Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Q3 2025 Earnings Report

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.26
• Consensus EPS: $0.17
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.09
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $195.21 million
• Expected Revenue: $201.30 million
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$6.10 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2025
• Date: 11/4/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 10:00AM ET

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (NASDAQ:GLDD) (NASDAQ: GLDD) is a leading provider of dredging and maritime construction services in the United States. The company specializes in the excavation and removal of sediment from waterways, harbors, ports and coastal areas to maintain navigability and support commercial shipping. Its operations encompass both maintenance dredging—removing accumulated material to restore channel depth—and new work projects such as land reclamation and harbor deepening.

In addition to traditional dredging, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock offers a range of complementary marine construction services. These include beach nourishment and coastal restoration, wetland mitigation, environmental remediation and sediment management. The company’s fleet features hopper dredges, cutterhead dredges and water injection dredges, enabling it to tackle projects of varying scale and complexity. Its technical capabilities are underpinned by in-house design, project management and hydrographic survey teams.

Founded in the late 19th century and headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has a long history of supporting federal, state and local governments, as well as private-sector clients. The firm’s project footprint spans major U.S. waterways and coastal zones—from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Northwest—where it helps safeguard maritime commerce, protect coastal communities and restore valuable ecosystems.

The company is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Eric Macie, who has guided Great Lakes through expansions in environmental and coastal services. Under his leadership, the firm continues to invest in modernizing its fleet and advancing dredging technologies. As a publicly traded corporation since 2004, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock remains focused on delivering sustainable, large-scale marine infrastructure solutions while adhering to stringent environmental and safety standards.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 results — Revenues of $195.2 million, adjusted EBITDA of $39.3 million (20.1%) and net income of $17.7 million, with improved margins driven by higher utilization and a heavy mix of capital/coastal projects.
• Positive Sentiment: $935 million backlog — Backlog remains strong with 84% in capital/coastal protection work, $136 million of Q3 awards and about $194 million of awards/options pending, including multiple high‑margin LNG port‑deepening projects that support 2025–2026 visibility.
• Positive Sentiment: Fleet and new builds — Delivery of the Amelia Island completes the hopper new‑build program, and the subsea rock vessel Acadia launched with delivery expected Q1 2026 and targeted for Empire Wind 1 plus broader offshore energy work.
• Positive Sentiment: Strong liquidity and refinancing — Upsized revolver to $430 million (matures 2030), repaid the $100 million second‑lien to save ~ $6 million of annual interest, ending the quarter with ~ $300 million liquidity and a 2.5x trailing net leverage ratio.
• Negative Sentiment: Timing and one‑offs — Shipyard delays required chartering a vessel for current offshore work and produced a one‑time non‑cash extinguishment charge (~$7.5 million); offshore‑wind timing uncertainty remains a market risk for near‑term Acadia utilization.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q3 2025 Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Eric Birge, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Eric Birge, VP of Investor Relations at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Thank you, Ari. Good day, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. Welcome to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock's third quarter 2025 financial results conference call. Before we begin, please note that certain statements made during this call are forward-looking in nature and are subject to various risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. These factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. For a detailed discussion of these risks, please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We will also be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations of these measures to the most direct comparable GAAP measure can be found on our earnings release or on our Investor Relations section of our website at investors.gldd.com, along with other supplemental operating information.

[Eric Birge, VP of Investor Relations at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Joining me on today's call are Lasse Petterson, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Scott Kornblau, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Lasse will begin with a review of our quarterly key developments, followed by Scott, who will provide a detailed overview of our financial performance. Lasse will then conclude with commentary on the business outlook and market trends. With that, I will now turn the call over to Lasse.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Thanks, Eric. Following strong financial results in the first half of the year, the momentum continued into the third quarter with high utilization and strong product performance through the execution of complex port deepening and coastal restoration projects, leveraging the capabilities of our team and our fleet. We ended the quarter with revenues of $195.2 million and adjusted EBITDA of $39.3 million. Our dredging backlog remains strong at $935 million, with 84% in capital and coastal protection projects, plus an additional $194 million in awards and options pending. During the third quarter, we were awarded new projects totaling $136 million. A successful bid strategy from last year resulted in a large number of project wins, which resulted in a high-quality backlog, which will support full utilization and revenues for the remainder of 2025, as well as providing a good base and revenue visibility for 2026.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Our current backlog includes three major port deepening LNG projects: the Port Arthur LNG phase I project, the Brownsville Ship Channel project, part of NextDecade Corporation's Rio Grande LNG initiative, and Woodside Louisiana LNG, which is expected to commence dredging early 2026. We have seen no interruption to our business during the current government shutdown. Our operations remain unaffected, and we continue to conduct business as usual, maintaining full schedules, both in bidding, awards, and we receive payments on time. Our support to the Corps will proceed without disruption, and our backlog of projects are fully funded. During the third quarter, our offshore energy team commenced rock placement operations on Equinor South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, and during the fourth quarter, installation of armor rock commenced on Empire Wind 1, utilizing a chartered vessel until delivery of the Acadia in Q1 of next year.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

