Custom Truck One Source, Inc. (NYSE:CTOS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

So we’re continuing to see strong demand for equipment from both transmission and distribution. And then railroad continues to be a good, a good area for us both from an in-market demand standpoint and then just from a share gain standpoint and that segment. And then telecom continues to, continues to perform well, which again, is a smaller segment for us, but we’re continuing to see growth in telecom and, and as Fred said on the infrastructure bill, we’re seeing the most in, in infrastructure. You know and hard to say if there’s any shovel ready projects on, on the utility or telecom side, those typically take longer to permit, but, are seeing, still seeing good demand in all four of the end markets.

Scott Berger: It sounds good. And, and it, it sounds like record CapEx as a combined company. What, how are you thinking about CapEx, I would imagine higher with, with the constraints easing in 2023 versus 2022, but how are you thinking about CapEx and, and, and maybe taking that a step further, how are you thinking about free cash flow for this upcoming year?

Chris Eperjesy: Yeah, hi Scott. It’s Chris. I think this year we are 2022. We’ve given guidance of mid to high single digit growth in net OEC. We continue to see that extending into 2023 and probably towards the higher end of that range. In terms of pre cash flow, we, we’ve said that our goal is to get below the 3x, you can kind of do math on our guidance in terms of where we are in terms of debt. So you should see some positive free cash flow absent any significant m and a activity or, any additional investments we make in the rental fleet beyond the guidance we just gave you. But we do should definitely see positive free cash flow this year.

Scott Berger: Thanks. Appreciate it. I’ll turn it over with just one more quick one kind of a nuanced question. There, in the prepared remarks, there was comment of from, from the, the rental fleet expecting older equipment to be purchased, particularly older equipment. What, — what’s the context of that comment? Is that — is that just where you think in this inflationary environment customers will be looking the most? I think that’s a, that’s a good development for you all, but just a little bit more on, on what that comment was? Thanks.

Ryan McMonagle: Yeah, that’s Scott, that’s really just continuation of some of what we’ve talked about in terms of bringing, bringing the, the legacy CTOS and legacy and NESCO fleets together of, disposing of some of the older assets. So I think part partly is just a function of, of what the combined fleet looked like and then to your point, because residual values have stayed strong and continue to stay strong for our used equipment, it’s, it’s been a good time to dispose of assets plus the fact that now that supply chain is improving, we have more new equipment available to continue to replace and then to grow the rental fleet also.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Michael Shlisky with D.A. Davidson Companies, please proceed with your question.

Michael Shlisky: Hi, good afternoon. Thanks. Thanks for taking my question. Want to get a feel for the policy utilization for 2023? It, you’re going to be growing the fleet quite a bit it looks like, and I guess I’m kind of wondering whether all those new units are already spoken for from the customers that need them, and do you think you can maintain the good utilization at the end of the year into most of 2023 here?