Hello, and welcome everyone, to the Mayville Engineering Company Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings conference call. My name is Becky, and I will be your operator today. During the presentation, you can register a question by pressing star followed by one on your keypad. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. I will now hand over to your host, Stefan Neely with Alum Advisors to begin. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. On behalf of our entire team, I would like to welcome you to our fourth quarter and full year 2024 results conference call. Leading the call today is Mayville Engineering Company's President and CEO, Jag Reddy, Todd Butz, Chief Financial Officer, and Rochelle Loehr, our Chief Human Resources Officer. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements about future business and financial results. Actual results may differ significantly from those projected in today's forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties, including the risks described in our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update our forward-looking statements. Further, this call will include the discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation of these measures to the closest GAAP financial measure is included in our quarterly earnings press release, which is available at mechinc.com. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Jag. Thank you, Stefan, and good morning, everyone.

During a period of softer demand within our core vertical markets, our team maintained focused execution in 2024. We delivered consistent profitability, disciplined networking capital management, and significant year-over-year growth in free cash flow generation when compared to 2023. Similar to the third quarter, our fourth quarter performance was impacted by lower customer program activity as OEM customers continue to drive normalization in channel inventories. Lower demand contributed to an 18% year-over-year decline in revenue, which resulted in reduced overhead absorption and lower utilization. During the first half of 2025, we anticipate that the ongoing softness in demand will persist across most of our end markets, consistent with what we have seen during the second half of 2024. Based on current customer discussions, together with new projects in backlog, we expect demand conditions to gradually recover during the second half of 2025. Our business development team is actively engaged in discussions with both new and current customers within high-value emerging end markets, and particularly those that capture multi-year investable pieces. These new opportunities, which include exposure to industrial infrastructure investments, such as the ongoing domestic data center build-out, have the potential to increase our revenue base across growing less cyclical end markets. Our business continues to generate strong free cash flow, positioning us to execute on our capital allocation strategy that includes continued debt reduction, along with opportunistic repurchases of our common stock. In 2024, we generated free cash flow of nearly $78 million, including $25.5 million from a recently announced legal settlement. Excluding the settlement, organic free cash flow more than doubled versus 2023 levels. During the fourth quarter, we repaid more than $31 million in debt, reducing our net leverage to 1.3 times at year-end. This is well below our stated targeted net leverage ratio range of between…

Thank you, Jag. I will begin my prepared remarks with an overview of our fourth quarter and full-year financial performance, followed by an update on our balance sheet and liquidity, and I will conclude with a discussion of our 2025 guidance. Total sales for the fourth quarter decreased 18.4% on a year-over-year basis to $121.3 million. The decline in net sales was driven by customer destocking activities and weaker end-user demand, which was partially offset by new project launches. Our manufacturing margin was $10.8 million in the fourth quarter as compared to $18.2 million in the same prior-year period. The decrease was primarily driven by the corresponding decline in net sales. Our manufacturing margin rate was 8.9% for the fourth quarter of 2024, as compared to 12.3% for the prior-year period, or a decrease of 340 basis points. The decrease in our manufacturing margin rate reflects the impact of lower fixed cost absorption from lower customer sales and two fewer working days in the quarter. Other selling, general, and administrative expenses were $7.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, as compared to $7.2 million in the same prior-year period. The increase was primarily driven by higher costs related to compliance requirements and annual wage inflation, partially offset by a reduction in legal expenses relating to our former fitness customers. Interest expense was $2 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, as compared to $3.6 million in the prior-year period, due to a reduction in borrowings relative to the fourth quarter of last year. The decrease of $67.9 million in borrowings over the past year reflects our continued strong free cash flow generation. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $9.2 million versus $17.7 million for the same prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased by 430 basis points to 7.6%…

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. Our first question comes from Ross Sparenbleck from William Blair. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey. Good morning. This is Sam Carlo Vonfer Ross. Thanks for taking my questions. Morning, Sam. I want to touch on your margin guidance for 2025. I know you plan to use your plant shutdowns in the fourth quarter as an opportunity to execute on some additional MBX initiatives. Was wondering if you could update us on the progress that you have made and then give us a sense of how much of this progress is contemplated in your 2025 margin guidance.

Yeah. As it relates to, you know, Q4, certainly, we had a lot of activity. We closed a facility, and like we indicated in our remarks, that is the low point. When you look at 2025, you know, we anticipate $1 to $3 million of improvement driven by MBX as well as pricing, and that is net of inflation. So you have to keep that in mind. The gross number is a bit higher, but that impact is somewhat muted. Meaning that our volume in the first half, you know, it continues to be in a depressed situation or low point. And so the pull-through when you think about all these MBX and cost-saving initiatives gets a little bit muted. And so as we begin in the second half and even into 2025, all these cost initiatives that we have done will really see the benefit of that and add pull-through in a much more substantial manner as we enter the back half of 2025 and into 2026.

