Good morning, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all for dialing in. I'm Man Yuen, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. I will be facilitating this morning's session. Once again, welcome to today's media and analyst briefing by Sembcorp Marine in relation to the group's full year 2022 financial results. We have filed the results with the Singapore Stock Exchange last evening. This morning's briefing is chaired by our President and CEO, Mr. Wong Weng Sun. He is joined by Mr. William Goh, Group Finance Director of Sembcorp Marine. Today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements. I would like to draw your attention to the disclaimer statement in our announcements. Without further delay, I'd like to pass the session to Mr. Wong. Mr. Wong, please.
Thank you, Man Yuen. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us at Sembcorp Marine full year 2022 results webcast. We had a busy and productive year in 2022. With the execution of a total of 21 projects, of which 12 key projects were completed and delivered to date according to schedule agreed to with our customers. The progressive completion of these projects enable us to free up resources for redeployment to other existing projects, including our newly won new build and conversion solutions. During the year, the group secure contract wins, including repairs and upgrade orders totaling more than $ 7 billion. William will elaborate further on the new order wins. The group's operational and financial performance improved significantly in full year 2022. I am pleased to report that the EBITDA for second half 2022 turned positive at $ 12 million.
With full year EBITDA of - $ 7 million, a 99% improvement against the prior year. Well, let me now turn to the proposed combination with Keppel O&M. The ordinary resolution for the proposed combination with Keppel O&M was approved and passed with strong support of 95.28% from our shareholders at the EGM held on 16th February 2023. On behalf of the company's board of directors, we would like to express our appreciation to our shareholders for supporting the sole resolutions tabled at the EGM. Thank you. The proposed combination will create a premier global player with deep engineering heritage to offer offshore renewables, new energy, and cleaner solutions in O&M sector. The enlarged group is envisaged to unlock synergies from the integration of two established industry players with anticipated long-term value creation for our stakeholders.
It will also strengthen Singapore's leading position as a maritime and an offshore and marine hub. The enlarged group will have the reach, scale, and operating platform to capitalize on the global energy transition. At the same time, to realize economies of scale and be strategically positioned to seize opportunities in the improving industry landscape. As a single organization, the collective workforce of 23,000 will benefit from expanded opportunities for career development and growth in the areas of offshore renewables, new energy, and cleaner O&M solutions. With a combined net order book of $ 80 billion and over 40 projects, our people will gainfully engage to complete the projects from now to 2026. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Sembcorp Marine. Over these six decades, the company has taken strategic steps to evolve and transform.
From its humble beginning in ship repairs, the company is today internationally recognized as an innovative solutions provider in the offshore, marine, and renewable energy sectors. The group invested and developed a state-of-the-art integrated yard at Tuas South Boulevard. A major milestone in a company's growth and expansion strategy. The group also diversified its suites of engineering solutions beyond traditional oil and gas to renewable and new energy. With the delivery of its first design, engineering procurement, project management, and construction of a platform jacket substructure and topside, the Dudgeon offshore wind farm project for Siemens. The group has since completed and delivered several other projects for the offshore renewable markets with multiple projects under execution. The transformation strategy, particularly in the last decade, has created an organization with future-ready capabilities and know-how, technological bench strength, and a broad suite of products and solutions.
Having weathered the longest down cycle in the oil and M industry from 2015 and the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and navigated the energy transition to offshore renewables, the group has emerged more resilient. Together with the current board and management, we have built the company to its current stature and positioned it at the center of the global shift towards a low carbon economy. Today, having successfully delivered all our key projects, build up a sizable net order book of more than $ 7 billion, and our strategic yard capabilities and technology bench strength, the group is well-positioned for the new board to steward the enlarged group to greater heights. Let me pause here and pass the session to William, who will do a financial review and discussion of Sembcorp Marine FY 2022 performance. Thank you. William, please.
