Good morning and afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Foraco International SA second quarter results conference call. All lines are currently in a listen-only mode, but following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time you require operator assistance, please press star zero. Also, note that this call is being recorded on Friday, July 30, 2021. I would like to turn the conference over to Daniel Simoncini. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Sylvie. Good morning. Thank you all for joining us on our Q2 2021 results conference. I am Daniel Simoncini, Chairman and CEO of Foraco, and with me today is Vice CEO and CFO, Jean-Pierre Charmensat. The news release of these results was issued this morning prior to the opening of the TSX, through CNW Newswire. If you did not receive a copy of the release, please visit us on www.foraco.com. After the call, after the financial results, we will open the call for answer, for questions. The first quarter of 2021 had seen a surge of COVID, but luckily enough, we have been able to mitigate this in the Q2. Just a sec, I've got an issue with my computer here. Apologies for that.
The second quarter of 2021, COVID pandemic impact has been overall less problematic for us than Q1, although some countries have been seriously hit with the Delta variant. As of today, we have two employees who are under medical monitoring, and we are glad to report that 41% of our employees are fully vaccinated. We continue to work hard, so all our people are vaccinated, but the different countries we are operating in are not on the same vaccine availability status or same eligibility rules, which may make that it will take few more weeks before we reach a sufficient protection of our employees. Meanwhile, we continue to maintain a very strict sanitary protocol throughout our different branches.
Over the quarter, metal prices have continued to rise, supported by a solid demand, which led to a ten-year high IMF Metal Price Index, up 12% from Q1. Thanks to these favorable market conditions, our Q2 2021 was one of the best ever quarter for Foraco in terms of activity. The company achieved a revenue of $75.6 million for the quarter, up 60% year-on-year, while the rig utilization rate reached an average of 60% in Q2, compared to 47 in Q2 2020. All geographical areas once again ended the quarter with significant growth, and there were remarkable performances in Canada, Russia, and Africa, while South America and Australia were still somewhat affected by the impact of COVID-19 restrictions and the tighter labor markets.
I will now pass the conference to Jean-Pierre, who will walk us through the financials in more detail. Jean-Pierre?
Thank you, Daniel, and good morning, everyone. So the revenue in Q2 2021 amounted to $75.7 million, compared to $47.4 million for the same quarter last year, a 60% increase, as Daniel mentioned. By reporting segment, we recorded a 61% increase in the mining segment and 51% in the water segment. Water represented 14% of Q2 21 revenue. All geographical areas contributed to the growth. North America and EMEA were the most active regions. In North America, revenue amounted to $25.7 million in Q2 21, 122% increase compared to $11.6 million in Q2 2020. This increase is mainly due to new contracts and less disruptions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. The activity in North America continues to be driven by a strong demand.
Revenue in EMEA for the quarter was $24.5 million, compared to $17.8 million in Q2 2020, a 38% increase, thanks to new contracts in Africa and in Russia, which will continue through the year. In Russia, activity increased by 24% compared to Q2 2020. At $12.7 million, revenue in Asia Pacific increased 20% compared to the same quarter last year. New contracts were mobilized and will continue through the year. The revenue in South America increased by 91%, at $12.8 million, compared to $6.7 million in Q2 2020. The activity in the region was particularly impacted by the effect of the pandemic, which disrupted the logistics and operational activity in Q2 2020. In Q2 2021, the geographical activity split was North America, 34%; EMEA, 32%;...
South America 17%, and Asia Pacific 17%. During this quarter, the gross margin, including depreciation within cost of sales as per IFRS, was a profit of $15.8 million versus $11.2 million for the same quarter last year, a 42% increase. Ongoing contracts reported solid performances, while some new contracts in mobilization phase generated lower percentage of gross margin. Tight labor market and pressures on supply chains and procurement generate inflation and costs, and there is a time lag before these cost increases can be passed through selling prices. SG&A increased by 13%- $5.8 million, compared to $5.1 million for the same period last year, but decreased as a percentage of revenue from 10.3%- 7.6% last quarter last year.
