Construction Partners - Q3 2023
August 2, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Greetings, and welcome to the Construction Partners' third quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Rick Black, with Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Rick Black (EVP)
Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for the Construction Partners conference call to review third quarter results for fiscal 2023. This call is also being webcast and can be accessed through the audio link on the Events and Presentations page of the Investor Relations section of constructionpartners.net. Information recorded on this call speaks only as of today, August 2nd, 2023. Please be advised that any time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay, listening, or transcript reading. I would also like to remind you that statements made in today's discussion that are not historical facts, including statements of expectations or future events or future financial performance, are considered forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
We will be making forward-looking statements as part of today's call that, by their nature, are uncertain and outside of the company's control. Actual results may differ materially. Please refer to today's earnings press release for our disclosures on forward-looking statements. These factors and other risks and uncertainties are described in detail in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Management will also refer to non-GAAP measures, including Adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations to the nearest GAAP measures can be found at the end of our earnings release. Construction Partners assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Construction Partners' CEO, Jule Smith. Jule?
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Thank you, Rick. Good morning, everyone. With me on the call today are Greg Hoffman, our Chief Financial Officer, and Ned Fleming, our Executive Chairman. We are pleased to report an excellent quarter. In fact, it was a record quarter for CPI in numerous ways. I want to thank our over 4,000 employees for their hard work and expertise in delivering this record quarter, despite battling wetter than normal conditions. Our employees are the key to our success at CPI. Not only did they deliver a great quarter, they also continued to set the table for future growth and success by adding strong backlog throughout our six states and establishing several growth initiatives, which we will cover on the call today before Greg reviews our financial information. Q3 represented the single highest revenue quarter in our history at $422 million.
As evidenced by our gross margins of more than 15%, our teams throughout 67 local markets were productive and efficient. When comparing year-over-year revenue, it's important not only to take into account the above normal precipitation this quarter, but also the abnormally high liquid asphalt index adjustment last year that produced $2 million of additional revenue. CPI continues to produce strong organic and acquisitive growth, and our revised guidance announced today reflects an anticipated annual growth of over 18% in FY 2023. As anticipated, in the third quarter, substantially all of our work came from post-inflationary backlog. Additionally, the company benefited from lower energy costs. The result of the hard work, backlog conversion, and some lower costs was strong gross margins, net income, Adjusted EBITDA, and cash generation.
Gross margins were 355 basis points higher than a year ago, Adjusted EBITDA margin was 13.4%, the highest single quarter margin in over two years. Cash flow from operations continues to be strong, as CPI's model has historically generated free cash conversion of over 50% that is available to invest in growth initiatives and compound shareholder value. In addition, we made significant progress in lowering our leverage ratio during the quarter. As we stated last quarter, our business is normalizing, and we are now experiencing operational performance typical for CPI. We continue to pursue healthy sources of recurring revenue in a much more stable and normal cost environment. The expectation is for the business to maintain this performance trajectory. A great indicator of future growth is our growing backlog, even in a record revenue quarter.
While historically, CPI's backlog might shrink in the busy work season, the fact that our teams produced a record backlog for the 10th quarter in a row is evidence of growing relative market share in our local markets and continued strong demand in both the public and private markets. The IIJA's investment in public infrastructure is now in effect throughout our states and creating opportunities for road widenings and resurfacings, bridge replacements, airport taxiways, and many other types of bid opportunities for CPI. In the private markets, migration to the Southeast United States continues to produce demand for our services in industrial, non-residential, and residential projects. Our record backlog gives us great visibility into the future and allows us to remain patient in adding high-quality new work at attractive margins. Turning now to CPI's strategic growth model, we announced this week two growth initiatives.
First, we acquired a hot mix asphalt plant and related operations in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, from C.R. Jackson. Since we entered this market a year ago, we've been very impressed with the dynamic growth and opportunities in the second fastest growing metro area of South Carolina. This acquisition gives our local team additional resources to capitalize on those opportunities and grow our relative market share. Second, as we continue to focus on organic growth, we announced this week a new hot mix asphalt greenfield in Waycross, Georgia, a strategic location adjacent to our current South Georgia markets. This greenfield will allow us to extend our reach eastward toward the rapid growth emanating from the large port in Brunswick, Georgia. Finally, one of our key levers of margin expansion is vertical integration, and I'm pleased to announce that our new liquid asphalt terminal in North Alabama is now operational.
