Earnings call transcript: Helix Energy sees stock surge after Q3 2025 revenue beat

Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. reported its Q3 2025 earnings, revealing a mixed performance with an EPS miss and a revenue beat. The company posted an EPS of $0.15, falling short of the forecasted $0.17, but exceeded revenue expectations with $377 million against a forecast of $359.57 million. This revenue beat, along with optimistic market sentiment, contributed to a notable 16.14% surge in Helix’s stock price during premarket trading, reaching $7.70. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company currently appears undervalued, with a "GOOD" overall financial health score of 2.96 out of 5.

Key Takeaways

• Helix Energy’s Q3 revenue surpassed expectations, reaching $377 million.
• EPS fell short of forecasts, posting $0.15 compared to the expected $0.17.
• Stock price surged 16.14% in premarket trading following the earnings call.
• Strong performance in the robotics segment and strategic agreements contributed to revenue growth.
• The company maintains a positive outlook for the offshore market cycle.

Company Performance

Helix Energy Solutions demonstrated robust company performance in Q3 2025, with revenues increasing to $377 million from $302 million in Q2. The company’s gross profit also saw a significant rise to $66 million, up from $15 million in the previous quarter. Net income reached $22 million, a substantial improvement from a net loss of $3 million in Q2. With a current ratio of 2.19 and a price-to-book ratio of 0.61, the company maintains strong liquidity while trading below book value. The company’s strong position in the subsea construction market and strategic contracts in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil have been pivotal in this growth.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $377 million, up from $302 million in Q2.
• Earnings per share: $0.15, compared to a loss in the previous quarter.
• Gross Profit: $66 million, up from $15 million in Q2.
• Net Income: $22 million, a turnaround from a $3 million loss in Q2.
• Adjusted EBITDA: $104 million for the quarter.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Helix Energy reported an EPS of $0.15, missing the forecast of $0.17 by 11.76%. However, the company exceeded revenue expectations with $377 million, a 4.84% surprise above the forecasted $359.57 million. This revenue beat marks a positive deviation from previous quarters, indicating strong operational performance and market positioning.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings announcement, Helix’s stock experienced a significant increase, rising 16.14% in premarket trading to $7.70. This surge reflects investor optimism fueled by the revenue beat and the company’s strategic market positioning. Analyst consensus remains positive, with price targets ranging from $8 to $11, suggesting potential upside. The stock’s movement is notable as it approaches the 52-week high of $11.48, indicating positive market sentiment. Get detailed valuation analysis and more with InvestingPro’s comprehensive research reports.

Outlook & Guidance

Helix Energy maintains a positive outlook, forecasting 2025 revenues between $1.23 billion and $1.29 billion. The company projects an EBITDA of $240 million to $270 million and anticipates free cash flow between $100 million and $140 million. Capital expenditures are expected to range from $70 million to $80 million, aligning with strategic growth initiatives.

Executive Commentary

CEO Owen Kratz remarked, "We believe we’re in a trough, but at the cusp of an upcycle," highlighting the company’s optimistic view of market conditions. COO Scotty Sparks added, "Although those rates are lower, we can go off and do other works if the well intervention work doesn’t come to us," emphasizing the company’s strategic flexibility. Kratz also noted, "We’re seeing rates improve modestly and visibility on work remain strong," indicating stable future prospects.

Risks and Challenges

• Regulatory challenges in the UK North Sea could impact future operations.
• Rising supply chain and labor costs may pressure margins.
• The shallow water abandonment market presents operational difficulties.
• Macroeconomic pressures could affect global market demand.
• Potential delays in project execution due to external factors.

Q&A

During the Q&A session, analysts focused on potential work for the Q4000 unit in the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa, seeking clarity on operational plans. Concerns about rising supply chain and labor costs were addressed, with the company highlighting its strategic initiatives to mitigate these challenges. The strong outlook for the robotics segment in 2026 was also a key topic of interest, reflecting confidence in future growth opportunities.

