Welcome to this half year report presentation with Cadeler. I'm Jonas Fremming, equity analyst in SpareBank 1 Markets, and I will be the Q&A moderator in today's webcast. Cadeler is the largest turbine and foundation installation vessel company, and is a key piece to reach global capacity wind targets. Cadeler has a fleet of three O-class vessels and are awaiting delivery of two new turbine installation vessels and one foundation installation vessel. The company just announced their half year results that show continued increases on both revenues and profitability. The company will give their presentation, and then we will follow up with Q&A at the end. If you have any questions, please type in the Q&A box and we'll read them out loud. With me today, I have CEO Mikkel Gleerup and CFO Peter Brogaard Hansen. The floor is yours, guys.
Thank you, Jonas, and welcome to everybody listening in. It's a pleasure presenting to you again. Let's just get on with the presentation, and Charlotta, you will flick the pages. Let's go to the agenda slide. What we want to talk to you about today is basically the highlights during the first half of 2022. Then after that, our new CFO, Peter Brogaard, who has been with us for almost three months, he will be going through the financial results. Then at the end of the presentation, we will talk a little bit about how we see Cadeler going forward before we end up with Q&A with all of you guys. We look forward to a lot of good questions. Yes. Next slide, please.
First, the highlights during the first half of 2022. As probably most of the people listening in have seen, there has been a lot of activity in the commercial space for Cadeler in the recent months. I think that we are in an incredibly good position on contractual coverage now, having announced a lot of very interesting contracts with very known clients in the industry. I will just quickly go through what we have now. We have contractual coverage on our fleet until the end of 2026. We are starting off after the current project with an assignment with Vestas. We have also closed a contract with Vestas on their new turbine model, the [Hybrake] project to be in 2025.
We have closed a contract with Siemens on the Moray West project, which is the first installation of their new turbine as well. This is both on O-class vessels. In our view, justification of what we are doing with the new cranes on the vessels and really also ensuring that these vessels can continue to install in a tighter market, as we see going forward. A project that we had on our must-win list, the East Anglia Hub, where we have signed an agreement with ScottishPower Renewables for East Anglia THREE , which is the biggest of the projects out there, but also a preferred supplier agreement for East Anglia TWO and East Anglia ONE North.
In total, this is a contract that could be up to installation of 221 turbines, and really one of the contracts we wanted to win in Cadeler. Also, we have signed with Baltic Power to install seven WTGs on the project in Poland. This is the first entry into the Polish market for Cadeler and something that we're also incredibly happy with. Further expanding the footprint we have in Europe, where a lot of things are going on at the moment, especially during or after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Last but certainly not least, the Ørsted 43 foundation project, where we will be installing 192 foundations for Ørsted with our new X-class vessels.
This project is incredibly special because what we have announced so far is the vessels' time that has been booked by Ørsted. Also we have a commitment with each other to further develop this into a full-blown T&I contract, which is really expanding the capabilities in the company. It's something we're doing jointly together with Ørsted's partners, something we are very, very happy to have signed. I think, for us the strategy has been to really fill up the years with the bigger projects that are out there. Now also, obviously as the focus is post 2026, we are also focusing on where can we support other installations or where can we do O&M work to really ensure that the utilization is maximized during these years.
At the moment, it's something that we are very positive around, and we have a lot of very interesting conversations with clients at the moment, and I'll come a little bit more back to that as we go ahead in the presentation. Next slide, please. In the first half, we have added a new vessel to the fleet, to the growing fleet, which is the S-Class vessels that is portrayed here on the picture. I think that one of the things we wanted to talk about here today was the focus that we had on this vessel. Because from beginning of dialogue with Ørsted until signing with the yard and having done a private placement, raising money to execute this project, we had a total of six weeks.
I think that this really talking about how the industry is working at the moment and also the speed where things happen at. It is really about being ready for handling these requests when they come in because the clients, they are certainly ready to move. What would previously have taken approximately more than a year was done as I said in six weeks. We started the conversation with Ørsted, we could see that they had a project that had to be installed, and we could also see that there was not a lot of capacity out there to install.
