Welcome to the Fourth Quarter Presentation of Bonheur ASA. Today, our CFO, Richard Olav Aas will start the presentation, and we also have the different CEOs for the different segments that will be part of the presentation. We will open up for questions and answers at the end. Richard.
Yes.
Go ahead.
Thank you, Anette, a hearty welcome from me. Before we go into the numbers, I would just reflect on the quarter. It's been a good financial quarter. I would say especially Fred. Olsen Windcarrier had a stellar quarter. We have also some significant headwinds in the quarter on the tax side that is not reflected in the numbers but will bite us going forward. Our colleague, Anders Bade, will cover that yearly going forward, that has been a great concern in the quarter, it's not reflected in the numbers.
Going through the numbers, we have a strong improvement in the revenues and also the EBITDA in this quarter compared to first quarter last year. Revenues come in north of NOK 3.3 billion and EBITDA close to NOK 1.3 billion. EBIT of almost NOK 1 billion or little bit more than NOK 1 billion, which is up from NOK 900 million fourth quarter last year. Result after tax of NOK 732 million, which is also an improvement of close to NOK 100 million from fourth quarter last year. Before I go to the parent, I can cover the various segments. We have Renewable Energy, which has an EBITDA more or less in line with fourth quarter last year.
Fourth quarter last year at high power prices, but then they were on the way up. This quarter at high power prices, but this quarter they are on the way down, based on falling gas prices. Generation is lower than normal in this quarter. The wind speeds has been 11% lower than the P50. We also have higher OpEx in this quarter, that is related to a few different factors. It's, it's the land rent that we pay on high power prices. It's also more business development costs, both on the onshore side and the offshore side and also grid charges. We have the tax situation, which Anders shall come back to more into detail.
Again, it's not accrued for any of these new taxes and levies in our accounts for 2022. They will come with effect from first of January 2023. We have three slides for that later in the presentation. I'm not going to further detail now. We have the Wind Service, which had a very strong quarter with EBITDA of more than NOK 400 million, up from NOK 147 million, fourth quarter last year. Been a good operational quarter for Fred. Olsen Windcarrier, with close to 100% utilization, compared to 31% utilization, fourth quarter last year. However, we had Bold Tern in for a crane upgrade and also Blue Tern in yard stay in Denmark.
Also very promising, and Alexandra will cover this in her presentation, the backlog have increased further by two new contracts, very strategic and important contracts in this quarter that she will go through in more detail. On a negative side this quarter, and probably the only operational negative item this quarter is Global Wind Service have had a couple of projects that have been very difficult during the winter, which have been delayed and have lower than expected results this quarter. UWL had a good operational quarter. Cruise lines had an EBITDA of NOK -85 million, which is the same level as fourth quarter last year. Bunker costs continue at a high level, especially diesel is very expensive.
We had the two out of the three ships out of service, partly in the quarter. Bolette was taken out due to market conditions, and we had the Borealis at the yard stay. The occupancy was very low, 64%. We have made a decision to make Braemar available for sale, so she is now out in the market for sales. The bookings have recovered nicely. We see good bookings now so far in the year. I think that's on the back of a strong travel sector in general. We see it across many travel sectors, but also cruise lines have experienced a very good start of the year in terms of booking. Other investments, EBITDA of NOK 51 million negative.
Slight drop in EBITDA for NHST, also related to some organizational changes and costs associated with that. Also that we have cost in Fred. Olsen 1848 and general overhead cost. On the parent company to the bottom right, the board proposed a dividend of NOK 5 per share on the back of good financial year, and also that we have some realized gains in connection with the establishment of the wind farm. A total of NOK 213 million is proposed being paid out to the shareholders. Equity in parent stands strong at more than NOK 8 billion, which is an improvement of close to NOK 1.3 billion from fourth quarter last year.
That also related to establishment of the wind farm and the dividends received up to the parent company from that transaction. That gives an equity ratio of more than 70% in the parent and cash in parent close to NOK 3 billion, which is also a strength from last year. All in all, a good operational fourth quarter and also considerably strengthening of the financial situation in the parent. Going to the consolidated summary, already comment on the improvement on the revenues and the EBITDA. On depreciation, we see depreciation of NOK 261 million this quarter, which is increase of NOK 55 million. The depreciation level this quarter is the normal level.
Fourth quarter last year is a normal low because we changed, after long discussions with our auditors, we changed the depreciation schedule of the wind farms. We would like to have them shorter, the auditors would like to have them longer. We had to make them slightly longer and, the reduction in depreciation then came in the fourth quarter 21. We have two Scottish wind projects that we have worked on for a while that we see will not come into realization. Made an impairment decision of those, so NOK 14 million. On the net finance, it's worth commenting. We had positive net finance result fourth quarter 21 of NOK 14 million and a negative of NOK 167 million this quarter, and a change of NOK 181 million.
