Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Moreld's Q4 2024 presentation. My name is Geir Austigard. I am the CEO of the company, and with me I have Trond Rosnes, the CFO of the company. We are pleased with our operational and financial performance in the quarter. We have seen robust activity levels, considering the low season for subsea and marine operations, and we report increased contribution from maintenance and modification projects. We have also strengthened our balance sheet significantly, following a successful IPO in December last year and hence debt reduction. This positions Moreld well for long-term growth and shareholder value creation. For the full year, Moreld's pro forma revenue was NOK 9.1 billion. In the Q3 presentation, we guided on an adjusted 2024 EBITDA ranging from NOK 1-1.1 billion, and I am pleased that we ended the year in the upper range of the guidance at NOK 1.075 billion.
Before I continue, let me give a brief introduction of the Moreld Group, since we are kind of the new kid on the block. We are an asset-light group of companies operating in the energy business, primarily oil and gas, but also in selected offshore wind opportunities if acceptable margins are achieved. Moreld Apply is a maintenance and modification company, 46 years of history serving the Norwegian continental shelf, and more recently also onshore projects. Ocean Installer is a subsea installation company serving Norwegian and international customers and projects. Finally, Global Maritime is a well-trusted marine engineering specialist with an international footprint also. If you look at the EBITDA contribution, Ocean Installer stands for about two-thirds of the EBITDA, Apply one-third, a little bit less, and Global Maritime 6%. So our highlights for Q4: the revenue sits at NOK 2.4 billion, so that reflects our robust activity levels in Q4.
As I said, considering the low season and multiple vessel transits to West African projects, we are pleased with the revenue. We also see a positive development on the maintenance and modification projects in Norway, and especially, of course, that is related to Apply. The EBITDA of 128 million NOK, you could argue that is a low level. However, with these movements of vessels and moving to projects in West Africa, we are pleased with that EBITDA, and that is also on the higher range of our expectations. On the debt, our debt is now 146 million NOK at the end of the year, with a quite significant cash balance of NOK 1.5 billion . With an interest-bearing debt of NOK 1646 million , it means that we have reduced our interest-bearing debt to EBITDA to almost zero, which is not too bad. Our backlog is NOK 9.9 billion .
You can see that this year's 2025 backlog is now NOK 7 billion, so we have roughly 80% of our expected revenue covered already. And let me be clear, there is a very high tender activity ongoing at the moment and will continue throughout 2025. It's been an eventful quarter, the most significant one obviously being the IPO and the listing of totally $115 million after quarter end. I promised you that we would refinance and come into a position where we could pay dividends in the last presentation. We are keeping the promise. We have now issued a new bond to refinance the debt, and we went into the market in January, and that was a very successful event. We have now refinanced and will finalize all the parts of that. Trond will come back to it later on.
That is, of course, paving the way to pay down the existing $225 million debt, and then we are in a position to pay dividends. I'll come back on that too. Let's not forget, I talked about a sale of the CapNor company in the last quarter. That divestment was concluded in October. We had a closing then, and the sale generated NOK 208 million net proceeds. Okay, so dividend, let's go. We have a solid balance sheet, and we definitely do have the capacity to return shareholder value very soon. And the board has resolved to approve an updated dividend policy. I think that was last night. So we will pay out quarterly dividends starting from second quarter 2025. It, of course, formally needs to be approved by the general meeting and the new general meeting.
Thereafter, we plan to have quarterly financial statements in February, May, August, and November each year and then pay dividend accordingly. On the ratio side, we expect to pay out a distribution of 40%-60% of the adjusted net profits over time. I also want to mention that the board may approve share buybacks when we see that being relevant. In line with the new policy, the board of Moreld will or intends to pay dividends in of NOK 0.42 per share in second quarter, and that relates approximately to NOK 75 million total payments. Just for the sake of good order, the AGM is expected on the 20th of May this year. So a little bit more on the performance of each of the companies. Moreld Apply has a very robust performance. They are large.
