10/28/2025

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the FTIE Aviation Third Quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear automated messages writing your hand as raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is pre-recorded. I would like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Alan Nadrini, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

speaker
Alan Nadrini
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Marvin. I would like to welcome you all to the FTIA Aviation Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. Joining me here today are Joe Adams, our Chief Executive Officer, Angela Nam, our Chief Financial Officer, and David Marino, our Chief Operating Officer. We have posted an investor presentation and our press release on our website, which we encourage you to download if you have not already done so. Also, please note that this call is open to the public in a listen-only mode and is being webcast. In addition, we will be discussing some non-GAAP financial measures during the call today, including EBITDA. The reconciliation of those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in the earnings supplement. Before I turn the call over to Joe, I would like to point out that certain statements made today will be forward-looking statements, including regarding future earnings. These statements, by their nature, are uncertain and may differ materially from actual results. We encourage you to review the disclaimers in our press release and investor presentation regarding non-GAAP financial measures and forward-looking statements, and to review the risk factors contained in our quarterly report filed with the SEC. Now I would like to turn the call over to Joe.

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Alan. Angela will provide a detailed overview of the numbers, but first I'd like to highlight a few key updates. Number one, we passed a significant milestone this month with a successful close on the final round of equity commitments for SCI, which is Strategic Capital Initiative number one. We've had tremendous interest from institutional investors in the partnership throughout the year, And given this high level of demand, we have upsized the total equity capital of the 2025 partnership to $2 billion. FTIE will co-invest up to approximately $380 million, including the $152 million we have invested year-to-date for a 19% minority equity interest compared to our original expectation of 20%. With a $500 million increase in equity capital, our new target is now to deploy over $6 billion in capital through the 2025 partnership up from our previous target of $4 billion and double the original goal of $3 billion we announced in December of last year when we launched SCI. This expanded partnership corresponds to a larger total portfolio size of approximately 375 aircraft with full deployment of capital now anticipated by mid-2026. Today, we now have 190 aircraft either closed or under LOI commitment and continue to have confidence and visibility from the SCI investments team on sourcing the remaining aircraft through a combination of lessor counterparties and direct sale leaseback transactions with airlines. The successful $6 billion launch of this partnership creates significant value and positions FTIE for sustained long-term earnings growth. The MRA agreement, which provides fixed price exchanges for all engines in the SCI portfolio, establishes a multi-year contractual pipeline of demand for rebuilt engines within our aerospace product segment. Additionally, our role as servicer and 19% minority equity investment is expected to generate attractive returns within our aviation leasing segment. For our equity partners, SCI represents a compelling opportunity of enhanced returns relative to the traditional leasing business model. Through the MRE, or maintenance repair exchange agreement, LPs benefit from higher, more predictable cash flows combined with lower residual risk across a highly diversified lessee pool. For our airline counterparties, engine exchanges also provide clear, meaningful value by eliminating the financial and operational risk and burden of managing engine shop visits. With this significant value proposition to all parties, FTIE, our equity LP partners, and airlines, we see strong opportunities, opportunity to launch additional SCI partnerships each year going forward. Turning now to Q3 results, aerospace products delivered another strong performance, generating $180 million in adjusted EBITDA at a 35% margin, up approximately 77% year over year. This positive momentum underscores the strong accelerating global demand for pre-built engines and modules in the CFM56 and V2500 aftermarket. We continue to see adoption of our aerospace products expanding across both new and existing customers, supplemented by our MRE agreement with the SEI. Airline operators and asset owners increasingly recognize FTI as the most flexible, cost-efficient alternative to traditional shop visits, which are more expensive, more complex, and more time-consuming than a simple and cost-effective exchange with FTI. A recent example of this is Finnair, with whom we announced a multi-year perpetual power program. Through our scale, asset ownership, and extensive in-house maintenance capabilities, FTI's engine exchanges help Finnair manage their maintenance costs, improve reliability, and ultimately deliver a better service to their passengers. The trend toward longer-term partnerships like Finnair is increasing, and we expect to announce additional new airline perpetual power programs in the future. Overall, we're confident our differentiated business model and competitive advantage places FTI to be the long-term leader in engine aftermarket maintenance for these engine types. We're well positioned to achieve our goal of reaching 25% market share in the years ahead. Moving over to production, we refurbished 207 CFM56 modules this quarter between our three facilities in Montreal, Miami, and Rome. an increase of 