Q2 2023 NCS Multistage Holdings Inc Earnings Call
Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q2 2023 NCS multi-stage earnings conference call. At this time all participants are in a
After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today.
Mike Morrison, CFO , please go ahead. Thank you, Dee Dee. And thank you for joining the NCS multi-stage second quarter, 2020 -three conference call. Our call today will be led by our CEO , Ryan Hummer, and I will also provide comments.
I want to remind listeners that some of today's comments include forward-looking statements, such as comments regarding our future expectations for financial results and business operations.
These statements, including our financial guidance and expectations, are subject to many risk and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from any expectation expressed herein, including the impacts of inflation, central banks, actions to combat inflation, distress at U.S. regional banks, the Canadian wall fires, and Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine on the global economy.
oil and natural gas demand, and our company. Please refer to our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our latest SEC filings for risk factors and cautions regarding forward-looking statements. Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow, and net working capital. The underlying details and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures.
Thank you, Mike, and welcome to our investors, analysts, and employees joining our second quarter 2023 earnings conference call.
Our performance in the second quarter of 2023 was mixed relative to the guidance we provided in early May, with revenue below the low end of the range, but adjust VBOD near the higher end of the range.
I'll briefly discuss our results and the outlook for each of our U.S., Canadian, and international markets.
Starting with the US, our revenue of $9.4 million in the second quarter fell below the low end of our guidance of $12 to $13 million and represented as sequential decline from the first quarter of 2023. The
The sequential revenue decline in the U.S. reflected the impact of falling industry and drilling and completion activity, which affected all NCS product lines except for repeat precision, for which revenues improved by 13% sequentially. We expect to return to sequential growth in the third quarter, particularly in our fracturing systems and tracer diagnostics product lines. A customer of ours that operates in the Northeast.
recently discussed that they had set a new record by drilling out 262 plugs in a single run in a three-mile lateral. We're proud to have been a part of that success and believe that the customer's use of our technology in that well speaks to the robust performance of our plugs, which pump down efficiently, securely hold pressure during the fracturing treatment.
and have fast and consistent drill out and wash time performance. I'll also highlight one interesting project for the quarter. We were engaged by a customer in West Texas to provide our sliding sleeves for use in a project to assess the capacity to permanently store CO2 in an underground reservoir. For this project, we were able to modify our sliding sleeves...
to provide a channel for cabling and downhole instrumentation that will be used to assess reservoir performance. This is the first use of our technology for a CO2 storage project, and our sliding sleeve completion technology is ideal to run with permanently installed downhole instrumentation, as this may prevent damage to the cabling that could otherwise be caused by perforating guns. Moving to Canada.
Our revenue in Canada of $14.3 million in the second quarter was slightly above the top of our guidance range of $13 to $14 million and represented an increase of 11% as compared to the second quarter 2022, outpacing industry activity growth for the respective periods.
The increase was driven by higher sales of composite plugs, which was the result of a concerted effort by a team spanning sales, operations, and technical services in Canada, with direct support from repeat precision, as well as higher service activity from our fracturing systems product line, especially in June . In addition, during the quarter we moved to a new operations facility at Red Deer.
Activity has improved nicely as we've emerged from spring break up. So the impact of the wildfires in Alberta earlier this year have impacted customer cash flows, resulting in company specific impacts on activity. These impacts could cause a delay in industry, industry accounts returning to the highs reached during the first quarter of 2023. Internationally, our operations continue to be slow for us in the second quarter, with revenue of $1.7 million coming in below the bottom of our guide range of $2.3 million. During the second quarter, we delivered sliding sleaze to a new customer in Norway, with a completion of that well scheduled for later this month.
increases realized over the last year has allowed us to generate a gross margin percentage of 39% for the first half of 2023, which compares to 36% for the first half of 2022.
We continuously assess opportunities to streamline our operations and to improve profitability. We initiated efforts in June 2023 to consolidate certain operations and facilities for a Tracer Diagnostics product line and also consolidated repeat precision manufacturing footprint in Mexico into a single facility.
