AECOM (ACM) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning and welcome to the AECOM second-quarter 2025 conference call. I would like to inform all participants, this call is being recorded at the request of AECOM. This broadcast is a copyrighted property of AECOM. Any rebroadcast of this information in whole or part without the prior written permission of AECOM is prohibited. As a reminder, AECOM is also simulcasting this presentation with slides at the investors section at www.aecom.com. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

早上好，歡迎參加 AECOM 2025 年第二季電話會議。我想通知所有參與者，本次通話是應 AECOM 的要求進行錄音的。本次廣播的版權歸 AECOM 所有。未經 AECOM 事先書面許可，禁止全部或部分轉播該資訊。提醒一下，AECOM 也將在 www.aecom.com 的投資者部分同步播放此簡報和投影片。稍後我們將進行問答環節。（操作員指示）

I would like to turn the call over to Will Gabrielski, Senior Vice President, Finance, Treasury, and Investor Relations.

我想將電話轉給財務、財務和投資者關係高級副總裁威爾·加布里埃爾斯基 (Will Gabrielski)。

Thank you, operator. I would like to direct your attention to the Safe Harbor statement on page 1 of today's presentation. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements about future business and financial expectations. Actual results may differ significantly from those projected in today's forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties, including the risks described in our periodic report filed with the SEC. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update our forward-looking statements.

謝謝您，接線生。我想請大家注意今天簡報第一頁的安全港聲明。今天的討論包含有關未來業務和財務預期的前瞻性陳述。由於各種風險和不確定性，包括我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的定期報告中所述的風險，實際結果可能與今天的前瞻性聲明中預測的結果有很大差異。除法律要求外，我們不承擔更新前瞻性陳述的義務。

We use certain non-GAAP financial measures in our presentation. The appropriate GAAP reconciliations are incorporated into our materials, which are posted to our website. Growth rates are presented on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. Any reference to segment margins or segment adjusted operating margins will reflect the performance for the Americas and International segments. When discussing revenue and revenue growth, we will refer to Net Service Revenue or NSR, which is defined as revenue excluding pass-through revenue. NSR growth rates are presented on a constant currency basis unless otherwise noted.

我們在演示中使用了某些非公認會計準則財務指標。適當的 GAAP 對帳已納入我們的資料中，並發佈到我們的網站上。除非另有說明，成長率均以年比計算。任何對分部利潤率或分部調整後營業利潤率的提及都將反映美洲和國際分部的業績。在討論收入和收入成長時，我們將參考淨服務收入或NSR，其定義為不包括轉嫁收入的收入。除非另有說明，NSR 成長率均以固定貨幣為基礎。

Today's remarks will focus on continuing operations. On today's call, Troy Rudd, our Chief Executive Officer, will review our key accomplishments, our strategy, and our outlook for the business. Lara Poloni, our President, will discuss key operational successes and priorities. And Gaurav Kapoor, our Chief Financial and Operations Officer, will review our financial performance and outlook in greater detail. We will conclude with a question-and-answer session. With that, I will turn the call over to Troy.

今天的演講將重點討論持續經營問題。在今天的電話會議上，我們的執行長特洛伊·拉德 (Troy Rudd) 將回顧我們的主要成就、我們的策略以及我們對業務的展望。我們的總裁 Lara Poloni 將討論關鍵的營運成功和優先事項。我們的財務和營運長 Gaurav Kapoor 將更詳細地審查我們的財務表現和前景。我們將以問答環節作為結束。說完這些，我會把電話轉給特洛伊。

Thank you, Will, and thank you all for joining us today. The second quarter was defined by change, some anticipated and some unexpected. As we've done over the past six years where we have faced events that created macroeconomic volatility, we successfully navigated the business to deliver strong results.

謝謝你，威爾，也謝謝大家今天加入我們。第二季充滿了變化，有些是預料之中的，有些是出乎意料的。正如我們過去六年面對宏觀經濟波動事件時所做的那樣，我們成功引導業務並取得了強勁的業績。

Our second quarter results are a testament to the strength of our culture and of our professionals across the organization. Our teams are the best and brightest in our industry, and through their efforts, we deliver a technical advantage to every client and every project. Importantly, they continue to showcase the competitive edge that we have created in our platform that allows us to deliver results. I want to highlight two recent notable accomplishments that demonstrate our industry leading market position.

我們第二季的業績證明了我們整個組織的文化和專業人員的實力。我們的團隊是業內最優秀、最聰明的團隊，透過他們的努力，我們為每個客戶和每個專案提供技術優勢。重要的是，它們繼續展示我們在平台上創造的競爭優勢，使我們能夠取得成果。我想強調最近的兩項顯著成就，以證明我們在行業中的領先市場地位。

First, ENR released its annual survey results last month, and I'm pleased to report that we moved up one place to earn the distinction as the number one overall design firm. We also had our number one rankings in Transportation, Water, and Facilities affirmed. And when combined with our existing number one ranking in Environment, we hold a leadership position in each of our end markets.

首先，ENR 上個月發布了年度調查結果，我很高興地報告，我們的排名上升了一位，贏得了第一大綜合設計公司的頭銜。我們在交通、水和設施領域的第一名排名也得到了確認。加上我們在環境領域現有的第一名的排名，我們在每個終端市場都佔據領導地位。

Second, in March, we were appointed as the sole venue infrastructure partner for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are honored to be selected for an unprecedented scope that includes all critical elements of architecture, engineering, planning, program management, and construction management. The unrivaled depth and breadth of our technical expertise, as well as our proven track record of delivering past iconic global sporting events were essential in our success. No other company can rival what we offer and deliver to our clients on these types of large, complex projects.

第二，3月份，我們被任命為第28屆洛杉磯奧運會和殘奧會唯一場館基礎設施合作夥伴。我們很榮幸被選中，其範圍之廣前所未有，涵蓋了建築、工程、規劃、專案管理和施工管理的所有關鍵要素。我們無與倫比的技術專長的深度和廣度，以及我們過去舉辦標誌性全球體育賽事的成功經驗，對於我們的成功至關重要。在此類大型複雜專案上，沒有其他公司能夠與我們向客戶提供的服務相提並論。

Turning to our financial results, I'm pleased to report strong second quarter and first half financial results highlighted by record second quarter NSR, margins and EPS. Growth was the highest in the Americas, our largest and most profitable region. IIJA spending continues to increase, and with less than 35% of the total funding spent thus far, several years of strong federal funding for infrastructure remain for our markets.

談到我們的財務業績，我很高興地報告第二季和上半年的財務業績強勁，其中第二季的 NSR、利潤率和 EPS 創下了紀錄。美洲是我們規模最大、利潤最高的地區，成長最為迅速。IIJA 支出持續增加，迄今所花費的資金不到總資金的 35%，仍可為我們的市場提供數年的強勁聯邦政府基礎設施資金。

I should note, two items impacted our NSR growth. First, we had fewer workdays in the quarter due to the timing of holidays. This reduced growth by approximately 100 basis points in the quarter. Second, we experienced isolated delays and deferred decisions on a limited set of projects which impacted our top line growth. That said, these delays are not uncommon whenever there is a change in administration, and the impact to our backlog was minimal.

我應該指出，有兩件事影響了我們的 NSR 成長。首先，由於假期時間安排，本季的工作日較少。這使得本季的成長率降低了約 100 個基點。其次，我們在有限的幾個專案中經歷了孤立的延遲和延遲決策，這影響了我們的營收成長。話雖如此，每當政府發生變動時，這些延誤並不罕見，而且對我們的積壓工作的影響微乎其微。

The segment adjusted operating margin rose 90 basis points to 16.1%, which is a second quarter record. This increase reflects strong execution, growing contribution from higher margin advisory services, faster growth in our highest margin markets, and ongoing continuous improvement initiatives. Our industry leading margins include record investments in innovation, technical excellence, and business development, all of which are accelerating in the second half of the year based on the opportunities ahead.

該部門調整後的營業利潤率上升 90 個基點，達到 16.1%，創下第二季的最高紀錄。這一成長反映了強勁的執行力、利潤率更高的諮詢服務的貢獻不斷增長、利潤率最高的市場成長更快以及持續改進的舉措。我們行業領先的利潤率包括對創新、技術卓越和業務發展創紀錄的投資，所有這些投資都將基於未來的機會在下半年加速。

Adjusted EBITDA increased by 8% to $290 million and adjusted EPS increased by 20% to $1.25 both of which also set new second quarter highs. Free cash flow in the quarter increased by 141% to $178 million. We returned $110 million to shareholders during the quarter through share repurchases and dividends, and $165 million in the first half of the year. Our returns-based capital allocation policy remains unchanged, and we will continue to allocate our consistently strong cash flow to the highest returning opportunities. This includes the $900 million remaining on our current share repurchase authorization.

