WaterBridge Infr posts 8% revenue growth in Q3 2025, emphasizes robust pipeline projects and strategic positioning for future expansion

Hello and thank you for standing by. My name is Tiffany and I will be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the Water Bridge third quarter 2025 earnings 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. If you would like to ask a question during that time, simply press Star then the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to turn the call over to Mae Harrington, Director of Investor Relations. Mae, please go ahead.

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining the WaterBridge Infr third quarter 2025 earnings call. I'm joined today by our CEO Jason Long, our COO Michael Chopp Wright and our CFO Scott McNeely. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that in this call and the related presentation we will make certain forward looking statements regarding our current beliefs, plans and expectations which are not guarantees of future performance and which are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from results and events contemplated by such forward looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Please refer to the risk factors and other cautionary statements included in our filings with the SEC. I would also like to point out that our investor presentation and today's conference call will contain discussions of certain non GAAP financial measures including which we believe are useful in evaluating our performance. These supplemental measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our earnings release and the appendix of today's accompanying presentation. Prior to the closing of WaterBridge Infr's initial public offering on September 18, 2025, WaterBridge Infr completed the successful combination of its legacy entities, WaterBridge Infr Equity Finance LLC, WaterBridge Infr NDV Operating LLC and Desert Environmental LLC. Third Quarter Key operational metrics discussed today are presented on a combined basis and financial results discussed today are presented on a pro forma basis in accordance with Article 11 of Regulation SX, assuming the combination in the IPO had occurred on January 1, 2024 with the exception of cash flow statement items which are presented at the standalone entity level in accordance with SEC guidelines. I'll now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Jason Long.

Thanks Mae and thank you everyone for joining us this morning for our first quarterly earnings call as a public company. We are proud to have brought Waterbridge to the public markets. This September listing on the NYSE and NYSE and the largest energy sector IPO since 2019. We look forward to capitalizing on our momentum with a proven business strategy, a strong balance sheet and an unparalleled infrastructure that is well positioned to meet the ever growing needs of current and future customers. The market's belief in our business model and enthusiasm for our listing was demonstrated with an upsized offering that was significantly oversubscribed and priced at the high end of the range. As this is our first earnings call, I'll spend a few minutes providing an overview of our business model before turning it over to our coo, Michael Chopp Wright, to discuss our competitive advantages and why we believe Waterbridge is well positioned to create significant shareholder value in the long-term. Waterbridge is the leading integrated pure play water infrastructure company with operations primarily in the Delaware Basin, the most prolific oil and natural gas base in North America. Our infrastructure network is comprised of approximately 2,500 miles of pipeline and nearly 200 produced water handling facilities capable of handling.

More than four and a half million. Barrels per day of produced water Produce water handling is critical to enabling oil and gas development. The Delaware Basin Every barrel of oil brought to the surface is accompanied by multiple barrels of produced water and without efficient, reliable and environmentally responsible systems to gather, treat, transport and dispose of the water, production simply cannot continue. The scale of the Delaware Basin makes this challenge even more complex. Enormous volumes, long distances, evolving regulatory considerations, and the need for continuous operational uptime. Effective produced water infrastructure not only keeps oil and gas wells flowing, but also protects freshwater resources, reduces truck traffic and emissions, and enables E&P operators to plan, invest and grow with confidence. It is one of the quiet but essential backbones of the nation's energy economy. Today, produced water handling comprises approximately 90% of our revenue derived from fixed fee contracts for the transportation, treatment, handling and disposal of reused water. Our water solutions business, which includes fees received from sales of brackish water, recycled and produced water, and our waste management business, which receives fees from the disposal of industry waste, provide the remainder of our revenue. I'd like to conclude by saying that we're excited to bring this company to the public markets and begin the next chapter in our evolution. This step allows us to broaden our partnerships and align with public equity investors who share our long term vision and commitment to the as the importance of produced water infrastructure continues to expand alongside development in the Delaware Basin, we believe we are exceptionally well positioned to drive value through scale, reliability and innovation. I'd like to now hand it over to Chop to talk through some of those advantages in a bit more detail.

