Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the Odfjell Drilling Q2 2025 Results Presentation. My name is James Crothers, and I'm the Investor Relations Officer at the company, and I'm joined today by our Chief Executive Officer, Kjetil Gjersdal, and our Chief Financial Officer, Ørjan Lunde. Before we begin, your attention is brought to the important information slide of our presentation, which we would encourage participants to read in full. Note that this presentation is only a summary of the quarter, and the more comprehensive quarterly report should be read separately. Both that report and today's presentations are available on our website, www.odfjelldrilling.com. Our call today will begin with a brief summary of the quarter, with Kjetil taking us through some of the key highlights. We'll then move on to discussing our operations during Q2 before moving on to our financial review with Ørjan.
We'll then summarize the presentation and close the call. As always, following the presentation, we'll open the Q&A session and invite participants to submit a question either via the telephone line or electronically via the webcast tools which are available. Q2 has been a busy quarter for our business, and I'm delighted to hand you over to our CEO, Kjetil, who can take us through some of the key highlights.
Thank you, James, and a very good afternoon, everybody. Q2 was an extremely busy period for our company, completing three SPS in short succession, in addition to focusing on delivering for our clients. This was an important period for us to get right. I can happily say today that we very much achieved our objectives in Q2, and we do enter Q3 with a fully upgraded fleet, no major CapEx bills ahead of us, and increasing day rates secured. Despite how busy this quarter was from an operational standpoint, we were able to once again set new quarterly financial records, and as can be seen, we achieved a record EBITDA of $109 million from a revenue of $290 million, and we were able to achieve a net profit of $42 million. Financial utilization was 92%.
This is somewhat reduced from our normal levels, but it is reflecting the off-hire due to the SPS on the Deepsea Aberdeen. Shareholders will be pleased to see that we once again increased our dividend to $0.18 per share from $0.60 per share, and we remain well-placed to continue to increase shareholder distributions from here. As discussed, all of our SPS for us are now completed, all of them on time and on budget, and our next SPS will be for the Deepsea Nordkapp in late 2028. Finally, our financial position goes from strong to stronger, with the company reducing its leverage ratio again to 1.3 x net debt/EBITDA, while our equity ratio remains at 64%. Moving on to our operations. During the quarter, the company's own fleet was active on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, working for Aker BP and Equinor.
Three of the company's units had yard stays during the quarter, with the Deepsea Aberdeen's SPS being the most impactful. However, the company was still able to achieve 92% financial utilization for the entire fleet. Going through our units specifically, those not in the yard for the SPS, the Aberdeen was working for Equinor on the Breidablikk field. The Atlantic was also working for Equinor throughout the period, and that worked on various exploration wells. Q2 saw Deepsea Stavanger working for Aker BP on exploration wells as part of its wider campaign on the Yggdrasil development. The Nordkapp was also working for Aker BP during the period, having completed a short yard stay towards the end of Q1 and going into the start of Q2. When it returned to operations, Nordkapp was still under contract with Aker BP, worked with Harbour Energy on a carbon capture well.
In our external fleet, the Yantai and Bollsta were working in Norway for ConocoPhillips and OMV, respectively, throughout Q2. The Bollsta is now likely to begin operations with Equinor in September, meaning next month. The Mira was demobilizing following its contract with TotalEnergies before preparing for a new contract with Rhino Resources in Namibia. Finally, the Hercules was in yard in Norway for the entire quarter. Moving on to what will be our final SPS update for some time, thank God for that. As many will be aware, we have now successfully completed all four owned rigs' SPS, having completed the Aberdeen SPS in mid-Q2. We have been preparing for this critical period since early 2022, and to see it now finally completed is fantastic.
It's taken a huge amount of careful planning, creativity, and execution to ensure that it went smoothly and with all rigs completed on time and on budget. The crew and staff involved can be extremely proud of how they have performed. Ultimately, with all projects now completed, our rigs are in prime condition and installed with the latest technologies, and this provides a solid foundation to deliver further value and excellent performance. I think the subtitle on the slide says as well, our fleet is very much ready for what's next. Turning on to the backlog and what's next, it was noted earlier, our backlog now sits at $1.7 billion. Our forward schedule is largely unchanged from our previous quarter, with all four units having firm contract coverage until nearly the end of 2026 and with the Stavanger booked until 2030.
