管理層發言
Good day, everyone, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Vista's second quarter 2026 earnings webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear a message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. Now it's my pleasure to hand the conference to Vista's Strategic Planning and Investor Relations Officer, Alejandro Cherñacov. Please proceed.
Thanks. Good morning, everyone. We are happy to welcome you to Vista's second quarter of 2026 results conference call. I am here with Miguel Galuccio, Vista's Chairman and CEO, Pablo Vera Pinto, Vista's CFO, Juan Garoby, Vista's CTO, and Matías Weissel, Vista's COO. Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to our cautionary statement on slide two. Please be advised that our remarks today, including the answers to your questions, may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from the expectations contemplated by these remarks. Our financial figures are stated in US dollars and in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS. However, during this conference call, we may discuss certain non-IFRS financial measures such as Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income. Reconciliations of these measures to the closest IFRS measure can be found in the earnings release that we issued yesterday. Please check our website for further information. Our company is a sociedad anónima bursátil de capital variable, organized under the laws of Mexico, registered in the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores and at the New York Stock Exchange. Our tickers are Vista in the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores and VIST in the New York Stock Exchange. I will now turn the call over to Miguel.
Thanks, Ale. Good morning, and welcome to this earnings call. The second quarter of 2026 was marked by the closing of the acquisition of Equinor asset in Vaca Muerta. This milestone, in combination with the organic growth, took our company to a new scale, leaving us in an excellent position to capture the upside of higher oil prices. As a result, Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow generation recorded substantial interannual and sequential increases. Total production was 156,000 barrels per day, 32% above the previous year. Oil production was 135,000 barrels per day, up 33% vis-à-vis the previous year. Total revenues during the quarter were $1.15 billion, an impressive growth of 89% compared to the same quarter of last year. Lifting cost was $4.5 per BOE, 4% below year-over-year. Capital expenditure was $467 million, driven by a strong progress in new well activities during the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $805 million, an interannual increase of 99%. Net income was $322 million, an increase of 37% compared to the same quarter of last year and 199% versus the previous quarter. Excluding the gain from La Amarga Chica acquisition in Q2 2025, net income expanded by more than nine times year-over-year. We recorded earnings per share of $3 during the quarter. Net of the Equinor acquisition payment, free cash flow was $491 million, reflecting a significant boost in Adjusted EBITDA generation and a meaningful improvement in working capital. Finally, our net debt ratio at quarter end was 1.41x Adjusted EBITDA. On a pro forma basis, reflecting last 12 months figures for the acquired asset, the ratio was 1.25x Adjusted EBITDA, marking a significant reduction year-on-year and reflecting a very strong balance sheet. Total production during Q2 averaged 156.1 thousand BOEs per day. This represents an interannual increase of 32% and a sequential increase of 16%. There are two drivers behind this boost. The first is organic growth. We connected 90 new wells in the last 12 months with very solid productivity, generating a 20% production growth compared to Q2 last year. On top of this, the consolidation of our working interest in Bandurria Sur and Bajo del Toro as of May 1st added 14.2 thousand BOE per day on average for the quarter. This reflects a run rate about 21,000 BOEs per day, which will impact fully in the third quarter. Our total production in May and June was on average 161.6 thousand BOEs per day. Quarterly average oil production was 135.4 thousand barrels per day, 33% higher year-over-year and 16% above the previous quarter. Gas production increased 30% on an interannual basis and 15% sequentially. Total revenues during Q2 were $1.15 billion, a material growth of 89% compared to the previous year, and 66% versus the previous quarter, driven by a solid increase in oil production and higher oil prices. Oil export increased 54% year-over-year, reaching 8.6 million barrels in the quarter, representing 72% of our oil sales volume. Realized oil prices in Q2 were $89.4 per barrel, 44% above the previous year, and 49% above the previous quarter. In both cases, driven by higher Brent and an improvement in differentials. We sold 100% of our oil volumes at export parity prices, both domestically and internationally. In Q2, lifting cost was $4.5 per BOE, an interannual reduction of 4%, reflecting our low-cost asset base and fixed cost dilution, as we continue to gain scale. On a sequential basis, lifting costs increased, driven by the impact of inflation on peso-denominated goods and services amid flat FX rates. Selling expenses were $4.1 per BOE, an 8% increase year-over-year, mainly driven by higher oil prices impacting turnover tax. Adjusted EBITDA during the quarter was $805 million, 99% higher interannually, and 79% higher sequentially, driven by a material