Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Webbinarium. My name is Valdo Kalm. I'm the CEO of the company, and Andrus Ait is our CFO. But let's start with the main events from Q3. On positive side, it's still nice to follow the passenger number is growing. There was few ships, but the growth is there. The tourists from Finland and Sweden visiting us, and that's definitely good news. For us, extremely important was the event in Paldiski Harbour, where we put the cornerstone to our new quay to serve in a future wind farms, the maintenance and also establishment of this business. It's definitely growth area in coming years for us. Then we got the order for additional trips for our ferry regular.
We had a bit different summer for Botnica, this year, and we served also Equinor and British Petroleum. The charter days cumulatively will be similar as last year, but maybe the profitability of this project were lower due to the additional cost. But again, for future, it's excellent test, and we really did good job, and we had good cooperation with biggest energy company in the Scandinavia, Equinor, and of course, with British Petroleum. Therefore, that's very important. And of course, Baffinland, it's our partner in Canada, and Botnica just now serves Baffinland there.
Very important was already in Q1 and Q2, but specifically in Q3, efficiency program, and what we achieved so far, we managed to lower our total cost by 3%, if you compare Q3 this year and last year, and - 7% in maintenance and materials. Also, we lowered staff by 4% in a group. But as we have to keep personnel in our shipping companies, then the decrease of personnel in mother company was 7%. Of course, that doesn't show up immediately. The effect comes more for next year. It's still in focus, I mean, the efficiency program by the end of this year, and of course, in such an environment, it's ongoing.
We had a change in management board of the shipping. There is new CEO, Vahur Ausmees, in a board. Vahur has excellent experience from captain career in Tallink. We hope that he adds value to our offshore business. We had a biggest evacuation exercise ever at Muuga, called CREVEX, and that went well for us and for our operators. We also announced that Minister of Climate will be the administrator of state shares. We also got a Green Key certificate for cruise terminal. Maybe some ongoing developments, events. As I mentioned, for us, new quay in Paldiski is very important. The construction is ongoing, but we had a price increase, and we informed that also publicly.
But important is that, that, process is ongoing and, there will be some delays, but hopefully we will be ready on 2025 with, with new quay. Then there was extension of my contract starting from, next year, March, and we had winner for passenger terminal A, from architectural contest, and now it's time for design. It takes year, maybe more, and, and then probably we'll be planning to, to execute that also. Very important for us are also to signing the new operation contract for Pakri Harbour in, in Paldiski area, and that's really a quite virtual operating. It, it goes into force in coming month, and hopefully, that shows maybe the, the new business model for the future.
Also, the state announced the procurement for ferry services for the next period, and now we have time to prepare it for the offer. Main trends by segments. I mentioned that passenger number increased. There was a fewer number of vessels, but the number of passengers increased, and that also continues in October. We hope that the Q4 will be by the development of Christmas campaigns also successful. Therefore, we hope to achieve by the end of the year 8 million passengers. On cargo, decline is still there, 30%, and that's due to the sanctions to Russia. Maybe the positive thing, but not maybe, but that's the fact that the number of vessels stayed stable, but revenue decreased due to the cargo fees.
Ferry business is very stable, even in small increase due to the additional trips and indexation. And as I mentioned, Paldiski revenue declined in Q3, but by the end of the year, we will have quite stable volumes. Here are the numbers. More precisely on passenger side, as I already mentioned, we hope that this year will end with 8 million passengers. That's in our prognosis. On cargo side, decrease is more than 30%. In coming month, we will have smaller decrease because the basis is smaller from last year, but important is that the number of vessel is stable. Ferry business is very stable.
We believe also by the end of the year, the similar number of passenger vehicles than last year, even it will be hopefully on a pre-COVID period level. Icebreaker Botnica shows also by the end of the year, stable charter days number. Future outlook. In this quite turbulence times, it's very important to focus definitely on cost side. Therefore, we still would decrease the personnel cost for the end of the year and for next year, and also working on maintenance cost. It's not so easy to cut the cost because we have to maintain our quays, but there are some possibilities, and also there are some possibilities to prolong the period for the maintenance.
