nVent Electric plc (NVT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

All right. Thank you, everybody. Chris Snyder, U.S. multi-industry analyst. Very excited to have nVent up here with me today, CFO, Gary Corona; and IR, Tony Riter. So thank you, guys, for joining. Before we get to the Q&A, Gary is going to start off with some prepared remarks.

Thanks a lot, Chris, and good morning or good afternoon, everybody. I have some quick prepared remarks. I'll start with just our normal forward-looking statement. First, for all of you that don't know us well, a quick overview of nVent. The figures here are for our full 2024 financials, where we are a $3 billion electrical company, a leader in the connection and protection space with long-standing brands that are really mission-critical to the electrification, sustainability and digitalization trends. What I want to share is we recently announced our Q2 and where we grew reported sales 30%, organic sales were up 9% and EPS was up 28%. And we expect to grow the full year 24% to 26% reported and 8% to 10% organically with EPS at the midpoint just over 30%. So all of that growth on top of the 2024 financials that you see here. And on the EPS front, we divested Thermal earlier this year, and we'll fully replenish the EPS that went out the door when we did that deal. Third quarter, the midpoint of our growth is 28% on a reported basis and 12% organically. So needless to say, all those numbers to say we are accelerating our growth quite significantly as a company. In our portfolio, we're primarily in North America. I'll talk a little bit about our growth in other parts of the world. We have Electrical Connections and System Protection, our 2 reported segments. And then on a vertical front, industrial has been our focus historically. But as I'll talk about infrastructure because the organic growth as well as the deals that we have done is accelerating quite quickly, and we're excited about that. I'll touch about that more a bit. From a strategy perspective, our strategy hasn't changed since we spun out. It's remained consistent. Really 3 growth areas are high-growth verticals, particularly in electrical infrastructure. Two is new products. First half of the year, we grew more than 3 points from new products. And then global growth. We've been primarily North America, as I mentioned, but we enhanced our leadership as we transform and have Robert who used to run our Electrical Connections business based in Europe, now on the ground, leading the company. And really, we're starting to see some nice growth in Europe. And then lastly, M&A. The portfolio has been managed aggressively. I'll talk about that in a second to expose us to more growth. As I mentioned, this is an important slide for us as we think about what our portfolio transformation has looked like. Starting in 2019, we've done 8 deals over the course of that time, growing from $2 billion in 2017 to almost $4 billion here in 2025. And when we were a $2 billion company, almost 50% in industrial and almost about 10% in infrastructure. And what's really important is over that time, we've reexposed the company to over 40% infrastructure, 20% of that data center, 20% of that power utilities. And that's exposed us to really, really accelerated growth. And it's also balanced us between the short cycle and the long cycle to give us a little bit more visibility and transparency into what's coming. So on the data centers, I'm going to talk a little bit about how we're exposed to data center white space and gray space. And it's really driving really, really strong demand for cooling solutions. And we believe that liquid cooling is growing 3x faster than legacy cooling. And as you can see from our broad portfolio, the AI build-out is really helping us drive growth and increase penetration. And we're also seeing a trend towards modular data centers using large outdoor enclosures that we've picked up through our Trachte and our Avail, EPG acquisitions to support that nice growth. And with our strong technical expertise and the ability to manufacture at scale, we're expected to launch a whole new range of cooling solutions here in the second half. And as you've seen from our performance, really nice orders and backlog to accelerate our growth in the white space. And as you look at here on the gray space side, AI is also driving gray space demand. You can see our expanded portfolio on the left-hand side of that chart. Really, as companies try to maximize the white space, it creates opportunities for us on the gray space, Trachte and EPG as well. And we have a focused sales initiative to really maximize the impact of that gray space opportunity. So just to close my quick prepared remarks, we're well positioned to take advantage of accelerated growth that we're seeing in electrification, sustainability and digitalization. Our portfolio transformation that's been extensive is on track, and it's driving accelerated growth. And as we talked about in our Q2 call, we're expecting very strong sales growth and earnings growth with -- and robust cash flow in our 2025. So excited about speaking about nVent and our growth opportunities, and I'll throw it back to you for Q&A, Chris. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate the presentation. Obviously, liquid cooling has been a very hot topic in the market the last 2, 3 years. We're seeing more companies announce CDUs and try to get into the space just given the growth. But nVent has been doing liquid cooling for a long time. So can you talk about the company's history in liquid cooling and ultimately, why you are positioned to win?