Thank you, Mr. Wong. Once again, a very good morning to everyone for taking time to join us for this morning's results briefing. I'll go through first the key financial highlights for FY 2022. In terms of the top line for revenue, we recorded revenue of $ 1.95 billion for FY 2022. That is about 5% higher than the previous year. For the bottom line standpoint, we have cut our FY 2022 net loss to $ 261 million, which is a 78% reduction from the prior year. As Mr. Wong mentioned earlier, our EBITDA has turned positive for the second half of the year to a +12. That our end FY 2022 EBITDA is a - $ 77 million, a 99% improvement from the previous year.
The overall financial performance is basically underpinned by the successive completions of 12 key projects during the year, and this has enabled us to effectively redeploy our resources to the other projects, especially those that we have secured recently. Just for mention again, as we have said in the past, no projects has been canceled throughout this entire process. Let me move on now to the key numbers. Do you see the table there? The turnover, as I mentioned earlier, EBITDA as well, and the net loss are the key numbers I'd like to flag out to you. As mentioned earlier, the operational financial performance improved significantly through the progressive resolution of COVID-19 challenges, enabling the smooth completion of our projects. Moving on straight away to the next slide.
In terms of cash flow, we're happy to share that net cash generated from operating activities is a very huge improvement from the prior year. FY 2022 operating cash flows generated is $ 1.039 billion. This compared to a negative $ 589 million for the previous year. For investing activities, mainly CapEx, you will see that it is a relatively low $ 26 million. This again is a result of our ongoing optimization of our maintenance CapEx. As we shared previously before, all new CapEx are basically put on hold as we ride through this downturn and also embrace the combination with Keppel Offshore & Marine. Nevertheless, all CapEx that are necessary to ensure operability as well as safety continues to be executed as required.
In terms of net cash from financing activities, basically some repayment as well as the payment of lease liabilities, a small $ 21 million negative. The previous year, $ 964 million positive, is a result of the rights issue. Overall net increase in cash for FY 2022 is a + $ 992 million, and we end the year with cash and cash equivalent at $ 2.1 billion. Let's move on to the next slide. These are key numbers in terms of the capital and gearing. Shareholders funds is at $ 3.8 billion. Net debt, less the cash, is $ 998 million.
The net working capital is a negative $301 million, and this is basically due to the reclassification of some of our term loans from our long-term to our current borrowings because they mature in the course of FY 2023. Just to highlight that in terms of net gearing ratio, as I shared recently, it's improved significantly to 0.26 x from 0.49 x last year. Let's move on to the next slide on some of the other aspects of revenue. So this is a breakdown of the various key segments focusing on the table on the right. Floaters is the largest segment with a revenue of $900 million, an improvement of 40% from the previous year.
The next largest segment is repairs and upgrade of $ 506 million, at 28% improvement from the previous year, followed by offshore platform, rigs, specialized shipbuildings, and others. You see the various percentage contribution to revenue. I will now move on to each of the segment to give us added color. As shared, floaters revenue increased by 40% year-on-year. The projects included here are basically the production solutions, the FPSO, as well as the FPU or floating production units. We have a combination of both new build as well as conversion solutions.
Just to highlight those projects that were delivered in the course of the year, FY 2022, the Equinor, Johan Castberg new build FPSO, the Technip Energies Courage new build FPSOs, the P-71 new build FPSO to Petrobras, and also the Chapuji FPSO conversion. We do have two ongoing projects in the course of 2023 execution. The first is a Shell Whale, and that's a new build FPU. Of course, our most recent P-82 project with Petrobras, another new build FPSOs. Moving on to the next segment, repairs and upgrade. Repairs continue to improve in the course of a year. As you may recall, repairs were significantly impacted at the beginning of last year, FY 2022, and also previous year because of COVID-related challenges.
