SPX Technologies, Inc. NYSE:SPXC
FQ4 2024 Earnings Call Transcripts
Tuesday, February 25, 2025 9:45 PM GMT
S&P Global Market Intelligence Estimates
-FQ4 2024-
-FQ1 2025-
-FY 2024-
-FY 2025-
CONSENSUS
ACTUAL
SURPRISE
CONSENSUS
CONSENSUS
ACTUAL
SURPRISE
CONSENSUS
EPS Normalized
1.51
1.51
0.00
1.32
5.57
5.58
0.18
6.11
Revenue (mm)
532.88
533.70
0.15
507.00
1982.90
1983.90
0.05
2142.42
Currency: USD
Consensus as of Feb-20-2025 8:48 AM GMT
- EPS NORMALIZED CONSENSUS
ACTUAL
FQ1 2024
1.03
1.25
21.36 %
FQ2 2024
1.25
1.42
13.60 %
FQ3 2024
1.36
1.39
2.21 %
FQ4 2024
1.51
1.51
0.00 %
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SURPRISE
1
Contents
Table of Contents
Call Participants
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3
Presentation
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4
Question and Answer
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7
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
Call Participants
EXECUTIVES
Eugene Joseph Lowe
President, CEO & Director
Mark A. Carano
VP, CFO & Treasurer
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations &
Communications
ANALYSTS
Bradley Thomas Hewitt
Wolfe Research, LLC
Bryan Francis Blair
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research
Division
Damian Mark Karas
UBS Investment Bank, Research
Division
Ross Riley Sparenblek
William Blair & Company L.L.C.,
Research Division
Stephen Michael Ferazani
Sidoti & Company, LLC
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
Presentation
Operator
Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2024 SPX Technologies Earnings Conference Call.
[Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.
I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Paul Clegg, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go
ahead.
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us.
With me on the call today are Gene Lowe, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Mark Carano, our Chief Financial Officer.
A press release containing our fourth quarter and full year results was issued today after market close. You can find the release and our
earnings slide presentation as well as a link to a live webcast of this call in the Investor Relations section of our website at spx.com.
I encourage you to review our disclosure and discussion of GAAP results in the press release and to follow along with the slide
presentation during our prepared remarks. A replay of the webcast will be available on our website.
As a reminder, portions of our presentation and comments are forward-looking and subject to safe harbor provisions. Please also note
the risk factors in our most recent SEC filings. Our comments today will largely focus on adjusted financial results, and comparisons
will be to the results of continuing operations only. You can find detailed reconciliations of historical adjusted figures from their
respective GAAP measures in the appendix to today's presentation.
Our adjusted earnings per share excludes amortization expense, acquisition-related costs, nonservice pension items, mark-to-market
changes and other items.
Finally, we will be meeting with investors at various events over the quarter. On April 1, we are planning to host a tour of our Ingénia
custom air handling unit production facility outside of Montreal. This tour is open to investors and analysts. If you have an interest in
attending, please e-mail me or contact me through the e-mail address on our Investor Relations website.
And with that, I'll turn the call over to Gene.
Eugene Joseph Lowe
President, CEO & Director
Thanks, Paul. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us.
On the call today, we'll provide you with an update on our consolidated and segment results for the fourth quarter and full year 2024.
We'll also provide full year guidance for 2025.
We had a strong close to the year. We grew full year adjusted EBITDA by 36% and delivered adjusted EPS near the upper end of our
guidance range. Adjusted free cash flow was 108% adjusted net income. During the fourth quarter, our company continued to execute
well. We drove strong margin performance across both segments and made great progress on several key initiatives.
Recently, we made another significant addition to our Detection & Measurement segment with the addition of Kranze Technology
Solutions, or KTS, which significantly scales our position in our Communication Technologies platform and positions us for further
growth. Looking ahead, market conditions support continued solid growth for SPX, and we remain well positioned to continue our
strong operational performance.
Today, we're providing 2025 midpoint guidance that reflects another year of double-digit adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS growth.
Turning to our high-level results. For the fourth quarter, we grew revenue by 13.7% with growth in both segments, including a
particularly strong performance in HVAC cooling. Adjusted EBITDA increased 28.1% year-on-year with 250 basis points of margin
expansion.
