FLEX LNG Ltd.

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the FLEX LNG first quarter 2021 earnings presentation conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star and 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference has been recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Øystein Karleklev. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to today's FlexLNG webcast. I'm glad you could make it. I'm Øystein Karleklev, the CEO of FlexLNG Management, and I will be joined today by our new CFO, Knut Rohrholt who will walk you through the numbers as well as providing a financial update a bit later on. Today we will be presenting the first quarter results for 2021 and this is the presentation we have been looking forward to share with you. Please also note that the replay of this webcast will be available at FlexLNG.com and also on the FlexLNG YouTube channel. So slide two disclaimer before we start the presentation. I will remind you of the disclaimer with regards to, among others, forward-looking statements, non-GAAP measures, and completeness of details. And the full disclaimer is available in the presentation, and we recommend that the presentation is read together with the earnings report we also released today. So let's kick off on slide number three, the highlights. The LNG market has been remarkably strong this year. We started off with a boom at the start of the year with both LNG product prices and freight rates going sky high. However, it's fair to say that these very high levels reflected a market more or less sold out for both cargoes and ships. So only a few cargoes and sport voyages were able to fetch these levels. And this is also basic economics. When something is scarce, it tends to be expensive, if in high demand, with limited price elasticity and substitution. So the market cooled off by mid-February, driven by warmer winter in Asia, a flurry of new building deliveries at the start of the year, as well as the disruptions in the US due to the big freeze in February. The market, however, quickly rebounded by end of March, and a quick turnaround also increased appetite by charters for term deals. Nobody really wants to be short shipping after the experience from last winter, particularly given the low gas inventories, which increases the odds for winter volatility this next season. We have utilized a strong market to execute on our strategy of securing a higher degree of employment visibility and thus de-risking the company's freight exposure with about 22 years of minimum fixed higher employment secured since last reporting and these charters are done at attractive levels and I will cover this in more details shortly. In 2019 and 2020, we had a multitude of factors playing against this strategy, being the trade war between US and China, two record war winters in a row, adversely impacting gas demand, and then finally the COVID-19 pandemic rampaging the world economy and thus also the energy demand. This also included LNG demand. Even though LNG, in contrast to nearly all other energy sources, recorded a small increase in demand of about 1% in 2020, but this fell well below expectations of about 7%. However, this year we will catch up a lot of this growth, with 7-8% growth expected, as we do not expect cargo cancellation this summer, given the strong demand growths. With the world economy set to grow healthy this year, and a cold winter which has dragged down gas inventories, the LNG market has rebalanced, and freight rates have thus strongly bounced back. During the quarter, we took delivery of two more ships, being Flex Freedom and Flex Volunteer, and we will have completed our $2.5 billion investment program with Flex Vigilant set for delivery by end of May. So by end of the May, we will have 13 state-of-the-art LNG carriers on the water. Despite the challenges imposed by COVID-19, when it comes to crew changes, inspections and services, we have continued to operate our ships with excellent safety and operational performance. Our LTI lost time injury was 0-0-0 in 2018, 2019 and 2020. There is actually a typo here. We recently had a small injury, so the LTI frequency, which is injuries per million hour walked last 12 months, is currently 0.09. Although this is way below the industry standard, we intend to bring this back to zero again. I'm also pleased to say that only 2% of our crew is currently overdue on their contracts, which compares very favourable to the rest of the industry. So once again, a great thanks to our seafarers and onshore personnel for making the propeller run. Our technical team has more than 200 years of experience, so they are not new to shipping. Our top management, consisting of Knut, Ben, Marius and myself, have also worked in shipping and LNG for most of our careers. Jay Minsmeier actually made me aware today that FlexLNG is the only shipping company in his research coverage with a straight A rating