Thank you for joining us today. Welcome to the Cadeler and Eneti Inc. Global Investor Call. If you could please read the disclaimers on Slides 2 and 3 at your convenience. On the call with me today are Emanuele Lauro, Chief Executive Officer of Eneti, Mikkel Gleerup, Chief Executive Officer of Cadeler, Peter Brogaard Hansen, Chief Financial Officer of Cadeler. Earlier today, Cadeler and Eneti issued a joint press release, which announced the signing of a business combination agreement to create a leading offshore wind turbine and foundation installation company. The press release can be found on Cadeler and Eneti's websites. Today, we will be giving a brief presentation. The presentation will be available on the screen of this call, as well as on the Cadeler and Eneti websites. After the presentation, we will open up the call for Q&A.
With that, I would like to turn the call over to Emanuele Lauro for opening remarks.
Thank you, James, and thank you all for attending today's call. We appreciate your presence and your time on short notice. I am delighted to be here today presenting with my colleague, James, and my soon-to-be partners and colleagues, Mikkel and Peter. Today, we've announced a business combination between Eneti and Cadeler, that will see Cadeler and Eneti controlling 60% and 40% of the combined business, respectively. Whilst the two companies will continue to operate as separate entities until the deal closes, we are looking forward to be able to start extracting the value that we see as a combined company going forward. We see this as a strategic, compelling logic to combine not only the assets, but also the operations of both companies.
Looking at the two organizations on the operational side, Cadeler and Seajacks have little overlap on the operational, but also on the geographical front. They have a new building order book that is second to none. This will create benefits for our customers as well as our teams. The combination will be able to expand its fleet at a discount to current new building prices, capturing value for all shareholders without ordering additional vessels, thus not impacting the supply and demand dynamics. The combined company will be well-positioned to drive both short and long-term value for Cadeler's and Eneti's shareholders. It will be a stronger company financially, not only for the support from large and experienced shareholders such as BW and Swire, but also with the addition of Scorpio to this prestigious list.
Thanks to the addition, we will also be able to benefit from an increased market capitalization in excess of $1.25 billion , and this should enhance the trading liquidity of the stock. Now, I would like to turn the call to Mikkel, which will go through the presentation, and then we'll be delighted to answer any questions there may be. Mikkel, please.
Thank you very much, Emanuele. Really pleased to present in front of you all today in what we believe is a very accretive combination of two strong companies. We will give you first an overview of the transaction, we will talk into some of the elements of the transaction as we dive deeper into the presentation, we will end up with questions at the end. What has been agreed is really to initiate a stock-to-stock voluntary, conditional, registered exchange offer to all the shareholders of Eneti. Eneti shareholders will receive 3.409 shares in Cadeler in consideration of each Eneti share tendered. Following the exchange offer, Cadeler intends to initiate a squeeze-out merger, such that Eneti will be a fully owned subsidiary of Cadeler.
Post-transaction, Cadeler and Eneti shareholders will own, as Emanuele said, approximately 60% and 40% of the combined company, respectively. The combined company will be named Cadeler, and it will be headquartered in Copenhagen, where Peter and I are standing, with its shares listed on both the Oslo and the New York Stock Exchange. I will continue as the CEO of the company, Peter will continue as the CFO of the combined company. The Cadeler Board of Directors will continue to consist of six directors, of which two will be nominated by Eneti. To facilitate the anticipated board composition following the successful completion of the offer, Cadeler board members, Connie Hedegaard and David Cogman , have offered to step down from Cadeler's Board of Directors with immediate effect.
Andreas Sohmen-Pao from the BW Group remain Chairman. Emanuele Lauro will be nominated as Vice Chairman. Board of Directors will include four independent board members. Post-closing of combination, Cadeler and Eneti have agreed to explore the benefits of a U.K.-based top-tier corporate structure to optimize corporate flexibility, which is one of the things that we believe that there will be a lot of in this deal. Both the Board of Directors of Cadeler and Eneti consider the combination to be in the best interest of the respective shareholders and have unanimously approved the combination. The Eneti Board of Directors have undertaken to recommend that its shareholders tender their shares in the exchange offer. Shareholder approves and acceptance, Cadeler needs two-thirds shareholder majority for our EGM, and Eneti requires 88.01% of the shareholder minimum.
