Drilling Tools International Corporation

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Drilling Tools International's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star 1 1 again. I would now like to hand the call over to Siobhan Hickey, Investor Relations for Drilling Tools International. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Lateef. And welcome everyone to Drilling Tools International's third quarter conference call. I am joined today by Wayne Prejean, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and David Johnson, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we start, I would like to remind everyone that some of today's comments include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from any expectations we expressed in or are implied by these statements. 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 third quarter earnings press release, which can be found on our website. Lastly, as a reminder, today's call is being webcast and a recorded version will be available for replay on the investor relations section of the company website shortly after the conclusion of this call. With that, I'll hand it over to Wayne Prigent, Chief Executive Officer.

Good morning and thank you for joining our first earnings call as a public company. My name is Wayne Frazier and I'm Chief Executive of DTI. For those of you who are new to our company's story, I will begin my remarks with an overview of Drilling Tools International, which is more commonly referred to in the industry as DTI. DTI is an industrial service company whose distinct business model combines tools, technology, and equipment rental along with in-house manufacturing capabilities. We primarily serve the oil and gas upstream industry with downhole tools in the construction process. In addition, our tools also serve the emerging geothermal and carbon capture business. We employ a loyal and dedicated group of people who believe in our values and share our vision for the future. Our competitive advantage continues to be the people we employ who drive the strength, innovation, and performance of our company. The reason DTI exists is because our customers such as SLB, Baker Hughes, Exxon, Chevron, and Oxy would not find it efficient to own and maintain their own fleet of downhole rental tools. There are just too many assorted configurations, hole sizes, geographies, and engineers' preferences that make it inefficient for customers to own their own rental tool fleet. Although David Johnson, our CFO, will explain results in more detail later, I will briefly describe how our business works. Our business model relies mostly on rental, repair, and recovery revenues. Our customers count on us to maintain a relevant and sustainable fleet of equipment. Our rental and repair income provides the basis for our rental model. The tool recovery revenue also known as lost or damaged equipment charges, allows us to sustain our fleet, which enables us to not only remain relevant, but also generate positive, adjusted free cash flow throughout the energy industry cycles. These financial results provide DTI tremendous flexibility across a variety of business strategies. We are debt-free and have an enviable income stream from multiple product lines and numerous geographic locations. covering every significant oil and gas producing region in North America. We also think we have some of the best professionals in the industry. In a steady state or non-growth environment, our business consistently delivers mid-30% adjusted EBITDA margins and a high team percentage of adjusted pre-cash flow. I hope this overview was helpful in providing some context for the rest of the call. Now we'll take a few minutes to discuss a little bit about our company history, market conditions, how we are executing, a review of the quarter, and our outlook for the remainder of 23 before opening the line for questions. So let's get started. DTI was founded in 1984 as Directional Rentals in Lafayette, Louisiana. After 28 years of Gulf Coast success and expanding from one to three locations, the company was sold in 2012 to private equity firm HICS Equity Partners. Oilfield Services is an industry where experience and relationships matter. A dedicated group of employees led by experienced management is the key to sustainable success. This means the strength of our management team is important. In 2013, the company recruited and hired additional senior management to execute a long-range growth plan and soon after rebranded Drilling Tools International. The senior leadership team in place today has worked together for over 10 years. We have decades of industry experience between us and have successfully managed the business through numerous industry cycles. Over the last decade, DTI has grown from a small regional tool supplier, primarily servicing independent directional drilling clients, to a well-established oil field services company, supplying the top tier oil and gas service companies worldwide, providing downhole tools for both the land and offshore drilling markets. Our primary focus is tools and technology used in drilling completion and work over operations. We have a fleet of mission critical tools that include bottom hole assembly components such as subs, stabilizers, drill collars, premium drill pipe and drill pipe accessories, tubing, pressure control equipment, reamers, borehole enlargement tools, and production desanders. We also offer some proprietary well bore optimization products such as patented drill and ream world war conditioning tool, SafeFlow, a patented downhole pressure control valve, and our new patented rotosteer technology. All of these provide value-added solutions to the evolving challenges in the drilling industry. DTI operates from our headquarters in Houston, Texas, and from 20 service locations