Thanks Jason and thank you all for joining us today. As Jason mentioned, we see several key advantages for our business over the long term. First, our infrastructure and produced water solutions are best in class with substantial scale, strategic location, high operational efficiency and fit for purpose measurement and monitoring capabilities. Second, our access to underutilized pore space supports new and continued produced water handling capacity which we believe is key to supporting the expected future growth of produced water in the Delaware Basin. We have secured significant access to pore space through our relationship with Landbridge, an active land management company with more than 300,000 mostly contiguous acres in the state line region of the Northern Delaware basin and a 64,000 acre Area of Mutual Interest (AMI) with Texas Pacific Land. Our relationships with Landbridge and TPL provide contractually agreed upon access to economic properly managed pore space as well as access to surface acreage for the continued build out of our strategically located infrastructure network. Third, we provide industry leading flow assurance. Our infrastructure network has built in operational redundancies to provide customers with uninterrupted water management solutions. Combined with our access to real time monitoring through our best in class control room and proprietary forecast management software wave, we were able to provide reliable flow assurance which is a critical priority for our EMP customers. Fourth, we prioritize long term relationships with a diversified customer base that includes some of the largest and most active producers in the Delaware Basin. Our fixed fee contracts typically span 10 to 15 years with acreage dedications or minimum volume commitments in certain cases and annual fee escalators tied to the CPI or similar inflation index for substantially all the contracts. Our customer base is diversified with no customer representing more than about 17% of revenue. This insulates us from volatility tied to individual customer activity levels and provides us with broad visibility into future activity levels which allows us to forecast our business with a high degree of confidence. And finally, Waterbridge is committed to responsibly managing produced water. We work collaboratively with EMP customers as well as the Texas Railroad Commission providing feedback as well as pressure and seismic data to contribute to constructive solutions for responsible long term produced water management. Beyond supporting energy production, we are also actively exploring opportunities to expand our operations to serve customers across a wide range of industries including water needs for data center cooling and beneficial reuse of produced water. Now turning to our activities this quarter beyond the ipo, we continued our commercial momentum bringing the previously announced BPX Kraken Project online at the beginning of the third quarter. This project features a 10 year minimum volume commitment from UPX and supports sustainable water Solutions for their long term development plans in the State line region of Delaware Basin. The project is constructed to include the initial produced water handling capacity of approximately 400,000 barrels per day, with the ability to increase that capacity to approximately 600,000 barrels per day. We also announced our final investment decision for the first phase of the Speedway Pipeline project which will connect oil and gas developments in the Northern Delaware Basin to out of Basin Forest Base owned by Landbridge and the Central Basin Platform. This transformational project garnered strong industry demand from both new and existing customers, demonstrating the need for reliable out of Basin solutions for growing New Mexico volumes. Construction is underway and we expect an in service date mid-2026. Before I turn things over to Scott, I just want to reiterate we're excited to begin this journey as a public company and we're looking forward to growing and creating sustainable value for our new public shareholders. Now turn the call over to Scott, Take you through some of our financial results in more detail.

Thanks Chop and good morning everyone. We're pleased to deliver a strong first public quarter. Combined produced water handling volumes for the quarter were two and a half million barrels per day, representing quarter over quarter growth of 7%. Sequential volume growth was driven by new volumes coming online on our BPX Kraken infrastructure and continued organic growth across our existing contract portfolio. Pro forma revenue for the third quarter increased to 205.5 million, up 8% compared to last quarter, driven mainly by the previously discussed increase in volumes as well as by increased rates in the period. Pro forma net loss was 18.7 million for the third quarter and pro forma adjusted EBITDA was 105.7 million with pro forma adjusted EBITDA margin of 51%. Regarding capital structure, we received net proceeds of approximately 673 million from our IPO, which were used to strengthen our balance sheet and position us for future growth. We ended the quarter with total liquidity of 547 million, including cash and cash equivalents of 347 million and 200 million of undrawn legacy revolving credit facilities. As of September 30, we had approximately 1.73 billion of borrowings outstanding associated with our legacy entities. Since the end of the third quarter, we streamlined and optimized our balance sheet through an inaugural 1.425 billion senior notes offering that closed in early October, increasing our liquidity and decreasing our annual interest and amortization expense burdens. Concurrent with the Senior Notes offering, we put in place a new revolving credit agreement replacing $200 million in legacy Undrawn Senior Secured Credit facilities with the new undrawn 500 million senior secured revolving credit facility maturing in September of 2030. Our disciplined approach to our capital allocation framework is designed to balance our top priorities which are first, to build out our water infrastructure, network and commercial relationships. This includes organic growth which we have been able to achieve at very attractive multiples as well as highly accretive acquisitions and expansion opportunities. Second, to maintain a conservative balance sheet to ensure maximum financial flexibility over time, the long term leverage target of less than three times and finally, to potentially return capital to shareholders which could include dividends as well as opportunistic share repurchases in the future. A Quick Note on Guidance before we take your questions we anticipate providing 2026 guidance concurrent with our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. To conclude, we're pleased to report the strong first public quarter with the expansion of our network including the opening of the BPX Kraken Pipeline and the advancement of our Speedway Pipeline project, we are well positioned to support the growing demand for water handling in the Delaware Basin. Our business is underpinned by high quality assets, strong contracts and customer relationships, attractive operating margins and predictable cash flows to allow us to continue driving profitable growth and creating long term value for our shareholders. Operator we'd now like to open up the line for questions.

At this time, if you would like to ask a question, press Star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, simply press Star one. Again, we will pause for just a moment to compile the Q and A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Teresa Chan with Barclays. Please go ahead. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Would you be able to provide some color on the level of demand you're seeing for Speedway for additional phases? At this point, if you were to upsize the project, what would the magnitude be and how much more capex would that require? Considering would likely be some work rather than looping and what kind of build multiple would additional thesis see?

Yeah, thanks Teresa, I can take the first part of that question. We're seeing a lot of demand for the Speedway project. We were over subscribed on the first phase which can get that capacity up to 500,000 barrels a day. The additional line we can add an additional 500,000 barrels a day and we're working with customers currently on what the final route for that will be. So can't really speak to an exact capex number, but we do think it Will be less than the initial capex for Speedway phase one.

Yeah. And Chop, if you were to think through the build multiple there, it's probably three to four times, conservatively speaking with upside. Yeah, that's right.

Great. And maybe just zooming out a bit looking at the broader basin and the forward trajectory for growth, can you provide some color on your view on the macro backdrop over the near to medium term, given the volatility we've seen in the forward price outlook? What have recent conversations been like with your producer customers? Have you seen any shifts in tone or concrete plans impacting demand for water purchase services?

Yeah, Theresa, I'll take that one. You know, I would say we're in a fortunate position with the bulk of our growth expected to come out of the state line in New Mexico to be, you know, much more insulated than the rest of the lower 48. You know, a couple of points I hit is first and just to make sure we can level set on this, you know, the expectations we set forward with investors and with you all during the IPO process was already very much calibrated for the current commodity price environment. So as it relates to go forward expectations, no meaningful shifts just based on more recent news. But second, you think through the growth expectations we are expecting to see, you know, over the next several years, it's important to keep in mind that, you know, the vast majority of that is going to be underpinned by minimum volume commitment backed contracts are both coming online and ratcheting up, you know, over the next several years. And so there's, there's a lot of certainty there that certainly helps provide some cushion, you know, relative to some of the concerns some other companies have voiced over. But you know, I would say, I would say lastly, the real benefit of kind of water here, again, particularly in New Mexico, is it, is it is critical to enable production. You're seeing water volumes grow at meaningful rates and you're seeing the demand for our services grow, you know, even, even above those water growth rates as a byproduct of one, you know, recycling no longer having the ability to absorb the bulk of produced water growth in New Mexico. And two, so much of that legacy capacity along the state line, you know, starting to decline as a result, result of poor pressure issues. And so, you know, despite kind of the macro backdrop and despite a lot of the chatter, I think we're incredibly well positioned, you know, not just to deliver on the growth that we set forward during the IPO process that out deliver.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the Line of Eli Josin with JP Morgan, please go ahead, Eli. Your line is open.