NOK 170 million of that change is related to the interest rate swaps in Fred. Olsen Renewables. We have secured approximately 70% of the interest on those loans. When interest goes down, we get unrealized gains as we did in fourth quarter 2021. When interest rates goes up, as it has done in fourth quarter 2022, we get a loss. That is the main explanation of the change of NOK 181 million. That leaves an EBIT of NOK 835 million. We had a more positive tax situation this quarter, which will be negative going into 2023. The net result was NOK 732 million, an improvement of NOK 95 million. We also reduced net interest-bearing debt quite considerably during the year in the group.
Close to NOK 1.7 billion reduction in net interest-bearing debt on the back of strong results, but also the sell down on 49% of the three Scandinavian wind farms. Each of the segments, we have done a total improvement of revenues of NOK 648 million. We see that the main improvement comes in Wind Service and Wind Service and Fred. Olsen Renewables is now more or less on par in terms of revenue, and also an improvement in cruise lines on the back of three ships being partly in operation. Yeah. On the EBITDA, we see Fred. Olsen Renewables, despite a slight increase in revenue, slightly reduction in EBITDA.
That's again related to more development cost in the quarter, both for offshore and onshore, and grid charges and also the land rent. NOK 44 million reduction there. Wind Service, an improvement of NOK 258 million. That is a very strong improvement in Wind Carrier, while UWL and GWS have a reduction compared to fourth quarter 2021. Cruise Lines on par. High bunkers cost this in fourth quarter 2022, and also the OpEx in connection with Balmoral and sailing with a low occupancy has been much better than being in dock, but not contributed significantly to the EBITDA. The EBITDA is on par. Other, already commented on, but all in all, an improvement of NOK 177 million compared to fourth quarter 2021.
On the cash, debt and guarantees, we have simplified this slide a little bit. We got some feedback that it's probably grown too big, and we have taken it down and slimmed it down again. It's now more easily accessible. Some information get lost in that, but that you will find in the notes. The main point here is to show what we control 100% and what is in companies that we don't control 100%. You see at the top we have the four, the three main business segment, Renewable Energy, Wind Service and Cruise, and then Bonheur ASA plus what is in others, which we control 100%. There we have now a total cash of around NOK 3.8 billion and debt of NOK 3.3 billion.
What we control 100%, we actually now have more cash than debt. Also in the mother company, Bonheur ASA, we see that the cash position is quite much larger than the external debt position. While in the joint ventures and the not 100% owned company, there we try to optimize the capital structure, not at least for the wind farms. There we see a cash situation of around NOK 900 million for the renewable energy and a debt of NOK 5.2 billion related to the Scottish wind farms. On wind service, a cash of close to half a billion and debt then related to UWL, Global Wind Service and Blue Tern. All in all, a sound capital structure and also built now on the Green Finance Framework.
We see that the loan we now New loan we did in Blue Tern in Alexandra's in Windcarrier was also built on the Green Finance Framework. Yeah. Before I leave the word back to Anette and our colleagues, just want to dwell with this slide also. This is a slide we are extremely proud of that sums up the ecosystem, our companies, our strong partners, and also the synergies we have between our various units. I think that's a good lead in to the various companies' presentation.
Thank you, Richard. The next one out is Anders Bade, Co-CEO of Fred. Olsen Renewables. Anders.
Thank you, Anette. Good morning to all of you from myself. I will present one slide on the portfolio, two on the revenue and revenue drivers, as Richard said, go a bit deeper into the tax situation and have three slides covering that. We can start with the portfolio. Since we only have this slide on the portfolio today, I will comment a bit on the first columns. The on-site investigation, we are running with solid progress in all markets. Norway now also opening up for a more positive atmosphere to renewables from the municipalities and people in general. Come back to the tax situation, which is a major problem.
Floating solar also at very solid progress, we don't comment further on that today. We also now on PV, onshore PV, signed up the first planned agreements in our markets on onshore PV. To the next column, development. The rest of the slide here is now only onshore wind. U.K., we have increased by 90 MW this quarter. Solid progress in that market as well. Norway, Finnmark is opening up. We have two projects there together with Finnmark Kraft. They have exactly the same view as we have on the tax bill, the tax needs to change in order to not kill the investments in Norway. Sweden, we have added two sites.
One extension of 50 MW to an existing one and another of 100 MW. We also have taken out one of the large sites we have, a 300 MW site close to Överliden and Fäbodliden due to the Sámi heavily opposing to it. Really it's key to us, for us to have a strong and trustful relationship with the Sámi villages. Italy also continuing to grow. We now have a portfolio where we have filed for the application for the consent of 250 MW in Italy. Next column, consented. We actually had two new sites consented in the quarter. Fetteresso, that's an extension to Mid Hill of around 40 MW, and Rothes, a large extension there of 126 MW.
