IES Holdings (IESC) Risk Analysis

The industries in which we compete are highly fragmented and are generally served by many small, owner-operated private companies. There are also several large private regional companies and a small number of large public companies from which we face competition in these industries. In the future, we could also face competition from new competitors entering these markets because certain segments, such as our electrical contracting services, have a relatively low barrier for entry while other segments, such as our services and custom engineered electro-mechanical products for mission critical infrastructure, have attractive growth and profitability characteristics. Some of our competitors in certain markets may offer a greater range of services than we offer in those markets, including mechanical construction and facilities management. Competition in our markets depends on a number of factors, including price. Some of our competitors may have lower overhead cost structures and may, therefore, be able to provide services comparable to ours at lower rates than we do. If we are unable to offer our services at competitive prices or if we have to reduce our prices to remain competitive, our profitability would be impaired.

We have operations throughout the United States and are subject to multiple state and local regulations. In addition, our segments from time to time perform work as federal government subcontractors, or perform work on projects that have received federal government funding, and as a result may be subject to federal laws and requirements applicable to government contractors. If we fail to comply with those requirements, we may be subject to fines, penalties or suspension from doing business with the federal government. Our 131 locations are located in 27 states, which exposes us to a variety of different state and local laws and regulations, including those pertaining to electrical contractor and other licensing requirements. These laws and regulations govern many aspects of our business, and there are often different standards and requirements in different locations. Changes in law, regulations or requirements, or a material failure to comply with any of them, could increase our costs and have other negative impacts on our business by, among other things, increasing costs, harming our reputation and, in some instances, causing us to be in violation of our contractual obligations. In addition, we are required to maintain certain electrical, construction, mechanical and business licenses. If we fail to successfully transfer, renew or obtain such licenses where applicable, we may experience increased costs and other negative impacts on our business.

In all of our businesses, we are subject to potential claims and litigation, including contractual disputes, warranty claims, and claims related to our compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. We have in the past been, and may in the future be, named as a defendant in lawsuits, claims and other legal proceedings; such claims and litigation are common in the construction and electrical and mechanical maintenance businesses and may be related to contract delays, changes in the scope of work or alleged defects. There are also inherent claims and litigation risks associated with the number of people that work on construction sites and the fleet of vehicles on the road every day. In our Infrastructure Solutions businesses, we also may be subject to product liability litigation. We also have in the past been, and may in the future be, subject to employment-related claims including workers' compensation, employment discrimination, and wage and hour claims. Claims are sometimes made and lawsuits filed for amounts in excess of their value or in excess of the amounts for which they are eventually resolved. Claims and litigation normally follow a predictable course of time to resolution. However, there may be periods of time in which a disproportionate amount of our claims and litigation are concluded in the same quarter or year. If multiple matters are resolved during a given period, then the cumulative effect of these matters may be higher than the ordinary level in any one reporting period. In addition, due to the inherent uncertainties of litigation, we cannot accurately predict the ultimate outcome of any such actions or proceedings, which could result in significant expense, damage to our reputation and diversion of management's attention from our business. Latent defect litigation is normal for residential home builders in some parts of the country. Any increases in our latent defect claims and litigation could place pressure on our profitability.

Our effective tax rate and cash paid for taxes are impacted by the tax positions that we have adopted. Taxing authorities may not always agree with the positions we have taken. We have established reserves for tax positions that we have determined to be less than likely to be sustained by taxing authorities. However, there can be no assurance that our results of operations will not be adversely affected in the event that disagreement over our tax positions does arise. Additionally, new tax laws or changes in existing interpretation and guidance could affect our provision for income taxes, deferred tax assets and liabilities, and reserves for uncertain tax positions, potentially resulting in an increase to our effective tax rate, which could adversely affect our results.

Hazards related to our industry include, but are not limited to, electrocutions, fires, injuries involving ladders, machinery-caused injuries, mechanical failures and transportation accidents. These hazards can cause personal injury and loss of life, severe damage to or destruction of property and equipment, and suspension of operations. While we have invested significant efforts in our safety programs in an effort to minimize safety risks, we have experienced serious accidents in the past and may experience additional accidents in the future. Serious accidents may subject us to penalties, civil litigation or criminal prosecution. Our insurance does not cover all types or amounts of liabilities. In addition, if our safety record were to substantially deteriorate over time, our customers could cancel our contracts or not award us future business.

