Weatherford International Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
April 24, 2024

There are 11 speakers on the call.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Weatherford International First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. As a reminder, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mohammad Topawala, Vice President, Investor Relations and M and A.

Operator

Sir, you may begin.

Speaker 1

Welcome, everyone, to the Weatherford International First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. I'm joined today by Girish Saligram, President and CEO and Arun Mitra, Executive Vice President and CFO. We will start today with our prepared remarks and then open it up for questions. You may download a copy of the presentation slides corresponding to today's call from our website, Investor Relations section. I want to remind everyone that some of today's comments include forward looking statements.

Speaker 1

These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from any expectation expressed herein. Please refer to our latest Securities and Exchange Commission filings for risk factors and cautions regarding forward looking statements. Our comments today also include non GAAP financial measures. The underlying details and a reconciliation of GAAP to non GAAP financial measures are included in our Q1 earnings press release, which can be found on our website. As a reminder, today's call is being webcast and a recorded version will be available on our website Investor Relations section following the conclusion of this call.

Speaker 1

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Girish.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Mohammad, and thank you all for joining our call. I will provide an overview of our operating performance, commercial and technology highlights, our view on the markets and an update on our strategic priorities. Arun will then cover the financial results and specifics on guidance before we open for Q and A. You will notice an updated format to our investor presentation as we have tried to provide additional clarity around our portfolio and differentiation, and we will reference the data and information within the presentation as part of our prepared remarks. As illustrated in Slide 3, we delivered yet another quarter of exceptional results.

Speaker 2

I remain extremely grateful to our entire One Weatherford team, I'm excited that we are developing an operating culture that provides execution differentiation. 1st quarter revenue grew 15% year over year, driven by DRE and WCC from a segment standpoint. Our integrated services project team did an excellent job in driving efficiencies and delivered above expectations. Geographically, we once again witnessed growth driven by the strength in our international business, which was up 21% year over year, spearheaded by our Middle East, North Africa and Asia region, which grew 32%. While year over year growth is significant, we are also encouraged by sequential revenue performance that was essentially flat in a quarter that typically sees a seasonal decline.

Speaker 2

This was driven by strong performance in Latin America and North America and also aided slightly by our recent acquisitions contributing revenue for part of the quarter. We have now had 12 consecutive quarters of year over year adjusted EBITDA margin expansion, and Q1 represents the 9th consecutive quarter of sequential expansion. In the Q1 of 2024, adjusted EBITDA margin set another high at 24.7% driven by accelerated outcomes from our initiatives and continued rigor on the commercial, technology and operational fronts. The performance in the Q1 has given us the confidence and visibility to raise our margin guidance for the remainder of the year, and we now anticipate achieving our goal of 25% adjusted EBITDA margins in 2024 itself. We had indicated that our exit rate would be 25%, but now believe that we will hit that milestone on a total year basis.

Speaker 2

Importantly, we continue to see opportunities for further enhancements and will articulate the next milestone and road map towards that once we have delivered the 25%. We also successfully expanded our credit facility by $130,000,000 to $680,000,000 In line with our previous commitment to pay off the 6.5 percent senior secured notes, we issued a notice to redeem the remaining balance. This paves the way to providing a comprehensive capital allocation framework that we intend on communicating later this year. As we have seen, the OFS sector is witnessing a degree of consolidation, and I am excited about the opportunities we see with the companies we acquired in the Q1. I am pleased with the progress we've made so far on the integration of Ardine, Probe and ISI into the Weatherford operating structure.

Speaker 2

The detailed planning has helped facilitate smooth transitions and ensure that we remain focused on serving customers. While still early days, we are starting to see greater opportunities in terms of commercial benefits, increased technology cross selling and growing adoption rates across our expanded portfolio. These highlights provide greater confidence in the long term value creation potential of these acquisitions. Now turning to our segment overview on Slides 5 through 7. The operational and technical highlights showcase synergies product lines, which is driven by our solutions creation mindset.

Speaker 2

In DRE, I am particularly excited about our NPD win with PDO and Oman as this represents another example of growing MPD adoption and our technology differentiation. We are also seeing some quick wins from our acquisitions with the launch of the HD Spitfire tool as part of our wireline products portfolio. In WCC, we continue to see significant awards through the quarter and the deployment of our pressure balance liner system, the Express XT, in an offshore setting for the first time is particularly encouraging. In PRI, our focus on digital solutions has resulted in significant advancements in operational efficiency and value creation for our customers. A significant development in this segment is the commercial launch of Foresight 5.3, which combines artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous control for proactive failure prediction and therefore prevents ESP and rod lift failures.

Speaker 2

We'll now turn to the market outlook, which is laid out on Slides 9 through 11. We anticipate sustained growth in international land and offshore sectors, particularly driven by the Middle East and Latin America. Our focus remains on production optimization, digital solutions and exploration investments with significant potential in gas rich regions such as Guyana and the Eastern Mediterranean and growing unconventionals in the Middle East paired with oil focused growth across major deepwater basins. The increasing adoption of managed pressure drilling, both onshore and offshore and well life extensions via interventions will play well to our strengths in these areas. Additionally, responsible well management, including plug in abandonment services and growth in geothermal and carbon capture present promising opportunities.

