Tic Solutions Inc Stock price
Compare with Peer Group
📊 Peer Group
📈 What is it?
The peer group consists of the companies with the most similar business model. They serve as a benchmark for putting a stock into context.
🧮 How is it selected?
Based on similarity of business model, meaning companies from the same industry with comparable products and a similar customer base. That's the only way to compare apples to apples.
🏛️ Why does it matter?
Whether a stock is cheap or expensive is best judged by comparison. A P/E of 18 or an EV/FCF of 20 can look cheap or expensive depending on the yardstick. The peer group gives you the most accurate one: companies with a similar business model that operate under the same conditions.
🎯 What does it mean for investors?
When a metric sits below the peer average, the stock is valued more cheaply relative to its competitors, and above the average more expensively. A discount to the peer group can be an opportunity, but it can also have a reason (for example lower growth). The comparison is a starting point, not a verdict.
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Key metrics
📘 Market Capitalization
📈 What is it?
Market capitalization shows how much a company is currently worth on the stock market.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps classify companies by size (Large, Mid, Small Cap) and indicates their market presence and relative stability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Large-cap companies tend to be more stable, often pay dividends, but may grow more slowly.
- Smaller firms may offer higher growth potential but come with more volatility.
- Market capitalization is a useful indicator of company size — but not a measure of whether a stock is undervalued or overvalued.
📘 Enterprise Value (EV)
📈 What is it?
Enterprise Value represents the total cost to acquire a company — including its debt and excluding its cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(= Market Cap + Net Debt)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV gives a more complete picture of a company's value than market cap alone and is used in key valuation ratios like EV/FCF or EV/Sales.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Enterprise Value shows the true cost of buying a company, including all financial obligations.
- It is more accurate than just looking at market cap, especially when comparing companies with different levels of debt or cash.
- Professional investors prefer EV-based multiples because they better reflect the company’s full financial footprint.
📘 Net Debt
📈 What is it?
Net Debt shows how much debt remains after subtracting a company’s available cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It indicates how dependent a company is on borrowed money and how easily it can service its debt in the short term.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low or negative net debt signals financial strength and flexibility.
- Companies with strong cash positions are better positioned in crises.
- High net debt increases financial risk — especially in environments with rising interest rates or economic downturns.
📘 Cash
📈 What is it?
Cash represents all liquid assets a company can access immediately — including cash, bank deposits, and short-term investments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It reflects a company’s financial flexibility and resilience — enabling investments, buybacks, or buffer in downturns.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A strong cash position means greater room for maneuver and crisis resistance.
- Cash-rich companies can invest, pay down debt, or repurchase shares.
- But excess idle cash might indicate a lack of growth opportunities.
📘 Shares Outstanding
📈 What is it?
Shares outstanding represent the total number of a company’s shares currently held by investors — excluding treasury stock.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s the basis for key metrics like Earnings Per Share (EPS), Market Capitalization, or the Price/Earnings ratio (P/E).
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Fewer shares in circulation typically increase earnings per share — making each share more valuable.
- Share buybacks reduce the number of shares and boost per-share metrics.
- Issuing new shares does the opposite — diluting shareholder value and lowering per-share figures.
📘 Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E)
📈 What is it?
The P/E ratio shows how many times a company's earnings per share are reflected in its current share price — in other words, how "expensive" the stock appears relative to its profits.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The P/E ratio is one of the most widely used valuation metrics. It helps investors assess whether a stock appears cheap or expensive compared to its earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
📊 P/E (TTM) = Based on earnings from the last 12 months (Trailing Twelve Months):🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/E may indicate undervaluation — or signal underlying issues.
- A high P/E may reflect strong growth expectations — or an overvalued stock.
📘 Price-to-Sales Ratio (P/S)
📈 What is it?
The P/S ratio shows how much investors are paying for $1 of the company’s revenue – regardless of profitability.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/S is especially useful for evaluating growth companies or businesses not yet profitable. It reflects how the market values the company’s sales.
🧮 Calculation
Market Cap = $1.80b | Revenue (TTM) = $2.05b
Market Cap = $1.80b | Estimated Revenue = $2.24b
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/S may indicate undervaluation — or low profitability.
- A high P/S can reflect strong growth expectations — or excessive optimism.
- Especially helpful when evaluating companies where profits are low, volatile, or negative.
📘 Enterprise Value to Sales (EV/Sales)
📈 What is it?
EV/Sales shows how much investors are paying for $1 of revenue — considering not just equity, but also debt and cash. It’s the capital structure–adjusted version of the P/S ratio.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s ideal for comparing companies with different levels of debt. It reflects a company's true cost relative to its revenue.
🧮 Calculation
Enterprise Value = $3.14b | Revenue (TTM) = $2.05b
Enterprise Value = $3.14b | Forward Revenue = $2.24b
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EV/Sales allows for capital structure–neutral company comparisons.
- A lower ratio may indicate undervaluation; a higher one may signal strong growth expectations or overvaluation.
- Especially helpful when evaluating high-growth companies with low or negative earnings.
📘 Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow (EV/FCF) | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
EV/FCF compares a company’s enterprise value with its free cash flow. The metric therefore shows the multiple of current free cash flow at which a company is valued. EV/FCF ex SBC additionally accounts for stock-based compensation (SBC). While SBC does not represent a direct cash outflow, issuing shares as compensation can dilute existing shareholders. Therefore, SBC is deducted from free cash flow in this adjusted version.
🧮 How is it calculated?
EV/FCF ex SBC = Enterprise Value ÷ (Free Cash Flow (TTM) − SBC)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV/FCF provides a valuation based on free cash flow and therefore complements earnings-based valuation metrics such as the P/E ratio. The ex SBC version additionally accounts for the economic impact of stock-based compensation and provides a more conservative view from a shareholder perspective.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low EV/FCF means that enterprise value is low relative to current free cash flow. The reasons should always be considered in the context of the company and its industry.
- A high EV/FCF means that enterprise value is high relative to current free cash flow. This can, for example, reflect high growth expectations or temporarily weak cash generation.
- When SBC is positive and adjusted free cash flow remains positive, EV/FCF ex SBC is generally higher than the standard EV/FCF.
- The metric is particularly useful for companies with relatively stable and predictable cash flows.
- If free cash flow is negative or very low, EV/FCF has limited usefulness and should not be interpreted like a standard valuation multiple.
📘 Price-to-Book Ratio (P/B)
📈 What is it?
The P/B ratio compares a company’s market value to its book value — showing how much investors are paying for each dollar of net assets.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/B is commonly used for asset-heavy industries like banks or industrials. It helps assess whether a stock is trading above or below its net asset value.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A P/B below 1 may signal undervaluation — or weak profitability.
- A P/B above 1 implies the market expects future value creation (e.g., brand, IP, growth).
- Best used for companies with tangible assets and strong balance sheets.
📘 Equity Ratio
📈 What is it?
The equity ratio indicates what portion of a company’s total assets is financed by shareholders’ equity – in other words, how much it relies on its own capital.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
A high equity ratio reflects financial strength and stability, especially during downturns. It’s a key indicator of a company’s solvency and long-term risk profile.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Companies with high equity ratios are generally more resilient and less dependent on external debt.
- Low equity ratios can signal higher risk or aggressive financial strategies.
- Important: Always assess the equity ratio in combination with the return on equity (ROE). This shows not just how stable the company is – but also how efficiently it uses shareholder capital.
📘 Return on Equity (ROE)
📈 What is it?
Return on equity (ROE) shows how efficiently a company uses its shareholders’ equity to generate profit. In other words: how much net income is earned per dollar of equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROE is a core profitability metric. It helps investors understand whether a company delivers attractive returns on the capital provided by its shareholders.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROE indicates that the company is using its capital efficiently and profitably.
- It’s especially meaningful for capital-intensive businesses or firms with high equity bases.
- Important: A very high ROE can also result from high debt levels – always interpret it alongside the equity ratio to assess financial health.
📘 Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
📈 What is it?
ROCE measures how efficiently a company generates profits from its total capital – including both equity and interest-bearing debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It evaluates the return on all capital employed, regardless of how it’s financed.
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROCE is ideal for comparing companies with different financing structures. It shows how well management uses capital to create value for both shareholders and creditors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROCE means the company uses its capital efficiently – regardless of whether it's funded by debt or equity.
- The higher the ROCE compared to peers, the more value the company creates with its invested capital.
- Especially relevant for capital-intensive sectors like industrials, energy, or infrastructure.
📘 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
📈 What is it?
ROIC measures how efficiently a company generates returns from the capital invested in its core operations – regardless of whether the capital comes from equity or debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
- NOPAT = Net Operating Profit After Taxes
- Invested Capital = Operating assets minus non-interest-bearing liabilities
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROIC is one of the most accurate indicators of capital efficiency. Unlike return on equity, it is not distorted by leverage and shows how much value is created for all capital providers.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROIC shows how effectively a company uses the capital that is truly invested in its core operations.
- Unlike ROCE, ROIC focuses only on the capital that is actively used to run the business – and that requires a return (i.e. interest-bearing).
- Especially useful when comparing companies with large amounts of excess cash or non-interest-bearing liabilities – giving a more realistic picture of capital efficiency.
📘 Leverage Ratio (Debt-to-Equity)
📈 What is it?
The leverage ratio indicates how much a company relies on interest-bearing debt (such as loans and bonds) relative to its shareholders’ equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This ratio helps assess a company’s financial structure and risk profile. High leverage can enhance returns – but also increases exposure to interest rate changes and financial stress.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low leverage ratio signals financial strength and independence.
- A higher ratio can improve returns in good times but increases risk during downturns or rising interest rate periods.
- 👉 Always interpret in the context of industry, capital intensity, and interest rate environment.
📘 SBC | in % Revenue
📈 What is it?
SBC (Stock-Based Compensation) refers to equity-based compensation granted by a company to its employees and executives. The percentage shows SBC relative to revenue.
🧮 How is it calculated?
SBC as % of Revenue = (SBC ÷ Revenue) × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Stock-based compensation is a real cost factor for shareholders. It can increase the number of shares outstanding and therefore dilute existing shareholders. The percentage of revenue shows how heavily a company relies on equity-based compensation and how significant this form of compensation is relative to the size of the business.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A lower figure is generally positive: Stock-based compensation is relatively small compared with the company's revenue.
- A high figure can indicate greater reliance on stock-based compensation and a higher potential risk of dilution. However, it is also important to consider whether the company offsets dilution through share buybacks.
- The trend over time should also be considered. A high but declining percentage presents a different picture from a persistently high or increasing percentage.
- A single-digit SBC-to-revenue ratio is not unusual among many growth-oriented and technology companies.
📘 SBC as % of FCF
📈 What is it?
SBC (Stock-Based Compensation) refers to equity-based compensation granted by a company to its employees and executives. The percentage shows SBC relative to free cash flow (FCF).
🧮 How is it calculated?
SBC as % of FCF = (SBC ÷ Free Cash Flow) × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Stock-based compensation is a real cost factor for shareholders. It can increase the number of shares outstanding and therefore dilute existing shareholders. The percentage of free cash flow shows how significant SBC is relative to the cash generated by the company. Since SBC is non-cash compensation, it is typically not deducted as a cash outflow when calculating FCF.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A lower value is generally favorable. Stock-based compensation is relatively small compared with the company's cash generation.
- A high value means that SBC represents a significant portion of the company's reported free cash flow, even though SBC itself is non-cash.
- The higher the value, the more significant SBC can be as an economic cost to shareholders, particularly when it results in share dilution.
📘 SBC Growth 1Y
📈 What is it?
SBC Growth 1Y shows how much a company's stock-based compensation has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
SBC Growth shows whether stock-based compensation is becoming more or less significant for shareholders. If SBC increases significantly, it can lead to greater shareholder dilution over time. At the same time, SBC is a non-cash expense that reduces earnings on the income statement but is added back in the cash flow statement.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high positive value is generally negative, as rising SBC can increase the burden on shareholders, particularly through potential dilution.
- What matters is whether the development of SBC is sustainable over the long term. Some level of SBC is common among many growth and technology companies.
📘 Share Count Growth 1Y
📈 What is it?
Share Count Growth 1Y shows how much the number of shares outstanding has increased or decreased over a one-year period.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The number of shares determines how many shares the company's earnings and assets are distributed across. If the share count decreases, existing shareholders' relative ownership increases. If it increases, existing shareholders are diluted. The metric therefore makes dilution and share buybacks directly visible.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A negative value is generally positive, as the number of shares outstanding is decreasing.
- A positive value indicates dilution of existing shareholders.
- A declining share count is not automatically positive: It also matters at what price the shares are repurchased and how the buybacks are financed.
📘 Shareholder Yield
📈 What is it?
Shareholder Yield measures how much capital a company returns to shareholders or uses to reduce debt relative to its market capitalization. It goes beyond dividend yield by also including share buybacks and debt reduction.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Dividend yield only tells part of the story. Companies can also return capital through share buybacks, while reducing debt can strengthen the balance sheet. Shareholder Yield combines all three components into one metric, giving investors a broader view of how a company uses its capital.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A higher Shareholder Yield generally indicates more capital being returned to shareholders or used to reduce debt.
- The mix matters: dividends, buybacks, and debt reduction can affect shareholders in different ways.
- Share buybacks are most beneficial when shares are repurchased at attractive valuations.
- Investors should also consider whether dividends, buybacks, and debt reduction are sustainable over time.
📘 Revenue
📈 What is it?
Revenue shows how much a company earns in total from selling its products and services – the gross income before any costs are deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Revenue is one of the key figures to assess a company’s size, market position, and growth potential.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing revenue indicates rising demand and can be an early signal of future earnings growth.
- Comparing actual and expected revenue reveals trends in the market environment and analyst sentiment.
- Note: Strong revenue alone isn’t enough – margins and profitability matter just as much.
📘 EBITDA
📈 What is it?
EBITDA stands for “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.” It reflects a company’s operating profit before the effects of financing, taxes, and accounting depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBITDA is widely used to evaluate a company’s operating performance – especially across capital-intensive sectors or international comparisons.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high or growing EBITDA indicates strong operational profitability – independent of taxes, interest, or accounting methods.
- It’s especially useful for comparing companies across sectors or geographies.
- Important: EBITDA is not a net income figure – it excludes key costs like depreciation and interest.
📘 EBIT
📈 What is it?
EBIT stands for “Earnings Before Interest and Taxes.” It reflects a company’s operating profit after depreciation, but before interest and tax expenses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT is a core profitability metric that shows how well the company performs in its main business operations – independent of capital structure and tax environment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT indicates strong profitability from the company’s core business – before financial and tax effects.
- It allows better comparison between companies with different debt levels or tax structures.
- Compared to EBITDA, EBIT already accounts for depreciation and reflects capital intensity more clearly.
📘 Net Income
📈 What is it?
Net income is the company’s total profit – the amount left after all expenses, taxes, interest, and depreciation have been deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the most comprehensive measure of a company’s profitability – showing how much actual profit remains after all business and financing costs.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing net income indicates that the company is managing all of its costs efficiently.
- It directly influences valuation metrics like P/E ratio and the company’s dividend capacity.
- Over time, net income trends reveal how resilient and profitable the business model really is.
📘 Free Cash Flow (FCF) | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow shows how much cash remains after a company has covered its operating and capital expenditures. FCF ex SBC additionally deducts stock-based compensation (SBC) to adjust the cash flow for the effect of non-cash SBC.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free Cash Flow ex SBC = Operating Cash Flow − SBC − Capital Expenditures (CAPEX)
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF reflects a company’s actual financial strength – independent of reported accounting earnings. It shows how much flexibility a company has for dividends, share buybacks, or debt reduction. FCF ex SBC also deducts stock-based compensation and shows how much cash generation remains after SBC.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High free cash flow indicates that a company has strong financial strength – independent of reported earnings.
- It is often a solid basis for sustainable dividends and share buybacks.
- Declining FCF can be a warning sign, even if reported earnings remain stable.
📘 Revenue Growth
📈 What is it?
Revenue growth shows how much a company’s sales have changed compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on forward projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected revenue ÷ Revenue in prior year − 1) × 100
Forward growth is based on analyst estimates for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Rising revenue signals growing demand, business expansion, and market share gains – especially important for growth-oriented companies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growth is the engine of long-term value creation – especially in tech and growth sectors.
- What matters is not just current growth, but its sustainability.
- Forward projections reflect whether analysts expect continued momentum – or a slowdown.
📘 EBITDA Growth
📈 What is it?
EBITDA growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) has increased or decreased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBITDA ÷ EBITDA from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Growing EBITDA indicates improving operational profitability – regardless of financing or accounting effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Strong EBITDA growth signals operational efficiency and scalability – especially during growth phases.
- EBITDA growth can be an early indicator of margin and earnings expansion – but should be assessed alongside revenue and EBIT.
📘 EBIT Growth
📈 What is it?
EBIT growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (after depreciation, but before interest and taxes) has increased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBIT ÷ EBIT from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT growth is a direct indicator of a company’s business performance – taking into account capital intensity through depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Rising EBIT signals improving operating profitability – even after accounting for depreciation.
- It’s especially important for evaluating companies with significant capital expenditures.
- Combined with revenue and EBITDA growth, EBIT growth provides a well-rounded view of operational progress.
📘 Net Income Growth
📈 What is it?
Net income growth shows how much a company’s bottom-line profit has increased or decreased compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on analyst projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected net income ÷ Net income from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate reflects analysts’ expectations for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the ultimate measure of profitability. Growing net income signals stronger efficiency, cost control, and sustainable earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stronger net income boosts valuation, dividend potential, and investor confidence.
- If profits stall while revenue grows, it may signal margin pressure.
📘 Free Cash Flow Growth
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow (FCF) growth shows how a company’s available cash – after covering operating expenses and capital expenditures – has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Free cash flow reflects real financial strength. Growing FCF indicates more flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, and reinvestment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Declining FCF may point to rising investments, increasing costs, or weaker operating performance.
- Especially for dividend investors, FCF growth is critical – since dividends are paid from actual available cash.
- A negative trend isn't always bad, but it deserves closer attention.
📘 Gross Margin
📈 What is it?
Gross margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains after deducting the direct costs of goods sold (like materials and production). It represents the company’s “raw profit” before fixed costs, taxes, and interest.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Or simply: Gross Margin = Gross Profit ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Gross margin indicates how efficiently a company can produce or procure what it sells. It is a key measure of product-level profitability and pricing power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high gross margin suggests strong pricing power and efficient production.
- Falling margins may signal rising input costs or competitive pressure.
- Compared to peers, gross margin offers insights into the quality of a business model.
📘 EBITDA Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBITDA margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.It reflects operating efficiency without being distorted by financing or accounting factors.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBITDA margin reveals how much operating income a company generates per dollar of revenue – independent of capital structure and tax effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBITDA margin reflects strong core profitability – before accounting distortions.
- It allows for effective comparisons across companies and sectors.
- A stable or growing margin signals efficient cost control and business scalability.
📘 EBIT Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBIT margin shows what percentage of revenue remains as operating profit after depreciation but before interest and taxes.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBIT margin reflects a company’s core profitability while accounting for capital intensity (e.g. machinery, infrastructure). It’s especially useful for comparing businesses with different levels of depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT margin shows that the company remains efficient even after factoring in depreciation.
- It’s especially relevant for capital-intensive industries.
- Stable or rising EBIT margins over time are a strong indicator of pricing power and business quality.
📘 Net Margin
📈 What is it?
Net margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as bottom-line profit after deducting all costs, interest, taxes, and depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net margin reflects a company’s overall efficiency – across operations, financing, and taxation. It shows how much actual profit is generated from each dollar of revenue.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high net margin means the company is not only strong operationally but also manages financing and taxes efficiently.
- Peer comparisons reveal business quality and competitiveness.
- Declining margins despite revenue growth can be a red flag for rising costs or inefficiencies.
📘 Free Cash Flow Margin | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
The Free Cash Flow Margin shows how much free cash flow a company generates relative to its revenue. In simplified terms, free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures. The Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC additionally accounts for stock-based compensation (SBC). While SBC does not represent a direct cash outflow, issuing shares as compensation can dilute existing shareholders. Therefore, SBC is deducted from free cash flow in this adjusted metric.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC = (Free Cash Flow − SBC) ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
The Free Cash Flow Margin shows how efficiently a company converts its revenue into free cash flow. Strong free cash flow can provide financial flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, debt repayment, or further investments. The ex SBC version additionally accounts for the economic impact of stock-based compensation and therefore provides a more conservative view of cash generation from a shareholder perspective.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high Free Cash Flow Margin shows that a company converts a high proportion of its revenue into free cash flow.
- This can provide greater financial flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, debt repayment, or investments.
- The Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC additionally accounts for potential shareholder dilution from stock-based compensation.
- The long-term trend is particularly important. Declining margins can, for example, result from higher investments, changes in working capital, or weaker operating performance.
📘 Earnings per share (EPS)
📈 What is it?
Earnings per Share (EPS) shows how much profit is attributable to a single share – and is one of the most important metrics for evaluating a company's performance.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The diluted share count reflects potential new shares that could be issued through options, convertible bonds, or other rights.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EPS is the basis for many key valuation metrics like P/E ratio, PEG ratio, or payout ratio. It enables comparisons of profitability across companies, regardless of their size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EPS captures per-share profitability and is especially useful for comparisons over time or with analyst estimates.
- Rising EPS may signal consistent growth or share buybacks.
- Important: Always use diluted EPS for more realistic valuations – especially in companies with stock-based compensation.
📘 Free cash flow per share (FCF per share)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow per Share shows how much free cash flow a company generates per outstanding share – after investments, but before dividends or debt repayments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures (CapEx).
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF per Share reveals how much real cash is available per share – useful for dividends, buybacks, or reducing debt. Unlike net income, free cash flow is harder to manipulate and often seen as a more reliable metric.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High FCF per share signals strong financial flexibility.
- It shows how much capital the company can effectively reinvest or return to shareholders.
- Particularly relevant for dividend payers and capital-efficient businesses.
📘 Short interest
📈 What is it?
Short interest indicates how many shares of a company are currently sold short – that is, borrowed and sold by investors who expect the price to decline.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It reflects the percentage of a company’s shares that are being shorted relative to the total shares available.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Short interest serves as a sentiment indicator: A high value may signal skepticism or bearish expectations – but also increases the potential for a short squeeze if prices rise unexpectedly.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low short interest usually indicates market confidence in the company.
- High short interest can be a warning sign – or an opportunity if sentiment shifts.
- Especially relevant in volatile markets or ahead of key earnings releases.
📘 Employees
📈 What is it?
The employee count shows how many people a company employs worldwide – offering insights into its size, structure, and business model.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess operational scale, labor intensity, and cost structure. Combined with revenue and profit, it enables key metrics like revenue per employee or productivity.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high headcount can signal operational complexity – but also significant growth capacity.
- Revenue per employee is a key indicator of efficiency.
- Especially useful for comparing tech, industrial, or service-heavy companies.
📘 Revenue per employee
📈 What is it?
Revenue per employee indicates how much revenue a company generates on average per employee – a key measure of efficiency and productivity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The employee count is typically taken from the most recent annual report.
🏛️ Why is it important?
This metric helps compare business models – especially between labor-intensive and technology-driven companies. A high value suggests automation, operational efficiency, or strong value creation per head.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high revenue per employee indicates a scalable and margin-strong business model.
- A low figure may reflect labor-intensive operations or lower value-add.
- Especially helpful when comparing tech companies to industrial or service sectors.
Tic Solutions Inc Stock Analysis
Analyst Opinions
11 Analysts have issued a Tic Solutions Inc forecast:
Analyst Opinions
11 Analysts have issued a Tic Solutions Inc forecast:
Tic Solutions Inc Events
Past Events
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AUG
6
Q2 2026 Earnings Call
about 2 months ago
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MAY
19
Analyst/Investor Day - TIC Solutions, Inc.
5 months ago
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MAY
6
Q1 2026 Earnings Call
5 months ago
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MAR
12
Q4 2025 Earnings Call
7 months ago
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NOV
12
Q3 2025 Earnings Call
11 months ago
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StocksGuide Free
Tic Solutions Inc — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Hello, and welcome, everyone, joining today's TIC Solutions Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call.
[Operator Instructions] Please note, this call is being recorded.
It is now my pleasure to turn the meeting over to Andrew Shen with Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call. Joining me this morning is Ben Heraud, our Chief Executive Officer; Kristin Schultes, our Chief Financial Officer; and Robbie Franklin, Executive Chairman.
I would now like to remind you that certain statements in the company's earnings press release and on this call are forward-looking statements that are based on expectations, intentions and projections regarding the company's future performance, anticipated events or trends and other matters that are not historical facts. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In our press release and filings with the SEC, we detail material risks that may cause our future results to differ from our expectations. Our statements are as of today, August 6, 2026, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements we may make, except as required by law.
As a reminder, we have posted a presentation detailing our second quarter financial performance on the Investor Relations page of our website at ticsolutions.com. Our comments today will also include non-GAAP financial measures and other key operating metrics. The required reconciliations of non-GAAP financial metrics can be found in our press release and in our presentation.
For the purposes of this call, we refer to our segments as Inspection and Mitigation, or I&M, Consulting & Engineering, or C&E, and Geospatial or GEO. Any reference to combined results reflects a non-GAAP combined view of legacy Acuren and legacy NV5, where applicable for a period-to-period comparability. More details on the calculation of the combined results are included in the presentation.
It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Ben.
Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, everyone. I want to take a moment to thank our shareholders for their continued support and our team members across the organization for their hard work and dedication to our clients.
Our second quarter demonstrated solid execution across the platform. We delivered double-digit growth in Consulting & Engineering, strong growth in Geospatial and improving commercial indicators in Inspection & Mitigation as we enter the second half of the year. Cross-selling is working across the business and margin expansion is underway with consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin improving year-over-year as we progress towards our long-term target of 18%.
Our services are in high demand. Aging infrastructure across the globe requires sustained investment in inspection, engineering and geospatial services. Growing energy demand is driving investment in power delivery, grid reliability, LNG and other energy infrastructure. Increasing data consumption supports the construction, commissioning and technical services required for data centers. Finally, the digitization of the physical world is increasing demand for the data, analytics and asset intelligence capabilities that help clients better plan, operate and maintain their critical assets.
These megatrends reinforce the strategy we outlined at our Investor Day. We are building a more integrated company, increasing our exposure to attractive end markets, expanding our capabilities across the asset life cycle and improving margins through a more favorable service mix, higher utilization, cost discipline and improved opportunity selection. We are also executing on our strategy to expand geographically where we have established technical capabilities and strong leadership.
Our M&A pipeline remains active, and we see a number of compelling opportunities ahead that we expect will expand our geographies, end markets and capabilities in ways that are complementary to the existing platform. We continue to build on our position as a tech-enabled life cycle partner, supporting clients from planning through construction and ongoing operations. Bringing those capabilities together allows us to address a broader portion of client needs than a single service provider can.
We are receiving positive feedback from clients as they learn more about the breadth of our capabilities. In many cases, clients have been pleased to learn that we can support multiple needs across the asset life cycle. We are seeing this model translate into commercial results as cross-selling becomes a TIC-wide opportunity with our teams engaging clients across multiple service lines. This is expanding our scope of work and creating opportunities that would not have existed as separate businesses.
That momentum is reflected in our record combined C&E and GEO backlog, which increased 20% year-over-year to $1.18 billion, providing high visibility as we enter the second half of 2026 and into next year. A recent example illustrates how this works in practice. A municipal client awarded us multiple assignments to support the life cycle of its bridges and water pump stations, including the development of digital twins to assist with Engineering, Inspection & Mitigation. The work translates asset data and condition assessments into actionable engineering and operating programs, positioning our Inspection teams to support the resulting work. It also creates a repeatable model that we can take to bridge and infrastructure owners globally. That is the integrated platform working as intended.
Next, our focus on essential high-demand end markets continues to accelerate our growth and margin expansion goals. Our buildings end market increased 28% year-over-year to $115 million in the quarter. Our industrial manufacturing and metals business grew over 40% to $56 million, while power and utilities increased 11% to $90 million. Aerospace and defense also saw significant momentum with revenue up over 40% to $10 million. These markets benefit from long-term investment requirements and technical complexity, and they align well with the breadth of our platform.
Technology and AI are also creating opportunities to be more efficient across the business. TIC Solutions operates at significant scale with thousands of active client engagements, a productive field workforce and complex technical workflows across our 3 segments. We have a number of AI initiatives underway to improve knowledge access, streamline workflows and accelerate decision-making.
For example, our procedure knowledge assistant allows field technicians to query internal procedures, while our engineering report assistant helps engineers search and summarize historical reports so prior technical knowledge can be applied more efficiently to current projects. We're also using document intelligence tools as a second set of eyes across contracts, purchase orders, RFPs and certifications, helping identify inconsistencies, risks and potential compliance issues. Over time, we expect the cumulative benefit of tools like these to support utilization, cost discipline and margin expansion.
With that, I'll turn to segment performance, beginning with Consulting & Engineering. Consulting & Engineering delivered record second quarter revenue of $207 million, up 16.8% from the prior year. Growth was driven by continued strength in power and utilities, buildings, infrastructure and data centers, reflecting both favorable end market exposure and solid execution across the segment. Aging infrastructure is driving ongoing investment in highways, water, transportation and related public assets. Rising electricity demand is supporting spending across power generation, transmission, distribution and grid modernization. Larger developers are executing substation programs at scale, moving sequentially from one project to the next, and we are well positioned and winning in this space. Recent wins include grid hardening work for a 230,000-volt transmission infrastructure, demonstrating our team's highly technical capabilities and a multiyear agreement with a large California utility, representing one of the most expansive awards in the power business unit's history.
Battery storage is an additional area of growing activity as clients increasingly pair power generation with storage investments. The depth and breadth of our power delivery capabilities, combined with the demand, we are seeing gives us confidence in the long-term growth of this end market. Data centers remained a significant contributor to growth. Trailing 12-month revenue reached $98 million, and our data center backlog has grown to over $110 million, providing strong line of sight into the second half of the year. We continue to layer in additional services as clients invest in mission-critical capacity, reliability and expansion. Overall, C&E continues to benefit from attractive structural demand, differentiated capabilities and a growing ability to serve clients across a broader set of technical needs.
Turning to Inspection & Mitigation. Second quarter revenue was $297 million, down 5.5% from the prior year. As discussed on our prior earnings call, this performance was contemplated in our Q2 guidance and primarily reflected 2025 site losses, along with the timing of planned outage work that shifted from the second quarter into the second half of the year. While the quarter was below our long-term expectations for the segment, commercial indicators have significantly improved. Call-out work grew during the quarter, and we were awarded multiple new run and maintain sites and meaningful new awards supporting client capital projects.
Our open commercial proposal pipeline for the next 12 months is robust and supports our expectation for stronger commercial momentum through the balance of the year, and we were encouraged to see June revenue turn positive year-over-year. Power and utilities, industrial manufacturing and midstream oil and gas infrastructure continue to show healthy demand. We are also extending the I&M platform into attractive adjacent end markets and geographies, including an emerging position in data centers and traditional infrastructure.
As the combined platform grows, we are bringing I&M's inspection and integrity management capabilities to complementary asset classes, creating more opportunities to connect these services with our C&E and Geospatial offerings. Bridges and traditional public infrastructure represent a meaningful expansion of I&M's addressable market. We recently began a multiyear bridge Inspection and NDT engagement, bringing our inspection and integrity management capabilities to transportation assets for the first time at scale.
The North American bridge market is large and aging and ongoing public safety and asset condition requirements create the same recurring mandated demand that underpins our core industrial business. We see this as a repeatable model that broadens the long-term opportunity for the segment. The team remains focused on converting this commercial momentum and opportunities into attractive end markets and into profitable growth through disciplined pricing, selective work pursuit, stronger regional accountability and more effective deployment of resources.
As we move through the second half of 2026, we expect I&M to benefit from normal seasonal activity, continued site win conversion and further progress in commercial execution. The segment is positioned to return to a more consistent growth profile while maintaining margin discipline.
