Welcome to Civeo Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Regan Nielsen, Senior Director of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.
Thank you. Welcome to Civeo's Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Today, our call will be led by Bradley Dodson, Civeo's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Carolyn Stone, Civeo's Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. Before we begin, we would like to caution listeners regarding forward-looking statements. To the extent that our remarks today contain anything other than historical information, please note that we're relying on the safe harbor protections afforded by federal law. Any such remarks should be read in the context of the many factors that affect our business, including risks and uncertainties disclosed in our Forms 10-K, 10-Q, and other SEC filings. I'll now turn the call over to Bradley.
Thank you, Regan, and thank you all for joining us today on our Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. I'll start with key takeaways and then give a brief summary of our fourth quarter and full year 2022 performance. Carolyn will then provide a financial and segment level review, and I'll conclude with our initial full year 2023 consolidated guidance and regional assumptions. We'll open up the call for questions. The key takeaways from our call today are that the business continued to generate cash, which is supporting our ongoing capital allocation priorities of reducing debt and returning capital to shareholders. For the full year 2022, Civeo generated $83 million in free cash flow and made debt repayments of $34 million.
During 2022, we also used over 50% of our free cash flow to repurchase the equivalent of 1.5 million common shares for $45 million. This included a repurchase of 40% of the then outstanding preferred shares, which coupled with the conversion of the remaining preferred shares in the common shares in December, resulted in only one class of shares outstanding at year-end, just the common shares. In the fourth quarter, Civeo delivered $15.1 million of adjusted EBITDA and $25.8 million of free cash flow. We recently announced two significant five-year contracts with existing customers in Australia. This is a signal of our strong customer relationships and operational execution. We are encouraged by our customers' willingness to commit to longer-term contracts and to secure their room supply with Civeo.
In both cases, Civeo expanded its market share with the customer. The diversity in revenue drivers is a key component to Civeo's free cash flow generation strategy. We will continue to seek opportunities to expand our customer base and geographic footprint to reduce volatility in our free cash flow generation. Despite high commodity prices from natural resources extraction that we support, our customers continue to be focused on capital discipline and returning capital to their shareholders at the expense of increased maintenance and production spending. This capital spending is ultimately what drives occupancy at Civeo's Canadian lodges and Australian villages. As we've mentioned on past earnings calls, inflationary pressures throughout our business were continued in the fourth quarter as winter weather conditions in Canada increased utility costs and the promise we've made on Australian labor issues began to reverse.
Even with the severe inflationary headwinds, Civeo continued to generate free cash flow in the fourth quarter, which almost completely offset $31 million preferred share repurchase made in the quarter. Let me take a moment to provide a business update across our three segments. In Canada, our fourth quarter revenues and adjusted EBITDA decreased year-over-year, primarily related to several items that benefited the fourth quarter of 2021, coupled with cost inflation across Canada. Carolyn will walk you through these items later in the call. As expected, our lodges experienced lower billed rooms sequentially related to the wind down of seasonal turnaround activity at the end of the third quarter and typical holiday downtime in the fourth quarter. Our Australian results in the quarter were in line with expectations despite higher than expected labor costs in our integrated services business.
Our Bowen Basin occupancy was better than expected, did reflect some typical holiday downtime sequentially. Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter modestly decreased year-over-year as a result of the weakness of the Australian dollar and increased labor costs in our integrated services business, partially offset by increased occupancy in the Bowen Basin. In the fourth quarter, our Australian business was awarded two five-year contract renewals, one for our Civeo owned villages in the Bowen Basin, and one for our integrated services business in Western Australia. In both cases, these contract renewals retained Civeo's previous work with the customer and granted us additional locations and additional room commitments while taking share from competitors. Turning briefly to the U.S., we completed the divestiture of our U.S. offshore business in the fourth quarter.
We were unfortunately unable to create scale in the business despite the sales and service efforts of our team. Our U.S. business now consists of our Killdeer Lodge in North Dakota in the Bakken and our Acadian Acres Lodge near Lake Charles, Louisiana. Turning to our balance sheet. Our net leverage ratio was 1.1 x at year-end, down from 1.5 x at the year-end 2021, but increased slightly from the third quarter net leverage ratio of 0.9x . The sequential increase was largely due to the preferred share repurchased in the quarter, as well over a year-over-year decrease in our fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA. With that, I'll turn the call over to Carolyn.
