Earnings Labs

Tidewater Inc. (TDW)

Q3 2016 Earnings Call· Wed, Feb 3, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Fiscal 2016 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. My name is Christine, and I will be the operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Joe Bennett. You may begin. Joseph M. Bennett - Chief Investor Relations Officer & Executive VP: Thank you, Christine. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Tidewater's third quarter fiscal 2016 earnings results conference call for the period ended December 31, 2015. I'm Joe Bennett, Tidewater's Executive Vice President and Chief Investor Relations Officer, and I want to thank you for your interest in Tidewater. With me this morning on the call are our President and CEO, Jeff Platt; Jeff Gorski, our Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Quinn Fanning, our Executive Vice President and CFO. We'll follow our usual conference call format. Following these formalities, I'll turn the call over to Jeff for his initial comments to be followed by Quinn's financial review. Jeff will then provide some final wrap-up comments, and then we will open the call for your questions. During today's conference call, we may make certain comments that are forward-looking and not statements of historical fact. I know that you understand that there are risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company's actual future performance to be materially different from that stated or implied by any comment that we may make today during the call. Additional information concerning the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by the forward-looking statements may be found in the Risk Factors section of Tidewater's most recent Form 10-K. With that, I'll turn the…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from James West from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

James C. West - Evercore ISI Group

Analyst

Hey, good morning, guys. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, James.

James C. West - Evercore ISI Group

Analyst

Jeff, or maybe Quinn, on a per-vessel basis, how much more can you squeeze out of costs? I mean, I understand stacking vessels, you're going to take most of the costs out, but vessels that are working, how much more can costs come down? Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Jim, you kind of reach a limiting factor. We've certainly reduced crew wages, we're working with all of our suppliers to reduce it. But unfortunately, the majority of the cost reduction on the active vessels I think it's – the big prizes, so to speak, are in the rearview mirror. So we're getting down to really not a lot left that we can do. That's not to say we're not going to continue to do it, but overall the big cost reductions for us and I think for the industry as a whole are in the rearview mirror.

James C. West - Evercore ISI Group

Analyst

Okay. Okay, that's helpful. And then... Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Let me just make one thing clear is...

James C. West - Evercore ISI Group

Analyst

Sure. Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: ... we pushed it hard at the fleet level. But as Jeff highlighted, we are now focused on streamlining the area and regional management structures in order to eliminate potentially redundant shore-based staff and reduce costs in that way. We are spending a lot of time in kind of this second phase or third phase, whatever you'd like to think of it as, and trying to pull costs out of our supply chain. And we would like to think that while we may have realized most of the wage reductions or staff reductions, absent additional stackings, there are additional costs we expect to pull out of the system but maybe not just from the rocks that we've turned over thus far.

James C. West - Evercore ISI Group

Analyst

Okay, got it. Thanks, Quinn. That's very helpful. And then as we think about keeping vessels active, are you having – are any customers out there asking for additional term at this point, or kind of like the offshore drillers who were trading term – or trading day rates for a term, is any of that happening in the vessel market? Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. I think we reported that in the past and it still goes on. We have clients that are trying to come back for a second or even a third bite at the apple at times and we try to trade things for things. We've said that from the beginning. So have we been able to increase term in cases? We have. And we try very hard to make sure that we're getting something in return rather than just a reduction in the day rate. So yes, that continues.

James C. West - Evercore ISI Group

Analyst

It continues. Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: And we also, apart from rate renegotiations, have been awarded term contracts in multiple geographies in recent months. So the work continues, just at a lower level than it has historically.

James C. West - Evercore ISI Group

Analyst

Sure. Sure. Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: I think the other thing that I'd highlight is, is that we have an objective of trying to maintain an active utilization level in the plus 70% range and that's really reflected a lot of our stacking activities, but there remains work clearly at lower rates than it was 12 months to 18 months ago but we get our fair share of awards and we'd like to think, given the counterparty risks, that customers spend a lot of time thinking about today is we'll get more than our share fair awards.

James C. West - Evercore ISI Group

Analyst

Right, right. Fair enough. Okay. Thanks, guys. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, James.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Gregory Lewis from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Gregory Lewis - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Yes. Thank you. And good morning, gentlemen. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Gregory. Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hey, Greg. Gregory Lewis - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Quinn, I have a question. I mean, it looked like, I guess, a couple – a lot of uncertainty in the market. A couple quarters ago you pulled back on some revenue guidance. I guess, last quarter you pulled back on that guidance and were just giving some cost items. I mean, this quarter it seems like – I didn't catch any guidance, correct? Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: I think that's relatively consistent with what we're getting from our customers. There's not a lot of finalized budgets that are consistent with current levels of commodity price. So we don't get a lot of transparency in order to provide a forecast around it and, as a result, our ability to provide guidance is more limited. I guess, the guidance I would provide you is, revenue will be what revenue is and we'll continue to – I don't mean to be flip – and we will continue to try to adjust the cost structure to reflect the reality of that lower revenue level. I guess, the last question maybe you had some underlying theme that maybe we didn't address. What we haven't seen is, is something I would suggest customers have achieved a bottom as they see it and therefore they are trying to term up a lot of work for a near-term rebound in the business. So if…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Turner Holm from Clarksons. Please go ahead.

