Brightview Holdings Inc (BV) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the BrightView Q2 Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) This call is being recorded on Thursday, May 4, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Faten Freiha, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

女士們先生們，早上好，歡迎來到 BrightView 2023 財年第二季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）此電話將於 2023 年 5 月 4 日星期四進行錄音。我現在想將會議轉交給投資者關係副總裁 Faten Freiha。請繼續。

Thank you for joining BrightView's Second Quarter Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Paul Raether, BrightView's Chairman of the Board of Directors; Andrew Masterman, Chief Executive Officer; and Brett Urban, Chief Financial Officer, are on the call.

感謝您加入 BrightView 的 2023 財年第二季度收益電話會議。 BrightView 董事會主席 Paul Raether；安德魯·馬斯特曼，首席執行官；首席財務官 Brett Urban 正在接聽電話。

Please remember that some of the comments made today, including responses to questions and information reflected on the presentation slides are forward-looking, and actual results may differ materially from those projected. Please refer to the company's SEC filings for more detail on the risks and uncertainties that could impact the company's future operating results and financial condition. Comments made today will also include a discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in today's press release. Disclaimers on forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures apply both to today's prepared remarks as well as the Q&A.

請記住，今天發表的一些評論，包括對問題的回答和演示幻燈片中反映的信息，都是前瞻性的，實際結果可能與預測結果存在重大差異。有關可能影響公司未來經營業績和財務狀況的風險和不確定性的更多詳細信息，請參閱公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件。今天發表的評論還將包括對某些非 GAAP 財務措施的討論。今天的新聞稿中提供了與可比較的 GAAP 財務措施的調節。前瞻性陳述和非 GAAP 財務措施的免責聲明適用於今天準備好的評論和問答。

I will now turn the call over to Paul Raether, BrightView's Chairman of the Board of Directors for some comments.

我現在將電話轉給 BrightView 的董事會主席 Paul Raether 以徵求一些意見。

Thank you, Faten, and good morning to everyone. Earlier today, we announced that Andrew Masterman will be stepping down from his position as President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Director effective May 31. Andrew has been a great leader for BrightView. He joined us in 2016 and successfully led the company's initial public offering in 2018. During his tenure, the company executed more than 35 strategic acquisitions, modernized its technology and finance infrastructure, professionalized its sales organization, expanded our omnichannel marketing capabilities and achieved the best safety record in the company's history.

謝謝你，Faten，大家早上好。今天早些時候，我們宣布 Andrew Masterman 將從 5 月 31 日起辭去其總裁、首席執行官兼董事會董事的職務。Andrew 一直是 BrightView 的傑出領導者。他於 2016 年加入我們，並在 2018 年成功領導了公司的首次公開募股。在他任職期間，公司執行了超過 35 項戰略收購，實現了技術和金融基礎設施的現代化，使銷售組織專業化，擴大了我們的全渠道營銷能力，並取得了最佳成績公司歷史上的安全記錄。

Following Andrew's last day on May 31, Jim Abrahamson, a member of our Board of Directors since 2015 and an experienced CEO, will step in as Interim President and CEO. Jim brings extensive knowledge of BrightView and the industry as well as over 30 years of management experience in large public and private companies that operated in dynamic environments. We're searching for Andrew's successor in partnership with an executive search firm. In the meantime, we have full confidence in Jim's ability to continue to execute BrightView's strategy, in partnership with our talented management team. Andrew, on behalf of the Board, I want to thank you again for all your contributions to BrightView. I will now turn the call over to you.

在安德魯 5 月 31 日的最後一天之後，自 2015 年以來一直擔任我們董事會成員和經驗豐富的首席執行官的吉姆·亞伯拉罕森 (Jim Abrahamson) 將擔任臨時總裁兼首席執行官。 Jim 擁有廣泛的 BrightView 和行業知識，以及 30 多年在動態環境中運營的大型公共和私營公司的管理經驗。我們正在與一家獵頭公司合作尋找安德魯的繼任者。與此同時，我們對 Jim 與我們才華橫溢的管理團隊合作繼續執行 BrightView 戰略的能力充滿信心。安德魯，我代表董事會再次感謝您對 BrightView 的所有貢獻。我現在將把電話轉給你。

Thank you, Paul. It's been a privilege to serve as BrightView's CEO over the last 7 years. I'm proud of what we've accomplished to date, and I'm confident in BrightView's future progress and success. Today, BrightView is an industry leader with a recognized brand and a nationwide footprint with over 21,000 high-quality team members. We have significantly improved our customer service through strategic technology investments, digital services and marketing. The company has grown tremendously. I'm confident that positive momentum will continue. I look forward to working with Jim over the next few weeks to ensure a smooth transition. With that, let me give you some high-level commentary of the quarter before turning to the results.

謝謝你，保羅。在過去的 7 年裡擔任 BrightView 的首席執行官是我的榮幸。我為我們迄今為止所取得的成就感到自豪，並且我對 BrightView 未來的進步和成功充滿信心。如今，BrightView 已成為行業領導者，擁有知名品牌和遍布全國的足跡，擁有超過 21,000 名高素質團隊成員。我們通過戰略技術投資、數字服務和營銷顯著改善了我們的客戶服務。公司發展迅猛。我相信積極的勢頭將繼續下去。我期待在接下來的幾週內與 Jim 合作，以確保平穩過渡。有了這個，讓我在轉向結果之前給你一些本季度的高級評論。

I'd like to first start by thanking the entire BrightView team for their outstanding execution and dedication. I am proud to report on their hard work which resulted in a solid quarter anchored by strategic, operational and financial success. We delivered our eighth consecutive quarter of land organic growth, our second consecutive quarter of underlying land margin expansion and our third consecutive quarter of development margin expansion. Our top line results benefited from strong new sales, pricing actions and acquisition benefits. Importantly, investments in our sales force and technology continue to support the strength and durability of our top line results.

首先，我要感謝整個 BrightView 團隊出色的執行力和奉獻精神。我很自豪地報告他們的辛勤工作，他們以戰略、運營和財務上的成功為基礎，取得了穩固的季度業績。我們實現了連續第八個季度的土地有機增長、連續第二個季度的基礎土地利潤率擴張和連續第三個季度的開發利潤率擴張。我們的營收業績得益於強勁的新銷售、定價行動和收購收益。重要的是，對我們的銷售人員和技術的投資繼續支持我們的頂線結果的強度和持久性。

From a profitability perspective, underlying land and development margins expanded as we continue to execute on pricing efforts, implemented operating efficiency initiatives and maintained our disciplined cost management approach. Our ability to gain more efficiencies in our business enables us to continue to invest behind our proven strategy and drive long-term profitable growth. Our priority remains clear. We will focus on business elements we can control, most notably driving sustainable land and development organic growth, executing on accretive acquisitions while implementing cost management initiatives to mitigate against externally driven headwinds and improve profitability.

從盈利能力的角度來看，隨著我們繼續執行定價工作、實施運營效率計劃並保持我們嚴格的成本管理方法，基礎土地和開發利潤率有所擴大。我們在業務中獲得更高效率的能力使我們能夠繼續投資於我們行之有效的戰略並推動長期盈利增長。我們的優先事項仍然很明確。我們將專注於我們可以控制的業務要素，最顯著的是推動可持續的土地和開發有機增長，執行增值收購，同時實施成本管理計劃以減輕外部驅動的不利因素並提高盈利能力。

Let me begin by reviewing the highlights for the second quarter on Slide 4. Revenue performance was supported primarily by land organic growth as well as some contribution from accretive M&A transactions. New sales growth and stabilizing retention rates powered land organic growth of approximately 2%. Ancillary revenue was flat year-over-year as growth in many parts of the country was offset by significant rainfall across coastal markets. The development business outperformed our expectations for the quarter as a result of our strong backlog. Our development team remains focused on customer engagement, adding new projects in targeted markets, which is resulting in an extremely robust and high-quality backlog. We remain very optimistic about fiscal 2023 and expect development organic growth to be 10% plus for the second half of this fiscal year.

首先讓我回顧一下幻燈片 4 中第二季度的亮點。收入表現主要受到土地有機增長以及增值併購交易的一些貢獻的支持。新的銷售增長和穩定的保留率推動土地有機增長約 2%。輔助收入同比持平，因為該國許多地區的增長被沿海市場的大量降雨所抵消。由於我們大量積壓，開發業務超出了我們對本季度的預期。我們的開發團隊仍然專注於客戶參與，在目標市場增加新項目，這導致了極其強大和高質量的積壓。我們對 2023 財年仍然非常樂觀，並預計本財年下半年的發展有機增長將超過 10%。

Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $47 million, above the high end of our guidance range of $33 million to $43 million, as underlying land and development margins outperformed our expectations, driven by pricing initiatives and disciplined cost management. It is clear that we are starting to see an inflection point in our margin profile, and we expect this improvement to continue for the second half of fiscal 2023 and beyond.