About 45.4% of the outstanding shares in Cadeler has entered into voting, undertaking that to vote in favor of.
Mikkel, apologies. You don't come out very clearly, just so you're aware.
Sorry, I'm trying to take a better position then. We have a bit of sound issues. I don't know.
Not really, no.
Okay, I have to move a little bit here. Is it better now? No. Okay. What about now? Is it better here?
I'm really sorry to say, the audio is just bad.
We have on board had some microphone issues today. I just have to move around a little bit until it's.
It's a little-
It's better here? We take a 30-second pause.
Yeah. Sure. That's a good idea.
Is it better now?
Much better.
Perfect. Thank you, Lars. Thank you, Lars. That's how it is in offshore wind. We have to solve the problems we are standing in front. We did that. That's good. Sorry about that to everybody. I know it has 123 attendees on the call. Sorry for wasting your time. We will be moving on now. As I said, I'll just continue from where I left off here. Here we can read the slide here. The holders of 44, 45.4% of the outstanding shares in Cadeler. That's how it is. Can you hear us now?
No. There is an issue, Mikkel. Maybe in the interest of time-
We cannot hear you anymore.
In the interest of time, what I suggest then is maybe, James, do you want to read the slides yourself? Whilst we wait for Mikkel and Peter to log in, maybe through a phone or something, if that's okay with Mikkel, I'm not sure. They cannot even hear us now.
We can hear you.
Oh, you can. Yeah.
Yeah. Device 1. Is this better?
Now we hear you.
It's like a little behind. Sorry. Little behind. Okay. Lars is just at the door if there's anything that goes wrong. I will start again. Sorry about this again. The holders of around 45.4% of the outstanding shares in Cadeler have entered into a voting undertaking to vote in favor of the shareholder approval to be obtained by Cadeler. The holders of around 36.2% of the outstanding shares in Eneti have entered into a tender and support agreement in favor of combination, that will all be executed as we go forward. The combination is currently expected to close in Q4 of 2023, subject to regulatory approvals and applicable conditions being met. Next slide, please. Yes. In terms of the transaction rationale, why are we doing what we are doing? First...
why are we doing?
... we are doing. First and foremost, we are combining decades of operating track record to create the preferred partner for offshore wind industry with a strength and value proposition to our clients. That is also what Emanuele said. We are combining two very strong teams. In combination, we will be able to deliver something that is even better as we can as a standalone company, each of us. There is a significant global demand for offshore wind. We are expecting around 35% growth year-over-year , except excluding China, in gigawatts from 2022 to 2030. We also see an increasing demand for larger scope of projects and from new regions. That means that, as we said also in the beginning, there's very little overlap in terms of the businesses.
Where Seajacks Eneti have been working in Asia and also in Europe, and also have some footprint in the U.S., we have mainly been concentrating on Europe, meaning that we will be now forming a company that will have a global footprint. We also see higher value of the projects and also more attractive project terms, and that is also something that the combined company, of course, will be leveraging. We have a very strong project pipeline, and we are looking into a very strong project pipeline in general in terms of what we are bidding, and also strong backlog, more than EUR 1.6 billion , with further available days in a period of time where there's a very strong demand for the services that we offer to the industry.
We are creating a larger and more diversified fleet, and we are improving the value proposition for our clients. What we normally say in Cadeler, we say we are obsessed with the success of our clients. This transaction really unlocks value for the clients, because we believe that that is important for the client, that when they partner with a contractor in our industry, that they also buy into a certain degree of project certainty, and that is something we will be able to deliver with the bigger fleet, and let's say, the greater extent of our very capable assets. Also the team, it's a very important part of this transaction.
We will be improving Cadeler's ability to meet the increased demand for larger scopes and more complex project sizes on a global basis. Increasing its industry efficiency by contributing to consolidation. An attractive fleet with significant open capacity, as I said, from 2024 to 2026 and beyond, there is a very strong demand for the services in the industry. We are expanding the fleet, and we have open capacity to benefit from favorable supply and demand trends. There are compelling price and delivery schedules on these assets, meaning that we will deliver the assets earlier, compared to, for example, going ahead and order new builds, then we will be delivering earlier, and also, hence, we are moving cash flows earlier for the company.
