Welcome everyone to the Capital Limited H1 2022 trading update. My name is Jamie Boyton. I'm the CEO and Chairman of Capital. On the line with me, I have Giles Everist, our CFO based in London, and Conor Rowley, our Head of IR and Corporate Development, based also in London.
I'm gonna talk today to the presentation as opposed to the release itself. I believe the presentation has been made available to everyone. I'm kicking off on slide three, which has the header H1 2022 Trading Update. I'll run through the presentation and then we'll hand over for a Q&A session. I would, however, just like to point out that this is a revenue update.
We've taken the opportunity today to do a bit of an expanded briefing, given an update on the investments and critically, Stuart Thomson, who is the Head of MSALABS, is gonna present today off the back of the recent announcement about the alliance with Chrysos.
These are revenue announcements. Our results are due for release on the eighteenth of August. If I could ask you to please keep that in mind when it comes to any Q&A at the end, because obviously we are in blackout when it comes to results themselves. Just focusing in on the revenue, a record quarter and half year period for the Capital Limited.
Our Q2 revenues were up 30% on the corresponding quarter Q2 2021, and up 6.4% on the first quarter of this year. Our first half revenue's up 40% on the first half of last year and 7.8% on the second half of last year. Very strong headline numbers.
When we look through those numbers, a few points to bring out. The drilling, we're seeing strong demand across all aspects of our business. On the drilling side, which is 72% of our first half revenue, we saw an expansion in our fleet size up to 116 rigs, which was up from 109 at the start of the year.
Critically, the utilization has been trading at levels or the strongest levels that we've had since the inception of the company back in 2005. Our fleet utilization in the first half was 83% and for the second quarter it was 85%. Very strong demand in our drilling business. We'll go into a little more detail with Stuart on the laboratory business, but as I said, broad-based demand, strong demand across all three of the operating businesses.
Drilling performing very well and the contribution from our non-drilling activities is at the highest level it has been since we diversified our service offering a few years back. Gonna move on to the next slide, header, Strongest Demand in Capital's History, which is a fairly powerful message, obviously.
Look, I'm cognizant of the fact that clearly there has been a lot of volatility of late in capital markets, commodity markets, so we've included some of the top-down thematic slides that I think are worth discussing. The fact is that we have for some time in the bottom right, you see exploration budgets versus the annualized index metal prices. There has been a disconnect.
We have talked about this for some time, and we've seen a surge in demand that has been for about 15 months now, as exploration and general drilling activity and laboratory activity has started to increase to bridge this gap, where exploration is still 40% below the levels it was at the previous peak cycle.
Now that thematic also rings true across into the global CapEx, which again is well off peak levels back in 2011 and 2012. Interesting, there was a report issued by Bank of America in early June pointing to the requirement for global CapEx to be running at $160 billion per annum to prevent raw material shortages as the world transitions to a net zero.
Certainly we believe that the fundamental demand drivers for continued strong growth for our services are in place, notwithstanding the current volatility that's being shown in both capital markets and commodity markets. Obviously what we're seeing top right, drill rig fleet utilization as an indicator brings that to bear.
In terms of demand on the ground, extremely strong, strongest we have seen, tendering pipeline extremely robust despite the recent volatility. Moving on to slide five, the investments, obviously a headline number that was weak in today's number. However, we'll just give a little bit of color on that. The bottom left shows the value of the investment portfolio since the strategy was implemented at the start of 2019.
We've had a very strong performance since inception. The three major holdings of the portfolio are Allied Gold, Leo Lithium and Predictive Discovery. Those three holdings represent roughly 80% of the portfolio's value. Allied Gold itself is a producer going through an expansion of their core assets, Sadiola in Mali.
While both Predictive and Leo Lithium have just completed capital raisings, which give them a lot of runway with respect to project development. Those three positions are, as I said, 80% of the portfolio. What we have disclosed in this pyramid is the major holdings where more than 5% of our portfolio will turn to more than 5% of the investee company.
