Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Constellation Oil Services conference call to discuss its results for the first quarter of 2026. Thank you for standing by. All participants are in listen-only mode. Please refer to the forward-looking statement sections in the company's earnings release. These statements reflect Constellation's current views and assumptions regarding future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Financial statements, earnings presentations, and press releases are available on the company's investor relations website. The Q&A session will follow the presentation. Questions may be submitted by attendees through a Q&A icon at the bottom of the screen. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Rodrigo Ribeiro, Constellation CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, good morning and afternoon, everyone. Welcome and thanks for joining us today. With me are Daniel Rachman, our CFO, and Thiago Schimmelpfennig, our Chief Commercial and Innovation Officer. The drilling market remains active, particularly in the floater segment. Looking ahead, long-term supply fundamentals remain supportive. The retirement and scrapping of a significant number of rigs over recent years, mainly in 2025, has materially contributed to higher fleet utilization levels and consequently to the continued support of offshore rig day rates. According to the market outlook from the industry analysts, although the day rate remains stable, they are expected to maintain an upward trajectory over the coming years. At the same time, we are starting to see a much more aligned thesis among operators regarding the need to increase global exploration activity.
According to a recent report from Rystad Energy, forecasts from 2026 to 2028 periods indicate an increase in the number of countries expected to drill at least one exploratory well, primarily driven by initiatives from the major IOCs. Brent has seen recent volatility, largely driven by developments in the Middle East. Even so, offshore economics remain attractive across a broader range of projects, and investment appetite in our market continues to be solid. Within that context, Brazil continues to strengthen its position as the region's anchor market. Today, 46 floating rigs operate across South America, 38 of them in Brazil. This activity is supported by a visible pipeline of future opportunities. ANP, Brazil's oil and gas regulator, continues to expand the permanent concession offer portfolio, while the fourth production-sharing bid cycle advances with 23 blocks available. Together, these initiatives reinforce Brazil's long-term exploration outlook.
Recent drilling results further support this environment. Over the past months, Petrobras made new discoveries in the Campos Basin, including a pre-salt discovery and high-quality finds in Tartaruga Verde and Marlim Sul, reflecting a strategy that combines frontier exploration with reserve replenishment in mature fields basin. Beyond Brazil, the broader region also supports the demand backdrop. Guyana continues to grow rapidly. Suriname is advancing development projects. Colombia is progressing appraisal activities, and Chevron recent entry into Uruguay, alongside Shell, highlights increasing IOC interest across the South Atlantic basins. Even in Venezuela, demand is confirming, with new tender opportunities emerging from shallow water projects. Brazil remains the anchor market, while regional momentum strengthens the long-term fundamentals. Turning to our first quarter results, now as the company enters a new cycle of day rates, the shift in our commercial profile is clearly translating into results.
Current contracts are priced at approximately 50% above the legacy levels, and the fleet delivered an impressive 99% uptime in the quarter, producing $97 million of adjusted EBITDA, more than double Q1 2025. The quarter also marked an important execution milestone. We completed the final contract transitions of this cycle. Both Amaralina Star and Lone Star completed their transitions as planned. After quarter end, Atlantic Star commenced its contract with Karoon Energy. We now have stronger forward coverage through 2026 to 2028, providing a solid base for cash generation. For those who have followed our story, this quarter represents something we have talked about for some time and have now delivered. The transition cycle is behind us. The fleet is fully contracted, running at materially higher day rates. With minimal idle time and a clear line of sight to sustained earnings and cash flow, the foundation is in place.
A key part of that visibility came from the renegotiation process we recently concluded with Petrobras, which added approximately $1.1 billion of incremental backlog and around 10 rig years of additional firm contract duration. The strategic rationale was straightforward. On the semi-submersible fleet, we prioritize long-term contracts coverage and backlog visibility. On the drill ships, we preserved greater flexibility to capture what we still believe is additional repricing potential in the future. Specifically, Brava Star extended through 2030 at around $400,000 per day. Alpha Star through 2030 at above $310,000 per day, and Gold Star through 2028 at above $255,000 per day, all in direct continuation from current commitments with no material CapEx except for the MPD for Brava Star. Beyond the commercial terms, this process reinforced our longstanding partnership with Petrobras, one that we believe will continue to create opportunities for both sides going forward.
