Morning, and welcome to Petrofac's full year results presentation. Our call today is being hosted by Tareq Kawash, Group Chief Executive, and Afonso Reis e Sousa, Chief Financial Officer. I'll now hand over to James Boothroyd, Head of Investor Relations, to begin the presentation. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Our call today is being hosted by Tareq Kawash, Group Chief Executive, and Afonso Reis e Sousa, Chief Financial Officer, and includes a Q&A session. In a moment, I'll hand over to Tareq, but first, I wanted to remind everybody that today's briefing and some of the answers to your statements may contain forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current views and involve risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the slide two of the presentation for more information included in the disclaimer. We also have copies of today's presentation and other relevant material on our website in the Investors section. I would now like to hand over to Tareq Kawash. Tareq, over to you.
Thank you, James. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm Tareq Kawash, Petrofac's Group Chief Executive, and I'm joined by Afonso Reis e Sousa, our Chief Financial Officer. Before Afonso takes you through our 2023 financial results and provides an update on the strategic and financial overview, I want to share a few reflections on the, on the year as a whole. Later, I'll refer to the business outlook and 2024 priorities, and we'll then have time for Q&A. Let's turn to the next slide. 2023 was a challenging year on a number of fronts. Losses on the legacy portfolio and one-off write-downs in both E&C and Asset Solutions were disappointing. We experienced difficulties in securing guarantees which impacted the cash flows on new contracts, although this was partially offset by progress made in unwinding historical working capital.
On the Thai Oil Fuels project, while we are in negotiations to seek reimbursement on a proportion of additional costs, we will not have clarity on the outcome until those conversations with clients and partners have concluded, resulting in additional losses in the year. The year also involved key operational progress. We closed out much of our legacy portfolio. We successfully unwound some of the historic working capital. We began implementing new controls to bring more consistency to our delivery and greater selectivity to our bidding. And we significantly increased the backlog, demonstrating the strength of Petrofac's customer relationships and the markets we operate in, as well as our differentiated offering. These are all important elements that position the underlying business better for the future. Critical to this future, however, is the delivery of a financial restructure.
The group's balance sheet strength has been significantly impacted over the last two years as a result of company-specific and industry-wide challenges. We are focused on the restructuring with the aim of materially strengthening our financial position and enabling Petrofac to deliver on its future opportunities. As you would expect, the success and timing of the restructure depends on agreements with and obtaining approvals from various parties. This process has my full focus, along with the wider board. More on this later. Before I hand over to Afonso, who will talk to this in more detail, I want to say how grateful I am to all our stakeholders for their patience as we work to deliver a positive future for Petrofac.
As I reflect on my first full year as Chief Executive, it is the operational progress I described, along with the support extended by our customers, suppliers, financial stakeholders, and the commitment of our own Petrofac team, that continues to drive my belief that on completion of the financial restructure, Petrofac will be positioned to return to sustainable, profitable growth. I'll now hand over to Afonso.
Thank you. Thank you, Tareq, and good morning, everyone. I will first give a brief rundown of the key takeaways from the 2023 financial performance before moving on to provide an update on the company's review of strategic and financial options. Apologies. We have provided more detailed financial information in the appendices, which will be available on our website later today, as well as in the financial statements themselves. Turning to the 2023 results summary. As we previously guided, our financial performance for the year to 31st December reflected the continuing challenges in our legacy portfolio of contracts and in accessing guarantees for the new contracts that were awarded in 2023 in our E&C division. These challenges affected both profitability and cash flows. By contrast, as Tareq already mentioned, 2023 was an excellent year for order intake.
Ultimately, 2023 ended with the board initiating a review of the group's strategic and financial options to strengthen the balance sheet and improve liquidity, which I will cover shortly. Now, diving into the detail a little more. Group revenue of $2.5 billion for the year was broadly in line with the previous year. Revenues were lower in the E&C division, as expected, given that much of the activity in the year related to the reducing portfolio of legacy contracts. This was offset by strong revenue growth in Asset Solutions, following a couple of strong years of order intake. IES delivered another strong performance with good production, albeit with lower realized oil prices compared with previous year.
As you can see, we reported a full year group EBIT loss of $393 million, which was largely due to losses in E&C, partly offset by profitability in the rest of the business. This operating loss in E&C was principally due to the additional costs recognized on the Thai Oil contract, which amounted to a little under $200 million. One-off write downs of around $100 million to protect and accelerate cash flows, and margin deteriorations in the balanced portfolio, as well as the adverse operating leverage due to low levels of activity in E&C. The contracts secured in the period contributed only modestly to revenue, and not at all to margin, given that they are at an early stage of execution.
