APi Group Corporation ($APG)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to APi Group's First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this call is being recorded. I will be standing by should you need any assistance. I will now turn the call over to Adam Walters, Senior Director of Investor Relations at APi Group. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Russ Becker, our President and CEO; and David Jackla, our Executive Vice President and CFO. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that certain statements in the company's earnings press release and on this call are forward-looking statements, which are based on expectations, intentions and projections regarding the company's future performance, anticipated events or trends and other matters that are not historical facts. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In our press release and filings with the SEC, we detail material risks that may cause our future results to differ from our expectations. Our statements are as of today, April 30, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement we may make, except as required by law. As a reminder, we have posted a presentation detailing our first quarter financial performance on the Investor Relations page of our website. Our comments today will also include non-GAAP financial measures and other key operating metrics. The reconciliation of and other information regarding these items can be found in our press release and our presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Russ.

Thank you, Adam. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join our call this morning. I want to start by thanking our 29,000 teammates for their dedication to API. The safety, health and well-being of each of our leaders is our #1 value. We remain deeply committed to investing in their growth and development. This is at the heart of our purpose, building great leaders. Our people are what set this company apart and I'm truly grateful for everything they do. . In 2026, APi is celebrating its 100-year anniversary by embracing the theme of gratitude. APi was founded in 1926 as a small plumbing business in St. Paul, Minnesota. Today, we are a global market-leading business services company with more than 500 locations around the world. When I think about that journey, where we started and where we are today, I am truly humbled. We have so much to be grateful for. We are honoring this milestone by giving back to the communities that we serve and by celebrating with our teammates, customers and communities that helped us along this journey. We are off to a strong start in 2026. Before we get into the financial results, I wanted to touch on a few first quarter highlights. From an M&A perspective, we closed the acquisition of Certicite in February, an inspection first provider of comprehensive fire and life safety services across the Midwest. Earlier this month, we announced an agreement to acquire Ireland-based W Tech Fire Group, which adds to our fire sprinkler and suppression capabilities across Europe, a key strategic growth area for our international business. And just last week, we announced an agreement to acquire Onex Fire Protection Services a leading provider of fire and life safety services in Canada with an inspection first mindset and a strong recurring revenue base. This acquisition positions us well in Canada, which we view as an attractive fire and life safety and electronic security market. We expect Onex Fire to close in the second quarter and Tech Fire to close in the third quarter of this year. We will update our full year guidance on future earnings calls after these transactions close. In total, these 3 acquisitions represent an investment of more than $1 billion to further build out our Safety Services segment across the U.S., Europe and Canada. Each of these acquisitions is accretive to our 10, 16, 60-plus financial targets. And equally important, these businesses are all excellent cultural fits and we are excited to welcome our new teammates to the API family. We also completed 4 bolt-on acquisitions during the quarter and we remain on track to deploy approximately $250 million in bolt-on M&A at attractive multiples this year, including opportunities within the international business and the elevator and escalator services businesses. Our systems and business enablement program continues to advance well. Earlier this month, our first pilot company went live on our new business systems. Our teams have done a tremendous amount of work to get to this point. And while there is still work ahead of us, we are tracking in line with our expectations. Now turning to our strong first quarter results. The business continues to build momentum, delivering robust top line growth while expanding margins. We continue to deliver solid growth in inspection, service and monitoring revenues while capitalizing on the robust project environment. We expanded our adjusted EBITDA margins and as I mentioned earlier, we continue to drive our M&A strategy to further strengthen and expand our global platform. For the quarter, net revenues increased by 15%, and approximately 10% organically, with strong growth across both segments. In our Safety Services segment, revenues grew organically by approximately 5%, while expanding segment earnings margins by 60 basis points. Our Specialty Services segment continued its momentum, delivering approximately 25% organic growth while expanding segment earnings margins by 50 basis points. Importantly, we continue to see solid growth in inspection revenues, and we remain confident in our ability to sustain that momentum. Our team continued to focus on margin expansion with adjusted EBITDA margins expanding 70 basis points year-over-year. We expect to see continued margin expansion for the year, largely driven by the same initiatives that we have been executing. These include the following: first, consistent organic growth, improved inspection service and monitoring revenue mix, disciplined customer and project selection, pricing branch and field optimization, procurement, systems and scale, accretive M&A and selective business pruning. And as I always like to say, we can always just be better. The first quarter was another strong quarter for cash flow as the business generated $125 million in adjusted free cash flow. In addition, we ended the quarter with a net leverage ratio of approximately 1.8x, well below our long-term target. Our consistent free cash flow generation and strong balance sheet continue to provide us flexibility to pursue a range of value-enhancing capital deployment opportunities to support our 10/16/60+ financial targets. As a reminder, these targets are the following: $10 billion in net revenues by 2028, supported by consistent mid-single-digit organic growth and accretive M&A. 16% plus adjusted EBITDA margin by 2028. 60% plus of our revenues from inspection, service and monitoring over the long term and $3 billion of cumulative adjusted free cash flow through 2028. I am proud of our team for the strong momentum we have built to start the year. Our inspection service and monitoring business continues to expand. Our backlog is robust and healthy, and our balance sheet provides us with the flexibility to continue executing on our capital deployment priorities. I would now like to hand the call over to David to discuss our first quarter financial results and guidance in more detail. David?

