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MasTec, Inc. (MTZ)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Fri, Feb 28, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the MasTec's Fourth Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call, initially broadcast on February 28, 2014. Let me remind participants that today's call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Marc Lewis, MasTec's Vice President of Investor Relations. Marc?

J. Marc Lewis

Operator

Thank you, Lisa. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to MasTec's fourth quarter and 2013 year-end conference call. The following statement is made pursuant to the Safe Harbor for forward-looking statements pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In these communications, we may make certain statements that are forward-looking, such as statements regarding MasTec's future results, plans and anticipated trends in the industries where we operate. These forward-looking statements reflect the company's expectations on the day of the initial broadcast of this call, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these expectations based on subsequent events or knowledge. Various risks, uncertainties and assumptions are detailed in our press releases and filings with the SEC. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of our underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may differ significantly from results expressed or implied in these communications. In today's remarks by management, we will be discussing continuing operations adjusted financial metrics as discussed and reconciled in yesterday's press release and supporting schedules. In addition, we may use certain non-GAAP financial measures in this conference call. A reconciliation of any non-GAAP financial measures not reconciled in these comments to the most comparable GAAP measure can be found in our earnings press release, our 10-K, or in the Investor and News sections of our website located at mastec.com. With us today, we have Jose Mas, our CEO; and George Pita, our new Executive VP and Chief Financial Officer. The format of call will be opening remarks and analysis by Jose, followed by financial review from George. These discussions will be followed by a Q&A period, and we expect the call to last about 60 minutes. We had another great quarter and year, and have a lot of good things to talk about today. So I'll turn it over to Jose. Jose?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Thanks, Marc. Good morning, and welcome to MasTec's 2013 year-end call. Today, I will be reviewing our fourth quarter and full-year results, as well as providing my outlook for 2014 and the markets we serve. Before getting into details, I'd like to take a step back and make some observations. A few years ago we publicly said out to diversify our business and put ourselves in a position to have greater growth opportunities with improved margins. Since 2007 we've grown revenue from under $1 billion to over $4.3 billion. And during that same period adjusted EBITDA has grown from approximately $60 million to $449 million in 2013. While these are impressive financial results, and we are very proud of them, our greatest accomplishment is how we positioned ourselves across a number of growth industries that offer us expanding opportunities for both continued growth and better margins. I know I've said it before, but I truly believe that we have never been in a better position to take advantage of the opportunities our different markets are affording us. We are blessed to be in incredibly healthy markets and opportunities for long-term growth are as good as we've ever seen. Now, for some full-year highlights. 2013 revenue was up 16% to $4.3 billion. 2013 continuing operations adjusted EBITDA was up 34% to $449 million from $336 million in 2012. Full-year cash flow from operations was $200 million and 2013 full-year continuing operations adjusted diluted EPS was up 24% to $1.90. And for the fourth quarter revenue was up 24% to $1.2 billion, fourth quarter continuing operations adjusted EBITDA was up 23% to $123 million and fourth quarter continuing operations adjusted diluted EPS was up 13% to $0.53. In summary, we had an excellent quarter and a great year. With the exception of…

George Pita

Analyst

Thank you, Jose, and good morning, everyone. Before I start with the financials, I want to say how excited I am to take over the MasTec's CFO role, and I want to publicly thank Jose and the Board for the opportunity. I also want to thank Bob Campbell, who did such a great job in bringing financial stability to MasTec over the years and helping set the stage for our coming growth. I inherited a strong balance sheet, and during the last year I had the privilege of spending a significant amount of time in the field working closely with our top-notch operational and financial staff. Bob has been and continues to be very helpful to me in the transition. Finally, let me say -- let me also say that I look forward to getting out in the road and meeting with our shareholders at upcoming conferences and investor meetings. Today I'm going to cover fourth quarter and 2013 full-year financial results, as well as our 2014 guidance. I will also cover our cash flow, liquidity and capital structure. As in our previous calls, when we discussed our financial results and guidance, we'll be discussing non-GAAP continuing operations adjusted EBITDA and earnings. Full reconciliations from GAAP results to adjusted results are included in our Form 10-K and press release tables. Consistent with prior quarters our 2013 continuing operations adjusted results exclude the first quarter loss on extinguishment of debt related to refinancing our senior notes, the second quarter final Sintel Spanish litigation charge, and they also exclude non-cash stock-based compensation expense for all periods. Before I get into detailed remarks, let me share a quick overview of 2013 headlines. This is the fourth consecutive year of record financial results for MasTec with record full-year revenue, EBITDA, net income and diluted…

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir. (Operator Instructions) And we'll go first to Alex Rygiel from FBR.