Speaker 2

Leveraging our advanced technology suite, we are well poised to capitalize on these trends. The first quarter results validate our expectations about the market outlook that we presented in the previous quarter. To summarize, the current stage of the up cycle is reflected by a combination of continued demand for energy, persistent investment and activity for oil and gas projects at least through the end of the decade. We continue see the most momentum in our DRE segment with high teens growth reflective of our continued belief in the longevity of the cycle with growth in WCC and PRI that typically follows. Looking across our geographies for 2024, in North America, we continue to expect our Canadian business to grow in the high single digits, though there is some uncertainty around the second half driven by commodity prices.

Speaker 2

We believe the offshore Gulf of Mexico will remain stable and U. S. Land business is expected to be relatively flat. On the international front, there continues to be broad strength both offshore and onshore. Latin America had a solid start to the year and expect growth for the year to be in the mid to high single digit range, mainly driven by Brazil and Mexico and partially tempered by Colombia.

Speaker 2

In Europe and Sub Saharan Africa, offshore continues to be the growth driver, enabling high teens growth led by the North Sea. As previously discussed, Russia continues to be challenging and declining in revenue given the operations complexity as well as FX volatility. In the Middle East, North Africa and Asia region, we continue to remain optimistic about the growth potential and still foresee a year of high teens growth. We believe this growth is spread across multiple countries and is backed by the investment plans of our customers. A key element of our growth has been our integrated contracts.

Speaker 2

And as I mentioned before, I'm very proud of the work the team has done and we are focused on the modulation of execution pace to drive optimal outcomes on safety, customer hookups and margins. We are also cognizant of the need for investment to support that growth and to that end, we'll continue to drive CapEx towards 5% of revenue and invest in networking capital and infrastructure support. In summary, we don't see any material shift in our market and revenue outlook discussed a couple of months ago. The most significant risk to our outlook is driven by geopolitical events and we remain focused on safety and well-being of our employees and business continuity plans. Turning to Slide 12, I want to provide a brief update on our strategic priorities.

Speaker 2

Our 5 strategic priorities of organizational vitality, creating the future, customer experience, lean operations and financial performance remain our guardrails for driving investment and initiatives. As we deliver phases of each initiative, we revised the targets to raise the bar even higher. As you can see, we have significantly increased our spend on engineering and technology, but importantly, that has been offset in other functions ensuring that our SG and A as a percent of revenue has continued to get more efficient. We also continue to drive simplification and process improvement into the company and the most evident result of that is in our networking capital days improvement. As we conclude the Q1 of 2024, I believe our results speak clearly to the progress we have made across our organization and with our customers.

Speaker 2

We remain confident and optimistic about Weatherford's growth prospects as well as the potential for upward mobility in the stock with a multiple re rate that should be reflective of top tier industry performance on margins and return on invested capital. With that, I'd like to hand it over to Arp.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Karish. Good morning, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call. Let us begin with Slide 13 and 14, where I'll walk you through our consolidated results. Revenue for the Q1 2024 of $1,360,000,000 increased 15% year over year and essentially flat sequentially. Operating income was $233,000,000 compared to $185,000,000 in the Q1 of 2023 $216,000,000 in the Q4 of 2023.

Speaker 3

Net income was $112,000,000 compared to $72,000,000 in the Q1 of 2023 $140,000,000 in the Q4 of 2023. You will recognize that we had some one time tax benefits in the prior quarter that did not repeat and drove the sequential decline. Adjusted EBITDA of $336,000,000 increased 25% year over year and 5% sequentially with adjusted EBITDA margin of 24.7 percent or 206 basis points improvement year over year and 117 basis points sequentially. Now moving to our segment results on Slides 15 through 17. Drilling and Evaluation or DRE revenue of $422,000,000 increased by $50,000,000 or 13% year over year, primarily from higher wireline and truing services activity.

Speaker 3

DRE also benefited from the impact of weather related push out of activity in Latin America, which we referenced last quarter. BRD segment adjusted EBITDA of $130,000,000 increased by 22,000,000 or 20% year over year, primarily from training services, managed pressure drilling and wireline. Well Construction and Completion, or WCC, revenue of $458,000,000 increased by $37,000,000 or 9% year over year, primarily due to increased completions and TRS activity in Middle East, North Africa and Asia region and offshore Latin America, partly offset by lower activity in North America. WCC segment adjusted EBITDA of $120,000,000 increased by $24,000,000 or 25% year over year, primarily from higher fall throughs in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia region around TRS and cementation products as well as increased offshore activity in Latin America. Production and Intervention or PRI revenue of $348,000,000 was largely flat year over year, primarily from lower activity in North America, partly offset by higher international intervention services and drilling tools activity.