Looking at the key numbers here, revenue rose 28% year on year from $ 396 million to $ 506 million. The number of vessels naturally increased in terms of number of vessels serviced to 221 vessels. In the prior year, it was 144 vessels. Of the 221 vessels serviced, 25 were LNG carriers, and this is also the largest segment among the various segments within repairs and upgrade. This include LNG re-liquefaction retrofits as well as BWMS or ballast water management systems. We, for now, continue to have further upgrades for a third FSRU as well for KARMOL, and that's one of the key upgrade projects. We do have others in the course of the year as well. Let us move on to the next segment, which is on the offshore platform side.
Just to share, offshore platforms basically are those fixed platforms, whether it's for production solutions or for offshore wind farms. Revenue here declined 51% year-on-year, basically as more projects were completed in the course of the year. Therefore, compared to previous year, revenue was lower. I just mention again that the projects include fixed production platforms, offshore wind farm platforms, as well as some of the top sites for gas solutions. We have a list of all the projects that were delivered in the course of the year. Four of them, the Hornsea Two offshore wind farm, Jan De Nul Formosa offshore wind farm. We have one for TotalEnergies fixed production platform for the Tyra redevelopment projects, as well as for the Gallaf Batch 2 wellhead platforms for production as well.
For FY 2023, for this segment, the key projects under execution, you have the RWE Renewables for the Sofia offshore wind farm. We also have the gas topsides for a major energy company in Australia. Finally, for Bechtel, the Pluto Train 2 gas projects. A quick mention for rigs, which by the way, includes WTIV or the wind turbine installation vessels. Revenues increased slightly to 8%, basically these are the tail end completion of our two drillship projects, the Transocean Deepwater Atlas, as well as Transocean Deepwater Titan. As you know, these two drillships are the most modern and highest technical specs for the industry, they are used for drilling in the 20K BOP required environment, especially in the Gulf of Mexico.
With the delivery of these two drillships for FY 2023, the projects under execution for now will be the Maersk WTIV for this particular segment. Specialized shipbuilding, we basically completed all three of the RoPax, roll on, roll off, fully battery-operated ferries. What's ongoing is the final testing and commissioning for the LNG bunker vessel, which we target to deliver within the next one to two months. We thought it'd be helpful to give an overall snapshot summary of the net order book. Looking at the key bullets on the right, the net order book is $6.75 billion, as we shared in our press release. They comprise two separate buckets. The first are the major projects of $6.31 billion of projects under execution.
The original contract value for these projects is north of $ 7 billion. Besides the $ 6.31 billion of major projects, we also have $ 0.44 billion of ongoing repairs and upgrade projects. To combine the two numbers together, we have the $ 6.75 billion net order book.
As you can see, compared to previous year, it's a very significant improvement in terms of the orders that's being secured. Of this, in terms of greener solutions, we also have a higher 37% or $2.5 billion that relates to these greener solutions. We have also shared that, notwithstanding the higher order book, we continue to see improved visibilities insofar as further orders are concerned. Let's move on to delivery schedule. Just a very quick recap. In FY 2022, we delivered 12 projects. There will be a further two to be delivered in FY 2023 and a further seven from 2024 to 2026. I think that's all for the results, and we'll have time for Q&A now. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wong, and thank you, William, for your address here. We now proceed to the Q&A session. May I invite all to pose your question on the Q&A platform. Please do let us know your name and the organization you represent. Once again, may I invite you to pose your question via the Q&A tab. It can be found at the bottom of your screen. Could you share more about opportunities for synergies, specifically at cost level from the merger? Also you mentioned about integration challenges. Appreciate if you could expand on this with examples. Question two, could you share how much of the current order book has cost or inflation increase passed through in the contract, and if there are milestone payment? Third, Petrobras has some new FPSO orders that are expected to come through in 2023.
Could you share how Sembcorp Marine views this as an opportunity?
