Good morning, and welcome to the Altra Acquisition Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. To gain assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this event is being recorded. I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Robert Barry of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks, Nick. Welcome and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today on short notice. On this call, we'll be discussing Regal Rexnord's agreement to acquire Altra Industrial Motion. Before we begin, I would like to highlight a few things. First, Altra issued a press release this morning announcing the transaction in addition to select anticipated Q3, 2022 financial measures based on currently available information. Altra's press release also indicated that it will announce its Q3 earnings on November 3rd, but in light of the transaction, it will not be hosting a conference call to discuss those results and has also withdrawn its 2022 financial guidance.
Second, given the announcement of the transaction and its timing relative to the planned release of our Q3 financial results on October 31st, we pre-released select anticipated Q3, 2022 financial measures, also based on currently available information. These results are available in the transaction press release we issued this morning, which is available on our investor relations website. Please note that we will not be discussing anything related to our Q3 results on this call. As a reminder, Regal Rexnord is scheduled to report our Q3 earnings after the close on October 31st and host our Q3 earnings conference call on Tuesday, November 1st at 9:00 A.M. Central Time. Details are also available on our investor relations website. Now I would like to remind you of the disclaimers on slide two.
On slide three, we provide additional information related to our use of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Turning to slide four. Joining me on today's call are our presenters, Louis Pinkham, Regal Rexnord's Chief Executive Officer, and Robert Rehard, Regal Rexnord's Chief Financial Officer. Louis and Rob will share some prepared remarks, after which we will be happy to take your questions. Now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Louis.
Great. Thanks, Rob, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss today's news. This is an extremely exciting day for both companies. We announced today that Regal Rexnord is acquiring Altra in an all-cash transaction valued at slightly less than $5 billion, which we are confident will create significant value for all our stakeholders, our shareholders, our employees, and our customers. The combination brings together two highly synergistic businesses. As many of you know, Regal Rexnord is a global leader in motion control solutions, industrial powertrains, electric motors, and air moving subsystems. Altra is a highly innovative player in motion control and automation technologies. Adding Altra to Regal Rexnord will create a world-class automation solutions and industrial powertrain provider, better positioned to profitably grow.
Notably, post the acquisition, over 35% of our sales will be to end markets with attractive secular growth tailwinds, and we see this rising to approximately 40% over the next few years. Among the many strategic and financial benefits of this transaction is unlocking $160 million in annualized run rate cost synergies. We believe by bringing our 80/20 skill set, continuous improvement mindset, and a rigorous Plan -Do -Check -Act or PDCA management approach to Altra, much as we have done with the great effect at Regal Rexnord, we can unlock tremendous value. This includes significant additional upside from cross-marketing synergies and other opportunities to accelerate profitable growth. As we did a fter our 2021 merger with Rexnord PMC, we will plan to quantify these cross-marketing synergies at an appropriate time after the transaction closes.
The combination will also create meaningful value for customers of both businesses by significantly broadening our automation portfolio, bolstering our industrial powertrain offering, and accelerating our digital strategy so the combined enterprise is better positioned to address customers increasingly sophisticated digital and industrial IoT needs. Financially, the transaction is expected to generate highly attractive returns, including a strong return on invested capital, substantial free cash flow, adjusted EPS accretion in the first year and double-digit accretion thereafter, enviable gross margins, and significant EBITDA margin expansion driven by, among other factors, the sizable cost synergies. In short, we think acquiring Altra represents a highly compelling capital deployment opportunity that can deliver tremendous value for all of our stakeholders. The transaction provides significant, immediate, and long-term financial benefits to Regal Rexnord, and I'll highlight a few here.
