EME Mgmt. Dinner Highlights: 'Boring is Beautiful'

Research evidence excerpt

EME Mgmt. Dinner Highlights: 'Boring is Beautiful'

June 16, 2026

M&A remains a core growth lever, but management was clear that

acquisitions must bring execution capability, cultural alignment, reputation

and strategic adjacency rather than simply scale. In our view, that discipline

is central to EME's ability to compound without diluting returns or taking

on undue integration risk.

Summary

Demand remains broad-based and not solely data-center dependent.

Management emphasized that growth is balanced, with about half

coming from data centers/high-tech and rest from other verticals,

including healthcare, institutional, water/wastewater, industrial and

building services. While Network & Communications remains the

largest growth driver and represents ~40% of RPO/backlog (~$6.3B),

management's message was that EME's growth profile remains diversified

rather than dependent on a single end market.

Management's view of AI infrastructure increasingly reflects a

deterministic framework, which holds that when one critical input

becomes constrained, it ultimately dictates the pace of the entire system.

Power availability is becoming the binding constraint on growth. As a

result, the pace of future AI data-center deployment will be determined

by access to reliable, dispatchable power. This is driving greater focus on

stranded power, natural gas generation, utility partnerships, and eventually

nuclear solutions. Management remains skeptical that behind-the-meter

or intermittent generation alone can be a durable solution for large AI data-

center campuses.

Growth should remain structurally above non-resi construction.

Management reiterated its longer-term framework of growing above

underlying non-residential construction activity. Over a multi-year period,