AMETEK Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Participants

Corporate Executives

• Kevin C. Coleman, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer
• David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
• William J. Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Analysts

• Deane Dray, RBC Capital Markets
• Matt Summerville, D.A. Davidson
• Allison Poliniak-Cusic, Wells Fargo & Company
• Jeffrey Sprague, Vertical Research Partners
• Scott Graham, Seaport Research Partners
• Nigel Coe, Wolfe Research
• Christopher Glynn, Oppenheimer & Co.
• Peter Costa, Mizuho Securities
• David Ridley-Lane, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Michael Anastasiou, TD Cowen

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day. And welcome to the AMETEK Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Kevin Coleman, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

[Kevin C. Coleman, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer at AMETEK]

Thank you, Abigaile. Good morning and thank you for joining us for AMETEK's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. With me today are Dave Zapico, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Bill Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

During the course of today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements which are subject to change based on various risk factors and uncertainties and that may cause actual results to differ significantly from expectations. A detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties that may affect our future results is contained in AMETEK's filings with the SEC. AMETEK disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Any references made on this call to 2022 or 2023 results or to 2023 guidance will be on an adjusted basis, excluding after tax, acquisition-related intangible amortization. Reconciliations between GAAP and adjusted measures can be found in our press release and on the Investors section of our website.

We'll begin today's call with prepared remarks by Dave and Bill and then we'll open it up for questions. I'll now turn the meeting over to Dave.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Thank you, Kevin. And good morning everyone. AMETEK delivered excellent results in the third quarter, highlighted by outstanding operational execution, superb margin expansion, strong cash flows, and earnings ahead of our expectations.

In the quarter, we established records for operating income, operating margins, earnings per share, EBITDA and cash flows. Given these strong results and our outlook for the balance of the year, we have again increased our earnings guidance for the full year.

We have also been very active on the acquisition front. During the third quarter, we completed the acquisition of United Electronic Industries. And subsequent to the end of the third quarter, we acquired Amplifier Research.

Today, we also announced the signing of a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Paragon Medical, a highly-attractive acquisition which broadens our exposure in the medical technology space. I will provide more details on these acquisitions shortly.

Now let me turn to our third quarter results. Third quarter sales were $1.62 billion, up 5% over the same period in 2022. Organic sales growth was flat. Acquisitions added 4 points in the quarter and foreign currency added 1 point. Book-to-bill in the quarter was 0.96.

We ended the quarter with a very strong backlog of $3.4 billion, near-record levels and down a modest 2% sequentially. Our backlog is up 5% from last year's third quarter and up 23% or $640 million from the end of 2021.

AMETEK's operating performance in the third quarter was exceptional. Operating income in the quarter was a record $438 million, a 14% increase over the third quarter of 2022. Operating margins were a record 27% in the quarter, up a sizable 220 basis-points from the prior year.

EBITDA in the quarter was also a record at $511 million, up 10% over the prior year, with EBITDA margins an impressive 31.5%. Operating cash-flow was up 45% in the quarter to a record $473 million. This outstanding performance led the record earnings of $1.64 per diluted share, up 13% versus the third quarter of 2022 and above our guidance range of $1.56 to $1.58.

Now let me provide some additional details at the operating group level. First, the Electronic Instruments Group. The Electronic Instruments Group delivered impressive operating performance with continued strong and broad-based sales growth. Sales for EIG were $1.14 billion in the quarter, up 8% from the third quarter of last year.

Organic sales were up 3.5%. Acquisitions added 3.5% and foreign currency added a point. EIG's organic sales growth remains broad-based and reflects our leading position across attractive market segments and the impact of our organic growth initiatives. Growth in the quarter was particularly strong across our aerospace and defense businesses, as well as in our Zygo, SPECTRO and CAMECA businesses.

Third quarter operating income was a record $335 million, up 23% versus the prior year, and operating margins were a record 29.5% in the quarter, up an impressive 360 basis points from the prior year. Tremendous work by our EIG businesses in the third quarter.

The Electromechanical Group also delivered solid operating performance in the quarter despite the impact of normalization of inventory levels across our OEM customer base. EMG's third quarter sales were $487 million, down 2% versus the prior year, with organic sales down 8% in the quarter. Acquisitions added 4 points and foreign currency added 2 points.

EMG's operating income in the quarter was $128 million, down 7% compared to the prior-year period, while EMG's third quarter operating margins were a very solid 26.2%.

