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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. [Operator Instructions] I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded on Monday, March 7, at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and is being broadcast live via Internet.
During today's call, management will make statements regarding management's expectations for the company's future financial and operational performance. These statements are considered forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this call, and actual results may differ materially from management expectations for a variety of reasons, including market and general economic conditions and the risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the company's SEDAR filings.
Please note, the company has included a downloadable PDF presentation today for users to access through the link or alternatively is available on the company's website in the Investors section. And I would like to turn the call over to President and CEO of Geodrill Limited, Mr. Dave Harper. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Geodrill's 2021 Q4 year-end financial results conference call. I will begin with an overview of our operations and performance for the quarter. Our CFO, Greg Borsk, will then give a more detailed review of our fourth quarter financial results, after which I will discuss our outlook for the remainder of 2022.
This slide is our forward-looking slide. So for those following the slide deck, we're now on Slide 3, FY 2021 financial highlights. So we capped off fiscal 2021 with outstanding momentum, delivering on all key financial metrics and strengthening our balance sheet.
We generated record revenue of over USD 115 million, representing a 14% increase compared to fiscal 2020. We also generated record EBITDA, USD 29.5 million, a 55% year-over-year increase and record net income, USD 14 million, which was an 88% increase. And as a result of these 3 record beats, we achieved for our investors a return on capital employed of 22% and a return on equity of 16% and that's up from 14% and 10%, respectively, a year ago.
Geodrill's balance sheet also remains one of our differentiating advantages with net tangible book value up 18% total shareholder equity, USD 87.5 million, that's up 20%. We have net cash of USD 2.4 million, and that's after decreasing debt of USD 3.4 million. We delivered a $0.02 per share dividend. And the bottom line is that our strong balance sheet with low leverage well positions us for future organic growth.
Moving through the slides. We are now discussing FY 2021 operational highlights and CAGR on Slide #5. So our focus on delivering steady revenue growth, strong net earnings and strong balance sheet enables Geodrill to invest in key growth opportunities. We ended 2022 with the highest rig count in the company's history, and we have expanded our geographical footprint.
In the past 2 months, we have announced over USD 130 million in new contracts, all with top-tier gold producers such as Perseus Mining, Centamin and Endeavour Mining. These contracts will drive future revenue and they signaled that Geodrill continues to be a driller of choice in its core geographical territory of West Africa and beyond.
And as we benefit from the strong gold price, the landscape is now changing, and the supply demand factors are now starting to drive pricing leverage. We have also increased our service offering. We have expanded our production drill service offering by expanding our underground drilling capabilities. We have also launched mine blast hole drilling services, which we see as a natural extension of our platform of capabilities. But perhaps most significantly, since inception, our rig count has grown organically at a compound -- excuse me, a compounded annual growth rate of 20%.
During 2021, we advanced our growth strategy through significant investments in our drill rig fleet, adding 4 rigs to the fleet and strategically invested into inventory to mitigate supply chain challenges on production. This investment not only allows us to capture a larger market share, it makes a very big difference to our customers. And underpinned by continuing strong demand, we expect to add a further 7 rigs to our fleet this year.
I'll now pass the call over to Greg Borsk, who will be discussing on Slide 5, that's FY 2021 highlights record revenue. Thank you, Greg.
Thank you, Dave. As a reminder, all figures are in U.S. dollars. In 2021, we exceeded our financial targets. The company recorded revenue of $115.2 million for 2021 compared to $82.4 million for 2020, an increase of 40%. The increase in revenue is a result of the increase in demand for the company's drilling services.
Geographically, in addition to West Africa, the company has generated revenue from both Peru and Egypt in 2021. The gross profit for 2021 was $30.1 million or 26% of revenue compared to gross profit of $20.9 million or 25% of revenue for 2020. EBITDA was $29.5 million for 2021 or 26% of revenue compared to only $19 million or 23% of revenue for 2020.
