Cardinal Infrastructure Group (CDNL) FY2025 results: revenue $456 million, up 44.7% on the year

Cardinal Infrastructure Group Inc provides infrastructure and site preparation services to residential, commercial, industrial, municipal and state customers. Its work centres on wet utility installation (water, sewer and stormwater systems), grading, site clearing, erosion control, drilling and blasting, and paving. Jeremy Spivey founded the operating business in 2013 in Raleigh, North Carolina, and he is still Chief Executive Officer. At 31 December 2025 it had approximately 1,480 employees, all in North Carolina, and was working on over 270 projects. The listed company is a holding company, and its operations run through Cardinal and its subsidiaries.

What it does

The company says it performs most of the work on each contract with its own crews and equipment. It uses subcontractors for ancillary services it does not already perform, such as traffic control, electrical systems, signage and trucking. Its contracts have an average length of 12 months. It says this in-house approach lets it finish projects three to four months faster than competitors on average. It acts as the prime contractor on almost all of its contracts and is responsible for the whole job, including subcontracted work.

Who it sells to

Site preparation for large national home builders is its main business. This includes housing subdivisions, covering individual lots and supporting infrastructure. By revenue for the year, the end markets were:

- - Commercial, Industrial and Retail builders: 23% - Materials and paving: 6% -

The largest customer, Pulte Homes, was approximately 9.9% of revenue. The top five customers were approximately 30.7% and the top 10 were approximately 45.5%. Work with most home builders is awarded by direct negotiation. Commercial work includes mixed-use retail developments and plants in industrial parks. Public work includes site preparation and paving for highways and roads for departments of transportation.

How its contracts work

Contracts are predominantly fixed unit price or lump sum, and 99% of revenue came from fixed price contracts. The other 1% came from time and material contracts. The company estimates its median contract size at approximately $2.0 million and its single project delivery capacity at over $100 million. It bills monthly with payment due within 30 days, subject to retainage collected after the project is finished. Most contracts let the customer terminate for convenience.

Public projects usually require surety bonds. A bidder generally posts a bid bond of 5% to 10% of the amount bid. The winner posts a performance and payment bond for 100% of the contract amount, and a maintenance bond of generally 1% follows on completion. Backlog stood at $682.0 million at 31 December 2025. The company defines backlog as its estimate of future revenue from construction contracts. It says substantially all backlog can be cancelled by the customer.

Where it operates

The company works mainly in the greater Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro areas of North Carolina, and its Charlotte operations include some projects in South Carolina. Charlotte is roughly 21% of total revenue. It starts in a new market with residential site work and then adds other customer types. On 18 February 2026 it acquired A.L. Grading Contractors, LLC, which serves residential, industrial and commercial projects in the greater Atlanta, Georgia area. It names Wilmington, Columbia, Charleston, Greenville, Savannah, Knoxville and Nashville among other market opportunities.

It has made six acquisitions through 31 December 2025:

• Harrelson Utility Repair & Contracting Inc. (2021)
• G. Goodwin Enterprises, LLC (2022)
• Monroe Roadways, Inc. (2023)
• Purcell Construction, Inc. (2025)
• Page & Associates, Inc. (2025)
• Red Clay Industries, Inc. (2025)

Sellers typically keep an equity stake in the company.

Materials and asphalt plants

The main materials are PVC piping, asphalt and concrete, all bought from local suppliers. The company obtains firm quotations from suppliers and subcontractors before it submits a bid. It is building its own asphalt plants. The first, in Chatham County, NC, is being commissioned, and the company says it expects it to serve contracts toward the end of the second quarter of 2026. A second plant is permitted and in planning. The company also supplies asphalt to third parties, some of whom are competitors. It says it is exploring a plant that would make precast concrete wet utility components.

Competition and people

The company counts approximately 75 contractor members of the National Utility Contractors Association of the Carolinas in North Carolina as competitors. They range from very small firms to national and regional construction companies. Its employees include 42 project managers and 57 superintendents who manage over 208 fully equipped crews. None of its employees belong to a union. It reports a Workers Compensation Experience Modification Factor of 0.85, against an industry average of 1.00. Junior estimators go through a year-long program and project management staff a two-year process. The company also says many field workers are developed through apprenticeship programs.

How the company is owned

Cardinal Infrastructure Group Inc is the sole managing member of Cardinal. At 31 December 2025 it held 39.0% of Cardinal's LLC Units, and the Continuing Equity Holders held the remaining 61.0%. This arrangement is known as an Up-C structure. The two groups hold different share classes of the company: Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock.

From Cardinal Infrastructure Group's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 23 March 2026: read the full 10-K.