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spk08: Good morning and welcome to the Anetti, Inc. Third Quarter 2023 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 telephone keypad. 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 James Doyle, Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
spk05: James Doyle Thank you for joining us today. Welcome to the Annette Yank Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. On the call with me are Emanuele Oro, Chief Executive Officer, Robert Bugbee, President, Cameron Mackey, Chief Operating Officer, Hugh Baker, Chief Financial Officer, Michael Ferrante, Chief Accounting Officer, and Sebastian Brook, Chief Executive Officer of CJACS. Earlier today, we issued our third quarter earnings press release, which is available on our website, annettink.com. The information discussed on this call is based on information as of today, November 14th, 2023, and may contain forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainty. Actual results and events may differ materially from those set forth in such statements. For discussion of these risks and uncertainties, you should review the forward-looking statement disclosure in the earnings press release issued today, as well as Annette Inc.' 's SEC filings, which are available at annetteinc.com and sec.gov. Call participants are advised that the audio of this conference call is being broadcast live on the Internet, and it is also being recorded for playback purposes. An archive of the webcast will be made available on the investor relations page of our website for approximately 14 days. After opening remarks, we'll go to Q&A. Now, I'd like to introduce our Chief Executive Officer, Emanuele Woro.
spk03: Thank you, James. Welcome, everybody, and thank you for joining us today. The third quarter was a productive quarter for the company on many different levels. We have generated more than 53 million of revenue and an adjusted net income of $18.5 million. Since September, we have announced three employment contracts, which are expected to generate between 250 and $330 million of revenue. This is figures after project costs. For our new buildings, we have secured two major contracts at rates in excess of $350,000 per day. And even more impressively, we've secured a $255,000 per day contract for the Scylla, which is starting in 2024, with a perfectly timely start upon conclusion of our current employment. Recently, the increasing attention on the US offshore wind market and its challenges has somewhat overshadowed the strength in Europe and Asia for offshore wind. We do expect the US to overcome these challenges, but we must highlight that this is a global market and one in which the US represents only a portion of the overall demand. And this is where Enetti via Seagex makes a difference with its global presence in markets like Asia and Europe, as well as the United States. The day rates on our new contracts are reflecting a tightening of supply and demand for offshore wind on a global level. And in addition, they are rates which generate significant returns on equity. Our total contractual backlog, including options for 2024 to 2027, it is just shy of $450 million. On the operational front, we expect to close very shortly the previously announced $436 million new building financing for our two vessels, which are currently under construction in Korea. In October, so last month, we completed the sale of the first NG-2500 vessel, the Sea-Jex Kraken, and we delivered her to her new owner. In conjunction with this, the company has repaid $12.6 million of debt related to all three, the NG-2500s, and thus the subsequent delivery of the two additional sister vessels, will not have any further debt repayments. On the merger front, as we all know, in June we've entered into a business combination agreement with Caddler. The transaction remains on schedule. All antitrust and foreign direct investment regulators have either cleared the transaction or confirmed that they have no intention to do more work on this file. Last week, Caddler announced the commencement of the share exchange offer for Anetti's outstanding shares. The merits and rationale of the transaction remain the same. As a combined entity, the scale and our respective capabilities will create significant value at a time when offshore wind needs reliable partners and reliable solutions. We are confident that this combined entity will continue to drive positive outcomes for our shareholders as well as our customers. Scorpio Holdings will remain the second largest shareholder after the BW Group in the combined entity, and I myself will be nominated to serve as vice chairman of the company. Before turning the call over, I would like to ask you to continue to support us by tendering your shares in the exchange offer in support of the business combination. Thank you very much, and I would like now to open the call for questions, if any. Thank you.
spk08: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2.
spk07: At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. And our first question comes from Greg Lewis of BTIG.
spk08: Please go ahead.
