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Modine Manufacturing Co Q4 FY2025 Earnings Call

Modine Manufacturing Co (MOD)

Earnings Call FY2025 Q4 Call date: 2025-05-20 Concluded

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Operator

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Modine's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. I will now hand it over to your host, Ms. Kathy Powers, Vice President, Treasurer, and Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Kathy Powers Head of Investor Relations

Good morning. And welcome to our conference call to discuss Modine's fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2025 results. I'm joined by Neil Brinker, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Mick Lucareli, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The slides that we will be using for today's presentation are available on the Investor Relations section of our website, modine.com. On Slide 3 of the deck is our notice regarding forward-looking statements. This call will contain forward-looking statements as outlined in our earnings release as well as in our company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I'll turn the call over to Neil.

Thank you, Kathy. And good morning, everyone. We closed out the year with a strong fourth quarter performance. This was another record year for Modine with the highest reported sales and profitability in our history for the third year in a row. For the past three years, our strategy has been to shift our business mix to drive top-line growth and expand EBITDA margin. We've made significant investments in order to spur this growth. And for the first time in our history, the Climate Solutions segment reported higher revenues than Performance Technologies. The rate of earnings growth has far outpaced revenue growth, driven by 80/20 and the favorable business mix shift. This year, our adjusted EBITDA was up 25% on a 7% sales increase. Mick will cover our fourth quarter financial results and provide our outlook for fiscal '26. But first, I'd like to reflect on some of our accomplishments over the past year. Please turn to Slide 5. Climate Solutions delivered another outstanding year. The segment reported a 30% increase in revenues, including the benefit of the Scott Springfield acquisition and a 45% increase in adjusted EBITDA. This resulted in a 220 basis point improvement in adjusted EBITDA margins to 21%. Sales growth in the segment was driven by data centers, which were up 119% to $644 million. Scott Springfield data center sales were $197 million in fiscal 2025, meaning that about half of the increase came from organic data center growth. Most of the organic growth was in North America and demand for our chillers continues to be extremely strong. The past quarter, we announced an exciting business with a new cloud customer who is building out AI infrastructure for a new hyperscaler. This is an important win for us as this is planned to be a multiphase multi-location project. Because of this and other orders for chillers in North America, we are increasing production capacity both at our Rockbridge Virginia facility and in Grenada, Mississippi. In Grenada, we are adding new production lines for the chillers and end-of-line testing capabilities. This is primarily in response to orders in hand and will also support growth for opportunities in our pipeline. We're also excited to launch a new modular data center cooling solution and are preparing to take our first order in North America. The powerful combination of Airedale by Modine data center cooling solutions incorporated into a modular approach allows us to address the market's need for high density compute, infrastructure that's flexible, scalable, cost-effective, energy efficient and can be deployed rapidly to meet the evolving demand for customers. And finally, we are making progress on our India expansion and are on track to launch production in Q2. We are actively quoting for multiple customers as we plan to service Southeast Asia and the Middle East from this location. Data centers have been a focus of our investment for some time, but we're also working to grow our commercial indoor air quality and heating businesses. We recently completed the acquisition of AbsolutAire, a heating products company with a complementary product line and distribution channel to our own. Our business development team is also working on other opportunities for bolt-on acquisitions to build a product portfolio. There's a great deal of activity in the Climate Solutions segment, and the key to our success will be executing on all the growth initiatives in front of us. Please turn to Page 6. The Performance Technologies segment delivered a strong fourth quarter performance despite challenging market conditions. The segment reported a 15% adjusted EBITDA margin in the fourth quarter, resulting in a 13.5% adjusted EBITDA margin for the fiscal year, a 200 basis point year-over-year improvement. Our vehicular markets have been in an extended downturn that is currently projected to last several more quarters. In addition, we are experiencing delays in the launch and ramp of electric vehicle programs using our EV systems products with further uncertainty ahead. This is causing us to lower our expectations for near-term growth for the Advanced Solutions product group. In response, we are making several changes to our business. First, we had previously announced the change to our product groups in the segment and are moving forward with that, but are now pivoting to two groups rather than three. Heavy Duty Equipment will include off-highway and stationary power products and on-highway applications will include automotive, commercial vehicle and specialty vehicle products for both ICE and EV powertrains. Next, we are taking a renewed critical look at the business processes to streamline operations and lower costs. This involves further cost reductions throughout PT with redeployment of key resources to open positions in Climate Solutions wherever possible. These actions, along with the simplified organizational structure, will provide better focus on our customers and end markets while reducing operating costs, allowing us to continue improving margins during this downturn leading to even greater conversion once the markets recover. It is challenging to improve margins on flat or lower revenue, but that's exactly what we've been doing in the PT segment. Since we started on this journey three years ago, we've improved adjusted EBITDA margins by 800 basis points on flat revenue. We are making great progress towards the EBITDA margin targets introduced at our Investor Day last September, and we are not backing away from those targets despite these challenging and uncertain market conditions. During this period of heightened global uncertainty and trade concerns, we are focusing on controlling what we can and taking decisive actions where necessary. It is difficult to predict the impact of tariffs on our supply chain as well as on our customers in the broader economic environment. Our market position is strengthened by our global manufacturing footprint and local-for-local approach. In addition, our supply chain team has navigated these hurdles in the past and we will continue to refine their sourcing strategies to keep us cost competitive. It is clear that the execution of our strategic plans and the investments to grow in key markets have resulted in our third consecutive year of record performance, while equally setting the stage for better things to come. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mick.

