Shimmick Corporation - Earnings Call - Q4 2024

Executive Summary

• Q4 2024 revenue was $104M with consolidated gross margin of -20%, driving a net loss of $38M and adjusted EBITDA of -$27M; Shimmick Projects remained positive gross margin but Legacy and Foundations weighed heavily.
• Backlog ended at $822M (87% Shimmick Projects), and total liquidity was $100M supported by a new $15M credit agreement replacing the MidCap revolver; management signaled stronger execution and margin mix in 2025.
• FY2025 guidance: Shimmick Projects revenue up 10–15% with overall gross margin 9–12%, Legacy+Foundations revenue $50–$60M with -5% to -15% margin, and adjusted EBITDA $15–$25M; cadence expected to be 3Q-heavy as projects ramp.
• Stock reaction catalysts: resolution of legacy issues (Golden Gate Bridge $97M settlement), improving backlog mix, and pivot to lower-risk alternative delivery/electrical expansion; management emphasized optimism and risk controls.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Backlog quality improved: $822M backlog with 87% Shimmick Projects (vs. 85% in Q3), reflecting disciplined bidding on more profitable work.
• Liquidity strengthened to $100M, aided by the new $15M credit agreement and prior settlements/sale-leaseback; CFO highlighted comfort funding operations and growth.
• Strategic wins aligned to core markets and delivery methods (Santa Cruz Murray Street Bridge & Headworks; North Hollywood BRT collaborative delivery; Palisades Fire debris removal), supporting the transformation to lower-risk portfolio.

Quote: “We have a comprehensive strategy… improve our backlog and project performance… already made substantial progress in the last three months.” — CEO Ural Yal.

What Went Wrong

• Consolidated gross margin deteriorated to -20% in Q4 (vs. 7% in Q3 and 0% in Q4 2023) with Foundations (-189% GM) and Legacy (-69% GM) driving a larger net loss; adjusted EBITDA fell to -$27M from $30M in Q3.
• Shimmick Projects GM compressed to 2% in Q4 (from 6% in Q3 and 11% in prior year) due to increased costs, schedule extensions, and wind-down effects despite new project margins.
• Equity in JV swung to a $4M loss in Q4 (from $1M gain prior year) on schedule extensions; legal fees on legacy claims and cost overruns persisted into quarter-end.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good afternoon, and welcome to Shimmick Corporation's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Anthony Rasmus, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Anthony Rasmus (Head of Investor Relations)

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss Shimmick's fourth quarter and full year 2024 results. Slides for today's presentation are available on the Investor Relations section of our website, www.shimmick.com. During this conference call, management will make forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from our forward-looking statements if any of our key assumptions are incorrect. We identify the principal risks and uncertainties that may affect our performance in our reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can also be found on our Investor Relations website. We do not undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statements. Today's presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures.

You should refer to the information contained in the company's fourth quarter press release for definitional information and reconciliation of historical non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures. With that, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Ural Yal, Shimmick CEO.

Ural Yal (CEO)

Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us on today's call. I'm joined by Amanda Mobley, Shimmick's Interim CFO. I'm excited to be speaking with you today on my first earnings call as Shimmick's new CEO. Over the last three months, I've had the opportunity to visit almost all of our active projects, meet our project and corporate staff, talk to our clients and our industry partners, and understand the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of us. Building on these insights, I'm going to outline our strategy to make Shimmick the leading premier infrastructure contractor. This strategy is designed around three strategic pillars: sustainable backlog, operational excellence, and people and culture. I will explain each of these in detail, but first, let me address some of the key points of our operational and financial results.

