Vertiv Holdings Co (VRT) 2021 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Grant, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Vertiv's First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this call is being recorded.

早安.我叫格蘭特，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。此時，我謹歡迎大家參加 Vertiv 2021 年第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，此通話正在錄音。

I would now like to turn the program over to your host for today's conference call, Lynne Maxeiner, Vice President of Investor Relations.

現在我想將會議議程交給今天電話會議的主持人、投資者關係副總裁 Lynne Maxeiner。

Great. Thanks, Grant, and good morning, and welcome to Vertiv's First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today are Vertiv's Executive Chairman, David Cote; Chief Executive Officer, Rob Johnson; Chief Financial Officer, David Fallon; and Chief Strategy and Development Officer, Gary Niederpruem.

偉大的。謝謝格蘭特，早安，歡迎參加 Vertiv 2021 年第一季財報電話會議。今天與我一起出席的還有 Vertiv 執行主席 David Cote；執行長羅布·約翰遜；財務長大衛法倫；首席策略與發展長 Gary Niederpruem。

Before we begin, I point out that during the course of this call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding future events, including the future financial and operating performance of Vertiv. These forward-looking statements are subject to material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. We refer you to the cautionary language included in this earnings release, and you can learn more about these risks in our registration statement, our proxy statement and other filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements that we make today are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events.

在開始之前，我指出，在本次電話會議期間，我們將就未來事件做出前瞻性陳述，包括 Vertiv 未來的財務和營運績效。這些前瞻性陳述存在重大風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述中的結果有重大差異。我們建議您參閱本財報中包含的警示性語言，您可以在我們的註冊聲明、代理聲明和向 SEC 提交的其他文件中了解有關這些風險的更多資訊。我們今天所做的任何前瞻性陳述都是基於我們認為截至目前為止合理的假設。我們不承擔因新資訊或未來事件而更新這些聲明的義務。

During this call, we will also present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Our GAAP results and GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations can be found in our earnings presentation and press release, also the investor slide deck found on our website at investor

在本次電話會議中，我們也將介紹 GAAP 和非 GAAP 財務指標。我們的 GAAP 結果以及 GAAP 與非 GAAP 調整表可以在我們的收益簡報和新聞稿中找到，也可以在我們的投資者網站上找到投資者幻燈片

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With that, I'll turn the call over to Executive Chairman, David Cote.

接下來，我會將電話轉給執行主席 David Cote。

Thanks, Lynne. This is now the fifth quarter we've reported as a public company, and I think you can see what I've seen and talked about this entire time. This really is a great company in a really good industry with multiple ways to continue improving the top and bottom line.

謝謝，琳恩。現在是我們作為一家上市公司報告的第五個季度，我想你可以看到我在這段時間所看到和談論的內容。這確實是一個優秀行業中的一家偉大公司，有許多方法可以繼續提高收入和利潤。

Rob and his team, as you can see, are making great progress with new products, global growth and the process initiatives like the Vertiv operating system, Vertiv product development, customer view and functional transformation. And these process initiatives show that there are lots of barriers to improve upon, and Rob and the team are focused on those. But I think you'll also agree with me that the first quarter results sure are something to be proud of and provide us a great start to the year.

如您所見，Rob 和他的團隊在新產品、全球成長以及 Vertiv 作業系統、Vertiv 產品開發、客戶視圖和功能轉型等流程規劃方面取得了巨大進展。這些流程措施表明，存在許多需要改進的障礙，而 Rob 和團隊正專注於這些障礙。但我想您也會同意我的觀點，即第一季的業績確實值得驕傲，並為我們今年提供了一個良好的開端。

So with that, I'll turn it over to Rob.

所以，我會把它交給羅布。

Thanks, Dave. Thank you for your guidance that you provide to me and the executive team and the support for Vertiv that you always have given. We really appreciate it.

謝謝，戴夫。感謝您為我和執行團隊提供的指導以及您一直以來對 Vertiv 的支持。我們真的很感激。

To all of you on today's call, thank you for being here, and I'm eager to share more about our performance for the first quarter, our outlook for the market and give you a glimpse of a few new products Dave just talked about that our talented and innovative teams at Vertiv have developed.

對於今天電話會議上的所有人，感謝你們來到這裡，我渴望分享更多關於我們第一季的業績、我們對市場的展望，並讓你們一睹戴夫剛剛談到的一些新產品我們Vertiv才華洋溢、富有創新精神的團隊不斷發展。

Turning to Slide 3. There are 5 key messages I want to convey today, and we'll share them at a high level, and David will elaborate more on the financial details in just a few minutes. First, I'm pleased to report sales were up more than 22%, and orders were up 21% versus Q1 of 2020. Growth happened in all regions across all major verticals, and we ended the quarter with a record high backlog of $2.1 billion.

轉向幻燈片 3。今天我想傳達 5 個關鍵訊息，我們將在高層分享它們，David 將在短短幾分鐘內詳細闡述財務細節。首先，我很高興地報告，與2020 年第一季相比，銷售額增長了22% 以上，訂單增長了21%。所有主要垂直領域的所有地區都出現了增長，本季度結束時，我們的積壓訂單達到了創紀錄的21 億美元。

Second, from a profitability standpoint, our adjusted operating profit was $112 million, which is up $92 million or 450% from last year's first quarter. This resulted in adjusted operating margin expansion of over 790 basis points, driven by higher sales and lower fixed cost on a percentage basis.

其次，從獲利能力的角度來看，我們調整後的營業利潤為1.12億美元，比去年第一季增加了9,200萬美元，即450%。在銷售額增加和固定成本下降的推動下，調整後的營業利潤率擴大了 790 個基點以上。

Third, our free cash flow at the end of Q1 was $43 million, an improvement of $246 million, made possible by higher earnings and lower interest expense.

第三，第一季末我們的自由現金流為 4,300 萬美元，增加了 2.46 億美元，這得益於更高的收益和更低的利息支出。

Fourth, the market is facing supply chain and commodity cost challenges, and Vertiv is not exempt. We are aggressively working to secure supply needed so that we can provide on-time delivery to our customers, first and foremost, while developing and executing strategies to share the cost with our customers where possible. Because supply chain constraints, coupled with inflation, we will see some incremental unexpected costs over the short term.

第四，市場面臨供應鏈和商品成本挑戰，Vertiv 也未能倖免。我們正在積極努力確保所需的供應，以便我們能夠首先為客戶提供按時交貨，同時制定和執行策略，盡可能與客戶分攤成本。由於供應鏈的限制，再加上通貨膨脹，我們將在短期內看到一些意外成本的增量。

And fifth, and the final key message, we are raising our 2021 sales guidance by $125 million, such that the new sales guidance is between $4.8 billion and $4.9 billion (sic, see press release, "$4.875 billion to $4.925 billion"). And raising our adjusted operating profit guidance by $20 million. So our operating guidance is now $585 million to $605 million.

第五，也是最後一個關鍵訊息，我們將2021 年銷售指引提高1.25 億美元，使新的銷售指引在48 億美元至49 億美元之間（原文如此，請參閱新聞稿，「48.75 億美元至49.25億美元」）。並將調整後的營業利潤指導提高 2000 萬美元。因此，我們目前的營運指引為 5.85 億至 6.05 億美元。

This demonstrates our confidence in the end markets and the confidence in our teams all across Vertiv to perform in accordance with our strategy and to meet the growing needs of our customers. Let me elaborate on these 5 key points using the next few slides.

這顯示了我們對終端市場的信心，以及對 Vertiv 整個團隊按照我們的策略執行並滿足客戶不斷增長的需求的信心。讓我用接下來的幾張投影片詳細闡述這 5 個關鍵點。

Turning to Slide 4. We've been using this slide quarter-to-quarter to talk about our end markets and illustrate activity in each of our regions around the world. A red button on the slide indicates sluggish performance. A green bucket -- green button indicates strong performance. And a yellow button indicates something in between. Cloud and hyperscale and colocation markets have been very strong and remain strong across all regions. The demand for digital applications, online education, telemedicine, video and gaming is booming, benefiting our cloud and colocation customers and driving a strong and growing need for Vertiv products and services around the world.

轉向投影片 4。我們每季都使用這張投影片來討論我們的終端市場並說明我們在全球每個地區的活動。幻燈片上的紅色按鈕表示效能緩慢。綠色桶－綠色按鈕表示表現強勁。黃色按鈕表示介於兩者之間的情況。雲端、超大規模和託管市場一直非常強勁，並且在所有地區都保持強勁。對數位應用、線上教育、遠距醫療、視訊和遊戲的需求正在蓬勃發展，這使我們的雲端和託管客戶受益，並推動了全球對 Vertiv 產品和服務的強勁且不斷增長的需求。

In our enterprise, small and medium business market, we're seeing signs of improvement as well. Our 2 reds have now turned yellow, but it's still not clear when the entire enterprise segment will open up. We are, however, encouraged to see things moving in the right direction.

在我們的企業、中小企業市場中，我們也看到了改善的跡象。我們的2個紅色現在已經變成了黃色，但目前還不清楚整個企業部門何時開放。然而，我們很高興看到事情朝著正確的方向發展。

The communication networks market stayed constant in Americas and EMEA. It improved in APAC over the quarter, and we were able to see a shift in the market from yellow to green. Americas and APAC are performing strongly in this segment. Americas activity is driven by several large U.S. telecom carriers and the continued rollout of 5G.

美洲和歐洲、中東和非洲的通訊網路市場保持穩定。本季亞太地區的情況有所改善，我們可以看到市場從黃色轉向綠色。美洲和亞太地區在這一領域表現強勁。美洲的活動由美國幾家大型電信業者和 5G 的持續推出所推動。

In the commercial and industrial market this quarter, EMEA has shifted from red to yellow. And because of that, we are now showing solid yellows across all regions, indicating some positive movement in the commercial and industrial space.

在本季的商業和工業市場中，EMEA已從紅色轉變為黃色。正因為如此，我們現在在所有地區都顯示出純黃色，表明商業和工業領域出現了一些積極的變化。

All the end markets we serve are good -- are in very good shape now, as illustrated by the rays of yellows and green across the slide for Q1.

我們服務的所有終端市場都很好——現在狀態非常好，如第一季幻燈片上的黃色和綠色光線所示。

Digital applications continue to increase their importance in everyday life. There's no -- they're no longer nice to have but a necessity for individuals and for businesses. The increasing need means there's an increasing demand for the processing, storage and transmission of data, which creates significant opportunity for Vertiv, and we are perfectly poised to go after that opportunity.

數位應用在日常生活中的重要性不斷增加。不存在——它們不再是擁有的好東西，而是個人和企業的必需品。不斷增長的需求意味著對資料處理、儲存和傳輸的需求不斷增長，這為 Vertiv 創造了巨大的機會，我們完全準備好抓住這個機會。

Moving to Slide 5. I'd like to make a few comments regarding supply and demand. As I mentioned earlier, the overall market demand is strong, as evidenced by our order rates and backlog, which has resulted in us raising guidance. Each of our regions saw revenue growth in the first quarter, led by continued strength in cloud and colocation markets. Our cloud and colocation customers continue to build data centers in an aggressive but balanced fashion, and we will continue to partner with them to meet the strong and growing demand.

