Wesco International (NYSE: WCC), will provide an update regarding its long-term growth strategy at its Investor Day meeting taking place in-person at its innovation center in Glenview, Ill. and online today at 9 a.m. Central Time.
Wesco will share an update on its digitally enabled business transformation and expansive capabilities to support long-term growth and margin expansion. Consistent with prior expectations, over the long term it expects to achieve mid-single-digit organic growth, driven by a strategic shift into higher growth and higher margin end markets along with continued share gains. The company has a long-term track record of increasing returns to shareholders through acquisitions which are additive to the topline growth rate and margin expansion. Over the same cycle, the company expects to grow EBITDA at twice the rate of sales, expand return on net assets, and target free cash flow of 100% of adjusted net income.
Wesco’s 2024 full-year expectations remain consistent with the outlook described in the company’s second quarter earnings report. Wesco expects reported sales of (3.5)% to (1.5)% and organic sales growth of (1.5)% to 0.5% versus the prior year. The company continues to expect to deliver adjusted EBITDA of 7.0% to 7.3%, and adjusted EPS of $12 to $13.
“Our investment thesis is built on our market leadership, future cash generation, and strong progress on our business transformation. We have multiple drivers of our future sustained outperformance and are well-positioned to deliver outsized growth due to secular trends in AI-driven data centers, increased power generation, electrification, IoT and automation, and re-shoring of global supply chains. We’re more than halfway complete on our technology and capabilities build. We have introduced generative AI analytics, automated multiple order and fulfillment processes, and developed new digital tools to improve working capital efficiency. These advancements are expected to accelerate growth, expand margins, and enhance the integration of future acquisitions. Our experienced management team, comprised of industry veterans with deep domain knowledge and new talent additions, is focused on driving our strategic priorities and achieving our financial goals,” said Chairman, President and CEO John Engel.
“As we stand here today, we have built a new Wesco. Since our last investor meeting two years ago, we have completed our integrations of Anixter and Rahi Systems while making substantial progress on our business transformation. We are laser-focused on the four critical components of our long-term value creation: capturing the benefits of our digital transformation; progressing toward our 10%+ EBITDA margin goal; generating strong and consistent cash flow; and investing in services and acquisitions while supporting a consistent return of capital to our shareholders over time. We are committed to achieving our vision of becoming the best tech-enabled supply chain solutions company in the world and creating value for all stakeholders,” he said.
Webcast and Teleconference Access
Wesco will conduct a webcast and in-person meeting on Thursday, September 26, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. C.T. The event will be broadcast live over the internet and can be accessed from the Investor Relations page of the Company’s website at https://investors.wesco.com. The call will be archived on this internet site for seven days.
Wesco International (NYSE: WCC) builds, connects, powers and protects the world. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Wesco is a FORTUNE 500® company with more than $22 billion in annual sales and a leading provider of business-to-business distribution, logistics services and supply chain solutions. Wesco offers a best-in-class product and services portfolio of Electrical and Electronic Solutions, Communications and Security Solutions, and Utility and Broadband Solutions. The Company employs approximately 20,000 people, partners with the industry’s premier suppliers, and serves thousands of customers around the world. With millions of products, end-to-end supply chain services, and leading digital capabilities, Wesco provides innovative solutions to meet customer needs across commercial and industrial businesses, contractors, government agencies, educational institutions, telecommunications providers, and utilities. Wesco operates nearly 800 branches, warehouses and sales offices in more than 50 countries, providing a local presence for customers and a global network to serve multi-location businesses and global corporations.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements made herein that are not historical facts should be considered as “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding business strategy, growth strategy, competitive strengths, productivity and profitability enhancement, competition, new product and service introductions, and liquidity and capital resources. Such statements can generally be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “plan,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “expect,” “project,” and similar words, phrases or expressions or future or conditional verbs such as “could,” “may,” “should,” “will,” and “would,” although not all forward-looking statements contain such words. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and beliefs of Wesco’s management, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, Wesco’s management, current market trends and market conditions and involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside of Wesco’s and Wesco’s management’s control, and which may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on such statements.
