CMB.TECH NV Ordinary Shares

Good day, and welcome to the Euronav second quarter 2023 earnings 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. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and afternoon to everyone, and thanks for joining Euronav's Q2 2023 earnings call. Before I start, I'd like to say a few words. The information discussed on this call is based on information as of today, Thursday, the 3rd of August, 2023, and may contain forward-looking statements that may 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 are to persons acting on its behalf and are expressly qualified in their entirety by reference to the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed in the company's filings for the SEC, which are available free of charge on the SEC website at www.sec.gov and on our own company website at www.uranav.com. You should not place undue attention or 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 these forward-looking statements. Please take a moment to read our safe harbor statements, rather, on page two of the slide presentation. I will now pass on to our interim chief executive and CFO, Liva Logger, to start with the content slide on slide three. Leva, over to you.

Thank you, Brian, and good morning or afternoon to wherever you are, and welcome to our call. I will run through the Q2 highlights and financials before passing back to Brian, our Head of Investor Relations and Communications, to provide some further wider market thoughts. I will return to summarize the outlook. The current year continues to confound tanker market convention. It would be more usual to be discussing Q2 in context of seasonal slowdown in freight activity and refinery maintenance programs. However, the freight market for Q2 was very similar in outcome to Q1. This included a spike in rates towards the end of the quarter, reflecting a relative tight dynamic between supply of vessels and demand for crude movements. What these results also underline is the value of the Euronav platform and its striking ability to harness this market dynamic for the benefit of shareholders. This was our best ever Q2 operating performance outside the COVID pandemic. I'll say a bit more about operating leverage in a minute. With a new supervisory board in place, a strong balance sheet, and good visibility on very positive medium-term fundamentals, URNF investors stand to continue benefiting in dividend terms. A Q2 dividend. 80 cents per share, reflects board's confidence in the Euronav platform and the strength of the current and upcoming banker cycle. Turning now to the financials in more depth. This slide reflects the strength of the Euronav platform financially, operationally, and strategically. Operationally, the operational leverage is reflected in strong returns with the net profit at $161.8 million, similar to Q1 results. Financially, balance sheet leverage is at 47.5%. The finance team has further boosted our liquidity with a new facility to $742 million. Not with no T strategically, the Euronav platform continues to grow. During the first half, we have added three brand new VLCCs with maximum optionality to deal with the challenges of fueling tankers going forward. Last month, we took delivery of a new SWISS MAX and look forward to adding four more such vessels in the next 12 months at the start of what we have consistently set over the past year is what we believe to be a multi-year upcycle for the large crude tanker markets. With that, I will now pass it over to Brian to give some further thoughts on the current market cycle.