Vertiv Holdings Co (VRT) 2020 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Andrea, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Vertiv Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that the call is being recorded.

早安.我叫安德里亞，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線生。在此，我謹代表Vertiv公司歡迎各位參加2020年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，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，我將把主持今天的電話會議的主持人交給投資者關係副總裁琳恩·馬克西納。

Thank you, Andrea. Good morning, and welcome to Vertiv Third Quarter 2020 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.

謝謝你，安德里亞。早安，歡迎參加Vertiv 2020年第三季財報電話會議。今天與我一同出席的有 Vertiv 的執行董事長 David Cote；執行長 Rob Johnson；財務長 David Fallon；以及首席策略與發展長 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.

在開始之前，我要指出，在本次電話會議期間，我們將對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。

We refer you to the cautionary language included in today's earnings release, and you can learn more about these risks in our registration statements or 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.

我們建議您參閱今天發布的收益報告中的警示性語言，您可以在我們的註冊聲明或委託書以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中了解更多關於這些風險的信息。我們今天所作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 press release and in the investor slide deck found on our website at investors.vertiv.com.

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 業績以及 GAAP 與非 GAAP 的調整表可以在我們的獲利新聞稿和投資者簡報中找到，這些資料可以在我們的網站 investors.vertiv.com 上找到。

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

接下來，我將把電話交給執行主席戴夫·科特。

Thanks, and good morning, everyone. When we spoke in August, the Vertiv team had wrapped up a very successful second quarter. I'm happy to say the team demonstrated excellent execution again in the third quarter. Vertiv continues to have a great position in a good industry, and I think the proof points of the last several quarters demonstrate that it's not a fluke.

謝謝大家，大家早安。我們在八月交談時，Vertiv 團隊剛剛結束了一個非常成功的第二季。我很高興地告訴大家，球隊在第三節再次展現了出色的執行力。Vertiv 在良好的行業中繼續保持著強大的地位，我認為過去幾季的業績證明這並非僥倖。

Even during this COVID time, the data center market remains strong, and Vertiv continues to validate its leadership position in the market. While the team executed on both the top and bottom line over the past several months, they also continue to focus on seed planting. So we'll win not only in the short term but also the long term.

即使在新冠疫情期間，資料中心市場依然強勁，Vertiv 也持續鞏固其在市場上的領導地位。雖然該團隊在過去幾個月在營收和利潤方面都取得了成功，但他們也繼續專注於播種。這樣我們不僅短期內會獲勝，長期來看也會獲勝。

Initiatives such as the new Vertiv Product Development activities, VPD; deploying the Vertiv User Experience or customer view; and developing their 3-year strategic plan are just some of the ways the Vertiv team is focused on ensuring sustainable success. I am really impressed with the adaptability and the receptiveness of Rob and his team.

Vertiv 團隊致力於確保永續成功，其措施包括：推出新的 Vertiv 產品開發活動 (VPD)；部署 Vertiv 使用者體驗或客戶視圖；以及製定三年策略計畫。羅布和他的團隊展現的適應能力和接受能力給我留下了深刻的印象。

So overall, I'm just as excited today about the future of Vertiv as I was a year ago, and I can't wait to continue working with the team.

總的來說，我對 Vertiv 的未來仍然像一年前一樣充滿熱情，我迫不及待地想繼續與團隊一起工作。

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

那麼，接下來我將把電話交給羅布。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Dave. Your ongoing coaching and mentoring has meant a lot to both me and the team. I also want to say thank you to the entire Vertiv team for their efforts in Q3. Despite the challenges of the quarter, one of the positive confidence has been the team's relentless focus on delivering to our customers. A Vertiv's team creativity, energy and passion for serving our customers is always front and center.

各位早安，謝謝你，戴夫。您持續的指導和輔導對我以及團隊來說意義重大。我還要感謝 Vertiv 團隊在第三季所付出的努力。儘管本季面臨諸多挑戰，但令人欣慰的是，團隊始終堅持不懈地為客戶提供服務。Vertiv團隊的創造力、活力和為客戶服務的熱情始終是我們工作的核心。

Now let's look at the slides. Turning to Slide 3. Overall, the demand side of the business was very promising. The sales were up 8.5% and orders were up over 15% as compared to Q3 last year. Additionally, this is the fourth quarter in a row where our backlog grows and hit yet another all-time high. We will get a bit more into the specifics on the demand side of the business over the next few slides.

現在我們來看幻燈片。翻到幻燈片 3。整體而言，該業務的需求方面前景非常光明。與去年第三季相比，銷售額成長了 8.5%，訂單量增加了 15% 以上。此外，這是我們的積壓訂單連續第四個季度成長，並再次創下歷史新高。接下來的幾張投影片，我們將更詳細地探討業務的需求面。

From a profitability standpoint, our adjusted EBITDA was $179 million, which was up 31% from last year's Q3. This resulted in adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of 270 basis points. This was driven by higher sales, higher contribution margin, lower fixed cost on a percentage basis.

從獲利能力的角度來看，我們調整後的 EBITDA 為 1.79 億美元，比去年第三季成長了 31%。這使得調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率提高了 270 個基點。這主要得益於更高的銷售額、更高的毛利率和更低的固定成本（以百分比計算）。

Our free cash flow at the end of Q3 was $129 million, which was $115 million higher than last year's Q3. During our last earnings call, we mentioned that we would be working on a restructuring plan in Q3. We completed that activity and took an $80 million restructuring charge for the programs. These restructuring efforts will drive $85 million of annualized run rate savings by 2023. David will share more details about our plans later in the presentation.

第三季末，我們的自由現金流為 1.29 億美元，比去年第三季增加了 1.15 億美元。在上次財報電話會議上，我們提到我們將在第三季制定重組計劃。我們完成了這項活動，並為這些項目提列了 8,000 萬美元的重組費用。這些重組措施到 2023 年將每年節省 8,500 萬美元。David 將在稍後的演講中分享更多關於我們計劃的細節。

Next, on this slide, we wanted to provide you some of the ranges for the expected outcome of Q4. We are anticipating the implications of COVID to continue to fluctuate, but based on our current visibility, we expect our organic sales to be up 6% to 8%, and our adjusted EBITDA will be up 18% to 24% from the last quarter, Q4, last year.

接下來，在這張投影片中，我們想向您展示第四季度預期結果的一些範圍。我們預計 COVID 的影響將繼續波動，但根據我們目前的預測，我們預計有機銷售額將比上一季（去年第四季）成長 6% 至 8%，調整後的 EBITDA 將比上一季成長 18% 至 24%。

So while these dynamics can change, we did want to share with you what we're currently seeing playing out in Q4. Now all of this is clearly predicted -- predicated on COVID not impacting our customers and not impacting site access any more than what we saw in Q3. We'll discuss more on this topic later.

雖然這些動態可能會發生變化，但我們還是想和大家分享一下目前在第四季看到的情況。現在這一切都已明確預測——前提是 COVID 不會對我們的客戶造成影響，也不會對網站訪問造成比第三季更大的影響。我們稍後會詳細討論這個主題。

Finally, I wanted to add a bit of color around 2021. As we see things right now, the demand side is holding up and our backlog should be robust as we exit the year. On the cost side, we are keeping a close eye on fixed cost constant, but are continually looking at investments in VPDs and other growth programs to ensure long-term success.

最後，我想為 2021 年增添一些色彩。就目前情況來看，需求方面保持穩定，到年底我們的訂單積壓情況應該會很強勁。在成本方面，我們密切關注固定成本不變，但不斷尋求對 VPD 和其他成長計劃的投資，以確保長期成功。

Turning to Slide 4. We used this slide last quarter and received good feedback on it. So we wanted to keep it in for consistency and also add our thoughts around the current market environment. The chart is simple, but it relays the real-time view we have on the demand side of things. It is qualitative in nature and depicts our view on the level of health and activity in each of the markets we serve.

接下來請看第 4 張投影片。我們上個季度使用了這張投影片，並收到了很好的回饋。為了保持一致性，我們決定保留它，並加入我們對當前市場環境的看法。圖表雖然簡單，但它反映了我們對需求方面的即時看法。它本質上是定性的，描繪了我們對我們所服務的每個市場的健康水平和活躍程度的看法。

We continue to see strong levels of activity in every region in the cloud and colocation markets, as indicated by the 6 green buttons in the top 2 rows. Emerging vital applications such as online education, telemedicine, video and gaming are benefiting our cloud and colocation customers, as a surge in demand is benefiting us as well.

