Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the 19th Annual Oppenheimer Industrial Growth Conference. Next up, we have the ITT team, led today by CFO Emmanuel Caprais and VP of IR, Mark Macaluso. And before we get into Q&A, Mark has some, some legal stuff to get out of the way. Over to you.
Thanks, Bryan. Just a quick reminder that our presentation and comments may contain forward-looking statements, which are based on our best view of the world as we see them today. These assumptions can obviously change, and we ask that you view them in our light, and we encourage you to review our latest filings and our Form 10-K and other SEC filings on our website. So with that, I'll turn it over to Bryan to start the Q&A.
All right, thanks, Mark. I guess to kick things off, your team has a pretty good following that you've certainly earned over the years. But for those a little less familiar, maybe provide a quick overview of current operations, recap the strong start that you had to 2024, and maybe use that to highlight some of what really differentiates ITT overall.
Sure. Thank you, Bryan. So ITT is composed of three segments. Our Industrial Process segment makes pumps and valves for a bunch of different markets: industrial, chemical, energy, as well as mining. Our Motion Technologies business makes auto components, so namely brake pads and shock absorbers. We sell those to the original equipment as well as the aftermarket. We also make shock absorbers for other transportation segments such as rail and also defense. And then finally, our Connect and Control Technologies makes connectors and components for aerospace, defense, general industrial, medical applications.
So over the years, and especially since 2019, when Luca Savi was appointed as CEO, we've been focusing on deploying an operating playbook that was inspired on the playbook that Luca has created for Motion Technologies, where we really focus on driving performance through throughout the business. So driving performance from an operational standpoint with, you know, labor efficiency, machine efficiency, really backed by the deployment of Lean through our operations. But also driving performance from a commercial standpoint, obviously driving volume, driving price, driving share gains, and reinvesting that increased profit into R&D and innovation, so we can continue to outperform our markets.
And so while our Motion Technologies business was, is the most advanced from an outperformance standpoint, especially because if you think about our Motion Technologies business, this is really a aerospace-like margin business, so we're around 18%, with a automotive working capital. So essentially, a cash machine. And so we've been replicating that operating system into our Industrial Process and our Connect and Control Technologies businesses, taking care in making sure that we adjust, let's say, the operating system for those specific businesses. So for instance, our Industrial Process and CCT businesses are more labor-intensive than Motion Technology is, so the focus is more on labor efficiency than it is on machine efficiency, as an example.
So overall, we've been really differentiating from the competition, both from a margin expansion standpoint, we've expanded since 2019, a little less than 400 basis points, our margins, our EBIT margins, and then from a growth standpoint. In 2022, we communicated long-term targets, and those long-term targets are for our Motion Technologies business, which is at 18% today, to reach a target of 20% by 2026. For our Industrial Process, today we are a little bit above 20%. We're already at our long-term targets. We'll be looking at establishing a new long-term target a little bit later this year.
For our CCT business, which today is between 18%-19%, we think that we have the potential to take this business to 22% by 2026. So what you hear a lot of at ITT is a heavy focus on differentiation that drives outperformance from a commercial standpoint and drives outperformance also from a margin standpoint. And finally, when we look at our EPS, EPS target, we expect to grow EPS roughly 10% every year, year-on-year. That, and that results in a cash generation of roughly or free cash flow margin of roughly 11%-12%.
All right. Appreciate the intro there. Excellent walkthrough. You mentioned the MT playbook being so, you know, foundational to ITT overall, you know, being deployed across other platforms. The Motion Tech and specifically Friction has been a fantastic share gain story over time... maybe offer some color on exactly what's driven that outgrowth and, you know, how it's sustainable both on ICE and EV platforms. And then touch on what the most attractive growth opportunities are looking forward. Very curious to hear about the high-performance market. You know, in that regard, you have exceptional share in your estimate, over 50%. So that's, you know, one of the opportunities to, you know, further that outgrowth and that, you know, relative dominance and-
So let me start by saying, Bryan, that our Motion Technologies business and our Friction business inside Motion Technologies has been able to consistently outperform markets. And on average, over, since 2012, we've outperformed the markets by 800 basis points. So this is a long-term outperformance. The reason why we have been able to outperform our peers and the market is because we provide differentiated performance from a technological standpoint, from a quality standpoint, from a delivery standpoint. So it's really back to basics. How are we able to deliver the quality that our customer wants? And here, our Friction business has a track record of one defective part per million. So every million part that we ship, one of them is defective. And the reason why it's defective is usually a labeling issue, it's not a functional issue.
