Tetra Tech Inc (TTEK) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and thank you for joining the Tetra Tech earnings call. As a reminder, Tetra Tech is also simulcasting this presentation with slides in the Investors section of its website at tetratech.com. This call is being recorded at the request of Tetra Tech, and this broadcast is the copyrighted property of Tetra Tech. Any rebroadcast of this information in whole or part without the prior written permission of Tetra Tech is prohibited.

早安，感謝您參加 Tetra Tech 財報電話會議。提醒一下，Tetra Tech 也在其網站 tetratech.com 的投資者部分同步播放了本簡報和幻燈片。本次通話是應 Tetra Tech 的要求錄製的，該廣播是 Tetra Tech 的版權財產。未經 Tetra Tech 事先書面許可，禁止全部或部分轉播此資訊。

With us today from management are Dan Batrack, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Steve Burdick, Chief Financial Officer; and Jill Hudkins, President. They will provide a brief overview of the results, and then we'll open up the call for questions.

今天與我們一起出席的還有來自管理階層的董事長兼執行長 Dan Batrack；史蒂夫‧伯迪克，財務長；和總裁吉爾哈金斯。他們將提供結果的簡要概述，然後我們將開始提問。

I would like to direct your attention to the safe harbor statement in today's presentation. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements about future business and financial expectations. Actual results may differ significantly from those projected in today's forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties, including the risks described in Tetra Tech's periodic reports filed with the SEC. Except as required by law, Tetra Tech undertakes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements.

我想請大家注意今天演講中的安全港聲明。今天的討論包含有關未來業務和財務預期的前瞻性陳述。由於各種風險和不確定性，包括 Tetra Tech 向 SEC 提交的定期報告中描述的風險，實際結果可能與今天的前瞻性聲明中預測的結果有顯著差異。除法律要求外，Tetra Tech 不承擔更新其前瞻性聲明的義務。

In addition, since management will be presenting some non-GAAP financial measures as references, the appropriate GAAP financial reconciliations are posted in the Investors section of Tetra Tech's website. (Operator Instructions)

此外，由於管理階層將提供一些非 GAAP 財務指標作為參考，適當的 GAAP 財務調整表將發佈在 Tetra Tech 網站的投資者部分。 （操作員說明）

With that, I would like to turn the call over to Dan Batrack. Please go ahead, Mr. Batrack.

說到這裡，我想把電話轉給丹·巴特拉克。請繼續，巴特拉克先生。

Great. Thank you very much, Melissa, and good morning, and welcome to our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2023 earnings conference call. We had an excellent fourth quarter that completed an already exceptionally strong 2023 fiscal year. Across our operations, we exceeded our already high expectations and delivered on both our financial and our strategic goals for the year. We were again recognized as industry leaders with #1 rankings in water and environment and a newly announced #1 ranking for human capital management, which I'll speak to a bit later in this presentation. This ranking recognizes that Tetra Tech's success is a result of our talented workforce and the technical excellence that has been the hallmark of the corporation.

偉大的。非常感謝你，梅麗莎，早安，歡迎參加我們的第四季和 2023 財年收益電話會議。我們第四季表現出色，2023 財年已經異常強勁。在我們的營運中，我們超越了我們本已很高的期望，並實現了今年的財務和策略目標。我們再次被公認為行業領導者，在水和環境領域排名第一，並且在新公佈的人力資本管理領域排名第一，我將在本次演講中稍後談到這一點。該排名認可了 Tetra Tech 的成功是我們才華橫溢的員工隊伍和卓越技術的結果，這也是該公司的標誌。

In fiscal year 2023, we increased our backlog by over $1 billion, including services in climate change, energy transition, water security and environmental management. Today, Together with RPS, we are cross-selling new services. For example, we're now providing innovative water management solutions to 19 United Kingdom water utilities and look forward to significantly expanding these services in this upcoming year. As we enter the new year, we look forward to providing our technically differentiated services, our expanded Delta technologies and our newly launched software solutions to clients worldwide.

2023 財年，我們的積壓訂單增加了超過 10 億美元，包括氣候變遷、能源轉型、水安全和環境管理的服務。今天，我們與 RPS 一起交叉銷售新服務。例如，我們現在正在為 19 個英國自來水公司提供創新的水管理解決方案，並期待在未來一年大幅擴展這些服務。進入新的一年，我們期待為全球客戶提供差異化的技術服務、擴展的達美技術和新推出的軟體解決方案。

I'll begin today with an overview of our fiscal year and fourth quarter. Steve Burdick, our Chief Financial Officer, will provide an overview of our financial performance and our capital allocation. Jill Hudkins, President of Corporation will provide additional insight into some of our organic growth strategies.

今天我將首先概述我們的財政年度和第四季度。我們的財務長 Steve Burdick 將概述我們的財務表現和資本配置。公司總裁 Jill Hudkins 將為我們的一些有機成長策略提供更多見解。

But before I review the fourth quarter results and the segment's performance, I'd like to provide an overview of the fourth quarter and what we did for the year. Simply stated, we came into this year with an ambitious goal and the highest ever guidance that we'd ever strive for. And I'm pleased to share with you that we not only beat these lofty goals that we set for each of the fourth quarters, but we finished the year with the best quarter of all of them. As a result, we achieved all-time records for every key financial metric that we track.

但在回顧第四季度業績和該部門的業績之前，我想概述一下第四季度以及我們今年所做的事情。簡而言之，我們帶著雄心勃勃的目標和我們一直以來努力追求的最高指導方針進入了今年。我很高興與大家分享，我們不僅實現了為第四季度設定的崇高目標，而且以所有季度中最好的季度結束了這一年。因此，我們追蹤的每個關鍵財務指標都創下了歷史記錄。

Now for the fourth quarter, our revenue was up 40% from the prior year. Our EBITDA earnings increased to $153 million in the quarter, which is up 51% from last year and a clear indication of both the strong performance from Tetra Tech and these contribution from the RPS operations that just joined us in late January of just this year. Our backlog increased to $4.79 billion, up 28% from last year and up 9% and just from last quarter.

現在第四季度，我們的營收比去年同期成長了 40%。本季我們的 EBITDA 收益增至 1.53 億美元，比去年增長 51%，清楚地表明 Tetra Tech 的強勁業績以及今年 1 月底剛剛加入我們的 RPS 業務的貢獻。我們的積壓訂單增加至 47.9 億美元，比去年增長 28%，比上季度增長 9%。

I'd now like to provide an overview of our performance by our end customer. In the fourth quarter, revenue for all 4 of our client sectors increased by double digits compared to last year. Work for our U.S. federal clients was 29% of our net revenue in the quarter and was up 46% from the same quarter last year. Federal growth was driven by a combination of environmental work, climate, IT and international development related consulting services. We continue to deliver double-digit growth with our state and local revenues being up organically 15% from the fourth quarter of last year, driven by our water management and resiliency consulting services. Our U.S. commercial net revenue was up 13% from last year. Growth in this customer segment sector includes environmental management and is increasingly driven by our high-end consulting and energy transition services and decarbonization services delivered by our high-performance buildings experts. And finally, our international revenue was up 78%. Of course, this is inclusive of our RPS operations. We are now increasingly leveraging our combined resources and expanded client network to win new programs across the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

現在我想向我們的最終客戶概述一下我們的表現。第四季度，我們所有 4 個客戶領域的營收均較去年成長了兩位數。為美國聯邦客戶提供的服務佔本季淨收入的 29%，比去年同期成長 46%。聯邦經濟成長是由環境工作、氣候、資訊科技和國際發展相關諮詢服務共同推動的。在水管理和防災諮詢服務的推動下，我們繼續實現兩位數成長，州​​和地方收入較去年第四季有機成長 15%。我們的美國商業淨收入比去年增長了 13%。此客戶細分領域的成長包括環境管理，並日益受到我們高性能建築專家提供的高端諮詢和能源轉型服務以及脫碳服務的推動。最後，我們的國際收入成長了 78%。當然，這包括我們的 RPS 業務。我們現在越來越多地利用我們的綜合資源和擴大的客戶網絡來贏得英國、澳大利亞和加拿大的新項目。

I'd now like to present our performance by segment. In the fourth quarter, the Government Services Group or the GSG segment was up 36% compared to last year at $457 million in the quarter. GSG generated a strong 15.7% margin, an increase of 60 basis points from last year. GSG's strong net revenue growth across key federal programs in civilian, defense and international development agencies drove high utilization and exceptional project performance in the quarter. The Commercial International Group or CIG segment grew net revenue by 50% year-on-year and delivered a 14.7% margin, up 110 basis points from last year. Our CIG segment also had exceptional performance in the quarter with revenue increases driving strong utilization and additional efficiencies, especially in international infrastructure, high-performance buildings and energy-related services.

現在我想按部分介紹我們的業績。第四季度，政府服務集團（GSG）業務年增 36%，達到 4.57 億美元。 GSG 實現了 15.7% 的強勁利潤率，比去年增加了 60 個基點。 GSG 在民用、國防和國際發展機構的關鍵聯邦項目中強勁的淨收入增長推動了本季度的高利用率和卓越的項目績效。商業國際集團或 CIG 部門的淨收入年增 50%，利潤率為 14.7%，比去年增長 110 個基點。我們的 CIG 部門在本季也表現出色，營收成長推動了強勁的利用率和更高的效率，特別是在國際基礎設施、高性能建築和能源相關服務方面。

For the first time, we presented this slide, if you're following along on the webcast, and I'd now like to discuss Tetra Tech's margin performance and the differences in reporting methodologies. And I'm often asked when talking to both analysts and shareholders and other stakeholders about the differences and methodologies used in the industry, especially as those compared to the United States, compared to the United Kingdom and Canada. If you're following along on the slides, the graph shows a comparison between our typical adjusted U.S. GAAP approach, which Tetra Tech has traditionally, in fact, historically always used and the international standard which is also referred to as IFRS.

這是我們第一次展示這張投影片，如果您正在關注網路廣播，我現在想討論 Tetra Tech 的利潤表現以及報告方法的差異。在與分析師、股東和其他利害關係人交談時，我經常被問到該行業使用的差異和方法，特別是與美國、英國和加拿大相比。如果您按照投影片進行操作，則該圖表顯示了我們典型的調整後美國 GAAP 方法（Tetra Tech 傳統上（事實上，歷史上一直使用））與國際標準（也稱為 IFRS）之間的比較。

As you can see on this graph, Tetra Tech's margin was 21% for the fourth quarter on an adjusted IFRS basis. On an annual basis, you can see our trend here at Tetra Tech over the past 3 years with a margin expansion of 180 basis points since 2021. For comparison purposes, the adjusted IFRS measure is about 6 percentage points higher than the adjusted U.S. GAAP calculation that we report. And we think this is quite valuable for our shareholders, analysts and stakeholders to actually understand this difference and make it more comparable when looking at this compared to others that report their financials.

