Alta Equipment Group Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 7, 2025

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon, and thank you for attending the Ultra Equipment Group First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. My name is Lydia, and I'll be your moderator for today's call. I'll now turn the call over to Jason Darmeyer, Director of SEC Reporting and Technical Accounting with Alta Equipment Group.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Lydia. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. A press release detailing Alta's first quarter twenty twenty five financial results was issued this afternoon and is posted on our website along with a presentation designed to assist you in understanding the company's results. On the call with me today are Ryan Greenewalt, our Chairman and CEO and Tony Kaluchi, our Chief Financial Officer. For today's call, management will first provide a review of our first quarter twenty twenty five financial results.

Speaker 1

We will begin with some prepared remarks before we open the call for your questions. Please proceed to Slide two. Before we get started, I'd like to remind everyone that this conference call may contain certain forward looking statements, including statements about future financial results, our business strategy and financial outlook, achievements of the company and other non historical statements as described in our press release. These forward looking statements are subject to both known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those related to Altus' growth, market opportunities and general economic and business conditions. We have based these forward looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Speaker 1

Although we believe these expectations are reasonable, we undertake no obligation to revise any statement to reflect changes that occur after this call. Descriptions of these and other risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward looking statements are discussed in our reports filed with the SEC, including our press release that was issued today. During this call, we may present both GAAP and non GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non GAAP measures is included in today's press release and can be found on our website at investors.altaequipment.com. I will now turn the call over to Ryan.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Jason. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to review our results for the first quarter of twenty twenty five. I will begin with an overview of key trends we're seeing in our business and close with our outlook for the year. After that, I'll hand it over to Tony to walk through the financials in more detail. As many business leaders have echoed this earnings season, the first quarter brought its share of challenges driven by uncertainty around U.

Speaker 2

S. Trade policy, tariffs and broader economic sentiment. Despite those headwinds, our first quarter results reflect the underlying strength and resilience of our business model. We remained focused on disciplined execution and saw continued stability across several key segments. Let me start with Construction Equipment.

Speaker 2

Operating trends in our Construction Equipment segments were stable and reflective of typical seasonal dynamics in our Northeast and Midwest regions. As weather improved in late March, we saw fleet deployments in those regions pick up naturally as construction activity increased. Looking further south, the Florida construction market remains strong buoyed by ongoing investment from both the Florida Department of Transportation and the federal government. Our overall market in construction equipment expanded modestly year over year. The stability we're seeing in construction equipment is attributable to infrastructure related projects.

Speaker 2

These projects, unlike general nonresidential construction, continue to drive steady demand for heavy equipment. While some geographies have seen some softening in local private nonresidential construction, we are also encouraged by some early signs that the regulatory headwind on permitting of new large scale projects is easing. Turning to our Material Handling segment. While new equipment sales were down compared to the elevated delivery volumes we saw in Q1 of last year, we were encouraged by two important factors. First, we experienced stronger margins on both new and used equipment sales, which helped offset the lower delivery volumes.

Speaker 2

And second, we saw solid bookings throughout the quarter, which positions us well for a healthy pipeline in the back half of twenty twenty five. Our Product Support business held strong and remains a critical pillar of strength. Now to the macro environment. Regarding tariffs, while the situation remains fluid based on current information from our OEM partners, we believe that the associated cost increases and surcharges are manageable. We're confident this will allow us to remain competitive across our markets, and we have been encouraged by the partnership displayed by our OEMs as we collectively navigate these challenges.

Speaker 2

Together, the resilience of our end markets, the stability in product support and our clear operational execution support our decision to reiterate guidance on an organic basis. As we continue executing on our purpose driven strategy, we've sharpened our focus on aligning the right products with the right customers in every market we serve. This quarter, our operational priorities reflect the deliberate effort to optimize resources, strengthen margin performance and deepen customer engagement across both geography and segments. By refining our portfolio and tailing our go to market approach to the unique dynamics of each region, we are creating the structural clarity and accountability needed to drive sustained profitable growth. As part of this focus, we've made the strategic decision to divest substantially all of our aerial equipment rental business in the Chicago land market, a business we built organically over the past seven years.