They were consented in October. They were also mentioned on the previous quarter report. On construction, we have Fäbodliden II under construction and operational sites I will come to on the next couple of slides. If you go next, we have solid growth in our production. P50 for this year is around 2,240 or 50 GWh . With the pipeline you saw on the previous slide, this is certainly going to be even higher growth going forward. To the quarter, the revenue drivers. Norway, we start strong winds and strong production capacity factor in the high 40s, which is about normal strong wind for the quarter.
As Richard mentioned, we had some lower wind speeds, and that's relates to the two sites in the northern Sweden, Överliden and Fäbodliden, and the Crystal Rig complex in Scotland. Capacity factor and production in U.K. and Sweden, somewhat lower than normal for the quarter. Power prices in the down left corner continue to be solid, Q3, but down from the very high level we saw in U.K., Continental Europe and Southern Norway for Q3, but still at solid levels, continue to go somewhat down in Q4... in the Q1 this year. Now come to the drivers on the right-hand side. Sweden had high and strong power prices for northern Sweden in Q4. That helped on our revenues.
Looking at the right-hand side, you see the key drivers. Up right corner, you see both gas, carbon and coal prices. We have previously not reported on the coal prices, but now Europe is shifting a bit more to coal. You see coal prices coming somewhat down from the very high levels, but it's still gas that really sets the price for most hours, on, in continental Europe and also southern Norway and to some extent in northern Sweden and obviously in the U.K. Gas, the blue there, came down from very high levels, now down to more... Still higher than the pre-price crisis in Ukraine, but more and not as a normal levels. Carbon prices also starts to have a bigger impact on the price.
Typically, a gas-fired modern power price, power plant, they run at efficiency of between 50 and 60. To get to the marginal power price for, when the gas power price, gas, power plants are willing to produce, you need to divide or multiply the gas price with about two and a third of the carbon price. The reason for the gas prices coming down is mainly weather over the last, say, four or five months. Wild and windy in continental Europe, and also the wet weather in Norway has helped. The final there, down right corner, hydrological balance in Scandinavia. We have a very, we had a very wet Q4 in southern Norway in particular.
It has improved also in start of this year with a lot of wind in continental Europe actually driving imports to Norway. We now have around normal hydrological balance for Norway, both northern and southern Norway is now about normal for the time of year. It's not the imbalance we typically have last year in northern and southern Norway. Sweden still somewhat a bit lower, not far from normal in terms of hydrologic and hydropower balance. We go to the taxes. I will start with showing the impact on our financials from the proposed tax changes. We have U.K. and Norway on the slide. You can see, we have estimated first the tax rate at GBP 100 per megawatt hour.
That's the tax we pay on every top-line revenue. Then we have an estimated marginal tax in terms of higher prices. Starting with the U.K. for 2023, we will not see sky-high taxes at GBP 100 per megawatt hour. The government there, although they drive higher taxes for the sector, they want to maintain incentives to invest also at 100 GBP per megawatt hour, which is normally a solid power price. Then they increase significantly the estimated marginal tax in terms of higher prices. Corporate tax is increasing in general from 19%-25%, and they have then a tax on prices above 75 GBP. I'll come to that on the next slide. That drives the marginal tax on higher power prices up to 68.5%. Norway is really the big, big issue.
We have on the power price of GBP 100 per megawatt hour, we estimate for Lista that we will pay 64% on every top-line revenue, government taxes. If we have a higher price than that, we pay 85% next year of every revenue we pay in government taxes, up from 22% this year. You can also compare that to the petroleum sector, which obviously have had very high super profits. Even they pay lower taxes than we do. We are with the current proposal from the government. We can also compare this to our two other markets. Sweden is a country where investors are probably more, "Should we invest in Norway and Sweden?" Power prices tend to be similar and wind resource is similar.
They stick to the 180 MWh price that the EU has agreed on, so there are no additional taxes until you reach EUR 180 per megawatt hour. Also Italy, a key market for us, which many Norwegians would consider to be more risky than Norway. They also stick to the EU standards of no additional taxes until they reach EUR 180 per megawatt hour. Norway is really an outlier the way we see it in Europe. If you go to the next slide, we see the statements and our position and the process going forward. Again, starting with the U.K., the main tax, corporate tax rate will increase to 25%. That goes across all sectors.
They have a 45% levy on extraordinary profits, sold at higher than GBP 75 per megawatt hour. They index this from 2024, this GBP 75, and they have a GBP 10 million allowance on group level, which actually makes us not pay taxes, any of this levy till we reach GBP 90 per megawatt hour and limited until we reach GBP 115. The powers will be in place for five years. Our position is that you need to index it, and that's now agreed, the price threshold. We also strongly believe that this should reflect pre-crisis prices, December 2021, which is somewhat higher than the historic. This should be in place maximum for three years. Any market in Europe really needs new renewable investments.
