Good noon, all of you who have joined us today at Tallink Grupp Investor Webinar introducing the Financial Results for the Second Quarter of 2025. My name is Anneli Simm, and I'm the Investor Relations Manager at Tallink Grupp. Today, we have here members of the Management Board, Harri Hanschmidt and Margus Schults, who will walk you through the presentation on the operations of Tallink Grupp, Q2 Financial Results, as well as the key takeaways. After the presentation, the CEO of Tallink Grupp, Paavo Nõgene, will take your questions. We have already received a number of questions, but I encourage you to ask your question through the Q&A function of this webinar. It would be also nice if you would also identify yourself when asking the question. Enough said, I will now hand the microphone over to Harri Hanschmidt.
Thank you, Anneli. Hello, good afternoon. My name is Harri Hanschmidt. I'm a Management Board Member for Tallink Grupp. I will start with the second quarter and the first half-year presentation, after which I will give word to our CFO, Margus Schults, and later you can ask questions from our CEO, Paavo Nõgene. Tallink Grupp is the leading European provider of leisure and business travel and city transportation services in the Baltic Sea region. We offer passenger transportation, also cargo transportation, and all sorts of ro-ro cargo transportation in the northern Baltic Sea area. We own and operate a fleet of 13 vessels, of which two of them are cargo vessels, and these currently are in layup. We have five regular routes on the Baltic Sea.
Three of our vessels are chartered out, two in the Netherlands, the Silja Europa and Galaxy, and our vessel Romantica is currently operating in Algeria as a chartered out vessel. We have two strong brands, Tallink and Silja Line, and a growing Club One members program that has 3.4 million members. We also operate four hotels, three of them in Tallinn and one in Riga, and also 20 Burger King restaurants throughout the Baltic states. We offer shopping on board, on shore, online, and Tallink Grupp has about 5,300 employees in different countries. When we take a look at the fleet by routes and when you are reading our quarterly results, I think it's quite important to understand throughout the years there are some changes on the routes that also affect the capacity and also the result.
To very briefly go over, Megastar and MyStar are tailor-made and built for the Tallinn-Helsinki route and offer daily shuttle services. Victoria I is this year also on the Tallinn-Helsinki route. Last year, she was in June, July, August as a supporting vessel on the Tallinn-Stockholm route. This year, this is not the case anymore. Also, there has been a change on the Paldiski-Kapellskär route where the two cargo vessels, Regal Star and Sailor, are now in layup and replaced by Superfast IX. There is a change in business bundle as with Regal Star and Sailor, they were dedicated cargo vessels, but Superfast IX also offers a possibility for passenger car travel. Baltic Queen is on the Tallinn-Stockholm route. Silja Symphony and Silja Serenade on the traditional Helsinki-Stockholm route. The Turku-Stockholm route is run by one vessel, Baltic Princess. As mentioned, Galaxy, Silja Europa and Romantica are chartered out.
Also, we sold the vessel Star I in April. The vessel Star was built for the Tallinn-Helsinki route and was replaced in 2022 by MyStar. The vessel was after that chartered out and now sold. It was a replacement of a new generation vessel, the new generation LNG vessel coming to the route. If we take a look at the revenues for the second quarter and the statistics, we can see that the passenger number grew slightly. We ended up transporting almost 1.5 million passengers, and the cargo numbers went down. We ended up with 67,000 cargo units. Passenger cars were up, and we transported almost 213,000 passenger cars in the second quarter. The revenues were EUR 207 million. We can see that there was strong accommodation and ticket revenue as well as stable onboard sales.
These results were offset by a decline in cargo revenues and also a decrease in charter revenues as there were fewer vessels in charter. The profitability during the second quarter and also during the first half year was impacted by the vessels that were in layup. Fortunately, we have only now two vessels in layup. We had four. The future in that perspective will be more efficient. We ended up with a EUR 37.4 million positive EBITDA. We had a dividend tax that was recorded in the second quarter, and because of that and the previously mentioned effects, we ended up with a EUR 2.5 million loss in the second quarter. We had an EUR 8.4 million CapEx. In the first quarter, we did the first and second quarter altogether were about EUR 22 million that we invested in the vessels. Mainly, the bigger investments were Baltic Princess and Silja Serenade.
Baltic Princess was in trade dock and received a facelift. We keep the whole fleet technically in good shape, but also gradually invest into the public areas where necessary to upgrades, facelifts, so forth. We will, on the next slide, also a little bit show this. There was about over EUR 7 million investment into the vessel Baltic Princess that operates between Turku and Stockholm. The vessel received upgrades in restaurant and shop areas. The whole shop area got a facelift. The tax-free area received self-service kiosks and the degustation corner. There are wider doors to the perfumery and cosmetic shops and better connections to the gift store and children's store. The 400 square meter restaurant Grill House received a facelift as well, and the piano bar received a club style upgrade.
