Earnings Call Transcript - NVT Q1 2025

Operator, Operator

Good morning and welcome to the nVent Electric First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity for questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Vice President of Investor Relations, Tony Riter. Please go ahead.

Tony Riter, Vice President of Investor Relations

Thank you and welcome to nVent's First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. On the call with me are Beth Wozniak, our Chair and Chief Executive Officer; Gary Corona, our Chief Financial Officer; and Sara Zawoyski, our President of Systems Protection. They will provide details on our first quarter performance and outlook for the second quarter and an update to our full-year outlook. As a reminder, all results referenced throughout this presentation are on a continuing operation basis unless otherwise stated. Before we begin, let me remind you that any statements made about the company's anticipated financial results are forward-looking statements subject to future risks and uncertainties, such as the risks outlined in today's press release and nVent's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements are made as of today, and the company undertakes no obligation to update publicly such statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Actual results could differ materially from anticipated results. Today's webcast is accompanied by a presentation, which you can find in the Investors section of nVent's website. References to non-GAAP financials are reconciled in the appendix of the presentation. We will have time for your questions after our prepared remarks. With that, please turn to Slide 3, and I will now turn the call over to Beth.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to share with you our strong first quarter results and cover some key business highlights. First, the way we have set up the call today is to have Sara cover our first quarter performance and then have Gary provide our guidance and outlook. Sara and Gary have been working closely together to ensure a smooth transition. This will be Sara's last earnings call and I'm grateful for her leadership and partnership. Sara, in her new role as President of Systems Protection, will be leading our largest growth opportunities from our Data Solutions business to our newest acquisitions, which includes Trachte and the Avail Electrical Products Group. I know she will be successful and drive our business to new levels. I'm excited to have Gary as part of our team. Gary has a strong growth and operational finance background and will continue to drive our track record of performance. With his most recent experience as Acting CFO for Medtronic and over 25 years at General Mills, he brings broad expertise to nVent. Gary is getting up to speed very quickly. He will build upon the transformation strategy in place and his experience will help us scale and grow to create shareholder value and strong returns. Turning to the business performance. We're off to a strong start with double-digit growth across the board in orders, sales, adjusted EPS, and free cash flow in Q1. In addition, we continue to see our backlog grow up double-digits sequentially, giving us visibility through the year. We continue to make great progress on our portfolio transformation to become a more focused, higher-growth electrical company. We closed the Thermal Management divestiture early in the quarter and the Avail Electrical Products Group acquisition yesterday. Our balance sheet is strong and our disciplined capital allocation is focused on growth and returning cash to shareholders for continued value creation. We are raising our full year sales and adjusted EPS guidance to reflect the Electrical Products Group acquisition, Data Solutions and Power Utilities strength in the second half and it also includes the expected impact of tariffs.

Sara Zawoyski, President of Systems Protection

Thank you, Beth. To begin, I am honored for the opportunity to lead the Systems Protection segment and I am thrilled to have Gary as part of the team. We have been working closely together to ensure a smooth transition. Now, turning to the business performance. We are off to a great start to the year with double-digit growth in both sales and adjusted earnings, along with robust free cash flow. Let's begin on Slide 5 with our first quarter results. Sales of $809 million were up 11% relative to last year. Organically, sales grew 2% driven by volume on top of 6 points of volume growth last year. Acquisitions added $71 million to sales or 10 points to growth. Foreign exchange was roughly a one point headwind. First quarter segment income was $162 million, up 4%. As expected, return on sales was down in the quarter at 19%. Inflation was approximately $25 million, productivity partially offset inflation and we also continued to make investments for growth, particularly in Data Solutions. Q1 adjusted EPS was $0.67, up 10% at the high end of our guidance range. We generated robust free cash flow of $44 million, up 32% compared to a year ago. Now, please turn to Slide 6 for a discussion of our first quarter segment performance. Starting with Systems Protection, sales of $508 million increased 16%, driven by the Trachte acquisition. Trachte has performed extremely well with sales up double-digits versus a year ago and a strong backlog. Organically, sales were flat on top of 11% growth a year ago. Infrastructure grew mid-teens with continued strength in Data Solutions. This was offset by declines in both industrial and commercial residential. Geographically, Americas declined low-single-digits, while Europe was flat and Asia Pacific grew double-digits. First quarter segment income was $104 million, up 10%. Return on sales of 20.5% decreased 110 basis points year-over-year, impacted by inflation and growth investments. Moving to Electrical Connections. Sales of $301 million increased 3%. Organic sales were up 4%, reflecting strong volume. Infrastructure and Industrial each grew double-digits in the quarter, while commercial resi was down low-single-digits. Geographically, organic sales were up mid-single-digits in the Americas, while Europe and Asia Pacific declined. Segment income was $85 million, flat year-over-year. Return on sales was 28.3% down 90 basis points, mainly due to higher inflation. And that wraps up the quarter and I will now hand it over to Gary.

