Cadeler - H1 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, and welcome to Cadeler's earnings presentation for the H1 of 2024. Presenting today are Mikkel Gleerup, Chief Executive Officer, and Peter Brogaard, Chief Financial Officer. Please be reminded that their remarks today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that could cause Cadeler's results to differ materially from today's forward-looking statements include those detailed in Cadeler's annual report on Form 20-F, on file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements made this morning are based on assumptions as of today, and Cadeler undertakes no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events. This morning's presentation includes both IFRS and certain non-IFRS financial measures. A reconciliation of non-IFRS financial measures to the nearest IFRS equivalent is provided in Cadeler's half year report.

The half year report and today's earnings presentation are available on Cadeler's website at cadeler.com/investor. We ask that you please hold all questions until the completion of the formal remarks, at which time you will be given instructions for the question and answer session. As a reminder, this call is being recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. Mikkel Gleerup, you may begin.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Thank you very much, and, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, depending on where you are in the world. Very happy to be able to present here from the New York Stock Exchange on our first half year result in 2024, which also is coherent with the strategy we have laid out, that we want to visit different parts of the world with these reports that we are going to do on a quarterly basis and meet our investors where they are, and this time it's in New York, so really happy to be here, in terms of the half, half one 2024 highlights, just to briefly go through that, financial performance is in line with our expectations. We have successfully delivered the first newbuild Wind Peak on time and on budget.

As we also said in connection with that, we have delivered 5 million man-hours with zero LTIs on this vessel. As it was just announced this morning, we have 3 million man-hours on Wind Pace, the following vessel without LTIs, and 1 million man-hours on Wind Ally, the third vessel from COSCO and Qidong, also without zero LTIs. In grand total, 9 million man-hours without LTI, which I really think is something to celebrate. We have launched the Wind Maker and the Wind Pace, and the Wind Apex, the third A-class, has been ordered with expected delivery in the first half of 2027.

All newbuilds are on track, which we delivered on or in advance of scheduled project work, which is also a key target for us as an organization, really delivering on our CapEx projects on time, on budget. Signing of the three VRA Vessel Reservation Agreement in Q2 has marked a very important milestone for the company because we have also signed the largest vessel reservation agreement in the history of the company. It is between EUR 400 million and EUR 700 million, and these vessel reservation agreements are not included in the backlog. We will go more into that later, how it is done. But our contract backlog now stands at a record of EUR 1.9 billion with further growth in the coming months ahead of us.

We have continued progress on the post-merger integration of Eneti, and we are realizing synergies actually above what we expected when we did the combination of the two companies, especially on the financing side, where we have replaced the Eneti facility on much improved and more attractive terms. Q2 highlights in terms of commercial, the Wind Orca continues to execute the project on Moray West, where we currently installed the world's largest ever installed serial-produced offshore wind turbine, the 14.7 MW from Siemens Gamesa. This is a project where we have started working with the new crane on Orca, and I'm happy to say that we are executing as per expectation, both from ourselves and from the client.

On Wind Osprey, also with the new crane, we are executing on the German project, Gode Wind 3, and Borkum Riffgrund 3, and we are continuing to execute on as projected there as well. During the charter, we mutually agreed with Ørsted to release the vessel for 27 days to go and do some O&M work on some of the projects in the Dutch zone. This was really an opportunity to help a project that needed it, while the project we are working on could do with a break, so to speak. In connection with this, Ørsted has called additional 74 days on the Gode Wind 3 project with Cadeler.

On Wind Scylla, we completed a very comprehensive dry dock work, which we did in France, and we believe that it was very important to really go to the bottom of the vessel here, because the vessel was going to transit immediately after that to the U.S., where we are going to install first one project, which is the Revolution Wind, and thereafter an unnamed project in this weekend. I'm happy to say that we are now in the U.S. We have worked closely with the American authorities, and we have been extremely pleased with the collaboration we have met here in the U.S., and this is something we definitely want to build on, and also happy to say that we are now starting to execute on the Revolution project.

For the Wind Zaratan, we continue to execute for Siemens Gamesa on the Yunlin project in Taiwan, and we are still having quite some work there to complete, but expect definitely completion within this year. In terms of backlog and how the backlog is built up, and when we say that we have a record backlog, we have added this year the Inch Cape project, which is a project that I believe is worthwhile mentioning because it is a project where really we saw the benefit of having a client that needed the support of what we could deliver, but also having the right asset available for the client. There we found what we believe is a good balance in terms of project economics, but also the ability to execute to the client's expectations.