From an on-time delivery standpoint, we're well into the 99% on-time delivery, and that adds a real value for our customers, especially when the competition is so far from those this type of performance. So you couple that with the innovation that we've been able to come up with, whether in 2016 it was about the copper-free brake pads, where we had to, in a couple of years, eliminate all the copper from the brake pads, or the transition to EV that require a specific type of brake pads that does not create as much noise and vibration as it does for ICE. Or now with the Euro 7 regulations, where we have to address the powder that is emitted by the brake pads.
We've always been able to use those technological disruptions to come on top of our competition and really enlarge the gap, the differentiation between us and them. So I would say, there's a long history of outperformance. It's not based on one single factor. It's an accumulation of factors that have been building over the years, that have given us a cost leadership within the industry, as well as the ability to price our products in some cases higher than the competition, because we are the only one able to provide a technological solution. And so when you think about all this, that's what we're trying to replicate.
We're trying to replicate a near perfect customer experience that will create loyalty with our customers and will allow us to continue to share gain, to gain share. And that has been the case in Industrial Process, especially in the project, in the projects, on the project side, where we've been able to really grow our share of the market. And not only grow our share of the market in terms of volume, but also grow the profitability of this project business. And that is also true in the CCT, where in our connector business, we've been able to gain share, to gain share, in defense and in some cases also in aerospace.
Understood. Appreciate the color. So just to quickly level set on, you know, the near-term motion tech outlook, what is your team baking into to your guidance for the year in terms of global auto production growth, the regional breakout there, and then your your team's outperformance by region as well?
Yeah. So, you know, if you look at the auto production, we expect this to be roughly flat this year. In Q1, we were positively surprised by China, which was stronger than what we were expecting, and I think most people were expecting. Europe and North America: Europe was a little down, and North America was flat or slightly up. So overall, a little bit better start of the year than what we were expecting. I think more importantly, our outperformance has continued to ramp up. So, in Q1, we were well above our historical average of 800 basis points, and we built on the positive momentum we had in Q3 and Q4, where in 2023, we saw the outperformance steadily improving quarter after quarter.
If you look at the different regions, China obviously drove most of the outperformance, but we outperformed all the regions. I think it was followed by Europe, and then North America was in third place, with the, let's say, the smaller outperformance of all.
Got it. And, yeah, it seems like the magnitude of your outgrowth is at this point sizably greater on the EV side. Remind us the run rate, you know, EV and hybrid mix that MT has, and then where that should go over the medium term. In absolute numbers, I assume you're pacing solidly ahead of the $500 million target you put out for 2025.
Yep. So today, our electrified revenue, which is hybrid and electric for original equipment, is around 30% of our total original equipment revenue. So, it is a significant portion that grows also really fast because as you mentioned, the outperformance is even stronger from an EV standpoint for technological reasons. As I was explaining, we're one of the few that have a formulation advantage to solve all the specific EV-related braking issues. And so that has helped us really outperform even more strongly the market. However, 30% is a lot, but it means that 70% is still ICE. And from an ICE standpoint, we continue to outperform the market as well.
And so whatever growth is slowing or volume growth is slowing from an EV standpoint is going back to hybrid and ICE. So as a result, we're not really impacted by, let's call it the really massive shifts that we've seen from traditional powertrain to new energy powertrain. What we don't get from an EV standpoint, we do get it from an ICE and a hybrid standpoint. And so from a macro level, where it's really shifting one side to the other.