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
As always, I'd like to update you on our value-creation initiatives. 2024 is a big year for innovation at SPX, and we introduced a
number of new products that significantly enhance our customers' efficiency and safety. In our HVAC segment, we continue to extend
our range of sustainability-focused products. Within our heating platform, we introduced solutions that allow our customers to reduce
their carbon footprint, including biofuel boilers and a heat pump boiler combination.
In our cooling platform, we introduced an antibiotic line of cooling products that enables customers to optimize between power and
water usage for various cooling applications. This year, we're expanding our range with a larger-scale version ideal for data center
cooling.
In Detection & Measurement, we introduced a survey-grade precision locator that enables our customers to meet exacting
requirements for mapping credible utility infrastructure. We also introduced an innovative technology that uses acoustics to detect
problematic intersections between different underground utilities, such as gas and water lines.
In January, we completed the acquisition of KTS, which significantly expands the scale of our Communication Technologies platform
within our Detection & Measurement segment. KTS' advanced digital interoperability and tactical networking solutions integrate
and distribute real-time information across multiple communications domains and platforms. Their solutions enhance situational
awareness, coordination and tactical execution during operations. KTS' solutions are highly complementary to our existing tactical
data links and radio frequency or RF countermeasure offerings from TCI to ECS.
Together, we see significant further growth opportunities for our CommTech platforms. KTS enhances and strengthens our position in
communication solutions, broadens our access to attractive growth markets, expands our global customer base. We also believe their
highly differentiated technology creates attractive new product development opportunities that can be leveraged through our existing
sales channels to ultimately address a wider range of potential applications.
Over the last several years, our approach to value creation, including capital deployment, has been highly successful. We've grown
earnings per share an average of 28% per year over the past 4 years. Looking ahead, we remain very well positioned to continue
driving value for our shareholders both organically and through further acquisitions.
Now I'll turn the call over to Mark to review our financial results.
Mark A. Carano
VP, CFO & Treasurer
Thanks, Gene. Our fourth quarter results were strong. Year-on-year, adjusted EPS grew 21% to $1.51. Full year adjusted EPS grew
29% to $5.58 or towards the upper end of our guidance range of $5.45 to $5.60. For the quarter, total company revenue increased
13.7% year-on-year. Organically, revenue grew 9.9%, while the Ingénia acquisition drove an increase of 4%, and FX was a modest
headwind. Consolidated segment income grew by $26.6 million or 25.9% to $129.4 million, while segment margin increased 230
basis points.
For the quarter in our HVAC segment, revenues grew 18.6% year-on-year. On an organic basis, revenues increased 12.8% driven
primarily by continued growth in cooling, and to a lesser extent, in heating. The acquisition of Ingénia in our cooling platform
contributed growth of 6%. FX was a modest headwind.
Segment income grew by $18.6 million or 25.4%, while segment margin increased 140 basis points. The increases in segment income
and margin were due to operating leverage on higher organic sales and the Ingénia acquisition. Segment backlog at quarter end was
approximately $437 million or similar to Q3.
For the quarter in our Detection & Measurement segment, organic revenues grew 4.2% year-on-year, while FX was a modest
headwind. The increase in revenue was driven largely by stronger sales of Location & Inspection and AtoN products. Year-on-year
segment income grew $8 million or 27%. Segment margin increased 410 basis points. The increases in segment income and margin
were driven by operating leverage on higher revenue and favorable project execution as well as further benefits from our continuous
improvement initiatives. Segment backlog at quarter end was $221 million, up 14% sequentially from Q3.
Turning now to our financial position at the end of the quarter. We ended Q4 with cash of $161 million and total debt of $615 million.
Our leverage ratio, as calculated under our bank credit agreement, was 1x. Including the effect of the KTS acquisition, which closed
in January, our leverage ratio was 1.7x or well within our target range of 1.5 to 2.5x. We anticipate our leverage ratio declining below
our target range by year-end, assuming no further capital deployment. Full year adjusted free cash flow was approximately $284
million, reflecting conversion of adjusted net income of 108%.
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
Moving on to our guidance. Today, we introduced full year 2025 guidance, including KTS. We anticipate revenue in a range of $2.13
billion to $2.19 billion and segment income margin in the range of 23% to 24%. We anticipate adjusted EBITDA in a range of $460
million to $490 million. At the midpoint, this reflects a margin of approximately 22% year-on-year adjusted EBITDA growth of 13%.