轉向投影片 5。我想就供給和需求發表一些評論。正如我之前提到的，整體市場需求強勁，我們的訂單率和積壓訂單證明了這一點，這導致我們提高了指引。在雲端和主機託管市場持續強勁的帶動下，我們每個地區的第一季營收均實現成長。我們的雲端和託管客戶繼續以積極但平衡的方式建立資料中心，我們將繼續與他們合作，以滿足強勁且不斷增長的需求。

We continue to stay vigilant around COVID, keeping our employees, our customers and our partners safe wherever they are in the world. That is our main priority. We have made adaptations where necessary and have found solutions to business challenges brought on by COVID. We remain confident in our ability to serve our customers and meet their needs. Yet, similar to other companies, we are facing some supply chain issues due to market conditions.

我們繼續對新冠病毒保持警惕，確保我們的員工、客戶和合作夥伴的安全，無論他們身在何處。這是我們的首要任務。我們在必要時進行了調整，並找到了應對新冠疫情帶來的業務挑戰的解決方案。我們對服務客戶並滿足他們的需求的能力充滿信心。然而，與其他公司類似，由於市場狀況，我們面臨一些供應鏈問題。

There are a couple of things that are going on here. First, we find ourselves dealing with some parts shortages and materials. For the most part, we've identified solutions for those. Second, like many other companies, we are seeing cost increases on both material and the logistics side. This is being tracked and managed and closely monitored, and we are taking actions to offset the increased costs.

這裡發生了一些事情。首先，我們發現自己正在處理一些零件和材料的短缺問題。在大多數情況下，我們已經找到了這些問題的解決方案。其次，與許多其他公司一樣，我們看到材料和物流方面的成本都在增加。我們正在對此進行追蹤、管理和密切監控，我們正在採取行動來抵消增加的成本。

But nonetheless, this is a short-term headwind. We've been planning to implement some footprint optimization programs. We have pivoted and decided to delay some of those programs to take advantage of the strong demand environment. The footprint optimization plan will be executed, but it will happen a little bit later than originally expected.

但儘管如此，這是一個短期的阻力。我們一直在計劃實施一些足跡優化計劃。我們已經調整並決定推遲其中一些計劃，以利用強勁的需求環境。足跡優化計劃將會執行，但會比原先預期的時間晚一些。

Moving to Slide 6. I've talked to you in the past about our Vertiv product development process, VPD, and you all know about the allocations and resources we have made to research and development. So I wanted to show you a few of the new products. I can't tell you how thrilled I am with the progress that's being made in our engineering teams and all those that are responsible for executing our strategy to innovate, design and build products for the future.

轉向投影片 6。我過去曾與您討論過我們的 Vertiv 產品開發流程、VPD，並且您都知道我們為研發所做的分配和資源。所以我想向您展示一些新產品。我無法形容我對我們的工程團隊以及所有負責執行我們創新、設計和建構未來產品策略的人員所取得的進步感到多麼興奮。

Here are some early results on this slide. The first product, shown in the upper left, will formally be launched tomorrow, and it's another way that we're helping our customers to become more efficient and provide lower carbon offerings. It is a grid interactive UPS, which will allow data center operators to use the UPS to power their data center and during low power times, to inject power back into the grid to drive the efficient use of data center equipment.

以下是這張投影片上的一些早期結果。左上角所示的第一個產品將於明天正式推出，這是我們幫助客戶提高效率並提供低碳產品的另一種方式。它是一款電網互動式UPS，允許資料中心營運商使用UPS為其資料中心供電，並在低電時段將電力注入電網，以驅動資料中心設備的高效使用。

On the upper right is the newest addition to our thermal offerings. We continue to innovate in the thermal space to drive more efficiencies and to provide best solutions for our customers. This product provides liquid cooling for high-density servers and racks, providing customers with an efficient way to cool their high-density applications.

右上角是我們散熱產品的最新成員。我們不斷在熱領域進行創新，以提高效率並為客戶提供最佳解決方案。該產品為高密度伺服器和機架提供液體冷卻，為客戶提供高效的方式來冷卻其高密度應用。

Finally, on the bottom of the chart, you will see 2 of our new edge offerings. The product on the lower left is a small UPS that's very efficient, very compact and utilizes the latest in lithium battery technology for longer time back -- for longer backup time. The product on the lower right is our newest single rack data center, which includes integrated UPS, power distribution, thermal management and our secure switch. This is a preconfigured solution and is a great example of the type of product we are bringing to the market for distributed IT and new edge applications.

最後，在圖表底部，您將看到我們的 2 個新邊緣產品。左下角的產品是一款小型 UPS，非常有效率、非常緊湊，並採用最新的鋰電池技術，可實現更長的回電時間 - 更長的備用時間。右下角的產品是我們最新的單機架資料中心，其中包括整合 UPS、配電、熱管理和我們的安全交換器。這是一個預先配置的解決方案，是我們向分散式 IT 和新邊緣應用市場推出的產品類型的一個很好的例子。

I really could talk hours about the research and development at Vertiv, but wanted to highlight a few of the new products so you can understand how we're focusing our R&D efforts and allowing us to bring these innovative solutions and offerings to our customers into the market.

我真的可以花幾個小時談論維諦技術(Vertiv) 的研發，但我想重點介紹一些新產品，以便您了解我們如何專注於研發工作，並讓我們能夠將這些創新解決方案和產品帶給客戶。市場。

With that, I'll turn it over to David for a closer look at the Q1 numbers and come back at the end with some final comments. David?

這樣，我會將其交給 David 仔細查看第一季的數據，並在最後提出一些最終評論。大衛？

Great. Thanks, Rob. First, turning to Page 7. This slide summarizes our first quarter results versus last year. Net sales were up $201 million or 22.4%, 19.5% when adjusted for a $26 million foreign exchange tailwind. We continued our strong momentum with orders, which were up 21% in the first quarter after increasing 10% in full year 2020. Adjusted operating profit increased $92 million or over 450%, primarily driven by the profit flow-through from the higher sales and the benefit from SPAC transaction costs in last year's first quarter, all translates into a 790 basis point improvement in adjusted operating margin. Adjusted EPS at $0.21 is $0.86 higher than last year, driven by the improved operations and a $0.54 benefit from the $174 million loss on extinguishment of debt and $21 million of SPAC transaction costs in last year's first quarter. Our sales and profitability performance converted into strong free cash flow of $43 million, $246 million higher than last year's first quarter, and we will review some of the drivers of this improved free cash flow in a couple of slides.

偉大的。謝謝，羅布。首先，翻到第 7 頁。這張投影片總結了我們第一季的業績與去年相比。淨銷售額成長 2.01 億美元，增幅為 22.4%；經 2,600 萬美元外匯調整後，淨銷售額成長 19.5%。我們的訂單持續保持強勁勢頭，繼 2020 年全年增長 10% 後，第一季增長 21%。調整後營業利潤增加 9,200 萬美元，增幅超過 450%，這主要是由於銷售額增加和去年第一季度SPAC 交易成本帶來的好處，全部轉化為調整後營業利潤率提高了790 個基點。調整後每股收益為 0.21 美元，比去年高出 0.86 美元，這得益於營運改善以及去年第一季 1.74 億美元債務清償損失和 2,100 萬美元 SPAC 交易成本帶來的 0.54 美元收益。我們的銷售和獲利業績轉化為 4,300 萬美元的強勁自由現金流，比去年第一季高出 2.46 億美元，我們將在幾張幻燈片中回顧自由現金流改善的一些驅動因素。

So turning to Page 8. This slide summarizes our first quarter segment results. Net sales in the Americas were up $35 million or 7.5%, driven by growth -- strong growth with hyperscale customers in our critical infrastructure and solutions product segment. Net sales in APAC increased $133 million or 60%, in part due to an approximate $50 million COVID impact on sales in last year's first quarter, but we otherwise experienced strong growth across most APAC subregions and market verticals, including data centers, telecom and commercial and industrial. Net sales in EMEA were up $33 million or 16%, predominantly in the critical infrastructure and solutions product segment, driven by several larger colocation projects. From a profitability perspective, adjusted operating margin improved across all 3 regions, primarily due to the leverage benefit of relatively flat or lower fixed costs on significantly higher net sales in each region, providing a practical example of the potential margin benefit of maintaining fixed cost constant while growing the top line.

請翻到第 8 頁。這張投影片總結了我們第一季的業績。在成長的推動下，美洲的淨銷售額成長了 3,500 萬美元，即 7.5%——我們的關鍵基礎設施和解決方案產品領域的超大規模客戶的強勁成長。亞太地區的淨銷售額成長了1.33 億美元，即60%，部分原因是去年第一季新冠疫情對銷售額產生了約5000 萬美元的影響，但除此之外，我們在大多數亞太地區和垂直市場（包括資料中心、電信和商業）都實現了強勁成長和工業。歐洲、中東和非洲地區的淨銷售額成長了 3,300 萬美元，即 16%，主要是在幾個較大的託管項目的推動下，關鍵基礎設施和解決方案產品領域。從獲利能力的角度來看，調整後的營業利潤率在所有3 個地區均有所改善，這主要是由於每個地區相對持平或較低的固定成本對顯著較高的淨銷售額的槓桿效益，提供了保持固定成本不變的潛在利潤率效益的實際例子同時增加收入。

Next, turning to Slide 9. This chart bridges first quarter free cash flow from last year. The $246 million increase is primarily a result of higher adjusted operating profit, lower cash interest payments and improved trade working capital in addition to a $21 million year-over-year benefit from SPAC cash transaction costs last year. The $43 million of free cash flow in the quarter was higher than our internal expectations, primarily driven by the timing of a cash disbursement of approximately $25 million at the end of March due to a system implementation. So we anticipated that cash outflow to occur at the end of March, actually occurred at the beginning of April. Although it does not impact free cash flow, we received $107 million at the beginning of the first quarter, pursuant to the final public warrant redemptions. And this certainly facilitated a record-high liquidity of $1.1 billion and a record-low net debt leverage ratio of 2.3x at the end of the first quarter.

接下來，轉向投影片 9。該圖表連接了去年第一季的自由現金流。增加 2.46 億美元主要是由於調整後營業利潤增加、現金利息支付減少以及貿易營運資金改善，此外去年 SPAC 現金交易成本比去年同期帶來 2,100 萬美元收益。本季 4,300 萬美元的自由現金流高於我們的內部預期，這主要是由於系統實施在 3 月底支付了約 2,500 萬美元的現金。所以我們預計現金流出發生在3月底，實際上發生在4月初。儘管這不會影響自由現金流，但根據最終的公開認股權證贖回，我們在第一季初收到了 1.07 億美元。這無疑促成了第一季末 11 億美元的創紀錄高流動性和 2.3 倍的創紀錄低淨債務槓桿率。

Next, turning to Slide 10. We wanted to address the change related to the accounting for our warrants. Last week, we issued a press release and filed an 8-K providing more detail on this matter. But pursuant to new guidance released by the SEC on April 12, we changed the historical and prospective accounting for both our public and private warrants to record a liability for the fair value of these warrants. And with any subsequent change in fair value, adjusting the liability and recording a noncash nonoperating gain or loss in the P&L. When our stock price increases, the liability increases and we record a noncash loss. When our stock price declines, the liability declines, and we record a noncash gain.

接下來，轉向投影片 10。我們想要解決與認股權證會計相關的變更。上週，我們發布了一份新聞稿並提交了 8-K，提供了有關此事的更多詳細資訊。但根據 SEC 於 4 月 12 日發布的新指南，我們更改了公開和私人認股權證的歷史和前瞻性會計，以記錄這些認股權證公允價值的負債。隨著公允價值的任何後續變化，調整負債並在損益表中記錄非現金非經營損益。當我們的股價上漲時，負債就會增加，我們會記錄非現金損失。當我們的股價下跌時，負債就會減少，我們就會獲得非現金收益。

As a result of this change, we will file an amended 2020 10-K in the coming days, reflecting these changes, including recognizing additional noncash nonoperating expense of approximately $144 million in fiscal year 2020 as our stock price increased significantly during the year. We also recognized a $14 million noncash loss in the first quarter. This warrant gain or loss is recorded below operating profit, and it will not impact any of our non-GAAP operating metrics, including adjusted operating profit, adjusted EPS and free cash flow.

