Noble Corporation (NYSE:NE) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Operator: Our last question will come from Truls Olsen from Fearnley Securities.

Truls Olsen: Couple of questions for me. One is, when you’re stating that you guys are targeting a conservative through cycle balance sheet, how should you think about this? Also, thinking about this from a capital return perspective, is it net debt, cash free balance sheet? Is it net debt to EBITDA of some kind of multiples? What’s your thinking here? Some color around that would be good. And also, in terms of the synergies, as we think about 2023 €“ sorry, 2024. How should we actually sort of read or expect to see that in the OpEx and CapEx and SG&A, notwithstanding inflation doing whatever it does, obviously.

Robert Eifler: On the first question, we’re very comfortable with our debt today, right? So, our balance sheet is a strategic asset, and we’re going to protect that over time. So, I wouldn’t expect us to layer on a bunch of debt on top of where we are today. But I would say that we’re incredibly comfortable with what it looks like today. On the synergies point, we talked about having realized about €“ by the end of this year, about three quarters of the $125 million of synergies. The overwhelming majority of that is shore-based burden. So that will come out of both G&A as well as OpEx as well, just some of that shore-based runs through all OpEx. So, you should expect to see the impact of that as we move through the year. Inflation, obviously, is counter to that.

But as we move through this year, obviously, we realized about $50 million €“ or we had realized $50 million as we exited 2022. And then that will migrate obviously to about $80 million, $85 million here by the end of the year.

Truls Olsen: So, effectively $80 million, $85 million improvement, all else being equal.

Robert Eifler: If you think about it, right, we realized $50 million as we exited 2022. Not all of that would show up in Q4. Some of would. It’s an exit rate. But as you get to Q4 this year, you’ll be realizing $85 million on a run rate basis. So, as you work through the year, you could call it versus the Q4 baseline. You can imagine between now and Q4, somewhere in the order of magnitude of about, call it, a $40 million to $50 million impact.

Operator: We have no further questions in queue. I’d like to turn it back over for closing remarks.

Ian Macpherson: Thank you, everybody, for your participation and interest. And we look forward to speaking to you next quarter. Thanks.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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