Good morning, and welcome to the third quarter presentation of Solstad Offshore ASA. This presentation will be held by CFO Kjetil Ramstad and myself, CEO Lars Peder Solstad. And it has been a quarter with a very strong operational performance, high fleet utilization, and a continued positive market outlook. It is also the first time in many years that we will introduce dividends, as Solstad Maritime intends to initiate quarterly dividends from third quarter and onwards. All this I will come back to during this presentation. A quick look at the disclaimer before we move on to the third quarter highlights and update on the business. As mentioned, our fleet of thirty-nine vessels has had a strong utilization in the quarter, and also year to date.
This shows high demand for our services, which we also expect to continue going forward. EBITDA adjusted of NOK 328 million in Solstad Offshore and NOK 975 million in Solstad Maritime is a proof of improved commercial terms and solid operations. This also gives us confidence to deliver on the guided numbers for the full year for Solstad Maritime, and a positive adjustment to the full year for Solstad Offshore, to the Solstad Offshore guiding. On the contracting side, the quarter itself had few significant contracts, but we signed three contracts after quarter end, and we are in discussions for several more contracts that could materialize during this quarter.
We are about to finalize adjustment of our fleet, as our last vessel in layup has now been sold, and delivery to new owners will take place in first quarter next year. After this sale, the fleet consists of 26 subsea construction vessels and 13 anchor handlers, as well as a growing fleet of ROVs. We are very pleased to announce that the board of Solstad Maritime has suggested to initiate quarterly dividends and will seek shareholder approvals for 0.5 NOK per share for third quarter. By this, Solstad Maritime returns 233 million NOK to the shareholders in for the third quarter. Summons for EGM will be sent thirty-first October, and distribution date for the third quarter dividend will be on or about twenty-first November. More details will follow in the EGM summons.
If we take a look at the market, we continue to see a strong global offshore energy market in oil and gas and within renewable energies. The supply side, the coming years are more or less given, as the main part of the relatively limited list of new builds will be delivered from second part of 2026 and onwards. The tender activity continues to be high, and we are in final negotiations for several contracts at the moment that could materialize in the quarter. If I may highlight one geographical regions with many opportunities, I would like to mention Brazil. The major subsea contractors have huge ongoing projects for Petrobras and others, and they are bidding for more. This will give very high activity in the country going forward, and this will require more vessels that are suitable for ultra-deepwater projects.
This goes for pipe laying, subsea installation work, and for moorings and FPSO hookups. We also see the oil companies in Brazil are very active to increase their fleet, and at the moment, there are tenders in the market for several large anchor handling vessels and for ROV support vessels, all of them for long-term contracts. Brazil looks promising going forward, but to be able to participate, it is a necessity to have your own local setup with the right operational licenses and to be able to comply with the strict local content requirements. In Solstad, we have all this. Solstad Services, we continue to develop our service division.
Together with our partner, Omega Subsea, it enable us to provide a broader range of services to our clients in addition to the vessels itself. At the moment, we have four vessels we provide these services on, and this will increase to six vessels in the first half of next year as we take delivery of four new ROVs. Year to date, we have had around 900 million NOK in revenue from services, and with an EBITDA margin of about 23%, and this is on top of the margins we get on the time charter contracts. We have plans to develop the service segments further going forward, as this has been very well received by our clients, and we see many more market opportunities. And with that, I give the word to Kjetil, who will take a closer look at the numbers. Kjetil?
Thank you, Lars Peder. If we then start with Solstad Offshore. For third quarter, Solstad Offshore had a utilization of 97% for its vessels and 96% year to date. Operating income for third quarter was 766 million NOK and year to date 2.3 billion NOK. Operating result before depreciation in the quarter was 375 million NOK, which is an improvement compared to last quarter. EBITDA adjusted of 203 million NOK. By this, we also have adjusting our EBITDA guidance up to between 1 and 1.2 billion NOK.
