Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA

OSE:EMGS

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q4

[Bjørn Lindhom, executive]

Welcome to the presentation of EMGS' Fourth Quarter 2022 Results. I'm here with our CFO, Anders Eimstad. And together, we will be presenting these results. Please take note of our disclaimer.

Let me start with the highlights. We completed the proprietary acquisition for Woodside and BP offshore Trinidad and Tobago in early December, and the vessel transited back to Norway and then was placed in warm stack with a reduced day rate.

Financially, this quarter was our best since the fourth quarter of 2019 and our seventh consecutive profitable quarter. Our revenue for the quarter came in at $15.2 million. Our EBITDA was $10.3 million, and our adjusted EBITDA was $8.2 million. During the quarter, we completed our third voluntary bond buyback with an aggregate nominal value of USD 5 million. The remaining bond loan is now approximately $19.5 million, and our year-end available cash balance was $11.4 million, which is after we completed the bond buyback.

It is also worth noting that the accounts receivables at the end of the year were higher than normal. Most of this has now been paid, and the total cash at the end of January was $15.5 million. We can also mention that the majority of the bond loan is May 2025. On subsequent events worth mentioning, we made a late sale of $1.7 million that was announced in January.

Now to our operations and market section. The year of 2022 was our second full year operating with a new flexible business model. We were profitable in all quarters of the year. We completed 4 acquisition projects, starting with a fully-prefunded campaign in the North Sea; followed by the survey for the ATLAB consortium in the Mid-Atlantic looking for marine minerals, where we prove that we can acquire a suit of geophysical measurements from our vessel, including node and streamer seismic. The vessel then transited to Canada for a fully-prefunded job in the Orphan Basin, and we ended the year with a successful survey for Woodside and BP of Trinidad and Tobago. The exciting part of this survey was that the characterization of the reservoir or appraising the reservoir was the main objective.

We are very proud of our operational capabilities. And we had no safety incidents, no environmental incidents, and we had minimal technical downtime during all our operations.

The vessel utilization for the whole year was 22% compared to 32% in 2021. We were warm stacked in the beginning of the year, and we had very long transits. The fact that we are able to deliver good profits with such a low utilization is a testimony to a combination of efficient operations. We make good money when we operate, and we are able to reduce the cost between jobs and that we have a multiclient library that continues to deliver revenues enough to sustain us between the acquisition jobs.

Looking back at the year of 2022, we can see that the positive trend in revenue and profitability started in 2021 continues. Our annual revenue in 2022 were $35 million compared to and up from $29 million in 2021 and $25 million in 2020. This is about a 20% year-over-year growth in revenue. Our net income ended at $11.2 million, up more than 100% from $4.9 million in 2021. Our adjusted EBITDA for the full year was $16.1 million, up from $11 million in 2021. The adjusted EBITDA margin increased from 37% in '21 to 46% in 2022.

In 2019, we operated 2 vessels and had almost $90 million in revenue and a net income of $15 million, resulting in a profit margin of about 17%. In 2022, our revenues were substantially lower, but our profit margin was significantly better and almost doubled at 32%.

The challenge for all geophysical acquisition companies has always been the variable utilization. In the EM business, the visibility and predictability are worse than for regular marine seismic. It is, therefore, crucial to have a business model where the cost can be reduced between projects. The above comparisons also highlight the potential for EMGS if the utilization could be increased.

One of the key elements for our success has been and is our multiclient library, which continues to perform and delivers revenue between our acquisition campaigns. It consists of data offshore Norway, Mexico, Brazil, U.S., Canada, Uruguay and Indonesia. We are actively using the library to generate both new multiclient projects as well as new contract opportunities.

The current book value is only USD 1.5 million. In 2022, we had total multiclient revenues of USD 16.7 million. This included prefunding from 2 projects offshore Norway and the Canada multiclient survey with a combined revenues of $4.8 million, whereas the late sales accounted for $11.9 million for a combined total of $16.7 million. This is very similar to 2021 when we had $16 million in total multiclient revenue. We will continue to invest in new, financially-sound multiclient projects both in Norway and internationally.

I will now hand it over to Anders to go through our financials in some more details.

[Anders Eimstad, executive]

Thank you, Bjorn Petter. The total revenue for the fourth quarter was $15.2 million. The graph on the upper right shows the quarterly revenue development. From this graph, you can see that revenue has improved significantly as compared to the previous 4 quarters. Of the $15.2 million in revenue in the fourth quarter, $11.6 million were contract sales, $2.6 million were related to multiclient sales and $1 million for other revenue. All of the $1 million in other revenue is related to revenue recognition of the DeepBlue partner contribution, which has no cash effect.

We had one vessel on charter in the fourth quarter. During the quarter, the Atlantic Guardian completed a proprietary survey in Trinidad and Tobago. The Atlantic Guardian then transited back to Norway to be placed in warm stack. EMGS had a vessel utilization of 46% for the quarter.

We recorded an EBITDA of $10.3 million this quarter. EBITDA excludes the capitalized multiclient expenses as well as the vessel and office lease expenses. If we add these expenses to the EBITDA, we get an adjusted EBITDA. The quarterly development of the adjusted EBITDA is shown at the graph at the bottom right of the slide. EBITDA has increased as compared to the previous quarters. It's the seventh consecutive quarter with a positive adjusted EBITDA. The adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter was $8.2 million. The adjusted EBITDA for the full year of 2022 was $16.1 million.

The next slide details the movement in the operational cost base. In the graph to the left, you can see the quarterly development of the components of EMGS' operational cost base. The components are charter hire, fuel and crew expenses, employee expenses and other operational expenses. In addition, the capitalized multiclient expenses and vessel and office lease expenses are added to the cost base.

The operational cost base for the fourth quarter was $7 million compared to an operational cost base of $5.2 million in the third quarter. The $1.8 million increase in operating cost base is primarily a result of increased activity and long global transit completed in the quarter. Additionally, $750,000 was accrued in employee expenses as part of the annual employee bonus program. Other operational expenses remained consistent with the previous quarters.

The next slide details the movement in free cash over the fourth quarter. Free cash increased in the fourth quarter by $53,000. This is illustrated in the graph to the left. The light blue bar to the left shows a free cash position at the end of the third quarter of $11.4 million. The components increasing the cash position during the fourth quarter are shown in dark blue, while the components reducing cash position are colored red.

Free cash at the end of the fourth quarter was $11.4 million. The adjusted EBITDA of $8.2 million increased the cash this quarter, while vessel and office leases were $2.1 million. The increase in trade receivables from $3 million to $7.9 million decreased the cash this quarter by $4.9 million.

EMGS used $4.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 towards the bond buyback, which was completed at 86.5% of par. This resulted in an aggregate principal reduction of $5 million. The increase in trade payables from the previous quarter in the amount of $0.9 million increased free cash. Interest paid in the quarter on the convertible bond and other interest expenses amounted to $0.7 million in the fourth quarter.

Now Bjorn Petter will give a brief summary of the presentation.

[Bjørn Lindhom, executive]

Thank you, Anders. That concludes our presentation of the fourth quarter results for 2022 and a review of the year as a whole. Please, as always, send your questions to us by e-mail at [e-mail]. Thank you for your interest.