Vontier Corporation (VNT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

All right. Terrific. Why don't we get started? I'm [ Will Dodson ] from Morgan Stanley in the Investment Banking division. I'm delighted to be joined today by Mark Morelli, President and CEO of Vontier as well as Anshooman Aga, who's the CFO. Just to level set quickly, Vontier is an industrial tech company focused on smarter transportation and mobility. Going to spend a half hour at some Q&A and then see what we can drum up from the audience.

We were here a year ago sitting down in the same -- different location but same conference. And I would say a lot has changed in the last year at Vontier. Big progress in advancing strategic vision, articulating a view on the portfolio. Why don't you just level set us all by talking a little bit about the journey for Vontier post-spin but then more importantly, kind of where you see things going from here?

Yes. Thank you. We're really happy to be here. We do believe that there has been a lot of momentum that is more evidenced in the company over the past year particularly because when we spun, I think the biggest overhang for the business was this large EMV up cycle that the business has benefited from over many years and was sort of facing us as we spun the company. And I think a little bit of the work that had to be done there centered around the fact that prior to 2020, we were getting the more recent growth in the business from this large EMV trend. So we have good organic growth that kind of dominated with our $3 billion revenue and also a great uplift on our margins accordingly. And so the work that we had to put in place as we spun the company was on profitable growth initiatives and also to start a portfolio transformation. And I think now coming into this year, we're able to show some pretty significant progress. I think one of the biggest issues is that EMV is sunsetting, and we're very confident that, that is sunset, and we're just facing the year-over-year compared to prior year and that there's fundamental growth there. And at the same time, some of the acquisitions that we've done, you can start to begin to see how they've transformed that portfolio. And we're really centered on the mobility ecosystem, which is essentially the businesses that really are all touched by how you move people, goods and data around what we call the mobility ecosystem touched by the roadway. And our ability to enable all of that is what our businesses are centered on.

Perfect. Well, you guys, I think, articulated some views earlier in the year about long-term targets. Talk a little bit about how the portfolio is evolving, what it needs to do and to put you guys in a position to hit those long-term targets and moves you're making and where you see things headed?

Yes. I think one of the things we did this year well was we resegmented the business in our earnings -- Investor Day, excuse me, at the beginning of the year. And we think that really highlights a very responsible way to look at the businesses. We've got about $1.3 billion in Environmental & Fueling, which is more of the eye centricity that people have been asking about is certainly in that business. And we think that there's some strong secular drivers on how we're positioned based on what we view as the energy trilemma. And this is that when people think of the energy transition, they're thinking about not only sustainability, which I think is front of mind for everybody but also energy security and affordability. And we think this leads for multi-fuel options, both the opportunity to more environmentally pump gas around the world where that makes sense and blend it with biofuels but also CNG or compressed natural gas, renewable natural gas or good ways to decarbonize, which leads into hydrogen, and also electrification. We think all these themes benefit us in this multi-fuel future, and we're going to throw off a lot of cash and a lot of margin, and we're going to redeploy that in ways that are quite accretive to growth and high returns on invested capital. So I think our positioning for mid-single-digit organic growth and also continuing margin expansion is well underpinned by these secular drivers.

Got it. I want to spend the rest of the discussion talking mostly about looking forward. But just to look backward for a second, and you raised the topic of EMV, just because I do know it's been part of the thematic at least in the rearview mirror. Why don't you just give us a quick update on that and then talk about why you think we're at the point where we can start to look forward from that?

Yes. So the EMV upgrade cycle was a great growth driver for our business from 2014 to 2020. And we believe we captured market share during that period which -- and increased our installed base, which means that helps us from an aftermarket parts business. But the EMV cycle upgrade cycle ended in 2020. And then we started seeing a decline. The peak was in 2020 and really in 2022, the EMV upgrade cycle was over. It's behind us. So what we have this year is just a year-on-year comparability issue, the underlying U.S. dispensary market where there are customers are building out new convenience stores, they're continuing to upgrade their format remain strong. And starting next year, we're just going to be talking about clean growth. There's no longer the concept of this baseline growth. We're happy we'll be printing good, clean organic growth next year, and it's going to be behind us.

Perfect. Why don't we start quickly on sort of current results? And then we'll talk a little bit about the portfolio and then wrap up on capital allocation. You guys have had a strong year thus far, raised guidance a couple of times. Why don't you talk about, to the extent you can, what you're seeing for the back half of the year?

Yes, we are very pleased with the results through the first half of the year, and that's really a reflection on the strong execution from our global teams. They've done a phenomenal job for us. And for the back half of the year, we expect our results are going to be in line with our guidance. Our end markets remain constructive. We look at leading indicators for all of our businesses and the leading indicators remain positive. Quarter-to-date, we're happy with our results in the third quarter and September is a big month but we expect will again be in line with guidance for the back half of the year. So overall, we feel good about the business.

