Greetings, and welcome to the Crane Holdings, Co. Q3 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Jason Feldman, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.
Thank you. All right. Thank you, operator, and good day, everyone. We've been having some technical issues with the provider. If anyone has any issues, please email me directly, and we'll sort them as soon as we can. Welcome to our Q3 2022 earnings release conference call. I'm Jason Feldman, Vice President of Investor Relations. On our call this morning, we have Max Mitchell, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Richard Maue, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We'll start our call this morning with a few prepared remarks, after which we will respond to questions. Just a reminder that the comments we make on this call may include some forward-looking statements.
We refer you to the cautionary language at the bottom of our earnings release and also in our annual report Form 10-K and subsequent filings pertaining to forward-looking statements. Also, during the call, we'll be using some non-GAAP numbers, which are reconciled with the comparable GAAP numbers and tables at the end of our press release and accompanying slide presentation, both of which are available on our website at www.craneco.com in the Investor Relations section. Now let me turn the call over to Max.
Well, let me just verify here, Jason. First, our providers had some technical issues. Apparently, Daryl, if you're still there, the webcast is not being.
Just a reminder that the comments.
I am here. I could hear it coming through the webcast. I do apologize. If people that are joined via the webcast, if you could just refresh your browser.
Well, they might not hear you then.
Uh.
You know. Okay. Are those dialed in? Can you hear us?
Correct.
Okay. Well, it's being recorded, Jason, so at least.
It is.
We'll have a live. All right. Fantastic. Well, we will keep going. Technical challenges. We appreciate your patience. Thank you, Jason. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining the call today. I wanna lead off with just a thanks to our global Crane team for another strong quarter with solid results across the board. Q3 adjusted EPS was $1.86, consistent with our expectations and our prior guidance commentary. Adjusted EPS declined 12 cents compared to last year. Operationally, we had a very strong quarter, as the EPS decline was due to the known 16-cent impact from the May divestiture of Crane Supply, and a 19-cent impact from comparison against an unusually low tax rate last year. Adjusting for those items, adjusted EPS increased 14% compared to last year.
Core sales growth of 2% was impacted both by supply chain constraints and the extremely challenging comparisons for the Payment & Merchandising Technologies segment. Remember that the Q3 of last year was an all-time record for sales at Payment & Merchandising. Notably, general demand indicators remained very strong. Core year-over-year orders increased 10%, and core year-over-year backlog increased 26%. Demand remained strong in nearly all of our core markets with continuing strong trends, even in these uncertain global macroeconomic times. The overall message, both regarding operations and the market environment, is really unchanged from last quarter. A clearly continued momentum with yet another quarter of strong results, continued differentiated execution in a challenging environment, and continued success driving accelerating growth despite supply chain constraints. The environment is similar to what we saw three months ago, with continued robust demand across our end markets.
As always, we continue to carefully watch for any signs of softening, but the order rates and backlog I cited earlier point to continued strength without any notable signs of slowing from our industrial customers and suppliers. The supply chain, including material and component availability, remain most challenging but stabilizing in our Aerospace & Electronics segment, with general signs of modest improvement in all other segments, but still consistent with the outlook we've provided since the start of the year. From a cost and inflation perspective, as you can see from our continued margin strength, we have been appropriately assertive with pricing actions across all of our businesses, and we continue to fully offset the impact of inflation on both a dollar and margin basis. Overall, we planned appropriately when we entered 2022, and we are confident in our narrowed guidance range.
In addition to excellent execution in 2022, we remain intensely focused on all of our strategic initiatives, driving growth, advancing technology to position our businesses for the future, and preparing for the separation into Crane Company and Crane NXT. Regarding the separation, everything is on track and progressing towards our targeted early April 2023 separation date. We continue to firmly believe that the separation will unlock shareholder value and permit each post-separation company to optimize investment and capital allocation and further accelerate growth. Notable progress has been made on several fronts. We have already responded to the first round of comments from the SEC on our initial Form 10 submission. We expect that the Form 10 should be publicly available for the first time in December. We are making significant progress on the mechanics of the separation, organizational design for both companies, and filling key roles.