Our performance in the third quarter, and thus far in 2023, reflects the unique value inherent in the AMETEK growth model. Our differentiated businesses are aligned with diverse and attractive growth markets, while our organic growth initiatives continued to position us for long-term sustainable growth.

Our distributed operating structure provides our businesses with the ability to execute our growth strategy and our flexibility to react quickly to changing market conditions. And our asset-light business model and strong operational execution drive outstanding cash flow generation, which we redeploy on value-enhancing acquisitions. This strong cash flow and our robust balance sheet are key differentiator for AMETEK in this higher interest rate environment.

Now, switching to our acquisition strategy. As noted, we have been very active managing a strong pipeline of acquisition opportunities. We are pleased to welcome our most recent acquisitions -- United Electronic Industries and Amplifier Research, and pleased that we have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Paragon Medical.

I will provide some more color on each of these businesses, starting with Paragon Medical. Paragon Medical is a leading manufacturer of highly-engineered medical components and instruments serving applications, including orthopedics, minimally-invasive surgery, robotic surgery and drug delivery solutions. Paragon is a broad product portfolio of single-use and implantable components, are sold to a diverse blue-chip customer base of leading medical device OEMs. Paragon is an excellent acquisition for AMETEK. It expands our presence in the medtech space and provides us with access to attractive new market segments with strong growth rates.

We are acquiring Paragon in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.9 billion. Paragon has annual sales of approximately $500 million and is headquartered in Pearson, Indiana. The closing of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including applicable regulatory approvals.

Now switching to United Electronic Industries, or UEI, which we acquired in August. UEI is a leading provider of ruggedized test, measurement and simulation and control solutions. UEI's custom products cater to diverse data acquisition needs from hardware in a loop testing to aircraft simulators and automated testing systems and mission-critical applications.

With a strong presence in the defense, aerospace, nuclear power generation and semiconductor, UEI nicely complements AMETEK's power systems and instruments division, significantly expanding our data acquisition capabilities.

UEI has annual sales of approximately $35 million and is based in Norwood, Massachusetts.

Next, Amplifier Research is a leading provider of innovative RF and microwave solutions. Its equipment is used for electromagnetic compatibility testing within the defense, industrial, automotive, medical and communications sectors. Amplifier Research is an outstanding strategic acquisitions and complementary fit with our existing compliance test solutions business. Their technical capability has broadened our RF instrumentation and testing portfolio. Amplifier Research is a growing business well-positioned to benefit from the growth in demand for electric vehicle research, development and testing. Amplifier Research is based in Souderton, PA and has annual sales of approximately $60 million.

Our acquisition pipeline remains very solid. We have a strong balance sheet and significant financial capacity and look to remain active in deploying capital in the coming quarters.

AMETEK also remains committed to investing in our businesses to help position them for long-term sustainable organic growth. In 2023, we plan to invest approximately $100 million in these growth initiatives, including our new product development efforts where our businesses continue to develop highly-differentiated technologies to help solve our customers' most complex challenges.

In the quarter, our vitality index, which measures sales from products introduced over the prior two years, was a healthy 26%. As a complement to our internal new product development efforts, our ORTEC business recently acquired a small technology company, innoRIID, to help broaden their technology capabilities in the radiation detection market. innoRIID boasts cutting-edge technology expertise and an exceptional product development team, known for their innovative solutions, having developed specialized artificial intelligence algorithms for radiation detection in a range of nuclear security, research, health and medical applications.

Now turning to our outlook for the remainder of the year. With strong performance in the third quarter and a positive outlook for the remainder of the year, we are once again raising our earnings guidance. For the full year, we continue to expect overall sales to be up mid to-high single-digits. And we continue to expect organic sales to be up mid-single-digits.

Diluted earnings per share for the year are now expected to be in the range of $6.31 to $6.33, up approximately 11% compared to last year's results. This is an increase from our previous guidance range of $6.18 to $6.26 per diluted share.

For the fourth quarter, we anticipate overall sales to be up mid-single-digits, with adjusted earnings of $1.61 to $1.63 per share, up 6% to 7% versus the prior year.

In summary, AMETEK's third quarter results for 2023 were outstanding, with strong growth across our long-cycle businesses, record operating performance and strong acquisition activity. Our businesses continue to excel, driven by our differentiated technology solutions serving diverse and growing markets. Our asset-light business model and strong cash flows provide us with the flexibility to navigate challenging economic environments, while actively deploying capital to enhance shareholder value. AMETEK remains firmly positioned for long-term sustainable growth.

