Knife River Corp

NYSE:KNF

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q2

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Knife River Corporation Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded today, Tuesday, August 8, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Nathan Ring, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

[Nathan Ring, executive]

Thank you, and good morning. My name is Nathan Ring, Chief Financial Officer of Knife River, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to our second quarter 2023 earnings call, our very first as an independent public company. Today's discussion includes forward-looking statements as defined by the United States securities laws in connection with future events. Knife River is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Knife River is under no obligation to, except as legally required, publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether resulting from new information, future events or otherwise. For more information about risks and uncertainties associated with forward-looking statements, please refer to our most recent SEC filings. For further detail, please refer to the legal disclaimers contained in today's earnings release and other public filings, which are available on both our website and the Securities and Exchange Commission website.During this presentation, we will make references to certain non-GAAP information. These non-GAAP measures are defined and reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in the appendix to the supplemental information as well as our filings with the SEC. These materials are also available on our website at www.kniferiver.com under the Investors tab. Joining me today is President and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Gray. He will begin today's call with a discussion of our financial results, segment performance and competitive EDGE plan. I will then review second quarter product line results, leverage position and 2023 guidance. Following prepared remarks, the operator will open the call for a question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call over to Brian.

[Brian Gray, executive]

Thank you, Nathan. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I am excited to present our first earnings call as a public company and even more excited to discuss our strong results and the solid momentum we are seeing. Knight River achieved record second quarter revenue, record net income and record EBITDA while also compiling a quarterly record backlog. We saw improved results from last year in each region as our operations benefited from price increases and targeted bidding strategies across all consolidated product lines. This is a direct result of our competitive EDGE strategy for sustainable and profitable growth, which I will discuss further in a minute. For the quarter, we reported revenue of $785.2 million, a 10% increase from the same period in 2022. Our second quarter EBITDA was $125.1 million, which is a 43% increase year-over-year. Our adjusted EBITDA was $126.3 million, a 40% increase year-over-year.Nathan will discuss EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA in more detail so you can fully appreciate the significant underlying momentum in our business and the progress we are making with the execution of our EDGE plan. Based on our strong first half and the tailwinds we see in our operations going forward, we are raising our guidance for revenue and EBITDA. In addition, we are initiating guidance for the adjusted EBITDA of $330 million to $380 million for 2023, implying year-over-year growth of 20% at the midpoint and underscoring the demand we are seeing. Nathan will discuss this further. These are very strong results, and they are a testament to the strength of our 6,000 team members and of their support of our EDGE strategy. Our results also show the strength and resiliency of our aggregates-led vertically integrated business model. While new to the public markets as an independent company, our business and operations are well established with a track record of executing on our goals and successfully expanding our business in midsized high-growth markets. Our mix of construction materials and contracting services provides resiliency and contributes to our industry-leading return on invested capital.We are a top 10 aggregate producer in the United States with 1.1 billion tons of proven reserves. Our major downstream products include ready-mix concrete and asphalt, and we also performed contracting services across 12 of our 14 states in which we operate. Tying it all together is our life at night, which is the name we give to our strong people-first culture. We are committed to taking care of our team and being an employer of choice as we work together to build our communities. I've been with Knife River for 30 years, and it was a thrill for me to join our leadership team on the balcony of the New York Stock Exchange on June 1 to ring the opening bell and watch as shares of KNF stock were traded for the first time. Our separation from MDU Resources into a stand-alone public company has allowed us the opportunity to unlock our full potential and expand upon our strong platform.The decision to spin-off enables us to more effectively allocate capital resources and pursue strategic efforts aimed at growing our business and creating long-term value for our shareholders. Key among the strategic efforts is our competitive EDGE plant. EDGE is Knife River's framework for sustainable and profitable growth. The letters in EDGE stand for EBITDA margin improvement, discipline, growth and excellence. Our team is laser-focused on these initiatives and objectively, we have delivered. First, we improved our trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA margin to 13.5%, a significant increase from our 2022 year-end adjusted EBITDA margin of 12.4%. Much of this improvement was the result of our discipline in aligning the value we deliver to our customers through price optimization. For the quarter, we saw double-digit price increases on all our materials, including aggregates, ready-mix, asphalt, cement and liquid asphalt. In addition to strong materials pricing, we improved our construction margins for the quarter by 280 basis points through the disciplined bidding strategies and project execution.Our pricing initiatives, coupled with the efficiency enhancements being implemented by our process improvement teams and the strong underlying demand we are seeing in our regions