Flowco Holdings Inc. Class A

Good morning. Welcome to FloCo Holding Inc's second quarter 2026 earnings call. Today's call is being recorded. We have allocated one hour for prepared remarks and questions and answers. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Andrew Leonpacher, Vice President, Finance, Corporate Development, and Investor Relations at FloCo. Thank you. You may begin.

Andrew Leonpacher, Vice President, Finance, Corporate Development, and Investor Relations at FloCo Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us to discuss FloCo's second quarter results. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that this conference call may include forward-looking statements. These statements, which are subject to various risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks, uncertainties, and assumptions are detailed in this morning's press release, as well as our filings with the SEC, which can be found on our website at ir.floco-inc.com. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements or information except as required by law. During our call today, we will also reference certain non-GAAP financial information. We use non-GAAP measures as we believe they more accurately represent the true operational performance and underlying results of our business. The presentation of this non-GAAP financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures can be found in this morning's press release and in our SEC filings. Joining me on the call today are our President and Chief Executive Officer, Joe Bob Edwards, and our Chief Financial Officer, John Byers. Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call for your questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Joe Bob.

Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us today. I'll begin today's call with a review of our second quarter performance and key highlights. John will then discuss our financial results, segment performance, capital allocation, and balance sheet in more detail. I'll conclude with our perspective on the current market environment and our outlook for the third quarter. Loco delivered solid results in the second quarter, generating adjusted EBITDA of approximately 94 million, while maintaining our top quartile adjusted EBITDA margins of roughly 40%. Revenue increased 13% quarter over quarter, while adjusted EBITDA grew 10%, reflecting solid execution across the business. These results were supported by better than expected performance from recently acquired Valiant, continued growth in rental revenue across our surface equipment and vapor recovery businesses, and a stronger quarter in Downhole Components product sales. FloCo generated $50 million of free cash flow during the quarter, further enhancing our balance sheet and reinforcing the strength of our business model. 56% of our revenue in the quarter was generated from rental revenue, which provide a high degree of revenue visibility, while our asset-light sales businesses continue to generate attractive returns and strong cash conversion. This balanced model enables us to consistently generate meaningful free cash flow while we invest in FloCo's long-term growth prospects. Overall, I am very pleased with our execution during the quarter. While we experienced the cost headwinds discussed in our mid-quarter update, which John will discuss in greater detail, our team remained focused on the factors within our control. Superior service quality, efficient execution, and delivering the solutions that help operators generate more attractive returns from their existing assets. This disciplined approach enabled us to deliver results within our original expectations. Our second quarter performance reflects the demand for FloCo's production optimization technologies and the critical role they play throughout the productive life of the well. Whether we are enhancing production through our broad artificial lift portfolio, capturing high-value hydrocarbons through our vapor recovery solutions, or providing the surface equipment that enables more efficient production of oil and natural gas, our objective is the same. helping customers optimize production with the right solution for each well every time. As operators continue to prioritize production optimization to drive their performance, we believe our differentiated platform is well positioned to support our customers throughout the lifecycle of the well. Looking ahead, we see opportunities to further leverage our platform and deliver even greater value to our customers. Valiant is an excellent example of this strategy in action. The acquisition of Valiant's ESP capability broadened our production optimization platform while enhancing our ability to better serve customers across the life of the well. By leveraging the operational data generated through platforms like Optimus, Valiant's ESP monitoring and optimization software, we are better positioned to identify customer opportunities earlier and deliver more integrated solutions. We believe this data-driven, collaborative approach is applicable across our platform and will continue to strengthen customer relationships, identify new commercial opportunities, and enhance the value we deliver. In summary, the second quarter demonstrated our ability to deliver profitable growth, generate meaningful free cash flow, and continue executing on our long-term strategy. With that, I'll turn it over to John.

