Good morning, and welcome to this presentation of the first quarter of 2022 for Reach Subsea ASA. My name is Jostein Alendal, and I'm the CEO of the company, and with me is CFO Birgitte Wendelbo Johansen. Our report was released earlier this morning together with the material for this presentation, and as usual, this webcast of our quarterly presentations gives you the opportunity to submit questions through the webcast player during and after the presentation. Please do so, and we will answer in the Q&A session. Before moving to the quarter, this first quarter, let me remind you that the company has changed a lot during this winter. In addition to our day-to-day business, we are in a time of investments and the shaping of the long-term future. Let's start with slide number three.
In this quarter, there are three very specific reasons for the decline in results compared to last year. I will quickly comment, and Birgitte will, of course, go through the numbers and details later. Firstly, as you may know, we have increased our capacity on fixed charters for this year, but it was quite annoying to end up with a very low utilization for some of our vessels in the weak North Sea spot market. Over the years, we have found work in other regions in this period, but not this year. Note also that the charter agreements we have this year are on a full year basis and not pay-as-you-go as we had a couple of last year.
On the good side though, the rates we have are highly competitive, and we have secured good capacity, which means that we are well-positioned for the expected strong market development further into this year. Secondly, a one-off, the newly acquired OCTIO had an operating loss. This is a seasonal effect, normal and expected for OCTIO at this point of time. Historically, their activity was concentrated in the summer season, mostly serving their previous owner, Equinor. That said, they already experienced significant tender activities across the globe, and we expect to bring the business into profits in very near future. Finally, it is costly to buy companies. We had significant due diligence and transaction costs related to the acquisition of iSURVEY. That said, I see all these factors as investments, and I'm confident it will give good payback over time.
Let us move over to the latest major events this winter, and I will try to illustrate what we are in the start of building up. Yes, I mean start of because we have a strong commitment to build something big, and I hope I can describe the direction we are going with the parts we now have put together. Which leads me to slide number four. This winter has been the most eventful and busy in our history. Hectic, but let me add, inspiring. We have acquired iSURVEY, we have integrated OCTIO and MonViro, we have entered into a new strategic partnership with Wilhelmsen New Energy, and finally, we spent a lot of time preparing for the signing of the contract with Kongsberg Maritime to build the first two Reach Remote USVs. The actual signing happened just before Easter holiday.
All in all, this means that we have put together a series of very, very important building blocks for shaping the Reach Subsea of the future. With the brilliant people of OCTIO, MonViro, and iSURVEY, we have deepened our technology competence, data management, and analytic capabilities, and also expanded our value chain. The operational synergies are very strong as we have worked these several years already, and together we have a strong focus on the inspection and survey side. In short, collecting data subsea, make a digital twin, and provide the client with accurate reports. Our joint expertise lies also in planning of complete offshore operations, choosing the right tools for the job, and sometimes invent some new ones, but also putting the right teams together. Today, we are 230 employees, and I wish all our new colleagues welcome on board.
We have an exciting journey ahead with more and more complex subsea work and operations worldwide. The partnership with Wilhelmsen New Energy set us up with a global industrial partner with long experience and a solid credibility when it comes to high technology offshore operations. We could not imagine a better partner than Wilhelmsen for the rollout of the Reach Remote. To summarize, we now have the setup and the foundation to realize our vision of being a world leading provider of subsea data and solutions for any and all offshore asset owners. We also have the right starting point and building blocks for the robotic future. Who's buying our services now and in the future? I have tried to illustrate on slide number five.
We have worked for most of the major international energy companies, both for their oil and gas installations and also their offshore wind farms. All of our services, equipment, methods, and procedures are developed for the oil and gas sector, and we take these highest standards of safety with us as we broaden our services to the other sectors. The oil and gas sector is expected to remain stable for many years to come as the requirement for regular inspection, maintenance, and repair will be there until decommissioning. Offshore wind is set to see enormous growth in the coming years. We have all seen the global plans, and we already find a good portion of work in that segment, both in the early seabed mapping before installation and regular inspections on existing wind farms. Offshore cables, one of iSURVEY's core business areas, is another growth area.
Numerous of cables will be laid in the coming years and going forward. We are here an important partner for survey, installation, and maintenance. Also, fish farming is moving further offshore to deeper waters, yet another type of offshore installations, and subsea mining will come in the future with really exciting subsea work. We should also add reservoir monitoring and especially CO2 storage as an emerging sector where OCTIO's technology and expertise is in the forefront. Finally, it is also important to mention the increasing ocean awareness around the globe. We will find new clients in the ocean environmental surveillance segment with our future unmanned robotic marine technology. If you move to slide number six, the world map illustrates where we are located today, including the newly acquired businesses. In Norway, we are located in Haugesund, Bergen, and Oslo.
