Valmont Industries Q2 2025 Earnings Report

Valmont Industries EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $4.88
• Consensus EPS: $4.78
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.10
• One Year Ago EPS: $4.91

Valmont Industries Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.05 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.03 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$19.25 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +1.00%

Valmont Industries Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2025
• Date: 7/22/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 9:00AM ET

Valmont Industries (NYSE:VMI) (NYSE: VMI) is a diversified industrial manufacturer specializing in infrastructure and agricultural products. Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, the company engages in the design, production and distribution of engineered products that support water management, power transmission, lighting and traffic infrastructure. Valmont’s solutions range from center-pivot and lateral-move irrigation systems to utility poles, transmission towers, lighting structures and highway traffic signal support structures.

The company operates through several core business segments. Its Irrigation segment offers a full portfolio of mechanized irrigation equipment and digital water-management solutions designed to enhance crop yields and conserve water resources. The Utility Support Structures and Engineered Support Structures segments produce steel poles, lattice towers, articulated poles and related components for electric transmission, distribution and lighting applications, as well as specialty support structures for traffic management and communications. The Coatings segment provides industrial electrocoat and powder-coat finishing services for metal products in a variety of end markets.

Founded in 1946, Valmont has grown from its regional roots into a global enterprise, serving customers in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. The company’s manufacturing footprint includes facilities in the United States, Canada, Brazil, India, China and several European countries, enabling it to deliver customized solutions and local support worldwide. Valmont continues to invest in research and development, focusing on automation, digital connectivity and sustainable practices to meet evolving customer needs.

Under the leadership of President and Chief Executive Officer Duncan M. Freeland, Valmont has emphasized operational excellence, strategic acquisitions and innovation. The company’s governance and management teams are committed to delivering long-term value through disciplined capital allocation, strong customer relationships and a focus on employee safety and development. Valmont’s products play a critical role in global infrastructure and agricultural productivity, positioning it as a key supplier to utility companies, municipalities and farmers around the world.

Valmont Industries Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Negative Sentiment: Completed the final step in its strategic realignment, exiting unprofitable solar and access systems units, which resulted in $112 million of nonrecurring charges.
• Positive Sentiment: Utility backlog reaches approximately $1.5 billion, with an ongoing $100 million growth CapEx program supporting incremental capacity of $350–400 million in revenue.
• Neutral Sentiment: Agriculture sales rose 2.7% to $289.4 million, driven by a 22% increase in international markets (including a $20 million Africa award), while North American volumes remained soft.
• Positive Sentiment: Second-quarter adjusted results include net sales of $1.05 billion (+1%), a 13.5% operating margin, EPS of $4.88, and operating cash flow of $167.6 million, with net debt leverage below 1× and $100 million of stock repurchases.
• Positive Sentiment: Full-year 2025 guidance raised to $4.0–$4.2 billion in net sales and $17.50–$19.50 in adjusted EPS, reflecting confidence in long-term demand and balanced capital allocation.

Presentation

[Operator]

Greetings. Welcome to Valmont Industries Incorporated Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Please note this conference is being recorded.

[Operator]

I will now turn this conference over to your host, Renee Campbell, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer. Ms. Campbell, you may begin.

[Renee Campbell, SVP - IR & Treasurer at Valmont Industries]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. With me today are Abner Appelbaum, President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Legoury, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Tim Francis, Chief Accounting Officer. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release announcing our second quarter twenty twenty five results. Both the release and the presentation for today's webcast are available on the Investors page of our website at valmont.com. A replay of the webcast will be available later this morning.

[Renee Campbell, SVP - IR & Treasurer at Valmont Industries]

To stay updated with Valmont's latest news releases and information, please sign up for email alerts on our investor website. We'll begin today's call with prepared remarks and then open it up for questions. Please note that this call is subject to our disclosure on forward looking statements, which is outlined on Slide two of the presentation and will be read in full after Q and A. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Abner.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Thank you, Renee. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'd like to start with second quarter highlights and key messages summarized on slide four. We delivered solid results operationally this quarter, reflecting the dedication and resilience of our global Valmont team. I want to thank our employees for delivering our core values and delivering for our customers every day.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Sales grew modestly driven by strength in utility, telecom, and international agriculture. Our teams executed well, driving volume growth in key markets while advancing our long term strategy. We remain deeply confident in the end markets we serve, which are supported by powerful long term growth drivers. Secular megatrends, including the energy transition, infrastructure investment, and global demand for food security, offer significant potential for our business. We have intentionally aligned our unique strengths with these trends.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