We started the thirtieth of March discussing this with Ørsted. Fifth of May, we did a private placement where our investors supported us to further grow the business, something we are very, very happy about. Then four days later, we signed with the yard. We had an extremely fast process both with our investors that showed confidence in us as a company, but also with the yard that were willing to build on the relation we had from the X-class vessels. That goes also for all suppliers on the vessels, both the X-class and the F-class. The delivery is planned for Q4 2025, and later in the presentation, we'll give an update on where we are on other CapEx projects as well. Next slide, please. Yes.
What is the F-class then about? It's diversifying the fleet because it is somewhat different than the X-class, although it looks the same. We want to talk about some of it here today. It's an incredibly flexible asset, and it is based on the X-class specifications in terms of hull. It's a hybrid vessel, so it's a vessel that is designed for both doing T&I for foundations and for the turbines. The modification time from turbine to foundation, from foundation to turbine is two to three weeks, and it's something we can do in port, so we don't need to go to a yard or anything like that.
It's based on a smart solution we have done together with the crane manufacturer, with Liebherr. We can transport up to 6 XL monopile foundations per round trip, which we believe is a very strong number, and certainly justified by the contracts we have been awarded, but also the contracts we're currently discussing with clients. What is the result? The result is the largest and most capable jack-up vessel in the offshore wind industry. Next slide, please. As I say, it's based on the X-class in terms of how the vessel looks. The biggest difference here is, of course, the crane capacity, and what we are saying at the moment is, it's bigger than the X-class. It is significantly bigger than the X-class.
How big it is is something that we will disclose to the market at a later stage. We are incredibly comfortable with the XL monopile design, and that's a monopile design where we say the monopile is anywhere between 2,400 and 2,900 tons, roughly. That's a monopile design that we believe will be used a lot over that size in the future projects. There will obviously be projects with larger monopiles than that, and we are totally aware of that. If we look at kind of like share of market, that sizing is giving us a very, very good position with this vessel to also be competitively bidding for foundation installation on these projects. Next slide, please.
Yes, handing over to Peter for the financial results, which I think all of you are looking forward to hear a little bit about.
Yeah. Thank you. Please, next slide, Jonas. Yeah. This is the financial highlights for the group for the first half of 2022. Performance in the first half of 2022 was good and within guidance, despite offshore delays experienced in the Seagreen project. Revenue was EUR 43 million. That is up with 33%. EBITDA was EUR 23 million and up with 48%. It is a strong profit for the first half year, and it's better than the full year result that we saw for 2021. We have positive cash flow from operating and financing activities, and we use that proceeds for investment in new buildings and new cranes on the O-class vessel. If we look at the balance sheet, it is a strong balance sheet with an equity ratio of 80%.
In July, we completed a new credit facility of EUR 150 million, and by that we added a new liquidity of EUR 70 million to the company. I will speak a little bit about the cash flow from investing activities. It's EUR 170 million, and that consists of EUR 85 million for the new buildings, mainly the F-class vessels. The new cranes on the O-class vessels, EUR 14 million. Dry docks, EUR 7 million, and EUR 11 million in project-related CapEx. When it comes to the EUR 11 million in project-related CapEx, they are not specific for this project, but we plan and hope for being able to utilize it on future projects as well. Next slide, please.
If we look at the revenue, it is reflecting a strong market. You can see that revenue has increased EUR 11 million as compared to last year, whereas the utilization of vessels has gone down. That is due to the fact that the Orca was on a planned maintenance for the first quarter of 2022. Next slide, please, Jonas. Next slide. Yes, this is the full-year guidance. We have narrowed the range. Sorry. We have narrowed the range, first half within expectations, but current offshore delays on the projects in execution leads to that we have to rephase the revenue on the contracts.
To narrow the guidance, it is not that the contracts are getting smaller, but it's rephasing and postponement of revenue into next year. Revenue is now expected in the second half to be between EUR 53 million and EUR 62 million. For the full year, revenue is expected in the range EUR 96 million-EUR 106 million. When we look at EBITDA, it is expected to be in the range EUR 33 million-EUR 42 million for the second half. For full year, it is now within the range of EUR 66 million-EUR 65 million. That was the financial results. Any questions now? Thank you.
I think, just to also sum up on some of these things, I think if we look at what we are seeing, if we look at the utilization due to also being out the first quarter of the year for maintenance and still doing more revenue, it shows a trend that we are seeing improving rates in the market. That is also something we see in the outer years and in the years that we are contracting in at the moment, as also being indicated by most analysts in the industry. I think also, if we look at the last slide that Peter presented, we are experiencing rebasing of revenue.
