Reach Subsea ASA

OSE:REACH

Earnings Call Transcript

[Jostein Alendal, executive]

Good morning, and welcome to this presentation of the results for first quarter of 2023 for Reach Subsea ASA. Our first quarterly report for this year were released earlier this morning, and some of you may already have seen that Q1 was significantly better this year, both in terms of revenue growth and research -- results compared to last year. Our goal with this presentation is to give you a summary of the report and provide context to how we plan to build the company and grow our business further.

I am Jostein Alendal, the CEO of the company. And with me is CFO, Birgitte Wendelbo Johansen and Birgitte will present the financials in a bit. Practically [indiscernible] If you have any questions, please submit them in writing through the webcast player during and after the presentation. And we will answer as usual as of best as we can at the end.

Last year, we reached the NOK 1 billion in revenue. And in our Q4 '22 presentation 3 months ago, I said this is just a milestone on our journey, and we will continue to reach higher. And this first quarter confirms that we are on track to do so. In short, the market has improved and will continue to improve for many years. And we are in an excellent position to bear fruits from that.

So let's have a look at the highlights for the quarter, starting with Slide #3. The quarter was strong in a normally low activity winter season, and we can report on 81% year-by-year revenue growth. Although slightly negative on the EBIT, it is very pleasant to present great improvement to our operating profit compared to last year's first quarter. We have used the winter season wisely to mobilize our new core fleet, followed by a start-up of major contracts in international waters.

And we have also been awarded several important contracts, both in the renewables and oil and gas segments for the upcoming season and beyond. And I will give you some examples of projects started in Q1 in a bit for allowing also a closer look at the order book and tender activities. We raised NOK 126 billion in new equity in the first quarter, mainly for the purchase of the vessel Edda Sun now renamed to Viking Reach. And Birgitte will come into more details on that later. Equally important, we have continued our excellent operational performance and safety at sea is -- once again, I am happy to report 0 incidents during also this quarter. And all cred, again, to all our people offshore and onshore.

As we continue to grow and evolve, it is important for us to stay true to our core beliefs and principles as also to revise them when needed. This is especially important when we, over the last year, have gone from 100 to now nearly 300 employees. Our vision and values were updated in this first quarter to clearly underpin our direction as a wider group, which leads me to a quick look at Slide #4. Our vision sustainable access to ocean space reflects the value we strive to offer our clients and underpins our commitment to sustainability.

Our new values learn, teach, reach reflects first our dedication to continuously searching for and learning new and relevant insight and use this to challenge any established way of doing things. Every day is a chance to learn something new. Teach promotes sharing on knowledge throughout the team between colleagues and partners. And finally, we value the importance of having ambitions and reach for them. The values are visualized in a life cycle as the 3 aspects do not have a beginning, nor an end. And in the heart of this life cycle, we are stating that we never leave you behind. That is the core of a safe and supportive environment, which again is the foundation for excellent team performance. Financial results and success come from the ability to steadily follow our goals, have a clear vision and strategy and not at least be genuine in our approach to why and what we do.

Which take us to Slide #5. Reach Subsea is a very established medium-sized company, offering high-quality services and technology to clients worldwide. Our wide and integrated offering and the capability to offer our services through the whole life cycle is well received by asset owners in the ocean space. And we offer mapping and documentation before installation, construction support during installation and through the length deepening of inspection, maintenance and repair. And to the end, we decommissioned the movement. So regardless, whether it is an oil platform, offshore wind farm, subsea template pipeline of [indiscernible] cable, they want to acquire the same subsea services in various forms.

We are continuing our strong fit all in the oil and gas sector. And now today, we're working for most of the international energy companies around the world and our expertise and planning of complete and complex offshore operations is vital in this matter in which you also will see when I present the example projects in a few minutes. Data-related products. is rapidly becoming a larger part of our revenue, including surveying and inspection technology, data management and data analytics and final reporting. So to put it simply, we are caught on the whole subsea value chain.