One good thing the pandemic has taught us all is that we can be very efficient even being on different locations. Connectivity and remote operations also onshore, so to speak. The integration of the companies is well on track, and we are now looking very much forward to bring our joint technology and expertise out to our full network of clients worldwide. Also with iSURVEY, we now have offices in Singapore and Aberdeen, two important hubs for further expansion, not only for our traditional services, but also, in the long term, with Reach Remote as a clear ambition. Our guys in Houston and Trinidad also have to be mentioned, always ready for instant business, but at the same time, heavily engaged in paving the way for the robotic future.
As mentioned, OCTIO's tender activity is now global and very high, stretching from Australia to Brazil and Guyana in South America, with also big opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Mediterranean. We are constantly seeking next geographical expansion, and most likely next steps will be Brazil and Australia, and most likely with, together with local partners. To put this into the big picture, the context, we will invest in people and robotics. In the closer picture, as we have indicated earlier, we experience a stabilizing and improving market for subsea services globally and higher demand for offshore vessels. This leads me into some short comments on our fleet on slide number seven. Our fleet for this year is shown here. Although we are moving towards marine operations by robotics, we still need manned vessels for many years to come.
On the Viking Neptun, where we have two [W ROVs Support] , the spread is fully booked into fourth quarter, and the vessel itself will not go through our P&L this year. Havila Subsea and the three Olympic vessels, Challenger, Artemis, and Delta, is on our charter and goes through our P&L. The vessel is on charter with MMT and will go through our P&L on a project-to-project basis under the cooperation agreement we still have with MMT. Since we are very market-oriented, we also expand the fleet on a project-to-project basis, of course, given the right specifications and economics. An example is Olympic Sirius, which we have on a project now in second quarter. Again, the global market for offshore vessels are tightening up, and we have to maneuver in a rising market for the coming years.
The cost of vessels, fuel, personnel, and offshore operations as a whole will increase steadily for a long period. Imagine then the increasing gap in cost between marine robotics and the manned vessels. The business case is just getting better and better, which naturally leads me to next slide, number eight. I have already talked about Reach Remote many times. As many of you know, I'm extremely excited about this project. This is definitely the future unmanned vessels alone or together with manned vessels working on all oceans. The impact on future offshore operations will be massive, both in terms of environmental and climate impact, as well as cost. To recap, Reach Subsea has worked with this for the past years in cooperation with Kongsberg Maritime and Massterly. A safe and sustainable solution which dramatically lowering operational cost and the environmental footprint of our operations.
There are today endless numbers of subsea operations that could and also should be done with the remotely operated vessels. For example, if the Reach Remote USVs had been available today, some 50% of our work could have been done with these unmanned vessels. Another very good example is the OCTIO operations, a single sensor transported to the seabed far out in the ocean. Our slogan says it all, "Go green with marine robotics." The impact on CapEx, OpEx and CO2 emissions are pretty drastic. More than 90% reduction in emission compared to a manned vessel.
No personnel risk with the offshore operations, and not at least this significant reduction in the cost of subsea operations, which leads us to expect a boom in the market for collecting data subsea as the total cost is then becoming more and more affordable for a wider range of clients. Where do we stand on the Reach Remote project today? Next slide, number nine, sums it up. It is extremely good to have all these parts of the puzzle in place. As I said in the start, it has been a very hectic winter, and we have done the necessary mitigating actions to get our supply chain comfort to 100%. Post-pandemic effects and the current effects of war still do create some challenges, but I'm confident that we and our suppliers have this under control as possible.
Signing a contract with Kongsberg Maritime for the two USVs for delivery next year is in place, and they will be built at Trosvik Yard in Norway. We have also ordered two ROVs specially built for long endurance with the choice design of our local ROV manufacturer, so to speak, here in Haugesund. As we have said before, Massterly, our bridge and navigator, is on track with their operational center in Horten and are already in operation with the Yara Birkeland and further on with the ASKO vessels later this year. They will be well up and running and ready for our USVs next year. We are also on track with our remote operational center in Haugesund. To summarize, we are very pleased to have this on track. Again, the future business case is getting better and better. With this, I will give the word over to Birgitte for some numbers on this quarter.
