Welcome to first half year presentation of Vow. Tina, the CFO, and myself will give you an update on the business. We're gonna show you how we are progressing well, how we develop the business now, and also talk about that we have in place now a new bank agreement that provides comfort for the business going forward. Moving on to basically the key points of today's presentation. It's we have a robust business, and Tina, margins are back on track. We are positioned to grow the business. And Tina, we have done something to strengthen the-
Yes, we're also executing on a very important remaining step. We are strengthening our balance sheet. And also together with this, we are obtaining an improved covenant going forward. This will give us good headroom.
Mm-hmm. We have been through a, I would say, a significant turnaround, where we have taken out some cost from the business on the OpEx side, and we have managed to get new contracts with better payment terms. And that's, that's a very important, you know, we have three robust business areas that we are developing the business with, and we have a solid backlog of orders to support it. So our, you know, we have a fairly positive financial outlook for the business. Positioned to grow the business, we have invested substantially, and we have a slide covering that. But we have invested in technology, we have done acquisitions, and we have invested in market accessibility. And as I said, we have now been able to enter into new contracts with better payment terms, better conditions.
To prove that we can deliver on growth, we have two project, two large-scale projects ongoing, one in Norway and one in the United States. That demonstrates actually our capability to move into large projects, large-scale projects. For sure, and we will of course give some more in flavor to these two projects. Tina, you might sort of talk a bit about sort of how we are going to strengthen our balance sheet. We're getting back, you know, on track with the margins. Tina, you can sort of-
Yeah
... explain shortly.
We are increasing our revenue, and we also show that we are done with the reassessment that we did of our contract portfolio last year. Our margins are increasing, and we have a solid consistent backlog.
You see, we are growing. We are growing the top revenue line. See the different, you know, how the different business areas are, have a nice development. Status and outlook of the business. Three robust, expanding business areas that we'll talk more about, and a rich pipeline opportunities with two successful scalar projects that, as I said, demonstrates our capabilities. Riding the third wave, this is an important slide, actually. It shows you the development in the cruise industry the last 24 years. The first wave we got was after 9/11. We started again contracting new ships. The next one was after the financial crisis in 2008, 2009. Now, we've been through the pandemic. Already, the first six months this year, the industry has ordered 17 new builds. It's expected more. Why is that expected?
Today, we are actually working with shipowners and shipyards for another ten series of ships, totaling more than thirty new builds, so we see from the work we have with shipowners and the yards that the new wave is coming, and we believe that we will be part of that wave. We are well-positioned to be part of that wave because we have over the years become a preferred partner in the industry, and actually a trusted partner. Today, in 2024, we are delivering technology to sixteen ships. Eight ships will be handed over to operations from shipyards to shipowners with our technology on board, and the ninth is a retrofit we're doing with Carnival that are now in operation.
It's a significant operation, and it also shows in the order book. That's why we're, you know, in our revenue, that we are doing more within the cruise project side. And this here is also very interesting. It shows that we have firm contracts for ships being delivered from shipyards from 2025 until 2028. That's twenty-seven vessels that will hit the water with our system. Additionally, we have eight options, and we're tendering for multiple ships. Here, we're actually tendering for a total of thirty-two cruise newbuilds. With the, you know, just to roughly give an indication of the size of that, that's around NOK 2.5 billion. An average price per ship going forward of NOK 80 million per ship, and that's twice the past and the earlier average we had. So the contracts are becoming larger.
More ships are coming our way. And to demonstrate that even further, during the first half, we entered into large contracts with better payment conditions, better conditions, better margins. Improved margins. Firstly, was the Icon Class. We signed up one firm, that was Icon number three, and an option for Icon number four. We did that in February, and you saw the media, you saw the newspaper two days ago. Royal Caribbean firmed Icon number four. And they also said that they will call. They have options for five and six. So it means that more orders on that series is expected to come from the shipyard. And also Carnival, with the contract we have with Meyer in Papenburg. I was together with Lars Ljoen, who's now appointed the Chief Operating Officer in Carnival Corporation & plc.
That's the biggest ship owner in the industry. They have nearly a hundred cruise ships. And as he says, he's saying in front of journalists in Arendal, "We are building more ships." So in addition to more ships at Meyer Werft, they have already, during the spring and into the summer, ordered ships, large ships at Fincantieri. The Carnival Excel projects, exciting, and we should be in a good position to capture those contracts. We're working on it. So we have a lot of exciting things ongoing in the cruise industry. And of course, the recurring part, Tina, what we have provision of lifecycle services after sales. As the installed base with our systems are growing, the revenues are.