正如您在此圖上看到的，根據調整後的 IFRS 計算，Tetra Tech 第四季度的利潤率為 21%。以年度計算，您可以在Tetra Tech 看到我們過去3 年的趨勢，自2021 年以來利潤率增長了180 個基點。出於比較目的，調整後的IFRS 指標比調整後的美國GAAP 計算高出約6 個百分點我們報告的。我們認為，這對我們的股東、分析師和利害關係人來說非常有價值，可以真正理解這種差異，並使其在與其他報告財務數據的人相比時更具可比性。

I'd now like to discuss our backlog, the best forward-looking indicator in our business. Our backlog was up 28% from last year, resulting in a new all-time high as I've mentioned a few moments ago, of $4.79 billion of funded and authorized work. This is not potential contract capacity or overall contracts awarded. This is funded and authorized work. Orders were particularly strong in the fourth quarter for us, which were up 45% year-over-year, driven by both commercial and government orders from our clients.

我現在想討論一下我們的積壓訂單，這是我們業務中最好的前瞻性指標。我們的積壓工作比去年增加了 28%，正如我剛才提到的，資助和授權工作達到 47.9 億美元，創下歷史新高。這不是潛在的合約能力或授予的總體合約。這是受資助和授權的工作。在客戶的商業和政府訂單的推動下，我們第四季的訂單尤其強勁，年增 45%。

In the quarter, we added more than $1.5 billion in additional contract capacity with our U.S. Federal government clients. And notably, a lot of this was for IIJA related contracts that are directly aligned with our specific strengths in areas like numerical modeling of sediment transport for inland waterways and associated high-end design services, and Jill Hudkins will give an example of this in just a few moments.

本季度，我們與美國聯邦政府客戶的額外合約容量增加了超過 15 億美元。值得注意的是，其中許多都是與IIJA 相關的合同，這些合同與我們在內陸水道泥沙輸送數值模擬和相關高端設計服務等領域的特定優勢直接相關，吉爾·哈德金斯(Jill Hudkins ) 將在一會兒。

This quarter, we were awarded a $33 million program for an inland waterway lock and dam system that leverages our specialized expertise and innovative solutions for optimizing waterway control structures. We also won new programs for key U.S. federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, U.S. EPA, USAID, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others that advanced priority water initiative programs environmental and climate change mitigation and adaptation programs.

本季度，我們獲得了一項價值 3300 萬美元的內陸水道船閘和水壩系統項目，該項目利用我們的專業知識和創新解決方案來優化水道控制結構。我們也贏得了美國主要聯邦機構的新項目，包括能源部、美國環保署、美國國際開發署、美國陸軍工程兵團和其他推進優先水倡議計畫、環境和氣候變遷減緩和適應計畫的機構。

At this point, I'd like to turn the presentation over to Steve Burdick, our Chief Financial Officer, who will go over some of the details of our financials in the fourth quarter and for the year, and also talk about our capital allocation. So Steve?

現在，我想將簡報交給我們的財務長史蒂夫·伯迪克（Steve Burdick），他將討論我們第四季度和今年的財務狀況的一些細節，並討論我們的資本配置。那麼史蒂夫？

Thank you, Dan. So as Dan has just reviewed the fourth quarter operating results, I would like to now review the annual GAAP financial results for the fiscal year ending 2023.

謝謝你，丹。由於丹剛剛回顧了第四季度的經營業績，我現在想回顧一下截至 2023 財年的年度 GAAP 財務業績。

Overall, we had record revenue, operating income, earnings and cash flow, and the strong performance from our operations was marked by record fiscal year revenue of $4.52 billion, which was up 29% over last year and record net revenue amounting to $3.75 billion, which was up 32% over last year. And as you heard, we executed strong revenue growth from all our markets, including federal government, state and local, commercial and international, which in particular, benefited from the RPS acquisition as our footprint in the U.K., Europe and Australia has been greatly enhanced.

整體而言，我們的營收、營業收入、獲利和現金流均創歷史新高，我們營運的強勁表現體現在創紀錄的財年收入45.2 億美元，比去年成長29%，淨收入創紀錄達到37.5 億美元。比去年增長了 32%。正如您所聽到的，我們在所有市場（包括聯邦政府、州和地方、商業和國際）實現了強勁的收入成長，這尤其受益於RPS 收購，因為我們在英國、歐洲和澳洲的足跡得到了極大增強。

Now our operating income and earnings per share for the fiscal year were also both all-time highs. Our reported operating income came in at $358 million. This improvement resulted from both segments. And as Dan discussed earlier, the CIG margins have been closing in on the GSG margins. On a consolidated basis, these improvements resulted in our EBITDA increasing to $481 million, which is a 33% increase over fiscal 2022. Our EBITDA margins for Tetra Tech have been increasing at a higher rate compared to our revenue increases, such that our margins have increased an average of 50 basis points per year over the last 4 years. Now GAAP EPS came in at $5.10 and adjusted EPS was $5.21, which was up 16% over last year. The adjusted EPS excluded the final RPS integration costs and lease impairment charges, the onetime FX hedge gain and the associated tax-related items. Now regarding our total FX hedge gain of $110 million. This provided a positive outcome relative to lowering the purchase price for RPS by almost 15% and reducing our debt load required to complete the acquisition. For further details in Q4 and fiscal '23, I'd like to refer you to the reconciliation slides in the back of this presentation as well as our Regulation G attachments included in our earnings release.

現在我們本財年的營業收入和每股盈餘也都創歷史新高。我們報告的營業收入為 3.58 億美元。這項改進源自於兩個部分。正如 Dan 之前討論的那樣，CIG 的利潤率已經接近 GSG 的利潤率。綜合來看，這些改善使我們的EBITDA 增加至4.81 億美元，比2022 財年成長了33%。與我們的營收成長相比，Tetra Tech 的EBITDA 利潤率一直以更高的速度成長，因此我們的利潤率過去 4 年平均每年增長 50 個基點。現在 GAAP 每股收益為 5.10 美元，調整後每股收益為 5.21 美元，比去年增長 16%。調整後的每股盈餘不包括最終的 RPS 整合成本和租賃減損費用、一次性外匯對沖收益以及相關的稅務相關項目。現在我們的外匯對沖收益總額為 1.1 億美元。相對於將 RPS 的購買價格降低近 15% 以及減少我們完成收購所需的債務負擔而言，這提供了積極的成果。有關第 4 季和 23 財年的更多詳細信息，我想請您參閱本簡報後面的調節幻燈片以及我們的收益發布中包含的 G 條例附件。

Now on a going-forward basis and because we've successfully integrated RPS into Tetra Tech and completed the acquisition accounting, we will provide the fiscal '24 reported results on a combined basis, including intangible amortization. Cash flows generated from operations for fiscal 2023 totaled $368 million or more than 135% of net income. This higher percentage continues our historical long-term trend and goal to generate more cash flow from operations compared to our net income. Our focus on working capital and cash flows has also resulted in further improving our DSO to an all-time best of 54 days. This is an improvement of 7 days from last year. And over the last 5 years, we've improved the DSO each year and brought our DSO down from over 85 days to an industry-leading DSO of 54 days. This lower DSO trend continues to reflect excellence in project delivery and highly satisfied clients in our broad portfolio across all of our end markets and geographies.

現在，在未來的基礎上，由於我們已成功將 RPS 整合到 Tetra Tech 並​​完成了收購會計，因此我們將提供 24 財年合併報告結果，包括無形攤銷。 2023 財年營運產生的現金流量總計 3.68 億美元，佔淨利的 135% 以上。這一較高的百分比延續了我們的歷史長期趨勢和目標，即與我們的淨利潤相比，從營運中產生更多的現金流。我們對營運資本和現金流的關注也進一步將我們的 DSO 提高到了 54 天的歷史最佳水平。比去年提高了 7 天。在過去 5 年裡，我們每年都會改進 DSO，並將 DSO 從 85 天以上縮短至領先業界的 DSO 54 天。這種較低的 DSO 趨勢繼續反映出我們在所有終端市場和地區的廣泛產品組合中卓越的專案交付和高度滿意的客戶。

Now our net debt leverage was 1.4x, which was much lower than immediately after the close of the RPS acquisition when our leverage was 2.2x at the beginning of this calendar year. Throughout 2023, we've exceeded our initial projections and on reducing our leverage to below the midpoint of our net debt target range of 1x to 2x. And as we increase our EBITDA and generate positive cash flows, we expect to further delever the balance sheet throughout fiscal 2024.

現在我們的淨債務槓桿率為 1.4 倍，遠低於 RPS 收購結束後立即進行的情況，當時我們的槓桿率為 2.2 倍。在整個 2023 年，我們已經超越了最初的預測，並將槓桿率降低至淨債務目標範圍 1 倍至 2 倍的中點以下。隨著我們增加 EBITDA 並產生正現金流，我們預計將在 2024 財政年度進一步去槓桿化資產負債表。

Our long-term capital allocation strategy to continue providing strong returns for our shareholders, calls for smart investing and the growth of our business as well as managing a robust balance sheet. And we successfully accomplished key milestones with the RPS acquisition, while deleveraging our net debt to an amount within our target range throughout this last year. And I expect that the accomplishments in 2023 will have sustainable benefits to our fiscal 2024 and beyond over the long term. The $575 million 5-year convertible debt transaction we completed will result in a more diversified and balanced capital structure. The proceeds we used or were used to pay down a significant amount of our floating rate debt, thus restoring the availability of our entire bank credit facility. The fixed rate coupon of 2.25% compares to a floating -- a current floating rate, which is about 3x that fixed rate thus providing for an attractive arbitrage in annual cash savings to the tune of over $20 million in interest. With a cap call in place, we have mitigated the potential share dilution until our stock price reaches $260 per share. And furthermore, the stock price needs to essentially more than double and grow to over $318 per share to be 1% dilutive to the total shares outstanding.

我們的長期資本配置策略旨在繼續為股東提供強勁回報，需要明智的投資和業務成長以及管理穩健的資產負債表。我們透過 RPS 收購成功實現了關鍵里程碑，同時將我們的淨債務去槓桿化至去年的目標範圍內。我預計 2023 年的成就將為我們 2024 財年及以後的長期發展帶來可持續的效益。我們完成的5.75億美元5年期可轉換債務交易將帶來更多元化和平衡的資本結構。我們使用或曾經使用的收益來償還大量浮動利率債務，從而恢復了我們整個銀行信貸額度的可用性。 2.25% 的固定利率與浮動利率（目前的浮動利率）相比，浮動利率約為固定利率的 3 倍，從而為年度現金儲蓄提供了有吸引力的套利，利息高達 2000 萬美元以上。透過上限通知，我們已經減輕了潛在的股票稀釋，直到我們的股價達到每股 260 美元。此外，股價需要大幅上漲一倍以上，達到每股 318 美元以上，才能稀釋已發行股票總數 1%。

Our bank credit facility had $800 million in liquidity available at the year-end, and will provide us the ability to invest in organic growth and complete acquisitions in key strategic markets that Jill will speak to next. Our bank credit facility includes sustainability-linked metrics relating to reducing greenhouse gases and improving the lives of 1 billion people. And in our first year, we exceeded all metrics as measured and defined by our credit agreement, thus resulting in the lower cost of debt.