Investors and power producers should be able to deduct some of the tax when you do reinvestment in renewables. The process in the U.K., consultation process is concluded, and they are clear that no payment will be required until the law is formally signed, and also receives royal consent. The U.K. is obviously an issue for us, but as I said, nothing compared to Norway. Norway, as most of you know, the government has proposed an effective resource rent tax of 40% for onshore wind. High, in addition to that, high price contribution at 23%. You have an excise duty, and you have a new resource tax. The two lower ones, we don't have a problem with. The high resource…
The high-price contribution, which has probably got the most attention due to hydropower, is somewhat an issue, obviously. It's the resource tax which really is detrimental to the investments in wind going forward in Norway. Our position is that the resource tax for new onshore wind projects, they must be fully cash neutral. That's simply in line with what you have for hydro and even for oil and gas in Norway, which is more profitable. For some reason, the current proposal is not in line for onshore wind as what it is for the more profitable sectors. Secondly, probably even more important, is that the resource tax must not be implemented on existing wind farms. We constructed Wind Vista around 10 years ago, and many did similar to us. That was with Enova support.
It was with tax incentives from the government. I must say nothing less in terms of incentives and political drive for onshore wind than what you now have for offshore wind. You don't need to be very, how to say, paranoid in order to fear that very similar tax, what they now have imposed on existing onshore wind farms, will later also be imposed on offshore wind and also onshore solar. Both for us and the investor community we have as partners and dialogue with internationally, they take this as this as a reason probably not to invest, not only in onshore wind, but also in other sources of renewables in Norway. The consultation process will be concluded in mid-March. It's a key month ahead of us.
We are really working to enlighten the politicians, it's, we'll see how it goes. The government will send a final proposal to the parliament. As a final comment or perspective on this, we are comparing the onshore wind taxation to what you see in oil and gas. For oil and gas, there was a tax stimulus package of around, estimated by EY, NOK 100 billion during the COVID crisis. That comes on top of a cash neutral ground rent tax regime. This stimulus package, according to Rystad Energy, has enabled around 4x higher investments in oil and gas than actually the government provided as stimulus package.
Onshore wind, as a prediction to this, as I said, the tax regime is not cash neutral, even on new tax, even on new wind farms, and certainly detrimental to existing wind farms. The regime, as proposed, will increase the break-even electricity prices by 20%- 25% compared to a cash neutral regime. When investors are looking where to invest, and they can invest in Sweden or Norway, this obviously have a very strong consequence. Government should expect on the marginal new onshore wind, windfall investments if this, what is now on the table is what is approved. Certainly also, significant impact on investors' trust and ability and willingness to invest in onshore solar, but even more importantly in offshore wind.
It's, how to say, interesting to look at this in the backdrop of the communication, where you have a narrative from the Norwegian government that we now are going green. We are doing the transition from oil and gas to wind in particular. The taxes and the money is not where the mouth is. You also have a situation now with U.S. coming with strong incentives and pulling the sector to invest in U.S. EU is debating how to meet that, is also looking at more incentives for the renewables, while Norway is going then in a complete and different direction. This is also the backdrop of what we have on the lower section on this slide, the one that really makes the super profit. In the circumstances of the energy crisis, that's the Norwegian government.
The annual energy export, particularly oil and gas, has increased from around NOK 500 billion to a run rate of autumn 2022. That was when the tax was proposed of around NOK 2 billion, NOK 2,000 billion. That was also a certain article from The Economist, which was also picked up by the Norwegian press at the time. It's really important, not mainly for us, but for the green transition in Norway, that the tax is not going through to what is now on the table. Our position is clear, we have to have a very important month, a few months ahead of us to get this right. With that, I hand back to you, Anette.
Yes. Thank you, Anders. Next is Lars Bender, CEO of Fred. Olsen Seawind. Lars.
Yes. Thank you. Also good morning from me. I will take you through the highlights of fourth quarter for Fred. Olsen Seawind in our core markets. Before I do that, a couple of maybe more general reflections on offshore wind and our business. We've been through a very intense quarter with a lot of regulatory activity in our core markets, that is definitely on the back of a lot of activity in offshore wind in general. I would say across the globe, there is a strong push for offshore wind and renewables in a lot of sectors. We also see that in our core markets. That also means that we are currently seeing tendencies to constraints in general in offshore wind, on supply chain and other places.
In general for our business, a positive development with a lot of push for offshore wind. I think that leads naturally into our project in Ireland, the Codling Wind Park. On the regulatory side, in Ireland, we've seen positive development over the last quarter with a lot of clarifications on the future CFD regime and the terms and conditions for the upcoming auction. In general, when we look at that, it's been a positive outcome of the legislative process. Main highlights include that we see a 20-year CFD contract instead of expected 15 years. We see indexation covering the main inflation risk in the CFD contracts, and we also see compensation for grid assets, the general infrastructure assets as well. Overall, a bit more positive than what the industry expected.