As can be seen, our first contract opportunity is with the Aberdeen and the Nordkapp, and we are working on opportunities for both these units currently. Regardless, our units are well secured with contracts coverage at increasing day rates. As per previous quarter, we thought it was important to demonstrate what this backlog translates into in terms of revenue generation. As you see, we maintain year-on-year revenue growth based on firmly secured contracts alone. Our average day rate per rig continues to increase quarter on quarter, and our average OPS per rig is anticipated to only marginally increase. It is also worth reminding stakeholders that on top of these day rates comes an historic average of at least $25,000 - $30,000 per day per rig in bonuses and add-on sales.
Add-on sales, and going forward, we will not have the CapEx that we have experienced in 2024 and 2025 associated with the SPS projects. Our near-term growth is very well secured, and our Q2 record today, we hope, won't last very long. Before I hand over to Ørjan, I would like to talk a little bit about how we view the market and the market outlook. As the title suggests, we see a market that is well balanced. The Norwegian market is positive for work in 2027 and beyond, with several clients expressing direct interest in contracting our units. Speaking with our clients, we expect that in response to their intention to maintain Norwegian production levels, we will see more wells being drilled on smaller infield development and on exploration wells.
We expect that these developments will require more wells for less barrels of production, which could be favorable for our business. Formal tenders remain outstanding in Norway, and we maintain our view that demand for rigs will increase in the coming years, particularly from 2027. If you look internationally, we see demand as being more mixed. Contracting is largely dominated by short-term exploration work, with longer-term contracts expecting to mature in coming years. We expect demand to come from places such as Namibia, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and the U.K., with projects expecting to be matured from 2027 and onwards. On the supply side, our view remains unchanged. We expect the supply to likely reduce with some retirement of vessels in our sector expected, and no new builds likely to happen.
There are a few stranded and/or incomplete vessels in our sector also, but we do not believe it's likely to create any meaningful competition in the near to medium term. Ultimately, we do see good interest from clients seeking to secure Tier 1 assets in this period and are confident of securing an additional backlog for our units for work in 2027. With that, I will now pass on to Ørjan to go through the financial review.
Thank you, Kjetil. I'm pleased to say that we are reporting strong financial results for the second quarter, and I will begin with a summary of the income statements. Operating revenue in Q2 was $219 million, compared to $119 million in Q2 last year. Operating revenue from our own fleet was $171 million, while the external fleet generated a revenue of $47 million. As reported earlier, the positive impact of higher day rates is continuing also in Q2, with an EBITDA for the own fleet segment of $101 million, which is a margin of 59%. The EBITDA for the external fleet segment was $9 million, which is a margin of 19%. Less corporate overhead and other adjustments, the group EBITDA was $108 million. The company delivered a net profit of $42 million in Q2, which is a significant improvement compared to previous quarters.
The total net profit for the first half is $73 million. Let's move on to the balance sheet page, page 14. Our net debt is decreasing. During the quarter, we have reduced it by another $17 million, down to $458 million, which corresponds to a leverage ratio of 1.3 x. I refer you to the last page of the report for details regarding the leverage ratio calculation. The equity ratio is 64% out of total assets of approximately $2.2 billion. The available liquidity is $217 million, including undrawn RCF of $113 million. As anticipated, the available liquidity is down from last quarter, mainly due to CapEx payments related to SPSs and half-yearly amortization on the bond, in addition to increased dividends and upgrade projects. Further details of the cash flow for Q2 follow on the next slide. In Q2, we generated $127 million in cash from operations.
Net interest paid was $21 million, including half-yearly interest payments on the bond. Tax paid was $4 million. CapEx for the quarter was $52 million, of which $25 million were client-induced upgrades that are covered by lump sum payments from customers in this or adjacent quarters. Net cash flow from financing activity was minus $11 million, of which $28 million in scheduled amortization on loans and $3.5 million in repayment of lease liabilities, offset by drawing on $20 million on the RCF during the period. Dividends paid in Q2 were $38.4 million and related to Q1 results. We are continuing our upward dividend trajectory by declaring a dividend for Q2 of $0.18 per share, which will be a total dividend payment of $43.2 million. This corresponds to an annualized yield of approximately 10% based on yesterday's close.