Thanks, Russ, and good morning, everyone. Reported net revenues for the 3 months ended March 31 were $1.98 billion, a 15.3% increase compared to $1.72 billion in the prior year period. Organic revenue growth of 10.4% was driven by solid growth in inspection service and monitoring revenues, growth in project revenues and pricing improvements. Adjusted gross margin for the 3 months ended March 31 was 31.3%, representing a 40 basis point decrease compared to the prior year period, primarily driven by business mix partially offset by disciplined customer and project selection and pricing improvements. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 21.8% for the 3 months ended March 31 and 18.1% on a fixed currency basis with adjusted EBITDA margin coming in at 11.9%, representing a 70 basis point increase compared to the prior year period. Growth in adjusted EBITDA was driven by strong revenue growth and favorable SG&A leverage. Adjusted diluted earnings per share for the 3 months ended March 31 was $0.32, representing a $0.07 or 28% increase compared to the prior year period. The increase was driven by strong revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA margin expansion and a decrease in interest expense partially offset by an increase in the share count. I will now discuss our results in more detail for the Safety Services segment. Safety Services reported net revenues for the 3 months ended March 31 were $1.42 billion, an 11.7% increase compared to $1.27 billion in the prior year period. Organic growth of 5.4% was driven by solid growth in inspection service and monitoring revenues, growth in project revenues and pricing improvements. Adjusted gross margin for the 3 months ended March 31 was 37.2%, representing a 20 basis point increase compared to the prior year period driven by disciplined customer and project selection and pricing improvements, resulting in margin expansion in inspection services and monitoring revenues and project revenues, partially offset by mix. Segment earnings increased by 15.6% for the 3 months ended March 31 or 11.7% on a fixed currency basis. Segment earnings margin was 16.3%, representing a 60 basis point increase compared to the prior year period, primarily driven by adjusted gross margin expansion and favorable SG&A leverage. I will now discuss our results in more detail for the Specialty Services segment. Specialty Services reported net revenues for the 3 months ended March 31 were $569 million, an increase of 25.6% or 24.8% organically compared to $453 million in the prior year period, driven by growth in both projects and service revenues. Adjusted gross margin for the 3 months ended March 31 was 16.3%, representing a 50 basis point decrease compared to the prior year period, primarily driven by mix. Segment earnings increased 34.5% for the 3 months ended March 31, and segment earnings margin was 6.9%, representing a 50 basis point increase compared to the prior year period primarily due to favorable fixed cost absorption, partially offset by mix. As Russ mentioned in his remarks, Q1 was another strong quarter for adjusted free cash flow. For the 3 months ended March 31, adjusted free cash flow was $125 million, up $39 million versus last year, representing an adjusted free cash flow conversion of 88% on adjusted net income. Free cash flow generation has been and continues to be a priority across API. We are pleased with our first quarter adjusted free cash flow while continuing to drive strong, consistent revenue growth. We remain on track to achieve our adjusted free cash flow conversion target of approximately 115% for the year, in line with prior guidance. At the end of the first quarter, our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was approximately 1.8x, significantly below our long-term target of 2.5 to 3x. Our consistent free cash flow generation and strong balance sheet position us well as we evaluate financing options for the previously announced W Tech and Onex acquisitions, which we plan to fund with a combination of cash on hand, cash flow from operations and incremental debt. As a reminder, our long-term capital deployment priorities remain unchanged, maintaining net leverage and stated long-term goals, strategic M&A at attractive multiples and opportunistic share repurchase. I will now discuss our guidance for the second quarter and full year 2026, which, as a reminder, is based on current foreign currency exchange rates and acquisitions closed to date. We expect increased full year net revenues of $8.475 billion to $8.675 billion, up from $8.4 billion to $8.6 billion, representing organic growth in net revenues of 5% to 7% for the year. Moving down to P&L. We expect increased full year adjusted EBITDA of $1.15 billion to $1.21 billion, up from $1.14 billion to $1.20 billion representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.8% at the midpoint and adjusted EBITDA growth of 11% to 16% for the year. As a reminder, the impact of the Certicide acquisition, which closed on February 2 was fully reflected in our prior guidance and we will update our guidance for the WTech and Onyx acquisitions after those transactions have closed. Our increased full year revenue and EBITDA guidance is due to the strong business performance to start the year offset by the headwind of the strengthening U.S. dollar since our February guidance. More information on our revised guide can be found on our earnings presentation that is posted on our Investor Relations website. In terms of the second quarter, we expect reported net revenues of $2.175 billion to $2.225 billion, representing organic net revenue growth of approximately 7% to 9%. We expect adjusted EBITDA of $300 million to $310 million. representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.9% at the midpoint and adjusted EBITDA growth of 10% to 14%. For 2026, we continue to anticipate interest expense to be $130 million, depreciation to be $90 million capital expenditures to be $105 million and our adjusted effective tax rate to be 23%. We expect corporate expenses to be approximately $35 million per quarter with some timing variability throughout the year, and our adjusted diluted weighted average share count to be $441 million for the year. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Russ.

