Limbach Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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November 9, 2023

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Limbach Holdings Call to discuss Third Quarter 2023 Results and Update on Current Operations. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr.

Operator

Jeremy Hellman of The Equity Group. Thank you. You may begin.

Speaker 1

Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. Yesterday, Limbach Holdings announced its Q3 2022 results involve its Form 10 Q for the period ended September 30, 2023. The company would also like to note that an updated The Investor section is available on the Investors section of the company website at www.limbuckinc.com. Management will refer to select slides during today's call and encourages investors to review the presentation in its entirety. During this call, the company will be reviewing its financial results, Providing an update on current market conditions.

Speaker 1

Today's discussion may contain forward looking statements and actual results may differ from any forecasts, projections or similar statements made during the earnings call. Listeners are reminded to review the company's annual report on Form 10 ks and quarterly reports on Form 10 Q for risk factors that may cause the actual results to differ from forward looking statements made during the earnings call. Also, please note that during the question and answer session at the end of the call, we will only be taking questions from our analysts. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mike McCann, President and Chief Executive Officer of Limbach Holdings. Please go ahead, Mike.

Speaker 2

Good morning. Welcome, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Joining me this morning is Jamie Brooks, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Turning to the Q3, we continue to execute on all fronts and the result was margin expansion, which in turn led to solid growth in net income, adjusted EBITDA and cash flow. We continue to see our ODR transition happening at a rapid pace.

Speaker 2

Recall that we're originally targeting a fifty-fifty revenue split by 2025. As we speak with you today, we appear on track to hit that target this year. In doing so, this change in our business mix is driving the intended growth in gross margins, earnings and cash flow. As indicated in Slide 12 in our investor deck, we're now focused on shifting to a new target of at least 70% ODR. Both of our segments are performing well and we continue to shift our sales and marketing resources towards the ODR segment As a margin advantage for ODR segment during Q3 was 1,000 basis points compared with our GCR segment.

Speaker 2

Performance improvement in our GCR segment is a product of execution, project selection, which has been made easier due to our rapid shift to ODR and ability to be extraordinarily selective. Within our GCR segment results for this quarter was the successful resolution of our largest legacy claim. The claim resolution resulted in a $1,200,000 write up and net cash to the company of $16,000,000 That leaves one less significant legacy claim open. Beyond the segment shift and in segment margin enhancement objectives, the 3rd pillar of our strategy is scale for acquisitions. We already completed the acquisition of Acme Industrial in July and are pleased to announce that we're able to close another deal this year.

Speaker 2

Subsequent to quarter end, we announced the acquisition of Industrial Air Base in Greensboro, North Carolina for $13,500,000 in cash. We're very excited to add Industrial Air to the Limbach family. We're able to fund that deal with our cash on hand as our organic business continues to allow us to self fund acquisitions. Recall that our acquisition program focuses on both tuck in deals as well as larger opportunities that we believe will allow us to build out our geographic presence. Industrial Air falls into the latter category, providing Limbach with a new presence in the attractive growing Carolinas market.

Speaker 2

As shown on Slide 18 of our investor deck, Industrial AI hit the mark in all of our acquisition criteria. Strategic geographic location, Strong ODR customer base, including a number of national scale customers, and we believe an incredible opportunity for future value creation. Industrial Air also has their own line of products, including air handling units that are manufactured in house. That gives us a decided advantage in being able model and believe they're really great fit for Limbach. We're very excited to have them aboard.

Speaker 2

With the deal closing on November 1, we expect Industrial Air to have a relatively minimal impact on 2023 revenues. In EBITDA, while 2024 should benefit from Roughly $30,000,000 of revenue $4,000,000 of EBITDA. We are pleased to have built a favorable earn out economics into the deal structure, which lowers our cost of capital and provides all parties with a great outcome if and when targets are met. I'll now pass it off to Jamie to provide some financial highlights, And I'll return with a few comments on market conditions before we take your questions. Jamie?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Mike. Our press release and Form 10 Q, which was filed yesterday, both provide extensive details of our financials, but I'll focus on some key highlights. Starting with the income statement, during the Q3, the ODR segment accounted for 51.5% of total consolidated revenue, up from 48.8% last year in Q3. ODR revenue during the quarter was up 10.3% from a year ago, while GCR revenue was essentially flat, resulting in consolidated top line growth of 4.4%. As Mike noted, we continue to see solid execution in the quarter.

