SeaBird Exploration Plc (SBX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to SeaBird Exploration Quarter 1 presentation. We are today represented by Stale Rodahl, our Chairman; CFO, Sveinung Alvestad; and myself, Finn Atle Hamre. Quarter 1, 2024, fifth consecutive quarter with positive EBITDA. During quarter 1, we were happy to announce a dividend of NOK 0.25 per share. And our market outlook remains strong. SeaBird Exploration. What do we do? We provide marine seismic acquisition by 2D streamer acquisition of [ EMP ] and multi-client companies and source vessels offered to integrated seismic companies. We do not do data processing or multi-client investments. We have a young fleet of purpose-built vessels. Our assets. The Eagle Explorer is currently equipped to perform both 2D streamer acquisition and source services. Currently, the vessel is in transit to the Western Hemisphere. The Fulmar Explorer is equipped for seismic source services and is currently engaged in projects in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, we have seismic equipment to rig charter vessels, which again enable receivable relatively quickly, increase its fleet by up to 2 additional vessels with limited CapEx. Key events Quarter 1. High utilization at 80% for the quarter. Eagle Explorer completed a 2D project late February. And after I had a brief holding period in Singapore. The vessel is currently relocating to the Western hemisphere. Fulmar Explorer started a 2-year contract in the Gulf of Mexico early September last year and continues with steady production. EBITDA for the quarter was USD 4.6 million. Contract coverage backlog. Ongoing operations on our backlog for the Fulmar and in discussions with clients for future work on the Eagle. Fulmar Explorer continues on our 2-year contract that runs to the end of August 2025. Outlook, delivering on our backlog, coupled with positive contract discussions with clients related to Eagle Explorer. A few words on the OBN market. SeaBird Exploration provides source vessels to the services of the OBN market. OBN market has gained market share over the total seismic market over the last few years and in particular in the Western Hemisphere, U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and the North Sea. We see strong development and opportunities. This market is driven by ILX, infrastructure-led exploration, i.e., seismic imaging and reservoirs in production to increase production and profitability of existing offshore infrastructure. The oil companies have over the past year, shown willingness and interest to invest in this type of sorted activity. Source fleet. Coupled with the strong market view we see on the continued stable and low availability of source vessels. It's interesting to see that we have now again removed 2 vessels from the available source vessels. And these have been acquired by an integrated seismic player focusing on streamer operations. And the fleet -- total fleet are reduced from 18 to 16 vessels. Again, some of these 16 vessels are capable of doing 3D streamer work and such a strong towards premium market and most likely will return to the total streamer work. Volume of OBN projects is increasing and more and more baseline surveys are done, which will strengthen this market going forward. Then I will pass the word to Sveinung to give us an update on the financials.

Thank you, Finn Atle. So revenue and EBITDA for first quarter was NOK 10.3 million and NOK 4.6 million, respectively. This marks a record strong quarter for SeaBird financially, especially when considering that we only operate 2 vessels. Net profit for the quarter ended at NOK 2.6 million, representing a strong underlying operation. Cash flow from operations was NOK 1.7 million, reflecting an adverse movements in working capital in relation with the contract unwind for Eagle. We are, however, pleased to say that working capital reversed during April, and we ended the month of April with approximately NOK 4 million in cash and cash equivalents. We continue to have a relentless focus on working capital, and we are actively working to convert it to cash. Net interest-bearing debt for the quarter was NOK 13.1 million, and the equity ratio was 56%. SG&A for the quarter was just shy of NOK 1 million, and we continue to see a range of NOK 3.5 million to NOK 4 million annually with quarterly fluctuations. Revenues was, as said, NOK 10.3 million, which is a record strong quarter for SeaBird. And this is underpinned by the 100% utilization for Fulmar and a very strong utilization for Eagle until she demobilized her contract in late February. Revenue in the last 12 months are strong at NOK 35 million, up NOK 10 million from the prior year period at NOK 25 million. EBITDA was NOK 4.6 million for the quarter and NOK 12.9 million for the full year -- sorry, for the last 12 months. This is a level not seen by the company since the downturn hit the oil and gas industry back in 2016. And remember, back then, SeaBird operated considerably more vessels than we do today. And also, I want to note that the full overview of the adjustments in this graph is enclosed in the appendix of this presentation for the readers. Cash flow. As you can see from the chart, SeaBird started the quarter with a cash balance of NOK 2.2 million. Operating cash flow was NOK 1.7 million, whereas working capital impacted adversely by NOK 2.9 million. As mentioned, the working capital position improved significantly in April, and we ended the month of April with approximately NOK 4 million in cash and cash equivalents. CapEx relates to ordinary maintenance CapEx and the debt service cost of NOK 1.2 million was accordingly -- according to expectations. Quarterly debt service cost is expected to be around this level going forward as well. All of this leaves us with a net cash flow of around $200,000 and a cash position of $2.4 million by quarter end. Net interest-bearing debt at the end of quarter was NOK 13.1 million, whereas the gross debt stands at around NOK 16 million. The debt comprises $30 million in bank financing and $3 million in interest-bearing equipment financing. As the graph illustrates, we have reduced our net interest-bearing debt by NOK 11 million or around 45% over the past few years. The maturity of the bank facilities is in mid-26 and the loan has a quarterly installment of around NOK 700,000. The company is in compliance with all its bank covenants. With that, I leave the word to you Stale.

