Target Hospitality Corp. (NASDAQ:TH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Eric Kalamaras: Look, it’s a great question. The answers are — look, I’ve been a broken record probably the past year on this. But the answers are different when you’re dealing with an emergency funding mechanism versus a long-term IDIQ structure, okay. So my point is my answer is going to change slightly a little bit. So, look, I think there is a time where you do start looking at other capital return initiatives, okay. And I think we could be approaching that time. Now that said, we are — and we’ve said this many times, we are absolutely in growth mode too, right? And so there’s a lot of things we can do around that. We can certainly look at some cash transactions, which we have. But we have been very deliberate, very patient in that regard.

And we have not found the right thing at the right value just yet. But there are some opportunities out there. There are other opportunities to materially grow the business, to do equity exchange type transactions, right? And so that’s — but that’s not really a use of cash necessarily. But there are opportunities to materially grow the business and diversify the business that way. And then, look, we put the balance sheet in a spot where we said we would. And now we’re at a spot where to the point, when you start looking at over the next three or four or five years and you’re talking $600 million, $700 million, $800 million of free cash flow that can accumulate, you do start looking into the shareholder return type activities.

Brad Archer: And none of these are mutually exclusive.

Eric Kalamaras: And to Brad’s point, none of these are mutually exclusive. And we have a tremendous amount of flexibility. And so what we can do with this is we can do cash transactions, we can do equity exchange deals, we can do dividends, et cetera. We can do these things, all contemporaneously at this point. And so look, I think we’ll enter a node where we’ll start looking at that in a more deliberate fashion. Because I think that’s probably close to that time coming.

Stephen Gengaro: Great. Thank you. And then just one follow up for me. When you think about the oil patch and what’s going on in HFS, it feels like there was a sustained level of activity there, probably not a lot of growth given the way the EMPs have remained pretty disciplined. Is it reasonable to think about that business as being kind of pretty steady state at current levels? I know you had the contract extensions, which gives visibility, but is that a reasonable way to be thinking about that piece of the business in 2023?

Eric Kalamaras: Sure. Look, I think you’re right. And the way we think about that business, it’s a fantastic business. We just had $200 million of contract renewals there. We are — as we’ve communicated before, we do tend to see a lag. So we do expect margin growth there over the next couple of quarters and perhaps meaningful margin expansion there, which is great. But look, that business generates so much cash. And it is so helpful in diversifying our balance sheet and what we can do that, despite it being call it a GDP type business at this point, absent any other sort of strategic moves we may make in terms of smaller kind of tuck-in sort of acquisitions, that’s a fantastic business for us. And we will continue to operate that and capture as much market share and margin as possible while supporting our customers and their needs. But look, the growth notwithstanding, it’s a fantastic business.

Brad Archer: Yes, utilization is increasing, right?

Eric Kalamaras: Absolutely, it is. I think, look, we have put that business in a fantastic optimizational spot. And we’re really, really pleased with where that’s positioned at this point.