HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Sheila Kahyaoglu: Great. I have one for Victor and one for Carlos. So Victor, in terms of Exxelia, we’re calculating about from one month of contribution, 50 basis points of dilution and then margins are still down 40 bps year-over-year outside of Exxelia. So can you kind of talk about what the mix impact specifically is? Is it just more of the specialty products that are nondefense? And how long you think that will continue?

Victor Mendelson: Sure, Sheila. I think I assume those numbers include the dilution from the transaction expenses. So those are nonrecurring expenses, and that was €“ that probably accounted for a very good portion of that in the quarter. But the mix Exxelia is majority aerospace and defense. And then they have a variety of other markets. Some of it is energy. Some of it is clean energy. Some of it is transportation, trains, for example, and other electrification initiatives. So it’s a pretty broad product base. And just across the board, their margins are generally lower than our margins. I wouldn’t be surprised that over time those move up. I don’t want to make a prediction as to that. I think it’s a little too early to do that, but they certainly are margin-focused and their margins have been on an upward trend over the last, I don’t know, four, five years. So we like that as well.

Sheila Kahyaoglu: Great. And then, Carlos, last one for you. Inventory was the use of cash in the quarter, about $52 million, following $89 million in fiscal 2022, which is pretty unusual for you guys. So how do we kind of think about that unwinding?

Carlos Macau: That’s a good question, Sheila. We knew that we would have a spend this quarter. The spend this quarter was rather concentrated rate of that $52 million, roughly $30 million that was related to distribution buys that relate to certain contracts that either renewed or renew. And so we have €“ we do have some bulking up in that area. €“ if you pull the $30 million out, it’s $20 million worth of inventory spend, yes, that probably felt about right just for supporting our backlog. I don’t anticipate huge investment in inventory like we had last year. In fact, with interest rates going up, I’ve encouraged the subs to be smart on that. But I’ve also told them that if they have customer demand, we don’t want them to be in a situation where they don’t have product to support the customers. So it’s a delicate balance. But I don’t believe that you’ll see us have the same level of investment for the full year this year as we did last year.

Sheila Kahyaoglu: Okay, great. Thank you.

Carlos Macau: Thanks, Sheila.

Operator: Our next question comes from Ken Herbert with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Ken Herbert: Yes, hi, good morning. Maybe a first question for Victor or Carlos. It sounds like, Victor, the commentary on sort of the pace of recovery of supply chain in your defense markets, in particular, maybe a little slower than expected do you still see sort of full year ETG organic growth up low to mid-single this year? And how does that recovery look in terms of the top line for the segment over the next few quarters?

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