At the micro level, the way we see this is, for instance, with a customer like Ford, where we are present both on the Mach-E, which is the Mustang EV, as well as the Bronco, which is their newish SUV that has an ICE engine. We see volume shifting away from the Mach-E and then into the Bronco. So as I was saying, we're not really losing. It's just a shift from one side to the other. And because the way we produce a brake pad, whether it is an EV brake pad or an ICE brake pad, we produce on the same machinery, it's pretty seamless for us.
Got it. Okay, and the last MT-specific question. You know, run rate profitability has recovered. First, what I assume we'll look back and see 2022 as kind of trough for the segment. Still a little below the margin level that investors expect from, excuse me, from Motion Technologies. What's the path forward? How do you think about 2024 margin progression, kind of the cadence throughout the year, and then what are the levers required to get to the 20% or so target?
Yep. So we're very happy to be able to deliver 18% in the first quarter. We had communicated that we were expecting to deliver 18% sometime in 2024, probably in the second half of the year. We've been able to exceed our expectations and deliver that in, right off the bat in the first quarter at 18.2 margin in Q1. We expect a quarter after quarter to be able to sequentially improve margin at MT, and finish the year between probably 18.5%-19% for Q4. So we think that we're gonna be around in the 18% range for Q4. We want to really make sure that we solidify that level of margin, and then so that we can move on to 20%, probably in 2026.
If you look at the margin progression that we've seen in Q1, and really every quarter in 2023, and I'm saying this because it's going to inform what's going to happen in the future. A lot of it is driven by productivity. Productivity was a significant gain at MotionTech, over 300 basis points. That compounded with volume, really drove a lot of the margin expansion. And with that, we were able to offset the headwind from an investment standpoint, especially with the high performance initiative that we have. We continue to invest a lot before we can start production by the end of this year. And then gave us opportunity also to reinvest some of that, those profits into R&D.
So we feel good about this, this level of margin. We feel that, through productivity, through volume growth, driven by outperformance of the market, we'll be able to get to that 20% while continue to invest in our business to really maintain that advantage, that differentiation that we have compared to the competition.
Got it. I'm at a point in covering ITT, where any target that your team puts out there, I really don't push back on. You know, execution has been, has been strong for so long and, you know, outperformance, you know, just phased outperformance along the way has been exceptional. Industrial Process, you know, next discussion topic, it really, really stands out in that regard. You know, pre-pandemic, I remember chatting with Luca, and he very openly stated, like, "We're going to create the MT of the flow world." And I was admittedly a naysayer at the time. Your team has proven me wrong, and then some. So just, you know, excellent growth story, you know, margin expansion, EPS contribution, you know, all the boxes have been checked.
Maybe touch on the, you know, the key strategic and structural changes that have been made and that are ongoing. And yeah, help us think about the, you know, the path forward for that segment, 'cause it has been, you know, such a great contributor to our growth in the recent past.
Yeah. So I think Industrial Process has not always been a great story. You know, we started 2017 with very depressed level of margins, and we've been really working to bring it to that 20% plus where we are today. Despite the fact that we are, again, here from a margin standpoint, outperforming our closest peers, we still have a lot of opportunities to further improve our profitability. We continue to see that there's a lot of growth out there from a market standpoint, and we certainly have been able to gain market share, as I was saying, on the project side.
So when you think about what has enabled that performance, a lot of it has to do with basic performance, basic focus on performance. We worked on improving our quality, we worked on improving our on-time delivery. We certainly worked on improving the safety within our factories. And all these has driven efficiencies through our plants, through the system, which has allowed us to, when we saw that big wave of volume coming in from the business that we've been winning, we've been able to convert those orders very much more efficiently than what we used to do in the past. And so as a consequence, you saw that expansion from a margin standpoint go really fast.
As we were able to improve the performance for our customers and our customer experience, we've been able also to get more price. So it's, it's a really virtuous cycle that we have been implementing in ITT, where we've been improving customer experience through the improvement of our own experience. We've been driving innovation with the increased profits that we were able to generate, and as a result, we've been able to outgrow the markets pretty significantly. You know, we talked about the Exxon deal that we got, where, you know, in the past, we used to have very little amount of market share with them. All of a sudden, we are 100% supplier for all their pumps for all the refineries globally.
