Tell us exactly what you guys are doing. I always like it.

Um, I said, uh, kind of what you are about in terms of digital infrastructure

structure, but what markets do you exactly play into?

Yeah. Well, thanks for having me.

Uh, we are primarily involved in building out fiber optic infrastructure

for communications, uh, service providers and big clients like, uh,

Comcast, charter TDs, uh, Zappos, Italy, a whole variety of over builders out

there, uh, and great up, up and coming, uh, service providers in the industry.

So we're out there every day, you know, digging and trenching for, uh, for fiber

optic on long haul routes. We're doing middle mile routes to

connect data centers to help build and construct data centers.

And we're even, uh, visiting homes and helping install, uh, service, uh, for

for consumers out there around the country.

Um, Chris, thanks for joining us. Um, Carol just mentioned your recent

IPO. Um, you you listed, um, just over a

month ago. Just wondering, talk to us a little bit

about the the decision to list at this point in time.

Like why was now, um, recently a good time to to list your company on the

public market? Well, yeah, the company's been growing

very, very rapidly over the last ten years with, uh, really, you know,

significant growth in the last 3 or 4 years.

So the trajectory of growth is there, uh, the the appreciation, I think, in

the market for the need for infrastructure investment is there.

And so I think, you know, we provide, uh, another avenue for investment in a

space that, you know, arguably, uh, had had very few assets for, for folks to

go, uh, uh, and look for, uh, so, you know, we have good competition out

there, but I think there is a hunger for more, uh, more players in our space, uh,

in this kind of specialty angle within the engineering and construction space.

So tell us a little bit about that specialty angle.

And to what extent is the eye infrastructure buildout driving growth?

It's a significant growth driver. But you know, I think there's there's

probably two aspects to this. One is that, you know, the U.S.

infrastructure writ large and the communications infrastructure is no

exception. Is, uh, old, uh, it's aging and it's

underinvested. Uh, so there's a multiyear build out,

uh, out there to both replace and upgrade communications infrastructure.

And this is, you know, that switch from coaxial cable that everybody had in

their homes to, you know, much broader, you know, bandwidth, uh, fiber optic,

uh, and so there's that that aspect itself is a significant growth driver

when you add on to that VI boom. And what that does as opportunity, uh,

it creates a whole nother lag of opportunity.

And so obviously data centers require a high bandwidth, uh, fiber optic.

And obviously that has to get done and it has to get done by, you know,

machines and people, uh, digging and and installing and creating networks out

there. So and we are effectively the picks and

shovels, uh, of the, uh, of the AI boom, uh, and we and we and our peers out

there have a long runway of opportunity associated with, uh, with, you know,

creating the connectivity that data centers require once the actual site

itself is built. Hey, Chris, one of the things that we

noticed in our, uh, we just talked with Sarah Hunt, who is chief market

strategist at Alpine Saxon Woods, and she has been noting how the pushback

against that data center build. Um, she says it could be a blessing in

disguise because there's so much concern about CapEx and and things getting ahead

of itself. But I am curious how concerned you are

about a potential downturn in that eye and data center build in the industry

overall, as we kind of try to find our way forward, and there is increasingly

that nervousness about maybe too massive a build out and maybe the demand won't

be there. Yeah, I think I think what you're seeing

is that when you look at the total expected CapEx, that's that's been out

there of people looking at the, uh, at the data center build, uh, outlook, uh,

you could question the timeline of that based on financing availability and

funding availability. And to some degree, you could question

the need for it. Uh, when you look at all the capacity,

uh, writ large, that that's been discussed.

Fortunately for people like us who are actually doing the initial builds today,

we don't need that. That total aggregate, uh, spend that

people are talking about to be realized in order to create a long runway of

growth and opportunity. And frankly, it probably is healthy, uh,

to see a little bit of a trend back, uh, against some of the more optimistic

expectations out there. But regardless, they're still going to

need to be a tremendous amount of capacity, build incrementally from where

we are today. So even if it ends up being, you know,

50, $0.60 in the dollar versus the total forecasts that are out there, uh, that

that is okay. Uh, because that would represent a

tremendous amount of opportunity and investment, uh, before you sort of run

out of runway years and years of, of build, that's going to be required.

But that says to me, at 50, $0.60 on the dollar could be 50 half of what we are

expecting or 40% less of what we're expecting.

Right. And that's not it.

I was just no, I know I'm just writing an illustration.

Obviously it's not a forecast, but you're right.

