Técnicas Reunidas, S.A. (TRE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

July 29, 2020

Bolsa de Madrid ES Energy Energy Equipment and Services earnings 83 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Eduardo San Miguel Gonzalez De Heredia

executive
#1

Hello, good afternoon. This is Eduardo San Miguel. Welcome to this first half 2020 results presentation that will be conducted, as always, by Mr. Juan Lladó, President of the Group. He will take something like 15 minutes, and you can pose your questions after the speech. And now I give the floor to Mr. Juan Lladó.

Juan Arburua

executive
#2

Hi, hello, everyone. I have a presentation, which I'll try as always, not to make it very long and go to the point. What are we going to be talking about today? Obviously, today is the second quarter 2020 presentation -- the results. And let's go forward. Where are we in this complicated as a very sad situation. Complicated, but obviously I have to save that -- we have to say that we are, as I always say, modestly optimistic. And why so? You may say, why you're always optimistic? I'm not optimistic. I'm very prudent that I have to be optimistic. And as we go through, as we go forward, we'll see why. Because we'll talk about the backlog. And we talk what back though do we have, and with whom outstanding customers, which is a very important to manage difficult situation, having a good backlog and with good customers. And having a good backlog and good customers, we'll see how are we manage in this situation with our customers? How are we -- how is execution going under COVID? Are we doing well or not? And the answer is yes. How are we putting in place, what we've talked about more than 6 months ago, what we call the TR-ansforma efficiency scheme -- plan, which is good. Is already embedded in all the projects, specifically, not only the structural costs, but in all the new projects, which is good news. Efficiency plans are done in good times to make them work when times become difficult. That's why you go to train, to train for to be able to climb uphill, and we're well trained and we're doing well. All of that translates into results, which obviously, were not the results that we had expected in February this year. But nobody had expected anything that is happening today in February this year. But I guess, the results, if you take the optimistic side, are very decent results within this situation. And we have, within this situation, in a very acceptable financial position. We say its healthy financial position. We don't want to use the terms of robust or strong and whatever -- healthy. We're healthy and that allow us to do a very good management of our jobs. And very important, we continue having customers and the pipeline is still very much alive. And we're going to be seeing -- we've seen already and we're going to see with our prime customers, conversions and awards within the next 12 months. So I practically have made the presentation on the introduction. But I'll -- now I go through really quick through one -- through the different slides. And this is quick, this is the backlog. It is true that today we have EUR 10.1 billion backlog, which is more than twice on your annual sales. And within this situation, this is good news. It is not good news, the size of the backlog, because you can have a great backlog and enough of business. In this case, we have a backlog with the customers we wanted to have. These is the customers that I like to be with if I have to run a crisis. I like to be with Aramco. And I'm with Aramco. I would love to be with Exxon to manage the crisis, and I am with crisis. I would love to be, and I am with KPC, which is KIPIC, which is Kuwait. With Kuwait oil company, so the main oil company with whom we're doing 2 big huge jobs. And I'd like to manage this crisis with them and we're doing that very successfully. We're doing very successfully with SOCAR to whom we have delivered a great refinery in Turkey. To whom we've bidding a huge job, and with whom we're working in a very complex job -- very complex job in the middle of the Baku -- Aliyev Baku and I'd like to be with them. And obviously, we're doing well, managing project-by-project, quite difficult, but quite successfully all the different projects we're working for the ADNOC group of companies. So this is within this complexity because, obviously, we have to manage this business under definitely new situation. This is good news. And it is good news because having this backlog and having this set of customers allow us to work project-by-project, customer-by-customer and job-by-job. It's not the same, a big refining jobs that is about to finish in Saudi Arabia, then a job that we're just starting to buy equipment and it has to do with gas. This is a different -- they are different stories. It is different customers, different amount of -- different workers, different sites, and sometimes even different local regulations. We're working extremely well with customers that are looking for ways with us to accelerate. Obviously, it's not easy to accelerate when the local laws, even though the customer is part of the law, makes it very difficult to input 15,000 workers. So we have to find ways with them. That's why I'm somehow happy of continue working with less amount of workers -- with 5,000 workers. And finding ways with them to progress, to prioritize one unit against the other and adjusting to the label mobilization, which is very difficult, but very different in Oman. It's not the same Oman and Saudi Arabia and it's not the same Saudi Arabia as it is improved, and is working all around the world. And I have to tell you with -- in this sector they're all very professional and we're doing quite well. Obviously, managing these jobs, it has an effect -- a direct effect in the way we cannot progress, in the way we can complete our milestones. And therefore, we have to through the supply chain, manage our cash, and we're doing so. And we're doing so, obviously, our working capital has not improved and we'll see at the end, but it's a reflection of a good management, having still a positive net cash position. So at the end of the day, what a manager has to do today? It has to be flexible and we are with flexible customers, and very professional. It has to be creative because we have to work under a circumstance that we have never worked before. And we have been very successful being creative from teleworking to managing the site. And it has to be a -- it has to be flexible, it's different to adjust. It is not the same how we work in Oman and how we're working in Bu. It's a totally different story. But in both of them, we're reaching good agreement with our customers and we are progressing quite good. So managing execution under COVID, which is a title of this slide. I think it's summarized in this 2 main points, its good news. I mean we've been quite successfully -- despite our stress and our pressures on the customer site and our site, quite successfully progressing in all different jobs. And probably if I wanted to give some color, I give you some color on this message. I decided to put 2 pictures. And this is the only purpose of these 2 pictures is to add some color to the message I'm giving to you. We will not be flexible. We will not have good customers. We will not be creative. We were not able, and we are to direct in the middle of -- in the middle of May, one of the biggest vacuum distillation units for the refinery of Duqm in Oman. And this is the picture. And this -- I don't know exactly the date, but it was somehow mid-May, that's a reflection of all the points that I've placed before. This is Oman. And then this is the last slide. This is a big cash plan. Everybody knows very well this is Haradh. This is how -- which is well advanced. And here, again, in the mid of May, in full cooperation and coordination with our customer we're erecting a huge -- a flair. Now you see here the picture of the plant on one side and the erection of the other. The purpose of these 2 [ slide ] is not only words, but pictures on how through this -- I hate to use the word pandemic, but there are these different situation, we have to find different ways to work. We're going to be having and we will have different impacts. And we have to be ready to manage them, and we are. We've managed probably the worst and we've learned together, probably how to manage the near future. On the other side, at the very beginning, I said that I felt comfortable because our TR-ansforma plan, which we started at the beginning of last year, we started to even to value what we wanted to do last year and why last year I told you before, and that's because TR-ansforma plans, efficiency plans, cost reduction plans, redesigning plans, strengthening or planning and cost control or risk management, everywhere, everything has to be do -- has to