Moving on to the next slide, investments is a big contributor to earnings. We've just given a little bit more color here. We were a net seller in the first half, which is the bottom right. We sold $2.6 million worth, and those proceeds were allocated toward group CapEx.
As you can see, on the top, in the text on the left, 300, just a little over 300% return, or 50% compounded since inception. I should also note that the invested capital in this strategy is about $11.5 million, against a total asset base of over $300 million, just to put some context around this.
We continue to get good, very strong, contract revenue, in the first half, generating, just around $25 million-$26 million of contract revenue from our investee companies. Moving on to the next slide, MSALABS business overview. I'll hand over here to Stuart, please.
Thank you, Jamie. Just want to start with the first slide with a bit of an overview of the business and look at our two core operating models. The first operating model really relates to the exploration side of the mining industry, and this is our clients looking for new ore body.
Our operating model really reflects both the broad range of locations that they're doing this and also the diversity of the elements we're looking for. A lot of our clients are looking for, when they're sending a sample, 60 or so sort of elements, and we need quite sophisticated equipment and some very knowledgeable people to actually operate this.
It really lends itself to having centralized, you know, quite sophisticated laboratories and then a whole series of collector facilities that are out there in the field in the various locations to collect these samples, sample prep, and then send them through to the hub laboratory.
To this end, MSALABS has got two hub laboratories. The first one is in Vancouver, in Langley, in Canada, and the second one is in Yamoussoukro in the Ivory Coast. A further 10 spoke laboratories are feeding samples into these hubs. Second model is actually on the mine sites themselves.
Once an ore body has been found and has been developed, running a laboratory for a mine site, and this is for both, you know, grade control as well as the processing plant. That's not really core business for most miners. In this case, what MSALABS will do is we will do the engineering studies, project manage it, the construction of the laboratory, and then do the actual operations on site.
Tend to be less sophisticated in terms of the number of elements, but these tend to be longer-term contracts as well. Setting that scene for the next slide. Slide number eight shows the six contracts that we have or mine sites right now.
You can get an idea of the range of locations of which most recent one we have actually commissioned and taken over is Barrick's Kibali, that's the largest gold mine in Africa. We will be putting a Chrysos. Currently we're running that assay, and we'll be putting a Chrysos unit in there arriving from September.
On the right-hand side, we've got just a bit of a sample of the various exploration projects that we do around the world. This gives an indication of not only the geographical spread of where we are bringing samples in from, the range of clients we have, but also the different elements. As you can see within there, LKAB, Arnold, and then a series of both gold and copper operations.
Graph on the right that shows some pretty serious growth in 2019, and that's really due to the addition of the 10 laboratories. We now have a total of 18 laboratories up and running, built and constructed since 2019. 10 additional laboratories in 2019. That's really driven that growth there.
The very right-hand side bar, you can see, you know, quite a step up, and that reflects Kibali coming on stream in May, along with increased samples coming from Victoria Gold in British Columbia. Looking forward into the future a bit, back in October, we installed our first Chrysos unit. This is slide 9. This unit is developed by the CSIRO. It's new technology. It's essentially a replacement for fire assay.
It is a very different technology, a much bigger sample, much faster turnaround time. This creates benefits to both of those streams that we've been talking through in terms of on-site and for exploration. On a mine site, the ability to get the data so much faster allows our clients to make decisions much quicker and much more accurate in terms of where they want to be doing, what they want to be doing in terms of the handling.
This reflects both the milling operations and the grade control. Similarly, for exploration, where turnaround times can be, you know, 6-8 weeks right now, that can create delays and inefficiencies in exploration programs, while geologists are wondering where to go and put a drill hole next.
The sort of changes and the magnitude of the changes, to give you an idea, whereby a current fire assay turnaround would be lucky to do it within a day. Our most recent processing unit, which was just installed in Val-d'Or, geologists could come and do a trial.