In the maintenance and modification agreements or contracts that we have that are also exclusive, by the way, we see some very good projects. There are also projects within those contracts, and they are ongoing this year, so it's a very busy time for the company. One of the projects is the Draupner maintenance project, which is a compressor station that has a significant portion of the gas exports from Norway to Europe, so this is a very highly important project where trust is key, and we are very pleased to have that project awarded, and that's going very well. We have also stepped into onshore operations lately, or the last year, year and a half, and that is also an area where we see interesting opportunities for the future. We have larger projects in the metallurgical industry at the moment, as an example.
For 2026 sees the startup of several large contracts that will be tendered this year on the NCS, so that is, 2025 is a year of major tender activities and also very important for Moreld. Okay, let's go to Ocean Installer. I have in the headline mentioned the transit to new markets, and let me explain a little bit here. The Norwegian Continental Shelf, when it comes to subsea activities, has too harsh weather conditions for the majority of activities, so what we are doing in the company, we are moving our vessels down to the Mediterranean or to West Africa and executing projects there, and that business model works very well. That means that in the quarters, Q1 and Q2 , where we're moving those vessels up and down, we will see a lower booked revenue because of the movements.
However, it is still very, very good business for us to do those moves, and Trond will come back a little bit more on the details of any impact of it. We had a very good order intake for the company of NOK 1.1 billion following several awards in this quarter, and this was also a significant upswing as opposed to what we booked last year in the same quarter. So I've talked about the two vessels to West Africa. We also have a third vessel now engaged in pre-commissioning activity in the Barents Sea for Equinor. Right, so let's move to Global Maritime. Global Maritime did a very large project this summer, towing the Hywind Scotland turbines back and forth to Scotland. That was highly successful. On this picture, you see a crane.
That crane is about 200 meters tall, lifting off the turbines of these constructions, changing out some bearings, and then putting them back on sea. That is a type of project that that company is good at. Very specialized and also with, I would say, respectable margins. What we see now is that there is a very strong upswing in contracts for the company, especially marine warranty, and the backlog has increased significantly, so we are looking. I'm pleased with the development of the company. Right, so I mentioned our order backlog from our blue chip customers. We are looking at strong backlogs. With options, we are looking at NOK 12.5 billion , and you can see the split per company. I'm not going to go into more details there today.
But again, please note that the tender pipeline is very strong, and there are some very, very large contracts up for tendering during 2025. We expect major awards in the maintenance modification market in the second half of 2025. I think it's no secret there are the contracts with Equinor, Aker BP, and Aibel that are coming up in this period. Okay, Trond, I hand it over to you.
Thank you, Geir, and good morning to you all. The full year revenue for 2024 came in on NOK 9.1 billion and EBITDA at NOK 1,075 million, which is in the higher end of the NOK 1-1.1 billion guidance also mentioned by Geir. Also, please note that this EBITDA number is exclusive of IFRS 16 adjustments, meaning that the cash vessel lease cost, which is a significant cost component for the group, is included in this EBITDA number.
And we are also, as Geir mentioned, we are presenting the pro forma number, which means that Ocean Installer that we concluded in the first of July is also included for the first half. So we are showing Ocean Installer for the full year of 2024, but as reported, as you will see in our Q2 report from first of July 2024. Q2 was concluded with a revenue at NOK 2.4 billion and EBITDA at NOK 128 million. The profitability in the quarter is in the higher end of the implicit full year guidance, but it is lower compared to the previous quarter, Q2 and Q3, as you can see. This is driven by key assets being in transit between the North Sea and West Africa, as well as profit recognition phasing on large projects. I'll come back to some more details on that, especially on the Ocean Installer.
CapNor, divested in the quarter, added NOK 208 million to our cash balance for our 67% shareholding, and leverage ratio significantly reduced to 0.1 times following the new equity from the private placement, the proceeds received from the mentioned CapNor transaction, as well as strong cash flows from our operations. So moving over to Apply, full year revenue for Apply came in at close to NOK 4 billion and EBITDA at NOK 318 million, with EBITDA margin just above 8% for the full year. The revenue in the quarter was NOK 1.2 billion, which is up 36% compared to the last quarter. It's been a busy quarter, as Geir also mentioned, with high activity where we have been executing multiple maintenance and modification projects on the NCS.