Alexander Rygiel - FBR Capital Markets

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, gentlemen, and congrats on another great year.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Thank you, Alex.

Alexander Rygiel - FBR Capital Markets

Analyst

Couple of questions around the wireless business. First, Jose, you mentioned a new three-year contract with your largest customer, is that for macro sites or for small cells or something else? Also, on that topic of the wireline business, when you discuss the 1G opportunity, have you won any specific mandates yet associated with 1G, or is it just actions that you're seeing out in the marketplace that get your excited. And I have a follow-up.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

All right. So that's Alex's way of getting as many questions as he can. The wireless award, and may be just cover it in a little bit more detail, it is new contract in addition to the work that we currently have and it's basically a dedicated tower crew contract. So we're providing 212 dedicated tower crews along the east coast of which the majority will be in the northeast which are new markets for us. Those tower crews will be doing tower crew type work. So it's not for micro cells or DAS or anything like that. This is mostly LTE-driven tower top work. And it's really important for a couple of reasons. One, it's a dramatic increase to the number of total tower crews that we're going to have as an entity. Two, when we look at the business, and we've been saying this for quarters, the future of this business is around tower crew capabilities because of the changes with LTE and what that means to networks, the amount of maintenance on the top of towers and the future is going to be substantial. And this positions us incredibly well not just for the short term, but for a very, very long time. So it was a very, very important win for us. We think it's a demonstration of how we've performed for this customer and they are trusting us to give a such a good and solid opportunity. With that said we're just really into it. At a very small level we provided a very small percentage of those crews to this point. That project will ramp as the year goes on. I expect it to be close to fully ramped by the end of the year. And we're investing today. It's costing us some dollars in the first half of the year that we think we're going to more than make up for in the second half of the year. As we move to wireline, and as you know, Alex, that's kind of where I started in the business a long, long time ago. I've been fortunate enough in my career to go through what I though were two incredible cycles in the wireline business. One was the 1998 telecom act which led to the [CLEC] race. And I was very involved personally in the beginning of fibre-to-the-home which happened in the early 2000. And I can tell you that what we're seeing today, if this goes through and obviously everything that everybody reads about it, about 1 gigabit, this has the potential to be as good as either one of those two cycles. And I think that's a very, very bullish statement. I can comment on what we've done to date on that. But I can tell you that we're a significant player in that business. It's a sizable opportunity, and we absolutely expect to be a part of it.

Alexander Rygiel - FBR Capital Markets

Analyst

And a follow-up, as it relates to Communications margins, which were outstanding, 13% in the quarter, congrats on that. How might we think about directionally where that margin goes as the wireline business picks back up?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

It's a good question. And without a doubt, those margins should improve. The wireline business has been -- has seen deteriorated margins for a number of years. That's a business that was largely predicated on new subdivision starts. So when a new subdivision got built, you're extending plant into those subdivisions. That was the bread and butter of that business. We saw significant declines in both revenue and margins in 2008 to 2010 timeframe. It's recovered a little bit, but this gives you the first opportunity in a very long time to get back to the levels of what that business enjoyed in the early 2000s which was back then as good as anything we had. So from that perspective, the margins are going to improve. We said for a long time that we think our wireless margins will improve over time. Now with all that said, we're making a significant investment in our wireless business as we have for the last couple of years. A lot of the investments that we're making today, especially around these tower crews will take time to materialize. We're spending money today to make more in the future. So that is going to hold margin appreciation back for 2014. But as the year goes on, the year progresses, I do think you're going to see additional margin pickup, and additional margin pickup going into '15. So again, we had a fantastic 2013 relative to 2012 from a margin perspective. From a margin perspective, in that business we saw strong growth. I think we're going to see strong growth again, but I think it happens later in '14.

Alexander Rygiel - FBR Capital Markets

Analyst

Very helpful. Thank you.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Thank you, Alex.

Operator

Operator

And we'll go next to Tahira Afzal from KeyBanc.

Saagar Parikh - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Hi. Good morning. It's actually Saagar on for Tahira.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Hi. Good morning, Saagar. How are you doing?