Our adjusted EPS guidance range of $6 to $6.25 reflects approximately 10% growth at the midpoint.
In our HVAC segment, we anticipate revenue in a range of $1.44 billion to $1.48 billion and segment margin in a range of 23.5% to
24.5%. In our Detection & Measurement segment, we anticipate revenue in a range of $690 million to $710 million, including the
KTS acquisition, and segment margin in a range of 22% to 23%.
For Q1, we anticipate modest revenue growth driven by the KTS acquisition and a full quarter of Ingénia, which we acquired
in February of 2024. We expect flat organic revenue with growth in HVAC, offset by a year-on-year decline in Detection &
Measurement related to the timing of project deliveries during the year. We anticipate margins in both segments to be similar yearover-year. We also expect higher interest costs associated with acquiring KTS and a tax rate consistent with our full year 2025
guidance. As always, you'll find modeling considerations in the appendix to our presentation.
Before I turn the call back over to Gene for a review of our end markets, I wanted to touch briefly on tariffs. For China, we've
reflected the recently enacted tariffs in our guidance for 2025. For Mexico, sourcing and revenue exposure is nominal. For Canada,
sales into the U.S. from our Canadian operations make up a mid-single-digit percentage of our total revenue. SPX is well positioned to
navigate potential tariff changes, and we have multiple mitigation measures available.
More than 80% of our revenue comes from the United States. We largely follow an in-country, for-country sourcing model. Supply
chain management is a core component of our business system, and we have pricing power across our businesses. While the current
situation is dynamic, we remain nimble and are prepared to act quickly.
And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Gene.
Eugene Joseph Lowe
President, CEO & Director
Thanks, Mark. Current market conditions support our 2025 outlook for solid growth. Within our HVAC cooling platform, we continue
to see solid demand for our products across several key end markets, including data centers, health care and institutional. In our
HVAC heating platform, we're experiencing order rates consistent with the more typical heating season and steady demand for
nonresidential projects. In our Detection & Measurement segment, we're seeing healthy demand for projects with delivery times more
targeted towards 2026 and beyond. In our run rate businesses, we're seeing flattish overall demand with regional variation.
In summary, I'm very pleased with the close to 2024 and our strong full year performance. Our acquisition of KTS further scales our
attractive CommTech platform and positions us for future growth. With a solid demand background and strong operational execution,
we are well positioned for another year of double-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS in 2025. We also have an active
pipeline of attractive acquisition opportunities to enhance our growth.
Looking ahead, I remain very excited about our future. With the right strategy and a highly capable experienced team, I see significant
opportunities for SPX to continue growing and driving value for years to come.
And with that, I'll turn the call back to Paul.
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
Thanks, Gene. Operator, we will now go to questions.
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
Question and Answer
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Bryan Blair of Oppenheimer.
Bryan Francis Blair
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division
Another good quarter, solid momentum into '25. It would be helpful if you offer a little more color on how your team is thinking about
the full year.
What are the key watch items to keep in mind? I'm thinking about the lower end of guidance. And what levers could perhaps drive
upside to the $6.25 high end? And then that framework in mind, how should we think about the cadence of revenue and earnings
through the year?
Mark A. Carano
VP, CFO & Treasurer
Yes. Bryan, thanks. I'll start off here. As we look at the year and -- I would say, when I think about our HVAC business, broadly, we
remain bullish on those end markets, right, data centers, institutional, health care. Some of the markets we've mentioned throughout
last year remain solid, and we continue to see good opportunity there.
As you think about what could drive those -- that guidance to the upper or the lower end within HVAC, you obviously -- you've got
the weather dynamics that we always see on the heating side of the business. That's out of our control. On the cooling side, it's -- when
I think about nonresi momentum, does that accelerate throughout the year? Does it slow down? Those are key things. We're always
watching some of the key indicators like Dodge and PMI. And then the data center market, which represents fairly large projects at
times, right, that could represent incremental opportunity for us if it plays out.
With respect to D&M, we've talked about the short cycle or the run rate side of the business. That's obviously going to remain tied to
the economic environment that we're operating in. I would say, with respect to our L&I business, that tends to be the most sensitive to
that. In certain markets, we actually feel more optimistic about what we're seeing in the U.S. And in the project side of the business,
that pipeline or front log of opportunities remains very robust. We feel good about what we're seeing across Genfare, CommTech and
some of our other businesses.
