Doug Pferdehirt
Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open
Thank you, Matt. Good morning and good afternoon. Thank you for participating in our first quarter earnings call. With me today are Maryann Mannen, Chief Financial Officer; and Catherine MacGregor, President of Technip Energies. I also note that we’ve dialed in from different locations across the globe, another side of the impact the COVID-19 continues to have on our daily lives. Two months ago, we provided our initial view of 2020. Over those two months, much about the world has changed, including the spread of COVID-19, the shifting in OPEC policy and the sharp selloff in equity markets. Most of these effects will normalize, for others will lead to real lasting change. Today, I want to share with you some of the specific actions we are taking in direct response to the market environment, and how these actions will further reshape TechnipFMC as we transition to the new energy landscape. Over the short-term, we're taking immediate actions to protect our people, reduce costs, and preserve liquidity. First amongst these is the responsibility we all have to protect the health and safety of our employees, contractors and customers we serve, and we are taking a number of specific actions in this effort. These include on-site prevention measures, such as social distancing, staggered shifts, and health screening to ensure safer work environment, and strict self isolation procedures for employees who may have been exposed to the virus that extend beyond recommended guidelines. We're also maintaining business continuity by providing our employees with the appropriate equipment and services to work remotely when possible, establishing protocols that allow for remote inspection of manufacturing processes, and leveraging our global footprint by transferring lessons learned. Collectively, these actions have allowed most of our vessels manufacturing and service locations to operate throughout this period, providing us with the ability to advance many projects and meet customer requirements, albeit at a reduced productivity. Second, on April 1st, we announced a series of cost reduction initiatives that will result in an annualized savings of at least $130 million from our Surface Technologies segment, and Corporate. And we have now identified actions that will result in additional savings of more than $220 million that will extend across the entire company. The total annualized savings are now estimated to exceed $350 million and we anticipate achieving the targeted run rate by the end of this year. Additionally, we have announced revision to executive compensation, which includes a 30% reduction to my salary and a 20% reduction to the Executive Leadership team through the end of the year. Our Directors are also reducing their cash retainer by 30%. And the third measure we are taking is intended to further preserve our cash and liquidity. The company's Board of Directors announced earlier this week that it has chosen to lower the annual dividend by 75% to $0.13 per share, reducing the annual cash outflow by $175 million when compared to the previous year's distribution. Back in March, we also announced our decision to postpone the company's separation into two diversified pure-plays. This was a very difficult decision, particularly given the latent stage of separation activities. However, the strategic rationale remains unchanged and we are fully committed to completing the transaction over the medium term. And to further emphasize this point, we have renamed the Onshore/Offshore segment to Technip Energies and have completed nearly all of the work required to ensure that the two companies are ready for separation when the markets sufficiently recover. Looking longer term, it is clear that the energy industry must continue to evolve. The challenges we face will not resolve themselves. Things will be different and companies must adapt. TechnipFMC has been an agent of change from the beginning. And in the current environment, we will look to accelerate our own agenda for change by protecting our core competencies, investing in new technologies and expanding our digital platforms and we will continue to play a key role in the energy transition. Importantly, we will further strengthen our partner relationships and more closely align with those clients that demonstrate a willingness to embrace the new commercial models and new technologies that are critical to success. The change will be most profound for us in Subsea. We're taking additional actions to further streamline our organization in support of our vision towards simplification, standardization, and reduced cycle times. We are playing to our strengths. Our success is evident by the strong order growth in 2019 and the clear adoption of our integrated model iEPCI. We anticipate as much as 40% of new equipment orders will come from Subsea 2.0 with nearly half of our customers now focused on 2.0 as their system of choice and our Subsea Studio digital platform will host 70% of our frontend and system engineering studies, transforming conventional concept, FEED and tender phases into ultrafast digital development. iEPCI, Subsea 2.0, Subsea Studio, these are not conventional solutions. Only those that adapt will stay ahead in the new energy landscape. Meeting the needs of individual customers in a bespoke fashion requires too many resources, introduces too much cost and project risk and creates too much organizational complexity. Our recognition of the need for change resulted in the creation of TechnipFMC and our pioneering culture will ensure that we remain an industry leader. Looking ahead, we will accelerate change where possible and we will align with those clients and partners that see the shared benefits of our way forward. TechnipFMC is well positioned to manage the unprecedented uncertainty due to our strong foundation, one built on the strength of our backlog and balance sheet. $22 billion, that's the amount of total company backlog in hand today. We're not immune to the impacts of reduced capital spending. However, the effects have been largely limited to changes in project scheduling, not project cancellations. This has reduced our near term revenue from backlog, but it also extends the backlog duration. We have over $8 billion in backlog scheduled for execution over the remainder of 2020 with the remaining $14 billion scheduled for 2021 and beyond. The size and duration of our backlog in addition to net liquidity of $5.6 billion, which Maryan will cover in more detail, provide us with the