Noah Zivitz

Managing Editor, BNN Bloomberg

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The list of companies that are distancing themselves from Russia has grown longer by the day since the invasion of Ukraine last month, but Calgary-based Calfrac Well Services Ltd. indicated that it will wait a couple of months before deciding what to do about its operations in the country.

“The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has added a level of risk and uncertainty around the company's operations in Russia,” Calfrac said in a release Wednesday.

“As a result of this dynamic situation, Calfrac is currently evaluating the options for its Russian operations. The company expects that it will have more to discuss in conjunction with the reporting of its first-quarter results in early May.”

Calfrac’s operations span multiple continents. In the fourth quarter, it generated $28.1 million in revenue from activity in Russia, accounting for barely 10 per cent of its $257.8 million in total revenue.

The overall revenue increased 43 per cent from a year earlier, which the company primarily attributed to activity in North America and Argentina.

Despite the revenue growth, Calfrac’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) slumped 31 per cent to $9.5 million, which the company pinned on unplanned downtime in Russia in December and margin compression in Canada as the business prepared for activity to pick up in the first quarter of this year.

Analysts, on average, expected Calfrac to post $248 million in revenue and $22 million in adjusted EBITDA.