由於這項變化，我們將在未來幾天提交修訂後的2020 年10-K，反映這些變化，包括在2020 財年確認約1.44 億美元的額外非現金非營運費用，因為我們的股價在這一年大幅上漲。我們也確認第一季有 1400 萬美元的非現金損失。此認股權證收益或損失記錄在營業利潤以下，且不會影響我們的任何非公認會計準則營運指標，包括調整後的營業利潤、調整後的每股盈餘和自由現金流。

So next, turning to Slide 11, looking forward. This page summarizes our second quarter financial guidance. We expect first quarter top line momentum to continue in the second quarter, with net sales up 20% at the midpoint, with strong growth across all 3 regions. And our second quarter sales is also expected to be up 10% sequentially from the first quarter. We guide towards adjusted operating profit of $125 million at the midpoint, up 21% from last year despite a $30 million headwind from one-off COVID cost actions in last year's second quarter and a $25 million increase in year-over-year growth in R&D investments.

接下來，請轉向投影片 11，展望未來。本頁總結了我們第二季的財務指導。我們預計第一季的營收動能將在第二季持續，淨銷售額中位數成長 20%，所有 3 個地區均出現強勁成長。我們第二季的銷售額預計也將比第一季環比成長 10%。儘管去年第二季一次性新冠成本行動帶來了 3,000 萬美元的阻力，而且研發年增了 2,500 萬美元，但我們預計調整後營業利潤中點為 1.25 億美元，比去年增長 21%。

Adjusted operating margin is expected to be relatively flat, with contribution margin percentage slightly lower than last year due to commodity and logistics inflation. And despite higher year-over-year dollar fixed costs due to last year's COVID actions and incremental investment spending this year, fixed cost as a percentage of sales should be slightly lower. Finally, adjusted EPS is expected to increase approximately $0.07 or 44% at the midpoint, driven by the higher adjusted operating profit and lower interest expense.

調整後的營業利潤率預計將相對持平，由於大宗商品和物流通脹，貢獻利潤率略低於去年。儘管由於去年的新冠疫情行動和今年的增量投資支出導緻美元固定成本同比上升，但固定成本佔銷售額的百分比應略低。最後，在調整後營業利潤提高和利息支出降低的推動下，調整後每股收益預計將增加約 0.07 美元，即 44%。

Next, turning to Slide 12. We summarize our revised full year 2021 financial guidance, including higher net sales expectations to $4.9 billion, up 12% from 2020 and $125 million higher than our prior guidance, $60 million of that from the first quarter and -- or $60 million in the first quarter and $65 million over the remainder of the year based on our strong first quarter order performance and backlog. We are increasing our adjusted operating profit guidance to $595 million, up $20 million from prior guidance, and we will provide some detail of this increase on the next slide, including quantifying the expected net financial impact of the commodity and freight headwinds, as Rob discussed. Full year adjusted EPS is expected to be $1.11, $0.07 higher than our prior full year guidance, driven by higher projected -- adjusted operating profit, about $0.05 there, and lower interest expense from our first quarter term loan refinancing, about $0.02. Finally, we are increasing our full year projected free cash flow to $300 million, up $15 million from our prior guidance of $285 million.

接下來，轉向投影片12。我們總結了修訂後的2021 年全年財務指引，包括將淨銷售額預期提高至49 億美元，比2020 年增長12%，比之前的指引高出1.25 億美元，其中比第一季高出6000 萬美元，以及 - - 或基於我們強勁的第一季訂單表現和積壓，第一季 6000 萬美元，今年剩餘時間 6500 萬美元。我們將調整後的營業利潤指引提高至5.95 億美元，比之前的指引增加了2000 萬美元，我們將在下一張幻燈片中提供這一增長的一些細節，包括量化大宗商品和貨運逆風的預期淨財務影響，正如Rob 所討論的。全年調整後每股收益預計為1.11 美元，比我們之前的全年指引高出0.07 美元，這是由於預計調整後營業利潤較高（約為0.05 美元），以及第一季定期貸款再融資利息費用較低（約為0.02 美元）。最後，我們將全年預計自由現金流增加至 3 億美元，比先前指引的 2.85 億美元增加了 1,500 萬美元。

Turning to Slide 13. This chart bridges our full year adjusted operating profit from prior to current guidance, a net increase of $20 million, with a favorable $35 million coming from an incremental $125 million of net sales, however, converting at a rate lower than our average contribution margin due to product mix and higher marginal manufacturing costs, including expedited freight in some cases as we manage our capacity to meet the higher customer demand. Partially offsetting these volume benefits is a $15 million net headwind, including $25 million in commodity and freight inflation, approximately $15 million from commodities and $10 million from freight, both disproportionately impacting the Americas. This cost inflation is partially offset by an assumed $10 million of incremental pricing. And we believe there is further opportunity for additional incremental pricing as we progress through the year.

轉向幻燈片13。該圖表將我們全年調整後的營業利潤與當前指引之前的淨增長2000 萬美元聯繫起來，其中1.25 億美元的淨銷售額增量帶來了有利的3500 萬美元，但轉換率低於我們的平均貢獻利潤歸因於產品組合和較高的邊際製造成本，包括在某些情況下的加急貨運，因為我們管理我們的能力以滿足更高的客戶需求。 1500萬美元的淨逆風部分抵消了這些銷售收益，其中包括2500萬美元的大宗商品和貨運通膨，約1500萬美元的大宗商品和1000萬美元的貨運，兩者都對美洲產生了不成比例的影響。這種成本上漲被假設的 1000 萬美元增量定價所部分抵銷。我們相信，隨著今年的進展，還有進一步增加定價的機會。

With that said, I turn it back over to Rob.

話雖如此，我把它轉回給羅布。

Well, thanks, David. Overall, I'm very proud of the Vertiv team and what we've accomplished since becoming public. We've been executing our strategy, as Dave Cote has alluded, whether it's the VOS or the product development, all the levers we've talked about, and we feel really good about the next 2, 3 years as we continue to execute that strategy. I believe our results for this quarter have demonstrated the hard work and the effort of the 20,000 employees we have around the world.

嗯，謝謝，大衛。總的來說，我對 Vertiv 團隊以及我們自上市以來所取得的成就感到非常自豪。正如戴夫·科特（Dave Cote）所提到的，我們一直在執行我們的策略，無論是VOS 還是產品開發，以及我們討論過的所有槓桿，隨著我們繼續執行該戰略，我們對未來2 、3 年感覺非常好策略。我相信我們本季的業績體現了我們在全球 20,000 名員工的辛勤工作和努力。

As I look into the balance of 2021, we continue to anticipate above market top line growth and increase in profitability and a strengthening balance sheet, all while continuing to invest in the strategic areas, as we've talked about, R&D and sales and marketing.

在我展望2021 年的情況時，我們繼續預期營收將實現高於市場水平的成長、獲利能力的提高以及資產負債表的增強，同時繼續投資於策略領域，正如我們所討論的，研發、銷售和行銷。

To all the employees on the call today, thank you again for your dedication and your tireless effort to take care of our customers. To all the investors, thank you for being on the call today and for your support over the past year.

對於今天參加電話會議的所有員工，再次感謝你們的奉獻精神和為照顧我們的客戶所做的不懈努力。感謝所有投資者今天參加電話會議以及過去一年的支持。

I'll now turn it over to the operator, who will open up the line for questions.

我現在將其轉交給接線員，接線員將開通電話詢問問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question today will come from Andy Kaplowitz with Citigroup.

（操作員說明）我們今天的第一個問題將來自花旗集團的安迪·卡普洛維茨（Andy Kaplowitz）。

Rob, last quarter, you had mentioned that you thought order growth could sustain in the high single-digit range, but obviously, in Q1, you reported low 20% order growth. So maybe give us a little more color into what was the incremental upside versus your expectations. Was it more continued hyperscale and colo outperformance? Or was it an enterprise beginning to come back? And has your order outlook improved for the next few quarters where you can sustain more of this double-digit type order growth?

Rob，上個季度，您曾提到您認為訂單成長可能會維持在較高的個位數範圍內，但顯然，在第一季度，您報告的訂單成長僅為 20%。因此，也許可以讓我們更了解與您的預期相比的增量優勢。是更持續的超大規模和託管卓越表現嗎？還是企業開始捲土重來？未來幾季您的訂單前景是否有所改善，可以維持更多這種兩位數類型的訂單成長？

Yes. Great question. And you're absolutely dead on with the colo and hyperscale. Typically, those don't fall into our flow rate business. So those orders come when they come. And we look them in the pipeline, but when they want to release them. And typically, we'll get those orders anywhere from 3, 6, 9 months in advance of deploying those. And what we've seen certainly is a tightening market and longer potential lead times. And I think as we look at the global build-out continue, it's just stronger than we necessarily expected and probably saw people making sure they get in line to get their supply going forward.

是的。很好的問題。您絕對熱衷於託管和超大規模。通常，這些不屬於我們的流量業務。所以這些命令來的時候就來了。我們會在他們想要發布它們的時候查看它們。通常，我們會在部署前 3、6、9 個月收到這些訂單。我們所看到的當然是市場緊縮和潛在的交貨時間更長。我認為，當我們看到全球建設的繼續時，它比我們預期的要強，並且可能看到人們確保他們排隊以確保供應繼續進行。

So -- but I'm encouraged going forward, and you've seen -- I know a couple of others have released today, Google and Microsoft. And we're seeing strong and continue to see strong growth there on a global basis. So I'm positive to that. And as I mentioned earlier in the call or in my script I was going through, we are seeing signs of really good life in the enterprise. We'll see when that fully turns back on, and that could be additive as we watch that come back to life.

所以——但我被鼓勵繼續前進，你也看到了——我知道其他幾個公司今天也發布了，谷歌和微軟。我們在全球範圍內看到並繼續看到強勁的成長。所以我對此持正面態度。正如我之前在電話會議或我正在閱讀的腳本中提到的那樣，我們看到了企業中真正美好生活的跡象。我們將看到它何時完全恢復，當我們看到它恢復生機時，這可能會起到附加作用。

And then Dave, can you give us a little more color into the Q2 guide in the sense that you actually forecast Q2 sales to be up $100 million versus Q1, but adjusted operating margin at the midpoint looks relatively similar. So I think you said fixed costs would be lower as a percentage of sales versus a year ago in Q2. But what does that metric look like versus Q1? And what are the headwinds sequentially? Maybe FX not as good? Do you dial in more negative (inaudible) cost and higher investment spend? Maybe you could go over the pieces for us a little bit, that would be helpful.

然後戴夫，您能給我們更多關於第二季度指南的資訊嗎？您實際上預測第二季度的銷售額將比第一季度增長1 億美元，但調整後的中點營業利潤率看起來相對相似。因此，我認為您說過第二季固定成本佔銷售額的百分比將低於一年前。但該指標與第一季相比是什麼樣子呢？接下來的阻力是什麼？也許FX沒那麼好？您是否會投入更多的負（聽不清楚）成本和更高的投資支出？也許你可以幫我們回顧這些內容，這會很有幫助。

Yes, absolutely. Thanks for the question, Andy. So if you look at the components sequentially, so Q1 adjusted operating profit was $112 million. We're guiding $125 million, so $13 million increase. We do anticipate to see a straight pass-through from a profit perspective on the higher sales. I think sales are up $110 million or so sequentially. We do expect to see a 40% drop there -- on those additional sales. So we don't see any negative impact from a contribution margin percentage perspective in Q2 versus Q1.

