Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE:VMI) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So that is the number one those have the strongest returns for us. The second part of our capital allocation strategy is acquisition. And when we look at acquisitions, we’re going to take a disciplined approach. We’re going to make sure that these acquisitions are close tied to our core. They’re synergistic. They are markets we know, the products we know and to keep on driving strong value. We – at a very high level, our objective is always to beat cost of capital by year three. We like these acquisitions to be accretive very quickly with year one based on the synergies that we have. And then we will look at share buybacks based on other uses and needs of capital and then dividend. So that’s a role how we look at it. And one last point is when you look at 2024 and our elevated capital is just a testament that we see a lot of opportunities to keep on investing in our business to drive sustainable profitable growth.

Brian Wright: Great. That was very helpful. So my follow-up, I just wanted to dig a little bit into the Brazilian irrigation side. I think I recall from the Investor Day talking about the part replacement cycle being a faster churn. And just we’ve had a lot of growth in Brazil in recent years, I know the last nine months is the exception. But up until that point, there has been a lot of growth. And so just like how to think about like maybe seeing some of that replacement part activity kind of coming through into the numbers. Is that more like a 2025 dynamic? Or how do think about that?

Avner Applbaum: Yes. So overall, Brazil, when I look at it, we are coming off three record years, so very strong years in Brazil. And as we keep on increasing our business in Brazil, all the new machines, that will generate additional parts business. We’re seeing that with the lot of activity. We’re also have in Middle East and North Africa. So as we keep on putting pivots in the field, we will have additional part sales. The other element in Brazil is right as we work on more than two crops, three crops, we get a lot of usage when we triple crop in Brazil, which again, machines will run more, they’ll need more hours, same dynamics in Africa. So that will provide us a good runway for the future in those markets.

Brian Wright: Great. Thank you so much.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jean Ramirez [ph] with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst: Thank you. Can you share your views around the telecom business? Are there any signs of life for that group again in 2024?

Avner Applbaum: So we’ve seen challenging environment in the telecom business. As we’ve noted in previous calls, we’ve seen softness there based on the carrier spending. We’re expecting to have a difficult comp in the first quarter of this year as well, looking forward. So right now, we’re expecting 2024 to be a difficult year for us. And a lot of that is in North America. We have significant opportunities for us globally and we are investing in that area and we should be seeing growth going forward in some of those geographies as we expand our business. But as you look at some of those megatrends around data consumption, around 5G densification, I mean, it bodes very well for us in the long term, the need to keep on the cycle of the 5G. So excited about the long term, 2024 is going to be a bit challenging for us is how I see it.

Unidentified Analyst: Thank you. And shifting gears towards T&D [ph], it still appears utilities are concentrating significant amount of capital towards T&D in the coming years. Are you guys taking any different stands to structuring contracts with these customers? And is the company finding opportunities to drive pricing or improving margins here?

Avner Applbaum: So we are extremely bullish about the TD&S market. We are seeing very strong demand in those areas based on the energy transition, we’re seeing load growth, the renewable energy need to connect that to the grid. We talked just a minute ago about data consumption, you need more data centers, energy growth based electrification, those are very, very positive areas for us and we’re doing well in all those areas. And our ability with our product offering to really help solve for our customer needs, if it could be concrete steel or other. We have strong alliances with our partners and we keep on strengthening and working with our alliance so we could help them be successful in the years to come. And then there’s a lot of projects that we bid on as well and we make sure that we price those based on the value that we provide and the services that we provide.