The Q2 2021 SG&A include $0.5 million of one-off costs linked to the early redeemed bonds. The EBIT, our operational result, was a $10 million profit versus a $6.1 million in Q2 2020. The EBITDA amounted to $14.7 million, a 45% increase compared to $10.2 million in Q2 2020. On a six-month basis, revenue amounted to $130.2 million, compared to $97 million in H1 2020, a 34% increase. This increase results from the combination of favorable market conditions and the lower impact of COVID-19 on the 2021 operations. Revenue increased 49% in North America, 42% in South America, 31% in EMEA, and 9% in Asia Pacific, compared to H1 2020.
The year-to-date gross profit was $21.9 million versus $16.4 million for the same period last year, a 33% improvement, mainly due to increased activity, good performance on contracts, and tight cost control. The year-to-date 2021 EBIT was a positive $10.9 million, compared to $6.1 million for the same period last year, mainly as a result of increased gross margin. And the year-to-date 2021 EBITDA for the six-month period was $19.8 million, compared to $14.6 million in the same period last year. Regarding cash, working capital requirement was $3 million versus $2.2 million in H1 2020. CapEx amounted to $10.5 million in cash, compared to $4.4 million in cash in H1 2020. This CapEx is driven by the increased activity.
It relates to the acquisition of 8 new rigs, major rigs overhauls, and similar equipment and rigs. As a result of the above, the free cash flow before debt servicing was a positive $3.2 million, compared to $7.4 million in H1 2020. On July 7, 2021, we finalized our financial reorganization and raised $100 million of new bonds to repay our previous bonds maturing in May 2022. The only repayment of these bonds, which amounted to $146.8 million, has been completed by way of a repayment of $91 million in cash, resulting in a $55.8 million debt reduction and the issuance of 9.3 million ordinary shares in favor of the former bondholders.
This financial reorganization also includes the only repayment or rescheduling of certain other loans, the renegotiation of the corporate guarantee lines, and some amendments to the corporate governance of the company. Thanks to this financial reorganization, we de-leveraged and de-risked our balance sheet, but also extended the debt maturity through the end of 2025 and eased our financial constraint and covenants. This transaction is significantly accretive for our shareholders. Our net debt after the financial reorganization is $89.1 million, the equivalent of 2.3 times our TTM EBITDA, $39.2 million, and our debt-to-equity ratio is reduced to 1.3.
Finally, we are proud to note that our share price has already started to integrate our operational performance and our financial reorganization, and this to the benefit of our shareholders and stakeholders, who have continued to retain confidence in the company. I will now return the call to Daniel for his closing remarks. Daniel?
Yes, thanks, Jean-Pierre. Now our balance sheet is repaired, we can focus on the company development with more peace in mind. We have added $100 million to our market cap over the last quarter, and we thank our shareholders for their support and patience. In this overall dynamic metal demand, there is still room for increasing our fleet utilization rate, but we are currently facing a tightening labor market and upward pressure on procurement and supply chains, which may temporarily hinder our growth. We don't know if this inflationary event is temporary or structural, but we have already provided for 2021 and 2022 estimated cost increase in our pricing, with limited pushback from our customers, who fully understand the situation, as they have really made so much money thanks to the metal price inflation.
On the labor market front, we are battling a severe shortage of workers, which is a legacy of the last depression, combined with consequences of the COVID pandemic and the global economy revival. We are very active to train and recruit a new generation of crews to mitigate the shortage of skilled workers. We are confident our business model will continue to show its resilience during the rest of the COVID pandemic. I hope it's gonna be ending soon, and that we have ample capacity to pursue a profitable growth on the long term. Thank you for listening. I will now turn the call to Sylvie, who will take the first question. Sylvie?
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question at this time, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a pre-tone prompt acknowledging your request, and if you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. If you're using a speakerphone, we do ask that you please lift the handset before pressing any key. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, press star one if you have any questions. Your first questions will be from Stefan Grivas at Ordnance Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Daniel. Good morning, Jean-Pierre.
