Fincantieri S.p.A.

Good morning. This is the course call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining Syncantieri's 9-month, 2023 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Folgero, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us and welcome to Fincantieri 9 Months Financial Results Conference Call. This set of results confirms once again 2023 guidance and shows a solid top line with revenues up by 1.3% to 1%. This is in line with expectations and with the development of the backlog. EBITDA improved by 60% when compared with the same period last year, with margin at 5.1%, way better than last year. Net financial position came at 2.7 billion euro, in line with targets. We have now a total backlog of almost 32.6 billion euro, securing 4.4 years of work when compared to 2022 revenues. Order intake came in at €4 billion, with a strong contribution from wind offshore and the fence. In the sole third quarter, we recorded €1.9 billion of new orders, with a book-to-bill ratio above 1. An important milestone in October with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Leonardo aiming at defining initiatives and developments related to systems, including underwater drones, for the protection of critical underwater infrastructure. This strengthened further our partnership already consolidated through the Horizonte System in a Valley joint venture and represents another opportunity to innovate the sector with cutting-edge solutions. Overall, This set of results is proof we are in the right trajectory and we do confirm the targets for year-end on revenues EBITDA and debt. Let's now move to slide six for some business updates. Our operating performance has been consistently positive throughout the first nine months of the year. Indeed, the group's shipyards are running at full speed with 17 vessels delivered from 10 shipyards. Out of these 17, 10 are for the offshore sector, including three marine robotic vessels for Ocean Infinity and five units for the wind sector for four different clients. Over the period, 15 units were ordered, resulting in a total of 86 vessels now in portfolio. Turning to slide seven, our unique competitive global reach across all business segments, the long history of our industrial excellence, the top-notch competencies of our people put Fincantieri in the best position to seize market opportunities. Cruise recovery, Increasing attention on defense assets and the buoyant offshore wind market are the main current trends and underpin potential acceleration of the business and further sustain our already solid commercial pipeline. Here are some examples of the new orders received in the first nine months of this year. Starting from the left, the new order for two new hydrogen power ships for MSC ready by 2028 is a sign of the growing vitality of the cruise sector. This offers us another strategic opportunity to lead the digital and green transition in the shipbuilding industry and is proof of our full commitment to achieve net zero ship by 2035. In the center, the next generation near future submarine program, where we are both design and authority and prime contractor. The submarine is a unique strategic and industrial asset combining shipbuilding at its highest standards with the underwater, a sector in which crucial games will be played. The prosecution of the program acknowledges Fincantieri's technological leadership in full continuity with the pillars set out in our business plan. Finally, on the right, on offshore, Fincantieri reaffirms itself as a prime mover in the construction of support vessels for the wind offshore sector, and as a technological partner for the companies intending to strengthen their fleet with cutting edge products. Just a few comments on our order book on slide eight. As you can see, we are loaded with deliveries for the medium to long term up to 2030, offering a very good visibility over revenues. As we speak, Cruise accounts for 22 vessels in portfolio. The construction of 34 defense units is expected and 30 further vessels in the fast-moving offshore business for a total of 86 ships in backlog. On offshore, it is worth to mention that over the period, we secured contracts for a total of nine SOVs, CSOVs, out of 18 ordered globally in the first nine months. This number rises to 11 if we consider the last order finalized in October for Windward Offshore Consortium. The commitment in the growing wind market has led the group to secure contracts for a total of 23 CSOVs out of 61 ordered globally since 2020, representing more than one-third of the demand. Overall, commercial opportunities are up and running in all businesses. Now I will hand it over to Giuseppe, who will discuss our financial results. Please, Giuseppe.

Good morning, everybody. We now turn to page 10 and a few comments on order intake and total backlog. Order intake was $4 billion for the first nine months of the year, with 60% coming from chip building and in-chip building We have new orders in defense, the near-future submarine that we talked about before, and three new OPVs for the Italian Navy, and another, the fourth, free gate for the U.S. Navy on the Constellation Free Gate. Twenty percent of this order intake comes from the offshore wind sector, in which we have experienced a dramatic growth, I would say, in the first nine months of this year compared to the first nine months of last year. Orders grew 64%, and this is a sign of the pickup in demand for new offshore wind vessels. And we'll see this ripple into revenues in the next year. Book-to-bill ratio stands at 0.8 versus 0.6 over the nine months of last year. And in the third quarter, we had a positive, a book to build above one as we had 1.9 billion euros in orders compared to a little less than 1.9 billion in revenues. Total backlog at 32.6 billion, 4.4 times of 2022 revenues as we said before. And the backlog stands at 22.2 billion euros. On revenues, page 11, 5.4 billion euros for the first nine months of 23, up 1.3% compared to last year. The overall increase is mainly driven by revenue growth in offshore and specialized vessels, and the equipment systems and services, thanks to the infrastructure business which grew by 25.3%. Shipbuilding still accounts for over 70% of total group revenues and most of the contribution in shipbuilding comes from the cruise segment. On EBDA, page 12. Well, this quarter, let me say, further consolidates the positive results of the first half. EBDA stands at 276 million euros, up 60% compared to last year. And EBDA margin is at 5.1%, higher than what we saw in September of last year. Shipbuilding stands at 256 million euros with an EBDA margin at 5.9%. And Marginality compared to last year is impacted as expected, I must say, by somehow lower production volumes in the naval business. Offshore doubled its EBDA compared to the first nine months of last year, moving to an EBDA margin of 4.3% and 31 million. It was 2.7% as of nine months of 2022. 21 million euros coming from the equipment systems and infrastructure. Of course, a dramatic improvement, a changing sign also compared to the first nine months of 2022, which were heavily impacted by the whole life cost revision of the infrastructure projects. It's worth mentioning now on the infrastructure that following the review of the production activities of last year, the marginality of the business is holding steadily and closing almost at breakeven. On page 13, net debt as fully in line with expectations, 2.7 billion euros. And that financial position is right now consistent and reflects the changes in that working capital, mostly related to the cruise business. We just delivered a cruise vessel yesterday and cashed in over 400 million euros. It's worth mentioning this. Net debt, of course, is still affected by the strategy of deferrals granted to clients after COVID-19. and we still have 94 million euros of deferral impacting our net debt levels. Networking capital is positive at 710 million euros. And the main changes are related to the increasing work in progress and advances from client for 94 million. And basically this is it. Now the word goes back to Piero Roberto for market trends and concluding remarks.