be done when you're healthy. I mean when you're healthy, that's when you have to do the good checkouts. And then you have to take all the measures just in case one day you know that's healthy. And then we started 2019, which probably everybody knows, that was one of our record years in awards in terms of quantity and quality. It's a year that we have delivered more jobs. And we started together with 2 big consultancy plan that today is fully in force. Today, it's not consultant plan, it's TR plan. This is translating already in corporate cost reduction. This is already translating in very specifically new jobs, obviously, in a very efficient procurement and subcontracting strategy. This is already translating and it's embedded into the project and it's translating into positive numbers in a far more efficient management of our site. We had huge jobs and we had to done -- and our whole purpose before was to finish them. Now we have new jobs and the whole purpose obviously is to finish them in a far more efficient way. And it has, as I said before, it has caught us working. I mean this crisis, which, obviously, we have to manage this business under big crisis, it has covered with the lessons learned somehow. So this is good news. This is -- makes me feel prudent, but optimistic about the managing of the business. Obviously, this translates into numbers and now -- and this first half of the year results, they're not even closer to what we had thought affected and even where I told you in -- when I told you in February, when I told you at the end of last year, and when I told you in February. We were expecting, and we were comfortable, and we had a great Christmas, and that we had a very good presentation towards the end of the year. And then somebody called COVID-19 came over and messed around the whole business. But if you do an analysis, obviously, we were expecting to have a growth in revenues. And those revenues, very specially this last quarter has been drastically reduced. And it's not because we have less backlog, because we do have the backlog. It's because the managing definition of a jobs is far more difficult. And we have to go job-by-job, milestone-by-milestone, progression-by-progression, certification-by-certification. And we cannot run, we cannot -- it doesn't translate in sales. And if it doesn't translate in sales, it doesn't translate in margin. And if it doesn't exist in margin, we don't have the expected results. At the same time, we have the impact of COVID. And obviously, we have impact of COVID which we have to take into account, which reduces our margins. And this year, these first 6 months that we've been talking about, our power problems. We have been hit and we have taken our costs to completion in our power division in the 2 jobs that we're having problems. One is in Finland and the other is in U.K. So we have been talking about in May. Sometimes we have good agreements on the U.K. side, and serious disagreements that in the Finnish side. In both cases, there are customers, I don't want to talk about them. I have a lot of respect for our customers. But all we can do now is take the hit and continue working forward as there are other projects in the oil and gas division and doing extremely well. And there are other projects in the power business are doing very well. And we have been very successful in the delivery in some of the big problems in the power division. So this is the business, and there's probably the most prudent way to manage them is take the hit. That hit has been compensated, has been practically offset. Sometimes we have good news. Very often we have deviations when we're delivering jobs, there has been 2018 and 2019. But over 6 months we've finished jobs. When we're closing out the jobs, we have been successfully with changed orders and improvements of the jobs, which is very difficult to account for. And because it's very difficult to account for, it has -- we didn't account for them and when it came, it has allowed us to offset the hit in the power division. So at the end of the day, this -- the summary of this P&L is, less revenues - less margin. And then 2 extraordinary impact. One, negative on the power division and one positive in our core business, which is the oil and gas division. And all of that, within a COVID situation, which obviously it doesn't help, which translates into a working capital that is a little bit more tight. If we were expecting to have, as I said before, and I'd be very transparent, a net cash decision. Obviously, when I said before that EUR 400 million was ambitious, but I believe somewhere in between EUR 250 million and EUR 350 million was more or less the average that we had in our plan. As completion of the milestones, and payments of the customer's month end becomes more difficult, translate into net cash position, which is a bit more tight and is EUR 154 million, which is understandable. As I said before, difficult to achieve progress, difficult to get certification of completion on the jobs as you do not run, despite customers trying to help us, difficult to achieve milestones. Despite of many customers that are negotiating with them quite successfully partial completion of those milestones. So that's what I say -- we have strong and good customers. And in August this difficult -- makes it very difficult to manage the working capital and is not as good as we had expected. And then on the good side, I mean, we're managing the business, but also we're managing opportunities. And people may wonder if you haven't got that many awards, why do you have EUR 42 billion of opportunities or EUR 42 billion of pipeline. And the answer is, yes, we have. I mean we -- and most of you, which -- the ones who are experts in the market, they there are big investment plans in which we are part of all of them in the Middle East, in Asia, in Russia, in Turkey, in Azerbaijan. They're big investment plans on which we prequalify. In many of them, we are already working on the FEEDs that we had been awarded over the last year and a half. In some others, there are open books that we're negotiating with customers the time to convert. And obviously, there are delays, but -- they're not -- we're not talking to year delays, we're talking monthly delays. So the opportunities, if we compare this crisis, with the crisis of 2014-'15 is totally different. Obviously, everybody is confined, everybody is waiting and seeing sort of the level of working with our customers. The small awards are increasing on the front end because they want to continue, they want to have in the frontend that we're working with customers. They want to have their jobs better defined, and we have been better defined for the day of conversion or for the day of making a decision of investment -- a final investment is very intense. And that gives me the -- allows me to send a message to you that that are the awards to this year and in 2021 that they're going to be strong. It's a good message. So I'd like to finish. When -- I guess, the outlook is very much my introduction. And my introduction is, I'm facing the future, as I said before, with fervency, I'm prudent, but I'm optimistic. And that allows me to review all the things that I said before. And I'm optimistic because we rather work efficient with our customers and with our backlog. I'm optimistic because the way we're managing the jobs with our customers, I repeat, under this COVID situation, we're doing quite well. Teleworking has proven to be good. In managing site-by-site, customer-by-customer and job-by-job, we've been very successful. I'm optimistic because our TR-ansforma plan is working, and we've seen the result. This is not an idea anymore. It's an ongoing result, which is working. I'm optimistic because we have -- if we put them all that together with net cash position in a rather healthy financial position. And I'm optimistic and always prudent, but I'm optimistic because the pipeline is ongoing. I mean our -- and that's the measure of our estimation in commercial division. Despite of not being able to travel, we're presenting bids in the market, we're negotiating conversions, which is getting an awards. Although, a small job with Aramco, but it's a sign that Aramco continues working with TR in the Ras Tanura Refinery. They wanted to have a new job. And through this mess, because it's been a mess, we have clearly agreed, and still assigned an important job. Important for the quality. It's our Stripper plant in Ras Tanura, it gives the message. It's not going to solve the P&L or TR in 2021, but I think it allows me to give a very positive message to the market. And you see some awards in the future, 4, 5, 6 months. So well, having said that, I think it hasn't taken more than 20 minutes -- 23 minutes, I think. I was planning to doing 15. I'll open the floor for any questions you may want to pose.