截至年底，我們的銀行信貸額度有 8 億美元的可用流動資金，這將使我們有能力投資有機成長並完成吉爾接下來將談到的關鍵策略市場的收購。我們的銀行信貸安排包括與減少溫室氣體排放和改善 10 億人生活相關的永續發展相關指標。在第一年，我們超越了信貸協議衡量和定義的所有指標，從而降低了債務成本。

Regarding our dividend program, we increased the dividends paid to shareholders by double digits in the last fiscal year. And I'm glad to announce that our Board of Directors have also just approved a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share to be paid in December. This is a 13% increase over last year and represents our 34th consecutive quarterly dividend of double-digit year-over-year increases in the amounts paid.

關於我們的股利計劃，上一財年我們向股東支付的股利增加了兩位數。我很高興地宣布，我們的董事會也剛剛批准了將於 12 月支付的每股 0.26 美元的季度股息。這比去年增長了 13%，也是我們連續 34 個季度股息支付金額同比增長兩位數。

I'm really pleased to share these financial results for our fiscal 2023. I'd like to thank everybody for your support, and I will now hand the call over to Jill to discuss a few of the strategic business opportunities for and beyond.

我真的很高興分享我們 2023 財年的財務表現。我要感謝大家的支持，現在我將把電話轉給吉爾，討論 2023 財年及以後的一些戰略商業機會。

Our environment and sustainable infrastructure are extremely well aligned with U.S. government priority programs for fiscal year 2024 and beyond. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or the IIJA, will provide our government clients with a $550 billion funding plus up to deliver priority infrastructure programs in the U.S. This increased climate resilient infrastructure spend is directly aligned with the work we do in water and the environment. Our U.S. state and local clients continue to prioritize digital water solutions to modernize and secure their water facilities as the #1 water firm in the U.S. Tetra Tech is leveraging domain expertise and digital innovation to deliver state-of-the-art automation, advanced analytics artificial intelligence and proprietary software solutions to our 500-plus municipal clients nationwide.

我們的環境和永續基礎設施與美國政府 2024 財年及以後的優先計畫非常一致。 《基礎設施投資和就業法案》（IIJA）將為我們的政府客戶提供5500 億美元以上的資金，用於在美國實施優先基礎設施項目。這種增加的氣候適應基礎設施支出與我們在水和環境方面所做的工作直接相關。作為美國排名第一的水務公司，我們的美國州和地方客戶繼續優先考慮數位水務解決方案，以實現其水務設施的現代化和安全。Tetra Tech 正在利用領域專業知識和數位創新來提供最先進的自動化和進階分析為全國 500 多家市政客戶提供人工智慧和專有軟體解決方案。

Tetra Tech's recent key wins demonstrate why Tetra Tech has been ranked #1 in water by ENGINEERING NEWS RECORD for 20 years in a row. Tetra Tech's market leadership in high-end water supply and treatment secured a key win to modernize Gloucester Wastewater treatment facility and to improve water quality in the Massachusetts bay. In Southern California Tetra Tech was awarded a major drought resilient water delivery program that will serve 7 million Metropolitan Water District customers. Tetra Tech will leverage its successful track record delivering industry-leading navigation and water control structures for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to win new contract capacity and new task orders. Tetra Tech recently announced major contract wins with multiple districts to support inland navigation, flood risk management and aquatic system, biodiversity.

Tetra Tech 最近的重大勝利證明了為什麼 Tetra Tech 連續 20 年被《工程新聞記錄》評為水領域第一名。利樂科技在高端供水和處理領域的市場領導地位確保了格洛斯特廢水處理設施現代化和改善馬薩諸塞灣水質的關鍵勝利。在南加州，Tetra Tech 獲得了一項重要的抗旱供水項目，該項目將為 700 萬大都會水區客戶提供服務。 Tetra Tech 將利用其為美國陸軍工程兵部隊提供業界領先的導航和水控制結構的成功記錄來贏得新的合約產能和新的任務訂單。 Tetra Tech 最近宣布贏得多個地區的重大合同，以支持內陸航運、洪水風險管理和水生系統、生物多樣性。

Tetra Tech is providing digital water transformation services for some of the largest cities in the U.S., including Los Angeles, Houston and San Diego. Our innovative digital water solution increase remote operability and reduce operating expenses for our water clients. Our digital water services support double-digit growth and margin expansion for our state and local business.

Tetra Tech 正在為美國一些最大的城市提供數位水改造服務，包括洛杉磯、休士頓和聖地牙哥。我們創新的數位水務解決方案提高了水務客戶的遠端可操作性並降低了營運費用。我們的數位水務服務支持我們的州和地方業務實現兩位數的成長和利潤擴張。

Tetra Tech's industry leading Climate Change, services continue to be in high demand as our clients continue to prioritize funding for resilient and sustainable infrastructure programs in fiscal year 2024 and beyond. In the United Kingdom, regulated water utilities won best GBP 96 billion in water and wastewater infrastructure from 2025 to 2030, doubling the investment from the prior 5-year regulatory period. Tetra Tech is winning new work in the United Kingdom by further enhancing our proven local experience with additional global perspectives and technology innovation. Global sustainability priorities will require a $1.5 trillion investment to meet net zero greenhouse gas emission targets by 2030. Tetra Tech is winning work worldwide in the areas of energy transition, decarbonization and nature-based solutions.

隨著我們的客戶繼續優先考慮為 2024 財年及以後的彈性和永續基礎設施項目提供資金，Tetra Tech 行業領先的氣候變遷服務仍然受到很高的需求。在英國，受監管的水務公司從 2025 年到 2030 年在供水和污水處理基礎設施方面獲得了 960 億英鎊的投資，比前 5 年監管期的投資增加了一倍。 Tetra Tech 透過進一步增強我們經過驗證的本地經驗以及額外的全球視角和技術創新，在英國贏得了新的工作。全球永續發展優先事項將需要 1.5 兆美元的投資，才能在 2030 年實現溫室氣體淨零排放目標。Tetra Tech 在能源轉型、脫碳和基於自然的解決方案領域贏得了全球的勝利。

Next, I'd like to highlight recent key wins that demonstrate our industry leadership in 3 key areas: Energy transition, high-performance buildings and watershed management. Tetra Tech recently announced the award of a $22 million marine environmental survey to support development of a first-of-its-kind floating offshore wind project in Victoria, Australia. In Canada, Tetra Tech recently won the design of a first-of-its-kind biofuel production facility in Quebec that will convert recycled carbon and hydrogen contained in residual forest biomass into alternative fuels. Tetra Tech designed sustainable and healthy buildings using proprietary energy and greenhouse gas modeling software. Tetra Tech recently won a $45 million multi-award energy resilience contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to improve energy resilience and security.

接下來，我想重點介紹最近的重大勝利，這些勝利證明了我們在三個關鍵領域的產業領導地位：能源轉型、高性能建築和流域管理。 Tetra Tech 最近宣布獲得 2,200 萬美元的海洋環境調查資金，以支持澳洲維多利亞州首個浮動式離岸風電計畫的開發。在加拿大，Tetra Tech 最近贏得了魁北克省首個生質燃料生產設施的設計，該設施將把殘留森林生物質中含有的回收碳和氫轉化為替代燃料。 Tetra Tech 使用專有的能源和溫室氣體建模軟體設計了永續和健康的建築。 Tetra Tech 最近與美國陸軍工程兵團簽訂了價值 4500 萬美元的能源彈性合同，旨在提高能源彈性和安全性。

Our government portfolio also includes a 1,200 building decarbonization plan to support a carbon-neutral future across the city of Los Angeles. As well as a system-wide decarbonization framework for all 23 California State University campuses.

我們的政府投資組合還包括一項 1,200 棟建築脫碳計劃，以支持整個洛杉磯市的碳中和未來。以及針對所有 23 個加州州立大學校園的全系統脫碳框架。

Finally, Tetra Tech recently won a GBP 20 million modeling and analytics contract with United Utilities and a GBP 7 million (AMP 8) [AMP 7 & 8] network modeling framework with Severn and Trent. Tetra Tech brings industry-leading sewer overflow reduction expertise from the U.S. and Canada and proprietary modeling and analytics software to provide best-in-class sewer overflow reduction services to support the priorities of the U.K. AMP 8 cycle.

最後，Tetra Tech 最近與 United Utilities 贏得了價值 2000 萬英鎊的建模和分析合同，並與 Severn 和 Trent 贏得了價值 700 萬英鎊的 (AMP 8) [AMP 7 & 8] 網路建模框架。 Tetra Tech 帶來了來自美國和加拿大的行業領先的下水道溢流減少專業知識以及專有的建模和分析軟體，以提供一流的下水道溢流減少服務，以支援英國 AMP 8 週期的優先事項。

And now I'd like to turn the presentation back to Dan to discuss our fiscal '24 outlook.

現在我想把演講轉回 Dan 來討論我們的 24 財年展望。

Great. Thank you very much, Jill. I'd now like to not preside -- I'd like to present our outlook for fiscal year 2024 across all of our 4 end-client sectors.

偉大的。非常感謝你，吉爾。我現在不想主持，我想介紹我們所有 4 個最終客戶部門對 2024 財年的展望。

First, our U.S. Federal revenues should grow at about 10% from what they were in 2023, supported by our strong backlog and our ability to leverage our existing $25 billion contract capacity that we have with the U.S. federal government. For state and local, we expect to grow at a double-digit pace between a 10% and 15% rate. Client funding priorities are well aligned with our expertise in digital water transformation, high-end water security and climate resiliency.

首先，在我們強大的積壓訂單以及利用我們與美國聯邦政府現有的 250 億美元合約能力的支持下，我們的美國聯邦收入應比 2023 年增長約 10%。對於州和地方，我們預計將以 10% 到 15% 之間的兩位數速度成長。客戶資金優先事項與我們在數位水務轉型、高端水安全和氣候適應能力方面的專業知識非常一致。

U.S. commercial is expected to be about 20% of our overall net revenue business and grow at about a 5% to 10% rate. We see growth continuing in the high-performance buildings and clean energy transformation markets that will probably be the fastest-growing areas for us in the commercial sector.

美國商業預計將占我們整體淨收入業務的 20% 左右，並以 5% 至 10% 左右的速度成長。我們看到高性能建築和清潔能源轉型市場持續成長，這可能是我們商業領域成長最快的領域。

And the fourth area, international, our international work is now about 40% of our business, evenly split between government and commercial. We expect international to grow at about a 10% to 15% rate as we continue to expand our water, environment and sustainable infrastructure work in the United Kingdom, Australia and throughout Canada. In fiscal year 2024, we expect to leverage our expanded client base and resources, especially in the United Kingdom and Australia, and further realize the revenue synergies of the RPS acquisition.

