Good morning everyone. My name is Jamie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the Newpark Resources Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results Conference Call. Today’s call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning at 12:30 PM Eastern Standard Time. The recording can be accessed by dialing 800-839-5629 for domestic or 402-220-2556 for international. All lines are currently muted and after the prepared remarks there will be a live question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Gregg Piontek, Chief Financial Officer of Newpark Resources. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. I’d like to welcome everyone to the NPK International year-end 2024 conference call. Joining me today is Matthew Lanigan, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Before handing over to Matthew, I’d like to highlight that today’s discussion contains forward-looking statements regarding future business and financial expectations. 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 SEC. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update our forward-looking statements. Our comments on today’s call may also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our quarterly earnings release, which can be found on our corporate website. There will be a replay of today’s call and it will be available by webcast within the Investor Relations section of our website at npki.com Please note that the information disclosed on today’s call is current as of February 27, 2025. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions. And with that I’d like to turn the call over to our President and CEO, Matthew Lanigan. Thanks, Greg, and welcome to everyone joining us on today’s call. I’ll begin with commentary for our fourth quarter and full year 2024 performance, followed by our outlook and strategic priorities for 2025. Following the third quarter transitory pause in our key customer projects, rental activity accelerated meaningfully entering the fourth quarter consistent with our expectations, resulting in a strong finish to the year for our business. Fourth quarter revenue increased 24% year-over-year to $58 million supported by broad-based growth across all our revenue streams. Rental revenues increased by 28% year-over-year, reaching a new single quarter…

Thanks, Matthew. I’ll begin with a more detailed discussion of our fourth quarter results, then provide an update on our outlook for 2025 and capital allocation priorities. Fourth quarter revenues came in fairly in line with our expectations as activity rebounded sharply from the acute seasonal slowdown in Q3, resulting in a strong finish to the year. Total rental and services revenues improved 29% sequentially from the seasonally softer Q3 and 17% year-over-year to $42 million in the fourth quarter. Revenues from product sales also improved 33% sequentially and 45% year-over-year, coming in at $16 million for the quarter. As Matthew referenced earlier, our full year revenue improved 5% year-over-year with higher product sales and rental revenues somewhat offset by lower service revenues. Rental revenues increased 7% versus prior year, reflecting increased rental volume offset by a modest reduction in pricing. As we engage in larger scale customer projects with longer durations, we found that the benefits of stronger asset utilization and cost efficiencies allows us to flex on price while still meeting or exceeding our return thresholds. As Matthew touched on service revenues were down 15% compared to last year, reflecting our focus on returns in 2024. Revenues from product sales improved 24% year-over-year to a record $72 million in 2024. By industry, our revenue growth was predominantly driven by our expansion within the utility sector, while pipeline, oil and gas and other sectors declined. The utility sector contributed roughly 60% of our 2024 revenues, including 55% of rental and service revenues and two thirds of our product sales. In terms of gross profit, the fourth quarter improved $10 million sequentially and $7 million year-over-year, largely reflecting the higher revenues along with the effects of the operating leverage and stronger sales mix. Additionally, the sequential comparison includes an estimated…

Thanks, Gregg. As we enter 2025, our strategy remains focused on three foundational elements to drive long-term shareholder value creation through scale enhancement, operating efficiency and return of capital optimization. Our primary focus will be the acceleration of revenue growth through the expansion of our high return rental business, which includes a combination of geographic expansion in underserved growth territories primarily within the U.S. while also expanding customer market share within our currently served markets. We have diligently expanded our sales team over the last six quarters and are encouraged with the progress being made. Our quarter [ph] volumes across all regions continues to grow while our award rate is also reflecting the work our team is doing to better understand our customer’s needs. We’re encouraged with the progress we are making as both the largest U.S. based manufacturer and rental fleet operator of composite matting and the growing market acknowledgement that the DURA-BASE system offers a superior solution to traditional timber products. We estimate composite matting share of the U.S. market to be almost 20%, which marks significant progress displacing traditional timber products over the last decade and that focus in our service industries on superior functionality and environmental stewardship will continue to drive adoption beyond current levels. Therefore, we will continue to prioritize investment to support the scale up of our specialty rental and service offerings. Our second focus area will be on driving further organizational operational efficiencies. Over the last two years our teams have demonstrated a strong commitment to efficiency improvements and operating cost optimization across every aspect of our business with a simplified business model post the Fluids divestiture, we continue to evaluate and execute actions intended to streamline the organization and our cost structure as we target SG&A as a percentage of revenue to…

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We’ll hear first from Aaron Spychalla with Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning, Matthew and Greg. Thanks for taking the questions. First on the guidance for revenue. Maybe a little bit wider range than we’ve seen in the past. Can you just talk a little bit on the puts and takes there and just how you’re thinking about the split between products and rentals, anything on the cadence as we progress through the year there?

Yes, no real change expected on the mix. I think in terms of the wider range, I think that comes back to what we saw in 2024. You do have some uncertainties with customer spend, the timing of projects, et cetera, things that are outside of our control. And that’s really, I think, the cause for it. Really. No change in our overall outlook. Obviously the center point being of the range being at that 10% mark, that’s, very consistent with the discussions that we’ve had in the past. So. Yes, really nothing more to it than that.

