Freehold Royalties Q2 2024 Earnings Report

Freehold Royalties EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.26
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Freehold Royalties Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $84.50 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Freehold Royalties Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2024
• Date: 7/31/2024
• Time: N/A
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, August 1, 2024
• Conference Call Time: 9:00AM ET

Freehold Royalties (TSE:FRU) Ltd is in acquiring and managing Oil and Gas royalties. It operates in two segments: Canada, which includes exploration and evaluation assets and the petroleum and natural gas interests in Western Canada; and the United States, which includes petroleum and natural gas interests held in the Permian (Midland and Delaware), Eagle Ford, Haynesville and Bakken basins primarily located in the states of Texas, Louisiana, and North Dakota. The majority of its revenue is generated from Canada Segment.

Freehold Royalties Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Production grew to 15,221 BOE/d (+3% QoQ), driven by a 7% rise in oil to 7,899 bbl/d and 9% growth in U.S. assets to 5,599 BOE/d.
• Funds from operations rose 11% to CAD 60.1 M (CAD 0.40/share), funding a CAD 0.09/month dividend at a 68% payout ratio while net debt fell by CAD 12 M to 0.8× trailing FFO.
• The oil‐weighted portfolio delivered a top-tier realized price of $59.74/boe despite weak natural gas benchmarks, with oil and NGLs representing over 95% of revenue.
• Drilling activity hit a record 274 gross wells (U.S. drilling +24% QoQ), including a Permian pad averaging 3,200 bbl/d peak and 2,200 bbl/d over its first 90 days.
• Canadian leasing accelerated with 157 leases signed in 18 months—matching the prior three years combined—and 2024 YTD licensing on par with full-year 2022–23 levels, signaling robust future growth.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Freehold Royalties Second Quarter results conference call. I would like to turn the meeting over to Mr. David Spyker. Please go ahead, sir.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. On the call from Freehold are Rob King, our COO, and Dave Hendry, our CFO. We're really pleased with our quarter, with a production averaging 15,221 BOE a day, a 3% increase over the prior quarter. Oil production was driving this growth, averaging 7,899 barrels a day, which was a 7% increase over the prior quarter. Our U.S. assets grew 9% over the quarter to 5,599 BOE a day, a result of increased drilling activity on our Eagle Ford and Permian assets, as well as a recovery from the extreme weather impacts in Q1 2024. Funds from operations for the quarter totaled $60 million, or CAD 0.40 per share, an 11% increase over the prior quarter. This funded our CAD 0.09 per month dividend, resulting in a 68% payout ratio for the quarter.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

We exited Q2 with net debt to trailing funds from operations of 0.8 times, reducing our net debt by $12 million, while closing three tuck-in acquisitions in both Canada and the U.S. for a combined $7.3 million. Natural gas benchmark pricing was weak through the quarter. However, we continue to see the benefits of our oil-weighted, premium-priced North American portfolio, with oil and NGLs representing over 95% of our revenue, leading to a top-tier realized price of $5,974 a BOE. We're quite excited about the drilling activity on our portfolio. Gross drilling activity was strong for the quarter, with a total of 274 wells drilled across North America. Approximately 75% of total gross wells drilled on Freehold lands targeted oil prospects in Texas, with the balance in Canada focusing on oil prospects largely in southeast Saskatchewan, the Mannville Stack, and Clearwater. On our U.S.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

portfolio, we're encouraged by the drilling and rig activity we have seen, with gross drilling up 24% over the previous quarter. This represents the highest level of quarterly drilling that Freehold has had on its U.S. royalty lands. Digging a little deeper on the U.S. side, we are seeing continually evolving drilling and completion practices, unlocking value in the high-quality multiple reservoir bench Permian Basin. A recent royalty interest pad in Delaware Basin was brought on at peak rates per well of 3,200 barrels a day of oil, with 90-day average oil rates of 2,200 barrels a day. We see other areas where current views on completion technology are being applied to older wells, with focus right now in the Eagle Ford, where ConocoPhillips is acquiring Marathon, and they reference over 1,000 refrac candidates on the Marathon asset base.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

