Cadeler - Earnings Call - H2 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, and welcome to Cadeler's 2024 Annual Result Report presentation. Presenting today are Mikkel Gleerup, Chief Executive Officer, and Peter Brogaard, Chief Financial Officer. Please be reminded that the presenters' remarks today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated. 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 Annual Report.

The Annual Report and today's earning 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)

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. Thanks for listening in to our presentation, the Annual Report 2024. We're very pleased to be joined by all of you and looking forward to going through our Annual Results from 2024. There is a disclaimer. I would recommend everybody to read the disclaimer at a convenient time. We will dive directly into the 2024 highlights for Cadeler. In 2024, we had very strong financial performance, and we believe that it was consistently strong through the year, and that we were able to narrow the guidance that we had for 2024 in our Q3 presentation. Also, as we have now shown in our final results, we are at the upper end and actually above the upper end on the EBITDA.

We also give a guidance for 2025 that shows that we are on our trajectory for the growth in 2025, and as such, are very pleased with that. In terms of our new builds, we have delivered Wind Peak in 2024 on time and on budget. We have also, in this year, in January 2025, delivered the first M-class vessel from Hanwha on time and on budget, and are also at a point where we can say that we are on track to deliver the remaining vessels on or ahead of time target on budget. We are, I would say, within hours from delivering the next vessel, which will really put us to 50% of the 2025 deliveries completed.

In terms of our backlog, we continue to build the backlog, and we will come more into that in the presentation itself, but we are now standing at a backlog of EUR 2.5 billion as of today. We have also, in 2024, been executing our projects incredibly well, and we are highlighting just one project here where we are saying that we also included we installed successfully the 60x14.7 MG Siemens turbines on the Moray West project. The reason we highlight this is that this is the first project installation in the world for this platform from Siemens, a next-generation turbine, and we did that with one of our O-class vessels with its new crane. Very proud of that performance and the team behind that project, as we are with all the projects that have been executed during 2024. Very strong balance sheet remains.

We have refinanced the M-class facility on what we say is materially improved terms, and we have increased our capacity under our unsecured hold co facility. We have also extended our revolving credit capacity and raised equity to fund our third A-class order. We are very, very pleased overall with the year, and we will go more into the detail now. On commercial highlights, I think that most of the people that are following the call know what we have been doing during the year, but we have been installing on Orca, on the Moray West, as I said before, the first installation of the 14.7 MW platform, then followed up after the completion of that with O&M.

We have also, on Osprey, we have completed the Gode Win and Borkum project for Ørsted, including a release of the vessel from the project to go and do O&M for one of our clients on a different project, which is really something that is also important for the overall way we operate with our clients in the industry and show flexibility in the fleet. After that completion of the project, we also started to do O&M with the vessel together with one of our clients.

Marcela, we started the year with a big overhaul project of the vessel because we knew that she was going to the U.S., and hence we wanted to ensure that the vessel was up to a very, very high standard before arriving in the U.S. due to the complexity and doing any maintenance when we are over there, and really preparing the vessel for very strong performance on Ørsted's Revolution Wind project. On Zaratan, we completed the Yunlin project and also then started to do an O&M phase with the vessel, and also pleased to say that we have also secured a significant portion of the year on Zaratan for 2025 on continued O&M services. On Wind Peak, delivered on time and on budget, transited back to Europe, and immediately after coming back to Europe, started an O&M campaign for an undisclosed customer.

The Wind Maker, the first M-class vessel from Korea, delivered in January 2025 on budget, and then transiting to Singapore for mobilization of the project equipment, and now in Taiwan, ready to start her first project on time. I think in summary, really on-time delivery of assets, on-time delivery for projects, but also a lot of O&M work out there. If we look at this slide, it is one we have shown before in connection with these presentations, and we will just see that these numbers are growing. We have installed more. We have installed more foundations, more turbines. We have more vessels operational.

We have fewer on order because we are starting to deliver, and we are growing the team, not only the team in the office, but also the team of offshore crew that are taking delivery of these assets and ensuring smooth operation after having either been trained internally with Cadeler or have been shipped from a Cadeler vessel to one of the new builds. In general, very, very pleased with how we have also been able to build the team and continue to deliver for our clients. Cadeler today is positioned in the worldwide map for offshore wind installation as the leading pure-play T&I company.

We continue to work very closely with our clients and partners, and we believe that with the orders we made back in 2021, the merger, we have completed the following orders, we are incredibly well positioned and are very, very pleased with the platform we have built. Together with our clients, we will continue to secure strong utilization on this platform and making sure that we can build as much renewable energy as possible. We are very much focusing on the European market. We will show a little bit later in the presentation how strong the European market remains, and we are seeing that the European market is continuing to be really the driver of offshore wind in the world. This is also where Cadeler has been focusing most of its efforts.

The Asia-Pacific market is also very busy, and we do see that for us, the market really consists of Taiwan, Japan, and Korea as the key markets with development in Australia as well, and other countries that are also building what could at some point in time become a pipeline. Asia, for us, is a market that is today strong enough to have an asset in the market and to ensure a pipeline of projects. That is really what we have said all along, that when there's a market that is strong enough to build up a pipeline, then Cadeler will be there with a capable vessel to support our clients. The North American market has, of course, received a lot of attention since the American election in November 2024, and I would say that we remain of the same view as we have had all along.