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Sara. I really appreciate the warm welcome from you and Beth. I'm excited to be part of nVent. I've been impressed with the strength of the broader team, the disciplined capital allocation and focus on execution. The culture of the company focused on innovation, growth, and performance is a powerful combination. I look forward to getting to meet many of you in the investment community in the coming months. Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow on Slide 7. We ended the quarter with over $1.3 billion of cash-on-hand including the proceeds from the Thermal Management divestiture. We also had $600 million available on our revolver. In addition, we repaid $390 million of term loans in the first quarter, reducing our overall debt. Free cash flow was robust in the quarter, growing 32% year-over-year. We believe our healthy balance sheet and strong liquidity position support our disciplined capital allocation strategy. Turning to Slide 8, where we outline our capital allocation priorities. We continue to prioritize growth and execute a balanced and disciplined approach to capital allocation to deliver great returns. We are investing in the business via R&D and CapEx for growth and supply chain resiliency. In addition, we returned significant capital to shareholders already this year. We repurchased approximately $250 million in shares year-to-date, exceeding our plan, resulting in a lower share count and we believe at a great value. As previously announced, our quarterly dividend increased 5%. We have additional capacity for capital deployment with our first priority being to invest in growth. Moving to Slide 9. As Beth shared earlier, we are raising our full year reported sales and adjusted EPS guidance. We now forecast reported sales growth of 19% to 21%. For organic sales growth, we now expect to grow 5% to 7% versus our prior guidance of 4% to 6%, mainly reflecting visibility and strength in Data Solutions and Power Utilities. We expect acquisitions to now contribute 14 points to sales, up from 5 points previously, reflecting the Avail EPG acquisition. We now expect foreign exchange to be approximately flat. We are raising our full year adjusted EPS range to $3.03 to $3.13, up 22% to 26% versus our original guidance of $2.98 to $3.08. This new guidance assumes tariff impacts of approximately $120 million based on what we know today. We expect to offset the impact with price, productivity and supply chain mitigating actions. It also includes approximately $0.05 for the Avail EPG acquisition. A few modeling assumptions to note. First, full year net interest expense is now expected to be approximately $75 million, reflecting the cash deployed to M&A, share repurchases and debt paydown year-to-date. Second, we anticipate share count to be approximately $165 million. Lastly, we are raising our CapEx forecast to approximately $100 million. The increase is for additional data solutions capacity, supply chain resiliency, and the expected CapEx for the Avail EPG acquisition. Looking at our second quarter outlook on Slide 10, we forecast reported sales to grow 22% to 24% with acquisitions contributing approximately 18 points to sales. Organic sales growth is expected to be up 4% to 6%. The additional price increases coupled with productivity are not expected to fully offset the tariff impacts in Q2. We anticipate price plus productivity to more than offset the impacts as we get to the back half of the year. We expect adjusted EPS to be $0.77 to $0.79 in the second quarter, which at the midpoint reflects 16% growth relative to last year. Wrapping up, we are pleased with our first quarter performance. We delivered strong sales and earnings growth and are well-positioned for another great year. I will now turn the call back over to Beth.