All right, thanks for that. And then on the EBITDA margin guidance, kind of high-20s at the midpoint. Can you just kind of talk about how you’re thinking about some of the improvements in SG&A and kind of the offset between kind of growth and margins there?

Yes, I think first of all, with SG&A, I think as we flow through 2025, we do have the headwind that we talked about of the absorbed cost and really most of that is in the IT infrastructure. That’s where you have the majority of the costs that are more fixed in nature that we’re working our way through. We had talked about the ERP conversion. So we do expect that will kind of tick up a little bit here in Q1 and then work its way down as we progress. And then as we talked about by early 2026, being in that mid-teens range. In terms of the incremental margins overall, you look at the range that we provided and it really shows kind of a consistent flow through in the mid-30s to low-40s percentage, really where that range frames up in terms of the incremental margin on that revenue range. And that’s very consistent with what we’ve seen historically as we’ve gone through here in Q4 in particular, you see really the value of that rental element. You see the strong flow through that you get as you grow the rental side and that obviously remains focused for us.

All right. And then maybe one last, if I could just on free cash flow, given some of the events in the fourth quarter, just how you’re thinking that trends in 2025 with some of the kind of Fluids receivables and things like that?

Yes, obviously Fluids you got, upper teens there that will work its way through the system. I think the, majority of that is handled here early in the year, in the next – within the first quarter in the next few months. Beyond that, working capital isn’t a big deal as we’ve talked about in the past. It’s really your receivables is the only balance that flux there with the overall revenue growth. So it really becomes a discussion – and the other thing I’d add is cash taxes very limited because of the tax shield that we have there. So really it’s a story of EBITDA and CapEx. That CapEx we gave the guide of $35 million to $40 million that’s very well aligned with what we did here in 2024 and as we had stated, that got us 13% growth in the fleet size. We see that as similar and I think the CapEx decisions that we make, you’re kind of balancing your outlook both near and longer term outlook for demand and then also managing into that the manufacturing efficiency, the efficiency of your production line. So I think those are the things that will contribute to it.

Understood, thanks for taking the questions. I’ll turn it over.

We’ll hear next from Sameer Joshi with H. C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks Matt and Gregg for taking my questions and congratulations on all the progress over the last few quarters. Good work there. Just in terms of your customer concentration going forward, I know you mentioned utilities are around 65%, but is there any one particular or two –one or two customers that form like a bulk of your expected revenues?

Yes, I’ll take that one Sameer. Look, I think in any given quarter, particularly when you look at direct sales and some of the magnitude of those orders, you may have a large customer in that particular segment. When you look at the broad based, the rental, we have strong repeating relationships that are meaningful, but we find that those over time tend to switch each other out with different set of customers being in that population. So, I don’t know that we have any very particular strong concentration on any given customer.

Yes, we had talked this year in part on that direct sales side. We had the very large order in Q2 that we had talked about and that being predominantly one customer. So there was definitely was a bit of a concentration there. But the nature of the sales, the product sales that we see year-to-year, it really has a different mix of customers year-to-year. It’s not as though you have a very consistent pattern year-over-year there.

Good to know, that’s helpful. I guess part of the question may already have been answered because of your success $66 million ABL. But I was just wondering, you have CapEx of $35 million to $40 million and as well as you’re planning the buyback or at least you reminded us that it’s on the books. How do you see cash flow management going forward?

I think it’s really just a matter. Obviously, we’re in a very strong position from liquidity. So we have a lot of flexibility right now. We do see that we have the ability to work all streams, all streams being the organic investment, continuing to feed that fleet as needed on the organic growth. We like the returns that we get there. We do see space there for the share buybacks and continuing to return some portion of free cash flow in that way. And then at the same time it also comes back to continuing to evaluate the market for inorganic opportunities that we can utilize to accelerate. So again with the amount of liquidity we had, we had talked a little bit about the plan here to replace our credit facility to give us even more liquidity. It provides us a lot of flexibility.

Understood. And one last one and maybe this is a follow up on Aaron’s question from before. In terms of the expected adjusted EBITDA as a percent of revenue, are you seeing pricing pressure that despite your cost efficiencies on SG&A, your EBITDA is sort of flat year-over-year as a percent of revenue?

Yes, I mean, I think what we point out there is we’ve been talking for multiple quarters over our desire to, to get more larger scale, longer duration projects. I think they. And we’ve talked about the fact that they will come at a more competitive price point, but that will flow through in asset utilization for us. So beyond what we’re seeing there as we continue to penetrate in those areas successfully, I describe pricing as no different from any other year. There’s pockets and times where it’s very competitive and there’s other times where it’s very rational. So I think that’s the main driver there for me.

Understood. Good. Thanks a lot for taking my questions. I’ll take other questions offline.

And ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today’s question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the floor back over to management for any additional or closing comments.

Sure. Thanks for joining us on our call today and should you have any questions or requests, please reach out to us using our email at investors@npki.com and we look forward to hosting you again next quarter. Thank you.

Thank you. Again, ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today’s NPK International Inc. Fourth quarter and full year 2024 results conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at this time and have a wonderful rest of your day.