Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA (EMGS) Earnings Call Transcript

Welcome to the presentation of EMGS' Fourth Quarter 2024 Results. I'm here with our CFO, Anders Eimstad, and together, we will go through these results. Please take note of our disclaimer. During the fourth quarter of 2024, we successfully completed our multiclient campaign on the Norwegian continental shelf. This campaign includes several CSEM surveys and 1 OBN survey, our very first. These surveys were in the Barent Sea as well as in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea. All were completed without any incidents and with limited downtime. 2024 was actually our most active year in Norway since 2017. Most of the surveys in Norway last year were driven by gas exploration. Upon completion of some equipment testing, the vessel started to transit towards India and took the long route around Cape of Good Hope. We were forced to take this long route due to the situation in the Red Sea with the Houthi rebels. The revenue for the quarter was $9.7 million. The EBITDA was $10 million, and the adjusted EBITDA came in at $7.9 million. Available cash at the end of the year was $9.1 million. We are very proud of the 2 awards in India with a total combined value of up to $20 million. Moving on to our operations and market section. During the quarter, we completed the Norwegian multiclient campaign with a survey in the Norwegian Sea, and then the vessel started transiting towards India. The revenue this quarter is predominantly from prefunding of this multiclient campaign in Norway. Revenues are recognized upon final delivery of data, not upon completion of the service. Looking back at 2024 as a whole, we had unaudited revenues of $24.7 million, which predominantly comes from acquisition of multiclient data. It includes the multiclient campaign in Norway, the multiclient survey prefunded by Petrobras in Brazil and some late sales. The annual adjusted EBITDA ended up at $5.2 million, and the net income for the year ended up at $2.8 million. Our equity at year-end improved to $3.4 million. After a weak 2023, we are very pleased of returning the company to profitability in 2024 and of the good foundation that was laid for a successful 2025. Our cash position at the end of the year was $9.1 million, and the convertible bond remains at approximately $19.5 million. The bond matures in May this year, and we are in discussions about the nondilutive debt solution. More info will be shared once it becomes available. Let's take a step back and talk a little bit about India. We are excited to return to India, and we are witnessing the staggering pace of development going on. The U.S. Energy Information Administration, EIA, predicts the world's oil consumption to increase by 1.2 million barrels this year. This might not seem like much, but India is actually responsible for 25% of that growth. And India has now overtaken China as the fastest-growing oil consumer in the world. It is expected that India's oil consumption will more than double between now and 2050 from the current demand of approximately 5.4 million barrels per day to 13.3 million barrels per day 25 years from now. Energy security is important for India as for any country. But the fact that it only produces less than 1 million barrels per day and has at least 1.4 billion people and are developing at a record pace, makes energy security front and center on the Indian agenda. India has plenty of sedimentary basins. Its main offshore oil field, the Mumbai High was discovered more than 50 years ago, but most of the deepwater areas remains unexplored or at least underexplored. It is fully understandable that India has launched a massive reform of its E&P sector, and they intend to invest up to $100 billion by 2030. This is according to the Petroleum Minister, Hardeep Puri. Geophysical data is an important part of this effort. So is the opening of areas previously designated as no-go zones due to national security and the scheduling of new license rounds. The goal is to have 1 million square kilometer open for exploration by the end of this decade. This means that India is the key place for the geophysical acquisition industry in the years to come, and this obviously includes EMGS. The massive investments ongoing in India's E&P sector, combined with our history in India has made India our main focus outside of the Atlantic margin. We acquired large CSEM campaigns for ONGC and Reliance in 2006 and 2007, and we returned to India in 2016 for another major contract with ONGC. Last year, we entered into an agreement with the Director of General Hydrocarbons, DGH, for reprocessing and marketing of the legacy data, which includes 2D and 3D CSEM data acquired in 2006 and 2007. In October of last year, we signed the first India contract. This contract is worth approximately $10 million, and it is with an Indian independent oil company. And in January of this year, we received a letter of award for a second contract in India, also worth approximately $10 million and also with another Indian independent company. The expected durations of the 2 contracts is approximately 3 months. We expect that India will be an important market for EMGS in years to come, and we are confident that we will be able to help India in their gigantic energy undertaking. It remains to be seen if we will extend our current India campaign or if we will return sometime in the future. The potential for work in India is certainly there. It is also worth mentioning that we are having discussions with multiple companies about potential CSEM surveys in West Africa for the return journey towards Northern Europe. Again, it remains to be seen if we are able to secure any of these. With that, I will hand it over to Anders, who will go through our financials in more detail.

Thank you, Bjørn Petter. The total revenue for the fourth quarter was $9.7 million. The graph on the upper right shows the quarterly revenue development. From this graph, you can see that revenue has increased from the previous quarter. The revenue connected to the multiclient surveys acquired in the third quarter were recognized in the fourth quarter upon delivery of the data to the customer. We had one vessel on charter in the fourth quarter. The Atlantic Guardian completed the Norwegian multiclient campaign and commenced transit towards India. The vessel utilization in the quarter was 31%. We recorded an EBITDA of $10 million in the fourth quarter. EBITDA excludes the capitalized multiclient expenses as well as the vessel and office lease expenses. If we add these expenses to the EBITDA, we get an adjusted EBITDA. The quarterly development of the adjusted EBITDA is shown in the graph at the bottom right of the slide. The adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter was $7.9 million. The next slide details the movement in the operational cost base. In the graph to the left, you can see the quarterly development and the components of EMGS' operational cost base. The components are charter hire, fuel and crew expenses, employee expenses and other operational expenses. In addition, the capitalized multiclient expenses and vessel and office lease expenses are added to the cost base. The operational cost base for the fourth quarter was $4.7 million compared to an operational cost base of $7 million in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, $1.5 million related to transit to India was capitalized. If the capitalized cost is added back to the operational cost base, the adjusted operational cost base in the fourth quarter would have been $6.2 million. The operational cost base over the last 3 quarters has been relatively consistent given the activity level. The figures in the graph on the left do not include the $2.9 million withholding tax provision reversal. The next slide details the movement of free cash in the fourth quarter. Free cash decreased in the fourth quarter by $4.1 million. This is illustrated in the graph to the left. The light blue bar to the left shows a free cash position at the end of the third quarter of $13.2 million. The components increasing the cash position during the fourth quarter are shown in dark blue, while the components reducing the cash position are colored red. Free cash at the end of the fourth quarter was $9.1 million. The EBITDA of $10 million increased the cash this quarter. Vessel and office leases decreased cash by $700,000. The decrease in the trade receivables from $1.5 million to $900,000 increased the cash this quarter by $0.6 million. The increase in trade payables from the previous quarter in the amount of $0.8 million also increased free cash. Changes in other working capital also decreased cash by $12.6 million. The largest component of the movement in other working capital is a $7.7 million decrease in deferred revenue related to the multiclient campaign in Norway. Interest paid in the quarter on the convertible bond and other interest expenses amounted to $0.5 million in the quarter. Now back to Bjørn Petter.

Thank you, Anders. As always, you're welcome to send your questions to emgs@emgs.com, and we will do our very best to answer your questions. Thank you.