2023-08-24 13:21:04 ET
Ocean Yield ASA (OYIEF)
Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call
August 24, 2023 3:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Andreas Rode - Chief Executive Officer
Eirik Eide - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Presentation
Andreas Rode
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Ocean Yield's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Presentation. I will start today's presentation with the highlights of the quarter, details of new investments and go through the changes of the portfolio before our CFO, Eirik Eide, will take us through the financials. Then the presentation will be concluded with opening for questions.
Starting off on page two. We are pleased to report another quarter with strong and stable performance for Ocean Yield. We report an EBITDA adjusted for finance lease effects of $86.5 million and net profit of $27.7 million. The net profit figure is positively impacted by profits related to vessel sales. We are ending the quarter with a strong and robust balance sheet with $115.9 million in cash and an equity ratio of 31.1%.
At the end of the second quarter, the EBITDA backlog was $3.9 billion, and the average remaining contract duration was 9.8 years. Q2 was another active quarter on the financing side and several refinancing initiatives have been concluded during and after the quarter, and Eirik will cover this in greater detail later in the presentation.
As we constantly work to optimize our cost of capital, during the quarter, we repurchased another $42.3 million of the hybrid perpetual bond, OCY06, leaving $43.5 million outstanding. Final transaction scope for the Newcastlemax newbuilding program and long-term charters to subsidiaries of CMB was agreed to be eight or nine vessels with expected delivery dates between Q3 '24 and Q4 '25. Finally, on August 1, we announced the investment in 4 LR1 product tankers with Ocean Yield's inaugural sustainability-linked lease to Braskem S.A.
Let's move to page three for more details. Building on the existing relationship with Braskem. We have agreed to acquire four LR1 product tankers that will be constructed at the reputable GSI shipyard in China. The vessels will have a methanol-ready design and will upon delivery in ‘26 and ‘27 commence 15-year bareboat charters to Braskem, adding around $300 million to our EBITDA charter backlog.
In Braskem, we have found a partner that share our vision and ambition to contributing to the decarbonization of the maritime industry, and the lease will be ocean yields inaugural sustainability-linked lease. The day rate is effectively linked to the carbon intensity index score obtained for the vessels, giving the charter a clear financial incentive to reduce emissions. Our ambition is to continue to develop this product, and we're already seeing great interest both among new and existing clients as well as our financing providers.
Moving on to page four for an update on the portfolio. As communicated on May 26, we have agreed the final transaction scope for the Newcastlemax newbuilding program with CMB to be a minimum eight and maximum nine vessels. Following previously announced declaration of purchase options, Hoegh Trapper, Hafnia Turquoise, and STI Steadfast were delivered to its new owner -- owners and post quarter end, Interlink Amenity and STI Supreme were delivered. Post quarter end, OKEANIS ECO TANKERS declared an auction for the Suezmax Tanker Milos, and she will be delivered in Q1 next year.
Our portfolio of vessels under construction is progressing according to plan and the first container vessel, Zim Danube, will be christened in Korea next week and is expected to commence the seven-year charter to Zim early September.
Moving on to page five. Including the investment activity completed during this year, we now have an EBITDA backlog of $3.9 billion. The average contract duration of the portfolio is 9.8 years and upon delivery of the 2 AHTS vessels to Viking later this year, 100% of the portfolio will be employed on long-term charters. The diversified modern fleet have an average age of 5.1 years and comprise 64 vessels at the end of Q2. All vessels are on charter to 18 different customers in 8 different segments, providing both sector and client diversification.
Following strong continued performance in the majority of the shipping markets, lease to value stands at solid levels, and the portfolio of long-term leases to leading counterparties provide the foundation for stable and predictable earnings in the years to come.
So with that, I'd like to hand over to Eirik, who will take us through the financials for the second quarter.
Eirik Eide
Thank you, Andreas. So we move on to slide six, which shows a financial snapshot of the company as of the second quarter. We have recorded EBITDA of $59.1 million in the quarter, and EBITDA adjusted for finance lease effects was $86.5 million. Net profit was $27.7 million, and the net profit was positively impacted by one-off gains related to vessel sales during the quarter.
When it comes to dividends, the Board of Directors has decided not to declare a dividend this quarter. The company's cash position remains solid with $115.9 million at the end of the quarter and the equity ratio was 31.1%.
Moving on to the next slide, the P&L and a more specific look at operating revenues, where we have recorded $16.5 million, compared to $18.8 million in the first quarter. Operating lease revenue is slightly down from Q1 due to the sale of two car carriers in Q1 and Q2, respectively. Finance lease revenues were $33.6 million in Q2, and this number was in line with the first quarter.