I will now turn it over to Bill Burke, who will cover some of the financial details of the quarter, then we'll be glad to take your questions. Bill?

[William J. Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at AMETEK]

Thank you, Dave. As Dave noted, AMETEK delivered outstanding results in the third quarter, exceptional operating performance, robust margin expansion and strong cash flows. Let me provide some additional financial highlights for the quarter.

Third quarter general and administrative expenses were $24.6 million, essentially unchanged from the prior year and, as a percentage of sales, were 1.5% versus 1.6% in last year's third quarter. 2023 general and administrative expenses are expected to be approximately 1.5% of sales, in line with last year's G&A to sales level. Other income and expense was a headwind of $9 million in the quarter, due largely to lower pension income and higher due diligence costs.

Effective tax rate in the quarter was 17.7%, down from 19% in the third quarter of 2022 due to improved utilization of tax credits. For 2023, we now anticipate our effective tax rate to be between 18.5% and 19% and, as we stated in the past, actual quarterly tax rates can differ dramatically, either positively or negatively from this full-year estimated rate.

Capital expenditures in the third quarter were $29 million and we continue to expect capital expenditures to be approximately $145 million for the full year or about 2% of sales.

Depreciation and amortization expense for the quarter was $82 million. For the full year, we expect depreciation and amortization to be approximately $330 million, including after-tax acquisition-related intangible amortization of approximately $157 million or $0.68 per diluted share.

Operating working capital in the third quarter was 19.1% of sales. Cash flow was excellent in the quarter, with outstanding growth versus the prior year. Operating cash flow was a record $473 million, up 45% versus the third quarter of 2022, while free cash flow was also a record at $444 million, up 49% over the prior year. Free cash flow conversion was 131% in the quarter. And for the full year, we continue to expect approximately 120% free cash flow to net income conversion.

Total debt at September 30th was $2.2 billion, down from $2.4 billion at the end of 2022. Offsetting this debt is cash and cash equivalents of $842 million. At the end of the third quarter, our gross debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 1.1 times and our net-debt to EBITDA ratio was 0.6 times, leaving us with significant available cash and financial capacity to deploy on strategic acquisitions.

As Dave has noted, we've been very active. During the third quarter, we deployed approximately $150 million on the acquisitions of UEI and innoRIID. And subsequent to the end of the quarter, we deployed approximately $105 million on the acquisition of Amplifier Research. Also subsequent to the end of the third quarter, we announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Paragon Medical for $1.9 billion, which would be our largest acquisition to date.

Following the acquisition of Paragon, we would still have significant financial capacity with approximately $1.5 billion of cash and existing credit facilities available to support our growth initiatives.

In summary, AMETEK had exceptional results in the third quarter. We achieved significant margin expansion and delivered high-quality earnings. Our strong position in key market segments, coupled with a very strong backlog and exceptional operating capabilities position us well for continued success. Kevin?

[Kevin C. Coleman, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer at AMETEK]

Thank you, Bill. Abigail, could we please open the lines for questions?

Questions and Answers

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from Deane Dray with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

[Deane Dray, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Good morning, Deane.

[Deane Dray, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Hey, congrats on all the M&A successes here. And maybe we can start with Paragon, looks right in your wheelhouse, precision medical robotics. If you could provide some color on the company in terms of what percent are consumables? We really like seeing all those one use applications. So, consumables, comment on margins and growth, if you could, please.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Yeah, sure. I'll give you my view of Paragon. As you stated, the leading provider of highly-engineered medical components and instruments, when you look at the key market drivers of this acquisition, you have the aging population, the demographic shifts, you also have procedure innovation where the minimally-invasive procedures are becoming more percentage of the surgeries and they do a great job at that.

And also, in this market, there is a continuing trend toward outsourcing the OEMs, and they want to -- the OEMs want to accelerate their time-to-market and Paragon is really well-positioned with significant new product wins in this space.

It serves specialty applications. I talked about the orthopedics, minimally-invasive surgery, robotic surgery and drug delivery. Orthopedics is the largest, but they have strong positions in each of the applications.

Now the portfolio was one of your questions, consisted of single-use and consumables surgical instruments and implantable components. And about 40% of the business is recurring in nature. So the single-use and consumable surgical instruments were about 40% of the revenue. So we really like that.

