Tidewater: momentum continues says Kneen

Tidewater president and CEO Quintin Kneen says tendencies level to “as compelling of a long-term market backdrop for our enterprise as we’ve got ever seen.

Quintin Kneen, president and CEO of offshore providers big Tidewater Inc. (NYSE:TDW), mentioned he’s “encouraged by the continued momentum we saw during the first quarter” as the corporate launched its outcomes for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Highlights included:

Revenue of $193.1 million; Highest quarterly income since fourth quarter of 2015; an 83% enhance over the primary quarter of 2022
Highest quarterly international common day price since third quarter of 2015
Net revenue of $10.7 million, or $0.21 per share
Adjusted EBITDA of $59.1 million; Highest quarterly EBITDA since third quarter of 2015
Quarter-end web debt stability of $4.3 million

DAY RATES CONTINUE UPWARD

“We are encouraged by the continued momentum we saw during the first quarter and the new cyclical revenue and global average day rate high-water marks, especially for what is anticipated to be the slowest quarter of the year due to seasonality in certain markets,” mentioned Kneen. “Consolidated international common day charges continued the upward pattern we noticed all through 2022, with the typical day price rising practically $1,100 per day sequentially. In addition, every particular person geographic area elevated its common day price through the quarter. Also, all particular person vessel lessons besides the 4-8k AHTS class elevated in common day price through the quarter. Seasonality did play an element through the quarter as exercise within the North Sea and the Mediterranean declined sequentially although, notably, we did see web day price enhancements in these markets through the quarter.

“The first quarter is typically the slowest calendar quarter of the year due to harsher weather conditions, calendar year budgets and the contracting habits of some of our global customers,” continued Kneen. “This year we used the period to reposition vessels and to perform as many dry docks as possible so that we can maximize the utilization and profitability during the higher activity periods we typically see in the second and third quarters. Incidentally, we anticipate a stronger fourth quarter than third quarter, which is atypical, but representative of a market strengthening in excess of the typical calendar year seasonality. The repositioning in the first quarter resulted in disproportionally higher dry dock cost and idle time. Dry dock days were up approximately 41.0% from the fourth quarter and drydock spend was approximately $31.0 million. Our forecasted dry dock spend for the year remains unchanged at $77.0 million. Similar to what we are expecting in the fourth quarter of this year, first quarter revenue actually increased over the fourth quarter, as the $1,100 increase in the global average day rate overtook the active fleet utilization decrease of 1.9 percentage points.”

Kneen famous that the corporate’s $557 million acquisition of Solstad Offshore’s 37 PSVs is predicted to shut by the top of the second quarter.

OUTLOOK

Looking forward, Kneen mentioned: “As we survey the market and evaluate the momentum that built during the quarter, particularly as we moved beyond the seasonally slow period of the quarter, we remain confident in our outlook for 2023. As such, we reiterate our 2023 annual guidance of $900 million of revenue and approximately 50.0% vessel operating margin for the legacy Tidewater business and reiterate our updated pro forma 2023 guidance of $1.03 billion of revenue and approximately 50.0% vessel operating margin which contemplates closing the Solstad PSV acquisition by the end of the second quarter of 2023.”