Speaker 3

PRI segment adjusted EBITDA of 70 $3,000,000 increased by $5,000,000 or 7% year over year, primarily from higher artificial lift margin and increased international activity in intervention services and drilling tools. We have previously indicated that despite the pricing pressure in North America, we remain focused on margins and will not chase volume and these segment results are a positive proof point of that intent. Turning to Slide 18 for cash flows and liquidities. In the Q1, we generated operating cash flow of $131,000,000 up forty $7,000,000 year over year and adjusted free cash flow was $82,000,000 up 50 $5,000,000 year over year, a solid performance on the back of strong profitability and improved net working capital performance. Our net working capital as a percentage of last 12 months revenue was 26.1%, a 240 basis points improvement year over year.

Speaker 3

This progress highlights our commitment to continuously improve our working capital cycle, including ongoing internal process enhancement initiatives in billings, collections management and inventory management. We remain focused on further optimizations in the order to cash and procure to pay processes to make progress towards reaching a longer term goal of a sustainable net working capital level at 25 percent of revenues. 1st quarter CapEx of $59,000,000 at 4.3 percent of revenues was down sequentially and year over year primarily due to timing. Total cash was approximately 937,000,000 dollars down $46,000,000 year over year. Additionally, during the quarter, we repaid 167,000,000 dollars of 6.5 percent senior secured notes, bringing the total amount of 6.5% senior secured notes outstanding to $82,000,000 as of the date of this release.

Speaker 3

Furthermore, we issued a redemption notice to repay the remaining $82,000,000 of our 6.5 percent senior secured notes, which will leave us with $1,600,000,000 long term notes due 2,030 outstanding thereafter. We are also pleased to announce the expansion of our credit facility, which reflects the confidence and support of our banking partners in our strong operational and financial performance. The amendment to our credit agreement provides an increase in total commitment from $550,000,000 to 680,000,000 dollars by adding additional banks to the facility and provides us with greater liquidity flexibility in managing our balance sheet. Our net leverage ratio at the end of the quarter was 0.6 times and marks the lowest ever level in the company in over 15 years. Turning to our guidance for Q2 and full year 2020 4 on to Slide 19.

Speaker 3

For the Q2 2024, we expect consolidated revenues to increase between 4% to 6% sequentially. Across the segments, DRE revenue is expected to grow by mid single digits, WCC is expected to grow by high single digits and PRI is expected to grow by mid single digits. Adjusted EBITDA for the 2nd quarter is expected to expand by 20 to 30 basis points sequentially. CapEx is expected to be in the range of 65 $1,000,000 to $80,000,000 and adjusted free cash flow is expected to be in line with the Q1 2024 despite higher cash interest, cash taxes and continued net working capital investments for full year 2024. For the full year 2024, we expect consolidated revenues to grow by double digits to low teens over full year 2023.

Speaker 3

DRE is expected to grow by high teens, WCC to grow by high single digits and PRI to grow by mid single digits. Full year consolidated adjusted EBITDA margins are expected to hit our goal of 25%. CapEx for the full year is expected to be approximately 5% of revenue. We continue to expect 2024 adjusted free cash flow to be greater than $500,000,000 despite higher CapEx, cash taxes and net working capital investments. Thanks all for joining the call.

Speaker 3

And operator, let's open up the call for questions, please.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Today comes from Luke Lamoyne with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Hey, good morning.

Speaker 2

Hey, good morning, Luke. Girish.

Speaker 4

Hey, morning. Girish, I know this has been said a number of times in the past, but truly congrats to you and the whole Weatherford team on the best turnaround and transformation I've ever seen in oil service. I mean, this has truly been kind of nothing short of remarkable here with what you've done with the transformation.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Luke. Appreciate it. Look, the team's done an outstanding job. I get the privilege of being the guy that gets to talk about it the most. So but truly appreciate the sentiment.

Speaker 4

I guess with a little rounding, you hit 25% margins in 1Q, which I know has been an aspirational target for some time now. And you just brought that target forward a whole year. And then not to pin you down on the multi year margin, but when you just look at Weatherford over the next 2 to 3 years, can you talk about what you see the company doing outside of overall market revenue growth? I mean, you've talked about expanding MPD technology to other service lines, kind of going with many pressure wells, offshore accelerating, which will boost TRS. And then among other things, you have various digital growth initiatives.

Speaker 4

Could you just kind of paint the picture on how you see Weatherford looking in 2 to 3 years?

Operator

All right. I do apologize and we will reach back to the speaker location. Please proceed.

Speaker 2

All right. Hey, sorry about that, everyone. My apologies. We are having some technical glitches, I guess. So hey, Luke, I'm not sure how much of that was caught.

Speaker 2

But look, I'll just summarize it by saying I

Speaker 5

think Yes,

Speaker 4

I don't think anything was caught, but yes.

Speaker 2

Okay. All right. Sorry about that. So look on the question, look, you're very kind to say we'll round it up, but we still haven't gotten to 25%. What we've seen over the course of this year is really the initiatives that we've launched and we've had them for a while now.