調整後的 EBITDA 成長 8% 至 2.9 億美元，調整後的 EPS 成長 20% 至 1.25 美元，這兩項數據也創下了第二季的新高。本季自由現金流成長 141%，達到 1.78 億美元。我們在本季透過股票回購和股利向股東返還了 1.1 億美元，今年上半年則返還了 1.65 億美元。我們基於回報的資本配置政策保持不變，我們將繼續將持續強勁的現金流分配給回報最高的機會。這包括我們目前股票回購授權中剩餘的 9 億美元。

Looking ahead, our confidence for the rest of the year and beyond is supported by several key factors. First, our backlog increased quarter to quarter to a new record, driven by a 1.1x book to burn ratio. Our underlying book to burn ratio was even higher, but changes in a small number of government contracts following US Federal agency reviews resulted in the removal of approximately $100 million from backlog. In addition, our pipeline of opportunities is also at a record level, and growth is fastest at the earliest stages of our pipeline, consistent with our expectations for several years of continued growth in our largest markets.

展望未來，我們對今年剩餘時間及以後的信心受到幾個關鍵因素的支持。首先，受 1.1 倍的書籍與銷售比率推動，我們的積壓訂單逐季度增加，創下新高。我們的基本訂單與消耗比率甚至更高，但在美國聯邦機構審查之後，少數政府合約的變化導致積壓訂單減少了約 1 億美元。此外，我們的機會管道也達到了創紀錄的水平，並且在通路的早期階段增長最快，這與我們對最大市場未來幾年持續增長的預期一致。

Second, through our competitive edge platform, we are delivering record-high win rates. This includes 80% success on large enterprise critical pursuits year-to-date and a better than 50% win rate overall. Our consistent success comes from strategically deploying our best technical resources to the highest-value clients and opportunities, strong client relationships, and differentiated capabilities across the investment life cycle, from design to advisory and program management.

其次，透過我們的競爭優勢平台，我們實現了創紀錄的高勝率。其中包括今年迄今大型企業關鍵業務追求的成功率達 80%，整體成功率超過 50%。我們持續的成功來自於將我們最好的技術資源策略性地部署到最高價值的客戶和機會、牢固的客戶關係以及整個投資生命週期（從設計到諮詢和專案管理）的差異化能力。

Third, global megatrends remain robust, including $50 trillion in projected infrastructure investment through 2040 across transportation, water, and energy. Aging infrastructure, growing requirements for sustainability and resilience, and the rising energy demand create a favorable backdrop that drives inevitable demand. Infrastructure enjoys strong bipartisan support across all of our markets and is an essential element of thriving economies.

第三，全球大趨勢依然強勁，包括預計2040年交通、水利和能源領域的基礎建設投資將達到50兆美元。老化的基礎設施、日益​​增長的可持續性和彈性要求以及不斷增長的能源需求創造了有利的背景，推動了不可避免的需求。基礎設施得到了我們所有市場的兩黨大力支持，是經濟繁榮的重要組成部分。

Fourth, we are investing to accelerate organic growth and expand our competitive advantage. This includes ongoing additions to our advisory and program management teams to meet growing demand as our clients navigate greater regulatory uncertainty and larger investments. This is consistent with our long-term objective of delivering 50% of revenue from advisory and program management over time.

第四，我們正在進行投資以加速有機成長並擴大我們的競爭優勢。這包括不斷擴充我們的諮詢和專案管理團隊，以滿足我們的客戶在應對更大的監管不確定性和更大的投資時日益增長的需求。這與我們的長期目標一致，即隨著時間的推移，透過諮詢和專案管理實現 50% 的收入。

Lastly, against a backdrop of changing political dynamics and resulting policy shifts after the unprecedented number of elections last year, a few points bear repeating. The work we do for our clients is highly technical and critical to their missions. In fact, many projects that were paused have now resumed. Given the professional services nature of our work, tariffs are not expected to directly affect our business. Over 70% of our workforce is versatile across market sectors and can be deployed to the strongest growth opportunities. Deregulation and permitting reform are tailwinds to our business. And, a declining public sector workforce has been a secular tailwind for our industry and increasingly a demand driver for advisory and program management services.

最後，在去年史無前例的選舉次數之後，政治動態發生變化，政策也隨之轉變，有幾點值得重申。我們為客戶所做的工作技術性很強，對他們的任務至關重要。事實上，許多暫停的項目現已恢復。鑑於我們工作的專業服務性質，關稅預計不會直接影響我們的業務。我們超過 70% 的員工能夠勝任各個市場領域的工作，並能部署到最具成長機會的地方。放鬆管制和授權改革對我們的業務來說是順風。而且，公共部門勞動力的減少一直是我們行業的長期順風，日益成為諮詢和專案管理服務的需求驅動因素。

To summarize, our first half results were ahead of our initial expectations. Our backlog is at a record high. This performance underscores our confidence, and as a result, we are increasing the midpoints of our EBITDA and EPS guidance for a second consecutive quarter. With that, I will turn the call over to Lara.

總而言之，我們的上半年業績超出了我們最初的預期。我們的積壓訂單量達到了歷史最高水準。這項業績凸顯了我們的信心，因此，我們連續第二季提高 EBITDA 和 EPS 預期的中點。說完這些，我將把電話轉給 Lara。

Thanks Troy. Our consistently strong results, including quarter-over-quarter growth in backlog to a new record, are a testament to the competitive advantages created by our strategy and our relentless focus on long-term value creation. These attributes enable us to deliver even during periods of increased uncertainty. I want to spend a moment discussing trends across our largest markets and how we are positioning to capitalize.

謝謝特洛伊。我們持續強勁的業績，包括積壓訂單逐季增長至新高，證明了我們的策略所創造的競爭優勢以及我們對長期價值創造的不懈關注。這些特性使我們即使在不確定性增加的時期也能夠實現目標。我想花點時間討論我們最大市場的趨勢以及我們如何定位以利用這些趨勢。

Trends in the US remain robust, which is our largest market at more than 50% of our net service revenue. We have built a record backlog driven by a 1.2x book-to-burn ratio in the quarter. As Troy noted, less than 35% of IIJA funding has been spent, but nearly all has been appropriated and therefore, not at risk of being cut. This creates a great deal of visibility for our clients and for us. Additionally, the passage of the continuing resolution in March provides our public sector clients with budget certainty for the remainder of the year. This includes our US state and local clients, which account for approximately 30% of our revenue. Nearly half of our state and local revenue is from the transportation sector, with the remainder primarily for water and environment projects.

美國市場趨勢仍然強勁，它是我們最大的市場，占我們淨服務收入的 50% 以上。本季度，我們的訂單積壓量創下了歷史新高，這得益於 1.2 倍的購書率。正如特洛伊所指出的，IIJA 資金的使用率不到 35%，但幾乎全部被撥付，因此不存在被削減的風險。這為我們的客戶和我們創造了很大的知名度。此外，三月繼續決議的通過為我們的公共部門客戶提供了今年剩餘時間的預算確定性。其中包括我們的美國州和地方客戶，他們約占我們收入的 30%。我們州和地方收入的近一半來自交通運輸部門，其餘主要用於水利和環境項目。

All of these markets utilize dedicated funding sources, be it the Federal Highway Trust Fund, dedicated tax or bond measures, user fees, or regulatory drivers. In addition, 75% of our environmental remediation work is driven by state and local regulations, not Federal, and we are seeing increased activity as a result.

所有這些市場都利用專門的資金來源，無論是聯邦公路信託基金、專用稅收或債券措施、使用費或監管驅動因素。此外，我們 75% 的環境修復工作是由州和地方法規（而非聯邦法規）推動的，因此我們看到活動增加。

In addition, we are well positioned to capitalize on Department of Defense funding increases where we provide highly technical and mission critical services. In fact, our pipeline of DOD opportunities was up by double digits over the prior quarter, and our win rate on these pursuits is materially above our enterprise win rates, bolstering our optimism in growth.