But I think as you know, there's always a timing element to those and where they fall within the quarters, and sometimes, within the
year. We are seeing this front log, while it's very attractive, we're seeing actually more, and I think we mentioned this in our last call.
We're seeing good opportunities in 2025. We're also seeing quite a few that are kind of rolling into '26 and '27.
So that's kind of the broad comments. I would say, just overall in the economy, we're cautiously optimistic about what we're seeing.
The sentiment has obviously improved because you do have this kind of short-term policy disruption that's out there that I think is
impacting the general market. Just think about some of the things that are happening with respect to the new administration and what
that means for businesses across particularly in North America and the United States.
Bryan Francis Blair
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division
That all makes sense. I appreciate the color. I mean you mentioned data centers there. There's obviously been consternation lately in
terms of where spending will trend, where growth rates will shake out, unrelated exposures. I guess, to level set, where did data center
revenue shake out for SPX in 2024? And what are you contemplating guidance for '25?
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
So it was about -- Bryan, this actually came in about what we thought it would be at around 7% of the total company or around 10% of
HVAC. And it's one of the drivers of our growth, along with health care and institutional, on the HVAC side as we look into 2025. So
we would expect that to represent a similar or better share.
Bryan Francis Blair
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
Understood. And one last one, if I may. KTS, you walked through the portfolio. It fits the differentiated technology.
What should we think about in terms of year 1 financial contribution, where may that climb over time? And then most intriguingly, are
you willing to speak to the TAM expansion that having brought that asset into the fold, what's now in play for CommTech and D&M?
Mark A. Carano
VP, CFO & Treasurer
Sure. Bryan, I'll kick that off. When we announced that deal, we indicated that it would have about $90 million in revenue on an
annual basis and segment margins slightly higher than the current segment income margins of the D&M business. Obviously, we're
only going to own it for 11 months of the year. So you can kind of do the math around that. It's probably about $80 million or so of
revenue contribution throughout the year.
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
On a -- if you look at it on the first half, second half basis, Bryan, we're looking at the first half being closer to kind of 1/3
contribution; in the second half, 2/3 contribution. And that really goes to the timing of the installations in the programs that they're
involved in.
And then the other comment I'd make, which I think you guys have worked out, is that you see a heavier interest burden in the front
half of the year. And that interest burden starts to decline as you get into the second half and generate more cash flow.
Modest -- as we said on the -- when we bought them, that it would be a modest contribution for this year, and that will pick up in the
subsequent year when you pay down some of that debt.
Mark A. Carano
VP, CFO & Treasurer
And then, Bryan, I think you asked further about kind of the market opportunity going forward, right? This is a key program for the
marines in that branch of the U.S. military. We've got high visibility into that program and visibility into the deployment of it over the
coming years. When you think about broadening that out, there's considerable opportunity to expand that capability within the other
branches of the government, whether that's Navy or other areas.
Eugene Joseph Lowe
President, CEO & Director
Yes. I think just a few comments there. As we've stated before, KTS is embedded in many platforms. And these are multiyear installs
on a variety of different aircraft helicopter platforms that -- they have a very strong position and a significant number of those and
very good visibility of that.
And as Mark had alluded to, one of the areas of a very attractive synergy that we see is our TCI business has very strong global
presence, very strong in MOD in the U.K., in Canada, Five Eyes, and we see some attractive growth opportunities there. But we also
have a nice presence in the Air Force to see some growth opportunities there.
We also see some very nice technology synergy here, where they have very, very good technology. And this technology overlaps very
well with our data links technology, and we think there's going to be some good opportunities to work together here on some different
opportunities.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Damian Karas of UBS.
Damian Mark Karas
UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
A follow-up question on data centers. Paul, correct me if I misheard you, but I think you said that you ended the year around 7% of
your total sales into data centers for the HVAC cooling business. And I think you said you'd expect a similar level this year or maybe
a little higher. So one, just if my math's right, that kind of suggests you're maybe expecting data center growth of like 8%, high single
digits, something like that. Could you just confirm that?
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
And the second part of my question is, just given some of the commentary out there on some of these big companies like Microsoft
and maybe having a little bit overcapacity, I'm just curious if you've seen any changes in your project funnel or your visibility for data
centers since we last talked?