Speaker 2

We've gotten a lot more confidence in that. We're starting to see, the outcome of those and we're seeing greater magnitude, which is what's given us the confidence to pull that target forward. As we look to the future, I'm not going to give a specific target, but look, I'll reiterate that we've always talked about how we plan the business with flat activity. And we look at our role as making sure that we get margin expansion in despite flat activity of 25 to 75 basis points. So I think it's reasonable to assume that once we stabilize around this 25% goal, we will continue to drive margins upward.

Speaker 2

And so we'll come back over the next few quarters and lay out more specifics around the timeframe and what that next threshold is.

Speaker 4

Okay, got it. And then hopefully this next question won't break the call, but on your integrated project business, this was fairly nascent just a couple of years ago, nice margin expansion, nice growth. You just talk about where this goes, maybe the potential size and what's the right margin profile for the business?

Speaker 2

Sure. So look, as I pointed out in our prepared remarks, a couple of things. One is a significant part of our growth certainly has come from these integrated projects. We've been doing them for a while now in different places, especially in Latin America. But the 2 ones we 2 of the ones we announced in late 2022 in Saudi Arabia and Oman has certainly added to that.

Speaker 2

We talked about this in the February call. We don't expect to go go suddenly start doing a whole lot of these. We want to be very measured about what we do. And we will bid very selectively and maybe add one MAX to every year that is sizable and of a significant scale that it moves the needle. But we're not focused on the number.

Speaker 2

We are much more focused on the right profile for us to execute where we can actually deliver the cash flow performance that these bring. These projects are generally tend to be a little bit dilutive from a margin standpoint, but have terrific cash conversion and also give us a base load of activity. What we saw in the Q1 was an interesting dynamic. Our team did an outstanding job of execution. And what that really resulted in was a much higher degree of revenue and also a greater margin contribution.

Speaker 2

We don't think that is going to be the norm. And that's why I referenced that we will modulate the pace a little bit because we've also got to make sure that we are working lock step with our customers on these projects, making sure that we are sticking to their budgets and their plans and all of that is synchronized. So we year and it's been a net positive relative to when we bid it.

Speaker 4

Okay, got it. Thanks a lot, Karish.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question today comes from James Weston of Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hey, good morning guys.

Speaker 2

Hey, good morning, Dave.

Speaker 6

So, Garish, now that you've got the balance sheet in excellent shape, margins are up significantly. You highlighted that the industry is in somewhat a consolidation phase now. You've made 2 smaller acquisitions recently. How should we think about your M and A strategy going forward? Do you think it'll still be more of the tuck ins?

Speaker 6

Are there larger targets you might be interested in? Any change at all to the M and A strategy?

Speaker 2

Not really, James. Look, I think I'll expand a little bit on what we've talked about. We really for a while, M and A has been something we have not considered just given some of the historical issues that we have had. If we are not a

Speaker 7

fan. We've been a

Speaker 2

lot more comfortable and confident. But for us, integration is still the primary thing. We want to make sure that anything that we do, regardless of size or scale, we have the bandwidth and the capacity to integrate because sometimes look whether it is a $30,000,000 company or a $3,000,000,000 company, a lot of the stuff is similar. But for us, it's not about scale. We really look at it from a perspective of strategic fit, margin accretion, cash generation, the deleveraging component and where can we really add value to that business to scale it and grow it.

Speaker 2

So we are very open on what the size is, but you're not actively pursuing a specific size of set and say that's what they've got to get after. We look at it and say what actually makes sense for the business and we'll look at things that come along from that standpoint.

Speaker 6

Okay. Makes sense. And then from a capital allocation or shareholder return strategy standpoint, as you've gotten the balance sheet in great shape here, how are you thinking about potentially returning capital to shareholders?

Speaker 3

James, good morning. Yes, James, as we've mentioned before, our priorities were to get access to more liquidity, get access to liquidity, which is cheaper, then eliminate restrictions associated with the liquidity and potential capital allocation framework, which is what we've done. And now the next step, as Girish mentioned in his remarks, is to announce a comprehensive framework, which will include shareholder returns, But amongst other things, will include continued debt reduction as well. So you can expect us to talk more about that in the second half

Speaker 6

of the year. Okay, got it. Thanks, Arun. Thanks, Krish.

Speaker 2

Thank you, James.

Speaker 7

Thanks, James. And our

Operator

next question today comes from Jim Rolison with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Hey, good morning guys. And I would echo the same things that Luke said about the progress. It's been phenomenal to watch. Arun, question for you on cash. You guys are still sitting on quite a bit of cash, recently upgraded the size of the credit facility about to pay off the notes and you just mentioned further debt reduction.

Speaker 8

But kind of curious as you look forward as your credit facility has increased in size here over the last few quarters, like how much cash do you guys think about needing to sit on or what drives that?