Yes, I'm happy to. And as you mentioned, we've been in liquid cooling a long time, 10-plus years. It started on the industrial side, working with a health care customer. We've evolved that into early days with the hyperscalers. And as we talked about, we have the technical capability and scale to participate and lead in liquid cooling. And that's a unique position. We've innovated with our customers and with the chip manufacturers over time. But it really comes down to that scale, technical expertise as well as our quality. And that quality is so important, and I'll put ours up against anybody's.

I think everyone obviously appreciates that data center demand is really strong and liquid cooling is even stronger than that. But I guess from the outside looking in, what can investors look to, to kind of get a sense, okay, yes, liquid cooling is taking share in the market. The growth is actually accelerating, decelerating. Like what should we look at?

Yes. While we don't report these individual products quarter-over-quarter, what we're really excited about is the significant acceleration that we're seeing, not just in the revenue that we're reporting, but also our orders. In Q2, we reported that our orders were up over 20% and our system protection business is growing in a significant way. But we're seeing that growth really across our entire portfolio. What we would say is it's a pretty low penetrated product right now, less than 10% liquid cooling penetration. So we see a long runway, not just quarter-to-quarter, but over the course of a significant period of time as this technology is really incorporated into the mainstream.

When we look at data center broadly, it seems like things reaccelerated in the first half of '25. You guys obviously put up really good growth numbers and are expecting even more. I guess, is there any signs of let up? It seems like a silly question after Oracle yesterday. But I guess, any signs of a let up? And then beyond that, like how much visibility do you guys actually have? Is it '26? Any thoughts on that?

Yes. We had been anticipating this acceleration for some time, and we had pointed to the orders that were coming in. But it was great to share that and share that showing up in the revenue line in Q2, which was really exciting. But again, we're looking well out into the future and have a lot of confidence in acceleration. A big part of our increased guide for the second half and in the third quarter was some of this acceleration that we're seeing now externally as we start to get visibility to it. But we saw this coming. We knew we would have nice acceleration throughout the year. And as we look out into our order book, we have visibility now into '26 and even to some extent into '27 as we work with our customers, not just on next quarter, but what are multigenerations of innovation look like. Tony, anything that you'd add?

No.

You mentioned like you guys were expecting this or seeing something strength coming. I guess, can you talk in that -- about your capacity? Like are you guys adding capacity given that you see the demand getting better? And on the topic of adding capacity, do you think that could be a driver of share gain for the company in that if your lead times you can deliver sooner, maybe there's more opportunity out there in the market?

Yes. We're really excited about the opportunity. We announced publicly last week that we're expanding our manufacturing and doing that in Minnesota. A couple of years ago, we talked about 4x increase in capacity. We're essentially replicating that again here in what we announced with, obviously, those plans have been in place for some time now, but it's exciting to be able to speak about that publicly. And we're going to work hard to get that online and accelerate our growth even more. But I would say that our manufacturing plans to expand our capacity are very much in line with the acceleration that we're looking at and we expect to fill it up very, very quickly.

In the presentation, you kind of talked about the company's offerings in the white space and the gray space. It's a big focus in the market as the CapEx dollars are seemingly shifting more so to the white space. I guess, one, do you guys agree with that? Is that the way you see things headed? And what does that mean for nVent given that you guys sell into both sides?

Yes. I mean on the white space front, we see -- as I mentioned, it's early days for liquid cooling. We see a long runway to support that white space. And as there becomes more and more demand for that space, that white space, we're seeing opportunities for the gray space to get pushed outside of the brick-and-mortar not only does that help us from our broad nVent portfolio, but the recent acquisitions of Trachte and EPG, where we make enclosures, we can put those right around the data centers to really maximize our selling against the gray space. So we see really nice opportunity in both areas.

One thing that I've been wondering about is when a hyperscaler is building a new AI data center today, are they future-proofing the gray space to cover where the white space will go in 3 to 5 years? Or as we start to see more chips come through, could there be an upgrade cycle on the gray space to accommodate that?

In a lot of ways, because it feels like it's both, right? I mean you're just seeing growth across both the gray space and the white space and everything that they're trying to do and move the power out and you're seeing more and more. I mean, quite simply, I just think of it as the more power you need, the more compute that you generate is going to create more heat, right? So there's going to be -- we're still very, very -- to Gary's point, very early, right, in liquid cooling adoption. It's penetration rates in a single-digit space, right, that is expected to grow pretty significantly. But at some point, yes, there will be -- you think of a replacement cycle or will there be an upgrade cycle or as the new chips come out, are they going to require new enhanced types of cooling? Those are all, I think, opportunities that I think we should expect to see in the marketplace.