The vessels are complementary. We believe that we are able to drive opportunities from better fleet utilization and really also by right-sizing the asset to the project. Not every asset, not every project needs the biggest asset in the industry. We do believe that that will be, for us, a very, very important job in making sure that we always use the right asset for the right project. That is something that we will be doing together with our clients in the industry. Coming to the synergy, we do believe that there's very meaningful value creation in this deal, and have estimated the synergies to be worth around EUR 106 million, comprising of EUR 55 million in cost and operational synergies and EUR 51 million in commercial synergies through improved fleet utilization.
We will come more back to that later in the presentation. The combination is expected to result in increased investor attention and also enhanced trading liquidity as a result of greater market capitalization and the dual listing, which both sides consider a great asset for the company. Also, the stronger anticipated credit profile, which we already have started to harvest some of the synergies from that, and we will also talk a little bit more about that later in the presentation. In terms of the market, we are in a very strong market. We are in a market that develops basically every day.
We will be seeing here before the summer that Germany, for example, will be coming with a very, very large tender for offshore wind. They have even already said that they will also come with a new one next year. We will see more and more of this. Denmark also took a lead and went from three to 14 gigawatts of offshore wind portfolio to be built out before 2030. We are seeing an increasing pipeline of work being tendered. We have shown on the Cadeler side, the figure in the middle on a number of occasions, where the light gray boxes are the boxes of projects that we were bidding when we did the IPO back in 2020.
When we ordered the X-class vessels in 2021, the green boxes were the number of projects we were bidding. Again, when we did the 2021 annual accounts in 2022, the light blue boxes were the projects we were bidding. If you then look at in June 2023, the number of projects we are bidding, it is really a totally new reality. Bigger projects, more of them, but also some of the smaller projects still, where we, as a combined entity, will be able to open up capacity to execute on these projects as well. It has been shown lately that these projects will be able to generate a lot of value.
For example, at Cadeler, we looked in the project on OranjeWind, where we had a day rate above EUR 375,000 on a project like that, really redefining the value proposition of the legacy assets. In terms of backlog, we in the combination, we will, as I said, we will have a backlog of more than EUR 1.6 billion, and still also open capacity to harvest the strong demand that is in the industry, and really help our clients by doing so. As has already been said, we are looking at a greater market capitalization in the combined entity, obviously, and that also is very important for us.
We have heard a lot on the Cadeler side with talking to our investors and analysts and all of that there is a, there's a magic mark around $1 billion in market capitalization. Here we will be passing that and having that market capitalization around $1.25 billion. In terms of fleet size, we will be increasing the fleet size, so we will be on 10 vessels, and we believe that that is driving utilization up in the combined entity. We do believe that that is a very strong part of the synergies as well. The synergies, we will come back to them again in the presentation.
Really, having these six new builds, four from the Cadeler side, two from the Eneti side, and also four strong legacy assets, one on Japanese Flag, is very value accretive to the combined company. In terms of the uncontracted days, on the Cadeler side, we sit with a number of uncontracted days in the period from 2024 to 2026, and also a number of uncontracted days on the Eneti side. In aggregate, we are sitting with what we believe is a very strong opportunity to support our clients, and also operate with these days in a period of time where the demand is very, very high in the industry. In the short term, we will be doubling the size of the fleet on the water, and we believe that that is something that is important.
You can say today for the Cadeler side, with two vessels on the water, it can be a bit binary, because if one vessel, for some reason, comes out of operation, that's of course 50% of your revenue potential, that's potentially out of operation for a period of time if you have some maintenance and stuff like that. But with more vessels on the water working, you will be seeing a de-risk profile in the combined company, even in the short term. We will be delivering assets, and we will be fully delivered in 2026, with two vessels added to the fleet in 2024, three vessels added in 2025, and then the last vessel in July 2026.