Net income was $14.1 million or $0.31 per share, representing an 88% increase compared to earnings per share of $0.17 for 2020. We ended the year with net cash of $2.4 million. We also achieved seasonally strong financial results for the fourth quarter of 2021. The company recorded revenue of $26.7 million for Q4 2021 compared to $24.7 million for Q4 2020, representing an 8% increase. The gross profit for Q4 2021 was $6.5 million compared to a gross profit of $6.9 million for Q4 2020.
The SG&A for Q4 2021 was $2 million compared to $2.9 million for Q4 2020. Overall, we had an exceptionally strong Q4. EBITDA was $7.3 million or 27% of revenue compared to $5.7 million or 23% of revenue for Q4 2020.
Lastly, our net income for Q4 2021 was $2.8 million or $0.06 per share compared to net income of $2.2 million or $0.05 per share for Q4 2020.
At this point, I will turn the call back to Dave. Thank you, Greg.
It is clear from our financial performance is a testament to the strength of our business and the demand for our drilling services. Before we move to the Q&A portion of the call, I'd like to provide a brief outlook for the remainder of 2022. So as a reminder, we are now on slide outlook 2022.
We have entered 2022 with strong market fundamentals and robust demand for drilling underpinned by long-term multi-rig contracts. This accelerated growth is all against the backdrop of the global economy increasing investor interest in gold, which is ultimately driving exploration budgets. We have a strong balance sheet, allowing the company to reinvest in our business and our industry's future growth, prudently managed down debt levels and returned capital to our shareholders.
As we look to the year ahead, there are a number of growth catalysts to look forward to. With the most modern drilling fleet, extensive industry experience, long-term contracts, a robust balance sheet and a cohesive leadership team with a proven track record, we believe these are the key drivers to our growth in 2022.
Summarized, these include expanding our full-service offering with existing clients, increasing our rig fleet size, increased drilling activity, driving higher rig utilization and price leverage and strengthening commodity prices.
This concludes our prepared remarks. Thank you for participating in today's call. We will now be pleased to answer any calls you may have. At this point, I will ask the operator to provide directions for anyone who wishes to ask a question. Thank you.
[Operator Instructions] And your first question will be from John Sartz at Viking Capital.
I got a couple of questions actually. First of all, could you -- what -- can you sort of tell me what was the capital -- the utilization in Q4? And where do we sit so far this year?
Q4 has averaged about 70%. As we entered it, it was a bit lower. And as we exited it exception of the Christmas shutdown, we were a bit stronger. I'd say through the quarter, we're about 70%. As we enter the new year, the rig fleet has increased, and we are maintaining on the increased fleet size utilization north of 70%.
Currently, as we speak, it is 73%, and it appears it may trend up to well, it will certainly go north of that. And then what happens is new rigs arrive and then the rig count, the total rig count the amount of rig spending is divided into a larger rig count. So it tends to float in a range of 70 to 75 and sometimes 80%. I imagine we'll peak out shortly. New rigs will be added, it will come down just by a natural function of increasing the rig fleet. And then that demand will be taken up. And the utilization number increases again. So it's a constantly moving target.
Appreciate that. Just sort of 1 more question, if I may. The gross margin in Q4 was 24% versus 28% last year. I'm just curious about the reason for that.
I think if you look at the overall year, John, we came in at 26%.
I saw that, yes.
Yes. What happened in last year, I don't want to go back too far to Q4 2020, we had a very -- we had a slow first 9 months, if you remember, through COVID, Q1, Q2, Q3. Q3 2020 was exceptionally slow. So what happened in Q4 2020 is we were extremely busy, and we were busy in Q4 2020 to end that fiscal year. And so that's kind of it. It was a very busy fourth quarter last year. Whereas this year, Q4 2021, we were actually able to beat on the top line Q4 2020, but we also had significant investment this year in our workshops. So we are expecting to be extremely busy in 2022.
So what we did for Q4 2021 is we were full out on our workshops and our people getting ready for 2022. So that's kind of what you see in the cost of goods sold. It's -- you have to think of it as an investment in -- although it hits cost of goods sold, it's really an investment in making sure we were ready to go for 2022 because 2022 is going to be extremely busy for us.
And your next question will be from Daryl Young at TD Securities.
Just following up on that comment for 2022 being extremely busy, which regions are you seeing probably the greatest in demand? And then can you also give a bit of an update on what's happening in Egypt?
