Aker Solutions ASA

OSE:AKSO

Earnings Call Transcript 2020-Q4

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Presentation of fourth quarter and annual results for 2020. My name is Tove Røskaft, and I head up communication at Aker Solutions. With me here today is our Chief Executive Officer, Kjetel Digre; and our Chief Financial Officer, Idar Eikrem. They will go through the main developments of the quarter and the full year. In addition, Mr. Digre will give you an update of our updated strategy and the plans ahead. We will also have time for some written questions after their presentation. Kjetel, the floor is yours.

[Kjetel Rokseth Digre, Chief Executive Officer]

Thank you, Tove, and good morning, everyone. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted our operations through most of 2020. This was also the case for the last quarter. Already in January of last year, we mobilized the corporate emergency response team. And when this was announced as a worldwide pandemic in March, we were ready to roll out our business continuity plans globally.In cooperation with local health authorities, we implemented several measures to safeguard employees, suppliers and local societies to prevent the spread of the virus. Our main focus was on the health and safety of the people. We have, in collaboration with customers and authorities, established procedures for virus precautions. I have to say that our employees have done a fantastic job in adhering to the regulations we implemented across our locations. This has been key to keep operations going and to minimize the negative potential of the situation.The pandemic will also, through 2021, continue to influence both private lives as well as our ongoing projects, for instance, linked to travel restrictions and our response to that and our solution. Through close collaboration with customers and authorities, Aker Solutions will continue to demonstrate that we can maintain progress on our projects. Our HSSE vision is to have 0 incidents. After the fourth quarter, on January 29 this year, we had a serious gas incident at our Stord yard. This illustrates that we need to continue a strong HSSE focus, and I'm glad this did not result in more serious injuries to personnel. We are investigating the incident to prevent this from happening again and share learning across the industry. In the fourth quarter, we also completed the merger of the previous Aker Solutions and Kvaerner organizations. Simultaneously, the company's organization, management structure and reporting segments were reshaped at the end of last year. We now represent a focused supplier company with the foundation to build an even more solid financial platform. Now let's go through the key numbers and some of the main drivers for the quarter. We see that revenues and EBITDA is down for the fourth quarter compared to the previous year. This is in line with what we communicated in our trading update on February 2. The results were negatively impacted by nonrecurring items and by the pandemic. However, due to good collaboration with customers, we have managed to maintain good progress in our project portfolio.Despite extraordinary challenges, we have continued to move through key milestones, and this had a positive contribution. On October 1, we started fabrication of the concrete house for the Hywind Tampen project for Equinor. In December, the Maersk Inspirer was towed offshore for installation and commissioning at the Yme field after completion of the upgrade at the Egersund yard.In Subsea, we had good progress on several projects during the quarter. For the Lingshui project for CNOOC, all manifolds and exterior Christmas trees were delivered. Manifolds are already installed in the South China Sea, and the last trees will be in place later this year. We have also completed the main deliveries of the subsea systems to Equinor's Troll Phase 3 and Wintershall DEA's Dvalin developments. And we are happy to see that our customers, Aker BP and PTTEP, has achieved first gas on Aerfugl Phase 1 in Norway and Block H in Malaysia, respectively. We had a healthy order intake in the last period, adding to the already solid order book from the previous quarters. Over the last 3 months of 2020, we won NOK 6.8 billion in new orders, and the backlog ended at NOK 38 billion. The backlog has a good balance across all our segments. This gives us a strong foundation for creating results also in the quarters and years to come. So let us also quickly review the full year of 2020. We see that the revenues and EBITDA went down, influenced by the development in the fourth quarter. Considering the general macro environment last year, we see that the annual order intake and order backlog has had a remarkable positive development. During 2020, Aker Solutions made significant structural and strategic changes to transform the company and enhance shareholder value. This included spinning off Aker Carbon Capture and Aker Offshore Wind, unlocking significant shareholder value. The Board of Directors have resolved on an updated dividend policy. With the continued uncertainty from the pandemic and to prioritize a strong balance sheet, the Board will not propose a dividend payment for 2020. We will focus on continued safe operations, cost improvements, predictable project execution, strong capital discipline, healthy margins and increased cash generation. In a few minutes, Idar will take you through the numbers in more detail. So let me go through some of the key wins in the last quarter. The Norwegian tax relief package has already secured work for our front-end business. This will create pull-through effect and materialize in more work in the months and years to come.In the fourth quarter, we secured 2 important contracts related to carbon capture and storage. Aker Carbon Capture awarded us a key subcontract for the Norcem carbon capture plant in Norway. The factory is owned by HeidelbergCement. Equinor and partners awarded us a contract for the Northern Lights project. The contract is for delivery of the onshore receiving terminal and offshore storage for C02. The contract also includes the delivery of the subsea equipment. These key contracts secures our involvement in the full value chain for the landmark Longship project. Longship will build infrastructure that prepare the ground for connecting other carbon capture facilities to the carbon storage facility in Norway. We are rapidly building our backlog within low carbon and renewable business. At the same time, we see that projects for the oil and gas industry continue to represent a large share of our opportunities.For Equinor, we won a contract to deliver an additional subsea production system for the Kristin South development offshore Norway. The Kristin field has the highest pressure and temperature in the fields developed on the NCS. We were the main architect on Johan Sverdrup, involved from an early stage, developing and designing the field solution together with our client, following the project from concept development through FEED, fabrication, construction, engineering, installation and finally hookup. And now we secured a contract to deliver hookup and commissioning assistance of the P2 processing platform at the Johan Sverdrup field offshore Norway. For Shell, we signed a letter of intent for Phase 3 of the Ormen Lange project in Norway. The scope is to integrate the wet gas subsea compression system with the Nyhamna onshore gas plant in Norway. Subsea compression will enable increased recovery from the Shell-operated Ormen Lange field. These contracts show that there are opportunities to build on our existing expertise also with onshore facilities. And as always, we have in each segment also won several orders of more moderate size as well as having development and growth in existing contracts. I will then hand over to Idar to give us further financial details.

