GFL Environmental Inc (GFL) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Hello, everyone. Thank you for attending today's GFL third quarter 2025 earnings call. My name is Ken and I will be your moderator today. (Operator Instructions)

大家好。感謝各位參加今天舉行的GFL 2025年第三季財報電話會議。我叫肯，今天我將擔任主持人。（操作說明）

I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Patrick Dovigi, the CEO and Founder of GFL. Please go ahead.

現在，我謹將會議交給主持人，GFL 的執行長兼創辦人 Patrick Dovigi。請繼續。

Thank you, and good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone to today's call, and thank you for joining us. This morning, we will be reviewing our results for the third quarter and updating our guidance for the full year 2025. I'm joined this morning by Luke Pelosi, our CFO, who will take us through our forward-looking disclaimer before we get into the details.

謝謝，早安。歡迎各位參加今天的電話會議，感謝各位的參與。今天上午，我們將回顧第三季的業績，並更新我們對 2025 年全年的業績預期。今天早上，我們的財務長盧克·佩洛西將和我們一起，在深入細節之前，先帶我們了解一下我們的前瞻性免責聲明。

Thank you, Patrick. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining. We have filed our earnings press release, which includes important information. The press release is available on our website. During this call, we will be making some forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian and US securities laws, including statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate may occur in the future.

謝謝你，派崔克。各位早安，感謝各位的參與。我們已發布盈利新聞稿，其中包含重要資訊。新聞稿已發佈在我們的網站上。在本次電話會議中，我們將根據適用的加拿大和美國證券法做出一些前瞻性聲明，包括關於我們認為或預期未來可能發生的事件或發展的聲明。

These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those set out in our filings with the Canadian and US securities regulators. Any forward-looking statement is not a guarantee of future performance, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements.

這些前瞻性陳述受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，包括我們在向加拿大和美國證券監管機構提交的文件中列出的風險和不確定性。任何前瞻性陳述均不構成對未來績效的保證，實際結果可能與前瞻性陳述中明示或暗示的結果有重大差異。

These forward-looking statements speak only as of today's date, and we do not assume any obligation to update these statements, whether as a result of new information, future events and developments or otherwise. This call will include a discussion of certain non-IFRS measures. A reconciliation of these non-IFRS measures can be found in our filings with the Canadian and US securities regulators.

這些前瞻性聲明僅代表截至今日的觀點，我們不承擔任何更新這些聲明的義務，無論是由於新資訊、未來事件和發展或其他原因。本次電話會議將討論一些非國際財務報告準則（IFRS）指標。有關這些非 IFRS 指標的調節表，請參閱我們向加拿大和美國證券監管機構提交的文件。

I will now turn the call back over to Patrick.

現在我將把通話轉回給帕特里克。

Thank you, Luke. Once again, I want to start by thanking our incredible employees whose commitment drove another quarter of exceptional performance. Our results exceeded expectations from top to bottom. For the quarter, we achieved the highest adjusted EBITDA margin in our company's history at 31.6%. All of this was accomplished despite of the challenging macro backdrop and an incremental commodity-related headwind.

謝謝你，盧克。首先，我要再次感謝我們傑出的員工，正是他們的奉獻精神才使得我們又一個季度取得了卓越的業績。我們的業績從頭到尾都超出了預期。本季度，我們實現了公司歷史上最高的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率，達到 31.6%。所有這些成就都是在宏觀經濟環境充滿挑戰以及大宗商品價格持續走低的情況下取得的。

As I said last quarter, we view the consistent delivery of record-setting results even in the face of challenges as a continued demonstration of the quality of our asset base, the effectiveness of our value creation strategies and the resilience of our business model. Near double-digit top line growth is driven by the continued success of our pricing strategies, the impact from our disciplined rigor on price cost spread harvesting pricing opportunities related to acuity surcharges and incremental price discovery opportunities as well as the EPR ramping and other contract renewals.

正如我上個季度所說，即使面對挑戰，我們仍然能夠持續取得創紀錄的業績，這不斷證明了我們資產基礎的品質、價值創造策略的有效性以及商業模式的韌性。接近兩位數的營收成長得益於我們定價策略的持續成功，以及我們對價格成本差的嚴格把控，從而抓住了與病情嚴重程度附加費和增量價格發現機會相關的定價機會，以及EPR的逐步提高和其他合約續約。

We're apparent in the quarter and position us now to expect pricing for the full year of 6%. Industry-leading volume performance also contributed to the top line growth. MSW volumes and the ongoing tailwind from our recent EPR investments more than offset the impact of softer construction orientated activity, lower manufacturing and industrial collection, C&D landfill special age volumes.

本季我們已經明確了這一點，並使我們目前預計全年定價為 6%。業界領先的銷售表現也促進了營收成長。都市固體廢棄物量以及我們近期在生產者責任延伸制度 (EPR) 投資帶來的持續利好，足以抵消建築活動疲軟、製造業和工業垃圾收集減少以及建築垃圾掩埋場特殊年齡段垃圾量減少的影響。

We continue to see broader economic uncertainty impacting the level of activity in these areas of our market, but remain well positioned to participate in upside when these volumes inevitably return. Operational costs as a percentage of revenue trended lower in the quarter in response to our continued improvements in labor turnover and our ongoing focus on cost discipline process optimization and the realization of self-help opportunities across our portfolio.

我們持續看到更廣泛的經濟不確定性影響著我們市場這些領域的活躍程度，但我們仍然處於有利地位，可以在這些交易量不可避免地恢復時參與上漲行情。由於我們在勞動力流動率方面持續改進，以及我們持續專注於成本控制、流程優化和在我們整個投資組合中實現自助機會，本季營運成本佔收入的百分比呈下降趨勢。

The effectiveness of these cars efficiencies is seen in the margin line, where we once again delivered an industry-leading 90 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin expansion. Luke will take you through the detailed bridge, but when you factor in the impact of commodity prices and credits realized in the year, we realized over 250 basis points of underlying margin expansion.

這些汽車效率的提升效果體現在利潤率上，我們再次實現了業界領先的 90 個基點的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率成長。Luke 將帶你詳細了解橋樑，但當你考慮到商品價格和當年實現的信貸的影響時，我們實現了超過 250 個基點的基礎利潤率擴張。

With each passing quarter, we are proving out the business' ability to meet and exceed the industry-leading margin expansion targets we laid out in our investor day presentation. We also remain highly confident in the targets we set out at our rest of day for M&A. Year-to-date, we have deployed nearly $650 million into acquisitions, including approximately $50 million deployed subsequent to quarter end.

每個季度，我們都在證明公司有能力達到甚至超越我們在投資者日演示中提出的行業領先的利潤率擴張目標。我們對當天剩餘時間所訂定的併購目標仍然充滿信心。今年迄今為止，我們已投入近 6.5 億美元用於收購，其中包括季度末之後投入的約 5,000 萬美元。

We have several incremental deals in process, and will deploy incremental capital into M&A before year-end. Our M&A pipeline remains very active and anticipate transactions will close in the first half of next year as well. The rollover impact of these transactions provides us with significant growth tailwinds as we head into 2026.

我們正在推進幾項增量交易，並將在年底前將增量資金投入併購領域。我們的併購專案儲備依然非常活躍，預計明年上半年也將有交易完成。這些交易的延續影響為我們進入 2026 年提供了顯著的成長動力。

The strength of the base business performance and the anticipated contribution from recent M&A allow us to raise full year guidance for the second time this year. Luke will provide you with those details. In the quarter, we also completed the previously discussed recapitalization of GIP by partnering with ECP, a leading investor in critical infrastructure.

強勁的業務基礎表現以及近期併購帶來的預期貢獻，使我們能夠第二次上調今年的全年業績預期。盧克會向你提供這些細節。本季度，我們也與關鍵基礎設施領域的領先投資者 ECP 合作，完成了先前討論過的 GIP 資本重組。

The transaction valued GIP at $4.25 billion returned approximately $585 million to GIP shareholders and added $175 million to the balance sheet to fund future growth. Since our original investment in GIP in 2022, I have consistently expressed my belief that GIP would be a vehicle for significant value creation for GFL shareholders.

該交易對 GIP 的估值為 42.5 億美元，為 GIP 股東返還了約 5.85 億美元，並為資產負債表增加了 1.75 億美元，以資助未來的成長。自 2022 年我們首次投資 GIP 以來，我一直堅信 GIP 將成為 GFL 股東創造重大價值的工具。

The recapitalization back in 2022 valued our original investment at $250 million and at over $1.1 billion, returning nearly 4.5 times just over in three-years. I believe this is yet another reflection of GFO's strength for the management team and the effectiveness of our strategies to create longer shareholder value. GFL received $200 million of the shareholder distribution and continues to own 30% of the equity of GIP that will allow us to participate in what we expect to be continued value creation from the GIP business.

2022 年的資本重組使我們最初的投資價值從 2.5 億美元增至超過 11 億美元，在短短三年多一點的時間裡獲得了近 4.5 倍的回報。我認為這再次體現了GFO管理團隊的實力以及我們創造長期股東價值的策略的有效性。GFL 獲得了 2 億美元的股東分紅，並繼續持有 GIP 30% 的股權，這將使我們能夠參與 GIP 業務預期帶來的持續價值創造。

We are pleased with the valuation we realized on GIP and Environmental Services transaction earlier this year but currently see a significant dislocation in the value of GFL share price and, therefore, see share repurchases as an attractive opportunity to deploy capital. We repurchased $350 million of shares in the third quarter and nearly $2.8 billion of shares year-to-date.

我們對今年稍早 GIP 和環境服務交易的估值感到滿意，但目前 GFL 股價存在重大偏差，因此，我們認為股票回購是部署資本的一個有吸引力的機會。我們在第三季回購了價值 3.5 億美元的股票，今年迄今已回購了近 28 億美元的股票。

Going forward, we will continue to be opportunistic on executing share buybacks. We I will now pass the call over to Luke, who will walk you through the quarter in more detail, and then I'll share some closing comments before we open it up for Q&A.

展望未來，我們將持續把握機會進行股票回購。現在我將把電話交給盧克，他將更詳細地向大家介紹本季的情況，然後我將發表一些總結性評論，之後我們將進入問答環節。

Thanks, Patrick. Consolidated revenue for the quarter grew 9% over the prior year, driven by a 50 basis point sequential acceleration in pricing to 6.3% and 100 basis points in positive volume, which more than overcame the headwinds from commodity prices and fuel surcharges that were even greater than anticipated.