Operator

operator
#3

[Operator Instructions] We already have a question from Michael Alsford from Citi.

Michael Alsford

analyst
#4

So I've got a couple, please. So firstly, I appreciate the current environment is challenging, and you mentioned that there's been some impact from COVID in the quarter. Could you maybe perhaps quantify what that cost or cost impact has been to try and understand, I guess, what the underlying margins are doing. Because, I guess, you talk about an optimistic outlook and a strong backlog, but the market doesn't seem to believe that. And I just wonder if you can give a bit more confidence as to the direction of margins going forwards as you move through into procurement and in further phases of these projects. You talked previously about getting back to sort of EBIT of 4%. I'm just wondering if you can perhaps give a bit more color as to progress of margins in the coming quarters.

Juan Arburua

executive
#5

Michael, first question. I mean what is the impact in these numbers of COVID? I don't know the precise number, but somewhere in between $40 million and $50 million. I think it's $44 million or something, give or take. That's the net impact. We've analyzed, what are the extra costs, some of the some of those, because we already recovered with -- from some customers, with some others we're negotiating. But as of today, the net result -- the net cost of COVID is $45 million. Margin now. I have a problem telling you what is going to be the margin next 3 months and the margin at the year-end. And I have -- but I can tell you something -- something positive. I can tell you that the margins on the projects are good. And the margins in other projects that we have in the backlog, if anything, are improving. I mean we're buying well. We're very prudent on the construction. We are doing construction by units and not the whole plant because it's necessary, because we cannot have 25,000 people on the job and customers like Repsol. So we're doing by set of units or by systems. So we're starting -- we're getting good prices. And we have pressure, obviously, in run, certificate, get the milestones done and get paid. But we're not getting the pressure from the customer. We have our own pressure because we have to finance restructure. We have to finance TR. We have the -- to have the pressure that the working capital -- managing working capital and managing projects in processes. But we're not getting the pressure from the customers. That's why I said at the beginning, like a good sign -- a good message for our customers. So our customers, they want to continue working and they want to work with us in the most efficient way. So the managing of the backlog is good, and the margin in there. And if anything -- if anything in a longer period of time, because it's going to take longer to finish all those jobs with -- and many of them 1/3 or 20% of the needed workforce, it's going to take longer. And -- but we're not going to be running through less margins. So the issue here is how we're going to be accruing sales and how we are accruing margins. On top of that, some of the structure cost, we have to suffer. They're going to be partially offset, if not totally offset, by our TR-ansforma cost reduction plan. Having a plan to cost -- and make it even bigger is easier than not having anything. I mean we're having a plan. Obviously, on the structure, we're having a plan on efficiency of engineer and engineers. We're having a plan on procurement and everything that seems to place. And now we're seeing now that it's allowing us to offset in a great deal the extra cost of the COVID. So it's very difficult on a quarterly basis to see what is going to be my margin in September. Because the greater -- the thing is, this is like a moving target. But overall, I can tell you that the big jobs -- the new jobs are healthy and we are executing them within our markets, and sometimes even better.

Michael Alsford

analyst
#6

And maybe a quick follow-up, if I could, on the working capital. I know, again, it's a difficult one to call because there's an uncertain environment. But what do you say that you feel that you're at the bottom of the cycle, i.e. that net cat cash position at EUR 154 million is the low point in the year or do you see further working capital outflows ahead of you?

Juan Arburua

executive
#7

All I can -- again, difficult. I mean the message is, we're going to have a net cash position. We're going to have a healthy balance sheet. But if you see the size of our jobs and the payments that we have to get paid on a quarterly basis, they're huge. They're huge on the Asian side, they're huge on the Middle Eastern side, whether it's Aramco, whether it's Duqm or whether it's ADNOC. And sometimes, we've seen that we have a month with a very tight working capital and then 15 days later we get paid -- our net cash position on a monthly basis is very big. So it's very difficult. It's going to be volatile. We're going to be positive. We do expect to be comparable. But I cannot tell you that this is -- I don't want to start working with numbers and saying that $150 million is the bottom. We might see a quarter that is $110 million and next quarter is $275 million or $350 million. Depending of milestones in payment, this is rather volatile. Thank you very much, Michael.

Operator

operator
#8

We have another question from Francisco Ruiz from Exane.

Francisco Ruiz

analyst
#9

I have 3 questions. The first one is mainly related to the number that you gave to the previous question. So can we assume that in the H2 of this year, we -- in a case of a smoother COVID impact, we could have almost half or almost entirely these $45 million back into the margin. The second question is on the TR-ansforma plans. You commented that there has been a possibility of increasing the initial scope of the plan. But could you give an idea of how much this plan has added to the margin in H1 and what are -- what could you estimate for H2 and then year 2021. And the last question is on the project that has been commissioned during this quarter, mainly Jazan and probably Fadhili as well. Could you give us an idea of how it was and if you have any problem with the clients?

Juan Arburua

executive
#10

Francisco, first question, are we going to recover the $46 million? I mean if I have taken as a loss. It is a loss. It doesn't mean that project-by-project, customer-by-customer, we're not trying to recover some of that impact. It's going to be difficult, but we're going to be trying. But as I said before, I do expect that in intermediate term, our margins may improve despite of this cost because of a better procurement terms and because a far more efficient execution terms, and less pressure for customers. We don't have the pressure that we suffered before, say you have to run and you have to pay overtime. First of all, because we cannot -- I mean, you cannot now run a job with 15,000 workers. So we are [ green skinned ] with customers. That, if anything, would allow us to manage the margins better, and our contingencies better and our relationship with our subcontractors and suppliers better. So it's a mix. But don't expect me to come next quarter, say, I've recovered $46 million because -- due to training efficiency. It's going to be embedded in the margins of the projects. As well as the TR-ansforma. I mean TR-ansforma is already adding into the project. I mean at the end of the day, TR-ansforma is a safety net. I mean TR-ansforma is what is making it efficient. TR-ansforma is -- was making us that the new jobs and with possibly now that the engineering we're able to do to design with less engineers. Is that TR-ansforma? Well, probably yes because we have put the system into place. But it's very difficult to take the margins away from project managers then give it to the TR-ansforma account and we don't want to do that. What we've seen is after starting TR-ansforma is that both structure, engineering and project management will becoming far more efficient, and we're making more money. But I don't want to take the money away. And I don't want to make it public either from project managers. So the project managers to be part of TR-ansforma, make money and get a great bonus, as that's what I want. And that's how I think the business should be run. And the third question is Jazan and Fadhili. Jazan has been our nightmare and has been a nightmare for the last 8 years. And I think it's been our nightmare and our competitors' nightmare. And probably we had to do it again. We would have done it differently with contractors, suppliers, subcontractors. I think everybody has made a lot of mistakes in this job. I never want to blame the customer. We're their contractor, we took the job, and it has been a disaster for our margins, for accounts, but it's done. It is done and the job is there. It is done with quality and most importantly, we have kept the customer. And we have kept one of the most important customers in the world. And now everybody knows and many investors knew because it has been presented to investors when Aramco was with doing their -- they're going public through IPO. So ideally, there were 5 trains. Over the last 6 months, we've started to startup train-by-train, instead of the 5 trains at a time. The last train with a startup I think in February. It's already run by the customer. There are minor details and punch lists that we have to finish -- minor. I mean nothing that affects operation as already Aramco is operating the plant. And I have to tell you that I had -- I thought we were going to do better, that we'd make money. We're doing fine. Not as -- and it's been a good job. And I think it will be good job for TR, and it's been very good job for the customer. So Fadhili is a good story. It was a challenge. It's huge. It was a big challenge that we took. But I think we've done a good managing of the job. Probably we are -- like always, we always go -- we're going today to lessons learnt. What we should have done should we have to do that job again. Probably, we would have done it differently. We would have started train by train instead of all at the same time. That's how lessons learned that we do all the time, and we would have done even a better job. But overall, it was a good job. And it's probably -- this is the largest project finished and delivered by TR [ at one ] in Saudi Arabia. Where everybody thought that it was very risky, well, we have proven to the market that it's not a risky. I don't want to say out loud because I'm going to be getting competitors. That is the country that you can work and it's the country that you can deliver huge, large, complex jobs successfully.

Operator

operator
#11

Our next question comes from Mick Pickup from Barclays.

Mick Pickup

analyst
#12

Couple of questions if I may. One -- firstly, you mentioned a loss in power because of the U.K. and Finland. You couldn't just tell me what that loss was for the first half. You normally give it in your full presentation or your full details later on, but you don't give it in your presentation. So what is the loss in power in first half? Secondly, if I go back to the COVID cost question. I'm sorry to just going back to this. You've just done EUR 33 million of operating profit in the first half, and you're telling me there is a $44 million impact from COVID. Now is that across the half? Is it just in the quarter? And does -- is it actual costs that you didn't expect or does it include a revenue impact on productivity coming through? Because I'm just adding 44 to 33 and thinking this margin is already back towards 4%. And finally, in your business pipeline, I noticed that you take the pipeline now and you've disaggregated it into natural gas, clean fuels and petchems and then biofuel and renewables. I think historically it was oil, gas, downstream and power. Can you just talk me through the reorganization or the reclassification of that? And on the oil side is it -- that there are no oil projects, in particular you're looking for at the moment or is it just been moved elsewhere?

Juan Arburua

executive
#13

Okay, let me make -- let me start by the third question, which is whether we reorganized our business. Our business is the same business. But I think we've been badly influenced by you.

Mick Pickup

analyst
#14

Everybody is, don't worry.

Juan Arburua

executive
#15

And being badly influenced by you, I think we have to -- is a way of giving the message to the market that refining and petrochemical are very often is very close to a clean fuels and is necessary and is very clean. And is necessary for this transition to a cleaner world. And this natural gas is natural gas. We cannot rename it. The natural gas, it seems everybody likes it. And -- but clean fuels and petrochemical, lot of people get confused and at the end of the day, petrochemicals, I like to add up to clean fuels, because this -- sometimes this makes -- allows me to give a message to the world that we are not that dirty, and we're necessary. It's just -- and its cosmetics. We've always been the same. But we have to give the message to the market that being the same, we're necessary, we're clean and we are an important part of the transition to a cleaner world and necessary. Otherwise, everybody thinks that a windmill is the only thing necessary to survive.

Mick Pickup

analyst
#16

In the last quarter, you had EUR 40 billion in opportunities and 17% of it was in oil. You described it. So it's about EUR 6 billion of opportunities in oil, which wasn't considered downstream. So it's just -- where is that going?

Juan Arburua

executive
#17

That is -- when I say natural gas its oil and gas. It's probably mistake. And maybe wanted to be very clean, too clean and we didn't put the term oil. But its oil plus gas. We were trying to be too cosmetic, sorry about that.

Mick Pickup

analyst
#18

On the power breakdown -- the loss in the first half.

Juan Arburua

executive
#19

And obviously, in the power breakdown, we have in the U.K. we have an issue. We get along with the customer. We negotiated with the customer well. I think they understand us. I think they're using sort of a mix of directed lack of productivity, difficult for us to finish. Difficult for us to finish a job that we thought we had pretty much organized about 9 months ago. It has mixed up with COVID. And it was soft. Now we're having problems again that it was soft and now we have more than 1,000 people on the job. But it has had a great impact. We have decided to take the whole impact. I mean if provided we're doing well, we have -- we've done a thorough analysis and we have taken the impact. We have to be healthy and in this -- and they impact is $78 million to be precise.

Mick Pickup

analyst
#20

78? 7-8?

Juan Arburua

executive
#21

7-8. And is -- and it is what it is. I mean -- so we have taken the impact piece over the last 2 quarters and that would allow us to focus better in managing this not very comfortable crisis. It obviously has been offset by the other profits, but the impact is there. And the problem is ours and maybe we may recover something in the future. But unless this -- we have to focus on the rest. And we have to focus on the customer and finish and deliver the plan, period.

Mick Pickup

analyst
#22

But I would say that the oil and gas business is actually doing very well at the moment.

Juan Arburua

executive
#23

The oil and gas business is doing well. We have a -- we're having issues not with margins, not with our customers, not with construction, not with procurement. We're having issues that every single job has to be somehow redefined. I mean if you got to Duqm, which is a good job, and everybody knows and everybody can go and see it. It's a huge job. We're doing very well. That's where you have the big vacuum. We have a good customer, but a customer wants to run. But we have to find a way together with the customer how to run because the customer wants to run, but we cannot bring workers. So it's good news that we have a good customer. It's good is good news that we're doing the job efficiently. But it is not good news that we cannot run because we like to run. To run means certification, progress, milestone, cash, working capital positive and new jobs. So while oil and gas business is doing well, but I would prefer to manage this business under -- as I had planned in February 2020 this year.

Mick Pickup

analyst
#24

And then on the COVID cost of $44 million, does that include the volume the impact as well? That's the overall impact on the business. Or is that just extra cost that you have had to absorb?

Juan Arburua

executive
#25

If -- it's the direct extra costs that we do consider that is difficult to directly recover from customers. That is not into negotiation. We may recover something, maybe not through COVID. This is something else, a different order, a better procurement terms with other procures, but it's not -- because as you know, I'm not taking it via volume or via economies of scale. That's part of the day-to-day business that you see in the balance sheet. Less turnover. Obviously, we have to be very efficient and we're working extremely hard to be efficient and to put in place the details of the TR-ansforma. Now its details of the TR-ansforma plan to somehow diminish the volume impact of working in this new COVID environment. This COVID -- this $45 million is just pure direct impact.

Operator

operator
#26

Our next question comes from Patricia from Fidentiis.

Patricia Cifuentes

analyst
#27

Juan, could you help us understand the nature of these extraordinary costs, because the figure actually looks huge to me. I cover all kinds of stocks and I cannot think of reasons that justify such huge costs for you. You're not paying rent. Most of your employees have been working from home. You have a massive probably saved money in terms of traveling distances. So please can you give us examples on the nature of these costs? And then my other question would relate to overheads. It's very surprising to us that even with the TR-ansforma plan, the overhead costs are increasing by 16% year-on-year in the second quarter. Can you explain us why? Is this because of COVID or there is something else?

Juan Arburua

executive
#28

Okay. Sorry, Patricia, it's taken me a while to really understand, to focus and be able to answer the question correctly. We do pay rent. I mean, yes, the extraordinary costs on COVID is not -- we do pay rent. We had exactly the same structure. You have to realize that, we were working in engineering full blast -- absolutely full blast. I mean for the largest backlog we ever had. You have to realize that you've seen a backlog of EUR 10 billion, then you have to add up this, which is not in the backlog -- which was not in the backlog when we started the year and we launched the project and we have to be ready to launch a huge project in Algeria. So we were working full blast. So we do pay rent, and we do continue to pay rent. And from one day to another, everybody went home. So we have -- we were successfully to send 5,000 people from -- in one weekend to work home. That has translated absolutely in extra cost. I mean we do pay rent and we have IT extra cost, PCs extra cost, and that's here on this site, and efficiency extra cost. I mean it's not the same working from home. Despite everybody is very happy, we've been able to work from home because we already had invested millions of dollars on customers and that has translated sort of successfully. When you have 6,000 people working from home -- I mean, you pay rent for those 6,000 people. It's very difficult to think that you don't have extra cost. We had some -- but we had extra cost. And if you go to the site -- when you go to those sites -- you go to Duqm and we will have about 15,000 workers and you have to use them because people get confined, you cannot reduce your cost from one day to another. If you go to Haradh, which is in Saudi Arabia, where we have 12,000 workers and he came down to 2,000 workers, all this structure cannot get -- now we're working a way to reorganize this whole thing. But is probably now we're starting to see the benefit of reorganization and cost saving in the project. But the first -- the first hit translates into extra cost. We have had some savings. Savings in traveling and I don't know -- in sandwiches that we don't take in the office anymore. But now everybody -- but a very few savings. The savings is coming into the margins of this project. They are the savings that we are perceiving already because we are getting better terms on equipment, better terms on material. We are reorganizing the site, we're reducing the number of people that need to be managed, that we need to manage those sites. We're going to do construction by phases in alignment with the customer. And now -- and now the savings comes now, and that's what I said before, that I foresee that the managing and the margin of the jobs are good. But first impact, it has been rough. And you were talking about overheads. Over this 6 months, we've spent money on overheads. We had consultants. We had 2 very large consultants. Then we had other external consultants, and we had to spend money on overheads. But we have to spend on overheads, it's not that much. I think it's well-spent money. I don't think it's more than $4 million. That it need to be spent to save hundreds, I mean to restructure TR. So I think, it's an overhead well spent.

Patricia Cifuentes

analyst
#29

Juan, just a follow-up, just to be clear. I was giving rent for some example. But rents are not an extraordinary costs and that's where I'm going. The extraordinary costs would be the IP, and the -- maybe the workers you've hired to offset the lower efficiency in the plants or I still don't get it. I'm sorry.

Juan Arburua

executive
#30

I mean when from one day to another, you have idleness in the business, you do have extraordinary cost. I mean as the cost -- if you had planned that business, you would have never had it. And that's why it's seen as extraordinary. We would have -- it's pure idleness. I mean our camps were empty. Offices were empty. Our facilities to work in the different sites were empty. And we have to pay for all that. And we have to pay for the companies that do the maintenance of all of that. It's not renting in that case, you're just maintaining. As companies that make their living, putting the camps and the facilities and the food and everything for us in those big jobs, and we have to pay everything. Maybe we can negotiate with them, but we have to pay everything and it's idle. Thank you very much, Patricia.

Operator

operator
#31

We have our another question from Kevin Roger from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Kevin Roger

analyst
#32

It's basically a follow up on the one from Mick. Basically, I looked at the report and effectively the oil and gas activities are generating quite an attractive operating profit margin, because well above 12% this semester. But when I look at the power, basically, it's -- sorry for the word -- but it's horrible because you are generating something like EUR 150 million operating loss. For top line that's EUR 127 million. So even if you have, let's say, the exceptional cost coming from the U.K. and the EUR 70 million plus loss that you mentioned, it means that basically everything that power is probably going bad today. And so I was wondering, in H2, what should we expect from the power division? Because, basically if we want to expect a global improvement on the margin side at Técnicas, it seems that the key driver for that would be the power division because the oil and gas is already very good. So what should we expect for the power in H2, especially as probably the U.K. project is, let's say, extra extraordinary cost et cetera are over now?

Juan Arburua

executive
#33

Kevin, okay, we were talking COVID, we were talking management. But now let's focus into the business. The main core business which is the oil and gas, which shows the extraordinary results and it shows extraordinary results, which is the results of finishing jobs and finishing jobs and getting successful change orders to make it very simple, but I don't want to name the jobs because it would not be correct. But we've done well. We've done well in different jobs around the world. Everybody knows that we would deliver in big jobs and we have done so, and then has allowed us this semester to have extra extraordinary margins. Extraordinary margins that had allowed us to offset extraordinary losses. Extraordinary losses, that we have taken all the cost to completion. All the costs that we had seen to completion in the power division. So extraordinary jobs -- it would have been great just -- it would given -- gave the margins -- the market, that the business was -- it was always going to be 12%. But would have happened here is we had external loss, which have been upset by extraordinary margins. Extraordinary compensation, so to speak, for the well finishing of some of the jobs that we were not taking into account because it's always very difficult take into account or accrue extraordinary compensations. Very difficult. It doesn't happen there often. But it has happened. We have delivered very big jobs. Everybody knows which ones over the last 12 months. Some of those jobs that were delivered this last year, and the plans were accepted this quarter. Some of the jobs would -- have been delivered into the last quarter and it has been accepted this last quarter -- last -- just a month ago. Some of those jobs -- last -- the customer started to operate quite recently and make money. And moreover, it happens at the same time. It has translated, and it translate often, and this has been the case into our extraordinary gains. So unfortunately, it has to be used to offset extraordinary losses. So probably the positive side of the business, the losses has been taken and our core business, which is oil and gas, whether we call it clean fuels, gas or petrochemicals -- the oil and gas business and petrochemicals is solid and we're doing well.

Kevin Roger

analyst
#34

But sorry, but that mean that basically -- what I don't understand is that why are you not, like say, more confident in terms of margin development for the second half of the year if let's say the power loss would largely be over? Because with the loss that you did in H1, if you remove that, basically it means that the margin in H2, even if the margin from oil and gas are declining, and not at 12%. It will mean that the margin at the group level would be much better than what you generated in H1. So why are you not more optimistic for the margin development?

Juan Arburua

executive
#35

Let me tell you, Kevin. I mean I'm optimistic about how the business is running over the next 3 years. That's what I'd said before. So I don't think you would find anyone to be optimistic of what's going to happen to them over the next 6 months. So while I cannot say anything of what's going to happen to me, my family, TR, Spain, or Saudi Arabia over the next 6 months. But the message is, I'm very optimistic on the business. For the message for the jobs we were running, we're running good jobs with good customers and written them well. And we're going to be getting awards, probably not in 15 days, but yes, in the next 12 months. So I can be optimistic about the business and I have to be very prudent, and I cannot be here this table, watching this screen and being optimistic over the next 2 quarters. Uncertainty, overwhelms me and everyone.

Operator

operator
#36

We have another question from Robert Jackson from Santander.

Robert Jackson

analyst
#37

Just a couple of questions. Regarding the procurement -- the better procurement that is taking place. So will we have to wait for the -- for next year to see the benefits of that or could we start to see that in the second half of this year and hence that could be the upside risk also in margins. And the second question is relating to the -- you mentioned that next 4 to 5 there could be some awards. Could you give us any more visibility regarding that the risks of that -- of achieving some of those? Could they be relevant or is it similar to what you announced yesterday? Any visibility would be helpful.

Juan Arburua

executive
#38

Okay. Yes, let's start with the awards. Let me give me some color. You will be seen or probably heard of -- you will be getting some competitive FEED awards, which is what the customers are doing right now. They're to gain time and they want to do -- award 2 FEEDs, which is new. I think we've only did it -- we've only got that sort of scheme only a year ago, and now it's quite common in the market that a customer decides to award 2 FEEDs, which I think it takes time and money for them. And eventually, he decides with whom of the 2 FEEDs in 12 months' time to continue. That was the case years ago -- months ago with Exxon and it might be the case towards year-end or the very beginning of the year with some of the customer we're working for. And I don't know within the next 5 months or the next 8 months, as some of the jobs we're working with customers that we're working -- we're doing FEED - open book. And we're working with the customer and it is for the customer to feel comfortable with the numbers and for the customer to make a final investment decision. Our reading with the customer that we're working that is positive. But again, I cannot tell you where it's going to be in next 3 months or the next 7. But it's going to happen. One day it's going to happen. It is true that what we have seen is that everyone is taking their time to make final investment decision. It's true. We're working with them. We're reviewing the numbers. They're looking for third parties. They're checking the quantities. Everything that has to be done. Sometimes they say, okay, provided that we don't want to invest, today is going to be delayed 3 months. They pay it a little more money. That has been the case in one of the case. So we do improve the frontend design and it gets better defined and we look for cost savings. For customers that are looking for cost savings, engineer -- more engineering with us, more frontend and extended frontend, more -- and you'll see awards competitive at frontend, which would allow the customer to study farther and then gain time and then rush to the job whenever he makes a federal investment decision. And he don't have to go through open biddings. They have to make a decision of whether to go with TR, hopefully, or competitor. So we've seen a lot of that. That's why I say that we're going to be seeing FEEDs, open books, awards and some conversions in the next month. But their conversion probably would take a bit longer. Because, well, the mood of investors is to take longer. There is no reason for them to run. Market procurement. I think we'll see good margins in the project. But the thing is, somehow -- I mean, overall, the sales figure is not going to be very, very good. I mean -- and when we procure -- I mean, say that with the project that is 20% and then we do believe -- and the procurement that we get in that job is 10% better. I'd like to give you an example. And that procurement -- equipment procurement is 30%. So that means that we have a 3% improvement overall on that job, if everything was true. But if the project -- the rate of progress of the project is very low, you'll see marginal improvement on our margins, but it's going to be very marginal. So we'll be very happy within TR. We'll be seeing that we're doing a great management of the job. We'll be seeing that the risk of procurement that -- which sometimes is price and very often is delivery, because you know very well that a late delivery translates into a late construction -- claims from construction companies and problem with customers is much lesser. But it translates in the next 6 months into a -- strong margins as the rate of progress is going to be as low because it is going to be as low. We're not going to be seeing it. It will be a margin improvement, but we're not going to be seeing it.

Operator

operator
#39

Our last question will be from Alvaro Lenze from Alantra Equities.

Alvaro Lenze Julia

analyst
#40

Just a couple of quick questions. I -- well, looking at your number for the pipeline of opportunities. It seems that there have been no relevant cancellations during the COVID period, but the project should have been delayed. I wanted to know if these projects are on hold or whether you have some visibility on when they will be awarded. And secondly, in absence of awards, how long would it take for us to start seeing some margin pressure related to infra utilization of your resources. And secondly, if you could provide us with the net cash position adjusted for client advances?

Juan Arburua

executive
#41

Yes, let me start by the second. I always start by the second because the one I do remember better, Alvaro. The client advances, they're not very big and is very much net by payments that we make to our suppliers. So net-net, we haven't seen -- we were expecting to have some of the great advances this second quarter. But it has not -- it has not taken place. So in this number, there is -- net payments are very much net by net advances from customers. And in terms of awards, I mean, it's a moving target. Some of the jobs have disappeared and some others have come. Now we do have far more jobs than we had a year ago in gas than in refining. And we have more jobs in petrochemical and in refining. It has been a delay in some of the jobs that we were presenting -- we had to be presenting, and we should have presented commercial offers this quarter -- many of them in the Middle East, and some of them in the Europe. And when I say Europe, I take into account Russia and Turkey. I'm talking about the big, huge Europe. And they have not been canceled. They have been rescheduled the date when we have to present the commercial offer and it's this year. The same this year, that's what I said. We're not going to get the big awards of those jobs until next -- that were planned for this year, but we're going to in the next one. So what I'm saying before that customers are -- obviously, have been confined themselves. They've -- sort of they've send the message to the market and to ourselves that we have to be ready and in the next months, we have to present for big investments -- for big investments in the Middle East, for big investments in Russia, we have to present this final commercial offer, not a technical offer. That's already been done. Its final commercial offer. And when do you -- should you expect that because of idle operation, because we don't get award, we're going to have extra costs. I think we have put together, as I said before, the TR-ansforma. And then in this case, I think we're going to be moving and be ahead of the events. We do not expect to run that.

Alvaro Lenze Julia

analyst
#42

Okay. And a follow-up, if I may. With this period of scarcity of awards during the COVID, do you expect increased pricing competition once the tender process are reactivated?