第二季度調整後的 EBITDA 為 4700 萬美元，高於我們 3300 萬至 4300 萬美元指導範圍的上限，這是因為在定價舉措和嚴格的成本管理的推動下，基礎土地和開發利潤率超出了我們的預期。很明顯，我們的利潤率開始出現拐點，我們預計這種改善將持續到 2023 財年下半年及以後。

Lastly, we remain disciplined stewards of capital. In Q2, we reduced capital expenditures by more than 50% and doubled our free cash flow compared to the prior year. In addition, relative to Q1, we reduced net debt by $56 million, effectively utilizing our cash to reduce debt. These results underscore the continued focus on reducing leverage.

最後，我們仍然是紀律嚴明的資本管家。在第二季度，與上一年相比，我們的資本支出減少了 50% 以上，自由現金流翻了一番。此外，相對於第一季度，我們減少了 5600 萬美元的淨債務，有效地利用我們的現金來減少債務。這些結果強調了對降低杠桿率的持續關注。

Let's move to Slide 5 to review our strategic pillars to drive long-term growth. This strategy continues to power the momentum we see in our business and remain centered around 3 main pillars. First, delivering organic growth through our dedicated locally driven sales force of 200-plus team members focused on acquiring new customers. Second, executing on our strategic and accretive M&A transactions, enabling efficient expansion into attractive select markets. Third, investing in technology, digital services and marketing continues to grow our opportunity pipeline and delivers a differentiated customer value proposition, resulting in expanded market share.

讓我們轉到幻燈片 5 來回顧我們推動長期增長的戰略支柱。這一戰略繼續推動我們在業務中看到的勢頭，並始終圍繞 3 個主要支柱。首先，通過我們專注於獲取新客戶的 200 多名團隊成員的本地化銷售團隊實現有機增長。其次，執行我們的戰略和增值併購交易，從而能夠有效地擴展到有吸引力的特定市場。第三，對技術、數字服務和營銷的投資繼續擴大我們的機會渠道，並提供差異化的客戶價值主張，從而擴大市場份額。

The sales force is driving strong sales growth across our business. Their consistent execution drives the confidence behind our expectation for organic growth in fiscal year 2023 and beyond. We continue to see solid customer demand in our contract-based business and our development pipeline remains robust. Importantly, we are not seeing any indications of a slowdown in our landscaping markets. Our acquisition strategy remains to increase our density and leadership position in existing local markets, enter attractive new geographic markets, expand our portfolio of landscape enhancement services and improve our technical capabilities and specialized services. We deliberately slowed our acquisitions for this current fiscal year relative to the prior 2 years in an effort to prioritize and balance our cash profile. That being said, we have a large pipeline of M&A opportunities, affording us select and strategic acquisitions at very attractive multiples.

銷售團隊正在推動我們業務的強勁銷售增長。他們一貫的執行力推動了我們對 2023 財年及以後有機增長預期的信心。我們繼續看到客戶對我們基於合同的業務的強勁需求，我們的開發渠道仍然強勁。重要的是，我們沒有看到任何景觀美化市場放緩的跡象。我們的收購戰略仍然是增加我們在現有本地市場的密度和領導地位，進入有吸引力的新地理市場，擴大我們的景觀美化服務組合，並提高我們的技術能力和專業服務。相對於前 2 年，我們故意放慢了本財政年度的收購，以努力優先考慮和平衡我們的現金狀況。話雖這麼說，我們有大量的併購機會，為我們提供了極具吸引力的倍數的精选和戰略收購。

Let's now turn to Slide 6 to discuss technology in a bit more detail. Leveraging digital innovation across a number of platforms has helped drive net new growth and is one of the reasons we continue to enjoy organic growth exceeding industry rates. Furthermore, our initiatives around digital implementation tools have a time horizon of several years as we continue to roll our features based on customer feedback. This fiscal year, we launched our streamlined customer engagement tool BV Connect, enabling us to continue to transform our business into a more digital and future-focused organization. Through BV Connect, customers are able to submit service requests, receive service confirmations, contact their BrightView team, view enhancement proposals, review quality site assessments and access maintenance schedules all in one place. This tool was created based on customer feedback, and we intend to continually improve upon it to further drive engagement and retention.

現在讓我們轉到幻燈片 6 來更詳細地討論技術。在多個平台上利用數字創新有助於推動新的淨增長，這也是我們繼續享有超過行業增長率的有機增長的原因之一。此外，隨著我們繼續根據客戶反饋推出我們的功能，我們圍繞數字實施工具的舉措將持續數年。本財年，我們推出了簡化的客戶參與工具 BV Connect，使我們能夠繼續將我們的業務轉變為一個更加數字化和麵向未來的組織。通過 BV Connect，客戶能夠在一個地方提交服務請求、接收服務確認、聯繫他們的 BrightView 團隊、查看改進建議、審查質量現場評估和訪問維護計劃。該工具是根據客戶反饋創建的，我們打算不斷對其進行改進，以進一步提高參與度和保留率。

A couple of weeks ago, we launched a robust omnichannel marketing campaign in conjunction with our spring activities and sales efforts to generate awareness of BV Connect. Furthermore, we are hosting information sessions to educate customers on its benefits and seeing significant interest and engagement, particularly with our larger commercial and HOA customers. We are proactively marketing our digital services and excited to see continued customer engagement. By the end of the fiscal year, we expect the majority of our top customers to be utilizing this unique and differentiated platform.

幾週前，我們結合我們的春季活動和銷售工作發起了一場強有力的全渠道營銷活動，以提高 BV Connect 的知名度。此外，我們正在舉辦信息會議，以教育客戶了解其好處並看到顯著的興趣和參與，特別是我們較大的商業和 HOA 客戶。我們正在積極營銷我們的數字服務，並很高興看到客戶持續參與。到本財年結束時，我們預計我們的大多數頂級客戶都將使用這個獨特且差異化的平台。

Let's move to Slide 7 to discuss how we are managing our cost structure to maintain margin expansion over the near and long term. As you know, we have seen strong top line growth in our business over the last 2-plus years. Over that period of time, total profitability has been impacted by externally driven factors, including significantly lower than average snowfall, historically high inflation and spikes in fuel prices. To help mitigate against these headwinds, future potential headwinds and drive efficiency in the business, we launched Project Accelerate.

讓我們轉到幻燈片 7 來討論我們如何管理我們的成本結構以在近期和長期內保持利潤率增長。如您所知，在過去 2 年多的時間裡，我們的業務收入增長強勁。在那段時間裡，總盈利能力受到外部驅動因素的影響，包括降雪量顯著低於平均水平、處於歷史高位的通貨膨脹和燃料價格飆升。為了幫助緩解這些不利因素、未來潛在的不利因素並提高業務效率，我們啟動了 Project Accelerate。

Project Accelerate is a company-wide program that will deliver ongoing operating efficiency by eliminating duplicative work, improving processes and reducing overall costs. Essentially, this will reorganize the company to get work done faster, better and drive enhanced productivity. As a result, we are eliminating positions through workforce reductions and the hiring freeze. Furthermore, we are reducing T&A expenses, discretionary spending, third-party consultants and strategically managing marketing costs and IT expenditures. The benefit from these actions will be reflected in our guidance for the remainder of this fiscal year and for next year.

Project Accelerate 是一項全公司範圍的計劃，將通過消除重複工作、改進流程和降低總體成本來提供持續的運營效率。從本質上講，這將重組公司以更快、更好地完成工作並提高生產力。因此，我們正在通過裁員和凍結招聘來裁員。此外，我們正在減少 T&A 費用、可自由支配的支出、第三方顧問，並戰略性地管理營銷成本和 IT 支出。這些行動的好處將反映在我們對本財政年度剩餘時間和明年的指導中。

In total, Project Accelerate is expected to drive at least $20 million in annualized cost savings. As I mentioned earlier, these savings may be offset by macro headwinds outside of our control. In addition to Project Accelerate, we remain committed to our long-standing margin improvement initiatives across our segments. In land maintenance, pricing efforts remain on track. Over the last couple of years, wage rates and material costs have risen significantly through our pricing initiatives, which we began implementing in the second half of last year, we succeeded in offsetting most of these increases. As a result, we expect to continue to drive margin expansion within our land maintenance business.

