Welcome to Odfjell Technology's Q1 presentation. My name is Gert Haugland. I'm the SVP for Finance and Investor Relations in Odfjell Technology. I'm joined by our CEO, Simen Lieungh, and our CFO, Jone Torstensen. You'll find the presentation on our website. I ask you to take notice of the disclaimer on the second page. Simen will start by going through the highlights of the quarter and the market outlook. Jone will thereafter cover the financial figures before we conclude with a Q&A session. You can submit your questions through the webcast portal or by using the dial-in numbers. I now hand it over to Simen for the first part.
Thank you, Gert. I'm going through the markets and the headlines. As I said, Jone will take care of the details regarding financial information. We have a quarter behind us now. First, with approximately NOK 1.1 billion revenue. We have the same business areas as we have said also. To start with the well services, project engineering, operations, and what we're working with on the energy transition. We can take comments on that later. EBITDA was NOK 193 million, in line with the last quarter, but significantly above a year ago. Backlog is stable. Come back to how that is spread, but about NOK 11 billion in the backlog. Cash position, about NOK 600 million.
The KPI debt on EBITDA, 1.1, coming good down. It's close to one now. What's also quite interesting, KPI we use is the estimated EBITDA in the backlog compared to our net interest-bearing debt, 2.5, which should give a robust basis for running the company. On the next, for the just some key highlights for the quarter. We have carried out operations in line with our safe safety guidance. We have no serious incidents. I'm always not good to say that. We know that's also the, in a way, the extremely important for us to document and operate safe so we can give credibility to our stakeholders and clients.
We have a high activity level in line with what we saw in Q4, meaning that we have exceeded the expectations related to seasonal effects. Seasonal effects is typical in wintertime. Weather could be, you know, stability of, you know, start of activities and so forth. This time we have seen that we have exceeded our expectations for effects linked to the first quarter. That means that we have, through the quarter, have a strong operation performance, which is shown by the numbers. Regarding the backlog, which is stable, but we have built more backlog within well services and project engineering, which is kind of a, the international footprint, especially within the well services side that we see a better and stronger market international.
Come a little more back to that somewhat later. We have also confirmed that we will pay dividend of 50 million NOK, which is approved now, will be paid by June 1st. We have the intention to do 50 more over the next two quarters. That will be approved accordingly when we follow the developments. On the market outlook, it's very much the same as we saw last year. A strong market building up linked to the need for more hydrocarbons. We see globally that there are growth within almost all areas, both onshore type of business, mid-water, shallow water with jackups, harsh environment and deep water activities are ramping up.
Of course, driven by the lack of investments over the last six, seven years, the need for more energy. Having said that, it is very more attention to do this with a better, obviously, performance on emissions. The clients, the major especially, are more driven by also pushing solutions, technologies that we can prove that we are actually part-participating to reduce climate gas emissions. That's quite important now. Coming up stronger and the ESG reporting is also catching up with us. We have been in Odfjell we have been quite okay over the last years because we have had all our rigs in operations, all business in operations, or since, whilst others have struggled with other things.
We have been developing solutions that is now attractive for clients at which has also been approved for that they actually do bring effect into reduced emissions. We also see now that there are a growth with the regarding the number of rigs active, which is a quite important KPI for us, especially with well services. That goes for all drilling areas and well maintenance areas. We also see a growth within activities and planned activities for more plug and abandonment. Within well services, we are well positioned to harvest in the market.
We have... We are working on solutions where we try to combine technologies within the company, within Odfjell Technology, also with potential cooperation partners to find solutions which is more attractive, more efficient for clients. Norway is a strong market, been that quite through the last years but is coming up stronger. What is positive is that we see significantly trends in the Middle East, in Africa, in Asia and Eastern Europe, where we see more activities. We are following the mobilization of the three rigs that Odfjell Drilling is gonna mobilize in Namibia. We are also developing and putting up bases down in Namibia to support all the needs they need for type of well services. Operations is stable.
You know, that's a very stable type of activity. There are long contracts. There are a lot of options in the contracts. These options are obviously likely to be confirmed by the clients. If we perform well, if we do good efficiency and perform well on safety, very often these options are cleared. We see a typical 80%-90% of evidence that these options are cleared. We also are looking at new type of businesses. There are need for, you know, Middle East has a tremendous growth within jackup operations. We have a base down in Dubai supporting the whole region including North Africa and Asia Pacific and Central Asia.
