CMB.TECH NV Ordinary Shares

Good morning and welcome to the Euronav second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw from the question queue, please press star then two. We ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Gallagher, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and afternoon to everyone, and thanks for joining Euronav's Q2 2021 earnings call. Before I start, I would like to say a few words. The information discussed on this call is based on information as of today, 3rd April to August 2021, and may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements reflect current views with respect to future events and financial performance and may include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events, performance, underlying assumptions and other statements which are not statements of historical facts. All forward-looking statements attributable to the company or to persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by reference to the risks, uncertainties and other factors companies with the SEC, which are available free of charge on SEC's website at www.sec.gov and our own company's website at www.uranav.com. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement and the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements. Please take a moment to read our State Partner Statements on page 2 of the slide presentation. I will now pass over to Chief Executive Hugo Destuc to start with the agenda slide on slide 3.

Hugo. Thank you, Brian. Welcome to our call today. As usual, I will firstly run through the Q2 highlights and some comments on our current capital allocation strategy. This is to simultaneously rejuvenate our fleet and earnings potential, but also investing in the latest technology to enable Euronav to be at the forefront of decarbonization of the tanker sector. Lever, our CFO, will then run through a snapshot of our financing before Brian, our Head of Investor Relations, will then look at the current themes in the tanker market before I return again to discuss in more details our investment strategy and outlook for the tanker sector. So, turning to slide 4 and the highlight page. We said in early May that the first quarter was the toughest freight markets we had had in recent years. I'm afraid to admit that factually, Q2 has proven equally, if not more, challenging. As anticipated, recovery in freight rates did not materialize. Put simply, during Q2, there was too much tonnage, chasing too few available cargoes. The members of OPEC Plus have increased this has not been enough to gain traction in terms of reducing the oversupply of tonnage in the VLCC but also in the Suezmax spot market. The result has seen a Q2 delivering freight rates to levels not seen in the last decades. Euronav will nevertheless distribute a $0.03 dividend per share to reward patient shareholders. Despite these current headwinds, there are some positive signals. Both onshore inventory and offshore levels have been drawn back to pre-COVID levels. OPEC Plus has signaled output rises of 2 million barrels per day between now and the end of the year. Finally, the high scrap steel prices have translated into some reciting in the last three months, especially in the VLCC segment, where five VLCCs were demolished. and recycle, but also in the spheres max segment, where three spheres max exited the world field. With that, I will pass over to our CFO, Lieve Lager, to walk through the financial highlights. Lieve, over to you.