總體而言，Project Accelerate 預計每年將節省至少 2000 萬美元的成本。正如我之前提到的，這些節省可能會被我們無法控制的宏觀不利因素所抵消。除了 Project Accelerate 之外，我們仍然致力於我們各個部門的長期利潤率改善計劃。在土地維護方面，定價工作仍在進行中。在過去的幾年裡，通過我們從去年下半年開始實施的定價舉措，工資率和材料成本大幅上漲，我們成功地抵消了大部分漲幅。因此，我們預計將繼續推動土地維護業務的利潤率擴張。

In the development business, which was impacted by the increase in material costs during the pandemic, we shifted contract lead times to allow 10 to 15 days of pricing commitments compared to 3 to 6 months, historically. And this has resulted in an improvement in our development margins in the last 3 quarters. In addition, our development team is focused on building a quality backlog to continue to drive margin expansion over time. From a corporate perspective, we remain committed to very strict cost management protocols and are laser-focused on managing our corporate expenses, which remained flat relative to fiscal 2018 even with $0.5 billion more in total revenue.

在受到大流行期間材料成本增加影響的開發業務中，我們改變了合同交貨時間，允許 10 到 15 天的定價承諾，而歷史上是 3 到 6 個月。這導致我們在過去 3 個季度的開發利潤率有所提高。此外，我們的開發團隊專注於建立高質量的待辦訂單，以隨著時間的推移繼續推動利潤增長。從企業的角度來看，我們仍然致力於非常嚴格的成本管理協議，並專注於管理我們的企業支出，儘管總收入增加了 5 億美元，但與 2018 財年相比仍持平。

As you can see, we are taking a dynamic approach to driving margin expansion. We are offsetting labor and operating costs through pricing initiatives, and we are managing our fixed and SG&A expenses through efficiency measures and cost reductions. We are focusing on what we can control and positioning the business for success in an ever-changing macroeconomic environment. The existing margin expansion initiatives, coupled with Project Accelerate give us confidence in our ability to deliver continued margin expansion in both land and development.

如您所見，我們正在採取動態方法來推動利潤率擴張。我們正在通過定價舉措抵消勞動力和運營成本，我們正在通過提高效率和降低成本來管理我們的固定費用和 SG&A 費用。我們專注於我們可以控制和定位的業務，以便在不斷變化的宏觀經濟環境中取得成功。現有的利潤率擴張計劃，加上 Project Accelerate，讓我們相信我們有能力在土地和開發領域實現持續的利潤率擴張。

Before turning it over to Brett, I'd like to reiterate some of the key highlights of why we remain optimistic about BrightView and its prospects over the short and long term. First, we have a strong, resilient and agile business. We are leaders in our industry with an unparalleled customer value proposition, supported by investments behind digital services and sustainability. We invested heavily in our capabilities in these areas to be able to address our customers' needs. We have multiple opportunities, organic and M&A that will power our growth and drive long-term profitability. We are executing against the strategic growth initiatives and driving strong momentum in our business. We delivered 2 years of consecutive quarter-over-quarter land organic growth and expanded margins in our underlying land segment for 2 consecutive quarters. We expect this margin expansion momentum to continue into the second half of the year.

在將其交給布雷特之前，我想重申一些關鍵要點，說明我們為何對 BrightView 及其短期和長期前景保持樂觀。首先，我們擁有強大、有彈性和敏捷的業務。我們是行業的領導者，擁有無與倫比的客戶價值主張，並得到數字服務和可持續性投資的支持。我們在這些領域的能力上投入了大量資金，以便能夠滿足客戶的需求。我們有多種機會，有機和併購將推動我們的增長並推動長期盈利能力。我們正在執行戰略增長計劃，並推動我們業務的強勁勢頭。我們連續 2 年實現了連續 2 年的季度環比土地有機增長，並連續 2 個季度擴大了基礎土地部門的利潤率。我們預計這種利潤率擴張勢頭將持續到今年下半年。

Through Project Accelerate, we are reorganizing the business to drive ongoing efficiencies, enabling us to mitigate against external macro headwinds, including variability of snow revenue and inflation. Our free cash flow continues to improve in fiscal 2023, underscoring the strength and scalability of our business model.

通過 Project Accelerate，我們正在重組業務以推動持續的效率，使我們能夠減輕外部宏觀逆風，包括雪收入和通貨膨脹的可變性。我們的自由現金流在 2023 財年繼續改善，凸顯了我們商業模式的實力和可擴展性。

I'll now turn it over to Brett, who will discuss our financial performance in greater detail.

我現在將其轉交給布雷特，他將更詳細地討論我們的財務業績。

Thank you, Andrew, and good morning to everyone. I am pleased to report on another strong quarter supported by land organic growth and underlying core margin improvement. Our priorities remain unchanged, consistently growing our top line, improving profitability and our balance sheet as well as executing on capital allocation plans that create long-term shareholder value. With that, let's turn to our results for the second quarter.

謝謝你，安德魯，大家早上好。我很高興地報告另一個強勁的季度，該季度受到土地有機增長和潛在核心利潤率改善的支持。我們的優先事項保持不變，持續增加我們的收入，改善盈利能力和我們的資產負債表，以及執行創造長期股東價值的資本分配計劃。有了這個，讓我們來看看第二季度的結果。

Moving to Slide 10. This slide showcases revenue drivers for the quarter by segment. As you can see, total revenue was impacted by a $77 million decline in organic snow revenues due to a below-average snowfall, a macro dynamic we incorporated into our guidance and is outside our control. For reference, across our footprint for the second quarter, snowfall was at 50% of the 10-year average compared to 91% in the prior year. In our land business, we saw solid top line growth anchored by 1.6% organic growth, our eighth consecutive quarter of land organic growth as well as acquisition benefits. Land organic growth was driven by robust new sales, pricing initiatives and stabilizing retention rates.

轉到幻燈片 10。這張幻燈片按細分展示了本季度的收入驅動因素。正如您所看到的，由於降雪量低於平均水平，有機雪收入下降了 7700 萬美元，總收入受到影響，這是我們納入指導的宏觀動態，但我們無法控制。作為參考，在我們第二季度的足跡中，降雪量為 10 年平均值的 50%，而去年為 91%。在我們的土地業務中，我們看到 1.6% 的有機增長、我們連續第八個季度的土地有機增長以及收購收益支撐了穩健的收入增長。強勁的新銷售、定價舉措和穩定的保留率推動了土地有機增長。

In the development business, results were impacted by a mix of projects but came in ahead of our expectations due to the strong backlog. We remain very optimistic about our development business and pipeline of projects in fiscal '23 as well as fiscal '24.

在開發業務中，結果受到一系列項目的影響，但由於大量積壓，結果超出了我們的預期。我們對 23 財年和 24 財年的開發業務和項目管道仍然非常樂觀。

Turning now to profitability and the details on Slide 11. Total adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $47 million, reflecting a decline of $13 million, driven by significantly below average snowfall, which impacted total adjusted EBITDA by approximately $19 million relative to the prior year. As Andrew noted, adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in above the high end of our guidance range by roughly $4 million. Since no results were within our expectations, the outperformance was driven by underlying land and development EBITDA. It's clear that snowfall had a significant impact on our results for the quarter.

現在轉向盈利能力和幻燈片 11 的詳細信息。第二季度調整後的 EBITDA 總額為 4700 萬美元，下降了 1300 萬美元，原因是降雪量明顯低於平均水平，與去年同期相比，調整後的 EBITDA 總額受到約 1900 萬美元的影響.正如安德魯指出的那樣，本季度調整後的 EBITDA 比我們指導範圍的高端高出約 400 萬美元。由於沒有任何結果在我們的預期之內，因此表現出色是由基礎土地和開發 EBITDA 推動的。很明顯，降雪對我們本季度的業績產生了重大影響。

So let's turn to Slide 12 to discuss margin expansion by segment, excluding snow. In the Maintenance segment, land revenue grew by $14 million composed of both land organic and acquisition-related growth. Total adjusted EBITDA of $51.7 million declined by approximately $11 million from the prior year. As I mentioned earlier, the snow EBITDA headwind was approximately $19 million. As a result, excluding the snow impact, we drove an $8 million growth in our land maintenance adjusted EBITDA. This growth was driven by our continued focus on pricing, operational efficiencies and prudent cost management.

因此，讓我們轉到幻燈片 12 來討論按細分市場劃分的利潤率擴張，不包括雪地。在維護部門，土地收入增長了 1400 萬美元，包括土地有機增長和與收購相關的增長。調整後的 EBITDA 總額為 5170 萬美元，比上一年減少了約 1100 萬美元。正如我之前提到的，雪息 EBITDA 逆風約為 1900 萬美元。因此，排除雪的影響，我們的土地維護調整後 EBITDA 增長了 800 萬美元。這一增長得益於我們對定價、運營效率和審慎成本管理的持續關注。

In the Development segment, adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $13.1 million or up approximately 2% compared to the prior year. Development adjusted EBITDA margin was up 40 basis points year-over-year at the high end of our guidance range of 20 to 40 basis points. Although development revenue declined year-over-year due to mix of projects, we were able to more than offset that deceleration with our strict material cost management, combined with operational efficiencies. This marks our third consecutive quarter of development margin expansion, and we expect this to continue in the second half of this fiscal year.