When I became CEO two years ago, we laid out a clear strategy, simplify the business, focus where we lead, flatten the organization, and direct our resources to the areas with the best long term returns. That framework has not changed, and we've executed consistently against it. This quarter represents the final step in the realignment work we began in July 2023. We exited unprofitable parts of solar, took a hard look at access systems, and completed targeted changes across the company, removing layers, reassigning talent, and sharpening accountability. These actions resulted in a $112,000,000 of nonrecurring charges, but they were decisions that are fully aligned with the strategy we set from the start.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Having now finished the realignment work, we have the right structure in place, and our teams are focused. We're a stronger we're in a stronger position to scale and execute more effectively and drive long term value creation. With that foundation set, we're focused on what's next, accelerating growth, driving greater efficiency, and advancing innovation to deliver greater values to our customers. That mindset is already part of how we operate from adapting to changing market needs to evolving our products. With a strong balance sheet and track record of consistent cash flow generation, we're investing in organic, high return initiative that enhance customer impact and improve returns.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Turning to slide five. I'd like to provide an update on the progress we've made on our twenty twenty five critical objectives. In utility, we're capturing the infrastructure wave. We're scaling capacity, staying close to the long term customer plans, and improving execution. This is a business that's growing, and we're investing to stay ahead.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

With an infrastructure backlog approaching 1 and a half billion dollars, demand for our products continues to outpace current capacity. We're operating in an unprecedented utility investment cycle. According to a Jefferies Utilities report issued in June, US CapEx is expected to exceed $212,000,000,000 this year, a 22% increase driven by electrification, data center expansion, and grid modernization. The next five year cycle is also accelerating to record levels. Capital is shifting toward transmission and generation, while distribution and substation spending remains strong.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

We are well positioned to meet this demand with our engineered structures and coatings services. Our $100,000,000 growth CapEx target for this year is on track, focused on scaling utility operations and improving workflow across the footprint. At the same time, we're addressing areas that require operational improvement. In lighting and transportation, we've made leadership and organizational changes to improve performance. This is a broad business with diverse end markets, some of which are experiencing softer demand.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

However, we remain confident in the long term fundamentals. Our focus is on improving execution so that we're ready to capture growth as demand returns. Second, in agriculture, we've reshaped the business to be more resilient and globally balanced. We've streamlined the team, added dedicated aftermarket resources, and we're executing well across key international markets. Brazil is a very important market for us and is showing signs of stabilization.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Our international project pipeline is stronger than ever. The EMEA region continues to show momentum, and we recently were awarded $20,000,000 of project work in Africa. While North America remains challenged, we're building for long term with better agility, stronger margins, and technology advancements for our for our growers. And across the company, we're focused on doing more with what we have, from smarter scheduling to piloting AI at eight of our infrastructure facilities or scaling throughput without scaling costs. We're looking across systems, teams, and assets to make sure we're running as efficiently as we can and setting ourselves up to support growth without adding complexity.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

This also helps us execute with focus and invest in high value innovation to best serve our customers. Finally, Delmont's strength lies in our people, their resilience, values, and commitment to a strong safety culture. Last month, we published our tenth annual sustainability report highlighting many of our team's accomplishments. Sustainability remains central to our purpose of conserving resources and improving life and a strategic competitive advantage that continues to shape our business. In summary, we've taken the hard steps, refined the portfolio, realigned the structure, and tightened our focus.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

I'm proud of how this team has advanced and sharpened our strategy over the past year. We're executing with more precision, more discipline, and clear returns. Now we move forward from a stronger foundation. Our priorities are the same, but our ability to deliver on them is better than ever. I'll now turn the call over to Tom to discuss our second quarter financial results and updated outlook.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Thank you, Adler. Good morning, everyone. Turning to Slide seven. I'd like to expand on the actions and associated onetime non GAAP items recorded this quarter. Deliberate steps were taken to better align the organization and drive growth and profitability in the coming years.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

