Viper Energy Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
November 7, 2023

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Viper Energy Partners Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Adam Lawlis, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Antoine. Good morning, and welcome to Viper Energy Partners' Q3 2023 conference call. During our call today, we will reference an updated investor presentation, which can be found on Viper's website. Representing Viper today are Travis Sice, CEO Kate Stantoff, President and Austin Gilfillan, General Manager. During this conference call, the participants may make certain forward looking statements relating to the company's financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and businesses.

Speaker 1

We caution you that actual results could differ from those that are indicated in these forward looking statements due to a variety of factors. Information concerning these factors can be found in the company's filings with the SEC. Additionally, we'll make reference to certain non GAAP measures. The reconciliations with the appropriate GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release issued yesterday afternoon. I'll now turn the call over to Travis Stice.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Adam. Welcome everyone and thank you for listening to the Viper Energy Partners' Q3 2023 conference call. There were several important updates made yesterday with our earnings announcement. So I will start with our upcoming conversion into a Delaware Corporation First. The Board of Directors approved the conversion on November 2nd and we expect that it will become effective on November 13.

Speaker 2

When completed, this conversion will deliver increased corporate governance rights to our limited partners and is intended to position Viper such that the value of our mineral and royalty assets can be fully recognized. Further on that point, we expect the conversion to result in an increase in Viper's trading liquidity and potential investor universe. Given Viper's current status as a partnership, We estimate that approximately 2% of our public float is held by index funds. This compares to a select group of our peers averaging around 30% ownership. Fundamentally, we believe this conversion is the right thing to do for our unitholders and that it will provide numerous benefits, But the foundation of the decision is to fully highlight the advantaged nature of mineral ownership and the unique value proposition that Viper presents As a separate recent event, Viper announced last week the closing of our GRP acquisition.

Speaker 2

This acquisition was a truly unique opportunity and that it checked all the boxes we look for in an acquisition, immediate accretion to all relevant financial metrics, substantial undeveloped inventory to support long term returns and significant scale that results in a pro form a business that is both bigger and better. What differentiates this acquisition, however, is both the quantity and quality of the undeveloped inventory, particularly in the Northern Midland Basin. Following the closing of this acquisition, Viper Now owns roughly 32,000 net royalty acres in the Permian Basin and our production will be over 25,000 barrels of oil per day. Looking ahead, we have an unparalleled growth runway of high quality undeveloped acreage And as the largest player in the public minerals market, we expect to play a meaningful role in consolidating the highly fragmented space as high value proposition opportunities like GRP present themselves. Turning to the results of the business.

Speaker 2

The 3rd quarter was another strong quarter for Viper as production grew roughly 5% for the 2nd Consecutive quarter. While growth will not always be ratable from quarter to quarter given we own varying interest in what is mostly large scale development in the Permian Basin, we expect the trend of meaningful growth on an annual basis to continue as evidenced by their preliminary full year 2024 production guidance that we provided. Additionally, during the Q3, Viper announced an almost $100,000,000 lease bonus, which will allow for the future development of deeper zones on certain acreage in the Midland Basin. As mentioned in our For converting into a corporation, there are many structural advantages to minimum ownership beyond just the cost free royalties And this significant lease bonus is just one specific example. As owners and lessors of the subsurface property, Modern lease terms can dictate development requirements of operators and when those terms are not met, Leases can expire and have the full development rights revert back to us as the mineral owner.

Speaker 2

As deeper zones are tested throughout the basin, we believe this is an advantage that will only be further highlighted in the years to come. As a final point, Viper remains committed to a sustainable and growing return of capital through cash distribution during the long term. We have a balanced sheet strength, durable cash flow profile and undeveloped inventory base to support many years of Activity on our asset base continues to be strong We believe we are positioned to execute on opportunistic M and A to further complement what is already a unique value proposition, both in terms of return on and return of capital. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now conduct a question and answer session. And answer roster. Our first question comes from Neal Dingmann from True Securities. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Good morning, guys. Next quarter. My first question guys is just on the lease bonuses. That's the impressive one you all recently received. I'm just wondering, could you speak to if all that bonus was tied likely to the deeper zones and wondering, do you all believe you have many of your other assets have potential for similar type Bonuses maybe in those type of areas.