在開發部門，第二季度調整後的 EBITDA 為 1310 萬美元，比去年同期增長約 2%。開發調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率同比增長 40 個基點，處於我們 20 至 40 個基點指導範圍的高端。儘管由於項目組合導致開發收入同比下降，但我們能夠通過嚴格的材料成本管理以及運營效率來抵消這種下降。這標誌著我們連續第三個季度實現開發利潤率擴張，我們預計這種情況將在本財年下半年繼續。

Let's now turn to Slide 13 to review our capital expenditures, debt and free cash flow for the quarter. Net CapEx for the second quarter was $13 million compared to $34 million in the prior year, reflecting a $21 million year-over-year decrease. As evidenced by these results, we are taking a very disciplined approach to our capital expenditures. In addition, we are enhancing our target for fiscal '23 to be 3% or less of total revenue compared to the 3% to 3.25% range we provided last quarter. We expect this to benefit our free cash flow by an incremental $10 million versus prior expectations. Sequentially, we reduced our net debt by $56 million as we utilize our cash flow this quarter to pay down debt.

現在讓我們轉到幻燈片 13 來回顧我們本季度的資本支出、債務和自由現金流。第二季度的淨資本支出為 1300 萬美元，而去年同期為 3400 萬美元，同比減少 2100 萬美元。正如這些結果所證明的那樣，我們對我們的資本支出採取了非常有紀律的方法。此外，我們將 23 財年的目標提高到佔總收入的 3% 或更少，而我們上個季度提供的範圍是 3% 到 3.25%。我們預計這將使我們的自由現金流比之前的預期增加 1000 萬美元。隨後，由於我們利用本季度的現金流來償還債務，我們的淨債務減少了 5600 萬美元。

Looking ahead, we intend to focus on improving our leverage ratio by growing our EBITDA and reducing our debt. For Q2 of fiscal '23, free cash flow more than doubled compared to the prior year and was $71 million. Free cash flow benefited from purposeful management of CapEx, improvement in working capital and a onetime benefit associated with the Cares Act. We feel great about this improvement and expect it to continue for the remainder of fiscal '23.

展望未來，我們打算通過增加 EBITDA 和減少債務來專注於提高槓桿率。對於 23 財年的第二季度，自由現金流比上一年增加了一倍多，達到 7100 萬美元。自由現金流受益於有目的的資本支出管理、營運資本的改善以及與《關懷法案》相關的一次性福利。我們對這種改進感到非常滿意，並希望它能在 23 財年的剩餘時間裡持續下去。

Let's now turn to Slide 14 to review our outlook for the third quarter and full year fiscal '23. As you can see on the slide, we expect for the third quarter total revenues of $770 million to $790 million, and total adjusted EBITDA of $99 million to $104 million. As for the full year, we expect total revenues of $2.82 billion to $2.86 billion, and total adjusted EBITDA of $292 million to $303 million.

現在讓我們轉到幻燈片 14 來回顧我們對第三季度和全年 23 財年的展望。正如您在幻燈片中看到的那樣，我們預計第三季度總收入為 7.7 億至 7.9 億美元，調整後的 EBITDA 總額為 9900 萬至 1.04 億美元。至於全年，我們預計總收入為 28.2 億美元至 28.6 億美元，調整後的 EBITDA 總額為 2.92 億美元至 3.03 億美元。

Our guidance for the second half of the fiscal year assumes the following: 2% to 3% land organic growth; maintenance margin expansion of 20 to 30 basis points; development organic growth north of 10%; development margin expansion of 50 to 60 basis points; a net benefit of $3 million to $4 million from fuel if prices remain consistent with current averages; and lastly, we expect to realize a small portion of the anticipated annualized savings from Project Accelerate in the fourth quarter enabling us to offset inflationary headwinds. We expect majority of the benefits from Project Accelerate to come through in fiscal '24. We remain optimistic about the strength of our business, its underlying fundamentals and our prospects ahead.

我們對本財年下半年的指導假設如下：土地有機增長 2% 至 3%；維持保證金擴大 20 至 30 個基點；北部發展有機增長 10%；發展幅度擴大 50 至 60 個基點；如果價格與當前平均水平保持一致，燃料帶來的淨收益為 300 萬至 400 萬美元；最後，我們希望在第四季度實現 Project Accelerate 預期年化節省的一小部分，從而使我們能夠抵消通貨膨脹的不利因素。我們預計 Project Accelerate 的大部分收益將在 24 財年實現。我們對我們的業務實力、基本面和未來前景保持樂觀。

For fiscal '23, as we said last quarter, despite the historically low snowfall in the first half of the year, we intend to deliver strong organic growth and margin expansion in both our land and development business.

對於 23 財年，正如我們上個季度所說，儘管今年上半年的降雪量處於歷史最低水平，但我們打算在土地和開發業務中實現強勁的有機增長和利潤率擴張。

Before turning the call back to Andrew, I'd like to address 2 questions that we've been getting from investors. Number one, our path to drive adjusted EBITDA margin expansion; and number two, how we plan to de-lever the balance sheet.

在將電話轉回給安德魯之前，我想回答投資者提出的兩個問題。第一，我們推動調整後 EBITDA 利潤率擴張的途徑；第二，我們計劃如何去槓桿化資產負債表。

Let's start with the first one and discuss margins on Slide 15. As we think about margin expansion, we are focused on drivers we can control. First, continued pricing efforts and enhanced productivity in our maintenance business. Second, in our development business, we expect our material cost management to continue to drive margin improvement. And third, Project Accelerate will deliver cost savings and enhance our efficiencies across our business and offset the impact of externally driven headwinds. As a result of these efforts, and as the midpoint of our guidance implies, we project year-over-year adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of approximately 50 basis points for the second half of the year. Looking ahead to fiscal '24, we expect to maintain this momentum and as snow normalizes in fiscal '24, we would anticipate additional upside.

讓我們從第一個開始，討論幻燈片 15 上的利潤率。當我們考慮利潤率擴張時，我們專注於我們可以控制的驅動因素。首先，繼續努力定價並提高我們維護業務的生產力。其次，在我們的開發業務中，我們預計我們的材料成本管理將繼續推動利潤率的提高。第三，Project Accelerate 將節省成本並提高我們整個業務的效率，並抵消外部驅動逆風的影響。作為這些努力的結果，正如我們指引的中點所暗示的那樣，我們預計今年下半年調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率同比增長約 50 個基點。展望 24 財年，我們預計將保持這種勢頭，並且隨著 24 財年降雪正常化，我們預計會有額外的上漲空間。

Let's turn to Slide 16 to discuss the second question and highlight our path to delevering. We are taking a two-pronged approach to improve our leverage ratio over time. First, we are focused on improving EBITDA through the strong top line growth and margin expansion efforts I just reviewed. And second, we are improving our free cash flow through capping our interest expense, managing working capital, reducing capital expenditures and paying down debt. It's important to note that we executed on all of these levers this quarter as evidenced by our results.

讓我們轉到幻燈片 16 來討論第二個問題並強調我們去槓桿化的路徑。隨著時間的推移，我們正在採取雙管齊下的方法來提高我們的槓桿率。首先，我們專注於通過我剛剛回顧的強勁的收入增長和利潤擴張努力來提高 EBITDA。其次，我們正在通過限制利息支出、管理營運資金、減少資本支出和償還債務來改善我們的自由現金流。重要的是要注意，正如我們的結果所證明的那樣，本季度我們執行了所有這些槓桿。

Ultimately, we are dedicated to improving our leverage ratio over time by growing adjusted EBITDA and paying down our debt.

最終，我們致力於通過增加調整後的 EBITDA 和償還債務來隨著時間的推移提高我們的槓桿率。

With that, let me turn the call back over to Andrew.

有了這個，讓我把電話轉回給安德魯。

Thank you, Brett. Now let's turn to Slide 18 to wrap up. Year-to-date for fiscal 2023, we are very pleased with the results and proud of our financial and strategic progress amid a dynamic environment. We are executed on our growth drivers, investing in our sales team and technology, which is leading to solid and sustainable organic growth. Our M&A strategy continues to be a consistent and sustainable source of growth. Our pricing efforts build on that expansion and support our ability to offset cost headwinds. And from a profitability lens, we are maintaining a prudent approach to reducing and managing our expenses through Project Accelerate.