13% versus the last quarter. And we remain on track for our goal of producing 750 modules in 2020-25. In Montreal, our recently established training academy has also already enrolled over 100 trainees who are graduating significantly faster than traditional methods, thanks to our technology-driven approach using virtual reality and AI technology protocols. Combined with our emphasis on specialization and operational efficiencies, these initiatives are delivering measurable improvements in throughput and productivity. We remain confident in the trajectory of substantial production growth ahead as we scale the Montreal facility to capacity. In Rome, our operations continue to develop at an impressive pace. We have successfully integrated FTIE's MRE operations with the facility and technicians from Roam have conducted extensive training seminars at our Montreal Training Academy to improve skill development and optimize production efficiency. We're also actively investing in upgrading Roam's infrastructure and component repair capability, enabling heavier and more complex module repairs, which will position us to ramp production next year to double our 2025 target. We're also pleased to announce agreement to acquire ATOPs for approximately $15 million, an MRO with extensive CFM56 engine operations, strengthening our presence in Miami. This acquisition will transform our Miami MRE operations by complementing our nearby module and test cell facilities, adding expansion space and adding experienced technical staff to support increased production next year once the integration into our operation is complete. Additionally, the purchase includes an ATOPs facility in Portugal, which will serve as a logistics and field service hub in coordination with our European operations in Rome. We've also made good progress in expanding our component repair capabilities through the launch of a 50-50 joint venture called Prime Engine Accessories with Bauer, Inc., out of Bristol, Connecticut. The Bauer team brings tremendous experience and expertise in accessory test equipment, and together we're building an industry-leading MRE repair facility for accessory parts. Once operational, which we expect by the end of this year, this facility is expected to deliver up to $75,000 in average savings per shop visit. Our initial $10 million working capital investment will enable us to redirect FTI volumes to this facility rather than to outside vendors, driving meaningful cost efficiencies and time savings. This investment, like Pacific Arrow, which we did last quarter, further differentiates our offering and aids us in both expanding productivity and expanding margins. With a substantial activity in enhancing our facilities and the broader MRE ecosystem, we are now targeting growth in production next year to 1,000 CFM56 modules, an increase of 33% compared to this year's production. We also continue to expect aerospace products margins to grow to 40% plus next year as we optimize our parts procurement and repair strategies, including the approval of PMA part number three, which we continue to expect approval of in the very near term. Next, let's talk about adjusted free cash flow. In the third quarter, we generated $268 million, which includes $88 million from the sale of the final eight aircraft from the 45 aircraft seed portfolio, which were sold to SCI-1. Year to date, we have now generated $638 million in positive free cash flow, positioning us on track to our revised goal of $750 million for all of 2025 prior to our expanded contribution to SCI number one. As FTIE pivots to an asset-light model focused on aerospace products and strategic capital, we continue to expect substantial growth in free cash flow in the years ahead, Our primary use for available cash is to pursue investments in high impact growth initiatives, and we're seeing today a significant number of these opportunities and possibilities. FTIE's targeted discipline approach is to identify opportunities complementary to our MRE operations in areas where we can accelerate production, expand margins, and further differentiate our product offerings to customers worldwide. We do expect surplus cash balance above these investment opportunities and therefore we are announcing an increase to the dividend this quarter from 30 cents per quarter to 35 cents per share. The dividend of 35 cents per share will be paid on November 19th based on a shareholder record date of November 10th. This marks our 42nd dividend as a public company and our 57th consecutive dividend since inception. Additionally, we will also continue to evaluate future opportunities for capital redistribution to shareholders. And finally, we remain confident in our full-year 2025 estimates of $1.25 to $1.3 billion business segment EBITDA for all of 2025, comprised of aerospace products EBITDA ranging from $650 to $700 million and aviation leasing EBITDA of $600 million. Looking ahead to 2026, for aerospace products, we're estimating $1 billion in EBITDA for next year, which represents significant further growth versus the $650 to $700 million this year, and approximately $380 million, which we generated just recently in 2024. For aviation leasing, we're estimating $525 million in EBITDA in 2026, which is in line with our expected results for 2025, excluding insurance recoveries and gains on sale. Within the leasing segment, we estimate the growth in servicing fees and our 19% minority equity investment will offset the decline in on-balance sheet leasing revenues from the seed portfolio sold to the SEI as we continue to pivot to an asset-like growth model. Overall, we now anticipate total business segment EBITDA in 2026 of $1.525 billion, up from our original estimate of $1.4 billion. Based on these projections, we expect to generate $1 billion in adjusted free cash flow next year, representing a 33% increase over the $750 million we are targeting in 2025 prior to our expanded contribution to SCI-1. With that, I'll hand it over to Angela to talk through the numbers in more detail.