Turning to Geospatial. The segment continued to be a strong performer in the second quarter with revenue of $81 million, up 7.9% from the prior year. Second quarter growth was primarily driven by power and utilities clients with additional momentum across our broader private sector markets. We are encouraged by that progress, which reflects the continued diversification of the segment across end markets and client types. We also completed a major high-profile pilot for federal offshore mapping during the quarter. The project integrated vessel-based survey work, autonomous underwater vehicle imagery, seafloor data collection and physical sample recovery of mineral-rich seabed nodules across a complex deep sea environment.
The work supports national priorities related to domestic supply chain independence for rare earth and other critical minerals. It also reflects the technical depth of our Geospatial platform and our ability to serve as an integrator on complex assignments. Given the successful execution of this marquee project, we expect this work to result in significant follow-on opportunities as these programs move towards a broader operational phase. Improved margins in the quarter reflected project mix and timing. GEO revenue and margins reflect the timing and mix of large fixed-fee contracts, which can create variability between periods. We remain focused on asset utilization, disciplined project execution and growing the contribution from higher-value commercial and analytics work over time.
We are also investing in technology-enabled digital asset management solutions that help clients convert geospatial data into more actionable information for asset planning, monitoring and maintenance. Overall, TIC Solutions is well positioned to benefit from the continued digitization of the physical world, spanning the built and natural environments. Growing demand from utility, infrastructure and commercial clients for better data and decision support plays directly into our capabilities, and our geospatial offerings can strengthen the broader platform by enabling more integrated data inspection, engineering and asset management solutions across the business.
And with that, I'll turn the call over to Kristin to review our financial results, provide an update on integration and offer more detail on our outlook.
Thank you, Ben, and good morning, everyone. Unless otherwise noted, all prior year comparisons reflect results on a combined basis. C&E and Geospatial reflects legacy NV5 results and I&M reflects legacy Acuren to provide a more meaningful view of year-over-year performance.
Our second quarter results were in line with our internal expectations. This was led by Consulting & Engineering and Geospatial, which delivered strong growth and margin expansion. Total second quarter revenue was $584 million, up 3.3% from $566 million. Growth was 3.2% in constant currency and organic growth was 2.5%. While reported growth was below the long-term potential of our business, record combined backlog, improving I&M commercial activity, favorable end market exposure and cross-selling momentum support stronger and more consistent growth over time. Adjusted gross profit was $223 million, up 7.1% from $209 million.
Adjusted gross margin was 38.2% compared with 36.8%, up 135 basis points. The margin expansion reflected commercial selection and favorable business mix in C&E and GEO as well as improving operating execution across the platform. Adjusted SG&A was $129 million or 22.1% of revenue, compared with 21.2% last year. The increase reflected higher incentive compensation, indirect labor, legal reserves, benefit costs and overhead from acquired businesses, offset by net synergy savings. We remain focused on improving SG&A leverage through cost management, integration initiatives and growth across our business.
Adjusted EBITDA was $95 million compared with $89 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 16.2% compared to 15.8%, reflecting a 40 basis point improvement and progress towards our margin expansion goals. Second quarter adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.10.
Turning to segment results. Consulting & Engineering contributed revenue of $207 million, up 16.8% year-over-year, with adjusted gross margin of 47.2%, up 75 basis points. The improvement reflected favorable mix and improved operating execution. Inspection & Mitigation generated second quarter revenue of $297 million, down 5.5% year-over-year. As Ben discussed, we had strong growth in call-out work during the quarter. This was more than offset by an approximately $30 million worth of combined impact from 2025 site losses and known shifts in planned outage activity. These factors were contemplated in our second quarter outlook.
I&M adjusted gross margin was 28.3%, down 45 basis points, primarily due to lower outage activity in the period, which carries higher margins. Geospatial contributed revenue of $81 million, up 7.9% year-over-year, with adjusted gross margin of 51.5%, up 360 basis points. The improvement reflected favorable mix and project timing. Given the mix of larger fixed fee contracts in the segment, GEO revenue and margins can vary quarter-to-quarter based on project timing and delivery schedules.
For the first 6 months of 2026, total revenue was $1.072 billion compared with $1.034 billion in the prior year period. On a combined basis, revenue increased 3.7%, including 2.3% organically. Adjusted gross profit was $403 million or 37.6%. Adjusted EBITDA was $153 million, representing a margin of 14.2%. Adjusted SG&A was $252 million or 23.5% of revenue.
For the first half of the year, I&M generated revenue of $532 million, down 3% year-over-year with adjusted gross margin of 26.6%. Consulting & Engineering generated revenue of $394 million, up 13.3% with adjusted gross margin of 47.4%. Geospatial generated revenue of $147 million, up 6.3% with adjusted gross margin of 51.3%.
From a capital deployment perspective, we completed 3 bolt-on acquisitions during the quarter, adding technical capabilities and broadening our geographic density across the platform. Capital expenditures were $20 million during the second quarter and $25 million for the first 6 months, approximately 2.4% of year-to-date revenue.
During the quarter, we repriced our $1.6 billion term loan, reducing our interest rate by 25 basis points and reducing annual cash interest by approximately $4 million. We also repurchased approximately 1.9 million shares at an average price of $8.33 per share for a total of $16 million under our previously announced share repurchase program. These repurchases reflect our confidence in the long-term value of this business and our focus on high-return investments.
Turning to the balance sheet. As of June 30, total liquidity was $474 million, including $362 million of cash and $112 million of available capacity under our revolving credit facility, net of letters of credit outstanding. Bank-calculated net leverage was 3.7x, with the increase primarily reflecting the seasonal working capital build and our share repurchases during the quarter.
The second quarter is typically our largest use of cash, reflecting the seasonality of this business. As collections catch up with revenue in the second half, we expect cash conversion to increase. For the full year, we anticipate net interest expense of $95 million to $105 million, cash taxes of $25 million to $30 million and capital expenditures of $50 million to $65 million. We manage and evaluate free cash flow primarily on a full year basis, and we continue to expect healthy free cash flow generation over the full year. Turning to integration. The team has worked collaboratively over the past year to build a scalable integrated back office. That work continues to translate into measurable results. I want to thank the team for their continued effort and commitment.
As of June 30, we have actioned $20 million worth of annualized run rate savings, up from $17 million at the end of the first quarter, and we remain on track to deliver the full $25 million run rate program by year-end. We recognized approximately $6 million of savings through the first half and expect approximately $15 million of realized savings in the full year of 2026.
Turning to our outlook. We expect third quarter revenue of $610 million to $630 million and adjusted EBITDA of $100 million to $110 million. The outlook reflects improvement across I&M, including planned outage work, run and maintain activity and project demand, along with continued strength in Consulting & Engineering. Year-over-year, this represents 9% revenue growth and 16% growth in adjusted EBITDA at the midpoint. We are reiterating our full year 2026 guidance of $2.15 billion to $2.25 billion of revenue and $330 million to $355 million of adjusted EBITDA. As we continue to unlock the full potential of our business, we look forward to providing further updates next quarter.
Our leading indicators are healthy. Our backlog is at a record level. Proposal and commercial activity remains strong and the integration program continues to generate both cost and commercial benefits.
With that, I will turn the call to Robbie for his thoughts.
Thank you, Kristin. The second quarter reinforced our conviction in the strategy we outlined at our Investor Day and supports our investment thesis in bringing together Acuren and NV5. Record backlog, early cross-sell results and continued synergy execution are tangible evidence that the integrated platform is creating value beyond what the businesses could generate independently. We are also executing with discipline on capital allocation.
During the quarter, we reduced our cost of debt, opportunistically bought back 1.9 million shares and continue to build out the platform through strategic acquisitions. Our objective remains clear: deploy capital efficiently to strengthen the business while continuing to deleverage the balance sheet. The landscape for acquisition opportunities remains robust, and we have been disciplined in our approach to inorganic growth to strengthen our service offerings and geographic reach. The results this quarter support our confidence in the earnings power of the platform and the achievability of the long-term targets we have communicated. We remain focused on scaling the business responsibly, improving margins, converting earnings to cash flow and reducing leverage over time.
With that, I'll turn the call back to Ben.
Thank you, Robbie. Before we open the line for questions, I'll highlight 3 key takeaways from the quarter. First, our life cycle model is delivering. Cross-selling activity is increasing, and we are capturing new and expanding scopes of work that further strengthen client relationships.
Second, the trajectory of inspection and mitigation is improving. Site and project wins are increasing, commercial momentum is building, and we expect the segment to benefit from planned outage activity and continued conversion of the opportunity pipeline in the second half.
Third, our end markets remain supportive. Demand across infrastructure, data centers, utilities and industrial markets is resilient, while our record backlog provides strong visibility as we enter the balance of 2026. We remain focused on the long-term objectives shared at our Investor Day, including our 3/ 18 / 85 goal of $3 billion in revenue and 18% adjusted EBITDA margin and 85% free cash flow conversion by 2029. The progress this quarter on margin expansion, synergies, commercial integration and capital allocation supports our confidence in those objectives and in our full year 2026 guidance.
I want to thank our teams across the organization for their focus on clients, execution and operating discipline. With that, operator, we are ready to take questions.
[Operator Instructions] We'll go first to Chris Moore with CJS Securities.
2. Question Answer
Just keep going on the cross-selling. I know you're just starting to tap that cross-selling opportunity. Is there any way to put, kind of, an approximate value on the cross-selling revenue expected in '26 and a growth factor in '27? Is it having any -- does it have any, kind of, meaningful impact on organic growth this year? Or just trying to size it a little bit better.
Yes. While we're not sort of reporting on the cross-selling numbers itself, it is showing up in the record backlog numbers that we're talking about and the end market exposure that each of our segments are now getting through the cross-selling program. There's many, many examples of the great projects that we're winning because of the breadth of our services under this combined platform. And I think it's -- the momentum that we're getting in the connective tissue in the company is really starting to show up in those cross-selling results.
Got it. And the 9% CAGR you guys outlined at Investor Day, I think Consulting & Engineering, 7% to 9%; Geospatial, 5% to 8%. So in terms of visibility over the next 12 months, is one -- does one have meaningful higher visibility than the other? Just trying to, kind of, understand how you're looking at it in the near term? And the second part of that question was, I know Geospatial has bounced around a little bit quarterly. The assumption is still that's likely to happen over time.
Yes. With GEO, just with the large fixed price contract, that does move around a little bit more than the other segments. Obviously, C&E is performing extremely well. And with that backlog being up 20%, we've got really strong visibility into its continued growth. And I&M, we're very pleased to say it's on year-on-year growth now after the June and we continue to see that moving ahead. So pleased with that. And I think we're very happy to see I&M contribute to our overall growth as we move through the second half of the year and into next.
We'll turn now to Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group.
Just first focusing on Consulting & Engineering segment was up 17%. Good to see strength there. Can you give a little bit more color on the levers for growth in that segment? In other words, more color on organic. You had mentioned cross-selling previously. How much did that play through and overall growth? And any other factors that we should take in consideration for driving that mid- to high teens growth?
Yes. Thank you. Obviously, we're very happy with that growth. And data centers is driving a lot of it. But what I really like is that if you remove data centers from the growth, it's actually still growing at a pace of about 7%. And the vast majority of this is organic. If I was to point to other areas, power and utilities and infrastructure, kind of, in line with these megatrends we talked about at our Investor Day. And absolutely, cross-selling within the segment is contributing to the growth. There's still plenty of runway there for us to capitalize on that.
And Kathryn, we're also -- we've been very focused on utilization. We're seeing some improvements in utilization in Consulting & Engineering as well, which is driving growth. And additionally, the M&A pipeline is extremely robust, and there's a lot of really nice opportunities in the consulting and engineering space, which will help accelerate growth as well.
Yes. Really large addressable market there for us.
Okay. Perfect. And you had indicated previously that there are improving indicators in the Inspection segment. What are these? And just maybe a little bit more color on that.
Yes. Obviously, the June being -- it's only 1 month, but being up year-on-year is really -- it's the first time we've been able to say that in a long time.
And I think this is a part of the plan and the model that we built. A big piece was the ramp effect of the site losses.
Of the site losses in August, and we've talked about that. We're also able to talk about new sites winning. That's a very positive momentum. Many of those were in the Gulf Coast. We're taking price where we can on contracts. And really, I would just say that the structural changes that we have made are really starting to shine through.
Okay. Perfect. And finally, just on backlogs up 20%. Where are you seeing those by project, by segment and by end market?
Yes. I mean it's quite broad. It's across the business. Obviously, again, data centers represents a large portion of it. But other areas, buildings in general, not just data centers, areas like aviation and healthcare are nice growers for us. Power and utilities, infrastructure, industrial. And while small, aerospace and defense has been growing nicely for us recently.
We'll turn now to Josh Chan with UBS.
I guess the legacy NV5 businesses seem to be growing much faster than maybe the long term or at least historically. So I guess in broader terms, do you feel like you're in a period where those businesses can, kind of, have a stronger-than-normal growth driven by some of the factors that you're talking about?
I think the backlog is an indicator of future growth, and that's at record levels. It's up 20%. And I think, obviously, the C&E performance in the quarter was very high but we still feel very, very good about its growth moving through the quarters and into next year. Just really -- we talked about it at the Investor Day, Josh, but those market tailwinds that we have in these megatrends are real and they really are driving the business. The digitization of the physical world, aging infrastructure and this huge increase of pressure on our power grid are all areas that we are capitalizing on and very well positioned to take.
Sure. That's great to hear. And maybe a follow-up on data center. I think historically, that business has been more APAC oriented, but I think you mentioned some growth in the U.S., too. So are you having more success, kind of, coming into the U.S. and doing work here?
Yes, we are. And I think I mentioned last quarter, really getting to a critical mass. It's now 25% of the revenue and continuing to grow as a proportion. So we're really pleased with that. Trailing 12 months revenues at just under $100 million of revenue. Just a nice little bright spot too, that I&M is really starting to see some exposure to the space, and we're rapidly seeing some growth, while it's very small at the moment, very pleased to see that I&M coming into play. And again, that's that cross-selling starting to work.
Excellent. That's great to hear and congrats on the good quarter.
We'll move now to Andy Wittmann with Baird.
So I just want to ask a couple of questions on the guidance and then maybe I'll do an accounting question. So I guess just as I look at the guide here, it implies -- in the revenue guide, it looks like it implies just a slight step-up to hit the midpoint in the second half of the year. This I&M, kind of, timing slippage out of 2Q, I think you previously said in 3Q, now you're saying second half. Has that work started maybe even here now that we're in early August? Or has it been scheduled? I'm just trying to see the kind of visibility that you might get on that. Obviously, I heard the comments on commercial indicators, but there was some defined work that's been slipping. I'm just wondering kind of the status. And is that one of the key variables that causes some of the acceleration that you're basically implying here to the midpoint of the second half guidance?
Yes, absolutely. The teams are ramping up for that work as we speak.
Yes. And I think -- thanks, Andy. I think our second quarter results helped enforce and enhance our confidence in the full year guidance. When we launched the guidance earlier this year, 5 or 6 months ago, we talked about 4% top line growth, 10% growth to adjusted EBITDA. Those -- the assumptions that went into that included things like we planned on winning new sites in I&M. We're winning new sites in I&M. We planned on growing backlog in C&E and GEO, and we're growing backlog at 20%. We planned on improving margins with the synergy program and utilization, and we're seeing that. We had 40 basis points of improvement in the quarter. And we also planned on diversifying end markets and Ben chatted about or mentioned that a bit ago.
So I think largely, the year is playing out as we had planned. And so we're excited about a strong delivery for the year.
Got it. Okay. So just maybe kind of a similar question on -- maybe on the margin side then, Kristin, like I guess the second half implied margin percentage is like in the high 16s at the midpoint, which is a pretty good ramp over the first half performance. Obviously, you're going to have the contribution of those synergies and that makes sense. Is there -- and the business is seasonal as well. So I understand those factors. Are there other things besides that? Is it just really the mix of contracts that need to help you get to that margin level? How would you just define what needs to fall into place to hit that -- the accelerated margins in the second half besides those?
Yes, good question. I think there's a little over 100 basis points of improvement baked into the second half. I would put it in the category of mix and execution. So we are seeing growth in the higher-margin end markets. We're seeing improvement in utilization and also just seeing the metrics, the KPIs that we look at internally point us in that direction. So we take the internal forecasting very seriously and have been very thoughtful about the guidance we put forward.
Okay. And then I just wanted to finish up with this one. I'm going to apologize a little bit for it, but because it's a little bit detailed on the accounting. But in Consulting & Engineering and there's this idea of fixed price contracts that get -- you have a year under purchase accounting to mark the value and the profitability of those contracts to market. In this quarter, it appears that you revalued some contracts. The effect of that basically increases goodwill. It decreases your contract assets and increases your contract liabilities. It looks like that happened this quarter. Basically, what that means is that there was a change in the profitability of some work that was -- that you are doing under a fixed price contract.
So my question is this, what types of projects or what project drove that? Is this a factor to the second quarter cash flow because basically, these contracts seem to be costing you more than you originally expected. And then there's another knock-on effect of the crazy accounting that goes with these things that has the effect of actually improving your gross margins. I guess the industry, they call it normal margin, normalized margin on these contracts. Do you know or happen to estimate the benefit to your gross margins from these contracts, which are actually getting marked down? Sorry for the complexity, but we've just seen these in the past, and I think these are worth understanding.
Yes. First, I want to say thank you for such a detailed accounting question. Look, we have 1 year as a measurement period on an acquisition. This is a very large acquisition. It's not uncommon for there to be measurement period adjustments in acquisitions in the first year. This does relate to project accounting from the legacy NV5 business. I would chalk it up more than anything to accounting noise. The $20 million you mentioned on goodwill is on a $3 billion balance sheet goodwill and intangible line item. The offset was construction assets or contract assets and liabilities, like you said, had an immaterial impact from a P&L perspective in the quarter. And we -- it's not projected to have -- it isn't projected to have an impact on gross margins going forward.
We'll hear now from Alex Rygiel with Texas Capital.
Can you speak to any headwinds you're seeing that might be impacting your business from AI? And is there any scenario where larger players like yourself increasingly take share from smaller players that may not have the capital to keep up with the investment needs to create AI tools?
Yes, we certainly do see that as a long-term opportunity. And as we do our bolt-on acquisitions and implement on that, it's something that we can layer in and increase the value of those. We're leaning into AI. We're deploying it on multiple work streams. We haven't seen it impact the pricing of our work or affect any, sort of, downward trajectory on our ability to win work. We're excited about it. And we've mentioned many times, it is an absolute opportunity for us to improve the efficiency of our business both through shared services and back of house piece of our business, but we really have some great examples of it flowing through our engineering work.
I was with one of our structural engineers in the office recently, and he was just talking about the ability that he can go home at night and leave AI working on his drawings and he comes back and he can, sort of, pick it up from there. So it's pretty exciting stuff that we have going on in that space.
That's great to hear. And then I also felt like I heard an increased excitement with regards to M&A. So maybe if you could give us a little bit more color on that. And are the sellers more interested in selling because of macroeconomic conditions? Are pricing -- does pricing look more favorable to the buyer? Any color would be helpful.
Yes. Thank you. Good question, something that we are very passionate about. I think we laid this out at Investor Day, but our model reflects deploying between $100 million and $150 million of capital towards bolt-on M&A annually. Very confident in our ability to do that this year. We have -- we closed 3 small ones during the quarter. I think these sellers typically like the story we have to tell. We're a forever home for their business. We provide career opportunities for their team in a way that they would not see otherwise, and we can help accelerate growth. We closed on an acquisition just -- a smaller acquisition just last month. And the way that we saw the team deploy on cross-selling capabilities, resource sharing, equipment sharing was just really, really phenomenal to see and really helps solidify the opportunities we have.
So very excited about what we're seeing. The multiples on these smaller deals are still accretive, 5 to 7x. So very positive.
We'll move now to Jeff Martin with ROTH Capital Partners.
I wanted to touch on the funding environment. A lot of the C&E is agency driven. I know in GEO, you're focused on growing the commercial opportunity. So maybe you could just discuss on the agency level, how the funding environment works. And then tying into that, any look under the hood on when follow-on opportunities with that rare earth project might start to come in?
Okay. I'll try and answer the 3 questions. Starting with the follow-on opportunities. We've got 3, sort of, active discussions around 3 other areas that we could explore for that. And then the other follow-on effect of that, if we think of it as a pilot and it's being proved out is sort of the work being privatized and us being very well positioned to support that work in the regions that we identify these rare earth minerals. So quite excited about the follow-on potential for that.
The diversification of GEO is certainly working. Our commercial work was up 13% year-on-year in the quarter for Geospatial. So quite happy with that and power and utilities is a big driver of us diversifying away from the federal work as well. And then in terms of the funding environment, again, I'll just point to the backlog. We're really not seeing any slowdown in that work. And I think it really just points again to those megatrends, the aging infrastructure and the increase of demand on the power grid. This is work that absolutely needs to get done, and we're in a very strong position to do it.
Very good. My other question is on LNG. I know there are some large opportunities down the pipeline. Just curious if you could give us an update there and any details on potential timing would be helpful.
Yes. We were -- there was one sort of a bit of a drag on C&E through the first half of the year, and that's really starting to ramp up. We actually have a very high backlog of work over the next 3 years for that business. So I think with a lot of what's going on in the utility space and LNG being a hot topic, it's really starting to drive the work for that group. And then I&M, we actually just landed a $30 million multiyear MSA for some LNG work that's hot off the press. So quite excited about that to really set us up for a strong 2027.
[Operator Instructions] We'll turn next to Stephanie Moore with Jefferies.
I wanted to circle back on just the organic growth here. So it'd be helpful if you could talk about maybe the volume and pricing performance in the quarter. Any updates on pricing opportunities going forward? But also, I think it would be great to maybe if you could talk about cadence of organic growth in the back half. I do believe we'll be lapping some contract losses in August. Obviously, there's some cross-selling activity that's kind of brewing. So I would love to just get a sense on just cadence and momentum as we get through the back half of the year.
Yes. So for I&M specifically, technical yields are -- the amount we're getting per hour is up. So we are taking price within that, that's supporting the organic growth. We lapped those lost sites in August. So we're already starting to see year-on-year growth, and that's just really going to compound organically as we get through that and start to win new sites. Within the other segments, the backlog is probably -- I know I keep going on about it, but it is just a great indicator of how we see organic growth moving ahead. It really is a result of the great work that our teams are doing with their clients and the follow-on work that we get.
Perfect. And then I just wanted to follow up on the M&A question as well. Great to see you guys do a couple of tuck-in deals during the quarter. As you think about the consulting or the I&M side of your business, so maybe the legacy Acuren or the NV5 side, where would be your risk appetite for incremental M&A in either side or maybe it's both?
Yes. Look, I think if you think of total addressable market, the C&E, we sort of jokingly say it's infinite, but it is absolutely huge. So we do expect more opportunities, and we're certainly seeing that. That said, there are many opportunities in front of us in the Geospatial and I&M side. So we're exploring it on all avenues. I would just say if we looked at long-term trends, C&E is probably where we're going to see most of the opportunity.
Yes. Sorry, go ahead, Kristin.
Yes, I was just going to add that we're very thoughtful on identifying and selecting acquisitions in terms of which opportunities have the highest return from a cross-selling growth perspective. So it's really about the strategic fit and the upside for growth versus which segment it is in.
Yes, Stephanie, the only thing I would add is we're very focused on using M&A to execute sort of our business strategies, whether that be geographic expansion, additional solutions or exposure to end markets. and that's going to be across, sort of, all 3 segments. We have a very large addressable market and an even bigger sort of target universe of directions we can go. So we're being very targeted and specific looking at where we have the highest ROI for our total business to sort of capitalize on these growth trends.
We'll hear now from Brendan Shea with JPMorgan.
Actually, this is Tomo. So I wanted to ask you about I&M. Revenue was down 5.5% year-over-year on site losses and outage timing. Beyond the second half seasonality recovery, what supports a return to consistent growth? How much is structural versus deferred into second half? And if you could share any leading indicators that we can confirm some of your conviction there?
Yes. Look, if you set aside the outage and site losses within the quarter, the business was actually up 4%. So I would just -- that really, to me, points to the strength across the wider segment. As I sort of said earlier, we're now able to talk about new sites that we've been winning and year-on-year growth. So with all of that, I would just also point to the commercial activity. The pipeline of new sites that we have is the highest that I've seen it since been involved with the business. And I would just say, in general, the team is on the front foot commercially. I attended a leadership meeting, Kris and I recently and just the feeling in the room and the collaboration and the cross working going on, it's just really is a turnaround that I'm very pleased to see from the team.
And on a follow-up, you're scaling I&M into bridges, public infrastructures. How do margins compare to your recent high 20s I&M adjusted gross margin? And then what incremental fixed price execution risks and the mitigants should we underwrite?
Yes. It's absolutely part of our strategy is to grow into these higher end markets and Bridges is absolutely an example of that and just leveraging the relationships that the NV5 business has and vice versa, executing on that is what's driving us into these new end markets, which to your question, we do see higher margins.
And I would add, Tomo, that the -- one of the service lines within the Inspection & Mitigation segment is work done at heights and rope access technologies, and that piece of our business was up almost 10% in the quarter, and that's another area where we're demonstrating diversification within the segment.
And as there are no additional questions in queue at this time, I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any additional or closing comments.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your questions and your continued interest in TIC Solutions. Before we close, I'd just like to leave you with a few final thoughts. We're really starting to see the full potential of this combined platform being unlocked. The cross-selling is working. Our backlog is at record levels, and all our segments are diversifying into new end markets. I'm extremely proud of the way our teams are collaborating and the entrepreneurial spirit is running deep in this organization, and it's really showing up.
So thank you, everyone, and have a good day.
Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's event. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at this time, and have a wonderful rest of your day.
Tic Solutions Inc — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
Tic Solutions Inc — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
Solid Q2: modest revenue growth, record C&E/GEO backlog, margin expansion, while Inspection & Mitigation shows signs of recovery.
📊 Quarter at a Glance
- Revenue: $584M (+3.3% YoY; combined view of legacy businesses)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $95M (+$6M YoY; EBITDA = earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization)
- Adj. EBITDA margin: 16.2% (+40 basis points YoY)
- Backlog: $1.18B for Consulting & Engineering and Geospatial (+20% YoY)
- Liquidity & leverage: $474M total liquidity; bank-calculated net leverage ~3.7x
🎯 What Management Says
- Cross-selling: Integrated platform driving multi-service awards and expanding scope of work, visible in record backlog.
- Margin focus: Progress via favorable mix, higher utilization, cost synergies (actioned $20M; $25M target) and disciplined pricing.
- Tech & M&A: Investing in AI-enabled workflow tools and pursuing bolt-on acquisitions to fill capability and geographic gaps.
🔭 Outlook & Guidance
- Q3 guide: Revenue $610–630M; Adjusted EBITDA $100–110M (midpoint implies ~9% YoY revenue growth)
- FY 2026: Reiterated revenue $2.15–2.25B; Adjusted EBITDA $330–355M; capex $50–65M; net interest $95–105M
- Risks: I&M timing (outages/site scheduling) and seasonality drive back-half sensitivity; leverage and working-capital seasonality affect near-term cash.
❓ Analyst Q&A
- Cross-selling ask: Management declined to quantify specific dollar impact, saying benefits are reflected in backlog and broader end-market exposure.
- I&M recovery: Key pushback on sustainability of the rebound; management pointed to June turning positive, new site wins and improved proposal pipeline.
- M&A appetite: Firm on bolt-on strategy ($100–150M/year), deals accretive at ~5–7x multiples; capital deployed via selective buybacks and debt refinancing.
⚡ Bottom Line
TIC Solutions delivered steady execution: growth concentrated in Consulting & Engineering and Geospatial, margin expansion is progressing, and a record backlog gives visibility. Inspection & Mitigation is the main near-term risk—its recovery will determine whether organic growth accelerates. Management is balancing bolt-on M&A, share repurchases and debt reduction while targeting long-term 18% adjusted EBITDA and stronger free cash flow conversion.
Tic Solutions Inc — Analyst/Investor Day - TIC Solutions, Inc.
1. Management Discussion
[Presentation]
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Investor Day. I'm Andrew Shen, Director of Investor Relations, and I head up our Investor Relations function. Thank you for everyone joining in person as well as over the webcast. I'd like to start with the safety moment. Please take a moment to locate the emergency exit nearest to you. And in the event of emergency, please follow the instructions of the venue staff.
Please note that our statements today contain forward-looking statements as defined by the SEC. These statements contain inherent risks and uncertainties. Please see our SEC filings for further detail. I'd like to start with a moment on logistics. I'd ask that the audience silence their cell phones, laptops and tablets. If you'd like to follow along on your own devices, we've posted the presentation on our IR website. We'll have a 10-minute break about halfway through the program. Restrooms are located in the back of the room, past the end of the hall. We appreciate you spending time with us as we work towards building something special at TIC Solutions. Today's topics will include a discussion of our business, strategic priorities and long-term financial framework. We will then conclude with 30 minutes of Q&A. And then the showcases and lunch will be open after the presentation.
You'll hear from members of our leadership team throughout the program, and we're pleased to have the full team here with us today. And with that, I'm pleased to introduce Robbie Franklin, our Executive Chairman; Robbie, please join us on stage.
All right. Thanks, Andrew. Thank you, everyone, for being here today and your support and interest in TIC Solutions. Starting out with our acquisition vehicle about 3 years ago, it's pretty remarkable as I look around this room and sort of gives me chills looking at this video of sort of what we're building together. So it's really exciting. Thank you for your support. Thank you for being here with us today.
As I think about sort of the evolution over the last 2 years, we had an investment thesis to building another platform in the industrial services space coming off of our experience with API and some of the success we've had with Element Solutions and other industrial platforms. And I think today really represents the inaugural communication of some of that strategy and the opportunities that exist before us. So I think everyone understands we're in this generational capital cycle. And we have a platform here with TIC solutions where we're really able to capitalize on some of these trends.
So I'm really excited for the team to be able to communicate with you today and lay out the vision for where we see this company going in the future. We are in the process of building a unified kind of technology forward platform with a truly differentiated market strategy to where we might have been 2 years ago when we acquired Acuren. And the industrial logic of this combination is really just starting to come through in our results and the wins that we're achieving in the market. And I think you should really hear from each of our team members who are presenting today, but also this incredible deep bench of talent that we have in the back of the room.
And I encourage everybody, if you get a moment to interact with the team, hear about the things that they're working on and really start to understand the business in a greater level of depth. All of the elements of this business really lead us to be a great long-term compounder of value. And I think that really should resonate with us today.
Where we are today is sort of in line with Mariposa playbook for any of you who've sort of followed us I think you really understand -- we try to identify corners of the market with great value that are underappreciated that eventually roll into sort of growth areas of the market that are really fundamentally exciting. And I think what you'll find here represents all of those things. And we're just in the early days. My family, our Board, the leadership team and all of our team members here are excited -- are really genuinely excited to share the vision for TIC and tell you why and how we are going to win. The plan that we're presenting today is 1 that I know we can achieve. It's a commitment for us. And it's our guiding star and very, very excited for everyone to be -- to really understand the strategic plan for our business.
With that, I really -- I want to hand the stage over to our leadership team now helmed by Ben Heraud. Ben has been an amazing resource for us, a great partner. I'm very excited for the entrepreneurship that's been sort of reinvigorated into our organization, the culture we are building. And he's just -- he's done an amazing job so far and has all of our support. So with that, stage over to Ben.
Robbie. I appreciate the kind introduction. Happy to have you all here today. Thank you and appreciate your continued interest in TIC solutions. Myself and the team are really excited to get up here and sort of talk you through where we are today as a business and where we're headed. If we think about the combination of bringing Acuren and NV5 together, it really we've created a combined scaled integrated platform -- and the services that we now have at our fingertips enable us to be a true life cycle partner for our clients, which is just a really exciting opportunity to be bringing together. We're also positioned in markets that have significant tailwinds -- so we'll talk about 4 key megatrends that exist in the market in a little bit more detail.
But this really positions us for long-term sustained growth, and we have some strategies around how we're going to really position ourselves to continue to capture these tailwinds -- we're going to talk about a clear path to margin expansion through our commercial discipline, improving our utilization and productivity. And as we grow, as we continue to grow, we'll get to benefit from our scale. This is a CapEx-light business. So we have very high free cash flow, and that's really exciting because it enables us to invest that back into the business, both through organic growth initiatives and through our bolt-on M&A strategy. So you saw it on the video, but I wanted to come back to this directly. We shape and strengthen the physical world. Tal had a hand in this, and we spent plenty of time bringing this together. And we're really excited about having this brought out to the team to shape really points to the creative side of the business, where we're planning and designing and strengthen really points to our inspection and mitigation work where making the world a safer place, the systems that we work on more resilient.
