Good morning and welcome to the quarter four presentation for the DOF Group. We start with a few slides telling about the company in more general terms, and then we go to the highlights for the Q4. This is DOF, and we are now 4,100 employees, which is a small growth of 100 people in last quarter, and I guess that's reflecting the market that we will be growing going forward as well. Four main operational hubs: North America, APAC, South America, and Atlantic. South America is mainly Brazil, where of course we have the biggest exposure. Then we see the nice graphs here. Revenue for 2023 was $13.4 billion, so a big growth from 2022. Now the EBITDA is at $4.9 billion, which is more than a billion up from 2022. That's at a glance.
On this slide, it's an old one, but we have refreshed it a bit, so the new here is the graphs on the bottom. This slide is showing what are DOF. We are a vessel owner, but we are also a global service provider for the subsea and renewable industry. What we deliver is integrated projects around the globe. We like to call it one-stop shop for offshore project development and execution. Why do we do it? I think the graphs here show why we are doing it. The blue graph at the left-hand side shows what we view as EBITDA from our vessels, around $4 billion, and then what we get out of the projects or organization, which is a big growth from 2022. We are at NOK 940 million, and then the total of $4.72 billion for the combined.
What's interesting is, of course, that we have not a vessel value now, a gross of $28 billion. Then what value do you put on the organization? I guess we, at least, would argue that perhaps you use a decent multiple on the organization and that you are mid-30, at least, on net asset value for the company. We come back to that a bit because we have done some. We have a few slides on the recent awards and showing, actually, the multiple we are getting now on and the margins we are getting now in the market. I guess that, in our opinion, of course, tells us that the market value of assets will continue to rise because the deals we are doing now, of course, have a very short payback on the present values.
The next one is highlights for quarter four, so high activity in all regions. What I think made me most happy was that finally APAC got full speed. Into 2024 as well, we see I guess I could almost say I'm expecting 100% utilization on our APAC fleet in first half 2024 at a much higher rate than we had last year, but let's say I hope for 97%. It's looking good, and of course we have been waiting for that for a while. Average utilization globally at 91%, so a bit better than last year, and not a very impressive order intake in the Q4 at $147 million.
But we have a few slides on order intake later on, and what we expect, of course, is that first half 2024 will really lift the order intake to new heights based on the tenders we are working on at the moment and where we are in the processes. We expect and of course we have a slide showing that this is going up and down, so it's not the same order intake in every quarter. I guess sold a few boats. We sold them non-core assets. We bought them from the banks and sold them again for a small profit. Then we hired in a big 400-ton crane boat, Maersk Installer. Of course, that is a reflection that we think the market is good and also that we charter out our own Skandi Acergy to a very high rate.
I'll talk a bit about more about that later on, but we see we are gradually increasing the chartered-in fleet. We are now up to five vessels on charter in, and it might be that that will gradually increase going forward. Then Hilde will talk more about that. NIBD against EBITDA of ratio 2.8. It's moving very fast in a downward trend. Of course, we expect that to continue through 2024. Of course, the interesting is, of course, a few years back people talked about the refinancing risk here, but I don't think there is any refinance risk anymore. 2.8 is the average for the whole group. The silos that are to be refinanced, of course, have a much lower number than this because we don't see any risk at all on that, but Hilde will talk more about that.
The graphs here show the annual NOK 13.4 billion in turnover and NOK 4.949 billion in EBITDA, and operationally it's NOK 4.872 billion. I guess we are delivering above the guidance, which we then have updated three times through the year. We are happy with it, and so we can conclude that 2023 has been a decent year for us. Then remember that if we hadn't had the accident on the Skandi Buzios, it would be much better. That was the history, so I guess now we will talk a bit more about going forward. We make a lot of efforts in this space, and of course the sustainability part, the ESG part for us, is a lot from fuel consumption to HSE and so on. I guess this is just a snapshot, perhaps the most important here for the commercial side. It's the Petrobras ranking in Brazil.
We always been number one, but this year we became number two, but at the highest ranking we ever had. Of course, this means that we on tenders can get 3% higher rate on the boats. We can be 3% more expensive than your competitor and still get the job. If you then bid the pipeliner at $200,000-$300,000 a day, 3% is a decent amount. We see that it's important. What perhaps would make me most happy, of course, is the LTI frequency. We have a very good development through the year on safety and incidents, but every time we talk about it and are happy with ourselves, something happens, so we leave it like that. Then it's the backlog, and this is how it is by year-end.