Income from investments in associates, which is related to the 50% ownership in two tankers and also 49.9% ownership in seven container vessels was $5 million, compared to $5.4 million in Q1. And the variance here is mainly due to movements on interest rate swaps. Then we had other income of $6.8 million, and this is mainly one-off gains related to vessel sales. So that gives us total revenues of $61.8 million, compared to $61 million last quarter.
Depreciation was $6.1 million and is slightly down from last quarter, due to the sale of the car carriers. And then we had operating profit of $53 million, compared to $51.5 million in Q1. Financial expenses, they were $27.7 million, compared to $28.9 million last quarter. The decrease here is mainly due to repayments of debt as a result of vessel sales.
Foreign exchange movements and mark-to-market of derivatives was net zero this quarter. So nothing specific to comment here. So that ended the quarter with a net profit of $27.7 million compared to $23 million in Q1.
Then moving on to the balance sheet. Starting on the left-hand side, vessels and equipment. You will see that we have a slight decrease in vessels and equipment, compared to the first quarter due to vessel sales. This is offset by further payments to the shipyard on the newbuilding container vessels and gas vessels where we have paid a further $15 million of installments to the shipyard during the quarter.
Further, we have a rather large trade receivable this quarter of $45 million. Of this, $32 million is related to the amendments to the newbuilding program with CMB, where we are due to be repaid $32 million in Q4 in relation to five Newcastlemax newbuilding’s. This will be offset again by further shipyard payments for the remaining four Newcastlemax vessels going forward. In addition, a dividend from BOX Holdings of $7.6 million declared in Q2 was paid after quarter end. So this is also included in this figure.
Cash and cash equivalents, $115.9 million, compared to $113.2 million last quarter, so still a very solid cash position. Book equity $664 million, compared to $677 million in Q1. The decrease here is mainly due to buyback of the hybrid perpetual bond, where the total nominal amount outstanding now stands at $43.5 million at the end of the quarter. Total assets were then $2.137 billion, and that gives us then an equity ratio of 31.1% at the end of the quarter.
Moving on to the next slide and financing initiatives. As Andreas mentioned briefly, the second quarter has also been a very active quarter on the financing side. We have refinanced and upsized 4 different loan agreements, which gave a total liquidity effect of $74 million. Parts of these proceeds have been used to partially prepay outstanding bonds and also buy back the hybrid perpetual bonds.
So at the end of the quarter, we held $81.5 million in the hybrid perpetual bonds. And we also held NOK299.5 million in the unsecured bond OCY07. For the rest of 2023, we have no further debt maturities. So all that has now been taken care of.
Also after the end of the quarter, we have signed a new loan agreement related to the anchor handling tug supply vessels currently trading in the Solstad pool. And this loan will be drawn when the vessels commence their new five-year bareboat charters to Viking Supply and will then improve the cash flow visibility from these vessels going forward.
In addition, we have also signed a loan agreement for the long-term financing of the two LEG carriers with long-term charter to Braskem, and this is a 10-year facility at attractive terms. And I can also mention that we are also progressing further with the financing of the whole Newcastlemax dry bulk vessels newbuilding program, and we expect to finalize these during the third and the fourth quarter.
So with that, I will give the word back to Andreas, who will summarize.
Andreas Rode
Thank you, Eirik. So to summarize the quarter on page 10. Q2 was another testimony to the strong and stable performance of our vessels on long-term charters. As mentioned by Eirik, we have a strong and robust balance sheet, and continued access to financing in both the traditional bank market as well as in the Asian financing markets remains strong. As Eirik explained, we signed a loan agreement for the financing of the two LEG newbuilding’s and making good progress to finalize the financing for the Newcastlemax program.
As evidenced by the recent transaction with Braskem, we have actively been reinvesting the proceeds from vessels being sold and redelivered into new builds. Currently, we have two gas carriers and four product tankers under construction with Braskem, eight or nine Newcastlemax dry bulk vessels with CMB and three container vessels with Zim under construction. The new builds with future-proof design and energy technology will, upon delivery, provide long-term and stable cash flows and more than make up the reduced revenue from options being declared and vessels being redelivered while significantly reducing the carbon footprint from our fleet.
We remain segment-agnostic when evaluating new investment opportunities and carefully consider newbuild and secondhand vessel prices as well as order book and supply-demand dynamics. As always, Client selection remains paramount as we seek to partner with the right clients.
So with that, I would like to thank you all for listening to the second quarter 2023 earnings release. And I would now like to open up for questions.
Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
[Operator Instructions] There appears to be no questions. Keep in mind that you could also, of course, always reach out to the IR department if you have any questions offline.
So I'll hand it back to Andreas for a final comment.
Andreas Rode
Thank you, [Indiscernible]. I think that concludes the call. Thank you, everyone, for dialing in, and we wish you all a great day.
For further details see:
Ocean Yield ASA (OYIEF) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript