NN Inc. at Noble Capital Markets Conference: Strategic Transformation Insights

On Wednesday, 08 October 2025, NN Inc. (NASDAQ:NNBR) participated in the Noble Capital Markets Emerging Growth Virtual Investor Conference, outlining its ongoing transformation and strategic initiatives. The company emphasized improvements in core markets, new business wins, and efforts to address financial challenges. While the tone was optimistic, NN Inc. acknowledged market challenges and detailed its plans to enhance profitability and growth.

Key Takeaways

• NN Inc. aims to secure $200 million in new business by year-end, with $182 million already achieved by August 2025.
• The company is targeting a 5% to 6% sales CAGR through new business ventures.
• Strategic cost reduction programs aim for $15 million in savings for 2025.
• NN Inc. is actively pursuing M&A opportunities to deleverage and add value.
• Adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 11.1% in the first half of 2025, with a long-term goal of 14%.

Financial Results

• Adjusted Gross Margin: Increased from 16.3% in 2023 to 18.2% in the first half of 2025, with a long-term target of 20%.
• Adjusted EBITDA Margin: Improved from 8.8% in 2023 to 11.1% in the first half of 2025, aiming for around 14%.
• New Business Wins: Achieved $182 million in new business through August 2025, on track for $200 million by year-end.
• Cost Reduction Target: Aiming for $15 million in cost savings for 2025.
• Working Capital: Currently at 20% of sales, with a target to reduce to 17%.

Operational Updates

• New Business Pipeline: NN Inc. manages a robust $750 million pipeline with a 24% hit rate on closed opportunities.
• New Program Launches: Approximately 110 new programs are expected to generate $26 million in revenue in 2025, with a $48 million annual run rate.
• China Operations: Anticipating strong growth, with facilities in Wuxi and Foshan contributing significantly.
• Cost Reductions: Focus on offsetting price downs and adding 1% productivity through 345 continuous improvement projects.
• Quality Metrics: Delivering Six Sigma quality with a target of over 98% on-time delivery.

Future Outlook

• Sales Growth: Targeting a 5% to 6% CAGR by securing new business opportunities.
• Strategic M&A: Actively seeking acquisitions to enhance value and reduce leverage, with potential deals closing by year-end or early next year.
• Preferred Equity: Exploring options to reduce the cost of capital, including equity or debt solutions.
• Market Expectations: Modest market improvements anticipated in 2026, with a focus on the medical and defense sectors.

Q&A Highlights

• Tariffs: Viewed as an opportunity to shift supply chains to USMCA, opening new business avenues.
• Defense Market: NN Inc. is receiving unsolicited POs and is actively organizing its defense business.
• Medical Market: Progressing slower than expected, but efforts continue with over 60 machines dedicated to manufacturing medical parts.
• M&A Strategy: Aiming for multiple transactions to fully convert preferred equity, with significant efforts underway.

NN Inc.’s detailed plans and strategic initiatives were thoroughly discussed during the conference. For a deeper understanding, readers are encouraged to refer to the full transcript below.

Full transcript - Noble Capital Markets Emerging Growth Virtual Investor Conference:

Jill, Introducer, NN Inc.: Today I have the pleasure of introducing NN Inc. Following the presentation, we will have some time for Q&A. NN is a precision component manufacturer with extensive experience in machining, stamping, and precious metal plating. With us today from the company is Harold Bevis, President and CEO, Tim French, COO, and Chris Bohnert, CFO. The floor is yours, gentlemen.

Harold Bevis, President and CEO, NN Inc.: Thank you, Jill. Appreciate it. Thank you for everyone that’s listening in. We have a brief presentation for you. Go to the next page. We have some forward-looking statements. Please read those quickly. Okay, that’s fine. Investment thesis. Let’s just start with that. We are a transformation company, and we’re entering phase two. We have new leadership at this company. We came in about two years ago, and the first order of business was to correct some of the problems we inherited, stop the bleeding, if you will, and initiate a business development program and some restructuring. We’ve accomplished the majority of that, and we are entering our second phase of this transformation. Our core markets are bouncing off the bottom. The outlook for our markets in 2026 is improving versus 2025.

In this update, you’ll hear a few more positive things about the market than have preceded us in 2025. On new business, that program’s been working well for us. We’ve pivoted in a couple of areas. We’ve added a couple of areas, deleted a couple of areas, but overall, we’re right on track to secure $200 million of business by the end of this year. We’re now launching programs that we’ve won, and we have a decent amount. Tim’s going to cover them later, and Chris is going to refer to the balance sheet things that we’re doing to correct an overhang that we have with some preferred stock that we inherited, and we’re well underway with different ideas there also. Our transformation is working, and we’re entering phase two. At a glance, for those of you who may not recall who we are, we are a metal part maker.

