Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q4 2025 Mass Tech Inc. earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's Conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Chris McRae, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Good morning, and thank

you for joining us from OSCEC's fourth quarter and full year 2025 Financial Results Conference call. Joining me today are Jose Mato, Chief Financial Officer. We have prepared slides to submit under the Investors tab and through the webcast link. There's also a companion document to assist in financial modeling. Please read the forward-looking disclaimer. We'll make forward-looking statements regarding our plans and expectations about the future as of the date of this call because these statements are based on current assumptions and factors that involve risks and uncertainties our forward-looking state includes the detailed discussion of risks and uncertainties that may cause such differences in today's remarks we'll be discussing adjusted financial metrics reconciled in yesterday's press release and supporting schedules we may also use certain non-GAAP financial measures in this conference call a reconciliation of any non-GAAP financial measures not reconciled opinion documents in percent year-over-year

increase fourteen point three billion also a sixteen percent increase for 2025 and the new record high adjusted EBITDA was three hundred and thirty eight million in the fourth quarter a twenty-five percent year-over-year increase twenty percent growth in that we exceeded guidance was strong operating execution across top of one point one five billion was an increase of 14% from the prior year. Adjusted earnings per share was $2.07, a 44% increase versus $1.44 in the prior year quarter. In summary, EBITDA and EPS. The execution quarter is in part a testament to the scale and diversification MASTIC has achieved over time for 2026 and beyond it conditions across all of the end markets we serve while I'm proud of our a few positive developments both in the fourth quarter full-year basis three percent annual increase over two billion dollars we see our business and the opportunities in front of us accelerating as impressive as the total number is to me while every segment was up considerably year-over-year our pipeline segment saw backlogs slightly drop sequentially. Yet, I would argue that our visibility in that segment is as good as it's ever been. In fact, double-digit growth in 2026 in our pipeline segment about our expected growth acceleration of that business in 2027 and beyond, reaching and hopefully surpassing historical high revenues in that potential, coupled with the continued backlog pipeline segments for considerable long-term multi-year growth. The ability coupled with the margin opportunities we have, MOSTEK is in a great position to deliver consistent long-term earnings growth. I'm also pleased to report that included in our fourth quarter backlog growth, there is nearly a billion dollars of data center-related work. work. These awards include the type of work we've been doing over recent years and also include our first construction management agreement of a turnkey site. While most of the work on that project, which started in the fourth quarter, will be subcontracted, the opportunity for MOSTIC will be our ability to self-perform a greater scope of work on future jobs the skill set that mastic has developed in construction management with the capabilities we have in civil I just the opportunity to exponentially grow this part of our business these these opportunities are a result of our customer solution approach where we can provide a range of services from full scale EPC to a specific function on any project addition to our backlog just heavily on organic growth over the last couple of years gives us the ability to allocate capital welcome the nv2a family to moscow construction management services firm whose principles we have known for decades with the preeminent reputation for construction management of complex commercial loan for its work on aviation and seaport projects the acquisition nv2a was our joint venture partner on our 600 million dollar Miami Airport expansion project made in 9 billion NV2A deepens our expertise in construction management capabilities as we grow this sector including data centers and other Michigan critic and other mission critical facilities for of 2026 Mastic also acquired McKee Utility Contractors a third generation family business and leading water infrastructure service provider. Infrastructure is another structurally growing theme and are very excited about both McKees near and from the McKee family to Mastec. These deals complement and enhance our existing infrastructure capabilities and represent exactly the type of transactions that we target over time. Strong management teams who see the value in platform and enhance the solutions they can offer and expect them to hit the ground running and contribute to Mastec's near-term success. In our communications segment, we increased 23% year-over-year and EBITDA increased 16%, all organic, bringing our full-year growth rates for revenue in EBITDA to 32% and 41%. The telecommunications infrastructure market continues to evolve with Mostex customers pivoting rapidly with significant investments to support broadband delivery to enable enhanced artificial applications while still working actively to support residential and commercial customer demand for broadband access via wired fiber was solidly above attributions from multiple top customers with robust funding for infrastructure deployment nationally including upside in both wireless and wireline construction. The margin rate for the quarter was moderately below our expectations due largely to ongoing startup costs on certain programs. We are confident that the trajectory of profit rates will be positive in 2026, in part due to the maturity in new programs and initiatives during the 13% year-over-year and EBITDA grew by 9%. EBITDA margins were 8.5% in the fourth quarter of 2024 which included mixed headwinds from lack of storm related revenue in 25 project volumes due to permitting related delays that persisted through year-end regardless we are pleased with overall power delivery results for the full year of 2025 where we saw 16% top-line growth and solid 12 percent EBITDA growth despite those headwinds we have strong confidence in power delivery market outlook and for our ability to deliver to deliver strong growth in 2026. 17% versus the prior year and 9% from the third quarter ending the year at 5.6 billion continues a positive trend of unbroken backlog increases in power delivery since the third quarter of 2023 to restart the portion of the green link project that has been stalled by permitting delays This is happening earlier than we anticipated, and coupled with last quarter's announcement that our transmission and substation group was awarded its second-largest project ever, it provides us great visibility and confidence in achieving strong double-digit organic growth in this segment. To our clean energy and infrastructure segment, fourth quarter revenue and EBITDA were slightly ahead of our expectations in the quarter. For the full year, revenue growth was a strong 15%, and EBITDA margins grew by 110 basis points to 7.4% versus 6.3% in the prior year. The backlog at year-end increased 30% sequentially to $6.5 billion, which is also a step change of 53% higher than the prior year, and booked a bill was 2.1 times. rate sequential increase in backlog, which increased by double digits in the fourth quarter. In this segment, we saw revenue increase 50% year-over-year for the quarter as business volumes continued to ramp sequentially since the first quarter of 2025, including an uptick from third quarter's typically seasonally strong period. Also, as expected, fourth quarter saw continued sequential margin improvement with an 18.5% margin representing a 310 basis point lift from the third quarter on strong operating execution and overall positive business mix. Confidence that 2026 will see further increases in both volume and profit dollar opportunity and pipeline for years to come. I expect 2026 to be a solid growth year versus is 2025, and our guidance includes this assumption about the volume opportunities developing for 2027 based on current capacity planning discussions, fourth quarter, and look for this year, given the breadth of the businesses. While last year was successful overall, margin optimization on our existing business base and our 2026 guidance reflects this. We assume double-digit margins and communications this year around a hundred basis point improvement in both power delivery and pipeline in clean energy and infrastructure even with the inclusion of significant construction management volume in that segment this year margins there as well we're excited about the opportunity for most X and our investors over the coming years and thank you for your continued interest and participation our success as a company depends first on the commitment and dedication of our team and I'd like to thank the entire MOS Tech team of safety environmental stewardship integrity and honesty and for their focus on serving our customers with integrity and