speaker
Angela Nam
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Joe. The key metric for us is adjusted EBITDA. We maintain their strong momentum this quarter with adjusted EBITDA of 297.4 million in Q3 2025, which is up 28% compared to 232 million in Q3 of 2024, and in line with Q2 2025 results after excluding the one-time benefits from insurance recoveries and seed portfolio gains on sale we recorded last quarter. During the third quarter, The 297.4 million EBITDA number was comprised of 180.4 million from our aerospace product segment, 134.4 million from our leasing segment, and a negative 17.4 million from corporate and other, including intra-segment eliminations. As we have predicted, aerospace EBITDA is now exceeding leasing EBITDA. Aerospace products had yet another great quarter with 180.4 million of EBITDA and an overall EBITDA margin of 35%, which is up 9% compared to $164.9 million in Q2 of 2025, and up 77% compared to $101.8 million in Q3 2024. We continue to see accelerated growth in adoption and usage of our aerospace products and remain focused on ramping up production in each of our facilities in Montreal, Miami, and Rome, as well as expanding component repair operations at our recent acquisition in California and our new joint venture launched in Connecticut. Turning now to leasing. Leasing continued to deliver strong results, posting approximately $134 million of adjusted EBITDA. For gains on sale, we continued the year with $126.8 million of asset sales proceeds, generating a 7% margin gain of $8.3 million as we closed on the final eight aircraft of the SEAD portfolio to SCI number one and divested several non-core assets, including several Pratt-Windy 4000 and CF680 engines. Overall, the total 45 aircraft SEAD portfolio contributed an aggregate gains on sale of $50.1 million to 2025 leasing EBITDA at a margin of 10%. The pure leasing component of the $134 million of EBITDA came in at $122 million for Q3 versus $152 million in Q2 of 2025. But included in the $152 million last quarter was a $24 million settlement related to Russian assets written off in 2022, as well as leasing revenue generated from seed portfolio, which we have now sold to the FDI. With that, let me turn the call back over to Alan.

speaker
Alan Nadrini
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Angela. Marvin, you may now open the call to Q&A.

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

Thank you. At this time, we'll conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder to ask a question, you'll need to press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. And our first question comes from the line of Sheila Caru of Jefferies. Your line is now open.

speaker
Sheila Caru
Analyst, Jefferies

Good morning, guys, and congratulations on upsizing of SCI. It looks like great traction from the investor base in sourcing these aircraft, and I think you have now 375 aircraft targeted for the size of United Airlines CFM seats. So can you maybe walk us through the financial implications of the upsizing, both from a segment EBITDA and free cash flow perspective?

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So I mean, The way I think about it is we're increasing the number of aircraft that will have an SCI by that amount of going up 33%, 250 up to 375. And we'll probably do it a little bit faster than we had expected given the pace of investing activity. So our plan has always been to continue to do additional SCIs every year. So I think it really is the main impact is just accelerating the growth under SCI. And, you know, we originally said we expected SCI business for FTI to represent about 20% of the aerospace products volume. And, you know, probably with this acceleration of the SCI fundraising, you know, that number might go up to 25%. So 20% to 25% going forward. And the important thing is that that business is 100% of all the engines in those partnerships are dedicated, committed to FDI Aviation for the duration of the ownership period, which we expect will be five to six years. So it's locked in volume. We know everything you need to know about the engines we have access to. We can plan our production very efficiently. We can have engines pre-positioned. It's just a great, you know, there's just so many benefits that come out of us having, you know, being the manager of these of these capital pools. It also makes us look a lot bigger to the airline customers. So when you go in to visit an airline and you own a significant chunk of their fleet as a lessor, the ability to get business from them on other engine products that we offer is higher, is bigger. So it has cross-selling opportunities that also will benefit FTIE. But I think the main thing is just faster, you know, what we're pushing for overall as a company is really just faster market share gains in the MRE business and aerospace products.

speaker
Sheila Caru
Analyst, Jefferies

Got it. Thank you. And then maybe if I could ask one on the ATOPS acquisition, if you could give any color on how that came about, how it adds 150 modules worth of capacity, and similar to Pacific Dynamic, if you could give – color on even contribution as we think about the savings from that.