Thanks, David. We began the second quarter with positive momentum and strong demand for our services. We continue to deliver robust organic growth expand adjusted EBITDA margins and build on the strength of our backlog, that and the continued strength of our M&A execution and pipeline position us well for the remainder of the year. . We remain focused on creating sustainable shareholder value by delivering on our 10/16/60+ targets. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to the operator and open the call for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Andrew Kaplowitz with Citi.

Russ, could you give us a little more color on what you're seeing in Specialty Services, obviously continues to be very strong, a different level of strength, I think, over the last few quarters. I know you've got tougher comps moving forward, but do you see the momentum continuing as the majority of the uptick coming from data centers? Or is it more broad-based, would you say?

Thanks, Andy, and I hope you're well. The -- I would say that their backlog is super strong. And they are seeing some benefits from data centers, but I would classify the work in their portfolio to be more broad-based than just data centers. As a reminder, we're doing industrial maintenance and service work in our Specialty Services segment. We're doing -- we're doing infrastructure work. We do potable water replacement work -- and so the telecom work. And so they're definitely benefiting from data center and the opportunities that are presented with the data center expansions in the -- in North America. But I would also just classify their backlog as being really diverse just with their service offerings as well as from a geographic standpoint.

Very helpful. And then it seems like you've accelerated acquisitions quite a bit this year with the $1 billion you mentioned and continued optimism to get to the $250 million per year bolt-on M&A activity. Is there any reason for the uptick maybe valuations better, just more companies willing to sell, just more color on what you're seeing, do you expect this uptick of modestly bigger deals to continue?

Well, you broke the rule already with -- but with multiple questions -- but I expected that from you, Andy. And so you know what, to be honest with you, Andy, I would just say it's the opportunities presented themselves at the right time. So I don't know that it was anything that was necessarily purposeful. It's just that sometimes things have to present themselves at the right time. As an example, Onex presented itself 18 months to 2 years ago, we've known the business for for a long time. I've known their CEO for probably 10 years plus. And -- but when it presented itself the first time around, we were in the middle of an integration, a lot of integration work with our existing business in Canada alongside the Chubb Canada business, and we didn't feel like we had the bandwidth to do it. And so we remain disciplined and basically stayed on the sideline and this opportunity presented itself. And so we're able to capture it and take advantage of it. . W Tech is another example. I think I first met Ted Wright, their CEO, who's a great leader, just like the Onyx CEO is a great leader. I think I met Ted, a couple of years ago, and we've just stayed in touch and got to know his business. And I think our culture and everything, the investment we make in people really lined up with what he was looking for as it relates to the people on his team. and the opportunity presented itself. And so again, we took advantage of it. And so the Certicide acquisition came along, that was more of a process-driven transaction. But I think it's more just the opportunities came right time, great fit for us. We have a great team here that was able to jump in and execute. And super excited about these businesses. I mean they -- not only are they center the fairway for us as it relates to like the services that we want to offer our customers, but very strategic for us, but great leadership, great people in those businesses and just can't be more excited to have them joining the API family. And I was -- you didn't ask me this, but I actually got a chance to be in Portugal last week with the W Tech team and they kind of did their annual planning process. And like I came out of that just like even more excited about the fit. So just right opportunities, [indiscernible] time. Probably the best way to put it.

