National Energy Services Reunited Corp. (NESR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Okay. Guys, we'll keep moving on. We are saving the best for the last, and we've got perhaps one of the most unique companies in oilfield services. We got NESR with us. We got Sherif Foda, the Chairman and CEO of the company. For those of you who might not know NESR, Sherif founded the company in 2017 as a SPAC. The company has since grown to around $1.3 billion in revenue run rate with a clear path to $2 billion and more. Beyond that, I'm hoping we'll discuss that in our discussion. But Sherif, thanks a lot for coming.

Thank you.

Sherif, while we get settled, I think the first question I have in mind for investors is, as a U.S. listed NASDAQ-listed OFS company, you are also the MENA national champion. How do you thread the needle between the 2?

I mean that was the whole purpose of forming the company is a lot of people wanted to invest in the -- if you like, in the OPEC or the GCC, but there is nothing public there, right? So the idea came in mind, why don't we form the first company that is really focused on the Middle East with the growth that is very stable. There is no cycles really. And -- but they can still buy the stock of that company on the U.S. exchange. And that's why I formed the SPAC and then got a lot of very high net worth in the Middle East altogether and then fused 2 companies, then bought another 2 companies. And today, we are the largest OFS national company after the big 3. So the big 3 are the international, and we are the largest national company.

Right. So anybody looking for a pure-play way to invest in the Middle East, right, from an oilfield service perspective, maybe NESR is your only option. Sherif, just talking about the Middle East. Like you said, it's been a region that's big. It's stable, it's relatively steady, but now it's also growing a lot, right? A lot of countries are expanding. Their oil production capacity unconventionals are coming up. Gas is a big part of the story. So maybe just walk us through what's going on in the Middle East right now?

So look, I mean, the Middle East is for people who do not know, it's a national oil company that controls most of the basin and the resource, right? So their target and their agenda is usually very aligned to the country itself. It is very different than the U.S. independent or Shell, where there is a cash flow and short term. This is very long term. And that's why the national oil companies plan for very long. What changed, obviously, as well is the gas story, right? So the gas story was not a big story, let's say, a decade ago. And now it's a very big story because internal consumption is increasing dramatically, and they want to have their own gas and renewable. So if you look at the agenda, UAE, Saudi, they all want to be 50% renewable and 50% gas. And the oil is really spared to export. So if you understand that macro, then you can see the behavior of most of them. So Saudi obviously has the capacity, which nobody has a tap except them. And they want to maintain always the MSC, which is 12 million barrels. The definition of it is 12 million barrels for 6 months, stable without any excess if they don't have to. And everybody else now is trying to have capacity. And that's why you have a lot of activity increasing with that mindset that energy is there for long. So you need to make sure that all of them have capacity. So if you look at that, Saudi Arabia had a lot of cut in 2025 rig releases because they had -- again, they had the 12 million barrel. They were producing at 8 million, 9 million. So they don't need to drill more. If you are in the U.S., they would have half of the rigs they would have released, but they released modestly. So the jack-up was released first because they didn't need to go to 13. And again, for people who do not know, that was they wanted to add 30 rigs for that increment, they released it. And a lot of land for oil they didn't have to and some of the gas. Now they decided to pick up to ensure that they maintain the capacity, the sustainable capacity, they're going to add a lot of rigs in Q1 and over the year. So this is confirmed. And obviously, the way you do it, they do it as all of the clients in the Middle East, they do what we call a tender and the tender is everybody is invited. If they are qualified, they put the price and they check the rig. So to Saudi, '26 over '25 will be an increase of rig. Kuwait is going on a very steady 4 million barrel capacity by 2035 or 2040. And therefore, they added a lot of rigs over the last couple of years. And now people will be like surprised, but today, Kuwait passed the 200 rigs. And this was only like 70 to 80 rigs just 4 years ago. So Kuwait will be as well a positive '26 over '25. '25 was a lot, but '26 over '25 will be positive. '27 would be another increase. So that they will keep increasing like this. UAE is very steady, and they keep increasing because they're going to the 5 million barrel target. They just brought it forward from 2030 to 2027. And they have a huge as well aspiration on gas because they want to stop importing gas by 2030, which means they're going to develop a lot of gas, and they obviously, they are as well on the unconventional. Everybody else is nicely steady, growing, I would say you can have as well a positive because you have Iraq that moved back to American companies, and they were very close to majority Chinese, the latest acreage they were all won by Chinese. And lately, they give Exxon signed [indiscernible] field, which is huge, the one that was with Shell before, which means, again, that's very positive. It's very positive for us because usually Chinese operator work with Chinese service company. So when it goes to the international IOC, that means that we will have as well capacity. So Iraq will be a positive. And North Africa is positive. Libya is getting very good, actually. The leadership was here. We met them as well in ETC, and they were in Washington, Same they are signing MOU with Chevron, with Exxon. So if these guys start as well to come, you're going to have as well an increase. Algeria is the same. Algeria actually has capacity and has access to Europe because they have a pipe. So if they can put more gas, they can actually replace some of the Russian gas to Europe. So if you look at the whole ecosystem, it's something that is going to grow and keep growing for the next at least decade.

