Geodrill Limited ($GEO)

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Geodrill's First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded today, May 11, 2026. Before we begin, certain statements made on today's call by management may be forward-looking in nature and as such, are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the company's press release and MD&A for more details on these risks and uncertainties. And I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Dave Harper, President and CEO of Geodrill. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Geodrill's Q1 2026 Conference Call. Joining me on the call today is Greg Borsk, our Chief Financial Officer. So the first quarter of 2026 reflected continued strength in drilling demand across our core markets alongside near-term margin pressure as we worked through higher operating costs, currency movements and the ongoing ramp-up of our Chilean operations. While margins were compressed in the quarter, the fundamentals of the business remained strong. Activity levels across West Africa, Egypt and Chile were healthy. Our customer relationships remain deep and long-standing, and our fleet continues to be highly utilized across programs, averaging 76% utilization throughout the quarter, but perhaps more importantly, ended the quarter much stronger than it began. Operationally, we remain strong in West Africa and Egypt, supported by multi-rig contracts, established infrastructure and experienced local teams. The regions continue to provide a solid foundation for the business. In South America, particularly in Chile, we continue to advance our expansion strategy. As expected, this phase of growth brings short-term operating and repositioning costs, but it is an important investment from the point of view of long-term diversification and earnings power. Importantly, we continue to operate the company with a long-term mindset. Our modern and diversified fleet Strong workshop capabilities and disciplined execution allow us to serve customers reliably through cycles while positioning Judril to benefit as and when conditions normalize. Before turning the call over to Greg, I'd like to emphasize that demand for drilling services remains robust, supported by favorable gold and copper prices and an active bidding environment across our African and South American markets. We are focused squarely on improving operational efficiency and restoring margins as the year progresses. And with that, I'll pass the call over to Greg to discuss the financial results in detail.

Thank you, Dave. Turning to the financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026. Revenue for the quarter was $48.4 million, representing a modest decrease of approximately 1% compared to Q1 2025. We saw a slightly slower start in West Africa, but this was offset by being busier in Chile. Gross profit was $7.2 million, representing a gross margin of 15% compared to a gross margin of 28% in Q1 2025. The margin compression was primarily driven by higher labor and operating costs, currency movements and ramp-up activities associated with our Chilean operations. EBITDA for the quarter was $5.9 million with an EBITDA margin of 12% compared to 28% in Q1 2025. The net loss for the quarter was $116,000 or effectively 0 on a per share basis compared to net income of $5.6 million in Q1 2025. The year-over-year change primarily reflects the margin pressures I just outlined. From a balance sheet perspective, we ended the quarter with total shareholders' equity of $118 million, net cash of $1.9 million and sufficient banking facilities that afford us financial flexibility when continuing to invest prudently in fleet upgrades to support our long-term multi-rig contracts. As Dave noted, many of the pressures we experienced in the quarter are transitional in nature, and we continue to believe that the company is well positioned to improve profitability going forward. With that, I will now turn the call back to Dave.

Thank you, Greg. So to wrap things up, while the first quarter reflected margin pressure, the underlying strength of Georil's business is intact. Demand remains robust. Our bidding pipeline is active across core African and South American markets, and we continue to benefit from favorable commodity pricing, particularly gold and copper. We are focused on execution, improving efficiency, managing costs and ensuring our growing footprint in South America delivers the returns we expect over time. Our fleet, people, operating model are built for durability and our long-term operating history continues to serve us well through changing market conditions. We remain confident in our strategy, our discipline in capital allocation, and we are optimistic about the path forward as margins normalize. Thank you for joining us on today's call. Operator, please, would you now open the line for any Q&A. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] And your first question will be from Donngelvalte at Beacon Securities.

Just want to focus on margins here. So I guess just looking at the margin compression, how much of this is related to the elevated labor costs in West Africa versus growing revenue exposure from South America?

Yes, most of this, as I outlined, the majority of the revenue decline or compression is related to West Africa. And specifically, it relates to the increases. We put in some significant price increases April 1, 2025 for our staff. So you're seeing those salary wage increases in Q1 2026, whereas you did not see them in Q1 2025. Coupled with that salary, with those wage increases, you're also seeing the appreciation of the CD in Ghana. Again, that appreciation -- the CD appreciated significantly last year, but the appreciation of the CD did not start until Q2 2025. So really, the majority of the margin compression is 2 components. It's the salary and wages increase that we put in Q2 2025 and the appreciation of the CD.

Okay. Perfect. And then I guess, just still focusing on margins here. Just like how should we be looking at margins through the remainder of the year? And like how are we looking at margins related to South America? I'm just wondering if kind of this is how we're looking at run rate margins now as South America grows to a larger portion of the business? Or do you think as you guys ramp up and go through the start-up phase that we'll start seeing healthier margins, kind of more normalized margins?

Yes. I think as we continue to ramp up South America, you'll see more normalized margins out of South America. That being said, they're not -- we don't budget them. We don't forecast them to be as high as our margins out of West Africa. It's just a different drilling environment for us. So kind of -- we do expect to improve throughout 2026. We do expect to improve margins in both the West Africa kind of Egypt region and also South America. So we're -- and then yes, just one other thing is we had a slow start to the quarter. So if you look overall for the quarter, our margin was 15%. But I think Dave alluded to this and through his utilization point. And in our margins, our margins improved throughout the quarter each month. And by that, March was our highest monthly margin. February was the second highest monthly margin. So the margins were improving throughout the quarter, which is a positive indicator as you head into Q2.

And at this time, we have no other questions registered, which will conclude our Q&A session as well as our conference call for today. We would like to thank you for attending and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have yourselves a great day.