如頂部兩行中的 6 個綠色按鈕所示，我們看到雲端運算和託管市場在各個地區都保持著強勁的活躍度。線上教育、遠距醫療、視訊和遊戲等新興重要應用程式正在惠及我們的雲端服務和託管客戶，而需求的激增也使我們受益。

In contrast, we see the enterprise and small to medium business still being challenged by COVID and indicated by the red and yellow buttons in row 3. This segment spending continues to be mixed. It's probably slightly more positive today than it was 90 days ago, but not significant enough to upgrade any of the regions in this particular space.

相較之下，我們看到企業和中小企業仍然受到新冠疫情的挑戰，這在第 3 行的紅色和黃色按鈕中有所體現。該領域的支出仍然喜憂參半。今天的情況可能比 90 天前略好一些，但還不足以提升該領域任何區域的評級。

Switching to the telecom side of things. Most of our regions are pretty consistent with prior quarter. We continue to see 5G deployments in U.S. and parts of Asia. While China is certainly deploying 5G, we see a small pause at the moment, as they digest some of their equipment. This is not surprising, and we expect that it will be short-lived.

接下來我們來談談電信方面的事。我們大部分地區的數據與上一季基本持平。我們持續看到美國和亞洲部分地區部署 5G 網路。雖然中國確實在部署 5G，但目前我們看到出現了一個小的停滯期，因為他們正在消化一些設備。這不足為奇，我們預計這種情況不會持續太久。

Finally, as we've told you before, our C&I business often tracks GDP over the longer run, but sometimes, the quarterly timing can be different. While this segment has held up better than expected, things remain relatively flat. There is certainly some puts and takes, but overall, a decent market picture when you consider our mix of data center business, the applications people use every day to become more and more vital because those applications are needed to be processed, stored, transmitted, and this creates a great backdrop for our business.

最後，正如我們之前告訴過您的，我們的工商業業務通常長期與 GDP 保持一致，但有時，季度時間可能會有所不同。雖然這一部分錶現好於預期，但整體情況仍然相對平穩。雖然市場肯定存在一些波動，但總體而言，考慮到我們的資料中心業務組合，以及人們每天使用的應用程式變得越來越重要（因為這些應用程式需要被處理、儲存和傳輸），市場前景相當不錯，這為我們的業務創造了良好的背景。

Moving to Slide 5. To reiterate, the overall demand is strong, as evidenced by our order rate and our record backlog, led by EMEA and Asia. EMEA was particularly strong due to some larger projects, specifically in the colocation market.

切換到第 5 張投影片。重申一下，整體需求強勁，我們的訂單率和創紀錄的積壓訂單就證明了這一點，其中以歐洲、中東和非洲地區以及亞洲地區為主導。由於一些大型項目，特別是資料中心託管市場的項目，EMEA 地區表現尤為強勁。

As I mentioned in the prior chart, the enterprise and IT channel markets are still not back to pre-COVID levels. But there are signs of life, as evidenced by our integrated rack solutions business having positive growth in the third quarter this year versus the same quarter last year.

正如我在上一張圖表中提到的，企業和 IT 通路市場仍未恢復到 COVID 疫情前的水平。但也有復甦的跡象，例如，我們的一體化貨架解決方案業務今年第三季與去年同期相比實現了正成長。

Switching to the supply side now. I'm pleased to report that most of our facilities are operating normally. However, I will say that things continue to evolve very rapidly. We have been very cautious with our workforce as safety is our #1 priority. We continue to navigate through these impacts on the operations and supply chain side, but we have become creative problem solvers and experts in mitigating issues before they become concerns for our customers.

現在轉到供應方。我很高興地報告，我們的大部分設施都正常運作。不過，我必須說，事物仍在快速變化。我們一直非常謹慎地管理員工，因為安全是我們的首要任務。我們仍在努力應對這些對營運和供應鏈的影響，但我們已經成為富有創意的解決問題者和專家，能夠在問題成為客戶擔憂之前就加以緩解。

Gaining access to sites for installation and services has proven to be an issue, but we continue to manage around any restrictions. Countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines are still struggling with COVID, and we've seen some of these countries in Western Europe tightening back up again.

事實證明，進入安裝和服務場所是一個問題，但我們會繼續想辦法克服任何限制。新加坡、馬來西亞、菲律賓等國仍在與新冠疫情作鬥爭，我們也看到西歐的一些國家再次收緊了防疫措施。

These unfortunate COVID-related situations are outside of our control and, however, we continue to work closely with our customers to adhere to health and safety requirements and to make sure that our scheduling of our service departments are as flexible as possible to meet their needs.

這些不幸的 COVID-19 相關情況是我們無法控制的，但是，我們將繼續與客戶密切合作，遵守健康和安全要求，並確保我們的服務部門的日程安排盡可能靈活，以滿足他們的需求。

With that, I'll turn it over to David Fallon to walk us through the financials. David?

接下來，我將把麥克風交給大衛法倫，讓他為我們講解一下財務狀況。大衛？

Thanks, Rob. Turning to Slide 6. This page summarizes our third quarter financial results versus last year. As you can see, net sales were up $91 million or 8.5%, 8.3% when adjusted for a slight foreign exchange tailwind. We continued our strong momentum with orders, as Rob mentioned, which were up 15.5% in the third quarter and 10% year-to-date.

謝謝你，羅伯。請看第6頁投影片。本頁總結了我們第三季的財務表現與去年同期的比較。如您所見，淨銷售額增加了 9,100 萬美元，增幅為 8.5%；若扣除輕微的外匯利好因素，增幅為 8.3%。正如羅布所提到的那樣，我們的訂單繼續保持強勁增長勢頭，第三季訂單增長了 15.5%，年初至今增長了 10%。

Adjusted EBITDA increased $43 million or 31%, driven by higher sales, improved contribution margin and relatively flat fixed costs, converting into a 270 basis point improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin.

經調整的 EBITDA 成長了 4,300 萬美元，增幅達 31%，主要得益於銷售額成長、邊際貢獻率提高以及固定成本相對持平，從而使經調整的 EBITDA 利潤率提高了 270 個基點。

Our sales and profitability performance certainly translated into strong free cash flow of $129 million, which was up $115 million from last year's third quarter.

我們的銷售和獲利能力確實轉化為強勁的自由現金流，達到 1.29 億美元，比去年第三季增加了 1.15 億美元。

We will review some of the drivers of this improved free cash flow in a couple of slides, but before leaving this page, we are proud to emphasize that our third quarter adjusted EBITDA, related margin and free cash flow figures are all record quarterly highs, demonstrating our continued focus on profitable growth and strong cash flow generation.

我們將在接下來的幾張幻燈片中回顧一下推動自由現金流改善的一些因素，但在離開本頁之前，我們很自豪地強調，我們第三季度的調整後 EBITDA、相關利潤率和自由現金流數據均創下季度新高，這表明我們持續專注於盈利增長和強勁的現金流創造。

Turning to Slide 7. This slide summarizes our third quarter segment results. Net sales in the Americas were down $14 million or 3% as growth in our integrated rack solutions segment, primarily in the channel, was more than offset by lower large project sales in our critical infrastructure & solutions segment and lower sales in our services and spares segment caused by COVID site access issues.

請看第 7 張投影片。每張投影片總結了我們第三季各業務板塊的業績。美洲地區的淨銷售額下降了 1400 萬美元，降幅為 3%，原因是我們的整合機架解決方案部門（主要在通路方面）的成長被關鍵基礎設施和解決方案部門的大型項目銷售額下降以及受 COVID 現場訪問問題影響的服務和備件部門銷售額下降所抵消。

Net sales in APAC increased $56 million or 17%, primarily due to continued strong growth in China across most end markets, including data centers, telecommunications and industrials. Geographic locations outside of China, in APAC, were relatively flat as we continued to deal with some site access challenges in some of those jurisdictions.

亞太地區淨銷售額成長 5,600 萬美元，增幅達 17%，主要原因是中國在包括資料中心、電信和工業在內的大多數終端市場持續強勁成長。中國以外的亞太地區地理位置相對平坦，因為我們仍在應對其中一些司法管轄區的現場訪問挑戰。

Net sales in EMEA were up $49 million or 24% with $7 million driven by a stronger euro. The $42 million or 21% organic growth, somewhat aided by the timing of large projects was spread across several market verticals, including colocation, data centers, telecommunications and commercial and industrial.

歐洲、中東和非洲地區的淨銷售額成長了 4,900 萬美元，增幅達 24%，其中 700 萬美元的成長得益於歐元走強。4,200萬美元或21%的有機成長，在一定程度上得益於大型專案的時機，分佈在多個市場垂直領域，包括託管、資料中心、電信以及商業和工業領域。

From a profitability perspective, adjusted EBITDA margin improved in all 3 geographic segments, but notably in the Americas, where margin increased over 800 basis points from last year's third quarter. A portion of this improvement was driven by strong product mix this quarter, but that was coupled with a lower margin large project last year caused by poor internal execution, but the remainder of the increase was the result of higher contribution margin from strong execution of purchasing and pricing initiatives and driving lower fixed costs.

