NPKI

Thank you for standing by. My name is Kate, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the NPK International first quarter 2026 earnings. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time simply press star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Gregg Piontek. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. I'd like to welcome everyone to the NPK International first quarter 2026 conference call. Joining me today is Matthew Lanigan, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Before handing over to Matthew, I'd like to highlight that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements regarding future business and financial expectations. Actual results may differ significantly from those projected in today's forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties, including the risks described in our periodic reports filed with the SEC.

Except as required by law we undertake no obligation to update our forward-looking statements. Our comments on today's call may also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our quarterly earnings release which can be found on our corporate website. There will be a replay of today's call and it will be available by webcast within the investor relations section of our website at npki.com. Please note that the information disclosed on today's call is current as of May 1st, 2026. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our President and CEO, Matthew Lanigan.

Thanks, Gregg, and welcome to everyone joining us on today's call. We are very pleased with our strong start to 2026, which played out in line with our expectations discussed on last quarter's call. Despite the typical pause in customer projects around the year-end holidays, rental activity accelerated throughout the quarter with total rental and service revenues setting another quarterly record at $52 million, a 4% sequential and 20% year-over-year increase.

Product sales demand also remained robust contributing $23 million to first quarter revenue. Off the back of our solid execution, we delivered $22 million adjusted EBITDA in the quarter, representing a 4% sequential and 14% year-over-year improvement. We're also very pleased with our first quarter cash flow delivering $21 million of cash flow from operations and $5 million of free cash flow, while also expanding our rental fleet by 4%, repaying our revolving credit facility and using $3 million to fund share repurchases.

Overall, Q1 once again demonstrated our consistent strong execution, which we believe are a direct reflection of our commitment to our key strategic priorities. As highlighted last quarter a key component of our organic growth strategy is our manufacturing capacity expansion effort. Having substantially concluded our project evaluation, our board of directors recently approved our plans to increase our production capacity by approximately 50% from current levels.

We expect to invest $40 million-$45 million over the next five quarters to complete this project, with the goal of bringing the additional capacity online by mid 2027. We are confident that this expansion, along with our continuing debottlenecking initiatives, will support our growth and composite matting market share growth for the foreseeable future. With that, I'll turn the call to Gregg for his prepared remarks.

Thanks, Matthew. I'll begin with a more detailed discussion of our first quarter results, then provide an update on our operational outlook and capital allocation priorities for the remainder of 2026. As Matthew touched on the first quarter results were in line with our outlook commentary on our Q4 earnings call and reflect the continued momentum in our end markets. It's worth noting that the first quarter of 2026 also followed a similar pattern to early 2025, with a seasonal lull in project activity around the year-end holidays, then picking up steam as we progressed through the first quarter.

Rental revenues grew 27% year-over-year reflecting 12% organic growth, combined with a $4 million contribution from the Grassform acquisition. Service revenues grew 7%, with substantially all of the increase coming from the acquisition. Total rental and service revenues were $52 million in the first quarter achieving another all-time quarterly high, improving 4% sequentially and 20% year-over-year. Product sales activity also remained robust, benefiting from continuing demand from utility companies, generating $23 million of revenues in the first quarter, an 8% improvement from the first quarter of last year.

Looking at revenues by geography and sector, our U.S. revenues increased 9% year-over-year to $66 million including 17% growth in rental revenues, with the utility sector driving the substantial majority of our growth. U.K. revenues more than doubled year-over-year to $9 million in the first quarter primarily reflecting the Grassform contribution. Turning to gross profit, the first quarter gross margin was 36.2% compared to 37.7% in the fourth quarter and 39% in the first quarter of last year.

The modest sequential gross margin compression primarily reflects the effect of lower rental fleet utilization early in the quarter attributable to the timing of large-scale projects partially offset by improvements in pricing. The year-over-year decline also reflects the continuing impact of the cross-rental costs discussed in previous quarters. It's important to highlight here that our cross-rental fleet provides flexibility to support our large project activity and meet our customer commitments while also helping limit inefficient transportation. First quarter SG&A expenses totaled $13.2 million compared to $15.4 million in the fourth quarter and $11.7 million in the first quarter of last year.