Has a blue-chip customer base. Over 600 programs and with diverse sources of revenue. About 85% of the business is on sole-source programs. That's a very, very sticky business. When you combine the regulatory environment with lengthy approval processes and the capabilities of Paragon, there's high switching costs. It's a business that adds unique value to its customer base. We did a lot of surveys in the market and they are the highest-quality provider. They have excellent customer service. A differentiator for them is their design and development capability. And they're really considered a true partner by their customers.

And when I look at this from -- that's about Paradigm. When I look at it what it does for AMETEK, it increases our medtech exposure now to over 20%. It's one of the goals we've been trying to achieve. It adds about $500 million in revenue to EMG. And that revenue comes from Paragon, which is a secular low-double-digit grower.

It really fits our business model with the highly-engineered products that provide unique value to customers. It's a growing profitable business that provides multiple avenues of growth. And there is really an opportunity for us to improve margins by applying the AMETEK growth model. It's already a profitable business, but there's plenty of room for us to apply the AMETEK growth model and expand margins. Paradigm will benefit from the AMETEK's global infrastructure for sure and we like the management team. They're a highly talented team and we're excited about what we can accomplish together.

And importantly, the deal economics met AMETEK's traditional deal hurdles and this is on a large deployment of capital. So, our return on invested capital hurdles are met by this deal. And we've paid about 15 times TTM EBITDA for the business. So we're very excited for the business. It's a good business for us. We've been looking at these businesses for some time. There's universal excitement amongst Paragon and AMETEK.

[Deane Dray, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

All right. That was a great overview and you hit all the key questions on consumables, margins and growth. So it sounds like a great story. And if I could just -- on a follow-up question on EMG, so we are seeing destocking all over this sector in biopharma and medtech. Be interested in hearing from you, besides the destocking, is there any kind of read-through on the end markets in those business? Are you seeing any slowing there? Look, no one's getting -- no one has a crystal ball here in terms of how long do you think this lasts, but I'd love to hear your expectation on the duration of this inventory normalization. Thanks.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Sure, Deane. Great questions. For the quarter, we grew our top line 5% on a mid-single-digit guide. Our revenue was in line with the guide. The acquisitions performed a bit better. And we maintained, as I said, our full-year sales guide, mid to-high single-digits, and organic growth of mid-single-digits.

They'll maintain that organic guide for the full-year. Our aerospace and defense business is stronger and our automation is weaker and they're offsetting. That's one of the benefits of the AMETEK portfolio. And specifically, in terms of Q3 revenue, we saw faster destocking in our automation businesses than we anticipated. So that's what we saw there. And we expect the destocking to continue through the end of the year.

In terms of your question, is it a destock or a downturn, it's very difficult -- dynamic environment right now. And lots of uncertainties with the geopolitical risks, the interest rate increases, they're factoring in for sure. But from what we see, this is largely an inventory correction and demand looks constructive with many new projects in the offing and the projects are not being delayed or canceled. Our aerospace and defense looks solid. Our medical looks solid. Significant projects in semiconductor, clean energy, power grids. So we remain positive post destocking. And we think that destocking will continue through the end of the year. And in terms of 2024, we're going to sit down with our teams and understand what's going on, but in general, we're constructive.

[Deane Dray, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

That's all really helpful. Thank you.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Thank you, Deane.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Matt Summerville with D.A. Davidson. Your line is open.

[Matt Summerville, Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Thanks. Good morning. Dave, your EIG margins this quarter really moved into a new zip code for AMETEK. I was wondering if you could maybe talk about the key drivers. As you just think about the sequential performance, right, rev is flat, profitability up $28 million on the OP line as well as kind of the year-over-year dynamics. So maybe if you can just kind of flush all of that out, that would be helpful.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Matt, if you go back and look at my last quarter or two, I told you the EIG was gaining momentum and that momentum has certainly showed up in Q3. We had an excellent operating quarter. And EIG margins were up 360 basis points, driven by high contribution leverage on the growth. We really had excellent price-cost. We had strongly performing acquisitions. And it all came together to put up record margins.

[Matt Summerville, Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

And then just as a follow-up, with respect to Paragon, I appreciate the stats you shared. Is there any way to kind of parse out what you think year-one cash EPS accretion would look like and then what the expected closure timing might be for that that?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Great questions, Matt. We think the closure is dependent on regulatory approval, but nothing atypical. We'll get the approvals and close sometime in the first quarter.