for management. In terms of financials, I am pleased that we delivered revenues of 81.3 million in line with guidance of 80 to 90 million when we reported on February 17th. At the time of reporting, we had 13% of remaining days to be booked, as well as three ships on variable higher contracts linked to the spot market rates. The market took a nosedive from the middle of February until end of March, for reasons already described, and this is why we ended up in the lower end of the guidance range. Nevertheless, we delivered a TCE of 75,400 in first quarter, slightly ahead of 73,700 in fourth quarter. This resulted in an adjusted net income for the first quarter of 34.2 million, or 64 cents per share. As long-term interest rates rebounded in 2021, driven by improved economic outlook, we booked a 13 million gain on our interest rate swaps utilized for hedging. And our official net income was therefore 47.2 million for the quarter of translating into 88 cents per share. As you might recall, our official earning numbers last year were dragged down by unrealized losses on such derivatives due to a plummeting long-term interest rate, but we see a reversal of this now as the world is recovering gradually from the pandemic. It's also worth reminding you all that we have secured long-term attractive financing for all our ships, including Flex Vigilant, set for delivery by end of the month and we also have a super strong liquidity position with 139 million of cash at hand at the end of first quarter. This healthy financial situation coupled with the strong contract coverage gives us ample room to pay an attractive dividend and also potentially buy back more of our stock. Hence we are therefore pleased to announce an increase in the dividend from 30 cents for fourth quarter to 40 cents per share for the first quarter. With the current stock price of around $13, I believe it's a bit up today, this translates into an annualized yield of about 12%, which should be attractive in the current low interest rate environment. Our stock still trading below book value of about $16 per share. Our book, or balance sheet, consists of brand new ships on the water, acquired at attractive prices compared to today's new building prices, which are going up. Additionally, all our ships are attractively financed, and today the ship comes with an attractive backlog as well. Thus, we still find it attractive to buy back our stock. During the first quarter, we therefore bought back 593,000 shares, representing about 10 cents per share, bringing the total to 800,000 shares bought back. The board has therefore decided to increase the cap under the buyback program from $12 to $14 per share, which is still approximately 12% discount to book value. Slide 4. So in Flex LNG, we don't execute. We flexicute. As mentioned in the highlight section, the LNG market has recovered and rebalanced. The Asian and European spot LNG or gas prices, JKM and TTF, which fell below $2 and $1 at the nadir of the COVID-19 pandemic, are now at around $10 and $9. This is five to nine times higher than last year at this time of year and strong also in historical perspective for this time of year. With better market, there have also been better opportunities for us to carry out our intended strategy of fixing our modern ships on longer-term contracts. When we expanded our fleet in 2018 from six to 13 ships, we also took the decision to recruit and build up a top-notch in-house technical management, Flex LNG Fleet Management. received its driver license or document of compliance, as it's called in shipping, about a year later in October 2019. And during the end of 2019 and into 2020, we gradually took over the management of all our ships in-house. Having the ships in-house means we are more in control of how we operate our ships, And this should, in our view, as we have said before, put us in a better position to attack longer-term contracts, as major LNG traders tend to prefer owners with in-house organizations, given the mission-critical nature of LNG ships in the LNG value chain. However, long-term contracts don't just arrive at the doorstep. Charters want to see the organization actually delivering great performance, and this we have certainly evidenced through the stress test imposed by COVID-19. We also took the prudent decision to finance the company with ample equity and flexible long-term financing for all ships to be able to trade our ships spot and rather pick the right moment to execute on our strategy when the time was right. And 2020 was certainly not the right year to fix ships on long-term fixed hire contracts given the upheaval in the markets. So during the last month or so, we have fixed six, possibly seven of our ships on attractive term employment. On April 14, we announced an agreement with Chenier to fix three ships in 2021 with them, and one or possibly two ships in 2022. Flex Vigilant will be delivered to Chenier on