Speaker 2

While we're proud of what we created, this particular segment no longer aligned with our long term objectives. Competitive pressures, limited product support yield and the highly commoditized nature of aerial equipment made it clear that our capital could be more effectively deployed in areas with stronger strategic fit and higher return potential. Finally, want to update you on a key capital allocation decision. Our Board of Directors has authorized the indefinite suspension of our quarterly dividend. This decision was made with a clear eye towards value creation.

Speaker 2

Given the current disparity between our stock price and our view of Alta's intrinsic worth, we believe shareholders will benefit more from capital return via buybacks. As part of this shift, the Board has increased our share repurchase program by $10,000,000 bringing the total to $30,000,000 Concurrently, the Board has allocated $10,000,000 to a Rule 10b5-one plan, enabling repurchases during restricted periods through a third party fiduciary, thereby enhancing the company's ability to execute on the repurchase program. This strategy reinforces our belief that Altus shares represent a compelling investment and we are committed to executing on this buyback initiative. In summary, quarter one demonstrated the durability of our business, the effectiveness of our strategic initiatives and our continued focus on long term value creation. We remain confident in our positioning for the remainder of 2025, and we appreciate your continued support as we execute our growth and capital allocation strategies.

Speaker 2

With that, I'll now turn the call over to Tony, who will walk through our financials in more detail.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Ryan. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for your interest in Ulta Equipment Group and our first quarter twenty twenty five financial results. Before getting into the quarter, I want to begin by recognizing our employees, customers and partners for their support and resiliency thus far in 2025 as we navigate the impacts, both puts and takes of a dynamic macro environment. I'd also like to welcome our 28 new teammates in Quebec City, Canada, whom joined us through the La Chariots acquisition in Q1. We are excited to be expanding our footprint for the Yale brand in our Material Handling segment across Northeast Quebec.

Speaker 3

Myself and the rest of the team look forward to earning your trust. My remarks today will focus on three key areas. First, I'll present our first quarter financial results, which were naturally affected by the seasonal impacts of winter weather on the construction business in our northern regions, but overall, we're in line with expectations. As part of that discussion, I'll touch on cash flows for the quarter and check-in on the balance sheet with a few comments on the impact of the divestiture of our aerial business in Illinois and the planned use of proceeds from that transaction. Second, I'll discuss the reaffirmation of our fiscal year twenty twenty five adjusted EBITDA guidance.

Speaker 3

As part of that discussion, I will discuss a few notes and underpinning assumptions in the guide, including our view on tariffs and their influence on our prospects for the remainder of the year. Lastly, I'll comment on our rebalanced capital allocation strategy, what it means for shareholders and why we think this is the appropriate move at this time. Before I get to my talking points, it should be noted that I will be referencing slides from our investor presentation throughout the call today. Encourage everyone on today's call to review our presentation and our 10 Q, which is available on our Investor Relations website at altg.com. With that said, for the first portion of my prepared remarks and in line with Slides nine through 19 in the earnings deck, first quarter performance.

Speaker 3

For the quarter, the company recorded revenue of $423,000,000 a reduction of 4.2% versus last year. The quarter was underpinned by solid performance year over year in our product support department, which was offset primarily by $15,700,000 and reduced new equipment sales in our Material Handling segment and lower rental revenues from our Construction segment, with the latter issue being strategic in nature and related to our fleet optimization plan that began in the second half of twenty twenty four. I would also note that Ecoverse, the portfolio company in our Master Distribution segment outperformed last year's regular revenue figure by 35.9% in the quarter, a function of solid end market demand for environmental processing equipment and sub dealer appetite to stock inventory this year as opposed to the oversupplied equipment market that was Q1 of twenty twenty four. Lastly, revenue, as noted, we had reduced new equipment sales in our Material Handling segment year over year. While we were slightly disappointed in this result, especially given the difficult comp, we note one, that some of this variance was timing related in terms of being able to prep and deliver units to our customers two, we have yet to see any major cancellations in our lift truck sales pipeline and three, as Ryan mentioned, we were encouraged by Q1 lift truck bookings overall, which we believe will have a positive influence on the back half of twenty twenty five and will potentially allow us to pick up some of the equipment sales variance realized in Q1 over the remainder of the year.