They could bring samples in, put the samples in a jar, run it through the machine, have a coffee, and by the time they finish the coffee, they're actually getting the results. This is a genuine game changer. The other areas that provide real benefit, fire assay utilizes quite large premises running at 900 degrees Celsius. Obviously, that has a carbon footprint, along with generating lead waste as well. Both of those get removed in this process.
The other thing that's coming through as well is that in some of these locations, getting good quality labor, the labor pool is pretty small. And the ability to have a system that is simpler, requires fewer people, requires fewer steps, means that your labor force is actually able to operate more equipment, do more technical roles, within the mining operations as well.
This is a real game changer. We're seeing really solid performance through the Bulyanhulu unit. The Val-d'Or unit is performing well. You know, from this, what we've seen, the evidence we've seen, we're very keen to develop this technology further. Hence, we've signed up the contracts for another 20 additional units. This is a total of 21 units.
Versus, you know, you look at the growth through the slide eight, this is really gonna provide an accelerant to the business going forward. Going through to slide number 10. In summary, MSALABS now has a really solid platform for growth with, you know, two really good hub labs that are really important in the industry. We've got six long-term mine site contracts, and we now have some differentiating technology that's gonna enable us to really work well with a very solid client base. We've got over 200 clients to continue growing the business through to 2025. With all that, hand back to Conor Rowley.
Thank you. Look, we'll just go ahead through some questions that have come in through the webcast. Given you've just run, why don't we start with you? First, the question in terms of the rollout of 15 further units and how you think about where they go. Do you want customers to commit to utilization or you place them strategically based on anticipated demand?
We're placing them strategically. First of all, we've got existing clients that we have that are already, kind of, having discussions with us around these locations. Logically, there are some major hubs around the world, where you know it makes sense to put these units in.
Our preference is to have a combination of mine site baseload, so they get the grade control coming through this, as well as the capability to draw exploration samples in from other locations from you know around those areas. We've already announced Val-d'Or. We're gonna put a unit across in Timmins, because the Abitibi Belt is a major area.
Within Africa, West Africa is a logical area to, you know, the amount of growth that's going through there, the number of new mines that are coming on board. We're already tendering and putting within those tenders the opportunity to put processing to those facilities. Then, elsewhere within East Africa and potentially Latin America, there are some, you know, pretty large gold hubs there as well.
Right. Maybe just to cross back into one for you and Jamie. Given MSALABS' more global scope, how have you found the potential cross-selling benefits between the drilling and the mining and the labs businesses?
Oh, now you've tricked us. Who's gonna answer, Stu, you or me?
You get this one, Jamie.
Okay. When we initially acquired MSALABS a few years ago, really what we bought was the accreditation. There wasn't really much of a business there. There was the hub lab in Langley, which has expanded significantly, and obviously all the QAQC. The cross-selling has been significant, such that Africa is now the bigger revenue stream for MSALABS.
The analogy that I always use is that the best lead indicator for a sample going through a lab is a drill rig drilling the hole first. The cross-selling is enormous. As MSALABS matures further, what it's actually presenting for the drilling activities now in particular is presenting opportunities as the leader of those opportunities.
Whereas beforehand, MSALABS would really come in off the introduction of Capital drilling. Now MSALABS is driving opportunities in both existing geographies and some further afield. Certainly, while they're not a bundled service per se, the cross-selling opportunity is significant.
Okay, thanks. I think now back to some more on the Q2 trading update itself. We've had a number of questions on the ARPU in Q2, but also in general, just the backdrop of pricing increases across the industry. Can you talk to Capital Q2 ARPU, and also just generally where we could see prices going? In that context, the recent Geita announcement and what we can expect.
ARPU broadly stay in a range of, I think, about $170 thousand-$180 thousand for quite some time now. I think, I need to go to pains to explain that ARPU is not just rate driven. It's a lot to do with activity driven. In fact, more so. If you're, for example, if you are double shifting versus single shifting, that will have a more significant impact on ARPU than rates.
The things that feed into ARPU are productivity. Obviously, if you start a rig halfway through a month, you only collect half the ARPU rates themselves. Just to give a bit of top-down overlay to ARPU. Our ARPUs at $171 ,000 are in the range, in a range that we're very comfortable with.
