8/3/2023

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

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.

speaker
Brian Gallagher
Head of Investor Relations & Communications

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.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

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.

speaker
Brian Gallagher
Head of Investor Relations & Communications

Thank you, Lever. Tanker markets, as always, remain very dynamic, but in our sense, also very constructive. Forecasts for oil demand have continued to grow consistently over the last nine to 10 months, and this is illustrated on slide eight. The IEA forecast consistent upgrades to this number, and this has supported tanker markets along with positive ton mile development. On the left-hand side, you can see that loadings west of Suez, and therefore heading to the Far East, have continued to grow at the expense of those coming in the other direction. Put very simply, crude is traveling much further than it was previously, and that's helping to drive a higher demand for shipping, even if consumption and production are at similar numbers. On slide 9, we now move to a project which we've been involved with over the recent months, and operation will continue to be engaged with off the Yemeni coast. The salvage of the FSOs safer off the Yemeni coast is a critical mission that Euronav has provided to the LCC to the UN in order to take the excess 1.2 million barrels of oil away from this particular site. This careful exchange is currently ongoing, with Euronav continuing to provide operational support and staff to the wider salvage operation. We have been proud to be involved in this operation and hope it will conclude successfully in the coming weeks. We now turn on slide 10 to an issue which continues to arise in the minds of oil market and tanker investors alike, Iran. On slide 10, we refer to the recent speculation that again resurfaced in May regarding Iran and a potential deal involving the nuclear talks and a return to a more normal oil market engagement for the country. We believe it is important to remind investors of the outsized effect this would have on the tanker markets should this event occur either in partial or for total terms. As the chart on slide 10 on the left-hand side shows, Iran has ramped up production to a five-year high at around 1.5 million barrels per day. Most of this production is being exported by the dark fleet. If, and it remains a very big if, Iran were to return to the world economic order and is permitted to export crude via commercial tonnage, this would imply around 1.5 million barrels per day of export opportunity that is currently denied commercial players like Uranav. This is likely to expand as the right-hand side of the chart shows as Iran has recently, as of 2017, been producing up to 3.5 million barrels per day of crude. Iran remains one of the few nations capable of expanding production relatively quickly. So again, whilst it remains a big if, and the world, sorry, I'll start again. So whilst it remains a big if, the world is already consuming this Iranian oil. Any production uplift from here would increase the net supply for global consumption. However, for shipping, the effect is far larger, and this would benefit from the 1.5 million barrels per day currently being consumed that it cannot access, and any increase on this would also benefit tanker markets exponentially. Clearly, some of this shipping would come from Iran's own fleet, but Iran's return remains a potential seismic positive for tech markets and should not be forgotten. With that, I will turn it back to Liva for any summary comments, and I'll focus on the traffic lights. Liva, back to you.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Thanks, Brian. Q2 was the second-best quarter for rates since 1990. In VOCC terms, it was the seventh-best. This gives context to how well underpinned and strong our markets are. Demand continues to remain robust, supported by ton-mile growth. OPEC cuts are beginning to gain traction, but the impact needs to be seen against stronger seasonal demand, which we expect from later this current quarter. We've made no change to our traffic lights, but anticipate a positive seasonal trading pattern to emerge for this winter. So to sum up, the Euronav platform is in a rubbish shape. We are positioned for further growth and have a balance sheet to support further strategic opportunities as they arise. And in the meantime, the platform is delivering returns to shareholders via dividends. All of this means that we can look to the future with confidence. And with that, Brian and I will be very happy to take your questions. So I'll hand it back to the operator for the Q&A.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. In the interest of time, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And our first question comes from John Chappell from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

speaker
John Chappell
Analyst, Evercore ISI

Thank you. Good morning or good afternoon. We have a first question for you. I'm sure the answer is it's a board decision on a quarterly basis. However, noteworthy that the payout ratio moved up to 100% this quarter, not just within the context of your liquidity being so strong and the market being as robust as it is, but also with the new board members in tow. So, Should we read this as being a one-quarter anomaly and we'll take it as it goes, or is this maybe the view of the new board that, given the market strength, the payout ratio could be above the 80% threshold?