With that, that's gonna generate an incremental $50-$80 million of revenue in the next three years. We talked about the valve business that we've been really able to expand with the award of capacity increase for a weight loss drug that one of our key customers is developing, is commercializing right now. So a lot of share gain opportunities. This is an industry that, you know, when you come from automotive, like I am, you are used to a certain level of op—a certain standard of operations. You're used to, you know that you can't survive if you're not at least 95% on-time delivery.
You know you can't survive if you're not in the low double-digit defective parts per million. And so when we see where we are today in Industrial Process, despite all the progress that I just described, we're not even close to those performance requirements. And so we want to bring that rigor, we want to bring that ambition to Industrial Process as well as CCT in order to drive further outperformance.
Yeah. Well, the proof in, you know, the strategy and execution circle certainly there, momentum is great. You mentioned, you know, some technology rollout that's helped to drive share gains. Any, any key technologies that you would call out that have really influenced the, the outgrowth in the segment? And thinking about growth prospects, you know, 2025, 2026, and then beyond, EMD stands out as, as really interesting. For those unfamiliar, maybe introduce the technology, and it would be great to, to hear more about field trials, what you can share, and the, you know, potential, you know, commercial path forward for that line.
Yeah. So, let me start with the basics. So again, in order for us to be really in a position to outperform, we have to provide super competitive products. And so a lot of the work that we've been doing on our current product portfolio has been to redesign our current product portfolio, and that is especially true in Industrial Process and in Connect and Control Technologies. And so as we were redesigning our portfolio of products, we've been able to improve the performance of these products, while at the same time reducing cost. And so that has made us even more competitive, because we are able, in some cases, to place pumps that are much smaller than the competition, but deliver the same hydraulic performance. And so you can see the benefit, because if a pump is smaller, it's also less costly.
So we've been able to really redesign and I wouldn't say entirely, because we're still ways away from completely redesigning our portfolio, but we've really been able to make significant impacts in the performance and the cost basis of our products. And this has helped feed the outperformance that you've seen. But that's, let's say, continuous improvement of the existing product portfolio. Now, you were mentioning EMD, and EMD is very exciting to us. EMD stands for Embedded Motor Drive, and this is a motor that goes on a pump. So, and the differentiation that we are working on is to provide energy savings for our customers.
So today, the way it works is when you put a motor to a pump, you have to regulate the flow of, that's coming out of the pump, pump downstream. So imagine if you were. You're always running your motor at 100%, and then you regulate the flow with valves, downstream from the pump. Now, if you think about it, this is as if you were driving your car and you were pressing the accelerators, all the time, and then in order to reduce the speed of the vehicle, you would brake while pressing the accelerator. So you can see that it's not very efficient. So what we've designed is a product where you have a variable frequency drive, which is able to modify the speed of your motor, so make your motor smart, smart, in other words, inside the motor.
Today, you can put that variable frequency drive, but it's usually outside, and it takes up a lot of space in an environment where usually industrial environments, where you don't have a lot of space. So by putting that variable frequency drive onto the motor, we're able to make the motor smart, to deliver 50% energy consumption savings, and get rid of all the hardware that is downstream from the pump, so providing significant savings for our customers. We have launched 10 trials late last year, and I'm happy to report that all these trials with 10 different customers are going really well. We're ready to kick off the commercialization of this product in 2025. A lot of exciting news.
We got really very positive feedback from the customers that are included in those trials, and we can't wait to be able to provide this new product to the market.
Very exciting. You've called out a few times that you're running ahead of the, you know, the 20% IP target, what was a long-term target. And quite significantly, strip it out, it's been a while. It's got to be more like 23% roughly. Any sneak peek you can offer on where that margin target may go later this year, given the momentum you have seen?