That is accelerating the growth compared to if we were going to do this with new builds that were ordered on each side, because I believe if you were to order a vessel today, earliest delivery time for that vessel would probably be mid-2027. Also, at an increased price to what both Eneti and Cadeler has been ordering at. We also believe it holds a value to the entity that we have the two Korean new build assets, which will be a strong asset for the company, especially in the Asian market. Also, there's the three NG-2500Xs. Both companies consider these assets as non-core, they will be divested from the company.
It's important for the company to continue as a pure- play offshore renewables contractor, and that will be a continued promise to the investors. In terms of how we will be taking a firmer position, both in the turbine installation and the foundation installation and supply chain, I think it's pretty clear from this graph here that we will be a significant contractor in the industry, operating the largest and most diverse fleet of jack-ups. We will be focusing on having the right vessel for the right project. Something we have been working very, very hard on the Cadeler side, is to not promise a vessel to a project, but say, "We will deliver a capable asset to the project." We will be cross-utilizing the fleets, and we will be having parallel operations of vessels.
That is already something we have started to do on the Cadeler side, we have opened up gaps for other projects to come in and really aiming to a very, very high utilization of the fleet. Last year, we had 87% utilization on our fleet, we will be aiming to really have a very strong utilization, because it is an important matter when you operate these jack-ups, because they are also costly when they are not working. We believe that there are synergies relating to secondary steel scopes for the smaller vessels. The secondary steel scopes is the scope that comes on top of the foundation installation.
Two of the new builds on the Cadeler side, the F-class vessels, will primarily, especially in the first five to 10 years, be basically with foundation installation, the monopile installations. We see a higher degree of those monopiles being TP-less, so without the transition piece on top, and there's a scope for the secondary steel. Cadeler secured the foundation installation for the around 200 monopiles on the Hornsea project, where the secondary steel scope is also in our scope. There, we will be able to also utilize own fleet in periods where they don't have utilization to ramp up utilization, but also a very strong financial returns on the vessel. We believe that there will be scale to allow for true global presence.
This is important. We believe that it's also something where we will be able to support our clients in a better way, and hence, also build social capital with the clients. We will have improved utilization and fewer repositioning voyages, also because we will be able to have dedicated assets in dedicated regions, but also assets that are designed to, also from their mission equipment point of view, to operate in a certain portfolio of equipment with the clients. That also gives us the benefit that we don't need to do so much mobilization and demobilization, something that will be part of the project, but something that we don't need to do, and hence also, increasing how the business will be operating from a financial performance point of view.
We will be able to take on smaller projects, as I said already, by opening up gaps, and also, have an increased ability to offer capacity in situations where projects are delayed. And that is something we certainly see, especially in the period from 2024 to 2026, where there are real delays on, for example, something like foundation installation. And at the moment, we have lots and lots of requests from clients on projects where, for example, we are doing the turbine installation, whether we can also help, on parts of the foundation installation, and that will be utilization we can take up and also be a valuable contractor to our clients there.
In terms of being a true global player, present in all major offshore wind markets, we will be. Of course, Europe is still the biggest market for us, and it will be a focused market for us. A lot of things happens in Europe now, due to many different reasons, but energy security is one of them. We'll be headquartered here in Copenhagen. We have an office in Vejle, an office in Great Yarmouth, where the Seajacks is headquartered. We have been planning an office in Gdańsk, in Poland, and also a listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Europe will be a key market going forward. Asia is also a key market, and Cadeler team has a sales office in Taipei, and Seajacks has an operational presence in the Asian region and have had that in the last decade.
That will be also important because we see the markets like Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and to a smaller degree, also Australia, are markets that are all coming online for offshore wind in this decade. In North America, an office in New York, relationship with Dominion Energy through Eneti's construction supervision and advisory role, and then also the listing on the New York Stock Exchange. South America is also a region where we have spent efforts in Cadeler, and we have been working with some of the big utility companies and energy majors down there that are looking to have a presence especially in the Brazilian market for outbuild of offshore wind there, where there's currently a significant portfolio of projects coming online.
That's the market that we actually have high hopes for going forward. In terms of the synergies, we have categorized the synergies in three different buckets: corporate and financing synergies, operational synergies, and utilization and commercial synergies. On the corporate and financing synergies, we expect to be able to find synergies of around EUR 80 million, and those will mainly be coming from reduced corporate costs, reduced management costs, optimizing the hiring plan.