Just to add to that, Sam, we conducted a significant number of MBX Kaizen in Q4. As we indicated in our prepared remarks, we also started Q1 with significant activity in many of our plants. We continue to drive cost reduction, productivity improvement projects across our plant network. We have not, you know, taken the gas pedal or pedal off the gas pedal, I guess. Right? We continue to drive additional product enterprise.

Got it. That's super helpful. And then given your 2025 guidance does not reflect any impact from tariffs, can you help us frame where the company is most exposed to potential tariffs? From an end market perspective? And then I know the situation is still fluid, but maybe help us frame what the sensitivities could look like if the proposed tariffs remain in place for an extended period of time.

Absolutely. First, I want to remind everyone that we are, as pure play domestic, manufacturer, as it can get. All of our manufacturing footprint is US-based. Ninety-five percent of our inputs are domestically sourced. Less than five percent of our inputs, i.e., hardware, some casting, some forgings, aluminum, etc., are subject to any potential tariffs. So if you think about that, you know, within that five percent or less, the majority of that is really the aluminum we get from Canada. And all of our steel and aluminum costs are passed through to our customers. So we are pretty confident that the current tariff regime, at least what was announced yesterday, will have limited impact on Mayville Engineering Company as a whole. Of course, we will continue to try to mitigate any impact to our customers by finding additional sources, alternative sources to reduce any tariff impact. But on the steel end, aluminum as a whole, it is a pass-through expense for us. So we do not expect any dollar margin impact from these tariffs. But, obviously, if the steel prices go up, aluminum prices go up, it will have an impact on our margin percentage rather than dollar impact.

Got it. That's helpful. I'll leave it there. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Our next question is from Ted Jackson from Northland Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much. Hey, Todd. First of all, I want to tell you that I'm sad that you're leaving. I've really enjoyed working with you, and I look forward to hopefully keeping in touch and the great things that you're going to do with the rest of your life. Hey, Patrick. Question. I have a couple of questions. So one of them is you just you talked fast and I write slow. Can you provide the guidance you gave for Power Sports again, please?

Power Sports, we had the market declining, you know, low single digits, and then we had in the twentieth percentile decline, meaning twenty to twenty-five percent year over year. Does that clarify your point?

That is it. That is it. Then jumping over to tariffs, is there a case to be made that over the longer term that the change in tariff structures could be good for you? And where I'm going with that is as many of your customers might be forced to bring some of the manufacturing that they do overseas back into this country that they're going to need, you know, partners like Mayville Engineering Company to make that kind of stuff. And, you know, does that resonate with you? Have you had any kind of dialogue with any of your customers or any potential customers as they start rethinking their supply chains and how they might be able to reconfigure them to meet this, you know, kind of new dynamic that Trump is bringing into force?

Yeah. Ted, great question. We've said this before. There are parts of our end markets and customers that have the flexibility to outsource to low-cost countries and regions. And primarily, those components are in the power sports market. We have seen some of our customers go to Asia, as an example, or Mexico to manufacture some of these components. So we do anticipate if these tariffs stick, we don't know. Right? It changes day to day, hour to hour. But if these tariffs stick, we do expect some level of return to the US. So we will be a beneficiary of that trend if the tariffs remain. At the same time, we have seen a reasonable amount of interest from many of our existing customers to start thinking about completely changing or at least dual sourcing their components to US manufacturers like Mayville Engineering Company. We have seen increased activity in our quoting team. And we anticipate that we'll be in the long run a tailwind for Mayville Engineering Company.

Yeah. That's how I would think about it myself. I mean, I understand there's disruptions, but, you know, I think over, you know, the longer term, if anything, it's probably a positive for the company. Third question, just kinda when you gave the free cash flow guidance for 2025. It's a honestly, it's a robust number. I wonder if

And then pass on to Todd. In the end of 2022, Ted, we had 6.2 turns of inventory performance. We ended 2024 at 9.1 turns of inventory. That just shows you the power of MBX and then how we are driving down our work in process inventories and our planning of our raw material purchases, etc. So net working capital reduction has been a huge lever for us. In addition to working with our customers and our suppliers to change payment terms. So those are some of the actions that we have taken over the last couple of years to drive this level of performance and we continue to drive similar activities going into or coming into 2025. And as Jag mentioned, I mean, certainly, working capital is a big driver, and that really is the result of MBX initiatives. Right. Not only inventory, but as Jag mentioned, you know, our terms with suppliers, we've changed things with our customers to collect quicker. In addition to that, we've also, you know, we're reducing a bit on our capital expenditure, thirteen to seventeen million versus last year. All those factors are playing into why we expect to be at that, you know, seventy-two to seventy-six percent conversion rate as it relates to 2025. And I'll certainly, you know, the first quarter will probably be a bit muted, but you'll see in as we historically have done, you'll see quarters two, three, and four, we'll see that nice free cash flow generation.