The first quarter result includes $12.5 million from our legacy business, along with $700,000 associated with the Grassform business. As highlighted last quarter, the fourth quarter results included $1.8 million of acquisition-related transaction costs and severance. Income tax expense was $3.6 million in the first quarter, reflecting an effective tax rate of 26%. adjusted EPS from continuing operations was $0.12 per diluted share in the first quarter compared to $0.13 per share in the fourth quarter and $0.12 per share in the first quarter of last year.

Turning to cash flows. Operating activity has generated $21 million of cash in the first quarter, including $22 million from net income adjusted for non-cash expenses slightly offset by $1 million of cash used by a net increase in working capital. Net CapEx used $16 million, which includes nearly $15 million of net investment into the rental fleet expansion. We also used $3 million to fund share repurchases. We ended the quarter with total debt of $11 million and total cash of $7 million for a net debt position of $4 million.

We have $148 million of availability under our bank facility, providing us with ample financial flexibility to continue executing on our strategic growth objectives, including our manufacturing expansion. Turning to our business outlook. As disclosed in yesterday's press release our customers remain highly constructive on the near and longer-term outlook for utilities and critical infrastructure spending. With the benefits of our first quarter results and near-term expectations, we have raised the range of our full-year 2026 outlook, now anticipating total revenues of $310 million-$325 million and adjusted EBITDA of $92 million-$102 million.

The midpoint of our range reflects 15% revenue growth and 28% adjusted EBITDA growth over 2025. Our revenue guidance continues to reflect double-digit organic rental revenue growth along with the contribution from the Grassform acquisition, while product sales remain relatively in line with 2025 levels. In terms of CapEx, outside of the manufacturing expansion project, there are no other changes to our investment expectations for 2026. We anticipate total net CapEx of $75 million-$90 million for the year including $30 million-$35 million of current year spending for the manufacturing expansion project, along with $35 million-$45 million targeted for rental fleet expansion.

This level of investment is expected to grow our DURA-BASE rental fleet by a low to mid-teens percentage supporting our organic growth and also displacing a portion of cross-rent assets currently deployed on projects. As for the near-term outlook, we expect to deliver 20% year-over-year growth in rental and service revenues in Q2, which includes the benefit of double-digit organic growth combined with the effect of the Grassform acquisition. On the product sales side we expect Q2 revenues will be fairly in line with prior Q2 levels.

Q2 gross margin is also expected to be roughly in line with the prior Q2 result, but remain dependent on the timing of project completions and fleet redeployments for a few large-scale projects. In terms of SG&A, we expect to remain near the $13 million quarterly level in the near term. For taxes, we expect our effective tax rate will remain relatively in line with the Q1 level for the full year 2026.

We entered the year with roughly $40 million of NOLs and other tax credit carryforwards, which when combined with the accelerated deductions for capital investments, are expected to significantly limit our cash tax obligations for the next several years. As it relates to our capital allocation strategy, we continue to prioritize investments in the growth of our rental fleet and our manufacturing capacity expansion, as well as strategic acquisitions, while also remaining committed to returning a portion of free cash flow generation to shareholders through our disciplined share repurchase program. With that, I'd like to turn the call back over to Matthew for his concluding remarks.

Thanks, Gregg. With a strong start to the year we remain committed to our strategic priorities and executing to our 2026 plan we laid out last quarter. To that end our primary focus continues to be the scale-up of our rental platform, which generates the highest long-term returns for our business. As we've discussed our strategy includes a combination of geographic expansion and market share growth in the U.S. and U.K.

We remain confident that the strong momentum in these markets will support our continued fleet and operational expansion throughout the year, though the quarterly cadence remains dependent on project timings, particularly for large-scale projects. We remain committed to making the necessary investments to support our growth investing a substantial majority of 2026 cash flows into the expansion of our DURA-BASE composite mat rental fleet, which we expect to grow by low to mid-teens percentage in 2026, while also advancing our manufacturing expansion project, which will increase our production capacity by roughly 50%.

Our second focus area remains on driving organizational efficiencies across the business. As we work through the significant transition to our new ERP system implemented in the first quarter, we now seek to leverage the enhanced system capabilities to drive further improvements while also making the necessary investments to drive sustainable long-term revenue growth for the company. On balance, we expect our approach will help limit SG&A spending growth and drive continued improvement in our SG&A as a percentage of revenues.

With respect to the conflict in the Middle East, we continue to monitor its impact on both our own and our customers' supply chains, and we have not seen any meaningful impacts to date. We are tracking our raw material suppliers closely and expect our work over the last several years to diversify our supply base will provide a useful counterbalance to any short-term cost movements.