Eugene Joseph Lowe
President, CEO & Director
I'll talk about the second one first. And I would say the answer to that is no, Damian. We actually feel really good. And as you know,
if you think about data centers, AI is actually still a pretty small portion of the overall demand, obviously, growing very fast. But the
majority of data centers is really people moving to the cloud or other applications like that.
But I would say the demand for us, we see in front of us and our current product line is very attractive. And then also, as a reminder,
we have launched new products that expand our addressable opportunity here, in particular on the adiabatic and the dry. And we
actually think that's going to open up some very interesting opportunities for us going forward. But I would say the data center
demand we see is healthy and steady...
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
Yes. Sure. Damian, the only thing I'd take into account in your math there is that remember that we have a couple of acquisitions that
benefit us in the 2025 numbers that don't have anything to do with data centers. And so obviously, Ingénia is part of that, that rolls into
this year, and the other is KTS. And so those are going to raise your overall revenue number a little bit there that affects the math. So
I'm not sure I agree with your conclusion there.
Damian Mark Karas
UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
Okay. Appreciate it. I can follow up with you off-line on that.
My second question is just on Detection & Measurement. And Gene, you said project activity is healthy, but a lot of that stuff is you're
saying is kind of 2026 and beyond. I think that's a little bit longer lead times than you typically see in that business.
So could you just maybe elaborate on the nature of these projects and why they're longer-dated? And just thinking about the flat
underlying sales guidance for this year in D&M, how are you kind of thinking about that, the short-cycle run rate part of the business
versus projects?
Eugene Joseph Lowe
President, CEO & Director
Yes. Why don't I start and then I'll throw it over to Mark to kind of put it into more numbers. If you look at D&M, I would say, on
our run rate businesses, it's steady with maybe some modest growth there. It does vary by region. I think the U.S. is pretty steady.
The continent of Europe, the more modest U.K. is pretty steady. But overall, I'd say our run rate business, which is the bulk of the
Detection & Measurement segment, is performing well and performing steady.
On the projects, as you know, Damian, there's a couple of different business units that have project activities. So on the transportation
side, the Genfare brand, we've seen a lot of larger orders, I would say, very large orders, which are very good. You see some of that in
our backlog.
You'll see more of this. That's where we've been verbally awarded. I think some of these could even hit Q1, Q2 that have a good
chunk -- these are multiyear projects that are, I would say, larger than the projects we have seen historically over the past 5 years. And
these are not in and out in the same year. A lot of the transportation business is you get an order, it could be $1 million, it could be
$5 million, it could be $8 million. Oftentimes, that gets in and out in the same quarter or 2. A number of these opportunities are more
multiyear projects, where you're doing a broader range of a work for them. And so we're actually very excited about it.
We have had -- the team has done a really nice job in a lot of that business. And so I think that positions us well for '26. Two other
ones, in our AtoN business, we have some project in portable. Air Force lighting has been very good business for us. We actually see
some nice projects rolling into '26-'27. A lot of that is more on the military side.
So do you see longer lead times, which is very similar to the portion in our CommTech business, which we've always talked about.
We do have some longer lead times there. So yes, I'd say the project activity is healthy. We feel good about what we're seeing.
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
Mark A. Carano
VP, CFO & Treasurer
Yes. I think, I mean, just to add to that, what Gene's comments were, when I think about the run rate side of the business, I mean,
we've talked about that being flattish. I think we're optimistic as we sit today about what we're seeing in served parts of the globe,
particularly in the U.S. But our guide today still contemplates kind of a flattish run rate business, much like we experienced last year.
With respect to the project side, really all 3 of those are seeing a high level of activity. And when I think about that front log, some of
those projects will be bid and executed within the year, but we're just seeing a fair number of projects that will get bid later in the year
that we'll either execute in '26 or beyond or will be on a multiyear execution.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Ross Sparenblek of William Blair.
Ross Riley Sparenblek
William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division
Taken through just some of the product commentary within HVAC, can you maybe just help us get a sense of demand levels and some
of the dynamics between Everest cooling and the EMA business?
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
EAM business?
Ross Riley Sparenblek
William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division
Yes, Engineered Air Movement.
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
The Engineered Air Movement business.