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Gary. On Slide 11, you can see the actions we have taken in our portfolio transformation. The divestiture of the Thermal Management business and the two most recent acquisitions of Trachte and Avail's Electrical Products Group have reshaped our portfolio to increase our presence in the electrical infrastructure vertical. We believe these actions have positioned us as a more focused, higher-growth connection and protection company. In addition, we have grown our Data Solutions business to over $600 million in sales. The infrastructure vertical, which was our smallest vertical at spin is now the largest. We believe it is the highest-growth vertical with the trends of electrification, sustainability, and digitalization. This year, the infrastructure vertical is expected to be over 40% of our sales, with Data Solutions and Power Utilities, each approximately 20% of sales. Our portfolio is now a balance between short cycle and long cycle with a growing backlog. As a result, we believe we are better positioned for growth and value creation. Turning to Slide 12. Yesterday, we closed on our acquisition of the Avail Electrical Products Group, a leading provider of control buildings, switchgear, and bus systems. This acquisition builds on our control buildings platform acquired with the Trachte acquisition and expands our offerings and capabilities in new applications. The addition of the Electrical Products Group further strengthens our solutions in high-growth verticals with approximately 85% of its sales in Power Utilities, Data Centers, and Renewables. This business has been growing sales strong double-digits with a robust backlog, giving us visibility into 2026. Overall, the demand for electrical infrastructure products is increasing with the need to expand the overall grid, the move to more renewable energy, and the increase in Data Centers. Recently, NEMA, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, released an independent grid study showing electricity demand is forecasted to grow by 50% by 2050. This study shows the electrification trend is upon us and electrical solutions and innovation will be required to meet the increasing demand. It is an exciting time for the electrical industry and nVent is well-positioned to be a part of this energy transition. Please turn to Slide 13 titled 2024 Sustainability Report. At nVent, we are building a more sustainable and electrified world. Last month, we published our latest sustainability report that outlines our commitment to sustainability and the meaningful progress we are making. Our focus is on people, products, planet and governance. A few highlights from the reports. In 2024, we achieved above the global benchmark for employee satisfaction. On products, 85% of our new product introduction funnel has a positive sustainability impact. On Planet, we've reduced our normalized CO2 emissions by 47% since 2019. Lastly, we were recognized as one of the world's most ethical companies by Ethisphere for the second consecutive year. Our sustainability efforts are key to our strategy and how we operate. I'm very proud of everything we've accomplished and the journey we are on. Wrapping up on Slide 14, we are off to a strong start to the year with double-digit growth in orders, sales, adjusted EPS, and free cash flow. Our portfolio transformation is on track and we expect another year of strong growth and value creation and we believe we are well-positioned with the electrification, sustainability, and digitalization trends. Our future is bright. With that I will now turn the call over to the operator to start Q&A.