We believe that passenger business will show the recovery by the end of the year and also next year, although there will be negative impact from our recession to our cargo business, mainly because Estonian export, import shows decrease, and that affects our Ro-Ro and container business. But it's really difficult to say what kind of trends we will see next year. We working on new Ro-Ro lines because we have capacity still in Muuga, and we can maybe add some extra days in Paldiski also, although Paldiski Port is very busy already. And we working also with offshore wind farms maintenance fleet analysis. Offshore business globally and also in Europe increasing, shows very good developments. It's due to the green agenda and some other aspects due to the new wind farms in Europe.
Therefore, we very carefully analyzing to invest to the fleet of new offshore ships. No decisions yet, but we'll have definitely some good business plan in place in the beginning of the next year. And we're preparing for start our real estate business, hopefully next year. Yes, again, this remote control port operation in Pakrineeme probably will give us more opportunities and more experience how to very efficiently and basically virtually operate the port. Now, Andrus, you...
Thank you, Kaido. I go on with the financial results. In the third quarter, this year, revenue decreased by 13.5% and amounted to EUR 31.4 million. It was mainly involved with a lower number of cargo ship calls, but we also had less cruise ships. Decrease there was about 51%. Also, the price of electricity was significantly lower compared to the same period last year, and also consumption of electricity because of lower cargo volumes. And also the number of charter days of Botnica was lower because July was vacant or idle period for Botnica.
Last year, the ship operated full quarter was chartered out, and from that also, we gained negative impact. Slight positive growth came from ferry business, which is very stable, and also from a higher number of passengers. But this impact remain lower compared to the decrease in other revenue streams. Adjusted EBIT decreased by 25% in the Q3, but the decline here was lower in euros than revenue level. We managed to reduce the costs mainly operating expenditures. And due to that, the impact here was in euros, lower than on revenue level. Adjusted EBITDA was adjusted EBITDA margin was 43% and lowered by 6.6 percentage points.
Income tax, we didn't pay any dividends in Q3, and therefore, we didn't pay income tax. Profit for the period was EUR 5.9 million, and drop was there -50%. In addition to the decline on EBIT level, profit was also impacted by higher financial costs. We paid more interest because of higher Euribor. We invested in Q3 EUR 4.7 million, which is 37% more than last year. Those investments were mainly made in Old City Harbour and Muuga Harbour, where we reconstructed the harbour facilities and infrastructure.
On nine-month period, the revenue decreased by 5% and amounted to EUR 88.6 million. The main negative impact was in Q3 because of less cruise ship calls. We had also this year a quite good first quarter as we had a record number of vessels operating on Tallinna-Helsinki route and also the reference base in last year was lower in terms of number of passengers. Therefore, the growth in first quarter and also on the first half of the year was better. Adjusted EBIT decreased by 17% and amounted to 39 million euros.
Here we had also one-off effect in May. Botnica was docked, and we made a non-capitalized repairs there, and this impact was about more than EUR 1 million. So this is more like one-off effect this year. But also on nine-month period, the overall costs increased, but already in Q3, we achieved the decline in costs. Operating profit was EUR 20 million and decreased 29%. Income tax we paid EUR 2.9 million according to the amount of dividend. We paid out EUR 90 million this year and EUR 25 million last year, and this explained the difference between income tax.
Profit for the period was EUR 13 million and decreased by 45.6% on nine-month period. And here also, like in Q3, that the Euribor level has impacted the financial costs, and due to that, also we had higher costs. Investments, we invested almost EUR 11 million. In the first half of the year, we completed surrounding area of Terminal T and also two-story ramp in Muuga. In Q3, we had in connection with the Paldiski wind farm quay, kind of slowdown because of technical reasons. But fourth quarter should be the investment level already higher, and this project is going by the plans.
By the end of the year, the number, this number, the investment level, should be significantly higher. Here are the results by business segments. In the third quarter, ferry segment was the one where the revenue increased, also the EBITDA increased. This segment is very stable. There was a bit more trips, and also indexation impacted the growth. In passenger harbor segment, revenue decreased by EUR 2.3 million, and it is primarily involved with a low number of cruise ship calls. In cargo harbor segment, the trend continues, which started already in the beginning of this year. The revenue decreased because of lower cargo volumes and less cargo ship calls.
In the other segment, the revenue remained lower because the July Botnica wasn't chartered out, and this is why the revenue is lower this year. And also, we had extra costs to improve and prepare the ship for those summer works for Equinor and with BP. And therefore, the cost level was higher, and those also some rental costs or lease expenditure was there. So therefore, also the EBITDA has decreased, and EBIT has decreased more than revenue. On nine-month period, revenue increased in ferry segment and in the other segment. The ferry segment, same reasons as in Q3 go also for nine-month period, indexation and more trips.
In the segment other, we received the revenue was higher from those summer charter works, although the number of charter dates was a bit lower, but also the cost level was higher. Like I mentioned, in May, we had dockworks in Antalya, and in connection with that, we made also current repairs, and this also impacted the costs. In passenger harbor segment, the drop was mainly in the Q3 because of cruise ship calls, and cargo harbor has declined throughout the nine months. So, this is also the picture which you have seen already in previous quarters. On cash flow side, we see that cash from operating activities has decreased.
Receipts from sales has decreased, and payments to the suppliers increased due to lower revenue and because of higher costs. Cash used in investing activities was -EUR 9.4 million, reflecting the investment level. Actually, last year, we invested more, but then we also received EU grant money. Therefore, the effect on the cash flow statement was more positive last year. Cash from financial activities was -EUR 31 million. That has decreased. We have made loan repayments, but at the same time, we have paid more interest, but paid out less dividends.
So those effects impact this number. And net cash flow was - EUR 6.5 million, and net debt at the end of period decreased by EUR 17 million because of loan repayments, and we had also a bit more cash on our bank accounts than last year by the end of nine month. On financial position, the picture is quite the same as it was in the end of last year. So we have paid back loans and then reimbursed more bonds, and then depreciation has impacted the non-current assets. But
Generally, we can say that this picture is quite the same as in the end of last year. So with that, I would conclude the presentation. We will make a short break, and we'll be soon back to answer your questions. Thank you.
Thank you for the questions. We will start with some questions that we got in advance, and the first question is about our cargo volumes in comparison with other ports. And the question was, if we compare 2018 and this year, six months. Yes, we benchmark us with other ports, cargo ports in Baltic Sea, and there are actually quite a heavy competition between 30 ports, and on 2019, we had tenth position. And this year, we staying on eleventh position.
The change here came from the sanctions to Russia. Ventspils was bigger than us in 2019, due to the liquid bulk volumes, they had biggest drop, therefore they lost their position. But Hamina-Kotka and Helsinki keep quite a stable numbers. They now have a better position than us. That means we are basically on a same position what we had on 2019. Overall, the decrease of cargo was more than 10%.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, the second questions, these questions, what we comment is sent up front. I will read the second question: Should the Port of Tallinn consider buy back the shares to the stock exchange system? A smaller payback does not significantly weaken the share capital, but it allows those who wish to exit their position in Tallinna Sadam.
I would say that we have analyzed to buy back some part of the shares, but we didn't decided it because we have ongoing growth projects which needs investments. And we see the growth in the future through the those growth projects, and therefore we concentrate more on this, and we also pay dividends, stand behind our dividends promises. So we hope that the results will be better in coming years. So currently, we haven't decided to buy back the shares from stock exchange.
All right. Thank you, Andrus. Then there is a question: Does management board has the plan how to increase the price share in the future?
I would give some major actions. In short, definitely, we're focusing on cost and efficiency. As we already said, that there are some effects in place in Q3. There will be some activities in Q4, and definitely in the beginning of the year. That means to basically protect and start to increase the EBITDA next year. That's first thing. In longer term, we working on three bigger growth projects. That's the key for wind farms maintenance and implementation. Secondly, we're analyzing very carefully to really invest to the new offshore ship.
No decisions yet, but again, we will be ready in Q1, and then real estate in our industrial parks and around the old city hub, where we hopefully will see the first revenues in 2025. With that, we hope to improve our financials, plus we would like to definitely keep the dividend promise. With that, we hopefully will increase also the share price step by step in these difficult times.
Mm-hmm. How-
As well?
Mm-hmm.
Just a minute. Okay.
Okay. How long,
Yeah. Then how long this decline in total cargo volumes will last? As the biggest drop due to the war happened this year, we believe that in a more stabilized picture in a first half of next year, because liquid bulk is gone. It's now all about how will Ro-Ro and container business developing. If there will be more stabilized picture in export, import in a first half of year, then we believe also stabilization on that. Therefore, we believe that first half of the year shows more stable development on cargo.
Okay, next question. Cost savings were 3%, and under inflation in Q3. Have you been able to handle the remaining part of inflation by pricing increases?
Actually, we haven't planned any extraordinary price increases because we are open to the competition on Baltic Sea. There are some revenue streams which we can index according to the inflation, for example, building titles and
... So rental revenue, but when it comes to the next year, we see that the revenue, there are a good foundation for a revenue increase because of the decision of Tallink, Victoria is back and operating Tallinn-Helsinki route. And, and we started to operate Pakri Harbour. So we have some revenues which will increase in the future, but we haven't planned price increases.
All right, next question: Can we still expect an improvement for annual EBITDA for the next year, or it's more negative? Our ambition is definitely to improve the EBITDA level for next year. It's due to the efficiency programs, plus more stabilizing situation on cargo. Therefore, yes, ambition is there, and just now we're working on prognosis and the budget, and the task is there also to improve the EBITDA.
Yeah, Putas. What could be the amount of total investment in 2023 and 2024? The investment level for nine month was about EUR 11 million, so we expect that it will be around EUR 20 million. It depends in large scale from the Paldiski quay construction. And these projects is open also to weather condition and so on. But we estimate that level should be about EUR 20 million. And for the next year we see that it's more than EUR 40 million.
What's the outlook for liquid bulk, dry bulk, and Ro-Ro volumes in Q4, and also possibly in 2024? In liquid bulk, we see the decrease is lower by the end of the year, around 20%, because the last year basis already was lower. On dry bulk, we believe certain increase. And on Ro-Ro, also, we believe some smaller decrease due to the Estonian export decrease. On next year's prognosis, as we mentioned, we will have quite similar liquid bulk numbers because it's basically dropped already. The transit part was very huge of that, but we believe on stabilization of other bulks next year.
How much room do you have to cut your personnel expenses further from the level in Q3? Yeah, we expect certain degrees because as we mentioned, that we decrease the number of personnel, and effect of that will come next year. Also, there are of course some other activities, but all in all, we will have in our prognosis to decrease the personnel expenses by a couple of percentage, not more. Can you remind us what's the total size in square meters of building rights that you will have the areas in real estate development? All in all, if you take all the plots here in Old City Harbour, then it planned on level 400,000 sq m .
It's a huge amount, and definitely we will develop it step by step.
Can you provide guidance for 2024 dividend payment? We have said that we stand behind our dividend promise. We pay out at least 70% of our net profit, but we see that this number could be also higher for some years. The final decision is made by general meeting. But there is probability that this number is higher than 70% and higher than 100% of net profit.
Yes. That's it. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your trust, and see you next time.
Thank you.