Full transcript - Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc (HLX) Q3 2025:

Dustin, Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Hello, my name is Dustin and I’ll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the third quarter of 2025 Helix Energy Solutions Group’s earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you’d like to ask a question at that time, please press star and the number one on your telephone keypad. If you’d like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brent Arriaga. Please go ahead.

Brent Arriaga, Investor Relations, Helix Energy Solutions Group: Good morning everyone and thanks for joining us today on our conference call where we will be reviewing our third quarter 2025 earnings release. Participating on this call for Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. today are Owen Kratz, our CEO, Scotty Sparks, our COO, Erik Staffeldt, our CFO, Ken Neikirk, our General Counsel, Daniel Stuart, our Vice President, Commercial, and myself. Hopefully, you’ve had an opportunity to review our press release and the related slide presentation released last night. If you do not have a copy of these materials, both can be accessed through the investor relations page on our website at www.helixesg.com. The press release and slides can be accessed under the news and events tab. Before we begin our prepared remarks, Ken Neikirk will make a statement regarding forward-looking information. Ken.

Ken Neikirk, General Counsel, Helix Energy Solutions Group: During this conference call, we anticipate making certain projections and forward-looking statements based on our current expectations and assumptions as of today. Such forward-looking statements may include projections and estimates of future events, business or industry trends, or business or financial results. All statements in this conference call or in the associated presentation, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our actual future results may differ materially from our projections and forward-looking statements due to a number and variety of risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and factors, including those set forth in slide two of our presentation and our most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and in our other filings with the SEC.

You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and we do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statement. We disclaim any written or oral statements made by any third party regarding the subject matter of this conference call. Also, during this call, certain non-GAAP financial disclosures may be made. In accordance with SEC rules, the final slides of our presentation provide reconciliations of certain non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP financial measures. These reconciliations, along with this presentation, the earnings press release, our annual report on Form 10-K, and a replay of this broadcast, will be available under the For the Investor section of our website at www.helixesg.com. Please remember that information on this conference call speaks only as of today, October 23, 2025, and therefore you are advised that any time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of any replay of this call. Scotty?

Scotty Sparks, COO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: Thanks, Ken, and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining our call today, and we hope everybody is doing well. This morning, we will review our third quarter highlights, financial performance, and operations. We’ll provide our view of the current market and update our guidance for the remainder of 2025. Our teams offshore and onshore safely delivered another well-executed quarter. Our safety statistics continue to remain among our best on record. Moving on to the presentation, slides six and seven provide a high-level summary of our results and key highlights for the quarter. Our third quarter results were better than expected, producing our highest quarter results since 2014, despite the continued low-cost stacking of the seawall and the lower utilization of the Q4000 in the Gulf of Mexico.

Revenues in the third quarter were $377 million, with a gross profit of $66 million and a net income of $22 million, compared to $302 million in revenue, $15 million in gross profit, and a net loss of $3 million in Q2. Adjusted EBITDA was $104 million for the quarter, and we had positive operating cash flow of $24 million, resulting in positive free cash flow of $23 million. Year to date, we have generated revenues of $957 million, gross profits of $109 million, and a net income of $23 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $198 million. Our cash and liquidity remained strong, with increased cash and cash equivalents of $338 million and increased liquidity of $430 million at quarter end.

Highlights for the quarter: Brazil operating three vessels with strong utilization, all six trenchers and all three IROV boulder grabs working in the quarter, improved results in Gulf of Mexico shelf following a later start to the season, execution of a three-year contract with a minimum 150-day commitment for the Q units in the Gulf of Mexico, and our entry into a four-year agreement with NKT for the installation, operation, project engineering, and maintenance of the T3600, designed to be the world’s most powerful subsea trencher to be operated from one of our trench and support vessels. Over to slide nine. Slide nine provides a more detailed review of our segment results and segment utilization. In the third quarter, we continue to operate globally with minimal operational disruption, with operations in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, and the U.S. East Coast.