Speaker 3

Consolidated gross margin during the 3rd quarter Benefited from the increasing contribution from our higher margin ODR segment, strong overall margin performance in both segments and a couple of one time benefits that flowed through the GCR segment. These one time benefits included the settlement of 1 of our outstanding claims, which resulted in a gross margin benefit of $1,200,000 And then we also had another $1,200,000 gross margin benefit during the quarter as a result of the early completion of a project due to a reduction in scope from the customer. These one time benefits contributed $2,400,000 to the higher than usual GCR gross margin of 19.3%. Excluding these two items, the GCR gross margin was still solid and exceeded our target range of 12% to 15% And our ODR gross margin stayed strong at 29.3%, which was similar to Q2. Consolidated gross margin was 24.5 percent for the quarter and even if we were to back out the one time benefits, We had very strong performance and record high gross margin.

Speaker 3

SG and A expense was $21,000,000 for the quarter or 16.4 percent of revenue and was up modestly from $20,400,000 in the 2nd quarter and up from $18,700,000 in the year ago period. The increase in SG and A expense was primarily related to a $1,400,000 increase in payroll related expenses, a $600,000 increase in professional fees, including acquisition deal related fees and a $300,000 increase in stock based compensation expense. SG and A expense associated with the Acme transaction was approximately $300,000 for the purchasing through the end of the quarter. On prior calls, we have noted that we expect full year 2023 SG and A expense as a percentage of total revenue to have a similar annual run rate as 2022. As we have seen bottom line growth outpace our total revenue growth this year, currently projected SG and A expense is expected to land at the higher end of our targeted range of 15.5 percent to 16.5 percent of total revenue for the full year.

Speaker 3

Now turning to cash flow. We continue to have a strong balance sheet. At quarter end, our cash and cash equivalents balance was $57,500,000 and we had $10,000,000 outstanding on a revolver. We exited the quarter in a net cash position of 35 $2,000,000 compared to a net cash position of $23,600,000 at the end of June $4,200,000 at the end of December 2022. Total operating cash flow during the Q3 was $17,200,000 compared with $10,400,000 a year ago.

Speaker 3

Changes in working capital accounts had a $5,800,000 positive impact on operating cash flow this quarter. The remaining $11,400,000 of operating cash flow was the non working capital component. As we noted Previously, our free cash flow from operations can be calculated by taking this non working capital component and then subtracting CapEx, which totaled $221,000 in the quarter. That leaves free cash flow at $11,200,000 or around 82% of our adjusted EBITDA. The 3rd quarter did include a couple of noteworthy cash items, starting with the net receipt of approximately $15,600,000 from the settlement of a claim.

Speaker 3

This cash receipt was primarily offset by an increase in accounts Receivable of $15,200,000 in the changes of working capital mentioned earlier. We also used cash of $4,900,000 in investing activities for the Acme acquisition. Subsequent to quarter end, as Mike noted, we used 13

Speaker 2

Thank you, Jamie. As we approach year end, we have good momentum. We're executing well on our plan with demonstrated success in each of the 3 growth levers We have identified. That has allowed us to raise our adjusted EBITDA guidance for a second time this year. Recall, we began the year with a range of $33,000,000 to $37,000,000 And then we subsequently raised that to a range of $38,000,000 to $41,000,000 last quarter.