從獲利能力的角度來看，所有 3 個地理區域的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率均有所提高，但美洲地區的利潤率尤其顯著，比去年第三季提高了 800 多個基點。本季強勁的產品組合是推動業績改善的部分原因，但同時也與去年因內部執行不力而導致的低利潤率大型項目有關，而其餘的增長則歸功於採購和定價舉措的有效執行以及固定成本的降低，從而提高了貢獻毛利。

On a year-to-date basis, adjusted EBITDA margin in the Americas has increased over 400 basis points from last year, illustrating the progress we have made with our margin expansion initiatives in a relatively short period of time.

今年迄今為止，美洲地區的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率比去年同期增長了 400 多個基點，這表明我們在相對較短的時間內，在利潤率擴張計劃方面取得了進展。

Next, moving to Slide 8. This chart bridges third quarter free cash flow from last year. The $115 million increase is primarily driven by lower cash interest pursuant to the debt paydown and refinancing in the first quarter, and that is coupled with higher adjusted EBITDA.

接下來，請看第 8 張投影片。這張圖表比較了去年同期第三季的自由現金流。1.15 億美元的成長主要得益於第一季債務償還和再融資導致的現金利息減少，再加上調整後 EBITDA 的增加。

After beginning the year with the use of cash in the first quarter, if you recall, we used about $203 million of free cash flow in Q1. But since then, we have generated more than $190 million of free cash flow over the last 2 quarters, really indicative of the strong cash generation potential of this business. This free cash flow has allowed us to paydown our ABL by $170 million in the third quarter, while improving our liquidity position from about $450 million at the end of the first quarter to over $650 million at the end of September.

如果你還記得的話，年初我們在第一季使用了現金，當時我們在第一季使用了約 2.03 億美元的自由現金流。但自那以後，我們在過去兩個季度中產生了超過 1.9 億美元的自由現金流，這充分證明了該業務強大的現金生成潛力。自由現金流使我們能夠在第三季償還 1.7 億美元的資產抵押貸款，同時將我們的流動性狀況從第一季末的約 4.5 億美元改善到 9 月底的超過 6.5 億美元。

Next, turning to Slide 9. This page summarizes costs and benefits of a restructuring program, which supports our continuing objective to maintain fixed cost constant while reinvesting in the long-term growth of the business.

接下來，請看第 9 頁投影片。本頁總結了重組計劃的成本和收益，該計劃支持我們持續的目標，即在保持固定成本不變的同時，對業務的長期增長進行再投資。

Pursuant to this program, we recorded a $71 million restructuring reserve in the third quarter, which was primarily related to severance for head count efficiency and footprint optimization projects to be launched in the fourth quarter and over the next couple of years.

根據該計劃，我們在第三季度提列了 7,100 萬美元的重組準備金，這主要與將在第四季度和未來幾年啟動的人員效率和佈局優化項目的遣散費有關。

In addition, we recorded a $9 million intangible asset impairment charge for trademarks and developed technology in a small business unit we are streamlining. We anticipate additional, albeit smaller, restructuring program expenses in both 2021 and 2022 that aren't covered by the third quarter reserve.

此外，我們也對正在精簡的小型企業部門的商標和已開發技術提列了 900 萬美元的無形資產減損準備。我們預計 2021 年和 2022 年將出現額外的重組計畫支出，儘管數額較小，但這些支出無法用第三季的儲備金覆蓋。

We estimate $84 million net cash outflow to execute the restructuring program with approximately $60 million of that in 2021. We expect $85 million run rate savings from the program in full year 2023, with those gross savings ramping up in each 2021 and 2022.

我們預計執行重組計劃將產生 8,400 萬美元的淨現金流出，其中約 6,000 萬美元將在 2021 年流出。我們預計該計劃在 2023 年全年可節省 8,500 萬美元，且 2021 年和 2022 年的節省總額將逐年增加。

For next year, we expect over $40 million gross savings from the restructuring program, offset by approximately $20 million of additional restructuring expenses not covered by the third quarter reserve.

預計明年重組計劃將節省超過 4000 萬美元的毛利，但第三季儲備金未涵蓋的約 2000 萬美元額外重組費用將抵消這些節省。

Next, turning to Slide 10. This page summarizes our financial guidance for the fourth quarter, and overarching any expectations for the next several months is the dynamic uncertainty with COVID, which is certainly worse than in many global jurisdictions. Accordingly, our guidance for next quarter assumes that COVID conditions are not significantly changed from what we experienced in the third quarter. If conditions do become more challenged, our guidance here today could be significantly negatively impacted.

接下來，請看第 10 張投影片。本頁總結了我們對第四季度的財務預期，而未來幾個月的任何預期都籠罩在 COVID 疫情帶來的動態不確定性之上，這種情況肯定比許多其他國家和地區都要嚴重。因此，我們對下一季的業績預期是，新冠疫情狀況不會像第三季那樣有顯著變化。如果情況變得更加嚴峻，我們今天提供的指導意見可能會受到嚴重的負面影響。

Notwithstanding these changing COVID conditions, we do expect strong fourth quarter topline growth of 6% to 8% from last year's fourth quarter, and 7% to 9% sequentially from this year's third quarter as we continue to benefit from a record high $1.85 billion backlog at the end of September.

儘管新冠疫情情勢不斷變化，但我們預計第四季度營收將強勁增長，較去年同期增長 6% 至 8%，較今年第三季度環比增長 7% 至 9%，因為我們將繼續受益於 9 月底創紀錄的 18.5 億美元積壓訂單。

Adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to improve approximately 165 basis points at the midpoint from last year's fourth quarter as contribution margin should increase from purchasing and pricing initiatives. And fixed costs, although slightly higher than last year, primarily due to growth investment, should decline as a percentage of sales.

預計調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率將比去年第四季提高約 165 個基點（取中間值），因為採購和定價措施將提高貢獻毛利。固定成本雖然比去年略高（主要是因為成長投資），但佔銷售額的比例應該會下降。

Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA margin, when looked at sequentially from the third quarter, should be relatively flat quarter-over-quarter, despite the anticipated higher sales. And some of the drivers that include the anticipation of an approximately $30 million increase in fixed costs in the fourth quarter versus the third quarter as the benefits from our COVID-19 cost savings program ramp down, and in addition to higher growth investment and public company costs.

儘管預計銷售額會成長，但從第三季來看，第四季調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率應該會比去年同期保持相對穩定。其中一些驅動因素包括：預計第四季度固定成本將比第三季度增加約 3,000 萬美元，因為我們的 COVID-19 成本節約計劃帶來的收益正在逐漸減少；此外，成長投資和上市公司成本也會增加。

Once again, before moving off this slide, we certainly reiterate that these expected fourth quarter results could be significantly negatively impacted by any worsening COVID-19 conditions.

在結束本頁內容之前，我們再次重申，如果新冠肺炎疫情惡化，預計的第四季度業績可能會受到嚴重負面影響。

So with that, I turn it back over to Rob.

所以，接下來我就把麥克風交還給羅布了。

Thanks, David. Turning to Slide 11, here's a bit more detail regarding our perspective on 2021. We expect cloud, colocation and telecom markets will continue to be healthy as we enter into 2021. Because of COVID, we're unable to anticipate what the enterprise market will look like, but we anticipate growth in the overall data center landscape.

謝謝你，大衛。接下來請看第 11 張投影片，這裡有更多關於我們對 2021 年的看法。我們預計，進入 2021 年，雲端運算、託管和電信市場將繼續保持健康發展。由於新冠疫情的影響，我們無法預測企業市場的發展趨勢，但我們預期整個資料中心領域將會成長。

Our backlog should be slightly better heading into 2021 than we thought at the end of last quarter, which provides us good visibility and confidence on the revenue side for the first half of 2021. However, the uncertainty of COVID provides us a pause today more than we were thinking 90 days ago. Certainly, we're not in the business of making predictions on when there will be a vaccine, but we do see this as a very dynamic situation today, as David mentioned earlier. As we have seen during this entire pandemic, we are planning for the worst scenario and working and hoping for the best as things remain very dynamic even today.

