DXP Enterprises (DXPE) Risk Analysis

We are subject to federal, state, local, foreign and provincial environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. Fines and penalties may be imposed for non-compliance with applicable environmental, health and safety requirements and the failure to have or to comply with the terms and conditions of required permits. The failure by us to comply with applicable environmental, health and safety requirements could result in significant liabilities including fines, penalties, enforcement actions, third party claims for property damage and personal injury, requirements to clean up property or to pay for the costs of cleanup, or regulatory or judicial orders requiring corrective measures, which could negatively impact our business.

A meaningful part of our business is dependent in part upon projects that can be cyclical in nature and are subject to risks of delay or cancellation. The timing of or failure to obtain contracts, delays in awards of, start dates for or completion of projects and the cancellations of projects can result in significant periodic fluctuations in our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Many of our projects may directly and/or indirectly involve challenging design, engineering, financing, permitting, procurement and construction phases that occur over extended time periods, sometimes several years, and we have encountered and may in the future encounter project delays, additional costs or project performance issues as a result of, among other things: - inability to meet project schedule requirements or achieve guaranteed performance or quality standards for a project, which can result in increased costs, through rework, replacement or otherwise, or the payment of liquidated damages to the customer or contract termination;- failure to accurately estimate project costs or accurately establish the scope of our services;- failure to make judgments in accordance with applicable professional standards (e.g., engineering standards);- unforeseen circumstances or project modifications not included in our cost estimates or covered by our contract for which we cannot obtain adequate compensation, including concealed or unknown environmental, geological or geographical site conditions or technical problems such as design or engineering issues;- changes in laws or permitting and regulatory requirements during the course of our work;- delays in the delivery or management of design or engineering information, equipment or materials;- our or a customer's failure to manage a project, including the inability to timely obtain land, permits or rights of way or meet other permitting, regulatory or environmental requirements or conditions;- changes to project or customer schedules;- natural disasters or emergencies, including wildfires and earthquakes, as well as significant weather events (e.g., hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, floods, droughts, blizzards and extreme temperatures) and adverse or unseasonable weather conditions (e.g., prolonged rainfall or snowfall, early thaw in Canada and the northern United States); Many of these difficulties and delays are beyond our control and can negatively impact our ability to complete the project in accordance with the required delivery schedule or achieve our anticipated margin on the project. Delays and additional costs associated with delays may be substantial and not recoverable from third parties, and in some cases, we may be required to compensate the customer for such delays, including in circumstances where we have guaranteed project completion or performance by a scheduled date and incur liquidated damages if we do not meet such schedule.

The loss of the services of any of the executive officers of the Company could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, our ability to grow successfully will be dependent upon our ability to attract and retain qualified management and technical and operational personnel. The failure to attract and retain such persons could materially adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

A portion of our revenue depends upon the level of capital and operating expenditures in the oil and natural gas industry. Therefore, a significant decline in oil or natural gas prices could lead to a decrease in our customers' capital and other expenditures and could adversely affect our revenues.

We conduct a meaningful amount of business outside of the U.S. We could be adversely affected by economic, legal, political and regulatory developments in countries that we conduct business in. We have meaningful operations in Canada in which the functional currency is denominated in Canadian dollars. We also have operations in the U.A.E., where the functional currency is dirham. As the value of currencies in foreign countries in which we have operations increases or decreases related to the U.S. dollar, the sales, expenses, profits, losses assets and liabilities of our foreign operations, as reported in our consolidated financial statements, increase or decrease, accordingly.

Certain areas in which we operate are susceptible to adverse weather conditions or natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes. These events can disrupt our operations, result in damage to our properties and negatively affect the local economies in which we operate. Additionally, we may experience communication disruptions with our customers, vendors and employees. We cannot predict whether or to what extent damage caused by these events will affect our operations or the economies in regions where we operate. These adverse events could result in disruption of our purchasing or distribution capabilities, interruption of our business that exceeds our insurance coverage, our inability to collect from customers and increased operating costs. Our business or results of operations may be adversely affected by these and other negative effects of these events.