Right, right. So combining all of that, it seems like when Saudi comes back on the growth trajectory next year, every other country is flat to operate. So Middle East as a whole -- Middle East, North Africa as a whole is something that should be growing nicely next year.

Yes. It will be at least 7% to 10% year-on-year growth. Middle East will grow, yes. And I think the activity in some places will be higher and some places will be a bit lower. But overall, it will be that much. Obviously, the growth that is going to be very significant is the unconventional, especially Jafurah.

Right, right. And then from an oilfield service perspective, Sherif [indiscernible], all the countries in the region are trying to promote more in-country value add, right? Saudi has it to our in-country total value-add program. All the other countries are coming up with similar programs. How does that fit into what NESR is doing? And how does that put you at an advantage?

So obviously, NESR is, that's why we call it national champion, right? So whatever we have to do, others have to do double basically, right? So it's very important that we are local, perceived very strongly local. We have obviously have to qualify on all these programs. So some of these programs are very different from one to another. So you have -- some of it is the spend. Some of it is very based on hiring. But it's a very clear audited, if you like, parameters that you have to comply with. So today, if you are not in Middle East, it's almost impossible to set in Middle East, almost, right? Because you'll have to, first of all, know how to operate there, and you have to comply with all the stuff. So for example, if you are -- you never work there and you are manufacturing, you'll have to manufacture there. So your initial cost would be so prohibitive that it becomes tough for you to set up. And that's why it used to be always a place for the -- only the big guys. And the local -- because the local were good, but not in everything. So now if you have someone that can do everything and local, and -- that's why our position is very strong everywhere. It's exactly like ADNOC Drilling position in Abu Dhabi, right? They are the national champion of Abu Dhabi. Obviously, they belong as well to the same owner, but they are very strong, and they can do everything. And then on top of it as well, they owned by the same people, right? So definitely, the growth in Abu Dhabi will always be captured. Majority of it with ADNOC Drilling.

Right, right, right. And then as part of that, you have been investing into the local oil and gas ecosystem, right? You started your NORI R&D facility in 2023. Then earlier this year, I think you are investing in Kuwait -- Ahmedi Innovation Valley, right? So all of that is making you even more tightly right, be a part of the local ecosystem. How is all of that going to lead to growth?