In addition, as Gregg mentioned earlier, our cross-rental fleet capacity provides some offset to our internal transport charges associated with fleet movements between projects, and we are ensuring our direct sales pipeline maintains commercial flexibility to pass through impacts where practical. Our final priority is the allocation of capital beyond our organic requirements.

With a strong balance sheet and a disciplined approach we remain committed to our share repurchase program while also continuing to evaluate core strategic and organic opportunities that increase our market coverage, value, and relevance to customers in key critical infrastructure markets. With robust market outlooks in our served geographies, a clear strategic focus, and a pristine balance sheet, we are confident in our ability to deliver another strong year of profitable growth in 2026. In closing, I want to thank our shareholders for their ongoing support our employees for their dedication to the business, including their commitment to safety and compliance, and our customers for their ongoing partnership. With that, we'll open the call for questions.

At this time, I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a question, press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. We request to limit yourselves to one question and one follow-up. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Aaron Spychalla with Craig-Hallum. Your line is open.

Yeah. Good morning, Matthew and Gregg. Thanks for taking the questions.

Yeah.

Good morning. Maybe first for me, just on, can you talk about the pipeline in a little bit more detail just what have you been seeing from kinda greenfield versus brownfield projects? Are you starting to see any pickup from some of the high voltage projects that are starting to come to the market?

Yeah. Aaron I'll take that one. I think at this point, you know, in answering the second part of your question first, it's still a little early for some of the larger, higher voltage projects. We're expecting to see them a little later in the year. Most of the activity we're seeing right now is outside of that range. When I look at the split, you know, where we left it last year in terms of pipeline build year on year, I think that's holding pretty well here.

We're seeing a slight growth, very slight growth in our emerging territory quoting activity, which is great to see the investments in that commercial front end starting to pay off. I'd say generally speaking, our pipeline remains as robust as where we left it last quarter. Some timing issues here in the first quarter that we touched on the call really kind of driving that first quarter, but still very optimistic for the rest of the year.

All right. Thanks for that. Then you know, appreciate the color on the capacity expansion. As we're hearing more of your customers talking about, you know, multi-decade CapEx cycle for utility transmission, just can you talk about how long of a growth runway the expansion provides you and just, you know, potential to add additional capacity either in Louisiana or, you know, at the new location over time?

I guess the answer to that question is gonna be a function of how fast the market wants to grow. Look, we see this plant giving us plenty of capacity through the end of the decade if you will. Beyond that, I think it is worth noting finally settle on our locations longer term. We have plenty of room at our Louisiana facility if we wanted to co-locate everything there. Also we have the ability to look for alternate sites. I feel pretty good about our ability to grow our capacity in a timely fashion to meet the market demand, Aaron.

Your next question comes from the line of Laura Maher with B. Riley Securities. Your line is open.

Hi, Matthew and Greg. Thanks for taking the question. My first question is with the additional CapEx in mind, are you anticipating maintaining the same returns that you're currently generating?

Yeah, I would expect no change in the overall expectation. Obviously, that's a bit of a step change in terms of the investment in the asset base. Over time, we should continue to gain operating leverage on our asset base and provide a tailwind to our return on invested capital.

Great. Thanks. Then you mentioned improved pricing. Can you frame the magnitude of rental rate increases and whether you see room for further pricing?

Yeah. I think at this point, I'd probably frame it in low single digit, Laura, and I think what we're seeing is a little bit of tightness in the market. We would expect to be able to hold that and maybe add to that moving forward in the year. Obviously, a little early for that, encouraged with what we're seeing so far.

Your next question comes from the line of Min Cho with Texas Capital Securities. Your line is open.

Hey there. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. It sounds like as the utilization remains strong, that you're gonna continue to prioritize rental fleet additions over product sales. Do you feel like your capacity is sufficient right now to support both, at least through this year?

I think we touched on that last quarter. I mean, we feel comfortable that we can meet both, and I don't think we've been at a position yet where we've had to, quote-unquote, prioritize one over the other. I think we've been able to meet both. I think as Gregg touched on, we have a cross-rental fleet that we can utilize here, which has been helpful in offsetting any transportation inefficiencies with, you know, the price of diesel now kind of rising with the conflict in the Middle East. We're using that to help offset it, but we feel comfortable that we can meet what we see in the foreseeable future.