第四個領域，國際，我們的國際工作現在約占我們業務的 40%，政府和商業部門各佔一半。隨著我們繼續擴大在英國、澳洲和加拿大各地的水、環境和永續基礎設施工作，我們預計國際業務將以 10% 至 15% 左右的速度成長。 2024財年，我們預計將利用我們擴大的客戶群和資源，特別是在英國和澳大利亞，進一步實現收購RPS的營收綜效。

Before I move to the guidance for fiscal year 2024, I'd like to take just a moment to discuss how we here at Tetra Tech think about human capital. As a consulting company, Human capital is the workforce that provides us the insight, the analysis and solutions that drive our business every single day. There are 3 aspects to what makes Tetra Tech unique in the industry and what you might describe as our secret to success with our staff and our human capital.

在介紹 2024 財年的指導之前，我想花點時間討論一下 Tetra Tech 如何看待人力資本。作為一家顧問公司，人力資本是為我們提供洞察力、分析和解決方案的勞動力，推動我們每天的業務發展。 Tetra Tech 在行業中的獨特之處有 3 個方面，您可以將其描述為我們的員工和人力資本成功的秘訣。

First, we have just an extraordinary staff across all experience levels within the company. From long-standing experts to the very top entry-level university of recruits. We attract individuals who don't just want a job. They want a career. They want a location that they come and work at. They can get promoted and that they can actually finish their career in a spot better than any other location in the industry. And this has really resulted in our low turnover rates of about 7% per year and the prioritization of internal advancement opportunities for our staff. There is no doubt the first people that we look to, to take new positions within the corporation are those that actually work here and have already demonstrated and contributed to the company.

首先，我們公司內擁有一支經驗豐富的優秀員工團隊。從長期的專家到最頂尖的入門級大學的新兵。我們吸引不僅僅是想要一份工作的人。他們想要一份事業。他們想要一個他們來工作的地方。他們可以獲得晉升，並且實際上可以在比業內任何其他職位更好的位置完成自己的職業生涯。這確實導致了我們每年約 7% 的低流動率，並優先考慮為員工提供內部晉昇機會。毫無疑問，我們最先尋找的在公司內擔任新職位的人是那些實際上在這裡工作並已經為公司做出貢獻的人。

The second area. Our workforce leverages our Delta technologies that create new solutions and even design software for our clients, not to substitute what we do for our clients with services and professional consulting, but to add to them and allow our clients to achieve even better outcomes than they can just with our consultants alone. Our workforce here at Tetra Tech for every one of the employees, technology is an enabler. Something to make them better. It's not a risk or something they have to be afraid of. And I will tell you, all 27,000 people here embrace the use of technology to make them better, more efficient and have better outcomes from our clients than ever before.

第二區。我們的員工利用我們的Delta 技術為客戶創建新的解決方案甚至設計軟體，不是用服務和專業諮詢來取代我們為客戶所做的事情，而是對其進行補充，讓我們的客戶取得比他們更好的成果僅與我們的顧問一起。對於 Tetra Tech 的每一位員工來說，科技都是推動者。讓他們變得更好的東西。這不是風險，也不是他們必須害怕的事。我會告訴你，這裡的所有 27,000 名員工都熱衷於使用科技來讓他們變得更好、更有高效，並為我們的客戶帶來比以往更好的結果。

And third, we believe in the ability to make a positive difference in the world, both as individuals and as part of the entire company of Tetra Tech. This is a real key aspect of our ability to attract and retain top talent. When we look at how Tetra Tech impacts the world, our workforce is committed to our aspirational goal of improving the lives of 1 billion people through the projects that we do every day.

第三，我們相信作為個人和整個 Tetra Tech 公司的一部分，有能力為世界帶來積極的改變。這是我們吸引和留住頂尖人才能力的真正關鍵面向。當我們審視 Tetra Tech 如何影響世界時，我們的員工致力於實現我們的理想目標，即透過我們每天所做的專案來改善 10 億人的生活。

Now I'd like to move to guidance for the first quarter of the fiscal year and for the entirety of fiscal year 2024. Our guidance is as follows. And before I move into the numbers with respect to earnings per share, I want to both book in this at the beginning, probably the middle and the end that our guidance for fiscal year 2024 and the first quarter are on a GAAP basis. I know I spoke to the difference between U.S. GAAP and IFRS earlier. And so if you want to compare these to IFRS, add 6 percentage points to these, and you'll be pretty close.

現在我想談談本財年第一季和 2024 年整個財年的指導。我們的指導如下。在我討論每股收益的數字之前，我想從一開始（可能是中間和結束時）就確定我們對 2024 財年和第一季的指導是基於 GAAP 的。我知道我之前談到了美國公認會計準則和國際財務報告準則之間的差異。因此，如果您想將這些與 IFRS 進行比較，請增加 6 個百分點，您就會非常接近。

With respect to the first quarter, our net revenue guidance is for a range of USD 950 million to USD 1 billion. Over the first quarter with an associated earnings per share, and I'll state an associated GAAP earnings per share of $1.30 to $1.38 for the entire year of fiscal year 2024. Our net revenue is for a range of $4.05 billion to $4.25 billion, with an associated GAAP earnings per share of $5.70 to $6. We went ahead and did the calculations for you, the midpoint on a GAAP 2023 to a GAAP 2024, which I've just outlined, would impute a midpoint. The midpoint of our guidance range would be in a 11% top line or revenue growth with an associated 15% at the midpoint of GAAP earnings per share growth. Some of the assumptions if you're following along on the webcast or reviewing the slides. This includes -- and this is different than what we had done in Q2, 3 and 4 of 2023. This includes the charge or cost of intangible amortization, which we estimate at $42 million for the fiscal year. I do know for those modeling. There will be questions as to how does that actually get charged per quarter. So you can see in the footnotes here, $12 million in Q1, $11 million in Q2, $10 million in Q3 and $9 million in Q4. So for modeling purposes, are estimating our quarterly charges for IA, you can use this.

對於第一季度，我們的淨收入指引範圍為 9.5 億美元至 10 億美元。第一季的相關每股收益，以及 2024 財年全年的相關 GAAP 每股收益為 1.30 美元至 1.38 美元。我們的淨收入範圍為 40.5 億美元至 42.5 億美元，其中相關的GAAP 每股收益為5.70 美元至6 美元。我們繼續為您進行計算，我剛剛概述的 GAAP 2023 到 GAAP 2024 的中點將推算出一個中點。我們的指導範圍的中點將是 11% 的營收成長，以及相關的 15% 的 GAAP 每股盈餘成長中點。如果您正在觀看網路廣播或查看投影片，則需要做一些假設。這包括——這與我們在 2023 年第二季、第三季和第四季所做的不同。這包括無形攤銷費用或成本，我們估計本財年為 4,200 萬美元。我確實知道那些模特兒。人們會問，這筆費用實際上是如何按季度收取的。因此，您可以在此處的腳註中看到，第一季為 1200 萬美元，第二季為 1100 萬美元，第三季為 1000 萬美元，第四季為 900 萬美元。因此，出於建模目的，在估算我們的 IA 季度費用時，您可以使用它。

We do assume we have an effective tax rate of 27% for the year, 54 million average diluted shares outstanding and as has been our practice, this excludes any additional contributions of revenue or income from future acquisitions that we would complete after today.

我們確實假設今年的有效稅率為 27%，平均稀釋後流通股為 5,400 萬股，按照我們的慣例，這不包括我們今天之後完成的未來收購中的任何額外收入貢獻或收入。

In summary, as we enter fiscal year 2024, we see very strong demand for our differentiated leading with sciences, water, environmental and sustainable infrastructure services. For fiscal year 2023, we set new all-time records across the board, and I'm very pleased to have just presented to you, we expect to go up from there. The strong culture alignment with RPS is accelerating our combined opportunities in supporting our growth and performance goals for fiscal year 2024. And just as a restatement, RPS is culturally fits so well with the company. While it's been 9 months, from getting close to 10 months here, it feels like they've been with us for 20 years. They're part of the culture, they're part of the company, they're part of the contribution. And frankly, the best is still yet to come as we move forward.

總之，隨著我們進入 2024 財年，我們看到對我們在科學、水、環境和永續基礎設施服務方面的差異化領先的需求非常強勁。 2023 財年，我們全面創造了新的歷史記錄，我很高興向您介紹，我們希望在此基礎上繼續提高。與 RPS 強大的文化一致性正在加速我們支持 2024 財年的成長和績效目標的綜合機會。重申一下，RPS 在文化上與公司非常契合。雖然已經過了9個月，但從來到這裡已經接近10個月了，感覺他們已經和我們在一起了20年了。他們是文化的一部分，他們是公司的一部分，他們是貢獻的一部分。坦白說，隨著我們的前進，最好的尚未到來。

No doubt, our record orders in the fourth quarter and strong backlog support our ambitious targets that we have set for net revenue and earnings per share growth in 2024. And with that, I'm very pleased to have presented to you the results of both the fourth quarter all of fiscal year 2023 and our outlook for 2024.

毫無疑問，我們第四季度創紀錄的訂單和強勁的積壓訂單支持了我們為2024 年淨收入和每股收益增長設定的雄心勃勃的目標。因此，我很高興向您介紹這兩個方面的結果2023 財年第四季以及我們對 2024 年的展望。

And with that, Melissa, I would like to open up the call for questions.

梅麗莎，我現在想開始提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Sam Kusswurm with William Blair.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Sam Kusswurm 和 William Blair 的對話。

I guess to start, I wanted to ask a little bit about physical stimulus, namely the IIJA which I know you highlighted in your prepared remarks. I understand you won quite a few contracts but are still in the early stages here. But based on what you see today, do you expect a more material impact to your backlog in fiscal 2024. And when you expect -- and when do you expect IIJA related projects to have a peak impact in your business? Is that more of a 2025 time frame?

我想首先我想問一些關於物理刺激的問題，即 IIJA，我知道您在準備好的演講中強調了這一點。據我所知，你們贏得了許多合同，但仍處於早期階段。但根據您今天看到的情況，您是否預計 2024 財年的積壓工作會受到更大的實質影響。您預計 IIJA 相關項目何時會對您的業務產生最大影響？這更像是 2025 年的時間框架嗎？

It's a great question. There's no doubt IIJA or the infrastructure stimulus program has been maybe the hottest topic that has been asked ever since we got passed into law here getting close to 2 years ago now. For us, we're seeing the first revenue contributions, and I know your question went to backlog, and I'll address that. But we are now seeing actual revenue contributions from specific clear earmarked programs associated with IIJA. We did press release earlier just this week, a $33 million lock and dam inland navigation program for the Army Corps of Engineers that is not just a contract capacity, is within a $200 million contract that we were awarded and it's a $33 million individual project.

這是一個很好的問題。毫無疑問，自從近兩年前我們在這裡通過法律以來，IIJA 或基礎設施刺激計劃可能一直是最熱門的話題。對我們來說，我們看到了第一筆收入貢獻，我知道你的問題是積壓，我會解決這個問題。但我們現在看到與 IIJA 相關的特定明確指定項目的實際收入貢獻。就在本週早些時候，我們發布了新聞稿，為陸軍工程兵部隊提供了一項價值3300 萬美元的船閘和水壩內陸導航項目，該項目不僅僅是合約容量，而且是在我們獲得的2億美元合約範圍內，而且是一個3,300 萬美元的單獨項目。

So I'll work a little bit backwards on this for this year, fiscal year 2024. And we've got a little bit less than $50 million anticipated to contribute to revenues. You can see that $33 million program will largely be completed over this next year. It really accounts for pretty much only what we have in orders already. And so we think this is the beginning of a ramp-up. We think this year, we'll see backlog begin to grow. We've got just probably a little under $50 million in backlog. So that's what we've calculated for revenue contribution this year. Hopefully, it turns out to be conservative, but that's what we see this year.