Important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those presented or implied in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the failure to achieve the anticipated benefits of, and other risks associated with, acquisitions, joint ventures, divestitures and other corporate transactions; the inability to successfully integrate acquired businesses; the impact of increased interest rates or borrowing costs; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; failure to adequately protect Wesco’s intellectual property or successfully defend against infringement claims; the inability to successfully deploy new technologies, digital products and information systems or to otherwise adapt to emerging technologies in the marketplace, such as those incorporating artificial intelligence; failure to execute on our efforts and programs related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters; unanticipated expenditures or other adverse developments related to compliance with new or stricter government policies, laws or regulations, including those relating to data privacy, sustainability and environmental protection; the inability to successfully develop, manage or implement new technology initiatives or business strategies, including with respect to the expansion of e-commerce capabilities and other digital solutions and digitalization initiatives; disruption of information technology systems or operations; natural disasters (including as a result of climate change), health epidemics, pandemics and other outbreaks; supply chain disruptions; geopolitical issues, including the impact of the evolving conflicts in the Middle East and Russia/Ukraine; the impact of sanctions imposed on, or other actions taken by the U.S. or other countries against, Russia or China; the failure to manage the increased risks and impacts of cyber incidents or data breaches; and exacerbation of key materials shortages, inflationary cost pressures, material cost increases, demand volatility, and logistics and capacity constraints, any of which may have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, results of operations and financial condition. All such factors are difficult to predict and are beyond the Company’s control. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described above can be found in Wesco’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Flagship Pioneering, the bioplatform innovation company, today unveiled Mirai Bio, a company pioneering the first open end-to-end platform for the biotech industry to enable the co-creation of fully optimized genetic medicines. Mirai’s machine intelligence-based, open platform uses proprietary data algorithms and machine intelligence to unlock delivery to any tissue and cell type, optimize cargo design, and facilitate manufacturing, accelerating genetic medicines toward successful clinical translation for the company’s partners. Mirai plans to further advance its platform with Flagship’s initial commitment of $50 million, aiming to enhance and accelerate genetic medicine development across a wide range of therapeutic areas and modalities.
“We are in the age of information molecules, yet enormous technological challenges in the delivery, cargo design, and manufacturing of these molecules have hindered the speedy and full realization of their potential,” said Hari Pujar, Ph.D., Founding President of Mirai and Operating Partner at Flagship Pioneering. “We created Mirai to solve these key limitations through AI trained on high quantities of quality in vivo data. By applying machine intelligence to the design of every atom within the medicine and opening this platform to the entire industry, we will have vast collective data points rolling through our optimization loops, allowing a greater innovation advantage to benefit each partner on the Mirai platform.”
Mirai’s cutting-edge platform is enabled by high throughput automation and in vivo multiplexing, generating vast amounts of data that fuel extensive optimization loops. The co-optimization of delivery, design, and manufacturing has the potential to enable a higher probability of success and a faster development timeline for any genetic medicine.
Travis Wilson, Executive Chair at Mirai and Growth Partner, Flagship Pioneering, added, “Every new company with a payload idea faces the same challenge of either internally building high-quality, cost intensive delivery, design, and manufacturing capabilities, or externally sourcing these components, which can be fragmented and suboptimal. Leveraging learnings from semiconductors as a centralized resource model that fueled the rapid advancement of tech, we’ve developed a solution that’s been hiding in plain sight: an open platform to unlock genetic medicine development. Through aggressive investment in our own capabilities and expertise, and by creating long-term partnerships with biotech and pharma leaders in the space, Mirai’s hope is to become the partner of choice and help bring more medicines into the world than we would ever achieve alone.”
Geoffrey von Maltzahn, Ph.D., Founding CEO of Mirai and General Partner, Flagship Pioneering remarked, “Machine intelligence is transforming drug discovery and development as we know it, harnessing immense amounts of data to drive tomorrow’s greatest innovations. The design space of genetic medicines is effectively infinite, and Mirai is pioneering the next big leap forward for us all.”
To learn more about Mirai Bio visit www.miraibio.com.
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In today’s world, where the futures of all countries are closely linked, development, security and civilization play important roles in promoting the modernization process of human society. The Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, offer profound insights into the issues of our time. The Global Times invites scholars to provide readers both at home and abroad with an in-depth understanding of these three initiatives. This is the first article in the series.