Eugene Joseph Lowe
President, CEO & Director
Yes. I think at cooling, I'd say you hit on probably our 2 biggest product categories for data center. I would say cooling is healthy. As
a reminder, we're very strong in cooling towers. We do well in data centers, not only in North America, but we have a nice position
in Asia, where we went a lot -- actually, a big chunk of the Asian business is really oriented around data centers. We also do well in
Europe.
Let's say, the business there is doing well. And frankly speaking, there's a lot of excitement about the expansion of the product
opportunity because we were really servicing one portion of that area, which is the cooling tower. But the 2 other areas, dry cooling
and adiabatic, really have not been servicing. So we did launch this at the ASHRAE show, the large HVAC show last month. And
I think there's a lot of excitement there. These tend to be longer lead times. We would be focused on getting a material amount of
bookings in '25 and targeting to get a chunk of that revenue into '26. So I'd say on the cooling side, we feel very good about what we're
seeing there.
And then on the TAMCO side, demand is very strong. I think our product -- I think we have a better product. It's very similar to
Ingénia, where our challenge is getting the production to meet the demand. And we are expanding both in Canada and in the U.S.
there. And our focus is being able to sell more because we are in a situation where we are at full capacity there. So I'd say on both
sides, we're feeling good about what we're seeing.
Ross Riley Sparenblek
William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division
Got it. That makes sense. Yes. Well, I'm just trying to understand kind of the sensitivity in the HVAC top line and almost get a sense
that maybe you're reserving some of the new capacity for Everest for these new products? Maybe just any updates on where you are
kind of absorbing that Springfield site?
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
Eugene Joseph Lowe
President, CEO & Director
It's done really well. It's ramped up very rapidly. We've gone from 0 -- have we shared the numbers there publicly, Paul? I think you're
talking tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars. It's been a really nice facility. We focus most of our NC and our MD Everest
through that facility. That's not only for data centers, we will see that those larger-scale products also used in semiconductor.
We're seeing in a variety of applications, battery plants. We've seen them in steel, a variety of larger applications, but it's been a very
nice addition. But we still also have more room to grow there. So I think that there is -- if we find the demand, we can scale a material
amount further in our cooling business.
Ross Riley Sparenblek
William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division
Okay. So how to think about the high and the low end of the HVAC margin range then? I mean there's still some overhead absorption
to go, if you hit the midpoint of kind of the organic guide. I mean, what gets us towards that low end? Is that kind of diluted M&A that
was in the medium-term targets that you guys gave last March? Or is there something else around additional capacity in Ingénia that
would kind of hit that, I think, 23% range?
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
No, Ross. That would really be -- if you're talking about the lower end of the range, that would really be where you don't see as much
drop through on the top line, you're not seeing as much absorption. Some of that could come from the heating side, if you're talking
about a weaker winter. Some of that could just come if you start to see deterioration in the macro.
Ross Riley Sparenblek
William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division
Okay. One more if I can. I still like it's been a pretty abnormally cold winter, and I'm a little surprised on low single-digit growth on
the heating side for the boilers. Is this kind of maybe January-loaded, so it's flowing through in the first quarter? Or is there something
else there?
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
Yes. So actually, for fourth quarter, it was really quite warm. And the -- it did turn cold in January, and we have seen stronger
bookings in the first quarter in Hydronix, as you would expect.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Steve Ferazani of Sidoti.
Stephen Michael Ferazani
Sidoti & Company, LLC
When you guided for the full year a few months back, look at the numbers, your -- the segment results for 4Q, it looks like D&M
actually came above the high end of your range, while HVAC was at the very low end.
Just trying to see what transpired as the quarter went on that sort of generated those kind of results?
Mark A. Carano
VP, CFO & Treasurer
Yes. I think, Steve, with respect to the D&M business, we did have a very strong fourth quarter with respect to our execution there.
And really, what you saw was, given the incremental revenue that we saw, particularly from the L&I side of the business, you saw
operating leverage in the business. You also saw some very favorable project execution, some of the CommTech projects that were
executed within the quarter.
And then I think, as you know, we've been on this year journey over the last year or 2 really using CI and other synergies to drive
margin across the D&M platform as a segment. And really, it was kind of a blend of all 3 of those elements that drove that outsized
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
performance in the quarter. And some of that dynamic you obviously saw throughout the year, right, as we continue to drive D&M
margins up to the levels where we finished the year.
