Freehold Royalties Q1 2026 Earnings Report

Freehold Royalties EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.21
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Freehold Royalties Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $77.82 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Freehold Royalties Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2026
• Date: 5/12/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, May 13, 2026
• 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 Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Neutral Sentiment: Freehold Royalties reported Q1 production of 15,533 BOE/d with a 65% liquids weighting, and said its liquids-focused portfolio continues to benefit from stronger oil prices.
• Positive Sentiment: The company reiterated its 2026 production guidance of 15,500 to 16,300 BOE/d, citing improving licensing activity in Canada and an expected pickup in drilling after spring breakup.
• Neutral Sentiment: Funds from operations were CAD 59 million in the quarter, or CAD 0.36 per share, and Freehold paid CAD 44 million in dividends while also investing CAD 19 million in Permian mineral title lands.
• Positive Sentiment: Management highlighted the premium economics of its U.S. assets, noting U.S. royalty volumes earned a 31% pricing premium versus Canadian production and U.S. gas realized a 58% premium to Canadian gas.
• Neutral Sentiment: The company said the Permian land purchases added more than 200 drilling locations and that these “ground-game” acquisitions remain a key capital-allocation focus alongside debt repayment and buybacks.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Freehold Royalties First Quarter 2026 Webcast. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, David Spyker, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

Yes, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. On the call with me is Paul Slaney, our Interim CFO, and Todd McBride, our Manager of Investor Relations. For those that don't know Paul, he's been with our organization for the past six years as our controller and has been in the industry for 30 years. Before we get started, please be advised that certain statements on this call are considered as forward-looking information, and we caution the listener to review the advisory on forward-looking statements in the news release and MD&A found on our website. In the first quarter of this year, we achieved production of 15,533 BOE a day with a liquids weighting of 65%.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

The oil and gas portion of our portfolio contribute 90% of our total revenue as our liquids-focused strategy continues to drive our business and will be torquey in this current elevated oil price environment. As we outlined in our conference call in March, our Q1 production reflects lower drilling activities in the latter half of 2025, when oil prices were sitting below $60 a barrel WTI. We did have some seasonal impact of the winter storm that swept through the Southern U.S. in late January and resulted in approximately 300 barrels a day of production downtime in January or in the quarter is 100 BOE a day on average. Activity levels in the first quarter were focused on our oil-weighted assets in both Canada and the U.S.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

We saw continued strong activity levels in our heavy oil plays, the Clearwater and Mannville, in addition to very active programs in the Viking and Southeast Saskatchewan light oil, with new drilling in these two light oil plays contributing over 225 barrels a day as we exited Q1. On the U.S. side, drilling was focused in the Permian and continues to be led by some of our top royalty operators in ExxonMobil, Occidental, and Diamondback. Activity in the Eagle Ford tends to be a bit more seasonal, we see permitting and drilling activity just being initiated by ConocoPhillips. Production associated with this field activity will start to show up in the back half of this year.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

In this current oil price environment, where we have CAD 100 a barrel oil this morning and balance of year strip pricing in the mid to upper CAD 80s a barrel, we are starting to see licensing activity pick up in the Clearwater, Southeast Saskatchewan, Viking, as well as some of our liquids-rich gasier areas in certain parts of the Deep Basin and West Central Alberta Glauconite. We would expect to see drilling activity in these areas after spring breakup, and this activity would contribute to our 2026 exited volumes. Looking ahead in the U.S., permitting and drilling activity has not seen a significant uptick yet. However, we are seeing all available frac spreads and service rigs activated to focus on bringing forward wells that have already been drilled and are awaiting completion.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

Given the volatility in the oil price and no clear direction yet on the duration of this price strength, operators are still developing their capital deployment strategies. All these tailwinds are positive for the industry, and we expect the incremental production adds from any additional activity would show up in the latter half of 2026 and into 2027. Therefore, we are reiterating our 2026 production guidance at this time of 15,500 BOE a day-16,300 BOE a day annual production. In the quarter, we generated CAD 59 million of funds from operations or CAD 0.36 per share at an oil price of $72 a barrel WTI in the first quarter.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

