Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome and thank you for joining the Archer Limited first quarter 2023 earnings release call. Throughout today's presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question, you may press star followed by 1 on your touchtone telephone. Press the Star key followed by 0 for operator assistance. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dag Skindlo, CEO of Archer Limited. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you and good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining this conference call for the first quarter 2023. Archer's Chief Financial Officer, Espen Joranger, is joining me on today's call. In today's call, I will touch upon the key highlights and summarize Archer's operation for the first quarter. Espen will thereafter walk us through the financial section and the outlook. Towards the end of the call, we will open the line for questions. Moving to slide two. I would like to note that the information provided in today's call include forward-looking statements as well as non-GAAP financial measures. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future performance and involve risk and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from projections. Further information about these risks and uncertainties are set forth in our most recent annual report for the year ending December 31st, 2022.
Next slide, please. I am pleased that we are growing and delivering strong financial results in the first quarter of the year. The growth is driven by solid operational performance and improved market conditions. Revenue in the quarter of $266.6 million represents an increase of 22% year-over-year, despite unfavorable movements in the foreign exchange rates. EBITDA for the quarter came in at $25.2 million, representing a 55% increase compared to last year. First quarter is typically a soft quarter for our operations due to seasonality and less operating days. However, as mentioned, we are pleased to report strong EBITDA generation in accordance with our financial guidance. As I will come back to later on the call, we had a busy quarter and managed to reduce our net interest-bearing debt considerably.
Reduction in NIBD was, of course, explained by a large extent by the received equity issuance in March. Also, our operational performance efforts and focus on cash management contributed to improved liquidity and reduction in NIBD. The Pro forma NIBD was $18 million ahead of projections provided during our equity raise. On the back of the solid quarter, a positive view on the market and our contract backlog, we are on track to reach our financial guidance for 2023. We integrated Romar-Abrado in the quarter and strengthened our Well Services division capabilities and product offering through this acquisition. We also joined forces with Baker Hughes U.K. coil tubing business at the end of the quarter. Both of these transactions are accretive to Archer and improves our service offering. Slide 4, please.
In the first month of 2023, we have successfully refinanced $576 million of our debt. We have worked with existing and new stakeholders to protect value for all parties involved, at the same time provide a solid platform for future growth. The new financing structure includes a new $250 million first lien bank facility provided by DNB, SEB, and SR Bank, where SR Bank is our new bank in the syndicate. A new $200 million second lien bond. We converted the CB of $15.9 million to equity. Lastly, an equity raise of about $100 million, of which our shareholders contributed with more than 50% of new capital, and our two largest shareholders remain Paratus Energy and Hemen.
Pro forma net debt after the refinancing completed is estimated at $395 million, equally an opening leverage of 3.5 based on midpoint guidance for 2023 EBITDA. The new financing has maturity in 2027, offers competitive cash interest costs estimated at 7.5% over the period. This estimate is based on our financial projections and the SOFR forward curve. Including the payment-in-kind element of our bond coupon, we estimate that our total borrowing costs adds up to about 10% over the 4-year period. We regard this as competitive pricing when we look at other players in the market. New financing package will allow us to take advantage of the next oil service upcycle. We will continue to focus on our profitable growth and deleveraging, and at the same time execute on accretive bolt-ons within the Well Services segment. Slide 5, please.
The growth in revenue and EBITDA can be further split between our 3 reporting segments: Platform Operations, Well Services, and Land Drilling, as per the graph on slide 5. The growth compared to previous years is evident in all segments. Focusing on EBITDA for now, we notice that the 38% increase in EBITDA for our Platform Operations segment is the lowest year-over-year growth. Well Services had a growth of 59%, while Land Drilling grew by 120% compared to last year. The modest growth in revenue and EBITDA in the Platform Operations is muted by unfavorable foreign exchange movements in NOK and pound. Slide 6, please. In the first quarter, revenue within the Well Services segment continued to increase and ended at $68.7 million, a 5% increase over previous quarter.
Romar-Abrado is included in the quarter, while the U.K. coil tubing business acquired from Baker Hughes will only impact financials from April onwards. Follow through from the increased revenue combined with margin expansion led to a 16% increase in EBITDA over the quarter, ending at $7.9 million. Adjusting for the integration expenses for Romar-Abrado, classified as exceptional items, that adjusted EBITDA came in at $8.3 million. The increase in revenue is a result of decreased demand for our products and services, and we recorded our first ride on operation in Brazil. In addition, we expanded our presence in Guyana by establishing a workshop facility to better serve our customers there. Before moving onwards with the slides, I wanted to brief the touch base of on the back of acquisition of Romar-Abrado and Baker Hughes U.K. coil tubing business.
The coil tubing pumping business fits well with our brownfield and PNA strategy and allows us to broaden our integrated PNA services in the U.K.. Romar-Abrado expands our capabilities within work of operation and well abandonment. Both acquisitions are highly accretive to our financial matrices. These acquisitions, combined with in-house product development and innovation, have resulted in the broadest and the most advanced PNA tool offering within the industry. Here we are taking the opportunity to buy at very accretive EBITDA multiples. For example, Baker needed to divest and could not, and would not sell to any other provider of coil tubing in the U.K.. There are similar opportunities like Romar-Abrado and Baker Hughes coil tubing business out there. There are not many buyers, but there are several owners looking to exit.
