RPM International Inc. (NYSE:RPM) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Frank Sullivan: Sure. We are not seeing any impact in receivables. So, that is not a sign or an area of concern right now we pay attention to it. The broadest thing I could tell you is that the housing market has been hurt and that’s continuing. And you can see that in residential new construction, which is way down and even housing turnover, which is down. And then the other area that is most impactful is commercial or light commercial, hotels, office space. The days of the mega $1 billion Apple and Amazon new headquarters buildings is over. And so that’s some of €“ those are some examples of some big projects that are construction chemicals, sealants and products we are on. And so it’s office space, hotel and hospitality and all those areas are weak. And so it’s not really an issue of credit or receivable concern, it’s more just a weakness in those two categories of construction, principally in North America.

Vincent Andrews: Okay. Thanks very much.

Frank Sullivan: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Kevin McCarthy with Vertical Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Frank Sullivan: Good morning Kevin.

Kevin McCarthy: Good morning. How are you Frank?

Frank Sullivan: Good. Thank you.

Kevin McCarthy: Would welcome any updated thoughts you may have on near-term capital allocation in terms of what you are seeing in the M&A pipeline versus potential to just deleverage in this environment or amplify the pace of repurchases?

Frank Sullivan: Sure. Repurchases at this stage, we are in the €“ certainly stopping up dilution. And from time-to-time, we have gotten more aggressive. It really depends on where our stock price is relative to a grid of value that we discussed regularly with our Board. On acquisitions, I think things have slowed down. There is a fair amount of acquisition activity, but there is still some hanging on to old multiple and value expectations in the face of deteriorating results, and that tends to slow M&A down. And we are seeing that slowdown in the small to medium-sized markets that we target. And obviously, if you read the headlines, the big M&A activity for the same reasons has slowed down dramatically. Even in the private equity space, the big staple financings for the banks from private equity pretty much dried up right now.

So, the M&A market is very slow, and I would expect it to stay that way. We have always had good discipline, and we are not paying the historic high multiples of a few years ago on somebody’s record results of last year. And I don’t think anybody else is either. So, we might get to add a small transaction here and there, but we are not anticipating M&A being a big part of our growth for fiscal €˜24.

Kevin McCarthy: That’s helpful. And then secondly, if I may, you mentioned in your prepared remarks that you are taking additional cost actions and I interpreted that to mean above and beyond the scope of your MAP 2025 program, which itself seems to be trending north of your target range. So, anyway to quantify the incremental or additional cost help that we might expect moving into next year?

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