And hence, I think we demonstrated what the market currently can deliver if the things are really falling in place, in both with the supply and the demand of our services. Also, on the A-Class vessel, for 2027, we have closed a project where we have added to the backlog, which would both be turbines or foundation work in 2027. And the focus for us has been 2027, no doubt about that, because with the delayed Auction Round 6, Auction Round 5, sorry, where there was no bidders, 2027 became a focus for us to ensure that we had strong utilization. I'm happy to say that we have very strong utilization with what we have in the backlog, but also in terms of vessel reservation agreements.

And on the vessel reservation agreements, we have three vessel reservation agreements, as I mentioned earlier, that is not included in the backlog because they are subject to national auctions. And we are facing one big national auction ahead of us, which is the Auction Round 6 in the U.K., and coming off a missed Auction Round 5. We saw improved pricing in the Auction Round 6, but also just before the submission of the bids from the developers to the Auction Round 6, we saw the U.K. government increasing the budget in Auction Round 6 with around about 50%. So of course, it's about betting on different horses in that auction.

But we do believe that we are in a good place on the Auction Round 6, and are looking forward to seeing the results of the auction, expected sometime in September. And on top of this, also together with Equinor and Polenergia on Bałtyk 2 and 3, where we also have another 2027 project that is in process at the moment. So really, the project backlog today consists of several projects in Europe, and Europe remains our strongest market, but also in Asia, where we are developing the pipeline and equally in the U.S. We do see U.S. as a market that is starting to get real legs and where we can see that there's more and more activity.

With the work we are doing together with Ørsted at the moment here in the U.S., I do believe that we as a company has a firsthand experience on how it is to operate here, and our first experience here has been incredibly positive. We're working together with all stakeholders in the market because as I've said for the last years, we believe that the way you positively build in a new market is that you create value for everybody involved, and that is really what we try to do as a company. In terms of the backlog, as we have reported it before, now stands at EUR 1.925 billion, including the options.

That's something that, of course, has been important for us to continue to build that backlog number, and it remains a focus as well. We have a second column in this presentation, which is where we have added EUR 94 million on top of that number, and that's because one of the projects in one of the vessel reservation agreements is fully contracted. So we have a fully completed contract that is signed by all parties, which is now only subject to the national auctions. We are trying to give as much transparency on the backlog and how we can do it, but we do not want to enter into any sort of backlog, any number that doesn't have a firm contract behind it.

Of course, we are contracting on all these vessel reservation agreement, but also it's something that takes a long time, especially when it's around foundations. It's not only time-consuming, but it's also incredibly resource-consuming. I think in terms of what we have added, strong utilization both in Europe, in the U.S., and also really a new normal in the industry. I would almost say in terms of what we have seen with the landscape. As I said, when things come into the optimum fit both for us and for the client, then it is an opportunity to really make sure that we create a true win-win both for the company, for our investors, but also for our clients.

And then strong vessel reservation agreement, which we are looking forward to bring to fruition over the coming months. In terms of the progress on the new builds, this is of course something that is of great importance to our investors. We know that, and I'm very, very happy to report that the Wind Peak was delivered on time and on budget, something that I think is not exactly normal in our industry, and we have worked incredibly hard to deliver this. And my thanks really goes to the teams that have been involved in this, especially the on-site team that have been working day in, day out to deliver this result.

We had a beautiful day in Qidong on the fifteenth of August, where we named the vessel and really are now ready to leave the shipyard to start work with this vessel. On Wind Pace, we also continue the progress. I'm actually pleased to say that we probably will deliver slightly ahead of schedule on Wind Pace if everything continues as expected. That is really now the learnings from the first new building that is starting to come into the number of vessels we are delivering from COSCO. On Wind Maker, there is a little bit of a thing here. They count slightly different, the 2 yards.

Wind Maker is built at Hanwha, and Wind Pace and Peak is built at COSCO, and they count slightly different in terms of how the construction completion is. But also there we are, we are confident, also with discussions we have had with the top management of both Hanwha Group, but also Hanwha Ocean, in terms of that we will deliver, in time for starting the project, that we have signed Wind Maker for. We continue to monitor it on a daily basis, and we have also not taken our last trip to Korea to ensure that, the actuals also match, the reports. So we are following this incredibly closely from every single corner of the company, but we are still very much, on target to deliver, these vessels for the projects.