By end 2023, we had closer to $2 billion in backlog, and then we have won $250 million more in first not in first quarter, but in January and a few days into February. You could say I think we have now a backlog of around $1 billion for 2024 and somewhere between $800 million and $900 million for 2026. Of course, for 2025, the visibility for the next two years is very high. Then this one no, not this one. I jumped. There you are. This is showing, let's say, the cyclicality in when we get the awards. Some periods are very high and some periods are much slower. What we are saying now is that we believe first half 2024 will be a record high for us in order intake.
Of course, we base that on what we already won in first quarter, but of course also the big tenders we are working on, especially then the pipeline tender in Brazil and the anchor handling tender in Brazil. We have bid five vessels on one and three vessels on the other. We expect that backlog to increase a lot during quarter one and quarter two. This is a snapshot on some of the recent won contracts. The Skandi Iceman, the Skandi Kvitsøy, and the Skandi Hugen is longer-term jobs where we three years and two years. If you compare the annualized earnings on those to 2023 earnings, we are talking around 150, so let's say $15 million a year compared to 2023 numbers on those boats. It's a decent jump. If you look at the Skandi Acergy here, it's an interesting journey.
We started the year in 2023 in first quarter on a project in Australia for Beach. We had an internal rate in the 40s on TC basis on the boat with a slim margin on top. That was a job we won probably in 2021 or something. Then we did a job in the MAD for the Atlantic region where we had an internal rate in the 60s on TC with a bit higher margin on the subsea component. Then in fourth quarter, we are now working in West Africa with the boat. Then the internal rate is in the 80s with a bit higher margin than that, than the previous one. We went from 40 to 80 in the same year, and the subsea margin went a bit up as well.
Then, of course, this new deal here is TC element of $140 a day, but then the subsea part is smaller. It's just showing we are going from $40 at the start of the year and fixing then the boat at $140 at the end of the year. You feel like you are running after, so you have to reprice it as fast as you can. The last one on this slide is the Skandi Skansen, which is a big anchor handler with a 250-ton crane. This is done to install an FPSO and an FSO in West Africa. Of course, the pricing on that one is high compared to what we had in, you see, we are not the low to say what the price is, but it's up quite a lot from the previous similar deals.
The interesting is, of course, that with that job, of course, Skandi Skansen are almost all low in 2024. The market is still going in the right direction. The new deals compared to the 2023 earnings are much higher, and then we expect in I wouldn't call it my wet dreams, but in my dreams, I think we might be that we are able to go above $3 billion in backlog if everything goes according to plan. I think we will grow that backlog a lot, but I remark that my dreams not always come true. This slide is showing then some of the recent awards just in another fashion. It's a bit back to what I talked about when I showed the slide where we our business model with the vessels and the subsea margins.
Then arguing that I think that the market value of the assets will continue to go up because we see the payback in the market now. It's too low for the so it's too far low for the so the values have to come up. This is just showing from PSV to various types of subsea elements in the contracts. The interesting, of course, is that on these combined deals, if you take the blue, which is the asset margin, we are talking 73%, and then the subsea margin 34%. But I guess the interesting, of course, is that we have a blended margin through those jobs at 56%. Then we have done some math based on the market value on the boats, which combined for these are $515 million. Then if you analyze this EBITDA, it's $170 million. You get the payback combined of 3.2 years.
That's why we argue that at least we don't want to sell assets at 3.2 years payback. But of course, it's a bit because some of the contracts are many years and some are shorter, so it's to analyze this. You have to perhaps take some utilization into account, but I think it's showing the direction and it's showing that we think market value will increase. We, of course, think that our earnings will increase because we see the margins are higher than we had last time with the deals. I leave it like that. Then this is more as a snapshot to tell you how the year have started, how January started, and I don't read all of this. Of course, you have seen we have sent quite a few new order intakes, but I think the most important here is that start with APAC.
We had a run-through with region actually yesterday morning and 100%, 100%, 100%, 100% on all the subsea assets in January, utilization. That's very happy with. I think the Atlantic 100% as well, apart from that, the Skandi Seven has been dry docked. Then in Brazil, the same, apart from we have mobilized the diving spread on the Carla. But apart from that, 100%, and then North America on boats 100% and a bit lower utilization on the chartered inboats. But on the chartered inboats, of course, we have a contract that is flexible where we guarantee the owner only 70% utilization on the two the old contract we have on chartered inboats. You could say a very high utilization and compared to our own budget or forecast, a very strong start. That's why we are in an extremely good mood today. Then it's Hilde. Please, Hilde. Thank you.