The loss of key personnel or the inability to hire and retain qualified employees could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our operations depend on the continued efforts of our executive officers, senior management and management personnel at our segments. As a service organization, relationships with significant customers can be dependent on certain employees within our organization, and our ability to meet our contractual obligations to our customers and support our growth strategy may be limited by our ability to retain and train necessary personnel. We cannot guarantee that any member of management at the corporate or operating segment level will continue in their capacity for any particular period of time, and there is significant competition in our industry for managerial personnel. We have a severance plan in place that covers certain of our senior leaders; however, this plan can neither guarantee that we will not lose key employees, nor prevent them from competing against us. If we lose a group of key personnel or even one key person at a segment, we may not be able to recruit suitable replacements at comparable salaries or at all, which could adversely affect our operations. Additionally, we generally do not maintain key man life insurance for members of our management. Our business is labor intensive, and many of our operations experience a high rate of employee turnover. We also may be constrained in hiring and retaining sufficient qualified employees to support our growth strategy due to general labor shortages in our industries. In addition, a lack of skilled labor or increased turnover rates within our employee base could lead to increased costs, such as increased overtime to meet demand and increased wage rates to attract and retain employees. Continued labor constraints may limit our ability to grow and may limit our profitability due to the impact of rising wages.

We hire third-party subcontractors to perform work on certain of our projects, and if we are unable to retain qualified subcontractors or if our subcontractors do not perform in accordance with their obligations, we have in the past incurred, and may in the future incur, additional costs or experience delays in project execution, which could subject us to contractual penalties. We also rely on suppliers for the materials necessary to complete our projects, and if a supplier fails to provide supplies when scheduled or at a higher than price than expected, project delays and additional costs could have an adverse effect on our operating results.

Our business and the industries in which we operate are vulnerable to changing macroeconomic conditions, including supply chain constraints, high rates of inflation, changes in consumer sentiment, elevated interest rates, and market disruptions resulting from a number of factors, including geo-political events such as the Ukraine-Russia war, the conflict in the Middle East, and trade tensions between the U.S. and China. These and other market factors have negatively impacted, and may continue to negatively impact, our revenues and our cost for labor, materials, utilities, and other goods and services as well as our ability to collect on our outstanding receivables, to the extent our customers are affected by the same negative conditions. Further, if the U.S. economy experiences a downturn or recession, our customers may be unable to obtain financing for new projects, or they may decide to delay or cancel projects even if they have credit available to them. As a result, these conditions have had, and they or any similar future conditions may continue to have, adverse impacts on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

A number of economic factors, including financing conditions for our customers' industries, have, in the past, adversely affected our customers and their ability or willingness to fund expenditures. Many of our customers depend on the availability of credit to help finance their capital and maintenance projects. At times, tightened availability of credit and changes in interest rates that affect the cost of construction financing and mortgages have negatively impacted the ability of existing and prospective customers to obtain sufficient financing and fund projects we might otherwise perform. As a result, our customers may defer such projects for an unknown, and perhaps lengthy, period. Any such deferrals would inhibit our growth and would adversely affect our results of operations. In a weak economic environment, particularly in a period of restrictive credit markets, we may experience greater difficulties in collecting payments from our customers due to, among other reasons, a diminution in our ultimate customers' access to the credit markets. If clients delay in paying or fail to pay a significant amount of our outstanding receivables, it could have an adverse effect on our liquidity, results of operations, and financial position.

Our Company continues to increase its dependence on information technology systems, networks, and infrastructure to conduct our day-to-day operations and manage the way we provide services to our customers. Disruptions to our information technology systems or our failure to adequately protect critical data, sensitive information, and information technology systems could materially affect our business or result in harm to our reputation. Our critical accounting, project management, estimating, and financial information systems, some of which are third-party platforms, all rely on the proper functioning and security of our information technology environment and are critical to the successful operation of our business. We also collect and retain information about our customers, stockholders, vendors, and employees, with the expectation by such third parties being that we will adequately protect such information. Although our information technology systems, networks and infrastructure are protected through our policies, procedures and physical and software safeguards, our information technology environment is still vulnerable to natural disasters, power losses, telecommunication failures, deliberate intrusions, inadvertent user misuse or error, computer viruses, malicious code, ransomware attacks, acts of terrorism and other cyber security risks, which could cause a loss of critical data, or release of sensitive information. If critical information systems fail or are otherwise unavailable, or if sensitive information is released, we could experience reputational harm, loss of customers and revenue, loss of proprietary data, regulatory actions and scrutiny, statutory penalties, and litigation. We have from time to time experienced cybersecurity incidents, such as ransomware attacks or unauthorized parties gaining access to our information technology systems, and privacy incidents, such as potential exposure of data. While to date such incidents have not had a material impact on our business, there can be no assurance that future incidents would not have an adverse effect on our business or reputation. Additionally, the process of integrating the information systems of the businesses we acquire is complex and exposes us to additional risk as we might not adequately identify weaknesses in the acquired business's information systems or information handling, privacy and security policies and protocols, which could expose us to unexpected liabilities or make our own systems and data more vulnerable to attack. In addition, data privacy laws and regulations governing the unauthorized disclosure of confidential information may pose compliance challenges and result in additional costs for our businesses. A failure to comply with such laws and regulations could result in penalties or fines, legal liabilities or reputational harm.