Earnings call transcript: Viridien Q4 2024 shows stable revenue, stock rises

Viridien SA reported its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024, revealing stable revenue performance and a notable improvement in net cash flow. The company’s stock price reacted positively, increasing by 5.76% to close at $55.66 in the aftermath of the earnings announcement. According to InvestingPro analysis, Viridien’s current trading price is near its Fair Value, with the company maintaining a "GOOD" overall financial health rating. This rise in stock price reflects positive investor sentiment towards Viridien’s strategic initiatives and financial health improvements.

Want deeper insights? InvestingPro offers 7 additional exclusive tips for Viridien, including crucial information about its profitability outlook and financial strength.

Key Takeaways

• Viridien’s full-year revenue remained flat at €1,117 million.
• Adjusted Segment EBITDA increased by 14% year-over-year.
• Net debt reduced significantly, improving the net debt/EBITDA ratio.
• Stock price rose by 5.76% following the earnings release.
• Positive outlook with expected net cash flow of €100 million in 2025.

Company Performance

Viridien demonstrated resilience in a challenging market environment, maintaining steady revenue while achieving a substantial increase in adjusted segment EBITDA. InvestingPro data shows the company’s strong liquidity position with a current ratio of 1.71, while its EBITDA reached $314.1 million in the last twelve months. The company’s focus on deleveraging resulted in a notable decrease in net debt, positioning it more favorably for future growth. In comparison to its industry peers, Viridien’s performance highlights its strong market position, particularly in geoscience imaging technology.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: €1,117 million (flat year-over-year)
• Adjusted Segment EBITDA: €455 million (+14% YoY)
• Net Cash Flow: €56 million (significantly improved)
• Net Debt: €921 million (down from €974 million in 2023)
• Net Debt/EBITDA Ratio: 2.0x (improved from 2.4x in 2023)

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, Viridien anticipates generating €100 million in net cash flow for 2025, with modest growth expected in its geoscience segment. Analyst consensus from InvestingPro supports this optimistic outlook, with targets ranging from $53.57 to $125.96 per share. The company remains committed to reducing its debt and plans to complete bond refinancing. Additionally, Viridien projects multi-client capital expenditures between €180 million and €200 million, lower than in 2024.

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Executive Commentary

"Our financial roadmap is clear, disciplined capital allocation, robust cash flow generation, and continued deleveraging," said Sophie Jokhia, CEO of Viridien. She also noted a gradual pickup in exploration efforts, particularly among European international oil companies (IOCs), and highlighted the end of the vessel capacity agreement as a turning point for the company’s financial trajectory.

Risks and Challenges

• Oversupply in the vessel market with utilization below 70%.
• Potential volatility in the energy sector impacting exploration investments.
• Economic uncertainties that could affect client spending.
• Competitive pressures in geoscience imaging technology.
• Risks associated with executing cost reduction plans in the SMO segment.

Viridien’s earnings call provided insights into its strategic direction and financial health, underscoring its commitment to growth and stability amidst market challenges.

Full transcript - Viridien SA (VIRI) Q4 2024:

Conference Operator: sir. Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Viridian Full Year twenty twenty four Financial

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: I

Conference Operator: would now like to hand the conference over to the Viridian team. Please go ahead.

Jean Baptiste Rousseille, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Viridian: Yes, thank you. Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this presentation of Viridian’s full year twenty twenty four results. I’m Jean Baptiste Rousseille in charge of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. And I’m here today in Paris with Sophie Jokhia, our CEO and Jerome Serre, our Group CFO.

They will provide you an overview of the results as well as some comments on our outlook. And following this presentation, we’ll be pleased to take your questions. And now I’ll leave you with Sophie.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: Thank you, Jean Baptiste, and welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining this presentation. Market environment remained stable in 2024, characterized by a backdrop of continued disciplined investment. Despite some volatility in the macro environment during the second half of the year, with oil prices fluctuating due to geopolitical tensions and moderate oversupply, our clients maintain stable spending patterns within our sector, driven by increased confidence in long term and longer cycle offshore investments. We are seeing a gradual pickup in the early phases of exploration efforts, particularly among European IOCs with the continued focus on efficiency, scalability, low carbon and cost discipline. Let me start with the highlights of 2024, a year marked by successes where we met or exceeded our key targets.