Post the combination, we expect our 2022 pro forma revenue to approximate $7.2 billion and our gross margin to be approximately 34%. With the significant cost synergies we're anticipating, most weighted to cost of goods sold, Regal Rexnord now has a clear path to a 2025 gross margin of 40%, which we believe would be top quartile performance across the U.S. industrial space. The $160 million of annual run rate cost synergies stem from actions we plan to take during the first four years after closing, and help drive approximately 500 basis points of Adjusted EBITDA margin upside by 2025 to over 25%. Also likely to be top quartile performance among our peers. Additionally, the transaction is expected to be accretive to our adjusted earnings per share in year one.
The degree of accretion is expected to increase to double digits in subsequent years as synergies accrue and we make progress reducing our debt levels. With strong cost synergies as well as cross-marketing synergies, we expect that ROIC will exceed 10% by year five after closing. We believe cross-marketing synergies can be substantial, but outside of factoring a conservative estimate for them in the ROIC calculation, they are not included in our financial forecast at this time. Before drilling down on some of the key strategic and financial benefits of the acquisition, I would like to briefly step back to put this transaction in the appropriate context. As those of you who have been following Regal Rexnord know well, over the past three years, we have made meaningful progress transforming our business.
By leveraging 80/20 and lean, infusing a lot of new talent into the organization, and always adhering to our values, we have dramatically improved our cost structure and increased transparency and accountability throughout the organization. We have also been investing for sustainable growth and have established a very solid foundation for better serving our customers by developing differentiated products and solutions that our customers value, evident in our gross margin expansion. While our journey to a faster growing and more profitable Regal Rexnord still has ample runway, successful progress against our key initiatives have been delivering clear results. Notably, we exceeded handily all the key targets set at our 2020 Investor Day, some of them well ahead of schedule.
We have also made transformative progress driving inorganic growth, most notably through our 2021 merger with the Process and Motion Control business of Rexnord, a transaction valued at $3.7 billion. As you can see from the merger scorecard on this slide, we are outperforming on all key metrics, and a year post-closing, the integration is ahead of schedule and synergy realization is above plan. I should note that our performance on the organic and inorganic fronts are more noteworthy given our team's execution in the face of COVID and unprecedented inflation and supply chain disruptions. I believe our track record of operational performance gains and high return capital deployment are also evident in our stock price outperformance, measured on a total shareholder return basis.
It was against this backdrop, and with a clean balance sheet and very strong free cash flows, that our team looked to further our transformation journey. That step is the transaction with Altra that we announced today. On this slide, we enumerate the many compelling reasons why adding Altra helps advance our transformation. The first is that adding Altra's automation and specialty business fundamentally transforms our burgeoning automation business into a truly premier global player, and in doing so, opens a host of new growth vectors for us in automation. The addition of power transmission technologies enhances our already strong industrial powertrain offering, in particular by enhancing our capabilities in clutches and brakes, where we currently have a solid but more focused offering. Altra accelerates our digital and industrial IoT strategy, which we envision becoming increasingly relevant to profitable growth going forward.
A strong shared culture focused on serving customers and embracing a continuous improvement mindset. Greater exposure to secular growth drivers, in particular, factory automation, alternative energy, and warehouse and logistics. For the first time, critical mass in the medical market, to name a few examples. Sizable cost synergies worth an estimated $160 million on an annual run rate basis by year four, plus significant additional upside from cross-marketing synergies. ROIC expected to exceed 10% by year five. Adjusted EPS accretion in year one post co-closing and double-digit accretion thereafter. Lastly, robust free cash flow generation, which comes with our commitment to delever the balance sheet in an expeditious manner. The end result is a more resilient enterprise with stronger cash flows and enhanced margins.
Now I'd like to turn it over to Rob, who will walk you through a brief overview of the transaction and financial considerations.
Thank you, Louis, and good morning, everyone. As you can tell, we're really excited about this transformative transaction. Now let me run you through some of the transaction highlights outlined on this page. Regal Rexnord is acquiring Altra for $62 per share, implying a $4.1 billion equity valuation and a roughly $5 billion enterprise value when assuming the approximately $860 million of net debt outstanding as of September 30th of this year. This represents an Adjusted EBITDA multiple of 13.6x on a trailing twelve months basis or 9.5x when including estimated run rate cost synergies. The transaction consideration is 100% cash financed with existing cash on hand plus new debt. The consideration and valuation also evidences strong price discipline.