EBITDA ended at NOK 85 million, which is on par with the strong second quarter, but margins are somewhat lower, mainly due to a larger share of equipment and materials with lower gross margins in the revenue mix. Ocean Installer delivered strong 2024 performance numbers for the full year, with a revenue of NOK 4.5 billion and EBITDA at NOK 730 million, with an EBITDA margin of just above 16%. The revenue for Ocean Installer in Q4 was as expected, but lower than previous quarters and ended at NOK 1 billion. The Q4 EBITDA of NOK 48 million, which is a drop in EBITDA compared to Q2 and Q3, but is well within expectations and the underlying guidance that we get for the full year. But when compared to the strong Q2 and Q3, there are some elements to bear in mind.
Project facing, meaning several projects in Ocean Installer were in the startup phase where the profit is not recognized until a higher percentage of completion is achieved. As a rule of thumb, we can say that we don't start profit recognition on larger projects in Ocean Installer until we go offshore. We had two key assets on extended intercontinental transits, as I also mentioned, including preparations, and both vessels had transits of 21 days, and in addition, there are some smaller seasonal variations between quarters with Q2 and Q3, typically being stronger than Q4. Turning over to Global Maritime, Global Maritime has concluded 2024 with a record high EBITDA of NOK 65 million following the successful execution of the Hywind Scotland project. Global Maritime's revenue in the quarter was NOK 213 million, and the EBITDA was negative with minus NOK 4 million.
There is typically lower demand for Global Maritime services during the winter season, so with a negative result in Q4 was as expected. The group operates with a negative net working capital. The current level of net working capital is lower than the last 12-month average and outside the indicated range of the normalized working capital. There is a large swing, as you can see, from the start of the year and at the end of the year. There is a combination of timing of invoicing and increased prepayments from customers that we have benefited from towards the end of 2024, and going forward, we expect some reversal of the negative working capital, which ties to the increased completion progress on our larger projects, which ties back to what I just talked about on Ocean Installer and the Q4 result.
Gross interest-bearing debt includes $145 million of senior secured notes. Following the $80 million redemption at the end of December, we have lease liabilities accounted for under IFRS 16. During the quarter, the lease liabilities have increased by approximately net NOK 300 million from Q3, which is the net effect of lease amortization and the execution of the 18-month option on the North Sea Giant vessel that we announced earlier this week. Cash balance at NOK 1.5 billion, net interest-bearing debt when we exclude the IFRS 16 liabilities of NOK 146 million, and then the leverage ratio, as I mentioned also, of 0.1 times. As part of the refinancing in Q1, we will settle the remaining $140 million senior secured notes on 21st of February, which also includes paying the make-whole call on the existing debt.
For the benefit of you all, the existing notes has its first call date on the 15th of June 2026. So showing the cash development from the start of the year throughout 2024, we see a strong underlying operating cash flows from the reported EBITDA and positive working capital development. And Ocean Installer is included from 1st of July. We have paid interest on the mentioned senior secured notes of NOK 232 million. We had net cash outflow from acquisition of NOK 494 million. That also includes the acquired cash. We had cash inflows from divesting Ross Offshore and CapNor Group in 2024 of NOK 258 million. And we had net cash from bond issued in June last year of NOK 154 million.
And lastly, the net proceeds from the equity raised in December last year of NOK 874 million, which does not include the unused over-allotment, the Green shoe of around NOK 50 million that came in January this year. And total cash balance, as mentioned, NOK 1.5 billion. And we also, on top of that, have unused credit facilities of NOK 200 million. So in total, available cash of NOK 1.7 billion. That concludes my walkthrough of the financials. So I hand it back to Geir, who will conclude our presentation.
Yeah, thank you, Trond. So we are absolutely having a promising and good outlook for 2025. It is supported by a good order backlog, a solid order backlog, but also with the activities that we see in the markets, not least. We have seen and do see activity pick up again now in this quarter.
As Trond mentioned, we are now moving to the execution phase of quite a few of those two big vessels that are now in West Africa, and that's going to be a very positive impact to our EBITDA in Q1 . On the market side, we are very positive on the new licenses that have been awarded by the Norwegian government on the continental shelf. Moreld has now the ability to take satellite field hookups, both on the subsea part and on the surface part of the installations. That is a good place to be. Not the least, hence we are maintaining our guidance that we had also in the last quarter for 2025 at an EBITDA, excluding IFRS 16, between NOK 0.9 billion and NOK 1.1 billion .
