Weatherford International - Q1 2024
April 24, 2024
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Weatherford International First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. As a reminder, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mohammed Topiwala, Vice President, Investor Relations, and M&A. Sir, you may begin.
Mohammed Topiwala (VP of Investor Relations and M&A)
Welcome, everyone, to the Weatherford International First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. I'm joined today by Girish Saligram, President and CEO, and Arun Mitra, Executive Vice President and CFO. We will start today with our prepared remarks and then open it up for questions. You may download a copy of the presentation slides corresponding to today's call from our website's Investor Relations section. I want to remind everyone that some of today's comments include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from any expectation expressed herein. Please refer to our latest Securities and Exchange Commission filing for risk factors and cautions regarding forward-looking statements. Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures.
The underlying details and a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures are included in our first quarter earnings press release, which can be found on our website. As a reminder, today's call is being webcast, and a recorded version will be available on our website's Investor Relations section following the conclusion of this call. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Girish.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Thanks, Mohammed, and thank you all for joining our call. I will provide an overview of our operating performance, commercial and technology highlights, our view on the markets, and an update on our strategic priorities. Arun will then cover the financial results and specifics on guidance before we open for Q&A. You will notice an updated format to our investor presentation, as we have tried to provide additional clarity around our portfolio and differentiation, and we will reference the data and information within the presentation as part of our prepared remarks. As illustrated in slide three, we delivered yet another quarter of exceptional results. I remain extremely grateful to our entire One Weatherford team, and I'm excited that we are developing an operating culture that provides execution differentiation. First quarter revenue grew 15% year-over-year, driven by DRE and WCC from a segment standpoint.
Our integrated services project team did an excellent job in driving efficiencies and delivered above expectations. Geographically, we once again witnessed growth driven by the strength in our international business, which was up 21% year-over-year, spearheaded by our Middle East, North Africa, and Asia region, which grew 32%. While year-over-year growth is significant, we are also encouraged by sequential revenue performance that was essentially flat in a quarter that typically sees a seasonal decline. This was driven by strong performance in Latin America and North America and also aided slightly by our recent acquisitions, contributing revenue for part of the quarter. We have now had 12 consecutive quarters of year-over-year adjusted EBITDA margin expansion, and Q1 represents the ninth consecutive quarter of sequential expansion.
In the first quarter of 2024, adjusted EBITDA margins set another high at 24.7%, driven by accelerated outcomes from our initiatives and continued rigor on the commercial, technology, and operational fronts. The performance in the first quarter has given us the confidence and visibility to raise our margin guidance for the remainder of the year, and we now anticipate achieving our goal of 25% Adjusted EBITDA margins in 2024 itself. We had indicated that our exit rate would be 25%, but now believe that we will hit that milestone on a total year basis. Importantly, we continue to see opportunities for further enhancements and will articulate the next milestone and roadmap towards that once we have delivered the 25%. We also successfully expanded our credit facility by $130 million-$680 million.
In line with our previous commitment to pay off the 6.5% senior secured notes, we issued a notice to redeem the remaining balance. This paves the way to providing a comprehensive capital allocation framework that we intend on communicating later this year. As we have seen, the OFS sector is witnessing a degree of consolidation, and I am excited about the opportunities we see with the companies we acquired in the first quarter. I am pleased with the progress we've made so far on the integration of Ardyne, Probe, and ISI into the Weatherford operating structure. The detailed planning has helped facilitate smooth transitions and ensure that we remain focused on serving customers. While still early days, we are starting to see greater opportunities in terms of commercial benefits, increased technology cross-selling, and growing adoption rates across our expanded portfolio.
These headlights provide greater confidence in the long-term value creation potential of these acquisitions. Now, turning to our segment overview on slides five through seven. The operational and technical highlights showcase synergies between product lines, which is driven by our solutions creation mindset. In DRE, I am particularly excited about our MPD win with PDO in Oman, as this represents another example of growing MPD adoption and our technology differentiation. We are also seeing some quick wins from our acquisitions with the launch of the HD Spitfire tool as part of our wireline products portfolio. In WCC, we continued to see significant awards through the quarter, and the deployment of our pressure-balanced liner system, the Express XT, in an offshore setting for the first time, is particularly encouraging. In PRI, our focus on digital solutions has resulted in significant advancements in operational efficiency and value creation for our customers.
A significant development in this segment is the commercial launch of ForeSite 5.3, which combines artificial intelligence, machine learning, and autonomous control for proactive failure prediction, and therefore prevents ESP and rod lift failures. We'll now turn to the market outlook, which is laid out on slides nine through 11. We anticipate sustained growth in international land and offshore sectors, particularly driven by the Middle East and Latin America. Our focus remains on production optimization, digital solutions, and exploration investments with significant potential in gas-rich regions such as Guyana and the Eastern Mediterranean, and growing unconventionals in the Middle East, paired with oil-focused growth across major deepwater basins. The increasing adoption of managed pressure drilling, both onshore and offshore, and well life extensions via interventions will play well to our strengths in these areas.