Okay. And then my last question, just on the M&A side. I know it's something you talk about a lot. It's nice to know that you have a good pipeline in place. You know, the balance sheet is as strong as it's been in years. You know, you're below target in terms of your leverage. I have to imagine that some of the market dynamics that are impacting the top line are, you know, hopefully impacting some of the, you know, the valuation metrics for the targets that you have on that list. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, the areas that, you know, kind of when you look at that list, you know, like, I guess, the I go to, you know, the areas that are kind of the higher on the list in terms of the top possibilities, the likelihood that we see something in 2025, and what you're seeing in terms of, you know, kind of target values for, you know, the values for the kind of acquisitions that you're looking at? How about that? In size maybe. Thanks. That's my last one.

Yeah. As we laid out last quarter, I believe, our targeted range would be somewhere between $50 million and $150 million in revenues. And we want these acquisitions to be margin accretive on day one and provide market diversification for us. As you know, we have mentioned, many of our end markets are, you know, highly cyclical. So we're looking for more secular growth end markets. So some of them, you know, will include, and we're, you know, actively pursuing them, are in the power infrastructure, standby power, related to new investments in data centers and similarly long-term highly profitable, and growth-oriented end markets. So having said that, we can never predict the timing of any of these transactions. Our M&A team continues to be very active, engaging with potential targets, working with investment banks, and continuing to generate our list of relevant targets based on our framework. At the same time, we have not seen any changes to the multiples. I would say that the multiples have been part of the reason is the interest rate regime that which remains high, helps us in terms of multiples even though our interest expense might be higher. But certainly, right, our purchase price will be slightly lower given the current interest rate regime we're, you know,

Okay. Alright. Well, thanks for the time. Talk to you soon.

Alright. Thanks, James. Thank you. Our next question is from Andy Kapolewitz from Citi. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey. Good morning, guys. This is actually Jose on for Andy. Good morning.

Morning, Lewis.

Both on your release and during the call, you've mentioned the muted demand conditions and yet expectation for the first half to be weaker and for gradual improvement in the second half. Could you comment though on how you're seeing the path to the 14% to 16% EBITDA margin targets you had set at your Investor Day when your 2025 guidance at the midpoint looks to be around 11%? And, obviously, with the understanding that revenues haven't really grown at the levels you had initially expected back then.

It's a great question. As we mentioned in our prepared remarks, we continue to see the 2023 Investor Day targets for 2026 as achievable. At the same time, the current base business needs to come back to a normalized level. So those targets are based on those assumptions. Given the current market conditions, we are expecting the timeline of achievement of those targets will take a little longer. At the same time, we continue to drive significant productivity within our manufacturing network. And 2026, the CV end market will be much higher than 2025. That's a significant volume given it is 38% of our overall sales. Higher volumes will help us absorb better and volume leverage will help us get into that range in 2026.

Yeah. The other comment I would make was there. As you look at, you know, our annual 2025 guidance, you know, not to look at it in a silo. Meaning, we talked about first half, second half, and this really is a first half versus second half story. We expect, you know, volume to be down in the first half as we stated. That's going to have an impact on our margin rate. And so we look at first half, we're probably in that 8% to 10% range. The second half, we're growing to that 11% to 13% range. And so when you think about how that, you know, margin cadence and build up as we enter 2026, you know, we still see a very solid pathway to achieving that 14% to 16%. It's really the same market volume dependent, you know, timing situation.

Yeah. I appreciate the color, guys. And then just as a follow-up, I did want to touch on Hazel Park and see if you could provide us an update on how that ramp has been progressing for you guys. Sort of exit run rate that you closed 2024 with, and how should we be thinking about revenues in 2025 versus 2024?

Yeah. Nothing has changed with our expectations of Hazel Park. Certainly, current end market demand has impacted top-line sales, but we remain on track with our new product launches and that we're, you know, well-positioned to meaningful bottom-line improvements as markets recover.

Got it. Thanks for the time, everyone.

Thank you. We currently have no further questions, so I'll hand back to Jag Reddy for closing remarks.

Once again, thank you for joining our call. We appreciate your continued support of Mayville Engineering Company, and we look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter. Should you have any questions, please contact Noel Ryan or Stefan Neely at Valum, our investors relations council. This concludes our call. You may now disconnect.

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