I mean if you look at, for example, NORI, which is a good example, right? I mean this Dhahran Techno Valley was obviously started by KFEPM, the University in Aramco back in 2006, and they built and all the huge company build the facility there. When we put ours and people were shocked, right, like a local company or a national company or a small company. And we build a facility that is better than anyone. And then we integrate it with some new stuff that they don't have. So first of all, it elevates the company at the same level. So the clients see, okay. So I have, again, national company, but they are at the same spend and same level of the big guys. And on top of it as well, you will be able to do a lot of the exchange with the R&D of the client, which is very important, again, because there is a perception always that local companies are like small, cheap, not very good. So now if you do an R&D project jointly with the client, so for example, we did one with [indiscernible] for the zero liquid discharge, it was presented to the Board of Directors of Saudi Aramco, right? As the unique project. So who did this? NESR. And then, really, okay? So that's why you get to a totally different level of prestige acceptance and you get qualified on all the big tenders. Kuwait, we are doing the same thing with the leadership there. We decided -- we took them actually to Dhahran Techno Valley. We went together to some places here, and we discussed together that why don't we do something similar, which they call AIV, Ahmedi Innovation Valley. And we were the first to sign, then the other guys came and signed, right? So now 4 of us are there and -- or 5 now, and we will build that as the first innovation and research center, right? So again, it's part of what -- you work in the country, you cannot just do some work and run away. You have to give back to the community and part of it is research and technology. Part of it is manufacturing. We did the manufacturing as we first put the company in 2019 in Oman and we manufacture CSI hardware, we do the machine shop. Now you find everybody, for example, is manufacturing that, right? You have FMC, have Schlumberger, everybody has a wellhead center, you have -- everybody has bits, the manufacturing there. It's part of the local content, right? No secret, started in the olden days in Norway. Brazil had a huge event on that Malaysia. So everybody has to do that, and it's part of the sustainability of your business.

Right, right. Now look, nobody wants to see a foreign company just come in and make the dollars and go away, right? You got to invest in the country, invest in the people and you're doing that.

Yes, right.

Just continuing down that path on the technology side of things, Sherif. How should investors think of you from a technology suite, right? Like you said, a lot of people think of small companies, they would not be doing the best of things from a technology standpoint. How would you position NESR's technology portfolio?

So obviously, now we are not small anymore. So that's easy because we grew quite well. But look, the technology has been in the OFS space over 20, 25 years, where I used to always call it the biggest issue would be the availability for people to buy the technology off the shelf, right? And that's exactly what happened. And we knew that is going to happen. I mean, people have been around in the industry, right? So now the stuff that is very unique that is like without the branding part that is like someone can do that, nobody else can do is very limited, right? Now it becomes a lot of it is you have the technology, can you execute properly and you don't have service quality issue. And that's the biggest part, like the frac, like the cement, like the coil and all the stuff. Then you have some little technology part that where we decided that there is no available good technology, so we're going to do our own. And that was on the ROA, which is basically what I call the advanced drilling or that's RSS, MWD, LWD and a lot on the decarbonization arm of the company, right? So we decided that we're going to team up with an innovator like a venture capital style and give them money. We have the infrastructure, but we bring that technology and get it approved and then be able to commercialize it. So our journey now has been going on 4, 5 years on the ROA platform. We have already tools that is in 3 countries. We are testing what we call extensive testing in Oman and Saudi for our RSS, MWD, LWD. We should be able to commercialize our MWD tool this year. So in a couple of months, we will announce the commercialization. So the tool works very well. We passed all the parameters of the client, and we make sure that the client approves it and sign off, right? And the RSS, we are going to keep running to get more jobs and more footage because we understand very well, obviously, again, from my previous life, how the RSS could be -- you think it's good, but reliability is a key, right? And even from our peers, some of them deployed tools, then they pulled them and had to do another one. And the journey is long. So we are patient. We know that, and we put ourselves 5 to 7 years for these tools to be commercial and strong and reliable. And I think next year, we will have some breakthrough in both LWD and RSS. And then the tool is hopefully fully commercial and making revenue like good revenue from the year after. And that will be a very success because it's a $2 billion market that is really run by 3 players. There is nothing off the shelf that you can buy and make it happen, right? And that's why we decided that's the only thing we're going to deploy. The rest is the same, right? It's -- again, it's the execution that makes a difference. So today, we are top 3 in Middle East in all the majority of the segment. We are top 3 in slick line, top 3 in surface well testing, top 3 in cementing, top 3 in coiled tubing, #1 in frac. So it's basically you get the equipment, you know how to run it well. You have a nonproductive time that gets to minimum. And today, we do this quarterly meeting with our clients like Aramco, like PTO, like ADNOC. And we give ourselves that we need to be scoring top 3 in every service from their metrics. So for example, Aramco calculate your NPT, right, and then the efficiency and the number between jobs, et cetera. So we scored 99.8%, 99.7%, 98.6%. And then we make this public and we tell the people, okay, guys, great. We need you to be #1 next month, next quarter. And that's how really you become what you call it technology and service delivery leadership. By the way, it's exactly like North America. Nothing changed, right? If you look back in North America 30 years ago, we used -- like the big guys, Schlumberger, Halliburton used to have like 70% market share. Now they have, what, 10% market share, right? Because, again, it depends on how the quality is the execution of that basin, for example, with the service company that exists. It's not that we cannot do, and we know it's going to cost us, for example, a fortune to deploy, but the market is very small, we don't even touch, like intelligent completion. Thank you very much. Thank you. No, we are not going to go there. I'm not going to spend $100 million for a market that is half of that. So -- and we say this publicly, and we tell our customers that we are not good in that or somebody else is better in that or reservoir monitoring, downhole tool at high temperature. Why? I'm not going to spend with MIT this, and I know how -- what it takes to build tools like that.