Additionally, responsible well management, including plug and abandonment services and growth in geothermal and carbon capture, present promising opportunities. Leveraging our advanced technology suite, we are well-poised to capitalize on these trends. The first quarter results validate our expectations about the market outlook that we presented in the previous quarter. To summarize, the current stage of the upcycle is reflected by a combination of continued demand for energy, persistent investment, and activity for oil and gas projects, at least through the end of the decade. We continue to see the most momentum in our DRE segment, with high teens growth, reflective of our continued belief in the longevity of the cycle, with growth in WCC and PRI that typically follows.
Looking across our geographies for 2024, in North America, we continue to expect our Canadian business to grow in the high single digits, though there is some uncertainty around the second half, driven by commodity prices. We believe the offshore Gulf of Mexico will remain stable, and U.S. land business is expected to be relatively flat. On the international front, there continues to be broad strength, both offshore and onshore. Latin America had a solid start to the year and expect growth for the year to be in the mid- to high-single-digit range, mainly driven by Brazil and Mexico, and partially tempered by Colombia. In Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, offshore continues to be the growth driver, enabling high-teens growth led by the North Sea.
As previously discussed, Russia continues to be challenging and declining in revenue, given the operational complexity as well as FX volatility. In the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia region, we continue to remain optimistic about the growth potential and still foresee a year of high teens growth. We believe this growth is spread across multiple countries and is backed by the investment plans of our customers. A key element of our growth has been our integrated contracts, and as I mentioned before, I'm very proud of the work the team has done, and we are focused on the modulation of execution pace to drive optimal outcomes on safety, customer hookups, and margins. We are also cognizant of the need for investment to support that growth, and to that end, we'll continue to drive CapEx towards 5% of revenue and invest in net working capital and infrastructure support.
In summary, we don't see any material shift in our market and revenue outlook discussed a couple of months ago. The most significant risk to our outlook is driven by geopolitical events, and we remain focused on the safety and well-being of our employees and business continuity plans. Turning to slide 12, I want to provide a brief update on our strategic priorities. Our five strategic priorities of organizational vitality, creating the future, customer experience, lean operations, and financial performance remain our guardrails for driving investment and initiatives. As we deliver phases of each initiative, we revise the targets to raise the bar even higher. As you can see, we have significantly increased our spend on engineering and technology, but importantly, that has been offset in other functions, ensuring that our SG&A, as a percent of revenue, has continued to get more efficient.
We also continue to drive simplification and process improvement into the company, and the most evident result of that is in our net working capital days improvement. As we conclude the first quarter of 2024, I believe our results speak clearly to the progress we have made across our organization and with our customers. We remain confident and optimistic about Weatherford's growth prospects, as well as the potential for upward mobility in the stock, with a multiple re-rate that should be reflective of top-tier industry performance on margins and return on invested capital. With that, I'd like to hand it over to Arun.
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Thank you, Girish. Good morning, and thank you everyone for joining us on the call. Let us begin with slide 13 and 14, where I'll walk you through our consolidated results. Revenue for the first quarter 2024 of $1.36 billion increased 15% year-over-year and essentially flat sequentially. Operating income was $233 million, compared to $185 million in the first quarter of 2023, and $216 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. Net income was $112 million, compared to $72 million in the first quarter of 2023, and $140 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. You will recognize that we had some one-time tax benefits in the prior quarter that did not repeat and drove the sequential decline.
Adjusted EBITDA of $336 million increased 25% year-over-year and 5% sequentially, with adjusted EBITDA margin of 24.7% or 206 basis points improvement year-over-year and 117 basis points sequentially. Now moving to our segment results on slides 15 through 17. Drilling and Evaluation, or DRE, revenue of $422 million increased by $50 million or 13% year-over-year, primarily from higher wireline and drilling services activity. DRE also benefited from the impact of weather-related push-out of activity in Latin America, which we referenced last quarter. DRE segment adjusted EBITDA of $130 million increased by $22 million or 20% year-over-year, primarily from drilling services, managed pressure drilling, and wireline.
Well Construction and Completions, or WCC, revenue of $458 million increased by $37 million, or 9% year-over-year, primarily due to increased completions and TRS activity in Middle East, North Africa, and Asia region, and offshore Latin America, partly offset by lower activity in North America. WCC's segment adjusted EBITDA of $120 million increased by $24 million or 25% year-over-year, primarily from higher flow-throughs in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia region around TRS and cementation products, as well as increased offshore activity in Latin America. Production and Intervention, or PRI, revenue of $348 million was largely flat year-over-year, primarily from lower activity in North America, partly offset by higher international intervention services and drilling tools activity.
PRI segment adjusted EBITDA of $73 million increased by $5 million, on about 7% year-over-year, primarily from higher artificial lift margin and increased international activity in intervention services and drilling tools. We have previously indicated that despite the pricing pressure in North America, we remain focused on margins and will not chase volume, and these segment results are a positive proof point of that intent. Turning to slide 18 for cash flows and liquidity. In the first quarter, we generated operating cash flow of $131 million, up $47 million year-over-year, and adjusted free cash flow was $82 million, up $55 million year-over-year, a solid performance on the back of strong profitability and improved net working capital performance. Our net working capital as a percentage of last 12 months' revenue was 26.1%, a 240 basis points improvement year-over-year.