Speaker 3

While overall revenues suffered on a comparative basis, gross margins and operating expenses outperformed in the quarter. From a gross margin perspective, two things of note: one, stabilization in new and used equipment gross margins on a sequential basis and two, we realized the two thirty basis point year over year increase in service gross margin, a function of the ongoing initiative to drive technician efficiency with the bulk of the positive variance coming specifically from our Construction segment where the variance was two ninety basis points. The increase in service gross margin percentage helped to offset the overall revenue miss in the quarter by adding $2,700,000 in gross margin, which converts at a high rate to the bottom line for the enterprise year over year. On the SG and A line, we realized the positive impact and continuation of our twenty twenty four expense optimization initiatives in the quarter as this line was down a notable 7,900,000 year over year with a sizable portion of this variance being related to fixed expense reductions that we expect will hold over the remainder of the year. Investors may recall that I highlighted these two items, product support efficiencies and SG and A reductions on our last call as two of the top underpinning factors of our fiscal year twenty twenty five EBITDA guidance.

Speaker 3

And performance through the first quarter confirms those two factors. In summary for the quarter as it relates to the P and L, efficiency gains in our service department and expense reductions overall nearly offset the year over year reductions in overall gross profit related to reduced equipment sales and rental revenue as we recorded $33,600,000 of adjusted EBITDA for the quarter, down just $500,000 versus Q1 of twenty twenty four. Important to note that the company was able to realize nearly the same level of EBITDA year over year on a reduced balance sheet as the gross book value of our rental fleet is down $25,000,000 year over year as we aim to drive rental utilization and ultimately returns on invested capital higher in 2025. In terms of cash flows for the quarter, I would point investors to Slides thirteen and fourteen, which we presented for the first time on our last call. As a reminder, slide 13 presents the definitional foundation of rent to rent fleet versus rent to sell equipment.

Speaker 3

As noted on the slide, to rent is treated and invested in via maintenance CapEx like a traditional fixed asset. Notably, rent to rent fleet is meant to be held for the long term and the return on investment in the rent to rent fleet will come via the rental stream on that fleet over many years. As opposed to rent to rent, rent to sell equipment should be viewed more like an analyst would view general inventory as it is meant to be a temporary or short term investment in equipment to take advantage of market demand for lightly used primarily heavy construction equipment. On to slide 14, which presents the cash flows both before and after RTS rent to sell decisioning. As noted for the quarter, free cash flow before rent to sell decisioning, a metric that we believe functions as a proxy for operating cash flows prior to other capital decisioning was approximately $23,000,000 in the quarter.

Speaker 3

Investors should note that if one were to layer our full year guidance on top of these numbers and assume a similar conversion rate on EBITDA, we would be pacing towards approximately 120,000,000 in free cash flow before rent to sell decisioning in 2025. Last point on Slide 14. Similar to last quarter, the slide is fully reconcilable to our gas based statement of cash flows, and that reconciliation is available in Appendix B of the earnings presentation. To check-in on the balance sheet as of threethirty one and as depicted on slide 15, we ended the quarter with approximately $290,000,000 of cash and availability on our revolving line of credit facility. A quick note on the divestiture of our aerial fleet rental business in Illinois and its expected impact on the balance sheet.