Thanks, Neil. And good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 7 to review the Q4 segment results. Climate Solutions delivered another strong quarter with a 28% increase in sales, a 48% improvement in adjusted EBITDA, and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.4%. Data center sales grew $69 million or 80% from the prior year, driven by higher North American sales and the Scott Springfield acquisition. HVAC&R sales rose by $21 million or 27%, driven by a surge in late season demand for heating products and improvements across indoor air quality and refrigeration products. Heat transfer product sales declined 11% or $12 million due to lower volume to commercial and residential HVAC and commercial refrigeration customers. Overall, we're very pleased with Climate Solutions strong earnings and conversion, which resulted in a 290 basis point improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin to 21.4%. This quarter completed another great year for Climate Solutions. We anticipate continued revenue and earnings growth in the new fiscal year. And as Neil said, our business development team is actively pursuing additional acquisitions. Please turn to Slide 8. As we anticipated, Performance Technologies delivered strong sequential earnings and margin improvement despite the weakness we are experiencing across most of our end markets. Foreign exchange rates were an additional headwind this quarter, negatively impacting sales by nearly $8 million or 2%. Advanced Solutions sales were lower by 12% or $4 million, driven by a decline in EV auto and EVantage system sales, partially offset by higher sales to specialty vehicle customers. Liquid cooled application sales decreased 7% or $8 million due to the previously mentioned lower end market demand. Lastly, air-cooled application sales were lower by 13% or $22 million, also driven by market dynamics. Partially offsetting the lower market demand for our air-cooled products was a 29% increase with GenSet customers. Adjusted EBITDA improved 5% from the prior year despite the lower sales, and adjusted EBITDA margin increased 220 basis points. This segment is clearly benefiting from the proactive restructuring and other cost initiatives taken earlier in the year. As Neil mentioned, we're reorganizing this business and taking further actions to simplify the org structure and reduce costs. We expect these actions to generate more than $15 million in annual savings as we continue to reallocate our costs and resources to the highest growth businesses. To wrap up, the Performance Technologies segment achieved another year of earnings improvement and significant margin expansion. Modine's 80/20 approach is a critical element of these results, and we will lean on these principles to drive continued improvement in the upcoming fiscal year. Despite the difficult market conditions and uncertainties around the global trade situation, we anticipate higher margins and earnings for this segment in fiscal '26. Now let's review total company results. Please turn to Slide 9. Fourth quarter sales increased 7%, driven by revenue growth in Climate Solutions. The Climate Solutions growth was partially offset by market-related volume declines in Performance Technologies. Our gross margin improved 330 basis points to 25.7%, driven primarily by higher sales volume and favorable mix, along with the benefits from restructuring and cost savings initiatives in the Performance Technologies segment. We continue to invest in incremental SG&A to support the strong climate solutions growth. In addition, SG&A includes expenses related to the SSM acquisition, including incremental amortization related to intangible assets. Adjusted EBITDA was exceptional this quarter with an increase of 32% or $25 million, and the adjusted EBITDA margin was 16.1%, representing a 300 basis point improvement from the prior year. This now represents the 13th consecutive quarter of year-over-year margin improvement, and we achieved our highest adjusted EBITDA margin since beginning Modine's strategic transformation. Adjusted earnings per share was $1.12, 45% higher than the prior year. We are pleased with the strong finish to the fiscal year. Momentum in our key growth markets allowed us to overcome challenges in others. Our full year adjusted EBITDA margin ended at 15.2%, which is 210 basis points above fiscal '24. These results are on track and aligned with our Investor Day targets for fiscal '27. Now moving to cash flow metrics. Please turn to Slide 10. The business has generated $27 million of free cash flow in the fourth quarter, which included $6 million of payments primarily related to restructuring. This puts our full year free cash flow at $129 million, allowing us to further strengthen the balance sheet. Net debt of $279 million was $92 million lower than the prior fiscal year end and $8 million lower than last quarter. With a leverage ratio of 0.7, our balance sheet remains in great shape, and we anticipate another year of excellent free cash flow in fiscal '26. During the quarter, we announced a $100 million stock buyback program and completed $18 million