Our revenue remains stable with notable outperformance on profitability and net cash flow generation. It is worth highlighting our commercial successes at Geoscience and Earthdata as well as the ongoing restructuring at SMO, which is enhancing profitability and flexibility. Overall, we successfully delivered on the key milestones from the financial road map that we presented a year ago. Let me move on to Slide six. In this presentation, we will mainly highlight full year performance as it more accurately represents market trends and the company’s overall performance.

There are several positive signs for our sector. Clients are increasingly prioritizing quality, they’re willing to commit to longer time frames indicating increased visibility and the size of projects is growing. Notably, order intake remained solid throughout the year, particularly during the fourth quarter. Over the year, Geoscience confirmed its strength and ability to drive the group’s performance with 20% revenue growth for the second consecutive year. Earthdata revenue increased by 14, driven by strong investments.

As anticipated, Sensing and Monitoring experienced a decline in revenue due to a high comparison base with the delivery of mega cruise in 2023. Overall, our full year revenue was nearly flat at EUR 1,117,000,000.000, aligning with our revenue guidance at the beginning of the year. Our full year adjusted segment EBITDA increased by 14% year over year to $455,000,000 driven by DDE’s growth, partially offset by SMO’s decline. Net cash flow improved significantly to $56,000,000 from last year, reflecting our focus on cost control and working cap management. Our performance underscores our focus on cash generation, which is particularly satisfying considering the $75,000,000 in contractual fees related to vessel commitments in 2024 that impacted our cash flow.

This contract ended on January 8, marking a significant turning point for our financial trajectory and the final step towards achieving our asset light business model ambition. Our financial roadmap remains clear, disciplined capital allocation, robust cash flow generation and continued balance sheet deleveraging. Moving on to Slide seven. DD segment revenue grew by 17% to $787,000,000 with adjusted EBITDA at 25%, four fifty eight million dollars with both geoscience and earth data contributing positively. On Slide eight with geoscience.

Geoscience external revenue reached a record high of $4.00 $4,000,000 up 20% surpassing pre COVID levels. Order intake increased by 90% year over year driven by best in class imaging technology, which the industry requires to solve increasingly complex subsurface challenges, increased activity in The Middle East with large volumes of land and OBM data acquired and the renewal of multiple long term contracts for dedicated HPC processing centers. Our constant focus on efficiency combined with the use of the latest technologies has continued to yield further improvements in productivity. This performance demonstrate our unique ability to deliver the highest quality imaging results and design, build and operate the most efficient HPC operations for high workloads scientific operations. Going on to Slide nine.

Our commercial successes are driven by sustained client interest in our technology. Clients consistently tell us that our images are the best in the industry and they can trust our results to make critical investment decisions. Our elastic four waveform imaging technology, now becoming mainstream across all regions, offers significant differentiation. It provides a step change in image quality, enhancing the resolution of fine geological details and reducing investment risks for our clients. In our new businesses, Geoscience is showing positive momentum, especially in carbon sequestration.

We are working on several exciting projects in Norway, The U. S. Gulf and Asia Pacific, indicating broad regional interest. Additionally, Minerals and Mining is making progress with new programs awarded in Australia and Oman. Going on to Slide 10.

This is a really good example of the differentiation that we bring in geoscience. Virgin has been imaging the largest OBN survey in the North Sea. Compared to streamer data, OBN data is much richer, offering better low frequencies and longer offsets between sources and receivers. This combined with the exponential increase in data makes the imaging work significantly more complex, which is where our expertise truly shines. Our advanced four way form imaging algorithms are most effective in extracting the maximum information from the data.

And in this case, the subsurface rock velocities inferred from the data exhibit unprecedented resolution and geological relevance with an exceptionally accurate match. The final models and images are critical for our clients, enabling them to explore faster and more accurately. Now moving on to Earthdata with Slide 11. Earthdata segment revenue grew by 14% to $383,000,000 compared to last year. Pre funding revenue grew 6% to $2.00 $5,000,000 with a pre funding rate of 81% of CapEx in line with our long term target.

