Good morning, and welcome to the Qantas Services' second quarter 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow management's prepared remarks, and we will ask that you please hold all questions until that time. I will then provide instructions for the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. If you have any objection, please disconnect at this time. I will now turn the call over to Kip Rupp, Vice President, Investor Relations, for introductory remarks.

Thank you and welcome everyone to the Qantas Services second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. This morning we issued a press release announcing our second quarter 2026 results, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at QantasServices.com. This morning, we also posted our second quarter 2026 operational and financial commentary in our 2026 outlook expectations summary on Qantas Investor Relations website. While management will make brief introductory remarks during this morning's call, the operational and financial commentary is intended to largely replace management's prepared remarks, allowing additional time for questions from the institutional investment community. Please remember that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, July 30, 2026, and therefore you advise that any time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of any replay of this call. This call will include forward-looking statements intended to qualify under the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements reflecting expectations, intentions, assumptions, or beliefs about future events or financial performance. You should not place undue reliance on these statements, as they involve certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict or beyond Qantas control, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. We will also present certain historical and forecasted non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and operational and financial commentary. Please refer to these statements for additional information regarding our forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. Lastly, please sign up for email alerts through the investor relations section of quantaservices.com to receive notifications of news releases and other information. Follow Quanta IR and Quanta Services on the social media channels listed on our website. With that, I would like to now turn the call over to Mr. Duke Austin, Quanta's President and CEO.

Duke? Thanks, Kit. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Qantas Services Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I want to begin by recognizing our people in the field. Everything we are about to discuss starts with our more than 85,000 employees and the execution they deliver for our customers safely, on time, and on budget every day. This morning, we reported second quarter results that meaningfully exceeded expectations with strong double-digit growth in revenues, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted earnings per share, robust cash flow, and record backlog of $53 billion. Given when these acquisitions closed, their contribution to the quarter was minimal. The strength you're seeing today reflects broad-based organic strength across our segments, service lines, and in markets, and the successful execution of our strategy and the investments we have made against it. During the second quarter in July, we completed the acquisitions of Falcone, Interfab, Percheron, and PSD, and we welcome each of these excellent companies and their employees to the Qwanta family. These acquisitions enhance our geographic presence and continue our strategy to scale self-perform craft skill capabilities across electrical, mechanical, civil, and fabrication, and to lean into the front end of our customers' programs, where the work takes shape and where getting involved early maximizes the value we can deliver. These are companies that have executed successfully for decades and whose owners and leadership came up through the craft with customer relationships often built over generations. These acquisitions strengthen our position in technology and load centers while adding meaningfully diversification across end markets we've served for decades. Quanta runs it on a culture of absolute performance and is dedicated to the continuous improvement and the success of our customers. Every acquisition has to fit our strategy, and the culture has to fit. That is the first thing we evaluate and something we do not compromise. When a company that has built its name over 50 or 100 years decides to join Quanta, They are choosing a home that protects their legacy, keeps their management team, and gives the people more opportunity than they could create alone. Our solutions-based model is performing well, creating markets and unlocking growth opportunities because it is a platform that brings our customers industry-leading capabilities, scope, and scale with the largest craft workforce in North America at the center. The rigor we built over decades serving utilities, the planning, the safety, and the programmatic execution is exactly what we are bringing to technology and load center and generation markets. Technology is trying to move as fast as possible. Utilities are working to protect the rate payer, and Qantas sits in the middle of the nexus, providing solutions to both. Our customers realize how important speed and certainty is, and the trust and track record we have built over decades is what differentiates Qwanta. Qwanta's core strategy remains grounded in craft skill labor, execution certainty, and disciplined capital deployment. Craft is built over time, and we prioritize that investment for well over a decade. We self-perform 80 to 85 percent of our work, which is what allows us to deliver on time and on budget at scale. That certainty, quarter after quarter and year after year, is what our customers count on, is what has produced record-adjusted EPS for the last nine consecutive years, and why our customers keep asking us to do more. As a result of our strong first half, improved visibility into the remainder of the year, and expected contributions from the acquisitions announced this morning, we are significantly increasing our full-year 2026 financial expectations across all metrics. The record backlog we reported reflects the demand in front of us, but we're still in the early stages. The larger programs across the utility generation and technology load center markets are ahead of us, and we expect them to stack in the years that to come. In many ways, we are just getting started. We remain focused on executing for our customers' success, deploying capital with discipline, and compounding earnings and shareholder value over the long term. I will now turn the call over to Jayshree Desai, Qantas CFO, to provide a few remarks about our results and 2026 guidance. And then we will take your questions. Jayshree?