謝謝你，派崔克。本季綜合收入較上年同期增長 9%，主要得益於價格環比上漲 50 個基點至 6.3% 以及銷量增長 100 個基點，這足以抵消大宗商品價格上漲和燃油附加費上漲帶來的不利影響，而這些不利影響甚至超過了預期。

The accelerated realization of incremental price discovery opportunities that we outlined at investor day is increasing our full year price growth expectations, another 25 basis points to around 6%. Even when excluding the pricing impacts from large-scale contract renewals, both in collection and recycling processing, we continue to see pricing in excess of our internal cost of inflation driving appropriate returns on our invested capital.

我們在投資者日上概述的增量價格發現機會的加速實現，使我們對全年價格增長的預期又提高了 25 個基點，達到 6% 左右。即使不考慮大規模合約續約（包括收集和回收處理）的價格影響，我們仍然看到價格高於內部通膨成本，從而為我們的投資資本帶來適當的回報。

Volumes grew 100 basis points as the benefits of recent growth investments and improved MSW volumes offset the ongoing softness seen in the broader macro environment. Volumes were up 5% in Canada and 0.9% behind the prior year in the US, inclusive of 3% lower C&D and 9% lower special waste volumes. While Q4 is expected to see negative volumes on a tough hurricane cleanup comp, we remain well positioned to benefit from a broader economic recovery.

由於近期成長投資和城市固體廢物量增加帶來的收益抵消了宏觀經濟環境持續疲軟的影響，銷量增長了 100 個基點。加拿大的垃圾量比前一年增加了 5%，而美國的垃圾量比前一年下降了 0.9%，其中包括建築垃圾量下降了 3%，特殊垃圾量下降了 9%。儘管預計第四季由於颶風災後清理工作量較大，銷量將出現負成長，但我們仍處於有利地位，能夠從更廣泛的經濟復甦中受益。

Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 31.6%, the highest in our company's history and ahead of our internal expectations. Commodity prices, which slid over 20% sequentially from Q2 and were down over 30% year-over-year, continued to be a drag on margins. M&A and the non-recurrence of ITCs recognized in the prior year comparative quarter were also headwinds, whereas RNG and fuel prices were tailwinds.

本季調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 31.6%，創公司歷史新高，超出公司內部預期。大宗商品價格較第二季環比下跌超過 20%，年減超過 30%，持續拖累利潤率。併購以及去年同期確認的ITC不再重複出現也是不利因素，而RNG和燃料價格則是有利因素。

Excluding these items, underlying solid waste margins expanded 250 basis points. Adjusted free cash flow was $181 million, better than planned on account of the outperformance of adjusted EBITDA and the timing of CapEx, partially offset by changes in working capital items. With the continued strength of our operational performance, we are able to raise our guidance for the year yet again and now expect to be at or above the high end of the previously reported ranges.

剔除這些項目後，固體廢棄物基本利潤率擴大了 250 個基點。經調整後的自由現金流為 1.81 億美元，優於預期，這主要得益於經調整後的 EBITDA 表現優異以及資本支出的時機安排，但部分被營運資本項目的變化所抵銷。憑藉我們持續強勁的營運業績，我們能夠再次提高今年的業績預期，目前預計將達到或超過先前公佈的預期範圍的高端。

Specifically we now expect full year revenue to be between $6.575 billion and $6.6 billion and adjusted EBITDA to be about $1.975 billion over $1,950 million more nearly 3% higher than our original guidance for the year on a constant currency basis. Adjusted free cash flow remains at $750 million as the incremental adjusted EBITDA is offset by incremental working capital and cash interest.

具體而言，我們現在預計全年營收將在 65.75 億美元至 66 億美元之間，調整後 EBITDA 約為 19.75 億美元，超過 19.5 億美元，比我們最初以固定匯率計算的年度預期高出近 3%。調整後的自由現金流仍為 7.5 億美元，因為新增的調整後 EBITDA 被新增的營運資本和現金利息所抵銷。

While the incremental M&A expected to be completed before the end of the year, we'll have minimal contribution to the 2025 results, it will add to the nearly 150 basis points of acquisition revenue rollover already in hand. Additionally, the continued ramp of in 26 should add another 75 basis points of incremental revenue growth in next year. And while we will wait until February to provide our detailed guidance for '26, we remain confident in our ability to deliver on GFL's multi-year growth trajectory that we laid out at our investor day.

雖然預計在年底前完成的新增併購對 2025 年的業績貢獻甚微，但它將增加目前已實現的近 150 個基點的收購收入結轉。此外，26 年的持續成長應該會在明年帶來另外 75 個基點的增量收入成長。雖然我們將等到 2 月才會提供 2026 年的詳細業績指引，但我們仍然有信心實現我們在投資者日上製定的 GFL 多年成長目標。

I will now pass the call back to Patrick, who will provide some closing comments before Q&A.

現在我將把電話轉回給帕特里克，他將在問答環節之前做一些總結發言。

Today, we're keeping it short and sweet as we think the results speak for themselves. Our focus is singular and our path forward is clear. Even in the face of uncertain economic environment, the setup for 2026 is simple and clear. We are very confident in our operating plan as you have witnessed quarter after quarter. Our M&A pipeline has never been stronger, and we now have the balance sheet that allows us to keep repurchasing our own shares at what we believe to be dislodged prices.

今天，我們言簡意賅，因為我們認為結果已經說明了一切。我們的目標明確，前進的方向也清晰。即使面對不確定的經濟環境，2026 年的規劃也簡單明了。正如你們每季所看到的，我們對我們的營運計劃非常有信心。我們的併購計畫從未如此強勁，我們現在的資產負債表使我們能夠以我們認為被低估的價格繼續回購自己的股票。

I will now turn the call over to the operator to open the line for Q&A.

現在我將把電話轉交給接線員，以便進行問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Sabahat Khan, RBC.

（操作員說明）Sabahat Khan，RBC。

Great. So just on the guidance update, can you maybe just walk us through some of the puts and takes you reflected in the guidance uptake I think there's some upside in the Q3 results, but just wondering how you took into account M&A FX and some of the moving pieces and sort of how comfortable you are with the guidance uptick.

偉大的。關於績效指引更新，您能否為我們解釋一下您在績效指引調整中考慮的一些優缺點？我認為第三季業績還有一些上漲空間，但我想知道您是如何考慮併購、外匯和其他一些不確定因素的，以及您對業績指引上調的信心程度。

Sabahat, it's Luke. Great question. Obviously, something that in this environment, we're very pleased to be able to come for the second time this year, and push the numbers even sort of further out. If you think about the year as a whole, right? Initially, at the top line, we had guided at the midpoint about $6.25 billion revenue.

薩巴哈特，我是路克。問得好。顯然，在這種環境下，我們非常高興今年能夠第二次來到這裡，並進一步擴大規模。如果從全年的角度來看，對吧？最初，我們對營收的預期中位數為 62.5 億美元左右。

And if you use the constant currency FX, I would have equated to about $6.625 billion for the year as a whole, we're out today, but roughly $100 million incremental. So I'll just take the translational impact of FX out of the equation for a second. If you think about that 100 in, really, what we have happening at the pricing line, we've now breaking pricing up to close to 6%, nearly 75 bps higher than where we started.

如果以固定匯率計算，全年約為 66.25 億美元，今天我們得出的結論是，大約增加了 1 億美元。所以我先暫時把外匯的匯率影響排除在外。如果你仔細想想那 100，就會明白我們在定價方面所發生的事情，我們現在將價格拆分到了接近 6%，比我們最初的價格高出近 75 個基點。

So a sort of $40 million to $50 million of incremental pricing action is a good guy. That's largely offset by the fuel surcharge and commodity-related headwinds that you've seen through the industry for the year, pretty equally offset. We have about $40 million to $50 million negative coming from that. Then you have the volume story. Volume for the year was going to plus or minus 25 bps.

所以，投入 4,000 萬到 5,000 萬美元用於增量定價措施是件好事。這與今年整個產業面臨的燃油附加費和商品相關不利因素基本抵消，兩者幾乎完全抵消。由此我們大約會損失 4,000 萬到 5,000 萬美元。然後就是銷量的故事了。今年的交易量預計在正負 25 個基點之間。

We're pleased to be able to report that we're going to be slightly positive on volume. But really, within that number, again, you have puts and takes are EPR ramping has outperformed, and we're enjoying excess benefit from some transitional contracts that have come on faster than anticipated. And obviously, offsetting that is some of the C&D and construction-oriented materials that Patrick alluded to in his opening remarks and consistent with the industry as a whole.

我們很高興地宣布，銷量將略有成長。但實際上，在這個數字中，你又會發現，EPR 成長速度超過了預期，而且我們正在享受一些過渡性合約帶來的額外收益，這些合約的生效速度比預期更快。顯然，帕特里克在開場白中提到的一些建築和拆除材料以及建築導向材料可以抵消這種影響，這與整個行業的趨勢一致。

And then you have the M&A, right? So very pleased that we've been able to acquire about $200 million of annualized revenue for the year. And roughly, you're going to recognize half of that in 1.5-years is going to sort of roll over so that's really driving the majority of that raise, but very interesting and happy to see the benefits of our strategies being able to overcome the real industry-wide headwinds that have been present throughout 2025.

然後還有併購，對吧？非常高興我們今年的年化收入達到了約 2 億美元。粗略估計，1.5 年後其中一半資金將會回流，這才是此次融資的主要動力。但令人欣慰的是，我們的策略能夠克服 2025 年整個產業面臨的真正逆風，這非常有趣，也令人高興。

Okay. Great. And then just for my follow-up, I guess maybe just recap where we are on the EPR runway. It looks like it's starting to contribute. Maybe if you can just walk us through kind of the wins you have, how much of that is starting to roll in and how much more is likely to come to 2026 and beyond?

好的。偉大的。然後，作為我的後續發言，我想回顧一下我們在 EPR 跑道上的進展。看來它開始發揮作用了。或許您可以為我們介紹一下您所取得的成就，其中有多少已經開始實現，以及到 2026 年及以後可能還會取得多少成就？

Yes. So Saba just continue with what I just said, I mean, this year, we've had sort of great outperformance coming from EPR. And what we have spoken about for each quarter is how the Canadian, both price and volume has been enjoying uplifts as all these EPR contracts are coming online. As I alluded to, we're seeing transitional arrangements whereby our customer base is asking us to do larger quantities of volume or start doing work earlier than initially anticipated.

