Vantage Drilling International Ltd. (VTDRF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Vantage Drilling International Fourth Quarter and Year-end 2023 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Douglas Stewart, General Counsel. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Vantage Drilling International Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. On the call today is also Ihab Toma, our CEO; and Rafael Blattner, our CFO. This morning, we released our earnings announcement for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2023. The earnings release is available on our website at vantagedrilling.com. Please also note that any comments we make today about our expectations of future events and projections are forward-looking statements pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. We have based forward-looking statements on management's current expectations and assumptions and not on historical facts. Examples of these statements include, but are not limited to, our expectations regarding future results, including expectations regarding our liquidity position, future costs and expenses related to upgrades and out of service work as well as contract preparation costs and expenses. Forward-looking statements in today's call are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control and could cause actual results to differ materially from the projections made in today's conference call. Vantage does not undertake the updating of any such statement or risk factor that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. We refer you to our earnings release and financials available on our website. We have prerecorded our prepared remarks and are participating on the call remotely to manage the question-and-answer session segment of the call. In the event there are issues with sound quality or of a similar nature, please accept our apologies in advance, and thank you for your understanding. Now let me turn over the call to our CEO, Mr. Ihab Toma.

Thank you, Douglas, and good morning and good afternoon, everyone. 2023 was a successful year for the company and for the industry, where the industry recovery continued into its third year. In many regards, 2023 was an important turnaround year for Vantage. We have moved past the challenges of COVID-19 period, improved our safety performance, recontracted rigs at higher rates, refinanced our debt and achieved our strongest financial performance since before the company's reorganization in 2016. I would like to take the opportunity during this Q4 2023 earnings call to reflect on the full year of 2023. And as usual, I will do so by taking you through our progress in relation to our 3 corporate goals of: one, maintaining stellar safety and operational performance; two, contracting of our fleet at higher day rates; and three, achieving excellent shareholders' returns. I will begin with our corporate goal #1 of maintaining stellar safety and operational performance, which is our license to operate as a company. During the last quarter and throughout 2023, we remain focused on delivering our vision of a Perfect Day Every Day by consistently training, coaching and mentoring our crews across our owned, managed and supported fleets. We continued with the reintroduction of the behavioral-based Perfect Day Leadership training program across our worldwide operations with very positive feedback from all participants and overwhelming support from our clients. Remarkably, in 2023, our annual work hours increased by over 400,000 hours as our rigs continue to operate for many different clients in many different locations across the globe, and yet, we still achieved better results than the excellent results achieved in 2022. We had a number of impressive highlights during 2023 with the Platinum Explorer achieving 4 years without a recordable incident and the Topaz Driller achieving 2 years without one. The Qatar supported jack-ups had a very good year with all 3 rigs achieving major incident-free milestones. The Sapphire Driller achieved 5 years recordable incident-free while both the Emerald Driller and the Aquamarine Driller achieved 1 year without a recordable incident. These results were acknowledged by the industry and clients where the Sapphire Driller was recognized by the International Association of Drilling Contractors for having the regional's best recordable incident rate and the Emerald Driller was recognized by TotalEnergies as the second overall best rig in their global fleet in 2023 and the best overall in regard to HFC. These are fantastic achievements and clear indications that the Perfect Day Leadership program and its reintroduction in 2023 had the desired effect, supported by our team's attitude and belief in the effectiveness of our safety programs. Shifting to sustainability, we increased our focus and our efforts on sustainability in 2023 and established an environmental, social and governance, ESG working group consisting of the company's leaders across multiple disciplines who met throughout the year and produced our first internal sustainability report. We believe that by integrating sustainability into our decision-making process, we future-proof our business by making decisions aimed for the long term and also contribute positively to the society in general. On the environmental side, we continue to focus on reducing our GHG emissions and fuel usage, better managing our waste and improving our water usage efficiencies. On the social side, we continue to focus on our industry-leading diversity, which is a core value for us that brings clear benefits to our business. Finally, and as always, we continue to maintain a strong governance focus and operate at the highest ethical standards in all regions where we operate through regular training and governance issues. Switching to operations. Revenue efficiency for the owned fleet during the fourth quarter of 2023 was a disappointing 73.4% where the deepwater fleet and the jackup fleet ended at 62.6% and 99%, respectively. Revenue efficiency for the fleet during the year was 86%, where the deepwater fleet ended at 83.1%, and the jackup fleet achieved 96.6%. The lower than usual revenue efficiency for the quarter and for the year were primarily due to subsea equipment downtime events on the Tungsten Explorer in Namibia as the rig continues to work and through ultra-deepwater and challenging weather conditions in Namibia, where any subsea downtime event requires significantly more time to remediate. It is noteworthy to highlight that this campaign is an industry first for a rig to drill 3 consecutive wells in over 10,000 feet of water. We are happy to report that the Tungsten Explorer worked throughout the Namibian winter without any interruption due to the harsh weather environment, proving the technical capabilities of the rig to operate in such conditions, thanks to its big clusters and 2.5 million pounds hook load. The rig suitability for this environment was ultimately recognized by the client, TotalEnergies and resulting in the long-term agreement for the rig that I will discuss