speaker
David Marino
Chief Operating Officer

Yep. This is David. I'll take that, Sheila. So on our M&A strategy, you're really seeing two themes play out, right? We're doing investments to either increase margin or expand our capacity well ahead of our production needs. So ATOP specifically is the latter, where we're increasing production well ahead of our production needs. ATOPs, as Joe mentioned earlier in the opening remarks, has two facilities. The main facility is in Medley, Florida, which is very close to our test cell today, so it immediately creates synergy between our test cell and the facility. It also includes 60 employees, and we have the ability to process 150 modules at a location. So effectively, that raises our overall production at the company from 1,800 modules to 1,950 modules. Additionally, the second facility is located in Lisbon, Portugal. That has a small team that we expect to grow. Our goal out of that facility is to run our field service, and those are the employees that actually deliver the module exchanges to customers, specifically out of Europe. And we expect to grow that facility because we see a lot of local talent that we could recruit from. So the ATOPS transaction is mostly focused on increasing capacity. We also did announce the power transaction. That represents the first theme, which is we're looking to increase margin and looking to continue to vertically integrate. So that is a 50-50 joint venture, which we call Prime Engine Accessories based in Bristol. It is for the engine accessories. So that includes fuel pumps, HMUs, actuator and valves, Those are the components that regulate air, fuel, and oil between the engine and the aircraft. It was a repair that we were lacking that now we're able to insource. And we're very happy to partner up with Bauer, which is a leading manufacturer of a lot of this, the test and bench equipment. As Joe mentioned, for that investment specifically, we're expecting to capture around $75,000 of savings per shop visit. And we're expecting to do about 350 engines per year when that starts ramping in 2026. Great.

speaker
Joe

Thank you.

speaker
Noah

Thank you.

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Christine Leigwald of Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

speaker
Christine Leigwald
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Hey, good morning, everyone. I just want to follow up on SEI. I mean, you guys are significant buyers of aircraft engine assets now in a time where there still seems to be a shortage of assets out there. Can you talk about the availability of assets that you're able to buy, pricing, expected returns? I mean, ultimately, what were your conversations with investors like? What did they like about SEI, and where are areas of potential concern?

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Sure. I'll start on that. If you think about the market, there are two different sellers of these narrow-body current tech aircraft. One is Lessor's, and they own roughly half of the world's fleet. So if you think about 14,000 aircraft that are 737 NGs and A320 CO family aircraft, about 7,000 are owned by Lessor's. And as lessors begin to take delivery of new aircraft into their portfolios, they need to sell off older aged equipment. One of the big drivers of that is just to maintain ratings. Those rating agencies and debt investors and lenders look to that metric of average age of your portfolio as one that they track very carefully. So during COVID, I think a lot of lessors were able to you know, hold on to assets longer. They extended the average life of their portfolio, maybe, for example, from 12 years to 14 years. But now people are saying, you know, you got to sell the older stuff. So that portion of the market, you know, represents, you know, north of probably 1,000 aircraft a year that are sold by Lasaurus. So we're buying, you know, from that group. And, you know, we have a very significant competitive advantage in that we can do engine exchanges. So we're an advantaged buyer, and we're one of the larger pools of capital that are focused really solely on NGs and COs. The second source of deals is airlines. And a lot of airlines had deferred as much of the engine maintenance as possible during COVID. They've kicked the can down the road pretty far. But there are a lot of shop visits coming up in the near future and airlines are looking to do sale leasebacks which allow them to avoid both raise capital today and avoid a shop visit. So that investment in that shop visit can be a significant amount of their capital for an airline and they're looking at alternatives for how to do that and we present the perfect alternative which is an engine exchange. There's no downtime, no shop visit and they're back in service and they totally avoid the capital investment in that engine shop visit so it's a perfect product um you know industry sources have all cited that you know airlines in in the maintenance world there's an increasingly heavy orientation on heavier shop visits you know the core restorations is the most expensive part there's more of that you know that's going to be needed in the next few years and that plays perfectly you know into our strengths because that's what we do in in our facilities as we rebuild those um so So that's the supply side. In terms of the investors, when we look at this compared to a traditional approach, what we show the investors is that we solve problems. MRE, maintain, repair, and exchange, is a better way of doing engine maintenance. And we solve problems and save people money. And so when you solve problems and you save money, that means higher returns for investors and less risk. It's actually a very simple explanation. People get it immediately. Who in the credit world doesn't want higher returns with lower risk? We're finding a high receptivity to that. It's predictable cash flows, relatively short duration, and it's an asset-backed structure that's uncorrelated to public markets. It really fits in nicely into today's investment world. And we have a terrific group of investors, all of whom will, as I say, if we deliver the returns that we show people, then we'll be able to raise a lot more capital.

speaker
Christine Leigwald
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

That's super helpful color, Joe. And maybe a follow-up question, it could be for Angela. When we look at your 19% equity portion of SEI, I mean, with the upsized amount, this is a pretty sizable leasing income. How do we think about that portion? Is that going to be reflected in the adjusted EBITDA in the leasing segment? Will this be reported in the other line? I mean, ultimately, what's the treatment of SEI in your financials?

speaker
Angela Nam
Chief Financial Officer

On that 19% specifically, as you mentioned, yes, it will show up in our equity pickup line. So you'll see that as the equity income line pick up for the 19% that we own from SEI leasing returns. But in addition to that, as Joe mentioned, as we are the servicer, we'll also pick up servicing revenue, which is currently in other revenue in the leasing segment. So that will grow with the asset base also growing. And then we'll also see in our aerospace products business, the engine exchanges that are coming through for all the engines that are coming up for exchanges with the SCI at the fixed price that we've already committed to.

