Titan America S.A. (TTAM) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I am Erica, your conference call operator. Welcome to Titan America's First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Michael Bennett, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Thank you, operator, and good morning to everyone on the line. Thank you for joining us for Titan America's First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. I am joined by Bill Zarkalis, President and Chief Executive Officer of Titan America; and Larry Wilt, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that, yesterday afternoon, we released Titan America's first quarter 2026 results, which are available on our website at ir.titanamerica.com, along with today's accompanying slide presentation. This call is being recorded, and a replay will be made available on our Investor Relations website. During the call, we will present both IFRS and non-IFRS financial measures. The most directly comparable IFRS measure and reconciliations for non-IFRS measures are available in today's press release and accompanying slides. Certain statements on today's call may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Such statements can be identified by terms such as expect, believe, intend, anticipate and may, among others, or by the use of the future tense. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements, and we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements we make today. For more information about factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements, please refer to the press release we issued today as well as the risks and uncertainties described in our SEC filings. I would now like to turn the call over to Bill. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Titan America's First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Call. Yesterday, we announced our financial results for the first quarter. I would like to begin on Slide 4 by highlighting a few key messages. The first quarter is usually the weakest quarter of the year. It was a quarter that started slowly, affected by continued softness in the residential market and harsh winter weather in our Mid-Atlantic region. In March, the conflict in Iran exacerbated the geopolitical uncertainty, triggered inflationary pressures with increasing fuel and energy costs. Against this backdrop, Titan America once again delivered a solid first quarter performance with year-over-year improvement in our results, showcasing once again the resilience of our vertically integrated business model, the benefits from our ongoing strategic initiatives and the agility of our teams to execute in a challenging environment of mixed end market demand trends and increased uncertainty. First quarter revenue increased by 1.5%, while adjusted EBITDA was 3.4% higher than the same quarter of last year. In the first quarter, our Florida segment delivered robust performance, underpinned by strong participation in infrastructure and private nonresidential construction. We saw meaningful volume growth in aggregates, concrete block and fly ash that was partially offset by softer demand for cement and ready-mix concrete in the residential sector. Prices in Florida were modestly higher sequentially when compared to the fourth quarter of last year. The Mid-Atlantic region delivered strong year-over-year improvement in the first quarter, trimmed down by the impact of adverse winter weather on demand in the region. We are encouraged by the strong performance, which was partly driven by the start of substantial projects in the region, including data centers and public infrastructure. In addition, the quarter included benefits from both year-over-year and sequential growth in cement and ready-mix concrete pricing as well as operating efficiencies that drove adjusted EBITDA margins higher. On May 1, we completed the acquisition of the Keystone Cement Company. This investment represents an important milestone in our growth strategy, and we are very pleased to welcome the Keystone team to the Titan America family. Despite the challenges following our first quarter results and taking into consideration our current visibility for the year, we are reaffirming our full year 2026 outlook. We'll discuss our guidance at the end of the presentation. Let's move now to Slide 5. As communicated, as of May 1, we have concluded the acquisition of the Keystone Cement Company. We have now expanded our geographic reach in the markets of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware and Maryland. In combination with our existing assets, we have strengthened our vertically integrated footprint in this region and are better positioned to capitalize on the strong secular trends. As a reminder, Keystone is a modern cement facility with approximately 990,000 short tons of current clinker capacity and serves a greater than 6 billion short ton addressable market. In 2025, Keystone generated revenue of approximately $97 million with an EBITDA margin of approximately 10%. We believe that we can deliver game-changing synergies for the acquired Keystone assets that will substantially grow both its top line and its margins. We expect to grow the output of the assets by significantly improving reliability with our proprietary real-time optimizers and predictive maintenance capabilities. We will drive strong benefits from raw material cost optimization, more efficient energy consumption and increased use of alternative fuels. In parallel, we expect to target the infrastructure segment in the region by capitalizing on the high-quality aggregates of Keystone. Our integration team is already on site, working together with experienced and knowledgeable Keystone colleagues. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the future. Let's move now to Slide 6 to discuss a recent exciting development for Titan America. In April, we announced the grand opening of the Titan America Innovation Hub in Miami. This collaborative center is designed to accelerate the development and scale-up of advanced materials, digital technologies and construction solutions, bringing together the most creative minds in construction, design, academics and sustainability. Through the innovation hub, we continue to innovate and expand product offerings focused on meeting the evolving needs of our customers for sustainable, high-performance products, services and solutions. There are major transformational themes in our industry such as resilient urbanization, digitalization and the need for smart materials, novel construction technologies and circularity. These trends create new value pools of high growth and high margins. As part of our strategy, we invest in innovation in order to tap these high-growth, high-value pools. Consider, for example, data centers. As someone said, the cloud is built of concrete, and we serve Virginia's data center alley, the largest concentration of data centers in the world. We do this with our proprietary AI-engineered concrete mixes, incorporating and enabling new levels of performance and sustainability. We capitalize on industrial reshoring by providing smart materials to enable fast-track construction for the next generation of manufacturing and logistics infrastructure. We incorporate circularity in our offerings, including expanded use of valuable supplementary cementitious materials like fly ash beneficiated with our proprietary electrostatic technology. We also offer ultra-durable marine-grade concrete and supply innovative blue-grade solutions inspired by nature such as patented 3D-printed concrete for the next generation of seawalls and reefs. Our hub is already operational, and you are welcome to visit and learn more about our innovative products and solutions. You can find more about the hub also on our website. I will now turn it over to Larry, who will provide a more detailed breakdown of our first quarter financial results and business segment performance. Larry?

