Cardinal Infrastructure Group (NASDAQ:CDNL) executives outlined the company’s acquisition-led expansion strategy, vertical integration model and Southeast growth opportunity during a presentation at the 46th Annual William Blair Growth Stock Conference.
Chairman and CEO Jeremy Spivey described Cardinal as a “turnkey infrastructure services platform” focused on civil services for development markets. He said the company enters markets by leading with residential development, then adds services and diversifies into other end markets as it gains scale.
Residential Development Remains Cardinal’s Entry Point
Spivey said Cardinal typically starts with residential work because those relationships are “very sticky” and schedule is a key driver of project success. The company’s services include clearing and grubbing, surveying, erosion control, drilling and blasting, grading and mass earthwork, retaining walls, wet utility installation and stone curb and paving.
Spivey said wet utilities — including water, sewer and storm drain work — are especially important because of their complexity and their role on the critical path of a project.
He contrasted Cardinal’s model with projects that require multiple trade providers, saying multiple handoffs can create schedule gaps, quality issues and accountability challenges. Under Cardinal’s model, Spivey said, the project is handed off once to Cardinal or one of its platform companies, which then coordinates the needed resources.
“The handoff is seamless,” Spivey said. “There’s no gaps in schedule.”
M&A Strategy Focuses on Culture and Service Density
Spivey said Cardinal has completed eight acquisitions and uses what he described as a disciplined M&A playbook. The company looks for platform acquisitions to enter new markets and tuck-in acquisitions to add services or increase scale.
He said Cardinal sources potential targets through a broad network that includes industry contacts, equipment providers, material providers and insurance agents. Culture is the first filter, he said, from management down to skilled labor in the field.
“Out of the eight acquisitions that you’ve seen us done, we’ve probably looked at 100 different companies,” Spivey said. “We’re very deliberate in finding the exact right fit.”
Chief Operating Officer Benji Wood discussed Cardinal’s acquisition of ALGC, an Atlanta-area business he owned with his brother. Wood said the company had been approached by private equity groups over the years, but Cardinal’s culture and strategy were a better fit.
“The people are everything in a company,” Wood said. “If you get aligned with the right people at the table, a lot of great things happen.”
Spivey said ALGC was Cardinal’s first acquisition as a public company and serves as an example of a platform deal. In Atlanta, he said, Cardinal has already brought drilling and blasting resources into the market and is evaluating additional services including asphalt paving, curb and gutter, and retaining walls.
Company Highlights Growth Outlook
During the presentation, Spivey said Cardinal has generated a 36% revenue compound annual growth rate and a more than 30% EBITDA compound annual growth rate from 2023 to 2025. He said 2023 marked the point at which Cardinal began scaling outside the Raleigh market, including expansion into Charlotte.
For full-year 2026, Spivey said the company expects revenue of $680 million, representing a 50% increase from the prior year, and adjusted EBITDA margins above 20%.
Spivey said the company sees a substantial runway in the Southeast, including its existing markets and markets it has not yet entered. He said Cardinal is still in the early stages in Charlotte, Greensboro-High Point and Atlanta. He also said the Atlanta market is about seven times larger than Charlotte and about eight times larger than Raleigh.
Asked by William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma whether Cardinal can replicate its North Carolina success elsewhere, Spivey said the “quick answer is yes.” He said the company has a strong acquisition pipeline and is focused on choosing partners that match Cardinal’s culture and operating goals.
Wood said there are also numerous opportunities in Georgia, but emphasized discipline. “Doing it just for the sake of doing it is not the answer,” he said.
Public Status Seen as Recruiting Advantage
DiPalma asked whether becoming a public company has helped Cardinal recruit and retain talent amid industry shortages of skilled construction labor.
Spivey said public status has helped because it provides an added layer of certainty for workers. He also said Cardinal’s growth creates advancement opportunities that are often limited in family-owned construction businesses.
“If you’re a go-getter, an outperformer, and you want to move up the ladder, it is very unique for our industry to offer that, and we do,” Spivey said.
Wood said Cardinal’s platform model has also been attractive because employees can be part of a larger public company without necessarily being sent to distant job sites.
Data Center Opportunities Emerging
DiPalma also asked about Cardinal’s recent first data center win and whether the company is pursuing additional projects.
Spivey said data center opportunities in the Carolinas are concentrated around the Charlotte area, with some activity in the northern part of North Carolina near Virginia. He said Cardinal is working on its first data center project, which is a multi-phase site, and is looking at the second phase.
Spivey said he sees more data center opportunity in Atlanta, calling it a more mature market for data centers than Charlotte or other parts of the Carolinas. Wood said the Atlanta team is pursuing projects there.
Spivey added that Cardinal is focused on building longer-term relationships in the data center market rather than one-off relationships with traveling general contractors.
About Cardinal Infrastructure Group (NASDAQ:CDNL)
We provide a comprehensive suite of infrastructure services to the residential, commercial, industrial, municipal, and state infrastructure markets. Our operations leverage a large highly skilled workforce and a fleet of specialized equipment to deliver wet utility installations (water, sewer, and stormwater systems), as well as grading, site clearing, erosion control, drilling and blasting, paving, and other related site services. We are becoming the platform of choice for a diverse array of infrastructure construction projects in our target geographies that require high-level technical expertise and sophistication.
