RPC, Inc. Price & Performance (RES)

Thank you, and good morning. Before we begin, I want to remind you that some of the statements that will be made on this call could be forward looking in nature. And reflect a number of known and unknown risks. Please refer to our press release issued today along with our twenty twenty four ten ks and other public filings that outline those risks. All of which can be found on RPC's website at www.rpc.net. Today's earnings release and conference call, we'll be referring to several non GAAP measures. Of operating performance and liquidity. We believe these non GAAP measures allow us to compare performance consistently over various periods. Our press release and our website contain reconciliations of these non GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. I'll now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Ben Palmer. Thanks, Mike, and thank you for joining our call. Today, we will talk about our first quarter results.

And the acquisition we just closed in early April. As well as share our views about the increasing tariff driven macro uncertainties. We are encouraged by the start of the year with respect to our financial performance and excited to bring Pentel into the RPC portfolio. Further, we are confident that our strong balance sheet even following the funding of the acquisition provides a solid cushion in uncertain times while still affording us the ability to invest as attractive opportunities arise. First quarter results can be summarized as stable revenues with some EBITDA growth. Recall that our fourth quarter held up relatively well in a sluggish market thus we weren't necessarily expecting a typical seasonal pickup heading into the first quarter. Nevertheless, we were pleased with our financial results especially sequential EBITDA growth. As we look across the service lines for for the quarter, pressure pumping revenues were essentially flat sequentially and all other service lines in aggregate declined 1%. We worked diligently to drive utilization, though it did come with some pricing concessions. We are balancing the pricing and utilization strategy to service our customers while not performing work at levels that generate inadequate returns. We still see higher utilization within our frac assets our Tier four DGBs where we have better visibility with dedicated customers and continue to deliver solid wellsite performance.

On the other hand, demand and utilization remains challenging Tier two diesel equipment. Spot and semi dedicated frac market are amply supplied with horsepower capacity. And pricing remains highly competitive. As OFS companies compete to maximize utilization. In the current frac pricing environment, capital investments must be rigorously evaluated. And we suspect some smaller, less well capitalized competitors may disproportionately struggle. To maintain asset quality and performance. Some may even exit the business. We are certainly hearing more about pumping equipment for sale at low prices. We believe these are mostly assets with limited useful lives indicating that some providers are opting to monetize and exit rather than maintain and reinvest. We see this as a positive, potentially tightening frac supply and leading to firmer pricing, but this may take some time to play out. Our 2025 plans still do not include a new frac fleet. Though if and when we invest in incremental frac equipment we would expect to retire older fleets. Looking at our nonpressure pumping service lines, combined revenues were down 1% sequentially in the first quarter with no individual service line up or down a significant amount. In short, it was a fairly stable quarter across most of the Downhole Tools revenues were flat Several of our regions delivered solid growth in the quarter but were offset by some unusual weather disruptions.

In the Rocky Mountains and other regions. Our new drill and unplugged products continue to gain early traction in the market.

And we're pleased with the response. But these are still too small to move the needle on our overall financial results. We look forward to more progress and we'll share updates on key milestones as appropriate. Coiled tubing was down a few points in the quarter. Cementing was flat and rental tools had a nice gain. Up about 7%. As that business did see a noticeable bounce to begin the new year. A strategic standpoint, we believe bolstering these less capital intensive service lines with organic investments and acquisitions will help drive growth improve our customer mix and reduce volatility in our financial results. And with that, I'll segue into the Pentel Completions acquisition. We have been talking increasingly in recent quarters about our optimism for executing acquisitions. We have set several potential transactions since acquiring Spinnaker in 2023. We were very pleased with our ultimate outcome. Acquiring Pentel in an accretive transaction. The total purchase price was $245,000,000 comprised of $170,000,000 in cash a $50,000,000 seller note, and $25,000,000 of issued stock. While we had ample cash to fund the total purchase price, we believe the notes and stock provide increased alignment and incentives as we move forward together.