We maintain our strong balance sheet with $5 million of net cash and an undrawn revolver as of June 30th, 2023. In addition, our consolidated networking capital, excluding cash and short-term debt at June 30th, 2023, was over $55 million and exceeds our current market capitalization by approximately $7 million. Our net capital expenditures for the quarter were $0.5 million, highlighting both the capital-light nature of our business It was almost Wahrunger and the capital-managed disappointed.
Before I ask Mike to discuss our financial results in more detail, I'll provide an update to our litigation provision.
We increased this provision by $24.9 million during the second quarter of 2023 to a total of $42.4 million as of June 30th. This primarily reflects the judgment rendered against us in Texas on May 15th, 2023.
We intend to appeal this Texas judgment and believe that we have strong arguments that may lead to a reversal of some or all of the awarded damages. We continue to expect a large portion up to all of any remaining damages to be covered by insurance. And would therefore expect that this matter once resolved will not have a significant impact on our liquidity or our operations.
So, if parties have agreed to non-biting mediation on the Texas matter, currently scheduled for the end of August . Over to you, Mike. Thank you, Ryan. As reported yesterday's earnings release, our second quarter revenues at 25.4 million, and a percent decrease compared to last year's second quarter.
While our revenues in Canada increased by 11%, this was more than offset by declines in our U.S. and international revenues of 23 and 32%, respectfully.
On a sequential basis, revenue in the second quarter decreased by 42% with Canada declining by 53% and the U.S. declining by 17%. The decrease in Canada was primarily related to the normal seasonal decline due to spring break-up and the decrease in the U.S. was due to a decline in rig and completion activity driven by lower commodity pricing, especially for natural gas.
Our revenues for the first half of 2023 were $68.9 million, up 4% compared to the first half of 2022, primarily due to higher product sales in Canada. Our gross profit, defined as total revenues, less cost of sales, excluding depreciation and amortization expense, is $68.9 million.
was $8.5 million in the second quarter of 2023, representing a gross profit percentage of 33%, similar to our gross profit percentage for the same period in 2022. Despite the decline in revenues, we maintained our gross margin percentage due to improved pricing of our products and services, which countered the effect of the decline in volumes.
and the increased cost of our operations. Our first half of 2023, our gross margin percentage improved to 39% up from 36% in the first half of 2022.
Selling general and administrative costs were $14.5 million in the second quarter up by $700,000 compared to the second quarter of last year.
The increase was primarily due to salary and wage related expenses resulting from increases in our headcount and merit raises partially offset by reduction in our professional fees compared to one year ago. For the second quarter, we reported a net loss of $32.2 million or a loss per share of $13.02.
As Ryan mentioned moments ago, our second quarter results were impacted by an incremental charge of $24.9 million, primarily related to the judgment rendered against us in May.
Including the charge we took in the first quarter, our long-term accrual for legal contingencies is $42.4 million as of June 30, 2023. Aside from the amounts previously paid by the insurance carrier to the plaintiff, we have not yet recorded the expected benefit from insurance recoveries as an asset to offset this legal contingent liability. We would expect to record insurance recoveries in future quarters.
as they become realizable for GAAP accounting purposes. Excluding this litigation charge, our adjusted net loss was $6.2 million, or an adjusted net loss per share of $2.50, compared to an adjusted net loss.
5.1 million or an adjusted net loss per share of $2.09 in the second quarter of 2022. Our adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was a negative 2.2 million, a slight decline compared to the negative 2 million for the same period in 2022 and within our guided range for the quarter.
For the first half of 2023, our adjusted EBITDA was a positive 2.6 million, an improvement compared to the 300,000 of adjusted EBITDA in the first half of 2022.
Turning now to cast four items on the balance sheet.
During the second quarter, our cash flow from operations and free cash flow were approximately $500,000 and $100,000, respectively.
which continued to anticipate being free cash flow positive for the full year of 2023.