進入 2021 年，我們的訂單積壓情況應該會比上個季度末的預期略好一些，這讓我們對 2021 年上半年的收入情況有了良好的預期和信心。然而，新冠疫情帶來的不確定性，讓我們今天比90天前更深思熟慮。當然，我們不會預測何時會有疫苗問世，但正如大衛之前提到的，我們認為目前的情況瞬息萬變。正如我們在整個疫情期間所看到的，我們正在為最壞的情況做準備，並努力工作，希望出現最好的結果，因為即使在今天，情況仍然瞬息萬變。

On the margin side, as we've mentioned previously, we are firm believers in the strategy of holding fixed cost constant. This concept is being practiced today, but as mentioned previously, we will continue to invest in R&D and growth investments that will be key for our long-term success. So while we're not providing specific 2021 guidance at this point, we did want to refresh the commentary we provided to you last quarter.

在利潤率方面，正如我們之前提到的，我們堅信保持固定成本不變的策略。這一理念目前已在實踐中得到應用，但正如之前提到的，我們將繼續投資研發和成長，這對我們的長期成功至關重要。因此，雖然我們目前不提供具體的 2021 年業績指引，但我們確實想重申一下上個季度我們向您提供的評論。

Now turning to Slide 12. Our backlog, fixed cost constant approach we have implemented, and our liquidity position are in great shape. We hold a leadership position in a growing industry, and the demand for digital infrastructure to support the vital applications the world needs has never been stronger. We will continue to invest for the future while simultaneously managing for today, so we are prepared to be even more successful as we emerge from this pandemic and the world adapts to a post-COVID life.

現在請看第12張投影片。我們的積壓訂單、我們實施的固定成本恆定方法以及我們的流動性狀況都非常好。我們在一個蓬勃發展的行業中佔據領先地位，而對支持世界所需重要應用的數位基礎設施的需求也從未如此強烈。我們將繼續為未來投資，同時兼顧當下，以便我們能夠在走出疫情、世界適應後疫情時代之際取得更大的成功。

Thank you for being on the call today. Thank you for your support. I'll now turn the call over to the operator, who will open up the line for questions.

感謝您今天參加電話會議。感謝您的支持。現在我將把電話轉交給接線員，由他/她開通線路接受提問。

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Andy Kaplowitz of Citigroup.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自花旗集團的安迪‧卡普洛維茲。

Rob, thinking about -- just early thoughts about 2021 you gave us, you've mentioned you expect to see strong demand from cloud and colocation, healthy telecom, and then it's too early to call on the enterprise stuff. But it seems like when you put that together with your backlog and you consider the easy comparisons you have, at least in the first half of '21, does it give you at least some confidence that Vertiv could see the type of organic growth you are recording in the second half of '20 lasting into '21, despite the increased COVID risk you're concerned about?

Rob，想想你之前對 2021 年的一些初步看法，你提到你預計雲端運算和託管業務會有強勁的需求，電信業也會保持健康發展，但現在預測企業業務的發展還為時過早。但是，當你把這些與你的積壓訂單結合起來，並考慮到你手頭上的比較數據時，至少在 2021 年上半年，這是否讓你至少對 Vertiv 能夠將 2020 年下半年所記錄的那種自然增長延續到 2021 年抱有一些信心，儘管你擔心 COVID 的風險增加？

I think it's really too early to call what -- again, the recovery on the enterprise, the small to medium business. So I would say that as this business has over the last 4 years, Andy, there is a digestion period and then there is a building period. And we can't really predict what that's going to look like. So I wouldn't be projecting you and saying that we guarantee or we have this same level of growth. But we are seeing a robust market out there, and we're participating, and we're winning our fair share.

我認為現在就斷言企業、中小企業的復甦情況還為時過早。所以我想說，就像這家公司過去 4 年的發展歷程一樣，安迪，會經歷一個消化期，然後是發展期。我們無法真正預測那會是什麼樣子。所以我不會替你做打算，說我們能保證或是能達到同樣的成長水準。但我們看到市場前景一片光明，我們正在參與其中，也獲得了我們應得的份額。

That's helpful. And then you mentioned the $20 million of incremental benefit in Q3 that came from increased productivity, pricing mix. Maybe you could talk more generally about the progress in implementing the Vertiv operating system. Where are you in the process? How do we think about the incremental opportunity in terms of pricing and productivity as we go into '21? As we go into '21, do the benefits actually accelerate as you continue to improve your focus over the next few quarters?

那很有幫助。然後您提到了第三季因生產力提高和定價組合優化而帶來的 2000 萬美元增量收益。或許您可以更廣泛地談談Vertiv作業系統實施方面的進展。你目前進行到哪個階段了？展望 2021 年，我們如何看待定價和生產力的增量機會？進入 2021 年，隨著您在接下來的幾個季度中不斷提高專注度，收益是否會真正加速成長？

Sure, Andy. Great question. So our Vertiv operating system, and we've talked about this is -- it's something that takes time, right? It's not something that we actually get done in a year or 2 years, but it happens over a period of time as we roll that out and deploy that. And the benefits from some years maybe 50 basis points, next year maybe 100 basis points.

當然可以，安迪。問得好。所以，我們的 Vertiv 作業系統，我們之前也討論過——這需要時間，對吧？這不是我們一年或兩年內就能完成的事情，而是在我們逐步推出和部署的過程中發生的。某些年份的收益可能是 50 個基點，明年可能是 100 個基點。

We feel good about the pilot plants that we have running now and our progress that we've made so far, as it relates to rolling out the Vertiv operating system. And again, we do see long-term benefits from that.

我們對目前正在運行的試點工廠以及我們在推廣 Vertiv 作業系統方面取得的進展感到滿意。而且，我們確實看到了長期的益處。

From a pricing perspective, we continue to get in various parts of the world pricing, and we expect to get pricing again next year as we go into 2021, whether it's on products or services, or our differentiated product sets that we're coming out with. And that's part of the reason why we're investing a lot of money in the -- what we call the Vertiv Product Development, is to bring those features up and have those innovative solutions that customers are willing to pay a better price or give us a better price for that. So we're not just competing on a commodity level product for product.

從定價的角度來看，我們繼續在世界各地獲得定價信息，我們預計在 2021 年，無論是產品、服務，還是我們即將推出的差異化產品組合，我們都會再次獲得定價信息。這也是我們投入大量資金進行 Vertiv 產品開發的部分原因，目的是為了推出這些功能，並擁有客戶願意支付更高價格或給予我們更高價格的創新解決方案。所以，我們不只是在商品層面進行產品之間的競爭。

And just one more quick one for me. The lower contribution margins that you estimate for Q4 versus Q3, it's really just a function of that $30 million in higher fixed costs and then just continued investment. There is nothing else really to lead into there other than that.

我再快速問一個問題。您預計第四季度貢獻毛利率低於第三季度，這實際上只是由於 3000 萬美元的固定成本增加以及持續投資所致。除此之外，真的沒有其他可以引出的了。

Yes, Andy, this is David. That certainly is a headwind for us in 4Q, the higher fixed cost. We certainly have to point out that we see that higher fixed costs as investment in the long term. A lot of that is driven by VPD spend, R&D spend and continue to invest in some of the growth markets. But we also anticipate contribution margin to dip a little bit in Q4 versus Q3, which is separate from fixed costs, and that's driven in part by product segment mix. So we see healthy growth, Q3, Q4 on the topline, but it's probably a little bit overbalanced to the critical infrastructure and solutions product segment, which has a little bit lower margin than the other 2 product segments.

是的，安迪，這是大衛。第四季度，較高的固定成本無疑會為我們帶來不利影響。我們必須指出，我們認為較高的固定成本從長遠來看是一種投資。其中很大一部分是由VPD支出、研發支出以及對一些成長型市場的持續投資所驅動的。但我們也預期第四季貢獻毛利會比第三季略有下降，這與固定成本無關，部分原因是產品細分市場組合的變化。因此，我們看到第三季和第四季營收實現了健康成長，但成長可能略微過度集中於關鍵基礎設施和解決方案產品部門，該部門的利潤率比其他兩個產品部門略低。

The next question comes from Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的馬克·德萊尼。

Congratulations on the strong third quarter results. So I'd like to better understand the commentary on the hyperscale market. And of course, as discussed, the company had very good orders in that segment and is expecting some strength to continue there. Can you elaborate a little bit more on that end market in particular? And I asked because some of the semiconductor and technology companies have been seeing a slowdown in data center spend. It doesn't seem like that's Vertiv's outlook. So maybe you could help us understand a little bit more what you're seeing in that market and why Vertiv's business may be a little bit different?