In Asset Solutions, while revenue grew by 35%, EBIT performance in the year was impacted by additional costs recognized on an EPCC contract of $18 million that we highlighted in April, as well as a one-off bad debt provision of approximately $11 million relating to a client going into administration. As a result, Asset Solutions recognized only a marginal EBIT profit for the year. Meanwhile, the financial performance in IES was ahead of expectations, with net production maintained at 1.26 million bbl of oil equivalent. The lower oil price realized during the year was partly offset by cost savings, which delivered an EBITDA overall of $90 million and EBIT profit of $34 million.
Going back to the Thai Oil Clean Fuels project, we continued to make good progress on the construction phase of the project, and execution continues to progress well. We recognized additional costs in the year and are continuing discussions with the client and our joint venture partners in respect to the reimbursement of a portion of these costs. However, we have not yet made sufficient progress to meet the recognition criteria for any associated recovery. Any recoveries in the future would be an upside to the position we have recognized. Turning to the balance sheet and liquidity, net debt at year-end was $583 million. The increase from 2022 predominantly reflects the free cash outflow in the first half of the year.
In the second half, the group delivered positive cash flows, but also had to provide collateral of $100 million or so in December in order to secure certain performance guarantees. As a result, free cash flow was neutral, and net debt was unchanged in the second half of the year. The positive cash flow performance in the second half, offset by the collateral requirement, was delivered in part through the collection of historic working capital balances totaling approximately $180 million. Management also took other actions to preserve liquidity in the absence of advance payment receipts on new contracts. These actions continued through 2020, into 2024, and we continue to manage the group's payment obligations and our borrowing facilities and other contractual obligations very carefully.
Our liquidity was constrained in 2023, and gross liquidity at year-end was approximately $200 million. In particular, we highlight the challenges in obtaining guarantees for new contracts, which resulted in the group missing out on around $300 million of advanced payment collections, and as I said, the provision of $100 million of collateral to secure performance guarantees for two of the five major contracts that we were awarded in 2023. I'll discuss the ongoing financial strategic update in more detail in a moment, but I just want to highlight that the current liquidity position today is broadly in line with the year-end position, with the group continuing to maintain liquidity above its financial covenant.
Finally, as you can see from the data points on the slide, it was a very successful year for new order intake, converting backlog to backlog growth through the year. Tareq will talk more to this shortly, and in addition to the pipeline of opportunities, but both of these factors provide our stakeholders a good line of sight to the group's potential, subject to successfully implementing the financial restructure. Which brings me neatly to the update on the strategic and financial review on the next slide. Thank you. As a consequence of the challenges faced in securing guarantees for our E&C contracts, the board recognized the need to implement a comprehensive financial restructure.
We're in constructive dialogue with stakeholders on the restructuring plan, and as we announced in April, a group of existing note holders made a non-binding proposal to provide up to $200 million of new funding and $100 million of credit support to help secure performance guarantees. This proposal is one element of the financial restructure. In order to complete it, we need also to put in place guarantees for certain of the contracts that we won last year, and we are in discussions with credit providers to obtain these guarantees. By replacing the current arrangements, these guarantees would release over $200 million of collateral and retentions, and would also unlock progress payments on contracts in the backlog. The final element of the restructuring, as we mentioned, is the conversion of a significant proportion of group's existing debt to equity.
The board and I recognize this will unfortunately have a dilutive impact for existing shareholders. However, this restructure is critical in order to enable Petrofac to execute its backlog and capitalize on a strong business outlook. This restructure also requires the support of our lending banks, and we are in discussions with them on the proposed terms of the restructure. As I'm sure you can imagine, this is a hugely complex process with many stakeholders, different agreements to be reached, and an intricate process to implement, including the requirement for shareholder approvals and the legal process. Process is not without its risks, and we have been transparent about those in our announcements and disclosures, in particular around our short-term liquidity challenges and a complex set of agreements that need to be reached in order to implement the restructuring.
The entire management team and the board are working hard to bring the process to a conclusion as swiftly as possible. As we make progress, we will continue to keep the market updated with information on next steps, timelines, and further details of the restructure. In the meantime, to preserve liquidity until the restructure is implemented, we continue to manage our payment obligations carefully and rely on the continued support of our creditors. With that, I will now hand you back over to Tareq.