是的。所以薩巴，你就繼續我剛才說的，我的意思是，今年，我們的EPR表現非常出色。我們每個季度都在討論，隨著所有這些 EPR 合約的上線，加拿大的價格和銷售都得到了提升。正如我之前提到的，我們看到一些過渡性安排，我們的客戶群要求我們完成更大的訂單量，或要求我們比最初預期的更早開始工作。

And we're therefore enjoying an acceleration of the realization of those EPR benefits in '25 on amounts that were otherwise going to be coming in '26. Now where we sit and what I said, it's looking like '26, we're going to have an incremental, roughly 100 basis points of top line rollover from incremental EPR revenues coming online, offset by the reduction of some of these transitional contracts that I spoke to. And so you're going to get this net 75 basis point impact rolling into '26.

因此，我們得以在 2025 年加速實現原本要在 2026 年才能達到的 EPR 效益。根據我們目前的情況和我剛才所說，2026 年，我們將獲得大約 100 個基點的增量收入結轉，這主要來自新增的 EPR 收入，但同時也會被我之前提到的一些過渡性合約的減少所抵消。因此，到 2026 年，淨影響將達到 75 個基點。

As we kept alluding to, there's still smaller opportunities that we continue to pursue, which could be additive to those numbers, but feeling really good to be entering '26 in addition to our normal course organic growth normal course M&A to have this incremental tailwind of roughly 75 bps at the revenue line, which, as we said before, will be margin accretive to the business as a whole and certainly to our Canadian segment, which is very quickly closing the gap on that blended margin, and you're seeing it consistently at north of 30% margin.

正如我們一直提到的，我們仍在繼續追求一些較小的機會，這些機會可能會對這些數據有所貢獻。但令人欣慰的是，在進入 2026 年之際，除了正常的有機增長和正常的併購之外，我們還獲得了大約 75 個基點的收入增長，正如我們之前所說，這將提高整個業務的利潤率，當然也會提高我們加拿大業務的利潤率，該業務的綜合利潤率正在迅速縮小差距，並且一直保持在 30% 以上。

Kevin Chiang, CIBC.

Kevin Chiang，加拿大帝國商業銀行。

Okay. Congrats on a good Q3 there. I know we'll wait until, I guess, February when you provide 2026 guidance. But maybe if I just look at some of the moving parts, and I appreciate some of the top line comments you provided, Luke, but if I look at your run rate EBITDA at the end of Q3, and I know there's a bunch of moving parts in there.

好的。恭喜你們第三季業績出色。我知道我們大概要等到二月份，屆時你們會提供 2026 年的指導方針。但也許如果我只看一些變動因素，我很感謝你提供的一些關鍵評論，盧克，但如果我看一下你第三季末的 EBITDA 運行率，我知道這裡面有很多變動因素。

But I take that and look back to your Investor Day in terms of the growth we expect organically what you can do from an M&A perspective. It seems like a run rate EBITDA was up just over $2.1 billion could be close to $2.3 billion next year. made some elemental M&A need to be concluded to get there. But just I guess how are you thinking about that directionally just given the strength you're exiting Q3 in 2025 that

但我會回顧你們的投資人日，看看我們預期公司能夠透過內生成長實現什麼目標，以及你們從併購角度可以做些什麼。看起來，如果 EBITDA 運行率能達到 21 億美元以上，明年可能會接近 23 億美元。這需要完成一些必要的併購才能實現。但我想問，鑑於你們在2025年第三季末的強勁勢頭，你們是如何看待未來的發展方向的？

Yes. Great question, Kevin. Thank you for the comments on the quarter. Look, the run rate number being reported right now is a little bit skewed by virtue of the inclusion of some of these large ETR collection contracts is you're actually getting that number included in your run rate metric this year, even though the sort of performance will come throughout 2026.

是的。問得好，凱文。感謝您對本季的評價。你看，目前報告的運行率數字由於包含了部分大型 ETR 收款合約而略有偏差，實際上，即使這種業績要到 2026 年才會顯現，但你今年的運行率指標實際上已經包含了這些數字。

So I think to grow organically off that number, you're effectively double counting a little bit. But the way I would think about next year and without forcing us to give you our guidance. What we've said is we're going to enjoy periods of outsized margin expansion over the near term as we execute on our strategies and realize the benefits of the self-tender.

所以我覺得，要想在這個數字的基礎上實現有機增長，實際上相當於重複計算了一部分。但我會這樣思考明年，並且不會強迫你們接受我們的指導。我們已經說過，隨著我們執行策略並實現自我招標的好處，我們將在短期內享受超額利潤率擴張的時期。

So the guidance we've just given for this year, you're ending at 30% margin, right? I think the revenue building blocks we just gave, you get to a revenue number that's north of 7%, starts with the 7%%. And our margin expansion on that outsized, I think you should be banking on something north of 50 basis points. So when you put that all together.

所以，我們剛才給的今年業績預期是利潤率達到 30%，對嗎？我認為我們剛才給出的收入建構模組，要達到 7% 以上的收入水平，都是從 7% 開始的。而我們利潤率的擴張幅度如此之大，我認為你們應該期待超過 50 個基點。所以當你把所有這些因素綜合起來。

I think on the 1975 of EBITDA that we are guiding for the current year, there should be a double-digit growth number coming on that, consistent with what we said at investor day. Now as Patrick said, there's a very healthy pipeline and stuff that we're actively working on and any incremental acquisition activity would be additive to that.

我認為，我們預計本年度 EBITDA 將達到 1975 美元，這將實現兩位數的成長，與我們在投資者日上所說的一致。正如帕特里克所說，我們目前有非常健康的研發項目儲備，並且正在積極推進一些項目，任何新增的收購活動都將對此起到促進作用。

So I think if you take the building blocks, you can -- where you sit today, see a 10% EBITDA growth before considering the impact of any incremental M&A or the recovery of some of the industry-wide headwinds, namely commodities and volumes as all of that will be upside to where we sit today.

所以我認為，如果你抓住這些基本要素，你就能——在你目前的處境下——看到 10% 的 EBITDA 增長，而這還不包括任何新增併購的影響，或者一些行業範圍內的不利因素（即大宗商品和銷量）的複蘇，因為所有這些都將對我們目前的處境有利。

That's extremely helpful. And maybe just a follow-up here. I noticed your SG&A intensity or as a percentage of revenue, it was if my math is correct, down about 80 basis points quarter-over-quarter. And I think that's the best we've seen since you've gone public. I know you've been shifting the portfolio a bit here. But just maybe thoughts on SG&A trends over the medium term here, it does feel like you're starting to get some of that cost absorption not you talked about at your investor day.

這非常有幫助。這裡或許還需要補充一點。我注意到你們的銷售、一般及行政費用強度（或占收入的百分比），如果我的計算沒錯的話，比上一季下降了約 80 個基點。我認為這是你上市以來我們見過的最好的表現。我知道你最近對投資組合做了一些調整。但或許可以談談中期銷售、一般及行政費用 (SG&A) 的趨勢，感覺你們似乎開始實現一些成本吸收，而這在你們的投資者日上並沒有被提及。

Yes. Thanks for noticing, Kevin. But I mean what we're excited about, not just on the SG&A line. You're right, you had that 70, 80 basis point improvement in SG&A. But if you look at labor and benefits, our main cost category, you had a 40 basis point improvement there. The R&M costs had about a 50 basis point improvement. So it's really across all the cost categories.

是的。謝謝你的留意，凱文。但我的意思是，我們感到興奮的不僅是銷售、管理及行政費用。你說得對，你們的銷售、一般及行政費用確實改善了 70 到 80 個基點。但如果你看一下勞動力和福利（我們的主要成本類別），你會發現這方面有 40 個基點的改善。維修保養成本降低了約 50 個基點。所以，這實際上涵蓋了所有成本類別。

You're seeing that coming through, and it's a function of obviously improving labor turnover, which is the narrative you've heard throughout the industry, and we're certainly realizing that as well, which is certainly coming through in the cost. But it's also just leveraging the infrastructure and cost base that we've put in place.

你已經看到了這種趨勢，這顯然是勞動力流動率改善的結果，這也是整個行業普遍的說法，我們也確實意識到了這一點，這無疑會體現在成本上。但這也是對我們已經建立的基礎設施和成本基礎的充分利用。

I mean as we spoke about before, effectively, our corporate cost segment, which was trending down towards 3% with the divestiture of yes, jump back up north of 4%. And now you're getting the operating leverage, both organically as you execute on our price-driven growth strategy, but also inorganically, right? Because we don't really need to add to that supportive shared services and broader executive infrastructure to accommodate the incremental M&A contribution that's coming online.

我的意思是，正如我們之前所討論的，實際上，我們的企業成本部分，隨著資產剝離而逐漸下降到 3%，是的，又回升到 4% 以上。現在，你們既透過執行我們以價格為導向的成長策略實現了有機成長，也透過無機成長實現了有機成長，對吧？因為我們並不需要增加額外的支援性共享服務和更廣泛的管理基礎設施來適應即將上線的併購貢獻。

And so you're going to see the operating leverage I think we're set up to print the corporate segment as a sort of 4% of total revenue this year, and that's going to continue to trend down. And I think that's part of our excitement as we go forward over the near to medium term is that we have the costs in place and the scalability, and we can now execute on both our organic and inorganic growth initiatives and be able to leverage these relatively fixed cost basis. So thanks for the question, Ken.

因此，我認為我們預計今年公司業務部門的收入將佔總收入的 4% 左右，而且這一比例還將繼續下降。我認為，在中短期內，我們之所以感到興奮，部分原因在於我們已經具備了相應的成本和可擴展性，現在我們可以執行我們的有機增長和非有機增長計劃，並能夠利用這些相對固定的成本基礎。謝謝你的提問，肯。

Stephanie Moore, Jefferies.

Stephanie Moore，傑富瑞集團。

Now Patrick, I think you've been pretty open about your view on just the underlying value of shares. And I think you've taken pretty decisive action to unlock value, whether it's selling yes or GIP and anything else here. So as should we think about where the business stands today, are there any other actions that you would consider that you believe would further unlock value for shareholders?

