KLX Energy Services Holdings Inc (KLXE) 2022 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the KLX Energy Services First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn this conference over to your host, Mr. Ken Dennard, Investor Relations. Thank you. Mr. Dennard, you may begin.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for KLX Energy Services conference call and webcast to review first quarter 2022 results. With me today is Chris Baker, KLX Energy's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Keefer Lehner, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following my remarks, management will provide a high-level commentary on the financial details of the first quarter and the outlook before turning the call over to questions.

There will be a replay of today's call that will be available via webcast on the company's website at klxenergy.com. There will also be a telephonic recorded replay available until May 27, 2022. More information on how to access these replay features were included in yesterday's earnings release. Please note that information repeated on this call speaks only as of today, May 13, 2022. And therefore, you're advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay listening or transcript reading.

Also, comments made on this call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States federal securities laws. These forward looking statements reflect the current views of KLX management. However, various risks, uncertainties and contingencies could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in the statements made by management.

The listener or reader is encouraged to read the annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K to understand certain of those risks, uncertainties and contingencies. The comments today may also include certain non-GAAP financial measures.

Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the press release, which can be found on the KLX Energy website. And now I'd like to turn the call over to KLX Energy Services President and CEO, Mr. Chris Baker. Chris?

Thank you, Ken, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for KLX Energy Services First Quarter 2022 Conference Call. The broader market backdrop continued to improve throughout Q1. U.S. rig count was up approximately 34% during the quarter. Frac spread count was up approximately 7% sequentially. Crude prices averaged over $95 per barrel and natural gas averaged $4.67 per MMBtu. The fundamental backdrop is as positive as we have seen in years, but one caveat continues to be a somewhat muted response by our customer base as they continue to focus on capital discipline and returning capital to their shareholders. Looking at our financial results for this past quarter, I am pleased to report that our revenues were up 5% sequentially to approximately $152 million, which was in line with our prior guidance.

It was a slow start to the year. However, monthly results improved throughout the quarter as both activity and pricing improved, and we exited the quarter on a high note in March. Utilization has improved across the board. We are effectively sold out in several service lines, including tubulars, many common sizes of BOPs, accommodations units and 2 frac track spreads we are running are now experiencing very high utilization. As for the other core service offering, Q1 utilization for our coiled tubing, directional drilling and wireline fleet, was 30%, 32% and 23%, respectively, providing us with additional asset capacity across these service lines to deploy into the market as it becomes warranted from a pricing and returns perspective.

Jumping to the pricing side of the equation. The pace of pricing improvements for our service portfolio is accelerating and we experienced materially improved pricing as we exited Q1 and into early Q2 in the range of high single to low double-digit sequential percentage increases depending on the service line.

For example, coiled tubing pricing was up 12% in Q1. Looking forward, pricing is again being reset higher in Q2 across the majority of our product service lines. Q1 adjusted EBITDA of $4.9 million was positive for the fourth consecutive quarter. Q1 adjusted EBITDA was negatively impacted by seasonally slower activity at the start of the year, COVID-quarantine impact, weather-related issues in early February, cost pressures associated with the preparation for the expected March revenue inflection and general inflationary pressures impacting labor, raw materials and finished goods.

As we look at our Q1 exit rate, we exited the quarter on a high note, generating March revenue of approximately $58 million, setting a new monthly high since the closing of the QES merger in Q2 2020, a record that will not stand long as we continue to work through the second quarter. With that said, March annualized revenue and adjusted EBITDA was just over $692 million and $46.5 million, respectively, and sets a new normal baseline as we work through Q2 and expect activity, pricing and margins to continue to improve.

Looking towards the second quarter, we exited Q1 on a strong run rate, giving us considerable optimism for how the second quarter and the remainder of 2022 will shape up. We believe that the current market backdrop positions the OFS industry to approach the customer conversations from a position of strength for the first time in years, and we believe KLX is particularly well positioned given our diverse product and service offering, broad geographic coverage, differentiated technology and blue-chip customer base.

We have the people and the quality asset base required to service our customers and expect our assets and personnel to be in even higher demand due to supply chain challenges facing the industry.

With that, I'll now turn the call over to Keefer, who will review our Q1 financial results and I will return later in the call to discuss our outlook in greater detail. Keefer?