In Cadeler, we had a plan of hiring X amount of people in the next couple of years, we have decided to scale that back because we believe now combining the two strong teams on the Eneti and on the Cadeler side, we will be able to have, let's say, operational synergies in these teams, where they will be able to support this growth, this combined team. Also improve financing terms. I already alluded to that earlier in the presentation, that we have already started to harvest some of those synergies by already having a new debt facility credit approved and underwritten by DNB for the combined entity at a better margin than what the combined company had today.
Operational synergies is around EUR 37 million, where we will be looking into cross-utilization of mission equipment, seafastening and tooling. The benefit we have as a combined company is that we will have four Gusto newbuilds on the Cadeler side, and there will be three Gusto vessels on the Eneti side, 2 newbuilds and Scylla, and they all have the same frame spacing. There we can directly cross-utilize mission equipment, seafastening and tooling between the vessels as we go on projects, and that will be something that will also drive a very strong synergy to the company. Procurement efficiency.
Bigger company, we will be buying more things from our suppliers, and we do believe that we can harvest around a 5% procurement synergy on our total procurement value. Upscale project execution capabilities and best low OpEx savings. We believe that we can learn from each other also by sharing crew and doing what is necessary to really make sure that we have the best operational performance in the industry. In terms of utilization and commercial synergies, we believe that we can find EUR 51 million, and that will come, as I already mentioned, from reduced mob/demob time by having assets that will be fit for a certain portfolio of equipment. Secondary steel scopes, where we would, as a company, hold depend on who does that secondary steel scope.
We could decide to go with a third party, but we could also decide to utilize our own vessels to do that. General optimized fleet utilization and global presence and working in parallel and accelerate projects. This is something we have already shown how much we can harvest from that, how much we can take out of that, and also increase the utilization. We do believe that by applying the same methodology to the combined fleet, that there will be a very strong synergy in that. All in all, EUR 106 million in estimated annual merger synergies.
If you look at the company in terms of how it could be operating going forward, I think that we have made a pro forma EBITDA based on the two companies and the 2022 numbers, and there we would have EUR 155 million pro forma EBITDA. If we take that forward without increasing that and then add the new builds and their performance at various day rates on top, and then the synergies on top of that, then I think it's pretty clear here that there will be a very strong EBITDA-generating capability in the combined company. I think it's also fair to say that we do believe that the strong legacy assets that both companies have will also be able to continue a positive trend on what they are performing financially.
The good thing in the company is that we don't carry any debt weight. That is, for us, incredibly important, and the vessels are very capable. The Seajacks Zaratan with Japanese Flag, will be able to still install turbines, but also to execute value accretive O&M work, especially in the Asian region. In terms of the larger market capitalization, stronger credit profile and all of that, we see that together, the company is becoming a leading company in the industry. We will be able to be above the $1 billion marks that we, at least, have been told on our side, is a very important marker for our company. Very strong project backlog, very strong potential revenues on EBITDA from the new builds, and also very strong synergies.
We believe that it will result in expanded investor attention and enhanced trading liquidity as a result of the greater market cap. We will gather broader investor base and also enhanced research coverage as a result of the dual listing. Improved access to lower cost of capital due to stronger combined credit profile, but also the lower risk by having more assets in the water. We already have a credit-approved refinancing of long-term debt obligations for combined companies fleet on the water with very attractive terms, and also improved performance cash flow profile on the back of meaningful synergies.
I think what is very, very important also, if you look at the three big sponsors in the company, support from those sponsors, which is very important for us and the management team going forward, that we can create really the best company in the offshore wind space. With that said, I think we should open up to Q&A. Again, I'm really sorry for the disturbance we had with the sound here. I hope that everybody had a relatively clear message from us.
Thank you, Mikkel. If you have a question, please submit it through the Q&A box to the top right on your screen. I will start with the first question. The contract backlog creates a lot of comfort, but the 4,200 available revenue days and potential rate outlook create tremendous upside. Where do you think rates end up in the seven sensitivity chart you showed on the previous slides?
Mikkel, do you want to take this?
