SFL Corporation Ltd

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q4 2021 SFL Corporation Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Julie Gjertaker. Please go ahead.

Thank you and welcome to SFL's fourth quarter conference call. I will start the call by briefly going through the highlights of the quarter and following that our CFO, Aksel Olesen, will take us through the financials and the call will be concluded by opening up for questions. Before we begin our presentation, I would like to note that this conference call will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as expects, anticipates, intends, estimates or similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These statements are based on our current plans and expectations and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future activities and results of operations to be materially different from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ include but are not limited to conditions in the shipping, offshore and credit markets. You should therefore not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more detailed discussions over risks and uncertainties which may have a direct bearing on our operating results and our financial condition. The announced dividend of 20 cents per share is an increase of 11% over last quarter's dividend and represents a dividend yield of around 9% based on closing price yesterday. This is our 72nd quarterly dividend and over the years we have paid more than $28 per share in dividends or $2.4 billion in total. and we have an increasing fixed rate charter backlog supporting continued dividend capacity going forward. The total charter revenues was $166 million in the quarter with around 75% of this from vessels and long-term charters and around 25% for vessels employed on short-term charters and in the spot market. This includes or included the seven handy-sized bulkers we have sold So going forward, we expect a higher relative share from long-term charters. The EBTA equivalent cash flow in the quarter was approximately $121 million, or 10% higher than the previous quarter. Over the last 12 months, the EBTA equivalent has been approximately $434 million. And the net income came in at around $80 million in the quarter, or 63 cents per share. We had a gain relating to the sale of the bulkers of $39 million, and otherwise there were only minor one-offs in the quarter, including a negative mark-to-market effect on interest hedging instruments. There were also around $1.1 million higher operating costs in the quarter due to additional crew rotation costs linked to COVID restrictions. We expect a similar effect also in this quarter, but hope that the restrictions will ease soon. And virtually all our crew are now vaccinated already. Our fixed rate backlog has increased and stands at approximately $2.8 billion from owned and managed vessels after recent acquisitions and disposals, providing continued cash flow visibility going forward. The backlog figure excludes revenues from the vessels traded in the short-term market and also excludes future profit share optionality. In addition, we have excluded charter hire relating to the drilling rigs to be conservative in light of the ongoing financial restructuring in CDRIL. We continue building the portfolio with modern assets on long-term charters and have recently agreed to acquire four modern LR2 product tankers in combination with time charters to Trafigura. The structure is similar to the three Suez Maxes we announced last quarter and the deal includes some interesting optionality features if the market should strengthen during the charter period where a sale can be triggered with a profit split. And if not, The long-term charter amortizes the vessels down to a comfortable low level with a good base return, supported by the $160 million charter backlog linked to these vessels. In the quarter, we also finalized the sale of the seven handy-sized vessels for an aggregate net sales price of around $98 million. In addition to the sales price, there was around $15 million net cash flow from trading the vessels at high rates until delivery. So they had a very nice contribution for us, you know, in 2021. We have also sourced multiple new financings at attractive terms and see loan margins creeping downwards. And we fully redeemed the remaining $145 million convertible note in cash during the quarter. During the fourth quarter, we took delivery of three of the seven tankers we chartered to Trafigura, and we have already taken delivery of three more leaving only one Suez Max vessel to be delivered, expected later this month. Excluding the drilling rigs, the backlog from owned and managed vessels was 2.8 billion at the end of the quarter. Over the years, we have changed both fleet composition and structure, and we now have 75 shipping assets in our portfolio. In addition to the long-term chartered vessels, we have eight vessels