On Tuesday, Trican Well Service (TSX:TCW) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.
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View the webcast at https://www.gowebcasting.com/events/trican/2026/05/12/trican-s-first-quarter-2026-conference-call-webcast/play
Summary
TCW reported Q1 2026 revenues of $330.3 million, up from $259.1 million in Q1 2025, with an adjusted EBITDA of $70.1 million.
Free cash flow for the quarter was $49.6 million, and capital expenditures totaled $18.5 million, focusing on maintenance and equipment upgrades.
The company repurchased 756,900,000 shares under the NCIB program and announced a dividend of 0.55 cents per share.
TCW highlighted operational strengths in natural gas fuel technology and electric ancillary equipment, emphasizing fuel savings and efficiency.
Management expressed optimism about future pricing improvements and continued growth in Western Canada, driven by increased industry activity and technology advantages.
TCW maintains a strong balance sheet with a focus on shareholder returns through dividends and share buybacks, aiming for debt reduction by year-end.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Hello and welcome to the Trican well Services first quarter 2026 results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question and answer session and if you would like to ask a question during this time, please press star1 on your telephone keypad. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Brad Fedora, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Brad Fedora (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you very much for joining us and good morning everyone. First to start the call, Scott Matson, our CFO, will give an overview of the quarterly results for Q1 2026 and I’ll provide some comments with respect to the quarter, current operating conditions and our outlook for the future, both near and far, and then we’ll open up the call for questions. We’ve got several members of our executive team in the room here today, so we should be able to answer any questions that people may have. I’ll now turn it over to Scott
Scott Mattson (Chief Financial Officer)
to start us off. Thanks Brad and good morning everyone. Just before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone that this conference call may contain forward looking statements and other information based on current expectations or results for the company. Certain material factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing conclusions or making projections reflected in the Forward looking Information section of our MD&A for Q1 2026. A number of business risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward looking statements and our financial outlook.
Scott Mattson (Chief Financial Officer)
Please Refer to our 2025 Annual Information form for the year ended December 31, 2025 for a more complete description of business risks and uncertainties facing Trican. This document is available both on our website and on sedar. During this call we will refer to several common industry terms and use certain non GAAP measures which are more fully described in our Q4 2025 MD&A. Our quarterly results were released after close of market last night and are available both on SEDAR and our website. So with that I’ll provide a brief summary of our results. My comments will draw comparisons mostly to the first quarter of last year and I will also provide some commentary about our current activity levels and our expectations going forward. Trican’s results for the quarter compared to last year’s Q1 were generally stronger due to an increase in operating activity and also with the inclusion of a full quarter of contribution from the Ironhorse acquisition.
Scott Mattson (Chief Financial Officer)
Overall revenues for the quarter were 330.3 million compared to the 259.1 million we generated in Q1 of 2025 adjusted EBitDA for the quarter 70.1 million or 21% of revenues compared to adjusted EBitDA of 61.3 million or 24% of revenues generated in Q1 of last year, adjusted EBitDAS for the quarter came in at 77.7 million or 24% of revenues, up from the 62.3 million or 24% of revenues in Q1 of last year. To arrive at EBitDAs, we add back the effects of cash settled stock based comp recognized in the quarter to more clearly show the results of our operations and remove some of the market to market impact from our share price between reporting dates.
Scott Mattson (Chief Financial Officer)
On a consolidated basis, we generated positive earnings of 30.3 million in the quarter. That translates to $0.14 per share both on a basic and fully diluted basis compared to the 31.9 million $0.17 per share on a basic and fully diluted basis in Q1 of last year. Profit and profit per share were impacted primarily by higher depreciation expense related to Ironhorse, our technology initiative expenses and the higher stock based comp during the quarter.
Scott Mattson (Chief Financial Officer)
Trican generated free cash flow 49.6 million during the quarter. Our definition of free cash flow is essentially EBitDAS less non discretionary cash expenditures which includes maintenance capital, interest, current taxes and cash settled stock based comp. You can see more details on this in the non GAAP measures section of our MDA. CapEx for the quarter totaled $18.5 million, split between maintenance capital of about $9.6 million and upgrade capital of $8.9 million.
Scott Mattson (Chief Financial Officer)
Our upgrade capital was dedicated mainly to the electrification of our fourth set of ancillary frac support equipment and ongoing investments to maintain the productive capability of our active equipment. We continue to maintain a very strong balance sheet exiting the quarter with positive non cash working capital of 142.7 million and net debt of 29.8 million, both measures meaningfully down from the December 31, 2025 levels. Reduction in net debt during the quarter was mostly a result of some working capital harvest and the free cash flow generated in the period.
