Good morning. This is the Chorus Call Conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Fincantieri First Quarter 2021 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gallia, General Manager. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, and good morning to everybody. We are here to present the first quarter results. Giuseppe Dado, our CFO, is with us along with the investor relation team. If you go to page five of the presentation, you will find the executive summary. I believe there are a couple of important messages. The first one being is that it is a very solid start to the year. We confirm our guidance for year-end in terms of revenues and profitability. First quarter results are totally consistent with this statement. When you look at the number, you can see that revenues in the first quarter, excluding the passthrough we commented the last presentation, revenues, as I was saying, are up by 9% +, confirming the growth trend that were outlined in previous quarter.
EBITDA margin fortunately improved to 7% with, I would say, quite solid improvement compared to first quarter of last year, which as you may remember, has been affected by a month by the pandemic. Net debt increase, this is due to a very tight delivery schedule, which is concentrated in third quarter and in fourth quarter, which means that in the first half of the year, there will be very few cash in, and there will be to sustain the cost for the constructions or the ships we're about to deliver in the second half. COVID-19 related extraordinary items are running touch less than EUR 15 million.
When we talk about 2021 guidelines, we're still expecting and confirming revenues in the region of 25%-30% growth, with the EBITDA margin around 7%, importantly, a net financial position, which will stabilize in the second half of this year to go roughly in line with the level with being presented to you at the end of 2020. If you flip page and you go to page six, this is a brief business update. On cruise, we've been carry on with the delivery schedule as expected. Viking Venus, which is the first out of five cruise ships, which are about to be delivered in Italian shipyard, was successfully handed over in mid-April in our shipyard in Ancona. Defense, we've been taking part in the Sea Defense Project, which is aimed at providing technology which will be included in the next generation of naval platforms.
We also signed a memorandum understanding between our Naviris joint venture and Navantia for a cooperation to develop European Patrol Corvette, which is a very important PESCO European Program. Regarding our VARD subsidiary, VARD is to design a cable repair vessel for Orange Marine, one of our clients, and it's been designing, constructing three service operation vessels for North Star Renewables. We will be commenting later on, but it's important to highlight that VARD is progressively, I would say, successfully shifting its focus from oil and gas, whose demand is very low, as you all know, towards wind, particularly offshore wind. This is a theme which will be characterizing the strategy of our group, particularly of VARD, in the years to come. We'll be commenting the final outlook, a few other themes regarding cruise and defense.
If you flip page to page seven, an update on three other important themes. The first one is digital and innovation. We've been signing a very important agreement of collaboration with Amazon Web Services, which is designed to cooperate in the digital sphere, the technology development with a special focus to cloud computing. We're expecting significant improvement in the time to come. Regarding green, we've been working with another important partner, which is Almaviva, an Italian IT and digital company, to support enhanced digitization in the transportation logistics sector. We are active in transportation, as far as sensors and technology digital is concerned. You may know Almaviva is the undisputed leader in this field, not just in Italy.
We've been also signing an important agreement with ArcelorMittal and Paul Wurth, the former owner of Italimpianti, to consider joint reconversion plan for existing integrated cycle in Taranto using eco-friendly technology. We've also been working on hydrogen regarding what is probably going to be the first zero-emission ship to be completed in 2021. As far as sustainable mobility is concerned, we signed a letter of intent with Enel X regarding cold ironing. As you may know, it's about building and running next generation port infrastructure with electricity versus more polluting materials, which means having a lower environmental impact. What I would highlight of all these comments is that Fincantieri has been able to attract collaborations with world leaders in what they do, because Fincantieri is world leader itself. That is very important also when we look at the future of this company.