In terms of year one, we've got a very modest cash EPS accretion. It's going to be impacted by purchase accounting, integration costs, realignment costs, financing costs. We'll pay with this with a mix of cash and debt. But we'll have very strong accretion in year two. And we're excited about getting the business under our wing, improving the business and delivering. And we're very excited.

[Matt Summerville, Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Just real quick, Dave. So you're not planning to non-GAAP those items out, you're just going to run-through the P&L then.

[Kevin C. Coleman, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer at AMETEK]

We'll make that decision at the time. Historically, we have not broke them out, but with the amount of acquisition activity we have, it may make sense to do that. We haven't made a decision yet.

[Matt Summerville, Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Got it. Thank you, guys.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Allison Poliniak with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

[Allison Poliniak-Cusic, Analyst at Wells Fargo & Company]

Hi, good morning.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Good morning, Allison.

[Allison Poliniak-Cusic, Analyst at Wells Fargo & Company]

So just wanted to go back to your comments on automation, if I recall, it's typically a canary in the coal mine, but it seems from your comments, what I'm reading through, I just want to clarify, that it just seems to be more industry destocking for you in that market or was it something bigger? I just want make sure I understand.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Yeah, we think it's destocking. We think it's destocking. And destocking lasts through the year-end, but post destocking, we remain constructive. We are -- that business, automation, sells to a lot of markets and the healthcare part of that market is not doing well right now and some of the other exposures, but we think it's clearly destocking.

[Allison Poliniak-Cusic, Analyst at Wells Fargo & Company]

Got it. And then, on growth investments, keeping to the $100 million, how should we be thinking about it into 2024? Is it something that you think -- there could be a raise there? And then, just even with Paragon, what that R&D -- I think you talked about the design piece of it being very -- a big part of that. What is design in R&D? Is it higher than the typical AMETEK? How should we be thinking about it now?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

I think you should think about Paragon as matching the AMETEK profile.

[Allison Poliniak-Cusic, Analyst at Wells Fargo & Company]

Got it. And then organic investments as we kind of look to 2024?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

We're going to sit down with each of our teams to discuss 2024 over the next six weeks. We're going to review each of the individual businesses. We do deep dives, as you know, into what they're seeing in their niches, their market dynamics, growth opportunities, cost reduction opportunities and we want to go through that -- these meetings before there's any commentary on 2024. We'll tell you in early February. So in terms of talking about next year, we'll have the typical things, like, we'll expect price to offset inflation and capex will be about 2% of sales and things like that. But we're going to defer from talking about the overall plan until we get to meet with our teams and understand at a detailed level.

[Allison Poliniak-Cusic, Analyst at Wells Fargo & Company]

Perfect. Thank you.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Thank you, Allison.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Jeffrey Sprague with Vertical Research Partners. Your line is open.

[Jeffrey Sprague, Analyst at Vertical Research Partners]

Hey. Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Good morning, Jeff.

[Jeffrey Sprague, Analyst at Vertical Research Partners]

Good morning, Dave. Hey, just to come back to Paragon maybe one more time. Maybe somebody else will come at it again. I just kind of want to understand the -- maybe the profit improvement plan going forward. Because it looks like rough math, right, margins, EBITDA margins, 25% or so. You're doing 800 to 1,000 bps better now than that in EIG. When you talk about kind of the aspirations for the business and the cost cutting and other opportunities, is that the sort of zip code and margin improvement we should be thinking about here? And if so, over kind of how long a period of time?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Yes. That is the zip code and it's over time. And we're going to build a plan with the management team and show them all the resources that AMETEK has and some of our business processes. But what you're talking about is in the zip code of what we have planned.

[Jeffrey Sprague, Analyst at Vertical Research Partners]

And just to elaborate a little bit more on how this fits. Is there a kind of a commercial or operational synergy with other parts of the business? Or should we just think of this as an interesting, healthy kind of standalone business that drops into the portfolio?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

We have an existing business in our EMG business. It's about a $200 million business. It's -- or called our engineered medical components. So we're familiar with this segment. There's completely different end markets, but think about that as additive to that existing position, but in a greater scale.