With respect to the HVAC margins and the dynamic there being on the lower end relative to where we were guiding was really related
to revenue and the drop-through related to that, right, which was a function of heating and the dynamic that we saw in the fourth
quarter.
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
Yes. We had set heating at a fairly low bar for the quarter because it had been warm. It turned out to be -- we didn't see a lot of uptake.
It remained warm. You guys were all on T-shirts up in the north, and nobody was buying boilers. So that was a key driver that caused
us to come in a little bit lower on HVAC.
Stephen Michael Ferazani
Sidoti & Company, LLC
I know I'm not the first one to ask this, but does the start of the season -- is that how the season goes? Because it obviously was the
coldest in at least 3 years as we got into January, February. But if you don't order the boiler in October, are you not ordering it, you'll
wait until next year? Or how does that usually play out? You guys have done this for so many years.
Eugene Joseph Lowe
President, CEO & Director
Steve, I think you hit the nail on the head. It's not only the number of heating degree days but when it does get cold. And what you
do see is if it gets cold early September, October, November, people will replace the boiler. If it gets kind of cold in January and
February, what you see is a lower pickup rate. You might get parts orders, you might get some service work.
But you're exactly right. So the 2 numbers we always look at are the heating degree days, but also when -- specifically when it gets
cold. We have also some progression models and historical data about what drives our TAM for that year, but I think the way you
described it is accurate.
Stephen Michael Ferazani
Sidoti & Company, LLC
Okay. That's helpful. On the backlog build with D&M and the expectation that 2026 could be a very strong year, so much at D&M is
supported by government spend. Given the new administration, does that put any of these projects at risk?
Mark A. Carano
VP, CFO & Treasurer
Yes. Steve, great question. When I think about the 2 areas where you would see that would be, one, around our Genfare business on
the transportation side. I will tell you as we sit today, we're not seeing any impact from the change in administration or any of the sort
of noise that you're seeing coming out of Washington regarding that business. The opportunities remain robust there, and there's really
been no timing change.
With regard to the compact side of the business where you would see a tie to defense spending, we obviously are watching that very
closely. We are not seeing anything as we sit today that would lead us to believe that there would be a change in the order rate or the
opportunity there as we look out.
Clearly, when you look at particularly the KTS business with some of the other elements of CommTech, right, these are businesses
that are really -- they're really skewed to kind of what is the modern technology of the U.S. military, right? It's kind of where the U.S.
military is going. And it's not really tied to sort of these kind of large traditional equipment that you see out there.
And frankly, they're essential, I would argue, to the kind of the strategy of the U.S. military. So I think we feel good about where we're
positioned there from a defense perspective. But we'll be watching it closely clearly.
Stephen Michael Ferazani
Sidoti & Company, LLC
That's fair. I just wanted to flip back to KTS for a second. I mean that looks like a really unique technology. It looks like it would be
very, very hard to displace on any projects. It looks like it fits perfectly with your past M&A strategy.
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
But I wanted to get a sense, Gene, is your M&A strategy evolving at all? Have you shifted priorities and what you're looking at now
versus what you maybe were looking at 2, 3, 4 years ago in terms of targets?
Eugene Joseph Lowe
President, CEO & Director
I don't think so. I think we're staying true to our values in terms of how and where -- what types of businesses are we good at that we
can build and in growing our platforms? It's engineered products, leadership positions, it's tech-heavy, it's all of the same types of
things that we've always been focused on over the past 10 years.
What I would say that does evolve as you think about our different platforms, as you build, you will see new opportunities grow. A
perfect example of that would be Engineered Air Movement, where a couple of years ago, we were not in that business, right? We
were in cooling towers, which is a very close adjacency to that. By getting into Cincinnati Fan and then TAMCO and now Ingénia, our
TAM is dramatically larger and how we can build that out. It's the same strategy in terms of the types of business.
We're not a commodity guy. We're not a cheap guy. We run engineered businesses where product management is very important.
We have a very strong focus on the customers and innovation, very strong focus on digital. And I would say, if you look across our
platforms today, there is a lot more opportunity.
This is, I would say, on the M&A side, the busiest I have ever seen us in 10 years. We see some very attractive opportunities on the
HVAC side in a couple of different areas and then also on the Detection & Measurement side.
