CMB.TECH NV Ordinary Shares

Good day and welcome to the Euronav third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing 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 touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, 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 Q3 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, Thursday, the 4th of November, 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 discussed in the company's filings with the SEC, which are available free of charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. and our own company website at www.euronav.com. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of that particular statement, and the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Please take a moment to read our safe harbour statement on page 2 of the slide presentation. I'll now pass over to our Chief Executive, Hugo de Stoep, to start with the agenda slide. Hugo, over to you.

Thank you, Brian. Welcome to our call today, wherever you are. In terms of the agenda, I will firstly run through the Q3 highlights and make some comments about what we believe will be seen as the trough of this tanker cycle. Brian, our head of investor relations, will then look at the current themes and catalysts in the tanker market before I return to discuss in more detail our strategy and outlook for the tanker sector. So turning to slide four and the highlights page. There were more lowlights than highlights during Q3, which was arguably the most challenging freight market in the last 20 years. This was driven by two key factors. Lack of commercially available barrels. Even though OPEC Plus tapered their cuts, it didn't translate into enough barrels available for the independent fleet such as Euronav. Furthermore, the illicit trade around sanctioned Iranian barrels took away what would have been otherwise barrels required to be transported by the regulated fleet. The market also suffered from an oversupply of vessels, although this started to be eroded as we exited Q3. We have continued to use the low freight rate environment to accelerate dry dockings and will complete a 23 year to date, whilst another 4 will be done by year end. That's around 40% of our underlying fleet. However, the market has improved strongly since early September. The improvement in rates has come from a low level of freight rates, but this sustained improvement has sequentially improved each week over the past six to eight weeks. This has been driven by a number of factors and catalysts, such as a greater number of barrels available for export in both the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico. An improved demand for oil, in particular fuel oil, as some additional demand came from customers able to switch between various fossil fuels and willing to do so because of the elevated gas prices. And finally, an increased recycling activity in all the tonnage. This gave a better balance between fleet supply and supply of available barrels for exports. In recent earning calls and presentations, we have consistently stressed the constructive factors for the tanker market in the medium term. Factors such as the fleet age, order book ratio, and incoming emissions regulations. It is encouraging as we move into a seasonally stronger trading period to see that the market is gaining traction and rates moving higher. All of this is good and goes in the right direction, but a return to profitability will require continued improvement on those oil demand side as the winter progresses. Turning to summer financial, our leverage stands at 48.7% and is supported at the end of September with 791 million of available liquidity. We were pleased to refinance our 200 million Nordic bond at an improved coupon in early September, allowing us to make sure we continue to have access to alternative source of capital such as the Nordic bond market. Our timing looks positive already as yields have risen steadily since. Despite the loss during the Q3, we will distribute a $0.03 dividend per share as per previous loss-making quarters. With that, I will pass over to our Head of Investor Relations, Brian Gallagher, to make or to walk you through some market highlights. Brian, over to you.