StandardAero Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

StandardAero (NYSE:SARO) reported third-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

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Summary

StandardAero reported strong third-quarter performance with a 30% year-over-year increase in adjusted EPS, 15% growth in adjusted EBITDA, and a 130 basis point expansion in adjusted EBITDA margin to 14.4%.

The company experienced revenue growth across commercial aerospace, business aviation, and military markets, with high single-digit growth in commercial aerospace and 7% growth in business aviation.

Strategic investments in LEAP and CFM56 programs have started showing profitability, with plans to exceed $1 billion in annual LEAP revenue by the end of the decade.

The company announced an increased share repurchase authorization to over $1 billion, with a $350 million accelerated share repurchase planned, reflecting confidence in the long-term outlook.

StandardAero raised its full-year 2026 guidance, expecting 9% revenue growth, 13% adjusted EBITDA growth, and a 26% increase in adjusted EPS, citing strong aftermarket demand and productivity improvements.

Management highlighted continued strategic focus on expanding component repair services, improving productivity, and disciplined capital deployment to drive long-term shareholder value.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Good afternoon and welcome to StandardAero’s third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the phone presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Rama Bandada, Senior Vice President of Strategic Finance and Investor Relations.

Please proceed.

Rama Bandada (Senior Vice President of Strategic Finance and Investor Relations)

Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to StandardAero’s third quarter 2026 earnings call. I’m joined today by Russell Ford, our Executive Chairman, Paul McElhinney, who is our Chief Executive Officer, and Dan Satterfield, our Chief Financial Officer. Alongside today’s call, you can find our earnings release as well as the accompanying presentation on our website at ir.standardaero.com. An audio replay of this call will also be made available, which you can access on our website or by phone.

The phone number for the audio replay is included in the press release announcing this call. Before we begin, as always, I would like to remind everyone that today’s earnings release and statements made during this call include forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. Such risks and uncertainties include the factors set forth in the earnings release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the Risk Factors section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025.

We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Additionally, during today’s call we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share, adjusted free cash flow and net debt to adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio. A definition and reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release and in the appendix to the earnings slide presentation on our website at ir.standardaero.com.

Non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, GAAP measures. And with that out of the way, I would now like to turn the call over to Russell.

Russell Ford (Executive Chairman)

Thank you, Rama, and thank you to everyone for joining our call today. As you know, this is my final earnings call following my tenure as StandardAero CEO, and I’m especially pleased to be joined today by Paul McElhinney, who assumed the role of CEO in October. Paul will be sharing his perspectives on the business and our strategic priorities later in today’s call. So let me begin on slide 3 with an overview of our third quarter performance. StandardAero delivered another strong quarter with continued revenue growth across all three major end markets, 30% year-over-year adjusted EPS growth, 15% adjusted EBITDA growth, and 130 basis points adjusted EBITDA margin expansion to 14.4%, underscoring the resilience of our diversified portfolio and the progress of our operational initiatives. We intentionally built StandardAero with the breadth and resilience to sustain double-digit earnings growth over time even when individual end markets or engine platforms experience periods of slower growth.

This balanced portfolio allows us to navigate different market cycles while capturing growth opportunities across the enterprise. Looking at our end markets, commercial aerospace revenue grew at a high single-digit rate year over year as, excluding the impact of lower pass-through materials revenue, demand across the commercial aerospace engine aftermarket remains robust, with visibility into our customer demand and revenue forecast now extending into 2028. Aircraft utilization remains strong, industry MRO capacity continues to be constrained, and the growing maintenance requirements of the global fleet are supporting sustained demand for our services.

Our growing backlog and sustained bookings momentum provide meaningful visibility and reinforce our confidence in the long-term outlook. Business aviation grew 7.4% year over year, supported by demand across the midsize and super-midsize engine platforms we serve. We continue to benefit from the strategic investments we’ve made to expand our capabilities and capacity, particularly on the HTF7000 platform. Military and helicopter revenue increased 7.2% year over year, supported by continued demand across our military engine portfolio and the ongoing ramp of previously awarded programs.

As we’ve discussed in prior quarters, increasing defense spending, higher operational tempo and a growing focus on aircraft readiness and sustainment are creating attractive long-term opportunities for StandardAero. While the timing of certain military engine and component inputs have created near-term challenges, particularly within our Component Repair Services segment, we remain confident in the attractive long-term growth opportunity in this end market.

Stepping back from the quarter, I’m particularly pleased with the progress we’ve made on the strategic investments that we’ve discussed with you over the past several years. Our LEAP and CFM56 programs reached profitability earlier this year, and we continue to move down the learning curve as these programs scale. Our CF34 and business aviation investments are supporting growth and margin expansion, and our Component Repair Services business continues to expand its repair capabilities across the broader enterprise.