We also are looking at potentially jackup management activities for clients that hasn't organization to run their operations. There are potentially something we can pick up down there. Also we see that operations are more, could be more active within plug abandonment activities, especially in the U.K.. We also see that we are looking at... We have done some geothermal activities, which is growth potential, especially within Europe, East, West Europe, driven by the need for alternative energies sources whilst the gas from East is almost vaporized, literally spoken. There's a lot of activities in Europe to find alternative sources to do both renewable and create more sources for providing energy.
Within project engineering, again, a lot of activity. I think I said last quarter that we are manning up the organization. We are looking for more people. We are building up more activity down in, technical activity down over in our hub down in Manila. We also have campaigns to employ more people. We see a lot of activity now regarding the SPSs, the special projects surveys on rigs. There are a lot activity linked to mobilization of our managed rig, the external fleet with Mira and Hercules. We also see that there are more coming up. We are supporting the.
Our initiative and our engagement within ocean wind, Odfjell Oceanwind, where, and where of course, the engineering project department has significant input and is actually the backbone to provide those solutions. The activity level is high, margins are getting better, and we don't see any drop in that in the closest future, meaning a couple of years at least. It's difficult to see longer, but you know, we see that part of the company will be more and more important to be the driver and the backbone for developing more activity and new activity.
Which is according to the plan and why we actually did the split and how we kind of are now engaging for the strategic drivers going forward. The business area highlights, I've been mentioning some of it, but the backlog within well services are very good. We have a good pool of equipment still. We are talking about investments in the range of $18 million-$20 million. Some drop, some lower now, but we don't foresee that will go down. We have established a very good cooperation with NOV Totco wired drill pipe. we will be providing wired drill pipe solutions where that's needed, especially in the northern part of the market.
We believe that wired drill pipe technology will be more and more attractive when clients are figuring out how to use it. I mean, Equinor and Aker BP is doing it already. It's not really deployed offshore international, very much onshore international. A lot of, you know, the efficiency and the performance is improved by wired drill pipe solutions. It doesn't necessarily drill faster regarding meter by meter, but do less errors. The efficiency is significantly increased. That is a good business for us. That also could drive. If those activities are coming up, that might also drive some investments.
The investments, the payback period for these packages are significantly high, and the IRR is very attractive. Regarding operations, we operate now on 16 platforms and we see potentially for more. We are tendering several jobs in the U.K. sector now, not being confirmed. The backlog remains strong and stable, and we actually have a combination of base margins there, but we also have. When we operate well, when we operate good, we get, we have incentive schemes running, and sometimes that pays a lot. Sometimes we have not the same effect which we see now in this quarter, but the previous quarter has been good. The future, if we do well, that margin doesn't really concern us.
Regarding engineering, you see that backlog is also very, very good. We have a very high utilization. I mean, 93% is, I will say about the edge. It shouldn't be much higher, we need more capacity. I've said enough about that, how we're gonna do that. We probably will start to bring more people into the organization to serve what we see is coming up. That's a challenge for everybody. We have so far a good track record there. We have an attractive company. We're doing both oil and gas, hydrocarbon divisions and activities. Also we are attracting people which want also to work on the energy transition. Meaning that we are active on ocean wind activity. We do some studies on the hydrogen area.
We do some geothermal activities. We also work now to figure out plug abandonment solutions, both from fixed installations and to plug and abandon where subsea wells. The last one is actually viewed as a part of the energy transition. You actually plug abandon oil fields and which is perceived positive by the market. We have a very strong foundation and technologies and experience to take part in that market. The U.K. market is strong and the Norwegian market is coming stronger year by year, so we are active there. I think the next will be you, Jone.
Thank you, Simen. I'm starting with the financial performance on page 12. Starting with the revenue. The revenue in Q4 was NOK 1.15 billion, which is an increase of 1.3% compared to Q4 2022, and an increase of 37% compared to Q1 2022. EBITDA in Q1 was NOK 193 million, a reduction of 2.1% compared to Q4 2022, and an increase of 64% compared to Q1 2022. EBITDA margin slightly reduced in Q1 2023 compared to Q4 2022 due to seasonal effects, mainly affecting bonus achievement and operation. EBITDA margin is increased compared to Q1 2022.
The cash position was NOK 598 million in Q1 2023 compared to NOK 560 million in Q4 2022, an increase of 7% even with a working capital increase of NOK 103 million due to delays related to ERP system upgrade. Cash generating from operation was NOK 86 million in Q1 2023 compared to NOK 190 million in Q1 2022. The leverage ratio was further reduced to 1.05 in Q1 2023 compared to 1.23 in Q4 2022, caused by higher cash balance and improved 12 last month trialing EBITDA. We go into the business area performance. That's on page 13. Starting with well services. Revenue of NOK 393 million in Q1 compared to NOK 287 million in Q1 2022, an increase of NOK 106 million.