此外，我們還可以利用國防部增加的資金來提供高度技術性和關鍵任務服務。事實上，我們的國防部機會管道比上一季成長了兩位數，而且我們在這些追求上的成功率大大高於我們的企業成功率，這增強了我們對成長的樂觀態度。

Canada is strong as well, with double-digit growth in revenue and backlog. Prime Minister Carney's election crystallized the country's ongoing commitment to infrastructure, as evidenced by key elements of the new administration's $150 billion investment plan. In addition, Quebec unveiled its 10-year budget in March, which calls for a further 7% increase to its infrastructure investment forecast, providing for a strong market backdrop.

加拿大的表現同樣強勁，營收和積壓訂單均實現了兩位數的成長。卡尼首相的當選體現了該國對基礎建設的持續承諾，新政府1500億美元投資計畫的關鍵要素就證明了這一點。此外，魁北克省於3月公佈了其10年預算，其中要求將其基礎設施投資預測進一步提高7％，這為強勁的市場背景提供了支持。

Across our International segment, secular drivers are in place, but near-term trends remain mixed. In the UK, our largest international market, net service revenue and backlog both increased, and backlog is at an all-time high. While larger transportation projects continue to face delays while the UK government works through its budgetary challenges, our large positions on key frameworks create a stable level of activity through periods of reduced large project activity.

在我們的國際領域，長期驅動因素已經到位，但近期趨勢仍然好壞參半。在我們最大的國際市場英國，淨服務收入和積壓訂單均有所增加，積壓訂單數量達到了歷史最高水準。在英國政府努力應對預算挑戰的同時，大型交通項目繼續面臨延誤，但我們在關鍵框架上的大量持倉使得大型項目活動在減少的時期保持了穩定的活動水平。

In the intermediate term, AMP8 water investment is set to more than double AMP7 in the coming years, and so far, our framework capacity is more than 150% higher than in the AMP7 program. This underscores that AMP8 is a key component of our target to double our global water revenue in the next five years. We are also experiencing strong growth in energy, including our ongoing work for the multi-year Great Grid Upgrade program, as well as accelerating opportunities in the nuclear power market. To bolster our capabilities in this region, we recently acquired Allen Gordon, a Scottish water and energy consultancy which enhances our UK and Ireland presence and client relationships.

從中期來看，未來幾年 AMP8 水務投資將比 AMP7 增加一倍以上，到目前為止，我們的框架容量比 AMP7 計畫高出 150％ 以上。這強調了 AMP8 是我們實現未來五年全球水收入翻倍目標的關鍵組成部分。我們在能源領域也經歷了強勁成長，包括我們正在進行的多年期大電網升級計畫的工作，以及核電市場的加速機會。為了增強我們在該地區的能力，我們最近收購了蘇格蘭水務和能源諮詢公司 Allen Gordon，這增強了我們在英國和愛爾蘭的業務和客戶關係。

Turning to Australia, trends continue to be mixed. In the water sector, growth is accelerating, and we have had several recent marquee wins, including our recent selection as the Design Delivery Partner for Sydney Water's capital investment program. However, this growth has been offset by a pause in the transportation market following a robust decade of investment. Even so, our backlog increased by double digits in the quarter and our pipeline remains strong, which are good indicators of future growth opportunities.

轉向澳大利亞，趨勢仍然好壞參半。在水務領域，成長正在加速，我們最近取得了幾項重大勝利，包括最近被選為雪梨水務公司資本投資計畫的設計交付合作夥伴。然而，在經歷了十年的強勁投資之後，運輸市場的停滯抵消了這一成長。即便如此，我們的積壓訂單在本季仍增加了兩位數，而且我們的產品線依然強勁，這些都是未來成長機會的良好指標。

Turning to the Middle East, revenue increased in the first half of the year. While the timing of holidays impacted our second-quarter results, growth remains positive. The reprioritization from Giga Cities to projects for the World Cup and Expo is creating new opportunities. These events have delivery dates that are fixed, which creates visibility for our industry leading position over the next few years. To that point, our backlog remains all-time high.

談到中東，今年上半年收入增加。儘管假期時間影響了我們第二季的業績，但成長仍保持正成長。從超級城市到世界盃和世博會項目的重新排序正在創造新的機會。這些活動的交付日期是固定的，這為我們未來幾年的行業領先地位創造了可見性。到目前為止，我們的積壓訂單仍然處於歷史最高水準。

Lastly, in Hong Kong, work is beginning on the $30 billion Northern Metropolis Investment program. This quarter, we were awarded a contract to provide technical services for the Northern Metropolis Highway that will enhance East-West connectivity, which further demonstrates our leading market share in Hong Kong and the scale of opportunities ahead.

最後，在香港，300億美元的北方大都市投資計畫正在啟動。本季度，我們獲得了為北部都會高速公路提供技術服務的合同，這將增強東西方的連通性，這進一步證明了我們在香港領先的市場份額和未來的機遇規模。

Across these markets, one trend is clear. The demand for comprehensive design, program management, and advisory services has never been greater. We are extending our competitive advantage with investments in key growth markets and ensuring that we continue to prioritize our resources to the best growth opportunities. I couldn't be more proud of our win rates, record backlog position, and excellence in the marketplace. With that, I will turn the call over to Gaurav.

縱觀這些市場，有一個趨勢很明顯。對綜合設計、專案管理和諮詢服務的需求從未如此強烈。我們正在透過對關鍵成長市場的投資來擴大我們的競爭優勢，並確保我們繼續優先將資源用於最佳的成長機會。我對我們的成功率、創紀錄的積壓情況以及在市場上的卓越表現感到無比自豪。說完這些，我將把電話轉給 Gaurav。

Thanks, Lara. Our second quarter and first half results underscored the strength of our professional services business model. As a result, we are raising our EBITDA and EPS guide in midpoints for a second consecutive quarter. Our second quarter results included records for net service revenue and margins, which contributed to 8% adjusted EBITDA growth and 20% adjusted EPS growth. Both of these metrics were second quarter records.

謝謝，拉拉。我們第二季和上半年的業績凸顯了我們專業服務業務模式的實力。因此，我們連續第二季將 EBITDA 和 EPS 指引上調至中點。我們第二季的業績包括淨服務收入和利潤率的創紀錄，這推動了調整後 EBITDA 成長 8% 和調整後 EPS 成長 20%。這兩項指標均創下第二季紀錄。

Our backlog and pipeline are both at all-time highs. Within this contracted backlog in the design business increased by 5%, and our pipeline has now set new highs in four consecutive quarters, which supports our confidence in the second half of the year and beyond. As Troy articulated, our margins were strong in the quarter and have increased by 70 basis points a year-to-date, which is modestly ahead of our expectations for the first half of the year. There were no unusual items in our second quarter or first half margins.

我們的積壓訂單和管道都達到了歷史最高水準。其中設計業務的合約積壓量增加了5%，我們的在建工程已連續四個季度創下新高，這增強了我們對下半年及以後的信心。正如特洛伊所說，我們本季的利潤率很高，年初至今已增加了 70 個基點，略高於我們對今年上半年的預期。我們第二季或上半年的利潤率沒有異常情況。

We are confident in delivering not only on our 16.1% margin guidance this year, but in going well beyond our 17% long-term target as the opportunities for continued improvements are becoming more apparent. This includes a growing share of higher margin advisory services, continued advancement of our AI and digital initiatives, further growth in our enterprise capability centers, and our focus on continuous improvement. Turning to our segment results beginning in the Americas.

我們有信心，不僅能實現今年 16.1% 的利潤率預期，而且隨著持續改善的機會越來越明顯，我們還能遠遠超出 17% 的長期目標。這包括利潤率更高的諮詢服務份額的不斷增長、人工智慧和數位化計劃的持續推進、企業能力中心的進一步發展以及對持續改進的關注。首先談談我們從美洲開始的分部業績。

NSR increased by 6%, including growth in both the US and Canada. Growth was also broad-based across all of our end markets, underscoring continued client demand from the long-term secular mega trends and continued robust funding from IIJA, state and local budgets and provincial and national funding in Canada. The adjusted operating margin increased by 130 basis points to 19.4%, a new second quarter high. We continue to deliver further expansion on our industry-leading margins, which is unlocking the capacity to invest in high-returning organic growth at record levels. Importantly, our backlog in the Americas is at a record level, reflecting a 1.2x book-to-burn ratio. Our contracted backlog is also at a near record level.