[Idar Eikrem, Chief Financial Officer]

Thank you, Kjetel, and good morning. I will now take you through the key financial highlights of the fourth quarter, our segment performance and run through our financial guidance. As always, all numbers mentioned are in Norwegian kroner. So let me start with the income statement. As a reminder, the merger was completed in the fourth quarter of 2020 and historical numbers are pro forma. The fourth quarter revenue, ex special items, was NOK 6.8 billion, down from NOK 10 billion a year earlier. This was driven by lower activity across all segments, in particular, in the EMM segment which had record activity in 2019. We also finalized several projects during 2020, and we are currently in early phases of execution on recently awarded work. Fourth quarter EBITDA, ex special items, was NOK 121 million, down from NOK 554 million a year earlier. The quarter was negatively impacted by about NOK 230 million from nonrecurring project adjustments related to a few projects in Subsea and EMM segments. These projects will be finalized during the first half this year. In addition, the EBITDA was impacted by NOK 120 million of noncash write-down of earlier capitalized cost relating to our EMM business in Brazil. Special items for the quarter were net NOK 38 million, mainly relating to restructuring charges from merger synergies. Fourth quarter EBIT, ex special item, was minus NOK 182 million, down from NOK 199 million a year earlier. This was driven by NOK 390 million in right-of-use asset impairments, partly related to synergies from footprint optimization following the merger. The EBIT was also impacted by an impairment of fixed asset of NOK 67 million. During the quarter, we have also agreed a significant sublease with oil major, BP, taking up 1/3 of our office space in Aberdeen from mid-2021. The tax rate in the fourth quarter was negatively impacted by noncash impairment of deferred tax asset in the U.K. and Malaysia of NOK 90 million. We ended the quarter with a net income of minus NOK 844 million, and the earnings per share was minus NOK 1.73. Excluding special items, the net income was minus NOK 357 million.Now moving to our balance sheet and cash flow performance. Our operating -- our working capital ended at minus NOK 280 million, driven in part by year-end effects with strong cash collections, but also other improvement initiatives. Our cash flow from operation in the fourth quarter was NOK 529 million, impacted by positive working capital movements. The CapEx for the year ended at NOK 628 million, a reduction of about 50% from previous year and in line with previous guidance.Cash flow from investing activities was positive NOK 31 million, impacted by gain on sale of assets and sublease income. During the quarter, we repaid the NOK 2 billion draw on our revolving credit facility and ended the quarter with a net cash position of NOK 456 million. Our net interest-bearing debt to EBITDA, therefore, ended strong at minus 0.6x, well below our leverage covenant at 3.5x. Our total liquidity buffer was at a healthy NOK 8.2 billion, including our revolving credit facility. Now over to the segments. For Renewables and Field Development, the fourth quarter revenue was NOK 2.9 billion, down from NOK 3.9 billion a year earlier, mainly driven by the finalization of several large EPC projects during the year, and we are currently in early phases of execution of recently awarded work. The underlying EBITDA was NOK 259 million with a margin of 9%, up from 1% last year due to operational improvements and higher activity in front end versus the same quarter last year. In addition, the fourth quarter of 2019 was also impacted by some project adjustments.Order intake in the quarter was strong at NOK 3.4 billion, more than half of this relate to significant awards in carbon capture and storage. The main ongoing project within renewables today is Hywind Tampen, which is expected to ramp up further in 2021. This segment has high tendering activity. However, we expect somewhat lower activity level in 2021 relating to phasing of projects. For the EMM segment, the fourth quarter revenue was NOK 2.1 billion, down from NOK 3.4 billion