Now we're about to hit NOK 200 million of just, you know, recurring services. The shipowners are coming back, and they're sourcing spare parts, they're sourcing chemicals and operational assistance. Having that type of position, I tell you, one of the reasons why we have this strong position in the cruise industry, is that we are delivering on this side. We're making sure that shipowners are capable of running our systems and making sure that the ships are in compliance with environmental regulations. We have a sweet spot here. We have developed. You know, this illustration, this graph tells, I would say, the fantastic growth story we have in WOW. From we did the IPO in 2014, our cruise business is four times larger. Purely organic growth. Purely organic growth.
By taking our technology leadership in cruise, and by making sure that they can operate our systems with a good lifecycle service. This one is growing. Another thing we did, we acquired ETIA back in 2019. We followed up with the acquisition of C.H. Evensen in 2022. That gives us some growth, but I will talk about two projects here that actually is driving this part of the business, and today is equal sized with what we do in the cruise industry, with cruise projects, so yes, we are growing. Average 21% in this period, even through periods where you have slowdown from the pandemic. We are actually very proud of this growth story, and I think it's recognized. So these large-scale projects that is driving growth for us within land-based industrial solutions, that also demonstrates our capability, and we have a huge demand now for similar projects.
And we have a rich pipeline I've also talked about, but just talk about this project. You heard me talk about this project many times. It's progressing. Here is the factory now being built in Follum for VGM. VGM is now taking a position to be a leading metallurgical biocarbon producer with using our technology. So here you see the factory. This is the illustration of the pyrolysis equipment that we're delivering to that factory. We have a 335 million NOK contract with Vow Green Metals . That actually, I would say, has sparked interest in US and in Europe. And another thing that's been very important for us, Tina, is that we were able to build a demonstration line.
That's one of the lines in the full factory that's built separately to verify technology and to verify the products coming out of the production line, and very useful for Vow Green Metals to qualify for other clients, but also useful for us because it demonstrates our technology. And the fact here is that this technology, this configuration, is what we're delivering now in U.S. It's another application, but it's the same configuration. This is the scalability of the business that we are now approaching land-based. In U.S., $27 million contract with Concept Storage Solutions, owned by Green Development, that is a leader in large-scale renewable energy projects in the northeast of U.S., with ambitions. We have advanced now with all the necessary engineering, and during the fall now, we are delivering equipment that gives us revenue and cash flow.
To conclude on, let's say, the rich pipeline we see outside Cruise, and we talked about that in the introduction, we have invested substantially in the business to take a position. Nearly NOK 950 million over the last five years, and I would say well spent. Because we have now technology available. We have, of course, funded Vow Green Metals in the demerger in 2021. That was important, and we... But we created a substantial client of ours. We did the acquisition of ETIA and C.H. Evensen to get hold of more technology, larger capacity technology, and more competence that we now are delivering on.
Our technology is relevant for several new applications that I've been talking about many times, end-of-life tires, this one coming up, sewage, the removal of PFAS from sewage, waste to liquid fuels, biochar carbon removal is one of the ways to really mitigate climate change, and the project now in Rhode Island is such a project. Then the metallurgical biocarbon, that today, if you look at the tender activity, Tina, of the bid pipeline, if we draw that line until 2027, it's a pipeline of 12.5 million NOK of projects that can come our way. If we draw that line until 2029, we double it to 25 billion NOK. I think people will remember the 25 billion, but I'm just saying in the shorter run, it's still half of it. These are not sort of happy-go-luckies.
I would say that 14% of that bid pipeline is startups. The remaining part are companies with strong balance sheets. That's a very important point. So yes, we have these two projects to demonstrate our capability. We have done investments, we are ready, and we are positioned to grow the business. So with those words, Tina, perhaps we should. I can, of course, we can talk about. I'll give you a short update before I give you the scene on the numbers. But of course, end-of-life tires is progressing well. We are now with Itochu and Murfitts. It's the same company, basically. Itochu is the, you know, one of the global leaders in distribution of natural rubber to the tire industry.
Their subsidiary in the U.K. controls more than, more than 60% of all the tires coming off the roads, handling 20 million tires a year. We're working on their first advanced studies now on their first factory to be built in the U.K. Progress as well. The sewage plant FEED, the front-end engineering design contract, a customer paying us to do all the engineering on this factory you see here, with four of these large Evensen reactors we have, is progressing well, and this area is really coming. We definitely see that, and the partner we are now delivering that FEED to, they have ambitions to roll out multiple plants because they have a very strong business model, because they are getting paid in the feedstock. Or the, let's say, the gate fee of these factories is creating a very good business model to attract capital.