Our balance between the equipment, people, vessels and modern technology is also giving us a solid foundation for further expansion of our client base. During the first quarter, we have taken important steps to further strengthen our global presence. And the Reach Subsea group are today represented across regions; from North to South Norway, Sweden, U.S., U.K., Singapore, Trinidad and Brazil. To give you a better understanding of how our strategy translates into practice, I would like to give you a brief summary of some of the projects we have started on this first quarter.

This leads me to Slide 6. As the demand for offshore and offshore oil and gas production continues to increase market from a hookup of floating production storage and offloading units, so-called FPSOs is firmly large for at least the coming 5, 6 years. Reach has been assigned to join this market. This is a notable example of our services within offshore construction support. This also shows that we are on route to offering the same services to the rising floating offshore wind market, anchoring and hookup of large floating installations.

The number of floating wind mills to be installed worldwide in the next 10-year period will count in thousands. These are projects -- these projects will require extensive engineering and planning before offshore operations. which in turn is complex and quite demanding. On this example project, we started vessel operations with the mobilization and loading of equipment in Bergen, 16th of March. And the Olympic Zeus with two work class ROVs was all set on site in Abidjan, 12th of April. The Reach Subsea's scope is extensive, including a pre lay on the Mooring Lines and anchors in [ Foreland ] thereafter hiccup of the mowing lines and Flexibles and Umbilicals when the FPSO is on location.

The project contains more than 16,000 hours related to project management, engineering and planning, an estimated duration of the execution holds more than 130 vessel days, including the transits. This confirms our capacity to expand not only in quantity but also in terms of taking on complete and complex offshore operations. This required in the rising FPSO hiccup market, but indeed, also in the future, huge floating offshore wind market.

So going to our next slide, #7, for another example on our global expansion path and more specifically, Brazil as a key focus, one of the world's leading producers of oil and gas from offshore fields. It is a well-known fact that this will be a huge market for many, many years. As part of our strategy, we have taken steps to position ourselves in this market. And we started our first job this quarter, which is part of Shearwater extensive deepwater ocean bottom node survey at the IARA field for Petrobras.

The engineering, preparation and planning was conducted in the first quarter, and we started mason operations with mobilization and loading of commitment in Haugesund, 28th of February. The Havila Subsea including two work class ROVs arrived on site in Rio de Janeiro, 26th of March. Our scope consists of installation and recovery of over 6,000 ocean bottom nodes over an area of 1,300 square kilometers. The program is scheduled for approximately 180 vessel days of deployment, data acquisition and recovery. On the back of the fence project and in combination with our increasing local presence, you see a lot of new opportunities in the Brazilian market and will be in particularly good position to respond to the increased demand.

So moving over to capacity on the next Slide #8, shows an example of our fleet and asset strategy in the long term. An optimal balance between cost and control of core assets is the key and the purchase of Viking Reach shows another strategic shift we have made. Longer visibility on future tenders and [indiscernible] good control of core assets and direct ownership of vessels. And in this case, 50-50 ownership together with the Eidesvik is new to us. But this was the right vessel at the right time at the right price.

We had formal takeover of Viking Reach on the 21st of March, and she is more mobilized to be the work class ROV, a high-speed survey are ROV, hull mounted service sensors and a high specification data processing equipment. Core capabilities in combination with our highly experienced project engineering and offshore team are attractive in the market, and she is already set up for several projects going forward.

Our first high-spec route survey job has started, and our program is today lined up for more than 100 vessel days with various clients, including route survey, subsea maintenance, site survey and gravimetric monitoring. The latter is the first call of for gas fields monitoring campaigns in the North Sea under the 3-year survey frame agreement with Equinor. We have already experienced high interest for the spread in the global market, and I surely believe it will be a great tool for us in the years to come.

Taking us to the next slide, #9, to take a look at our order book and tender activity. We experienced a significant order inflow during first quarter. And as you can see on the right-hand side of this slide, our order book is continuously increasing to new record levels. In the short term, we have secured several key significant contracts this quarter, including the 3-year survey frame agreement with Equinor for work in the Norwegian continental shelf and internationally to 2026.