I think that with the results that we are guiding towards at the moment, we also show that contractual strength that we have been questioned a lot about by our investors. You know, what happens if we are delayed, you know? I think that it is still we are delayed by others at the moment, but we are still able to uphold where we guided towards at the beginning of the year because of the contractual strength that we have on current projects. I think both of those are positive because it is a fact that, you know, we are not able to install at the pace we could due to other upstream issues on projects at the moment.
What is important for me to say is that for Cadeler alone, as a standalone entity, we are performing above expectations and contractual obligations on all projects we are involved in. About how we look at what's out there in the future, because it is an incredibly fast-moving market and a market where changes are almost an everyday thing. If we just look at what happened over the summer, for Cadeler with the contract awards we have, we have been fortunate and successful in completing, it is really a fact that this industry is just moving incredibly fast at the moment. If we look at the next slide, what? Why is this happening?
Already we were on a very, very strong trend for renewable energy and I think everybody can agree on the need for this due to climate and all of this. There is no doubt about that the whole global focus on energy security, and especially the European focus on energy security, is pushing an already strong trend even further upwards. We are also saying that all the models we based supply-demand analysis on just six months ago, they are not valid anymore because not only do we see that there's more renewable energy being built out, but also that the curve has been shifted significantly earlier. We are seeing a much stronger trend upwards in terms of need for installation.
Obviously, this is all depending on having permitting processes in place and also capacity enough to do it. We are certainly here to do our part in securing that we will, and so on. The strategy really from the EU is something we already see an effect on now. We see projects that were expected to come later and to be shifted into different years. They are now brought together, and they are coming earlier instead. We are asked by clients, "Can you supply earlier to us?" That's definitely one trend we see. Also the political support we see out there to move further ahead and to expand on what we are doing and with clients and all that, it is very significant. Next slide, please.
Unfortunately, there's not a lot of good data showing this trend at the moment and where we are. I want to say that if we look at the gap between supply and demand and we look back to where we started when we ordered the X-class vessels, that the gap has widened. We do actually believe that it's widening much more than we are seeing here. It is based on this current gap between demand and supply. It is based on the 15 MW turbine. I think that is specifically an interesting fact because if we look here and say there's 15 vessels in supply and there's 24 in demand, that of course is already a big gap.
If we jump to the next slide, I think an interesting fact is out there for everybody in our industry. We have here drawn how we see the expected size development of the WTGs in the coming years. We have shown you the 11 MW turbine that we are currently installing on HKZ in the Netherlands. That's the turbine we install today on Osprey. It is the biggest ever offshore wind turbine installed commercially. We are very, very soon coming to the 15 MW turbine that I think most of you have heard of. This is where we have to supply 14 vessels. We also believe that we are quickly coming to the next step, which is what we call the 15 MW- 20 MW turbine.
There we go from 14 vessels in supply to nine vessels in supply. We are also looking at the turbine that is bigger than 20 MW already. There we go from nine vessels in supply to six vessels in supply on the turbine side alone. I think that is a very, very interesting fact, because that will certainly tighten the market even further. We also believe that it will benefit Cadeler because we have an incredibly strong fleet where we can continue to install the turbines of the future. Next slide, please. We said last time that we wouldn't show this slide anymore, but we actually do believe that the picture is so interesting that we wanted to show it again because it really shows how it's changed only in three months.
In three months, we have gone from the dark blue to the black, and because of the beauty of the slide, the box size is not exactly correct. The first three boxes we showed there, the correlation between the box size is correct. On the black, they would actually have been slightly bigger because projects are growing in size and complexity of DSS. Also, if you look at the sheer number of projects that we are currently involved in, it is unheard of. We are all running 120% in our ATM, the company, to meet the demand of the market, the industry and our clients.
One thing I wanted to say is that, there's also been a very, very strong trend from when we addressed you last time in March and until today, where we see clients are looking more in a portfolio view. Where we have been very much involved in single projects with clients. In March, I also argued that some of these projects, they are so big now. East Anglia Hub, for example, is a good example of that. It's close to 800 vessel days. That was a large project in itself and almost what we would say would be a frame agreement.