Saagar Parikh - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Hi. Doing great. First question on your pipeline business and took a little bit where the last question was in relation to margins. I know your pipeline margins were a bit weaker than what we saw earlier in 2013 in the fourth quarter. Can you just give us some colour on where you see pipeline margins going in '14? And you didn't make a comment on utilization pricing potential into '15, and where you really see the potential of your pipeline margins going over the next 18 months to 24 months?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Sure. So we had -- again, we thought we had an amazing year in our pipeline business. Revenues far exceeded where we thought we'd be at the beginning of the year. We saw strong margin performance on a year-over-year basis. If you look at the last five quarters, we had two quarters where we actually performed north of 17%, and then we've had quarters where we performed in that 12%, 13% range. So there's been a wide swing of margins. And I think that has a lot to do with job mix in a particular quarter, what's happening on particular jobs. There's two things that have affected our Oil and Gas margins, both in Q4 and in Q1 and unfortunately is weather. December did see some weather challenges as well that kept margins specifically in that business down slightly. And we're seeing a -- in the first quarter we're being highly affected in that business for weather. We've got a couple of very large jobs in areas of that have been more affected by weather than others. With that said, I can't overly express how optimistic we are about that business going forward and the activity levels that we're seeing that we think started at the back end of '14 in multiple markets. We think when that happened and the market tightened the way we think it's going to tighten, we'll have the ability over time to consistently hit the best quarters that we've hit over the last five. So I do think that when you think about EBITDA margins going forward longer term at 17% that we've been able to deliver in a couple of quarters, we think we'll be able to more consistently deliver over time as the market tightens. Until then, product mix, job mix and the types of work that we're doing I think you're going to see margins consistent in 2014 and the ones that we saw in 2013.

Saagar Parikh - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Perfect. Thank you. And then one quick follow-up on Alex's question related to AT&T and the tower crews. That new contract you mentioned was 212 new tower crews. Can you give us an idea of maybe how many tower crews you guys have right now, or how many were doing work in 2013, so may be we can get a better idea of revenue opportunities from the new contract.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

So, couple of things. When we think about the wireless business, there's a lot of different types of crews. Obviously tower crews is one type of crew; and again, for all the reason I've talked about earlier, a very important type because that's where we think that it's headed. So for a lot of competitive reason I don't want to give you an answer to that question. And the only thing that I'll say is that it’s a significant and dramatic increase in the total number of tower crews that we currently have.

Saagar Parikh - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Analyst

Great. Thank you very much.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Dan Mannes from Avondale.

Daniel Mannes - Avondale Partners

Analyst

Thanks. Good morning, everybody, and thanks for taking my questions.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Good morning, Dan.

Daniel Mannes - Avondale Partners

Analyst

So, a couple of just follow-ups first on Power Gen and Industrial business. Clearly, you're looking at a bit of a turnaround in '14. All the commentary so far is really focused on the wind side. Can you talk may be about any other work that you're either currently doing or pursuing and opportunities maybe to diversify that a little bit away from wind, given some of the challenges or early ups and downs in wind that we've witnessed.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Sure. So if we look at 2013, very little of our work was actually wind related. We had a lot of wind in 2012, 2013 came; we were doing a lot of different type of work, a lot of Power Generation-driven work. When we look at '14 and '15, the bigger opportunity for us has been on the wind side as that market recovers and comes back, especially in those two years. We had a very challenging year in '13 from a margin perspective. We know how to do wind very, very well. It's our bread and butter. I think that's why we're so confident about the turnaround. But as we look longer term, there is no question that we need to diversify that business. What we did in '13 was not economically what we wanted. It was really important for our future growth for that business. So I think that we've really built our resume. We had some good projects. We learned a lot. And we're pursuing other work, although the majority of our work in '14 and '15 right now will be wind, at least in '14. And as we continue to look out into '15, we're currently bidding a lot of the same, similar type of work that we've bid in '13. We're a lot more disciplined around it. So I do think that over the next 18 months or so you'll see that part of the business grow. And we think that part of the business will be the predominant part of our Power Generation business in 2016.

Daniel Mannes - Avondale Partners

Analyst

Great. And then real quick, since you've highlighted the wireline work, and I guess what those little newer to the story, can you may be give us a little bit of a context, number one, of how relevant wireline is in the context of your communications segment, and just to get -- just to give us a little bit of framework to think about where it could go from here.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Sure. In total it's about 10% of revenues, little bit under 10% of revenues. And again, if you go back in our history it was by far the majority of what we did years ago. We kind of did deemphasize away from it because we didn't think the opportunities were there. But again, with the talk from multiple carriers about what they are considering doing is a sizable opportunity that could have a dramatic effect on that particular business' growth for us for a long time.

Daniel Mannes - Avondale Partners

Analyst

Great. Thank you very much.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Thank you, Dan.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Michael Novak from Frontier Capital.

Michael Novak - Frontier Capital

Analyst

Good morning.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Hi. Good morning, Mike.

Michael Novak - Frontier Capital

Analyst

Well, thanks for the multiple years of strong performance. We appreciate it. So my question is in the past you've said that the wireless business is MasTec's most misunderstood growth opportunity. Do you look out three or four years, could you give us a sense of how big this business could be for MasTec?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Sure. So what we really love about this business? And one of the reasons we think it's misunderstood is you look what's happened in the course of the last few years, and it's been highly driven by technology changes. So whether it was going from 2G to 3G, 4G LTE, and I think the business has become much more broad-based and that's obviously upgrades a portion of the business and it's going to continue to be, and then I think that there's going to be another technology that comes in over time and replaces LTE. But then you have all the periphery things that are happening around that business, be it small cell, DAS, network densification, the construction of new towers, the business has a much broader base than I think people give it credit for being. So as we look at the business and we started that business from almost nothing, right. And what's really changed that business is the handsets and what you're capable of doing with the handsets. We see so much potential in that business. We see so much opportunity for growth. We think that our growth is really just getting started in that business. We've said in the past that our objectives are to get our businesses to $1 billion. We think that this year we obviously passed that in Oil and Gas, and we've talked about in the past of our next goal in Oil and Gas being $2 billion. And I think wireless is there with it. I think wireless will ultimately be -- has the potential of being a $2 billion for us over time. The market is there. The market is healthy enough. And I think while we've gotten a lot of visibility on the other parts of our business, I think that's one that hasn't gotten the recognition that it deserves. I think we're absolutely a market leader in it with great opportunities for further growth. And it's one that we're extremely bullish about.

Michael Novak - Frontier Capital

Analyst

Thanks. And as a follow-up question, could you discuss the recent acquisition as well the prospects for future M&A and space?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Yeah. So we made a small acquisition in the fourth quarter, the company called Dynis. Dynis was had a couple of different things. It was a turf bender in the mid-Atlantic for our largest customer. And almost more importantly than that, there were a founding member of something called the Warriors for Wireless. When we talk about having to add the amount of people that we're having to add we'll obviously have to be very creative on how we get people into this space. We almost feel like we're changing the industry and what we're trying to do in terms of adding bodies. Warriors for Wireless is a program with the U.S. military where we're tying to get active servicemen as they come off duty into the wireless space. There's a lot of functions within the military that required tower climbing. So we've made a commitment to hire upto 1,500 servicemen coming off of active duty in to the wireless space. We've opened training facilities to support that effort, so that was a key ingredient of the acquisition that we've made late in the year with a smaller acquisition. In addition to that they come with the sizable book of business. It's a very active space. There's a lot of room for consolidation in that market. And quite frankly, not just in wireless, I mean we're seeing a lot of activity in almost every single one of our segments that's M&A related. We have a lot of good opportunities. So while it's not imperative to what it is that we're trying to accomplish at the company, you know, our M&A activity is strong and will probably be a piece of growth story going forward as well.

Michael Novak - Frontier Capital

Analyst

And how many people were on the tower crew?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Three or four.

Michael Novak - Frontier Capital

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Thank you, Mike.

Operator

Operator

And we'll go now to Noelle Dilts from Stifel, Nicolaus. Noelle C. Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.: Hi. Thanks. Good morning.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Hi Noelle, how are you? Noelle C. Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.: Doing well. First question I guess was just stick with wireless, can you talk a little bit about your current mix of self-perform versus outsourced and where you see that going now with this extended contracts and also just what you see is the right level?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Well, this will obviously significantly increase the amount of self-perform that we do because all of this we self-performed. We still have a nice mix. We still do a considerable amount of contracting of vendors within the space. Again, there’s a lot of different types of functionality in the work that we do for wireless. Some of which we do now, some of which we don't. But obviously, with this -- I think the bulk of what we do will be in-house. Noelle C. Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Okay. And then it was nice to hear that you’re seeing some traction on security side. Can you talk a little bit about how big you expect that market to be in 2014 for you and over the next few years?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Sure. So, we’re obviously in support of two customers that we talked about. One is AT&T with their program called Digital Life; the other will be DIRECTV as they begin to rollout LifeShield, which is an entity that they bought in 2013 and the product that they will be rolling out in 2014. We've entered a number of markets; we’re very excited about what our customers are telling us about their expected ramp and where they expect those businesses to go. It’s still a small percentage of what we do so in 2013, a kind of made up with the 3% decline in DIRECTV, so you can almost back into the numbers. We’re modelling some growth, but again it’s a small number and as it materializes, as it plays out, as we get better visibility, I think we’ll adjust that and we’ll hopefully adjust that upward as the year goes on. Noelle C. Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Okay. And then finally just looking at the weather impact in the first quarter, can you give us any sense of maybe how many lost workdays you’re facing? And then just a little bit more on the businesses most impacted from a profitability standpoint by the weather issues in the first quarter?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Sure. So, it was interesting. I mean this is one of the few times where most of our businesses, if not all of them, were affected. I think the only part in the country that hasn’t been seriously affected is the West Coast and unfortunately, we don't have a big presence in the West Coast. So, all of our businesses from our DIRECTV business to our wireline business, our wireless business, our oil and gas business, we saw the effect of weather, especially in January. We’ve had some projects especially in our oil and gas business which is actually a positive, but the project that are -- that got deferred later in the quarter where we decided not to start because of weather, it would have actually been worse for us had we started and not really got a lot done. So, we've had some revenue push out. There’s no question about that. And as we thought about it, we think that number is probably close to 10% of total revenues of what we’re guiding in Q1. We thought that had everything -- had it not been as severe as it was, we could have made 5% to 10% of that. So that's a sizable number. We thought margins would be slightly better than they were last year. So, when put all that together it’s a sizable hit to both revenue and profitability. Some will make back because it’s revenue deferral and then some is obviously increasing cost in terms of just slugging through it and getting jobs done. But that's kind of how we're thinking about it. Noelle C. Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Thanks.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Thank you, Noelle.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from William Bremer from Maxim Group.