This progress highlights our commitment to continuously improve our working capital cycle, including ongoing internal process enhancement initiatives in billings, collections management, and inventory management. We remain focused on further optimizations in the order to cash and procure to pay processes to make progress towards reaching our longer-term goal of a sustainable net working capital level at 25% of revenues. First quarter CapEx of $59 million at 4.3% of revenues was down sequentially and year-over-year, primarily due to timing. Total cash was approximately $937 million, down $46 million year-over-year. Additionally, during the quarter, we repaid $167 million of 6.5% senior secured notes, bringing the total amount of 6.5% senior secured notes outstanding to $82 million as of the date of this release.
Furthermore, we issued a redemption notice to repay the remaining $82 million of our 6.5% senior secured notes, which will leave us with $1.6 billion long-term notes due 2030, outstanding thereafter. We are also pleased to announce the expansion of our credit facility, which reflects the confidence and support of our banking partners and our strong operational and financial performance. The amendment to our credit agreement provides an increase in total commitment from $550 million-$680 million by adding additional banks to the facility and provides us with greater liquidity and flexibility in managing our balance sheet. Our net leverage ratio at the end of the quarter was 0.6x, and marks the lowest ever level in the company in over 15 years. Turning to our guidance for second quarter and full year 2024, on to slide 19.
For the second quarter 2024, we expect consolidated revenues to increase between 4%-6% sequentially. Across the segments, DRE revenue is expected to grow by mid-single digits, WCC is expected to grow by high single digits, and PRI is expected to grow by mid-single digits. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter is expected to expand by 20-30 basis points sequentially. CapEx is expected to be in the range of $65 million-$80 million, and adjusted free cash flow is expected to be in line with the first quarter 2024, despite higher cash interest, cash taxes, and continued net working capital investments for full year 2024. For the full year 2024, we expect consolidated revenues to grow by double digits to low teens over full year 2023.
DRE is expected to grow by high teens, WCC to grow by high single digits, and PRI to grow by mid-single digits. Full year consolidated adjusted EBITDA margins are expected to hit our goal of 25%. CapEx for the full year is expected to be approximately 5% of revenue. We continue to expect 2024 adjusted free cash flow to be greater than $500 million, despite higher CapEx, cash taxes, and net working capital investments. Thanks all for joining the call, and operator, let's open up the call for questions, please.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. We will now begin the Q&A session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question today comes from Luke Lemoine with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.
Luke Lemoine (Managing Director)
Hey, good morning.
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Hey, good morning, Luke.
Luke Lemoine (Managing Director)
Girish. Hey, morning. Girish, I know this has been said a number of times in the past, but truly, you know, congrats to you and the whole Weatherford team on the best turnaround and transformation I've ever seen in oil service. I mean, this has truly been kind of nothing short of remarkable here with what you've done with the transformation.
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Thank you, Luke. Appreciate it. Look, the team's done an outstanding job. I get the privilege of being the guy that gets to talk about it the most, so but truly appreciate the sentiment.
Luke Lemoine (Managing Director)
I guess with a little rounding, you hit 25% margins on 1Q, which I know has been an aspirational target for some time now, and you just brought that target forward a whole year. And then not to pin you down on a multi-year margin, but when you just look at Weatherford over the next two to three years, can you talk about what you see the company doing outside of overall market revenue growth? I mean, you've talked about expanding MPD technology to other service lines, kind of going with managed pressure wells, offshores accelerating, which will boost TRS. And then, among other things, you have various digital growth initiatives. Can you just kind of paint the picture on how you see Weatherford looking in two to three years?
Operator (participant)
Hello, Weatherford team. I believe your line may be on mute. Hello, Weatherford team. Is your line on mute, perhaps? I do apologize, everybody. Please stand by while we reconnect our speaker location. Please stand by. All right, I do apologize, and we've reconnected the speaker location. Please proceed.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
... All right. Hey, sorry about that, everyone. My apologies. We are having some technical glitches, I guess. So, hey, Luke, I'm not sure how much of that was caught. But look, I'll just summarize it by saying, you know, I think,
Luke Lemoine (Managing Director)
Yeah, I don't think anything was caught, but yeah.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Oh, okay. All right. Sorry about that. So, look, on the question, you know, look, you know, you're very kind to say we'll round it up, but we still haven't gotten to 25%. What we've seen over the course of this year is really the initiatives that we've launched, and we've had them for a while now, we've gotten a lot more confidence in that. We're starting to see the outcome of those, and we're seeing a slightly greater magnitude, which is what's given us the confidence to pull that target forward.
You know, as we look to the future, I'm not gonna give a specific target, but look, I'll reiterate that we've always talked about how we plan the business with flat activity, and we look at our role as making sure that we get margin expansion in despite flat activity of 25-75 basis points. So I think it's reasonable to assume that once we stabilize around this 25% goal, we will continue to drive margins upward. And so we'll come back over the next few quarters and lay out more specifics around the timeframe and what that next threshold is.