[Jeffrey Sprague, Analyst at Vertical Research Partners]

And then maybe just one last one from me. The medtech world has been a little rocky here the last couple of years, procedures post-COVID everything. You characterized it as a double-digit secular grower. But are they kind of sitting in a little bit of a trough here impacted by those sorts of forces? Or maybe just kind of the--

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Not really. They're growing nicely. Yeah, the market growth that they're benefiting from, and they happen to be in the fastest areas. They've deployed their resources well and they're benefiting from the fastest growth areas. The -- there's -- they're winning new business on new programs, and it's pretty substantial. And we did surveys on these businesses, and this is a really good business in terms of their capability and how they take care of their customers and they're definitely winning share.

So, it's going to be a low double-digit grower for the next few years, and a lot of that's programmed in. Now that's the way we're looking at. There's going to be ups and downs as we go throughout the years, but this is a solid business with really good growth prospects.

[Jeffrey Sprague, Analyst at Vertical Research Partners]

Great. Congrats and good luck with it.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Scott Graham with Seaport Research Partners. Your line is open.

[Scott Graham, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Hey. Good morning. Thanks for taking a minute here. Nice quarter.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Good morning, Scott. Thank you.

[Scott Graham, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

You just -- a couple of item still. What was the working capital percent last year?

[William J. Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at AMETEK]

Give me one second on that.

[Scott Graham, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Sure. Sure. I'll just -- I'll ask another one.

[William J. Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at AMETEK]

I got it. It was 18.4%.

[Scott Graham, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

18.4%. Okay. Thanks. And then the $1.5 billion of availability, just maybe walk us through that. That is net of Paragon, I assume? And is that like an assumption at about 2.5 times leverage?

[William J. Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at AMETEK]

No, that's the amount of cash and availability under our revolver post-Paragon. The leverage post-Paragon would only be about 1.5 times EBITDA at the gross level. So substantial--

[Scott Graham, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Okay.

[William J. Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at AMETEK]

--financial flexibility as well as we're still well under-levered, I would say. And as Dave has talked about, lots of other opportunities available to us as we look to continue the acquisition strategy. So again, it's always finding the right businesses for the AMETEK portfolio where it is not capital constrained.

[Scott Graham, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Right. Right. Yes, that's how you do that as well.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Another way to make that--

[Scott Graham, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Sure.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

--point is, Bill said, post-Paragon, we had 1.5 leverage, if we wanted to take it up to 2.5 leverage, which is -- we've been there before and that's not a high number for all, we can spend $2.6 billion on acquisitions--

[William J. Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at AMETEK]

Above and beyond Paragon.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

--above and beyond Paragon. So we're in the M&A game, and our pipeline looks really good. And we have the balance sheet to be able to execute on it and the capability to integrate these businesses.

[Scott Graham, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Thank you for that. I appreciate it. When you are looking at deals these days in this interest rate environment, you're obviously funding them off of a lot of balance sheet liquidity and, admittedly, maybe now higher rates off of the revolver. But are you impute an interest rate that is kind of more market-oriented when you make these decisions?

[William J. Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at AMETEK]

Yes. Our models use current borrowing rates as part of that decision-making process.

[Scott Graham, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Got it. Thank you. Last question is the typical one, Dave, would you mind kind of maybe unbundling on the four divisions?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Sure, Scott. I'll walk around the business. I'll start with our process business. And overall, sales for process were up mid-single-digits, at low single-digit organic sales and the contribution from the acquisition of Navitar. And demand across our process markets remains solid. Our products and technologies are well aligned with important secular growth trends like the energy transition and health care.

Growth in the quarter was strongest across these end markets, while our high-end optics business in Zygo continues to perform very well, with strong demand for their custom optical solutions. And for the full year, we continue to expect mid-single-digit organic sales growth for our process businesses.

Going to aerospace and defense Next. Aerospace and defense continues to perform well. Organic sales were up low-double digits in the quarter. Growth remains strong and broad-based across our A&D sub-segments.

Growth in the quarter was strongest in our defense businesses, while commercial OEM and aftermarket businesses also grew at healthy levels. Given this strong performance, we now expect sales for Aerospace and defense to increase mid-teens on a percentage basis for the full year.

In power and industrial, those businesses delivered solid results in the third quarter, with overall sales up mid-teens. This growth was driven by a low single-digit organic sales growth and the contribution from the acquisition of RTDS Technologies.

We saw the strongest growth in the quarter across our renewable energy and power simulation businesses, including RTDS. Our power businesses are well positioned to benefit from long-term investments required to modernize the electric power grid and build-out of the renewable energy infrastructure globally. And for all of 2023, we continue to expect mid-single-digit organic sales growth for our power business.