These strategic investments were made with a long-term view, and we’re beginning to see the benefits in our operating performance. I believe we are still in the early stages of realizing their full potential. As I reflect on my time leading StandardAero, what I am most proud of is not just what we have accomplished, but the people and the culture that have made it possible. We built a company with a process-oriented culture where we hold ourselves accountable, honor our commitments and take tremendous pride in serving our customers. That culture has been the foundation of our success, enabling us to consistently execute our strategy of building leading positions on attractive engine platforms, investing ahead of demand, continuously improving our operations, deploying capital with discipline and creating long-term shareholder value.

I firmly believe that our people and culture are among StandardAero’s greatest competitive advantages and will remain central to our success for many years to come. I’ve worked closely with Paul for more than seven years, and I have tremendous confidence in his ability to lead StandardAero through its next phase of growth. He brings deep engine MRO experience, an exceptional understanding of our business and industry, and a shared commitment to the values, disciplined execution and customer relationships that have defined the 115-year history of StandardAero.

Paul also brings a fresh perspective and new ideas on how we can build upon the strong foundation already in place. I believe the opportunities ahead of StandardAero are significant. Our markets remain attractive, our investments are delivering results, and our strategy continues to provide a clear path to sustained double-digit earnings growth and long-term shareholder value creation. I cannot think of a better leader than Paul to guide StandardAero through this next chapter.

I want to express my sincere gratitude to our employees around the world for their dedication and commitment to our customers, for the trust they place in us, and to our shareholders for their continued support. It’s been an extraordinary privilege to lead this company, and I cannot be more proud of what our team has accomplished together. With that, it’s my great pleasure to turn the call over to Paul McElhinney, our new Chief Executive Officer, who will walk you through our strategic priorities and outlook.

Paul McElhinney (Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you, Russ, for those kind words and, more importantly, for your extraordinary leadership and everything you have done for StandardAero. Having worked closely with Russ and the team, I’ve had the opportunity to see firsthand the culture, customer relationships, and operating capabilities that make this company so special. I’ve spent more than 30 years in the aerospace and industrial aftermarket, about half of that time in the aviation, finance, and leasing space and half on the industrial side, including leading GE Aerospace’s global aftermarket business and also leading GE Vernova’s global aftermarket business.

That experience gives me strong conviction in StandardAero’s differentiated position, a purposefully diversified portfolio combined with compelling long-term opportunities across all of its major end markets. Having served on the board for more than seven years, I have been closely involved in the company’s strategic direction. In many ways, I believe we are only beginning to capture the earnings potential of those investments and decisions. I believe strongly in the strategy that Ross and the team have established.

My focus is on building upon that foundation, accelerating execution, and converting the significant opportunities ahead of us into sustained earnings growth, cash generation, and long-term shareholder value. Turning to slide 4, our first strategic priority is LEAP, which is an engine program that I have personally been involved with for well over a decade as part of my earlier GE career. I believe LEAP represents one of the most compelling long-term growth opportunities in the aerospace aftermarket. LEAP and the opportunity it represents for StandardAero were among the key reasons I was excited to take on the CEO role. StandardAero’s premier MRO authorization, its investments in capacity and technical capabilities, and its strong customer relationships have established what I believe is a highly attractive competitive position in the LEAP aftermarket.

Importantly, we believe this growth opportunity is still in its early stages. As Russ alluded to, we reached profitability on the program earlier this year, and our focus now is on continuing to improve productivity, expand our component repair capabilities, and increase margins as volumes scale. We remain on track towards our objective of exceeding $1 billion in annual LEAP revenue by the end of this decade, with an opportunity to grow to several billion dollars as the aftermarket matures into the 2030s.

Our next priority is productivity and operational execution. Over the past several years, StandardAero has made significant investments in its facilities, capabilities, and workforce to support the next phase of growth. As those investments mature, we see a substantial opportunity to drive higher throughput, improve turnaround times, and realize greater operating leverage across the business. The completion of our Winnipeg facility expansion marks another important milestone in supporting the continued growth of our CF34 business.

Equally important is our continued emphasis on operational excellence and continuous improvement across our facilities. We have leading positions on attractive engine platforms. Our focus now is on leveraging those positions and investments to drive sustained productivity gains, margin expansion, and stronger cash flow. Our next priority is component repair services, where I see significant opportunity to expand our capabilities, increase repair content, and drive attractive long-term growth. CRS is a strategically important business for StandardAero not only because of its attractive economics, but also because of the value it brings to our customers and our broader engine services operations. By developing new repair capabilities and increasing internal repair capture, we can lower material costs, improve turnaround times, and deliver more cost-effective solutions to our customers.

We will continue investing in new repair development across both the engine platforms we service and the broader aerospace market. The acquisition of Unified Turbines is a good example of this strategy in action, adding differentiated technical capabilities with meaningful opportunities for both revenue and cost synergies over time. I have strong conviction in the long-term growth and margin opportunity in our repair business because of the tangible value it delivers to customers and the broader StandardAero network.

Our final priority is disciplined capital deployment, which will be an important area of focus for me as the CEO. StandardAero has a strong track record of generating attractive returns through organic investment, strategic acquisitions, and expanding our capabilities on the engine platforms we serve. We see meaningful opportunities to continue to deploy capital in these areas, particularly through strategic M&A that strengthens our competitive position and enhances our long-term earnings power.