While the headline price we are offering does represent a significant premium to where Altra shares have been trading, our perspective is owning the business for the long term. Price movements tied to the ebbs and flows of the macro cycle are something we evaluate, but are not necessarily the primary consideration for us as strategic owners. We believe the transaction value on an EV to Adjusted EBITDA basis tracks in line with recent representative industry transactions. Finally, we believe the multiple we are paying looks very attractive after factoring in synergies. From a financial impact perspective, I will reiterate a few key points. Accretion in the first year post-close, compelling synergies, significant cross-marketing synergies, ROIC greater than 10% by year five, and very strong cash flows. Before leaving this slide, I did want to highlight a few additional items.
One, we have a fully committed financing package to fund the transaction. We are committed to delevering to our 2x to 2.5x target zone with urgency, and expect to be between 2.5x and 3 x in our first full year of owning the business, or 2024. From a timing perspective, the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, Altra shareholder approval, and customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the H1 of 2023. With that, I will hand it back to Louis.
Thanks, Rob. One of the transaction's most significant impacts is unlocking a host of new high-margin growth vectors in automation. As you can see on this slide, our legacy automation business is roughly $200 million of sales, which includes our ModSort conveying subsystems, our conveying and palletizing offering that was part of the Arrowhead acquisition, and our Thomson paralleling switchgear and automatic transfer switch business. The addition of Altra's A&S business takes automation-focused businesses at Regal Rexnord to over $1 billion, of which roughly 70% are sales into markets with secular growth tailwinds. A&S is a great business today, but we believe that by further leveraging 80/20 and lean in a highly disciplined approach to product management, we can serve its highly valued customers more responsibly and with a more robust portfolio, and in doing so, accelerate its growth and profitability.
As those who have followed us know, one of the primary reasons we merged with Rexnord PMC was unlocking the tremendous growth potential from selling industrial powertrain. A representative powertrain is pictured here. It includes a motor and the critical power transmission components that connect the motor to the work being done. Adding Altra makes our already robust powertrain offering even more value add by enhancing our capabilities in clutches and brakes. In addition, Altra deepens our domain expertise in certain additional applications and markets, making our powertrain value proposition more competitive in a broader range of end markets. As you can see on this slide, across a number of perspectives, the addition of Altra enhances the diversity and growth characteristics of our portfolio. On a pro forma basis, motion control is roughly half of the portfolio.
Automation represents about 15%, and our legacy air handling and motor businesses become roughly 30%. For reference, residential HVAC goes from 15% of the legacy business to just over 10%. Consistent with the lower resi HVAC exposure, consumer exposure falls from representing about 16% of the portfolio to 12%. Notably, warehouse rises from 3% to 9%, while factory automation in general industries and the medical end markets start to have critical mass for us. In aggregate, sales into end markets that we would say should benefit from secular growth tailwinds rise from roughly 30% before the transaction to above 35% on a pro forma basis, which we have plans to grow to more than 40% by 2025. Lastly, general industrial remains our largest end market exposure at 19% pro forma, down slightly from our prior mix.
Geographic diversity does not change materially from the current Regal Rexnord profile. Next, I'd like to spend a moment providing a bit more color on the substantial synergy benefits of this transaction, which are expected to drive value for shareholders and support an enhanced pro forma financial profile. We plan to take actions by year four after closing that are worth $160 million in annualized run rate cost synergies driven by procurement, distribution efficiencies, footprint rationalization, and SG&A. As you can see in the chart on this slide, we expect to take actions worth an annualized $40 million in year one, primarily driven by procurement and SG&A savings, with further savings from purchasing and footprint-related actions accruing in years two through four post-close.
Importantly, beyond these cost synergies, we also see significant incremental cross-marketing synergies enabled by the combined business having a broader product offering, enhancements to our industrial powertrain offering, a more robust digital and industrial IoT capability, and a stronger service and aftermarket support network. The pro forma business will generate very strong free cash flow, which, as you can see, builds on the legacy of robust cash generation at both Regal Rexnord and Altra and will then be enhanced by merger synergies and other anticipated operational improvements. In addition, we see an opportunity to bring down the inventory levels at both businesses, which have swelled due to global supply chain disruptions. The full inventory benefits of supply chain normalization are not in our current forecast, but present significant additional potential upside and an accelerated pace of deleveraging.
Also quantified on this slide, both businesses have very manageable leverage rates going into the transaction, and it will be our top capital deployment priority to return to a leverage ratio in the 2x to 2.5 x range in an expeditious manner. Based on our current forecast, we see pro forma leverage declining from 3.9 x at close to between 2.5x and 3 x in 2024. Lastly, I wanna be candid and acknowledge rising concerns among investors about a weakening global macro outlook. This dynamic was also on our minds as we evaluated this opportunity. As part of our diligence, we conducted a number of sensitivity analyses around EBITDA reduction and further interest rate hikes to stress test our ability to service the debt.
We came away highly confident that the debt we are planning to take on to fund this acquisition is manageable, aided by the strength of cash flows in the underlying businesses, and the fact that in a downturn, free cash flow at both businesses tends to get a boost from lower working capital requirements. In addition, the sizable backlog at both businesses provides us some added revenue visibility in the near term. In evaluating Altra against our disciplined M&A criteria, you can see on this slide that the acquisition checks every box. The business sells products with proprietary technology into end markets with secular growth tailwinds. Altra raises our gross margin trajectory, aided by strong, long-standing brands with leading market positions underpinned by technology leadership. As I discussed, the fit with our culture is strong and particularly attractive to us.
The ample opportunities we see to leverage Regal Rexnord's strengths, deploying 80/20 lean and a strict Plan-Do-Check-Act management cadence to drive meaningful operational improvement. That's especially true in PTT, but we see opportunities in A&S as well. All these attributes are reflected in the deal's attractive projected financial metrics. Return on capital exceeding Regal Rexnord's average cost of capital by over 200 basis points by year five. Adjusted EPS accretion in year one, significant cost synergies, as well as sizable cross-marketing opportunities. Looking ahead to integration, the leadership team at Regal Rexnord and the integration team in particular have proven capabilities. These capabilities stem from decades of experience managing M&A integrations, both at Regal Rexnord and in roles our leaders have held elsewhere.
I believe the strength of these capabilities has been clear in the team's success integrating Rexnord PMC as well as Arrowhead, where integrations are ahead of schedule and synergy realizations above plan, despite executing in an incredibly challenging operating environment. We will run a similar playbook to integrate Altra as we used with Rexnord PMC, including leveraging a dedicated integration team, defining specific KPIs relevant to our goals, and instituting a regular cadence of review, which occurs at least monthly at Rob and my level, to ensure activities are on track and that corrective actions are defined quickly, if and when performance deviates from plan. We bring this same PDCA management approach to the integrations team's performance as we do to each of our operating segments. This is our vision and really our expectation of what the pro forma Regal Rexnord will look like in 2025.
Some of you may recognize this slide from our recent Investor Day, where we outlined targets. We are now updating them to incorporate our initial views on the impact from adding Altra. I think you will find these metrics compelling. Over $8 billion in sales, a path to 40% gross margin, and an Adjusted EBITDA margin above 25%, $18 of adjusted earnings per share, annual free cash flow approximating $1.1 billion, and over 40% of our sales and end markets with secular growth drivers. I believe that when considered in the context of our execution track record and our stock price, Regal Rexnord offers an incredibly attractive investment opportunity for our shareholders, tremendous professional opportunities for our associates, including our future colleagues at Altra, and an even more attractive value proposition for our customers.