of share repurchases. Now let's turn to Slide 11 for our fiscal 2016 outlook. As Neil mentioned, there's a great deal of uncertainty across all markets and the global economy. Our team is continually assessing the tariff impact on our business. We're analyzing a number of factors that may, in some way, have an impact this fiscal year. These include the impact on material costs of imported products through our supply chain; any tariffs paid to ship finished products from one location to another; the cost sharing and/or price adjustments to address these costs and the overall impact on product demand for Modine or our customers. Beyond the trade and tariff risks, there are some positive elements for Modine. First, we estimate that less than 10% of our annual purchases are subject to new tariffs based on our regional supply chain strategies. Second, and with regards to shipping finished goods, we have commercial agreements with many customers that proactively address the tariff. And last, we have a global footprint that is allowing us to help customers with their new sourcing strategies, which could lead to incremental revenue. Given the volatility and uncertainty in the market, we are providing wider-than-usual ranges for our outlook. We have factored all known information at this time into our revenue and earnings outlook. We'll provide updates each quarter and tighten the ranges as the year progresses and adjust as we gain more information and certainty. In the appendix, we provided a table summarizing the current tariff situation and Modine exposure. For fiscal '26, we currently expect total company sales to grow in the range of 2% to 10%. For Climate Solutions, we expect full-year sales to grow 12% to 20%. This growth is largely driven by our outlook for the data center and commercial IAQ product group. With regards to this product group, we remain quite optimistic in the full-year outlook for data centers with anticipated revenue growth in excess of 30%. While the European market appears to be adjusting to changing hyperscaler plans, we're not seeing any slowdown in North America. In fact, our challenge remains the ability to keep up with demand. For Performance Technologies, we're anticipating sales to be down 2% to 12%, based on the assumption that the end market will remain depressed and that the current trade conflict may have a negative impact on those market recovery. As Neil mentioned, we've reorganized the PT segment into two product groups. The first group, heavy duty equipment was presented at our Investor Day, and we'll serve the agriculture, construction, mining and GenSet markets. The second group will be on-highway applications, which will serve the automotive, commercial vehicle and specialty vehicle markets, including electric vehicles. Consolidating the Performance Technologies segment into two product groups will help the team to further focus on key end markets and customers, which is a critical element of 80/20. And this will allow us to reduce our cost structure and further improve profit margins. Our strategy remains consistent in the segment to exit non-strategic businesses, which we believe will be in the best interest of all stakeholders, including our employees, customers, and suppliers. The team is actively working on this and we'll provide more information on future calls. With regards to our full-year earnings, we currently expect fiscal '26 adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $420 million to $450 million. Using the midpoint of this range, this results in an increase of 11% and another year of solid earnings growth. In addition, we anticipate that we'll generate a higher level of free cash flow in fiscal '26, continuing to increase our cash generation in line with our Investor Day target. Before wrapping up, I want to remind everyone about the planned product group changes we reviewed at our Investor Day and during the call today. For Climate Solutions, we will report revenues under three product groups: data centers and commercial IAQ, HVAC technologies, which will include heating and indoor air quality businesses, and heat transfer solutions, which will include our coil coatings and commercial refrigeration coolers business. As I previously covered, Performance Technologies will be broken down into two product groups: heavy-duty equipment and on-highway applications. To assist everyone with modeling and analysis, we'll provide a restatement for fiscal '25 revenue using these new product groups and will begin showing the new product groups with our first quarter results. To wrap up, we're extremely pleased with the results from the fourth quarter and fiscal '25. The Modine team worked extremely hard to deliver a third consecutive year of record results despite some significant market headwinds. In addition, this team has demonstrated their ability to manage all the levers that they can control, including the successful addition of several acquisitions. We've delivered on our financial targets over the last several years and remain on track to achieve our fiscal '26 and '27 goal. With that, Neil and I will take your questions.