NSR 成長了 6%，其中美國和加拿大均有成長。我們所有終端市場也都實現了廣泛成長，凸顯了長期世俗大趨勢帶來的持續客戶需求，以及來自 IIJA、州和地方預算以及加拿大省和國家資金的持續強勁資金。調整後營業利益率上升130個基點至19.4%，創第二季新高。我們繼續進一步擴大我們行業領先的利潤率，這將釋放出以創紀錄的水平投資高回報有機成長的能力。重要的是，我們在美洲的積壓訂單達到了創紀錄的水平，反映出 1.2 倍的購書量與銷售量的比率。我們的合約積壓訂單也接近歷史最高水準。

In the International segment, net service revenue increased by 1%, which continues to reflect the varied trends by market that Lara reviewed earlier. A few factors give us confidence as we look ahead. First, our backlog in the International segment is at a record high. Second, our pipeline is also increasing, including substantial growth in early stages. And finally, we continue to expand our margins , which increased by 10 basis points to 11.1% in the quarter. Turning to cash flow and capital allocation.

在國際領域，淨服務收入成長了 1%，這繼續反映了 Lara 先前回顧的市場多樣化趨勢。展望未來，有幾個因素讓我們充滿信心。首先，我們國際部分的積壓訂單達到了歷史最高水準。其次，我們的產品線也不斷增加，其中早期階段的銷售量大幅成長。最後，我們繼續擴大利潤率，本季利潤率增加了 10 個基點，達到 11.1%。轉向現金流和資本配置。

Free cash flow increased by 80% in the first half of the year. As a result of the strong performance, we returned $165 million to shareholders through repurchases and dividends over this period. We maintain excellent balance sheet strength with net leverage of 0.7x and certainty of low cost of debt.

上半年自由現金流成長80%。由於業績表現強勁，我們在此期間透過回購和股息向股東返還了 1.65 億美元。我們的資產負債表保持良好實力，淨槓桿比率為 0.7 倍，且債務成本低。

Turning to guidance, as I mentioned, we are increasing the midpoints of our adjusted EBITDA and EPS for the full year, which are now expected to increase 9% and 14% from the prior year. While we have experienced greater than expected volatility in certain of our end markets, we have built a track record of delivering through periods of uncertainty, which our first half financial results affirm. As Troy noted, we will continue to execute on factors within our control, and our confidence is high in delivering on our full year goals. With that, operator, we are now ready for questions.

談到指引，正如我所提到的，我們正在提高全年調整後的 EBITDA 和 EPS 的中點，目前預計將比上年增長 9% 和 14%。雖然我們在某些​​終端市場經歷了比預期更大的波動，但我們已經建立了度過不確定時期的良好記錄，我們的上半年財務表現證實了這一點。正如特洛伊所說，我們將繼續執行我們能控制的因素，並且我們對實現全年目標充滿信心。接線員，現在我們可以回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Michael Feniger, Bank of America.

美國銀行的麥可費尼格。

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Just in terms of the guidance, Troy, it implies the second half healthy double-digit EBITDA growth. Can you just talk about your visibility into that level of growth in the second half? Is it more top line based? Is it more bottom line in the confidence of the profit margins? Just given some of the uncertainty out there and the macro, I'm just kind of curious what your level of confidence is on that second half, we think of top line or bottom line looking at those margins.

謝謝。大家早安。僅就指導而言，特洛伊，它意味著下半年健康的兩位數 EBITDA 增長。您能否談談下半年成長水準的預測？它是否更基於頂線？是不是對利潤率的信心更有底線？考慮到一些不確定性和宏觀因素，我只是有點好奇您對下半年的信心程度如何，我們考慮一下從利潤率來看頂線或底線。

Sure. So good morning, Michael. It's -- I'm going to -- I'm just going to give you the headline and then I'll give you some more detail, but the headline is it's actually it's going to be balanced, so we expect to continue to have top line growth. And as we said, even at the beginning of the year, we expected that our revenue would ramp over the year, and that was really a result of the macroeconomic environment that we had forecasted. And as we said in our prepared comments is that there had been an unprecedented number of elections, which means that there had been a shift in agendas.

當然。早上好，麥可。我將只是給你一個標題，然後再給你一些更詳細的信息，但標題實際上是平衡的，所以我們預計營收將繼續增長。正如我們所說，即使在年初，我們也預計我們的收入將在全年增加，這實際上是我們預測的宏觀經濟環境的結果。正如我們在準備好的評論中所說的那樣，選舉次數是前所未有的，這意味著議程發生了轉變。

But now, as we look forward, the first thing we look at is we look at what we actually have in our contracted backlog, and that has grown mid-single digits. Our overall growth in our backlog has continued, but the other thing that we see is we've actually seen some really healthy winds in the quarter, and some of those winds actually don't have an impact on our backlog.

但現在，當我們展望未來時，我們首先要看的是我們的合約積壓訂單量實際上有多少，而這一數字已經增長了中等個位數。我們的積壓訂單總體上持續增長，但我們看到的另一件事是，我們在本季度實際上看到了一些非常健康的風向，而其中一些風向實際上並沒有對我們的積壓訂單產生影響。

A good example that are some of the master services agreements or frameworks that we win. And when we win them, we don't actually record backlog until we're confident that we actually have that work to do or perform and typically, that's under a task order. So when we sort of look at the success we've had in our backlog, we also have visibility into things that we know that are going to come through frameworks and MSAs that we've won, that will impact the second half of the year.

一個很好的例子就是我們贏得的一些主服務協議或框架。當我們贏得他們時，我們實際上並不會記錄積壓，直到我們確信我們確實有這項工作要做或執行，通常這是在任務訂單下。因此，當我們回顧我們在積壓工作中取得的成功時，我們也能清楚地看到，透過我們贏得的框架和 MSA，我們將獲得一些成果，這些成果將對下半年產生影響。

And then the other really important thing is our pipeline is, even through this time, there has certainly been pivots in what might be the components of our pipeline, but our pipeline has continued to grow. And again, as we said in the prepared comments, we've actually seen growth in the early stages, which, again, gives us visibility into the next few quarters, but it gives us actually visibility beyond that into the next few years. So we actually have great optimism, not about certainly about the second half of the year, and growth, but we do for the long term.

另一個真正重要的事情是我們的管道，即使在這個時候，我們的管道組成部分肯定已經發生了變化，但我們的管道仍在繼續增長。正如我們在準備好的評論中所說，我們實際上已經看到了早期階段的成長，這讓我們能夠預見未來幾個季度的情況，但實際上也讓我們預見未來幾年的情況。因此，我們實際上非常樂觀，雖然不一定是對下半年的成長持樂觀態度，但我們對長期前景充滿信心。

And then I said it was balanced with respect to margins. We still see a lot of room for margin improvement in the business, and I will just attribute that to the investments that we have been making over the past years. And as we continue to make the run through our margins, and we expect that those investments will continue to bear fruit and have us continue to improve margins as we move forward. So we see our success in the second half year being balanced, both in NSR growth and in margins improvement.

然後我說它在利潤方面是平衡的。我們仍然看到業務利潤率有很大提升空間，我認為這要歸功於我們過去幾年所做的投資。隨著我們繼續提高利潤率，我們預計這些投資將繼續取得成果，並使我們在未來繼續提高利潤率。因此，我們認為下半年的成功將是平衡的，無論是在 NSR 成長方面，還是在利潤率提高方面。

Helpful. And just on the comment on the isolated delays, just are we through the worst you feel like on that -- those isolated disruptions and some of the delays? Do you feel like the disruption could linger? Was it more at the beginning of the quarter or towards the end in April? Just kind of give us some context on some of those isolated disruptions and delays and if you and the company feel confident, we're -- we kind of have our arms around that.

很有幫助。就對個別延誤的評論而言，您認為我們是否已經度過了最糟糕的時期——那些個別的中斷和一些延誤？您是否覺得這種混亂局面還會持續下去？是在本季初還是四月底？只要向我們提供一些有關這些孤立中斷和延誤的背景信息，如果您和公司有信心，我們就可以解決這個問題。

I would say yes, I think we have confidence that we have our arms around it. Are we finished with the delays? I don't think so. I think they're just sort of -- they are delays caused by, again, for different reasons. And the first thing we saw, delays based on the decisions that were being made after the -- yeah, in the second quarter, after the result of the US Federal election, so as President Trump took office, there were some changes.