Thanks, Jostein. Good morning, everyone. Just a reminder before we start, should you have any questions to our presentation, you can submit those on the webcast while we speak. Looking at slide 11, last fall and winter season 2022 has been, as Jostein said, focusing on securing assets and our capacity to grow in what we believe is an emerging subsea market. The purchase of OCTIO Group and Subsea Group is part of our long-term strategy, more than financially benefiting from day one. Please note that OCTIO Group figures are fully consolidated into our accounts as per March 31st. As the iSURVEY transaction was closed towards the end of the quarter, our P&L is not affected by those figures yet. As per March 31st , the balance sheet is fully consolidated, showing Reach, OCTIO and iSURVEY altogether.
The turnover in the first quarter 2022 was substantially higher than the first quarters previous years, due to a higher number of sold days for ROV, offshore personnel and vessels. Revenue was NOK 129 million, compared to NOK 102 million last year. The first quarter was, however, more than last year, a traditional winter season with a few elements unfortunately influencing our EBIT in a negative direction. Total comprehensive income ended at -NOK 35 million compared to NOK 11 million last year. On the positive side, our order book figure is all-time high. NOK 350 million is for firm projects counting from this April into next year. Of this figure, about NOK 200 million is from, call it, all Reach isolated and the rest is OCTIO and iSURVEY.
It's important to see this picture also together with our balance sheet. We now have an even stronger position with a high equity share and solid liquidity, combined with the right assets for our cornerstone operation. Let's look into the details of what lies behind the figures on slide 12, please. First, an overview. The first quarter revenue was, as mentioned, NOK 129 million compared to NOK 102 million the same period last year. First quarter EBIT was - NOK 38 million compared to NOK 12 million last year. Pre-tax profit in the quarter was -NOK 44 million compared to NOK 11 million in 2021. The reason for the decrease is threefold. Firstly, there are some effects in our figures this year that we did not have last year.
Transaction costs for the iSURVEY purchase and OCTIO's EBIT amounted to almost NOK 16 million. Secondly, our vessel utilization was lower. We had 63% in the first quarter 2022 compared to 96% last year. As mentioned, we have secured assets on firm commitment, which did not fulfill our expectations in the first quarter. Thirdly, our project results were actually weaker. I'll come back to the details on my next slides. Reach purchased OCTIO and iSURVEY as part of a long-term strategy, and this strategy is to increase shareholder value by securing assets and manifest our position in our main and core markets, and this may take some time, at least more than a quarter. We are confident that this strategy will be well adopted by our clients. Integration has already started, and we are bidding for and also winning work together.
Our activity within the non-oil and gas segment varies over the quarters, as we always intend to prioritize utilization. In the first quarter, our revenue was strongly driven by projects in the oil and gas market, resulting in only 25% of the turnover representing renewables and other. We have an ESG target of increasing the level of project days, which is a number related to activity more than turnover, to 50%. This is ambitious, in particular with the renewed strength in the oil and gas sector, but we still aim to achieve this target, the coming 12 months. Over to slide 13. The devil is in the details as always. We have a new slide this quarter to try to illustrate to our analysts the bridge from last year's EBIT to this year's EBIT.
Starting with the figure to the left and an EBIT of -NOK 38 million. Let me try to explain what this consists of by carving out the elements that were not part of our figure's first quarter last year. First, NOK 9 million is related to the transaction cost from the acquisition of iSURVEY, as well as costs related to our newly established option program for employees. Then NOK 7 million is a negative EBIT contribution from OCTIO. Not unusual for that type of business this time of the year, but was not part of our P&L last year. The rest, the green bar of NOK 22 million, is Reach business as we know it. Moving on to the year-on-year EBIT bridge on the right-hand side. EBIT last year was NOK 12 million in the first quarter.
The gap to -NOK 22 million, which we recognize from the green bar in the left chart, is NOK 34 million. We need to dig into our project calculations to analyze the comparative effects of the Reach business isolated. Looking at the project results, we see that excluding the non-utilization, our project results were actually also a bit lower than last year. NOK 7 million to be exact. Again, not unusual for this time of the year. Remember that last year we highlighted that we had a few particularly good projects given the season in the first quarter. The cost from non-utilization was NOK 26 million, representing the highest contribution to our negative results. The low utilization is explained by a combination of higher vessel commitment and a poor spot and short-term market.
We had our vessels located in the North Sea this winter, where the demand turned out to be less than expected, while last year we succeeded winning work in less harsh condition areas. In total, I hope this explains the deviation from the last quarter. Let's move on to slide 14. As we have presented to the market, we have quite substantial growth plans with the Reach Remote. We have a strong balance sheet, and we have delivered to our shareholders with paying dividend according to the policy. It's an important signal to the market that Reach intends to both grow and fulfill our dividend policy in parallel. With the new capital raised in the first quarter, we now have a cash and working capital position of well above NOK 300 million and limited, almost no financial debt, at least for the time being.