Operator

Our first question is from Chris Moore with CJS Securities.

Speaker 4

Congrats on another good quarter. So maybe we'll start with data centers. So talking about 30% growth on fiscal '26. As you said Europe, maybe a little more cautious, North America is strong. Can you maybe just talk a little bit about the data center visibility? How far out are your customers sharing their build schedules, is it 24 months, 36 months? Just trying to get a sense as to kind of how far out they give you information to their plant?

Yes, we're very confident in the opportunities we have in the data center market. We continue to build strong relationships both with our best colocation customers as well as the hyperscalers that we've built relationships with over the years. As you know, we've gone from one significant relationship with a single hyperscaler to five in a short period of time where we have opportunity to do business. And as we build those relationships with our customers, both on colocation as well as on the hyperscaler side, we have visibility of upwards of five years, we have high confidence in a year outlook. We have moderate to high confidence in two years out, but we have visibility with some of our customers that go out three to five years.

Speaker 4

The tariff disclosure slide and its very helpful, a couple of things. Is there anything that you source from China that is especially hard to find elsewhere?

We've worked on this over the last three to four years in terms of a local-for-local strategy relative to our supply chain. Having 38 facilities in 14 different countries, it's really important to do that, for one, making sure that we have a redundant supply chain and funnel also, because of just total landed costs. So we've reduced the dependency on supply chain from China significantly over the last few years. It started with COVID and the reduction of supply and moving more domestically for regional supply chain support and then with the port strike in LA and then the Suez Canal, there's all kinds of reasons that we needed to reduce our dependency on China. So we feel very comfortable where we're at with our local-for-local supply chain and we think that's going to be an advantage for us as we move forward in this tariff environment.

Speaker 4

Maybe just last one on that note. So you kind of went through the different areas on the tariffs that could be an issue. It sounds like ultimate product demand is probably the biggest uncertainty. Is that a fair statement and is it in one segment more than another?

With regards to the outlook, around volumes, I think the largest uncertainty for us will definitely be about the rate of market recovery and specifically in Performance Technologies that you and Neil covered on the climate side, the heating and school IAQ business, we expect to have steady double-digit growth this year, which is great. the 30%-plus top line for data center. And then back on the PT side, it really will be about the rate of recovery or stability across ag, construction, and commercial vehicle.

Operator

Our next question comes from Matt Summerville with D.A. Davidson.

Speaker 5

A couple of questions back on the DC business. Can you put a little bit of finer point on your comment regarding having a hard time keeping up with demand in North America? Is that primarily being driven by these newer relationships? And then Neil, you mentioned five hyperscalers. I just want to make sure that count is accurate. And then also if you could address in Europe, some of the tentativeness you're seeing on spend. Is that a function of macro or repurposing of original build plans to include AI? And then I have a follow-up.