Thank you, Bradley. Thank you all for joining us this morning. Today, we reported total revenues in the fourth quarter of $162.2 million with a GAAP net loss of $13 million or a $1.31 loss per diluted share. During the fourth quarter, we generated adjusted EBITDA of $15.1 million, operating cash flow of $29.4 million, and free cash flow of $25.8 million. The decrease in adjusted EBITDA we experienced in the fourth quarter of 2022, as compared to the same period in 2021, can be categorized in four buckets.
There was approximately $8.5 million of non-operating items, such as the impact of a stronger U.S. dollar relative to the Canadian, Australian dollars, an increased stock-based compensation expense due to a higher stock price in the fourth quarter of 2022, as well as larger gains on sales of assets in the fourth quarter of 2021. We had $3.3 million of customer and insurance settlements, which positively impacted the fourth quarter of 2021. We also saw a further approximately $2.9 million increase in SG&A expense, largely related to higher information technology expenses as well as professional fees. Finally, approximately $4.7 million of increased operating costs, which were largely driven by inflationary pressures for labor, food, and utilities, partially offset by increased Australia village occupancy.
For the full year 2022, we reported revenues of $697.1 million and a net loss of $2.2 million, or $0.21 per diluted share. In 2022, we generated adjusted EBITDA of $112.8 million, a modest increase from our 2021 full year adjusted EBITDA of $109.1 million. Results from the full year of 2022 reflect the impact of a weakened Australian dollar and Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar, which decreased revenues and adjusted EBITDA by $38.2 million and $8.1 million, respectively. On a constant currency basis, increased billed rooms in Canada and Australia and stronger Canadian mobile camp activity were partially offset by continued cost inflation across the business.
The divestitures in the U.S. business, an increased stock-based compensation expense related to the increase in our share price. Let's now turn to the fourth quarter results for our three segments. I'll begin with a review of the Canadian segment performance compared to its performance a year ago in the fourth quarter of 2021. Revenue from our Canadian segment was $88 million, as compared to revenue of $92.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA in Canada was $11.8 million, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $23.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Results from the fourth quarter of 2022 reflect the impact of a weakened Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar, which decreased revenues and adjusted EBITDA by $6.9 million and $1.0 million, respectively.
The decrease in adjusted EBITDA was driven by the weakened Canadian dollar, as well as certain aforementioned customer and insurance settlements that benefited the fourth quarter of 2021, and cost inflation affecting food, labor, and utilities in the fourth quarter of 2022. During the fourth quarter, billed rooms in our Canadian lodges totaled 622,000, which were up 6% year-over-year from 588,000 in the fourth quarter of 2021. Our daily room rate for the Canadian segment in U.S. dollars was $93, which is down from $106 year-over-year due to a weakened Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar and the impact of a lower rate in our 12-year Wapasu contract renewal. Turning to Australia.
During the fourth quarter, we recorded revenues of $73.1 million, up from $62.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million, down from $13.6 million during the same period of 2021. Results from the fourth quarter of 2022 reflect the impact of a weakened Australian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar and the impact of a lower rate in our twelve-- which decreased revenues and adjusted EBITDA by $8 million and $1.5 million, respectively. In addition to the weakened Australian dollar, the decrease in adjusted EBITDA was driven by an increase in labor costs, especially in our Western Australia integrated services business. This was partially offset by an increase in billed rooms in the Bowen Basin.
Australian billed rooms in the quarter were 519,000, up from 465,000 in the fourth quarter of 2021. The average daily rate for our Australian villages in U.S. dollars was $73 in the fourth quarter, down from $77 in the fourth quarter of 2021. Which was entirely due to the weakened Australian dollar compared to the U.S. dollar. On a consolidated basis, capital expenditures for the full year 2022 were $25.4 million, up from $15.6 million during 2021. This increase was primarily due to increased lodge and village maintenance, coupled with a more fulsome room refurbishment program in our Australia villages in preparation for increased contracted room demand at certain villages.
Our total debt outstanding on December 31st, 2022 was $132 million, a $6 million increase since September 30th, 2022, and a $43 million decrease from year-end 2021. Our net leverage ratio for the quarter increased to 1.1 x as of December 31st from 0.9 x as of September 30th. As Bradley mentioned, the increase was due to a combination of lower fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, as well as debt incurred to finance the $31 million preferred share repurchase in the fourth quarter of 2022. As of December 31st, 2022, we had total liquidity of approximately $104.1 million, consisting of $96.1 million available under our revolving credit facilities and $8 million of cash on hand.