Speaker 2

We are now increasing our adjusted EBITDA guidance again for 2023 to a range of $42,000,000 to $45,000,000 The upward revision to our adjusted EBIT guidance this quarter is a function of our continued strong performance year to date, along with a small contribution from our 2 acquisitions during the second half of the year. During the Q3, we were once again able to record gross margins Above the target range of both segments. Underpinning that performance is our rigorous project selection, excellent field execution And overarching emphasis on delivering value added solutions for our customers. Our adjusted EBITDA also benefits from 2 one time GCR gross margin benefits $2,400,000 that were booked in the quarter, as Jamey discussed earlier. We are also reiterating our revenue guidance for 2023, which consists of total revenue for the year in the range of $490,000,000 to $520,000,000 We believe overall conditions in our end markets remain While much of the day to day headlines focus on macroeconomic additions, Limbach continues to see strong demand due to the mission critical nature of our end markets.

Speaker 2

As we continue our evolution to being an indispensable partner to building owners, our key customers continue to show that our services are essential And the spend is resilient. Leading customers in our Turner verticals have been successful in managing their operations and balance sheets. As of now, we have not seen interest rates make a significant debt demand. As a reminder, with our ODR expansion, our business is less correlated with new construction than in the past. Over the past quarter, all of our vertical markets experienced strong demand.

Speaker 2

As an example of the last quarter, we saw healthcare spend from both our operational repair budget and long term capital projects. In our industrial manufacturing vertical market, customers were focused on preparing for future capacity And there appears to be no shortage of opportunity. Also as a reminder, we spent a lot of time refining our model to be flexible and adaptive to a variety of market Central there is a focus on customers with mission critical facilities. By providing high value solutions to those customers, We expect to be well positioned to serve their needs regardless of the prevailing economic wins. Focusing on supply chains for a moment.

Speaker 2

We do see some moderation in equipment lead times for off the shelf items. At the same time, complex equipment is still difficult to obtain, With delivery times remaining elevated, so again, one of the many reasons we're very enthusiastic about the acquisition of Industrial Air. Heading into year end, we believe we have good momentum and look forward to closing the year strong. As we head into 2024, We look forward to having Acme and Industrial Air provide full year contributions to our results and help propel our continued effort to maximizing our overall ODR opportunities. Based on our current views and expectations, we don't want to underestimate what we believe The large market opportunity that we continue to pursue.

Speaker 2

We continue to believe that we have the right platform, the right people and the right strategy to continue to drive Strong operating results. I also want to remind everyone that Slide 27, our investor presentation, includes additional modeling considerations. With that, operator, please open the Q and A session.

Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Rob Brown with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 4

Good morning and congratulations on all the progress.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Rob. Good morning.

Speaker 4

You talked a lot in

Speaker 1

a lot of detail about the

Speaker 4

margins and some of the ins and outs in the quarter, but your long term margin targets, are they You've been running ahead of them. Have you seen some structural improvements there that maybe you can continue to do that? Or How do you think about long term margin targets into next year and the year after?

Speaker 2

Rob, Regarding each one of those, we're definitely optimistic that there is going to be future improvement. But at the same time, we continue to make sure that we have the right trend line going forward before we do anything Just to talk about each one of them really quick. GCR, I mentioned this in the prepared remarks, But a lot of this has to do with our ability to be extraordinarily selective right now. There's tremendous amount of work. We could be filling up our backlog, but since we are Very strategically increasing ODR and reducing GCR that's allowed us to be very opportunistic from a margin perspective.

Speaker 2

From the owner direct perspective, still lots of opportunity. I can tell you our main focus from a go to market perspective is To make sure that our the work that we get is a combination of both relationship and value add. We've had a lot of conversations with customers recently. They're very appreciative of the work that we're doing and the dedication we are to a select group of accounts. And we've been really working collaboratively with certain Customers to make sure that we're really making sure they're understanding our value, working collaborative with them.