across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Many of these locations have machining, inspection, and repair capabilities that enable us to efficiently service our equipment, which results in improved customer satisfaction, reliability, and efficient utilization of our assets. We also have full manufacturing capabilities, which allows us to control all the cost and delivery of many of our rental-to-items. Our customers' drilling tool needs are ever-changing and evolving. To support and manage a complex fleet of assets, you must have a best-in-class quality system with a reliable maintenance process to meet the needs of the industry. To meet these needs, DTI created and deployed a customized state-of-the-art fleet management software system called COMPAS. COMPAS is an acronym for Customer Order Management Portal and Support System. This software system simplifies the complex task of managing a large inventory of tools spread out over numerous geographic locations with tools of various geometry and customer specifications. But most importantly, this system provides value of performance data to assist the management team with capital allocation priorities. For example, we've seen asset performance as defined by utilization rates. increased almost 10% since implementing the system in 2021, and it continues to improve. While most investors do not yet know us, it is worth noting that we are well-known within the industry and to our customers. We service a wide customer base, including blue-chip companies such as Chevron, Exxon, BP, Oxy, Pioneer, ConocoPhillips, EOG, SLV, Baker Hughes, and Phoenix Energy Services. In addition, we serve several independent EMP operators such as Mewburn, Endeavor, and Continental, as well as many others. We are proud of our progress and track record thus far. In fact, since 2013, the company has been EBITDA positive every single year during the last 10 years, including 2020 during the depths of COVID. Although we prefer a market that is steady state or upward, We view downturns as opportunities to strengthen our business, and we have done so each cycle. It is noteworthy that Hicks Equity Partners has been the majority owner of BTI since 2012 and remains so today. The Hicks team has invested in the energy industry for over 40 years, and we are proud of our strong and enduring working relationship. Turning now to the market outlook and effect on our business. In Q4 of 2022, the forecast across the industry for 2023 began with rig counts expected to be flat to upward throughout the year. Unfortunately, near the end of the first quarter of 2023, natural gas markets softened, and shortly after, bank contagion fears created macro concerns of a major worldwide recession. This triggered a softer oil and gas market and resulted in rig count declines in many areas. While U.S. rig activity has declined approximately 19% from December 22 to September of 23, the company continues to execute on plan with a revenue decrease of less than the linear market decline. Essentially, we have outperformed the market. We will elaborate on this later in the call. Looking forward, management believes that the North American rig count has bottomed and will begin to move upwards in 2024. Longer term, Demand trends remain robust, with projections from agencies such as the EIA expecting oil demand to continue to grow through 2050, and gas demand to increase materially in the next few years as in-process LNG plants come on stream. It is well documented that the industry has under-invested in recent years, and to meet future demand, additional drilling, completion, and production of oil and gas wells will be required worldwide. DTI's base business is competitively positioned in North America land and in the U.S. offshore business as well. Our customers have requested we expand to serve them on a more global scale. We recently expanded our fleet to the North Sea Europe market, and we have made steady progress expanding into the Middle East. DTI continually works to provide tools, technology, and services to meet our customers' changing needs in markets throughout the world. Some discussion on growth, mergers and acquisitions, and industry consolidation. Given how highly fragmented the oilfield services industry is today, we believe there are meaningful consolidation opportunities which exist in the sector. And we have identified a substantial pipeline of accretive growth opportunities within our core competency. To pursue those opportunities, VTI became a public company in June of 2023 to gain public equity as well as other funding methods to execute transactions. Our targets include opportunities that would strengthen our technological capabilities, capture competitive positions or bolt-on assets, and expand our reach internationally. As has always been the case, we seek to execute on transactions which are aligned with our long-term portfolio strategy and increase shareholder value. It is our goal to make strategic acquisitions that double or triple the size of the company in relatively short order, and we spend a substantial part of our time each day driving towards this goal. We believe DTI has a proven track record of successfully deploying capital in a disciplined manner for select degree of acquisitions. DTI has executed six acquisitions since 2013, which have included companies, strategic asset purchases, and distribution agreements with technology advantages. Today, DTI has a fortress balance sheet, zero leverage, an undrawn $60 million ABL credit facility, public equity, which provide ample financial liquidity. We are poised for accretive growth in numerous areas of our business, have an excellent management team, and continue to execute well, generating strong, adjusted free cash flow. With that, I will turn it over to our CFO, David Johnson, for a review of our financial results. David?