We make custom metal parts. We direct sell them, usually with sales engineers. We’ve been doing this for about half a century, and we’ve been public for three decades. We go to market under other names. NN is really a corporate moniker, and we have several markets that we serve, which is a good thing. We’re balanced across multiple markets, and we do not have customer concentration either. At a glance on the financials, you know, we’re $434 million. We also have an additional $130 million JV that’s not consolidated into our financials. Our EBITDA margin is about 11%, $47 million. We lead 3,300 people, and we have about 600 customers. Secret sauce, there’s people that do similar things to us.

What’s unique about us is our knowledge of metallurgy, machining, milling, stamping, grinding, plating, in-house tool and die design, robotic assembly of small components, integrated software to handle those components and process them, and ensure Six Sigma quality at sub-micron tolerances. That is unique. We are considered a small precision part maker. Our leadership team, we have delegation of authority across all of our decision-making for various things, and most of the top team have worked together before. Our footprint, we have a global footprint. We compete in those six markets that I touched upon across four continents and 24 plants. We have three plants in China, of which one of them is a JV, and we’re celebrating our 20-year anniversary of that JV. It’s been very successful. We repatriate cash from China every quarter and have been doing so for many years. We inherited that good business.

We also have a footprint in South America to serve the South American market, two plants in Europe, and multiple plants in the United States. I just want to touch a minute upon our serve markets. 40% of our revenue is tied to automotive vehicles, passenger vehicles. Some of the markets have been going through some turmoil, especially Europe and the U.S., with tariffs that have happened this year. China continues to power through. We’re the beneficiary of the resurgence of that market. The China passenger vehicle market is about 29 million vehicles versus in the U.S., about 16 million. It’s the largest car market in the world. Electrical grid and electrical distribution has been humming along in the United States due to data center advancements.

A new area for us that we’ve cut out so that we can have investor visibility is defense and electronic systems, which have done well for us in the United States and are growing. GDP-linked businesses are steady with GDP, and commercial vehicles are another market we serve in Asia, and in the U.S., the Asian market is up, and the U.S. market is down. Medical equipment is a market that we reentered about a year and a half ago and has become now a part of our revenue. Overall, market’s a little bit soft. Overall, if you weight some of these comments with an improving outlook, we have a strategic plan that we are organized around. On the sales side, we are attempting to get 5% to 6% CAGR by winning new business and having an early exit of programs at their end of life.

That program has been working. We also have a cost program that Tim leads to offset our inflation and price downs, as well as delivering net productivity to the company. The goal is to drive up our EBITDA margins, and we’ve been doing that, and then, of course, generate free cash flow to fund CapEx, fund our capital structure, and pay down our leverage. Next, I wanted to cover a couple of our financial statistics. Thanks, Harold. Through the second quarter of this year, you can see improved adjusted gross margins and adjusted EBITDA. The chart here shows from 2023 through six months of 2025, as well as our longer-term goals. Significant improvement as a result of the strategic plans and things we put in place over the past eight quarters. Adjusted gross margins increased from 16.3% to 18.2%, well on their way to the 20% goal that we’ve got.

Additionally, the adjusted EBITDA margins improved as well. In 2023, they were 8.8%, growing to 11.1% on a path to around 14% as a longer-term goal. Again, these improvements have been due to shedding unprofitable pieces of business, closing a plant, our improved continuous improvement culture, and one team culture, and implementing a lean culture across the business. Tim?

Tim French, COO, NN Inc.: As we discussed, our new business win program is very strong and robust. Since 2023, we’ve achieved $182 million of new business through August of this year, well on track to hit our goal of $200 million. Our pipeline remains very robust at $750 million and being run by a team of 40 people. Our hit rate is approximately 24% on closed opportunities. If you look at the launches of these new businesses, we’re launching approximately 110 new programs in 2025. We’re expecting to see about $26 million of revenue from those programs with a $48 million annual run rate. Most of these opportunities take 12 to 18 months for us from the time we’ve become aware of the opportunity till the time it’s awarded. Then there’s another 12 to 18 months before we get to peak annual sales. As I mentioned, we have three operations in China.

We have 49% of ownership of a JV in Wuxi. We have a stamping facility in Foshan, and a machining facility in Wuxi that are all wholly owned foreign entities. You can see we’ve had really strong growth in China and are anticipating to see that continue. Our operational leadership program is driving the cost reductions that Chris Bohnert mentioned earlier. We’re offsetting the price downs and also adding 1% productivity. We’re on track to achieve our $15 million of cost out in 2025, and that’s through the continued management of approximately 345 continuous improvement projects. We’ve also had significant headcount reductions, and we are also focusing on our approximately $200 million procurement spend. Our quality is Six Sigma or better delivered. We’re ahead of the goal. We have green scorecards with all major customers, which opens up opportunity for new business wins with our existing customer base.