And finally, our automation and engineered solutions business. Overall sales for AE&S were down mid-single-digits in the quarter, with contributions from the acquisition of Bison Engineering being more than offset by a low double-digit decrease in organic sales. As we expected, the impact from normalization of inventory levels, which we talked about earlier, across our OEM customer base, combined with the challenging prior year comparisons created a short-term headwind for our OEM exposed businesses.

We believe underlying demand is solid, as we talked about earlier, and across our diverse automation and engineered solutions markets, we remain constructive. But we do expect, as we said before, the inventory normalization is going to recur throughout the OEM customer base and will continue through the end of the year.

And now for the full year, we expect organic sales for our automation and engineered solutions businesses to be down mid-single-digits versus the prior year. So that's all for the subsegment commentary, Scott.

[Scott Graham, Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Thanks very much.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Thank you, Scott.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Nigel Coe with Wolfe Research. Your line is open.

[Nigel Coe, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Thanks. Good morning and congrats on the deal. Deals even. Okay. So good morning. Can you hear me?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Yes. We can hear you, Nigel.

[Nigel Coe, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Okay. Good. I couldn't hear you. Okay. So maybe you could do the same process geographically, talk about what you're seeing by geography. I'd be curious about Europe and China. And also, you gave some perspective on business performance. Maybe you could talk about -- maybe just put a finer point on 4Q, maybe talk about core growth and acquisition contribution for 4Q?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Okay. Q4 and geography. Okay. I'll go across the geographies. We had continued solid growth in the US, with the international slowing a bit. So I'll unpack that a bit. The US was up mid-single-digits, with notable strength in our process business. Europe was down low-single-digits, notable strength in process and our aerospace business, but weakness in automation.

You mentioned China. Our China exposure was down 3%. Strong growth in process, weakness in automation. And overall, Asia was down about 10%. So China did better than overall Asia. China was about 9% of sales. So again, up in the US, slowing in international markets.

And the second question you asked was on Q4 and the guide for Q4. And our sales will be up mid-single-digits. We'll grow in revenue. There are two factors impacting the earnings in Q4. And one of them is a higher tax rate. And the second one is there's some acquisition integration cost in there related to the deals we completed. But we're very confident in our guide for Q4.

[Nigel Coe, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

I'm sorry, David, what is the core growth for 4Q?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Core growth for Q4 was low to mid-single-digits.

[Nigel Coe, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Okay. So that's obviously acceleration from 3Q. What's driving that acceleration?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

I think we're seeing some good demand on the EIG side from the typical year-end selling -- year-end sales that we typically get of capital spending, plus the EIG business is performing well. So our aerospace and our process businesses are performing well, and that's what driving the organic sales in Q4 to be higher than the organic sales in Q3.

[Nigel Coe, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Got it. That's helpful. Maybe just one more for me. So, obviously, Paragon, big deal. You've posed another smaller deal. You sound really bullish on the outlook as well. So it seems like the pipeline is still pretty fertile. Are we seeing here a change in behavior from sellers that we see more willing sellers? Are we seeing any change in sort of ask multiples here? Any color on the market would be helpful.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Yes, I think it's a little choppy in the market and people are reevaluating. And the interest rates are higher. So financing that debt on a continuing organization may be a challenge. And as I said, in the beginning of the year, our pipeline is strong.

I would categorize our pipeline right now is very strong. We have a lot of attractive candidates we're looking at. And I'm just bullish on being able to differentiate AMETEK's performance over the next 12 to 24 months with our opex and our M&A.

[Nigel Coe, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Great. Thanks, David.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Thank you.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Christopher Glynn with Oppenheimer. Your line is open.

[Christopher Glynn, Analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.]

Thank you. Good morning.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Good morning, Chris.

[Christopher Glynn, Analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.]

I want to keep it going on Paragon a little bit. I think you list it as engineered medical components and instruments. I'm wondering if it is the OEM in some of the instrument spaces? And also, a little bit on ownership history and the deal process competitiveness and such.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Yes. When you think about Paragon, they're largely selling to an OEM customer base, but they do sell some of their surgical instruments directly to the end customer, but it's largely an OEM customer base. We purchased the business from American Securities.