Thanks, Wayne, and thank you everyone for joining us today. DTI generated total consolidated revenue of $38.1 million in the third quarter of 23, an increase of 4.4% compared to the third quarter of 22. For the nine months ended September 23, total consolidated revenue was $116.8 million, 25.8% higher compared to the first nine months of 22. The revenue contribution from our tool rental segment in the third quarter was $29.4 million, which was 9.4% higher compared to the third quarter of 22. The improvement was primarily driven by increased market activity and customer pricing across all product lines, with the strongest contributions coming from our directional tool rentals and the wellbore optimization tools product lines. For the nine-month period ending September 23, the tool rental segment generated 90.6 million of revenue, which was 29% higher compared to the same nine month period in 22. Revenue generated by the product sales segment in the third quarter of 23 was 8.8 million, which was 9.6% lower compared to the third quarter of 22, primarily due to higher than average tool recovery revenue in the third quarter of 22. For the nine months ended September 23, the product sales segment generated revenue of $26.2 million, an increase of 15.9% compared to 22. DTI's operating costs and expenses in the third quarter of 23 were $31 million, which was 8.9% higher compared to the third quarter of 22. This was primarily driven by higher personnel expenses, depreciation, insurance expense, and other public company costs. For the nine-month period ended September of 23, operating costs and expenses were $93.5 million, an increase of 23.7% compared to the same nine-month period in 22. It is worth highlighting that for the nine-month period ending September of 23, our operating expenses increased at a lower rate than our revenue increased. illustrating our ability to gain operating leverage as activity and pricing improved over the prior year, even with the impact of increased costs associated with becoming a public company. The company posted net income of 4.3 million or 14 cents per diluted share in the third quarter of 23 compared to net income of 7 million or 36 cents per diluted share in the third quarter of 22. For the nine-month period ending September 23, net income was $10.9 million or $0.46 per diluted share compared to net income of $14.3 million or $0.72 per diluted share. The lower result in the nine-month period was impacted by one-time transaction-related expenses of $6 million and one-time related stock option expenses of $1.7 million. We also had ERC benefits of 4.3 million in the third quarter of 22 that were not repeated in the third quarter of 23. Third quarter adjusted EBITDA was 12.7 million, which was 2.3% lower compared to the third quarter of 22. The decrease was primarily driven by higher personnel expenses and other public company costs in the current quarter and higher than average tool recovery revenue that occurred in the third quarter of 22. For the nine months ended September 23, adjusted EBITDA was $40.8 million, which was 45.2% higher compared to the nine months ended September 22. DTI ended the third quarter with strong financial flexibility with approximately $4 million of cash on hand and an ungrown $60 million credit facility. Before moving on to guidance for the fourth quarter, I want to take a moment to discuss our capital expenditures and recovery of costs for lost or damaged tools. Since we regularly receive questions on this topic and it is not well understood. As a downhole rental tool company, our maintenance capital is funded by tool recovery revenue. The customer is responsible for all lost or damaged tools while the tools are in their care, custody, or control. This tool recovery component of our rental business model keeps our rental tool fleet relevant and sustainable. For the three- and nine-month periods ending September 23, maintenance capital was approximately 14% of total consolidated revenue for these periods. This self-funding portion of our capital investments has remained relatively consistent over the past couple of years. Now I would like to turn our attention to guidance for the full year 2023. As of September 23, U.S. rig activity has declined by approximately 19% compared with December of 22. However, despite the challenging environment, DTI continues to execute well with a monthly revenue decrease of only 5% from December of 22 to September of 23, outperforming the market. Management anticipates the rig count will remain relatively flat in Q4, and we are maintaining our previous projections for the full year 23, which I will review now. We expect revenue to be in the range of 150 to 158 million for the full year 23. We expect adjusted EBITDA to be within the range of 50 to 54 million, Gross capital expenditures are expected to be between $44 and $46 million. Net income for the full year is expected to be between $12 and $19 million. And finally, we expect adjusted free cash flow to be in the range of $6 to $8 million for the year. That concludes the financial review section. Let me now turn it back over to Wayne to provide some summary comments before Q&A. Thank you, David.

