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MIND Technology, Inc. (MIND)

Q4 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Mar 10, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Mitcham Industries’ Fourth Quarter Update Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Jack Lascar. Thank you Mr. Lascar, you may now begin.

Jack Lascar

Analyst

Thank you, Manny. Good morning and welcome to the Mitcham Industries’ fiscal 2015 fourth quarter update conference call. We appreciate all of you joining us today. Your hosts are Rob Capps, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Interim Co-Chief Operating Officer; and Guy Malden, Executive Vice President and Co-Chief Operating Officer as well. Before I turn over the call to Rob, I have a few items to cover. If you would like to listen to a replay of today’s call, it will be available via webcast by going to the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.mitchamindustries.com, or via recorded instant replay until March 24. Information on how to access the replay was provided in yesterday’s release. Information reported on this call speaks only as of today, Tuesday, March 10, 2015; and therefore, you are advised that time sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay, listening or transcript reading. Before we begin, let me remind you that certain statements made by management during this call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and include known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which the company is unable to predict or control, that may cause the company’s actual future results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by those statements. These risks and uncertainties include the risk factors disclosed by the company from time-to-time in its filings with the SEC, including in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2014. Furthermore, as we start this call, please also refer to the statement regarding forward-looking statements incorporated in our press release issued yesterday, and please note that the contents of our conference call this morning are covered by these statements. Now, I’d like to turn the call over to Rob.

Rob Capps

Analyst

Yes, thanks, Jack. Thanks. Good morning everybody. Thank you all for joining us this morning for our fiscal 2015 fourth quarter update conference call on such short notice. As you saw in the press release issued yesterday, based on preliminary un-audited financial results, we’re anticipating our fourth quarter total revenues to be between $13 million and $15 million, but the leasing revenues to be between $8 million and $10 million. We also are expecting the loss before income taxes of between $10 million and $12 million for the fourth quarter of 2015. As anyone who follows the oilfield service industry knows, there has been a dramatic decline in spending by oil and gas companies due to the rapid decline in world oil prices over the past few months. As a result, we – almost every else in the seismic sector are experiencing lower activity than previously anticipated. Fourth quarter leasing revenues are significantly below those in the third quarter of fiscal 2015, below the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 and below our earlier our expectations. This short fall could be primarily attributable to three factors: the cancellation of projects in Canada, the impact of renegotiated pricing of Russian contracts and a one quarter delay in the start-up of the significant project in Europe. Let me expand on each of these. When we do have some projects ongoing in Canada and a significant project in Alaska, the winter season in Canada has been very weak this year. And we had expected weakness compared to last year and we – but we did expect to rely a handful of additional projects in Canada. However, these projects were canceled some literally at the last moment and this has had a significant negative impact on our leasing revenues. In Russia, due to the recent…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducing a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. The first question is from Veny Aleksandrov with FIG Partners. Please go ahead.

Veny Aleksandrov

Analyst

Good morning.

Rob Capps

Analyst

Hi, Veny.

Guy Malden

Analyst

Good morning Veny.

Veny Aleksandrov

Analyst

Good morning. My first question, I couldn’t – I couldn’t drive down quickly enough. Seamap you said that orders got delayed?

Rob Capps

Analyst

Yes, correct.

Veny Aleksandrov

Analyst

Okay is the order delivered now and how does the year look for now on [ph]?

Rob Capps

Analyst

Yeah, the order has been delivered and going forward the first half of the year looks very busy, second half is sort of on our original forecast.

Veny Aleksandrov

Analyst

And, when you say very busy, busy as 2014 or busier than 2014? That means 2015, I’m sorry, fiscal 2015.

Rob Capps

Analyst

Yeah, sure, at any course we’re not going to try to give guidance at this point, you understand that what we’ve done is on preliminary results so for.

Veny Aleksandrov

Analyst

Okay.

Rob Capps

Analyst

I think from a Seamap standpoint though we’re seeing the activity levels not too different than last year.

Veny Aleksandrov

Analyst

Okay. And in terms of rental marine equipment and some possibilities out there, can you talk a little bit more on what kind of equipment you’re referring to?

Rob Capps

Analyst

Yes, it’s everything from Seamap products, as far as source controllers and our BuoyLink, a lot of inquiries about air guns and streamer.

Veny Aleksandrov

Analyst

Okay.

Rob Capps

Analyst

People adding additional streamers on to multi-vessel operations.

Veny Aleksandrov

Analyst

Okay, great. And if we look at your results, a lot of the P&Ls for Q4, you are talking about losing $10 million to $12 million but there are some items that are not repeating probably then not operating. Is there anything that you can – do you have an approximation how much these items are that – not the bad debt but the receivables that you are adjusting and then the exchange rate impact. How much impact of the $10 million to $12 million was?