I mean, if it is less than the total of what people are expecting, there could

be assets out there that that a trade off, uh, on, on that incremental, uh,

change in expectation. I'm just saying you have to be very

careful about the asset class you're talking about, because infrastructure

generally does not rely on, uh, the realization of a total, uh, growth

forecast. Uh, that could be the most optimistic,

frankly. What do you then make of the recent

changes in your stock price? Um, it's been known since the IPO.

Like, is that just an adjustment? Um, since you, um, started trading on,

on public exchanges? Or do you also see that that's a concern

from investors in your business? Yeah.

So our, our stock performance, uh, you know, since we came out has been, uh,

essentially in line with, uh, with peers.

So there has been some increased volatility in the space over the last

six, eight weeks. And you know that that's that's a fact.

Uh, that's okay. You know, we're, uh, we're willing to be

patient because our growth, uh, is going to be significant, we're pretty

confident that investors will, you know, once we see a series of prints and a

series of, uh, uh, a significant, uh, you know, growth prints, realize that,

that they'll come around. Um, so, yeah, the stock's been a little

bit weak since the IPO. Again, tracing alongside peers.

And there's been a little more volatility in the space associated with,

uh, with the kind of discussions that you were just referring to, uh, around,

you know, kind of the pace and opportunity in the album.

Okay. But looking forward, what can you do now

as a public company that maybe you weren't able to do when you were still

private? Well, you know, we weren't short on

capital, but obviously when you're public, it does open the aperture, uh,

for, uh, for capital and, and access to capital.

Uh, it also gives us a higher overall level of visibility.

So I think it helps us in some regard, uh, stand us apart from some of our

competitors, many of whom are smaller regional, uh, providers out there.

So it gives us both a bigger, louder platform.

Um, and it gives us long term, you know, sources, uh, and access to capital.

And just wondering, in terms of the use of the proceeds from the IPO, I think

one element was also debt paid on, if that's correct.

Yeah. There was a dividend recap, uh, last

year, uh, for us that raised our, um, our debt profile.

And we were able to use the IPO proceeds entirely, uh, primary proceeds to, uh,

to pay down debt and recapitalize the balance sheet.

You know, it's interesting. We love, love, um, Chris talking to the

C-suite because it's just there's a lot coming at, um, certainly investors,

markets, um, anyone who runs a business or an institution right now.

And there's a lot of uncertainty. We obviously are focused on interest

rates and things like that are out of the white House policy this war.

What's top of mind for you? We just talked about AI being a big

concern, that narrative changing. But I am curious what you watch very

closely the metrics that matter to you. Yeah.

It's funny. You know, you can you can spend all day

reading, reading the papers and looking at the macro and worrying about, you

know, white House policy and whatnot. But the reality is that, you know, for

most people in the C-suite, uh, operating every day, uh, we're just

responding to customer needs. Uh, we have a broad set of dozens of

customers, all of whom are looking at significant, uh, spending growth and

significant, uh, CapEx. Uh, essentially, you know, things I got

to put in the ground and networks they have to put together, and we're out

there making sure that we can service those customers, that we have the

capacity, uh, to to do that and that we can function and operate, um,

effectively along the way. So it's it's really a micro focus.

And while I have one eye on the macro all the time and I'm constantly

monitoring the markets, uh, I find, uh, when you're sitting in this seat, uh,

that you're better off focusing on the business and making sure that you're

executing and not spending all your time worrying about where interest rates are

going. It is fortunate that a business like

ours isn't as interest rate sensitive as many others.

Uh, but for us, it's all about execution.

So I spend more time thinking about where we're going to get good people.

And do we have enough capacity and equipment to meet our customers needs.

Uh, and then, you know, blocking and tackling.

You know, how do you how do you convert, uh, projects to cash, uh, through, you

know, proper collections and so forth to, to get the job done.

So it's much more of a on the ground focus.

But I'll tell you what we're hearing from our customers, uh, continues to be

very, very optimistic. Uh, significant amounts of spend that

they're looking to do. And we're getting awards, uh, you know,

every week for, for, for more work out there.

So there hasn't been any slowdown. Um, you know, in terms of the on the

ground reality in our space. Yeah, it feels like it mirrors a lot of

the enthusiasm that we continue to see from the corporate sector.

And certainly here from it, you got it. And you're making decisions because you

got to move forward. Chris.

Thank you. Thank you for finding time.

I really appreciate it. Chris McCray, he's the chief financial

officer at ITG. Joining us here on this Friday along

with our own Nina Troutman, Bloomberg News senior editor and editor of the CFO

briefing newsletter. You can subscribe to it at

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