Pentel is a leading wireline perforation services provider offering some of the newest and most efficient high performance conventional and electric equipment in the industry. With more than 30 active fleets. It has a fairly concentrated customer base of blue chip E and Ps all of its operations serve the Permian Basin. The Pentel management team is well regarded in the industry having established a reputation for delivering outstanding customer service in a safe and efficient way with low emissions. Pentel generated $4.00 $9,000,000 in revenues in 2020 We believe it has reached critical mass and expect revenues to trend with the overall market. Its customer retention is a testament to the strength of its relationships and consistent well site performance. We note that quarterly revenue was in the $200,000,000 range in each quarter last year. With no discernible seasonality or year long directional trend in their top line results. We have not disclosed specifically profitability measures. However, our general expectation is for EBITDA margins to continue to track to at about 20%. Plus or minus a few points. Pentel will maintain its operational approach we expect a relatively light integration with most of our efforts focused on back office support and financial reporting.

Its day to day operations will remain largely unchanged and the management team will remain focused on service serving its customers. With respect to the strategic rationale of the deal, you may that during our fourth quarter call, we highlighted several strategic imperatives to executing on our goals. Improved margins and execution, and optimize our assets increase operational scale through M and A, rebalance our portfolio with a focus on high cash flow generating service lines, and strengthen our customer mix by increasing our focus on blue chip E and Ps given industry consolidation. Pentel is very well aligned with those imperatives. Adding over $400,000,000 of revenue certainly adds operational scale and meaningful meaningful share in wireline. Pentel is also a high cash flow producing business with relatively low capital intensity. And its exclusive focus on blue chip customers is something we find very appealing. This acquisition is a great fit with our strategic direction as we continue to expand our completion services capabilities and focus on overall company growth and free cash flow. [indiscernible] Looking at our 24 revenues, pro form a with the addition of Pintail, pressure pumping was 32%, Wireline increased from 1% to 23%. Downhole tools was 21%.

Coil tubing was 7%, and cementing was 6%. All other businesses together would represent approximately 11%. Furthermore, the Pentel transaction would move our Permian concentration up to approximately 60% of total revenue. [indiscernible] With that, Mike will now discuss the quarter's financial results as well as some notes on the Pentel transaction.

Thanks, Ben. Shifting to the first quarter financial results. With sequential comparisons to the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four. Revenues decreased 1% to $333,000,000 Breaking down our operating segments, technical services, represented 94% of our total first quarter revenues was down 1%. Support services, which represented 6% of our total first quarter revenues, were up 1%. The following is a breakdown of our first quarter revenues for our top five service lines. Pressure Pumping was 41%. Downhole tools, 28.2%. Coiled tubing, 9.6%. Cementing 8.3%, rental tools, 4.6%. Together, these accounted for approximately 91% of our total revenues. Cost of revenues excluding depreciation and amortization decreased by $6,400,000 to $243,900,000 or 3% during the first quarter. The lower cost of revenues can be mainly accounted for by lower expenses in three categories. First, transportation and fuel declined due to job mix. As we provided less fuel to our customers. This typically carries little to no profit, so it's actually a positive margin impact for us. Second is lower material and supplies. As the mix of our jobs changes quarter to quarter, so does the amount of sand and chemicals we supply on these jobs. Lastly, we noted in the fourth quarter that insurance costs were elevated.

The same level of expense did not repeat this quarter thus contributing to a modest sequential improvement in the first quarter. SG and A expenses were $42,500,000 up from $41,200,000 as a percentage of revenues increase 50 basis points to 12.8%. Reflecting increased IT modernization project expenses. And slightly lower revenues. Our first quarter tax rate was 27.2% more in line with our normalized tax rate. Recall that our fourth quarter of twenty twenty four tax rate was unusually low due to the impact of tax planning strategies and interest received on past refunds. Notably, we had higher sequential EBITDA The increase in tax rate drove a slight sequential net income decline. Compared to Q4. '24. Diluted EPS of 6¢ in the first quarter was flat versus the fourth quarter. EBITDA was $49.48900000.0 dollars up from $46,100,000. With EBITDA margin increasing 100 basis points sequentially to 14.7%. For the quarter, operating cash flow was $39,900,000 and after CapEx of $32,300,000 free cash flow was 7,600,000.0 At quarter end, we had $327,000,000 in cash and no debt on the balance sheet. During the quarter, we paid $8,700,000 in dividends. Regarding the 2025 capital spending expectations, we now project $165 to $215,000,000 inclusive of Pintail for the next nine months.