Thanks, Joe Bob. Turning to our financials, second quarter performance was within our original guidance range, driven by growth in our high margin rental businesses and a full quarter of contribution from Valiant. Total revenue increased 13% sequentially to $236 million, primarily driven by growth within production solutions. Adjusted EBITDA increased approximately $8 million from the first quarter to approximately $94 million. While higher operating and maintenance expenses within production solutions created modest margin pressure during the quarter, we continue to deliver approximately 40% adjusted EBITDA margins, highlighting the strength of our operating model and customer demand for our technologies. In our production solutions segment, second quarter revenue increased 22% sequentially to $171 million, while adjusted segment EBITDA increased approximately 16% to $71 million. The increase was primarily driven by downhole components, including the contribution from Valiant, which is performing ahead of our expectations. Integration activities for Valiant are substantially complete, and our focus is shifted towards capturing incremental commercial opportunities across the combined platform as we continue to invest in the business. Turning to margins, adjusted segment EBITDA margin decreased 229 basis points quarter over quarter, reflecting a revenue mix shift towards downhill components following the inclusion of Valiant, as well as higher operating and maintenance expenses within the segment, including increased lubricant and fuel expenses. We expect these cost pressures to continue into the third quarter and have reflected them in our third quarter guidance. We are actively focused on mitigating these cost pressures through disciplined cost management, improving the efficiency of our rental fleet maintenance program, optimizing overtime, and reducing fuel and lubricant costs where possible. In our natural gas technology segment, second quarter revenue and adjusted segment EBITDA each decreased 6% sequentially to approximately $65 million and $28 million respectively. The decline was primarily driven by lower vapor recovery system sales, which more than offset continued growth in our vapor recovery rental business. Turning to corporate costs, second quarter corporate expenses decreased to $5 million from approximately $5.6 million in the prior quarter, primarily due to lower professional fees. Overall, second quarter adjusted EBITDA came in at $93.9 million, underscoring the durability of our operating model and building on the momentum we outlined last quarter. In the second quarter, we generated approximately $50 million of free cash flow while investing $45 million of capital, primarily to expand our surface equipment and vapor recovery rental fleets and support the continued growth of Valiant. Our annualized adjusted return on capital employed for the quarter was approximately 18%. Capital investment was elevated during the quarter with the inclusion of Valiant and continued expansion of our rental fleet, but our full-year capital outlook remains unchanged and continues to support meaningful free cash flow generation. Our vertically integrated manufacturing model and six-month lead time on equipment provide flexibility to respond efficiently to customer demand while focusing our capital on high return opportunities. Turning to our balance sheet, liquidity and capital allocation, we continue to strengthen our financial position during the second quarter and into the third quarter, increasing available liquidity while reducing leverage further below one times. As of August 7th, we had approximately $274 million of borrowings outstanding under our credit facility with a borrowing base of $722 million. We had approximately $446 million of available capacity. Our conservative balance sheet and consistent cash flow generation provide the flexibility to invest organically, pursue strategic acquisition opportunities that strengthen the business, and consistently return capital to shareholders through dividends and opportunistic share repurchases. Subsequent to the quarter, our Board approved a $0.14 per share one-time special dividend to Class A shareholders only. This is in addition to our quarterly discretionary dividend of 9 cents declared on July 30th. As a result of our ownership structure, we've accumulated cash on our balance sheet and are returning this cash to our shareholders. We do not anticipate similar special dividends in the future. In summary, we delivered another strong quarter, strong free cash flow, Discipline Investment and High Return Growth, and a Stronger Balance Sheet that Provides Strategic Flexibility. We're well positioned for the opportunities ahead. Back to you, Joe Bob.

Thanks, John. Let me close by sharing our perspective on the current market environment, LOCO's positioning, and our outlook for the quarter. We believe we continue to benefit from our North American positioning, where reliable domestic energy production is playing an increasingly important role in meeting global energy demand. We continue to see an uptick in activity across portions of our customer base, which we expect will increasingly accrue to FloCo's benefit over time. With U.S. production expected to remain near record levels, operators must continue working to offset natural decline across a large and growing base of producing wells. This requires an increasing focus on production optimization, operating efficiency, and recovery, providing consistent demand for our solutions. Against this backdrop, we anticipate third quarter adjusted EBITDA of $92 to $98 million. We will continue to drive incremental efficiencies across our organization and further integrate our platform. Increasingly, that means putting our operational data and deep industry expertise to work, not just to identify cross-sell opportunities and the right solutions for each customer, but to run our broader rental fleet more efficiently through condition-based maintenance powered by AI and machine learning. We also remain disciplined in evaluating strategic opportunities that complement our existing technologies, broaden our platform, and enhance the value that we deliver customers. Together, we believe this positions us to deepen customer relationships and drive profitability over time. We believe FloCo is the leading pure play production optimization platform, positioned to benefit from our customers' non-discretionary spending patterns, and what has become an increasingly industrialized production base in North America. We believe our margins, returns on capital, consistency of our free cash flow generation and capital efficient growth are differentiated within our industry segment. As we continue to execute quarter after quarter, we believe these qualities will increasingly become evident, leading to long term value creation for our shareholders. And with that, I'll turn it back to the operator for Q&A.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. And for participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is from Arun Jaram with JP Morgan. Please proceed.