It is a little bit lower, but I should stress that now about 20% of the drill rigs that are turning at the moment are underground. Underground rigs, more footprint, lower ARPU, same sort of margin profile. That contributes to a degree of it. Obviously, also, as you are expanding your fleet, you're not starting all the rigs on the first of the month. You might be starting one on the twentieth of the month, and that will also have an impact. I hope there's that. I hope that goes to answer the question, Colin.
Yes. Continuing with that, a number of questions we're trying on the utilization. You talked before that a mid-80% is running as fast as we can. Can you talk to the outlook from here and also on top of that, the seasonality that you typically see in the second half?
The previous statements stand. I mean, this is running pretty much as full throttle as you can run with respect to utilization. In terms of seasonality, we obviously have about a third of our revenue coming out of West Africa, and that wet season is upon us. Each wet season brings different conditions, but typically you'll see an easing in activity in West Africa in the current quarter.
In terms of utilization, yeah, this is very strong conditions. We obviously have further rigs arriving over the course of the year, and this type of utilization is levels in which will drive pricing, which I didn't actually cover in that last question properly. You know, new contracts are being priced certain 15% above levels they were twelve months ago.
We're certainly seeing price increases come through, which is commensurate with utilization rates picking up significantly across the industry.
Thanks, Jamie. One more. We've had a number here on margin. As a reminder from Jamie Boyton, you know, just the revenue update, we'll come back and talk margins in itself on the 18 call again. I got one more just on Geita specifically.
Congratulations on the sort of a strong update. What triggered that update this year, having renegotiated those contracts across two separate announcements last year? And is there scope for seeing similar upgrades and extensions across your other core products?
The trigger for Geita was that we previously announced it in two subcontracts, and they came back to us and expanded the scope, which included more meters and extended by the time the contract, you know, the new contract was settled, it led to an extension.
Therefore, the new profile actually put it into the second largest contract win in the company's history, and therefore triggered what we believe is a materiality threshold for reporting. So that was the trigger behind. Sorry, Conor, the other part of the question.
Just whether we can see, we're expecting to see any sort of renegotiations and extensions across our other contracts.
Yeah. Well, what we're seeing broadly with our customer base is increased activity at established sites. That, for us, actually has been a thematic since 2020 actually, where we grew our revenue in 2020. We're seeing that increased demand around existing mine sites. That, that's the type of growth we obviously like to see, because that enables us to leverage the infrastructure that we've already got in place. Really a focus for us as well is just increasing our exposure to tier one assets. One thing I didn't mention in the introduction is that recent win, which we combined with the Geita contract announcement about Fekola, which is the third largest gold mine in Africa, a very low cost operation.
We're very pleased to have now got a footprint not only at Fekola but as Stuart mentioned regionally at Kibali, which is the largest gold mine in Africa. That very much is a focus for us as well, is to continue to increase our exposure to tier one assets.
Okay, thanks. One more has actually come in just on it. It is a margin, but it's a long-term margin. How do you see the margins of MSALABS long-term after the rollout of these units versus the rest of the business?
Can I field that? I'll field that. I mean, it's very difficult to get look through sectorially because most of the commodity analysis testing companies are intertwined with much larger diversified testing businesses. The best look through we always refer to is ALS, which operate at 20%-25% EBIT margins, which is a very strong margin profile. Obviously a significantly larger business. That gives you a sense of what can be achieved in these businesses when you get scale. Yeah, I hope that answers the question.
Yeah, thanks. I think that's it for the questions other than the ones that we will address at the interim results on the eighteenth of August. Look, with that, Jamie Boyton, I'll leave it to you to wrap up.
Okay. Well, thank you again, everyone, for dialing in. As I said, a good opportunity for Stuart to explain a bit more about MSALABS given the recent announcement. As Conor said, we'll release H1 results on the eighteenth of August. Thanks again for your time.