has us on track to hit our goal of 15% adjusted EBITDA margins by 2025. Second, we have been highly disciplined at allocating capital and managing cash, evidenced in the quarter by paying down $35 million in debt to improve our financial flexibility. Third, we continue to prioritize organic and acquisition-related growth. Our business development team has been busy analyzing a number of strategic opportunities to grow our aggregates position, a key objective for us, both by greenfield and new sites along with several prospective acquisitions.Looking to the future, we remain optimistic that local, state and federal funding will continue to support strong construction activity. This funding has contributed to our record backlog of $1.04 billion. Finally, we are focused on excellence in everything we do, starting with maintaining our people first culture. These efforts are measurable in a number of ways, including our commitment to safety, our retention rates and our outreach efforts. A stat I'm proud to report is our outreach efforts this year to over 1,200 historically underrepresented organizations in our communities. Our world-class Knife River training center has been at the heart of this outreach effort and will continue to provide best-in-class training for our existing team members and future construction workers. Ultimately, our efforts to be the best-in-class drive our continuous pursuit of excellence. We believe that our near- and long-term opportunities to continue to build on the momentum we have seen in each of these EDGE initiatives. At our Investor Day in May, we outlined our goals and a well-defined path to achieving strong and balanced revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA margin expansion to 15% by 2025 and 20% in the long term, generating attractive free cash flows, maintaining a healthy balance sheet and sustaining our industry-leading return on invested capital.We are just getting started, and I'm proud to be able to report on some of our initial successes. I'll quickly recap the quarterly results for our reportable segments before turning the call over to Nathan for additional details on our financial performance. Starting in the Pacific region EDGE-related pricing initiatives across all product lines contributed to increased revenue, gross profit and EBITDA. We saw higher demand in Hawaii as the local economy continues to regain momentum through tourism and military spending. We also experienced higher material demand in Northern California. In addition to improved margins for our contracting services in Northern California, we also saw ready-mixed volumes increase based in part on our late 2022 acquisition in Modesto. Partially offsetting the region's increased revenues were lower asphalt volumes and decreased contracting services revenues, both resulting from the late start to the construction season.Moving to the Northwest region. We enjoyed exceptional results in the quarter, driven again by our pricing initiatives across all product lines and also by strong demand in contracting services. Revenues in the Northwest improved 19% year-over-year and EBITDA improved 75%. Higher asphalt and ready-mix volumes more than offset the decrease in aggregate volumes associated with project timing as the region is benefiting from more available work than in previous years, including public agency work, data centers and parking structures. We are in the process of commissioning our new state-of-the-art prepress manufacturing facility in Spokane, Washington. We acquired the Spokane operation in 2020, 1 of 8 acquisitions we have made in the Northwest since 2018. Next is our Mountain region, which had a strong quarter and was ahead of our record year in 2022. We saw revenue growth of 3% and EBITDA growth of 14%, with price increases across all product lines positively impacting segment revenue.Our contracting service business is larger as a percent of revenue in this region than any other, and it continues to perform well. We have a record second quarter backlog of $377.3 million, an 8% increase from last year. I mentioned earlier, as part of our EDGE strategy, the process improvement teams are what we call the pick crewss. This is a cross-section of internal product line experts and outside consultants to help each region identify opportunities to lower production costs and improve operating efficiencies. The pick crewss spent approximately 1 week per month, completing their work at individual business units. The Mountain region has the benefit of having a pick crews in the region twice now, and they have identified and implemented meaningful improvements at 2 of their larger aggregate operations. In the North Central region, revenue improved 12% and EBITDA increased 52%. Most notably for the quarter, EBITDA margins improved by 340 basis points as the region embraced EDGE-related bidding strategies.On the material side, aggregate price increases across the region related to the implementation of EDGE initiatives more than offset lower volumes. Finally, our  all other segment includes our Energy Services region, South region and Corporate Services. For the second quarter, revenue improved $5.8 million year-over-year as a result of higher average selling prices for asphalt products and ready-mix concrete, partially offset by the December 2022 divestiture of nonstrategic assets in Southeast Texas. EBITDA improved $1.2 million year-over-year to $5.4 million as a result of increased pricing. Corporate costs increased related to our recent spin, and we are diligently analyzing our SG&A. Once we have fully onboarded our dissynergies from a timing perspective, we expect to be able to drive greater productivity. As I went through some of the highlights of our segments, there are common themes across our business. First, our choice of midsized, high-growth markets and our leadership in those markets position us well to benefit from the demographic shift we are seeing to markets where Knife River is strongly positioned.Second, our laser focus and continuing to implement our EDGE strategy is already delivering exceptional results, and we believe it will keep us well positioned for profitable growth and long-term value creation. Third, our people-first culture and the commitment of all our team members to our core values and business objectives makes me extremely optimistic about the future for Knife River and the value we can deliver to our shareholders. I will now turn the call over to Nathan for a detailed look at our financial results. Nathan?