Even projects at that size are now being captured in a portfolio view, where the bigger clients in the industry, they are coming to us to secure availability of vessels and are really willing to put years of commitment to us, based on the portfolio that they will have. I can say that we are in live negotiations with basically every big client in the industry to look at portfolios of projects and how our vessels and our capabilities can match those portfolios.
That is something that we have actually engaged ourselves in, also because we have said that our view is that we run a sustainable business, and that means that we will get the vessels out to work, and we want to secure the business foundation of the business with solid work, with highly profitable work, and also based on that, grow the business to the company we believe we can. Next slide, please. One of the most important things that we are doing at the moment is we have invested a lot of money in CapEx on the X-class and the F-class. I'm happy to say that the X-class and the F-class projects are on schedule.
We have both the detailed engineering and the 3D modeling more than 91% complete. The construction activities have started out in Qidong, China. We have showed a few pictures there of the construction of the double bottom and also one of our site supervisors that are doing a quality test on one of the particulars there. I think that we are also in a very progressed stage on pre-fabrication of critical path components such as trusses, generators, engines, main crane, jacking gear. We have already factory acceptance test on the first set of trusses and main generator. Our site team is currently at nine FTEs. We are ramping that up to around about 20 FTEs, and we are currently on three locations in China.
Our headquarter people, they are supporting the FTE from Europe. Most of the equipment is coming from Europe, it's successfully fortunate. Obviously what I just mentioned to you, this is supported by our European site here. We don't face any supply chain issues so far, we continuously monitor this during supplier meetings and also our internal project CFOs, which we have on a two-weekly basis where we follow up on this. It is, of course, a focus for everybody that is buying something at the moment, can you actually get it from your supplier? Currently, we don't see any delays or any challenges on that. Next slide, please. Also the new crane projects for the O-class, these are also running to plan.
We are building in Korea here. We also have a few pictures here for the slewing platform being assembled and also what is being developed. This is the slew bearing that is being produced in Germany by Liebherr. All of it is progressing as we are planning it. The detailed installation plan to be executed at the office in starting 2024 next year. It's coming close now. We're almost only a year away from that. That's the detailed installation plans currently being further firmed up with the supplier to ensure that when we come in and we install that we have a very, very clear plan so to get the vessels out because we do have projects in 2024 waiting for these vessels with new cranes.
That is incredibly important for us. Also here, we are happy to say that we don't see any significant parts delay, and the critical components are being closely monitored together with our suppliers. We see very strong partnerships both on the crane project but also on the newbuilds in China. We will continue to update you on these important CapEx projects because of course, they are fundamental to the development of the company. And we treat them as such with a very, very high degree of attention from everybody in the company. Next slide, please. As we have said to you before, widening our business scope to meet the future demands is a strategic target for us as a company. Since we addressed you last time, we have widened the business scope.
We are now also an active company in the foundation space, C&I space for foundation installation. We have installed more than 500 foundations already, but it's not all to build a new port, but to take the entire C&I scope, that is a new thing for us, and we are incredibly happy and also proud to say that we are doing this together with ArcelorMittal, one of the leading companies in the industry. They have selected to partner with us to ensure that we are able to deliver this in a sustainable and solid manner, not only to us but to the industry. We will further inform you about the whole development of this in the future as conversations we will have with you.
For us continuously, we are looking at both vertical and horizontal expansion. We see other areas that are interesting for us as a company and something we would like to further address with our clients. We are also in active negotiations with clients on some scopes that are sitting in, let's say, the horizontal value chain in the industry. We are both looking at organic and also inorganic growth still. We are open to that, but only the inorganic growth is only if it's a good deal for Cadeler. That is important for us to say. We are not still hungry, so it's not growth just for the sake of growth. Also on regional expansion, we have delivered on that, so to speak, of being in Poland now.
The industry is going global now. We see a lot of activities around the world, but also for me it's important to say, Europe is the hardest place at the moment for offshore wind due to many factors that are out of our control. If we wanted to, we could apply the company in Europe alone. There's no need to go outside Europe and we continuously monitor what is the best decision to make for us as a company, for our investors and for the other stakeholders that we have in the company.