Good morning, Joe Bob and team. I was wondering, Joe Bob, if you could elaborate a little bit more on what you're seeing with the Valiant kind of acquisition. You appear to be ahead of plan. I know when you guys got Valiant, they had about 30 to 35 customers. This compares to FloCo. I think you have over 300 customers. And then you'd highlighted... expectations to deliver around $52 million of EBITDA at 40% margins. Can you maybe give us an updated view on what you think Valiant can deliver and opportunities to further scale this part of your business?

Yeah, absolutely, Arun, and thanks for the question. Listen, as we said in our prepared remarks, we are very pleased with how well the Valiant integration has gone and how well the culture that the Valiant team built has integrated into the FloCo culture. As it relates to customers, you've just highlighted exactly what we are doing, which is expanding the Valiant customer base through deliberate intentional conversations with customers that we have a deep history with on the FloCo side, where Valiant might or might not have done work with in the past, but really using that platform and the integrated approach to business development to expand that customer base. Not quite ready to give you specifics on how much ahead of plan we are, but yes, the guidance that we provided looks eminently achievable. and we will report back once we have a little more visibility through the end of the year on kind of what our expectations are for Valiant on a full year basis. But rest assured, things are going well and hope to have more specificity for you potentially next quarter.

Great. My follow-up, Joe Bob, just digesting the guide that you gave, call it 92 to 98 million for 3Q, which would be up slightly from 2Q on a sequential basis. Could you or John just provide a little bit more segment level detail on your expectations for 3Q, including thoughts on what would frame maybe the upper end of the guide versus the lower end, but maybe just a little bit more segment level detail would be appreciated.

Yeah, John can certainly dive into some specifics there, but at a high level, our capital deployment across All segments is really unchanged. You'll see some quarter by quarter variation here and there, just given the natural ups and downs of delivery times. But there's really no change in our expectation on a full year basis for capital deployment. So that really at a high level will inform the guide and the range of outcomes. and before John goes into detail, what I'll also remind you is that our downhole components business, which now does include Valiant, is more variable on a quarter-by-quarter basis than our rental businesses. So I think the wide end of the range reflects that variability. We had a couple of months during Q2 that were behind expectations and a month that was ahead of expectations for download components. So I expect that variability will continue, but I also expect maybe slightly better than expected results as compared to history because of the inclusion of Valiant in the downhole components segment. Don, did I say all that right?

Yeah, I think you got it. I mean, kind of directionally, we expect surface equipment to be relatively flat quarter over quarter. We expect a little bit of an uptick in NGT driven by an increase in business at NGS, which is our packaging business that we use internally and externally. Okay, great, gentlemen.

Thanks.

Our next question is from Derek Patezer with Paper Sandler. Please proceed.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Maybe I just want to stick on the Valiant conversation. Appreciate, you know, we're not giving out too many details yet, but have you seen any immediate wins now that you had a few months with the company on the Flowcode platform as far as cross-selling opportunities? you know obviously at the starting artificial lift solutions in HPGL and ESP but then as you kind of move towards that conventional gas lift into plunger lift have you had a conversation around those or have seen any sort of immediate wins when it comes to cross-selling opportunities?

Derek, we have. It's off to a great start. A couple of examples. Recall that within Legacy GloCo we have what we refer to as our cap and spooling business. the actual service where an operator will really unbundle the installation of an ESP. They will choose a vendor to actually buy the ESP and they'll choose a different vendor to run the cable and the capillary string downhole to optimize the performance of the ESP. Valiant historically had Thank you. Thank you. The low-hanging fruit is actually starting to come our way, which is on every Valiant installation, we are increasingly relying on our own internal capability to install the cap string and the ESP cable. So that's an immediate uplift, kind of a no-brainer, if you will. More broadly, on the customer by customer intentionality that I described earlier in Arun's question, yeah, we're starting to see some good results there. I'm going to hold off on talking about, again, specifics around customers, but... some household names are starting to engage with us on a more holistic approach to the early days, first form of artificial lift installation. That's been very promising. And then also again, early days, but we're starting to see some very interesting signs internationally coming out of our Valiant acquisition. Not only does the team there have deep experience in international markets, Many of which are very large ESP markets, but they're going to dovetail nicely with some of the organic efforts that we've had historically at FloCo. So our ambition is to talk more openly and more specifically about some international wins in the coming quarters. It's still a bit early, though. But I think more broadly, Derek, the last thing I'll mention here is the Valiant acquisition and integration really, I think, The playbook for FloCo has been written. We've proven to ourselves, and hopefully this is demonstrated in our commentary to you, we've been very successful, I think, identifying and integrating acquisitions that make sense. And so keep an eye on that for us in the coming quarters. We hope to add more as our business progresses.

