Primoris Services Corporation

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to PrimeMorris' Q2 2026 earnings conference call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Blake Holcomb, SVP of Investor Relations. Blake, please go ahead.

Good morning. and welcome to the Remora's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me today with prepared comments are Koti Vadlamudi, President and Chief Executive Officer and Ken Dodgen, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to make everyone aware of certain language contained in our safe harbor statement. The company cautions that certain statements made during this call are forward looking and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from our projections, and expectations. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in our reports filed with the SEC. Our forward-looking statements represent our outlook only as of today, August 5, 2026. We disclaim any obligation to update these statements except as may be required by law. In addition, during this conference call, we will make reference to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures are available on the Investors section of our website and in our second quarter 2026 earnings press release, which was issued yesterday. I would now like to turn the call over to Koti Vadlamudi.

Thank you, Blake. Good morning and thank you for joining us today to discuss our second quarter 2026 financial and operational results. As we noted in our June operational update, our second quarter results reflect the majority of the impact from the limited number of renewable energy projects that have experienced margin pressure. Since that update, we have achieved mechanical completion on one additional project and will be submitting for mechanical completion on another this week. Importantly, we continue to expect that three projects will reach substantial completion during the third quarter of 2026. The sixth and final project remains aligned with our revised estimates, and we currently expect to achieve mechanical completion in early November, followed by substantial completion by year end. I also want to emphasize that following our portfolio review, the remainder of the renewables projects on average are performing within our expectations. While these projects have presented challenges, we are making meaningful progress toward completing them and reducing their impact on our business. I am particularly encouraged by the commitment, resilience, and execution of our teams across Primorus. Their focus and determination have been instrumental in advancing these projects toward completion while continuing to deliver the high quality generation assets our customers expect and that have helped establish Primorus as a trusted leader in the renewables marketplace. As we move forward, our priorities are clear. Successfully complete these projects maintain disciplined pre-construction planning and risk posture across the portfolio, and position the business for profitable, sustainable growth. As we have stated previously, the opportunity set within our renewables business remains substantial. Today, we see more than $16 billion of opportunities for solar and battery storage across our core geographic markets, where we benefit from longstanding customer relationships, a proven track record, and deep operational expertise. We remain selective in the opportunities we pursue, maintaining a disciplined approach to risk assessment, contract structure and project execution. Our strong customer base, experienced teams and history of successfully delivering high quality generation assets positions us well to compete for and win attractive work in these markets. Looking ahead, we remain confident in the long-term fundamentals of the renewables business and in Primorus's ability to leverage its market leadership, operational capabilities, and customer partnerships to drive profitable growth. In addition to our focused efforts to restore a positive trajectory in renewables, Primorus delivered record bookings and backlog in the second quarter, underscoring the strength and diversity of our platform. During the quarter, we secured more than $3.9 billion of new awards, including approximately $1.5 billion in the utility segment and $2.4 billion in the energy segment. The growth in our utilities backlog reflects both the favorable dynamics of our end markets and the confidence our customers place in our ability to execute critical infrastructure projects. Demand remains particularly strong in power delivery, and we are strategically expanding our workforce in key markets to support strategic customer relationships while also engaging with new customers seeking experienced partners for transmission, substation and distribution work. We see growing opportunities to build upon our established track record in transmission and substation work. At the same time, we are investing in process improvements, operational rigor and talent development to enhance execution, improve profitability and expand our workforce of qualified field leadership, project management and supervisory personnel. Growth in our energy segment backlog was primarily driven by natural gas power generation, which accounted for approximately $1.4 billion of the sequential increase during the quarter. In addition, we benefited from roughly $200 million of backlog associated with the Paynecrest acquisition as of quarter end and secured new awards across electrical construction services, industrial infrastructure, and utility scale solar. We are still expecting renewables backlog to build in the second half of the year, with the majority of awards coming in the fourth quarter. Looking beyond this year, we also see the potential for strong first quarter of 2027 for renewables awards, which would further support our competence in returning the business to growth next year. Beyond renewables, we continue to see encouraging opportunities across several energy end markets. As we look to the second half of 2026, we see additional upside potential in both pipeline and natural gas power generation opportunities. particularly for projects expected to ramp up in late 2027 and early 2028. Taken together, the strength of the customer demand, the breadth of opportunities across our end markets and the quality of our project funnel support our view that energy segment is positioned to benefit from a favorable multi-year investment cycle. Our focus remains on pursuing the right opportunities maintaining disciplined project selection and converting this robust set of opportunities into profitable growth. I'll now turn to our segment performance for the quarter. The utility segment was up from the prior year driven by growth in gas operations and power delivery, while communications revenue and margin were lower year over year as expected. As we discussed in our Q1 call, We anticipated a softer near-term environment in communications as traditional fiber-to-the-home program build-outs transitioned toward BEAD-funded projects. While this affected activity levels in Q2, we continue to believe these opportunities will begin to ramp up later this year. In the meantime, data center fiber and connectivity work remain an important growth driver for the business. We are also encouraged by the level of bidding activity we are seeing, which has the potential to materialize in late 2026 and extending into 2027. Our gas operations business continues to perform well, exceeding market revenue growth expectations in the quarter. We are also actively pursuing new programs in the Midwest and southern regions that would further support revenue in the business. While a lower level of higher margin project work impacted margins compared to the prior year, the business delivered another solid quarter. Strong productivity, effective execution, and high equipment utilization continue to support healthy operating performance and have us well positioned as we move through the remainder of the year. In the energy segment, operational performance during the quarter was solid outside of the previously discussed challenges within renewables. Pipeline delivered another quarter of double-digit revenue growth with substantial margin improvement. The recovery from the cyclical trough experienced in 2025 continues to gain momentum and market activity remains constructive. Furthermore, we believe that the larger diameter opportunities are still on the horizon with a multi-year addressable project funnel that now exceeds $7 billion in total contract value. In electrical construction services acquired through the Paynecrest transaction, performance has already exceeded our expectations. During the two months the business was part of Primorus in the quarter, it delivered stronger than anticipated revenue and margins. We are encouraged by the strategic and cultural fit, as well as the early operating results. We are already seeing positive momentum through backlog growth and a robust pipeline of opportunities with existing customers. Several of these pursuits could convert into awards by year end, further enhancing our growth outlook for this business. In industrial, which includes our natural gas power generation activities, revenue was modestly lower year over year, primarily due to the timing of project completions and the commencement of new work. Despite this temporary timing impact, demand remains strong and project activity continues to develop as expected. As a result, we remain on track to exceed our expectations for the full year, supported by a meaningful ramp in activity during the second half of 2026. Overall, despite the challenges we experienced in redoables during the quarter, Primorus continues to benefit from strong underlying performance and favorable market fundamentals across multiple end markets, including power generation, pipeline infrastructure, and electrical services. The strength of our record backlog, expanding opportunity pipeline, and disciplined approach to project selection reinforces our confidence in the business. I'll now turn it over to Ken for more on our financial results.