Strategic partnerships are important, and as I said especially the CapEx projects is where we have a very, very strong strategic partnerships, but also the clients that are now supporting and using their own organization to develop Cadeler further into the company we want it to become. We are increasing the portfolio of services, and we see also a very strong trend towards the T&I services, those are the day rate contracts. As I said earlier on, the contractual setup for us is strong, and that means that even if we see delays on other parts of the project, we are still able to maintain a solid business. That has been very, very important for us. It is also a fact that when you are operating a project business that you can see some rephasing of projects.
It is something that we also are working on to ensure that we will be as accurate when we communicate to you guys as possible. The floating wind is also a very interesting area for the business as such and for the industry, and it's something that we actively follow. We are involved in some projects, and we will also further communicate on floating wind to you when we have something more solid to communicate. Lastly, I think the portfolio view. We are also adapting what the clients are adapting at the moment, and we are really trying to look at how can we apply the company to a client that has basically focused on a string of projects.
How can we apply the company to ensure that both we and the client can benefit from having a very strong partner in the industry? I think with those words, we are opening up to Q&A.
Thank you, Mikkel and Peter. We have received a few questions, and you can see these questions in the Q&A box on your screen. I will start with a couple of questions myself. The first one, you continue to add backlog left, right, and center, but on our estimates, you still have some white space left, mainly around 2024, 2025. Do you agree with that and do you expect to fill it with back-to-back contracts, or should we expect you to leave some opening to handling potential project delays?
First and foremost, I do not agree with that. I think that's not correct. I think that where we have an opening at the moment is from the delivery of the first X-class until the first project. That's a gap we have intended to have because we have seen others that have also had delays when they were building. We don't have that at the moment, but also we don't want to put a contract up for the vessel the day after the vessel leaves the yard because we don't think that's a prudent way to run a business.
We are more, let's say, open to that on the later deliveries because there we will have repeat vessels being built, and we believe that then we will be into more of a flow. But the first one, there is always a certain degree of project risk in the timing of that. What we are doing on the other hand is we are discussing with clients projects that are being installed for all the vessels basically coming out of the yard because obviously there's a lot of activity in Asia at the moment. When you have a vessel leaving a yard in Asia, you could potentially do something in Asia with that vessel as well.
We are keeping it as a potential and a potential upside, but not something that will be closed tomorrow or the day after tomorrow because we do not want to take the company directly into LDs on a project just by being too aggressive on the whole timing of it. Our fleet on the water is booked. New fleets, there we are being slightly conservative on how we apply it. I'm sure that with the demand we see out there will be a lot of work for those vessels when they come out of the yard.
All right. Thank you. One more question from me. You recently ordered a foundation installation vessel. What are your thoughts on the demand-supply gap going forward? Do you think the foundation market looks tighter and more profitable than the wind turbine installation market? Could you shed some light on the differences in the economics between foundation and turbine installation programs?
Yeah. I think it depends a little bit on how you look at it. It's very hard to compare it as just in a single year because it can change quickly. Because if we look at the WTG space, if we say that we believe that the turbine will not be 15 MW for the next, let's say seven years or whatever, if that turbine suddenly is 19 MW, then the WTG space will be incredibly tight as well. I think they have similarities, and I think that they are probably equally tight. At the moment, maybe the foundation space is slightly tighter than the WTG space is. It is nuanced, I think.
In terms of difference of project economics, I think the important thing on a foundation project, if you say that you have a vessel component and then you have the C&I component, then as a rule of thumb, 30%-40% of the project value for us is the vessel. 60%-70% is the C&I component, so everything else that surrounds the vessel. That of course means that if you do a full-blown C&I project for a year, then your potential revenue is significantly higher than on a turbine project. You also have to take more scope, so to speak. It is also scope where you are able to profit from offering that scope.
Obviously installing a foundation takes shorter time than installing a turbine. You can also advance faster through the foundation installation. What I think is particularly interesting at the moment is that there has, of course, been a lot of waiting for the floater to hit the water, and to see how they will perform. With current performance of the floaters, we believe that we are able to match that completely with the jack-up, even despite the jacking factor we have to go through. It's not simple then, but to install a monopile foundation with a floater requires a motion compensated pile gripper. That's not a simple piece of kit.
I think it will also that there can be challenges on that piece of equipment certainly. We do not need that on the jack-up. We need a much simplified pile driver, not a motion compensated, but a pile driver. That's the advantage we have. We believe at the moment that we will be incredibly competitive and in a sweet spot with the jack-up. Having the benefit that we can shift it in 2-3 weeks into shift installing turbines with the benefits that gives us.