Thank you, Rahul. Thanks for the questions. First, I will talk about the synergies from the cost side. As I mentioned just now, we have a 23,000 workforce, and also among them we also have all the PMETs. I think one of the cost synergies will be all the work we are doing, we are involving the EPCCs. Throughout the project executions, there are time whereby as the business growth and the new opportunities are coming in in relation to the order book, as you have seen, we shall not take the normal way of the more we do, the more we need to increase the resources. As we all know, the current resources from both Sembcorp Marine and KOM, they are already in a much lower compared to pre-COVID time.
As now the work has grown, the synergies will be how we can combine the resources so that we will able to perform the job with lesser than before, prior to COVID time. This is one synergies that we will look into it. As also I mentioned, while we are getting, we already combined, we have $18 billion of work that excludes ship repairs. We have mentioned just now for Sembcorp Marine, the ship repairs for the FY 2022 is above half a billion. If we just multiply by combining two and over the next four years, I think the current order book in hand, including ship repair and upgrade, is well above $20 billion. The company will continue to secure new orders in the coming quarters, and also translating into renewables.
From the synergy side, when we look into the study, we are not only looking at just numbers, also look at opportunities and how we then reorganize ourself to achieve the synergies that we should be getting. Second one, talking about the integration challenges. Definitely the integration challenges will be there for all M&A or even any combination of any organization or departments. For in this particular, for this enlarged Sembcorp Marine, we are facing with several things. Number one, coming together to realize the synergies we need to have a integration plan and to start as soon as possible. At the same time, we also know that we have a current order book of $ 18 billion excluding ship repairs. How will the integration plan?
We need to start sooner than later, At the same time, it also the challenge is to maintain that these orders are being executed without any slight disruption. This is the second challenge, right? That the organization will need to pay attention. The third challenge will be, while we are concentrating on the integration and also the execution of the existing work, we also need to continue our effort in securing more orders, and also, more importantly, continue to focus on the transition into renewables and new energy projects.
This also will then as some consideration from the integration plan and how we organize, how we organize ourselves to able to be efficient, to be able to be notified, able to be recognized by the customer that our track records, our point of contact remain to be there and even enhanced. The last challenge is we are not looking at the current $18 billion work. We are looking at the target state of operating model. Sooner we reach there, the better we are because end of the day, the target state of operation will very much tied to how fast and how soon we benefit, we will able to benefit from the transition into the renewables and new energies. If you all put all this together, the challenge we are seeing here is people.
How we group the people. We have the people, we will have the business. We have the project, we have a continuity. Therefore, the challenge for us overall is how we organize ourselves, how we work together as one going forward, able to make the organization continue to be relevant in the industry, continue to be the leader of the industry. I think the second question I would let William to take on. Thank you.
Mr. Wong, thank you. Rahul, thank you for the questions. As usual, you come up with a few. Just for the benefit of audience, I would just recap very quickly what you asked. Your second question asked about to what extent our current order book has caused the inflation increases pass-through clauses in the contract, and whether we have milestone payments. Let me just touch on the first part. Firstly, before I make further comments, just to be clear that all our comments at this point in time is confined to SCM's projects because of the anti-competition considerations, the understanding of projects from KOM side, those will be only after the legal completion.
As far as SCM's projects are concerned, I would say that we do have a combination whereby in some projects there are cost or inflation pass-through adjustment clauses, in some projects we don't. You will appreciate I can't be specific, as these are commercially sensitive. What we say is that for those whereby we commit to a fixed price and if then there are no so-called inflation adjustment clauses in the course of the project, the way we do it, and for that matter for all projects, the way we do it is that as far as possible, we try to lock in our costs. In this case here, costs could be for bulk materials, it could be for key major equipments.
Whereby before we commit our total price, the contract price to the customers, we lock in these major cost components and that way we therefore address and hedge our costs so that our margins can be preserved and protected. Broadly speaking, that's how it is. For that matter, not just in terms of the cost itself, but also the foreign currency, the FX exposure as well. These are things that we also hedge to the extent possible earlier than later, so that our overall cost can be better managed. I hope that helps. In terms of the milestone payments, yes. We can share that most if not all of our new projects are milestone payment or progress payments based. We do that, as you know, so that we can manage our working capital needs better.