diligence a continued organic revenue strength and solid execution across our operating segments looking ahead our customers are increasingly relying on MOSS meet their rapidly expanding infrastructure development goals giving us high confidence in the growth trajectory that we are outlining today in guidance for 2026 is that our customer growth and investment plans intersect across virtually all of MOSS X businesses and this reinforces our positive outlook a few more notes on the fourth quarter and 2025 segment performance communication segment continued its trajectory of strong revenue growth in the fourth quarter exceeding guidance by 139 million with 23% year-over-year growth for Q4 and 32% for the full year. This was driven by broad-based strength across both wireless and wireline and included some contribution from middle model work that we expect to further develop positively into 2026 and beyond. Border EBITDA margin was 8.5%, a slight pullback from last year's 9% result, short-term impact of ramping new business volume. We are confident that these investments matured as reflected in our initial 2026 guidance with double digit communication margins but this year we are beginning to mature some of these new businesses that came on stream in 2025 fourth quarter communications backlog totals 5.5 billion which is an 8% sequential increase and a notable 20% year-over-year increase telecommunications and market broadly has numerous demand drivers and our focus is on being selective with the opportunities we pursue to optimize returns success for MOSTEC is no longer a function of just volume sourcing, but increasingly a focus on growth management. In that regard, as we grow our communication service offerings, we are careful to nurture our legacy customer relationships while creating the space to serve new customers and new opportunities. This includes both residential and commercial end-user markets and making sure we are allocating resources efficiently. An overview of our power delivery performance that I won't repeat, margin expansion in 2026, and currently expect year-over-year margin expansion in each quarter our base utility and distribution business continues to perform well providing a solid foundation on which we can build operating leverage as volume grows second our power delivery segment is contributing meaningfully to our supportive data center infrastructure working for utility clients data center developers and the rate to be a key beneficiary of our new role leading turnkey data center construction in the clean energy and infrastructure segment total Q4 revenue of 1.3 billion represented a 2% increase for the prior year, inclusive of solid double-digit growth in the renewables business and slightly exceeded our segment guidance. Infrastructure and industrial revenue was also in line with expectations, and we saw significant new business development for this group during the quarter to provide a very notable volume pivot for 2026. On a full year basis, revenue for CE&I was $4.7 billion, or a 15% year-over-year growth rate, including even stronger renewables growth for the year. The report of CE&I EBITDA margin was in line with our expectations at 7.2%, but somewhat lower than 8.3% in the prior year, which benefited from favorable project closeouts in our industrial business that were now repeated in 2025. Renewables margin was stable sequentially and up slightly year-over-year, as expected at the high single-digit levels, while industrial and infrastructure also saw solid overall performance. CE&I saw a step function increase in backlog during the fourth quarter, reflecting significant contract signings across the segment. Infrastructure drove the 2.1 times book-to-bill achieved in the quarter with multiple large project wins, including the Data Center General Contractor Award discussed by Jose. It delivers substantial revenue contribution in 2026, also now factored into our guidance. The Data Center project will be executed under our general buildings vertical, still within the CE&I segment, but we may refer to this group's results more specifically in the future. Renewables also continued its impressive streak of backlog growth, which now stands at over $3 billion for the 18-month period. Our visibility for renewables project activity extends much further, with projects under contract for work beyond the next 18 months or under limited notice to proceed, totaling over $4 billion, incremental to our about $300 million to the year-end CE&I totals organic book to bill was still an impressive 1.9 times structure segment fourth quarter revenue of 644 million represented our highest quarter in the past two years we finished the year with 2.1 billion in total revenue for the segment which was notably stronger than our initial guide of 1.8 billion as the business been selected positively earlier in the year even though for the quarter of 119 million was driven by strong overall execution and project mix fourth quarter EBITDA margin of 18.5% is indicative of the steady state margins this segment is