是的，一點沒錯。謝謝你的提問，安迪。因此，如果你按順序查看各個組成部分，那麼第一季調整後的營業利潤為 1.12 億美元。我們指導資金為 1.25 億美元，因此增加了 1,300 萬美元。我們確實預計從利潤的角度來看，銷售額的增加將直接傳遞。我認為銷售額比上一季成長了 1.1 億美元左右。我們確實預計這些額外銷售額將下降 40%。因此，從貢獻率百分比的角度來看，我們沒有看到第二季與第一季相比有任何負面影響。

Really, a little bit of a drag quarter-over-quarter Q2 from Q1 is on the fixed cost side. So we anticipate probably about $20 million of higher fixed costs in Q2 versus Q1. And a lot of that is driven by the timing of R&D and growth investments. And in fact, we had planned $10 million of R&D and growth investments in the first quarter, and a good portion of that actually slipped into Q2 because of the timing of hiring and the launching of a few projects.

事實上，第二季較第一季的季比拖累是在固定成本方面。因此，我們預計第二季的固定成本可能比第一季高出約 2,000 萬美元。其中很大一部分是由研發和成長投資的時機所推動的。事實上，我們計劃在第一季進行 1000 萬美元的研發和成長投資，其中很大一部分實際上由於招聘時間和啟動一些專案而推遲到了第二季度。

But the other element that has an impact sequentially is the annoying FX gain and loss dynamic. So we had a $7 million FX transaction gain in the first quarter. Based on the weakening of the euro at the end of the quarter, the euro has since recovered from [1 17] up to close to [1 21]. So we probably have about a $10 million headwind from that FX transaction gain/loss dynamic in Q2 versus Q1.

但另一個產生連續影響的因素是煩人的外匯盈虧動態。因此，我們在第一季獲得了 700 萬美元的外匯交易收益。基於歐元在季度末的疲軟，歐元此後已從[1 17]反彈至接近[1 21]。因此，與第一季相比，第二季的外匯交易損益動態可能會帶來約 1,000 萬美元的阻力。

So all that flushes out relatively flat adjusted operating margin right around 10.2%, 10.3%. But as a result of the timing of some of the fixed costs, the actual dollar increase in adjusted operating profit is probably lighter than what some expectations are.

因此，所有這些都使得調整後的營業利潤率相對持平，約為 10.2%、10.3%。但由於某些固定成本的時間安排，調整後營業利潤的實際美元成長可能低於一些預期。

Our next question will come from Mark Delaney with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題將來自高盛的馬克·德萊尼。

The company mentioned that product mix and higher marginal manufacturing costs are impacting margins this year. I was hoping you could be a little bit more specific on what those issues are. And are you expecting those to be more temporal issues? Or is that something that could continue into next year?

該公司提到，產品組合和較高的邊際製造成本正在影響今年的利潤率。我希望你能更具體地說明這些問題是什麼。您是否認為這些只是暫時的問題？或者說這種情況可能會持續到明年？

Yes. Thanks, Mark. This is David. I'll start, and Rob and Gary can add on. So yes, we called out an additional $15 million, and this is current guidance versus prior guidance as it relates to these additional mix and incremental manufacturing costs.

是的。謝謝，馬克。這是大衛。我先開始，羅布和蓋瑞可以補充。所以，是的，我們額外撥款 1500 萬美元，這是當前的指導與先前的指導相比，因為它與這些額外的組合和增量製造成本有關。

From a product perspective, if you look at our product segments, our critical infrastructure and solutions product segment is a relatively lower margin than the other 2. And some of that -- or a good portion of the $125 million incremental sales are in that product segment. And so if you look at incremental, $15 million probably, half of that is related to that product mix. The other half is related to satisfying the demands of our customers.

從產品的角度來看，如果你看看我們的產品細分市場，我們的關鍵基礎設施和解決方案產品細分市場的利潤率比其他兩個產品細分市場相對較低。其中一部分——或者1.25 億美元增量銷售額的很大一部分來自該產品部分。因此，如果你看看增量，可能是 1500 萬美元，其中一半與產品組合有關。另一半則與滿足客戶的需求有關。

So I mentioned in my comments, we have -- in order to meet customer demands, in certain cases, we've had to enlist expedite freight. In addition, we have ramped up our capacity in some of our facilities, including adding shifts and temporary labor. And as a result, some of these marginal incremental sales are coming in at a little bit lower contribution margin than we would otherwise anticipate.

所以我在評論中提到，為了滿足顧客的需求，在某些情況下，我們必須尋求加急貨運。此外，我們也提高了一些設施的產能，包括增加輪班和臨時勞動力。因此，其中一些邊際增量銷售額的貢獻率比我們預期的要低一些。

We would expect -- these additional manufacturing costs certainly will be temporary. We do have a long-term capacity planning project that is ongoing, which will support the higher growth, and we believe we'll be able to transition away from a lot of these higher incremental costs in the second half of the year. So a lot of this incremental cost that we're seeing, we do anticipate in the second quarter.

我們預計——這些額外的製造成本肯定是暫時的。我們確實有一個正在進行的長期產能規劃項目，這將支持更高的成長，我們相信我們將能夠在今年下半年擺脫許多較高的增量成本。因此，我們預計第二季會出現大量增量成本。

Okay. That's helpful. And a follow-up question, I was hoping to better understand how the company is thinking about deploying free cash flow going forward. I mean, there's been really good progress reducing debt, lowering your interest expense. And the opportunity has been discussed at some point in the future. Perhaps the company could return to doing some tuck-in M&A or perhaps even a larger-scale M&A, which there's been some success with historically. I know there's a few acquisitions the company has been pretty happy with. And I think investors are interested in what potential there may be to do that type of acquisitions going forward. So any updated thoughts you can share about how you're thinking about deploying free cash flow going forward. And is M&A something that you're considering?

好的。這很有幫助。後續問題是，我希望更了解該公司如何考慮未來部署自由現金流。我的意思是，在減少債務、降低利息支出方面確實取得了很好的進展。並且已經在未來的某個時候討論過這個機會。也許該公司可以重新進行一些臨時併購，甚至可能進行更大規模的併購，歷史上這種併購已經取得了一些成功。我知道該公司對一些收購非常滿意。我認為投資者對未來進行此類收購的潛力感興趣。因此，您可以分享有關您如何考慮未來部署自由現金流的任何最新想法。您正在考慮併購嗎？

Yes. Mark, this is Rob. I appreciate the question, and I'll start and then throw it over to David. But as we've talked about before in past calls, we do have an active funnel of potential companies that we think would make sense to be part of our portfolio. As Dave Cote has always said, opportunities and -- present themselves, not necessarily in timing, not when you want them to. And so we continue to work through that list and keep those type relationships and have eyes on things.

是的。馬克，這是羅布。我很欣賞這個問題，我會開始然後把它交給大衛。但正如我們之前在過去的電話會議中談到的那樣，我們確實擁有一個活躍的潛在公司漏斗，我們認為這些公司有必要成為我們投資組合的一部分。正如戴夫·科特 (Dave Cote) 常說的那樣，機會和——不一定是在時機出現，也不是在你想要的時候出現。因此，我們繼續研究該清單並保持這些類型的關係並關注事物。

As we've talked about before, it's always been about deleveraging first, and I think we've done a pretty good job doing that and have ourselves in a pretty good position to do some things if the opportunity positions itself. And we are actively -- always actively looking, but nothing that's imminent that we can talk about today. David?

正如我們之前談到的，去槓桿化始終是首要任務，我認為我們在這方面做得非常好，如果機會出現的話，我們將處於一個非常有利的位置來做一些事情。我們一直在積極地尋找，但我們今天無法談論任何迫在眉睫的事情。大衛？

Yes. I totally agree, Rob. And I would say this is a very pleasant position to be in as a CFO. So I think pre-SPAC transaction last year, we were over 6x levered. So to get that down closer to 2 really demonstrates the free cash flow DNA of this business, and it absolutely provides us the flexibility to be strategic with our balance sheet. We certainly don't have a strategy to do a deal because we think we need to do a deal, but we will be patient. And we certainly have the flexibility to do something relatively quickly if the right opportunity arises.

是的。我完全同意，羅布。我想說，擔任財務長是一個非常令人愉快的職位。所以我認為去年 SPAC 交易之前，我們的槓桿率超過了 6 倍。因此，將其降低到接近 2 確實體現了該業務的自由現金流 DNA，並且它絕對為我們提供了對資產負債表進行策略性調整的靈活性。我們當然沒有達成協議的策略，因為我們認為我們需要達成協議，但我們會耐心等待。如果出現合適的機會，我們當然可以靈活地相對快速地採取行動。

Our next question will come from Amit Daryanani with Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Evercore ISI 的 Amit Daryanani。

I have 2 as well. First off, when I think about this 10% organic growth, we're talking about 2021, can you perhaps provide some dimension on how do you think about the various segments, purely hyperscale, enterprise, communications, doing? And maybe what I'm really trying to get to is I want to understand what happens to your growth vectors if enterprise grows from yellow to green over the next (inaudible).

我也有2個。首先，當我考慮 10% 的有機成長時，我們談論的是 2021 年，您能否提供一些關於您如何看待各個細分市場（純粹超大規模、企業、通訊等）的維度？也許我真正想了解的是，如果企業在接下來的時間裡從黃色成長到綠色（聽不清楚），我想了解你的成長向量會發生什麼事。

Well, listen, Amit, thanks for the question. And Gary and I will work this one together with you. But I would say, in general, the way we've looked at things is conservatively seeing enterprise come back online. Although I've been talking for a couple of quarters, the thing that gives me the comfort that it will is the quoting activity and the level of quotes.

好吧，聽著，阿米特，謝謝你的提問。加里和我將與你一起完成這項任務。但我想說，總的來說，我們看待事物的方式是保守地看到企業重新上線。儘管我已經談論了幾個季度，但讓我感到安慰的是報價活動和報價水平。

So I would say that as we see the enterprise turn from yellow to green, certainly, there's potentially some upside from that perspective. But I would say, in general, we continue to see the strength in the colo and the hyperscale. And as I mentioned in my comments, we think they're being very diligent about their build-outs as they go forward based on capacity needs that we see kind of around the globe. I don't know. Gary, any thoughts?

所以我想說，當我們看到企業從黃色轉向綠色時，從這個角度來看，當然可能會有一些好處。但我想說，總的來說，我們繼續看到託管和超大規模的優勢。正如我在評論中提到的，我們認為他們非常勤奮地進行擴建，因為他們根據我們在全球範圍內看到的容量需求向前推進。我不知道。加里，有什麼想法嗎？

I think that's right, Rob. I think, Amit, that we were pleased to be able to upgrade that enterprise segment from red to yellow. We know we had a lot of conversation around that in February. So we've definitely seen enough strength throughout pointing the quoting in the pipeline where we felt comfortable upgrading that segment to go from yellow to green. I think we need a little bit more. And maybe towards the end of the year, we'll get there. It's a little bit unclear, but certainly feel squarely comfortable that, that enterprise is coming back in the segment that we would traditionally talk about.