謝謝你，布雷特。現在讓我們轉到幻燈片 18 結束。年初至今的 2023 財年，我們對結果感到非常滿意，並為我們在充滿活力的環境中取得的財務和戰略進展感到自豪。我們執行我們的增長動力，投資於我們的銷售團隊和技術，這將導致穩固和可持續的有機增長。我們的併購戰略仍然是持續和可持續的增長來源。我們的定價努力建立在這種擴張的基礎上，並支持我們抵消成本逆風的能力。從盈利的角度來看，我們正在通過 Project Accelerate 保持審慎的方法來減少和管理我們的費用。

In addition, our disciplined cost management will continue to enable investments in the business to drive long-term growth. We are committed to positioning the business to thrive in the face of external macro headwinds, changing secular trends and regulatory requirements.

此外，我們嚴格的成本管理將繼續使對業務的投資能夠推動長期增長。面對外部宏觀逆風、不斷變化的長期趨勢和監管要求，我們致力於使業務蓬勃發展。

From a capital allocation perspective, we remain disciplined stewards of capital. We are reducing capital expenditures while growing the business, improving our free cash flow and reducing our debt. These actions underscore the flexibility of BrightView's business model and our ability to position the company to succeed in a dynamic and ever-changing environment.

從資本配置的角度來看，我們仍然是紀律嚴明的資本管家。我們正在減少資本支出，同時發展業務，改善我們的自由現金流並減少我們的債務。這些行動凸顯了 BrightView 商業模式的靈活性以及我們使公司在充滿活力和不斷變化的環境中取得成功的能力。

I believe that Jim, as Interim President and CEO, and the leadership team have the right strategy and plan to succeed. I will be partnering with Jim over the next month to ensure a smooth transition, and I'm confident the team's efforts will continue to position BrightView for profitable growth over the near and long term. We all remain very optimistic about the company's future and I want to thank our teams for their dedicated response to the winter storms and their continued attention to designing, creating, maintaining and enhancing the best landscapes on Earth. Thank you for your interest and for your attention this morning. Brett and I will now open the call for your questions.

我相信作為臨時總裁兼首席執行官的吉姆和領導團隊擁有正確的戰略和成功的計劃。我將在下個月與 Jim 合作，以確保順利過渡，我相信團隊的努力將繼續使 BrightView 在近期和長期內實現盈利增長。我們都對公司的未來非常樂觀，我要感謝我們的團隊對冬季風暴的專注應對，以及他們對設計、創造、維護和改善地球上最好的景觀的持續關注。感謝您今天早上的關注和關注。布雷特和我現在將開始徵集您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Tim Mulrooney.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Tim Mulrooney。

Andrew, congrats on your tenure at BrightView and good luck with your next adventure.

安德魯，祝賀你在 BrightView 的任期，祝你下一次冒險好運。

Yes, I appreciate it.

是的，我很感激。

So just a couple for me. I'm sure you got a lot of folks in the queue. In your prepared remarks, Andrew, you said that you're not seeing any indication of a slowdown in your maintenance land business this year, evident in the numbers and it's great to hear. But can you just dig into this idea a little bit more as you're moving through the key selling season, which -- correct me if I'm wrong, I think that is happening now. How are net new customer wins trending? How is customer retention trending, things like that?

所以對我來說只有一對。我敢肯定你有很多人在排隊。在你準備好的發言中，安德魯，你說你沒有看到今年維護土地業務放緩的任何跡象，這在數字上很明顯，很高興聽到。但是，當你度過關鍵的銷售季節時，你能否更深入地研究這個想法，如果我錯了，請糾正我，我認為現在正在發生這種情況。新客戶淨贏趨勢如何？客戶保留趨勢如何，諸如此類？

Yes, obviously, key to the business and here in April and May, especially as in our seasonal markets are key selling quarters -- or key selling months, I can tell you that as we exited March, March was one of our -- it's not our best selling month we've ever had as a company. And on the retention side, we're seeing a stability level. And well, last year, certainly, some of the pricing initiatives that we initiated to offset inflation were somewhat new to the market or were rekindled in the market. I think our customers are becoming accustomed to understanding that we need pricing increases to offset inflation. So because of that, retention is stabilizing. No question about it. And I'm confident that our sales team continues and the investments we've made to have year-over-year improvements each month in our sales results.

是的，顯然，這是業務的關鍵，尤其是在我們的季節性市場中，4 月和 5 月是關鍵的銷售季度——或關鍵的銷售月份，我可以告訴你，當我們退出 3 月時，3 月是我們的一個——它是這不是我們公司有史以來最暢銷的月份。在保留方面，我們看到了穩定性水平。好吧，去年，我們為抵消通貨膨脹而發起的一些定價舉措對市場來說有些新鮮，或者在市場上重新點燃。我認為我們的客戶已經習慣於理解我們需要提高價格來抵消通貨膨脹。因此，保留率正在穩定。毫無疑問。我相信我們的銷售團隊會繼續努力，我們所做的投資將使我們的銷售業績每個月都有逐年改善。

Got it. That's helpful. Strongest selling month ever. That's quite a statement. That's great to hear.

知道了。這很有幫助。有史以來最強勁的銷售月份。這是一個很好的聲明。聽到這個消息我很高興。

My other question is about CapEx. You cut CapEx and that's great for free cash flow, but I am curious about what that means for the future, where those cuts were primarily, if it was new equipment, new trucks or something else. Because I know that you pride yourself on keeping a young fleet of trucks and high-quality of your equipment base, keeps those maintenance costs down. So my question, I guess, is how might CapEx cuts today impact OpEx costs a year or 2 down the line?

我的另一個問題是關於資本支出的。你削減了資本支出，這對自由現金流來說很好，但我很好奇這對未來意味著什麼，這些削減主要是在什麼地方，如果是新設備、新卡車或其他東西。因為我知道您以擁有一支年輕的卡車車隊和高質量的設備基礎而自豪，從而降低了維護成本。所以我想我的問題是，今天削減資本支出會如何影響未來一年或兩年的運營支出成本？

Yes, Tim, this is Brett. Let me address your question kind of twofold. One is, I think the management of CapEx, like we've done in years past in the pandemic and other years where the business was in a different state. Given this year that -- with snowfall, we took a deliberate approach to reducing CapEx, showing kind of the flexibility of our balance sheet.

是的，蒂姆，這是布雷特。讓我從兩方面來解決你的問題。一是，我認為資本支出的管理，就像我們過去幾年在大流行病和業務處於不同狀態的其他年份所做的那樣。鑑於今年 - 由於降雪，我們採取了一種慎重的方法來減少資本支出，顯示出我們資產負債表的靈活性。

As you think about the future, and your question on OpEx, we don't anticipate this adding any additional operating expenses in the future. There's been years where we've had CapEx as well as 2.5%. We guided originally to 3.5% coming in our Q4 earnings call. And then given the lack of snowfall this year, we're taking just a heightened approach to cash and reducing that and enhancing our target now to less than 3%.

當您考慮未來以及您對 OpEx 的問題時，我們預計這不會在未來增加任何額外的運營費用。多年來，我們的資本支出和 2.5% 一樣。在我們的第四季度財報電話會議上，我們最初指導為 3.5%。然後鑑於今年沒有降雪，我們只是採取了一種加強現金的方法並減少了現金並將我們現在的目標提高到不到 3%。

I think, Tim, what this really shows is the resiliency of the company. And that in years where we have a lighter snowfall, we flex our balance sheet to be able to withstand that. This does not, however, suggests that we've reduced our overall targets which kind of in that 3% to 3.5% in a normal year.

我認為，蒂姆，這真正表明的是公司的彈性。在降雪量較小的年份，我們會調整資產負債表以承受這種情況。然而，這並不意味著我們已經將正常年份的總體目標從 3% 降低到 3.5%。

Tim, just one last comment. Your point on the age of the fleet. Last year, we invested $100 million of CapEx in the business. It was the highest we've invested as a public company, and we, in turn, reduced our fleet by over a year or age of our fleet by over a year, making it newer. So we did a lot of investment last year. It gives us the flexibility to even reduce CapEx a bit more this year.

蒂姆，最後一條評論。你關於艦隊年齡的觀點。去年，我們在該業務上投資了 1 億美元的資本支出。這是我們作為一家上市公司投資的最高金額，反過來，我們將我們的機隊減少了一年多，或者我們的機隊年齡減少了一年多，使其更新。所以我們去年做了很多投資。它使我們能夠靈活地在今年進一步減少資本支出。

Your next question comes from Bob Labick.

