Foraco International SA (FAR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Foraco International SA First Quarter Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would like to now hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Daniel Simoncini. You may begin, sir.

Thank you. Thank you for joining us on our Q1 2020 results conference. I am Daniel Simoncini, Chairman and CEO of Foraco. And with me today is Vice CEO and CFO, Jean-Pierre Charmensat. The news release of this result was issued this morning prior to the opening of the TSX through CNW Newswire. If you didn't receive a copy of the release, please visit www.foraco.com. After the outline of financial results, we will open the call for questions moderated by our operator. When we last addressed Foraco quarterly results back on March 2, the world's total reported cases of COVID-19 contaminated people was just above 90,000, out of which 80,000 were in China. As we speak today, we passed the 3 million mark, only 60 days later. No Foraco employee has been reported, tested positive as of today. But during these 2 months, the world has changed, as government's top priority was to control the pandemic and unprecedented public health actions have been taken by locking down more than 3 billion people, and the positive effects begin to show up only now slowly. Meanwhile, many economies have been crushed, if not broadly stopped. The mining sector has been hit, but not as hard as other sectors like air transportation, hospitality businesses or car manufacturing, for example, but we know how fragile this situation is. The impact of the pandemic on our activity in Q1 was relatively limited in our main operation centers. And overall, we continue to outperform the market growth with a 16% increase adjusted for currency fluctuations when compared to Q1 2019, and we posted revenue at $49.7 million this quarter. Some operations were suspended late March, but we did not receive any significant cancellation orders so far. I will now pass the conference to Jean-Pierre, who will walk through the financial in more detail. Jean Pierre?

Thank you, Daniel, and good morning, everybody. Q1 '20 started off on a very positive basis in the continuity of 2019. The outbreak finalized the last part of the quarter. In addition, this quarter was marked by significant exchange rate fluctuations, which affected most of our functional currencies. In spite of this, our Q1 '20 performance remains solid from a financial standpoint. Revenue for this quarter amounted for -- amounted to USD 49.7 million compared to USD 45.2 million for the same quarter last year, a 10% increase and 16% excluding the effect of foreign exchange fluctuations. By reporting segment, the main increase was in the water segment, in Africa and in Australia and Canada, where we have developed unique applications, including the mining dewatering. Revenue for the quarter in the water segment was $9.3 million compared to $3.7 million in Q1 '19, 149% increase. By geographic region, North America and EMEA were the most active regions. In North America, the activity slightly decreased at USD 18.3 million in Q1 '20 compared to USD 20 million in Q1 '19. This is mainly due to the disruptions linked to COVID-19, affecting the limited number of contracts in March. These are due to resume in Q2 '20. In EMEA, revenue for the quarter was $15.1 million compared to $9.2 million in Q1 '19, a 64% increase. Africa increased 57% with deep-water wells contracts and Europe, mainly Russia, 69%. Revenue in South America decreased by 4% compared to Q1 '19, excluding the adverse foreign exchange impact, the activity increased by 9% compared to the same quarter last year. We recorded a strong quarter in Chile. Asia Pacific, plus 1% compared to Q1 '19, but plus 9% excluding the foreign exchange impact. Some mobilizations were postponed to Q2 due to the COVID-19 impact. In Q1 '20, the geographical activity split was: North America, 37%; EMEA, 30%; South America, 18%; Asia Pacific, 15%. During the quarter, the gross margin, including depreciation within cost of sales as per IFRS rules, was a profit of USD 5.3 million or 10.6% of revenue versus a USD 4.2 million or 9.4% of revenue for the same quarter last year. This increase is due to improved performance in contracts and continued effective cost control over our operating expenses. SG&A costs amounted to $5.1 million, stable compared to the same period last year. The EBIT operating result was USD 0.1 million profit versus USD 0.9 million loss in Q1 '19. Our EBITDA amounted to $4.5 million compared to $3.4 million in Q1 '19, or 9% as a percentage of revenue versus 7.6% for the same quarter last year. In Q1 '20, the cash flow generated by operating activities was $4.5 million compared to $3.4 million during Q1 '19, mainly due to the increased activity. Working capital requirements was $2 million. During the period, CapEx amounted to $2.8 million in cash compared to $3 million in cash in Q1 '19. This CapEx relates to major rigs overhauls, rods and ancillary equipment. The free cash flow before debt servicing was $1 million negative in Q1 compared to $1 million positive in Q1 '19, which benefited from a $1.5 million positive working capital requirements. As of March 31, 2020, our net debt, excluding the effect of IFRS 16, amounted to $131.3 million, stable versus December 31, 2019. We met our covenant as of March 20 -- as of March 31, '20. Since the COVID-19 crisis started, we have immediately taken a number of measures to protect our cash position including cost cuts, postponing of CapEx and other nonessential expenditures. We applied for low interest credit lines guaranteed by governments and other government stimulus packages. We also entered into negotiation with our lenders to implement a standstill period for the debt service and revisit the covenants applicable for -- to the forthcoming quarters. I will now return the call to Daniel for his closing remarks. Daniel?

Thanks, Jean-Pierre. We anticipate that our Q2 activity will be significantly impacted by the diverse lockdowns and social distancing imposed by governments where we operate, but we hope that we will revert to a positive trend in the following quarters. As in most of our operating jurisdictions, there is a clear consensus that governments consider our mineral and metal activity as an essential industry. We will be particularly following the evolution of the market, and we'll take the appropriate actions to adapt quickly when necessary. While it is way too early to get any vision of the type of recovery the world economy will experience, we're confident that our mix of commodities, including water and our clients' portfolio will help us to go through the challenging period to come. Thank you for listening. I will now turn the call to the operator. We will take the first question. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] There are no questions at this time.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Enjoy your Labor Day, and talk to you on the next quarter. Bye-bye.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.