我想說是的，我們有信心能夠實現這一目標。我們的拖延結束了嗎？我不這麼認為。我認為它們只是某種程度上的——它們是由於不同的原因造成的延誤。我們看到的第一件事就是，由於第二季度美國聯邦選舉結果公佈後做出的決定而出現延遲，因此隨著川普總統上任，出現了一些變化。

As we look at our clients, certainly in the Federal government, the changes that will be ongoing, and there still will be decisions being made about who actually will be our clients at some of those agencies. Some people are retiring. And so, when you have that kind of change -- personnel change, it certainly has an impact, it creates disruptions and decisions.

當我們審視我們的客戶時，當然是聯邦政府的客戶，變化將會持續，我們仍然需要決定誰將成為我們某些機構的客戶。有些人正在退休。因此，當出現這種變化——人員變動時，它肯定會產生影響，造成混亂和決策。

But remember, the US Federal Government represents, 8% or 9% of our overall NSR. So when we talk about disruptions, I don't want to give the impression that's across the entire business. It's the rest of our business, we certainly don't see that kind of change of disruption, anything from what we typically see during the course of a year.

但請記住，美國聯邦政府占我們整體 NSR 的 8% 或 9%。因此，當我們談論中斷時，我不想給人留下整個業務都受到影響的印象。這是我們的其他業務，我們當然沒有看到這種與我們通常在一年內看到的情況不同的變化。

Great, I'm just going to sneak one more in there just on the free cash flow. Last year, you guys hit a milestone. It was 10% free cash flow margin on net service revenue. I mean, how are you feeling tracking for 2025 given that first half performance? Is there some big give back in the second half we should be aware of, or is there some structural shift going on in the conversion rate that we should be flagging? Thank you.

太好了，我只是想偷偷地再說一點關於自由現金流的事情。去年，你們達到了一個里程碑。淨服務收入的自由現金流利潤率為 10%。我的意思是，鑑於上半年的表現，您對 2025 年的走勢有何看法？我們是否應該注意到下半年會出現一些大的回落，或者轉換率是否會發生一些結構性變化，我們應該對此予以關注？謝謝。

I'm going to let Gaurav take that question.

我讓 Gaurav 來回答這個問題。

Hey, Michael, how are you? It's specific to fast free cash flow and thank you for acknowledging. We -- it was a great milestone event we achieved last year, and that's going to continue to be our focus on the annual basis. We want to continue to meet that great milestone of 10% free cash flow conversion. But at the same time, quarter to quarter, our focus always is to have as good of a phasing as we can. So in the first half, it was better than we have experienced in in almost over a decade. We'll continue to challenge ourselves every quarter to be better than what we delivered in the prior year. But I think for the full year, your expectations are quite consistent in terms of 100% plus free cash flow conversion of our adjusted net income and trying to achieve that 10% and trying to better that again.

嘿，邁克爾，你好嗎？它具體針對的是快速自由現金流，感謝您的認可。這是我們去年取得的一個重大里程碑事件，這將繼續成為我們每年關注的重點。我們希望繼續實現 10% 自由現金流轉換這一偉大里程碑。但同時，我們每季的重點始終是盡可能分階段實施。因此，上半年的情況比我們近十多年來所經歷的還要好。我們將繼續每季挑戰自己，努力比去年做得更好。但我認為，就全年而言，您的期望是相當一致的，即我們的調整後淨收入的 100% 以上的自由現金流轉換，並努力實現 10%，並努力再次超越這一目標。

Sabahat Khan, RBC Capital Markets.

Sabahat Khan，加拿大皇家銀行資本市場。

Okay, great. Thanks, and good morning. Just, I guess, maybe just taking the line of questioning to the private sector, I guess, maybe if you can talk to us through your overall private sector exposure, what sectors that's focused on. And then maybe just -- there's obviously a lot of headlines through kind of the calendar Q1 here, maybe just the confidence of the private sector and how your customers are feeling there. Thanks.

好的，太好了。謝謝，早安。我想，也許只是針對私營部門提出問題，我想，也許您可以跟我們談談您對私營部門的整體了解，重點關注哪些行業。然後也許只是——顯然這裡第一季有很多頭條新聞，也許只是私營部門的信心以及客戶的感受。謝謝。

Hey, Sabahat, this is Gaurav. I'll take that question. So private sector represents approximately 30% of our overall business. And first of all, thank you for that question because I think there continues to be some misconception as to our exposure or cyclicality of our private clients. So the most important thing to note is our private business, that 30% of the overall enterprise number I gave you, it grew in the quarter and we're seeing the same trajectory for the remainder of the year as well.

嘿，Sabahat，我是 Gaurav。我來回答這個問題。因此私部門約占我們整體業務的 30%。首先，感謝您提出這個問題，因為我認為人們對我們私人客戶的風險敞口或週期性仍然存在一些誤解。因此，最重要的是要注意我們的私人業務，即我給出的整體企業數量的 30%，它在本季度實現了成長，而且我們也看到了今年剩餘時間同樣的成長軌跡。

It -- more importantly, it is not as cyclical as what one would normally connotate with a private business environment if the macroeconomic uncertainty continues. And the reason we're confident in making that statement is two-thirds of our private business is water and environment related. More specifically, it's regulatorily driven and OpEx for those clients because they're large public utilities.

更重要的是，如果宏觀經濟的不確定性持續存在，它並不像人們通常所認為的私人商業環境那樣具有週期性。我們之所以有信心做出這樣的聲明，是因為我們三分之二的私人業務與水和環境有關。更具體地說，由於這些客戶是大型公用事業，因此它是由監管驅動的，並且是營運支出。

Also, large global ONG majors, who, again, statutory and legally have to do environmental remediation work. We've been doing this work for decades long for these clients. It's very consistent, very predictable, and the rest of the design business, outside of that two-thirds, it's also not that cyclical. It is focused on our facilities, business, and market. But it's for ports and airports, where quite a bit of the portion of the funding does come from the public sector.

此外，大型全球非政府組織也必須依法進行環境修復工作。我們已經為這些客戶做這項工作幾十年了。它非常一致，非常可預測，除這三分之二之外的其餘設計業務也不是那麼具有週期性。它專注於我們的設施、業務和市場。但它是用於港口和機場的，其中相當一部分資金確實來自公共部門。

Another great example of that is on our facility sites, we press released the Olympics 2028. It's a long-term, not cyclical work over the next three and a half years as we support that client for that event. So that's part of our private business as well.

另一個很好的例子是，在我們的設施場地上，我們發布了 2028 年奧運會的新聞。這是一項長期工作，而非週期性工作，我們將在未來三年半內為該客戶提供該活動的支援。所以這也是我們私人業務的一部分。

Okay, great. And then maybe just, I guess, given all that is going on sort of seems like the underlying business trends are good, balance sheet's in good shape, but obviously a lot of sort of market volatility on the stock side. What are your perspectives on share buybacks capital allocation here for the rest of the year? Thanks.

好的，太好了。然後我想，也許只是，考慮到正在發生的一切，似乎潛在的業務趨勢是好的，資產負債表狀況良好，但顯然股票方面存在很大的市場波動。您對今年剩餘時間的股票回購資本配置有何看法？謝謝。

I'll respond to that as well, Sabahat. There's no change in our capital allocation strategy. We continue to execute our capital allocation strategy in the first half in the current quarter. And specific to our repurchases as we've told our investors, it will be consistent with the free cash flow we generate, which generally is second half weighted for us.

我也會對此作出回應，Sabahat。我們的資本配置策略沒有改變。本季我們繼續執行上半年的資本配置策略。具體到我們的回購，正如我們告訴投資者的那樣，它將與我們產生的自由現金流保持一致，這對我們來說通常是下半年加權的。

Andy Kaplowitz, Citigroup.

花旗集團的安迪‧卡普洛維茲 (Andy Kaplowitz)。

Hey, good morning, everyone. So I think we understand that you want to be conservative and also invest in your business, as you said, you're 70 basis points ahead on margin in the first half of the year versus 30 base points, got it. So you can just give color into the better performance in the Americas. Are you expecting to invest more in the second half or maybe give an International margin was only up modestly in Q2, you want to be conservative. I just think more color would be helpful.