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

We will include that in adjusted EBITDA. That's correct. 19% will be included in adjusted EBITDA in leasing.

speaker
Christine Leigwald
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Yes. Good. Super helpful. And look, sorry, there's just so many things going on. So if I could have asked a third question here. Look, I want to take a step back on the module facility. I mean, I think sometimes we kind of gloss over the success you've had the past few years, but ultimately, you're targeting 750 modules by year end. And you've already gotten 9% of the market share for CFM 56 and v 2500. I mean, five years ago, you guys were at zero. And so this has been a fairly astronomical growth and penetration. especially for what was a financing company to really enter into the wrench-turning MRO business. I wanted to ask you, can you share with us some of the secret sauce and how you were able to execute fairly seamlessly with this kind of volume that we've never really seen others be able to accomplish?

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, but I would say... Two things that we did, looking back, that were important. One was focus, which most people in the business tend to get into this diversification mode, where they're trying to do a Noah's Ark of aircraft or a fleet of different engine types and diversify. Often, to people, they equate to less risk. We consciously decided that with these engines that this was the best opportunity in the industry and that we should do nothing else. And so I would attribute a large part of that decision to say, let's get out of the other engine types. Let's just focus on CFM56 and then ultimately V2500. So that was big. And then the second is really people. You have to attract great people and retain them. And we have a terrific team of people across the entire organization. And, you know, everybody – it is always ultimately about that. And to do that, people have to – you have to sell the vision and people have to buy into it. And I think people have. You know, when you go out to meet with customers, that's kind of the biggest reinforcement is when people on the, you know, buy side are saying, you know, I really – I'm not that good at doing shop visits. I've had bad experiences. I want to do anything to not have to do a shop visit. So when you show up and you say, I can solve your problem, that really invigorates people because they feel like they're doing something worthwhile.

speaker
Noah

Well, great. Thank you very much. I really appreciate the time. Thanks. Thank you. One moment for our next question.

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

And our next question comes from the line of Josh Sullivan of Jones Trading. Your line is now open.

speaker
Josh Sullivan
Analyst, Jones Trading

Hey, good morning. Congratulations on the quarter. Just on a follow-up on ATOP, you know, $15 million in equity for 150 modules, you know, fantastic trade. How do we understand the calculus and module capacity potential here? You know, just looking at maybe like the FDIT, USA as an example, you know, what are the gating factors to finding these relatively small investments for such a big yield on module capacity increase? Is there a lot of runway to do these relatively smaller investments, or do we need a larger investment eventually to drive, you know, significant module capacity growth?

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

No, I think it's, you know, there's a surprising number of what I refer to them as almost like empty buildings that Once upon a time, somebody was in the business and they left their tooling and there's a building and somebody's trying to figure out what to do with it. And that's where we have a unique ability to walk in and say, well, we can deliver engines immediately. And so these opportunities do exist. And as you mentioned, the math on them, because there is no real vibrant business operating inside of these buildings today, we can... acquire them at very low prices and fill them up. And the gaining factor is the people. It's the mechanics. That's why we've been talking about, you know, the training facility in Montreal is a big initiative because we found we could hire people, but you couldn't make them productive as fast as we wanted. And sometimes you have, you know, people don't actually ever become productive. So you have to, you know, focus on how do you, you know, increase your, your yield and shorten that time to get people into a mode of being a contributor. So that's where a lot of our energy has gone. I think there are more facilities out there that we can find. There don't seem to be a shortage of that. There are people offering us deals all the time now. So it's really going to be trying to find those ones that are the easiest for us to plug in. and have the biggest available pool of mechanics in the nearby area.

speaker
Josh Sullivan
Analyst, Jones Trading

And then I guess similarly, just on the JVFR, you know, 75,000 cost savings per visit, is the capability more about improving turnaround times for your customers or margin insourcing, you know, at FTI? And I guess we're customers pushing you to add this capability, which might lead to additional new MRE customers. Or is it just a good asset to have in source to drive margin?

