Weatherford International - Q3 2024
October 23, 2024
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Weatherford International 3rd 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 Luke Lemoine, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development. Sir, you may begin.
Luke Lemoine (SVP of Corporate Development)
Welcome, everyone, to the Weatherford International 3rd Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. I'm joined today by Girish Saligram, President, CEO, and Arun Mitra, Executive Vice President and CFO. We'll start today with our prepared remarks and then open 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 filings 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 3rd quarter's 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 the call. With that, I'd like to turn over the call to Girish.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Thanks, Luke, and thank you all for joining our call. I will kick off our prepared remarks with an overview of our performance, an update on our capital return program, key highlights, and a brief market outlook. Arun will then cover cash flow, the balance sheet, liquidity, and guidance, and I will wrap up with some thoughts on our strategic direction and multi-year targets before opening for Q&A. As illustrated on slide 3, we delivered strong margin and cash performance in a quarter where North America remained challenged, Latin America had delays, and schedules shifted in the Middle East and North Africa. We have observed a gradual softening in activity, particularly in short-cycle oil projects and onshore programs. E&P operators are taking a measured, cautious approach, and we expect this trend to continue in the near term.
In the 3rd quarter of 2024, despite the revenue headwinds, adjusted EBITDA margins came in as expected at 25.2%. While the margins were more normalized after MPD asset sales supported the 2nd quarter, it is worthwhile noting that we had almost 200 basis points of margin expansion over the same period last year. We delivered adjusted free cash flow of $184 million for an adjusted free cash flow conversion of 52%. 3rd quarter revenue was flat sequentially and up 7% year-over-year, driven by international revenue growth of 9% year-over-year. Revenue came in at the lower end of expectations due to two main factors. Firstly, we experienced delays in activity in Latin America that were broadly felt across the sector.
Secondly, there were scheduling shifts in the Middle East, North Africa region, driven by the more measured approach that I referenced earlier. While we did have opportunities to offset the revenue shortfall with transactional work, we remain firmly committed to pricing discipline and margin expansion to drive long-term value creation. While revenue came in at the lower end of expectations, I'm encouraged by our strong margin and cash flow performance, which reinforces our thesis on the ability to continue driving margin growth on an annual basis. From a regional standpoint, overall North America revenue was up 6% sequentially, primarily due to an activity increase in Canada due to favorable seasonality and increased activity in the Gulf of Mexico. Our international business was down 1% sequentially, but up 9% year-over-year. The sequential impact was primarily a function of the previously mentioned factors.
Despite the sequential delta, we have now achieved fourteen consecutive quarters of year-over-year international revenue growth, with the Middle East, North Africa, Asia region driving the year-on-year results this quarter. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to show strength and has grown 29% year-to-date, and the broader Middle East, North Africa, Asia region has grown 25% year-to-date. Earlier this year, we discussed the expected modulation of our integrated project in Oman. This began in the 3rd quarter and will continue into the 4th quarter, with normalization expected to resume in the 1st quarter of 2025. Our team's outstanding execution on this contract has led to significantly better performance than originally expected. However, as we have previously discussed, we needed to slow down to allow other customer activities to catch up.
On the 2nd quarter call, we expanded our capital allocation framework to include a quarterly dividend and a $500 million buyback. As shown on slide 6, we paid our first-ever quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share and repurchased approximately $50 million of shares during the 3rd quarter. However, this amount may vary each quarter depending on market conditions. Our net leverage ratio is approximately 0.5x, and we remain committed to retiring additional debt while maintaining our top-tier ROIC. We continue to pursue inorganic opportunities that align with our strategic filters. In addition to the three small acquisitions in February, we announced Datagration in September. I'm very pleased with the progress and execution of our team on the integration plans across all four of these businesses.
Now, turning to our segment overview on slides eight through 10, the operational and technical highlights showcase advancements in new market penetration, technology adoption, and continued innovation of our product and services portfolio. Aramco awarded Weatherford a three-year corporate procurement agreement that includes cementation, completions, liner hangers, and whipstocks, as well as complementary service agreements. Also, in the Middle East, Weatherford deployed MPD solutions in two deep geothermal exploration wells. This innovative use of MPD technology mitigates risk from elevated geothermal gradients during exploration drilling. Furthermore, Weatherford was awarded a three-year frame contract for drilling services in Middle East unconventional resources. In digital, the acquisition of Datagration added the PetroVisor and EcoVisor platforms to Weatherford's digital solutions portfolio, enhancing the integration of customer data with ForeSite and CygNet for improved real-time analysis and decision-making.
A few weeks ago, at our twentieth annual FWRD conference, we showcased the platform's capability and potential. It is extremely encouraging to see the strong customer response and immediate pipeline growth. Now for our market outlook. While the broader international market is still growing, growth has decelerated. We don't see a whipsaw in the market, but activity is moderating due to various reasons, including commodity prices, efficiencies, budget exhaustion, delays in several short-cycle campaigns, and several scheduling changes. We have several noteworthy contracts listed in our press release. Despite the slowing growth, these showcase that tender and award activity are still proceeding and demonstrate that Weatherford is able to drive competitive advantage in several spaces. Importantly, our margin outlook of an annual increase of 25-75 basis point improvement per year was predicated on flat revenues.
