Solstad Offshore ASA

OSE:SOFF

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Welcome to this second quarter presentation of Solstad Offshore. The presentation will be held by CFO, Kjetil Ramstad, and myself, CEO, Lars Peder Solstad.

And as you'll notice, we have a new routine for our presentations now. We released the report early in the morning, followed by a presentation the same day, and we report much earlier in the quarter than we have previously done. And this is something you can expect from us also going forward.

It has been a good quarter for the company with very high activity and with the signing of several new contracts and the market continued its positive trend. I will come back to this later in the presentation.

We take a just a quick look at the disclaimer before we move over to the quarter highlights. And then as many of you will know, we completed the refinancing of Solstad in June by a share issue of NOK 750 million in Solstad Maritime and a new loan facility in the CSV Normand Superior. This gives the company a solid financial foundation for further development of the company.

On the operations, the average utilization of the entire Solstad fleet came in at 85%, influenced by planned maintenance and mobilizations for new contracts. While this was negative for the utilization in the quarter, it will be very positive for the remainder of the year as most of this type of activity has now been done.

The new contracts we prepared for are very strong, which should improve the utilization and the earnings in the second half of the year further.

Still, the adjusted EBITDA came in at healthy debt levels with NOK 362 million in Solstad Offshore and NOK 799 million in Solstad Maritime. This tells us that we are comfortable with the EBITDA guiding for the full year previously given.

We continue to grow our Service division and added 2 more ROVs to our fleet in the quarter. In addition, the sale of other services to clients continued strongly. I will come back to this on a separate slide later in the presentation.

And last but not least, Solstad Maritime indicates their intention to initiate quarterly dividend payments from next quarter and onwards, which is a new milestone for the company.

On the next slide, we will just remind everyone of how the group structure look like with 2 shareholder structures, but with the share management functions where services are provided both ways. The group continues to operate as before under one brand and a common approach to the global energy markets.

The new structure has no effect on our clients or on our about 2,300 employees. After the 750 million share issue in Solstad Maritime, Solstad Offshore owns 27.3% of the company, and the intention is to list Solstad Maritime within second quarter 2025.

On the market we see that the activity in the global offshore energy markets continues to be high with awards in the quarter and bidding activity both being on historically high levels.

Many clients would like to sign long-term agreements, and we have even signed a long-term contract with commencement 3 years ahead, which is extraordinary for an existing vessel. Some clients are concerned about access to vessels going forward and would like to be on the safe side, and I think they are doing a wise move.

There are also other trends that I would like to mention. And seen from a vessel perspective, offshore energy activity is a better description than what than what is oil and gas and what is renewable energy. Because we are shifting between these categories frequently, using the same vessels, the same competence, and the same equipment as the work scope that we are executing are more or less the same.

The other trend is that we are sailing between regions more often than we used to do. This is due to a market that is tight and with high demand and the shortage of high end vessels in the global market.

This map where our vessels operate shows what was the case in second quarter. But this is changing all the time, especially for the vessels that we operate in the short and medium term project markets.

On the next slide we would like to take a closer look at some of our contracts that we have recently signed. South America is very important market for Solstad, mainly Brazil, but Guyana is also more and more important.

We would like to take a closer look at the few of the contracts we have recently announced, and starting with Petrobras in Brazil. Petrobras is one of the largest, if not the largest, charter of high-end offshore vessels in the world.

And to be able to join this exciting market, you need to have a local presence and to be in compliance with local content requirements. Solstad have all this and we are among the largest operators in Brazil, and we have been in the country for nearly 30 years.

There is a huge activity in Brazil now, and the clients like to go long-term, which, of course, is attractive for a company like Solstad. The 3 contracts we announced in June strengthen our position further as we relocate one of our anchor handlers presently working in the North Sea to Brazil in 2025 and secure profitable backlog to 2028 and beyond.

Also worth paying attention to is the development in rate levels, where the 3 vessels mentioned in average will double their gross day rate compared to present contracts, and this will contribute nicely to our EBITDA in the coming years. And for the record, there are no services included in this day rate. The rate is time charter for the vessel only.