Speaker 4

Yes, Neil, good question. I'll answer part of it and give it to Austin to talk about the rest of the asset base. I think high level, we kind of added a slide in the deck to kind of show that even in an area like Spanish Trail, Highly developed on the traditional Wolf Barry play that we all know, but now moving back in and developing Barnett, Woodford and some of the Wolfcamp D across the position, the mineral owner gets the benefit there, right? They They get a lease bonus and they get a royalty on all of the new zones. So I think we're going to be slow to test it.

Speaker 4

I think it was a convenient Time to get that lease done between Diamondback and Viper, as it provided a lot of cash to Viper to help close The GRP deal, but I think just generally, we're trying to highlight that we own a lot of minerals in the Midland Basin and there's a lot Left to do in terms of other zones, deeper zones, shallower zones and all of that benefits the mineral owner whether you can model it today or not. And also, you want

Speaker 5

to talk about the asset base? Yes. No, the monitoring and enforcing these type of lease terms is a really important part of what we do now, especially kind of where we are in the And these modern leases and some of the terms that they could have. So this specific lease with Spanish Trail represented about 10% of our total net acres. When we kind of go through and look at the lease, specific lease provisions that are included across the acreage that we own, we estimate about 50% of our acreage had a similar lease language that where if the deeper rights haven't been developed that that acreage would kind of fall out and would become available.

Speaker 5

So I don't think that's a Story for tomorrow, but certainly as things play out over time and the zone becomes more developed and it kind of expands across the basin, I think it's something that you'll see more of going forward.

Speaker 3

Yes, I like that upside. Thanks, Austin. And then just quick second one on capital allocation. I'm just wondering given the current leverage post the deal And obviously, the great production guide for next year. I'm just wondering any thoughts on if capital allocation would change or will the Payout type continue.

Speaker 4

No, it's a good question too. I mean, I think our payout Philosophy is the same, 75% of free cash flow goes to equity, 25% goes to the balance sheet. We know we put a good amount of cash in this GRP deal, but we have the balance sheet capacity to do it. We also have kind of A small balance on our revolver after closing the deal, so that will be easy debt pay down. And kind of Strip prices were still going to be likely below one times leverage at the end of 2024 even if we Do you pay out 75 percent to equity?

Speaker 4

I think Viper has kind of gone back and forth How we're returning capital to shareholders? I think we'd probably prefer to distribute more cash via the fixed plus variable distribution than buybacks, but there might be opportunities to buy back stock in unique situations over the coming year. But I think Our preference on that 75% that gets returned to shareholders, unitholders is through the base plus variable dividend.

Speaker 3

Appreciate the details. Thanks, guys.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Neil.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Derrick Whitfield from Stifel. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Good morning, all, and thanks again for your time.

Speaker 4

Hey, Derek.

Speaker 6

With respect to the recent GRP acquisition, this was One of the first we've seen to pursue where there wasn't a Diamondback angle or immediate Diamondback angle. Thinking about your prepared remarks and consolidation opportunities you're seeing, Could you speak to what you're seeing in gill flow and the bid ask spreads for minerals, which could lead to incremental opportunities?

Speaker 4

Yes. I'll talk about the GRP deal and Austin can talk about the market right now. I mean, this deal It was kind of the one we've been waiting for. This team built this asset base over 8 or 10 years, and I think it can be That sums up as very unique in that, it'd be impossible to build that position today. And so we needed to buy that position.

Speaker 4

And the reason why we liked it is, it's a lot of the Midland Basin is the core asset. It's a lot of undeveloped Units in the Midland Basin and it's all in acreage that we would cover. So while there isn't a huge Diamondback operated component to it, We put our operator hat on and said, would we like to own exposure to the core of the basin under competent operators like Pioneer, Endeavor, now Exxon, etcetera. And that is second to none and in our mind Can't be built through the ground game and so we used our size and scale to be able to put a good amount of cash in the deal and get it across the finish line.