At the same time, we believe share repurchases represent an attractive use of capital when our stock is trading at a meaningful discount to our assessment of intrinsic value. Today we are announcing an increase to our share repurchase authorization, taking it to over $1 billion. In conjunction, we are also announcing a $350 million accelerated share repurchase. We have already repurchased $160 million year to date, and after completing our ASR we will have 500 million remaining on the authorization.

This decision reflects our confidence in StandardAero’s long-term outlook, the cash-generating ability of our business, and our belief that repurchasing shares at current levels represents a compelling opportunity to create value for shareholders. Our approach is not to favor one form of capital deployment over another. It is to allocate capital where we believe we can generate the greatest long-term return for shareholders while maintaining appropriate balance sheet and financial flexibility.

Based on our current assumptions, we expect to end the year at net leverage below 2.7x after these actions, thus preserving meaningful flexibility to pursue additional attractive opportunities. Ultimately, our objective is straightforward: to translate StandardAero’s attractive growth opportunities and increasing cash generation into sustained long-term per-share value creation. Finally, turning to our outlook, I am pleased that we are once again raising our full-year 2026 guidance. We now expect revenue growth of approximately 9% year over year versus our previous guide of 6%, adjusted EBITDA growth of 13% versus 11%, and adjusted EPS growth of 26% versus our previous guide of 23%. We are reiterating our adjusted free cash flow guidance, which represents a 36% growth year over year. Our improved outlook reflects the strength of underlying aftermarket demand, the progress we are making on our growth programs, and continued productivity improvements across the business.

Stepping back, I want to reinforce that StandardAero’s long-term investment thesis remains firmly intact. We operate in attractive, structurally growing markets. We have leading positions on critical engine platforms, differentiated repair capabilities, and a diversified portfolio that provides resilience across market cycles. Our opportunity is to continue converting those advantages into sustained double-digit earnings growth, improving free cash flow generation, and delivering attractive returns on invested capital.

The strategy is proven, the opportunities ahead are significant, and my focus is on execution and delivering consistent long-term value creation for our shareholders. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Dan to walk you through our financial results and guidance in greater detail. Dan.

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Thank you, Paul. I’ll begin on slide 5 with a brief overview of our third quarter financial results, focusing on the key drivers of performance across our segments. Cash flow and balance sheet for the third quarter, StandardAero generated revenue of $1.56 billion, an increase of 4% year over year with continued growth across both operating segments. Adjusted EBITDA increased 15% to $225 million with margins expanding 130 basis points year over year to 14.4%.

Our continued earnings growth reflects improving productivity across the business, particularly in engine services, increased availability and utilization of used serviceable material, or USM, and continued progress down the learning curve on our LEAP and CFM56 DFW growth programs. In addition, the elimination of low to no margin pass-through revenue continues to benefit our reported margin profile, yet creates a temporary reduction in top-line growth.

As anticipated, net income increased 36% to $93 million while adjusted diluted EPS grew 30% to $0.39, reflecting stronger operating earnings and the benefit of share repurchases. Turning to Engine Services on slide 6, the segment delivered another strong quarter with revenue increasing 3.5% year over year and segment adjusted EBITDA increasing a robust 24% to $205 million. Margins expanded 250 basis points year over year to 15% reflecting several factors. First, continued productivity improvements across our engine programs and across all three end markets. Second, LEAP and CFM56 DFW, both of which reached profitability earlier this year and continue to progress down the learning curve.

Third, increased availability and utilization of USM across several commercial platforms, which has supported better material economics and operating performance, and fourth, the continued elimination of low to no margin pass-through material revenue from restructured customer contracts. Taken together, these factors are driving meaningful improvements in the underlying profitability of Engine Services, and we remain encouraged by the progress we are making.

Moving to Component Repair Services on slide 7, revenue increased 7.3% year over year to $189 million, supported by continued strength in commercial aerospace repairs, particularly on the CFM56, GTF, V2500 and CF34 platforms, as well as growth in our aeroderivative business segment. Adjusted EBITDA was approximately $49 million with margins of 25.8%, reflecting unfavorable mix and the timing of certain military programs. In particular, we continue to experience delays in material inputs and repair activity on select military platforms, especially training-related programs.

We also experienced some residual costs associated with the ramp of new labor capacity that dragged over from the last quarter. Despite these timing-related headwinds, our commercial component repair business continues to grow, supported by strong demand and an expanding portfolio of repair capabilities. We remain confident in the long-term growth and earnings potential of CRS, although the timing of a recovery in military-related activity remains a factor we are closely monitoring.

Turning to free cash flow on slide 8, we generated approximately $100 million of adjusted free cash flow in the third quarter compared with $50 million in the second quarter. This improvement was supported by higher earnings and continued progress on working capital management, including the benefits of our company-wide supply chain initiatives and improved material planning. Net working capital represented a use of approximately $37 million during the quarter while capital expenditures were approximately $30 million.