able to generate in an expansion cycle. With margins, we are pleased to have finished at a consolidated margin of 8% for 2025, with our non-pipeline segment generating margins of 8.2% versus 7.6% in 2024. Year 2025 margins reflected a slower start to the year, particularly in pipeline, as well as certain headwinds we noted in the back half, particularly with power delivery. We still accomplished a strong outcome last year and met our guidance objectives. A testament to our focus on execution and the strategic diversification and scale of MOSTEQ. Everything doesn't have to go right in every period to deliver on our overall goal. We highlighted a midterm goal of double-digit consolidated EBITDA margins and we are pleased that 2025 sets us up positively for further margin performance in 2026. We are adding meaningful volumes from construction management contracts including the new data center business we won in the fourth quarter. This business mix represents lower margin but a high return on capital opportunity that we are very proud to execute, contract many of the construction activities internally at margins comparable to work performed with external clients, provide some level of visibility into the margin progression of the base business from 2025 to the extent that our mix evolves materially going forward. In addition to the margin expansion efforts, over the past few years we've highlighted our increased focus on return on invested capital and we are proud to see this metric meet our weighted average cost since 2021. We believe the growth and margin expansion opportunities presented by our portfolio of service offerings, coupled with disciplined capital allocation, will continue to drive returns higher in the years ahead. We generated cash flow from operations of $373 million in the fourth quarter and free cash flow of $306 million in the period, $346 million and $342 million respectively. This was somewhat below guidance due primarily to our revenue beat for the quarter and associated working capital investment, as well as higher capital expenditures also to support accelerated growth. We ended the year with total liquidity of approximately $2.1 billion and net leverage of 1.7 times, well within the terms of our financial policy and criteria to maintain our investment-grade credit ratings. We are pleased that our strong balance sheet provides ample flexibility to pursue a disciplined, return-focused capital allocation strategy. We plan to support our best-in-class organic growth opportunities, execute opportunistic and accretive acquisitions that complement our existing service lines and deploy capital to share purchases opportunistically, as has been our longstanding practice. The recent M&A transactions are consistent with this approach and our multi-decade track record of solid M&A execution. Moving to our 2026 guidance, our supplemental guidance document for segment and other financial details is now posted to our IR website. For 2026 full year, we expect revenue of $17 billion, or about 19% growth this year, on top of the 16% growth produced in 2025. Notably, organic growth is still expected in the mid-teens. Our 2026 revenue profile includes strong results from all segments, with meaningful growth in CE&I of around 35%, driven in part by the expansion of our data center work. Pipeline infrastructure is expected to grow revenue by 17%, power delivery about 11%, and communications just under double digits, coming off the approximately 30% organic growth achieved in 2025. For adjusted EBITDA, we are forecasting $1.45 billion, or an 8.5% margin, representing 26% year-over-year profit growth and 50 basis points of margin expansion on a consolidated basis. This reflects margins of low double digits for communications, mid-teams for pipeline infrastructure, approaching double digits for power delivery, and fairly steady margin in the high single digits for CE&I, with improving renewables margin performance offset by the higher percentage of construction management services. Adjusted EPS is forecast to be $8.40, an increase of almost 30% versus the $6.55 in 2025. Guidance assumes acquisitions contribute approximately $500 million of revenue at high single-digit EBITDA margins for 2026. The operations is anticipated to exceed $1 billion for 2026, consistent with our stated target of 70% EBITDA conversion. We expect about $200 million of net cash capital expenditures for 2026 as we continue to procure additional equipment to support planned growth. The first quarter outlook reflects the concerted efforts we've made to continue to improve Q1 performance, with revenue expected to grow by 22% and adjusted EBITDA margins of just over 7 percent 130 basis points higher year over year we currently expect sequential revenue growth from q2 and q3 followed by the typical seasonal revenue decline in the fourth quarter q2 and q3 should be our highest adjusted EBITDA margin quarters for the year this concludes our prepared remarks i'll now turn the call over to the operator for q and a you ask a question please press star

