Solstad Offshore ASA

OSE:SOFF

Earnings Call Transcript

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the first quarter presentation for Solstad Offshore. The presentation will be held by CFO, Kjetil Ramstad; and myself, Lars Peder Solstad. As Solstad Maritime has its own reporting now, the format of this Solstad Offshore presentation will be slightly different than earlier. But to start with the conclusion of the presentation, it has been a solid quarter with high utilization and with a still positive market outlook.

A quick look at the disclaimer before we move on to the business updates and some of the highlights for the first quarter. As mentioned, it has been an eventful quarter where we completed the investment in about 36% of the shares in Omega Subsea, which we announced in December. This is a strategic investment for Solstad Offshore, and it will be instrumental for the development of the Service segment that we are building up in the company.

Just as important, Solstad Maritime, where Solstad Offshore holds 27.3%, has applied for listing at Euronext Oslo Bors and first day of trading is expected to be on or about 16th May. And that will then be under the ticker SOMA. This shareholding represents a significant part of the Solstad Offshore market cap, and it will be interesting to see how the market and the investors will receive the listing of Solstad Maritime.

And as most of you already have seen, we have changed our reporting currency from Norwegian kroner to U.S. dollars from 1st January this year. And we believe that this gives a better picture of the company accounts as we have a large portion of our revenue in U.S. dollars. The same is for the cost, and we also have our debt in U.S. dollars.

On the fleet, the utilization was high in the quarter, 93%, which reflects a market with high activity. And we have achieved an adjusted EBITDA of USD 30 million in the quarter, which is slightly lower than first quarter last year. But keep in mind that last quarter -- that first quarter in 2024 also partly included -- or included Solstad Maritime for part of the quarter. So like-for-like, the result in the quarter has improved.

On dividends, Solstad Offshore will receive about $9.5 million in dividend from Solstad Maritime for first quarter. And the plan for Solstad Offshore is to start paying dividends from third quarter this year, and that will be based on the third quarter numbers this year.

On the guiding, we are on track to meet the previous guiding for the full year, and we will come back to this on a later slide. After quarter end, we have reported some new contracts. Normand Turquesa was reported yesterday, one of our Brazilian built anchor handlers. We extended present contract for 9 months, keeping her fully booked until start of a new 4-year contract from first quarter '26, bringing the firm period up to first quarter 2030.

We have also announced -- Solstad Maritime has announced 3 contracts also for 4 years each also in Brazil, and they will be operated through the Solstad Offshore Brazilian setup from commencement of those contracts. So this shows also the strength of the Brazilian market, and it also shows the importance of a company like Solstad to be present in a very important market as the Brazilian.

Just to give you a quick reminder of the company fleet and activity. The fleet consists of wholly owned and partly owned vessels as well as vessels from the Solstad Maritime fleet operated in Brazil under lease arrangements. In total, that is 15 vessels. And that number will increase as the contracts that I mentioned earlier comes into effect in early next year.

One of the vessels that Solstad Offshore controls is the large CSV Normand Maximus. Presently, the vessel is on a bareboat contract from Solstad Maritime to Solstad Offshore. And then again, on an onward time charter contract with Saipem with a significant EBITDA contribution to Solstad Offshore. Solstad Offshore also has an option to purchase the vessel in 2027 for USD 125 million, which in today's market is well in the money.

The majority of the activity in Solstad Offshore is in Brazil, and that's -- and we also have an operational office in Brazil and about 700 employees in the company, Solstad Offshore in total, and the majority of the employees are on board the vessels. As seen to the left here, about 75% -- and looking back to the previous years, about 75% of the EBITDA in 2024 came from the CSV segment. but also the anchor handling segment and more and more the Service segment are also contributing nicely.

If we take a closer look at the financial highlights for the quarter and keep in mind that part of the first quarter, as I mentioned, included Solstad Maritime, it is fair to say that Solstad Offshore continues its positive development. We are building a strong balance sheet, and we now have a booked equity of $311 million. The adjusted debt has been reduced with about $100 million, bringing the adjusted debt over adjusted EBITDA down to a factor less than 1. Revenue and EBITDA are stable, while backlog is slightly reduced, but this excludes the 4-year contract on Normand Turquesa that I just mentioned and that was announced yesterday. And it also excludes the Solstad Maritime vessels that operates via Solstad Offshore in Brazil. So all in all, this has been a solid quarter for us.