We are continuing to work on our capital structure plans, now substantially simplified following the elimination of our asbestos liability. Both companies will have significant financial flexibility after the separation, with more than $1 billion of M&A capacity at each NXT and Crane Company from day one. I'm sure you all saw our announcement last week about the selection of Aaron Saak as the President and CEO of Crane NXT. I am extremely excited about Aaron's appointment and highly confident that he is the right leader to embrace the best of Crane's culture and the Crane Business System while moving NXT strategically in new directions. Aaron brings an impressive pedigree of educational and professional experiences, along with a proven track record of driving innovation to accelerate long-term growth and delivering strong operational results.
His experience in fostering high-performance teams and his passion for driving breakthrough innovation make him a perfect fit for this role and an excellent steward of Crane's culture. The Crane board search committee met with many top candidates in an extremely competitive process, and we are confident that Aaron has the perfect background and experience to help Crane NXT continue executing on its extremely strong and profitable core business while concurrently pursuing new growth opportunities. I look forward to seeing him successfully leverage his experiences from two prior spin-off transactions and prior success diversifying and expanding portfolios into adjacent high-growth markets with Crane NXT. Aaron is working a transition with his present organization and will join us on November 28th. Onboarding processes have already begun, as well as strategic review deep dives moving forward.
Aaron will join us on our January 24th earnings call to present an update on Crane NXT and answer questions. Moreover, Aaron will be helping me in preparing for our March Investor Day and roadshow. Stay tuned for more on those specific dates. In summary, excellent execution, all efforts on track. At this point, I'll turn it over to Rich for some additional financial commentary.
Thank you, Max, and good morning, everyone. My thanks as well to our teams and all of our associates globally for delivering another quarter of strong results. I will start off with segment comments that will compare the Q3 of 2022 to 2021, excluding special items as outlined in our press release and slide presentation. At Aerospace and Electronics, sales of $167 million decreased 1% compared to last year. Segment margins of 16.9% were lower compared to 19.3% last year, primarily reflecting less favorable mix and lower absorption on reduced volumes, partially offset by strong productivity. Pricing offset fully the impact of inflation in the quarter.
Core orders increased an impressive 30% compared to last year, and backlog increased 24%, but sales remain constrained by material availability, consistent with conditions across the aerospace industry and supply chain. Sales improved sequentially from last quarter by 4%, and we expect further sequential improvement in the Q4 as the supply chain constraints slowly improve, and we expect continued but gradual improvement throughout 2023. In the quarter, total aftermarket sales declined 3%. Commercial aftermarket sales increased 16%, led by growth in spares and repair and overhaul. Commercial aftermarket demand is very strong, reflecting continued improvement in flight hours and high utilization of an aging fleet, as new aircraft deliveries are not ramping up as quickly as the demand due to the supply chain environment.
Military aftermarket declined due largely to timing and supply chain constraints, though orders for military spares were very strong in the quarter. OE sales were flat year over year, with 2% commercial growth offset by a slight decline in military OE sales. While sales were flat, demand is very strong and will be a tailwind as the supply chain eases throughout 2023. Looking ahead, we expect a sequential increase in both sales and margins for the Q4. To put the present supply chain constraints relative to demand in perspective, in an unconstrained environment, there is demand in our current backlog and order patterns to support mid- to high-teens% sales growth in 2023. Based on the incremental content we have won on current and new platforms, that type of growth in 2023 would be followed by high single-digit% growth for the remainder of the decade.
We are also confident that our cost base is properly aligned with demand, and that we can return to the 21%-24% margin range on sales comparable to 2019 levels of about $800 million, with incremental sales beyond that leveraging in the high 30% range. While the situation evolves daily, we do expect the supply chain constraints to ease progressively over the course of next year, but we don't expect to be in a fully unconstrained environment until at least 2024. We will have a better handle on 2023 growth rates after our normal plan process in the final months of this year and will communicate segment guidance in January. Regardless of the present macroeconomic concerns globally, we see continued strong commercial aerospace demand heading into 2023. Moving to Process Flow Technologies.
Sales of $250 million decreased 16%, but driven by a 20% impact from the May divestiture of Crane Supply and a 5% impact from unfavorable foreign exchange. Core growth for Process Flow Technologies was very strong at 9%. Adjusted operating margins of 16.8% were an impressive new record for the segment, up 130 basis points from last year. The margin expansion primarily reflected strong productivity and pricing, and pricing continues to fully offset inflation. Compared to the prior year, core FX neutral orders increased 13% and core FX neutral backlog increased 16%. Sequentially, compared to the second quarter, core FX neutral backlog increased 5%, with core FX neutral orders increasing 1%.