a year earlier, mainly driven by the finalization of larger modification and hookup projects during 2020. The underlying EBITDA was minus NOK 124 million with a margin of minus 6%, impacted by NOK 60 million of nonrecurring project adjustment as well as NOK 120 million of noncash write-down of previously capitalized costs relating to the entity in Brazil.The comparable quarter in 2019 had high margins in the pro forma numbers, driven by positive nonrecurring items. Order intake for the quarter was NOK 1.9 billion, equivalent to 0.9x book-to-bill. The backlog was strong at NOK 16.5 billion. Volume in this segment is expected to remain stabilized on the back of ongoing work and recent awards. In the Subsea segment, the fourth quarter revenue was NOK 1.9 billion, down from NOK 3 billion a year earlier, mainly driven by projects nearing completion and currently in early execution on recently awarded work. The EBITDA, ex special items, was NOK 16 million with a margin of 1%, net negatively impacted by NOK 170 million from nonrecurring project adjustments.Order intake for the quarter was NOK 1.9 billion, equivalent to 1x book-to-bill, and the backlog was healthy at NOK 10.9 billion. The Subsea segment is currently experiencing very high early phase work and tendering activity, in particular, related to the tax incentives in Norway. The activity is expected slightly lower in the first half of 2021 relating to phasing of projects. Now over to order intake and backlog performance. In 2020, we delivered a strong order intake of NOK 34 billion or 1.2x book-to-bill, an increase of 31% from previous year. We view this as a strong achievement in a challenging year, impacted by COVID-19 and oil price volatility. In the fourth quarter, the order intake was solid NOK 6.8 billion or 1x book-to-bill. Our backlog increased to NOK 38 billion with NOK 19 billion secured for 2021 execution. And as a reminder, the backlog exclude book and turn services work and potential growth in existing frame agreements. Over to our financial priorities. Given the continued uncertainty regarding the pandemic and our loss for 2020, we will continue to prioritize to build financial robustness. Aker Solutions is expected -- Aker Solutions is exposed to economic cycles as well as structural changes, and we need sufficient financial capacity to support our objective for strategic development and delivering shareholder value. We will continue to focus on securing new work with healthy margins, cost improvements, strong capital discipline and increased cash generation. Now to sum up. 2020 was indeed a very challenging year operationally due to COVID-19 and oil price volatility. But 2020 was also a year of significant strategic transformation for Aker Solutions. The 2 spin-offs unlock significant shareholder value. And the merger between Kvaerner and Aker Solutions has strengthened the size and resilience of the company and created a leading execution partner for both existing and emerging energy industries. Even though we see positive market developments, there is still uncertainty relating to the timing of when the COVID restriction can be lifted. So the guidance for full year 2021 contains a level of uncertainty at this early stage. Based on our current backlog and ongoing FEED and tendering activity, we see our overall 2021 revenues somewhat lower than last year with underlying EBITDA margin for the year overall in the range of around 5.5% to 6% level. However, this is not satisfactory level, and we will continue to work in order to increase our margin going forward. And the main priority going forward is to increase margins and cash generation to build the financial robustness and improve value creation.We reduced the CapEx and R&D expense by about 50% last year. And for 2021, we target another 30% reduction. Our healthy backlog with high FEED and tendering activity, combined with several improvement initiatives, put Aker Solutions in a good position to take full advantage of the market opportunity, both in existing and emerging industries. And our business case for the merger, which was presented on the 17th of July, remains firm. And with that, I hand it over to Kjetel.

