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FORACO FORACO INTERNATIONAL REPORTS Q4 2020 NEWS RELEASE Toronto , Ontario / Marseille , France - Thursday March 4 , 2021. 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 fourth quarter 2020. All figures are expressed in US Dollars ( US $ ) unless otherwise indicated . " 2020 has been incredibly challenging for billions of people and many parts of the world economy have been badly impacted : indeed our first thoughts go to those who have lost beloved ones , are in pain or lost their job . We together with most of our customers have been fortunate to be spared by most of Covid - 19 pandemic adverse economic consequences . The pandemic irruption early 2020 slowed down our activity for a couple of months but growth resumed during the second part of the year and we are pleased to report a 2020 revenue at USD 207 million , 1 % above the USD 205 million recorded in 2019 and 8 % at constant exchange rates . In Q4 2020 , we generated USD 54.2 million in revenue , an increase of 12 % compared to USD 48.4 million in Q4 2019. The rigs utilization rate reached an average of 53 % in Q4 2020 compared to 45 % in Q4 2019. As at December 31 , 2020 , our order backlog was USD 270.1 million of which USD 174.1 million to be executed in 2021 vs USD 158.1 million last year . said Daniel Simoncini , Chairman and Co - CEO . " We would like to thank the Foraco family for our solid performances during this extraordinary period and our customers for their growing trust into Foraco . Going forward , the metals market will be driven by both economic growth , and by the global transition to Green Energy which will increase the need for key resources like copper , nickel , lithium , cobalt , etc , and will demand a growing attention to water management . At Foraco , we are well organized and ready to be part of this evolution ” . " We are pleased to report an EBITDA of USD 34.1 million for 2020 versus USD 29.3 million in 2019 , an increase of 16 % year - on - year . In the fourth quarter of 2020 , we recorded an EBITDA of USD 7.8 million compared to the USD 8.2 million reported in Q4 2019 , a slight decrease linked to mobilization and phasing of contracts . Over the full year 2020 , we recorded solid performances on contracts , and we posted a net profit of USD 7.6 million for 2020. " said Jean - Pierre Charmensat Co - CEO and Chief Financial Officer . " We generated a free cash flow before debt service of USD 20.1 million this year versus USD 11.4 million in 2019. Our net debt was impacted by the foreign exchange rates fluctuations and went from USD 128.9 million in 2019 to USD 136.2 million in 2020. Given the continuing improvement of our financial situation and the sustained demand for commodities , we are progressing with our lenders to refinance our outstanding secured bonds due in May 2022 , which may involve new sources of funds with the goal of deleveraging our balance sheet and improving the terms of and extending the maturity of our debt . "