First, I want to say that this is the last report you will see in Norwegian kroner from first quarter 2024. All our numbers will be reported in U.S. dollar. As you can see, the operational EBITDA is better than same quarter last year, even though the last quarter 2022 was actually a very good quarter both earning-wise and cash-wise. If you see the total of the year, we are more than NOK 1 billion better than the previous year. We have sold some assets, and that's basically three vessels. It's a subsea vessel, and it's two so-called non-core vessels. As you have seen and probably seen in the finance report, we bought three non-core vessels from the lenders in third quarter, and we have sold them all. The net contribution after that acquisition from the lenders and the sale was approximately NOK 85 million for DOF Rederi.
What's also an important event in the accounts is the reversal of impairment of close to $1.5 billion and in total close to $2 billion the full year. That's actually a better market. It is that our fair values are increasing, and also the value in use calculation shows us that the earnings will increase going forward. The finance cost has gone down, and that's due to the fact that we have a lower debt and we are paying a lower margin on our lending. If you take what we have paid in interest, it's a big difference both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year. If you take the net currency on derivatives, that's a positive amount, and that's due to a stronger US dollar and Brazilian reals the stronger Norwegian kroner to U.S. dollar and Brazilian reals, which has reduced the debt, which I will come back to further on.
The same impact you saw last year. Also on the tax, it's very special this quarter, and that is due to the fact as the same as the reversal of previous impairments. That's because we have quite big deferred tax loss in the Group, both on the Norwegian company and the Brazilian company in particular. Now, part of that has been put in the balance sheet, so that's why we have a positive amount on tax. This time, we show the segment a bit differently, and here you see the development. This is the earnings from Rederi, Norskan, and DOF Subsea. If I go to the last term, you can see that it's slightly down on EBITDA from previous quarter, and that's mainly from DOF Subsea. You see that DOF Rederi and Norskan is making better money.
If I start with Norskan, they have much better utilization and good earnings on their fleet this quarter. If you see at DOF Subsea, the main reason is the Skandi Buzios because, as told by Mons Aase, we had an incident in June, and we were covered by loss of higher insurance the three first quarter, but in this quarter, there is no revenue in this vessel. That has an impact of approximately NOK 120 million for fourth quarter only. We also have had some planned maintenance stop on a few vessels in this quarter in DOF Subsea. If you look at the balance sheet and if I start with the columns here, I must admit I'm very pleased to see that this number here, you see that the equity is NOK 10.5 billion. We have moved from 1% equity ratio to 34% equity ratio through the year.
Main balance impact, obviously, the assets has increased due to reversal of impairment. The deferred taxes have increased and other non-current assets that were reported last quarter, and that's a long-term loan to DOFCON. That's the movement from end of 2022. Cash, $3.6 billion, and that gives a total assets of $31 billion approximately. Of course, the equity is already commanded, and the short portion of the long-term debt is $1.5 billion, not the current assets. I can say that we now have a sustainable balance sheet. If you look at the cash flow, that's a very complicated slide, but we have some differences from last year, which is important to comment. Here you see the main highlights. You see the operating activity, and here you see the investor activity and the finance activity.
But looking at if I start with the operational cash flow compared to previous quarter, it was 1.1 compared to 1.5. The difference is actually that we received prepayment from one client that actually was payment for partly the same year, but most of it was for 2023. That meant we had an exceptionally good cash flow on operation in fourth quarter last year. I hope I will see more of that, but so far, it has been a one-time event, but it was a significant amount. Part of it, but not the main reason, is increased activity. Interest payment, obviously, higher because we are paying our debt on a normal way, and last year, we had a standstill. You also see that on the full year.
Tax paid, that has increased, and that's mainly withholding tax in certain regions, for example, Guyana, West Africa, and it's corporate tax in Brazil. CapEx is $588 million compared to $394 million, and that is mainly maintenance CapEx. On the debt, we have some special events last year because here you see $2.3 billion. That is what we actually have paid in amortization and cash sweep and prepayment. Here you have a positive amount, which is reclassification of debt of close to $900 million. In 2022, we had to put that as net debt because when we were in a restructuring phase, then the lender could actually take that money. That's why it has been classified as net debt. It looks like we actually have paid more in 2022, which we actually did, but that is what you see here.