While the market outlook is softer than three months ago, we're still comfortable with our ability to isolate growth opportunities in select pockets. Furthermore, we continue to believe that across all parts of the well life cycle, there remains an emphasis on technologies that support predictable, cost-competitive production and supply security for our customers, which are areas that we excel in. We anticipate continued growth in parts of international land and offshore, mainly driven by portions of the Middle East and supported by pockets of growth in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The bottom line is that we believe we will have pockets of growth driven by differentiating technologies in key markets. Most importantly, for this year, we continue to have confidence in delivering approximately 20% year-on-year adjusted EBITDA growth, slightly more than 25% adjusted EBITDA margins, and adjusted free cash flow of over $500 million.
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. Girish has already shared an overview of our 3rd quarter performance and provided an update on our capital return program. For a more detailed breakdown of the 3rd quarter results, please refer to our press release and accompanying slide deck. My comments today will center around cash flow, working capital, balance sheet liquidity, and 4th quarter guidance. Turning to slide 18 for cash flows and liquidity. In the 3rd quarter, we generated adjusted free cash flow of $184 million, up $88 million from the 2nd quarter levels of $96 million. Our net working capital showed significantly better efficiencies and only increased 70 basis points compared to the 3rd quarter of 2023, in spite of a 730 basis points increase in revenues.
As a result, net working capital as a percentage of the last twelve months' revenue was 25.8%, which represented a year-on-year improvement of greater than 260 basis points. Irrespective of the stage of the cycle, the goal is to get net working capital as a percentage of revenue to be sustainably at 25% or better. For the last twelve months, CapEx was $266 million, or 4.8% of revenues. Total cash was approximately $978 million, up $58 million sequentially. During the 3rd quarter, we repurchased approximately $50 million of shares and paid a $0.25 quarterly dividend.
While our liquidity is at $1.3 billion, we remain committed to retiring additional debt and reducing our interest expense with an intent to get gross leverage below 1x, while maintaining liquidity of approximately $1 billion to operate the business and manage event risk. To summarize, our balanced capital allocation approach to investing in technology, organic and inorganic growth, debt management, and shareholder returns underscores our focus on sustainable value creation. Turning to our 4th quarter and full year 2024 guidance on slide 19. As Girish mentioned, there are a number of factors that have recently developed in the market, with schedule shifts and several short-cycle campaigns that have been delayed. As a result, we expect 4th quarter revenues to be flat to up low single digits.
Within this, we expect DRE revenues to be flat sequentially, WCC revenues to be flat to up low single digits, and PRI revenues to be up low to mid single digits. Adjusted EBITDA margins for the 4th quarter are expected to be approximately 25%, and we still expect full-year margins to be slightly above 25%. Full-year adjusted free cash flow is still expected to exceed $500 million. Thank you for your time today. I will now pass the call back to Girish for his closing comments.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Thanks, Arun. On the 2nd quarter conference call, I laid out the vision for the future that requires the same rigor on operating intensity, but it's fueled with the capability of more differentiating technology, world-class fulfillment, and larger scale. While the overall market is evolving and the cycle is maturing, we believe we have the opportunity to deliver EBITDA margins in the high twenties in the next three years in a flat to modestly up operating environment. We remain intensely focused on net working capital efficiency, and with further reductions in our interest burden, we expect to achieve free cash flow conversion of around 50% during this period. Our internal investments aim to deliver top-tier return on invested capital. All of this will enable significant cash generation, providing an opportunity to return around 50% of that to shareholders through the framework we have outlined.
This will leave sufficiently dry powder for selective inorganic plays that will reinforce this entire thesis. So while we are entering a new phase of the cycle with low growth for the immediate future, our capability to deliver true value creation is significantly bolstered by the actions and focus over the past few years. And now, operator, please open the call for questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, we ask that you please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we'll pause for just a moment to assemble our roster, and our first question today comes from Dave Anderson of Barclays. Please go ahead.
Dave Anderson (Senior Equity Analyst)
Hi, good morning, Girish. How are you?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Good, Dave. Good morning.
Dave Anderson (Senior Equity Analyst)
So you had talked about on the last quarter call about kind of the, how you view kind of Weatherford in the future, and one part of that was scale. I just wanna come back to the M&A discussion here. You've done four kind of smaller acquisitions during the year. I was wondering, first, maybe you could just talk a little bit about how those acquisitions have gone, kind of what are they bringing to the table? and then kind of really more secondarily, I'm curious as to kind of where you're thinking going forward. Are there any kind of must-haves you need? I kind of go back to that, you said scale. Is it more than just scale? Is it certain technologies you're looking for? Just sort of a general M&A,
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Sure, um-
Dave Anderson (Senior Equity Analyst)
Discussion, please. Thanks.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Sure, Dave. So look, let me start maybe a little bit more with the first, and then I'll walk into the first question. So look, from an M&A standpoint, let me start with the fact that we are very pleased, we're happy with the portfolio we've got today. We don't see any glaring gaps or significant holes that we absolutely have to go fill. So, you know, as a result, you know, as I pointed out in my prepared comments, M&A will be selective. We are not looking to grow scale for the sake of scale. That's absolutely not on the cards. You know, we think we've got sufficient scale today. The company is operating really well. We're happy with the portfolio.