Thanks, Duke, and good morning, everyone. This morning, we reported historically strong second quarter results with revenues of $9.6 billion, net income attributable to common stock of $451 million or $2.96 per diluted share, adjusted diluted earnings per share of $4.24, and adjusted EBITDA of $1.1 billion. Those results included approximately $11 million of adjusted EBITDA from acquisitions made during the second quarter. The performance in the first half of 2026 exceeded our initial expectations, led by the strength of our end markets and our strategies in action. The versatility of our workforce and our customer-centric delivery model are translating to greater scope, better resource utilization, elevated revenues, and improved margins. And our customers are increasingly recognizing how the breadth of our capabilities can contribute to their success, as evidenced by another quarter of record backlog. Given the strength of our first-half performance, improved visibility into the second half, and expected contributions from recent acquisitions, we are raising our full-year financial expectations. We now expect revenues to range between $39.3 and $39.7 billion, adjusted EBITDA to range between $4.1 and $4.2 billion, adjusted EPS to range between $16.45 and $16.95, and free cash flow to range between $2 and $2.5 billion. As Duke described, subsequent to our first quarter earnings release, we acquired four companies for approximately $1.24 billion of upfront consideration net of cash acquired, plus approximately $242 million of contingent consideration that can be earned based on financial performance in the years following the closing. Included within our increased full-year financial expectations are $1.2 to $1.4 billion of revenues and $120 to $140 million dollars of adjusted EBITDA from these acquisitions. Importantly, as evidenced by the ratings upgrade by Moody's, our balance sheet and credit profile strengthened even as we deployed capital on the aforementioned acquisitions. As calculated under our senior credit agreement, at the end of the second quarter, our debt to EBITDA ratio improved to 1.7, down from 1.95 at the end of 2025, and we had total liquidity of approximately $2.8 billion. The larger programs, broader service offerings, and multi-year commitments we're negotiating every day are a direct reflection of the trust our customers place in our ability to execute at scale. Combined with the disciplined way we're allocating capital across our strategic initiatives, we believe we're well-positioned to keep converting that trust into durable, attractive returns for our shareholders. Additional detail and commentary on our 2026 financial guidance can be found in our Operational and Financial Commentary and Outlook Expectations Summary, both available on our Investor Relations website. With that, we're happy to take your questions.

Thank you. We will now move to our question and answer session. For today's session, we'll be utilizing the Raise Hand feature via the webinar. If you'd like to ask a question, simply click on the Raise Hand button at the bottom of your screen. If you have dialed in, please press star 9 to raise hand and star 6 to unmute. Once you've been called on, please unmute yourself and begin to ask your question. Again, that is star 9 to raise hand and star 6 to unmute if you have dialed in. We ask that all participants limit themselves to one question. If you have additional questions, you may re-cue and those questions will be addressed, time permitting. Thank you. We will now pause a moment to assemble the queue.

Your first question comes from Stephen Fisher with UBS. please unmute and ask your question even your line is open you may ask your question how's it good yes now we can okay sorry about that uh yeah just uh we're saying um congrats on the strong beats across your business in the quarter uh but maybe focusing on the strong margin performance i know you've been duke a little bit you know reserved and j3 on the margin upside messaging. I guess to what extent do you now think maybe a little bit more positively longer term about the margin potential here? You have more self-perform and you've got more large load projects becoming more of the mix. I guess any reason why that wouldn't add to some margin upside over the longer term?

Yeah, thanks, Steve. Thanks for the comments about the quarter. I think when we're looking at the margin profile, we said the UI segment had some room and we felt like it would move up you know the the businesses that we've acquired how we how we look at that business today the risk we're willing to take you know certainly is moving that profile up and you're seeing that in the quarter and i believe you'll see that on a go forward basis um you know so that moved up electric as well i think we moved that up as well on the back side um that look structurally fundamentally the business has changed we're seeing it change We have two addressable TAMs, both of which are growing. So I do that mix. We're looking at it constantly to make sure that we're giving you good prudent guidance. Yeah, I do think we posted a real nice quarter. We were prudent in the guidance that we gave you in the back half. You're seeing synergies show up. We're seeing a lot of book to burn. So I do believe like there is some room in the margins in the backside. We took prudent approach to it. that there's no you know you got climbs and northern climbs weather we take everything into risk project slips all that's already baked into to our numbers so yeah i think there's upside in the back and um you know as as we see it as we see the work mix as we see the mix in the electric segment it's a big segment um so you know we have to really take into account everything in there and i think we've done a nice job of that but i do think there's room for margin improvement in backside you know we've always said that the electric segment has the ability to operate 10 to 12 on the utility said 12 would be the utmost margins that you would see and that's when you stacked in large transmission and all all aspects at once so you get full utilizations you're also training a lot of people i mean we've added 15 500 people over the year um you know seven of which, or eight of which, seven or eight, I can't remember, is organic. I believe it's eight. So in saying that, I mean, significant amount of training going in. We're getting better at training. If we can get better at training, we can get, you know, scale out of that as well. I do think we have, you know, the ability to improve margins. It's still something we're trying to compound it. We have rate payers on the utility side. It's very much regulated. And so that said, you know, we're doing a nice job on the technology TAM, and we're also getting some synergies out of our training and, you know, getting people to the field. So super happy with where we're at.

Terrific. Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question will come from Julian Dumoulin-Smith with Jefferies. Please unmute and ask your question.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Hopefully you can hear me okay. Just wanted to ask, one, we've seen a large utility in the Midwest. briefly indicate, at least for their gas generation RFP, that they're electing to self-perform because there's inadequate resources. Again, given this backdrop, how do you think about your willingness to participate in the gas generation side of the business? Obviously, we saw a press release from you guys on NiceHorse earlier. How do you think about leaning further into that, and what would that look like in as much as a JV structure is not obvious? I'm curious for your thoughts about the Xamarin CPCM?

