Forage Orbit Garant Inc

TSX:OGD

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q2

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Orbit Garant Drilling's Fiscal 2023 Second Quarter Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Please be aware that certain information discussed today may be forward-looking and that actual results could differ materially. Certain non-IFRS financial measures will also be discussed. Please refer to the company's SEDAR filings for additional information on both risk factors and non-IFRS measures. This call is being recorded on Thursday, February 9, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Pierre Alexandre, President and CEO of Orbit Garant. Please go ahead, sir.

[Pierre Alexandre, executive]

Thank you, Colin. And good morning, ladies and gentlemen. With me on the call is Daniel Maheu, CFO. Following my opening remarks, Daniel will review our financial results, and we'll conclude with comments on our outlook. We will then welcome questions. As you're aware, Eric Alexandre stepped down as President, CEO and Director effective on November 15 last year. And I assume the role of President and CEO on an interim basis. Yesterday, I formally accept the role on a permanent basis.

I'm a co-founder of our Orbit Garant, and I have been actively involved in the leadership of the company since its inception. I was CEO at the time of our IPO in 2008 up until 2010. I then serve as Vice Chair of the company and as VP Corporate Development on the operations side. I remain on the Board as Director. I am the largest shareholder in Orbit Garant, and I have a great passion for the company and its people. I am determined, along with our Board and other members of our management team to fully realize our potential. We are committed to building shareholder value. We also announced the appointment of Mario Jacob to our Board of Directors yesterday. Mario will also serve as a member of the Audit Committee and Corporate Governance and Compensation Committee. We are delighted to welcome Mario on the Board and look forward to benefiting from his added leadership and extensive corporate finance and mining industry experience. Now on to our Q2 results. Our profitability continued to strengthen in the quarter, reflecting increased specialized drilling activity, improved pricing and cost control. Our margin also benefited from decreased project ramp-up costs in Canada and reduced project mobilization costs in Guinea and Chile compared to Q2 a year ago. Revenue for the quarter was $51.6 million and 12.5% compared to Q2 last year. Adjusted gross margin increased to 18.1% from 11.5% in Q2 a year ago. Our drill utilization rate in the quarter was approximately 58%, down to 65% in Q2 last year and 63% in the first quarter of this year. The decrease reflects a decline in surface drilling activity in Burkina Faso and in Canada. Our utilization rate has exceed 60% in 5 of the last 7 quarters, demonstrating the sustained strong customer demand we are experiencing. We have ranged between 58% and 63% -- 66% over this period. We believe we can improve our utilization in the coming quarters, presenting additional opportunity for margin growth.

Customer demand in Canada remains strong. Looking ahead, we are primary focus -- our primary focus will be on driving growth in here in Canada. I will speak more about this later in the call.

I will now turn the call over to Daniel to review our second quarter's results in more detail. Daniel?

[Daniel Maheu, executive]

Thank you, Pierre, and good morning, everyone. As Pierre noted, our fiscal 2023 second quarter revenue increased to $51.6 million. Canada revenue totaled $38.3 million, up 17% from Q2 last year, reflecting increased specialized drilling activity and improved pricing. International revenue was $13.3 million, similar to $13.2 million in Q2 last year. Reduced drilling activity in Burkina Faso in Q2 this year was offset by increased activity in Guinea and Chile compared to Q2 a year ago.

Gross margin for the quarter increased to $6.8 million from $2.7 million in Q2 last year. Adjusted gross margin, excluding depreciation expenses, was 18.1%, up from 11.5% a year ago. As Pierre noted, our increased margins in Q2 this year were attributable to increased specialized drilling activity, improved pricing and cost controls. Prior year margins were also impacted by project ramp-up costs due to the rapid growth in Canada and mobilization cost for long-term projects in Chile and Guinea. G&A expense were $3.9 million in the quarter or 7.5% of revenue compared to $3.2 million or 6.9% of revenue in Q2 last year. The increase in G&A expense partially reflects a $300,000 increase in bad debt provision. EBITDA for the quarter was $6.9 million, an increase of more than threefold from $2 million in Q2 last year. Net earnings were $2.1 million or $0.06 per share compared to a net loss of $1.7 million or $0.05 per share in Q2 a year ago. The positive variances in EBITDA and net earnings were attributable to the factors already discussed. Now turning to our balance sheet. During the quarter, we repaid a net amount of $2.9 million on our credit facility compared to a repayment of $1.4 million in the same period last year. Our long-term debt under the credit facility, including USD 1 million drop from our USD 5 million revolving facility and the current portion, was $21.7 million as of December 31, 2022, compared to $31.5 million as at June 30, 2022, our fiscal 2022 year-end. This reduction primarily reflects the utilization of substantial portion of the $8.47 million loan from the Business Development Bank of Canada that was secured in Q1 2023. At quarter end, our working capital position was $53.9 million compared to $53.4 million at our fiscal 2022 year-end. I will now turn the call back to Pierre for closing comments. Pierre?

[Pierre Alexandre, executive]

Thanks, Daniel. Our Q2 results demonstrate that our business continued to have positive momentum. This was the third consecutive quarter in which we reported significant year-over-year improvements in profitability. We expect to continue expanding margin over the course of fiscal 2023. This positive outlook is supported by continued strong customer demand and improved pricing environment, the investments we made last year to ramp up our operation along with our continued investment in driller training, opportunities to incrementally increase our drill utilization and ongoing improvement in driller productivity. Our focus moving forward will be on driving growth in revenue and profitability here in Canada. While our international operations remain important to Orbit Garant, we are gradually reducing our drilling activities in Burkina Faso due to the ongoing political instability and security concerns. Our long-term project in Guinea and Chile are advancing in line with our expectation and depth of our customer. We have already incurred the mobilization cost and other investment to service these contracts. Guinea is a more stable business environment than Burkina Faso, and Chile offer us more exposure to the copper market, which could prove to be very attractive over the long term. Market conditions are currently favorable in Canada, making this an ideal time to focus on our own market. And as I know, the investment we recently made to grow our Canadian operations have positioned us to build market share and grow profitability.

In Canada, we have a strong customer relationships that we have built over many years and a track record of strong operating performance that makes us a preferred partner for mining company of all sizes. These positive factors support our growth plans. The outlook for global drilling activity remains positive. Gold and copper price have increased since the start of 2023 calendar year from levels that were already strong. This provides incentive for mining companies to maintain or expand their exploration and development program. This is consistent with the feedback we are getting from our customers. I look forward to leading our renewed focus on margin improvement and building value for our stakeholders. That concludes our formal remarks this morning. We will now welcome any questions. Operator, please begin the question period.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Okay. It appears there are no questions at this time. I'll turn it back to you.

[Pierre Alexandre, executive]

Thank you, everyone, for participating today. We look forward to speaking with you again in the coming quarters.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.