Clearly focused on what we do, we do ships, but in our ships, there's a lot of technology. Any kind of technology, any kind of new dynamics which are impacting businesses from digital to green to mobility are already in our businesses. We're just extending our know-how, our knowledge, our competencies, which is represented by years and years of working on very sophisticated international projects with top quality people. When we go to page eight, events. It's the first quarter, just to say that we signed new orders, three service operation vessels with the North Star, as said before. We have been delivering two ships, the logistic support ship Vulcano for Italian Navy and the cruise Coral Geographer for expedition, which is being manufactured in our Vietnam-based shipyard. When we look at page nine, very importantly, you can see the visibility we have attached to our backlog.
It's still very important and very profound visibility through the years. We have visibility up to 2027. As far as cruise is concerned, cruise is still our main division. On naval, the visibility is even higher. Regarding wind, visibility clearly is lower, but it's important to highlight the transformation path that VARD has begun. Two units delivered, three new orders, and a touch south of 100 ships in backlog. I will hand it over to Giuseppe for a commentary regarding economic and financial results.
Well, good morning, everybody. We move to page 11 with the order intake and backlog. For the first quarter of the year, order intake came in at EUR 314 million roughly. Of course, slightly up compared to the first quarter of last year. Well, given the current situation, the order intake in the shipbuilding sector is influenced by wait-and-see attitude by our cruise clients. We stand in this. Last year, the sector was in a difficult situation, to say the least. In any case, what matters here is our diversification in other businesses. Last year, I remind you, we had EUR 4.5 billion in order intake in the worst year ever for our clients, of course. What really stands out in this first quarter is the order intake in the offshore specialized vessels in the wind segment.
Like we said before, the acquisition of the three vessels for the Dogger Bank Wind Farm is a very important achievement for us as it marks a further entrance into this new and promising sector of the offshore wind farms. The order intake in equipment systems and services stands at EUR 148 million, roughly in line with last year's. Backlog, EUR 34.4 billion. Very important to note that it's, like me say, we preserved the backlog as of today. Of course, we didn't have any order cancellation in our backlog, and that's a very important message. Moving on to page 12 on revenues. The growth of revenues is on the right track. We grew quarter-over-quarter by roughly 9%. Notably in the shipbuilding segment, almost 13%, with a growth in cruise of 11.6 and in naval of 16.2%.
Let me remind you that last year, we shut down production in the last two weeks of March at the beginning of the pandemic, with a loss of revenue, a very important loss of revenue that was even higher in the second quarter. Overall last year, the revenue shortfall was EUR 1 billion. This is to say that we are right on track to bridge this gap that we experienced last year. For instance, to give you a more physical number on how production volumes are progressing, the first three months of 2021, we did roughly 3.8 million hours of production in our Italian yards. Only in the month of April, we did circa 1.5 million hours of production. This is a clear indication of the progressive ramping up of production volumes. Revenues in offshore and specialized vessels went down more than 20%.
This is mainly due to the disposal of the Brattvåg shipyard that was still operating in the first quarter of 2020. Of course, we still have to see the effect of the repositioning strategy towards the wind offshore segment. In equipment systems and services, revenues were at EUR 232 million, up 13.4% versus last year. On page 13, EBITDA. As we said before, we stand at 7%, right on the spot with respect to the guidance that we gave for 2021. This performance is in line with the fourth quarter of 2020, really marks a very good start in 2021, we are right on track with respect to the guidance. Last year, the shortfall in EBITDA due to the shutdown of production, as a reminder, was approximately EUR 15 million.
With this result in the first quarter, we really bridged this gap. We showed that we are more consistent, let me say, with the profitability embedded into our backlog. Of course, we mark also a slight uptick in the margin in the EBITDA of the offshore and specialized vessel segment at EUR 2 million, 1.6%. First quarter of last year, we were breakeven, with EUR -1 million. There is a slight improvement. This is consistent with our strategy. EBITDA margin in equipment systems and services was somehow lower. This is due to the different mix of products and services within this segment, was mainly affected by lower contribution coming from the ship repair and conversion business area. We move on to net working capital and net financial position. Of course, we are on track also here.