And from our view, they did an excellent job running the business and got a fantastic management team in place, a good growth strategy. And they're -- what they did is really position kind of a pure medtech play, by positioning this with some other parts of their portfolio. So we're pretty excited about what we're buying.

[Christopher Glynn, Analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.]

Thanks for the added color.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Yes. Thank you, Chris.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Peter Costa with Mizuho. Your line is open.

[Peter Costa, Analyst at Mizuho Securities]

Good morning, everyone. This is Peter Costa on for Brett Linzey. So just coming back to orders, could you provide some context around the monthly order cadence through the quarter and then moving into October? Have you been seeing anything concerning or anything tracking better than your internal expectations? Thank you.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

No, I think the quarterly evolution of orders is about what we see. We mentioned our book-to-bill and things like that. And we started out in Q4 in line with what we need to deliver those results. So we had talked -- our last few earnings calls, we highlighted a couple of dynamics that would impact orders. And our orders have been very strong for an extended period of time. In fact, we averaged 18% organic growth in 2021 and 2022. And we had 12 consecutive quarters up to this quarter with positive book-to-bill. So as a result, we have a near record backlog. As we said, these dynamics are playing out as we anticipated.

[Peter Costa, Analyst at Mizuho Securities]

Perfect. Thank you.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Yes.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Andrew Obin with Bank of America. Your line is open.

[David Ridley-Lane, Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch]

Hi. This is David Ridley-Lane on for Andrew Obin.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Good morning, David.

[David Ridley-Lane, Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch]

Good morning. Wondering if you've seen any impact from the higher interest rates on end market demand. And in particular, some of the other publicly traded test and measurement companies have mentioned project delays, particularly in China, have you seen anything along those lines?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Yes. As I mentioned, we were down about 3% organically in China, so there was some delays, but it wasn't substantial. In terms of increasing interest rates, that's one of the uncertainties that we're clearly looking at. It's a very dynamic environment right now. And there are factors for sure, but we're not seeing an impact on projects proceeding or anything like that from the interest rates at this point.

[David Ridley-Lane, Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch]

Got it. And are you supply chain constrained at this point in your aerospace and defense businesses? Is that a sort of a limiter on growth accelerating and even greater over time?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

We are not supply chain limited in aerospace at this time. Now the industry is dealing with some supply chain difficulties, but we're not limited.

[David Ridley-Lane, Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch]

All right. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Michael Anastasiou with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

[Michael Anastasiou, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Good morning, Michael.

[William J. Burke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at AMETEK]

Good morning, Michael.

[Michael Anastasiou, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Back to Paragon. Currently, medical-related revenues are about, give or take, 10% of sales. And after this acquisition, it takes you to about 20%. So was just expecting -- just curious if you're expecting to make like a deeper push into medical moving forward? And then what is sort of like the best way to think about balancing M&A dollars for these different end markets as well? Any color would be helpful.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Yes. There's a balance in AMETEK's end markets. And we really like that balance. That's why we're able to navigate some of the challenges that we're going through right now. So it's -- we plan on keeping that balance. But if there are other attractive areas in the medical space, we'll certainly look at them. But it's -- we like the balance in the portfolio.

And what was your other question, Michael? M&A dollars. We have a distributed operating model. In all of our businesses, we have management teams there that are doing strategy work around their businesses and trying to make their businesses better, and they're bringing forward acquisition candidates.

So we don't have a predefined number of -- predefined amount of capital that we're going to apply to certain markets. We're going to be looking for the deal, the deal quality, the quality of the businesses and if we have the management teams to integrate them. So we have a different viewpoint. We don't look at it from the top down in terms of dollars allocated per market.

[Michael Anastasiou, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Got you. That's helpful. And just kind of diving back into it. So potentially, depending on availability of assets and [Indecipherable], do you expect total revenues to the medical end market increasing over time and how do you expect that?

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Yes. It's 20% now. It could go 25%, 30%. That wouldn't bother us, but we plan on having a diversified revenue base.

[Michael Anastasiou, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Great. Thank you.

[David A. Zapico, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. That concludes the question-and-answer session. At this time, I would like to turn it back to Kevin Coleman for closing remarks.

[Kevin C. Coleman, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer at AMETEK]

Thank you, Abigaile. And thanks, everyone, for joining us for our conference call. As a reminder, a replay of today's webcast can be accessed in the Investors section of ametek.com. Have a great day.

[Operator]

[Operator Closing Remarks]