What we actually have paid is $2.3 billion compared to $1 billion in 2022. Then you have the share issue, and this $152 million, that is actually what we paid to get the option on the Skandi Iceman. The Skandi Iceman was consolidated from before, so that is why it showed like this. The Skandi Iceman, just as said, was bought at significantly lower than the fair market value of the vessel at that time. Here you see the movement on the cash. If we do the same at debt, we started the year with $23 billion in long-term debt and $6 billion was the restructuring, so I will not go into that. The cash flow from amortization, that is $2 billion in normal amortization, prepayment, and cash sweep or close to $300 million, and then you have this reclassification that I just commented on.
We have drawn new debt because we bought two vessels in the spring. That was Skandi Hera and Skandi Darwin. We have actually entered into two long-term lease arrangements for two vessels, and that's the Havila Phoenix and Stril Explorer. Then you have the currency impact, which is $786. As mentioned, this is the strengthened BRL and NOK to U.S. dollar. This is if you have a long-term view. What I would like to emphasize here is that even though we have been through a very tough period until end of 2021 or mid 2022, we have managed to have a stable margin. But bear in mind the period you see here, that's mostly TC. What you see here is a mix of project earnings and time charter activity. Bear in mind we are an oil service company.
The margin is more or less stable, but the EBITDA and revenue have increased, especially since mid-2022. What has really driven the EBITDA the last one or two years is actually subsea activity and subsea projects. That has resulted that we have managed to reduce the interest-bearing debt and the net interest-bearing debt, also after we did the restructuring in March last year. If we say some words about the silos, as I said, DOF Subsea has achieved continued high activity, and especially some projects in Brazil and Atlantic who have had very good performance through the whole year. Atlantic have had some planned maintenance stop, and some of the time charter vessels, for example, Skandi Africa, also had a maintenance stop in fourth quarter.
Then also good to see that, also mentioned by Mons, that the Asia Pacific has strengthened the activity or increased activity significantly, especially through fourth quarter. Here at the bottom, you see the utilization and revenue and earnings from DOF Subsea excluding DOFCon. Of course, DOFCon, here you see a decline in the EBITDA, and that is due to the Skandi Buzios incident. In Norskan, we have had actually the best quarter this year. We had had various utilization on a few vessels, especially first half, but you see 96% utilization in this quarter and actually quite good earnings for the one vessel that is operating in the North Sea spot market. It's good to see that especially the EBITDA in Norskan is increasing from $476 to $683 during the year, and you also see the same on this quarter.
If you see DOF Rederi, we are experiencing the same, and DOF Rederi also includes Iceman. We more or less have full coverage on the company as it is today because these days we will sell the last non-core vessel, Skandi Captain, which has until now operated in the spot market. She will be delivered next week. This is a busy slide, but what we want to show here is actually here you see the main terms of the refinanced silos. That's DOF Subsea, it's Norskan, and DOF Rederi, and Iceman. DOFCon has, as we have said before, not part of the refinancing. We pay on the refinance facility a margin significantly below market terms, but the main portion of our debt, especially in DOFCon and Norskan, are with BNDES. Here the long-term tenor goes from 2027 to 2037.
You see here we have a fixed interest rate in the range of 2.2-4.2 on the DOFCON facility and 3.1-4.4, and that's all in cost. It's a firm interest through the entire duration of the loan. The margin on the refinance facility is, I guess, that's something you are familiar with. If you see here, here you see the EBITDA from the various silos. What I'm particularly happy about is, of course, if I take the weakest part first, which is Norskan. Here we see we have a net interest-bearing debt to EBITDA of 7.6, and it's good to see that we have an increasing EBITDA. We expect and hope that will continue for Norskan going forward. If you see the key figures for DOF Subsea and DOF Rederi, we don't see that we have an issue when it comes to refinancing.
That is what we have shown here. I think in the next quarter, it might not be necessary to show this slide because we see that our refinance issue or refinancing plans, which we have to do by 2025, is becoming less and less a concern. For example, in DOF Rederi, we don't see that we have any refinancing needs. Which company do we need to refinance? That's DOF Subsea and it's Norskan. It's part of the debt in Norskan, approximately $100 million in Norskan, and then rest in DOF Subsea. If you assume that our EBITDA is more or less fixed the next year, which we don't expect, I assume, and here you see cash sweep on a stable EBITDA, we see that the refinance risk is approximately $400 or lower. That is what we consider not as a risk.
Here you see the long-term debt maturity profile and what we are paying in interest in the various silos. I've already mentioned the cheap interest that we have. On the bond loan, as you know, we have a PIK interest, and we have the right to convert by end of 2027. Thank you.