Can take that. I think that what we have seen over the last 18-24 months, is a general upward trend in the rates. I think it's important that we have been focusing on getting that, because we are investing in very expensive tools for this industry, so we need to ensure that we get a return on the big investments we are making. In our view, it's basically, we have to focus on three areas. We have to focus on the utilization, because as I said, also in the presentation, these assets, they cost a lot of money when they're not working. Utilization, having the vessels working year-round is very important. Being very efficient on the maintenance we do, ensuring that the clients they take full years, that's important.
Of course, the rates is important, but also to ensure that on the projects that we execute, that we always have the best terms and conditions in the contracts, so the downside risk also needs to be protected. I think that it's a balance between these three items that we will be focusing on going forward. Managing the downside risk, ensuring strong financial returns, and then also very strong utilization profile of the company, that will be very, very important.
Great. Next question. From the Eneti perspective, what is the most exciting part about this combination? That's the first part of the question. It's a two-part question. Have there been any change of plans given this announcement to the NG-2500X?
The most exciting part of this transaction, I guess. Sorry, something was ringing. The most exciting part of this transaction is the acceleration to the value creation to me. I think that both companies, on a standalone basis, were perfectly capable and would have done well. However, it is evident, as Mikkel has described, that there is value creation by combining the two organizations, and this will just accelerate the creation of the value for all stakeholders, shareholders, and that's what triggered the interest on the Eneti side into considering a business combination. If I look at the second part of the question, was the NG-2500X, what was it specifically? Can you repeat that for me, James, please?
Have there been any changes to the divestiture of the NG-2500s, given the potential for the combination of the two companies?
No. No, there is no change. We've said it clearly, that these are non-core assets for Eneti. Eneti may even dispose of the vessels before this combination closes, 'cause they've been non-core for a while, and, you know, at the right opportunity, the vessels will be disposed of. Either before or after the combination closes, this is. The plan remains intact.
Great. Perhaps this one's for Mikkel, and just to wrap up on the NG-2500X, but, can you confirm that your intention will be to continue any activities within the combined entity will not focus on oil and gas and just offshore wind?
Yes, I can confirm that.
Great. Okay, here's another one. Given the limited vessel capacity and significant demand, how valuable is having a larger fleet and the ability to allocate vessels over different projects compared to operating as separate companies?
I think Mikkel went through it in the presentation. Mikkel?
I think it has a lot of value. I really believe that these utilization synergies that we can go for as a combined company, they will demonstrate that they are very meaningful. As I said, also, I think that, you know, opening up a gap for a smaller project with a very large revenue potential, that will show that we can redefine what the legacy assets actually can make in terms of financial returns. I think that is given by that flexibility in the fleet, and we have worked a lot on getting that flexibility into the fleet by adding more capacity, and we are already bidding with these assets coming online from the yard as of next year, first of August.
We can see that it's very meaningful what it can deliver. On a combined level, that will be even higher, and we are comfortable on delivering these utilization synergies.
Great. Excellent. Well, I guess next question: Do you anticipate to move away from project-based agreements for WTIVs and look to longer term charters?
Yeah.
Mikkel, please.
Thank you, Emanuele. I think that we have already started to move away from that. Cadeler, we signed our first long-term, it's a five-year contract, last year on our first F-class, which is primarily focusing on the foundations. We see in general that the big utility companies and energy majors, so ex-oil majors, that they are looking for long-term commitments on vessels. At the moment, when you saw the chart of the projects we are bidding for, the bigger boxes represent some of these longer-term commitments. Also, where these utility companies, they are starting to make portfolio of many projects into one group and then say, "We would like to have this as a five, seven-year agreement," or something like that.
We will see a combination of that, but also the project-by-project work. I think that this is where the combination is excellent because you will be able to utilize your assets in the best way possible, but at the same time still have these smaller projects to add value as well, maybe especially on the legacy assets.
Great. well, here's another one. With the scale that the combination brings, does that change anything in terms of appetite, in terms of operating, such as projects in the U.S.?
I'll take the, I'll give it a shot myself. As far as, or I'll start, and then, Mikkel, you can continue. As far as the U.S. opportunities are coming together, Eneti has had exposure to it through the contract that it has with Dominion Energy, where it's building and following the construction of the only Jones Act compliant WTIV. I think that the U.S. market will continue to grow. I think that there are gonna be opportunities, whether this is gonna be focused on Jones Act compliance vessel or international vessels that are gonna operate in the U.S. through the different arrangements that there are with the Jones Act compliant barges, et cetera. I think that that's gonna be a market.