We reduced our headcount primarily in Solar and North America agriculture to reflect near term market conditions. We transitioned many of these team members to support growth in infrastructure and international agriculture. We reduced management layers across both segments and corporate to enable quicker decisions and greater agility. Manufacturing operations were integrated into the segments to drive accountability and improve collaboration between commercial and operations teams. In addition to the realignment, we further refined our portfolio.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

As you know, solar has been a growth headwind for some time, compounded by recent changes in government policy and regulation. Therefore, the leadership team decided to exit North America and significantly downsize our solar operations in Brazil for both our infrastructure and agriculture segments. The second portfolio action was within lighting and transportation. We reviewed the performance and outlook for the APAC access systems business, leading to a goodwill impairment tied to the revised financial outlook. All in, these actions resulted in the following nonrecurring financial impacts.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Noncash long lived asset impairment charges of $91,300,000 including $71,100,000 for goodwill and intangibles related to the solar and access systems businesses and $20,200,000 for other assets that will no longer be utilized. Cash realignment charges of $9,800,000 primarily severance. Other nonrecurring charges of $10,900,000 primarily cost to fulfill contractually required payments for system licenses no longer needed and an estimated liability to exit a joint venture ag solar business, described in the footnote on pages two and five of the press release, as a change in redemption value of redeemable noncontrolling interest. Altogether, these items total 138,300,000.0, of which 105,500,000.0 relates to our solar businesses, 23,800,000.0 to access systems, and 9,000,000 is within corporate and other businesses. As a result of these actions, we expect annualized savings of $22,000,000 in 2026, with $8,000,000 realized in the second half of twenty twenty five.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Turning to Slide eight and our second quarter results on a GAAP basis. Net sales of $1,050,000,000 increased 1% year over year. We achieved sales growth in both segments, led by utility, telecommunications and international agriculture. Gross profit margin of 30.6% was slightly below prior year due to lower international infrastructure profitability from lower sales. SG and A expenses were $191,700,000 or 18.2% of revenues.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

GAAP operating income was $29,300,000 or 2.8% of net sales. Below the line, interest expense decreased due to lower debt. GAAP diluted loss per share was $1.53 Turning to slide nine. My comments going forward will focus on the adjusted results as outlined in the press release and in the Reg G disclosure in the presentation appendix. Net sales were $1,050,000,000 Adjusted gross profit margin was 30.7%.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Total SG and A expense was 181,400,000.0 an increase of 8,400,000.0 due to higher variable selling costs and investments in IT and AI related technologies. We expect SG and A to be in the mid $1.70 millions per quarter in the second half of twenty twenty five. Adjusted operating income was $141,400,000 or 13.5 percent of net sales, a 70 basis point decrease from prior year. And adjusted EPS declined slightly to $4.88 both declined due to lower international infrastructure profitability. Moving to our segment results on slide 10.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Infrastructure sales of $765,500,000 were similar to last year. Growth in utility and telecom was largely offset by lower sales in solar, along with softer demand in lighting and transportation. Utility sales increased 5.4%, driven by higher volumes and pricing actions that more than offset lower steel cost pass throughs. Lower sales in lighting and transportation and coatings were primarily due to softness in international markets. Our telecommunications business saw strong sales growth of more than 40%, driven by successful product alignment with key carrier programs.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Solar sales declined nearly 50%, reflecting lower volumes. Adjusted operating income was $124,600,000 Operating margin decreased 130 basis points to 16.3% of net sales. The decline was due to lower international profitability, primarily due to lower sales. Turning to Slide 11. Second quarter agriculture sales of 289,400,000.0 increased 2.7%, reflecting strong execution in key international markets.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

In North America, irrigation equipment volumes declined due to fewer storm related replacement sales compared to last year, along with continued market softness. International sales increased 22%, led by strength in the EMEA region and higher volumes across all regions, including Brazil. Adjusted operating income increased to $44,800,000 or 15.6% of net sales, mostly driven by improved profitability in EMEA and lower SG and A in North America. Moving to Slide 12 for cash, liquidity and capital allocation. Operating cash flows reached a very healthy 167,600,000.0 a tribute to the Valmont team's focus on cash and working capital management.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Net working capital days have steadily decreased from one hundred and eighteen days in 2024 to below 90 this quarter. We ended the quarter with $208,500,000 of cash and no borrowings under our revolving credit facility. As of July 10, we extended the facility for another five years, maintaining $800,000,000 in available liquidity to support our growth and capital allocation strategies. Thank you, Valmont Treasury team, for successfully leading the extension. Our net debt leverage remains below onetime.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

