Earnings call transcript: Wallenius Wilhelmsen Q4 2024 sees record profit

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics ASA reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2024, showcasing a robust financial performance with record net profits and a strong market position. The company announced a record dividend payment, reflecting its solid financial health. According to InvestingPro data, the company offers an impressive 25.16% dividend yield, significantly above its 5-year average of 2%. The stock responded positively, with a notable increase in value.

Key Takeaways

• Wallenius Wilhelmsen achieved a record net profit of over $1 billion for 2024.
• The company declared a record dividend of $1.85 per share, paying out 73% of net profit.
• Stock price surged by 6.15% following the earnings announcement.
• Strong performance across all business segments, with significant revenue from shipping and logistics.
• Positive outlook for 2025 with expectations of continued profitable growth.

Company Performance

Wallenius Wilhelmsen demonstrated strong overall performance in 2024, with a record EBITDA of SEK 1.9 billion, marking a 5% year-over-year growth. The company’s return on capital employed reached an all-time high of 19.9%. The shipping segment generated SEK 3.9 billion in revenue, while the logistics segment contributed over SEK 1.2 billion. The government segment also performed well, with $427 million in revenue.

Financial Highlights

• Full Year 2024 EBITDA: SEK 1.9 billion (record)
• Net Profit: Over $1 billion
• Return on Capital Employed: 19.9% (all-time high)
• Dividend: $1.85 per share for 2024

Market Reaction

Following the earnings announcement, Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s stock price rose by 6.15%, closing at $8.86. This movement reflects investor confidence in the company’s robust financial performance and positive outlook. Trading at a P/E ratio of just 4.46 and showing strong profitability metrics, InvestingPro analysis suggests the stock is currently undervalued. The stock has maintained a solid position between its 52-week range of $7.39 to $12.55, with analysts setting a high target of $13.03.

Outlook & Guidance

The company anticipates 2025 to be at least as strong as 2024, with continued profitable growth. With an impressive GREAT financial health score from InvestingPro, including strong profitability and relative value scores, Wallenius Wilhelmsen is focusing on high fleet utilization and expanding its logistics footprint. The company maintains a healthy current ratio of 1.1 and is targeting net-zero emissions by 2040, aligning its operations with sustainability goals. InvestingPro subscribers have access to 6 additional key insights about the company’s financial health and growth prospects.

Executive Commentary

CEO Lasse stated, "2025 will be another strong year for Wallenius Wilhelmsen," highlighting the company’s confidence in its future performance. CFO Jan Verne added, "We have a substantial book of business that will support us," emphasizing the strength of the company’s order book.

Risks and Challenges

• Potential tariff uncertainties in the US and global markets could impact trade flows.
• Flat car production expected in 2025 may affect demand for shipping services.
• Maintaining high fleet utilization amidst changing market conditions.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the impact of potential US-Mexico tariffs, to which the company responded that the impact on EBITDA would be minimal. Questions also focused on the dividend policy expansion, reflecting the company’s strong financial position. Executives confirmed there are no plans for major vessel sales in 2025.

Full transcript - Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics ASA (WAWI) Q4 2024:

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: So I will start with a few highlights of the quarter and of the year. And starting with the quarter, we delivered an EBITDA of $452,000,000 which in historic context is a very strong year for us. That led us to a year of SEK1.9 billion in adjusted EBITDA, which is a record for Valenius Willemsen A net profit of just north of $1,000,000,000 We are now for the second half of twenty twenty four delivering a dividend of $1.24 and this accounts to about 95% of the net profit for the second half of twenty twenty four. It constitutes a regular dividend within our policy, 50% of net profit, $0.65 and then also an extraordinary profit or dividend of per share. We also renewed our book of business last year and we announced every contract above $100,000,000 and last year we announced new contracts worth $8,900,000,000 And I’ll come back to a little bit more of the details of that book.

