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Valaris Limited (VAL)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 20, 2014

$103.42

+1.52%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to Ensco Plc's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2013 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Sean O'Neill, Vice President of Investor Relations, who will moderate the call. Please go ahead, sir.

Sean P. O'Neill

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets

Welcome everyone to Ensco's fourth quarter 2013 conference call. With me today are Dan Rabun, CEO; Mark Burns, our Chief Operating Officer; Jay Swent, CFO; David Hensel, our Senior Vice President of Marketing; as well as other members of our executive management team. We issued our earnings release, which is available on our website at enscoplc.com. As usual, we will keep our call to 1 hour. Any comments we make about expectations are forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our earnings release and SEC filings on our website that define forward-looking statements and list risk factors and other events that could impact future results. Also, please note that the company undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements. As a reminder, our most recent Fleet Status Report was issued earlier this week. Now let me turn the call over to Dan Rabun, Chairman and CEO.

Daniel W. Rabun

Analyst · Citi

Thanks, Sean, and good morning, everyone. Let me start by welcoming David Hensel, our new Senior Vice President of Marketing, to our conference call. David joined in 2003 and he has held several important positions, including marketing our first ENSCO 8500 Series rigs, comanaging our deepwater business unit and leading our Europe and Africa business unit, and most recently, our North and South America business unit. David's broad range of experience in both marketing and operations will serve him well as he leads our global marketing team. Now I will cover the highlights for the year and fourth quarter, as well as provide a preview of what we will see in 2014. David will then comment on the state of our market and Jay will review our financial results and provide a detailed outlook for the year ahead. Starting with 2013 highlights. Our safety performance, as measured by our total recordable incident rate, was a new record, exceeding our previous record set in 2012 and significantly better than the industry average. This industry statistic measures the number of injuries per 100 people working full time for a year. Safety is critical to our success and something that we focus on every day. We are proud of this achievement and applaud the efforts of our offshore crews and onshore employees for these record results. Due to their commitment to safety, we are off to a strong start in 2014 as well. We achieved record revenues and earnings in 2013 of $4.9 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively. These strong financial results, coupled with $11 billion of revenue backlog, allowed us to raise our dividend twice in 2013, doubling it from $1.50 to $3 per share on an annual basis. In addition, we invested $1.8 billion in our fleet, with the majority dedicated…

David Ethan Hensel

Analyst · Citi

Thanks, Dan. This morning I will recap some of our contract signing that occurred during the quarter and present our outlook for the floater and jackup markets. During the fourth quarter, we received approximately 50 inquiries for our jackups and floaters. This level of activity is in line with third quarter 2013. The number of floater inquiries was down slightly. However, the number of rig years represented by those inquiries was on par with prior quarters. While we have seen some floaters go idle recently, this appeared to have more to do with the supply of new rigs coming into the market, as well as customers letting rigs go early due to lack of success, OGX's bankruptcy in Brazil and delays in receiving regulatory approvals. We believe customer demand going forward will be positively influenced by several factors. One, stable commodity prices, well above breakeven levels for our customers to continue drilling. Two, global economy growth. Three, healthy E&P spending based on current estimates that is focused on deepwater plays that support customers achieving their production targets. Four, new discoveries over the past few years that will require appraisal and development drilling. Five, favorable activity in terms of new offshore lease sales. And finally, a stable base of drilling demand from developed wells, as 2/3 of the wells being drilled globally are for development. It is important to remember that 55% of the global jackup fleet and 37% of the floater fleet is more than 30 years old and we expect the pace of retirement to accelerate. As we look at specific markets, we saw a strong customer demand for our jackups in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. We signed a 1-year contract and an 11-month contract with Chevron for ENSCO 68 and ENSCO 81, respectively. We also contracted ENSCO…