Thank you. One last question probably from me before we start with the questions from the audience. In our mind, the aspects for more complex wind farms should increase due to higher project-related costs. In general, we tend to model a specific project-related margin of the day rate to be, you know, project-specific costs. What are your thoughts on the project-specific expenses and integrated services on more complex wind farms? How should we think about project-related costs on your recently announced contracts?
It depends on. I think it's very simple. On the Hornsea three project that we announced, this is the raw vessel at the moment. I think that's very easy, you know. Zero project related costs on that because it's the vessel you're looking there. It will become a C&I contract, and then obviously there'll be project related costs. Since we are not done with that yet, I cannot tell you what it will be. On the turbine installation project related costs, I agree, there isn't. There is a project related cost. Of course, if you are able to lock in more work with similar turbine types, then your project related cost is also reduced significantly on the single project level.
I think that's an incredibly important factor, especially for you guys sitting outside the company and analyzing us. Because if we are able to log in a lot of projects with same turbine type or similar turbine type even, our project related cost comes down significantly. That means that a lot of the project related cost on a project by project basis becomes bottom line profitable.
Thank you. We will start with some questions from the audience. The first question is: How do you foresee to finance the investments in the years ahead? Do you want to finance with new equity or new loans or?
I think for all current plans, so what we have announced, the jack-ups, we are not contemplating for any current plans to come back to the equity market. It could be a different range of financing. What I want to say in general on financing, and then Peter, let me know if there's anything you want to add to this. We have an enormous interest from the whole financing community to be part of the journey we are on at the moment.
That means that we are also being approached by banks that we don't have a relationship with at the moment, but large international banks who want to offer us different kinds of financing for the newbuilds, and based on having kind of like a share of the, let's say, the marketing almost on the vessel. We have had international banks approaching us to say, "Could we brand this vessel under our bank's name if we give you the financing for the vessel?" There are different opportunities out there for us at the moment. I think that we are currently, for the bigger portion on the newbuilds, we are in a space where we are evaluating together with our board what is the best option for Cadeler in this investment.
I think it's important to say that we saw how quick it can go and the Ørsted project with the F-class took six weeks. So it obviously can be very, very quickly. I think we are a growth company and with what we see out in the market at the moment, the demand we see and the gap between supply and demand we see, we also believe that if the opportunity is good enough, the company should continue to grow.
Thank you. Another question. You mentioned that clients are now looking at the chartering in the form of project portfolios. This is something we have been waiting to hear, and it is good to see that clients are finally waking up. Do you see this change being regional specific or across regions?
It's across regions. I can say completely openly to you that yesterday I had two conversations on very, let's say, extensive contracts based on portfolio view with two of the biggest clients in the industry that both have bought concepts to expedite these processes. Normally, this would be something, and I think everybody who knows this industry would not be as shocked if I said that normally this would be a 12-18-month process. Here we are looking at expedited this between, I would say, 2-5 months. We will see the market moving in this direction.
We also had an opportunity with a client back in April, where we told the client, "If you come to us any later than the first of July, then we can't offer the timeline that you need." They didn't believe us, and they came back to us in early August and said, "Sorry guys, we can deliver to you now in 2027." They have gone back to the drawing board, and they will also come back to us with a new plan. It is what it is. But also we are not keeping the assets hanging out there for long. We have told the clients that it is a first come, first serve market. It's incredibly busy, and we want to ensure that we, the company and our investors are having the best positions we can have.
The last question from the audience. Can you talk about how you are managing currency risk given that much of the CapEx is in USD and most of the revenues are in euros? Also the facilities is in euros.
Yeah. We are closely monitoring the development and we are looking into both hedging but also natural hedging. We see also projects where we can have a revenue stream in US dollars. That is a natural hedge that we could do and that is the two things we are looking into.
Yeah. I think that, as you said, Peter, on the natural hedge, this is something that we have been actively discussing with our clients and also that something we see the clients are happy to engage in. Yeah. We have the two options, and we are following both.
I see now that we have some more questions. Could you talk a little about the recent developments in day rates, please?