Thank you, Hilde. I guess what I forgot to say in the start was that we will, at the end of the session, open for questions. On the webcast, we will take questions in writing, and then we have some people in the audience here that will get the microphone and can ask questions. Sorry for that, but it's still time then to ask questions. Then we are on the guidance for 2024.
I guess if you start with the history, because in 2023, I think we started the year with guiding NOK 4.2 billion-NOK 4.7 billion in EBITDA, and we ended the year at NOK 4.872 billion. We are doing the, and that was done at the same time, so it was done in February 2023. I know we are doing it for 2024, and we then guide NOK 4.7 billion-NOK 5.2 billion in EBITDA. Of course, we know the first of 12 months, so we have one out of 11 months in the bag. Of course, the first month is giving us reason to believe that we will be able to live at least something started with a five-year. Of course, we have 11 months more to go, and of course, we know when you operate, what old friend Mr. Møgster always said, if you have a friend and want to be not having a friend anymore, you give him a boat. Because a boat has a lot of things that can go wrong.
We are operating vessels globally, and of course, we know there will be surprises, but we also know that from time to time there are surprises on the positive side. I said earlier that I will be disappointed if we don't deliver stronger in 2024 than in 2023. I hope that we are conservative as we were last year when we are doing this guiding, but I know we are in an industry where we can get surprises. That's why we have ended up on this interval, but you probably understand that I will be disappointed if we don't deliver, let's say, on the upper end of this year.
That was a long story about the EBITDA. Of course, standard depreciation is that they are higher, but of course, that's a natural effect of the impairments, the reversal of the impairments. You have more to depreciate, but of course, as I say, my view, of course, is that the asset value will continue to rise. Really, what you depreciate, I guess what is important is what is actually the value of the fleet. Then I guess the next one is just the math on the two first ones, the three first ones, so the net operating income. The interest cost is we have estimated $90 million-$100 million. Then payable tax, I'm not the tax expert, but around $50 million. The CapEx is more or less on the same level as last year.
Then hopefully we can surprise on the upside on the earnings side and surprise on the downside on the cost side. Let's see. Then is the last slide. I don't repeat the guidance. We have high backlog, and of course we expect, as I said, bigger awards in the next few months. It's a lot of tenders, a lot of big tenders. Of course, we do believe we can build actually visibility well after 2025 if we get this goes according to plan. Of course, the pictures down here are of two boats. The one is pipelayer in Brazil. Of course, as you know, there is a live tender in Brazil where we have bid five of six boats, and it's all three-year contracts.
Of course, if we land a contract for 4 or 5 boats, of course you have backlog for those six periods vis to 2027, 2028, 2029, which will then build visibility for the group long into the future. Likewise, on the anchor handlers, we have bid, and of course this is Norskan. Hilde showed very good numbers for Norskan in quarter four. Of course, we hope we can establish that run rate going forward. Of course, we have bid 3 of the anchor handlers in Norskan on an anchor handling tender, three or four year contracts, and of course are in the middle of negotiations. Of course, if we land those at the level close to where we have bid, of course it will lift the earnings in Norskan compared to what we the average for what we had last year.
I'm hopeful, and then of course we already won $250 million so far this year. There is a momentum on these big tenders, but also of course a strong momentum on project work, shorter work globally. As I said, we have had fantastic utilization apart from planned maintenance and mobilization of equipment in January, and of course we expect that to continue. It's strong, and I really enjoy what we call it BA calls, which is business acquisition calls. Of course, that is a fun part of my life these days because it's so many opportunities and so good audience. I leave it like that. Then we also have our chairman with us, Mr. Svein Harald Øygard, and he will do a few slides. Then after him, we take this session with questions. Please, Svein Harald.
Thank you. Svein Harald Øygard, I'm the Chair of the Board. My plan is to go through a bit the thinking on how to create shareholder value in DOF and the philosophy of the board as to how we can extract further value from the board, from the company, and from the shareholding of the company. Why am I doing it? It's partly because I think the DOF story is quite special on the Oslo Stock Exchange. I think there is nothing similar to be a bit outspoken on it. What is it that we have?
Of course, we have a four-element value creation strategy. Most of it shouldn't be a surprise by now, but I will still go through it very quickly. First, on the EBITDA, as shown by the guiding, we believe there is a further upside through high uptime and consistent delivery, of course, in a stronger market.