This is a decision that was made pre-COVID, where we said that we are taking a cautious approach to the U.S. market. We take a project-by-project approach where we need to see that the project in its own right can basically support itself both in terms and conditions, financials, and also overall engagement with our clients. There are political headwinds in the market, but I think in the short term, the market remains attractive for Cadeler, and we have documented that by also having the next new build that is delivering, heading straight into the U.S. market to work. That marks our third contract in the U.S. market, and really the third project we will work on in the U.S. market, and where we believe that we have a very strong cover on terms and conditions and also very, very sound financials on the projects.

We remain having a relationship with Dominion Energy that we support, and of course, we'll continue to do that for their benefit as well. In the South American market, we are building relationships because we do believe that the South American market has some fundamentals that are interesting. We are not jumping the gun or anything like that. We are remaining, let's say, as an outside-in viewer on the market, but building the necessary relationships to react should the market suddenly have a pipeline of projects that need services like the ones that Cadeler are offering to the market. In terms of how we see the market at the moment and how the pipeline is growing, we do see, as I said before, that the European market is really the growth.

We see an enormous amount of projects that are currently under discussion with our clients, everything from final stage tenders to final stage negotiations, open tenders, and commercial discussions with clients, but really a lot of activity. I will go as far as to say that we have probably never been as busy as we are in the European market. Asia is steady state, and we remain of the same view as we had when we presented this a year ago, that Asia will be able to form a pipeline of projects for at least one of the assets out there.

In the U.S. market, we are probably more active than most would probably think, but there is, of course, an urgency at the moment in the U.S. market to complete projects, and we are doing our utmost to support our clients and partners in that market to ensure that projects are completed as close to on time and on budget as possible for them. We do see increasing demand in Asia, as we expected that the region would ramp up in these years. Europe remains really as the driver of the offshore wind market globally, and also an increasing, or let's say, continuing development in terms of longer-term agreements with our clients, where we see, especially amongst the biggest of our clients, that they are to a greater extent requesting longer-term agreements.

The backlog today stands at more than EUR 2.5 billion, and that is a growth of 47% since we did the annual report on 2023. I think what is worthwhile noting on the backlog today is that 94% of our backlog has final investment decision, and that is, of course, really what matters. We have talked about it before, that there is this period of time from selecting a project that we are working on to having a vessel reservation agreement, getting contract on that vessel reservation agreement, and then a final investment decision by the client. That is really the process that is important to follow and really to bet on the projects that are having the highest likelihood to reach that final investment decision from its original development stage.

I think that our percentage of projects in the backlog with final investment decision is a testament to that strategy at least, and really being selective on which projects we are working on. As we have said before, we are not including vessel reservation agreements in the contract backlog, and they will be added when they have reached the maturity stage, as we have discussed in the past. In addition, talking about what it is that we are adding to the backlog, we have added an O&M project to Zaratan, where we are starting. I actually think there's a mistake here. It says Q4 2025. That is not correct because we will be installing for the last part of 2025 on Zaratan in the market, and very happy to see that we continue to build strong O&M projects on Zaratan.

In terms of the O-class and the P-class, multiple wind farms, again, five O&M projects, and really looking into more and more O&M projects, filling out the white spaces between the installation projects. On the Wind Pace, also an O&M project where we are seeing the P-class needed for a project in the U.S., and also securing utilization from its arrival back in European waters and until delivery to the first installation project.

We also continue to have strong development on vessel reservation agreements, and we continue to see a very strong demand for our services amongst our clients, and also, especially as we have discussed before with our investors, that the redundancy that we can offer to the clients, that is something that the clients continue to see as a benefit and something that they really want to explore more with us and different ways of offering the assets to maybe not only one project, to a range of projects rather. As I said, O&M, we do see the O&M space as a continued strengthening factor in the market with a bigger installed fleet of turbines out there.

We see also that both the developers and the turbine OEMs, they are requesting our services to make sure that the turbines are continuing to spin out there and generate renewable energy to the people. For us, we have tried to be as flexible as possible and to really ensure that the vessels, they are available to our clients for these services as much as possible.

We have just tried to show you here a snapshot of how we do it, where we are adding O&M campaigns in between the installation projects, which all in all ensures a very high utilization level on the vessels, and we will continue to see that going forward, but also an overall improved financial performance in the company along the lines of what we have discussed in the past, where we are saying that we are aiming for very high utilization on our assets. We also celebrated the Wind Pace naming ceremony. This is the second vessel from COSCO Qidong Shipyard, and we were out there on the 12th of March where we named the vessel.

A vessel that I would say some of the lessons learned we had from Wind Peak has been incorporated on Wind Pace, and we see that the yard continues with a very, very strong performance. We are ahead of schedule with the delivery of Wind Pace, and as I said in the beginning, we are more hours away from delivering than we are days from delivering, and that is, of course, very, very positive. Strong performance from the yard that deliver ahead of schedule, and we do see that also for the follow-on deliveries from the Chinese shipyard. In terms of the next vessels that are coming from COSCO Qidong, the Wind Ally has already been launched, has already been sailed out of the dry dock and are being now outfitted alongside.

We had the benefit when we were out for the Pace naming ceremony, we could see Ally as well, just a few hundred meters down the same yard, and that is really important for us because the Wind Ally is the project, the vessel that we go on the Hornsea 3 project and the long-term agreement we have in our pipeline with Ørsted. Really important that we are following the building schedule there, and on Wind Ally, we are significantly ahead of schedule already in terms of delivery. On Wind Mover, the second A-class, we have also had the steel cutting ceremony, and we have some pictures from that, and the same for Wind Mover as well.