On the next slide, we will highlight that vessels originally built for oil and gas are also very relevant for renewable energy activities, and a significant portion of the Solstad earnings comes from non-oil and gas activity.

As an example, the CSV Normand Pacific has been on contract to the world's largest cable compactor, Prysmian, since 2016. And this quarter, we signed a new contract with Prysmian for the CSV Normand Ocean with commencement in 2027 and for 5 years thereafter.

Both vessels are now on firm contracts well into next decade on good commercial terms, which gives strong and predictable EBITDA from renewable energy activities.

Prysmian is a key player in the ongoing energy transition, and so is Solstad with our vessels, with our services, and with our competence.

And talking about services, on the next slide, the business model for Solstad is still to deliver vessels on time charter to clients in the global energy markets on a day rate basis. There are no changes to that. But we have seen an opportunity to add more services to our delivery, still on a day rate basis.

With our partner, Omega Subsea, we have ordered 12 ROVs that are being installed on our vessels, and so far 8 have been delivered and installed on Normand Maximus, Normand Navigator, Normand Sentinel, and Normand Frontier, and 4 more ROVs will be delivered by the end of the year and installed on 2 of our vessels.

In addition to ROVs, we also offer other services like survey, various toolings, and project support. This business model has been well received by our clients and has enabled us to increase the EBITDA from each vessel without adding any significant additional risk.

We had about NOK 500 million in revenue from Services, first half year, with an operational margin of about 20%. The ambition is to increase this segment further, still on day rate basis.

Then I hand the word over to you Kjetil to take a closer look at the financials in the quarter.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Thank you, Lars. So if we then go to the second half and second quarter financial highlights of Solstad Offshore. Solstad Offshore had a second quarter with high utilization of 97% for its vessels, 95% year-to-date. One dry dock in the quarter for Solstad Offshore, the Normand Topazio in addition to a maintenance stop for the joint venture vessel Normand Installer.

Operating income for the second quarter was NOK 746 million and for the first half NOK 1.5 billion. Operating result before depreciation or EBITDA was for the quarter NOK 364 million. For EBITDA adjusted we have NOK 362 million for the quarter.

In the EBITDA adjusted number we have assumed IFRS 16 leases to be operational and that is mainly Normand Maximus, several vessels in Brazil, ROVs and office leases. This amounts to a net reduction of NOK 154 million in the quarter.

On the other hand, the net interest-bearing debt is adjusted accordingly with the reduction of NOK 3.1 billion to a net amount of NOK 2.3 billion. This total number improves Solstad Offshore's net interest-bearing debt adjusted EBITDA multiple figures.

Cash at hand is at NOK 561 million at the end of the quarter. Equity of NOK 1.8 billion gives an equity ratio of 21%. The net interest-bearing debt in the financials are NOK 5.3 billion for SOFF, as you can see at the waterfall at the right hand upper corner.

However, if we apply the net interest-bearing debt, the total number will be NOK 2.4 billion. And this is something that you need to do to be able to compare the adjusted EBITDA numbers with the net interest-bearing debt.

Very limited amortization over the next 3 years for Solstad Offshore. We can mention that Normand Superior, as mentioned last quarter, was refinanced in the second quarter with a new 4 year tenure at market terms. And in Brazil company is performing better than planned, paying down the Brazilian debt. We have in Solstad Offshore a firm backlog of NOK 5 billion and I will come back to that on -- more on next slide.

As mentioned on the backlog, we have booked a backlog of approximately NOK 2.6 billion in the quarter, giving a firm backlog of NOK 5 billion for Solstad Offshore. And this backlog consists in a split where the SOFF owned vessels, as you can see on this graph, accounts of NOK 1.9 billion and vessels that are chartered from Solstad Maritime has a backlog of NOK 3.1 billion. And that is mostly the vessels that are operated in Brazil.

Most of the backlog in Solstad Offshore has been added over the last 2 years, giving latest market rates for the vessels. So few legacy contracts in Solstad Offshore at the end of the quarter. In 2024, 90% of the available vessels has been booked. However, we have more room to book more contracts and days in the period 2025 to '27, next 2 years.