恭喜該公司第三季業績取得強勁成長。所以我想更了解一下關於超大規模市場的評論。當然，正如之前討論的，該公司在該領域獲得了非常好的訂單，並預計這種強勁勢頭將持續下去。能否再詳細談談終端市場？我之所以這麼問，是因為一些半導體和科技公司發現資料中心支出有所放緩。但這似乎並非Vertiv的看法。所以，您能否幫助我們更深入地了解您在該市場中觀察到的情況，以及為什麼 Vertiv 的業務可能略有不同？

Yes. Mark, this is Rob, and thanks for the question. Thanks for being on today. What I'd say is a couple of things. We are seeing strength globally in the colocation and hyperscale market. What tends to happen though is, what you might hear from the chip manufacturers doesn't necessarily correlate or connect directly to the demand that we're seeing, partly because while we're building, they're not filling. And so there is some timing differences as the data centers get built and get deployed from them, then filling with the IT equipment from that perspective. So I don't think we use those as the indicators of where things are going because they're a little bit lagging, what we're seeing on the front end of the business.

是的。馬克，我是羅伯，感謝你的提問。感謝您今天參與節目。我想說兩點。我們看到全球範圍內的託管和超大規模市場表現強勁。但通常情況下，你從晶片製造商那裡聽到的消息並不一定與我們看到的需求直接相關或聯繫在一起，部分原因是，雖然我們在生產，但他們並沒有滿足需求。因此，從資料中心的建置和部署，到填充 IT 設備，在時間上會有一些差異。所以我認為我們不能把這些當作判斷事物發展方向的指標，因為它們有點落後，無法反映出我們在業務前端看到的情況。

Got it. That's helpful. And I just wanted to ask on free cash flow, and as we're thinking about 2021 modeling. I know it's still early, but should we think about incremental EBITDA dropping through into incremental free cash flow? Are there any investments in working capital or CapEx we should be cognizant of, just thinking about it at this point? And the company just announced the dividend, but if you could also talk about it, as you are driving that higher free cash flow, how should investors be thinking about the use of that free cash flow?

知道了。那很有幫助。我只是想問一下自由現金流的問題，因為我們正在考慮 2021 年的模型。我知道現在還為時過早，但我們是否應該考慮增量 EBITDA 轉化為增量自由現金流？現階段，我們是否應該注意營運資金或資本支出的任何投資？公司剛剛宣布了分紅，但如果您也能談談這方面，鑑於您推動了更高的自由現金流，投資者應該如何考慮如何使用這些自由現金流？

Yes. Thanks for the question, Mark. So first, on free cash flow. I think a good starting point to understand 2021 is to go back to our beginning of the year guidance for 2020. And this is all pre-COVID, but on a pro forma basis, when you adjust for some of the transaction-related expenses and also adjust for some of the benefit that we started to receive at the end of the first quarter from the debt refinancing and paydown, we had set a pro forma free cash flow for 2020 was in that $285 million to $300 million range. I think that's a really good starting point for next year.

是的。謝謝你的提問，馬克。首先，我們來看看自由現金流。我認為要了解 2021 年，一個好的起點是回顧我們 2020 年初的指導。以上數據均來自新冠疫情之前，但按備考基準計算，在調整了一些與交易相關的費用，以及從第一季末開始從債務再融資和償還中獲得的一些收益後，我們預計 2020 年的備考自由現金流將在 2.85 億美元至 3 億美元之間。我認為這對明年來說是一個非常好的開始。

There certainly will be some moving pieces, and one of those is related to the cash outlay pursuant to the restructuring program, which we said was about $60 million. We should receive some benefit from the lower expenses from the restructuring. I think that's probably a really good starting point.

肯定會有一些變動因素，其中之一與根據重組計劃進行的現金支出有關，我們說過這筆支出約為 6000 萬美元。重組後，費用降低，我們應該會從中受益。我認為這或許是一個很好的起點。

As it relates to what we are going to do with the cash, at this point our intention is to paydown debt.

至於我們將如何使用這筆現金，目前我們的目標是償還債務。

That's helpful. If I could just sneak one last follow-up in, around that restructuring. If I recall correctly, at the last quarter's call, the company talked about potential savings of $50 million to $70 million in 2021, and now today, talking about a higher number in 2023. But if I'm understanding correctly, '21 savings is maybe a little bit lower. I don't know, David, if you could -- or anyone on the team could clarify a bit more on how to think about the trajectory of savings from the program?

那很有幫助。如果我能再補充一點關於那次重組的內容就好了。如果我沒記錯的話，在上個季度的電話會議上，該公司談到 2021 年可能節省 5,000 萬至 7,000 萬美元，而今天，他們又談到 2023 年將節省更多。但如果我理解正確的話，2021年的儲蓄額可能會略低一些。大衛，我不知道你是否可以——或者團隊裡的其他人能否再詳細解釋一下如何看待該項目帶來的節省軌跡？

Yes. Great question. So apples-to-apples, the $50 million to $70 million that we discussed at the end of the second quarter after we have completed the initial planning is likely going to be in the $40 million range. So that's a gross savings number. The reason that has declined from when we talked about it 3 months ago is primarily related to some of the planning on the footprint optimization.

是的。問得好。因此，公平地說，我們在第二季末完成初步規劃後討論的 5,000 萬至 7,000 萬美元，很可能最終會控制在 4,000 萬美元左右。所以，這是總共節省的金額。與 3 個月前我們討論這個問題時相比，下降的主要原因是我們在優化佔地面積方面進行了一些規劃。

So of course, a -- primary goal of the restructuring is to take costs out, but we have to do that with very minimal impact on our customers. So as we look at the plan, we've moved some of the planning out on some of the footprint projects from mid- to late 2021 into 2022. And so the savings have not changed. The expected savings have actually increased a little bit, but just the timing has moved out from 2021 into 2022.

因此，重組的主要目標當然是降低成本，但我們必須盡量減少對客戶的影響。因此，在審視該計畫時，我們將一些佔地面積項目的規劃工作從 2021 年中後期推遲到了 2022 年。因此，節省的金額並沒有改變。預期節省的金額實際上略有增加，只是時間從 2021 年推遲到了 2022 年。

The next question comes from Amit Daryanani of Evercore.

下一個問題來自 Evercore 公司的 Amit Daryanani。

I guess, maybe to start with, as I think about the September quarter, growth number is at 8% growth. And I guess, when I think the December quarter, midpoint of growth is (inaudible) you guys will do 7%, 8% organic growth in the back half of this year. How do I think about that outperformance versus your longer term growth? You've talked about at 3% to 4%. Is that coming more from share gains or better end market? And sort of the durability of that as we go forward?

我想，或許可以先從九月的季度業績說起，成長率為 8%。我猜，考慮到 12 月季度的成長中點是（聽不清楚），你們今年下半年的自然成長率將達到 7% 到 8%。我該如何看待這種超額收益與你的長期成長之間的關係？你提到過 3% 到 4%。這更多是來自市場份額的成長還是終端市場需求的改善？那麼，這種可持續性在未來能否持續下去呢？

I'll start with that. This is Rob, Amit, and thanks for the question. I think it's a combination of both. The end markets are strong as it relates to colocation, and that was one of our key strategies that we've kind of put in place to take share there, and we've done really well on a global basis. And that end market itself is fairly robust today, and again, driven a lot by COVID and people working from home and just not having enough capacity from that perspective. So I think the overperformance there or a strong performance is really driven by those 2 things. We feel good about our position against the competition.

我先從這裡開始。我是羅伯，阿米特，謝謝你的提問。我認為兩者兼而有之。就託管服務而言，終端市場非常強勁，這是我們為搶佔市場份額而製定的關鍵策略之一，而且我們在全球範圍內都取得了非常好的成績。而如今終端市場本身相當強勁，很大程度上也是受新冠疫情和人們在家工作的影響，從這個角度來看，產能不足所致。所以我認為，那裡的出色表現或強勁表現實際上是由這兩件事驅動的。我們對自身在競爭中的地位感到滿意。

Perfect. And I guess, maybe I want to just follow-up on Americas performance, which was down 1% organically versus overall up 8%. If you look at that delta, was that really all attributed to the timing of large projects? Or I guess, maybe how much was that versus some of the other factors? And do you expect to catch up that performance in the December quarter?

完美的。我想，或許我應該跟進美洲市場的表現，其有機成長率下降了 1%，而整體成長率為 8%。如果仔細分析這個差額，這真的完全是因為大型專案的時間安排造成的嗎？或者我想問的是，與其他因素相比，這部分因素佔多大比例？你預計12月份的業績能趕上這個水準嗎？

Yes. This is David. So I think you hit it right on the head. So the impact of the large project was somewhere between 400 and 500 basis points of growth. So that alone would have turned that negative 2.5% to a positive. But if you also look at the product segment results for the Americas, there also was a headwind for services, which probably contributed about 200 basis points. And in addition, Americas also had a foreign exchange headwind. The other 2 regions had a tailwind in the third quarter, but because of the Mexican peso, the Brazilian real, that was about a 1% headwind.