Speaker 3

Look, I mean, we always want to be able to sit on cash, which takes care of the rent risk, right? And I'm not going to say that we have enough cash now or we have more cash than we need now. But what I can tell you is once we shed more light on the capital allocation framework, which will include the shareholder return policy and our debt targets, you will get a sense of how much liquidity we will sit on going forward. So yes, we feel good about the access to liquidity that we have compared to before and that translates to our confidence that we communicated about us being able to come up with a comprehensive framework in the second half of the year. So you can expect to hear more about this in more detail in the second half.

Speaker 2

And if I could just add to that, Jim, look, I think if you look back at the history, right, what we have done, there's a fairly clear match between the cash on the balance sheet, the free cash flow we've generated and the debt reduction, right? Even take yesterday or last night's announcement, for example, we announced the increase in liquidity, simultaneously simultaneously the redemption. So yes, there is cash on the balance sheet, but we are going to take that and pay off the secured notes. So we are doing this very methodically to make sure we've got the right liquidity, as Arun said, and we always want to make sure that we've got enough protection against any sort of event risk for the company.

Speaker 8

Yes. It makes perfect sense. And then just as a follow-up, obviously some recent consolidation ongoing in one of your main markets in artificial lift market. Curious if you have any views on how you think that might impact the market and does that create benefits for you potentially or just kind of how you see that?

Speaker 2

Well, look, we always look at these things with the duality, right? On the one hand, it is a very formidable combination. And so they've got tremendous respect for both organizations and that combination will likely create more opportunities for them. At the same time, we also look at it as an opportunity for ourselves. And so we will focus on driving innovation and serving our customers.

Speaker 2

I do think it's important though to point out that on the artificial lift space, again, we don't play in the ESP space. We really play in all other forms of lift. So it's a little bit more insulated for us, if you will.

Speaker 8

Got it. Thank you, guys. Have a great day.

Speaker 3

Thank you. And our

Operator

next question today comes from Doug Bekaert with Capital One. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Girish, I was hoping you'd expand on the prospects for the OpEx versus the drilling and completion spending cycle just as it relates to the company, in particular thinking about the longer term growth prospects for PRI?

Speaker 2

Yes. Hey, look, I think longer term, we continue to be very excited. OpEx spend, we believe will continue to increase. And it depends on the geography you look at in terms of the rate of growth, right? As I pointed out in our prepared remarks, right now, we really see DRE leading a little bit, but PRI eventually will follow.

Speaker 2

So I think that rate of growth will modulate. But look, even as you look at this year, Q1 was a little bit different. It's got some dynamics around seasonality that typically happens, as well as what we have talked about some of the complexity in Russia, etcetera. But over the course of the year, we see PRI growing very decently over the course of the year. And especially look for our interventions business, as we look at more production optimization, our digital solutions business, a greater amount of focus on plug in abandonment, slot recoveries, those kinds of things.

Speaker 2

We're really excited about that and it's also where we have probably the maximum impact of our digital solutions.

Speaker 7

Is this a segment you could see in 3, 4 years leading the growth? Or is it just to make up one that it probably is always a little bit of a slower growth business?

Speaker 2

Yes. Look, I think to a certain extent, it's going to depend on how much of it we classify that goes into the digital piece, etcetera. But I will also look for us, we are also trying to make sure that we are driving a less capital intensive strategy. So for example, what we what I think we should really look for is growth in margins and growth in cash versus necessarily just growth in top line. I'll give you a classic example in pressure pumping.

Speaker 2

We're not going to grow the same way the rest of the market is because we have been very focused on controlling our footprint. We also, of course, don't have an North America pressure pumping footprint, But we are also driving a strategic change and providing more engineered fluid chemistry, which has a much greater value addition and a much greater margin impact to the company. So those are the kinds of things we are doing. So for us, I really look at it more from margin impact and free cash flow impact. But look, over the next few years, we still see DRE as probably having a little bit more juice.

Speaker 7

Got it. And some of those comments kind of feed into the sustainability of CapEx running 5% of revenue based on some of the things you were moving to. I think that's still a good target as we think about the years ahead.

Speaker 2

Yes, look, absolutely. We've talked about it now for 2 years and look, we've steadily inched up closer to that 5%. I'm very pleased with the efficiencies our team has been able to drive in redeployment of CapEx and reuse, but also shifting our business strategy to a less capital intensive model. And that's a big part of it. This is not about us saying we're not going to invest enough capital.

Speaker 2

It's about making a conscious and a purposeful shift in strategy and making sure that we've got the overall portfolio balance. And look, some product lines are much higher than 5%, some are much lower, but that blend is what we're really looking for and that's where it all comes together.

Speaker 7

Makes sense. And just like the Echo deposit sentiments on the execution of the turning around really just very impressive.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question today comes from David Anderson of Barclays. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Good morning, Girish. As you talk about the initiatives that have driven the margin expansion here, I think you've said it sounds like we're maybe a little bit more than halfway through your fulfillment plan. Just want to ask you some of the next steps you intend to execute over the next say 12 to 18 months. I think you've taken a lot of manufacturing facilities, but what else is left there? Is it on the services side, on supply chain?