Same on Wind Mover, we expect that we deliver at the end of Q4 2025, at the moment, and this could slip into Q1 2026, which for us has no importance, whether it's the end of Q4 or the beginning of Q1 2026. But this, at the moment, we are trending towards Q4 2025, and that's why we report that here. On Wind Ally, we are also seeing a very strong performance from the yard, and here we think that we will- we can actually see now here that we are planning the keel laying for September 2024, which also means that we likely are delivering as much as two months ahead of schedule on the Wind Ally.

On Wind Ace, everything is scheduled, and on Wind Apex, we will start the steel cutting in Q3 2025. A few views from the delivery of the Wind Peak. We have the vessel completing sea trials successfully doing overload testing of the crane, of the jacking system. And you see some pictures here where we have jacked up to full jacking height, and also a fantastic day together with the godmother of the vessel, where we really made sure that it was probably celebrated this amazing milestone for the company. And also, some sneak peeks from the following vessels. You can see the cranes, the crane have been installed on the Wind Maker, which is, of course, a very, very big milestone.

But also really, the launch of both Wind Pace and Wind Maker, while we also continue the strong progress on the block assembly for the following vessels. But really, all in all, on track with all the vessels. And this chart here just confirms what we have said, basically, for the last quarters, that we are still confident that we will deliver these vessels, and the first one delivered on time and on budget, which of course should give confidence on the remaining vessels from COSCO. Then there has been a lot of lesson learned in this, and the learning curve has been steep, but now we are starting to benefit from that learning curve in the following vessels.

In terms of the merger synergies, since the closing of the merger, we have materialized around 30% of our 2026 target, and these merger synergies come from SG&A savings, but also from financial savings, where we have really managed to get much better terms on financial terms. I’m happy to say that we are ahead of our own target in terms of the SG&A and financial synergies, where we earlier expected a slightly lower number. While we still have great confidence in both the operational and the commercial synergies that we are looking into in the years where we are fully delivering the fleet.

So message from us is really that we are slightly ahead on the first milestone in terms of the synergies, but we have unchanged views on the commercial and the operational synergies in the merger. And at this point, I'll hand over to Peter, who will go through the financial highlights of 2024.

Peter Brogaard (CFO)

Yeah. Thank you very much, Mikkel. The finances is very much a function of the merger with Eneti as compared to last year. Now, we have both companies fully consolidating with four vessels instead of two. And of course, it's also first half and Q2 partly also is impacted by the O-class upgrade and the writeoff on the Scylla vessel. Revenue was EUR 63 million as compared to. This is Q2 numbers, so that is for three months ending 30th of June. Revenue was EUR 63 million as compared to EUR 41 million last year. Equity ratio is still a very, very strong balance sheet that we have more on that later.

Utilization was at 76%, as compared to 100% last year. And that was a tough comparison also because of the free utilization of all vessels in one quarter, which is we cannot expect in any quarter, but still impacted a little bit by the crane operations and the write-off. Market capitalization is now EUR 2.1 billion. EBITDA EUR 32 million, a little bit less than last year. Cash flow from operating activities is EUR 4.2 million, as compared to EUR 14 million. The backlog, as mentioned by Mikkel, has increased to EUR 500 million. This is again three months ending the 30th of June.

It's Q2 numbers, and you can see revenue is higher than last year because of the four vessels in operations, whereas cost of sales goes up as a simple function of having more vessels on the water. The same with SG&A and other expenses is EUR 14.8 million, as compared to EUR 8 million last year. That is, of course, because we have now merged with Eneti. We have the two organizations, and we are also building up for the future. This is very much finances where we have to invest before we can reap the benefits from the contracts on the foundation, especially.

So in order to be able to deliver in the future, we are building all the organizations to be able to do that. And maybe the EBITDA is in line with last year. There's a little bit of still we see that there is some integration costs. We're not very involved, but we are not adjusting for that because then it becomes a little bit transparent. So we just report a little bit of the between half year. So it's same story, of course, you can see cost base doubled. The same goes for the SG&A expenses. And we build up of EUR 32 million as compared to EUR 40 million last year.

CapEx in the average for first half for the six months is 222, and the last year was 97. So that this is a consequence of the ramp up that we are doing in capital to be able to deliver on the future. Balance sheet equity ratio. Still it's a very solid balance sheet with EUR 1.2 billion, million... EUR 1.2 billion in equity as compared to total assets of EUR 1.6 billion. If you look at the half year accounts, you can see that the goodwill from the merger is still EUR 17 million, and that means that we have not seen any negative surprises in the first half compared to our basic.

