Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Borr Drilling Limited Q3 2022 Results Presentation Webcast and Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advise your hand is raised. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please use the Q&A box available on the webcast link at any time during the conference. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr. Patrick Schorn, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, thank you for participating in the Borr Drilling Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. I'm Patrick Schorn talking to you from Bermuda, and with me here today is Magnus Vaaler, our CFO. Next slide. First, covering the required disclaimers. Here we go. I would like to remind all participants that some of the statements will be forward-looking. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these statements. I therefore refer you to our latest public filings. Next slide. I'm pleased with our performance this quarter. With continued operational success, we have further optimized our cost lines, leading to an improved adjusted EBITDA, while our revenues were up only slightly.
Apart from executing on the current operations in the field, the technical team also completed the activation of several of our rigs that have started operation in the fourth quarter. With the extra capacity coming online, we expect the fourth quarter revenue to be at least 25% higher than what we have generated in the third quarter. Our fleet of 24 rigs has gone through some adjustments after the sell-off of four units related to our recent refinance, resulting in a delivered fleet of 22 units, of which 20 are currently contracted. Apart from these 22, we have two further units in the shipyard to be delivered in 2025. Our cash position at the end of the quarter was high during the equity raise that was completed in relation to our recent finance as well.
Magnus will now step you through some of the details of the third quarter.
Thanks, Patrick. We're now on the slide Key Financials Q3 2022. The Q3 2022 revenue came in at $107.9 million in the quarter, an increase of $2.6 million or 2.5% compared to Q2 2022. This was split in $90.5 million in day rate revenues for our rigs on regular contracts and $17.4 million in related party revenue, which is bareboat earnings in our Mexico joint ventures. Rig operating and maintenance expenses for Q3 was $60.4 million, a decrease of $5.1 million from Q2. The decrease is mainly due to a decrease in amortization of deferred costs. Impairment of non-current assets for the third quarter was $77.3 million, a decrease of a $117.1 million compared to the second quarter.
The impairment recognized in the quarter relates to the rig Gyme, as the rig was classified as held for sale in Q3. The impairment in the second quarter related to the three newbuild rigs at Keppel, which we have agreed to sell. Total financial expenses net was $54.1 million in the third quarter, an increase of $17.2 million. The increase is primarily a result of a $7.5 million one-off costs related to a financing fee, a $4.3 million increase in interest expenses, $3.1 million decrease in interest income, and $2.2 million increase in FX losses. The net loss for the quarter was $54.9 million, a decrease of $110.4 million from Q2. Excluding impairments, our net loss increased by $6.7 million.
The adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $43.9 million, which is an increase of $6.9 million or 19% from the second quarter of 2022. As Patrick mentioned, our free cash position at the end of the quarter was high, $279 million, and our restricted cash was $7 million. Our free cash increased by $249.3 million in comparison to the prior quarter and is primarily driven by the cash proceeds generated from operating activities of $9.3 million, which includes the impact of $9.9 million cash interest paid and the payment of $7.5 million financing fee, cash used in fixed asset additions of $20.4 million, mainly driven by activations of three rigs, and $260.4 million of net proceeds from our August 2022 equity offering.
Moving to the next slide. These graphs shows the significant quarterly progression in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA we have made since the beginning of 2021. The revenue in Q3 2022 is nearly double that seen in the first quarter of 2021. Year-to-date revenue has increased 68% compared to the year-to-date revenue in 2021, and EBITDA almost 600%. We have previously guided our adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2022 to be between $115 million and $140 million. However, based on our 2022 performance this far, we currently estimate to generate adjusted EBITDA in excess of the upper limit of that range, i.e., above $140 million. Moving to the next slide.
The current delivered fleet consists of 22 modern jackup rigs, all built after 2010 , and we have additional two rigs under construction at Keppel. This follows the anticipated completion of the sale of four rigs in the fourth quarter 2022 . Since the second quarter of 2022 report, we have secured new contracts, extensions and LOIs- LOAs for 10 of our active rigs, maintaining the company's contracted and committed fleet at 20 units. This includes long-term contracts for five of our premium jackup rigs in Mexico, now contracted until the end of 2025 , and the prospect of five contracts awarded by Eni in Congo. Year-to-date, the company has been awarded 22 new contracts, extensions, exercise options, LOAs and LOIs, representing 31 years and $1.36 billion of potential backlog.