We have 2 contracts with major renewable energy companies with Olympic Triton and Deep Cygnus. Decommissioning scope in the North Sea in the Q1 with Olympic Delta and further, and we work throughout the season. And as mentioned, [ under involved ]survey and maintenance work in the oil and gas market with a Viking Reach. This gives us a very good visibility through the season and into fourth quarter this year. And in the longer term, there is a notable shift in our tender activity. We do see larger scope tenders with longer visibility. We are now tendering for work in 2024, 2025 and beyond and it's a firm sign of our rapidly growing global market.

The balance between increased market demand and availability on the supply side will be tighter and tighter and in turn, drive margins. The longer-term view has been a key focus for us as we are also facing a robotic future. And it is good to be at a point where we are tendering also includes services being enabled with Reach Remote and this is for delivery already in 2024. Which leads me to next slide, #10. Again, the marine robotics. This is -- there is no doubt, the future is unmanned also at sea. This is not just our take on for tech heads like me. This is a huge step into the creation of a more sustainable future.

To put it simply, the unmanned vessels transported subsea equipment out on site and act as a power bank data center and the communication module, and this is the same as the traditional manned vessels are doing today. The benefits are obvious covering sustainability widely and with environmental, social and governance aspects. The OpEx and CapEx goes down the emission footprint dramatically lower. And personnel safety, of course, human risk are eliminated by no personnel on board.

For us as a company, the Reach Remote will be a key for continued international expansion. And we experienced an accelerating excitement around the world as we offer this to our clients. The future robotic marine industry will be global and social. These remotes will be an extremely attractive platform on the global sea, and we expect to be among the global leaders in the marine robotics together with our partners, Kongsberg and Massterly. This remote is materializing.

And on the next Slide #11, I will give you a quick update on where we are now in the building phase. Our massive engineering job has been conducted so far, and steel holds and our under construction. That said, host will be slightly later on the lever to -- those yard in Norway than earlier plans. But there are no worries. This has no financial or scheduled implication for us, well then a corresponding delay in our delivery milestone payments. We are all in all, progressing well on the equipment side with all the cons by technology and our Reach and subsea equipment and systems. So when installation are completed, we will be ready for an extensive full-scale testing certification and client verification in first quarter of 2024.

As I mentioned, we are now tendering for work with the Reach Remotes starting in 2024. So this can fit perfectly. Also on the positive side, the Reach and Navigator will gain even more experience with our control center in Horten and their operations with obviously [indiscernible] and the [indiscernible] vessels. So it will be [indiscernible] for our US next year. Order aspects of the projects such as work towards clients and regulators, continues with full force and is progressing well. At the bottom line, money matters and the best part is, in this market environment with higher and higher cost of man vessels, the Reach Remote business case with these savings is better and better. And again, the [indiscernible] our customers, we experienced great interest in the concept worldwide and already bidding for work in 2024. So with this optimistic note, we can move over to the financial slides. So please let me hand over the word to Birgitte who will give you all the details about our improved numbers.

[Birgitte Johansen, executive]

Thanks, Jostein, and good morning, everyone. Just a reminder, before I start, should you have any questions to the presentation, you can submit them on the webcast while we speak. As first quarter of 2023 was characterized by the seasonally lower utilization and presentations for the upcoming main season and coming years. We're now well on track with mobilizations, equipment upgrades and preparations with a fleet of top spec modern vessels, ROVs and service spreads. Amongst the key events in the quarter was securing NOK 126.3 million in new equity and completing the Viking Reach acquisition. Revenue in the first quarter was NOK 234 million, almost doubled from the NOK 129 million in the first quarter last year, with the increase from last year, explained by a higher number of project days higher pricing and revenue from the acquired businesses, Octio and iSurvey . As from the first of January 2023, Reach is now one consolidated group with joint and integrated projects and accounts.