Archer has a clear strategy of participating in the consolidation of Well Services. Next slide, please. Revenue from platform drilling, engineering, and our modular rigs were fairly stable around $120 million. When looking at the operational revenue, which excludes low margin reimbursable revenue, the increase over the quarter was 3%. Compared to Q1 2022, the operational revenue reported in U.S. dollars was fairly stable. Platform Operations segment is most impacted by movement in NOK and pound forex movements. Compared to first quarter previous year, the pound has weakened by 9% and the NOK has weakened by 13%. As such, the revenue report in U.S. does not reflect the underlying increase in activity within the reported segment. EBITDA in the quarter came in at $12.7 million, a reduction of 15% compared to the previous quarter.
This is to a large extent explained by a one-off effect from rate escalations, including our Q4 EBITDA for Platform Operations. The increased underlying activity is partly a result of one additional drill rig commencing drilling operation in Norway. Our two modular rigs that are critical for multi-year PNA projects, Emerald has been in New Zealand and will during this year return to the U.K.. Topaz started the three-year PNA program in the U.K. late Q1. We will see the full impact of this operation in Q2. We believe these two rigs have significant potential within the PNA programs over the next decades. Next slide, please. Our revenue for Land Drilling was stable at $80 million compared to the previous quarter. Also, EBITDA was fairly flat at $7 million compared to the previous quarter.
We incurred $1.8 million in severance payments in the quarter related to down manning and retirements, mainly related to reduced work over activity, which will be offset by an additional drilling rig. Operation in Argentina is solid with increased bonuses and less non-productive costs. We have upgraded another drilling rig to high-spec in the quarter, and the rental of one of our rigs in Bolivia commenced. Inflation in Argentina remains high. We are in general accustomed to ensure inflation is compensated for in our customer contracts. However, Argentina continues to experience political and financial instability. With the election coming up, we are expecting to see more volatility going forward. With that, I hand the words over to Espen.
Thank you, Dag. Looking at slide 9, total revenue for the first quarter amounted to $264.3 million. We experienced increased activity across our business segments in the first quarter, leading to 22% increase in overall revenues despite the mentioned impact from unfavorable foreign exchange movements in the quarter. EBITDA before exceptional items for the first quarter grew by 30% compared to same period last year, ending at $27.2 million. Exceptional items in the quarter of $2.2 million mainly relate to severance payments related to down manning and retirements in Argentina, including $0.3 million related to integration costs for Romar-Abrado. Strong reported EBITDA of $25.2 million based on increased performance and higher activity.
Other financial items of negative $15.7 million relates to foreign exchange losses of $9.1 million and negative mark-to-market adjustment for the shares in KLX Energy Services of $6.4 million. A significant portion of the foreign exchange loss relates to internal funding in NOK between Bermuda and Norway and has no cash effect. Net income for the first quarter ended at negative $17.9 million compared to a positive result of $13.9 million last year. The net result was negatively impacted by the mentioned unfavorable foreign exchange rates and the mark-to-market adjustments for KLXE. Next slide, please. The balance sheet as per March 31st does not reflect the completed refinancing, which was not finalized until end of April. The increase in cash over the quarter reflects the equity issuance from March of $100 million.
These proceeds was used to repay our multicurrency loan facility in combination with the proceeds from the new loan facility and the bond issue, both which was closed in April and hence not reflected end of March. net interest-bearing debt came in at $387 million, a reduction from $506 million from the end of fourth quarter 2022. The reduction in NIBD includes the impact from the equity issuance, but neglects certain fees and costs which we incurred after March 31st. We estimate that if all aspects of the refinancing would be reflected, the pro forma NIBD would be a bit higher, around $395 million.
Book value of our equity was $160 million end of first quarter, which does not include the conversion of the subordinated loan, nor the proceeds of the repair offering, which was completed in April. The loan facility, which we refinanced in April, is recorded as long-term debt in the first quarter, aligned with U.S. GAAP. Slide 11, please. We are reiterating our financial guidance for 2023, we confirm we are on track to reaching these targets. We have a solid backlog, we see a considerable improvement in our Well Services segment are expecting to see a 65%-75% growth in EBITDA for 2023 in this business segment. We predict that this segment will account for more than 40% of our total EBITDA this year.
We expect a moderate growth in our Platform Operations segment in 2023 over 2022. The expectation for our Land Drilling segment is to grow EBITDA by 25%-40% in 2023. We have a better backlog and contract coverage for our rigs compared to 2022 and remains optimistic that Argentina's oil and gas infrastructure projects will increase rig demand going forward. Archer expects continued solid improvement in financial performance in 2023 on the back of the strong backlog and market position. Revenues for 2023 is expected to increase by 10%-20% compared to 2022. EBITDA for 2023 expected to increase 25%-35% more over 2022. Growth primarily in second half of 2023. CapEx between 3%-4% of revenue in line with previous years.
I will hand the call over to the operator for any questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the Q&A session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selections. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. It seems like we don't have any questions at this time, and I would like to turn back the conference to Dag Skindlo for closing comments.
Thank you. We appreciate everyone joining us for this quarter's call, and we look forward to speaking to you next quarter. Thank you. Have a good day.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for joining and have a pleasant day. Goodbye.