Thanks Koti and good morning everyone. Our Q2 revenue was just under $1.7 billion, a decrease of about $200 million or 10.7% from the prior year driven by lower revenue in the energy segment. The energy segment was down $236.9 million or 19.2% from the prior year due to decreased renewable activity. This was partly offset by increased natural gas generation and pipeline activity and the addition of pain crest for May and June. The utility segment was up 19.6 million or 2.8% from the prior year, driven by higher activity in gas operations and power delivery, partially offset by lower communications revenue. Gross profit for the second quarter was 82.4 million, a decrease of 149.3 million compared to the prior year. This was driven by lower revenue and margins in the energy segment and lower margins in the utility segment. As a result, gross margin was 4.9% for the quarter compared to 12.3% in the prior year. Looking at our segment results, utility segment gross profit was $85.1 million, down $12.4 million compared to the prior year. This was driven primarily by lower revenue and margin in the communications business and lower margins in our gas operations business. This was partially offset by increased revenue and margins in power delivery. The decline in revenue and margin in communications was due to a decrease in fiber to the home activity as customers transitioned to bead programs, which we referenced in our first quarter call. It was also due to a shift in revenue mix toward more maintenance work. For gas operations, the lower margins were due to strong project closeouts in 2025 that didn't repeat in Q2 of this year. As a result, gross margin declined to 11.9% compared to 14.1% in the prior year. We continue to see strong performance in power delivery driven by improved productivity and a favorable mix of work, including substation and transmission scopes. This led to higher revenue and margins year over year. In the energy segment, gross profit declined $136.9 million from the prior year due to lower revenues and margins in renewables. Gross margins in the segment were slightly negative, which was down from 10.8% in the prior year. The decrease in margin was driven by project cost overruns and lower revenues in renewables, partially offset by improved revenue and margins in pipeline and the contributions from Paynecrest. We believe revenue and margins will trend up in the second half of 2026 as we complete the four remaining renewables projects and begin to ramp up on new solar and natural gas projects. For the full year 2026, we are expecting gross margins in the energy segment to be in the 6% to 8% range. SG&A expenses in the second quarter were $106.3 million, an increase of only $1.7 million compared to the prior year. As a percent of revenue, SG&A increased to 6.3% from 5.5% in the prior year due to lower revenue and increased amortization expense of the intangibles from the pain crest acquisition. SG&A is expected to trend higher in the second half of the year due to this increased amortization expense. As a result, we expect SG&A will be a little over 6% of revenue for the full year 2026. Net interest expense in the quarter was $10.6 million, up $3.1 million from the prior year due to higher average debt balances attributable to the pain crest acquisition, partially offset by lower interest rates. Based on current debt levels, we are updating our guidance for interest expense to be between $43 and $47 million for the full year. Our effective tax rate was elevated for the first six months of 2026, reflecting lower pre-tax profit and the impact of some discrete items in the first half of the year. Despite these impacts, we expect our full year effective tax rate to be in the 30% to 32% range. Moving to cash flow, Q2 cash used in operations was $8.7 million, which improved from the first quarter of 2026, but down from around $78 million provided by operations in the prior year. The decrease in cash from operations was largely driven by our lower net income. Transitioning over to the balance sheet, we maintain strong liquidity of $959 million, which includes a little over $218 million of cash and approximately $741 million in available borrowing capacity on our revolver. Our trailing 12-month net debt to EBITDA ratio increased to 1.6 times EBITDA at the end of Q2, primarily due to the acquisition of Paynecrest and the lower Q2 EBITDA. We expect our leverage ratio to tick up slightly in Q3 but should trend lower as we grow earnings and improve cash flow in Q4 and in 2027. We remain in a very good position with respect to our financial covenants and have substantial liquidity to continue investing organically as well as to pursue opportunistic share repurchases or tuck in M&A in our key focus areas. Total backlog at the end of Q2 was just under $13.9 billion, an increase of approximately $2.2 billion sequentially from Q1, and a record for Primorus. Total fixed backlog was up $1.5 billion from Q1, primarily due to strong energy segment bookings for natural gas generation, industrial, and electrical construction services from Pancrest. As Koti mentioned, we have also started Q3 with additional bookings in natural gas generation and pipeline that should support growth in 2027. While we were awarded a solar project in the second quarter, we continue to expect renewables bookings of one and a half to two billion in the second half of the year, primarily in Q4. Total MSA backlog increased about 700 million from Q1, driven primarily by increased activity and power delivery. Our growing funnel of opportunities across our services and our ability to win and execute on behalf of our customers gives us confidence we will return to revenue growth and margin expansion in 2027. Before turning it back over to Koti, I'll close with guidance. We are maintaining the guidance we provided in our operational update in June. EPS of $1.30 to $1.85 per fully diluted share, adjusted EPS of $2.05 to $2.60 per fully diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA of $275 to $325 million for the full year 2026. We expect our second quarter results to represent the low point for the year, as we have recognized the cost impacts associated with the challenged renewable projects during the quarter. Looking ahead, we anticipate sequential improvement in revenue and earnings through the remainder of 2026, with adjusted EBITDA expected in the range of $90 to $110 million for the third quarter and $100 to $120 million in the fourth quarter. As Koti mentioned, we continue to make solid progress in completing the remaining obligations on the renewables projects that have experienced cost overruns. At the same time, we expect activity to accelerate on several solar and natural gas generation projects during the second half of the year. Based on the momentum we are seeing and the opportunities ahead, we are encouraged by our outlook. I'll now turn it back over to Koti.