As we were working through this, we actually started out with the built environment. We shape and strengthen the built environment. However, it doesn't really capture everything that we do. If you look at what Geospatial does, we actually map coastlines, mountains, forests, -- so physical world was sort of more all encompassing. So something that we're very excited about bringing to the team. And it really enables the team also to articulate what we do to our clients very clearly and align is a common thread across the business.
So in terms of common themes as well, I mean we now operate the business under 3 segments and you're going to hear from Alex, Kurt and Seamus. And really, they're going to do a deep dive into all the really cool things that we do within each of the segments. But I just wanted to point you to a common thread across all of these is that we have a very high recurring revenue stream, and it's programmatic. And that obviously makes us very sticky with the clients and very long-term. And just to use some examples for each of the segments, within consulting and engineering as the engineer of record when we work on an asset when we design it, that positions us in a position of strength to continue to work on that asset for the long-term.
When a change is made when a retrofit is done in a building or a road or a bridge. We are the ones that are positioned to continue to work on that asset for the life cycle of it. With an inspection of mitigation, our run and maintain business, we are nested at the site. We are there for the long term. We are part of the day-to-day operations and the decisions that have been made and it is a very long-term reoccurring nature of the business.
Geospatial, we fly nearly 1 million miles of power lines every year, and we do that over and over again for vegetation class analysis. I can point to many other examples of recurring work that we do within Geospatial, but it really does point to the recurring nature of the business in a pretty exciting statistic. So together, this platform is much stronger with these 2 companies. The sum of the parts is much greater than each individual business alone. I point again to being that true life cycle partner. If you could envisage a large complex facility, it might be an airport, could be a refinery, it could be a casino. Our ability to now plan and design that facility, oversee the construction, commission the systems as they come online and be involved in the ongoing operations for the life of that asset. It's something that's pretty unique.
And when you overlay our ability to now create a digital twin of that asset, pull real-time data out of it and use that to inform the decisions that are made on the site every day, you couldn't really point to another company that has this breadth of capability right now. So both companies have a rich history and a proven track record of growth, both organic and through M&A. So while TIC solutions is a new platform that is made up of very rich heritage. And I would point to all the great leadership at the back of the room here and at the front is a testament of that. I would point to the amazing projects that we work on and the clients that we have. So again, as I said, it's a relatively new platform but comes from a very, very rich history.
So we're well through the integration of the 2 businesses. And I'd call out Kristen and the team who are doing an amazing job of getting us to where we are with that today, and it's starting to show up in real results. If we think about the 2 businesses, there really was very little operational overlap. So most of the integration is actually occurring at the shared services and corporate level. But it's -- in terms of those real results, we're starting to see it in the cross-selling. Dan is going to be talking in detail on a bit of that. So -- and we're starting to see it show up in terms of actually bringing new services to existing clients. And what that does is it creates a more solid platform for us. When we bring a new service to an existing client, we've pushed out a competitor -- and that makes us -- that solidifies the relationship with the client, it strengthens it, and it just makes us a more robust platform overall.
I think this really paints a picture of the opportunity that we have as a company to grow geographically. We're very densified in North America right now. Our consulting engineering and geospatial business has almost no presence in Canada where we're very strong in inspection and mitigation. Inspection mitigation has no presence in the Middle East and within Asia Pacific. These are areas that we have systems in place and fantastic entrepreneurial leadership and really enables us to implement a land and expand strategy. So if we think about an example of this in the data center space, the data center business was really borne out in Asia Pacific, and you'll be hearing from Gary and Keith up here who lead that business a little later on. We made a strategic initiative a few years ago to really push to get that business going in the U.S. and Andy, who is here, too, is sort of leading the charge on the U.S. side. It was really landing and expanding that capability, the relationships we had with the hyperscalers and bringing that back to the U.S.
And if we look at the U.S. data center business now, it is actually growing at an extremely fast clip, and we'll catch up to our Asia Pacific business, a little bit of challenge there over the next couple of years.
So we talked about scale. We're a $2.1 billion business, and we'll continue to grow. What bringing the businesses together is also done as diversified the platform. If we think of Acuren beforehand, the exposure to oil and gas was about 40%, now it's 20%. And if you look at this revenue mix that we have, it's a really nice blend of services within an end markets and really points to that cross-selling opportunity that we have. As far as the revenue by geography, it just really points to the map I just showed you before, we're heavily densified in the United States. And if we look at these other areas, it just is a great opportunity for us to continue to grow in these regions.
So here's the big reveal. I think that we have a fantastic opportunity to provide meaningful value creation for our shareholders over the next 3 years. And this 31885 framework really outlines how we'll guide how we execute on that. It points to our commitment to growth we want to be -- we're going to grow to $3 billion and margin expansion. So as we grow, we have to improve our margins. And again, our focus around being a high free cash flow business and enable it to us to reinvest that back into the business. So extremely excited to put this out into the public domain -- keep you guys up-to-date as we progress towards it, but also very excited to bring this to the team.
This is going to be a fantastic way for us to have the team rally around these goals. It will inform the daily decisions that our entrepreneurial leaders are making on a day-to-day basis. So 31885 -- we'll continue to report on that, and Kristen is actually going to go through it in a bit more detail on some of the ways that we're going to bridge to these numbers. So we've set the goals. Now we need to execute and deliver on them.
These megatrends I've been talking about, we're very well positioned to capitalize on these for long-term sustaining growth. And if you look at these 4 megatrends we're talking about, we have multiple services that we can deploy in every single 1 of these areas. So as far as aging infrastructure goes, there is just a huge amount of investment needed in the U.S. alone just to get things up to speed. Alex is going to go through some really nice examples. But this is work that has to be done. It's nondiscretionary. It's very resilient to a financial downturn. People need to drive over a bridge, they need to drink water. That these things need to happen regardless of what's going on in the economy. And our subject matter experts are in extremely high demand for solving a lot of these issues that we're facing. 166 gigawatts, it's a number that may not mean much to many of you.
But if I put it in perspective, 15 new New York need to be built as far as infrastructure by 2030. A lot of that is from the data center demand that is coming in play, but there's a lot of other areas of the grid that are being electrified, -- it also points to the aging infrastructure issues that we have.
So across all segments, we have a very deep bench of expertise. We have very, very strong relationships with utilities, which is very hard to come by. And again, this is a service and very high demand, and we are very, very well positioned to capitalize on. So an interesting statistic, 90% of the world's data was created in the last 2 years. So that's pretty astounding, but probably not surprising with all the talk about AI and all that. And we truly are market leaders in this space as far as data centers are concerned. As I said, you're going to hear more from the team about it. But we really do continue to be excited about our growth in this space. We're continually bringing existing services that we have to this end market and increasing the revenue that we get per megawatt of data center or gigawatt of data center that we work on.
We also have -- sorry, I'll just go back for a second. A very strong focus on operations. We get a lot of questions about when will this boom end. A lot of the services that we have are recurring within the facility, if you imagine -- they're constantly changing out the servers, new technologies changing all the time and coming into play. And we have the technical know-how to engineer the solutions for our clients and continue to support them with these data centers for the long term. There is also a race to digitize the entire planet. We're going to build a digital twin of this entire planet. And it's going to constantly need to be refreshed as things change and technology upgrades. We are market leaders in geospatial our analytics are second to none. And this work travels extremely well.
So for example, we're mapping the South Island of New Zealand right now. We won that work not because we're there, we won it because we had the analytics capability and the sense of technology. So we're really well positioned to capitalize on this fast-growing market.
We're also in a position of leadership in a highly fragmented market. So this really enables an exciting opportunity for us to consolidate and gain market share and cross-sell as we bring all these different fragmented services into our large scale business. If we look at the different segments, just some sort of examples or comments -- in the engineering space within the U.S. alone is 140,000 engineering firms. It's a very target-rich environment for our M&A strategy. Our Inspection & Mitigation business, we are market leaders in North America. And so from a position of strength, we can continue to consolidate that business and grow it.
And Geospatial, as I mentioned, travels very well. That works extremely well in a fragmented market. So we can move to where the work is. It travels extremely well, and we're really excited about continuing to grow that business. And combined, as I mentioned, that vision about that large complex facility, there's synergistic. So each business is driving the other.
So we're laser-focused on capitalizing on these trends. And if we just sort of point to 3 strategic areas of focus for us, we want to continue to win in essential and high-demand verticals and markets and geographies. So we're really getting behind those businesses that have a lot of tailwinds and are driving our margin growth. The land and expand strategy that we talked about, continuing to grow geographically and supporting that with our M&A focus as well. We need to drive profit, and we've set a target around that. There's a lot of work we've got to do, but we see a path. And AI will play into it, equipping our team with tools to be more efficient, both from a shared services perspective and through operations. And continue to work, focus on this programmatic work, the more we can do repeat work with our clients for the last time we spend on business development and improve our margins that way as well.
So AI, we get a lot of questions about this. We really do see this as an accelerant, not a replacement for our business. Our work is highly technical. It's probably more field-driven than you actually realized, and it is absolutely safety critical. So it depends on engineering judgment and that requires people out in the field to do that. There is a lot of regulatory oversight in the space. Our clients actually mandate the software that we use in a lot of cases, particularly in the public space and it requires deep domain expertise. So we see AI as an enabler for us to deliver our work more efficiently and also take cost out of the space. It does -- it's not going to replace the need for a trusted expert in the field working on critical infrastructure.
One of the barriers to growth for our business is getting subject matter experts. So this idea of equipping them with the tool, they can enable them to do more with less is really, really exciting for us. It will probably replace some of the more mundane things we do around drafting and things like that, but we're leaning into that. We're excited about it. We -- we're at the forefront of working with a lot of the software providers. They see our technical expertise is extremely important, and we're deploying this in a number of work streams and have already implemented it in a number of places.
So I've asked Dan to come up and talk about a cross-selling. We get a lot of questions about that. What I would just say from a high level is that this is a tough task. It's we've got to educate our teams. There's a lot to be done to help them understand what these new services mean for their clients. I'm really pleased with the progress that we're making. But first and foremost, it comes -- it starts with the culture. And we have an extremely entrepreneurial culture in the business. There is a genuine excitement from the team back here and all of our leaders in the company, the new services that we now have and our ability to bring those to their clients and be better off because of it. So that I'll have Dan talk through the cross-selling program.
Thanks, Ben. Good day, everyone. I'm Dan Coleman, Vice President of Growth and Strategy. We have what we need today to continue to grow. We've got deep client relationships, strong technical capabilities and trusted teams in the markets we serve. What we have been doing what we need to continue doing is pushing this forward in a structured and repeatable way. We're seeing positivity in the investment focus -- sorry, the investment thesis that Rob mentioned. Year-to-date, we've already hit the same cross-selling numbers that we did in the entirety of 2025. And this is driven by Acuren ability to cross-sell into NV5 and NV5 into Acuren .
Our cross-selling year-to-date has actually come from that structure. Ben mentioned the education of our staff, but it also leads into education of our clients. That is a process. It's ongoing and it's not going to stop, but we are seeing an acceleration there. When we do cross-sell, we're seeing our fees actually double compared to our average fee. Historically, when we looked at this, I'll acknowledge it was opportunistic. The client would call us and say that they needed a service our team members would respond, but we're being a bit more intentional and strategic going forward with these 4 vectors. And the goal is simple -- create more opportunities for our team members to talk to their clients and offer additional services, driving that revenue upside further forward.
Within the Canadian white space, we're very excited about the integration growth opportunity we have. Our inspection mitigation team has a really strong local presence. They're trusted by their clients. On the consulting engineering side and the Geospatial side, we have the ability to bring services that are transportable across the border, things like right-of-way analysis, fire protection engineering -- hydro spatial and geospatial, all transport really easily. We've been cross-training some of our inspection mitigation team members and new services like 3D scanning, which we have a demo of outside.
Our quality assurance team members from Canada -- sorry, the United States have been transporting up to Canada, seeing whether we can upskill those labs that we have there and offer up new services. And this is all allowing us to respond to RFPs that we historically might not have pursued due to a scope gap. And we're looking at those selective integration-focused acquisitions. An example project I'd like to highlight that just pulls all of this together is a project that came from a municipal client at the inspection mitigation team has. They approached us, informed us about this RFP and encourage us to pursue. There's a good chunk of that RFP that we typically wouldn't have pursued as the inspection mitigation team. But with the collaboration that we've had with the consulting engineering side and the Geospatial side, we're able to increase the fee by approximately 50%.
What's really exciting about this is that it's doubled the total fee that we're going to be doing with that client for this year, and we can take that same logical approach and scale it across the entire country. The energy sector remains foundational for us as a company, where cross-selling is driven by those deep client relationships and expansion of services into our existing MSAs. We're integrating our inspection, engineering and geospatial groups and pursuing these projects together and increasing the value of each engagement that we have. Also in doing this, we can reduce the reliance we have on third-party subconsultants. This improvement in execution increases margins and drives us forward as that holistic strategic partner. And further support of that investment thesis is not just coming from our KPIs, it's also coming from our clients.
Last week, 1 of our leaders in the West facilitated meeting with the utility client of ours. It opened up the opportunity to talk about inspection mitigation services, which we wouldn't have had otherwise. And now we've been given a pilot project and the client has indicated that this could lead to a whole portfolio platform. When I'd like to highlight is on the East Coast. It's actually the office here in New York. They've been working with a utility client for numerous years now and identified the opportunity to bring the inspection mitigation team in. In facilitating that conversation, they unlocked a 6-figure project that we are anticipating heading towards $1 million by the end of this year.
That growth is really scalable across our entire utility sector. Within the building sector, we're really excited about the ability to extend and diversify the inspection mitigation team through consulting engineering relationships. We're very deep in buildings on the consulting engineering side. A good example I'd like to give is just on the commissioning side, which is 1 of our fastest-growing groups in the U.S. They've identified the opportunity to bring our nondestructive testing in to our data center clients where they're really focused on that higher level of reliability. By bringing those services, which again, we couldn't have done previously, we're now able to increase the dollar amount per project. We've had conversations with utility clients hospitals, airports and universities where they've expressed an interest in this platform.
We're also looking at the potential to diversify our inspection mitigation team into services like testing and balancing which historically wasn't available to our consulting engineering business. The lack of field staff that we had on our side made it harder for us to get out there and do this testing and balancing work. By leveraging the field teams that we have on the inspection mitigation side, we're able to actually access that work that we couldn't previously creating that true life cycle partner that Ben mentioned. A really nice project I'd like to highlight here and 1 of the leaders that brought this 1 in is actually in the room.
On the data center side, we've typically done design and commissioning. We were engaged by a manufacturer that actually supplies these data centers with equipment to perform nondestructive testing on their ammonia piping what started off as an approximately $60,000 project has led to a $0.5 million project, and we're anticipating this getting into multiple millions before the end of the year. I was just talking to Jeff about this earlier, and he said that he's anticipating additional contracts from different manufacturers because they're seeing the good work that we could do. So again, this speaks to the scalability of the work that we're doing and how we can drive those additional services across the organization.
Within the infrastructure side, it gives us access to large durable demand environment, bringing teams together from our inspection, consulting, engineering and geospatial team were able to prime more opportunities than we were previously. And where we do partner, we now have an opportunity to offer those strategic partners more services. It's creating a platform for us to continue growing into that market potential. And on that market potential, it is significant. 35% of bridges in the United States need to repair, which is approximately 220,000 spans. $40 billion is being allocated by the federal government already, and there are estimates that that's going to push to $400 billion to repair all those bridges. And as we access that market, we will continue to grow and offer more solutions to our partners.
Sample projects for here is a bridge that we're doing in Canada. Essentially same process as the other 1 that I mentioned, the team identified a scope gap I identified that if we broaden our consulting engineering expertise, we were more likely to win the project. Collaborated on an RFP were awarded the project and led to a multimillion dollar win. Speaking to the team today, they've also highlighted to me that there's also 2 new RFPs that have come out that are very, very similar and we're taking the same strategic approach and offering that scale and driving to win more work in Canada.
Another 1 I'd like to highlight is actually in Florida. Our buildings team was asked to inspect a passenger terminal looking at the air conditioning systems. In discussions, we identified that those are potential to offer structural engineering and also our inspection mitigation work. The total contract value there doubled by bringing our engineering partners in. Again, this is something that we can take to every port in the United States and start to drive that forward in a scalable way. So across these 4 growth vectors and our continued focus on international expansion, we're able to continue driving growth, reduce our reliance on third-party subconsultants and help our clients through a complete life cycle partnership. And the confidence I have in this is that it's not just a top-down initiative. This is built on the entrepreneurial spirit we have as a company and with tools like our cross-selling incentive, we're encouraging all of our employees to drive additional conversations.
This allows us to identify, pursue and win more work together, giving us a stronger platform for growth and in a more integrated offering for our clients. And we've started seeing the results of this already. We're very excited about the scalable approach we're taking and what it brings for the future.
With that, I'll hand back to Ben.
Thanks, Dan. I think it's pretty exciting to see the momentum that we're gaining here. And as we continue to enroll our staff and client discussions have been had. The work will continue to flow. So it's a great work to the team. We're going to ask Alex to come up to talk about consulting and engineering. He's got a anterage here. We're going to go through some areas in more detail. So Alex, I'll hand it off to you.
My name is Alex Hockman. I'm the President of our Consulting Engineering division. I have been a license engineer for quite some time. I started in this business in the late '70s, and I'm still practicing. And I can tell you that in all these years, we are entering a very exciting period of time. Our consulting engineering piece makes up about 34% of TIC Solutions revenue. What's critical, though, is we are in a mandatory business. These are nondiscretionary spends. What do we mean by that? Has anybody been to flip Michigan? Would anybody go there today and drink the water -- can you tell me when that happened? When did that crisis occur. Anybody have an idea? 2014, 2015, and is now 11 years, and we still recognize when we say finish again, everybody recognizes the water crisis. So the type of services that we provide are mission-critical and they're determining whether or not a city has a great reputation or a negative reputation.
And citizens demand the services that we provide. I'll ask 1 more question. This is like the seventh inning stretch -- who flew in LaGuardia Airport. And who has flown into La Guardia airport, say, 8, 9 years ago, it was the laughing stock of the United States -- to enter such an iconic city and have to go through such a horrendous airport. Now they've invested money and what's happened. The investment that's being made in infrastructure and the lack of investment that has been made over time, we perceive, we clearly understand the benefit that's received when an infrastructure spend is made. So the critical aspects that we focus on our core capabilities span infrastructure, power and utilities, buildings and data centers as well as environmental services. The way that we go to market, we are typically contracting with what is called a professional services agreement or a master services agreement.
As a result, we have multiyear visibility on our revenue potential. We also have a deep penetration with the client and develop very strong relationships. And what that allows us to do is what we say, cross-sell and what does cross-sell main. It's a way that we collaborate. Dan had brought up a case about New York City. We have a client and another major utility company. They have used us for a very particular service and generating somewhere in the neighborhood of just under $1 million a year. We brought to them the capabilities of what we do in our power and utility market. And we just won a project over $1 million for a substation. That's what takes place when we cross-sell. When the clients recognize that we've already done a great job for them, -- they recognize that we have additional services that we can provide. And because of the deep relationships that we have with that client, we're then able to sell additional services. So ultimately, it keeps us in contact with the client for longer through the entire planning, design in every phase of the life cycle of an asset.
And as such, it even strengthens the relationship because they see us as someone who can solve their issues. So when we consider the long-term secular growth drivers of our industry, it's everything from what we demand, clean water, safe roads, safe bridges to what we desire a more comfortable way to travel -- so every aspect of what we do is something that everybody is going to appreciate every single day. You flip the light switch, you expect the light to go on. Rolling blackouts are not something that we tolerate -- as such, we need to recognize what that means from the demand, and that demand is exactly what is creating the growth driver for our Power and Utility business.
Financial snapshot. We generated $714 million in 2025 for TIC Solutions. It's about 47% gross margin. When you look at the end market and the service line, really the important aspect there is what you're going to see is that we have a very nice diversification across the service lines as well as the end markets. So we're not subject to a downturn in any 1 market. We're able to navigate very nicely. And with the sticky relationships that we have in these MSAs, we're then able to introduce additional services with a client that we already have a great relationship. Ben had already touched on the revenue by geography. One of the things that you'll notice here is that Asia now represents 10% of our operations. We talk about the opportunistic approach, the way we recognize where we have new markets to penetrate.
Asia, when we first acquired our companies that had Asia operations accounted for 1% of our revenue with an office in Hong Kong. The team, led by Gary and Keith recognize that the technical skill set they had was perfect for penetrating the data center market. And as such, they've grown it to 10% and -- now we're challenging our local team to grow even faster. But when you hear from Gary and Keith, you'll realize it's not going to be an easy task. But the real story -- the services that we provide consulting engineering were part of the legacy NV5 infrastructure and business and technology sector. We started that operation in 2010. Does anybody know what our revenue was that first year? $20 million, right. And now we're generating $714 million. It's a phenomenal growth story. And it's -- the investment thesis from the very beginning was to develop great technical expertise, great subject matter experts and many of them are in the back of the room. I invite you to engage with them. And you'll recognize the technical skill set and you'll recognize why we win the work with what we do.
What are the mega trends that are driving our business -- it's everything that you demand every single day. We use our smartphones. What's your expectation that it's going to work all the time, except maybe when you're in an elevator. It's the only time you're going to have an expectation that everything may not work. Every other time, you expect the data when you want it. When you flip the light switch, you expect that the electricity is going to be there. So when you consider the aging infrastructure, the lack of investment that has been made, we all see it. We all see roads, bridges that aren't properly maintained. We've all had experience with LaGuardia Airport. So the demand is there. The money needs to be spent in order to keep these structures sound, safe and it's something that the public demands.
With respect to increasing energy, we had issues before the data centers. We had issues with wildfires. We have issues with weather. We have a growing population. We have an aging power infrastructure. So there's a lot of demands that we have to grow. And then it's just been so much greater with the demands of data centers. So we've seen a big increase in our power and utility work, but we've also recognized the services that we could provide for the data centers themselves. Everything from design, commissioning, retro commissioning, we try to touch every aspect throughout the entire asset life cycle. Does a couple of things. Number one, we have visibility of a revenue stream. But number two, by staying there, we're always in front of the client. And the deeper that we strengthen those relationships, the better the client recognizes all the services that we can provide, and that makes the cross-selling or the collaboration that much easier.
Our Power Delivery group, Jeff, you can answer this one, too. We started with a handful of people. And now it is 1 of our largest segments in the industry. And what we've recognized is that we could not just approach our power and utility companies with a single service. We needed to ensure that we had a deep service penetration and offering throughout the entire life cycle. So when you recognize some of your neighborhoods, you may have seen them undergrounding the power and utility lines. They may have had old wood poles. So there's a number of services that are necessary that an engineering firm evaluates designs. The power lines just don't go underground by those guys that you see running these machines. It has to be designed. We have to recognize what are utilities are there? What kind of spacing do we need? Your expectation is that when you see those guys working eventually they're going to leave, and you're still going to have power in your house.
So there's a number of engineering activities that need to take place to design how to properly do the undergrounding, how do you even replace overhead poles. So what we have done is build out a service that has a touch point throughout the life cycle of every power utility. So from the time it leaves the power plant to the time it hits the meter, we have touch points -- another interesting thing. You're going to hear from Kurt and Kurt has 1 of the most outrageous geospatial platforms around. But how did we actually enter into geospatial services. Anybody know? This is like the seventh inning stretch. It could be a little bit participatory. We acquired a firm called Skys, generated under $1 million a year. And what happened is we recognize in our power and utility market, we had to fly these -- we had to fly the lines. And the company that we were using was being used by some of our competitors. And as a result, when we needed them, they would say, we got a little bit of backlog, you have to wait.
So what we do, we bought them. And then we recognize the power the geospatial services can bring to our traditional engineering services. We're now a multimillion dollar UAV business. Acuren has a legacy business. And what Kurt's going to present is at a much higher level but it's recognizing how we can be opportunistic, how we can grow operations, how we can integrate and be able to provide even a better service. And in this case, the service wasn't necessarily better in terms of the quality but the timing was. So we were able to have a control, and that's the benefit of the collaboration that we have in our cross-sell. We're able to control every aspect. We're not relying on a subcontractor.
So why do we win? We win because we have the technical skill set. We have, in our services, what is called a quality-based selection. The acronym is QBS. We win projects without ever negotiating a fee. In a quality-based selection, and this is mandated by almost every state -- we first have to show our technical skill. We have to show how we're going to approach the project. We have to show the staff, the subject matter expert. We have to show our past experience with similar projects, and then we're awarded the project. The next phase is negotiating the fee. So it's like going to a restaurant, easier stake and then you negotiate how much you're going to pay, right? So it's a very different model -- and as a result, we're not -- we don't have the same price pressure. What the government requires is that we have an audit and that audit gives us a multiplier so that we determine how much time we think it's going to take to do the project and we get to charge our multiplier.
And ultimately, that's how we develop the fee. But the way that we win the project is purely by the skill that we have. So by having these multiyear MSAs, we are getting deeper embedded with the client, we developed the relationship. They recognize our technical expertise. And that technical expertise can be 1 that travels or it could be a very localized niche expertise. And with that, we are then able to win the next project, the next similar project or the next multiyear MSA. The great advantage to this is it creates a very nice moat. It's a very high barrier to entry. If you want to come into 1 of our areas where we have that level of expertise and set up shop, great. And 5 to maybe 10 or 15 years, you'll be able to compete with us. So it's an incredible moat that allows us to be able to preserve the relationship and build on that relationship to cross-sell.
With that, 1 of the most notable projects that's going to happen here in New York City, the incredible development that's taking place in Fifth Avenue, -- does anybody know where Fifth Avenue is. Pretty iconic area from Central Park South to 42nd Street, there's a major thorough fare that's taking place. And Joe is the leader that helped us win this project. I'd like him to discuss it.
Appreciate it, Alex. So let me give you some context on Fifth Avenue and its importance to New York City. The 21 blocks that we're talking about here between Brian Park and Central Park represent about 5% of New York City's tax revenue or on an annual basis, $6 billion. The roadway itself sees more pedestrian traffic than any other road in New York City. I invite you to take a walk down there Saturday afternoon. And see for yourself experience the overcrowding on Fifth Avenue. And as Alex talked about with regards to utilities a little bit, there are a number of utilities underneath Fifth Avenue currently that were put in, in the 1800s, and they're still active.
So talking about those mega trends and the utility upgrades that need to happen over the next few years. So this project is going to be about addressing a lot of those utility issues that are on Fifth Avenue. It's also going to be about adjusting this pedestrian situation. We're going to be reducing Fifth Avenue, taking away 2 lanes of traffic right now, it's 5 lanes and it's vehicle-centric and we're going to create what's going to be sort of the San -- last of New York City, a new destination or a premier shopping destination for New York City reinvigorate Fifth Avenue.
How did we win a project like this? I think it's probably an important discussion because we want to learn a lot more projects like this. And for NV5, that story started about 3 years ago. We won another project here in the city called the reconstruction of Lexington Avenue it was a design build project and it was New York City's first design-build project or I should say the Department of Design and Construction is first design-build project. And that term first, you'll hear a lot from our New York City office. We're well connected to the New York City agencies and where they're looking at pilot projects or they're looking at innovative solutions, they very often reach out to us. So on the reconstruction of the Lexington Avenue project, we started off how you would start off a normal city project. We did survey using LIDAR scanners, standard scanners. We use record documentations and we started creating a base plan for which to develop new project on top of.
But we took it a little bit further. We were a little bit innovative here. We got the city to allow us to dig test bits all along the corridor. And we took a LiDAR scanner, we inverted it, and we dropped it into those test fits and scanned the underground. We took that additional information, along with the information we had already collected and we created the first sort of digital twin for Lexington Avenue, a BIM model of public infrastructure. The city hadn't had something like that before. Typically, at the end of a project, we had plans out to the contractor, and that's what they build from. And that's the city has a record as well. Now they have a full in model of all of Lexington Avenue and it allows them to understand where all the utilities are with their relationship to each other are with their relationships with the surfaces, how deep they are and to the adjacent buildings, and they know all that without putting a shovel on the ground.
So we took that successful pilot, and we had a conversation with the city when Fifth Avenue came out, explained to them the importance of developing something of that magnitude for Fifth Avenue. And that, along with our expertise on capital infrastructure, we were able to secure this incredible project. To put this project in context and again, Lexington Avenue, Lexington Avenue was a $30 million project. Fifth Avenue is a $300 million project. It's a huge advance in the effort that's going to take from our part and from our design fees associated with this type of project. We look at both these projects, though, as building blocks, not as individual successes. What if we could take this understanding of building 3D collaborative digital models for corridors and that becomes citywide. How much time would be saved in maintenance of the streets and expediting construction and knowing where things are before we're actually digging the ground.
How much impact would that have to tourists and to workers and to people visiting the city and being bothered by construction all over the city. We see this as a starting point, and we're going to take it from here and go a lot further. And with that, I'll hand it back over to Alex.
Thank you, Joe. So when we look at our growth -- what do we see that we've already penetrated some great markets and really the intent is to continue to grow and build out those markets. Our long-term strategy absolutely aligns with the mega trends of the industry. When we look at acquisitions, we clearly recognize that they need to add value to this investment thesis. When you look at the tailwinds that we have within an industry, they're talking about the upgrade that's going to be necessary for our power and utility to go until 2050. And that might even be an optimistic estimate.
So we have phenomenal tailwinds with great visibility in our markets. And on top of that, the data center has just started popping up. And our data center growth is also quite remarkable. And we see a lot of visibility with respect to not just the construction of the data centers and the design, but the ongoing operations and maintenance, commissioning and retro commissioning that takes place.
As you look at the map, 1 of the things that you might recognize immediately, you've heard about Acuren, you heard about Canada, all that white space to the north. That's Canada. We have nothing there. So there's a huge opportunity for us to grow our consulting engineering operation into Canada and be able to provide those services to the clients that Acuren has already built. But perhaps what's most interesting. For those of you that have followed us for quite some time, in 2010, 1 more question. In 2010, how many offices do we have? Anybody know? Four, we started with 4 offices. It was a strategy. The strategy was to acquire firms that had phenomenal subject matter experts that had these master services agreements and professional services agreements that would allow us to continue to grow. So when you look at what we've accomplished since 2010, and when you look at the still white space that we have, we need a lot more in Texas where Acuren is very strong. We have a lot more in Canada.
When we look at the mid-Atlantic states, there's still a huge growth potential for our industry, and we look to take advantage of that. We mentioned data centers. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to our data center experts, the gentleman that actually broke us into the market, Gary and Keith.
Thank you. Also plan checking your hand -- thank you. My name is Gary. I lead the Building Solutions International business, and I'm from Hong Kong.
My name is Keith. I lead the international planning and design business, and I'm also based in Hong Kong. And for context, Hong Kong is our regional headquarters for our international business. We did about $80 million in data center right now, and that's -- 80% of that is from our APAC stronghold. And for context, again, we work with the 8 of the top 10 hyperscalers in the world. I'm going to take you through a journey on how we capitalize on this mega trend.
$300 billion is the amount of capital flowing into data center infrastructure right now. And that's going to balloon to what Ben have just said, $1 trillion. And in context of how much processing data that's going into data center every year. That's 24-megawatt -- sorry, gigawatt. That's about 3 New York City that's get added to our world every year. Just imagine the amount of equipment, the amount of infrastructure, the connectivity and the power that is required. 27% CAGR is what's happening in APAC right now. And we've got insight because we've got this client relationship because they disclosed their pipeline to us, we're seeing no signs of this slowing. What we're seeing is not a cycle -- it's a structural reprogramming of the global economy. And I want to demonstrate this through my journey from Hong Kong to New York. I started as we all do, we take an Uber to the airport and the automated gate was scanning my face. And next, I have an electronic boarding pass, which I scan my biometrics. And then from that automatic process, I probably think my biometrics is tacked to my boding pass.
