Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (NASDAQ:GLDD) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Scott Kornblau: Yes. So, as I mentioned, we’ll have full year CapEx of about $145 million for this year, and we’ve spent another $40 million already in the fourth quarter. So, there’s very little left to spend for this year, we’ll be at the $145 million. And right now, we’re in the $135-ish million range or so. We just have the final payment to make on the Galveston Island and just some maintenance CapEx. As I look forward to next year, and I’ll give more specific guidance on the next call, but right now, it’s laying out to probably be in the upper 100 — so call it $175 million to $195 million, but I’ll dial that in a little more on the year-end call.

Jacob Christensen: Got it. Thank you very much. And could you maybe try to parse that 2024 ballpark into maintenance projects?

Scott Kornblau: Yes. So, our maintenance CapEx has decreased over the last couple of years as you bring on new vessels. That’s the expectation is that your maintenance CapEx comes down. So, we run about $25 million a year in maintenance CapEx, and then the rest will be for the wind vessel, the Acadia and the new hopper dredge, the Amelia Island.

Jacob Christensen: Excellent. Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question will come from Gregory Bennett of [Indiscernible]. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst: Hey good morning. Thanks for the information. How much of your current backlog that I think you said half of it you expect to monetize over the next 12 months. Half of that is fixed at costs that are going up in this inflationary environment. Do you expect you have adjustments in these contracts for fuel or personnel? Or could we be stuck with low-margin contracts that were delayed over the last several months? Thank you.

Scott Kornblau: Yes. So, for the majority of our government contracts, those are fixed-price contracts. However, based on what happened last year, we have changed the way that we bid costs and — inflation into those. So, we — and we’re not going to get burned again like we did last year. So we’ve taken some very aggressive assumptions on what inflation will be. That was built into our bid when we priced it out. Now, that we’re also starting to win a lot of nongovernment jobs, those contracts, our RFPs and you can negotiate those. And I can’t get into the specifics of all of those contracts, but they are a lot more favorable than the off-the-shelf government contracts.

Unidentified Analyst: So, you’re expecting when we hear your next — with your fourth quarter earnings announcement that the expectation is you should be profitable and have significant cash flow. Is that what you’re telling us?

Scott Kornblau: Telling you that we’re expecting a much higher revenue and much higher margin in the fourth quarter than we have seen in the first three quarters of this year. One other comment, too, on the cost and the inflation. Two of the larger costs that we have, one is labor. We do have a lot of union labor. Those agreements are fixed, and we just recently signed a three-year labor agreement. So, we know what that is. Another large component is fuel, and we hedge our fuel as we win a contract, but we mitigate the impact of that as well.

Unidentified Analyst: On the new vessel that you’re building for offshore wind, my take is a lot of the contracts aren’t going to happen. Why not wait until you have your financing in place, stop construction, wait until you have your contract, your financing — your favorable financing in place and wait until you have contracts — definitive contracts, take-or-pay contracts for that vessel and not put us at risk?