Thanks, Ken. Prior to opening the call for questions, I'd like to recap the key takeaways from the quarter. First, the financial impact from the renewables business in the quarter and in 2026 overall is not representative of the performance standards we have historically defined at Primorus, nor is it acceptable to me as CEO. In response, we have taken decisive actions to strengthen our operational oversight, enhance our pre-construction planning and risk management processes, and sharpen accountability throughout the organization. Our reputation, long-standing customer relationships, and the attractive end markets we serve are too valuable to compromise by taking unnecessary risks or deviating from the disciplined execution that has differentiated Primoris. While Project Risk will always be part of our business, accountability starts with leadership, and I am committed to ensuring that we learn from these challenges and emerge as a stronger organization. That said, we are progressing as expected to substantially complete the challenging projects by year-end, and as we move toward completion, we expect to see the impacts on our financial results continue to diminish in the back half of the year. Second, I want to emphasize that the underlying fundamentals of our business remain exceptionally strong as evident by our record bookings and backlog. I also want to recognize the teams across our organization who are working closely with our customers to plan and secure future projects, as well as the men and women in the field whose dedication, expertise, and execution make our success possible every day. As we move through the balance of 2026 and into 2027, we will work to successfully complete the remaining renewables projects, execute with discipline across our portfolio, convert our growing backlog into profitable results, and position Primorus to capitalize on the significant infrastructure investment opportunities ahead. I remain confident in our team. competent in our strategy and competent in our ability to create long-term value for our customers, employees, and shareholders. We will now open up the call for your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Stephen Fisher with UBS. Stephen, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. Just to follow up on the renewables project, it sounds like I think you said the remainder of those renewable projects on average are performing within expectations. Does the on average imply that some are above and some are below? I guess really the question is, are there risks that we have more charges here? If so, is that already captured in guidance? I guess I'm curious what some of the key assumptions you've made going forward about weather and labor productivity for the rest of these. Thanks.

