Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to APi Group's first quarter 2026 financial results conference call. All participants are now in a listen-only mode and until the question-and-answer session. We ask that all participants limit themselves to one question and one follow-up during the question-and-answer session. Please note, this call is being recorded. I will be standing by should you need any assistance. I will now turn the call over to Adam Walters, Senior Director of Investor Relations, APi Group. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Russ Becker, our President and CEO, and David Jackola, our Executive Vice President and CFO. Before we begin, I would 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 detail material risks that may cause our future results to differ from our expectations. Our statements are as of today, April 30th, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement 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. Our comments today will also include non-GAAP financial measures and other key operating metrics. The reconciliation of, and other information regarding these items can be found in our press release and our presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Russ.
Thank you, Adam. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join our call this morning. I want to start by thanking our 29,000 teammates for their dedication to APi. The safety, health, and well-being of each of our leaders is our number one value. We remain deeply committed to investing in their growth and development. This is at the heart of our purpose, building great leaders. Our people are what set this company apart, and I'm truly grateful for everything they do. In 2026, APi is celebrating its 100-year anniversary by embracing the theme of gratitude. APi was founded in 1926 as a small plumbing business in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Today, we are a global market-leading business services company with more than 500 locations around the world.
When I think about that journey, where we started and where we are today, I am truly humbled. We have so much to be grateful for. We are honoring this milestone by giving back to the communities that we serve and by celebrating with our teammates, customers, and communities that helped us along this journey. We are off to a strong start in 2026. Before we get into the financial results, I wanted to touch on a few first quarter highlights. From an M&A perspective, we closed the acquisition of CertaSite in February, an inspection-first provider of comprehensive fire and life safety services across the Midwest. Earlier this month, we announced an agreement to acquire Ireland-based Wtech Fire Group, which adds to our fire sprinkler and suppression capabilities across Europe, a key strategic growth area for our international business.
Just last week, we announced an agreement to acquire Onyx-Fire Protection Services , a leading provider of fire and life safety services in Canada with an inspection-first mindset and a strong recurring revenue base. This acquisition positions us well in Canada, which we view as an attractive fire and life safety and electronic security market. We expect Onyx-Fire to close in the 2Q and Wtech Fire to close in the 3Q of this year. We will update our full year guidance on future earnings calls after these transactions close. In total, these three acquisitions represent an investment of more than $1 billion to further build out our Safety Services segment across the U.S., Europe, and Canada. Each of these acquisitions is accretive to our 10/16/60+ financial targets.
Equally important, these businesses are all excellent cultural fits, and we are excited to welcome our new teammates to the APi family. We also completed four bolt-on acquisitions during the quarter, and we remain on track to deploy approximately $250 million in bolt-on M&A at attractive multiples this year, including opportunities within the international business and the elevator and escalator services businesses. Our systems and business enablement program continues to advance well. Earlier this month, our first pilot company went live on our new business, our new business systems. Our teams have done a tremendous amount of work to get to this point, and while there is still work ahead of us, we are tracking in line with our expectations. Now, turning to our strong first quarter results. The business continues to build momentum, delivering robust top-line growth while expanding margins.
We continue to deliver solid growth in inspection, service, and monitoring revenues while capitalizing on the robust project environment. We expanded our Adjusted EBITDA margins. As I mentioned earlier, we continue to drive our M&A strategy to further strengthen and expand our global platform. For the quarter, net revenues increased by 15%, approximately 10% organically, with strong growth across both segments. In our Safety Services segment, revenues grew organically by approximately 5%, while expanding segment earnings margins by 60 basis points. Our Specialty Services segment continued its momentum, delivering approximately 25% organic growth while expanding segment earnings margins by 50 basis points. Importantly, we continue to see solid growth in inspection revenues, and we remain confident in our ability to sustain that momentum. Our team continued to focus on margin expansion, with Adjusted EBITDA margins expanding 70 basis points year-over-year.