Luke Lemoine (Managing Director)
Okay, got it. And then, hopefully, this, this next question won't break the call, but on your integrated project business, this was fairly nascent just a couple of years ago. You know, nice margin expansion, nice growth. Could you just talk about where this goes, maybe the potential size, and what's the, right margin profile for the business?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Sure. You know, so look, as I pointed out in our prepared remarks, a couple of things. One is, a significant part of our growth certainly has come from these integrated projects. We've been doing them for a while now in different places, especially in Latin America. But the two ones we—two of the ones we announced in late 2022 in Saudi Arabia and Oman, have certainly added to that. You know, we talked about this in the February call. You know, we don't expect to go, you know, suddenly start doing a whole lot of these. We wanna be very measured about what we do. And, you know, we will bid very selectively and maybe add, you know, one, max two every year that is sizable and of a significant scale that it moves the needle.
But, you know, we're not focused on the number. We are much more focused on the right profile for us to execute, where we can actually deliver the cash flow performance that these bring. You know, these projects are generally tend to be a little bit dilutive from a margin standpoint, but have terrific cash conversion and also give us a base load of activity. You know, what we saw in the first quarter was an interesting dynamic. Our team did an outstanding job of execution, and, you know, what that really resulted in was a much higher degree of revenue and also a greater margin contribution.
We don't think that is gonna be the norm, and, you know, that's why I referenced that we will modulate the pace a little bit, 'cause we've also got to make sure that we are working lockstep with our customers on these projects, making sure that, you know, we are sticking to their budgets and their plans, and all of that is synchronized. So we expect that rate to come down and moderate a little bit. But again, all of that is contained within our overall guidance for the year, and it's been a net positive relative to when we bid it.
Luke Lemoine (Managing Director)
Okay, got it. Thanks a lot, Girish.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question today comes from James West at Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.
James West (Senior Managing Director)
Hey, good morning, guys.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Hey, good morning.
James West (Senior Managing Director)
So, Girish, now that you've got the balance sheet in excellent shape, margins are up significantly. You highlighted that the industry is in somewhat of a consolidation phase now. You've made two, you know, smaller acquisitions recently. How should we think about your M&A strategy going forward? Do you think it'll still be more the tuck-ins, or are there larger targets you might be interested in? Any change at all to the M&A strategy?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Not really, James. Look, I think, you know, I'll expand a little bit on what we've talked about. You know, we really... For a while, M&A has been something we've not considered, just given some of the historical issues that we've had.
James West (Senior Managing Director)
Sure.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
But we are now, we've been a lot more comfortable and confident. But for us, integration is still the primary thing. We wanna make sure that anything that we do, regardless of size or scale, we have the bandwidth and the capacity to integrate, because sometimes, look, whether it is a $30 million company or a $3 billion company, a lot of the stuff is similar. But for us, it's not about scale. We really look at it from a perspective of strategic fit, margin accretion, cash generation, the deleveraging component, and where, you know, can we really add value to that business to scale it and grow it.
So we're very open on, you know, what the size is, but we're not actively pursuing, you know, a specific size or set and say, "That's what we've got to get after." We look at it and say, what actually makes sense for the business, and we'll look at things that come along from that standpoint.
James West (Senior Managing Director)
Okay, makes sense. And then from a capital allocation or shareholder return strategy standpoint, as you've gotten the balance sheet, you know, in great shape here, how are you thinking about potentially returning capital to shareholders?
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
James, good morning. Yeah, James, as we've mentioned before, you know, our priorities were to get access to more liquidity, get access to liquidity, which is cheaper, then eliminate restrictions associated with the liquidity and potential capital allocation framework, which is what we've done. Now the next step, as Girish mentioned in his remarks, is to announce a comprehensive framework, which will include shareholder returns, but amongst other things, will include continued debt reduction as well. So you can expect us to talk more about that in the second half, second half of the year.
James West (Senior Managing Director)
Okay. Got it. Thanks, Arun. Thanks, Girish.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Thank you, James.
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Thanks, James.
Operator (participant)
Our next question today comes from Jim Rollyson with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Jim Rollyson (Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Hey, good morning, guys, and I would echo the same things that Luke said about the progress. It's been phenomenal to watch. Arun, question for you on cash. You guys are still sitting on quite a bit of cash, recently upgraded the size of the credit facility, about to pay off the notes, and you just mentioned further debt reduction. But kind of curious, as you look forward, as your credit facility has increased in size here over the last few quarters, like, how much cash do you guys think about needing to sit on or, you know, what drives that?
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Look, I mean, you know, we always want to be able to sit on cash, which takes care of event risk, right? And I'm not gonna say that we have enough cash now, or we have more cash than we need now, but what I can tell you is once we shed more light on the capital allocation framework, which will include the shareholder return policy and our debt targets, you will get a sense of how much liquidity we will sit on going forward. So yes, we feel good about the access to liquidity that we have compared to before, and that translates to our confidence that we communicated about us being able to come up with a comprehensive framework in the second half of the year.