For the fourth quarter 2024 and full year, we delivered revenues of $104,000,000 and $480,000,000, with an adjusted EBITDA of -$27,000,000 and full year 2024 EBITDA of -$61,000,000. Of the fourth quarter revenues, nearly 77% came from Shimmick projects, which we define as the projects we won after we became an independent company after AECOM ownership. Shimmick projects also continue to report positive gross margins despite weather impacts and delays and cost increases during the closeout phases on certain projects. We also achieved significant improvements in our SG&A costs in 2024, now trending towards industry benchmarks. Our backlog stands at $822,000,000, reflecting a 20-month runway to put our new strategy in motion. We also finished the year with a total liquidity of $100,000,000, a good sign of our forward momentum. We had some strong wins in the fourth quarter that aligned very well with our forward strategy.

These wins include the wins in the City of Santa Cruz, the Murray Street Bridge project, and the Wastewater Pretreatment Plant Headworks Rehabilitation, North Hollywood Bus Rapid Transit project in Los Angeles, and our work at the California Palisades Fire Debris Removal effort. These projects span water, climate resilience, and transportation markets and are delivered through a range of project delivery methods and support our continued transformation into profitability and consistent results. Amanda will get deeper into detail on the numbers shortly, but before I start the strategy discussion, I want to touch on the state of Shimmick today. We are at the tail end of completing what we call legacy projects, which have continued to negatively impact our results in 2024.

We see very positive market conditions ahead of us that align with our offering, but we also recognize the need to move quickly as we look to replace the revenues and margins from divested businesses as we simplify our operations in 2024. We have a well-known and respected brand, which is critical to our backlog expansion strategy, a rare set of capabilities that make us competitive and provide turnkey delivery options and a better value for our clients, and most importantly, an impressive technically savvy staff committed to the future of our company. We have a lot to offer to our clients in both public and private markets.

While we have traditionally been more public client-focused, moving forward, we have an opportunity to balance our client portfolio, continuing our long and successful relationships with municipal, state, and federal government agencies while winning new clients in the utility, manufacturing, hyperscale, and industrial space. What I've heard from our customers through many conversations since I joined Shimmick is that they've come to know us for our competitiveness, our delivery excellence, and our dependability. I'm confident that in today's construction market, challenged with skilled labor shortages and budget and time constraints, these are skills that will differentiate us and that we can build on. I would like to now do a deeper dive into our focus markets.

To take the most advantage of this value we provide, we will expand our focus on delivering sustainable infrastructure solutions across four key end markets: water resources, climate resilience, energy transition and technology, and sustainable transportation. I will briefly discuss our approach on each of these markets. Water infrastructure is what we are known for and love. It includes water and wastewater treatment as well as storage, access, and hydropower projects. It's a robust market across the U.S. and consistently sees predictable funding, even with changing administration priorities. Major drivers of water projects continue to be the need to upgrade aging infrastructure, treatment of new pollutants in water as technology develops, as we have seen in the emergence of PFAS treatment across the nation, water scarcity across the West that requires more water recycling and storage options, and migration patterns that require construction and upgrading of new treatment facilities.

We are very comfortable in this market and will continue to look for opportunities across the West Coast as well as in select growth markets where we can leverage our expertise. Second is climate adaptation and resilience. As the intensity and the frequency of weather events change and sea level rise continues, not only do we need to respond to emergencies and unexpected events, but the nation's infrastructure has to adapt to maintain our quality of life and our community's well-being. We recently started working on the debris removal efforts from the devastating L.A. fires, and we have already completed several flood mitigation projects in California where we installed seawalls, gates, and levees to protect adjacent communities and businesses from severe weather events. We expect a strong pipeline of projects in this field, such as raising bridge elevations, upgrading storm drain systems, and weatherproofing existing facilities.

Next is technology and energy transition. It is well-known that the computing power needs driven by rapid developments in AI technology have created an exponential increase in data center infrastructure investments. This work is spread out across the country, has robust funding, and has the potential to generate sizable revenue streams in short periods of time. The building shell generally is only a fraction of the cost of the facility. Where Shimmick can provide value is the necessary water treatment, cooling, and electrical work associated with these facilities, which often represent 30% or more of the overall project cost and are well within our capabilities. In 2025, we will be looking to expand in this market and utilize our expertise and resources either in a specialty subcontracting role to general contractors that are undertaking this work or directly to the facility owners.