All things being equal, we try to be cash flow neutral or cash flow positive along the way. If there are some areas of negative cash flow along the way, they are well managed by the compensatory positive cash flows shortly thereafter. Yes, milestone payments, that's the way we focus and our order book are largely on milestone payments basis. The third question talks about FPSO orders from Petrobras. You are right. The markets here continue to be very active. I think what's coming up is a P-84 as well as P-85 FPSOs. I think not only that, there are also some previous FPSOs that were tendered out but were not completed, it was re-tendered, for example, the P-81. Yes, it's quite a fair bit of FPSO orders from Petrobras alone.
As far as Brazil is concerned, the market is a lot more than just Petrobras, as you know. Many of the IOC/NOC are very active in Brazil as well. We do see opportunities for FPSOs in Brazil, also from the international oil players. We are therefore optimistic, and we will seize opportunities along the way as, and when they come along. Thank you.
All right, we have the next question, and it comes from Fred Lam of Rays Capital. He asked the meeting, "Can you provide revenue numerical outlook for 2023?
Fred, thank you for the question. As you know, we don't give specific revenue or numerical outlook for 2023. Having said that, I think it's not difficult for you to know that, given the order book that we have, close to $ 7 billion order book coming into FY 2023, you expect revenue to be higher than FY 2022. Not to mention that we're hopeful that there will be more orders secured in the course of FY 2023 as well. Yes, certainly we expect the revenue for FY 2023 to be a improvement for FY 2022. Thank you.
All right. Thank you, William. Next sets of questions from Hong Han of CLSA. One, can we know what are the kind of inquiries you are seeing in terms of new build demand? Two, if there's demand to build jackup, when can SMM realistically deliver in view of your current order book? Would it take two years or more?
Thank you. Thank you, Hong Han. The current inquiries mainly coming from cleaner, greener solutions for FPSOs, as well as in terms of LNG conversion work. For the new build, it will be the LNG, floating LNG liquefaction platform or FLNG. There are also inquiries for wind turbine installation vessels, offshore wind farm cable laying vessels, and these are pertaining to renewables segment. There are also floating wind farm projects inquiries as well. In terms of your question on the demand for a jackup, I would say that we will view these inquiries when it comes along and looking into the overall projection of the demand and the deliveries.
Today it is still early to respond to you, although particularly in the past, a new build contract for new build jackup for drilling rigs will take typically, less than three years. Your question is, we will need to see when the demand has picked up. When the inquiries are coming, we will do the study. Thank you, Hong Han.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wong. Next, we have Fu Ziwei from Macquarie. First of all, he conveys his congratulations on the positive EBITDA. Thank you, management, for the presentation. Now his question. 1. How will the combined entity function operationally in 2023 and into 2024? Will all resources be consolidated at TBY immediately? Two. Has SMM provided for all possible restoration costs? Can you please share how much integration costs might be? How long will it be embedded in your earnings? His third and last question. Ex-depreciation, gross margin has turned positive in the mid-single-digit range. Which segment helped to drive this improvement?
Thank you. Thank you, Ziwei. First of all, when we look into the operation level, currently both the operating yard in SCM and KOM, we were quite busy at the moment. In terms of operations to execute the project, the execution plan, and also the activities that performing the EPCC performance, will not change after the combined entity from the day one. This is important so that there is a continuity in executing the projects. For the coming projects, definitely there will be a study that how those projects will be executed. Taking into consideration the overall market trend and also the scope of work, we would like to grow or continue to maintain.
All this will consider where we execute the job the best in terms of achieving the synergies as well as the efficiency of the project. You ask about whether will all resources be consolidated in TBY immediately. I think whether immediately or midterm or long term, there is not issue of consolidating all resources into TBY. As we know, in everywhere we operate, resources always finite. TBY is one single locations. Today, as a combined entity, the enlarged group has multiple location and resources to perform the work. It is only logical and beneficial to able to get the synergies out from this combination, is to be able to maximize the resources to execute the project in various locations.