You can expect to hear more about this in more detail in the second half.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
And if I could just add to that, Jim, look, I think if you look back at the history, right, what we have done, there's a fairly clear match between the cash on the balance sheet, the pre-free cash flow we've generated, and the debt reduction, right? Even take yesterday or, you know, last night's announcement, for example. We announced the increase in liquidity simultaneously with the redemption. So yes, there is cash on the balance sheet, but we are gonna take that and pay off the secured note. So you know, we are doing this very methodically to make sure we've got the right liquidity, as Arun said, and we always wanna make sure that we've got enough protection against any sort of event risk to the company.
Jim Rollyson (Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Yep. Yep, it makes perfect sense. Then just as a follow-up, obviously, some recent consolidation ongoing in one of your main markets, in the artificial lift market. Curious if you have any views on how you think that might impact the market and does that create benefits for you potentially, or just kind of how you see that?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Well, look, we always look at these things with the duality, right? On the one hand, it is a very formidable, you know, combination, and so I—you know, we've got tremendous respect for both organizations, and that combination will likely create more opportunities for them. At the same time, we also look at it as an opportunity for ourselves, and so we will, you know, focus on driving innovation and serving our customers. I do think it's important, though, to point out that on the artificial lift space, again, we don't play in the ESP space. We really play in all other forms of lift. So, you know, it's a little bit more insulated for us, if you will.
Jim Rollyson (Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Got it. Thank you, guys. Have a great day.
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
And our next question today comes from Doug Becker with Capital One. Please go ahead.
Doug Becker (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you. Girish, I was hoping you'd expand on the prospects for the OpEx versus the drilling and completion, spending cycle, just as it relates to the company, in particular, thinking about the longer-term growth prospects for PRI.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, hey, look, I think longer term, you know, we continue to be very excited. You know, OpEx spend, we believe, will continue to increase. You know, and it depends on the geography you look at in terms of the rate of growth, right? As I pointed out in my prepared remarks, right now, we really see DRE leading a little bit, but PRI eventually will follow. So I think that rate of growth will modulate. But, look, even as you look at this year, you know, Q1 was a little bit different. It's got some dynamics around seasonality that typically happens, as well as what we have talked about, some of the complexity in Russia, et cetera.
Over the course of the year, we see PRI growing, you know, very decently over the course of the year. And especially, look, for our interventions business, as we look at more production optimization, our digital solutions business, a greater amount of focus on plug and abandonment, slot recoveries, those kinds of things, we're really excited about that, and it's also where we have probably the maximum impact of our digital solutions.
Doug Becker (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Is this a segment you could see in three, four years leading the growth, or is it just the makeup one, that it probably is always a little bit of a slower growth business?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, look, I think to a certain extent, it's gonna depend on, you know, how much of it we classify that that goes into the digital piece, et cetera. But I will also look, for us, we are also trying to make sure that we are driving a less capital-intensive strategy. So for example, what I think we should really look for is growth in margins and growth in cash versus necessarily just growth in top line. I'll give you a classic example in pressure pumping. You know, we're not gonna grow the same way the rest of the market is, 'cause we are being very focused on controlling our footprint. We also, of course, don't have an automatic pressure pumping footprint.
But we're also driving a strategic change and providing more engineered fluid chemistry, which has a much greater value addition and a much greater margin impact to the company. So those are the kinds of things we are doing. So for us, I really look at it more from margin impact and free cash flow impact. But look, over the next few years, we still see DRE as probably having a little bit more juice.
Doug Becker (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Got it. And some of those comments kind of feed into the sustainability of CapEx running 5% of revenue. Based on some of the things you were alluding to, I think that's still a good target as we, we think about the years ahead.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, look, absolutely. We've talked about it now for two years, and, you know, look, we have steadily inched up closer to that 5%. I'm very pleased with the efficiencies our team has been able to drive in redeployment of CapEx and reuse, but also shifting our business strategy to a less capital-intensive model. And that's a big part of it. This is not about us saying we're not gonna invest enough capital. It's about making a conscious and a purposeful shift in strategy and making sure that we've got the overall portfolio balanced. You know, and look, some product lines are much higher than 5%, some are much lower, but that blend is what we're really looking for, and that's where it all comes together.
Doug Becker (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
You know, makes sense, and I'd just like to echo the positive sentiments on the execution of the turnaround. Really, just very impressive.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. And our next question today comes from David Anderson at Barclays. Please go ahead.
David Anderson (Managing Director)
Hey, good morning, Girish. You know, as you talk about the initiatives that have driven the margin expansion here, I think you said it sounds like we're maybe a little bit more than halfway through your fulfillment plan. Just wanna ask you what some of the next steps you intend to execute over the next, say, 12-18 months. I think you've taken a lot of manufacturing facilities, but what else is left there? Is it on the services side, on supply chain? Just kind of give us sort of that roadmap a little bit, if you wouldn't mind, just to what's left here in this fulfillment plan.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Absolutely. Thanks for the question, David. Look, so on the fulfillment, you know, this is a fairly Herculean task, and it's really changing the footprint of the company that's evolved over 25 years. To a certain extent, what we call fulfillment, which is a combination of manufacturing, supply chain, our sourcing practices, our repair and maintenance, our logistics, was never really designed for what Weatherford is today, and that's what we are doing. So what's left really is still a little bit more work on manufacturing, making sure that our work transfers get completed. But you're right, that's been well underway for a couple of years. The next couple of big milestones for us, really, first of all, on our supply chain.