Yes. I think, as we have said in the last couple of meetings, we see a very strong day rate trend. I think also, it's been communicated about by analysts on our contract awards where we are seeing the day rate going. I can say that we are obviously what we are contracting currently on the X-class, they have not been working before, so everything is new for them. But currently we are seeing the highest ever day rate on the O-class, also compared to the best historic rates we have seen. We are certainly trending upwards significantly, and also at the same time we are able to get better terms and conditions in our contracts and stronger utilization.
I think one of the things that we have currently seen and which is a brand-new thing in the industry is also that traditionally clients have had a collapsing window towards the start date of a project. We have now also have the same on a contract where we have said we've also collapsed the window. That's because we want to ensure the best utilization of the fleet and potentially it's another vessel that will install that project, and that's why we have a collapsing window. The client also do not then know when we are delivering, so we also have a period of time where we can deliver for the project, and that's something that has been accepted.
There is a very, very strong demand for not only the existing vessels that we have now contracted a lot of new projects on, also with the biggest equipment out there, but also for the X-class and the O-class. They are in fact behind demand because the real thing here is that if you were to install the turbine of the future with one of the legacy assets, you would have to split the tower, and you potentially would have to change the location of the jack-up while installing as well. That will cost so much time that it's a complete no-brainer to go with the biggest assets in the industry. So we see very, very strong demand for the bigger jack-ups.
I guess you have answered, but, another question is you narrowed revenue and EBITDA guidance ranges with midpoints coming down a bit. Is this primarily an issue on volume or margins?
That is a consequence of how the contract is done. For some work, we get a lower rate, and for some higher. When we have the season of time or weather days, that means a little bit lower margin on those days. It is due to, you could say rates, but when we look at the total contract, it is still the same revenue, even higher revenue that we have. It's only that there is, you know, the available part of the contract comes into play, and that has been significant for first half of 2022.
A good example of this is that we originally were seeking to complete for Baltic Power in two months' time. Mid-October, we were estimating that project to complete with our installation schedule. That means that we would have made the entire revenue in 2022 for all the installation of that project. We could see in the beginning of the year that would not happen, but to the degree that we have now, let's say, been delayed by upstream issue, that is certainly something that we had zero chance to expect when we gave the original guidance in March.
I think that when we then look at where the numbers have changed to with the narrowing of the guidance, it really shows also the strength of the contractual setup that we have, that we still are able to maintain these levels despite the fact that now actually a lot of this project-related revenue for the installation will be shifted into 2023.
Another question related to the funding needs for the CapEx program. What leverage level do you believe is achievable or desired for the newbuilds?
We have said from the outset that we are targeting somewhere between 50% and 60%. Leverage level will be between 40% and 45%. We're looking at 55%-60% on the leverage on the debt.
On the loan facility.
Yeah. Sorry.
Yeah.
The next question.
That's a prudent level. We believe that we have said that before also that the gap upwards, so to speak, is also the gap to the unexpected. That's why we do not want to push it. Because there's no doubt with these longer frame agreements and with these portfolio views, the banks would likely offer us more debt with more visibility on projects. For now, we maintain this view that we would like to run prudently and not make the mistakes of the past.
The next question. You mentioned that you're open to inorganic growth. On this subject, the WTIV industry is highly fragmented with a number of players. How do you see the industry in 5-6 years down the road? Will there be 1-2 dominant large, larger players, or will it still be a large number of smaller players?
It's a good question. My personal view is I do believe that there'll be some degree of consolidation. At the moment, everybody out there believe that they can improve. I think that's probably a fair view of how it is. I think that at the moment, nobody really wants to consolidate here now because they believe that it will improve going forward with the market being tight on all of this. There's also benefit in having other companies out there to compare with. We are open to consolidation, but as I said, it has to be good consolidation.
It has to be a strong deal to pay an inflated price for something is not something that we are interested in. We are, I think, very disciplined when we look at consolidation. We are always evaluating what could we do with the equity we need to do. We need to inject something like that. What could we do with that equity ourselves instead? Coming back to my comment around the demand we see, especially on the newbuilds, and how incredibly busy that is.
Thank you. Next question. On the tight demand growing both, but with the gap increasing, how does the competitive landscape dynamic move with it, and what are the primary bottlenecks to achieve that goal?
I couldn't get the last part of the question.
The primary bottlenecks to achieve the growth going forward.