Net working capital has increased. This was expected. It's in line with our current delivery schedule, which entails the delivery of three vessels, three large size cruise vessels, actually, in the third quarter of 2021. We're going to have one more in the fourth quarter of 2021. As you see, the net financial position exactly mirrors the increase in net working capital. Let me be clear here. We do expect, in the second half of the year, a substantial deleveraging here. We are working at full speed to complete the delivery program. As I said before, the ships are big ships, large ships, so they do require substantial amounts of funds to be supported when it comes especially to the last stage of production, which is the stage in which we do rely more on external supplies.
Of course, this trend will deeply reverse in the second part of the year. On the outlook, I leave the word back to Fabio, please.
Right. Thanks. Page 16, you have the final page of this presentation. Maybe a few words regarding cruise. Cruise is our major business lines, the historical one. I would like to highlight a very clear statement. We believe the worst is over. The sector and the companies have been adapting to the pandemic last year, restructuring their balance sheet, cutting costs, working on health and safety measures. We believe that it's important to see 2021 as a transition year, 2022, and even more importantly, 2023, as a growth year. This is not our prediction, it's simply what we hear from our clients and what you can read when looking at the statements of the different companies, most of them are listed. You can see that indication regarding 2022 are strong. They're strong in terms of bookings, it's very encouraging in terms of pricing.
Some of them highlighted the fact that 2022 will be even better than 2019. 2020 has been a horrible year for them. 2021, they will still be losing money, but the CDC is also weighing a lift regarding the restrictions, and there could be some also positive surprise, probably not material, but in terms of booking and destination even during the summer. Everybody's expecting a full swing recovery starting next year. As we said, we're not expecting new orders in 2021 and in 2022. We believe that orders will get back because this sector is getting back. Naval. The company is now fully entering in a new phase, which characterize companies shifting from basically one client, our Italian Navy, a very sophisticated one, to a broader and more diversified client base abroad and particularly in U.S.
As I probably said before, we already said before in the past, being the prime contractor for U.S. Navy is what best you can imagine when you have to market your products and your services around the globe. Expense for defense is encouraging. It's not homogeneous around the globe, but you have the eastern part, which is expected to grow more than Europe, which is expected to grow more than U.S., but the growth is nice. It's very important to highlight that we're leader in frigates. Frigates, for a number of reasons, is probably the most important ship to have in our product range because it's expected to grow significantly more than the market overall.
Regarding tech, we've been discussing the Amazon collaboration agreement, which we believe is transformational for us and can materialize also a new player in an area which is strategic, even considering what is being highlighted in the recovery plan, our Italian one. The effort which is being asked to everybody to become more digital, more modern, simpler. As you may know, that everything which has to do with artificial intelligence, data, connections, and for connections as main Internet of Things, will go through cloud. We've been partnering with the undisputed world leader. Also the other businesses from infrastructure to accommodation to the other naval business we have, are characterized by leadership positions and technology leadership. We will continue to be focused, disciplined, working more and more to introduce in our yards, in all our manufacturing facilities, more and more technology.
That is going to impact manufacturing as well. To wrap it up, as we already said a couple times before, we confirm the target for 2021, and we can say that the start of the year is encouraging in a still uncertain world, but we have visibility, and we have a leadership position that we want to leverage in order to have sustainable, solid, and profitable growth. I will stop here and leave the floor to the questions.
Excuse me, this is the conference operator. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. That is star and one. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from Alessandro Pozzi with Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a few. Let's start with the first one on naval. You mentioned the division is entering a new phase with a broader number of clients. When I look at the revenues, I think naval is now just a little bit below 30% of the shipbuilding. I think in the past it's been higher as well. I was wondering, how do you think that's going to change the mix, cruise versus naval? Also, if you can give us a little bit more color on the progress of the FFG program in the U.S. I think it is now in the design phase, but can you tell us when you believe it's going to turn into a contract?