Thank you, Afonso. Moving to slide 10, I'll touch briefly on backlog, pipeline of opportunities, and our focus for the remainder of 2024. Starting with backlog growth, for E&C, 2023 was the strongest year for new awards in five years, following our return to the UAE and two awards from ADNOC. Our major award, our first major award in the petrochemical sector in Algeria with Sonatrach, and wins with TenneT in the European offshore wind sector. These projects involve delivery of critical national infrastructure for some of the most sophisticated customers in the world. They choose Petrofac because they have confidence in our ability to execute and to deliver a high standard. These projects also demonstrate our strategy in action, with more than 50% of E&C's backlog now relating to energy transition.
Across our new E&C portfolio, performance guarantees have been provided on two contracts, and work is ongoing to obtain guarantees required for the others. We continue to execute work under these contracts, and in the meantime, we have made a strong start on project delivery. In Asset Solutions, we maintain our core 40% U.K. market share and win-and-renewal rate of 80% for operation and maintenance contracts. Clients continue to increase their emphasis on late life asset management, which remains our focus. In Asset Solutions, our strategy is to bring our U.K. experience into new geographies where we can achieve higher margins. The Asset Solutions work represents $2 billion of the overall backlog. It's important to remember that this business is primarily focused on delivering work on a reimbursable basis without the requirement for bank guarantees.
Focusing now on the detail on the right side, on the right of the slide. Of course, it's important to remember that the forward outlook for Petrofac is predicated on delivering the comprehensive financial restructure and having continued access to guarantees on normal commercial terms. Notwithstanding this, you can see the pipeline opportunity spans all our key markets. Our emphasis will continue to be on staying selective in the future opportunities we pursue and where we can achieve our margin objectives. You see our group pipeline of opportunities worth $60 billion, scheduled for award in the next 18 months, with over 75% being in the markets and with the clients that meet the selectivity criteria I just mentioned. With this, of E&C's addressable pipeline, 58% is in our core MENA markets and 18% in energy transition sectors, principally offshore wind.
Of the Asset Solutions, 70% of its pipeline is in our target geographies outside the U.K. and Europe. With the refinancing in place, we have a significant opportunity set ahead of us. Let's now turn to strategic priorities in slide 11. The first of these, of course, is to deliver the financial restructure and rebuild the confidence of our stakeholders. The second is consistent delivery. A clear priority for the entire executive team is to revitalize the group's innate delivery capability. We began this in 2023, adjusting our operating model to take account of learnings from the recent delivery challenges by embedding a robust assurance function. This will remain the focus in 2024 and beyond.
Our third aim is to build on Petrofac's core strengths, including a 40-year track record in MENA, a 10-year pedigree in offshore wind, and a renowned experience in late life asset optimization and decommissioning. In E&C, we have been re-pivoting back to our core MENA markets, where there continues to be high levels of investment and where we have a consistent record of success, and our local delivery model is a key competitive advantage. To address the needs of energy transition sectors, we have created a distinct delivery unit. In Asset Solutions, as mentioned, we're building on core and expanding judiciously in other mature basins. Finally, financial discipline across the business will be critical to maximize the opportunities we see in front of us.
Before we open for questions, I'd like to finish by saying that while this is clearly a very challenging time for the business, our short-term priorities are clear. Given the strong market fundamentals and Petrofac's differentiated position, with a restored balance sheet following the restructure, a focus on selective growth in our core markets and consistent delivery, I believe we have line of sight to sustainable and profitable medium-term growth. With that, I'd like to hand back to the operator to open the call for questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. We'll now take our first question from Christian Hinderaker of Goldman Sachs. The line's open, please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Tareq, Afonso, James. Thanks for the presentation. I'd like to start, if you could walk us through, please, the timeline in terms of the key milestones in the coming months. In your release, you've noted the forbearance provided by the bondholders last through the end of June. You've got the PM304 sale process, I think, has been the potential to complete in the third quarter. Are there any other key milestones that we should be aware of? That's the first question.
Morning, Christian. The timeline on PM304 first is, we're going through the approvals process. It's an M&A transaction, so I think, you know, we've got no more to say than Q3 is the expected timeline, but of course, it depends on factors outside our control there. You're right that we have the bond forbearance from the 41% of holders is until the end of June. The grace period itself runs out on the fifteenth or fourteenth of June. There are no other timelines. I think the management of the board, we are entirely focused on progressing and implementing the restructuring as soon as we possibly can. So, and obviously, as soon as we have more details, we will be able to announce those, make them public.