You know, we've talked about on prior calls that we are looking to move more of our spend into, you know, lower cost regions of the world. And this is something a lot of other companies did several years ago, so we are a little bit behind. But what's exciting is we are still able to post the margins that we do today without that benefit, so that'll actually be a much more positive impact for us. That's well underway. We've got a terrific manufacturing facility in India, and we are making sure that we're developing the supplier ecosystem around that, but also making sure we're complementing it with the right engineering support. The other piece is on repair and maintenance. You know, this is something that we are really focused.
It's much more about improving cycle times and asset utilization than it is really about taking cost out. But that improvement in cycle times and asset utilization will help in more revenue, greater fall-throughs, and a better return on invested capital. So that's really what we're doing there. We've brought in a terrific leader to drive that for us, and I'm excited about some of the gains that we're starting to see on that.
David Anderson (Managing Director)
That's great. Thank you. And then if I could just move into kind of more of the businesses. You have two very unique product lines that are leveraged to deepwater activity in the TRS and MPD systems. And as we look out the next year or two, I would think that those would both start to lead the top line growth and margin expansion, considering the both rental businesses and the visibility we have on subsea and offshore rigs. So I was just wondering, do you think second half 2024 could be the inflection on that based upon what you're having with your conversations with your customers and kind of the timing of this equipment?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, look, some of this, you know, David, as you're well aware, is a little bit more dependent on logistics and mobilization, et cetera. You know, we are very excited about both MPD and TRS, and especially some of the new product launches that we have had in both. On TRS, we have talked about our StringGuard solution, which I'm excited about. More deployment of the fully automated Vero solution. And then on MPD, we launched Modus, which really cracks this performance segment. You know, that's likely to be a bit more of a 2025 inflection than a second half of 2024, more based on availability of assets and getting that fully deployed throughout the world. So I think we'll probably see more of that in 2025.
But look, I think it's also really important to point out that while these two product lines are critical, it's a lot more time that we spend on talking to them. You know, the rest of the portfolio is actually growing really well as well, and you see that, for example, in some of the WCC growth we've seen over the last couple of years. And especially also on DRE, our drilling services business, our wireline business, our completions business in WCC, all of those are also showing tremendous growth and actually helping that overall ecosystem. So one of the things we are seeing and we're excited about, talk about the solution mindset, is to pull through from different product lines.
David Anderson (Managing Director)
Hmm. And just one final question there. I'll just come back to the capital, the amount of CapEx that you're spending there. I would think TRS probably, just judging from where the rig count was before, where it is today.
... that you probably don't need to build out capacity in TRS. However, on the other side, MPD, you probably do, because that seems to be on kind of pretty much every deepwater rig these days. Am I thinking about that right?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, look, it's a little bit of a mix, David. Yeah, so some of these things in MPD, for example, as I talked about on Modus, that's certainly a lot more capital injection because you've got to actually build new packages, right? So that does take up. And of course, every new system that we deploy in deepwater, we build a new system that is additional CapEx. TRS, historically, we have had a lot more equipment, but when you think about things like Vero, again, our fully automated solution, we are building new systems for that, but the order of magnitude of that CapEx dollar investment is very different and much higher on the MPD side.
David Anderson (Managing Director)
Great. That's what I thought. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ati Modak with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Ati Modak (VP of Energey Services and E&Ps)
Yeah, thanks. Good morning, team. You talked about the early stages of the integration of the acquisitions that you made last quarter. You're seeing incremental opportunities. So maybe can you provide some color in terms of revenue synergies or cost synergies that you think we can actually get in that asset for the next couple of years here?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah. Hey, Ati, you know, again, as we talked about in the first quarter, these are, you know, kind of much smaller businesses, and so, you know, not things that will automatically and by directly by themselves move the needle on the total company. So it's all baked in. But look, you know, we think about these as sort of smaller technology acquisitions that over the next few years, we really hope to build out into $100 million type of platforms. And that's kind of the goal that we see, and that will come from a combination of taking their products, their solutions, their services, scaling them with our footprint, especially on the international side, but at the same time also seeing, look, where does it get complementarity? So I'll give you a couple of examples. On the Ardyne business that we acquired, right?
It is predominantly focused in the North Sea, and we continue to see a great opportunity in the North Sea growth, but also the ability to take that to the Middle East, to North America, to Latin America, to Asia. That gives us scale and growth, and we hope to grow that significantly over the next few years. On the Probe and Impact Selector businesses, the wireline products businesses, right now, this really gives us an ability to have a comprehensive wireline portfolio and allows us to really become a partner of choice for other service companies to really provide wireline products and technology in places where we don't have a footprint, right? So, so that's the kind of thing that we're thinking about. So we'll, we'll give more color on that, but look, our hope is to really grow these businesses, and that's what it's about.