William D. Bremer - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst

Good morning, Jose, George, Marc.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Hey, good morning Bill.

George Pita

Analyst

Good morning.

William D. Bremer - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst

On the new contract -- the three-year contract; has that started or will that start this year?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Yeah, we said in the commentary that we started providing accrues in the fourth quarter.

William D. Bremer - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst

Okay, great. And going into the oil and gas, can you give us an idea of -- when you mentioned it’s a quicker book and burn and some of the projects don't necessarily hit the backlog, can you give us a sense of the magnitude of that?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

If you think about our oil and gas business, we’re in three almost distinct businesses, almost four, right. You’ve got gathering lines, you have Midstream, integrity work, and you have long-haul pipe construction or bigger projects. The bulk of our backlog is around bigger projects. When we think about gathering lines, Midstream and even integrity, those are projects that you're only capturing a portion of that work in backlog at any given period of time, because those projects usually are three month to six month project. So, you could win and book and burn the entire business within a quarter or you could book and burn 50% of it or 70% of it. So, you were only ever capturing a portion of it, quarter-to-quarter, so the majority of our backlog is driven by bigger projects, which is why -- and I don't know if we look at that differently. A lot of those customers to us, its recurring work. It almost looks and feels like an MSA, although we don't value them that way. We only put in backlog project-specific work. So it is mainly driven by larger projects.

William D. Bremer - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst

Okay. And then one you, George. I'm not sure if I missed this or not. Fully shares outstanding for not just the first quarter but also for 2014 given the convert--

George Pita

Analyst

Yeah, we said for the first quarter, it was 86.7, for the year it's about 87 -- for the entire year. Majority of the impact of the converted shares already included in our share count, because the way we’re accounting for and we've already put that. The premium value is already included. So for 2014, fourth quarter 86.7 and rolls up to 87 for the year on average. And I think a little bit higher than that in the latter part of the year, maybe 87 and change in the latter part of the year to average out 87 for the year.

William D. Bremer - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst

Okay, great. Thank you, gentlemen.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Josh Wangler from Wunderlich Securities.

Jason A. Wangler - Wunderlich Securities Inc.

Analyst

This is Jason, but we’re close. Jose, just curious, you’ve done a great job on the pipeline side talking about as you see these contracts kind of -- starting rolling off for next couple of years. This year is supposed to be a big year for Electrical Transmission as far as contract award. Is there any color you can give around kind of the timing that you -- at least guys are kind of seeing that, is that of first half, second half type of the year> And when you maybe sort through to work on some of the stuff?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

If we take a step back, we’ve had a great couple of years in that business. Our revenue growth rates there have been off the chart. We grew 37% some 2012 to 2013. We're talking about again a strong double-digit growth year in revenues for 2014. We’re actively pursuing either bidding or in line to bid on more work than we’ve ever bid in that market. So, we think the pipeline is absolutely fantastic. We do think there’s going to be a number of awards this year that will -- that has the potential of setting us up extremely well for coming years. So, there is really nothing different about our story. We’ve talked about wanting to grow that business substantially over the next couple of years. We thing we can -- we've talked about all of our businesses trying to reach the billion dollar mark. We think we can get there in Transmission over time. That's our goal. We think the work in the market supports that goal and obviously, our job is to get there as fast as we can.

Jason A. Wangler - Wunderlich Securities Inc.

