On August 17, AECOM (NYSE:ACM) delivered a third quarter that looked strong and messy at the same time. Backlog hit an all-time high on record quarterly wins, yet the company also absorbed a $337 million pretax charge tied to a delayed construction project. The result was a quarter where headline numbers cratered even as the underlying business kept expanding. That gap between top-line noise and forward momentum is what makes this print worth a closer look.
AECOM's backlog grew 13% to a new all-time high, powered by record quarterly wins and a company-wide book-to-burn ratio of 1.6, including 1.8 times in the Americas. Year to date, that ratio sits at 1.4, giving management unusually long visibility into future revenue. The design business, adjusted for one fewer working day, grew net service revenue 5%, with the Americas up 6% and international design returning to growth at 4%, led by the UK and Australia. Stripped of the charge, adjusted EBITDA climbed 5% and adjusted earnings per share rose 11% year over year, while the company raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA margin outlook to 17.4% from 17%.
Wins are coming from every direction. Canada landed a 10-year program management role on a highway and bus transit project, one of the company's largest Canadian awards ever, while Australia's backlog jumped more than 40% year over year. In the U.K., work on the Great Grid electricity upgrade helped push growth into the high single digits. The federal pipeline is expanding too, with the pipeline tied to the Department of War up roughly 30% in the quarter and less than half of IIJA infrastructure funding in AECOM's core markets spent so far. The balance sheet backs it up, with $2 billion of undrawn borrowing capacity and no near-term debt maturities.
The $337 million pretax charge stems from a construction management project first bid in 2019, where subcontractor productivity has pushed substantial completion from the first quarter of fiscal 2027 to near the end of the second quarter. That slippage cost $1.99 of earnings per share this quarter and forced a $185 million cash use, and management expects the project to keep burning cash through the first half of fiscal 2027. A second design-build P3 project from the same era also carries a significant claim position as AECOM pursues recoveries, even though the company says it no longer bids that structure for public-private partnership clients.
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AECOM's backlog grew 13% to a new all-time high, powered by record quarterly wins and a company-wide book-to-burn ratio of 1.6, including 1.8 times in the Americas. Year to date, that ratio sits at 1.4, giving management unusually long visibility into future revenue. The design business, adjusted for one fewer working day, grew net service revenue 5%, with the Americas up 6% and international design returning to growth at 4%, led by the UK and Australia. Stripped of the charge, adjusted EBITDA climbed 5% and adjusted earnings per share rose 11% year over year, while the company raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA margin outlook to 17.4% from 17%.
Wins are coming from every direction. Canada landed a 10-year program management role on a highway and bus transit project, one of the company's largest Canadian awards ever, while Australia's backlog jumped more than 40% year over year. In the U.K., work on the Great Grid electricity upgrade helped push growth into the high single digits. The federal pipeline is expanding too, with the pipeline tied to the Department of War up roughly 30% in the quarter and less than half of IIJA infrastructure funding in AECOM's core markets spent so far. The balance sheet backs it up, with $2 billion of undrawn borrowing capacity and no near-term debt maturities.
The $337 million pretax charge stems from a construction management project first bid in 2019, where subcontractor productivity has pushed substantial completion from the first quarter of fiscal 2027 to near the end of the second quarter. That slippage cost $1.99 of earnings per share this quarter and forced a $185 million cash use, and management expects the project to keep burning cash through the first half of fiscal 2027. A second design-build P3 project from the same era also carries a significant claim position as AECOM pursues recoveries, even though the company says it no longer bids that structure for public-private partnership clients.
#year
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