After sales grew to $178,000,000 up 25% in the flat market reflecting client interest in our data quality despite limited bid rounds during the year and our clients disciplined approach. On Slide 12, our CapEx was allocated to the Laconia survey in The U. S. Gulf, the North Viking Raven (NASDAQ:RAVN) streamer survey in Norway and numerous reprocessing projects globally. We also initiated projects in prospective regions, including Australia, Malaysia, Ivory Coast and Uruguay.

In our new businesses, Earthdata completed a mining project in Arizona and delivered several carbon sequestration projects in the North Sea, U. S. Gulf and Asia. We believe our Laconia project will provide the industry with a step change in imaging quality. Despite being at a very early stage, the first images reveal Paliogen structures that were previously unseen in legacy data.

The funders have been very impressed by the new information we have been able to provide, which will attract additional clients. Looking at Slide 13. You can see on this map the position of our project portfolio in 2024, reflecting our strategy to invest in our core basins of The U. S. Gulf, Brazil and Norway, but also position in the future active basins.

I am particularly pleased with our projects in Uruguay, Cote D’Ivoire and Malaysia that are attracting significant client interest. Moving to Sensing and Monitoring on Slide 14. Our full year SMO segment revenue was $313,000,000 reflecting a 27% decline from the previous year, which benefited from the delivery of Mega Crew Systems. The full year adjusted EBITDA was $35,000,000 a margin of 11% slightly down from last year. However, I was particularly pleased with the Q4 performance, which achieved an 18% margin.

This indicates that our restructuring plan is on track to deliver the expected cost reduction. On Slide 15 now, we can qualify 2024 as a transition year. In the absence of Middle East mega crew projects, we achieved a solid level of revenue sustained by a large installed base and initiated a restructuring plan aimed at reducing SMO’s breakeven point, while increasing operational flexibility. We have already successfully cut our fixed cost by reducing the industrial footprint in Asia and in The U. S.

We believe we will reach our $20,000,000 to $30,000,000 cost reduction run rate target by end of twenty twenty five as we complete the implementation of the restructuring plan in France. In 2024, we also had notable operational and commercial successes, including the launch of the next generation of land acquisition systems and vibrator electronics, as well as strong deliveries of land nodes in Europe, Asia and The Americas. In SMO, our new businesses grew by 17% year over year, now accounting for 17% of SMO revenue, up from 10% in 2023 with infrastructure monitoring being the largest contributor. We are also benefiting from wireless node sales to service companies involved in geothermal activities. Looking ahead, SMO should be well positioned for both growth and improved profitability through the cycles.

Let me now hand the floor over to Jerome for comments on our financials.

Jean Baptiste Rousseille, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Viridian: Thank you, Sophie. Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As Sophie already mentioned, 2024 was a very solid year for Berrien in terms of financial performance by achieving EUR 1,100,000,000.0 of revenues, EUR $455,000,000 of EBITDA and more than EUR 50,000,000 of net cash flow. Let’s start with the P and L on Slide 17. Our 2024 revenues were stable versus last year at slightly above $1,100,000,000 but with a different mix.

Geoscience has continued to grow strongly, plus 20% year on year, reaching above $400,000,000 of revenues. EDA revenues were at around $380,000,000 plus $45,000,000 versus that year, thanks to solid asset sales and good crowdfunding on the back of LACO. As expected, after 2023 year marked by the delivery of mega cruise in Saudi, SMO revenues were lower in 2024 at $330,000,000 These business mix were clearly positive for segment EBITDA and OpEx, which were respectively at $455,000,000 and $173,000,000 in 2024 on an adjusted basis. Note that those adjustments do not relate to penalty fees from our vessel commitments. To be clear, the $455,000,000 EBITDA still includes $54,000,000 of penalties in 2024.

Actually, most of those non recurring items are related to SMO confirmation plan, such as the restructuring provision associated to the social planning funds approved in December 24 or non cash impairment linked to the rationalization of self sales for the client. Finally, regarding group net income, we’re posting a strong result in 2024 with $51,000,000 versus $60,000,000 in 2023. Moving on to the group cash flow on Slide 18. Our net cash flow for the year reached $56,000,000 which was above our 2024 initial guidance. This is a result of a strong focus on operational efficiency, both on cost and working capital.