There is a company that has themselves a strong balance sheet. We also got the latest update on the project we talked about last year in our Q3 presentation, Circon Energy. They have secured significant equity funding and governmental support. Exciting days for us. Exciting days. Tina, sorry for taking so long time.
No, that's fine. So I'll take you through the numbers. So let's first have a look at the segments. We're delivering growth in all segments, and the margins are back in black. So let's start with Industrial Solutions. We're well positioned for growth as we went through, and we have revenues of NOK 164 million, up 11% from the same period last year. The margin has improved, and we have a backlog of NOK 365 million at the end of the period. For Maritime Solutions, we are delivering revenues in line, and the margins have increased compared to 2023. We have a solid backlog here of NOK 696 million, and in addition, also options of 316. For Aftersales, as we said, we're approaching the 200 million recurring revenue mark.
We deliver a margin of 10% for this segment. This is a bit lower than what we prefer to see, so we have implemented the concrete initiatives to improve this going forward. Moving over to the group, we have revenues of NOK 485 million, up 8% compared to the same period last year. Our gross margin ended at 30.9%. We have, during the period, as we said, delivered on our cost improvement program. If we compare with the same period last year, we have decreased our operating expenses by NOK 20 million, and we have also set a target to decrease our operating expenses by NOK 40-50 million in 2024 compared to 2023.
Some of the initiatives that we do in the cost improvement program also is related to the non-recurring costs that we have for the period, which is mainly related to the restructuring of our French subsidiary, Etia. Our EBITDA ended at NOK 20.6 million. Moving over to our balance sheet, I think it's fair to say that we've spent a considerable amount of time here the last couple of months, so we are now strengthening our balance sheet, and we're looking to strengthen it by NOK 150 million. Together with this, we are also securing an amended bank agreement with improved covenants. So most importantly, we're amending the leverage covenant and increasing it to 5.5 times, together with a strengthening of the balance sheet of a minimum of NOK 125 million.
We expect this to give us a really good financial runway going forward and liquidity headroom. Other important developments during the period is that we decreased our net working capital. We have an equity ratio of 24% and an ending cash balance of NOK 42 million. For more information on the amended covenants, please see our financial report in Note 4, and then moving over to our cash flow, which actually shows the things that we've already done to strengthen our balance sheet, so our operating cash flow came in at almost NOK 70 million. We are focusing very much on our working capital situation. As we said, we are also... We've invested substantial amounts and are well positioned for growth going forward.
We are therefore reducing our investment level, and our investments came in at NOK 30 million for the first half year, significantly down compared to historical levels. We are also de-leveraging our balance sheet, so we have repaid debt during the period and interest cost. Our net cash flow for first half was a negative NOK 16 million. And I think I'll leave it over to you to do some concluding remarks.
Okay, before we open up for some questions, just bring us back to the slide that we opened the presentation with. We are a robust business. Margins are now improving, definitely. And we have done things to enable the business to have to follow that growth pattern that we had since two thousand and fourteen. And the actions we are now taking to strengthen the company's financial position. So with those head points, main points, we can open up for some Q&A.
Thank you so much for the presentation, both on... All right, so firstly, is it possible to comment a bit more on the expected working capital development near term? So that we know a bit more, because, of course, on the top line and on margins, it's easier to make assumptions, but obviously you have gone some rounds with the clients in your backlog, so some comments on how you see the working capital development for H2 and maybe into H1 next year.
Well, we don't decide on it, but we have fluctuations depending on when we receive milestone payments. What we can say is that we are improving our working capital situation on the new contracts that we have, which is more in favor of us in terms of payment terms. And we're also delivering, as you said, on some substantial contracts this fall, which we expect to contribute positively.
... The land-based projects are better payment terms. But of course, as you said, the new cruise contracts with these down payment structures against guarantees-
Yeah
is releasing cash earlier from the shipyards, and that's positive.
Mm.
Thank you. And also one question on the gross margin. Previously, at least on your slides, you have stated that this 30-plus or 31% is more of a normalized level, and I didn't see that, today. So, what do you expect? If you look back, you had sort of mid- to high-30s gross margin. So where approximately should we expect that the fair gross margin level going forward should be?
Yeah, well, we did a reassessment last year, and that decreased the margin also in the backlog, so now we are delivering according to our backlog, but we do expect this to improve going forward as we secure new contracts, but we also have some older contracts in our backlog, which also will contribute to an increase when we deliver on those.
Mm-hmm, so we expect them to... We need to improve that for sure.
Mm.
The gross margins in this business, it needs to come up.