我認為這是對的，羅布。阿米特，我認為我們很高興能夠將企業部分從紅色升級為黃色。我們知道我們在二月份圍繞這個問題進行了很多對話。因此，我們確實在整個管道中的報價中看到了足夠的實力，我們感到可以輕鬆地將該細分市場從黃色升級為綠色。我認為我們還需要一點。也許到今年年底，我們就能實現這個目標。有點不清楚，但肯定感到很舒服的是，該企業正在回到我們傳統上談論的細分市場。

Got it. And then if I can just follow up. The fiscal '21 guide from a profit dollar basis, I think there's a $65 million of investments in growth (inaudible) has called out. I'm curious. Is this -- do you think

知道了。然後我是否可以跟進。 21 財年指南以美元利潤為基礎，我認為有 6,500 萬美元的成長投資（聽不清楚）。我很好奇。這是——你認為

(technical difficulty)

（技術難度）

Operator, we probably want to move to the next and see if Amit gets back in the queue. I think we lost him.

接線員，我們可能想轉到下一個，看看阿米特是否回到隊列中。我想我們失去了他。

Amit, are you there?

阿米特，你在嗎？

I'm here. Can you hear me?

我在這。你聽得到我嗎？

Yes, we can hear you now. Welcome back.

是的，我們現在可以聽到你的聲音。歡迎回來。

Perfect. We'll blame it on the mute function. I was going to ask you on the fiscal '21 operating profit guidance, I mean you talked about the $65 million of investments in growth in R&D. I would like to understand, how do you think about payback from these investments? And do we think about this $65 million kind of a 1-year thing? Or could it sustain for a couple of years?

完美的。我們將其歸咎於靜音功能。我本來想問您關於 21 財年營業利潤指引的問題，我的意思是您談到了研發成長的 6,500 萬美元投資。我想了解一下，您如何看待這些投資的回報？我們是否考慮過 6500 萬美元的一年期費用？或者說它能持續幾年嗎？

Yes, great question. First, I'll answer the last part of that and then get to the first. We have talked about in our strategy that we want to get to about 6% overall of -- for R&D. And so we've seen some ratchets up over the last couple of this year and last year and even next year to get to that 6%. And we plan on kind of holding it at that just based on the need, right? Really, what we're doing is taking a look at the funnel of projects, the collaboration that's needed by our customers, and doing what we need to do to really drive innovative solutions that will help us outpace the market growth and take share as we go forward. Certainly, there's not a lack of activities that we believe we can do to create more value for our customers and ultimately more value for the share owners. But as you think about it going forward, you think about it getting to about a 6% level, and we think that will be sufficient with the growth rate that we're going to have, which would give us additional R&D dollars every year, just holding it at 6%. Now David, any other thoughts?

是的，很好的問題。首先，我將回答最後一部分，然後再回答第一部分。我們在策略中談到，我們希望將 6% 左右的資金用於研發。因此，我們看到今年過去幾年、去年甚至明年的比例上升，達到了 6%。我們計劃根據需要保持這種狀態，對吧？事實上，我們正​​在做的是審視專案的漏斗、客戶所需的協作，並做我們需要做的事情來真正推動創新解決方案，這將幫助我們超越市場成長並在我們發展的過程中獲得份額。前進。當然，我們相信我們可以進行一些活動來為客戶創造更多價值，並最終為股東創造更多價值。但當你考慮未來時，你會想到它會達到大約 6% 的水平，我們認為這對我們將要擁有的成長率來說已經足夠了，這將為我們每年提供額外的研發資金，只是保持在6 %。現在大衛，還有其他想法嗎？

No, just from a numbers perspective, so that $65 million, it's -- at least for 2021, $35 million of that is R&D and with the remainder $30 million related to sales and marketing. And to Rob's point on R&D, last year, we spent $230 million on R&D, add another $35 million this year, that's $265 million. And based on the most recent top line guidance, that's 4.5% to 5%. So to get to 6%, there's certainly going to be some additional step changes over the next couple of years. And of course, the dollar amount also increases, all other things being equal, just with the top line increasing.

不，僅從數位角度來看，至少在 2021 年，6,500 萬美元中，其中 3,500 萬美元用於研發，其餘 3,000 萬美元用於銷售和行銷。對於 Rob 在研發方面的觀點，去年我們在研發上花了 2.3 億美元，今年又增加了 3,500 萬美元，即 2.65 億美元。根據最新的營收指導，該比例為 4.5% 至 5%。因此，為了達到 6%，未來幾年肯定會發生一些額外的變化。當然，在其他條件相同的情況下，美元金額也會增加，只是收入增加。

And the one thing I can tell you is that this is not a capital rationing exercise. There are plenty of projects out there. So there is an efficiency and productivity perspective. You can only do so many. So there, the ability to increase this dollar spend, we're not chasing the last dollar. So there is plenty of opportunity for us to continue to invest. And all of these projects have really, really good returns, and that probably was the first question. And that payback period is anywhere from 12 to 24 months, depending on the specific project.

我可以告訴你的一件事是，這不是資本配給活動。那裡有很多項目。因此，存在著效率和生產力的觀點。你只能做這麼多。因此，有能力增加這一美元支出，我們不會追逐最後一美元。所以我們還有很多機會繼續投資。所有這些項目都有非常非常好的回報，這可能是第一個問題。投資回收期為 12 至 24 個月不等，視具體項目而定。

Our next question will come from Nicole DeBlase with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題將來自德意志銀行的 Nicole DeBlase。

So can we start with the outlook for revenue (inaudible). When you think about where organic growth is getting better expectations, particularly with respect to like [4Q], can you talk about that segment? And any color you have in the second quarter?

那我們可以從收入前景開始嗎（聽不清楚）。當您考慮有機成長在哪些方面得到更好的預期時，特別是在 [4Q] 方面，您能談談該細分市場嗎？第二季有什麼顏色嗎？

Nicole, you were cutting in and out a little bit. Is it possible to restate the question? Just -- we were getting every third word here.

妮可，你插話了一點。可以重述一下問題嗎？只是——我們在這裡得到了每三個字。

Yes, sorry about that. Is this any better?

是的，對此感到抱歉。這樣好點了嗎？

A little bit, yes.

有一點，是的。

Okay. I was just looking for color on full year organic revised and Q2 organic segments.

好的。我只是在尋找全年有機修訂和第二季度有機部分的色彩。

Yes. This is David, and I can ask Rob and Gary to add some color. We don't provide guidance as it relates to a product segment perspective, and we can give some color on that. But certainly, from a regional perspective, if you look at Q2 this year versus last year and the 17% expected organic growth, give or take, that's going to be pretty strong across all 3 regions. So probably low single digits in the Americas, and in both APAC and EMEA, somewhat over a 20% growth. So this is not a situation -- the reason we mentioned that is this is not a situation where we anticipate another 40% or 50% growth in one region and all the other 2 regions are single digits. So we're expecting strong growth in Q2 across all 3 regional segments.

是的。我是大衛，我可以請羅布和加里添加一些色彩。我們不提供指導，因為它涉及產品細分的角度，我們可以對此給出一些顏色。但當然，從區域角度來看，如果你對比今年第二季和去年的情況，以及 17% 的預期有機成長，無論多少，這在所有 3 個地區都將相當強勁。因此，美洲地區的成長率可能較低，而亞太地區和歐洲、中東和非洲地區的成長率可能略高於 20%。所以這不是一種情況——我們提到的原因是，我們預計一個地區不會再出現 40% 或 50% 的成長，而其他 2 個地區都是個位數的情況。因此，我們預計所有 3 個區域細分市場在第二季都會強勁成長。

Now when you look at first half versus second half, and all the numbers are out there, so everybody can do the math. It certainly does imply lower organic growth in the second half of the year. So organic growth in the first half of between 15% and 20%, that would imply low single digits in the second half of the year. What we can tell you is we did not expect that low single-digit to be uniform in Q3 and Q4. We do anticipate Q3 from a percentage growth perspective to be higher than the year-over-year growth that we see in Q4. So Q4, last year, if you recall, presents a very, very challenging comp, right? We had sales over $1.3 billion, including exceptional sales in EMEA based on the timing of some larger projects and also APAC. So there could be some conservatism built into our guidance in the fourth quarter. We just don't have the visibility at this point to really lean forward too much on Q4. And we do anticipate that to have more information related to orders and pipeline when we update our guidance in Q2.

現在，當你看上半場和下半場時，所有的數字都在那裡，所以每個人都可以做數學計算。這確實意味著下半年有機成長較低。因此，上半年的自然成長在 15% 到 20% 之間，這意味著下半年的自然成長較低。我們可以告訴您的是，我們沒想到第三季和第四季會出現統一的低個位數。從成長百分比的角度來看，我們確實預計第三季將高於第四季的年成長率。所以，如果你還記得的話，去年的第四季呈現了一個非常非常具有挑戰性的比賽，對吧？我們的銷售額超過 13 億美元，其中包括根據一些大型項目的時間安排在歐洲、中東和非洲以及亞太地區的出色銷售額。因此，我們第四季的指導可能會有些保守。我們目前還沒有能力在第四季做出太多的預測。我們確實預計，當我們更新第二季的指導時，將獲得更多與訂單和管道相關的資訊。

Okay. Got it. That's really helpful. And just for my follow-up, I know you guys are trying to offset some of these extra costs of pricing. Can you just talk about the general pricing environment and maybe the competitive landscape?

好的。知道了。這真的很有幫助。對於我的後續行動，我知道你們正在努力抵消一些額外的定價成本。您能否談談整體定價環境以及競爭格局？

That's a great question, Nicole. We have, as we've talked about before, been able to get price the last year, couple of years. I think we're getting pretty good at doing that. When we've had times before where freight costs have gone up like they have been, we've been able to institute surcharges. Sometimes that's lagging, and I mentioned a few -- in some of my comments, some of the lagging to pick that up. And then based on contracts and orders, working with our customers, everyone understands that commodity prices are going up, steel is doubled, that type of thing.

這是一個很好的問題，妮可。正如我們之前談到的，去年、幾年我們已經拿到了價格。我認為我們在這方面已經做得很好了。當我們以前遇到過貨運成本像以前一樣上漲時，我們可以收取附加費。有時這是滯後的，我在一些評論中提到了一些滯後的情況。然後根據合約和訂單，與我們的客戶合作，每個人都知道大宗商品價格上漲，鋼鐵價格上漲一倍，諸如此類的事情。

Our customers are pretty good about working with us and going through that. Certainly, we're able to go forward price things at that higher cost rate. And we're able to get that. So we feel good. We have $10 million, I think Dave showed in his bridge, of incremental additional pricing this year. While that's something we're striving for, we think we could probably do better than that. But based on what we see, based on where we're at, that's kind of what we built into our plan. But no, we've got a pretty good process now in our ability to drive prices through with our customers on a global scale.

我們的客戶非常樂意與我們合作並經歷這一過程。當然，我們能夠以更高的成本率來定價。我們能夠做到這一點。所以我們感覺很好。我認為戴夫在他的橋牌中展示了今年我們有 1000 萬美元的增量額外定價。雖然這是我們正在努力的目標，但我們認為我們可能可以做得更好。但根據我們所看到的情況，根據我們所處的位置，這就是我們在計劃中的內容。但不，我們現在有一個非常好的流程，能夠在全球範圍內與客戶一起推動價格。

Next question will come from Scott Davis with Melius Research.

下一個問題將由 Melius Research 的 Scott Davis 提出。

Appreciate the commentary, as usual. But I'm going to go back to a few questions ago on the enterprise side, small, medium segment. What's your sense of the age of the installed base in that category, meaning when you go from yellow to green, is it going to be kind of green on steroids because not only is everybody back in the building, but they're back in the building with old equipment that's going to age out pretty quickly? Is that a fair way to think about it?