Very helpful and encouraging commentary there, Joe Bob. I appreciate it. My follow-up, I just wanted to go back to some of the cost inflationary pressures that you felt during the quarter. It sounds like these will somewhat remain consistent maybe through the rest of the year, but I think specifically on the lube oil side, I know your compression peers are also navigating and facing these pressures as well. Maybe can you help us understand how you expect or potentially lock in or de-risk some of these longer term swings when it comes to lube oil and what you're able to do with your supply chain as we think about how much of an overhang this could potentially be for the business over the next six to 18 months or something like that. Just maybe a little bit more education and help as we try to think about lube oil's effect on your business.

Yeah, so we procure a lot of lube oil for our fleet of compressors, over 5000 units in our fleet. We have, you know, and many others. We have a choice among suppliers, but we also try to manage that supply chain by locking in prices periodically. And just so you know, the suppliers of that commodity, it's tied directly to crack spreads. So everything you're seeing in the refining space with crack spreads being really at an all time high are directly impacting the pricing of that product for us. Very limited potential ways to pass that through. Contracts don't contemplate our ability to actually share that risk with customers, unfortunately. So we have to get more creative. And we're actively trying to manage that. The contract that we are currently living under, the most substantial one, is priced 90 days in advance. So I think for Q3, the cake is baked. I'm looking at Johnny's nodding. I think that's right. But we're actively looking for ways to help there. Anything to add there?

No, I don't think so on the lube oil side. I do want to highlight, you know, operations and maintenance has been a part of the cost increase as well, probably a bigger part than lube oil. And that's something where, you know, I think I don't expect anything in the short term, but I think over the medium term, that's something You know, we've got real expertise in operating fleets across the two segments, and so I think that's something that, you know, more to come in the next six months where we can make some progress.

Great. Thanks, Joe, Bob, and John. Appreciate all the comments. We'll turn it back.

Our next question is from Philip Jungwirth with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Free cash flow is really strong in the quarter, and you've been above 50% EBITDA conversion for the last five quarters now, I think. I know this can bounce around a bit, but just how are you viewing medium-term free cash conversion now for the business? And maybe go into a little bit more detail on the thought process behind the special dividend in the quarter, although I know you said don't expect that to continue in the future.

Yeah, Phil, look, free cash flow, return on capital, these aren't just buzzwords that we talk to you guys about. These are our North Stars within FloCo. Okay, we talk every day with the folks on the front line running businesses on every lever they can pull to impact those two key metrics. Okay, so we are laser focused on generating not just high EBITDA margins or not just revenue growth, but real free cash flow. Cash on cash returns every quarter compounded over time should yield increased equity value, right? That's kind of finance 101. So those are our North Stars. We're gonna continue to emphasize that. Yeah, we're very pleased with the conversion this quarter. Are happy that this is sort of a quarter over quarter continuing story and really hope to continue that story in the back half of the year.

To address this special, if you want me to, we're an upseat. That's our corporate structure. Historically, we've paid tax distributions at the individual tax rates of 40%. FloCo pays taxes at 22%. But when distributions are made, it's done pro rata. So everybody gets the same amount per share per unit. That resulted in accumulation of cash on the balance sheet. And what the board has said is, look, we're going to return that to our shareholders. And going forward, we have the option just to pay tax distributions at the corporate tax rate. And so that's the plan. And that's why we don't expect another one-time special dividend in the future.

Got it. Appreciate that. And then On the production optimization platform with Valiant added, could you expand on the technology integration point and specifically what you're doing here? And then just separately, we've heard a lot from the EMPs talking about utilizing AI to manage artificial lift systems. Are there ways in which SLOCO is able to implement this technology in its own products and services? And I know you referenced this earlier as far as condition-based maintenance too.