Slide 10 provides further detail of our well intervention segment. The Q4000 achieved high utilization working in the Gulf of Mexico in Q3. The vessel is currently working on a multi-well program for Shell and should be highly utilized for the remainder of 2025. The Q4000 completed a multi-well P&A campaign in the Gulf of Mexico, and then due to gaps in its schedule, we pulled forward the 2026 planned regulatory docking into 2025 to facilitate a cleaner runway in 2026. During this period of a softer Gulf of Mexico market, we are experiencing some gaps within the schedule in Q4, with lower rate ROV decommissioning projects for a good portion of the remainder of the year prior to returning to contracted works at well intervention level rates in January of 2026. In the UK North Sea, the Well Enhancer had 100% utilization during the quarter, working for four customers.

Due to the well-known market turmoil in the North Sea, the Seawell remained warm stacked and is expected to remain warm stacked at a low cost base for the remainder of 2025. In Q3, the Q7000 completed work on numerous wells for Shell on the 400-day decommissioning campaign in Brazil with 100% utilization. The Siem Helix 1 had 98% utilization working for Trident, and the vessel has now completed the Trident contract and is currently undergoing inspections and acceptance prior to commencing its three-year Petrobras contract. The Siem Helix 2 had a very strong quarter with 100% utilization for Petrobras, and the standalone 15K IRS system was on hire in Brazil, contracted to SLB for the quarter, achieving 100% utilization. Moving to slide 11, slide 11 provides further detail of our robotics business. Robotics had a strong quarter.

The business performed at high standards, operating seven vessels during the quarter, working between trenching, ROV support, and site survey work on renewables and oil and gas-related projects globally. Robotics worked six vessels on renewables-related projects within the quarter and had strong vessel utilization overall, with three vessels working on trenching projects and three vessels working on site clearance. All six trenchers and all three IROV boulder grabs were utilized. We operated three vessel trenching spreads in Europe, including the Grand Canyon 3 and the North Sea Enabler with jet trenchers, and the JD Assister with the i-PAL. The Glomar Wave and the Trim support vessel were working on renewable site clearance, utilizing the IROV boulder grabs in Europe. The Shalila Borderlon completed renewables works on the U.S.

East Coast, utilizing our third IROV boulder grab prior to transitioning back to the Gulf of Mexico, where she is currently undertaking RV support works. Also in renewables, we have the T1401 trencher working on a longer-term contract from a third-party client-provided vessel off Taiwan, and the T1402 working from a third-party client-provided vessel for a longer-term contract in the Mediterranean. The GC2 in the Asia-Pacific region performed oil and gas support work offshore Thailand during the quarter. Our renewables and trenching outlook remained very robust, with numerous sizable contracted works in 2025 and 2026 through to 2030, with a solid pipeline of tender activity as far out as 2032. Slide 12 provides detail of our shallow water abandonment business. In Q3, activity levels increased with 100% utilization for the Hedron heavy lift barge and strong utilization for the dive vessels and lift boats.

In Q3, we had a higher number of P&A spreads working offshore, totaling 790 days of utilization compared to 614 days in Q2. Whilst 2025 continues to be a soft year on the Gulf of Mexico shelf, we continue to believe in a long-term outlook for this segment, as well as aging customers look to reduce their decommissioning obligations. In summary, whilst we have seen a softer than expected UK intervention market and some gaps in the later half of the year for the Q4000, we are encouraged by our strong robotics and Brazil segments. We expected Q3 to be a very strong quarter, and it was. We executed it well, producing our highest result in quarter since 2014. I’d like to thank our employees for their efforts, delivering again safely at a high level of execution, and for again securing a further backlog and long-term contracts.

I’ll turn the call over to Brent.

Brent Arriaga, Investor Relations, Helix Energy Solutions Group: Thanks, Scotty. Moving to slide 14, it outlines our debt instruments and key balancing metrics as of September 30. At quarter end, we had $338 million of cash and availability under the ABL facility of $94 million, with a resulting liquidity of $430 million. Our funded debt was $315 million, and we had negative net debt of $31 million at quarter end. Our balance sheet is strong and is expected to strengthen further as we anticipate generating meaningful free cash flow in the fourth quarter and have minimal debt obligations between now and 2029. I’ll now turn the call over to Erik for discussion on our outlook.