flexibility to take aggressive and bold actions that will better position our company for the future. Turning to the market outlook. For Technip Energies, LNG accounts for more than 50% of our current backlog and provides us with very good visibility that extends over several years. Today we have three LNG projects that are contributing to our financial results: Yamal LNG, which is largely complete and is successfully progressing through the warranty phase; Coral Floating LNG, which is now more than two years into project delivery, and over 60% complete; and Arctic LNG 2, our largest project currently underway, whose revenue contribution will grow in 2020 and extend well beyond. While the near term outlook for new LNG prospects to reach final investment decision has changed because of COVID-19 and the challenging macro backdrop, the long-term fundamentals for natural gas and LNG in particular remain strong given its critical role as a transition fuel. We continue to be engaged in a range of additional LNG projects. These include Sempra’s Costa Azul, which the customers are indicating will be sanctioned in the near term. Rovuma remains an important project for Technip Energies. And despite ExxonMobil's recent decision to delay the project's FID, we continue to engage with the customer to further optimize the project development, and we are continuing with our scope under limited notice to proceed. In addition to these projects, we were involved in the commercial process for a major LNG prospect in the Middle East and we have recently secured FEED rules on several new prospects. Whether the ultimate project count stays at three or close to four, TechnipFMC remains a partner of choice with projects selectivity foremost in our mind, as we consider future opportunities. Turning to downstream, this sector typically proves to be more resilient during downturn. Over the course of 2018 and 2019 we secured nearly $9 billion of refining and petrochemical inbound. And we remain laser focused on executing these projects. We see potential for additional prospects to be awarded to us during 2020, one of which could exceed $1 billion. And our strong foothold in energy transition markets beyond LNG continues to increase. In the first quarter, we announced an alliance with Neste to provide front end loading services for future NEXBTL projects, which also covers our participation during the execution phase. We are proud to be Neste’s partner of choice for renewable diesel projects. We have also had notable recent success in the area of recycling, including an extension to our long held alliance with BP to include the Infinia technology that enables circularity for difficult-to-recycle plastic waste. Moving to Surface Technologies, in North America, the quick and significant cuts to industry capital expenditures have impacted the services across the board. Market expectations now hold for the rig count for the second quarter to be down by approximately 50% from year-end. Outside North America, investment continues to move forward, but it has been constrained mainly due to logistics, in light of recent events additional deferrals are likely. We also expect to benefit from our differentiated capabilities. Our high level of vertical integration provides us with more control over our manufacturing and product deliveries, and less dependency on external supply chains. This differentiation has helped mitigate delivery disruptions and afforded us new opportunities where industry supply has been challenged. We therefore anticipate that international revenues in 2020 will prove to be far more resilient than North America. Moving to Subsea, we believe that deepwater will become an even more prevalent piece of the energy mix as project economics remain attractive, particularly for brownfield developments. In the near term, we continue to assess the likely impacts of lower capital spending on major project FIDs. Many of our clients are still reviewing their plans and prioritizing their projects. Based on currently available information we believe that approximately 50% of the nearly $15 billion of total project value reflected on our Subsea opportunities list is still likely to move forward over the next 24 months. All other projects remain active but potentially extending beyond this 24 month timeframe. When we think about the next 12 months, we believe as much as 20% of the project value is likely to reach FID and we are well positioned for many of these opportunities. We will provide updates to the list as we gain greater clarity from our clients over the coming months. In addition, as we have demonstrated, TechnipFMC has access to a proprietary set of opportunities. These come from our alliance partners or from our unique integrated FEED capabilities which often lead to direct iEPCI project awards. And beyond project activity, we generate additional revenue from Subsea Services activity where we benefit from the industry's largest installed base of Subsea equipment in operation today. We anticipate resiliency in services activity as a result of the expected shift by some clients from greenfield developments to brownfield intervention. In our earnings release yesterday we provided an updated view on guidance for 2020. Although market uncertainty remains and clarification around capital expenditures is ongoing, I want to offer some additional thoughts in support of these updates at this time. All of the guidance items we have provided assume no further material degradation from the impacts of COVID-19 on our current ability to execute on our project portfolio. In Subsea, where we are benefiting from near record levels of inbound, a strong backlog and our resilient Subsea Services business, we have a solid foundation to navigate through the near term. We continue to engage with our alliance partners and customers in order to align on project scheduling and new capital expenditures. Given this dynamic situation, in lieu of traditional guidance, we have provided our expectations for the major inputs that continue to influence our outlook for Subsea revenue and margin. Turning to revenue first, our current estimate for backlog to be converted into revenue for the remainder of the year is $3.1 billion. We're still in discussion with many of our customers over project scheduling and there remains risk that some of this backlog could still be rescheduled for execution in future periods. However, the strong inbound booked in 2019 provides us with much greater flexibility to manage our business through this challenging period. If we had not