shortly. Although we did experience another 13 days of subsea equipment downtime during the first quarter of 2024, I'm confident that these teething issues are largely behind us, and happy to report that Vantage and TotalEnergies are closely collaborating to mitigate similar events in the future. It is worth noting that the Platinum Explorer has achieved approximately 97% revenue efficiency for the year. And separately, the managed drillships revenue efficiency, which does not show in our company revenue efficiency was also approximately 97%. This along with our strong safety record and efficient cost structure makes choosing Vantage as the trusted manager for their fleet a clear choice for rig owners. I will now walk you through our fleet status, which directly ties to our second corporate goal on contracting our rigs and securing higher day rates. Starting with the 2 owned jackups. The Soehanah started the year under a legacy day rate contract and transition during the third quarter to a new 776-day contract with Medco at $119,900 per day, which will run until the latter part of 2025. During 2023, the Soehanah also received a short shipyard stay that has seen its accommodation getting upgraded. The Topaz Driller had a busy year across multiple countries, initially working with Petrobel under a legacy rate contract through a BBC to ADES Egypt, then transitioning to Eni in Morocco, under market day rate contract with a margin accretive mobilization and finally, mobilizing to Foxtrot in the Ivory Coast in mid-December 2023. After concluding the campaign for Foxtrot during the first quarter of 2024, the rig will mobilize to Singapore will -- where it will undergo comprehensive upgrades and contract preparation before commencing operations in the joint development area of Malaysia and Thailand on a 2-year firm contract with CPOC at $125,000 per day with a further 9 months of unpriced options also included. These upgrades include the increase in accumulation quarters capacity significant off-line handling and pumping capabilities and under deck cantilever cranes. As mentioned earlier, these reimbursable upgrades will position us to achieve higher future day rates as they bring the Topaz Driller specifications to comparable levels to rigs that were built and delivered years later. Switching to Deepwater. The Platinum Explorer had a great year running completion operations for ONGC. The Platinum contract has expired in February of 2024 and begun the planned out of service expected to take approximately 3 to 4 months. During this time, we will undergo scheduled maintenance and 5-yearly certification of equipment change to thrusters and upgrade the BOP from 5 rams to 6 rams. As a result of the 6-ram BOP upgrade, the Platinum Explorer is now being offered to clients throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. Moving on to the Tungsten Explorer. TotalEnergies has extended the rig's contract through the first quarter of 2025 by exercising its final contractual option. Additionally, TotalEnergies and Vantage have entered into a binding agreement whereby the Tungsten Explorer will be sold for $265 million to our joint venture owned 75% by TotalEnergies and 25% by Vantage. This joint venture will sign a fixed day rate contract for 10 years with the potential for additional 5 years to provide drilling services to TotalEnergies. Vantage will also enter into a management service contract with the JV, receiving an average compensation of $47,500 per day. The fixed day rate and estimated JV profitability will not be made public. Finally, regarding the Managed Services segment, the Polaris worked the entire 2023 for ONGC in India and has been successfully returned to Seadrill during March of 2024. The Capella has had tremendous success working for clients in Indonesia during the second half of 2023 after drilling a well in Mozambique with Eni Mozambique and mobilizing back to Indonesia to work for Eni, where the rig was part of significant gas discovery and then mobilized for a well with Mubadala, which was also a significant gas discovery. We ended the year commencing operations for Harbour Energy followed by Mubadala again where the rig is currently operating. The rig should be returned to Seadrill sometime during the third quarter of 2024, if no more mutually agreed options are to be exercised by the client. We are committed to this segment of our business, and we continue to pursue some opportunities to add rigs under our management to replace the outgoing Seadrill rigs and continue to grow our Managed Services business. As a result of all mentioned items, our backlog at the end of the fourth quarter was approximately $202.9 million with recent hours in 2023, not being added until contract signature. Moving to the market dynamics. And despite the recently widely talked about utilization white spaces in 2024, which could lead to potentially some disappointing fixtures announcements, sentiment remains strong, and customers, especially in the Drillship segment continue the observed trend of securing capable rigs for term contracts spanning multiple projects. We have capitalized on such trends with the TotalEnergies joint venture. I will now move to our third corporate goal of achieving excellent stakeholders' returns. During 2023, we achieved $70.9 million of EBITDA, our highest level since 2015. We achieved operating cash flow of approximately $2.2 million despite the Tungsten Explorer subsea downtime events during the year. With regards to our cash position, we ended the year with a cash balance of $84 million, including $10.8 million in restricted cash and $11.6 million of managed services prefunded cash. The increase in cash from the previous quarter, exclusive of Managed Services prefunded cash was approximately $8 million. This was primarily due to the collections of approximately $8.4 million associated with the Topaz Driller mobilization fee to Morocco. Lastly, as I mentioned earlier, our rigs are moving from legacy contracts to contracts at higher day rates, reflecting the improved market. Some of these new contracts involve large upfront cash investments which will be covered to a large extent by reimbursements by the client after the commencement of the contract as well as the increased day rate of the actual contracts. To conclude, throughout 2023, we remain focused on our corporate objectives of outstanding safety performance and pursuing profitable long-term drilling contracts to deliver strong future returns to our shareholders. In 2024, we look forward to delivering safe and successful campaigns with the Tungsten Explorer, Capella, Topaz Driller and Soehanah, conducting a safe, efficient shipyard stay with the Platinum Explorer and putting it back to work as an upgraded drillship, conducting a safe and efficient shipyard stay with the Topaz Driller and having seamless start for it with CPOC and finally, continuing to support the ADES jackups in Qatar and elsewhere when needed as per our strategic alliance with them. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Rafael to take us through the numbers.