Hey.
Hi.
How are you? I really, I'm so happy to see these numbers. We're just a real vindication of what you guys have been doing the last seven or eight years. So congratulations on really turning a corner. And also thank you to everybody who's worked for the crews. I know that's difficult, and I know that you guys have lost a lot of people, and hopefully you will get more people to come on board. I was curious, two things. One thing is, were the covenants that you guys negotiated with the new bondholders do they allow you to pay dividends?
Yes.
Yes. The answer is yes, we can pay dividend, provided our leverage is below a certain amount.
I see. I see, and one other question I have is, do you, do you guys plan on listing anything in the United States, either NASDAQ or any New York listings or any U.S. listings?
Not, not for the moment, Stefan.
Okay, 'cause it would really... I know there are a lot of people who would like to buy, who are interested in the company, but they just can't. They have to buy U.S. listings.
Well-
And on, and on-
On the contrary, Stefan, we had a webinar a few weeks ago organized by our IR company in Toronto. And if I remember well, a vast majority of our listeners and participants were from the U.S.
Right.
It seems that there is a population of investors, friends, you know, institutions, who are entitled to buy in Canada for the moment.
Right.
Which was a kind of a surprise for me, yeah? Which is good.
Yeah. It would like, it would be nice to get the liquidity up a little bit, though.
Yeah, you're right. Okay, one step after the other.
The model, the model looks like it's really, really hitting some leverage. I mean, do you, does this, do your current, your current financial conditions and your current operations, do you think it allows you to do? You could probably do $300 million-$400 million in revenue and generate $100 million in EBITDA at, at some point.
Well, depending on the model and what kind of assumption, primary assumption you take, I mean, if you look, if you look in the details, on one quarter, and don't forget, our business is seasonal, but on one quarter, we turn around $35 million.
Right.
Which is a kind of, if everything was flat, kind of $300 million, right?
Right.
At 60% utilization rate. This will never happen because we have seasonality. So what we have to do is to increase our utilization rate, providing we find good crews and so we can operate safely, right?
Right.
And then you got another factor, which is the pricing, net of inflation. We are not yet done on the pricing improvement. It's not going to be 30%, indeed, but high single digit is something achievable, and we're working on that.
Right. Well, I assume that all the other companies are having similar issues with getting workers, so I'm sure that all the-
Of course
... big companies value—they value your services above all, and needs.
Yeah
- obviously.
Yeah. The competition is on the quality of service now and reliability of delivery.
Well, you guys have always been, I think, the top of the food chain in terms of quality and service, so I think that you have – that's going for you guys in a good direction.
It's becoming... Yeah, it's a hard, tough job, but it's beginning to show, right?
It sure is. Yeah. Well, I can- I'm so happy for you guys that you turned the corner. And one last question is, like, the growth areas, are you finding the growth areas in the, in the, quote unquote, "environment," you know, the metals and the metals for EVs and for water, you're finding that to be a growth area for you?
Oh, definitely, Stefan. You know, the last stat we published was about 50% of our business, or half of it, is linked to EVs, battery metals, and water. And we are steadily investing in this kind of segment, and the demand is growing very rapidly. Gold is kind of up and down. It's a good run, but we don't go above 35%, you know, in average. So yes, I mean, the traction is coming from EVs, energy transition, sustainable material and water. Water management. Yes.
That's great. Well, I think it's up to your IR company to get, to get your story out even more because your numbers have been... The numbers are really going in the right direction, and they really were, really were impressive this quarter. So congratulations on that, and, you know, I've supported the company for a long time, and I'll continue to do so. So thank you.
Thank you, Stefan, for your patience and trust in the company. Have a good day.
Thank you.
Take care.
You too. Have a good summer.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. And at this time, Mr. Simoncini, we have no other questions. Please proceed.
Thank you. Well, glad to have started with Stefan and stop with Stefan. I think it's the heart of the summer season. So, have a great summer season, and talk to you in November for our Q3, and thank you for your attendance. Bye-bye.
Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending, and at this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a good weekend.