If we look at the overall track, we are seeing that on Wind Ally, we are at a very, very high completion rate at the moment, and we are looking to take the vessel on sea trials around the summer this year. On Wind Mover, also strong performance, we are set for delivering Q4 2025, and on Wind Pace, we are looking still at Q3 2026 and Q2 2027 on Wind Peak. Very strong performance on the new build program, and as I said, in a very, very short time, we have delivered 50% of the new builds in 2025, which I believe is a very strong performance. As we have shown you before, the fully delivered Cadeler fleet, 11 vessels consisting of a smaller unit that will focus mainly on the O&M segment, vessels that are focusing on turbine installation and vessels that are focusing on foundation installation.

In terms of synergies, we are continuing to deliver on our synergies from the merger, and we are saying that we are approximately at 30% of the 2026 targets, but the follow-on synergies are really starting to materialize now with the new vessels being delivered. We continue to be optimistic and positive around delivering the synergies that we discussed already at the disclosure of the business combination agreement in June 2023, and believe that the two entities now working as one will deliver these synergies. At this point in time, I will hand over to Peter for a deep dive on the financial results. Please go ahead, Peter.

Peter Brogaard (CFO)

Thank you very much, Mikkel. This is key financial highlights for 2024. You can see revenue doubled from 2023 to 2024. Equity ratio went a little bit down, but still very solid balance sheet.

The reason for it is, of course, that we are drawing down on our loans when we're getting the vessels delivered. Utilization was 83% adjusted, and now we show, I think it's for the first time we saw both an adjusted and unadjusted utilization. The utilization, which is adjusted, that is where we adjust for planned dry docking or fire and for transit from the yards in China and to Europe. That gives you a better number of what kind of utilization do we have on the vessels that we have operating. The reason why we see also a drop is that Zaratan, due to the Taiwan waters, they operate at a slightly lower utilization rate, but I think still a very good result with the O-class crane operates in Q1 2024. Market cap is EUR 1.7 billion.

EBITDA, EUR 126 million, tripling the level from 2023, very satisfying, but also shows the scalability in our business that we are able to triple EBITDA while revenue is doubled. Cash flow from operating activity is solid at EUR 93 million, and as I immediately said, backlog is EUR 2.5 billion. Three months daily average turnover is EUR 6.8 million. I think what you cannot see from this slide with these financial numbers is that there's also quite an achievement on the SOx compliance side where we, after one year of SOx compliance, we are delivering an annual report without any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control framework over the financial reporting. I think that is quite remarkable. For Q4, we saw revenue going significantly up. Please remember that we have in Q4 2023, the O-class vessels were out for crane upgrades.

Hence, there was a lower revenue in 2023 on the fleet. Of course, this year we have also full quarter, we have Zaratan and Scylla into the numbers. We had a number of vessels. We had five as compared to four, but in 2023, we only had nine days of legacy inertia in the finances. EBITDA significantly up, EUR 55.7 million in a quarter, which is a solid number. We see SG&A costs also higher, not significantly as compared to 2023 because we also had some non-recurring costs due to the merger with the Eneti, but we see costs going up as we ramp up the organization. Full year again, EUR 249 million as compared to EUR 109 million. Full blown consolidation with the legacy inertia. Utilization rate 66% again, Q1 without the O-class vessels.

I think it's solid and also with the wind service and vessel, which carries a lower utilization rate than the other. 83% adjusted is quite good. Cost of sales are, of course, increasing with the number of vessels. You can see that the vessel OpEx is more or less the same as last year. The vessels OpEx that we show here is without the project costs included. We have communicated several times that it is around EUR 40,000 if we take also the project cost into the OpEx per day. To compare without that, it's more or less the same as last year. Income tax expense, it's a small number, EUR 2.4 million for the full year. It is under U.K. tonnage tax in the U.K. and Danish tonnage tax regime in Denmark.

The fleet is covered by tonnage tax to a very large extent, but we are paying some taxes on the Taiwanese projects, and we have some deferred taxes being expensed on the Zaratan, which is Japanese-owned and under Japanese corporate income tax. EBITDA is a solid improvement from EUR 42 million to EUR 126 million. If we look at the outlook, we had out in the market from Q3. Revenue is in the middle of the range that we communicated, EUR 243 million-EUR 253 million, and EBITDA in the upper end of the range, a little bit north of the upper end of the EBITDA we had there, of course, driven by the increased revenue. SG&A and other expenses, EUR 55 million. We are continuously ramping up.

A number of employees are going up in order to be able to have the support to drive, especially the foundation projects, both for the tendering for the foundation projects, but also on the execution of it. We see costs coming in now, whereas revenue coming in in 2026 and onwards. That is an investment. Balance sheet continues to be very strong. Balance sheet that we have, it's not mentioned here, but goodwill is still EUR 17 million from the PPA when we did the merger with Eneti, and that means that we have not, that is closed now once for 12 months where you can adjust the takeover balances, and we didn't see any surprises in the balances that we took over from Eneti. That is really also good news to be able to maintain that. We still have the EUR 17 million of goodwill.

Non-current assets, of course, going up with the additions of vessels and investment in the new builds. Equity goes up with the equity raise we did a year ago and with the result for the year. The payments program, now you can see that we closed the A-class finance, and we did that last Friday, and that was with a EUR 450 million facility plus EUR 70 million in missing equipment. That is, we possibly try to be ambitious and improve the loans that we have with our lenders, and we agreed with the strong support we have from lenders that we could put in also financing of missing equipment for the first project that the A-class vessels are going into, and also free delivery financing on the wind days. At the similar pricing, but better terms and conditions.