During the same period, our operating rigs have consumed approximately 14 years of backlog, so we are maintaining a backlog replenishment ratio at a multiple of 2x. It's also worth noting that these calculations includes the contracts to our Mexico JVs on a 100% basis, in addition to any mobilization compensation in the contracts. With that, I will pass the word back to Patrick again.
Thank you, Magnus. The following graphs highlight some of the benefits of shallow water resources. Firstly, on the left, it can be seen that it is highly cost efficient with only Middle East land production with a lower break-even cost. Secondly, it continues to be a very large resource base that is largely in the hands of national oil companies that will be producing these strategic resources for a long time into the future. Thirdly, on the right-hand side, it shows the increasing portion of total offshore production that will be produced in the Middle East, which is currently the region with the fastest-growing activity. Next slide. Since the second quarter of 2022 report, the market continues to experience increased contracting activity and fleet utilization, particularly among modern rigs.
Utilization level for modern rigs has now reached 95%, a level not seen since 2014. While 28 newbuilds have entered the market, since the beginning of 2020, demand continues to outpace supply increases. Currently, only a limited number of newbuilds remain in the yards with an order book that is next to empty. High utilization levels and limited availability of high-quality assets have resulted in a sharp inflection on dayrate levels for modern rigs. The recovery in dayrates has been quite steep from the lows of $50,000-$60,000 that we have seen previously to recent fixtures that are consistently reaching and exceeding the $120,000-$130,000 per day level, a trend that we expect to continue as asset availability becomes further restricted. Next slide.
In the last quarters, and more pronounced in the Middle East, several customers have taken active steps to secure incremental capacity on the long-term contracts, leading to an increase in the forward utilization of the fleet. This implies high confidence in the outlook for oil and gas demand and the National Oil Company's strategic approach to secure additional rig capacity in a scarce market. Three-year forward utilization levels have returned to previous year peak levels. With fewer assets rolling off contracts in the future, this also leads to a longer-term market that is tight for a long time going forward. While several multi-rig, multi-year tenders have concluded, the demand pipeline as measured by the number of open demand days from customers has remained on a strong upward trend and roughly doubled the levels experienced in the recent trough in 2020. Next slide.
This slide gives three data points per region. Firstly, the number of contracted rigs, the number of rigs still available, and in the small font, it shows the number of rigs that is the difference between the peak rig count in a specific region versus what is contracted today. All of these data points leading to the fact that very few rigs are still available and that demand has not yet reached the peak in every region yet. Next slide. Availability of modern rigs at low levels and adjusted capacity continues in the single digits. As customers continue to show clear preference for modern assets, we anticipate this segment to be undersupplied in the near future. The record low order book at shipyards for newbuilds is unlikely to give reprieve, while the newbuild prices are increasing quite rapidly, with limited capacity at the yards available.
In summary, customer demands remain strong. Oil and gas prices, although volatile, remain at a rate attractive for further investments amidst declining production levels resulting from years of lower E&P investment. With these fundamentals locked in place, we are already experiencing significant and accelerating increases in day rates, in some cases more than double for the rigs. We are increasingly confident that this trend will continue for a longer period as limited incremental supply is available in the foreseeable future to offset the fast-increasing demand for rigs. Next slide. In conclusion, we have completed the large refinance of the secured creditors successfully. As communicated previously, the convertible bond will be addressed by early next year, and we have various options on how to deal with this. The asset utilization in the market continues to increase, which has a positive impact on day rates.
Based on our performance thus far and the outlook for Q4, the revenue and adjusted EBITDA for 2022 will be closing above the guidance previously given. High utilization with a positive market outlook will eventually lead to new capacity coming to the market. However, with the order books at the shipyards being next to empty, any new assets ordered today will only enter the market in 30-36 months the earliest, and newbuild pricings are rumored to approach $300 million per unit. Our technical team has been fully dedicated, getting the new rigs to our customers on time and in the best possible condition. This while the operational team continues to have an extreme focus on safe operations at high efficiency to create the maximum value for our customers. I would like to end here our prepared remarks, and we can go to the Q&A.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one, and one on your telephone. We are now taking the next question. Please stand by. The next question from Fredrik Stene for C larksons .