Excellent. How should we think about kind of revenue and EBITDA progression through the rest of the year relative to the first quarter, kind of given seasonality, your cross-rental, I guess continued cross-rental usage or displacement, as well as CapEx timing?

Yeah, I mean, the CapEx I would expect to be... There'll be some front-loaded elements here associated with the procurement of equipment for the securing of the equipment for the expansion. I would expect that to be a little more loaded up in call it Q2 and Q3. As far as the revenue and EBITDA cadence, EBITDA is obviously gonna follow. You know, we're holding a pretty consistent EBITDA margin. The revenue cadence I would say the back half of the year still have that natural seasonality in Q3. You know, obviously I framed up expectation for Q2. Naturally, the Q3 typically pulls back a bit from Q2 and then rebounds and surges from there into Q4.

Your next question comes from the line of Brandon Rogers with ROTH Capital. Your line is open.

Hi, this is Brandon Rogers on for Gerry Sweeney. Thanks for taking my call.

Hey, Brandon.

Hello. In terms of the wood to composite matting conversion, where would you submit the composite matting stance as a percent of the overall market, do you see the pace of conversion accelerating or remaining stable?

Yeah. Thanks, Brandon. I think we've called this out we still see roughly a quarter of the market in total being composite at this point, based on our math. I think the market share shift is gonna be really a function of the pace of growth. If the market keeps growing as strongly as it is now, I think that we would expect that kind of percentage to hold, just as everybody's keeping up with the growth rate, maybe a point or two of relative share shift.

Okay. One more for me. Sorry. The utility spending has accelerated your manufacturing capacity plans with the target for the 50% increase by mid-2027. Is there anything that could delay this timeline, or is there any likelihood that the investments required to complete the expansion are more than your estimated $40 million-$45 million?

Yeah, I think there's always some movements in project timings and budget estimates. We feel pretty good that with the range we've painted, and the timing there, we've been planning this for a while. You know, unforeseen things may happen, but we feel pretty good that we're gonna be able to deliver this within the timeframe and the budget that we've put forward here, Brandon.

Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Bill Dezellem with Tieton Capital. Your line is open.

Thank you. A couple of questions. Following up on your remarks about the large high voltage projects have not yet begun, but you see them beginning later this year. Does that imply an acceleration of your growth rate in 2027 relative to 2026?

You know, a little early to piece it all together Bill, but I think what we, you know, what we had called out on previous calls was, you know, these high voltage lines are gonna have a larger matting requirement to fulfill them. Large, you know, heavier equipment, larger equipment to get those lines installed. We see that as a net increase in matting requirement. You would logically say yes how that fits in with the rest of the project activity and what we can service, we'd need to look at that as we get closer to 2027. Encouraging trend for sure.

Great. Thank you. Relative to the acquisition, comments, I guess I'll put two in here. When do you anticipate that Grassform will be fully integrated, which I'm presuming that is the point that you would be that you would be willing to seriously entertain the next acquisition and when that time comes, what are you structurally looking for with that next acquisition? Help us understand the characteristics that you're looking for and what you would be trying to accomplish with that acquisition.

Thanks, Bill. Look, I think we would, you know, have substantially most of the integration completed within the next sort of three to six months. I think the, you know, an ERP conversion, we'll obviously look to roll them onto our ERP system. That may put a little bit longer tail on that. You know, when we, when we bought the business, Bill, our focus was not to distract them with a lot of integration activity. It was to let them run. They're a very well-run business, we didn't wanna get in the way too much with integration activities, which is why that timeline may seem a little longer than you might have expected. I think so far that's going well for us. With respect to future acquisitions, I think it's pretty clear relative to our strategy.

I think if there's markets where we can accelerate composite matting share relative to a timber incumbent, we think that an acquisition will accelerate that relative to what we could do organically, that's when we would look to seriously kick the tires on something to acquire. From there, you've got your normal structural kind of pipeline factors in terms of the leverage of the company, the strength of the management team, the quality of the contracts that they have, et cetera, all of those kind of normal diligence items that you'd expect. Hope that addressed your question.

I'll now turn the call back over to Gregg Piontek for closing remarks.

All right. That concludes our call today. Should you have any questions or requests, please reach out to us using our email at [email protected]. We look forward to hosting you again next quarter.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.