派崔克，我認為你對你對股票內在價值的看法已經相當坦誠了。我認為你已經採取了相當果斷的行動來釋放價值，無論是出售股份、GIP 還是其他任何東西。那麼，考慮到公司目前的經營狀況，您認為還有哪些措施可以進一步為股東創造價值？

Yes. I mean I think when you sort of sit and look at it, everyone says what's the relative value of the business. And I think we clearly demonstrated at the multiple that these businesses are trading at today, when you look at the crown jewels of all of our asset bases, I'm not just talking about GFL specifically, but just the industry in general and where valuations have trended.

是的。我的意思是，我覺得當你坐下來仔細審視它時，每個人都會問，這家企業的相對價值是多少。我認為，從這些企業目前的交易倍數來看，我們已經清楚證明了這一點。當你審視我們所有資產基礎中的「皇冠上的明珠」時，我指的不僅僅是 GFL，而是整個產業以及估值趨勢。

I think we've been handed -- the industry has been handed a bit of a bad deck of cards today. I mean if you leave with the results of all the companies across the sector, even in the face of this economic environment, it's certainly overdone in my view. And if you look at the valuations in the private market and private capital and the returns that can be generated in the private markets, I mean that's what should drive what the multiples of these businesses trade for.

我認為我們——整個行業今天都拿到了一副不太好的牌。我的意思是，即使面對當前的經濟環境，如果你把整個產業所有公司的業績總結起來，在我看來，這絕對是過度了。如果你看看私募市場和私募資本的估值，以及私募市場所能產生的回報，我的意思是，這才是決定這些企業交易倍數的真正因素。

And I think today, it's clearly not right. And I think that's why we executed on these transactions, exited those two businesses and kept meaningful equity stakes, but 15 times to 16 times for two businesses that I would say are slightly inferior to the (technical difficulty) business of RemainCo. That being said, it provides a great opportunity.

而我認為，在今天，這顯然是不正確的。我認為這就是我們執行這些交易、退出這兩家公司並保留相當可觀的股權的原因，但對於這兩家我認為略遜於 RemainCo（技術難度較高）業務的公司來說，市值卻高達 15 到 16 倍。也就是說，這提供了一個絕佳的機會。

And as you've seen, we bought back -- we anticipate that we buy back sort of between $2 billion and $2.3 billion of stock at the beginning of the year and we've acquired -- we bought back $2.8 billion to $2.9 billion and need the largest individual shareholder. I think that's the best use of our capital today and that's why we did that. That being said, we're obviously executing on continued the M&A pipeline.

正如你所看到的，我們回購了——我們預計在年初回購價值 20 億至 23 億美元的股票，而我們已經收購了——我們回購了價值 28 億至 29 億美元的股票，我們需要最大的個人股東。我認為這是我們目前資金的最佳用途，所以我們才這樣做的。也就是說，我們顯然正在繼續推進併購計畫。

And I think in my closing remarks, I basically said what I said, which is a very straightforward plan moving forward. We're very confident in our operating plan, we have a balance sheet now that we can execute on share buybacks with what we believe to be dislocated share prices. And our M&A pipeline since going public has never been better.

我認為，在我的總結發言中，我已經基本闡述了我的觀點，那就是一個非常直接的未來計畫。我們對我們的營運計劃非常有信心，我們現在的資產負債表允許我們利用我們認為目前錯位的股價進行股票回購。自上市以來，我們的併購專案儲備從未如此充足。

So I think in the investor day, presentation, we had a base number of sort of spending $750 million to $1 billion. I think next year will be an outsized year again. I think well in excess of $1 billion so we've teed that up, coupled together with the rollover. I said at the end of the day, this -- the stock will move at the appropriate time. Obviously, we don't control the share price.

所以我覺得在投資人日的展示中，我們給了一個基本數字，大概是支出 7.5 億到 10 億美元。我認為明年又將是意義非凡的一年。我認為肯定超過 10 億美元，所以我們已經做好了準備，再加上展期資金。我最後說的是，這支股票會在適當的時候出現波動。顯然，我們無法控制股價。

But when we see opportunities like this, we're going to lean in pretty heavily to own more of the company. And I want to own more of the company at these prices.

但當我們看到這樣的機會時，我們會大力投資，爭取持有更多公司股份。我想以這些價格買進更多該公司的股份。

Great. Well, I appreciate the time. I'll pass it on.

偉大的。非常感謝您抽出時間。我會轉達的。

Thank you. We have our next question from Trevor Romeo from William Blair.

謝謝。下一個問題來自威廉布萊爾大學的特雷弗羅密歐。

I wanted to maybe dig in a little bit more on your price metric for this quarter because it did seem a little different than the typical seasonal cadence throughout the year, going up 50 basis points relative to last quarter. So maybe I missed it in the prepared remarks, but -- was there like a specific portion of your book that had really good results this quarter or any mix impacts or maybe you could just dive in to price a little bit more on what drove the improvement?

我想更深入地了解您本季的價格指標，因為它似乎與全年典型的季節性節奏略有不同，相對於上個季度上漲了 50 個基點。所以，也許我在準備好的發言稿中錯過了，但是——您書中是否有某個特定部分在本季度取得了非常好的成績，或者是否存在任何組合影響？或者您能否更深入地探討一下是什麼推動了這種改善？

Yes, great question, John. You're absolutely right. It does sort of defy the typical seasonal cadence, and that's really driven by sort of two pieces. So one is -- and as we're going through this transitional period, we are starting to have new contracts come on and recognizing price on that on a sort of off typical calendar perspective. And so you're seeing the pricing of that come through and the Canadian pricing was a sort of high 6s number for the period and really getting benefit from EPR coming through to find the normal core seasonal cadence.

是的，約翰，問得好。你說得完全正確。它確實有點違背了典型的季節性節奏，這主要是由兩部分造成的。所以，一方面，隨著我們經歷這個過渡時期，我們開始有新的合約生效，並且從某種非典型的日曆角度來考慮這些合約的價格。因此，您可以看到定價機制的實施，加拿大的定價在這一時期達到了 6 的較高水平，並且真正受益於 EPR 的實施，從而找到了正常的核心季節性節奏。

The other piece is another part that we're really excited about is just the execution of the strategies that we sort of spoke so much at our investor day. And this is really realizing the latent benefit within our existing book, primarily related to ancillary surcharges, right? And we sort of talked about that we are actively going to be ensuring that we sort of paid the appropriate rates on the services we provide, and we are out there executing on that strategy.

另一部分也是我們非常興奮的部分，那就是我們在投資者日上多次提到的策略的執行情況。這實際上是在挖掘我們現有帳簿中的潛在收益，主要與附加費有關，對吧？我們討論過，我們將積極確保我們為所提供的服務支付適當的價格，並且我們正在執行這項策略。

And so you're seeing that start to sort of ramp, which is providing incremental sort of support to our blended pricing line, and something that is setting us up with a high degree of conviction for visibility of pricing as we go into '26. So I'd say it's both of those things together, Trevor, that underlying is normal course seasonality and then you have these bolstering in the second half of the year.

因此，你會看到這種情況開始逐漸好轉，這為我們的混合定價體系提供了逐步的支持，也讓我們對進入 2026 年的定價可見性充滿信心。所以我認為，特雷弗，這是兩者共同作用的結果，其根本是正常的季節性因素，然後在下半年又出現了這些支撐因素。

Okay. That is helpful. And then for my follow-up, maybe just ask for an update on labor turnover. I think you touched on costs a little bit earlier, but maybe labor turnover specifically has been a good story across the industry. What kind of improvement have you seen so far this year? What do you think is possible next year? And how does that translate into the kind of wage inflation that you're seeing now and maybe heading into next year?

好的。那很有幫助。然後，我的後續問題可能就是問一下員工流動率的最新情況。我想你之前已經稍微提到了成本問題，但或許整個產業的勞動流動率一直都是值得關注的議題。今年到目前為止，你看到了哪些方面的進步？你認為明年可能會出現什麼狀況？那麼，這又如何轉化為你現在看到的以及可能延續到明年的這種薪資通膨呢？

Yes. I think -- Patrick speaking. I think obviously, it's trended in a direction that is very favorable. And the unquantifiable cost of lower turnover numbers that are relevant to the overall P&L i.e., productivity, overall sort of performance, et cetera. But today, we're sitting at high teens today in the voluntary turnover line which again, as you know, cold with sort of ramped up to north of 30%.

是的。我想——派崔克說的。我認為很明顯，它的發展趨勢非常有利。而較低的員工流動率帶來的無法量化的成本，與整體損益有關，例如生產力、整體績效等等。但今天，我們的自願離職率在十幾個百分點，正如你所知，這很冷清，而且已經上升到 30% 以上。

If you look at historical averages pre-COVID, we were always around sort of 17%, 18%, 19%. And that's basically where we're sort of sitting today. We think, obviously, in this macro environment, that probably has the ability to continue to trend lower as labor pool have broadened in a lot of the markets, not every one market is the same.

如果查看新冠疫情前的歷史平均值，我們一直都在 17%、18%、19% 左右。基本上，這就是我們目前所處的境地。我們認為，顯然在當前的宏觀環境下，隨著許多市場勞動市場擴大，這種情況可能會繼續呈下降趨勢，但並非每個市場都一樣。

But we sell markets where our best drivers are expecting above average increases and the driver pools are shrinking for high-quality drivers. But that being said, we feel very comfortable in the voluntary turnover lying of sort of high teens. We're very comfortable if we can trend towards mid-teens, obviously just going to be further improvement on the sort of margin line for us.

但在我們銷售的市場中，我們最好的司機期望獲得高於平均水平的成長，而高品質司機的數量卻在減少。但即便如此，我們對自願離職率在十幾個百分點左右的水平感到非常滿意。如果我們能保持十幾個百分點的獲利水平，我們會非常滿意，這顯然會進一步提高我們的利潤率。

Shlomo Rosenbaum, Stifel.

Shlomo Rosenbaum，Stifel。

It's a really good quarter. And I'm trying to just get underneath the numbers a little bit more, just to understand kind of the organic growth trends in Canada versus the US, I don't know if you could parse a little bit more about what's going on. You saw the organic growth in the US trended down a little bit. I'm not sure how much of that was commodities prices coming down, but I was wondering if you can just kind of unpack some of the trends there and how that translated to the organic growth rates of the two different regions.