Well, there were some surprises, negative or positive, but then we need to adjust this goodwill within the first twelve months, but there has been no surprises in the first half so far. I would also like to stress that we in 2023, we paid anything out in relation to the merger, so there's no overhang into 2024 for that, both for transaction costs and changing control and so forth. If we look at the CapEx program, it is expected to be fully funded. And when we say that, then you have to bear in mind that some of it is already signed and committed. That is EUR 1.1 billion that you can see to the left.

That is the RCF and the P-class facility, the M-class facility, and the O-class facility where we have this available cash flow that we have there. And then there is A-class facility that has not been committed yet. So when we say that our CapEx program is fully funded, it means of course, because we have funded the equity part of also the A-class. This is what we need to cross the bridges as we meet them. So we need to finalize financing on the P-class and the refinancing of the M-class and the O-class facility. And now we are starting on financing the A-class facility, and that is on a term sheet basis, and we expect to copy paste from the P-class.

Nothing indicates that we'll not be able to do this financing. So that is something we need to understand when it says in the half-year report that we need to finance the A-Class. That is simply because of the practicalities in being able to sign four facilities at the same time with the same bank. But I would really also like to thank for the huge support we see from the banks. You can see by the upsize of the whole facility, which is an unsecured facility. In the first place, it was EUR 50 million with a EUR 50 million accordion, and now we have upsized it into EUR 125 million in total, and everything is committed.

M-Class facility has also gone in first half, which was also a fantastic job, I think, done by the banks who were able to support in this way. It was signed late in 2023 before the merger, and now it has been refinanced with the Cadeler terms and conditions. So we only have one set of terms and conditions at same pricing, utilizing the bigger balance sheet and the bigger contract right now, and that is what Mikkel also mentioned, that gives us the synergies on the financing side. So all in all, we have EUR 1.8 billion in the financing, and then we have cash as per 30th June, EUR 93 million, that is in total EUR 1.9 billion.

And then you can see, there is a small payment outstanding on the O-Class tranches, P-Class, draw down at delivery schedules for the M-Class and the A-Classes. But again, we have the equity portion in place for also the third A-Class, which was the capital increase that we did in February this year. We have also recently extended the RCF facility that we had, and it was a facility we had to ensure that we could go through the merger with Eneti.

That originally had a tenure of 18 months, and that now it has been prolonged with 12 months, and that's simply to be able to capture the possibility, the opportunities in the market that we see, and to ensure that we have sufficient ability to go through 2025, where we are delivering four vessels. So net funding surplus is EUR 259 million. Of course, we also generate operational cash flow in this period. Hence, it is our firm view that we have the financing that we need, and we are fully funded with the current plans. We have done hedging, as we also have communicated in the past.

We are not experts on how interest rates will develop, so we have taken the approach of hedging 50% of the U.S. dollars of FX and 50% of the interest exposure. And that is simply to protect a little bit of the interest rate increase, and also with on the outside, if things decreases. And that has worked very well for us so far, and that is also obviously going forward. Financing overview, it is the same story again. We have the existing fleet on water, O-class, Scylla, and Zaratan. We have committed financing of EUR 450 million, utilized is EUR 262 million. So we still have something on the RCF-A, and we have not utilized anything on the RCF-B.

P-class is committed and financed, M-class committed and financed. It is the accordion facility, which is an unsecured facility of EUR 125 million, and there we have utilized eighty. We are in the process of securing the financing on the A-class, and that is set on a term sheet basis, and we expect to be able to close this before the end of 2024. In addition, we also have increased the amount of performance guarantees that we have available, and it was about EUR 100 million. It's the guarantees that we give to our clients in relation to our performance. That is now EUR 200 million, to ensure that we have also that available for the contracts that we are signing.

Full year outlook for 2024. The outlook remains unchanged. The first half has pretty much been exactly as expected. So we maintain the full year outlook, both on the revenue and the EBITDA. The assumptions we had with 2024 outlook was and is on-time deliveries and execution on projects. We have executed on the O-Class operations and Scylla jack-up, and then it's a successful delivery of the Peak and assume some contracts on the Peak given Q4 2024. The achieved synergies and SG&A, which we are very comfortable with.

And then the last bullet, that is really, you know, it's only the outlook is, of course, impacted by the buildup of resources that we need to do, impacting the short term, the SG&A, but then will be a better fit with also the activity that we are looking into in the coming years.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Yes, and just a little bit on the commercial outlook for the company. We continue to look into a very, very strong growth in the industry, and we can certainly see that in particular with the tendering activity that we currently are undergoing. We are, as we have said, several quarters in a row now, at record high activity, but what especially is growing resources at the moment is tenders on foundation projects, where also the client have a totally different expectation in terms of our deliveries to the projects, and where we have to document much clearer our ability to deliver. Which is, of course, very fair because we are a very, very important stone on the journey to build this wind farm.