EBITDA of NOK 136 million in Q1 2023 compared to NOK 93 million in Q1 2022, an increase of NOK 37 million. A small increase in revenue and EBITDA in Q1 2023 compared to Q4 2022. EBITDA margin percentage stable on approximately 35%. Operation, a revenue of NOK 549 million in Q1 compared to NOK 413 in Q1, an increase of NOK 136 million. EBITDA of NOK 34 million in Q4 compared to NOK 28 million in Q1, an increase of NOK 6 million. EBITDA dropped 35% in Q1 compared to Q4 due to lower bonus achievement, caused by season effects and also positive escalation effects recorded in Q4 2022. Engineering of... Revenue of NOK 140 million in Q1 compared to NOK 93 in Q1 2022, an increase of NOK 47 million.
EBITDA of NOK 28 million in Q1 2023 compared to NOK 7 million in Q1 2022, an increase of NOK 21 million. The EBITDA margin in Q1 2023 was 20.2% compared to 7.2% in Q1 2022, and increase is mainly explained by higher, very high utilization. Also execution of some lump sum project, which has higher risk, which also then provide higher margin.
Let me go to the summary to try to sum up. It's a strong financial and operation performance in quarter, which is normally challenging. Cash and debt situation solid. Our focus now will be on working capital improvement to further improve our cash balance. We see as positive market outlook for all segments with well services best positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities. Dividend distribution of NOK 50 announced and commence the start of regular cash disbursement to shareholders. We also celebrate one year anniversary on OTL and have now established a solid foundation to further develop the company.
Yeah. That concludes our presentation, and we're now ready to take questions.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask an audio question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please also ensure mute function is not activated to allow your signal to reach your equipment. Once again, if you wish to ask any audio questions, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our first audio question is coming from Mr. Tommy Johannessen, calling from SB1 Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open, sir.
Yes, good morning. Just starting off with the projects and engineering division. A very strong growth and margins both in Q4 and Q1. Could you give some more color on what you expect there, going through 2023? Should we expect a decline or could this very high levels be maintained? Also a related question, when you plan to add more people in this division, do you see salary pressure at the moment? Thank you.
Thank you. I mean, it's. That's a good question. We have very high activity level now. We did that also for the last quarter in Q4. We have still a high level of activity. Yes, the margins are in this context viewed as at the upper end of what's typical within engineering. My own background before I joined Odfjell was a lot within engineering. I used to do that with Aker. I like to be a little careful just to kind of say this is how it's going to be forever. We have kind of said some years ago that if we hit 10%, 15%, that's good. Now we are higher.
With the current level of activity going forward, we expect that level will be maintained over a period of time. There are pressures on the salary levels in the market. There are pressures on getting people in the only market. I will also be somewhat careful just to put in the, in the spreadsheets the same level. Be a little careful. We will have more volume. I'm kind of, I'm not talking it down, but I'm talking it careful and maybe somewhat conservative because I don't want to create so much kind of this is just going to go up and up and up. It's, it is a lot about having the right quality of people, which is difficult to get.
It's about training people, which is a very lengthy period of time. You need to be patient to do that. It takes time to develop good technical people with the, with the right competencies. You can't just buy that from the shelf. It's also a combination of what you can get from clients and what you have to pay for those heads you are engaging and how you kind of see that. I think, a potentially increased rate could be somewhat eaten about higher salary levels. You do your own maths, but I will be somewhat conservative just to plug that straight into the future. I was on the start-
Thank you, sir. Sorry for that, sir. Okay, sir, the next question is coming from Jørgen Lande calling from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon or good morning, gentlemen. Just on the order intake for, you know, during 2022 and into the first quarter 2023, it seems very strong now. What's your view on the, let's say, outlook for order intake and perhaps also the timing, you know, 2023 versus 2024? What's your kind of comment and views on that? Thank you.
I can start there. Jone you might add on things if I forget something. Just a general comment on the order intake. I think we have been around NOK 11 billion now, plus, and we have been catching up orders, going forward now. We are increasing the backlog, which is to us is quite important. The backlog within operations are quite stable. When we win a contract, we have several tenders out there that will have a significant probably step up, because those contracts are long and there are lots of options. Normally we take some of the options conservatively into the backlog type of thing because they are very likely to be executed, at least some of it, when we know what clients are thinking.
With that, what's important for us is to see that we are growing the backlog within especially well services International. That's, that is where we see now more activity, not necessarily in too much in 2023, but if the trends are following, 2024, 2025 will be quite interesting. So we are measuring, already we have a lot of orders, small and some, and some bigger flowing into the well services side. I said about investments, we will keep the level of about NOK 200 million investment, $20 million typical, up and down in that area.