Now at immigration, I've got a digital IT, which is an application on my phone. I scan that, my face gets scanned again. Probably my biometric get refreshed again. And when we were walking to the boarding gate, I get a notification from the app. Airline says the boarding gate have changed. So we go to the new boarding gates. Am I face a skin again. And during boarding, the airline probably noticed that I'm on the flight -- during the flight, I used the Wi-Fi to do some work on our cloud platform. And in that 16-hour flight, I blocked into the same Wi-Fi. And I've asked AI to script the script today. have AI to improve it. I pass the AI to read it back to me so I can hear it. And -- and that the U.S. immigration long guns or the days of the stickers on your passport, I've got an app that shows my Visa. Again, my face gets can again, how many time on my face get can probably 5, 6 times. And then I enter into New York, as a tourist, what I do? I take Losaphotos, and then I upload them on the cloud, share them with everyone. I process some of it using the eras from Apple AI. And that all is changing.
That our life now changed. And I don't think we're going back in time. Behind all this requires a massive digital infrastructure that needs we plan, design, maintain, optimize -- and that's where TIC Solutions comes in. Let's look at where capital is flowing into right now. America being North America being the biggest market, followed by APAC -- now you can see from the color of the shape is our penetration in this market. And you can see in APAC, we have a very mature market for us. What's more interesting is the lighter shade in the U.S. and other regions. These are runway. These are basically a white space that we can grow into. What we're doing in this region is that we're scaling up a proven playbook where the demand is accelerating way beyond the local supply.
Our clients are not really asking for just normal suppliers right now. Strategic supply chain is the word that our hyperscalers clients look at. And what they're looking at is a partner that can replicate quality across all geographies. at speed. And as an example, we recently got work in Osaka, where our client right in that typical place or Saka Japan, where the typical plays, it will take 2 or 3 years to just get the design going and another 2 or 3 years to build it. But we did it in another year. We completed the design in the year, and that's the speed that we're talking about. Speed to market is very, very important to today's center client right now. And from other example, we've started a relationship with 1 of the biggest hyperscalers in Singapore. From that, that grew into Jakarta, Osaka in sold in Korea. We're having conversation of working in Australia, and they really want us in the EU as well.
How do we transform this or how do we make sure that we capitalize this mega trend into great business opportunity. We've got about 700 mission-critical engineers and these are not gene engineers that we have deployed in this sector because it's booming. These are data center engineers. These are power system engineers. These are certified data design certified data designers, these are CFD modelers. These are commissioning specialists. This creates a very high barrier of entry because our hyperscalers clients have their playbook. It's very, very controlled in a way that they do want their standard to be met. This creates durable revenue stream for us. With our hyperscaler self services and products, it's a global service and it's a global product. What they want is continuity in their design. They want the same design mentality. They want the same commissioning rigor throughout the service through their life cycle supply chain.
This is where when they build the data center in Dublin, they want us to replicate that in Singapore, in so in Jakarta, in Malaysia, but with local adaptation. This creates repeatability for our work. And we're embedded in these MSAs once we get in, we tend to stay in. Long gone are the days where we have to predict resource and know how many people should we hire to meet the demand. Because of the importance of supply chain right now, our clients see us as strategic partners. They disclose to us the construction pipeline and some of these are -- actually, most of these are 24 to 36 months out. This gives us great visibility for us to scale up the resource and protect our margin. In some cases, applying would preallocate us on these works quite far. And in 1 particular case, our client give us 5 years construction backlog that is triggered by demand. And the only asked from them to us is that when we run, you run with us. And they like -- they like us because we run fast.
Looking at scope and services. We start with design and commissioning and then we start layering different service on top of it structural, Ziv, technology, QA/QC. So the -- which cheap come to the dollar per contract keeps increasing. And from data center, we're going upstream and downstream. Upstream -- we're going into the substation, we're going to the optic fiber network, and we're also into cable landing station right now. This work that we're talking about is durable -- is repeatable. It's programmable and is expandable, and this creates a very high-growth, high-margin business.
Well, I want to talk about the current boom of AI adoption. And how does it mean the power in past? And how does it mean -- what does it mean to revenue and margins for us? I'm an electrical engineer. I've been designing data centers for the past 15, 20 years. 15, 20 years ago, a sizable data center will be probably a size of this room, 200, 300 server racks drawing around 300 to 500 kilowatts. And for those who do not know a kilowatt, 300 to 500 kilowatts is probably about 3 here. And right now, we don't measure that anymore. And that in hair dryers. We measure that 2 cities, how many CDs are we building. So that's the scale of how it's grown from 15, 20 years ago until now. And just recently, with the AI adoption, power intact grew 3 to 8x more intense, same room will be treat 8x more intense because the GPUs are getting more power hungry. And these guys, these area centers are very power hungry -- just in the U.S. alone, we are projected to do -- these data centers are projected to use up about 12% of the U.S. nor power consumption. U.S. being the leader of the market, it will probably be the same globally.
And this is projected to grow as well a 15%, 20% here for the next few years. And what does that mean to TIC Solutions. Not too long ago, our typical contract would be under $1 million. And right now, we're seeing that to be multimillion dollars and they're coming in an accelerated pace for us. We're not talking about AI data center. The new world is AI factory. These are 200 acres sites -- and that is an amplifier of what I just said about durability of revenue but also expandability, land and expand. And the beauty of us is that we are not tied to a fixed price construction risk. We don't have that risk. We're not tied to any EP risk series as well. What we do is engineering hours and expertise. The more hours we put in, the more expertise we put in that would mean more revenue for us. It will increase our margin is a very simple business for us.
And this slide will just tell you about the life cycle of a typical data center development. It's from the plan, design and capacity and operation and optimization phase. What I want to point out is that in a data center field, engineers is at the forefront. So we are a lead consultant and all the specialist service get wrapped under us. This gives us a very good luxurity to look into different business and which and select those that we want to in-house, whether organically or we use them to feed our M&A engine, which Kevin will come into. This is very good because rather than qualifying a candidate doing due diligence, we have worked with them before, so that we ensure that our M&A engine is fit with quality candidates.
Right. On this slide, we talk about our service penetration across the region and across the segments and across the whole life cycle from planning up to design, operation and optimization. If you just look at the first role, which is construction and engineering consulting engineering. You can see that we're pretty embedded and the shapes are pretty dark and the white space and the gray space below that in inspection and mitigation and geospatial that reflects our untapped opportunities. I think what we'll talk about with the efforts that Dan has mentioned just now, seeing some proof points that this is happening. And in the next short term, couple of years, I think this dose grade will be populated by a lot of backer shares.
We've done it before, from 1% to 10%, we are very confident that we'll either continue our trajectory or even beat it. With that, back to you, Alex.
Thank you. An honorable mention goes to our asset digitization. It is a very up-and-coming market. For us, it's a very nascent technology. David Black is here in the room, and he is actually demonstrating this particular technology. One of the things that's so fascinating is that we can do everything from the large infrastructure projects, water plants, all the way to, in this case, an example, we won 2,000 stores. We've already completed 1,000 stores, and this is allowing our client to be able to have a digital twin of their operation. The beauty of it is that it is a recurring revenue stream as well. What they do, they'll take this data, the AI enable it. But ultimately, the physical work that's done on site is something that we need to do, and we're demonstrating that -- and if we demonstrate right after the meeting.
So when we talk about AI, it has been the talk of the tank, right? Everyone's concerned what is AI going to do for our particular industry. So recognize when we submit a set of drawings to build a bridge, to design a road that has to be signed and sealed by a licensed engineer, not an AI stamp. So what we have recognized is that throughout the process, there are ways in which AI-enabled technology is absolutely going to be able to help us. But when it comes to actually having a licensed technician, a license engineer on site, inspecting the construction, where the health comes is in terms of collecting the data. But for us, when we look at what it can do in our back office operations, it's an absolute margin accelerator. Right now, we have about 10% of our staff working in administrative, marketing roles, some financial roles. And for one concept is we need the A players because there's a lot of the work that we're now going to be able to pass off and have it done through artificial intelligence.
But in terms of our core business, it's very solid and it's very sound -- because of the technical expertise that you need to have, the credentialing that you need to have, the past project experience that's absolutely required in order to win a project. So when we look at our engineering delivery, again, it's not going to design the roadway. It's not going to design the bridge, but it can do certain things relative to QA/QC that's incredibly important. Some of the work that we do in data centers, they're with the hyperscalers. -- give me an idea of how many pages you think an average contract might be? 200 is common. We have some contracts that go over 1,000 pages. How do you -- there's a -- I was talking to somebody that was legal for a large EPC and they told me an acronym, RTFc. Has anybody heard that? It stands for read the contract. Now if the contract is hundreds of pages, realistically, how can you do it? We have an AI tool that I've loaded up a contract that's over 1,000 pages. It gave me a risk register.
It allowed me to recognize what we had to do for notifications, which situations created force majeure, what we had to do to notify the client when that came up. So in terms of what it's going to be able to do relative to our productivity relative to mitigating risk, it's absolutely a huge potential. And obviously, all of that is just geared towards how we can drive margin expansion.
In closing, I think everybody will recognize we're in a mandated business. We have a great recurring revenue theme as well as visibility for long-term revenue -- the quality-based selection means that we're not having to compete in that low bid environment. We have a lot of room for geographic expansion and a long history of delivering on our commitments. In absolute closing, from $20 million to $700 million, I look forward to bringing consulting engineering to over $1 billion to meet our $3 billion target.
With that, we're going to actually allow you to have a 10-minute break -- and then I'm going to ask Sam Sullivan to come up, who runs our inspection and Mitigation division.
[Break]
My name is Sheva Sullivan. I'm the President of our inspection and Mitigation business. I'm proud to build on our legacy Acuren platform and our connection with NV5. Prior to -- prior to this role, I was leading our commercial effort in Canada and across our segment. And I bring that focus to the role. I focus on growth and on contracts, commercial pricing. I have a 20-year history with the company primarily in Canada, but I've relocated to Houston. Houston is an important market for us, not just because that's where the headquarters of some of our largest enterprise customers are, but also it's where we have opportunity. We have a region that has a high growth potential, and we are hyper-focused on the Gulf.
The team is very focused also on connecting with our consulting engineering and geospatial businesses. They bring high-value technical expertise that we were able to work behind and Geospatial brings very high-quality analytics and service expansion to our customers. Today, I'm going to go over what we do, why we win, some of the impact examples that we have and how we support the tick framework of 31885.
I&M is our foundational field-based TIC solutions platform. Like Alex mentioned, consulting engineering, our work is nondiscretionary. It supports regulatory insurance requirements for our customers. It's core to protecting the uptime, the safety of their assets and to extend the life of those assets. We use certified labor in high-consequence environments, and we turn data into insights that our customers use to make real decisions about. We're the largest North American platform with 5,500 technicians working in the field. And our core service lines are nondestructive testing inspection, rope access, specialty trade labor and engineering and lab work.
The platform delivers $1.1 billion, about half of the TIC Solutions revenue adjusted gross margin, and we have 6,700 total employees. We have lower margin than the other segments, but we benefit from a structurally lower overhead as a specialty labor business. We're concentrated in inspection. That's often where our workflow starts. We start with inspection and that inspection data, whether it be radiography or ultrasonics often drives more inspection or mitigation or engineering work. We have diversified end markets, but the commonality across those end markets is that they're asset heavy. It's something that we share with Alex as well is that the consulting engineering end markets are asset-heavy. We're very mature across our North American platform, which supports our share growth and drives differentiators like relationships, density and breadth of services that we have.
For our customers, and I mentioned it, we really protect uptime, safety, compliance and extend their asset life. The operating expense for I&M at our enterprise customers is small 1% to 2%. That does create some pricing resilience. But that OpEx spend compared with a pipeline spill or unplanned outage or a compliance issue production loss is outsized -- the low OpEx and high consequence often allows us to be embedded within our customers' facilities. The recurring run and maintain work the 45% of our work is very much supported by the call out and outage work at those enterprise customer sites and those enterprise relationships allow us to create higher margin expanded services at those facilities.
Ben mentioned the megatrends that we're -- that are supporting our business. And the 2 that are most important for inspection mitigation are the aging infrastructure and the energy demand. Same markets as our other segments, but different stages of the asset life cycle where consulting engineering will work upstream on a bridge, we will perform the inspection or perform the mitigation work on that asset. Some proof points that U.S. refineries are, on average, 40 years of age, and they're running longer and harder than anticipated, creating reliability issues. 45% of U.S. bridges are over 50 years of age and that age plus the increased utilization creates more risk and more work for us.
Our inspection data really drives insights, but that drives decisions, whether to repair, replace, monitor, extend, redesign, decommission assets. And the inspection and Mitigation segment holds a very critical point in that life cycle, but also the data position. That's how the work that we do makes the platform cyclical. The inspection work leads to our consulting engineering work or the consulting engineering work leads to inspection, leads to mapping the asset, and it's how we create a more life cycle partner for our enterprise customers.
So go over a few of the reasons why we win. Scale and density is very hard to replicate. Our inspection businesses must be local. I described local as being at the facility. Our certified labor needs to be where the issues happen. And that's why our enterprise customers embed us within their facilities. We support the decision-making process at their facilities. When we're not embedded we have 130 locations to support those customers and the 5,500 technicians to deploy. The density improves our response time, the access to labor improves our utilization and our win rates with customers. And our national presence really supports our local efforts.
Other important reason why we win is our workforce and our safety performance. They're core advantages for our business. We -- certified labor is scarce. Training creates capacity, and we have invested in training platforms in-house, nondestructive testing, rope access, field engineering services, visual inspection it creates career paths for people at the organization where they can go from a trainee on day 1 with no experience to a senior technician or President of the segment. We can have welders get another ticket. They can become an electrician and also a rope access technician. And it just drives deeper -- us to be deeper embedded within our customer sites, but also allows us to give real career paths for our technicians.
Our safety has become a commercial advantage for us. We have to operate safely to be -- to operate in high-consequence environments. Our recordable injury rate of 0.11 is 21x better than the construction industry average. It becomes a real proof point. It's something we rally around when we're working with our customers and when we're bidding work is that we protect their assets and we protect our people. As the breadth of services creates wallet share for us. And this is critical to the cross-selling effort that we have with the other segments. We have over 100 inspection and trade and engineering services. But the value really isn't in the count of them. It's how we sequence them, inspect and diagnose and engineer and it creates 1 partner. It simplifies the customer experience it adds less vendor complexity, and it allows us to capture more wallet share. It's a proven strategy that we have executed at our enterprise customer sites.
Procurement is a little different than Alex. We get a quality-based selection, QBS -- quality-based selection, but we also compete on price. And where we see the most advantage is to have customers expand the categories that we operate in. It's the same strategy that we're employing for geospatial and consulting engineering and bringing them into our largest enterprise customer sites and allowing them to bring expertise in. We are very growth focused in 3 key areas: higher-value services, priority end markets and improving our wallet share.
For higher-value services, drones and robotics, improve our data capture, rope access is high value and low penetration across the U.S., especially Lab and NDT and specialty engineering expand our margins, but each 1 of them have clear customer value. They support safety and uptime and better data, better decisions. And there's Acuren value in each of those as well. They're technical, differentiated and outcome driven. The megatrends are supporting our priority end markets, the same as the other segments. Power, utilities, infrastructure, aerospace is an underpenetrated market for us. But we have certifications in-house. We're NADCAP certified in specific offices, and we're expanding that Nadcap certification to others.
The geographic white space is built on credibility. We're not entering those markets cold. And on top of that, we're layering a commercial engine. We are very commercially focused on converting lead pipelines into qualified leads into actual opportunities and wins for our organization.
Talk briefly about a couple of them in rope access and then drones. The Cardinal sales in of saying better, faster, cheaper is hard to get away from when you're talking about rope access. So you say safer, faster, cheaper, you change out 1 word, it sometimes helps. But we played an early role in the North American deployment of industrial rope access. I was fortunate to be a site manager when Acuren purchased a small company RAD and we had RoPaxes people show up at site. We didn't quite know what to do with them at the time. We thought they would go out and inspect. And when they did get up on a rope, put an inspector on a rope and up to inspect something you realized insulation had to be removed. When insulation was removed, we noticed there was electrical heat trace there that we couldn't modify. Maybe we inspected it and the spool was bad. Now we had to replace the spool, we need a pipe fitter. That evolution created our 1 mobilization, multiskilled approach to deploying that service.
It really changes the maintenance economics for a customer. There are sites today with 100 rope access technicians on them, specialty trade services, flexing to 400 during outages. And the customer value, again, is clear, lower downtime, lower access costs, total spend reduction and our Acuren value is very clear. It's a broader scope. It's differentiation from our competitors, and we get to go deeper with our enterprise customers. It's the same approach we're using to bring CE and GEO to our largest enterprise accounts.
There's a clear ROI for our customers, and we are a market leader in this space, especially in Canada. North America is underpenetrated in comparison to Europe, 5% to 10% in the U.S. versus 15 to 20 in Europe. And we have begun to deploy across the U.S. We've strengthened our commercial team, and we strengthened our technical expertise in ropes in the U.S. And we are beginning and we've seen early proof points of customers willing to open categories to allow us to bring rope access and other segment services to their facilities.
This is a bridge that Dan actually mentioned earlier and a recent win in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 4,000-foot suspension bridge with a 50-year life cycle that is nearing its end. We engineered an access solution, a 10-year agreement and scope of installing a platform that is modular, reconfigurable -- the reasons I discussed why we win, our scale and our depth and our local capabilities are all true for this scope. And the scalable -- it really becomes a scalable model where we can look at complex, technical, recurring work and is really tied to the megatrend of the infrastructure growth.
There's a few people here today at Jake and Mitch, who have a rope demos Jake was instrumental in putting this bid together and working with the cross-selling team to make sure that we put our best foot forward, and I'd encourage you to chat with him today.
Drones and robotics are key to our I&M service expansion. They expand our reach, safety, productivity and improve access. And not just height, we can access confined spaces, energy, hazardous spaces. They're faster, visual inspection and geospatial data, but they are a tool the drone or robotic crawler. The value is in the workflow, the interpretation of that data, the decision and driving more productive technicians. We're operationalizing that with utility transmission lines. You heard Ben speak about the 1 million miles of transmission lines that we fly every year, and our customers have geographic challenges and the cost sensitivity and overutilized assets. We use drones to detect hotspots, damaged hardware, pull and structure issues. Kurt is going to speak a little later about the vegetation management program around utilities, but combining our drone deployment team with Kurt's technical expertise around vegetation management, again, creates a broader scope of services that we can offer for our utility customers.
Again, we also have lean with us here today, and she's outperforming a drone demo. I'd encourage you to speak to her. She's deep within the utility space. She's been able to expand our reach with utility customers and we see further growth. A couple of things. Just to address some of the questions that we get around robotics and AI concerns. So I discussed, drones and robotics are really tools for us, and they're not replacements. These facilities are complex, assets, access, materials, conditions. They all vary greatly. The tools do extend our reach and our productivity, and we embrace them because they drive enterprise value for our customers, but also for us. They strengthen our customer relationships when we continue to do the right thing and drive costs down. They do enhance our inspections, but the field execution of that work remains critical, remains the same.
AI, in particular, is already driving some near-term results. But long term, we see it as strengthening our data and AI assisted analysis. I mentioned earlier, we sit at critical decision points with our customers when we hold the data position. We have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of digital radio graphs and LIDAR scans and all sorts of data points that we are now able to analyze at scale that we couldn't analyze before. Today, we're connecting data points. We're standardizing our workflows. We're deepening insights for customers and improving the interaction with customer platforms and inspection data capture as simple as telling our customers that they need a permit center, 200 yards in a different direction to save 15 minutes per employee.
Longer term, we know it can drive productivity and decision support layers for our technicians. We have a goal and a plan to create a recurring asset intelligence layer across our data to capture, connect, convert and decide and help customers drive better decisions at their facilities, pushing us deeper into their enterprise accounts. AI is going to touch many points of what we do -- but we firmly believe that field data and inspection judgment does remain critical.
Margin expansion is a focus for our segment. And it's daily and it's metric driven. In a specialty labor business, revenue by technician and utilization, pricing, total capacity of our workforce are critical. We have pockets of excellence and sharing across Canada and the U.S. and strengthening our local teams is important to us. The Gulf Coast, in particular, has been an aggressive focus -- it's a $200 million region, and we believe we hold less than our fair share. We've restructured that region. We have rather than focused on service-based delivery selling to every customer. We have customer-focused leadership now pulling in every service with smaller operating teams. And over the last 6 months, we've seen continuous margin improvement out of that business. When you layer on the commercial excellence and expanding our revenue opportunities, capitalizing on the short-term leads and the long-term enterprise accounts, we're driving results. It's not heroic, it's disciplined, it's daily.
There's practical actions to scheduling people better, gaining more billable hours and less rework. And our commercial effort and our commercial team is now focused not just on our regions where we're looking for recovery, but also in our high-performing regions. And we're looking to drive more automotive containment work and manufacturing depth.
So in summary, the I&M business is resilient, recurring, mission-critical and combined with nondiscretionary. We benefit from aging infrastructure and the increase in energy demands and the megatrends Ben spoke of. We have hard to replicate a hard-to-replicate mode, their scale or breadth of service, density, local labor, safety history and the deep relationships with our customers, create barriers to entry. We're focused on high-value services and priority end markets, geographic expansion where we can see growth and margin expansion through metric-driven daily focus. I'm proud of the work that I&M does within the TIC sector and look forward to supporting the 31885 framework.
And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Kurt.
Thanks, Seamus. I really appreciate that. Good morning, everyone. My name is Kurt Allen, and I am -- have the honor of being the TIC Geospatial reporting leader. Just tell you know, I've kind of been in and around the Geospatial profession for the last 35 years. And I've had the opportunity to watch how technology has driven mapping to geospatial I -- anecdotally, I find that a lot of people don't really know exactly what geospatial is.
So I wanted to take a minute to kind of go through that. I go to a cocktail party or go sit on the sideline of a youth sports event. And they always ask me, what is it that you do and other parents and I say Geospatial, and I get a blank look. And I usually then follow up with something like mapping and they start to get it. But I wanted to just take a minute to kind of talk about it, and I think that Joe gave a perfect example when he talked about Fifth Avenue about how he is really using LIDAR to scan, both above ground and below ground utilities. And why was he doing that? It's because he needed that level of accuracy to understand the relationship between those features that he was collecting -- and each of those features have a location.
Location is the difference between geospatial data and other data. Time sometimes it's also a discriminator when you talk about it. The time it was inspected, the time that was collected, the time that was last updated. That information gives users the ability to understand hidden patterns and relationships, and it allows people to make smarter data-driven decisions. So who are we? We really have the ability to acquire, analyze and answer the most complex geospatial challenges the clients face. From an acquired perspective, we have a fleet of fixed-wing aircraft, vessels, drones, trucks, all that from all that capability as well as being able to task satellites or be able to use satellite data from existing collection that is done by satellite providers. All that gives us the ability to be able to have multiple platforms in which we can deliver to our -- the information to our clients.
Sensors. Nobody in the business has a wider array of sensors than TIC has. Imagery, hyperspectral, thermal, sonar, geospatial geophysical, -- all that kind of information, we have that ability to be able to provide to a client in which we can actually be consultative with them and be able to say, "Hey, here's the right platform for the right -- with the right sensor in order to be able to do your project, and they appreciate that capability.
From an analyzed perspective, we've been doing machine learning for 30 years. AI is kind of a new term, but it really was machine learning for a long time when we talked about remote sensing. We also have the world's leader, the world-class envy software platform that more than 0.5 million users around the world are using to be able to do image analysis. And that capability is second to none. From an answer perspective, we have more than 200 people that are involved with enterprise GIS to help you manage -- help our clients manage our data, being able to answer the complex questions that comes with enterprise GIS. And it gives us and our clients, we have become a safe choice for them from a selection perspective.
We're about 14% of TIC's revenue. Our client base is spread pretty widely between the commercial, the federal and the state and regional marketplaces. We have demand drivers just like the other segment. The federal government, it's budgeted. We follow the money. I'm going to talk about that a little bit more in a minute. Utilities are regulated and our services are required -- natural resources, they're secular, not cyclical, in the way that services come.
And then finally, as the physical world becomes more digital, consulting engineering and I&M need us. They need our information. When you look at the end markets there and the snapshot, just real quickly, in 2025, we earned $298 million in revenue, we had a 52% gross margin clip. If you look at the end market revenue, you can see that if you followed us for a couple of years, you can see that our commercial part of our business is expanding rapidly. And some of that is a result of some of the headwinds we had last year in 2025 with our Federal marketplace, but really, really excited to see the expansion in commercial. Most of our revenue is from the United States, but we are expanding into Europe, Canada and Asia.
We have 4 geospatial offices in Europe currently, and we have 3 in Asia Pacific. Megatrends, I think Alex spent a lot of time on the megatrends and stall on my thunder. But really, we have end-to-end workflows for clients within each of these megatrends that are listed here. With government and defense, specialty Defense, we're seeing an uptrend and a lot of requests, a lot more requests coming from not just the United States but especially from Europe. In the infrastructure area, aging infrastructure, there is just a huge demand to digitize the physical world, number one, but also be able to manage and visualize assets. And that's an area that we are expanding into.
In water and natural resources, it's unfortunate, but our services are used for short and rescue and for mitigation services from natural disasters. We were instrumental in the L.A. fires. We were instrumental in the Kerr County flood that happened in Texas, and we are currently instrumental in really the recovery efforts for a lot of the hurricanes that happened in the Southeast over the last 3 or 4 years.
And finally, Ben kind of talked about the 1 million linear miles of transmission line that we pick up every year. We're using Lidar in order to be able to help them manage vegetation increasing energy demand means there's going to be more of that in the future. We're about 1,500 employees. We've done work in all 50 states. We've completed projects in all 7 continents. Our software has been to Mars. And our software is also used by a lot of medical device manufacturers. So if you ever need an MRI, I hope no 1 does. But if you ever do, we just realize that you -- our software is being used to do that.
So I wanted to spend a moment to talk about 2 projects that are ongoing right now. When I said -- when I mentioned that the federal government has a budget and we follow the money, what -- really what happened is last year as people know about DOGE, knew about some of the federal headwinds we had, but we followed the money. We paid attention to what this administration's priorities were. And we positioned ourselves for 1 of the largest projects we've ever undertaken. And that is really -- there's an energy -- there's a real push right now for -- to find and extract critical minerals around -- for our country, for national security reasons, in particular, but certainly for everything from your iPhones to electric vehicles and batteries -- that -- we are following the money in terms of being able to do work, project work, do a geological survey on land, but now they also are looking at the marine environment.
And so we were able to successfully be tasked with doing -- collecting sonar data in the middle of the Pacific. That sonar collection was about the size of Louisiana and the average water depth was about 6,000 meters. Just in case no 1 knows if there's anyone doesn't know about Sonar, but maybe you're a movie buff -- you think of the Hunt for Red October with Sean Connery, when he talks to his Executive Officer and says, "I need to determine the range to target 1 ping only police -- anybody has seen that movie, One thing is a sound pulse, and we're using sound in order to be able to get that return in order to be able to understand what's on the seabed floor. We did that whole area in terms of multi collecting multi-beam data to be able to get good mapping information, but we also use remotely operated vehicles, 5,000 feet deep -- 5,000 meters deep because the closer you get to the sea floor, the more accurate the data is.
They wanted to sample range areas because all this information that I'm collecting for our client, in this case, it's Noah -- all that information is going to be put into the public domain because they are planning to lease the mineral rights for this area.
And I think that this is an opportunity that's going to repeat itself. And I think we're uniquely positioned to do that. Finally, if you looked at the left of the slide, you can see what we call core samples. We did core sampling as well. And being able to pull up things from the seabed so that scientists could look at what was in Seabed and to be able to determine really what's really down there. And so -- they had nickel, magnesium and Cobalt is what they've picked up. They come in nodules. And you can see like a big rock there. They're but this size typically and that is pure critical minerals as opposed to the land, when you're escalating critical minerals, you might have to take tons of fill before you just get a little of the critical mineral. So it's a real difference maker. By the way, they also got some paleontologist, very, very excited because we found Megalodon teeth in the core sample as well.
This project is with a Western utility. We've been doing work for them for years. Really, we -- I wanted to talk about this contract because we get this work sole sourced to us currently. And that is because we're the only firm that can acquire and process 150 linear miles of transmission lines twice a year, each time within 90 days of collection. Within 14 days, we give our clients what we call rapid reporting or a first look at the preliminary data in order to be able to understand what's where vegetation needs to be trimmed. They use it to prioritize their crews to go out and trim vegetation. And then in 90 days, we actually give them all the final deliverables. The quality of our data a scale of really what we undertake is why this work is sole sourced to us.
Why we win? I mentioned really kind of that end-to-end solution that we have, the breadth and depth of our capabilities. But we also have some additional discriminators I think, that I wanted to mention. Number 1 is we're a safety-oriented culture -- we are what we call is BAO certified for our vessel -- for our -- excuse me, for our drones as well as for our fixed wing aircraft is Bao is the gold standard for safety management in the aviation marketplace. We are the only ones that are Stage III certified currently. And that is amongst all of our competition. It's a huge discriminator especially when we're working with utilities because they have to approve and do an audit of our safety management plan before they allow us to do work.
Secondly, is we own our sensors and our aircraft. That's a big discriminator as well because it allows us to be able -- and we also have in-house maintenance which allows us to improve our efficiency and reduce our downtown big difference. From an analyzed perspective, I mentioned that 30 years of deep learning experience as well as the NV analysis tools that we have -- we are known for our advanced analytics. We have a reputation for it.
And then finally, the decision tools we have for GIS, it's world-class. And right now, we're working for most federal agencies in the United States, but we're also expanding into Europe, in particular with NATO, the European Space Agency and a number of ministries of defense.
Okay. Everyone wants to know about AI. So just to come out with it, AI is no longer optional for geospatial organizations. So our clients are all looking at it in a big way. The true transformation ahead, though, is not about embedding AI into isolated tasks. It's about accelerating insight and scaling operations to support more confident decision-making. GeOAI is specific. It's multimodal, it's multiscale, and it's consumed across disconnected systems. Clients require architecture, not add-ons. We're developing GO AI to become part of an operational backbone and to orchestrate data and workflows across systems and to be able to have informed decisions.
Analytic and Agenetic AI goes beyond assistance, and we believe we are the first to market with products that can plan, orchestrate and execute workflow autonomously and coordinated across systems. We have developed GA agents on both the desktop and the enterprise. Just really briefly on the desktop. We have IDL agent allows us to do supervise coating. And then NV agent allows us to open the total addressable market for NV. You don't have to be an imaging scientist with the PhD in order to be able to do it because we're using a conversational interface or a large language model in order to be able to get at our NV tools.
The big news is geo agent, and that is because it's an orchestration platform. I look at geo agent, and I think we're the only ones doing it, and that is -- it sits on top of your systems of record. That's the way to think about it. Anthoropic has developed a standard called Model context Protocol or MCP. Think of MCP as a handshake to the systems of recor in which it can -- in which using that standard, we can connect to those systems of record. Because in a geospatial environment, you may have geospatial data in a lot of different systems or non-geospatial data that you want to relate to. So you look at Eryor an autodesk, -- they're going to be -- right now, they're currently using AI to improve tools and to make their software more efficient. And Alex's team is going to definitely benefit from that during their day-to-day usage of the software.
But they're not looking across their systems. They're still in their black box. We think we're the only ones that are coming out with an orchestration platform to be able to allow you through an LLM through a conversational interface to be able to get a disparate data sets.
Finally, in GEO, -- the way I describe GQ is, I call it, I basically call it the ability to be able to do spatial reasoning from it. If you think about Well, actually, as anybody used an LLM and asked a really complex question, and you just watched the dial spin for a couple of minutes. It's just trying to figure out how to give you an answer. -- Okay? That's because it's scrapping the entire Internet to try to give you that complex answer. What GI allows us to do is act at speed because it targets the data lake that you're trying to pull information from -- that's especially important for you when you think about the department award in particular. They have so much data, okay? One of our clients is the Army Geospatial data. Their primary mission or 1 of their primary missions is mobility. They want to be able to have mobility for the war fighter. And in this case, it meant tanks. They wanted to understand, can I move across this property or this -- the soil type and be able to get my Abrams from point A to point B in a manner that is beneficial to the war fighter. Or can that tank across this bridge.