Speaker 3

First, this was a leverage accretive deal for Altas. The business was producing approximately $4,000,000 of pro form a EBITDA on an annual basis. Second, in terms of cash proceeds, we received $18,000,000 in cash at close from the seller, but also retained $2,000,000 of working capital, mainly customer receivables, which will convert to cash in the short run, effectively yielding approximately $20,000,000 in cash proceeds on the transaction. The intention is that we will allocate this $20,000,000 in proceeds to our outstanding debt and pick up approximately $10,000,000 in liquidity given the calculated impact to the borrowing base. In total, post divestiture, we will near $300,000,000 in liquidity, which is a comfortable amount to navigate any business climate that may be ahead of us.

Speaker 3

Moving on to the second portion of my prepared remarks, 2025 adjusted EBITDA guidance, which was reaffirmed on an organic basis in today's earnings release. In terms of the guidance range itself, we now expect to report $171,500,000 to 186,500,000 of adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2025. The shifting of the guidance is exclusively related to the divestiture of our aerial business in Illinois, as previously mentioned, the seasonally adjusted EBITDA associated with that business. A few notes and assumptions on the reaffirmation of the guide. First, our solid first quarter performance was in line with expectations from an EBITDA perspective and the early read on April performance doesn't suggest much deviation from our overall plan for the year.

Speaker 3

Second, the stability in infrastructure based end markets we believe will act as an insulator against potential macro volatility for our construction segment. Third, we expect continued accretion quarter over quarter in our product support gross margin performance, specifically in our service department driven by a continued focus on technician efficiency. Additionally, as discussed, we also expect a continuation of the outperformance that we saw in Q1 on the SG and A line on a comparative basis as we head throughout the year. Lastly, while Material Handling Equipment revenues were off year over year, we were encouraged by the pace of bookings we saw in Q1. And outside of any unforeseen demand degradation due to something out of our control, it's our expectation that this pace in bookings will bode well for Material Handling sales in the back half of 'twenty five.

Speaker 3

Now in terms of downside risks. First, and something that we mentioned on our Q4 call, we continue to believe that the oversupply of construction equipment in the industry impacted Q1 twenty twenty five margins on equipment sales year over year, and we expect so long as demand for equipment holds up that the supply overhang will continue to recede throughout the summer and we expect to see some reversion in equipment margins in the back half of twenty twenty five. As mentioned previously, we observed sequential stabilization in this regard in Q1. Second, and this will come as no surprise, our guidance is predicated on a no significant demand reduction stemming from a recession in The United States or the reinstatement of the ninety day pause tariffs. In the current state, we believe that the surcharges we have observed from our major OEMs, which has effectively ranged from 0% to 10%, are manageable for us to remain competitive in the marketplace.

Speaker 3

However, any further significant increases we believe will push the situation beyond manageable and reduce customer demand. Additionally, the primary area of concern that we are monitoring closely relative to tariffs is the impact on the manufacturing sector, primarily as it relates to our Material Handling segment and our operations in the Midwest and Canada. Moving on to the last portion of my prepared remarks, a few comments on the rebalanced capital allocation strategy announced earlier this evening. To start and as depicted on slide 18, we have always used the word balance when it came to our capital allocation strategy and we have pressed each of the areas depicted on slide 18 at various points in our five years as a public company. First, it was pressing on accretive M and A.

Speaker 3

Then it was to reward shareholders with a dividend given our increased size, specifically in product support revenues and our defensive cash flow profile. At times, has been pressing on organic growth, whether it be rental fleet, new business lines or new geographies. More recently, in the second half of twenty twenty four, it was to press on debt pay down as we quickly optimize rental fleet in the face of reduced demand. And along the way, we have opportunistically, albeit at a modest amount, been able to buy back shares when our reporting windows, attractive share price and the lack of opportunity to allocate capital elsewhere all converged. While our strategy to date has encompassed all of the capital allocation buckets, they have been strategic and timely in terms of opportunity and this latest rebalancing is just that timely and strategic for our shareholders.