Hey, can you guys hear me? Yeah, Good morning, Eli. Yeah, we got you. Sorry about that. Thanks. Just wanted to start on the competitive landscape. I know we've seen a little bit of change there, but obviously you guys have, you know, some of the best acreage on the state line. And so just want to get a sense of how discussions have gone with producer customers, you know, more opportunities that you guys are seeing and you know, what that landscape looks like right now. Thanks. Yeah, no, thanks for the question, Eli. No, I mean, it's, you know, I would say commercially we've got an abundance of traction, you know, obviously wrapping up Kraken earlier this year year Fiding Speedway, also getting the Devon contract announced alongside, you know, their second quarter earnings earlier this year. So we've seen an abundance of success. And you know, like I mentioned in response to Teresa's question, the demand, the demand is still very much there. And there are a number of producers, you know, really looking for those kinds of, those kinds of long term large scale flow assurance solutions, particularly for growth that's expected to come out of New Mexico. And so, you know, certainly, you know, there are certainly others that are in discussions with a lot of these producers. But ultimately, you know, in discussions with E and p, there are INPs. There are really four things that they're looking for they want to make sure they're partnering with. One, you know, prudent operators with experience to a company with the balance sheet and the ability to scale and grow alongside them. Three, assets of scale today to be able to support large scale development campaigns that we're seeing. And four, you know, access that differentiated poor space that provides the maximum flow assurance with the least amount of risk. And typically, as we work through those four items, we typically come ahead of our peers as we kind of think through competing for business. That's awesome. Color. Thank you. Yeah, thanks. And then, yeah, maybe just on the contract rate outlook, I mean, I know we're seeing what I would expect sort of rates move up, especially on these large projects that you're announcing. But can you just talk about what the sort of new contracting and portfolio rollover looks like compared to the base business, how the rates, particularly in the Delaware compare and kind of the outlook there? Yeah, I mean, we're fortunate where we've seen a meaningful increase in rates in some of these more recent deals that we've been able to wrap up. You know, part of that is a byproduct of underwriting Just larger capital programs. And I think part of that is also recognition that, you know, premium de risk flow assurance is worth, is worth a higher price than, you know, the rock bottom pricing that E PS you know, were chasing five plus years ago. And so it's certainly going to continue to accrue to our advantage. And while we have, I would say, no material near term, you know, contractual walls or kind of renewals that we're working through, you know, as we see BPX Kraken come online, we see Speedway come online, we see Devon come online, as well as a lot of these other, you know, opportunities that we're working through, you're going to see the average, you know, unit level revenue and operating margin on a per barrel basis increase across our company. Great. All right, I'll leave it there. Thanks guys. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Derek Whitfield with Texas Capital. Please go ahead.