This terminal will capture the margin dollars between wholesale and retail, while servicing over 12 asphalt plants in Alabama and Tennessee, just as we have been successfully executing for four years with our Gulf Coast terminal in the Panhandle of Florida. Before I turn the call over to Greg, I want to conclude by reiterating how pleased we are with the quarter and the outlook for the remainder of FY 2023, as demonstrated by our raising of net income and Adjusted EBITDA ranges. As we look to FY 2024 and beyond, it's great to see the resilience and quick recovery of the CPI model operating effectively. The company is ready for and benefiting from opportunities afforded by a generational investment in infrastructure, a booming economy in the Southeast, and numerous growth opportunities as we consolidate and strengthen our industry. We are indeed excited for the road ahead. I'd now like to turn the call over to Greg.
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
Thank you, Jule, good morning, everyone. I'll begin with a review of our key performance metrics in the third quarter of fiscal 2023 before discussing our raised outlook ranges. Q3 revenue was $421.9 million, an increase of 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Excluding $10 million of additional revenue from liquid asphalt index reimbursements in the third quarter last year, due to the large increase in asphalt prices, revenue growth was 14%. Gross profit was $64.1 million, an increase of approximately 45% compared to the same quarter last year. As a percentage of total revenues, gross profit was 15.2% in the quarter, compared to 11.6% in the same quarter last year.
General and administrative expenses as a percentage of total revenue in the quarter were 7.6%, compared to 7.7% in the same quarter last year. In Q3, net income was $21.7 million, an increase of 78% compared to $12.2 million in the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA was $56.4 million, an increase of 50% compared to the same quarter last year. The Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter increased to 13.4%, compared to 9.9% in the same quarter last year. You can find GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations of net income and Adjusted EBITDA financial measures at the end of today's earnings release. As Jewel mentioned, we are reporting a record project backlog of $1.59 billion at June 30th, 2023.
Turning now to the balance sheet. We had $55 million of cash and cash equivalents, and $182 million available under the credit facility, net of a reduction for outstanding letters of credit. We have $277.5 million principal outstanding under the term loan, and $143.1 million outstanding under the revolving credit facility, which is unchanged from March 31st, except for term debt payments of $3.1 million. The availability on our credit facility and cash generation will continue to provide flexibility and capacity to allow for potential near-term acquisitions and high-value growth opportunities.
As a reminder, the company entered into an interest rate swap agreement that fixes SOFR at 1.85%, which results in an interest rate on $300 million of term debt of 3.35%. This is a reduction from 3.6% in prior quarters due to the decrease in our leverage ratio, which improved our SOFR spread. The maturity date of this swap is June 30th, 2027. As of the end of the quarter, our debt to trailing 12 months EBITDA ratio was 2.27. Our expectation is the leverage ratio will continue to trend downward by the fiscal year-end. Cash provided by operating activities was $48.8 million for the quarter, compared to the use of $13 million of cash in Q3 FY 2022.
For the first three quarters of FY 2023, we have generated $94.5 million of cash flow from operating activities. Capital expenditures were $18.6 million for the quarter. We continue to expect Capital expenditures for FY 2023 to be in the range of $85 million-$90 million. This includes maintenance CapEx of approximately 3.25% of revenue, with the remaining amount invested in high return growth initiatives. Historically, we have converted retained cash flow in the range of 50%-60% of Adjusted EBITDA after subtracting interest expense and taxes, and we are on target to generate that amount in 2023. Retained cash flow has been invested in attractive long-term investments. It's generated 22% Adjusted EBITDA growth in the last fiscal year, despite a challenging macro environment.
This year is on track to generate 45%-50% growth in Adjusted EBITDA. These investments include the Alabama Liquid Asphalt Terminal, expanding into Waycross, Georgia, and acquiring an HMA plant in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, that Jule mentioned earlier. As we continue to utilize this retained cash for high-value growth investments, we expect margins to increase, organic growth to continue, and shareholder value to compound. Today, we are tightening our revenue range and raising our net income and Adjusted EBITDA ranges for our fiscal year 2023 outlook. We now expect revenue in the range of $1.535 billion-$1.555 billion, net income in the range of $41 million-$46 million, and Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $161 million-$169 million. With that, we are now ready to take your questions. Operator?
Operator (participant)
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Your first question comes from Tyler Brown with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Tyler Brown (Associate VP)
Hey, good morning, guys.