Your next question comes from the line of John Tanwanteng with CGS Securities.

I was wondering if you -- if you could talk about input cost inflation and what you're seeing there, number one. And if you're seeing any pushback from customers or any sensitivity or pricing as you put those pricing increases through to them?

Yes. Good question. Thanks, John. So on the pricing side, we continue to be able to get pricing on the inspection service and monitoring streams in our business. That hasn't changed over the last couple of quarters. In terms of input costs, so we've seen the impact of rising fuel costs and some material inflation in our business as a result of tariffs and the conflict in Iran. Our teammates and our leaders have done a really great job of protecting themselves at the time of proposal, which means that we're able to capture the dollar impact of rising fuel costs and material costs as they come through. As a reminder, about 53% of our revenue comes from inspection service and monitoring and we're able to price that revenue on nearly in real time, so material cost increase we're able to price for that almost in real time. We've done a great job of being able to protect ourselves and capture the dollar value. It may have had a slight NIC on the margin, but we've been able to protect ourselves from a dollar basis.

And are you seeing any sensitivity from customers?

No, we've been able to continue to capture price.

Your next question comes from the line of Tim Mulrooney with William Blair.

Russ and David. Back to the acquisitions. Curious how far along are your recent acquisitions of WTech and Onyx down this inspection first journey, we think of API as being very forward leaning on focusing on inspections and service versus the installed gas, but I'm clear how many other companies out there have a similar go-to-market strategy or at least how we'll develop their systems and protocols are, I guess, as it relates to being aligned with your strategy?

Yes. Tim, thank you. And what I would tell you is like I'm going to include Certacite into the mix here. I would tell you, Certicite was like way down fine. And like 95% of their revenue came from inspection and service work. And so I would put them like even ahead of API, and that goes back to when Jeff had founded the business, he founded the business with this inspection first mindset. I would say Onyx is kind of in a similar spot that API is at currently today. And so they are super focused on building a really robust inspection service and monitoring business, but I put them in a similar spot that we are -- and I would say that WTech is probably what I would consider more traditional where there probably a little bit heavier on the project side today, and there's opportunity for us to really build a robust inspection service business inside that current business. So they're all 3 in kind of different phases of the revolution. And -- but -- so it's -- they're in a good spot, and I think they're all going to be really accretive to what we're trying to accomplish as a company.

That's really good color. And then if I just tick in kind of along those lines, if I'm looking at W Tech in particular. Just curious how you think about the margin potential of that European business in totality. So you take hub WTech, I think what you had originally SK Fire, you put all this together, you streamline the operations. But obviously, the mix is a little bit different. The markets are a little bit different than the U.S., but you take all of this into account -- what does that look like 3 to 5 years down the line relative to your U.S. Fire and Life Safety business

Well, I got to give you a little bit of hard time to everybody's breaking the rules. So gave Andy Kap what's a little bit of a hard time. So I got to make sure I give John from CGS and I'm going to give you Tim hard time bought it, but Anyways, Yes, it's all good. You get a little bit of fun with this stuff, too. And the expectation is that it will be in line with our North American Safety business, and there's no reason that from a margin perspective, that they won't be. And -- it's just -- it's -- a big part of it is setting expectations and creating the right belief that it's achievable, but that's the expectation. We believe that every one of our branches has the opportunity to be a 20% EBITDA branch. And that's the goal, and that's the target. And we feel the same way about Wtech. We feel the same way about Chubb that's integrated with SK as we do about our business in Paducah, Kentucky.