The biggest single contract we announced, we did just before the New Year, a renewal of the Hyundai (OTC:HYMTF) IKEA contract worth USD 1,200,000,000.0 extending for five years and increasing the volume we carry for Hyundai IKEA up to 50%, a very significant milestone for us. And this is partly why we are so confident that we will have another very strong year in 2025. We also ordered two more vessels in our Schipper class and we upsized the last seven vessels. So they are now 12,100 CEU, which will be by far the biggest vessel delivered in our segment when they are starting to deliver from ’26 well, the biggest 01/27 and onwards. We announced Bjornmar Bergholm will take over as CFO from May 1, but we have an extraordinary good interim in Jaalmann and you will meet him later.

So then last but not least, we expect 2025 to be another very strong year for Valenius Wilhelmsen and we believe it will be at least in line with 2024 when it comes to EBITDA. Jumping one level down and looking at the segments, we are very happy to see that we are having strong performance in all our business segments and improving performance in all our business segments. So we had a total revenue of SEK3.9 billion in the shipping segment and an EBITDA of SEK1.6 billion last year, consistently growing over the last few years. Even stronger growth in results comes from the logistics area where we passed SEK1.2 billion, which is a big milestone for us last year in revenues and also approached SEK200 million 197,000,000 to be exact in EBITDA, also a consistent improvement. And then in the government sector, we see consistent improvement and very strong improvement also in EBITDA.

Revenues last year ended up at $427,000,000 and an EBITDA of $183,000,000 So we are standing on three very strong legs and we are certainly looking at developing these and I’ll come back a little bit to what are the particular focus with these businesses in 2025. Before that, let me pause a little bit around the dividend, which is a record dividend paid by Valenius Williamson. If you look at the total 2024, we are paying out around 73% of our net profit in dividends. And I mentioned for second half in isolation, we paid out 95% of our net profit in dividends, meaning that we’re yielding back most of the net profit to shareholders for 2024. At the right hand side, you can see that it accounts adds all the way up to 180 I can’t really read it there, it’s 85

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: or 86 I can remember,

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: 85, 1 point 8 5 dollars for the year, of which $61 was paid in second half last year. So 2024 also represented a very strong dividend in total. I mentioned the book of business. Here you can see how it adds up. We are announcing all contracts above SEK 100,000,000.

And just to be clear, we have many contracts signed in 2024 that were below SEK 100,000,000 not reported. So the real book of business is stronger than this, but these are the biggest deals we did. And as you will see, the majority of them are for five years, meaning that they will start in 2025 and go for five years or late twenty twenty four and go for five years. Then you have a good chunk with three year contracts and just a very few that are two year contracts. So this gives us a very strong book of business for the next years to come and puts us in a really good position to utilize our fleet also if we see somewhat increased or tougher competition with more vessels delivered.

If we look at the general market and as you know now we have 70% maybe even nowadays closer to 80% of what we transport and also process are cars. So that’s the most important market we’re in. The sale of cars are increasing around the world. This is the green line on the left hand side and it’s picking up and we’re now back more or less to the levels we had prior to COVID. The yellow line and this is expected to grow also into ’25.

The yellow line is the world production and that has been slowing down in ’24 and we might see a more flattish picture into ’25 on world production of cars, because we have had a big inventory. You can see that from the blue line that there’s been a big buildup of inventory around the world, which is now tried reduced. This is not the most important figure for us. Of course, well production matters, but what really matters is for the shipping segment what is moved on deep sea. And although if we have a flat year over year production in the world, we expect that the deep sea trade will continue to grow.

And this is of course mostly driven by China, which continued to grow their exports. The growth into Europe in fourth quarter was actually somewhat down, but to the rest of the world it continues to grow. And we also see that there are growth coming out of Korea and now even out of Japan, we see a growing expected growing export, in particular due to the fact that we now see that hybrids are back in demand. So in general, we still continue to see that the sale of cars transported deep sea instead of inter regional are growing faster than those produced locally. But there is of course a big but out in the market these days and you have all read the news and that’s around possible tariffs.

The first line of tariffs came in Europe around Chinese cars and EVs. And now of course the big story is what happens with U. S. Tariffs. The only thing we know is that they have added tariffs to Chinese imports.

That doesn’t affect our market. Largely speaking, there is no volume moving from China into The U. S. On cars and hardly anything on other type of equipment either. So for us that has close to zero impact.