Yes. So with that then we will move over to Solstad Maritime financial highlights for second quarter and half year. Utilization for Solstad Maritime for the quarter was at 82% and this has been a quarter which has been busy with several dry docks and also vessels relocating to new regions to execute projects going forward. And, of course, this has negatively affecting the utilization in the quarter.

The operating income for second half was NOK 1.5 billion, and year-to-date, we have an operating income of NOK 2.8 billion for the half year. EBITDA adjusted of NOK 799 million for the quarter and NOK 1.5 billion for the first half of the year. We also then expect that second quarter will be a stronger quarter than we had in the first quarter.

And same as Solstad Offshore we apply the same principle in Solstad Maritime, meaning that the EBITDA adjusted number have assumed that the IFRS 16 leases are booked as operational. Mainly taking into account that Maximus lease really and IFRS lease are being added back and with a net amount of NOK 72 million in the quarter. The adjusted EBITDA gives a margin of 51% in the quarter, in a quarter with 82% utilization.

Backlog is at NOK 9 billion at the end of the quarter, solid increase from last quarter of NOK 4.1 billion, and I will come further back to that on the next slide.

In Solstad Maritime, we have booked the value of -- the booked value of the vessels are approximately NOK 13 billion, and divided over the vessels that gives average booked value of each vessel of approximately NOK 4 million per vessel.

After refinancing and the share issue completed in June, both equity and cash has been further strengthened and the book equity is at the end of June NOK 6.5 billion, giving an equity ratio of approximately 39%.

The net interest-bearing debt in the financials are NOK 7.6 billion for Solstad Maritime. However, if we apply the same principle as Solstad with the net -- adjusted net interest-bearing debt, the debt will be NOK 7.4 billion in the financial. You can see that in the graph to the upper right hand side as well. That gives approximately net debt per vessel of a little bit more than NOK 220 million per vessel.

Cash is at NOK 1.5 billion at the year-end or at the half year-end. And the Solstad Maritime fleet loan, as you can see at the graph, at the right as well of NOK 8.8 billion. There is a repayment schedule of approximately NOK 1.4 billion a year for the next 3 years, and then with a balloon at the end, assuming that the loan will be refinanced.

Then if we go to next slide to look at the backlog for Solstad Maritime. The total backlog for Solstad Maritime at the year of -- at the end of the quarter was NOK 9 billion. If you take into consideration the options, it's NOK 16.7 billion. And that means that in the second quarter, we have added NOK 4.1 billion of additional backlog.

A large part of the backlog has been added after the upturn have started. However, we have a few vessels that have potential for higher earnings going forward. And mainly in 2026, most of the legacy or lower earning contracts has been finalized.

In 2024, 84% of the available vessel stays has been has been booked. And as you can see, at the graph there is a potential for selling more -- or selling more days both in '25, where we have 60% booked already and then -- and '26 and '27, we can add quite some more vessel days.

The book-to-bill at 2.8x in the quarter is strong and it's good to see that we have been able to book this amount of backlog during the quarter.

So with that, I will hand the word back to you, Lars, to summarize.

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Thank you, Kjetil. The last step in the refinancing of Solstad was completed in June, giving the company a strong financial position and put us in position to continue to develop the company in a market that looks very promising.

The market continues to be healthy, and we have many business opportunities. We have signed several important contracts during the quarter, which have increased our backlog considerably and with strong margins. The majority of the planned maintenance program for the year has been done, and that also goes for mobilizations for new long-term contracts.

Solstad Services had a revenue of NOK 500 million in the first half year, and NOK 1 billion for the year is reachable. This was previously a 2026 target, so we have now to revise the ambitions for Solstad Services. All in all, a good quarter, and we expect a better second half of the year than first half. So we are on track to meet our previous EBITDA guidance.