Erik Staffeldt, CFO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: Thanks, Brent. Our team performed well in the quarter. It’s been a challenging year, but our Q3 results provide a glimpse into our earnings potential, even with two of our larger assets negatively impacting results. As we enter Q4, we do expect seasonal impacts to our operations, particularly in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico shelf, and APAC. That said, we are tightening our guidance of certain key financial metrics and our forecast. Revenues of $1.23 to $1.29 billion. EBITDA $240 million to $270 million. We have narrowed our EBITDA guidance. Our new range reflects our year-to-date actual results and the expected variability that comes with the winter season during the fourth quarter. Free cash flow range of $100 to $140 million. The range continues to reflect the variability in working capital, specifically timing of accounts receivable with two of our blue-chip customers.

We expect to have this resolved by early 2026. From capital expenditures, we are maintaining our forecast at $70 to $80 million. Our spend continues to be a mix of regulatory maintenance on our vessels and fleet renewal of our robotics ROVs. Our spend is committed, but deliveries may slip into 2026. These ranges involve some key assumptions and estimates, and any significant variation from these assumptions and estimates could cause results to fall outside these ranges. As discussed, our fourth quarter results will be impacted by the winter seasonal weather in the northern hemisphere. The variability in our fourth quarter guidance range is dependent on the length and extent of operations working into the season, namely in the North Sea well intervention and robotics business, in our Asia-Pac robotics operations, and in the Gulf of Mexico shelf.

Providing some key assumptions for the remainder of the year by segment and region, starting on slide 16. The Gulf of Mexico, the Q5000, is contracted through the remainder of the year with expected strong utilization. The Q4000 will have gaps in its schedule as it looks to perform lower revenue ROV support work prior to resuming well intervention work in January. In the UK North Sea, the Well Enhancer has work into November, with the extent of the season being weather dependent. The Seawell continues in warm stack. In Brazil, the Q7000 continues working for Shell into Q2 2026. The CM Helix 2 continues working for Petrobras. The CM Helix 1 completed its work for Trident. The vessel is currently mobilizing for Petrobras, with work expected to start this quarter.

Moving to our robotics segment, our robotics segment will be affected by seasonality, with activity levels in the North Sea and APAC expected to diminish in the winter months. In the APAC region, the Grand Canyon 2 is providing ROV support and hydraulic stimulation offshore Thailand and Malaysia, with expected strong utilization. In the North Sea, the Grand Canyon 3 and the North Sea Enabler are performing trenching projects and are expected to remain utilized for the remainder of the year. The Glomar Wave is forecasted to remain on site clearance operations into December. In the U.S., the Shalila Borderlon is back in the Gulf of Mexico, providing ROV support into November, with potential for further work. Moving to production facilities, the HP1 is on contract for the balance of 2025, with no expected change.

We do have expected variability with production as the Drosky Field continues to deplete and the Thunderhawk Field is still shut in. Continuing with shallow water abandonment, we expect the business to decline in line with the winter weather arrival in the Gulf of Mexico. Our outlook range includes variability depending on the timing and extent of the winter season. Shelf decommissioning is a call-off business, but given customers’ needs and continued reversion of properties through bankruptcies, long-term, we believe in the solid foundation for this market. Slide 17, reviewing our balance sheet, our funded debt stands at $315 million with no significant maturities. Our year-to-date share repurchase spend stands at $30 million, in line with our stated target of minimum 25% of our expected free cash flow, with 4.6 million shares acquired.

At this time, I’ll turn the call back to Owen for discussion on our outlook beyond 2025 and for closing comments. Owen?

Owen Kratz, CEO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: Thanks, Erik. Let me begin with a few macro observations and thoughts where Helix Energy Solutions Group is positioned in the current market. We all know the oil and gas market is cyclical. It’s actually composed of a series of cycles depending on market segment and region. The exploration and drilling cycle is the start of the offshore oil and gas investment cycle, usually beginning at a time of high commodity prices or a perceived supply-demand imbalance. This was our market environment as markets rebounded post-COVID. The exploration and drilling cycle is followed by the development cycle, during which subsea construction services do well. The development cycle usually starts about two years or more after the drilling cycle. This is where I believe we’re at now. Drilling is currently showing softness, with some support from consolidation, fleet rationalization, and a remarkable degree of capital discipline relative to past cycles.

The subsea construction market is currently strong. As production from drilling and development comes on and/or commodity prices soften, CapEx budgets typically get cut. Remaining dollars freed up get directed to providing OpEx. Well intervention gets added to remediation spending, and the production enhancement cycle begins. Without getting into regional differences, we feel the industry is currently in the early but strong development cycle. As a consequence, vessel charter rates and asset values are elevated, and production enhancement is flat. Abandonment is almost a separate event and is currently increasing due to regulatory pressure, the mature nature of reserves, and excess backlog built up, with concern over carried liabilities. Bringing this all together, we believe we’re in a trough, but at the cusp of an upcycle. As the market progresses, it will move into the production enhancement cycle where we stand to benefit.

As we navigate this trough, we’ve had three challenged areas of our business in 2025. Number one, the UK North Sea, driven by government tax and regulatory policy combined with M&A consolidations. Most spending in the UK North Sea came to an abrupt slowdown in early 2025. While we believe 2026 will be marginally better and allow us to reinstate our second vessel, rates will be competitive and work will still be slow. By 2027, we anticipate significant abandonment work will begin as producers leaving the region will be forced to do the work, and remaining producers will seek to lessen liabilities. Number two, the Q4000. In 2026, work visibility in the Gulf of Mexico is better than what occurred going into 2025, as 2025 work was getting deferred into 2026.

We do anticipate that deferrals or cancellations could again occur, so we’re planning to hedge utilization risk by again considering a West Africa campaign for at least part of 2026 for the Q4000. Although we have work already contracted in the Gulf of Mexico for Q1, we excel, as Scotty mentioned, we accelerated a dry dock that was planned for 2026 forward into the softer market of 2025, which should allow for greater availability and flexibility on where she’s deployed. This should improve Well Ops U.S. results year over year. By 2027, we expect Gulf of Mexico demand to increase from both production enhancement and abandonment. Third area, we continue to believe the shallow water abandonment in the Gulf of Mexico will be a large market. For 2025, we right-sized the business and are delivering improved results.

It’s anticipated that 2026 will be a better year, but still a slow year, with more work but at reduced rates as competition for the work remains stiff. Indications are that the volume of work from boomerang properties out of the bankruptcies will build into 2027, creating a strong market. The performance of our robotics group has been a positive this year. We’re seeing rates improve modestly and visibility on work remain strong, and we continue to establish ourselves as a global leader in trenching as we also support construction and wind farm projects. Even with all these challenges of 2025, we nonetheless delivered our highest quarter EBITDA since 2014, and we’re still on track to deliver meaningful free cash flow. While we acknowledge our results for 2025 will fall short of our expectation that we had coming into the year, we still see the earnings potential in our business.

The challenge for us going into 2026 will be to manage the pressure we’re getting to reduce rates while facing rising supply chain and labor costs. We need to maintain our focus on managing our costs. With strong subsea construction and robotics markets, we’re seeing upward pressure on support material and labor costs. Emphasis next year will be on savings in our OpEx and marine costs. We believe there’s a meaningful opportunity in this area. In addition, we can expect further improved EBITDA contributions from the Q7000 if we’re successful in keeping it working in Brazil without the noise of another transit from region to region at higher rates. On the downside, next year we do have both CM Helix 1 and CM Helix 2 vessels in Brazil due for their five-year special surveys. This out-of-service cost will meaningfully impact some of the anticipated improvements.