Your next question comes from the line of Katherine Thompson with TRG.

Good to see that guidance was raised, seeing good underlying business performance, but if you could just give a little bit more color on that in terms of what you're seeing. Is it -- just to clarify, is it increased demand or pricing or just timing -- and has there been any change in the variety of work? You noted earlier in your -- in the Q&A that it's not just data centers, but it's other projects, too. So just maybe setting out a little bit more the color on that improved performance.

Well, I would say, yes. And what I mean by that is that it's a combination of everything. It's -- there's demand in, obviously, the the conversation everybody is talking about is around data centers, right? And data centers is really the primary pusher of demand. So there's demand opportunity. But there's other end markets that continue to create robust opportunities as well like advanced manufacturing, we're seeing some really great opportunities in the health care space. Even higher education, there's opportunity there. Critical infrastructure continues to create opportunities for us. So there's demand, there's playing in the right end markets contributes to it. price contributes to it. So it's a combination of everything. And we've been very consistent in our messaging that we are not over-indexing on the data center space. We want to make sure that we're taking advantage of the opportunities that are presented, but we're not pushing all the chips on to the comp line as it relates to data centers. And we'll take advantage of it, but we need to continue to keep our keep our customers that we have in the health care space and advanced manufacturing, et cetera. So it's a combination of everything that you mentioned. .

Great. And the follow-up question relates to the inspection first businesses that you acquired. Does the integration time line differ between kind of your 2 [indiscernible] of inspection or inspection and servicing businesses. And just is it easier ramp? Just any other color on the ramp up of this type of business.

Yes. I mean all 3 of them are like slightly different, if you will, like certicite is kind of its own business. It will continue to operate as an independent business inside our North American safety business. Their service offerings are a little bit different. It's a business that does a lot of extinguish your work. And so the integration will look different for that business than it would, say, look for like a more traditional bolt-on. . Our Canadian Onyx acquisition, we're going to operate that business as an independent portfolio business for the time being until we can figure out the exact -- where there's -- we know where their strengths are, where their weaknesses are, and how that's complementary to our existing footprint in the Canadian operations. and we'll kind of address that market by market as we continue to go forward after we get through the different regulatory filings and everything that we need to get done to close on the acquisition. And then WTech is will be a stand-alone business inside our international business. And I think most folks have heard me talk about the difference between, say, North America and our international business. And -- what WTech brings to our international business is strong strength and capability in the suppression side of the fire life safety space, which hasn't been a significant strength for us. And so we plan to operate that as an independent business inside our international operations. And so the integration will look different there as well. So they all will have their own variation and levels of like integration as you would potentially define it.

Your next question comes from the line of Julian Mitchell with Barclays.

[indiscernible] from the Barclays team on for Julian. I understand that growth is quite broad-based across your markets, but specifically on data centers, could you provide a bit more color on the funnel and pipeline over the next few quarters? And if the company is still on track to reach around 10% of sales from data centers this year.

Well, you're choppy. And I -- so I think I heard your question. and it was around data centers and above -- around the funnel and around the opportunities that are -- that we're seeing. And if we think that approximately 10% of our revenue will come from the data center space at the end of the, so to speak, year. And I would say, yes. And I would say that the funnel of opportunities continues to be robust and we're being selective about which opportunities that we pursue and that we want to deploy our teammates too. I tell our business leaders that like the men and the women that do the work in the field, we need to treat them like they're like precious gems and making sure that we put them on the right opportunities where we can maximize maximize the opportunity that's in front of us. And so we're trying to be really selective. There's a lot of partnering opportunities that have presented themselves because of the demand in the data center space. So we're being very selective with who we work with and the clients that we choose to align ourselves with. We also want to make sure that we're super focused on the project side with companies and businesses that we have the opportunity to do the inspection service and monitoring after that project opportunity is completed. And do believe that approximately 10% to 11% of our revenue will come from data centers by the end of the year. I think that's fair isn't it, David?

Absolutely. Absolutely. And that was the result in the first quarter and the evolution of the backlog as we went through the quarter as well.

Perfect. And a quick one on Safety Services. Is the 5.4% organic sales growth rate, relatively good run rate for the year.

Yes. So a little toppy again. But I think the question was, was the mid-single-digit organic revenue growth, a pretty good run rate for the year in the Safety segment, and the answer is yes.