We remain committed to a balanced approach to capital allocation, to deploy approximately half toward reinvesting in our businesses and half to shareholder returns. In the second quarter, we invested $32,000,000 in CapEx, primarily for growth. We also returned $13,600,000 through dividends and repurchased $100,000,000 of shares at an average price of $279.35 Turning to our updated 2025 outlook on Slide 13. Net sales are projected to be in the range of $4,000,000,000 to $4,200,000,000 We're raising our full year adjusted diluted earnings per share expectations to a range of $17.5 to $19.5 increasing the midpoint to $18.50 from $18. Regarding tariffs, all known tariffs are included in our outlook.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Moving to Slide 14. We have a clear road map to grow our business, driving revenue and EPS growth. While we've discussed elements of this strategy at recent investor conferences, In light of our second quarter actions, Abner and I want to reinforce the key value drivers supporting our long term strategy and five critical objectives. First is catching the infrastructure wave. Utility represents about 35% of total company revenue.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

With growth expected to accelerate, we're scaling our capacity to meet sustained customer demand for high quality, on time delivery of engineered structures. As we speak, our teams are installing brake presses and welding equipment in multiple facilities, and our operations and AI teams are improving scheduling for greater throughput. These initiatives are unlocking 350 to 400,000,000 in incremental capacity and revenue. We expect early benefits to be reflected in our fourth quarter financials. Second, in agriculture.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

We're helping farmers work smarter and operate more efficiently. Our new digital ecommerce platform makes it easier for farmers to order parts directly from the field, improving repair speed and helping us grow our aftermarket revenues. We also recently launched Accent three sixty five, our unified remote management app that includes features like tire pressure monitoring with more capabilities on the way. Third, we're taking a disciplined approach to resource allocation. Internally, our corporate cost team is driving a focused effort to improve efficiency.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Over time, we believe we can reduce corporate costs from about 3% of sales to under 2%, while at the same time deploying AI tools and data analytics to speed execution and improve productivity. Externally, we're deploying capital to drive shareholder value. We're pursuing tuck in acquisitions tied to our core business, executing on our 700,000,000 share buyback program, and plan for consistent annual dividend increases. Bringing it all together, we see a clear path to deliver 500 to 700,000,000 in revenue growth and $7 to $12 in additional EPS over the next three to four years. These drivers build on the strength of our existing business and position Valmont to deliver sustainable long term shareholder value.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Before we close, we wanna recognize and thank the entire Valmont team. This was a quarter of significant actions and accounting decisions, yet the team remained focused on our value drivers, satisfying customers, delivering revenue growth, disciplined execution, and generating exceptional cash flows. With that, I will now turn the call over to Renee.

[Renee Campbell, SVP - IR & Treasurer at Valmont Industries]

Thank you, Tom. At this time, the operator will open up the call for questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. You may press two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For a participant choosing speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. To allow for as many questions as possible, Our first question is from Nathan Jones with Stifel. Please proceed.

[Adam Farley, Associate Analyst at Stifel Financial Corp]

Yes. Thank you. Good morning. This is Adam Farley on for Nathan.

[Renee Campbell, SVP - IR & Treasurer at Valmont Industries]

Good morning.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Good morning.

[Adam Farley, Associate Analyst at Stifel Financial Corp]

I wanted to start on the solar business. Maybe you can talk about the decision to exit these pieces, what's left in the portfolio, and why being in solar at all is is the right idea going forward.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Well, thank you for your question. You know, as I mentioned, we are done with all the portfolio, actions that we've taken. We decided to exit the North American solar market due to the the environment. It it really no longer supported the scales of the returns that that we expect. Add to that, the regulatory uncertainty was already a very competitive, fragmented volatile market.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

So we we decided and we were not able to provide strong returns, so we exited the market. Now we have stayed in Italy, and Italy is a very different story. Our Italy sold business, it's profitable. It's supported by EU funding. It benefits from very strong brand equity, leadership position.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

We have strong engineering debts and strong customer track. It is also a market that we know very well, and we continue to serve effectively. We've also decided to stay in Brazil. Now Brazil is it it is more volatile. So what we've done there, we built a lean.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

We've been a scalable platform, and we do have a meaningful share there. So we're manning that that business. We're managing with, with discipline. We're monitoring the energy prices, the interest rates, and we're basically aligning our capacity and demand. So to sum it up, you know, both of these businesses, they're aligned with our infrastructure strategy, and we're running them with focus and return discipline.

