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8-K - FORM 8-K - Forbes Energy Services Ltd.d8k.htm

Exhibit 99.1

NEWS RELEASE

LOGO

 

     Contacts:        Forbes Energy Services Ltd.
            L. Melvin Cooper, SVP & CFO
            361-664-0549
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE             DRG&E
            Ken Dennard, Managing Partner
            Ben Burnham, AVP
            713-529-6600

Forbes Energy Services Reports

Fourth Quarter Financial Results

ALICE, TEXAS – March 31, 2010 – Forbes Energy Services Ltd. (TSX: FRB) today announced financial and operating results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2009.

Revenues for the fourth quarter decreased to $52.3 million compared to $96.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 as a result of sharp declines in utilization and pricing during the first half of 2009. However, revenues have increased on a sequential basis for two consecutive quarters, and were up 4% in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the third quarter of 2009. Net loss for the three months ended December 31, 2009 was $6.1 million, or a loss of $0.10 per share, compared to a net loss of $2.3 million, or $0.04 per share, in the prior year period.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, the Company corrected accounting errors from prior periods. In the aggregate, these accounting errors, with an effective tax rate of 35%, increased net loss by approximately $0.8 million for the three months ended December 31, 2009 and loss per share $0.01 for the period.

Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2009 was a negative $0.1 million versus a positive $21.9 million for the same period in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was negatively impacted by $0.2 million as a result of the accounting adjustments. Adjusted EBITDA was further impacted by $1.2 million of write-offs associated with billing issues in Forbes’ Mexico operations. A new management team began in Mexico during the middle of the fourth quarter to address this and other issues. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure, defined by the Company as net income before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, gain or loss on extinguishment of debt, non-cash impairments and non-cash stock based compensation. For a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, please see the disclosures at the end of this release and on the Company’s website.

John Crisp, Forbes Energy’s President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We experienced what appears to be a bottom in our well servicing segment utilization at the end of the third quarter. After reaching a low in September, our monthly rig hours have continued to trend upward. The fluid logistics segment has also continued its upward trend.

“2009 was an extremely difficult year for our entire industry, but we are gaining a lot of momentum in 2010. Forbes generated approximately $1.4 million of adjusted EBITDA during


the month of January 2010. Utilization has continued to ramp up through the balance of the first quarter and we were able to implement modest price increases across most of our US operations during the month of March. While there is continued uncertainty in the natural gas market, the 65% increase in the U.S. drilling rig count over the past 10 months is a positive indicator of continued near-term demand for our services. Additionally, recent strength in oil prices may support higher levels of E&P spending in the face of potential natural gas price dips compared to last year when oil prices were less than half of current levels.”

Business Segment Results

Well Servicing

Well servicing revenue totaled $25.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to $49.0 million in the prior year period and $23.9 million in the third quarter of 2009. Segment gross margin totaled $1.3 million in the fourth quarter compared to $10.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 and $1.0 million for the third quarter of 2009.

Forbes recorded approximately 68,896 rig hours for the fourth quarter of 2009, including 15,792 hours in Mexico, compared to 97,588 total hours in the fourth quarter of 2008 (none in Mexico) and 65,524 total hours in the third quarter of 2009 (14,136 in Mexico). The Company had 171 rigs in its well service fleet at December 31, 2009. Capital expenditures for the well servicing segment totaled $1.3 million during the three months ended December 31, 2009.

Fluid Logistics

Fluid logistics revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009 totaled $27.1 million compared to $47.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 and $26.6 million in the third quarter of 2009. Gross margins for the fluid logistics segment totaled $4.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to $16.5 million in the prior year period and $4.8 million in the third quarter of 2009.

Forbes recorded 228,099 truck hours during the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to 309,020 for the fourth quarter of 2008 and 206,526 hours in the third quarter of 2009. The Company’s fluid transport segment heavy truck fleet totaled 368 as of December 31, 2009, down two from December 31, 2008. Total capital expenditures for the fluid logistics segment were $0.1 million for the three months ended December 31, 2009.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

The report of Forbes’ independent registered accounting firm which accompanies the Company’s 2009 annual report on form 10-K includes a “going concern” explanatory paragraph. This paragraph was included in the report as Forbes projects, based on current market conditions, that additional funding may be required during 2010 in order to meet working capital requirements, including the interest payments required under our indentures and our required repurchase of $6.6 million of our 11% Senior Secured Notes. Forbes anticipates meeting these requirements by effecting an appropriate financing or other transaction that would provide additional cash resources. The Company is actively evaluating such transactions and has received a proposals for a sale lease-back transaction relating to certain equipment. To-date, however, a transaction has not been finalized and there can be no assurance that such a transaction or any other permitted transaction can be consummated, given current market conditions.


Conference Call

Forbes Energy will host a conference call to discuss its fourth quarter 2009 results on Thursday, April 1, 2010, at
10:00 a.m. Eastern Time (9:00 a.m. Central). To access the call, please dial (480) 629-9770 and ask for the Forbes Energy Services call at least 10 minutes prior to the start time. The conference call will also be broadcast live via the Internet and can be accessed through the “Investor Relations” page of Forbes Energy’s website, www.forbesenergyservices.com.

A telephonic replay of the conference call will be available until April 8, 2010, and may be accessed by calling (303)
590-3030 and using the pass code 4275117. A webcast archive will be available at www.forbesenergyservices.com shortly after the call and will be accessible for approximately 30 days. For more information, please contact Donna Washburn at DRG&E at (713) 529-6600 or email at dmw@drg-e.com.