In summary, I hope you agree this is a highly strategic transaction with a compelling value proposition. From new growth vectors in automation and an enhanced industrial powertrain offering to further strengthening our free cash flow generation and providing a clear path to deliver quickly, we are extremely excited about the opportunity to acquire Altra and continue our journey to building a faster growing, higher margin, more cash generative, and higher return enterprise. With that, Rob and I are happy to take questions. Operator, please open the line for questions.
Thank you. Now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star one on your touch-tone phone. For users of speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press two. This time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble the roster. First question comes from Mike Halloran of Baird. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, everyone, and congratulations.
Morning.
Good morning, Mike. Thank you.
Thanks. First, just how did the deal come about? Was this, you know, negotiated just between the two of you? Is there anything else going on here? Just any color on the background?
You know, thanks for the question, Mike. You know, we have admired Altra for a long time. There's such a complementary product offering on the motion control side of the business. We really like the automation especially side of the business. We especially like their position in the market where they have significant secular tailwinds. This came about because of that. As you know, I've been CEO for three and half years, and we are always looking at our portfolio and feel that there was a really nice fit with Altra. We have reached out to Altra about four or five months ago, but really started the discussion in earnest a couple of months ago.
T hat's helpful. A couple more financial-oriented questions. On the leverage levels, I certainly acknowledge and appreciate the comments you made on your ability to pay that down quickly. A re there any covenants associated with that and kind of mix of fixed floating, or is it too early to know that as of now?
Yeah. You know, Mike, this is Rob. After close, you know, we do expect net debt to Adjusted EBITDA ratio of 3.9x. We've certainly got great free cash flow generation, which we expect to delever as we talked about, down to 2.5x, 3x, you know, by 2024, and then get to our target range shortly thereafter that. We do expect that we'll have a mix of both fixed and variable debt, and very manageable over the timeframe and with much of it pre-payable and definitely payable very quickly after we close, as we've talked about. There's certainly no risk as we've talked about.
We flexed the business through various sensitivities, no risk of breaching those covenants through any of those scenarios.
What are the covenants?
Right. Well, yeah. 4.78% is the top of the range, and then getting back down to 3.75%.
Okay. Helpful. A couple others here. What was the process in getting to the 25 targets? Was this taking your Analyst Day targets, their Analyst Day targets, putting them together? Was there some other rigor associated with it? Just wanna understand the process on that side.
No, I mean, that's a good starting point, Mike. You know, through our diligence of being able to come up with the cost synergies and, you know, I think we have a very disciplined process that we've proven out with the PMC merger of identifying and then acting on them. Pulling that together, along with recognizing the opportunities within the industrial powertrain to drive incremental growth through cross-marketing. Again, that's not embedded in our numbers except for achieving the 10% ROIC by year five with a conservative assumption on the revenue side.
If I were to look at it loosely, it's on the revenue side, you essentially did the targets from the analyst days, and then on the margin side comparable, but you have these really attractive synergy things you're layering on top of it, and then you've got this last bucket of optionality that's not part of the target. Is that a loose?
Perfect.
Okay.
No. That's.
Last one. Yeah. That's awesome. Thanks for this. Last one for me then. When you think about the portfolio now, obviously you've had assets that have widely been considered something that you don't necessarily need part of your portfolio long term. You know, now that you've got the Altra assets, could you maybe answer or think about that a little bit more broadly? Has the definition changed of what needs to be part of your portfolio over the long term, and any thoughts along that side?
You know, Mike, we are continuously evaluating our portfolio. As I said in the past, I love all of our businesses, and we believe that we can create value in all of our businesses. Right now, we have not made any further portfolio decisions.
Okay. Appreciate it. Thanks again, and congrats.
Thank you.
Thanks, Mike.
