabilities. They support production-line scheduling, quality inspection, and predictive maintenance, driving the evolution of manufacturing systems from experience-driven to data-driven operations.

Shanghai Electric also released the “AI-Native Smart Factory Technology White Paper,” proposing an active evolution architecture that enables real‑time, closed‑loop optimization of production data, giving the factory self‑perception, self‑decision, and self‑execution capabilities. Built on First Principles, the AI‑native smart factory vertically integrates process flows, industrial software, agents, and smart equipment to dismantle traditional hierarchies while horizontally bridging data silos. The architecture features three core layers: the AI factory brain as the “control center,” industrial agents and embodied robots as the “execution network,” and the physical twin as the “digital mirror.”

Leveraging its deep industrial expertise and comprehensive solution capabilities, Shanghai Electric will continue to drive the implementation of AI in industrial settings, tackle technical challenges facing embodied intelligence in complex scenarios, accelerate the large‑scale deployment of AI‑native smart factories, and deliver replicable solutions across diverse manufacturing environments.

SOURCE Shanghai Electric

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