Leading indicators suggest that we will see strong continued growth throughout 2022, led by strength in chemical, pharmaceutical, and general industrial end markets. From a market and geographic perspective, America's MRO and distribution remain stable without any signs of slowdown. Pro-projects, particularly those for productivity enhancements, debottlenecking, and large maintenance programs, have been very strong. Greenfield activity, however, remains limited. Our municipal business in the United States is also very strong. Trends in China are also strong, and there seems to be some catch-up from demand from a slower second quarter, which was impacted by COVID shutdowns. MRO activity is stable, and we are seeing accelerating investments in projects, both greenfield and brownfield expansions, particularly for applications such as PVC, VCM, and MDI.
Europe has weakened a little sequentially on concerns over energy input costs and customer decisions related to global operating schedules, but year-over-year growth rates have been fairly stable. We are beginning to see a few smaller sized and mid-sized projects get traction, largely expansion and debottlenecking, but no major projects or greenfield activity. The softer project activity in Europe may result in a shift to higher investment in other regions, for example, North America and China, where energy and input costs are lower. In this business, we do continue to see progressive improvement in the supply chain, with material availability and lead times improving. We expect a modest sequential decline in sales next quarter, consistent with normal seasonality and some moderation in margins, but we continue to expect full-year record margins of approximately 16%. Moving to Payment & Merchandising Technologies.
Sales of $335 million in the quarter decreased 8%, driven by a 3% decrease in core sales and a 6% impact from unfavorable foreign exchange. Demand remained solid, but comparisons were difficult against the record Q3 of last year, and we continue to expect solid mid-single-digit core growth for the full year. Operating margins improved 330 basis points to a record 25.9%, reflecting strong pricing and productivity, partially offset by the lower volumes. Remember, there is nearly 600 basis points of depreciation and amortization in this segment. Really very impressive performance from our team. Forward-looking demand indicators also remain very strong, with 4% core order growth and 40% core backlog growth. Forty percent.
The CPI business is still supply chain constrained, mostly around the availability of certain electronic components, but we are now beginning to see some improvement again in both availability and lead times. Currency markets are behaving as anticipated and previously communicated. Remember, currency hit new records in both U.S. and international sales in the Q3 last year, so the full year 2022 will decline modestly as expected. At CPI, broad-based strength continues with mid-teens core growth. Our gaming business has been very strong, vending continues to improve, and the level of activity in the retail markets remains very positive. We continue to see a proliferation of different solutions across the retail space, but the common theme is the need for productivity in an inflationary environment with labor shortages. For the segment, we expect sales to increase slightly on a sequential basis from Q3 to Q4.
From a margin perspective, we do expect margins to moderate in the Q4 due to anticipated mix, but full-year margins should be 24% or above, exceeding last year's record levels. At Engineered Materials, sales of $63 million increased 4% compared to the prior year. Operating profit margins decreased 10 basis points to 10.8%. Growth was led by building products and transportation, with RV-related sales down in line with industry production rates. Sales will decline sequentially in the Q4, consistent with normal seasonality and with margins down sequentially along with the lower volumes. Moving on to total company results.
Free cash flow was -$439 million in the quarter, as accounting rules require the one-time contribution for the August divestiture of asbestos liabilities as an operating cash outflow, and we had additional one-time costs related to both the asbestos transaction and the separation. Excluding those items, Q3 free cash flow increased to $137 million from $108 million last year. We believe that we are on track to achieve our full year adjusted free cash flow guidance of $350 million-$390 million after adjusting for one-time cash outflows. Related to our portfolio actions and the asbestos abatement.
However, as I noted last quarter, it will be more back-end loaded with more than normal given higher working capital related to the market recovery, most notably some improving inventory, and in many cases, we are making very conscious, deliberate decisions to add inventory in the near term to best protect our customers. Our balance sheet is in extremely good shape. By the end of the year, we expect adjusted gross leverage toward the bottom of the 2-3 times Moody's gross debt to EBITDA target range for our current credit rating. Turning to earnings guidance, we are maintaining the midpoint, but narrowing to a 14-cent range of $7.58-$7.72 for the full year, which implies Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.90 at the midpoint.
