AECOM reiterates long-term financial forecast at 2019 Investor Day
LOS ANGELES (December 11, 2018) — AECOM (NYSE:ACM), a premier, fully integrated global infrastructure firm, will hold its Investor Day in New York City today, at which the Company is reiterating its long-term financial targets through fiscal 2022. This positive outlook reflects a strong foundation for growth exiting fiscal 2018, including a record backlog and end market and business development momentum. In addition, the Company’s outlook is benefitting from recently-announced strategic actions, including a substantial $225 million reduction in G&A and ongoing efforts to prioritize investments to higher-margin and lower-risk opportunities.
Accordingly, AECOM’s long-term financial forecast includes the following growth targets:
|
|
(FY’18 – FY’22 CAGR) |
|
Organic Revenue Growth1 |
5%+ |
|
Adjusted EBITDA2 |
9%+ |
|
Adjusted EPS2 |
12% – 15% |
|
Cumulative Free Cash Flow3 |
$3.5+ billion |
The increase in the adjusted EBITDA CAGR to 9% from the prior 7% target incorporates the expected 12% adjusted EBITDA growth at the mid-point of the Company’s fiscal 2019 guidance. As a result, the Company is positioned to achieve fiscal 2022 adjusted EBITDA of approximately $1.2 billion, which is consistent with the target set in fiscal 2018.
“We exited 2018 with substantial momentum, including revenue of more than $20 billion, record wins of more than $28 billion, and a record backlog of more than $54 billion, which gives us great confidence in the trajectory of our business and in achieving our financial targets,” said Michael S. Burke, AECOM’s chairman and chief executive officer. “In addition, the strategic actions we are taking to capitalize on our record backlog position us to maximize shareholder value by deploying substantially all free cash flow to share repurchases under our existing $1 billion Board authorization.”
“We delivered record free cash flow in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018, building on our track record of consistently strong free cash flow generation over the past several years,” said W. Troy Rudd, AECOM’s chief financial officer. “Our businesses are highly cash generative, which, along with the actions we are taking to drive growth and enhance profitability, position us to deliver increased free cash flow over the next several years. This forecast includes today’s announced target to generate more than $800 million of free cash flow in fiscal 2022. We will continue to prioritize share repurchases, as we demonstrated with the already executed $150 million accelerate share repurchase and additional repurchases during the fiscal first quarter.”
A live webcast of today’s Investor Day will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. The webcast and accompanying presentation slides are available online at http://investors.aecom.com. The webcast will be available for replay following the meeting.
1 Organic growth is year-over-year at constant currency and excludes revenue associated with actual and planned non-core asset and business dispositions.
2 Excluding acquisition and integration related items, financing charges in interest expense, foreign exchange gains, the amortization of intangible assets, financial impacts associated with expected and actual dispositions of non-core businesses and assets, and the revaluation of deferred taxes and one-time tax repatriation charge associated with U.S. tax reform.
3 Free cash flow is defined as cash flow from operations less capital expenditures net of proceeds from disposals.
About AECOM
AECOM (NYSE:ACM) is built to deliver a better world. We design, build, finance and operate infrastructure assets for governments, businesses and organizations. As a fully integrated firm, we connect knowledge and experience across our global network of experts to help clients solve their most complex challenges. From high-performance buildings and infrastructure, to resilient communities and environments, to stable and secure nations, our work is transformative, differentiated and vital. A Fortune 500 firm, AECOM had revenue of approximately $20.2 billion during fiscal year 2018. See how we deliver what others can only imagine at aecom.com and @AECOM.
All statements in this press release other than statements of historical fact are “forward-looking statements” for purposes of federal and state securities laws, including any projections of earnings, revenue, profitability, cash flows, share purchases or other financial items, any statements of the plans, strategies and objectives for future operations, profitability, risk profile and investment strategies and any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results could differ materially from those projected or assumed in any of our forward-looking statements.
Important factors that could cause our actual results, performance and achievements, or industry results to differ materially from estimates or projections contained in our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following: our business is cyclical and vulnerable to economic downturns and client spending reductions; we are dependent on long-term government contracts and subject to uncertainties related to government contract appropriations; governmental agencies may modify, curtail or terminate our contracts; government contracts are subject to audits and adjustments of contractual terms; impacts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts legislation; we may experience losses under fixed-price contracts; we have limited control over operations run through our joint venture entities; we may be liable for misconduct by our employees or consultants or our failure to comply with laws or regulations applicable to our business; we may not maintain adequate surety and financial capacity; we are highly leveraged and may not be able to service our debt and guarantees; we have exposure to political and economic risks in different countries where we operate as well as currency exchange rate fluctuations; we may not be able to retain and recruit key technical and management personnel; we may be subject to legal claims and we may have inadequate insurance coverage; we are subject to environmental law compliance and we may have inadequate nuclear indemnification; there may be unexpected adjustments and cancellations related to our backlog; we are dependent on partners and third parties who may fail to satisfy their obligations; we may not be able to manage pension costs; we may face cybersecurity issues and IT outages; as well as other additional risks and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements set forth in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any forward-looking statement.
When we provide our long term projections for organic revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EPS and free cash flow on a forward-looking basis, the closest corresponding GAAP measure and a reconciliation of the differences between the non-GAAP expectation and the corresponding GAAP measure generally is not available without unreasonable effort due to length of the forecasted period and potential high variability, complexity and low visibility as to items that would be excluded from the GAAP measure in the relevant future period. The Company believes that non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EPS, adjusted EBITDA, organic revenue, and free cash flow also provide a meaningful perspective on its business results as the Company utilizes this information to evaluate and manage the business. We use adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS to exclude the impact of non-operating items, such as amortization expense, taxes, acquisition and integration expenses, and non-core operating losses. We use free cash flow to represent the cash generated after capital expenditures to maintain our business. Our non-GAAP disclosure has limitations as an analytical tool, should not be viewed as a substitute for financial information determined in accordance with GAAP, and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP, nor is it necessarily comparable to non-GAAP performance measures that may be presented by other companies.
Investor Contact:
Will Gabrielski
Vice President, Investor Relations
213.593.8208
William.Gabrielski@aecom.com
Media Contact:
Brendan Ranson-Walsh
Vice President, Global Communications & Corporate Responsibility
213.996.2367
Brendan.Ranson-Walsh@aecom.com