Good afternoon. Welcome to the Annual General Meeting of TORM plc. I'm Chris Boehringer, Chairman of TORM plc's Board of Directors. It is now five minutes after midday. We have a quorum, so I declare the meeting open. A video conference call has been set up for this meeting. As set out in the notice of the meeting, shareholders cannot legally attend the meeting or vote on the business of the meeting virtually. However, we've agreed, it has been agreed that those persons on the call can attend the meeting informally. As mentioned, I'm Chris Boehringer, Chairman of TORM plc's Board of Directors. In addition, here, on the line, we have Non-Executive Director, Annette Malm Justad. Also from TORM Board of Directors, we have Nick Lindsay from Elemental, our Company Secretary, and we have Chris Everard, our General Manager.
The following directors, Göran Trapp, Jacob Meldgaard, and David Weinstein have been unable to attend the meeting today and send their apologies. I'll get straight into the review of the year before starting the formal proceedings. An overview of the company and its performance during the year from the board's perspective. After another year impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, I'm pleased to say that 2021 was also a year where TORM demonstrated outstanding commercial performance while keeping a steady hand on operations in what were challenging markets. TORM can report a solid EBITDA of $137 million for the year and improvements in all of our key ESG metrics related to safety, CO2 emissions, and women in leadership positions. 2021 continued to see generally weak market conditions affected by temporary disruptions on the global oil demand recovery path.
However, towards the end of the year, the market recovered, resulting in higher freight rates. During the COVID-19 pandemic, TORM has fully maintained our operations at sea and ashore, thanks to the One TORM platform, but especially due to an extraordinary and very professional effort from our crew members. While crew changes remain more challenging than prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, we do not see the same significant delays to crew changes amongst our crew as we did in 2020. As such, the year 2021 presented many operational and commercial challenges, and I am pleased to note that TORM's integrated operational platform was a key factor for the company to successfully navigate these extraordinary market conditions, for product tankers over the year.
Again, in 2021, TORM was able to deliver best-in-class commercial performance and with the focus on optimal geographic positioning of the fleet and strategic priority of trading in the spot market, the fleet was well positioned to capture the sudden market strength in the second quarter of the year. For the full year 2021, TORM realized average time charter equivalent earnings of $13,703 per day versus $19,800 per day in 2020. Considering the very challenging market in 2021, this was satisfactory and in the top range compared to industry peers. During the year, TORM continued to expand and renew the fleet, and at the end of the year, the fleet totaled 85 vessels.
TORM purchased eight MR vessels and three LR vessels in part, partly cash and partly share-based transaction. Six of these vessels have specialized cargo tank configurations and extended tank segregations that allow for enhanced trading flexibility through chemical trading options. During the summer, TORM took delivery of three 2015-built scrubber-fitted LR2 vessels from Okeanis, supporting our strategy to increase exposure in the LR2 vessel class. In December of 2021, the first of the last two scrubber-fitted LR2 newbuildings was delivered. The last of the vessels in our newbuilding program was delivered in January this year. Both vessels are expected to be fitted with Flettner rotors during 2022. The One TORM platform has done an excellent job in integrating the vessels into our fleet. One older MR vessel was sold during 2022.
Together with the annual report 2021, TORM released our responsibility report covering both ESG and CSR topics. I'm very pleased that TORM has improved on all three key metrics where we have set ESG targets in comparison to 2020. Women in leadership positions increased from 21% in 2020 to 22% in 2021, and TORM has a target of 35% by 2030. Our safety measure, lost time accident frequency, improved from 0.65 in 2020 to 0.37 in 2021, and TORM's target is 0.3 in 2030. TORM obtained an AER of 5.07, which means that TORM is now 37.6% below the IMO 2008 baseline.
TORM recently decided to prepone the year for the IMO 2030 target for when it should be realized. Hence, TORM expects to reach the target already in 2025. In addition to the short-term efforts that TORM is making every day to reduce emissions, we are working in various collaborations for the long-term decarbonization of our fleet. Recently, TORM signed up to become a mission ambassador in the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping in our dedication to find solutions for a greener future. Looking at our balance sheet, I'm pleased that during 2021, we financed and refinanced a total of $549 million through diversified funding sources and at attractive terms. All material debt has final maturity in 2026 or later.