It's about growth and using our scale versus to say we're gonna get cost synergies out of it.
Ati Modak (VP of Energey Services and E&Ps)
Got it. Appreciate that. And then I think you spoke about this a little bit on the market penetration status for the MPD offering. Can you just give us any color on where it stands now and where the incremental room is to grow onshore, maybe a little bit? And then it seems like there are some equipment manufacturers that are focused on MPD. Maybe also give us an update on what the competitive landscape is, either on the equipment or the service side.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Sure. So look, I think the really good news with MPD is we see adoption growing. You know, and we have highlighted a few examples before, especially countries in the Middle East. We talked about an award with PDO in Oman. That's another great illustration of growing adoption. But, you know, in totality, adoption on a global basis, all in, is still sort of order of magnitude around 10%, so which is where the excitement comes in. So as we talk about product launches like Modus, it really gets to that performance tier of the market that allows customers to now have a solution between kind of your basic MPD service and the very high end that we used to offer. So this is, you know, hits a sweet spot and opens up a new segment.
You know, as an example, on the offshore side, this really opens up a jackup market that we're very excited about on the Modus side of it. You know, so our goal will be over the next few years, if we can get adoption to, let's say, 12% and maybe eventually 15%, that's a tremendous growth for the business, and that's what we're excited about. You know, it's also, you know, from my standpoint, very heartening and very encouraging to see additional players come into the space and everyone starting to talk about it. I think that's fantastic. We welcome, you know, the industry growing adoption, you know, customers getting more news on this, more education on this, because we think it's better for the industry as a whole to increase MPD adoption. You know, this is a capital-intensive game.
You know, I've always said this is not about share. We are clearly the market leader in this product line, but for us, it's about growth and adoption. And so more people that come in, especially on some of the lower-end side of it, you know, we think it's great, and we remain focused on where we can capture the highest value.
Ati Modak (VP of Energey Services and E&Ps)
Great. Thank you.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Thanks, Ati.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from Kurt Hallead with Benchmark. Please go ahead.
Kurt Hallead (Head of Global Energy)
Hey, good morning, everybody.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Hey, Kurt.
Ati Modak (VP of Energey Services and E&Ps)
Morning, Kurt.
Kurt Hallead (Head of Global Energy)
Hey, hey, Girish, I'm curious, right? You obviously, the execution has been phenomenal, as everybody has highlighted, yet you know, the multiple still has a ways to go to catch up to when the prior management team ran the company into the ground. So still a long way to go there. But my question for you really is on the margin progression when you get out beyond 2024. I'm not looking for a specific data point. I'm just kinda trying to get inside your head a little bit, right? So I'm curious as to, you know, what the drivers of that margin progression are gonna be. You know, is it gonna be flow-through of pricing on existing contracts? Is it gonna be volume absorption?
Is it gonna be pricing power on new contracts, execution, internal initiatives? Probably all the above, but if you were to rank them, you know, what do you think is gonna be the key driver to incremental margin improvement from here?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, look, so it is most definitely a bit of an all of the above, Kurt. But look, I will reiterate. Look, for us, we are not gonna count on incremental volumes coming through and revenue growth being the only driver. So I would actually put that a little bit lower. For us, you know, we are also very cognizant that while pricing has been very positive and it's been a very good pricing environment, you know, that's not gonna last indefinitely, right? So we focus on the things that we can control.
To me, I think a couple of things that are gonna be really important is, number one, us driving productivity within the organization, both from a manufacturing and fulfillment standpoint, but also in how we manage our support costs in the organization, how we get simpler, how we get leaner, and that's a combination of both cycle time and just pure cost. So that's gonna be a significant factor. The second piece of it, and that's the thing that I'm probably most excited about, is the commercialization of the technology solutions that we've got. Look, we pointed out our increase in engineering and technology spend. It is the highest increase across the company from a functional spend, and we've made sure that we have prioritized that. These things take a little bit of time, right? You can't engineer stuff overnight.
I'm tremendously excited about the improvements that our engineering teams have made, our product line teams have made in improving our on-time delivery, our cycle time reduction, but most importantly, the solutions that we are getting after and what we are bringing to market. You see that in some of our technology announcements. What we're really trying to do with those is capture the white space of where customers have very clear needs that we can go attack, versus just sort of providing a me-too kind of a solution, and we think that will lead to incremental and accretive margins.
Kurt Hallead (Head of Global Energy)
All right. That's great. That's great, cool. I got one more follow-up, right? There's been a emerging theme here about the need for more power gen for AI data centers, and that being natural gas fueled and obviously being sourced from, from the U.S. Obviously, a lot of your growth and a big piece of your business is international and offshore. I'm curious as to whether or not you've had an opportunity to, you know, assess the, the dynamics at play with respect to this surge in power demand and, and the opportunities that Weatherford may have to participate.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, look, I think it comes back to, again, what we talked a little bit about in our prepared remarks, which is we see energy demand continuing to grow, whatever the source of that might be, and we've always, you know, maintained that gas is a really important part of the energy mix. So... And we don't see that changing any point now. Even with depressed commodity prices, gas prices that you see in North America, we think that will, you know, eventually sort of sort of resolve itself and get back to a healthier level. But across the world, we think this is gonna be something that will drive both LNG growth, as well as local infrastructure. Ultimately, it is gonna drive more gas production.