As I said, that is supported by what we see of the markets going forward and our opportunities to win contracts. With that, that concludes our presentation. Thank you for listening in or being here. We will now have time for some questions. So questions, please. Any questions from the audience?
Christopher from SpareBank 1 Markets, three questions, if I may. I know you acquired Ocean Installer last year, but could you say on a pro forma basis how large the backlog for the combined company would have been one year ago for 2024 versus the NOK 7 billion you have secured for 2025? That's the first question. Secondly, you mentioned you are doing work for Baker Hughes. Could you explain a bit more what you're doing on that kind of project? And thirdly, when do you expect working capital to normalize?
Is that already in the first half, or is it during 2025? Thank you.
Okay, let me start with the second question. What is Ocean Installer doing with Baker Hughes? Ocean Installer has been doing light well intervention with Baker Hughes. That has been a successful collaboration. I can also say that we have signed an MOU just a few days back where the companies, Ocean Installer and Baker, will look deeper into a future collaboration. And that is also then on light well intervention, but we know that there are opportunities beyond that with Baker Hughes. So I think it's a very promising collaboration we have with that company. Would you say something about order backlog?
I can say something about order backlog. I think it's fair to say that if we go one year back and look at the order backlog at the end of 2023, it was around half of what it is now. Let's say around NOK 2.5 billion lower than the current backlog for Ocean Installer. I can also take the working capital question, obviously. If we look at the current project portfolio, I would say that we expect a normalization within the next six months. Obviously, it's quite tricky to kind of guide on expectations there because it also depends on what we're kind of winning of new projects. We are always targeting kind of front-loaded milestone payments from our customers. Based on what we know now, based on the project portfolio, I would say within the next six months. Any other questions from the audience? Yes, I have a question.
Bjørn Anders from Pareto Securities. So to what effect do you feel on Apply the merger with Ocean Installer? Do you see that it's already generating more business for Apply, or is it still to come?
Yeah, that's a good question. We do see that the opportunities of being and becoming a total provider of satellite field hookups is going to be very strong for the future. The majority of exploration activities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf is around existing installation where Ocean Installer can execute the subsea work and apply can do the work on the installations. And the combination there, we have done already analysis of it, and we see that we can cut down three to six months of first oil. And that, of course, has a tremendous value for the operators. So that is a very good potential that we see.
Another one, if I may, is that we are already now utilizing resources at Global Maritime in Ocean Installer in order to help them to take a larger part on bidding for new projects. So we are starting to cross-move resources to optimize the operations of the Moreld Group already. Yes, and then we can go to the online questions that came in from the web portal. Can you please elaborate on the market outlook for your key segments? Yeah. I think the company, especially Apply, has got very long contracts with the blue chip operators in Norway. One of those contracts, the biggest contract in Norway, is the V&M contract that Equinor is now having out for bidding this year.
It is not kind of a win or lose situation for Moreld because Aibel has part of it, Aker Solutions has part of it, we have part of it, Wood has part of it. So that is a very important contract for everyone. And it will be distributed. And how the mix is, that's something we don't know. That's Equinor's well-kept secret, of course. But the duration of those contracts is very long. How long? I cannot tell, but I would guess something between five or seven years. And when you get one of those contracts awarded, that builds up the backlog significantly. We are looking at NOK 1 billion per year at the moment at that contract. So therefore, the order backlog could increase significantly this year based on the three contracts that are coming out for bidding.
Yeah. Yeah, one last question. It's a question regarding the news from this week of the North Sea Giant option, and that is if we can disclose anything on the pricing of that, on the day rate, or if that's still confidential or not agreed. Let me first say, why did we do it?
We extended it because we see projects going in 2027, 2028, 2029 that we need to ensure we have capacity for. And so we need to call the option already now for 2028 because of projects we're working on.
We are not allowed to share anything on the charter party prices, unfortunately, but there are very good reasons for doing it, that's for sure.
Yes, I think that concludes our Q&A session. Okay, thanks a lot, everyone. Thank you.