Also I was interested in knowing about the option of when the U.S. government will potentially exercise the option for the additional nine ships.
Right. Thanks for the question, Alessandro. I was just saying that, as you may know, Fincantieri has been historically working with a major client, which is our Italian Navy. Over the years, a strategic effort by the company has been to diversify its client base. I would like to highlight diversification for a moment, also referring to our cruise division. Not only we have the largest market share among international operators, but we also can boast the most diversified one. That is very important because it's not depending on one or two major operators. We've been through that phase before, and it's also more difficult to extract value from your company. Being diversified, it's a value that we've been constructing thanks to the great work done by the company and the colleagues.
Clearly we are entering, and we've been entering a different phase because, from Egypt to Qatar, we've been able to get new orders, significant ones, and beyond Italian territory. Clearly being naval, a very attractive business in the long run, we continue to invest, and we want to be able to export our products in a very promising market. With that respect, having been awarded the U.S. Navy contract last year represents a very important business card because it clearly is the most sophisticated and most important buyer in the world. We are now, so I come to your question, working on the FFG program, and we are progressing in line, and we are clearly also investing. When you look at our net financial position, you have to know that we're coming from a couple of very intensive years in terms of investments.
We've been, I would say, strengthening the competitive position and productivity of our shipyards in both Monfalcone and Marghera, which are among the two largest in the world. We've been investing a lot, and we are still through this investment cycle. This year, our investment numbers will be clearly impacted by what we're going to do in U.S. The program is clearly in line with the plan, the original plan, and clearly, we have options as you know, and we hope that there will be good news in the months to come.
Okay. In terms of when you're planning to enter the construction phase for the FFG program?
Pardon? Sorry, I didn't hear.
I believe the first ship for the FFG program, it will be delivered in 2026. Probably you are going to book revenues well ahead of that. I was wondering when are we going to see that into the top line?
I mean, Giuseppe, if you want, but we'll stick to our early accounting principle, and nothing is going to change versus what we ordinarily do. Please, Giuseppe.
Well, yeah, Alessandro well said, 2026 is the delivery year. Of course, it's a long time from now, but we are already in the engineering phase of the first vessel. We do expect the options to be exercised this year. We expect the exercise of the option for one vessel and out of the nine remaining, and we expect the program to progress as expected. Of course, contribution in terms of revenues in the year 2021 and 2022, considering also that we have one ship in the backlog right now, will not be substantial. What mainly still contributes to revenues as far as our U.S. operation goes are, of course, the LCS program and the MMSC program for the Saudi Arabia Navy at this point in time. Okay?
Okay. Thank you. My second question is a bit on the longer-term view, and the business plan. I think that the last time that we've seen the management view for the long-term target was maybe about three years ago, and you have a lot of things going on. You have the naval clearly, intermediate phase, but also VARD changing the business basically through moving toward wind, but also you have a lot of investment in digital. Do you think we're going to see a new business plan sometime this year?
You'll see. Okay. Well, it sure is right, Alessandro. The company is being transformed, but I would like that ships is still our stronghold. It will continue to be our core business, continue to be the leader in cruise because it is a promising market. It is growing, it's diversifying revenue base. It's characterized by different booking capital cycles. As you may know, it's important to keep on growing and having a more balanced exposure between these two divisions. On the other companies we have in our group, we believe that there will be promising expectations for the digital electronic cybersecurity businesses, which I would like to say, they are very close to what we do because on the kind of ships we build, there's a lot to think about. We're not just building ships for containers, tankers, roll on, roll off or other.
Man, we bring people. We bring CMS, content management system. The technology which go through, I would say, every square meter of what we build, it's impressive. We realized over the last few years that this technology can have also the market outside of our products. The technology, the know-how that this company has been building, thanks to its very robust, competitive position compared to everybody else, allow us to invest and grow these different divisions. With a clear focus on doing what we know how to do it. There's no, I would say, competence risk. Once we go a little bit outside of our usual track, we do it with the best partner in the world.