EBIT was negative NOK 8 million compared to a negative NOK 38 million last year. And last year's EBIT included NOK 8 million in transaction expenses related to the iSurvey acquisition. But beyond this nonrecurring effect, the improved EBIT is primarily a result of higher utilization as well as contribution from the acquired businesses. Total comprehensive income for the first quarter of '23 was NOK 4 million compared to negative NOK 35 million last year. And NOK 16 million of the improvement is explained by financial currency effects and noncash tax effects as well as the previously mentioned transaction expenses.

So let's look into the details and what lies behind the figures on the next slide. As mentioned, Reach has had a positive activity development the last couple of years, resulting in revenue almost doubling the last 24 months. Our revenue in the last 12 months is well above NOK 1.2 billion as per quarter end. And looking at our operating results, the EBIT, the last 12 months, we have surpassed NOK 135 million and pretax profit reached well above NOK 140 million in the same period.

So let's look a little bit more into the details and the drivers on my next slide. Looking at the year-on-year EBIT development from the first quarter last year to the same period this year, we see that the main drivers are despite seasonally low utilization, a higher number of sold project days -- project margins and utilization which again illustrates the improved market conditions and increased demand from our clients.

And the positive contribution from our relatively newly acquired entities, iSurvey and Octio, now called Survey and monitoring divisions as a result of strong performance and also result of performing integrated projects within the Reach Subsea Group. In the first quarter, turnover from renewables and other sector was 34% while projects in the oil and gas sector represented 66%. And last year, the split was 25% to 75%.

Next slide, please. As you may have read in the report for the first quarter, we present a turnover split on geographical areas and the type of services we deliver to our clients. Solutions is where we do installments, maintenance, repair, decommissioning hookups, as Jostein mentioned, et cetera. And data is where we deliver a data package to the client, typically a survey of a pipeline or a cable rate or an inspection of infrastructure to mention some examples. In 1Q, 77% of the turnover came from solutions due to a few larger service contracts, including a high number of vessel days while 23% came from data and the activity with data, which includes server projects without vessel exposure was high also in the first quarter measured in project days rather than turnover. The same period last year, the split was almost 50-50. We also present our geographical distribution of turnover to illustrate our expansion to new areas, as well as meeting new and existing client needs on a worldwide basis.

In the first quarter, we had our main activity in Europe, but contracts in Singapore U.S. Gulf and the Ivory coasts contributed to almost 40% of turnover. We expect our international activity to grow in the next quarters and also the next years. So next slide, please. Reach Subsea has sustainable growth, balancing cash and working capital and debt with a robust equity level. And at the same time, we have delivered to our shareholders with paying dividend according to our policy.

In the first quarter, we raised NOK 126 million, primarily for the financing of Viking Reach where we own 49.9% of the shares in the vessel-owning entity together with Eidesvik and investments in mobilizations and equipment. And as many of you know from previous presentations, our growth plans are still quite substantial, especially with the USB project, the Reach Remote. We have a cash and working capital position of about NOK 286 million and limited existing financial debt and the remaining investment for the Reach Remote is about NOK 260 million with expected debt financing of about NOK 180 million, meaning we are well positioned for our coming investments the next year.

Next slide, please. This slide illustrates how our activity has grown based on ROV and vessel days, which are the 2 elements contributing the most to our turnover. I remember that vessel commitment is the most expensive tool in our toolbox and hence, our utmost priority when it comes to utilization. In addition to sold ROV and vessel days as well as the utilization, the revenue profits strongly depend on the complexity of the projects and also the seasonality.

And in addition, we now have contributions from survey and monitoring divisions, which are not reflected in the ROV and vessel operating figures. Our peak season, having our main market of operations in Europe and the North Sea is typically in the second and the third quarter, followed by a fourth quarter that might somewhat be a docker depending on the weather and the demand level from our clients. The first quarter is known to be harsh, which is why we always try to seek other markets such as the Mediterranean, Trinidad, Brazil, et cetera. So on the next slide, we look at the ESG reporting. Reach Subsea has reported on our sustainability goals since 2019, and you can find all the reports on our web page. Our ESG reporting is a combination of focus on emissions and the environment, being a responsible employer worldwide and keeping a high governance focus.