Speaker 3

To be clear, the dividend suspension is a recognition of the value of the opportunity via the share buyback and a redeployment of dollars earmarked for shareholders versus a signal of anything else related to our business, our performance or our prospects. In fact, it's the opposite. The authorization of the $10,000,000 increase in the buyback program and the allocation of $10,000,000 into a 10b5-one plan is the company investing in itself on behalf of shareholders as we take advantage of the disconnect between our share price and Ulta's intrinsic value, which is predicated on our future, our resilient business model, our diverse regions and customer base, our supply partnerships, and most importantly, our best in class team. In closing, I want to thank my Alta teammates for a solid start to the fiscal year amidst the fluid backdrop. I wish you all the best as we head into the summer months and look forward to updating investors on our Q2 performance in August.

Speaker 3

Thank you for your time and I will turn it back over to the operator for Q and

Speaker 4

A. Thank

Operator

Our first question comes from Steven Ramsey with Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Good evening, everyone. I thought that divestiture was an interesting deal. The logic of it makes complete sense. Do you feel like there are more assets within the company where you could do this kind of thing to manage the portfolio and manage the capital structure?

Speaker 2

Hi, Steve. This is Ryan. I could take that one. You know, I I think that, you know, we're looking at it as more of a product line, you know, scenario from here. I don't it would be more surgical, you know, what we see from here, I guess, is the best way to answer that.

Speaker 3

Steve, I would I would just add that, you know, through through some of the m and a, we have picked up, as Ryan mentioned, some product lines, that were just ancillary maybe to the strategic underpinnings of various various deals. And I I like Ryan's term there, surgical and just trying to optimize.

Speaker 5

Got you. Okay. And then you discussed this, but wonder if you could elaborate more on the parts and service gross margin improvement, particularly with the lower revenue. Impressive to see that. Can you talk about a little bit more what's happening in the near term and the runway on operating optimization that can help in FY '25 and potentially beyond?

Speaker 3

Sure. Sure, Steve. You know, if if you if as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, if you kind of peel back the onion and look at which segment sort of outperformed or drove this, it was our construction segment. And, you know, relative to our material handling segment, our construction segment, there's been a lot of m and a, in that segment, and we're relatively use youthful on a relative basis in terms of, you know, operating in areas like Florida, Upstate New York, and and even Chicago land in some regard. And so, you know, it's just been more focused on non billable time, training technicians, you know, managing all the way down to the work order level to just make sure that we're we're minimizing non billable time and and putting the right per person on the right job from a from a technician perspective.

Speaker 3

And as I mentioned, we expect this to continue. But it's a it's really a salute kind of to our our managers in the construction business and and a and a sort of focus in on on efficiency that we expect to continue.

Speaker 5

Okay. Great to hear. And then last one for me. Good to, I think the the capital allocation, edits and adjustments make sense to me. Do do you how do you think about just philosophically capital return, debt reduction, may maybe near term, long term, if there's any divergence in in kind of how you want to use the excess capital coming in to manage, the capital structure?

Speaker 3

Steve, I think if if we wanna kind of, you know, just kind of recut the message that I mentioned in my prepared remarks is, you know, we we're gonna be opportunistic. And right now, that means the right thing to do is to to redeploy the dividend. We mentioned that we will be taking the $20,000,000 in proceeds from the the aerial fleet deal to pay down debt. And just as a matter of course, you know, excess cash flows beyond those those things are going to be servicing the the revolver. So, you know, we're we're just gonna continue to execute and continue to remain nimble in and and there's there's all sorts of there's multiple parameters.

Speaker 3

Right? And the share price is one of the parameters and an important one. And and to the extent that the share price is punished to the point where it makes sense to do what we're doing, we we wanna show investors and shareholders that that will be supportive. And so this is our living up to the word balance in our minds. And we, you know, we we we we're excited about this, the share repurchase program because we think we can drive a lot of value here.

Speaker 5

That's helpful. Thank you, guys.