Another milestone worth highlighting, this week, Constellation began trading on the Oslo Børs Main Market. Our governance and reporting practices were already fully aligned with the main market standards, enabling a seamless transition, a reflection of the maturity of this organization has reached. Daniel will provide more details on the capital markets development shortly. In 2025, our teams demonstrated a strong commitment across all fronts, delivering operational excellence, advancing safety and environmental efficiency, and strengthening our sustainability practices. These efforts are fully detailed in our 2025 sustainability report, which I invite you all to read. Finally, when I look at where we stand today, the business is on a much stronger foundation. A supportive offshore market, a fleet operating at 99% uptime, a strong contract coverage, a strengthened capital markets platform, and renewed capacity to return capital to our shareholders with quarterly distributions as initiated last week.
These achievements reflect the commitment and the professionalism of our teams across the organization, I want to sincerely thank all of them for their contribution. With that, I will hand the call over to Daniel. Daniel, please.
Thank you, Rodrigo. I'll now take you through Q1 2026 financial results. Net operating revenue totaled $201 million, up $79 million year-over-year, supported by 99% of fleet uptime. The key drivers were, first, the Laguna Star contributing $24 million of incremental revenue following its new Petrobras contract. Second, Alpha Star generating $22 million more than in Q1 2025, when the rig was mid-transition and not fully active. Third, the start of managed fleet operations, adding $27 million, of which $15 million of reimbursable revenues and $12 million of management fee income. Fourth, a $7 million positive effects impact from BRL appreciation. These gains were partially offset by approximately $11 million related to fewer operating days at the Amaralina Star and Atlantic Star during their contract transitions.
On cost, contract drilling expenses excluding depreciation came in at $96 million, up $25 million year-over-year, mainly explained by three items. $15 million of reimbursable managed fleet cost offset by the corresponding revenues, $6 million in higher payroll driven by inflation adjustments and BRL appreciation, and $ 3 million in higher maintenance. G&A moved from $7 million - $8 million, driven by BRL appreciation on our payroll base. Overall, costs remain in line with our internal expectations. BRL appreciation increased part of our cost base, the cash impact was effectively offset through our hedging strategy, as reflected in the financial results. Adjusted EBITDA reached $97 million with a 48% margin, up from $44 million and 36% in Q1 2025.
Net financial expenses totaled $5 million, which is $9 million lower year-over-year, driven by an $11 million positive result from our BRL hedging strategy, partially offset by a $3 million related to a bondholder consent fee for shareholder distributions completed last quarter. At the bottom line, the company reported a net profit of $33 million compared to net loss of $24 million in Q1 2025, a result that reflects the positive trajectory in our earnings performance. Operating cash flow in Q1 2026 totaled $29 million, compared to $33 million in the prior year. Cash flow generation in the quarter should be viewed together with significant cash collections received shortly after quarter-end, including the $39 million Amaralina Star mobilization fee and approximately $18 million of receivables related to Q1 activity, both collected in early Q2.
In addition, we paid $13 million in employee short-term incentives in March, whereas in 2025, this payment occurred in April. Considering these timing items, underlying cash flow generation remains fully consistent with a significant improvement in EBITDA. CapEx totaled $43 million in the quarter, with 73% related to the conclusion of the Amaralina Star and Lone Star contract transitions. Similar to Q1 2025, when Alpha Star was transitioning. With the transition cycle behind us, we expect CapEx to normalize going forward. Cash and short-term investments closed at $215 million, while net debt reached $444 million. With the last 12-month adjusted EBITDA at $286 million, net leverage continues its downward trend to 1.6 x, compared to 2.1x in Q1 2025 and 1.8 times at year-end 2025. Before opening for the Q&A, three items worth covering. First, on Gold Star.