Yeah, no, look, Julian, we're seeing the same thing. I mean, I do think that some of the utilities, a few of the utilities that are trying to self-perform. Yeah, it sounds easy. It's not. So I think in general, we saw that in the past back in, I don't know, it was probably 20 years ago, my age myself. Look, we know the risk. We know the risk of of the people that that we need to employ our cross-scale labor is there we're doing a nice job of building that business you know it's something meaningful um in the future we talked about it um you know i as far as like the robust nature of epc on generation not only you know in front of the meter behind the meter you know someone was saying not too long ago that we're just in front of the meter i mean behind the meter so we're on both sides of that we're seeing some you know small engines we're seeing big engines we're seeing all types of generation and we're installing the epc in it i i like the business um we're just not willing to take the risk on the combined cycle side and you know some of the single cycle engines so that that's the issue um if we can get the type of contracts that we need to feel comfortable with it we'll do it And, you know, certainly the inbounds and ask of our customers, we did mention a nice source. I do believe, you know, a significant amount of that will go into backlog in the third quarter. That's moving nicely. There's some, you know, other, what I believe, opportunities in that part of the world that will continue to compound. And not only them, but every customer we have, you know, we're working with them on their capital plans to build both Generation and T&D.

I appreciate it. Just a quick one on the technology side. Can you speak a little bit to how you're scaling that business? Is this just a way to expand with existing customers? What exactly is going on within the details, if you can? Obviously, it's a nation business model for folks. You've got a lot of new entrants. Just curious, you have a lot of interest relationships you're hearing about out there. How much of this is new customers and new platforms?

And what do you intend to do from a strategic M&A perspective to continue to build this business too? doing a lot to that so when i when we think when we thought about it when we acquired cupertino we acquired a platform we talked about the technology customers that we thought you know that we could take our collaborative approach and build a another tam that's every bit as big as our utility tam we're doing that it's showing up um direct to the hyperscaler direct to the larger customers showing them you know what we can do our self-perform capabilities we show up we're on time we're certain and that's leading to balance the plant type builds in multiple areas so you know call it 80 percent or of what a data center would build less chips and i think 90 maybe so we have the abilities to do that and as people see that we're certain and our projects are on time on budget, self-perform, more and more adjustable market comes our way. So I think we really like what we see, the collaborative nature. We talk about synergies a lot, and, you know, we don't put them in anything. But you can see from the quarter, they show up. You know, we're crossing, we're fungible with labor. We're crossing both T and D as well as going into data centers with our people. You can see the queues on the utility side of substations, all the substations that are out there. We're right in the middle of that. And I think as that nexus, I'm not sure people understand that nexus and how difficult it is to interconnect to the grid and how much we're right in the middle of that interconnection. So that interconnection along their vertical supply chains, the very strategies that we've discussed are showing up and the synergies are right there with them. So I do believe, Julian, as we look at technology, we're in a collaborative way helping them be certain on not only cost but getting it done on time. So we really like where we sit.

Your next question will come from Chad Dillard with Bernstein. You may now unmute and ask your question.

Hey, good morning, guys. So my question is on the modular and prefab side of the business. It's increasingly clear that, you know, you guys are investing in that organically and inorganically. So I'd be curious to hear, you know, what share of your RFPs have that capability? And how do you think about that on the next five years? and maybe you can talk about just like the labor cost savings that you see when you deliver that and the extent to which you can, you know, value-based price with your customers on that.

Yeah, I mean, look, we talked about having 7 million square feet. We just added, call it half a million square feet with the acquisitions that we've made. So, yes, we're adding to that. We've always done some what I would consider fabrication, but I do think this integrated fabrication that we're doing, it's different. It's a solution-based approach. It has a lot of video engineering, a lot of technology in front of it. We can really design from a construction nature and work with the client on what they're trying to accomplish. Less water, closed-loop systems, no water, all kinds of things that we're able to really, really work with the client up front. I think we have some of the best engineers in the world because they've been in the field and they know how to construct. So that allows us to really lean into these projects, become much, much more efficient if we work in a collaborative manner with our client, much like we've done with AEP on 765. I mean, I think when we look at it, we work together. And if we can do that, the fabrication is exponential. You know, I don't but whether it's cost less or more, it's going to cost less. It's less people to some degree, depending on where you're at and your logistics. So logistics costs, you know, a significant amount. So you really need to be close to where you're building. And I think that Northeast environment and what we've done there with the acquisition of Falcon really gives us a lot of opportunity in the East and the fabrication in the East. But, yeah, look, you're certain as well. You're inside, and it allows us to really have a certain outcome. And the engineering in front of it allows the cost to come down. So, yeah, the more collaborative the client is with us, what I would consider the total cost goes down significantly for them.

Great.

That's helpful.