Mostly related to maintenance Shifting now to some pintail modeling notes. Pintail closed after the first quarter so there was no material P and L balance sheet or cash flow impact from the deal. Our results. We are not providing explicit accretion guidance for the transaction but we do expect it to be accretive to EPS and cash flow for 2025. Based on our comments, you should be able to make reasonable projections for revenues and EBITDA. Which will be in large part influenced by overall OFS market conditions. Beyond the EBITDA impact, please note few other modeling items. CapEx for PIMTEL will likely be up to $20,000,000 on an annualized basis. With depreciation expected to approximate annualized cap We will lose interest on the $170,000,000 cash portion of transaction funding. As well as incur incremental interest expense on the $50,000,000 seller note. It has a floating rate of SOFR plus 200 basis points. Lastly, based on the share price, immediately before April 1, we issued approximately 4,500,000.0 shares. We will complete purchase accounting in the coming months and note that certain future expenses impacted by the purchase price allocation and related valuation including the amortization of intangible assets were not contemplated in these figures.

On another topic, you may have seen the company has filed s three registration statement with the SEC which includes registering the Rollins Family Control Group shares. The Rollins family has been a longtime shareholder with ongoing representation on our board. They have always been supportive of the company we do not believe this changes that relationship. We view the registration of the control group shares as good corporate housekeeping. I'll now turn it back over to Ben for some closing remarks. You, Mike.

To wrap up, I wanna touch on the macro environment. We've entered a period of high uncertainty and limited limited visibility with respect to tariffs and their impact on inflation and the economy in general. Tariffs in the current form will likely push equipment prices higher put even more pressure on the industry to be disciplined with capital spending. More broadly, the potential economic impact from tariffs and trades disputes increases uncertainty. And contributed to oil prices falling to the low $60 range. Oil at these prices makes it difficult for some customers to just continued completion activities at prior levels. But only time will tell. News flow and market developments are dynamic in the current environment. We as well as OFS competitors in upstream and players in the value chain, will have to navigate these uncertainties as we assess investment commitment. However, despite some mild turbulence and unknowns, a few things remain unchanged. Our balance sheet is strong. Our dividend is secure. And we have ample liquidity to ride out volatility. And still capitalize on opportunities as they arise. Believe the company has an attractive mix of service lines and brands, customers and geographic presences, we'll execute our strategy with patience and discipline.

Including our pursuit of additional acquisition. On a separate note, we'd like to welcome Steve Lewis to our Board of Directors after being elected this week. Steve retired from the law firm Troutman Pepper. Formerly Troutman Sanders in 2023. Where he had served in various leadership roles, including Chairman and CEO. At the same time, Gary Rollins and Pam Rollins have retired from our Board.

We thank them for their years of contributions, leadership, and service. In an often volatile market, our discipline remains consistent with a focus on financial stability and long term shareholder return. I also want to thank all our employees who worked tirelessly deliver high levels of service and value. To our customers. Thanks for joining us this morning. And at this time, we'd be happy to address any you may have.

At this time, in order to ask a question, press star then the number one And your first question comes from the line of Stephen Gengaro with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Good morning. David, you may be on mute. I'm a Please go ahead.

Can you hear me? Yeah. Now we can. Now we can.

Oh, there you go. Yeah. But it didn't like me. The when we you talked a little bit about this, I think, on the prepared remarks. But when we think about the pressure pumping market in general, are you seeing like what are you seeing in sort of pricing conversations? And are you seeing any differences kind of versus prior periods of softness in the market?

I think I understand the question. You know, each one of these cycles are different, yet they're they're very much the same. I think some of what's happening is, again again, with all the uncertainty about what's going on and the fact that you know, things could in fact flip back. I think, you know, our customers are scrambling. They're trying to respond to know, their their their potential impact with lower oil prices. So they're trying to do what they can. You know, service companies like us are trying to you know, hang in there and do the best we can to try to try to be accommodating to our customers yet, you know, we're we're trying to you know, we're trying to maintain our business as well. So I don't know that the discussions are completely different, but I think the circumstance are perhaps a bit different, and that may know, impact slightly those discussions. But it's all about the give and take in trying to reach hopefully a decent place for both both parties.

Okay. Great. And and then following Pintel, or can you just kind of remind us when you think about capital allocation, kind of what the priorities are? And when you're looking at M and A, are sort of the two or three most important criteria you look for?