Demand is coming from all over. It is extremely busy. All business models are busy. And with the exception of this point, the only place we really have capacity is in Peru, and we believe that might change very soon. We're always bidding jobs. And I believe what I'm hearing is that, that could change very soon. And that will effectively max us out in Peru.
And if that happens, then we'll be looking at adding more rigs. And essentially, what we'll be looking at then is effectively a full hand. So everything and everything, gold is obviously particularly strong, I see it just nudge $2,000 earlier today, and most folks are saying they think it's going to go beyond its previous high in August 2020, I think it was $2,073 was the peak back then.
And whenever there's a peak that usually sets up the next low and sets up the next peak. So -- but all that's going on in the world, investors are looking for safe haven assets. There is no better a safe haven asset than gold. We drill for gold. Of all the drillers, we are probably -- as a percentage, we drilled 95% gold. So we're in pretty good shape.
And did [ count ]...
Sorry, sorry, Greg, you also asked what's happening in Egypt. Egypt is going very well. New market for us. We only started drilling in the latter stages of quarter 2 last year. So it flipped on to our radar, then we put in a solid quarter 4. And during the quarter, we successfully negotiated a new contract in a large established gold mine with a very large name, Centamin Mining, it's a largest contract secured in the history of this company's history.
And that will require 5 rigs, and the contract has actually already begun in earnest, and it will ramp up as the year goes rolls out. And that contract is for 5 years, which is a bit of a -- bit unusual in this industry. And that's all great news. So sorry, I'll pass it over to Greg.
No, I was just going to add, Daryl, as Dave said, we just announced 3 major contracts that will -- through 2022 and beyond, so we're extremely busy. The other thing to it, it's -- I don't want to talk about our competitors, but this is really a macro -- at a macro level, too. If you look at our competitors, they're busy, their revenues -- our revenues increased by 40% in 2021, but our competitors are also doing well. So it's not just Geodrill, we're fortunate because as Dave said, we drill our gold and gold is close to $2,000. I think it hit over $2,000 today. So we're busy, but it's also at a macro level, the industry, there's good metrics for the drillers these days.
Right. And then in terms of the labor dynamics, you're still able to get workers and add [indiscernible] for wages and price pass-through?
It's certainly a challenge, Daryl. But as you can see, the challenges keep coming and we keep hitting the numbers. So we kind of tend to plan for the worst, hope for the best. It's always been our model. And so we've always got more capacity than we need. And certainly, one of the challenges that the industry habitually goes from [indiscernible]. When you're excited that you've got too much work on [indiscernible] and how do you keep everyone gainfully employed through a down cycle. And I think that's one thing that Geodrill has managed to do quite successfully.
So when the up cycle comes, it's not as disruptive for us to move the needle from, say, 60% utilization to 70% and 75%. I think for other companies at the macro level, I think it's probably a little bit more challenging because they're moving off a lower basis. And so they've got a lot more work to do. And this is where I think Geodrill is uniquely positioned.
Got it. And then just one last one in terms of the CapEx associated with the 7 new rigs, just dollar figure there for 2022?
Yes, we -- sorry, go ahead, Dave.
It's just not the rigs itself. It's just a general CapEx that's required. We'll be investing in the business very significantly this year. We see it as a growth year, but it's really not just this year we're looking at. We're on the first innings of an up cycle. Up cycles follow down cycles and down cycles follow up cycles.
We've just come off with brutal 7-year down cycle, and we believe that this is the first innings of what will be, hopefully, a long and sustained up cycle. If history is anything to go on, we can probably say that the next 6 to 7 years ahead, looks pretty bright. If you want to look at it conservatively, you could say 5. So when we invest in 2022, we will not be investing for 2022. We'll be rather looking at investing so the CapEx that we've allocated for next year is actually one of our biggest years and at this point, I'll pass that over to Greg.
Yes. It's just, Daryl, I think you've been following the company for quite a while. Our model is to keep our clients happy to keep them satisfied. And what we're seeing, we're seeing demand for rigs, additional rigs. So some of our larger clients that have multiple rigs 1 [ add ] 1 or 2, some of the smaller accounts that may have 1 or 2, 1 add another rig, et cetera.