And remember, we're looking and working with all kinds of customers, some of whom have really good multi-generation out road map and some who are trying to catch up. So to some extent, to Tony's point, it depends on the customer for sure.

Yes. I mean maybe following up on that and being close to the customers because as it becomes harder to debate the outlook for hyperscaler CapEx, at least over the near term, I think that maybe the next debate for the market is going to be on competition within the space of cooling and power and then also maybe pricing and margins alongside that. But I guess, could you just maybe start off by talking about your relationship or closeness with key customers and kind of how that helps protect or provide a moat versus new entrants?

Yes. And I won't talk about any customers one by one specifically, but we work with all the hyperscalers in one way, shape or form and also have many other enterprise or colo customers as well. And it's really important for us to work closely with them, as I mentioned, on what that pipeline looks like. And I also -- I talked about it a bit. We also plan to launch some modular liquid cooling solutions here as we get into the second half of the year that will be available more broadly and many times sold through distribution.

I appreciate that. I guess maybe thinking about the industrial side a little bit. You kind of called out -- it is a big material space for you guys. Trump policy, it feels like first and foremost, is about reindustrializing the U.S. I guess, what could that mean for you guys in that business?

Yes. We're certainly optimistic. The industrial part of our business is an important part of our business. We've guided for the year to be low to mid-single digits on the industrial side. And as you mentioned, we're starting to look to the benefits of the lower interest rates of some of the potential cash benefits coming in from the tax cuts to support us reshoring. That will be down the road, but we expect that to help the business as well. On the commercial, resi side, we guided that to flattish for the year. we're -- so we don't expect that to accelerate here in 2025, but certainly are optimistic about the future. So anything you'd add, Tony, on our industrial business?

No.

It is a really important part, and we've got some great customer relationships, and we're executing well this year on that business.

Yes. Maybe on the commercial and residential side, are you seeing any positive rate of change in that or any rate of change in either direction in that market?

We had a good quarter in Q2 on our commercial, resi business. And when pressed for green shoots, we did point to our guidance for the year, which we said is flattish. So while I think we're executing well, we're not seeing a material acceleration there in that business. And I imagine that's what you've been here in the conference.

Yes. Maybe -- I know you guys are mostly U.S. But maybe can you talk about what you're seeing in the international markets? It seems like inevitably, the AI data center build-out will broaden. Maybe can you talk about your ability to kind of compete and win in those markets and kind of how you see the outlook there progressing?

Yes. As I mentioned briefly in our prepared remarks, we enhanced our management team here by moving Robert over to Europe to run Europe and to run Asia Pacific. And what was behind that really is the opportunity that we see to accelerate and grow our business in Europe. We have an opportunity to leverage our scale. We have good scale there, but really going to market as one nVent. And we see and especially an opportunity on AI and data center. And the good news is the customers there know us, and they know that we bring a unique capability and have been a key part of the success here in North America and are excited for us to show more publicly our commitment to that market. So we had a good quarter in Q2 in Europe. And I will say we look forward to many more with Robert leading that business.

No, I appreciate that. Maybe looking at the portfolio, obviously, a lot of change over the last few years. I guess how do you think about the portfolio moving forward, specifically M&A? Is it fair to assume that it's going to be data center focused? Anything else out there that's of interest to you guys?

Yes. No, the portfolio moves, as I highlighted in my prepared remarks, have been very thoughtful. The 8 acquisitions that we've made with a focus on infrastructure, deploying the cash that came in from thermal, we did a couple of those deals. We also bought back some shares at a really good value in the low 50s. And as we think going forward, our portfolio management and our capital allocation priorities will still be focused on growth, whether that's organic growth or whether that's M&A. And on M&A, we really like the infrastructure vertical. So data center is part of that, but power utilities is part of that as well. And I would expect that 40-plus percent vertical will certainly expand over time organically, but also through M&A. And what I want to comment on is the discipline and acquisitions that we've made. The team is -- the capability is always on from an M&A perspective. We've got a full funnel. Our integration playbook is clear, and we've delivered nice returns on these 8 acquisitions that we've made. We have a high bar. We do our deals based on cost savings. We don't underwrite deals on top line revenue synergies. But I will tell you that in these last 2 deals, especially with Trachte and EPG, we're seeing nice top line synergies. So we're excited. Our balance sheet is healthy. We're in our leverage ratio right now between 2 and 2.5x, and we're rapidly deleveraging because this business creates a lot of cash. So we'll be active, but we're going to be very disciplined and follow our capital allocation priorities as we've done so far.

Any -- obviously, U.S. is bigger for you guys. Is it fair to think that, that is the focus, just that's where you have your biggest business, it's where things are the strongest? Or is there some interest in scaling some of those international opportunities?

