ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Natalie, your chorus call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the ZIM integrated chipping services LTD Q3 2021 earnings 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 touchdown telephone. Press the star key followed by zero for operator assistance. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ilana Holzman, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Natalie, and welcome to ZIM's third quarter 2021 financial results conference call. Joining me on the call today are Eli Glickman, ZIM's President and CEO, and Xavier Desleaux, 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 and 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 the call over to Eli Glickman. Eli?

Thank you, Ilana, and welcome to today's call. I'm very excited to present our record results and discuss notable third quarter 2021 updates, outlined on slide number four. Our continued outstanding performance is a testament to the execution of our team, including the proactive strategies we have implemented to capitalize on both the highly attractive market and Zim differentiated approach. Of note, ZIM's revenue of $3.1 billion adjusted EBITDA of $2.1 billion, a net profit of $1.5 billion. This is for the third quarter of 2021. These are the highest in our history. We also generated our highest ever operating cash flow of $2 billion in the third quarter and further strengthen our balance sheet, growing shareholders' equity to more than $3.1 billion. Importantly, we continue to deliver industry-leading margin, outperforming the LIDAR industry average. Our Q3 2021 adjusted LIDAR margin was 66%, and adjusted EBIT margin was 59 percent. Based on our exceptional financial performance today and our favorable market outlook, we are once again raising our full-year guidance. Specifically, we now expect to generate in 2021 adjusted EBITDA between $6.2 to $6.4 billion, and adjust EBIT between $5.4 to $5.6 billion. Based on the midpoint of today's guidance versus the guidance provided in August, our new forecast represents a 26% increase in our EBITDA guidance and a 31% increase in our EBIT guidance. Returning capital to shareholders also remains a priority for us, and is a central component of our capital allocation strategy. As such, we announced earlier today a change in our dividend policy that will allow us to return capital to shareholders more frequently. Effective immediately, we'll distribute the dividend on a quarterly rather than annual basis. The interim dividends will be at the rate of approximately 20% on the quarter's net income, with the total annual amount to be distributed to shareholders remaining between 30 to 50% of our annual net income. According to the new policy, we declare a dividend for Q3 2021 of $2.5 per share. The dividend will be paid in December 2021. On slide number five, you can see that over the last 11 quarters, our earnings have consistently increased and we deliver consecutive record quarters. At the same time, our net leverage has trend downward, reaching zero this quarter. if it's zero this quarter, as compared to 5.3 in Q1 2019. We are proud to be positioned in the top tier of our industry in this regard. Turning to the next slide, slide number six, we continue to execute at the highest level across our four strategic pillars while remaining committed to profitable growth. Our exceptional operational agility continues to be a core differentiator for ZIM. Currently, we continue to operate a fleet of 113 vessels. For ZIM, vessels are a means to achieve profitable growth, and our primary strategy of chartering in the vast majority of our fleet and this is unchanged. Notwithstanding, we recently took advantage of attractive vessel acquisition opportunities to purchase eight second-hand vessels to secure much needed operating capacity and meet strong market demand while remaining committed to delivering industry superior profitability. Going forward, we may selectively acquire second-hand tonnage when the appropriate opportunity arises while executing our proven chartering approach. Complementing our efforts to secure capacity to serve our customers and benefit shareholders, our commercial agility has also been instrumental in driving our record results. Aligned on the charter market as our primary approach to securing capacity, allow us to ensure that we source the fleet we need to capitalize on attractive fundamentals and new opportunities. While navigating through challenging these circumstances in the charter market over the past several months, we have successfully maintained a high level of fleet flexibility to further advance our global niche strategy and best serve our customers. Despite longer term charters becoming more common, the average remaining duration of our chartered capacity today is now 24.8 months compared to 15.3 months as of December 31st, 2020. Also, charter representing approximately 23% of our total operating capacity are scheduled for renewal in 2022. This gives us the ability to manage our fleet and adapt to changing demand fundamentals in the more immediate terms. Turning to operational excellence, we believe that ZIM is well positioned for future success. In September, we exercised the option to long-term charter five additional 7,000 TU eco-friendly LNG dual-fuel container vessels from CISPRANS under the transaction that we announced in July. After exercising the option, ZIM has secured a total of 15 7,000 TU vessels, adding to the 10 15,000 TU vessels, dual fuel, that we contracted earlier in February. The 15,000 TU vessels are ideally suited to serve on the Asia to US East Coast trade, while the 7,000 TU vessels are versatile vessels and can be used in multiple trades. When we take delivery of these vessels, ZIM will deploy the cleanest technology currently available. This will help us address increasing regulation on carbon emission and meet customer demand to have the cargo transported on more eco-friendly vessels. At that time, over 40% of our operating capacity will be LNG-fueled. positioning us at the forefront of reducing the carbon intensity of our fleet operations among global lineups. Notably, by opting to charter these LNG vessels rather than own them, we are also maintaining flexibility to transition to newer technologies as they become commercially viable. We have also leveraged our improved cash position to make long-term investment in equipment, mostly new-built containers, with our container fleet topping one million TEUs. Given our higher-than-expected growth this year, coupled with scant congested markets and limited availability of containers, investing in our container fleet has supported our ability to respond to customer needs now and will continue to do so in the future. Now, more than ever, responsiveness has high impact on our customer overall service experience. As such, we further enhance our human response capabilities to enable us to provide best-in-class customer experience via all channels, including phone, emails, and chats. while we continue to advance our power bar of customer digital tools. Finally, we continue to use digital strategies to power new services. In October 2021, we launched Ship Forward, a digital freight forwarding platform targeting the SME market. Zim recognized the global need to simplify shipping services through the use of mobile devices, especially among small and medium-sized businesses, and introduced ShipForward in response. ShipForward's innovative approach enabled anyone to be a self-shipper with a simple and streaming digital solution, making the transfer of goods worldwide just a few clicks away. Shift Forward is consistent with our strategy of developing growth engines, which complements our core business and aligns with our innovative spirit. We are excited about the market opportunity for Shift Forward and expect it can become a meaningful player in the multi-billion dollar freight forward industry. I will now turn the call over to our CFO Xavier for his comment on our financial results and market development. Please.