When we go over to the sales and results by geographical segments, we can see that the result was very similar to last year. As I mentioned, there were different capacity changes on different routes that need to be accounted for. From an overall perspective, Estonia-Finland revenue was at the same level. Estonia-Sweden dropped by EUR 2.9 million. Finland-Sweden increased by EUR 1.8 million. We ended up with EUR 207 million as segment sales. On the segment result level, Estonia-Finland declined by EUR 4.5 million. Finland-Sweden increased by EUR 0.4 million. We ended up with EUR 27 million as a segment result. If you look at the revenue structure, this is quite typical for our business: 49% of the sales come from restaurant and shop sales, 29% from the ticket, 10% from cargo, 6% from charter. There are also accommodation sales of 3%.
Here we can clearly see that the restaurant and shops were on the same level as last year. Ticket sales improved, but there was a EUR 4.3 million drop in the sales of cargo transportation and also a EUR 3.1 million drop from income of the charter of the vessels. We ended up with EUR 207 million. When we look at the dynamics of the seasonality, the first quarter is always a low season. The second quarter is already picking up. Now we are in the third quarter, but as we can see, the first quarter was 1 million passengers. The second is 1.5 million. Typically, the third quarter is more. This also reflects in revenue, but especially affects the bottom line. We are hard at work to do a good third quarter. Cargo is throughout the year less affected by the seasonality.
The first half year, we ended up with the loss of EUR 36 million, but we have done different steps by chartering out vessels, selling vessels that were not working or were burdening the company. We should have a much better picture and have been doing some different decisions to make that business more efficient. Now I will give word to our CFO, Mr. Margus Schults. Thank you.
Good afternoon also from my side. My name is Margus Schults, and a few more comments about Q2 results. I would like already to say that we had in Q2 revenue of EUR 207 million, which is about EUR 3 million less than Q2 last year. This EUR 3 million is basically reflecting the amount of less charter revenues we got this year. Also, when you look to our traffic bulletins, which are published monthly, you can see that there is a positive pickup towards June, end of Q2, both in terms of absolute numbers and also in terms of comparison to last year's same period. We have been able to keep our costs under control. The cost of sales increase basically reflects an increased number of passengers. Other costs are at a very stable level. We have paid also over EUR 11 million, EUR 11.4 million income tax related to our dividends.
This year, the dividend income tax was somewhat higher, EUR 2.5 million higher than a year ago. This is reflecting the internal dividends paid from our subsidiaries to parent companies from different countries. Last year, we just could get more benefit from those dividends. EBITDA, like I already said, was by the end of the quarter EUR 37.4 million. Like I already mentioned, the improvement towards June is quite clear. EBITDA margin 18.1% is definitely lower than our record year in 2023, but it's quite comparable to Q2 margin in 2019 when we had last, let's say, normal operations. In cash flow, we had EUR 60 million coming from our operations, and this is a little bit better number than a year ago. We had one-off items, which I already mentioned.
We had sales of Star, and from these proceeds, we used the part to pay back our long-term debt, as Star was one of our collateral vessels in this debt. We had significant investments done in Q1 to Silja Serenade and Baltic Princess, and the cash flow impact of these investments is in Q2. This is EUR 8 million, and total docking days in this year have been 69, comparing only 6 last year. Therefore, the investments are also larger. Net debt financing is EUR 90 million, minus EUR 90 million, of which loan payments and interest, normal loan payments and interest, and extraordinary payment related to sales of Star is EUR 54 million. It's quite a rapid decrease in the loan down payment. Dividends already, as you know, are announced, but they are paid in the second half of this year, in July and in November. In our balance sheet, no major changes.
Our assets are still our vessels, and our liabilities are both in equity and about half, and other long-term commitments, bank loans, about half. Our equity ratio is still very strong, 49%. Net debt to EBITDA is at the end of quarter 3.6 times, which is somewhat higher than in the end of 2024. This is not maybe so much about the matter of net debt, but it's trailing EBITDA, which is somewhat lower. As you remember, perhaps in Q1 2024, we had extraordinary income from sales of Isabella. Our liquidity is on a healthy level, $128 million, including cash and overdrafts. This is really an improvement of $57 million during the second quarter. Our book value, $0.94 per share, basically reflects that we are traded below book value quite significantly. In our loan portfolio, also no major changes.
We have still three loans, one for MyStar, one for Megastar, and one syndicated loan. Some of those loans are fixed rates, some of them are on floating rate. Our aim is to continue the reduction of loan portfolio in order to make room for potential new investments in the future. At the end of the quarter, our long-term loan portfolio was about $405 million, and used overdraft was $8 million. Net debt to EBITDA 3.6 is something which we are very comfortable. It's on a good, healthy level. Thank you.
Thank you, Harri and Margus. Before we start with the Q&A session, Paavo Nõgene, I will say a few words.