Thank you, Chris. One macro comment before jumping in. Please note that as of December 31, 2021, the company changed its fiscal year-end to align with the calendar year with the result being that our Q4 2021 has 2 months instead of 3. Due to this truncated prior period, I will focus the comparisons of Q1 2022 results to the pro forma 3-month fourth quarter ended December 31, 2021. I'll begin by discussing our first quarter 2022 consolidated P&L. For the first quarter ended March 31, 2022, revenues were $152.3 million an increase of $7.3 million or 5% as compared to revenue for the pro forma fourth quarter.

Revenue growth was driven by broad increases in our drilling, completion, production and intervention activity across the majority of our core geographic markets. On a product line basis, drilling, completion, production and intervention products and services contributed approximately 28%, 50%, 12% and 10% to revenue, respectively, for the first quarter of 2022.

Adjusted operating loss for the first quarter was $9.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin was $4.9 million and 3.2%, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by roughly $1.8 million compared to pro forma fourth quarter. As Chris mentioned and we discussed on our prior call, Q1 was negatively impacted by a very slow start in January, weather and seasonality, COVID quarantines, general inflationary cost pressures and stand-up costs as we prepared for the March activity and price inflection.

Further, we recognized additional personnel costs in Q1 relative to pro forma Q4 related to the annual reset and payroll taxes and our 401(k) match, which was reinstated in December 2021 and only burdened one payroll period in our pro forma fourth quarter. These 2 items accounted for approximately 2/3 of the sequential decline in adjusted EBITDA when compared to pro forma Q4. Total SG&A expense for Q1 was approximately $15 million, which equates to roughly 9.8% of Q1 revenue.

Post the QES merger integration, KLX now has one of the most efficient fixed cost structures in the OFS industry and we believe we can further scale from current levels with minimal fixed cost G&A additions. Turning to a review of our segment results. Let me begin with the Rockies. The Rocky segment first quarter revenue of $43.3 million increased by $8 million or 23% as compared with pro forma in fourth quarter. The sequential increase in revenue was primarily driven by an increase across service lines in the DJ and Central Rockies, most prominently in coiled tubing, fishing, rentals, wireline and dissolvable plugs, which more than offset a seasonally slow start to the year in the North Dakota market.

Adjusted operating loss for the fiscal first quarter was $700,000 as compared with adjusted operating loss of $3.6 million for the pro forma fourth quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $4.7 million as compared to pro forma fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA of $2.3 million. The increase in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin was driven by higher pricing and utilization in the DJ Basin resulting in approximately 30% incremental margins for the segment.

Moving on to our Southwest segment. The segment generated first quarter revenue of $51.9 million and was largely in line with pro forma fourth quarter results, experiencing an increase of only $1.7 million or 3% as compared to the pro forma fourth quarter. The sequential improvement in revenue was primarily driven by increases in directional drilling, frac rental and fishing. First quarter adjusted operating loss for this segment was $300,000, compared to pro forma fourth quarter adjusted operating loss of $700,000. First quarter adjusted operating loss for the segment was $300,000 compared to pro forma fourth quarter adjusted operating loss of $700,000.

First quarter adjusted EBITDA was $4.2 million, which was in line with pro forma fourth quarter. Now to wrap up the segment discussion with the Northeast and the Mid-Con. First quarter revenue was down $2.4 million sequentially to $57.1 million. The decrease in revenue was primarily driven by sequential decline in directional drilling and dissolvable plug sales in the region. Adjusted operating loss for the first quarter was $700,000 as compared with adjusted operating income of $2.7 million in the pro forma fourth quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA was $2.7 million in the first quarter as compared to fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA of $6.2 million. The decline in activity and revenue led to a corresponding decrease in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin for the segment from Q4 to Q1, where we expect segment margins to rebound as we progress through Q2, given a strong backlog. I'll now turn to our balance sheet and cash flow. Our Q1 cash balance decreased by $8.6 million to $19.4 million when compared to Q4. The decrease in cash was largely driven by an investment in working capital and capital spending, both of which I'll get into a bit later on the call.

Debt outstanding as of Q1 remained constant with the fourth quarter with $250 million in 2025 maturity senior secured notes and $30 million drawn on our $100 million ABL facility that matures in the fall of 2023. Given our ABL facility matures in the fall of 2023, we are beginning to have discussions with lenders around various refinance options, including amendment extend. We continue to proactively manage working capital and convert the balance sheet into cash as quickly as possible.