So the Geodrill model is, if you look at our free cash flow, our cash flow that we generate from operations we reinvest that back into the business, and we've been doing that from day one started with 1 rig, we're up to 71. So I think what we're trying to communicate 2022 is going to be very similar where the intention is to reinvest the cash flow from the business into rigs and other ancillary equipment, and that's to keep up with the client demand, make sure the client is happy.
We don't purchase rigs on spec. So any rig that we order or a rig that comes out of the workshop, it goes out right away. We usually have a home for it and they can get out drilling fairly quickly. So same model is the previous kind of years where we will have significant CapEx for growth.
[Operator Instructions] And your next question will be from Ahmad Shaath at Beacon Securities.
I guess my first question, maybe an update on kind of the geographical footprint of Geodrill right now given the new contract wins in Egypt, what is it now? And where do you expect it to be by the end of the year, if you're able to give us any color on that.
I was just wondering whether Greg was going to answer that call, Ahmad. So very busy. Currently, 2 rigs in Egypt, and we're increasing that to -- on the strength of this new contract that we just signed, we'll be adding 5 or 6 rigs. There may be some additional rigs that are destined for Egypt, but the challenge we've got now is that everything we have in West Africa, which is completely spoken for.
The only place in the world where I've got any spare capacity is in Peru, where we have 4 rigs currently, of which 2 are spinning. And as I was saying to the previous analyst, I was speaking with those 2 rigs will more than likely be taken up very soon. That's -- we bid 3 jobs, and we're getting strong feedback from all 3 jobs. And so we believe that those rigs have we spoken for very shortly. Does that help your question?
That's great.
Sorry, how many rigs will we get to this year? I believe Greg spoke to that and I also spoke that we will probably add 7 new rigs during the course of the year, 5 of which are the rigs in Egypt and then we have some additional -- additions just coming into the exploration fleet. I think we tend to look at these things conservatively. We always do. So I think if we say we're going to end this year with 7 additions, I think that number is conservative.
We'll also have limitations like manufacture bottlenecks and so on and so forth. Again, this is a little bit uniquely positioned is that we're able to de-clutter some of those bottlenecks through the infrastructure that we've built out here. But I think conservatively, we'll end this year with call it 79 rigs will probably just [ aiding ] realistically.
That's very helpful. And are you able to give us maybe kind of a summary of how much of that is tied to a longer-term contract? We have seen the recent kind of news they announced a couple of big long-term contracts. So maybe just a general sense of how much of your rig fleet is secured by 3- to 5-year contracts, if you're able to give us that?
Currently looking at about 60% of the fleet completely tied up for the next 3 to 5 years.
And on those longer-term contracts, any clauses, escalation clauses or anything to protect you from an inflation perspective in there? How do you structure them?
Anything over a 1-year contract has a rise and fall. So it's -- and it's made up of a dozen or so indices. If something moves up like topical at the moment, feel the cost of shipping, currencies. Such things are all built into a formula, which basically says during the previous year, we had a factor of 2% or whatever. And then that just kicks in as a one-off rise and fall charge on an annual basis.
So you get past the first year and anything that's considered longer than a 1-year contract automatically we are able to invoke a pre-installed rise and fall contract. This will become particularly important in contracts of, let's say 5 years. We don't know what our costs are going to be in 5 years. We have no idea what the fuel price is going to be years, let alone next week let alone in 5 years. But what we can say is that things will go up. We're in a period of what will become hyperinflation.
And -- but in some ways, we're somewhat hedged against that way we drill for gold. It could not be a better thing to be drilling for at this point in time with the ultimate contrarian plan in that respect.
That's great, Dave. And maybe this one is for Greg. I just noticed the SG&A benefited from a $1.5 million VAT refund. Is it -- are there any other kind of big lump sum, something like year-end bonuses or something like that? Or should we just add that $1.5 million VAT refund and take that number as a good run rate for quarterly SG&A number?