James W. Swent

Analyst · Howard Weil

Thanks, David. Today, I'm going to cover highlights of our fourth quarter results, our outlook for the first quarter and full year 2014, our financial position and a recap of 2013, as well as some comments for the year ahead. Now let's start with fourth quarter results versus prior year. As noted in our press release, certain tax items from last year influenced the comparisons. Adjusted for these items, our earnings per share growth year-to-year was driven by the expansion of our fleet and the benefit of higher day rates. Total revenue for the quarter was $1.26 billion, up 16% from a year ago. Floater revenues increased 16% to $779 million from the prior year due to the addition of ENSCO 8506, ENSCO DS-6 and ENSCO DS-7 to the active fleet and increasing day rates for several other floaters. Year-over-year, the average day rate for the floater segment grew 19% to $438,000. Recorded floater utilization was 73% compared to 83% a year ago. As noted in our press release, ENSCO 5002 and ENSCO 5004, which were previously contracted with OGX, did not recognize revenue in the fourth quarter as anticipated in the outlook we gave you on last quarter's earnings call. ENSCO 5000 was stacked during the fourth quarter. Operational utilization for our floater segment, which adjust for planned downtime and uncontracted rigs was 89% compared to 90% a year ago. Jackup segment revenues grew 17%, primarily due to a 14% increase in the average day rate to $127,000. Reported utilization for the jackup fleet in the fourth quarter was 89% compared to 87% last year. Operating margins for the jackup segment jumped to 54% in fourth quarter 2013 from 50% last year. Contracted backlog for our jackups reached a record $2.8 billion at quarter end or nearly 1.5 years…

Sean P. O'Neill

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets

Thanks, Jay. Now operator, please open up the line for questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Dave Wilson of Howard Weil.

David Wilson - Howard Weil Incorporated, Research Division

Analyst · Howard Weil

I know you guys are somewhat agnostic between building new rigs, increasing dividends or share repurchases when it comes to whatever is going to increase returns for shareholders and have listened to shareholders' desires in the past when it comes to the dividend. But looking at the accolades, they're listed on the top of the press release, and Dan, some of the ones you mentioned in your prepared remarks, 1 of those 3 is noticeably absent. So just curious given where we are in the cycle, does one of those, as far as capital allocation, seem to be a front runner right now?

James W. Swent

Analyst · Howard Weil

I think, Dave, we're pretty happy with the balance we have. As you noted, we doubled the dividend this year. I think right now, we feel like we have the right balance between newbuild CapEx, it's in the plan this year. As I said, we've got $1.8 billion last year, $2.3 billion this year. So I think we've got the right balance for the moment. I think looking at the returns on newbuild rigs right now and the cost of the shipyards, the returns don't look that great. They don't look terrible, but they don't look that great. And so I think we're comfortable with where we're at right now.

David Wilson - Howard Weil Incorporated, Research Division

Analyst · Howard Weil

Okay. And then just as my second question, previously you guys have discussed opportunities for the 8500 Series rigs outside the Gulf of Mexico, and David mentioned that again today. Just curious to what extent, if any, the synergies could be lost by moving these rigs into various markets? I guess in terms of spare parts, labor or anything like that, where the benefits of the uniformity of their design would be diminished by breaking up the concentration in the Gulf of Mexico?

James W. Swent

Analyst · Howard Weil

Well, I think there is some minor aspect of that. But there's lots of places we would move those rigs where -- or could move those rigs, where we have large shore base facilities and lots of synergies already. So I don't think that there would be a major dilution or diminishment of our margins by moving them. I think we do feel like, as a result of client wishes over the years, we ended up with more of those rigs in the Gulf of Mexico than we would have anticipated. So over time, it will make sense that we reallocate those rigs a little bit.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Robin Shoemaker of Citi.

Robin E. Shoemaker - Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Analyst · Citi

I wanted to ask about, in terms of this, quite a bit going on in terms of these 5000 Series rigs. You have a new contract on one of them. But just in terms of this mid-water market, should we take this contract, the ENSCO 5004, as kind of where you think the market is now in terms of rates? And additionally, I know some of the upgrades of this type of asset are customer funded. But what would be your position in terms of investing in some of these older either mid-water or more conventional deepwater rigs without customer funding?

James W. Swent

Analyst · Citi

Well, I'll talk to the last part of your question and then maybe let Dave talk to the first part, Robin. I think it really is very much a rig-by-rig situation. We're making a big investment in 5006, because we have a strong customer demand for that rig and it has some unique attributes. Some of those rigs are younger than other rigs and so some of them make sense to make investments in and some don't. You see right now, the 5000 is cold stacked or is stacked at the moment. So I think it really varies by rig. The ones that we have decided to make investments in, I think we feel very good about those investments in terms of what customers are looking for in terms of a rig and what we can economically accomplish. And the rigs where we don't think we can accomplish something that makes sense, we're obviously not making any further investment in them.

David Ethan Hensel

Analyst · Citi

So with respect to the rates for that class of rig, as a practice, we don't generally project rates. And what again, I would reiterate is that each fixture is a function of the unique aspect of that particular opportunity, so rig proximity, rig spec, customer demand, et cetera. So I'll leave it at that.