So everyone, to recap a few key items before opening up the line for Q&A. As I stated earlier, DTI is currently unknown to the investment community, but we are well known and respected in the industry. We're an established company with a management team that has interests aligned with its shareholders. We have an employee base that is loyal, dedicated, and skilled in supporting our operation. This team is cohesive, collaborative, and has worked together for a number of years. We are the market leader in numerous categories and have an enviable facility footprint. We have an outstanding roster of customers and large sales force covering numerous geographic locations. We have proven operational performance and can boast an impressive delivery of steady state adjusted EBITDA adjusted free cash flow margins. We have a proven track record of successfully executing acquisitions and we believe consolidation opportunities exist in all field services. We have a pipeline of attractive acquisition and organic growth initiatives already in motion. We have a strong balance sheet, zero leverage, an undrawn $60 million credit facility, and equity capital. DTI is well positioned to achieve our strategic portfolio objectives. And to be blunt, at our current stock price, we believe we're at an attractive entry point versus our peers. We have a very bright future as a publicly traded company, and we look forward to getting to know you and for you to get to know DTI. With that, I will turn the call back over to our operator who can open the line for questions. Thank you.

As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. To remove yourself from the queue, you may press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.

Our first question.

comes from the line of Donovan Schaefer of Northland Capital Markets.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I want to start off by asking about... Forgive me if I missed some of the details on this, but the 5% decrease in revenue, despite the rig count being down really almost 20%, could you give us... Can you talk through the specific dynamics there, what it is that you think resulted in you performing better than market? I mean, as a starting point, you know, just to clarify, are there any sharp timing delays? Or if not, you know, was it the customer mix being more sort of skewed towards tier one? I've heard about there sort of being a flight to quality in service providers, so perhaps that's part of it. or if it's more geographic focus, having to do with which basins you're in, any sort of color there would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Okay, great. This is Wayne. Thanks for that question. So, we believe because of the structure of our business and our customer base and the broad geography we have, along with many of our products having contractual links to them, we were able to have a more sustainable activity level than a linear equation where you don't have a one-to-one equation of lost rigs, lost jobs. Having the stickiness to work for tier one operators with large programs enabled us to have a higher sustainability factor. So not only is our activity a little less more cushioned from the direct reduction in activity, but our pricing also was less volatile, meaning it provided us more runway throughout these down cycles. And we believe that's one of our advantages in strategic positioning.

Okay, that's helpful. And then I know it's a bit early to talk about 2024, but, I mean, you guys did talk about thinking, you know, having your own internal view or internal expectations of rig count would be roughly flat in 2024. You know, I know you haven't issued 2024 guidance, but my question just at a higher kind of conceptual level and kind of thinking about your business model, if it's a flat rig count in 2024, you know, does it follow or does that imply a relatively flat level of revenue for you guys, maybe taking kind of the run rate from this quarter? Or is it something where, you know, it's sort of excluding M&A for the time being? just with the current businesses that you have, you see yourself sort of taking share or certain contracts, you know, anything happening underneath the hood, if you will, from just a rig count standpoint where revenue would be up, down, or kind of consistent with the rig count.

So this is Wayne again answering. We view, you know, our current rig count, U.S. rig count is 600-ish, you know, with ebbs and flows. depending on what week you're looking at it, it is likely that the rig count will increase in 2024. It's less likely it'll be flat to down. Our view is there will be more rigs in 2024 than there were at the end of 2023, working in 2024. When and how that happens and how it ramps up and which quarter, whether it's front-loaded customers to start building their budgets early or organically move it up the food chain as the year progresses. It's hard to determine. It's possible it could be more than 50 rigs, but I'm gonna say I have to take the under on 50 rigs increase. So we see an uptick in the U.S. activity. That's our view. We believe our business will grow with that uptick. And we also have some new products that we think will gain market share to help provide more revenue and income for us in a tiered basis over and above an existing linear market trend. I think we have some opportunities to see our business revenues and earnings move upward in 2024. And our guidance will be soon as we forecast that in later meetings. But that's We think it's going to be upwards.