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

For a multiple choice question, I would choose E. All of the above. I mean, it's really phenomenal. The engine is so complicated in some ways and so simple in other ways. But these accessories are very complicated. And the know-how that people at Bauer have is phenomenal. I mean, they make all the test equipment that everyone uses And so we, you know, are partnering with them, and we've already had interactions with our engineers and their engineers, and there's a sharing of, you know, experiences. And, you know, we think they'll make us better, and we hope, you know, we can contribute and make them a little better. But it's really just widening, you know, expanding the circle, you know, with people that have you know, specialized knowledge and intellectual property in areas that are incredibly expensive to, you know, fix, you know, and the engine is full of them. Every time you look, there's something else that is also, you know, very high cost and very specialized knowledge. So it's, you know, we feel like we found, you know, a phenomenal partner and, you know, the The math works well for both of us, and, you know, we think it's going to continue just to, you know, as you said, it makes our margins better. It makes our people smarter. It shortens the turnaround time in that, you know, if you send accessories out now to a third party, you're beholden upon that third party to get it back to you so you can, you know, keep producing. And this way we have more control over the whole process.

speaker
Joe

Got it. Thank you for the time. Thanks.

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Juliano Bologna of Compass Point. Your line is now open.

speaker
Juliano Bologna
Analyst, Compass Point

Good morning. Congratulations on the continued great execution on all fronts here. As the first question, you mentioned several conferences and on some calls. that we should think about FTI as being in the spread business. Can you expand on that, and especially as it relates to both weak and strong markets?

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Increasingly, we think about our business as being really in two different areas. One is the manufacturing business, where we buy run-out engines, rebuild them, and sell them. And the other is the asset management business, which we raise capital and buy airplanes, and that business gets committed volume to FTI Aviation. So if you think about the two businesses, the first business is buying an engine at a price in the market and then rebuilding it. And you're adding basically hours and cycles to that engine. And then you're selling it for whatever people will pay for hours and cycles on a rebuilt basis. And so that's the spread. It's the buy and then the build. And we can control the cost of the build and then the sell. And so we're Basically, like in a manufacturing business, I say, isn't that what Apple does when they make an iPhone? They buy parts from people, they put them together, and they sell it. So that's our core business. And in a soft market, you're going to buy cheaper on the run outside, and you'll maybe sell a little bit cheaper, but usually not for long. And so I think the market is very strong. The price of A rebuilt engine is driven primarily by the OEM list prices on those parts because that's your alternative. And as long as people are flying aircraft, they're going to need to replace hours and cycles on those engines. And so that's what drives it. If we were to hit a period where there's excess availability of engines, and that's happened in the past in other engine types, not this one in recent history, well, if you go back to COVID, but What happens is, you know, I would look at that as a three to six month window to accelerate market share gains for us because it always rebounds. So if there's an opportunity to, you know, pick up some inventory at a lower price or build our capacity, then when it rebounds, you'll be in a better position at the end of that. And we've really done that consistently over, you know, entire careers.

speaker
Juliano Bologna
Analyst, Compass Point

That's very helpful and I appreciate that. It is the next question for Angela. I see the new slide on slide 39 of the supplement that details the way that the cash flow statement would change and the reporting would change using industrial accounting versus lease accounting. Is the right way to think about it that effectively all of the cans on sale or economics that were flowing through cash spread by investing activities would effectively move into operating cash flow when you change to industrial accounting because of a more streamlined methodology there?

speaker
Angela Nam
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, no, that's right. That's the right way to think about it. So as you mentioned, we did include the perform a cashless statement on slide 39 of our supplement. And what you will see is that for nine months and at 930, we would essentially be moving about $722 million in cash proceeds from our sales assets from investing to operating activities. And We've outlined the line that would specifically change, but you've hit on them where it would include the gain of assets and the proceeds from asset sales. And starting in third quarter, we have classified all of our inventory purchases going through operating. So you will see a transition of that aligning with our cash flow statement going forward.

speaker
Juliano Bologna
Analyst, Compass Point

That is very helpful. I appreciate it. And I think that will make things a lot simpler and streamlined going forward. Thank you very much, and I'll jump back in the queue.

speaker
Noah

Thank you. One moment for our next question.

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from the line of of . Thank you.

speaker
Joe

Thank you for the time. Could you unpack the guidance for 2026? You know, what's the upside driven by new customers, new customers, you know, new contracts from CMEA with the acquisition of ATOP and the launch of JV, et cetera? You know, I'm assuming it's a combination of all of those, but, you know, if there's anything that stands out, it's just kind of detail. Thank you.