All right. Thank you, Sveinung. Next slide, please. So as you have heard from Finn Atle and Sveinung I think main issues here are: number one, cash as Sveinung pointed to. It's a bit arbitrary with the quarter end at a certain date. I had the quarter ended a few days later. Cash would quickly have been quite a bit better, let's say, in the area of $1.5 million, $2 million and the net interest-bearing debt would have been starting with the #11 rather than #13. So that, I think, is a point to take note of. The second one, of course, is the status on the Eagle, and we are, frankly, to say a little bit surprised that we haven't signed the Eagle yet. We would have expected that to go a little bit quicker. Having said that, in this industry, there's nothing unusual that it would take 2 or 3 or months to fit a vessel into new programs. For SeaBird, of course, it has a large effect as the company only operates 2 vessels. So that means 50% of the capacity is up. We are optimistic that the Eagle, which is a top, top vessel will clear a contract. So, with that in mind, I think -- and we don't see any reason why the last 12 months, at least utilization on Eagle shouldn't continue. So if we start with that on the illustrative dividend capacity slide, we have a column. The second column is LTM, last 12 months, and that shows you what the vessel EBITDA has been over the last 12 months. And then we assume our estimates then for debt service and CapEx average for 24 and 25 to arrive at what would be a likely dividend per share to be declared by the company, given today's balance sheet and financial situation. So that would be NOK 0.8 per share amounting to a dividend yield of around 17% on yesterday's closing price, I guess it was. So the contract situation on Eagle then being, as we can't flag an exact contract, an exact likely utilization, we operate with various scenarios that you see to the right in that slide, keeping Fulmar fixed at 2 contract and then varying Eagle with -- between 70% and 90% utilization between OBN and 2D work. As you know, it's a versatile vessel and she can do both. And that gives mathematically the dividend scenarios that you see. So important to say this is not a guidance for anything. This is merely a scenario building and showing you what the likely effect are given various types of work and utilization for the vessel. So all in, the company should be last 12 months, 17% dividend yield. And in a high case, with the vessel almost fully utilized on 2D, we could be at a dividend yield of 57%. And then we have not assumed any other operations for vessels. So this is only a 2-vessel operation. And as Finn Atle mentioned, we've got capacity to do more. Then also, we have included on the column to the far left, we have for illustrative purposes, calculated the company's EBITDA with the same assumptions, only changing the rate levels to the 2013 high point and with 100% utilization. So this takes out the maximum potential of the company as it is today. And as you will see that we produce a dividend per share in the vicinity of today's share price annually. We are not guiding, but this rate level is going to happen. This is merely showing you what the numbers would be, if so, happened. And of course, I think I would like to add one more thing. When fixing Eagle now, of course, we have an eye on -- there are various types of contracts and contract opportunities out there. And for us, when signing the vessel, we are keeping in mind an eye on what would bring the vessel or how to fix the vessel to help bring the company close to the dividend potential that we have mentioned here. The contract length is a key important stat. All right. Next one, please. Okay. So on capital allocation, as we have said, we aim to distribute all excess cash to shareholders on a quarterly basis. about jeopardizing SeaBird financial position. The first cash dividend was announced on the last quarterly call on the fourth quarter. And we have a record date pin down for 11th of June, so it's slightly less than a month. Of course, in order to continue to pay dividends, we are dependent on strong operational performance of the Fulmar and a new contract for the Eagle Explorer needless to say. Next, please. Okay. So, our strategy or summary as it is. Companies continue to show strong operational performance and a very positive feedback from our clients. We continue to see a strong market outlook. Finn Atle mentioned OBN in particular. And the OBN market indeed has continued to grow and has grown through the entire downturn from 2014, '15 and continues to do so and is now more than 40% of total seismic spend. But also, in 2D, we see it's a more spotty market, but we see more opportunities in 2D now than we have done for a while. We continue to actively monitor accretive opportunities for the company. The key over the next 12 months is again to fix the Eagle on the type of contract that we would like in order to move close to our dividend scenarios. And also, to be able to simultaneously try to capitalize on several 2D opportunities that we see in the market. The industry is still a fragmented one. And I think the swing in utilization that you see on this company is certified -- certainly testifying to that, going between 50% and 100% utilization with one vessel on or off contract. So, the industry needs further consolidation. We have said this for a while. And we continue to be strong advocates of that. So, we'll see what happens. Meanwhile, we keep a strong focus on cash conversion and free cash flow to equity in order to service our shareholders the best we can after having paid down around half of our debt over the last few months. So, the company has now entered a phase of capital distribution. So, with this, we believe we have created a sound platform for SeaBird for profitability and indeed for -- to help undertake further consolidation in our industry. And with that, I leave it back to you, Sveinung for Q&A.