Now we have only outstanding the third A-class vessel with the Wind Apex. We expect to be able to sign commitment for that for EUR 240 million, and the vessel is delivered in 2027. It is really not meaningful for us to bundle that with the A-class vessels and then secure that financing yet because we are then going to pay commitment fees for a rather long time, and we are not concerned about getting financing for that. We have showed this slide many times, but I think it is obvious that we have the funding in place, and it is committed. Most of it, we have the funding committed in place for the payments program that we are looking into, and even with significant surplus. We have hedged 50% of the US dollar exposure.

A large part of the remaining installments to the yards are in dollars, and we have hedged 50% of that, I think, which has been beneficial for us. With the recent weakening of the dollar, the payments program is actually lower now than it was at the 31st of December when the dollar was stronger. That is, of course, something that can be that goes up and down as the time passes. Yeah, use is the A-class financing. We have utilized the M-class tranche when the Wind Maker was delivered in February, and we have requested the tranche for the Wind Pace, which is going to be delivered here in March. Very soon. This is the financing model. You chose a committed EUR 1.9 billion.

We have utilized 586, but since we were in this status is from, we have now utilized the Wind Peak part of the P-class facility and half of the M-class facility as well when the Wind Maker was delivered. The last slide is the full year outlook for 2025, and you can see the actual here, but the outlook is for revenue EUR 485 million-EUR 525 million, and the EBITDA of EUR 278 million-EUR 318 million. I think what is worth to notice is, of course, it will be impacted by timely vessel deliveries. We have already seen the delivery of two vessels mitigating some of that risk. It is sequence sounds and being deployed, and we have signed a contract for that.

There is, of course, some timing in a business like ours when we move from being a TCE business that it's easy to plot into an extension to become more project-based, more foundations. We would like to put your attention towards a couple of non-recurring items. I think even though we had a very, very strong result for 2024 with a result of EUR 126 million, actually, there were some project costs to the tune of EUR 2 million being pushed into 2025. We have six extra crew on the legacy Cadeler vessels in order to train the crew for the new buildings, and that amounts to EUR 4 million. Sorry. I didn't touch anything. Sorry about that, technical issues here on our end. That amounts to EUR 4 million. That is also a non-recurring item.

There you have EUR 6 million, you could say, which is impacting 2025, but it's non-recurrent or an investment in the future, and they're not really impacting the business case. Also, the last bullet point here is a value of cost from foundation process started to be recognized ramp up. By that, we mean that some of the T&I scope on the Hornsea 3 is already starting in 2025, but as we have talked to many times, then the T&I, some of the T&I scope that is not the vessel and crew itself carries a lower margin. That starts in 2025, and then it comes in with a lower margin in 2025, but has nothing to do with the total profit of the project over the project period, but something you should be aware of.

As I said, we have ramped up the organization and continue to do that because we want to be able to develop this foundation business. Where we before have said we are around EUR 60 million in SG&A, we will be around EUR 70 million-EUR 72 million in SG&A going forward. That means EBITDA in this range, which I think is pretty good when you look at such a transformative year with four vessels being delivered and starting executing on the foundation projects. Back to you, Mikkel.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Thank you, Peter. I think that we can definitely say that from our experience now that the annual report that is being delivered here is really a company performance with all the SOx controls and all of that. Also really good to see that we are now starting to execute on our first foundation T&I project.

Obviously, as Peter said, the bulk of the benefits comes when the vessel starts to install. This is where we see that these projects really start to be meaningful for Cadeler. Good to see that we are starting the projects and that we are on time on these projects and ready to really, really impact on that project as well and the follow-on projects. In terms of sustainability, also to bring your attention to that, of course, that is a very, very important point for Cadeler. Obviously, working in renewable energy, being a pure-play company in our industry, this remains really central to us. We have, in the period since we last reported, promoted our sustainability manager to Chief Sustainability and Performance Officer in the company and lifted her up to the senior leadership team.

We are expanding the team because we do believe that there are a lot of benefits for us as a company in really being at the forefront of this curve and also working with our clients to continue to develop strategies of how to minimize our own footprint. We have also surpassed the targets for female representation on our board, but also in our leadership positions, which is something that we are proud of. I would also like to say that that for us is not a tick-mark exercise. It's really because we believe it gives us a better and a stronger company with better results at the bottom line to the benefit of our investors. We have also done a human rights impact assessment in 2024 and really providing a human rights roadmap to strengthen our human rights management.

Also something that we see more and more of our clients focusing on and hence better to be where we need to be in that. We make sure that we deliver what our clients expect as well and also what is right for the world. We are also implementing an electronic screening tool to strengthen our supplier due diligence, which is, of course, important also when we go into these T&I contracts and foundations where we are having much more selection of suppliers that are supporting us on these projects. We have also the first-year CSRD compliant, and we have submitted the sustainability report eligible for EU taxonomy and first-year alignment. We have also carried out the double materiality assessment, which are all really, really big jobs.

I have to say that as with the SOx controls and the CSRD report, really, really important that we have made this, but also a huge, huge effort by everybody in the team. I really thank you to everybody in the team for having worked so hard on all of this. It has also been in 2024 and Q1 2025, a lot of interesting things going on. We have done testing of biofuels on board one of our vessels together with our clients. We are working on the expectation of really being able to increase the green offering to our clients in terms of in 2024, in terms of 2025, in terms of these learnings we have from some of this. We have also signed an LOI for a methanol, e-methanol offtake from 2028.