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
Morning, Tyler.
Morning, Tyler.
Tyler Brown (Associate VP)
Hey.
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
Morning, Tyler.
Tyler Brown (Associate VP)
Yeah, hey, congrats on the quarter. You know, Jule, is there any way you could quantify just how much weather did cost you in the quarter? I mean, I don't normally ask because I get it, that weather's a part of the business, but it just seemed like it was awfully wet this quarter, particularly in April. I think it maybe highlights just how strong the underlying business is.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Yeah, Tyler, you know, there was a report that said in our local markets, when measuring around each of our asphalt plants, that the precipitation was 30% higher than normal or 130% of normal. I think that's pretty accurate. We can't quantify exactly how much that is, but I would just say, you know, it was significant. The good news is our crews and our people fought through it and delivered a great quarter. With record revenue, clearly, the revenue would have been higher if we'd had typical weather, I was really impressed to see the margins come through, and I think that's what we anticipated. Even with the precipitation we had, that was a great result.
Tyler Brown (Associate VP)
Yeah, interesting. Okay, great. We're gonna get to margins in just a sec. Real quick, Greg, do you, I may have missed it, but did you state what the M&A contribution was in the quarter to revenue?
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
It was a roughly 3%, but that's.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Acquisition.
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
Oh, acquisition. I'm sorry, 10%. I'm sorry. I thought you were asking organic. Yeah, 10%, 10% acquisitive.
Tyler Brown (Associate VP)
Okay, 10%. Perfect. Then maybe on that, going back to the asphalt adjustments. I get it that there was a $10 million contribution last year. Was there actually a negative adjustment this year? It seemed like to get to that 3% drag, there was probably a negative this year.
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
No, actually, in the earnings release, we had a, a revenue reconciliation, for both this year and last year. It's about a $1.5 million pickup for this year, so an $8.5 million delta year-over-year.
Tyler Brown (Associate VP)
Okay. All right, I'll take a look at that. Just maybe lastly here, I kinda do wanna come back to margins. I know this may be hard, but you mentioned 350 basis points of improvement year-over-year, but can you kinda unpack what drove that? I mean, if we think about a margin bridge, I mean, I know that there was lower zero margin index revenue adjustments, so maybe that was a help. Lower energy prices were a help, but I surmise that even with those tailwinds, core margins still rose.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Yeah, Tyler. You know, we did say energy costs, as they trend down, it's a little bit of a tailwind. But I would say overall, it's just CPI getting back to normal, and being able to build work where we were able to bid the cost, the way the world was. You know, for over a year now, we've just been finishing that pre-inflationary backlog that the cost just, we, we didn't have the access to know it. So as we build work where we knew the input costs and we're able to bid it that way, you're starting to see that just come through. So in a sense, it's really just returning to what we've always done. So I would say most of the margin improvement was that.
is just building work. We see that jobs are finishing higher than, you know, the bid margins, which is typical. That, that to me, would be most of it. You know, as far as a bridge, I don't know, but that's, I would say it's really just getting back to building, typical backlog.
Andy Wittmann (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Okay, perfect. Thank you guys so much for the time.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
All right, Tyler. Thank you.
Tyler Brown (Associate VP)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Your next question comes from Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.
Brian Biros (Senior Analyst)
Hey, good morning. This is actually Brian Biros on for Kathryn. Thank you for taking my question.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Hey, Brian, good morning.
Brian Biros (Senior Analyst)
Morning, everyone. To start, I guess, I think in the press release you guys mentioned IIJA is fully implemented. Can you just provide some more context around what that means in the context for today? You know, are you actually seeing on the ground projects, new projects being worked on that is funded from IIJA? Or is it more the money is still going to design and engineering or kind of just funding projects that are already in process? I guess, just what does that look like now and going forward for you?
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Yeah, Brian, good question. The IIJA clearly is a, a big deal. It's a generational investment in infrastructure for our industry. It's a five-year plan. As we all know, it started later than expected, and so it's really the lettings in our states, really just started happening last fall and this past winter, you know, on a regular basis. I would just say that we're seeing it come through in the lettings. It is funding projects. I don't think it's gonna be as impactful this year as it will be next year. I think you're gonna continue to see it ramp up, and it's gonna provide five years of really good demand. It's not just roads, it's airports, railroads, ports, charging stations, all of that infrastructure, CPI is gonna be able to participate in.