As you know, in the EBITDA adjusted numbers, we have assumed that the IFRS 16 leases are booked as operational leases, which means that we are adjusting the adjusted EBITDA with negatively NOK 208 million in the quarter. To be consistent on the debt side, we are also adjusting the net interest-bearing debt with a reduction of NOK 2.9 billion. You see that more in the graph on the right-hand side. So, the net interest-bearing debt over EBITDA multiple is at 1.8. Result before taxes, 191 million NOK, in the third quarter is good.
Cash increased to the quarter-end of the third quarter to 629 million NOK. Equity in Solstad Offshore is at 2 billion NOK, giving an equity ratio of 22%. Net interest-bearing debt in the financials or the interest-bearing debt in the financials are 5.1 billion NOK. However, if we adjust the NIB, the net interest-bearing debt with the adjustment of, it will be 2.2 billion NOK. And that needs to be done to compare it with the EBITDA adjusted numbers of 328.
Solstad Offshore has very limited amortization over the next three years, with all facilities being refinanced to 2027. In Brazil, the company is performing better than planned, and we are paying down the debt faster than planned. We have a firm backlog of NOK 4.3 billion. We'll come back to that on the next slide. The Solstad backlog, as you see, we have a firm backlog of NOK 4.3 billion, with some additions that Lars Peder mentioned in Brazil for two vessels. Solstad Offshore backlog always also include backlog for Solstad Maritime, for the vessels that Solstad Maritime is utilizing in Brazil.
Backlog for the seven owned and controlled vessel in Solstad Offshore is 1.5 billion NOK. Most of the Solstad Offshore backlog has been added the recent year, meaning that the quality of the backlog in Solstad Offshore is good. With the backlog additions last week, we are close to 100% sold out, if you look at the vessel days available in Solstad Offshore. However, in 2026, 2027, we have more room to secure backlog at the current market terms. Then, if we move over to Solstad Maritime, also high utilization for the quarter, with 89% for the Solstad Maritime vessels.
And it applies to both the anchor handling segment and the CSV segment. The operating income for third quarter was NOK 1.6 billion and giving an EBITDA adjusted of NOK 975 million. That is an EBITDA margin of 60% for the quarter. As communicated before, we expect that second half of 2012 will be stronger than first half. We are also in Solstad Maritime on track to meet the guidance for 2024. In the EBITDA adjusted numbers, we also in Solstad Maritime adjust the IFRS 16 leases, meaning that we then have some add backs into EBITDA for leases being operational.
And the add back is net NOK 68 million positive in the quarter. The results before taxes in the third quarter was 640 million for Solstad Maritime. Backlog of NOK 7.9 billion with one award on Normand Cutter after the quarter end with good margins. Book equity at NOK 7.1 billion giving an equity ratio of 41%. The net interest-bearing debt in the financials are NOK 6.5 billion. This give an average net debt per vessel of 203 for the 32 vessels in the Solstad Maritime fleet. Cash has increased in the quarter from NOK 1.5 billion to NOK 2.3 billion.
On the maritime fleet loan of NOK 8.7 billion, there is a repayment schedule of approximately NOK 1.4 billion on a yearly basis for the next three years, with then a repayment or refinancing in 2027. Then if we go to the backlog on Solstad Maritime, as you can see at the left-hand side, the firm backlog is at NOK 7.9 billion, and 15.3 if you also include the options. A large part of the backlog has been added after the market upturn has started. But however, there is still vessels that are working on legacy contracts, with potential for higher earnings going forward. In 2026, most of the legacy contracts have come to an end. So that's the opportunity comes there.
Yeah, in 2024, 81 of the available vessel days has been booked, and that is quite high, taking into consideration the spot vessels that we have in the North Sea for anchor handling. For 2025 to 2027, we have a good combination of firm backlog and availability, and also there to add more backlog in today's strong market. The book-to-bill year to date in Solstad Maritime is at 1.7. And with that, I hand over to you, Lars Peder, to summarize.