Really, it's a matter of execution in North America for us. We have tremendous opportunity. We recently put out a press release where we're going to add additional capacity and employment in Mississippi to keep up with that demand. We're seeing incredible need to continue to ship and produce products in DC, particularly around chillers. And we had that dedicated plant in Virginia that we've already maxed the capacity and we're going to now have to increase capacity in Mississippi as well to add additional chiller lines. So we've been able to win commercially with very, very good products. We've got a lot of attention in North America, particularly with our growth with our hyperscalers as well as co-location. So it's a matter of execution at this point. We feel very comfortable with the relationships. We feel very comfortable with the pipeline. We understand the need. We understand the growth schedules with these customers. And again, it comes down to us being able to simply produce and ship the product our customers are standardizing around.

Speaker 5

And then I just wanted to put a little finer point on what the comments with respect to Europe, whether or not the tentativeness on spend there is more macro driven or more reflective of repurposing of original build plans to include AI. And then I just want to make sure we have the hyperscale customer count right, I thought you mentioned five, and I was kind of thinking that number was maybe four.

We're seeing that in terms of the trends in the EU versus North America, definitely, the growth is on the North America side. Certainly, with our hyperscalers, there is an element where they're thinking about the different technologies and opportunities. So as we have grown with some of these folks in our hyperscalers in Europe, we're having technical conversations in terms of what it looks like for the next generations and the current generations of the builds. And certainly, some of these projects can be delayed a quarter or two. No doubt about that. We're also recognizing that we've got a very strong brand in Europe. It's a premium brand and at times we're not going to concede relative to pricing because of who we are and the product that we have. So Europe is in somewhat of a good position. We're seeing some downturn there relative to some of our customers based on the technologies that they're adjusting to. But again, it comes back to North America and what we can do in North America with the relationships that we've been able to build there, and that we can keep this ramp schedule. If we can execute or over deliver on the ramp schedule, then we feel very confident in the data center business.

Speaker 5

And then lastly, maybe just spend a minute talking about M&A funnel actionability and sort of your views on whether or not you think you might have a reasonable chance of being successful in moving on from the businesses that you had previously publicly identified as being nonstrategic to Modine?

That's been a huge focus for us. And we have talked in the last call or two about kind of sharing with everybody incrementally how we're feeling about both the buy side and any exit since feeling really confident right now in the funnel, and it's grown more from the last time we all connected. I think from our side, we're gaining a lot of confidence that we can execute at least one transaction on the buy side in the first half of the year, which is really great. We'll keep filling that funnel and pursuing those. And then on the strategic exits of the divestitures, we've been public, since Neil came in and in our IR Day about the strategic exit from automotive, and we think that really is in the best long-term interest of employees, the customers, and our shareholders, and make sure that business is in the right long-term hands. Our focus this year is going to be heavily on executing on that strategy. And we've been really transparent and public about the goal would be to do that in one transaction versus a series of smaller ones. So I'd say a short answer on the strategic exits, gaining a little more confidence and energy to execute there. And then as I mentioned, building a lot more confidence in getting at least one buy-side acquisition done here in the next quarter or two.

Operator

Our next question comes from Brian Drab with William Blair.

Speaker 6

The first one on my mind is just can you tell us what your split in data center revenue was roughly for fiscal '25 between US and Europe?

I will see if I can grab that at my fingertips, well Neil can address any other questions you have. If not, I can give you background, but let me see if I've got it nearby.

Speaker 6

I'm assuming it's like 80-20, but in line with your often mentioning 80/20, I thought that's the answer. And then can you talk at all about the cadence of data center revenue expected in fiscal '26? You had a great year of data center performance and the kind of the average quarterly revenue run rate was like $160 million per quarter. And it's a big ramp up if you're going to grow 30%, it's going to average like $210 a quarter, but how does that potentially ramp throughout fiscal '26?