And then have you started to see RFPs for 800-volt work yet? When is that starting? And just from a labor standpoint, is there any difference in complexity, the mix of labor force, or even the use of modular when you're shifting from 54 to 800-volt architecture?

Sure. I'll just say it this way. We haven't seen it show up. We're in the middle of engineering with it. We're all over it from the high voltage side, as well as the equipment. Anything complicated, anything with a higher voltage, the higher the voltage, the better for QAnna. So I'll just say it like that. We love complicated high voltage infrastructure. The more, the better. Thanks.

Your next question will come from Justin Hawk with Baird. You may now unmute and ask your question.

Great. Thank you. I've just got kind of one to focus. Obviously, there's a lot of positives on this quarter, but, you know, one to stand out as well is the free cash flow. I just wanted to, I guess, maybe ask, are you seeing changes in kind of, you know, maybe like prepayments or, you know, other things that are kind of favorable to work and capital from some of these large load customers that, you know, maybe it's a sustainable dynamic that, you know, maybe improves the free cash flow conversion over time, or is it kind of just a one-off here this quarter?

Hey, Justin. No, we're very pleased with what's happening with free cash flow in our business. The first half of the year was very strong. I think it's a real testament to the operators, how well they're performing. We are getting favorable contracting terms across the business, but the growth of the MEP business, our EPC business, and our renewables business is contributing to that free cash flow growth. So we believe that we're going to continue to see those types of factors coming into our free cash flow profile. It's improving our working capital, as you said. Having said that, we do think the right way to think about our business continues to be that conversion rate of around 55 percent. I talked about it in the investor day that we have the opportunities to be higher than that, 55 to 60 percent. Do I believe that we can be at the high end of that even this year and going forward? I do. I think there's opportunities even to beat it. But growth, where the growth comes from matters. The strong utility business is continuing to grow in the back end as well. And as you know, that has a slightly different working capital profile, and it can pressure free cash flow. We've taken all that into account in our guide. But I think you can expect, Justin, that we have real abilities to be at the high end of those free cash flow ranges and even better.

Great. That's all for me. Thank you.

Your next question will come from Sujita Jane with KeyBank. Please unmute and ask your question.

Great. Thank you for taking that question. Can I ask one on Percheron, if I'm pronouncing that the acquisition that you made, how much of the revenue that they do is already revenue from Quanta and how much is third party? And as you bring it in, are you going to focus it more on just working for Quanta? And then does this allow you to do more front-end work with data centers or is it purely just a T&D type operation?

Thank you.

Thank you, Sangita. So Parasharan, John, when we looked at that, really, it's right-of-way acquisition. It's things of that nature, none of which is for Kiwana. Very little, if any, was Kiwana revenue. So it's all outside. The customer base would be utilities, hyperscalers. So both sides of that. The way we think about it, anything that, you know, from our standpoint, it doesn't allow our field forces to move forward, or we can collaborate with a client in a constructability way, we want that to be a part of the solution. So they were very much a solution for us on the front end. We believe added to Qwana and our constructability, we can work with the client on routes. You hear about permitting quite a bit, land acquisition quite a bit. I'm getting tired of it. So as we see it, we felt like you can either gripe about it or you can fix it. So First Run will allow us to provide a unique solution to the client on the front end where we believe we can move right away faster in a more economical way to get our people in the field, both on the technology market and actually technology pipeline and utility T&D. So super proud, great company. I believe we can exponentially grow that and the synergies are endless.

Thank you.

As a reminder, we ask that all participants limit themselves to one question. If you have additional questions, you can raise your hand and rejoin the queue. Our next question will come from Nick Amakuchi with Evercore ISI. Please unmute and ask your question.

Hey, guys. I just had a quick one, too. Just given, I mean, obviously it seems like pretty strong organic performance within the core, I just wanted to see, I mean, if we could kind of break that out. How much was that – was there any kind of pull forward of timing or weather implications within there, just given kind of more of a mild spring season?

No, I do think, you know, you bring up a good point on seasonality. We used to have a much more pronounced seasonality in the business. With being inside and having, you know, kind of the electricians and the places that we're at, I do fabrication facilities, you're going to see that level out in the fourth and the second it'll start to level so it won't be as pronounced as it was in the past so i do think that's part of it but as far as pull in i mean you know it is different from a standpoint nothing pulled in at all that i'm aware of i just nothing but what but what is happening we're getting on sites and people are starting to see us perform and they're asking for more services immediately So we may book and bill $300 million on a site in a quarter. You never see it show up in backlog. You know, that's part of MEP, and that happens quite a bit. So we're working through that about how to look at those MSAs on the technology side, especially when we're building balance of plant in multiple areas. We need to look at that internally to decide, you know, is a PO against an MSA or is it an MSA? So we're following GAP, but I would tell you the book and burn on that type of work is certainly prevalent in the quarter, and it will be prevalent as far as we can see because we continue to capture more balance of plan opportunities and kind of full-scale data center opportunities, and you'll see us on quite a few sites in the future.

Our next question will come from Adam Thelhimmer with Thompson Davis. Please unmute and ask your question.