That's a significant narrowing reflecting our high confidence in the midpoint. It also reflects the fact that there are only two months left in the year, with supply chains limiting too much upside in that short a period. That said, any unsatisfied demand in 2022 will just roll into 2023, prolonging the cycle. Given where we are in the year, to hit the high end of guidance, which we don't have visibility into at this time, it would require a significant improvement in the supply chain very soon, given transit and manufacturing lead times. The path to the low end looks similarly unlikely, requiring either a significant worsening of exchange rates or an unexpected supply chain surprise.
I wanna emphasize again that the only change to the midpoint of our earnings guidance for the full year was an increase of $0.45 in May when Engineered Materials was brought back into continuing operations. On an operational basis, we have maintained guidance all year despite numerous headwinds. Specifically, since guidance was originally issued, we lost $0.25 of contribution from Crane Supply, which was divested in May. Foreign exchange has been an increasing headwind throughout the year and at current rates is a $0.15 headwind relative to original guidance, most of it from rate moves during the Q3. The supply chain environment this year has been far more challenging than most anticipated in January, and there has been substantial inflation spanning materials, freight, labor, and energy and other costs.
We have held our midpoint while absorbing and offsetting all of these items, a real testament to the hard work and dedication of our teams around the world and the strength of the Crane Business System and our execution. Continued outstanding performance and a solid outlook, and even more exciting times ahead as we enter 2023 and complete the separation. A special shout-out to the corporate team that is supporting numerous work streams required to enable the successful separation. We are all very energized at the progress that has been made to date and the opportunities that we are unlocking and pursuing every day. Operator, we are now ready to take our first question.
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad.
A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for your questions. Our first question is coming from the line of Matt Summerville with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed with your questions.
Thanks. Good morning. Maybe first start with the payment segment and the backlog growth there, Rich. I think you mentioned up 40% year-on-year. Can you parse out a little bit, maybe a little bit more detail around, you know, how much of that's being driven by CPI versus Crane Currency? And obviously, that backlog is well above prior peak. You know, how much of that is market versus market share? And then I have a follow-up on that business.
Yeah. First, Matt, on the split, and I'll let Rich go from there. It was somewhat more on the CPI side than the currency side, but they were both up, well into the double digits.
Yeah. So that's. I was gonna head there as well. Nothing more to add to that from what Jason was saying. I would say on the currency side, you know, we continue to see nice wins internationally. We continue to make great progress. I forget the number of new denominations we're gonna have this year. I'm sure we'll announce that in January at the end of the year when we recap.
On the payment side, you know, we are continuing to make excellent progress on all initiatives in retail. North American gaming continues to be a nice success for us. We're continuing to take share actually in that area as well. You know, as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, you know, vending is also, we are making good traction there in terms of year-over-year growth in the backlog. It really does kind of span across all of them and really in line with the theme that we have outlined on the payment side in terms of productivity and labor shortages driving a lot of the demand right now in the market.
Just, as a follow-up, sticking with payment, maybe just 2 quick ones. Whether or not you guys maybe have an early read on what the federal government print order might look like for its fiscal 2023, seeing that fiscal 2023 for the government has already started. Maybe if you can talk about whether or not you are starting to see some early successes with some of the products you have been launching in product authentication.
Yeah, Matt, Max here. We don't have an official a WECO order yet from the Fed, but I think it's gonna be in a similar range. You know, we will probably expect to see a range and a lot of uncertainty. The desire is for more. I think it's gonna be similar to this year's story, which is BEP somewhat constrained, not only with manufacturing capacity but also ongoing trials. You know, there's tremendous work being done that we are helping to support on the next series, and that's cutting into some of the capacity as well. The best we can say right now is similar to 2022 probably with a range desire for more, all good news long term, though, is what I'd directionally say also.
On successes, well, our team's doing a great job on product authentication. I think there's some new opportunities I look forward to chatting about that. We continue to have trials, approvals, look to double that business again next year. Some significant wins here coming up. So I'm very excited.
Great. Thank you, guys.
Yep. Thanks, Matt.
Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Damian Karas with UBS. Please proceed with your questions.
Morning, Damian.
Hi, good morning, everyone.
Morning.