Hey, guys. Hopefully you can hear me okay. I wanted to touch a bit more on the convertible here. I think, you know, the report and your performance this quarter was better than at least what I expected. You know, all in a good report operationally. At least initially today, I think the stock saw a bit downwards pressure. I'm not asking you to speculate in your own stock price. I just thought it could be because parts of the investor community may have expected some, you know, more color on this CB refinancing. I was wondering, are we able to?
I know you have the call it the January deadline, but are you able to give a bit more color on what type of options you are exploring and maybe when we should expect to hear something in relation to this other than the maturities?
Absolutely, Fredrik. Let me ask Magnus to comment on this.
Yeah. Thanks, Fredrik. I think we have several options for the refinancing of the CB, the way we see it. In the connection with the August refinancing, we communicated that we would address the CB closer to maturity as we expected asset values and day rate earnings to further increase. This has materialized, so it's improving our financing opportunities the way we see it. We still have three unencumbered rigs with capacity to put on further debt. On these, we're awaiting contracting status for some of these, which we're likely to get some clarity on in the near future.
Once this is resolved, this will dictate the amount of leverage that we can put on these rigs, whether it's around $50 million-$60 million per rig level or a higher level, depending on the contracts. Additional to that, with the rising day rates and the asset values, we should have excess debt capacity on the five rigs that we have in the bank facility. These five rigs are only levered with $30 million each as of today. If you just kind of as a calculation exercise apply $50 million-$60 million secure debt per rig for these eight rigs, this means that we can have additional debt capacity of $250 million-$330 million on this package.
I mean, in addition to that, we should have significant unsecured debt capacity also to cover any potential shortfall if we find that interesting.
That's super helpful. Just as a follow-up on that, do you think that, you know, with the cash on hand on the equity raise from earlier, is there any other liquidity needs from the equity side as you see it, given your visibility on the credit side to tackle the $350 here in the CB?
I think, just like I said, I think we have very good space for what we have already in the assets and outlined on the three unencumbered rigs and the other five rigs on the bank facility. I think that's kind of leading to the answer on that question.
Yeah. No, that's fine. Thank you so much. Super quick one to add to this.
Thank you.
Yeah. Just on Mexico, super quick. The $46 million-$47 million you've received so far in Q4, do they include the upfront payment of new contracts or not?
That includes the upfront payment, yes.
Thanks. That's all for me. Thank you, guys.
Thank you for your question.
Thank you.
We are now taking the next question. Please stand by. The next question from Greg Lewis from BTIG. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hey, thank you, and good afternoon, everybody. I did have a question around the last comment around, you know, opportunities in the rig market and the ongoing financing. As I look at, you know, your fleet status report, clearly there's a lot of customer options on some of these rigs. Given when they were fixed, I imagine that some of those customer options are, you know, maybe below leading-edge dayrates. Are those options viewed as backlog given the fact that they're in the money for the customer, do you think?
I think that at this moment, the way you need to see the options, first, there is a blend in the options, right? That we have options that are allowing the customer to continue on the existing contract rate, which clearly at the moment makes a lot of sense. For most of these customers, we would expect them to continue. Some of the options that we have and that our customers have are at mutual agreement on market price. Some of them will be renegotiated even though they are seen as an option. It is really a blend in that, and I think that it is clear that the more unpriced options that we have, the better it is to have a discussion with the customers today.
I think that goes similarly for any long-term contract that you have out of the past. These rates are likely to be lower than what you see in the market today. Also, a reason for us that we are clearly very careful with the two remaining rigs that we have. We absolutely want to make sure that they are having market representative rates when fixed, and not that we are fixing them for the sake of fixing them at a rate that is not optimal for the investments that we have made so far. I think that is best way to look at it. Speaking specifically about the options, there is a blend of priced and unpriced options in that.
I can appreciate the two rigs that are, you know, up, you know, in the market being marketed. You know, pricing has clearly inflected higher pretty rapidly. You know, as we think about, you know, demand for these rigs, you know, if I were to say, Hey, you know, we went from a spot market to a one to two-year term market, maybe three, depending on, you know, let's just think outside maybe the Middle East where contracts are longer. Are we seeing durations or contract durations be ramped higher interest from customers just given the fact that pricing really continues to go up, it seems like almost weekly?