Thank you. Thank you very much for the color.
The next question is from Monica Bosio with Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead, madam.
Good morning, everyone. I have three questions. The first one is a general question. Most of the industrial sector are experiencing shortage in supply chain and strong cost inflation. Maybe it would be helpful, some comments from you about how the company is dealing with raw material pressures, potential supply chain shortage, or if you have done some provisions in relation to this issue. The second question is on the naval business. Within the consolidation of the European defense business, according to the press rumors reported a potential interest of Fincantieri on thyssenkrupp with the participation of Rheinmetall. Maybe it's not the case to ask, but I'll try, if you can comment on this. The very last question is on INSO. When should we see some initial contribution from INSO on Fincantieri figures? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Monica, for your questions. The first one, raw material, is a very appropriate one. You all know that we are in a phase in which raw material commodity prices have been spiking. As far as steel is concerned, you may know that there has been quite an imbalance around the world. Chinese steel makers are no longer exporting. Actually, they're using to finance their explosive growth. U.S. is growing, and you're seeing Joe Biden plans for infrastructure. By the way, big portion of recovery plan will also be put in infrastructures, which will require steel as well. Therefore, yes, this is an area of concern for us, as for everybody else. It's important to know that we're buying long-term contract at Fincantieri, as we usually do, and that clearly we have to see and understand where steel price will stabilize.
What is important is that we will continue to work on efficiency by definition, and we do it in different way. As I said before, investing in yards will make us more competitive and will allow us to really improve the cost of the constructions we do, because more and more can be done onshore rather than offshore. It's a very technical things, but we are happy one day to bring you to a shipyard and to see what is going to happen there. Plus more and more technology, from robotics to other innovations that we are implementing, and we will keep on implementing in the next few quarters, in the next few years. Steel price is something we cannot control. We're not concerned for this year, but clearly we have to see where it stabilizes.
The only answers we can have, since it's not hedgeable, can be hedged. You can just protect yourself with long-term contract, is to wait for stabilization and hopefully for a lower price. In the meantime, we have to be more and more efficient in the way we do things. On naval consolidation, you've been hearing about consolidation in European defense for quite a long time now. We'll see. No comments on that. INSO. INSO is a very interesting extension of competence know-how. As you may know, we've been building our infrastructural business out of knowledge because, as you know, any ship is made of different bridges. We know what bridge is about. We've been having a very, I would say, wide echo after our accomplishment of the Genoa Bridge.
To be very also conservative, we also been buying Cordioli from bankruptcy procedures, and we'll be also buying other lateral set of skills from very similar bankruptcy procedures, or extraordinary commissioners. That is also true for INSO, which is about hospital, and it is about technology we can put in hospital, and it's also about concession. We believe that it will take a while. The order book is significant, but I find the most important things, the skills, the know-how we have there. So it's very important that we don't want to be a generalist player in the infrastructural world. We want to stick to what we know how to do, and that there are obvious opportunities around the world, very close to our main area of skills. Working steel. We are working. Our ships are made of steel.
We know how to craft it, we know how to shape it, we know how to construct it. If we have to turn that set of skills in something which is not on the ocean, but is more solid, we can do that. The client base we would comment maybe in one of the next few quarters, it's quite impressive, not just in Italian level.
Okay.
Regarding hospital, we also believe that there will be a lot of investments in this area, not just for recovery plan, but more and more after what happened. Therefore, the set of skills and knowledge we're being, taking on board with the INSO acquisition will definitely make a mark in our accounts progressively.
Yes. I agree. Thank you. Should we start to see some contribution, not in 2021, but maybe something from 2022 and then progressively increasing? Is it correct?
We're expecting a progressive growth, numbers. We're a large company, as you may know, so it's important that this infrastructural division is gently and solidly, prudently moving ahead.