Wanted to ask you first about the PFT segment. You know, I think you had implied in your prior guidance that volumes would be moderating maybe down slightly in the second half of this year. Could you just elaborate on whether that's to what extent that's faring better than you had expected? You know, when we look at the 13% order growth, which is pretty strong, could you possibly break that out between volumes and price?
Yeah. Well, I guess what I would say is that, you know, we are doing a little bit better in terms of overall sales progression in the year without a doubt. The teams are making excellent progress whether it's on new product development launches or pricing initiatives really. It really does span across the board. You know, I would say, you know, most of what we're seeing right now is price at this point. Man, the backlog feels, I think, really good as we're setting ourselves up here for 2023, and it really spans across all areas in PFT from, you know, I mentioned municipal in my prepared remarks, but also chemical, pharmaceutical, industrial demand in the process side of the business.
Okay, great. And just to follow up on the backlog discussion, you know, for PMT, you mentioned up 40%. You know, I know currency, right? That's you have got pretty good visibility there. But on the payment side, you know, just curious, that is an area of the business that has tended to be probably a little bit more macro sensitive in past cycles. You know, how much confidence do you have that if we are in a recessionary scenario next year that, you know, kind of that backlog, those orders that you've won on the payment side will hold firm or is there some possible risk of, you know, deferral or cancellation there?
Well, there's always risk, Damian. But the strength that we see in gaming continues. People continuing to enjoy getting back out. Travel continues. On the retail side, I think even in a recessionary environment, I think the pressures, this is a very unique cycle with numerous pressures. I think productivity drivers, wage inflation, the difficulty of finding labor is driving a productivity trend that we believe retailers will continue to invest in globally for the long term, including through a down cycle. Now, it depends on how severe and significant that is. We think that trend continues.
Yeah. I would just say, particularly on the retail side, a lot of the exposure there when you think about where you're seeing automation, it's not in highly discretionary areas of retail typically, right? The sort of retailers that are participating, right? So there's always gonna be some macro sensitivity, but I think a lot less on the retail side. On the gaming side, remember a lot of that growth has been share gain, right? You know, so we feel pretty good about next year.
Mm-hmm.
Understood. Thanks, guys. I'll get back in the queue.
Thanks, Damian.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Nathan Jones with Stifel. Please proceed with your questions.
Morning, Nathan.
Good morning, everyone.
Morning.
Morning.
Maybe on the A&E business, obviously some uncertainty there in 2023 with supply chains. I think, Rich, you said there's demand there for mid-teens growth or better next year, and then high singles from there. If we look at that maybe over a two-year period, we should anticipate, you know, 20%-25% growth by 2024 over 2022. Did you say you anticipate high 30s incremental on that growth?
Yes, I did. Yes. I think your math's right. You know, it's probably about right actually.
Those are the incrementals.
Yeah. The incrementals is yes.
Okay. I wanted to ask one on something that was written in the press release that noted activity on a number of potential acquisitions. Are you thinking there could be anything of scale completed before the spin? If so, how would that impact the capital structure of each company?
Nothing of scale prior to the spin, Nathan. We re not gonna put the spin at risk at all and keep the focus on what we have in front of us. I think there might be some small strategic opportunities, but even that, you know, is questionable. The funnel continues to be very robust on both the Crane and NXT side. A lot of planning, a lot of continued work, and M&A of scale would come after separation.
Fair enough. I guess you are probably not gonna tell us exactly what the capital structures are likely to be at this point, but I think you said, you know, both companies about $1 billion of M&A capacity, and they're gonna be, you know, relatively close to the same kind of EBITDA. Should we be just the rule of thumb here, kind of thinking that both companies will have roughly the same leverage when they come out?
I think we'll give a little more on the capital structure.
Yeah. Nathan, maybe I'll start with just the overall net debt to EBITDA targets that we had talked about previously at Crane Company being just under one times net debt to EBITDA and at Crane NXT at about one and a half times. Nothing's changed with respect to that. You know, in terms of sharing just progress on marching towards those numbers, come April, you know, our sense is that we've got some pretty good clarity with respect to the nature of that debt. We would wind up raising some form of a term loan, you know, to be determined on sort of the tenure and so forth. Call it $300 million in the term loan on the Crane Company.