是的。這是大衛。所以我覺得你說得完全正確。因此，這個大型專案的影響帶來了 400 到 500 個基點的成長。僅此一項就能將負2.5%的收益率轉為正值。但如果你再看一下美洲的產品細分市場業績，你會發現服務業也面臨不利因素，這可能導致了約 200 個基點的下滑。此外，美洲還面臨外匯逆風。其他兩個地區在第三季都受益於順風，但由於墨西哥比索和巴西雷亞爾的貶值，反而造成了約 1% 的逆風。

And looking forward into the fourth quarter, and I think we bullet point this on the guidance slide, we are anticipating low single-digit growth in the Americas in the fourth quarter. So we do anticipate a little bit of a rebound there versus what we saw year-over-year in the third quarter.

展望第四季度，正如我們在業績指引幻燈片中重點提到的，我們預計美洲地區第四季將實現個位數低成長。因此，我們預計第三季與去年同期相比會有一定程度的反彈。

The next question comes from Nicole DeBlase of Deutsche Bank.

下一個問題來自德意志銀行的妮可·德布萊斯。

So I just wanted to follow-up on one of the questions asked earlier on the new restructuring program. So I think the $40 million gross savings, get that part. I guess what I'm missing is, I think you guys have talked about, about $60 million of temporary cost benefits in 2020 that you were looking to offset. I guess, is the expectation that, that full $60 million does come back next year, thus creating a net headwind? Or how do we think about that?

所以我想就之前提出的關於新重組計劃的一個問題做個後續說明。所以我認為節省的4000萬美元總額，了解這一點。我想我漏掉的是，你們之前也提到過，2020 年大約有 6,000 萬美元的臨時成本效益需要抵銷。我猜，大家的預期是明年這 6 千萬美元全部到賬，造成淨不利影響？或者我們應該如何看待這個問題？

Yes. Nicole, so -- really good question. So what we would say is, we really have to look at these things independently. So when we look at the restructuring, we do anticipate $40 million of gross savings. We will have additional restructuring expenses of $20 million. So there is a net $20 million savings next year related to restructuring.

是的。妮可，所以——這真是個好問題。所以我們的意思是，我們必須獨立看待這些問題。因此，當我們審視重組方案時，我們預計可以節省 4000 萬美元。我們將額外支出2000萬美元的重組費用。因此，明年與重組相關的淨節省額為 2000 萬美元。

Separately, we do anticipate some headwinds pursuant to the COVID cost-saving program we put in place. If you recall, we anticipated that to be $60 million this year, and we're certainly on track. But of that $60 million, we believe $40 million is going to come back into the business.

另外，我們預計，由於我們實施了 COVID 成本節約計劃，將會出現一些不利因素。如果你還記得的話，我們預計今年的收入將達到 6000 萬美元，而且我們目前肯定正在按計劃進行。但我們相信，這 6,000 萬美元中，有 4,000 萬美元將會重新投入公司營運。

So those 2 things certainly offset, but when you look at all of the savings initiatives and the headwinds, our goal and our target is to keep fixed cost constant. And we purposely -- on the 2021 slide, we provided some indication that we actually anticipate fixed costs to increase in 2021 versus 2020. And a big driver of that is related to the size of the reinvestment back into R&D and growth investment in the market.

所以這兩件事當然會相互抵消，但是當你考慮到所有的節約措施和不利因素時，我們的目標和目的是保持固定成本不變。我們特意在 2021 年的幻燈片中提供了一些跡象，表明我們預計 2021 年的固定成本將比 2020 年增加。而這背後的主要驅動因素與研發再投資和市場成長投資的規模有關。

So we kind of look at all these puts and takes fungibly, and when it all boils down to what our fixed costs doing next year, we actually anticipate those to increase a little bit because of that growth investment on a net basis.

因此，我們以一種可互換的方式來看待所有這些買賣，當最終確定我們明年的固定成本時，我們預計由於成長投資，這些成本淨值實際上會略有增加。

Got it. That's really, really helpful to clarify that. I guess one follow-up. When you guys think about restructuring costs, are you going to add those back to adjusted EBITDA? I'm just trying to think of the right way to model this.

知道了。澄清這一點真的很有幫助。我想還有一個後續問題。你們在考慮重組成本時，會把這些成本加回調整後的 EBITDA 嗎？我正在努力思考如何正確地建模。

We are not. So going forward, we -- the only item that we will adjust will be for the intangible amortization and that would be reflected in our adjusted EPS, adjusted net income. But going forward, any restructuring expenses will be included in whatever we guide and whatever we report for adjusted EBITDA or whatever -- what other -- whatever financial metric that we'll be reporting.

我們不是。因此，今後我們唯一需要調整的項目是無形資產攤銷，這將反映在我們的調整後每股收益和調整後淨收入。但展望未來，任何重組費用都將計入我們的業績指引和調整後 EBITDA 或其他任何財務指標中。

Okay. Got it. I'm just going to squeeze one more in. I guess, back to the point on R&D also related for 2021, any idea yet about the magnitude of R&D growth next year or step-up in investment? Maybe it's too early. And then, I guess, like longer term, does R&D need to continue increasing from here beyond 2021?

好的。知道了。我再擠出一點時間。我想，回到研發這個話題，也跟2021年有關，對於明年的研發成長規模或投資增加幅度，大家有什麼想法嗎？或許現在還為時過早。那麼，從長遠來看，研發投入是否需要在 2021 年以後繼續增加呢？

Nicole, this is Rob. I'll take the first part of that, and Dave can share some guidance or some -- not guidance, but some numbers. We -- part of our strategy, as we stated, was to take our R&D up to around 6%. So we expect that to increase every year as we look at the adjacent, I would call, markets or adjacent product areas and continuing to fill out the product line and driving that innovation in both the Edge and continued in the colo and hyperscale.

妮可，這是羅伯。我來負責第一部分，戴夫可以分享一些指導意見，或者——不是指導意見，而是一些數據。正如我們所說，我們策略的一部分是將研發投入提高到 6% 左右。因此，我們預計隨著我們關注相鄰的（我稱之為）市場或鄰近產品領域，並不斷完善產品線，推動邊緣運算、資料中心和超大規模資料中心領域的創新，這一數字將逐年成長。

So we look at continued investment as part of -- our vector of differentiation going forward is to continue that development cycle and new products. And we measure that and take a look at revenue from new products and how that helps us grow. So I would expect for the next couple of years as we ramp up to the 6%, and we'll continue to spend at that level, and that will be a key differentiator for us.

因此，我們將持續投資視為我們未來差異化策略的一部分，即繼續推動研發週期和新產品開發。我們會衡量這一點，並查看新產品的收入以及這如何幫助我們成長。因此，我預計在接下來的幾年裡，隨著我們逐步提高到 6% 的水平，我們將繼續保持這一支出水平，這將是我們的一項關鍵差異化優勢。

The next question comes from Lance Vitanza of Cowen.

下一個問題來自 Cowen 公司的 Lance Vitanza。

Congratulations on the quarter. I guess, I wanted to drill down a little bit on the Americas EBITDA margin. Obviously, it is really strong in the quarter, and then even if you were to look over a 9 month -- the last 9 months, it's pretty impressive. I know you mentioned you've got some fixed costs that are coming back in Q4. Should we assume that -- is that sort of the big driver of that big margin improvement? And then is it possible to sort of think about what that margin would have been kind of on a go-forward basis? And just more generally, I guess, do you think about that level of margin as ultimately sustainable or achievable?

恭喜你本季取得佳績。我想更深入地了解一下美洲的 EBITDA 利潤率。顯然，本季業績非常強勁，即使放眼過去九個月——過去九個月——業績也相當出色。我知道您提到過，第四季會有一些固定成本重新出現。我們是否可以認為──這就是利潤率大幅提升的主要驅動因素？那麼，是否有可能考慮一下，從長遠來看，這個利潤空間會有多大呢？更廣泛地說，您認為這種利潤水準最終是可持續的還是可以實現的？

Yes. Thanks, Lance. This is David. So first, I want to reiterate how pleased we are with the progress that we're seeing, not only in Americas but in all the regions as it relates to margin expansion, but in particular, in the Americas. Certainly, the 800 basis point improvement versus the third quarter last year was very impressive, but it also improved about 200 basis points from Q2, which is probably more comparable.