We continue to focus on improving working capital efficiency as our growth programs scale, particularly by reducing turnaround times, optimizing inventory levels and improving the timing of material purchases. We remain on track to deliver our full-year adjusted free cash flow guidance of $270 million to $300 million, supported by improving operating earnings and our continued working capital initiatives, even as supply chain constraints persist.

Turning to our balance sheet on slide 9, we ended the third quarter with net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 2.66x compared to 2.9x in the third quarter last year. As Paul discussed, the Board has increased the share repurchase authorization to $1.01 billion, of which year to date we have purchased $160 million of shares, including $50 million in the third quarter. This leaves $850 million under the authorization. In addition to the authorization increase, we are entering a $350 million ASR.

We will have $500 million left on the authorization after completing the ASR. Based on our guidance, we expect to end the year well within our long-term target range of two to three times, which leaves us with substantial flexibility to fund organic growth investments and M&A while practicing disciplined capital deployment. Finally, turning to slide 10, we are raising full-year revenue guidance by $148 million at the midpoint to a range of $6.525 billion to $6.645 billion, with this increase reflected in our updated revenue guidance for the Engine Services segment. This implies an 8.6% year over year growth at the midpoint. We are also raising our adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of $905 million to $920 million, or 13% year over year growth at the midpoint. As a result, we are raising our adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $1.57 to $1.62.

This increase, which implies 26% year over year growth, is supported by higher earnings and a lower tax rate and share count. We are reiterating our adjusted free cash flow guidance of $270 million to $300 million. From an end-market perspective, we continue to expect commercial aerospace growth in the low double-digit to mid-teens range. Once the pass-through material revenue that was eliminated is normalized, we expect business aviation growth in the high single-digit to low double-digit range and military and helicopters growth in the low double-digit range.

This quarter is another strong demonstration of the resilience and earnings power of the StandardAero business model. We have deliberately built a diversified portfolio across engine platforms, end markets and customers, each with distinct growth drivers and complementary operating cycles. Ultimately, what sets StandardAero apart is our ability to consistently compound earnings and free cash flow over the long term. We believe that sustained enterprise-wide performance, rather than short-term fluctuations in any single platform or end market, is the true measure of our earnings power and long-term shareholder value creation.

With that, I’ll turn it back over to Paul.

Paul McElhinney (Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you, Dan. Before we open the call for questions, I want to leave you with a few final thoughts. As I mentioned earlier, I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity ahead for StandardAero. We have an exceptional portfolio of engine platforms, strong customer relationships and a team with the technical expertise and operational capabilities to capitalize on the long-term growth in the aftermarket. I also want to express my sincere appreciation to our talented team of more than 8,000 employees around the world, whose dedication, expertise and unwavering commitment to our customers are the foundation of our success. We’ve made significant investments over the past several years, and we are now beginning to realize their benefits. My focus will be on continuing to execute against our strategy, accelerating growth where we see the greatest opportunities, and translating those investments into sustained earnings growth, strong cash generation and attractive returns for our shareholders.

I also want to take one final opportunity to recognize Ross. On behalf of our employees, our leadership team and our board, thank you for your extraordinary leadership, your friendship, and everything you have done for this company. I am personally grateful for your trust and support, and I look forward to continuing to work closely with you. Finally, to our shareholders and the broader investment community, I look forward to meeting many of you personally over the coming months, hearing your perspectives and sharing more about our vision for StandardAero’s future. Thank you all again for joining us today. And with that, operator, we will now open it up for questions.

OPERATOR

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question comes from the line of Ken Herbert with RBC Capital Markets.

You may proceed with your question.

Ken Herbert (Analyst at RBC Capital Markets)

Yeah, hi, good evening, and let me congratulate Russ and Paul on the transition, and congratulations, Russ, and good luck in retirement. First, maybe if I could just to—just. Obviously you’re not talking about 2027 in detail yet, but how do we think about visibility in Engine Services in particular, just with the increasing concern around what could be slower demand for engine maintenance activity as a result of lower capacity growth or higher fuel prices?

Just can you talk at all about what you’re seeing in terms of backlogs across the MRO shops and if you’ve seen any signals yet that we could see any softening of demand in the next year?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Hey, Ken, it’s Dan. How you doing?

Ken Herbert (Analyst at RBC Capital Markets)

Hey, Dan. Great.

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Great. Yeah, so listen, you know, as we’ve said last quarter, we’ve seen zero impact, you know, from the macro on our business. You know, no meaningful changes observed in bookings, and as a matter of fact, backlog has increased since the conflict began. You know, and it’s true in the comments we made on the call, we’ve got clear visibility all the way through early 2028, and revenue is spoken for in large part for 2027. Why is that? There’s scheduled engine maintenance, we’ve got customer deposits on hand.

We have, as you know, often the flight cycle reporting on these engines, we know when they’re coming in and, again, our long-term arrangements stretch out many years. So that’s providing the visibility, and we would not call a macro event impact on the business at this time.