這是一個非常好的季度。我正試圖更深入地了解這些數字，以便更好地理解加拿大與美國的自然增長趨勢，不知道您是否能再詳細分析一下其中的原因。你可以看到美國的有機成長趨勢略有下降。我不確定其中有多少是由於大宗商品價格下跌造成的，但我很想知道您能否分析其中的一些趨勢，以及這些趨勢是如何轉化為這兩個不同地區的自然增長率的。

Yes. Thanks, Shlomo, it's Luke speaking. Great question. As you see in the headline reported numbers across the segments, Canada did enjoy a higher overall organic growth number than the US If you break the pieces apart, look at the pricing, both markets continue to sort of price at the levels we need to be. And I think both pricing in Canada and the US was sort of north of 6%, the low 6s in the US and high 6s in Canada.

是的。謝謝你，什洛莫，我是路克。問得好。正如你在標題報導的各細分市場數據中看到的那樣，加拿大整體有機成長率確實高於美國。如果你把這些數據拆開來看，看看定價，兩個市場的定價水準都基本上符合我們的預期。我認為加拿大和美國的定價都在 6% 以上，美國在 6% 出頭，加拿大在 6% 高點。

And that's what was blending the general 6.3%. I'd say the uplift in Canada was really driven by the EPR contribution and ex that Canada would have actually been slightly lower than the US as some of the sort of ancillary surcharge recognition, we were saying it's actually being realized in the US at a faster rate than sort of Canada.

這就是導致總和為 6.3% 的原因。我認為加拿大的成長實際上是由EPR貢獻推動的，而且加拿大實際上會略低於美國，因為一些輔助附加費的確認，我們說，實際上美國實現的速度比加拿大更快。

Volume is really the differentiator between the two. Again, Canada, positive volume once again, and it is really being supported by EPR not entirely because even ex EPR Canada still enjoyed positive volume. But I think EPR contributed about an incremental $15 million in Canada for the quarter which certainly was a great support to an otherwise sort of sluggish macro.

銷量才是兩者真正的差別所在。加拿大再次出現正成交量，而且這確實得到了EPR的支持，但並非完全如此，因為即使剔除EPR，加拿大仍然保持著正成交量。但我認為 EPR 在本季為加拿大貢獻了約 1500 萬美元的增量收入，這無疑對原本有些疲軟的宏觀經濟起到了很大的支撐作用。

I'd say US had negative volume for the quarter -- it's really a function of, I'd say, landfill C&D special waste volumes and a little bit on the collection side. The special waste in C&D will soft, I'd say, on a macro basis, you can still enjoy volumes geographically. If you happen to be in an area where there is activity going on. There still is some activity just muted.

我認為美國本季的垃圾量為負值——這主要是由於垃圾掩埋場的建築和拆除特殊垃圾量以及收集方面的一些問題造成的。從宏觀角度來看，建築和拆除中的特殊廢棄物會比較少，你仍然可以從地理上獲得一定的數量。如果你剛好身處在一個正在進行活動的地區。雖然活動有所減少，但仍然存在。

And I highlight that because for instance, our Canadian business actually had positive special waste volumes in the quarter, whereas our US business was negative by negative 3% C&D and negative 8% special waste in the US I'd say just sometimes luck of where your site is sort of located. But take away those things around the edges.

我之所以強調這一點，是因為例如，我們加拿大業務在本季度實際上實現了特殊廢物量的正增長，而我們美國業務則出現了負增長，建築和拆除廢物量下降了 3%，特殊廢物量下降了 8%。我認為有時這只是運氣使然，取決於你的工廠位於何處。但去掉邊緣那些東西。

I think underlying, we continue to see similar sort of organic trends in each of our markets. And it is that there is a softness in the broader sort of manufacturing and related industrial expansionary sort of CapEx spend, and you're seeing that in your volumes. But underlying our market selection continues to sort of bolster our volumes by being in the demographic regions where people are moving to our strategic investments and items of EPR and other are providing volumetric tailwinds, and our pricing strategies continue to remain strong, regardless of the broader macro environment.

我認為，從根本上講，我們在各個市場都繼續看到類似的自然發展趨勢。而更廣泛的製造業及相關工業擴張性資本支出則有所疲軟，這點從你們的銷售中就能看出來。但從根本上說，我們的市場選擇繼續鞏固了我們的銷量，因為我們位於人口結構中人們正在向我們的戰略投資區域遷移，而EPR和其他產品則提供了銷量增長的順風，而且無論宏觀環境如何，我們的定價策略都保持強勁。

Okay. Great. And then I'm just trying to map the 4Q EBITDA guidance implied going to the top end of the range. I guess from the midpoint would be $12.5 million. You've already exceeded expectations in the third quarter by $10 million that we used to like kind of $2.5 million. We've done an incremental $25 million in M&A. It looks like pricing is better, incremental FX tailwinds.

好的。偉大的。然後，我只是想把第四季 EBITDA 指引值推算到區間上限的情況。我猜中間值應該是 1250 萬美元。第三季你們的業績已經超出預期 1000 萬美元，而我們之前的預期只有 250 萬美元左右。我們新增了 2500 萬美元的併購資金。定價似乎更合理，匯率也略有利多。

Can you just give me the puts and takes? It just seems to me that your -- there's a certain conservatism that might be in there and maybe that's it or maybe there's other headwinds on the commodities are things that I'm not fully able to calculate.

你能把買賣盤口告訴我嗎？我覺得你們的政策中可能存在某種保守主義傾向，也許就是這樣，或者大宗商品市場還有其他不利因素，而這些因素我無法完全預測。

Yes. So Shlomo, I think the issue is in the seasonal climates like Canada and other, it's difficult to just say whatever your H2 guidance was, if you have outperformance in Q3, therefore, all carries forward because going back to my comment I made on Canadian special waste volumes. We enjoyed a very strong quarter in Q3, and that may now actually result in some sort of softness in Q4.

是的。所以 Shlomo，我認為問題在於像加拿大和其他一些季節性氣候地區，很難說無論你下半年的業績指引是什麼，如果你在第三季度表現出色，那麼一切都會延續下去，因為回到我之前對加拿大特殊廢物量的評論。我們在第三季取得了非常強勁的業績，但這實際上可能會導致第四季業績出現某種程度的疲軟。

So I don't think it's appropriate to roll forward that 10%. Obviously, we have some sort of conservatism as we want to make sure that we can sort of deliver. But commodities is an incremental headwind coming against you. the broader sort of volumetric story doesn't seem to be improving anytime soon and you got a really sort of tough comp that last Q4, you did enjoy a whole bunch of volume related to hurricane and other sort of special was clean up that we're not seeing sort of materialize.

所以我認為不宜將這 10% 的調整延續下去。顯然，我們有一定的保守傾向，因為我們希望確保我們能夠兌現承諾。但大宗商品價格上漲帶來的不利影響不容忽視。整體而言，銷售情況似乎短期內不會好轉，而且去年第四季基數較高，雖然颶風和其他災後清理工作帶來了大量銷量，但這些增長並未顯現。

So I think it's an appropriate degree of guidance. Is there a little bit of conservatism in there? Sure. We hope to be able to do better versus doing worse. But I would factor in the commodity and just that timing cadence before just extrapolating the Q3 results to an expected outcome for the year as a whole. Thank you.

所以我認為這是適當的指導程度。這裡面是不是帶有一點保守主義色彩？當然。我們希望能夠做得更好，而不是更糟。但是，在將第三季業績推斷為全年預期結果之前，我會將商品價格和時間節奏考慮在內。謝謝。

Konark Gupta, Scotia Bank.

科納克·古普塔，加拿大豐業銀行。

I wanted to touch on the sustainability targets you guys set out at the investor day. Specifically as pertains to RNG, I guess. I mean the commodity prices, like they've been volatile this year so far and what you expect for next year. But I mean, it doesn't seem like the rents are trending at the range that you guys were assuming back then, maybe the rebound next year. And do you need to reevaluate any of these R&D projects or investments as you consider the current commodity batches?

我想談談你們在投資者日上提出的永續發展目標。我猜，具體來說，是指與隨機數產生器（RNG）相關的部分。我是指大宗商品價格，就像今年到目前為止它們一直波動不定一樣，以及你對明年的預期。但我的意思是，租金似乎沒有按照你們當時預想的幅度上漲，也許明年就會反彈。考慮到目前的大宗商品批次，您是否需要重新評估這些研發項目或投資？

Yes. I think again, everyone got a little bit -- and everyone seems to tend to forget where the wing prices were when we actually embarked on these projects. We underwrote these projects had a 225 rent. Yes, over the last couple of years, RINs under the loss administration ramp to 3 to 3.25. And that just made the profitability of those and paybacks of those R&G buildable look that much better.

是的。我覺得大家還是都得到了一點好處——而且大家似乎都容易忘記我們當初開始這些項目時，機翼的價格是多少。我們承銷的這些項目租金為 225 美元。是的，在過去幾年裡，損失管理下的 RIN 值從 3 增加到 3.25。這使得這些 RIN 的盈利能力和 R&G 建設項目的回報看起來更好了。

But that being said, we always underwrote at $2.25. So we still feel very confident about where we are in terms of returns on invested capital, coupled together with, obviously, bonus depreciation and other things that we were able to use on some of the build-outs just make the returns look that much better. As we articulated last quarter, we did slow things down a little bit, just ensuring that the administration was going to make traffic changes to the program, which they didn't.

但即便如此，我們始終以每股 2.25 美元進行承銷。因此，我們仍然對投資資本回報率感到非常有信心，再加上額外的折舊以及我們能夠在一些建設項目中使用的其他措施，這些都使回報看起來更好了。正如我們上個季度所闡述的那樣，我們確實放慢了速度，只是為了確保政府會對該計劃進行交通方面的調整，但他們並沒有這樣做。

So yes, we moved some of our R&D progress, build out 6- to 12-months sort of to the right. But from our perspective, we are -- we do have plans now to sort of ramp that back up back half of this year as we started and now into next year, so we will restart that program. But from our perspective, at a $225 in return on invested capital, very good, paybacks are still sort of 3 to 3.5 years versus the 1.5- to 2-years, we were getting when RIN rented 3% to 3.25%.

所以，是的，我們將一些研發進展，也就是6到12個月的開發週期，向右推進了一些。但從我們的角度來看，我們——我們現在確實有計劃在今年上半年恢復到我們最初啟動的階段，並延續到明年，所以我們將重啟該計劃。但從我們的角度來看，投資回報率為 225 美元，非常好，投資回收期仍然需要 3 到 3.5 年，而 RIN 租金為 3% 到 3.25% 時，投資回收期為 1.5 到 2 年。

But if you look at the forecast of a lot smarter people than me are forecasting in terms of the RIN program people are forecasting back to high 2s, low 3s over the next couple of years. But that being said, our investment case is based on a 225 RIN. And even on a 225 rent, we feel very comfortable about where the returns are at that.