Analyst

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Andrew Kaplowitz from Barclays.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Good morning, guys. This is [inaudible] on for Andy. How are you?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Hey, how are you? How you doing?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Good thanks. Maybe just a quick follow-up on the earlier question about weather. So, we understand the headwinds here in the first quarter, but can you talk about your confidence that you’ll be able to offset those headwinds or make up for some of the work you're not able to do in one Q as the year progresses?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Well, whatever gets deferred from a revenue perspective, you’re going to pick up in the subsequent quarter. The reality is that we’re not talking about -- we're not talking about significantly making up the losses that we have in Q1 related to efficiency. We’re going to make that up. I mean if you had to burn more money to get something done, you don't ever really make that up. You can only make up what's revenue deferred. With that said, we feel really comfortable about the balance of our quarters, our year. Quite frankly, the first quarter wouldn’t be the way that it was, our year probably would be better.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, that's helpful. And then maybe just as a follow-up, with the growth you see in your end markets and with all the work you’re winning, especially in oil and gas and wireless, can you talk about your overall capacity to meet demand and specifically your confidence if you have the resources to meet the demand growth and how you maintain quality and execution as you ramp with new people.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

I think we’ve demonstrated in wireless where it's not just about hoping that you win the work and manning it, but it’s about the investments that you're making today to support growth in the future. So, when we talk about opening world-class training facilities, it’s something that we’re very serious about. It or -- we're not just saying it, we actually did it. We spent a lot of money opening training facilities unlike we think anything else in the industry to prepare to our crews because we know how important that's going to be longer-term. And that goes at an expense. So, it’s not -- we're not hoping that we went the work and people show up to work. We know we need to build those resources. When you look at what we did in 2013 relative to our CapEx spend in those the Transmission and oil and gas markets, we were preparing for what we thought was going to be a long-term opportunity. As those opportunities play out, hopefully we think those decisions will prove their worth over time, but when you look at the amount of CapEx that we spent in 2013, that wasn’t for 2013. That was supporting what it is that we’re seeing for the future. So I think it’s – we're making and have made significant investments in preparing this organization to have the ability to grow over time. What we’ve talked about is the training classes, what we’ve talked about is the CapEx, but just as importantly, we’ve made those investments in people. And we’ve been hiring a lot of people over the course of the last two years. We’ve added people when the work wasn’t necessarily there and we think over time, again, those -- the results of that will show.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, great. That's very helpful. Thanks.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

All right. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll go now to Veny Aleksandrov with FIG Partners.

Veny Aleksandrov - FIG Partners

Analyst

Good morning.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Hey. Good morning Veny.

Veny Aleksandrov - FIG Partners

Analyst

My first question is on the Power Generation. I know that you guys have already done some work for natural gas power plants, but when do you think -- when do you see the major uptick coming on that side, 2014 or probably 2015?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Again, we’re very niche player in that business. We had a tough 2013. It was an important year for us. We’re going to build off of that. The opportunity in front of us right now for the next two years where think we can maximize our financial, both revenues and profitability is around what we do really well which is the wind business. So, we’re somewhat capacity constraint. We can't do everything in that business. So we're absolutely more emphasized on working within the wind business and executing on that. We understand the important of diversification in that market, so we’re going to work hard at it. We’re bidding stuff, but we think we’re a lot more intelligent and better about what we’re pursuing. The good thing is we’re not under pressure to have to do that. We've got a solid book of business, that's going to carry us for a long time and we’re going to slowly build back into that business in a more profitable manner and that's our plan. So, you’re not going to see a giant uptick in the market for us in the next 12 months. You might see a couple projects here and there, but we’re going to build that over time.

Veny Aleksandrov - FIG Partners

Analyst

Thank you. And just a follow-up again for the Power Generation, now you’re going to be working on the wind business, while you people utilize, but how about if we go to another year of downturn like 2013, can you move people easily like from the Power Generation to the Communication and Wireless business, where you need some?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

We did it last year. We had a good a huge win here in 2012 and a part of the enhancement of the wireless crews was our ability to meet -- to move people out of renewable that are used to climbing towers, that are used to putting wind turbines on the top of polls, and to climbing in the wireless. So, there’s differently some crossover in utilization of personnel, but quite frankly, for the next couple of years, that group is going to be pretty busy on wind-related projects.