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Hi, John. Good to hear you. Good morning or good afternoon. So, indeed, a very good question. We don't know if it's a one-off, but the supervisory board clearly has made a decision based on our current LTV, which is 30%, and they don't see bad days coming. So based on that, the Q2 payout ratio was 100%. If this continues, it's something that we have to see and have a look at indeed in Q3. But as you rightfully mentioned in the past, it was an 80% payout ratio. And do we look at what Q3 brings? Absolutely. It's like you say, it's a supervisory board decision we propose, but it's in the end supervisory board representing the shareholders who are taking the decisions. And there you have our dependent shareholders, board members, but also our undependent board members who are representing the minority shareholders. So it's a common decision which is taken each quarter.

speaker
John Chappell
Analyst, Evercore ISI

Okay. Thank you. For my follow-up, Brian, as it relates to the back half outlook, So these Saudi cuts, it seems like they're finally biting from an output perspective, but maybe not so much on the tanker rates. How much of this is what's called substitution, as you laid out kind of on slide eight, and how much of it is more the fact that just the demand is improving at a greater pace than people had expected, and there's probably a little bit of inventory build ahead of the winter in the northern hemisphere?

speaker
Brian Gallagher
Head of Investor Relations & Communications

I think it's both of those, John, but I think we factor in another situation, which is we felt there's been some buyers of the dark trade who've been warned off. There's been some sort of crackdown every now and then in China and in India, and that they've come back into the commercial fleet, as it were. So they're buying barrels from the more conventional sources and being shipped both from commercial players like us. They were not trading with us, obviously, and we've not been doing those trades anyway, obviously, as you know. But those buyers of the dark trade, I think, has been a third factor, which has offset that. So you've had tonne miles and those two factors that you said, along with this sort of people jumping across the fence from the dark trade. So I think that's really negated almost all of the cuts that we've seen so far.

speaker
John Chappell
Analyst, Evercore ISI

Okay. That's helpful. Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Leda.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks, John.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Amit Mehotra from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

speaker
Chris Robertson
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Hey, good morning, Levi and Brian. This is Chris Robertson on for a minute. How are you doing?

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Hi, Chris. Good to hear you.

speaker
Chris Robertson
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Yeah, you as well. A question for either of you. This is just around the cash break-even levels currently for the company, so if you could just walk through that.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Yes, so I'm the number cruncher here. So just the numbers to give you an insight in this, Chris. So our Swiss max cash break even for the time being is 16,000 and VLCC 19,000. So this is what we are currently having as a cash break even. The P&L break even was in the presentation, 18,000 Swiss maxes and 23,000 for VLCC.

speaker
Chris Robertson
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Okay, great. Yeah, that's straightforward. Thank you. Brian, this might be a question for you. So over the past few days, we've heard from some of the product tanker companies talking about their aging fleet, especially as it relates to LR2s. And they've mentioned a few times about 15-year-old LR2s potentially going dirty and coming into the crude trade at some point. Just wanted to get your thoughts around that and Is there any worry from your end? I know you guys don't operate in the Appomax segment, but is there any worry on your end that that supply could be coming?

speaker
Brian Gallagher
Head of Investor Relations & Communications

Not on Julie. I think we've always had a strong view that we've never really understood the view that there'd be a lot of jumping between the two segments. And, of course, it's quite costly. And operationally, you still have an asterisk against your name when you do flip between the two sectors. And it's always some of the product guys that talk about more than the crude guys. We don't really see anything like that. And I still think, as you rightly say, we're not involved in the Afromax. You've got this potential, another leg of growth for Afromax coming from the Canadian export market with the pipelines potentially opening there on the Pacific coast. So, no, it's not something that keeps us awake at night far from it. And we've always felt that any switching between the product and the crude is reasonably marginal and reasonably specialised. I know the trends are too great, really, that we're seeing to give us any sort of concern on that front.

speaker
Chris Robertson
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

All right, got it. Yeah, thanks for that. I'll turn it over. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thanks, Chris. The next question comes from Chris Sung from Weber Research. Please go ahead.

speaker
Chris Sung
Analyst, Weber Research

Hey, good afternoon, Levi and Brian. How are you? Good, thank you. I wanted to just ask about your fleet renewal. You guys have a few 17-year-old plus bees and sewage masses. How do you think about that in an era of farming asset prices?