Speaker 2

And over time, we believe that's going to be an opportunity From additional margin expansion, but it's really a process that we've gone through. So just to summarize, GCR is really a product of being extraordinarily selective. And owner direct is just making is there's future opportunity, but it's a matter of us really making sure that we prove our value and continue to expand our services.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. Thank you. And then, sort of on the market and demand environment, I know you've focused on some high growth verticals, But how do you see the demand environment kind of continuing? Are you seeing any areas of sort of weakness? Or is it Remain in terms of quoting activity, I guess, remain active.

Speaker 2

I think one of the key things with our strategy is making sure that And we've really been positioning ourselves really the last couple of years is really to make sure that we have the right mission critical markets and customers where they can't afford not to have service Done. Just to touch upon a few of them. Healthcare, healthcare has been really, really positive for us this year. It's been an interesting ride with them going from 2020 into the last few years. But we've dedicated ourselves to those accounts, We're starting to look ahead to future capital budgets going into 2024 2025.

Speaker 2

At the same time, there's tremendous amounts of repair work that needs to happen. Some of that's due to deferred maintenance, so really looking optimistic about that. The industrial manufacturing has been really strong this year. Those are due to whether it's a line change or it's again deferred maintenance. So I think in summary, We're really looking forward to the fact that we're dedicating ourselves to mission critical worker markets that demand remains resilient and we're very optimistic about that.

Speaker 4

Great. Okay, good. And then on the Industrial Air acquisition, it looks like a pretty interesting situation. How can you use this component manufacturing ability they have? Can you use that in other areas of your business or just maybe a sense of how that adds to what

Speaker 2

Yes. So just in kind of summary, we have a criteria for these acquisitions that we've really learned from Both the Acme Industrial and Jake Marshall continue to learn through the whole process. So we're really excited that Industrial Air really checked All those boxes, and one of the pieces that was really interesting when we started to really look into them and get to know them was they have a product line. Air handlers, dust filters, all sorts of Products that they use currently with their owners and the work that they do, they're able to essentially provide a design build solution where they Design it around their manufactured and installed products and we're able to provide a complete end to end. We do think there's an opportunity both from a customer perspective because they have some national customers and I think also from a product perspective to feed our other locations and strategic point.

Speaker 2

So again, we view that as future value add. The deal at itself, That was just a strong component of meeting criteria, but there's definitely future opportunity.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. Thank you. I'll turn it over.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Gerry Sweeney with ROTH

Speaker 5

Just to follow-up a little bit with what Rob was talking about on the ODR side. My sense is My sense is you're probably still pretty early in this expansion and I just want to see if you could maybe discuss maybe the playing field a little bit, the opportunities, are we still really in your early innings and how you continue to drive this forward?

Speaker 2

Yes. No, I agree with you completely. I think what you said is that we're still very much in the early innings. The key thing with our strategy the last 18 months is to be extraordinarily selective. We're selective on the GCR side, but on the owner direct side, we're being selective because we're focusing on Each location is focusing on their top five accounts, 75% or 80% of their time.

Speaker 2

And that's really led us to getting some different insights from these building owners. One thing that we've it's been fairly consistent is they want us to do more. At the same time, they want us to prove our value along the way. So I think kind of as we go into the next phase and we get into 202425, we're at a point now where we build competency and trust. We're starting to get a peek into their budget and their needs of their business long term, and really co authoring and developing long term solutions.

Speaker 2

So One thing we hear time and time again is the other providers, I don't they don't have the same strategy per se and they're not dedicating themselves as much as we are and They like the availability of our people. The next stage is how can we develop a 2, 5, 10 year program with them. We're really working tightly with their budget, understanding their business needs beyond HVAC Mechanical and Electrical, and building that long Which is going to give to us additional visibility. At the same time, they're looking for visibility on their budget as well too.

Speaker 5

Got it. That is interesting. So you're really trying to get in there and make a sticky relationship. You said top you look in each location, top 5 customers. Over time, I would assume, I mean, you got a balance sort of building out that 2, 5, 10 year relationship that you talked about Maybe even going after account 6 through 10.