Veny Aleksandrov - FIG Partners

Analyst

All right. Thank you so much.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

All right. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Adam Thalhimer from BB&T Capital Markets. Sir, your line is open. Please check your mute function. Mr. Thalhimer your line is open. Please check your mute function. Adam R. Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: Okay. Thanks guys. Hey, Jose, great quarter, good outlook for 2014. Just had a quick question on the wireless contract. I missed your comments, was it -- you picked up a couple of states from somebody who is previously doing it before you?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

No, Adam, we picked up a new contract for dedicated to tower crews. So, we’re providing to our largest customer a number of dedicated tower crews throughout the East Coast of the United States with the bulk of that are 152 crews being in the Northeast which are pretty much expansion markets from Austin. Adam R. Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: So, these weren’t necessarily your turf states, it was kind of hovering above your turf agreements?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

So, that's correct. It was for both. It was for the entire East Coast. So obviously, we have some turfs in the East Coast, but it was for the entire East Coast of which we don't -- we didn't have a lot in the Northeast. So, that's why those are the expansion markets for us. Adam R. Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: And -- I mean I guess you're not going to comment on this. So, what's a situation where they're going to pay a premium to like the normal cost of a tower crew just because they're having trouble getting crews?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Well, I think that the challenge in the industry is the availability of tower crews because very few people have them; very few people have made investments in building that part of their business. So, I think obviously it’s a need. They’re not just one wireless carrier have, but all the wireless carriers have the need for tower crews and this was a method for them to kind of guarantee tower crews when they need them, where they need them. Adam R. Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: Great. And then just lastly I wanted to ask about Canada, I mean what would be your appetite for getting bigger in Canada in terms of mainline pipe or transmission?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

We view the Canadian market as a fantastic growth opportunity. Obviously, we've built a much bigger presence there in 2013. A lot of room for expansion. We said in our commentary that we think that while the Canadian market is good, it’s probably a couple of years behind the U.S. We see a market that will accelerate over time. We’re happy with where we’re at, but we know that we can get a lot bigger there. So, M&A activity related to Canada is something that absolutely could make sense for us. Adam R. Thalhimer - BB&T Capital Markets: Okay. Thanks, Jose.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Thanks Adam.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Will Gabrielski with Stephens.

Will Gabrielski - Stephens

Analyst · Stephens.

Thanks. Good morning, guys.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst · Stephens.

Good morning.

George Pita

Analyst · Stephens.

Good morning.

Will Gabrielski - Stephens

Analyst · Stephens.

Can you talk about 1 gigabit market opportunity set? Like how quickly can that become material? How competitive is it? And I guess depending on which end market you’re serving, do you have the ability to go out and service the cable market as well as they roll fiber out? Is there an opportunity there? And would you look to do acquisitions in the market or do you think you have what you need?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst · Stephens.

So, you got a lot of questions in there, but the -- so let's start with the last one. We think we have what we need, but obviously if we thought we needed to make an acquisition to improve our competitive position in anyone geography or with anyone customer, we would consider doing it. Again, what I’ll say about it is it's a very sizable opportunity. It's one that we think will have more impact over time, but it absolutely has the opportunity to impact 2014. But it will impact for the years out and we think of much greater manner. So, it's a real opportunity that's year. It’s here today, it’s here now. And obviously the size of the ultimate opportunity will depend on how far everybody gets behind it. Although we think it's a reality, we think that something that is going to happen. We've been more focused on wireline customers, wireline communication -- telephone companies in the past. We used to do a lot of work for the cable companies. I don't know that that's necessarily plays where we have immediate opportunities, but over time, if what happens, if what we think happens, happens, everybody is going to be constrained and the cream rises to the top.

Will Gabrielski - Stephens

Analyst · Stephens.

Okay. I guess every one of your end markets is become -- obviously, they are all growing quite quickly and the projects are getting bigger and the customers are relying on the contractors for more and better service and more timely service. Are you seeing the bid lift on some of your competitive will get it bigger or smaller right now given that dynamic? And how are the customers thinking about that also

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst · Stephens.

I think it depends on the end market. And I think there’s two big drivers. One is -- I think customers understand the importance of having solid vendors with strong financial backing that could support their needs, especially when they're trying to deploy something in a quick and safe manner. I do think that -- so in some cases you have a shrinking vendor list, in other cases you have customers that are cost conscious that are trying to open up that list to keep competition very active. So, it kind of depends. Safety plays a big role in all this. It differently plays a big role in the wireless market. And I think you’re going to continue to see that. Unfortunately, the wireless industry had a number of deaths last year. I think you're going to see a lot more regulation come around that and that's going to only be good for companies like ours that really focus on safety and really work hard to make that a significant part of their everyday culture.

Will Gabrielski - Stephens

Analyst · Stephens.