When it comes to Mexico and Canada, it’s somewhat different. And on the left hand side, we have showed the imports of cars into The U. S. And as you can see, about half of the cars sold in The U. S.

Are produced in The U. S. Mexico is by far the biggest producer for The U. S. Market, then followed by Europe and then Japan and Korea and others.

The U. S. Is not self sustained with car production. And the other side of the coin is that you look on the right hand side, even The U. S.

Production of cars are very intertwined with the rest of the world. 61% of the parts going into car produced in The U. S. Are sourced from outside The U. S.

And if I read right, I think the number out of Mexico is around 45% on many of these models, meaning that putting in a tariff between The U. S. And Mexico and a tariff between U. S. And Canada is not a simple thing.

And it was also put on hold for a month. So this is a very complex picture, but for sure our customers tell us and we are strong in Mexico and The U. S. And I’ll come back to that, tell us that any tariff will hurt their supply chains and more than anything else immediately reduce production because it will be harder to move goods across the borders. So tariffs is the big unknown and it’s also a big unknown for us, but it’s not a simple thing to get implemented and we see that now.

So my last slide on general on the company before I move into the segments, I said I would say a little bit more what our priorities for 2025. And the main priority for us is, of course, to secure continued profitable growth of the company. And if you look at the shipping segments, the main focus we have is to sustain the high utilization and through that the high performance we have in the shipping segment. Number one is to make sure we deliver on the contracts we have. We have a very strong book of business and also make sure that our customers are nominating the volumes to us that they are supposed to do.

Then we now finally have a little bit of space to go out and sell again And we have a lot of customers, spot customers, but also customers in the breakbook segment, which are big odd stuff that we move around the world. And we are now really focusing on getting back out and securing that volume, which is really well paid. And then last but not least, to secure sustained profitability, we are continuing our work to reduce our costs and in particular the cost of energy and the energy efficiency. In logistics, we are looking at expanding our footprint and accelerate growth, of course, while still keeping profitability. We have big contracts coming up for renewal that’s very key for us to win those, but also expand into new markets.

And we announced in December that we are now taking over as the operator of the Roro Port in Gothenburg and we are working on a range of similar opportunities around the world where we are seen as a very attractive operator and manager of logistics assets. We opened officially in January the new terminal in Brunswick (NYSE:BC), which will be the biggest or is the biggest import hub and export hub for RORO in The U. S. Then we are working very hard to help our customers to become more digital, become more digital ourselves and we see an increased need for digital services and we have set up a dedicated team to work with that and we are now with 25 in a position where we hope to be able to start really delivering and scale that service line. And then of course, to maintain our profitability, we need to consistently and continuously work on operational efficiency and we see that we have room to improve standardization and efficiency on our global operation in logistics.

In government, we are the leading player in The U. S. Flag market. We will enhance that position and we will add capacity into the Atlantic trade so we can do more cargo for U. S.

Government. There is more need than we’ve been able to cover in 2024. We’re also working in that in the government sector to deliver more logistics contract, we already do, but increasing our scope way beyond shipping. And then also for that operation to work consistently with cost and energy efficiency. And then across our business, we always put safety, compliance and security first.

We will continue to do that. We are increasingly working with an integrated scope to our customers, meaning that companies increasingly outsource more of the logistics to us. We will continue that development and also we will stay flexible because we must admit that the world is much more uncertain today than just a month or two back. Then into the segments. Shipping, I’ll be brief on that.

We had another strong quarter, but we saw a reduction in volumes in the quarter, mainly driven by a strike in Korea on the production of Hyundai and Kias, meaning that we had somewhat lower volume there. And that also led to a stronger ballasting of our fleet. So we had a lower volume in the quarter. But despite that, we had a very strong development in in the rates. It looks a little bit more extreme than what it is.

And there is a note at the bottom of this slide showing that we had a one off effect from accounting changes. So the underlying TCE is $56,000 a day more or less flat quarter on quarter, while the net rate underlying net rate is $64,000 But we are consistently improving our net rate and we have some more details on that. So if you look over the last few years back since 2021, we have year over year increased our net rates significantly. The most important contribution comes from contract renewals. We are renewing contract at higher levels and more give or take $15 per CBM has increased has come from contract renewals.