Hence, we do see a lot of expectations and documentation requirements on our ability to build out the organization to deliver on these projects, not only in the tendering phase, but also in the execution phase. Especially with these national tenders, where there are clear deadlines on our tendering activity, it requires a lot of resource commitment into these projects, and one really needs to bet on the right horses here. What we also see is that we do see a continued growth in turbines. It has been discussed a lot whether the industry will cap at a 1,000 t or 15 MW, and so on and so forth.

We think that the 15 MW-ish turbine size will have longer time in the industry, but we do believe still that there will come something that is bigger than that, and we can also already see that. And we are certainly working on projects at the moment where the turbine is bigger than 15 MW. For Cadeler, this is good, because we have vessels that can deliver on these projects, both in terms of the payload required, the lifting heights, the lifting capacities, but also the water depth of these turbines. So all in all, I would say that the industry continues to develop as per our expectations, with a slightly more positive outlook on the U.S. market compared to what we have had in the past.

In terms of the supply and demand balance, we have based this slightly off the industry data. Let's say it is publicly available data. Our own personal view might be slightly less aggressive than what we see here, but we are showing it because I think there's an important point in the slide here, which is that it's continued to grow, both in terms of the size of the foundations and the size of the turbines... and also that there is certainly need for the services that we deliver.

In particular, on the foundation side, we do see that some of the floaters that have been delivered have less capacity to install, in particular monopile foundations due to the dynamic lifting of these foundations, and also the limitations of the motion compensated pile driver. And hence, we do believe that our bet on jackups and the ability of the jackups, especially the A-class vessels, when they come to the market, will prove itself as the correct choice when they are delivered. Because we believe that we can definitely match the floaters in terms of both time and in particular, on the monopile sizes that we can handle on the projects.

And hence, we are remaining very, very positive on this market, especially in the period from 2026 and forward, where we are starting to execute our first project, the Hornsea 3, and with what comes after that. We are in ongoing project work on several foundation projects. In terms of fleet build-out, we are at 11 vessels now. So last time we presented, there was an LOI on the vessel, the fifth vessel from COSCO that has now been contracted. We completed that in May, and we completed the contract within what we told the market that we would do.

So also very positive on that, and I think that we can say that we have a very, very strong relationship with COSCO, and there is a sense that we want to continue to work together because we have been building a very strong relation. And as COSCO said to us when we delivered the Wind Peak, with Cadeler, one starts with having trust, and then you can destroy it. With others, you have to build trust. And I think that that has been one of the key lessons for us, is really to give our partners trust from the beginning and then make sure that they deliver on it, and that has created a very good working environment.

So I think with our fleet size, we are able to to really benefit from payload-to-demand balances and also the fact that we have said before, our clients are looking for redundancy more and more, and clients are tending to book more time for the same projects compared to what we have seen in the past. And we do see that exercise of options is something that is more a norm now, and it's happening earlier. And I think it's also been communicated by developers on their earnings calls that they will be executing options earlier. So I think that that is really something that we also continue to see in our business. The global footprint of the company is becoming clearer, right? Because we are working in all three major regions.

We are looking at other regions as well. Not that we are going to be an early mover into any market, but we are looking to follow our clients when there is work, as we have done for the other regions. We said no to the U.S. in the beginning, but we are here now when there's work to execute on a long-term basis, and that is really the whole idea of what we want to do in Cadeler. When there is long-term work, that is not considered to be R&D or test projects and all of that, then we are here to support. Then I also think that the fleet diversity in Cadeler is also something that the clients really like.

We do see that it's typically a combination of, let's say, a new build asset and a legacy asset that the clients are going for, because it adds a certain flexibility to the client as well, and that really ensures a fleet-wide strong utilization. In terms of... We have showed this slide here before, and it just continues to be true, that we do see that the clients' projects are moving into deeper waters, and they are moving further away from shore. Again, it really talks about the ability of the asset, especially the water depth capability. We do see projects where very few vessels can compete, and the payload becomes a very, very important number because it's really around efficiency.

Offshore wind, as I've said many times before, it is all about efficiency. When you can deliver a more efficient solution, it almost... It's self-explanatory, right? That's the best solution. We continue to monitor this, but it really continues to be the truth almost everywhere we look. In terms of empowering the green horizon, this is something that we will be communicating more and more about going forward. One of the items is green fuels. We believe that at the moment alternative fuels are really one of the only levers that can take us all the way to net zero, and as we have a target in 2035.

And for that, the biofuels are the only available option in the near term, although the vessels are prepared for the low flashpoint fuel types as well. And we have prepared operations, and Cadeler will begin testing biofuels on board our vessels in Q4 2024, together with our clients, and we are looking forward to further report on that and how that reduce our carbon footprint. Because as we have said before, we really want to have our own agreement in this space here, and we don't just want to piggyback off others building wind farms. So expect that Cadeler will deliver on these targets as well.

In terms of energy efficiency and digitization, we are also using you know equipment to maximizing the energy efficiency on board, and we believe that that offers a lot of opportunity for us. And we have signed an agreement to develop energy management dashboards on our vessels. And also, we have conducted energy survey on board our vessels to re-identify the improvement opportunities, but also more, where do we get more bang for our dollars invested, so to speak. And that is something that we will continue to report on.

There's also some collaborations in the making at the moment with some larger corporations in Europe in terms of sharing knowledge on these various measures that will help us on this journey, which is, of course, very, very important. In terms of the organization, Peter delivered some words on it in his financial presentation, but I think that it's, of course, obvious that we are scaling up the team to delivering on the scope that we are committing to the clients. We are still working with the same notion that we want to have a team that is, you know, lean and mean, so to speak.

But also, we need to create a certain degree of organizational effect, especially for the ability to take in these extra foundation tenders. And this is something that we have worked hard on delivering on, and especially with the order of A-class vessel, this creates even more tightness in the whole tendering, and it moves on to the project and then to the execution, after that. And that is also why we are trying to demonstrate here that the growth of the team, of course, was impacted strongly by the merger, where we took on a lot of people, a lot of good colleagues from the U.K. and from Asia and from the U.S.

Very, very happy to see them on board, and also in terms of how it's been integrated, it's been an absolute joy to follow, and everybody just delivers. But from here on onwards, it is a function of, you know, the increased foundation T&I tendering activity. It's an increased project activity. It's a growth in the fleet, and then it's the international expansion. And as we have said, for many quarters also, we are a growth company, and then hence, we are showing it more as a funnel. But what we can say is that it's something that Peter and I, we go through on a monthly basis, where are we in terms of this, to ensure also that it doesn't in any way go out of control.

But we certainly believe that we are managing this very properly as well. In terms of continued growth, we have discussed this a lot in the past, and the slide has changed a little bit since the last one, but really, we are focusing on the transport and installation scopes within the industry and within the whole ecosystem of building an offshore wind farm, but also the operations and maintenance part, because I think you can see on the bar chart on the left side here, that there's a lot of value in the operations and maintenance. And Cadeler will have a presence in the operations and maintenance space over time.

For us, it's a matter of how do we do this at best, and in the Cadeler way, where we ensure that it creates value immediately from entrance into this space, and that is an ongoing strategy, as well, we have with the board, and also where we are looking at the various opportunities, but again, you know, open to both vertical and horizontal expansion, organic and non-organic growth, but also regional expansion. I've already talked about that a little bit. We are now in the U.S. and in APAC, so really present in all three main markets, but also we are looking at, you know, the next frontier markets, and there are some markets out there that has lots of potential.

But in terms of maturity, they're not there yet, so not something that we're going to invest in tomorrow or in you know the coming quarters at all. Strategic partnerships remain one of the foundations of the company, and we continue to really build strong relationships with our clients. We are supporting them a lot, and we can also see that from national auction to national auction, our involvement with the client becomes greater and greater. And that really also demonstrate the importance we have for the clients that the developers in these bids. And I'm pleased to say that that's the development we wanted to see, and we are seeing it in real life as we are speaking.

And then really around monitoring, applying new technologies and ensuring that we are ready to help our clients in all different parts of offshore wind, both in terms of being more efficient on current types of projects, but also maintenance and operations of wind farms, and then, of course, floating wind, which is still somewhat out and has definitely been pushed out more than we expected just a few years ago. In terms of investment highlights on the company, largest and most capable, most versatile fleet in the industry. And I believe that, you know, a lot of complementarity that enables large organization efficiency and de-risking for the clients, and that is something that we definitely see that the clients are also very much in agreement with us about.

Very strong team, proven track record, critical know-how, and longstanding and deep commercial relationships and contracts with the industry's leading developers. And I think that that is really what one should look at, you know, because there will always be different opinions about this industry and how it should be done. But I think that the trust from the biggest clients is something that one has to earn. It's not something that is easily given. We have a global growth platform, and we are now present in all major offshore wind markets, which is important for us and something we will build on. And there is an anticipated need for our both turbine and foundation vessels, and we see that already today.

We continue to see that, especially in the years after 2027, where it becomes even more apparent. I would say that with the new turbine types, actually, today, there is this awkwardness in the industry that the OEMs, in many cases, only have one set of tools for their new turbines, and hence, any maintenance on the turbines are pending on that you have this tool set almost on your vessel for installation. This is, of course, something that the industry has to work its way out of, but that's almost like an inbuilt awkwardness at the moment for especially the newer turbines.

And then really a strong track record, thanks to all our investors that we would like to thank, send a big thank you to for the commitment and for the support, but really strong track record in the capital markets. We have delivered on the backlog, and we will continue to deliver on the backlog. We still believe there's a lot of fire and power in the backlog, which provides the earnings visibility that our investors expect, and rightly so. And then we continue with a key focus on being a good custodian of capital. And that really concludes our presentation, and Layla can now please open the Q&A.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. At this time, we invite those analysts wishing to ask a question to click on the Raise Hand button, which can be found on the black bar at the bottom of your screen. You may remove yourself from the queue at any time by lowering your hand. When it is your turn, you will hear your name called and receive a prompt to be promoted. Please accept, wait a moment, and once you have been promoted, you may unmute yourself and ask your question. We encourage you to turn your video on as well. As a reminder, we are allowing analysts one question and one related follow-up today. Written questions can also be submitted by any viewer using the Ask a Question tab at the top right of your screen. We will wait a moment to allow the queue to form.

Our first question will come from Daniel Haugland, who will be joining us as a panelist in a moment. All right, Daniel Haugland, your line is open. Feel free to unmute.

Yeah. Good day, good day, everyone. Hi, Mikkel. Hi, Peter. My first question is on the A-Class funding package. Maybe you could clarify that a syndicated debt funding package is still the go-to solution here, and maybe also say something about how this is developing. I see you expect to sign it by year-end. The reason I'm asking is that in the Q2 report, you now explicitly write that you're exploring numerous options for funding needs towards Q4 2025. So maybe you can clarify a bit on that. Thank you.

Peter Brogaard (CFO)

Yeah. I also tried to address a little bit in the presentation, but the rationale behind the A-Class financing and coupling it from the P-Classes, of course, price and in terms of condition, we find those very attractive. It is an ECA-backed loan with a signing fee, and a group of banks are with the 11 banks in the syndicate on the P-Class. So I think it's a very efficient way to get financing is to go with the same syndicate again, and with the ECA-backed loan, because again, the pricing and the terms and conditions, we can't get that anywhere from other sources.

Banks are really supportive, and they would like to participate and get loans, you know, and calls and discuss with them on an ongoing basis. They're really interested to be in again and have available funding for it. The status is that we sent out you know the term sheet, which is negotiating right now, and that is still negotiating on the basis of the B-Class. So it's really very efficient. Then it will be sent out to the bank group. It is 11 banks. There's no indication that any of the banks will not participate, so we are quite confident of getting this financing on the A-Class vessels.

It will be the two first A-Class vessels, and then the third in another facility, because that would be delivered in 2027, and then we would have to be in commitment at least for a long period of time, and we don't want to do that. So we start in phases, but we are very, very confident that we will be able to do this and that we have enough available liquidity and support from the banks to be able to go through this without having to issue any new capital. Yeah, so that is the answer.

Okay. Thank you. So maybe my follow-up will then just be to be clear. So your plan does not include any more equity funding based on the current fleet on order, is that correct?

Yeah. To be, be very, very clear, and thank you for also the advice, but we can be very, very clear. We do not expect any further term sheet increases to fund current plans.

Thank you very much. I'll get back in line.

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Ben Nolan from Stifel. Please go ahead.

Ben Nolan (Managing Director of Research)

Yeah, there we go. Hi, good morning, good afternoon. So I guess I... Well, I'll start with my first question. I was curious about the Zaratan, which I believe is operating in Asia. Any updated thoughts on—obviously, that asset's a little bit smaller, but any updated thoughts on employment post its current contract and how you see that fitting in with the rest of the fleet going forward?

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

I can say that, you know, we obviously update the market with new contracts as we sign them, so when we sign something with Zaratan, we will update the market, but I think that, as we have said before, we expect that Zaratan gradually will slip into a more operations and maintenance-related role in the industry, but also potentially a role around secondary steel on foundation projects, a scope that is in many times in our decision, so to speak, which kind of solution you use for that, and it sounds as a simple scope, but actually it forms a relatively big part of a project.

And on Hornsea Three, we can definitely see how big a part it is, just on a, let's say, a slightly less than 200 foundation project. So it is something that we are actively evaluating as well. We'll see over time, potentially need an upgrade on the legs and stuff like that, potentially, but that's not something that we see at the moment.

Ben Nolan (Managing Director of Research)

Okay, that's helpful. I appreciate it, thank you. And then as my follow-up question, just for modeling purposes, how should we think about taxes and the tax rate for the business going forward?

Peter Brogaard (CFO)

Yeah, on the short term, you should think that it is a zero tax expense. We have a small tax expense that is related to sales in Taiwan. That is basically the only tax we are paying. So you should think, you know, it will not be higher than what you see in your accounts now, so it is not depending on how much we earn, because we are tonnage tax in Denmark, and we are also applying for tax in the U.K. So that is how we think about it. If you look longer term, you know, there's coming these Pillar Two, and we don't know how that will detailed play out.

But that will not be relevant for Cadeler before 2028, and there are some exemptions for shipping that we can utilize. And there will be some years here to come to be wiser, I think, for everybody, and there will probably also be some changes now that we can learn from, but it will not be tax, you know, which is significant number or something like a proper income tax times public reports. But we need to see how the Pillar Two rules plays out, and we will of course come under the Pillar Two rules because of the revenue threshold. But what we are not, you know, we're only concerned that it will have a fair impact and...

But that is to be. We've seen how they don't, but nobody knows now.

Ben Nolan (Managing Director of Research)

Okay. All right, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Ola Eikanger from SEB. Please go ahead.

Ola Eikanger (Equity Research Analyst)

Hi, Mikkel. Hi, Peter. Good to see you guys.

Peter Brogaard (CFO)

Hello.

Ola Eikanger (Equity Research Analyst)

Could you please help us understand why we are not seeing any more new build orders coming through? The market is evidently tight, the rates are very attractive. So why are we not seeing any more new build orders? And has the new build order price moved in any direction over the past months? And what is the current lead time when ordering a new vessel? Thanks.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

I think in terms of why there are no other orders coming in, that's more a question for our competitors. Because I think we have ordered this year and followed our plan, so to speak. We believe that we are where we should be. But why others are not ordering, this is really, really difficult to speculate around. What I can say is that it's not easy to order a new vessel. Several of the yards out there that was available to build these kinds of vessels in 2021, they are today rejecting to build this kind of vessel. And I would expect that, for example, if you go to Hanwha today to order a similar vessel of what we are building in China, it would either be difficult or incredibly expensive.

So your pricing question is also pretty difficult to answer, because as we have seen prices coming up, and we have benefited from a, let's say, capacity agreements we have made with the yard in China, we do expect that still it's more expensive compared to what we are ordering at the moment. But if you want to convert one of these yards that currently are saying no to saying yes, I think it will require a lot of capital. So the reason is probably that it's very expensive, it's very hard to get a slot, and delivery times are pretty long. And I would expect if you order today, you are probably looking at late 2028, if not early 2029 delivery.

But that's a little bit of a guess because I don't have the full view on the market, but it is a very, very difficult market at the moment with the yards. And I would go as far as to say that one of the game changers for Cadeler has been our relationship with COSCO in Qidong.

Ola Eikanger (Equity Research Analyst)

Appreciate the color.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Thank you, Ola. Always.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Roar Harvesen from Clarksons. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Mikkel and Peter. Congratulations on another solid quarter. Just building upon Ola's questions on growth opportunities, I know cable installation vessels have previously been highlighted as a, let's call it potential next step in terms of growth and vertical integration. Do you still see a potential path for acquiring or building such vessels? And if so, what will need to be in place for a move in that direction to be on the table and be realized? Thank you.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Thank you very much, Roar. Good to see you again. I think, yes, very much so. It continues to be an area of interest for Cadeler. So yes, we could do that. What it requires is utilization guarantee from the clients. We are not going to build a cable business based on one project. We've been very clear with the clients on this, if they want Cadeler to be playing a role in cables, they need to give us more utilization than just one project. So it has to be significant, what we do with the first vessel, so we can build up in a measured way. Because one of the last sentences I said in the presentation is, we want to be good custodians of capital.

Just because one has the opportunity to do something, one should not always do that. And for cable laying, so far, that has been our conclusion. But we are still open to doing it, and we think the clients are still interested in working with us, but it has to come with a lot of commitment.

Thank you. That's it from my side today.

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Due to time constraints, that's all we have for today. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.