[Nathan Ring, executive]

Thank you, Brian. We have had an impressive quarter on a consolidated basis and at the segment level. Next, I'd like to focus on the product lines, which have also benefited from our strategic initiatives. First, let's review the progress we made on pricing. For the quarter, the average selling price for aggregates improved 11%. Ready-mix concrete improved 13% and asphalt also increased 13%. These strong price increases are a direct result of the EDGE initiatives as well as the actions taken to overcome inflationary pressures from the prior year. Although we anticipate inflationary pressures will moderate, we expect the dynamic pricing initiative to continue providing margin improvement. The delayed start to the construction season impacted our internal sales of aggregates for the quarter as reflected in the volumes. I am pleased to report that all operations are in full swing, and we are entering the heart of our construction season.External sales of aggregates increased for the quarter, and we continue to see broad-based demand. Our successful pricing strategies and cost control measures have resulted in strong improvement in gross margins across all our product lines for an improvement at the consolidated level of close to 500 basis points. Again, we are very pleased with the work our teams have done to implement new initiatives and take advantage of strong market opportunities. Switching to our financial health and capital allocation priorities, we are dedicated to financial discipline, particularly as it relates to our targeted leverage and capital allocation. Long term, we are targeting a net debt to trailing 12-month EBITDA of approximately 2.5x. As Brian mentioned, since the spin date, we have paid down $35 million in debt. So that at the end of the quarter, we were 2.3x EBITDA. This is based on net debt balance of $815 million. Our strong EBITDA growth and disciplined use of cash has helped us achieve this significant improvement.A portion of the debt balance relates to the $350 million revolver in place to ensure we have access to adequate funds to meet our seasonal operating needs. As of June 30, near the peak of our construction season, we utilized $155 million, leaving ample room for future growth opportunities. Growth is another key component of our EDGE plan. Strategically managing our debt gives us flexibility to allocate capital to where we get the best long-term value for our shareholders. This approach to sustainable growth has a few key components. First, we continue to actively reinvest for organic growth and maintenance into our fleet and equipment and to strengthen our people-first culture with safety and training initiatives.We expect these investments in CapEx to account for approximately 5% to 7% of annualized revenues. As examples, I mentioned 2 initiatives at our Investor Day in May, our prestress facility in Washington and our Honey Creek quarry in Texas. The prestress facility is about to come online and the Honey Creek recently has started full production. We anticipate EBITDA and margin improvement from both operations this year. Second, we also actively pursue M&A growth opportunities, focusing on aggregates led businesses in midsized high-growth markets within or adjacent to our current footprint. We currently are pursuing a number of opportunities in the pipeline that meet our disciplined criteria. Third, we consistently review our portfolio of operations to ensure they fit our long-term strategy and EDGE initiatives. Ultimately, we look to remain financially nimble and are committed to the long-term annualized goal of approximately 2.5x net debt to EBITDA.So far, we have invested approximately $56 million of the planned $125 million of capital projects for 2023, with the majority allocated to maintaining our equipment. Note that future acquisitions are not included and would be incremental to our capital plan. Moving to our guidance. As presented in the press release and as Brian highlighted earlier, we are very excited to be reporting record second quarter results. Based on those results as well as our strong market conditions, operational momentum and visibility through year-end, we are updating our revenue guidance to $2.6 billion to $2.8 billion and our EBITDA guidance to $320 million to $370 million. We are initiating adjusted EBITDA guidance of $330 million to $380 million.Let me provide some additional detail on these changes. The increases to our revenue and EBITDA guidance are driven by the outcomes from our pricing and bidding strategies, our strong first half results and record levels of backlog. For comparative purposes, this is a 20% increase from 2022 to the midpoint of our new EBITDA guidance. Further, as an independent public company, we are transitioning to adjusted EBITDA guidance to better reflect our core profitability by adjusting for onetime events, such as nonrecurring transition costs related to the spin as well as stock-based compensation and gains or losses on our benefit plans. For further clarity, in 2023, we estimate that onetime spin-related costs will be approximately $6.5 million. For prior year comparison purposes, an equivalent adjusted EBITDA in 2022 was $296 million as presented in the Form 10 and on Investor Day. This reflects a 20% growth to the midpoint of our new guidance range and underscores the strength of our ongoing core business.We are committed to being transparent with our investors so that you can share our excitement in the underlying momentum we have and what we see ahead with the full rollout and execution of our EDGE strategy and reinvestment in our country's infrastructure. We had a strong quarter, and importantly, have strong momentum going forward. We believe our strategy, our skilled team members and the essential work that needs to get done to support America's infrastructure will continue to provide long-term value to our shareholders. I would now like to turn it back to the operator and open it up for questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Your first question will come from Brent Thielman at Davidson.