Okay. Thank you very much.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is from Matteo Bonizzoni with Kepler. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. I have three questions. The first one is as regards the growth of VARD in the renewable area, including cable laying vessel and support vessels for offshore wind operation. As a matter of fact, VARD is now around breakeven on the EBITDA, is likely above breakeven. My question is to understand, on one side, what is the size of the commercial opportunities which you see here? Also, what are your expectation as regards margin evolution for the VARD offshore and specialized vessel division? The second question is as regards the potential outlook for also 2022, 2023. In this sense, you have a big backlog, for a couple of years, probably you are going to have a book-to-bill for quite low or below one due to the fact that cruise order will resume in 2023.
My question is, as regards your top line, should we expect another leg up, in 2022 due to the execution of, let's say the old, the existing backlog? Or maybe 2022 and also 2023 could be roughly stable year. What is the outlook on your top line? As regards the guidance which you have confirmed for an improvement of the net financial position, notably in the second half of the year. You have said that at the end of the year, your net debt should return in line with end 2020. My question is this also true for the amount of the construction loans? Also you have last deliveries, I think, in July or in any case, in Q3. Can you quantify a little bit the cash in which you are going to have in the first quarter? Thanks.
Thanks, Matteo. Giuseppe, you want to take those questions?
Yes. Ciao, Matteo. On your first question on VARD. VARD is, let me say, right on track with respect to what we started, let me say, on the back of 2019 results. The deep restructuring process that ended with the shutdown of two yards in Norway. Of course, given the development of the markets, VARD has once again had to reposition in its business. What we really see here is the flexibility and the ability of VARD to cater different needs and to adapt, let me say, its business to new demand. Years ago, it was carbon fuels, gas and oil. Right now, that segment has literally collapsed, and I kept saying for years that it was really foolish to forecast a return to previous levels on this sector. What we see now, the new story here is offshore wind.
Offshore wind capacity is expected to grow four times the current capacity in the next 10 years. The order that we acquired in the first quarter is for three service operation vessels for the Dogger Bank Wind Farm, which is expected to become operational in two years from now, I guess. It's, at the moment, the largest wind farm in Europe. We see a further order intake in this segment. These wind farms need support vessels to be operated and maintained. This order is very welcome, and when it comes to the flow into revenues and profitability, of course, those three ships are for delivery 2023. We're going to see contribution kicking in end of this year and the following year, mainly. As I said before, we had an uptick in VARD EBITDA. We expect further growth. Of course, this requires very good execution.
We believe that VARD has improved a lot in execution. In many instances, it has been brought up to Fincantieri standards, we still keep a very close eye on the footprint of VARD in terms of its yard, its capacity. Of course, the big buzzword here is wind offshore. We can't forget that VARD, with its Romanian operations, has played a very important part in the growth of the top line also for Fincantieri S.p.A., for the cruise business out of Italy, because of the contribution that the Romanian yards are giving to the construction of entire sections of the cruise vessels that are then towed to Italy and assembled together. In that matter, we can say that Romania, operationally wise, is getting closer and closer to the standards that we have here in Italy.
Of course, we maintain a cautious stand here, but we can say that we are so far right on track.
Giuseppe, just one additional comment regarding wind, because he was asking the size. We don't comment about our target, but in terms of what we stand now, as far as offshore wind is concerned, globally, we have roughly now installed 20 gigawatts. Any kind of analysis from you choose which kind of consultancy companies, is going to grow at least to 80 gigawatts , 90 gigawatts before 2025, and well north of 200 gigawatts in 2030. That means from 30 gigawatts to 230 gigawatts . That tells you about the growth which is being expected in a very consistent way by any observers, commentators watching. U.S. is lagging behind. Europe has been more fast than U.S., clearly, and Asia is booming, and we are a global market.