We do take this very, very serious, and we do believe that the clients that are taking this serious will be set for success in our industry because at the end of the day, if we do not take this serious in renewable energy, who should? We are really trying to be doing the utmost for what is right and also to continue to explore new solutions. That is also what we are looking at in the second bullet here. Really, we have launched these dashboards on our vessels where we really can analyze real-time how the vessels are performing and what is the right solution together with the clients. We do not just take the standard solution, which is return to port as fast as possible, really try to see what is the best solution for the current schedule we have.

Also around training with the crew, we believe a lot of the saving will come from behavioral initiatives. That is something that we continue to work on also with all the new crews that we are getting into the company. Also, shore power upgrades on the O-class vessels so we can utilize shore power to the extent that it is available to us. We also set scope 3 targets for reduction for 2035 and also calculate and report on the lifecycle assessment in the scope 3 environment. In terms of our path to net zero, we are, of course, starting with an increase because we are adding a lot of vessels to the fleet, and that means that our overall emissions are increasing. We are setting ourselves up to decrease this.

By all the things that we are doing, we are really attempting to be having a very ambitious strategy of how we bring our footprint down and ensure that we can deliver what we do believe that the clients will expect from us in not a very distant future. The three key decarbonization levels are optimizing energy consumption, adopting green fuels, and really enabling electrification. In terms of continuing the growth journey, as I said in the beginning, if we look at the markets, the European market continues to be the very, very strong market. The Asian market is also very interesting, and the U.S. market is still, as we have said in one of the previous presentations, the peel on the orange.

We are interested in the U.S. market, but we will continue with our approach to that market that it has to be the right decision for that one project. That is how we will continue in the U.S. market as well for now. When we look at the future turbine installations by capacity, we do believe that, and see also from the tenders we are involved in and from the projects we are winning, that there is a trend towards bigger turbines. That is something that is good for Cadeler. We have a fleet of the most capable assets in the industry, and hence we are able to supply our clients on bigger turbines with the installation services that they need.

In terms of other things we have talked about before, and we continue to see these trends, is that the distance from shore on the vessels continue to increase. It is pretty spread out, but the trend line is clear. It continues to go up. That is good when you have the vessels in the industry that can carry the most payload. At the same time, in terms of water depth, we also see that the water depths continue to increase, and it's also spread out, but the trend is very clear. That is very important because this really discusses also these two metrics, how many of the legacy assets will be able to compete in the future. We do not disqualify any. That is up to our clients to do that.

We believe that the overall supply in the industry is probably lower than most analysts currently have in their models. In terms of the continued growth, I think that our focus is really around the transport and installation scope and the O&M scope, where we continue to grow the company with the vessels we have in the fleet. We believe that we have a very, very strong platform and a very strong foundation. With these assets, we are able to continue to work closer and closer with our clients and by doing so, generating more work on these vessels, but also on the contracts we have already secured.

We do see clients that are approaching us for discussions around additional scope, whether it is managing sub-suppliers from their side or whether it is additional testing pre-project that is beneficial both to us because we kind of get to tie out the equipment before we get to the real project execution, but the same does the client, or really supporting the clients in the overall management of a project. That is something that we are seeing and really where we believe that the business model has room to expand and to take more scope for the client based on the very, very strong platform and foundation we have built. We see that that is an enabler for us as a company to continue to work closer with our clients. We have said it before. We focus on partnerships.

We want to have the long lens in focus with our clients. We are talking to our clients more and more about ranges of projects, projects that are further out. We are discussing installation projects now also out in the 2030s. We are talking with a very wide range of different equipment, different geographical locations, and also different ways of doing projects with our clients. We really believe that that is the partnership that we want to form with our clients. As we have said before, we are not concerned about utilization at all. We believe that the narrative is stronger than the reality in the industry at the moment. What we see internally and what we have shown you on these slides here is that we are incredibly busy, busier than ever, and working closer with our clients.

We believe that we will continue to focus on what we are good at, and that is really deliveries, not only deliveries of assets, new builds and all of that, but also really delivering the clients' projects because at the end of the day, that is what will form the successful journey for the company going forward, continue to deliver for our clients, and offer the clients to do additional scope if they need us and a partner to do that. In terms of the O&M market, we have discussed this at length before, but we do see an increasing demand for major component replacements on the turbines. There is a growing fleet of turbines out there, and we are installing more turbines every day.

This opportunity is something where we would love to support our clients because, of course, if you install a lot of turbines, it is important to keep them spinning. That is something where everybody in the industry is in the same boat, both the developers, the OEMs, and us as contractors. We need to make sure that we have solutions ready and in place for the turbines when they do need major component replacements. For us, we can see from the previous slides that we are able to fill white spaces. Most of our assets had O&M work during 2024 and in 2025. That is an area that we as a company want to focus on because at the end of the day, it ensures very high utilization and hence overall improved economy for us as a company.

It is also important that we work close with our clients. We have had meetings recently with our clients where we are being asked to support them in the O&M journey of the industry and also for them as companies. In terms of what it is really, as we say, growing as the number and age of operational turbines increase and the defects materialize, we do see increased tendering activity also on longer-term contracts with our clients. It varies a lot, but we do believe that it is a space where we are adding a lot of value to clients, both the developers, but also the turbine OEMs. That is something that we are focusing on. We are a company that is here to work on relationships and partnerships, and we believe that O&M is one of the very strong levers to really make sure we do that.

It needs focus. That is what we can say. I think that we see more and more that the O&M campaigns, they are dealt with by individual teams on the client side. For us, it's important that we are able to respond to their demands when incidents occur where they need our support. We need, of course, to work on the cost side of the mobilization because that can be a driver for whether O&M will be done or not done. That is why we are at the moment looking at innovative models for vessel mobilization to make sure that we are as nimble as possible supporting our clients in this space. In terms of investment highlights in the overall Cadeler case, as we say, we have the largest, most capable, and most versatile fleet in the industry.

We believe that the complementarity in the fleet really enables a lot of cross-fleet utilizations, which will drive very, very high utilization and efficiency for our clients, but also project de-risking for our clients. Our team continues to grow and continue to build experience both on people that have been with us for a long time and people that have not been with us for that long. We continue to see that we can recruit and retain the critical know-how and skill that we need to continue to grow our company. The relationship that we are building with our clients and partners is something we still hold incredibly dear in the company. We believe that we have a global platform now where we can continue to really benefit from the enabling capacity and factor that our industry leading fleet has.

We still see an undersupply of capable assets, as we have discussed before. That is really around some of the metrics that we discussed in this presentation where we do see that the distance to shore, the carrying capacity of the vessels, but also water depth and sheer size of equipment that we are installing will mean that some of the legacy assets will be struggling to efficiently compete in the industry going forward. We believe that we have a very strong track record now, but also a record high backlog that has gone up significantly since we reported last time, today standing at EUR 2.5 billion. We do believe that that provides a lot of earnings visibility with a 94% final investment decision on our backlog. I think that that is very, very important for our overall case.

Of course, as we have said for a long time, we really want to be a good custodian of capital and hence have focused as we have strong utilization, strong backlog building, and very strong execution. With that said, we are moving into 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.

We will wait one moment to allow the queue to form. Our first question will come from Martin Huseby from DNB. Please go ahead and ask your question.

Martin Huseby (Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you. First, a question on the O&M market. Such demand has clearly been important to fill gaps and keep vessel utilization high for 2025, but could you also talk how we have seen any changes from your clients related to secure access for such vessels into 2026 and also beyond? Also, what type of contract economics are you seeing on O&M work?

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Yes. I think we have discussed it before with investors that we do see an increase in contract economics profile on the O&M projects. It, of course, can vary a lot because you can have very short-term opportunities and you can have longer-term opportunities as well.

We do see that it is very strong and it is very similar to the installation market at the moment because the O&M business at the moment is, I would say, arguably struggling with the same supply demand equation that we have seen in the installation market. We are seeing that many of the clients are discussing longer-term commitments, frame agreements, but also, let's say, overall support structures from companies like ourselves to key O&M, but also to more feedback O&M on their platform. We believe it is an area that needs more focus. Good.

Martin Huseby (Equity Research Analyst)

Second question on new builds. The industry had quite a high number of new builds ordered back in 2020 and 2021 and even into 2022, while there has not been too many new builds ordered in recent years.

Can you talk a little bit to what prospects you see for the industry to add more new builds and also how do you see new building prices and delivery times developing?

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Yeah, I think that deliveries are challenging at the moment because I think that the amount of yards that can complete a new build like this is certainly very limited. Some of the yards that can do it, they are focusing elsewhere and hence not willing to bid on projects like these. That means, together with many other factors, that the prices have gone up significantly. We speculate at the moment that the prices are somewhere between 30%-45% higher than when we ordered in 2021, the P-class vessels, which, of course, makes it, let's say, a different environment to order vessels in.

At the same time, my view is that it's probably as hard as it has ever been to go into the boardroom and ask for capital to order new vessels because if one does not have an active name in the industry, it is probably hard now with the challenges that the industry has been through with lack of deliveries on projects, but also current narrative and very, very high prices and arguably longer lead times than we saw back in the days. I think it is a challenging environment to add new builds in for most companies.

Martin Huseby (Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you. I'll turn it back. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Jamie Franklin with Jefferies. Please go ahead and ask your question.

Jamie Franklin (Analyst)

Hey, guys.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Hi, Jamie.

Jamie Franklin (Analyst)

Hi there. Thank you for taking my questions. Firstly, I just wanted to ask on 2025 guidance.

How should we think about the moving parts in reaching the top end of that range? Is it primarily a function of timing for the remaining two new builds due this year? Just to kind of follow on question from that. Your first new build for 2025, Wind Maker, was delivered in January. That was obviously on the early side of the targeted 1Q 2025 delivery. Now you've said that your second new build this year, Wind Pace, is scheduled for delivery imminently versus a previous target for 2Q 2025 delivery. Just trying to get a sense of what your base case is for delivering the next two vessels. Should we assume it is the midpoint of each quarter that you have outlined? Thank you.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

I think we will just keep the delivery to the quarter for now.

Of course, we indicate that we believe that the LI is somewhat ahead of schedule in COSCO and that we believe that that mover will deliver as we have discussed in the past. I think that there are, of course, still some moving parts in the overall year, but a lot of, let's say, the utilization capacity has been locked down already. On Zaratan, as we discussed, we have locked down a very significant portion on O&M, but there is room for more if that is available out there in the market. We do believe that there is opportunity out in the market for that. As I also discussed during the presentation, we are at the moment also in a situation where we are discussing certain options with clients in terms of delivering additional scope on projects, and that can also impact the year.

We believe that we are at a good point with the guidance. We are at a place in time and where we're on, as I say, at a junction in the journey where we want to be and also where we expect it to be. As Peter explained in his presentation, with these foundation T&I contracts, a lot of the services that are being delivered, we can say that the difference between the income and the cost curve is lesser. When we start installing the foundations, it opens up those two curves because at the end of the day, that is really where we are starting to see the meaningful impact of the foundation T&I project when we start to put the foundations in the water.

It is a function of, let's say, time and also solid execution and then continuing to keep a very strong focus on the front end of the business, making sure that our clients know that we are here, we are able to support them if they need us with anything. I think the team overall, the whole team has done incredibly well in ensuring very strong utilization, strong execution, strong reporting, strong everything. Very, very, very pleased with how the team has gone through 2024 and how we have already entered into 2025 as well.

Jamie Franklin (Analyst)

That's great. That's very helpful. Second question, just on the European market, obviously you've talked about the strength and that being the primary driver of growth for Cadeler. Can you talk maybe about the specific countries within Europe that are the greatest near-term opportunity?

I know you announced a contract in Poland back in January that was a particularly attractive contract. You have built backlog quite considerably there over the last few years. Maybe if you can touch on that as well. Thank you.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Yeah, I think that we see basically that it is, of course, the North Sea region and the Baltic Sea region that is growing very fast. The U.K. remains the leading country in wider Europe, I should say, without offending anybody. I hope that that is the leading. We do see around the Baltic Sea a lot of activity, but also Germany and Denmark. We had a missed auction in Denmark, I will say, for most industry people. It was not the biggest surprise in the world.

I'm sure that we will be seeing something pretty different in the upcoming Danish auction where we have seen the Danish government moving more to like a CfD style auction type. I think that this is just reinforcing the picture that Europe remains very focused on delivering this and very strong growth demand continuously.

Jamie Franklin (Analyst)

Okay, that's great. Thanks, guys. I'll hand it over.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Benjamin Nolan with Stifel. If you'd like to ask your question.

Benjamin Nolan (Managing Director of Research)

Great. Hopefully, you guys can hear me. I wanted to ask, Peter, you'd mentioned you guys were taking people and adding them to some of your existing vessels in preparation for the delivery of the new builds. I'm curious, you're taking delivery and the industry is delivering quite a bit of equipment very quickly. Can you maybe talk to the availability of skilled labor?

Is that at all a challenge in being able to execute for the industry or for you guys specifically?

Peter Brogaard (CFO)

It has not been a problem for us up to now. We still have unsolicited applicants coming in from the industry and oil offshore. Generally speaking, it has not been a problem and we do not see an issue. Maybe you can make it.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Yeah, I'm happy to do that.

I think that we are benefiting from many different factors at the moment where we see, let's say, skilled people coming in, but maybe skilled people from different areas of offshore where we believe that the right thing to do is also to give them the best possible preparation by having them on some of our existing vessels before we send them potentially to a new build before they take over an existing vessel and we send some of the experienced people from that vessel to a new build. It is really one of the bigger questions we get from investors many times: what keeps you awake at night. We often talk about safety, right? In order to operate these very sophisticated assets, training is important. That's why we're doing it.

We are doing it because we want to ensure that we are working with one safety standard, with one culture on board, and overall best possible preparation for what we are executing for our clients. That is why we are doing it. You can basically say that the reason behind it is really just a reason of caution and being prepared.

Benjamin Nolan (Managing Director of Research)

Okay, thank you. My next question, I wanted to mention, I appreciate the adjusted utilization measure that you'd put in there. As you're thinking about the guidance for 2025, can you maybe talk through what sort of is being considered or modeled in that adjusted utilization into your numbers?

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Yeah, we are not giving guidance on the utilization for 2025, but we can say that the reason that we are doing it is because we have, of course, discussed in the past that where we want to see the fleet in terms of utilization. When you have two vessels, for example, out for crane upgrades, you can't operate them. Hence, it's not relevant to talk about that time. That's why we decided that this time it's relevant to have an adjusted number where we can also show you guys kind of like this is just time that is not available to us. If we discount that, then actually the utilization was pretty good.

We also made an active decision that we discussed with you guys and with our investors last year where we said we will really do everything we can to prepare Scylla to go to the U.S. because in case we need to do any maintenance on Scylla in the U.S., it will be much more complicated and much more expensive. Again, under the same umbrella of being cautious, you can say, we decided to do an extra effort on Scylla before we sent her to the U.S. That reduced the number of days we had available. Had we not done that, we could maybe have squeezed in an O&M project prior to her leaving to the U.S. We decided, no, we're not going to do that.

Under the same umbrella there, you can say that on Wind Ally that we are delivering from COSCO, we are not planning any utilization on Ally before we start the Ørsted project because we just want to make sure that we start that project as well equipped, as early, with as much buffer as possible because that is a very important project to us that we have also discussed with our investors and clients and suppliers a lot. We are currently not planning anything on Wind Ally prior to going on the Hornsea 3 project.

Benjamin Nolan (Managing Director of Research)

Okay, that's helpful. Lastly, if I could just, you're speaking about the Scylla, and now you'll have two assets in the U.S. Mikkel, you said that there's a real sense of acceleration in the U.S. trying to get things done quickly.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Do you anticipate those assets or at least one of those assets remaining in the U.S. for some time in order to meet those customer needs? That is very possible. We know that Pace has to come back again because it has another commitment. There is a dock dead date on that. Pace will return back to Europe to do that commitment for our clients, no doubt there. Of course, could this continue in the U.S. for some time? Yes, that is very likely. We are monitoring the opportunity. I think we can also say we are harvesting the opportunity because we came out from being probably the most cautious on the U.S. market to now being the ones that are operating a lot over there. I think that is also sometimes how the world develops.

If your client has confidence in you being able to deliver what they need in that market, I think that you can be the chosen one. I think that we have at least put ourselves in a situation where we are working very, very efficiently together with our clients to try to deliver what they have in the pipeline over there as best possible. There is a lot of complexities in the market in terms of operations. It also means that it requires a lot of effort to ensure efficient installation in the U.S. market. We want to support our clients there as long as we are able to protect the company in the right way in terms of terms and conditions and that the projects on a standalone basis are good enough to meet our criteria.

Benjamin Nolan (Managing Director of Research)

Excellent. I appreciate you taking my questions.

Thank you.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Of course, Ben.

Peter Brogaard (CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question is from Perts Billing from SEB. If you'd like to go ahead and ask your question.

Perts Billing (Equity Research Analyst)

Yes, hello, can you hear me?

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Sounds good.

Perts Billing (Equity Research Analyst)

Great, great, great. I have two questions. The first one is tax-related. You mentioned, Peter, that most of your current business is covered by tonnage taxation in the U.K. and Denmark. Once you move into becoming a sort of more of a project-driven business with T&I services for the foundations, should we think any differently about taxation for your business going forward?

Peter Brogaard (CFO)

No, that is also covered by both tonnage tax regimes. No.

Perts Billing (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, great. The second question, again, also related to the O&M market. What do you see in terms of how developers think about utilization or using more high-spec vessels compared to lower-spec vessels, also for lower-sized turbines?

Do you see any sort of mechanic where even for smaller turbines that they prefer to use more highly specced vessels?

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

I think what we can say is that the higher-spec vessels have the benefit that they can work across different platforms. That gives an efficiency increase for some of the clients in the industry that hence has that as a priority. I think that it's not necessarily always a choice because we tend to get focused on the turbine type and say, can this vessel do this turbine type? Yeah, obviously it can because it installed this turbine type. It might be that the water depth is too high for that vessel, for example.

We have seen O&M jobs in the industry that have been waiting for a long time for execution due to the lack of availability of vessels with, for example, long enough legs. That is why I argue that a higher-spec vessel is always a more attractive option for the client if it is available. The challenge has really been that they have not been available. That is also why we are arguing that the O&M space is a space that could do with more focus and more commitment both from clients and from contractors like ourselves because at the end of the day, there is a rather big, let's say, challenge to solve in overall keeping all the turbines globally spinning. That is something that we need to work together to solve that equation.

What we are saying is really that we are committed to play our part in that problem-solving together with our partners from the O&M space, OEM space, and also in the developer space. We do see that sometimes they take a different approach to that market.

Perts Billing (Equity Research Analyst)

Understood. Thank you. That's all from me.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question is from Åsne Holsen from ABG Sundal Collier. If you'd like to ask your question.

Åsne Holsen (Equity Research Analyst)

Hi, can you hear me?

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Yes, loud and clear.

Åsne Holsen (Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering about the wording on your dividend comment. You say that you do not expect to make any dividend payments in the medium term. How would you define medium term? Can you say anything?

Peter Brogaard (CFO)

We define it like that. We define it like the second A-class vessel being delivered in 2026.

That is because the whole capacity we have, there's a covenant around not paying out dividends before that vessel is delivered. It does not cover the third A-class vessel being delivered in 2027. That is what we mean by that in the midterm. Yeah.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

I think what we can say in addition to that is that the discussion around the whole topic is something that has started now together with the board and that we think that is something that will continue. When we are ready, we will communicate clearly to the market. It is obvious that we will be in a position at some point in time where we have the ability, for example, to pay a dividend.

Åsne Holsen (Equity Research Analyst)

Definitely. Yeah, I think I'll give off the microphone. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Due to time constraints, this will be our final question.

Our next question will be from Roald Hartvigsen from Clarksons. If you'd like to go and ask your question.

Roald Hartvigsen (VP of Equity Research)

Thanks. Hey guys, congratulations on another strong order. We have seen some consolidation in the space over the last months with the key one probably being the announced Saipem and Subsea7 merger. Obviously, offshore wind is not the only market for those players today, but do you believe that merger will have any meaningful impact on market dynamics? How do you see prospects for further consolidation in the space ahead? Thanks.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

I don't think it will be. I don't think it will drive anything. I think it's probably good for these two companies. I think that there's a lot of synergies between these two companies to do consolidation. We congratulate them on the efforts.

We have said it before that there is still some degree of fragmentation in the industry. The problem is also in the industry, there is a lot of assets that arguably will not be installing for very long. Hence, it depends a little bit how you want to consolidate and why you want to consolidate. I think that we are, from our side at least, very, very pleased that we were moving on the opportunity that we saw back in 2023 and successfully concluded that merger with Eneti. We believe that we have created a company that did not have a lot of overlaps at that time. That is the additional challenge to most of the other companies out there, that there is probably too many overlaps to make it super reasonable to see how a merger would happen.

It depends a little bit why one company wants to merge and how. Yeah.

Roald Hartvigsen (VP of Equity Research)

Perfect. Thanks. I'll leave it there. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

We have no further questions at this time. Thank you for your participation. I will now hand the floor back to Mikkel Gleerup for any closing remarks.

Mikkel Gleerup (CEO)

Thank you. Just wanted to say thank you to everybody for listening in and spending your time here in the morning or afternoon or evening with us. Another year is now concluded and a year is already well underway and we are really looking forward to take on this challenge and to deliver. That really just brings me to really thanking the team, our investors, our clients and partners for all the support during 2024 and all what we have seen in 2025.

We are super ready to take on this year and to continue to deliver on our promise. Thank you.