像往常一樣欣賞評論。但我要回到之前關於企業方面、中小型市場的幾個問題。您對該類別中已安裝基礎的年齡有何看法，這意味著當您從黃色變為綠色時，它是否會像類固醇一樣呈綠色，因為不僅每個人都回到了建築物中，而且他們也回到了使用很快就會老化的舊設備進行建築？這是一個公平的思考方式嗎？

Well, I guess, yes, the way to kind of think about it, Scott, would be that during COVID period, people haven't been spending, and that equipment will. I can't give you an exact what the installed base would actually look like and what that ramp would be. What we are seeing early signs of is people upgrading their closets as they drive more to cloud and colo, upgrading their network closets, refurbishing old gear, certainly where there's old batteries and that type of thing.

嗯，我想，是的，史考特，思考這個問題的方式是，在新冠疫情期間，人們沒有花錢，而設備會花錢。我無法準確地告訴您安裝基礎的實際情況以及坡道是什麼樣的。我們看到的早期跡像是人們升級他們的機櫃，因為他們越來越多地轉向雲端和託管，升級他們的網路機櫃，翻新舊設備，當然還有舊電池之類的東西。

So certainly, when it goes to bright green, we would expect to see probably stronger than traditional growth in that enterprise because there's been -- and the reason I say that is we see the quoting activity. We see what's happening at the engineering side of things. And we do believe when that frees up, I don't know if it all happens overnight or it's a slow, kind of like we saw in this last quarter, slowly easing back into it. I mean I think a lot of it's going to be determined around what happens with the back to work with COVID vaccine, which we can't predict. But I think those things can be correlated and tied to people saying, I feel good about spending again. When people are back in the office, they're used to this level of service at home now. With the remote working, they're going to want to make sure that their gear in the office is where it needs to be.

因此，當然，當它變成亮綠色時，我們預計該企業的成長可能會比傳統成長更強，因為我這麼說的原因是我們看到了報價活動。我們看到工程方面正在發生的事情。我們確實相信，當這種情況得到釋放時，我不知道這一切是否會在一夜之間發生，或者是一個緩慢的過程，就像我們在上個季度看到的那樣，慢慢地放鬆下來。我的意思是，我認為很多事情將取決於新冠疫苗使用後會發生什麼，這是我們無法預測的。但我認為這些事情可能與人們說的「我對再次消費感到滿意」相關聯。當人們回到辦公室時，他們現在已經習慣了在家中的這種服務水準。透過遠端工作，他們需要確保辦公室中的設備處於需要的位置。

Okay. That's helpful. And then as a -- just a point of clarification, the -- is there anything in your covenants or kind of structure -- this is my first SPAC coverage, to be fair -- that would preclude buybacks of any magnitude?

好的。這很有幫助。然後，作為一個澄清點，你們的契約或結構中是否有任何內容（公平地說，這是我的第一個 SPAC 報告）會排除任何規模的回購？

This is Dave. Scott, there is not. There is not.

這是戴夫。斯科特，沒有。那沒有。

Okay. Okay. So if your leverage ratio were to get, let's say, under 2 turns or something and you wanted to do a buyback debt, that's in the cards, correct?

好的。好的。因此，如果您的槓桿率達到，比方說，低於 2 倍或其他水平，並且您想要回購債務，這是有可能的，對嗎？

That is one of the options on the table for us, absolutely.

這絕對是我們面臨的選擇之一。

Our next question comes from Jeff Sprague with Vertical Research.

我們的下一個問題來自垂直研究的傑夫·斯普拉格。

First question may be actually related to Scott's. Services in Americas, at what point do we start to see some traction there? Does it end up being actually tied to kind of new equipment on the enterprise side? I wouldn't think it's directly related, but they kind of seem to be tracking similar?

第一個問題實際上可能與斯科特的問題有關。美洲的服務，我們什麼時候開始看到那裡的一些吸引力？它最終是否真的與企業方面的某種新設備連結在一起？我不認為這有直接關係，但他們似乎在追蹤類似的東西？

Yes. Jeff, it's Gary. So I would say, I think there's a couple of things. One is, first quarter in Americas for service was down a little bit primarily because of 2 main issues. One is, if you remember, we had those horrible storms that rolled through most of the U.S., a lot of it in the Southeast and Texas area. So that prevented some site access and pushed some jobs out a little bit. The other portion of it was we have a decently large commercial and industrial service business in the U.S., and that was lagging just because a lot of that is vectored towards utilities, oil and gas, which obviously were depressed from an order standpoint last year. So that business is coming back online. Now we see really pretty strong order rates there, number one. Two, clearly, the weather issue is temporal and that is behind us. So we would expect to see acceleration in that service business, particularly in the Americas as the year goes on.

是的。傑夫，我是加里。所以我想說，我認為有幾件事。其中之一是，美洲第一季的服務略有下降，主要是由於兩個主要問題。一是，如果你還記得的話，我們經歷了那些席捲美國大部分地區的可怕風暴，其中大部分發生在東南部和德克薩斯地區。因此，這阻止了一些網站的訪問，並推遲了一些工作。另一部分是我們在美國擁有相當大的商業和工業服務業務，而這項業務之所以滯後，只是因為其中許多業務都集中在公用事業、石油和天然氣領域，而從去年的訂單來看，這些業務顯然受到了抑制。所以該業務正在恢復線上。現在我們看到那裡的訂單率非常強勁，位居第一。第二，顯然，天氣問題是暫時的，已經過去了。因此，我們預計隨著時間的推移，該服務業務將會加速，特別是在美洲。

Great. And on the new 3 phase product, one of your competitors has got something similar that they're talking about. And it's part of what they're talking about developing with that is actually a bit of a SaaS model, too, where they can share with the utility on some of the savings or selling back to the grid. Is that sort of thing available with your product? Are you exploring new business models like that? Maybe you could just elaborate a little bit more on that particular product and anything else interesting in the pipeline.

偉大的。在新的三相產品上，您的競爭對手之一也得到了他們正在談論的類似內容。這也是他們所談論的開發內容的一部分，實際上也是一種 SaaS 模式，他們可以與公用事業公司分享一些節省的費用或賣回給電網。你們的產品有這樣的功能嗎？您正在探索這樣的新商業模式嗎？也許您可以詳細說明該特定產品以及管道中其他有趣的內容。

Great, Jeff, this is Rob. Yes, absolutely. So when we get -- where we are in the belief, the good interaction, we've actually had pilots going for months and even over a year over in Europe, where we'll do that kind of sharing model, revenue-sharing model with the utility where you'll go on battery and inject power back on the grid and/or just free up power for the grid. So there's a couple of different revenue-sharing models there. So as we get more sophisticated and people realize that, hey, it's still reliable infrastructure, even though you're on battery and people get more comfortable with that, we think that, that grid -- and in order to -- the grid interaction is going to play a big part of it. In order for people to drive more carbon friendly, they're going to have to be doing those types of things as well. So we see that and interacting with the grid, whether it's behind-the-meter storage or in front of the meter. And I talked about this before as an area, an adjacency and a growth area as we go forward.

太好了，傑夫，這是羅布。是的，一點沒錯。因此，當我們相信良好的互動時，我們實際上已經在歐洲進行了數月甚至一年多的試點，在那裡我們將採用這種共享模式、收入共享模式與公用事業公司一起，您將使用電池並將電力重新註入電網和/或只是為電網釋放電力。因此，有幾種不同的收入分享模式。因此，隨著我們變得更加複雜，人們意識到，嘿，它仍然是可靠的基礎設施，即使你使用電池並且人們對此更加適應，我們認為，網格 - 並且為了 - 網格交互將在其中發揮重要作用。為了讓人們更環保地駕駛，他們也必須做這些類型的事情。因此，我們看到了這一點並與電網進行交互，無論是在電錶後面還是在電錶前面。我之前曾將其視為我們前進的一個區域、一個鄰接區域和一個成長區域。

So as it relates to -- we'll continue to focus, as we've talked about in the past, thermal management requires -- draws most of the utility expense within a data center, and we continue to drive more efficient, effective solutions, utilizing software controls, AI around that. So we expect to see things like that in the future from us that will just drive that and helping that carbon get to that carbon neutral position.

因此，正如我們過去所討論的那樣，我們將繼續關注熱管理所需的資料中心內的大部分公用事業費用，並且我們將繼續推動更有效率、更有效的解決方案，利用軟體控制，人工智慧圍繞它。因此，我們希望在未來看到類似的事情，這將推動這一進程，並幫助碳達到碳中和的位置。

Our next question will come from Lance Vitanza with Cowen.

我們的下一個問題將由蘭斯·維坦扎和考恩提出。

I have 2. The first is, last fall, you announced that you would be collaborating, working with Honeywell to improve sustainability for data center operations. And I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about how that effort has rolled out. Have you seen results yet? Or are we still in the planning or preliminary stages? Are you in the market with joint offerings? How, if at all, does this partnership or this collaboration differentiate you?

我有 2. 第一個是，去年秋天，您宣布將與霍尼韋爾合作，提高資料中心營運的可持續性。我想知道您是否可以談談這項工作是如何展開的。你看到結果了嗎？或者我們還處於規劃或初步階段嗎？您在市場上有聯合產品嗎？如果有的話，這種夥伴關係或這種協作如何使您與眾不同？

Lance, yes, we're really happy with the progress we're making with Honeywell on the collaboration. And that collaboration, we talked about a few different things. I think the first thing we talked about was kind of a software and controls thing to drive more efficiency, where we're piloting that. So we're more than just the planning phase. We've got some pilots. I think a bigger part of the collaboration is us working together globally and bringing Honeywell into areas that they necessarily haven't been into with their software offering, which is a very, very robust offering, along with our equipment and to drive more efficiency as we go through the data center. So we are -- the teams are working together globally and expect -- this isn't something that happens overnight, but expect over time, you'll see more and more of kind of the Honeywell-Vertiv solution showing up in data centers driving -- and really driving efficiency and then joint collaborating on customers they may have, but we aren't currently doing business with and vice versa.

蘭斯，是的，我們對與霍尼韋爾的合作所取得的進展感到非常滿意。在那次合作中，我們討論了一些不同的事情。我認為我們討論的第一件事是一種軟體和控制裝置，以提高效率，我們正在試驗這一點。所以我們不只是規劃階段。我們有一些飛行員。我認為合作的一個重要部分是我們在全球範圍內共同努力，將霍尼韋爾帶入他們的軟體產品（這是一個非常非常強大的產品）以及我們的設備所未涉足的領域，並提高效率我們穿過數據中心。因此，我們的團隊正在全球範圍內共同努力，並期望這不是一夜之間發生的事情，但隨著時間的推移，您將看到越來越多的霍尼韋爾-維諦技術解決方案出現在資料中心中，推動資料中心的發展。— 真正提高效率，然後與他們可能擁有的客戶進行聯合合作，但我們目前沒有與之開展業務，反之亦然。

And then just maybe one last one for me. On Slide 13, where you lay out the bridge and focusing on the cost pressures and sourcing and so forth, you show the $10 million kind of recovery from passing price-throughs and this $25 million hit from commodity and logistics headwinds. And I guess my question is, how are those 2 numbers related? In other words, if it turns out that the commodity and logistics turns out to be maybe a $50 million headwind, should we assume that you can pass on perhaps $20 million of the costs? Are they variable in that way? Or no, is it sort of like a hard stop? You think it's going to be tough to pass on more than $10 million so we just need to hope that the impact from the logistics isn't much greater than that? Could you comment on that?