By how much will be determined as we evaluate costs and timing during our budgeting process. Beyond this, we have a strong balance sheet with negative net debt and significant cash. We’re in a position to opportunistically consider growth by acquisition. We remain a market leader in intervention, decommissioning, and robotics. Through the cycles, we’re demonstrating our resilience, our ability to deliver results even in a challenging market environment, and our positioning for the future. Back to you, Erik.

Erik Staffeldt, CFO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: Thanks, Owen. Operator, at this time, we’ll take any questions.

Dustin, Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you’d like to ask a question again, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and enter the queue. If you’d like to withdraw a question or your question has been answered, simply press star one again. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Greg Lewis from BTIG. The line’s open.

Greg Lewis, Analyst, BTIG: Yeah, hi. Thank you, and good morning everybody, and thanks for taking my questions. Owen, congrats on a great quarter. This was really good to see. It kind of shows the potential with the company. I did have a question around the Q4000. You talked about some of the challenges that it faced in 2025, decisions from customers to defer or cancel. You highlighted the good visibility in Q1. What should we be looking forward to in terms of, I think there’s a lot of optimism around the outlook for 2026, but I think one of the concerns is could we see a little bit of a repeat of customers pushing some work, right? Just kind of how are you thinking about maybe mid-2026 in terms of what’s going to drive those decisions to get that work going or potentially delaying it another quarter or two?

Owen Kratz, CEO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: I’ll start and let Scotty add some color to it. There’s always the potential that in this volatile market right now, producers will change their planned spending. Going in through a budgeting process, we speak primarily with the operating groups to identify the work and start to build our schedule for the following year. During that budgeting process, it’s possible that corporate gets involved and modifies those plans. We don’t always see that. We got caught short this year and were sort of ill-prepared. We sort of figured that the Gulf of Mexico might be soft in 2025. We took a contract, it was supposed to be a six-month contract, in West Africa.

That work actually got shortened a little bit, so we wound up coming back to the Gulf a little earlier, only to face the budgeting decisions to defer work for out of 2025, and that’s what sort of caught us up. We just didn’t, you know, admittedly, we didn’t see it coming. Looking forward into 2026, it’s a similar situation, but I think the visibility of the work is stronger in 2026 than it was going into 2025. The work has been deferred once, so that sort of lessens the possibility that it would be deferred twice. As I said in my remarks, you can never rule it out, but that’s why we’re also looking at hedging that risk by entertaining another campaign to West Africa this year.

Scotty Sparks, COO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: Yeah, I’ll add to that. Thanks, Owen. We have a sizable contract to kick off very early in January. It’ll get us going for a good start of the year. We are at high-level discussions with many operators about works into 2026 in the Gulf of Mexico. One of the reasons we brought forward the regulatory dry docking from 2026 into 2025 is if we do take a West Africa campaign, it’d be very difficult to do the docking in the Africa region. We’re also starting to have discussions about potential works in Guyana as well. A few other workplaces are opening up for us, and we’re looking at regional options as well. You have to also remember we’re not a rig. You never hear of rigs going off and doing construction or decommissioning support work. We’re quite a versatile unit.

Although those rates are lower, we can go off and do other works if the well intervention work doesn’t come to us. A few options.

Greg Lewis, Analyst, BTIG: Yeah, no, that was super helpful. Thanks, Scotty. I did have a follow-up around shallow water abandonment. Clearly, I think we share your views that it’s going to be a better market over time. I did want to, if you could elaborate a little bit, you mentioned that your expectations for 2026 are that we are going to see a pickup in activity, but maybe at reduced rates. Just kind of curious if you could maybe elaborate on that comment.

Owen Kratz, CEO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: Yeah, in 2023, it was a banner year as Apache really absorbed all of the available capacity in the market. That drove rates and utilization to all-time highs. In 2024, when they exited the market, the competition did add capacity. That sort of exacerbated the situation, and we went into a period where there’s actually excess supply over demand. We’ve seen that’s continued through 2025. We didn’t adjust well in 2024 to it. We were expecting a quicker rebound, but there were provisions allowed for producers to defer their work up to three years. That sort of kept the work from rebounding as quickly as we thought it would. Going into next year, we are seeing an increase in the volume of work, although the competition has added capacity. I think 2026 will continue to be a highly competitive year on margin, but utilization should be strong for us.