Naturally, as I said before, it's also on the back of a market with some constraints in relation to, for example, the supply chain. The Irish government is still very ambitious on the timelines. Phase I , which we are a part of with Codling Wind Park, still have a planned auction in late April 2023, and it's our expectation they will stick to that schedule. Secondly, they are now preparing for a phase II and phase III. We do see a lot of players moving into the Irish market, which is a sign of the general attractiveness of the Irish market. Another highlight this quarter is that we received the final award of MAC, which is the Maritime Area Consent, and that is a very important milestone for us.
It's something the project has worked towards for a long time. It basically gives us the right to move the project into detailed planning and apply for a planning consent. It also, very importantly, gives us the right to participate in the upcoming auction in April, and in principle also in a later auction. An important milestone for us, and positive development on the legislative framework in Ireland. In Norway, we've all seen movement on the regulatory framework in Q4. Mainly, OED has published the competitive framework for Utsira Nord and Sørlige Nordsjø. The highlights include a competition on Utsira Nord, which is a seabed competition in first instance with three areas of 500 MW .
Second part of the competition will be a pure price competition, most likely based on the CFD regime, and that will happen two to three years after seabed award. That is the current expectation. The first instance, the seabed award will be based on qualitative criteria, so very similar to what we have experienced from in ScotWind, which I'll come a bit back to, with the MeyGen project later. Second, there will be some sort of price competition two to three years down the road. On Sørlige Nordsjø, the suggested system is a bit different. The expectation is a combined seabed award and price auction in one go. Only one site will be allocated and up for competition, so all parties will compete around the same site of 1,500 MW.
Naturally, this is a competition which probably is less developer friendly. We are a lot of developers all preparing for the same auction, and there will only be one winner in that auction. From an industrial point of view, we could have wished for a framework with more allocation. That would definitely have supported a more industrial development of offshore wind. The timelines for this is that all awards should be done end of 2023. Whether that is achievable or not, I think is a very good question. It's definitely a huge push on OED to get all the frameworks in place. Currently they are sticking to a timeline, and we are preparing for that accordingly, for both sides. Positive that we now see a competitive framework.
I should caveat that. Anders went through the taxation and of course it is a concern for offshore wind, how will the taxation discussion end? Naturally we are following that very closely because in order to achieve a good offshore wind market and a good industrial development on offshore wind, we need a framework that supports and incentivizes investments into Norway. As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of markets coming up, Norway needs to be, of course, at least on par with other markets for the investments to go into Norway. If we move to Scotland, we've had a good quarter with a lot of important milestones.
Most importantly, we have started the deployment of LIDAR and collection of wind data on the site, which of course is something we worked towards for quite a while. In addition to that, we are planning for geophys to be started up in March and early April. All the collection of data is now on the way, either already started or contracted to start a bit later in the year. If we recap the Muir Mhòr project, we started up and was awarded a seabed lease exclusivity early last year. Now within roughly a year from that, we have a full team operational, and we have most of the initial contracts signed and also some of deployment already undertaken. Also there, I think the last year has been a good year and a good progress.
Importantly and strategically, this puts us in a position to submit an early consent and be one of the first projects in the Scotland competition to submit a consent for the projects. There are still also in Scotland a lot of uncertainty around the regulatory, especially around grid. We are following that closely. Most have probably picked up that there is a change also politically now in Scotland, and we of course following that closely to see how that potentially will impact offshore wind going forward. A short recap of the quarter is that we've received a MAC in Scotland. That was an important milestone. We are now deploying LIDARs in Scotland. Also important milestone.
We've seen a regulatory framework progressing in Norway, but with the caveat that there are still a lot of uncertainties around that in relation to the attractiveness. I will give the word back to you, Anette.
Thank you, Lars. Sofie Olsen Jebsen, CEO of Fred. Olsen 1848.
Thank you. I'm starting here with a picture of Brunel, the floating foundation we're developing for a 50 MW turbine. Just to show the size that floating offshore wind will have, because here, the structure is much larger than the tallest building in Oslo. We see the industry moving forward with an impressive speed, and we're also moving full force ahead with our technologies and have some exciting developments ongoing. Starting off to give you an update on the floating maintenance solution. This is an operational maintenance solution where we are able to carry out the blade exchange and gearbox exchange at site instead of towing the foundations to port, and that being an expensive and time-consuming operation where you have to account for where the wind blows, et cetera.
