Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the first quarter presentation for Solstad Maritime. Today's presentation will be held by Kjetil Ramstad , CFO, and myself, CEO, Lars Pede r Solstad. Today we will walk you through Solstad Maritime's results for the first quarter of 2026, and the main message from us today is a strong operational execution, improved earnings and increased financial flexibility. We will come back to all this during the presentation. If you have any questions, please send them in in the chat, and we will answer in the Q and A session after the presentation. A quick look at the disclaimer before we move on to the highlights of the quarter for the company. As I said, Solstad Maritime delivered a solid operational and financial performance in the quarter.
We had the improved utilization on our fleet, and we also had higher day rates across the fleet. Adjusted EBITA came in at $103 million for the quarter, which is up from $82 million in the same quarter last year. The order intake was around $177 million, giving a book-to-bill ratio of one time, providing good earning visibility the coming years. After the quarter end, we also signed two new term contracts for CSVs, the Normand Jarstein , as we reported a few days ago for operation in the Mediterranean for two years, and the Normand Fortress , two new two year contract with Petrobras in Brazil.
We have also signed important medium-term contracts for CSVs that I will come back to later in the presentation. Importantly, we have also after quarter end reached an agreement with the lenders on a new $100 million incremental financing strengthened our financial flexibility. Based on this, we distribute the cash dividend for first quarter of $0.086 per share, an increase from $0.032 the previous quarter. Kjetil will now take us through some of the key financial highlights for the quarter.
Thank you, Lars Peder. If we start with the financial and operational summary, the first quarter of the year had a utilization of 84%, significant improvement from 78% the same quarter last year. The high utilization of the quarter was mainly driven by the spot anchor handler market in the North Sea, and better utilization for the overall CSV fleet. This resulted in operating income of $180 million for the first quarter versus $146 million last year. Adjusted EBITA for the first quarter was record high for Solstad Maritime with $103 million. Compared to last year, Adjusted EBITA has improved with $22 million or 26%.
The net result for the quarter was NOK 70 million compared to NOK 48 million in Q1 last year. Booked equity at the end of first quarter was NOK 933 million, up from NOK 802 million last year, reflecting an increase of more than NOK 130 million and giving an equity ratio of 55%. Book equity has increased by the net result in the period offset by dividends paid to shareholders. Cash position at the quarter end was NOK 96 million versus NOK 195 million last year.
The main reason for the lower cash position is dividend payments for 2025, and cash from operations in Q1 and 2025 has been offset by working capital movements and dividends paid to shareholders. Adjusted net interest-bearing debt was NOK 539 million at first quarter end, down from NOK 576 last year. Adjusted net interest-bearing debt over long term EBITDA was 1.7 times at the quarter end. The firm backlog of NOK 1.1 billion versus NOK 814 last year, which is an increase of approximately 38%.
If we move to the next slide, as Lars mentioned, we have secured some incremental financing, and giving our decreasing leverage and solid earning visibility. We have over some time been exploring several sources of additional financing. Which will provide the flexibility and structure that we have been looking for. We are now happy to announce that we continue to build on the excellent relationship that we have with our existing lenders in Solstad Maritime and have agreed a new term sheet for an additional loan facility of $100 million. This strengthens the balance sheet of the company and gives the company the financial flexibility it needs. The new incremental financing have a final maturity in December 2028.
Repayments of NOK 50 million within December 2027 and the final, as mentioned, in December 2028. The terms of the financing will be similar to the fleet loan for the group and will not incur any changes to covenants. The agreement is subject to final documentation and before the agreement enters into effect and is expected within second quarter this year. If we move to dividends for the first quarter, as mentioned earlier in the presentation, the company has decided to increase dividends in the first quarter to $40 million or $0.086 per share.
The dividend will be paid in NOK. The NOK amount will be announced prior to the payment, which is expected on or about the 21st of May. Key dates for the first quarter dividend. Last day right to receive dividend, 15th of May, and then the ex-date, 18th of May, record date, 19th of May, and distribution date on or about the 21st of May. With that, I give it back to you, Lars Peder.
Yeah, thanks, Kjetil. If we take a closer look at the market and how we, how we see it now, first of all, we see that the demand in the offshore energy market remains positive. If we look at the various segments we are, we are in, start with the anchor handling segment, the anchor handling market has been strong, driven by a busy North Sea market, also a solid demand from the global project market. This has also continued into second quarter.
In Solstad, we have an active approach towards the project market, and we have secured more than 200 vessel days of work within the project market for execution in second and third quarter this year for our North Sea anchor handling spot fleet. In addition to that, our only anchor handler with market exposure in Australia has also secured a 90-day contract that has already started, which gives or secures a good utilization for the fleet in that region as well. If we look at the CSV segment, the demand remains, I mean, the market is okay.
The demand is mostly from, let's say, project-based, but we also see some long-term opportunities. We have reported two long-term contracts after quarter end, with Normand Fortress continuing in Brazil with two more years with Petrobras, and the Normand Jarstein recently announced for an LOI for an IMR contract in the Mediterranean Black Sea region. Here we will also provide ROVs and other services. In addition, we managed to extend the present contract we have for Normand Energy by eight months on in West Africa, which is then bridging the period until the vessel starts on a new five year contract with the Prysmian in first quarter of 2027.