Paul McElhinney (Chief Executive Officer)

And then, Ken, just—I’ll just add a couple of comments. First of all, thanks for the welcome. You know, I’ve spent a lot of time, even in this first four weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time talking to customers and our OEM partners. Really, nobody is seeing any impact on demand, just like Dan has said. So our visibility is actually quite good through 2028. And so no change in customer behavior, no impact on inductions and planned inductions. So nothing—nothing that we are seeing or hearing that would change anything.

Ken Herbert (Analyst at RBC Capital Markets)

Okay, that’s great. And if I could just—on supply chain and material availability has been a major headwind. As you think about the revenue growth and turnaround times, what are you seeing on material availability or material flow as it relates to the LEAP or the CFM56? And are you seeing improvements there that might also be sort of a tailwind as we think about confidence in the next year?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Yeah, Ken, thanks. Listen, first of all, LEAP had a great quarter. You know, a lot of our profitability growth is coming from both LEAP and CFM56 in Dallas having fantastic quarters, just as we called it, right. Last quarter they had profitability. Now they’re ramping up. And so we’re really proud of that. Material availability for LEAP and any, all of our programs continues to be constrained. You know, if I’d have to call it, probably LEAP might be in a little bit better shape than the other programs. Now, of course, there’s no USM available on LEAP where CFM56 can take advantage of that, although those are constrained as well. You know, the supply chain environment, we’re saying, listen, it’s kind of the way it’s been all year, but LEAP is probably benefiting from a little bit of better availability than other programs.

Ken Herbert (Analyst at RBC Capital Markets)

Great. Thanks, Dan.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Miles Walton with Wolfe Research. You may proceed with your question.

Miles Walton (Analyst at Wolfe Research)

Thanks. Good evening and best wishes, Russ, and welcome. Paul, you raised the engine services rev guide by about 170 million. And about 50 million of that, I guess, is the low margin pass through. What was the bigger source of the uplift? Aside from the pass through and then just looking at it sequentially, it does look like a pretty steep ramp sequentially. Is there a lot that has to happen in terms of USM availability remaining really high or other aspects?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Hey, Miles. Yes, and thanks for the call out. I think you were referring to the earnings growth. You said revolution earnings growth. Fantastic, right? 15%. 200. Sorry. 250 basis point, sorry, 24% on engine services, 250 basis points. So that came kind of equally, you know, LEAP and CFM56. Like I said earlier to Ken’s comments, that together with the pass through impact is about, you know, a little bit less than half of the total 250 basis point improvement.

Those two programs coming down the learning curve and achieving on their milestones, the rest of it is kind of split equally between the USM opportunity and general productivity. Now on USM is the following. So I wouldn’t say that USM is generally better, more available market wise. We had some great opportunities in Q3 that we took advantage of. We have a dedicated team out there sourcing USM and on some of our better platforms, they did a really great job on USM. So those were really great lifts for the company. We’ll continue to take advantage of USM as it’s opportunistically available and we’ll continue to see the LEAP and CFM Dallas programs become more profitable.

Miles Walton (Analyst at Wolfe Research)

Dan, I was actually asking about revenue. So I think in the full year guidance of revenue, you did raise ES revenue by 170 and I think the pass through was lower by about 50. So there’s 120 million of business revenue raised there. Could you just tell us what was that higher outlook coming from?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Yeah, on the commercial side, we’re seeing fantastic growth primarily on LEAP and CFM56. CF34 is having a fantastic year as well. And the turboprop programs, all of those are leading to that. The material pass through number we’re taking down just a little bit, but that really is not impacting the revenue guide that the revenue guide is coming up and it’s coming up with incremental margins.

Miles Walton (Analyst at Wolfe Research)

Okay, all right, thanks.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of David Strauss with Wells Fargo. David, your line is now live.

David Strauss (Analyst at Wells Fargo)

Great, thanks. Congrats to you both. Dan, I just wanted to ask about some of the moving pieces on working capital year to date and what to expect in the fourth quarter. Specifically looking at the big, you know, big increase in receivables year to date. And then I think inventory has been a source, but contract assets have been a drag. If you could just walk through those. And what to expect from the fourth quarter?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

No, great question. Thank you. First of all, we’re really proud of the $99 million of free cash flow in the quarter, up from $50,000,000 in Q2. Within the working capital build of only $37,000,000. Inventory has come down. Right. It came down big in Q1. We kind of held it flat in Q2. In Q3, it’s, you know, a nice decrease that is a direct result of the effort we’re putting into material ordering practices. Contract assets did increase, but this is becoming clear that this is, you know, our cycle. A big increase before the big shipment unwind in Q4, just like we’ve achieved last quarter. Sorry, last Q4, where Q1 is a build, Q2 is kind of a decline. Q3 is a big build right prior to the Q4 big shipment period. So this is a sort of expected increase in contract assets along with billed accounts receivable. Those are up as well. Also following kind of a similar pattern where Q1 goes up, Q2 is a big collections quarter, Q3 climbs, and then Q4 is a big collections quarter.