So I believe our strategy is sound. We're not -- but we're not changing anything in terms of how we think about really -- and Steve, as
you know, we kind of laid out in March our strategy. It's very similar. So we're executing against that. We feel good about what we're
seeing.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Brad Hewitt of Wolfe Research.
Bradley Thomas Hewitt
Wolfe Research, LLC
So it looks like your revenue was relatively flattish sequentially in Q4, whereas about the expectation was for a modest step-up
sequentially to get to kind of a $100 million annualized revenue run rate. Was there a timing component to be aware of there? And
then how should we think about the growth outlook for Ingénia this year on a full year basis and kind of on an exit rate basis?
Mark A. Carano
VP, CFO & Treasurer
Sure. Brad, I'll kick that off. With respect to Ingénia, that -- we have a very, very strong backlog in that business. So we feel good
about the opportunity set there. I think as you know, we're doing a facility expansion there currently. And that was a little bit slower
than I think we had originally intended when we were chatting about this over the last couple of months. Most of that kind of
challenge that we had with respect to getting up and running is behind us now. So it's up fully functional, but that did impact revenue
within the quarter.
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
We came in a little light from the guide based on that. But with that equipment installation, we're back on track.
Bradley Thomas Hewitt
Wolfe Research, LLC
Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe on the KTS business, can you walk through what you're assuming from a synergy perspective
and maybe a year 5 ROIC math? And then do you expect to see any impact on the business from DOGE?
Mark A. Carano
VP, CFO & Treasurer
I'll start with the -- we kind of talked a little bit about the DOGE dynamic just -- I think in the last question. But we're watching that
very carefully. But what I will say, and I think Gene has made this point as well, this is just a really critical technology to the U.S.
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
military. If it's embedded within one of the branches and the expectation is it will be one of the core technologies across many of the
other branches.
So -- and when you think about where the U.S. military is going and the sort of technologies they need to support in the, whether
that's drones, communications, things of that nature, this is just a critical component to it. So I think generally speaking, I would be
surprised if it was impacted. But clearly, the future and what's coming out of Washington right now is unpredictable. So we're keeping
a close eye on it.
With respect to -- I'm trying to remember the other parts of your question, with respect to ROIC in year 5, listen, one of our key
elements of any transaction that we do that it has got to generate a return in excess of our cost of capital within 3 to 5 years. So that
-- we wouldn't have moved forward with the transaction should it not have had that sort of return profile. So you can rest assured, it's
something we're very focused on.
Eugene Joseph Lowe
President, CEO & Director
On the synergy side, just a few more qualitative comments. While KTS has won a number of platforms, multiyear installing of their
technology and like the [ MV 22 ], the [ CH 53 ], the [ AA 1Z ], the [ MQ 9A ] that are multiyear programs, there's actually a lot of
growth within their existing business and other platforms in other areas within their existing infrastructure.
The thing we like about this is this solves a real pain point for frontline operations. You're really taking a lot of different proprietary
communications where you don't want to have 10 different communication systems. You want to have one where you can actually
see everything and manage everything. And that's really the special sauce that KTS has. So we think they're very well positioned with
their technology.
As Mark alluded to, we actually think on the synergy side, we bring a lot of very strong relationships from our CommTech business.
We have very strong relationships in the U.K., in Canada, some of the other Five Eyes that we think and really help expand this as
well as in the Air Force, which is a big AtoN with our mobile Air Force lighting. We have a very strong relationship there. That's on
the commercial side.
Then on the technical side, the teams are very excited about how we can bring our tactical data links and their solution together and
deliver more value not only to the KTS side of the customers, but to the legacy TCI side of customers. That's not something that
happens overnight. It does take some time to do the joint development, but we see some real opportunities there as well. So yes, we
feel good about the growth opportunities here and the synergy opportunities, specifically on the commercial and the technical side.
Operator
I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Paul Clegg for closing remarks.
Paul Clegg
Vice President of Investor Relations & Communications
Thank you all for joining us. We look forward to updating you on the quarter once -- on the quarter ahead.
Once again, if you have an interest in attending our Ingénia facility tour, please e-mail me.
Operator
Thank you for choosing your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.
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SPX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. FQ4 2024 EARNINGS CALL FEB 25, 2025
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