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Here we continue on our strategy. So, indeed, if there is an opportunity, we will grasp it and, indeed, continue the pathway we had previously, indeed, selling and then taking opportunities for new builds to come in. For your information, you have read, we still have four to come on the water, Swiss Maxis, off the Breve, which has been delivered in July. So we continue that strategy going forward, and if there are opportunities, we remain interested and absolutely will propose this to our supervisory board.

speaker
Chris Sung
Analyst, Weber Research

Okay, fair enough. And just as my follow-up, I noticed the GNA fell significantly. Is that more of an outlier, or how should we think of it on, like, a runway going forward?

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Oh, yeah, good question. Indeed, we touched upon it also last time. Our GNA is still a bit loaded with what we call corporate costs. In the first quarter, we still had those legal costs, which were kicking in. And also in Q2, we still have some extra load there. But indeed, it goes into the good direction. It's absolutely a very clear focus for us to have that cost under control as much as possible. But good shot. Okay.

speaker
Chris Sung
Analyst, Weber Research

Okay. All right. Thanks so much. That's it for me.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

I'll turn it over.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Chris Weatherby from Citigroup. Please go ahead.

speaker
Chris Weatherby
Analyst, Citigroup

Hey, guys. This is Madeline for Chris. Thanks for taking my question. If we could just go over to the red light green light chart and just thinking about the demand for crude specifically as, you know, you think about the state of the global macro playing out. Just wanted to get your sense of the puts and takes. you know, about the remainder of 2023 regarding any incremental changes that you might see specific to China, you know, as they attempt to emerge from a little bit of, you know, a weaker economic period. I know you noted in the past that China is a crucial swing factor. So I just wanted to hear any thoughts there as well as, you know, how Iran could play into the scenario.

speaker
Brian Gallagher
Head of Investor Relations & Communications

Yeah, good question. I mean, the three things on the China side is that clearly China From our perspective, we don't see the Chinese just buying from an economic GDP perspective. That's clearly a very important part of what they're doing. The second factor, which we think is not being properly focused on, partly because it's very hard to get some numbers, is they continue to buy from our rationale from a strategic perspective. So they're still building reserves. And the third element is, obviously, there's a very strong chain of refinery expansion in that country. which needs to prove as a feedstock to be then repatriated as diesel and other product back into the global markets. So there's a diversity to the Chinese angle, which we think gives it a certain amount of resilience. But again, your guess is as good as ours in terms of if they're going to have a substantial slowdown from here. But we're not seeing any entity of that, and we get a lot of confidence from those three factors. I think all of us pulling the call from six months ago are surprised how resilient the global GDP background has been And, again, that's been sort of reasonably well documented and has underpinned. And you've seen that in our presentation with the IEA upgrading almost consistently since November. And I've noticed a number of investment banks have upgraded this the last few weeks. And with regard to Iran, it's not something that we are sort of hanging our hat on. It's just the fact that it's a story that refuses to go away. We were surprised than anyone a few weeks ago when we saw it sort of being talked about. And, of course, because it's a source of quite – rapid production growth potentially and then that turning into exports, but it could happen. There could be some sort of a deal which would mean Iran would come back into the fold. And I think we wanted to test investors and commentators to make sure that they're aware of how outside the impact would be on tanker markets. It would have a much bigger impact on our market than it would on oil markets. So round trip, yeah, we feel that there are a number of resilient themes with regard to the outlook for crude demand. and that's been reflected short-term in the pricing of crude, but also in particular, as we see from our specific market, a very good freight rate in what is traditionally a very, very quiet time of the year.

speaker
Chris Weatherby
Analyst, Citigroup

Fantastic. I really appreciate that. And then just following up on the Iran comment, is there sort of any type of timeline that you guys would be sort of eyeballing in terms of when that potential benefit could come online, and then what exactly would that How exactly would that translate for Euronav specifically?