At the end of October, we completed the refinancing and upsizing of our revolver credit facility, increasing capacity to $430 million and extending the maturity to 2030. With the increased capacity, we elected to repay our $100 million second lien term loan. Scott will provide more details later on. Moving on to our new build program, in the third quarter, we took delivery of our sixth hopper dredge, the Amelia Island, marking a significant milestone in our dredging new build program, which is now complete. Leaving us with the largest and most advanced hopper dredge fleet in the United States. Upon delivery from the shipyard, the Amelia Island went straight to work and is performing extremely well.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

The Amelia Island and our sister ship, the Galveston Island, have been specially designed for shallow and narrow waters in the United States coastlines and are effective tools for us to work on coastal protection projects such as beach restoration, wetlands improvements, and barrier island construction. The final vessel in our new build program, the Acadia, the first U.S.-flagged Jones Act-compliant subsea rock installation vessel, is also currently under construction and hit a key milestone with a launch from the dry dock in July. Delivery is expected in the first quarter of 2026, at which time she will go straight to work on Empire Wind 1. The target markets for the Acadia include domestic and international offshore work, protecting critical subsea infrastructure such as oil and gas pipelines, power and telecommunication cables, and offshore wind installations.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

I now turn the call over to Scott to further discuss the results of the quarter, and then I'll provide some commentary around the market and our business.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Thank you, Lasse. Good morning, everyone. I'll start by walking through the third quarter, which resulted in revenues of $195.2 million, net income of $17.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin of $39.3 million and 20.1%, respectively. Despite having three dredges at the dock at various times during the quarter, undergoing regulatory dry docking and repairs, revenues of $195.2 million increased $4 million from the prior year's third quarter, as every active dredge was working for the majority of the quarter, in addition to the newly delivered Amelia Island, which commenced work in August. Current quarter gross profit and gross profit margin increased to $43.8 million and 22.4%, respectively, compared to $36.2 million and 19%, respectively, in the third quarter of 2024.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

The increase in gross margin is primarily due to improved utilization and project performance and a large number of capital and coastal protection projects, which typically yield higher margins. These projects accounted for over 85% of our third quarter revenue. Current quarter's operating income of $28.1 million increased $11.4 million compared to the prior year's quarter's operating income of $16.7 million. The year-over-year increase is driven by higher gross profit and lower general and administrative expenses. Net interest expense of $4.6 million for the third quarter 2025 was down slightly compared to $4.9 million in the third quarter of 2024, and net income tax expense of $6.1 million increased from $3.2 million in the same quarter of 2024 due to the stronger results. Rounding out the P&L, net income for the third quarter 2025 was $17.7 million, up from $8.9 million in the prior year quarter.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Total capital expenditures, including capitalized interest for the third quarter, were $32.8 million, made up of $8.3 million for the completion of the Amelia Island, $18.6 million for the construction of the Acadia, with the remaining $5.9 million for maintenance and growth CapEx. Full-year CapEx guidance of between $140-$150 million, including capitalized interest, remains relatively unchanged from the prior quarter. Turning to our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $12.7 million in cash and nothing drawn on our revolver, and as Lasse mentioned earlier, on October 24th, we upsized our revolving credit facility to $430 million and extended the maturity out to October 2030 at lower borrowing rates than the previous facility. With the increased capacity, we elected to immediately repay our $100 million second lien notes in full, reducing interest expense by almost $6 million per year.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Our balance sheet is in great shape, with a trailing 12-month net leverage ratio of 2.5x, liquidity of nearly $300 million. No debt maturity is until 2029, and a weighted average interest rate on our total debt now under 6%. For the first nine months of this year, we've had positive free cash flow of $52 million despite the new build payments. And as our new build program will be substantially complete at the end of this year, we expect to be significantly free cash flow positive starting in 2026. Looking forward to the fourth quarter, we expect to end the year on a high note, even with two hopper dredges in the shipyard undergoing the regulatory dry dockings, as every other active dredge will be working the majority of the quarter, including a full quarter of utilization for the Amelia Island.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