[Adam Farley, Associate Analyst at Stifel Financial Corp]

Okay. Thank you for that color. Does exiting the solar business add to EPS, assuming it was lower or loss making?

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Yes. It does. It was operating at a slight loss, and it will be profitable in q three and q four.

[Adam Farley, Associate Analyst at Stifel Financial Corp]

Okay. Thank you. And then maybe shifting gears to recent impacts from steel prices. How how does the impact of the increased tariff on steel impact your outlook? Are there any further price increases that that are necessary at the current, price level?

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

You know, when when we look at, pricing, you know, I I the way we look at pricing is it's the value that we provide to our customers. Right? And and there's strong value, especially in this dynamic environment due to our, you know, strong innovative solutions, our engineering expertise, we have strong manufacturing footprint and capabilities, and a strong dealer network. So overall, we have a strong value proposition. Now, of course, pricing is part of the equation, and we do look at our cost as well.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

But the the other important factor is our products provide strong ROI to our customers if it's our engineering structures, if it's our private, they provide strong ROI and their support their long term strategy. So from that point of view, we continue to take pricing leadership, and we haven't seen any impact on the demand. Tom, you wanna just maybe add a little bit of flavor on the actions that we're taking and

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Sure, Abner. Thank you. You know, steel, the pricing pricing is stable, which is very encouraging for us. And you may be referring to the, you know, the increases in tariffs on steel. We are using primarily US poured and melted steel, and and therefore, we feel in a good position.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

In tariffs, in general, I I would add, you know, we keep the term profit neutral, and that's what we see right now. That's primarily because we have 24 plants in The US serving our US customers. But I also wanna say, you know, our team managed it very, very well. In addition to pricing that Avner talked about, it was about changing our supply chain, changing sourcing, making more things in The US. So to, you know, steel, we we feel very good about where it is today.

[Adam Farley, Associate Analyst at Stifel Financial Corp]

Great. Thank you. I'll leave it there.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Chris Moore with CJS Securities. Please proceed.

[Chris Moore, Senior Research Analyst at CJS Securities]

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking a couple. Yes, maybe we can pick up on where Tom left off on on the road map, adding, you know, $507,100,000,000 revenue, seven to 12 EPS. Obviously, lots can change over the next three to four years. But sitting here today, is it likely you know, is that back half loaded, or is it reasonably smooth to to to get there?

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

No. It's it's smooth, and it is definitely not back end end loaded. We expect to start seeing some of these improvements revenue and EPS in q four. We expect to step up in 2026. So we feel very confident about it, Chris.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Yeah. And, you know, Chris, let me let me add. Right? A lot of these initiatives that we're taking to drive the, 7 to $12 EPS, are really grounded in in some of these strong megatrends that seeing, in our markets.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

You know, if we start with the catch the infrastructure wave, we're seeing strong market demand driven by, really undeniable powerful megatrends. Think energy transition, electrification, load growth. I mentioned that Jeffrey's report earlier this morning, which is another data point. So but we're seeing very strong demand in utility space, and we've already taken actions, to Tom's point, around investing in our capacity and capability, anything from capital to automation, AI, and talent. So we're we're well on the way, in our investments.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

We've we've managed that very tightly. We have KPIs aligned with that, and we're very confident in our ability to to drive the utility space as well as, agriculture. We're we're focusing on areas like aftermarket and ag that provide very strong value proposition to the grower ultimately. Having the grower in mind, how do we help them achieve their goals and their profitability levels? And we have initiatives in place, We mentioned earlier around our ecommerce platform, our Accent three sixty five, Icon, etcetera.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

So even in a tough ag market, we're able to to scale and provide those those benefits to the growers. So overall, we are confident in our ability to execute on these plans and ultimately provide strong shareholder value.