Okay. And actually, you anticipated my next question about the new product launches. So, is this the same, I think, in the DAC, you refer to them as sort of emerging products, does RotoSteer and DrillSave, are those the two products that you can see layering in incremental revenue next year? Or are there additional products, you know, behind that? Um, and then if you can give us any kind of, you know, real, I, it can be pretty rough, but just, is that a, is that a potential upside revenue and the single digit percentages, you know, low single digit, high single digit, you know, double digit percentage, uh, impact on revenue to the upside. And what kind of a margin that would have if it would be above kind of what your corporate average is right now for margins or below?

So, number one, I'm reluctant to give specific guidance on those new products contributions because they're still, you know, we're developing our commercial forecast models on how they will really, what results we can achieve. But I will say this, that we fully expect them to be at or above the performance of our current product line. Because everything we do going forward, we believe, has to be equally or more creative than our current business model. And to give you some scale, I know you'd love to have a percentage amount, single, double, triple digits. But I was probably reluctant to give too much scale guidance at this point. But it will help us grow our business more than we have been before. So I think once we give that guidance, There'll be more clarity on that in the coming few weeks, we hope.

Okay. And then I do have a couple more, but I want to be respectful to other folks. So just if I can check in with the operator real quick. Operator, are there any other people in the question queue right now?

Please proceed with your question, sir.

Okay. Thank you. So then if I can step back and look at a longer kind of time horizon. So You know, as I understand it, you guys have grown very significantly in the last 10 years. I want to say I think it's something like six or seven times on a revenue basis. And of course, you know, that's not all organic. There have been some fairly meaningful acquisitions over the course of that time. But it would be good to get your take, you know, between the two of you guys what your sense of like a normalized growth expectation for your businesses, you know, maybe I guess excluding, you know, I guess however you think about it. If you think about it, if your mental framework tends to include the M&A, then you can include that. If your mental framework tends not to, but I'm just trying to orient myself with respect to what your own views are for growth rates. over like a 10-year, like normalized, you know, excluding cycles, talking like a 10-year type growth rate.

So, you know, realizing that the U.S. and North America market is going to ebb and flow, you know, over the next few years, we always feel like we are very, very solidly positioned to take full advantage of, you know, the activity that exists. We have strong positions in all of our product lines. We're gonna have some new product lines, like I said earlier, that'll help us achieve growth in that area. I think modestly, you can expect in a steady state, we'll probably achieve more than a flat revenue line. But our opportunity is going to, even excluding M&A, our opportunity is to grow in other markets. And we can push some of our existing tool portfolio into other markets with our distribution partners. And then if you layer on that some strategic acquisitions we already have in motion that we're in discussions with and have on our strategy profile, we should see some better penetration in those markets as we make those acquisitions. It's all going to depend on the volatility of the North American market. I think that's on everyone's concern list right now, whether or not the long-term M&A of your Exxons and Pioneers and Chevrons and Hesses, those types of things, you know, what kind of rig activity and wealth count will we see as a result of these changes in the macro components of our North American market? So we are well positioned with that. We tend to benefit from those more than it has an adverse impact on our businesses. because we're working for the acquirers, so that's always a good thing.

Wait, let me just add on to what you said, echo your comments and Donovan for your benefit. I mean, I think it's important to recognize that DTI is entering a new chapter as a public company, so we're going to be able to do things we didn't do over the last 10 years, even though we built a solid foundation for our business over that 10-year period, but we're now going into a period where that growth through acquisitions is our strategy and we'll be able to do more than we have been historically because, you know, we have that public currency to kind of add to our tool belt. So we are kind of entering that new chapter.