That will enable us to dividend, you know, monies over to Crane NXT in order to satisfy or to take down the 2023 bonds that are outstanding there on a near-term maturity basis. We are also making progress with respect to, you know, planned revolving credit facilities that we need to set up at both companies. There'd also be a minor, I would say, a little bit smaller term loan to refinance the existing $400 million that we took out to satisfy asbestos that's gonna remain at NXT. All of it progressing, I would say. Hopefully, a little bit more color there for you to understand.
We think we are going to use the term, you know, commercial banking market versus, you know, the debt, you know, issuing debt securities at this point.
Just one last one on supply chain. Are the disruptions that you are seeing getting product delivered coming more from your supply chain to you, or are there issues in your customer's supply chain that are inhibiting them taking delivery of products you're producing?
Say the question one more time. I just wanna make sure I understand it, Nathan.
On the supply chains, are you finding more impact coming from your suppliers and need to produce products or your customers' supply chains overall inhibiting their ability to take delivery of products you are producing?
Oh. Yeah, yeah. No, it's much more, much more so our supply chain than the customers in terms of, you know, hold, pushing off on existing orders or deliveries. Stabilized. Again, just in summary, A&E went into it later than the rest as we had supply chain challenges. Things are gonna come out a little later as well, lagging. Certainly seeing stabilization. I mean, there's some very, very extended lead times that we continue to work through. Very similar environment where you have new surprises in any given quarter that the team's doing an incredible job working through and around, not unlike anything else the rest of the industry is seeing.
I mean, we're triangulating across customers, working closely with customers, in many cases, partnering, trying to work through these issues together. We are seeing clearly in A&E stabilizing, and I think it's gonna slowly improve into 2023. Across the rest of our environment, Payment & Merchandising Technologies on the electronics, passives, actives continues to be problematic but improving. In general, across the board, outside of A&E, lead times are coming down, material availability more reliably coming in. We are seeing those signs of improvement. Hopefully, that helps.
Thanks very much for taking my questions.
Thanks, Nathan.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question has come from the line of Kristine Liwag with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your questions.
Hey, good morning, guys.
Hey, Christine. How are you?
Good morning.
Hey. Max, you mentioned that the search for the CEO for Crane NXT was very competitive. Now, I know it's a little early and Aaron hasn't fully onboarded yet, but can you provide some color on what you and the board liked about Aaron's vision for the business?
You know, what we like is, he's got an incredible educational background, number one, material science PhD. That in the micro optics business alone, it is a material science business. But the breadth of his experiences, the number of product solutions background, been with world-class organizations. So he's incredibly has a fantastic general background. Also, from an operating standpoint, with the Danaher, Fortive, Vontier pedigree, very consistent with the Crane Business System mindset, cadence, discipline, execution. There'll be a consistency there.
In addition, I think what we really liked about Aaron Saak's thinking was understanding how in this environment to drive this core business forward and the incredible growth trajectory we have in store for decades to come, while also exploring adjacencies that will take Crane NXT into very exciting growth vectors as we move forward. That is the focus of these next five months for Aaron Saak as well as the board, to really continue to solidify that vision as we move forward. I think it's incredibly exciting time. I'm personally very energized by where we are at this point. I think everything's playing out exactly as planned.
Great. Thanks for the color, Max. On the M&A front, you mentioned that you're actively pursuing a number of potential opportunities. Can you provide color on where you're seeing the strongest opportunities? In terms of timing, does this mean we could see some of these opportunities materialize before the separation? Is that the case for both businesses?
Yeah, most likely not before the separation, Christine. It'd have to be smaller and very strategic for us to do that. We have our sights set on staying very focused on the separation, but our funnel is very full. We continue to work a number of opportunities both across PFT in terms of core and near adjacencies, A&E core and near adjacencies of all sizes, with some very large opportunities that could add significant scale, that we would potentially pursue quite soon after separation. I mean, nothing's given. Nothing is certain in the M&A environment, but again, we are working the process hard.
As I've just described on the NXT side, we have an existing funnel that we will be continuing to, in the next five months, refining even further, the strategy for a very meaningful, targeted, strategic capital deployment as we move forward, or as that entity moves forward with under Aaron's leadership.
I see. Well, great. Well, thank you very much for the color. I know you answered that question. I was just trying to see if there's more color, just see if I can get a little bit more, but I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Nice try, Christine. Nice try.