But the size of the price is not big enough, right? Why spend...

$20 billion all this is $1 billion, right? So okay, I'll focus on the $19 billion.

Right. Right. Right. And like Sherif, you said right in your prior life, you spent a lot of time in the Middle East, but you also spent a lot of time in the U.S., right? And you said you're the #1 company in frac now, but I remember, I think this was pre-COVID 2019, I think, right? You partnered with NexTier, you took the first fleet to the Middle East, but frac in 2019 was very different in the Middle East versus what you're doing now, right? From an operational execution, lessons learned perspective, maybe talk to that a little bit over the last 8, 10 years, what has changed?

So obviously, the Jafurah is very unique because that's the only basin today in Middle East that is equivalent to the Permian, Eagle Ford, et cetera, right? So this is multi-pad horizontal wells, multistage huge jobs, right? So the rest of the frac in the Middle East is conventional frac, what we call. So we do a stage per well. So -- and you flow it back for 2 weeks. It's totally different. It will not change. Even if your efficiency, this is the way they do these wells, right? So the unconventional journey, obviously, by Aramco is they call it a blueprint or state-of-the-art because they started as an exploration. They spend a lot of money. They wanted to put science and technology and data to ensure that they can develop that field in a very professional manner, right? And obviously, in every step of the way, they changed the strategy on tendering, right, because of the size. So once the size becomes bigger and becomes more of a factory, they make a bigger tender. And this one, the last one was obviously huge, right? Because now they know exactly where they're going to drill the wells. There is no more logging to see where -- they know exactly delineation, they're going to put the first gas before end of the year. And the efficiency now of Saudi Arabia is exactly equivalent to the Permian. And 5 years ago, as we said, when I took Aramco and we went around here, the infrastructure was not there. We were still pumping proppant ceramic. The pads were majority 2-well pad and sometimes single wells. So the efficiency was different. When we broke -- when we came to that project, our peers were -- the maximum they can do is 3, 4 stage a day. And when we did 9, they were shocked, right? Aramco was like, what? -- how did you guys do 9, right? And obviously, at that time, I did with my friend, Robert Drummond, and we brought the team and we told them, we need to do what we do in the Permian from the efficiency, from discipline, from the work scope. And then over those years, we developed the infrastructure. So obviously, again, as I know the place inside out, I know what works in the U.S. and what doesn't work in Saudi. We developed supply chain to make that happen. So we're not going to go and make mining but I got like very big family with a lot of money in these places to build mining, right? So then they build sand. So then I have access to sand. Then we did with Aramco, the water storage. So how can we compensate with the seawater and make sure that we can have access so we don't wait on water. And then we developed as well a lot of companies to get the plugs to get everything. So as I think part of the success that we were agnostic from -- I don't need to use my own. If there is another plug provider that is better, let's test them. And then the Aramco setup that they had was very smart because they made the unit that is doing that with us. So then Aramco became so agile, and they don't have to go through like an Exxon or Chevron, which is a huge company and Aramco is huge. But they made that unit to be agile and to approve things fast. And if you approve it that you say this -- for example, this plug works in the Permian and we have 20,000 runs with it, why do I need to run 500 in Saudi? I need to run like 10 and then it's approved. And so that gap, I think, as we, again, understand the system very well, we knew how to do it and that we broke the code, then we got the cost efficiency to a fraction of what it was. And I mean, I quote my dear friend, the CEO of Aramco said completion cost of Jafurah is 90% down from the initial phase.

