Trane Technologies plc (NYSE:TT) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Dave Regnery: Yes. I mean, we’re still holding out hope, okay, look, we are seeing some of it in the commercial space with the 179D tax credit, so that is driving some tailwinds, okay. On the resi side, yes, that’s been a little bit muted. We’re still hopeful that that could work through. We’re still marketing to the customers about heat pumps and the importance of heat pumps and how we can help them. The key is going to be on IRA, and I’ve said this in the past, Jeff. You got to make it simple, right. So make it simple. It’s complex. Don’t let that complexity make its way to the customer because they won’t understand it. So we’ve been really good with taking the complexity out of some of these more intricate policies, and that’s going to be the key to success. So the short answer is we still believe it’s a tailwind. It’s going to be a tailwind for both residential and for commercial. We just hope that the pipe starts opening in residential sooner versus later.

Jeff Sprague: Great. Thank you for that color. I appreciate it.

Dave Regnery: Thanks, Jeff.

Chris Kuehn: Thanks.

Operator: Our next question comes from Deane Dray from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Deane Dray: Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Dave Regnery: Hey, Deane, how are you?

Chris Kuehn: Good morning.

Deane Dray: I’m doing real well. Thank you. So what has surprised you about the resi inventory normalization process and how long do you think it might extend into 2024?

Dave Regnery: What may be surprised me a little bit is the amount of time it’s taken to burn off. I think you heard me in our third quarter call was we thought we’d be complete in Q4 and that’s – that’s not the case. So this will burn off eventually. Right now it’s going to go in through at least the first quarter, really the first half. But look, we’re optimistic on residential, it’s a great business. It will snap back. It is, I’ve always said for a long time now think of resi as a GDP-plus business that hasn’t changed. And the inventory in the independent wholesale distributor channel will start to align to demand. It’s the first quarter, I remind you that. So we’ll see what happens here as we get into peak season. So we’ll give you an update as we get to our first quarter earnings call.

Deane Dray: That’s all good to hear. And then just data center has come up multiple times already and where the fastest growth is happening is in liquid cooling. And I know you all made what looks to be a great investment in liquid stack. The business is still really fragmented and do you see opportunities where you can invest further there because that’s where you’re seeing plus 30% growth for the next several years in that technology, and you have a right to be in that business and a right to win, but you’ll have to invest. So just what are the expectations?

Dave Regnery: Yes, I mean, Deane, I appreciate your insights in emerging cooling. I think you did a great piece on that so appreciate that educating really the industry on the possibilities that we have with immersion cooling. Look, we’re still very bullish. Our view hasn’t changed. We’re working through the technology, okay really on the fluid itself. So that’s continuing to evolve. But we also believe it’s a big opportunity. And if you think about it right, I mean, think about data centers. It’s a massive market today. Think about the growth rates that’s going to happen over the next five years. And whether you choose the high teen’s compound annual growth rate or you’re in the 20s, it’s a large growth number.

And the technology is going to continue to evolve. And I think that immersion cooling could be one of those technologies of the future. And we’re certainly right in the middle of it, as you said, and we’re going to continue to be bullish on that.

Deane Dray: Great. Thank you.

Dave Regnery: All right, thanks, Deane.

Operator: Our next question comes from Nigel Coe from Wolfe Research. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Nigel Coe: Thanks. Good morning, guys. Thanks for the question. So today you’ve been fielding a few questions on price. So let’s have a couple more pricing questions. What’s really kind of struck me is that some of your competitors, some of your larger competitors are actually going out with very aggressive price increases and really guiding for pretty significant realized price increases. And your message is very, very different. So in your experience, have you seen situations where the market has this divergence on price and does it tend to lead to share shifts? It just feels like it’s unsustainable, this gap here. So any thoughts? And then just kind of a sub question to that would be the service fleets. You’ve got obviously, a lot of labor inflation to deal with there. I mean, would you expect service pricing to be better than that 1%?