Thank you, Bill, and good morning, everyone. Moving to Slide 7. Let me share an overview of our first quarter 2026 financial highlights. The first quarter saw a mixed operating environment. Winter weather disruptions in the Mid-Atlantic region weighed on volumes during the quarter, while the macroeconomic backdrop introduced incremental uncertainty as the quarter progressed. Against that backdrop, we were pleased to deliver solid financial performance with year-over-year improvement in revenue, adjusted EBITDA and operating cash flow. For the quarter, we delivered revenue of $398 million, an increase of 1.5% compared to $392 million in the first quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $83 million compared to $80 million in the prior year quarter, an increase of 3.4%. Our first quarter adjusted EBITDA margin was 20.7%, an improvement of 40 basis points compared to 20.3% in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting the benefits of our vertically integrated model, pricing discipline and ongoing cost management efforts. Net income for the quarter was $33 million, consistent with the prior year quarter with earnings per share reflecting the impact of incremental shares outstanding from our 2025 initial public offering. Operating cash flow for the quarter was $62 million compared to $35 million in the prior year quarter, having benefited from lower levels of working capital and lower income tax payments. Free cash flow was $30 million in Q1 2026, reflecting the improvements in operating cash flow and steady year-over-year CapEx investments. And finally, our leverage ratio further improved to 0.58x at the end of Q1 2026. Turning to Slide 8. Let me walk you through our sales volume performance by product line. Total cement volumes, including external sales and internal consumption, were broadly stable, down less than 1% year-over-year with winter weather-related impacts in the Mid-Atlantic region and persistent softness in the residential sector generally offset by continued demand strength from infrastructure and private nonresidential construction. Total aggregates volumes grew 1.8% in the quarter, benefiting from the expanded production capacity in Florida, the strength of which was partially offset by lower volumes from our Mid-Atlantic sand sources. Total fly ash volumes were up 12.3% compared to the prior year quarter on higher utility generation and increased commercial push, while ready-mix concrete volumes decreased 2.1% year-over-year with delays in project starts in Florida only partially offset by sustained volumes from data center construction in the Mid-Atlantic. Concrete block volumes increased 9.7% compared to Q1 2025, driven higher by improved contribution from remodeling and renovation channels as well as shell contractor demand in select regional markets. Turning to Slide 9. External pricing improved sequentially from Q4 2025 across all product lines. On a year-over-year basis, cement pricing was flat, while aggregates and fly ash pricing, which were impacted by product and regional mix declined by 0.6% and 2.4%, respectively. Ready-mix concrete prices improved year-over-year, benefiting from a larger proportion of value-added product sales. On a year-over-year basis, concrete block pricing declined 2.1%, reflecting customer and end market mix as well as the softness experienced in residential demand during 2025. Turning to Slide 10. Let me focus your attention on our Q1 business segment performance. In Florida, we delivered strong results in a challenging market. Florida's external revenue was $253 million in the first quarter, essentially flat compared to the first quarter of 2025 as revenue growth from aggregates, concrete block and cement were offset by a lower contribution from ready-mix concrete. Adjusted EBITDA for the Florida segment was $73 million, an increase of 2.5% compared to $71 million in the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 28.6% in Q1 2026, up from 27.9% in the first quarter of 2025 as cost discipline offset headwinds from higher energy costs and tariffs. In the Mid-Atlantic, we delivered meaningful year-over-year improvement during the quarter, consistent with the constructive 2026 outlook we communicated during our fourth quarter call. Despite winter weather that got disruptions and suppressed volumes in the Mid-Atlantic region in January and February, our team executed well and delivered strong financial results and improved pricing in ready-mix concrete and cement were amplified by operating efficiencies, which more than offset the impact of tariffs and higher import costs. Mid-Atlantic external revenue was $145 million in the first quarter, an increase of 4.2% compared to $139 million in the first quarter of 2025. The revenue improvement was primarily driven by strong ready-mix concrete participation in regional commercial construction projects, including data centers. Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $13 million compared to $11 million in the prior year quarter, an increase of 16% and segment adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 8.7% from 7.8% in the prior year quarter. As a reminder, the first quarter in the Mid-Atlantic segment included the impact of our Roanoke Cement plant's annual major maintenance campaign in both 2026 and 2025. Now turning to our balance sheet and cash flows on Slides 11 and 12. As of March 31, 2026, we had $228 million of cash and cash equivalents and total debt of $455 million. Our net debt position was $227 million, representing a leverage ratio of 0.58x trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA, a further improvement from 0.64x at the end of 2025. Our strong leverage profile provides significant balance sheet capacity to pursue strategic growth opportunities such as the recent Keystone acquisition, while maintaining our commitment to returning capital to shareholders. With respect to Keystone, the acquisition was funded with a combination of cash on hand and a new term loan issued in April 2026 with a maturity date of February 2031. Slide 13 shows our capital expenditure profile for the first quarter of 2026. Net capital expenditures in the first quarter were approximately $32 million and remain focused on our previously communicated strategic objectives. These include increasing our domestic cement and aggregates capacity, improving the efficiency of our logistics networks and further enhancing our strong positions in select downstream channels to market. On Slide 14, I will remind you of our capital allocation strategy. As mentioned in our previous calls, we are focused on 3 key priorities: investing in the business, including organic growth opportunities, pursuing strategic M&A and providing returns to shareholders, all while maintaining a healthy net leverage profile. During our fourth quarter conference call, I discussed our organic growth priorities for 2026. These remain unchanged. Now that we've closed the Keystone acquisition, we expect to make further investments to deliver operational, commercial and logistics synergies as we incorporate the Keystone assets into our Mid-Atlantic network. With respect to shareholder returns, I would also like to announce that yesterday, our Board of Directors approved an issue premium distribution of $0.04 per share payable on July 7, 2026, to shareholders of record on June 18, 2026. With that, I'll turn it back to Bill for his closing remarks.