On June 30th, we had $13.7 million in cash and total debt of $8.8 million, resulting in a positive net cash position of $5 million.
As of June 30th, the borrowing base available under our undrawn ABL facility was $12.6 million.
Turning now to a few points of guidance for the third quarter. We currently expect our quarter total revenues of 47 to 52 million.
We expect US revenue of $10.5 to $12 million, international revenue of $1.5 to $2.5 million, and we expect Canadian revenue of $35 to $37.5 million, each representing sequential increases from the second quarter of 2023.
We expect our gross margin percentage to be between 41 and 43 percent, consistent with our gross margin percentage in the third quarter of 2022. We expect our adjusted EBITDA to be between 8 and 10 million. We expect our third quarter depreciation and amortization expense to be approximately 1.1 million.
I'll hand it over to Ryan to discuss our 2023 full year guidance and for closing remarks.
Thank you, Mike. So we are adjusting our full year guidance for 2023 as follows. We currently expect full year revenue to be between 160 and 175 million dollars and full year adjusted EBITDA to be between 18 and 22 million dollars consistent with the calculations in our earnings release.
The midpoint of this new revenue range is $10 million below the prior range, and the midpoint of the adjusted EBITDA range has been reduced by $2.5 million. These adjustments primarily reflect lower expected industry activity levels in North America and the deferral of certain expected work in international markets into 2024.
We expect gross capital expenditures for 2023 of $2 to $3 million, reducing the midpoint of the range by $1.5 million. We will continue to exercise capital discipline and retain our asset-like business model. With very low maintenance capital requirements, we expect our capital spending to support our growth.
We continue to expect to be free cash flow positive in 2023 after accounting for both capital spending and investments in networking capital again to support our growth.
We expect our spending on litigation matters to moderate in the second half of 2023, that we will incur some cash severance and relocation costs in the second half of the year related to our operational and corporate restructuring efforts.
As these costs abate, we would expect to convert a higher percentage of our adjusted EBITDA to free cash flow going forward.
Underpinning our revenue expectations is an anticipated year-over-year decline in average annual industry activity of 5 to 10 percent in the U.S. and an increase in year-over-year average annual industry activity in Canada of up to 5 percent. We continue to expect international industry activity to grow by at least 10 percent in 2023.
We expect our revenue growth to exceed that of the underlying industry through our price increases, growth in international markets, and the adoption of newly introduced technologies across our product and service lines.
Due to the seasonality of our business and consistent with prior years, the achievement of our annual Adjust-D but Dye Guidance Range is weighted to the second half of the year.
Also, as discussed earlier, we believe that the recent Texas judgment against us will be covered by insurance, with the award potentially reduced through appeal in time if the matter does not get settled through mediation or negotiation.
We believe the final resolution of the matter, which could take several quarters or years, will not have a significant impact on our liquidity or operations.
Before we open the call up to Q&A, I'll close with a couple of brief comments.
First, we expect to continue to grow revenue approximately 5 to 10 percent in 2023, despite reduced expectations for industry activity levels.
We have the infrastructure in place to support revenue growth in each of our geographic markets, which provides leverage to grow future earnings.
However, we are also proactively assessing opportunities to rationalize this infrastructure and operate more efficiently as we demonstrated through the consolidation efforts in our tracer operations and the manufacturing activity at repeat precision.
We maintain a strong balance sheet and liquidity position with a cash balance of over $13 million at the end of the second quarter.
We are taking steps to further enhance the effectiveness of our innovation efforts at NCS so that we continue to introduce new technologies that meet the needs of our customers, adding to our portfolio and expanding our addressable market over time. With that, we'll welcome any questions on the call. Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.
One moment for our first question. And our first question comes from John Daniel of Daniel Energy Partners. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. Thanks for including me, Ryan.
You're excited.
You cited what was one of the most impressive sort of
D&C efficiencies this earning season the drill out with I think 262 or 266 plugs. I can't remember the exact number As you well know you didn't in the customer, but it's one of the more respected operators up in that area
who's likely going to be doing more longer laterals as well as all the other operators in that area. I'm just curious, sort of with that quick commercial for you.