Yeah, so the Valiant technology that they've developed in-house is really something special. Okay, so we have a fleet of ESPs installed in customer wells, and we are able to capture real-time operating data on every one of those ESPs. And that data is monitored in real-time remotely. and it's actually today monitored with human beings that look at data and actually predict Thank you for joining us today. that where there's a human being looking at data today, there presents the potential for AI to not only provide predictive analytics on when wells will go down, but also autonomously intervene in the operation of those wells with, obviously with the permission of the customer. We've certainly seen the successes that others have had in this area I would say that it's still early in the U.S. onshore where we currently operate. Customers are on their own AI journey and customers are to varying degrees embracing it and resisting it. And I'll quote more than a handful of customers when I say they will not today, they are very uncomfortable eliminating the human being from the operation of thousands of wells in the field. Now, will we get there one day? Maybe. Will it be a straight line up and to the right? Absolutely not. It'll be fits and starts. Customers will have varying opinions on this because it impacts not only their operations, but also potentially thousands of employees. So we're in the middle of it. We are making progress at our own pace. We also see a lot of opportunity to take the early success of the ESP technology that we are today using for remote monitoring and intervention to help with that commercial collaboration as operators change the phase of lift over time. So from ESP to gas lift to plunger lift, can you use the same technology platform to help the customer not only monitor the well, but also have predictive analytics on when a well needs to have a lift change out. So that's our ambition. That's the effort that we're on internally. And we've got some very interesting case studies with customers where we're seeing success there. So stay tuned for our version of this, but we're really happy with the progress that we're making.

That's great, Keller. Thank you.

Our next question is from Keith Beckman with Pickering Energy Partners. Please proceed.

Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to get a sense around, you know, we've seen VRU sales tick down a little bit here, I think, over the last quarter. I just wanted to get a sense maybe on what the upcoming catalyst could be for growth in that business. I think a little bit about pipeline capacity takeaway, increasing is potentially one of them, but anything shorter term or longer term around, you know, potential growth in natural gas technologies.

Yeah, Keith, the growth stirrer there is still very much intact, okay, almost to a pad. Well pads, particularly in the Permian Basin, have VRUs as standard equipment spec'd into the facility's design before any pad gets and certainly before it gets turned on. So we're seeing that continue in the Permian. I think you mentioned pipeline takeaway capacity. That has been a concern of some customers that we've talked to about longer range plans for installation of ERU. We are starting to see that be alleviated with more takeaway capacity, so that's good. I think the in-basin power theme that a lot of Oil companies and service companies are starting to highlight there's going to be a tailwind as well for increased VRU adoption. Every molecule that you can capture, that you can send, even if it's just in basin, to in basin generation is one less molecule you have to go find. So yeah, I think that the tailwinds for VRU are very much intact. Any kind of slowdown you see in VRU sets or sales, I'd say, is really just consistent with the lumpiness of the quarter-by-quarter growth trajectory. But we have continued confidence in our ability to deploy more VRUs, either by the way of selling them to customers who want to own them or building them and putting them in our rental fleet.

Awesome. No, that's really helpful. and then my second question is a little bit twofold so I think about kind of the six months look ahead I'll do for CapEx and just wanted to get a sense into if you guys have a good feel for operators plans into early next year and what that could mean for growth and for you guys into early next year and then the second one just thinking about I think we've seen a lot of private operators kind of start to ramp here I think of you guys as having more of a blue-chip customer base, larger customers, but I wanted to get a sense on if you're seeing any adaption of any of your technologies onto some of these smaller privates here at all.

Listen, to answer the second one first, yes, absolutely. The small private operator is still near and dear to FloCo's customer base. We work with a wide range of operators just by the law of big numbers and what's happened to the customer base via consolidation. Sure, our top customers are the blue chip customers, but there are a plethora of either private family-backed businesses or private equity-backed businesses that FloCo works with. As it relates to your first question around longer-dated growth expectations, look, we've seen, as you have, rig counts increase, right? I think we're up 50 somewhat off the bottom, which is great. Every one of those rigs is being put to work to make new wellbores and the question is, are operators building ducts or are they turning those on? And at some level, we don't really care because every one of those wellbores that gets constructed needs to be produced for 20 years. And so we view the current uptick among our customer base and drilling activity as really just fueling the fire for future growth for us. So hard to put a number on it for 27 at this point, Keith, but we're feeling pretty good about the early signs of growth that customers are starting to lean into.

Awesome. I really appreciate it. I'll turn it back.

There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back over to Joe Bob for closing remarks.

Thank you all for tuning in and look forward to talking it in 90 days. Appreciate it. Have a good summer.

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect at this time and thank you for your participation.