Great. Well, maybe let's shift gears and talk about portfolio. And I think one of the important things you guys did at the Investor Day earlier in the year was to lay out a resegmentation of the business focused on Mobility Tech, Repair Solutions and Environmental & Fueling. Maybe we'll just take them in that order. Talk a little bit about what you're seeing as the growth drivers and current trends. So let's start with Mobility Tech. Clearly, a lot of strategic focus. We can just tell from your comments here, Mark, on that segment. This includes C-store solutions, car wash business, DRB, fleet management, all of the alternative energy businesses and EV charging. There's a lot in that portfolio. So what's the common thread that ties that together into something that you're thinking about as Mobility Tech?

Yes. I'm really glad you're asking this because we'd love to spend a couple of minutes on this for sure. The common thread for us in our business is what we are calling connected mobility, and it's the ability to connect, manage and scale what we just talked about was the mobility ecosystem. And all those touch points in that mobility ecosystem, we're the player out there that has the most touch points in that mobility ecosystem. So think about Mobility Technologies is a set of connected -- smart connected hardware application software and scaling on the cloud applications that enable folks that manage assets in that -- in those businesses like convenience store operators, car wash operators, even electric charging operators, people that own lots of electric charging stations. Their ability for them to have the tools and capability to be able to have more productive solutions. And you see we've made a press release this morning where once again, we've -- we're advancing iNFX software, which is in convenience stores and Chevron through their to their gas stations and through Texaco, have 8,000 sites that they announced it. We actually talked about this name in our last earnings call, but we weren't able to disclose who it was. This is on the back of Shell rolling out to 13,000 sites in the United States. This is a great example of an application by providing a backbone for them for connected smart hardware application software to have a more productive outcome for folks that manage those assets. And I think it's -- what's really overlooked here is that convenience stores, carwashes, this whole mobility ecosystem that's out there, there's more investment going into that than there has ever been before. And it's all centered around this multi-fuel future. Electrification is actually driving a lot of investment that goes into this space. And these formats are thriving because they're offering more services, they're offering more food offerings to consumers. And it's the stop along the roadway. It's the next year neighborhood convenience store that's part of the infrastructure worldwide that is growthy. But the problems and the challenges they have is the industry is consolidating. There is continued build-out and investment on that. How do they manage all of that productively? And how do they do a better job at attracting consumers to come into their site? And so our tools and capabilities do exactly that in Mobility Technology. So we're saying that's roughly $800 million, $900 million business today. It's going to grow at high single digits with the opportunity -- good margins today with the opportunity to be a good, solid margin grower for us as well. So that, we think, highlighting that and showing that in our segmentation, so folks can follow us on that story. We've done a lot of acquisitions there in the last couple of years, and we're seeing really good traction and really good growth around that. The other part of that story is around Repair Solutions and Repair Solutions is our Matco business, where we are bringing tools and solutions to about 60,000 repair technicians in the United States every week. And what differentiates us there is we have really high vitality. So about 25%, in fact, 30% of what we're bringing to market and in Repair Solutions this year -- are new to the market this year, which means that repair technicians have new solutions to be able to solve whatever they're up against. And that's a great business for the long term. And the reason being is that let's talk about that multi-fuel future, and let's talk about all of the changes that are happening to the car park. So electrification is there, hybrid vehicles are there. Certainly, on the truck side, you're seeing a lot that's happening on transport and even the advent of hydrogen. And so for a long period of time, technicians are really challenged with how do you solve the complexity of that repair environment. And so once again, it's this productivity theme, but in the repair sense, we're able to solve those productivity challenges for repair technicians through Matco offering really high vitality. So we think that, that's a good grow over a long period of time, very, very profitable, strong cash flow business. And then we talked a little bit about Environmental & Fueling. And what our position there and the strong secular drivers there is the industry consolidation. That is in our favor, and we have majority share with the regional players, the large international players and our ability to provide the best-in-class solutions there for the most productive outcomes for our customers is the reason why we have such high share, and we think over a long period of time, that falls into our wheelhouse as well.

Well, let's stick on Mobility Tech for a second and dive into a couple of pieces there. Obviously, the announcement this morning around iNFX gives you a little bit of a platform to talk in more detail about why you're so excited about that business. Do you want to spend a minute or two there?