嘿，大家早安。所以我想我們明白你想保守一點，同時也想投資你的業務，正如你所說，今年上半年你的利潤率領先了 70 個基點，而去年同期則為 30 個基點，明白了。因此，您可以為美洲的更好表現增添色彩。您是否預計在下半年投入更多資金，或考慮到第二季國際利潤率僅小幅上漲，您希望採取保守態度。我只是認為更多的顏色會有幫助。

Sure, Andy. When we think about kind of investing to create an improved margin, we think about that across the entire business. And again, recognizing that each of our geographies and frankly, lines of business, they come with different margin, natural margin profiles, and those are things that we simply can't control those are driven by the market or by the size or scale of those particular businesses. But as we think about how we continue to invest, we're going to continue to invest heavily in the second half of the year, similar to what we did in the first half, and think about this as investing in a few different ways.

當然，安迪。當我們考慮透過投資來提高利潤率時，我們會考慮整個業務。再次，我們認識到，我們每個地區和坦白說，業務線都有不同的利潤率、自然利潤率狀況，而這些都是我們無法控制的，它們是由市場或特定業務的規模或規模驅動的。但當我們思考如何繼續投資時，我們將在下半年繼續大力投資，類似於我們上半年所做的，並將其視為以幾種不同的方式進行投資。

First is we're always going to continue to invest in business development. We said our pipeline continues to grow. We're not going to shrink away from investing in future work off future opportunities. Secondly, is we continue to invest in how we actually drive efficiency and what we do, and whether that's in how we run the business or how we deliver our work, we're going to continue to make those investments. And those investments come in the way of either technology or they come in the way we think about how our teams actually come together and share work and deliver it.

首先，我們將始終持續投資於業務發展。我們說過我們的管道將繼續成長。我們不會迴避對未來工作和未來機會的投資。其次，我們是否會繼續投資於如何真正提高效率以及我們所做的工作，無論是我們如何經營業務還是如何開展工作，我們都將繼續進行這些投資。這些投資要不是來自技術，就是來自我們對團隊如何真正地聚集在一起、分享工作並完成工作的思考。

And one of those examples that we've talked about frequently has been our enterprise capability centers. We continue to expand the use of those capability centers because they drive great efficiency in how we deliver our work, and they also help with quality. And so, we will continue to accelerate investments in technology to support the business and in things like our capability centers. So those things aren't going to change for us in the second half of the year.

我們經常談論的一個例子就是我們的企業能力中心。我們將繼續擴大這些能力中心的使用範圍，因為它們大大提高了我們開展工作的效率，同時也有助於提高品質。因此，我們將繼續加快對技術的投資以支持業務以及我們的能力中心等方面。因此，這些情況在下半年不會改變。

Very helpful. And then maybe just like thinking about book-to-burn, you've continued to have strong book-to-burn, 1.1 here. Does the current environment allow you to continue to book that kind of level of work, Troy? And have you seen any incremental slowdown in May, or is it sort of steady as she goes here and what markets are sort of driving the growth? Is it still more on the water side or is it kind of balanced as you said?

非常有幫助。然後也許就像思考要燒毀的書一樣，你繼續擁有強大的要燒毀的書，這裡是 1.1。特洛伊，目前的環境允許您繼續承接這種程度的工作嗎？您是否看到 5 月經濟成長放緩，還是保持穩定，哪些市場推動了經濟成長？它是否仍然偏向水，還是像您所說的那樣有點平衡？

So I guess, the simple answer is yes, we have confidence that we'll continue to book more business than we burn in a quarter. And I think this is -- I think this might be our 18th consecutive quarter of book-to-burn greater than 1. So that, obviously, gives us some confidence that we know how to win work. And our win rates, we made this reference, I think in our prepared comments, that our win rates are also at an all-time high. We win of every $1 that we bid across the entire business, we win more than 50% of what we bid. But again, I think the thing you should think about coupled with our win rates is, again, our pipeline, and our pipeline continues to grow. So we have confidence that we'll continue to book more work each quarter than we burn.

所以我想，簡單的答案是肯定的，我們有信心，我們將繼續獲得比我們在一個季度內消耗更多的業務。我認為這可能是我們連續第 18 個季度的「待售書籍數量」超過 1。因此，這顯然給了我們一些信心，讓我們知道如何贏得工作。我們的勝率，我想我們在準備好的評論中提到過，我們的勝率也處於歷史最高水平。在整個業務範圍內，我們投標的每一美元都有得標，得標率超過 50%。但是，我認為除了我們的勝率之外，您還應該考慮我們的管道，而且我們的管道還在不斷增長。因此，我們有信心，每季我們承接的工作量會比我們消耗的還要多。

Adam Bubes, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的亞當布貝斯 (Adam Bubes)。

Hi, good morning. I wanted to circle back to the Americas margin performance. It's really impressive, up 130 basis points year-over-year. You cited growth in higher-margin projects, continuous improvement, but wondering if we could just unpack that 130 basis points margin performance because it really stands out. What's the greatest driver of that margin expansion, which higher margin and markets are supporting that growth? Any color that would be helpful.

嗨，早安。我想回顧美洲的利潤表現。這確實令人印象深刻，比去年同期成長了 130 個基點。您提到了高利潤項目的成長和持續的改進，但想知道我們是否可以解讀出 130 個基點的利潤率表現，因為它確實很突出。利潤率擴張的最大驅動力是什麼？哪些更高的利潤率和市場支持這種成長？任何有幫助的顏色。

Hey, Adam, it's Gaurav. I'll take that question. It was exceptional performance by Americas in margin, and what really contributed to it is fourfold. I'll give -- I'll go into the detail. Some of this Troy has already shared in his previous response.

嘿，亞當，我是 Gaurav。我來回答這個問題。美洲的利潤表現十分出色，而真正發揮作用的因素有四個面向。我會給出——我會詳細說明。特洛伊 (Troy) 在先前的回覆中已經分享了其中的一些內容。

If we've made significant organic investments over the past few years, so the results we're seeing today, it's not based on actions we took in Q1 or Q2. These are continued organic investments this management team has made over the last two to three years. It's on high return on invested capital organic investments like our program management initiative that we started five years ago that went from 3% to now greater than 13% of our overall enterprise top line.

如果我們在過去幾年中進行了大量的有機投資，那麼我們今天看到的結果並不是基於我們在第一季或第二季採取的行動。這些都是該管理團隊在過去兩到三年內持續進行的有機投資。這是基於高投資回報率的有機投資，例如我們五年前啟動的專案管理計劃，該計劃占我們企業整體營業額的比例從 3% 上升到現在的 13% 以上。

It's also in the second half of the year, we invested in our advisory business. We're already seeing very good early returns, but more importantly, we're seeing better rigor and better -- a better focus on pricing in that business that already existed for us. It's also a byproduct of our capability centers. These are design centers that we have across the globe. Mind you, these may be in countries that we operationally have exited, over 60 plus countries that we've exited, but we still keep our capability centers to drive work because they have the best -- not only the best technical capabilities, but they also provide benefit to us when we go to market in pricing and also leveraging it when we deliver those projects for margins.

也是在下半年，我們投資了我們的顧問業務。我們已經看到了非常好的早期回報，但更重要的是，我們看到了更好的嚴謹性和更好的——更好地專注於我們已經存在的業務的定價。這也是我們能力中心的副產品。這些是我們在全球各地的設計中心。請注意，這些國家可能位於我們已經退出業務的國家，我們已經退出了 60 多個國家，但我們仍然保留我們的能力中心來推動工作，因為它們擁有最好的 - 不僅是最好的技術能力，而且當我們進入市場時，它們也在定價方面為我們提供利益，並且在我們交付這些項目以獲取利潤時利用它。

And we -- also, if you would recall last year in the first half, we had significant restructuring that we had initiated. So now, what you saw in the first half of this year in our trailing 12 months result is the full benefit of that restructuring show up, even though our results in the in the current year are clean and will continue to be very clean, meaning no restructuring and forecasting.

而且，如果您還記得的話，去年上半年，我們啟動了重大重組。因此，現在，您在今年上半年看到的過去 12 個月的業績充分體現了重組帶來的好處，儘管我們今年的業績很乾淨，並且將繼續保持乾淨，這意味著沒有重組和預測。

Terrific. And then is there a way to provide context as to the magnitude of margin differential between advisory and program management and the balance of the business and just how you're thinking about the potential for a mixed tail into to margins as you folks continue to grow that part of the business.