Well, if they're data lake, which is so huge, they can't get that answer very easily. Geo agent gives them the ability to be able to do that. And then with GIOQ, it targets it and be able to give that to the -- give that kind of answer very quickly. And if you think about the person who's asking that question, it's typically a 19-year-old analyst that just has some basic training in terms of how to do that. We can now, with confidence, be able to get them that answer. And so what we're doing is really, and this is the point I want to make about geo agent in particular in Goa is the deployment is services-led and it's not plug and play, okay? We're dealing with complex data lakes from major clients, and we're focusing initially on our existing clients. They're all trying to get AI ready. They are all shopping right now. But the reality is we have to go from readiness assessment to implementation deployment in order to be able to get that done.
The good news is, the good news is those opportunities are going to be very large. They're going to be spending -- they're not -- forget the software SaaS part of -- or the subscription part of it, really, it's going to be services led. The only thing we have to be patient about it sales cycle is going to be longer because we -- on the federal side or on the state side, we have to deal with budgets. On the commercial side, certainly, they have to figure out exactly what they want from an AI-ready perspective when they're ready to pull the trigger. But interest on geo agent is extremely high. We just did a workshop the other day and had more than 400 clients on that work shop. So very excited about where we're going with this.
Then finally, we need to automate our workflows internally. And we are -- it's still early days yet, but we're in the process of really looking for repetitive tasks where we can use AI to improve our efficiency of our workflows. We believe that's going to really drive margins for us over the next couple of years.
And with that, I'm going to let -- I'll summarize real quick, but I'm going to get Kevin lined up. Three things I wanted to leave you with. Number 1 is because of the breadth and depth of our services and our full stack capabilities. Clients appreciate it. Our sophisticated clients really appreciate it. Secondly is the megatrends that we discussed across defense, infrastructure, natural resources and energy. They demand unitization. And really, we -- just like consulting engineering, we're going to be there for them. And then finally, we believe we're first to market with GLEI capabilities from an orchestration platform. And we think we are going to stay ahead of the crowd and be able to implement what we say we're going to do.
Thank you.
Thanks, Kurt. Great job. My name is Kevin White. I'm the Vice President for Corporate Development. And over the next few minutes, I'd like to walk you through our approach to M&A and how we use it in a disciplined structured framework to drive long-term value creation for the business.
So M&A is a core growth engine at TIC Solutions, and it will be a critical component or contributor to driving our 31885 framework. And you heard a lot of my teammates talk about the importance of M&A in their business segments. And so it is really a critical aspect to our business. To fuel our growth engine, the TIC Solutions plans to deploy $100 million to $150 million of capital annually to execute transactions in 1 of 2 broad categories those being bolt-on acquisitions and platform acquisitions. So for me, I'm extremely excited to hear that, obviously, because of the role I feel. But I think my teammates are also very excited about that plan.
So with respect to bolt-on acquisitions, think about strengthening what we already do. So increasing size, scale, density, being able to integrate quickly because of the low complexity of the transactions. On the other hand, platform acquisitions are all about expansion, new services, new geographies new end markets and generally new growth pillars that are going to move the business forward and continue to evolve that business. Whether a bolt-on transaction or a platform acquisition, they both serve the same purpose, which is driving the growth of the business and long-term value creation. So what is an attractive M&A target look like to us? How do we evaluate it? How do we prioritize it? We start with a really basic question, which is how does that target, how does that opportunity make us a better company.
And we answer that question through 3 strategic lenses, which I think you've probably heard a lot of my teammates talk about it as well, and I alluded to it on the last slide, but it's capabilities, end markets and geographies. So how do we get better at where we operate, how do we get better with the clients we serve and how do we get better at what we do. That's really what we're looking to establish is what the target or opportunity brings to us. So how do they strengthen the platform. How do they add strategic value. So once we've established this, we apply a screening criteria, and we look to prioritize the efforts based on fit essentially we're looking at now this next stage of establishing the fit within the organization.
So first, we look at strategic fit. How aligned is the targeted opportunity with TIC Solutions work profile, low CapEx requirements, highly recurring work, highly visible revenue streams. Technical in nature, mandatory, nondiscretionary. Those are sort of the work profile that we're looking for. But -- also in that strategic fit, we're looking at how does the target opportunity align with the strategic segments strategies and businesses that have been talked about in the previous slides.
So you see on the chart here to the right, there are some recent M&A focus areas. But at a high level, it really is I think Seamus' slide had a really good example of it. It showed that it's focusing on accessing or strengthening or expanding high-value services priority end markets and geographic white space. So when we think about the geographic white space, we've heard about bringing CE and go into Canada -- or focusing CE opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic and Texas. From an end market perspective, it's really about being able to take advantage of those mega trends we talked about. So entering high-demand markets like utilities and data centers. And from a service side, it's about the high-growth services that we offer.
So I think broke access, digitization building commissioning, things like that. So that's establishing the strategic fit. The second part is our cultural fit, looking at the cultural fit of the business. So we're looking for businesses that are well run, strong teams, great leaders who are willing to stay on beyond the transaction that they would like to be part of the next stage of that growth of that business. And we go a little bit further than that as well in the sense that we look for a culture of caring that exists in these organizations that we're looking to acquire. And a culture of caring to us is pretty simple. It's do they care about the work they do, do they care about their clients? Do they care about their employees? Do they care about doing a good job? Do they care about competing and winning each and every day in whatever arena that might be.
And to the extent that, that culture doesn't exist, it's generally not an acquisition we're interested in doing. And the third and final sort of fit or screening criteria we look at is internal integration capacity of our teams. So -- when I meet with our operations teams, I often talk about executing M&A from strength. And what I mean by that is we will allocate capital on a priority basis to businesses that are performing well, have strong leadership and high functioning teams that can not only integrate a business, but they can also take advantage and execute on the commercial and operational synergies and strategies that have been identified through that process. So that really hopefully illustrates to you our disciplined approach to evaluating deals how we prioritize them to make sure we're working on the right deals. And really, as we say, ensure that we're doing the right deals, not just any deals.
Okay. So from a -- I want to shift to sourcing and execution and talk a little bit about our advantage here. And I talk about it in the context of it's rooted in our One Team approach here. Although M&A is centrally coordinated within our organization, our operations leaders are heavily involved in the process especially the sourcing and execution side. And this generally works because we act really as 1 integrated team. Our leaders are very active in their markets. They have deep knowledge and they're often able to identify, validate and shape opportunities well before sellers are even thinking about selling and largely before formal processes have begun. So that 1 team model creates early access to potential sellers and opportunities. and it allows us to have stronger insight into the operating business. It allows us to build relationships early with those sellers and for the long term.
So through this process and this sort of collaborative process between operations and corporate development and M&A, sellers increasingly view TIC Solutions as strategic long-term home for both their employees and the business as a whole. And they view us less like just another, I'll call it, like strategic buyer or I mean, financial buyer. So when closing our One Team approach strengthens our ability to win the deals we want to win regardless of the sourcing channel that they come through.
I'll be -- try to be briefer on this one. This is all about the proof. So we've talked about our process and how it works. And I have 2 sets of data up here. The data on the left illustrates our track record over the past 5 years of executing deals at attractive multiples, while maintaining focus on margin accretion. The data on the right is representative of the deals that have closed in '25 in the first quarter of '26 -- and it just is an example of how those acquisitions are strengthening our platform across those 3 strategic segments that we talked about. Additionally, we have or have a number of targets under LOI today that are expected to close in 30 to 60 days, which will bring our planned capital allocation for basically halfway through the year up to over half of our planned target deployment for 2026.
So why does all that matter? And I think it's pretty straightforward is that this really illustrates that we have a repeatable, reliable engine that can deliver results. And we have a strong looking forecast for '26 and it gives us a high degree of confidence that our M&A engine is going to be able to help deliver on our 31885 framework.
So my last slide here talks about -- I think probably a lot of people have heard this at closing a deal is the easy part, but how you integrate it is where the value is really created and so we truly believe this as well. Integration is extremely important aspect of our M&A process, and it's held -- widely held throughout the organization. So we have 4 sort of strategies here in terms of how we integrate. The first is we use a custom playbook, but a consistent process. We make sure that we're driving priorities, accountabilities through that playbook, and that drives consistency in our integration results.
Secondly, we leverage our platform. We scale infrastructure, systems and our expertise to allow the leaders of the acquired companies to spend time in front of clients, employees where that time really matters. The third item here is about customer expansion and cross-sell. Like you heard a lot of my teammates talk about this. Every deal we do has some strategic value rooted in the commercial collaboration opportunities that exist in the combination. And mobilizing that strategy within the first month is absolutely essential to unlocking the value of the transaction.
And finally, from fourth item, I've talked about this earlier. We use a 1 team approach. We are lockstep with our operations partners -- they're involved from the beginning, right through the end. And obviously, they're involved in the integration aspect. And so their team really lays the groundwork for operational alignment through this process to drive performance and long-term results with the combined businesses.
So stepping back, I hope I was able to illustrate to you that our organization is committed to deploying significant capital to fund our M&A growth engine, -- we have a disciplined and structured framework to ensure we're doing the right deals. We employ a one-team approach, which we believe is unique to provide us a sourcing and execution advantage so that we can execute on the deals we really want to do. And we have a track record and strong forecast that gives us high degree of confidence that we're going to be able to continue to drive long-term value creation and growth for the business.
And finally, we have a really detailed process for how we integrate businesses, and not only preserve the value that we've acquired but unlock future value.
With that, I'd like to turn over to our CFO, Kristin Schultes, who will walk you through a financial update.
Thanks, Kevin. Nice job. Kevin, we're going to have a fun and busy next couple of years with this. So -- good morning, everyone. I'm Kristin Schultes, CFO of TIC Solutions. And over the next few minutes, I'm going to connect everything that you heard this morning from our amazing leaders to the 2029 financial performance framework. I have tremendous confidence in this team's ability to deliver for 3 reasons. One, we have clarity on where we're going and how we're going to get there. Two, we have momentum. I hope you heard that this morning. In fact, I could feel it. The momentum we have in this business is real. And lastly, we're leading with discipline, both operational discipline and financial discipline. 31885, $3 billion in revenue, 18% adjusted EBITDA and 85% free cash flow conversion. A quick story.
Some of you may know, I spent a number of years at API Group, including time during its formative years as a public company. At the time we were growing and learning together and at the time, there was their first Investor Day as well, where they also set a framework, a 3-number framework, happened to be 1368, which is forever ingrained in my mind. And it's coming out of that Investor Day, that 3 number framework started showing up everywhere. It showed up in conversations, it show up in written communications, and it showed up in Teams meetings and in hallway conversations. And at the time, it felt both aspirational and maybe even a little repetitive. But the reason I bring that up is because it worked. It united the team around an objectives and goals and everyone knew that the work that they were doing on a daily basis either helped put us in that direction or not. -- and it drove decisions.
Quick EPI fun fact. The TIC team and the API Group team just were awarded the first project that they collaborated on together just last week. And both the project team shared with me that without the collaboration that we're doing together, neither team would have won that scope of work. So very exciting. Anyway, I'm very excited to rally the TIC team around our M3 number framework, 31885.
So let's get into it. I'm going to cover 3 things this morning. I'm going to double-click and deep dive into the financial performance framework metrics. I'm going to touch on the NV5 Acuren merger integration and how that's progressing. And lastly, I'm going to speak about our capital allocation deployment framework.
Tying this together, you can see from a revenue growth perspective, we're going from $2.1 billion to $3 billion. That represents an 11% CAGR based on our 2026 exit. And we spoke today about the growth we have from the tailwinds in the megatrends that we mentioned, aging infrastructure, increasing energy demands, data consumption and the digitization of the physical world. These goals are achievable, and we touched on that today. At the same time, we plan to expand margins by 320 basis points from 14.8% and in 2025 to 18% adjusted EBITDA in 2029. This is going to come from mix, pricing and operational discipline.
And lastly, with our 85% adjusted free cash flow metric, we have both opportunity and flexibility. Now let's double-click on the revenue growth. This is balanced between M&A and organic growth. You can see here that from a consulting engineering perspective, Alex touched on this, we're planning on 7% to 9% organic growth within that business, strong end market strength within infrastructure, data centers and also focus on higher margin work. In Inspection and Mitigation, Seamus touched on the inspection mitigation recovery in the U.S. He talked about growing through higher service lines, expansion in higher service lines and end markets. And Kurt touched on using our proprietary technology to support the digitization efforts throughout the world.
Dan also did a great job of touching on the upside and early momentum we have from a cross-selling perspective, which all provides upside for our business. And on the M&A front, I'm very excited and confident in our ability to deploy capital between $100 million and $150 million per year. This will really help accelerate our organic growth story.
Next, let's look at margin expansion, 320 basis points, 14.8% to 18% in 2029. This reflects multiple levers working together. In the near term, we have an opportunity to focus on improved utilization within all 3 segments. Our technicians and our indirect costs can be better utilized in I&M. Our engineers can improve utilization within consulting, engineering, and Kurt mentioned this as well, but our data capture fleet, we have an opportunity to improve utilization with that business as well. The tuck-ins we're pursuing are immediately accretive to this business. and the technology enablement opportunities that we have are real. Alex spoke about the contract review opportunities for -- to use AI in the contract review process. We're using that today. The finance team is using AI to more quickly apply cash from a cash applications perspective. And we're continuing to drive opportunities within the supply chain and procurement efforts within the business.
Structurally, we're also seeing an improvement in our SG&A leverage. You can see that we released earnings a couple of weeks ago, and we're right at the precipice of being able to scale this business.
And lastly, our synergy capture plan has another 50 basis points of margin improvement to be had.
Now let's touch on integration. So integration is something that's near and dear to my heart. Not only is this a key contributor to our margin expansion goals, it's especially important to me for 2 reasons. One, this isn't just a project. It's not just 1 and done. We're truly building something for the future. The people, the processes, the systems, they're setting us up for what's next, the next bolt-on, the next transformation opportunity, whatever it may be, sets us up. And then secondly, the team building aspect. So this is integrating 2 businesses like this is not easy. It's very hard. There's a psychological term called shared adversity. And I imagine my team in the back here that's here can -- is smiling when they hear the word share diversity because this is something that what we're doing together is hard, but it brings us together and it sets us up for the future.
Simply put, we feel that integrating business as well is a true differentiator for this business. I'm excited to say that we've actioned nearly 20 -- excuse me, 70% of our planned actions with regard to this merger integration. We're ahead of schedule and we'll be at a full $25 million run rate savings rate by the end of this year. The system conversions planning is in the planning phase, and we'll move to execution later this year.
In addition, we're tracking opportunities that could provide potential upside to this in the area of real estate consolidation, procurement and additional headcount reductions. The third pillar of our financial performance framework is cash generation. As you all know, TIC has a high cash flow, low CapEx business, which drives flexibility and opportunity for our business. We are actively working on levers within the business to continue to drive efficiency with the way that we capture and collect cash. In fact, I'm proud to say our team shaved 8 days off of our DSO in 2025, and there's still more opportunity to be had especially in the area of contracts and cash applications.
And additionally, as we continue to grow and scale, we'll spend less money on cash interest, and that will continue to improve cash conversion. Our model reflects $500 million worth of cumulative adjusted free cash flow during this period. And if you take the cash we have on the balance sheet today, along with this cash generation, and if we spent nothing -- sorry, Kevin, but if we did, we'd have $1 billion in the bank, and that represents over half of TIC's market cap today.
So let's talk about the framework, capacity and framework. It's important to note that our North Star with regard to leverage is 2.5x or less. You can see on the left here, we'll have $1.5 billion in capital capacity during this period. Between the cash we have on hand today, the cash we're going to generate and additional flexibility in our leverage. Real opportunity. We're going to continue to focus on deploying that capital in high-return areas of the business to accelerate our organic growth story. In addition, we're going to continue focusing on accretive M&A. And from there, we will be opportunistic with share repurchases and repayments.
So to wrap up, we are transforming this business. We have reset the foundation, and we're excited to grow by winning in high-demand end markets as a true life cycle partner for our clients. The margin expansion opportunities that we have are already underway in creating value. The cash that we're going to generate is going to create meaningful opportunities to accelerate that growth. Our 2029 framework is not aspirational. It's outcomes that are already in motion, and I'm confident in this team's ability to deliver. I speak for all of us when I say we're committed to leading with discipline, accountability and looking for ways always to raise the bar. Really excited to rally the team around 31885. Thanks, everyone, for being here. Great job, Andrew pulling this together for us. Our true leader. And thank you to Robbie and the Mariposa team. So I look forward to connecting with you during demonstrations. And with that, I'll turn it back to Ben for closing remarks.
Great job, Kristen. Kristen said it, but I'll say it again, I think the enthusiasm from the team and excitement. I hope you can see that come through. And really you have a clear understanding of the business and all the great things that we do and why we have a very high conviction about achieving these targets that we've put up here, we don't have any other special closing statements. But I did want to leave you with -- a we do, sorry.
I did want to leave you with a few closing messages. So as we've talked through the segments, and you've heard on the cross-selling and the M&A strategies, we'll point to each of the segments. Consulting and engineering, erinmandated nondiscretionary high-demand work. Our backlog is growing, and we're very excited about the growth that we're seeing there. In inspection and mitigation, we have had some challenges. They have been concentrated in the Gulf region. You heard from Seamus some of the work that he's been doing, and I'd encourage you to have a chat to him and Jacob also who's leading the charge with that. They've done amazing work and we are very excited to see that get back on a growth path. We're on the front foot. And I think culturally, just the fixes that are being made there. We're seeing people come back in and the other parts of the business are continuing to grow, and we're very excited about it. And Gio, extremely interesting businesses in finding Meglio teeth on the bottom of the ocean. It's pretty -- my daughter would love to export that. She asked if she could get her hands on in actually to talk about that.
But look, highly scalable business that really supports the other parts of our company. And together, the power of this platform is just much greater as a combined thing. I -- it's an accelerator. It's an enabler. It's not going to replace our work. We are heavily focused in the field, a high degree of expertise in very heavily regulated markets, I mean that this is something that we can use. Especially with our subject matter experts being in very high demand. So for us to use that as a tool to continue to grow our business is something we're very excited about. Kevin did a great job talking about the exciting things we have with the M&A -- we work in extremely fragmented markets. It's a target-rich environment for us. We have a proven track record of doing this, great leadership to receive those new acquisitions and help them integrate and continue to grow the business.
So with that, we have our demonstrations out there, and I encourage you to get without no, no. I'm going to say that. Thank you very much. I'm well aware we're going to do Q&A, but before after we're done with Q&A out here, we're going to do the demos. I know you've already spent some time out there, but I encourage you to talk to our team. These are real experts in the field. So with that, we'll open up for Q&A. Is there a slide that says Q&A? There you go.
Thank you, Ben. I didn't need to pre out. So everyone, we will have 30 minutes for Q&A. We want to hear from as many of you as possible. So we ask that you try to keep things moving and keep your questions brief and tight. Please wait for the microphone. And before your question, please state your name and your firm. Who would like to start? Can we get a mic over here, please?
2. Question Answer
Stephanie Moore with Jefferies. Really appreciate the presentation today and all the additional color. I think what was very clear was there are clear structural, as you pointed, megatrends driving demand for your services. I think you outlined you're well positioned to win, and these are critical services in a lot of instances. But I guess the follow-up question I have to that is it does come like you're a bit at the mercy of your customers, like the work needs to be done, but maybe you're not necessarily the one driving the work.
So maybe that could be a wrong assessment so I'd love you to address that, but also address how you're comfortable in making sure you can deliver consistent results in a backdrop of there's a lot of demand there, but maybe you're not necessarily in control of when those services are performed.
Yes. We sort of -- well, we talked a lot about the mandated nature and that this work needs to be done. So I think that, that is an absolute driving force. Look, at the end of the day, we can come up with all the strategies we want. And if our clients don't agree with that, they are pointless. So we are laser-focused. We have a heavy seller door model. We are deeply entrenched with our clients. We need to be outward facing all the time.
And so with that cellar door model, we are very, very focused on those client relationships. We're deeply embedded with those, and we work with them over and over again. So we always position ourselves for the next project with those clients. We take a programmatic approach to that. And so I think that's why we're well positioned to capture these tailwinds in the market.
Next question, please. Right there in the back.
Charlie Rose with Cruiser Capital. The question I have is labor intensity. Can you talk about what your goals are in terms of revenue or EBITDA per employee? How do you elevate the productivity of the company? And maybe talk about it by segment. Are there certain segments of the business that lend themselves to more automation or more computerization or AI, please?
Yes. If we sort of point to each of the different segments, and I'll let Alex Kurt and Shamus sort of pile along a little bit here, too. But within consulting and engineering, I mean, we see that as probably one of the biggest areas to move the needle with AI. I mentioned earlier, eliminating some of the more mundane things that we do and equipping our subject matter expertise with enabling them to do more.
Some of the work we do is time and materials with multiples, as Alex talked about. So revenue per head tends to be fairly tied. Other parts like the data center work is fixed fee. So the more that we can command a better fee through our value proposition, we can increase our labor per head. We have done a lot of offshoring as well. So in the past, that has brought our revenue per head down a little bit. We pay much less, but we can't command the same amount of fees.
Within GEO, we have a lot of opportunity to move the needle. If we think about flying a plane, it's 30 people for every hour that, that plane flies. So the more that we can utilize the equipment, as Kristin talked about, is an enabler for us to grow there. Inspection mitigation is largely hourly. And I think the big focus of Shamus has been bringing down the overhead and driving the needle that way. So if you guys want to add a little bit to that.
I have a practical example when a lot of the work that we do is corrosion survey based, taking radiographs. And the faster we can take those radiographs and the faster we can process them and drive value for the client, the quicker we're done a corrosion survey for the year. We have examples where we've dropped customer price by 80%.
So it allows them to do more corrosion survey, but increase our margin at the same time by incentivizing our technicians and incentivizing the customer and us to do faster work. And we see that consistently with our largest enterprise customers. They're looking for value outside of just the labor price.
Yes. And if you look at AI enablement and using that to support modalities and support the analysis of those images, we can accelerate that.
Are there some commonalities to the APG situation to the to this situation in terms of labor productivity and that we should be benchmarking, please?
Yes, it's a good question. I think when it comes -- the way I think about it is in inspection and mitigation, the biggest opportunity we have for margin expansion is to focus on the higher-margin end markets and service lines that Shamus mentioned. Our rope access business was up 10% this quarter. Our engineering and lab work was up double digits this quarter and focusing on those is really the driver of margin expansion. Turning to CE and GEO with more fixed fee work, the focus is on project execution and driving margin expansion that way, which aligns with the project-based side of the API business.
So I'd like to get a few more questions from a few other folks. Why don't we do Andy.
Yes. So Andy Wittmann from Baird. I guess just a question on the CI business or the inspection mitigation business. There's a lot of information that you're always collecting. That data needs to get back to customers. How important is the software platform to delivering those results efficiently? Is that in the plan? How much do you have today result -- that helps deliver these results? It seems like this is a big area where there's actually probably a lot of cost tied up and room for automation, particularly with the advent of AI. So I was just hoping somebody you could talk about that and where you are today and where you are going maybe in the future.
Yes. I mean there's a lot of work that we do over and over again. So any efficiency that we can gain out of software and tools to enable us is going to be a needle mover for the business. But maybe Shamus can give an update on what we've been working on there.
Yes. We're quite focused on it. We developed an internal tool, ARES, in the past. We found that with the advancements in AI, the ability to develop that program and advance it is exponential. We are collecting data digitally today through digital radiographs based array and collecting that data and then analyzing it and turning it back to the customer to drive deeper insights is critical to our future position and to drive deeper enterprise relationships with the large customers.
Jeffrey.
It's Jeff Martin with ROTH Capital Partners. I wanted to dive into the opportunity as well as the challenges in geographic expansion, particularly in Canada with no infrastructure engineering and no geospatial presence. How do you envision that from both an opportunity and a risk perspective?
Yes. I mean M&A will definitely be a tool. We have the exchange rate that sort of works against us in terms of leveraging our expertise from the U.S. into Canada. At the same time, we have fantastic leadership up in Canada that we're absolutely going to tap into as we look at M&A opportunities, which we actively are. And then the deep bench of expertise that we do have in the U.S., while the cost of it doesn't travel well in Canada, the sort of the track record and the resume absolutely does and will support the businesses that we acquire up there.
And then geospatial travels very well. In fact, our planes are certified to fly out there, and we're exploring a number of opportunities with the entities that we now have at our fingertips up there. So I think that that's a lot more sort of scalable side that we can go more easily without acquisition.
We do have a more targeted approach to capital allocation within that. There are service hubs that we that we want to add the bench for. But regardless, we have a very refined list of sort of our target universe. These are tuck-ins by nature, and it's complementary to what we already do in the U.S. So we know we have the SMEs already in the U.S. It's just about getting the Canadian labor force to execute on it.
Next question, please. Let's do Alex.
Do you see the capital cost of AI and drones and technology to become an accelerator to consolidation? And therefore, when we think about your M&A targets and goals, is there upside if that capital cost increases for particularly smaller private competitors?
So sorry, I didn't really fully understand the question. The capital cost of the equipment that the -- okay. I mean these are all tools that we see as -- you heard Shamus talk about robotics. Obviously, in geospatial, we have acquisition tools. For us, it's really how do we get our hands on the data and then do something meaningful with that. We definitely want to focus -- we talk about our strategy around this 85% free cash flow, maintain a low CapEx operating model. So the equipment that we have, we want it to be fully utilized and then we'll outsource beyond that.
Yes. I think scale builds moats in general. So as we become early adopters and early winners with the adoption of those technologies, yes, it should unlock opportunities for those who cannot keep up with the investment needed and the know-how to implement those tools.
Next question, please. Let's do Brian Biros.
Brian with Thompson Research Group. You talked about recurring revenues today. I mean you have MSAs, some of your work is mandated. Some of it is just done because the implication of failure is so high that you would do it anyway. I guess what does recurring revenue mean to you, like how do you define it? Is there any differences between the 3 segments? And is there a proportion of the business that you would classify as recurring versus nonrecurring?
Yes. So recurring for us is either repeat work with the same client. It's repeat work on the same asset like the 1 million miles of power lines that we fly. And in some cases, the software revenue that we have is recurring from a subscription perspective. So you're right, it is different across the different segments, but it's absolutely sort of what we see as forecastable. With the data center work that we do, they sit us down and say this is our plan for the next 5 years. So it's very heavily forecastable and repeat.
Let's do Josh Chan.
Josh Chan with UBS. If you look at your organic growth targets by segment, which of those targets do you feel like will require you to kind of stretch the growth rate versus the historical? And which of the targets do you feel like it's right in line with history? And then kind of relatedly, how much of that 7% to 9% growth in CE is what you're embedding for data centers?
Yes. I think the target that we've set is a high conviction number. I think mid-single digits overall is an okay number, but it's not overly exciting. So we talked about the cross-selling momentum that we have. That really we see as upside. Consulting engineering, our backlog is up 14% year-on-year at the moment, which would indicate that we feel pretty good about the numbers that we put in there.
Tomo.
Tomo with JPMorgan. I'd like to ask about the pricing power by segments. And if you could talk about out of 320 basis points to get to adjusted EBITDA margin, 18%, how much you bake in from the pricing? And if you could talk about before and after acquisitions, NV5 and Acuren, how much like do you assume the pricing power evolving for the opportunity, please?
Yes. I mean sort of if you look at across the segments or the entire business, and we talk at TIC Solutions as a whole, it's a very, very diverse set of end markets and services. And so what we're extremely focused on is really getting behind and growing the ones that are going to help us grow the margin as a business.
Yes. It's actually an interesting question, right, because when you look at it from our public client, typically, as I mentioned, it's QBS. So the rate discussion doesn't happen until after you are awarded the contract. And in order to do that, we have to have a FAR audit. And the FAR audit looks at all of our overhead. It applies that overhead relative to the hourly rate that anybody is going to be working on the project, even if they're a salaried employee, just takes their annual, divides it by 2,080. And then we negotiate based on the level of effort that it takes.
With our private clients, it's a very different scenario because we're not tied to FAR. What happens is as we start to grow our platform and have the ability to offer multiple services, it provides a much easier way for our clients to contract for a wide array of services. And in fact, we don't have to be as competitive when they're just asking for a bid sheet because now you're providing a wide array of services that we can get in front of the client, let them -- help them understand what the benefit is from using us across all of our service lines. And then we don't have the same level of price competition.
Tomo, from a segment perspective, Alex' group, CE, has the highest opportunity for pricing power followed by geospatial, and I&M being the most price sensitive and the least opportunity for pricing power. That said, if you go back to 2024, Acuren exited that year at a 17% adjusted EBITDA margin. And so our plans are to get back to that where we were there and then look for opportunities to continue to scale from there.
Back to Stephanie.
I guess just one follow-up to that question. So as you look at the mid-single-digit total company organic growth target, could you break that out between what's embedded from a revenue synergy standpoint, if any, pricing, pipeline conversion kind of contemplation -- conversion that's contemplated in that? Any breakout would be great.
Yes. So from a growth perspective, which was described on the revenue slide I showed, the assumptions are that CE outpaces or grows the highest, followed by geo and then I&M. And from a price versus -- sorry, can you ask that -- say it one more time?
I guess price versus volume and then the revenue synergies across that.
Okay. Yes. So we have very little of revenue synergy baked into this plan. So like Ben mentioned, 5% is our high conviction number. And the cross-selling momentum that we do have, which Ben explained, is exciting, but we're in the early days. So that would be upside for us. Price versus volume based on -- it depends on the segment, roughly split.
Andy, please.
Yes. So Andy Wittmann from Baird. Just back on inspection and mitigation. The power and utilities part of your inspection and mitigation business is actually pretty small. There's a lot of spinning things. There's a lot of hot things. There's a lot of things under pressure. All these things lend themselves to recurring revenue inspection and testing. This seems like an opportunity to me is. It to you? And how do you break into this market? Can you do it organically? Or are there areas of M&A here? Just given the power dynamics and the growth that is potential here, I think it's of particular interest.
Yes. There's something sort of interrelated with data centers, actually, obviously, getting power to the data centers is absolutely paramount. There's LNG requirements that are leveraging that to generate power. And so we've actually got a strategic initiative around how we can leverage the hyperscaler relationships that we have and bring I&M in on that work where there is deep expertise to support. So we do see that as an exciting opportunity. Utilities in general, as we talk about cross-selling, one of the absolute strategies is to leverage the client relationships we have in one segment and bring in the others, and we're absolutely doing that.
One from the gentleman, yes.
Of the 320 basis points...
Sorry, could you state your name, firm, please?
[ Tarek ] from [ Balance Capital ]. Of the 320 basis points of margin expansion, how much is organic versus the accretive M&A?
So from -- like I mentioned, with margin expansion, 320 basis points, it's fairly spread across all the different levers. M&A is a piece of it. If you think about the capital deployment that Kevin and I mentioned, if you think $125 million is roughly $17 million, $18 million of acquired EBITDA each year. And those businesses are immediately accretive, but would have a fairly low impact on the margin expansion goals relative to the other levers.
We also have service lines and businesses within the platform that do better than 18%. So getting behind those and continuing to grow them will be accretive to the overall business as well.
Yes. Right there. [ Adam ].
Just a follow-up question on the projection. Do you contemplate any of the NBT business coming back, winning back some of the customers you lost and the callout work? Is that contemplated in your guidance? And then anything in terms of mix shift like on the lab or the aerospace side, like is that included in your guidance? Or is that also upside to guidance?
Yes, I'll start and Shamus, you can add on. So I would say, I mean, as was evidenced by the growth rates that are built into the model, the 3% to 5%, is fairly conservative. It assumes holding ground with our existing clients and starting to win some back. But in terms of -- there's definitely upside in terms of increased opportunity to win new -- increase the rate of winning new sites. The maintain work is 40% of the work that we do. That nested work creates pull-through revenue in the areas of call out and turnaround. So we have a tremendous amount of confidence in Shamus' leadership and the team's leadership and see a lot of opportunities for upside to that 3% to 5%.
Right. Just a follow-up. Because you historically grew 3% to 5%, but you went sort of through a trough period where energy and petrochemical and refinery was all weak. So like there -- presumably, there should be sort of a cyclical rebound in those end markets, too, right?
It's not fully baked into the projection. I think it's what we're getting at.
[ Keith Rosenbloom ]. Kristin, a quick question on understanding the 2028 guidance. So you said cumulatively, you expect $500 million of adjusted free cash flow between here and there. And in '28 at $500 million effectively of EBITDA, your guidance is for $450 million of free cash flow in '28. Is that correct?