90% is shocking, right?

Which is very smart because obviously, again, we used to plan everything at 2, 3 stage a day. Now we do 32 stage a day, right? So the volume, the efficiency, again, similar to the U.S., but they made it at a much shorter period because they said, let's start from where people ended, let's not go and...

No, that makes sense, right? We saw how in the early stages of U.S. shale development, a lot of European majors came in, conglomerates came in and they're nowhere in the field now, right? They've all sold out and went away. The ones who were winning were the independent DMPs, right? So I'm glad Aramco learned that early. You are benefiting out of that. They are benefiting out of that. But again, Jafurah, let's come back to Jafurah. You had that big press release, multibillion dollar tender that you won, right? So that's massive. But just put that into context from a NESR perspective, how much does it move the needle?

Moves it a lot. So I mean, basically, this contract now as we have 100%, meaning that we are going to deploy at least 3x to 4x what we have. We have a commitment to do -- for our client. We going to have to deploy and work as we call it, flawlessly to make sure that we perform as they want with all the pads that they have. They have the backlog now of wells, which is great because that's the biggest -- usually, that's the biggest obstacle for you to grow is are there enough inventory of wells and pads. Now as the rigs are so efficient, they drill these wells in 14, 15 days, which means that with the amount of rigs they have around 40 rigs over the 3 play, we will be able to do that. So overall, NESR easy grew 30%, 40% year-on-year, right? So if the market overall is only 5%, then we're really going to be something different, right? So -- and it's committed on both sides, so -- which is great because you know exactly what you need to do. And we are doing the same thing with our partners and suppliers. We're making sure that they are beefing up the resources to be able to deliver on that, right? For example, like Caterpillar in Saudi, we told them, it doesn't work the structure you have. We need double the structure. You need another line because we're going to have a lot of engine. All this Garden Denver. All these people, now we are actually giving them heads up to get ready for the scale. And us, as we are always, as I call it, countercyclical investing, we invested before. So that's why when Aramco said, when can you start? I said, tomorrow, we start tomorrow. I have the fleet. So we bought the fleet, we shipped it. We prepared it. Now we have another one going as well in December. So we prepared ahead of time, and that's why we started the project already.

Right. And this is a 5-year contract, right?

5-year contract.

Is there a ramp-up period, Sherif, we should think of? Or can you pretty quickly get to that plateau?

Aramco will ramp up, right? Because as you know, the target 200, 1 Bcf and 2 Bcf. How they're going to make it with the year, yet to be seen. But I think '27, '28 will be their peak in terms of stages. And we are preparing, as I said, ahead of the game, right? So we bought equipment already for a third fleet, right? It's there. It's going to be -- I mean, it's going to be there on 27th of November. So we are always going to be ready. And obviously, we're very close. We are every day there. We have a full team now embedded with them because if you are the only one, so you have to be really working very, very close together to ensure that you can deliver that and you don't have any delay. In addition to that, there is a lot of what you call additional work that you have to do because this is an integrated frac project. This is not a frac that I'm going to frac. No, I prepare the site, I get the sand, I perforate, explosives, coiled tubing, plugs, flow back, testing the wells, all the stuff. So sometimes I tell you, oh, we need to test, for example, for extended well test for 3 months, for 6 months, we need an additional 10 flowback and testing equipment. So we do that. And sometimes we manage even some work for others, right? So that's how you have to think about it. So it's going to be a huge, huge project, but we want to make sure that we make this as an iconic project as well from even everything from sustainability, from -- now we are doing some research with them to pump the sand next door from the Jafurah sand, but even from Riyadh sand. Like we did here in Wisconsin and then you went to the Permian. And we are looking even in some delivery method that is different. We are embedding AI in all this to do predictive maintenance because now we know there will be so many pumps running. What's the best rate. We're getting some new trees, grease list that can be like faster rig up or rig down. Can you mobilize faster so you can finish even. So the best example of that, if you look at the original project when -- again, my previous life, and we looked at that, this was supposed to be 18 fleets to be able to do the same number of stages. And now we think it's 4 to 6. So that's how efficient the project is. In terms of number of rigs, I thought it was 100 rigs. Now they have 40, because the rigs are so good, so efficient. They go drill the kickoff to 3D with 1 even our friends and the big guys, they modified their RSS to be able to do. I mean it's a lot of work around that project.

Right, right. And then the one other topic that comes up, Sherif, is broadly on the pricing situation next year in the Middle East or Middle East market, Saudi Arab, whatever you want to touch on. But how should investors think about the margins you would be making on this revenue, right, 30%, 40% growth that you talked about for next year?

What we're planning to do is to maintain the same margin as a company, right? So we are -- we want to do whatever we did in '25, we want to maintain margin with that growth. We are not targeting more margin, but we are targeting to maintain margin, right? So we're on 2020 with 20%, 22%, that range. We want to do the same. That range should be the same. So the first quarter, for example, you drop a couple of hundred basis points because you're investing and then you pick it up again after that, right? But overall, when people look at year, it should be the same margin. The pricing in the Middle East has always been on big tenders very competitive. And some like the drilling LSTK, it becomes very competitive, right? The risk on the rigs is a bit worse because you have to eat all the standby of the rig. And the rig is 70% of the project, right? So on -- but again, you have risks if they shut down, for example, right? But that's the Middle East old margins, 40%, 50% with the [ ski ] now being not -- it will not happen, right? But healthy -- the new healthy number is this 20% to 25%, right? So, and hat's our target is to maintain within that window of our profitability. If you look at the company when we first formed it, it was 35%. When we took this company together, but they were very small. I could have stayed 35%, but I would have stayed small [indiscernible] billion at 30% or $2 billion at 22% is okay.

Right. No, you've got to be a win-win for you. It's got to be a win-win for the customer, right?

Yes.

It can't be just one winning and the other not winning.

No way. And they are not naive and they are not -- they know everything. And they know the pricing, they know how much you pay in the U.S. So they make the math, right? So no, I think we are very happy with the project, and we are extremely confident that we are going to maintain our margins.

Right. From a CapEx standpoint, do you have to deploy any significant amount of capital? And does it do anything to your go-forward, call it, base level of maintenance CapEx, whatever you want to call it?

So what we said we are going to increase our CapEx from previous, but modestly, right? So as we announced in our earnings call last time, we said we're going to be $120 million. We might -- if we win the big, big portion, we might go to $150 million, right? And we're going to maintain that $150 million. So that's what we believe we will be. So if you are $150 million, but you are $2 billion instead of $1.3 billion, it's actually as a percentage, it is much lower, right? But we are planning to invest that much. Because we take the advantage of the U.S. weakness, right? So it's the best part. I mean we are lucky in a way, right? It's not -- we are not smart. We're just lucky basically because U.S. is doing so bad, which is the best thing for us because now we can buy all this equipment here at fraction of the cost and send it over there and operate with it. And all these units, anyway, you need to upgrade them all the time because no engine and no fluid end and no power end last for the 8 years, right? So you always have to overhaul and all the stuff. But we -- again, we perfected that very, very well. And that's why when we get that scale, again, as the largest truck company in the Middle East, we will be able to do that very professionally and take that to the other places.

Right. So that $2 billion revenue target that I was talking about, it sounds like this contract would take you very close to that target. And then where do we go from here? Because you continue to grow, we discussed the Ahmedi Innovation Valley in Kuwait, right, and those markets are growing, what's the path beyond that $2 billion?