We expect to see continued margin expansion for the year, largely driven by the same initiatives that we have been executing. These include the following. First, consistent organic growth. Improved inspection, service, and monitoring revenue mix. Disciplined customer and project selection. Pricing. Branch and field optimization. Procurement systems and scale. Accretive M&A and selective business pruning. As I always like to say, we can always just be better. The first quarter was another strong quarter for cash flow as the business generated $125 million in Adjusted Free Cash Flow. In addition, we ended the quarter with a Net Leverage Ratio of approximately 1.8 x, well below our long-term target. Our consistent free cash flow generation and strong balance sheet continue to provide us flexibility to pursue a range of value-enhancing capital deployment opportunities to support our 10/16/60+ financial targets.
As a reminder, these targets are the following: $10 billion in net revenues by 2028, supported by consistent mid-single-digit organic growth and accretive M&A. 16%+ Adjusted EBITDA margin by 2028. 60%+ of our revenues from inspection, service, and monitoring over the long term. $3 billion of cumulative Adjusted Free Cash Flow through 2028. I'm proud of our team for the strong momentum we have built to start the year. Our inspection, service, and monitoring business continues to expand. Our backlog is robust and healthy, and our balance sheet provides us with the flexibility to continue executing on our capital deployment priorities. I'd now like to hand the call over to David to discuss our first quarter financial results and guidance in more detail. David?
Thanks, Russ. Good morning, everyone. Reported net revenues for the three months ended March 31st were $1.98 billion, a 15.3% increase compared to $1.72 billion in the prior year period. Organic revenue growth of 10.4% was driven by solid growth in inspection, service, and monitoring revenues, growth in project revenues, and pricing improvements. Adjusted gross margin for the three months ended March 31st was 31.3%, representing a 40 basis point decrease compared to the prior year period, primarily driven by business mix, partially offset by disciplined customer and project selection, and pricing improvements.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 21.8% for the three months ended March 31, 18.1% on a fixed currency basis, with Adjusted EBITDA margin coming in at 11.9%, representing a 70 basis point increase compared to the prior year period. Growth in Adjusted EBITDA was driven by strong revenue growth and favorable SG&A leverage. Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share for the three months ended March 31 was $0.32, representing a $0.07 or 28% increase compared to the prior year period. The increase was driven by strong revenue growth, Adjusted EBITDA margin expansion, and a decrease in interest expense, partially offset by an increase in the share count. I will now discuss our results in more detail for the Safety Services segment.
Safety Services reported net revenues for the three months ended March 31st were $1.42 billion, an 11.7% increase compared to $1.27 billion in the prior year period. Organic growth of 5.4% was driven by solid growth in inspection, service, and monitoring revenues, growth in project revenues, and pricing improvements. Adjusted gross margin for the three months ended March 31st was 37.2%, representing a 20 basis point increase compared to the prior year period, driven by disciplined customer and project selection and pricing improvements, resulting in margin expansion in inspection, service, and monitoring revenues and project revenues, partially offset by mix. Segment earnings increased by 15.6% for the three months ended March 31st or 11.7% on a fixed currency basis.
Segment earnings margin was 16.3%, representing a 60 basis point increase compared to the prior year period, primarily driven by adjusted gross margin expansion and favorable SG&A leverage. I will now discuss our results in more detail for the Specialty Services segment. Specialty Services reported net revenues for the three months ended March 31 were $569 million, an increase of 25.6% or 24.8% organically compared to $453 million in the prior year period, driven by growth in both project and service revenues. Adjusted gross margin for the three months ended March 31 was 16.3%, representing a 50 basis point decrease compared to the prior year period, primarily driven by mix.
Segment earnings increased 34.5% for the three months ended March 31st, and segment earnings margin was 6.9%, representing a 50 basis point increase compared to the prior year period, primarily due to favorable fixed cost absorption, partially offset by mix. As Russ mentioned in his remarks, Q1 was another strong quarter for Adjusted Free Cash Flow. For the three months ended March 31st, Adjusted Free Cash Flow was $125 million, up $39 million versus last year, representing an Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion of 88% on Adjusted Net Income. Free Cash Flow generation has been and continues to be a priority across APi. We are pleased with our first quarter Adjusted Free Cash Flow while continuing to drive strong, consistent revenue growth.