But what we do have is a strategy within each of the product lines that we operate within, that aim to further grow those product lines and to enhance value creation. We've also got some enterprise teams that we're trying to drive. So what we look at when we think about M&A is, you know, any potential target, you know, does it fit that strategy? And if you look at the deals that we have done this year, you know, they have been small, but they've all fit into that strategy. So, you know, as an example, you look at the acquisition of Probe in the wireline technology space. We were trying to pivot our wireline business and are doing that successfully to being a different kind of a wireline provider.
We will have a wireline service in some critical countries, but we will also be a technology provider to other service companies in areas that we don't operate. To do that, we needed a, you know, broader suite, and that's what Probe gave us. So, it's things like that. Ardyne, you know, has really helped fill out the portfolio in terms of a full capability with high degree of efficiency, with innovative technology around plug and abandonment and slot recovery. So those are the kinds of things that we are getting after. You know, I'm extremely pleased with the progress that we have made. As everyone knows, Weatherford's had a history of acquisitions, but, you know, what we have not done a great job in the past is integrating them.
So we put a lot of emphasis before we consummated the deal around the integration planning with dedicated teams, a clear playbook on how we're gonna go execute, and we are learning through that. But, the teams have done a terrific job, and I'm excited about the ability to build out all of these platforms, to be significant growth for us in the years to come.
Dave Anderson (Senior Equity Analyst)
So Girish, it sounds like you had mentioned a couple of times, isolating growth pockets in sort of a flattish market. And is this kind of the idea that you can find these sort of technologies to go after these growth pockets?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Absolutely. Look, you know, we still think there's, you know, reasonably good chances for solid activity. You know, while it might be stable, we've got an opportunity to not just increase our share position, but we've also got an opportunity to create some white space and move into that. So that's exactly what we mean by that, and we think that will provide us the ability to grow the business while the overall market might be stable to, you know, slightly up.
Dave Anderson (Senior Equity Analyst)
Great, and just one other thing, if I could just ask you, you had mentioned a couple of times about some scheduling shifts in the Middle East and North Africa. Could you expand on that a little bit? What do you mean by scheduling shifts? Are these temporary? Are these just kind of one project to the next? Just a little bit more color on that, please. Thank you.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah. So look, I think, you know, without getting into customer specifics, what, what it really is, is some of the campaigns getting pushed out by a quarter or two. That's really what it comes down to. So it's not a permanent shift, it's not cancellations, but we are seeing, you know, as I pointed out again in my prepared remarks, a bit more of a measured, a bit more of a cautious approach. And so things that, you know, can get delayed, we are seeing customers push that out a little bit to see how the, you know, overall macroeconomic situation unfolds.
Dave Anderson (Senior Equity Analyst)
Thank you very much, Girish.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Thanks, Dave.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question comes from James West at Evercore. Please go ahead.
James West (Senior Managing Director)
Hey, good morning, guys.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Hey, James.
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Good morning, James.
James West (Senior Managing Director)
Girish, you've talked about you know, stable market environment, and I know you just discussed a little bit about kind of the M&A that you've done so far this year. I'm curious how you see Weatherford evolving and growing in this stable environment. Can you outpace the kind of you know, modest growth environment? And if so, by how much? And then you know, if so, in what areas do you see your biggest strength?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah. So, James, look, you know, we will give, as you can imagine, more specific guidance in February around the year, but, you know, broadly speaking, you know, like we have pointed out, I think we have got specific areas of growth, and, you know, if we are able to execute on that, which we are working very hard towards, is making sure that, you know, we essentially can get that incremental growth, so that's really what it's about, so, you know, I think as long as, you know, the market remains stable, as long as we can execute, we do have an opportunity to get that exaggerated growth, if you will. Specifically, look, it's different areas and different product lines. You know, for example, I've talked in the past on MPD around our Modus launch.
This year was really..
James West (Senior Managing Director)
Sure.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
about getting the launch done, getting packages built, getting the supply chain together, and getting them out in the field, finishing up the field trials, et cetera. This has been incredibly successful. So next year, that should create a little bit more of a bolus for growth, for us. The other area, look at a very broad thematic approach, where we are really focused is this notion of, you know, production optimization around mature fields. So, you know, everything that we've got from a product line capability really comes to the fore in this notion of mature field rejuvenation, production optimization, et cetera. Our MARS offering, which is our mature asset rejuvenation through surveillance.
James West (Senior Managing Director)
Right.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
We have had some great examples there. Our well services portfolio brings that through our intervention capabilities, all the way up to decommissioning. That's where we think there is still gonna be an extremely strong emphasis, because customers in this environment are actually gonna be far more focused on how do they get more out of their existing fields, how do they get more out of their existing wells, and that should give us an opportunity to grow.