Yes, it's a great question. And what I would say is, obviously, the most recent deals that we've done have been really focused on North America. It is a hell of a market. It's growing really well. So as we prioritize, that's where the capital has flowed. But putting Robert in charge of that, putting the focus in Europe, we've got scale, but we could use a little bit more. So I guess that's a way to say that we're looking at both areas, and we're focusing very much on it. So yes, we're looking very much outside of North America for possible M&A.

Data center, a hell of a market might be the tagline of the day today, I think. I might steal that for a note tomorrow. I guess just on that, like I kind of said earlier, it's getting -- I think it's going to be hard for anyone to probably take the other side of the demand equation over any near term. But what about margins and the pricing environment in data center? I guess both as it relates to the existing business, obviously, backlog, but then maybe more specifically like new orders, are you confident that price and margins will come through on what's next?

Yes. Let me take that in a couple of parts. I'll talk, first of all, about our margin structure overall. Our Q2 came in from a margin perspective. It was actually a little bit better than we expected. It was down as we had guided as both price cost from tariffs as well as the new M&A has come in a bit lower than our corporate average. As we look at the second half of the year, excluding our new EPG acquisition, we expect margins to be flattish in the third quarter and then accelerate and grow and be healthy as we exit the year. So that's really important to our focus on healthy margin profile going forward. As it relates to data center -- our data center business specifically, it's very much a margin that's in line with the broader segment systems protection. We work with our customers. Obviously, there's tremendous demand for those products. So we're working with those customers as costs elevate or come down. And we're feeling really good about the margin structure of that business. We have been very much focused on rapid ROI in the capital that we're investing on that business and to be -- to ensure that we have good visibility to the orders coming in, so the returns on that capital investment are going to be healthy. And we're really pleased with deploying capital against that market for sure.

And when I think about that margin trajectory that you laid out, Q2 down, Q3 okay, Q4 feels like you're going to start to accelerate that. Is that just effectively the new orders rolling through the backlog? And what was in the backlog was pressured because costs went up, but now we're starting to see the new orders come in?

Yes. Some of it is just that it's the revenue ramp. I will tell some of it was just getting our price/cost lined up with the tariffs that came in and impacted our cost structure in Q2. And what we're doing is adjusting our pricing, our productivity as well as our mix. We've got a great playbook to offset inflation, and that's what we're doing, and you're seeing that just take a bit of time. The -- obviously, we're also investing, and we're investing in capability to grow our business because we're -- that's our first priority is growth. But we're seeing nice acceleration on the revenue line and that leverage certainly doesn't hurt as we think about the margin structure. One thing I do just want to clarify is those margin comments that I made do exclude the M&A that's coming in. The M&A is coming in a bit under our corporate average. What I love to see is the previous deals that we've done, we've got a really good playbook to get those margins up over time. And that's certainly the plan for EPG and Trachte as well.

When we think about price, on one hand, data center has the strongest demand of any vertical, clearly. There's probably more urgency there to get the product than any other vertical, which all of that sounds very good for price. On the other hand, they're the biggest customers, and I'd imagine they have a lot of negotiating leverage. Like any way to think about price on the data center side versus the rest of the business? Is one easier or one harder to get than the other?

Yes. You said some key phrases in there, which is around partnership. These are long partnerships that we've had with these key customers. And while there is a real spike in demand, certainly, we're not trying to overprice that business. These are partners of ours that are -- will be long-term partners, but they're also open to the conversation when we have cost pressure coming at us. And we have those conversations when it's appropriate. On the distribution side, more of the short-cycle side that goes through distribution, that's a bit more of a transactional pricing environment that as long as we have the lead times, we'll get that pricing -- we're confident that we'll get that pricing through in the -- and the firm has been very successful over time doing just that.

And maybe this question, we should separate data center versus non-data center. But like what lead times for nVent, are they coming in? And are customers -- so I guess, are your lead times coming in, in terms of turning around the product? And then are the order lead times coming in between when they place the order and when they ultimately want delivery of it?

Yes. What I would say is the demand is significant. And as we try to accelerate our capacity, the opportunity is right there in front of us. So we don't see any shortening of lead times. We're seeing -- we're definitely -- we definitely have more than we can get after.

Yes. It's a good problem...

Anything that you'd add, Tony?

No, I think just then you think of kind of more traditional short-cycle side of the business, that's more of a book and ship business, right? That's pretty well in line as you think around kind of lead times and stuff, but certainly on the data center, even on Trachte, EPG, that's -- as we've talked about, that's where we're seeing our backlog grow and it's giving us a lot of visibility and the confidence in raising the guide here for the year.