All on the way to the cash flow guide that we’ve given you. Midpoint, $285 million. So nothing really unusual here, except we’re reaping the benefits of our sales and operation planning discipline and material ordering practices.

David Strauss (Analyst at Wells Fargo)

Okay. And on the license, the license agreement, you’ve talked about the EBITDA contribution over the next couple years. What can we expect from a revenue standpoint? How much that’s going to add in revenue?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Yeah, we haven’t called that what we have called on the license expansion, by the way. We’re super excited about that. Those are new variants of engines that we already serve. It’s about $25 million. Next year it’s going to be going to a total of about $30 million of earnings, kind of on normal ES margins. So you can reverse engineer the revenue figure.

David Strauss (Analyst at Wells Fargo)

Great, thanks.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sheila Kayoglu with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Sheila Kayoglu (Analyst at Jefferies)

Thank you and congrats again, Russ, and congratulations, Paul as well. Maybe just to follow up on just the Q4 margins implied for engine services, you know, I guess how do we think about the implied margins of about 14% versus 15 in Q3 despite sales accelerating to low teens? Can you walk us through some of the puts and takes on the relatively high sales growth versus the margin disconnect there and what you’re assuming for the material pass through?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Thanks, Sheila. Good question. It’s primarily the USM opportunity that we took advantage of here in Q3. I’d like to say that USM is going to be sort of an increasing entitlement that we have on a very consistent basis. Unfortunately, as you know, it’s not like that. So we had a great opportunity on USM in Q3 that, you know, I’m not going to call for Q4, you know, being like that. And then we’re also having an increase of the ramp programs. Right.

So LEAP and DFW, CFM56, DFW, as you know, are dilutive. There’ll be higher revenues of those in Q4 as those programs ramp. And so that’ll provide some dilution as well.

Sheila Kayoglu (Analyst at Jefferies)

Okay, got it. That’s super helpful. And then maybe if you could just talk about what’s going on with military. I feel like this is the second quarter in a row where military is coming a little bit lighter, I guess. How do we think about what’s driving some of that slowness within the military training platforms and how you’re thinking about the pickup in Q4 and into 27?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Yep. So the military in particular, on the component repair side, the inputs have fallen significantly. And we are, you know, seeing that this is an impact of the Middle Eastern conflict. And we’re calling it really not a shift in funding, but a shift in outlays. Right. So as engines remain in theater, you know, for longer and for operational readiness and conflict, you know, maintenance in particular on some of the, you know, the training platforms that make up a large part of component repair, military platforms are suffering.

Not forever, as you know, you know, these engine maintenance is not discretionary. It will come back. Although I don’t think this is going to be something, and I’m not going to call, you know, how long the conflict is going to last, but as long as it does, you know, we’re going to see some, you know, shift between, you know, outlays between programs. Now, you’re not seeing that as much on the total military end market. And that has to do with the Q2 announced new business that we’re receiving on NATO platforms unrelated to the component repair business.

Sheila Kayoglu (Analyst at Jefferies)

Got it. Thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Seth Seifman with J.P. Morgan. Please proceed with your question. And Seth, your line is now live.

Seth Seifman (Analyst at J.P. Morgan)

Can you hear me?

OPERATOR

Yeah. Hey, Seth. Hello.

Seth Seifman (Analyst at J.P. Morgan)

Oh, hey, sorry. Yeah, Russ, congrats and it’s been a pleasure. Paul, congrats as well. I wanted to ask, just starting off on the sales from component repair into engine services, you know, as engine services has grown, you know, we haven’t really seen growth in the internal sales. When would you expect that to pick up and what does the trajectory of that look like in the coming years?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Yeah, thanks. You know, so that’s the insourcing effort that we’ve talked about, you know, that continues. Right. So as you know, when we launched this insourcing activity, you know, the lower hanging fruits we’ve taken advantage of, now there’s additional work to do and there was a business, a discrete business piece that we lost that is going to impact that insourcing impact. But we’re continuing to proceed on it. And in Q3, it was up 1% versus the prior year.

Russell Ford (Executive Chairman)

And Seth, we talked about it last quarter was the, the quote, unquote Conair contract. We’re still getting the parts for the part repair side of it, but we no longer run that contract on the ES side. So that’s parts that are now reported as external sales. So that affects the insourcing number.

Seth Seifman (Analyst at J.P. Morgan)

Okay, okay, excellent. And then maybe as a follow up, you know, Paul, when you talk about making it a priority to be the leader in LEAP MRO over the next few decades, what does it take to be that leader? Is there, you know, do you have kind of the capacity for that? Is that something that will require more capacity over time? Is there something about the, you know, the customers that you’ve gathered thus far or, you know, see potential to gather in the future?

What’s going to sort of differentiate StandardAero and allow you to have that leadership position?