Kjetil, then you will say a few more words about the numbers.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Thank you, Lars. And when we get to this slide, we will look further into the debt structure of the company and hopefully to make it clearer how the debt side of the balance sheet is built up. If we start with Solstad Brazil, we have the BNDES interest-bearing debt of $56 million, financing the 4 Brazilian-built vessels in the company, maturity between '26 and '31. The Brazilian vessels are performing better than planned, and the debt is currently being paid down faster than scheduled, mainly through cash sweep mechanism.

On Solstad Offshore ASA, the interest-bearing debt of the bank loan of $100 million that was established when we refinanced SOFF in connection with the Maximus residual claim settlement. That is a 5-year amortization profile with a 3-year tenure. If we subtract the cash on hand of -- yes, cash on hand, the net interest-bearing debt before leases is $107 million. This is the reason why we name it adjusted net interest-bearing debt.

And then also important to go through the 2 large components on the right-hand side, which is the financial leases. The Normand Maximus lease of $168 million consists of $68 million of leasing obligation through the firm bareboat period. In addition, SOFF ASA has a purchase option of $125 million. And the present value of this purchase option is included of the value of USD 100 million in this overview. The second lease consists of the bareboat charters from Solstad Maritime for the Brazilian vessels that are being utilized through Solstad Offshore's Brazilian setup. And at the moment, that is $98 million. But as Lars mentioned in his presentation, this number will increase based on the new contracts for the 3 Solstad Maritime vessels that was announced earlier this week. So this is a number that will go up and down. It's also worth mentioning that these contracts are back-to-back with contracts with external clients and the exposure for SOFF for this debt is very limited. SOFF is also being compensated for being -- utilizing its Brazilian setup.

Then if we go to Solstad Offshore backlog, as you can see, Solstad Offshore has a firm backlog for its own vessels of $190 million. And also, if you include the Solstad Maritime vessels, there is additional $265 (sic) [ $256 ] million of backlog combined $446 million in total for Solstad Offshore. For 2025, most of the vessel days has been booked. And now also with Turquesa coming in, it limited exposure for the remainder of the year. Most of the Solstad Offshore backlog has been added since the market upturn started and limited legacy contracts in the backlog.

Then you will mention a little bit about the financial investment, Lars.

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Yes. And as you are aware of the -- we have some major ownership in several associated companies and joint ventures. And the 3 mentioned here, Solstad Maritime, Normand Installer S.A. (NISA) and Omega Subsea has a combined book value of $244 million. So it's a significant part of the Solstad Offshore value.

And if we take a look at the Solstad Maritime first, the ownership is 27.3%. The company owns 32 high-end CSVs and anchor handlers. And as already mentioned, the company will be listed on or about 16th May. We will receive -- Solstad Offshore will receive about $9.5 million in dividend for the first quarter, and Solstad Maritime has also announced that the intention of paying the majority of the free cash flow as dividend on a quarterly basis going forward. USD 14.4 million of Solstad Maritime's net result is included in Solstad Offshore's result as investment in associates.

NISA is a joint venture between SBM Offshore and Solstad Offshore. And the company owns the specialized CSV Normand Installer. That vessel is specialized for mooring installations and are trading in the, let's say, in the global mooring installation market. The vessel is under a frame agreement with SBM until 2030, securing a minimum of 210 days of utilization per year. The company is in a net cash position, but had a $2.2 million negative result in first quarter as the vessel was between projects. It came off around year-end '24 and has started on the next project end of March. So the vessel will contribute positively going forward and is fully booked for the remainder of '25.

Omega Subsea is owned about 36% by Solstad Offshore and is the owner and operator of ROVs and survey services. The company has 12 ROVs in operations and have just ordered 12 more ROVs systems and has options for further systems beyond that. Omega Subsea has Solstad Offshore and Solstad Maritime as their main clients, but has recently also signed a contract with an undisclosed shipowner for 4 ROVs on long-term contracts from '26. And Solstad Offshore's part of the Omega result in the first quarter is $1.3 million.

And then Kjetil, I hand it over to you again to say a few more words about the numbers.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Yes. Thank you, Lars. Then we will -- as one of the largest investment in SOFF, we will go through also a little bit of the Solstad Maritime first quarter numbers. Utilization for the vessels in the quarter was 80%. Spot market in the North Sea for the anchor handlers has been a little bit slow in the quarter with overall utilization of 62% and 89% for the CSV fleet.

Revenues in the first quarter was USD 145 million compared to $120 million same quarter last year. EBITDA adjusted of $82 million compared to $52 million same quarter last year. Net result of $48 million in first quarter '25 compared to $60 million same quarter last year. And the main driver for the difference compared to last year was unrealized currency gain in 2024. Firm backlog of $814 million, $116 million was added in the quarter and backlog inclusive options at $1.5 billion.

Book equity of $802 million compared to $545 million same quarter last year. This gives an equity ratio of 47% at the end of first quarter this year. The adjusted net interest-bearing debt in the financials are $575 (sic) [ $576 ] million, down from $788 million last year, implying that we have a leverage ratio of 1.8x in Solstad. Cash position of $195 million. And the company will distribute approximately $35 million to its shareholders, whereof $9.5 million of those will be paid to Solstad Offshore.

Then we will also give a short-listing update on Solstad Maritime. So as previously communicated, Solstad Maritime will list on Oslo Bors on or about 16th of May this year. There will be set-up investor calls, and they will be announced on Solstad Maritime ticker SOMA on NewsWeb. There will be no offering of shares in connection with listing. However, our AMSC will distribute shares in Solstad Maritime to its shareholder, representing approximately 19.6% of the company shares.

The free float of shares in Solstad Maritime after distribution will be approximately 21%. Aker Capital and Solstad Shipholding -- Solstad -- which is a Solstad Offshore subsidiary will be the largest shareholders with holdings of approximately 51.8% and 27.3%, respectively. DNB Carnegie will act as global coordinator with Danske Bank and SpareBank 1 Markets as joint lead managers.

Then if we look a little bit on the financial guiding for Solstad Offshore for '25. We have an EBITDA adjusted guiding of $120 million to $150 million. And also here, we try to split it between the operational EBITDA, which is -- we have a guiding of $60 million to $70 million for the year, which of $16 million was earned in first quarter '25. And then the financial investments result from associated companies and joint ventures of $60 million to $80 million, where we had $14 million already earned so far this year. We are on track to meet the guidance for the full year. And then on dividends, Solstad Offshore intends to start paying dividend based on the third quarter results.

So with that, I give the word to you, Lars Peder, to summarize.

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Thank you, Kjetil. To summarize the presentation, I would say that despite the global political turmoil, we continue to see strong demand for our services. And to this point, we have not had any signals of lower activity or postponement of projects from our clients. We continue to see high tender and award activity, especially in Brazil.

And we also continue to see a high utilization on the fleet. We find it very interesting to participate in the growth of Omega Subsea, where 12 ROVs are or will soon be operation on Solstad vessels. And as mentioned, 12 more ROVs are ordered, and this company will be very central in the development of Solstad Services segment going forward. And finally, Solstad Maritime, as mentioned a few times already, will be listed Oslo Bors 16th May in accordance with earlier announced time line. And we look forward to see how the company will be received by investors.

So this concludes our presentation. Thank you for listening in. And I guess we have a few questions, Kjetil.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Yes. That is true. Let's start with the first one.

Two of the biggest vessels in the fleet, Normand Navigator and Normand Sentinel are listed as available from this week. Can you say something about the plans there? And of course, this is a Solstad Maritime vessel, so...

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Yes. They are both Solstad Maritime vessels, but still, I can -- the Normand Navigator is just about to complete its main classing, will be available within the next week, is -- has been fixed on a new contract starting around 1st June for 3, 4 months. So -- but at a decent rate, I would say. The Normand Sentinel is coming off present contract in these days and will then start around 1st June on our main class and will be available for the market early July. At the moment, not fixed on any new contract, but we have a few processes going on. So yes, not too concerned.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Then next question. The 8 mentioned ROVs being designated to Solstad Omega Subsea, are those meant for just CSVs? Or also could it be options for anchor handlers -- also for anchor handlers going to Brazil this winter?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Well, we have some flexibility there. So how we're going to utilize those ROVs and on which vessels we have not decided on that yet. But we have committed to those 8, and it will make a lot of sense for us to put them on some of our own vessels, and we will do so. But which vessels remains to be seen.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Thank you. And then we have a question. There has been several analysts reporting some signs of lower activity in the subsea offshore space in '25 and onwards. How will this affect Solstad's view on the market?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

I mean we continue to have a positive market view. We have -- we see that our clients have a high activity. We experienced a strong interest for our vessels. I can't say that we have had any negative signals, as I also mentioned in the presentation from our clients at this point. So we continue to have a positive market outlook going forward.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Then you mentioned that there will be dividends from Solstad Maritime. Do we expect also to have dividends from other investments in Solstad Offshore for '25 like NISA or Omega Subsea?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

I think the -- that could happen, of course. But I think the -- especially from Omega Subsea, they will also use their cash flow to finance the growth. On NISA, that company will come up for refinancing in '26 or '27. But as I mentioned, we are in a net cash position. So we are -- there's a very strong balance sheet. So what's going to happen on the dividend side there, it's something we have to come back to. But the main, let's say, the main portion of the dividend received from Solstad Offshore will be from Solstad Maritime.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

And then a little bit more of dividend. How much dividend do we plan to distribute in Solstad Offshore?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

I think that is something we have to come back to when -- on the third quarter numbers. We will -- then we will be more specific on the size of the amounts.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

That makes sense. Is there a possibility that Solstad Offshore and Solstad Maritime will merge sometimes in the future?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Well, now we have -- we're going to list Solstad Maritime as we have promised. We're going to do that next week. We will then have 2 separate listed companies, and there are no other plans than that. So what the future will bring, who knows. But at the moment, we will have 2 separate listed companies.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

And Brazil is a hot spot to be at the moment. Are we expecting more contracts in Brazil in the coming period?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Well, the ongoing award process from Petrobras has not been completed yet. So it might happen. We don't know yet. We have announced 4 contracts combined maritime and offshore already. So yes, who knows. But we will see that more of our vessels will be in Brazil for projects going forward. We already have at least 2 of our subsea vessels are going to Brazil for projects later this year and also into '26. So Brazil is continuing to be very busy. And it's -- for a company like us, it's extremely important to have a strong presence in Brazil and to have a strong organization to have the operational licenses and to be able to participate strongly in the Brazilian market is going to be very important also going forward.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Thank you, Lars. And for the investment that Omega Subsea are now doing in the 12 new ROVs announced, will that require equity contribution from the owners?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

No. So there will be -- they will manage to finance the new investment based on their own balance sheet and on their own earnings.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Can you update -- give an update on tender activity and the commercial side of Australia for the activity that we have there?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Yes. Australia is -- for us, it's -- at the moment, it's 4 anchor handlers, 4 large anchor handlers working on, say, short-term contracts or -- but they are -- what we have seen is that there are quite a few tenders in the market for -- but not for the duration of years, but it's more like 90 days here, 30 days here, 60 days there that enables us to keep a decent utilization on the fleet. If we are not able to do that, we will not keep the vessel in the Australian market, and we will work somewhere else. But at the moment, we are able to keep a good utilization on the fleet there.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

And then we have 2 more questions. What is the plan for Normand Mermaid after she comes out of docking?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

So another Solstad Maritime vessel. We are mobilizing Normand Mermaid now with 2 ROVs. So she will be -- have a full integrated service solution on board, including survey and so on. And -- she is doing her main classing at the moment, will be available in June, and we are working on some prospects and the plan is to win one of those and keep the vessel working on a decent utilization and with a nice EBITDA contribution. So that is the plan.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

And then the last question for today. Are we planning on utilizing the strong secondhand market to sell some of our CSVs during the year?

[Lars Solstad, executive]

No, we don't have -- I mean, we own and operate vessels. We have a nice fleet. We have good earnings on the vessels, and we don't have any plan to sell the vessel. If a ridiculous offer comes on the table, we have, of course, to consider it, but that's not the plan.

[Kjetil Ramstad, executive]

Okay. That was the last question.

[Lars Solstad, executive]

Okay. So thank you for listening in, and have a nice day.