Speaker 7

Just kind of give us sort of that road map a little bit, if you wouldn't mind, just to what's left here in this fulfillment plan?

Speaker 2

Absolutely. Thanks for the question, David. Look, so on the fulfillment, this is a fairly herculean task and it's really changing the footprint of the company that's evolved over 25 years. To a certain extent, what we call fulfillment, which is a combination of manufacturing, supply chain, our sourcing practices, our repair and maintenance, our logistics was never really designed for what Weatherford is today and that's what we are doing. So what's left really is still a little bit more work on manufacturing, making sure that our work transfers get completed.

Speaker 2

But you're right, that's been well underway for a couple of years. The next couple of big milestones for us really first of all on our supply chain. We've talked about on prior calls that we are looking to move more of our spend into lower cost regions of the world. And this is something a lot of other companies did several years ago. So we are a little bit behind, but what's exciting is we are still able to post the margins that we do today without that benefit.

Speaker 2

So that will actually be a much more positive impact for us. That's well underway. We've got a terrific manufacturing facility in India and we are making sure that we are developing the supplier ecosystem around that, but also making sure we're complementing it with the right engineering support. The other piece is on repair and maintenance. This is something that we are really focused.

Speaker 2

It's much more about improving cycle times and asset utilization than it is really about taking cost out. But that improvement in cycle times and asset utilization will help in more revenue, greater fall throughs and a better return on invested capital. So that's really what we are doing there. We've brought in a terrific leader to drive that for us. And I'm excited about some of the gains that we are starting to see on that.

Speaker 7

Okay. Thank you. And then if I could just move into kind of more of the businesses. You have 2 very unique product lines that are leveraged to deepwater activity in the TRS and NPD systems. And as we look out the next year or 2, I would think that those will both start to lead the top line growth and margin expansion considering both rental businesses and the visibility we have on subsea and offshore rigs.

Speaker 7

So I was just wondering, do you think second half twenty twenty four could be the inflection on that based upon what you're having with your conversations with your customers and kind of the timing of this equipment?

Speaker 2

Yes. Look, some of this, David, as you're well aware, is a little bit more dependent on logistics and mobilization, etcetera. We are very excited about both MPD and TRS and especially some of the new product launches that we have had in both. On TRS, we have talked about our string guard solution, which I'm excited about, more deployment of the fully automated Vero solution. And then on NPD, we launched Modus, which really cracked this performance segment.

Speaker 2

That's likely to be a bit more of a 2025 inflection than a second half of twenty twenty four, more based on availability of assets and getting that fully deployed in throughout the world. So I think we'll probably see more of that in 2025. But look, I think it's also really important to point out that while these two product lines are critical, it's a lot more time that we spend on talking to them. Rest of the portfolio is actually growing really well as well. And you see that, for example, in some of the WCC growth you've seen over the last couple of years and especially also on DRE, our drilling services business, our wireline business, our completions business in WCC, all of those are also showing tremendous growth and actually helping that overall ecosystem.

Speaker 2

So one of the things we are seeing and we're excited about talk about the solution mindset is to pull through from different product lines.

Speaker 7

And just one final question there. I'll just get back to the capital, the amount of CapEx that you're spending there. I would think TRS probably just judging from where the rig kind of was before where it is today, that you probably don't need to build out capacity in TRS. However, on the other side, NPD, you probably do because that seems to be on pretty much every deepwater rig these days. Am I thinking about

Speaker 2

that right? Yes. Look, it's a little bit of a mix, David. Some of these things, in NCD, for example, as I talked about on Modus, that's certainly a lot more capital injection because you've got to actually build new packages, right? So that does take up and of course every new system that we deploy in deepwater, we build a new system that is additional CapEx.

Speaker 2

PRS historically, we have had a lot more equipment. But when you think about things like Vero, again, our fully automated solution, we are building new systems with that. But the order of magnitude of that CapEx dollar investment is very different and much higher on the FPD side.

Speaker 7

That's what I thought. Thank you. Appreciate

Operator

it. Thank you. And our next question comes from Ashi Murdock with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Yes, thanks. Good morning team. You talked about the early stages of the integration of the acquisitions that you made last quarter. You're seeing incremental opportunities. So maybe can you provide some color in terms of revenue synergies or cost synergies that you think we can actually get in that asset for the next couple of years here?

Speaker 2

Yes. Hey, Ati, again, as we talked about in the first quarter, these are kind of much smaller businesses. And so not things that will automatically and by directly by themselves move the needle on the total company. So it's all baked in. But look, we think about these as sort of smaller technology acquisitions that over the next few years, we really hope to build out into $100,000,000 type of platforms.

