Hello everybody, and welcome to the Archer Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Release Call. My name is Elliot, and I'll be your coordinator today. If you would like to register a question during today's event, please press star one on the telephone keypad. I would now like to hand over to c . Please go ahead.
Thank you, Elliot. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining our Second Quarter Earnings Call. Archer's Chief Financial Officer, Espen Joranger, is joining me on the call today. In today's call, I will cover the key highlights, the business outlook, and comments on recent acquisitions and investments. Espen will thereafter summarize Archer's operations for the second quarter and walk us through the financial section. Towards the end of the call, we will open the line for questions. Moving to slide two. As always, I'd like you to note the information provided in today's presentation includes forward-looking statements as well as U.S. and non-U.S. GAAP financial measures. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future performance and involve risk and uncertainty. Next slide, please.
With 50 years of operating history, Archer has grown to a global company with $1.3 billion of revenue and about 4,500 employees, split into four business areas: Well Services, Customer Operations, Land Drilling, and Renewables. First, I want to comment on our growth in reported EBITDA since 2022. Midpoint's guidance for 2025 implies an annual growth of 21%, realized through organic growth as well as accretive M&As. Importantly, we see the growth in cash contribution following our growth in EBITDA, and we are pleased to see an almost doubling in cash contribution over the same period. This growth is what has enabled us to refinance our debt to the lower interest cost and introduce a shareholder return program. I will not spend much time on our business areas in the call, but I want to highlight that Well Services and Customer Operations represent about 3/4 o f our activity.
While most of the activity is in the North Sea, we continue to expand and grow internationally into new areas and new service lines. Archer Land Drilling is one of our major drilling and is one of the major drilling and workover companies in Argentina, where we compete with the likes of HMP and Nabors. Although the Land Drilling business represents nearly 25% of our revenue, it only contributes low double digits on the cash contribution. The current volatility does not have a significant impact on Archer's overall cash flow generation. Last year, we formalized Renewable Services as a separate business area. We mainly provide geothermal drilling services and wind services, with a total business volume of about $100 million in 2025. Next slide, please. This slide summarizes our shareholder return program. We initiated our shareholder return program in Q2 with a distribution of $5.5 million or NOK 0.63 per share.
We are pleased to confirm that the same amount will be distributed again in Q3, corresponding to NOK 0.62 per share. The payment date is set to the 26th of August. We do plan to maintain a quarterly distribution, and our target is to increase cash contribution over time in line with earnings growth. This reflects both the strength of our cash generation and our commitment to delivering competitive and sustainable returns to shareholders. At the current share price, this level of direct distribution represents a yield of around 11%, which you can see here on the right in comparison with industry peers such as SLB, Weatherford, and Halliburton. As this chart shows, our return is well above industry peers. Archer's shares should be an attractive share to hold for our shareholders. Slide five, please. In Q2, we delivered growth and strong results.
Revenue came in at $348.9 million, up 13% year-over-year, while EBITDA reached $38 million and increased 16%, while adjusted EBITDA grew 30% year-over-year to $41.7 million. Operationally, we continue to execute well, and we secured key contracts that give visibility for the future. In July, we acquired WellConnection, bringing drill pipe inspection and repair in-house. I'll come back to this acquisition later in the presentation. Lastly, as already mentioned, the board has approved our second- quarter cash distribution of $5.5 million. Next slide, please. This slide highlights a key strength of our business: our resilient EBITDA performance over time. You can see here our historic EBITDA from 2017 to our guided 2025 estimate. It shows a steady upward trend, with moderate dips following major disruptions like COVID in 2020 and 2021. I think the message is clear.
Our EBITDA is fairly stable and growing, even in undervolatile market conditions. You can ask, why is that? It really comes down to our business model and business exposure. It is built and designed to create a robust and more predictable business outlook. We are largely exposed to brownfield operations, which are less sensitive to swings in commodity prices. This large exposure to brownfield and value P&A makes Archer somewhat unique in the industry. Brownfield operations are in mature fields that have been developed, where the infrastructure is in place and the fields are producing. These OpEx-driven services form the backbone of our client's activity, securing their cash flow through low-cost per barrel production and providing us with a stable and predictable demand for our services. Brownfield production is what funds dividends, share buybacks, and investment into greenfield.
Archer has limited earnings exposure due to more volatile greenfield services such as seismic exploration drilling and construction of new production facilities. This makes our performance more predictable and less cyclical than many of our peers. The comparison on the right-hand graph backs up my point on resilience and lower cyclicality. In Q2, Archer's EBITDA grew 16% year-over-year, while the five major oil service companies declined 13%. For the first half of the year, we see the same. Our EBITDA grew by 12% year-over-year, while oil service majors saw a corresponding decline. The major well service companies are, to a larger extent, exposed to exploration and well construction segments, which more often are more linked to oil price and uncertainty. Slide seven, please. Turning to our 2025 business outlook, I want to be clear that there are no changes to our cash distribution commitment.