With the strong fourth quarter we're on pace to achieve, our expectation is that 2025 will be the highest EBITDA year in company history by a large margin. With that, I will turn the call back over to Lasse for his remarks on the outlook moving forward.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Thank you, Scott. Our business operations continue without disruption during the current government shutdown. We remain fully operational, maintaining regular project schedules. We're responding to ongoing bid activities, receiving the contract awards, and we receive timely payments. All current and upcoming projects in our backlog are fully funded. Our $935 million backlog includes a robust mix of large and complex projects in the beach restorations and port deepening markets, enabling us to continue operations on a very busy 2025 and provide clear revenue visibility extending well into 2026. As we predicted at the beginning of the year, the 2025 dredging bid market has been normalized after coming off a very strong port deepening bid market in 2023 and 2024.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

We expect the 2025 bid market to come in about $1.8 billion, more focused on coastal protection projects, which are funded by the 2023 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act and dredging maintenance projects funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. As we look ahead, we're beginning to see meaningful progress on the next phase of port deepening projects, including New York/New Jersey, Tampa, New Haven, and Baltimore, among others, with work most likely to commence in 2027. Turning to the U.S. offshore wind markets, in May, we saw the reversal of the temporary pause from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and Equinor's Empire Wind project has resumed in accordance with its original schedule, which is part of our offshore energy backlog.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Between Empire Wind 1, Ørsted Sunrise Wind, and the additional scope for Sunrise Wind we were awarded last week, we have secured full utilization for the Acadia in 2026. In response to early signs of potential delays in the U.S. offshore wind market, we proactively adjusted our strategic outlook for the Acadia. Over the past couple of years, we have looked at and included for the safeguarding of critical subsea assets, including oil and gas pipelines, power transmission lines, telecommunication cables, and international offshore wind farms, increasing our opportunity into a broader range of services that we now refer to as offshore energy. The Acadia is engineered to precisely deposit rock for the protection of subsea infrastructure against environmental forces such as weather and potential acts of sabotage by hostile entities.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

We are actively pursuing engagement across these sectors and are making good progress in securing full utilization of the Acadia in 2027. In conclusion, building on strong performance in the first nine months of 2025, the company continues with great momentum and expects to achieve outstanding results for the remainder of 2025 and continuing into 2026. This success is a result of excellent project execution, the strength of our modernized fleet, and our competent and excellent teams, and with that, I turn the call over for questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Our first question comes from the line of Julio Romero of Sidoti & Company. Your line is now open.

[Julio Romero, Analyst at Sidoti & Company]

Thanks. Hey, good morning, Lasse, Scott, and Eric.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Good morning, Julio.

[Julio Romero, Analyst at Sidoti & Company]

Okay. I wanted to start on just thinking about bidding trends and the trajectory of orders for dredging expected for the remainder of 2025 and in 2026. And kind of given the end of that capital project cycle. Just talk about your expectations about bidding and winning coastal protection orders through 2026 to help you kind of bridge you to the next East Coast deepening cycle expected in 2027.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Yeah, as I said. We are under a CR that is now extended to November 21st. See what happens when Congress get together. Probably we get an extension of the CR to the end of the year and maybe into 2026, and under the CR the Corps can bid out the same amounts as they had for the previous years. The only change is that new start projects cannot start up, and there hasn't been that many new start projects. So we expect bidding to continue as normal for maintenance dredging projects and for coastal protection and restoration projects. As I said, the bid market for 2025 is a reduction from 2023 and 2024. That was very active with port deepening projects, but it's getting back to more normal bid market size.