Absolutely. So Think about a large convenience store operator, and they may have done acquisitions in the space. They may continue to build out their format because it's a very profitable format for them and is going to experience growth even if there is a downturn, it's going to be quite growthy. Many of these convenience store operators are also flushed with cash, and they're putting that to work to continue to build out their footprint. But the thing that they might struggle with is how do you manage all of this through the software. So the complexity of the site. So first of all, they've got labor challenges. They have a high turnover rate and these are very complex sites. They might have fresh food formats, they might sell liquor on-site, lottery tickets as well as dispense fuel, have car wash, new service offerings. And so the difficulty of managing all this from a connected smart hardware and applications means that whenever there is a regulatory change, let's say, on the security of payment issue, which, by the way, there's more of that rolling through the United States all the time, or there might be upgrades related to things related to vapor recovery or regulation on the environmental side. And so they might have to change something related to their -- with their monolithic software that operates everything. So they've built a software platform to be able to manage that but it's very inflexible. It's what's called monolithic, meaning that you make one change to your payment system, you have the difficulty of that payment system, you have to roll that out and then you have to requalify your entire system. Sometimes that could take a year or 18 months. So what we're doing with iNFX is, we're providing a very contemporary way called Microsoft -- excuse me, micro services software that is an ability for them to up -- to create an application just around payment, which we've done for them. And then the application can work quite seamlessly and be a very easy way for them to be able to manage that whole infrastructure or that backbone on the software side. And so we -- with 2 orders, we have about 15% of the convenience stores in the United States covered, both the Shell and the Chevron. And so you can see how much of a need that is for them if you read some of their quotes in the press releases that we've offered, and that's just one application. So we have the opportunity to extend this into other applications that they might have on site. So it's not that we're inventing something completely new. We're just taking the ability for productivity and automation that you see in other industries, and we're applying it to the mobility ecosystem, and this is why we're so excited about Mobility Technologies.

Well, staying in that vertical, DRB is obviously a sizable deal you guys did a couple of years back. Talk about how that's performing? And then where do you see it going from here?

So let's talk about the same theme because DRB is exactly that. DRB is the leading point-of-sale hardware connected software applications for car wash. And car wash is going through the same thing. There's lots of investment in the car wash industry in the United States. There's a lot of consolidation of that industry. But once again, we're not making car wash rollers, brushes or the equipment, we're making this connected smart hardware, this application software and the ability to scale on the cloud. So it's that same backbone operating system. And the reason why it's experienced such high growth at very great accretive margins is because it's helping car wash operators that are building out more carwashes and consolidating the industry being able to manage their assets. It's about productivity, it's about automation, and it is much more of an effective tool. So it's that same thematic in the mobility ecosystem where we're getting outsized growth, great margin improvement. And so we've been super pleased with how that's performed in the first year plus of ownership, and we see a great future for that business as well.

One of the themes running across the conference has clearly been electrification, talk a little bit about, again, staying within Mobility Tech, the EVolve solution, your play there, what you guys are seeing in that business and where you see it going?

So let's talk about the same theme about connected smart hardware application software and scaling. We have -- if you own a bunch of electric chargers or a fleet of electric chargers, if you will, then you're going to have to figure out how you're going to, one, attract consumers, how they're going to pay, how they might -- there might be a reservation for a charger. So the consumer is very interested in that interface. You need software to do that. You also need an ability to manage not only the payment but the uptime of your chargers in that entire network as well as how that the energy management is fed from the grid into that. And so you have a choice of riding that software yourself to be able to manage all that or you could leverage our platform. And our platform is called Driivz platform, and we have more than 40,000 plugs under management. So one of the leading providers of plugs under management for high-speed charging. And predominantly, we're penetrated mostly in Europe because Europe is -- has been the leader in rolling out these operating systems software. So charge point operators, or utilities, or convenience store operators, or destination folks that may decide to want to own their own fleet of chargers are the folks there. And what differentiates us is we also offer interoperability between different charge point operators as well. So the fact Tesla is opening in their network is great because now they're going to need interoperability to their network, and that's exactly what our software also provides.

Last thing on Mobility Tech, and I'll flag this one because I think it's sparked a discussion in a bunch of meetings I've had here. Hydrogen and ANGI, just talk for 2 seconds about the growth opportunity there, where you think you are on that curve?

So when you think of heavy transport, obviously diesel will be around for a long period of time. But one of the real compelling areas to decarbonize is into hydrogen in the use of fuel cell technology. And also combustion hydrogen in that market is a real credible way for us to think about decarbonization. And our business, ANGI, has been the leader in providing stations for compressing and dispensing natural gas. And that has provided an opportunity because one that's at higher pressure, and there's also a lot of safety concerns. And so that's a real strong stepping stone into hydrogen. So our customers are pulling us into that hydrogen space to be able to provide that. And we've made some recent announcements here because we're now selling our first hydrogen spencers as well as substations that be able to provide the opportunity to compress that, store that and then dispense that. So we've made our first sales and we're very bullish about that opportunity. And the reason why is that there is a long list of customers that are trying to solve those problems out there. And they're pulling in high reliability solutions. The biggest issue with dispensing hydrogen is that there's about a 40% reliability rate with existing solutions in the market. And what we've proven through GVR and through ANGI for long periods of time that we can provide high reliability solutions here. And so our customers look at that. And so we're very bullish on the opportunity to solve some high-value customer problems around reliability of dispensing hydrogen. So we think that's a great, great opportunity for us.