Brian Biros (Senior Analyst)
Understood. I think building off of the, the question from before, as you guys have mentioned, this is return to kind of the historical norm in terms of kind of the price cost volatility going forward, was a headwind in the past year or two. I guess, has all that kind of work that was bid pre-inflationary environment, has that rolled off and now we're kind of in this new cadence to return to basically the normal performance going forward? Or is there anything else to consider as we finish up the year here in the next few quarters?
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
No, Brian, I really think, you know, our updated guidance reflects we feel really good about the fourth quarter. You know, our model is that, you know, we're estimating and bidding jobs every day, and our jobs have a typical duration of nine months to a year. We were able to burn through that pre-inflationary backlog that we got surprised when inflation hit. It took us about a year, and we're through that for the most part, with very minimal left. We're really just seeing now, the results of just getting back to our normal model, which is, being able to bid jobs and the costs reflect the world as it is.
Brian Biros (Senior Analyst)
Got it. Thank you.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Okay, Brian. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Your next question, Andy Wittman with Robert W. Baird. Please go ahead.
Andy Wittmann (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Hey, guys, thanks.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Hey, good morning.
Andy Wittmann (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Hey, I guess I wanted to hear you two talk a little bit about labor in particular. Obviously, it's been a big factor over the last couple of years. You mentioned energy as a benefit, but can you just talk about your ability to find that labor and, and how the wages are comparing to the prior year?
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Yeah, Andy, you know, labor continues to be a big topic, so that's a great question. We feel like the labor market, in a sense, is normalized. It's still in our industry. We have to compete for workforce. In the long term, as you know, we're gonna have to compete as, as our workforce, ages out and retires. We see that at CPI as an advantage. We're gonna do what it takes to attract and retain a workforce, so that we can continue to grow. We're doing a lot of things on that. In the short term, I would say the labor market's really not any impediment now. We're able to find the workers we need, and our local markets are doing a great job attracting labor.
Andy Wittmann (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Got it. I was also, also hoping you could comment on your, your view on the mix between the private sector and the public sector work that you do. Do you expect that your company is going to be doing more work in the public sector as the impact of higher rates takes hold this year and next year? Maybe address it that way, or, or also just talk about kind of what you're seeing from your private sector customers today in terms of the bidding environment, in terms of the number of bids that are out there that you're chasing?
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Yeah. Yeah, Andy, you know, Greg and I, when we were closing the quarter, we, you know, we looked at those numbers, it's really surprising just how steady that 60/40 split is. You know, you'd think that maybe it's gonna trend up with IIJA, but it's really continued to remain right at near that 60/40 split between public and private. We really see that's just an indication that the Southeast private market continues to be steady. I would just tell you, you know, We really haven't seen any drop-off significantly in the amount of private opportunities. You've got businesses coming to the Southeast.
I'm going to let Ned speak a little bit more on the big picture, but I would say the split, Andy, has really just held very constant, and we see that really remaining pretty close to that.
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
You know, Andy, I think one of the things we've done well for 20+ years is we're in, we're in growing markets. I mean, if you come to Greenville or you go to the markets that we're in, they're all growing, and there's a housing shortage, so there's a supply issue with houses. It's not an interest issue, it's a supply issue. There are more people who want to buy houses, even though the interest rates are up, than there are homes today. We see that in market after market that we participate in. I, I think the private markets and the commercial markets for us are going to continue to stay really strong because the demographic growth of the areas that we're in is growing. It's, it's actually accelerating since COVID.
We feel really good about the fact that we continue to be able to pick projects that we want to do on both sides of that curve.
Andy Wittmann (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Okay, great. That's all the questions I had for today. I hope you all have a nice day.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
All right, Andy. Thank you.
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
Thanks, Andy.
Operator (participant)
Your next question comes from Adam Thalhimer with Thompson Davis & Company. Please go ahead.
Adam Thalhimer (Director of Research)
Hey, good morning, guys. Nice quarter.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Hey, Adam. Good morning.
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
Good morning, Adam. Hey.
Adam Thalhimer (Director of Research)
Hey, can you comment on bid margins or margins in backlog? I'm curious because you had nice sequential backlog growth, you called that out. Just give us a little color on the type of work that you're putting in backlog right now.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Yeah, Adam, the backlog we added this quarter was really good margins, tried to margins, which tells us that people are busy and that the demand out there is, you know, strong. We're continuing to see healthy margins there, that continue to grow in our backlog. You know, that's what gives us confidence to raise our guidance for the fourth quarter, but also really just is going to really help FY 2024 and beyond.