[Julio Romero, Analyst at Sidoti & Company]

Understood, and congratulations on upsizing and expanding your revolver a few weeks ago. Going forward, does cash interest expense and GAAP interest expense converge, and if so, what's your estimation of kind of a good quarterly run rate to use going forward?

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Yeah. So as I mentioned, just taking the 2L out, putting on the revolver, that by itself saves $6 million of cash interest a year. As you know, Julio, and I'll kind of walk through the next few quarters, we're still capitalizing interest while the Acadia is being finished up. So when I look forward to fourth quarter, we will have a one-time non-cash expense to interest, and that's for the extinguishment of the financing costs on the 2L. We ended up paying it off three and a half years early. So you see about a $7.5 million charge. Again, I reiterate, non-cash. In addition to that, we will start seeing interest coming down. We'll probably have, in addition to that, $3.5 million of interest expense down from about $4.5 million, as we'll still be able to capitalize, but we have the reduced rate.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

So looking at probably about $11 million of interest expense in Q4, but about $3 million-$3.5 million being the non-cash, excluding the non-cash charge. Looking forward to Q1, we're probably in about the $3 million interest expense. Then the Acadia gets delivered. So going forward, that is when cash interest and interest expense will be the same. But as we've talked about on prior calls, our priority next year is to start paying down the revolver. So the $6 million savings that we're seeing, I expect to increase quarter over quarter as we pay down and eventually pay off that revolver balance.

[Julio Romero, Analyst at Sidoti & Company]

Super helpful. I'll pass it on. Thanks very much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Joe Gomes of NOBLE Capital. Your line is now open.

[Joe Gomes, Analyst at NOBLE Capital]

Good morning. Congrats on the quarter.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Thank you, Joe.

[Joe Gomes, Analyst at NOBLE Capital]

Maybe you could just walk me through this just because it's different from a number of other companies that I cover that are in the government space understand the whole Continuing Resolution stuff, but with the shutdown many of the other government services companies are saying they aren't getting paid that because so many of those people in those offices have been laid off or are not coming to work, so maybe just clarify how you guys are getting paid.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Yeah. You have to realize that the Corps of Engineers has about more than 30,000 employees, and only 1,000 of those are furloughed. And that is a consequence of that only 3% of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers workforce is funded through annual appropriations. Most of the core staff is funded through project-based accounts. And you can see that. This works out. We have not had any issues with getting paid. Ongoing projects are being executed as normal. And we also see the bidding going on at a reduced rate because of the reduction in the overall bid market. But yes, we have not been affected by the shutdown. And we don't expect to be either going forward.

[Joe Gomes, Analyst at NOBLE Capital]

Okay, great. Thanks for that clarity. Much appreciated. Lasse, kind of early days, but what are you seeing as the 2026 bid market? I know you said 2025 is coming back to a more normalized rate, but what do you think your 2026 outlook is looking for?

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

That's a good question and it depends on a lot of things. We have a CR that is ongoing. Congress is discussing whether to extend that to the end of the year. Some want to extend it into 2026. Some are predicting extensions all through 2026. Anyway, under a CR, the budgets are remaining the same as it was in 2024, which was at a high level, so the core is funded and can bid out work that is more maintenance-related, but the only thing we cannot see is new starts going forward.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

So what I expect to happen is that we continue the CR into 2026 and then towards the end of 2026, these new port deepening projects that have been in study phase up to now will probably be bid out and then, with operations starting in 2027, we will see a lot of coastal protection projects being bid out that are not affected by the CR along with more maintenance dredging.

[Joe Gomes, Analyst at NOBLE Capital]

Okay. And then one more. We've talked about this in the past. Something like Acadia has got 2026 fully booked, 2027 we're working on, but some of the other markets that you've talked about. The cables for power transmission, telecom, oil and gas pipes. Have you had success, I mean, contracts signed with those other non-wind-oriented customers for the Acadia, or is this still more of a work in progress?

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

It's still work in progress, but we have, as I said, for the last two years, been very active in Europe because we saw a reduction in activity in the United States, and there is a market for cable protection in Europe, which is expanding as a consequence of the kind of political uncertainties surrounding us, and then the offshore wind market is continuing in Europe. We have bid several projects for execution in 2027 and 2028 and onwards. But in Europe, this market is a more mature market. So, contrary to what we saw here in the United States, where the developers wanted to secure capacity very early on, and so our contracts on Empire and on Sunrise, in Europe, it's a more mature market. So, the time between contract award and execution is shorter. More like six to nine months to a year.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

So, we have bid a lot of work, and we are waiting for the outcome of those bids, but none of what's asked for now.

