Viridien's New CEO Sees Exploration Revival, But SMO Still Holds Breath

A New Era at Viridien

Five months into his tenure, new CEO Henning Berg has yet to unveil a strategy, but he is already signaling a turning point.

I am very excited by the opportunities ahead, and I look forward to sharing a broader strategic perspective at the Capital Markets Day in 2027.

The group's tender activity has surged more than 50% year-on-year in Geoscience, and the segment's backlog has rebuilt to $306 million, up 19% since year-end 2025. That's within reach of an all-time high. The company is also seeing a pick-up in reprocessing, a capital-efficient way to unlock value from existing data as E&P companies revisit frontier basins.

Geoscience Leads the Recovery

GEO external revenue was down year-on-year in Q2, but the order book is telling a different story. “We do see that our tender activity is up as well, more than 50% compared to the same period last year on processing or GEO” — Henning Berg, CEO · 2026-07-30 Henning noted in the Q&A. The backlog strength provides visibility into Q3 and Q4, and management expects GEO sales to normalize.

The company is also capitalizing on government agreements in Morocco, Senegal, and Egypt, and has projects underway in Guyana, Malaysia, and Uruguay. "We are starting to see all the time of that as well as through our increased bookings," Henning said, referring to MOUs between clients and governments that should drive reprocessing demand.

Sensing and Monitoring: Waiting for the Tender

The SMO segment remains the weak spot, hit hard by Middle East disruptions. Land revenue collapsed to $22 million from $52 million a year earlier. Yet there are green shoots: “We currently see several potential mega-crew tenders in Saudi Arabia and Mexico.” — Henning Berg, CEO · 2026-07-30 The new Accel land seismic node system is gaining traction, with 20,000 channels sold in 2026 and 150,000 in quotations. "The combination of a more active tender pipeline and the early commercial success of Accel provides encouraging signs for the future."

CFO Jerome Serve stressed cost discipline: the company returned to EBITDA breakeven in SMO in Q2, aided by a normalizing product mix and aggressive cost management. But the revenue impact of any mega-crew awards will likely only materialize in 2027.

Financial Discipline and the Path to 2027

The balance sheet is strengthening. “Net debt, excluding IFRS 15, is now below the $700 million mark, standing at $692 million.” — Jerome Serve, CFO · 2026-07-30 The company reaffirmed its net cash flow guidance of $100 million for 2026. "We have assumed in the $100 million net cash flow guidance, more or less EBITDA amount which in time will be used to cover the expansion of our U.S. data center," Jerome noted. The Pemex receivable situation is also progressing, with half of the expected payment collected and confidence in the remainder.

The company's asset-light model continues to deliver cash generation through the cycle. But the real inflection point may be a year away. The CEO's strategic review will only be unveiled at the Capital Markets Day in 2027. For now, investors are betting on the recovery signals.

This is a sharp contrast to a year ago, when the tone was more cautious. On the August 2025 call, Sophie Zurquiyah-Rousset, then CEO, described the market as “flattish, and that's – my comment is saying that as clients are starting to arbitrate.” — Sophie Zurquiyah-Rousset, Chair and CEO · 2025-08-01 She also noted that the softness was concentrated in specific regions: “a lot of it was North America, a lot of it was Mexico and Saudi Arabia.” — Sophie Zurquiyah-Rousset, Chair and CEO · 2025-08-01 Now, the pendulum seems to be swinging towards expansion, even if the full effect won't be visible until 2027.