Rob Capps

Analyst

Okay, I will tell you that of course we will give detailed results in a month when we actually report the quarter.

Veny Aleksandrov

Analyst

Okay.

Rob Capps

Analyst

And understand these are preliminary numbers that – I think it’s safe to say that, at least half of that loss is related to either the receivables or the FX issues.

Veny Aleksandrov

Analyst

Okay. Yes, that is very helpful. Thank you so much, appreciate it.

Rob Capps

Analyst

You bet.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from [indiscernible] with Midwood Capital. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hi, good morning. Just a couple of items. Can you give well let’s know where the net debt stands, not as of in today but as of the end of the quarter?

Robert Capps

Analyst

End of the quarter, let’s say $16 million, $24 million, $25 million I’ll call it.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

That’s the net number?

Robert Capps

Analyst

Oh no, no I’m sorry, net will be that $20 million, sorry.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. And then how about – and then we’ve been buying maximum shares, where is the share count now?

Robert Capps

Analyst

Right at 12 million, just over 12 million shares out.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. Sort of overtime our EBITDA margin had just gone between sort of 35% to 50%, is that still a relevant range even in this sort of the pretty depressed environment?

Robert Capps

Analyst

Well, [indiscernible] I think this certainly goes to bottom end of that as you well know that margin is driven commensality by leasing revenues. We have a top line since 90% of that leasing revenue drops to the pretax line, or EBITDA line. So I think it is a relevant range but understanding there is still some weakness in the leasing side of the business, which we think will continue for a while, but when we see the recovery, which we do think is going to come; we’ll see those margins back to where they were before.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. Then in the given the CapEx guidance for 2016, have you sorted all about how much net debt can come down assuming we don’t buyback shares, how much net debt can cone down in this year?

Robert Capps

Analyst

Yes, I think what our board being very specific about that but [indiscernible] we’ll say we do expect to generate free cash flow in 2016 so would expect we could bring that number down significantly.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. And what are your thoughts on continued share buybacks and then we brought them back higher and I know the environment is probably got worse than we had hoped. And these levels are – where we’re going to open today, would you continue to buyback shares?

Robert Capps

Analyst

Well, I mean, yes. We have the program placed for that purpose.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay.

Robert Capps

Analyst

I mean we are – that’s in a track in use of capital given all the other factors that we have to take into consideration.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. Thanks taking my questions.

Robert Capps

Analyst

You bet.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from [indiscernible]. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yes, my follow-up question related to Latin America, what happened in Latin America during your revival?

Robert Capps

Analyst

It is very hard to say…

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Is there any developing [ph] activity that you see lately or is it’s the same thing?

Rob Capps

Analyst

I think it’s been fairly subdued recently. We did – it was actually in fiscal 2015 wasn’t all that bad. There were some fairly significant projects in Latin America. I think there’s – the opportunity for some significant projects that’s coming here, but to say whether or not they will come about we’ll have to wait and see. I can say the fourth quarter it was pretty subdued.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay.

Rob Capps

Analyst

But partially that’s seasonal. It’s a rainy season in Columbia, so we tend to be a little bit slower right now.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Right, thank you. And then Russia, there was pressure and you talked about it this season you need to try to save your contracts. How about going forward towards your [indiscernible]?

Rob Capps

Analyst

Well, I think that remains to be same to some degree – with the same situation. I think we’d feel like the business is there, I think, as things stabilize that will allow us to negotiate the contracts going in on a more favorable basis. So, we don’t come in and redo them as we do this year but I think there is still some uncertainty there.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Chris Bamman of Sidoti & Company. Please go ahead.

Chris Bamman

Analyst

Good morning gentlemen.

Rob Capps

Analyst

Hi, Chris.

Chris Bamman

Analyst

Just real quick, what did you say that CapEx was going to be for 2016?

Rob Capps

Analyst

$5 million, no more than $5 million at this point.

Chris Bamman

Analyst

Okay. And just with regard to the provision for doubtful accounts, are you going to try and cover all that with this provision or do you think the environment to the point where maybe you could see additional provision for doubtful accounts further down the road?

Rob Capps

Analyst

Well, obviously, we certainly want to cover any contingencies at this point. I mean if things are pretty smooth right now, so I think we’re – we hope we’re in a bottom of things, could they get worse, I guess they could, but we hope we’re in a bottom of things, could they get worse, I guess they could but we certainly are trying to be conservative at this approach right now.

Chris Bamman

Analyst

Okay. That’s it for me. Thank you.

Rob Capps

Analyst

You bet.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] There are no further questions. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Rob Capps

Analyst

Okay. I just thank everyone for your interest in Mitcham and for calling in this morning. We look forward to talking to you again in about a month when we report our fourth quarter full year results. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.