TORM has shown strong capability of obtaining funding in the bank and leasing markets and has a solid capital structure with a net LTV of 52%. In line with TORM's distribution policy to semiannually distribute 25%-50% of net income following the half year and full year results, no dividends have been recommended by the board of directors for the year ended 31st December 2021. Lastly, I would like to thank our seafarers and our onshore staff for their hard work and the dedication they have shown every day throughout this challenging year. I am confident that based on the One TORM mindset and the strong safety first principles, the company will continue to deliver on our promises to our customers and other stakeholders in 2022 and for many years to come. Thank you very much.
I would now like to start the formal proceedings of this annual general meeting. The notice of the AGM, together with explanatory notes, was issued on March 23rd , 2022. Accordingly, the requisite notice of the meeting has been given. Therefore, I propose the notice of the meeting should be taken as read. Thank you. Voting procedures. To accurately reflect the views of TORM's shareholders, voting today will be done by way of poll on each of the resolutions put to the meeting. I appoint Nick Lindsay as the company secretary to act as scrutineer of the votes. I hereby confirm that as Chairman of the AGM, I will vote all proxies received as per the proxy instructions, and that in addition, I will vote in favor of all resolutions for the proxies where I have discretion to do so.
I'll now ask Chris Everard, who's the General Manager of TORM plc, to confirm that as a corporate representative of OCM Njord Holdings S.à r.l., he is voting in favor of all resolutions. There were three options for each resolution, to either vote for the proposed resolution, to vote against the proposed resolution, or to withhold a vote. A vote withheld is not a vote in law and will not be counted on the calculation of the proportion of votes. The slides that will appear on the screen set out the votes representing all the proxies received and the vote of OCM Njord Holdings S.à r.l. Resolutions. We'll now proceed to vote on the resolutions which I will formally propose to the meeting.
The full text of each of the resolutions is set out in the notice of the meeting, a copy of which you will have received. Resolutions 1 to 8 are proposed as ordinary resolutions. For each of these resolutions to be passed, more than half of the votes cast must be in favor of the resolution. Resolution 1: to receive and adopt the annual report and accounts. The first resolution is to receive and adopt the annual report of accounts for the year ended 31st December 2021. I propose that the annual report and accounts, for the year ended 31 December 2021 be received and adopted. You can see on your screen there the votes, in favor and against. As such, this resolution has passed. Resolution 2: to approve the directors' remuneration report.
I now propose that the directors' remuneration report, as set out in the annual report and accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2021, be approved. You can see on your screen summary of the votes for, against, and withheld. As such, I confirm that this resolution has been passed. Resolution three: to reappoint the auditors. The board of directors recommends that Ernst & Young LLP be reappointed as the auditors of the company until the conclusion of TORM's next annual general meeting, and that the directors be authorized to fix their remuneration. Resolution three deals with their appointment and resolution four deals with their remuneration. I now propose that Ernst & Young be appointed as auditors. You can see on your screen the votes for, against, and withheld. As such, I confirm that the resolution has passed.
Resolution four: to fix the auditors' remuneration. Once again, you see on your screen the summary of votes, and I confirm that this resolution also has passed. Resolutions five to eight are to re-elect the directors of the company, myself, Christopher Boehringer, Göran Trapp, Anette Justad, Jacob Meldgaard, as directors, each of whom retires and being eligible are offering themselves for re-election at this annual general meeting. The Board of Directors recommends that each of the directors be re-elected as a director of the company. Resolution five, I propose that Jacob Meldgaard be re-elected as director.
No, no.
Sorry.
Resolution 5 is open.
Okay, that's strange. In which case, I need to hand that one over to Anette, to summarize resolution five and the procedures.
Yep. I now propose that Christopher Boehringer be re-elected as a director, and there should be a summary on the reason on the display. I can confirm that as set out in the summary, this decision has been passed. I hand back to you, Christopher.
Okay. Now I run through the other directors. Okay. Resolution 6 is the re-election of Göran Trapp. You can see once again the votes for and against. So, in summary, this resolution has passed as well. Resolution 7 is the re-election of Anette Justad. I can summarize that this resolution also has passed. Resolution 8 is the re-election of Jacob Meldgaard as director. Once again, as you can see from the votes, this resolution has passed as well. In conclusion, this does conclude the business of the meeting. The final results of the meeting will be announced to the markets through the Regulatory Information Service and posted on the website as soon as possible. Thank you very much for your time and attention.
I think with questions, Chris, what's the format for questions were you-
We'll come to you.
Okay. For questions, any questions there may be can be directed to the company via email, and will be answered in due course. Thank you very much, and have a good day.