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Hello, and welcome to the Aztec Industries Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. It is my pleasure to introduce your host, Steve Anderson, Senior Vice President of Administration and Investor Relations. Mr. Anderson, you may begin. Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Joining me on today's call are Yaku Fundramova, our Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Harris, our Chief Financial Officer. In just a moment, I'll turn the call over to Yaku to provide his comments, and then Brian will summarize our financial results. For your convenience, a copy of our press release and presentation have been posted on our website under the Investor Relations tab at www.aztechindustries.com. Turning to slide two, I'll remind you that our discussion this morning may contain forward-looking statements that relate to the future performance of the company. Factors that could influence our results are highlighted in today's financial news release and others are contained in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In an effort to provide investors with additional information, the company refers to various GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures, which management believes provide useful information to investors. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAP results are included in our news release and the appendix of our slide presentation. And now, turning to slide three, I'll turn the call over to Yaku. Thank you, Steve. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. As you will see we delivered a solid quarter with record revenues and adjusted EBITDA. We continue to make progress with our strategic initiatives as we drive greater consistency, profitability and growth. Moving to slide four, net sales were up 23.6% over the same period the prior year and adjusted EBITDA increased 26%. Adjusted EBITTA margins stood at 10.4%, which was a 20 basis point increase over a solid second quarter in 2025, and we reported positive free cash flow. The infrastructure solution segment remained healthy as net sales grew 11.6% over the same period the prior year, largely due to demand for concrete, mobile paving, forestry equipment, and inorganic contributions. For asphalt plant customers, order patterns remain consistent with the prior year. However, macro-driven events, such as higher oil prices and uncertainty over the timing of the renewal of the Federal Highwell Bill, have caused select deliveries to shift to future quarters. Much of our second quarter backlog growth was driven by the anticipated resurgence of our material solutions segment, and we are optimistic about the future. Federal, state, and local projects are expected to drive multi-year demand, and the global mining sector is poised for significant investment. The surge in demand for lithium, nickel, copper, and rare earth elements is expected due to the electrification of transportation and growth in the construction of data centers. Dealer inventory levels in the material solution segment are healthy, and we are seeing increased demand for mobile plans. Rental inventory conversions were active throughout the second quarter, and this provided dealers with the ability to replenish inventory. Our new product development efforts are also beginning to show benefits, as new crushing and screening units manufactured in our Omaha, Northern Island facility gain traction. Providing excellent availability of parts and service to ASTIC customers remain a key priority. In the second quarter, we generated revenue of $135.5 million of parts and service, which was a 34.8% increase over the same period the prior year. As a percentage of net sales, parts and services reached 33.2% for the quarter and trended upward to 35% on a year-to-date basis. Backlog of $601.1 million increased 57.9%. Both segments contributed, with most of the increase being derived from our material solution segment. Overall, order activity in both segments remains encouraging. However, as stated, some asphalt plant customers have begun to schedule their deliveries for the fourth quarter of 2026 and first quarter of 1027. As such, we are revising our full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance from the previous range of $170 to $190 million to $160 to $175 million. For modeling purposes, we anticipate adjusted EBITDA for the second half of the year to have a split of approximately one-third in the third quarter and two-thirds in the fourth quarter. Turning to slide five, we had a spectacular show at the Hillhead 2026 Squaring, Construction and Recycling event held in the United Kingdom in June. Hillhead drew thousands of attendees to see live inquiry equipment demonstrations over a three-day period. During the show, ASTEC was proud to launch eight new models, including our Frontier series units produced in our Omaha facility in Northern Ireland. The Frontier crushing, screening, and washing material handling lines are now available for the global market. All equipment is engineered with the latest innovations, underpinned by proven technology, and is fully compliant with CE standards. We were also pleased to display and operate two new prototypes at the show that will be available for sale later this year. Lastly, two new UK dealers for ASTEC products were introduced at the shows as part of our overall growth strategy internationally. On slide 6, we provide a status update for the renewal of the Federal Highway Bill. Two eras of Federal surface transportation funding are shown side by side. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which runs through September 2026, and its proposed successor, the Build America 250 Act, covering 2027 through 2031. At first glance, the $580 billion headline number in the Build America 250 Act appears smaller. As it pertains to ASTEC, however, that comparison can be misleading. ASTec equipment is primarily used to process aggregates and produce asphalt and concrete that goes into our nation's infrastructure. We are pleased with the proposed 7% increase in highway funding from roughly $351 billion to $376 billion, an approximately 12% increase to improve our nation's bridges. The money also gets more certain as the formula funded share climbs from 87% to 90%. These guaranteed non-discretionary portions increase every year, beginning with $65.54 billion in 2027 and progressively stepping up to $69.54 trillion by 2031. So the takeaway is this. The Build America 250 Act may make a smaller headline, but it channels more government-guaranteed formula-based money into the core highway and bridge programs. The Federal Highway Program provides a meaningful volume of work for the infrastructure industry. This is good for our customers and, in turn, good for ASTEC. The exact timing of the Federal Highway Bill renewal has yet to be determined, but a temporary extension in the form of a continuing resolution appears likely. That said, whether the bill is renewed by September 30th or extended, a longer-term bill is a matter of when, not if. For ASTEC, this provides a baseline for achieving our 2030 revenue and EBITDA targets. Our implied orders and book-to-bill trends are showed on slide 7. On a consolidated basis, implied orders of $460 million grew $151.5 million, or 49.1% for the same period the prior year, and 6.7% sequentially. As I mentioned previously, we are seeing strong across-the-board order intake by our material solution segment, while macro uncertainty has created a shift in deliveries for selected asphalt customers. Moving to slide 8, backlog of 601.1 million increased 57.9% over the same period in the prior year. The majority of the increase was derived from our material solution segment, which grew 150.6% from a combination of organic and inorganic growth. Infrastructure solutions posted a 12.7% increase, primarily due to additional orders for concrete, mobile paving, and forestry products. I will now turn the call over to Brian Harris, our Chief Financial Officer. Thank you, Jaco, and good morning. Our consolidated financial results are highlighted on slide 10. Net sales of $408.1 million increased $77.8 million, or 23.6%, over the same period in the prior year. Net sales include parks and service revenue, which grew 34.8% to $135.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 26% to $42.6 million. This compared favorably to $33.8 million of adjusted EBITda in the second quarter of the prior year. Adjusted EBTDA margin reached 10.4% for an increase of 20 basis points. Adjusted earnings per share of $0.94 in the quarter compared to a strong adjusted earnings per share of 90 cents in the second quarter of last year. Moving on to the infrastructure solution segment shown on slide 11, net sales grew 11.6% to $228.3 million from a combination of organic and inorganic contributions. This included aftermarket parts and service, which increased $2.9 million, or 4.6%, compared to the second quarter the prior year. Operating adjusted EBITDA in dollars increased slightly. However, margin compression of 130 basis points was primarily due to a change in mix between asphalt plant and mobile paving equipment. The material solution segment is shown on slide 12. Net sales for the quarter grew 43% to $179.8 million due to organic and inorganic growth, while adjusted EBITDA grew 54.5% to 22.1 million. Segment operating adjusted EBITDA margin grew 90 basis points to 12.3% and compared favorably to the same period the prior year. Moving to slide 13, we continue to maintain a strong balance sheet with ample liquidity. The quarter ended with cash and cash equivalents of $75.7 million, available credit of $190.1 million for a total available liquidity of $265.8 million. Net leverage of 2.2 times was well within our target range of 1.5 to 2.5 times. We expect net leverage to further reduce to approximately 1.7 times by end of 2026. As we have previously communicated, our 2026 outlook includes the following anticipated full-year ranges. Adjusted EBITDA of $160 to $175 million. An effective tax rate of 26% to 30%. Depreciation and amortization of $55 million to $65 million. Capital expenditures of $35 million to 45 million. We also expect the following quarterly ranges. Adjusted SG&A of $70 million to $75 million. Interest expense of approximately $7 million. I will now turn the call back to Jaco. Thank you, Brian. Slide 14 reiterates the Aztec Build to Connect way and the key performance metrics shared during our 2026 Investor Day. These are the measures we believe matter most to investors as they deliver significant value. While progress will not occur in a straight line, we remain confident in our ability to achieve these targets by 2030. Slide 15 summarizes our key investment highlights. We have built a strong reputation as a dependable provider of internationally recognized brands and high-quality solutions. Our team remains closely engaged with