While an amount of uncertainty has been introduced to the energy market with the new administration, energy security and efficient use of all leading sources of energy remains a national priority, and we still see a robust growth opportunity here. For example, most of our West Coast transit and municipal clients have already started upgrading their bus and work vehicle fleets to electric and are upgrading their facilities to service these new fleets. Also, electrification at seaports and airports is continuing, and we see good opportunities for our turnkey offering in the battery storage sector. We are currently completing projects in this field at the Port of Tacoma in Washington and have done similar ones at LAX and at the Port of Long Beach. Finally, sustainable transportation. Shimmick has a long history of delivering transportation solutions across the United States.

We're seeing the merging of technology and demand for public transportation creating a steady stream of opportunities. These are once again opportunities where we can offer value to our clients with our turnkey solutions. We have a robust list of projects we will be targeting in 2025 in this field, mostly delivered through lower-risk alternative delivery contracts, and see this field as a key part of our diversification strategy. The good news is that none of these markets are entirely new to us. We have delivered projects successfully and have good client relationships in many of these markets. With a strategic focus and an expanded bidding capacity, we have the opportunity to see growth in each of these markets. We are very optimistic about our addressable market for the next few years.

The size of non-residential U.S. construction market is upwards of $1 trillion a year, and Shimmick's addressable market within that is about $269 billion. Adjusted for our market presence, we view the addressable market at roughly $106 billion per year. With that backdrop, let me shift over to discuss our newly implemented strategic pillars and our key initiatives for 2025. Our first pillar is a sustainable, risk-balanced backlog and a book of work.

We are very focused on increasing our backlog as a percentage of our revenues while reducing its risk profile through marketing, geographic diversification, project profile and size, and use of alternative project delivery methods. We are making investments in a reorganized estimating and bidding department and plan to substantially increase our bid volume and improve our win rates. In the past, we focused on projects in California, and California will absolutely continue to be a major part of our business.

Given the market opportunity and our capabilities, as I discussed earlier, our core presence moving forward will expand along the West Coast, in particular the state of Washington, where we have a strong history and existing market relationships. We're also targeting selective national expansion in growth markets, especially in water and electrical work, where we have transferable skills, resources, and experience. Along with this expanded geographical focus, another strategic initiative is to pursue and win collaborative delivery projects which align to industry trends. We believe that delivery methods such as progressive design-build and construction manager at risk, also known as alternative delivery methods, are going to be used in increasing frequency in the market. In fact, Design-Build Institute of America is estimating the majority of the volume in our markets to be delivered through alternative delivery methods by 2028.

Our goal is to achieve a balanced portfolio between collaborative and fixed-price delivery methods by 2028 as well. As a recent win, we secured the North Hollywood Bus Rapid Transit project, a collaborative delivery contract with Los Angeles Metro, a longtime client of ours, giving us a running start with this initiative. This balanced approach of collaborative delivery and bidding aims to maintain our target margins while reducing project execution risk and allowing better management of our backlog through market fluctuations. Additionally, these projects are commonly delivered through joint ventures and strategic partnerships, allowing us to pursue larger, higher-value opportunities. Overall, this strategy provides more predictable project outcomes and sustained client relationships, which in turn enhance stakeholder value over the long-term. On a third initiative, one I'm particularly excited about is our electrical and technology-driven infrastructure market expansion.

Across the construction industry, we are seeing electrical work taking a larger share of most construction projects due to technological improvements, along with growing needs in water, transit, data centers, and other segments. We believe our self-performing electrical capabilities offer an advantage in the market and a great value to our clients. We will expand our electrical division and position it to pursue and win projects on its own rather than just supporting the civil business as they had in the past. We also see subcontracting opportunities in new markets such as manufacturing and data centers, energy transition, industrial, transit, and healthcare. Electrical construction will grow to be a much larger contributor to our results than it is today, with an expected growth from 15% of our revenues today to a target of over 30% in 2027.

