Ameresco, Inc. (NYSE:AMRC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 3 of 10

George Sakellaris: That’s a very good question. You might recall that we have targeted Italy as one of the countries that we wanted to expand. So what we had basically a internal intensive effort market that we did in identified potential companies that we might wanted to acquire, and we approach this particular company and then people made the arrangements that will make a Zoom call and meet the management of the team and so on. And then we had a good meeting, then I went over there, we met with them and then the whole team went on there. And they are very, very, very similar to what we are doing. Basically, it’s an energy services company, and they are more focused actually almost exclusively on the C&I customer. Then I ask them, I said, “Why are you focused on in the C&I?” Because the government edges in Europe finally, they’re beginning to get their act together then to do something.

But the C&I customers because of the higher cost, of course, what happened in Europe, they are very conscientious about it, and we have a good program that’s going to help them. So it’s a very good little company. And we are very excited about. And we have been doing some other work in Italy with some other partners that we had in that — and we have some very good traction through those companies. So this one gives us a solid, solid foundation. And what we like most about this company world-class management team. And even though it’s a small company, it operates like a large company, and we could probably as a pretty good platform for us in Europe. And it’s not a great secret, we are looking for other companies, and we don’t have anything to talk about it right now, but don’t be surprised that we might have something else to announce in the near future.

Greg Wasikowski: Got it. Okay. Thank you, George. And I know you guys can’t say too much about numbers, but worth asking if you think or if you expect this to be accretive on an EBITDA or earnings perspective in 2023? And if it’s stake to the guidance.

George Sakellaris: For 2023, by the time we close the deal and so on, it will be slightly accretive. But it’s not going to — it’s included in our guidance now.

Greg Wasikowski: Okay. Got it. All right. Thank you all guys.

George Sakellaris: Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question will come from George Gianarikas of Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.

George Gianarikas: Hey, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. So last quarter, Doran, you spent some time discussing interest rate exposure. First, with regards to how it impacts your capital stack and then how it impacts projects and asset deployment. Can you just kind of go over that again and just remind us exactly how rates are impacting your business and your balance sheet? Thank you.

Doran Hole: Yes. Sure, George. Thanks for the question. I mean I think what I’ll start with is, broadly speaking, we — we’ll talk about the SCE piece in a second, but the financing we do on our energy assets is long-term. So we’re talking about looking at the longer end of the curve for purposes of interest rate exposure. And as I think you guys have seen, despite maybe some recent volatility, the overall shift there haven’t been nearest impactful as what you’ve seen on the short end of the curve. So that’s kind of point one. We did talk a little bit about the high interest expense on the SoCal Ed push outs. I think it’s important for folks to kind of recognize that, that’s an element that we have the ability to include in the overall settlement of costs related to their change.

Page 3 of 10