Weatherford International has appointed Arun Mita as its new CFO. He replaces Keith Jennings, who left in July 2022.

Mr. Mita joins from Mitsubishi Power Americas where he has been CFO since 2014. Before that, he spent 14 years at Siemens in the US and Germany. He started his career at Price Waterhouse in India before moving to the US with KPMG. He will relocate from Orlando.

Mr. Mita will receive a base salary of $525,000 and a cash sign-on bonus of $410,000. He will also receive long-term incentives worth $1.7 million. 40% will vest over 3 years, the rest will vest after 3 years, subject to the achievement of performance metrics.

It should be noted that Mr. Jennings joined in September 2020 with a similar package (including sign-on bonus and relocation assistance) before leaving with a severance of over $1 million (1x base plus target annual bonus plus pro-rated target bonus). Mr. Jennings started six weeks before Girish Saligram joined as CEO.

The business has improved its performance in the past year as the oilfield sector has recovered. In the third quarter, revenues and adjusted EBITDA were up about 20% year-on-year. That allowed the business to flip from net losses before taxes to net profits.  In that time, net debt is virtually unchanged at around $1.2 billion, but the leverage ratio has dropped from 3.3 times a year ago to 1.8 times at September 2022.

Unlike certain competitors, Weatherford has not pulled out of Russia and generates 6%-7% of its revenues in Russia. In its Q1 filing for the first quarter of 2022, the company disclosed that its net assets in Russia were $106 million. That jumped to $168 million at the end of Q2. In Q3, the company did not disclose the amount of net assets in Russia.

SEC filing – 8-K Weatherford CFO Jan 2023

Flotek Industries, a specialty chemicals company, has appointed Bond Clement as its new CFO. He replaces Mike Borton, who left in May 2022.

Seham Carson, the Corporate Controller, had been interim CFO since Mr. Borton left. She is expected to remain with the company in a senior financial role.

Flotek has been losing money at an EBITDA level since 2016. Its share price is $1.13 and is has a market cap of $82 million. Earlier this year, Flotek agreed to supply ProFrac Holdings high volume, low margin chemicals in return for convertible notes.  Revenues in Q3 2022 were $46 million, over three times larger than Q3 2021. Profac now owns 51% of Flotek.

Mr. Clement joins from Donovan Marine, a privately-held distributor of recreational marine products where he had been CFO since September 2021. Prior to that, he spent 17 years at PetroQuest Energy, an E&P company. He was CFO for 12 years.

PetroQuest was publicly-traded until 2018. High debt forced the company into bankruptcy in November of that year. It emerged from bankruptcy three months later, having shed $292 million in debt.

Mr. Clement will receive a base salary of $400,000 and a sign-on bonus of $50,000. He will also get $50,000 to relocate from Lafayette, LA to Houston.

SEC 8-K filing – Flotek CFO appointment

Nancy Buese has been appointed CFO of Baker Hughes. She replaces Brian Worrell, who will stay on with the company as an advisor through Q2 2023.

The company has revenues of $21 billion and a market capitalization of $25 billion.

Baker Hughes recently announced a reorganization that would reduce its four reporting segments into two. Oilfield Services and Oilfield Equipment were combined into one while Turbomachinery & Energy Technology and Digital Solutions were combined into the other. The company expects to save $150 million as a result.

Ms. Buese was the CFO of Newmont Corporation, a Denver-based gold miner, from October 2016 until last month. Prior to that, she was the CFO at MarkWest Energy Partners for 10 years, a midstream company. When it was acquired by MPLX, a publicly-traded MLP owned by Marathon, she became the CFO of MPLX.

Ms. Buese will receive a base salary of $900,000. She will also receive a cash sign-on bonus of $2 million and an award of restricted stock units worth $5 million, that will vest over 3 years. In 2023, she will also be eligible for long-term incentive awards with a current annual target of $3.5 million.

Mr. Worrell has been the CFO of Baker Hughes since it was combined with GE’s oil and gas division in 2017 (it became independent of GE in 2019). Prior to that, he served as CFO of GE Oil and Gas between 2014 and 2017. He began with GE in 1992 and is based in London.

No details of any severance arrangements with Mr. Worrell were disclosed.

[UPDATE 12-02-22. The company filed an updated 8-K. Mr. Worrell will get a severance of $2.6 million (18 months’ base salary) plus $1.25 million average bonus. He also gets a consulting contract that pays $100,000 a month. That will last for up to 18 months, though the company can terminate after six months].

SEC filing – Baker Hughes CFO

NCS Multistage has appointed Michael Morrison as its new CFO and Treasurer. He replaces Ryan Hummer, who has been promoted to CEO following the retirement of Robert Nipper, the founder of the company. Mr. Nipper will remain on the Board.

NCS manufactures products used in the fracking of horizontal wells. It has revenues of $135 million and a market capitalization of $65 million.

The company has its head office in NW Houston and went public in April 2017 at the $17 per share. The current share price of $26 sounds good until you realize there was a 1-for-20 reverse stock split in 2020. In other words, on a like-for-like basis, the stock has dropped from $340 at IPO to $26 now.

Mr. Morrison was, until recently, the CFO at ION Geophysical, another Houston oilfield services company.  He joined that company in 2002 and became CFO in February 2020. Ion filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2022, due to continued ongoing weakness in the seismic sector.

Mr. Morrison will receive a base salary of $325,000.

8-K filing – NCS Multistage CFO

Keith Jennings, CFO of Weatherford International, is out after less than two years with the company. His last day will be July 31. The company has begun an executive search for his replacement.

Weatherford filed for bankruptcy in July 2019, emerged in December 2019 and relisted its shares on Nasdaq in June 2021. At the time of the relisting, its share price was $12.81. It is now $31, giving it a market capitalization of over $2 billion.

The company still has over $2 billion in net debt, but it has had some success in moving away on high volume, low margin business. This is evidenced by its gross margin percentage of 27%  being the highest since 2011.

Mr Jennings joined from Calumet Specialty Products Partners in September 2020, where he was CFO.  Earlier in his career he spent seven years as VP and Treasurer at Cameron International, leaving a few months after its takeover by Schlumberger.

Six weeks after Mr. Jennings started, Girish Saligram was appointed CEO.

Mr. Jennings had a base salary of $500,000. He will receive a cash severance of almost $1.8 million (1.5 times base salary and target bonus, plus pro-rated bonus for 2022). In addition, according to the annual proxy filed last month, $5 million of restricted stock awarded to Mr. Jennings will also vest.

Calumet is based in Indianapolis, so Weatherford gave Mr Jennings a relocation allowance of $150,000. He also received $500,000 as a sign-on bonus.

SEC filing – Jennings departure