nVent Electric plc (NYSE:NVT) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sara Zawoyski: Yes. So we talked about that a bit earlier, meaning from a margin perspective, we believe it’s going to be stronger in the first half versus the second half in part you’re going to have ECM rolling in here incrementally and that is accretive to the overall nVent margins. But in the back half, we expect that to be a bit more muted with those phased-in investments, R&D, new products, as well as in our high-growth verticals, including, as you just alluded to, some of those ramp-up costs as we put some of our new capacity lines into commission, if you will. And I think the other thing just to keep in mind, and again, this is consistent with what we called out in the last quarter or two, we did have some mix benefits in the EFS and ECM businesses that we’ll be getting to lap. But all in, expect good topline growth as well as good profit growth.

Brian Drab: Understood. Okay. Thanks for taking my question.

Operator: The next question will come from Vlad Bystricky with Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Vladimir Bystricky: Good morning. Thanks for taking my call.

Tony Riter: Good morning, Vlad.

Beth Wozniak: Good morning.

Vladimir Bystricky: So I just wanted to ask, I think you mentioned in your comments that you saw APAC up low double digits with solid growth in China. So – and obviously, we’ve seen sort of growing returns around the China macro outlook. So can you just talk about what was really behind that strength that you saw and how you’re thinking about the outlook for China going forward?

Beth Wozniak: Well, first of all, remember, China represents less than 5% of our sales. So it’s not significant. And over the last several years, we’ve really focused are – on the high-growth verticals in China. And so therefore, that’s where we think we can win and be competitive. And so we saw some growth in both our Enclosures segment where we focus on areas like transportation or Data Solutions. And we saw some growth in our Thermal Management business with some of our focus on key projects, in particular, chemical. So I think for us, it’s really been knowing where the growth is and ensuring that we are very focused on those key high-growth verticals. But overall, it’s not a significant portion of our portfolio.

Vladimir Bystricky: Understood. And that’s helpful color. And then just on the capital allocation front, with net leverage now sort of back down toward the lower end of your target range, can you just talk about how you’re thinking about the potential for sizable incremental M&A and sort of your capacity from a management perspective as you’re still integrating ECM and TEXA to do larger M&A?

Beth Wozniak: So I think from a standpoint of – we’ve now done six deals as a company. And I think we’ve got a good track record of driving both growth and returns, and we have a framework that we’ve shared at our Investor Day about how we think about great portfolios and our view is we’re – we think about our ability to execute as well. But over the course of the year, we would expect that we’re going to have the opportunity to pursue some M&A and you never quite control the timing of when M&A happens. But as we always think about it, we want to make sure that they’re the right strategic deals that we have the ability to execute and the ability to scale those opportunities and generate the returns.

Vladimir Bystricky: Great. Thanks for the color.

Operator: The next question will come from Scott Graham with Loop. Please go ahead.

Scott Graham: Hi. Good morning. First of all, congratulations on another terrific quarter, great execution. I wanted to take the last question, maybe the next step. If we go to the high end of your target leverage, it seems like you will have this year another $1 billion to be able to deploy, again, at the high end. And I’m just – and that does not include what you get back in EBITDA, right? So that’s just the one pass. I’m just wondering, is your pipeline – what does it look like? Which of the areas maybe of the company? Maybe you can share with us where it’s a little bit stronger? And $1 billion in capacity would mean that you can kind of do this year, which you did last year. Is that possible?

Beth Wozniak: I would say our pipeline is very strong. And as you know, you have to cultivate relationships because sometimes we’re doing deals where we know of those companies. Sometimes it’s an auction process. So we feel very good in terms of our pipeline and the opportunity to pursue a deal or two like we did last year. And one of the things that we’ve said is it has to be a great product portfolio in a high-growth vertical. So what you’ve seen us do in the last couple of years, we’ve done some deals that are focused around Data Solutions. We’ve done some deals that have given us a portfolio around cooling that we can expand into areas like industrial and energy storage. So overall, we just think high-growth vertical focus, great product portfolio that we can scale and that we have the ability to execute. So again, acquisitions have been a key part of our growth strategy.

Scott Graham: Understood. I just was also wondering within that Sara, does ECM pose any restrictions on that segment for M&A?

Beth Wozniak: So I’ll answer that. So I think from the standpoint of whenever we do a deal, we think about our ability to execute. And we think about that by segment, we think about that by geography. So at the time – when those opportunities arise, that will be part of our consideration.

Scott Graham: Got it. Thank you. My last question is on the organic and this is just sort of a question by vertical. I know you were sort of asked by segment earlier. I’m assuming that infrastructure will lead again with data center in there. I was just wondering if you might be able to rank the other three verticals and what your thinking is for organic this year.