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Well, I think if you break it into two parts, it's volume and margin. And so on the volume side, the MRE product, as we mentioned, continues to grow. Our production is expected to grow 33% next year. And it's a mix of new customers and and existing customers. And I would also, you know, highlight that there's bigger volumes coming from existing customers. So where we've gotten, you know, the foot in the door and we've, you know, enabled people to try the product and say this is really how it works, it works, you know, terrifically and they experience that, then we are seeing customers come back with larger orders for their engines going forward. So that's a great That's exactly what we hoped would happen with those initial orders. So we're seeing continued adding new customers. We highlighted FinAir last quarter, and we're seeing existing customers get bigger. On the margin side, we've indicated next year we expect to see 40% margins, and it's really driven off of the parts acquisitions strategy that we've been implementing and repairs. And so we've highlighted that PMA is, you know, one of those contributors where we expect imminently to have approval of the third part. And then, you know, we've also had acquisitions of used serviceable material that we've been implementing. And then on the repair side, we've highlighted we have capability in Montreal, which we've been adding, but we also specifically added Pacific Aerodynamic and now Bower.

speaker
Joe

That's great. Thank you. That's really helpful. And then just on thin air, how should we think about the margin impact or EBITDA contribution from that contract? I mean, are they market rate or how should we think about that?

speaker
David Marino
Chief Operating Officer

Hey, Ellery. This is David. Yes, they're in line with a large program that we have with customers. I would say they're largely in line. But just to give you a little more flavor on the Finnair program, we're covering their entire fleet, so 36 engines, and we're pre-positioning engines ahead of shop visits. We effectively provide them a serviceable engine and then take the unserviceable engine back. So it provides cost savings for the airline, it lowers maintenance costs, and then provides, more importantly, flexibility for the airline. We're, you know, as Joe mentioned earlier, we're focused with airlines on winning large programs that cover their entire maintenance, and this is an example of one that we want and we expect others to happen soon after.

speaker
Joe

Great. Thank you, David and Joe.

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

Thanks. Okay. Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from a line of citizens. The line is now open.

speaker
Brian
Analyst

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Just one more here on FCI. Have you disclosed what FCI will be earning in terms of management and performances for managing the FCI vehicles I ask this because leasing assets have declined 30% year to date, and that's really just from one SVI vehicle that's not even fully deployed yet. So with a couple more vehicles, most or all of these assets will likely move into third party asset management vehicles that you're managing. Maybe I spent too much time covering alternative asset managers and private credit more broadly, but it would seem like leasing ultimately turns into an asset management business over time. And if that's the case, you have two high multiple earnings streams, not one. So any thoughts here would be appreciated.

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Yes, Brian, we think alike. I mean, it's very much how we've been repositioning the business. I would say that, first of all, the fees are market-based. base. And so the asset management fee that FTIE earns is on total assets. So that would be on the $6 million. And, you know, 1% or higher is typically market for that type of structure. And then the incentive compensation will be low double digits for provided that the returns exceed a hurdle. But it's meaningful. Those numbers, you know, as we've We've mentioned we always try to have an aspiration, and we initially said, why not manage $20 billion in this way at some point? So we started out, we were at three, and now we're at six. So it may not be that crazy that we get there. And it is a much better way to own assets in a private capital structure partnership like this. than in a public company. So increasingly, as I said, we look at that we have two businesses. One is a factory that makes engines, and the other is an asset manager that manages the money that owns the aircraft that has the engine on it.

speaker
Brian
Analyst

Got it. That's super helpful. And then maybe just a related follow-up. So, you know, it's pretty minor, but, you know, FTI's ownership in the first vehicle, SCI vehicle, came down to 19% from 20%. I mean, if demand remains elevated and it feels like it's pretty robust here, just given the upsize commitments, et cetera, I mean, is there an opportunity for, for your ownership or essentially the GP state to decline to something lower than that? And then essentially it creates an even more capital light model. Like I'm just trying to think through that a little bit more moving forward.

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, it's, it's possible. I mean, we wanted to make the first, I mean, as you can imagine, one of the concerns that investors always have is, are you aligned? do you have the same interest that I have as the manager? And obviously that equity commitment goes a long way to answering that question. But over time, you know, if you demonstrate a track record and, you know, you show people, you know, repeatedly good numbers, everything's negotiable.

speaker
Brian
Analyst

Okay, that's helpful. Thanks, Joe.

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

Yep. Thank you. We'll move on to our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Andre Madrid of BTIG. Your line is now open.

speaker
Ned Morgan
Analyst, BTIG

Hi, this is Ned Morgan on for Andre this morning. I just wanted to ask, how should we think about the pace of long-term partnerships to materialize in terms of scale? Will future deals be more in line with the major U.S. carrier deal or the Finnair deal? I guess, and also, if you're able to comment on the margin impact of these partnerships, what that could look like.