one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced to withdraw your question please press star 1-1 again. Please stand by while we compile our Q&A roster. And our first question will come from Julian Demoulin-Smith of Jeffreys. Your line is open, Julian.

Yeah. Hi, good morning. It's Brian Russo on for Julian. Hey, I was just wondering if you could elaborate on the new language on power delivery segment of approaching double-digit margins. You know, what initiatives are ongoing to get there? Is it enhanced MSA or project work, or is it just a contribution of these higher-margin transmission projects?

We've been consistent that we think the goal for our power delivery segment is double-digit margins. So this is just a continued progress towards that. You know, there's been a lot of focus on execution of the base business, which, as I mentioned, is performing well. You know, and then we had some starts and stops last year that obviously, you know, caused some inefficiency and erode some of the margin appreciation that's achievable. So, you know, we're not foreseeing those this year. We think the base business needs to perform well. We think we'll get operating leverage as some of the larger projects, you know, begin to materialize in a more meaningful way. And we think it's, you know, the natural step towards our stated goal of consistent double-digit margins for the segment.

Okay, great. And then just second on CE&I and the Turnkey Data Center project, Could you elaborate? You mentioned a billion dollars, but over what time frame and, you know, who's kind of the, who's the customer and is this kind of the first of many to come?

Yeah, sure. So a couple things. The billion dollars was not all the turnkey job. So we've been doing a lot of other data center work, right? So we've really focused on our civil power infrastructure businesses that have been doing data center work for years. so you know hundreds of millions of the billion were related to that obviously the turnkey site helped move that we're not in a position to be able to disclose much details around the project or the customer we expect that job to be concluded in 2027 so it you know between 26 and 27 those revenues will be earned and we do think it will you know as the job progresses we think there's tremendous opportunity for us to continue to grow on that type of business and we think the market for that right now is incredibly strong. Okay, great. Thank you very much. And our next question

will be coming from the line of Andy Kaplowitz of Citi. Andy, your line is open.

Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Andy. Jose, so it seems like you're still as or more confident regarding your pipeline business, but obviously, as you said, it's going to be more book and burn moving forward. So just did you see any delays in terms of project timing versus what you've been thinking? And then on the margin side, given the second half 25 performance in pipeline and the higher estimated revenue in 26, isn't mid-teens margins for 26 conservative? You know, if the market kind of develops as you think. Yeah, I'll start with the second part of the

question, right? I think we've always guided mid-teens in our pipeline business. I think that's the appropriate level to come out with with the guide I think we've you know our objective is to beat that I think historically we've we've outperformed that and hopefully the opportunity is there to do it again as it relates to revenue with pipeline I'd argue that you know the our visibility is actually improving so to me the number of opportunities the number of verbal awards a number of negotiations that we're in the middle of I think every quarter that passes our confidence just grows in our ability to continue to to grow that business and see a really much longer term of elevated levels than we probably initially expected.

Self-love, Ed. Obviously, you're still putting out strong growth in communications and expected to do so in 26. When you think about breaking down that growth between sort of traditional fiber of the home, do you have anything in beads for 26? And, you know, how should we be thinking about that fiber to the data center opportunity or middle-mile broadband? Is that also getting to be bigger than you expected is that in 26 at all in short

answers yes right I think you know breaking it down we don't have tons of beads built into 26 I think beads I think what we're seeing there is we're becoming more bullish on beads I think beads is going to be much larger than we had originally anticipated and the opportunity is going to be larger for us but I think that will predominantly be 27 one of the opportunities that we have is if some of that stuff does push into 26 that could be very constructive to the business but you know look we're seeing every one of our customers pursue multiple business strategies obviously everything that's happening around data centers in our and connectivity to data centers is an important driver for that we're getting our share of that and we think that the market is growing substantially for that as well so very broad-based the opportunities we had an incredible year of growth in 2020-25 you know we're assuming a more moderate growth profile in 26 but you know if we were surprised in Q4 with the level of activity I think we significant I think revenues were about 20% higher than what we guided for Q4 so you know got a lot of good opportunity to outperform in 26 Thanks. Thanks, Jose. Thanks, Andy.

And our next question will be coming from the line of Jamie Cook of Truist Securities. Your line is open, Jamie.

Good morning and congratulations on multiple fronts. I guess two questions for you, Jose. The first question is just the visibility that you have beyond the 18-month backlog that you report. You know, I'm just trying to understand how great that is and which segments do you have above-average visibility. And then I guess my second question, I think on the call you mentioned that you saw the pipeline business being able to achieve or exceed prior peak, which I think was $3.5 billion. Under what time frame do you think that would be reasonable?

Sure. Thank you, Jamie. Just a couple things. I'd say you know maybe with the last part of the question first we've talked about hitting historical highs in pipeline revenue as early as 2027 so in the near term again we see that business shaping up incredibly well when we think about backlog in general right I think you know Paul alluded on his and his prepared remarks about the four billion dollars of and notice the proceeds that we have in renewables that aren't in backlog right so we actually have more in LNTPs than we do an actual backlog which is a remarkable statistic and I think that you know visibility is is amazing right I think even even within stated backlog we have projects I think we want our largest project ever in the renewables business at the end of last year only a portion of that project is in backlog only the 18 month portion of it when we think about comms and you know what we're currently seating seeing in beads and the potential there I think it's going to lead to significant backlog expansion as we think about 26 in power delivery the level of transmission jobs that we're seeing and the demand for transmission is just off the charts which I think is going to also lead to some pretty sizable increases in backlog as the year progresses so overall when we look at all the segments we're just really optimistic again not just about 26 but what the future holds thank you