Hey, good morning, guys. Congrats on another great quarter and a great year to date. Hey, Duke, I guess I wanted to dial in on your traditional T&D business. How would you say that's – other than the obvious that it's good, how would you parse that, how it's trending versus your initial expectations at the beginning of the year? And I wanted to get an update on your long-term expectations from electric utility customers.

I think we're right on target. you know we kind of you haven't seen the compounding effect i mean we're not in backlog on any of the bigger work yet um even even the generation work most of it is i'd say 95 percent of it's not in backlog either so those big projects the 765 corridors 345 500 all those bigger all that bigger work is just starting um a lot of it's in engineering you'll start to see it hit backlog in the later half of the year and you know throughout what i would consider the decade so it's a long-term build well past 2030 on both sides of the business so we're seeing those projects today they'll show up and backlog will go to the field and call it second half of 27 we'll start to see incremental gain there and the compounding stacking effect will start to hit the backlog. I continue to expect us to have record backlog into the third and probably even into the fourth, but definitely we see the work there and it has not started. So kind of what I would say upper single digit growth in the business as it sits, doing nicely, working with clients. So I think, you know, double digit type growth is there today and it's going to get much greater than that as we start compounding big work there we it's it'll look much like it did you know call it 15 before 15 was a 12 to 15 somewhere in there when we're on a bunch of big projects and started compounding we see that type of effect yes it's big numbers but but the big numbers are going to compound as well so we're super excited about where that's going early stages and it'll start to show up call it in backlog this year and in the field next year Perfect. Thanks, Duke. Thanks.

Your next question will come from Liam Burke with B. Riley Securities. Please unmute and ask your question.

Yeah, thank you, Duke. Just a quick follow-on on what we just discussed on your longer-term plan. Going back to the backlog, so your backlog, similar to what you discussed last quarter, is more broader based across the businesses rather than projects?

That's right. But, I mean, I do think those larger projects – you're going to get some lumpy quarters where you're one-to-one, one-two. You're going to start to see one-five, one-six as you bring in the big chunks of projects, and it's going to happen. You know, we saw some of it when we brought in 765 last quarter. You saw, you know, a big boost up. It was broad-based, but it also had a big project in it. You know, that's going to happen. It's not going to be a straight line. You're going to see some lumpy kind of quarters, but all kind of lower lows, higher highs all the way through the way we see it. Because I just think we can't predict timing and bookings on that big work. It just takes time. And, you know, we're in LNTPs all over the place and Verbal's all over the place with lots of clients in a collaborative way. I just really like the collaboration the company is doing. We're really trying to help our clients. And I think, you know, giving them certainty, working with them, driving the cost down to the rate payer. The company is highly focused on driving the cost down to the rate payer. I think that's the deal we're really working hard with throughout on the T&D side. And I like where that's going. It's certainly giving us a multi-year, even decade look outward. You can see their capital budgets. It's something we can point our finger to. We're working hard together. I like where the industry is going.

Great. Thank you, Derek.

Your next question will come from Philip Shen with Roth Capital Partners. You may unmute and ask your question.

Hey, guys. Congrats again on the strong results. Hey, wanted to check in with you on the recent New York state ban or pause on data centers. We published recently that we could see as many as 10 more states pursue data center bans or pauses by the end of this year. What are your thoughts on this potential risk? How could it impact your business? And then when you add data center work to your backlog, have these projects been cleared of all permitting, environmental approvals, community support? You know, I'm guessing the answer is yes, but just was wondering if you can talk through, is there any risk that some of these state bans or pauses could take some of the projects out of backlog?

So just a couple of things. It's a good question because it gives me an opportunity to freelance a little bit here. What I would say is 15% of the business is technology, call it 15 to 20, right in there. And, you know, that's a spectrum of chips to everything, not just data centers. So it's not a huge piece of the business, number one. We've grown to that range over the last two years, which I think is phenomenal. We've built a hell of a business already and got a long way to go, so very early stages. And the quality of the companies that we've acquired is just phenomenal. phenomenal super proud of the platforms so in saying that um look we're involved in lots of data centers i haven't seen much in new york nothing really gets built there um so it's very difficult to build in new york and i having a moratorium in new york doesn't bother me at all i just hope we can get enough power to continue to keep the lights on pjm so that that's a are highly focused there on that what i would say is in general when we think about data centers i just it's such a fallacy of the amount of water and what it does for an economy i mean in rural areas the school districts and the kids and the teachers we employ people there i mean it's such a benefit to everyone that that is building in those areas and you know it's not a one-year build these are these are eight ten-year areas that build and you're providing jobs and if you look at northern louisiana where they're building there yeah they're using a little bit more water than some other areas i would say there's better designs today and you can use less water but what that's done for teachers teachers were the lowest paid in all louisiana they will be the highest paid in louisiana in that area all the teachers all the what it does for the rate base the economies i just don't think it gets the press we're not doing a good enough job talking about the good things about data centers national security everything else that that i see it reminds me a lot of the fracking rhetoric that was out there so it's just something that i think we have to do a great job of the tell the benefits to the industry and how we see it and what it's done to create jobs and and good jobs you know i think you can look at our median wage and see Like, it's very, very good for us and the economy. So, look, we're not seeing any shortage of places to go to work. And we're moving forward, really working in local areas to provide jobs. And as long as we do that, I believe we're on the right side of the rhetoric with data centers and not like where it's going.