All right. So let's shift out of Mobility Technologies into Repair Solutions. I think you hit the highlights around Matco, one of the questions we get all the time is around EVs and repairs and parts and something that the auto suppliers clearly deal with. Talk about your perspective on transition to EVs and what that means for Matco? Is it good? Is it bad? Headwind?

So we think it's not a really good thing, and let me explain why because we've studied this pretty extensively. What you need to look at is look at this from a repair technician perspective and look what the repair technician has to carry in their toolbox. And many of the same tools that they have today, you need on electric vehicle, except you also need additional tools and capabilities, maybe around battery diagnostics or replacing or removing batteries, safety equipment and consumables. These kind of things are add to the size and complexity of the toolkit that the repair technician has. And so with your repair technician, which you're mostly concerned about is how do you get your repair done in a more productive way. And by the way, you may all know that there's quite a shortage on repair technicians, there has been for a long period of time. So it really puts them under even more stress for them to be able to be more productive. And so this backdrop of hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, other vehicles coming to car park, the complexity goes up. There's less maintenance required on an electric vehicle. No question. But when it comes to repair, the complexity of repair actually goes up and you're going to have to repair ICE vehicles in the car park for a long period of time, there's more sensors embedded into the vehicles that are out there, that adds the repair complexity. And I think the market is beginning to understand that. You're seeing some articles that are coming out on this. If you own an electric vehicle if you've ever had it repaired, it tends to be a complex thing to get done. And so that backdrop of complexity repair is a great backdrop for us to be able to serve with high vitality.

Makes perfect sense. Let's just finish up on the portfolio quickly and talk about Environmental & Fueling for one question, and then we'll take a pause and see if there are any questions from the group. And then I think we should wrap up with capital allocation. Again, I think you get the highlights on growth drivers for the Environmental & Fueling business. But maybe it's worth just talking a little bit about Vontier's philosophy around energy transition. How are you guys approaching this change? Again, it comes back to one of these under [ current ] through the whole conference.

Yes. I think we're -- the energy transition is a big secular driver for us in the sense that we believe that it is multifaceted. It's about having sustainable solutions, which is, of course, around electrification, hydrogen, renewable natural gas, bio blending but also folks are struggling with not only of that, that aspect of the affordability of energy as well as the accessibility. And when you blend all 3 of those together, we think it's a multi-fuel future for a long period of time. And net-net, we have the opportunity to play in the car park in each one of these technologies and capabilities from both the sustainability and the advent of these new not only electrification but hydrogen as great examples, but also the fact that we're going to be finding ways for petrol base to be more environmentally friendly. And there's certainly markets around the world that are going to embrace that. And so we have the opportunity to serve all those in a way that brings great profits and growth to us.

Why don't I pause you real quickly and see if there are any questions in the group? And if not, I want to tie up on capital allocation.

So this year, you've done a good job of paying down some debt, deleveraging, getting back into your range. I'm wondering at what point do you think you'll be comfortable maybe being a little more aggressive on the M&A front? Where do you have to get leverage to and perhaps get fitch to come around to a more stable outlook?

Yes. So this year, as you know, our leverage was a little above 3, and we said we'd be within our target range of 2.5 to 3x. We are down to 2.9x. We paid down $200 million of debt and I've committed to paying down at least another $50 million of debt by the end of the year. We've also done share buybacks [ went to ] our valuation, we believe, has significant upside. So we bought back 9% of their shares outstanding when we started the program. At an average price of a little over $24 a share, so a good return on that. We're going to be delivering a significant amount of cash. Our cash conversion rate is somewhere between 90% and 100% this year. So if you look at this year plus the next 3 years, we're going to be generating about $2 billion of cash. And part of that is going to be deployment on M&A -- accretive M&A, capital -- return on invested capital is a very key metric for us. We did the Invenco acquisition where we thought -- we expect it's going to be a 20% return on invested capital in year 3. So our pipeline, which is a very strategy-led around our connected mobility strategy is robust. We're continuing to evaluate. So I expect we'll have some bolt-on transactions over the course of time, nothing imminent in the next 3 months or this fiscal year. But again, we continue to cultivate and develop our pipeline.

Any other questions from the group? If not, I think that hit my capital allocation question as well as the M&A pipeline question. So I think that's what I had. Anything you guys want to say before we wrap?

Thanks for having us. And as you can tell, we're very excited about the future of our company. We think with our focus around productivity and automation of the mobile ecosystem, we are uniquely positioned with the depth and breadth of our portfolio.

Terrific. Thanks all.

Thank you.

Thank you.