Thank you. Maybe secondly then, on the Thai Oil Fuels contract, you've recognized an incremental loss in the E&C business related to higher-than-expected execution costs there. I think in April, the guide for that part, or rather that contract, was $130 million. Today, you've come out with a reported incremental cost of $190 million. Just curious as to what led to that step up in incremental costs on that contract?
I think actually it was more to do with the status of the negotiations. We had expected to be able to recognize some offsetting revenues that brought the net amount to $130. I think that was no longer the case. Let's say, I think we said that in our release, that if we're able to reach agreement with the client, as we expect, we should be able to offset some of the accumulated losses that we've recognized historically. But it was to do with the status of maturity of those discussions.
Thank you. And then finally, Tareq, you mentioned you're making some adjustments to the operating model in the presentation earlier, to take account of some of the learnings from the delivery challenges of late. Just wonder if you could elaborate on that in terms of some of the practical actions that you've taken in that context. Thank you very much.
Yeah, thank you, Christian, for the question. Yeah, I mean, a couple of things I'll highlight on that. One is on the order intake. It's really implementing a more selective bidding process. So we're re-pivoting the E&C business back to our core markets, where we historically delivered well, and being very selective in the opportunities and projects that we bid and target. The same thing with the Asset Solutions business, to focus really on the reimbursable cost plus business. Really focused on end of late life asset management and decommissioning. So, focusing those two businesses on their core strengths and being very selective in the type of jobs we bring on.
We've implemented a strong business assurance function, which increases oversight and governance on projects. That's been put in place. We've also implemented stronger commercial contract management across the businesses and brought in some new talent in certain areas. You know, that process continues, but I think really focused, just to summarize, on bringing in the right jobs and having the proper strong oversight on that.
We've also, on the operating model, you know, recognizing we have three distinct, say, sectors that we operate in, so E&C, which is a traditional Middle East, North Africa market, plus the energy transition business, which is part of E&C today, which is focused on the North Sea offshore wind, having a separate management and oversight on those two businesses, and in the Asset Solutions business, which is a separate P&L with its own, management and, oversight.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll now move on to our next question from Kevin of Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking the time. I have two questions, if I may. The first one is on the commercial pipeline and the key opportunities that you have in front of you, and notably the framework agreement that you have with TenneT. I was wondering if you can update us a bit on that, notably because if I'm not making any mistakes, you are still looking for the performance bond on the second HVDC substation. So here, is there any delay or whatever in the construction phase? And do you see any risk on the fourth additional one that now TenneT could decide to move away from this framework agreement that you have with them for the HVDC?
That would be the first question, please. The second question is, maybe a bit more difficult, but in this challenging situation, are you implementing a special measure to be able to keep the key people, key project manager at the group to guarantee that the upturn will be very well managed also with the appropriate workforce, please?
Yeah. Maybe I'll address your first question on TenneT. I mean, TenneT is a framework of six platforms, which we signed last year. The first two of those platforms have been called off and are in backlog. Those are in execution. These projects are design one, build many, so once you design one, you kind of replicate those designs with the other platforms. We have a ten-year track record in offshore wind. It's a growing market and a big part of our play in energy transition.
As we announced last year, we secured the performance guarantees on the first contract, and as part of the restructure, we are working to secure the guarantees on the second platform and beyond. We have a very good, strong relationship with our customer, as well as our partnership with Hitachi, and we have been transparent and open as we go through this process, and they've shown us to continue to execute work unhindered and uninterrupted as we go through this process.
Maybe I'll pick up the second question from Kevin. We've actually found... we've been hiring people, as you would expect, to execute the contracts that we were awarded last year. We're actually finding that we're able to track talent, and in fact, our attrition has been declining recently. I think people understand the short-term challenges that we have, but at the same time, we do have a good backlog and a good outlook. So, we've not found that we're losing any significant numbers of talent at the moment.
Okay. Thanks for the time. Thanks.
Thank you. Once again, as a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. There are no further questions coming through. Handing it back to James for webcast question. Thank you.
Thank you. So we had a question here, in relation to, the risk of cancellation of projects in the current backlog, and there, there's a date referenced of the 16th of June. So if you could talk to, that, please.