Paul McElhinney (Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks, Seth. Yeah. So interestingly, as I said in the comments earlier, I’ve spent probably 15 years of my career on the other side of the table on LEAP. So LEAP was one of the big program launches that we had when I was running the aftermarket. I was heavily involved in designing the aftermarket strategy for LEAP from a GE perspective and a Safran perspective. So, you know, honestly, it’s one of the real reasons I thought about taking the job as CEO.

This is my opinion this will become the most successful commercial engine in history. It’s already proving that in orders. We’ve made significant investments to prepare for LEAP volume. We’re well on our way and tracking closely to what we’ve told you and others for some time, which is we turn profitable this year. We see a very clear sight to a billion dollars of revenue by 2030. The pipeline is quite strong. A lot of demand constrained, supply constrained capacity. So I’m very confident firstly about the overall LEAP volumes that are coming for the industry.

And then inside that set, I would say I’m particularly confident about the positioning of StandardAero and what we can do as a partner to CFM and what we can do for our customers. And that’s proving itself every day as we win additional contracts

Seth Seifman (Analyst at J.P. Morgan)

Great, thanks. Thanks very much.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ronald Epstein with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Andrew Steinhardt (Analyst at Bank of America)

Hi, this is Andrew Steinhardt on for Ron, thanks for taking my question here and congrats, Russ on your retirement and Paul on the transition. I wanted to ask if you guys could quantify the impact of the pass-through eliminations on commercial revenue in Q3. What would underlying growth be excluding the pass-through eliminations and for the full year? If you could ballpark commercial end market growth accounting for those eliminations, that would be helpful too. Thanks.

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

That’s right. Yeah. So, you know, commercial was, what, 1.3% growth. Excluding that, it’s high single digits. You’ll see that on the page. And then, for the full year, you know, commercial growth, we’re calling, you know, high teens ex material takeout.

Andrew Steinhardt (Analyst at Bank of America)

Could you quantify it with the takeout?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

That’s right. So we’re thinking, you know, we called the material takeout for the full year. We were saying 350 to 400. It’s now going to be closer to 300. As you recall, in Q1 it was a minimal impact, and then Q2, you know, was significant, and Q3 and Q4 are going to be right in line with expectations. So we kind of lost a quarter, and we’re saying the full material takeout impact, instead of 350 to 400, will be closer to 300 for the full year.

Andrew Steinhardt (Analyst at Bank of America)

Gotcha. Okay. And just on CRS margins, can you talk about how the work migration efforts have progressed since last quarter?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Yeah. You know, there’s a great opportunity there that we launched between some of our back shops and the Cincinnati site, where capability on that repair was already in place. So that continues to occur. And there are even more opportunities out in the future that we’re going to take advantage of across our—We have 50 sites in total at StandardAero. Most of the MRO sites have what are called back shops that do component repair for the engines in the shop, right, for a quick turnaround.

When these back shops have additional capability and capacity, that’s an opportunity for the overloaded CRS sites to offload, and we’re taking full advantage of that.

Paul McElhinney (Chief Executive Officer)

And Andrew, this is Paul. Just a couple of comments. Firstly, CRS is a very strategic part of the business. I’ve spent a lot of my career running repair businesses in the aftermarket. So, quite apart from the fact that they’re financially very attractive for the company, their impact on customers is very important and very impactful to their turnaround times, lowering the cost of maintenance. So it’s a key part of our offering to our customers. In the first three weeks here, I’ve spent time with our repair teams in both Dallas and Cincinnati, which are two of our larger repair locations. You know, demand is not an issue here. So commercial demand, very robust. I would say the entire focus of the team is on internal execution, increasing and improving throughput. You can expect me to be spending quite a bit of time with that team, and I look forward to sharing some of the results of the work we’re doing here, improving that as we go forward.

Andrew Steinhardt (Analyst at Bank of America)

Gotcha. I appreciate the color. Thanks.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Christine Leweg with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Christine Leweg (Analyst at Morgan Stanley)

Hey, congrats, Russ. You know, we’ll miss you on the earnings call. And welcome, Paul. I guess, you know, Paul, given your involvement in shaping the LEAP’s aftermarket strategy in your prior role, how do you assess StandardAero’s competitive position today? You must have seen good things for you to join the company. And are there any areas you want to invest in more or expand capabilities to be able to capture more market share or a greater share of the aftermarket economics as the platform matures?

Paul McElhinney (Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks for the question, Christine. So, you know, the investments we—the company has positioned itself extraordinarily well for LEAP. And you’re right, LEAP is near and dear to my heart as an engine product. And it’s exciting for me to now sit on this side of the table and be able to talk to customers about how we support them and their needs. We are quoting shop visit slots all the way out to the mid-2030s at this stage—really robust demand. I like where StandardAero is competitively. We will continue to invest. You can expect us to continue to invest in repair development. You can continue to expect us to work on attractive commercial offerings for our customers that allow them to lower their maintenance costs over time. But I feel really good about LEAP, and I feel good about what that will be, candidly, for StandardAero for three decades or more to come.