There's a high value from the vessel, which of course reflects the vessel portfolio that we have that is of course excellent and is well maintained through the downtime, which is also remarkable. On top of that, we get the value from the technology, from projects, and solution sale. It's more than the steel. It's smart people working with smart steel, and that of course supports the value creation story of the company. That allows us to extract project margins while at the same time we avoid the large-scale turnkey risks that often plague part of the oil service business. We get high earnings, but at a stable level. Within the project sale, our main focus is IMR and decommissioning, where it's a pretty well-defined scope without these immense risks that some other companies have been troubled with over the last years.
With that, of course, this is for the market to decide, but what we of course can do is to strengthen the EV of EBITDA by delivering on the strategy, by showing consistency in our delivery compared to plan. Of course, we do start from a very low starting point given history. Even just that should indicate that there is a story, but this is of course up to you what you consider to be a fair valuation. It is actually something to work on simply through the consistency of our efforts. Then the debt is, of course, it's a challenge, but it's also actually an opportunity. I'll dwell a bit on that. Of course, with a high EBITDA, we can accelerate the debt repayment, and that's also the part of the structure through the cash sweep arrangements.
The modest capital expenditure that we can have because the vessels have been very well maintained, as I mentioned. In other industries, part of the oil service segments, when you take them out from when you put them back in operations, you often incur capital expenditure, not so in DOF because they all are operating. Of course, we have below market interest rate on our debt, and we have the tax losses carried forward that actually also then becomes a significant asset of the company. I will show afterwards that the mark-to-market value of our debt portfolio is NOK 1.6 billion, which is actually in itself 10 NOK per share in this current structure. This, of course, allows us to extract benefit to equity holders from the 10 NOK structure and the interest rate structure on the debt.
Then, of course, as we have done, if we get the right price, you will also sell vessels, but of course it needs to be high relative to the EBITDA that we can now earn on the vessels. With EBITDA going up, it's harder to find vessels to sell, especially as the vessel prices partly still don't reflect the earning potential of the vessels. Of course, we want to high-grade the portfolio of vessels, divesting the ones that are less important to our future business, and who knows, at some point in time, considering other opportunities on the vessel side. With this, with EBITDA going up, with the EV of EBITDA hopefully going up, debt going down, part of the enterprise value that's owned by equity basically will go like this.
This is what I tell you: you should run the numbers and see what kind of numbers you could get. I will not give guidance on this, but I can tell you there are some interesting elements here. Hilde touched on this, and I'll go a bit more in detail on the capital structure. This is the current capital structure, and it's in different silos, as we call them, in the DOFCON silo, in the Norskan silo, in the subsea, and then on top, the Rederi. Basically, this runs forward, and of course, with the cash generation, we will do the cash sweep.
By the time we get to the time for the possible refinancing, the debt should be at a way lower level. This debt runs at this all-in nominal interest rate. Basically, in the first years, it's around 6%, but then it goes down to 5%, 4%, 3%. To have debt that runs to 2033 at the 3% interest rate, I guess that's an asset in some sense.
It's best to have that as a part owner of the enterprise value as compared to having other equity holders. That's one of the reasons why you get this immense uptick. The net value of this, if you compare the terms on the debt to market rates, is, as I mentioned, NOK 1.6 billion. In some sense, if you look at EV to EBITDA comparisons for different companies, I guess the fact that this element is part of the story is something to take into account. I guess there are far smarter financial analysts in the room than me, but have a look. Another part, if you spread this out over time, you have the following setup.
Since the depth is high at the starting point, that's where you have this is the value of the spread to the market interest rates, basically allocating out the NOK 1.6 billion over time. One part is that even a large part of this is very long-term. That's basically something that we can live with for the future. There's a significant mark-to-market value on the interest rate differential. The main part of it actually originates from the non-constrained or basically from the part of the depth structure that we don't need to refinance, basically these elements at the bottom. We can do the refinancing as we should because of this part, but then we can still retain the inherent value of the debt portfolio for the long-term. If you do accelerated refinancing, as we probably will do early 2035, then of course you will reduce this latent interest rate value.
Since this is the part we are sort of losing, that should be less than 10% of the NOK 1.6 billion. It's a bit similar to the story that I have in the other company where I'm the chairman in Norwegian. I guess you have seen the discussion in the last day. Should we pay the zero interest rate bond, the so-called retained claim bond? One guy thinks you should do it. I think in general, of course, you shouldn't do it if you have these very advantageous terms. One part of this is that this debt in the silos that Hilde showed, of course, it's a pain because you have some of the restriction, but it's actually also a benefit because you can work on the silos independently.