Speaker 2

And that's kind of the goal that we see and that will come from a combination of taking their products, their solutions, their services, scaling them with our footprint, especially on the international side. But at the same time, also seeing, look, where does it get complementarity? So I'll give you a couple of examples. On the Ardine business that we acquired, right? It is predominantly focused in the North Sea and we continue to see a great opportunity in the North Sea growth, but also the ability to take that to the Middle East to North America to Latin America to Asia, that gives us scale and growth and we hope to grow that significantly over the next few years.

Speaker 2

On the Probe and Impact Selective businesses, the wireline products businesses, right now this really gives us an ability to have a comprehensive wireline portfolio and allows us to really become a partner of choice for other service companies to really provide wireline products and technology in places where we don't have a footprint, right? So that's the kind of thing that we're thinking about. So we'll give more color on that. But look, our hope is to really grow these businesses and that's what it's about. It's about growth and using our scale versus to say we're going to get cost synergies out of it.

Speaker 9

Got it. Appreciate that. And then I think you spoke about this a little bit on the market penetration status for the MPD offering. Can you just give us any color on where it stands now and where the incremental room is to grow onshore maybe a little bit? And then it seems like there are some equipment manufacturers that are focused on MTD.

Speaker 9

Maybe also give us an update on what the competitive landscape is either on the equipment or the service side?

Operator

Sure.

Speaker 2

So look, I think the really good news with MPD is we see adoption with PDO in with PDO in Oman. That's another great illustration of growing adoption. But in totality, adoption excitement comes in. So as we talk about product launches like Modus, it really gets to that performance tier of the market that allows customers to now have a solution between kind of your basic MPD service and the very high end that we used to offer. So this is hits a sweet spot and opens up a new segment.

Speaker 2

As an example, on the offshore side, this really opens up a jackup market that we are very excited about on the motor side of it. So our goal will be over the next few years, if we can get adoption to, let's say, 12% and maybe eventually 15%, that's a tremendous growth for the business and that's what we're excited about. It's also from my standpoint very heartening and very encouraging to see additional players come into the space and everyone starting to talk about it. I think that's fantastic. We welcome the industry growing adoption, customers getting more news on this, more education on this, because we think it's better for the industry as a whole to increase MPD adoption.

Speaker 2

This is a capital intensive game. I've always said this is not about share. We are clearly the market leader on in this product line, But for us, it's about growth and adoption. And so more people that come in, especially on some of the lower end side of it. We think it's great and we remain focused on where we can capture the highest value.

Speaker 9

Great. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Ati.

Operator

And our next question comes from Kurt Hallead with Benchmark. Please go ahead.

Speaker 10

Hey, good morning, everybody.

Speaker 2

Hey, Kurt. Good morning, Kurt.

Speaker 10

Hey, Girish, I'm curious, right? You obviously, the execution has been phenomenal as everybody has highlighted. Yet the multiple still has a way to go to catch up to when the prior management team ran the company into the ground. So still a long way to go there. But my question for you really is on the margin progression when you get out beyond 2024.

Speaker 10

I'm not looking for a specific data point. I'm just kind of trying to get inside your head a little bit, right? So when you think about the dynamics, I'm curious as to what the drivers of that margin progression are going to be. Is it going to be flow through of pricing on existing contracts? Is it going to be volume absorption?

Speaker 10

Is it going to be pricing power on new contracts, execution, internal initiatives, probably all of the above? But if you were to rank them, what do you think is going to be the key driver to incremental margin improvement from here?

Speaker 2

Yes. Look, so it is most definitely a bit of an all of the above, Kurt. But look, I will reiterate, look, for us, we are not going to count on incremental volumes coming through and revenue growth being the only driver. So I would actually put that a little bit lower. For us, we are also very cognizant that while pricing has been very positive and it's been a very good pricing environment, that's not going to last indefinitely, right?

Speaker 2

So we focus on the things that we can control. And to me, I think a couple of things that are going to be really important is number 1, us driving productivity within the organization, both from a manufacturing and fulfillment standpoint, but also in how we manage our support costs in the organization, how we get simpler, how we get leaner. And that's a combination of both cycle time and just pure cost. So that's going to be a significant factor. The second piece of it and that's the thing that I'm probably most excited about is the commercialization of the technology solutions that we've got.

Speaker 2

Look, we pointed out our increase in engineering and technology spend. It is the highest increase across the company from a functional spend. And we've made sure that we have prioritized that. These things take a little bit of time, right? You can't engineer stuff overnight.

Speaker 2

But I'm tremendously excited about the improvements that our engineering teams have made, our product line teams have made in improving our on time delivery, our cycle line reduction. But most importantly, the solutions that we are getting after and what we're bringing to market and you see that in some of our technology announcements. What we're really trying to do with those is capture the white space of where customers have very clear needs that we can go attack versus just sort of providing a me too kind of a solution and we think that will lead to incremental and accretive margins.

Speaker 10

All right. That's great. That's great color. I got one more follow-up, right. There's been a emerging theme here about the need to for more power gen for AI data centers and that being natural gas fueled and obviously being sourced from the U.

