Johnson Controls International plc (NYSE:JCI) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: That would really relate to an impairment chart we took on our subscriber business. That subscriber business sits within our EMEA/LA segment. And it came really from a combination of small actual result delta versus an internal forecast we had but it was mostly associated over time the effect that the Argentinian Peso had in the mix of results of that particular business. Then I will remind you that — that impairment is non-cash in terms of what the [charges] (ph) relate to. And it has absolutely no impact on our ability to deliver free cash flow for the balance of the year.

Jeffrey Sprague: And then just a really quick follow-up just on cash. So the PFAS settlement you are expecting to go out the door here before the end of the year. And — are you expecting any insurance recoveries against that in 2024? Or that’s more of a kind of protracted negotiation with your insurers?

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: Yes. The PFAS settlement will be in two tranche. There is a first tranche coming shortly and the second tranche later in the year. I do not want to speculate on the timing of the recovery of the cash from the insurance. I would tell you we have significant insurance with about 20 insurers. We are doing everything we can to recover as much as we can. We have a line of sight of recovering a very material portion of the settlement. But at this stage, I am not being able to pin down an exact time line on that recovery.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question today comes from Gautam Khanna with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Gautam Khanna: Yes. Thanks good morning guys.

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: Good morning how are you?

Gautam Khanna: Good, well. Thanks. I had a couple of questions on the divestments. First, I was curious if you could characterize the level of interest from potential [suitors] (ph). If you could talk about maybe the aggregate tax basis. And if you could also speak to any potential dis-synergies and if you have any quantification of that — that would be helpful. Thank you.

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: I mean I don’t want to over speculate on exactly where we stand. What I’ll tell you is that there is different combination of divestiture structure that we’re looking at and we are simply trying to optimize shareholder value and our ability to return a very large portion of that the proceeds associated with the divestiture back to shareholders. The divestiture will require like any material divesture for us to take action around our base cost of central cost of operating. We have good-line of sight to action that. We have already started planning around it.

Gautam Khanna: Can you speak to the timing or the tax basis of the assets — so we can [understand] (ph).

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: At this stage, it would be very hard for me to pin our [self-dance] (ph) on the timing. We are doing everything to accelerate the process, depending on how we structure the divestiture, the tax effect will be very different. So at this stage, that is giving you a very wide range of the different options that are being considered from a divestiture of structure, I don’t think would be helpful. But again, we are doing everything to maximize shareholder value here.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question today comes from Deane Dray at RBC Capital. Please go ahead.

Deane Dray: Thank you. Good morning everyone.

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: Good morning Deane.

Deane Dray: I just want to take another pass at this — the Page 5 data center exhibit, which is terrific. And especially the pie chart at the bottom that does show all the different products and services that JCI offers. And it goes back to Julian’s question, it would be really helpful, we just really rough size some of these categories — so if I said cooling and I group chiller, space, cooling and monitoring as one bucket and then fire and security is the other two. Would rough numbers be 60% cooling and then 20% each for fire and security? Would that be the right neighborhood?

George R. Oliver: Yes, I would say it’s about — it’s in the range where about two-thirds would be chillers, then the others would be – air-handling would be cross, would be buyer security, all of the other systems that ultimately support the deployment of the cooling technologies.

Deane Dray: Great. That’s really helpful. And just I think, a lot of people think of the security side, just the three levels of access that most of these data centers have. But if you look at just about every row of these data center rooms, there are cameras and fire suppression on every row. So this is part of your offering, correct?

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: It’s absolutely part of the offering and those very complex solutions. We are really set up with our engineering, our product offering to really leverage that market. And that’s where we see the pipeline continuously growing as the complexity and the structure of those data center continue to increase.

George R. Oliver: And Deane, I think it’s important to note also from a service standpoint, when you go to one of these sites and you see the installations and all of the equipment, both across the domains, what is really strong is our footprint providing the service. And so how our teams then are positioned to support all of these large facilities that are being put up. And so that’s where we see significant opportunity to be able to deploy our system so that then from a life cycle standpoint, we have the domain and expertise deployed to be able to support these large operations.

Deane Dray: Terrific. And just one last quick one for Marc. I know, it is still early, but when would be the earliest we might hear some reset working capital metric targets?

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: I think we are still early in stage, as you mentioned we are looking at next year and where we’re going to deploy our resources from a growth standpoint. I think as we close Q4, we’ll probably be able to give you a strong view on where we are going to land for next year, as well as our long-term algo. But I don’t think, we’ll shy away from the comment I made last time that 85% to 90% free cash flow conversion plus, although the long-term is really where we should be thinking.