因此，我將在今年（2024 財年）上稍微回顧一下這一點。預計我們的營收貢獻將略低於 5,000 萬美元。您可以看到 3300 萬美元的計劃將在明年大部分完成。它實際上只說明了我們已有的訂單。因此，我們認為這是加速發展的開始。我們認為今年，我們將看到積壓訂單開始增加。我們的積壓訂單可能略低於 5,000 萬美元。這就是我們今年對營收貢獻的計算結果。希望結果是保守的，但這就是我們今年看到的情況。

I do see it continuing to ramp I think that we'll add more contract capacity. It's already measured in hundreds of millions of dollars just for IIJA programs. I expect that number to go up quite significantly as we move toward the end of this fiscal year in contract capacity and orders. I do think that the peak, and we'll let you know as we get closer to the end of the year, but it does look like the peak for us would be late 2025 and early 2026. So I think that the number this year that we have embedded, again, is around $50 million of actual revenue. I think that number will go up by several fold when you move into 2025. And since we are very early in the program with respect to infrastructure projects, both on the initial permitting initial design layout we should see that much earlier than others would see it in the overall duration of the IIJA program.

我確實看到它繼續增長，我認為我們將增加更多的合約產能。光是 IIJA 項目就已耗資數億美元。我預計隨著本財年末合約產能和訂單的增加，這個數字將會大幅上升。我確實認為峰值會在接近年底時通知您，但對我們來說，峰值確實會在 2025 年末和 2026 年初。所以我認為今年的數字我們再次嵌入的實際收入約為 5000 萬美元。我認為，當進入2025 年時，這個數字將增加幾倍。由於我們在基礎設施項目方面處於早期階段，無論是在最初許可的初始設計佈局上，我們都應該比其他人更早看到這一點IIJA 計劃的總持續時間。

Very helpful. I appreciate the color there. maybe attributing to offshore wind next then. We've seen some negative news flows over the last month or 2 related to offshore wind from the no bid activity in the U.K. to some comments made by developers. -- also see negative headlines on the solar side. Can you remind me how big the renewables business is for you and whether you expect these recent developments to impact your business in the coming quarters?

很有幫助。我很欣賞那裡的顏色。接下來可能歸因於海上風能。過去一兩個月，我們看到了一些與離岸風電相關的負面消息，從英國的無投標活動到開發商的一些評論。 ——還可以看到太陽能方面的負面頭條新聞。您能否提醒我再生能源業務對您來說有多大，以及您是否預計這些最近的發展會對您未來幾季的業務產生影響？

That's another great question, Sam. It's interesting, we, of course, see these headlines. So let me start with how big is Tetra Tech's renewable energy business overall right now?

這是另一個很好的問題，山姆。很有趣，我們當然會看到這些頭條新聞。那麼，讓我先介紹一下 Tetra Tech 的再生能源業務目前總體有多大？

It's about 5% of our business. So it's about $200 million a year. Half of it has been long-standing traditional work with hydro or hydro power production. So that's about $100 million. So that leaves the other $100 million roughly. So a couple of percent for the company associated with wind, both on and offshore and solar primarily. That makes up the rest.

這大約占我們業務的 5%。所以每年大約是2億美元。其中一半是長期傳統的水力或水力發電工作。大約是 1 億美元。這樣就剩下大約 1 億美元了。因此，對於與風能（包括陸上和海上風能）以及太陽能相關的公司來說，有幾個百分點。剩下的就這樣了。

Now the headlines with respect to offshore wind being more expensive, potentially more difficult to move online. In many ways, it's actually -- I don't want to say it's good news. We never want anything that's difficult for our clients to be good news. But it actually is from a project standpoint, good news for us because we can help our clients actually find different ways to get their projects completed at a lower price point. So if they would do it in a more traditional manner. And I would say with other firms that might be less experienced, have less technical approach to it, their projects may not be viable. But certainly, some of the approaches that we have to make these projects more viable, and in the instances where they don't fit within their economic portfolio, we can actually come up with contributions on how they actually might move this to other developers who would fit within their economics.

現在的頭條新聞是離岸風電成本更高，上網可能更困難。從很多方面來說，這其實──我不想說這是個好消息。我們從不希望任何對我們的客戶來說困難的事情成為好消息。但實際上從專案的角度來看，這對我們來說是個好消息，因為我們可以幫助我們的客戶真正找到不同的方法，以較低的價格完成他們的專案。所以如果他們能以更傳統的方式來做的話。我想說的是，對於其他可能經驗不足、技術方法較少的公司來說，他們的專案可能不可行。但當然，我們必須採取一些方法來使這些項目更加可行，並且在它們不適合其經濟組合的情況下，我們實際上可以提出貢獻，說明他們實際上如何將其轉移給其他開發人員符合他們的經濟狀況。

With respect to the one big developer who did cancel 2 programs, on the East Coast of the U.S., those were not 2 of our programs. So we're not associated with those at all. I certainly have had a few incoming calls asking how disruptive is that to our business. And I said, not only is it not disruptive, the experts for Tetra Tech that are running other offshore winds for the same developer that are moving forward have commented to me that this is actually good. They'll likely be resold to other developers, if they elect not to move forward themselves and that would actually give us a chance to move forward with them. So in a strange way, this is actually not moving forward with the existing leaseholders give us additional opportunities beyond what we even had today.

至於在美國東岸取消了兩個計畫的大型開發商，那就不是我們的兩個計畫。所以我們與這些根本沒有關係。我確實接到過一些電話，詢問這對我們的業務造成了多大的破壞。我說，這不僅不會造成破壞，而且正在為同一開發商運行其他離岸風電的 Tetra Tech 專家也向我評論說，這實際上很好。如果他們選擇不繼續前進，他們可能會被轉售給其他開發商，這實際上會給我們一個與他們一起前進的機會。因此，以一種奇怪的方式，這實際上並沒有與現有的承租人一起向前發展，從而為我們提供了超出我們今天所擁有的額外機會。

So we don't actually see it as a negative. I think I shared with you the current dollar amount that we're doing in this field now. And I think the future still looks very promising in this area. I've always said that it's not going to be a perfectly smooth downhill road on this. There's going to be a pothole or a speed bump along the way. I would put these in that category. But the final destination of expanding the renewable or alternative energy generation is without question. where the industry and frankly, the world is going, and we want to be at the forefront of making that happen.

所以我們其實並不認為這是負面的。我想我已經與大家分享了我們目前在這一領域所做的工作的金額。我認為這個領域的未來仍然非常有希望。我總是說這不會是一條完全平坦的下坡路。沿途會有坑洞或減速帶。我會把這些歸入該類別。但擴大再生能源或替代能源發電的最終目標是毫無疑問的。坦白說，這是整個產業和世界的發展方向，我們希望站在實現這一目標的最前線。

Our next question comes from the line of Tate Sullivan with Maxim Group.

我們的下一個問題來自 Tate Sullivan 與 Maxim Group 的聯繫。

Really jumped out the implied number -- order amount of $1.665 billion. And Dan, you said earlier that you had new programs across Australia, Canada and U.K., were those international orders a larger portion of those -- the total orders for the quarter?

果然跳出了隱含的數字——訂單金額16.65億美元。丹，您之前說過您在澳洲、加拿大和英國都有新項目，這些國際訂單是否佔本季總訂單的較大比例？

They weren't. They were really they were stronger than we normally see from those geographies that you just mentioned, Australia, Canada, U.K. But the fourth quarter of our fiscal year aligns with the end of the U.S. Federal government year. And that's when the final funding where some, say, the final -- I don't want to use the -- final topping off of projects takes place. So typically, in the fourth quarter is our biggest order from the U.S. federal government and that was definitely the case. So I would say Q1, Q2, Q3 are more representative of other sources. But the fourth quarter is the federal government's truing everything up from what they didn't spend during the year and that's what really drove the biggest numbers.

他們不是。他們確實比我們通常從您剛才提到的澳大利亞、加拿大、英國等地區看到的要強大。但我們財政年度的第四季度與美國聯邦政府年度結束一致。那時，一些專案的最終資金——我不想使用——最終的封頂就發生了。通常情況下，第四季是我們來自美國聯邦政府的最大訂單，情況確實如此。所以我想說 Q1、Q2、Q3 比較能代表其他來源。但第四季是聯邦政府對今年未支出的一切進行調整的時期，這才是真正推動數字最大的原因。

And then did you say earlier still a goal for going forward to have CIG margins move closer to GSG, particularly with the large number of commercial orders that you highlighted on the slide?

那麼您之前是否說過，未來的目標仍然是讓 CIG 利潤率更接近 GSG，特別是考慮到您在幻燈片中強調的大量商業訂單？

Well, yes. I think my ambitious goal is -- and this is to all the Tetra Tech experts and management in the CIG side. I'm looking forward to CIG eclipsing GSG. So -- but I guess we first got to match and it's getting closer. I think that the performance in the commercial side has been good. And -- but I will say that some of the extraordinary contributions such as disasters, some of the emergency work we do regarding very high priorities, can make catching them a little bit more difficult. But notwithstanding these extraordinary revenue contributions that drives very high utilization and positively impacts margins. If you sort of set that aside, maybe in 2024, CIG will catch them. So yes, we're looking for them to catch. And really the commercial side has the potential to be higher than the government side in a robust economic environment.

嗯，是。我認為我的雄心勃勃的目標是——這是對 CIG 方面所有 Tetra Tech 專家和管理層的目標。我期待著 CIG 超越 GSG。所以——但我想我們首先要比賽，而且比賽已經越來越接近了。我覺得商業方面的表現還是不錯的。而且 - 但我要說的是，一些非凡的貢獻，例如災難，我們在非常重要的優先事項上所做的一些緊急工作，可能會使捕捉它們變得更加困難。但儘管如此，這些非凡的收入貢獻仍然推動了極高的利用率並對利潤率產生了積極影響。如果你把這個放在一邊，也許到 2024 年，CIG 就會抓住他們。所以是的，我們正在尋找他們來捕捉。在強勁的經濟環境下，商業方面確實有潛力高於政府方面。

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Wittmann with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自安德魯·魏特曼和貝爾德的對話。

I guess the first couple that I want to ask or just to understand the quarter a little bit better and then talk a little bit more about on the forward look. But just, Dan, I don't think you commented on the benefit to revenue from the activities you had in Ukraine for the quarter. Recognizing that those can be episodic. Obviously, they were back in the second quarter of '23 than not in third quarter back here in the fourth quarter. You'd probably smart to have that quantified unless I missed that. And then just maybe just because the margins in GSG in the fourth quarter we're obviously very good beyond what we were thinking. Just wondering if there was any award fees, incentive fees that hit in the quarter that are just notable, maybe not individually, but in totality, given that there sometimes are fees paid to you when you get a lot of awards. And obviously, the backlog here this quarter showing that you have a lot of awards. So if you could just comment on those two things to start off, I think that would be helpful.

