Tidewater Inc., Houston, announced today that revenue for the three and nine months ended Sept. 30, 2022, were $192 million and $461 million, respectively. This compares to $92 million and $266 million, respectively, for the three and nine months ended Sept. 30, 2021.
Tidewater's net income (losses) for the three and nine months ended Sept. 30, 2022, were $5.4 million (10 cents a share) and $(32.4) million (76 cents a share), respectively. This compares to $(26.3) million (64 cents per common share) and $(91) million ($2.22 per common share), for the three and nine months ended Sept. 30, 2021.
“Our third quarter performance reinforces our previous commentary that the offshore vessel industry had reached an inflection point," Quintin Kneen, Tidewater’s president and CEO said in a statement. "Revenue improved by 17% sequentially, partly driven by a full quarter of the Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO) acquisition. Active utilization increased from 82.5% in the second quarter of 2022 to 83.7%, and our average day rate, despite a material strengthening of the U.S. dollar, improved by nearly $1,100 per day sequentially, or approximately 8.5%. The combined improvement in utilization and average day rate provided an approximately 11.5% improvement in revenue per average active vessel. Vessel level cash margin improved to nearly 41%, up 240 basis points.
"It is also worth mentioning that we generated net income during the third quarter, the first quarterly net income since emergence from bankruptcy in 2017, which represents a satisfying milestone in the continued recovery of our business," continued Kneen.
“Along with the increase in revenue throughout the first half of this year we also saw an increase in working capital, which is expected during such a period. We are pleased to report that the investment in working capital moderated in the third quarter. In fact, although revenue increased 17% sequentially, our trade accounts receivable balance decreased from the second quarter. The improvement in working capital management combined with our improved profitability provided free cash flow of $21.9 million during the third quarter, representing a sequential improvement in free cash flow of $36.8 million.
“We continue to see day rate momentum across all of our regions, led by Asia Pacific, Europe and Mediterranean and West Africa. Asia Pacific and Europe and Mediterranean regions both benefitted from a strong anchor handling market as favorable conditions and robust drilling activity pushed day rates up to some of the highest levels ever realized in the North Sea. Moving forward, we do expect that the typical industry seasonality will moderate the day rates for the larger anchor handlers over the next two quarters, but the drilling activity driving the demand we saw for these vessels over the past summer will recur in 2023.
“As it pertains to synergies associated with the SPO transaction, we continue to work through our integration plan and have continued to hit internal milestones on our way to realizing our synergy targets. We remain confident that we will realize the $45.0 million of synergies contemplated in the transaction. We expect to realize the full run-rate of general and administrative synergies during the first quarter of 2023 and the full benefit of our operating expense synergy during the latter part of 2023.
“As we look forward to the remainder of 2022 and 2023, we remain confident that the fundamentals for the offshore vessel market will remain robust. The safety of our people and of our operations remains a critical focus for us as this robust activity unfolds, and we remain steadfast in our dedication to being the safest and most reliable offshore support vessel operator in the world.”