Bradley will now discuss our outlook for the full year 2023. Bradley?
Thank you, Carolyn. I will now discuss our full year 2023 guidance on a consolidated basis, including the underlying regional assumptions. We are initiating our full year 2023 guidance of revenues between $630 million and $650 million and EBITDA of $85 million - $95 million. Our full year 2023 capital expenditure guidance is $25 million - $30 million. Capital expenditures are expected to be relatively flat with 2022 as we continue to normalize our maintenance capital spending for our lodges and villages across the business after several years of prioritizing free cash flow. As an example, we are in the process of refurbishing rooms in the Bowen Basin based on our current occupancy outlook to bring rooms back online where we have seen increased contracted room demand in the coming years.
That being said, our primary financial objective continues to be maximizing free cash flow. Based on the EBITDA and CapEx guidance just outlined, expected interest expense for 2023 of $12 million and minimal expected cash taxes and working capital investment, we expect 2023 free cash flow to range between $43 million and $58 million. As we have discussed on previous earnings calls, the significant year-over-year decline in 2023 adjusted EBITDA comes from our Canadian mobile camp business, resulting from the wind down of construction activity for the Coastal GasLink pipeline project in British Columbia and the TMX pipeline expansion. Canadian contract camps contributed approximately $36 million in 2022.
We are currently expecting to have three mobile camps remaining on the Coastal GasLink project, as well as one camp supporting the TMX pipeline expansion projects, and are expecting all of them to be completed in 2023. Our 2023 guidance currently includes CAD 13 million in mobile camp demobilization expenses. I'll now provide the regional outlooks and corresponding underlying assumptions by region. In Canada, as we look into 2023, we know that our customers are continuing to prioritize return of capital to their shareholders and need to be convinced of longer term stability across commodity prices and the broader economy before materially increasing investments in Canada.
While activity in lodges should remain steady, the 2023 mobile camp activity will be significantly impacted, negatively impacted by the completion of the pipeline construction projects throughout the year, including the incurrence of some of the related demobilization costs. We are currently expecting relatively consistent year-over-year turnaround activity in Canada in the second and third quarters of 2023. As we have discussed in prior years, we don't get an accurate view until customers look to secure turnaround rooms in the second quarter. Canadian mobile camp activity related to Coastal GasLink pipeline will significantly decline throughout the year as our three mobile camps are currently expected to wind down during the middle part of 2023. Additionally, our mobile camp supporting TMX expansion is expected to also continue through the third quarter of 2023.
When these pipeline-related mobile camp projects roll off, we'll encourage the costs associated with the demobilization of these camps. We currently have two of the four demobilizations in our 2023 guidance with, as I mentioned, approximately CAD 13 million of demobilization costs. We saw last year, however, uncertainty remains around the timing of these projects. To the extent the projects are extended, our 2023 guidance will be positively impacted, both by the deferral of demobilization costs as well as the incremental revenue on the camps.
Our 2023 guidance could also be impacted by further clarity from a customer around the room demand for Civeo's lodges in the back half of the year.We disclosed last quarter, we have agreed not to renew an expiring land lease associated with our McClelland Lake Lodge, which this land lease currently expires in June 2023, in order to support the customer's intent to mine that land where it currently is located. In addition, our hospitality services contract expires in June of 2023. Our 2023 guidance includes customer room demand at other Civeo lodges in the second half of 2023 as the customer transitions to its new solution. They are to find an alternate solution for room supply, this would negatively impact our guidance. We are marketing the McClelland Lake Lodge assets for new opportunities in Canada and the U.S.
Based on our current knowledge and understanding of the marketplace, we believe there is demand for these assets for sale or redeployment. In our 2022 revenues, our McClelland Lake Lodge generated 2022 revenues of approximately CAD 60 million. We expect to have further clarity on the customer's 2023 room demand and potential sales or redeployment opportunities of these assets later on in 2023. Turning to Australia, sustained healthy metallurgical coal prices in 2022 and early 2023 have gradually improved customer activity in our Bowen Basin villages. We expect a modest increase in our village occupancy in 2023. Our customers continue to focus on capital discipline and are hesitant to commit capital to large expansionary projects. Our current guidance reflects continued capital discipline more than it reflects the current price for met coal.