[Brent Thielman, analyst]

Congrats on a great quarter. Brian or Nathan, I mean, look, solid pricing returns, profitability across the company. Maybe if you could just speak to what the overhang on volume was this quarter? Do you see that reversing into the second half of the year? Or any thoughts around the opportunity for volume to snap back here as we move into the second half?

[Brian Gray, executive]

Yes, Brent, this is Brian. So I'll go on to take that question. Yes, we saw small volume declines in aggregates, ready-mix and asphalt for the quarter. I'll start with the downstream products and I think that will explain the aggregates. For ready-mix, we divested ourselves of the Southeast Texas operations and so that was the primary driver of that. I mean, without the divestiture of Texas, our ready-mix volumes would actually have been up. Then second, as far as asphalt, we had a late start to the construction season this year. We talked about the impacts in the Pacific region, Mountain region in the first quarter and so really, the work that should have got done in this first quarter is really just now getting started in the second quarter, and it's been delayed. So the delayed start of that impact really our aggregates in total. Our aggregate volumes were actually up to our third-party customers for the quarter and so it really all came from selling internal materials to our ready-mix plants and our asphalt plants downstream, Brent. So overall, yes, I think that construction work with our record backlog. We've got time to get that work done. So I do see those volumes coming back.

[Brent Thielman, analyst]

Okay. Great. Then maybe if you could talk a little more about the progress you're seeing with the various internal initiatives around pricing, bidding practices, some of the other objectives you've got, I guess, specifically as you think about this kind of 15% margin objective. I mean how much of that shows up in its results this quarter, Brian? I mean, in fairness, you guys have only been in the role for a little while. I'm just trying to understand that versus maybe some other things that are driving really strong profitability here this quarter.

[Brian Gray, executive]

Yes. We appreciate the recognition, Brent, of a fantastic quarter, and it does have a lot to do with our EDGE initiatives. So there's a primary driver of that 15% EBITDA by 2025, and our success this last quarter really has been driven by our pricing initiatives, both for our materials and downstream construction services and so we have had good success in our markets in all product lines of getting double-digit price increases. We really are telling our story of the being vertically integrated and supplying all the materials through the value chain, there is value that our customers see in that. The quality, the service, the availability of materials at our sites, that has been well received by our customers. That's transitioned also translated on the bid date for our contracting services. We've become much more strategic, disciplined, patient in identifying the jobs that really fit our crews, fit our backlog, and that's allowed us to raise our margins. You saw that in our construction margins for the quarter were much better as well. We've got record backlog going into the rest of this year and our EDGE initiatives, I can tell you, we had a region president in Bismarck last week and that initiative has been completely embraced.We get to 15%, not by just raising prices, but also our cost controls. We've implemented the pick crews and the pick crews have been out on the road for a week, a month. They've made 7 visits so far and have identified literally hundreds of small operational improvements, some of them more meaningful. So it's multiple ways to get there. We continue to look for opportunities to go through acquisitions and refueling our aggregates operations. So we're well on track, Brent, to get to that 15% by 2025.