Thank you. The next question will be from Vaibhav Srikanth of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning and congrats on the transaction.
Good morning. Thank you.
Maybe just one question on the regulatory front. We know that AMC is mentioned as a competitor in your 10-K. Maybe if you can just give some color on the market share with Altra coming in the base and any risk from the antitrust standpoint, and if there is, like, some potential chance of some non-core asset divestment?
You know, here's what I can comment on. The very complementary businesses between Regal Rexnord, MCS and the PTT side of Altra, with numerous competitors, with overlapping products in numerous end markets. We will be fully prepared to provide regulators the information they need to assess the transaction and its merits. Beyond that, we'll leave it to them to evaluate the transaction.
Thanks. Just one on the install base. We know that in motion control, your install base stepped up pretty significantly with the PMC acquisition. Just any color you can provide on what does this do to your install base and aftermarket revenue opportunities, post that?
You know, it absolutely increases them and fairly significantly. Here's how I would think about it. When you look back on the PMC deal, there was strong overlap in distribution, very little overlap with OEMs, less than 10%. We are expecting the same here with the Altra transaction. What this does is it opens up additional markets and access to additional customers where we will take our full portfolio of products. As you know, we did not come out when we merged with PMC with sales synergies, but we did announce this year $30 million of incremental sales and a goal of $125 million by year four. We expect very similar here.
However, we will not provide fuller clarity on that until we have acquired and spent probably six to nine months with the business. I hope that helps.
Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question will be from Jeffrey Hammond, KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, guys. Congrats.
Morning. Thank you.
Thanks, Jeff.
I know, Louis, you touched on this on slide 16, but you know, just maybe get us comfortable with, you know, management capacity. I mean, you're still integrating Arrowhead and PMC, and this is a pretty big deal. Just how do you manage, you know, management capacity along those lines?
Yeah, you know, we actually think this is perfect timing. So, you know, we clearly have an experienced team of individuals. We have a dedicated team, a leader who has a proven track record and reports directly to me, and we'll be partnering with a team of integration members on the Altra side. You know, we completed a pretty detailed diligence before announcing the transaction. We understand where the synergy and the opportunities are. When you think about what's going on between the Rexnord PMC transaction, we're really in the heat of the activities right now around footprint consolidation and direct material synergy leverage through value analysis and value engineering.
We expect that the first period after close of Altra will be much more focused on organizational alignment, and it won't be until 2024 that we will start in earnest with consolidation. This will dovetail very well with the activities of the PMC deal that are ongoing now and in 2023. We feel this is a really good time for us to take this on.
Okay, great. Then just a couple, you know, housekeeping. One, what are the breakup fees on both sides associated with the deal? I guess within your accretion analysis, what are you assuming for an interest cost, tied to the deal, just given all the movement in rates?
Sure. First of all, on the breakup fee there is an amount of $100 million on the breakup fee, if an interloper comes through. On the interest expense that we would expect, you know, it's about $400 million on the interest expense in the first year. As we pay down, obviously it moves in the right direction until we get to that comfort zone of about 2x, 2.5 x on a net basis, when our leverage hits that rate.
Okay. Just last one. Back on that $400 million, that's your all-in interest expense ?
Yeah.
Just related? Okay.
All-in interest expense on the pro forma business, based on the current pricing scenarios.
Okay, great. Then just back on the regulatory. My understanding is you guys don't have much at all in clutch brakes, which I think is the biggest you know, piece of the portfolio for Altra. Is that right? Maybe just, you know, touch on where your couplings, offering is maybe similar or different.
Again, Jeff, you're right with regards to clutches and brakes. It strengthens our portfolio. With the rest of the products and power transmission, it's really highly complementary. We feel good about these two businesses coming together.
Okay, cool. Great. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Next question will be from Christopher Glynn of Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, I'll throw in a congrats, too. Nice headline.
Thanks, Chris. Thanks.