We see 500+ of these where we have a royalty interest. These refracs are targeting wells drilled pre-2016, where proppant loading was less than half of what current best practices are, hence not effectively accessing all the reservoir potential. We are also seeing leasing activity with our U.S. mineral title lands, with some of the focus in Q2 being on the eastern side of the Midland Basin, with the target being the deeper Barnett Shale. This is moving Barnett oil prospect activity much further east than where wells have been successfully drilled to date, and really opens up a deeper prospect opportunity on our U.S. land base. Activity on our U.S. assets continues to be driven by large, high-quality investment-grade payers, in addition to growth-oriented privates. Our drilled, uncompleted well, and our Permian well inventory is robust, providing us confidence in the outlook for our U.S.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

portfolio for the remainder of 2024 and into next year. On the Canadian side, over the last 5 years, production has been rock solid at 9,600 BOE a day, with only modest capital investment of about CAD 40 million in early-stage Clearwater opportunities. What's different now? Leasing activity. Over the last 18 months, we've signed 157 leases. That compares to as many leases as we have signed in 2020, 2021, and 2022 combined. This leasing strength is showing up in our licensing activity, where 2024 year-to-date licensing is at similar levels to full-year licensing in both 2022 and 2023. The most active areas for leasing have been southeast Saskatchewan, with about 50% of our leasing activity, and mostly to private and junior companies who are revitalizing this area with focused attention and multi-leg laterals Clearwater-style technology.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

Similarly, the Mannville Stack has gained about 25% of our leasing activity, again to privates and juniors who are successfully developing with multi-leg laterals. The continued revitalization of these areas represents a significant opportunity for our portfolio. So overall, we're very excited about the quality of our business. It's really been a result of a multi-year transformation into a uniquely North American energy royalty company. Leading indicators such as leasing activity, licensing activity, and drilling activity are all very positive. We'll now take the time to answer any questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. We'll now take questions from the telephone lines. If you have a question and you're using a speakerphone, please put your hands up before making your selection. Please press star one on your device's keypad at this time if you have a question. There will be a brief pause while participants register. Thank you for your patience. Once again, please press star one at this time if you have a question. We do have a question from Aaron Bilkoski from TD Cowen. Please go ahead. Mr. Bilkoski, your line is open.

[Aaron Bielkowski, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Oh, sorry about that. So now that you guys have had these Permian assets for a couple of years, and you've got a sense of pace of drilling and pace of completions and tie-ins throughout the year, how do you guys think about the sort of cadence of production additions through 2025? And I guess an associated question would be, do you anticipate any other higher rate, high-productivity Permian pads to come on in any particular quarter, given what you know about the spacing between drilling and completion and tie-in times?

[Robert King, COO at Freehold Royalties]

Yeah. Thanks, Aaron. It's Rob here. Maybe I'll highlight a little bit of what the Q2 activity was like, both from a drilling perspective and also a permitting perspective. So in the quarter, we had about 1 net well that was drilled, which is actually our highest level of drilling activity that we've ever had on our U.S. assets. As well in the quarter, we had about 1.7, or sorry, 1.4 net permits that were permitted on our U.S. lands, which also was sort of the highest level of permitting activity that we've had since we've owned our U.S. assets. And so it's one where one of the things that is different within the U.S. and in Canada is just the time between when a well is permitted to when it's completed to when it's turned in line.

[Robert King, COO at Freehold Royalties]

That's where we're seeing anywhere between 6 to upwards of 12 months and beyond, that we sort of need to wait for the operator to get active on our lands. That compares to, in Canada, it's measured in weeks. So that really sort of kind of highlights a little bit of how 2025 is likely going to shape out, because we have this strong inventory right now of DUCs. We have about 1.7 net DUCs at the end of Q2, and we have about 1.9 net permits at the end of Q2. Just as a reminder, one doesn't sound like a lot, one net well, but that's over 1,200 BOEs a day of production. So it's pretty meaningful.

[Operator]

Excellent. Thank you. Once again, please press star one at this time if you have a question. There are no further questions registered at this time. I'd like to turn the meeting back over to you, Mr. Spyker.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

Okay. Thanks, everyone, for participating today. I'd say we're excited about everything that we've got on the go right now, and looking forward to reconnecting with everyone on our Q3 results. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• David Spyker, President and CEO
• Robert King, COO

Analysts

• Aaron Bielkowski, Analyst at TD Cowen