Thank you, Kjetil. To summarize the third quarter presentation for the company, I will say that this has been a strong quarter with a very high utilization and earnings, and the market outlook continued to be good. We added $50 million to our backlog recently, and more are expected to follow near term. Solstad Services overperformed our expectations and will have revenue this year of well over NOK 1 billion, and together with our partner, Omega, we will continue to develop services further. And finally, we are very happy to announce quarterly dividend payment from Solstad Maritime of 0.5 kroner per share for the third quarter, and this is a milestone for the company, and for its shareholders.
We lift our EBITDA guidance for the full year to NOK 1.0-NOK 1.2 billion for Solstad Offshore, and we keep the guiding of NOK 3.3-NOK 3.5 billion for Solstad Maritime. By that, we say thank you for listening in, and we move over to Q&A.
Okay, then the first question: Can you say anything about the listing of Solstad Maritime Holding and when that will take place?
There are still the same time schedule. We have had as earlier that we are within second quarter of 2025. The plan is to list Solstad Maritime, and there are no further updates on that.
Thank you. On Frontier has been working the whole year of 2024, but there is not announced anything going forward. What is the status on Frontier going forward?
Normand Frontier has been working in the Mediterranean lately with the vessel, yes, but also with the full set of services on board, including ROVs, et cetera. We continue to do so. We haven't signed any long-term agreement on the vessel, but we continue to work also for the coming quarters in the same area as we are today.
The anchor handling market in the North Sea looks to be weak going forward. Can you comment on if there is any project work planned, or what is the expectation for the company?
On our anchor handling fleet, we have the combination of vessels working long-term in Brazil, long-term in Australia, and we have the, call it, the spot/project fleet in the North Sea. On the North Sea fleet, the market is as mentioned. It has been a weak start of October. Having said that, going from maybe 10 available vessels Monday morning to 0 available vessels Tuesday morning is what we have seen now. That just describes how the spot market is. It changes very quickly. We think that there will still be quite some activity going forward during the winter. We are bidding actively on project work.
We will very likely secure some project work, and we are also looking at long-term opportunities for the vessels in other regions. I would say it's... On long term, I see I'm very positive and optimistic for the anchor handling fleet, especially interesting is the project market.
Thank you. And, another question on Solstad Services. We have said that we expect a turnover of around NOK 1 billion in 2024. What is the company's ambition for this segment going forward?
As Solstad Services has been very well received by our clients. We have a very strong partner with us that we share the ambition to develop service segment going forward. We are already moving into 2025. We will have four more ROVs coming that we will mobilize onto our vessels. We look at growing the segment going forward. We are not planning on being a subsea contractor.
We are still gonna be a ship-owning company, but we add on services on a day rate basis, on top of what we already have, and that has proven to be a good niche in the market, and we will continue to develop that in the same manner as we do today.
Thank you. Another market question now on Solstad Offshore specific. With almost two out of three anchor handlers in Solstad Offshore firmed up through twenty twenty-five. We have a question on Normand Maximus and Installer. Could you elaborate what you see the opportunities are for those vessel in twenty-five?
Yeah. It's, of course, it's very important vessels for the companies, both of them. And on Normand Installer first, that is a joint venture we had with SBM Offshore, that we have had for twenty years or more. And the vessel is kept busy. We have had a very good utilization on the vessel this year. It's also in between projects right now, but moving on to next project very very soon, and will have a busy twenty twenty-five as well.
We have a vessel that we own together with the client, and we have a long-term view on that vessel and on the joint partnership with SBM. Looking at the Normand Maximus, she is busy on projects in Brazil. She will work in Brazil for most of twenty twenty-five, and we are in several discussions on what's gonna happen after that. But one of the best vessels in the market, we see that there are demand for that type of services, no concern of the chartering opportunities after the present contract.
Thank you, and then the next question, Saipem said last week that oil companies are now paying booking fees in 2027 and 2028 to secure capacity. Are you seeing similar trends in offshore and subsea?