[Kjetel Rokseth Digre, Chief Executive Officer]

Thank you, Idar. To cover the energy demand, the world will continue to need oil and gas for a long time ahead. So this will continue to represent a key part of our activities. Most of our customers in the oil and gas industry plan projects with solutions that will lower the carbon emissions from their production. Our track record of delivering projects for electrification, carbon capture and subsea processing gives us a competitive position for this market trend.In a 30-year perspective, it is expected that renewables will account for 50% of all electricity production, and offshore wind will be an important contributor. The upcoming projects will be large and complex, and they will need efficient concepts and project execution in order to be sustainable also financially. Aker Solutions will build on the expertise we have from delivering demanding oil and gas projects to capture this emerging market. The Aker Solutions history is close to 200 years. Through these years, we have continued to adapt to shifts and to leverage new opportunities. Our first steps towards the energy transition started several years ago. This means that we are well positioned for the market we see ahead, both in 2021 and in the years to follow. As I mentioned earlier, we are already harvesting the first results and have won the first contracts. In the near term, we will utilize the temporary tax relief package to trigger the start of key oil and gas projects. In parallel, we will gradually increase the activity within developments for renewable energy and low-carbon oil and gas projects. We will significantly expand how we use digital technology across all work processes. This will not only increase our productivity and collaboration with customers, but will also enable us to present new business offerings.We have already established plans to gradually reduce our environmental footprint. And in the longer term, we will take further steps to ensure sustainable operations. The share of revenues from energy transition-related business will grow to 1/3 by 2025 and 2/3 by 2030. There are many complex elements and phases in the development of an oil and gas field, an offshore wind power farm or an onshore process facility. This slide illustrates the complexity of such a development: large amounts of complex technical parts, thousands of processes and several hundred thousands of interfaces. One of Aker Solutions' roles and expertise is to be the integrator who provides one complete solution. For decades, we have delivered complete oil and gas platforms or advanced subsea systems or onshore facilities. In these projects, we have executed our delivery while interfacing with other providers of key systems like, for example, the process technology.We believe that we will continue to see the same models for offshore wind, carbon capture, hydrogen and other segments. We are, in many cases, technology agnostic while simultaneously being the experts on delivering the complete solution, both safely and cost efficient. One such example is the Jansz subsea compression project outside Australia currently in the FEED phase. Here, we partner with MAN Energy Solutions and ABB to reduce the size and cost of the compression system and to find the best solution for our client, Chevron. One upcoming segment where we are pursuing opportunities is the market for new hydrogen production plants. We are already engaged in early-phase work for several planned projects. In close cooperation with partners with specific hydrogen technologies, we can offer world-leading design and project execution skills and together deliver full-scale hydrogen production plants. In our role as a key supplier, we are a leading partner to oil and gas companies, energy companies and other industrial clients around the world. This, of course, includes other entities in the Aker Group. I would like to demonstrate that our strategy for growth in low-carbon oil and gas and renewables projects is not only a vision. We are already well underway on this journey. Over the past years, we have engaged in early-phase work for a high number of prospects. And these opportunities have already started to materialize into full-fledged projects. The Hywind Tampen for Equinor is the world's largest project for offshore wind power based on floating units. Aker Solutions has the EPC contract for delivery of the 11 hulls, and the construction has already commenced in our Stord yard.There are many opportunities for floating wind projects over the next few years. Aker Solutions is well placed as one of the few contractors worldwide with a track record in delivery of floating wind units. We see the same opportunities within CCUS with several planned new facilities. And Aker Solutions has become a key supplier for deliveries and project execution, both for the carbon capture part and the carbon storage part of the value chain. In addition, we are one of the few contractors with experience from the entire value chain, including full-scale development. Another interesting opportunity we have seen materialize in the fourth quarter is within offshore fish farming. We signed a contract with Arctic Offshore Farming, a subsidiary of Norway Royal Salmon, for the assembly of 2 large fish farming facilities. The fish farming units will be installed outside Tromsø in Northern Norway. Offshore fish farms need to be larger and more robust to handle harsh weather as well as be financially viable. Aker Solutions' expertise from design and construction of offshore platforms opens an opportunity to provide a unique and competitive offer to this industry. The fish farming industry is aiming for large investments in new facilities over the coming years, and we are ready to take our share of this exciting opportunity. We continue to see strong demand for our early-phase front-end work. We won 33 new contracts in the fourth quarter, resulting in a total of 159 front-end orders for 2020. This is a good indication that operators are willing to develop new projects, and we see this as a clear sign of a potential increase in sanctioning activity. A number of the ongoing studies are expected to lead to FEEDs in the second half of 2021. Many of these are related to the tax incentives in Norway, and we are also working on some significant international FEEDs. As you can see on the slide, 23% of these studies were for energy transition compared with 11% for 2019. And 13 FEED contracts