Knife River Corporation (NYSE:KNF) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

We’re looking adjacent to the regions that we operate in but we are absolutely committed to growing our product line in aggregates and those opportunities are out there. As far as multiples, we’ve talked in the past that we operate in a unique part of the United States where we don’t have a lot of overlap with our national peers. And we are we have strong market positions and a lot of those states and we are the logical a preferred acquirer in those states. And so, many of those opportunities that we’ve done out of those 85 acquisitions that we’ve done, many of them fall in that $30 million to $40 million range, which a lot of times are not brokered and negotiated deals, and so we continue. Our pipeline is full of those opportunities along with the opportunities that are being brokered some larger platform businesses that are absolutely aggregates based and Knife River’s in the hunt on those projects.

We will be competitive on those projects. We’ll stay disciplined to our strategy and that is to grow margins and maintain our industry-leading return on invested capital and continue to look at a balanced portfolio that supports our vertical integration and aggregates lead strategy. And so, those options are out there. Ian, it would be — those multiples can range literally from a 5 to a 20. I mean there’s no one answer for that. It really is every deal is different. Every deal has its own financial or strategic justification and so, each deal is different.

Ian Zaffino: Okay. Great. Thank you very much for the color.

Brian Gray: Thanks Ian.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And at this time, we have no other questions registered. Please proceed with closing remarks.

Brian Gray: Again, thank you for joining us today. Our business is fundamentally strong, and we feel we are poised to take advantage of our momentum. We have a strong backlog of work and a talented team to go performance. I’m looking forward to what we have ahead of us as we head into the construction season. We are focused on working safely, continually improving our margins and delivering long-term profitable growth for our investors. We appreciate the interest and support, and we’ll now turn the call back over to the operator. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. At this time, we ask that you please disconnect your lines. Enjoy the rest of your day.