And then we have two other effects meaning customer mix, which customers are we actually performing for within that year has gone up and down, but that was positive in 2024. And also the trade mix meaning that we’re able to position our fleet on the most attractive trades. That also was improved in 2024. So altogether, we have seen a consistent and strong improvement in our net rates and of course, this is also reflected now in our book of business going forward. In High and Heavy, which is one of our really secret sauces, we are the leading player in bigger, higher equipment, excavated buses, trucks over the world.

But that market has been quite soft for a while now and the loadings we had, these are our numbers for loadings in Q4, were historically low. We see this as positive, because we still fill up our vessels and there is a significant upside when the cycle comes back on high and heavy. And we know that the world has not stopped using excavator or harvesting machines. It’s just the fact that there is a slow market now and it will come back. So when this comes back, probably towards the end of twenty twenty five and into 2026, we are in a very strong position to take more high and heavy volumes.

Today, we have more or less 22%, three % of our cargo being high and heavy. Historically, this should be in the range between 3035% and we do believe that will come back in the future. The big challenge, of course, in the shipping and the one that we talk a lot about are the increasing fleet. And yes, there is a sharply increasing fleet into 2025 and into 2026, more or less 10% a year over the next two years, which of course is a significant impulse of new capacity. And I’m sure this will have an impact on the market.

But then we need to remind ourselves that we have an extremely strong book of business illustrated here by just the contracts that we have announced and how they will add to us a income over the next few years. And we have more or less fully secured the volumes we need for 2025 in our book of business and a similar number for 2026. So in general, we have a very strong book of business that should carry us over the next couple of years despite there are more vessels delivered to the market. Quickly on logistics, not too much changing quarter over quarter. We still see strong volumes in The U.

S. On the auto side, but they are softening a little bit because they are taking down inventory and producing less cars. But still for us it’s more or less flat quarter on quarter. High and heavy segment the same, but in the high and heavy segment for sure product is moving slower and we have more storage. We are more interested in adding value to a product and just keeping it.

But right now less product is moving on high and heavy and we can see that on our sites. Terminals had a seasonally bit slower quarter because we do less of this biosecurity work very much related to Australia. Big picture on logistics is that another strong quarter more or less in line with the previous quarter. And I promise to come back to our situation and position towards Mexico, Canada and The U. S.

We are, if not the leading, certainly one of the leading logistics operators in our industry in The U. S. We are sitting at the end of the factory line and doing service for most of the plants in Mexico and in several plants in The U. S. However, if you look at the exposure we have to tariffs, even if we are to discontinue all of operations in Mexico, this will have an EBITDA effect of less than NOK10 million used all around us.

So all in all, we are quite exposed to Mexico versus The U. S, but it’s not a substantial contribution to an EBITDA, but it’s certainly a substantial part of our activity. We are not involved in car production in Canada. We’re purely working on imports and exports. So we will not be affected by any tariffs between The U.

S. And Canada when it comes to car production. So last comments on sustainability. We have a very ambition plan for net zero in 02/1940, also very ambition plan for how we should get there by 02/1930. And we are very proud that this has now been verified and approved by the science Based Target (NYSE:TGT) initiative.

For those who don’t know, this is an organization that validates that the company’s plan is according to the latest science and the Paris Agreement. And we are one of very few companies that now can prove that we have a plan and a target and an ambition that is actually within the Paris Agreement and we are very proud that that’s now validated. And we are doing well. On the right hand side, you can see how our emissions are performing. We are ahead of our targets.

So even the targets toward 02/1930 of reducing by 40%, we are tracking ahead of that in terms of reducing our emissions. We are also improving year over year when it comes to safety and safety statistics. So in general, we believe we are moving in the right direction on sustainability, but let it be clear the work on both safety and on fighting emissions never stops. So with that, let’s turn to the hard facts on the numbers and Janne.

