CMB.TECH NV Ordinary Shares

Good day and welcome to the year-and-a-half fourth quarter 2022 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. And I'd 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 Q4 2022 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 2nd of February, 2023, 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 website at www. and on our own company's 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 harbor statement on page two of this slide presentation. With that, I'll now pass over to Chief Executive Hugo de Stoep to start with the content slide on slide three. Hugo.

Thank you, Brian, and good morning or afternoon to wherever you are, and welcome to our call. I will run through the Q4 highlights before passing on to Liv Log, our CFO, who will then highlight key factors over the quarter and important work the finance team have done in increasing, again, our liquidity through sustainable financing. After that, Brian will run you through some current market trends before I return to summarize our strategy and where we believe we are in the current cycle and outlook. Q4 was the breakthrough quarter we've been pointing at in our last two calls. The strong demand for tankers reflected in higher freight rates was created by three factors. The seasonal pattern into the northern hemisphere winter, a sustainable supply of oil from OPEC and non-OPEC, and then finally a repositioning of the world's lead ahead of the embargo on crude from Russia that was enacted on December the 5th. TCE rates actually squeezed materially higher into November, and even though they have reset since, they remain at very profitable levels and well above the medium-term averages. Euronav benefited from this upswing and from the fleet rejuvenation we have done in the last 18 months in taking on new tonnage and reducing our older fleet of higher-consuming ships. Given our current corporate situation, in full respect to the combination agreement with Frontline, we are unable at this stage to release dividends beyond the 3 cent minimum outlined in that agreement. However, to give some guidance and reassurance to our investors, we are indicating what level of returns could have been, and this in line with our past commitments. Future developments will determine if, how, and when this can be returned to our shareholders. I will now pass over to Lever to run through the financials. Lever, over to you.