Stu Brightman
Analyst · Raymond James. Please go ahead
Thank you, Austin, and welcome to the TETRA Technologies’ first quarter 2016 earnings conference call. Elijio Serrano, our Chief Financial Officer, is also in attendance this morning and will be available to address any of your questions. Our Chief Operating Officer, Joseph Elkhoury, is also joining us on the call. I will provide a brief overview of our first quarter results and then turn it over to Elijio for some additional details, which in turn will be followed by your questions. I must first remind you that this conference call may contain statements that are or may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by TETRA and are based on a number of factors. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the company. You are cautioned that such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. In addition, in the course of the call, we may refer to net debt, free cash flow, revenues, gross profit, profit before tax, earnings per share excluding the Maritech segment or other non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to this morning's press release or to our public website for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest GAAP measures. These reconciliations are not a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP and should be considered within the context of our completion financial results for the period. In my remarks, I would like to cover an overview of the first quarter, our perspective going forward including the second half of the year. We missed the low end of our adjusted earnings guidance and we exceeded the top end of our free cash flow range by more than $8 million. Some of the key highlights contributing to these results were a mild winter that impacted sales for our industrial chemicals group, certain Gulf of Mexico projects that were delayed and deferred due to multiple unexpected dry wells for our customers as noted on our February call in addition to several deferred non-commercial projects and notable changes to some customers’ completion programs and an accelerated and continued rapid decrease in activity in North America as we move through and exited the first quarter. In this challenging market, we continue to focus on free cash flow and de-levering and our first quarter performance was favorable in that regard. In all of our businesses, we continue to reduce operating expenses and have reduced wages and implemented a shorter work week across our North American operations. Our Fluids Division reported both a sequential and a year-over-year decrease in revenues for the first quarter, driven primarily by a lack of the major projects in the Gulf of Mexico. As we have previously noted, this was a very lumpy business and we’re also impacted by several dry holes and deferrals by our customers. We do have a tangible back load from multiple customers in the second half of the year and we remain confident that this business will show improved profitability during that time period. The challenges to our fluids division in the first quarter were further exacerbated by the mild weather that impacted our chemicals business. Finally, we have seen an increased competitive environment in oil and gas markets for our international fluids operations. On a positive note, we have been awarded a significant water management project in the Permian that utilizes both our TETRA STEEL and our patterned automated blender. This is one of the largest water reuse programs in North America. Our focus and continued investments in new technologies such as this and the TETRA CS Neptune enable us to differentiate our fluids brand in this challenging market. Production tested reported an adjusted loss, pre-tax loss of $2.3 million in the first quarter. This is below both the first and fourth quarters of 2015. The significant driver for this business was decreased activity in North America. In addition, we are seeing pricing pressures in our major international markets. In North America, we continue to focus the divisions efforts in the most active areas, specifically the Permian and have had recent successes that gives us reason to be optimistic regarding an improved environment in the second half of this year. Our compression division reported first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $23.6 million, down both sequentially and from the first quarter of 2015, several elements contributed to this. As noted during CCLP’s call last Friday, we have seen utilization of our compression assets reduced to 77%, primarily the lower horse power, but including higher horse power to a lesser extent. In spite of this trend, our exit rate for the quarter on 800 horse power and above utilization was 86%. Pricing pressure at our North American fleet also continues to trend downwards, also primarily related to small horse power. Finally, our backlog of equipment sales decreased from $34 million to $26 million during the quarter. We have aggressively downsized our fabrication headcount and expected underutilization of our facility will improve in the second quarter based on these actions. We continue to focus on the most active areas of western south Texas. As noted in the CCLP call on Friday, we are engaged with our bankers and looking at amendments to our existing agreements that we believe will protect us and preserve the distribution as well as giving CCLP the flexibility required to operate in this challenging environment. In addition, cash CapEx was 1.3 for the first quarter and we have taken actions to eliminate growth capital with a singular exception of our ERP system project, which will enable us to deliver over $4 million of annual savings once complete. This project also represents the final element of the complete integration of the CSI acquisition. Our offshore services segment reported an adjusted pre-tax loss of $7.7 million for the first quarter. This is unfavorable to the fourth quarter of 2015, which is consistent with our normal seasonal trend. During the first quarter, the TETRA Hedron barge was in for its five year dry dock, this was completed in April and the asset is going back to work this week. During the quarter, the introduction of our new abrasive technology was met with a very positive response from our customers. We are encouraged by multiple recent contract awards. These new awards in addition to our existing backlog give us confidence that we will have significantly higher utilization and profits in a normally positive second and third quarter. Overall, we continue to believe that this business will perform similar to 2015. We remain confident in our ability to generate free cash flow in 2016 based on an anticipation of improved earnings in the second half of the year combined with ongoing working capital efficiency, minimal CapEx, and minimal abandonment and decommission spending on our Maritech liabilities. While our results clearly have come down from those of previous quarters, we are impacted to the same degree as other service companies by dramatically reduced activity in North America that accelerated during the first quarter. We remain confident in our fluids capabilities and expect to see improvement in the second half of the year. As I remind everyone, this is a very lumpy business and we do not expect that to change in the upcoming quarters. I am also very pleased by the recognition we have received from customers for our leadership in HSC and quality programs, including and inviting us to present our accomplishments to this senior management and other contractors. Our continued focus on taking proactive and aggressive cost actions, introducing new technology, focusing on the customers that recognize our value and we believe we’ll be the first to increase activity as prices stabilize, make us to feel confident that we will continue to perform well. As we take the necessary actions, we are mindful of positioning the company to optimize our portfolio and protect our operating and regional structures in order to be able to respond when the market improves. And with that, I will turn it over to Elijio.