When do you get the phone call for the next well like that?
and knowing how this industry tends to copy some stuff over time, when would you expect other operators to see what worked well on that project and try to replicate it? And how do you see that playing out for benefiting you guys?
Sure thanks John . Yeah, couple points there. I think one.
You know that that operator in particular is continuously operating I believe to completion crews You know they had had built up some ducks heading into the years activity was was pretty heavy coming into the first half And may slow down a bit in the second, but with continuous activity there You know we've got a line of sight to continue to provide them with
you know, with plugs throughout the remainder of their program. And as you know, there's continued M&A activity and consolidation activity taking place. There's a chance that their completion program that they're utilizing our plugs for has expanded to a broader scope of operations.
There are a couple things that are unique about the program there. One is it uses a size configuration that's a little bit different than most of the operations in the US. So most operators are using 5.5 inch casing for completions.
These are somewhat specialized in that they utilize six inch casing, but that's proven to be a very efficient methodology for this customer in particular. The other thing that's somewhat unique about this project, if you just do the math, is it's a three-mile lateral with 262 plugs. So what we're going to do is get them into the
stage spacing of about 60 feet, which is tighter than a lot of other operators would be doing. So there's a chance that as you get learnings and other operators see how efficient and effective this completion was, that you could see stage spacing by others in the region move a bit tighter to kind of make it easier to see.
on the goodwill. How would you compare the margins on a project like that?
with other business that you would generate in the states. Like if you get more of that, there's a margin I put to you right now.
So I think the biggest benefit to us, John , is with the size of that program and with the number of stages that they're able to complete in a day. It's really that.
We're selling into a known quantity and we can be very efficient in supplying that. As opposed to working with call it a handful of operators on the private side that may be running a half a completion crew and going from well to well where it's a bit.
less efficient to supply them. But once an operation like that gets up and going, it's good business for sure.
Okay, that's all I got. Thanks for including me.
That's all I got. Thanks for including me. Appreciate it, John .
Thank you. And as a reminder, to ask questions, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.
One moment for our next question.
And our next question comes from Dave Storms of Stone Gate. Please go ahead. Thanks for theits and good Consumer Security applications.
Good morning.
Susan? More tickets.
Morning. Just hoping to get maybe a little additional color on some of the expansion plans you have beyond North America. You know, great to hear that it sounds like you got a little traction traction in the Tracer Diagnostic section in the Middle East. But just wondering, you know, if you can talk a little more about maybe...
what that means going forward and additionally, any additional growth, and I believe was the black sea as well.
Sure, yeah, so we've we've really concentrated our international growth efforts over the last year or two on on two regions in particular. The first is the Middle East.
And in there, we have some good ongoing activity in Oman. And it's taken a little bit of a while for us to go through the process of getting qualified with some of the other NOCs in the region.
And with what I'd say is the largest NOC in the Middle East, we now have multiple products that are cataloged and which we can, we've gone through successful field trials and are available for revenue generating sales going forward. That would include our tracer diagnostics product line, as well as a couple of products within our wealth construction portfolio.
in July .
We see a good scope to deploy that tracer diagnostic service across a number of different regions for them, including some conventional activity, but also some unconventional activity. And that's good, you know, high volume work for us. We've got the logistics worked out now where we've got.
You know, enough chemical in the region to support multiple jobs through the end of the year and have that process worked out where we can serve them on a continuous basis. So we expect to see good uptake on that through the back half of the year and really set the stage for us to grow into 2024 with the tracer diagnostics product line there in the Middle East.
The other primary international growth focus area for us has been the North Sea.
We started working there several years ago over the course of the last four to five years. Ocar B.P. has been our primary customer in the region. We've expanded our customer base there recently over the last few years. Late last year and into this year, we started supplying a second customer who operates on the UK side of the North Sea.