As I've told you before, we, for this solution, turned to Huisman, the crane manufacturer, to help us develop this crane that can be lifted on top of the floating foundation or from an offshore service vessel. Then it operates with the same movements as the floater, and we're then able to exchange the components. We have some good activities ongoing here. We're working on a FEED study for the solution, where we're detailing all the commercial, technical, and operational elements, working very well together with developers and wind turbine manufacturers on this. The next update I wanted to give you is on Brunel, the floating foundation that we are developing.
That is based on steel tubulars, that makes it able to tap into the existing global supply chain so that it can be ready for mass production, that is actually what's needed to be able to build out all these floating gigaparks that are coming. This modular design is very well fit for serial mass production. We are also getting increasing feedback that it's very optimized for HSEQ, especially since you can have the fabrication and all the corrosion protection building, et cetera, done in a closed environment. On this presentation, I'm very happy to announce that we have engaged Ramboll to perform the design scope for Brunel. We think that Ramboll, with their experience, they will be able to take the development of Brunel to another level together with our team.
We're also undergoing another important process, and that is developing a control system together with IFE in Norway. All the floating wind turbines, especially those single point moor, will need to have a floating or a control system developed in order to avoid yaw and pitch misalignment. This is an important knowledge that we're building out now and that will be applicable to all floating foundations. We have received a grant from the Research Council of Norway for this project and are very excited to go on with it. We're also working on the operation and maintenance solution for Brunel, and that leads me on to the next slide.
I'm proud to present in more detail the operation and maintenance solution that we have for Brunel, because it is much more cost efficient than the more generic solution that I showed you on the previous slide. Generic solution I mean for the more generic semi-submersible foundations. Here you see that we have the same crane, but it's placed on a barge together with the components. It's floated over the foundation. The foundation is de-ballasted, it lifts the barge up as you see on the picture here. We are able to exchange the blades and perform the maintenance activities because everything operates with the same motions as the floater. We believe this has some really good benefits as we take away all dynamic lifts. We also see a lot of flexibility in this solution.
Blades, sorry, barges are available worldwide. It's especially applicable for the U.S. where availability of vessels would be an issue. Barges are readily available. We see the benefits of having the maritime experience in our team and in the related companies that could create solutions that are good for the industry and where the technology gap is quite low, i.e., that we have a crane that looks like a crane, et cetera, because we believe that this is very important to be able to bring floating wind forwards to the levels necessary. That was the end of my presentation. I'm looking forward next time to talk to you a bit more about our activities in floating solar.
Thank you, Sofie. Alexandra Koefoed, CEO of Wind Carriers.
Good morning, everybody. I will start the presentation with an update on the quarter and what we have been up to in Fred. Olsen Windcarrier. Starting with the three vessels, Bold Tern has installed turbines on the Formosa Two project in Taiwan for the complete quarter. That project was finished in January this year. That was means the completion of the first big industrial project in Taiwan, so we are happy to have contributed to that. Brave Tern has also been operating in Taiwan in not less than three different projects. We installed turbines on the Yunlin project on the beginning of the quarter, and then the vessel has been utilized on both Greater Changhua and Formosa Two for the latter part of the quarter.
I think that's a record three T&I contracts for one vessel in a quarter. It shows sort of the flexibility of the organization in trying to help the industry and our clients to get turbines installed under challenging conditions. Brave Tern is now on her way back to Europe. She's completed her tenure in Taiwan, and we did mobilization for the next project in Batam, Indonesia. She's now on her way from Mauritius to South Africa, will start a project in France in the next quarter.
Importantly, in terms of Brave Tern, we have previously communicated that we've made an investment decision on a complete upgrade, as we did on Bold, and we have now signed a firm yard contract with lump sum pricing for the conversion scope, which will happen in Navantia, in the Ferrol facilities, and start late Q4, early Q1 2023, 2024. Blue Tern, she is operating on the Nysted Wind Farm , slowly but steadily installing pin piles for jacket foundation. She is due to install turbines on that same project later in the year. Importantly, in terms of Blue Tern, we have refinanced her in Q4 last year. That was, I think it's what I can mention about that. It was a NOK 35 million facility.
It was in significant better terms than our last facility on Blue Tern, and also under the green framework, as Richard mentioned. I think we'll move on to next slide in terms of the results. As Richard has already mentioned, it has been a very solid quarter. We had a little bit of a slow start to 2022, but with very solid quarters in Q3 and Q4, it has turned out to be a very, very good year. 2021 was our best year so far, but 2022 is significantly better with an EBITDA increase of almost 50%. Revenue in the quarter was EUR 57.8 million, and EBITDA was EUR 38.2 million. For the attentive reader or listener, there's maybe sort of a discrepancy there.
