MasTec, Inc. (NYSE:MTZ) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Adam Thalhimer: And so when you talk about clean energy margins going to double-digits in light of those opportunities, does double-digits feel like a stretch or is that where you really should be when these things start to line up?

Jose Mas: Well, it’s a stretch from where we are today and we get that. So what we’ve said is — we think there’s an opportunity to approach double-digits over the course of the next couple of years. I think all the industry trends are in our favor to obviously drive margins out of the business. But I don’t think we should put lofty goals out there either without having achieved much and we get that. So, our goal for this year is to get mid to high-6s. Our goal for the coming years is to take that and start approaching double-digits and hopefully we can do that faster than we’re saying. And hopefully, the end goal ends up being a lot larger, but I don’t want to — we’re not here to hype the story. We’re here to give a realistic view as to what we think we can accomplish. And there’s no question that the fundamentals of the market are going to allow all the players in the industry including us to ultimately get better returns on the investments that we’re making.

Adam Thalhimer: Thanks Jose.

Jose Mas: Thanks Adam.

Operator: Next question comes from Marc Bianchi with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Marc Bianchi: Hey. Thank you. I wanted to start by just clarifying something about the CapEx guidance that you have here for the $100 million net of disposals. So if I look at the first quarter, that number would have been $63 million of CapEx and then $20 million of proceeds, so $43 million net for the quarter. I just want to confirm we’re on the same page there.

Jose Mas: Yes, that’s correct, Marc.

Marc Bianchi: Okay. Great. Thanks. So then I guess the question is, if I take a look at that on an annual basis the $100 million is kind of low by historical standards considering how large the business has become with M&A. I know the finance lease piece has grown as well. So maybe that’s the difference in that the finance lease piece on a longer-term basis is just going to constitute a larger part of CapEx. But maybe as you look at it holistically over time, what should sort of the aggregation of CapEx asset proceeds and finance leases be to run the business?

Jose Mas: Marc, it’s a good question, right? I think when — if you look at MasTec in its entirety and you compare us to our peer group, from a depreciation perspective, we probably run as high of depreciation as anybody. When you look at our original cost PP&E and even our current PP&E values relative to our revenue, it’s higher than most of the peer group. So I think we’re in a great place relative to our fleet. I think we’ve got a lot of flexibility relative to our fleet with what we want to do relative to kind of how that plays into our financials. So we’ve made, we’ve said it. We’ve made significant investments over the last couple of years to prepare ourselves to be in the position that we’re in. I think it’s time to start enjoying that and mining that equipment and put it all to work so we can get high utilizations and then make determinations on the balance of our CapEx relative to that.

But I think there isn’t a company in the peer group with the size of fleet relative to us on a revenue basis or quite frankly the amount of depreciation that’s going through our books. So we actually think we need to rationalize that a little bit better and bring us more in line with other peers.