Yeah. I was curious just to comment on your views, Louis, around cultural integration. You know, PMC is going very well. I'm sure you have some instances of attrition and some cultural fallout underneath the surface. You know, each deal, each culture is a little different. Just curious about your views as you move to integrate your second large deal and learnings from your first large deal to negate any risk around that.
Yeah, I appreciate your comment, Chris, and PMC has gone exceptionally well. You know, it's really the biggest learning is it's all about communication and gaining alignment early on. That will be an emphasis for us as we bring these two very strong businesses together and solid cultures. The cultures are extremely aligned though. As we've dug in further, met with the senior leadership team of Altra and know other associates there, we have similar core values, integrity, customer success, continuous improvement, and a passion to win core among them. Both organizations have a strong embrace of lean principles. We're expecting a very similar integration process.
We know the team from Altra. We're very impressed with them and their capabilities and the very strong business that they've built and look very much forward to them becoming part of our family.
Great. Any history of cooperation or, you know, competition among Altra, Rex and, you know, Regal and legacy Rexnord that, you know, gives a springboard to commercial integration?
You know, I'd say the way I'd answer this is very similar to the transaction with PMC. This strengthens our portfolio in the industrial powertrain. It gives us access to more customers and more end markets that will allow us to bring complementary products and solutions to better serve our customer. As I said earlier, $30 million of sales synergies from the PMC transaction this year alone with $125 million by year four. We expect similar, and we'll give that clarity about six to nine months after we close on the deal.
Thanks. I just have one more on slide 17. It's nice to see the, you know, progression from the investor day metrics to the current 2025 expected. It is interesting that the cash flow just goes up, you know, 10%. That's not a per share metric or anything. $1 billion-$1.1 billion. Well, you know, EPS is up 20%, $15-$18. Just kind of curious about that.
Yeah, this is Rob. You know, a couple things. One is the interest deduction limitation that increases our cash tax rate will have an impact on free cash flow as well as, you know, we've got additional CapEx coming through the business as a result of the transaction that would also, at least for a period of time, be slightly elevated as we work through those synergies and execution on those cost synergies that we talked about on the call. Those are the two primary reasons for the slight increase.
Great. Makes sense. Thank you.
Thanks, Chris.
Thank you. Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Next we'll go to Christopher Dankert of Loop Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hey, morning. Thanks for taking the questions.
Morning.
Good morning. Just on compatibility again one more time. I guess thinking, it's very early days, I appreciate that, but when I think about ERP and other back office systems, any comments on the compatibility there, the difficulty of integration? I assume stuff you hadn't seen before, but just any comments would be helpful.
Yeah, you know, here's how I'll give you the parallel. The Rexnord PMC business is on a different major ERP system than the legacy Regal business. We're putting a front end to be able to better service our customer, and we're doing that well. We are going to be applying the same approach on the PT side with Altra, and so we feel good about it. Now, we know they've run a good business and have solid ERP to support the performance of their their business. From an integration perspective, we're comfortable that it will be very similar to how we've transacted with PMC.
Understood. Obviously, you know, the savings are great, but when I think about the ability to step up R&D spending in a couple of targeted areas here, any comments on what you see as far as the biggest opportunities? Obviously, automation is a big one, but just any other comments on R&D and investment would be great.
You know, we committed at our Investor Day to double vitality. We are investing more as an organization in R&D. We will bring that mindset to Altra b ut bluntly, Altra already has that mindset, which again just fits culturally well between the two organizations. I, you know, I'm an engineer. I believe that we need to invest in organic growth. I think we've proven that out with our outgrow the market over the last three years, and we will continue to do so going forward and with Altra as part of our family.
Understood. Thanks so much, Louis, and congrats again to all involved here.
Yeah, thanks, Chris.
All right, operator, I think.
Thank you.
We have no more questions. We're ready to conclude the call.
Yes, that is correct. We have no further questions at this time. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
Thank you.