a three-year contract extra at the end of the month. Flex Endeavour has already commenced a charter with Chenier as we agreed early delivery of this vessel with the charter duration thus expanding to about 3.75 years minimum duration. We also plan to deliver Flex Ranger on a three and a half year contract to Chenier in third quarter. Next year Chenier will take one or two of our ships, this also on 3.5 years time charters. These vessels will be nominated ahead of delivery, so it's still not sure which vessel will be delivered to Chenier. Under the agreement, the Charter also has the option to extend all vessels by up to two additional years. Then on 17th of May, we agreed a three-year time charter for Flex Constellation with a major trading house. The time charter was based upon delivery, so Flex Constellation has already commenced this charter. Under this agreement, the Charter also has the option to extend the Charter by up to three additional years. And lastly, last night, on May 20th, we agreed to fix flex freedom on a three- or five-year time charter with a portfolio player with commencement of this contract in direct continuation of an existing time charter elapsing in the first or early part of the second quarter of 2022. We will be notified in advance whether it will be three- or five-year minimum firm period, and such notification is due in third quarter this year. The charter will also have the option to extend this contract by two additional years. This time charter remains subject to final documentation and customary closing conditions. Slide number five, fleet composition. Let's have a look at our fleet composition after the recent flurry of flexecution. In total since reporting in February, we have added 22 years of firm backlog to our fleet with up to an additional 20.5 years of optional backlog. Hence, our earnings visibility has been transformed as a consequence of these fixtures. Today, we have three chips linked to the spot market through variable higher contracts. These are Flex Enterprise, which is on her third year of her variable higher contract with firm contract coverage until end of first quarter next year. but where the charter has the option to extend that by another two years. Flex Amber is on a similar contract into Q4, where the charter can also extend by two additional years. Last, the vessel on variable hire contract is Flex Artemis, which we secured a minimum five-year contract with Gunvor at the end of 2019, with commencement of her charter in connection with delivery of this ship in August last year. Gunvor has the option to extend this contract by up to five additional years. We now also have a substantial part of our feet on long-term fixed higher contracts. As mentioned, Flex Freedom is currently fixed on a 10-month time charter maturing in end of Q1 next year, with a three- or five-year time charter in direct continuation with our portfolio player. Flex Constellation was recently fixed on a three-year time charter with a major trading house. Then we have Flex Endeavor, which has already commenced her 3.75-year charter with Chenier, with Flex Vigilant set to join her on May 31st, and Flex Ranger during third quarter. Then Chenier will take one or possibly two ships on a three-and-a-half-year time charter in third quarter next year. Hence, we can pick and choose from our existing ships. But for simplicity, we have included Flex Courageous and Flex Aurora as the optional ship for the 10-year contract. Flex Courageous is currently on an 11-month fixed hire time charter and will be re-delivered to us at the end of Q1 next year. Flex Aurora is also fixed on a fixed hire time charter where the charter has the option to extend this ship for an additional six months, taking her into Q1 next year. Flex Resolute is also on a similar contract, where the three months extension option was recently declared, but where the charter can extend by another three months. In any case, these two positions are very attractive, so we would be perfectly fine trading these two ships in the spot market, in case they are not extended. Then, we have Flex Rainbow, which is fixed on a 12-month time charter in Q1 this year, with re-delivery in Q1 next year, where the charter has the option to extend by another year into Q1 2023. And lastly, we have one ship remaining in the spot market today, Flex Voltaire, which is fixed into Q3. Given the positive outlook, we are very happy trading her in the spot market. So slide number six, the backlog. So let's talk about visibility. As we have secured substantial backlog during the last month or so, our forward earnings visibility has also increased substantially, with a minimum of 88% of the remaining days in Q2, Q3 and Q4 covered. As mentioned on last slide, we only have one chip, Flex Voluntair, trading in the spot market, with the possibility of having also Flex Aurora and Flex Resolute re-delivered in Q3 or Q4 this year. But again, as I mentioned, these are very good positions we would be happy trading spot, as these periods also coincide with the winter market. We also have three ships linked to the spot market through the variable higher contracts, so we are exposed to the spot market through these four, possibly up to six ships, while the rest of the fleet are on fixed higher contracts. This means we can fairly accurately predict the revenues for the company for the rest of the year under normal operations. As we have been in investment phase through 2018 to second quarter this year, we have incrementally grown our fleet of ships on the water during this period. We started off 2019 with four ships on the water and closed the year with six ships on the water. During 2020, we added another four ships on the water, while we are adding the remaining three ships to our fleet in 2021. Hence, it should not come as a surprise that our revenues are growing. This also means that finally all the equity invested in the company is being employed in productive assets, as in the past a substantial part of our equity has been tied up in vessels under construction, which returns are zero. Second quarter is normally the weakest quarter in the year, and this we also expect to be the case this year, with around 65 million of assumed revenues for this quarter. The quarter is fully booked, so the unknown factor is the earnings we will be making under the three variable higher contracts in our portfolio. In third quarter, we have also a high booking, so variation here is mostly linked to spot earnings for volunteers and the earnings under the variable higher contracts. But we expect revenues to bounce back to the level of Q1, as you can see from the graph. For fourth quarter, which tends to be the strongest quarter, although this year Q1 was slightly stronger than Q4, we also have a high degree of days covered, as mentioned, but we expect revenues to grow closer to $100 million for this quarter. As we have had three ships for delivery in the first half of the year, with Flex Vigilant set for delivery by end of May, we also have no more CapEx commitment in the second half of the year. Hence, cash flow available for distribution to shareholders will therefore also be higher. So, next slide, number seven. So just to give a summarize before handing over to Knut. As I mentioned in the past, we have the industry low cash break even of around $45,000. As you can see from what I've described, we have substantial backlog, not only in 2021, but also for 2022, 23 and 24. This gives us ample room to pay our dividends. As mentioned, our adjusted earnings per share in the first quarter was 64 cents. We are paying out 40 cents as dividend. We have bought back shares for around $5.5 million, bringing the distribution to 10 cents per share. And then we also had two shifts for delivery. So kind of the payments to the yard here was around 12 cents. per share for those two ships. But, you know, given COVID, you know, we have added some extra spares to the ships. Usually when you take delivery of a ship, you are using around $2 million for spares and stores. We have been more like $3 million each of these ships. So So these are kind of capex which are invested in spares for the ships because it can be hard to get spares these days. So we have a payout ratio of the free cash flow here of in excess of 100%. But, you know, this is well covered with 139 million of free liquidity, no debt maturities before second half of 2024. And... the strong balance sheet I mentioned. So then maybe, Knut, you can go through the financials.

Thank you, Esten. Let's turn to slide 8 and the income statement. Revenues for the quarter came in at 81.3 million, in line with our guidance for the quarter of 80 to 90 million. This is up from 67.4 million in the previous quarter. The increase is due to the delivery of the new buildings Flex Freedom and Flex Volunteer in January and a slightly improved market with the fleet delivering a TZ rate for the quarter of 75,400 per day up from 73,700 per day in the previous quarter. Operating expenses were 14.3 million in the first quarter compared to 14.5 million in the fourth quarter, despite that we had a larger fleet this quarter. This resulted in an OPEX per day of 12,900 per day versus 15,300 per day in the last quarter. The difference is explained by higher COVID-related expenses in Q4. And despite the positive reduction in the operating expenses, we continue to face higher COVID-related expenses caused by challenging crew changes and quarantine, increased loo boil prices and additional cost of transporting spares and services to our vessels. These costs can be a bit bumpy, as illustrated in Q4, but we are now back to a normalized level in Q1, and we expect smoother uptakes once the restrictions are gradually lifted. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was 64 million, up from 50.2 million in the previous quarter. Interest expenses were up in Q1 due to a full quarter of interest on the debts related to the vessels delivered during the vote quarter and a full quarter of interest related to flex freedom and volunteer delivered in January. Net income for the quarter was 47.2 million or 88 cents per share, up from about 28 million or 48 cents per share in the previous quarter. Adjusted net income was 34 million, or 64 cents per share, up from 24 million, or 45 cents per share, in the previous quarter. The difference between earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share is, as I then explained, related to our interest rate hedging, where we recorded a net gain of $13 million in Q1 due to long-term interest rates bouncing back, but we used the adjusted numbers to smooth out this mark-to-mark change of the interest rate instrument. Then, moving to slide 9 and our balance sheet. At 31st of March, we had 12 vessels in operation and booked as vessels and equipment. During the quarter, we took delivery of two new buildings and added $372.5 million from vessel prepayments to vessels and equipment, increasing an aggregate book value of the vessels to $2.2 billion. We have $54 million as remaining vessel prepayment relating to our last new building, Flex Vigilant. She's scheduled to be delivered on the 31st of May to our fleet. As mentioned previously, once all ships are delivered, our balance sheet will be about 2.5 billion, comprising of 13 ships as well as our substantial cash holdings. Total interest-bearing debt stood at 1.4 billion at the quarter end, reflecting 20 million increase of the RCF under the original $100 million range of facility. and adding drawdown of 125 million in connection with the delivery of flex volunteer and offset by 20 million in schedule repayments at the quarter end we had a strong cash position at 139 million total book equity was 861 million giving a solid equity ratio of 35 percent compared to our 25 percent requirement under some of our laws. Turning to slide 10 and looking at the cash flow for the first quarter. In the first quarter, we had a positive net cash flow of 10 million. This comes from cash flow from operations of 48.4 million. And we had negative working capital adjustment of 4.5 million. compared to a positive working capital adjustment of 14.4 million in the fourth quarter. The adjustment is mainly related to higher prepaid charter hire due to a stronger market at the end of the fourth quarter compared with the first quarter. On average, these working capital balances tend to even out, but as we are operating on only time charter basis, we receive charter hire in advance, which is advantageous from a working capital perspective. Scheduled loan installments were 20 million, and in total 20.7 million, including the scheduled reduction of the amortizing range of RCF. Net new building CapEx was 11.9 million, and as mentioned previously, we increased the RCF under the original $100 million range of facility with a $20 million non-amortizing tranche, adding additional liquidity and flexibility. In November, we announced a buyback program of up to 4.1 million shares, and during the first quarter, we purchased an additional 597,000 shares for $5.3 million, or $8.80 per share on average. This, together with the 30 cent per share dividend for the fourth quarter, or 16.1 million, was paid out during the first quarter. In conclusion, we had a positive net cash flow of 10 million, which leaves us with a robust total cash balance of 139 million at the end of the quarter. Turning to slide 11. This is a familiar slide to our frequent followers. We have, over the last years, secured a total of 1.7 billion of attractive financing for the fleet of 13 vessels. At the same time, we have diversified our funding base with a mix of bank financing, lease financing, and ECA financing. As communicated at the fourth quarter presentation, we had secured commitment for the 20 million increase under the 100 million range of facility and the amendment was signed in March and then the amount was fully available thereafter. We have hedged the interest rate risk with interest rate swaps for a nominal amount of 674 million at quarter end. During the quarter, we terminated two swaps and used a positive value to enter a new swap at a lower fixed rate. The average fixed interest rate for our swaps is 1.15%. Together with the leases on fixed rate, we have a hedge ratio of about 66%. All in all, we have a very comfortable debt majority profile with the first maturity due in July 2024. And this is provided by a pool of 15 different financial institutions. And over the years, we have demonstrated our ability to raise attractive funding. Also, during challenging times, both in the physical and the financial markets, as we have a very strong support from our wide banking group. And with that, I hand the word back to Øystein, who will give an update on the market.

Thank you, Knut, for the financial review. Plain sailing for you. You really picked the right job. So, slide number 12. We start off the market section with a snapshot of LNG exports and imports in the first quarter. In the first quarter of 2021, Exports were close to 102 million tons, 101 million tons, according to Kepler data. This was slightly in line with last year, despite the lost cargoes due to the big freeze in Texas during February, as well as some other supply disruptions during the quarter. Keep in mind, volume growth in the first quarter of 2020 was very high, as this was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic going viral on a global scale. What is different from last year is that we saw considerably more pull from Asia, and particularly China, as the winter weather in Asia at the start of the year was very cold, with snow records in Japan and the coldest winter in Beijing since 1966. So strong demand from Asia also resulted in increased sailing distances, and this, coupled with Panama congestion, sparked an unprecedented rally in both freight and product prices at the start of the year. As we explained both in our Q3 report in November and our Q4 report in February, we have been very bullish on volume growth in 2021, with estimated export growth of about 25 million tons in 2021, As product prices started to rally last autumn, and this have now started to become the consensus view. So as you can see from the graph to the right-hand side, we expect 7% to 8% export growth in 2021, which will be supportive of the freight market, which we will cover on the next two slides. So turning to slide 13, the spot market for freight. As mentioned in the highlights, the boom at the end of 2020 continued into 2021 before softening by the middle of February when we were reporting our fourth quarter. However, the downturn was short, with the market bouncing back by end of April. As usual, we saw this first with the ballast bonus conditions going from full round-trip basis in January to one-way economics by end of February, before we started to see green shoots in March, with ballast bonus conditions turning back to full round-trip again by the middle of April, and thus pushing up the time-chartered equivalent earnings in the spot market. By end of April, going into May, the freight market was unseasonably strong, with spot rates for modern tonnage, i.e. large, mega or XTF ships, approaching $100,000 per day in the Atlantic, with somewhat lower rates in the Pacific as new building deliveries kept vessel availability higher in this basin. As you can see from the graph on the right-hand side of the slide, availability of ships in Atlantic have been very low, except for during the big freeze in February in the U.S., when export of U.S. was, for a short period, curtailed, and more vessels became available in the Atlantic. The high freight rates have, however, attracted relets into the market, and we have seen the market softening during the last two weeks due to slightly more vessel availability, and rates For modern tonnage, returning to around $80,000 per day in both the Atlantic and Pacific Basin. But, you know, these are very solid numbers for May, as you can see on the graph to the left. However, the relets in the market are typically only available for shorter durations as the traders and portfolio players typically want these ships back before winter season approaching, and this is thus not affecting the term market significantly, as I will illustrate on the next slide. So, term market, slide 14. Let's have a look at the term market for freight. In this graph, we show the term rates for one, three, and five years over the last year following the COVID-19 pandemic. As you can see, the five-year TCR assessment flatlined during most of the last year, as there was also limited interest for such periods by charters, which could fix vessels cheap in the spot market or for shorter-term business. The one-year TCE last year were around 55,000 to 57,500 before turning sharply up from the beginning of April, and now hovering close to $100,000 per day. The three-year TCE rate, which is less liquid than the 12-month TCE, followed the 12-month close months tc rate closely before also picking up from april now being at around 80 000 per day so given the unattractiveness of term business during the last approximately 12 months until we started to see green shoots at the end of march we elected to rather tread the water playing the spot market at the start of the year eight of our 13 ships were either trading spot or on variable higher contracts. Plus, we also had our last new building open. Despite pursuing this strategy, we managed to sail in $60,000 in time-chartered equivalent earnings for 2020, while keeping our options open, which was much more attractive than fixing chips on poor rates for longer durations. Of course, we were... in the fortunate position that we had financed our ships in advance and sat with a big chunk of cash so we could afford to take the wait for better times approach, which was not the case for all owners. With term rates picking up recently, we have utilized the momentum to fix a large part of our fleet on term contracts at much more attractive rates than what was achievable last year and 2019 for that matter, so there is definitely some truth to patience being our virtue. So gas prices on slide 15. As previously highlighted, gas prices started to recover over the summer last year. As we highlighted in our Q2 report last August, there was already at that time a La Nina alert for the winter 2020-2021, which normally means the winter weather will be cold and longer in the major gas importing nations. We therefore elected to keep substantial spot exposure over this period, and made healthy trading results for both Q4 and Q1, as recently explained. The winter came a bit late, but when it arrived, it was freezing cold, and it also lasted for a very long time, especially here in Europe. Last autumn, we also experienced the most active hurricane season on record in the US, which caused supply disruption. In the short term, this Supply disruptions were negative of rate due to lost cargoes, but the supply disruptions also fueled the product prices, with Asian LNG benchmark JKM going from a low of $1.8 during the early part of the summer last year to a high of $32.5 early 2021. The average price of the February JKM contract was $18, ten times the price during last summer. As you can see from the graph, the big freeze in the U.S. also led to a spike in the U.S. gas prices, here represented by the Henry Hub Index. Given the bull run in oil prices, U.S. shale drilling has become increasingly profitable, so natural gas prices have returned to sub-$3 level, with forward prices also in this level. JKM prices are today close to $10, while European TTF gas prices are slightly below $9. Driven up by increased demand, significantly higher carbon prices, increasing the switching band from coal to gas, as well as due to significant restocking demand due to very low gas inventories after this cold winter, which I will return to on the next slide. So, last point to make. Its forward prices for gas are at an entirely different level this year than last year, and this gives no incentive to cancel cargoes in U.S., or for that matter, Egypt, which has become the new swing producer, and that's why we are also confident on big volume increases this year. So, slide 16, gas inventories. Gas inventories, as we started to highlight in our December 2020 presentation, the strong demand from Asia at the end of 2020 was pulling cargoes away from the Atlantic Basin and away from European buyers, with rapid depletion of gas inventories in Europe as a consequence. The Asian demand pull continued into 2021, as I illustrated earlier, resulting in severe congestion in the Panama Canal and booming freight rest at the start of the year. We therefore continued to highlight in our January and February presentation that European buyers were being starved off from gas deliveries and therefore had to continue to run down their inventories quickly. This was further aggregated by a cold and long winter in Europe with record snowfall in Madrid and a high carbon price in Europe with CO2 prices hitting above 50 euros per which meant that gas became increasingly competitive towards coal despite higher gas prices. Hence, we have been arguing for strong restocking demand over the summer, minimizing the chance of a repeat of the summer cargo cancellations. We thus became increasingly comfortable with the market situation for 2021 and elected to keep a very high proportion of our fleet exposed to the spot market at the start of the year, as mentioned, until we have now acted on term opportunities. European inventories today stand at only 33.5% full, which is less than half the levels last year. European inventories are about 70 million ton equivalent of LNG, so the shortfall in European inventories are almost twice the volumes of U.S. cargo cancellations last year, And it is almost inconceivable that European buyers will be able to fill up inventories ahead of next winter. And this can spur gas prices and volatility, particularly if economic recovery is strong and or if the winter is not even cold, but just normal. So slide 17, the fleet composition analysis. Last quarter presentation, I had a very long section about the new decarbonization rules for all ships, or EEXI as it's called. We expect the new rules to be agreed by IMO in June, and these rules will create headaches, particularly for the owners of older steam tonnage, but opportunities for owners of state-of-the-art ships. I'm not going to repeat the lecture from last presentation, but it's available on our webpage for those who missed it. What I would like to point out is that the order book, which some analysts thought was too big this year to make for a conductive freight market, is tailing off, and a number of available uncommitted vessels have come down a lot with the recent increase in term interest. The mix of a few available MEG-EXDEF ships, EEXI rules, generally higher new billing prices, and the fact that a lot of older tonnage is coming off long-term contracts, will result in more opportunities for us to fix ships on attractive term charters. We are now focusing on our 2022 positions, given our high coverage for 2021, and the recent forward fixture of FlexFreedom illustrates this point and opportunity. So, that's my last slide before summarizing. As I mentioned, revenues, in line with guidance, we have a substantial backlog for 2021 already booked. Dividend, we are increasing this now to 40 cents in addition to the buybacks. All ships will be on water by end of the month. As I've covered in great detail, we have a positive market outlook with summer restocking, and we are in a very good financial position with all ships financed, super strong balance sheet, and lots of liquidity. So that's it for me. I'm happy to take some questions if there are any.

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Yeah, okay. Once again, everything is very clear. It seems like telephone is going out of vogue. So maybe we should try to focus more on the chat function for questions next time. But until then, I wish you a very good weekend, a good spring. We will be back. In August, with the second quarter results, probably somewhere in the middle of August, I think the market will be very healthy at that time. Don't rule out trade rates going into six digits by that time. We will probably see contango structure developing in the gas prices because of fear of Panama congestion. So I think, you know, I'm really looking forward to the second quarter as well. So with that, I wish you a good day.

This concludes today's conference call.