Through our sales channels and electronic communications with customers generally, we collect and maintain confidential information that customers provide to us in order to purchase products or services. We also acquire and retain information about suppliers and employees in the normal course of business. Computer hackers may attempt to penetrate our information systems or our vendors' information systems and, if successful, misappropriate confidential customer, supplier, employee or other business information. In addition, one of our employees, contractors or other third party may attempt to circumvent security measures in order to obtain such information or inadvertently cause a breach involving such information. Loss of information could expose us to claims from customers, suppliers, financial institutions, regulators, payment card associations, employees and other persons, any of which could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. We may not be able to adequately insure against cyber risks. Despite our security measures and those of our third-party service providers, our systems may be vulnerable to interruption or damage from computer hacks, computer viruses, worms or other destructive or disruptive software, process breakdowns, denial of service attacks, malicious social engineering or other malicious activities, or any combination of the foregoing. Our computer systems have been, and will likely continue to be, subject to cyber incidents. A cyber incident is considered to be any adverse event that threatens the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our information resources. More specifically, a cyber incident is an intentional attack or an unintentional event that can include gaining unauthorized access to systems to disrupt operations, corrupt data or steal confidential information. Our three primary risks that could directly result from the occurrence of a cyber incident include operational interruption, damage to our reputation and image and private data exposure. While we have implemented controls and taken other preventative actions to further strengthen our systems against future attacks, these controls and preventative actions may not be effective against future attacks. Any breach of network, information systems, or our data security could result in a disruption of our services or improper disclosure of personal data or confidential information, which could harm our reputation, require us to expend resources to remedy such a security breach or defend against further attacks or subject us to liability under laws that protect personal data, resulting in increased operating costs or loss of revenue.

The operation of our business depends critically on the functioning of our information systems. We continue to invest in software, hardware and network infrastructures to effectively manage our information systems. However, we may not be able to maintain or update our information systems to capture and use data in ways that result in operational efficiency, including as a result of ineffective software, difficulties obtaining the right talent and ability to manage the increasing volume of data available to, and managed by us. Furthermore, although backup and security systems, including physical and software safeguards and remote processing capabilities, protect our information systems, information systems are still vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural or human induced disasters, extreme weather, power losses, telecommunication failures, user error, third-party actions such as malicious computer programs, denial-of-service attacks and cybersecurity breaches, and other problems. In addition, we rely on the information technology ("IT") systems of third parties to assist in conducting our business. The implementation of new systems and upgrades to existing systems could impact our operations by imposing substantial capital expenditures, demands on management's time and risks of delays or difficulties in transitioning to new systems. In addition, DXP's systems implementations may not result in productivity improvements at the levels anticipated. Systems implementation disruption and any other IT disruption could have an adverse effect on the Company. If disruptions damage, breach or cause our systems or those of third parties on which we depend to cease to function properly or are otherwise disrupted, we may require a significant investment to repair or replace them and may suffer interim interruptions in its business operations. If critical information systems fail or otherwise become unavailable, our ability to operate our digital platforms, process orders, maintain proper levels of inventories, collect accounts receivable, disburse funds, manage our supply chain, monitor results of operations, and process and store team member or customer data, among other functions, could be adversely affected. Any such interruption of our information systems could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations. We have experienced these incidents in the past, which we deemed immaterial to our business and operations individually and in the aggregate, and may be subject to other incidents in the future. We cannot assure you that any future incidents will not be material to our business, operations or financial condition.

Our business is highly competitive. We compete with a variety of industrial supply distributors, some of which may have greater financial and other resources than us. Although many of our traditional distribution competitors are small enterprises selling to customers in a limited geographic area, we also compete with larger distributors that provide integrated supply programs such as those offered through outsourcing services similar to those that are offered by our SCS segment. Some of these large distributors may be able to supply their products in a more timely and cost-efficient manner than us. Our competitors include catalog suppliers, large warehouse stores and, to a lesser extent, certain manufacturers. Competitive pressures could adversely affect the Company's sales and profitability.

Typically, MRO products have been purchased through distributors and not directly from the manufacturers of those products. If customers were to purchase our products directly from manufacturers, or if manufacturers sought to increase their efforts to sell directly to end users, we could experience a significant decrease in sales and earnings.