Our target for on-time and delivery is greater than 98%. As I said, green scorecards with everybody. Our working capital improvement is an ongoing program. Year to date, we’re about 20% of sales, and our target is to get to 17%. Tariffs are having a bit of an impact on that, but we’re still working to balance this down as we go forward.

Harold Bevis, President and CEO, NN Inc.: I wanted to touch on our M&A strategy here. We’ve been public about it. One of the big value-adding aspects of our longer-term goals is to add to our portfolio. We’ve been asked about what specifically are we looking at. One, we’re definitely looking for the right cultural fit to our company because our company works. We’ve corrected our team where needed and leaned on our team where it’s strong already. We want to add to the culture. Clear costs and commercial synergies are areas that are important to us. We want to deleverage the company. Ideally, we’d like to be in the twos in terms of secure leverage before we acquire. We’re looking for strong existing teams. We’re running a lean team concept, so we need people that thrive and desire that type of support structure. Fundamentally, some of the parts are stronger than the individual company.

We’ve been very active. Tim and I were at an acquisition candidate yesterday. We’re going to another one in Wisconsin next week. This is an area that we’re experienced with. Tim’s bought 25 companies, I’ve bought 15. We are being selective so that we build a company that naturally fits together and is stronger and leads to free cash flow and deleveraging. It’s a very important part of our go-forward game plan. Lastly, just wanted to repeat the investment thesis. We have new leadership. We’ve been here two years. I guess we’re old now. You know, we’re the new old guys, but we’ve been happy with our progress so far, and the team that we have has responded well to a new leadership approach. We’ve, on an LTM basis, been able to increase our EBITDA almost 50%. There’s more to go, as Tim and Chris both touched on.

Our markets have been tough with the new presidential administration and the tariffs and the uncertainty, but already Wall Street’s pricing in an anniversary of those new things that have happened in 2026 being modestly better. Our new business program is starting to be launched in terms of incremental sales. We have over $100 million of wins that are not in our run rate that we have secured and that are ours and that we’re underway with putting into place. The balance sheet, Chris is leading a pretty complicated program to re-engineer and redesign our cap stack, and it’s an important thing that we’re working on. We get a lot of questions about that. Some of them are, you know, material, non-public information kind of thing.

If you’re wanting to invest or participate, you need to get with Chris and sign an NDA, and then, you know, he can tell you what’s going on. Other than that, you know, we have a duty to keep it private. Overall, we’re really satisfied with where we’re headed as a company. Turn it over to you, Joe, and we can do some Q&A.

Thanks, Harold and the team. Great insightful presentation. Let’s start with, you know, tariffs and, you know, how are things like tariffs, you know, the elimination of EV rebates impacting NN’s businesses and what steps has the company taken to overcome these issues?

Tariffs are a big deal for the industries that we serve, but they’re not that big of a deal to us specifically. They impact our customers. Because we have a program that we inherited, thankfully, where we source materials locally for the local market and convert them, we’re a tariff problem solver. Generally, we’ve been seeing RFQs come to us with people that are wanting to switch their supply chain from sourcing from China to sourcing from USMCA, and that specifically happens. Tim French and I were in Detroit last week with a very large Tier 1 customer, one of the largest in the world, and that’s exactly what they were doing. They were trying to have us help them move parts that are currently made and sourced in China to USMCA. Tariffs are driving changes in supply chains in terms of the tariffs themselves and surcharges.

When we are the tariff payer, we pass them through, so we’re not getting a margin compression from it. Generally speaking, as I mentioned, it’s a small topic for us. Joe, it’s primarily causing new business opportunities to open up for us is kind of the net bottom line of that.

Great. Now you talked about the new business wins. There’s some good momentum there. The pipeline still stays in that $750 million region. How do you see this positively shifting the sales mix and the margin profile, and how does that relate to your 2028 net sales and EBITDA margin goals?

Yeah, as Tim mentioned, we’re running about a 24% hit rate on closed opportunities, which actually is a little higher than we expected. We’re happy about it. It is a game of numbers. We manage the pipeline with Salesforce.com, and we’ve done this before. You have to have enough activity in the pipeline so that you can be cherry picking for the best projects in terms of margin and return. Tim monitors also our capital efficiency. What are we running, Tim, for CapEx to new sales?

Tim French, COO, NN Inc.: $0.29, approximately $0.29 for every dollar of peak annual sales.

Harold Bevis, President and CEO, NN Inc.: We also balance our CapEx across the categories. Overall, knock on wood, the program has been delivering what we want. Joe, we’ve done a couple of pivots here and there. For instance, the defense market in the U.S. has really surged with President Trump, and we were in a position to benefit from that, and we are doing so. We saw the market open up, and we went straight in. We put out a press release this week that we have won a big position with a weapons manufacturer, and we’re participating in that. Overall, we think that the pipeline’s about the size that it should be.