I believe that there will be no kind of anything of immediate consolidation of all resources at TBY. For instance, for example, we have 7 dry docks in TBY, but we have many more dry docks both in KOM and also at AY Yard. We are consolidate all into together the TBY, which means we are actually reducing our resources as a whole, and hence, we will be letting go a lot of opportunities for the ship repairs and upgrading project. Thank you.
Chew Bee, let me try to address your other questions. You ask whether all possible restoration costs has been provided for. I presume you are referring to yard restoration costs. The short answer is, yes, it is a regular process. As and when there is a requirement for yard restoration, once it's identified and known, the provision will be made accordingly. The provision we made for the entire restoration and it will hit the P&L straight away for that particular quarter or year. In that sense, in terms of whether how long it be embedded in the earnings, the short answer is that once you provide, it goes to P&L, and it will not affect future earnings in terms of this yard restoration costs. In terms of third question, ex depreciation GP margin turned positive.
Thanks for the observation there. January has turned positive. What we would say is that the improvement in GP is generally broad-based, so whether it's repairs or upgrades or our other existing projects. Generally speaking, because as you know, the market has continued to improve, the overall industry in terms of yard capacity has also relatively tightened over the last several quarters. In that sense, we should be looking towards normalized margins. For projects whereby we have the, if we may, the entire value proposition from the design to engineering procurement as well as construction. Being up in the value chain, we have guided before, that will also enable us to capture a larger part of the profit pool.
From that standpoint, therefore, we should also want to expect better margin for that particular project. If I take a step back, two general drivers for improved margins. Number one, industry normalizing, yard capacity tightening that drives margins upwards. Secondly, for those higher value add projects, we want to look for better margins. Overall, they are broad-based across our various product segments. Thank you.
All right. Thank you, Mr. Wong. Thank you, William. Next, we have Siuki of CGS-CIMB. She would like to raise this question to management. Please, can you give a sense of why the strength in ship repair in the second half of 2022? If this is sustainable, how much repair from KOM? If there is no combi, would you say your gross loss would turn around in FY 2023? How much of P-82 have you recognized? Would you say the worst of cost pressure from labor shortage had happened in previous quarter? Altogether, four questions for management.
Maybe I would address, the initial parts of the questions. Essentially when we talk about the strength of ship repair in 2H 2022, I think all of us know that in so far as, COVID-19 is concerned, that has impacted our repairs outbreak during the initial part of FY 2022 and also the preceding quarters in FY 2021 and earlier. As COVID challenges recite, more vessels can comes to our yards, therefore repairs and upgrades continues to improve.
There are also other possible factors which I can highlight that actually also enhance our repairs upgrade, and that is that we are also seeing that overall growth in economic activities have also resulted in a more fleet owners having their vessel fleets getting them accelerated or bringing them back to original scaling because they delayed their repairs, some of them during the COVID year. Now they are being brought back and so therefore there is, if may, a sort of a catch-up of this regular maintenance and also upgrades as well. Bear in mind also that we do have the green solutions for repairs and upgrade the ballast water treatment solutions we talk about, as well as the gas scrubber solution. All these contribute towards the repairs and upgrade.
How sustainable they are, we are hopeful that, this trend would continue. Then again, there will always be, a general up and down in between quarter. Directionally over the year, we should expect, repairs or upgrade to continue to be relatively resilient. I would not really comment much on the repairs from KOM. You have heard their strategy about focusing on, more higher value, added repairs, upgrade activities. I'm sure we can talk about that more after we have a better understanding of them, post-combination. You asked a question regarding if there's no combi, would you say your gross loss will turn around FY 23 from the current order book execution?
