From OTC Pink to 0.28 Times

On September 10, 2020, the board of Weatherford International named a new chief executive, effective October 12. The announcement carried a ticker that told its own story: OTC Pink, WFTLF. The oilfield-services company had completed a financial restructuring in late 2019. Its third-quarter 2020 revenue would come in at $807 million, down 39 percent from a year earlier. At September 30 it carried $2,602 million of long-term debt.

Girish Saligram, president and chief executive officer of Weatherford, arrived from the chief operating officer's seat at Exterran Corporation. He was taking over a company whose shares traded over the counter.

Six years later, on October 30, 2026, Weatherford is scheduled to redeem the last $236 million of its 8.625 percent notes due 2030, from cash on hand.

Between those two Octobers sit a balance-sheet repair, a shareholder vote that failed, and a war that has not yet ended.

The Doubt Came Off First

His opening statement named the destination before the route: "My objective is for Weatherford to continue to partner with our customers to solve their challenges, while also generating sustainable levels of profitability and positive free cash flow."

The first results release under his name, on November 3, 2020, reported that the company had completed transactions that enhanced liquidity and removed substantial-doubt language from its filings. Weatherford had terminated its asset-based credit agreement, and with it the risk of breaching the covenants attached to it. Total cash stood at about $1.3 billion.

"We are relentlessly focusing on enhancing liquidity," he said, pointing to a new $500 million financing and more than $100 million of free cash flow in the quarter.

Then came the cuts. Full-year 2020 revenue fell 29 percent to $3.7 billion, with North America down 45 percent. Weatherford still produced $78 million of free cash flow, an improvement of $950 million on 2019. "We acted decisively, implementing actions that exceeded our annualized cost savings targets of over $800 million", he said. The company that had employed approximately 19,000 people across more than 80 countries when he was hired would describe itself five years later as approximately 16,700 team members in about 75 countries.

The cuts bought time. They did not buy back the listing.

The Ticker Came Back

On June 1, 2021, Nasdaq approved Weatherford's application to relist its ordinary shares. Trading opened the next day under a new symbol, WFRD.

"We are excited to fully return to the public markets on the Nasdaq stock exchange as WFRD", Saligram said. He framed the relisting as access: the move, he said, would allow "a broader base of investors the opportunity to participate in that value creation."

The long-term debt that had stood at $2.6 billion in the autumn of 2020 kept coming down. Total debt was $1,634 million at the end of 2024 and $1,485 million at the end of 2025, against $1,042 million of total cash. Net leverage, net debt divided by trailing adjusted EBITDA, was 0.42 times at year-end 2025. In January 2026 the board raised the quarterly dividend 10 percent, to $0.275 a share. "This dividend increase reflects the strength of our business and the progress we continue to make executing our strategy", he said.

The operating line was softer than the balance sheet. Full-year 2025 revenue fell 11 percent to $4,918 million, and operating income fell 19 percent. Saligram's reading was that the model held anyway: "These tangible results clearly demonstrate the organization’s ability to operate effectively in different cycles" was how the year-end release put it. The test of that claim arrived within weeks.

The War And The Vote

In the first quarter of 2026, the Iran conflict disrupted Weatherford's operations in the Middle East. "While we faced losses in revenue and increased costs due to the Iran conflict, we were able to offset the impact of those through additional contributions from other parts of the business", he said in April. The priorities he listed were basic ones: "protecting our employees, maintaining continuity of operations for our customers, and controlling the variables we could."

The same month, he made a structural bet. On April 2, Weatherford proposed moving its parent company's legal home from Ireland to Texas, where its operational headquarters has sat for more than two decades. "With improving free cash generation as our North Star," he said, the company's balance sheet, operations and culture gave "ample confidence in our long-term opportunity set and potential."

It did not pass.

At the June 2026 shareholder meetings the Texas proposal won more than 60 percent of votes cast. The scheme needed 75 percent. The second quarter brought worse numbers too: net income of $39 million, down 64 percent from the first quarter. "A return to the pre-conflict operating levels is expected to be gradual, contingent on continued regional stability, and requires an absence of further geopolitical escalation", he said in July, and Weatherford trimmed its full-year outlook.

Two moves followed. On May 31 Weatherford had agreed to acquire NCS Multistage Holdings in a stock-and-cash deal, a completions business it said would bring at least $15 million of cost synergies. And it rewrote the redomestication plan, with Delaware in place of Texas, promising $20 million to $30 million of annual cash savings.

On September 3, 2026, the revised scheme came back to shareholders. At the scheme meeting it passed with 64,034,574 shares for and 296,905 against.

The Quarter That Answered

The third-quarter release, on October 20, 2026, was the first full read on whether the year had broken anything. Revenue was $1,143 million, up 3 percent sequentially but down 7 percent from a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA rose 14 percent sequentially to $254 million, a 22.2 percent margin and 204 basis points better than the second quarter. Net income was $120 million. Adjusted free cash flow was $155 million.

"Even as conflict related operational disruptions in the Middle East weighed on activity levels, the strength of our diversified portfolio, disciplined cost management, and outstanding execution across the organization drove margin expansion and strong cash generation", Saligram said.

The NCS Multistage acquisition closed in the quarter. Fitch and S&P revised their outlooks on the company's BB rating to positive; Moody's affirmed its Ba2 rating with a positive outlook. Net debt was $282 million. Net leverage was 0.28 times, against 0.51 times a year earlier.

His outlook kept both halves of the ledger in view. "While the recent events in the Middle East have dampened expectations of a quick recovery, we still see a meaningful ramp in adjusted EBITDA* in the fourth quarter and are increasing our full year adjusted free cash flow* guidance yet again."

The redomestication still needs the regulatory and court approvals the company has disclosed. The Middle East has not settled. But the arithmetic that greeted him in the autumn of 2020, a $2.6 billion debt load and a ticker on OTC Pink, now reads as $282 million of net debt, a Nasdaq symbol and a redemption notice. On October 30, the 2030 notes are due to be retired, and the next number Saligram is accountable for is the fourth-quarter ramp he has already forecast.