expansion of revenues amid flat unit cost. Similarly, Adjusted EBITDA margin was 17%, an expansion of three percentage points compared to the same quarter of last year, and five percentage points above the previous quarter. Netback increased 51% year-over-year to $57 per BOE. In Q2 2026, cash flow from operating activities was $985 million, reflecting a decrease in working capital of $274 million, mostly driven by the full normalization of the working capital position of our trading subsidiary, Beisa. We also made an income tax payment of $53 million. Cash flow used in investing activities was $886 million, reflecting accrued CapEx of $467 million, the $392 million payment related to the Equinor acquisition, and an increase in CapEx-related working capital of $21 million. Net of the Equinor acquisition, free cash flow was $491 million during the quarter, leaving us well-placed to deliver on our annual guidance. Cash flow from financing activities was -$110 million, driven by the repayment of borrowings for $810 million, and interest payments of $88 million, partially offset by proceeds from borrowings for $856 million. Finally, our cash position remains very strong. Standing at $605 million at the end of Q2, our net leverage ratio stood at 1.41 times Adjusted EBITDA, or 1.25 on a pro forma basis considering the last 12 months of Adjusted EBITDA for the acquired assets. To conclude this call, before we move to Q&A, I will make some closing remarks. During Q2, we materially increased the scale of our company on the back of solid organic growth and the successful closing of the acquisition of our interest in the Bandurria Sur and Bajo del Toro blocks in Vaca Muerta. This allows us to capture the benefit of the oil price spike in Q2, leading to a substantial boost to Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow generation. In line with our capital allocation framework, we plan to use part of the free cash flow to reduce our net leverage ratio to our target of around one times by the end of the year. We made very good progress on our annual work program and are well on track to deliver our 2026 guidance. We are maintaining our $3 billion Adjusted EBITDA guidance at $85 per barrel as of now. I want to provide a sensitivity due to the prevailing volatility in oil prices. For every $10 per barrel change in the second semester, Adjusted EBITDA changes approximately $200 million. Before we move to Q&A, I would like to thank all Vista employees for their hard work during the quarter, as well as our investors for their continued support. Operator, we can now move to Q&A.
分析師問答
Thank you so much. As a reminder, to ask a question, simply press star one one to get in the queue and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, press star one one again. Our first question is from Alejandro Demichelis with Jefferies. Please proceed.
Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you very much for taking my question. Miguel, one question, please. You just consolidated Bandurria Sur and Bajo del Toro. Could you please provide some kind of color on how that is going, and how you're seeing the development of these assets going forward, please? Thank you.
Hi, Ale. Thank you very much for the question. We took over our share in the asset in May, and everything is moving along as we expected. Our share was consolidated at approximately 19,000 BOE per day in Bandurria Sur and 2,000 BOE per day in Bajo del Toro. In Bandurria Sur, we have three rigs running, so you can expect production to remain relatively flat or maybe grow slightly toward the end of the year. We are also starting discussions with our partner, YPF, regarding the plan for 2027. Bajo del Toro, as you know, is an appraisal block. The plan we are analyzing with YPF is to file reapplication this year. Over the next two years, we will then drill some pilot wells to re-evaluate some of the areas and finalize the plan, and start to contract the facilities based on what we believe could be the production of the block. We will then plan to move to full development and put dedicated rigs to develop Bajo del Toro. Thanks, Ale, for your question.
Thank you.
One moment for our next question, please. It comes from Daniel Guardiola with BTG Pactual. Please proceed.
Hi. Good morning, Miguel and team, and thank you for your presentation. I have a question on the production outlook for the company. Could you provide us the expected quarterly production trajectory through 2026, including the contribution from Bajo del Toro and Bandurria Sur? Another question on production outlook is: for 2027 and 2028, where you expect significant organic growth, is there a specific Brent price threshold at which you would prefer to prioritize free cash generation over production growth? If so, how should investors think about the trade-off between growth, shareholder distributions, and maintaining leverage within your target range? Thank you.
Good question. Starting with the first part, the consolidation of Bandurria Sur and Bajo del Toro took us to about 160,000 BOE per day. As of July we are at 162. We forecast Q3 at 160 and Q4 at 170. We are confident in reaching our guidance for the year of 158 thousand BOE per day equivalent. I am personally a bit more optimistic that we can even exceed these numbers. Related to your second part, we made our plan assuming $65 per barrel; that was set in November last year. As we said, we are not going to revise guidance at the moment. Of course, at some point we may re-guide, but for the moment those are the numbers. Thank you for your question.