To understand the difference between revenue and EBITDA was that in Q3, we did major demobilizations in Taiwan, shifting the setup of the vessels. That generates higher revenue, but also slightly lower EBITDA. In Q4, the vessels have been operating more or less continuously with only slight modifications in port between projects. All in all, a very good quarter, but also a very good year overall. That's linked to partly previously communicated higher rates on Bold Tern after the main conversion, but also in general higher utilization, and in general also increasing rates on the other vessels. Future backlog.
Although we've had a very good quarter and produced a lot of revenue, we have also managed to increase the overall backlog, which now is at EUR 5,553 million, up from EUR 473 million last quarter. This additional revenue is linked to two reservation agreements. Just to explain what those reservation agreements are about, we have the clients pay sizable reservation fees, and then I'm talking ±EUR 5 million, while we take the vessel off the market and negotiate a final contract. We do expect these reservation agreements to turn into fixed contracts late Q1, possibly early Q2. I will not reveal what the projects are, but I can mention one of them is a flagship project. It's next-generation turbine. We are very proud to have won that contract.
The other one is a contract on existing turbines on Blue Tern, which means the crane upgrade on Blue Tern will be postponed with one year. In addition to that, I can mention that we see very significant tender activity. We see clients approaching us earlier and earlier, and that has been true for the T&I market for some time, but we now see that applying to the O&M market as well. A very good year, but also a very good outlook with now a solid backlog for the next four years. Which means Polarc is in a very good position for the offshore market to come.
Thank you all. Now back to Richard.
Thank you, Anette. Just a few more slides before we open up for Q&A. Going through Cruise. Cruise has, as you know, we have been hit very hard with the COVID, and we're still struggling coming fully out of COVID. Fourth quarter was also a quarter where we were really prepared to come back into normal operation. We had in the quarter, Borealis was out 16 days in dry dock, so she's now fully ready for the high season now starting this spring. Bolette we took out of the market because the market was just too weak, and she's also fully now in ship shape for going into the high market this summer. We will do Balmoral this quarter. All three vessels will be prepared for the high seasons.
We spent the time now a little bit to compare back to Fred. Olsen Windcarrier, where we had fourth quarter last year, really had ships in layup and preparing for what we saw coming. We hope that we can see some of the same effects here in Cruise, but we now have prepared all the three vessels for the season that is coming. The fourth quarter in itself is weak, 64% occupancy. Still a slow market in the U.K. in the fourth quarter. A lot of uncertainty in consumer spending, consumer behavior. Net ticket income per diem is reasonable. GBP 172 is higher than it's been before, but it's still lower than we would like to see it.
What is very interesting now is that what we see a slight shift in the market where we hopefully it's not only pent-up demand, but that we maybe see a shift in the consumer sentiment. We hear it across the travel sector and maybe more so in the premium part of the sector than the mass market, that the market is somewhat back. We see that in the booking numbers for 2023 and 2024 so far. Hopefully that can stay up and that when the ships and the excellent crew and the staff is ready, that we can produce some better numbers for Cruise Lines this year. With that, Anette, I think we can end the presentation.
Good.
Mm.
We will move into Q&As. Please, questions.
If you wish to ask a question on the phone, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. That is star one if you wish to ask a question. Your first question comes on line of Anders Rosenlund from SEB. Your line is open.
Thank you. I have two questions. My first question is on the Irish CFD auction. You mentioned that round two is already in planning. What's the timeline for round two? My second question is on the cruise segment. Do you expect cruise to be contributing positively on EBITDA in 2023? Thank you.
I think the first question goes to you, Lars.
Yeah. Just as I understood the question you asked about the second CFD auction, when would the timing be? As I mentioned, the first one is now scheduled for April. The current expectation is that the second auction will be two years later. That could be moved forward, but I think the best, let me say, guess by the industry now is two years intervals.
The second question, do you want to answer the EBITDA?
Yes, I can try, Anette. I think, Anders, if we kind of go back and look at what happened to the cruise lines. First you had the COVID one, then you had the Omicron, then you had the Russian invasion, then you had the inflation and customer comp. We've been hit with all kinds of negativism in the cruise. They continued to book and continued to fight. With the absence of any kind of new sudden events on the geopolitical side or deterioration in the U.K. economy, definitely we see that the bookings are back and that the ships are in good shape and receive excellent customer feedback on the onboard experience.
In the absence of, either some geopolitical events, some deterioration in the economy or bunker prices going high wire again, obviously we expect to produce a much better result in 23 than in 22.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from line of Roald Hartvigsen of Clarksons Securities. Your line is open.
Hi. First, congratulations on your strong results. Certain news media have reported that you have filed an application to repower the Windy Standard wind farm in Scotland. Can you give some color on the repowering of that wind farm and what potential improvements on out-output could we see with the repowering?
Anders, I think you are the best one to answer that.