Yeah, thanks, Steve, for the question. Yeah, and that comment is correct on average. In the portfolio, there's probably over two dozen projects. Many of them are delivering more than an as-sold margin, and some are not material but a little below the as-sold margin. So we identified the six that were have the cost overruns, and those remain the six that we continue to be focused on. As I said, two of those are now complete, three completing this quarter, and the last one at the end of the year.

Okay. And you mentioned about returning to growth in 2027 in renewables. Can you confirm that's just your base case at the moment? and if so, you know, it sounds like the fourth quarter bookings there are going to be quite important. You know, we're hearing that some of the projects in this planning stage might be running a bit behind and maybe at risk of being even rebid to others. Can you just sort of set the record straight on sort of the confidence in 27 and what's happening with those projects as you're in the planning stages on renewables? Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Steve. And back half of the year, in particular, Q4, the funnel for renewables remains strong and will get very prescriptive color on 2027, where revenue burn will be on the top line, but very, very strong indication on the opportunity list in front of us for Q4, and it sets us up for a significant backlog going into 27. So what we would say is modest growth for 27 coming off of a reset year.

And just any comments on the work in the planning stages? You know, any comments on things being behind or kind of being rebid to others?

Yeah, thanks. Sorry, I didn't answer that piece. No significant changes. As the year has evolved, we previously articulated some projects did move to the right. And even in this quarter, one project signing that we anticipated happening in Q3 moved to Q4. But it isn't a significant shift in terms of our projected backlog. But no significant pushes to the right other than what we articulated previously. and still a strong demand market for us. Yeah, as I mentioned before, the funnel of opportunities is still significant, total over 16 billion in renewables.

Appreciate that. Sounds good. Thanks.

Your next question comes from the line of Sean Milligan with Needham and Company. Sean, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, thank you for taking the questions. I guess first off in the gas power side, you added $1.4 billion in bookings this quarter. It just carries kind of current backlog in gas power and sort of how you see the slope of that over the next couple of years.

I don't know that I have the exact backlog on gas generation. Blake, do you have that? Yeah, sorry, Sean. I don't have that in front of me right now. But what was the rest of your question?

That was obviously a big bookings number. I think, you know, gas power is accelerating for you, but just curious kind of how the slope looks for you kind of back half of this year at 27, 28. Like, you know, when you talk about the 1.4 million bookings, how does that flow through?

Yeah, no, good question. So we're expecting growth in the back half of the year relative to the front half of the year. I think we're still on track for the full year to be kind of in the five to $600 million range for NatGas generation. And then comfortably growing next year based on the backlog we've signed so far and our view to potentially other signings in the back half of the year, 800 to comfortably a billion in revenue next year.

Okay, great. And then just a follow-up question on sort of Texas exposure. There was a and I guess press release by Abbott earlier this week around pausing data centers. That seems to put more of an emphasis on bringing your own power. Just curious for you all, in terms of the addressable market, one is that, do you think that slows down anything for you in Texas? How much of the revenue is coming from Texas currently? Or does that, as bringing your own power becomes more important, does your revenue opportunity per data center go up?

Yeah, thanks for the question, Sean. And we saw that memo from the governor. And, you know, first, I think it's not surprising that an elected official is trying to guard against their constituents' paying more for utilities, whether it's water or power. So it's a trend that we're seeing across the country. And the first thing I'd say is there is a strong demand environment created by AI data centers. We're seeing that capex play out, and we have a skill set that affords us the opportunity to grow there. Of our portfolio, it's not huge. At any given time, it's probably 10% to 15% of the total portfolio. So our exposure, we're not wedded completely to that, but we are tracking it. Most of the opportunities that we see anecdotally with the data center development are on-premise. generation. So would address some of the concerns in the governor's memo instruction to IRCA. Great.

Thank you for the time.

Your next question comes from the line of Julian DeMoulin-Smith with Jeffries.

Julian, you may go ahead.

Yeah, it's Brian Rousseau on for Julian. Good morning. Morning.

Hello. Brian, you there? Do you have a question? Brian must be here. Yes, good morning. I was just... Yeah, go ahead, Brian.

Can you hear me now?

We can hear you.

Okay, I apologize. Just on the Paincrest integration, you said it's exceeding expectations. I'm just curious as to the core region in Missouri. We've seen a lot of activity with, I believe, a fairly significant customer of Paincrest Ameren. Then I was also wondering about the relationship with Meta. I believe you had done work on a Nebraska data center project. I'm wondering if any of those customers are active right now in your backlog or soon to be.