We have several wells installed with them now that are producing. We expect to be able to install a few more wells with them over the course of the next 6-9 months.
And then, as mentioned earlier, we supplied sleeves during the second quarter and have completion operations scheduled for later this month with a third customer in the region who operates out of the Norwegian side of the North Sea. Underneath that, we've had continuous discussions with several other operators in the region. And I'd say we've got...
Pretty positive indications from two or three other customers about future activity. So we think we're doing the team has done a very good job of building up from really a single anchor customer to having multiple customers operating in the region. That could support activity.
across both the UK and the Norwegian or sea and maybe even the Denmark operating area and some others over time. So we're very optimistic about that opportunity and we're also looking to find ways that's traditionally been a fracturing systems market for us, working for ways to deploy some of our other product lines in the region as well.
Other question I just want to ask real quick. I know you don't have a lot solidified around some of the litigation. I know you mentioned that there's some non-binding mediation that will probably take place at the end of August . Is there any guesses around when there may be more answers around?
either insurance payments or the appeals process, anything logistical would be very helpful.
Yeah, I mean there are certainly there's a time frame associated with when we and our insurance carrier would indicate that we would plan to appeal the case. That would be in the coming months assuming that we if we're not successful in reaching agreement through.
get scheduled. So, unfortunately, unfortunately, if we're not successful through mediation, the timeline for the matter could take, again, several quarters up to a few years. So we're
That's really the best I can give you from a timeline standpoint right now. So unfortunately we have the charge that we've taken in the balance sheet liability. However, we continue to believe that the judgment will be reduced upon appeal and that we will continue to have any final resolution will be covered up to.
you know, most if not all of it will be covered through insurance proceeds. So, you know, we don't believe that they'll have a material impact on our liquidity or in our business, but it's just hanging out there as a charge right now and we'll look to do everything we can, you know, together with our insurance carrier to move that towards settlement.
or to make sure that we're in a position to be able to recognize the benefit of shirts and shirts when we can, but that's really a gap matter and something that will take time.
So, thank you very much for taking my questions.
Thank you, Dave.
Thank you, Dave. Thank you one moment for our next question.
Our next question comes from Jeff Robertson of WaterTower Research. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my questions. Ryan, just to follow up on the question that John asked.
Does the application that you all used in the Northeast have other applications in other basins where operators continue to push lateral lengths?
Yeah, absolutely it does, right? And I think one of the things that's certainly interesting about that project is it's a three-mile lateral that was completed completely with composite plugs, right, and repeat precision composite plugs. So there's a notion out there that as you get to extended lateral depths, you might need to utilize dissolvable or some other technology. But I think this...
while that plug is in a six inch casing, the base design of the plug is no different than our five and a half inch plug that gets used in regions all across the US.
So, yeah, it's got applications for operators in any basin.
In addition, we have seen certain operators utilize that larger casing size in the people heard and start to experiment with it in the Permian as well. So I think the short answer is yes. I think the performance of the plug would extend to any geography.
Great. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference back to Ryan Hummer, CEO , for closing remarks.
All right, thank you, DeeDee. So on behalf of our management team and our board, we'd like to thank everyone on our call today, including shareholders, analysts, and especially our employees.
I truly appreciate the depth and breadth of the expertise of our people at NCS and repeat precision and the passion and effort that our people bring to their work. I look forward to the continued accomplishments made possible by this great team.
We continue to believe that we're in a multi-year cycle of improved growth and earnings prospects for our industry globally, despite the reduction in the U.S. rig count this year. I'm excited by how NCS is positioned to participate in that growth and deliver benefits to our employees, customers, shareholders, and other stakeholders as we execute on our strategic plans.
We remain focused on delivering on our core strategies of building upon our leading market positions, capitalizing on international and offshore opportunities, and commercializing innovative solutions to complex customer challenges.
We appreciate everyone's interest in NCS Multistage and look forward to updating you again on our next quarterly earnings call.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating and you may now disconnect.
And.