With this funds flow, we paid CAD 44 million in dividends to our shareholders, and we invested CAD 19 million in oil-focused mineral title lands in undeveloped drilling areas in the core of the Permian Basin. These lands are in early stages of development with mineral title lands held in perpetuity and are in areas that have significant undeveloped resource. Our net debt stands a little higher as a result of these investments this quarter. Our North American portfolio remains very well-balanced, with 55% of our production coming out of Canada and 45% out of the U.S. The U.S. represents a slightly smaller share of production, but it does deliver a disproportionately higher revenue component, accounting for 51% of our total revenue this quarter. This is driven by the premium pricing and higher liquids weighting that we have in our U.S. assets.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

In the first quarter, U.S. royalty volumes realized a 31% pricing premium compared to our Canadian production. Beyond the quality and the strong market access of our U.S. oil, our U.S. natural gas also received a 58% premium over a Canadian gas price due to the proximity to U.S. Gulf Coast LNG facilities and significantly more egress options than we have in Canada. As we think through our capital allocation priorities in this current price environment, you know, after a monthly dividend, you know, we look to be have a bit of a balance of debt repayment, along with strategic acquisitions that enhance our portfolio. You know, we continue to see high quality opportunities to acquire this undeveloped mineral title lands in the core of the Permian, our focus has been on these types of deals.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

In the first quarter of this year, we invested CAD 19 million in what we call these ground-game style deals, adding over 200 drilling locations to our inventory under premier operators ExxonMobil, Diamondback, Occidental, ConocoPhillips, and Double Eagle. Lastly, through our NCIB, we have the option of share buybacks. This year marks our 30th year as a public company, and over the past 30 years, our production has grown at a 4% compounded annual growth rate, and we maintained a monthly dividend throughout. Our portfolio offers investors exposure to the premier oil and natural gas basins across North America, including our growing heavy oil segment in Northern Alberta, a lighter oil plays in Southeast Saskatchewan, and exposure to Gulf Coast pricing with our Eagle Ford assets and our growing light oil and natural gas production from the Permian.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

We invite you all to join us at our annual general meeting at 3:00 P.M. Calgary time this afternoon. It will be held at the Eighth Avenue Place Conference Center and at suite 405 25 Eighth Ave, Southwest Calgary. More details, including a link to the webcast of our AGM, can be found on our website at freeholdroyalties.com. With that, we're pleased to take any questions.

[Operator]

As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile our Q&A roster. Our first question will come from the line of Jamie Kubik of CIBC. Your line is open, Jamie.

[Jamie Kubik, Director of Equity Research at CIBC]

Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I just had a question with respect to the U.S. drilling activity in the quarter. It looked like it was down considerably, year-over-year. Can you just talk about some of the nuances there and how you think that unfolds over the balance of the year?

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

Yeah. Jamie, I think that's really more a reflection of, you know, trailing $60 WTI coming out of the last quarter and, you know, that plays into the first quarter of this year. You know, going forward, you know, we are seeing an increase in permitting activity. You know, U.S. is a little bit different than Canada in that, you know, you think of that on stream time, you know, typically taking, you know, 12 to 18 months to, you know, go from permitting to drilling a pad.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

What we are seeing is U.S. guys probably taking a little bit more time to decide, you know, how they're gonna place their capital in this environment because that drilling isn't gonna capture a CAD 100 oil price that we see today. They wanna make sure that, you know, as they ramp up their programs, that they're happy what really is gonna become 2027 pricing will impact those volumes. In Canada, you know, we see a little bit of quicker wrap up. You know, there's quicker cycle times. In the U.S., you know, I think we're just starting to see that activity ramp up as a little bit more confidence in what, you know, late year pricing looks like and going into next year.

[Jamie Kubik, Director of Equity Research at CIBC]

Okay. That's all for me. Thanks.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

Yeah. Thanks, Jamie.

[Operator]

I would now like to turn the call back to David for closing remarks.

[David Spyker, President and CEO at Freehold Royalties]

Excellent. Well, thanks everyone for joining today. Like I say, if we can make it over to the AGM this afternoon, we'd love to see you there and, thanks and have a good day. Take care.

[Operator]

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

Participants

Executives

• David Spyker, President and CEO

Analysts

• Jamie Kubik, Director of Equity Research at CIBC