是的。謝謝你，蘭斯。這是大衛。首先，我想重申我們對目前的進展感到非常滿意，不僅在美洲，而且在所有地區，尤其是在利潤率擴張方面，我們都取得了顯著進展，尤其是在美洲。當然，與去年第三季相比，800 個基點的改善非常令人印象深刻，但與第二季相比也改善了約 200 個基點，這可能更具可比性。

And from our perspective, heading into Q3, the performance that we saw from Americas from an EBITDA margin perspective of around 30%, probably was at the upper range of what we anticipated. And there were a lot of things that went the right way in Q3, including product mix, not necessarily between product segments but within product segments.

從我們的角度來看，進入第三季度，美洲地區的 EBITDA 利潤率約為 30%，這可能處於我們預期範圍的上限。第三季有很多事情進展順利，包括產品組合，不一定是產品類別之間的組合，而是產品類別內部的組合。

So as we move to the fourth quarter, we would not anticipate to see an EBITDA margin in Americas comparable to Q3. We still would see very nice growth from Q4 last year, but we would anticipate EBITDA margin in Q4 to be more close to Q2. And one of the drivers there for Q4 is that a lot of our growth that we're seeing in Americas and also the other 2 segments is in that critical infrastructure & solutions segment, which does have a little bit lower margin than the other 2 segments.

因此，進入第四季度，我們預計美洲地區的 EBITDA 利潤率將無法與第三季度相提並論。我們預計第四季仍將比去年同期實現非常可觀的成長，但我們預計第四季的 EBITDA 利潤率將更接近第二季的水平。第四季成長的驅動因素之一是，我們在美洲以及其他兩個業務板塊看到的許多成長都來自關鍵基礎設施和解決方案板塊，而該板塊的利潤率確實比其他兩個板塊略低。

So we're very hopeful that, that contribution margin and the EBITDA margin we saw in Americas is -- really portends what's to come for that segment and the business in general. But just looking out one quarter, we would anticipate that to drop back a little bit.

因此，我們非常有信心，我們在美洲看到的貢獻毛利率和 EBITDA 利潤率，確實預示著該業務板塊乃至整個公司未來的發展前景。但僅就未來一個季度而言，我們預計這一數字會略有下降。

That's helpful. If I could just get one more in, a quick one. You mentioned in the slides that the definition of -- your free cash flow definition includes dispositions of PP&E. I don't think that, that was material in Q3. Do you expect that, that will be material going forward at any point?

那很有幫助。如果我能再加一個就好了，就一個速戰速決的。你在投影片中提到，自由現金流的定義包括處置固定資產。我不認為那是第三季要討論的內容。你認為這會在未來的任何時候都變成實質問題嗎？

Certainly not this year. I think we had about $5 million last year. I'm not sure we've had anything year-to-date. So we wouldn't anticipate anything significant for Q3 -- I'm sorry, for Q4. However, related to the restructuring program, we do plan to sell facilities, some equipment and that probably would be timed in 2022. It could slip into the end of 2021, but we wouldn't anticipate anything for at least -- significant -- anything significant for at least a year.

今年肯定不行。我想我們去年大概有500萬美元。我不確定我們今年到目前為止是否有任何成果。因此，我們預計第三季不會有任何重大進展——抱歉，是第四季。然而，與重組計劃相關的是，我們確實計劃出售一些設施和設備，這可能要等到 2022 年。可能會拖到 2021 年底，但我們預計至少一年內不會有任何重大進展。

Have those prospective potential inflows been kind of netted against the numbers that we're talking about in terms of your spend over the course of the next year?

這些潛在的潛在收入是否已經與我們討論的您未來一年的支出數字進行了抵消？

It is. So when we -- well, for the lifetime of the program, we're expecting $84 million net cash outflow to support the savings. The anticipated sale of assets is net in that number, and it's somewhere between $20 million and $25 million. So the gross cash outflow is over $100 million, but we do anticipate to get between $20 million and $25 million for these asset sales. And once again, most of that we anticipate to come in 2022.

這是。因此，在該計劃的整個生命週期內，我們預計將有 8,400 萬美元的淨現金流出來支持節約。該數字中包含了預期資產出售的淨額，金額在 2,000 萬美元到 2,500 萬美元之間。因此，總現金流出超過 1 億美元，但我們預計從這些資產出售中獲得 2,000 萬至 2,500 萬美元。而且，我們預計其中大部分將在 2022 年實現。

The next question comes from Andrew Obin of Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的安德魯‧奧賓。

I think a lot of my questions have been answered, but just one question just to clarify. So if fixed costs are going to be increasing in '21 versus 2020, so should we think about incremental EBITDA margins coming in below gross margins, so target contribution margin, 40%, 45%, but maybe thinking low to mid-30s contribution, is that still reasonable?

我覺得我的很多問題都得到了解答，但還有一個問題需要澄清。如果 2021 年的固定成本將比 2020 年增加，那麼我們是否應該考慮增量 EBITDA 利潤率低於毛利率，目標貢獻利潤率 40%、45%，但也許應該考慮 30% 左右的貢獻利潤率，這仍然合理嗎？

So I think from a contribution margin perspective, what we have spoken to was a general range between 40% and 45%. It depends on the region. It depends on customer mix and market vertical mix, but we still generally plan internally for that range, and that's what we would speak to externally.

所以我認為，從貢獻毛利率的角度來看，我們所討論的範圍大致在 40% 到 45% 之間。這取決於地區。這取決於客戶組成和市場垂直構成，但我們通常還是會在內部規劃這個範圍，這也是我們會對外討論的內容。

What I will say from a fixed cost perspective, and I want to caveat all this, again, we are not providing guidance for 2021 yet. We are still going through the planning process ourselves, but we felt it prudent to provide some expectations that we see a lot of good R&D and VPD projects for next year, quite frankly, more projects, and we have resources to complete. And we thought it was prudent to continue to invest in those. And as a result, because of the size of that investment, we anticipate fixed cost to increase.

從固定成本的角度來看，我想再次強調，我們目前尚未提供 2021 年的指導意見。我們自己仍在進行規劃，但我們覺得有必要提前說明一下，我們預計明年會有很多優秀的研發和VPD​​項目，坦白說，項目數量還會更多，而且我們有足夠的資源來完成這些項目。我們認為繼續投資這些項目是明智之舉。因此，由於這項投資規模龐大，我們預期固定成本將會增加。

But from a margin perspective, we would not believe that to be a tailwind. So from an impact on margin, we don't believe fixed cost is going to increase as a percentage as high as the topline will increase year-over-year. So even though fixed cost will increase, we don't think that would be a significant headwind as it relates to EBITDA margins.

但從利潤率的角度來看，我們認為這並非有利因素。因此，從對利潤率的影響來看，我們認為固定成本的成長百分比不會像營收年增率那麼高。因此，即使固定成本會增加，我們認為這也不會對 EBITDA 利潤率造成重大不利影響。

Got you. And just another question, just to clarify on enterprise versus sort of small and medium business. I think one of your competitors commented actually that they were somewhat more bullish on enterprise outlook, both near term and medium term. And I just want to parcel out, you did talk about sort of big project slippage. Was that on the enterprise side or was that sort of on the colo, cloud side? Just want to understand -- just, yes. So that's a good question. And maybe then just a little bit more color on what's happening in small and medium business side of things.

抓到你了。還有一個問題，想請教一下企業和中小企業的差別。我認為你們的一位競爭對手實際上評論說，他們對企業前景，無論是短期還是中期，都更加樂觀。我只想補充一點，你剛才確實提到了某個大型專案進度延誤的問題。那是企業端的問題，還是託管、雲端的問題？我只是想了解一下——就這麼簡單。這是個好問題。或許還可以再多介紹一下中小企業方面的狀況。

Yes, sure. This is Rob. A couple of things. The large projects are colo and hyperscale. So that kind of covers that area. On the enterprise side, what we look at as we really go to this hybrid world of on-prem and cloud, they might be referring to some of the Edge strength that we are seeing in some of the enterprise. Certainly, we're seeing a lot of activity in the enterprise from an engineering perspective. And so when we say, we're not -- enterprise still hasn't recovered, they're just not pulling the trigger. But there is certainly a lot of activity out there that we have visibility to of projects that we'll break at some point in time.

當然可以。這是羅布。有幾件事。大型專案屬於託管和超大規模專案。以上就大致涵蓋了這方面的內容。在企業方面，當我們真正邁向本地部署和雲端混合的世界時，他們可能指的是我們在某些​​企業中看到的一些邊緣優勢。當然，從工程角度來看，我們看到企業內部有許多活動。所以當我們說，我們還沒有——企業還沒有復甦，他們只是還沒有採取行動。但可以肯定的是，我們能夠看到很多正在進行的項目，我們會在某個時候將它們付諸實行。

From the small to medium business, we did see a little bit of growth in the, what we call, our IRS business, which is driven by the channel side of things. So we're really happy with the execution that we're doing there, but we just haven't seen -- and if you see some of the numbers out with CDW and so forth, people are still experiencing negative growth, but beginning to see potential light at the end of the tunnel.