Speaker 5

Is that a way of looking at it as well? Or is there more than enough currently for your top five customers?

Speaker 2

There's definitely more than enough. I would tell you that we had 75% on the top 5 and there's still 25% that's probably on the next 5%, 10%, 15%. So there's plenty of diversity in there. But I would tell you that to your point, just The top five has been so demanding. They want us to do so many more things that we just continue to our strategy, I think, resonates with building owners.

Speaker 2

They understand that there's a race right now for talent and they need to work with us To ensure that they're getting the same person that shows up every day, whether that's from a management or a field perspective. And I think what's nice too from a diversity perspective, As we add in IA, they have a whole different group of customers. They're really textile manufacturing type customers. So it's another top 5 or 10. So each location has a top 5 or 10.

Speaker 2

There's going to be some synergy with branch to branch or location to location. And as we add every acquisition on, we're adding continued customers. So the customer list continues to build. We're always trying to force ourselves be as disciplined as possible to make sure that we're providing the best service to those customers.

Speaker 5

Got it. So summarize my words, Your top 5, I'm just making a number. I mean, you're looking at, you're probably, who knows, 25%, 30%, 40% penetration And there's that extra runway just to grow internally or grow with those further with those top 5?

Speaker 2

Yes, that generally makes sense, yes.

Speaker 5

Got it. Switching gears to GCR, obviously very good margins. In the last You've been less is more being very selective. How much of that is That selectivity, are you seeing better price, lower project size, maybe just underwriting Your projects to a higher degree, I'm just curious if you could bucket that out. And Yes.

Speaker 5

A follow-up to that. Is there opportunity for actually some incremental growth going forward because it sounded as though there's a ton of projects out there. Sorry, a lot there, so I apologize.

Speaker 2

Sure. Yes. So the margin, there's a number of different things which is driving the margin. The first one is really our ability to be selective is really driven by the fact that we're driving sales and marketing Our owner direct, so they'll come to us and ask us, can you really do this one? I think the second thing is we're very careful from a risk perspective right now on these GCR projects, Really looking at size and duration as well as, the amount of labor that we're actually installing on those projects.

Speaker 2

There's definitely a very rigorous and it continues to be more rigorous. Those are really 2. And then the third thing is our teams are performing really well. We've got a great group of teams. And what's nice about the staff is they've been able to really flex between owner direct and GCR work and That flexibility has been absolutely paramount to this shift happening and the continued shift.

Speaker 2

So those are probably the 3 big pieces of it. From a growth perspective, we still look at it that even though it's 12% to 15% and maybe in certain quarters we performed better than 15%, The owner direct still provides almost double the margin and that's what we're going to continue to push towards. And just because we're 25% to 28% doesn't believe this, There's still future opportunity beyond that. So we're going to continue to push towards owner direct. I think our next target is really getting to that 70%.

Speaker 2

And it just time and time again is the it looks like the right return on people and investment to make sure they're going to the higher margin segment.

Speaker 5

Got you. That makes sense. And one more, then I'll jump back in line. It's just a sort of follow-up. You talked about ODR, GCR guys being able to flex back and forth.

Speaker 5

Is that workforce 100% sort of fungible between those two businesses or I

Speaker 2

look at it where We have our definitions of our segments from a revenue perspective. But from the people side of it, again, it goes down to It comes down to our people. I think sometimes it's perceived that in the industry that there are certain people that do this work and certain people that do this work. We found that our staff has been completely adaptable and flexible. And that's allowed somebody who's worked in a large project The ability to be working at a facility every day as an account manager.

Speaker 2

So it's been a big shift. It's a big evolution. But we have great people that are really looking to provide value to customers and that the ability to flex has been paramount.

Operator

Thank you. That concludes our question and answer session. I'll turn the floor back to management for any final comments.

Speaker 2

Thank you everyone for your continued interest in Limbach. If you have any additional questions, please reach out to Jeremy Hillman of The Equity Group. Thank you everyone. Have a great day.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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