Fjord Defence Group ASA (OSL:DFENS)
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Earnings Call: Q4 2023

Feb 22, 2024

Nils Haugestad
CEO and CFO, Aquila Holdings

Good morning and welcome to Aquila Holdings' Q4 2023 earnings presentation. My name is Nils Haugestad, I'm the company's interim CEO and CFO. With regards to the quarter, we had multi-client revenues of $1.7 million. The Utsira processing has been going very well, and we delivered the priority area to clients at the end of the year. The fair value of the multi-client library is now standing at $31.1 million. The fair value of the investment portfolio is $6.6 million. We did take a reduction in fair value of financial assets, and we'll come back a bit to that, of $1 million. Available liquid funds was $8.5 million, and cash loss for the quarter was $0.5 million, and that is after $0.5 million in non-recurring legal expenses. The net asset value for the period was NOK 1.76 per share. Subsequent to the quarter end, we had a couple of things.

We announced here on the 20th two multi-client transfer fees for $1.1 million in revenues. In addition to that, on February 6th, we announced that we had completed the NOK 5 million share repurchase program that we announced July 10th. The company at this point currently holds 20.3 million shares, which represents 8.5% of the shares outstanding. With respect to the multi-client portfolio, the discounted cash flow value of the portfolio at this point is $31.1 million. We have a few events here. One is on the Utsira survey, the recent M&A transactions there, where we have Vår acquiring Neptune Energy Norway, and we also have PGNiG acquiring KUFPEC. So the transfer fees that were announced in quarter one relate to those transactions. As relates to the reprocessing project, it is progressing according to plan and also cost.

We still expect the completion of the project to be around the middle of the year, around the summer of this year. As I mentioned, the priority area was delivered in Q4 of last year, and we've also seen some additional deliverables as the work has been ongoing to the clients. On the Egypt side, Eni acquired Neptune Energy. It appears that Eni is inclined to discontinue the Gulf of Suez data license. However, that is not yet concluded. If so, the survey area is likely to become available for new operators. As it stands right now, we have a remaining revenue share in the Gulf of Suez survey of $12.1 million, and the book value is $6.6 million. On the financial assets, this is the node deployment equipment that we sold to MagSeis Fairfield in March 2022, now TGS.

As you'll recall, there's an earnout structure there with a cap of $12 million over three years. There's also a floor payment of $1.5 million, and it's subject to certain milestones, some additional costs that may be deducted from that. The book value of this asset was at $3 million, and this is, as I mentioned in the introduction, what we reduced by $1 million, so to $2 million currently. And that's simply a result of the remaining time on the earnout period, given that we thought it was prudent to reduce the estimates. So what was $3 million before we've reduced to $2 million. On the investment side, here we have some select public market, but also some unlisted securities. The fair value of the portfolio is $6.6 million at the end of quarter four.

We have Capsol Technologies that was at $4.8 million at the end of the quarter, but subsequent to the quarter end, we acquired 396,825 shares at a price of NOK 12.60 per share. This was done through a primary equity offering of NOK 88 million that was just completed by the company. We also have Dolphin Drilling, which at the end of the year was at $1.4 million, but subsequent to the quarter end, we divested 850,000 shares, which is approximately 50% of the shares we held, at a price of NOK 8.25 per share. On the net asset value, we have the multi-client library at NOK 1.43 per share, so clearly the largest percentage of the NAV value. Other seismic assets is NOK 0.09 per share, and that's the node equipment.

Then we have the investment portfolio at 0.30 NOK per share, and then a reasonably even current assets and liabilities side, which then adds up to 1.76 NOK per share for the NAV valuation. On the income statement, we had revenues of NOK 1.7 million related to the Utsira reprocessing project. We had other losses of $1 million, which is the reduction in fair value of financial assets that we discussed earlier. This is then the node handling equipment that has been reduced from $3 million-$2 million. Cost of sales of NOK 1.4 million, and that is primarily related to the Utsira reprocessing costs. SG&A of NOK 0.9 million, which includes NOK 0.5 million related to legal services. Amortization of a multi-client of NOK 1.6 million takes us to an operating loss of NOK 3.1 million.

We have a net financial loss of NOK 0.2 million, which relates to interest expense on VAT charges. That takes us to a loss of $3.3 million. On the cash earnings or loss basis, we had a cash loss of $0.5 million, as mentioned earlier, and that includes then the $0.5 million of the non-recurring legal expenses that we mentioned above. Going to the balance sheet, we see the Multi-Client Library $31.1 million, investment $6.6 million, financial assets of $2.0 million, trade receivables of $0.9 million, other current assets of $1.3 million, and this includes a significant portion of earned revenues from the reprocessing project that has yet to be invoiced. Bank deposits of $2.0 million, which gives us total assets of $43.9 million. If you look at the Multi-Client Library together with financial assets, which is the node deployment equipment, that represents about 75% of total assets.

So obviously, the seismic part of the balance sheet is the by far largest part. On the equity liability side, we have equity of $38.1 million, which gives us an equity ratio of 86.9%. We have trade payables of $0.5 million, and then taxes payable $2.3 million. This is taxes related to the work done in Egypt. Other current liabilities of $2.9, and again, here a significant portion of this relates to taxes under evaluation payable to Egypt based on the work that was done there. Takes us to a total equity and liability side of $43.9 million. Available liquid funds, as mentioned earlier, $8.5 million, and net asset value of NOK 1.76 per share. On the cash flow side, we had cash from operating activities of a negative NOK 0.2 million.

We had no spending on the investment activity side, and we acquired our own shares to the extent of NOK 0.2 million also in the quarter, which takes the cash down from NOK 2.4 million- NOK 2.0 million at the end of the quarter. In terms of the outlook, we still see solid industry fundamentals that support historically high oil prices and thereby also continued investment in the E&P sector. All the major agencies that are tracking the industry are expecting continued increase in oil demand, and that's a consistent picture. And with that, we also see strong cash flow into the E&P companies. And oil company spending as a result is expected to remain high in 2024. That being said, we believe, as always, that timing of multi-client lease sales is still unpredictable and is largely driven by licensing rounds and internal oil company scheduling.

We should expect sales to be lumpy when they happen, and we don't think that that speaks to the underlying value of the multi-client library. We will continue to evaluate new multi-client investment opportunities, and we will also continue to evaluate opportunities outside of the seismic sector. That's the end of the presentation today. We appreciate you taking the time to listen in, and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us. Thank you so much.

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