There are many bottlenecks. I will stay with the ones that we addressed here. The bottlenecks we work with are the best. We are, of course, trying with efficiencies to further give the client benefits. This is also where the portfolio view gives the benefit because we can install more by being committed on same turbine type and stuff like this. We don't have to do mobilization and demobilization all the time. There's a lot of benefit in the portfolio view and we give efficiencies and more installed capacity. The bottleneck, of course, we are looking at permitting, but this is something that the politicians are addressing at the moment and are talking about this.
Permitting how it is in Europe now, where we get permits in 12 months. Production of equipment and all of that could also be a bottleneck. I'm a firm believer that it will be ramped up to the level we need it to be at. I see already now that we are shifting the timelines in the right direction, meaning that we will be installing more earlier. We are not relying as much on the hockey stick effect as we saw just a year or a year and a half ago. We are moving in the right direction, and I think that we will get there.
Thank you. You mentioned some upside on some of the contracts ahead. Can you talk about the structure of the contract and what do you need in order to achieve that upside? And what kind of risks do you have on the contractual upside potential?
I think what I addressed there was more that when you have contracts with same turbine size, then you have an upside by that we as a company can structure what we do for the project better, and meaning that you can have a system that can work for an almost like a one-size-fits-all system. The risk in that is no greater than if we took it as a one by one. It's just the engineering we invest in it. If you look at where we are investing, a lot at the moment is really the resources here in the back office to ensure that we have the engineering muscles to be the best, not only in the assets but also in.
I think that the hardware is good, the partnerships with the clients are good. The best is being the hardware. Also now we are really strengthening the software, so ensuring that we have the best tool development, the best structure around the project related equipment and all of that, so we can be more efficient and we can deliver a better business model for ourselves because it is an area that not many are tapping into, and we believe that in that area there lies a lot of potential benefit for the company if we do it right.
It's something that we have actually soft tested without telling anybody, but Seagreen, where we're operating at the moment, we actually tested it for the first time and it's working very well. But I'll not go into the details of it because we consider it a commercial thing that we would like to benefit from ourselves rather than selling as well.
How do you incorporate or access geopolitical risk management in your supply chain?
That's of course something it's not a secret that we're building in China, and we are following the geopolitical situation at the moment in the Taiwan Strait and all of that. We also still believe that it's the best deal for the company. If we were to build what we are building outside China, the cost would be significantly higher to the degree of hundreds of millions. We believe that it's the best deal, and we believe that it will be the right solution for the company. We are monitoring it, of course, as much as one can. I think that another geopolitical risk is of course material from sanctioned areas and stuff like this.
This is something that we already have included in contracts with the yard, and also something we have in our procurement agreements and our procurement processes as well already. It's something that we are addressing, and we are incredibly active on this because we want to do the right thing.
The last question. Can you talk a bit about the O&M market? If the installed base of turbines are increasing, the need for O&M will grow exponentially. Given the spec requirements for O&M being similar to turbine installation, are you seeing any interest from clients to secure vessel capacity for O&M?
Yes. Very strong. We see a lot of demand for O&M. If we were not working on a project today, we could go out and do O&M. In fact, we have actually suggested this to the client on Seagreen because we have been waiting for a very long time. We have been waiting, I think it's close to 100 days on that project. We have actually suggested to the client, "Why don't we go out and do some O&M instead?" There was no interest in that. We stayed and we waited and, you know, that's what it is. We could have been busy all 100 days on O&M if we wanted to. It comes back to the whole partnership conversation.
If you know your clients well enough, then you also know what their challenge is, and you also know what the demand is for that. I think that the O&M market that is something that we will see a lot of demand from. I've said this before, that we saw when we addressed you back in March, we saw that the rates for O&M had gone up 300% in 18 months, and I think that they have further increased. Unfortunately, at the moment, we do not have any capacity to offer anything into that market. It is a market that we are actively looking at together with our clients as well, also to find a solution for that market.
Thank you. It's another question. How much of the increase in backlog from year-end is related to currency changes?
The increase in backlog? would be zero. Nothing.
What did you say? I didn't catch that.
We don't have any increase in backlog due to currency.
Okay. The Q&A session is over. I thank you for the presentation, Mikkel and Peter.
Yeah. Thank you, Jonas, and thanks, SpareBank 1 Markets for hosting it again, and thanks to all the good questions and all the people listening in. A pleasure, and contact us if there's anything you would like to know in more detail. We're always available.