[Brent Thielman, analyst]

Okay. Appreciate that. Brian, maybe just if you could comment on some of the business trends, demand trends, just maybe among your larger revenue contributing states. I mean is there an air pocket and housing, are there more positive than negative right now as we think about the demand climate in some of the bigger markets for you?

[Brian Gray, executive]

Yes. There's been a lot of conversations around residential because of our geographic footprint and really focused on the midsized higher-growth markets. We're not seeing a big slowdown in the markets we operate in in residential. Now keep in mind, Brent, there's not a large percent of our backlog on contracts and services or even on the material side is directly related to residential. The markets that we operate in, many of our competitors are more of the regional smaller suppliers that really do target the residential markets but the markets that we're in and we do see the booming area in that Treasure Valley, as far as residential there, Northern California, our residential has not had a big impact on that. Obviously, right now, 84% of our backlog is public funded and so that remains very strong for us. We have markets right now that are seeing a bigger rebound than others. Hawaii, I mean the tourism, the military spending in Hawaii has been very solid for us. We're seeing a lot of strong commercial warehousing. I think across the board, we're seeing strength in tailwinds in most of those markets.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We have follow-up questions from Brent Thielman at Davidson.

[Brent Thielman, analyst]

Okay. When you think about the upgraded implied outlook for the second half, you do have some markets that can be very seasonal. Have you embedded some element of conservatism for that into the guidance, I guess, I'm thinking particularly about the fourth quarter, Brian, or Nathan.

[Brian Gray, executive]

Yes. We kept the range at $50 million, Brent.  We're early into the construction season right now. We still have approximately 60% of our revenue will happen in the second half of the year and so yes, you're right that our Northern tier exposure can have an impact in the fourth quarter. But it's early on, and we've got strong backlog and momentum going into that but that led into our guidance. Maybe Nathan has something to add on there.

[Nathan Ring, executive]

 Yes. Another part, Brent, of the second half of the year does relate, and we mentioned this in our remarks, relates to the incremental costs that we'll see from the transition. If you recall from the Form 10, we didn't indicate that for a full year, we'll probably see about $23 million, $24 million of recurring costs in relation to that. For the rest of the year, about $2 million a month, we'll see about an additional $12 million of incremental costs related to the spin.

[Brent Thielman, analyst]

Yes. Maybe just last one, just strategic. You guys have been very focused internally in some of the initiatives you've been focused on. I guess I'm curious your appetite today for looking at acquisitions, would you rather see that a little later on as you're still putting things to work internally? I'd be curious to your thoughts there as we think about the expansion of the business here eventually.

[Brian Gray, executive]

Yes. A key component of our EDGE initiative is growth, and it's a big part of our DNA in our past and absolutely, Brent. We've got a Vice President of Business Development that is focused right now on both organic and inorganic opportunities. We've been obviously very focused on getting the spin across the finish line, and that's taken a lot of our resources and attention. However, during that time, we've been busy talking to prospective sellers. I think we are an acquirer of choice in the markets we operate in, primarily because we're a people-first company, and we take good care of our employees, our neighbors, our customers, and we have strong relationships and reputations in those markets that we operate in. So very much I think that we are very active looking at acquisitions. I think Nathan could possibly touch on a little bit of our available funds to grow. Maybe, Nathan, do you want to talk about that?

[Nathan Ring, executive]

Yes. The other part of that, Brent, too, is just that we're prepared to pursue those when they come to the pipeline. As we noted within the prepared remarks, we're sitting at a 2.3x net leverage, which helps indicate that we have the funds to support the growth that the Vice President of Business Development and the team is looking at. Really with the performance we've had in the first half of the year and expectations for the second half of the year, strong cash flows to where we can maintain that 2% to 2.3% or 2.5% spend leverage while pursuing these growth opportunities, very exciting for us.

[Operator]

There are no further questions on the phone, so I will turn the conference back to Brian Gray for any closing remarks.

[Brian Gray, executive]

Well, thank you for taking the time to join us for our call today where we posted record results, raised our guidance for the full year. We're excited by the early results from implementing our EDGE plan and the robust demand environment across our footprint. We are well positioned with our EDGE strategy, our people-first culture and a leading position in our midsized high-growth markets to create durable long-term value for our shareholders. Thank you for your continued support for Knife River. Have a great day.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude your conference call for this morning. We would like to thank you all for participating and ask you to please disconnect your lines.