customers, and ongoing conversations indicate continued optimism about activity levels across the construction market. We are encouraged by the results of our operational excellence efforts and expect continued improvement over time. We believe our manufacturing and procurement initiatives are increasing efficiency and will support further adjusted EBITDA growth. All attractive opportunities and growth drivers support our path to 2030. We have launched a significant number of new products, including the models introduced at the ULED 2026 construction show. These products have been vetted through our disciplined, stage-gate approval process. We have additional products scheduled for launch over the next 12 to 18 months, each targeted at specific areas of market opportunity. Continued growth in our parts and service businesses will support margin expansion over time. Public funding remains stable and modestly growing, while our public end markets are generally non-cyclical. Our robust digital offering enables us to meet customer needs for unified connectivity suites that aggregate data across product types. Next, industry megatrends point to multi-years of growth in demand for construction materials. These megatrents include the construction of data centers, reindustrialization, and the domestic mining and rare earth minerals. Lastly, our strong balance sheet provides attractive options for capital allocation, including strategic inorganic growth opportunities aligned with our financial objectives growth opportunities in both established and emerging international markets with that operator we are ready for questions we will now begin the question and answer session please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up if you would like to ask a question please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of David McGregor with Longbow Research. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking my questions. I wonder if I could just start by asking you to talk about the different scenarios and assumptions behind the upper and the lower ends of the revised EBITDA guidance. Yeah, good day, morning, David, Jaap here. Yeah, when we look at the new guidance range, obviously, we talked in the earnings release around the ship that we've seen in asphalt plant delivery. So, you know, we've actually seen bookings comparable to 2025. But interesting, you now, earlier than normal, we've see some deliveries from customers being scheduled for, you know, Q4 and then already for Q1 next year. So what we've done there is we looked at our ability to react in the short term. We feel that there's still an opportunity for us to fit orders in to the fourth quarter. That will drive us to a higher end of the range. And, you know, the bottom end ofthe range, we feel that we have great visibility to achieve at least that range. So it just depends a little bit on timing here in the next couple of weeks of orders coming in. One thing that I will say is that we actually had, you know, very strong bookings towards the end of the quarter for asphalt plants. July turned out to be one of our best booking months. And we've also seen a very strong booking month for parts here in July. So, you know, the momentum that we've seen late in the quarter is definitely giving us confidence that, you know, we can play within that range, and if we get one or two plant deals to fall, we can get to the higher end of the range. Right. And just to clarify on that, do you think the delays are related to the continuing resolution around BA250, or I'm just curious what you're seeing as maybe an explanation for why these are being pushed out. Yeah, no, good question. You know, we actually looked at the order pattern for last year, and, you know, we've seen a similar pattern last year. Although I will say, you know, there was maybe a three, four week period at the beginning of Q2 last year where bookings were slow. This year, it was more the first, you know, six to eight weeks. And then, obviously, orders started to flow through strongly in June and July. I mean, as you know. There's a lot of uncertainty in the market right now. Our customers are affected by, you now, the spike in oil prices. Diesel fuel prices. And, you, know, smaller customers are definitely looking at the highway bull. give them confidence to buy um while our larger customers you know they typically have a capex cycle and they and they you know apply that as they see fit so um so really david i mean it's i will say there's a difference maybe of three four weeks this year compared to last year um but the development and orders here in june and july um you know gives us confidence that but there's still demand out there. We have a good pipeline, and, you know, when we talk to customers, there's a lot of work out there, right? Okay. As a follow-up, I guess, you made passing reference to the spike in energy prices and some of the cost inflation that's in the market today. I just was wondering if you could talk about the infrastructure solutions results this quarter, which, you now, didn't show much operating leverage, and you kind of explained that, or Brian did, with regard to the mix and the asphalt plants versus mobile concrete plants. But to what extent was that lack of operating leverage maybe a function of price-cost pressures? And if so, how does that play out from a cadence standpoint over the second half? Yeah, no, good question. So we've definitely seen a little bit of a mix difference compared to prior year. We saw a little bit of a slower, a lower parts mix, and we did see, you know, a little bit of margin pressure on parts. But, you Know, David, we don't see that to be the norm. We feel that the team is putting the right actions in place to drive that higher. You know, last year, Q2 obviously was a very strong quarter for the ISP, and, you know, our visibility here into H2 and into early part of next year, you know, we feel the pricing action that we've taken will hopefully drive that, you know, back to the margins we've seen last year. Got it. Okay, thank you very much, and good luck. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Steve Ferrazani with Sidoti. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Morning, Yako, Brian. Yako I do have to follow up some of the previous questions because I'm trying to think about what your what your guy does your guidance now assume we're just going to get the one year extension because that seems to have developed much more recently and then have you gone back and looked at asphalt plant demand when we get into this you know extension cycle like we did in 2009 and what's the downside risk do you think from that given a congress that appears to be relatively dysfunctional yeah yeah so just um on the on the bull you know um steve we we obviously very close to our um our trade associations there and we're very active in those conversations um i will say you know unfortunately the delay in the bull is not necessarily because of this bull is because of other priorities um that's that's overshadowing this so uh we did get an indication that there will be a probably continued resolution until the end of the year, and then hopefully, you know, either a new bill introduced or, you know, further resolution. So, you know, if you look at the historical periods around the new infrastructure bill, I mean, basically since the 50s, we've always had a bill. Now, there was a couple of years where we saw a slowdown in, you know, in orders due to that one-year extension. But, Steve, you now, looking at our bookings here, the last two months have been very strong. We have a very active pipeline. Our parts bookings are very strong, so at this point in time, I mean, there's no indication that we have that, you know, we're going to see a slowdown here. There's a lot of work to be done. We all know the state of our country's roads. So, you know, at this point in time, we have no indicators to give us a view that this will, you know, cause a slow down. Great. That's very helpful. And then clearly, I mean, we can look at the numbers, look at what was actually very strong IS revenue just on the lower margin, and and that's clearly mixed with the lower asphalt plant deliveries. But that clearly indicates outside of that, some of your other IS product lines have to be doing quite well. Can you talk a little bit about what's driving that and how much of that's driven by new product innovation, all the new ones you've come out with, or just gaining share? Yeah, so on the IS side, you know, we actually have a really nice diversified portfolio now on the IT side. between asphalt, concrete, and the mobile equipment side. Over the last four or five years, as you know, Aztec has established a, I will say, market-leading position in concrete, and we are very proud of the mix that that business has provided us. It's a very strong-performing business for us. On the mobile side, you know, last year, you know, we had a pretty, pretty slow business on the mobile site, especially, you know, Q3 and Q4 last year. Yeah. You know, we feel that Q3, Q4 this year on that side is going to be, be stronger. So, so yeah, you know, overall it's strong. um from from oh from why um yeah i mean we have we we introduced um you know a new shuttle buggy or an order of placement of an older model and that has received very very good um reaction from our customers so now we have two models in the market and and you know our backlog on that equipment is now well into next year um Most of the new products that we've talked about at Conexpo and at Heelhead is actually in the material solution side. So, you know, we're very confident about what that team is doing and the pipeline of new products that's flowing through that business. Got it. That's helpful. When we think about the material solutions side, which is, you now, clearly generating stronger results, um the concern would be we know that things sort of slowed down when we had higher interest rates we might be heading into that environment potentially again um any risks there and what are you seeing yeah you know um steve i think you know obviously interest rates is always something that that customers and dealers are thinking about um what i will say you know interest rates have been on the higher end now compared to the you know the absolute low we saw and and we think that you know everybody is just used to doing business in that higher environment now um you know our dealers rental fleet utilization is actually really strong um i spoke to our one of our regional sales leaders yesterday and um you know that the rental utilization of various of our top dealers are, you know, well above 80% in some cases. And that just gives an indication that, you know, there's a lot of work, equipment is on rental. And like we said in the prepared remarks, we've actually seen a very nice conversion of out of rental to purchase, which, you know, gives the dealers the opportunity to buy new equipment and put that back into their rental fleets. Great. Thanks, Yaka. Your next question comes from the line of Stephen Ramsey with Thompson Research Group. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning, everyone. Wanted to continue the topic in the material segment. Can you talk about the organic demand within the segment? And then using the word resurgence to describe the man profile there, can you talk about the nuances there of resurgence and if it's simply tied to some of the dynamics you just talked about or if it applies to other market verticals? Yeah. Good morning, Stephen. You know, so if you look back at material solutions a little bit over the last four or five years, you know, you will remember that when we came out of COVID, we obviously came out with a very strong backlog and to some extent, you know, a backlog that was probably higher than what the market was absorbing at the time. And then we went through a period of time where we saw, you know, us working down inventory that was created in the dealer's channel. So, you Know, we are now probably more in a, I want to say, a stable environment for that business. Our dealer's inventory is very healthy. And, you know, right now there's a lot of work, you know, across the country. When we came out with that record backlog in 2022, you know. A lot of it was focused to one or two dealers. This time, you know, we see it across the board. And we actually see a couple of significant retail orders where a dealer got orders for equipment that will go directly to a customer, no rental. So yeah, just overall, it's been a strong business there. Obviously, TSG is in that product line. We actually had our best bookings month for TSG last month. So, you know, overall, there's good strength international on MS has been strong. So, the work that the team have done there on new products, improving the quality of the product over the last two, three years are, in our mind, really starting to pay off. Okay, that's helpful. And then in the infrastructure segment, the concrete and mobile equipment side of things, as those are improving for you, what is the mixed impact to margin from those two categories growing? And if concrete lags asphalt plants, is there a pathway to concrete getting to parity with asphalt plants? yeah so you know from a financial performance um i will say our our concrete plans are in line with the performance of our asphalt product line it's it's performing very well um once again since since we've acquired those companies we've done a lot of great work there um typically margins on your mobile equipment is is lower than what we have on the i will say the engineer to order product lines um so you know if if we see a bigger mix of mobile equipment um it it will definitely put a bit of pressure on the overall margins um however you know we do we do see um you know maybe a couple of percentage points swing in that mix, but I don't think it will be, you know, significant that it will drive margins down from where they are right now. Excellent. Thank you. Okay. Your final question comes from the line of Dilyara Selubeyeva from Freedom Broker. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Yeah, hello, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. So I just would like to ask on the material solution side, like given the makeshift toward this segment, how should we think about the timing of the backlog conversion in the second half? Yeah, good morning, Delara. Yeah, we, you know, backlog on material solutions, We already have quite a bit of product for deliveries out in the early part of next year, but most of the backlog that we have will convert this year already. So, you know, that gives us good confidence about H2, especially on the material solution side, because we have quite a bit of the outlook already covered in terms of capital orders. Yep, thanks. So, just to follow up on the guidance side, like is the revised guidance mainly reflecting the pressure in the infrastructure solutions or are there any other factors that you're implementing in the guidance? Yeah. I mean, I want to make sure we clear here that the guidance change was primarily due to the shift in deliveries of plants. So, you know, the business is strong. You know, bookings is comparable to last year. And I've already mentioned, you know, June bookings were strong. July bookings was strong. So we're seeing a shift of deliveries to Q4 and to Q1 on that side. And, you know, as you know if you move three or four plans from one quarter to the next, or from one year to the next, it can have a significant effect on, you know, on the financial results. Yep, thanks. That's it for me. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Steve Anderson for closing remarks. Thank you. We appreciate your participation in our conference call this morning, and thank you for your interest in Aztec. As today's news release states, this conference call has been recorded. A replay of this conference called will be available through the registration link provided in our news release, and an archived webcast will be available for 12 months. The transcript will be available under the investor relations section of the Aztecs industry's website in five business days. this concludes our call and I'm happy to connect if you have additional questions thank you all have a good day this concludes today's call thank you for attending you may now disconnect