Speaker 10

S. Obviously, a lot of your growth and a big piece of your business is international and offshore. I'm curious as to whether or not you've had an opportunity to assess the dynamics at play with respect to this surge in power demand and the opportunities that Weatherford may have to participate.

Speaker 2

Yes. Look, I think it comes back to again what we talked a little bit about in our prepared remarks, which is we see energy demand continuing to grow, whatever that source of that might be. And we've always maintained that gas is a really important part of the energy mix. So and we don't see that changing any point now. Even with depressed commodity prices, gas prices that you see in North America, we think that will eventually sort of resolve itself and get back to a healthier level.

Speaker 2

But across the world, we think this is going to be something that will drive both LNG growth as well as local infrastructure. Ultimately, it is going to drive more gas production. So gas continues to be an important focus for us and a lot of the solutions that we're trying to drive from a technology standpoint are also focused around that. So it's certainly part of the thesis.

Speaker 10

Okay. Thanks for that. Appreciate it.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Kurt.

Speaker 7

Thank

Operator

you. And our next question comes from Saurabh Pant with BoA. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hi, good morning, Girish, Arun. I'll just start by echoing Luke and Jim's sentiment on just the tremendous turnaround that you continue to deliver quarter after quarter. So congratulations on that, Grisha, Arun. Appreciate it. Hey, Grisha.

Speaker 5

Can you still hear me?

Speaker 2

Yes. Yes.

Speaker 5

Okay. Awesome. I'll just start with 1 on the international side. Just overall, I'm thinking big picture. You did outgrow your big peers in 2023, Q1 international growth again fantastic.

Speaker 5

Is there something we should think about in terms of you should be growing beyond what the market offers you from an opportunity standpoint? Is it market share? Is it your product mix? How are we thinking about that? Because I know you're not focused on market share, right?

Speaker 5

But is there an element of just winning your normal market share and that allows for you to gain and outgrow the market? How would you characterize that, your opportunity versus just the market as a whole?

Speaker 2

Sure. Yes, look, it's a great question, Saurabh. It's interesting because for the last we've actually talked about the fact that people should expect that we might be a little bit we don't have that same extensive footprint, but what we are very, very focused on is having penetration where we've got critical mass and really performing where we have chosen to play. And I think that's where we are really aiming to do better. But look, I also think there is an element of us capturing or recapturing some of the share that we lost over the last 10 years.

Speaker 2

And finally, when you put it into our numbers for smaller, so an incremental win in share does have a greater impact on us that will allow us to grow faster. So I think what it clearly points to is that we have gained share in the markets that we play in over the last couple of years. That continues to be our focus. But look, more importantly, as you pointed out, we remain much more focused on where it is that we can grow profitability in cash versus share. And again, North America is actually a terrific example of that even though the question was on international, right, where we're not going to chase volume, but we've actually improved our margins year after

Speaker 5

year. Right, right. No, that's very helpful. That's what I was thinking, just getting to your normalized market share, just relative to your over the past 10, 15 years? And just a quick follow-up Girish.

Speaker 5

I'm not thinking AI and data centers, but I'm just thinking about gas more broadly. And we heard one of the key Middle Eastern customers talk about potentially doing more things on the gas side versus the oil side, right? So maybe there's a little bit of mix shift going on in the Middle East in general and maybe the world more broadly, right? So if that's what we see over the medium to long term, right? Not in the short term, medium to long term gas activity as a proportion of total activity grows.

Speaker 5

How should we think that impacts Weatherford? Is it net neutral? Is it net positive? Is it net negative? And why is that?

Speaker 2

Yes. Look, I think it's going to come down to execution again. I think it's really going to be up to us to make sure that we can capture the market. I talked about on the February call that we actually see that gas as an opportunity for us to continue to grow the business. We've got a terrific portfolio right commercialization, but then most importantly, the operational execution to capture that.

Speaker 2

So ultimately, that's kind of what it is. But I would look at it as pretty much where the rest of the market is growing and we'll continue to play in that.

Speaker 5

Okay, okay, fantastic. And just one last quick one if I may, Girish. In your prepared remarks, you gave your 2024 outlook and then you said that the biggest risk is geopolitics more than anything else. Any update because there has been a lot of tension especially in the Middle East. Any update, any impact you have seen to date to your operations?

Speaker 2

No, we have not, Saurabh, and which is why we made sure that we clarified that we kept we have kept our revenue outlook intact. There's no change. But I think it's just prudent to point out that the world is a volatile place. And so we just want to be prepared for that. So that's really what it is, but no change at all.

Speaker 5

Okay, perfect. Okay, Krish. Thank you. I'll turn

Speaker 1

it back.

Operator

Thanks, Saurabh. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Great. Thank you, Rocco. Hey, thank you all for joining the call today. Hopefully, you've got a sense of our continued performance on execution. We will keep our focus on that and we look forward to updating you again in July.

Speaker 2

Thank you again for calling in.

Operator

You. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.

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Earnings Conference Call
Weatherford International Q1 2024
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