Be one of the global market leaders. It would be not appropriate just focus on what is going to happen in Italy. We have no offshore wind installed as of yet, we believe there will be some project. We are familiar with some of this project, when we watch at our competitive landscape, we're clearly watching at the world.
On your second question, Matteo. Yes. Order intake for cruise, we don't have sizeable expectations there. Let me say, leaving aside the pandemic, 2019 was a record year for cruise order intake. I remind you that we acquired 11 ships in the first six months of 2019. We would have expected, in any case.
Leaving aside COVID-19.
In any case, we would have expected a slowdown in order intake.
I would not consider, when you look at the book-to-bill expectations, I would not consider only the cruise business, which has guaranteed a very consistent order inflow in the past few years. Opportunities may come in the naval business. Our positioning there, as Mr. Gallia said before, is stronger and stronger year after year. The acquisition of the Constellation-class frigate program in the U.S. is a huge, very important, very visible business card, as we said before. As with order intake, we maintain, of course, we're confident that new commercial leads will bring new orders in the next years. This is to say also that for 2022 and 2023, we'll still expect, without pretending to make a guidance on this, but we do still expect a growth in revenues.
Of course, 2021, we are guiding for 25%-30% revenue growth, but this is also considering that the base is lower. Last year, we lost EUR 1 billion in revenues. We expect this EUR 1 billion to be gained again thanks to the cruise programs and to the naval business, to the construction that we are performing right now. On top of this, we do expect some growth. Okay? If you look back at our previous business plan, the 2018-2022 business plan, if you look at 2022, I can say that we are consistent with that. We gave the same message without giving you, let me say, quantitative measures already last year on the occasion of the first half-year results.
If we come out of the pandemic with our order backlog intact, we expect to resume to go back in our growth path that was outlined and that is embedded in our backlog. This is the message we gave you in July last year, and we are in a position to reiterate the message as of now. Of course, for 2021, 7% EBITDA, 25%-30% revenue growth, and the first quarter demonstrates that we are on the right track. On your third question, 2021 NFP. Yes, we keep this guidance. We expect NFP to slightly grow in the second quarter of this year. We have three deliveries in the third quarter, and we have one more in the fourth quarter.
The cash-in for all these deliveries will be in excess of EUR 1.5 billion for the third quarter. For the full year, we are in the range of EUR 2 billion of cash-in thanks to the deliveries. No, we do not expect, of course, to deleverage on the net financial position by increasing construction loans. Overall, the debt levels for the end of 2021 will be broadly in line with debt levels at the end of 2020. Again, we always enter into these type of conversations. We expect the first delivery of 2022 is for January 30th, 2022, so just a month after the closing of the books. When we will present end-of-year results, the net financial position as of the end of the year will be already, let me say, an old number, and this will happen also in July as well.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question is from Gabriele Gambarova with Banca Akros. Please go ahead
Yes. Thank you . Good morning. The first question is about VARD, the cruise component, because in your remarks, in your press release, you say that the top line went down because the number of deliveries is expected to be lower vis-a-vis 2020. I was wondering if the former VARD, let's say, cruise yards pose an issue in terms of backlog. The second question regards naval. I understand you have this strong positioning in the frigate segment. I was wondering if you believe that even the submarine segment is, let's say, a segment in which you have the technology, the expertise. Do you see a potentially interesting market there, and a market where you can play a significant role? This was my second question. The third one regards, again, offshore wind and the perspective in the U.S.
We saw that the Biden Administration give the green light to the first big offshore wind farm, Vineyard Wind. I was wondering if you believe there is room for you to play a role in that area, considering that there is the Jones Act and that they have to build their own ships for offshore wind. I was wondering if you see any kind of opportunity there.