The two silos with the long-term debt with low interest rates, that's the Norskan and the DOFCON, they can basically run forever, while the debt ratios in the two others, in subsea and rederi, are way, way lower. That gives flexibility. That gives us the chance to, as I said, retain the interest rate benefit for long-term, which is then in Norskan and DOFCON, at the same time optimizing the structure in the two other silos and even on the margin pay dividend. When you look at this, you have to go beyond the average debt ratio of the company. It's very high again because of Norskan, but that doesn't really matter from a financial point because the other parts are really, really low. I used maybe too much time on this, but $1.5 billion, that's money too, even today, Mons Aase.
Even with the rates you get on the vessels. Then I could do something which is totally inappropriate, which is basically comparing DOF to other companies in the oil service space. Basically, we look at these. I've stolen from DNB. If you look at the EBITDA of the entity of DOF, which is the black here, compared to market value, you can see that we are in the high range among all these. These are all the oil service companies in Oslo in seismic services and drilling. We are in the high range, but then we are very, very low on Capex, which is again a reflection of what I just said on the vessel portfolio. Despite our high debt, we are actually very low on interest payments.
You take the EBITDA, less the Capex, and less interest payments, and it will be even more if you included the tax element, I would believe. Basically, the cash generation of the entity as EBITDA, less Capex, interest, rate compared to market cap is then the highest on the Oslo Stock Exchange in the oil service space. This is something that we will work on. The three main elements from a strategy to strengthen shareholder value is to maintain the momentum, to strengthen the earnings, and to build value from the vessels and beyond the vessel value, is to continue to repay debt at an accelerated pace as we are doing while, to the extent possible, retaining the interest rate benefit to the benefit of the equity holders. The first silo will have in the AS case, a debt ratio below 1 already in 2025 and maybe in 2024.
Who knows? With that, that were my last points, and then on the Q&A, I guess that's you, Mons, and Martin. Thank you.
Thank you, Martin. You will ask the questions from the webcast, and you guys here in the room will ask the questions on your own. You don't need help from Martin doing that.
Okay, I can start. Haakon Amundsen in ABG. Now both the board and the management is here. My question is now that we've started to see some companies, some vessel owners in Norway, build new vessels in the subsea space, and you may be at one year from a refinancing which could limit restrictions on expansion or dividends. How should we think about DOF in that context? Should we expect growth to be the main strategy post-refinancing or shareholder distributions? Maybe you start on the new builds.
No, I see it in a way where, of course, when we get the freedom back after when we have refinanced next year, priority number one is to pay back value to the shareholders. Of course, on the new builds, costs will be very few. Of course, if you order today, you go get it in, let's say, late 2026, 2027. Of course, when you do the math on the rates these guys are getting and the price they are paying, it's nothing near something we would have done. You can buy, let's say, DOF here at NOK 77 or quality companies at 3x or 4x the 2024 EBITDA, and then these guys are paying 8x the multiple in 2026. I know we have been stupid before, but of course, we are not that stupid that we don't learn from our earlier stupidness.
We will not do that, and we will pay hopefully dividend, and then we will do deals that, let's say, increase the value and don't decrease the value of the share. That's how we see it. Of course, that's the answer to that.
That's very clear.
Okay, we'll do one from the webcast. You are expecting a better market for the anchor handlers with more term contracts. Can you say a bit more on where you see this increase and whether you expect anchor handlers to be taken out of the North Sea to serve a global demand?
Of course, we can start with Skandi Iceman. Of course, it's an interest where we just did 3 + 3 a contract with, and as we said, on that alone, I expect if you compare the Iceman's 2023 EBITDA to the annualized earnings on that job, I think we are up from, let's say, the $7-$7.5 million EBITDA in 2023 to perhaps $13-$14 million level on the annualized contract. Of course, that tells you that number one, she is a fantastic boat because we know that competitors, of course, bid their boats at much lower rates, but they took our boat because we have the best back. Of course, that has always been for DOF, that we have the best boats. We build them a bit more fancy, and we see we get the premium on that. That is telling where the market is.
Then, of course, we see that Petrobras is on tender for a lot of boats. Of course, there is an international lot on that, so we expect, of course, that they need more boats, but we also see that the rate levels, the owners outside Brazil ones, and also the owners in Brazil, not often or not always match the expectation of Petrobras. That, of course, is why this anchor handling tender we have bid now is dragging on because there are some good discussions between Petrobras and the owners on a gap of the rate. We see increased demand for anchor handlers in APAC. We see it in Brazil, and we see it gradually in the North Sea as well, and we also see it in West Africa.