So if we win what we want to win and make sure that we can execute on them, we will be on the path to $3 billion. And that's basically what we -- then we become #3 in Middle East, right? And that's basically our target, our ambition. After that, there is a lot of things to do, but we need to make sure that we can deliver on that and deliver consistently and again, with the same margin and cash flow. There will be some more strategic stuff to do later and yet to be seen.

Right. And you've talked about opportunities outside of your core Middle East region, right? North Africa looks like there are opportunities. You've talked about Indonesia, right? First thing, maybe just talk to how big those markets can get?

North Africa is -- for us is Middle East, right? -- because that's all call MENA. We are very, very good in North Africa. We put a very good strategy to grow a lot in Libya. But we need to make sure that we collect. So that strategy is working. So we don't jump until we get the proper collection. But Libya is very promising, as I said at the beginning, Algeria as well, Egypt. So we are in all the countries. We are in a very strong position in the 3 countries. So each one should be north of $100 million very soon. We -- and then we made, as I call it, a risk or a gamble outside, outside our comfort zone, right? So we are in Indonesia, India, Malaysia, in Asia, we are in Chad, Gabon, Congo. We're going to maintain that to see, but we don't want to thread ourselves too thin, but we want to keep that and see the progress. If we crack and get to a certain scale good, if we don't, we shut it down, it doesn't hurt. I mean those countries together don't even make all of them, not North Africa, all this not even 1%, 2%, right? So we're going to keep going. If we don't become a differentiator or we are not getting any value, then we will not continue, right? But some of the projects were very good. I mean, Indonesia, for example, we did the geothermal. We did the carbon sequestration, we injected. So it actually gives us as well a flavor of knowledge and technology. And that part is important for people that don't know the industry. You cannot be a service company in 2 countries. It doesn't work. First of all, you're not be able to keep the people. You won't get the knowledge sharing. So you need to have that kind of excitement as well for your team.

But no, I mean, I get the scale point is so critical, right? You got to make money, not just revenue, but profit and cash, right? So you've got to identify which countries can scale up and which countries cannot scale up.

Yes, absolutely. And we will have a lot of cash, right? So then, yes, there will be a lot of strategic thinking. I mean we had a lot of M&A. Now we don't because we grew so well without any M&A organically, which is the best. Now we spend on technology. We have this venture capital arm that we use our -- I mean, it's basically 2 guys to do that. But we are investing in 12 start-up or 12 companies. And we need to see how this would work, right? Some of it will crack, some of it will not work. It's a bit similar to what we -- some other companies -- Halliburton does this Halliburton Lab. That's what we do. And I think we like our decarbonization arm. I know now it's not the flavor of the world, but it's going to come back. I mean, sustainability, sensor, injecting water, lithium, all these things, one of them scale becomes very nice. And the investment is small.

Right, right. You talked about cash. That's a key topic for investors, right? Maybe let's just talk about your free cash flow power either from a conversion angle or however you want to touch on that, right? And then what do you do with that cash?

So we should be able to more or less average 40% conversion EBITDA cash. And obviously, we have less than onetime debt. We will be 0.7, 0.6 soon. And after that, depending what do we want to do, we will, like second half of '26, we'll decide M&A opportunity is not there because we're growing very well. I mean, giving a little dividend who cares, right? You buy a big dividend company. But we are a growth story that is very clear. So if there is no clear on M&A or something, then we will think about returning some versus dividend or stock buyback at that time we'll decide. But we'll be able to have easy and very soon $150 million, $200 million of cash.

Right. So that gives you a lot of flexibility and if you see the growth opportunities, that's what you like to do.

We go into new stuff.

Right, right, right. No, that makes a lot of sense. Sherif, if I'm looking at the clock, we are out of time. Is there any one last thing, Sherif, if you'd like to leave investors with who don't know in one line.

Still cheap. Go buy it.

No, that's true. Okay Sherif, Thank you. Thanks a lot.