Thanks for the question. We start in reverse order. Regarding U.S. wind, you've been looking at what has been outlined by the U.S. president and administration, and we believe that offshore wind will be one of the pillar of growth for the strategy. We are clearly making some thinking about that, having yards there. You know that there is also the Jones Act there, and being a producer in the U.S. is something which is a plus, clearly not a minus, but we also are very focused on our naval programs. Therefore, we believe there's opportunity to be captured, and we are just making some reasoning about how to capture these opportunities. Regarding submarines, we don't produce nuclear ones, more the traditional or the new generations. There is also innovation going through this segment of the naval business. Clearly, we are interested.
We're being awarded two orders last year, as you may know, that clearly it's part of our business. We want to capture the opportunities. We were just saying that naval business, our, I would say, more competitive position is on frigates, which incidentally are also expected to be probably the most sought-after product, the more required product. When talking about naval, there are also other services and businesses attached to this kind of operations, from logistics support to other services we can provide for. Naval for us is important at 360 degrees, and it's not just submarines. Regarding VARD, and maybe Giuseppe can comment about that, we just closed the yard. We're going through rationalization of our manufacturing footprint. VARD is slightly positive EBITDA level in the first quarter.
We are expecting that the worst is over, is behind our shoulders now, and we're clearly concentrated on becoming more efficient, more innovative, be ready for the moment in which oil and gas demand will resume, which is not probably going to happen this year, but sometimes it will go back because we will still need oil and gas for the next 10 years at least. That is not that forever, according to our opinion, but clearly what is something which we read about every day, there are lots of projects in renewables, and our area of expertise and our natural area of extension of knowledge is in the ocean. We'll stick to that.
If I may add something here on cruise, on VARD. What I said when we discussed the EBITDA for.
Fabio, can you put on mute, please?
As I said before, economic performance is very good also in the cruise part of the VARD business. The backlog of VARD has been untouched by the COVID-19 emergency. VARD has built a reputation in the niche segment of the luxury exploration cruise vessels. We have four ships under construction with deliveries in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Of course, order acquisition has been affected by the crisis, but at the moment, it's good. Backlog preservation is the key theme, and we are so far right on track with this. Consider that the luxury niche exploration cruise vessels segment has been a segment in which we experienced a very important growth in the years before the crisis, and is a segment in which Fincantieri group, with its production footprint, has played a leading role in terms of market share.
The premises are all there if and when order acquisition will restart again. Okay?
Okay. Very clear. Thank you, Fabio and Giuseppe.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is a follow-up from Monica Bosio with Intesa Sanpaolo.
Yes. Good morning. Sorry, just a follow-up on the equipment system and services. The first quarter was impacted by low work contribution from ships repair. Can you give us a rough indication for the full year?
No, Monica.
Should we expect a recovery? Because the EBITDA was a bit lower than what expected.
Yes, it was definitely a bit lower. As you know, we'd rather guide for the overall EBITDA margin. Of course, the equipment systems and services is a bundle of several things.
With the core of the segment still, let me say, very much focused on the Marine Interiors business. Let me say, the OEM business and the construction of cabins and accommodation for cruise vessels, and that segment is performing very well and on track. Where we really are suffering, and of course, this is, let me say, driven by the pandemic crisis, because with this pandemic, of course, the cruise operators have canceled CapEx, renovation CapEx on the current fleet. Some of them have heavily reduced the number of ships in their fleet. Look at what Carnival did. Almost 20% of the fleet was scrapped or sold. Of course, the lead time in this business is very short. Where we're really suffering is there. Very low contribution coming from there, very low margins coming in from there.
In general, it is early to say how the segment will perform throughout the year. In any case, the overall expectations for the group is intact, is consistent. Current margin levels and what we see coming in for the remaining part of the year are consistent with a 7% EBITDA margin.
Okay.
Including a possible improvement in the margin of the equipment systems and services segment. Let me put it this way. Okay?
Okay. Got it. Very clear. Thank you.
Mr. Gallia, Mr. Dado, there are no more questions registered at this time.
Thank you. Thank you all for attending the presentation, and have a great day.
Bye.
Thank you. Bye.