Speaker 5

Yes, Derek, there's been quite a few deals that have come to market and have transacted this year. We've really been pretty selective the last couple of years With the primary focus on Diamondback operated like you mentioned or secondarily as Kate kind of highlighted, if it doesn't have the high Diamondback operated Percentage that is just really high quality acreage with clear undeveloped inventory where we can have that confidence in what the long term development is going to look like. Yes. I think going forward, it's going to get similar viewpoint for us and we see an opportunity for quite a few more deals to come to market. But for us, it's always a pretty high hurdle, given the quality of acres that we have today, the development that we see going forward and it kind of has to compete for that, right?

Speaker 5

Just being accretive day 1 is not enough for us. We kind of have to have confidence in that development outlook over year 2, year 3, year 4, etcetera, And that's always the hardest hurdle to clear.

Speaker 4

And one last comment on the Diamondback operated piece. It certainly Has been beneficial to have that Diamondback Viper relationship for a significant amount of our production. As the business has gotten bigger And we chase the same decline rates that the E and Ps do. It's been hard it's harder to find Sizable packages under Diamondback that will move the needle for the next 5, 6, 7 years. So I think generally, We have a great position operated by Diamondback, but the next leg of the stool is going to be undeveloped units, Particularly in the Midland Basin, like what we found with GRP that drive growth in the next decade.

Speaker 6

Perhaps actually picking up with where you ended their case, because I think the opportunity that you guys have to deep rights Under Spanish Trail could be quite remarkable, but I would love to again if you guys could share what the opportunity you see with the Woodford and Barnett intervals at present And how soon you could see meaningful activity and that would clearly benefit Viper given the elevated NRIs you have in that area?

Speaker 4

Yes. There's certainly a lot of industry activity in the Barnett and Woodford and traditionally Our mentality has been to be a fast follower, but I think there will be some tests, Particularly operated by Diamondback in the next 12 to 24 months. I don't think it will move to full scale development until Kind of 2025, 2026, but all indications are pointing to those zones being very productive, Covering a lot of the basin and it works at a price, right? It's going to be a little more expensive to the operator. Wearing my VIPER hat, we don't really care as long as there's a lot of resource.

Speaker 4

And I think all indications are pointing towards significant resource in those deeper zones.

Speaker 6

That's great. Thanks for your time.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Jared.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Paul Diamond from Citi. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Good morning, Alf. Thanks for taking my call. Just a quick one on the Delaware Corp. Conversion.

Speaker 7

You talked about Currently about 2% of the public float hold is held by index funds versus about 30% by peers. Just wanted to get a dig a bit deeper on that to see How you guys are envisioning any trend towards that higher rate post conversion?

Speaker 4

Yes, great question. We've done a little bit of work on it. The deals the conversion is supposed to close next Monday And then we'll be a corporation. There's some details in there for shareholders so they know what's going on. But Well, from what we can tell, there's a couple of indices that we could be eligible for even before the end of the year.

Speaker 4

And those are pretty significant Indices, I think, Vanguard related indices as well as then eventually some of the S and P related indices. And As the market knows, that's a lot of buying for a company that has a lower public float. And so we're going to start working with them right away After getting this thing closed and getting as many indices as possible and kind of follow the path of Hopefully, what Diamondback followed years ago as that business grew and got more exposure to large index funds. And do you want to add anything there Austin?

Speaker 5

Yes, Paul, the main three benchmarks are kind of your S and P, Chris and Russell. S and P and Chris do quarterly rebalances, so they'll both do one Middle of December. So the conversion will be done by then. So we'll be in communication with them and see if that's something that can happen this year. And then Russell does the rebalance annually in June.

Speaker 5

And then additionally, you'll have something that's more criteria based or subjective like the S and P 600 where We'll have to have some communication with them, but all signs point to being eligible right away and hopefully getting included pretty soon. But Certainly, we meet the criteria now at the incorporation as opposed to being a partnership.