James West (Senior Managing Director)
Gotcha. Okay, and then maybe a follow-up on that. As you have some growth next year, how do you think about margin profile? And I know, again, you'll get more color in February, but how do you think about the potential to take what are already very good margins, you know, higher in a slower growth environment?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah. So, you know, look, we will probably not see a margin expansion to the tune that we've seen in the past two to three years-of multiple hundreds of basis points. But you know, we feel comfortable and confident that we should still be able to grow margins in that 25-75 basis points in a flat to slightly up kind of an environment. And that's really a combination of several things that we are driving internally, improving the value gap, improving our execution, and as I've pointed out before, we still have opportunities within the company to get more efficient. So you know, the capabilities that we have developed over the past three years, you know, while we've gotten a lot of the low-hanging fruit, there's still enough fruit out there on the trees, and we've built a few small ladders to go with that as well.
James West (Senior Managing Director)
Got it. Thanks.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Our next question today comes from Scott Gruber at Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Scott Gruber (Director)
Yes, good morning.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Hey, Scott. Good morning.
Scott Gruber (Director)
Um, I wanna stay on the margin topic, just because the slower growth environment, you know, often affords management teams an opportunity to kind of reassess, you know, those margin enhancement drivers that they've been thinking about. So are you guys thinking about the margin enhancement drivers any differently in a slower growth environment? Like, are there certain levers that you can pull faster or harder? You know, can you introduce technology internally faster? Yeah, just some additional thoughts on kind of how you pull those margin enhancement levers.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah. Yeah, so look, Scott, for us, the levers are consistent, right? So the first one is pricing. Obviously, pricing in a slower growth environment becomes a bit more challenging, but we still think there is enough tightness of supply in highly differentiated product lines and technologies that is still an opportunity, and we expect pricing to, at a minimum, offset inflation and be a slight net positive. The second and probably most significant one is the introduction of new technology. And as we do that, we're really trying to enhance the value gap, so really position it at the point where we can get higher price, but also, at the same time, deliver it with more efficiencies and a lower cost.
The third for us is, you know, what we've been working on for a while, is our entire fulfillment network. Now, this is a herculean task, you know, it's a four- to five-year roadmap. We're making good progress on it. The initial part of it was a lot of facility consolidation. We're done with that. Now it's about how do we optimize the supply chain and our sourcing networks around that? You know, just a very simplistic example on that, I talked on one of the calls, I think, three or four quarters ago, about moving to, you know, lower cost countries from a sourcing base. That's providing us already significant benefits, and what's interesting about that is we are 10 years late on doing this. Everyone else has already done this.
So for us, it's actually a significant margin expansion that we're still able to get really good margins, but doing that, keeping price where it is or slightly above, getting a significant cost reduction does help that. So network optimization, the supply chain optimization and fulfillment is a big factor. And we will lean on that a lot harder now, is because, you know, cost becomes more important. And sticking to that cost theme, the last level really is our own internal efficiencies and our cost structure. Look, the team's done an outstanding job over the past few years, improving the company, taking a lot of cost out.
Weatherford was never really designed to be what it is today, and so we've still got an opportunity to get more efficiencies, you know, everything from how information flows to material flows, to where we have people, you know, what roles they're doing, how we can consolidate, how we can use technology better. So that's gonna be a huge emphasis for us over the next eighteen months or so. All of that combined, I think, gives us enough ammunition to really get after cost and improve margins in this slower growth environment.
Scott Gruber (Director)
That's great. I appreciate the color. I wanna come back to the pricing point, because we get questions from investors, you know, on the topic of, you know, margin resiliency for Weatherford. I think some folks wonder if you benefited disproportionately, you know, versus peers from price inflation on the way up, and if that introduces risk in the more competitive marketplace. You know, is that a risk that folks should be concerned about?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
So, Scott, the way I think about it is, I think it is reasonably fair to assume that we might have, you know, benefited, if you'll call it disproportionately. Look, we've put a tremendous amount of emphasis on pricing as part of our commercial approach and strategy. So we have gotten price, we have significantly increased price. But what I would say is, I don't think that poses a risk on the other side because of a couple of factors. One is, I feel that the whole industry has strong pricing discipline, and, you know, I think, you know, hopefully we'll all continue to maintain that. I think, second, look, we've got internally a very, very rigorous mechanism and a culture around pricing.
I talked in my prepared remarks that we've got opportunities, you know, frankly, every day, every week, to increase revenue, you know, by reducing prices fairly significantly, and we are absolutely not giving in to that. So we are very clear about our North Star, which is cash generation, and margins are the first proxy for that. So we are very clear about that. And so, you know, our focus on making sure that we can articulate the value proposition that our differentiating technology brings to customers allows us to keep that pricing. So, you know, I think the first part I would say is fair. I think the second part is not something that I am personally overly concerned about.
Scott Gruber (Director)
Oh, that's great color. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, and our next question today comes from Ati Modak with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Ati Modak (VP of Energy Equity Research)
Hi, good morning, team. Girish, you highlighted a new MPD award in the Middle East, so maybe from an adoption perspective, can you talk about which other regions are an area of focus for you, where adoption might be low at the moment and can drive growth, in the next twelve months?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, Ati, look, I think, you know, MPD adoption continues to be something that is very important for us, when we're seeing very positive signs of that. You know, there isn't necessarily a region per se. It's really our... You know, so it's sort of ubiquitous. We're trying to push this in every part of the world, and as we are able to get in front of customers, show them more case studies, share best practices, we are seeing that adoption increase. The Middle East, I would say, has been by far the probably most significant part of it. But, you know, there's areas in Asia, there's areas in Europe and Latin America, where we are seeing more and more of that as well. So it's really sort of a overall perspective.
Look, what we are really, if you look at it, though, what we're trying to now get after is this performance segment of the market, right? So we have always had the, you know, basic RCDs that go on, you know, the, the sort of the lower end of the market. We've got our very high-end Victus offering, which is typically deep water types of applications, et cetera. But there really has never been in the market, this performance tier offering. So that's something that we are really focused on, and Modus is a, is an outstanding product, and really allows us to capture that, both in land and in offshore.
Offshore, you know, you think about the jackup market, for example. That's something that now starts to open up for us and something that we are excited about getting after.
Ati Modak (VP of Energy Equity Research)
Great, appreciate that. And then for next year, with you've mentioned flattish revenue, maybe some margin growth. Any early thoughts on free cash flow cadence? 'Cause the working capital seasonality will obviously be different for, your, like, next year versus what previous years have been. So maybe any thoughts around that and cash use, if you could.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Sure, Arun?
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Ati, you know, as we've mentioned, one of the things we take very seriously is the efficiency at which we use working capital. And what you would have seen over the last 21 months is a consistent improvement in the efficiency of working capital. We were at 28% beginning of last year. We find ourselves at 25.8%. Now, the idea is to sustainably be at 25% or below going forward. So what I can tell you is you should expect continuous efficiency improvement across the board, DSO, DSI, and DPO, translating into a better conversion cycle. And then, you know, as we mentioned before, we will continue to work on debt, which translates into lower interest costs, and we expect over time, cash taxes to moderate as well. So, we expect cash conversion to sequentially improve over the next three years.
Ati Modak (VP of Energy Equity Research)
Appreciate that. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Our next question today comes from Jim Rollyson with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Jim Rollyson (Director)
Hey, good morning, everyone, and Girish, congrats, I guess, on the 1st quarter of returning capital to shareholders.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Thanks.
Jim Rollyson (Director)
Along those lines, you know, you look around oil field service space and guys that have been doing this for a little while, you kind of see this breakdown into a couple of different ways of executing it. Some people just look at what their annual free cash flow is going to be and kind of execute the buyback portion of the, you know, annual return kind of programmatically across the year, and some guys are a little more opportunistic based on share price. I'm just curious how you guys, this is your 1st quarter with the $50 million, but curious how you will execute that going forward or how you're thinking about that.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, Jim, I'll let Arun take the specifics on this, but I will just sort of kick it off by saying, look, I think this is a learning process for us. You know, we are trying to figure out the most optimal way, you know, but really with the focus on doing this like we do everything else in the most prudent and responsible fashion, without going nuts and taking undue risk.
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Jim, what we can tell you is we did a bit of both this quarter, and what we also know for a fact that empirical evidence suggests that companies are not very good at opportunistically executing buybacks and adding value. So we will be careful, and we will be looking at market signals which trigger opportunistic buybacks, but at the same time, the dilution component, which is triggered by grants to employees, that is something we expect to buy back programmatically. So more to come in the future quarters on this.
Jim Rollyson (Director)
Yeah, no, that's, that's helpful color. Thanks for both answers. And Girish, just one follow-up. At the FWRD Conference, you know, you guys talked about a lot of different things on the digital front, from sensors to obviously data curation and the ability to integrate a lot of different things. Maybe just order of magnitude, you know, there's been a lot of talk about digital, but order of magnitude, kind of how impactful is that as we think about Weatherford going forward from a growth aspect?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, look, you know, we talked earlier, Jim, about those pockets of growth. Digital is most certainly one of those pockets, right? So I highlighted production, you know, focus and this mature field rejuvenation. You know, P&A is another, digital is a third and a very significant portion. And look, it's far more than about the simplistic, you know, revenue growth that we get out of it. We get a couple of other things with that digital capability. The first is significantly higher margins, so it's very accretive to margins. And the second is, while there is a lot of typically upfront cost in software development, et cetera, our approach is a little bit different, really becoming more of an integrator of different things. So it's actually less capital intensive, as well.
You know, today, it's not big enough that we would peel it out and talk about it as a separate segment or anything like that, but it is something that we are really counting on. As we talk about in those levers of margin expansion, technology being a driver, digital is smack dab and center in the middle of that.
Jim Rollyson (Director)
Perfect. Appreciate the answer.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. And the next question comes from Saurabh Pant with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Saurabh Pant (Energy Equity Research Analyst)
Hi, good morning, Girish, Arun.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Hey, Saurabh.
Saurabh Pant (Energy Equity Research Analyst)
Hi, Girish, maybe I want to start with a little more color on the orders that you announced. I know you're not primarily an order-driven company, right? But it's interesting to see a dozen orders in your press release that you announced. I think seven or eight of them are in the Middle East. And I know we are simultaneously talking about concerns on the Middle East, maybe Saudi more specifically slowing down, but on the other hand, you continue to get stronger orders. How do you feel about the trajectory going forward, right? I mean, considering the order inflow, the conversation still looks relatively positive.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, look, Saurabh, great question. You know, we as we highlighted in the press release, I mean, there is still a lot of activity out there. So I think it's important to understand that activity growth is slowing, no question. But activity itself is actually, you know, still very much there, and it's growing a little bit. So I think the orders not just show that there is activity, but that we are actually winning in several different areas of the business, in several different geographies. And the Middle East, I think, is still the place that we think about as spearheading growth overall, right?
You know, as we sort of look at a global landscape, I think everyone understands and recognizes that North America is, you know, likely as we look into the next twelve months or so, gonna be challenged, you know, sort of flat, more likely a bit down. You know, on the international side, we think there's growth, but, you know, that growth is very mixed. You know, Europe, obviously, with some of the things happening in the UK, the North Sea, that's likely to be down. We think Sub-Saharan Africa has, probably, mid-single digits kind of growth. We think Asia has, mid-single digits growth. But then Middle East, you know, select countries have high single digits, and overall, we think Middle East is about mid-single digits growth as we look at next year.
And then, you know, for us, therefore, when you look at the total international business, it's probably up sort of, you know, in this low single digits kind of place. But then select pockets that have significant margin accretion that we continue to exploit, should give us that ability to deliver higher EBITDA margins. You know, the one wild card I would say is probably gonna be Latin America, which really is. You know, we've got to wait and see a little bit how it eventually modulates, especially in places like Argentina and Mexico, what really happens. But, you know, those awards, you're 100% right, really showcase what's happening, and there is still activity out there.
Saurabh Pant (Energy Equity Research Analyst)
Right, right, right. No, exactly, right. I mean, we hear about all the concerns, but on the other hand, like you said, the trends on the ground, they still look like they're-
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, I mean, look-
Saurabh Pant (Energy Equity Research Analyst)
... relatively resilient, right? If not positive.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, we talked about, you know, our year-to-date growth, and granted, that's retrospective, but, you know, it's still very, very strong year-to-date growth. So even if that moderates, I think we've got enough momentum, we've got enough scale, that we should now really be able to continue to get momentum and efficiencies and, you know, really drive this margin expansion story. So I, you know, I've been saying this consistently for, for three-plus years, is this is a margin and cash story. Yes, you've got to have revenue growth to, to help drive that, but even in a flat to slightly up environment, we should be able to get significant value creation from that margin expansion.
Saurabh Pant (Energy Equity Research Analyst)
Right. Perfect. Arun, one for you very quickly. I know you talked about working capital efficiency in response to Ati's question. And you've done a great job, right, 25.8%. That's a fantastic number you're sitting at, and the target is to come down to 25% or less than 25%. How soon should we expect you to get there? And does the fact that the overall market growth is slowing does that make it harder to further accelerate, for example, collections for you?
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Look, we haven't seen sort of any impact on collections. As a matter of fact, we had a pretty strong collections quarter. But if things slow down, history suggests that, you know, collections will slow down as well. But at the same time, you would expect inventory to build up much less or actually reduce. So overall, in an environment which is not growing as quickly as it was, you would expect some actually working capital to go in a favorable direction. Now, if, you know, the world falls apart and everything goes to hell in a handbasket, then of course, you would expect to see working capital unwind. But in a flat to moderately up, you would see continuous efficiency improvements. And when you ask about how soon, you know, we have some critical dependencies, I mean, concentrations.
You know, you've seen from our Qs that a significant portion of our AR is concentrated in Mexico, so we are actively working to reduce the concentration. I couldn't tell you that we sustainably get to 25% next quarter or the quarter after. What I can tell you is, we are working on the structure which reduces concentration on any particular customer or any particular geography. Once we do that, which we expect to do over the next couple of years, you could expect us to be 25% or better, sustainably.
Saurabh Pant (Energy Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. No, I got it. I know it makes a lot of sense. Okay, perfect. Girish, Arun, thank you. I'll turn it back.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Sure.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. And our next question today 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.
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
Hi, Kurt.
Kurt Hallead (Head of Global Energy)
Thanks, Arun. Thanks for the opportunity here to pepper you with some questions. So, Girish, let's go back to some of the commentary you kind of referenced. Obviously, moderation in the growth rates, and you went through a very detailed explanation of where you think that growth is gonna come. You've emphasized the focus on, you know, maintaining and improving your margins even in that environment. So how do you guide the organization, if you will, in the context of maybe feeling pressure to take some work that doesn't meet necessarily the margin or return thresholds?
Or are you getting any indication of a little bit of, I don't know, anxiety within the organization about having to book work, even if it's not the best work?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah. Look, Kurt, you know, the way we do that is just a lot of communication, firstly, and then the second is making sure we've got the right operating rhythms and mechanisms set up to ensure that everyone's on the same page. You know, I feel really good about the culture within the company, the changes that we have had over the last four years. I think everyone understands today what the North Star is, and again, it's cash and the proxies to get to that.
So no one's really looking to say, "Hey, I'm just gonna grow revenue or share at the expense of margins and cash." So I feel really good about that, and it's been, you know, four years of a lot of work that we have put in as a leadership team, but more importantly, you know, making sure that that message has percolated through the 19,000 people in the organization. We have had bidirectional interaction, a lot of dialogue around it. So, you know, is it perfect? Probably not, but I feel really good about the overall system that people will, you know, have the opportunity to ask those questions, and then we can address them. But yeah, look, we are absolutely not gonna go chase low-quality work.
Kurt Hallead (Head of Global Energy)
That's great. Appreciate that color. Maybe on a follow-up, right? And typically, in periods like we're experiencing now, like, which is not really typical, it's either gonna go up in a big way or down in a big way, now we're just kind of moderating. But nonetheless, you know, the customer base tends to utilize these types of situations to really kinda lean on the suppliers and service companies from a pricing standpoint. So you kind of explained the customer dynamic around it, but maybe can you give us some insights as to, you know, are you seeing that increased amount of discussion from the customers really trying to lean on you to kind of reduce prices? Is it more intense now than it might have been, you know, three, four, five months ago?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Look, it's always something that is, you know, part of every conversation, right? You know, we do that with our supply base. Our customers do that with us. That's just the circle of business that you go through. So, you know, we are certainly having, I would say, you know, maybe a few more conversations, but it's nothing to the extent that, you know, we would say it's a widespread phenomena or something that we are overly concerned about. Most importantly, look, I think a couple of things. One is we have really tried, as we have worked on pricing over the past few years, to make sure that it is backed up by a very strong value proposition. So it's not a pricing argument that's been, hey, commodity prices are high, so our prices should go high.
It's been about the value that we generate and create for our customers. The second is, you know, customers are still very cognizant and very keen on ensuring security of supply, especially, you know, when there is a lack of different choices around differentiating technologies. So, that's a big, big factor. You know, I think the industry has been a lot more prudent in this cycle of not building out a lot of capacity. And so there isn't this huge mismatch right now, again, especially in those differentiated areas where we get the higher margins, that would suggest that there's a lot of surplus capacity to throw that could create pricing softness. And look, I think last but not least, I think customers are also very, very cognizant that the cycles have changed, and this is not that whipsaw effect.
You know, there is a moderation in activity, but there isn't a drop, and I think that's a fundamental difference, and customers recognize that they need a healthy service sector, as well. So I think the conversations are constructive, and, you know, net-net, you know, we still believe we've got, you know, a opportunity and a roadmap to increase margins.
Kurt Hallead (Head of Global Energy)
All right. That's great. Great color. Thank you so much.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Sure.
Operator (participant)
Our next question today comes from Doug Becker with Capital One. Please go ahead.
Doug Becker (Partner)
Thank you. Girish, Mexico is an important market for Weatherford. The country has a new president, national oil company has a new CEO, and then yesterday, there was a report that Pemex is looking to suspend some rigs just to manage budget. So just given that dynamic backdrop, wanted to get your outlook for Latin America, specifically.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah. Doug, look, you know, Latin America has been one of the challenges over the past six months. We have referenced it, you know, on the prior call as well as on this call in terms of delays that we have seen, and certainly Mexico's a part of that. You know, we recognize that, you know, leading up to the elections, there was a little bit of churn and, you know, things got slowed down, and now we've got a new administration. I think it's still very early days to say exactly what it's gonna look like.
But clearly, there's, you know, a big focus on, you know, what they wanna do in terms of getting Pemex on the right footing, and, you know, we wanna support them as a supplier and partner to the extent we can, while making sure that, you know, we generate the value that's due. So, you know, as I look at Latin America as a whole, as I sort of said earlier, on one of the questions, you know, Latin America is probably the wild card for next year. As we look at it right now, it probably feels like it's flat to maybe slightly down, but it also is the one region that has the ability to inflect the strongest.
You know, Argentina has probably the most positive outlook at this point than it's had in several years, but we still need to see that shift, actually happen and the full ability to free up, capital controls, et cetera. If that happens, I think there could be a significant, positive opportunity, there. You know, Colombia, we have talked about some of the changes there and the slowdown, et cetera. That's likely gonna persist and not really change, for a bit longer. Brazil has been pretty steady and growing, and, you know, that continues to do well. And then it really comes down to Mexico, which is a very significant market. So I think more to come on that, especially in the February call, as we lay out, guidance, et cetera.
But it's something that we are very cognizant of, we are keeping a very close eye on, and making sure that we are modulating our workforce, our plants, everything in line with customer activity and really ensuring that we are well positioned as a company to manage overall exposure there.
Doug Becker (Partner)
That makes sense. Switching gears a little bit, the industry seems to be increasingly focused on the production phase of the well life cycle. At your recent digital conference, you were highlighting the ForeSite production platform that you can integrate artificial lift into, and then specifically, the power regenerative system.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Mm-hmm.
Doug Becker (Partner)
Just how would you characterize the growth opportunity for Weatherford from the digital production-related offerings?
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Yeah, look, I think it's one of our most significant opportunities. You know, we've got a very extensive portfolio on two dimensions. The first one is really around artificial lift, right? So we don't have an ESP offering, but we have just about every other form of lift, and it's the most comprehensive lift offering with a very strong installed base that we've got in the industry. So that's a huge advantage for us. You know, we really understand this production domain. The second is the digital capability. You know, we are the only OFS company that has its own SCADA platform with CygNet, and that is a huge competitive advantage for us.
As we modernize that, feed that into ForeSite, the ability to then you know, bring together different data structures, different databases, different data models with what we have with Datagration now, this capability of a unified data model, that allows us to create incredibly powerful algorithms, platforms for customers to drive their operational efficiency. That's what we're really focused on. We think it's an area that we will get tremendous capability.
And, you know, what we're adding to these two legs now is a third dimension, which is not just, you know, hey, we've got the artificial lift, we've got the digital capability, you know, but we're now, you know, making sure we've got that comprehensive portfolio to help customers rejuvenate their mature fields, to improve their production from existing wells through a combination of intervention services, you know, well services, et cetera, a lot of different technologies that really help drive that. So it's an area that we are probably, you know, most excited about in terms of the growth potential.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. And our final question today comes from Josh Jayne with Daniel Energy Partners. Please go ahead.
Josh Jayne (Managing Partner)
Thanks for taking my questions. I have one with a related follow-up that you discussed on the surface and a little bit in your last question, but I just wanted to drill down further on so, first, you completed the acquisition of Datagration in the 3rd quarter. And can you just speak to why now exactly was the right time for that specific deal, and maybe a bit more detail on PetroVisor and EcoVisor? And then, as my follow-up, could you just give a bit more detail about how they're ultimately gonna work together with ForeSite and CygNet, and the increasing importance of real-time analysis, and how that's how you see that specifically evolving over time over the next couple of years? Thanks.
Arun Mitra (EVP and CFO)
All right. A lot of different things in there, Josh, but let me try and sort of address most of them at a high level. So look, you know, in terms of the why now, you know, it's. That's always a bit hard to answer. You know, everything typically comes together. But really, as we looked at the market landscape as well as our own capabilities, you know, there was a couple of things that we realized. Look, first is customers are struggling with the same issue, which is we've got a lot of data, you know, we just don't know how to really bring it all together. The second is, you know, nobody really wants to get tied into a particular platform or a particular system.
You know, they see different things that are best in class, but lack the ability to stitch it all together. You know, especially when you think about all of the consolidation, and granted, that's more of a U.S. phenomenon, but it's a huge market. You know, customers are consolidating, and they're saying, "Hey, look, company acquired was on this system. I've got this system. There's this huge treasure trove of data, but they don't talk to each other, the different systems. How do we pull all of that together?" You know, we looked at that. We see that internally, but we also see that within the, you know, offerings that we have to customers. Datagration really is a solution that bridges that gap for our customers.
It has this ability with this unified data model to really bring things together, you know, in a very sort of crude fashion. The layman in me sort of describes it as it's sort of the universal plug adapter for the digital world. You know, so that's really what we get with that. It creates then a very powerful message for customers that we can help them bring together different data sources, and most importantly, do it very fast, do it real time, do it on the cloud, do it as a software as a service kind of a model. You know, or if they want it on-prem, we can do that as well. Different delivery mechanisms that bring that together. So that's really what it is.
Look, in terms of the exact roadmap of integration with ForeSite, PetroVisor, et cetera, that's something that we are working on. But what is more important than the actual platform is the fact that we have the capability now to deliver to customers specific optimization platforms. We've got the ability to drive these AI ML models on a variety of their use cases through whatever channel that they want, along with a very simple user interface that can be delivered to them in a subscription model, in whatever, you know, mechanism that they want. So that's really what this whole thesis is about.
Josh Jayne (Managing Partner)
Thanks.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. And this concludes our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to the management team for any closing remarks.
Girish Saligram (President and CEO)
Great. Thanks, Rahul. Hey, thank you all for joining the call today. Look, appreciate it. So, you know, just to summarize again, we recognize that the market is changing, it's evolving. We still, though, believe that we have pockets of growth. We have the ability to grow the business in several different areas that we're excited about. And most importantly, we have the ability to continue the margin expansion journey that we've been on for the past few years. And for this year, you know, we are on track to deliver over 25% EBITDA margins and over $500 million of cash. So thank you all so much for joining, and we'll talk to you on our 4th quarter call.
Josh Jayne (Managing Partner)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Thank you, everybody. 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.