Yes, good afternoon also from my side. As colleagues already mentioned, the first half of the year has been challenging, mainly due to the lack of the layup vessels, four vessels laid up in the first quarter, and now still two vessels without work. This is having a significant impact to our net result because the layup costs are significant due to the asset price, due to the crew on board 24/7, plus fuel and maintaining the vessels. This has been our challenge this year, but the picture is getting better. As already mentioned, one vessel is sold, one is chartered out to Algeria, and we are working hard to find a new future for the cargo vessels. The summer has started kind of well. As we also said today, somewhere in the press, June was a bit better than last year, which is a good sign.
July is going also well. Let's hope that the summer, which came this year quite late, will last longer than usual, and it hopefully will benefit our third and fourth quarter as well.
Thank you. Sorry, we follow the usual approach, meaning that I will read out the question and questions received, and then Paavo will be addressing these questions. I will start with the ones that were sent before this webinar. Last year, you had two ships on the Tallinn-Stockholm route during the season. This year, only one. What are your experiences so far from this? Is the Kapellskär-Baltiski route covering the demands?
One ship between Tallinn and Stockholm is more economically efficient, and we'll see what the future will bring. Baltic Sea-Kapellskär has more capacity than demand. This is the short answer.
Looking at your competitors, this week, the Stockholm-Turku line is partly fully booked. Have you considered a second ship on the route, at least during high season?
No, the reason is that it's not possible to finance the ship year-round costs in one summer month.
The canceled short route from Kapellskär to Mariehamn is always a topic on Åland. Have you ever considered to open this route? What are the cons and pros?
Yes, if your own Åland company stopped providing this service, it was probably for a reason.
What are the main reasons behind the decline in profitability on the Finland-Estonia route? Has onboard consumption dropped in restaurants or shops?
On the one hand, there is an impact from lower revenue from cargo. On the other hand, some overcapacity in terms of the number of ships, not enough passengers for everything to ensure the same efficiency. If you compare before the COVID time in the Tallinn-Helsinki route, there were around 9 million passengers. Now it's around level 7+ million, but there is more capacity than earlier because Star is replaced by MyStar. There is also the pressure on ticket prices in the form of the additional European Union taxes, environmental taxes. Onboard spending, rather the pressure is on stores and certain product groups where the price differences have become less attractive to consumers due to tax policies in Estonia or Finland.
Thank you. What are the main factors behind the decline in cargo operations? Is this the economic situation or competition in the market?
The main problem in freight transport is the slow recovery of export markets, meaning that there is more supply than demand for transport on the market.
Thank you. Perhaps you can comment on the gross margin. Was the Q2 difference versus Q2 last year mainly due to ships and layup, or any other main reasons?
Yes, a significant impact from layup vessels, but also certainly some overcapacity on the Tallinn-Helsinki route and, in general, an increase in the European Union environmental taxes. As you probably remember, last year it was in the level of 40%. This year it's in the level of 70%. We need to buy the CO2 quotas, and next year it will be 100%. This is having also impact because this pressures the ticket price generally. In some routes, it's difficult to add 100% the environmental tax on top of the ticket price without lowering the base of the ticket.
Thank you. Please give an update on the two vessels in layup. What is the annual cost for having them in layup? Is the base case to wait until market improves or to divest them?
We are working to find them new work. The cost of layup depends on the size of the crew, fuel prices, etc. We will not disclose this information in detail.
Q2 restaurant and shop sales increased slightly after four consecutive quarters of a year-on-year decline. Have you noticed a bottoming out of consumer sentiment?
We would like, but we cannot confirm that this will be the case, that we have seen the bottom. Much will depend on the mix of the passengers on board and also on the overall share of cruise passengers in revenue, where consumption per passenger is higher.
We will continue with the Q&A from the webinar. From 0 to 100%, how positive you are for business success in this 2025 year?
The question is what we could name as the business success during the economic crisis and war in Europe. Difficult to answer, but we have had a challenging year as several companies in Europe and in our region. Let's hope that the economy in our main market, which is Finland, will start to increase. Most probably we'll see also more passengers and also more cargo transported between Estonia and Finland.
Can you provide more color on negative trends on cargo volumes? What is the effect of lower market volumes versus the effect of increased prices?
It is a combination, but month by month it's getting better. Better in that sense that the difference between the transported numbers is lowering, and at the same time, we have earned more money based on every lane meter. The gap is closing, and I believe that the future will be more bright. This means when cargo transportation is starting to increase again, it's in the autumn because the summer period is playing also a seasonality role in the cargo transportation.
Last year, you had two ships on the Tallinn-Stockholm route during the high season. This year, only one. What are your experiences so far from this? Is the Kapellskär-Baltiski route covering the demands?
Yes, I believe that I already answered this question and also the next one, which is written here. Once more, Tallinn-Stockholm, if one vessel is economically more efficient than Baltic Princess-Kapellskär route, there is more capacity than demand. Yeah.
That seems to be the last question. We thank everybody who joined us today for this webinar and for the questions you sent either by email or presented here in the chat function. We all wish you a good rest of the day, and we're looking forward to have you back during our third quarter results, which will be published in October 2025. Thank you again, and goodbye.