Going into 2027, that’s when the hiatus sort of starts to expire, and we see the shallow water abandonment market actually returning to what I would call a normal state following these boomerang properties. A much stronger market by 2027.

Greg Lewis, Analyst, BTIG: Okay. Just so I understand, it sounded like despite maybe some of the softness in the last year or two in SWA, you did have some competitors that maybe, did they add capacity or did they, was it moved to the U.S. or was it just incremental stuff that they built into the market?

Owen Kratz, CEO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: No, it was incremental spreads that were actually fabricated and put into the market. The big bottleneck in that market is actually the people. Whoever has the work sort of gets the people. We came up short in 2024, and because of our competition bidding lower rates and having the capacity, the people sort of moved away from us. Throughout this year, we’ve been very successful in getting the people to come back to us, and we’ve increased our utilization, of course, by cutting rates. I think we’re pretty well positioned going into next year to be a strong competitor in the market.

Greg Lewis, Analyst, BTIG: Okay, super helpful. Thank you very much.

Dustin, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of James Schumm from TD Cowen. The line’s open.

Hey, good morning guys. Nice quarter.

Thank you.

I was hoping maybe you could help me with the bridge to fourth quarter from third quarter in subsea robotics. I guess it looks like you’ll have some Q4 seasonality. It looks like the vessels will all be utilized at some level, but maybe the vessel days will be a bit lower. If I’m reading your slides correctly, I think you had all six trenchers going in the third quarter, but you only have four in the fourth quarter. Is that right? Maybe just speak at a high level, what kind of a drop we’re looking at sequentially for subsea robotics?

Scotty Sparks, COO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: We did have six trenchers working in the third quarter. We will drop down to eventually four trenchers in the fourth quarter. The trencher that’s currently working in Taiwan, that’ll get seasonal once the weather kicks in. That’ll get demobilized. However, we are expecting work in Taiwan again for T1401 next year. The North Sea trenchers should be relatively busy through the quarter, but you will start getting affected by seasonal weather, which will bring down rates. The IPAL that was on the JD Assister, that project’s come to a close in Q3, so that will not be utilized in Q4.

Scotty, when you said it’ll bring down rates, did you mean bring down utilization, or do rates also soften in the fourth quarter?

Generally, when we’re trenching, we have an operational full rate, and then there’s a lower weather rate. We still get paid for weather, but it’s lower rates. There’ll be less trenchers utilized, and as the weather kicks in, there’ll be some lower rates coming in.

Understood. Thanks. Guys, in the North Sea, I think there were two large tenders. Is there an update there? Were you unsuccessful or do we just haven’t heard anything or what’s the update there?

We’re very active on both of those tenders. One of them, there’s a lot of technical clarifications going on. The other one, I’d say we’re in quite a good position for. We’re just not in a position yet to bring that out to the market, but it’s in a good place.

Okay. Maybe just.

Okay. I would think that next year we turn into activating the seawall again at some point. We don’t know if it will be a full year or a partial year, but it’s looking more and more likely we will activate the seawall in 2026. We just don’t know for what length of time yet.

Okay. That’s where I was going with that. Thank you. Just lastly, a quick clarification. The well intervention, the new contract that you announced, 150 days minimum. Is that a grand total of 150 days over three years or is it 150 days annually?

No, the minimum commitment over the three years is 150 days. However, in 2026, we’re kicking off with that contract with quite, that’s the sizeable work for the kickoff for the Q4000.

Okay. Great. That’s it for me. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Dustin, Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Conrad Jensen from Raymond James. The line’s open.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call and, like everyone else said, great quarter here. Really strong showing for robotics in 3Q and reading the forward commentary, it looks like that should continue to be solid going forward. Just wondering if you could give a high-level overview next year of what you’re thinking about 2026 robotics versus what we saw in 2025.