Jan Verne, CFO, Valenius Willemsen: Thank you very much, Lasse, and good morning, everybody. It’s a very good day to be here and to present the financials for the quarter and for the year. And let’s jump right into the year. 2024 was another exceptional year by just about all measures for Volendes Williamson both as a group, but that also applies to the individual business segments individually. In terms of both revenue, profitability and cash generation, we were at or very close to all time high levels.

Group EBITDA grew by 5% year over year from a very strong 2023 and return on capital employed ended at 19.9%. That’s an all time high. The Logistics and Government segments improved EBITDA with 1341% respectively And shipping also saw growth two percent in EBITDA despite the Red Sea situation and the bridge collapse in Baltimore for instance. Overall, we are in a very strong position both strategically and financially and we are paying record dividends for the financial year to our shareholders, up some 62% year over year. Zooming in on Q4.

As we guided in our December outlook statements, Q2 saw a slight comedown from a very strong Q3, mostly on shipping volumes, while still delivering at historically high levels. Revenue is relatively flat, 1% down quarter over quarter to SEK1341 billion, while EBITDA was down some 10% on the lower shipping volumes ending at SEK $452,000,000. Operating cash flow was at SEK $413,000,000 and the cash balance was reduced from approximately SEK 1,800,000,000.0 to SEK 1,400,000,000.0 over the quarter. That’s primarily due to the SEK $451,000,000 dividends we paid in October, but we also did some voluntary debt repayments in the quarter. And due to that cash reduction, net debt ticked up to SEK1758 billion at the end of the year.

Looking at our financial targets on the right hand side, you see that we’re performing well against all our target levels. In addition to our return on capital employed of almost 20%, both equity ratio and leverage ratio are looking very solid. Let’s look at the individual segments and starting with shipping. The lower volumes like Lasse said about 1,000,000 cubic meters down, about half of that is attributable to Korea and strikes in the Hyundai system, which took down volumes there. But we also saw other OEMs reduce volumes somewhat for a variety of reasons.

To some extent that is seasonal and related to OEMs taking down inventories and making space for new 2025 models. On the positive side, all time high net freight rates boosted results, but the sum of the lower volumes, lower BAF revenues and some one offs that I’ll come back to on the next slide drove EBITDA down to three seventy one million dollars for the quarter, down from $416,000,000 in Q3. High and heavy volumes were low and the cargo mix was stable quarter over quarter. Logistics revenue was flat and we saw an increase in like the low margin businesses, storage and inland transportation, while some seasonal tapering off in other areas. We had a negative effect on our Canadian business due to a new 100% tariff on Chinese imports to Canada and some lower biosecurity revenues in Australia as we saw OEMs do more precautionary measures before shipping cargo to Australia.

And we had some year end bonus accruals, which also impacted EBITDA. So EBITDA at SEK44 million in Q4, flat year over year and SEK3 million down quarter over quarter. And our Government Services segment saw a real spike in demand for U. S. Flag cargo in the quarter and Q4 is typically a slower quarter for this segment.

So that boosted EBITDA to an all time high of SEK52 million with an EBITDA margin of 48% for the quarter. Breaking down the quarter over quarter development further, here you see that the shipping volume drop gave approximately SEK63 million lower revenues, while the higher rates boosted revenues by SEK42 million. And then the fuel surcharges were down SEK24 million quarter over quarter due to lower fuel prices. And then we have this one off true up effect that Lasse talked about. So in 2024, we decommissioned an old legacy voyage management system in WW Ocean and we transitioned into one common voyage management system for the whole shipping segment.

As a consequence of this and to align our methodology for voyage estimates and accruals, we have made a one off true up of revenues and voyage costs and that’s to a large part related to prior periods and not Q4. Worth pointing out is a non cash accounting adjustment and the net EBITDA effect in Q4 is minus SEK13 million. Other Q over QF changes were quite minor, lower fuel costs due to lower prices and we saw somewhat higher SG and A due to the previously mentioned bonus accruals. Over to cash. Q4 operating cash SEK $413,000,000.