The shares will trade ex-dividend from 3rd of September, and payment will be made around 17th of September. We see a strong potential for continuing the increase in quarterly shareholder distributions going forward, given our solid financial position and our increasing free cash flow generation as a result of higher locked-in day rates, reduced CapEx payments, and reduced debt payments. With that, I will pass back to Kjetil, who will summarize our presentation.
Thank you. A summary of the Q2. It has been a record-breaking quarter for Odfjell Drilling, delivered by strong operational performance of the Odfjell Drilling team. We have achieved record financial results. Our SPS performance has been exceptional, and all of our four units are now upgraded and ready for what's next. We have increased our dividend once again and have strong potential for further increases. Finally, our financial position is further strengthened. To summarize, Q2 was another great quarter for our company, and we are very excited about what comes next. Thank you very much for listening in.
Thank you, Kjetil. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, you can do so either via the telephone line controls or the webcast tools. As ever, we'll try and get through as many questions as we possibly can, but we may be limited on time. Our operator, Sergei, would you be able to please open the Q&A session from the telephone line?
Absolutely. We have a first question from Fredrik Stene from Clarkson Securities. Please go ahead.
Hey, Kjetil, Ørjan, James, hope you're all well. I wanted to talk a bit about dividends today. You have increased your dividends to $0.18 per share for the quarter. You said now in your prepared remarks back in there that you feel very comfortable that you can continue to increase that going forward. While I'm sure you cannot say exactly how much you're going to increase them to, I wanted to touch upon a couple of elements that give you that confidence. First, if you look at your fleet, you have the Deepsea Aberdeen and the Deepsea Nordkapp going off contract late next year, which is, you know, one year and something until that happens. To continue to increase your dividends, I guess the underlying thought from your end at least would have to be that you're very confident in securing more work and continuous work on those units.
When we said that you were in discussions, if I understood correctly, I was hoping to get some more color about, you know, contract length, day rate levels, if you can share, or maybe more so, you know, when should we expect any updates on more work firming up for these two particular units? Thank you.
Yeah, maybe I can say a little bit about that, Fredrik. Thanks for the questions. I want to start with the Nordkapp because that's sort of the easiest one. That is, you know, as you know, in the semi-alliance with Aker BP, and we have a model there that we add one year to the backlog, approximately 15 months ahead of the third period being completed. That being completed in the end of 2026, early 2027, that should mean roughly around November or something like that. We've already started those discussions, and the day rate for that contract is to be set by two independent brokers. It's a model that we used for some time now, and we used to average those two brokers, and it's a model that has worked fine for both us and the client.
I do not know what that number will be now, but if I were to guess, I would believe it is somewhere between $450,000 and $500,000. For the Aberdeen, we have various outcomes. As you can see in our contract backlog, Equinor has options for use of the rig, which is to be declared, I would say, roughly around 15, 16 months ahead. That is an unpriced option. That could be an opportunity, but there are also others, they are in the market with some other tenders, which of course is something that we look at as well. There are several opportunities there. It could be a shorter time, or it could be a longer time if we are succeeding in agreeing with Equinor. Was that answer, Fredrik?
Yeah, no, that's very good color. Thank you. Just on one follow-up, revenues, that's one thing, but now that you've completed your SPSs, you're also talking about material lower CapEx numbers going forward. Are you able to give some color on, you know, what the run-rate CapEx number would be for a year without any SPS work?
Firstly, I would say that we have some remaining CapEx from the SPSs, and we're looking at a range of $35 million - $40 million still remaining unpaid, which will influence our Q3 cash flow. In addition to that, as you can believe, there's always influence on CapEx levels, but we usually say that per rig, approximately $5 million of CapEx run rate year by year for periods outside the SPSs.
All right, that's super helpful. Congratulations on a very strong operational performance this quarter. Thank you. That's all.
Thank you. Thank you, Fredrik. Thank you.
It appears there are currently no further questions in the phone queue. With this, I'd like to hand the call back over to James for any webcast questions.
Thank you. I can see we've had quite a number of questions specifically on that point, namely how much CapEx is remaining and what sort of we can advise on that. As I said, Ørjan, you've given your view on that already. Perhaps we can answer this question, which has come through a few times. Could management comment on the contract length and discussions for 2027 contracts? Do customers want to continue shorter-term or medium-length contracts with further options? Is there an appetite for longer-term contracts?
Yeah, I would say that remains to be seen. I think all sort of outcomes are being discussed. It could be shorter, it could be longer. I won't be sort of conclusive on that one, but I think I can say that all aspects are being discussed, both shorter-term contracts, and with shorter, I mean typically a year, but also longer programs are on the table.
Great. Thank you very much. We've also had a question about our financial utilization this quarter, why it was slightly down from our typical, which is about 97% over a nine-year period. A quick answer on why financial utilization?
Yeah, I think that was the answer in the presentation as well, but it is due to the fact that we've included the off-fire for Deepsea Aberdeen when it was during its SPS.
Again, a similar question on new contracting opportunities, and how confident are you in announcing new contracts in 2025 for at least one of the rigs coming off contract in late 2026? Which rig do you expect to be contracted first?
I can say that we are confident that we will be able to announce something before year-end. Which will come first, that's a 50-50 outcome, I would say.
Good. Any changes in how management thinks about its capital allocation? Will you risk falling below one times net debt/EBITDA without any substantial dividend increases? Maybe a brief summary of how we see our capital allocation and then talk about maybe the net debt/EBITDA position.
Our target is to maintain a leverage ratio that de-risks our company towards any challenges in the future. Currently, we are returning as much capital as we believe is right for our business in the current stage. We have obviously been vocal about the outlook to possibly increase this going forward.
Great. A little bit of color, a little bit on how we see our dividends program and how we potentially intend to step that up and/or define our future dividend programs. Is there anything that we want to sort of talk about on our dividends that we can get across to our investors, I suppose?
You will always be able to find our dividend policy on our website. The board prefers to maintain flexibility regarding dividend levels and not to be bound by specific metrics the way it is currently. If you look at the history of how we communicated our dividend, we have started the dividend earlier than expected and have now increased it more than expected. I would say that this could potentially be a beginning of also further increase. Again, as I mentioned initially, the board prefers to maintain flexibility regarding dividend levels.
Great. As we always do get a question on M&A, is there any update on our position on M&A and how we see that and how we see pricing discussions between buyer and seller?
Yeah, M&A, no breaking news, but I can say that we still believe that there's room for consideration in this industry. I think that would make very much sense on a lot of metrics. We do want to be part of an active participant in those processes. What I can say is that we have looked at a lot. We have looked at various, and we have also been quite into detailed discussions. I would say so far, and from our side, we think that the price expectations from potential sellers have been too high, to be honest. We will not give up. As I said before, it's all about finding that right combo, the right asset quality with the right price and with a contract backlog to sort of match it. We will continue to see what we can do there.
We will be disciplined in that process, but remaining active, I would say.
Great. Thank you very much. I'll maybe take one or two more questions. It comes to running out a little bit on time. What are your thoughts on refinancing your bond and doing anything in that regard?
Firstly, I would say that we appreciate the interest in the bond, and we recognize that there's quite a bit of interest while bondholders look to be sitting on the position as is. With our first opportunity coming up this autumn in Q4, we are obviously looking at this, but we will look at this the way that we look at any opportunity. It needs to improve the position that we're in, also on a longer term. I guess that's something that we will come back to at a later stage.
Okay. We have one very quick question. Do you have any more downtime planned for your fleet? I think even I can answer that. The answer is no.
Absolutely not.
Not this year at all. I think we'll close the call in that case, and we'll sort of close the webcast as well. Thank you all again for joining and for your interest in the company. Our next conference call will be on the 6th of November. However, as always, if you'd like any more color on today's results, please do get in touch. I'll try and answer all the questions that have flown through to the Q&A post this call closing. Thank you very much.