但如果你看看比我聰明得多的人對 RIN 專案的預測，他們預測未來幾年 RIN 值會回升到 2 到 3 之間。但即便如此，我們的投資案例也是基於 225 RIN 的。即使租金是 225，我們也覺得這樣的回報非常滿意。

Okay. That's great color. And Luke for you, I think, on the leverage side of things. I mean, it creeped up obviously in Q3. And I think you're expecting to now finish the year around those levels roughly speaking. But just a philosophy for leverage as I think you guys have like the buyback opportunity has increased now given the stock price and the M&A kind of remains pretty high.

好的。顏色真好看。我認為，盧克對你來說，在談判籌碼方面，應該會有所幫助。我的意思是，它在第​​三季度明顯上升了。我認為你們預計今年年底的業績將大致維持在這些水準附近。但就槓桿作用而言，我認為你們有這樣的理念：鑑於目前的股價和併購活動仍然相當活躍，回購機會已經增加。

I mean, would you be comfortable now like remaining in this range like low to mid three or something for the foreseeable put share like as long as you have these opportunities?

我的意思是，只要有這樣的機會，你是否願意在可預見的未來將看跌期權的份額維持在3%左右的低位或中位數區間？

Yes. I think as we are taking at an Investor Day that we continue to articulate, we'll be opportunistic low to mid-3s is where we want to be, given the free cash flow generation, the free cash flow ramp over the next couple of years, we feel very comfortable operating in that space. And we have ultimate operating flexibility, as we said, long to buy back shares and number two to execute on the M&A by plan.

是的。我認為，正如我們在投資者日上繼續闡述的那樣，我們將抓住機會，將目標價定在 3% 到 3% 的低位到中位，考慮到自由現金流的產生以及未來幾年自由現金流的增長，我們感覺在這個價位上運營非常有信心。正如我們所說，我們擁有絕對的營運彈性，一方面可以回購股份，另一方面可以按計劃執行併購。

Bryan Burgmeier, Citi.

Bryan Burgmeier，花旗銀行。

Maybe just following up on RNG. Luke, I heard you call out the benefit for from the rollover and the EPR. Are we still expecting another kind of incremental step-up from RNG next year? And then I think there's maybe a larger step up into 2027. Is that still accurate?

或許只是在跟進隨機數產生器（RNG）。路克，我聽到你提到了展期和EPR帶來的好處。我們是否仍期待RNG明年能有另一種漸進式的進步？然後我認為到 2027 年可能會有更大的飛躍。這個說法現在還準確嗎？

Yes, Brian. Thanks for the question. '26 is rather muted in terms of production volume. Now incremental production volume really as you had facilities come online and '25 that are now fully ramped is probably offset by today's RIN pricing. So modest incremental amount in '26, but it really is 27% and into '20 when you get the sort of next leg up.

是的，布萊恩。謝謝你的提問。 26款車型的產量確實比較低調。現在，隨著一些設施投入運營，以及 25 家工廠已經全面投產，產量確實有所增加，但這可能被今天的 RIN 定價所抵消。所以 2026 年的增量並不大，但實際上達到了 27%，而且到了 2020 年，就迎來了下一個成長階段。

So we'll put a pin in our guide depending on where RIN prices are at the beginning of the year when we speak in sort of February, but the expectation where I sit today is the modest incremental units of RNG will be offset by the year-over-year price declines. And it's really '27 to '28 where we'll get that tax leg up and tailwinds.

因此，我們將根據年初（大約在二月）RIN 的價格來調整我們的指南，但我目前的預期是，RNG 的少量增量將被同比價格下降所抵消。真正能迎來稅收成長和順風的時期是 2027 年到 2028 年。

Okay. Yes, makes sense. And then just one more question for me. You've spoken a lot about price on the call, but maybe just any details on sort of the restricted price versus the open market price. And how that sort of trended in the back half of the year? And if you have any preliminary thoughts on 26, that would be helpful as well.

好的。是的，有道理。最後，我還有一個問題。您在電話會議上談了很多關於價格的問題，但能否詳細說明受限價格與公開市場價格之間的差異？那麼，下半年這種趨勢又是如何發展的呢？如果您對第 26 題有任何初步想法，也請不吝賜教。

So look, I'd say blended kind of pricing is typical cadence, what you're seeing, open market commercial industrial high single-digit numbers. Your residential sort of restricted is on the lower end of mid-single digits. And then as you're getting renewals and contracts being reset to appropriate pricing for today's cost environment, you're seeing the higher end of mid-single digit touching high single-digit price blending to sort of residential collection pricing in the higher end of sort of mid-single digit.

所以你看，我認為混合定價是典型的節奏，你現在看到的是公開市場商業工業的高個位數價格。您的住宅類型限制在個位數的較低水準。然後，隨著續約和合約重新調整為適合當前成本環境的價格，你會看到中個位數的較高價格接近高個位數，與中個位數較高的住宅催收價格融合在一起。

Post collection, you're seeing that sort of healthy mid-single digit sort of level. So we continue to like the industry, be constructive of the narrative that we need to move our restricted pricing off of CPI-related indices as it doesn't necessarily accurately reflect our underlying cost structure. I'd say we're in the nascent stages of that migration vis-a-vis some of our competitors.

收集完畢後，你會看到那種健康的個位數中段水準。因此，我們仍然看好這個行業，並建設性地看待我們需要將受限定價從 CPI 相關指數中移除的說法，因為它不一定能準確反映我們潛在的成本結構。我認為，相對於我們的一些競爭對手，我們正處於這種遷移的初期階段。

But certainly something that we're sort of supportive of and we'll continue to sort of move forward. But I'd say -- we view the pricing in our industry continue to remain rational, disciplined and sort of healthy. And I think all of us are unwilling to give away our valuable services at rates that don't provide appropriate levels of return. So we're going to continue to do that.

但我們當然對此表示支持，並且會繼續進行。但我認為——我們認為我們行業的定價將繼續保持理性、自律和健康。我認為我們都不願意以無法獲得相應回報的價格免費提供我們寶貴的服務。所以我們會繼續這樣做。

As we round out the year here, we'll form a view on 2026 expected internal cost inflation and you're going to see us pricing at a blended level in excess of that in order to generate the return that the shareholder group is looking for.

今年即將結束，我們將對 2026 年的預期內部成本通膨形成看法，屆時您將會看到我們以高於該水準的綜合價格進行定價，以產生股東群體所期望的回報。

James Schumm, TD Cowen.

James Schumm，TD Cowen。

Yes. I wanted to see if you could provide a little bit more color on those cost inflation expectations for next year. Should we be thinking about 4%? Or could it be as low as 3.5%

是的。我想請您再詳細解釋一下明年的成本通膨預期。我們應該考慮4%嗎？或可能低至3.5%？

James, it's Luke speaking. I mean we're going to wait till 26 before we form a view. I mean, where I sit today, I feel it's very squarely going to start with the four. I know sort of CPI may be doing what it's doing. But when you look at labor costs across the industry, notwithstanding the current labor market, those numbers are going to be north of three on a blended labor cost number.

詹姆斯，我是路克。我的意思是，我們要等到26歲才能形成觀點。我的意思是，就我目前所見，我覺得一切都將以四開始。我知道CPI可能正在發揮它現在的作用。但是，即使不考慮目前的勞動市場狀況，從整個產業的勞動成本來看，綜合勞動成本數字也將超過 3。

You started thinking about the potential delayed impact of some of these tariffs or other sort of regulations starting to bleed through into spare parts and other items. I think there's a very viable path where your cost inflation on those amounts is something higher than a mid-single-digit number. And then again, people focus on sort of labor and labor stand-alone.

你開始思考這些關稅或其他類型的法規可能會產生的滯後影響，這些影響可能會逐漸滲透到備件和其他物品中。我認為有一個非常可行的方法，即這些金額的成本通膨率高於個位數中段。而且，人們往往只關注勞動和孤立的勞動。

But when you think about medical costs and other benefit costs in the US those are accreting every year. It's something well north of sort of 3%. So when you put that all together, I'm expecting a number that starts with the four, but we are going to wait to 2026 to put a finer pen in that, James.

但想想美國的醫療成本和其他福利成本，這些成本每年都在增加。遠高於3%。所以綜合所有因素來看，我預計會是一個以 4 開頭的數字，但詹姆斯，我們要等到 2026 年才能更精確地確定這個數字。

Okay. And then just on pricing, are you trying to -- based on your earlier answer there, you're in the early stages of trying to move off CPI. Are you trying to move to CPI water through or (technical difficulty) or is it -- would you want like just a 4% number? Or where are you trying to go with that? And then as we think about pricing next year, you're at roughly 6% this year, and you noted some benefits from EPR this year.

好的。那麼，就定價而言，根據你先前的回答，你是否正處於嘗試擺脫 CPI 的早期階段？您是想透過（技術困難）遷移到 CPI 水，還是—您想要的只是一個 4% 的數字？還是你到底想表達什麼？然後，當我們考慮明年的定價時，今年的價格約為 6%，而您也提到了今年 EPR 帶來的一些好處。

Is that -- I mean, I think we're all expecting that number to be lower but do those onetime benefits mean that we see like a larger move lower because you won't have as much of those EPR benefits? Or just if you could give any help there. To be appreciated.

我的意思是，我們都希望這個數字能降低，但是這些一次性福利是否意味著我們會看到更大的降幅，因為你不會獲得那麼多EPR福利？或者，如果您能提供任何幫助就太好了。值得欣賞。

So Jim, I'll take the latter part, and I'll pass it to Patrick how we think strategically and move.

吉姆，後半部就由我來講，然後我會把它交給派崔克，讓他來談談我們如何進行策略思考和行動。

So Canada -- US Canada obviously doesn't have we sort of water trash index. That being said, the trend we're seeing in Canada is and what we're pushing for is going to Luke's point, headline CPI is not reflective of the true cost of our business to operate our business. So we were approaching forward a lot of the contracts are fixed price increases of high 3% to 4%. If we don't see that, then we're pricing it in day 1.