I can explain the process and what we are currently working on regarding execution and the ramp cycle, which will include more specific numbers. We have significant opportunities and have established strong relationships with our customers. Our product offerings are robust, and we provide a complete solution that addresses our customers' challenges. We are continuing to invest capital and resources, reallocating some of our most skilled personnel within the organization to facilitate this ramping process. If we can expedite the operations in Grenada, Mississippi, it would further accelerate our progress. The key aspects include obtaining the necessary equipment, setting up our labs, and ensuring our team is adequately trained. Once Mississippi is operational, we anticipate more than doubling our current capacity over a projected 12-month timeline. Some of these activities may speed up depending on hiring and the early arrival of equipment. The relationships are established, demand exists, and our focus is on ramping up these facilities each quarter.

You're good guess. You're close, but with the mix last year is about 75%, 25%, 75% being North America.

Speaker 6

And just on the second question I asked, I'm just wondering, should we expect data center revenue to be more back-end loaded in fiscal '26? Does it ramp up throughout the year as you bring on that capacity or do we kind of step-function up from $160 million a quarter to $210 million a quarter right away?

No, I'm glad you asked that. We anticipate Q1 to be our weakest quarter as we ramp up. Therefore, we expect lower growth rates in Q1 compared to what we've been experiencing. This relates to the conversation Matt and Neil had. We noticed some volume declines in Europe due to the market conditions in Q1. At the same time, we are quickly increasing our capacity in North America this quarter. We're adding capacity and receiving daily reports, so it's progressing. However, during Q1, we won't have all the capacity in place for the entire year, as Neil mentioned. By Q3 and Q4, while we won't be operating at full capacity, we will be able to meet all demand in the second half of the year.

Operator

Our next question comes from Noah Kaye with Oppenheimer.

Speaker 7

I would like to unpack the growth outlook for Clean Solutions a little bit more. So data center revenue at least 30% growth I think of the revenue base, you just said that that implies, I don't know, close to 14% total growth for the segment. And then you got about 2 points, almost 2 points of the M&A contribution. So is sort of the assumption close to the midpoint of the guide that all of the revenues besides those are kind of flat? And importantly, I think is that kind of consistent with the trajectory you're seeing in those other businesses?

So yes, generally, the heating and school business, while it's smaller, relatively speaking, about a $200 million business, we see that growing low double digits this year. The heat transfer products area, a much larger business, we're planning on that to be flat to maybe down slightly, call it, zero to maybe 5%. And for there, it's a lower visibility business that Neil talked about right now, still excess coil capacity in the market. We talked last quarter about some customers deciding to make more coils using internal sourcing of those to fill that production. And so that would be the balance. So you've got the 30-plus percent data center growth, low double-digit on HVAC heating. And then we're taking a pretty cautious stance on the coil side.

Speaker 7

It sounds like what sort of unlocks the upside of the plus down the 30% data center is your ability to add or liberate more capacity in North America. So please correct me if I'm mischaracterizing that. But Neil, I think you said that you will have more than double your current revenue capacity in data center. Was that in reference to North America specifically or is that global? Because I think when we last spoke, the company's revenue capacity was north of $1 billion.

Yes, it is. It's north of $1 billion of global capacity, but we have such a demand in North America, the capacity that we had built out in North America, that surge has exceeded the North American capacity. So in general, if you look at it across globally, if all the orders were to come in, a third, a third, a third, then we would be okay, but that's not the case. So we have to double the capacity in North America.

Speaker 7

So it's North America. Great. And then I think yes, go ahead, Mick…

I'm just going to say, to ramping up the air side versus the chiller side, different requirements.

Speaker 7

Can you clarify what divestitures or planned business exits are included in your guidance for the year?

Right now, we anniversaried the last three or four divestitures. And so in the guidance, we don't have any divestitures built into that. What the area I talked about a little while ago, which would be the area we've been focused on would be that last portion of automotive, which has been running, I would say, between $200 million and $250 million. If we execute on a transaction this year, we will come back. At that point, we would have certainty of something. We have timing, and we'd be able to look at how that will impact the fiscal year. But just to be clear, we have the automotive business in here for the full year.