speaker
Brian Gallagher
Head of Investor Relations & Communications

No, no, we've got no timeline. I mean, I don't want to turn anyone on the court. I think we've got a hotline to Mr. Biden or anything. But no, it's more to flag the potential change that could happen. It's obviously the fact that there are very relatively few sources that can be tapped to immediately increase the supply of oil. And if, you know, with the war against inflation, that's to become a very important sort of factor. In terms of timelines and backgrounds for that, no, there's no sense of when it would happen. How it would impact on Euronav and other commercial players in a quoted space like ourselves is that you're opening up barrels which are currently not available to us. If they're available to be shipped by Iran, sorry, if we're able to ship from Iran, then that's 1.5 million barrels per day of a potential market, which is completely boxed away from all of us on the commercial side at the moment. That's the reason to flag it. But, look, it's a black swan, if you like, a positive one, but one which we don't have any greater visibility than anyone else. But we felt it was worth flagging given it had been a story which had sort of risen out of nowhere earlier in Q2.

speaker
Chris Weatherby
Analyst, Citigroup

Understood. Okay. Thank you very much for the clarification. Very good.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Omar Naktar from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Thank you.

speaker
Omar Naktar
Analyst, Jefferies

Hi, good afternoon. I'll leave on Brian. I just wanted to ask about, you know, how things are kind of operating from a corporate standpoint. Clearly from the results today, things look like they're running quite well. But just wanted to ask, you know, given all the changes that have been taking place, you know, with Hugo gone and the new supervisory board in place, have there been any changes in how the business at Euronav is running day to day? And really, how involved is the new board with management's decision making?

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Omar, indeed, good afternoon. To tell you, indeed, the focus of the current team remains very well on the strategy as always run in the past. So this is at least very, very clear for everyone working at Turunaf, also for stakeholders in there. And then the new supervisory board currently gives us a positive dynamic. I think it's professional and contributive in the sense that the current or the new supervisory board is challenging us in terms of cost. fleet renewal, and for sure they are wanting us to be the best compared to competition. And this gives us a positive dynamic, making us very focused on the way forward. And hence you saw the results, and we saw them robust and even beating expectations there. So from that perspective, I think it's a very positive plus that we could mention here.

speaker
Omar Naktar
Analyst, Jefferies

Okay. Thanks, Leva. That's good color. Because I was going to ask just sort of strategically about where you see Euronav heading. Obviously, you mentioned the strategy and whether it's disposable of assets, looking at new buildings. I did want to maybe ask, is there some kind of – is a restructuring of Euronav a foregone conclusion, do you think? Or can the business sort of operate as it is? And is there perhaps maybe – a strategic big picture that's going to be announced here in the next perhaps few quarters or few months that says, okay, this is what URINAP plans to do going forward. Here's our new strategy. Is there anything like that that's on the horizon based off of your conversations with the management team and the board? How would you kind of characterize what URINAP is strategically here in the coming months?

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

So, Omar, seeing from that perspective, and I can understand the question, because this is, I think, a lot of shareholders and stakeholders here having that question on the top of their mind. But here I can confirm to you that apparently, currently, there is absolutely no change in strategy. We run the vertical integrated platform, it's delivering, and this is where we continue our journey. And in case, I could imagine, if there is a change, we will be informed and everything will be announced directly to the markets. But for the time being, no changes. We continue and we enjoy the current upcycle. This is where we're standing for. And I cannot say more here than we continue the journey with the teams we have and the strategy which is in place.

speaker
Omar Naktar
Analyst, Jefferies

Thanks, Lieve. That's helpful, Calder. I'm obviously very sensitive to questions and sensitive dynamic overall. I just wanted to hear how you viewed it. Thank you. I'll pass it over.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

No, thank you, Omar.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Frode Markato from Clarkson Securities. Please go ahead.

speaker
Frode Markato
Analyst, Clarkson Securities

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Hi, Frode. Discuss the... Yeah, thank you. Could we discuss the impact of Russian crude exports? You know, how are the cuts from August affecting the market, and what's your outlook for the situation going forward?

speaker
Brian Gallagher
Head of Investor Relations & Communications

Hi Fred, it's Brian here. Yeah, as we mentioned before, we've seen some evidence that there's been some during Q2 buyers of what would previously been sort of dark trade or sanctioned trade from Russia and also India who've jumped over into the commercial play and engaged commercial tanker companies like ourselves and taking some barrels from more likely from the Atlantic than anywhere else. So there has been, as Jonathan said earlier, maybe a bit of a substitution effect But that preceded any sort of real cuts that we'd seen in production exports from Russia. So that's only sort of strengthening that trend. It's not a trade we're doing ourselves, obviously, as I'm sure you're aware. And, of course, with the pricing now with the crude underlying where it is against the Euro's pricing, we think that pressure is going to continue. So I think what we would expect to see is that the dark fleet is going to sort of have to sort of shoulder the a more exaggerated element of that trade disappearing, partly because they've been doing most of it themselves, but also partly because it's an inefficient trade. We think a lot of those players will just sort of part their ships for a period of time. So we actually think there's going to be a reasonably muted impact on the commercial players like ourselves for the time being, unless those cuts become very, very profound And we don't really see that outlook either. But so for the moment, we think it's gonna be a relatively limited impact on us.

speaker
Frode Markato
Analyst, Clarkson Securities

Okay. Are there any other reasons for the weaker FOMX and just next rates you've seen now? You know, how do you see those relative to VLTCs? They used to trade with a premium to VLTCs, right? And, you know, they... Do you expect a comeback with that premium, or is that now behind us?

speaker
Brian Gallagher
Head of Investor Relations & Communications

Over time, we would expect that, if you like, that longer term, as you say, medium term market sort of structure and profile to return, where the Vs would be more leading. We felt the Vs has been fighting back as a subsector. They've been more and more involved in the STS trades, ship transfer trades. and taking some of that oil ultimately to China and to India. And we would expect to see the fact that we're seeing very long-haul trades beginning to develop on a substitution basis from the Atlantic to the Far East, that that would re-establish itself. We're still going to see pockets, as you mentioned before. The Afromax still feels reasonably well positioned to us with some new growth opportunities, in particular coming from Canada. But the Suezmax will be somewhere in between. But this isn't going to be an instant sort of reestablishment of that orderly market. I think it's going to take another, we think it's going to take another six to 12 months before we see that. But we're very comfortable in the view that the Vs will sort of reassert their preeminence probably more likely in 2024. Okay.

speaker
Frode Markato
Analyst, Clarkson Securities

Sounds good. Thank you. Thanks, Frodo.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Ben Nolan from Stiefel. Please go ahead.

speaker
John Chappell
Analyst, Evercore ISI

Yeah, thanks. So, a couple. The first is, I believe that there has been an expansion of Corpus just recently, an expansion of some of the Corpus Christi export capacity that enables greater loading for VLCCs, which removes a little of the reverse laddering dynamic. Just trying to think through, Brian, if you guys have consider sort of how we should think about or how you think about the impact of that? Does it draw in more Vs and thus help the V market, or does the inefficiency of reverse spidering sort of offset that?

speaker
Brian Gallagher
Head of Investor Relations & Communications

No, I think it's the same as before, Ben, in particular from where we were. If we go back to the ancient times, it was sort of 2017-18 when there was like an arms race between Each of those locations down there with Corpus Christi being one of the most prominent ones, we think it's sort of reestablishing itself now as a theme. I mean, we're consistently now in the high fours, low five million barrels per day of US exports. So now we think it's going to become a new growth mode. And the good news for the commercial sector in particular and those quoted companies is that, as you know, it's a reasonably focused market and the players that can enjoy that market are those big commercial players like ourselves. But, no, we feel that's a trend that's really beginning to reassert itself again. And as we know, the marginal export or marginal, sorry, production of U.S. crude is being exported. So, no, it's a bit of a reheating. And we actually did a paper on this in one of our annual reports. I think it was in 2017. A lot of that was obviously taken away with COVID. But a lot of those things we wrote about then are relevant today again.

speaker
John Chappell
Analyst, Evercore ISI

Okay. And then as it relates to the advisory board, and I appreciate that, you know, A, there's some degree of this. We'll see how it plays out. And thinking about the fleet and acknowledging that it's business as usual, but is it fair to assume that in a near term there's probably unlikely to be any material changes in the fleet mix between other than the new buildings, you know, just you're not really being active in buying or selling anything.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Is that a fair assumption? Again, I have a bit to repeat myself. Our board members, and this is really a plus, have a strong understanding of our business. And they have an interest in maximizing value for Euronav. and all its investors, including themselves for sure. But here we are confident that if we come with good files, good things, that there will be ears and eyes and a decision taken. So from that perspective also, I only can reiterate what I'm saying is that having the supervisory board currently, that if we come with good topics, they are absolutely supportive and will contribute to the net bottom line.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Ben.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Thank you, Ben.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. And the next question comes from Vice Burkhelter from ABN Emeril Auto BHF. Please go ahead.

speaker
Vice Burkhelter
Analyst, ABN AMRO BHF

Yeah, good afternoon. Congratulations with the beautiful performance, especially you, Lieven, showing well as interim or up interim CEO. Can you maybe Give us a bit of an update on how we should look at the procedure of finding or appointing a new CEO and whether you are part of that procedure.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Thank you, first of all. Good afternoon. So, indeed, for your information, The entering position continues, and honestly, we don't ask the question or raise the question. We have now a bit of confidence because of the good results and thanks to the team. This is not only me, but this is the full Euronav team. But for the time being, there is no urgency in one or the other direction. The team continues to be focused on the platform, delivering results for our shareholders. So seen from that perspective, there is no urgency. And let's see where it brings us. We need to give a bit of reasonable time to all stakeholders to settle in and see what comes. But there is nothing on the horizon in one or the other direction, please.

speaker
Vice Burkhelter
Analyst, ABN AMRO BHF

But it's not that, let's say, recruiters have been hired to find someone else or so.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Not that I'm aware of. I think here, not that I'm aware of this. No.

speaker
Vice Burkhelter
Analyst, ABN AMRO BHF

Okay. Then a follow-up question on potential change in strategies. Is it possible or happening already right now that you propose vessel CAPEX in other vessel classes than VLCC or CSMAX?

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

To be clear on this, we are SwissMax's VLCCs, so there we have absolute expertise. So you could imagine that if we go with files, that this will be primarily oriented towards SwissMax VLCCs. You never know that there is an interest in doing something else, but for the time being, we continue with our expertise, what we have with the teams, and which is very much focused on SwissMax and VLCCs.

speaker
Vice Burkhelter
Analyst, ABN AMRO BHF

Okay. Very good. That's a good day.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Thank you, Dave. You too.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Sharif El-Maghrabi from BTIG. Please go ahead.

speaker
Sharif El-Maghrabi
Analyst, BTIG

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask about forward booking. Almost half of Q3 has been fixed at about $45,000 for scrubber-fitted VLCCs. Can you remind us how much of your VLCC fleet has scrubbers? And is there a program to outfit the rest of the fleet over time?

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

So currently, I see it as one, Suez Maxis as well as VLCCs. We will have 20 scrubber fitted vessels on a total of about 70. So this is currently what we target. So a good diversification, well-balanced fleet. from that perspective. So all our new builds having scrubbers, and we do indeed for some VLCCs who are below 10 years old, we have done some retrofitting with the scrubber. So a total 20 on the total fleet for the time being.

speaker
Sharif El-Maghrabi
Analyst, BTIG

Okay. Thank you very much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over Liva Lager for any closing remarks.

speaker
Liva Logger
Interim Chief Executive & CFO

Thank you, Jason. So thank you to give me the opportunity to thank Brian and Inia to stand by my side for this call. I would like to thank the whole Euronav team for the quarter, which has been run very, very well and looking forward to what comes next. And I would like to thank all the listeners to this call for their interest in Euronav. I think as a concluding remark or conclusion, I can say the Euronav platform is well positioned to continue its journey for all its shareholders and taking advantage of the upcycle. Wishing you all a very good day and hear you next time. Thank you. Bye-bye.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

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