Good morning all and thanks for your time. For my first question, I wanted to focus on the 1918 surface acquisition Lambridge announced earlier or closed and announced that earlier today. But specifically, to what degree could the poor space value of that asset on the east side be driven by water bridge versus industry and over what period, as you think through water disposal dynamics in the basin? Yeah, it's a great question. You know, as we mentioned earlier in discussion, 1918 from Lambridge's perspective, I'll just, I'll just repeat, you know, I think a key point which was, you know, this is an acquisition that again was designed to unlock new surface, to unlock new pore space contiguous to Lambridge's east state line ranch, you know, not just as a benefit to water bridge, but really to, to the industry and all the, all the other players looking for access to pore space. Now as we kind of think through this through the lens of Waterbridge, there's, there's clearly option value there for Waterbridge to access that surface and that pore space in the future. If there's a commercial justification for that. And it's, you know, geographically speaking, it's close to some offsetting water bridge infrastructure. So we could, we could access that core space from Waterbridge's perspective at a fairly economic, on a fairly economic basis there. But, you know, as it sits today, you know, no near term plans for Waterbridge to construct infrastructure on 1918. Great. And then for my follow up, I wanted to touch on just the beneficial reuse case and the opportunity. You guys see. I think about the prepared comments on beneficial reuse for both data centers and other industries. How large of a lift would that be for your organization? And could you operate that business with similar margins if it were tied to produce water disposal? Yeah, I'll take this one as well, Derek. This is an opportunity that we're very, very excited about. I mean, as we and others have spoke to, West Texas is certainly blowing up as it relates to its attractiveness for both power and for digital infrastructure. And as we all know, you know, one of the real advantages is the access to water as it relates to cooling. That. And it's not just that, that brackish water in the ground, but it's also the potential to redeploy produced water that that's, you know, that's treated and used for cooling rather than being disposed of. So, you know, this is something that we're. We're actively looking at. We're actively in conversations with counterparties on today from Waterbridge's perspective. You know, we. We would certainly, you know, pursue or explore treating that ourselves as well as options of partnering with third parties. And ultimately, we would go with, I think, with what makes the most sense for both, you know, our business relative to the margins and the incremental lift and any capital requirements, as well as weighing that with the demands of the customer. And so it hasn't been formally set as it relates to our approach on how to tackle that yet. But I think what's important to take away is one, we're trying to be very thoughtful about the ultimate approach there and to regardless if that's done in house or if that's done via partnership, we would expect, you know, a meaningful economic uplift for Waterbridge. Thanks for the killer. I'll turn it back to the operator. Thanks, Jeff.

Your next question comes from the line of Kevin McCurdy with Pickering Energy Partners. Please go ahead.

Hey, for my first question, I wanted to ask about the volumes on the Kraken side. How much of the initial 400,000 barrels a day is filled up currently, and what does that ramp look like over the next few quarters? And then anything you could provide on the timeline for phase two, which is the additional build out of 200,000 barrels a day.

Yeah, thanks for that question. So the initial capacity is probably taken about, from a pipeline standpoint, about 50 to 60% by BPX, depending on their development cadence. And we will. We do expect that to increase materially over the next several years as those NVCs ratchet up. The additional 200,000 barrels a day that can be added to that system will not be added immediately. We will add that when, you know, the commercial need is justified. Great.

Appreciate that. And then as a second question, I wonder, I mean, you kind of have a slide on this on your, in your deck, but I wonder if maybe, big picture, you can explain some of the big regulatory reforms that have happened in Texas as far as permitting and how you think that might be a tailwind or how, you know, water bridge is, well set up for that. And then just, you know, do you have any view on how the regulatory environment could change for both Texas and New Mexico into the future?

Yeah, I'll take that one as well. So we've got a great relationship with the Railroad Commission as well as industry and working through a lot of these new permitting guidelines and practices. What you'll see is the way that Water Bridge has typically approached permitting is very similar to the way that the Railroad Commission is now guiding people to approach permitting. So we really haven't had. It hasn't affected us negatively, mainly because of our approach to spreading out our injection facilities and how we, how we view the subsurface. So, yeah, we think that it's not going to affect us while it could affect others if they didn't have that access to vast amounts of, you know, undeveloped, poor space like we do through Landbridge. And then just speaking to New Mexico, I really can't speak to that. It's a very volatile regulatory environment, as you may be aware. But, you know, Texas is favorable and again, we have a great relationship with them. I don't see anything drastic happening there, though.

Thank you. Appreciate the details and thanks for taking my question again.