[Chris Moore, Senior Research Analyst at CJS Securities]

Got it. Really helpful. Maybe my follow-up is, you were just talk a little bit about ag. And I know you don't break out the the margins separately between international and North America, but can you maybe talk a little bit about, on a relative basis, where the margins in international are now versus maybe a year or two ago? And where they could be in a couple of years, given some of the ag tech, etcetera? Just trying to understand the drivers.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

That's a good question. So the margins in international are improved from where they were a year or two ago. You know, the international teams both in Brazil and in EMEA have spent a lot of time on their factories. We were just down in Brazil this quarter. It's very clean.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

It's got a great flow. These are things that help contribute to to better margins. You know, in in our EMEA business, they're very focused on there are large projects, and we need to be very profitable on these large projects. And there's been a lot of actions taken that give us great confidence, going forward. Chris, I hope that answers your question.

[Chris Moore, Senior Research Analyst at CJS Securities]

Yeah. It it does. I guess just on a relative basis, a couple years out, international versus North America, you see them at at at parity? You see one of them still being, you know, meaningfully above?

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Yeah. So Brazil and North America at parity. And EMEA, probably slightly below, but much they've much closer closing the gap versus a couple years ago.

[Chris Moore, Senior Research Analyst at CJS Securities]

Perfect. I will leave it there. Thanks, guys.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Thanks, Chris.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Gene Velez with DA Davidson. Please proceed.

[Jean Veliz, Senior Research Associate - Infrastructure Services & Products at D.A. Davidson Companies]

Hi, good morning. Thank you for your time.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Good morning.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Good morning.

[Jean Veliz, Senior Research Associate - Infrastructure Services & Products at D.A. Davidson Companies]

In telecom, can you talk about the visibility you have for the rest of the year? And expanding on that with can you provide just a look whether there's further potential strength in 2026?

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Well, thank you for the question. I'll start off with, you know, telecom is not a a backlog business. But having said that, telecom came in very strong this quarter, over 40% year over year. And that was really driven by, you know, increased carrier and tower activity, you know, specifically around carrier technology upgrades, additional spectrum deployment, you know, particularly tied to five g densification and fixed wireless access. And these are all components of the broader digital infrastructure expansion.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

But, you know, beyond what's really important here is that that beyond the market momentum, the growth reflects our competitive position. You know, we we provide engineering support. We have fast and reliable turnaround. We have integrated solutions, that that really, if you think about the customer, it makes their execution much easier. We're expecting another strong quarter, in q three.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Some of that is we do have some easier comps there. And q four is gonna be more normalized growth, but still very strong, close to double digit growth in in that business. So overall, the carriers are gonna continue to spend. We are aligned very well, and we should take that momentum into, 2026. So telecom, it's it's smaller part of our portfolio, but it is very margin accretive, and it's strategically aligned with our the long term trends in the broadband and connectivity.

[Jean Veliz, Senior Research Associate - Infrastructure Services & Products at D.A. Davidson Companies]

Yeah. Thank you. Could you perhaps just expand a little bit what these, product alignments with the key carrier programs are?

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Yeah. So, you know, when when we talk about you know, I'll give an example, you know, fixed wireless access is is is a good example. But overall, right, as they work on the whole spectrum of deployment in the mid cell, small cell, you know. We we have a very strong product offering, to support both the the carriers, the tower providers, to make sure they have all the engineered solutions they need to support them in any part of their deployment. So as I mentioned, you know, we're aligned with their programs with a broad product offering, and it would anything from macro towers, concealment solutions, components that go on on on towers, if it's antenna mount, etcetera.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

So we're we're very broad in this space and provide them a strong set of solutions.

[Jean Veliz, Senior Research Associate - Infrastructure Services & Products at D.A. Davidson Companies]

That makes sense. Thank you so much. And if I could just sneak one last one. For t and d, I just wanted to just perhaps get a sense of whether you expect greater second half versus twenty twenty four second half and just perhaps a a few more comments, of what aspects of that business segment is driving this growth. Is it distributions or, substations? Yeah. That would be great.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Okay. Sure. So overall, you know, I just mentioned. Right? We we we it is supported by very strong, megatrend, and it's really, across the board.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Right? Transmission is the largest part of our business, but the spend is in transmission. It's in distribution. It's in it's in substation. We're seeing strength in all in all of these, three areas, and we we expect that to continue, for the foreseeable future.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

We'll continue to invest in our in our capacity, and all that will support a very strong second half. We're gonna we're gonna grow in excess of double digits, in the second half of the year. So we're we're very pleased on how this is shaping out. In fact, last week, we had the strongest production week ever, for Valmont. So it is it is very encouraging to see, and the future looks bright in this area.