Operator

Our next question comes from Ted Jackson with Northland Securities. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Thanks very much. Good evening.

Speaker 3

Hey, Ted.

Speaker 4

My I got a couple of questions. One of them is just on like the material handling business. I'm curious, when you see the order strength and such that you're having within that business, maybe you could kind of parse out, you know, from a vertical level where you're you're seeing that from. I know you have some exposure within the auto market just by default. And, you know, I I think that that market might be a little challenged.

Speaker 4

And so I'm kinda curious where you're, you know, seeing, for lack of a better term, strength in there and where you might be seeing weakness. That's my first question.

Speaker 3

Stability, I think, is the word, Ted, that I would use, and that's our kind of our biggest end market now in in material handling is food and beverage and all of the sort of ancillary all the offshoots of just food and beverage. You know, I would say utilities are standing out in terms of strength, as well as just medical. So just throw that into the sort of human sustenance. And that's, a little bit annuitized, relative to some of the attic the the other categories. You know, at at the moment and well, at least in q one, we didn't see any real pullback in in kind of bookings in manufacturing.

Speaker 3

Now q one, recall, was before Liberation Day. And so, you know, there's a there's a lot of conversations having, we're having around manufacturing, in the regions that I mentioned in the Midwest and Canada, specifically with the the automotive sector. But that that's where I think there's more of the kind of the unknown in the material handling businesses in manufacturing for us. And the strengths, would say, is, you know, anything around food and beverage, utilities, and the medical the medical industry.

Speaker 4

And you didn't see I mean, maybe you're too far back, but it wasn't like you got into April and there was, like, a a pause, a a slowdown. I mean, I've heard that on a number of calls that things were fine. And then in April, it was just kind

Speaker 3

You know, Ted, without without getting into the numbers that we we see for April in terms of just demand outlook, I would classify it as stable, actually, for us.

Speaker 4

Okay. And then shifting over just on two fronts with regards to tariffs. One on the distribution, the environmental business. You do import equipment from Europe in that business. Are there any is there any, tariff exposure for you from, you know, within that particular, you know, domain?

Speaker 3

Yeah, Ted. That that's actually, the the most direct, impact in terms of, you know, just we are the importer for master distribution primarily from Europe. The good news about kind of having direct line of sight is we are in contact with the OEM OEMs, I should say, over in Europe and actively kind of you know, the push and pull of what to do with what is now 10%, which, again, you know, feels manageable and you you you of, let's say, share in the impact. But to the extent some of the ninety day pause tariffs go back into place, you know, that's where I would caveat the the impact on master distribution. So for now, manageable there.

Speaker 3

But you're right. Directly impactful. And anything further, you know, could could, yeah, prove prove to be negative.

Speaker 4

And would that be the same with Volvo? I mean, if I recall from listening to their call that, you know, they're you know, we basically kind of expressed that most of the equipment that they sell here in The States, they do import. Are you sitting around a 10%? Are they sitting on 10% tariff too and would also have a negative consequence if the ninety day snapback happens?

Speaker 3

You know, Ted, it's not as direct with Volvo as it is with some of the OEMs for master distribution. I would also point out that Volvo does final assemble a fair amount of product in The US. And in terms of their supply chain and the impacts, we just don't have that level of granular sort of understanding. What I will say is and we're not going to quote specific vendors on this call in terms of surcharge just from a competitive perspective. What I will say is Volvo is on the lower end of the zero to 10% range in terms of the impact thus far on

Speaker 4

our buy price. Okay. And then my last, which is just more of a curiosity. You have this nice business and material handling in Canada. And, you know, in some ways, it's somewhat contiguous to some of your Upper Midwest stuff.

Speaker 4

Is there any issues with you being able to you know what mean? Or maybe you don't even do it, but you know what I'm saying? Like, keep inventory, parts inventory, and being able to bring them back and forth between different locations? Does that cause any kind of do you know what saying? Does this current situation cause any kind of recalibration of how you might run portions of your business because of that, you know, dynamic?