我想我想問的第一對夫婦，或者只是為了更好地了解這個季度，然後更多地談論前瞻性。但是，丹，我認為您沒有評論本季在烏克蘭開展的活動對收入的好處。認識到這些可能是偶發的。顯然，他們在23年的第二節回來了，而不是在第三節回到了第四節。除非我錯過了，否則你可能會明智地對其進行量化。也許只是因為第四季度 GSG 的利潤率顯然非常好，超出了我們的想像。只是想知道本季是否有任何值得注意的獎勵費、激勵費，也許不是單獨的，而是總體的，因為當您獲得很多獎勵時，有時會向您支付費用。顯然，本季的積壓工作表明您獲得了許多獎項。因此，如果您可以首先評論這兩件事，我認為這會有所幫助。

Yes, those are 2 great points with respect to things that were sort of standouts or great contributors in our fourth quarter. I'll start with Ukraine.

是的，對於我們在第四季度表現出色或做出巨大貢獻的事情來說，這是兩點。我將從烏克蘭開始。

Ukraine, we have been doing what I call a -- an ongoing assistance level that we had even before the outbreak of the hostilities in Ukraine, which has probably been maybe $10 million a quarter or something like that, but we did an additional $40 million. So I think if you actually looked at Ukraine overall, we are probably just slightly above $50 million in the quarter and $40 million of that, I would call incrementally higher than what we had anticipated coming in. That was for a lot of humanitarian work and now it is cost plus work. So it is a very low risk to the company. We don't carry a big margin in that work for supporting humanitarian work. We do get paid quite quickly, and it's a low risk financially, but it does carry slightly lower margins. So -- what was the good thing in the quarter is it did help drive by about $40 million to beat on the top end revenue, Ukraine specifically. Above what we sort of had anticipated at the sort of maintenance level that we are doing, both in Ukraine and we have other areas around the world. but it did contribute to earnings per share. But actually, it kind of moderated the margin that we had in GSG because that carried lower margins. So it was good. On the revenue side, it was good on EPS, but on margin. So there's two sides to that coin.

烏克蘭，我們一直在做我所說的話——甚至在烏克蘭敵對行動爆發之前我們就已經達到的持續援助水平，可能是每季度 1000 萬美元或類似的水平，但我們額外提供了 4000 萬美元。因此，我認為，如果你實際上從整體上看烏克蘭，我們本季的收入可能略高於5000 萬美元，其中4000 萬美元，我認為逐漸高於我們的預期。這是用於大量人道主義工作和現在是成本加工作。因此，這對公司來說風險非常低。我們在支持人道主義工作方面並沒有取得很大的優勢。我們確實很快就會得到報酬，而且財務風險較低，但利潤率確實略低。因此，本季的好處是，它確實幫助推動了約 4000 萬美元的收入，超過了高端收入，特別是烏克蘭。我們在烏克蘭和世界其他地區所做的維護水準超出了我們的預期。但它確實對每股收益做出了貢獻。但實際上，這在一定程度上降低了我們 GSG 的利潤率，因為 GSG 的利潤率較低。所以這很好。在營收方面，每股收益不錯，但利潤率不錯。所以這枚硬幣有兩面。

But with respect to margins in the quarter, we did not have a true award fee or any special award from our clients to make up for the great work we have done. But conversely, on the other side, we did have additional fee from just great performance from our project managers, and I would call those project closeouts. The examples of those are, we often carry a small amount in our projects, 1% or 2% for contingency in the event that there's something that might have to be reworked or additional comments from regulators on some aspect. And a lot of these projects were closed out with no comment and in fact, accelerated approval from the regulators and outside stakeholders on our work. So that also contributed to, I would say, a byproduct of it or sort of a bank shot that contributed. You can see it in our DSO. When you're getting paid that quick and that much in advance of what your regular schedule is, you can see it in the DSO. And you see it at 54 days. And that also means when you're getting paid that quick and projects are going that well, then you're able to close out without having to use up contingency items. So I would say there was a project closeouts in the fourth quarter just because of excellent project management and technical delivery from our staff across the company.

但就本季的利潤率而言，我們沒有獲得真正的獎勵費或客戶的任何特殊獎勵來彌補我們所做的工作。但相反，另一方面，我們確實從專案經理的出色表現中獲得了額外的費用，我將這些稱為專案結束。例如，我們經常在專案中保留少量資金，1% 或 2%，以備不時之需，以防出現需要返工或監管機構在某些方面提出額外意見的情況。許多項目都沒有發表評論就結束了，事實上，監管機構和外部利益相關者加速了對我們工作的批准。所以我想說，這也促成了它的副產品，或者說是銀行投籃的貢獻。您可以在我們的 DSO 中看到它。當您如此快速地收到付款並且比您的正常日程提前這麼多時，您可以在 DSO 中看到它。 54 天後你就會看到它。這也意味著，當您快速獲得報酬並且專案進展順利時，您就可以結束工作，而不必使用應急物品。所以我想說，第四季有一個專案收尾，只是因為我們全公司員工出色的專案管理和技術交付。

That makes sense, and it's helpful context. Just digging a little bit here next into the guidance, it might be helpful actually for you guys just to comment on the interest expense, given that interest rates have been changing and are so much higher. Maybe you want to give that and then we can all kind of back into your EBITDA. But when you get to the EBITDA, it looks like there's certainly some margin improvement baked into '24 over '23. Certainly, that makes sense. It sounds like your utilization is very good, and it sounds like you've been getting better here. You've got year-over-year benefits from the cost synergies that you've got in flight but haven't been recognized yet in the first quarter, second quarter and even into the third quarter from RPS. And then there's even some of these mix things that we talked about. There's always puts and takes on mix, but certainly, a lot of Ukraine contribution, like you just talked about, mixes margins down. You had the incentive fee the other way, mix it up. But I guess maybe that would be helpful for you to kind of level set us about what the implicit EBITDA margin is and how much it is year-over-year? And where is could be to make it even better than what you've guided? It seems like it's good, but it could even be better if the year unfolds like you're saying it could.

這是有道理的，而且是有幫助的背景。接下來稍微深入一下指南，考慮到利率一直在變化並且要高得多，對你們評論利息支出實際上可能會有所幫助。也許您想捐出這筆錢，然後我們就可以將其返還給您的 EBITDA。但當你考慮 EBITDA 時，你會發現 24 年的利潤率比 23 年肯定有所提高。當然，這是有道理的。聽起來你的利用率非常好，而且聽起來你在這裡已經變得更好了。您已經從成本協同效應中獲得了同比效益，但在第一季、第二季甚至第三季 RPS 尚未得到認可。然後我們甚至討論了一些混合的事情。混合總是有投入和承擔，但當然，正如您剛才談到的，烏克蘭的大量貢獻降低了混合利潤。你以另一種方式獲得了獎勵費，把它混合起來。但我想這可能有助於您讓我們了解隱含 EBITDA 利潤率是多少以及同比是多少？哪裡可以使它比您指導的更好？看起來不錯，但如果這一年像你所說的那樣展開，情況可能會更好。

There's a lot of moving pieces there. Let me start at a high level, and then I'll let Steve talk to interest in some of the other items embedded within the company that we have. So for instance, our IAs up hired this year, because having RPS for a full year. But let me start at a high level.

那裡有很多移動的部分。讓我從高層次開始，然後我會讓史蒂夫談談對我們公司內嵌入的一些其他項目的興趣。舉例來說，我們的 IA 今年被聘用，因為全年都有 RPS。但讓我從高層次開始。

We do -- we have embedded, if you do the calculations of our low end of our revenue range to the low end of our EPS range. You'd see there's about a 50 basis point increase. In fact, you'd see it quite uniform. If you went high, high and mid, mid and you did the calculation, you'll see about a 50 basis point increase. I do think if you take a look at a favorable mix, which might be a low end of revenue and a high end of EPS, you'd be up at about an 80 basis point increase within fiscal year 2024. So that's sort of a range.

如果您將我們的收入範圍的低端計算到我們的每股收益範圍的低端，我們會嵌入。您會看到大約增加了 50 個基點。事實上，你會發現它非常統一。如果你去高、高、中、中進行計算，你會看到大約 50 個基點的成長。我確實認為，如果你考慮一個有利的組合，這可能是收入的低端和每股收益的高端，你會在 2024 財年內實現約 80 個基點的增長。範圍。

I will say that RPS was not with Tetra Tech in the first quarter of last year. It didn't join us until the very end of January. So our guidance for the first quarter margins are actually weighed on a little bit, even though they're higher than last year, they are weighed on a little bit because RPS' margins still are not at a level of Tetra Tech. In fact, Tetra Tech is up around 13-ish percent, maybe a little more, and they'll be coming into the year around 10%.

我要說的是，去年第一季 RPS 並未與 Tetra Tech 合作。直到一月底它才加入我們。因此，我們對第一季利潤率的指導實際上受到了一些影響，儘管它們高於去年，但它們受到了一些影響，因為 RPS 的利潤率仍然達不到 Tetra Tech 的水平。事實上，Tetra Tech 的股價上漲了 13% 左右，甚至可能更多，今年的漲幅將在 10% 左右。

So in the first quarter, while you'd expect margins to continue to increase, I will comment that we have about 20% additional revenue, which represents RPS at a lower margin. And of course, it will ramp through the year. So I think there are a number of puts and takes. But overall, I would go to the annual year at somewhere between 50 to 80 basis points depending on how you take the comparisons of different components of our margin within guidance for 2024.

因此，在第一季度，雖然您預計利潤率將繼續增加，但我會評論說，我們的額外收入約為 20%，這代表 RPS 的利潤率較低。當然，這一數字將在全年持續成長。所以我認為有很多看跌的地方。但總體而言，我認為全年利潤率會上漲 50 到 80 個基點，具體取決於您如何在 2024 年指導下比較我們利潤率的不同組成部分。

And let me have Steve speak to some of the individual moving items such as interest and other items.

讓我讓史蒂夫談談一些個人的行動項目，例如興趣和其他項目。

Yes. So Andy, if you take a look at our model, the -- based on the run rate of depreciation each quarter, midpoint is probably about $26 million of depreciation next year. amortization, it was on Dan's slide up there. You saw about $42 million. Our net interest cost probably somewhere between $40 million and $45 million is what we're looking at. So the midpoint, about $42.5 million. And those are probably those moving pieces to get to an EBITDA number.

是的。安迪，如果你看一下我們的模型，根據每個季度的折舊率，明年的折舊中點可能約為 2600 萬美元。攤銷，它在丹的幻燈片上。您看到了大約 4200 萬美元。我們正在考慮的淨利息成本可能在 4,000 萬至 4,500 萬美元之間。所以中點約 4250 萬美元。這些可能是獲得 EBITDA 數字的關鍵因素。

Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Connors with North Coast Research.

我們的下一個問題來自北海岸研究中心的瑞安康納斯 (Ryan Connors)。

So I want to go stick on the Federal side, Dan, and you're one of the few companies that's actually seeing, it seems like a tangible impact from some of the stimulus infrastructure spending. You definitely -- we're not hearing that from the equipment providers at this point and even some of your peers on the engineering side, we're not hearing that there either. One of the things it seems that is a recurring theme is that Build America provisions, the BABA provisions are kind of a headwind and impediment obstacle of those funds getting deployed and yet you are seeing it. So how do we interpret that? Is it your upstream nature that you don't necessarily rely on actual projects in the field, but you're doing upstream study work? I mean, why do you think that is that you're seeing that a little sooner?

所以我想堅持聯邦方面，丹，你是少數幾家真正看到一些刺激性基礎設施支出產生實際影響的公司之一。當然，我們目前還沒有從設備提供者那裡聽到這一點，甚至工程方面的一些同行，我們也沒有聽到這一點。似乎反覆出現的主題之一是「建立美國」條款，阿里巴巴條款是這些資金部署的阻力和障礙，但你已經看到了這一點。那我們該如何解釋呢？不一定依賴領域內的實際項目，而是做上游的研究工作，這是否是你的上游性質？我的意思是，為什麼你認為你會更早看到這一點？

Yes, I think you've hit it right. And I think it went to the comment I had while it's a different end market, my comments on offshore wind. And my comment was that before anything that's built you actually have to come up with a plan before you'll build something. So the Buy America Build America and have something built here, that comes much farther down the road. That's after -- so I sort of see the projects with respect to service providers in 4 areas. There's where Tetra Tech resides, which is the upfront valuation, technology assessment, initial layout permitting. And so that's us. That's what Tetra Tech does.

是的，我認為你說得對。我認為這是我在不同的終端市場時發表的評論，即我對離岸風電的評論。我的評論是，在建造任何東西之前，你實際上必須先制定一個計劃，然後才能建造東西。因此，“購買美國產品，建造美國”，並在這裡建造一些東西，這將在未來的道路上走得更遠。在那之後——所以我看到了與 4 個領域的服務提供者相關的項目。這就是 Tetra Tech 的所在地，即前期估值、技術評估、初始佈局授權。這就是我們。 Tetra Tech 就是這麼做的。

Second phase is -- and this goes to the other engineering companies, then you move to the full-service engineering firms that will actually do detailed as-built drawings constructible drawings. And they'll take it from where we typically would leave at about a 30% design and they'll take it all the way through detailed design, constructible design drawings. And those are a hallmark of large engineering houses typically characterize themselves as engineering companies, which we don't and have an attribute of having offshore low-cost engineering centers. So look for people who have big houses in Malaysia, India and places like that, they were in Phase II. We can be very busy and they can never see a dollar of revenue unless the project is going to go to being prepared to go out Phase III, which really begins to move into the BABA or the Buy America Build America. Those folks that are after it's been built or anticipating it being built, and you're bidding either a design build project, which would be putting together the engineering and the constructor.

第二階段是——這將轉移到其他工程公司，然後你會轉移到全方位服務的工程公司，他們實際上會製作詳細的竣工圖和施工圖。他們會從我們通常會保留大約 30% 設計的地方開始，他們會一直透過詳細設計、可施工設計圖面。這些是大型工程公司的一個標誌，它們通常將自己描述為工程公司，而我們沒有，並且具有擁有離岸低成本工程中心的屬性。因此，尋找在馬來西亞、印度等地擁有大房子的人，他們正處於第二階段。我們可能會很忙，但他們永遠看不到一美元的收入，除非專案準備進入第三階段，真正開始進入 BABA 或「購買美國產品，建造美國」。那些在建築建成後或預計建築建成的人，你正在投標一個設計建造項目，該項目將工程和施工人員放在一起。

And so that third piece is the construction piece. And that's -- you're not going to see anything coming out of the BABA part of the work until it's ready to be it's already been bid and they're ready to move forward. Then you're going to see it move. And that could be anywhere from I don't know and the fastest I've ever seen it maybe 6 months to 9 months later. And when we finish our work, not start or finish it until they just get started, and then they'll move later.

所以第三塊是結構件。那就是——你不會看到阿里巴巴部分工作的任何結果，直到它準備好，它已經被投標並且他們準備好繼續前進。然後你就會看到它移動。這可能是我不知道的任何地方，我見過的最快的可能是 6 個月到 9 個月後。當我們完成我們的工作時，不要開始或完成它，直到他們開始，然後他們會稍後移動。

And then the fourth area I consider is really the commissioning and the O&M or the operation and maintenance people, which is the tail end of the projects once they've been commissioned. So almost every project that has a capital aspect to it has those 4 faces.

然後我考慮的第四個領域實際上是調試和維運或操作和維護人員，這是專案調試後的最後階段。因此，幾乎每個具有資本方面的項目都具有這四個面向。

You might conflate number 2 and 3, the engineering and the construction when you go to a design build but that doesn't encroach on the work that we do before. You can't go to a design build project, which then would trigger BABA spending and both backlog funding and anything that you'd visibly see from IIJA until after you've done what I call the Phase I. Phase I though hallmarks, which is classic Tetra Tech, sole source, limited competition, smaller project, much more diverse. And I don't want to call it completely immune or insulated from whether or not you build it or not, but largely decoupled, largely decoupled. And frankly, when there's difficulties in supply chain, cost of materials, availability of construction trade labor with that, that actually means there's more opportunity, and it's even more important to go back to your Phase 1 provider. And we're one of those, and frankly, in certain areas like water, environment, sustainable infrastructure. We're clearly a market leader in those areas.

當您進行設計建造時，您可能會混淆第二點和第三點，即工程和施工，但這不會侵犯我們之前所做的工作。你不能去設計建造項目，這會引發 BABA 支出和積壓資金以及你從 IIJA 中明顯看到的任何東西，直到你完成我所說的第一階段。第一階段雖然有標誌，但是經典的Tetra Tech，獨家來源，競爭有限，專案較小，更加多樣化。我不想稱它為完全免疫或隔離於你是否構建它，而是很大程度上解耦，很大程度上解耦。坦白說，當供應鏈、材料成本、建築貿易勞動力的可用性等方面出現困難時，這實際上意味著有更多的機會，而且回到第一階段的供應商就更重要了。坦白說，在水、環境、永續基礎設施等某些領域，我們就是其中之一。我們顯然是這些領域的市場領導者。

But there's other segments, there's other people that are -- will benefit from IIJA, but I hope that sort of describes how we see this in a relationship with respect to what's coming out of IIJA. And I would say for those that are farther downstream in general Phases 2, 3 and 4 they should be encouraged that we're seeing numbers come out both in contract capacity and revenue because it's pretty difficult to get to Phase 2, 3 and 4 without Phase 1.

但還有其他部分，還有其他人將從 IIJA 中受益，但我希望這能描述我們如何看待 IIJA 所產生的關係。我想說，對於那些在第2、第3 和第4 階段處於下游的企業來說，他們應該受到鼓勵，因為我們看到合約產能和收入方面的數字都出現了，因為如果沒有這些，進入第2、第3 和第4 階段是相當困難的。階段1。

Yes. No, that's great color. I appreciate that detail, Dan. And then my other question, just, look, nobody denies things are great today and optimism is a great quality and management. And I think you given us all the positives. But just if I can get you to kind of talk about some of the risks that keep you up at night in the business. And specifically looking at some data this morning about your stock and, it's been much more volatile historically in election years than not. And I look at the last 30 years, stock has been twice as volatile in election years as it has in nonelection years, and we're getting ready to go into an election year. So can you talk qualitatively about kind of the, how you see the different scenarios politically? I know you said you still think we're a year or 2 off from the peak in the current spending plan. But what are the scenarios you see out there and particularly focusing on -- what are the risks in the business? Because certainly, listening to the call today, it seems like there's very few things keeping up at night, but there must be some risk factors and specifically related to the election and maybe the budgetary situation.

是的。不，那是很棒的顏色。我很欣賞這個細節，丹。然後我的另一個問題是，看，沒有人否認今天的事情很棒，樂觀是一種很好的品質和管理。我認為你給了我們所有的正面因素。但如果我能讓你談談一些讓你徹夜難眠的風險。特別是今天早上有關您的股票的一些數據，從歷史上看，在選舉年，它的波動性要大得多。回顧過去 30 年，股市在選舉年的波動性是非選舉年的兩倍，我們正準備進入選舉年。那麼您能否定性地談談您如何看待政治上的不同情況？我知道您說過您仍然認為我們距離當前支出計劃的峰值還有一兩年的時間。但是您看到並特別關注的場景是什麼——業務中的風險是什麼？因為當然，聽今天的電話，晚上似乎沒有什麼事情要處理，但肯定存在一些風險因素，特別是與選舉有關的風險因素，也許還有預算狀況。

Well, I'm glad that we are not on a video conference today because you would see a very tired worn out, Dan.

嗯，我很高興我們今天不參加視訊會議，因為你會看到丹非常疲憊。

Well, what keeps me awake at night and has got me awake, coming up to even tomorrow because it isn't signed yet is the dysfunction with the U.S. Congress and government shutdown. We were sitting there in September. It was going to be a shutdown. They extended it for 6 weeks, which is until tomorrow. At the beginning of this week, it's -- I think that through the media, it's -- there's no way they can come to any agreement and then they'll suddenly come to a bipartisan continuing resolution. But until it's signed, I'm not sleeping. And so what makes me feel uncomfortable is the dysfunction with the U.S. federal government and shutdowns.

好吧，讓我徹夜難眠、直到明天都無法入睡的原因是美國國會和政府關門的功能失調。九月我們坐在那裡。這將是一次停工。他們將期限延長了 6 週，即到明天。在本周初，我認為透過媒體，他們不可能達成任何協議，然後他們會突然達成兩黨持續解決方案。但在簽字前我不會睡覺。所以讓我感到不舒服的是美國聯邦政府的功能失調和政府關門。

Now do I have a plan for what I'm going to do when that happens is Tetra Tech yes, we're going to make sure that our clients have funded us for more than 30 days in advance before it gets shut down. So we do all these sorts of things. But records are made to be broken and not just our financial performance, but the amount of time the government shut down, who knows if 35-ish days is the new high. Maybe they're going to go, maybe they're going to go for the gusto and go 60 days and I will sleep over that. I really do.

現在，當這種情況發生時，我有一個計劃嗎？Tetra Tech 是的，我們將確保我們的客戶在關閉之前提前 30 天以上為我們提供資金。所以我們做所有這些事情。但記錄是用來打破的，不僅僅是我們的財務表現，還有政府關閉的時間，誰知道 35 天左右是否是新高。也許他們會去，也許他們會興致勃勃地去60天，而我會為此而睡。我真的這麼做。

I'll tell you, any time there's disruption on these, it makes me feel very uncomfortable. And so that is some of the areas that I pay a lot of attention to. Unfortunately, it's not something other than my boat as a single individual to vote for people that will be collaborators and move things forward. So those are things that do make me feel pretty uncomfortable. I do -- I do guess I say lose sleep on it, but that would be true. It is a high level of concern. I will say that outside the U.S. federal government, I thought you made a great point in that 40% of our revenues are now outside the U.S. So we are much more diversified. So I will say, a sneeze by the U.S. government may give us a cold, but it's not going to be terminal for us. So I -- things aren't perfect here, we're not immune from the upside. We do look to be optimistic with respect to not just our words, but our actions to be prepared for multiple contingency plans on different scenarios, but there's no doubt the federal government -- I would say that some would comment -- let me just go to on the flip side, with the government, though. And you did mention this is the volatility of Tetra Tech stock during an election year. This goes all the way back to the -- I think it was the Roosevelt era a long, long time ago, it was 100 years ago almost. And it's during election year, a chicken in every pot. So during an election year, politicians are not looking to say, "I want to become more fiscally restrained. " They are not saying, "I want to spend less and take away your bridge or I want to take away your short protection, or I want to take away whatever your individual project in your jurisdiction might be.

我告訴你，每當這些受到干擾時，我都會感到非常不舒服。這就是我非常關注的一些領域。不幸的是，除了我作為一個人的船之外，沒有什麼別的事情可以投票給那些將成為合作者並推動事情向前發展的人。所以這些事情確實讓我感到很不舒服。我確實──我確實想我會說睡不著覺，但那是真的。這是一個高度關注的問題。我想說的是，在美國聯邦政府之外，我認為您說得很好，我們 40% 的收入現在來自美國境外，所以我們更加多元化。所以我想說，美國政府的一個噴嚏可能會讓我們感冒，但對我們來說不會是絕症。所以我——這裡的事情並不完美，我們也不能免於好處的影響。我們確實看起來很樂觀，不僅在我們的言論上，而且在我們的行動上，為不同情況下的多種應急計劃做好準備，但毫無疑問，聯邦政府——我想說有些人會發表評論——讓我走吧但另一方面，與政府。您確實提到這是 Tetra Tech 股票在選舉年的波動性。這可以追溯到很久很久以前的羅斯福時代，幾乎是 100 年前。現在正值選舉年，家家都有雞。因此，在選舉年，政客們不會說，「我想在財務上變得更加克制。」他們不會說，「我想減少開支，拿走你的橋樑，或者我想拿走你的短期保護，或我想取消您管轄範圍內的任何個人項目。

Typically, election years are the opposite, which are, "I have more gifts for you" to garner additional support for both.So I would say the volatility kind of runs around that level of perspective. And we can look at it, maybe they have different priorities, the Republicans and Democrats, but one might want to build one item for border protection and someone might want to build items for water and environment. But I haven't seen even under the most stringent proposal, either side say I want less.

通常情況下，選舉年是相反的，即“我有更多的禮物給你”，為雙方贏得額外的支持。所以我想說，波動性是圍繞這種觀點水平的。我們可以看看，也許共和黨和民主黨有不同的優先事項，但有人可能想要建造一項邊境保護項目，有人可能想要建造一項水和環境項目。但我還沒有看到即使在最嚴格的提議下，任何一方都說我想要的東西更少。

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Dudas with Vertical Research Partners.

我們的下一個問題來自 Michael Dudas 和 Vertical Research Partners 的電話。

Obviously, given what you talked about with your growth in the business and certainly the opportunities internationally, and it seems like evidence that the RPS simulation has gone quite well and probably can really kick into gear in the next 12 to 18 months. How are you thinking about as you reset and recapitalize on the balance sheet, it sounds like you'll be paying down further debt with the strong cash flow. How do you think about going forward relative to your historic kind of tuck-in smaller type acquisitions versus the opportunistic RPS? What do you see over the next couple of years? Is it kind of in between, just opportunistic either way, I want to share how you're taking through that as you kind of meet some of these pretty aggressive markets that seem like you need your services for quite a few years.

顯然，考慮到您所談到的業務成長以及國際機會，這似乎有證據表明 RPS 模擬進展順利，並且可能在未來 12 到 18 個月內真正啟動。當您在資產負債表上進行重置和資本重組時，您是如何考慮的，聽起來您將透過強勁的現金流來償還更多債務。您如何看待歷史性的小型小型收購與機會主義 RPS 的未來發展？未來幾年您會看到什麼？是否介於兩者之間，無論哪種方式都是機會主義的，我想分享一下您是如何度過這一時期的，因為您遇到了一些相當激進的市場，這些市場似乎您需要您的服務好幾年了。

Well, when we -- after RPS, one of the premises we had when we had RPS joined us, and yes, it was our largest acquisition. Yes, it was 5,000 people. And yes, it expanded our U.K. and Australia footprints. And yes, it did take our leverage up to just over 2x, which is right at the upper end of our range. But my discussion with our CFO and treasury staff is, we want to do this but without inhibiting at all Tetra Tech's long-term plan to add technology experts, companies that can bring us new clients or new areas for growth. So Steve Burdick, this is great. It's going to be great for operations, but you've got to keep that channel open. And that was part of what drove the convert -- convertible debt that we put in place. I expect that you'll see continued more of what we have done for years and years and years, which are small, we call them tuck-ins, some of the scaling bolt-ons, which has just sort of assimilate them into the company. They come in as equal partners with the corporation. They're super important for us. They lead the technical areas for all of Tetra Tech. So if you're out there in firm that's looking to think about is it a good fit for Tetra Tech. You don't come to a Tetra Tech to work for us. You come to Tetra Tech to lead us all. And so those will continue to take place.

嗯，當我們——在 RPS 之後，我們擁有 RPS 加入我們時擁有的場所之一，是的，這是我們最大的收購。是的，有 5,000 人。是的，它擴大了我們在英國和澳洲的足跡。是的，它確實使我們的槓桿率上升到了 2 倍多，這正好是我們範圍的上限。但我與我們的財務長和財務人員的討論是，我們希望做到這一點，但完全不抑制Tetra Tech 的長期計劃，即增加技術專家、公司，為我們帶來新客戶或新的成長領域。史蒂夫伯迪克，這太棒了。這對於營運來說非常有利，但你必須保持該管道暢通。這就是推動我們實施可轉換債務的部分原因。我希望你會看到我們多年來所做的更多事情，這些都是很小的，我們稱之為“縮進”，一些擴展螺栓，這只是將它們同化到公司中。他們作為公司的平等合作夥伴加入。它們對我們來說非常重要。他們領導整個 Tetra Tech 的技術領域。因此，如果您所在的公司正在考慮它是否適合 Tetra Tech。您來到 Tetra Tech 並​​不是為了為我們工作。您來到 Tetra Tech 來領導我們所有人。因此，這些將繼續發生。

And if, I know Steve presented on the slide and prepared remarks that we have $800 million of existing today capacity, which would be more than enough to do what we just transacted with RPS. But that's just what's available today. We have access to over $2 billion in direct line of sight funding that we could trigger within, frankly, within a few phone calls. So if there are opportunistic entities that would make sense for Tetra Tech, our capital structure is not such that our balance sheet would be an inhibitor. In fact, as an enabler. So I would just say that we expect business as usual with respect to adding companies that bring in new technologies, access to new clients or round out some of the geography we have within Australia, Canada, the U.K. portions of Europe and the U.S. But if the right company comes on -- comes along, that actually makes sense and that will make us better than we are today both for today and the long term, we do not bet on companies coming here to make us better than 10 years from now. We know that will be the case if they come with us. But we wanted to actually show it and demonstrate it to our shareholders today. And I know we've used that they'll be GAAP accretive on year 1. That's still our goal for the small tuck-ins.

如果我知道史蒂夫在幻燈片上做了介紹並準備了評論，我們目前擁有 8 億美元的現有產能，這足以完成我們剛剛與 RPS 進行的交易。但這只是今天可用的。我們可以獲得超過 20 億美元的直接視線資金，坦白說，只需打幾通電話即可觸發。因此，如果存在對 Tetra Tech 有意義的機會主義實體，我們的資本結構不會使我們的資產負債表成為抑制因素。事實上，作為一個推動者。因此，我只想說，我們預計業務會像往常一樣增加引入新技術、接觸新客戶或完善我們在澳大利亞、加拿大、歐洲和美國的英國部分地區的公司。合適的公司出現了——出現了，這實際上是有道理的，這將使我們比今天更好，無論是在今天還是從長遠來看，我們並不押注來到這裡的公司會讓我們在10 年後變得更好。我們知道，如果他們和我們一起來的話，情況就會如此。但我們今天想實際展示並向我們的股東展示它。我知道我們已經知道它們將在第一年實現 GAAP 增值。這仍然是我們小額投入的目標。

I do know like RPS, some of that are much larger and much more complicated. We may have a quarter or 2 to -- that they'll be cash accretive but it may take a quarter or 2 for the GAAP portion. So expect more and more of the same. We'll continue to move forward with the companies that fit with us. That should not be a surprise. And that isn't even felt we're below the midpoint. As Steve had indicated, we're below the midpoint of the range that we'd like to reside in between 1 and 2x. We're below 1.5x, 1.4x if we don't do an acquisition in the next 6 weeks, that ratios continue to get favorable during this year.

我確實知道像 RPS 一樣，其中一些更大、更複雜。我們可能需要一兩個季度的時間才能實現現金增值，但 GAAP 部分可能需要一到兩個季度的時間。因此，期待越來越多的相同情況。我們將繼續與適合我們的公司一起前進。這不足為奇。我們甚至沒有感覺到我們低於中點。正如 Steve 所指出的，我們低於我們想要的 1 到 2 倍範圍的中點。如果我們在未來 6 週內不進行收購，我們的回報率將低於 1.5 倍、1.4 倍，這一比率在今年將繼續變得有利。

Seems like your business development team will be busy. Dan, I appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.

看來您的業務開發團隊會很忙。丹，我很欣賞你的想法。謝謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question-and-answer session. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Batrack for any final comments.

女士們先生們，我們的問答環節到此結束。我將把發言權交還給巴特拉克先生，徵求最後的意見。

Well, thank you very much, Melissa. I appreciate -- you're moderating the call today. And I'd like to thank everyone who's followed the company been supportive of us during fiscal year 2023. I think we're off to a bright start to 2024. I'm really looking forward to talking to you in about 90 days from now on our next quarterly call to tell you how we've started off in the first quarter. And with that, I hope you enjoy not only today, the rest of this week, but I hope you have a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Thank you very much.

嗯，非常感謝你，梅麗莎。我很感激 - 你今天主持了電話會議。我要感謝所有關注公司並在 2023 財年支持我們的人。我認為 2024 年我們將迎來一個光明的開端。我真的很期待在大約 90 天內與您交談在我們下一個季度的電話會議上，我們將告訴您我們第一季的開局情況。就此而言，我希望您不僅享受今天和本週剩餘的時間，而且希望您度過一個安全、愉快的假期。非常感謝。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。