Compared to 2023, we benefited in 2024 from the settlement of the legal action in India with a net positive impact of circa $35,000,000 but we use this one off gain to see the opportunity of the Reconya Obrien project in The U. S. Gulf and significantly increase our ESFX project. Looking at 2025, our Q1 cash will still be impacted by the CapEx required for the Iconia acquisition as well as the Q4 earlier client collection mentioned in our January trading statement. However, we remain confident in reaching our net cash flow target of $100,000,000 for the year 2025.

Regarding our balance sheet now on Slide 18. At December ’24, our IFRS net debt stood at $921,000,000 down from $974,000,000 last year, mainly coming from our cash flow generation in the year and some positive FX impact. This led to a ratio net debt over EBITDA of two times compared to 2.4 times in December 2023, demonstrating that our deleveraging trajectory has really started. Indeed, back to the twenty twenty four-twenty twenty five financial roadmap we did set out last year and that we will include in Slide 19, a lot of progress has been made already in 2024. First, we go to credit upgrade for SMP, exiting the uncomfortable season.

We reduced our growth debt, buying back EUR 60,000,000 of our bonds versus an initial indication of EUR 30,000,000. Dabbling this buyback on block was another strong signal of our deleveraging ambitions, plus we benefited from an appreciable discount on the value of this debt, which is already nice to get. We also worked on the structure of our liquidity by reducing the minimum operating cash to CHF 100,000,000 and by extending the maturity of our FCF. And since the beginning of the year, we are actively preparing the actual refinancing of our bonds and get ready to grab the best market window. I’ll now only back the floor to Sophie for the conclusion of this presentation.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: Thank you, Jerome. In summary, we delivered a strong performance in 2024 within a stable market environment. I’m particularly impressed by the momentum in our Geoscience business, which continues to expand thanks to our people, service quality and differentiated imaging and HPC technology. Our data delivered a growth in a flat market and continue to develop positions that will drive future after sales. Sensing and monitoring has repositioned itself for increased profitability and cash generation.

Looking ahead to 2025, within current market conditions, we expect a strong yet stable E and P CapEx environment. Geosan should deliver moderate growth on the back of its robust backlog. We believe the performance of Earthdata is better measured by EBITDA minus CapEx, which serves as a proxy for cash generation as we continue to focus on project quality. This KPI will improve based on the end of vessel commitments earlier this year. Sensing and monitoring should benefit from restructuring and equipment renewals, driven by the aging of the installed base and improve its profitability.

Also 2025 is an important year for the group. The end of our vessel capacity agreement is a significant turning point for our financial trajectory and the final step towards achieving an asset light business model. Our financial roadmap is clear, disciplined capital allocation, robust cash flow generation and continued deleveraging. Based on the clearly identified sources of improvement, including the solid performance of our three business lines, the conclusion of the vessel utilization contract and the positive impact of the SMO restructuring, we anticipate generating approximately SEK 100,000,000 in net cash flow in 2025. Finally, as Jerome mentioned, we anticipate completing our bond refinancing in 2025.

Thank you for your attention and we look forward to your questions.

Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now go to your first question. And your first question comes from the line of Kevin Roger from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.

Kevin Roger, Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux: Yes. Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking the question. I would have three, if I may. The first one, can you comment a bit on your expected vessel cost?

Because basically, you do not have any more of the partnership with Shearwater that should massively support your EBITDA and cash. So what have you seen recently on your side for securing the vessel, the derate? And what is basically the strategy that you are implementing right now? That would be the first one, please. The second one is on multi client CapEx.

If you can comment a bit here, what how do you consider yourself on 25 for investment? And the last one, just on the accounting, can you come back please on the difference between the adjusted EBIT and the reported one, please? Thanks a lot.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: Okay. Thank you. Good evening, Kevin. So I’ll address the first two questions and then Jerome will take the third one. We looked at the market starting a year ago and tried to assess what life would look like after we exit or after that contract that we had ended.

And our view is that the vessel market is still oversupplied. And the proof of it is that the utilization of the vessel has remained below 70%. And so far, we consider it will be relatively easy to get access to vessels and we don’t see movement in the pricing either. So pretty much we expect to have similar conditions as we enjoyed in the last few years moving forward. Of course, we constantly monitor the situation and if we felt we needed to go into some kind of a preferred partnership, we would.