Turner Holm - Clarksons Platou Securities AS

Analyst

Yeah. Hi. Good morning, gentlemen. Thanks for taking the call. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hi, Turner.

Turner Holm - Clarksons Platou Securities AS

Analyst

Hi. So, Quinn, you called out the discussions that you guys have initiated with the lenders. I mean, clearly, we've seen changes in bank terms and even reductions all across the energy complex. You guys are definitely in compliance with all your covenants, but I'm just curious if you could give us any more color on the ongoing dialogues and, just more broadly, on the flexibility of the balance sheet? Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Well, I think we'll leave the comments in regards to the dialog with the banks and noteholders (34:38) what I provided and you'll see similar disclosure in the Q that we file this afternoon. We think that certainly on a relative basis, our financial profile is strong and I emphasize relative basis. If you look at the leverage and whatever metric you want to focus on of our competitors going into the downturn, we were certainly one of the more conservatively capitalized companies, particularly when you factor in new construction commitments relative to existing fleet size. But this has been a downturn that there is no hiding from, and we have been impacted like everybody else. You have emphasized in some of your write ups, there is two primary financial covenants in our bank facility and select indentures with debt-to-total cap covenant of 55% on a book basis, which we are substantially below. And then we've got the interest coverage covenant and select debt arrangements that I was speaking about before. The fact of the matter is, is whether it's your model or anybody else's model, EBITDA is trending in the wrong direction and, as a result, we decided to be proactive with our various constituencies and then in order to position ourselves to get to the other side of this river, whatever its depth and width is. And again, that...

Turner Holm - Clarksons Platou Securities AS

Analyst

But, Quinn, you don't have any... Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: (36:10) and we'll update you as circumstances warrant.

Turner Holm - Clarksons Platou Securities AS

Analyst

Sure. But just to be clear, you guys don't have any secured debt, right? So it's all unsecured. It's maybe increasing the level of security? Is that the kind of thing maybe that's being discussed? I mean, I understand if you can't give details, but just curious. Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: You can look at lots of examples out there in terms of energy and oilfield services companies that renegotiated their structures. And you'll see in our Q, we at least provide a limited menu of some of the adjustments that you could see to our credit facilities or indentures. But again, I wouldn't want to prejudge negotiations that haven't been completed. But there is nothing off the table from our perspective and we've got a longstanding relationship with I think a 14-member bank group and about 20 noteholders, many of which have been in the Tidewater name for well over a decade. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: So also to answer his question, nothing is secured currently. Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: I am sorry. We have no material security against any of our credit facilities and that's – we've always financed the business slightly different than most. We've never been big on vessel-level or project-level financing. Most of our capital structure resides at the parent company with the exception of some export finance arrangements. But it's kind of is what – it's you see.

Turner Holm - Clarksons Platou Securities AS

Analyst

Sure, okay. Yeah. But, I guess, the lack of secured debt gives you a little bit more flexibility. And one more from me, just sort of a housekeeping issue. I think on a previous call, you guys had talked to – given some tax guidance. You talked about, I think, maybe $10 million to $15 million or $5 million to $10 million of taxes per quarter. You guys had a tax benefit, though, this quarter. Is there anything changed on the tax side? Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: I think the primary adjustment for the quarterly tax expense just reflects revenue has fallen significantly. And the tax that we do have or that we are recognizing are largely revenue-based taxes in so-called deemed profit regimes. So as revenue has come down, our expected tax expense is falling as well. But what remains true is, is that we're not reporting pre-tax earnings and, as a result, the tax expense we do have is based on revenue-based taxation largely in the African jurisdictions.

Turner Holm - Clarksons Platou Securities AS

Analyst

All right. Thank you very much, gentlemen. I appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Joe Gibney from Capital One. Please go ahead.

Joseph D. Gibney - Capital One Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Thanks. Good morning. Just one quick one for me. I was just curious if we could get an update on percentage of your fleet on spot versus term. I know historically this is a pretty fluid number, given kind of your fleet scale and geographic distribution; and the rule of thumb used to be kind of 50:50, ballpark. Is there an update on this? It's sort of helpful as we try to think about triangulating a little bit on from mark-to-market perspectives of your fleet from a day rate standpoint. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Joe, just to comment to – when you say it used to traditionally 50:50 spot and term, I think you're referring more to our contract cover. That was not the percentage of term versus spot. So that is I think more – a much greater percentage that you're attributing to the spot market than has historically.