We see opportunities globally for the boats, and of course, we expect when we do our next long-term anchor handling contract that you will see the same trend that we saw for Iceman, that you will have a really nice term in earnings on that boat. I think, but of course, the anchor handling market is the most difficult market to predict. If you ask me what rate there will be on the spot market in the North Sea next week, I have no idea. I think my stomach tells me that the anchor handlers now are soon going into the same trend as we have seen for PSVs and subsea boats. We are on the limit now in my head to see that market really going in balance, and then, of course, there will be super profit on that space as well. I emphasize, that's my stomach.
My brain tells me I have no idea what rates there will be in that market next week, but at least I see this as some signs that this is starting to look good. That was a very long answer.
Hi, Eirik Aspen Fosså, Carnegie. I have a question about the guidance. You say we'd be disappointed if it doesn't increase year-over-year. I'm just wondering what do you think needs to happen in order to reach that high end of the range? Is it like if nothing goes wrong, it's possible, or do you need to see rates increase or just stay at current levels? What do you think?
I kind of like your question, and of course, you heard what I said. Last year, we guided 4.2-4.7, and we delivered 4.9, roughly. Of course, we hope we are conservative this year as well.
If it goes according to what I hope for, of course, we're going to deliver in the upper end here, and if it goes very nicely, of course, we will deliver above guidance. As I said, there are always things that can go wrong technically and so on, so that's why we have a range. That's why we have a range. Of course, we hope we are conservative on the guidance this year as we were last year, and now I will not say anything more.
Thank you. One more question on the—I'm just wondering if we could go in a bit into the Petrobras' tenders and what's going on there and if there's anything you can say when we could expect those to conclude. Then also thinking about you have at least one PSV now coming off the firm contract in August, I think. What's going to happen with that one if it continues to drag on?
To the last question first on the PSV, of course, we fixed, and I think you are referring to the Bayu-Undan phase then that comes off in the fall and working for Exxon in Australia. Of course, we fixed the sister vessel, Skandi Sotra, in Australia. At what I would call the world record in term PSV rates, I never seen anything like it yet. I expect that the boat you are referring to will get the same kind of money as the Kvitsøy they did on term contract.
[crosstalk] You didn't mean PSV? No. PSV. Pipeline. Oh, the PLSV. No, you said then your first question I thought because your first question were on PSVs, so I thought the last question was PSV. The PSV, of course, we have fixed six pipelines.
They are soon coming available in August this year, and then some in 2025, and then one in 2026, and then one in 2027. We have bid the five first ones on this tender. Of course, we are in the middle of discussions, and you could say making some progress but still moving slowly. Our view on it is that, of course, we believe Petrobras needs all the boats they have, and they want a bit more than what they have on contract today. Our base case is, of course, that we will do an extension or a new contract on all the five boats we have bid. The last boat is outside the window, meaning that the boat will just continue for Petrobras from August then. When it will conclude, it takes the time it takes, and that's just how it is.
It could be that you can reach an agreement on some of the boats in a week or two, and it can take a month or two. I couldn't tell you. It's just to be patient and see what happens. Our view on it has not changed. Likewise, this on the anchor handling tender, for Norskan, of course, it's extremely important, and we do believe that we're going to do a contract on all the three boats we have bid. We do believe that the rates on that tender are quite a bit higher to what earnings we have today, so we do believe that that will lift Norskan to a much higher run rate. Of course, that is what we still believe, so no change in that.
On timing, I've been in this business for 25 years, and in the old days, Petrobras always had board meeting on Thursdays. Then people, we asked our guys in Brazil when we got the decision, and they said, "Next Thursday. Next Thursday. Next Thursday." Let's see. I am optimistic on that.
Then we'll have time for one more due to good and lengthy answers, Mons Aase. To Skandi Buzios, can you give a brief update on the status and when they will be expected back in Brazil?
She is at the yard here in Norway now, and she will leave that yard in April, go to Holland, and take on board because we lifted off the tower to do repairs below the tower in the Iceman facility in the Netherlands, and then we put that on, and then we sail for Brazil.
I would say back in Brazil, let's say you leave late June, early July, is my best guess. Perhaps on the old contract in July then if it goes according to plan. Then we are done. Thank you very much for listening to us. Then we at least talk in then we have done first quarter. Thank you very much to all.