Juan Arburua

executive
#43

I mean I don't know. I've been -- yes, and no. I mean, yes, because competition is something we have to live with. This world would be beautiful without competition. And when the market reactivates, if it really reactivates and everybody thinks that market is going to be big. So the size of the pie is quite big. And in this business, you cannot reinvent players. We are who we are. And then that's why you see, and as I tried to explain before, many of the customers, they're moving into what we call competitive frontend designs. What they're doing is, bidding and selecting to customers to whom they're going to be working to finally award a big job. And that's new, that's new in the market. That didn't happen 3 years ago. It happened last year for the first time to us. I think the first thing has happened ever. And now we see everyone. Customers trying to get ready to activate and make their final investment decision. They spent $30 million, so to speak, in 2 frontend designs that would save time and money for them and probably have a far better-defined job. Yes, [ MS ] is a good idea. It keep us busy. And probably, the customer will have a better-defined investment.

Operator

operator
#44

We have another question from Beltran Palazuelo, SANTALUCÍA AM.

Beltran Barroso

analyst
#45

I have 3 questions. First one is regarding revenue. Let's say, versus previous plan pre-COVID and third and fourth quarter of average executions of around EUR 1.3 billion. Currently, how fast are we running? Then on the -- second question is on the net cash position. I've seen the working capital is a little bit of customers and a little bit of supply chain and subcontractors. Going forward, I suppose the supply chain and subcontractors, you're the one that pays. So how are we going to see the working capital going forward? You said it can be a bit -- little bit lower -- the cash position or little bit higher. But while you currently should have a plan. So how am I going to see the net cash position and the working capital? And the last -- the third question, maybe it's -- for some people, it's not important, but for the investors it's important. What -- your opinion of the stock price when I see your backlog and I see the possibilities, since this company was IPO-ed we have never seen the stock price this low -- well get in 2008. So maybe Juan or Eduardo can give us a little comment on what are their opinions regarding, as you say, when the long term, 3 years or more, how do be put in place the business opportunities regarding your current stock price.

Juan Arburua

executive
#46

Beltran, okay, the first 2 questions. I think the first 2 question -- we have another. I've answered them through my presentation. The pace of revenue and the pace and change of working capital, it has very much to do with the uncertainty by which we work in this business. Is the uncertainty to achieve progress. If we are very successful and things get well, and we are able to get 12,000 workers into Oman, we'll have a great -- we'll have a great improvement in revenue and even working capital. For the time being it's difficult, even though customer is trying to help us. If we find ways to finish some of the jobs in Saudi Arabia, which customer wants, we'll have an improvement in revenue, and we have an improvement in working capital. But nowadays, it's very difficult to try to pinpoint, where are we going to be in terms of revenue. We have to be prudent, and we do have to expect this year to have less revenue. Not less backlog, but yes, less revenue. But obviously, the stock price is important for you as an investor. I do believe it's important for all the investors, and you may believe it's extremely important for TR and for me, and for myself. I mean it is very important. And it's, obviously -- I think it's obvious that it's very important for me. And I think the stock price, I do believe in that if we manage the business correctly, if we manage our customers correctly. If we have our TR-ansforma plans in place correctly, we happen to be one of the best companies in this market, and most efficient, the stock market ourselves. Provided company does -- I mean, competitors do well as well, and provided the market recovers, we would be back where we were before. But nowadays, we'll have to focus on how we're going to be managing the next 3 months and after 3 months, we'll see how we manage the following 3 months. But I stop -- and we are very successfully managing customers, projects, employees and be efficient. Eventually, if market recovers, the stock price, I'm comfortably sure that we'll recover as well. But I cannot -- so, please don't ask me to make projections because I cannot make projections in stock price. But it's important for me even.

Beltran Barroso

analyst
#47

It seems -- well, it seems the last call, there's 3 months and I don't know, maybe not -- we have no more certainty now than I mean in the past. Of course, you don't know when you will end. But at least, you have seen that no big holes have appeared in the execution. So you're not more optimistic now than 3 months ago?

Juan Arburua

executive
#48

I mean 3 months ago -- I mean, if you go 3 months ago, we were hours confined and I was optimistic because customers were giving me very positive feedback. I was optimistic because customers were treating me well. Now I'm worried at the same time because this pandemic is worse in the third world countries or in the developing countries. And in the countries that we're working is far worse now than it was 3 months ago. 3 months ago, it was difficult for Spain. Now it's difficult for our customers in the different sites. So one thing balances the other. But overall, the way we're managing the business, I can say, I'm more optimistic, but I think because we have the means to manage the business. I mean we have sort of a -- because I have gone through, probably, we do believe that we're going through the worst. But uncertainty is there. I mean -- I don't want to say whether from 1 to 10, what is my level of optimism. But I've managed the last 3 months quite nicely in a way, so to speak. And I think the months to come, we may have to take difficult decisions. We may get good news with awards. So the level of uncertainty, as you may imagine, Beltran is huge.

Operator

operator
#49

Well, the conference comes to its end. So I give back the floor to the company for final remarks.

Juan Arburua

executive
#50

Thank you, Beltran, because you were one -- the last one, posting questions here. Thank you. Thank you for everyone. Let's see how we go through this summer. It seems it's going to be hot, but it's going to be intensive. And I'll be talking to you in the next quarter presentation, which is going to be first week of November, I do believe, or second week of November. So thank you very much for listening to me. Thank you very much for posting questions, and thanks a lot for being involved. Thank you. Thanks a lot.

Read the full transcript via the API

You're viewing the first half of this call. Get the complete Técnicas Reunidas, S.A. transcript — plus 248,000+ transcripts from 12,000+ companies, speaker segments, AI summaries and full-text search — through the EarningsCalls.dev API.

Get the API View API docs →

This call discussed

For developers and AI pipelines

Programmatic access to Técnicas Reunidas, S.A. earnings transcripts and 248,000+ others is available through the EarningsCalls.dev REST API. Plans from $24.99/month — full transcripts, speaker segments, full-text search, and the recently-added /api/v1/transcripts/recent polling endpoint for ETL pipelines.