The market continues to be competitive, and it's critical that we continue to improve our operations for consistent results. Therefore, our second strategic pillar is our operational excellence. In 2025, we're implementing several initiatives that we see as low-hanging fruit designed to make immediate impact on our operations, such as upgrades to our ERP and sales and bidding systems, and efficiency improvements to our IT technology. Another area we're focused on is risk management. Fiscal 2024 was a successful year for Shimmick as far as resolving ongoing disputes on legacy projects, but we still have work to do.

While it's not unusual for construction projects to experience scope growth, changes, and disputes, this year we're putting in place processes and measures that allow for early identification and resolution of these issues and a stronger and more structured collaboration with our clients, which we believe will have a positive impact on our cash flows and operating margins in 2025 and into the future. Finally, we're continuing our disciplined focus on right-sizing our SG&A after making great progress in 2024. We are continuing to make improvements in insurance, IT, equipment, procurement, human resources, and other corporate departments, and we'll continue to closely manage our SG&A as a function of our revenues. The third and final strategic pillar has to do with people and culture. I'm impressed every day with our employees' broad-based technical talents and strong commitment to the mission of Shimmick.

Our performance and safety is impressive, with a record that's significantly better than industry averages. We have a strong quality program. We are known in the market as a contractor that delivers technically challenging and complex projects and is a good partner to our clients. With the near completion of legacy projects, settling of old issues, and a bright outlook on expanding our backlog, I'm focused on ensuring our people are taken care of to do what they do best. This year, we will continue to work on improvements in employee benefits. We have already introduced a new performance feedback process, and we're aligning our incentive program to reward strong financial performance as well as contribution to the company goals and mission.

We are retooling our title structure to ensure a clear and achievable career path for our employees, and finally introducing a high-potential employee retention program to reward and support our top performers and other initiatives I'm very excited about. To wrap up this part of the presentation, I see 2025 as our year for setting building blocks of our future. We have a strong foundation to grow from with a wide base of existing and potential clients, a well-funded market that aligns with our skills, and we are finally in a position to emerge from the negative impacts of our challenging legacy projects. With recent wins and a solid backlog, we have a great opportunity to implement our new strategy. I'm extremely optimistic about our future.

Our guidance for 2025, which Amanda is going to talk about in a minute, is informed by this positive outlook and our opportunity to get back to profitability, replace legacy revenue with lower-risk new work, and build our backlog for the future. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Amanda.

Amanda Mobley (Interim CFO)

Thanks, Ural. All comparisons made today will be on a year-over-year basis compared to the same period in 2023. For the fourth quarter, we reported revenue of $104 million compared to $138 million for the prior year period. For revenue on Shimmick projects, which focus on water infrastructure or other critical infrastructure, we recognized revenue of $80 million in the fourth quarter 2024 compared to $85 million a year ago.

The decrease was primarily the result of a decrease from lower activity on existing jobs and jobs winding down, partially offset by revenue from a new water infrastructure job. Gross margin recognized on Shimmick projects in the fourth quarter was $2 million compared to $9 million of margin recognized a year ago. The decrease in gross margin was primarily the result of a $15 million increase in cost of revenue, schedule extensions, and a decrease in revenue from existing projects that are winding down, partially offset by an aggregate of $8 million of gross margin from a new water infrastructure project and ramp-up of a transportation project. Legacy project revenue was $18 million for the three months ended January 3, 2025, a decline of $28 million as compared to the three months ended December 29, 2023, as the company worked to complete these projects.

Legacy projects' gross margin was a -$12 million in the fourth quarter compared to -$8 million a year ago. The negative gross margin was primarily the result of continued impacts of legacy projects winding down, as well as additional legal fees to pursue contract modifications and recoveries and additional cost overruns on other legacy loss projects. As a reminder, as these legacy loss projects continue to wind down to completion, no further gross margin will be recognized, and in some cases, there may be additional costs associated with these projects, which will be recognized in the period. We continue to actively pursue all opportunities to offset these costs. Revenue recognized on the foundation projects was $5 million in the fourth quarter 2024 compared to $7 million a year ago, driven by the result of timing of jobs winding down.

Gross margin recognized on foundation projects was a $10 million loss in the fourth quarter 2024 compared to a $2 million loss a year ago. Our net loss for the fourth quarter 2024 was $38 million compared to a net loss of $17 million for the prior year period, primarily due to a decrease in gross margin of $20 million as a result of gross margin declines in the foundation business. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was -$27 million compared to -$9 million in the prior year period. Turning to the balance sheet, unrestricted cash and cash equivalents at January 3rd, 2025, totaled $34 million, and availability under the revolving credit facility and the credit facility totaled $15 million and $51 million, respectively, resulting in total liquidity of $100 million.

We feel comfortable in our liquidity position at the close of fiscal year 2024, which provides ample runway to carry out our strategic and operational priorities in 2025 and beyond. Our backlog remained strong and was $822 million at the end of the fourth quarter. The mix of our backlog continues to improve as Shimmick projects represent 87% of the backlog at the end of the fourth quarter versus 85% a quarter ago. This reinforces our team's commitment to be selective during the bidding process and focus on more profitable projects that will drive margins higher in our business. For the full 2025 fiscal year, we expect Shimmick projects' revenue to increase 10%-15%, with overall gross margin between 9% and 12%. Legacy projects and foundation projects' revenue between $50 million and $60 million, with gross margin between -5% and -15% as we complete these projects.

Adjusted EBITDA between $15 million and $25 million. With that, I'd like to turn it over now to Ural for some closing remarks.

Ural Yal (CEO)

Thank you, Amanda. In conclusion, I'm simply excited about the future. We believe the next 5+ years to be banner years in the infrastructure construction business, and having resolved our legacy challenges in 2024, we are ready to take advantage of these healthy market conditions. We have strong liquidity, a backlog largely free of past challenges, and we have tailored our growth strategy of backlog growth, operational excellence, and people and culture to play to our strengths and deliver consistent results. Our talented staff, strong reputation and client relationships, and the substantial positive value of the services we are able to offer our customers put us in a great position for growth and strong financial outcomes over the next two to three years.

I want to once again thank all of our team for their tireless efforts as we work to make Shimmick one of America's best sustainable infrastructure companies. Operator, you may now open the line for questions.

Operator (participant)

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Gerry Sweeney with Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Gerry Sweeney (Senior Research Analyst)

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call. So. I don't want to take away from the growth strategy that we went through, the backlog and risk balance work and operational excellence and people and culture, but I did want to talk a little bit about just the guidance we're very happy with. I think you said, I think, in total, $15 million-$25 million on the EBITDA front. Just looking at the legacy Shimmick work coming out of the fourth quarter, that was 2.5% gross margin. You're targeting gross margins of 9%-12% on the Shimmick work. Can you bridge how we go from the results in fourth quarter to some of that guidance that you gave? Conversely, similarly, I should say, even with the AECOM work, some of the gross margins seem to be better than they have been in the past.

I just want to understand how we're going to move from the fourth quarter to some of this guidance.

Ural Yal (CEO)

Yeah. Thanks, Gerry, for the question. Yeah, definitely. As we look at, since I joined, as we look at the performance of active projects on the Shimmick side, leaving the legacy side aside for a second. What I see is, what I see in the backlog is profitable work. Where we are with a lot of the projects, every company, every portfolio of projects has some challenging ones and some really good ones. Based on our view of where the projects are and the remaining backlog on the active projects, I'm feeling comfortable with the 9%-12%.

Some of the remaining work appears low-risk and profitable, and we have some ongoing discussions with our clients for scope growth, etc., that we would be able to add to those margins in 2025. While the 2% on Shimmick project performance obviously does not reflect the 9%-12%, we think we're going to do better in 2025, looking at the remaining backlog. The other part of it is obviously looking at winning profitable work this year. A portion of that 9%-12% would come from high-margin work that we would win this year and burn as well.