were converted into full projects. Some of the recently won studies included options for EPC contracts, which puts us in an excellent position for further work in the next phases of the developments. Our early-phase capabilities are not only a differentiator towards our customers, but we see that it is also something that attracts the next generations. Aker Solutions has one of the industry's most admired environments for concept development and front-end work. Over decades, we have nurtured talents and become a very attractive employer for the brightest and the best. And we see that this speaks to the youth who wants to contribute to the energy transition from within. Aker Solutions has 3 reporting segments. On this slide, we see a quite balanced picture of market opportunities. And the 3 segments have several opportunities related to the energy transition. Oil companies worldwide include reduction of environmental footprint, both in new developments and for existing operations. And Norway is our largest market for oil and gas projects. We are well placed to take our share of the electrification of this market. We are currently working on early-phase work and ongoing electrification projects in Norway and globally as well as tendering for new projects. Several tenders follows previously executed front-end work for the same customer, and this gives us insight in how we can deliver added value for the customers and improves our competitiveness. Within the EMM segment, the tender pipeline also includes tenders for key frame agreements. Frame agreements allow us to build good collaboration and improvements with our customers over time. This is a win-win situation for both and position us for growth on existing contracts. Within the Renewables and Field Development segment, we are tendering for several upcoming oil and gas projects in Norway as well as internationally. Last week, we announced our preferred bidder status for the Norfolk wind zone. With planned capacity of 3.6 gigawatt, this can become the world's largest offshore wind power project. If Vattenfall proceeds with this development, the intention is to conclude a contract where Aker Solutions, in a consortium with Siemens, will deliver HVDC converter platforms for the grid connection infrastructure. This also illustrates how Aker Solutions' expertise from the oil and gas industry is attractive and competitive also for the offshore wind industry. Our Subsea segment has a high tender activity of NOK 29 billion. This includes a balanced global picture as well as work for our aftermarket services. And we are together with customers improving and industrializing products and solutions to keep cost down and lower the carbon footprint also in this segment. The Norwegian authorities has issued a temporary tax relief for new projects at the Norwegian continental shelf. This is expected to trigger sanctioning of more than 30 new projects. This list shows some of the prospects that market analysis anticipate will be sanctioned over the next couple of years. The orange- and blue-colored project names illustrates that sanctioning is happening, and we have already secured several awards. As I mentioned earlier, Aker Solutions has a competitive offering in this whole market. We have already won several contracts, marked with orange color. Projects we are already working on are Breidablikk, Askeladd and Hod, to name some. We are actively positioning for this list and are involved in early-phase work for quite a few. One of the prospects we are excited about is the NOAKA field development. Equinor and Aker BP has agreed on a joint concept and integrated field development. And we believe we are well positioned to take a key role in this development through the front-end studies performed, through our digitalization efforts as well as our existing alliances. Projects to decarbonize oil and gas are high on the agenda for us as well as for the operators. We will see a growth in our portfolio already this year. So on the back of what I've presented on the previous slides, our transition journey is well underway and our merger ambitions remains firm. Our ambition is to grow the revenue by about 10% annually towards 2025. And as mentioned earlier, our order backlog is currently NOK 38 billion. And we have NOK 76 billion in ongoing tenders, which provides a solid foundation for this growth. We see a lot of interesting opportunities in the traditional oil and gas market. And with the energy landscape now rapidly changing, our initiatives within the renewables and low-carbon solutions that we have developed and positioned for over the last few years are now really starting to materialize. We have set ourselves an ambitious target for approximately 1/3 of revenues in 2025 to be related to low-carbon oil and gas and renewables projects from less than 5% today. 1/3 or about NOK 25 billion of our ongoing tenders relates to these types of projects. This provides a good starting point, and we see more exciting opportunities ahead. So let me sum up. Through 2020, we have reduced our cost base significantly. We have also established a solid foundation for our ambition to play a key role in accelerating the energy transition. In the near term, we expect increased project sanctioning across all segments, underpinning our growth ambitions. And we will continue to secure work with healthy margins, deliver strong project execution and increase cash generation. In the medium term, we expect increased revenue and cash generation on the back of the project sanctioning, and we will see a growing share of energy transition in our revenue mix. We will also focus strongly on working in innovative alliances and partnerships and with new digital offerings. With my background from years on the customer side and now also seeing this company from the inside, I am confident that Aker Solutions is the best partner for energy companies to succeed in the market we see ahead and to deliver value for our shareholders. And with that, I thank you for listening. And I will hand over to Tove again for some questions.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Thank you.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

We have several questions that has come in. So we can start with a question from Haakon Amundsen. Can you give some color on the margin development through the year and level entering 2022 as you state that the projects experiencing quality issues will be completed in H1 '21?