Yes. I mean on that distribution side, more -- you said more short cycle, more transactional. Do you think -- is there a risk that those customers were trying to get ahead of these price increases that they probably expected? And could they have been overbuying for the last couple of quarters?

Yes. We've been very focused on that. It's certainly not the first time our teams have worked through this sort of inflationary cycle. And we very closely follow the sell-in and sell-out with those customers. And they've very much been in line with what we expected, and we're not seeing that sort of pre-buy type of activity as prices has flowed through.

I appreciate that. Maybe on the other side of tariffs, there's a competitive dynamics. Do you feel like the tariffs have brought competitive tailwinds for nVent versus a lot of European or Asian producers trying to get into the U.S. market?

What I would say is, over time, we've very much gone for an in-region, for-region manufacturing strategy. And I would say a lot of our competitors have really done the same. Some of these products are quite sizable and the economics just don't work to ship them across the ocean. So while I feel good about our competitiveness, I don't feel like we have uniquely cornered the market on in region for region.

I appreciate that. I guess maybe thinking a little bit of capital allocation, how do you -- clearly, there's a lot of tech advancement coming into these markets. And if you're able to innovate, that's obviously a good place to be. How do you think about inorganic going out and buying technology versus maybe developing something in-house, maybe you could even work with some key customers to develop very specific products for them. How do we balance that or think about that?

Yes. It's certainly something that we've been talking about a lot. We've talked about increasing our investment in research and development. It's something that we've said we've targeted to try to get that up to 3%. I will tell you, our rapid revenue growth has made that a bit more challenging to chase, but it's an area as we think about capital and resource prioritization that we're really focused on internally. That's the internal side. Externally, we're definitely working with our customers as well as our suppliers to co-develop products. Anything that you'd add on that one, Tony?

No, I think -- I mean, we're certainly -- I think from an external perspective, inorganic, I don't feel like we've got any hole per se in the portfolio by any means. It's just what can continue to complement, right? We're very focused on finding great products in high-growth areas that we can scale, right? And we always talk about really that framework, how do we continue to drive that and really over and over repeat it.

Yes. What about service? Is that a big piece of the business? Is that a place where you feel like you could do more? A lot of companies talk about almost an equipment service flywheel, like the reason we win the equipment is because we can service it.

Yes. We've been asked that a few times. And what I would say is it's a small -- to answer the question very directly, it's a small part of our business. But it's a part of our business that we see a real opportunity for and more just as -- to partner with our customers and make sure that they are getting what they need. So far, especially in the cooling part of the business, that hasn't been something that's either helped us or kept us from winning business. But as we look going forward, especially as the -- as we start to get to that standard product portfolio that we'll talk about more in the second half of the year, we feel like there could be an opportunity there, and the team is working on that.

Yes. I guess 2 of the big deals you guys did, Trachte and Avail, can you just maybe update us on how the integrations there are progressing? How they performed relative to initial expectations?

Yes. Happy to do that. And the short answer to that is they're both performing quite well. Trachte, we've had just a little over a year now. Trachte will flip to organic growth, and it's actually one of the areas that gives us a real strong reason to believe on that aggressive acceleration that we're seeing on revenue in the second half. And EPG, one quarter in the books. We guided a day after that deal closed and a day after that closed. So we just are getting under the hood, but it had a good quarter, and we're seeing the backlog be quite good. So teams are working hard to run our playbook on integration, one that has been very successful for us in the past, and we're really excited. It's exceeding our expectations for sure. And it's that -- I'll just go back to the portfolio focused on infrastructure where there's nice healthy growth, not just in the short term, but in the intermediate and long term as well. We're really excited about the future for nVent, and those 2 deals are a great example of getting the portfolio right through transformation and accelerating our growth.

And then I mean, kind of following up on that last one, growth inflected in the first half. You guys are calling for even better growth in the second half, well above the 4% to 6% kind of target level. Like I guess, how long do you think this strength can last here?

Yes. We know that certainly, that second half performance is really -- is accelerated. And that -- when we did the Thermal deal, we said that this would be a portfolio that would have accelerated growth. We gave more intermediate targets a couple of years ago in our last Capital Markets Day. We're due for another one, and we'll do that in the first quarter of next year, and we'll give you a little bit more visibility of what that intermediate term looks like. But I will tell you that we feel very much like the business has inflected to a higher growth future, and we're excited about it.

Well, I look forward to that. Thank you, guys. Really appreciate this.

Thank you.

Thank you.