[Joe Gomes, Analyst at NOBLE Capital]

Okay. Thanks for that. I'll pass it on. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Adam Thalhimer of Thomson Davis. Your line is now open.

[Adam Thalhimer, Director of Research at Thompson Davis]

Hey, good morning, guys. Congrats on a great quarter.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Thank you, Adam.

[Adam Thalhimer, Director of Research at Thompson Davis]

Scott, I can't help myself. You sounded so good on Q4. I'm just curious, maybe you can compare your expectations for Q4 to the high watermark for the year of Q1.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Yeah. I knew if somebody tried that, it would be you, Adam.

[Adam Thalhimer, Director of Research at Thompson Davis]

I'm glad I didn't disappoint.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

You didn't. I mean, again, as you know, I mean, the Q1 we had was one of the best, if not the best in company history. Q4 is going to be extremely, extremely strong. Now, again, I did say we do have two hopper dredges in dry dock during the quarter, and you know the impact of that, the additional cost, and of course, the zero in the revenue line. We did not have the same cadence of dry dockings in the first quarter on those type of vessels. That being said, just as we typically do, the bookend quarters are really, really strong Q1 and Q4, and we're going to see that again in the fourth quarter.

[Adam Thalhimer, Director of Research at Thompson Davis]

Okay. I'll take that. And then, the next one. I'm a little so you started booking offshore energy revenue in Q3, and your backlog has grown. It grew in Q2, grew again in Q3 for the offshore. It seems like that work is starting earlier. You talked about leasing a vessel to get to work. Is it starting earlier? Or maybe you can just level set what's going on there.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Well, it's going on as scheduled. We were planning to use the Acadia for executing the work this year, but the delay at the shipyard resulted in performing the scopes, that is our scope on Empire Wind 1. We have chartered a vessel, and that work is ongoing right now. Scott.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Yeah. And in addition to the work that's ongoing on Empire 1 that started in the fourth quarter, we did right at the beginning of the third quarter win an additional scope of work for Equinor. It's on the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. So that we began executing again with a chartered vessel. That was never contemplated to be the Acadia, but it is to support the Empire Wind project. So that's the revenue that you're seeing in the third quarter. That project will continue into the fourth quarter along with the commencement of the armor layer of work on Empire 1. So you will see Q4 revenue on offshore energy increase from the third quarter. So the increase that you saw in backlog is related to that South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which was not in Q2 backlog.

[Adam Thalhimer, Director of Research at Thompson Davis]

Okay. And so next year, does it stay at that Q4 rate, Scott, or is there a further step up?

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Well, no. Next year, oh, you're saying on a quarterly basis? Yeah. I mean, it runs around that. Because we will then take delivery of the vessel. We will go straight on to Empire, do some work there. Then we'll go straight on to Sunrise. And then you may have heard Lasse mention post-quarter-end, so it's not in the backlog. We did win a little additional scope on Sunrise. So that is what fills out 2026.

[Adam Thalhimer, Director of Research at Thompson Davis]

Okay. Last one for me, just high level. What are you seeing in the coastal protection market? And potentially upcoming bidding opportunities?

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Yeah. We see a number of beach restoration and coastal protection projects coming out to bid as we go into Q4 and into Q1 next year. It's different funding streams, as I mentioned in my brief remarks. So it's a funding stream that is different from the normal appropriations to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and that's why it continues during the CER. As you know, we like to do these complex and difficult projects because we perform well under those circumstances. And then we see the maintenance dredging being bid out from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I just want to say that also part of what we've been able to do is to diversify our client portfolio. So we are now 50% private and 50% federal government funded, the work we do, and that gives us a good balance in our backlog.

[Adam Thalhimer, Director of Research at Thompson Davis]

Good update. Thanks, guys.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Alex Rygiel of Texas Capital Securities. Your line is now open.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Alex, you there?