Joseph D. Gibney - Capital One Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Right, right. Contract cover... Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: (39:42)

Joseph D. Gibney - Capital One Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Correct. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: It's what you're doing to him (39:44). And I think Jeff Gorski may have a comment on the current splits. Jeffrey A. Gorski - Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. Joe, this is Jeff Gorski. So, as we've been looking and reporting last couple of quarters of the active fleet, a year out, we're still hitting that 50% in terms of term coverage. So we really haven't seen as we have stacked a few more boats over the last company coverage, our coverage in contracting, however, seems to continue. And so I see that as a positive. But as Jeff mentioned, we are conservatively always looking at spot opportunities as well as term opportunities. But our contract coverage seems to be hanging in there over the last couple of quarters as we've been reporting.

Joseph D. Gibney - Capital One Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. That was all I had. Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thanks. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Joe.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Daniel Burke from Johnson Rice. Please go ahead. Daniel J. Burke - Johnson Rice & Co. LLC: Hey, good morning, guys. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Daniel. Daniel J. Burke - Johnson Rice & Co. LLC: Can you all say where the stack count was at the end of January? Just trying to discern if there's been any change in the tempo of stacking as you've gotten into the March quarter here? Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Daniel, I think it's about where we reported at the end of December. I mean, we don't you know... Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: And maybe just to distinguish, I think we were at 56 vessels on average during the December quarter, but 70 vessels at quarter-end. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yeah. Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: And that's probably not too far from where we are today. Daniel J. Burke - Johnson Rice & Co. LLC: Okay. Quinn P. Fanning - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: I don't have the numbers in front of me, but there has been no wave of stackings in the last two weeks, if that was your question. Daniel J. Burke - Johnson Rice & Co. LLC: Okay. That's helpful, Quinn. And then when we think about your operating costs – and part of that is obviously your stack costs. Do the stack costs load pretty much into the R&M line item, or are they sprinkled amongst your operating cost categories? Just trying to figure out how low that R&M line can get. Quinn P. Fanning - Chief…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mark Brown from Seaport Global. Please go ahead.

Mark Brown - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

Hey, good morning, guys. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hi, Mark.

Mark Brown - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

I wanted to ask about your subsea group. I think you had maybe half a dozen ROVs operating. And what are your thoughts on that business short term, long term, and could that potentially be a business that you consider divesting? Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Mark, it is a small part of the Tidewater story, so to speak. So when you talk about divesting, you're talking – you're right, a half dozen of ROVs and some personnel. Actually, we continue to look at some projects. Subsea, not just for Tidewater, but subsea in general is having its own challenges in the offshore market. Is it something we potentially could divest? Sure, it could be. I still think strategically, though, that's still an area that we have interest in. And when the market turns around, I think it's going to prove its value to us. So didn't want to sound like a waffle answer, but that's really where we're at with it.

Mark Brown - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

That's helpful. That's helpful. And I was just curious on the dividend decision, if you entertain just cutting the dividend – I know that's been in place since 1993 – rather than eliminating it. I was just curious how you thought through that decision? Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Mark, we think through that every quarter with our board. We have a recommendation as management. As we said, the board was in agreement with management's recommendation. So we went ahead and did a total suspension of it. It's not something we do lightly, but again, we just think that is absolutely the right decision to make for the company at this time.

Mark Brown - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

All right. And then just one more question. Curious what the average cost of – stacking cost per day for towing-supply or deepwater vessel, and whether you've been able to reduce that over the last few quarters? Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Mark, I think we've stated previously, but it's in the zip code of about $1,000 a day, and that's on a worldwide basis. The one thing we're doing making sure was when we stack the new fleet we have, with the electronics on board, the equipment, we're not just putting it off alongside in the weeds to go to hell at the end of the day. We're providing we think the right maintenance that will decrease the cost of reactivating that equipment down the road. So it's about $1,000 a day on an average across the fleet.

Mark Brown - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

Thank you. Appreciate it. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Mark.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Bill Gerding from Citi. Please go ahead.

William M. Gerding - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

(45:58) question. I was wondering if you could provide any guidance on day rate trajectories, just a rough ballpark, in the more sheltered markets. The Jones Act (46:10) fleet, for one, kind of stands out to me. If we might be approaching a floor, or there could be a (46:18) supply constraints compared to other markets. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Bill, I think that's exactly why we stopped giving sort of guidance going forward. Clients everywhere, inclusive of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. waters, are again retrenching, their budgets are in flux, and again the pressure continues everywhere. The Gulf of Mexico is not something that's excluded from that. So again, it's pressure remains everywhere. Giving you trajectory ideas I think would be a mistake. We just don't have any clarity or confidence in what our clients are going to be doing to give that to you. Certainly, the spot market reacts much quicker, I mean, because it has the ability to do it. You have term contracts that do roll off, that will affect the average day rates, and clients are renegotiating everything. So when we put there together, it's pretty difficult to give you any guidance that we have any confidence in.

William M. Gerding - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

All right. Fair enough. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. Thanks, Bill.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. That is all the questions we have for today. I will now turn the call back over to the Tidewater team. Jeffrey M. Platt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Christine, thanks for hosting the call for us today. And, again, thanks for everyone and your interest in Tidewater. Have a great day.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.