所以加拿大——美國和加拿大顯然沒有我們那種水垃圾指數。也就是說，我們在加拿大看到的趨勢，也是我們正在努力實現的，正如盧克所說，整體消費者物價指數（CPI）並不能反映我們企業營運的真實成本。因此，我們即將簽訂的許多合約都是固定價格上漲，漲幅在 3% 到 4% 之間。如果我們看不到這種情況，那麼我們就會在第一天就進行定價。

I think we're articulating the story to our customers that, hey, we need this price in order to continue to be competitive and give you the best service that you've been experiencing to keep the best drivers. And that has been received fairly well. This is more of a phenomenon on the sort of on the municipal collection side as well as sort of the landfill transportation processing facilities.

我認為我們正在向客戶傳達這樣一個訊息：我們需要這個價格才能繼續保持競爭力，並為您提供您一直以來所體驗到的最佳服務，從而留住最優秀的司機。而且反應相當不錯。這更體現在市政垃圾收集方面以及垃圾掩埋場運輸處理設施方面。

Because obviously, on the commercial book, we can price where we need to be based on what we believe our CPI is internally at the time. But yes, obviously, in the US, wherever we can, we obviously want to move to a more favorable index than CPI, which is not reflective of our sort of business costs. But that trend is sort of happening. It's been more of a West Coast phenomenon, truthfully in the US than it has been on the East Coast, but we are looking for the same type of opportunity that we -- that exist in the West Coast move to the East Coast.

顯然，在商業書籍方面，我們可以根據我們當時內部認為的 CPI 來定價。但是，顯然，在美國，只要有可能，我們當然希望轉向比 CPI 更有利的指數，因為 CPI 不能反映我們這類企業的營運成本。但這種趨勢正在逐漸形成。說實話，這種現像在美國西海岸比東海岸更為普遍，但我們正在尋找與西海岸相同的機會，搬到東海岸。

So whether that's fixed pricing, whether that's moving to another index or whether it's pricing it in sort of day one, we are sort of finding that solution.

所以，無論是固定定價，還是轉向另一個指數，或是在第一天就進行定價，我們都在努力尋找解決方案。

And then, Jim, on your second part of your question, as you think about next year's pricing, high level, absolutely right. This year, you're getting the benefit of the sort of EPR ramp manifesting in the pricing line. The incremental ramp next year will be manifested more in the volume line. So you can think between 75 to 100 basis points of this year's price is by virtue of incremental EPR ramp.

然後，吉姆，關於你問題的第二部分，當你考慮明年的定價時，從宏觀層面來說，完全正確。今年，您將享受 EPR 成長帶來的收益，這種成長體現在價格體系中。明年產量逐步提升的趨勢將更反映在銷售上。所以你可以認為今年價格的 75 到 100 個基點是由於 EPR 的逐步提高造成的。

So if you were to sort of back that out on the basis, you'd only be getting a portion of that next year, yes, you would be looking at a pricing level, something closer to 5% than the six that you're having today just on that math alone, but again, we'll save our detailed pricing guidance until we speak to you again in February.

所以，如果按這個基準來計算，明年你只能得到其中的一部分，是的，價格水平會更接近 5%，而不是你現在的 6%，僅從這個計算來看就是如此。但是，我們還是會等到二月再跟你談談詳細的定價指引。

Michael Doumet, National Bank of Canada.

麥可‧杜梅特，加拿大國家銀行。

Just going back to pricing, the incremental price recognized in Q3 versus Q1 said 60 basis points. How much of that is recognized for surcharge implementation? And again, I'm just curious how much more is there to go get? And will that flow through into 2026 incremental to whatever underlying price expect.

回到定價方面，第三季與第一季相比，價格增幅為 60 個基點。其中有多少被納入附加費徵收範圍？我再次好奇，還有多少東西可以去獲得？而這種趨勢是否會延續到 2026 年，並對預期的基礎價格產生增量影響？

Yes. Michael, it's Luke. Thanks for the question. Look, the surcharge absolute quantity gets complicated as you think about sort of volumes puts or takes and volumes attracting different degree of surcharge. But holistically, I think we said in the investor day, there was a $50 million to $60 million price forgive me, I may be a little off. I'm not trying to recast the guide.

是的。邁克爾，我是盧克。謝謝你的提問。你看，當你考慮各種數量的流入或流出以及不同程度的附加費時，附加費的絕對數量就會變得很複雜。但總的來說，我認為我們在投資者日上說過，目標價在 5000 萬美元到 6000 萬美元之間，請原諒，我可能有點失算了。我並不是想重寫這本指南。

Whatever the number we had said in the investor day, I don't have it right in front of me. I think the idea was we're going to ratably recognize that over the next sort of couple of years. I think we've had great success in 2025 and starting the recognition of that earlier than anticipated. And so you're seeing that come and sort of support the overall pricing number this year. But we remain well on track to realize that overall price as it relates to ancillary charges that we had articulated over that sort of '25 through '28 period.

我們在投資者日上公佈的數字是多少，我現在手頭上沒有了。我認為我們的想法是，在接下來的幾年裡，我們將逐步認識到這一點。我認為我們在 2025 年取得了巨大的成功，而且比預期更早開始認識到這一點。因此，你會看到這種情況出現，並在一定程度上支撐了今年的整體價格。但是，我們仍然有望實現我們在 2025 年至 2028 年期間所製定的附加費用相關的總體價格。

And Patrick, you made some remarks on first half 2016 M&A. And given the second half '25 looks to be pretty deal heavy. I would have thought that maybe that you would be working down your M&A pipeline into the year-end. But from your comments, it sounds like you're actually going the other way and potentially entering '26 with a healthy pipeline. Is there any specific driving the larger pipeline or more of the activities that maybe larger deals anything you'd comment on.

派崔克，你對 2016 年上半年的併購活動發表了一些看法。而且考慮到2025年下半年似乎有很多交易。我以為你會把併購專案推到年底。但從你的評論來看，你似乎實際上要走相反的路，並有可能在 2026 年擁有一個健康的人才儲備庫。是否有任何具體因素推動更大的專案規模或進行更多活動，從而促成​​更大的交易？您對此有何評論？

Yes. I think we spent last half -- sorry, the last quarter of '24, really focused on repatriating capital and simplifying the business, which was really coming up with a plan for the ES business completing that transaction, which was an $8 billion transaction. And then around GIP and what we always said. So we spent the first half focusing on those divestitures, which got executed.

是的。我認為我們在 2024 年上半年——抱歉，是最後一個季度——真正專注於資本回流和簡化業務，這實際上是為 ES 業務制定了一個完成那筆 80 億美元交易的計劃。然後就是關於 GIP 以及我們一直說的那些事。因此，我們上半年主要精力都放在了這些資產剝離上，而這些剝離也都順利完成了。

We said the M&A pipeline for GFL would be back half of '25 weighted what you're seeing. We had a high level of confidence given the pipeline that we have built so that was going to close in '25 or H2 2025. And then when I look at H1 and '26, again, these are all opportunities that we've been working on for a long period of time relationships have been facing for a long period of time.

我們之前說過，根據你現在看到的情況來看，GFL 的併購計畫要到 2025 年下半年才會啟動。鑑於我們已經建立的管道，我們非常有信心該專案將在 2025 年或 2025 年下半年完成。然後，當我審視 H1 和 '26 時，我發現這些都是我們長期以來一直在努力爭取的機會，也是我們長期以來一直在面對的挑戰。

Sellers that want to deal with us. These are not bank run processes. These are opportunities that are sourced by ourselves with the relationships from either myself or the team sort of in the field and where I sit today, I think, as we said, our investor day, $750 million to $1 billion would be the sort of average spend, it would be years where there would be a higher level of M&A.

想和我們交易的賣家。這些並非擠兌過程。這些機會都是我們自己或團隊透過人脈關係在業界發現的。就我目前的情況來看，正如我們在投資者日上所說，平均支出將在 7.5 億美元到 10 億美元之間，這意味著未來幾年併購活動將會更加活躍。

And I think when I look at what we have teed up for H1 of next year and then opportunities that are in the hopper, I think we're going to have a bigger year on M&A next year than we had this year. And I think that could be 50-plus percent higher than what we did this year. So we feel very comfortable with that. Again, back half of '25, as you're seeing, and what we've articulated has been strong.

我認為，縱觀我們為明年上半年所做的準備，以及正在醞釀中的機會，明年我們在併購方面的規模將會比今年更大。我認為這可能會比我們今年的成果高出 50% 以上。所以我們對此感到非常放心。正如你所看到的，2025 年下半年，我們所闡述的內容都非常有力。

And first half of next year, it looks to be very strong as well. A lot of opportunities that will backfill into the second half. So we're feeling very good about the M&A pipeline for next year. And as I said, it's -- for us, in the markets where we want to be again, focused on opportunities that are in existing regions, where we can leverage existing infrastructure.

明年上半年，情況看起來也非常強勁。下半季會有很多機會可以彌補這些空缺。因此，我們對明年的併購計劃感到非常樂觀。正如我所說，對我們來說，在我們想要再次進入的市場中，重點是現有地區的機會，我們可以利用現有的基礎設施。

We believe those are going to get the highest returns on invested capital for us, and that's what we're focused, and that's what we're focused on executing. We're not looking to buy a business in a new geography. At the moment, these are all things within the existing footprint that work with our existing footprint that we can leverage those post-collection assets. And that's what we're focused on.

我們相信這些項目將為我們帶來最高的投資報酬率，這也是我們關注的重點，也是我們致力於執行的項目。我們並不打算在新的地區收購企業。目前，這些都是我們現有佈局範圍內的事物，可以與我們現有的佈局相配合，我們可以利用這些回收後的資產。這就是我們關注的重點。

Tobey Sommer, Chris.

托比·索默，克里斯。

I just want to follow up on that M&A comment for next year. I'll start clear pricing for now. Given the more permissive US ENT trust posture -- is that a factor that could lead to larger deals for GFL or maybe within the industry over the next three-years?

我只是想就明年的併購事宜做個後續說明。我先從明確定價開始。鑑於美國耳鼻喉科信託機構較為寬鬆的監管態度——這是否會在未來三年內促成 GFL 或業內其他機構達成更大的交易？

Yes. Great. If you were thinking about a mega merger now is probably the time. I don't think, from my perspective, much has changed in terms of the HSR and the regulatory environment under the old administration of the new administration. That being said, 95% to 99% of deals that we do don't even require HSR approval because they're under the threshold.