[Idar Eikrem, Chief Financial Officer]

I am -- as we have stated, we have a few projects where we have done the project adjustment for. And we expect all of those or the few that we are behind there to be closed out in the first half of 2021. And we have said -- assessed the portfolio now at year-end since we came on board and made the provisions that we think is needed for catering for that one. And then, as I mentioned earlier on, I think the activity is ramping up as we go along. And as Kjetel mentioned at the end here, our strategy and the business case from the merger remains firm. That means that in average, we will grow our top line by 10%, and we will continue to increase our margins. That 10% growth is an average over the time period for the business case that we put out. The same is also applicable for the cash flow. So starting a bit lower and increasing over time and, in average, 10% growth on top line and NOK 1 billion annual free cash flow.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Then we have 2 questions from Amy Wong, first for Idar and the second for Kjetel. In your 2021 margin guidance, how much impact on the margin in terms of absolute percentage points is coming from a small number of Subsea and EMM projects that are currently experienced cost overruns?

[Idar Eikrem, Chief Financial Officer]

As we have stated, they are in the finalization phase. So the, let's say, revenue from those that is not giving a contribution in the first half is not a large number.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Thank you. And then the second is more for you, Kjetel. How would you characterize your clients' behavior at the moment in terms of their willingness to make project sanctions? Are there any differences across your renewables, low-carbon oil and gas clients?

[Kjetel Rokseth Digre, Chief Executive Officer]

First of all, we see that our traditional customers are also moving into the renewables and low-carbon space. So we are, obviously, working on opportunities with them, but we also see that new both clients and partners are getting connected to us, and we are working on relations with those. On the actual setup and how we mature with them, I think one important thing is that some of these energy projects, industry segments, don't have all sort of roles laid out. So we are actually in dialogue on how to set us up in the best possible way together with our clients. And I also think that both on the tax package and also for many of these new initiatives, we see high interest in actually discussing different ways of collaborating. And our strength on that topic from Aker Solutions side is that we've been working with all of the tasks in all of the phases, that is one thing. But then we also have a very good experience from working in alliances with, for instance, Aker BP. So I feel that we're really bringing something new to the table on this topic.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Thank you. Then we have a question from Frederik Lunde at Carnegie. Assuming 2021 will be a loss-making year as guided, will dividends be out of the question also next year?

[Idar Eikrem, Chief Financial Officer]

As Kjetel stated, the dividend policy is an annual evaluation, so the Board and management will come back to that in a year from now.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Okay. Thank you. Next question, from Michael Alsford. You have provided medium-term revenue guidance. Could you give some indication of where you see medium-term margins?

[Idar Eikrem, Chief Financial Officer]

Yes. As we said, we are in a journey where we have a healthy backlog, and we will continue to work in on margin improvements over time. And I think where we are performing best is where we are early involved with the customers and together with partners and find the right concept for the development. Many of the projects that we have in our order backlog and that we are in the tendering phase is projects that we have been working on for quite some time and well positioned together with partners and the customers. So we believe that we should demonstrate going forward that we can increase margins on the portfolio going forward.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Thank you. Then there is a question from Martin Huseby Karlsen from DNB. 2023 to 2025 targeted revenues are set to grow from new business areas for the company, which normally would require some investments to develop these business areas. In this relation, could you help us understand the CapEx guidance being less than 1% of targeted revenues while CapEx historically has been around 3% of revenue?

[Idar Eikrem, Chief Financial Officer]

Yes. We have taken down the CapEx spend quite significantly, partly because we have also been spinning off entity that is capital-intensive in the start-up phase. And with a strong capital discipline, we are aiming for a much lower level than the historical one for that period. So for the time being, I think that is where we are aiming for in the CapEx, and we will assess any sort of capital proposal that is coming from our organization, but as stated, with a strong capital discipline. So if the -- if we are going to increase it over and above what is stated there, the business case has to be very good.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Thank you. Then we have a question from [ Bjorn Wiklund ]. Is the expected margin for new contracts materially different in any of your 3 business or reporting segments?