[Alex Rygiel, Managing Director at Texas Capital Securities]

Yes. Sorry about that. Very nice quarter. Thank you for taking my question. Can you talk a bit about your very strong cash flow as we look into 2026 and beyond, and maybe what some of the uses of the cash flow is going to be?

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Yeah. I mean, so as I mentioned, even this year, despite writing some really big checks to finish the new build program, we are cash flow positive, and that will grow even more so next year as the new build program is over. Priority one right now to look at it is to deliver. We just did. One of the maneuvers, which was to take out the second lien and greatly reduced interest expense by putting it on the revolver. We have the flexibility to pay that off when we want as cash flow from operations come in. So priority next year, finish the Acadia, use the excess cash to start paying that down. And then we'd just be left with the $325 million notes. Those don't mature until 2029, and they've got a fixed interest rate at 5.25%.

[Alex Rygiel, Managing Director at Texas Capital Securities]

Thank you very much.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Yep.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jon Tanwanteng of CJS. Your line is now open.

[Jon Tanwanteng, Managing Director at CJS]

Hi, good morning, guys. And thank you for taking my questions. I'm good. That's a nice quarter.

[Lasse Petterson, President and CEO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Hey, John.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Hey, John.

[Jon Tanwanteng, Managing Director at CJS]

I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about Q4. I think you guys mentioned ending the year on a high note. Maybe give us a little bit more color on what is currently scheduled to revenue from a backlog perspective and given the dry-docking schedule and how margins are likely to compare to Q3.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Yeah. Again, I'm not going to give specific guidance, but I'll reiterate every vessel is working the majority of their quarter with the exception of the two hopper dredges that will spend a part of the quarter within dry dock, but they'll work up until the dry dock and then when they come out. Typically, and I don't see the fourth quarter being really any different, we are starting to work on some environmental window work, and those usually do come with higher margins. So revenue will be extremely strong despite having the two vessels in dry dock, and margins will be extremely strong based on the work that we plan to be executing during the quarter.

[Jon Tanwanteng, Managing Director at CJS]

Okay. Great. That was helpful. And then just in Q3, can you help break out the offshore margin contribution so that maybe we can back into the dredging margins?

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Yeah, and again, we're not going to give or ever give project by project, and there was only one project being executed. It was $6 million of revenue. Again, we just commenced the project, and I'll just tell you, the expectations we had going into this market, which were really healthy margins. This project did not disappoint.

[Jon Tanwanteng, Managing Director at CJS]

Got it. So we shouldn't expect a change in the margin profile as you bring the Acadia online if that's the case. Is that fair to say?

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

That's correct.

[Jon Tanwanteng, Managing Director at CJS]

Okay. Great. And then last one for me, just given the outperformance this year at an EBITDA level. And maybe the changes in mix as you head into next year, is it possible to meet or beat the EBITDA that you're generating this year in 2027? With two new ships coming online, or is that going to be hard to do with the mix coming off and the hard comp from Q1?

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

Yeah. I mean, so. We definitely had entered this year with well over a billion dollars of backlog. We're still going to enter next year with healthy backlog, and the mix of projects are still going to be strong. What we have in backlog now, the $934 million. Post-quarter end, we've had some additional awards. There's also about $190 million in low bids and options pending. One of those options, or two of the options, are on the LNG projects, which have very high margins. Our expectations are those do get exercised sometime next year and we'll execute those. So I do think when we look at 2026, we will have a similar mix of revenue like we saw this year.

[Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

So again, I'm not going to give guidance as to how next year compares to this year, but we see no reason why next year won't be an extremely strong year as well.

[Jon Tanwanteng, Managing Director at CJS]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Eric Birge for closing remarks.

[Eric Birge, VP of Investor Relations at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp]

We appreciate the support of all our shareholders, employees, and business partners, and want to thank everybody for joining the discussion today. About the developments and initiatives of our business. We look forward to speaking to everybody next quarter. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Scott Kornblau, SVP and CFO
• Eric Birge, VP of Investor Relations
• Lasse Petterson, President and CEO

Analysts

• Adam Thalhimer, Director of Research at Thompson Davis
• Jon Tanwanteng, Managing Director at CJS
• Joe Gomes, Analyst at NOBLE Capital
• Alex Rygiel, Managing Director at Texas Capital Securities
• Julio Romero, Analyst at Sidoti & Company