是的。偉大的。如果你正在考慮進行大型併購，現在可能是最佳時機。在我看來，無論是在上一屆政府還是新政府的領導下，高鐵計畫和監管環境都沒有太大變化。也就是說，在我們完成的交易中，95% 到 99% 都不需要 HSR 批准，因為它們低於門檻。

So the lion's share of what we do is following and rate these yes, we might have one or two etc. But from where we sit today, we haven't seen much of a change, but I think if someone was trying -- wanting to do something much larger, this would probably be the administration to do it under.

所以我們大部分的工作就是追蹤和評估這些，是的，我們可能也會有一兩個等等。但就目前的情況來看，我們還沒有看到太大的變化，但我認為如果有人想嘗試——想做一些更大的事情，那麼這屆政府可能就是最適合做這件事的政府。

Appreciate that. And then curious what you think the upper bound as a percent of sales do you think the business can have associated with commodity-related areas within the portfolio and still warrant that higher multiple versus the current dislocated prices.

謝謝。那麼，我很好奇，您認為企業在投資組合中與大宗商品相關的領域，銷售額的上限是多少，才能保證相對於當前錯位的價格而言，仍然能夠獲得更高的倍數？

Yes. I mean commodities today are sort of a relatively de minimis number. I mean, not only for us, but sort of for the rest of the industry? I mean, what do you have going in that bucket yet, you have RNG today that would have a little bit of volatility and then you have sort of all the recycling volumes. I think today, where we all sit today, I think the entire industry that sort of sub-10%.

是的。我的意思是，如今大宗商品的數量相對來說微不足道。我的意思是，不僅對我們而言，對整個產業也是如此？我的意思是，你現在在這個桶子裡裝的是什麼？今天有 RNG，它會有一些波動性，然後還有各種各樣的回收量。我認為就我們目前的情況來看，整個產業大概只有不到 10% 的份額。

These are very good margin accretive assets that we want to own regardless. And I think most importantly, meet the return on invested capital thresholds that we all basically run our businesses on. So from my perspective, again, do you want to have that number 20%. Absolutely not, but anywhere sort of in the 10% to 15% range I think, is more than comfortable particularly with the structures that we all have today.

這些都是利潤率提升非常高的資產，無論如何我們都想持有。而且我認為最重要的是，要達到我們所有人開展業務所依賴的投資資本報酬率門檻。所以從我的角度來看，你是否想要20%這個數字？絕對不是，但我覺得 10% 到 15% 之間的任何比例都相當合適，尤其是在我們如今所處的結構下。

Chris Murray, ATB Capital Markets.

Chris Murray，ATB Capital Markets。

Turning back to some of the self-help initiatives we're thinking about this. You go back to the investor day. And at the time, your CEO had been in the chair for about a month, maybe had a little more time to think about the operation and look, there was all kinds of levers. There's technology, there's turnover, pricing strategies, things like that.

讓我們回到我們正在思考的一些自助倡議上來。你回到投資者日那天。當時，你們的執行長上任大約一個月了，可能有更多的時間來思考營運情況，你看，有很多方法可以運用。其中包含技術、人員流動、定價策略等等因素。

But just thinking about ideas is going to 2026, where do you feel you are on the self-help levers at this particular point, and are there other new opportunities you're starting to uncover or think about doing. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is where we are in the margin kind of catch up their progression against the rest of the industry? And anything you think you could do on the MSW business to drive margins over the next couple of years.

但光是思考想法就要到 2026 年了，你覺得你目前在自助方面處於什麼階段？你是否開始發現或考慮其他新的機會？我想弄清楚的是，我們目前所處的位置，以及我們與行業其他公司相比，在發展進程上是否還有差距？以及您認為在未來幾年內，可以對 MSW 業務採取哪些措施來提高利潤率。

Yes. Chris, this is Luke. Great question and something that hopefully we're demonstrating we're sort of delivering on quarter after quarter. continuing to lead the industry with the margin expansion and being able to beat our -- the guide that we lay out that's already inclusive of industry-leading expansion. He said Billy was in the seat for just a month.

是的。克里斯，這是盧克。這是一個很好的問題，希望我們能夠證明，我們每季都在朝著這個方向努力。我們將繼續引領業界，實現利潤率的持續成長，並超越我們所設定的目標——我們制定的目標已經包含了業界領先的成長。他說比利只擔任這個職位一個月。

I mean, Billy has been here with us for years and he's been an active sort of member of the operational and senior executive leadership team all that time. So it's not as if we put together that sort of plan with imperfect information per se, that has been sort of well-crafted and Billy was an author of that over the sort of years leading up to that Investor Day presentation.

我的意思是，比利和我們在一起很多年了，他一直是營運和高階管理領導團隊的活躍成員。所以，並不是說我們是在資訊不完全的情況下制定了那種計劃，而是經過精心策劃的，比利在投資者日演講之前的幾年裡參與了該計劃的製定。

So I'd say our strategies and/or focuses have not changed. In Patrick's remarks, you heard him say that we are clear and our focus is singular, and I would echo that. Those are what we believe to be the highest and best use of our time and efforts in terms of award that's going to come out. So is the area of focus. In terms of the by which we are realizing that.

所以我覺得我們的策略和/或重點並沒有改變。派崔克在演講中提到，我們的目標很明確，我們的焦點也只有一個，我對此表示贊同。我們認為，就最終將要頒發的獎項而言，這是我們投入時間和精力所能達到的最高和最佳效果。所以重點領域也是如此。就我們實現這一目標的方式而言。

Look, every quarter with which we exceed our otherwise provided EBITDA guidance, we are doing better than a pro rata ramp, right? So if you say in that presentation, we said we're going to go from X to live from '25 to '28 Well, this year, we've now just added 20 basis points to our margin expansion that we set at the beginning of the year, while that puts us that much further sort of ahead of the curve.

你看，每個季度我們都能超越我們之前給出的 EBITDA 預期，這比按比例增長要好得多，對吧？所以，如果你在那次演示中說，我們將從 X 過渡到 '25 到 '28，那麼今年，我們剛剛在年初設定的利潤率擴張目標上增加了 20 個基點，這使我們進一步領先於行業平均水平。

So we're feeling really good. I don't think the levers are going to materially change over this window, the medium term. Those are going to be the things you're going to hear us talking about. It will get boring, but hopefully, the sort of results are anything but that. So I'd say we're feeling very good about our progress towards those goals.

我們感覺非常好。我認為在中期內，這些因素不會有實質的改變。這些就是我們接下來要談的話題。過程可能會變得枯燥乏味，但希望最終的結果絕對不會如此。所以我覺得我們對實現這些目標所取得的進展非常滿意。

And as Patrick alluded to, the setup we have in going into '26 makes us feel that we'll get even further ahead of that otherwise pro rata cadence.

正如帕特里克所暗示的那樣，我們進入 2026 年的準備工作讓我們感覺，我們將比原本按比例分配的節奏走得更遠。

Will Grippin, Barclays.

威爾·格里平，巴克萊銀行。

Just one question for me here. I wanted to come back to leverage. Obviously, it ticked up a little bit quarter-on-quarter on a trailing 12-month EBITDA basis. Just given your comments around possibly ramping share buybacks here and a very strong M&A pipeline and outlook into 2026. How should we think about maybe the trajectory of that leverage ratio over the next several quarters.

我只有一個問題。我想回來利用槓桿作用。顯然，以過去 12 個月的 EBITDA 計算，環比略有增長。鑑於您之前提到的可能加大股票回購力度，以及非常強勁的併購計畫和2026年的展望，我只想說幾句。我們該如何看待未來幾季槓桿率的走勢？

And I know you kind of reiterated the low to mid-3s target. But should we think about this not being sort of a straight line down maybe there's more variability quarter-to-quarter just around actual capital deployment?

我知道你重申了3秒中低段的目標。但我們是否應該考慮到，這並非一條直線下降，實際資本部署方面可能存在更大的季度間波動？

Yes. I mean leverage, again, we spend time moving leverage from low 4s to low to mid-3s. And I think we've made a commitment that we'll keep leverage that will toggle between low 3s and mid-3s. So you'll see us reinvesting the free cash flow of the business based on those sort of leverage targets. So that's what we're focused on.

是的。我的意思是槓桿，我們再次花時間將槓桿從 4 左右降低到 3 左右。我認為我們已經承諾，我們將保持槓桿率在 3 倍低點和 3 倍中位數之間波動。因此，你會看到我們根據這些槓桿目標，將企業的自由現金流進行再投資。所以這就是我們關注的重點。

Yes. Well, I mean there is a seasonal cadence. Obviously, naturally with the free cash flow. Q4 is a higher free cash quarter. And so you'll see the generation and the reduction in debt coming out of that but then buybacks and M&A can sort of augment that otherwise organic cadence. But in a given year, it's not going to be perfectly straight line because the pace of M&A and/or buybacks and/or just general underlying free cash flow won't be a perfect straight line.

是的。嗯，我的意思是，這其中是有季節性規律的。當然，這自然與自由現金流有關。第四季自由現金流較高。因此，你會看到債務的產生和減少，但回購和併購可以增強這種原本自然的節奏。但就某一年而言，情況不會是一條完美的直線，因為併購和/或股票回購和/或一般的潛在自由現金流的速度不會是一條完美的直線。

But I think what you hear is a sort of absolute commitment live in and around these ranges. And obviously, if there's a higher level of sort of M&A at one point, then you afforded the opportunity to sort of temporarily pause as you then bring leverage back in and so on and so forth. So it's not going to be perfectly straight, but it will be absolutely committed over sort of 4-quarter period to live within the sort of ranges that we're talking about.

但我認為你聽到的是一種生活在這些山脈及其周邊地區的絕對的奉獻精神。顯然，如果某個時期併購活動達到較高水平，那麼你就有機會暫時中止併購活動，然後重新利用槓桿等等。所以它不會完全筆直，但它將在大約四個季度的時間內絕對致力於保持在我們所說的範圍內。

Well, thank you, everyone, for participating today and -- Sorry, operator. Is that the end of the last question?

好的，謝謝大家今天的參與—抱歉，接線生。最後一個問題就到此結束了嗎？

Yes. Thank you.

是的。謝謝。

Okay. Thank you, everyone, and we look forward to speaking with you in February, we report our full year results and giving our full outlook for 2026.

好的。謝謝大家，我們期待在二月與大家見面，屆時我們將報告全年業績並給出2026年的完整展望。

Thank you very much. This concludes today's call, and thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

非常感謝。今天的電話會議到此結束，感謝各位的參與。現在您可以斷開線路了。