In April 2022, President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Security Initiative (GSI) at the Boao Forum for Asia, offering Chinese wisdom, solutions and strength to address global security challenges, bridge the peace deficit and promote shared security worldwide. Over the past two years, the GSI has served as an important public good contributed by China to global security. It has played a positive role, garnered widespread support, demonstrated significant contemporary relevance and practical impact, and continues to benefit the noble cause of human peace and development.
China’s proposal responds to call for peace
The GSI directly addresses the urgent question of how to maintain peace and prevent war in today’s world. Looking around the globe, it is evident that the world is neither peaceful nor stable. Traditional and non-traditional security threats, such as regional conflicts, arms races, terrorism and climate change, are intertwined. At this crossroads, the world must unite and take actions today to shape a better future for tomorrow. Finding an effective security solution in this changing and turbulent world has become a pressing concern for all.
Global security governance urgently needs to break free from “outdated mind-sets” and seek “new pathways.” The GSI stands at the forefront of this era of transformation, offering a significant security concept and a set of principles to resolve conflicts, manage risks and address security deficits. Amid global turmoil, the GSI highlights China’s commitment by providing new ideas and solutions that bring fresh momentum and hope for world peace and security.
China’s vision reflects the pursuit of justice
At the core of the GSI are the six commitments: stay committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security; stay committed to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries; stay committed to abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter; stay committed to taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously; stay committed to peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation; and stay committed to maintaining security in both traditional and non-traditional domains.
These six commitments embody the diplomatic approach of a major Eastern nation that considers the future of humanity and prioritizes the well-being of all people.
First, China pursues common security rather than only caring about its own security. In today’s era, no country can ensure its own security in isolation from global security, and no real security can be built on the insecurity of others. The GSI calls for respecting and safeguarding the security of every nation, emphasizing the universal, equal and inclusive nature of security.
Second, China pursues comprehensive security rather than security of a certain region. Pursing comprehensive security means to view regional and country-to-country security issues at a global level, recognizing the interconnectedness of various security challenges and working to resolve both current prominent issues and potential threats. This approach maximizes the overall effectiveness of global security governance.
Third, China pursues cooperative security rather than alliance-exclusive security. Cooperative security emphasizes that countries should not form exclusive alliances to maintain national security.
Fourth, China pursues sustainable security rather than short-term security.
China is actively promoting security cooperation
China is not only an active proponent of the GSI but also a steadfast practitioner. Over the past two years, China, along with all parties involved, actively promotes the CSI to achieve fruitful results, showcasing its vibrant vitality.
Since the GSI was proposed, China has joined hands with other countries and international organizations to steadily advance security cooperation within the initiative’s framework, achieving a series of significant preliminary outcomes. The GSI’s appeal and influence continue to grow. With the support of over 100 countries and international and regional organizations, it has been incorporated into numerous bilateral and multilateral cooperation documents between China and other countries, forming a global consensus. The increasing international response to the GSI can be attributed to its resonance with the global community’s desire for peace, development and stability. It unites countries from diverse cultural backgrounds and stages of development, promoting cooperative security through solidarity.
Under the GSI, China has developed an approach with Chinese characteristics to address hotspot issues. The GSI confronts problems and challenges head-on, upholding justice and fairness to seek peaceful solutions for countries troubled by war and conflicts. Regarding the Ukraine crisis, China released a paper outlining its position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, actively engaging in shuttle diplomacy and urging peace talks. Additionally, China facilitated the reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, initiating a “wave of reconciliation” across the Middle East. Under China’s efforts, Palestinian factions signed the Beijing Declaration to end division and strengthen Palestinian national unity. China has played a constructive role in resolving some of the world’s most challenging regional conflicts, bringing certainty and positive energy to a world filled with turmoil.
The GSI actively leads global security governance in emerging fields, reflecting the interests of developing countries and raising a strong call for cooperation in addressing new security challenges. In the field of data security, China proposed the Global Initiative on Data Security, striving to build a global data security governance system. In artificial intelligence, China introduced the Global Artificial Intelligence Governance Initiative, offering new solutions to AI governance challenges.
The path of righteousness is never lonely; collective efforts can go far. Over the past two years, China and various parties have worked together to safeguard global security, demonstrating commitment and responsibility through tangible results. Looking ahead, China will continue to work with various parties to push the GSI toward a brighter future, ensuring shared security and prosperity for the people of the world.
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