Yes. No, the bonuses are throughout, so -- and they're based on results. But the kind of the outlier there was really -- there's 2 of them. There's the -- in the SG&A, you can see it's lower, and that's because we had a VAT refund in Q4. So that was very positive for us. And then we also had some other income in the results. So you can see that.
So -- but a very, very good year in terms of SG&A. If you look at our SG&A, we were able to -- were really 2 things. If you look at the margins, we were able to increase the revenue by 40%. And I think 1 thing we should highlight is we maintained our margin -- our gross margin. So not only did we maintain it, we beat it slightly. We went from 25% to 26%.
And as I said earlier, all of our, what I call, investment, the cost of investing in our workshop and getting stuff ready for 2022, that's in your COGS. So very important to highlight that increased revenue by 40% and also increase in our gross margin. We're also happy with the SG&A. If you look at our SG&A overall 2020, SG&A was 12% of revenue. In 2021, we were able to bring that down to 10% of revenue.
And the VAT refund that I'm talking about, that's more of a quarter thing. I don't want to distract you, but the -- because there's VAT expense in the other quarters, Q1, Q2, Q3 and then when we receive the refund in Q4, you get -- it's more of a quarterly outlier versus the whole year. So what you should really look at is kind of the annualized G&A and that was, like I said, very well managed at 10% of our revenue versus 12% for 2020. Okay?
Sounds good. So from what I gather is 10% plus/minus in that range is a good number for the SG&A outline for 2022, right?
Correct. We manage towards 10% SG&A.
And your next question will be from Brad Virbitsky at Equinox.
Congrats on the great results. I was wondering if it's possible to just talk about sort of the magnitude of growth that is possible over the next 2 years? Like could we see a revenue number sort of close to 150 over the next 2 years? And is the -- could the earnings be sort of north of $20 million?
One of the...
Do you want me to take?
Go ahead.
No, I was just going to say we don't give guidance, but I mean, if you kind of -- what I said earlier, if you look at the macro, you look at kind of how -- what our competitors, what their revenue, what their top line is increasing. We had a banner year last year, I mean 40% revenue increase. So we're expecting -- when we do our forecast and our budget, we're expecting another healthy 2022.
So -- but again, you have to work with your clients, and we can add rigs as much as we can. Dave said, we're -- we have visibility right now. We know we're going to add at least 7 rigs, but that could increase significantly throughout the year. And like I said, we have -- we use our cash flow from operations to keep investing. If you look at our -- I mentioned earlier, we have net cash. So we're -- there's only 1 or maybe 2 other drillers that have net cash.
So we have -- we have a very strong balance sheet that we can use our cash that we're going to generate in 2022, we can use our cash that we have on the balance sheet plus we have credit lines that we haven't tapped. So there's still $7 million on our credit line, and we still have a bit on the medium-term loans. So as we get through 2022, growth could be significant. But again, I just we don't forecast that. But I think if you kind of look at our past and look at the macro environment, we're pretty optimistic for 2022.
Brad, I think your numbers aren't that far around. I'll make it a bit easier for you. I think -- look, I've looked at our 5-year CAGR using 31 December 2021. It's always a good time when you've had a stellar year to look back and reflect on what you've done for the last 5 years. And as a matter of course, we do measure that on a 5-year CAGR basis. If we look at what we've accomplished in the last 5 years, revenue on a CAGR basis and considering we've come out of 4 of those -- 4 of the last years have been a down cycle.
If we look at the numbers, we look at something in the order of about a 9% CAGR, 9% EBITDA, 9% net earnings and about 10% total equity. Yes. As I say, we 4.5 of the last 5 years have been down cycle. Really, this up cycle is just beginning. So if you use those numbers conservatively and then bump them a little bit, I think you're going to end up somewhere around the number that you suggested. I don't think 150, will be far from there 2 years from now.
As for the net earnings, well, if you consider that we did 14, if you added 10 and then 10, you'd probably get more like about 117, 118. And again, I would think that, that would be conservative. And I would just hasten to add that these numbers are somewhat been skewed by the fact that we have had 4.5 years of a 5-year down cycle. Is that helpful?
