speaker
Operator
Conference Moderator

Good morning, and welcome to Cattler's earnings presentation for the first half of 2024. Presenting today are Mikkel Glirup, Chief Executive Officer, and Peter Brogard, 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 Cattler's results to differ materially from today's forward-looking statements include those detailed in Cattler's annual report on Form 20F 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 Cattler 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 Cattler's half-year report. The half-year report and today's earnings presentation are available on Cattler's website at cattler.com forward slash 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 Glerup, you may begin.

speaker
Mikkel Glerup
Chief Executive Officer

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. So in terms of the half one 2024 highlights, just to briefly go through that. Financial performance is in line with our expectations. We have successfully delivered the first new-build wind peak on time and on budget. And as we also said in connection with that, we have delivered 5 million man-hours with zero LTIs on this vessel. And 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 Kosovo into Dongde. also without zero LTI. So 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 effective delivery in the first half of 2027. All levels are on track to be delivered on or in advance of scheduled project work, which is also a key target for us as an organization, really delivering on our capped projects on time on budget. Signing of three BIA reservation agreement in Q2 has marked a very important milestone for the company because we have also signed the largest reservation agreement in the history of the company. It's between 400 and 700 million. And these reservation agreements are not included in the backlog. We will go more into that later how it's done. but our contract backlog now stands at a record 1.9 billion with further growth in the coming month ahead of us. We have continued progress on the post-merger integration of Inetti, and we are realizing synergy is actually above what we expected when we did the combination of the two companies, especially on the financing side, where we have replaced the M-class facility on much improved and more attractive terms. Q2, in terms of commercial, the Wind Orca continues to execute the project on Moray West, where we currently install 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. But with Osprey, also with the new crane, we are executing on the German project Skolvin 3 and Vokum Glitvon 3. And we are continuing to execute on as projected there as well. During the charter, we mutually agreed with Oster 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. And in connection with this, Öster has called additional 74 days on the Goodwin Street project with Catalog. On Vincila, we completed a very comprehensive drive-off 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 US, where we are going to install first one project, which is the Revolution Wind, and thereafter an unmanned project in this region. And I'm happy to say that we are now in the US. 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 did definitely want to build on, and also happy to say that we are now starting to execute on the Revolution Project. For the Wensaritan, 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 I 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 Inscape 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. And 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 demonstrate what the market currently can deliver if the things are really falling in place, both with the supply and the demand of our services. Also on the A-class vessel for 2027, we have... 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 five, where there was no bidders, 2027 became a focus for us to ensure that we have 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 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 six, the UK, and coming off a missed auction round five, we saw improved pricing in the auction round six, but also just before the submission of the bids from the developers to the auction round six, we saw the UK government increasing the budget in auction round six 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 six 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 Pol Energy on Baltic 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. Europe remains our strongest market, but also in Asia where we are developing the pipeline and equally in the US. We do see US as a market that is starting to get real legs and where we can see that there's more and more activity. And with the work we're doing together with Oersted at the moment here in the US, I do believe that we as a company has a firsthand experience in how it is to operate here. And our first experience here has been incredibly positive. And 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. So in terms of the backlog, the backlog, as we have reported before, now stands at 1.925 billion euros. including the options. And 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. And we have a second column in this presentation, which is where we have added 94 million on top of that number. And that's because one of the projects in one of the vessel resumations 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. And 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. But of course we are contracting on all these investment reservation agreements, 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. So 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 in-scape. 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 true win-wins, both for the company, for our investors, but also for our clients. And then strong vessel restoration agreements, 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. And we had a beautiful day in Chidong on the 15th 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. And 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 Costco. On Windmaker, there's a little bit of a thing here. They count slightly different, the two yards. Windmaker is built at Hanwha and Windpace and Geek is built at Costco. And they count slightly different in terms of how the construction completion is. But also that 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 Windmaker 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 Windmover. We expect that we deliver at the end of Q4-25 at the moment, and this could slip into Q1-26, which for us has no importance, whether it's the end of Q4 or the beginning of Q1-26. But at the moment, we are trending towards Q4-25, and that's why we report that here. On WinAlly, we are also seeing a very strong performance from the yard, and here we think that we will, you 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... 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 has been installed on the wind maker. which is, of course, a very, very big milestone, but also really the launch of both Windpace and Windmaker, 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 borders, 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 Kosovo. There has been a lot of lessons learned in this, and the learning curve has been steep. But now we are also 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 SDNA savings, but also from financial savings, where we have really managed to get much, much better terms on financial terms. And I'm happy to say that we are ahead of our own target in terms of the SDNA 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 the 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 24.