Okay. Thank you, Miguel.
Thank you. Our next question is from Tasso Vasconcellos with UBS. Please proceed.
Hi, Miguel. Hi, team. Thank you for taking my question. Miguel, I think I might have some kind of follow-up question on these capital allocation alternatives. If you look at the production outlook that you have released for 2026 and 2027 and assume Brent at something close to $70 per barrel, we view here that Vista could end 2027 close or even below one time net debt to EBITDA. You still haven't paid any dividends, but you were quite successful in doing some very accretive M&As. From now on, what's the best capital allocation alternative that you see for Vista? Do you still view some additional M&As on the radar as an alternative here, or should dividends become a high priority for Vista? Thank you.
Thank you, Tasso, for your question. As I have always stated, growth has been and remains our priority within our capital allocation strategy. With the additional cash that we generate, we will keep full flexibility within the capital allocation framework that we have shown many times. That means continuing to seek M&A, additional CapEx now for rig projects that create new opportunities for us in the future, buybacks in the short term, and potentially defining a return-to-shareholders policy that we have discussed before. I think we are not at the stage to do that today, but it is something we will consider in the future. In the near term, the focus is to delever the company, and, as we stated in this call, to close 2026 very close to our target of one time net leverage ratio. If it's possible with the cash we are generating, we believe it is achievable. Our capital allocation mindset today spans all those dimensions.
Very clear, Miguel. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Leonardo Marcondes with Bank of America. Please proceed.
Hi, Miguel. Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my question here. My question is regarding the drilling and completion CapEx for the wells. Given the strong pickup in Vaca Muerta activity and the significant decline year-to-date in Argentina's country risk, do you see room to renegotiate lower fees with the oil services companies that are putting their rigs and equipment in Argentina? Thank you.
Thank you, Leonardo, for the question. As Argentina's macroeconomic situation continues its normalization process, the price of oil services becomes, for me, more a function of scale and competition. Vista has demonstrated, once again, that innovation continues to play an important role in reducing drilling and completion costs. An example of this is the progress we have made in cost reduction within the completion process. For example, we moved some supply from 1,000 km away to in-basin or Vaca Muerta mining supply, and lately to Bajada del Palo, tens of kilometers away from where we operate. We are engineering the completion process to move to wet sand, which also cuts a lot of the cost of supply sand. Now we are switching our frac pumps from gasoline to gas pumps, which is also reducing cost. Today, with the macroeconomic improvement in Argentina, competition and scale help, and I would not discount innovation, particularly after what we have demonstrated. As the macroeconomic situation continues improving, that is all good news and will help. Thanks for the question, Leo.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much. One moment for our next question. It comes from Guilherme Martins with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.
Hi, Miguel. Hi, team. Thank you for taking my question. I have a quick one from my side here. It was VMOS pipeline. Could you please explain to us or provide an update on development of the pipeline, and also if you could comment, do you see any risks of having to use trucking again, particularly when considering your expected ramp-up in production in the second half of the year? Thank you.
Hi, Guilherme. Thank you for the question. The VMOS project construction is progressing very well. Overall project execution today is 65%. The pipeline is at 82% complete, onshore storage is at 38%, and the offshore terminal is at 73%. We forecast that the full project completion date will be by the middle of 2027. Having said that, the shipment of a very specific component, like the mooring buoy, is being affected by the Strait of Hormuz closure. The VMOS team is analyzing different alternatives to solve that issue. The project remains on schedule. So far, we don't expect any changes in our evacuation plan, nor the need to add trucking capacity. We are positive about the overall progress.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrés Cardona with Citi. Please proceed.
Hi, good morning, all. I have a question about M&A. We are seeing interest from permanent players in entering Vaca Muerta. Would you consider any opportunity to farm in areas such as Águila Mora or Bajo del Toro to try to maximize the value and production profile? On the other hand, you mentioned growth remains a key pillar of the investment case. I wonder if you see any opportunity over the short term. Are you evaluating any opportunity as of now? Thank you.