Speaker 3

Yeah. The the two businesses, you know, some of the tax laws force this upon you, but they run pretty much independent of one another. And I think some of this stuff would just sort of emphasize that that independence of them running, independent. There's not a lot of, you know, intercompany, sales going on, etcetera. So I think some of the tariff stuff would just reinforce some of that independence or I'm sorry, the, yeah, the operational independence of the business units.

Speaker 4

Okay. Okay. Well, that's it for me. Thanks for taking my questions. Talk to you.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Ted.

Operator

Our next question comes from Laura Mayo with B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hi, thanks for taking the question.

Speaker 4

Sure.

Speaker 6

So my first question is, can you provide any update on the e mobility business? And are you seeing any slowdown there tied to the new administration?

Speaker 3

I can I I could take that if Ryan wants to jump in? So our our e mobility business, right, is relatively nascent, immaterial amount of revenue that's come through there. And just given the the the kind of startup nature of some of the OEMs that we've worked with, you know, it just hasn't been a big part of our business. What what I what I will say is our our OEM, Nikola, as probably many of our our aware, filed for bankruptcy. There's still that that is still ongoing.

Speaker 3

What we can say from the company's perspective, like we've told investors all along that we were going to be asset light in terms of our commitment to, you know, hard assets and infrastructure relative to this business. And that and that has served us well here, and we don't we we don't have any material impacts to report from from Nicolas' situation, which is which is a good thing. On top of that, in terms of the go forward strategy, I would turn it over to Ryan.

Speaker 2

Sure. I what I would just add is that we've we we're well positioned to jump into the opportunity as it starts to mature. You know, we've credentialized our team for charging, integrating charging infrastructure, and the delivery of compressed hydrogen gas. So we were kind of all ready to go. And this, this setback with Nikola, you know, definitely was a setback with our strategy, but, we are evaluating other plat potential, class eight vendors, and we continue to work with our other OEMs on the early stage commercialization of some of these other technologies for more of the last mile and lighter duty applications for electric vehicles.

Speaker 6

Okay. Thanks. My second question is, do you see more favorable pricing for potential acquisitions?

Speaker 3

Yeah. Laura, I'll I'll take that one. You know, we have Ryan's been at this longer than I, but I've been with the company ten years. And, you know, the the the general ebbs and flows of macro dynamics, whether it be the pandemic or even the great recession, you know, back in o eight and o nine, multiples have have trended kind of in the same range. I think what happens in times of volatility in in my ten years with the company is you do tend to have management teams that, or ownership groups that have succession planning issues that, don't wanna deal with another, let's just say, downturn, for lack of a better term, and there may be more opportunity.

Speaker 3

I don't so it's one way to say, I don't think it impacts pricing, but it could impact opportunity for us to pick up a strategic asset.

Speaker 6

Okay. Thanks. That's helpful. I'll pass it on.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We have no further questions. So this concludes our Q and A session as well as the conference call. Thank you very much for joining us today. You may now disconnect your line.

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Key Takeaways

  • Alta delivered a resilient Q1 performance despite trade policy uncertainty and manageable tariff headwinds, and reaffirmed full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance of $171.5 million to $186.5 million.
  • Construction Equipment results were stable, with seasonal upticks in the Northeast/Midwest and a strong Florida market driven by infrastructure investments.
  • Material Handling sales volumes were down year-over-year, but stronger margins and solid bookings set the segment up for healthy deliveries in H2 2025.
  • Product Support gross margin improved by 230 basis points through technician efficiency initiatives, adding $2.7 million in gross profit and helping sustain nearly flat EBITDA versus last year.
  • Management divested the aerial rental business in Chicagoland, suspended the quarterly dividend to free up capital, and increased the share repurchase program to $30 million to unlock value.
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Earnings Conference Call
Alta Equipment Group Q1 2025
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