Scott Mattson (Chief Financial Officer)
With respect to our return of capital strategy, we repurchased and canceled 756,900,000 shares under our Normal Course Issuer Bid (NCIB) program in the first quarter at a weighted average cost of $6.46 per share. Subsequent to Q1 of 2026, we repurchased and canceled an additional 289,000 shares and continue to be active in our buyback program when market prices are at levels that provide for a Favorable investment opportunity. As noted in our press release, the Board of Directors approved a dividend of 0.55 cents per share, reflecting approximately $11.6 million in aggregate payments to shareholders.
Scott Mattson (Chief Financial Officer)
Distribution is scheduled to be made on June 30, 2026 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on June 15, 2026. And I would note that the dividends are designated as eligible dividends for Canadian income tax purposes. So with that I’ll turn things back to Brady.
Scott Mattson (Chief Financial Officer)
Scott, maybe just before I start, remind everybody how much we’ve spent buying back our shares just even since COVID Well, we bought back 53% of the outstanding shares that were sitting there kind of at the beginning of 2017, 2018.
Brad Fedora (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, so we’ve been very, active. It’s been a big investment avenue for us. It’s definitely something to consider. You know, we’ve, we view the NCIB as M and a sort of risk free M and a very, with a very, good target company. So we’ve been really happy with the progress we’ve made on the NCIB in the past few years. Okay, I’ll make some comments about Q1 and some forward looking observations for 26 and beyond. So please, as Scott was mentioning, please see our disclaimer that can be found on our website. Q1 Overall the quarter went pretty much as expected. We were quite active. You know, we did have quite a bit of pricing pressure and so the quarter probably doesn’t reflect the activity that we had and we’re sort of hoping that Q1 will represent the bottom for pricing going forward. But you know, we were still generally pretty happy with the quarter. A lot of tough weather in February, which we always budget for, but certainly we were dealing with some very, warm conditions and for a good chunk of February, which made for a bit of a choppy quarter, but overall it seemed to play out nicely. We got some cold weather towards the end of March which really helped us make up what we had lost in the month of February. So we always kind of expect to deal with those issues in Q1 and Q4. Customers again are still very, focused on our technology and our efficiencies. Particularly now with the ability to burn natural gas in our natural gas fueled frac pumps and our electric ancillary equipment. Given the price of where diesel went to since the beginning of the year, those assets are looking even better. You can be well over $100,000 a day in fuel savings by burning natural gas instead of diesel. In fact, it’s probably pushing towards $150,000 a day. So you know, we are the leader in tier four technology. I think we have 86, 78 tier four frac pumps. So we’re the leader in that. And then we have four sets of electric ancillary equipment which is like the blenders, the chem van datavan, sand assets, et cetera. And so when you combine our tier 4 frac pumps with our electric equipment, we get very, high substitution rates. Without a doubt industry leading not just in Canada but in North America. We’re very, fortunate that our customers have level loaded. I think I’ve spoken about this in the past, but as you see, if you look back at our quarters, Q3, Q4 and Q1 all looked very, similar and there’s lots of variations between the quarters. But it makes for a much more efficient business when you can level load the activity levels and the staffing levels and you’re not, you know, you’re not seeing those things go up and down and having to react from a staffing perspective. So very,, you know, very, happy with the way that’s unfolding. We are seeing inflation. Given that what’s happened with oil prices and I’m not going to comment on the Middle Eastern situation, I think every,body’s fully aware of what’s going on there and what that’s done to oil prices. But that of course has flowed through our entire value chain and it is pressuring on our margins. But that’s okay, you know, we’ll adjust and react accordingly. But it’s impacting almost every,thing whether it’s, you know, fuels, chemicals, steel, sand, transportation, you know, all of that is affected by oil prices as every,body can see in their day to day lives. You know, when oil price goes from 57 to over 100, there’s a big impact on, on many aspects of the economy and we’re certainly not immune from that. We’re still very, natural gas focused. About 75% of the work that we do in western Canada is what we would consider to be a natural gas well. But of course these oil prices translate into higher condensate pricing. So even the gassy players are benefiting from what’s been happening lately. Condensate pricing is well over 100 Canadian dollars. As high as 145 at one time I think. So all four of our divisions, the two frac divisions, the Coil and the cement division are all performing well and we’re really happy with the strategic direction of all four of those. And I’ll just make some comments about each one on the Trican frac division which is the deep work, which is very, pretty much Montney and Duvernay focused. I think every,thing is going well. That’s where we’ve really differentiated our service offering with the investments we’ve made in technology. Without a doubt, we are the technical leader in natural gas fuel pumps and electric operations in Canada. And I think our customers can see the benefits of those operations. …
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