Yeah, and Phil, just on the backlog, I think it's important to add that we take all those into account. The way we treat our backlog, just like we do on the T&D side, just like we do on the generation side, we want to make sure that we have a constructive and prudent way of what goes into backlog. So on the data center side, we tend to put in things that have only LNTPs, and we don't put the rest of it until the project is a go. So I think you can be confident in what we have in our backlog as a result.

So, yeah, and we're seeing multi-year projects too. So, I mean, we're out well beyond 2030. Got it.

Your next question will come from Alex Reigel with Texas Capital Securities. Please unmute and ask your question.

Thank you. Great quarter. Could you speak a bit more about underground and infrastructure and in particular pipelines?

And are you seeing any green shoots develop? yeah i mean look i think we have certainly have opportunities i think we've we're probably we booked a little bit of canada work in the quarter so a real nice job there with that so um proud about that one i think we'll book more in canada the opportunities you know i would say later half of 26 and 27 for us are there uh that that business is getting better so yeah i mean i it's something we're looking at and as a kind of how we look at it you know we kind of put 500 million in our in our head and that's where it's at we're well past that um for the year probably and beyond so we'll relook at that as how how we guide but no alex i think it's all risk we'll be cognizant of how we look at the risk and you know our generation business is growing nicely some things there so we're able to use some of those assets and people and project management teams on the generation side, there's a lot of pipe feed and generation that we can bundle that in as well. So that solution-based approach on the technology side applies to the pipeline as well and gives us a lot of opportunity there to do some unique things with the pipe.

And Jay, Sheree, earlier you mentioned contract terms have improved. Can you expand upon that a little bit and maybe in particular how they've changed across various end markets?

Yeah, we're just – as we sit here, we're looking at our renewables business, our MEP business, our EPC business on the T&D side. It allows us to have really favorable cash flow terms, and the working capital profile on those things are very positive. We're seeing that across our business, not just in certain markets. the the the MEP and renewables business and EPC work on our traditional business tends to have the more pronounced favorable working capital profile and that is getting baked in but we've talked about this a lot right as we sit here today in these markets and the strength of our portfolio and our ability to help our customers we're very much focused on compounding and and growing with them. And so our contracting terms are a reflection of that. And while we're not necessarily trying to take advantage of our customers in any way, it is allowing us to make sure that we're doing things in the way that allows us to be confident about our execution capabilities and delivering for them in the right manner. So that's what's getting reflected across our business. It's not just on working capital, but it's in terms across the company.

Excellent. Thank you.

Our next question will come from Brian Brokery with Spifle. Please unmute and ask your question.

Good morning. Congrats on a really great quarter. Obviously, there was a meaningful uplift in the technology and large load outlook. Curious if there was any notable large bookings on the integrated fabrication part of the business in the quarter and if that was a core driver of the upside or is it more broad-based in MEP? Thanks.

I think it's broad-based the way we see it. Certainly, the MEP business is growing faster than the rest of the business, just percentage-wise. But what I would say is if you look at the whole you know the outlook i would i would i would tell you it's all of its pushing upward um you know both segments are pushing upward the electric segment is moving up i mean our renewable business really good um it's moved up nicely so i would tell you all all all things that we we discussed and are at least double digits some are double digit plus but you know everything's moving upward at least double digits and i'm sure it's ceo i'm probably it's probably 9.9 in some area but like very close to double digits and some of it much greater some of the parts obviously you wouldn't mind did you see any notable sunsia closeout benefits in the quarter

or anything that was more one time thanks no i think you can just the closeouts happen all the time we're so large you're gonna have projects close out you're gonna have projects start There was nothing one time in our quarterly results.

Thank you. I do like it when they go up, though.

I'd rather them go up than down.

But in general, they typically go up, and it's nothing out of the ordinary. It's normal course.

Your next question will come from Joseph Osha with Guggenheim Partners. Please unmute and ask your question.

Thanks, everybody. So, Duke, you've been adding manufacturing capabilities in a couple of areas, There's transformers. You bought a utility pole company. I'm wondering if there are other areas that you're thinking about in terms of where you might want to add capabilities.

Yeah, I mean, look, we did the breaker deal with HIKO. I thought that was a critical path for us in the high-voltage breakers. They're very difficult to get. So you've seen us build them. You've seen us partner. We certainly have great relationships with the suppliers. Anywhere is a critical path that we think we can invest capital and move it forward. That's what you've seen us do. So as we're looking outward, we're taking advantage of areas where there's underinvestment or we believe it's something that is a critical path for us. We're working with our clients to really innovate as well with R&D and some things we can do there. So that innovation technology, how we look at it, but we've made those investments in that vertical supply chain. I think it's showing up in some of the synergies. I think you'll continue to see it. We'll be selective in how we invest there. That's something that we look at all the time, but we do believe we can do some unique things with our vertical supply chain and have done. So it'll be a broad-based investment in things that are what you would consider a critical path.