Firstly, if we take a closer look at Solstad Offshore first, we have an adjusted EBITDA in the first half of the year of about NOK 600 million. If we exclude any contribution from share of result from JV and associates going forward, as this is sensitive to currency movements, we expect this figure to be around, NOK 0.9 billion to NOK 1.1 billion for the full year.

If we look at Solstad Maritime, we've had an adjusted EBITDA in the first half of the year of nearly NOK 1.5 billion. And with the increased earnings we anticipate going forward, we expect this figure to be around NOK 3.3 billion to NOK 3.5 billion for the full year, which is in line with previous guidance.

So this concludes our presentation. Thank you for listening in. And we now move over to Q&A.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Okay. Then we have received some questions in in the feed. And the first one is, Frontier has been working around 6 months outside Italy now. Is the contract -- what is the contract and status length? Is there a longer project?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Yes. [Technical Difficulty] is one of our subsea vessels and are working on a project where we are also providing ROVs and a lot of other services. And the duration of that contract is until to the end of this year. So that is the that is the status for that vessel.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Thank you. And the next question is, what are your thoughts on newly ordered newbuilds in the CSV segment? With around 300 CSVs in the world, there should be 10 to 15 newbuilds a year just to keep up existing fleet. We are still far away from these numbers?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Yes. It's -- I would say, it's quite natural that in a market that we are now and we see going forward there will be some newbuilds, and there are a handful or a bit more under construction right now. I don't see that as a threat to the market balance.

And also keep in mind, that the majority of the vessels under construction are also quite small with the 150 ton cranes. So, yes, it's quite natural, but nothing that worries me.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Okay. And then if we go to the next questions. Is there any news on the collaboration with Remota? Will we see something put to work through Solstad here soon?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Well, Remota is a very exciting joint venture we have with DeepOcean and Ostensjo. And we have Remota as about remote operations of ROVs. It's about also, remote operation of other services on both vessels. And it's about a unmanned ROV vessel that is under construction. And that the progress of the company is going quite well. We are using it in Solstad. Our docks are doing the same, and we see that as a very interesting and promising initiative that has been started in Remota.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

And we go to the next question. You have several of your key subsea vessel on short term contracts project work: Sentinel, Navigator, Frontier, et cetera. Do you expect to book more long-term work on such vessels? Or do we continue to work in the project market as you see it as of now?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

I think it will be a combination. What we see is that all those vessels mentioned are vessels that we have -- that we are also providing a lot of additional services on, including our own ROVs. We see that they are in demand in, let's say, in the project market where we typically are involved from 6 months to 12 months. But we also expect interest in signing up for longer term. So we have a portfolio approach to this and we'll probably have a mix of longer term and more project related work on the mentioned vessels.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Thank you. And then, over the next question.

You have, been very successful in securing anchor handling work outside the spot market. Can you please discuss some -- what the strategy is for the anchor handling fleet going forward?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Yes. The anchor handling feet is, in general or generally speaking, it's -- we have a long term market in Brazil and we have a long term market in Australia for the vessels. And then we have 4, 5 vessels trading out of the North Sea, which is our project fleet.

We would like to do more projects, and we are already doing quite a lot of it. We are targeting more projects and sort of more -- have the North Sea spot market as a fallback. We will approach long -- more long term work. But we will be very active in the project market also going forward.

And at any given time, we have at least, one or 2 of our large anchor handlers on project work in West Africa or North Sea or elsewhere. So very interesting market and also gives us opportunities to add on additional services in addition to the vessel. So project market, very exciting.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Thank you. And then there's a question on the backlog. We have secured, quite some backlog over the last quarter. And can we -- on the margin side, can we assume same percent margin on EBITDA on the NOK 9 billion plus NOK 5 billion backlog going forward, or do we expect to see, that will improve?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

I think the contracts we have secured this year is at very healthy margins, and we will target more firm backlog, of course. And my expectation is that we will -- that the margins will continue to improve. And, of course, it will always depend on the duration of the contract and such. But in general and in average, we expect improved margins going forward.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Thank you, Lars Peder. And that was the last question. So, thank you, everyone.

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Thank you, everyone. And we wish you all a nice summer ahead. Thank you.