Under the renegotiation extension, invoices from March 2026 through December 2027 will be collected in January 2028. We are in advanced discussions with leading financial institutions to implement a non-recourse factoring program for these receivables, which we expect to be executed and begin this year, effectively normalizing the timing of cash receipts under the contract. Second, on capital markets. Last month, management conducted a non-deal roadshow across Madrid, London, and Oslo in connection with our uplisting. Earlier this week, Constellation successfully uplisted to the main market of Oslo Børs, marking a significant milestone in the company's capital markets evolution. This transition strengthens our position with the global offshore drilling sector, broadens access to long-term investors, and enhances liquidity profile of our shares. It also reflects the maturity Constellation has reached as a public company, with governance, reporting, and disclosure standards fully aligned with the requirements of a regulated exchange.
With focused sector analysts now actively covering Constellation, we expect our engagement with the investment community to continue expanding. In parallel, three of our largest shareholders completed a secondary offering representing 20% of their holdings, equivalent to approximately 10% of company's total shares. Demand was significantly above the offered amount, reinforcing the growing interest in Constellation equity story and contributing to stronger trading liquidity. Together, we believe that these developments represent a meaningful step forward in the liquidity and visibility of our shares, while we're strengthening the platform through which we engage with the global capital markets going forward. Third, on capital allocation, we finally completed our first $25 million shareholder distribution in May and announced three additional quarterly payments for this year, totaling $100 million to be paid in 2026, which represents our baseline commitment subject to the conditions previously communicated.
As leverage continues to decline toward our target below 1.25 x, we believe the company will have increasing capacity to return additional capital to shareholders. To conclude, Constellation has been consistently delivering on its plans and commitments. With the constructive market backdrop, increased earnings visibility, and a stronger capital markets platform, we believe the company is well-positioned to capture at the current cycle and continue creating long-term value for shareholders. Thank you. Operator, please open the line for the Q&A.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Questions may be submitted through a Q&A icon at the bottom of the screen. Our first question comes from Fredrik Stene from Clarksons Securities. We're going to read both questions. The first one is, are you seeing a chance of new tenders coming from Petrobras later this year? A follow-up question is, any news on the potential work for the Lone Star that could populate more of the 2027 backlog you have previously mentioned a binding agreement?
Hello, Fredrik, and thank you for your questions. This is Rodrigo here. Appreciate the mention of Petrobras. Of course, I will start by saying that Petrobras has recently disclosed the renegotiation, as we also mentioned a few weeks ago, with a series of blend and extend new agreements. For us, it was a very important negotiation where we added the 10 rig years of extensions in our fleet for two semis, the Gold and Alpha, and also for our drill ship, Brava Star, improving our backlog to $ 2.8 billion, as we previously informed. I mentioned that to confirm my view that Petrobras has, with those series of contracts, replenished their rig demand for 2026 and 2027. It means that Petrobras will come to the market with a new tender for 2028, most likely. This is our view and continues to be the same.
For this, in terms of timing, I believe that the next tender for Petrobras will kick off in the Q4 of this year or Q1 2027. This will be good enough for Petrobras to conclude the process and have the rig mobilized, available as per their needs. Of course, I have to emphasize something that, to me, is very important. Petrobras is constantly reviewing their rig demand. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, they made recently important discoveries in Campos and Santos Basin. They are drilling Equatorial Margin. I wouldn't be also surprised if throughout this assessment, they revisit the plan and then come up with a different process than what I'm mentioning here.
Let's keep monitoring as we do in Constellation very closely to everything that is going on with Petrobras, and we will be, as usual, prepared to benefit from any movement coming from Petrobras. Specifically to your other questions related to Lone Star, we continue to maintain our strategy of having one of our DP rigs available for the IOCs and independent players in Brazil and in the region. My view now is with the outcome of the renegotiation, this strategy is even more valid because of the scarcity for DP rigs after the conclusion of renegotiation. I totally believe in the abilities for the independent demand to absorb this unit, especially as I mentioned, considering the new activities that we are seeing recently in the market for the entire region. For the project that we announced before as an exclusive agreement, we continue to explore this possibility.
The agreement itself is expired today, but the potential client continues to evaluate the project, and Lone Star, in my view, is a favored candidate for this project among other projects that we are assessing right now. I keep my view and my optimism that the rig will find a place for continued operations after the current project with the Brava Energia.