你的下一個問題來自 Bob Labick。

So I wanted to start with -- can you talk a little bit about labor? So labor availability, cost of labor and then the trends in labor inflation? And then I guess kind of tie it in with your pricing negotiations, your ability to pass through price, but just more so like availability and the trends in inflation to start, please?

所以我想開始——你能談談勞動嗎？那麼勞動力可用性、勞動力成本以及勞動力通脹趨勢呢？然後我想這與你的定價談判、你通過價格的能力有關，但更像是可用性和通貨膨脹趨勢開始，好嗎？

Generally speaking, I mean, this is our peak hiring season. We hire about 5,000 employees between the end of March and the end of May, bringing them into the business, obviously, to deal with the heavy spring season. What we've seen this year is a slightly better recruiting environment, I would say, but I'd say ever so slightly. It's not dramatically different. But certainly, we're having a little more luck in finding folks locally.

一般來說，我的意思是，這是我們的招聘高峰期。我們在 3 月底到 5 月底之間僱用了大約 5,000 名員工，顯然是為了應對繁重的春季。我們今年看到的是稍微好一點的招聘環境，我會說，但我會說非常好。這並沒有太大的不同。但可以肯定的是，我們在當地找到人要多一點運氣。

In addition, due to the expansion or the acceleration of the H2B program by the government, rather than just 33,000 visas released at the beginning of the year, 33,000 were released and then an additional 33,000 were very quickly released after that for a total of 66,000 visas available for the country. We were successful in securing actually slightly more visas than we had last year. And so we feel very comfortable that we have a great position as we go into the season, not only from local-sourced people, but also an enhanced position of H2B relative to last year.

此外，由於政府擴大或加速了 H2B 計劃，今年年初發放的簽證不僅僅是 33,000 個，現在發放了 33,000 個，之後很快又發放了 33,000 個，總共發放了 66,000 個該國可獲得簽證。我們成功地獲得了比去年略多的簽證。因此，我們感到非常欣慰的是，隨著我們進入這個季節，我們擁有一個很好的位置，不僅來自本地人，而且與去年相比，H2B 的位置也有所提高。

I guess on your pricing question, right, a follow-up on pricing, was we continue to see a receptivity at customers on pricing. As long as we see the inflation levels at this level, and I think there's an understanding, most of these property managers and HOAs, they're managing other things which have direct labor content in them. And so as they're managing those, they see the inflationary environments and our discussion around being able to recover costs that are also inflating continues to be a positive environment with our customers.

我想關於你的定價問題，對，定價的後續行動，我們是否繼續看到客戶對定價的接受程度。只要我們看到這個水平的通貨膨脹水平，我認為大多數物業經理和 HOA 都在管理其他有直接勞動內容的事情。因此，當他們管理這些時，他們看到了通貨膨脹的環境，而我們關於能夠收回成本的討論也在膨脹，這對我們的客戶來說仍然是一個積極的環境。

Okay. Super. And then you have a nice slide, I think 15 or so on driving core margin improvement, you lay out a couple of factors and you talked about back half of this year. Could you maybe expand upon the core margins improvement opportunity? And talk about the bridge back to the -- so if we're a 10%, 10.5% today, back to the 12%-plus margins that you've seen in the past, what are the kind of key components maybe to get us there in a broad time horizon?

好的。極好的。然後你有一個很好的幻燈片，我認為在推動核心利潤率改善方面有 15 個左右，你列出了幾個因素並且你談到了今年下半年。您能否擴大核心利潤率改善機會？談談回到過去的橋樑——所以如果我們今天是 10%、10.5%，回到你過去看到的 12% 以上的利潤率，可能需要什麼樣的關鍵組成部分我們在廣闊的時間範圍內？

Yes, Bob, it's Brett. I'll touch on a couple of questions in there. Slide 15, we have a slide on driving core margin improvement. Yes, I think if you look at the underlying business for the last 2 quarters in land when you normalize for snow and strip that out, we saw land margin improvement. We put a slide in the earnings deck showing that the land revenue in totality grew $14 million year-over-year, roughly half organic, half M&A, and that drove roughly $8 million of EBITDA earnings year-over-year in land. So extremely excited that second quarter in the underlying land business once normalized for snow, you see margin improvement. And then development posted 40 basis points in Q2 as well, marked a third quarter of margin improvement sequentially in development.

是的，鮑勃，我是布雷特。我將在那裡討論幾個問題。幻燈片 15，我們有一張關於推動核心利潤率提高的幻燈片。是的，我認為如果你在將雪歸一化並將其剔除時看看過去兩個季度土地的基礎業務，我們就會看到土地利潤率有所提高。我們在收益表中放了一張幻燈片，顯示土地收入總額同比增長 1400 萬美元，大約一半是有機收入，一半是併購，這推動了土地收入的 EBITDA 同比增長約 800 萬美元。非常興奮的是，基礎土地業務的第二季度一旦因下雪而正常化，您就會看到利潤率有所提高。然後開發在第二季度也發布了 40 個基點，標誌著第三季度開發利潤率連續提高。

And as we look ahead to the second half of the year, we're calling margins in maintenance up 20 to 30 basis points for the second half of the year to see continued margin improvement in maintenance and development will be closer to 50 to 60 basis points in the second half of the year. So we're looking at 5 sequential quarters now of development by the end of the year, improving margin and maintenance would be 4.

展望下半年，我們預計下半年維護的利潤率將提高 20 至 30 個基點，以確保維護和開發的利潤率持續改善將接近 50 至 60 個基點下半年的積分。所以我們正在考慮到今年年底開發的 5 個連續季度，提高利潤率和維護將是 4。

And as you think about kind of that path back to pre-pandemic margins, this year is roughly 10.5% at the midpoint of the guidance. And then as you think about building back to next year, it's going to be that continued momentum in margin improvement in the back half of the year, which we're seeing in the company on both maintenance, 20 and 30 basis points and development, that should be roughly around 50 basis points of margin expansion heading into next year, all things being equal.

當你考慮回到大流行前利潤率的那種路徑時，今年大約是指導的中點 10.5%。然後當你考慮重建明年時，這將是今年下半年利潤率改善的持續勢頭，我們在公司的維護、20 和 30 個基點和發展方面都看到了這種勢頭，在所有條件都相同的情況下，明年的利潤率應該大約增加 50 個基點。

And then Project Accelerate, as you think about that layering in, that's going to mainly have an impact a little bit in Q4 fiscal '23, but mainly in fiscal '24. So that would be an incremental somewhere between $15 million and $20 million of underlying EBITDA improvement. And you kind of put those things together, that's marching you back to a path of somewhere in the low 11% range. And then if snow normalizes or gets anywhere close to prior year averages, which, by the way, is below normal, it takes you back up in the mid-11% to high 11% range.

然後是 Project Accelerate，當你考慮分層時，這將主要對 23 財年第四季度產生一點影響，但主要是在 24 財年。因此，這將是 1500 萬至 2000 萬美元的基礎 EBITDA 改善之間的增量。你把這些東西放在一起，這讓你回到了 11% 低範圍內的某個路徑。然後，如果降雪正常化或接近前一年的平均水平（順便說一句，低於正常水平），它會讓你回到 11% 到 11% 的中間範圍。

Your next question comes from George Tong.

你的下一個問題來自 George Tong。

Andrew, I also wanted to say congrats on the tenure and best wishes ahead.

安德魯，我還想對他的任期表示祝賀，並祝賀他的未來。

Thanks, George.

謝謝，喬治。

So you're guiding to development growth of 10% plus in the second half. How much visibility do you have into that growth outlook? Were there deals pushed from the first half into the second half that would help you clinch that growth? What does your backlog tell you? Any details here would be helpful.

所以你指導下半年發展增長 10% 以上。您對該增長前景的了解程度如何？是否有交易從上半年推進到下半年可以幫助您實現增長？你的積壓告訴你什麼？這裡的任何細節都會有所幫助。

Sure. And let me address it both in maintenance and in development. Starting with development, our backlog is fully booked into Q3 and Q4. So that 10% plus growth we have is secure and it really comes down to our ability to get it in and not having too many delays or by our -- by the subcontractors well before us. So really, that's really the only thing that's going to really impact that, is making sure that the rest of the subs and the projects continue as they normally do. So -- but we have confidence as most summers go by and large, across the enterprise, but that booked growth is there and we will execute to that.