Okay. That's helpful. And then I guess just my last question would be on the the international opportunities and it looks like, I think you talked about more recently, the UK and your deck shows footprint in Germany or something. I'm assuming that's mostly around the North Sea. Correct me if I'm wrong on that. The North Sea was such a big deal in the 80s and 90s. I'm not as up to speed on the current state of the North Sea opportunity, but certainly with the Nord Stream gas pipeline, Russia invading Ukraine, last winter in Europe, all the kind of chaos and turmoil around there. Do you see the North Sea as a potential important driver going forward? You've historically done well with offshore in Gulf of Mexico, I believe, at various times. Is that something you see yourselves trying to replicate in the North Sea or meaningful opportunity there?

Good question. We believe that despite the attitudes towards fossil fuel development in the North Sea and European area, I think that logic will prevail and there will be some reliable activity, likely upward activity in the entire North Sea sector over time. I don't think it's gonna boom where there's hundreds of rigs, but there'll be a steady state of activity, number one. Number two, being based in the Aberdeen market for offshore, also many of the West Africa operations that are coming back on stream originate from Aberdeen. And so being positioned there gives you more opportunities in that West Africa offshore market. Then our presence in the European land market, particularly in cellar Germany with our partner there, we're participating in a lot of geothermal activity, which we're pretty excited about. And we're having requests for more and more tools as those projects become more reliable and understood. So there seems to be a significant amount of interest in the geothermal market, as well as carbon capture. There's wells being drilled. sequestration wells for carbon capture that we provide tools on. So we're participating in all those different segments, and we see that as an opportunity. Being positioned there gives you those opportunities.

Okay, great. Thank you. That's helpful. I'll take the rest of my questions offline. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

Thank you.

We stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Bill Austin of Daniel Energy Partners.

Hey, guys. Congrats on the first call, and thanks for taking my questions. Yeah, sure. So really just main question is I know you guys talked a lot about M&A on the call. Can you guys speak? to which products or even just geographic regions that are most appealing to you guys from an M&A perspective?

Sure. This is Wayne again. You know, the first part of that answer is prioritization, right? So, you know, we have to put priorities in three buckets, and they have to – number one, we have to – we need to see some geographic expansion, which we want to achieve, but they also have accretive value. And thirdly, and probably equally important in all of the balances, technology, some sort of differentiating technology. We're remaining in our core competencies of drilling and all the way through casing installation. I call it the initial world work construction process phase. Eventually, we might move into more completion and production type products, but initially, we're still focusing on bolt-on, more moat building, but expanding our differentiating product lines technologically and geographically. But all of those must meet that smell test of accretive value and the ability to grow and expand, you know, our income stream. So that would be how I would describe the priorities of M&A.

Okay.

Well, thanks, and then I know you've got...

And I know you touched on this with a question from the last caller, but R&D efforts on the new products, are you going to see those come to fruition in 24, or is that a little longer term than what we talked about?

We fully expect to see some positive exposure in 24 from two or three that are already in motion, and then a couple of acquisition targets that we are contemplating would have immediate value going into 24. And building momentum through 24 would put a great story in motion for 25 as well. So 24 some, 25 more.

And then how do you guys think about R&D as kind of a percentage of going forward as a percentage of your revenue? How do you guys think about your R&D budgets?

We do have a budget for R&D within our own business lines as we speak. As a percentage, I kind of have to look back into what we've spent in R&D. We do have a budget for it. Going forward, some of the targets that we have in mind bring more engineering R&D and what we call . So this is all baked into our cost, and it's historically significant. Insignificant. So it's historically insignificant thus far, but we've baked it into our cost thus far.

Well, thank you. That's all from me. Okay.

Thank you, Bill. Thank you. Again, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. Again, that's star 1-1 on your telephone to ask a question.

Again, that's star 1-1 to ask a question.

As there appear to be no further questions in queue, I would now like to turn the conference back to Wayne Prejean for closing remarks. Sir?

Well, thank you. Thanks for joining us, everybody. We look forward to sharing additional information with all of you in the coming quarters. Please don't hesitate to reach out with additional comments or questions. We're always here to answer your questions and inquiries. We look forward to the future and have a great day.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating.

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