Yeah, thanks, Brian. And we typically don't call out individual customers, but I will say the hyperscaler CapEx and pain crests Resume in doing that work for customers is very relevant. The relationship that they have with one hyperscaler in particular is given their track record in the region is what's allowing them to capture further work. Their meaningful gate to growth is resources. Just like any of the end markets, most of the end markets we're in, they are labor resource constrained. So they're looking at the opportunity funnel in front of them and the hyperscaler gives them visibility to their projects and doing well to add that to backlog. Just in the quarter, Paincrest, in addition to the backlog we acquired with the acquisition, on top of that, they added $250 million in bookings in the quarter. So positive signal and trend for them.

Okay, great. And then just to follow up on the gas gen opportunity, seems like a nice bookings quarter and more to come to what is a nice step up in 27 revenue. Just curious, how many crews do you have currently or how many projects can you handle in any given year? And, you know, what's the kind of the long term, you know, target to scale up that end market?

Yeah, you know, when I started last year, I think we were saying a half a dozen teams. We've invested in that in the last several months. We're up to eight or nine unique teams. And we'll continue to, it is a meaningful question given the demand for that expertise. So we continue to look for opportunities to add teams. Add talent and create teams, but the funnel is, again, as I said, the demand is outstripping supply there. But it's about eight to nine teams today. Okay, great. Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Sangeeta Jeem with KeyBank Capital Markets. Sangeeta, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Great, thank you so much for taking my questions. If I can ask one on renewables, actually energy margins. Appreciate the updated margin range. I'm just trying to think of how we should think about the cadence in second half. Should we assume that energy margins go back to the 10 to 12% range by the fourth quarter? Or is it going to be more of an even split between 3Q and 4Q?

uh Sangeeta we're not going to get back up to 10 to 12 percent um it'll be sequential I think um I think Q3 and I'm kind of going off the top of my head right now is going to be kind of in that six to eight percent range I think Q4 is going to be more kind of eight to ten percent range and then we'll get back to full 10 to 12 percent next year

Got it. Thank you. And then on pipelines, appreciate Koti's comments that you're looking at a lot of projects that could start bringing revenue in late 27, early 28. I'm just trying to understand better on what's kind of guiding that outlook. Is it pipeline, pipe availability? Is it permitting? Or is it just, you know, you guys waiting for the right projects to come in?

Yeah, I'd say, Sangeeta, the customer's procurement, knowing that they're in an environment where resources are scarce and labor availability they're just doing their procurements early in the cycle. I'd say from what we've seen historically, doing tender processes a year and a half and potentially two years in advance is probably a longer cycle we've seen historically. But I think it's them just being more proactive on the, you know, securing those resources well in advance. And it is a competitive environment. Yep, you bet. It is a differentiated market for us based on the larger diameter and longer spreads.

Your next question comes from the line of Lee Yagoda with CSJ Securities. Lee, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

They'll get all this right eventually. Good morning, guys.

Hey, good morning, Lee.

Hello. Hey, how are you? Hey, good morning, Lee. I guess I'll start. I'll start with utility because nobody seems to be going there yet. In terms of, you know, obviously you mentioned the communications business and that's the reason for the slowdown. Any color around, you know, growth either sequentially or year over year for the utility business in the balance of 26 and then bigger picture, just given the level of demand that you see over a multi-year period for the utilities business, How should we think or how are you thinking about organic growth in the utility segment over the medium term beyond this year?

Yeah, well, I guess on the comp side, you know, first, just that piece of it, we do see bead programs and line of sight to a few hundred million dollars that we're tracking in bead funding. There might be a little bit of a slowdown as programs switch to that that bead funding. Overall, utilities, we're very optimistic, particularly around power delivery. We're seeing nice margin improvement. The demand side of that is very high. Customers are shifting their focus from distribution to transmission substation. You saw the positive trend in backlog in our MSA movement. which is almost all utilities. Last quarter we had, I think from memory, a half billion ad and this quarter another 1.5 5 billion addition. So I think we see strength in that market. And again, it's another area where resources are tight. We're seeing customers that have current relationships with some of our peer set and they're tapped out and they're looking for additional help and assistance. So I think we see organic opportunity with existing customers as well as business acquisition opportunities with new customers.

And then in terms of this year, should we assume a normal seasonal cadence where Q3 is probably the peak and then kind of drops back down seasonally in Q4?

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. That's what we're seeing this year as well, just like we have in previous years.

Okay. And then, Koti, I know you had engaged some third-party consultants, and at least last update, they were still engaged to kind of go through the process with the remaining projects here. A couple of questions there. One, how much is the total expense from that expected in 2026? And is it your expectation that once these projects are done, you no longer need these third party consultants to kind of be there?