Your next question comes from the line of Praneet Satish with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Maybe just to elaborate on kind of the data center opportunity here, like if we were to try to, you know, come up with a tam, I mean, I assume the cost to treat water is going to be quite high. Maybe supporting a tariff of over maybe $2 a barrel. Is that reasonable? And then maybe if you could just give us a sense of how many data centers are around your footprint that you could service. How would you get the water to these data centers? And any types of, kind of rule of thumbs of how we should think about how much water is needed per gigawatt of capacity. And finally, just what's a realistic timeline to see some of these deals get fidget? Hey, Prince, thanks for joining. Thanks for the question. Yeah, it's, it's a fantastic way to look at. There's obviously still quite a bit that's moving around on the landscape in West Texas, you know, I would say both the, the quantity of water that is used for a single call, one gigawatt facility plus power, as well as a number of those that will ultimately be in West Texas, is a bit of a moving target. Although I would say, clearly, clearly we expect the demand to be very robust. And that's not just driven off of the, you know, the successful commercial progress that Landbridge is making, but, you know, zooming out, it's really the progress that the broader industry is making in West Texas, attracting those kinds of opportunities. You know, we have heard different figures as it relates to the amount of water that's needed for a 1 gigawatt opportunity. You know, that could be 100,000 to several hundred thousand barrels a day, and the range could be potentially even wider than that, just depending on the technology that's used. As you kind of alluded to, the ultimate rate that would be needed is going to vary depending on the amount of water as well as the level of treatment that's needed. So it's very challenging to say that the opportunity set today, you know, could represent X hundreds of millions of dollars of EBITDA potential for, you know, for us at Waterbridge because it's, it's a fairly wide goalpost at the moment. But I think what's exciting is, you know, very few players out there have, you know, the infrastructure of scale, the expertise with water or the quantity of water, the kind of concentrations that we have to be able to deliver this type of solution. And I think as a result of that, we put ourselves in a very advantageous position as it relates to these kinds of discussions and, you know, when appropriate, and as we continue to make progress, we'll certainly circle back and share more of those details. Gotcha. That's, that's helpful. And then maybe shifting gears, if you could just talk about kind of your approach to securing MVCs for Speedway Phase 2, you know, will you aim for a similar level of commitments as phase one? And, and then how do you think about, you know, balancing MVCs versus overall returns? I know the. You're saying the build multiple is very attractive already at three to four times, but could it get, you know, even more attractive if you reduce the NBC requirements? They're just trying to think about that trade off. Yeah, no, it's a great flag and it's a great way to think through the balance between underwriting a project with NVCs versus leaving ourselves some upside. You know, when we think through the NVC volumes relative to the size, call or the potential capacity of the system for. For Speedway, call it three years in, you're looking, call it 60 to 65% MVC driven. So clear relative to its capacity. So clearly some ability to go out and capture incremental volumes that depending on the market at the time, could be at a meaningfully higher rate than those MVCs. And so the way we kind of balance it from our side is we take a look at a number of factors, including the customer concentration on the project, the scale of the project. You know, the. Called the. Call it the macro landscape, but call it the. The ability to kind of commercialize the asset with other E&Ps kind of in and around that area on the same set of assets. And we weigh all of those and ultimately we decide to scale the project and scale the MVCs to ensure we're providing effectively an asymmetric risk profile where our downside is protected. But there's as much upside as we can as we can possibly capture. All right, thank you. Thank you.

That concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Scott McNeely for closing remarks.

Yeah, thanks again for joining us today on our first Waterbridge earnings call. To echo both Jason and Chop's comments, we're very excited about the success of the IPO and the ability to bring this company to the market and partner with like minded investors who are excited about the growth of water infrastructure in West Texas and New Mexico alongside what is a very thriving oil and gas industry. And so, you know, we look forward to staying synced up. We are very much focused on transparency, so we ask, if there are any questions, please feel free to reach out and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Otherwise, we look forward to touching base with y' all with year end results. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.