The cash conversion rate was SEK 91,000,000 for the quarter and the corresponding number for the year was 94%. We’re obviously very happy with that number. Net CapEx of SEK72 million includes about SEK48 million in yard payments on our newbuilds. The remainder is vessel dry dock and related to some other assets. And here you see net proceeds and repayments are down by $283,000,000 that is some scheduled repayments, but also a voluntary 140,000,000 reduction of drawn debt in a revolving credit facility in WW Ocean.

In addition, we exercised purchase options on two long term leases in UCOR. Under other financing items, we had a NOK 16,000,000 increase in cash collateral relating to U. S. Dollar NOK cross currency swaps for our bonds. That’s due to a weaker Norwegian krona.

And total cash collateral at year end stands at $27,000,000 And of course, in October, as I mentioned, the group paid $451,000,000 in dividends and that is the main reason for the drop in cash quarter over quarter. Which brings us to the dividends for the second half of the year. Lasse touched on this, we will pay a substantial $1.24 per share that has two components. We’re paying ordinary dividends of 50% of net profits, which gives $0.65 per share. And in addition, we are for the first time utilizing another instrument at the board’s discretion, paying extraordinary dividends of $0.59 per share on top of this.

That amounts to about $524,000,000 in total to be paid in April. And for the full year, the dividend linked to 2024 earnings will be $1.85 per share. That corresponds to about 161% of free cash flow to equity for the year. Going forward, we intend to pay high dividends at the top end of our policy range of 30% to 50% of net profit. And additionally, we intend to make extraordinary payments when our financial position allows for it.

Now it’s worth reminding that it is the cash at hand on ASSA level, WWASA level that determines dividends. We do have a somewhat complex corporate structure and cash at subsidiaries are not always directly available. As an example, UCOR of which we own 80% is restricted by Korean law to only two dividend payments per year. But we have a continued focus on freeing up cash on ASSA level. Here is to give you a quick update on the remaining CapEx commitments linked to our newbuild program.

In Q4, we declared two additional options, taking our total Schaeffer Class newbuild program to 14 vessels on order with estimated delivery between Q3 twenty twenty six and Q4 twenty twenty eight. Seven of these vessels will have a capacity of 9,300 CEUs and the remaining seven will have a capacity of 12,100 CEUs, up from the previously announced 11,700 and this leads to a slight increase in total CapEx commitments. The remainder of which now stands at approximately SEK1.5 billion and you see the payment schedule on the chart here per quarter. As previously advised, we have secured very solid pre delivery financing for six of the newbuilds all through UCOR and we expect to finance the remaining eight closer to delivery. And of those seven will sail in the WW Ocean fleet and one will be a UCOR vessel.

The balance sheet remains robust. We maintain a strong liquidity position. The equity ratio 39.5 up quarter over quarter due to the solid profit for the period. As I mentioned, net debt increased by SEK661 million that’s because of the reduced cash, but it decreased year over year as we continue to pay down debt. And the number of unencumbered vessels now stand at 25 and that number is up by three during Q4.

And last but not least, we are very happy to announce our new sustainable financing framework. Back in 2022, we introduced our first sustainable financing framework, then aiming to reduce carbon intensity by 27.5 from 2019 to 02/1930. And since we have issued some $1,500,000,000 in sustainability linked debt. The new framework is even more ambitious. It aligns with our commitment to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 02/1940.

And of course, in order to get there, we need to invest in fleet renewal, trucks, other equipments, all while transitioning to low carbon fuels. And as Dosto mentioned, these targets are now validated by the science based targets initiative. And this framework now sets out the terms under which the Wallendas Williamson Group may raise financing. And we can do it through either green proceeds debts, which is aligned with the EU taxonomy and we will consider using this to finance new dual fuel capable vessels in the future. And then alternatively, we can issue sustainability linked debt that is directly linked to our net 2,040 goals.

This is planned for more general corporate financing purposes and for any refinancing of vessels. S and P Global Ratings has issued an independent opinion affirming this framework. And you can find all the documentation on our website, if you go to Investor Relations and look under Sustainable Finance. And with that, I’ll hand it back to you, Lasse, for the prospects.