Scotty Sparks, COO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: I think we should see a strong year in robotics for 2026. It should at least be on par with what we have for 2025. We’re expecting a strong trenching season in the Mediterranean, the North Sea, and in Taiwan. The site clearance market’s looking quite robust for next year as well. I expect to at least be on par, if not better, as we go into 2026. Our trenching rates will certainly have some very large contracts in place at better rates in 2025. It should be another good year for robotics.

Yeah, that’s helpful. Any update on the chemical treatment success for Thunderhawk? I saw you don’t anticipate any revenues in 2025, but wondering if you still expect to receive some benefit in 2026 without having to do intervention?

Owen Kratz, CEO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: We’ve seen some positive developments on that front. That leads us to question whether or not an intervention will actually be necessary. It’s still early days and we don’t know. We have plans that are already submitted into BESSY for the various optionality of work going forward to get it back online. Our anticipation though is that we should have it back online at least by some point in the first quarter.

Got it. Thanks, guys. I’ll turn it back.

Scotty Sparks, COO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: Thank you.

Dustin, Conference Operator: Thank you. Again, if you have a question, please press star and number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Josh Jane from Pickering Energy Partners. The line’s open.

Thanks. Good morning. First question, you noted rising supply chain costs moving forward into 2026. Where are you seeing the most pressure, and could you just talk about how you’re mitigating those increases?

Owen Kratz, CEO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: We’re seeing the rising cost pressures across the board, actually. It began with labor costs. They went up for this year. I don’t see any reprieve from the labor costs, but also on the materials and supply sides and delivery, through the supply chain, we’re seeing escalating costs. Those are areas where we’re going to really be focusing on trying to mitigate the costs. That’s just working with our suppliers, maybe consolidating our supplier base, and just putting a little pressure on achieving a little bit of a margin gain there.

Okay. I wanted to talk about pricing for well intervention. Although deep water rig rates have come down for incremental contracts from where we were last summer, there’s still a gap between where your assets can work and, you know, sort of seventh gen drilling assets. I’m curious if you’ve seen any change in pricing discussions you’re having on the intervention side or is securing backlog just more at this point about stacking programs on top of one another than really a price-led discussion?

Brent Arriaga, Investor Relations, Helix Energy Solutions Group: It is also a price-led discussion. We have seen downward pressure on our rates, similar to what the drillers have experienced in the marketplace. Having said that, we are also able to tier our rates. We have well intervention rates. We have rates for carrying out construction support projects and ROV support projects during times of lower utilization in well intervention and similar, but we have seen downward pressure.

Scotty Sparks, COO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: We do have backlog in Brazil on longer-term contracts and for the Q5000 as well. That’s set rates similar to and better to what we have in this year. It’s also a bit of a regional play, you know, sort of we might have a softness for the Q4000, the Q5000 type, but then the rates in the UK North Sea will be dependent on whether or not we can activate the second vessel. We might see a bit of rate pressure there trying to get the second vessel into the market.

Understood. Maybe just lastly, could you just speak in general to the market in Brazil, you know, continue to be highly utilized there and just maybe your thoughts over the next couple of years about that market and the success that you’ve been having?

Yeah, I mean, we have the CM Helix 1 and 2, both on the Petrobras contracts, they’re going to be for three years plus options. The Q7000 is on a good contract with Shell. We would hope that there’s some extensions there, but then we’re also starting to see quite a bit of interest in the Brazil market for the Q7000 out with Shell. I would say Brazil in general, not just for us, but for the rigs, is the most buoyant market out there at this time. We’re quite confident of keeping our position.

Thanks. I’ll turn it back.

Dustin, Conference Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to Erik Staffeldt for closing remarks.

Erik Staffeldt, CFO, Helix Energy Solutions Group: Thanks for joining us today. We very much appreciate your interest and participation and look forward to having you on our fourth quarter 2025 call in February. Thank you.

Dustin, Conference Operator: The meeting is now concluded. Thank you all for joining. Evening now. Disconnect.

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