But at this point in time, we feel comfortable to just go in the market on an as needed basis. The second question on the EDA CapEx, as you’ve noticed, we’ve avoided the guiding on that and we prefer we like better the EBITDA minus CapEx. And the reason for that is that we look at the quality of the projects. So if we spend more CapEx, we look at the pre funding that goes with it. But generally speaking, with the perspective that we have as of today, there’s a certain level of uncertainty in the permitting side.

We have actually a number of projects in the pipe that we would like to be working on, but it depends a little bit on the permitting side. But I would say with the view we have today, it would be lower, much lower than last year. So probably back to the more normal levels at 180,000,000 to $200,000,000 But it could change if opportunities arise again and there’s good pre funding, we might go for it. Jerome, you want to take the third question?

Jean Baptiste Rousseille, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Viridian: Yes. Regarding the adjustment at the EBIT level, they’re kind of similar to the one I mentioned during that presentation. So you already have the provision for the social plan within South South France. It’s about 20 HTE that will be the payroll in the course of H1. And on top, we have the rationalization of our product line, which has figured some write off of assets, intangible, but also stocks in our balance sheet.

So that explains the $60,000,000 as you can see in these adjustments that we consider them definitely as non recurring.

Kevin Roger, Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux: Okay. Thanks for the time.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: Thank you.

Conference Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jean Luc Romain from CIC Market Solutions. Please go ahead.

Jean Luc Romain, Analyst, CIC Market Solutions: Hi, good afternoon. BP (NYSE:BP) announced a step up investment in exploration yesterday at the Capital Markets Day. Did this already show up in your order intake? Or is it still something to come? And what do you see among other super majors in terms of exploration efforts going forward?

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: Okay. Thank you. Good evening, Jean Luc. So I guess the we all looked at we also the announcement from BP who went from projecting a decrease in production to actually projecting an increase in production. And as you know, to increase the production requires quite a lot of work because you have to fight the decline, the natural decline plus add extra production.

So that will certainly require extra exploration beyond the step out exploration that has been very much the focus for the IOCs in the last number of years. I think I mentioned through 2024, the increased appetite from the IOCs towards more frontier area. They’re not going to the let’s call it the very frontier area, but certainly a larger interest. You’ve got a quarter margin, interest in places like in Brazil, in the North and the South of Brazil. You’ve got Uruguay, Suriname.

Angola is actually picking up, Nigeria, EastMed, Malaysia. So there’s a larger number of countries that are attracting interest and BP particularly are interested in the Gulf Of Mexico, which they consider their core basin and they have existing production. So there definitely has been a focus on step out, but there are areas in the Gulf Of Mexico that are still considered frontier and I do expect not just BP but a larger client base will be looking at that.

Jean Luc Romain, Analyst, CIC Market Solutions: Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Guillaume Delaby from Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Jean Luc Romain, Analyst, CIC Market Solutions: Yes. Good afternoon. Maybe a question on your backlog. So the geoscience backlog was $245,000,000 at the end of Q3. It is now $351,000,000 at the end of Q4.

So my first question is what has happened in Q4 to get such an increase in backlog? First question. Second question, how is backlog Geoscience backlog trending in January and February 2025? And third question, Sophie, you mentioned modest growth in Geoscience for 2025. How do you reconcile modest revenue growth in Geoscience in 2025 with such a high backlog?

Thank you.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: Okay. Well, thank you, and good evening, Guillermo. Those are good questions. These are things we look at. So the geoscience increase in backlog, it’s a mix of different things.

So some

Kevin Roger, Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux: of

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: it is projects like the normal projects that we get in backlog and some of it is long term dedicated centers. So some of these include three to five years contracts. So it’s a mix of different things, yet it is definitely an increase compared to the year before. One thing we see is that longer term projects. So in a way, probably you remember, I used to say the backlog would cover six months worth of work.

Then we had a smaller size of projects, so it was covering a little bit less. Now we’re going back to larger projects that will deliver over a longer period of time. So perhaps that explains a little bit that modest growth on the back of a very high backlog. So combination of multiyear contracts and longer term contracts in the sense of the large contracts, larger data that take longer to deliver. So how does January and February look like?