從中小企業來看，我們確實看到了所謂的 IRS 業務略有成長，這主要得益於通路方面的發展。所以，我們對目前的工作進展非常滿意，但我們還沒有看到——如果你看看 CDW 等機構公佈的一些數據，你會發現人們仍然面臨負增長，但開始看到隧道盡頭的曙光。

That being said, if COVID continues to persist, I think that affects that particular area as we go forward. Our plan there, as a company, was to take share in the channel and grow, and I think that's how we were able to kind of, I would say, outperform what most of the companies are doing as it relates to channel by taking share with innovative new products.

也就是說，如果新冠疫情持續蔓延，我認為這將對該地區的未來發展產生影響。我們公司的計劃是搶佔通路份額並實現成長，我認為正是因為如此，我們才能憑藉創新產品搶佔市場份額，在通路方面超越大多數公司。

(Operator Instructions) And the next question will come from Nigel Coe of Wolfe Research.

（操作說明）下一個問題將來自 Wolfe Research 的 Nigel Coe。

I wanted to pick up on the enterprise question from Andrew to explore that. Obviously, when we see reds and yellows, it raises the question of physical versus structural kinds of pressures. And I'm just curious, do you think with the current market -- it sounds like you've seen some good activity, and it sounds like you're sort of encouraged by that.

我想就 Andrew 提出的企業問題進行深入探討。顯然，當我們看到紅色和黃色時，就會引發關於物理壓力與結構壓力的問題。我只是好奇，你覺得目前的市場行情如何？聽起來你看到了一些不錯的市場活動，而且你似乎也因此受到了鼓舞。

Do you think that there's been any change in the sort of the balance between on-prem and colo, but with cloud for the enterprise segment? And would you expect -- 2021, obviously, still very much [up in the air], but do you think there is a shot that enterprise can come back next year?

您認為企業級雲端服務在本地部署和託管部署之間的平衡是否發生了變化？那麼，您認為──2021 年顯然還充滿變數──企業明年有可能復甦嗎？

Yes. Nigel, thanks for the question. What we'd say is, yes, we have been seeing some life. When I say life, we've been seeing a lot of activity in the enterprise side of things, which would indicate at some point in time when they pull the trigger that things will move forward. We haven't really seen a drastic move one way or the other to the cloud or on-prem.

是的。奈傑爾，謝謝你的提問。我們想說的是，是的，我們已經看到了一些生機。我說的是生活，我們看到企業方面有很多活動，這表明在某個時候，當他們下定決心時，事情就會向前發展。我們還沒有真正看到向雲端或本地部署的劇烈轉變。

I mean certainly, things like Teams and Zoom and BlueJeans and things like that are driving a lot of internet traffic, which is driving the need for more demand and bandwidth and latency from that perspective. But we continue to see the enterprise looks at various applications and those ones that are readily and easily moved to the cloud, they do, and still seeing the advent of on-prem and the Edge data centers.

我的意思是，像 Teams、Zoom 和 BlueJeans 這樣的工具當然會帶來大量的網路流量，從這個角度來看，這必然會推高對頻寬和延遲的需求。但我們仍然看到企業在審視各種應用程序，並將那些可以輕鬆遷移到雲端的應用程式遷移到雲端，同時仍然可以看到本地部署和邊緣資料中心的出現。

The other phenomenon that we've talked about in the past is really this data kind of staying within the country or within the region. So we're seeing a lot of builds in Europe and other parts of the world for people basically keeping that data, certain sets of data within their region, within their country, that type of thing.

我們過去討論過的另一個現像是，這些數據往往會停留在某個國家或地區內。所以我們看到歐洲和世界其他地區有很多建構項目，人們基本上是為了將某些資料集保存在他們所在的地區、國家等等。

So we'll continue to see those types of builds as well. But I think what we're all waiting for and looking to is, once there is a vaccine, whenever that might be, and enterprise gets back and we have a kind of a new way of, I would call it, even a hybrid working from home and working from the office, we'll drive those projects and begin to move those off data center.

所以我們還會看到這類建築繼續出現。但我認為我們都在等待和期待的是，一旦有了疫苗（無論何時），企業恢復運營，我們擁有了一種新的工作方式，我稱之為混合辦公模式（在家辦公和在辦公室辦公相結合），我們將推進這些項目，並開始將它們從數據中心轉移出去。

Great. That's helpful. And then I wanted to talk about the announcement with Honeywell that was announced early this -- in October. They had it in their slides, and I don't think you've got it in your slides. I think it's interesting. But how do you view this strategically? What is this -- kind of what problem does it solve for Vertiv? And how do you see this progressing? And kind of -- I think strategically, the question is, how does this help you and strengthen you going forward?

偉大的。那很有幫助。然後我想談談今年10月初宣布的與霍尼韋爾的合作公告。他們的幻燈片裡有，但我認為你的幻燈片裡沒有。我覺得很有趣。但從策略角度來看，您如何看待這個問題？這是什麼？它能為Vertiv解決什麼問題？你認為這件事會如何發展？從某種程度上來說——我認為從策略角度來看，問題是，這如何幫助你並增強你未來的實力？

Yes. So we're actually really excited about it. So not having it in our slides, there is no indication of our excitement of working with them. We see Honeywell and Vertiv one-on-one kind of makes 3 for the customers. Honeywell is very strong in the software and the management side of the data centers and really driving efficiency and algorithms around performance of equipment.

是的。所以我們對此感到非常興奮。因此，如果我們的幻燈片中沒有體現這一點，就無法表明我們對與他們合作的熱情。我們看到霍尼韋爾和Vertiv一對一的合作，實際上為客戶帶來了三方合作。霍尼韋爾在資料中心的軟體和管理方面實力雄厚，真正致力於提高設備效能的效率和演算法。

And our announcement that we talked about the first product that we're working together on is really about using multiple sources in kind of a microgrid fashion for data center. So we select whether it's solar or whether it's used fuel cells or pull off the grid, and we see this just as the beginning of some of the collaboration and good things that we believe we can do together.

我們宣布的我們正在合作開發的第一個產品，實際上是以微電網的方式使用多種能源來為資料中心供電。因此，我們可以選擇使用太陽能、燃料電池或從電網獲取能源，我們認為這只是合作的開始，我們相信我們可以共同做一些好事。

So I think when you put Vertiv and Honeywell together, both with our global footprint, we can offer the customers and take advantage of a lot of the really good software that Honeywell has and management systems coupled with our equipment and get better performance and help people reach their PUEs and reach out of their carbon footprint as well.

所以我認為，當 Vertiv 和 Honeywell 兩家公司合併，憑藉我們遍布全球的業務網絡，我們可以為客戶提供並利用 Honeywell 的許多優秀軟體和管理系統，結合我們的設備，從而獲得更好的性能，幫助人們實現 PUE 目標，並減少碳足跡。

And would this be more in the hyperscale and colo segments? Or do you see that's much broader than that?

這是否更體現在超大規模資料中心和託管資料中心領域？還是你認為它的範圍要廣得多？

I think it's much broader than that. I think it scales from hyperscale, colo, enterprise and certainly, down to the Edge. As the Edge increases with thousands and millions of devices, Honeywell has got a really good strong portfolio of software for managing those, and tying that in with our product intelligence can allow us to smartly begin to do more of that predictive failure analysis, roll trucks when we need to. So again, I think it really spans both Edge, and cloud and colo.

我認為它的範圍要廣得多。我認為它可以從超大規模、託管資料中心、企業級網路擴展到邊緣運算。隨著邊緣運算設備數量成千上萬，霍尼韋爾擁有非常強大的軟體組合來管理這些設備，將其與我們的產品智慧相結合，可以讓我們更聰明地進行更多預測性故障分析，並在需要時派出維修車。所以，我認為它確實涵蓋了邊緣運算、雲端運算和託管伺服器。

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。我謹將會議交還給羅伯·約翰遜，請他作總結發言。

Thank you, operator. I'm going to close the call by thanking our 19,000-plus employees around the world, who're working very hard every day to take care of our customers during this unprecedented time. We appreciate everybody's time today. We appreciate your support. Please stay safe, and we look forward to speaking you -- to you again soon. Thank you very much.

謝謝接線生。最後，我要感謝我們遍布全球的 19,000 多名員工，在這個前所未有的時期，他們每天都在努力工作，為我們的客戶提供服務。感謝大家今天抽出時間。感謝您的支持。請注意安全，我們期待很快能再次與您交談。非常感謝。

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

會議已經結束。感謝您參加今天的演講，現在可以斷開連接了。