Hi, Andrés. Thanks for the question. As you know, we have been very successful operating Vaca Muerta assets and creating value through M&A. Our track record in recent years includes the acquisition of Aguada Federal, Bandurria Norte, ConocoPhillips and Wintershall in 2021 and 2022, La Amarga Chica last year from Petronas, and most recently Bandurria Sur and Bajo del Toro from Equinor. With the strategy we have today, we are always using our full creativity to continue consolidating core acreage in Vaca Muerta shale oil assets. That continues to be our focus. We continue looking and being very creative in anything that we can add to what we have. Regarding our acreage position in the north, at the moment we are not looking to dilute ourselves, particularly in the current market conditions and given our strong balance sheet. It's not something we are thinking of today. Of course, conditions can change and the strategy can change, but at the moment that's not the way we are looking at that area. Thanks for the question.
Our next question comes from Michael Furrow with Pickering Energy Partners. Please proceed.
Good morning, Miguel, to the rest of the Vista team there. Given the strong start to the year with 50 net tie-ins already completed by the end of the quarter, the 100 to 110 annual guide appears achievable to us. If efficiency gains continue and provide the company with the opportunity to drill and complete more wells this year than originally planned, how would you think about the trade-off between staying within the current activity and CapEx budget versus capitalizing on these efficiency gains by adding a few more wells this year, but potentially spending a bit more than the current plan?
Hi, Michael. Interesting way of looking at this. I think we should look at different elements of that question. As the basin continues gaining scale and competition, I believe there is room to gain cost efficiencies in our operation in Vaca Muerta overall. However, when we compare to the Permian, we still have a gap in terms of cost. I believe there is less room to improve operational efficiency—such as drilling time or number of fracking stages per day—because we are already very efficient in what we do. Therefore, there's limited upside to increase activity in the very short term with the current oil service equipment and drilling rigs in the country. Of course, if service companies bring more equipment to the country, in the midterm or long term we can do better. In the short term, I don't think the current equipment will allow us to do significantly more with the same resources. Yes, we still see a gap for cost savings, but adding materially more wells this year beyond the plan is likely constrained by available equipment.
Thank you, Miguel. Appreciate the color there. I'll turn it back.
Thank you. We have a question from Thiago Casqueiro with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.
Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Over the past few months, we have seen some projects across the industry being submitted to the RIGI framework. I would like to better understand how the process has been for Vista so far, in terms of timeline. You mentioned in the first question the plan to add Bajo del Toro in the framework. Should we still think of Águila Mora and Bandurria Norte as other projects most likely to be included? Has your thinking about the scope of the submission changed? Thank you.
Hi, Thiago. Thanks. We are currently finalizing the documentation to file the application to RIGI for Bandurria Norte, which will probably take place in the coming weeks. We are also working on other projects—Águila Mora, Coirón Amargo Norte, and Bajo del Toro with YPF—to submit. The Secretariat of Energy has a team that analyzes all the information before approval. What we are seeing is that the process will take a few months. In short, yes, we are going to file those projects—one very soon—and then we will need a few months to get the result from the Secretariat of Energy. We are very pleased with what the government has done regarding RIGI, and it has clearly helped us to push forward some of the projects in our plan.
Very clear. Thank you.
One moment for our next question. It comes from Vicente Falanga with Bradesco BBI. Please proceed.
Hi, Miguel, Alejandro, all of Vista Energy's team. Thank you for taking my question. We noticed that Bajada del Palo Este's production dropped from March to May. I wanted to know if there's anything particular going on there or just a cyclical process of tying up wells. If you could share with us what was your exit output for Bajada del Palo Este in the quarter. Thank you very much.
Hi, Vicente. Thanks for the question. Let me put your question in context and look at the big picture of development. The rationale of our development plan and activity is based on many elements: production, delineation and de-risking of future areas where we are looking to develop or drill, facility capacities, minimizing frac hits, and more. We consider all those elements within the full core development hub, which includes Bajada del Palo Este, Aguada Federal, and Coirón Amargo Norte. There's nothing specific going on today in Bajada del Palo Este. The overall production in the operative core development hub grew 10% from Q1 to Q2, basically from around 83,000 to north of 90,000 BOE per day equivalent. Of course, if you look at field by field, you can see changes—one field dropping, another field ramping. The rationale is to manage the full development hub as a whole, and we allocate capital and activity based on the elements I mentioned earlier.
Great. Thank you very much, good luck on Sunday.
Thank you. This will conclude our Q&A session. I will turn the call back to Miguel Galuccio for closing comments.
Well, very strong quarter, guys. Thank you very much for the support. Once again, thank you to all Vista's employees, coworkers, and friends that have helped us to come to the point that we are today—a very strong company. We're looking forward to continuing to perform and deliver. Thank you very much, have a good day.