So gas continues to be an important focus for us, and a lot of the solutions that we're trying to drive from a technology standpoint are also focused around that. So it's certainly part of the thesis.
Kurt Hallead (Head of Global Energy)
Okay, thanks for that. Appreciate it.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Thanks, Kurt.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question comes from Saurabh Pant with BofA. Please go ahead.
Saurabh Pant (VP and Equity Research Analyst)
Hi, good morning, Girish, Arun. I'll just start by echoing Luke and Jim's sentiment on just the tremendous turnaround that you continue to deliver quarter-after-quarter. So congratulations on that, Girish, Arun.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Appreciate it.
Saurabh Pant (VP and Equity Research Analyst)
Hey, Girish, can you still hear me?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yes. Yes.
Saurabh Pant (VP and Equity Research Analyst)
Okay, awesome. I'll just start with one on the international side. Just overall, I'm thinking big picture, you did outgrow your big peers in 2023, first quarter of international growth, again, fantastic. Is there, is there something we should think about in terms of you should be growing beyond what the market offers you from an opportunity standpoint? Is it market share? Is it your product mix? How are we thinking about that? Because I know you're not focused on market share, right, but is there an element of just winning your normal market share, and that allows for you to gain and outgrow the market? How would you characterize that, your opportunity versus just the market as a whole?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Sure. Yeah, look, it's, it's a great question, Saurabh. Yeah, it's interesting because, for the last, we've actually talked about the fact that, you know, people should expect that we might be a little bit... We don't have that same extensive footprint, but what we are very, very focused on is having, you know, penetration where we've got critical mass and really performing where we have chosen to play. And I think that's where we are really aiming to do better. But look, I also think there is a element of, you know, us capturing or recapturing some of the share that we lost over the last 10 years.
And, you know, finally, when you put it into our numbers were smaller, so, you know, an incremental win in share does have an, you know, greater impact on us that will allow us to to grow faster. So I think what it clearly points to is that we have gained share in the markets that we play in over the last couple of years. That continues to be our focus. But look, more importantly, as you pointed out, we remain much more focused on where it is that we can grow profitability and cash versus share. And again, North America is actually a terrific example of that, even though the question was on international, right? Where we're not gonna chase volume, but we've actually improved our margins year after year.
Saurabh Pant (VP and Equity Research Analyst)
... Right, right. No, that's very helpful. That's what I was thinking, just getting to your normalized market share, just relative to your history over the past 10, 15 years. And just a quick follow-up, Girish. I'm not thinking, AI and data centers, but I'm just thinking about gas more broadly. And we heard, one of the key Middle Eastern customers talk about potentially doing more things on the gas side versus the oil side, right? So maybe there's a little bit of mix shift going on in the Middle East in general, and maybe the world more broadly, right?
So if that's what we see over the medium to long term, right, not in the short term, medium to long term, gas activity as a proportion of the total activity grows, how should we think that impacts Weatherford? Is it net neutral? Is it net positive? Is it net negative, and why is that?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah. Look, I think it's gonna come down to execution again, you know. I think, it's really gonna be up to us to make sure that we can capture the market. You know, I, I talked about on the February call that we actually see that gas is an opportunity for us to continue to grow the business. You know, we've got a terrific portfolio today that we play in several gas plays, but we think we've got an opportunity to do more than that. But that's gonna come down then to our ability to make sure we've got the right product innovation, we've got the right commercialization, but then, most importantly, the operational execution to capture, capture that. So, you know, ultimately, that's, that's kind of what it is.
But I would look at it as, you know, pretty much, you know, where the rest of the market is going, and we'll continue to play in that.
Saurabh Pant (VP and Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. Okay, fantastic. And just one last quick one, if I may, Girish. In your prepared remarks, you gave your 2024 outlook, and then you said that the biggest risk is geopolitics more than anything else. Any update? Because there has been a lot of tension, especially in the Middle East. Any update, any impact you have seen to date, to your operations?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
No, we have not, Saurabh, and which is why we made sure that we clarified that we kept, we have kept our revenue outlook intact, there's no change. But I think it's just prudent to point out that the world is a volatile place, and so we just wanna be prepared for that. So that, that's really what it is, but no, no change at all.
Saurabh Pant (VP and Equity Research Analyst)
Okay, perfect. Okay, Girish, thank you. I'll turn it back.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Thanks, Saurabh.
Operator (participant)
Thank you.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Great.
Operator (participant)
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the Q&A session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for closing remarks.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Great. Thank you, [Rocco]. Hey, thank you all for joining the call today. Hopefully, you've got a sense of our continued performance on execution. We will keep our focus on that, and we look forward to updating you again, in July. Thank you again for calling in.
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.