然後也許對我來說是最後一件事。在幻燈片 13 上，您佈置了橋樑並重點關注成本壓力和採購等，您展示了價格調整帶來的 1000 萬美元的恢復以及商品和物流逆風帶來的 2500 萬美元的損失。我想我的問題是，這兩個數字有什麼關係？換句話說，如果事實證明商品和物流可能會帶來 5000 萬美元的不利影響，我們是否應該假設您可以轉嫁約 2000 萬美元的成本？它們是這樣變化的嗎？或者不，這有點像硬停車嗎？您認為傳遞超過 1000 萬美元會很困難，所以我們只需要希望物流的影響不會比這大得多？你能否對此發表評論？

Yes, Lance, this is David. I'll start, and Gary and Rob can jump in. I would definitely say the 2 are correlated, right? The higher the commodity logistics headwind and inflation is, the more data we have and to reasonably take price up consistently with competitors, right? So there's definitely a high correlation. The one thing that we're seeing here is that there's generally a lag. So we will see the negative impact from commodity and logistics sooner in our costs, then we do have the ability to pass that through for higher pricing.

是的，蘭斯，這是大衛。我先開始，蓋瑞和羅布可以插嘴。我一定會說兩者是相關的，對嗎？商品物流逆風通膨越高，我們擁有的數據就越多，就能與競爭對手保持一致合理地漲價，對嗎？所以肯定有很高的相關性。我們在這裡看到的一件事是通常存在滯後。因此，我們將更快地看到商品和物流對我們的成本的負面影響，然後我們就有能力將其轉嫁給更高的定價。

Now one thing that we did see, which turns this into somewhat of a positive, the last time we saw significant commodity and logistics headwinds, what we found is that the pricing is actually a little bit sticky upwards. So we actually look at this strategically as a way to get additional price. And then if the commodity and logistics headwinds abate at some point this year or even early next year, generally, the pricing that we see remains where it's at. There's always some give and take. But on the way up, that pricing opportunity is certainly going to be correlated with the headwinds we're seeing.

現在我們確實看到了一件事，這在一定程度上是積極的，上次我們看到商品和物流出現重大逆風時，我們發現定價實際上有點粘性上漲。因此，我們實際上從戰略上將此視為獲得額外價格的一種方式。然後，如果大宗商品和物流的不利因素在今年某個時候甚至明年初減弱，一般來說，我們看到的定價仍將保持不變。總有一些給予和索取。但在上漲過程中，定價機會肯定會與我們看到的不利因素有關。

And the other thing that I probably want to point out on this slide and remind folks is that this is versus prior guidance. So this is the overlay for additional commodity and logistics headwinds versus our beginning of the year assumptions. If you looked at this for a full year, we had about $20 million of headwinds for commodity and freight inflation in that beginning of the year guidance. So if you add the $20 million and the $25 million, you get about $45 million. We also had assumed about $15 million of pricing in that prior guidance as well. So full year pricing expectations are now right around $25 million. And if there is additional inflation, we do believe there's opportunity to take those pricing assumptions up as well.

我可能想在這張投影片上指出並提醒人們的另一件事是，這與之前的指導不同。因此，這是與我們年初假設相比的額外商品和物流逆風的疊加。如果你觀察一整年的情況，你會發現，在年初的指導中，我們面臨著大約 2000 萬美元的商品和貨運通膨阻力。因此，如果將 2000 萬美元和 2500 萬美元相加，大約會得到 4500 萬美元。在先前的指導中，我們還假設定價約為 1500 萬美元。因此，全年定價預期目前約為 2500 萬美元。如果出現額外的通膨，我們確實相信也有機會提高這些定價假設。

Next question will come from Steve Tusa with JPMorgan.

下一個問題將由摩根大通的史蒂夫·圖薩提出。

Just rounding out the rest of those bridge items, I think you had like positive $45 million for productivity for kind of a -- that would be kind of a net $40 million contribution margin, I think. Now it looks like it's $10 million for contribution margin, but first half is negative 20%. So I guess the second half kind of has to flip. I mean are you guys assuming that things -- I mean like what -- can you maybe round out the other portions of the annual kind of year-over-year bridge for us?

剛剛完成其餘的過渡項目，我認為您有大約 4500 萬美元的生產力，我認為這將是 4000 萬美元的淨邊際貢獻。現在看起來邊際貢獻是1000萬美元，但上半年卻是負20%。所以我想下半場必須翻轉。我的意思是，你們是否假設事情——我的意思是——你們能為我們完善年度逐年橋樑的其他部分嗎？

Yes. This is David, Steve. And I think everybody's had some time now to kind of put the Sudoku puzzle together and I'd say you did it correctly. So yes. The implication for margin is that there'd be about $35 million favorable year-over-year variance in the second half, and that offsets about $20 million unfavorable variance in the first half. So the reason you see favorability in the second half is because of the timing of some of these initiatives. We do assume that pricing will ramp up as we go through the year. So the $25 million in total, there's probably a relatively small number in the first quarter, and that will ramp up as we go through the year, in addition to our productivity opportunities. And a lot of those are around the purchasing side, completely independent from price. And though as well ramp up as we go through the year. So -- and almost sequentially. So Q4 is also significantly higher than what we're seeing in Q1.

是的。這是大衛，史蒂夫。我認為現在每個人都有一些時間將數獨拼圖放在一起，我想說你做得正確。所以是的。利潤率意味著下半年將出現約 3500 萬美元的有利同比差異，這抵消了上半年約 2000 萬美元的不利差異。因此，您在下半年看到受歡迎的原因是因為其中一些舉措的時機。我們確實假設今年的定價將會上漲。因此，總共 2500 萬美元，第一季的數字可能相對較小，隨著我們全年的發展，除了我們的生產力機會之外，這個數字還會增加。其中很多都是圍繞著採購方的，完全獨立於價格。儘管我們在這一年中也會增加。所以——而且幾乎是連續的。因此，第四季也明顯高於我們在第一季看到的情況。

And are you making any explicit call on kind of like the movement in these inflationary items, like the price of freight or the price of commodities, things like that?

您是否明確呼籲這些通膨項目的變動，例如貨運價格或商品價格等？

We do assume that what we're seeing today pretty much continues through the remainder of the year, probably with a little bit of a throttle down in the fourth quarter. We think it could obviously get worse. Steel is up 115% in Q1 this year versus last year. If you listen to the experts out there, a lot of that price was based on a ramp-up in demand and a slower response from the supply as they kind of ramp up mills. So I think everybody anticipates that it can't get much worse from a steel pricing perspective, which is our most exposed commodity. But I guess it could. But we feel pretty good with the provision we've included in the forecast as it relates to commodities, and we do assume it pretty much extends through the rest of the year.

我們確實假設我們今天所看到的情況幾乎會持續到今年剩餘時間，可能會在第四季度略有放緩。我們認為情況顯然可能會變得更糟。今年第一季鋼鐵價格較去年上漲 115%。如果你聽聽專家的意見，你會發現價格很大程度上是基於需求的增加和供應反應的放緩，因為他們增加了工廠的產量。因此，我認為每個人都預計，從鋼鐵定價的角度來看，情況不會變得更糟，因為鋼鐵是我們暴露程度最高的商品。但我想是可以的。但我們對預測中包含的與大宗商品相關的條款感到非常滿意，我們確實假設它幾乎會持續到今年剩餘時間。

Got it. Okay. Any dynamics in the back half on mix, I guess services, if that kind of flips positive that, that could be a positive mix driver on anything on that front?

知道了。好的。我想服務方面後半部分的任何動態，如果這種積極的變化，那可能會在這方面的任何方面產生積極的混合驅動力？

We -- there's 2 elements of mix we look at. We look at product mix, and we also look at regional mix. So certainly, we had a little bit of a headwind in Q1 from a regional perspective based on the significant growth in APAC year-over-year. That will update as we go through the year. But if you look at individual quarters, it likely is not going to be a significant player from a -- from a product perspective, we do believe that, I think in the first quarter, the critical infrastructure and solutions business was probably 50% of our total business last year. I think that ramped up closer to 60% in Q1. We don't see a similar dynamic through the remainder of the year, but as we're seeing, some of the additional sales we added to our guide are skewed a little bit more to that CI&S. So mix could be different each quarter, but we don't see it as significant as a headwind over the remainder of the year as we saw in the (technical difficulty)

我們－我們關注混合的兩個要素。我們關注產品組合，也關注區域組合。因此，當然，從區域角度來看，基於亞太地區同比的顯著增長，我們在第一季遇到了一些阻力。隨著這一年的過去，這將會更新。但如果你看一下各個季度，它可能不會成為一個重要的參與者——從產品的角度來看，我們確實相信，我認為在第一季度，關鍵基礎設施和解決方案業務可能佔整個行業的50%。我們去年的總業務。我認為第一季這一比例上升至接近 60%。在今年剩餘時間裡，我們沒有看到類似的動態，但正如我們所看到的，我們添加到指南中的一些額外銷售更偏向 CI&S。因此，每個季度的組合可能會有所不同，但我們認為它不像我們在（技術難度）中看到的那樣在今年剩餘時間裡出現逆風那麼嚴重

Our next question comes from Andrew Obin with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的安德魯·奧賓。

So the first question for me on your IT channel. A big growth initiative for you guys. There's been some consolidation. How do you view Eaton's acquisition of Tripp Lite? Does it really change the end market that much, from your perspective?

這是我在 IT 頻道上問的第一個問題。對你們來說這是一項重大的成長計畫。出現了一些整合。您如何看待伊頓收購 Tripp Lite？從您的角度來看，它真的對終端市場有那麼大的改變嗎？

Yes. Andrew, Rob Johnson here. I really don't want to necessarily comment on what the competitors are going to do or not do. We -- consolidation sometimes gives an opportunity for companies like ours to be able to be in that top 2 or 3 bidding perspective. So they usually like to have 3 bidders. And so I see that as a potential positive for us as we go forward. We're really focused on our innovative solutions that we're bringing to market, our thermal management and kind of that total solutions approach in the channel, which we think globally, we've got a really good position and strong there.

是的。安德魯，羅布·約翰遜在這裡。我真的不想評論競爭對手將做什麼或不做什麼。我們——整合有時會給像我們這樣的公司提供機會，使其能夠躋身前 2 名或前 3 名競標者之列。所以他們通常喜歡有 3 個競標者。因此，我認為這對我們前進來說是一個潛在的積極因素。我們真正專注於我們推向市場的創新解決方案、我們的熱管理以及通路中的整體解決方案方法，我們認為在全球範圍內，我們在那裡擁有非常好的地位和實力。

So while not necessarily focused on Tripp Lite and Eaton, what's going on there, we're really focused on bringing those new products to market and driving innovation against our competitors to gain share. And as you can see in our IRS business, we did have decent year-over-year growth. We've seen that for the last several quarters now and expect to continue to see that grow as we introduce more products into that venue. And not all IRS business is in the channel. So it's not necessarily indicative of the channel because we do sell -- the C&I business as well falls within that channel space.