Speaker 4

Yes. The strategy there is also exposure, right? There's a lot of other investors that I think are limited in their exposure to minerals and we've already had some success converting some Shareholders potential shareholders on the road to look at the story. I mean, I envision and Travis envisions a world where This mineral space and this business is competing with the likes of some of the mid and at the SMID and mid caps on the E and P side. And This business certainly shows as a safer way to play the Permian Basin or oil exposure With no capital requirements and just upside.

Speaker 7

Understood. I appreciate the clarity there. Just one more quick follow-up, just more on the lease bonus payments. How are you guys envisioning that going forward? Is it more To be chunkier, do you see it as just consistent growth over time?

Speaker 4

Well, the stainless shell one

Speaker 5

is unique, right? I mean, this

Speaker 4

was a unique asset that In generational asset, it doesn't come around very often. So this was certainly the big one. I think it's logical that A lot of the deep rights throughout the basin are going to get leased up over the coming 12 to 24 months. But for us, they'll all be Smaller than this large payment, which was a pretty significant amount of acreage.

Speaker 7

Understood. Thanks for clarity.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Paul.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for Our next question comes from Leo Mariani from ROTH MKM. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Hi, guys. Wanted to ask whether or not you See any kind of material change in the tax rates for Venom following this kind of corporate conversion? I did see you had this kind of soft sort of not really guidance, but just kind of numbers that you kind of rolled out for 2024 Outside of production, where you talk about kind of an effective tax rate, but I know you've got kind of multiple classes of units historically. I know you're going to have maybe more than one class Shares, but just trying to get a sense, are we going to see any material difference in kind of cash taxes in 2024 versus 2023?

Speaker 4

No, Leon, nothing should change at all for the public unitholders that will become public stockholders. So tax position didn't change And I think it will just provide them more flow and

Speaker 5

more liquidity. That's why the conversion makes so much sense is that we became a tax partnership back in 2018, and there for a couple of years, Diamondback was effectively shielding us from corporate taxes And that agreement ran out end of last year. So here in 2023, we're a partnership of paying full corporate income taxes, and getting all the downsides Basically being a corporation, but you don't have any of the upsides. So it just made a lot of sense to do that today, given in a large part the kind of tax situation that we're in.

Speaker 8

Okay, that's helpful. And then just wanted to kind of ask on a couple other sort of numbers here. So I think you guys are kind of expecting production to come down a little bit in the Q1. I'm assuming that's all just kind of timing related, but just wanted to maybe get a Color around that. And then also just noticing that your cash G and A per barrel guidance also came down nicely as well.

Speaker 8

Is that a function of spending kind of less than you expected there or maybe just perhaps production results have been better than when the acquisition you're seeing The BOEs go up and you're just able to spread the cost out over more barrels?

Speaker 5

On the production side first, reported production will actually go up Q4 to Q1. Q4, you're going to have 2 thirds of contributions from the GRP assets. So we have a midpoint there of 24.5 And then going into the Q1, actual reported production will go up, given you have a full quarter of those assets contributions. We're trying to be intellectually honest there, look at it on a pro form a basis. And that's kind of what we're pointing to there with a slight sequential decline.

Speaker 5

And really that in context that follows back to back quarters of 5% growth that we've had here. And it's mainly a result of just kind of the timing of some of these really large Diamondback pads Where we have really high interest. And we put in Slide 9 of the deck where we kind of show the visibility to the Diamondback schedule. The way that we kind of see 2024 right now with the Diamondback side is having owning an interest in about 60% of Diamondback completions next year with about 6.5% Interest within those wells, but that will be split roughly forty-sixty between first half of the year and the second half of the year. So still significant growth coming, especially On the Dynebec operative side, is this mostly going to be second half weighted given some of the bigger pads?

Speaker 5

And then on the Cost items, I mean, those are all very minimal. We've kind of been spending $6,000,000 $7,000,000 maybe $8,000,000 a year in cash G and A. As production goes up, we grow the business, we're not really having to add any people. So on a per unit basis, But those should continue to trend down even further over time.

Speaker 8

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, the Q and A session has now ended. I will now turn the call over to Travis Stice for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you again to everyone participating in today's call. If you have any questions, please contact us using the information provided. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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Viper Energy Q3 2023
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