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Well, the pace of investing, as I said, we started the first partnership really the beginning of this year, and we have under LOI or closed about $3.5 billion, and it's next week's November, I guess. So our original thought was we could invest $4 billion in the first year. And I expect that that will go up as we get, you know, we have more of a backlog than we had when we launched the first partnership. So I think the pace of investment, you know, I'm pretty optimistic this is a, you know, $300 billion market that we should be able to deploy that type of, you know, capital regularly. In the margins, you know, the SCI is treated like any other third-party customer from a pricing point of view. The only difference is it's contracted, so it is 100% committed. So the margins and the profitability from SCI business for FTI are very similar to the other third-party customers. And as I indicated, next year we expect an improvement in margins to 40%, and we are seeing an increase in larger orders from existing customers. So that trend we expect to continue to get more engines from third-party customers per customer as they experience, you know, the benefits of the product.

speaker
Ned Morgan
Analyst, BTIG

Got it. Thank you very much.

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

Yep. Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Brandon Olaginski of Barclays. Your line is now open.

speaker
Brandon Olaginski
Analyst, Barclays

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. Joe, I guess can we come back to the billion-dollar cash flow outlook for next year? That's pretty impressive just given where this business has been. How much should M&A factor into your outlook for capital deployment looking forward? I think you got asked the question a little bit previously, but do you see long-term needs for build-out of incremental capacity here?

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Well, I would turn it around a little bit differently. We expect to continue to expand our capacity, but we're doing so in a way that's not, you know, it doesn't cost a lot of money. So if you look at the other, the deals we've done in Rome or in Miami, you know, we're adding, you know, meaningful amount of capacity, but the total investment's like $20 or $30 million. So that, you know, I have to apologize that it's not bigger, but it's not... We're not trying to invest more capital. We're trying to get more capacity at the best price. So we will continue to do that. On the M&A repair side, equally, the deals we've done are extremely accretive and then not a lot of dollars invested to get in the business. And when we look at a part for a repair activity, we try to evaluate all the different ways we can get into that. We look at companies that could be for sale. We look at building it organically in Montreal or Rome. We look at partnering with other people and we've done all of the above. We just try to find the best way in and the way that has the most accretive effect on our business. So we're sort of very flexible But thus far, the opportunities we've found have been extremely attractive from a return perspective and not required a lot of capital.

speaker
Brandon Olaginski
Analyst, Barclays

Okay, I appreciate that, Joe. And Angela, can you walk us through what you think is like the right sustainable level of maintenance capex, maybe reinvestment in the leasing businesses we look forward?

speaker
Angela Nam
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. As mentioned, as you can see, our maintenance capex this year is targeted to about $1 125 million. And going forward, we expect that it will maintain similar levels. And the replacement capbacks, we don't expect that to increase as well. As we've mentioned, most of all of our SEI work that we'll do with the engines are structured as exchanges where we will give a serviceable engine and get an unserviceable engine back. So the replacement capbacks, we don't expect to be extensive going forward either.

speaker
Noah

Okay, thank you.

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Ken Herbert of RBCC, and your line is now open.

speaker
Ken Herbert
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

Yeah, hi, good morning. Joe, maybe to start, can you just provide an update on where you are on the V2500 program? I know you initially committed to or procured access to, I think, 100 full performance Restoration shop visits. How's that going and where are you on that pipeline?

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, we're about halfway through and What are we year two years into it now two years in of a five-year deal and we're about halfway in terms of the volume It's going quite well. I mean that engine is more expensive engine to do a performance restoration on you know as we all know and by design and But the demand is incredible because of the continuing saga of the GTF grounding. So there's been a huge life extension. We have a lot of operators that are very eager to avoid the shop visit. And that's exactly what we deliver to them. So we expect that it will continue. And at some point in the next couple of years, we'll talk about an extension or other alternatives.

speaker
Joe

But we're going to stay in that engine.

speaker
Ken Herbert
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

Okay, that's helpful. And I know the percentage of work that has flown through or the revenues within aerospace products dedicated to the SCI has bounced around, and I can appreciate timing as a piece of that. But as you think out a couple of years and SCI, you know, subsequent versions continue to attract capital, how much of the aerospace products segment or revenue do you think eventually is SCI related, and how do you view sort of a natural cap on that?

speaker
Joe Adams
Chief Executive Officer

Well, the way you have a natural cap is to continue to grow third-party business, because the SCI business will grow, but we're also expanding the third-party business at really a very similar clip. So I expect it to be roughly 20% to 25% of FTI Aviation's business for the foreseeable future.

speaker
Joe

And the answer is we, you know, grow both of them. Okay. Thank you. Yep.

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I'll now turn it back to Alan and Drini for closing remarks.

speaker
Alan Nadrini
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Marvin, and thank you all for participating in today's conference call. We look forward to updating you after Q4.

speaker
Marvin
Conference Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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