Well, obviously, we want, you know, accretive transactions, We certainly adding to existing businesses that we have that have good strong brands is is certainly criteria. But again, looking for customers, we want more exposure to the larger customers They're that should translate into a more steady business less volatility also looking for companies, service lines that have good free cash flow generating capability. We all know that pressure pumping is is a is a very large part of the overall, well completion cost. But it is highly competitive right now. We still are committed to that business. But we're looking to grow in some other service lines and with brands that that brands with good management teams that can produce some good free cash flow. So that's really our our priority. More more exposure to E and P customers, and businesses with good free cash flow potential. At prices that can better be accretive to our results.

Great.

Thanks. And then the one the one final one was when and I'm just I don't wanna give you the wrong numbers here. But when we when we think about the the Pintail business, I think it was running kind of close to about $90,000,000 in revenue a quarter based on the info that was disclosed. Is that about the right starting point right now? We think about layering it in?

Steven, we said in our earlier comments they did a little over 400,000,000 in 2024. And each quarter was right at 100 So I think you know, hundred more or less or whatever, you know, they kind of as we indicated, they've kinda reached their critical mass. So so but certainly not completely obliterated or or can't avoid the overall know, market forces that are in place. But in round numbers, probably closer to [indiscernible] Great. Alright. Thank you for the details.

Thank you. Appreciate your questions.

And your next question comes from the line of Don Crist with Johnson Rice. Please go ahead.

Good morning, guys. How are you all today? How are you? Good morning, Don.

Are you seeing any shift in kind of customer activity? And I know pressure pumping [indiscernible] generally a large topic of discussion. But in your other service line, do you see any shift away from high CapEx projects, I. E, new wells and new pads towards workovers or anything like that that may have a a bigger impact to to E and P's cash flows with smaller dollars?

That's a reasonable question, Don. I think it's a little bit early. To to know that or or to to have a whole lot of feedback on that. That that certainly seems reasonable. And in prior cycles, that type of shift has occurred. So we're certainly watching for that sort of thing. Good question.

Okay. And on a on a typical job, kind of timeline, like, what what is your visibility normally? I mean, if you're either, you know, fracking a well or pad rather, do you have visibility on the next two pads or just the next pad? Like, when is that decision point made? Normally, in normal kind of business cycle? To where we can kind of forecast, like, how far out you know kinda what you're gonna be doing.

Well, our our frac business historically has as you and others know, has been over the spot market and semi dedicated. So it depends on the size of the customer and the nature of the type of work we're doing. Typically, for the semi dedicated customers, we have some visibility for months at a time, maybe not a year or more, but we certainly typically have some level of visibility Spot market much less so.

But we do have a calendar. Watch the calendar. We maintain the calendar. We're always trying to work and minimize the the white space, be that with with a dedicated customer, semi dedicated, or or spot. So, it just depends on on on the customer. Some of our other service lines that have more dedicated work, you know, the visibility is a bit a bit longer. As you can imagine, though, customers are right now they are looking at different alternatives and and as we see it right now, kind of looking ahead, early in the second quarter, things look to be relatively stable.

But but, you know, it's it's hard enough. You know, uncertainty is is the word of the the day or the time right now.

We we know that there are discussions going on, and we'll just have to wait and see. And get prepared for and then react to whatever whatever happens.

Okay. And and one of your competitors reported last night and talked about a kind of uptick in gas directed activity. Whether it be in Eagle Ford and Mid Continent or other places? Are you seeing any pickup yet or is that still a couple of months down the road you think?

I think probably a little further down the road. We we are hearing a little bit, We do have exposure to some natural gas focused basins, especially with our downhole tools business. It was very traditionally strong natural gas plays Our Downhole Tools business is very well equipped to be able to move people and equipment around very easily and quickly. So having those operating locations in place, we'll be able to jump very quickly on the opportunities with that service line and couple of our other service lines. Less so for pressure pumping, we do have some exposure to the Mid Con. So if things were to pick up there, we could certainly take advantage there. But but the biggest opportunity for us is is probably it would be on the downhole tool side. Okay.

I appreciate the color. I'll turn it back to the operator. Thanks.

Thanks, Doug. Appreciate it.

Your next question comes from the line of John Daniel with Daniel Energy Partners. Please go ahead.

Hey, Ben. Thanks for thanks for including me.

Just just a couple quick ones, I think. Your prepared remarks, you noted some of your some of the older pumping equipment out there is being sold by presumably some of your competitors. Just curious if you can talk about is that whether it's frac equipment or other assets in your portfolio do you guys see a need to sell assets And just your thoughts on that on that equipment reentering the market.

What was what was the very end of your comment?

What's some of your peers, think, you know, are have sold or trying to sell some of their older you know, tier two equipment. Others are, you know, smaller companies are selling assets just to try to generate cash.

You guys clearly don't need to generate cash because your balance sheet is fine, but I'm just curious if you could broadly speak about what you're seeing in terms of who's buying some of that equipment. Just just your thoughts on that. That side of the market.

Oh, it's a good question. Again, we have we indicated, have seen some opportunities. I don't know who might be buying that. We have rarely over the years, found an opportunity that we were comfortable trying to make investments on in a used piece of equipment. We have done a little bit of that but not in a whole small way.

And and maybe kind of, you know, thinking about the question too, we we talked about the fact that we monitor our equipment and then when it comes to end of life or [indiscernible] operations or whatever for frac, we look to move those assets out. We don't like to stack them up. In the last year or two when when that need or opportunity arose. We've been able to reallocate some of those assets to other of our service lines that can use that type of equipment and can be very it can contribute very nicely to the other service lines. So we've done some of that. If we were to sell our equipment, we've been very diligent about trying to make sure can or doesn't reenter reenter the frac market. So that could include selling it overseas or being able to or disassemble. The parts. Right. And and try to distribute it that way. So we're very keenly aware of trying to to introduce any more equipment that can be competitive in the Okay. The next one thanks for that. The next one is on CapEx just quickly.

Q one CapEx is called low thirties. Which means you're underspending relative to the guidance here on the low end, if you will, What's the what would you need to see to sort of accelerate that spend in the back half of the year? And is there more of a chance that know, we would see that CapEx dollars be allocated to further accretive m and a opportunities. Hey, John. This is Mike. Yeah. I think it will just it'll be based on conditions overall.

We're we're looking to spend the CapEx we need to to maintain our equipment. Or if there is something accretive, know, we we'll spend spend the money on that as well. But we are really looking at trying to to see what we're real really going to need to spend to meet all our customer needs for the year. Because no one knows really what's happening. Overall Sure. The macro conditions out there. So we've we've really you know, pushed back or or asked our businesses to really look at whether they need to do that this year or if we can hold off next year just so we also aren't spending all our cash on equipment that we're not gonna get a good return on in the short term so that we still have a strong balance sheet so we you know, can do further acquisitions also. So you know, we we are still projecting to probably pick up a little bit of spending as the year goes on. But, hopefully, that kinda gives a little bit of color as to how we think think about it. Know, Ben, you wanna Nothing else.

Yeah.

Yeah. I was just gonna say, John, I think, yeah, the first quarter number just got the was a little bit of managing there trying to, know Okay. Actually not spend where we don't need to spend, but I think it was just sort of the timing. Worked out to where it was a a a Yes. Relatively low annualized spend that was I think just the way everything fell out. Terms of Got it.

And that's then one quick final one for me. As the year unfolds with the uncertainty, presume you're gonna see lots of M and A opportunities and just given Pentel's strong presence in the Permian, you say that your your folk you would you be more inclined to be focused on further consolidating the Permian market, you know, not just say, wireline, but other services or are you sort of somewhat agnostic and willing to look at other basins I think that's a good question.

Not we're agnostic or we're open to to opportunities in other basins well. And again, with the impending expected you know, opportunities in the natural gas basins, you know, now may be a good time before things really do pick up big time. You know, maybe there's an opportunity something up that has exposure to some of those other other basins that we could take advantage of. So I think you know, we're we're looking at talking about several things. It's, you know, the It's discussions are not all around. We need to focus on the Permian. Our discussions are around Let's look for appropriate opportunities and each company and each business and each service line and each brand has different attributes. And so so we're we're we're open.

We're open. Okay.

Thank you for including me.

Sure. Thank you. Thanks, John.

This concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Ben Palmer.

Okay. Well, thank you all for listening in and your questions. We appreciate it, and I hope you have a good rest of the day and look forward to catching up.

Take care.

Today's call will be available for replay on rpc.net within two hours following the completion of the call. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.