了不起。那麼，有沒有辦法提供背景信息，說明諮詢和專案管理之間的利潤差異幅度以及業務平衡情況，以及隨著你們繼續發展這部分業務，您如何看待利潤率出現混合尾部的可能性。

Yeah. So maybe think about it this way, is that program management has margins and margins that are very similar to our design business. And the advisory business, those margins are actually higher than that, but we're -- we haven't given guidance on specifically what those ranges look like, but you can rest assured that they're better.

是的。所以也許可以這樣想，專案管理的利潤和利潤率與我們的設計業務非常相似。而諮詢業務的利潤率實際上要高於這個數字，但我們還沒有給出關於具體範圍的指導，但你可以放心，它們的利潤率會更高。

Steven Fisher, UBS.

瑞銀的史蒂文·費雪。

Thanks. Good morning. I just wanted to ask you to put a finer -- morning. I wanted to ask you to put a finer point on the expectations you have for the growth rate in the second half. If we're talking about, say, the midpoint of your organic growth rate, you kind of have to be at the upper end for the next couple of quarters. I know in your first, in Mike Feniger's question, you talked about sort of an EBITDA perspective. I'm just sort of focusing on the top line part of it. With the visibility you have, do you think you're aiming for the midpoint at this point? Do you think the uncertainty kind of at this point means you’re thinking about sort of the lower end? How are you thinking about sort of a finer point on the growth rate expectation for the next couple of quarters?

謝謝。早安.我只是想請您說得更詳細一些——早安。我想請您更詳細地談談對下半年經濟成長速度的預期。如果我們談論的是有機成長率的中點，那麼在接下來的幾個季度裡，你必須處於上限。我知道，在第一個 Mike Feniger 的問題中，您談到了 EBITDA 的觀點。我只是關注它的頂線部分。以您目前所掌握的可見度，您認為目前瞄準的是中間點嗎？您是否認為目前的不確定性意味著您正在考慮某種較低端的問題？您如何看待未來幾季的成長率預期？

Hey, Stephen, this is Gaurav. I'll take that question. So as we move into the second half of the year, I think your calculations are spot on in terms of to achieve the midpoint, what would we have to deliver. Now, remember our first half growth was impacted by fewer workdays. The second half of the year is going to be benefiting as we turn around, right? And in the second half, we are going to see some tailwind from it.

嘿，史蒂芬，我是 Gaurav。我來回答這個問題。因此，當我們進入下半年時，我認為您的計算是正確的，為了實現中點，我們必須交付什麼。現在，請記住，我們上半年的成長受到工作日減少的影響。隨著我們情況好轉，下半年將會受益，對嗎？而在下半年，我們將會看到一些順風。

When we look at our pipeline, more importantly, our backlog, contracted, awarded backlog, our book-to-burn, all those things provide us with good confidence in the second half of the year that we'll be able -- we're still very confident in delivering the midpoint of our range. Now, with all that said, as Troy has commented earlier in previous quarterly calls, we're not that precise, where we have 35,000 to 50,000 ongoing contracts. If it's off by 50 basis points either way, 25 basis points, within a quarter, a couple of quarters, that's manageable for us.

當我們審視我們的產品線時，更重要的是，我們的積壓訂單、已簽約訂單、已授予訂單、待完成訂單，所有這些都讓我們對下半年充滿信心——我們仍然非常有信心實現我們預期的中點。現在，儘管如此，正如特洛伊在之前的季度電話會議上所評論的那樣，我們並沒有那麼精確，我們有 35,000 到 50,000 份正在進行的合約。如果在一個季度或幾個季度內出現 50 個基點的偏差，即 25 個基點，那對我們來說都是可以控制的。

And as you pointed out, when we bring that into balance with our margin delivery, our organic investments that we make, it provides -- it continues to provide us with utmost confidence that all the key metrics that create shareholder value, the earnings metrics, our cash flow metrics, we have full confidence we'll be achieving those as well. And on the earning side, as you may have noticed, for the second quarter in the row, we've raised the midpoint to articulate the confidence we're seeing.

正如您所指出的，當我們將其與我們的利潤交付、我們所做的有機投資相平衡時，它提供了——它繼續為我們提供最大的信心，即創造股東價值的所有關鍵指標、收益指標、我們的現金流指標，我們完全有信心我們也將實現這些指標。在盈利方面，正如您可能已經註意到的，連續第二個季度，我們提高了中間點，以表達我們所看到的信心。

Super helpful. And then continued good progress on the International margin front, albeit a little bit slower than the Americas to be expected, right? But I guess, you know, curious if you have a playbook of things that are within your control that you can implement to drive any more improvement in those International margins. I know selectivity has been a big focus area for you, for example, so just curious if there's anything kind of within your control that you're focusing on to the International side. Thank you.

超有幫助。然後，國際利潤方面繼續取得良好進展，儘管比預期的美洲慢一點，對嗎？但我想，你知道，我很好奇你是否有一個在你控制範圍內的事情的劇本，你可以實施它來推動國際利潤率的進一步改善。例如，我知道選擇性一直是您關注的重點領域，所以我很好奇在國際方面您是否可以控制任何您關注的事情。謝謝。

Thanks, Stephen. I'll -- it's Lara, I'll take that. I mean, I think a lot of the drivers are similar to the ones that Gaurav mentioned earlier, so the strategy to leverage our enterprise capability centers, that's equally mature, for example, in the International segment. And you're right, I mean, this quarter was tempered in terms of top line growth, but the most positive thing that we see was that pipeline was up 6%. So you're right, selectivity in terms of the clients, the key pursuits, so the -- we've had some good wins in the quarter equally between the Americas segment and the International segment, and we'll continue to work the frameworks. I think those frameworks are particularly important on the International side, particularly in our largest international market like the UK. So we've got good coverage there, not just in transportation, but also in AMP8 where we've now got, we're sitting at about 150% coverage building on the position we had in AMP7. And I think Spring Statement, the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill, all of those sort of policy shifts will help to accelerate, and now, that we also have an election outcome in Australia, again, it allows us to double down in terms of the momentum and the pipeline that we've been very focused on with some of our core infrastructure clients as well.

謝謝，史蒂芬。我會——是勞拉，我會接受的。我的意思是，我認為許多驅動因素與 Gaurav 之前提到的類似，因此利用我們的企業能力中心的策略同樣成熟，例如在國際領域。你說得對，我的意思是，本季的營收成長有所放緩，但我們看到的最積極的事情是通路成長了 6%。所以你是對的，在客戶方面有選擇性，關鍵追求，所以 - 我們在本季度在美洲分部和國際分部之間取得了一些良好的勝利，我們將繼續努力框架。我認為這些框架在國際方面尤其重要，特別是在我們最大的國際市場如英國。因此，我們在那裡獲得了良好的覆蓋，不僅在交通領域，而且在 AMP8 領域也是如此，我們現在的覆蓋率約為 AMP7 基礎上的 150%。我認為《春季預算案》、新的《規劃和基礎設施法案》以及所有這些政策轉變將有助於加速這一進程，現在，我們也有了澳洲的選舉結果，這讓我們能夠加倍努力，加強與一些核心基礎設施客戶的合作，我們一直非常關注這些合作。

And I'm just going to add one more point. I'm going to add one finer point to that, which is that when we -- I mean, when we look at our business and we look at where we're investing in the business, we don't necessarily focus on simply organic growth or marginal improvement. We also look at the return on our capital. And so, sometimes when you look at markets that might have lower margins, when you take into account how quickly you can effectively record and collect the work -- record in your books and collect the work that for the work that you're performing, we actually see in a bunch of our international markets that we do very well in terms of the DSOs or the sales outstanding. And so, when we evaluate those markets, it isn't simply the margin profile. The margin is improving, and it's certainly good margins, but we also look at the return on capital and the return on capital and a bunch of international markets that might look like lower margins have great returns on capital for us.

我只想補充一點。我要補充一點，那就是當我們——我的意思是，當我們審視我們的業務並審視我們在業務上的投資時，我們不一定只關注有機成長或邊際改善。我們也關注資本的回報。因此，有時當您查看利潤率較低的市場時，當您考慮到您能多快有效地記錄和收集工作 - 在您的賬簿中記錄並收集您正在執行的工作時，我們實際上在許多國際市場中看到我們在 DSO 或未償銷售額方面做得很好。因此，當我們評估這些市場時，不僅僅是利潤率狀況。利潤率正在提高，這當然是很好的利潤率，但我們也會關注資本回報率和資本回報率，而一些看起來利潤率較低的國際市場為我們帶來了豐厚的資本回報率。

Jamie Cook, Truist Securities.