The good news is that it is gonna be a market that is gonna take up capacity. Whether it's gonna be under the Jones Act scheme or not, I still think that it's gonna be extremely beneficial for the market.
Excellent.
Yeah. I think much the same around the U.S. market. I think the important thing about the U.S. market is an ability to quantify the risk in the market when you go into a project, and that has been difficult until now. I think that we're also seeing the clients in the market are willing to take a bigger portion of the risk that is impossible at the moment to quantify from a contractor point of view, and that also makes the market more interesting. I think we all agree that we want to be, you know, running prudent companies, where we have risk under control and ultimately good custodians of capital, so that will be governing factors for accepting projects.
Excellent. Speaking on kind of operation strategy and outlook, one of this next questions is: Will the Eneti JV with Transocean still go ahead, or has anything changed as a result of this announcement?
There are aspects of the, of this. This is a good question, actually. First of all, Eneti really values the Transocean relationship, and we will continue to cherish that and discuss with our potential JV partners to find solutions. Of course, we were not able to discuss this transaction with our partners, for obvious reasons. We're gonna, you know, we've announced this this morning, so we're gonna take contact, sit down, and see where to go from here. Being that such a strategic relationship for Eneti, we will, of course, take into consideration the Cadeler aspects and make sure that, you know, 1 + 1 does 3 and not, and not 2 .
you know, I think that the work that has been done so far is not lost. We just need to see how to adjust it going forward in order to make it comfortable and successful for everybody.
Excellent. Well, and thank you, everybody, for all these questions. There's several, so thank you so much. I'm gonna combine a few questions here. The first one of them has to do with the regulatory process and the different listing venues. Given the different listing venues and domiciles, can you give an outline of key considerations in the approval process, as well as the benefits to a dual listing as a result of the completion of this business combination?
Mikkel, do you wanna take this?
I can do it. I think the dual listing adds a lot of benefits for the investors that we had, you know, more, the current investors as well. We ensure that trading that was expected when invested in the companies is still there, and also, the enhanced trading liquidity going forward is important. We see that is clearly something that has been important for our investors, and in some cases, we have also heard that, you know, there's a limit to how much one investor can take because they can only base in the stock, so to speak. That is something that's important and something we really value on our side, that there is this dual listing aspect.
In terms of the of this combination, obviously we have to go through a process now, listing the company on the New York Stock Exchange, and that is a process in itself. It's a relatively transparent process. There's a timeline for that. We expect to be able to complete the combination by the year. There's also the antitrust part of it. The antitrust part of it is something that we will have to work our way through with the relevant experts and the relevant legal support to ensure that we get, you know, a clean process there. One of the things we have been told from the outset by the experts is that the antitrust process will be greatly governed by what the client says.
I can say today, I have basically all of our clients congratulating on us this. They said, "This is really what the industry needs," and it's very, very appreciated that we do this because it creates a stronger contract for them to work with, and that's something that is appreciated. I say on first look, I'm very positive on what the clients are saying, at least.
That's great, and that ties that very well into this next question, which is. You kind of covered the customers, but, yeah, what do you think investors have been missing in this story? What do you think this potential transaction solves? Maybe, Emmanuel, you wanna start, and then Mikkel finish.
Sure. I do not think that investors have been missing much in the story. I think that it would be unfair to say that. I think that the geopolitical situation and environment that both companies have experienced since they reemerged as new companies or rebranded or, say it as it may, in 2020, coming out of a very uncertain and difficult time with COVID, and then building and making sure that both companies individually were positioning themselves in order to not only remain relevant but become more relevant than they were with the new buildings, which ship to order, whether, you know, to focus on installation only or whether to diversify on the foundation as well, the T&I side of the business. I don't think that the investors have been missing anything.
I think that the company's development has required time. This is a niche industry. Both companies individually were actually not that sizable. I think that this combination solves exactly for that and accelerates, going back to the first question that I received, is what excites me is the acceleration to the value creation. People have come, by the way, as standalone companies, but here is where consolidation happens, really adds values.