I think it's premature and it's also speculative in any way to talk about what will be the P&L financial performance for FY 2023 with or without the combination. What we will say is that, from SCM standpoint, we are seeing that with our net order book and our current situation, our operating and financial leverage should improve in FY 2023. Therefore, we believe that the financial performance for SCM side, at least for top line, we're seeing a growth there. Whether or not if you combine the two together, as you know, we are in no position to comment at this point in time. Yeah, I hope you understand. Your question regarding P-82 in terms of revenue recognition. P-82 was secured in October of last year. In that sense, initial works are already ongoing.
In terms of revenue, I would say that it is immaterial. The fourth question regarding the whether there was a cost pressure from labor shortage, would you say the worst is over? You are right. We have guided in our third quarter as well as presently that during the second half, you know, in terms of sending back our higher cost workers that we brought in to complete the projects in the previous year. There were delays in repatriating them, but we therefore used them for our existing projects, but they were higher cost. Now where we are, we are happy to share that all of these workers have also been well sent back to their home country.
Our costs in terms of labor costs should normalize going forward from here. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, William. Next, we have questions from Teo Yun Yun from S&P Global Commodity Insights. First question, will the Keppel O&M proprietary drilling rig designs now belong to the combined entity? Two, given the focus on greener projects, will the new entity still be opened to take on orders to build more drilling rigs now that the market is improving?
Thank you for the question. They are list of proprietary designs will come together from the transaction. We were not in this position to tell the detailed list. Definitely they are proprietary rig designs is part of the list that come along with the transaction to the combined entity. The second question is on the green project. It is quite early stage for us to comment this, as I mentioned just now. However, our focus will be, while it is a drilling rig, if there is, it will be a greener and lower carbon footprint drilling rigs design and construction.
That is also in line with our target of producing solutions for lower carbon, decarbonization or even electrify the drilling rigs if possible. These are some of our solutions, right. The company is also studying now. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Wong. Our next question come from Jane from Citi. Could you share more on how you are seeing the cost environment evolve going into FY 2023, especially in terms of labor cost, raw material, cost inflation, as well as component shortages? Are we expecting this issue to materially improve in the year, or are there still lingering challenges to contend with?
Thank you, James, for this question. I think in summary, I would say that as of now, these challenges are still there. Notwithstanding that, in certain part of the value chain or supply chain has some sign of easing. Overall, as we know, our type of projects involve all the supply chains globally. I would say that currently we are managing it together with the customer in our execution plan before we sign the contract. Thank you.
All right. Next, we have questions from Foo Suan Yee of AIA Investment Management. Going back to your earlier comments on the target state of operations, may I check what would be the target headcount number and the order book size in the target state?
Thank you, Suan Yee. At the moment, I can't give you a number. Once post combination, there will be studies on the overall strategy so that we know the pathway from present, right? Which is definitely still have oil and gas product. How we go into a green oil and gas decarbonization projects and leading into the renewables. During these pathways, there are several things we need to consider. That is, while getting and seizing the current opportunities and continue to build up competencies and capabilities to meet the coming this surge of renewables projects in the midterm, from the midterm. All this will be in consideration in terms of the resources we need, the competency we will continue to have.
Also from there on, how will be our order book size look like? Today, there's no, an answer for you yet. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wong. James has circled back with another question. Would you be able to quantify for us the expected integration costs which could arise from the combi? On the flip side, the potential cost savings through synergies in FY 2023 and into FY 2024?
Maybe I'll attempt this time round, because I think, in terms of quantification of expected integration costs, I think it's going to be very much driven by how the combined entity comes together and strategize here from how best to position ourself in response to the energy transition. The key thing to note is that the two companies come together with significant order books. In that sense, insofar as integration is concerned, the focus will be to firstly ensure that all these projects continue to be smoothly executed, even as we evaluate and optimize how the two groups can come together.