當然。讓我在維護和開發中解決這個問題。從開發開始，我們的積壓訂單已全部預訂到第三季度和第四季度。因此，我們擁有的 10% 以上的增長是安全的，這實際上歸結為我們有能力實現它並且沒有太多的延誤，或者我們 - 由我們之前的分包商。所以說真的，這真的是唯一真正會影響到這一點的事情，就是確保其餘的潛艇和項目像往常一樣繼續進行。所以——但我們有信心，因為整個企業的大多數夏天都在大範圍內度過，但預定的增長已經存在，我們將執行這一目標。

On the maintenance side of the business, our contract side is booked. It is in place, which gives us confidence around the growth that we have. The only variable that really comes into play is the ancillary side of the business from the degree that we pulled through the ancillary business. As we look into -- right now into Q3, we have indications, that support, that growth rate of 2% to 3% in the overall maintenance business. But of course, we need to see us moved through May into June before we can -- we post those actual results. But again, contract is booked for maintenance, development is booked with backlog. The only revenue kind of variability we have is the ancillary side of the maintenance business.

在業務的維護方面，我們的合同方面是有記錄的。它已經到位，這讓我們對我們的增長充滿信心。真正發揮作用的唯一變量是業務的輔助方面，從我們通過輔助業務拉動的程度來看。當我們調查時——現在進入第三季度，我們有跡象表明，支持，整體維護業務的增長率為 2% 到 3%。但當然，我們需要先看到我們從 5 月進入 6 月——我們發布了這些實際結果。但是同樣，合同是為了維護而預訂的，開發是為了積壓而預訂的。我們唯一的收入變化是維護業務的輔助方面。

Got it. That's helpful color. And then you're slowing your M&A over the near term to prioritize cash and strengthening the balance sheet. Has your view on M&A broadly changed? And when would you expect to reengage in M&A at a level that's as consistent with historical activity?

知道了。這是有用的顏色。然後你在短期內放慢併購步伐，優先考慮現金並加強資產負債表。您對併購的看法是否發生了廣泛變化？您預計何時會以與歷史活動一致的水平重新參與併購？

Yes. It really is a balance sheet issue right here that we're just prioritizing and we paid $56 million of cash down, used that cash to pay down debt this quarter. We will expect as we continue to generate cash to use that priority -- primarily to pay down debt we're at today. But as we look at the M&A pipeline, it's as robust as ever. It's $700 million. We're as confident as we've ever been in being able to execute on those transactions, we're just being a little more picky as we look right now out there. We expect to do somewhere between 1 to 3 transactions before the end of the fiscal year. And we're lined up as we look into next year, we've always given a range of 2% to 3% of M&A. We're just going to be doing it to the lower end of that range as we look right now. And if things and cash flow, debt improve as we think they will, we'll be probably accelerating it back towards that 3% level.

是的。這真的是一個資產負債表問題，我們只是在優先考慮，我們支付了 5600 萬美元的現金，本季度用這些現金償還債務。我們期望隨著我們繼續產生現金來使用這一優先事項——主要是為了償還我們今天的債務。但當我們審視併購渠道時，它一如既往地強勁。這是7億美元。我們對能夠執行這些交易充滿信心，只是我們現在看起來有點挑剔。我們預計在本財政年度結束前完成 1 到 3 筆交易。當我們展望明年時，我們已經排好了隊，我們總是給出 2% 到 3% 的併購。正如我們現在所看到的，我們只是將它做到該範圍的低端。如果事情和現金流、債務像我們認為的那樣改善，我們可能會加速回到 3% 的水平。

Your next question comes from Andrew Steinerman.

你的下一個問題來自 Andrew Steinerman。

This is Alex Hess on for Andrew Steinerman. Andrew, wishing you all the best of luck in your next venture and thanks for all that you helped us on. Maybe sticking with the contract book as it is right now in the -- and even to a degree, the ancillary book within maintenance land, could you highlight some of how that business has changed in the last 2, 3, 4 years? Yes, then I'll have a follow-up.

我是 Alex Hess 代替 Andrew Steinerman。安德魯，祝你在下一次冒險中一切順利，並感謝你為我們提供的一切幫助。也許堅持現在的合同書——甚至在某種程度上，維護土地中的輔助書，你能強調一下過去 2、3、4 年該業務的一些變化嗎？是的，然後我會跟進。

Yes. The contract side -- the contracts of a base of our maintenance business, I'd have to say, in general, it has remained very stable. It's grown at a very, very modest rate, 1% to 1.5% is the contract rate. And as we look at the business, I think that there hasn't been any dramatic change in the behavior of the property owners. In fact, I'd have to say they continue to be very interested in improving their property and how their property looks, especially as we exit the pandemic. And I think that's evidenced by the fact that our ancillary rates have actually continued to improve slightly after -- slightly over the last 2, 3, 4 years. Not dramatic increases or improvements, but just slight improvements. So I think their general approach to property management has been fairly consistent.

是的。合同方面——我們維修業務基地的合同，我不得不說，總的來說，它一直保持非常穩定。它以非常非常適度的速度增長，合同增長率為 1% 到 1.5%。當我們審視業務時，我認為業主的行為沒有任何顯著變化。事實上，我不得不說，他們繼續對改善他們的財產和財產的外觀非常感興趣，尤其是在我們退出大流行病的時候。我認為我們的輔助費率實際上在過去 2、3、4 年之後實際上繼續略有改善這一事實證明了這一點。不是顯著的增加或改進，而只是輕微的改進。所以我認為他們對物業管理的總體方法是相當一致的。

Got it. And then maybe taking a step back and thinking longer term on BrightView. I know that you will be on your next venture by then, but is there anything that really structurally caps your ability to grow? Is there some route in your view to BrightView hitting mid-single-digit organic in maintenance land over the cycle?

知道了。然後也許退後一步，從長遠考慮 BrightView。我知道到那時你將開始你的下一次冒險，但是有什麼東西真的在結構上限制了你的成長能力嗎？在你看來，BrightView 在整個週期內是否有某種途徑在維護土地上達到中等個位數的有機率？

Yes. No. I mean, if you look at the overall algorithm, given the fact that we only have about a 3% market share out there in the marketplace, there is abundant room to grow for the foreseeable future. And that's both inorganic as well as organic growth that we see out there. There's no reason why sustained kind of ability to grow in that 2% to 3% range. I think is a very doable do. The only thing that would limit our ability to grow is our ability to attract and retain great people to run the business. And we see being able to digest and run 2%, 3%, we can find folks and develop them internally to be able to handle that level of growth and are looking -- and occasionally be able to exceed that kind of growth to be able to staff the jobs and the branches as we grow in that manner. So I don't think there's really anything that is indicative of the market that would impede our ability to grow. In fact, it's quite the correlate opposite of that. I'm very optimistic about being able to grow at above market rates on a consistent basis going forward.

是的。不，我的意思是，如果你看一下整體算法，考慮到我們在市場上只有大約 3% 的市場份額這一事實，在可預見的未來還有很大的增長空間。我們在那裡看到的既有無機增長也有有機增長。沒有理由在 2% 到 3% 的範圍內持續增長。我認為這是一個非常可行的做法。唯一會限制我們發展能力的是我們吸引和留住優秀人才來經營企業的能力。我們看到能夠消化和運行 2%、3%，我們可以找到人並在內部培養他們，以便能夠處理這種增長水平，並且正在尋找——偶爾能夠超過這種增長，以便能夠隨著我們以這種方式發展，為工作崗位和分支機構配備人員。所以我認為沒有任何跡象表明市場會阻礙我們的增長能力。事實上，它與此完全相反。我對未來能夠以高於市場的速度持續增長感到非常樂觀。

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from Andy Wittmann.

（操作員說明）您的下一個問題來自 Andy Wittmann。

Great. And Andrew, best of luck. It's been nice working with you. I wanted to ask and maybe put a little bit finer point on the M&A with a slight tone change here to reducing debt. I just wanted to understand what's in the guidance range that you've given us. I think previously, as I was looking at my notes, you were previously saying that there was about $35 million of revenue to this fiscal year '23 from deals that were closed last year. And that you were expecting probably another $20 million from deals that were going to be closed this year to contribute this year. Are those numbers still correct with the new approach towards capital allocation? Or is there a different assumption that's implicit in the guidance this year?

偉大的。安德魯，祝你好運。和你一起工作很愉快。我想問一下，也許會在併購上提出一個更精細的觀點，在這里略微改變語氣以減少債務。我只是想了解您給我們的指導範圍內的內容。我想以前，當我在看我的筆記時，你之前說過，23 財年從去年完成的交易中獲得了大約 3500 萬美元的收入。而且你預計今年將要完成的交易可能會再貢獻 2000 萬美元。對於新的資本配置方法，這些數字是否仍然正確？或者今年的指南中是否隱含了不同的假設？

Andy, it's Brett. In the guidance this year, through 2 quarters, we posted M&A revenues of about $50 million. So when we came out in Q4, we said about 2% this year, just given with the heightened focus on debt and cash that we do about 2% M&A contributions to revenue, $50 million of that or call it more than 1.5% is in the bank. And our guidance does not assume we have to do any new transactions at the midpoint. And if we were to do any transactions, it would tick revenue up towards the higher end.