trading in the short-term market currently, and four to five coming off their long-term charters later this year. We have also had significant contributions to cash flow from profit share over time, both relating to charter rates and fuel savings. The aggregate profit share was around $20 million last year and $7.5 million in the fourth quarter alone. We do not have a set mix in the portfolio. Focus is on evaluating deal opportunities across the segments and try to do the right transactions from a risk-reward perspective. Over time, we believe this will balance itself out. But we try to be careful and conservative in our investments, with a focus on technology and transition over time to more fuel-efficient technology for propulsion. The two drilling rigs are not included in our reported Chartered Backlog figures, and with respect to seed drill and the ongoing financial restructuring, we cannot give more details than what we have disclosed in our press releases or is otherwise publicly available. After Seedrill's plan of reorganization was approved by the Court, they estimate emergence from Chapter 11 within the first quarter this year. We received more than 70% of the lease hire under the existing Charter Arrangement for West Linus and West Hercules during Seedrill's Chapter 11 proceedings. Both rigs are active and working for old companies, and the charter rate is sufficient to cover our debt service relating to the rigs. And we are of course pleased to see strengthening drilling markets on the back of the very firm oil price. We have entered into a new agreement relating to the harsh environment semi-sub, West Hercules. Under this new agreement with Seadrill, the West Hercules is contracted to be employed with oil major Equinor in Norway and Canada until September-October and thereafter re-delivered to SFL in Norway. SFL continues to receive a bare-boot hire of around $60,000 per day while the rig is employed under a contract and generating revenues for Seadrill and approximately $40,000 per day in all other modes. including when the rig is idle and mobilized to and from Canada for the Equinor work. The rig is now on its way to shore for some upgrades required for this job and is expected to move to Canada in the second quarter. With regards to the Vaslinus, which is on a subcharter to an oil major in the North Sea until the end of 2028, we continue to have a contractive dialogue with Seadrill and the end user for the continued operations of the rig under the contract. We have not yet agreed final terms with CEDRIL, but this is expected before their emergence for Chapter 11. Given the ongoing discussions, we can unfortunately not comment any more on this for the time being. Over the years, we have gone from a single asset class chartered to one single customer to a diversified fleet and multiple counterparties. And over the time, the mix of assets and charter backlog has varied from 100% tankers at the beginning to nearly 60% offshore 10 years ago, to container vessels now being the largest segment with nearly 60% of the backlog. If we look at the counterparties, it is known mainly to end users and market leaders in their respective segments, and relatively few are intermediaries where we have less visibility on the use of the assets and quality of operations. Strategically, this also gives us access to more deal flow opportunities, such as the repeat business with Maersk, MSC, Evergreen and Trafigura as examples. Our strategy has therefore been to maintain a strong tactical and commercial operating platform in cooperation with our sister companies and the wider Sea Tankers Group. This gives us the ability to offer a wider range of services to our customers from structured financing effectively to full service time charters. And with full control over vessel maintenance and performance, including energy efficiency and emission minimizing efforts, we can impact improvements to our vessels through the life of the assets, and not only be passively owning vessels employed on beer boats where the customer may not always have an incentive to make such improvements. In addition, we can retain more of the residual value in the assets when we charter out on time charter basis, and in the current environment with rising raw material costs and inflation driving replacement costs for vessels, this value is for the benefit of SFL and our stakeholders. For bare boat deals, this value is usually retained by the charters through fixed price purchase options. This is illustrated by the recent sale of seven handy sized bulkers where our operating platform has enabled us to trade the vessels in the spot market during a soft market and when the market values doubled the last year, we could sell the vessels with a significant profit. And with that, I will leave the word over to our CFO, Aksel Olesen, who will take us through the financial highlights of the quarter. Aksel Olesen Thank you, Mr. Hjertaker.

On this slide, we have shown a formal illustration of cash flows for the fourth quarter. Please note that this is only a guideline to assess the company's performance and is not in accordance with the US GAAP. and also net of extraordinary and non-cash items. The company generated gross charter hire of approximately 166 million in the fourth quarter, including 7.5 million of profit splits, with approximately 75% of the revenue coming from a fixed charter rate backlog, which currently stands at 2.8 billion, providing us with strong visibility on our cash flow going forward. In the fourth quarter, the liner fleet generated gross charter hire of approximately 90 million, including approximately 3.1 million in profit split contribution related to fuel savings on some of our large container vessels. Of this amount, more than 90% was derived from our vessels on long-term charters. Following the company's recent acquisitions, SFL's liner fleet backlog currently stands at approximately 2 billion, with an average remaining charter term of approximately 4.4 years or approximately 7.3 years if weighted by charter hire. Including recently announced transactions, SFL has 16 crude oil, product and chemical tankers with the majority employed on long-term charters. Our tanker fleet generated approximately 17.5 million in gross charter hire during the quarter. Of the net charter hire received, More than 75% was derived from our vessels on long-term charters, among others Frontline and Phillips 66. The net charter rate from the company's two SUSEMAX tankers employed in the short-term market was approximately 3.1 compared to 1.7 million in the previous quarter. Late in the fourth quarter, SFL took delivery of one SUSEMAX tanker and two LR Crew product tankers, with five-year charters to traffic Europe. The remaining two SUSEMAX tankers and two LR2 product tankers will be delivered during the first quarter, with full quarterly earnings effect from the second quarter. Our drywall fleet generated approximately 46.3 million in gross charter hire in the fourth quarter, including 4.5 million in profit share contribution from archivist side vessels on charter to Golden Ocean. During the quarter, the company had a fleet of 22 drywall vessels, of which 11 vessels are employed on long-term charters and the other 11 are trading in the short-term and spot market. The 11 vessels trading in the spot or short-term market generated approximately 21.2 million in net charter hire during the quarter compared to approximately 20.7 in the previous quarter. During the quarter, the company completed the sale and delivery of seven smaller handy-sized dry bulk vessels to a nation buyer and the sale generated net sales proceeds of approximately $98 million in addition to strong spot earnings during the fourth quarter prior to delivery. SFL owns two drilling rigs which have been charged out on subsidiaries to seed drill on bearable terms. In the fourth quarter, we received approximately $12.3 million in charter hire from the rigs. This summarizes an adjusted EBITDA for approximately $121 million for the fourth quarter compared to $112 million In the third quarter. We then move on to the profit and loss statement as reported under US GAAP. As we have described in previous earnings calls, our accounting statements are different from those of a traditional shipping company. As our business strategy focuses on long-term charter contracts, a large part of our activities are classified as capital leasing. As a result, a significant portion of our charter revenues are excluded from US GAAP operating revenues and instead booked us revenues classified as repayment of investment in finance, leases and investor loans, which results in a sole sales and long-term investments and interest income from a sole sales. So for the fourth quarter, report total operating revenue according to US GAAP of approximately 152 million, which is less than approximately 166 million of charter hire actually received for the reasons just mentioned. During the quarter, the company recorded profit split income of approximately 4.5 million from our cave-sized dry bulk vessels on charter to Golden Ocean, in addition to approximately 3.1 million from fuel savings arrangements on some of our large container vessels. The company also recorded a 39.3 million gain relating to the sale of our seven smaller handy-sized dry bulk vessels, which all were delivered to the new buyer before year-end. The operating expenses of our fleet is up compared to the previous quarter, due to a combination of new vessels entering the fleet, and expenses relating to COVID-19 measures, among others due to our efforts to maintain a normalised cruise change cycle for our seafarers, despite challenging travelling restrictions around the globe. In addition, we also saw an increase in depreciation due to the new additions to our fleet, and also the consolidation of the best turquoise during the third quarter. Overall, and according to US GAAP, the company reported a net profit of approximately 80 million, or 63 cents per share. Moving on to the balance sheet. At quarter end, SFL had approximately 146 million of cash and cash equivalents. Additionally, the company had marketable securities of approximately 25 million, with market prices at the end of the quarter. Furthermore, the company had seven debt-free vessels with a combined chart-free market value of approximately 170 million, including two LR2 product tankers, which the company took delivery of before the end of the quarter and was paid with approximately 80 million dollars of cash. We expect to draw down financing for all LR2 product tankers during the first quarter. The approximately 430 million of remaining capex of recently accounted acquisitions is expected to be financed by debt facilities, 200 SFLs, or other assets with long-term charters. During the quarter, approximately 145 million was used to repay the balance of the convertible note, which was due in October. Furthermore, the company received approximately 98 million in cash proceeds from the sale of its seven hand-sized tribal vessels during the fourth quarter. So based on Q4 numbers, the company has a book equity ratio of approximately 28.4%. Then to summarize, the board has declared a cash dividend of 20 cents per share for the quarter, an increase of approximately 11% compared to the previous quarter. This represents a dividend yield of approximately 9% based on the closing share price yesterday. This is the 72nd consecutive quarter dividend, and since inception of the company in 2004, more than $28 per share, or more than $2.4 billion in total, has been returned to our shareholders through dividends. SFL has successfully committed more than $1 billion to its recent acquisitions in 2021. In the process, we have expanded our relationship with some of our key clients by investing in modern eco-designed container ships and tankers, and at the same time dispose of older, less efficient assets. Demonstrating our commitment to further improve our carbon footprint pursuant to our ESG strategy. Following the recent investments, our backlog from our shipping assets now stands at 2.8 billion, providing strong visibility on future cash flow, debt service and continued distribution capacity. With a strong operational platform and our access to attractively priced capital, SFL is well positioned to execute some new, accretive investments in the quarters to come. And with that, I give the word back to the operator who will open the line for questions.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. To withdraw your questions, please press the pound or hash key. Please stand by when we compile the Q&A queue. And the first question comes from the line of Randy Givens. Please go ahead.

Howdy, Team SFL. How's it going?

Hi there, Randy. Nice to hear from you.

Yes, sir. So, looking at your fleet here, you recently took delivery of numerous tankers. You sold some of your dry bulk vessels. Now, currently, dry bulk is only about 11% of your contract backlog, basically the smallest sector in that. And then with the recent pullback in asset values over the last few weeks and even months, Despite further strengthening in charter rates, is dry bulk the asset class of choice for growth at the moment? If not, what sector is?

We look at opportunities across the board in all these segments. I would say generally, and certainly we wouldn't mind doing more deals in the dry bulk space, but we also have to be cognizant of André Reppen, Mikkel Storm I think with our diversification, as you point out, we can look at the deal opportunities in many segments at the same time, and they're not tied to only one subsector. So yes, we look at opportunities there, as we do elsewhere as well, but I cannot be specific. We're happy to announce deals as we do them, but we cannot sort of speculate on how much we should invest in each segment.

That's fair. I don't expect you to give all your cards away here. I was going to ask some questions about the drilling rigs, but it sounds like you're mum on that for now, which is understandable. So, looking at the dividend, great to see that kind of continuing to rise. Is the plan there to slowly increase that going forward, and what are some of the hurdles or maybe catalysts for further increases?

Absolutely. I mean, we are always happy to please our dear shareholders. And, you know, we've been paying dividends now 72 times, so we're starting to get the track of that one. The dividend, and this is more based on our dividend, you could say policy or communication policy around dividend. We will never guide on forward dividends. Dividend is set every quarter by the board and at the discretion of the board. But, of course, as you well know, Over time and over these 72 quarters it's typically been stable or increasing and with of course some adjustments when there has been market events sort of driving it. So of course as we have been you know doing quite a bit of business, new business last year and billion new investments etc. that will come on stream you know cash flow from these tanker vessels for instance we will have Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Next question is from the line of Greg Lewis from BTIG. Please go ahead.

Hey, thank you, and good afternoon, everybody. And, Ole, sorry I missed you in New York last week. Question around just following up on Randy's question around the dividend. Clearly, you're not going to give any guidance around the dividend, but it does seem that We're kind of targeting some sort of percentage of cash flow, at least that's what it's looked like over the last couple quarters. Is that kind of a fair way to think about the dividend going forward, or is it more a function of your outlook on the market?

I think, as Ole said, we don't give any guidance and promises on dividend. I think what's important for us is to see that we have a good cash flow going forward, that we can have a sustainable dividend going forward. And as we build the business, it's natural that we're able to also increase that dividend over time. We don't link it to a specific percentage, etc. It's going to be what is sustainable, what is the contribution from the cash flow in each quarter, and what's the outlook going forward as well.

Okay, that makes sense. In the press release, you mentioned that seven vessels are unencumbered. You mentioned... You know, the actual estimated fair market value of those vessels. Is there any way to think about the potential borrowing ability on those vessels? How should we think about that?

Absolutely. I mean, we intend to draw up the facility on the four LR2 product tankers later this quarter.

I would say part of the reason for having that and having some on the company vessels is that it enables us, given our financial flexibility, it enables us to go ahead and close on transactions early and not wait on the financing to be arranged to get a deal done. So you could say the net effect here is that we get the benefit of the cash flow from the vessels early and then we secure and source the financing at, of course, best possible terms. You know, some weeks later. So that was sort of the incident. We also have some smaller, you know, I would say it's like the older vessels that are under encumbered, and we don't have any immediate plans necessarily to put leverage on them, you know, but we have the flexibility always and can do it on short notice if we need to. So you can say it's sort of a, we have, it's sort of, you can say it's a part of spare, call it investment capacity, and, you know, with our portfolio of assets, There will be situations where some have lower leverage and maybe we can refinance if we think that leverage has come down too far compared to asset values and vice versa. So it's an ongoing, call it dynamics in any company.

Exactly, our portfolio approach and at the general observation we see that we have increasingly access to a very attractive capital. We see there are more new banks coming in.

André Reppen, Mikkel Storm And then, as I look at the portfolio, clearly asset prices have gone up almost exponentially in container ships. Clearly, that's your largest pool of assets in the portfolio. As you're thinking about that business, as you're thinking about those assets and you're talking to your lenders, realizing that the bulk of your assets are on long-term contracts, so maybe we're not really going to benefit from the strength and rates that is driving those asset prices higher. That being said, would we... Is there an opportunity to put on additional leverage on any of those, whether it's container ships or other assets where prices have gone higher, despite the fact that a lot of those vessels are on long-term contracts?

I mean, you could potentially do that. That's not really how I think about that. I think as a shareholder, I would think that the value of our backlog is really kind of the value of the counterparties. and if you see that the majority of the backlog around 2 billion is to I would say probably investment grade counterparties I think that's the strength of the company and you have extremely good visibility on that cash flow and we have been very particular on choosing the counterparties that they have in the portfolio that those are companies that we believe will perform even if kind of the charter marketing will soften which it will in the future. So it's more kind of having substance in the company and not necessarily kind of using that to leverage up because you also have a minimum value clauses in loan agreements, et cetera. So you just have to be very prudent in deciding what to do.

Okay. Hey, everybody. Thank you for the time.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Liam Burke from B. Reilly. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you. Asset values are up, not only with containers, but pretty much across the board in all your vessel classes. How has that affected your acquisition backlog? I mean, are you still seeing the opportunities? Or have your opportunities gone down, or are you still looking at an attractive pipeline?

If you look at our competitive advantage, I would highlight the strong operational platform that we have, and the fact that if you look at the portfolio, approximately 90% of revenues are from time chargers, and only 10% from bear boats. We basically have a different approach to deal origination, and we also see a lot of repeat inquiries from existing clients. We should be kind of relationships that we built over many years. So I think in terms of kind of new opportunities, we, of course, both speak to ship brokers, but we also talk to our clients. And we see a nice, I think it's a good deal flow. I think we see more deal flow in terms of time charters than we see in more financially driven deals like bare boats, as many of the banks are coming strongly back to lend as well as kind of Asian money. I think for us, we continue to see attractive opportunities.

Fair enough. You mentioned in your prepared comments that technology is important for obvious reasons on emissions going forward. Are there any vessels in your fleet that you would think, okay, could provide technological could offer technological risk to allow you to sell sooner?

Well, risk is maybe a strong word there, but if we look at our fleet, the vessels that are maybe the least ideal going forward would be smaller bulk carriers. The vessels where we see Well, which we are quite positive to, that the big tankers, they will not have a problem from that perspective, and also our large container ships are in a good position. And especially if we look at our new building programs with the LNG dual-fuel car carriers, they're also going to contribute very well to our overall fleet carbon intensity indicator performance. Because when we are coming into 2023 and forward, it's going to be an increasingly aggressive target to stay ahead. But with our current fleet, we are well positioned, we think.

And I think maybe just to add to Trym's comment there, this is Trym Sjølie, our Chief Operating Officer, maybe also add to that that we will have our ESG report out in a few weeks' time for the last year. I think you will see if you compare The report from the previous year, you will see a very significant change in our fleet composition and the metrics as a combination of our acquisitions of very efficient vessels, including dual-fuel new buildings, and the sale of less efficient small bulkers that we also disposed of last year, and also many small feeder container ships that were disposed of in the middle of the year, which were generally Great. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Chris Weatherby from Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Hey, thanks, guys. This is Eli Wenske on for Chris. Maybe we can start with the COVID comments quickly. I'm just curious if we can quantify what the COVID impact on cruise was from an expense standpoint in terms of the headwind.

Sorry, I didn't quite catch the question there. I mean, the costs of the COVID costs for us is pretty round numbers, $1 million per quarter. And that seems to be quite steady. It was during last year, and it seems to be approximately where we are at the moment, too. And this has to do with travel costs and the quarantine and general sort of delays in moving people around.

Great, that makes sense. Can we talk about capex? So where do we currently stand with that looking forward here? What's the mix and the strategies going forward there?

Yeah, I think really the only outstanding capex currently is our four car carriers, dual fuel, new wheel links coming up with China. We are in active discussions with several financial institutions. It's more about optimizing the financial terms than anything else. We have received extremely strong interest based on quality of the ships, dual fuel, also quality of the counterparties in an interesting segment with good supply-demand outlook.

and of course we have paid down installments to the shipyards for all those four vessels as well so we don't expect a very significant net cash capex because most of the remaining investments in those vessels can be covered by financing. Of course we focus on optimizing that and minimizing the cost of that capital of course From an overall perspective, with a $4 billion balance sheet, I think we have a very low CapEx in relative numbers.

Sure, just following up on that one thing you just mentioned, I'm just curious, what is the backlog or the congestion in the shipyards you're seeing right now?

Congestion? Well, we see if you want to go out to get new vessels, typically car carriers, container ships now, You'll probably be looking at 2024, even 2025. So if you want to go to sort of first or second tier yards in Asia, like China or Korea. So I don't think you will find many 2023 deliveries at the moment. So we are basically looking at late 2024, early 2025, I think. That answers your question.

And also prices have been going up. There is inflation of both indoor material, but so and also labor in these countries where most of the ships are being built. So this is also helping our overall fleet structure or I would say any shipping companies in the fleet portfolio because new building prices is in a way pulling up also second-hand values as a percentage of replacement costs. which is benefiting us. So we don't mind call it increasing shipyard prices, and as we do new transactions, as long as we can get charters that is reflective and gives us a decent return, even if prices are coming up, we are still good to do new transactions over a higher price.

And some yards are reluctant to take orders going much further in or further out than sort of mid to 24 because of the risk of rising steel prices and general inflation. The yards are also a bit reluctant not to take new orders very far into the future.

Sure, that makes sense. Thank you both.

Thank you. And with that, I would like to hand back over to the speakers for final remarks.

Thank you. Then I would like to thank everyone for participating in our conference call, and also thank the SFL teams on board the vessels and onshore for their continued efforts day and night in delivering value for our shareholders. If you do have any follow-up questions, there are contact details in the press release, or you can get in touch with us through the contact pages on our webpage, www.sflcorp.com. Thank you.

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.