Great. Yes, that's helpful. And just in terms of the operating environment in West Africa, do you have any commentary around that? Has it gotten harder with the political uncertainty? Or is it sort of business as usual? How would you describe it?
I'd tell you what I'd rather be here than some parts of Europe at the moment. Africa always seems to get a bad rep for some reason, I don't know why. I've lived here for 25-plus years. And I've had nothing but great experiences here. That's where I'm speaking to you from today, it's where my kids grew up, one of them was born here, most of them went to school here.
So for some reason or another, West Africa just keeps getting this rep. Now there is unquestionably in some of the 54 countries of Africa, places that we will be reducing our operations. I won't mention them by name, but suffice to say that we have plenty of -- we're spoiled for choices where to go -- where to go to.
I would just put it back to you, Brad, that if West Africa is such of a concern, why are all of the major mining companies here? How is it the Jack Dorsey, who was looking before he retired to establish, and I believe Twitter is going on to establish in Accra, Ghana. Ed Sheeran lived here for a couple of years, the music guy.
Africa is not the -- it shouldn't -- it doesn't deserve the rep that it used to get quite frankly. And look, what do we drill for? Minerals, gold. This was formally known as the gold coast because there's a lot of gold here. We don't -- we have no predilections in terms of where we operate.
We just happen to be here because there's plenty of work was to do there. So this is where we've established the business and this is where we've built our business. The drill rigs are not bolted to the ground. They're not permanent fixtures. They are mounted on [ call it ] dozer tracks and we roll them on and off trucks in and out of ships when we want to move them around. This just happens to be where our business is today. And as you can see, we are moving up and we're moving out.
Suddenly, when one country doesn't suit us to be there any longer, we pack the rigs, we put them on a boat and we send them somewhere else. It just happens to be really headquartered from where we're beach-headed the business. And it makes sense to be here. It makes a whole lot of sense to be here when you consider that an Africa has the youngest population in the world, and this is a young man's business. Hope that answers your question? Did I convince you?
Fair enough. I mean, obviously, I'm perfectly comfortable with West Africa.
Next, there is a follow-up from Ahmad Shaath at Beacon Securities.
Dave, maybe one last follow-up from a high-level perspective. What are your views on this upcoming cycle from a margin expansion potential compared to previous cycles? I mean, any reasons why we should think differently about the potential margin expansion here in the upcoming years, if this up-cycle continues for 3, 4 years?
I think the -- as I spoke to in my speaking notes, we're starting to see pricing leverage as the demand drivers shift towards supply/demand, which is now waived more favorably in the way of the supply. And that's the key difference here as people need to drill out their reserves, they'll need to hire our rigs or someone's rigs to do that work. There's a limited amount of rigs now in the market.
And what we are hearing through the industry is that costs are going -- sorry, that our competitors are all increasing their prices to capture increasing pricing cost, the cost of doing business. The cost of moving a 40-foot container, by example, just to digress for a moment, has gone from what used to be $3,000 or $4,000 to $15,000 as shipping companies are [ gouging ] their industry. And unfortunately, we are the customers. We have to pass that cost on somehow. Cost of fuel has increased in the past couple of weeks, 35% a pump. So all these costs are going to have to be passed on. At the end of the day, I think what's going to happen is margins will remain flat to slightly nought, frankly speaking.
That's great.
Just on that, Ahmad, 25% to 26% EBITDA margins in an environment where pricing has moved -- costs are moving quickly is still a very good result. And I saw your question there earlier about some of the additional what was some of the additional abnormals. Well, the fact of the matter is we've managed to increase our revenue year-over-year by 40%, we've increased our EBITDA by 55%.
Even if you factored that back and said that the 2 moved in lockstep that would still be an excellent result because as things become busier, efficiencies are usually lost, one thing we've managed to do always through our growth and throughout our history, just managed to move that needle, starting with the top line and moving everything up in lockstep or better than lockstep. That's the plan anyway.
And at this time, Mr. Harper, we have no further questions. You may proceed with closing.
Okay. So on that note, I'll thank everyone for their time. And we wish everyone a great day. here. Thank you very much.
Thank you, everyone. Bye now.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. And at this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines.