Pacific Drilling Reports 4Q 2012 Income of $16.5 Mln

Offshore drilling contractor Pacific Drilling S.A.,  today announced revenue of $191.9 million and net income of $16.5 million or $0.08 per diluted share for the three months ended December 31, 2012.

This compares to revenue of $172.0 million and a net loss of $2.0 million or $0.01 per diluted share for the three months ended September 30, 2012. In the fourth quarter of 2011, the company had revenue of $48.4 million and net income of $11.6 million or $0.05 per diluted share.

For the year ended December 31, 2012, net income was $34.0 million or $0.16 per diluted share on revenue of $638.1 million, as compared to a prior year net loss of $2.9 million or $0.01 per diluted share on revenue of $65.4 million. Financial results for 2011 included earnings of $19.1 million from the joint venture with Transocean, which we divested on March 30, 2011.

CEO Chris Beckett commented, “The fourth quarter represents significant growth in our profitability on the back of a strong performance by our fleet of operating drillships. The fleet outperformed our revenue efficiency targets and cost expectations due to the substantial improvement in rig uptime since all our rigs have completed their respective shakedown periods.”

Regarding the company’s achievements in 2012, Beckett continued, “I am very proud of the Pacific Drilling Team. Throughout the year, we continued to execute on our goal to become the preferred ultra-deepwater drilling contractor. During the past twelve months, we have signed leading-edge contracts for two under-construction vessels and ordered two further rigs, while providing outstanding service to our existing clients and securing attractive financing to support our continued growth.”

Chief Financial Officer William Restrepo commented, “The past year has been a busy one for Pacific Drilling in terms of financing. We made significant progress payments on the construction of our newbuilds, and to support the growth of our fleet, we added an incremental $1 billion of liquidity through two bond offerings and the negotiated release of approximately $200 million in restricted cash. By accessing the U.S. fixed income markets for the first time and reaching a broader group of investors, we have opened access to an additional source of liquidity for future expansion. Finally, by late December 2012, we received commercial bank and Export Credit Agency commitments for our new $1 billion senior secured credit facility. The credit facility agreement was subsequently signed on February 19, 2013.”

We invested $88 million in the construction of the fleet during the fourth quarter of 2012. We estimate the remaining capital expenditures to complete construction of our committed newbuild drillships, including the recently announced order of our eighth rig, at approximately $2.1 billion.

We anticipate funding the remaining costs of our four newbuilds with a combination of cash on hand, cash flows from operations, our $1 billion senior secured credit facility and other long term debt to be placed prior to the delivery of our recently ordered eighth drillship. The choice and timing of the specific elements of the financing plan will be determined by financial market conditions.”

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Press Release, February 28, 2013