Great. Let’s stick with the defense win. I actually have a question here from the audience. You know, how big is the new defense win, and how do you see this new initiative ramping?

We are getting our certifications in order. We have certain certifications that allow us to participate as a manufacturer. Tim sat through a Department of Defense presentation last week on the additional certifications we need to participate more fully, in this case with the Navy on their next generation program. We have a heritage of making certain parts, and it was why we were approached to make other parts. Joe, it happened, and as it turned out, we didn’t even have a salesperson that could speak the language with the defense. We are actually looking for a leader now. These have been POs and inquiries that have come into us unsolicited, and it’s consistent now. We have noticed a pattern, and we’re reacting to it. We are getting organized, but at the same time, it’s a little bit different than the automotive business. It’s POs.

It’s not the one-year lead time. It’s like, can you make this now? It’s a now market, and it’s helping us now.

Great. Let’s switch gears to the medical market. I know that is a business that you’ve been very excited about getting back into. Maybe you can just give us a little update on how your efforts in the medical field are progressing.

Yeah, if I had to contrast it to defense, we’re getting pulled into defense, whereas in medical, we’re trying to push our way into a fully served market. It’s been harder than we thought, Joe, but we have been consistent. We now have over 60 machines dedicated to medical part manufacturing. We’re continuously expanding the plants that are certified to make medical parts. We’re growing our medical pipeline. We’ve added a medical payroll, a dedicated team. We’ve invested SG&A as well as CapEx to be a player here, and we have a pipeline, and we intend to grow. I would say it’s gone slower than expected, but it hasn’t caused us to change our minds about attacking it. We’re consistently going after the medical market.

Okay. One of the things that you guys have done here over the past 18 months or so is asset optimization of the footprint, especially. Do you anticipate more asset closures, fixed variable cost rationalization? How much more room for improvement is there in the cost structure?

Tim French, COO, NN Inc.: Yeah, you want to take that, Tim? Sure. As you know, we’ve closed two facilities. We have discussed or mentioned it in some other areas where there are likely to be one or two more in that area. We still think there’s room to go. We’re really only just getting started. We focused on the group of seven. For those of you that have been following us, of problem facilities, we closed two of those. Four of the five remainders are now breakeven or better, and we have one left that we’re focusing on. We still think there’s runway for additional operational improvement to help continue to drive the gross margins up.

Okay. I’m going to put one out there for Chris because it’s also come up on the web here. What is your thinking on how to best address the preferred equity? What creative options are at your disposal? Any additional steps you’d like to take on the capital structure?

Harold Bevis, President and CEO, NN Inc.: Yeah, great question. Thanks, Joe. I’m not sure how creative I am being an accountant, but we’re definitely putting a lot of ideation to it. It’s the next step in improving our capital stack. As you know, we completed the ABL back in December of last year, term loan in April of this year. It’s top of mind right now. I think we’re going to use any tools at our disposal. We’re talking to a lot of folks, getting a lot of input, and trying to, you know, overall, the goal is to reduce the cost of capital for the business. That might include equity. It might include a little bit of debt.

We want to make sure that whatever we do eliminates the overhang and creates a sustainable business going forward from a capital standpoint so we can continue to do some of this M&A work and, you know, buy and keep delevering as we go. It’s top of mind.

Okay. Let’s finish up. We’ll go back to the M&A for a second here. You talked briefly about it in the presentation. There’s a question, could that occur by end of the year, M&A? Are you looking at kind of that small bolt-on, something more transformative? Harold, maybe you could just talk a little bit more about the M&A opportunity.

Yeah, sure. We have an active program. There’s multiple targets in it. Some of the targets we proactively called. Some of the targets are processes that are underway that fit our criteria. We are working hard on it. We’d like to try to get something done end of this year, beginning of next year. It depends on the due diligence processes and all that. We can’t control the timing. It’s obviously two parties, but it’s an active activity. We believe it will allow us to make an advancement on our cap stack, specifically the preferred. The size of opportunities we’re going after versus the size of the preferred, it’s likely that it’s going to take us a few transactions to have a full conversion. That’s what we are expecting. We’re viewing this as it’s likely to be a few refinancings. We’re getting set up to do that.

Right now, we don’t have an advisor. Chris is managing it, and he’s seeking advisors for various parts of what he’s doing. We’re excited about it. It’s going to be an improvement for the common stockholders of the company.

Great. Thanks for that. We’ve come to the end of our allotted time. We covered a lot of ground today and got significant insight into what NN does, its markets, and opportunities. We appreciate you taking the time to participate in our conference, and we wish you and the company the best in the future. Thanks again, guys. Appreciate it.

Tim French, COO, NN Inc.: Thank you.

Harold Bevis, President and CEO, NN Inc.: Thank you.

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