thank you our next question will be coming from the line of Philip Shin of

Roth Capital Partners. Your line is open, Philip. Hey, guys. Congrats on the great results here. Wanted to talk about Greenlink and to get a little bit more color there. Jose, could you share the relief that you got? Was that all that you're looking for, meaning this project is a full go now, or are there other milestones that we should be thinking about in terms of permitting relief or

milestones in general? Thanks. In 2025, obviously, the first portion that we really started on, ended up being delayed with permitting those permits have been fully cleared so the beauty of that is we get you know to go back to work on that initial phase that we were supposed to start it's a long-term job so not all permits are in so there are some permits for the lighter part of the jobs that still have to come in I think the level of confidence around those especially with clearing this issue has increased significantly so we feel really good about the progress on that job you know what we think needs to happen for us to ultimately complete that on time. And I think this is just, again, it happened a little bit earlier than we thought in the year, so we're excited about it, and I think it bodes really well for, again, not just 26, but how that job is going to set up for the next few years.

Great. Thanks, Jose. And then back on the data center job, of the billion dollars, how much do you think you guys self-perform versus outsource? And then just as a follow-up, you know, how much more is there behind this? I know you may have touched upon this a little bit earlier, but do you think we could see, you know, more of these billion dollar general contractor jobs later this year, or do you think we have to wait till next year? Thanks. Yes, so a couple

things. I'd say that, again, you take the billion, you break it out between what we've historically done, which is a couple hundred million. I would say all of that is self-perform, which is the work that we've been doing. When you look at the balance of that on this particular project we were brought in kind of late where a lot of the the the actual work functions had been had been selected with different contractors so we kind of took them over so our ability to self-perform on this first project was somewhat limited again we think you know one of the beauties of this is we think we've got a huge competitive advantage and we're one of the very few contractors in the in the US that has you know significant experience in construction management and civil and power and telecom and maintenance and all of the attributes that you need to make up a data center job so i think that you know customers are beginning to see that we're getting a lot of opportunities uh related to full turnkey work with the ability to self-perform which really changes the margin profile of those jobs on a go forward basis i think we're going to responsibly grow into it this is hopefully the first of many and we do expect further wins in 2026. great thanks jose one moment for our next question

Our next question will be coming from Sanjita Jain of KeyBank Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Thank you so much. Can I ask a question on the large transmission project that you booked in the fourth quarter? Can you help us with some details on how long you think that project will take to burn? I know for Greenlink that target was four years. I'm just trying to see if this is a similar duration or shorter.

Hi, Sanjita. So it's a smaller project. It'll be a shorter duration. It starts, you know, probably the second part of the summer in this year, and it'll probably go up for about two years.

Got it. And then on a broader level, can I just ask about margins? Your revenue growth has obviously been very strong. I know margins are expanding, but they are kind of lagging your expectations. So I'm wondering if there's a structural barrier that prevents operating leverage from coming through. if it's labor productivity, or I don't want to prejudge, but I would love some color from you.

Yeah, look, we've talked a lot about it during the year. I think, you know, one of the challenges, which I think is one of the positives as well, right, is that, you know, most of our growth in 2025 was organic. And when you grow organically, it takes a lot to open new offices, to build, to grow your workforce space, to invest in, you know, not just working capital, but in the equipment necessary to grow so you know we think we've put up you know you know mid-teens growth rate both for 25 and even on an organic basis what we expect in 26 even if you back out the acquisitions in 26 we're expect we're expecting you know mid-teens organic growth in our business you know those create challenges they create challenges to optimize margins in a particular period I think as we get bigger and we see some of those initial businesses start to mature which we're already seeing margins kind of take care of themselves so you know we're very bullish about our ability to improve our margins and things like telecom you know which quite frankly you know again we we beat we beat fourth quarter revenue by 20 versus our guidance which is just again another remarkable number but that slightly impacted margins uh negatively right when we look at you know what happened in power delivery this year with some of the things that we were expecting to happen on green link and didn't come through and slightly impacted the margin capabilities we had in that business but when you look at 26 guidance for both of those you know strong growth years from a margin perspective in both of those RC our clean energy and infrastructure business right I think is progressing incredibly well we were up 110 basis points on a year-over-year basis from 24 to 25 if you take the base business we're expecting further margin gains in 26 but it's offset by some of the construction management and data centers and then when you look at pipeline right it's all a function of size and and you know and how we're going to build up to where we think we can get to if you take just pipeline growth if we get back to historical highs and revenues quite frankly you know it almost because of the mix it almost takes us to double digits as a total company now you know total company margins on the longer term are going to be somewhat dependent on mix are going to be somewhat dependent on you know how much we grow certain portions of our business and where they land and we're paying a lot of attention to that right and we're really trying to maximize the returns on our investment and our ability to execute at a high level. But, look, we're as happy and as excited we are about the revenue growth story, we are super focused on the margin improvements across the company. And I think we've got real potential. I think we've got real potential to significantly impact those, and I think that creates as much if not more value than the revenue growth that we're going to have.

Perfect. Thank you, Jose.

Thank you.