That being said, in early 2023, we have experienced a noticeable uptick in customer activity versus our initial expectations, and there could be upside to our guidance if this trend continues further into 2023. While iron ore prices retreated modestly in 2022, they remain at healthy levels, and customer activity in Western Australia remains strong. Although our integrated services business in Western Australia, as evidenced by our recent five-year contract award, we continue to be burdened by inflationary pressures, particularly labor costs. We are expecting these labor costs to slowly subside throughout 2023, resulting in an uplift in our integrated services margin in the back half of the year. However, if these labor issues do not subside, our results in the back half of the year could be negatively impacted. I will conclude by underscoring the key elements of our strategy as we navigate the current market and climate.
Our mandates are as follows. We prioritize the safety and well-being of our guests, employees, and the communities we work in. We will continue to manage our cost structure in accordance with the occupancy outlook across Canada and Australia. We will continue to enhance our best-in-class hospitality offerings. We will continue to prudently to allocate capital prudently to maximize free cash flow generation while we continue to re-return capital to shareholders and reduce debt. Lastly, we will seek opportunities to further our revenue diversification through organic and M&A opportunities. With that, we're happy to take your questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is from Stephen Gengaro with Stifel. Please proceed.
Thanks, good morning, everybody.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Bradley, you did a thorough job with the guidance for 2023. Just one quick question on it. As we put it all together, does the wind down affect sort of the normal seasonal pattern of EBITDA? I think the second and third quarters usually capture 60% or 65% of full year EBITDA. Should we expect that to shift based on the current expectation for demob costs?
I think we'll still have that same kind of 65% of the guidance EBITDAs in the second and third quarters. As, as we typically do, right now, guidance is softer in the fourth quarter, and that's just due to customer visibility. We'll have to see how that plays out. A big factor of that is the demob of the contract camps in the back half of the year.
Okay, thanks. Then two other things for me. The first is when you think about the free cash generation, and obviously you've been buying back stock, and I think people have reacted well to that. What types of M&A would you be looking at? How do you evaluate potential M&A opportunity?
Sure. Well, there are certain properties that we would look at that would be one-off properties, both in Canada and Australia, that would be additive to the portfolio as a whole. As I mentioned, we'll look to continue to diversify building off of our hospitality services into other geographies and other end markets. Based on what we see as our cost of capital, those would have to have strong returns in the upper teens on an unlevered after-tax basis.
Okay, great. Any, it would likely be hospitality services as opposed to hard assets. Is that fair?
Well, adding locations to portfolio would be hard assets, but it also could be adding service companies in an M&A fashion.
Okay. Thanks. Then just one final one. The second half sale of U.S. assets. Is the U.S. business close to zero now? I'm trying to think about what exactly you divested.
Yeah.
Okay.
We've divested everything but Killdeer and Acadian Acres, and we're actively looking to divest those.
Thanks. Then maybe just actually one final one. With your debt levels have come down significantly. I think they tweaked up a little bit in the quarter. It may have been FX. At what leverage ratio do you Is there a leverage ratio where you stop paying down debt and just return all the cash?
Well, I think we're in that range. I think kind of 1-1.25 x is a good base. What that does is that gives us the flexibility that if we want to either invest in our own stock or invest in growing the business, and we have an adverse macro, unforeseen adverse macro, occur after we've made that investment, we won't end up in a higher leverage ratio. I feel like we're in a good spot. I would expect it over the next few years to vary around where it is from a, from a net leverage standpoint.
Potentially dip lower when there are fewer opportunities and we may decide to move it slightly higher for the right investment opportunity, which can be both returning capital to shareholders and growing the business.
Got it. Great. Thank you for the color.
Yep. Thank you for the question.
As a reminder to star one on your telephone keypad if you would like to ask a question. Our next question is from Stephen Ferazani with Sidoti & Company. Please proceed.
Morning, Bradley, Carolyn. I agree, I appreciate all the detail on the call. I do wanna check on some of these numbers just to make sure I got them clear because a lot of moving parts here. The McClelland Lake shut down, that's now June. That was $60 million in annual revenue that comes out after the first half. Did I hear that right?
Correct.
Okay. Then your timing now, how are you thinking about?
