Foraco International Reports Q1 2018

TORONTO and MARSEILLE, France, May 7, 2018

TORONTO and MARSEILLE, France, May 7, 2018 /CNW/ - Foraco International SA (TSX:FAR) (the "Company" or "Foraco"), a leading global provider of mineral drilling services, today released its unaudited financial results for the first quarter 2018. All figures are expressed in US Dollars (US$) unless otherwise indicated.

"Q1 2018 revenue is the strongest first quarter since 2014 and the overall strongest quarter since Q2 2015. This performance is a direct consequence of our solid order book, which we reported at year end while North America, Australia and Russia were the most active regions. We expect others will soon follow as we hope this consolidation part of the cycle will continue in the coming quarters and eventually bring the other regions back to good levels of activity," commented Daniel Simoncini, Chairman and Co-CEO of Foraco. "Our utilization rate increased to 40%, up 5% compared to one year earlier, but mainly driven by improvements in countries where the average revenue per rig is high. We anticipated this recovery of activity and are pleased to report that our operational teams responded efficiently to this challenge, which contributed to the performance of our contracts."

"The combination of the positive factors reported above is reflected in the upward trend of our Q1 profitability, usually affected by the adverse seasonal impact of the start-up of new projects. Our revenue increased by 32% and our EBITDA by 73% compared to the same quarter last year," added Jean-Pierre Charmensat, Co-CEO and Chief Financial Officer. "Due to seasonality and the improvement in activity, our working capital requirements increased by US$ 7.3 million during the quarter. This should progressively reverse during the year and the Company's financial metrics should then fully benefit from the operational performance. We are confident that the positive trends will continue, and our focus will be to remain cautious on CAPEX and cash management in order to consolidate our financial position. On April 26, 2018, in order to finance the increased activity, the Company drew an additional €2.5 million from its main lenders."

Three months Q1 2018 Highlights – Q1 2018

Revenue

• Q1 2018 revenue amounted to US$ 40.0 million compared to US$ 30.3 million in Q1 2017, an increase of 32%. Mining activity increased by 37%, whereas the water activity decreased by 30%.

Profitability