Your next question comes from the line of Ashish Sabadra with RBC.

This is David Paige on for Ashish. Just following up on the last question, Specialty Services seems to be also tracking above your midterm organic growth target. So I was wondering how should we think about that in the back half of the year or even just given demand and project strength, does that organic growth target need to be revisited? And then as a follow-up within specialty, some of the subsegments infrastructure, fab and specialty contracting. Can you just give some color on how those performed in the quarter?

Yes. I'll take the first half of the question, which is around the progression of the specialty segment. So really strong first quarter. I expect that business to perform at a strong level throughout the year. As we get deeper into the year, as you know, we'll be coming up against more difficult comps, so I would expect that there will be strength in that business. But as you start comping against more difficult comparisons, the revenue growth rate will slow in the back half but still be a really strong performance. And then a little bit of color around fab and infrastructure. Is that the second part of your question?

Yes. Yes. And just some of those yes, fab infrastructure and then specialty contract with, I think, grew around 45% in 4Q. So I was curious what was the -- how those businesses perform in the quarter?

Yes. I mean really pleased with the performance fall-through of those. Our our growth in the Specialty segment was really diverse and well spread across all of the reportable segments with strengthen a variety of end markets, including data centers, and as Russ mentioned, critical national infrastructure and others. So really pleased with the performance of all 3 of those in the backlog of all 3 of those reporting segments is strong and robust as well. .

Your next question comes from the line of Tomo Sano with JPMorgan.

Regarding your international business, I think if you mentioned that backlog remains strong overall. But in today's volatile market, competitive dynamics can present both risks and opportunities given ongoing geopolitical and supply chain challenges, how have you adapted your international operations over the past couple of months? And do you see any new opportunities in margin globally?

Well, I think that when I look at the international business, like our backlog is basically on par with where it was previous year. So like we feel good about the opportunities that we see. Our presence in the Middle East is pretty small. And I think that they're seeing -- definitely seeing more impacts from the conflict in the Middle East, just I think just general temperature and proximity is going to have some level of impact on that. But we feel good about our international business and the leadership inside the international business and the opportunities that are coming forward. And -- from an M&A perspective, we've said that we have opened up the aperture and we think there's opportunities for us to continue to expand our business internationally. And we're seeing the opportunities come forward. So it's a good -- it's -- we're in a good place there. But they're definitely they definitely feel the impacts of the conflict more so than we do here. There's no question about that.

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

Most of my questions have been asked and answered, but just a couple here. Maybe one for David. Would just be with these larger acquisitions still you have to close. Could you just give us a a view of where the net leverage stands kind of pro forma for those after those close, just so we can kind of gauge where the balance sheet is and how much more dry powder you have? And then Russ, just kind of a question for you just on the safety inspection service and monitoring environment right now. There's been -- I don't think it's just API that's been more focused on the inspection service and monitoring portion of this market. I'm just wondering, obviously, you're still getting pricing. I feel like the industry is getting pricing, but is the competitive environment both for customers in that segment of the market as well as for acquisitions noticeably different than what you would have seen 2 or 3 years ago? Or would you say it's unchanged?

I'll go first and just because I can remember the second half of your question, and David is younger than me, and hopefully, he can remember -- and I go back to like for the most part, like our -- we continue to see organic growth in our inspection business on par with previous quarters. And you're really taking share there. And I think that, that's really primarily driven by the highly fragmented market that we operate in. And like I've commented to this in the past that if you really go in and analyze the major metropolitan markets across the United States, there's not one firm that has a 10% market share in that market. And we even -- I don't think most companies don't have more than 5% like the largest players, and that includes us. And so to me, like the highly fragmented nature of the markets that we serve continues to create opportunities for us to take share as it relates to growing our inspection and service business. From an M&A perspective, Andy, we continue to see really -- our funnel and our pipeline are really robust even including these -- the bolt-on M&As opportunities that we're seeing. I would just tell you that we're looking for sellers who are really interested in finding the forever home for their people. And if all they're interested in is finding the highest price, then they should sell their business to a private equity-backed firm. And what we can offer these companies is forever home for their people, we can respect the legacy that they've created. Most of these businesses are family-owned, family-run businesses and we have something different that we can offer these people, and that creates a unique opportunity for us. And even WTech, which was a private equity-backed business, number one, it is probably one of the best private equity firms that I've been associated with like just they actually care a lot about their people. But in a conversation that I had with Ted their CEO in front of his key business leaders, the conversation was around people and finding the right spot and he actually turned and looked at his group and he said, "We found our forever home. And I think that, that's something that's unique and a unique provides us with a unique opportunity as we continue to look to to build out our portfolio and to build out our business. And so I would say it's really the same, Andy. That's maybe a little bit more than what you were looking for. But I would just tell you it's the same, and I think it just creates opportunity and the more momentum we get on the more opportunity that it will create for us. And we get a lot of really good things happening in that front, and we'll have -- as we work our way through this year, we're going to have lot more to share. And that will take you into -- David can answer your question about our balance sheet and and the dry powder we have because we have a lot of flexibility.

