Civeo’s Making Nice Progress – Seeking Alpha

A few days ago, the management team at Civeo Corp. (NYSE:CVEO) announced that it had finalized its most recent credit facility redetermination. Seeing as how I own shares in Civeo, I like to keep up-to-date with the firm's progress and I know that you, my readers, like to as well (at least those of you who follow and/or own it). As such, I determined that it would be a wise idea for me to provide an update on the company and give my thoughts on what it all means for the business moving forward.

A touch on their earnings

Seeing as how Civeo's earnings just came out the other day, you may be asking why the focus on this article is not on that news as opposed to (or in addition to) what I'm writing about. Simply put, management provided preliminary guidance on financial results for the fourth fiscal quarter of last year, as well as provided guidance regarding the company's 2017 sales and other financial data at an earlier time.

I wrote about it in this article but the gist of it is that management's forecast for 2016's fourth quarter revenue was in the range of $89 million to $92 million (actual result was $90.92 million) and for EBITDA it came out to $16 million to $18 million (actual result was $17.7 million). For 2017, sales guidance is still as it was at between $337 million and $353 million, while EBITDA guidance is still calling for a range of between $60 million and $65 million. In essence, nothing really changed too much from what was forecast.

A look at management's newest move

One problem with Civeo is that it has a meaningful amount of credit facility debt that can be cut below their borrowings if lenders elect to force such a situation. So long as this does not happen, the firm is fine, but if lenders ever become scared and this number gets pulled down too low, the end result could make shareholders quite unhappy since it could result in the business going under in a worst-case scenario or could force additional share offerings and/or require it to take on debt at materially-higher interest rates in order to account for the difference.

*Taken from Civeo

Fortunately, according to management, the firm just went through its most recent redetermination and struck a deal with lenders wherein it had seen its lender commitment drop by $75 million from $350 million to $275 million. In the image above, you can see what the picture looked like before the deal was struck (no similar table has been provided for the post-agreement). This is particularly interesting because, according to their existing facilities agreement, Civeo has to pay a small amount of interest on any proceeds not currently being used (this is standard for credit facilities and I don't think I have ever seen one that didn't have this kind of stipulation).

*Taken from Civeo

I will get to the other aspect of the deal in a moment but the reason why this is important is that, based on the company's current leverage ratio, which I estimate, using its projected 2017 EBITDA of $60 million to $65 million, is between 4.23 and 4.58. As you can see in the image above, this means that on any undrawn amount, Civeo must pay between 0.90% per year and 1.01% per year. By reducing this number by $75 million, management is reducing interest expense, keeping all else the same, by between $0.68 million and $0.76 million per year.

*Taken from Civeo

Every little bit helps but if this were all I was writing on, I wouldn't say it's enough to warrant your attention. What does warrant it, however, is that, in exchange for management striking this deal, they also were able to change their allowable leverage ratios for the better. In the image above, you can see what their leverage ratios were prior to their agreement and in the image below, you can see their current allowable leverage ratios post-deal. At first glance, this may not seem like much but it could make all the difference in Civeo's long-term survival.

*Taken from Civeo

Let's take, for example, the end of 2017. Under their prior deal, the firm would be allowed, assuming its EBITDA estimates are correct, to hold debt of between $300 million and $325 million. Now that number has increased to between $351 million and $380.25 million. For the third quarter of 2018 (the last number shown on the original table), the disparity is even larger, with management only allowed to have debt of between $210 million and $227.5 million compared to the same $351 million to $380.25 million range cited above.

In its press release on this development, management said that one benefit to this change in their agreement is that the company has greater financial flexibility. In detailing this, they noted specifically that it could allow them to engage in acquisitions, a move that I would applaud if management can find a suitable prospect. One downside, though, is that if their leverage ratio is at 5.50 or higher, they will be forced to pay an interest rate that is 0.5% higher than what they are paying today, but if the firm does decide to buy up something, then it's unlikely to be an asset or business where such a small increase in the interest rate would have a material impact on the firm (otherwise, they shouldn't be buying anything).

Takeaway

Based on the data provided, it looks as though management continues to make some nice progress given Civeo's circumstances. Even though I did not like their public share offering earlier this year, I do like to see improved financial flexibility, especially if it can lead to an acquisition, and I also enjoy seeing interest expense falling, even if the move is immaterial in and of itself.

Disclosure: I am/we are long CVEO.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Civeo's Making Nice Progress - Seeking Alpha