Gerry Sweeney (Senior Research Analyst)

Got it. Have you been able—I know you've only been there, I think, three months, but have you been able to come in and institute any changes that you thought that you may think could drive improvement with existing work, or is the existing contract sort of—they're baked in, the risk and margins are what they are?

Ural Yal (CEO)

No, I think there's opportunity there. A lot of our projects are somewhat matured, so maybe I wouldn't say it's a big opportunity, but there's opportunity around risk management improvements that we're doing, looking at identifying issues a little bit earlier, getting with our clients a little bit earlier, and resolving those issues before they impact the bottom line. That's what I've been focused on over the last three months. As we go through the year, I'm continuing to review the operations and look for improvements there, but that's what we're focused on.

That's what I see, I guess, most bang for the buck in developing the bottom line.

Gerry Sweeney (Senior Research Analyst)

Got it. Maybe even cadence—maybe I should have asked this as a follow-up, but maybe the cadence on gross margin on the revenue as we go through the year. I would assume that it's a little bit more second-half loaded. It sort of trends upward from Q1. Obviously, there's some seasonality in Q1, but Q1, Q2 better, Q3 better than Q2, etc., as we move through the year as better projects enter the work phase. Is that a fair assumption?

Ural Yal (CEO)

That is a fair assumption. I think I would say it's probably third quarter heavy, generally. That tends to track pretty well with general construction business tracking. Yes, I would say second quarter better, third quarter best, probably flat in Q4, something along those lines.

Gerry Sweeney (Senior Research Analyst)

That's fair. Finally, you and I have spoken a little bit, maybe transitioning from bid work to more negotiated work, and obviously, that takes time. Any thoughts on that, or is it still a little bit too early to sort of delve into that?

Ural Yal (CEO)

No, I think it's probably good to talk about it. The way those projects work is you win them today, and then you have to go through a 12 to somewhere between nine and 18 months of prep work, pre-construction work, where you negotiate the contract costs and mitigate risks and negotiate contract terms with the client. Winning projects this year, which we've started with this North Hollywood project that I mentioned, those will become—for example, that one becomes, based on the client's estimates, a $190 million construction contract sometime next year.

We're setting the stage for being able to win those projects where we negotiate the construction contract and book the backlog in 2026 and 2027. That work has already started. We've already made quite a bit of investment in that side of the business, the sales, the early side of the business. We feel we're going to see some great progress this year and set us up really well for 2026 and 2027.

Gerry Sweeney (Senior Research Analyst)

Gotcha. I mean, am I correct that it does take some time to sort of turn that backlog over? This is, I think, even as you were saying, 2026 will be the start, 2027 higher than 2028, even higher than 2027 per se.

Ural Yal (CEO)

Yeah. My goal—yes, that's exactly right. My goal is to get to a balanced portfolio between that type of work and our traditional fixed-price work and even balance by end of 2027, probably 2028.

Gerry Sweeney (Senior Research Analyst)

Is that the goal in general, just even balance, or would it be—is that just a target to get to 50/50 by the end of 2027 and potentially grow it thereafter, or do you see 50/50 is the right sort of level for bid work and negotiated work?

Ural Yal (CEO)

I believe that's the right balance. There are benefits to fixed-price work. Margins tend to be higher. They get into construction faster, so they help the backlog faster. So 50/50 balance, I'd be very happy with.

Gerry Sweeney (Senior Research Analyst)

Got it. That makes sense. Okay. That's it for me. I'll jump back in queue, but really appreciate it and look forward to working with you more over the next year. Thank you.

Ural Yal (CEO)

Thank you, Gerry.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Aaron Spychalla with Craig-Hallum Capital. Please go ahead.