Adam Thalhimer (Director of Research)
Well, that's where I was going, Jule. I was curious, maybe it's a little early, but just curious if you think you might get back to historical EBITDA margins, which I think were more like 11%-12% on an annual basis.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, FY 2024 is coming. It's probably a good question and time to talk about. You know, as we've said, Adam, and we still feel this way, we'd like to get back to 12% EBITDA margins in 2024, or at least take a big step toward that. You know, we wanted to get back to double-digit margins in 2023. You can see now with our updated guidance, you know, we're really, our expectations have grown since the beginning of the year. We're excited about the next year.
Adam Thalhimer (Director of Research)
Okay. Good to hear. Then, just a last one on, on the M&A outlook. What, what's the attitude among sellers right now?
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Well, I, I've been on the road a lot lately, Adam. M&A activity continues to be strong. We're having a lot of good conversations with potential sellers. I would say it really hasn't changed a lot. Most of the people that we're talking to about selling, they're busy also. They have good backlogs, but, you know, our sellers are really thinking more about their long-term family planning and generational issues, and that really hadn't changed. You know, we're, we're excited about the conversations we're having and future acquisitions, and so, you know, it's a big part of our growth strategy, both organic growth and acquisitive. You're going to continue to see us do acquisitions at a steady rate.
Adam Thalhimer (Director of Research)
Great. I'll turn it over. Thanks.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
All right, Adam. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Next question, Stanley Elliott with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Stanley Elliott (Director)
Hey, good morning, everyone. Thank you for the question. Hey, quick question.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Good morning.
Stanley Elliott (Director)
Quick question on the backlog for you guys, increasing sequentially. You know, was that weather, or was it, you know, maybe a little bit slower on the organic side? Then curious, too, in the composition, we've talked a lot about the price cost you guys have in there. Are you all bidding larger-sized jobs? Just curious, kinda how all this is shaking out?
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
I'll answer sequentially, and then I'll let Greg answer as far as the makeup of the, the jobs in it. I would say, Stanley, that weather was not a big factor in our backlog growth. You know, we grew to a record backlog, and as you know, historically, CPI's backlog has shrunk in the busy work season when we're burning off a lot of revenue. The fact that we grew it over $70 million, I think, is evidence of growing relative market share and just a strong demand. I'll let Greg speak to sort of the makeup of the jobs that we're seeing in the backlog, but I would say our guys did a, a really good job of growing the backlog.
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
Yeah, Stanley. Yeah, we track that. We, we want to know how, how our jobs stratify, and we look back to earlier than when we went public. If you go back to one of our earlier years, 2018, 2019, it hasn't changed hardly at all. Even though from the [2019 K], we've, we've doubled our revenue, or will double our revenue in terms of what our guidance is showing for this fiscal year, but that makeup has not changed at all.
Stanley Elliott (Director)
That's great news. Then, to what you mentioned kind of healthy sources of recurring revenue. Could you kind of flesh that out a little bit more? I mean, is it kind of more talking about just the, the resurfacing nature of the work that you all do, or was there something else besides that?
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Yes, Stanley, good question. You know, one of the big parts of CPI strategy is recurring revenue in local markets, right? For us, what that means is the city of Huntsville is gonna let a resurfacing contract every year. Developers in Pensacola are gonna do a certain amount of work every year. We have repeat customers that we know are gonna spend a certain amount of money. We build our local teams in our 67 markets, just build those relationships, and we have a very steady, you know, revenue. That's why we can keep crews busy and build a local workforce, is they know they're gonna do a certain amount of work every year. That's what we mean by recurring revenue. It's both on the public and the private. It's just, we know there's gonna be a certain amount of demand in each of our markets.
Stanley Elliott (Director)
Perfect. Lastly, for me, you know, it seems like some of the OEMs are talking about the supply chain getting a little bit better. Are you all getting the equipment that you need? You know, help us with kind of lead times and availability, and then also kind of maybe speak to some of the technologies that you guys are implementing to help with the overall productivity.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Yeah. Stanley, I would say the, the lead times have improved from a year ago quite a bit. While they might still be longer than what you historically have, we've just adapted, you know, our ordering and our business model. Our relationships with the equipment manufacturers certainly help. It's really, we are getting the equipment we need. You see, this year we've sold some equipment, that maybe we held on to a year longer because of lead time. That's been a really good development.