Yeah, Lee, it's compensation for one consultant. So it's insignificant to what we're talking about here. And the focus is really on the one project that has that that completes at the end of the year. And that person along with our leadership team was on site last week. So they're giving me sort of the weekly updates, but not a significant expense. And very good investment of the skill set and expertise to give us better surety on hitting our milestones.

Well, one more if I can sneak it in. SG&A, you were commenting, you know, one of the, I guess, tailwinds is just lower incentive comp. Can you quantify that and then kind of give us a sense of incentive comp for the year or the variance year over year, just so we can understand, you know, what may be added back to next year's number?

Yeah, I don't know that I had the exact number for the change in incentive comp this year. It's probably in the $5 to $10 million range would be a rough guess. And then just remember the offset increase SG&A is a pretty significant amount of amortization related to pain crest this year that's driving it higher. And a lot of that will continue into next year, but it's non-cash.

Thanks.

Your next question comes from the line of Adam Thalheimer with Thompson Davis. Adam, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, guys. I also wanted to ask about the NatCash Generation Awards, the $1.4 billion. A few questions on that. Is it all simple cycle? Geographically, where are those awards? And what does the funnel look like?

Yeah, thanks for the question, Adam. These all happen to be simple cycle. Most of the portfolio, as I said before, is simple cycle. It's basically informed by time to market. I think we have a handful of projects that are combined cycle that are in the funnel, but not in backlog. And the geographies are Texas, Missouri, Nevada, and various sizes of capacity.

and the funnel piece?

What do you think? Yeah, the funnel is very strong. Sorry, yeah, funnel in that market has gone up. I think last quarter it was a little over $6 billion. I think now it's over $8 billion, $8.7 billion. Yeah, it's over $8 billion that we're tracking. Importantly, because the market is constrained in terms of resources, We're very, very diligent in customer selection and project selection. So we're very, very being remaining very disciplined in terms of risk posture and overall making sure our value proposition is understood.

Okay. And then last one real quick on the fiber side, you alluded to some big potential awards. How much revenue could those generate?

There's like $300 million or so in pursuits. We won't win all that work. But given the size of the portfolio today, I think we have aptitude for it to grow. The bead funding project specifically that we're tracking, I think, amount to $300 million. As a business today, we do around $400 million plus. So it does give us line of sight to some projects. and there's the BEAD funding and there's also the fiber that interconnects data centers that's also a meaningful capex that we're trying to pursue and this is how these data center clusters need to operate together requiring low latency. So that fiber spend is also something we're tracking. Perfect. Thanks, guys.

Your next question comes from the line of Brent Thielman with Oppenheimer. Brent, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks. The pipeline of new award potential you talked about in renewables, are those more aligned with your traditional sort of markets and geographies? Is the company still? kind of evaluating and pursuing newer geographies. And then Koti, if you could just talk about like the risk parameters you've embedded in the pursuit process going forward for that piece of business.

Yeah, so the first part of your question, the answer is yes. All of our pursuits are in geographies where we have a resume, understand the labor posture, understand the jurisdictions having authority, and so very comfortable with those pursuits. And then the going forward from learnings from the past, it's to remain disciplined and not pursue work in areas or geographies where we don't have understanding of the local labor market. or local conditions, as well in terms of remaining disciplined on risk posture. I had mentioned before, I think it was in Q1, we did pass on an opportunity where terms and conditions didn't comport with our overall risk posture. So that's really just a compass going forward to maintain that rigid discipline. but again, demand environment is very strong for our services. So we can be very disciplined and stick to our overall risk reward balance. Okay.

And then on Payne Crest, any strategic initiatives you're pursuing there now that it's a few more months under your ownership? I just am thinking along the lines of like a refocus of those operations. away from any legacy pursuits that could be lower margin or something that doesn't align with your risk profile?

It's a good question, Brett. And actually, from our due diligence and then as we've done a couple months of integration, it's actually the opposite. We want to make sure we call it a light touch integration and not getting in the way. They have been run historically as a conservative company and been very conservative in their approach in new acquisitions of customers. Their exposure to the data center market, we like. It's not a majority of their portfolio. They have other industrial clients in their backyard where they have long-term relationships and good contract terms. So it's a little bit of make sure they're integrated with the system. There are some revenue synergies in parts of our portfolio where we use subs. they have that expertise in house. So we'll have the opportunity to bring them into the fold. But right now I would describe it as a light touch integration and so far exceeding our expectations from performance. Okay, thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Manish Somaiya with Kantor. Manish, your line is open, please go ahead.

Thank you so much. Good morning, gentlemen. Ken, in terms of the EBITDA framework that you laid out, I get to an EBITDA of $282 million, vis-a-vis the guidance of 275 to 325. Did I miss something in terms of ad backs? Or are we kind of saying we're more comfortable with low end and leaving room for upside?