Well, we have seen that, we have actually seen that, that the clients are willing to a certain extent to make sure that they have access to vessels, let's say, with the commencement a bit ahead. We see that the. I think that is a consequence of that, that both the ship owning side and the chartering side see that, especially on the bigger vessels, the most, let's say, the most sophisticated vessels, we see that there will probably be a shortage going forward. And, and there are ways of working around that, and one is to secure the vessel long term.
The other one is to see what other things can the client do to secure tonnage, and one of them is to pay a booking fee. So I think we will see both going forward.
Yeah. And then to Australia. It seems that you have limited coverage for the anchor handling fleet in Australia for 2025. How do you see the opportunities for long-term work in Australia and the region?
Mm-hmm. Australia is an area where we have four vessels operating there at the moment, anchor handling vessels. And you're right, we have the contract coverage for 2025 is quite open. But we see that. I mean, there are rigs with the drilling program that is already there. We have discussions ongoing with our clients, and we see that we believe that we will be able to keep those vessels in the region, and secure healthy contracts for the vessels. Yeah, we are working on several of those opportunities at the moment.
Mm-hmm. And then general questions on supply and demand. How do you see that picture overall going forward? Will we have the same demand in services from Solstad going forward?
I mean, on the supply demand, if you mean by the link to the new building activity?
No, more the link to the project side of services that clients would like to have from us.
Yeah, I mean, I think we are. It's very busy now. There's a high demand for our services. I don't see that demand will be reduced going forward, more the opposite. We see that many of the, let's say, the deepwater regions are very active. Brazil is, as I mentioned in the presentation, very active. We see Guyana continuing to grow. We see the African countries, there is a lot to do there, and also probably the North Sea will be busy for at least the next couple of years, so. And other places as well.
I don't see the demand for our services will change negatively at all.
And then there is a question about the leasing liabilities. We see that there is quite some leasing liabilities between the companies. Can you elaborate and if this is the level going forward?
That's more a question for you, I guess.
I can answer that.
Uh.
And more, if you look at the leasing liabilities, the main leasing liabilities between the companies is, of course, the Normand Maximus that goes from Solstad Maritime to Solstad Offshore. And that is on a long-term charter to 2027, so that will gradually decrease. And then we have the Brazil leases, where Solstad Maritime rent out vessels to Solstad Offshore, to utilize the Brazilian setup. And the leasing amount of that will depend on how many vessels is being leased through Solstad Offshore on Brazilian projects. Then we have a question on backlog.
We see that the long-term backlog from 2028 and onwards is almost only renewables. How do you see this picture of long-term backlog play out in the coming period?
I think that is. I mean, we have been fortunate enough to work closely with one of the bigger and or some of the bigger operators within renewable energy. The nature of their business is that they already have a good overview of their activity into the 2030s. By that, they secure capacity by hiring services from us. So that's more the nature of that business, is that it's long term, and they have a good overview of future activity. So that's why we have the renewable energy activity increasing and booked long term after 2030.
On the more oil and gas-related, it's. We are working a lot on the project side. We are working with clients that are oil companies, where we see that they are typically booking, especially in Brazil, for three to four years. So from commencement now, that will take us maybe to 2027, 2028. While working more directly on the project side, there's more shorter-term contracts or not as long as three, four years normally. So I think it's quite natural, but I think that we have that difference.
But I will also say that we now have a quite good overview of twenty twenty-five already in terms of backlog and more than we normally have. And as we also stated in the presentation, is that we expect to increase that backlog for twenty-five in fourth quarter. I believe we will go into twenty-five with a quite healthy combination of secured contracts and also some availability to book in profitable work for shorter term.
Thank you. And then, we have the last question for today. Should we expect the current level of quarterly dividends going forward?
We have announced a quarterly dividend of NOK 0.5 per share today, and that is for the third quarter. We believe we will be able to continue on the same level also for fourth quarter. And then we'll see how we take that further thereafter. But the plan is to have quarterly dividends from Solstad Maritime, and to... Yeah, we have just started, and we would like to continue on that also going forward.
Thank you. That was all the questions.
Thanks for listening in, and have a good day.