We see a lot of people buying eBoss companies. Is that something that you think might be a good fit for Quanta?

Yeah, look, we're not looking at EVOS companies. That's fine. I mean, look, I'm sure they're great companies and everyone's doing well with them, but it's not something that we're looking at today. We're looking at all kinds of things. It could be a component thereof or whatever it may be, but it's, you know, traditionally the core of the business is craft skill labor. We're highly focused on craft skill labor and bringing that to the field in a way that's solution-based. If EVOS or anything else can help us with the solution, we're certainly leaning into those opportunities.

Thank you.

As a reminder, we ask that all participants limit themselves to one question. If you'd like to ask another question, you can rejoin the queue. Our next question will come from Jamie Cooke, Truist.

Please unmute and ask your question. hi congrats on a on another fantastic quarter can you hear me yeah thank you oh good you can hear me oh so duke i just guess one question i mean i've been you know beating you up on your underground margins for years and finally it sounds you know these margins are really starting to improve i guess with some of these acquisitions that you're doing and some of the structural improvements uh you're making i'm wondering over time although it's not in your sort of longer term margin targets is there a path in particular with some of these higher margin acquisitions for your underground margins to approach the electric business like is that totally off base um thanks

yeah i mean there's always opportunity it just depends on the work mix i mean some of those margins you can pull up and it depends on the risk it depends on some of the fabrication um yeah look i i do think you can pull them up i we gotta let me get to the double digits first and then i'll go from there but i do think we have opportunities to get a parity electric you can do it um it just depends on you know what the mix looks like we're certainly you know i think that's one thing that company's highly focused on is increasing our our efficiencies some of the labor is fungible so it's moving across segments it's moving over in the electric segment they move back and forth i mean And we can have someone on, you know, what I would consider a data center and go to an industrial base, come back into, you know, compression on gas side so that we can move electricians and underground folks across multiple segments, which I really like a lot. So it's hard to say because they are making the margins in the electric side on one side of the business is that labor is fungible. But the, you know, kind of the outlook on the customer base in the EUI segment, yeah, we can move it up, and you'll see that move up, and we could get it to parity the electric. It's possible.

Your next question comes from Michael Dudas with Vertical Research Partners.

Please unmute and ask your question. Michael, your line is open. Please unmute and ask your question.

Hey, Mike. So, Duke, just your sense of what your customers, maybe on the MSA side or even just across the board, how far out in the future are they asking to secure your specialized craft labor generally? And I don't I'm sure there's ranges of months to years. How has that changed, say, in the last 12 to 18 months? And do you anticipate to get even further tighter out into the future where you have to allocate these resources a little bit more judiciously?

Now, I mean, we're nowhere near capacity. I know that's been something that people are worried about. So, look, you've seen it's had 15,000 employees in the quarter. And, well, let me back up. 15,000 in the year, significant amount of which is in the second quarter, some through acquisitions, some through organic growth, but, you know, well over 7,000 in organic growth. We're very much in line with the customer building out programs. We'll go, we're as far out as their capital plans, at least. and beyond. So when you're looking at their capital plans, they're out five, seven years. We're helping them with capital. We're helping them all the way through in a collaborative manner, you know, across the board, having great collaborative conversations on it. So, and I would say the inbounds are significant. The company is in a different place than it's ever been. How we sit, how we're viewed, you know, I think the number one thing is, You know, how do people feel about us? And, you know, I feel real good about how we sit in the industries we serve. And we've done a real nice job. The men and women in the field are executing at a phenomenal level. And, you know, we see, you know, decade-plus type arrangements out there.

Your next question comes from Maip Mandloy with Miziho. You may unmute and ask your question.

Hey, thanks. in the quarter as well. Maybe just like a level question, Duke, where are you seeing the bottlenecks as you go into data centers or for generation and transmission distribution? Is it still the craft labor? And is there a scenario where you foresee potential competition or oversupply on that aspect, you know, three years down the line, maybe labor or craft moves from other industries of this, so you have more training or more automation?

