CMB.TECH NV Ordinary Shares

Good day and welcome to the Euronav fourth 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 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 Q1 2022 earnings call. Before I start, I would like to say a few words. The information disclosed and discussed on this call is based on information as of today, Thursday, 12th of May, 2022, 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 especially 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 on our own company's website at www.euronav.com. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and 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 going forward. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. please take a moment to read our safe harbor statement on page two of this slide presentation. I will now pass on to Chief Executive Hugo de Stoep to start with the content slide on slide three. Hugo, over to you.

Thank you, Brian, and good morning or afternoon to wherever you are, and welcome to a first quarter earnings call. I will run through the Q1 highlights before passing on to Liv Log or CFO to give more details on the financial with a focus on our balance sheet and P&L. Brian Gallagher, our head of IR and research, will then highlight some key trends in the wider tanker market and Euronav's positioning within it, before I return to summarize our strategy and outlook. So turning to slide four and the Q1 highlights. It was a busy quarter for Euronav on many fronts, but we're particularly pleased with our fleet modernization program, which has a strategic focus with nine vessels transaction during Q1. Indeed, we sold four older VLCCs and acquired two modern ones, and we sold one Suezmax jointly owned and took delivery of two brand new SuperEco Suezmax that we had purchased last year as they were still under construction, but for a defaulted party. This, in turn, has improved further the age profile of our fleet. Freight rates were under pressure for most of the quarter, but the onset of the conflict in Ukraine in early March caused an important dislocation in the oil markets, which in turn has proved to be a positive catalyst for tanker markets. This has driven sequential improvement in freight rates across all segments, starting specifically with smaller ships benefiting from the Russian dislocation and gradually impacting larger ones. Whilst freight rates in absolute terms remain disappointing, the direction of travel is encouraging, especially in Suezmax, with rates on average at $20,000 per day for the current quarter. I will return later in the call to expand on our thoughts on some of these trends and the outlook, but I will now pass over to Lever to provide more details on the financial. Lever, over to you.