Robin E. Shoemaker - Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Analyst · Citi

Okay. And then if I could ask a question on Brazil. I know, of course, you've got the 7500 where you're seeking an opportunity there and there was a recent tender, ultra-deepwater rig tender, and at least for the bids that were publicly disclosed, I didn't see Ensco's having made a bid within the context of that tender? Maybe you did, I'm not sure. But what -- do you -- can you just give us an update there on the ultra-deepwater tender, plus the 7500?

Daniel W. Rabun

Analyst · Citi

So Robin, this is Dan. We did participate in that tender and we were significantly higher than the winner in that tender. And David just returned from Brazil about 2 hours ago so he can probably give you an update on what else is going on down there.

David Ethan Hensel

Analyst · Citi

Yes. Yes, we are actively seeking opportunities for the ENSCO 7500. And there are opportunities both in Brazil as well as some other geographies around the world.

Robin E. Shoemaker - Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Analyst · Citi

Okay. So for the time being, it's -- would you say it's warm stacked or what's the..

David Ethan Hensel

Analyst · Citi

I would say she's ready to go back to work.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we have a question from Gregory Lewis of Credit Suisse. Gregory Lewis - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division: I guess I just had a question regarding the existing buyback. I mean clearly, it's a big number that you guys filed, I guess, last year. And I mean, as I guess the market has softened, at a certain point, what would -- I guess my question is, what would make you guys more aggressive at buying back stock? I mean you mentioned that the deepwater and the newbuilds economics are attractive, but maybe not as attractive as they were, say, 6, 12, 18 months ago. So I'm just trying to get a gauge for what would drive the buyback?

James W. Swent

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Well, I guess, Greg, you know us well enough by now to know we're not probably going to answer that question directly. I would say, as we always say, all options are on the table. If you think about what we've done this year with doubling the dividend, we're returning $700 million of money back to shareholders and we're making a big investment in growth CapEx this year. We're also making a pretty good investment in enhancements and upgrades to existing rigs as well. So we have pretty much accounted for all the free cash flow for this year. In fact, we'll probably be drawing a little bit under our revolver by year end. So I don't think right now is the time for us to be talking very much about share buybacks. Obviously, we're watching the share price and that could always influence our decisions. But at the moment, I think we feel like for 2014, all of our capital is pretty well accounted for at this point. Gregory Lewis - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division: Okay, that's fair. And then I guess another question just related to a couple of the 5000s in Southeast Asia. It seems like we're seeing Ensco, as well as some of your competitors, mobilize rigs to Southeast Asia looking for work. But when we think about trying to adequately adjust for idle time, what's sort of the turnaround time between a company if you -- I mean, and I realize it's a moving target, but if we were to say that, we see a mid-water rig in Southeast Asia get fixed sort of in, say, the May time frame. What's a rational or reasonable way to think about that rig actually getting up and starting to generate revenue?

James W. Swent

Analyst · Credit Suisse

I think it probably really, once again, is a rig-by-rig scenario. Some of them are fully crewed and ready to go immediately and others, maybe slightly down-manned, but when we're in warm-stacked status, we're pretty much ready to go on short notice unless the customer wants us to do particular upgrades before we start contract. Gregory Lewis - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division: I guess what I was wondering is more so is it -- I guess I was wondering more so in the turnaround time from the customer. I mean clearly, I would imagine that if the customer is looking to contract the rig and the contract comes -- the tender is announced, and won in, we'll call it, May 1, for example. I mean is it reasonable to think that the rig starts up like a week or 2 later, is there more just sort of like a lag? Maybe that's a better way to ask it.

Daniel W. Rabun

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Yes, this is Dan. The way to think about it in Southeast Asia is that contracting cycle is much, much shorter there than probably anywhere else in the world and that's because of less structured regulatory environment. And you're not dealing with state-owned oil companies. So I know I'm not directly answering your question, but it is a very short-term contracting market. Now I'll give you an example, ENSCO 5005, which is one of the rigs that we decided to make an investment in. We've -- we're pretty close to being finished with the project. And we have numerous contract opportunities today that didn't exist a month ago just because now the rig is just about ready to go. And so it's much, much shorter. So it's not like some of these places where it takes 6 to 12 months to get regulatory approvals.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Roland Morris of Cowen and Company.

Roland Morris - Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Cowen and Company

I apologize if you guys already addressed this, but I just wanted to go over the DS-4 and it moving to the GOM. Can you just talk about what's going on there? Is it on a full rate during the move? Is it -- is there anything special in there?

Daniel W. Rabun

Analyst · Cowen and Company

No. There's nothing -- this is Dan. There's nothing special. What people don't remember is that rig was contracted and actually delivered to a customer in the Gulf of Mexico. The assignment down to Brazil was kind of Macondo-related, so it's just returning to work where it was originally contracted. There's nothing magical about it and we're getting full rate.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Ed Muztafago of Societe Generale.