I.e., do we think we could see these rigs on 3+ year contracts or something?
Absolutely. I think that that is the problem at the moment. I think that from a rig contractor perspective today, the longer contracts carry a significant risk of being priced too low, regardless at what a leading-edge price you put on them today. You're absolutely right that today the customers are looking very aggressively at longer-term contracts. The long was now being 5+2 years. We see it in many regions where contracts are fixed for much longer than we had seen before. Clearly with the sentiment that asset availability in combination with better to lock in a price today that you know, than one that you don't know in the future, is driving that.
That also is coupled with the fact that we see that the prices that people are looking at for newbuilds seem to be increasing as fast as you're seeing some of the shipping newbuild prices go up. Clearly those increases then drive the requirement for a much higher day rate before any of these maybe investment ideas carry any fruit. I think that it is clearly the fact that we, in the discussions that we have with customers, are having discussions about longer commitments and larger commitments than what we had seen in the past.
Okay, great. Good luck, everybody.
Thank you. We can go for the next question if there is one.
We don't have any further phone questions, but we have one online. What do you think is the leading-edge day rate in the market today for a five-year contract and for a short-term contract?
There's obviously a variety of things that we look at when we consider contracts. It is in which area of the world it is. It has to do with contract length, but it also has to do what specific equipment we would have to put on it to get a rig ready to operate. Because it's not only the investment you make in new equipment. Obviously, associated with that is a certain downtime for the rig as well. That needs to be calculated into the price. However, if you want a general kind of number, then I would say that today, in all areas, we are seeing prices for fixing for that long period. You would probably have to think about between the $130-$165 would be the rates that are being tendered.
We have been announcing contracts in just about every geography in excess of the $120, $130 already. I think that it is clearly something that is that rates are going up, and it is not just limited to one or two areas. You see it across the board. I would say if I would have to make a comment around leading prices that people are putting on, it would be anywhere from the $130-$165 at this moment. It is a continuously moving target. As less rigs get available, obviously, that is something that will continue to go up. Any other question online?
Yes, we have one more. What upfront payment are yards asking to put the newbuild order for $300 million? What day rates and contracts would lead to this?
I don't wanna be perceived as the experts of dealing with yards on newbuilds at this moment, because as we have stated before, we are not anticipating to lean into this cycle and start building assets, because we think there is other options for us. However, from what we understand the pricing to be is that rapidly it is increasing towards the 300. We understand that about 50% will have to be paid down before start, which is just in comparison of the past, is very different. Which clearly then becomes of a large down payment. If you think about rigs costing that kind of initial investment, you would have to think about day rates in excess of $200,000 to actually justify a rig in the high 200s.
You would probably have to have a contract in hand for something like seven years before somebody gets into it. I think from the speculative behavior of our industry in the past, where people would build rigs without having contracts in hand, because the capital intensity increasing as much as it's doing today, I don't think people will do that, but it will require contracts of 7+ year, and I would say day rates well over $200 thousand per day for that to make sense. Once we reach that point, we'll have to see how the market behaves, but that is what you would have to get before you would wanna get in those type of day rates. Any other question online?
Yes, there's one more. Ref your earlier guiding to have the entire delivered fleet contracted by year-end 2022. Is this still the target and achievable?
Yes, I will continue to keep that as the target for myself and the team. Obviously, there is a large variety of tenders that we have our two remaining rigs on offer. It is also a time where we want to make very sure that we don't take a day rate that is not in line where we see the market or not in line with the investments that we have made on the units. It is going to be a balance between making sure that we get the appropriate day rate for the units, but clearly the opportunities are still there, and we'll continue to pursue them until the end of this year, and if necessary, beyond that.
I think that if I look at the demand that is there in the markets today, we can still place these units. Any other question online?
No.
All right. I would like to thank all participants for participating in this call. I'd like to thank the Borr team for the fantastic work that's being done in the field for our customers and preparing all the equipment. We look forward talking to you again at the end of the next quarter. Thank you very much.
That concludes the conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.
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