Okay. Thank you. Some other questions in the room? No? Do we have some questions sent in?
Yeah, there are some questions that come in from online, and a couple from Thomas Næss. First, if new equity is secured, net interest-bearing debt over EBITDA covenant stands at 5.75 times. Any thoughts on how comfortable you are on staying within this given equity? Given equity is raised at a minimum of 125, wouldn't it be much better removing more debt?
We are comfortable in the amount that we've said now, based on the forecast that we've done. It gives us substantially or more comfortable headroom towards the covenant that we have.
Mm-hmm.
Um-
I would say the 150 is well based on, I would say, a conservative projection going forward. It gives us, together with this new amended bank agreement, comfort in the business to deliver on the backlog and the growth we see.
Yeah.
And of course, we are in this period capable of serving our debt facilities. But of course, our ambition is to reduce debt over time.
Mm.
There's one more question from Thomas Næss. He asks: No equity was raised following the completed pre-funding round. You state that you are considering other options to strengthen the financial position. What are those other options?
We couldn't go into details on that, but we are looking at several things. I would say that the pre-sounding that was done was very short because we have been working now extensively to land sort of a bank agreement, and the pre-sounding continues now as you know one alternative. The other alternatives, we will give an update on when we feel that we can disclose those.
Thank you. There's a question from Helene Kvilhaug Brøvig. Can you provide some more details around expected CapEx spend in the second half and into twenty twenty-five?
Yeah, we don't guide on a specific number, but what we said that is, and also shown, is that we are down compared to historical levels.
Mm-hmm.
We expect this to continue going forward also.
Yeah, and we've said that several times.
Mm.
Of course, you have to see that we have done, we have been through large investment programs that has reached conclusions. You know, these contracts that we're delivering on now is as a result of the investments we've done in the past, so that is coming down, definitely.
Mm.
Then there are a couple of questions from Anders Rosenlund. First is: When do you plan to start releasing comprehensive Q1 and Q3 reports, supplementing the full year and half year reports?
I think if you look at. We have increased the information that we give in both the trading updates and also now in the second half, or, first half, report. And that's, we always evaluate what we're giving of information and, don't want to provide any more visibility on that now.
Mm.
Mr. Rosenlund also asks about margins. He said, he says, "You never, you've said several times that margins are improving, but product margins have never been weaker, except for second half last year, which presumably was significantly impacted by the cleanup. Why are margins down compared with the history when revenues are higher and the progress reported is so good?
That's part of the reassessment that we did last year. So we corrected the margin that we're delivering on in the backlog, and that's also why we see a lower level now.
Mm.
This will increase as we secure new contracts with improved margins.
You see actually a very nice development now during the first and Q2 of this year-
Mm
that we are coming out of that-
Yeah
adjusted level and the hit we had to take last year.
Yeah.
Then there are a couple of questions about cruise. I think it was Mr. Badin who talked about Icon three, four, and possibly even more at Turku, and also some from Carnival. How many of these are already in your backlog, either as concrete contracts or options?
When it comes to the Carnival project, those two I showed on the slide, Carnival Excel at Meyer Papenburg, those are in our backlog and in our option backlog. The firm ones are in the firm backlog and the others in the option. What I said that now Royal Caribbean have ordered, have called on that option that we have as an option. So the likelihood of that is converted into a firm contract when the shipyard turns towards us is very large. It means that it's a high likelihood of those coming, meaning that they're calling on the number four, and that we're getting option for five and six.
The other thing I said is that Carnival Corporation has ordered new ships at Fincantieri, basically on a very similar platform as the project we have in Papenburg for the same owner. So it means that this is really an addressable market for us, and we're working to be in position to get these orders. Can't promise anything, but I think we are in a very good position.
And then there is now one more question from our online audience, and that also is about margins, this time in aftersales, where the company... Aftersales is growing, but margins are still lagging compared to previous times. Can you elaborate on the margin potential you see and what you're doing to achieve this?
Oh, we're looking at this now, and we're implementing and investigating it. I think, yeah, for the first half, it was particularly chemical sales that had a lower margin, and we're looking to improve that going forward.
There has been, in that period, an inflation on the chemical side. And we are now working to recover that by re-negotiating with our customers, basically, because these chemicals are used to operate our advanced wastewater purification systems on all the ships. So it's a significant part of our business, and we are very sort of... Our ambition is to increase, and we believe that we can increase. When you have the revenue, you can always increase the margins.
Okay, that concludes the questions from the web audience. We'll hand back to the presenters, and if there are no further questions in the audience? Thank you. Do you wanna say?
Thank you so much for stopping by and to your continuous interest in our business.