Well, so just to be clear, it's 2029. So we're working as hard as we can.
2029, excuse me.
And so your question is on the $500 million of free cash flow?
Yes. So just to basically put the math in perspective, you're saying that you're going to generate $500 million of free cash flow between now and then. And then in 2029 itself, you're going to generate $460 million of free cash flow.
No, we have roughly $450 million of cash on the balance sheet today, and we're going to generate another $500 million. So if you look at the 2 together, we'd be at $1 billion of cash, we didn't deploy any M&A.
Well, I'm just doing $3 billion times 18% times 85% free cash flow conversion. And isn't that number $460 million?
Yes. So that's just EBITDA less CapEx on the 2029 number is what you're getting at. So it's the $540 million less the CapEx assumption on the conversion. So in cumulative, yes, it is $400 million and something in '29, which adds up and then you have all the M&A cash outflows that come out, too.
So in 2029, are you saying you're going to generate $460 million of free cash flow? Or is it something different?
No, to be clear, the metric does not include cash interest or cash taxes or net working capital changes in network.
Yes. Josh?
Maybe a quick follow-up on data centers. I guess based on that chart that you guys showed, is there a reason why your strength was much more in Asia and especially it looks like South Asia and Southeast Asia. And I guess, what will give you kind of the conviction to be able to move into other geographic markets within data centers?
Yes. The team has really proven their ability to grow into new regions, and they've been doing that for a long time in Asia Pacific. We had the technical expertise out there, and we made a strategic initiative. The team did a great job of building on the relationships that we have with the hyperscalers, and then we leverage those relationships back to the states. We were doing some work, so we had the expertise, but you really need to get to a critical mass before these large clients will take you seriously, and we're now at that critical mass. We also get dragged by our clients. So they are asking us to be in places and we set up, we want to support them. So Europe is a good example. They're asking Gary to fly in and fly out there as we get set up. So it's an easy argument when our clients are asking us to be there, we'll support it.
I think we have time for 2 more questions.
Min Cho from Texas Capital Securities. I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about your lab testing services. I know you have like 37 labs right now, and this was a good growth driver in the last quarter. But what is your outlook for that portion of their business? How important is it? And is this growth going to be mostly organic going forward?
Shamus?
Our lab testing business is highly connected to the manufacturing market, and we've seen that expand, especially this year with additional opportunities with manufacturing, automotive, aerospace customers. So it's a high target area for us, both commercially acquisitions and organic expansion.
We also do in-lab work in Alex's group, which we'll talk about as well.
Yes. So in Shamus' group, it's predominantly metallurgical testing. We do concrete, asphalt, soils, -- so anything related to infrastructure improvements, construction-related testing.
And I believe, Chris, did you have a question? Did you have a question? Yes. Chris? No at the front.
Chris Moore from CJS. Just one on M&A, given how important it is to the growth strategy. I know historically, when NV5 did acquisitions, oftentimes, they would kind of leave the company alone for a while and then start the integration process. how soon after acquiring the company, are you starting to integrate the back-office systems? How soon before working on improving margins, things like that at this stage?
I'll probably just talk from the lens of NV5 and why things have maybe changed a little bit, and I'm really excited about our approach to M&A, Kristin, and the level of sophistication that we have. So I mean, we move very quickly. We have a pretty tried and true playbook that Kevin went through and really initial focus is to getting that back-of-house stuff integrated, but the team integrated with operations as well. Kristin.
So I would tell you that integration starts before we close. So it's important to us that the seller and the business knows what's changing and when and that planning starts before close and then immediately after close. We have -- our playbook has a 60-day milestone -- 30-day, 60-day, 90-day milestone. And so again, integration is something we take very seriously.
I think we have time for one last question. And with that, I don't think we have any questions. So that's our 30 minutes. Thank you all. Back to Ben.
Thank you.
Tic Solutions Inc — Analyst/Investor Day - TIC Solutions, Inc.
Investor Day presented a concrete 31885 growth plan: $3B revenue, 18% adjusted EBITDA, 85% free‑cash‑flow conversion, backed by M&A and AI-enabled efficiency.
🎯 Key Message
- Takeaway: Management framed TIC as a unified, technology‑forward industrial services platform focused on recurring, mandatory work (infrastructure, utilities, data centers, geospatial) and set a three‑year financial North Star (31885) to align growth, margin and cash‑conversion priorities.
⚡ Strategic Highlights
- 31885: Targeting $3.0B revenue, 18% adjusted EBITDA and 85% free‑cash‑flow conversion by 2029 driven by organic growth, cross‑sell and M&A.
- M&A: Plan to deploy $100–$150M per year for bolt‑ons and platform deals to add capabilities, geographies and scale.
- Product focus: Deep data‑center and geospatial capabilities (digital twins, GEO AI orchestration) plus inspection & mitigation density to expand wallet share.
🆕 New Information
- Integration: Management says ~70% of planned integration actions are complete and expects $25M run‑rate savings by year‑end.
- Cross‑sell: Year‑to‑date cross‑selling matched full 2025 levels, with early projects showing doubled fees.
- Products: Introduced "Geo Agent" orchestration (AI‑driven geospatial workflow) and reiterated $100–$150M annual M&A cadence.
❓ Analyst Q&A
- Demand control: Analysts pressed whether TIC is dependent on clients' timing; management emphasized nondiscretionary, mandated work and deep client embedding as demand mitigants.
- Labor & AI: Questions on productivity; management stressed AI as an accelerant (contract review, analytics, back‑office) not a replacement for licensed field experts.
- Margins & synergies: Management expects 320 bps of margin expansion from utilization, mix, pricing and $25M integration synergies; only limited revenue synergy was conservatively baked into the plan.
📌 Bottom Line
- Conclusion: The Investor Day delivered a clear, measurable plan and credible near‑term integration targets; execution risks—integration, labor availability and I&M cyclicality—remain, while data‑center scale, GEO AI and disciplined M&A represent the main upside for shareholders.
Tic Solutions Inc — Q1 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Hello, and welcome, everyone, joining today's TIC Solutions First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the meeting over to Andrew Shen with Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call. Joining me this morning is Ben Heraud, our Chief Executive Officer; Kristin Schultes, our Chief Financial Officer; and Robbie Franklin, Executive Chairman.
I would now like to remind you that certain statements in the company's earnings press release and on this call are forward-looking statements that are based on expectations, intentions and projections regarding the company's future performance, anticipated events or trends and other matters that are not historical facts. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
In our press release and filings with the SEC, we detailed material risks that may cause our future results to differ from our expectations. Our statements are as of today, May 6, 2026, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements we may make, except as required by law.
As a reminder, we have posted a presentation detailing our first quarter financial performance on the Investor Relations page of our website at ticsolutions.com. Our comments today will also include non-GAAP financial measures and other key operating metrics. The required reconciliations of non-GAAP financial metrics can be found in our press release and in our presentation. For the purposes of this call, we refer to our segments as Inspection & Mitigation or I&M, Consulting Engineering or CE, and Geospatial or Geo.
Any reference to combined results reflects a non-GAAP combined view of legacy Acuren and legacy NV5, where applicable for period-to-period comparability. More details on the calculation of the combined results are included in the presentation. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Ben.
Thank you, Andrew, and good morning, everyone. Before I begin, I want to say how proud I am to lead this talented organization. Over the past several months, I've seen strong support from our leaders across the business and from the field and technical professionals who serve our clients every day.
We have started 2026 with healthy momentum across the business. First quarter results reflect the strength of our combined platform, the resilience of our recurring and nondiscretionary services and the demand drivers that support TIC Solutions. This includes aging infrastructure, increasing energy demand, increasing data consumption and the digitization of the physical world. We believe these megatrends will continue to drive demand across our business and expand the need for technical services that enable us to turn data into solutions for our clients.
These tailwinds inform our strategic priorities, winning in essential high-demand end markets and geographies, expanding our role across the asset life cycle and client relationships and driving higher value growth through technical differentiation and disciplined capital allocation.
These priorities are supported by the breadth of our business. Through consulting engineering, we help clients plan, design and commission critical assets and infrastructure. Through Inspection & Mitigation, we help clients maintain asset integrity, reduce downtime and address reliability needs. Through Geospatial, we help clients capture, process and interpret asset and location data at scale. Together, these capabilities position TIC Solutions as a life cycle partner rather than a point solution provider.
Our 2026 operating objectives are directly aligned with these strategic priorities. First, to win in essential high-demand end markets and geographies, we are focused on driving organic growth across the platform. This means expanding scope and market share and pursuing attractive opportunities to sell additional capabilities.
Second, to expand our role across the asset life cycle and client relationships, we are strengthening organizational alignment and cross-segment collaboration. That includes improving how we manage accounts, deploy resources, support our field and technical teams and bring our capabilities together for our clients. Third, to drive higher value growth, we are focused on margin expansion and disciplined capital allocation. That means maintaining pricing discipline, improving utilization, managing costs, enhancing service mix and directing capital towards the highest value opportunities.
In the quarter, we saw growth across transportation, infrastructure, utilities, manufacturing, midstream energy and data center end markets. We remain focused on converting these trends into sustainable, attractive and profitable growth.
With that framework in mind, I'll walk through the performance across our segments and highlight where we are seeing progress against these priorities. Consulting Engineering delivered strong performance in the quarter with revenue increasing 9.5% year-over-year. We experienced broad-based revenue growth, offsetting pressure from timing in LNG engineering and power delivery. Adjusted gross profit increased 11% year-over-year and adjusted gross margin expanded 60 basis points, reflecting strong execution, improving mix and continued demand for high-value technical services. Data centers were the largest driver of growth in the first quarter, supported by hyperscaler and mission-critical infrastructure activity across both domestic and international operations.
AI, cloud adoption and enterprise digitization continue to increase demand for data consumption storage and mission-critical uptime. Our focus is on capturing that demand where we have the right capabilities, client relationships and return profile. Consulting engineering also saw broad-based growth across several core capabilities, including civil program management, geotechnical and materials testing and buildings.
Overall, Consulting Engineering's first quarter performance demonstrates the value of technical capabilities we offer across infrastructure and the built environment. The segment continues to benefit from durable demand trends tied to aging infrastructure, infrastructure investment and growth in key regional markets. Our performance also shows the operating leverage that can come from better utilization, focused execution and delivery of higher-value services.
Geospatial also performed well, growing 4.5%, supported by strong commercial and utility demand, healthy fleet utilization and continued interest in geospatial digital transformation solutions. The team continues to pursue technically complex work across multiple markets and geographies. Recent examples include deep sea hydrographic survey work tied to rare earth minerals and advanced LiDAR and imagery opportunities internationally.
These demonstrate the breadth of our capabilities and the ability to scale and apply specialized technical expertise across borders. We are also advancing our GeoAI efforts with a focus on improving processing efficiency, automating workflows and expanding higher-value analytics. We look forward to discussing these capabilities in more detail at our Investor Day, including how they support our broader Geospatial platform over time.
Quarter end total backlog within Consulting Engineering and Geospatial was $1.12 billion, up approximately 14% from $983 million at the prior year quarter end. This backlog expansion, combined with the solid commercial execution supports our confidence in continued momentum and near-term outlook. Inspection & Mitigation delivered a steady result with revenue essentially flat year-over-year. While results were below our long-term expectations for the segment, the team remained focused on margin integrity, disciplined staffing and prioritizing higher quality, higher-margin opportunities. In the first quarter, our call-out and outage activity increased moderately, helping offset lower sustaining capital work and continued pressure in certain regions.
Performance was stronger in areas such as industrial road access, containment and in-lab services, and we're focused on replicating that execution more consistently across the I&M footprint through disciplined opportunity selection, stronger local accountability and a higher mix of high-value technical services.
Inspection & Mitigation demand continues to vary by end market and geography. Customer focus on throughput, uptime and critical integrity work remains intact, but broader market uncertainty is creating more variability in customer decisions around planned outages and scheduled maintenance, including timing, scope and duration.
In the quarter, certain planned outage work shifted from the second quarter to the third quarter and some work was resized as customers remain selective on near-term spending. Performance pressure remains concentrated in the Gulf Coast, where LNG construction timing and several 2025 site losses continue to weigh on year-on-year growth. We are managing through these dynamics while expanding in areas we have a proven track record and pursuing new white space opportunities.
We continue to execute on the operating model changes we outlined last quarter with a focus on regional accountability, cost control and more consistent opportunity sourcing. As discussed on the previous call, we have strengthened regional leadership in the segment and are adding both new and returning leaders in key areas to drive operational efficiency and commercial focus. As we move through the year, we expect I&M performance to benefit from normal seasonality, outage activity and stronger conversion of commercial opportunities while remaining disciplined on margin and work selection.
To recap, Consulting Engineering and Geospatial continued to benefit from strong demand and differentiated capabilities, while Inspection & Mitigation remains focused on improving execution, accountability, pricing and resource deployment. Across the platform, integration is improving how we manage accounts, expand services and control costs. Together, these actions position us to deliver durable growth, improved profitability and stronger cash flow over time. We are looking forward to hosting our Investor Day on Tuesday, May 19, in New York City. We plan to discuss the next phase of the TIC Solutions story, including our long-term growth framework, margin expansion plans, capital allocation priorities and how stronger execution can create additional value across the business.
And with that, I will turn the call over to Kristin to review the financial results for the first quarter, provide an update on integration and offer more detail on our outlook.
Thank you, Ben, and good morning, everyone. In the first quarter, total revenue was $488 million. On a combined basis, total revenue grew 4.3% year-over-year or 3.1% in constant currency. Organic growth on a combined basis was 2.2%. Adjusted gross profit for the quarter was $180 million, up 3.8% from the combined adjusted gross profit of $174 million in the prior year period, driven primarily by revenue growth and margin expansion in Consulting and Engineering.
Adjusted gross margin was 36.9%, roughly flat compared with the combined margin of 37.1% in the prior year period as Consulting Engineering margin expansion was offset by mix and margin pressure in Inspection & Mitigation. Inspection & Mitigation contributed first quarter revenue of $235 million, up 0.3%, driven by increased call-out and outage work and offset by lower sustaining capital activity.
Inspection & Mitigation's adjusted gross margin was 24.4% for the quarter compared with 25.2% in the prior year period, reflecting the impact of mix from less sustaining capital work. Consulting Engineering contributed first quarter revenue of $187 million, up 9.5%. Consulting Engineering's adjusted gross margin was 47.6%, up 60 basis points from 47.0% in the prior year period, driven by strength in infrastructure and building design and commissioning.
Geospatial contributed first quarter revenue of $66 million, up 4.5%, driven by healthy demand from utility clients. Geospatial's adjusted gross margin was 51.0% compared with 54.2% in the prior year period, impacted by a pilot project that carries a higher proportion of subcontractor costs and a lower gross margin profile. We believe this work is highly strategic and supports higher value growth over time with a key client.
Adjusted SG&A for the quarter was $123 million or 25.2% of revenue. This continues to be a critical focus area as we work to drive SG&A leverage through synergy realization as well as cost discipline in the business. Adjusted EBITDA was $57.7 million compared to combined adjusted EBITDA of $55.6 million in the prior year period, representing growth in line with the increase in combined revenue.
Adjusted EBITDA margin was 11.8% compared with 11.9% a year ago on a combined basis, reflecting a path towards improved operating leverage. From a cash flow perspective for the quarter, operating cash flow was $10 million and capital expenditures were $6 million. The operating cash flow reflects the expected seasonality of the business, which includes greater working capital intensity in the first half of the year.
Moving now to our balance sheet and capital resources. As of March 31, 2026, we had total liquidity of $537 million, including $427 million of cash and $111 million of available capacity under our revolving credit facility. Total term loan debt was $1.6 billion. Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. We remain focused on investing organically in the business and using free cash flow to provide additional flexibility for disciplined acquisitions while achieving lower leverage over time.
Turning to integration. We continue to make great progress capturing the benefits and cost synergies associated with the NV5 combination. Importantly, we are ahead of schedule on synergy actions with approximately $17 million of the $25 million cost program now actioned on an annualized run rate basis. We now expect realized savings in 2026 to be roughly $15 million, modestly above the $12.5 million we discussed in previous quarters. These actions are intended to create lasting efficiencies in the combined cost structure and support margin expansion as our business scales.
Now turning to our unchanged outlook. For the second quarter, our guidance reflects revenue of approximately $570 million to $582 million and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $90 million to $96 million. At the midpoint, this implies an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 16.1% for the second quarter, which would represent margin expansion year-over-year. We are reaffirming our previously issued full year 2026 guidance of $2.15 billion to $2.25 billion of revenue and $330 million to $355 million of adjusted EBITDA.
At the midpoint, our guidance implies approximately 4% revenue growth and 10% growth in adjusted EBITDA against our 2025 combined results with an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 15.6% at the midpoint. By segment, on a combined basis, we expect CE and Geo growth to outpace growth in I&M for the full year.
In Inspection & Mitigation, our outlook assumes a back half weighting supported by normal seasonality and the anticipated timing of certain outage and sustaining capital work. For 2026, we anticipate net interest expense of $95 million to $105 million, cash taxes in the range of $25 million to $35 million and capital expenditures of $55 million to $65 million.
We typically see a working capital build as activity ramps through the first half of the year, followed by stronger cash conversion in the second half as collections catch up with revenue. We manage and evaluate free cash flow primarily on a full year basis, and we continue to expect healthy free cash flow generation over the full year.
With that, I'll turn the call back to Ben.
Thank you, Kristin. The first quarter reinforced the resilience of our business model and the benefits of our diversified platform. As discussed at the start of the call, the trends around aging infrastructure, increasing energy demand, increasing data consumption and the digitization of the physical world continue to support demand for the essential technical services we provide.
As we move through 2026, we remain focused on the strategic priorities that define how we create value, winning in essential high-demand end markets and geographies, expanding our role across the asset life cycle and client relationships and driving higher value growth through technical differentiation and disciplined capital allocation.
We are seeing progress against our top priorities while recognizing there is more work ahead. I want to close by acknowledging the strength of this organization and the leaders across our business. TIC Solutions has a significant long-term opportunity supported by a highly engaged team, strong cultural alignment and essential technical capabilities across resilient end markets. Our teams have continued to execute with discipline and focus while staying centered on our core purpose of delivering for our clients every day.
With that, operator, we're ready to open the line for questions.
[Operator Instructions] And we'll take our first question from Chris Moore with CJS Securities.
2. Question Answer
So you exited some lower-margin customers contracts in Inspection & Mitigation in 2025. Just trying to get a sense if that process is still ongoing in '26.
Yes. We're still maintaining discipline around our pricing and approach to the market. We're sort of seeing price increases amongst a number of our contracts, and we will continue to stay disciplined on our pricing model. Just to point out, no additional lost sites since last year.
Got it. In terms of the 4% organic growth that you're targeting in '26, maybe just from a big picture perspective, can you walk through the segments or subsegments and kind of rank those where you have the most visibility for the year and perhaps those where visibility is a little bit more limited at this point in time?
Yes, sure. I'll take that. Chris, so if we look at our full year guidance at that midpoint, I think we haven't provided segment level guidance, but I would tell you that with the visibility that we have that our outlook for growth for Consulting Engineering and Geospatial is higher than I&M.
If we look at what drives confidence in our ability to deliver that, we have backlog within CE and Geo, which provides a lot of visibility. And as we disclosed that our backlog is up significantly. And also just with our internal flash and forecasting process within the I&M business, we also have good visibility. And inherently, things are moving, but we have good visibility to kind of what's to come. So this is our high conviction number and feel good about our ability to deliver in 2026.
Terrific. Very helpful. This one may be more for Investor Day. But just last one. Geospatial growth has bounced around a little bit, 4.5% this quarter, still sounds like lots of opportunities there. Just trying to get a sense for what a reasonable expectation is for a normalized annual growth rate for Geospatial.
I think we'll continue to see good growth within it. We're pleased with the performance of Geospatial. We did have a little bit of margin pressure from that one project we pointed out earlier. But for the most part, there's a lot of digitization required around the world, and we have a very scalable platform that we're excited about expanding and growing.
Chris, you'll have an opportunity to meet the leader of our Geospatial business in a few weeks at our Investor Day, and he'll speak more to the long-term growth outlook of the segment. I think what you're seeing in the mid-single digits is the right way to think about it.
We'll move next to Tomo Sano with JPMorgan.
I would like to ask about the I&M business. Could you quantify the revenue and margin impact of each key headwind you talk about? Excluding these, like what do you see as the segment's underlying growth and margin potential? And what is your outlook for the recovery? And there any specific KPIs you are targeting in this business?
Yes. Look, we're tracking a number of KPIs, and I would say, I would point to the Gulf has been an area of focus around improvement. We're seeing month-on-month improvement there. And with the leadership that we put in place earlier in the year, we're now just seeing a very aggressive commercial approach to that business. We talked earlier on the call about some shift with some outage work into Q3. That was known and sort of expected.
Some real positive signs also around service line expansion. Our rope access group is up 9% and our in-lab work is up 20%. So also good indications of the business and its potential growth later in the year.
And follow-up on data centers in CE business. What is your outlook for growth in data centers? What proportions of total revenue do you expect these segments to represent in 2026 and 2027?
Yes. So use round numbers around 5%. We continue to see very, very nice growth within that business. We remain very excited about it. The U.S. business is starting to really -- the efforts that we've put in over the last couple of years are really starting to pay dividends, and that is growing at a really nice clip now. So it's -- trailing 12 months was around $80 million in revenue. Backlogs of a similar amount. So we have a very strong line of sight into a strong year ahead.
We'll move next to Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group.
Just first, big picture, you're approaching in June, first full year of NV5 as part of TIC Solutions. How is the integration as we approach the year mark? What has worked and what are areas for continued growth?
I'll just sort of start at a high level and then let Kristin get into some more detail. I'd just say, and I've said this before, how pleased I am with the cultural alignment between the 2 organizations and the general level of excitement around bringing each company's services to their clients.
And I think that that's really starting to show in some of the activity we have around service line expansion with our clients. I'll let Kristin dig into a bit more detail.
Yes. Thanks, Kathryn. I'd love to talk about integration. So just a reminder, we closed in August, so that's when we'll hit the 1-year mark. From an integration milestone perspective, look, like I mentioned, we're ahead of schedule on [indiscernible] actions. And we had a few million of savings in this quarter, and that's going to continue to ramp for the full year, and we expect $15 million of savings to flow through the P&L this year, which is really exciting.
I'm proud of the leadership team that we have leading that integration for us. And in the quarter, we hit some key milestones. We exited or reduced 4 sites. We we've accomplished 13 to date. I think we've got 40 on our road map, and those are either reductions in footprint or exits of sites. We have added some key leadership additions to the team in different functional areas that are helping drive really creating scalability for this organization as we continue to grow and look to become an even larger organization and continue to grow.
We have hit some internal system implementation milestones. We've stood up a shared services function within the finance organization and using technology. So lots of good exciting activity on the integration front.
Okay. Obviously, a lot of focus on AI build-out, but also the energy build-out is critical and gaining more headlines. And really, the build-out includes generation, energy storage and transmission. When you think about those 3 legs of the stool, how does TIC solutions play in the energy build-out that's supporting not just only AI, but the broad reindustrialization of the U.S. market?
Yes. I mean they're directly related aren't they, I mean the energy demand coming from AI and other areas. The 3 that you pointed out are areas that we're very well positioned for power delivery, the engineering work that we do around that right through from transmission to distribution to substation design.
We actually just were awarded an energy storage project within the consulting and engineering group recently, a first of its kind, which is really exciting. And on the generation side of things, both -- it's an area that our NDT and inspection business works in, and it's actually quite an exciting opportunity we're working on at the moment, bringing together the data center expertise that we have in engineering and Inspection & Mitigation. So I think we're very well positioned for that growth in that area.
So if I'm hearing correctly, you're there for the build-out, but also for the follow-on inspection work that one way to think about it?
Yes. And also I would point to Geospatial, we fly 150,000 miles of lines every year. That's been growing, and that's recurring work that we do for utilities.
Okay. Great. And when you look at say, 12 to 18 months from now, where do you see -- and you see kind of the end market exposure for TIC. What areas do you see growing the most as a percentage of total overall mix?
And what may -- just by sheer growth in other markets may be shrinking. So it's broader because before, infrastructure with the mix was 25% in data centers were just 2%, but data centers obviously has grown a bit more than that. So high level, what are the areas of the greatest growth in terms of mix? And then speak to the margin profile of the growth areas.
Yes. No worries. I mean I think if I were -- I wouldn't point to any areas shrinking, but there's obviously areas that we have more tailwinds and that we're more well positioned for. Energy, certainly, when you look at both generation and distribution, as I mentioned, we're well positioned for, and we do expect to continue to grow.
The built environment in general is an area that is going very well for us, and we will continue to see. And then infrastructure across all segments is an area where just with aging infrastructure, the additional demand that is going on it, we just see a lot of tailwinds in that area, and we'll continue to grow.
We'll move next to Jeff Martin with ROTH Capital Partners.
I wanted to dive in a little bit on progress you're making with the initiatives on I&M. And are you seeing an expanding pipeline opportunity there, particularly given the chemicals business appears as though it has the potential to turn around here?
Yes. We've actually had some positive signs on the chemicals side recently in our sales pipeline. We sort of talked about the reorganization efforts that we were doing on the U.S. and particularly the Gulf, like I mentioned earlier, I don't want to bang on about it too much. But I'm just really pleased with the leadership that we have in place and the tone in the meetings.
We're definitely taking an aggressive approach to getting to new sites. And we have a nice pipeline of opportunities that I see. Once we get through this wrap effect of the lost sites into the second half of the year, we're expecting growth and very pleased with the progress that we've been making with the leadership there.
Yes. And it's great to hear you have not lost additional sites since last quarter. I wanted -- my follow-up question was on Geo. I know contract renewals on the federal government level are always kind of a tricky point as we transition out of the end of the year. And I know there was a little bit of headwind exiting last year on contract renewals. Just curious if you could give us an update there.
Yes. We haven't seen any major disruption there. They've sort of been coming in at the expected clip. So I think the bumps in the road that we had in Q4, we're not seeing signs of continuing at the moment.
We'll take our next question from Andy Wittmann with Baird.
So I guess I wanted to just ask a little bit more on the C&I segment. I heard that the call-out in the lab testing work was good. That's about half of the segment. So I guess what I'm trying to understand is the -- obviously, when you lose a run and maintain, you got to go 4 quarters till the comps ease and you talked about how that gets better in the fourth quarter.
How much of the kind of softness is just the fact that a couple of quarters ago or a quarter ago, you lost some of those contracts? And how much of it is really kind of systemic or uncertain demand? And can you talk about the uncertainty in the demand? Is that just because of volatile oil prices? Is it something else? And what does it take for better visibility to return to that market so that you can have a better sense of the timing and the scope of services that you're likely to do?
Yes. I mean you're right. The run and maintain business is our most stable piece and it sort of drives some of the more higher-margin work, and we need to get back to winning new sites, which is sort of talking about the commercial discipline and focus that we've got. I'm confident we'll get back to, especially as we get past the ramp effect of these lost sites.
Talking about uncertainty or volatility, where we're seeing that is with the outage work, and we called out the shift in some of that work from Q2 to Q3. This is nondiscretionary work that needs to be done. So they're going to need to do it at some point. And so we'll expect that work to start to flow in.
And Andy, I would just add that we certainly recognize the macro volatility that's out there right now. And I think the structure of our I&M business is fairly diversified compared to some of our other comps. We've got less than 10% of our I&M revenue is outage work, which is 5% of the combined business.
Our refinery oil and gas exposure is less than 50% of our consolidated results as well. So we're potentially less impacted by timing and also less impacted by direct oil prices. We're focused on staying disciplined with regard to inflation pressures, whether it be with rates and fuel charges and whatnot.
Yes. Just as an addendum to that question, what -- how has the competitive environment evolved against that volatility? Obviously, any time you're losing sites, that's a competitive dynamic. Has it improved or changed at all since late last year to what you're seeing this year for that?
It sounds like, Ben, you've got some initiatives there, new leadership, talking about kind of motivating the team to get these new sites. What does it take? And what's it looking like right now competitively for those?
Yes. In some cases, it's getting the culture right in the region, getting some of the leadership back that we had and that they bring work with them. So we've seen some really good initiatives around that.
There has been some pricing pressure in the Gulf in particular. I think some of that's short-lived, and we're maintaining our discipline around that. And we've got a good line of sight on some pretty good opportunities.
Okay. And then maybe just one last question. Just kind of looking at the cash flow statement, Kristin, it looks like -- obviously, the first quarter is always seasonally weak. I understand that. But just looking at the working capital here, your contract assets were a pretty big consumer of capital. Is that a result of -- you had a reference to like a larger contract where there was some subcontracted scope.
Is that what we're seeing there? Is there like a percentage of completion projects that you're using a lot of subcontract labor? And is that why that contract asset is consuming capital right now? And when do you think that, that account can reverse and start giving you back some of that capital?
Yes. Good question, Andy. It was a big focus area of mine as well. I would say that there were a couple of larger billings that went out in early April that should have gone out in March, and that was the driver. We've got an isolated list of what those were.
If you look at what else went through the cash flow statement in the quarter that was unusual, we did clear out some contingent payments for previous acquisitions, and that impacted the cash during the quarter as well. So the subcontractor cost by nature didn't drive the contract assets, but driving contract assets is a key focus of ours.
We'll move next to Josh Chan with UBS.
So maybe just a strategic one. I guess at the branch level, how would you say your combined company vision is being translated or proliferated at the branch level? Like how would you assess that at the moment?
Yes. So we have a very -- like a commercial -- centralized commercial team that is absolutely focused on educating our branches on what the services they now have at their fingertips to take to their clients. So we have a very programmatic approach to that, that's driven from the top.
We drive a very entrepreneurial culture throughout the organization. So the leaders at the branch levels are naturally very interested in what they can be bringing to their clients. And that's something that we really cultivate as a business, and that's what helps us drive our organic growth.
Okay. I appreciate that. And then maybe on Consulting Engineering, obviously, a very good quarter. What's the right run rate for that business in terms of growth? I wonder if you can think about it from a matter of volume or hours plus price. Is that how you think about growth in that business?
I mean, yes, volume and price, but I would say half of it is fixed fee, we really position ourselves at the higher value end of the work that we do to command solid pricing. And I would expect the growth path that we've got to continue. We have some really, really nice tailwinds with that business, point again to that backlog being up 14%. That's a very strong indicator of the strength of that business right now.
We'll take our next question from Stephanie Moore Jefferies.
I wanted to maybe circle back to some of the commentary around data centers. Look, I think, obviously, you're seeing some of the benefits of that growth and those investments that are being made. But could you also talk about what this can mean from a longer-term standpoint and just remind us about -- obviously, there's the build-out opportunity, but then kind of the ongoing opportunity that we could expect to see where you guys would benefit because I think there's a little bit of a misunderstanding that there's certainly a long tail here.
That's good, and I'm glad you asked that question because we are really focused on making sure that we're heavily involved in the ongoing operations of data centers. The services that we have position us really well for that actually. So only about 15% of the revenue we do in data centers is associated with ongoing operations right now. But if you think about -- that's growing.
And if you think about what happens in these data centers, the technology is changing all the time. And so as they bring these new servers in, they require engineering, retro commissioning, CFD, Computer Fluid Dynamics. These are all things that we do, and we're working with our clients ongoing.
We also have a program management owners rep service that applies to data centers. So we are very, very focused on making sure that this isn't a one-off with all the work that we do and that we have a strong tail with each of these sites that we touch.
Great. That's very helpful. And then maybe just thinking about -- I guess, just thinking about the underlying business, as you think about just what -- as you think about the cross-selling opportunity, I know you touched on this a little bit, but I think if we think back to the original merits of NV5, there were significant cross-selling opportunities.
So maybe just help us focus on what might be the more immediate benefits that we could start to see and what actions -- and I guess, more importantly, what actions have been taken behind the scenes from either management or operations level that allow you to go and capture those revenue synergies?
Yes. Great. We have a team that actually reports directly to me that's 100% focused on driving cross-selling through the organization. As you know, NV5 had a very strong cross-selling program, and we've extended and improved upon that for the TIC Solutions platform.