Yes. Look, we have clearly certain obligations under the contract, and I think it's important to understand the primary obligation under any of our contracts is to execute them well, and we have feedback, including I have had direct feedback from clients about the quality of our execution, which is obviously very heartening. But one of the obligations we have under the contracts is to provide performance guarantees, and in some instances, we've not been able to do that, as you know, and that's the proximate cause for the restructuring we're having to undertake. It is also fair to say that our clients, who are generally repeat clients, have dealt with us over many years, and in some cases, decades, have been very supportive.
As Tareq said, they have found accommodations to allow us to keep working and invoicing, and executing contracts. Nevertheless, ultimately, there is an obligation to provide these guarantees, and we are putting in place temporary measures to try and protect that while we execute the full restructuring. Of course, the purpose of the restructuring is that we then, on the other side of that, will be able to go back to business as usual in terms of our PBGs and APGs for our contracts. So, there is a risk there, of course. I think the risk currently is being managed by us, and the strong support from our clients, for which we are very grateful.
Okay. From a liquidity standpoint, bearing in mind the various dates that have been referenced in the materials, how long can the liquidity last for, and how sustainable is the current liquidity position?
Clearly, we've been open about the challenges on liquidity. I referred to those a moment ago when I spoke. And one of the principal objectives of the restructuring that we are pursuing is precisely to, in addition to getting guarantees, and strengthening the balance sheet, is to improve our liquidity, and there's a clear plan to do that. We do have an ability to maintain our liquidity. We are doing that. I mean, it has required us not to pay the bond coupon. It requires the deferral of certain payment obligations, amortization obligations, under our debt facilities, which our lenders have supported on a rolling basis.
And provided that that support continues, and we believe it should do, because while we're pursuing the restructuring, we are able to maintain that liquidity at or above the level that is set in our covenant. Clearly, that does include managing our payment obligations very carefully, and including our supply chain. So it's not sustainably, indefinitely, but certainly, given the focus that we've just said about driving the restructuring as quickly as we can, we believe that there is the runway to execute that.
Okay. Next question. There's talk of $400 million of guarantees being sought as part of the financial restructure, but none yet secured. What's the level of confidence on being able to secure those?
So the financial restructure has essentially three pillars, which is the debt -to-equity swap , which will deleverage the balance sheet, the new funding that has been offered indicatively by the bondholders, and the or by the ad hoc group of bondholders, to be clear, and the provision of these and other guarantees or securing of these other guarantees, which will, in themselves, also release money that we have currently tied up unproductively, either you know, in the form of retentions in our clients' hands or in the form of collateral in the bank's hands. And that cash, which is our cash, would be released back to us as part of it. So this is part of the overall picture, overall shape of the restructuring, and it's all interconditional.
The idea is that everything happens at the same time. So those guarantees are an important element of the restructure. They relate not to future contracts, but to contracts that we have already won and are executing, and I think, as I mentioned, are executing well. And the feedback from our clients is that they are happy with our performance. So that's really the focus of management's efforts today is to secure those guarantees, recognizing, of course, they would become effective only at the time of restructuring.
Okay. Next question. There's not much mention of shareholders. Are the group still considering long-term shareholders? And what is the likely level of dilution expected?
So, I mean, just recognizing where we are in our results and the recent delay in the results, which we posted today, you know, has demanded the continued patience of our shareholders. And, of course, the dilution is disappointing.
Bear with me, just checking on the next question. What, what is the value of the oil fields that we're looking to sell?
I'm sure I know that figure. It's of the order of the carrying values, of the order of $70 million, $73 million, I can now say with confidence, at 31st December.
Okay. James, are there any more questions in the queue?
I think we've dealt with the most of them. Any further questions, we can pick up separately through the investor relations team.
Okay. Okay, so we'll conclude the call. So thank you all for joining the call. In closing, I'd like to recognize again that this is a challenging time for the business, and I continue to be immensely grateful for the support of our, of our teams, our Petrofac teams, our customers, suppliers, and stakeholders, and this is something we never take for granted. The financial restructure process has been long and complex, but discussions continue in support of a comprehensive solution, and we remain fully focused on securing a positive long-term future for Petrofac. Thank you.
Thank you, Tareq.
Thank you.
I'd like to thank everyone on the call today. A copy of today's presentation of the relevant information are available on the website. We appreciate, given the status of the financial restructure and the risks that we've identified, that there may be further questions or information being sought. There is a lot of detailed information on the website, so please do refer to that. But also feel free to reach out to the investor relations team through the contact details on the press release. Thank you again.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.