As said earlier, we have ordered two USVs, the Reach Remote, with ROVs, representing an investment of NOK 400 million, of which external financing is expected to cover about half. Let's move on to sustainability on slide 15. We continue to report quarterly on our sustainability targets and presented our third full year report a month ago for 2021. We have ESG targets within environment, being a responsible employer in all parts of the world and always doing business a responsible way. We started our full sustainability reporting to the market in 2019, partly based on the United Nations sustainability goals and also the GRI standards, which we have adjusted to fit our business model. We've kept most of the KPIs relatively unchanged.
Some adaptations to our business and various expectations with our KPIs should be quite easy to follow and measure. As some of our ESG targets includes campaigns and other actions, and it's still early in the year, quite a few are still orange. We have the intention to end up with a green mark on all our boxes and then be meeting our KPIs for the year. I hand the word back to Jostein for a summary.
Thanks to Birgitte, and I will summarize with the last slide, number 17, which gives an overview of how we are positioned to create value for all stakeholders going forward. Our 10+ years of spotless operational execution combined with our global customer network we have today gives us a really short way to market with new technology. Whereas we have conducted subsea operations by robotics for decades, doing full marine operation by robotics is completely new and gives us a huge advantage and a growth potential. We will continue to stay in the forefront in terms of technology and have a clear ambition of being at the very top worldwide when it comes to unmanned operations. The future market will be endless, so the first two units are just the start of this journey.
With Wilhelmsen as a new strategic partner, let us now confidently take this long-term approach and further create value for all our stakeholders. Going forward, on one side we will grow further organic in a rising offshore market, and at present we are recruiting more dedicated personnel both in Norway, U.K., and in the U.S. Basically continue to build the company brick by brick. On the other side, we will still continue looking at M&A opportunities and cooperation partners in other geographical areas. That will add value to our business, not only to fit our expertise and operations today, but for sure also fit our robotic future. All in all, we have put together some very, very important building blocks and can take the next step for tomorrow. That concludes our presentation, and we can now go over to the Q&A session.
Yeah, we have a few questions, the first one is regarding the cost related to the growth that we've had. The question is, do we expect that all costs related to the transaction has been covered in Q1? The answer to that is, yes. We absolutely plan to make this investment grow and of course give a positive profits throughout the year for our invested investments. Now there's a question about the rates. What do we see in the market? Of course we don't guide, but we can say something about the market. [crosstalk] Yeah.
Comment on that?
Yeah.
Yeah, we see a rising market. The rates are going up, and I think for the next five to six years we will see a steadily rising market, so that's a good sign.
Yep. Now there's a question about the USVs. Do we expect them to be ready for the summer season?
The summer season 2023, they will be ready in September 2023, so the summer season next year is not there. We have the fantastic winter season which we then can stretch the limits of the equipment, so that's gonna be exciting next year.
Yep, there's another question. What's the projected contribution from OCTIO in second and third quarter? Given that Q1 performance was expected, what's the projected CapEx there scheduled for the Reach Remote? Yeah, there's a few projects. We can start with the OCTIO. Of course, we expect, as I said, our investments to give positive return. Whether that will happen in the second, third quarter or into 2023 is a little early to say, but they have quite high order book and the prospects for at least a good season is absolutely there.
The projected CapEx schedule for Reach Remote, the total CapEx is about NOK 400 million for both units, and there are milestone payments during the building period. That's the answer to the question. Do you expect any contribution from Reach Remote in 2023, 2024, given your outlook comments about providing a remote and autonomous platform in 2025? Well, the vessels will be delivered late 2023, so that might be a little bit early but, of course, we expect the USVs to be part of our profitable projects already from the first year after, so that means 2024.
Yeah.
We have in our calculations room for having the USVs working together with another vessel, the first years, so there's security in the calculations in that respect. What's the current day rate level for a vessel that Reach Remote is going to compete against once delivered?
Ah.
If you can say something about that, Jostein.
Yeah. As I said, the rates for the manned vessels will go up the coming six to seven years and the gap between the Reach Remote is then also gonna increase. It's hard to say what is the future vessel rates, but the gap will definitely be larger.
I think that was it.
Yeah. I think that was the questions, and I think we have used up our time. Thank you all for tuning in, and we see you next quarter.