安迪，我是布雷特。在今年的指導中，通過兩個季度，我們公佈的併購收入約為 5000 萬美元。因此，當我們在第四季度公佈時，我們說今年約為 2%，只是考慮到我們對債務和現金的高度關注，我們所做的併購對收入的貢獻約為 2%，其中 5000 萬美元或稱其超過 1.5% 是在銀行。而且我們的指南並不假設我們必須在中點進行任何新交易。而且，如果我們要進行任何交易，它將使收入增加到更高端。

But at this point, I think Andrew mentioned just a minute ago, we're looking at potentially 1 to 3 additional M&A transactions this year. But that would push us up more towards the higher end of guidance range for revenue. And that's only if they're at the right multiples, and we're being very selective in that process.

但在這一點上，我認為安德魯在一分鐘前提到過，我們正在考慮今年可能進行 1 到 3 筆額外的併購交易。但這將使我們更接近收入指導範圍的高端。而且只有當它們的倍數正確時，我們才會在這個過程中非常有選擇性。

Also looking forward, the M&A deals that we are potentially going to conclude, are relatively smaller in nature. So you cannot expect them to have any big significant impact on the overall fiscal year in 2023, but should have begin to build towards that 2% number for 2024.

同樣展望未來，我們可能會完成的併購交易在性質上相對較小。因此，您不能指望它們會對 2023 年的整個財政年度產生任何重大影響，但應該已經開始朝著 2024 年 2% 的數字發展。

Okay. That's helpful. I guess the corollary to that question is, what's the implication or what are you thinking about for interest expense now in this -- for this year? I guess you've put some hedges in place to cap your upside exposure -- or rising rate exposure, and so I just want to make sure we ask that question, too, as it affects your free cash flow outlook for the year.

好的。這很有幫助。我想這個問題的必然結果是，今年的利息支出有什麼含義或你在想什麼？我猜你已經採取了一些對沖措施來限制你的上行風險——或利率上升的風險，所以我只想確保我們也問這個問題，因為它會影響你今年的自由現金流前景。

Yes. As we talked about in our last earnings call, we're very pleased that we've put our hedges in place in January. And we're pleased that we're opportunistic last April to extend our term loan to 2029. So we have no significant maturities on the horizon. We've capped our interest expense. Essentially, around $100 million as the cap. There's some timing related in Q2 to the hedges, but essentially, we're sticking to that $100 million here for fiscal '23. And then as we go into '24, based on the future curve of SOFR, we'd expect that to come down in '24.

是的。正如我們在上次財報電話會議上談到的那樣，我們很高興我們在 1 月份實施了對沖。我們很高興去年 4 月我們有機會將我們的定期貸款延長至 2029 年。因此我們沒有明顯的到期期限。我們已經限制了利息支出。基本上，上限約為 1 億美元。第二季度有一些與對沖相關的時間安排，但從本質上講，我們在 23 財年堅持 1 億美元。然後當我們進入 24 年時，根據 SOFR 的未來曲線，我們預計它會在 24 年下降。

That's helpful as well. And then I guess I didn't hear a cash cost number attached to the Project Accelerate $20 million EBITDA that you hope to realize. I was wondering what that cash number could be and when you expect it to be used?

這也很有幫助。然後我想我沒有聽到您希望實現的 Project Accelerate 2000 萬美元 EBITDA 附帶的現金成本數字。我想知道現金號碼可能是什麼以及您希望何時使用它？

Yes, Andy, good question. I would say the majority of the cash number associated with Project Accelerate would be in Q3, Q4. We don't expect the number to be material. As you look at some of the items in Project Accelerate, the only one that would really consume any cash would be the FTE or employee-related items. But other than that, it could be $1 million to $2 million, call it, net cash impact from Project Accelerate, which you'd see sometime towards the end of Q3, beginning of Q4.

是的，安迪，問得好。我會說與 Project Accelerate 相關的大部分現金數量將出現在第三季度、第四季度。我們預計這個數字不會很大。當您查看 Project Accelerate 中的某些項目時，唯一真正會消耗任何現金的項目是 FTE 或與員工相關的項目。但除此之外，它可能是 100 萬到 200 萬美元，稱之為 Project Accelerate 的淨現金影響，你會在第三季度末、第四季度初的某個時候看到。

Okay. Also very helpful. And then I guess, Andrew, just kind of one bigger picture for you. I just want to understand kind of what you're thinking about the macro a little bit different way because what I heard in your prepared remarks is that several times here, that the development pipeline is good, that you're fully booked. Backlog there is good. So that's good. I always think about that as the most cyclical part of your business, and I would think that if there's any impacts from the macro would kind of show up there first.

好的。也很有幫助。然後我想，安德魯，對你來說只是一幅更大的圖景。我只是想了解你對宏的看法有點不同，因為我在你準備好的發言中聽到的是，這裡有好幾次，開發管道很好，你已經訂滿了。積壓有好處。所以這很好。我一直認為這是您業務中最具週期性的部分，我認為如果宏觀有任何影響，就會首先出現在那裡。

But you also -- when you're talking about Project Accelerate, you had the qualification and said, hey, we think it's $20 million, but like the macro could change. So you hedged a little bit. So I just -- could you just expand upon the comments so we can think about it the way at least you're thinking about it, how this all plays out?

但你也 - 當你談論 Project Accelerate 時，你有資格說，嘿，我們認為它是 2000 萬美元，但就像宏觀可能會改變一樣。所以你對沖了一點。所以我只是 - 你能不能擴展一下評論，這樣我們就可以至少按照你的想法來考慮這一切，這一切是如何進行的？

Absolutely. Yes, first of all, with development, we are booking now into '24 at a faster rate than we booked into '23. So we're actually better positioned now vis-a-vis '24, which gives us even more confidence, and that's on a slight growth. That's, again, kind of 2% to 3% organic growth. We're booking at a faster pace into '24 than we did for '23. So that's some of the things that give us confidence about the overall bookings rate in the Development segment. And that does have our best visibility into the future out of the entire business.

絕對地。是的，首先，隨著發展，我們現在以比預訂 23 年更快的速度預訂 24 年。因此，相對於 24 年，我們現在實際上處於更好的位置，這讓我們更有信心，而且有輕微的增長。這也是 2% 到 3% 的有機增長。與 23 年相比，24 年我們的預訂速度更快。因此，這就是讓我們對開發部門的整體預訂率充滿信心的一些事情。這確實讓我們對整個業務的未來有了最好的了解。

When it comes to Project Accelerate, my comments on kind of other macroeconomic headwinds, what I mean by that is potential fuel spikes, potential continued snowfall impact or whether it's some other significant variable cost event, which in the past has put weight on the P&L. This Project Accelerate is intended to be able to grow the margins of the business, but -- and or say or, offset any unanticipated spike to maintain the level of profitability. But if there is no other macroeconomic factor, you should expect to see that manifest itself on the P&L.

當談到 Project Accelerate 時，我對其他宏觀經濟逆風的評論，我的意思是潛在的燃料峰值、潛在的持續降雪影響，或者它是否是其他一些重大的可變成本事件，這些事件在過去對損益表產生了影響.這個 Project Accelerate 旨在能夠增加業務的利潤率，但是——或者說，或者，抵消任何意外的飆升以保持盈利水平。但如果沒有其他宏觀經濟因素，您應該會在損益表上看到這一點。

Okay. That's more clear. I didn't know if that hedge on the $20 million was a demand side equation where recession hits, ancillary gets cut back and you got to factor that in. So that -- it sounds like you're really focused on cost side shocks, not demand side shocks.

好的。這樣就更清楚了。我不知道 2000 萬美元的對沖是否是需求方等式，經濟衰退來襲，輔助服務被削減，你必須考慮到這一點。所以 - 聽起來你真的專注於成本方面的衝擊，不是需求側震盪。

Correct. That's absolutely correct.

正確的。這是絕對正確的。

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn it back to Andrew Masterman, CEO. Please go ahead.

目前沒有其他問題。我現在將把它轉回給首席執行官安德魯·馬斯特曼。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. And once again, I want to thank everyone for participating in the call today and for your interest in BrightView. And be safe and look forward to talking with you again as we move forward.

謝謝你，運營商。再一次，我要感謝大家參加今天的電話會議，感謝大家對 BrightView 的關注。請注意安全，並期待在我們前進的過程中再次與您交談。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.

謝謝。女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與，並請您斷開線路。