Ole Hjertaker
Management
Hi, everyone, and welcome to SFL's third quarter conference call. We do apologize for the problems with our service provider who has delayed the call now for more than 20 minutes. But I hope you have been patient and are able to listen in to us still. I will start the call by briefly going through the highlights of the quarter. Following that, our CFO, Aksel Olesen, will take us through the financials, and the call will be concluded by opening up for questions. Our Chief Operating Officer, Trym Sjølie will also be present for the Q&A session. Before we begin our presentation, I would like to note that this conference call will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as expects, anticipates, intends, estimates or similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These statements are based on our current plans and expectations and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future activities and results of operations to be materially different from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ includes, but are not limited to, conditions in the shipping, offshore and credit markets. You should therefore not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more detailed discussion on our risks and uncertainties, which may have a direct bearing on our operating results and our financial condition. The total charter revenues were $178 million in the quarter, which was up 8% compared to the second quarter. The maturity of revenues was from vessels on long-term charters and around 18% for vessels deployed on short-term charters and in the spot market. The EBITDA equivalent cash flow in the quarter was approximately $126 million. And over the last 12 months, the EBITDA equivalent has been $489 million. The net income came in at around $50 million in the quarter or $0.39 per share. This includes contributions from profit share arrangements and also positive mark-to-market on interest rate swaps and equity and bond investments. The announced dividend of $0.23 per share is in line with the dividend declared for the second quarter and represents a dividend yield of around 8.8% based on closing price on Friday. This is our 75th quarterly dividend. And over the years, we have paid more than $2.5 billion in total or more than $28 per share, and we have a robust charter backlog supporting continued dividend capacity going forward. And our fixed rate backlog has increased significantly over the last year and now stands at approximately $3.8 billion from owned and managed vessels after recent acquisitions and charters, providing continued cash flow visibility going forward. And importantly, the backlog figure excludes revenues from the vessels traded in the short-term market and also excludes future profit share optionality, which we have seen can contribute significantly to our net income. We have recently announced the acquisition of 4 modern eco-design Suezmax tankers in combination with long-term charters to Koch Industries. Two vessels were delivered in the third quarter and 2 delivered after quarter end, and full cash flow effect will therefore be from the first quarter 2023. The transaction added $250 million to a fixed rate charter backlog and demonstrates our standing in the market as a high-quality provider of transportation services including tactical management, vessel operations and vetting for industry-leading customers. Based on market sources, the charter free value of these vessels are already up 16% compared to our purchase price. This does not mean that anything for the near-term cash flows, but it's important for the overall risk profile for us. In early September, we announced the acquisition of 2 new build feeder container vessels. This was an opportunity that came up on short notice and a result of our strong business relationship with Maersk Line, where we have done multiple repeat business transactions over the last years. We were able to step in and organize the takeout of the first vessel from the shipyard in China in a matter of only a few weeks, and the structure of the charter enables us to derisk the deal significantly over the charter period with a relatively high charter rate. To balance this, we can immerse the benefit of purchase options below mid-cycle levels, but still with a profit share to SFL. The first vessel was delivered and entered service for Maersk in the September and the second vessel is due in just a few days now. They've also recently agreed to acquire a 2010-built midsized car carrier with long-term charter to a large Korea-based logistics company. The contract runs until mid-2028 and adds $65 million in fixed rate charter revenues in addition to potential significant benefits from the vessels installed scrubber where most of the economics goes to SFL. The economic return on the vessel is strong even without leverage, but we plan to source financing for the vessel in due course, which will boost the returns from this deal. And while it is a single vessel, it will be managed tactically and operationally together with our 2 existing car carriers and/or 4 vessels under construction, which will ensure operational efficiency. We also own 2 harsh environment drilling rigs, Linus and Hercules, which were chartered to subsidiaries of Seadrill for a number of years. In connection with Seadrill's recent Chapter 11 restructuring, we agreed to take the rigs back and the long-term drilling contract for Linus with ConocoPhillips was assigned from Seadrill to SFL at the end of the third quarter. Odfjell Technology is managing the rig for us technically and operationally, and the transition, including government approvals, was seamless and without any commercial off-hire. The charter rate is adjusted semiannually. And currently, the charter rate is approximately $199,000 per day, up from $193,000 per day from May through October. Operating expenses is currently approximately $125,000 per day. The harsh environment semi-submersible rig Hercules is still on charter to Seadrill, while it is finalizing a drilling contract with Equinor before we deliver to SFL in Norway in December. This rig will be managed technically and operationally by Odfjell Drilling going forward. The rig is one of only a handful of rigs fully equipped to drill in the harshest Arctic environment, and market analysts are positive to market prospects based on recent tender activity and a tight supply-demand balance. We have seen that the international market for deepwater drilling rigs without these harsh environment features have risen quickly. The harsh market has been lagging this, but we believe prospects for 2024 and 2025, in particular, is very promising. Before a new contract, the rig will have to complete a scheduled comprehensive special periodic survey, and we are considering some upgrades to the rig to make it more attractive for longer-term contracts. Currently, we estimate SPS cost to approximately $50 million plus potential contract-specific upgrades. The rig will be available for new contracts from middle of the second quarter, and there is good progress on new charter opportunities. We therefore hope to be able to announce a drilling contract soon. Over the years, we have changed both fleet composition and structure, and we now have 78 maritime assets in our portfolio, and our backlog from owned and managed shipping assets stands at $3.8 billion up from $3.7 billion in the previous quarter. Over the years, we have gone from a single asset class charter to 1 single customer to a diversified fleet and multiple counterparties, and the fleet composition has varied from 100% tankers to nearly 60% offshore 10 years ago to container vessels now being the largest segment with 53% of the backlog. Most of the vessels are on long-term charters and more than 90% of charter revenues from our shipping assets came from time charter contracts and only 8% on bareboat or dry lease. In addition to fixed rate charter revenues, we have had significant contributions to cash flow from profit share over time, both relating to charter rates and fuel savings. Last 12 months, the aggregate profit share has been $28.5 million with $11.3 million in the third quarter alone. And we do not have a set mix in the portfolio. Focus is on evaluating deal opportunities across the segments and try to do the right transactions from a risk-reward perspective. Over time, we believe this will balance itself out but we try to be careful and conservative in our investments with a focus on technology and transition over time to more fuel-efficient vessels. The strength of our counterparties and diversification is key when we assess our portfolio and quality of our contracted backlog, and the list speaks for itself with market-leading operators like Maersk, Hapag Lloyd, ConocoPhillips, P 66, Koch Industry and Volkswagen to name a few. Relatively few of our customers are intermediaries where we have less visibility on the use of the assets and quality of operations. Strategically, this also gives us access to more deal flow opportunities such as the repeat business with Maersk, MSC, Evergreen and Trafigura, for example. Our strategy has therefore been to maintain a strong technical and commercial operating platform in cooperation with our sister companies in the Seatankers Group. This gives us the ability to offer a wider range of services to our customers from structured financing to full-service time charters. And with full control of our vessel maintenance and performance, including energy efficiency and emission-minimizing efforts, we can impact improvements to our vessels through the life of the assets and not only be passively owning vessels employed on bareboat where the customers may not always have an incentive to make such improvements. In addition, we can retain more of the residual value in the assets when we charter out the time on an on-charter basis. And in the current environment with rising raw material costs and inflation driving replacement cost for vessels, this value is for the benefit of SFL and our stakeholders. For bareboat charter deals, the value is usually retained by the charterer through fixed price purchase options. And with that, I will give the word over to our CFO, Aksel Olesen, who will take us through the financial highlights for the quarter.