Operator, Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. The first question comes from Deane Dray with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Deane Dray, Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Happy Friday.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Happy Friday, Deane.

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

Good morning.

Deane Dray, Analyst

Thanks. So first welcome to Gary. It was great to meet you in New York a couple of weeks ago and then best of luck to Sara. I'm not going to say it's a new role because it's not. You've been wearing the two hats. So but now it's a dedicated role and so best of luck there. So look I know there'll be lots of questions about tariffs. It looked very much in line with what we were expecting, but I'd rather put the spotlight first on the Data Solutions business, and if you could give us further color, Sara, before you write off, the pace of orders, any pushouts, just kind of like the tone of demand there? And then you said double-digit growth, but how does that square with Americas being flat for the segment? Thanks.

Sara Zawoyski, President of Systems Protection

I would like to start by expressing my gratitude and excitement for taking on this new role and collaborating with a fantastic team in Systems Protection. We ended 2024 with approximately $600 million in sales, and we anticipate strong double-digit growth this year, particularly in the latter half, as mentioned in the prepared remarks. Overall, we are seeing robust orders year-over-year this quarter. Our backlog has grown significantly, which gives us good visibility going into the second half of the year. It’s worth noting that this growth is broad-based, not only in liquid cooling solutions but also in power distribution units and cable management. We are observing an acceleration in demand from our customers. Additionally, we expect another strong year for new product launches, and the team is making excellent progress in enhancing our strengths in performance, reliability, and serviceability across both liquid cooling and power distribution units. Furthermore, we are witnessing growth extending from hyperscalers to multi-tenants and enterprise markets, as well as international growth. Overall, we are excited about our progress, but we believe much of the growth opportunity still lies ahead since we are at the beginning of this investment cycle. We will continue to invest this year, focusing on research and development and expanding our lab capabilities.

Deane Dray, Analyst

That's a great recap there, and just as a follow-up, can you talk about the latest deals of Avail and Trachte, just the contribution, are there any synergies between those businesses? And did I hear Gary correctly, Avail's contribution, a nickel in 25?

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, you did. So I'll start. Recall when we acquired Trachte, we said this is a new platform for us. It's a different type of enclosure, if you like, with more enclosures in it. But we saw that there were opportunities both on the cost synergy side because we buy a lot of steel, but our ability to transform to lean manufacturing and to drive integration and we saw the opportunity for these type of buildings are growing, not just for utilities and the grid build-out, but even for data centers. So with Avail, it is now building on that platform and giving us further integration capabilities from switchgear and from bus systems et cetera. So we believe that it's going to be very synergistic building a more scaled platform here and maybe I'll just have Sara talk about some of the early things that we're seeing with Trachte in terms of our wins because I think it's a very exciting space for us.

Sara Zawoyski, President of Systems Protection

Thanks, Beth. Regarding the end markets, we're observing a trend where data centers are optimizing their computing space by relocating IT equipment back into control buildings. This opens up opportunities not only in power utilities but also in a new application area. With respect to Trachte, which helps illustrate our approach to Avail EPG, while we don't factor sales synergies into our deal models, it remains a key focus for us regarding value creation. We’re already identifying opportunities in data centers where we can provide control building solutions to our clients. Notable developments are also taking place in the battery energy storage system sector. In terms of cost synergies, we previously mentioned a projected $5 million run-rate cost synergy over three years, and I believe we are on track. Our sourcing team has executed procurement savings ahead of schedule, especially with metals. Additionally, we've been emphasizing lean operations, and I'm proud of the team for doubling the monthly output of buildings in a specific value stream since we acquired Trachte in July. This improvement boosts our capacity and productivity, enhancing customer experience. This highlights the sales and cost synergies we aim to leverage as we integrate the Avail EPG team with our celebrations yesterday.

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

And Deane just to jump in on financial impact, as Beth said, we love the growth. It's been growing double-digits and it will contribute 9 of the 14 points of incremental acquisition growth. EPG will be accretive in the first year. It drops an additional $0.05 to our EPS and that's net of the interest benefit coming out, and as Sara mentioned, strong cost synergies and we also expect a nice cash tax benefit of approximately $15 million a year, and from a margin perspective, it's a bit lower, but like Trachte, we expect it to improve over time.

Deane Dray, Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Julian Mitchell with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Julian Mitchell, Analyst

Hi. Good morning and I'll echo the congratulations to Sara and welcome, Gary, to this call. Maybe just my first question would be around the organic sales outlook. So I think you're guiding the first half organic sales up sort of low-single-digits year-on-year. The second half implied is up high-single-digits year-on-year and so just sort of in the context of this macro backdrop kind of help us understand the confidence in that second-half acceleration, I see the orders, the last six months, very good. I'm not sure how much lead time there is from those into your 2H revenue though. And maybe any clarification around what drives the acceleration in terms of price step-up or a specific end market or segment.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Let me begin by addressing this. As we look ahead, we experienced significant growth in orders and have also mentioned our growing backlog. In particular, we see accelerated growth in Data Solutions and Power Utilities. Trachte is doing exceptionally well; we finalized that deal last July, and it will contribute to our organic growth starting in August. The growth we're observing in that infrastructure is robust. Our backlog and orders are strong, and additionally, the inclusion of ECG is also contributing positively from a reporting perspective.