Thank you, Ihab, and welcome, everyone. I'll now provide an overview of the company's financial performance for the quarter and full year ending December 31, 2023. The company ended the quarter with approximately $84 million in cash, including $10.8 million in restricted cash compared to $77.6 million at the previous quarter inclusive of $7.6 million in restricted cash. At December 31, 2023, Vantage maintained $11.6 million of cash prefunded by our Managed Services customer to address near-term obligations associated with the operations of the rigs. The increase in cash was primarily due to the collections of $8.6 million in mobilization fees for the Eni Morocco campaign. Working capital for the fourth quarter ended at approximately $119.1 million compared to $127.6 million in the previous quarter. For the fourth quarter, we achieved revenues of approximately $94.5 million compared to $76.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2022. The increase was primarily due to a full quarter of Polaris' revenue as the rig started with ONGC in mid-December of 2022, higher day rates on the Tungsten Explorer, Topaz Driller and the Soehanah and higher mobilization revenue on the Topaz Driller, this increase was partially offset by lower revenue due to operational events of the Tungsten Explorer as described by Ihab on his prepared remarks. Total revenue for 2023 was $383.1 million compared to $278.7 million in the previous year. The increase was mostly due to full year of operations in the Polaris, higher mobilization revenues and higher average day rates, partially offset by downtime on the Tungsten Explorer and lower jackup revenues after the sale of EDC in May of 2022. Revenue efficiency for the fourth quarter of 2023 and for the full year of 2023 for the owned fleet was 73.4% and 86%, respectively. The lower-than-usual revenue efficiency was due to downtime experienced by the Tungsten Explorer. Operating costs for the fourth quarter totaled $75.2 million which were higher compared to $65.1 million in the same quarter of 2022. The increase was primarily due to higher activity in the Managed Services segment and mobilization costs on the Topaz Driller. Operating costs for the year ended in 2023 totaled $290.1 million compared to $234.8 million in 2022. The increase was mostly due to the increase in activity in 2023 and the Tungsten Explorer higher operating costs in Namibia when compared to the Mediterranean in 2022, partially offset by lower jackup costs after the sale of EDC in May of 2022. General and administrative expenses for the fourth quarter of 2023 totaled approximately $6.2 million as compared to $5.3 million for the comparable quarter in 2022. The cost increase is primarily due to costs associated with the redomiciliation from the Cayman Islands to Bermuda and transition costs incurred during the closure of the Houston office and subsequent consolidation into the Dubai headquarters. General and administrative expenses for the year of 2023 totaled $21.3 million compared to $23 million in 2022. The decrease of $1.3 million was primarily due to the final payment of the management incentive plan in 2022, partially offset by the increase in compensation and transition costs associated with the closure of the Houston office. Interest expense for the quarter was approximately $5.3 million compared to $8.8 million in the comparable quarter in 2022. The decrease was due to lower outstanding debt as a result of the partial redemption of the 9.25% notes during the fourth quarter of 2022, partially offset by the increase in interest rates on the outstanding balance on the 9.5% notes during the fourth quarter of 2023. The net results for the fourth quarter and for the year of 2023 was a net loss of $14.6 million and $15.4 million, respectively, attributed to shareholders. Please note that we will post our 2023 annual report on our website later. And with that, I will now turn the call back to the operator to begin Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Maryana Kushnir with Nomura.