Yeah, it's the latter. We're just giving ourselves plenty of room to make sure we are comfortable with the numbers, that we can make those numbers, and potentially have some upside as we execute through Q3 and Q4.

And related to that, how should we think about the free cash flow framework in the second half?

Yeah, look, our... our forecast for the year was like 350 to 400 of free cash flow. I think basically you can just subtract 200 out of it. That's essentially the impact from the renewables projects. And so right now we're looking at probably 150 to 200 for the full year.

Okay, so basically a big catch up in the second half, principally in the fourth, I would imagine.

Yes.

And Koti, I had a question for you on the telecom side. With BEAT funding moving to more technology-neutral framework, are you seeing customers re-scoping projects away from fiber towards fixed wireless or satellite, or is fiber still the primary opportunity in your core markets? Thank you.

Yeah, for where we play, it's fiber. I think for us, yeah, we're tracking the BEAD funding, but I also mentioned, Manish, there's a lot of opportunity in the interconnects between these AI data centers.

Your next question comes from the line of Philip Shen with Roth Capital Partners. Philip, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. First one's a bit of a housekeeping one. Can you share what the backlog was for renewables at the end of Q2?

Yeah, it was $2 billion.

Great. Okay. Thanks, Ken. And then as it relates to back on renewables, you know, how have compensation or incentive structures for project executives and estimators been adjusted, if at all? And then so that the more stringent risk reward criteria are not undermined by traditional volume or booking driven bonuses. And then what leading indicators do you think the board and management will use in the next year to demonstrate that the new processes are actually improving bid quality and execution consistency? Thanks, guys.

Yeah, and so, Phil, there's discretion and compensation at my level. And what we've done is incent the project teams, in particular, field leadership. And some of their comp is cash, but some of their comp is also going forward in RSU's restricted stock that vests over time. And the theory is we want them to be aligned to value creation that the company wants. And then I say for leading indicators going forward, the compensation mechanisms that are in place today do have both long-term mechanisms around value creation, and so I think they're aligned from an accountability standpoint. I think from a go-forward standpoint, what we do with the field teams and deeper reaching and RSUs and stock ownership is a lever for us to maybe draw down a little bit harder driving forward.

Thanks, Koti. And just to be clear, these are changes that have been made since the problems surfaced?

Yeah, and what I was looking at there, Phil, in particular, is that some of these teams were not the people that caused the problems. These are the people we're relying on in the face of adversity are now being so resilient and driving under the re-forecast, the predictable execution month to month, week to week. And so I want to make sure they're incented appropriately. So it's more along those lines around the changes

Great. Okay. Thank you for taking these questions. Thanks, Will.

Your next question comes from the line of Maheep Mandloy with Zoho Capital. Maheep, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey. Thanks for taking the questions. And it's a question on the renewables business, given the backlog visibility you have. for new growth on bookings this year and later next year. How should we think about the 2027 growth versus 26 or 25 compared to what you've said in the past? Thanks.

Maheep, I'm trying to make sure I understood the question.

Are you looking at revenue growth into 27 relative to 26?

Yeah, so I think what we said in our earlier Q&A there is that historically we've grown exponentially in the renewable segment. When I look at 24 to 25, I think it was 2 billion to 3 billion. Thank you for joining us. are 27 guides for the renewable segment. At this time right now, just being pragmatic, we think it could potentially be a modest growth off of 26. But we'll get more prescriptive color as we see that trend in backlog.

So that's helpful. And on the balance sheet side, I think I've talked about in terms of the free cash flow and the renewable impact. But how do you think about leverage for next year and potential capital for additional M&A going forward? Thanks.

Yeah, I touched on this a little bit in my comments. We're at about 1.6 times EBITDA right now. We'll trip up to probably a little under two, I'm guessing, right now in Q3. And then from there, we'll start declining back down, both based on debt payoff and EBITDA growth. I expect us to probably comfortably be back down to one and a half times by the end of the year. And then over the course of 27, trend down to one times again. which, you know, between that and availability on our revolver and our cash balances gives us plenty of capital to continue to support organic growth, to do opportunistic acquisitions, and to the extent the board wants to pull that lever to do additional stock buyback.

Your next question comes from the line of Joseph Osha with Guggenheim. Joseph, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thanks and good morning, guys. I have two questions. First, returning to the single cycle gas business, obviously that's doing great. One risk factor there that does pop up every once in a while is, you know, whether your customers actually do have those turbine slots secured. So I did want to check to, understand if you've gone out and talked to your customers and made sure that that process is de-risked. And then I do have a follow-up. Thanks.

Yeah, Joe, I'll answer that. It is one of the criteria for us and we evaluate customers and project selection is that they're in the queue and our relationships with those OEMs is pretty significant. So we, in some cases, they're actually the ones that are making the market for us. They'll pair us with a potential client. But yeah, we have visibility of that and and the other piece of that is purchase power agreements and seeing where they are with respect to that piece of it too.