[Jean Veliz, Senior Research Associate - Infrastructure Services & Products at D.A. Davidson Companies]

Got it. I appreciate the the color there. I'll hop back in the line. Thank you so

[Operator]

Our next question is from John Bratz with Kansas City Capital. Please proceed.

[Jonathan Braatz, Partner at Kansas City Capital Associates]

Good morning, everyone.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Good morning.

[Jonathan Braatz, Partner at Kansas City Capital Associates]

Tom, could you go over the s g s g and a cost increase in the, in the quarter? Can you give a give us a little bit more details of of, why it was so high?

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Out of movements, John. So first, I would say q three and q four should be back to the 1 mid one seventy to range. You know, we did have a year over year, we had higher available, selling cost. And some higher spending in IT. I would say that is a one time type item.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

You know, we're we're putting a focus on better systems and using AI technology for a lot of our scheduling and and back office functions. There were also some, you know, accounting type things. We have a deferred compensation plan. And, you know, the accounting is it's a little tricky in that the gains in that fund show up as an accounting ex s g and a expense. The that's offset below the line Yep.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

That you'll see. There's just a lot of lot of stuff going on, but, you know, we feel we have a good handle. We feel with the initiatives we have going on that there would be steadily decreasing as a percent of revenue going into 2026, and and please expect mid '1 seventies for q three and q four.

[Jonathan Braatz, Partner at Kansas City Capital Associates]

Okay.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Yeah. You know, I'll just let let me just add on the SG and A. Tom made made very good points there. But, you know, as we move forward, we have a lot of initiatives to to improve our efficiency in that space, which really allows us to keep on investing around tools such as AI, which we discussed, innovation, etcetera.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

So we're really managing that to both reduce our cost as well as provide room to invest in in our customers.

[Jonathan Braatz, Partner at Kansas City Capital Associates]

Okay. And, Tom, I think you mentioned that there's some, as you look ahead, some maybe some realignment costs associated with North American irrigation. Are are we talking head headcount reduction or anything, anything like that?

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Yeah. So that that's been completed. And the the the, you know, the cost to do that is in our q two financials. So you should have some pretty clean financials going forward with improving revenues and improving margins.

[Jonathan Braatz, Partner at Kansas City Capital Associates]

Okay. Alright. Thank you very much.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Alright. Thank you.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Brian Drab with William Blair.

[Brian Drab, Co-Group Head - Industrials at William Blair]

I just want to start with a high level question. We talked a lot today about the wave of demand coming in infrastructure. I was just wondering if you could, you know, talk a little bit more about what signs you're seeing, what conversations you're having, what projects you're seeing develop that give you the confidence to add you know, it sounds like you're adding about 30% to your capacity in in transmission and distribution. I know it's more than, you know, just a report from an investment bank and other things, but I just like a like, if you could give us some more tangible signs that this wave is really coming in the next year or two for you, that would be that would be great.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Yeah. Of course. Well, thank you for the question. And, course, there's a lot of, indicators and reports around, you know, the the strength in that market and energy transition. But, of course, that's not how we make decisions.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

We are very close to the customers. We're the leader in that space. We have discussions with our customers on daily basis to align with their long strategic goals. So we are linked with them as they move forward and put their capital plans and they work on their strategy. They come to us to help them provide strong solutions, innovative solutions around how to support them with our very large footprint, our, large capabilities and capacities around transmission, distribution, substation, around our steel, concrete, composite.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

So we we we're there. We hear the voice of the customer, which gives us a high level of level of confidence. Now one last point on that is, of course, we we we watch the entire market to assess the capacity. The the whole industry is under capacity, so we're very mindful of of that. So we're adding flexibility.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

It's capital is one area, But the other area that we're doing is we're focusing on having the right talent, automation, and we're piloting AI, which I believe will be another strong driver for us to drive additional capacity and capability. So this is pretty tangible, and, we have a 1 and a half billion dollar backlog, which is another indicator, which goes into next year. And Mhmm. We we we feel pretty good about it.