Thank you. The next question comes from Fredrik Stene, Clarksons Securities. The question is, you have delivered a very strong first quarter ahead of both my own and consensus expectations. On the other hand, in the new company's presentation from some days ago, the upper end of EBITDA guidance was narrowed from 385- 380. How should we think about this in relation to the first quarter outperformance? Are you being very conservative in your guidance? Further, can you provide some color on how you think EBITDA would develop from the second quarter through fourth quarter, particularly if any of the quarters are expected to be weaker or stronger than the others? Thank you.
Hey, Fredrik. As always, thanks for the good quality questions and for bringing up on the EBITDA now so I can comment. I think let me start by apologizing that indeed we had a typo in this presentation that you are referring to. This was a presentation that we uploaded into our IR website just two days ago that we just reviewed this morning, as we noted that there was a typo in there that before we had confirmed the upper range of the EBITDA to be within 385, and indeed, we are confirming the EBITDA guidance for the year. It shouldn't be 380, instead should be the 385 that we've had shared before in the other earnings call. This is the same that we keep for now. To your constructive comment, I would like to elaborate more.
I think we had a fantastic quarter from an operations standpoint this quarter. All of the indications from both revenue, the upside on the rigs, the overall efficiency that we are getting, and as well the cost control and the discipline that we've been having throughout the fleet indicates that we have all of the ability to deliver on this guidance that we just informed for the year. For now, we'll take, I would say, to continue being conservative as a complement without reviewing upwards this for the second half. As we know, and Rodrigo just indicated, we continue working to have potential upside for Atlantic, but as we've given in the guidance, Atlantic would be at the specific guidance we've mentioned without working the second half of the year. While the team continue working on that, we're still not reviewing up anything on our guidance.
We again reaffirm on our ability and within the results of the first quarter, the high potential for us to continue delivering good results going forward.
Thank you. The next question comes from Lars Brattli, sell-side analyst. The question is, do you see potential work for Atlantic on the back of its current contract?
Hi. Thank you, Lars, for your question. This is Rodrigo again. No, I continue to see Atlantic as a very good potential upside. The rig is now working with the Karoon project as expected, which is a demonstration that there is a need for these type of rigs in the region. We had a good continuation from the long-term Petrobras legacy contract, and this is one of the good explanation why we had a so positive quarter as Daniel just referred to. Again, Atlantic is a simple rig, with a level of integrity that we consider very, very high. A rig that we know exactly how to be very efficient when deciding to stack the rig and reactivate the rig. We have a easy protocol for crewing the rig as well. considering the P&A potential in Brazil, which is giant, right?
Petrobras, during the last meetings with the market that Petrobras detailed their work scope program for rigs, they mentioned that they have a backlog of around 500 wells to be abandoned. A good portion of those wells will need a rig with a BOP for doing the program, completing the abandonment. There is no reason for us not to believe that, as we have done with the rig since 1996, this rig will continue to generate cash for us and will be a very good opportunity in the region. I just want to add to this the fact that Latin America and South America is gaining more and more attention for projects, as I mentioned. We are looking also projects outside Brazil that could accommodate the shallow water demand for Atlantic in the region.
This is an excellent news because we can't even find competition for the rig. again, emphasizing that we might face white space for Atlantic after the current project. this is, by the way, what exactly we incorporated in our guidance. It doesn't mean that we'll not seen, in the near future, additional opportunities for the rig. We will continue to explore those possibilities and we maintain our optimism with the rig allocation.
Thank you. The next question comes from Joran. Are you looking at expanding the number of rigs?
Hello, Joran. Thank you very much for the questions. I think in our business plan and in our strategy, we not only want to deliver solid results as we just did, but looking for reliable opportunities to grow is always in our DNA. We're going to continue to be exploring this with our strategic committee. We know how to do that in an accretive way without jeopardizing all our strategy to remunerate our shareholders, as we clearly demonstrated during this call and in the previous call. Last year, we implemented a new business unit in our company. It was, again, part of our business plan and strategic plan for a long time. We increased two rigs in our fleet, with a clear intention to maximize our ability to operate from the same hub in Brazil. Today, we are operating nine rigs for the same hub.