Jamie Cook，Truist Securities。

Hi, good morning. Just two follow-up questions. One, and nice quarter. Specifically, just given where we started, you know what I mean, for the year, in International, I mean, what is your expectation for International margins year-over-year for the full year? Do we expect them to be flat or can they grow just again based on where we are? And understanding the Americas margins were very strong, but just clarification there.

嗨，早安。僅剩兩個後續問題。一、非常好的季度。具體來說，考慮到我們的起點，您知道我的意思，對於今年的國際業務，您對全年國際利潤率同比的預期是多少？我們是否希望它們保持平穩，或者它們能否根據我們所處的位置再次增長？並且了解美洲的利潤率非常高，但只是澄清一下。

And then my second question just on your longer-term margin targets, you target the 5% to 8% top line growth and then the 20 to 30 bps of margin expansion. If we look at your actual performance, you know, you continue to exceed expectations on the margin side, right? You're doing much better than the 20 to 30 bps, whereas the top line, seems to be more challenged, not challenging when you're doing a good job, but it's always harder to get the top line growth. So I guess, is there any -- we get this question, is there any view that potentially we could switch the targets and potentially have a more aggressive margin target and a less aggressive top line target?

我的第二個問題是關於您的長期利潤率目標，您的目標是實現 5% 至 8% 的營收成長，然後實現 20 至 30 個基點的利潤率擴張。如果我們看一下您的實際表現，您知道，您在利潤方面繼續超出預期，對嗎？你做得比 20 到 30 個基點要好得多，而頂線似乎面臨更大的挑戰，當你做得很好時並不具有挑戰性，但獲得頂線增長總是更難。所以我想，我們是否有這樣的疑問，是否有觀點認為我們可以切換目標，並可能擁有更積極的利潤率目標和不那麼積極的營收目標？

Hey, Jamie. I'll take the first half of the question. Specific to International and DCSA margins, as we look to the entirety of the year and second half, we expect DCSA and our Americas margins to continue to improve. Now, as Lara articulated just before in the question, one of the things we're really proud of is our International and Americas business continue to make significant investments through our margins in the first half of the year. Now, this also means that in our International business where we don't -- did not have the growth as we were expecting on the revenue side in the first half of the year, we're willing to make that investment in our people because it's going to drive that return on investment that is always our key focus and mentality of how we operate.

嘿，傑米。我來回答問題的前半部。具體到國際和 DCSA 利潤率，展望全年和下半年，我們預計 DCSA 和美洲的利潤率將繼續提高。現在，正如 Lara 剛才在問題中所說，我們真正感到自豪的事情之一是我們的國際和美洲業務在上半年繼續透過我們的利潤進行大量投資。現在，這也意味著，在我們的國際業務中，我們沒有——沒有像我們預期的那樣在上半年實現收入方面的成長，我們願意對我們的員工進行投資，因為這將推動投資回報，而投資回報始終是我們營運的重點和心態。

As we look forward to the second half of the year, again, one of the things to factor in is we expect growth consistent with the margin guidance that we have provided, but also balance that you're not going to see the same result in the first half because now the restructuring benefit is included that we undertook in the first half of the year last year is now included in our trailing 12 months. But still, the margins should be growing.

當我們展望下半年時，再次要考慮的因素之一是，我們預計成長將與我們提供的利潤率指引一致，但同時，您不會在上半年看到相同的結果，因為現在已經將我們去年上半年進行的重組收益納入了過去 12 個月的業績中。但利潤率仍然應該在成長。

And Jamie, I just want to add something to that. This is I think it's an important concept and it's something that we think about a lot when we run the business, and that is not all growth is of equal value. Because you -- as you point out, top line growth can be hard. The contrary point is top line growth could be really easy. If we want to erode our margins and actually, deliver work and grow a lot faster rate, we could. That is not a problem, we could bid work at lower rates, and we could live in a lot more work, and we could drive our margins down.

傑米，我只想補充一點。我認為這是一個重要的概念，也是我們在經營業務時經常思考的問題，並非所有成長都具有同等價值。因為正如你所指出的，收入成長可能很困難。相反的是，營收成長可能真的很容易。如果我們想降低利潤率，並真正完成工作，實現更快的成長速度，我們就可以。這不是問題，我們可以以較低的價格投標工作，我們可以從事更多的工作，我們可以降低利潤率。

And so, I think in this business, a really important sort of tenant for making sure you're making good decisions is we should be finding competitive advantage and competitive advantage turns into work that is more valuable for our customers and for us, and that sometimes might mean that your top line growth maybe looks a little slower. So I think it's an important part of what we think about when we run the business, and we make decisions on what's important in creating value.

因此，我認為在這個行業中，確保你做出正確決策的一個非常重要的原則是，我們應該找到競爭優勢，並將競爭優勢轉化為對我們的客戶和我們自己更有價值的工作，有時這可能意味著你的營收成長可能會看起來慢一些。所以我認為這是我們經營業務時考慮的重要部分，我們會決定什麼對創造價值最重要。

Adam Thalhimer, Thompson Davis.

亞當泰爾希默，湯普森戴維斯。

Hey. Good morning, guys. I'm trying to think through the gross revenue versus net revenue, and I think that's starting to reflect. You talked about walking away from some construction management opportunities, is that reflective of you de-emphasizing construction management, or is there anything or is there something starting in construction management that will -- that would cause gross revenue to increase more in the coming quarters?

嘿。大家早安。我正在嘗試思考總收入與淨收入之間的關係，我認為這已經開始反映出來了。您談到放棄一些建築管理機會，這是否反映出您不再重視建築管理，或者建築管理中是否存在什麼或有什麼開始會導致未來幾季的總收入進一步增加？

Yeah. So good -- again, good observation, and it's really a combination of two things. One is being really thoughtful about the work that you're going to do and the risk that might be inherent in it, but also recognize that in Construction Management, there are cycles. And so, what we have been experiencing in the business is we've been working through a cycle, and we've been repositioning that business to do different kinds of work in the future. And as you reposition the business, you burn off backlog, and so as you're burning off backlog, you'll see a decline in gross revenue.

是的。非常好——再次強調，觀察得很好，這實際上是兩件事的結合。一是要認真考慮你要做的工作以及其中可能存在的風險，但也要認識到，施工管理是有周期的。因此，我們在業務中經歷的是我們一直在經歷一個週期，並且我們一直在重新定位業務，以便在未來進行不同類型的工作。當你重新定位業務時，你會消耗掉積壓訂單，因此當你消耗掉積壓訂單時，你會看到總收入的下降。

And as we've built that backlog up in the future, it starts out in the first few years, usually a year or two years where you're doing, I'm going to call it pre-construction work, that doesn't come with it the significant amount of gross revenue as you start to procure to build. And so, we're just really going through that cycle, we've been burning off backlog. And as we've refilled the backlog, with, I'm going to call it with great projects, we're in that phase where we just don't have that same amount of procurement through those through that work, but it will improve over time.

隨著我們在未來累積這些積壓工作，它將在最初幾年開始，通常是一兩年，我稱之為施工前的工作，當你開始採購建設時，這不會帶來大量的總收入。所以，我們實際上正在經歷這個週期，我們一直在消除積壓的工作。隨著我們用我稱之為偉大項目的積壓項目重新填補，我們正處於這樣一個階段，透過這些工作，我們沒有同樣數量的採購，但隨著時間的推移，情況會有所改善。

Okay, perfect. And then just quickly, can you give us an update on the wind down of AECOM capital and just curious if we should keep modeling something for that business in 2026?

好的，完美。然後，您能否向我們簡要介紹一下 AECOM 資本削減的最新情況？我們是否應該在 2026 年繼續為該業務建模？

No, you shouldn't.

不，你不應該。

And that concludes our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Troy Rudd for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。現在我將把電話轉回給特洛伊·拉德，請他作最後發言。

Yeah. Again, I just want to -- I want to end by complimenting all the folks here at AECOM. They've done an outstanding job working together to work through an uncertain time and an uncertain environment. And as a result of their extraordinary effort, it's proven up in our results. So thank you to our team and thank you all for joining us today. Take care.

是的。再次，我只想——最後我想讚揚 AECOM 的所有員工。他們在一個不確定的時期和不確定的環境中共同努力，並做出了出色的工作。並且由於他們的非凡努力，我們的成果已經得到證實。感謝我們的團隊，感謝大家今天的加入我們。小心。

That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。