Christine Leweg (Analyst at Morgan Stanley)

Great. Super helpful. And if I could add a second question. On the 4Q CRS margins, the implied for the quarter will be 27.5%, so a sequential increase versus this quarter. So how much visibility do you have into that recovery, and is that sequential margin expansion dependent on the return of the military programs you guys had previously discussed?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Yes. So thanks, Christine. The decline in margins we called out had to do with two things, really: the residual effects from the labor ramp, and—don’t forget—the commercial business at CRS is booming. A lot of strong volumes there. Their volumes are being somewhat depressed because of the military issues that we mentioned before due to the outlay change as a result of the Middle Eastern conflict. What that has as an impact on the margin rates is that military business is pretty good business.

You know, losing that has a negative mix impact. And then we have some residual effects from the labor ramp on the commercial business, which is quite strong, that we’re working through—that we have a better line of sight to recovery on than, you know, the military side, which is dependent on the macro.

Christine Leweg (Analyst at Morgan Stanley)

Gotcha. Thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Gavin Parsons with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Gavin Parsons (Analyst at UBS)

Thanks. Good evening.

Russell Ford (Executive Chairman)

Hey, Gavin,

Gavin Parsons (Analyst at UBS)

Russ and Paul, congrats to you guys both. Paul, I guess sort of echoing Seth’s question a little bit on CRS, which you brought up as a priority and have talked about. I mean, it’s a smaller, growing business—smaller business—but one that I would think would have more idiosyncratic growth opportunities. I’ve been a little surprised that one’s grown slower than ES for a couple years now. So just any insights you can shed on that and how you might quantify the growth opportunity there over the medium term would be helpful.

Paul McElhinney (Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks for the question, Gavin. So CRS is very strategic for me, a very important part of our customer tool set and the offerings that we can give them. I would say, you know, right now I see a lot of demand, I see good backlog. And frankly, I’ll spend my time on working with the teams and accelerating some of the efficiency, productivity, throughput, turnaround time activity that is already going on in the company. We have, you know, a lot of capacity across the network. Dan talked about the fact that we’ve been involved in this work transfer from Cincinnati to some of the other back shops. You know, that’s complicated work, frankly. It’s not something that happens overnight, but it is something that I intend to continue to focus on. So I think you should expect to see CRS continue to be a big piece of the business in terms of strategic importance both to us and to our customers.

And I intend to spend a fair amount of time with the team, helping them get to where we need to be with the offerings.

Gavin Parsons (Analyst at UBS)

Thanks for that. And then on the military side, I think you guys do have a lot of exposure to deployed assets. I’m thinking like C-130, V-22. I mean, any way to help us frame our exposure to those versus, say, the training platforms where the drag is today—rough order of magnitude.

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Yeah, so we’re really—those are our fixed-wing transport aircraft that we support, and they’re in good shape. When we talk about the military issues, it is primarily related, in large part, to these training programs. Demand’s not going away. It’ll definitely come back. These are programs that, you know, the U.S. Air Force needs more pilots on. As far as the C-130 or the AE2100, and the Osprey or the T406/1107 programs, those are looking good. And that’s why we’re, you know, having, you know, still a strong military guide—low double digits for the full year.

Thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andre Madrid with U.S. Bancorp. Please proceed with your questions.

Ned Morgan

And good afternoon. This is Ned Morgan on for Andre. Russ, congrats on a great tenure as CEO. And Paul, we look forward to working with you.

Russell Ford (Executive Chairman)

Thank you.

Ned Morgan

You know, as we start thinking about ’27, I understand you’re not, you know, going to provide any guidance today, but, you know, are you willing to rank the growth outlook across commercial business, aviation, and military?

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

Yet? The 2027 guide? We’re going to give you better information on that out in February. Yeah, it should be roughly about the same. I mean, it’s just the general growth of those end markets, right.

Ned Morgan

Okay, thank you. And then another—GE lowered its CFM56 retirement outlook. Just curious on the puts and takes of that for you guys and what it means for you on the CFM56 platform.

Paul McElhinney (Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, CFM56—a very strong platform for us. You know, it’s still actually quite early in the life cycle of that motor. So two-thirds of those engines have not even seen their second shop visit yet. So I think that you’re going to see continued strength, certainly in StandardAero, on CFM56. A lot of customer demand for us—constrained capacity. But yeah, as I look at that program, I see continued growth, and the retirement rate, which GE called to one and a half to two percent of the fleet, frankly, not having an impact on the demand that we’re seeing for slots from our customers.

Dan Satterfield (CFO at StandardAero)

And Nick, keep in mind the OEMs, when they refer to their shop visits, it’s shop visits with 500 labor hours or more. So it doesn’t include module swaps, exchanges—those types of things that we do quite a bit of.

Ned Morgan

Great, thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you. And we have reached the end of the question and answer session. And I would like to turn the floor back to Paul McElhinney for closing remarks.

Paul McElhinney (Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks very much. And thank you all for joining us and for your continued interest in our company. And we look forward to sharing more details with you on our next call.

OPERATOR

Thank you. And this concludes today’s conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation.

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