Look, we're not seeing any shortage of – I mean, we're not seeing any oversupply of craftskill labor for the near future. It takes about four years to make a craftsman adjournment. We happen to have more adjournment in all crafts than most. Well, probably in the electric side, the MEP side, I would say we're gaining. We're very close. And our training facilities, the things that we've invested in over a decade, we spend about 250 million a year in training so that's something we're highly focused on and have been for a decade i know it i know we're making it look a little easy it is not easy whatsoever and that it's just the fact is we we've done this for a long time and i don't think you're going to see an oversupply at any means in the near future and we see a lot of money getting thrown at it It takes a journeyman to make a journeyman. I'll say it again. And it takes multi-years, and the more years under their belt, the better they are and more productive. So I think when we look at it, no oversupply, the bottlenecks would be generation to some degree. And I know the generation is going to say it's EPC. So, yeah, look, some of it's technical. It is difficult to have the capacity to build, you know, combined cycles at the levels that everyone wants to build them at and as quick as they want to build them at. We're working hard to, you know, build those capabilities internally. We've done a real nice job. We have what I consider a significant business in front of us in the generation side. So that's organic growth for us. We really like where it's going. and we're putting the resources and the training and getting great people here that want to work for Qantas. So real happy with both sides of that. There is bottlenecks here or there. I do think for the most part, most data centers want to go back to the grid at some point. And not to say that last time I got in trouble for saying something about, you know, behind the meter generation or whatever it was. I can't remember what it was, but someone was mad. Look, So the faster you can go right now in generation, people are going to buy it. But over time, you're going to try to connect to the grid. It balances things out. And so utilities do it much better than anyone. They've been doing it for decades. So that bottleneck, that queue is extremely important. What does it take to get to the queue? It takes generation and substation. But we're very much involved in both sides of that. And I do think that would be the bottleneck is getting to the, you know, what I would consider utility-scale generation. And they're moving very fast. So we're working with them all over the place. And I do believe utilities are in a growth mode. They've been underinvested in for a while on generation. And you're starting to see that significant investment. And if you start an engine today, if you order an engine today, you're five years out, probably six, before you get them built. So it just shows you the longevity, and I'm sure – I didn't listen to you's call, but I'm confident Renova had a really nice book, and it's going to continue for a bit here. So we're super happy with where we sit.

Your next question will come from Andy Kaplowitz with Citigroup. Please unmute and ask your question.

Good morning, everyone. Duke, you just added like 10% more employees to the Qwana family again in one quarter through acquisitions. I know how you're going to answer this question, but I'll ask it anyway. At some point, do you worry about the acquisition flywheel moving too fast and maybe it could hurt underlying performance? Or alternatively, can you keep the pace of the recent acquisition trajectory that you've had over the last few years up as it obviously has been a significant acceleration?

Yeah, that's a good question. We're buying great companies. I mean, one of them was over 100 years old, maybe two. We're not passing on great family businesses, great management teams. It will depend on the management teams, who they fit here. We're super excited with the ones we bought. A lot of that, too, is, I mean, I would tell you a couple of them we had talked to for 36 months maybe, maybe longer, maybe five years about acquisitions. We just can't tell you when exactly how that's going to work out. You know, last quarter we did zero. That's what we did before. We're not seeing the shortage of people wanting to sell their businesses here. I mean, I do believe culturally it matters. We view that more so than anything else because if we continue down the path, the cultural path, we get the synergy. They want to work together. People want to work here. We're creating great jobs. I mean, we have a lot of journalists here that are executive vice presidents, presidents, CEOs. They're all over. And, you know, we have a path for craft here that's remarkable. So I do believe if you want to exit your business, it makes tons of sense for you. And we're excited about that. I do think creating those opportunities, watching craft do very well, we push equity down to 10,000 plus people. You know, I pinch myself on how lucky we are to be in the space we're in and be able to do the things we can do for craft. So I'm super happy, and that's why people want to sell their business here.

Your next question will come from Chris Song with Wolf Research. Please unmute and ask your question.

Hey, good morning, guys. Nice quarter. Just on the acquisitions, can you give us, like, the annualized EBITDA run rate or the purchase more full year on the road? Just the 120 to 140 contribution seems like it's just partial year, and I just want to make sure we're comparing it correctly with the purchase price.

Yeah, I think you can just do the math. It's about six, seven months worth of what we gave you. So you could annualize it based on just that, and I can give you a good sense of the run rate.

Our last question comes from Alexa Petrick-Breno from Goldman Sachs. Please unmute and ask your question.

Hey, good morning, team, and thanks for taking our question. The guidance revision this quarter was notable. Can you just talk more about the drivers of that revision? What are you seeing in the market and in your backlog that gives you confidence in this new guide?

Yeah, I mean, look, you can see the headcounts moving up. You can see both electric and gas moving up. Obviously, the contribution from electric, it's a bigger segment, it's going to be up. So it was broad-based. I think the synergies that we have and the things that we saw coming together, we're doing a lot of balance of plant work on the data side and technology side. But it's not just data centers. I mean, we're involved in all kinds of manufacturing, lily plants, starting, all kinds of different things. Tesla's got plenty going on. They're onboarding, manufacturing, I mean, you know, kind of on-shoring, manufacturing, medical. Across the board, you know, we're picking up, you know, on both sides of that. So I would say our T&D business is growing nicely, our renewable business. I know everyone was worried about that for a while. We're setting records there. So super happy with what they're doing. So broad based growth, we will stack both generation and large transmission on the business. And that'll be the outward growth and foreseeable future. So you'll start to see that stacking effect as well. We're not on a lot of big, large transmission. We're cleaning a few of them up and then we're starting a few of them ourselves. But in general, I do think that stacking hasn't started yet and it's going to. And, you know, I think it's probably the second half of 27. You'll start to see us go to the field in a meaningful way, and that'll stack on out through the decade. So we're happy with that.

We have no more questions at this time. I will pass it back to the Quanta team for closing remarks.

Thank you. I want to again thank the 85,000-plus men and women in the field. Their sacrifice to build the infrastructure tomorrow is noted, and we thank them. And I also want to thank you for participating in our conference call. We appreciate your questions and ongoing interest in quantum services. This concludes our call.