As far as the technology, that is an ever, constant, keeping up with the technology, you know, whether it be, the equipment, the telematics, the equipment, telling us when it needs to be repaired and keeping up with that, to, you know, fleet, fleet tracking systems, where it can really tell you in real time how your trucks are doing, going to and from the asphalt plant to the road. It's just things that five or 10 years ago, you know, we wouldn't have, wouldn't have dreamed of, but that's really helping us run our business. It's gonna help us be able to grow our margins in the future as we can operate more efficiently. So it's something we really try to stay ahead of the curve on.
Stanley Elliott (Director)
Perfect, guys. Thanks so much, and congratulations.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Thank you, Stanley.
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
Thank you, Stanley.
Operator (participant)
Your next question comes from Brian Russo with Sidoti & Company. Please go ahead.
Brian Russo (Managing Director)
Yeah. Hi, good morning. I'm sorry if I missed this.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Hi, Brian.
Brian Russo (Managing Director)
What was the year-over-year organic growth, year-over-year?
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
If you adjust for the liquid asphalt adjustment, Brian, that we talked about, it's 3%.
Brian Russo (Managing Director)
Okay.
Greg Hoffman (CFO)
Quarter.
Brian Russo (Managing Director)
You mentioned this. Thanks. You mentioned this last quarter, you know, how does that triangulate with, you know, volumes of asphalt tons or, you know, maybe equipment hours year-over-year?
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Yeah, Brian, I would just say, you know, when we look at our volumes year-over-year, year to date, we're up pretty substantially in our equipment hours, and we're up in our asphalt tons. You know, we've had a wetter first quarter than last year, and we've had a wetter third quarter than last year, the two our two biggest quarters of the three we've had so far, you know, have been wetter than typical. We are experiencing real volume increases. We're growing as a business. When you look at our revised revenue outlook, you know, it's 18%-20% up. You know, last year's growth of 40%-42%, that's not the typical CPI year. This is growing 18%-20%, and it's gonna end up being about 50% acquisitive and 50% organic, which is what we historically have done.
Brian Russo (Managing Director)
Okay, great. Is there any difference in the margins on the private side versus the public side?
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
No. They're pretty comparable, Brian, with. The margin profile really changes more by market. You know, some markets have a higher margin profile than others, but when you look at public versus private, they're pretty comparable.
Brian Russo (Managing Director)
Okay. I suppose that you're actively involved in all of this, reshoring and, you know, electric vehicle battery facilities being built down in, in the Southeast, I assume?
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Absolutely. The reshoring, we're working on several manufacturing facilities right now, where businesses are moving to the Southeast. Then on the electric battery facility, right here in North Carolina, we have Toyota building a huge battery facility, just a few miles up the road from one of our asphalt plants, that's provided good work. Then you have VinFast, which is building a huge electric car facility, in Sanford, so that we're participating and working around. Yes, you see that throughout the Southeast, it's just a lot of businesses moving as well as, as people. That creates a lot of, you know, industrial opportunities for us to work on those sites.
Brian Russo (Managing Director)
Great. Then lastly, just to follow up on, on the IIJA spending, you know, obviously, the first funding, right, would go to roadways and resurfacing, you know, for the DOTs to put it to work quickly and get the matching of funds. Are you seeing funds now flowing to more complex projects? You referenced bridges and maybe airports that might be, you know, bigger or more complex, that might allow, you know, some higher margins.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Yes. You know, Brian, the IIJA is a lot of different types of infrastructure. Right now, throughout the Southeast, we're working on a number of airports, and so those are really good jobs for us. You know, you're gonna see, you're gonna see bigger projects, where even though we don't pursue the mega projects, we, we, we, we think those, that there are better projects with lower risk and higher margins. You'll see us participate as an asphalt subcontractor or a grading subcontractor on those projects. You know, the IIJA is gonna produce revenue for us in a lot of different ways.
Brian Russo (Managing Director)
Okay, great. Thanks a lot.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Thank you, Brian.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. I would like to turn the floor over to management for closing remarks.
Jule Smith (President and CEO)
Thank you, everyone, for your time this morning. We're looking forward to a good fourth quarter and talking to you again. Have a good day.
Operator (participant)
This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.