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

And I would just add, in addition to the confidence that we have in the orders backlog and underlying growth, the comps, as you look at it, were much stronger last year in the first half versus the second half. We were up mid-single-digits last year in the first half and flattish in the second half.

Julian Mitchell, Analyst

That's helpful. Thank you. And then my second question just around the operating margins. So I think those were about 20% in the first quarter. It looks like the guide is embedding maybe 20% in Q2 and in the second half. I just wanted to double-check if that math is roughly right and how we should think about the tariffs affecting the margins in those quarters in the balance of the year.

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

Sure. I'll take that and I'll paint the picture for the year first and then I'll talk about Q2. On the base business, we are expecting first half margins to be down a bit on price-cost timing from tariffs and as well as the investments that we're putting into the business to support the second half strong growth. On the base business, we expect margins to flip positive in the second half as pricing and the other mitigating productivity and supply chain actions fully take hold and we have really strong growth contribution. When we layer in Avail EPG, we are expecting margin dilution for both Q2 and the year. Again, as we talked about with a path on improving over time, we love the growth and it's delivering accretive top and bottom-line to overall nVent, but it will impact our reported margins. On the Q2 front, we expect Q2 to be up modestly on a sequential basis, but it will be down versus a year ago. As I mentioned, primarily driven by the timing of price costs with tariffs. But the most important thing we want you to take away is, the actions that we're taking will put us in place to grow our base margins in the second half.

Julian Mitchell, Analyst

That's great. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Brian Drab with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Brian Drab, Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. First one, just on the tariff situation. If you see, if we see a reversal or the trade war died down with China, what sort of impact did that have to the upside for your 2025 and your estimate of that $120 million in tariff headwind?

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

It's really so uncertain to be able to make a comment on that. I think part of our offsets with the tariff, it's pricing productivity and supply chain actions. So I would say this, we're managing our price as we see these additional cost impacts. I think it takes longer for us in terms of any supply chain reconfiguration that we do. So I'd like to say it, we're just neutral, and that has been our goal as we go forward, is just to manage to offset the impact of tariffs through numerous actions.

Brian Drab, Analyst

Okay. And then can you just put a finer point on the order growth, good double-digit order growth, but is that organic, and which segment is contributing the most to that order growth? If you could just kind of peel that back a little bit, that would be great.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So as I said in my prepared remarks, organic orders were up mid-teens and strong double-digits in Data Solutions with the rest of the business growing mid-single-digits and I would characterize it this way, where we see infrastructure, which of course is Data Centers and Power Utilities and Renewables, that's where we're seeing the strongest growth and that's also where we have that backlog.

Brian Drab, Analyst

Okay. Thanks very much.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator, Operator

The next question comes from Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Joseph Ritchie, Analyst

Hey, guys, good morning.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning.

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

Good morning.

Joseph Ritchie, Analyst

So, Sara, thank you for all your support over the years. I wish you the best in your new role, and welcome aboard, Gary. My first question is regarding Avail. I find it surprising that the contribution is only $0.05. It appears that the margins are somewhat lower. I'm estimating an EBITDA margin of about 10% for the remainder of the year. Can you help me understand what's happening there and what the expectations are for that business?

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

Yes, Joe, I'll take that. I'll take that one and please keep in mind that the nickel that we talked about to EPS is net of the interest that we assumed in our guide coming out. We're expecting on a gross basis, the EPS impact to be much higher than that nickel, and the margins that we're seeing are higher than what you suggested as well. So while the Avail EPG margins are a bit lower than the overall nVent margins, we love the top and bottom-line growth and as Sara talked about with Trachte, we've got a nice plan to improve them over time.

