Company helps keep lights, internet going during the pandemic
The Houston company Quanta Services is keeping electricity, cell phone and internet service going when millions of people are spending more time at home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Quanta provides installation and maintenance services for what is considered critical infrastructure — power lines, pipelines, industrial plants and telecommunications — in the United States, Canada, Australia and Latin America. Quanta employs about 39,500 employees across its operations.
With the coronavirus challenging businesses, governments and people round the world, the company’s CEO Duke Austin told investors in May that rising to the occasion is nothing new to Quanta.
“Our services are needed, perhaps more than ever,” Austin said. “Tens and millions of people are now working from home and sheltering in place and require reliable electricity, communications, internet, heating and cooling services.”
Quanta ranked No. 2 in the Chronicle 100, which recognizes the region’s top performing public companies.
With a diverse portfolio of customers from utilities to oil majors to cell phone service providers, Quanta’s revenues rose 8 percent last year to $12.1 billion from $11.2 billion in 2018. Earnings per share rose 44 percent to $2.73 from $1.90 the previous year.
Quanta expects demand from the company’s energy and industrial customers to fall over the short term because of the collapse of commodity prices. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the company had forecast 2020 revenues to rise to between $12.2 billion and $12.6 billion. The company has since cut its revenue forecast to between $11.4 billion and $11.8 billion, which would mark a decline of as much as 6 percent from 2019.
The company has responded by suspending new hiring and raises in addition to cutting spending and deferring capital expenditures. The company believes that short-term pain will pay off as demand for 5G cell phone service and internet continues to grow.
“We believe our resilient business model and strong financial position provides us with the opportunity to not only navigate through times of uncertainty, like we are experiencing currently, but to come out the other side better positioned,” Austin told investors.