generated the record inbound last year, the planning scenario would look very different for us. It is also clear that the change in backlog scheduling will only defer revenues for future periods providing more revenue coverage in 2021 and beyond. In Subsea Services, we provide aftermarket services on over 50% of the Subsea installed base, generating a resilient revenue stream of approximately $1 billion for the full year. This incorporates our expectation for some modest level of activity deferral, a decrease from our prior expectation for growth. And lastly, with respect to book and turn revenue, our current view is that inbound orders, which serve as the basis for this revenue source, could be down as much as 50% versus full year 2019. Next the factors impacting Subsea margin include our revised expectation for less inbound and therefore less book and turn revenue for 2020, which we will not be able to fully offset through cost reductions. Several of our manufacturing plants have been running at high utilization. COVID-19 presents real challenges to both the supply chain and our manufacturing workflows. Our prior margin expectation also assumed increased fleet utilization as we progress through the year. We have several installation campaigns that are increasingly at risk of deferment to 2021 due to the impact and travel restrictions, leaving us with a limited flexibility to mitigate costs refine/replacement work for these fixed assets over the very near term. Looking at the second quarter, we do anticipate a sequential decline in adjusted EBITDA margin when compared to the first quarter, largely due to more significant impact from COVID-19. However, in order to navigate through these headwinds, we're advancing our restructuring plans in Subsea and we will begin to recognize the benefit of these actions in the second half of the year. In summary, having greater clarity on the duration of COVID-19 and the ultimate scheduling of our backlog will provide us the ability to more fully assess our Subsea outlook for the remainder of the year. Moving to guidance for Technip Energies, we are relatively insulated in the current period due to the long cycle nature of the business, the resilience and maturity of the projects in backlog and our diversified global footprint. To-date, we have been able to mitigate a very significant portion of COVID-19 operational impacts, where the effects relate more to operational efficiencies and timing issues, but not the stoppage of projects. However, the revenue outlook for the year has been impacted by: First, the delay in a few key project FIDs and the impact of the slower inbound for execution in 2020, much of which we be believe has simply shifted beyond the current year. And second, revised schedules on some of our projects within backlog where certain scopes of work originally planned for 2020 are partly shifted into 2021. Due to these effects, we're revising our revenue guidance to a range of $6.3 billion to $6.8 billion, which still remains at or above our 2019 results. Guidance for adjusted EBITDA margin is unchanged from our prior view of at least 10%. The resilience in margin, even with the reduction in revenue is driven by the continued strength in project execution in this exceptional environment and some benefit from project mix. And finally, Surface Technologies, our shortest cycle business has been most impacted by recent events. Outside of North America, our Surface business is much less impacted by the global spending reductions. International markets are typically more resilient in a downturn and we expect to benefit from the flight to quality associated with our higher tier products as we have experienced during recent -- or during previous cycles. We anticipate our business mix outside of North America will now represent as much as 60% of total segment revenue in 2020. In North America, the actions taken by our clients in response to the sharp decline in commodity prices are almost unprecedented. We are responding aggressively as evidenced by the prior announcement of our intent to deliver more than $100 million in annualized cost savings. Most of this will occur in North America where the industry spending reductions have been particularly severe. With these actions, we believe that we can be modestly profitable in North America for the full year when excluding charges based on our current outlook. Moving beyond the operating segments, we have also provided updates to several other items that were included in our earnings press release and presentation deck. We will provide additional segment guidance and updates as we gain more clarity over the coming months. Without question, this is the most challenging business environment that our industry has ever faced. We are not simply responding to a health crisis or a commodity crisis or an economic crisis, we're responding to all three on a global stage at the same time. In the face of such extreme uncertainty, we are focusing on what we can control. We are taking steps to ensure that all of our employees and contractors remain safe. We're spending more time with clients than ever before, working with them to better understand their priorities and working together to solve our collective issues, strengthening the relationships we have and building new ones for the road ahead. And we are focused on ensuring business continuity, working diligently and innovatively to solve problems and better anticipate new complexities that may arise from the unforeseen challenges of COVID-19. We're also taking swift and decisive actions in response to the near term challenges. We are preserving our liquidity with the Board's decision to revise the dividend policy. We have significantly increased our annualized savings target to more than $350 million. This includes additional cross reductions from all of our business segments, our support functions and Executive and Director compensation. We're uniquely positioned with our strong balance sheet and backlog. This includes $5.6 billion in cash and liquidity and nearly $22 billion in total company backlog that extends out for several years. And we're doing all of these things with the support, dedication and commitment of the exceptional women and men of TechnipFMC. Through everything we have faced, they have shown a level of strength and resiliency that is nothing short of inspiring in these most difficult times. I will now turn the call over to Maryann to briefly discuss a few highlights of the first quarter and provide you with an update on our cash and liquidity position. Maryann?