Starting with Land Drilling, the oil companies in Argentina are prioritizing capital allocation towards oil and gas export infrastructure in La Comarca and have temporarily slowed down drilling and completion activity. Compared to prior guidance for 2025, we expect Land Drilling revenue to be down about $100 million and EBITDA to be lowered by $10 million- $12 million. Nevertheless, we expect the net impact on cash flow to be slightly positive, as we reduce maintenance CapEx, improve working capital, and sell excess equipment. Going forward, we expect activity level in the South to remain muted, but expect drilling activity in La Comarca to rebound in 2026. Outside of Land Drilling, the business is largely in line with prior guidance, with some slowdown in the U.S. and delays on certain projects in the U.K. We have also increased our investment in lighter P&A units to respond to market demand.
In 2025, we invest more than we earn in EBITDA, but we will benefit from these investments over the coming years. Also, in addition, we have improved our long-term visibility through a multi-year P&A contract with both Equinor in Norway and Repsol in the U.K. Overall, while there are shifts within the business, our capacity to maintain shareholder cash distribution remains intact. Turning to slide eight, our financial guidance reflects both the strengths of our core operations and the strategic actions we have taken to position Archer for long-term value creation. Our reestablished guidance does not affect our cash distribution commitment. Despite some regional shifts in activity, particularly in Argentina, we remain confident in our ability to deliver solid financial performance. Our diversified portfolio, improved capital structure, and exposure to the growing P&A market support continued resilience and cash generation.
The slide outlines our reestablished expectation for revenue, EBITDA, and cash flow for the remaining of the year, based on current visibility, contract development, and market outlook. Revenue is set to increase by low single digits, as growth in core segments is offset by the reduction in Land Drilling, as outlined in the previous slide. Our EBITDA is expected to increase by 8%- 15% from 2024. We have incurred resurging costs as we adjust cost levels to new activity, and we want to emphasize that our guidance for adjusted EBITDA is in line with our previous EBITDA guidance. We continue to anticipate capital expenditure to be around 4% of revenue in 2025, as we commit to the P&A market through investments in lighter P&A units suited for growth in the P&A market.
We expect the second half of 2025 to be stronger than the first half due to commencement of project and seasonal activity. Finally, we see our leverage ratio to be between 2.2x and 2.5x towards the end of the year, while our target remains to reach a leverage ratio of 1.5x- 2.2x over time. Moving to slide nine, I want to highlight our recent investment in a new technology company for services P&A solutions. The services P&A market is expected to grow meaningfully over the coming years, and Archer wants to be a leading service and technology provider in this market. Without going into too much detail, they are developing an innovative electrochemical P&A technology that enables the removal of tubing and casing with wireline, potentially removing the need for rigs to perform the P&A operation. This would significantly reduce the cost of services plug and abandonment operations.
Our clients are very interested in this new technology, and it helps us position for upcoming services projects. This investment has positioned us to become a leading service provider in the growing services P&A market, a natural extension of our already successful top-side P&A capabilities. Moving to slide ten, we are pleased with our growth within the P&A market and remain confident in our outlook for our services. The market for well P&A and decommissioning has grown over the last few years, and it's expected to grow materially in the next years and decades. Through organic growth and acquisitions, Archer has developed one of the broadest P&A service offerings in the industry. In consideration of our commitment to expand our business, we are currently investing in three lighter plug and abandonment units to drive global growth and capture market.
Total investment for these three units is below $30 million in total. These new P&A units are currently being prepared for mobilization in 2025 and 2026, giving us access to attractive new opportunities, starting with the North Sea, the U.K., and the Gulf of Mexico. By delivering these lighter, more efficient P&A units to our clients, we are not only unlocking new market segments, but also creating entirely new Archer business lines, supplemental or complemental to our more capable, but also more costly model drilling rigs. In terms of deployment, the Sirius unit will enter services on Equinor's Statfjord A platform in August 2025. The compact workable rig will start working for Repsol on the Fulmar and Scapa fields in Q2 2026 under a new five-year contract, replacing Emerald. The last unit is committed to commencing operations in the Gulf of Mexico in Q2 2026.
These investments are key enablers for our growth strategy, expanding our geographical reach, broadening our service offering, and positioning Archer for long-term growth in the global P&A market. Next slide, please. We have strengthened and expanded our service offering in Norway with a recent acquisition of WellConnection. WellConnection has for some years delivered these services to Archer, and we know them well. This move allows us to bring inspection, maintenance, and repair services for drill pipe and related equipment in-house, increasing our service offering to more of our existing customers. This represents a relatively moderate investment, and we do forecast a fairly rapid payback of less than two years. With that, I hand the word over to Espen.
Thank you, Dag. Operational revenue in platform operations increased by 14% in the quarter, ending at $119 million, while total revenue increased by 21% to $158 million. EBITDA came in at $18.5 million, a 55% increase compared to the previous quarter, and 25% above the result in the second quarter, 2024. The improved EBITDA reflects a strong contribution from all service lines and an exceptionally strong contribution from our two modular rigs in the quarter. The acquired company, WellConnection, as already mentioned, will be integrated with our rental business in platform operations and will deliver inspection, repair, and maintenance of drill pipe to the Norwegian market. We are pleased with the successful completion of the three-year P&A campaign for Taka in the U.K., ahead of the original schedule. Moving to slide 13. For the quarter, our Well Services division delivered revenue of $83.5 million.