Aaron Spychalla (Senior Research Analyst)

Yeah. Good afternoon, Ural and Amanda. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe first for me, obviously, sounding optimistic on the pipeline, can kind of hear that. Can you just kind of talk about some of the federal budget issues, kind of IIJA uncertainty, kind of spending? Are you seeing any impact from that? Anything going on kind of in the local California market that's given you any pause or timeline issues or anything like that?

Ural Yal (CEO)

Yeah. Great question, Aaron. Thank you. We have not seen any impact in our active projects so far. Everything is going as planned, and there hasn't been any funding pulling or anything like that. That is largely true for the bids that we have kind of in the immediate pipeline.

If I look at federal funding overall, our portfolio is probably more reliant on the IRA funding rather than the IIJA. I think even though there's some uncertainty there, the ultimate result there is going to be just different priorities, but still work within our realm or within our capabilities. I don't see the money necessarily going away, maybe changing direction a little bit under what's already been approved. Water tends to be, from a general EPA funding perspective, a lot of our projects are funded from the State Revolving Fund managed by the EPA. Over the first Trump administration into the Biden administration and into now, we don't expect a whole lot of change because the need is always there, and it's very well supported by the communities, a lot of these projects. Overall, we're not overly concerned.

I think maybe it's more of a pause than a rollback. I think so far, our projects have been on track in continuing.

Aaron Spychalla (Senior Research Analyst)

Good. That's good to hear. Maybe second for me, can you just maybe talk a little bit more about the bid activity and pipeline? You kind of mentioned the four kind of growth areas. Just curious. Sounds like confidence in good margins in that pipeline. If you could also speak to kind of how you're feeling about labor availability and things like that as you kind of go after these projects.

Ural Yal (CEO)

Yeah. Thank you. I do feel good about the pipeline. I think the money may get shifted, like I said, in some different ways, but generally, we expect the funding to stay at the levels that it currently is.

A lot of the areas that we're growing in and that we would like to grow in in our strategy, which is just heavily heavy on water and electrical, a lot of those markets remain well-funded. I think one of the things that we're going to really look to do this year is to diversify our client portfolio so we're not overly reliant on one type of client and break into or improve our backlog towards private clients as well and find a better balance. That gives us a lot more resiliency over the long-term. On the labor side, I think the West Coast is still in pretty good shape. We are getting the qualified labor we need. Our staff, we have some capacity, in fact, I believe, based on what I've seen so far. I think we have some capacity to grow.

As you go towards some of the other markets, maybe less so, the data center AI improvements and the labor force that's been attracting has impacted other projects. It's probably a little bit more challenging on projects outside of California and Washington, but generally, we're not seeing a huge impact just yet.

Aaron Spychalla (Senior Research Analyst)

All right. Understood. Maybe last, can you just kind of talk about the outlook for kind of free cash flow based on that guidance as we kind of think about 2025 as well?

Ural Yal (CEO)

Yeah. We start the year really in a really great place at $100 million liquidity. One thing Shimmick's done in 2024 is to put in controls that are much more stringent and detailed than watching our cash flow. We have a really good view of where throughout the year where we're going to be.

Generally, between our free cash flow and our credit facilities, we feel we are in a really good place to fund our operations, sustain some of this growth that we're planning, and still finish the year in a similar strong cash position. Amanda, did you have anything to add to that?

Amanda Mobley (Interim CFO)

Yeah. No, just to expand on that a little. As you were saying, we continue to heavily focus on our cash position and make sure we are tracking against what we're budgeting for 2025. Additionally, we've also been able to secure a revolving credit facility that would replace the MidCap facility that we currently have for the same $15 million commitment. Going forward, we would have that availability in the next three years as well.

Aaron Spychalla (Senior Research Analyst)

All right. Appreciate you taking the questions. I'll turn it over. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ural Yal for any closing remarks.

Ural Yal (CEO)

Thank you, everyone, for the questions. Like I stated earlier, we are very optimistic about 2025 and looking forward to talking to you all again in Q1. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.