Okay. And then just lastly on the industrial market, you're talking about $35 million swing in EBITDA year-on-year and 2014 versus 20113. Your conviction around that, I guess how much of that is just utilization driven and better absorption of your fixed costs versus profitability improving on the work you’re bidding?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst · Stephens.

So, were going from about 300 million in 2013 to 400 million in 2014 in that business. The challenges, the work we did in 2013 wasn’t work that we had traditionally done. So, it was in a lot of markets that were new, so we struggled. We know the wind business well, so my conviction around that is very high. Obviously, utilization helps to the extent of that additional $100 million in revs, but it’s also our ability to do that work and know that work a lot better than some of the stuff we did in the past and our confidence around that.

Will Gabrielski - Stephens

Analyst · Stephens.

All right. Great. Thank you much.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst · Stephens.

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Vishal Shah from Deutsche Bank.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Good morning, guys. This is Jeremiah on for Vishal. I think you mentioned that Mexico being an unprecedented opportunity in pipeline, I was just wondering if you could expand on the timeline there and total opportunity.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Well, the opportunity is surprising us in terms of the size, scale. I can tell you that what we’ve talking about it on and off for course of the last six months, we’ve been actively engaged in learning about it, positioning ourselves to try to be a part of it. I can tell you that today we’re going after multiple opportunities currently and while we still believe it’s a longer-term opportunity, there is a chance that it affects revenues as early as 2014.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, that's great. And obviously you're doing a great job on cash generation in 2013 and it seems like that will continue. So just wondering where the capital allocation priorities are for the year.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Well, we expect continuing improvement in our cash flow in 2014. When you look at the growth that we’re expecting in EBITDA, we expect to least that level of growth in cash flow from operations if not a little bit more. We also indicated that our capital expenditure program for 2014 will moderate down some from what we spent in 2013. So, all of that bodes well for cash flow. Our use of cash flow will be for the best opportunity. We know we have to converts during the year which we will refinance and then we will continue to re-invest excess cash flow for a combination of debt pay down and any other M&A or other opportunities that pop up.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

All right. Thanks, guys.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Liam Burke, Janney.

Liam D. Burke - Janney Capital Markets

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, Jose.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

How are you? How you doing?

Liam D. Burke - Janney Capital Markets

Analyst

Good, fine. Thank you. When I look at your CapEx and investment this year, vis-à-vis what you’d look at as your normal maintenance CapEx, there’s a significant incremental investment there. You’ve good visibility on most of your markets on the demand side. In terms of the return on that investment, how are you looking at the trends for margins? You’re looking at them being stable or moving up?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Well, I think we talked about it earlier. When we look at our Communications business, our oil and gas business, our Transmission business which is really where we’re making the bulk of our investments. Long-term we expect all of the margins in those businesses to go up. Again, in oil and gas, we had two quarters in our last five where we had 17%. We think over time that is a sustainable number. When we get through some of this tower hiring for the wireless business we think and the improvement with the opportunities in our wireline business, we think the Communication margins are going to drive up to all and we’re expecting a nice pick up in Transmission margins this year. So, I think those investments will -- and again over time, will prove that we’re well worth the investment.

Liam D. Burke - Janney Capital Markets

Analyst

Great. And then on MSA versus project revenue on the Communication side, is there still a significant gap there?

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

I mean, the bulk of what we do in Communications is MSA-driven, yes.

Liam D. Burke - Janney Capital Markets

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we will take our final questions from Noelle Dilts from Stifel, Nicolaus. Noelle C. Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.: I just had a follow-up question. I think this is for George. On the -- on non-cash stock-based comp that you’re forecasting for 2014 at $16 million, up from $12.9 million in 2013 and then $4.4 million in 2012, I thought that 2013 was a little bit elevated because of the EC Source stores agreement that went through. Can you just help me understand what's kind of behind that $16 million number?

George Pita

Analyst

Noelle, those -- that level continues into 2014. Noelle C. Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.: Okay.

George Pita

Analyst

So, we had a partial year

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

…on that same agreement. Noelle C. Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.: Okay, great.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Yeah that same agreement. So, there was a partial year impact you saw in 2013 and it continues into 2014 as-- Noelle C. Dilts - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.: Okay. Perfect. Thanks.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

All right.

Operator

Operator

And this does conclude today's question-and-answer session. Mr. Mas, at this time, I’ll turn the conference back over to you for any additional comments.

Jose Ramon Mas

Analyst

Yeah, I’d just like to thank everybody for participating on today's call and we look forward to updating you in a couple of months. So, thank you for joining us today.

Operator

Operator

And that does conclude today's Q4 and 2013 year end conference. Once again we want to thank all who have supported us during the year and thank you for participating in today's conference.