Our next question will be coming from the line of Stephen Fisher of UBS. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good morning and congrats on a successful 2025. And just to follow up on Sangeeta's question there, but keep it more specifically focused to the communication segment, can you just give a little bit more detail on the better margin expectations you have there? I know you mentioned about certain elements of the business that are maturing. Can you talk about which aspects of the comms opportunities are seeing that maturing? Is that overpull work or is it the bead work? Or I guess you'd say you don't have a lot in there. But what are the key initiatives that you're talking about that could really help margins? And what are you doing with the hiring in the comms business? Because it seems like maybe some of the absorption there is maybe a bit of a drag.

Yeah, Steve, I would, you know, I would, right, because I would say if we look at comms in 2025, the business was up on a full year basis. We were up 32% in revenue, organically. The most mature business in MOSTIC, the longest business in MOSTIC, was up 32% organically in revenue in 2025. And margins improved 60 basis points year over year on 32% growth. Now, yeah, we would have liked to have seen margins improve more, but we still saw improvement. When you look at 26 guidance versus where we ended up in 25, we've got just shy of 100 basis point improvement in that business yet again on what will be strong growth. So, you know, I'd argue that we've done a really good job of managing the growth and improving margins along the way, but this is where we've made significant investment, opened new offices, and it takes time for some of those businesses to mature. We're starting to see the maturity of those businesses. We're starting to see the improvement of those margins, which is why on a year-over-year basis, margins improved 60 basis points. Yes, fourth quarter was a little lighter than we expected, but again we beat you know revenue expectations there by 20 percent versus what we guided so i think we're well on our way i think uh the business mix is perfect i think you know uh we've got again tremendous opportunities for few i think and by the way we talked about beads being a huge opportunity going forward i think we see that in 27 i think we have yet another really really strong growth here in 27 probably much stronger than 26 because of what's going to happen in beads. But we're super focused on margin appreciation there. I think we delivered some of that in 25 and we'll deliver more of that in 26. Okay, that's fair. And then just in terms of the

overall 2026 plan and how it's covered in backlog, obviously you had some really good backlog growth here. Just curious how well covered do you think on your 2026 plan? You are covered at the moment. And where do you think you still need to see more bookings? I know we've talked about in the pipeline business, it's sort of closer to the burn when you book it, but just kind of what still has to happen to kind of deliver the plan?

I mean, when we look back for a better position going into a year based on revenue guidance versus where we stand with backlogs. So I would argue that this is, you know, I'm not going to use the word conservative, but I think this is one of the best big plans that we've got relative to what our revenue expectations are with what we currently have in hand. Sounds good. Thank you. Thanks, Steve.

And our next question will be coming from the line of Justin Hawk of Baird. Your line is open.

Oh, great. I've got one more on the margin questions, I guess, just to add to the mix. But, you know, overall, you're calling for 50 basis points of margin expansion. I guess I was just curious, I mean, you're going to tell me all your segments are, you know, going to see expansion this year, but is there anything in particular mix-wise you would say some higher and some lower, given the moving pieces, maybe the construction management stuff on the data center work that you said lower margin? Just anything to kind of help think about the trajectory

in 26th at the segments? Thanks. Yeah. So again, I mean, we expect comms and power delivery to be up on a year-over-year basis from a margin I think we've been very specific as to what the you know what the opportunities are in 25 versus 26 versus what it was in 25 the pipeline business is obviously growing again we we have a step a step change function there in 27 from a revenue perspective so while margins will be good in 25 they won't be optimal because we'll make making a lot of investments I'm sorry in 26 is we'll be making a lot of investments into what's coming in 27 so that's kind of why we've got it to where we've got it And then when we think about, you know, clean energy and infrastructure, I mean, we're not, that's probably the one business where we're not calling out, you know, margin appreciation on a year-over-year basis. It's more flattish. While the base business is improving, the construction management business will be a drag on that relative to the total margins of the segment. So I think keeping margins there flattish is a good story with the opportunity of further growing our self-reform opportunities around that new business and then enhancing margins through that. So I think that's how 26 is going to shake out.

Perfect.

No, that's helpful. My second one, pretty easy one here, but I just want to clarify. In the guidance, there's a big uptick in the non-controlling interest. I assume that's the water-wastewater acquisition you did post-quarter, but I just wanted to clarify that there wasn't anything else that was driving that.

That's the change for 26, yes. Perfect. Thanks.

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Ati Modak of Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. Jose, can you talk about the vision you have with these acquisitions, the NV2, how that integrates into the data center market, And then the decision to step into water infrastructure, what's your vision with that, with, you know, how big is it today, how big could it get, and should we expect you to remain acquisitive in these areas?