Thank you, Christine Liwag.
Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Elizabeth Grenfell with Bank of America. Please proceed with your questions.
Hi, good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I just wanted to clarify one question on the aerospace piece. I know you said that you expect mid to high teens growth next year, ex supply chain issues, but how does that jibe with supply chain challenges continuing into 2024? What are you thinking about the net impact would be on sales next year within that?
I think we need to just clarify that a little bit, Elizabeth. I think what you meant was ,unconstrained.
Yes, so absent supply chain constraints, that's you look at our backlog, you look at our order flow and what we think, that's what that mid-teens. In terms of absent that and what should we expect given supply chain constraints, you know, we're gonna definitely have some, I think, some nice growth next year. We're not really prepared at this point. I think in January, we will provide some good guidance, obviously, as we always do.
We are about ready to head in November, Elizabeth, to all of our businesses for our operating plan reviews and really syncing up with the teams to understand our expectations. I think we're gonna need I wanna continue to just understand how supply chain progresses through the balance of the year before we really dial in our expectations for 2023. Clearly, you know, at a high level, we do feel it's gonna continue to slow, slowly. I mean, it's only stabilized right now in A&E. I think it's gonna slowly improve through the first half, hopefully accelerating in the second half. We believe it'll be on a more normalized level by 2024. That is our best thinking right now. More to come when we give our guidance in January.
Okay, great. When you think about the drivers of the growth in the core orders within the aerospace segment for the quarter, what were the different pieces that contributed to the strong growth?
Yeah. Well, the commercial recovery clearly, you know, one of the elements that's driving both the the core order growth of 30% and the backlog growth. In addition to that, you know, we did see some excellent continued progress, I would say, along the the electrification front and strategic direction and investments we've been making there. You know, this is where we have been spending most of our time over the last 5 or 6 years in terms of technology development. We've talked about some of these really nice wins, recently, particularly in the ground-based radar area. In the quarter, I would tell you that our defense power business, which is the high power business supporting that initiative, had its best order quarter, I think, ever.
We are continuing to see some nice traction there and really all supportive of the 7%-9% that we have been communicating for a while. I would also point to our lower power solution business or modular power business that continues to frankly just execute really, really well and take share. We saw some really nice order growth in that business in the quarter as well. A combination of those three would be the big pieces. Again, commercial recovery and then really continued good success in power.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Elizabeth.
Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Damian Karas with UBS. Please proceed with your questions.
Hey, guys. Just two quick follow-ups. First is on, yeah, just curious, you know, how much price carryover you might be expecting across the business, you know, into 2023, given the actions you have already taken this year.
Yeah. We are absolutely gonna have price carryover next year. I think, Damian, similar to the comment or question we just answered with respect to next year's demand, we are gonna be digging in pretty deep here in the month of November to really get that number solidified. We absolutely will have some carryover. Remember, we did start off the year pricing, right? It's just, it wasn't like we started in the second half, and we are gonna get a full half recovery, sorry, overlap. We do absolutely think we'll have some healthy carryover impact. It's not gonna be like, you know, double or, you know, carrying over 50% or something like that.
Okay. Just on corporate expense, it seems like you've been running a bit higher than the, you know, kind of $70-$75 million guide. Sorry if I missed it, but what's your expectation for corporate for the year now?
It's unchanged from the prior guidance. Right. We are trending a little bit higher. Q4 should be a little bit better, but no change to the outlook for corporate.
Okay, appreciate it. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Damian.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Max Mitchell for any closing comments.
Super. Thank you, operator. Another quarter with solid performance and further steps in our path to separation to drive further shareholder value, pushing ourselves forward into the future while driving excellent results in the present. As the late and respected Mikhail Gorbachev once said, "If you do not move forward, sooner or later, you begin to move backward." This is the essence of our culture at Crane and the Crane Business System, celebrating our progress to date while constantly pushing ourselves for new growth vectors and improvement. What progress we have made just in the last year, simplifying and strengthening our portfolio, driven by our firm commitment to shareholder value creation. It remains an exciting story, and I look forward to sharing updates with all of you over the next several quarters, along with Aaron, as both companies continue to drive progress, profitable growth, and shareholder value post-separation.
Thank you for your interest in Crane. Have a great day.
Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.