Thank you, Larry. In conclusion, the first quarter demonstrated the resilience and quality of Titan America's business model in a stubbornly challenging operating environment. Despite winter weather headwinds, macroeconomic uncertainty and continued softness in the residential sector, we grew revenue and adjusted EBITDA, expanded margins and generated substantially stronger operating and free cash flow compared to the prior year period. Our teams executed well and the underlying fundamentals of our key markets remain constructive. Turning now to our 2026 outlook on Slide 15. As we mentioned during our fourth quarter financial results call, the recent surge in oil and energy prices due to the conflict in Iran has introduced additional risks in an already complex and uncertain economic backdrop. We expect softness in the residential sector to continue through the remainder of the year with a much anticipated inflection point potentially delayed to 2027. Despite the challenges, following our first quarter results and taking into consideration our current visibility for the year, we are reaffirming our full year 2026 outlook. On a like-for-like basis, we continue to anticipate low single-digit revenue growth compared to last year, with modest expansion in our adjusted EBITDA margins. This outlook reflects our confidence in the underlying demand trends in our markets, especially as we move into the seasonally stronger middle part of the year as well as our ability to execute and deliver benefits from our previous and ongoing strategic initiatives. It is worth noting that this guidance does not include the contribution from Keystone as we focus on integrating the acquisition and building out its full commercial potential. Before we open the call for questions, I want to express my sincere gratitude to all of our Titan America team members, and extend a warm welcome to our new colleagues from the Keystone Cement Company, whom we are proud to have now as part of the Titan America family. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from Philip Ng with Jefferies.

Congrats on a really strong quarter in a choppy environment. So great execution from the team. Larry -- I guess, Bill, to kind of kick things off, the Keystone acquisition, quite exciting. 10% EBITDA margins would certainly be much lower than I would have thought. Best-in-class cement assets, I think, are probably closer to 30% EBITDA margins. And I suspect your business is probably not too far from that. So what needs to happen to kind of get that? I mean, one, is there anything structural with the asset or the market? Or this is just we need to deploy the Titan America playbook in terms of capital deployment and bringing that business in-house? So just kind of give us some color in terms of what that profit profile could look like and if there's anything structural with the business.

Absolutely. I think that element represents also the reason why we say that we're going to implement game-changing synergies in this asset, bringing the profitability up to norm for how we perform overall with our own assets. As we have explained, this is a value-accretive opportunity for Titan America. It's expanding and strengthening our geographic reach and our leadership position in the East Coast, adding important geographies like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland. We will expand and extend our integrated model. Also very important is to think that it's an acquisition of important aggregates assets, both for production of clinker, but also of infrastructure-grade aggregates. So it is a very important lever. And last, in relation to your question, we see game-changing synergies, as we said, in relation to optimizing and improving the margins, of course, by reducing the cost, improving overall logistics, energy consumption and bringing all the digitalization and elements of operational excellence that Titan America has been delivering for years. So a great opportunity for us, starting from that point that you mentioned.

Bill, like how quickly can you get this to a good margin profile? And is the assumption based on what you said, you can get this asset to something that we're accustomed to for the legacy Titan Cement assets from a profitability standpoint?

Thanks, Philip. Good question. Let me just say that we have our integration team working already from the phase that we were doing the due diligence. And as soon as we start -- we signed the SPA, and we were ready to move in and start cooperating with our new colleagues at Keystone from day 1, and our teams are implementing already the synergies. In relation to specifics, if you allow me, we'd like really to be there for a couple of months. So we anticipate that in our upcoming second quarter analyst call, we're going to give you details in relation to synergies that we intend to implement and provide the necessary details that you need also for your models.

Okay. That's helpful. Question for Larry. Impressive, you reiterate the guidance, particularly margin expansion in a pretty inflationary backdrop. Can you remind us what are some of the inflation that you could see that could be impactful? I believe you've got pass-throughs for freight, which is helpful. And then certainly, on the pricing side, any update that you have out there in terms of the cement price increases, the ready-mix price increases and aggregates price increase that's out there for April? Do you need those price increases to stick to kind of offset inflation and drive the margin expansion you're calling for?

Look, I think we operate in a year where we have some mixed environments, Phil. So if you look at what we put into our own internal thinking on this, there'll be some ZIP code area differences on these kind of things. So we do see opportunities on both price and volume, depending on where we are. And beginning in April, in those markets where the markets were stronger beginning in April, we've begun to pass through some of those prices that we're talking about. You mentioned pass-throughs on the cost side when you talk about pricing, for example, sort of the cost element of that on the energy side. Those, as you recall, are not as significant for us as you might imagine. They're 8% of our total cost of sales. And with that, we have fuel flexibility when we talk about energy costs at our cement plants. I think we've described that a couple of times in terms of the multiple fuels that we are able to burn there and the increased use of alternative fuels through those same facilities. We have implemented some capital projects. I think I described that in the last call as well coming out of Q1 out of the outage in Roanoke. We have a different and more flexible burner system there. And then Florida, where we've got an alternative fuels project that will enable us to bring further alternative fuels and bring down the cost in a further period, so beginning in Q2, Q3, for example. So we're optimistic on that front. Now the pass-through, as you described, you're right. We have -- for the diesel fuel that we consume within our business, about 2/3 of that is used in the delivery of ready-mix concrete, about 1/3 is used within the facilities themselves. One obviously has a direct opportunity for pass-through in the fuel surcharge. The other is reliant on price improvement to cover that to the extent that it continues. Every day brings different news. You saw today's news. Things may not be as grim as we had feared they may be in terms of longevity. So we'll take it day by day, but that's what's in our guidance.

And we'll take our next question from Anna Schumacher with BNP Paribas.

I have 2. So firstly, on aggregates, how significant are your aggregates ambitions? And what makes Titan the partner of choice in this industry? And secondly, on -- again on cement, has there been any change in the cement import situation this year? Are they still disruptive in either of your markets? And if you can share your pricing expectations for '26, that would be great.

Yes. I think on the aggregates question, you'll see obviously in our public documents, we are a well-positioned aggregates producer in some of our markets. We have ambitions to be bigger in some of our markets as well. But when you look at Florida, we are a good participant down there with good cost structure in our facility in the Pennsuco location, for example, I think Corkscrew is the one on the West Coast for us. So we see good opportunity for there. On the other calls, Anna, we may have described -- maybe perhaps you didn't have a chance to listen in. But on some of the other calls, we described some of the additional opportunities we have, taking advantage of newer mining technologies to bring some product up, liberated from what was remnant mining in effect from periods gone by. So that's a good opportunity ahead for us. We're investing to be able to do that. I think with respect to cement imports, -- and sorry, just as a follow-up comment here on Keystone as well, we have good opportunities in Keystone, as Bill was describing before, going into that new market, but our teams are just getting oriented around that location this week. Now when we go back to the cement imports you described, I think if your question was around patterns of cement imports, I think one of the challenges that we are going to face is some of the ocean freight, perhaps some of the war impact has had some delays on some of the loading of ships at some of the location points and some of that disruption perhaps coming in and the volatility perhaps in ocean freight is something that we have on our radar screen. So we are looking at that. But generally, the import strategy is no different than it was in the past. We have a flexible import model where we combine this local production that we have combined with the imports to give us the channels to market to our internal and external customers. That's the plan.

And we'll take our next question from Wesley Brooks with HSBC.

So yes, a couple of questions from me. I guess first one, just coming back to Keystone. Just looking at that revenue number, what's it, $97 million in revenue on almost 1 million tons of clinker. It just seems like a very low realized price. So I wondered if -- is this because they just sell the clinker? I'm interested to understand that. I mean you're making about $160 a ton in your Mid-Atlantic region. So can you help us understand what's going on there? And is that a big part of the opportunity that, that is not doing something well there?

The key issue here, Wesley, is not -- the clinker capacity is one thing. The important element is the reliability at which these assets are being run, and also certain limitations that reduce capacity utilization. And that's a great opportunity for us to improve capacity utilization and therefore, have a bigger output and more reliable output, which will allow us to increase top line. And of course, on the other side, as we mentioned, address unit cost and improve margins. So the roughly 1 million tons in capacity of clinker that we mentioned doesn't mean that actually this plant operates at this rate.

Yes, that makes sense. Okay. And then I guess, yes, my next question, following up again on the energy cost. As you say, you have alternative options for fuel, but the broader market, I think, has a higher exposure to energy costs in cement production. So I'm wondering, is this something that you think could be an impetus for further pricing actions that maybe are more sustainable? I mean, if we think of what happened during the pandemic, we had a lot of cost inflation. You guys -- I mean, that was really a positive for the market and for margins for cement players for longer term. Is this something that could be similar? Or do you think the market is broadly looking at more short-term, as you say, kind of surcharges and things like that?

As we mentioned, our margin expansion and our results [ incorporate ] both our strong execution in the marketplace, capitalizing on positive trends in infrastructure and private commercial like data centers, logistic infrastructure, manufacturing, reshoring, power assets, hospitals, water systems, elements like this. But also a good part was our operational excellence and our ability to manage cost, including energy and fuels. Now to your broad question, whether this is an opportunity, clearly, the industry is faced with tremendous inflationary pressure, which clearly necessitate a price increase in the market in order to face these pressures, independent of what we do internally in order to manage it. So you're right, this environment, this backdrop against which we operate necessitates price increases. That's why Larry mentioned that we -- coming into the high season now, as of April, we implement price increases that were delayed in the first quarter, especially in the areas where we see growth momentum. And in the other areas, of course, trying to capitalize on the supply and demand situation.

And we'll take our next question from Brian Brophy with Stifel.

Just thoughts or intentions you guys have on potentially building out downstream assets around Keystone? Any color there?

Okay. I think what we've said, Brian, is that we have existing assets in the area. So if you look at our broader business in the Mid-Atlantic, we have the fly ash businesses where some of the same customers are called upon by our current fly ash business, as is Keystone, serving on the cement side. We have now this ability to integrate and provide this bookended sourcing points that we described for the Mid-Atlantic and Florida -- the rest of the Mid-Atlantic and Florida with the Essex import terminal providing backstop reliability for Keystone as well, right? So this is a nice additional synergy that we get there. I think the thing that we said in the document is we have, nearby to this plant, just as close it is to Roanoke, our Northern Virginia ready-mix business, which is a big part of our ready-mix portfolio in the Mid-Atlantic. And that integrates nicely by itself with the acquisition that we have. Now I think we said we'll integrate where we think it makes sense, and this is something that will be considered.

And it's a good question, Brian. I mean, like Larry mentioned, of course, we're going to capitalize and serve most likely from Keystone because it's better logistics and therefore, a better opportunity to serve our customers in North Virginia and Washington D.C. from that side. So there's going to be an immediate integrated model served from Keystone. We have strong positions with downstream customers in New York and New Jersey. And our Keystone business unit -- our Keystone colleagues have built strong relationships in Pennsylvania and Ohio. We have also positions there with our fly ash. So our first priority will be to capitalize on our upstream integration, with now cement, aggregates and fly ash, a different type of offering as compared to Keystone alone and capitalize on this virtual integration as we have with long-term relationships from our Keystone colleagues with downstream customers. So our first step will be to enhance our relationship with these customers to offer them more products and more solutions and create, as a first step, this virtual integration.

Yes. That's really helpful. And then just as kind of a follow-up. Do you guys have any sense yet for how much CapEx is needed to execute on the synergies discussed for Keystone? Or do you just have a general sense for the capital intensity of executing on some of these?

We have a good understanding that we developed through the due diligence and also the phase between the SPA and finally closing, detailed plans. As I mentioned, we will come with more details in our second quarter call so that you have more granularity. We want to take advantage of this in the next month to go deeper in our plans and provide more details. So -- but I can say that -- as a general comment that we don't expect high capital intensity in relation to our investments. We have the ways and the combination between the existing assets that we have and the assets from Keystone to synergize. So we don't expect high capital investments in order to deliver the synergies.

At this time, we have no further questions. I'd like to turn it back over to Bill Zarkalis for any closing remarks.

Thank you, Erica, and thank you all for your time today. We appreciate your interest in Titan America and look forward to updating you on our progress on our second quarter call. Thank you for joining, and have a great day ahead. All the best.

Thank you. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.