Okay, so you're, you know, because there's a bit of a gold rush going on there at the moment, obviously you're confident that that pipeline's been de-risked for you guys?

that's correct yeah and we we have when we do the limited notice to proceed with the client and building the project schedule obviously we have full visibility to the delivery of that piece of equipment we're focused on the balance of plan but we're definitely working with the customer and have line of sight to those the orders okay thanks and then

to return to renewables. Sorry to ask yet another question. Just if I hear what you're saying, you've got this $2 billion backlog you're going to burn. Sounds like you're kind of reopening the funnel to booking as we get into the second half of the year. But just timing wise, I mean, anything you book late this year probably isn't going to start to burn until late 27, 28. So it sounds like, yeah, I heard what you said earlier, moderate growth, but it sounds like the business doesn't really kind of get back onto a a more normal cadence relative to history until 2028. Is that a fair observation?

I don't think I would disagree, Joe, with that observation. I think we're probably being a little bit conservative. We have seen some projects move to the right. And so predicting that timing is probably weighing in. I think when there is a significant funnel for us, and irrespective of timing, I think it shapes well for us. Trying to predict in each quarter when we land this stuff in backlog is sometimes a little tricky. But, you know, given, and I looked at historical quarters over the last year, where we sat with backlog and what we burned, and there is a general track record there, which is why I think we're looking at the opportunity in Q4 and as we sit at the end of the year, it'll give us a good projection on 27.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Adam Boobs with Goldman Sachs. Adam, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi. Good morning. This is Anuj on behalf of Adam. So in light of recent cost overruns and renewables, should we expect any changes to the contract structures or targeted margin profile on future projects. Thank you.

No, I think what I said before is just more rigidity and discipline in risk identification and the contract terms we take on. So that's about the pursuits, making sure we've done good discrimination in the portfolio and not gone into geographies that are uncertain for us or we don't have experience. So that's that piece. And on the contract terms, Yeah, there are some learnings. We'll probably be stricter in some terms in the contract from a language standpoint that allow us more favorable climate for recovery if we've given reasonable methods from a construction execution approach. But nothing specific to comment here. It's probably just more discipline going forward.

Got it. And on the energy segment, so pretty strong bookings in this quarter. So can you please pass out the awards by end market? Thank you.

Could you repeat the question? I didn't hear it.

So on the energy segments, bookings were strong in this quarter. So I was hoping if you can shed some light on the awards by different end markets within the energy segment.

Yeah, thanks, I got it. Yeah, so it was 3.9 with additional backlog. 2.4 of that was energy, 1.5 utilities. Your question is of the 2.4, how does that break down? 1.4 of that was in the gas power generation, which we talked about. Those are all simple cycle projects that were awarded. The balance, the billion, is comprised of about $450 million from Paincrest Some of that backlog came with the acquisition, but what I importantly note, they had $250 million on top of that that they booked in the quarter. So a nice significant contribution from Pancrest, and the balance would be in the rest of energy, industrial, including pipeline.

Oh, that helps. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Jerry Revich with Wells Fargo. Jerry, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, everyone. This is Andrew Ozzy on for Jerry Revich. Appreciate you taking my questions. I just wanted to hone in. It sounds like there's some modest growth baked in for the base case next year. With the full year guide and all the 2027 commentary so far, you know, I'm trying to think what that might imply for energy segment margins off the 4Q exit rate and what might be like a reasonable starting point for 2027. Any color there would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Yeah, look, on the margins, you know, we will have the last of these projects, renewables projects, done in Q4. So our full expectation as of right now is that the cadence for 2027 is going to be in that normal 10 to 12% range that we previously occupied.

Was there a follow-up or is that it?

Oh, so sorry. I was on mute. A lot of technical issues this call. So I think last quarter you guys referenced something like a billion in renewables, verbal awards, and close to $3 billion expected to sign in the second half. I would love to kind of get an update on that and see how much of that's converted or what's subject to close and how that might translate to next year's revenue.

Yeah, I think it was $2 billion, not $3 billion. And that cadence is, you know, we're still on track. I think we mentioned kind of $1.5 to $2 billion, just as things have kind of moved around a little bit. And as we mentioned in our scripted notes, I think most of that's going to be in Q4 this year.

And we did have one in Q2 that was a couple hundred million dollars.

Okay. Thank you very much. That's all for me.

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Koti Vadlamudi for closing remarks.

Thank you and thank you all for joining your engagement in Q&A. I want to close by thanking our employees, the men and women in the field that are on behalf of our customers driving execution. and really pleased with the quarter trended backlog and looking forward to engaging with you all going forward. Thank you.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.