So, yeah, I think that's an important point you're mentioning. So today, we... So we made an acquisition early January, that, is a great business, Svanehøj. It's a, marine pump business, focused on energy transition. So they do both fuel pumps as well as cargo pumps to, to transport LNG, as well as ammonia and hydrogen. So, a very, a very good, long-term play as well. We expect they'd be able to- they're gonna be able to grow low double digits for the next five years in terms of revenue. But however, in the short term, that has b- had a dilutive impact on Industrial Process margins.
And so those margins, which were around 23%, are now around 20%, after we include Svanehøj, which is bearing the, the temporary amortization cost of, of basically backlog step up. So we expect this to continue for the next year, year and a half. So by mid-2025, we should be free of that incremental cost. This is a business that is around 20% EBITDA margin. So obviously, from a margin standpoint, a little bit of an impact, but IP, if you, if you remove the impact of that business, IP margins still grew by more than 100 basis points in Q1, year-over-year. So continued strong performance.
We expect to come out with an increased margin target, probably towards the end of this year. That is gonna be obviously above 20%, probably around that 20%-25% mark. But I think more importantly, I think what's really important for this business to understand is that we're driving... While we're giving, you know, those type of margins for the next two years, we're driving for much more than that, because the potential in that business is so huge.... We have made a lot of progress, but we still have so much to go after. So we expect this business to be a much more profitable business than it is today.
We just need time to execute on all these opportunities.
Understood. Again, very encouraging and further evidence of how wrong I was years ago. Let's very quickly touch on CCT momentum, what you're contemplating in terms of guidance for the year. You know, the growth trajectory of that business, and then talk about capital deployment for a few minutes after that. That's very intriguing lever looking forward for your team, given, you know, balance sheet position, market leadership, you know, how primed you seem to be to deploy more capital.
Yeah. So, CCT has been a fantastic business for us, because we're benefiting from all the growth from aerospace and defense. And in fact, if you look at our Q1 orders, both aerospace and defense were up in the 30s year-over-year from an order standpoint. So we have really a strong backdrop of growth, because of our exposure to aerospace, to defense, to commercial aerospace, to defense, and to medical as well. There's a lot of work that is needed in CCT to further improve operational performance. In fact, if you look at our expected growth from a top-line standpoint, the constraint that we're facing is not really due to lower demand, even from a connector standpoint, where we're facing headwinds in distribution connectors.
In Q1, our distribution connector orders were much stronger. The major constraint we're having is due to supply chain, where we're not able to because of our supply base and because also of some issues that we have internally from a labor availability standpoint, we're not able to convert as efficiently the backlog that we have, we currently have in hand, into revenue, and so this is limiting our revenue growth. We expect this to be much better in the second half, but for the moment, it's a significant constraint for us. So given this business is a business that in general, you should be able to deliver 40% incremental margins at least, the fact that we're not able to ramp up revenue as fast as we would like, has...
is a headwind from a margin expansion standpoint. We still expanded margins year over year in CCT, but we're not doing, we're not doing it as fast as we would like. And so we're gonna be- we're gonna be focusing on, on improving our supply chain, improving the velocity that we have also inside our factories, to be able to offset some of that supply base issues that we have. So the prospects in CCT are, are very, very interesting, very, very good, but, it's gonna take time for us to be able to execute on all those opportunities. From a capital deployment standpoint, we're, we're also in a really good position. We have a really good balance sheet.
We, we intend to be able to deploy, between $500 million and $700 million on a yearly basis in average, to, to fund mostly M&A. We have a very robust and active pipeline, mostly focused on pumps and valves as well as connectors. And so we're confident that we're gonna be able to deploy that cash efficiently and in a disciplined manner because we just- it's not because we don't have any debt, that we're just gonna, deploy it everywhere. We, we just want to be very thoughtful and make sure that we focus on the returns for that, for that, for that cash deployment. And if, the M&A prospects don't really materialize, then, we all- we, we won't hesitate to do, to do buybacks like we've done, after earnings.
We've been really in the market doing buybacks, taking advantage of the share drop movement.
All understood. I think that's a great place to Emmanuel and Mark, thank you very much for your time. It was great to see you guys.