Yeah, so let's start with MB2A. Obviously, well known to us, they were our partner on a big project we currently have. You know, it was an opportunity that presented itself where one of the partners was interested in selling, and that started a dialogue where we ended up deciding to acquire the entire business. tremendous opportunities on the current projects we have with the relative size of what those projects will be in the future that in and of itself made an enormous amount of sense for us to pursue those acquisitions and then I think is that developed you know obviously some of these other construction management opportunities presented themselves and we think they have incredible depth and strength and bring a lot to the table that are going to help us there as well so we think fundamentally just based on the their based in historical business it was a great deal and when you look at all the compliments that we get in addition to that we think it's going to be a fantastic deal for mastic on the waste on the water on the water side look we think water is a theme that's it's going to grow like crazy I think we're going to have all kinds of issues this year with you know some of the snow patterns and where they fell and where you know there's gonna be a lot of markets that are gonna have water issues a lot of what we're seeing around data centers across the country are demanding more water use which is forcing municipalities to rethink about, you know, how they're providing water and the revenue opportunity for them to provide water into new projects. When we look at their business, they've had tremendous growth, but quite frankly, when you look at their outlook and the opportunities that they're chasing, it's just their growth potential is probably as good or better than anything else we have in all of Mostec, and we're going to support them and help them achieve that, and we're super excited. We think that's a great management team that's built a great company, and we're really looking forward to supporting them. I think that, you know, as, again, we think it's a great theme. As the theme develops, as we get, you know, a better understanding of that market, I think there's going to be a lot more opportunities there to

grow off of. Very helpful, Jose. And then what would you highlight in terms of the expectations we should have with the Investor Day in May? Look, we're excited to do it. We haven't done

one in a really long time. I think we're going to talk a lot more about, you know, longer-term outlooks, maybe longer-term targets relative to what we do on these calls. So, you know, we're excited to do that. You're going to get an opportunity to meet, you know, a significant portion of our management team and really understand, you know, how we're thinking about the mid- and long-term as a business. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you.

And our next question will be coming from Manish Manish Samaya of Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open, Manish.

Thank you. Good morning. Ose, first question for you. You gave us your margin outlook for 26, and I was wondering, you know, when you look at your daily, weekly dashboard, what are some of the things that you're looking at by segment to ensure that everything is on track?

Yeah, look, at the end of the day, our business isn't that complicated, right? Everything starts at a field level. It starts with a widget that's getting installed. And our ability to enhance the productivity of those widgets is what really changes profitability as an entity. So, you know, how we measure and how we incent at that level is the most important thing that we do as a company. I think, you know, Paul's talked a lot about, you know, a lot of the technological advancements that we're trying to make to further provide better information, more real-time information, which I think makes a big difference. But, you know, that's our team's focus every single day. And I think that, again, you know, we've got a lot of balls in the air. We're growing, you know, very rapidly from a top-line perspective, but we can't take our eye off what, you know, makes us money each and every single day. And I think our team is doing a great job of being focused on that and are really trying to improve that on a day-to-day basis.

Second question for you and Paul. Paul, maybe if you can just help us bridge the operating cash flow from 25 to 26. And then, Jose, obviously, you are guiding to leverage in the low ones. How should we think about capital allocation between, obviously, token acquisitions as well as share buybacks and other sort of initiatives you might have?

On the operating cash flow question, Manish, it's really just going to follow the cadence of revenue growth. As I mentioned, you know, sequential growth in Q2 and Q3, followed by a follow-up in Q4. We're not assuming any major change in DSO from year-end at 65 days for 25. And so it's just the expectations around working capital investment relative to the revenue generation and the year-over-year impact really from Q425 to Q426 is, you know, a big piece of that. So there's not a major change in our expectations from where we finished the year. It's just about timing of current expectations of revenue timing that drives the billion dollars of cash flow from operations. And, again, it's consistent with what we stated that for a long time is that we think we can do 70% EBITDA conversion to operating cash flow consistently. You know, this year, the growth and the timing of the growth, you know, put a little bit of headwind on that, and we think it normalizes in 2020.

Yeah, maybe to the second part of the question, you know, I'd say, look, first and foremost, we're focused on taking advantage of the organic growth opportunities in front of us and investing in those. I think that when we think about, you know, really adding to the platform of MOSTIC and bringing in partners, there's tremendous opportunity, right? I think there's so much demand in our industry today that our ability to meet it enhances with looking at M&A, and I think we're going to continue to do that. I think we took a period of a couple of years post some very large acquisition for us in Intran, Henkels & McCoy, and IA, where a lot of our focus was consumed on the integration of those acquisitions. I think that's well past us. I think we've demonstrated that, and I think that we're in a position today where we can take that on and really make that additive to MOSTIC. So if anything, I think you'll see us be more acquisitive rather than less, and for sure more than the last couple of years. It's been part of our story since inception and something that you'll probably see us do more regularly

than you have in the last couple of years. Any specific segment, Jose, as far as tuck-ins?

yeah look there's again I think there's there's areas of every segment that we're in that we think makes sense for us so it's it's measuring the opportunity quite frankly versus being opportunistic in those so you know expectations of values have increased significantly so finding the right balance between those two is what we're going to try to achieve the most thank you our next

question will be coming from Joseph O'Shea of Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. I'm sorry,

Guggenheim Partners. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Yeah, good morning. Thanks. Two questions. Following a little bit on the previous one, looking at the data center opportunity in particular, I'm wondering if there are any particular skill sets or capabilities you feel like um you might want to fill in and then looking at communications uh there's been some some wireless infrastructure rip and replace uh in that segment in the past i'm wondering how much of of that is they're going forward or whether we're mostly looking at ftth and obviously beat and 27 thank

you yeah so a couple things on the on the data center side obviously we don't we don't have the functions today to self-perform everything but i think that we have the ability to self-perform a lot more than most which i think again gives us a tremendous advantage uh to the extent that the opportunity is there to consider doing more there we would on the wireless side you know i think we're in the midst of that rip and replace for our large customer i think we're going to see more deployment starting in 27 relative to new spectrum which is going to help that industry considerably so we're you know we're still as excited about wireless as we've always been

Okay, thank you.