Yes, I appreciate you reminding me the question too Russ. So as we mentioned in this grip, we ended the first quarter with a net leverage ratio of about 1.8x. By the time we finance and close on the 2 announced acquisitions will be at or below the low end of our target net leverage ratio, and I expect that we'll work that down to kind of the ballpark of where we are today by the end of the year. Does that help?

Yes, we can do the math on that. Good enough.

Your next question comes from the line of [indiscernible] Securities. .

I'll keep it along. Really nice organic this quarter. Obviously, you mentioned a mix impact on gross margins for both segments. Can you just provide a bit more detail on the mix factor this quarter and clear up if there was any like material purchase pull forward due to the uncertainty from the war or maybe to support the upcoming project in the next 3 quarters to sort of, I guess, boosted revenue a bit and diluted margins.

Yes, I can cover that one. I think about mix as kind of 2 factors, and they're both really mass-driven First is the growth in project revenue in the quarter, which, on average, comes at about 10 percentage points lower gross margin than our inspection service and monitoring work. And then second is the growth in the Specialty Services segment vis-a-vis the safety segment and the impact that had on margin in the quarter as well. So those are really the 2 mix factors just the ratio of service and project work in the quarter and the segment mix. And to answer your other question, no real material pull-forward impact in the quarter. .

Your next question comes from Curtis Nagle with Bank of America.

Great. Just I wanted to go back to the point you made on that 4% run rate or that being a good run rate for the year. Just wanted to confirm that given the 2H compares are obviously higher. So if that's the case, I mean, that's obviously a pretty positive statement. So just wanted to confirm that that's what you said.

Yes. I think I'm following your question. This is around the anticipated growth rates in the safety segment for the full year in the back half. I continue to refer back to our long-term organic revenue growth algorithm in that segment. We expect our service revenue to grow mid- to upper single digits, each and every quarter, each and every year, and we expect our project work to grow low to mid-single digits, which gets to a mid-single-digit organic revenue growth that was really the playbook that we saw in the first quarter, a little heavier maybe on the project revenue, but we expect that to play out through the course of the year. .

Okay. And then just 1 quick 1 on gross margins, should mix continue to be a headwind? How should we think about gross margins for the back half of the year?

I continue to expect to see our gross margins and our adjusted EBITDA margins expanding year-over-year as we target 60 to 70 basis points of margin improvement in the year. .

Your next question comes from the line of Josh Chan with UBS. .

Russ and David, on that safety services growth point, I guess you grew 5.5% in Q1, and it was a little heavier on project. Could you just talk about the trajectory the inspection service and monitoring and whether there's any change there or more of a timing in the quarter?

No, I think there really hasn't been any change in the trajectory of our inspection service and monitoring revenue growth, Josh. That business consistently grows mid- to upper single digits across the business. And there might be quarters where it ends up a little closer in. There might be quarters where it ends up a little closer to upper but that has been a consistent mid- to upper single-digit revenue growth stream for the safety segment. It was in the first quarter, and we expect that it will continue to be in the back half of the year.

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Russ Becker, President and CEO, for closing remarks.

Thank you. In closing, I'd like to thank all our teammates for their continued support and dedication to our business. We believe our people are the foundation on which everything else is built. Without them, we do not exist. I would also like to thank our long-term shareholders as well as those that have recently joined us for their support. We appreciate your ownership of API and look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the remainder of the year. Thank you again, everybody, for joining the call.