Edward Muztafago - Societe Generale Cross Asset Research

Analyst · Societe Generale

Wondering if maybe we can sort of take a step back a little bit kind of 10,000 foot, and one of the problems that I think has plagued the floater market has been the perplexingly slow pace of legacy rig retirement, certainly Ensco has been a little bit more proactive on that front. But can you talk to what you sort of view as the outlook for legacy retirement here? I mean, are we on the cusp of a material uptick or have you not seen enough pushback from the operators yet to really start forcing some of the older legacy rigs to go into the cold-stacked mode?

John Mark Burns

Analyst · Societe Generale

Yes, this is Mark Burns. Ed, I'll just comment on that. I think as we continue to see a number of newbuild rigs enter the market, we're going to continue to see pressure on the older legacy units. Normally, they will -- some of the older ones will be the first ones to go warm-stacked and then potentially cold-stacked, so I think it's a product of the market conditions. And I think it's not -- it's a cyclical aspect of the market. As these newer rigs come on, you'll see the older rigs come under pressure.

James W. Swent

Analyst · Societe Generale

And again, as we've mentioned before, it's really a rig-by-rig decision. I mean there's -- some of these older rigs, if they've been maintained properly, have a lot of life left to them and some of the older rigs that people have made an investment decision not to put money back into them, the -- rig owners got to make a decision whether to make CapEx or call it a day. So I think the pace will pick up just as it has in the jackup business.

Edward Muztafago - Societe Generale Cross Asset Research

Analyst · Societe Generale

Okay. And then just given the fact that we have so many jackups coming into the market, do you view there as being any material risk that the jackup market retirement don't really kind of keep pace and we see a little bit of the same pattern emerge in the jackup market as we go through 2014?

James W. Swent

Analyst · Societe Generale

Not really. I mean I think, again, it's going to be market-by-market specific. And I think, you will see the pace of jackup retirements continue. And so I think, what you will see though, there's a lot of very technically capable jackups that are coming out of the market and it's a question of whether the market needs technical capabilities. And that may mute day rates for the specific jackups coming out, but I think they'll all find work.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Monroe Helm of Barrow, Hanley. H. Monroe Helm - Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss, Inc.: Just kind of going back, David, to the most recent tender in Brazil and the fact that the low bid was significantly below everyone else. Do you think this is a function of just that particular market? Or as some of the sell side's implying here, we taking a huge step down in day rates for, say, new ultra-deepwater equipment going in the market?

David Ethan Hensel

Analyst · Barrow, Hanley

Well, I can't speak to our competitor's bidding strategies, as Dan mentioned, we weren't there. H. Monroe Helm - Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss, Inc.: Well, do you have any thoughts as to whether or not that lower rate is going to set the norm for new rates going forward in the Gulf of Mexico or West Africa?

David Ethan Hensel

Analyst · Barrow, Hanley

Well, again, we generally, as a practice, don't make rate projections, so...

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Robert Pinkard of RBC Capital Markets.

Robert Pinkard - RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets

My question is a follow-up on the jackup question. How do you see jackup retirement as it relates to Ensco's fleet? And which markets do you think would be most at risk to see some rigs get laid up of your jackups?

James W. Swent

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets

The first thing I'd remind you is over the years, we sold 13 jackups and we've done very well at it. And those rigs we viewed as being from our perspective at retirement age. And people were happy to buy them at pretty good prices. And we actually generated a profit versus the book value on all of those rigs. So we've been pretty aggressive at looking at the fleet and rigs that we think need to be retired or come out our fleet, anyway, taking action on them. And you'll see us continue to do that in the coming years. As Dan alluded to, I mean we have spent a lot of money on those rigs and they're in a very high state of repair and ready to work and very efficient assets for a lot of our customer base. So in terms of our view of it, I think you'll see us continue to sell a rig here and there over time, but we're pretty happy with our fleet overall. I think sort of the macro answer to your question is, people are going to work these rigs as long as they can generate positive margins operating them. And what I think is going to cause people to stop operating them is when they realize that they've now got a 5-year annual inspection or they've got a point in time where they've got to make some capital investments in the rig and people that have not invested in these rigs historically over time are going to be looking at huge investments that aren't going to make sense to make. And that's when you're going to start seeing these rigs come out of the rig fleet.

Sean P. O'Neill

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets

Okay, operator, it appears we have no more questions. So I just want to thank everyone for their participation on our call today. Have a great day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded. We thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your line.