And our next question will be coming from Brian Brophy of CFL. Your line is open, Brian.

Yeah, thanks. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for cruising in here. I guess I'll just go with a quick one. CapEx is notably lower than a year ago. Can you talk about the drivers there? Or the 26 expectation, excuse me, is notably lower than a year ago?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's just a function of where the growth is coming from. We talked about investing a lot in pipeline ahead of the cycle. a lot of the jobs we're working on right now kicked off in the back half of 25 and we're procuring equipment related to those our clean energy segment where we're seeing the highest growth in 2026 is the least capital intensive so some of it's just a function of that we're obviously prepared to continue to invest, that's our view today to the extent that project needs or demand opportunities require more CapEx, we've got the flexibility to do it

Appreciate it. I'll pass it on.

Next question. We'll be coming from the line of Mark Strout of J.P. Morgan. Your line is open, Mark.

Yes, good morning. Thanks for squeezing me in here. Maybe just on that last point on renewables, clearly you're seeing very strong growth.

Curious, can you talk about your market share, your wind rates?

Is this a function of kind of just the number of opportunities increasing, or do you think kind of a function of projects getting bigger and more complex that you're taking share as well thank you I think it's a

little bit all of the above again coming off of the IA acquisition we took a lot of time to really focus our efforts around going after customers that we thought we could build meaningful relationships with that would matter over time and I think we've done that you know we've got alliance agreements now with what we think are some of the best developers in the business that have you know long-term plans that that are very solid and our ability to have integrated within their systems and and really build an expectation of both you know our labor in their work over a long period of time gives us tremendous visibility so I think I think that's helped us right I think today we're a top-tier contractor for both wind and solar and we're very bullish about the long-term of that business obviously at times it becomes very political we think there's tremendous visibility through 2030 and we think that when we're as we see the prices and what you know what some of the new generation is pricing out we actually think that renewables are going to be competitive on a price basis long after 2030 so we think it's a great market we think it's a market that's got tremendous potential and and again it's Paul alluded to earlier we We've got, you know, a ton of what we would call shadow backlog, which is backlog we know we're going to convert. So, you know, we actually think backlog in that business could increase in 26.

And our next question will be coming from the line of Liam Burke of B-Riley Securities. Your line is open.

Thank you. Good morning, Jose.

Good morning, Liam.

Jose, your projects have become larger and more complex. Are you seeing less competition and better, more favorable terms as you renegotiate or enter into some project agreements?

Well, I think the whole industry is, right? I think customers understand the challenges that they face relative to labor. I think, you know, obviously we've always said we think terms improve before pricing does, and I think we've seen terms improve considerably over the last few years, and I expect that to continue. And, you know, as we're all dealing with the demand, I think, you know, pricing is also getting better. So I think we're in a good place as an industry.

Great. Thank you. And really quickly, you highlighted middle mile activity in the telecom. Is that data center driven or is that what is driving that activity?

Yeah, look, I think our customers are looking to grow. Our customers are looking for all the opportunities in front of them. So some of it is data center driven. Some of it is on-shoring driven. There's lots of demand for connectivity. And to the extent that our customers win that demand, it requires large infrastructure build-outs for them. And that's kind of what we're talking about.

Great. Thank you, Jose.

Thank you.

And our last question will be coming from Maheep Mendloy of Mazuho. Your line is open, Maheep.

Hey, thanks, excuse me, and congratulations on the quarter here. Let me just do quick ones. First, just on communications. Certainly, we do kind of dissect how much of that would be exposed to office buildings or commercial customers. And secondly, on M&A, you kind of laid out pretty well on previous questions here. So we're just curious if you have any thoughts on bending some of the equipment yourself, which might be in tight supply in the market again.

Yeah, so relative to office buildings and commercial buildings, obviously those are customers of our customers. So I think we're not, I don't think that's been a key driver of the business. I don't think there's been large expansions of either of those in the country over the last couple of years. but obviously connectivity is important for everybody and to the extent that anybody needs connectivity it's a potential customer for our customers. From an M&A perspective look we haven't looked at getting into manufacturing. We you know we we think you know our business has been strong we have really strong demand and and really good partners that can support us in that so we haven't seen the need to do that. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. And I would now like

to turn the conference back to Chris McRae for closing remarks.

All right. Thank you, everybody. That concludes today's call. Thanks for participating. And as a reminder, please visit our Investor Relations website for a replay and transcript, which will be posted when available.

And this concludes today's program. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.