Joseph Ritchie, Analyst

Sure. I can go through the calculations later. However, the follow-up question is about the updated guidance range, which has increased. It appears that this is largely influenced by the additional point in volumes, but with the tariffs, there will also be some additional pricing. While I understand you’re not providing detailed pricing information anymore, I'm curious if the $120 million roughly represents four points of growth on the top line. Are you anticipating that most of this will be offset by pricing? If so, and considering the tariffs remain in effect throughout the year, should we expect the organic growth number to increase accordingly?

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Well, here's the thing. As we said in our remarks, there's a lot of uncertainty, and so as we looked at going forward, yes, we have backlog and infrastructure is growing. And as we looked at our quarter and how we performed in industrial and commercial resi, we think there's just an uncertain background there and so we believe there's a balance of, yes, we'll likely get more price, but maybe there is some volume impact as a result and so that's how we thought of it going forward. And I'll let Gary add some more color to that.

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

Coming into the year, our guidance primarily anticipated a volume-driven performance. However, due to the changing environment and uncertainty, we now expect to see an increase in pricing, which aligns with your observations. Regarding the factors affecting our EPS, we've noted the impact of Avail EPG and the strong performance in Data Solutions and Power Utilities during the second half of the year. Additionally, we have fewer shares outstanding compared to our initial guidance. It's important to point out that we discussed the softness in commercial residential markets during our prepared remarks. As mentioned, we're addressing tariffs using our strategy, which includes pricing adjustments, supply-chain productivity improvements, and various mitigating actions. This forms the basis of our guidance for the remainder of the year.

Joseph Ritchie, Analyst

Okay. Helpful, guys. Thank you.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator, Operator

We have our next question from Jeff Sprague with Vertical Research. Please go ahead.

Jeffrey Sprague, Analyst

Hey, thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

Good morning.

Jeffrey Sprague, Analyst

Hey, just coming back to sort of the commercial residential, all the stuff that implicitly didn't grow or decline, right, in the Americas. I think the comment was that you did have mid-single-digit growth in those kind of recently sluggish markets. Can you just speak a little bit to that side of the portfolio, what you're seeing from a demand standpoint? Do you think inventories are now in the right place kind of the set of questions around sort of the shorter-cycle elements of the portfolio?

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. At the beginning of this year, we anticipated growth in the industrial sector, which we still expect, and we originally projected low-single-digit growth for the commercial residential sector. However, I've updated that to indicate we now believe it will be relatively flat due to the anticipated impact from tariffs affecting demand. That said, many of our short-cycle operations are handled through distribution. Our sell-out and sell-in figures are both positive, indicating that inventories are well-aligned. Nonetheless, given the current uncertainty, we believe the commercial residential sector will be softer, and some short-cycle segments may also experience slight softness.

Jeffrey Sprague, Analyst

Understood. And then just Beth on tariffs. Is this number you're sharing all China or we've got some other countries, we've got steel and aluminum. Can you put a little bit finer point on this kind of the origination of the tariff number?

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. As we evaluate the situation, this reflects everything we know as of today, so things may evolve. One of the significant factors for us is the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, especially since we produce many enclosures and other products. The scale of those tariffs from China has a notable effect. Additionally, we need to consider the implications of tariffs from other countries. We also have various areas mitigated by the USMCA, but what we understand today is key. We have also taken into account some of the secondary or tertiary tariffs that could affect our supply chain. This is how we arrived at the number based on our current assessment.

Jeffrey Sprague, Analyst

Yes, aluminum remains our top priority, not China. Now, could you provide a bit more insight into the situation with Power Utilities? I think you've shared most of what you can about Data Solutions, which I appreciate. However, I'd like to know how the portfolio is shaping up and the order trends in that sector, along with your expectations for the year ahead.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I think the exciting thing for us is where we are today now with the most recent acquisition, we believe Power Utilities is about 20% of our overall sales. So that's significant for us from where we started, and it's not just the Trachte and Avail acquisition. I mean, certainly that gives us scale, and what we like about those businesses is that on Avail, it's grown at double-digits, it has a nice backlog into 2026. Similarly, we've shared with you the results on Trachte which was very strong growth and backlog building. But within our Electrical Connections segment, we also have some of the products aimed at utility space as well and they have also been growing in that double-digit range. So we think overall, just with that infrastructure build-out, that is going to be a strong growth driver just like data solutions has been for us. So the two of them together really 40% of our portfolio now.