We did addition of Tidal Action and Admarine 511. We are concluding now the first months of operations with those rigs. The first results are very, very much in line with everything that we planned and expected with the cost-sharing strategy, with all the engineering capability that we have in place. We had excellent results so far with those operations. It demonstrates that we have ability to continue to grow and operate more rigs without having to make any significant investment. We always will look for ways of doing that accommodate our relevant points and pillars when we decide to do that. We need right asset, right partner. We need the market to be in the well position to accommodate the methodology that those contracts needed to remunerate all the parties.
Once we find that, and this will not compete with our own rigs, certainly we'll know how to do that. very excited with the situation in the region. Not only now, but for the future with the new frontiers as well, where Petrobras is drilling the Equatorial Margin, everything that is being planned for Pelotas Basin. Constellation will be very well prepared to find good ways to accommodate, either with the light asset strategy as we implemented or with other ways of growing our fleet that will be accretive to our cash generation.
On the managed fleet, I think, this is Daniel here, just like to add as well, how scalable we've proven our platform to be, really adding those two rigs, without any major investments. Leveraging from the same base that we already have has been great business for us, with great result already within the first quarter that we just deliver now, proving us the earning capacity that we have under this new framework that we are doing. As Rodrigo mentioned, adding more to that really depends on the market and being sustainable for continuing growing and finding the right partners. Also good to mention how happy we are with the partners that we decided to follow on those two transactions that we have implemented, right? We have really amazing operations as of now.
We really believe on the potential to continue growing this in the future in case the market is there, which we'll continue looking into this and, we believe the platform will be able to grow with many other rigs if needed without any major investment.
Moving on to the next question from Michael, buy-side analyst from Millennium. The question is: Have you considered share buybacks alongside dividends? There seem to be an overhang in the stock at present.
Hey, Michael. We do consider to continue getting all of the possibilities to give return to our shareholders. At this stage, we do not consider share buybacks. As much as I respect your comment on potential overhang, I do believe that we are taking all the steps into building on the added liquidity into the stocks, up listing the company within the secondary sale that was done by our largest shareholders as well back two weeks ago, as well another big step in order to increase the free float.
Indeed, we are seeing with the demand that came through on this offering, and as well with the overall reflection that we are seeing with the up listing and the non-deal roadshow feedback that we've gotten, that indeed, we see that there is potential to just continue on with the path that we have today on building on this, that will continue giving more constructive value to our shareholders. We have elaborated this dividend payments for this year in order that we have already the baseline of $100 million with the potential to step up. As I've mentioned within the guidance that we have given, we have a really good belief and hope, expectations that we will be increasing this dividend to a greater capacity starting already next year.
This is today, the way that we believe is the best to build on this shareholder return narrative that we have. Obviously, in the future, when we believe, and if there is, as well, any additional upside, we will consider as well share buybacks, but not today.
The next question comes from Laura Flood, investor at Ursus Capital. Are you seeing any demand from rig contracts in Uruguay or Venezuela? Can you comment on the possible expansion into these regions?
Laura, thank you for asking this. This is very important, and then we have been repeating this on our presentations recently, where we are really looking to South America now as a new frontier. You mentioned, on top of everything that we know about Brazil, you mentioned Uruguay and Venezuela, but I want also to add Suriname, Guyana, Colombia, and where Petrobras made an important discovery recently. Why not to say potential opportunities in the future as well for Mexico, where Petrobras is announcing potential partnerships with Pemex, where they would become the operators of certain fields there if these partnerships take off. Very, very excited. We, in our strategy, what I mentioned before, our decision many years ago to allocate one of our rigs, working for beyond Petrobras as well, gave us the reputation that we have today with very important players in the region.
By the way, we have drilled the quickest pre-salt well with Shell in a campaign that we had years ago. We are very well prepared, having close contacts and dialogues with all these operators. Indeed, very, very excited for Venezuela. We see opportunities in the offshore, especially in the eastern offshore basins. We believe that there is a meaningful long-term deepwater potential that remains largely unexplored today. That said, it's good to already see the first opportunities becoming materialized for the country. This is good news, I think, for the whole region. This is good news for the people of Venezuela, and this is good news for the planet energy security as well. We have to be conscious that it's an early stage for Venezuela. Political and sanctions risks remain there and need to be day-to-day clarified.
The first project will start to open up all these situations, and hopefully Venezuela will become, again, an international market with a sizable amount of operations. It's really great that our company is now with a very solid cash flow generation visibility for now to 2030 in our basic business, but at the same time, we have the privilege to consider how to expand not only on those regions, which we are very active, but remembering everyone, we had a six-year project or a very successful operation in India. India is another important opportunity that I believe that could become a sizable market considering all the demand for energy that they have in the country, considering that there are needs to migrate the oil and gas exploration from the west to the east side of the country, going to the deepwater.
We are active exploring opportunities in West Africa, in these regions, and we will continue to do so.
Thank you. The next question comes from Prith Sridhar, investor from Kairos Capital. You have a large cash balance, and you look set to grow even with the current dividend plan. Can you please discuss what you plan to do with it? Also, what is your plan regarding refinancing the bond?
Hey, Prith. Let me try to first address your question regarding the cash in hands that we have, and then I'll elaborate further on the potential for refinancing. First, you're right. We have good liquidity, and we have as well a significant cash position within our balance sheet. To remind you that we initiated these dividend payments within the cap and the limit that was obtained within the consent for the bondholder. This is the cap that we can pay now of $25 million on a quarterly basis within the consent that we obtain until we reach one and a quarter net leverage, which, as our expectation, is that we're going to get there in the fourth quarter this year.
When we get there, we will increase, and all of the remaining excess cash we'll consider as well to be returned to our shareholders once we have additional capacity for the dividends. That's why we've mentioned before that starting next year, we will be having these reviews, and we'll be elaborating further on the potential for us to be expanding on the distributions to our shareholders. With all of that said, going to your second question, which is related to the possibility for a refinancing, I think is important to say we have flexibility, and certainly we'll remain opportunistic about it. Monitoring the market and watching very closely to understand how beneficial could be for the company to potentially be reducing our overall cost of debt and obtaining greater flexibility within the indentures that we have today.
As a reminder, we got to place this bond back two years ago. We believe that within these two years, especially with the new contracts, with the level of the execution that we've been delivering quarter-over-quarter, that we are now in a better credit profile, and we believe we could have a better optionality in the market. We'll be considering that within the right market window. The company will remain ready from a documentation standpoint and may consider to explore this in the market. It's not something that we consider as needed or as a requirement for us. The maturities are a long time from now, and we will be going through this direction at the best opportunistic time for the company.
Thank you. The next question comes from Fredrik Stene from Clarksons Securities. Thanks for the commentary earlier. One follow-up to Daniel. Can you say something about expected cost development through the remainder of the year as well?
Thank you, Fredrik. We started with you, and I guess we're going to end with you. Thank you for all of the questions. I think from a cost standpoint, we are pretty happy with the quarter we delivered. I think I may say that the company has been implementing a lot of cost discipline measures. We have a rigorous cost control in place that we'll certainly maintain and continue expanding throughout the fleet on making sure that we will continue being disciplined. It's important to say from an overall timing of the operations, that we have most of our fleet that just have gone through contract transitions, which is the time that we restock and have all of the rigs with all of the equipment in order to kick off those large contracts.
It's expected that at the beginning of every contract, you end consuming a little bit less material than once you get to the completely ramp-up of the project. I would say in a normal scenario, we would expect as well that this first few months is of every quarter or every month, sorry, after the contract transitions. We also have a little bit lower OpEx material going through, but we'll continue monitoring and making our best to continue expanding within our scalable operations to maintain this cost discipline throughout the quarter. It was a really good quarter. We are pretty happy with the result by our operations team, and the results that we deliver from an overall OpEx standpoint in the first quarter.
Thank you. This concludes today's questions and answer session. I would like to invite Mr. Rodrigo Ribeiro to proceed with his closing statements. Please go ahead, sir.
I just want to thank you all for joining us today and for your continued interest and support in Constellation. We really appreciate that. We look forward to speaking with you again in the next quarter. Should you have any further question, please don't hesitate to contact our IR team and wish you a great day. Thank you.
Thank you everyone.
That concludes Constellation Oil Services audio conference for today. Thank you very much for your participation, and have a good day.