spk00: Yeah, thank you, and good morning, and thanks for taking my question. James, maybe you could remind us, as we go through the tender process, how much of the shares need to be tendered to push the merger forward? Okay, and so in the event week, is that 85% of total shares outstanding?
spk05: Of a netty total shares outstanding, that's correct, 85.01% according to the prospectus.
spk00: Okay, and so in the event, just for clarity, in the event that we're unable to get to that, does then the timeline expand, which could then result in maybe, I guess if we don't get to the 85%, how long of an extension do we get to kind of track down the other outstanding shares for the vote?
spk03: There are mechanisms. It's Emanuele here, Greg. There are mechanisms to address that. However, at this stage, we are confident that we're going to reach that threshold, so we're looking forward to reaching that threshold very soon.
spk00: Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. That's all for me.
spk03: Thank you.
spk08: The next question comes from Ben Nolan of Spiegel. Please go ahead.
spk09: Great, thanks. And it turns out there are questions. Mine are, I have two actually. First of all, could you give a little bit of clarity with how the vessel reservation agreement works? At what point does that turn into a firm contract or maybe just a little detail around that?
spk03: Sebastian, do you want to take this?
spk06: Yeah. I think without getting into any more detail than has been made public already, it depends on the specific contract, but typically you will have a period of months during which time you will conclude the charter contract around prearranged terms effectively, so the main commercial terms and what have you, and that period of time varies depending on the client.
spk09: okay and and i guess in this case it's you're not able to disclose that time frame is that correct correct it's okay yeah let me let me disclose what's been made public yeah all right um actually for you sebastian the second question or my second question here is um Obviously, in the last month or so, there's been all sorts of turmoil as it relates to U.S. offshore wind. It's been a challenge for a while. In your opinion, are we getting to that point where things are finally starting to reach a level of rationalization where pricing is going to be adjusted accordingly and we're, you know, this is a sort of rip the bandaid off moment and finally the industry is in a position that it should be able to move forward or is it just going to take a lot longer do you think?
spk06: No, I mean, I think the way I look at it is if you, is the way that all the other markets have evolved. So, you know, there were these kind of turbulences in Europe in the early years when again the industry is trying to rationalize itself but in the end it works itself through. You see the same in the Asia-Pacific markets, in Taiwan. So I think that the US is just a reflection of those other markets, and it will steady itself, and it will perpetuate itself on a more reliable footing. So I don't have any worries that it's going to continue to develop like the other markets have. It's just you have a few few tumultuous moments early on.
spk09: Okay. And I guess like, does this feel like a tipping point? Maybe is my question. Does it feel like finally, you know, things can begin to move forward from here?
spk06: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think like you said, it's ripped the bandaid off and, and, and, and that's trying to construct a way forward where it just becomes, you know, sustainable and, business. Right. Yeah. So I think it is a tipping point.
spk09: Okay. All right. I appreciate it. Thanks for taking my questions. Thank you.
spk08: The next question comes from Liam Burke of B Riley. Please go ahead.
spk01: Thank you. On the new builds, the projects proceeding on schedule and on budget manually.
spk03: The short answer is yes, Liam, proceeding on schedule and on budget so far. I don't know if any of my colleagues want to add something, but that's the short version.
spk02: That's fine. That'll work. And on the last two assets, will they be sold – will you deliver them before the end of the fiscal year?
spk03: The expectation is to do so. You know, we have time, I think – uh month into the new year but the expectation is to deliver before the end of the year uh but it may vary for one ship uh for the last vessel it may it may vary but it's uh you know largely relevant to the meaning of the transaction right it depends on uh the employment positioning and when the uh owner can uh step on board so that's uh There's variation which is not going to be meaningfully impacting Enetti.
spk02: Great. Thank you, Emanuele.
spk03: Pleasure.
spk07: The next question comes from Adam Forsyth of Long Spur Capital.
spk08: Please go ahead.
spk04: Thank you very much. Just some more questions probably around what we might describe as wider market turbulence. I just wonder what you're seeing in terms of competitors. Do you think there's any slowing down in terms of the competition putting on new orders for vessels? And actually, beyond that, do you think this could actually see a slowdown in the development of new turbine sizes? Do you think we might start to sort of cap around maybe slightly higher than current levels before we move to the next stage? I wonder also more specifically, are developers now building in longer contract lengths as a result of supply chain issues? Are they taking a more conservative view, and could that actually be beneficial to you? And then related to that, are you seeing any longer setup times between your own contracts? I know you spoke of Skyler moving effectively seamlessly between those next two contracts, but could that be a rarity going forward, or do you think that's something you should be able to continue to achieve in the future? Thanks.
spk06: If I start at the beginning of that, let me address the first two. So the first one was, do we, sorry, can you just walk through the first question you had?
spk04: Do you think, given obviously, you know, turbulence in the wider market? Yes, sorry.
spk06: So this is related to new buildings, right?
spk04: Yeah.
spk06: So this is due to additional supply. I think, ironically, that the current turbulence improve our market dynamics. for exactly that reason, is that those who are not already operating and don't have a big footprint have got more queries rather than fewer queries over the last six months. And that actually kind of strengthens the existing operator's footprint. And I think the future kind of, yeah, the future profitability and what have you is just going to limit supply side, additional supply side.
spk04: um sorry and then the second question was slightly more tangential i suppose but but do you think sorry the turbine sizes do you think sizes will just keep going up or again this turbulence you know they're under a bit of pressure now maybe best is accepted yeah so i've actually thought for a while that all this you know they're going to continue to grow and grow and grow um was was
spk06: a kind of questionable theory, to be honest. And the basic premise of that is that it costs hundreds of millions of euros to develop a platform, a turbine platform. And over the last 10 years, the turbine suppliers haven't been able to effectively get a decent return on that investment. That's my understanding on a very kind of basic level, so that it was going to plateau anyway. But yeah, I think you're going to see much more growth discipline, probably, given their results recently from the big turbine suppliers. And as part of that, you have to deliver on, I'm sure they will have to generate profits on the existing platform before they start developing the much larger ones. I've also kind of been pretty consistent in my view that I think that even if you do see some very large turbines going out, the scale of this market is um means that you don't or won't necessarily have to install the biggest turbines and the deepest water depths to be successful you know covering 80 of the market or 90 of the market you know will be just fine um so yes so that's that's what i think on on the turbines and then sorry the third question contract lengths are are you seeing any change in your own contract lengths for for a like for like project partly you know partly driven by supply chain issues which are still seem to be out there in the wider development industry yeah well i think schiller was an interesting data point right you know she's got direct continuation from the current employment and for an extended period um which um again we can't go into the detail you know but she could be used to cover multiple projects so so it's um Yeah, I think the lack of supply of installation vessels means that the utilization and the rate structures should improve for the installation contractors. And with regards to length of contracts, generally are we seeing length of contracts extend? Yeah, yes. You've still got developers trying to find out how How do they secure a kind of critical part of the supply chain? And it is a critical piece. So, yeah, the more coverage they can give for themselves, the more comfort it gives them that they can deliver the projects that they got on the books. And so, yeah, I think, again, the opportunities are improving from the contractor's side and whether that be you know, long-term projects or us being able to determine what the start dates are of projects. Whereas up until now, someone may say, you know, you can't compete on our project unless you are available from July the 1st. Suddenly we might be able to say, well, actually, you know, we're not available till September 1st. but that's still good enough for the client because there aren't any other options. So I think just across the board, yes, you'll see improvements in utilization term, the ability to tie together projects, which has been exemplified by what we've just seen with Scylla.
spk04: That's really helpful. Thanks very much.
spk08: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Emanuele Laro for any closing remarks.
spk03: Thank you very much. We don't have any closing remarks. We just thank you all for listening and look forward to speaking to you soon. Have a good day.
spk08: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation and you may now disconnect.
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