At least for
Go ahead.
Hold on one second. For 2023, as of right now, it's partially offset by moving that occupancy into other Civeo locations.
Oh, okay.
It's the McClelland's issue is much more of a 2024 issue than it is a 2023. As we tried to caution people though, we have indications but not commitments for back half occupancy.
Yep. Okay. Fair. How are you thinking about the timing of the mobile camps now? As we know, some of these projects are clearly have consistently been extended. What's your current timing thoughts on this? 'Cause both are gonna be completed probably very end of 2023, right? I know that doesn't mean your mobile camps extend the full time.
We're expecting that the camps roll off between Q2, Q3, and Q4, potentially one. That's when the rent will end and the service revenue will end. Not all of the demob costs will occur in 2023. We've got CAD 13 million of demob costs in 2023, with another approximately CAD 7 million or so Canadian in 2024.
Did that go up from your original estimates last year or over a year ago with inflation, the demob costs? Am I right on that?
No. They've been fairly consistent in that range.
No. Okay. Okay. Okay.
CAD 20 million in total and $15 million, you know, depending on exchange rate, it's about $15 million.
Okay. A couple of numbers on the quarter I just wanted to check on. The Canadian daily rates, was there anything to mix there? I'm guessing there was something beyond FX 'cause it looked like the rooms were pretty booked comparably for this time of year, but the ADRs camp kinda came down.
It was our largely our Wapasu Lodge. We entered into a new contract in July. As we noted in our release of that, we had have lower rates on that going forward that's offset by some cost and scope adjustments.
Okay. Perfect. Thanks. You did talk about this, but the margin with food and service in Australia was very, very low. You know, you talked about the higher labor costs, higher food costs. How do you offset that? What's your intention? I know this is a seasonally slower quarter anyway.
Well, the supply chain team is finding the food cost piece and the freight costs. The HR team is working on trying to increase. As we've talked about in the past, the principal issue in Australia is how much temporary labor are we using as opposed to full-time employees. The temporary labor is a necessity if we can't have full-time employees, but it comes at a higher cost and a lower productivity, which manifests itself in performance. We're working on scope adjustments with the clients to adjust scope to the new reality. It's a three-pronged approach: supply chain, HR, and scope adjustments.
Yep. Okay, perfect. Thanks, Bradley. Thanks, Carolyn. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Steve.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Our next question is from John Daniel at Energy Partners. Please proceed.
Hey, Bradley. Thanks for taking the call.
Hi, John. Absolutely.
Just one follow-up. Yeah, one follow-up on the M&A stuff. You know, when you talk to a lot of people in, say, traditional OFS, they will speak to the volume of deals that they're looking at, pitch books, et cetera. Can you just provide some color on, you know, how many opportunities are out there for your business? You know, when you're not doing deals, is it valuation related? Is it, you know, quality of property? Just any color on M&A would be helpful.
We've had a wish list that varies between six and 10 items. As you can imagine in an M&A context, some of those, it's a wish list, but the target is not interested at the time. It's not the right time for them.
Okay.
To your point, sometimes it's valuation. I would say that, you know, sometimes it's what you find in due diligence.
Right.
Right now I would say we've been fortunate, in the sense that while we've been focused on paying down debt, the things on our wish list haven't been acquired or gone in another direction that we then have to take them off the list.
Right.
While we've been focused internally, at least the wish list hasn't gone someplace else. I would say we're in the early innings of being able to pivot there.
Okay.
Cognizant of, capital allocation decisions.
Would you say that the majority of opportunities that you all would go look at are, if you will, self-sourced versus, you know, a bunch of bankers pitching it to you? Forgive me for a lack of knowledge here on the accommodation side, but just curious to like how the opportunities come to you.
Generally speaking, these are internally sourced. We know which pieces, which assets, which service companies we're interested in.
Okay.
Of course, occasionally we'll see an idea that's pitched to us, but for the most part, in the fairway of our existing business, these are all assets, properties, companies that we know well.
Okay. Thank you for the little tutorial and education there. I appreciate the help.
No, thanks for the call.
All right.
Thanks for the question.
We have reached the end of our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Bradley for closing comments.
Thank you all for your interest in Civeo, and thank you for joining the call today. We look forward to speaking with you on our first quarter 2023 earnings call, planned for at the end of April. Thank you all. Take care.
Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.