[Brian Drab, Co-Group Head - Industrials at William Blair]

Great. Yeah. Thanks, Avner. Can you, also just talk about the outlook for the lighting, you know, transportation business? You know, that it was down about 10%, I think, in the quarter.

[Brian Drab, Co-Group Head - Industrials at William Blair]

Is there something, you know, that you're seeing that could turn that around, or is it still, you know, a lot of uncertainty with commercial construction, etcetera? And and and is there any hope at at this point that, you know, the infrastructure bill that's now, like, five years old, is going to ultimately be a a tailwind at all in that business? Thanks.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

Sure. So I'll start off by saying, you know, L and T, it is a very profitable business. But, you know, this quarter results did come in below our expectation. We did see some softer market conditions in Australia, and we did have some execution challenges in both access and The US. But, you know, we we took actions.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

We simplified the structure. We aligned our operations and our commercial teams, and we strengthened some of our leadership. So these changes are in motion, and we should expect to see improved performance. Now as it relates to, tailwinds that we're seeing in that market, the DOT spend remains strong. Even, you know, even with or without the IIJA, though, I mean, it it keeps to be steady.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

There's a lot of need for, to rebuild infrastructure. So the DOT business remains strong. L and T today is weak, mostly due to single family housing starts. But when you look into, into the horizon, there's a shortage of housing. So we do know that it will it will come back, and we scale the position this business to to execute.

[Avner Applbaum, CEO & President at Valmont Industries]

So we will see steady performance over the next quarters and into 2026 driven by, our execution efforts, specifically.

[Brian Drab, Co-Group Head - Industrials at William Blair]

Okay. And then one more quick one just for, I guess, you or Tom or anyone. But, you know, when you look at the longer term, guidelines that you gave us for for the financial model today, I I'm getting, know, like, low double digit earnings growth over that forecast period, that three to four years, maybe, like, 12%. Is that I just wanna make sure that, I'm aligned with, how you're thinking about it.

[Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO at Valmont Industries]

Yes, Brian. You are aligned. Good seeing you at your conference.

[Brian Drab, Co-Group Head - Industrials at William Blair]

All right. Thank you, everyone. Have a good day.

[Operator]

Thank We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to Renee Gamble for closing remarks.

[Renee Campbell, SVP - IR & Treasurer at Valmont Industries]

Thank you for joining us today. A replay of this call will be available for playback on our website and by phone for the next seven days, and we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter.

These slides and the accompanying oral discussion contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on assumptions made by management considering its experience in the industries where Valmont operates, perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments, and other relevant factors. It is important to note that these statements are not guarantees of future performance or results. They involve risks, uncertainties, some of which are beyond Valmont's control, and assumptions. While management believes these forward looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, numerous factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated.

These factors include, among other things, risks described in Valmont's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission the company's actual cash flows and net income future economic and market circumstances industry conditions company performance and financial results, operational efficiencies, availability and price of raw materials, availability and market acceptance of new products, product pricing, domestic and international competitive environments, geopolitical risks, and actions and policy changes by domestic and foreign governments, including tariffs. The company cautions that any forward looking statements in this release are made as of its publication date and does not undertake to update these statements except as required by law. The company's guidance includes certain non GAAP financial measures, adjusted diluted earnings per share and adjusted effective tax rate, presented on a forward looking basis. These measures are typically calculated by excluding the impact of items such as foreign exchange, acquisitions, divestitures, realignment or restructuring expenses, goodwill or intangible asset impairment, changes in tax laws or rates, change in redemption value of redeemable noncontrolling interests, and other nonrecurring items. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are not provided as the company cannot do so without unreasonable effort due to the inherent uncertainty and difficulty in predicting the timing and financial impact of such items.

For the same reasons, the company cannot assess the likely significance of unavailable information, which could be material to future results.

[Operator]

This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• Renee Campbell, SVP - IR & Treasurer
• Avner Applbaum, CEO & President
• Thomas Liguori, EVP & CFO

Analysts

• Adam Farley, Associate Analyst at Stifel Financial Corp
• Chris Moore, Senior Research Analyst at CJS Securities
• Jean Veliz, Senior Research Associate - Infrastructure Services & Products at D.A. Davidson Companies
• Jonathan Braatz, Partner at Kansas City Capital Associates
• Brian Drab, Co-Group Head - Industrials at William Blair