It looks like normal. So I would say it was a bit of an exceptionally high where a lot of things came together in December. And January, February is good and it’s a level that we need to deliver what we said that modest growth.

Jean Luc Romain, Analyst, CIC Market Solutions: So maybe I’m going to so when you say it’s back to normal, does it mean that Geotirion’s backlog I’m sorry to push you a little bit Sophie, but does it mean that backlog at the February is a little bit higher than backlog at the end of twenty twenty four? I just try.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: I actually probably would avoid answering that question. It’s not relevant, to be honest. You don’t it used to be actually ten years ago with the backlog or the order intake was very steady in a way that every month we would get a number that was quite similar and it meant something to look at the monthly numbers. It’s I want to say that since 2015, ’20 ’16, it’s not the case anymore and it becomes a bit more lumpy. So I don’t look at monthly trends.

I really start looking more at quarterly trends to be able to make sense of it. Okay. Generally speaking, the trend is good. It’s trending up. At this point in time, we cannot I mean, you cannot make a translation of the increased backlog into an increased revenue.

For exactly what I was saying, the size of the project is getting bigger, will take longer to deliver, So which is good. It gives us a longer perspective where during COVID it became a shorter perspective.

Daniel Thompson, Analyst, BNP Paribas (OTC:BNPQY): That’s very clear.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Baptiste Lebak from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.

Baptiste Lebak, Analyst, ODDO BHF: Yes. Good evening, everybody. Two questions from my side. The first one is regarding 2025. Can we expect some transfer fees?

And your guidance, I imagine, does not take into account transfer fees. Just a clarification. And second question is regarding, let’s say, industrial CapEx, which were down close to 50% for 2024 at $33,000,000 Is it a good proxy to start the year to put it in a model? Thank you.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: Thank you and good evening. In terms of transfer fee, it is part of the model for our data. And so there is always in the budget a certain level of our data, which we’d consider normal. In a way, we’ve considered a normal usual, whatever the number is, level of transfer fees. Actually, there’s one that I can talk about because it’s public, it’s the Hess (NYSE:HES) Chevron (NYSE:CVX), but there’s uncertainty around it.

So whether it is this one or maybe another, we do expect that there will be some level of transfer fee. Some years are higher than others. And it depends as well when whether we have data in the place where that transfer happens. You want to take the industrial CapEx, which is lower was lower last year from the past? I think it’s the data center effect

Daniel Thompson, Analyst, BNP Paribas: probably. Okay.

Jean Baptiste Rousseille, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Viridian: So that’s your okay. So I was a bit confused.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: It’s the data center effect and so what’s the basis?

Jean Baptiste Rousseille, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Viridian: In 2023, you had the end of the investment for our UK data center. That’s why the industrial CapEx was much higher. The 24,000,000 is we are back to a more normal level on $30,000,000 30 5 million dollars which on a model standpoint, you can reflect for the coming years. It basically cover our maintenance in our data center, maintenance in our SMO plants and some L and D costs, which for both CERCELL and NGO science, which are capitalized. So million, million is a normal number.

Thank you very much.

Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now take your next question. And the question comes from the line of Daniel Thompson from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Daniel Thompson, Analyst, BNP Paribas: Hi, good evening. Just two questions. So firstly, in multi clients, Viridian has always had three very core positions in Brazil, the Gulf Of Mexico, America and the North Sea. And like you said, they are with the majors coming back to exploration here, there is some frontier exploration going on. Are there any geographies you feel you need to sort of add to these three core areas or establish a similar kind of area of coverage and that you have plans to sort of invest more in going forward?

And then secondly, just on late sales, I saw in the release, we had it was quite a strong number relative to consensus, but line item said late sales and other. I just wondered if there was anything besides late sales driving the VITA versus expectations. Thank you.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: All right. Thank you, Daniel. The so yes, as you point out, we make the larger bulk of the investment in those three core basins of The U. S. Gulf, the Brazil and Norway.

I did mention a number of hotspots or places that are of interest. We don’t quite know yet which ones will be the future coal our future coal basins or the future mature basins. But we are investing a moderate amount of our cash into testing those places. So one of them was Suriname, which there is a development ongoing, which I think will drive probably more investments. And that one was a tripartite investment, and so that allowed us to play in Suriname at a minimum investment.