Jeffrey Sprague, Analyst

Great. Thank you. Good luck, Sara. I hope we'll still see you around. I'm sure we will.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Jeff.

Operator, Operator

The next question comes from Nicole DeBlase with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Nicole DeBlase, Analyst

Yes, good morning, thanks, and congrats to both Sara and Gary. I guess maybe just starting with a follow-up question on the comments you made, Gary, around margins for the business for the rest of the year. Does that commentary hold for both businesses and maybe that kind of dovetails with the question of is the tariff and price-cost impact kind of spread relatively similarly across the businesses or is there one versus the other that's more impacted?

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

Yes, Nicole, there's nothing specific to highlight. Both businesses are navigating a very dynamic environment and are using the strategies I previously mentioned. From a growth standpoint, we anticipate different growth rates in System Protection for the second half, as Beth and Sara discussed. In the first half, I noted that our margins were affected by the investments we are making in Data Solutions. This impact will be felt throughout the year, but the initial investment in the first half was aimed at supporting growth in that sector for the second half.

Nicole DeBlase, Analyst

Okay, perfect. Thank you. And then just a clarification question on what you guys are doing from a pricing perspective? Is this via list price increases or surcharges or some combination of the two? And have those price increases already been fully implemented? And was that like an April 1st sort of date? Thanks.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Well, as you know, over 60% of our portfolio goes through distribution. And so we typically will increase our prices there as long as we give them notification and our playbook and as we've seen through other inflationary times is that often you're doing multiple price increases just as you're adjusting over the course of the year. So we've done some price increases and we'll monitor the situation if there's more impact, we can certainly manage price effectively there and then we also ensure with some of our more direct business that we manage price with those customers on a project-by-project basis. So we're actively managing pricing right now.

Nicole DeBlase, Analyst

Thanks, Beth. I'll pass it on.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Nigel Coe with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Nigel Coe, Analyst

Thanks. Good morning, everyone, and Sara, congrats, and Gary look forward to seeing you soon. So, yeah, look, maybe a couple of follow-ons here. So as I understand that the organic uplift is basically the price associated with the tariff countermeasures, volume unchanged. But if I put an extra point of price, I'm getting about $30 million of extra price versus $120 million of the tariff impact. So I'd like to understand a little bit better the kind of the offsets against that $120 million.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Well, I want to start by saying that while we expected shifts between price and volume, the primary factor driving the increase was actually stronger orders and backlog. This was the main reason for updating our organic guidance.

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

Yes, Nigel, just to clarify again, we came into the year with a very strong volume plan and as Beth mentioned, we have now more price into the market and our assumption is a bit less volume as we've taken our organic guidance up a point.

Nigel Coe, Analyst

Okay. So there's more than a point of price, but it doesn't seem like there's 4 points of price to offset the 120. So I'm just curious if you could maybe provide a bit more color there. But maybe moving on to the Avail acquisition, I have to agree with Joe, I'm getting more than $0.05 as well. So I'm curious on your assumption that we've got like a high-teens EBITDA margin, which maybe you can clarify that, are there any integration expenses or investment spending against that $0.05?

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

Yes, so just to reiterate, the nickel was a net impact to nVent, which is the profitability of the business coming in, but now our assumption that will no longer be gaining the interest benefit on the investment. So it's a net number, mid-teens margins and keep in mind, we closed the business yesterday and we're just getting under the hood and we've got a good playbook from Trachte to improve margins and we'll plan to do that and update this group as we have more share.