Mikkel, anything to add?
I second what Emanuele is saying. I think also, you know, if we compare, and we did to growing organically and continuing to do that, and just ordering a new vessel every six months and raising equity in the market. We think that this synergies what I've already said a few times, these synergies we believe in, but also the fact that, you know, combining company delivery profile, accelerating the cash flows and all of that is interesting. What we have shown here on the slide today in terms of what we think the company can do, that is something. I think the combined company, we want to do a true integration of the teams, you know.
For us, we make sure that these teams that we have at hand, they feel the love and that they feel that we want to do a true integration because we need the teams on both sides to really deliver this amazing growth trajectory that we have in the industry.
Great, Emmanuel and Mikkel. Mikkel, this next one is directed towards you. As a Cadeler shareholder, how did you determine the price for Eneti? Do you think it seems a little bit high? How are you thinking about the fleet value?
As I said, we have been through many different metrics on this, you know. You can decide a lot of different one for now, but you can look at the price, you can look at what would it be to buy new builds and all of that. We have gone through all of that, and I think we have then normalized what we think is a fair price, and that's what we have gone with. We believe that with the price that is being offered now, we believe that that is a fair price, and we believe with the synergies that can be harvested between the companies, that there is a lot of value still to be captured here.
All in all, we, on our side, and the board, what we have heard so far from our investors, also think that this is a pretty interesting deal.
Great. If you have any more questions, please feel free to submit them. One of the last ones is: Do you think this business combination will lead to more consolidation in the industry?
I'm 100% sure it will. I think that there was once an analyst that I respect a lot, that told me that what has governed other industries are the people that consolidate first with the best partners, they win. I think we are first, and I think that we have taken two very strong companies, and we consolidate and create really something that creates a lot of value for our clients. As I said already, I'm not exaggerating when I'm saying that the clients, they're very positive around this, and I think that that's a good sign of a good consolidation. A good combination, has the clients on board, and I think that we certainly have that.
I can say the team here in Copenhagen, when we presented it this morning, they were all very, very, very happy and look to meet the new colleagues on the other side when the time is right. As I mentioned, and I'd like to emphasize that, we want to do this the right way, so we will be operating as two independent companies. We will have an integration committee with people from both sides, and but we are truly excited about the opportunities here, and we believe that we can create a lot of value for the combined investor groups on both sides.
Excellent. Without any other questions, I have one final one, which references the EBITDA sensitivity. The question says: You can generate $630 million-$7 billion in potential EBITDA as a combined entity. This is actually refreshing. Given this outcome in later years, how are you thinking about capital allocation?
I can give it a go to begin with. I think that there is I think that we are in a growth industry. There's a lot of synergies in the industry. I think that there are things that we can look at as a combined company going forward. We need to focus on this very, very important step we have taken today and ensure that we make it a success. It goes without saying that the company that will be combined will be sitting on a ton of opportunity for really being the best contractor for our clients in the industry. Then, of course, also returning dividends to the shareholders going forward also, I think that that's a pretty clear target for the company as well.
Great answer. I think that ties in well to the transaction because you facilitate the growth. You don't have the vessel sitting at the yard, you capture the available days and combine it with the backlog. Well, that's it for the questions we have. Thank you very much for attending, Emanuele, Mikkel, and Peter. DNB for hosting. Sorry for the audio issues. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us, I will turn it over to Mikkel and Emanuele.
Thank you very much. I do not have any closing remarks, apart from thanking everybody for their time today and being with us. As we discussed over this call, we are both excited, both Cadeler and Eneti and Seajacks, excited about this combination. Bear with us. We are looking forward to close this and capture the value that we have been referencing in the last one hour, one hour and 15 minutes we spent together. Thank you very much. Mikkel?
I just want to say what you said, Emanuele. Thanks to everybody who's been part of the process and working so hard on this process to get where we are today. The real work starts, and we need to now deliver the combination and then the synergies. We will be rolling up our sleeves even more than we have right now, and then we will be delivering on our promise.
Super. Thanks, everybody.
Thank you, everyone.
Thanks again.
Thank you.