speaker
Peter Brogard
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, thank you very much. The finances is very much a function of the merger. As compared to last year, now we have both companies fully consolidated with four business instead of two. And of course, it's also first half and two parties also impacted by the pandemic. all class operating on the right up on the syllabus. Revenue was 63 million euro as compared to, this is Q2 number, so that is for three months ending 30th of June. Revenue was 63 million as compared to 49 million last year. Equity ratio is still a very, very strong balance sheet that we We have more on that later. Utilization was at 76% as compared to 100% last year. That was a tough comparison also because of the free utilization of all risks in one quarter, which you cannot expect in every quarter, but they are still impacted a little bit by the crane operation and dry docking. Mine capitalization is now 2.1 billion euros. EBITDA, 32 million, a little bit less than last year. Cash flow from operating activities, 4.2 million, compared to 14 million. The backlog, as mentioned by Mikkel, has increased 500 million euros. This is again three months in the near 30s of June. It's a true number, and you can see revenue is higher than last year because of the poor visits in operations. Whereas cost of change goes up as a simple function of having more vessels on the water. The same with SDNA and other expenses is 14 million as compared to 8 million last year. That is, of course, because we have now merged with the EU. We have the two organizations. And we are also building up for the future. So 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 the offices to be able to do that. Maybe we had this in mind last year. There's a little bit of still, we see that there is some integration costs to a very small amount, but we are not adjusting for that because it becomes a little bit of an insurance buy-on. So we just report a little bit of strategy. Half year, it's the same story, of course. You can see cost of sales doubled. The same goes for the SG&A expenses. And EBITDA of 32 million as compared to 4.2 million last year. KEDCO in the average for first half, for the six months, is 222. And last year was 97. So this is a consequence of the wrap-up that we are dealing with to be able to deliver on the future Balanced sheet, equity ratio, still it's a very solid balanced sheet with 1.2 billion euros in equity as compared to social assets of 1.6 billion. If you look at the half-year accounts, you can see that the goodwill from the in any measure is still the euro at 17 million. That means that we have not seen any negative surprises in the first half. There were some surprises, negative or positive, and then we need to adjust this goodwill within the first 12 months, but there has been no surprises in the first half so far. I would also like to stress that in 2023, If we look at the coverage 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 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 COCO facility where this is a very good customer that we have there. And then there is an A-class facility that has not been permitted yet. So when we say that our care mix program is fully funded, it is of course because we have funded the equity part of also the A-class vessels. But we need to 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 whole core facility. And now we are starting on financing the A-class facility. And that is on a term sheet basis. And we expect to come in place from the P-class. Nothing indicates that we will not be able to do this financing. So that is something we need to understand when it says we have here a report that we need to finance the A-classes. That is simply because of the practicalities in enabling you to sign four facilities at the same time with the same bank or partner. I would really also like to thank you for the huge support we received from the banks. You can see by the upsize of the whole facility, which is an unsecured facility in the first place, it was 50 million with a 50 million accordion. And now we have upsized it into 125 million in total, and everything is committed. In-class facility was also gone in first half, which was also... A fantastic job, I think, done by the banks that were able to support it in this way. It was signed late in 2023 before the merger, and now it has been refinanced with capital. In terms of conditions, we only have one set of terms of conditions, same pricing. utilizing the bigger balance sheet and the bigger contract right now. And that is what Mikkel also mentioned, that gives us the significance on the financing side. So, all in all, we have 1.8 billion euros in financing, and then we have cash as per 30 to June, 93 million, that is in total 1.9, and then you can see there is a small payment outstanding on the O-class cranes, P-class, We have the equity portion in place for also the third A-class, which is the capital increase that we did in February this year. We have also recently extended the RCFP facility that we had. It was a basic facility we had to ensure that we could go through the merger with the Navy. We originally had a tenure of 18 months, and that now really has been longer, 12 months, and that's simply to be able to capture the opportunities in the market that we see. and to ensure that we have sufficient ability to go through 75 where we are delivering four races. So that funding surplus is 259 million euro and of course we also generate operational cash flow in this period and hence it is our firm view that we have the financing that we need and we are fully funded with the current base 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 taking 50% of the US dollars of the FX and 50% of the interest exposure. And that is simply to protect a little bit of the interest rate increases and also on the outside, We've seen decreases, and that has worked very well for us so far, and that is something we're obviously going forward. Financing overview, which is the same story again. We have the existing fleet on board, O-class, Silla and Saraton. We have committed financing of 450 million, utilised as 262, so we still have something on the RCF-80, and we have not utilised anything on the RCF-B. P-class is for community and finance, N-class community and finance. Then this whole co-facility, which is the unsecured facility, of 125 million euro, and there we have utilized 80. And then 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, In addition, we also have increased the amount of performance guarantees that we have available. It was about €100 million. It's a guarantee that we give to our clients in relation to our performance. That is now €200 million to ensure that we have also that available for the contracts that we are signing. Full year outlook for 24, the outlook remains unchanged. The first half has pretty much been exactly as expected. So we maintain a full year outlook for some value and the assumptions behind the 24 outlook was, I mean, is on-time deliveries and execution on projects. We have executed on low-pass upwards in Skilda, Breitdorf, and then it's a successful delivery of Rumpik, and I assume some contracts on Rumpik, Q4, 24. There are two facilities in SDMA, which we are very comfortable with. And then the last bullet, that is really, you know, it's an omni, The outlook is, of course, impacted by the build-up of resources that we need to do, impacting the short-term, the SD&A, but it would be a better fit to the activity that we are looking into in the coming years.

speaker
Mikkel Glerup
Chief Executive Officer

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 clients 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. And 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. And especially with these national tenders, where there's clear deadlines on our tendering activities, 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 1,000 feet or 15 megabit and so on and so forth. We think that the 15 megabit-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 megawatts. For Kattler, 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 US 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 spinology data. And let's say it is public 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 growth, 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 gripper. And hence, we do believe that our bet on jack-ups and the ability of the jack-ups, especially the A-class vessels when they come to the market, will prove itself as a 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 remain very, very positive on this market, especially in the period from 26 and forward, where we are starting to execute our first project, the Horn C3, 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 Costco 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 Costco. And there is a sense that we want to continue to work together because we have been building a very strong relation. And as Costco said to us when we delivered the wind peak with Kepler, 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. It's 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 field size, we are able to really benefit from better supply and 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 earning scores 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 US 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 Cadla. 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 the catalog is also something that the clients really like. And 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 storm utilization So in terms of, we have showed this slightly 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. And 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. And offshore wind, as I've said many times before, it is all about efficiency. So when you can deliver a more efficient solution, it almost is self-explanatory why that's the best solution. So 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. And one of the items is green fuels. And we believe that at the moment, alternative fuels are really one of the only levels that can take us all the way to net zero as we have as 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 blast point fuel types as well. And we have prepared operations and Kepler will begin testing biofuels on board our vessels in Q4 24 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 Kepler will deliver on these targets as well. In terms of energy efficiency and digitization, we are also using 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 where do we get more bankroll 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 threat, 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 the 38th 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 UK and from Asia and from the US. 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 foundation, TNI, tendering activity. It's an increased project activity. It's growth in the fleet. And then it's international expansion. And as we've said for many quarters also, we are a growth company. And 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 CADLA 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 CADLA way, where we ensure that it creates value immediately from entrance into the space. And that is an ongoing strategy that we have with the board, and also where we are looking at various opportunities. But again, we're 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 US and in APEC, so really present in all three main markets. But also we are looking at the next frontier markets, and there are some markets out there that has lots and lots and lots of potential. But in terms of maturity, they're not there yet, so nothing that we're going to invest in tomorrow or in 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 demonstrates the importance we have for the clients and the developers in these bits. 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 of 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 quality optimization, 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 both turbine and foundation vessels. And we see that already today. And 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. And 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 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 live 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 not rightly so. And then we continue with a key focus on being a good custodian of capital. And that really concludes our presentation. And Leila, now please open the Q&A.

speaker
Operator
Conference Moderator

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 Helglund, who will be joining us as a panelist in a moment. All right, Daniel Haglund, your line is open. Feel free to unmute.

speaker
Daniel Haglund
Analyst

Yeah. Good day, everyone. Hi, Mikkel. Hi, Petra. 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 GUTI 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.

speaker
Peter Brogard
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I also tried to address a little bit in the presentation, but for the rationale behind the A-class financing and copying it from the from the P-class is of course price and in terms of condition, we find those very attractive. It is an ETA back loan with Simon Shaw and a group of banks with 11 banks in the syndicate on the P-class. So I think it's a very, very efficient way to get financing is to go with the same syndicate again And with the ECA part, no, because of, again, the pricing and in terms of producing, we can't get that better from other sources. And banks are really, really supportive and they would like to participate and get mates and calls and be discussed with them on an ongoing basis. And they're really interested to be in again and have available funding for it. The status is that we send out the term sheet, which is negotiated right now, and that is negotiated on the basis of the PISA, so it's really easy and efficient. And 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 buses. It will be the two first A-class buses, and then the third in another facility because that will be delivered in 27, and then we will have to pay commitment fees for a long period of time, and we don't want to do that. So it is coming 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. So that is the answer.

speaker
Daniel Haglund
Analyst

Okay, thank you. So maybe my follow-up would 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?

speaker
Peter Brogard
Chief Financial Officer

Yes, I think it's very, very clear. And thank you for also the advice. But we can be very, very clear. We do not expect any further changes and increases to fund corn plants.

speaker
Daniel Haglund
Analyst

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

speaker
Operator
Conference Moderator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ben Nolan from Stiefel. Please go ahead.

speaker
Ben Nolan
Analyst, Stifel

Yeah, there we go. Hi, good morning, good afternoon. So I guess, well, I'll start with my first question. I was curious about the Zerotan, which I believe is operating in Asia. So 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?

speaker
Mikkel Glerup
Chief Executive Officer

I can say that we obviously update the market with new contracts as we sign them. So when we sign something for Cerritan, we will update the market. But I think that, as we have said before, we expect that Cerritan 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 Horn C3, we can definitely see how big a part it is just on, let's say, slightly less than 200 foundation projects. So it is something that we are actively evaluating as well. Will she over time potentially need an upgrade on the Lexa and stuff like that? Potentially, but that's not something that we see at the moment.

speaker
Ben Nolan
Analyst, Stifel

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?

speaker
Peter Brogard
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, on the short term, you should think that it is zero tax expense. The other small tax expense is related to sanitary in Taiwan. That is basically the only tax we are paying. So you should think, you know, it will not be higher than what we see in the accounts now. So it is not depending on how much we earn because we are under tax in Taiwan. In Denmark, and we are also buying atomic sacks in the UK. So that is how we think about it. If you look longer term, you'll know there's coming these Pillar 2, and we don't know how that will detail, play out. but that would not be relevant for Cadillac before 2028. And there are some exemptions for shipping that we can neutralize. So there will be some years here to come to be wiser, I think, for everybody. And there will probably also be some changes that we can learn from, but it will not be a tax, you know, which is... a significant number or something like a property tax times a property tax. But we need to see how the pillar two moves carries out. We will, of course, come under the pillar two moves because of the revenue threshold. But we are not, you know, we're only concerned that it will have a family impact and but nobody knows now.

speaker
Ben Nolan
Analyst, Stifel

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

speaker
Operator
Conference Moderator

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

speaker
Ola Eikanger
Analyst, SEB

Hi, Mikael. Hi, Peter. Good to see you guys. Could you please help us understand why we are not seeing any more new build orders coming through? The market is evidently tight. Their 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?

speaker
Mikkel Glerup
Chief Executive Officer

Thanks. 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, 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 types of vessels in 2021, they are today rejecting to build this kind of vessels. 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 been benefited from, let's say, capacity agreements we have made with the Yard in China, we do expect that still that it's more expensive compared to what we are ordering at the moment But if you want to convert one of these yachts 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 a bit long. And I would expect if you order today, you are probably looking at late 28, if not early 29 deliveries. But that's a little bit, I 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 to say that one of the game-changers for Kettler has been our relationship with Cosmo and Chidong.

speaker
Ola Eikanger
Analyst, SEB

I appreciate the call.

speaker
Mikkel Glerup
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Ola. Always.

speaker
Operator
Conference Moderator

Our next question comes from World Harvestson from Clarkson. Please go ahead.

speaker
World Harvestson
Analyst, Clarkson

Good morning, Mikael 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 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.

speaker
Mikkel Glerup
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you very much, Walt. Good to see you again. I think, yes, very much so. It continues to be an area of interest for Cadler. So, yes, we could do that. What it requires is a 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 capital 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 that clients are still interested in working with us, but it has to come with a lot of commitment.

speaker
World Harvestson
Analyst, Clarkson

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

speaker
Peter Brogard
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Moderator

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.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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