Safety is always our utmost priority, and we're proud to have strong positive [indiscernible] statistics. In the full report on our web pages, you can read more about how our report complies with the United Nations Sustainability Goals and also the GRI standards. We have kept most of the KPIs, as you can see, relatively unchanged. Some adoptions to our business model, the common taxation and expectations, but our KPIs should be quite easy to follow and measure to be prepared for future audits. It's still early in the year, but there is already a positive outlook on all our 2023 ESG KPIs. So it will be interesting to follow this and share the development with you during the coming year. Then I hand back to you -- the word to you, Jostein, for a summary.

[Jostein Alendal, executive]

Yes, thank you, Birgitte. Let me wrap up with the last slide as a backup, Reach Subsea. Reach Subsea has, over the last years, built a strong reputation in solid operational track record and as a supplier of subsea services. We have taken the steps in expanding both our product range and reinforcing our long-term vessel capacity. Combined with great execution from our team in a strong market. We will continue to deliver excellent services to our clients. Our order backlog is increasing quarter-by-quarter, which will also tender volume and visibility is rapidly improving. The market is very strong, both in oil and gas and renewables, and we expect this to continue for years. We seek to be at the forefront when it comes to technology and in the creation of a more sustainable future.

Reach Remote will be another growth driver for us, leading the way into a more efficient than climate-friendly future. And even though we have delivered on our M&A ambitions in the last 12 months, we still continue to look at opportunities and cooperation partners in other geographical areas that will add value to our business. Adding not only expertise for our current operations, but for sure, for our robotic future.

And finally, let me stress the financial strength. With low debt and strong cash flow. Our growth plans will be disciplined and shareholder-friendly with profitable growth as a mantra. And I'm looking very much forward to the coming quarters and years. This first quarter was a great start of the year, and we will continue to grow and develop the company also in the years to come. We're now in a rising market, and that is exciting. So with this, let's wrap up the presentation with a saying Everything within Reach. I hope we gave you a good picture of our business and plans. Please continue to submit questions in the webcast player. We are back to answer your questions shortly.

[Birgitte Johansen, executive]

[indiscernible] questions while by pressing ask questions in the webcast. If you have any more questions, we have a few questions already. The first one is to you, Jostein. Congratulations to the great Q1 results. What do you consider as your main selling point or competitive edge in the tendering process given your success?

[Jostein Alendal, executive]

Good question. Well, the important thing is to show quality and safety, and that comes from a good track record. But of course, in a tendering process, efficiency and cost control is also extremely important. So that's what we are showing in every tender.

[Birgitte Johansen, executive]

Yes. Good. The next one is, will the seasonality effect reduce in coming years because core more global operations. I guess the answer to that is yes, it will reduce. As you can see from the presentation, we have already increased our activity outside of the North Sea. So that's a little bit less weather -- reliant on good weather. So we're expecting to have more operations in less harsh weather areas in the coming years. There's a question also about international expansion. You've mentioned Australia before. Is this still in your plans? Jostein?

[Jostein Alendal, executive]

Yes, indeed. Yes, we have previously talked about Australia and our monitoring division has a good 9-year contract there for gas field monitoring. So we're going to connect that to Reach Remote going forward and so on. So definitely, Australia will be on our plans and expansion plans for many, many years.

[Birgitte Johansen, executive]

There's another one on tendering, but it's the same as the first one. So I guess we'll -- that has been answered already. And as another one. What are the margins in Data and Solutions segments? And we haven't displayed the whole range of the margins in the split, we've always split the revenues. What I can say is that there is no clear difference between data and solutions. So it's approximately the same from the time being. Hopefully, we will come back to more detailed segment reporting in future reports.

I think that's it for now. So thank you very much for watching.

[Jostein Alendal, executive]

Yes. See you next quarter.