We remain on track to achieve our Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion target of approximately 115% for the year in line with prior guidance. At the end of the first quarter, our net debt to Adjusted EBITDA ratio was approximately 1.8 x, significantly below our long-term target of 2.5x-3 x. Our consistent free cash flow generation and strong balance sheet position us well as we evaluate financing options for the previously announced Wtech and Onyx acquisitions, which we plan to fund with a combination of cash on hand, cash flow from operations, and incremental debt. As a reminder, our long-term capital deployment priorities remain unchanged: maintaining Net Leverage at stated long-term goals, strategic M&A at attractive multiples, and opportunistic share repurchase.
I will now discuss our guidance for the second quarter and full year 2026, which as a reminder, is based on current foreign currency exchange rates and acquisitions closed to date. We expect increased full year net revenues of $8.475 billion-$8.675 billion, up from $8.4 billion-$8.6 billion, representing organic growth in net revenues of 5%-7% for the year. Moving down to P&L, we expect increased full year Adjusted EBITDA of $1.15 billion-$1.21 billion, up from $1.14 billion-$1.2 billion, representing an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.8% at the midpoint and Adjusted EBITDA growth of 11%-16% for the year.
As a reminder, the impact of the CertaSite acquisition, which closed on February 2nd, was fully reflected in our prior guidance, and we will update our guidance for the Wtech and Onyx acquisitions after those transactions have closed. Our increased full-year revenue and EBITDA guidance is due to the strong business performance to start the year, offset by the headwind of the strengthening U.S. dollar since our February guidance. More information on our revised guide can be found on our earnings presentation that is posted on our investor relations website. In terms of the second quarter, we expect reported net revenues of $2.175 billion-$2.225 billion, representing organic net revenue growth of approximately 7%-9%.
We expect adjusted EBITDA of $300 million-$310 million, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.9% at the midpoint and adjusted EBITDA growth of 10%-14%. For 2026, we continue to anticipate interest expense to be $130 million, depreciation to be $90 million, capital expenditures to be $105 million, and our adjusted effective tax rate to be 23%. We expect corporate expenses to be approximately $35 million per quarter, with some timing variability throughout the year, and our adjusted diluted weighted average share count to be 441 million for the year. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Russ.
Thanks, David. We begin the second quarter with positive momentum and strong demand for our services. We continue to deliver robust organic growth, expand Adjusted EBITDA margins, and build on the strength of our backlog. The continued strength of our M&A execution and pipeline position us well for the remainder of the year. We remain focused on creating sustainable shareholder value by delivering on our 10/16/60+ targets. I'd like to turn the call over to the operator and open the call for Q&A.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. To withdraw your question, press star one again. Please stand by now while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Andrew Kaplowitz with Citi. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Morning. Russ, could you give us a little more color on what you're seeing in Specialty Services? Obviously, it continues to be very strong. A different level of strength, I think, over the last few quarters. I know you've got tougher comps moving forward. Do you see the momentum continuing as the majority of the uptick coming from data centers, or is it more broad-based, would you say?
Thanks, Andy, and hope you're well. I would say that their backlog is super strong and they are seeing some benefits from data centers, but I would classify the work in their portfolio to be more broad-based than just data centers. As a reminder, you know, we're doing industrial maintenance and service work, you know, in our Specialty Services segment. We're doing infrastructure work. We do, you know, potable water, you know, replacement work, and so the telecom work. They're definitely benefiting from data centers and, you know, the opportunities that are presented with the data center expansions in North America.
I would also just classify their backlog as being really diverse, just with their service offerings as well as, from a geographic standpoint.
Very helpful. It seems like you've accelerated acquisitions quite a bit this year, you know, with the $1 billion you mentioned and continued optimism to get to the $250 million per year bolt-on M&A activity. Is there any reason for the uptick? Maybe valuation's better or just more companies willing to sell? Just more color on what you're seeing. Do you expect this uptick of modestly bigger deals to continue?
Well, you broke the rule already with, you know, but, with, you know, multiple questions.
I need the color.
You know, I expected that from you, Andy. You know what? You know, to be honest with you, Andy, I would just say it's the opportunities presented themselves at the right time. I don't know that it was anything that was, you know, necessarily purposeful. It's just that, you know, sometimes things have to present themselves at the right time. You know, as an example, you know, Onyx presented itself, you know, 18 months to two years ago. We've known the business for a long time. You know, I've known their CEO for, you know, probably 10 years plus.
But when it presented itself the first time around, you know, we were in the middle of an integration, a lot of integration work with, you know, our existing business in Canada alongside the Chubb Canada business, and we didn't feel like we had the bandwidth to do it. We remained disciplined and basically stayed on the sideline. This opportunity presented itself, we, you know, were able to capture it and take advantage of it. Wtech is another example. I think I first met Ted Wright, their CEO, who's a great leader, just like the Onyx CEO is a great leader.
I think I met Ted a couple of years ago, you know, we just stayed in touch and got to know his business. I think, you know, our culture and everything, you know, the investment we make and people really lined up with, you know, what he was looking for as relates to the people, you know, on his team. The opportunity presented itself, we took advantage of it. The CertaSite acquisition came along. That was more of a process-driven transaction. I think it's more just the opportunities came right time, great fit for us. You know, we have a great team here that was able to, you know, jump in and execute.
I'm super excited about these businesses. They not only are center of the fairway for us as it relates to the services that we want to offer our customers, but very strategic for us. Great leadership, great people in those businesses, and just can't be more excited to have them join the APi family. You didn't ask me this, I actually got a chance to be in Portugal last week with the Wtech team, and they did their annual planning process. I came out of that even more excited about the fit. Right opportunities, right time. Probably the best way to put it.
Great. Appreciate the color, Russ.
Your next question comes from the line of Jon Tanwanteng with CJS Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions.
Morning, Jon.
talk a little bit. Good morning. If you could talk about, you know, input cost inflation and what you're seeing there, number one, and if you're seeing any pushback from customers or any sensitivity to pricing as you put those pricing increases through to them.
Yeah, good question. Thanks, Jon. Good morning. On the pricing side, you know, we continue to be able to get pricing on the inspection service and monitoring streams in our business.
That hasn't changed over the last couple of quarters. In terms of input costs, you know, we've seen the impact of rising fuel costs and some material inflation in our business as a result of tariffs and the conflict in Iran. Our teammates and our leaders have done a really great job of protecting themselves at the time of proposal, which means that we're able to capture the dollar impact of rising fuel costs and material costs as they come through. As a reminder, about 53% of our revenue comes from inspection service and monitoring, and we're able to price that revenue on nearly in real time. If material costs increase, we're able to price for that almost in real time.
We've done a great job of being able to protect ourselves and capture the dollar value. It may have had a slight nick on the margin. We've been able to protect ourselves from a dollar basis.
Are you seeing any sensitivity from customers?
No. We've been able to continue to capture price.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Tim Mulrooney with William Blair. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Russ and David. Thanks for taking my questions. Back to the acquisitions. Curious how far along are your recent acquisitions of Wtech and Onyx down this inspection first journey? You know, we think of APi as being very forward-leaning on focusing on inspections and service versus the install jobs, but unclear how many other companies out there have a similar go-to-market strategy, or at least how well developed their systems and protocols are, I guess, as it relates to being aligned with your strategy.
Tim, thank you. Good morning. What I would tell you is, like, I'm gonna include CertaSite into the mix here. I would tell you CertaSite was, like, way down the line and, you know, like, 95% of their revenue came from inspection service work. I would put them, like, even ahead of APi, and that goes back to when Jeff Wyatt founded the business. You know, he founded the business with this inspection first mindset. I would say Onyx is kind of in a similar spot that APi is at currently today. They are super focused on, you know, building, you know, a really robust inspection service and monitoring business. I'd put them in a similar spot that we are.
I would say that Wtech is probably more what I would consider the more traditional, where they're probably a little bit heavier on the project side today. There's opportunity for us to really build a robust inspection service business inside that current business. They're, you know, they're all three in kind of different phases of their evolution. You know, it's they're in a good spot, and I think they're all gonna be really accretive to what we're trying to accomplish as a company.
That's really good color. Thank you, Russ. If I just digging kind of along those lines, if I'm looking at Wtech in particular, just curious how you think about the margin potential of that European business in totality. You take Chubb, you add in Wtech, what I think, what you had originally, SK Fire, you put all this together, you streamline the operations. Obviously the mix is a little bit, is different. The markets are a little bit different than the U.S. You take all this into account, what does that look like 3-5 years down the line relative to your U.S. fire and life safety business? Thank you.
Well, I gotta give you a little bit of hard time, too. You know, everybody's breaking the rules. You know, I gave Andrew Kaplowitz a little bit of a hard time, so I gotta make sure I give, you know, Jon from CJS, and now I gotta give you, Tim, a hard time about it.
Follow through.
No, it's all, it's all good. You gotta have a little bit of fun with this stuff, too. The expectation is that it'll be in line with our North American Safety Services business, and there's no reason that, from a margin perspective, that they won't be. It's just, it's a big part of it is setting expectations and, you know, creating the right belief that it's achievable. That's the expectation. You know, we believe that every one of our branches has the opportunity to be a 20% EBITDA branch, and that's the goal and that's the target. We feel the same way about Wtech. We feel the same way about, you know, Chubb that's integrated with SK, as we do about our business in Paducah, Kentucky.
Got it. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Kathryn Thompson with TRG. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Kathryn, your line is open. Please go ahead.
I'm sorry about that. Thank you for taking my questions today. Good to see that guidance was raised, seeing good underlying business performance. If you could just give a little bit more color on that in terms of what you're seeing. Is it, just to clarify, is it increased demand or pricing or just timing? Has there been any change in the variety of work? You know, you noted earlier in your in the Q&A that it's not just data centers, but it's other projects too. Just maybe sussing out a little bit more the color on that improved performance.
Well, I would start. Good morning, Kathryn, and thanks for participating this morning. Well, I would say yes. What I mean by that is that it's a combination of everything. It's, you know, there's demand in obviously the conversation everybody's talking about is around data centers, right? Data centers, you know, is really the primary, you know, pusher of demand. There's demand opportunity, but there's other end markets that continue to create, you know, robust opportunities as well, like advanced manufacturing. We're seeing some, you know, really great opportunities in the healthcare space. You know, even higher education, there's opportunity there. Critical infrastructure continues to create opportunities for us. There's demand. There's playing in the right end markets contributes to it.
You know, price contributes to it. It's a combination of everything. You know, we've been very consistent in our messaging that, you know, we are not over-indexing, you know, on the data center space. We wanna make sure that we're taking advantage of the opportunities that are presented. We're not pushing all the chips onto the come line as it relates to data centers. We'll take advantage of it, but we need to continue to keep our customers that we have in the healthcare space and advanced manufacturing, etc. It's a combination of everything that you mentioned.
Great. Thank you. The follow-up question relates to the inspection first businesses that you acquired. Does the integration timeline differ between kind of your two broad inspection or inspection and servicing businesses? Just is it easier ramp? Just any other color on the ramp-up of this type of business. Thank you.
Yeah. I mean, all three of them are, like, slightly different, if you will. You know, like, CertaSite is, you know, kind of its own business. It'll continue to operate as an independent business inside our North American safety business. Their service offerings are a little bit different. It's a business that does a lot of extinguisher work, and so the integration will look different for that business than it would, say, look for like a more traditional bolt-on.
You know, our Canadian, the Onyx acquisition, you know, we're gonna operate that business, you know, as an independent portfolio business for the time being until we can figure out, you know, the exact, you know, we know where their strengths are, where their weaknesses are, and how that's complementary to our existing footprint in the Canadian operations. We'll kind of address that market by market as we continue to go forward after we get through the different regulatory filings and everything that we need to get done to close on the acquisition. Wtech will be a standalone business inside our international business. I think most folks have heard me talk about, you know, the difference between, say, North America and our international business.
What Wtech brings to our international business is strong strength and capability in the suppression side of the fire life safety space, which hasn't been a significant strength for us. We plan to operate that as an independent, you know, business inside our international operations. The integration will look different there as well. They, they all will have their own variation and levels of, like, integration as you would potentially define it.
Great. Thanks so much. Appreciate it, and good luck.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Julian Mitchell with Barclays. Your line is open. Oh, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Good morning. This is Manav Patnaik from the Barclays team on for Julian Mitchell. Thank you for taking my question. I understand that growth is quite broad-based across your markets, but specifically on data centers, could you provide a bit more color on the funnel and pipeline over the next few quarters? Is the company still on track to reach around 10% of sales from data centers this year?
Well, you're choppy. I think I heard your question, and it was around data centers and around the funnel and around the opportunities that we're seeing and if, you know, we think that approximately 10% of our revenue will come from the data center space at the end of the, so to speak, year. I would say yes. I would say that the funnel of opportunities, you know, continues to be robust. We're being selective about which opportunities that we pursue and that we want to deploy our, you know, our teammates to.
You know, I tell our business leaders that, you know, like, the men and the women that do the work in the field, we need to treat them like they're like precious gems, and making sure that we put them on the right opportunities where we can maximize, you know, maximize the opportunity that's in front of us. We're trying to be really selective. There's, you know, there's a lot of partnering opportunities that have presented themselves because of the demand in the data center space. We're being very selective with, you know, who we work with and the clients that we choose to align ourselves with.
We also wanna make sure that we're super focused on the project side with companies and businesses that we have the opportunity to do the inspection service and monitoring after that project opportunity is completed. We do believe that approximately 10%-11% of our revenue, you know, will come from data centers, you know, by the end of the year. You think that's fair, isn't it, David?
Absolutely. Absolutely, that was the result in the first quarter and the evolution of the backlog as we went through the quarter as well.
Perfect. Thank you very much. A quick one on Safety Services. Is the 5.4% organic sales growth rate a relatively good run rate for the year?
Yeah. A little choppy again, but I think the question was the mid-single digit organic revenue growth a pretty good run rate for the year in the Safety segment? The answer is, yes.
Great. Thank you very much.
Your next question comes from the line of Ashish Sabadra with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. This is David Page on for Ashish. Just following up on the last question. Specialty Services seems to be also tracking above your midterm organic growth targets. I was wondering, how should we think about that in the back half of the year? Or even just given demand and project strength, does that organic growth target need to be revisited? As a follow-up, within Specialty, some of the sub-segments, infrastructure, fab, and specialty contracting, can you just give some color on how those performed in the quarter? Thank you.
Yeah. I'll take the first half of the question, which is around the progression of the Specialty segment. Really strong first quarter. you know, expect that business to perform a strong level throughout the year. As we get deeper into the year, as you know, we'll be coming up against more difficult comps. I would expect that there'll be strength in that business. As you start comping against more difficult comparisons, the revenue growth rate will slow in the back half but still be a really strong performance. And then a little bit of color around your fab and infrastructure, is that the second part of your question?
Yeah, yeah. Just some of those fab, infrastructure, and then specialty contract, which I think grew around 45% in 4Q. I was just curious, how'd those businesses perform in the quarter?
Yeah. I mean, really pleased with the performance of all three of those. Our growth in the Specialty Services segment was really diverse and well spread across all of the reportable segments, with strength in a variety of end markets, including data centers and, as Russ Becker mentioned, critical national infrastructure and others. Really pleased with the performance of all three of those. The backlog of all three of those reporting segments is strong and robust as well.
Great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Tomohiko Sano with JPMorgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone.
Good morning. How are you?
Thank you. Doing well, thank you. Regarding your international business, I think as you mentioned that backlog remains strong overall. In today's volatile market, competitive dynamics can present both risk and opportunities. Given ongoing geopolitical and supply chain challenges, how have you adapted your international operations over the past couple months? Do you see any new opportunities in margin globally?
Well, I think that, you know, when I look at the international business, like our backlog is basically on par with where it was, you know, the previous year. Like, we feel good about, you know, the opportunities that we see. You know, our presence in the Middle East is pretty small and, you know, I think that, you know, they're seeing, definitely seeing more impacts from the conflict in the Middle East. Just, I think just general temperature and, you know, proximity is gonna have some level of impact on that. You know, we feel good about our international business and the leadership inside the international business and the opportunities that are coming forward.
From an M&A perspective, you know, we've said that we have opened up the aperture, and we think there's opportunities for us to continue to expand our business internationally. We're seeing the opportunities come forward, so we're in a good place there. You know, there definitely, you know, they definitely feel the impacts of the conflict, you know, more so than we do here. There's no question about that.
Thank you, Russ. Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Wittmann with Baird.
Great, thanks for taking my questions, and good morning, guys. Most of my questions have been asked and answered, but just a couple here. Maybe one for David, would just be, you know, with these larger acquisitions still yet to close, could you just give us a view of where the Net Leverage stands kind of pro forma for those what, after those close? Just so we can kind of gauge where the balance sheet is and how much more dry powder you have. Russ, just kind of a question for you just on the safety inspection service and monitoring environment right now. You know, there's been
I don't think it's just APi that's been more focused on the inspection service and monitoring portion of this market. I'm just wondering, obviously you're still getting pricing. I feel like the industry is getting pricing, is the competitive environment both for customers in that segment of the market as well as for acquisitions noticeably different than what you would have seen two or three years ago? Would you say it's unchanged?
I'll go first and just because I can remember the second half of your question, and David is younger than me, and hopefully he can remember the first half of your question. Even though I do remember the first half of your question, Andy. Anyways, good morning and thank you. I would say it's really unchanged and, you know, I go back to even like, you know, like for the most part, you know, like our we continue to see, you know, organic growth in our inspection business, you know, on par with previous quarters and, you know, you're really taking share there. I think that that's really primarily driven by the highly fragmented market that we operate in.
You know, like I've commented to this in the past that if you, if you really go in and analyze, you know, the major metropolitan markets across the U.S., there's not one firm that has, you know, 10% market share in that market. I don't think most companies don't have more than 5%, you know, like the largest players, that includes us. To me, like the highly fragmented nature of the markets that we serve continues to create opportunities for us to take share as it relates to growing our inspection and service business.
From an M&A perspective, you know, Andy, we continue to see really, you know, our funnel and our pipeline are really robust even, you know, including the bolt-on M&As opportunities that we're seeing. I would just tell you that, you know, we're looking for sellers who are really interested in finding the forever home, you know, for their people. If all they're interested in is finding the highest price, then they should sell their business to a private equity-backed, you know, firm. You know, and what we can offer these companies is a forever home for their people. We can, you know, respect the legacy that they've created.
You know, most of these businesses are family-owned, family-run businesses, we have something different that we can offer these people, and that creates a unique opportunity for us. You know, even, Wtech, you know, which was a private equity-backed business, number one, it was probably one of the best private equity firms that I've been associated with. Like, just they actually care a lot about their people. But, you know, in a conversation I had with Ted, you know, their CEO in front of his key business leaders, you know, the conversation was around, you know, people and finding the right spot.
He actually turned and looked at his group, and he said, "We found our forever home." I think that that's something that's unique and a unique opportunity as we continue to look to build out our portfolio and to build out, you know, our business. I would say it's really the same, Andy. That's maybe a little bit more than what you were looking for, but I would just tell you it's the same, and I think it just creates opportunity. The more momentum we get, the more opportunity that it'll create for us. We got a lot of really good things happening in that front.
We'll have, as we work our way through this year, we're gonna have a lot more to share, and that'll take you into David can answer your question about our balance sheet and the dry powder we have because we have a lot of flexibility.
Yeah, we do. I appreciate you reminding me of the question too, Russ. As we mentioned in the script, we ended the first quarter with a net leverage ratio of about 1.8 x. By the time we finance and close on the 2 announced acquisitions, we'll be at or below the low end of our target net leverage ratio, and I expect that we'll work that down to kind of the ballpark of where we are today by the end of the year. Does that help?
Yeah, we can do the math on that. Good enough. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Jasper Bibb with Truist Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Excellent. Thank you, guys. I'll keep it to one. Really nice organic growth this quarter, obviously. You mentioned a mixed impact on gross margins for both segments. Could you just provide a bit more detail on the mix factor this quarter and clear up if there was any material purchase pull- forwards due to the uncertainty from the war or maybe the support the upcoming project in the next three quarters that could have boosted revenue a bit and diluted margins?
Yeah, I can cover that one. I, you know, I think about mixes, you know, kind of two factors, and they're both really math driven. First is the growth in project revenue in the quarter, which on average comes at about 10 percentage points lower gross margin than our inspection service and monitoring work. Second is the growth in the Specialty Services segment vis-a-vis the Safety Services segment and the impact that had on margin in the quarter as well. Those are really the two, the two mix factors, just the ratio of service and project work in the quarter and the segment mix. To answer your other question, no real material pull- forward impact in the quarter.
Hey, thanks. Appreciate it.
Your next question comes from Curtis Nagle with Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Great. Just wanted to go back to that point you made on kind of that 5.4% run rate, or that being a good run rate for the year. Just wanted to confirm that, you know, given the 2H compares are obviously higher, so, you know, if that's the case, I mean, that's obviously a pretty positive statement. Just yeah, wanted to confirm that that's what you said.
Yeah. I think I follow your question. This is around the anticipated growth rates in the Safety Services segment for the full year in the back half. You know, I continue to refer back to our long-term organic revenue growth algorithm in that segment. We expect our service revenue to grow mid- to upper-single digits each and every quarter, each and every year, and we expect our project work to grow low- to mid-single digits, which gets to a mid-single digit organic revenue growth. That was really the playbook that we saw in the first quarter. A little heavier maybe on the project revenue, we expect that to play out through the course of the year.
Okay. Just one quick one on gross margins. Should mix continue to be a headwind? How should we think about gross margins for the back half of the year?
I continue to expect to see our gross margins and our Adjusted EBITDA margins expanding year-over-year, as we target 60 to 70 basis points of margin improvement in the year.
Okay. Appreciate it.
Your next question comes from the line of Joshua Chan with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, Russ and David. On that Safety Services growth point, I guess if you grew 5.5% in Q1, then it was a little heavier on project. Could you just talk about the trajectory on the inspection service and monitoring and whether there's any change there or more of a timing in the quarter? Thank you.
No, I mean, there really hasn't been any change in the trajectory of our inspection service and monitoring revenue growth, Josh. you know, that business consistently grows mid to upper single digits across the business, and there might be quarters where it ends up a little closer to mid, and there might be quarters where it ends up a little closer to upper. That has been a consistent mid to upper single digit revenue growth stream for the Safety Services segment. It was in the first quarter, and we expect that it will continue to be in the back half of the year.
Great. Thank you for the color and comments on the quarter.
There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Russ Becker, President and CEO, for closing remarks.
Thank you. In closing, I'd like to thank all our teammates for their continued support and dedication to our business. We believe our people are the foundation on which everything else is built. Without them, we do not exist. I would also like to thank our long-term shareholders as well as those that are recently joined us for their support. We appreciate your ownership of APi and look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the remainder of the year. Thank you again, everybody, for joining the call.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.