因此，雖然不一定專注於 Tripp Lite 和伊頓，但我們真正專注於將這些新產品推向市場，並推動創新，對抗競爭對手，以獲得份額。正如您在我們的國稅局業務中看到的那樣，我們確實實現了良好的同比增長。我們在過去的幾個季度中已經看到了這一點，並預計隨著我們向該場所推出更多產品，這種情況將繼續增長。而且並不是所有國稅局業務都在通路中。因此，它不一定代表通路，因為我們確實銷售——C&I 業務也屬於該通路空間。

Yes. And then a bigger picture, and bigger-picture question, right? I mean if you think you have technology-focused global business, it does seem if you look at the legislative action, there are pretty big bills cooking up in Congress in regards to China, in regards to incentivizing technology R&D -- technology and R&D investment in the U.S. And it was your philosophy to optimize your existing manufacturing footprint, right, and just drive high and higher volume. Does this sort of change your thinking, the sort of bifurcation of the tech world perhaps into, I guess, President Biden uses the term techno-democracies and techno-autocracies. Have you guys thought about it? Does it change your approach to manufacturing footprint, your sourcing? A pretty open-ended question, but it seems there are sort of big headlines, at least, coming on this topic and you guys in the middle of it, just given what you do for a living.

是的。然後是更大的圖景，更大的圖景問題，對吧？我的意思是，如果你認為你擁有以技術為中心的全球業務，那麼如果你看看立法行動，國會確實正在醞釀有關中國的相當大的法案，涉及激勵技術研發——技術和研發投資在美國，你們的理念是優化現有的製造足跡，對吧，然後不斷提高產量。這是否會改變你的想法，我想，科技世界的分歧可能會變成拜登總統使用的術語「技術民主國家」和「技術獨裁國家」。大家有沒有想過呢？它會改變您的製造足跡和採購方式嗎？這是一個相當開放式的問題，但似乎至少有一些關於這個主題的大頭條新聞，而你們正處於這個話題之中，只是考慮到你們的謀生方式。

Andrew, thank you for your question. I don't think it really changes. We're a little bit different than maybe some of our competitive -- companies out there have always been kind of more or less an in country-for-country or an in region-for-region. What we did do over the last couple of years from an R&D perspective is really drive to a matrix and put center of excellence all over the world, not necessarily in best cost locations, but in the right place to be developing those products. So I think you'll find both our R&D investments, which are [pulling full] in the U.S. and in the Americas and in Europe and in Asia Pac, and I think you'll find that fairly balanced. And so we were already doing that.

安德魯，謝謝你的問題。我不認為它真的改變了。我們可能與我們的一些競爭對手有些不同——那裡的公司或多或少總是在不同國家或不同地區之間合作。從研發的角度來看，我們過去幾年所做的確實是推動了矩陣的發展，並將卓越中心置於世界各地，不一定是在成本最佳的地點，而是在開發這些產品的正確地點。因此，我認為您會發現我們在美國、美洲、歐洲和亞太地區的研發投資都在[全力投入]，而且我認為您會發現這是相當平衡的。所以我們已經在這樣做了。

I think COVID has taught us a lesson about second sourcing vendors and making sure that we have more in region, and we've made some moves based on COVID to be even more regional from that perspective, which probably plays in the hands of some of the stuff Biden is doing. But in general, I don't think that's driving our thoughts right now. But I feel really comfortable with the footprint we have from a development perspective. And as we look at how we do things, we're, in some cases, a highly-engineered product, and freight and everything is important in speed to market is important. So being closer to our customers, not just using an Asian source and bringing that in, it has been part of our strategy and will continue to be that.

我認為，新冠疫情給我們上了一課，關於第二採購供應商，並確保我們在該地區擁有更多供應商，並且我們已經根據新冠疫情採取了一些舉措，從這個角度來看，變得更加區域化，這可能會在一些人的手中發揮作用。拜登正在做的事情。但總的來說，我不認為這正在推動我們的想法。但從發展的角度來看，我對我們的足跡感到非常滿意。當我們審視我們的做事方式時，在某些情況下，我們是一個高度工程化的產品，而貨運和一切都很重要，上市速度也很重要。因此，更加貼近我們的客戶，而不僅僅是使用亞洲資源並將其引入，它已經成為我們策略的一部分，並將繼續如此。

Our last question will come from Nigel Coe with Wolfe Research.

我們的最後一個問題將來自沃爾夫研究中心的奈傑爾·科。

So Andrew, strong points, so I'll take that quote up. So obviously, we're pushing well past the hour mark here. I'll keep this pretty quick. I want to go back to the pricing. You covered that very well. So I'm not going to retread any new ground here. But 20 bps of additional price doesn't seem like a shoot-for-the-moon scenario, but how does the backlog play into the pricing equation for the second half of the year? You've got $2.1 billion of backlog, it's about 2 quarters worth of sales, not quite 2 quarters. But are we thinking here that the price increases are mainly in the fourth quarter, given that backlog coverage? Or is there some mechanism in the backlog to push through some digital price?

安德魯，強項，所以我會引用這句話。顯然，我們已經遠遠超過了時間。我會很快保留這個。我想回到定價。你講得很好。所以我不會在這裡重述任何新的內容。但 20 個基點的額外價格似乎不像一心一意的情況，但積壓的訂單如何影響下半年的定價方程式呢？您有 21 億美元的積壓訂單，相當於 2 個季度的銷售額，而不是 2 個季度的銷售額。但考慮到積壓情況，我們是否認為價格上漲主要發生在第四季？或者積壓中是否有某種機制可以推動某些數位價格？

Yes. Nigel, it's Gary. So I'd say the answer is mixed and varied. I mean obviously, it's a little bit easier to get price on new orders. But by no means are we just taking a look at that $2 billion of backlog and saying, well, there's nothing we can do. It's already in backlog. So we do have some other mechanisms, sometimes in larger contracts that have material clauses in them. Certainly, freight is another lever that we can utilize. That is a real-time mechanism. There's been times when we've instituted surcharges as well. So I would say that, yes, it's easier to get price on new orders coming through the door. But by no means are we going to just discount the $2 billion that we have and say there's nothing we can do there. We're looking at that, taking action on that as well. With all that said, I do think price probably continues to ramp throughout the year, as David mentioned earlier. So I think in general, that pricing will ramp. But those are the different ways we're looking and trying to execute that pricing and freight scenario.

是的。奈傑爾，我是加里。所以我想說答案是複雜多元的。我的意思是，顯然，獲得新訂單的價格要容易一些。但我們絕對不會只是看到這 20 億美元的積壓訂單就說，好吧，我們無能為力。它已經積壓了。因此，我們確實有一些其他機制，有時在包含實質條款的較大合約中。當然，貨運是我們可以利用的另一個槓桿。這是一個實時機制。有時我們也會徵收附加費。所以我想說，是的，獲得新訂單的價格更容易。但我們絕不會僅僅對我們擁有的 20 億美元打折扣，並說我們對此無能為力。我們正在關注這一點，並採取行動。話雖如此，我確實認為價格可能會在全年繼續上漲，正如大衛之前提到的那樣。所以我認為總的來說，定價將會上升。但這些是我們正在尋找並嘗試執行定價和貨運方案的不同方式。

That's great. And then my follow-on question is around market share. And we don't really have a lot of good information from your competitors in terms of their growth rates. It's always double-digit growth and strong growth but there's no quantification. So I'm just curious, obviously, you see the bids and quotes in the RT activity. How do you feel your share is tracking relative to the last 2 or 3 or 4 months? And where do you think you're gaining or even losing share?

那太棒了。然後我的後續問題是關於市場佔有率的。而且我們並沒有從您的競爭對手那裡獲得有關其成長率的大量有用資訊。它總是兩位數的成長和強勁的成長，但沒有量化。所以我只是好奇，顯然，您可以在 RT 活動中看到出價和報價。相對於過去 2、3 或 4 個月，您認為您的份額走勢如何？您認為您在哪些方面獲得了甚至失去了份額？

Nigel, this is Rob. I'll start and then let Gary follow in. And one thing I think all of us on the call need to remember is, typically, people talk about a couple of the big 3 or 4, but as you look at the pie charts we've shared in the past, there's a lot of gray area, which is smaller, more regional players that play into this from that perspective. So you got to be careful just watching us versus some of the other competitors that are our size and really look at how we think about things, and part of our strategy was taking share from those more local mom and pop, where we failed to innovate early on or provide a solution and now can provide a solution and provide that globally.

奈傑爾，這是羅布。我將開始，然後讓加里跟進。我認為我們所有參加電話會議的人都需要記住的一件事是，通常人們會談論3 或4 大因素中的幾個，但當您查看餅圖時，我們會發現過去曾分享過，存在著許多灰色區域，從這個角度來看，較小的、更多區域性的參與者參與其中。因此，你必須小心地觀察我們與其他一些與我們規模相當的競爭對手的情況，並真正了解我們如何看待事物，我們策略的一部分是從那些更本地的夫妻店中奪取份額，而我們在這些地方未能進行創新早期或提供解決方案，現在可以提供解決方案並在全球範圍內提供。

So I think we feel -- across the board, we feel really good about where we're at from a thermal position and from a power position as well. And again, you'll have some local players that we go up against, and then we'll go up with some of the global players. But overall, we -- with our strong growth that we've actually posted the last couple of years, we think we've been outpacing the industry, which would mean that we either get more of our fair share and taking some share from that perspective. But when you look at kind of a broader question, is there's a whole another 50% of the pie that's made up of a bunch of small mom-and-pops, pieces that are moving around. I don't know. Gary?

所以我認為我們感覺——從整體上來說，我們對我們在熱力位置和權力位置上的位置感覺非常好。再說一遍，我們將與一些本地玩家進行對抗，然後我們將與一些全球玩家進行對抗。但總的來說，我們——憑藉過去幾年實際發布的強勁增長，我們認為我們已經超越了行業，這意味著我們要么獲得更多的公平份額，要么從中獲取一些份額看法。但當你考慮一個更廣泛的問題時，是否還有另外 50% 的餡餅是由一群小型夫妻店和四處移動的碎片組成的。我不知道。加里？

Yes. Nigel, I think Rob said it beautifully. Just analytically, you're right, that's sort of the maddening -- one of the maddening things about the market is you can't just peg it to a specific number of is this what the market grew or shrank. To the best of our ability, if you go back to '19, we think the market probably grew low to mid-single digits and 3%, 4%, and we grew at 6%. And then if you take a look at last year, the best sources, we think that the market probably shrank 4%-ish, and we were down 1 point organically. So you take those 2 different data points and you say, okay, it's consecutively back-to-back years now, we think we've pretty squarely outperformed the market by that 1.5x goal that we've established. And certainly, with the strong start to Q1, don't have any signs of letting up at this point by any means.

是的。奈傑爾，我認為羅布說得很好。從分析上來說，你是對的，這有點令人抓狂——市場令人抓狂的事情之一是你不能僅僅將其與市場增長或萎縮的具體數字掛鉤。盡我們所能，如果你回到 19 年，我們認為市場可能會以低至中個位數的速度成長，即 3%、4%，而我們的成長率為 6%。然後，如果你看去年最好的來源，我們認為市場可能萎縮了 4% 左右，而我們有機地下降了 1 個百分點。所以你拿這兩個不同的數據點來說，好吧，現在已經是連續幾年了，我們認為我們已經以我們設定的 1.5 倍目標完全跑贏了市場。當然，隨著第一季的強勁開局，目前還沒有任何放緩的跡象。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Rob Johnson for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回給羅布·約翰遜（Rob Johnson）發表閉幕詞。

Well, thank you, and I appreciate everyone attending our call today. As you can tell, we're really excited about the Q1 results, but really the go-forward and the execution of the strategy that we set out and shared with all of you, and we'll continue to drive that as we go forward. Again, I appreciate that support. Thank you, and have a great day.

好的，謝謝您，我也感謝今天參加我們電話會議的所有人。如您所知，我們對第一季的結果感到非常興奮，但實際上我們制定並與大家分享的策略的推進和執行，我們將繼續推動這一進程。我再次感謝這種支持。謝謝您，祝您有美好的一天。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。