Nigel Coe, Analyst

We're still seeing high numbers, and we'll follow up later. Regarding Data Solutions, if you're looking at the mid-teens for the overall core and mid-single digits excluding Data Solutions, then we're approaching around 50% growth in Data Solutions. Is that accurate for order growth?

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, Nigel, they were very strong in Q1 and on top of strong growth in Q1 of a year ago.

Operator, Operator

The next question comes from Vlad Bystricky with Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Vladimir Bystricky, Analyst

Hey, good morning, team, and congrats to both Gary and Sara. Thanks for taking my questions here. I guess just a quick clarification on the increased CapEx outlook. Can you kind of dissect how much of that is related to Avail coming into the portfolio versus sort of core investments in legacy nVent, if you all?

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

Yes, Vlad, as you noticed, we did take our CapEx assumptions up and the majority of the increase is really related to the core business and supporting growth, not just in the second half but beyond. But we did layer in CapEx associated with the EPG acquisition in the guide as well.

Vladimir Bystricky, Analyst

Got it. That's helpful, Gary. I appreciate it. And then maybe just one follow-up. So when I look at the segments, I guess, can you just talk a little about the divergence between declining Americas sales and Systems Protection versus the robust Americas sales growth you saw in Electrical Connections and sort of what you think is some of the driving factors behind that divergence and how we should think about either as potentially a leading indicator going forward?

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I think some of that is really just the comp of a year ago because we had really strong growth a year ago out of Systems Protection and we were a little weaker on the Electrical Connection side. So that's really one of the primary reasons.

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

So I wouldn't extrapolate that, Vlad, going forward.

Scott Graham, Analyst

Hey, thanks for taking my question and welcome aboard, Gary, great to meet you a couple of weeks back and Sara best of luck to you. You've been truly excellent. I wanted to ask a couple of questions and I'll just ask them both and let you go at it. So the incremental margin in the quarter was sort of below what we've been seeing, is that all inflation and investments and or was there maybe something else there, and does that improve in the second half of the year? And then on acquisitions, how is the pipeline and is pricing better?

Gary Corona, Chief Financial Officer

So I'll take the margin question in the quarter and as you mentioned, Q1 margins were down, that net productivity bar was down $70 million, and as you mentioned, it reflects both the inflation offset somewhat by positive productivity, but also net of investments that are ramping for the back half. Going forward, as we mentioned, gross productivity will ramp, tariffs will ramp and then the pricing in our playbook will flow throughout the year. As I mentioned, excluding the EPG deal, we did expect margins to grow in the second half modestly as we get our playbook in place. As we layer in the deal, as we said, it comes in with a bit of a nice top and bottom-line contribution, but it will impact margins a bit. But we feel good about our margin gain plan in the back half and that will be put into place.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

And on the acquisition M&A pipeline question, I would like to say that where we play in this connect and protect space, it's about a $100 billion opportunity, and remember at $3 plus billion, we're one of the larger players. So it's very fragmented and I think there's a lot of opportunities, and you've seen the last couple of deals that we've had, and I think we've been very disciplined. This is our eighth deal and we always want our deals to cross the weighted-average cost-of-capital in two to three years and Avail will do that. And I think for us, as we go forward, it's just looking to see that there is the right deal and the right timing and our capacity to be able to execute on it as well. But we do have more capital to allocate and feel we're in a good position if there's the right opportunity for us to continue to do deals in the near-term, I would say.

Scott Graham, Analyst

Thank you.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator, Operator

Well, this concludes, sorry, go ahead.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

No. Go ahead.

Operator, Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Beth Wozniak for any closing remarks.

Beth Wozniak, Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Well, thank you for joining us today. I am proud of our performance in the first quarter. We will continue to focus on delivering for our customers, employees, and shareholders by executing on our growth strategy. We believe nVent is a top-tier high-performance electrical company, well-positioned for the electrification, sustainability and digitalization trends. Thanks again for joining us. This concludes the call.

Operator, Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.