Whether it's in terms of manpower, whether it's in terms of how the yards are going to be optimized for existing order book for the two entities or going forward, those will be evaluated. We are looking at a strategy in terms of the business strategy. We are talking about our business model. These are things that we would take opportunity to evaluate, and this is something which we understand the new board and management will be a priority going forward. No specific numbers for you. As you know, this really depends on many factors. It's premature, not appropriate for us to talk about quantification of integration costs. Having said that, we are talking of potential cost saving and synergies. Short answer, there should be and there will be.
Again, it's premature to hazard any particular numbers. I think it's important for us to stay focused on the business, at the same time, better position ourself as we progress in response to the competition as well as the opportunities out there. I hope you understand. Thank you.
All right. Thank you, William. Looks like there is return question from Ziwei of Macquarie. If I may make a follow-up on margins. When you say normalized margin, what is that margin? One of your local peers in topside fabrication is doing 10% gross profit margin. Is that considered a normalized margin? If not, can you share the delta of the improvement? How many basis point higher do higher value projects add to your margin?
Ziwei, thanks for the question. I have to say that you have asked that before. You have tried. As we have guided in the past, we don't give specific guidance on the margins. Having said that, when we say normalized, we are referencing to those days whereby during COVID years and a severe industry downturn, margins obviously were a lot more lower and potentially negative as you have seen. What we would say, as I said earlier, is that when the industry normalizes as what's happening now and getting increasing strength, we want to see margins improve. You mentioned a 10% margin. I think we want to look for better than that.
In any case, as I say, we cannot share, we don't give guidance rather, in terms of specific margins, but we wish to aspire and work towards higher margin than those that you mentioned earlier. Thank you.
Thank you, William. Looks like Tzu Wei is back with another question. Do you plan to host an investor day later this year to talk about Sembcorp Marine's new strategy going forward once you have completed all the studies? If I may respond to this, Tzu Wei, certainly, we do hope to continue to engage, you know, all our shareholders as well as the investment community. Post the completion of that, certainly we should have more engagement opportunities with all sell side and buy side analysts and our shareholders. Please do look out for such invitation. They may come your way very soon. All right, next we go to Adrian Low of UOB Kay Hian. Thank you for the presentation, management.
Could you please give us an overview of some of the major offshore production projects that Sembcorp Marine could be in a good position to win in the next 12 months? Two. Dayrates for latest generation semi-subs and drillships have gone up materially in the past two years. Are you seeing any other inquiries from these types of assets?
Thank you, Adrian. As I mentioned just now, there will be several areas and inquiries coming in. There's also a number of projects in our pipeline. Please forgive me that I'm not in this platform to share the details with you. We will definitely let you know once we have concluded a contract. As I mentioned, we have both offshore production projects, LNG projects, as well as renewables segment from wind turbine installation vessels, cabling vessels, substation projects. I think so far what I can share with you. For the project details, due to the sensitivity of the commercial discussion ongoing, I'm not able to share anymore. Of course, coming back to the questions on drill ships, right?
I would say that the same answers given to the jackup rigs. When there's inquiries, we will study again and evaluate whether we will go into it. Definitely, as I say, any drill ships or drilling assets in the future, it will have to be in a much smaller carbon footprint, as well as energy saving. That's all I can share with you. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Wong. Well, we have received quite a number of questions on the trading halt issued this morning. If I may address this. All right, we have issued the trading halt this morning as we have guided that the legal completion of the proposed combination is likely to take place today. To create a fair environment for all shareholders as well as incoming shareholders following the DIS from Keppel, we have this trading halt to maintain that. We trust that that will give everyone a level playing and a fair environment to trade the shares going forward. All right, next we have Siu Ki. Not quite a question, but rather, you know, a sharing from her.
I assume that the new board will take some time in the months to come after completion to review the business strategy, so that we know that it will not be an immediate synergy in 2023, but to build in realistically the timeline for the board and management to share. Thank you, Siu Ki, for this understanding. Well, we would like to close this morning's session. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to the IR and comm teams at Sembcorp Marine. Contact details are provided in our press releases and please reach out to us. Once again, thank you everyone for joining us this morning. Have a very pleasant day. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone.