ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Emma, your chorus call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the ZimQ1 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. Throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, you may press star followed by one on your touchtone telephone. Press the star key followed by zero for operator assistance. I would now like to turn the conference over to Elana Holtzman, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Emma, and welcome to Zim's first quarter 2021 financial results conference call. Joining me on the call today are Eli Glickman, Zim's President and CEO, and Xavier Destreuil, Zim's CFO. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during the course of this call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding expectations, predictions, projections, or future events or results. We believe that our expectations and assumptions are reasonable. We wish to caution you that such statements reflect only the company's current expectations and that actual events or results may differ, including materially. You are kindly referred to consider the risk factors in cautionary language described in the documents the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our 2020 annual report filed on Form 20F on March 22nd, 2021. We undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. At this time, I would like to turn it over to Elie Gluckman. Elie?

Thank you, Ilana. and welcome to today's call. It is truly a momentous time in ZIM75's history. I'm excited to share with you our impressive year-to-date accomplishments, as well as the important steps we've taken to unlock significant shareholder value. Following our successful IPO, to become the first global container liner to list in the United States, we have continued our strong trajectory, which we outline on slide number four. First, our differentiated approach and the proactive strategy we implemented to capitalize on the highly attractive market have once again produced record results For the second consecutive quarter, we generated all-time record EBITDA and net profit, with net profit for Q1 2021 higher than for the full year of 2020. Again, net profit for Q1 2021 higher than for the full year of 2020. We are pleased to report that our consistent earning growth positions Zim as one of the leading carriers in terms of profitability. We also deliver our highest operating cash flow ever of $777 million. Notably, our Q1 2021 EBIT in EBITDA results were well above the implied guidance range that we provided in March 2021. Importantly, we continue to deliver industry-leading margins and once again outperformed the liner industry average. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was our highest ever, 47%, again 47%, An adjusted EBIT margin was also our highest ever, 39%, again, 39%. We remain committed to our goal of consistently performing as one of the top three carriers in terms of EBIT margin. We also significantly strengthened our balance sheet. and today our shareholder equity is more than $1 billion. Based on our strong first quarter performance, the robust market environment, and the full completion of our freight contracts at higher rates, which we will discuss later, we are raising our 2021 guidance. Specifically, we now expect to generate 2021 EBITDA between $2.5 to $2.8 billion and EBIT between $1.85 to $2.15 billion. This is up from our March 21 exceptional of EBITDA in the range of $1.4 to $1.6 billion and EBIT in a range of $850 million to $1.05 billion. Our record result in the first quarter enabled us to achieve another important milestone for the shareholders. Based on our strong cash flow in Q1, we will redeem the entire $340 million principal amount outstanding on our Series 1 and 2 notes. eliminating the restriction we face on paying a dividend on account of 2020 profits. We are proud to achieve this important accomplishment sooner than expected and earlier than the stated maturity by two whole years. Further, strengthen our balance sheet and in Aisin Zin's position to take advantage of favorable fundamentals for the benefit of shareholders. As a result, and taking into consideration our improved outlook that is even better than we previously anticipated, as well as our success capitalizing on the attractive market, we are pleased to announce that our Board of Directors approved the distribution of a special dividend of approximately $240 million, or $2 per share in 2021. Importantly, this special dividend comes on top of our previously communicated 2021 annual dividend guidance, whereby we are expecting to be distributing between 30% to 50% of 2021 net income in 2022. Our first quarter financial results reflect our consistent earning growth, and as I already mentioned, are well above the implied guidance we provided last quarter. As you can see on slide number five, Our leverage continued to trend downwards. Zim's net leverage improved from 5.3 to 0.5 over the previous nine quarters, positioning us in the top tier of the industry. Sustainable growth remains a top priority for Zim, and we remain focused on being one of the top three players in terms of EBIT margin among the global carriers. Moving to the next slide, slide number six. We made significant progress here today advancing major initiatives with notable achievement related to our four strategic pillars, operational and commercial agility, operational excellence, and leading innovation and digitalization in the shipping industry. First, for ZIM, our exceptional operational agility allows us to successfully compete with global shipping giants as we implement our differentiated asset life and global niche models. The benefits of this approach were demonstrated as we adapted our vessel deployment to address dramatic change in the demand since early 2020 in response to the COVID and the subsequent recovery in demand. Prior to COVID, our fleet included 68 vessels, which we count down to 59 in May of 2020. As global trade resumed and caught up to pre-pandemic levels, we identified new opportunities and expanded our capacity, growing our fleet to 98 vessels as mid-march. Today, our fleet includes over 110 vessels. As we continue to quickly align our capacity in the past few months to meet continue growth in demand despite the very tight chartering market. Related to our success, increasing our capacity, we drew on our commercial agility to identify market opportunities and develop new growth engines. Importantly, we expand in our strategic Pacific and inter-Asia trades, opening new services to address profitable underserved routes. In 2020, we identified the opportunity for premium high-speed services to meet growing e-commerce trends and provide viable shipping alternatives to air freight. In the first quarter of 2021, we launched additional lines to meet growing acceptance of this offering. These e-commerce services, including three from Asia to the U.S. West Coast, are instrumental in driving our record Q1 results and positive forward outlook. Through our partnership with the 2M Alliance, American MSC will further strengthen our Trans-Pacific presence, a key trade for us, launching an eight-joint Asia-US East Coastline service to commence this month. In addition, we have worked with our partners to upgrade our Asia to the U.S. Gulf Coastline service by upsizing vessel capacity. Another of ZIM's primary strengths is our operational excellence. A key component of this sustainability, we are committed to responsible corporate citizenship, with a particular focus on implementing policies and initiatives that will mitigate the impact of our operation on our planet. Consistent with this critical objective, we moved quickly, as promised, in our IPO roadshow, and two weeks after pricing, we announced the conclusion of a strategic long-term charter agreement In February, we announced for 10 green 15,000 TU LNG dual fuel vessels. We are proud that this transaction will position ZIM as a leader in terms of carbon intensity among global liners. Other key features of our operational excellence include our continued emphasis on effectively managing costs and our equipment needs. Given our significant growth combined with the current congested market and limited availability of containers, we have made substantial investments in new equipment already starting in 2020 to best position Zim for the future. Since January 1st, We've entered into agreement for the purchase of containers, mostly new built units, for a total of approximately $588 million, and we'll grow our container fleet for approximately 640,000 TU as of the end of March 2020 to exceed 900,000 TU at the end to both meet our growing business and address challenges caused by port congestion. Finally, we'll continue to invest in disruptive technology, further establishing Zim as a leading digital shipping company. In March, we announced our participation in the Series B financing round of WaveBL, a developer of groundbreaking blockchain-based platform supporting paperless trend in the shipping industry. We view our early investment in Wave BL in 2017 as a major win, as our objective since inception was fossil border industry adoption. We are delighted to see the growing acceptance of Wave technology, including by other global carriers. Most recently, We established ZMARC, a tech company that we expect will revolutionize scanning based on its colorful market, long-grade scanning capabilities, and ability to scan multiple items simultaneously. We are excited about ZMARC's potential to impact shipping and broader logistics sectors. Consistent with landmark innovation, they will transform other industries. We are proud of the progress we have made renovating Zyn as a resilient and robust digital shipping company that utilizes sophisticated digital strategies to power new services and build opportunities for our customers. I will now turn the call over to Xavier, our CFO, for his comment on our financial results and market development. Please.