If you get some very interesting type of business opportunities that could, for example, be a wire pipe package that might increase the investments, but the payback is fantastic. If we can, we are focusing on very much maybe, in our book, in some we said maybe too much, but it never too much, is to get a stronger foothold internationally. Meaning that we also need to ramp up the organization and some equipment we need to already order because it's a quite long delivery time on certain equipment. We are start to do speculative ordering that we know those equipment that's gonna be asked for will be provided when we get into 2024.
It's some equipment takes a year to get that. We know those quick equipment are quite attractive. Yes, to the question, backlog, well services is extremely important to build and the backlog for project operations and engineering will continue to be quite okay. The backlog with the operations will come when we win contracts.
Okay. Can I also have a follow-up, please? Just on the terms of the, or perhaps, you know, if you are successful in that strategy in 2023, kind of building more backlog or to international, could we then, is it fair assumption to make that CapEx for 2024 perhaps will be higher than the roughly $80 million-$20 million previously guided for 2023 guidance?
I think, Jone, you can illuminate some of that, I think.
Yeah. As we said, when we split, we estimated a value of between $17 million and $20 million. Now we are reporting NOK. What we said is this year is about NOK 200+, and that will give us robust flexibility going forward. Because if there is a huge growth, then we have to invest more if there are good business cases. The figures we are using now is NOK 200+ based on current activity level plus additional one. That's the situation.
Yeah.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Lande. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, if you have any questions or follow-up questions, please do press star one. We'll now go back to Mr. Tommy Johannessen of SB1 Markets. Please go ahead, sir.
Yes. Thank you. Sorry, my line was broken in the last question, but thank you for the color on the engineering division. I just wanted to follow up on the cash flow, the working capital movement in the quarter. Can you say anything about the expected timing of a reversal of that and sort of what measures are being taken to improve the working capital?
Yeah, I can do that. As we said, we upgraded our ERP system first of January, and that has a negative impact on the working capital in Q1 due to some delays in the invoicing process. We know what the issue are. We are on it, believe me. We are working very hard to improve it, and we expect that we will be back on track within Q2 reporting.
Thank you. Just on consolidation of M&A, any updated color you can give there? What sort of, what you're looking at, what region, size, et c.. Thank you.
I can't share with you any specific, I would say, cases. The growth we see within international, well services will be done by both organic and potentially some interesting companies we have targeted to start to work with and see if we can do some M&A activities on them. We are not planning for any currently, no, not any big, you know, major consolidations which I've been frequently asked by. We are building a stronger well services business that is more stable and more international, and create more attractiveness and higher valuation. We can kind of, start with a combination of organic and M&A activities and cooperations.
I think, going forward, we, if we take a picture a year or a year and a half ahead of us, it's, we hopefully have done some step up there. We do spend the time to make it stable. We don't wanna kind of just merge it with a bigger company and all of the sales, we will control those, potential M&A activities by building brick by brick here. Okay?
Okay. Thank you. Perfect. That's all from me.
Thank you very much, sir. As we have no further audio questions, I will turn the call back over now to Gert for any webcast submitted questions. Thank you.
Yes, we have a question regarding the dividend, if, NOK 1.25 will be paid out every quarter. I think, what we've said is that we'll pay additional NOK 50 million over the next two quarters, which would in total be about NOK 125. We also have another question regarding how many people we intend to hire add on to our headcount. Maybe Simen, do you have anything to share there?
Within engineering, we kind of see that that will be the part where we need to add on people, and we talk about typical range between 50 and 100 people, depending on the. Okay. on how we find them. I think that's the range.
Yeah. Also a follow-up question to that is if, what we see as a projected labor cost increase going forward, 2023 and 2024.
I can answer that. We will follow what's happening now, and we expect to be on the same level that has already been announced on other areas.
Yeah. We do have escalation clauses in the contract, so you can comment on that, Jone. Did you hear, Jone?
Sorry, yeah. Sorry for that. I'm here now. We are covered in our contracts when it comes to, like, escalations clauses, so we do not see any special risk there.
Mm-hmm. Okay. More questions?
We have one last one, which is a bit technical. Can you comment on the liability repayment to Odfjell Drilling that appear in your balance sheet? I guess, it's not a liability.
Correct.
It has two sites, so we are covered.
That's correct.
There are no additional questions.
Okay.
George, There are no other caller questions?
We do not have anybody queuing at this time, sir.
I think we will conclude the presentation and the Q&A. I thank you all for joining the call. If you have further questions or inquiries, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's presentation. We thank you for your attendance. You may disconnect.