Speaker 7

So there's no like bleed down of that in the guide? Okay. Last one from me. I think all in for the company implied incrementals are kind of around 20%, I think that's right at the midpoint of the guide. The business did close to 45% incrementals this past year. I guess given the mix tailwinds and some of the 80/20 actions that you're clearly getting some traction on those incrementals seem a little conservative. So can you maybe help us understand how to think about the margins by segment within the guide, what kind of operating leverage in Climate Solutions, what's the trajectory for margins in PT?

There is a lot to discuss here, so let me provide some clarity. In Performance Technology, we've observed significant conversion, focusing on cost reduction and the 80/20 principle. For fiscal year '25 and onward, we've successfully increased EBITDA and achieved a 200 basis point improvement in gross margin this year in Performance Technologies. Looking forward to next year, we anticipate similar progress, particularly as market conditions remain subdued, aiming for an improvement in the range of 125 to 175 basis points in Performance Technologies. Our guidance and assumptions suggest that this will heavily rely on cost reduction efforts and productivity enhancements through the 80/20 approach. In Climate Solutions, we expect margins to be fairly stable, which is not unexpected, and they may increase slightly. However, as Neil mentioned, with the rising demand in the data center sector, we will invest in personnel, engineering, and fixed costs to support future growth. I don’t foresee this as a drawback for Climate Solutions; instead, we are focused on driving growth, and we are comfortable maintaining a 20% plus EBITDA margin. When we consider all these factors together, we should see a slight increase, coupled with higher conversion in Performance Technology and standard conversion in Climate Solutions.

Operator

Our next question comes from Matt Summerville with D.A. Davidson.

Speaker 5

With this new modular data center system, if that's the right word Neil, does that unlock incremental TAM for you guys? And can you help me maybe understand the use case versus a system like that versus maybe the legacy, if you will, offering?

I don't think it opens up additional total addressable market. I believe this is a different product solution aimed at addressing the speed at which data centers need to increase capacity in the global market. Traditionally, we would sell our systems to a system integrator or directly to the end user, who would then have engineers and trades people assemble our product in the data center. However, data center customers want to act quickly since it's a race to build capacity, so they are seeking a more efficient way to launch their data centers. They are looking for us to create modular data centers that they can easily integrate. Essentially, instead of relying on external supply chains, we take on that responsibility; we assemble the product into a modular data center unit, which can then be delivered to the data center. This approach is more of a plug-and-play solution compared to the assembly process they currently follow. This represents a shift for data centers and enables them to proceed at a much faster pace. While the total addressable market remains similar, the speed at which they can launch a new data center is significantly enhanced because we handle much of the work internally, providing them with a more advanced and easier-to-install system.

Speaker 5

Just a couple of additional ones. As you sit here looking at that $1 billion data center target you have in terms of top line for fiscal '27. Are you more confident in attaining and/or beating that target, is that maybe part of the signal here with the doubling of chiller capacity in North America? How should we interpret that in the context of that target? And over time, Neil, do you start to think about strategic optionality for the DC business?

Yes, for sure. I mean, if the rate of capacity that we're deploying, it's about execution. I've become more confident every day as we've gone through the hard part. The hard part was building the relationships. The hard part was getting the customer profile. The hard part was providing and developing highly engineered products for our customers that are specific for their need purpose-built specific highly engineered products for these customers. And we're through that. We've got that, and it's a matter of execution, build, produce, ship. The more capacity that we put inside of North America, the more confident that I get.

Speaker 5

And then, Neil, just the question on potential strategic optionality as you further scale this business realizing that the vision extends beyond 27, certainly, given, in some instances, you have a three to five year broad look ahead. How are you thinking about that?

I'm really focused on execution right now and making sure that we can deliver on the needs of our customers today. The pipeline is extremely healthy. And we're focused on the next 24 months because that's paramount. We have to stay in execution mode.

Kathy Powers Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, and thanks to everyone for joining us this morning. A replay of the call will be available on our website in about two hours. We hope everyone has a great day.

Operator

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