I would say, as we're getting more mature with it, we are starting to see the trends in the areas that we can get more behind and focused on. Some examples is we're seeing clients really excited about the fact that we can do materials testing and quality assurance along with our NDT capabilities.
So sort of a turnkey approach there. Pipeline and integrity, all segments have exposure there and bringing all the capabilities that we have sort of seamlessly is also something that we're excited about. And then around infrastructure and bridge inspection, that's an area where NV5 has very strong credentials, and we're bringing along our rope access and inspection capabilities and called out some specific projects last quarter.
So just a few examples at a strategic level of where we're seeing opportunity. But I'm really pleased with the activity and the momentum that we're gaining around our cross-selling program right now.
And Stephanie, I would just add that we look at cross-selling more broadly even and see tremendous opportunity for service line expansion within the segment as well.
So if you think about rope access opportunities in lab engineering, cross-selling within I&M as well as Geospatial across to consulting engineering. So from a broad perspective, tremendous opportunity from a white space perspective within our existing customer base and also within M&A market.
And it does appear that there are no further questions at this time. I would now like to hand back to Ben for any additional or closing remarks.
Yes. Well, thanks, everyone, for your questions and for your continued interest in TIC Solutions. We remain focused on growth, execution and delivering on our commitments. We look forward to seeing you all at our Investor Day later this month, hopefully, and updating you on our progress next quarter. Thanks, everyone, and have a good day.
Thank you. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.
Tic Solutions Inc — Q1 2026 Earnings Call
Solid Q1: combined revenue up 4.3%, backlog +14%, Consulting Engineering and Geospatial driving growth while Inspection & Mitigation lags.
📊 Quarter at a Glance
- Revenue: $488M total; combined +4.3% YoY, +3.1% constant currency; organic +2.2%.
- Adjusted gross profit: $180M (+3.8% YoY); adjusted gross margin 36.9% (roughly flat).
- Adjusted EBITDA: $57.7M vs. $55.6M prior combined; margin 11.8% (roughly flat). Adjusted EBITDA excludes certain items to show operating performance.
- Backlog: $1.12B (+~14% YoY; backlog = signed work not yet recognized as revenue).
🎯 What Management Says
- Strategy: Focus on essential high‑demand end markets, expanding across the asset life cycle, and driving higher‑value services to improve margins and returns.
- Execution: Integration and cross‑segment selling are being pushed from the top; regional accountability and leadership changes in I&M to improve commercial discipline.
- Value creation: Emphasis on pricing discipline, utilization, service mix and disciplined capital allocation (organic investment and targeted M&A).
🔭 Outlook & Guidance
- Q2 guide: Revenue $570M–$582M; adjusted EBITDA $90M–$96M (midpoint ~16.1% EBITDA margin).
- FY 2026 guide: Revenue $2.15B–$2.25B; adjusted EBITDA $330M–$355M (midpoint ≈4% revenue growth, ≈10% EBITDA growth vs. 2025 combined).
- Cash & capital: Liquidity $537M; term loan $1.6B; 2026 net interest $95M–$105M; cash taxes $25M–$35M; capex $55M–$65M. Synergies: ~$17M actioned, ~$15M expected realized in 2026.
❓ Analyst Q&A
- I&M pressure: Questions focused on lost lower‑margin sites, Gulf Coast weakness and timing shifts; management says no new site losses, pricing discipline intact, expects back‑half recovery as outages re‑timed and leadership changes take hold.
- Data centers & CE: CE grew 9.5%; data centers highlighted as a durable driver (trailing 12‑mo. ≈$80M, similar backlog) with ongoing operations work as a long tail.
- Integration: Ahead on cost actions (13 site actions to date, 40 on roadmap), shared services stood up; cross‑sell initiatives and Geo AI/automation highlighted for future upside.
⚡ Bottom Line
- View: The quarter shows durable demand in Consulting Engineering and Geospatial, backlog growth and early synergy progress, while Inspection & Mitigation needs execution and timing to normalize; guidance is reaffirmed but watch cash conversion, I&M recovery and leverage as catalysts to validate the story.
Tic Solutions Inc — Q4 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Hello, and welcome to the TIC Solutions Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Andrew Shen, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call. Joining me this morning is Tal Pizzey, our Chief Executive Officer; Ben Heraud, our President and Chief Operating Officer; Kristin Schultes, our Chief Financial Officer; and Robbie Franklin, Executive Chairman.
As disclosed in our earnings release, we would like to acknowledge the planned leadership transition we announced this morning. Ben Heraud has been appointed Chief Executive Officer effective March 31, 2026, succeeding Tal Pizzey. Tal will continue to serve on our Board of Directors and act as an adviser to Ben through and following the transition to ensure continuity. We will provide additional context during our prepared remarks.
I would now like to remind you that certain statements in the company's earnings press release and on this call are forward-looking statements that are based on expectations, intentions and projections regarding the company's future performance, anticipated events or trends and other measures that are not historical facts. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
In our press release and filings with the SEC, we detail material risks that may cause our future results to differ from our expectations. Our statements are as of today, March 12, 2026, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements we may make except as required by law.
As a reminder, we have posted a presentation detailing our fourth quarter financial performance on the Investor Relations page of our website @ticsolutions.com.
Our comments today will also include non-GAAP financial measures and other key operating metrics. The required reconciliations of non-GAAP financial metrics can be found in our press release and in our presentation. For the purpose of this call, we refer to our segments as Inspection and Mitigation, or I&M, Consulting Engineering or CE, and Geospatial or GEO. Any reference to combined results reflects a non-GAAP combined view of legacy Acuren and legacy NV5 for comparability. More details on the calculations of the combined results are included in the presentation.
Let me outline the flow of today's prepared remarks. Tal will provide opening comments. Ben will review our operating priorities and segment performance. Kristin will cover our financial results, integration progress and our 2026 outlook. Robbie will conclude with strategic priorities and capital allocation. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Tal.
Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, everyone. This morning, we announced the planned leadership transition that has been contemplated as part of our broader succession planning process. After nearly 4 decades with the business, including serving as Chief Executive Officer, I will be transitioning from the CEO role as I prepare for retirement. I will continue to serve on the Board and act as an adviser to Ben and his team to ensure a seamless transition.
Since joining Acuren in 1987, it has been a privilege to help build this organization. We entered the public markets and completed the combination with NV5 create TIC Solutions a $2 billion revenue company. Ben has been deeply involved in shaping the combined operating model since the NV5 combination closed in August. He understands the platform, the culture and the priorities ahead. I have full confidence in his leadership as the company moves into this next chapter.
With that, I will turn the call over to Ben.
Thank you, Tal. I'm excited to step into the CEO role on March 31 and to build on the strong foundation we have established across both legacy organizations. Since joining TIC Solutions in August, my priority has been sharpening our commercial execution across the platform. That starts with aligning leadership around clear growth priorities, strengthening account management processes and accelerating cross-segment collaboration. We are driving greater consistency and pricing and utilization.
Before joining TIC Solutions, I served as CEO of NV5 and previously as COO. I joined NV5 through the acquisition of Energenz, a business I co-founded and spent more than a decade building and scaling engineering and commissioning operations across global markets. That experience in building commercial teams, improving operating rigor and driving prudent capital allocation informs how I approach this next chapter.
2025 marked an important step change for TIC Solutions. We completed the combination, rebranded and established a scale TIC, Engineering and Geospatial platform positioned for the next phase of growth. On a combined basis, in 2025, we grew revenue approximately 4% to $2.1 billion, representing our highest combined full year revenue. We delivered approximately $312 million of adjusted EBITDA and 14.8% adjusted EBITDA margin for the full year. We now operate at meaningful scale with a diversified end market mix and a recurring revenue base anchored in compliance and essential services that positions us well for durable growth.
We have an incredible opportunity ahead to expand margins and compound earnings through focused execution of our strategy.
And as we move into 2026, our priorities are clear. First, we will accelerate organic growth across the platform with a particular focus on cross-selling and deeper client engagement across our segments. We see a meaningful opportunity to expand share of wallet with key infrastructure, industrial, utilities, data center and government clients by leveraging our combined capabilities. Second, we are focused on strengthening organizational alignment and cultural cohesion across TIC, so we retain our great talent and deploy our resources and capital to the highest return opportunities. Finally, we'll drive margin expansion through prudent cost management, service mix improvement and utilization improvements as we scale.
We're beginning to see tangible cross-selling traction across the platform. For example, we're in late-stage negotiations on a multiyear bridge infrastructure engagement. The scope brings together drone-based LiDAR mapping and modeling, engineering oversight and design review, both access and inspection capabilities, allowing the client to execute a long-term inspection and maintenance solution. This is a good example of how we can serve as a multidisciplined provider across the asset life cycle, which we believe is a differentiator in the market. In this example, we expect opportunities to expand and scope over time, including additional inspection work and analytics services. This project is emblematic of the sizable market opportunity ahead for this integrated offering.
Our revenue base remains anchored in recurring and repeat compliance-driven inspection, Engineering and Geospatial activity. We believe the diversified nature of our portfolio provides enhanced stability and performance greater flexibility and capital allocation.
Diving into segment performance, CE continued to perform well. Activity in data centers, infrastructure, engineering, building planning and design and specialty services such as the development of digital twins remains healthy. Results were supported by ongoing infrastructure investment and grid hardening and modernization programs. These programs are typically embedded within multiyear capital plans rather than short cycle activity.
Data center revenue increased meaningfully year-over-year, reaching nearly $70 million in 2025, more than doubling versus the prior year. We continue to see strong momentum with line of sight to nearly $100 million of data center revenue supported by contracted backlog and programmatic client engagements. Within data centers, our work expands building systems design commissioning and power-related scopes, including mechanical, electrical, bioprotection, substation, peer review and digital modeling services.
Our mix reflects a broader life cycle position. We support hyperscale and colocation clients from early stage engineering and design through commissioning and operational optimization, increasing scope density per site and supporting repeat deployment across multiphase campus relationships. We also recently secured a U.S.-based I&M engagement within the data center vertical, extending our inspection capabilities into the mission-critical space. The scope involves radiographic testing of critical mechanical systems. The engagement demonstrates the applicability of our advanced NDT capabilities within the data center ecosystem.
We continue to deepen relationships with global hyperscale clients and as we expand service rep within existing accounts, we expect to continue gaining market share.
GEO delivered steady growth and strong margins, supported by utility demand, healthy fleet utilization and increasing contribution from analytics and software services. During the quarter, the federal funding lapse slowed certain procurement and approval processes, which affected timing of work in select programs. The impact was limited to award and approval pacing, and there were no material cancellations. We expect execution timing and visibility to improve as we progress through the year.
In February, we announced GEO Agent, our proprietary AI-enabled geospatial platform, and we expect to begin rolling it out to clients in the coming weeks. GEO Agent is designed to integrate with clients' existing systems record and over time, it should improve processing efficiency, automate key workflows and enable higher-value analytics. We expect it to support faster delivery times and incremental analytics services over time while operating within client environments and established workflows.
Year-end backlog within CE and GEO was $1.07 billion, up about 10% from approximately $970 million last year. In I&M, Lower volumes were concentrated in the Gulf Coast, primarily due to LNG construction timing and slower chemical activity, along with a few site losses amid elevated competition. Competitive intensity in the region remained elevated during 2025, and we stayed disciplined on pricing while tightening account coverage and improving staffing and resource deployment. LNG-related demand has increased globally and we believe the impact in our second half results reflect timing between major construction phases rather than demand deterioration.
We have strengthened regional leadership in the Gulf Coast and made targeted leadership additions with an inspection of litigation to drive operating consistency, commercial focus and improved resource deployment. We remain focused on margin quality, and we continue to pursue work that meets our margin thresholds. We maintain pricing integrity even when competitors were more aggressive, and we will not trade long-term economics for short-term volume.
Our embedded run and maintain programs and call-out activity grew in the year. This recurring and repeat revenue base provides meaningful visibility and resiliency across cycles. This growth was offset by declines in the timing and scale of outages and capital projects. To strengthen execution we refined the I&M operating model during the quarter by reorganizing the segment into economically meaningful operating regions with clear P&L ownership. We also streamlined support function and improved indirect cost management to reduce duplication and improve coordination.
We are tightening utilization management, asset deployment and cost oversight.
On the commercial side, we are reinforcing structured account and pipeline management discipline across our largest customers with compensation frameworks aligned to growth and renewal performance. Collectively, these actions are intended to improve execution consistency and support margin progression in 2026. We plan to host an Investor Day in May to outline our longer-term growth strategy, margin trajectory and capital allocation framework, including additional detail on our updated I&M operating framework.
Across TIC Solutions, this quarter's performance reinforces the benefits of scale and diversification in our business. We believe that this positions the company for continued growth and margin progression.
And with that, I'll turn the call over to Kristin to review the financial details for the full year and fourth quarter 2025, provide an update on integration and offer context for our 2026 outlook.
Thank you, Ben, and congratulations. Good morning, everyone. On a combined basis, full year revenue grew 4.4% on a constant currency basis or 3.6% as reported to $2.1 billion after FX headwinds in the year. Full year combined adjusted gross profit was $794 million, with adjusted gross margin of 37.6%, up 14 basis points. In I&M, revenue was approximately $1.1 billion for 2025, roughly flat for the year with growth in industrial, midstream, wind and automotive, offset by localized softness in the Gulf Coast. I&M full year adjusted gross margin was 27.8% compared to 28.5% in the prior year.
On a combined basis, CE revenue was $714 million, up roughly 8% against 2024, lifted by infrastructure and data center tailwinds. CE's full year adjusted gross margin was 47.0% and up 150 basis points against 45.5% in the prior year driven by data center growth and real estate transaction work.
On a combined basis, Geospatial revenue was $298 million, up roughly 6% against 2024, driven by strong commercial demand as well as broadening analytics and software sales. Geospatial's full year adjusted gross margin was 51.5% compared to 53.6% in the prior year, driven by mix and utilization.
Now shifting to our fourth quarter results. Total revenue was $508 million, reflecting a full quarter of NV5 contribution. On a combined basis, this was roughly flat year-over-year, with growth in CE and GEO offset by I&M. Adjusted gross profit for the quarter was $197 million, up 8% from the combined $183 million. Adjusted gross margin was 38.8%, up 277 basis points from the combined margin of 36.0% in the prior year period. This performance represented margin expansion on a dollar and percentage basis across all 3 segments.
In I&M, revenue was $258 million in the fourth quarter, down 2% driven by lower outage and capital project spending. Adjusted gross margin was 28.2% for the quarter compared to 26.1% in the prior year period. The over 200 basis point margin improvement reflects favorable mix, including higher call-out activity as well as improved execution.
On a combined basis, CE contributed fourth quarter revenue of $181 million, up 2%. CE's adjusted gross margin was 46.9% in the quarter up 150 basis points against 45.4% in the prior year period, driven by infrastructure and data center tailwinds.
On a combined basis, GEO contributed fourth quarter revenue of $70 million, up 2%, with growth impacted due to the federal funding lapse. GEO's adjusted gross margin of 57.2% in the quarter improved against 50.0% in the prior year period, reflecting favorable project mix and strong operational execution.
The margin improvement in each of our 3 segments in the quarter demonstrates real momentum as we start 2026. Adjusted SG&A for the quarter was $124 million or 24.4% of revenue reflecting the inclusion of NV5 operations, which carry a higher SG&A ratio. In the near term, we are attacking the elevated SG&A levels through the announced integration program as well as our commercial excellence initiatives.
Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $76.4 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 15.0% compared to $40.7 million in the prior year period. The full year combined adjusted EBITDA was $312 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.8%. We improved cash conversion during the year, supported by lower DSO and tire working capital management. Operating cash flow as reported for the year was $95 million, reflecting only a partial year contribution from NV5.
Capital expenditures for the full year totaled $34 million or 2.2% of revenue. On a combined basis, CapEx was $56 million or 2.7% of revenue reflecting our low capital intensity and asset-light business.
Moving now to an overview of our balance sheet and capital resources. As of year-end, we had total liquidity of $551 million, including approximately $440 million of cash and cash equivalents and $111 million of available capacity under our revolving credit facility. Total term loan debt was approximately $1.6 billion. Our balance sheet is in a solid position, and we remain focused on generating free cash flow to achieve our long-term net leverage ratio target of below 3x.
In October, we completed a $250 million private placement of 20.8 million shares of common stock and prefunded warrants to an existing shareholder. The transaction strengthened our balance sheet and provided additional flexibility to fund growth opportunities and to deleverage.
Turning to integration. We transitioned to the execution phase of the integration program toward the end of the fourth quarter. We remain on track to execute on the $25 million of cost synergies that we've committed to delivering. We anticipate roughly half of the annualized cost savings to be realized during 2026. And we expect to reach full synergy run rate by mid-2027. To ensure disciplined execution, our integration management office has clear ownership across key functional work streams with defined milestones to track delivery and cost capture while ensuring operational stability. We are also focused on communication, incentive alignment and cultural integration as we bring the organizations together.
Now turning to our outlook. For the full year 2026, we expect revenue in the range of $2.15 billion to $2.25 billion and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $330 million to $355 million. At the midpoint, this implies approximately 4% revenue growth over our 2025 combined baseline of $2.1 billion. Meaningful year-over-year growth in adjusted EBITDA is expected to be driven by commercial focus and partial realization of our cost synergies, along with the operating model refinements and I&M that Ben discussed earlier.
By segment, on a combined basis, we expect growth in CE and GEO to outpace growth in I&M for the full year. Please note that our 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance reflects an $8 million investment related to compensation alignment actions at NV5. Specifically, we made a decision to reclassify the short-term incentive program at NV5 from stock-based compensation to cash compensation, which all else equal, reduces adjusted EBITDA beginning in 2026, thus impacting our guidance framework. This important change reflects an integrated market-based compensation structure at TIC. We are excited to announce this to our team, and we believe this will help retain and attract top talent as we continue to grow. We expect typical seasonality in 2026, consistent with the combined profile of our business.
First quarter adjusted EBITDA typically represents roughly 15% to 18% of full year EBITDA. In line with historical patterns. The first quarter is generally the lightest quarter of the year, and we expect activity levels and margins to improve with performance weighted towards the second and third quarters. As you think about the first quarter, based on what we see today and our internal planning assumptions, we imply revenue in the range of $470 million to $485 million and adjusted EBITDA of $55 million to $60 million.
From a cash flow perspective, we expect healthy free cash flow conversion from adjusted EBITDA. In 2026, we expect net interest expense of $95 million to $105 million, cash taxes in the range of $20 million to $30 million and capital expenditures between $60 million to $70 million. We also expect working capital to be a modest use of cash as we see growth this year. Taken together, these items frame our expected free cash flow generation for 2026.
We are excited to be filing our first 10-K as a combined company. I want to thank our teams across the organization for the care, commitment and TIC first mindset that they've demonstrated through this period of change. Many leaders within our businesses have taken on additional responsibilities to move this forward and the integration momentum and progress we've made reflects the pride and ownership our teams bring to the table every day.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Robbie to discuss our long-term strategy and capital allocation priorities.
Good morning, and thank you, Kristin. I also want to thank our investors for your continued engagement and support. Before I outline our strategic priorities, I want to reiterate the Board's confidence in Ben's leadership and thank Tal for his decades of service. With integration underway, TIC Solutions is a unified platform with meaningful scale across inspection, engineering and geospatial analytics. Our revenue base is anchored in nondiscretionary maintenance, regulatory compliance, utility programs and long-cycle investment across critical industries.
We support our clients from planning and design through commissioning, maintenance, compliance and asset optimization. Our team combined field data collection with design, analysis and digital capabilities that enhance reliability and reduce operational risk. Our capital allocation framework is disciplined. We will prioritize deleveraging towards our long-term target, reinvest organically in the highest return areas of our business and pursue selective tuck-ins and larger acquisitions that enhance capability, geography or technical depth at attractive returns.
This week, our Board authorized a $200 million share repurchase program, which we may use opportunistically based on market conditions. With scale, diverse end markets and resilient revenue characteristics, we believe TIC Solutions is positioned to compound earnings and cash flow over time. 2026 is a critical year for TIC Solutions. We are laser-focused on execution and delivering on the targets we have shared with the investor community. We are encouraged by our early results to start the year and have confidence in our team's ability to drive top and bottom line growth.
And with that, I'll turn the call back to Ben for -- to close our prepared remarks.
Thank you, Robbie. As we close, I want to frame where we are going. 2025 was a pivotal year for TIC Solutions. We successfully brought together 2 scaled organizations, strengthened the balance sheet and advanced integration while continuing to deliver for our clients without disruption. The structural tailwinds in our markets remain intact, including infrastructure reinvestment, grid modernization, increasing technical and regulatory complexity and the continued expansion of mission-critical facilities.
As we move into 2026, we are focused on accelerating growth by increasing share of wallet, expanding cross-selling across our segments and scaling our account coverage, while strengthening how we work together and reinforcing a common culture. That focus supports continued margin progression and cash generation while maintaining balance sheet strength, which will ultimately drive shareholder returns.
I want to take a moment to recognize our teammates across TIC Solutions, they've handled a period of significant change with discipline and focus while staying committed to delivering for our clients every day.
Thank you. With that, operator, we're ready to open the line for questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first questions come from the line of Chris Moore with CJS Securities.
2. Question Answer
This is Will on for Chris. Can you talk a little bit more about the integration process in a little more detail? Are there specific milestones you're looking to reach in 2026?
Yes. Thank you for the question. I will tell you that we are -- I am extremely proud of the team and the momentum that we have so far, a high degree of confidence in our ability to execute on this. Right now, I would tell you that some of our focus areas have been around communications and culture, which is incredibly important, especially during leadership transitions. We're working through compensation studies and alignment and choosing system implementation partners.
So if you think about our commitment of $25 million of savings and capturing half of that this year, think about that as roughly 60% headcount and the rest non-headcount. And the team is meeting weekly on individual milestones and on track, we're ahead of schedule.
That's super helpful. And then on the top line, can you talk more about the biggest potential synergies and go-to-market strategies? And what are you hearing from customers? Is there any cross-selling opportunities that you're seeing that you weren't thinking about initially?
Yes. Thanks, we touched on it on the call, but we have some really exciting developments and opportunities that are coming through the cross-selling program. Been really pleased with how the segments have been coming together and exploring ideas with their clients. We have a lot of white space between the businesses that create opportunity. But just pointing to that recent win and inspection mitigation within the data center space, that's really exciting, that's completely new to inspection of mitigation. So to be able to get that exposure to that market where we're seeing a lot of tailwinds is exciting.
And then on the infrastructure side of things, we're able to really service the full life cycle of any kind of asset now with our capabilities from planning and design, consulting and engineering through I&M, it's driving opportunity for us to service our clients in new ways. So we're seeing a lot of upside. It does take time to get these wins in play. We're going to put these ideas in front of our clients and give it to a contract, but very pleased with the progress that we're seeing so far.
Our next questions come from the line of Brian Biros with Thompson Research Group.
This is Chris calling in for Brian. A couple of questions on end markets. It seems fair to say that some of the smaller exposure categories are the fastest-growing. In your release and prepared comments, you called out significant organic growth in data centers, and we know that aerospace is another fast-growing end market. Both of these, of course, are higher-margin businesses. Where do you think these businesses could be in the next 12 to 24 months? And could they represent a double-digit percentage of sales?
Yes. I mean in terms of organic growth, we sort of we've doubled the data center business over the last 12 months, and we're continuing to see -- be on track for continued significant growth. Related to that is power delivery and the the demand that data centers are putting on the grid. We're very, very well positioned to exploit that also with our technical capabilities in that space, along with infrastructure and general and the demand that we're seeing there. So some good end markets. Data centers will continue to grow and outpace certain parts of the business, especially as we layer in new services and increase our revenue per megawatt.
Chris, I would just add that we're really excited about with the combination of the businesses is the more diversified platform. And really, we see all of our end markets is having tailwinds. So yes, there are pockets of outsized or outpaced growth. But in general, we're really optimistic about all of our end markets.
Yes, probably a good indicator of that. The backlog being up 10% year-on-year.
Yes. Fantastic. And then can you talk a little bit about your expectations on the inspection side for the energy and oil end markets? I know they can be somewhat lumpy quarter-to-quarter with the chemical market pressure and how oil and gas is performing, but how should we think about that end market into 2026.
Yes. I mean we have good visibility on the business. A very large percentage of it is planned outages and run and maintain year-on-year as we look at the number of sites that we're working on, that's similar. And in a lot of cases, the contracts have a longer time line. So we have good visibility there.
Our next questions come from the line of Tomo Sano with JPMorgan.
Could you talk about the EBITDA margins in the latest 2026 guidance. IC is lower than what was indicated in your prior outlook given the considerations of the stock comp to cash comp, I get that, but what other reasons for this more vicious margin outlook compared to what you guided 3 months ago, please?
Yes. Thank you. So you're spot on the previous range was 15.5% to 16.5% and have been adjusted by the stock compensation investment that we've decided to make. We think this is best for the business in the long term and really drive the integration of the team and provides market-based compensation for our team. So we feel that that's the right decision from there.
And from there, we've given a nice framework for our 2026 guidance, both on revenue and adjusted EBITDA on a consolidated basis. Demonstrating dementing growth on the top line as well as margin expansion coming from improved execution across all 3 segments as well as the planned cost synergy realization.
And follow up on CEO transitions. Could you elaborate on the timing and the rationale for this transition? And should we expect any changes in strategies or execution, please?
It's Robbie. The transition sort of contemplated from the onset, when we bought Acuren helping the business for a very long time, and we wanted to create an environment where he could execute and really have its fingerprints on what the combined TIC Solutions entity would look like.
And we also -- we had Ben who was already CEO of NV5, new the business, but we wanted to give him sort of the period to learn about Acuren and sort of the inspection side of the business. So in terms of timing, we feel like this is sort of the right transition time as we build. As we build sort of this unified culture.
So pretty consistent with sort of our original thinking. And the Board and the entire team is very supportive of sort of this path.
Our next questions come from the line of Alex Rago with Texas Capital.
Thank you very much. More broadly, can you address the current situation in the Middle East and the rise in oil prices and how that could impact your business or some of your customers' decisions?
Yes. So the Middle East is a relatively small piece of our business, around 1%. So it's relatively immaterial, like now the impacts that we're seeing are minimal on the business there. As far as the price of oil and the impact on the business, we could see some additional work around pipelines. It's good for our oil sands business. And the refinery side of the business is relatively stable. So I mentioned earlier the good line of sight that we have with the run and maintain business. And right now, the outlook looks good.
Very helpful. And then as it relates to revenue guidance, which just kind of 2% to 7% growth rate, can you talk about the primary variables that could cause this to be either kind of closer to the high end or the low end?
Yes. So from a 2026 perspective on the top line, I would tell you we have a high degree of confidence in this and it was a very thoughtful approach that we did to the budgeting process this year down to the division level and a bottoms-up approach. And given the tailwinds we have in our business, we feel very confident in our ability to deliver against that.
Our next questions come from the line of Harold Antor with Jefferies.
This is Harold Antor on for Stephanie Moore. So a quick question. Just on the pricing front, could you remind us what pricing rack historically, how it trended in the quarter? Just give me we're more disciplined and what, as you focus on the margin profile we want to walk away from some businesses. And then I guess, do you see that you guys are better positioned to be more aggressive on pricing, just given you provide the full suite of products and services today versus mostly competitors we can't compete on our phone.
Yes. So we mentioned some of the work that we've done around the organization of our inspection and mitigation business in the U.S. that has offered us an opportunity to be more competitive on our pricing and go after more of the work in that space. A lot of the work that we price is more on a value proposition, fixed fee kind of work and we continue to see good momentum there. I would also just point back to the backlog being up 10% and the sales being very positive through the first part of this year already.
And yes, just -- I mean, you mentioned the mix of work. And if we think of this opportunity to work through the life cycle of an asset, we are very sticky with our clients -- we have very strong relationships and our ability to work through the entire life cycle of an asset keeps us very sticky with those assets and clients.
And Harold, on the pricing, I think also I would just remind you to point back to our Q4 results, gross margin dollars and percentages were up across all 3 of our segments. We feel really good about that heading into 2026. And if you combine that with some of the operational initiatives under Ben's leadership, high confidence.
Yes. And then just to piggyback on an earlier question, Ben, I think you highlighted that you see a line of sight of $100 million in data center revenue. Just wanted to get a sense, is that a '27 event? Is that a '28 event? Or is that just -- is that a longer-term event? Just wanted to get a sense of the timing on that.
It's '26 line of sight. So we have a very strong backlog, particularly to that, and we have multiyear programs, some extremely resource constrained area of the business where we have very strong relationships with the hyperscalers. So we see over the next 12 months line of sight to those numbers.
And then I could squeeze in 1 more just on capital allocation that you guys focused did the buyback. So should we be thinking more of the capital being deployed and buy backs? Or do you expect to do a little bit more on tuck-in side, any organic growth implementation investments that you could provide a little bit more color, that would be great. And that's all for me.
So on capital allocation, we have a robust tuck-in line that we're going to continue to execute on. But we thought, as a Board, it was prudent have the flexibility to have a buyback program in place given where market conditions are. And frankly, there's no better acquisition than your own stock at the right levels. So we have a very opportunistic view on how we approach ,but there is no question we're continuing with in pipeline because it creates a more robust a more robust operating profile and allows us to new geographies and new service lines, which are critical to sort of our investment thesis.
Harold, I would just add that on our -- on the tuck-in side that Robbie mentioned, I'm really proud of the team's ability to continue maintaining focus on the broader integration with the merger, but also remain focused on the importance of the small tuck-in strategy that we have that's been largely successful for us. So we completed 3 small tuck-ins during the quarter and the combined business together at 12% for the full year, and that's across all 3 segments.
So we're excited to continue that into the New Year.
[Operator Instructions]
We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would now like to hand the call back over to Ben Heraud for any closing comments.
Thank you all for your questions. I just wanted to reemphasize our strategic priorities to drive shareholder value. One, we need to accelerate our organic growth, and we will. Two, we're going to strengthen our organizational alignment and cultural cohesion. And three, drive margin expansion.
Finally, I want to thank our investors for their continued support and partnership. We look forward to updating you on our next quarter. Thank you all, and have a good day.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does now conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Tic Solutions Inc — Q4 2025 Earnings Call
TIC Solutions posts modest revenue growth and meaningful margin expansion while executing integration, a planned CEO transition, and 2026 guidance.
📊 Quarter at a Glance
- Revenue: $2.1B full year (3.6% reported; 4.4% constant currency)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $312M full year (14.8% margin); Q4 $76.4M (15.0%)
- Backlog: CE+GEO year-end backlog $1.07B (+10% YoY)
- Balance Sheet: Liquidity $551M (cash ~ $440M); term loan ~$1.6B; target net leverage <3x
- Segment Margins: Full-year gross margins — CE 47.0%, GEO 51.5%, I&M 27.8%; Q4 margin expansion across all segments
🎯 What Management Says
- Growth priorities: Accelerate organic growth via cross-selling, deepen client account management, and expand data center, infrastructure, utilities and government work to increase share of wallet.
- Integration focus: Execute $25M of targeted cost synergies (≈50% realized in 2026; full run-rate by mid‑2027) and simplify I&M regional structure to improve utilization and margin quality.
- Capital strategy: Board approved $200M repurchase program while prioritizing deleveraging and selective tuck‑ins to add capability and geography.
🔭 Outlook & Guidance
- 2026 guidance: Revenue $2.15B–$2.25B; adjusted EBITDA $330M–$355M (midpoint ≈4% revenue growth vs. 2025 combined)
- Near-term: Q1 implied revenue $470M–$485M; Q1 adjusted EBITDA $55M–$60M; typical seasonality with stronger H2
- Cash & investments: CapEx $60M–$70M; net interest $95M–$105M; cash taxes $20M–$30M; guidance includes an $8M drag from reclassifying NV5 short‑term stock comp to cash comp
❓ Analyst Q&A
- Integration detail: Management says integration is on track and ahead in some milestones; ~60% of $25M savings from headcount, weekly IMO tracking, half of savings expected in 2026.
- Cross‑sell / data centers: Strong traction — data center revenue doubled to ~$70M in 2025 with line of sight to ~$100M in 2026 via multiyear programs and hyperscaler relationships.