That is 18% higher than the same quarter last year, showing solid year-on-year growth. Compared to the previous quarter, revenue is slightly lower. This is mainly due to a reduction in reimbursable revenue, not underlying activity levels. EBITDA came in at $15.1 million, which is a 35% increase compared to the same period last year and 22% higher than the previous quarter. The main drivers here are the product-sale mix and higher activity in Norway, which contributed positively to our overall performance. The high activity in Norway across all service lines reinforces our strong position in that market. In the U.S. and U.K., we saw slightly softer activity in line with the market and our competitors. During the quarter, we mobilized our innovative conveyance tool contract for operations in Norway. Slide 14, please.
In the quarter, revenue was $73 million for our Land Drilling operation, reflecting reduced activity in the south of Argentina. EBITDA came in at $2.9 million, impacted by the costs associated with downsizing of operations in the south. Adjusted EBITDA was $6.3 million, down from $8.4 million last year, driven by the mentioned lower drilling activity in the south. Overall service activity in Argentina is down 26% compared to year-end 2024. We expect drilling activity to remain flat through 2025, with an increase anticipated in 2026. During the quarter, we completed the downmining of approximately 450 employees, in line with reduced drilling requirements in the south for Pan American. On a positive note, Pan American renewed their contract in the south for nine pulling units and eight workover units, which helps secure a base level of activity in that region going forward. Next slide, please.
The Renewables segment delivered revenue of $33.9 million this quarter, up from $22.5 million in the previous quarter, a strong sequential improvement. EBITDA was $3 million, also up from $2.5 million last quarter, reflecting particularly higher activity levels for our geothermal operation. We saw high activity and strong utilization of the rigs in the geothermal segment, supporting the positive financial performance. Vertical experienced high seasonal activity in wind services, with operation running at full capacity. In offshore wind, the fabrication of the floating substructure for Total is now complete, and shipment to assembly yard in Norway is underway, marking a key milestone for this project. The project has experienced some delays, and the plan is to tow it out to the field in the second quarter of 2026. Moving to slide 16.
In Q2, we delivered total revenue of $348.9 million, an increase of $39.9 million compared to the same quarter last year. This growth came from all business areas except Land Drilling. EBITDA before exceptional items was $41.7 million, with a margin of 11.9%, up from 10.4% last year, which showcased continued operational efficiency. We recorded exceptional items of $3.7 million in the quarter, primarily linked to downmining in Argentina. After these exceptional items, reported EBITDA was $38 million, up $5.2 million, or 16% year-on-year. EBIT came in at $22.1 million. Loss on sale of operation in Argentina of $8.7 million relates to previous mentioned restructuring in the south and sale of business, including two drilling rigs sold to Pan American. Net profit was $1.4 million, and adjusted net income was $12.8 million, reflecting underlying strengthening of business despite restructuring impact. Next slide, please.
At the end of Q2 2025, we held cash and cash equivalents of $45.9 million, which is a decrease of $30.9 million compared to year-end 2024. This reflects ongoing investments, reduced drawing under our flexible credit facilities, and operational cash flows during the first half of the year, as well as the refinancing in Q1. Our available liquidity exceeds $95 million, ensuring we have strong financial flexibility to support our operation and growth initiatives. Net reported interest-bearing debt of $435 million reflects current leverage position after accounting for cash balances. The known controlling interest on the balance sheet primarily relates to Archer's 60% ownership in Iceland Drilling and 65% ownership in Vertical Services. Our total equity stands at $192.7 million. Next slide, please. To sum it up, we are Archer. We are the well company focused on drilling and well services. Our foundation remains strong.
Around 90% of revenues come from our relatively stable recurring brownfield operations and P&A. This consistency supports predictability in earnings, even through market shifts. We demonstrated solid EBITDA performance across cycles. Our operational focus and cost discipline enable us to sustain profitability in both upturns and downturns. The recent $425 million bond refinancing has significantly improved our capital structure. We now have a more robust and simplified balance sheet with longer maturity and better terms. With our improved financial flexibility, we have initiated a return to shareholders. In Q2, we distributed $5.5 million in cash to our shareholders and will do the same this quarter and in quarters to come, representing a yield of approximately 11% at current valuation.
Thus, the outlook is positive, particularly with the expansion of the global P&A market, as we anticipate an 8%- 15% increase in our EBITDA this year, backed by our solid backlog and contracts in the pipeline. With that, I will hand the call over to the operator for any questions. Thank you, Elliot. Will you please open the line for questions?
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one now. We have no registered questions, so I'll now hand back to Espen Joranger for any final remarks.
Thank you. We appreciate everyone joining us for this quarter's call, and we look forward to speaking to you next quarter. Thank you and have a good day.
Ladies and gentlemen, today's call is now concluded. We'd like to thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.