About Forbes Energy

Forbes Energy Services Ltd. is an independent oilfield services contractor that provides a broad range of drilling-related and production-related services to oil and natural gas companies, primarily onshore in Texas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Mexico.

Forward-Looking Statements and Regulation G Reconciliation

This press release contains “forward-looking statements,” as contemplated by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, in which the Company discusses factors it believes may affect its performance in the future. The accuracy of the Company’s assumptions, expectations, beliefs and projections depend on events or conditions that change over time and are thus susceptible to change based on actual experience, new developments and known and unknown risks. The Company gives no assurance that the forward-looking statements will prove to be correct and does not undertake any duty to update them. The Company’s actual future results might differ from the forward-looking statements made in this press release for a variety of reasons, which include: supply and demand for oilfield services and the level of oil and natural gas prices; the continued uncertainty in the global financial markets and its effect on domestic spending in the oil and natural gas industry; the Company’s ability to maintain or improve pricing on its core services; the potential for excess capacity in the industry; competition and the ability to obtain additional cash resources through a financing or other permitted transaction. Should one or more of the foregoing risks or uncertainties materialize, or should the Company’s underlying assumptions prove incorrect, the Company’s actual results may vary materially from those anticipated in its forward-looking statements, and the Company’s business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. Additional factors that you should consider are set forth in detail in the Risk Factors section of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009 (the “Form 10-K”), which was filed today, as well as other filings the Company has made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Forbes Energy’s financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations can be found in the Form 10-K, which is being filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and posted on the Company’s website.


This press release also contains references to the non-GAAP financial measure of adjusted EBITDA. For a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net income, please see the table at the end of this release. Management’s opinion regarding the usefulness of adjusted EBITDA to investors and a description of the ways in which management uses such measures can be found on the “Investor Relations” page of Forbes Energy’s website, www.forbesenergyservices.com.

-Tables to Follow-


Selected Statement of Operations Data

(Unaudited)

 

     Three Months Ended December 31,     Year Ended December 31,  
     2009     2008     2009     2008  

Revenues

        

Well servicing

   $ 25,189,289      $ 48,976,756      $ 106,097,280      $ 189,980,242   

Fluid logistics

     27,074,466        47,683,106        109,822,640        170,949,057   
                                

Total revenues

     52,263,755        96,659,862        215,919,920        360,929,299   
                                

Expenses

        

Well servicing

     23,840,101        38,794,821        96,825,911        128,614,600   

Fluid logistics

     22,291,324        31,200,155        87,263,351        117,940,153   

General and administrative

     6,913,555        5,328,435        21,228,819        17,700,341   

Depreciation and amortization

     10,023,299        10,177,848        39,471,755        33,724,218   

Goodwill Impairment

     —          4,363,369        —          4,363,369   
                                

Total expenses

     63,068,279        89,864,628        244,789,836        302,342,681   
                                

Operating income/(loss)

     (10,804,524     6,795,234        (28,869,916     58,586,618   

Other income (expense)

        

Interest expense

     (7,637,225     (6,705,718     (26,918,517     (25,797,663

Other income (expense)

     25,778        (71,114     1,313,857        37,947   
                                

Income/(loss) before taxes

     (18,415,971     18,402        (54,474,576     32,826,902   

Income Tax Expense

     (12,268,208     2,350,233        (25,143,867     62,574,492   
                                

Net income/(loss)

   $ (6,147,763   $ (2,331,831   $ (29,330,709   $ (29,747,590
                                

Earnings/(loss) per share of common stock

        

Basic and Diluted

   $ (0.10   $ (0.04   $ (0.47   $ (0.65

Weighted average number of shares outstanding

        

Basic and Diluted

     64,220,575        61,505,053        62,642,878        45,894,557   


Selected Balance Sheet Data

(Unaudited)

 

     December 31,
2009
   December 31,
2008

Cash

   $ 28,425,367    $ 23,469,067

Accounts receivable

     52,765,601      69,095,522

Working Capital

     34,350,226      42,707,044

Other intangible assets, net

     36,598,781      39,459,977

Total assets

     457,432,896      482,801,391

Total debt

     226,898,229      212,189,842

Deferred tax liability, net

     36,622,111      62,068,620

Shareholders’/members’ equity

   $ 146,507,477    $ 158,418,487

Selected Operating Data

(Unaudited)

 

     Three Months Ended December 31,    Year Ended December 31,
     2009    2008    2009    2008

Working days

   61    61    252    253

Rig hours

           

U.S.

   53,104    97,588    228,279    378,657

Mexico

   15,792    —      45,116    —  
                   

Total rig hours

   68,896    97,588    273,395    378,657

Truck hours

   228,099    309,020    863,506    1,115,593

Reconciliation of EBITDA to Net Income

(Unaudited)

(in thousands)

 

     Three Months Ended December 31,     Year Ended December 31,  
     2009     2008     2009     2008  

Net loss

   $ (6,148   $ (2,332   $ (29,331   $ (29,748

Depreciation and amortization

     10,023        10,178        39,472        33,724   

Interest expense

     7,637        6,706        26,919        25,798   

Income tax expense/(benefit)

     (12,268     2,350        (25,144     62,574   

Stock based compensation

     622        626        2,492        1,450   

Gain on ext of debt

     —          —          (1,422     —     

Goodwill impairment

     —          4,363        —          4,363   
                                

Adjusted EBITDA

   $ (134   $ 21,891      $ 12,986      $ 98,161