In other places like in Uruguay, for example, we’ve invested in reprocessing. We do a lot of reprocessing as well in Brazil. So Brazil is a hot place in the North side on the Foz De Amazonas and on the Kelotas Basin in the South. So I suspect we’ll be investing there. Now yes, we have permits in the North and South.

I think we’ll try to do this in partnerships. So probably there will be some acquisition to leverage our existing footprint to go into those more frontier areas in Brazil. Malaysia is another place that we’re looking at. We invested there in two d. So it was again modest investment.

If we see interest building up, then we might consider depending on the pre funding and the quality of the project going into maybe three d and more. Norway isn’t really a frontier area. It’s more of a mature basin, but it continues to be very active and going up in technology level. So I guess it’s to your question, we are more cautious when it comes to investing into frontier areas because one place could be very hot if you look at the case of Namibia and then it could be disappointing. So we just are a bit more cautious partnering more, trying to do reprocessing instead of doing full blown acquisition.

Then if we get our confidence level up, then we might consider an acquisition. So then you had another question on the

Jean Baptiste Rousseille, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Viridian: You’re right that the number that we published, 6.78 combined both laser and other type of sales. This other type of sales basically is using our Shearwater vessels for proprietary acquisition that do not qualify as either as prefunding and late sales. So we have combined it with the later. But it’s pretty small and it’s in line of EUR 10,000,000.

Daniel Thompson, Analyst, BNP Paribas: Got it. Thank you very much.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Your next question is a follow-up from Kevin Rodger from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.

Kevin Roger, Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux: Yes. Maybe one follow-up on my side. I maybe missed something. Sorry for that if it’s my fault. But when you published the pre results, you were expecting an EBITDA to be quite below what you announced by the end for the full year.

So can you come back please on the driver for whether the bid compared to you what you announced in January, please?

Jean Baptiste Rousseille, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Viridian: Yes, we were maybe a bit conservative when we published trading statements, which I think was at 04:30. And we ended up on an adjusted basis of $455,000,000 I think I don’t know about you, but I much prefer to be in this position to beat my guidance than the other way. So maybe a bit of conservatism. I’m not sure exactly which wording we use. We said above four thirty if I’m correct.

So yes, we are I mean, you have the breakdown by dividend. There was the conservatism was also on some of the adjustment that I mentioned, which I was not 100% sure if there would be all classified as nonrecurring. So that’s why we’re discussing the IMGRAV.

Kevin Roger, Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux: Okay. So it’s more the fact that you are presenting the guidance rather than something exceptional that happened at the very end of the year?

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: No. No.

Kevin Roger, Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux: Okay. Thanks a lot.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Praise Royer Grovan from Clarksons Securities. Please go ahead.

Jean Baptiste Rousseille, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Viridian: Good evening. I was wondering if you can provide some color on the plans for the Laconia Phase III project. Is to my understanding that you have received a letter of war or a green light from U. S. Authorities to do the project?

Thank you.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: Okay. Thank you and good evening. So I guess you’re monitoring the permitting. It’s one thing to submit a permitting and it’s another thing to approve a project. So we’re in the early stages.

And by the way, our competitors do the same. So there’s a lot of permits being submitted. And so it’s about positioning and giving ourselves the option. It doesn’t mean that there is a project that is being approved. So it’s yes, we are looking at the subsequent phases of Konia.

And we’re in this process of really engaging with our various clients to see if we can land a good project. So very early on, nothing is committed or decided as being discussed with clients. But it’s a good thing we have the permit because then if things accelerate, we have the options to go, assuming we have acquisition, right, because you have to lend everything together, the clients, the acquisition and before you can move forward. But the permit is becoming more and more of an important element to secure.

Jean Baptiste Rousseille, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Viridian: Perfect. Thank you.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. There are currently no further questions. I will hand the call back to the Virgin team.

Sophie Jokhia, CEO, Viridian: You very much again for your attention.

Jean Baptiste Rousseille, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Viridian: Thank you indeed. Have a good night. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s conference call. Thanks for participating. You may now disconnect.

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