Thank you, Stale. As expected, there is quite a few questions about Eagle and when we expect her to see her back on our contract. Obviously, this has been well covered during the presentation. So, I don't know if you Finn Atle want to add like some final thoughts around this or if you feel that you have already covered enough here.

I think we've said what we can say. It's a bit of a delicate one to share too much information. But I can emphasize that we have strong discussions with multiple clients, and we are relocating the vessel for that market. So, it could happen, yes, soon.

And then also, there is a couple of questions on working capital. As we saw this quarter, we had a build during -- to the end of March. And I think in my section of the presentation, I covered that we already saw an unwind of that position in April. And as Stale also touched upon in his part, it's quite -- we have 2 vessels in operations. So, the inflow and outflow are very sensitive on the specific dates. So, what I see now is that the working capital of the company is in a sound position. It fluctuates during the months and the quarters but it's in a level if you start to draw the line throughout the months and the quarters. We are in a level which we are -- which we have worked towards over the past few years now. So I'm quite comfortable with the position, although it will continue to fluctuate going forward as it has done. But as we said, seeing the position unwind in April was as expected for us when we saw the position was ending up with -- in the first quarter. So that's what I'm going to say about this. And then of course, as always, there is a couple of more question about consolidation. You Stale touched upon it. I don't know if you -- if there is anything else you want to add or it's a general question about consolidation, I guess.

I don't think I will say too much. We said quite a bit about it, I think at the Pareto Seminar last fall for those who have access to that presentation, we showed the slide of how the seismic industry has been created through M&A. And indeed, that has continued up until very recently. And we have in the OBN market -- in the 2D market, there is actually not many players to speak of at all. So, you could say that, that is consolidated. It's a very small segment, very profitable. So we're happy to take advantage of it, but very small. But when it comes to the OBN market, it is still fragmented. And we are the only pure OBN company with 2D capabilities that's listed on the stock exchange. And as such, we believe that there is a good platform in place to help consolidate the OBN market, and it needs it. And I guess that's all we can say. It takes 2 to tango or more. It takes 2 or 3 to tango, and we'll just -- we'll just see what happens going forward. But we are strong advocates of the industrial logic behind creating larger entities here.

Thank you. Then a bit more about the contrary opportunities we are pursuing Finn Atle. A couple of questions regarding the duration, I don't know how much you can say about that. And also, what kind of -- do we see -- do we see mobilization fees on the potential contracts we are discussing.

Length of contracts, as we've said in previous presentations, they are longer than we saw a few years back. We're talking about close to a year or even more to some of the discussions we're having and also mob fee obviously will be paid. That's part and parcel of the business.

I think we then have covered all of the questions. So yes, I can take one last one here, and that goes to the rate environment on the discussions we are having. Obviously, again, we can't say too much. But I guess you can give a bit of flavor on the right rate environment, Finn Atle.

I think it starts with -- I mean we could push for rates, obviously, we do. But all companies have been disciplined in the spending. And I think that sort of follows through to contracts and price rates in our service providers to the industry as well. But yes, I see increments, but I can't see any sort of immediate significant increases unless there's something significant in the global oil and oil and gas market, that's going to change. But since the downturn in the oil and gas industry, the oil companies have remained quite disciplined.

So with that, I think we have concluded the presentation. We have went through the Q&A, and then I will leave the word for Stale. And maybe it was one last question here, you can take with you on your summary to the end. It's -- would you be able to pay dividends for the remaining quarters of 2024?

All right. Yes. Thanks for the opportunity to reiterate that. So we believe so, but that is dependent on Eagle signing or ability to sign up a contract for the Eagle. So -- but it's very clear. As soon as we do, the Fulmar is on contract, and it's doing very well, by the way. And so we are ready signing up Eagle means building up excess cash in the company pretty rapidly. And that again means further dividends.

Thank you.