You mentioned that the agreement with Total is now binding? Do you have an anticipated closing date for the transaction?

I'll pass it to Rafael, this is his favorite question. Thank you, Maryana.

The binding memorandum of understanding has been signed. There are customary CPs as part of the agreement, one of them being the due diligence by TotalEnergies on the Tungsten Explorer. If I look back that TotalEnergies has operated the rig for about 70% to 80% of the time since the rig left the [Technical Difficulty]. And the other provision is the setup of the joint venture entity, which is in progress. However, for us to be able to close, the rig needs to be moved [Technical Difficulty]. So with that in mind, we believe that we're going to be closing the deal between the second half of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.

Okay. And there was a moment that you cut out for a moment. You said in order for this to move to kind of the final stage. There's percentage, I think of the efficiency that you need to meet. Is that right?

No, that is -- I don't know if my line cut off or it was the [Technical Difficulty].

Okay. What was the second -- sorry, keeps cutting out.

The creation of the joint venture entity.

Joint venture. Got it. Okay. Got it. So the -- and in terms of documentation, so right now, you have binding memorandum of understanding will it eventually go into purchase and sale agreement or it's really just about the joint venture document that would be then.

No, understood. So where we're at is that the management team has spent substantially -- a substantial amount of time with TotalEnergies in their Paris office. The memorandum of understanding includes lots of term sheets that have been negotiated. However, what needs to take place now is that definitive agreements, including but not limited to a purchase and sales agreement do need to be signed. And we're in the process of doing that, and that's running as a critical path to the joint venture setup. However, I do want to highlight that these are not just one liner bullet points on the term sheet, these are terms and conditions that have been thoroughly discussed between the parties.

Got it. And with regards to the bonds, then once the transaction closes, would you then issue a call or tender notice. Is that kind of the plan?

Yes. I refer you to the venture, which requires us to mandatorily redeem the net proceeds associated with the sale of the rig.

Right. At par?

At par. And then at that point, we're going to receive, if you look at our presentation online, we're going to receive $198.75 million, and then we're going to supplement the $1.25 million making that portion whole, which is a marginal portion of the outstanding debt, just $1.25 million.

Got it. So for the $265 million amount so you're not getting $265 million upfront, is that right?

So you need to refer to how the transaction is being structured. We're only selling 75% of the rig. So that's the cash proceed associated with $265 million at 75%.

[Operator Instructions] And I'm currently showing no further questions at this time. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.