North American Construction Group Ltd. (NYSE:NOA) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Joe Lambert: I think most of our tuck-ins, like when we vertically integrate are more about reducing our internal cost by in-housing our maintenance. So that really — what I would say is our growth opportunity, I’ve always said that I think there’s 5% to 15% annual growth in our marketplaces. And if you look at the first 20% or 30% of that, we can pretty much cover with existing assets by increased utilization of existing assets. Now obviously, those usually come with some growth capital. So I’ll give you an example where we’re looking at possibly placing some assets in Australia and a long-term contract, it’s not just equipment we have. We have to actually go out and look at a few shovels that would complement the fleet as well.

So it’s not — we don’t have everything all the time. We have to add — and like Jason said, we added $20 million in growth capital so far to meet the demands in the Australian marketplace. So you would get that kind of growth additions into that just by utilizing the fleet. But certainly, that first 20%-odd [ph] of growth we think we can do with existing assets and some minor top-up on growth capital.

Phil Goodrich: So planning on your plate now as you continue to work in MacKellar. So how long do you feel it takes to digest all of that and the plate is now empty and you’re ready for something significant again at one point in the future.

Joe Lambert: One thing I’d say is very pleased in that we had the bench strength to place an integration team and change out leadership at Nuna all within the last 6 months. And I don’t — the business has been able to absorb that and not miss a beat on performance. And so I’m very comfortable with that going forward that we’ve got the people in place. We’ve got a lot of things going on. We’re going to turn around at Nuna and we’re doing the integration in Australia. But I think the people are there and very comfortable with the way they’re performing that. I don’t see a lot of anxiety of that. If something else came up. Our plate isn’t empty and nor do I are expected to be fully empty. But if something came up and there is a good opportunity, we wouldn’t shy away from it because we don’t have the resources. We have capability to do that.

Phil Goodrich: Except for the balance sheet. So I presume that’s the principal limiting factor here?

Joe Lambert: I guess if we were to look at a debt funded MacKellar tomorrow but they don’t happen at that speed. If it’s — it happens at the same speed at MacKellar did and it’s 2 years from now, I’d be very confident we got the balance sheet by the end of this year, frankly, to start looking at bigger things like that.

Operator: This concludes the Q&A session of the call and I will pass the call over to Joe Lambert, President and CEO, for closing comments.

Joe Lambert: Thanks, Enrico. Thanks again, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to providing next update upon closing of our Q2 2024 results.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes the North American Construction Group conference call on Q1 2024.

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