[Idar Eikrem, Chief Financial Officer]

The margins from the various segments is varying because some is -- some of the segments just require more CapEx than others, and therefore, they're also required to deliver a higher margin -- EBITDA margin in order to cover the capital cost. So that varies from segment to segment.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Kjetel, a question for you from [ Jan Martinek ]. The market wants you to target the companies more into renewables. How important will renewables be for you? And do you see a great potential within that area?

[Kjetel Rokseth Digre, Chief Executive Officer]

Yes, start with the last part, I see a great potential because this is where things are moving. Climate policy is actually becoming industry plans and projects throughout 2020, so this will grow. And you see how activity is picking up. It's also a high potential because it suits us very well. I think both where we have technologies or products already, but also expertise we have in the maturing and the totality of projects and also delivering on it in execution is a key property with Aker Solutions. So we have really high expectations to ourselves, and it's moving very fast with a lot of good opportunities.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Okay. Then we have a question, I guess, you can share from Nick Konstantakis. Considering the EPC element within Aker Solutions now, bidding discipline is a lot more important than the past. How can you ensure this discipline while targeting a 10% top line growth? Can you talk a bit about safeguards on bidding processes?

[Kjetel Rokseth Digre, Chief Executive Officer]

Yes. I think it's been quite some interesting weeks and months for an eventful, I would say, and also valuable months for Idar and myself since our start last year. And one of the things that we're really focused on is to dig into the whole portfolio, looking at ongoing operations, particularly those that are in a challenging mode, as Idar already has explained. And where we are just now is obviously to learn what works well and where we have some issues and then make sure that those topics are converted to learning also for the newer projects.And in my mind, where we are now with this opportunity set really growing and evolving, it's a matter of actually getting properly connected to our clients at an early stage so that we both secure the right type of technical maturity and risk handling, but then also then make sure that we have a starting point with healthy margins. We do this by launching a separate unit inside our company, which is there both to make sure that learning is captured and embedded in our tendering, but also to assist the teams and also scrutinize to make sure that we are really in good control before we enter into new jobs.The last part of this is actually to make sure that when we have operations and projects going, we have to make sure that we are doing things in the right way from the beginning. And this unit is also then about safeguarding the whole portfolio of execution activities in Aker Solutions to make sure that we are delivering on our targets with discipline.

[Idar Eikrem, Chief Financial Officer]

Just to add to that one. And as Kjetel mentioned it himself, that he's confident that we are the best supplier in order to help our customers bringing those projects going forward. And we are confident that our performance is also going to deliver that. And what we need to do is make sure that we also have our fair share of that benefit that we will -- and value creation that we bring to the customer and our partners.

[Kjetel Rokseth Digre, Chief Executive Officer]

I think I would add one more thing. Because if you look at it on our digital efforts all over the board, both on what we design for our clients, but also how we work with the design in the project phase, is increasing the opportunity to capture all this learning and held risk. So that is also a key part of us becoming even more predictable in our execution.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Then we can end with the last question from [ Christian Volen ]. Kjetel, where do you see Aker Solutions in 5 years?

[Kjetel Rokseth Digre, Chief Executive Officer]

Well, we have delivered on our plans. We are both occupied or, shall I say, focused on making sure that we capture every opportunity we see. We'd like to start with the core activities because a company like this is really all about both people, practicalities and operations and projects, and we are now currently making sure that, that core of activities are in good control, in a healthy shape. And then we will work on both improving that in the areas of digitalization, competence of people, but then also on top of that, working on the more transformational issues that we have talked quite a lot about. So I'm sure that we are going to deliver on our ambitions. I'm sure that you will see a different and sort of balanced Aker Solutions across traditional oil and gas and towards renewables, building on not only our competence and assets and capacities, but also the global footprint that we have. And then the last part, I think we will see a digital version of ourselves in close collaboration, really challenging the way that we are collaborating with both existing customers and new ones.

[Tove Røskaft, Head of Communications & Investor Relations]

Okay. Thank you. If anyone came in at the last minute, we will ensure that your questions are answered in writing. Thank you for listening, and have a good day.

[Kjetel Rokseth Digre, Chief Executive Officer]

Thank you.