On the more project-related work, we have had the Normand Navigator working on projects in Brazil in first quarter, and the vessel will now soon start to mobilize for her term contract that we have recently announced that that contract will commence in June. We have relocated the Normand Cutter from Brazil to Europe. She will then go through her main class to do maintenance, and we will also mobilize on board our own ROVs from Omega Subsea. She will thereafter go on to a couple of months contract that we have signed in the North Sea. We've also got an extension for the CSV Normand Pioneer in Brazil.
That contract has been extended for further three, four months. We have relocated the Normand Mermaid from Brazil to the North Sea, where she recently came off a contract and now demobilizing and are presently uncommitted. There are several opportunities for the vessel. Lastly, in Asia, we had the Normand Australis fixed on a new four, five month contract within renewable energy segment in the region. We have done quite a lot of, let's say, project-related medium-term contracts during the quarter. Geographically, we continue to see strongest demand from South America, from West Africa, and from the North Sea.
If we have a, let's say as a fleet update, we are doing planned maintenance on three of our CSVs in Q2. As previously announced, we have sold the Normand Clipper, and the vessel will be delivered to new owners in June this year. If we then move over to the backlog and earnings visibility, we see that our contract or our backlog continues to provide good earnings visibility. The backlog is about $1.1 billion for the firm period. We had a book-to-bill of 1 time during Q1. As already mentioned, we have signed sizable contracts also in Q2.
More importantly is that the current backlog has an order for the remainder of 2026 and for 2027 combined, we have an EBITDA margin of about 68%. In numbers, we have that equals to about $500 million in EBITDA combined for the years 2026 and 2027. That is already in our books. Overall, the backlog gives us a good visibility for the years forward.
If we then take a look at the outlook, and also on the guiding for the remainder of the year, and based on a strong start to the year, we have narrowed our adjusted EBITDA guidance for the year by lifting the lower end from $30 million to $340 million U.S. dollars. The CapEx guidance for the year remains at the same level as before, and significantly lower than we had in 2025, which was an extraordinary year in terms of vessel upgrades and main class renewals. The sale of the Normand Clipper is reflected in the vessel sale proceeds, with an associated debt repayment in scheduled debt amortization.
The illustrative free cash flow bridge, as you see to the right, highlights the attractive free cash flow generation of the business based on the midpoint of the existing guiding and excludes the effect of the incremental financing of $100 million that Kjetil just described. Our dividend policy remains unchanged. We intend to distribute the majority of annual free cash flow to equity through quarterly dividends. To summarize, we have had a strong quarter with solid operational and financial performance. We have had a robust order intake, a high activity, and we see a positive market outlook for both the anchor handler and the CSV segments.
Our newly announced incremental financing strengthens our financial flexibility, and we continue our shareholder friendly approach by increasing the dividend. We plan to distribute also dividend based on our free cash flow also in the quarters to come. By that, this concludes our presentation, and we move over to Q and A. Kjetil, if you have some.
Yeah. We have some questions. First one regarding the 200 days of project work in the North Sea for the anchor handling fleet. Can you please provide some insight into the projects and location of these projects?
It's, I mean, it's most of them are mooring related, or all of them are mooring related. It's a combination of projects in the North Sea and in West Africa. That is the I think that is the, what I can sort of disclose at this point.
Thank you. There is a question about Normand Jarstein letter of award, of intent. Seeing that the boat is already on its way to Turkey, does that mean that there is only a formal formalities missing for a final contract?
Yeah. I mean, I will be very surprised if this is not resulting in a firm contract. It's to get started, or it start with an LOI, but the process is ongoing and expected to be a firm contract within not too long.
Yep. Thank you. Can you also discuss a little bit about, we have seen this strong anchor handling market, but on the CSV side, on the vessels that is currently not contracted, what is the company's view on those vessels for rest of the year?
Well, I think first of all, we have had a strong year so far on the CSV fleet. We have had some idle time in April on a few of them, but we're gonna do some dry dockings, as I mentioned. The overall demand for the CSVs is good. We expect to have a high utilization on the CSV fleet for the remainder of the year. Yeah, the demand is there. It's just about to land the right contracts.
Thank you. There is a question on anchor handling utilization for the quarter. Can you please add some color to what is driving the higher utilization in the North Sea for the spot fleet? Do you expect it to continue?
I think first of all, it's a combination of several things. First of all, the market is quite consolidated now with the few owners controlling a larger part of the fleet. That is one factor. There is another factor, that some vessels has moved out of the North Sea and found long-term work in, for example, i n Brazil, which is then improving the overall balance. We have a very active project market which is also occupying quite a few of the, let's say, the spot anchor handling fleet.
The combination of all this makes it, let's say, a quite balanced market, where the rates then has improved to good levels. It's more those three factors than an increased rig activity in the North Sea, I would say.
Thank you. Then a question of dividend. It's nice to see that the dividend has been increased for the first quarter. Can we expect this level or higher going forward for rest of the year?
Well, our ambitions is based on a continued, strong market. We have an ambition to continue to pay out dividend on the amount we are doing now. Hopefully over time that could also be improved.
With that was the last question.
Okay. Thank you—
Thank you.
Everyone for listening in. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.