Yeah, sure. My understanding of the question was about the repowering of what we call Windy Standard one. That is a wind farm which was which will end with ROCs in 2027. We are planning to then build a new wind farm. We have then totally different turbines. The current turbines are 600 kW, I think. The ones we now are consenting are probably 6,000 kW or more kilowatts. It's a different size, but also different number of turbines. Obviously, we are on the ridge. That's why we have fewer turbines than with the current setup of Windy Standard one, with a much higher total megawatt installed and also much better capacity factor. This was built on top of the ridge.
good site, I would say. We wish to find more of those sites. That will be a very healthy, financial case and also a site we see a very positive, outlook on ability to consent. That was the question, right?
Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you. Just to follow up on sort of the repowering theme, you also have some other older wind farms like Crystal Rig I from 2003 and Rothes I from 2005. I guess they still have some good years left in them, but once the time comes, how are you thinking about repowering of those?
I think this is something worth thinking about all the time. It is a challenge to make sure that we choose the right turbines and certainly look at the opportunities of each individual wind farm. I think it's a general question, and you'll get a general answer.
Okay. Thank you.
Again, if you would like to ask a question on the phone, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. That is star one to ask a question. Your next question comes to line of Jørgen Lian of DNB Markets. Your line is open.
Yes. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. I wonder, are there any of your concrete renewable projects that have been impacted by the recent tax changes in the... Rather not the current one, but rather new ones. Have you put any projects on the shelf or delayed in investment decisions, et cetera, due to the tax changes, please?
I think for Norway, the situation is such that the tax is out for hearing, so it's too early to answer. When it comes to the U.K., obviously for the wind farms that we have in the pipeline to be built, we need to take the tax as one of the elements going into the total consideration.
maybe I also-.
To-
I would like to add, Jørgen, because it's a very good question, and it also goes back to something Lars said in his presentation.
Mm.
This sudden surprise that we got in with the proposed state budget also have a very heavy burden towards the offshore wind. We get a lot of feedback from our partners and investors that also what we hear that this taxation on the onshore is so detrimental that it also is a major showstopper for investing in offshore wind. We are hopeful that the Norwegian government will come to a different solution that they have come to now. We haven't stopped any activity, but for the offshore in Norway, it's really a problem if this goes through.
For the onshore in addition.
Ja, ja.
Mm.
People tend to forget the spillover to the offshore.
Yeah.
Mm.
Mm. Yeah.
Mm.
'Cause for now, the EU and the U.K. tax changes are on the onshore, roughly, is that correct?
Yes.
Yeah. I agree. Of course, people will think, 1+ 1 is equals 2. I also wonder, have you seen any of your clients for your offshore wind service operations, to call it that, have you seen any offshore projects being delayed in Europe or due to fear of tax? Just in general, are your clients worried about increased tax offshore?
I think, certainly there is a mixture of inflationary worries, interest rates, and with the tax questions on top of it. It certainly will be.
Mm
... a question when it comes to building out the wind farms. Alexandra, would you like to answer.
I can comment somewhat. I don't think we see sort of the tax issue as the main issue. It's been a turbulent year for everybody in the offshore industry. I think if you can look to, we have two sets of clients. It's the wind farm developers and it's the turbine manufacturers. If you look at the numbers for the turbine manufacturers, it's relatively easy to see we're in a challenging environment. Of course, that results in them in increasing prices. If you, for instance, follow the U.S., there you have seen some, at least, what we see as potential for postponement due to wind farm developers stating that PPAs are too low given the current environment. Not directly taxes, but other financial circumstances.
Also projects stuck in permitting is a recurring topic, but I think I heard it's still 80 GW stuck in permitting in Europe.
I think you heard Anders very much focusing on the fact that for Norway, I mean, we want to build an industry in renewable energy. Certainly, it's extremely important, if we are really serious about this, to make sure that we have a regime here that attracts both investors and people who want to build that. We are, at the moment, very worried and that's why we talk about it.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Probably with a good concern. I share the concern. Second question is on the cruise. When you say the upcoming season, would that be from May? I just wonder a little bit of details for Q1, for instance. I presume it's still Q1 more likely to be similar to Q4, and then improvements from Q2. Would that be correct?
I hope, Jørgen , that we can also improve, Q1 versus Q1, because if you recall back to Q1, 2022, it was not a good quarter. There we had the Omicron breakout in.
Mm.
We actually had to cancel some cruise and so on. We're not planning for that at all. I think when you look at cruise lines historically, is typically the months, like you say, from Easter until end of October. That's really the strong months where you have a lot of good cruises up against to the Nordics, to north of the U.K. into the Baltics and so on, which are very good cruises. While in the winter it's more difficult to fill the ship, and often you have to go to the more southern places where the net VMs are lower.
Yeah. Okay. That's all from me. Thank you.
Please press Star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. There are no further questions at this time, so I'd like to hand back to the presenters.
Thank you very much, everybody. That concludes this session.