Net working capital was $45.9 million in Q1 compared to Q4 net working capital of $40.5 million. The increase in net working capital was driven largely by a reduction in DPO as we work to mitigate supply chain risks. This was offset by a sequential reduction in DSO from 66 days to 63 days as of Q1.

Capital expenditures for the first quarter were approximately $5.8 million and were primarily focused on maintenance spending. Going forward, we continue to expect total CapEx for 2022 to be in the range of $25 million to $30 million and to be approximately 80% focused on maintenance spending. Supply chain issues have slowed deliveries of CapEx items so far in the first quarter, but we expect this trend to improve as we navigate through the remainder of 2022.

As of March 31, we continue to have $1.9 million of assets held for sale in our current asset accounts. We are working through options to monetize the bulk of those assets to obsolete facilities in the near term. In addition, in early Q2, we have identified an incremental $4 million to $6 million of assets for sale driven by our continued efforts to further streamline our real property footprint and monetize obsolete assets, but we do not yet know the timing of monetizing those assets.

Total liquidity as of March 31, was $67 million, and our available liquidity was $54.6 million, which was comprised of $19.4 million in cash and $35.2 million in borrowing availability on the March 31 borrowing base certificate, net of a $12.4 million fixed charge coverage ratio holdback. Our April 30 cash balance was $38.8 million and available liquidity was $57.7 million, including availability on our April 30 borrowing base certificates. Note, we subsequently made our May 1 interest payment of $14.4 million.

As we have emphasized in the past on prior calls, the continued management and preservation of our liquidity as we support the continued rebound in the business remains a top priority. As Chris mentioned, we exited Q1 generating March revenue and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $58 million and $3.8 million, respectively. If you annualize these results, it implies a revenue run rate of approximately $692 million and an adjusted EBITDA run rate of $45.6 million. We expect strong incremental performance coming off our March results and expect to see strong incremental margins from Q1 to Q2, given the current trajectory of the business.

I'll now turn the call back to Chris, who will provide some additional color on our outlook.

Thanks, Keefer. I would close the call by discussing our forward outlook. Looking at the second quarter of 2022 and the full year, we believe a constructive macro backdrop will persist. As you know, I have spoken in the past about how rising commodity prices have disproportionately benefited E&P companies in the early stages of the market up cycle.

This has largely come at the expense of oilfield services company as the fragmented nature of the industry and surplus of available equipment kept pricing power at bay. However, we are now at a point where the available supply of equipment and available labor force cannot keep up with demand and as a result, we are able to attain greater levels of pricing power that was possible in the recent past.

As pricing returns, we're hopeful that margins for the services space will return to more historic normalized levels in the near term, late 2022 and into 2023. Ultimately, the OFS industry has to generate sufficient returns to warrant the investment required to maintain safe, technologically advanced assets in order to continue to drive efficiencies for our customers.

In summary, while 2022 got off to a bit of a slow start, we have quickly settled into a much more active market and are very bullish about our prospects for Q2 and the remainder of 2022. For the second quarter, we expect to see revenue increase again with a sequential uptick in the range of 16% to 20%, driven by further improved utilization across the service lines with additional assets to be deployed into the market, coupled with pricing gains and service lines where the market is the tightest.

We expect adjusted EBITDA margin to be in the range of 7% to 9%. Going forward, we expect strong growth in pricing and continued improvement in utilization to compress white space to drive sequential improvement in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA as we progress through the remainder of Q2 and 2022. As I mentioned earlier, we exited the quarter on a $692 million revenue run rate, which is above our previously stated guidance for 2022 and expect to see further improvement as the year progresses.

Our updated revenue guidance for full year 2022 is $690 million to $710 million and believe there is still some conservatism built into this estimate depending on fourth quarter seasonality and potential budget exhaustion. In closing, let me thank our employees, customers, vendors and shareholders for their support. We are encouraged by the macro backdrop and believe KLX is uniquely positioned to deliver superior operational performance and generate improved returns in 2022 and beyond.

With that, we will now take your questions. Operator?

(Operator Instructions)

There are no questions at this time. I would like to turn it back over to management for closing comments.

Thank you once again for joining us on today's call and your interest in KLX Energy Services. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may now disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.