- Leadership & execution: CEO transition planned and board‑approved; analysts pressed on margin guidance and pricing discipline — management emphasizes margin quality over volume and disciplined pricing in Gulf Coast I&M.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Bottom Line: The combined TIC platform shows early execution wins — top‑line growth, broad margin expansion and clear synergy targets — but delivery hinges on integration progress, SG&A reduction and deleveraging; the $200M buyback and disciplined M&A policy give flexibility if execution stays on track.
Tic Solutions Inc — Q3 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Hello, and welcome to the TIC Solutions Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Andrew Shen, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. Joining me this morning is Tal Pizzey, our Chief Executive Officer; Kristin Schultes, our Chief Financial Officer; and Rob Franklin, Executive Chairman; Ben Harrod, our President and Chief Operating Officer, will join us for the Q&A session.
Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that certain statements in the company's earnings press release and on this call are forward-looking statements, which are based on expectations, intentions and projections regarding the company's future performance, anticipated events or trends and other matters that are not historical facts. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In our press release and filings with the SEC we detailed material risks that may cause our future results to differ from our expectations. Our statements are as of today, November 12, 2025, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements we may make except as required by law.
As a reminder, we have posted a presentation detailing our third quarter financial performance on the Investor Relations page of our new website, reflecting our recent name change, www.ticksolutions.com. Our comments today will also include non-GAAP financial measures and other key operating metrics. The required reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial metrics can be found in our press release and in our presentation. Before we begin, let me outline the flow of today's prepared remarks. Tal will cover business performance and key operational highlights. Kristen will review our financial results, provide an update on our outlook and share progress on our integration program. Robbie will share perspectives on the strategic alignment of the combined company and how TIC Solutions is positioned for long-term growth. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Tal.
Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for your continued interest in TIC Solutions. Welcome to our third quarter 2025 earnings call. As you may have seen, our new name, TIC solutions reflects the unification of Acorn and NV5 under a single platform dedicated to reliability, innovation and service excellence. During the quarter, we brought together these 2 strong organizations under the TIC Solutions banner. This creates a unified tech-enabled ticket engineering services leader with scale diversification and momentum across infrastructure, energy transition and data centers that deliver comprehensive asset integrity and infrastructure solutions. I am pleased with what I'm seeing in these early months. Our teams are collaborating well and we're laying the groundwork for meaningful synergy capture as integration actions move from year-end into 2026. The new name also reflects our intention to continue to expand the markets we serve and the services we provide within the tech and engineering space.
Let me start with our strategic vision recent performance and market momentum. As a combined entity, we now support clients across the full life cycle of critical assets and infrastructure from design and construction through commissioning, operation, ongoing maintenance, compliance and decommissioning. Our technicians and technology collect critical data on asset condition whether the asset is as small as a pressure safety valve or as large as a data center, a bridge or a short line. Our engineers then analyze that data with capabilities to use artificial intelligence to assess integrity, extend life and where needed, mitigate risk through our industrial rope access and remediation capabilities.
We are not simply larger or more capable and that matters in serving the complex regulated needs of our end markets where reliability, safety and compliance are paramount. Equally important is the diversification we've achieved through the combination. We're now a $2 billion-plus business with balanced exposure across multiple attractive end markets. On a combined year-to-date basis, we delivered year-over-year revenue growth of approximately 5% across our 3 segments. Our growth was supported by double-digit expansion in our Consulting Engineering segment. The exciting data center work for our hyperscaler clients more than doubled over the trailing 12 months, reflecting the accelerating demand from AI and cloud infrastructure build-outs. As hyperscalers expand into new geographies, we're growing with them, both domestically and internationally.
Activity and infrastructure conformity assessment building, planning and design and building digitization also continues to strengthen alongside infrastructure build-out across North America. Finally, infrastructure investments supporting grid modernization and the energy transition are creating new opportunities across all 3 of our segments. These are not short-term trends. They are multiyear growth drivers reinvestment in both new and aging infrastructure expands our addressable market and our combined capabilities position us well to compete and win.
Moving to Geospatial our geospatial data collection and analytics services performed well with steady mid-single-digit growth against the prior year as well as a compelling margin during the quarter. Performance was supported by healthy utilization, increased momentum in aerial hydrospatial and stable demand across both public and private sector clients. The Inspection and Mitigation segment has delivered year-to-date growth despite the negative impact related to the timing of capital projects such as LNG construction, softness in the chemicals customer base and foreign exchange headwinds. In the third quarter, growing run and maintain activity along with stable callout work helped offset these declines.
Turning to integration and cross-sell execution. We are having meaningful conversations with our clients about delivering more solutions than either business could provide independently. In several cases, we're already collaborating on opportunities that leverage our combined capabilities and these joint efforts will translate into tangible revenue wins and new value for our clients as we further integrate. We've seen examples of tangible cross-selling momentum. I'll provide to -- our consulting engineering team is partnering with our inspection and mitigation team on a nationwide laser scanning and digital blueprinting initiative covering more than 1,000 retail sites with expansion into Canada planned for next year. The program integrates legacy Acuren field workforce and legacy NV5's digital modeling capabilities to deliver high resolution data-rich building scans that support real-time asset tracking and space management for the client.
The scans enable the technology to achieve roughly 99% accuracy for tracking both quantity and location of individual retail products, providing a scalable foundation for future digital inventory applications. We're also collaborating on a Digital Twin initiative for a major mining operator in Canada, combining our site access and inspection expertise with our modeling and analytics capabilities for 1 of our long-standing clients. The program covers more than a dozen facilities and is focused on creating asset level maintenance models that allow the client to track individual asset component condition, age and replacement needs to optimize long-term reliability. These examples demonstrate how the combined organization is actively unlocking opportunities that neither could have pursued independently as stand-alone companies, highlighting the practical value of our value creation for our clients.
More broadly, the strength of the platform lies in the essential nature of our work. Our customers rely on us to keep critical assets, buildings and infrastructure operating safely and efficiently. Our work is fundamental to how these assets are managed. Our recurring run and maintain business provides stability while our specialized offerings command premium pricing when timing is critical and when deep technical expertise is required. Together, these factors drive a resilient business model with durable performance through varying business cycles. As we move forward, our focus is on disciplined execution, growing the business, advancing integration, capturing synergies, both revenue and cost synergies enhancing margins and driving long-term value creation for our stakeholders. We see clear opportunities to invest prudently in the growth, improve efficiency and continue strengthening our platform for scale.
I will now hand the call over to Kristin to walk through our financial performance in greater detail.
Thank you, Tal, and good morning, everyone. Third quarter revenue of $473.9 million grew substantially year-over-year, reflecting 2 months of NV5's contribution following the August closing. This growth reflects continued performance across our core end markets. If we look at the growth of the business, as if the acquisition had happened on January 1, 2024, -- the third quarter growth of the combined business would have been approximately 2.4%. On a year-to-date basis, the combined business grew approximately 4.7%. Beginning with this 10-Q, we've introduced segment-level reporting that aligns with how we lead and manage the business and how we plan to communicate about the business going forward. We felt it was important to provide a clear view of the different parts and how each contributes to our performance.
Our inspection and Mitigation segment, which is primarily the legacy Acuren business, generated approximately $293 million in revenue, down approximately 3% from the prior year period and up approximately 1% year-to-date. Strong activity in our run and maintain business, along with steady demand in our callout work was offset by the impact of less project work along with softness in our chemicals end market and FX headwinds. Our consulting engineering segment, which is primarily legacy NV5's infrastructure and buildings and technology businesses, contributed approximately $122 million during the 2-month stub period following the close with strong momentum across infrastructure, buildings and data center services. If NV5's results were included for the full quarter, consulting engineering revenue would have been approximately $189 million or roughly 11% higher than the prior year on both a quarterly and year-to-date basis reflecting data center growth as well as revenue from acquisitions.
The Geospatial segment contributed about $62 million during the same 2-month period. Including NV5 results for the full quarter, Geospatial would have been about $90 million, approximately 4% higher than the last year and 5% year-to-date, driven by steady federal and utility program demand. On a consolidated basis, adjusted gross profit, which excludes depreciation, was approximately $171 million, with adjusted gross margin of 36.1%, up from the prior year period reflecting the favorable gross margin mix from added NV5 services. For our Inspection and Mitigation segment, adjusted gross margin was 28.5% for the quarter and 27.7% for the full year-to-date period.
In the third quarter, Consulting Engineering and Geospatial both generated strong gross margin of 51.4% and 48.4%, respectively, supported by favorable project mix and strong operational execution. Adjusted SG&A for the quarter was approximately $93 million or 19.7% of revenue compared to 12.9% in the prior year period. The increase was primarily due to the inclusion of NV5 operations which have a higher proportion of SG&A as a percentage of sales. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $77.3 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.3% compared to $51.3 million with a margin of 16.9% in the prior year period. The year-over-year increase in dollars reflects the addition of 55 results without the impact of realized synergies. We expect to begin realizing cost synergies late in the fourth quarter of this year and into 2026.
Operating cash flow for the 9 months ended September 30, 2025, was approximately $45 million reflecting efficient working capital management and the inherent cash-generative nature of our services-based revenue model. Capital expenditures for the first 9 months totaled approximately $21 million or 2.1% of revenue. This is slightly below our historical average due to the NV5 acquisition.
Turning now to an overview of our balance sheet and capital resources. As of September 30, 2025, we had total liquidity of $282.9 million including cash and cash equivalents of $164.4 million as well as $118.5 million of available capacity under our revolving credit facility. Total term loan debt was approximately $1.6 billion. In October, we completed a $250 million private placement of approximately 20.8 million shares of common stock and prefunded warrants at $12 per share to an existing shareholder. This transaction strengthened our balance sheet and provides additional flexibility to fund selective growth opportunities as well as accelerate deleveraging. These proceeds enhance our capital position and provide ongoing opportunity to allocate capital to our accretive tuck-in acquisition strategy as well as considering more material opportunities as they arise. Our balance sheet is in a solid position, and we remain focused on using free cash flow to reduce leverage over time. We continue to target a long-term net leverage ratio below 3x through disciplined cash generation and integration execution.
Now turning to our outlook. We are reaffirming our full year 2025 guidance, expecting revenue in the range of $1.530 billion to $1.565 billion and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $240 million to $250 million. This outlook reflects steady year-to-date performance and continued confidence in demand across our core markets. For illustrative purposes, if NV5 had been included for the full year, these guidance ranges would equate to approximately $2.11 billion to $2.15 billion of revenue in 2025 on a combined basis.
Looking ahead to next year, we expect revenue to grow between 3% and 5% relative to the 2025 combined company baseline. And adjusted EBITDA margin should be in the range of 15.5% to 16.5%, including the impact from cost synergies as they are realized. We look forward to providing a more detailed update in connection with our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results in March.
Next, I'd like to touch on the work the team is doing to integrate these businesses. At the end of this month, we will conclude the planning phase of the integration program and move into our execution phase. Our teams are working hard, and I am excited to announce that we have increased our cost synergy target from $20 million to $25 million, and we expect to be at that full run rate by mid-2027 within our original time line of 18 to 24 months post close. The largest area of savings are coming from overlapping corporate resources and service providers, system consolidation, real estate footprint optimization and procurement and vendor optimization. Integration is advancing with discipline, a dedicated integration management office with leadership from both legacy companies is driving execution against defined milestones, and we look forward to continuing to update you on our progress.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Robbie to talk through the long-term strategy for TIC Solutions.
Thank you, Kristin, and good morning, everyone. With the NV5 transaction complete, we're seeing the benefits of bringing these complementary businesses together, creating new opportunities and measurable value for clients. The early success comes from how naturally these businesses fit together. Acuren's inspection and mitigation expertise combined with NV5's engineering design and geospatial intelligence to cover the full asset integrity life cycle, enabling us to move quickly and deliver broader solutions for our clients. Culturally, this combination is working because both organizations share the same foundation, technical excellence, professional integrity and a client-focused mindset. This shared culture gives us confidence in the long-term success of the platform. Looking ahead, TIC Solutions now has the characteristics of a long-term compounder, meaningful scale in fragmented markets, diversification that drives resilience and exposure to secular tailwinds such as infrastructure renewal, energy transition and investment in digital infrastructure.
The company also has both the scale to invest across geographies and the financial flexibility to invest selectively where we see attractive returns. The work we do is essential, critical infrastructure across the globe depends on our services, ensuring asset integrity, verifying compliance designing resilient systems and delivering geospatial insight. Demand for these capabilities is nondiscretionary and the complexity of modern infrastructure creates sustained need for our expertise. We're building TIC Solutions for the long term, disciplined execution, consistent cash generation and durable value creation for shareholders while offering meaningful careers for our people and reliable outcomes for our clients.
Thank you. With that, let me turn the call back to Tal for closing remarks.
Thanks, Robbie, and thank you, Kristin. Our third quarter results demonstrate that we're executing effectively through a milestone year for our company. We completed a major acquisition or integrating large teams while continuing to deliver for our clients without introduction. This is a testament to the dedication and professionalism of our people across both organizations. We've built a platform with meaningful scale, technical depth and diversification across attractive end markets. The inspection and access capabilities that define Acuren now connect seamlessly with NV5's engineering and geospatial expertise, creating opportunities neither business could have achieved -- could have achieved alone. The structural trends supporting our markets remain powerful, aging infrastructure, increasing regulatory and technical complexity and the acceleration of AI data center and clean energy investment. Our priorities remain clear: operate safely, deliver exceptional service and translate growth into strong cash flow and long-term value.
We are executing on a unified operating model accelerating cross-selling across end markets, aligning our people and processes under 1 culture and focusing on high-growth capabilities like data centers, renewables and grid modernization. Finally, I want to recognize our 11,000 team members across more than 250 locations across the globe. Combining 2 organizations, while delivering for our customers every day requires focus, flexibility and commitment. Our people are rising to that challenge and their professionalism reflects the culture we've built, 1 centered on safety, quality and a higher level of reliability for our clients.
With that, I would now like to open the call for questions.
[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Chris Moore from CJS Securities.
2. Question Answer
So you did the $250 million equity raise in early October. That leaves leverage a little above based on at least my 26% adjusted EBITDA. Just trying to get a sense of a reasonable range for annual free cash flow after the integration is a little bit further along.
This is Kristin. Thanks for the question. I think cash flow for us is a big opportunity for us with regard to kind of the scale and the profitability of the combined business. I think if you step back, the business is -- continues to be a high free cash flow business, low CapEx, high margin. If we just mentioned some of the building blocks for that. We haven't provided guidance on free cash flow yet. But from a building block perspective, we've got the cash interest of roughly $105 million -- and that's a reminder that, that assumes no repayments and no changes to the current interest rate environment. On the cash taxes piece, we're in the range of about $20 million to $30 million. And then again, we've talked about this in the past, but our CapEx is roughly 3% of revenue. And from there, it would just be any changes in working capital.
Got it. I appreciate that. So NV5 had a, I think, a $400 million revenue target for data center in 4 to 5 years a little while ago. Just trying to get a sense if -- is that still the target? And does the combination with Acuren, does that potentially accelerate anything?
Yes. That's a great question. The data center business is something that we're really proud of and very excited about the way we've been able to grow that. I would tell you that the revenue on a quarter and year-to-date basis is up over 100%. It's still only about 3% of our revenue, but we're excited about where it's headed. We started outside of North America with our data center business. And it was fairly limited in scope, and it continues to grow, and we're looking for ways to expand services from there. So I'll let Ben comment and wants to add anything.
Yes. Chris, it's Rob. I would say we're in the process of sort of building out our strategic -- like our 5-year strategic plan. And I think the targets that the company -- that NV5 had historically were great and very ambitious, and I think that there's a glide path to get there. The opportunity for us in this combination is really to marry the kind of the on-the-ground services that Acuren can provide within the data center environment with sort of the technical expertise and the commissioning side that they had historically. So it's certainly a big area of focus for us given sort of the secular tailwinds you see in the space.
Got it. I appreciate that. And maybe just a last 1 for me. Acuren was still exiting some lower-margin customers contracts? Just trying to get a sense is that -- did that still happen in Q3 and kind of where that process is?
Yes. Thanks, Chris. Margin is important for us. We're continuing to look at relationships. And if needed, exiting those relationships through pricing, I think the softness you see in the third quarter is primarily timing, project-related and LNG construction related. And so we'll continue to look at that, but we're also really excited about the growth opportunities that we see heading into 2026 in that segment.
The next question is from Justin Hauke from Robert W. Baird.
Great. And I appreciate the new segment disclosure. That helps kind of understand the moving pieces a little bit better. I guess I wanted to ask about the geospatial. I mean it was good in the quarter. I'm just curious because in the past, it's been levered to kind of activity with the federal government and funding and things like that. So I'm just curious if there's been any impact from the shutdown in the fourth quarter or how we should think about that business in the year-end?
Justin, thanks for the question. Yes. So on a consolidated basis, we have roughly 20% exposure with government work, less than 10% from a federal perspective. I would tell you that there has been a nonmaterial limited impact here in the fourth quarter. So far, we're optimistic that the reopening is happening and that it will be quick in terms of individuals getting back to work and getting through the stack of papers on their desk and there's limited impact from issuing POs and work orders for our business. But aside from that, that's really it.
Okay. And I guess my second question would just be in the inspection and mitigation segment. You talked about the weaker turnaround activity as kind of timing related maybe separate from the oversupply in the chemical markets, but the specific to the turnarounds. I'm just curious because that's also seasonal, how that's trending in 4Q? Have those kind of snapped back? Or are you still kind of waiting for turnaround releases on that.
I can take that. The turnaround activity is not really material change this quarter for us. The decline we mentioned was related to the timing of the starting and ending of LNG projects. We see a pretty good multiyear horizon in construction of LNG facilities. It's an area of particular expertise for the Acuren business. And as these projects come to an end and the next 1 starts up, there can be gaps there, and that's what we saw in the quarter. And as we indicated, the end market pressure we saw was really the chemicals. But the outage business for us is not as spiky as some companies, and I don't really see that as a big issue in the quarter or the year.
The next question is from Kathryn Thompson from Thompson Research Group.
And I appreciate the color that you're also providing the 10-Q that you filed today on the segments. Just circling back to the synergies that you outlined. I appreciate you bumped it up to $25 million -- could you give a little bit more color on the driver for the upside? And how much of this -- of the components of the synergies are more cost driven -- and do they include any revenue synergies that can come from the combination?
Thanks for the question. Yes, I would tell you, I'm very excited about the momentum that the integration team has internally so far given that this acquisition just recently closed in August, and we really didn't kick off the integration until after Labor Day. I'm pleased with the way that we've accelerated the progress in identifying cost synergies.
I would tell you that the $25 million is purely cost synergies, nothing with revenue. It's kind of a different topic for us. And it's primarily back office support and the way that we're organizing the business and supporting the business to sell and execute work. So we're going to continue to push on that number, but excited about the progress we've made so far.
Do you have any -- on a ballpark standpoint, any type of early assessment of what the revenue synergies could be?
Yes. So Rob, you mentioned some of the long-term strategic planning we're doing and to put a number on that, but it's an area of immense focus within the team right now, and we're really excited about some of the early momentum and the opportunities we have cross-selling opportunities, intercompany as well as intersegment as well as across segments. And so we are looking to provide some internal targets on that front, but nothing to share externally in.
Okay. And then on Slide 7 of the deck that you published today, construction to earnings has a nice breakout of the diversified end market mix for the combined entities? And you can see that data centers is technically 2% of the mix. But from our visiting side of a construction site, we know that there's more involved in than just the center itself, there's the power of the utilities, there's kind of the energy side. When you step back and look at broad not just data centers, but the reindustrialization. What are your main buckets that you've outlined in your end market mix touches on both data center build-out and reindustrialization secular trend in the U.S.
Yes. So Kathryn, in terms of end market mix, I would -- I'll just highlight a few kind of areas of bright spots or areas that we're excited about as it relates to some of the megatrends that we're seeing aside from data centers -- our renewables business is up significantly. I think our wind business in the inspection Mitigation segment is up 30% year-over-year. And we also see a lot of opportunities within the manufacturing and fabrication space, to your point. And also, I would just add, the rollback of the Access solution business that we have is largely untapped, and there's a tremendous amount of opportunity to grow that across the globe. So Tal, is there anything you want to add to that?
Sure. I think there's a lot of excitement around data centers for sure, and we are working on the individual -- with the individual segments to think of the cross-selling opportunities, things like Acuren technicians performing commissioning tasks. The undergrounding team dealing with power delivery and utilities coming to and from. And then, of course, the generation of power itself is quite exciting as we see more and more companies looking at gas-powered turbines as well as in the future, I'm sure we'll see small package nuclear facilities. So these are all areas we're going to pay attention to. And Ben, you may have some comments on this as well as you've been working on the data center.
Yes. I mean when we started the data center business, it was with a very narrow range of services. It was really just MEP and commissioning. As we bought and that was in Asia Pacific, largely a couple of years ago, we really invested in bringing those services in the sector heavily to the states. And what that enabled us to do is start layering in other services. So this -- we talk cross-selling, but this has actually been happening actively over the last couple of years where we're bringing substation design, power delivery, fire protection, security, structural engineering and then more recently, bringing the NDT work in. So it enables us to generate more revenue per megawatt of data centers. And so it's sort of a double-edged sword. While those traditional services we were providing continue to grow rapidly, we layer on these additional services, both here in the U.S. and now international so it's sort of a compounding effect in terms of our growth on the data center side.
Okay. Helpful. Just 1 follow-up question on the -- somewhat related to the government shutdown. When we -- based on our conversations with state departments of transportation, it does not appear that, at least right now, their flow has been impacted, which would obviously impact your infrastructure roughly 1/4 of your business. I just wanted to confirm that, that has also been your experience, but that has been our feedback from our industry contacts.
Yes. I think -- so Kathryn, ike I mentioned, our impact is not 0, but it's also not significant. I think there's some individual departments within the government that have had an impact, and some of it is just more timing, like we said. So I think getting through this and getting things up and running again quickly, will be really helpful.
I would echo your thoughts around the infrastructure side of the business, that's not where we've been seeing impact.
The next question is from Josh Chan from UBS.
I know that you said some of the Q3 choppiness was timing related. So kind of setting those aside, on the chemicals side, do you expect that softness to kind of persist into Q4 and into 2026? And does that kind of color the range that you kind of gave us for 2026?
Yes, I would say what we're seeing is that we hope that it stabilizes in the chemical space. But when we look at our guidance for Q4 and into the next year. I would tell you that we're modeling a little bit of the same and hope that there's some upside there. But in general, we're excited about our ability to deliver against the Q4 and next year results and hope that there's some bright spots within the chemical space soon.
What I could add to that is I just add to that. In the chemical space, I thought it would be helpful to play out what it looks like when they're under pressure because we know the work we do is really essential services to maintain the integrity of facilities. And if our customers are under stress financially it's not wise for them to push inspection very far. So what we might have seen is if you have 20 inspectors on site, maybe they reduce headcount to 15 or if they have an outage they might be able to replace some aged equipment. We refer to that as sustaining capital investments. And those sustaining capital investments have been smaller and deferred. And so often, when we see that, there can be a bounce back at some point because these facilities are not closing, they're still operating and they need to operate safely. So we do expect at some point to be a bounce back because this is essential work that we do.
That makes a lot of sense. I appreciate that color there help. I guess on the margin front, I think the level that you gave for 2026 may be roughly in the same ballpark as what it might be in 2025. So is there any thoughts on why that wouldn't be maybe a little bit better given the realization of at least some of the cost synergies?
Yes. Thanks, Josh. So the range that we provided of $15.5 million to $16.5 million does include some slight margin improvement as well as the impact of realizing some of the synergies that we've identified.
The next question is from Stephanie Moore from Jefferies.
This is Harlan on for starting more. So I think in your prepared remarks, you discussed some premium pricing on specialized services. So I guess, pending about can growth in '25 or '26. And just trying to get a sense for over premium price in the quarter. How should you expect it to run next quarter? And then, I guess, in 2026. And then just any comments on, I guess, and I think the revenue guide you did for '26 was 3% to 5%. If you could give us a sense for what pursuing that is organic and then what you need to see the -- in the high end of you are even a margin range target.
Thank you. Can you clarify the first part of your question again, please?
Yes. So you discussed on premium pricing and some of our specialized services. So I wanted to get a sense of what pricing was in the quarter? And then in -- and then I guess, your expectations for 4Q '25 and 2026.
Yes. I think -- we're excited to be providing guidance for 2026. It does include some margin improvement. And in terms of special or premium pricing during the quarter. I think we've provided the adjusted gross margin in the tables. But I think it's important to point back, just given the noise with the timing of the acquisition back to our adjusted EBITDA margin, and I think that's the best way to be looking at the business in the short term given the noise of the transaction.
Got it. I guess just at a high level, I guess, from where the company is today, and we've discussed it, I guess, the data set opportunity a little bit. I guess where do you see the most opportunity for growth in the business -- is it still data center? Is it expanded infrastructure into Canada or double dollar GS ratio well your comments on, I guess, which area of the business gets you most excited. And then I guess, on a separate point, I think you discussed how going to balance capital allocation view given the pipe transaction. So in the debt pay down is a focus, but also wanted to hear any comments on M&A and which side of the business you would like to gain exposure and through M&A.
Okay. I can take the first part of that question. I think the biggest opportunity really realize the potential of these 3 companies working together these 3 segments working together -- there are -- there's a lot of white space to fill in the total value chain or the life cycle of an asset and the engineering design leading to a plan for inspection leading to an inspection and collecting data and then back to engineering design. And I know that we have also a lot of white space in Canada, as an example, where NV5 has almost no presence and Acuren has a very strong, stable base of customers. So as we fill in these holes to connect the engineering -- the consulting engineering, the geospatial and the inspection mitigation is a great opportunity for us. Of course, there are stronger end markets.
And as we think about mix of work, to the extent that consulting, engineering and Geospatial, the higher gross margin work has higher growth than that will realize a better mix for us. So I think there's a lot of work to be done on just filling white space between the companies and following the end markets, things like data centers. I think, Kristin, you could probably to the...
Yes. I'll take the question on capital allocation. So yes, we're excited about the opportunity that additional type provides from a flexibility perspective. I would tell you that we're going to continue to be opportunistic and disciplined from a capital allocation perspective. We have a very strong pipeline of bolt-on M&A. We closed 2 deals during the quarter and 9 on a year-to-date basis, and we've got a few more in the hopper for Q4. And those are businesses that we're buying in the 4 to 6x range, so immediately accretive for us. And we'll continue to be deploying capital there. The ones we've done so far this year have been across all 3 segments.
This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Tal Pizzey for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for joining us today and for your thoughtful questions. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to updating you on our progress as a combined organization next quarter. We're excited about the opportunities ahead, and we remain committed to executing our integration successfully while we remain focused on the business, operational excellence and customer service. Have a great day, everyone. Thanks.
This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
Tic Solutions Inc — Q3 2025 Earnings Call
TIC Solutions reported a solid Q3 driven by the NV5 acquisition, early cross-sell wins, and a raised $25M cost-synergy target.
📊 Quarter at a Glance
- Revenue: $473.9M in Q3; includes 2 months of NV5; pro forma combined growth ~+2.4% Q3 and +4.7% year-to-date versus prior year.
- Gross margin: Adjusted gross margin 36.1% (adjusted excludes depreciation).
- Profitability: Adjusted EBITDA $77.3M; margin 16.3% (Adjusted EBITDA = earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).
- Balance sheet: Cash $164.4M, total liquidity $282.9M; term loan debt ~$1.6B; completed $250M equity/private placement in October.
- Synergies: Cost-synergy target increased from $20M to $25M with full run-rate expected by mid-2027.
🎯 What Management Says
- Integration: Combined Acuren + NV5 positioned as a tech-enabled engineering and asset-integrity platform serving design, operation and maintenance life cycles.
- Cross-sell momentum: Early wins include nationwide laser scanning program (1,000+ retail sites) and digital-twin projects for mining; management sees multiple practical cross-sell opportunities.
- Focus areas: Priorities are data centers, renewables and grid modernization while preserving recurring run-and-maintain revenue and premium pricing for specialized services.
🔭 Outlook & Guidance
- 2025 guidance: Reaffirmed revenue $1.530B–$1.565B and adjusted EBITDA $240M–$250M (pro forma combined ~ $2.11B–$2.15B if NV5 fully included).
- 2026 targets: Revenue growth 3%–5% vs 2025 combined baseline; adjusted EBITDA margin targeted 15.5%–16.5% including realized synergies.
- Capital & leverage: Net leverage target below 3x long-term; plan to use free cash flow to delever; $250M equity raise provides near-term flexibility.
- Risks: Near-term headwinds include timing of LNG projects, softness in chemicals, FX and limited federal funding timing (government shutdown impact described as nonmaterial so far).
❓ Analyst Q&A
- Data centers: Revenue >100% growth trailing 12 months but still ~3% of total; management sees a clear path to scale by combining NV5 technical services with Acuren field capabilities (NV5 previously targeted large multi‑year data-center growth).
- Cash flow & leverage: No formal free-cash-flow guidance yet; CFO provided building blocks: cash interest ~ $105M, cash taxes $20–30M, CapEx ~3% of revenue; focus on deleveraging over time.
- M&A & synergies: $25M figure is pure cost synergies (back office, systems, real estate, procurement); revenue synergies are expected but not yet quantified; tuck-in M&A pipeline continues with deals in ~4–6x range.
⚡ Bottom Line
TIC Solutions is executing an early-stage integration that boosts scale, diversifies end markets and raises cost-synergy expectations; near-term margins and cash flow will reflect acquisition noise and project timing, but the company presents a credible path to mid-single-digit organic growth and margin improvement as synergies and cross-sell scale.
Financial data from Tic Solutions Inc
Revenue
Revenue is the sum of all sales generated by a company, e.g. for its products or services.
Revenue (TTM) metric explainedDirect Costs
Direct costs are the costs incurred directly in connection with the manufacture of the product or service.
Gross Profit
Gross Profit indicates how much of the revenue remains in the company after deducting direct production costs. If the percentage share of sales is calculated, this is referred to as the gross margin.
Gross Profit metric explainedSelling and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) include all expenses for marketing and sales as well as the general administration of the company.
Research and Development Expense
Research and development costs (R&D) provide information on how much the company invests in the research and development of its products. The costs are particularly interesting as a percentage of revenue and in comparison to direct competitors.
EBITDA
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The EBITDA margin is calculated as a percentage of sales.
Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation represents reductions in the value of the company's assets (e.g. due to wear and tear on machinery).
EBIT (Operating Income)
EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) is the company's profit before interest and taxes, also known as the operating income. The EBIT Margin is calculated as a percentage of sales at
.
Net Profit
Net Profit represents the profit or loss after deduction of all costs.
Net Profit metric explainedStocksGuide Premium
| Jun '26 |
+/-
%
|
||
| Revenue | 2,055 2,055 |
154%
154%
100%
|
|
| - Direct Costs | 1,357 1,357 |
113%
113%
66%
|
|
| Gross Profit | 697 697 |
305%
305%
34%
|
|
| - Selling and Administrative Expenses | 512 512 |
344%
344%
25%
|
|
| - Research and Development Expense | - - |
-
-
|
|
| EBITDA | 161 161 |
182%
182%
8%
|
|
| - Depreciation and Amortization | 205 205 |
418%
418%
10%
|
|
| EBIT (Operating Income) EBIT | -44 -44 |
355%
355%
-2%
|
|
| Net Profit | -123 -123 |
125%
125%
-6%
|
|
In millions USD.
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Tic Solutions Inc Stock News
Company Profile
TIC Solutions, Inc. engages in providing nondestructive testing, inspection, engineering and lab testing services. The company is headquartered in Hollywood, Florida and currently employs 11,084 full-time employees. The company went IPO on 2023-10-12. Its segments include Inspection and Mitigation, Geospatial and Consulting Engineering. Its Inspection and Mitigation services include inspection and nondestructive testing (NDT) and Rope Access Technician (RAT) solutions. NDT involves the inspection and evaluation of industrial equipment. RAT solutions include industrial trades, such as insulation, coatings and blasting, welding, pipe fitting, hoisting and rigging, and electrical work. Its Consulting Engineering services include engineering design, conformity assessment, infrastructure engineering, building and technology design, environmental consulting, and materials engineering and testing. Its Geospatial services provide data collection, data analytics, and software solutions that support asset management and infrastructure planning. The company provides mission-critical services to buildings.
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| Head office | United States |
| CEO | Mr. Pizzey |
| Employees | 11,084 |
| Website | tics.com |