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: Thank you, Jan Verne, and I’ll be quick. I think I have mentioned most of this, but we expect 2025 to be another very strong year for Valenius Willemsen, at least in line with 2024. And this is despite the increased uncertainty that we see around the world these days and certainly that has increased over the last few months. The reason why we believe it’s going to be another strong year is that we have a very strong book of business. We have a leading position in our industry and I must say we have a unique fantastic team that goes out and fights for our customers every day.

This prospect of course is based on the fact that we are expecting to still close the deal on selling Liraat in Q1 this year. If that changes, of course, the numbers will change. We are assuming that we continue to not trade in the Red Sea. This could also change. And certainly, we have not taken in material consequences of any future tariffs that we don’t know of yet.

But in general, 2025 will be another strong year, but with somewhat higher uncertainty than what we saw in Q4 last year. So with that, I think we’re ready for some questions on this. And by the way, if you wonder, this is from our New Brunswick terminal with three beautiful vessels lying there and there is a fourth key coming up soon just ahead of the forward vessels. So it will be an amazing and is an amazing operation.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: Okay. Just as a reminder, if you have any questions, we’ll start with the online questions and then we’ll take questions from the audience. But please post questions in the webcast. First one for you, Lasse. You choose to use the dividend policy to the full extent this time.

Why haven’t you done it earlier?

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: Well, we have seen over the last few years that we have built a stronger balance sheet. We have taken significant investments in renewing our fleet. We’re now in a position where we can use our dividend or policy to the full extent. And we have said many times that we have no plan of hurting cash or becoming a bank. And we are now in a financial situation where you can start paying real substantial dividends all the way up to 95% of our net profits in the second half.

So this is purely because of the improved and the strong financial position of Wallenius Pilanes.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: Thank you. Next (LON:NXT) one for you, Jadirim. Two months ago, we issued the guidance. We’re now widening the range. Why do we do it now?

Jan Verne, CFO, Valenius Willemsen: Well, first of all, important to emphasize 2025 is going to be another great year for us. We think even stronger than 2024. But of course, I think everybody can see that the world has become somewhat more uncertain over the last two months. So that’s why we’ve slightly widened the guidance range. But look, our business will be supported in 2025 and going forward by our substantial book of business.

I mean, Lasse mentioned, just last year, we announced new contracts totaling roughly $9,000,000,000 that will boost our contract rates for the coming year. And additionally, our strong partnerships, our people and our unique assets will all position us well to secure profitable cargo in the year to come.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: Okay. Then there are several questions linked to the supplydemand balance, the growth in fleet and also to what extent do we expect that our customers are going to deliver on their cargo commitments?

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: Yes. Should I answer all that? Yes. Okay.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: Where are we going to start? Simple.

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: Well, first of all, we have of course contracts with our customers and they are obliged to deliver under those contracts. But what if our customers are having lower volumes that anticipated in the contract, typically we find good solutions with them and we move those commitments to other times or they are reduced. In general, we see that there is a strong demand still for our services. Adjusted somewhat down for 2025 as compared to what we saw at the end of last year. But as we said, we have not had a chance to sell spot and direct bulk business lately and we’re very happy that we now have a small ability to do so.

So we’re quite confident that we will have strong and high utilization also in 2025 and probably also beyond that.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: Okay. Then on logistics. You touched a bit on it, but what impact can tariffs make on our logistics operation?

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: The majority of our logistics operation is in The U. S. And in Mexico. And in Mexico, we are working within the factories. So when the car comes off the production line, it’s Valenjo Willems and people taking off the cars, doing the final processing, meaning installing stuff, loading it onto a railcar or onto a truck.

We even have a shuttle service for a vessel taking cars from the Mexican market through The U. S. Despite all of this, it has a big could have a big impact on us in terms of activity level, but not a major impact on EBITDA. We also have a very strong presence in The U. S.

In terms of factories and they are depending, as I said, a lot on Mexican parts. So it will also impact The U. S. Side of things. But altogether, we have said that unless this lasts for a very long time and really disrupts the supply chains, we do not think it will have a material impact on our overall EBITDA, but it will of course affect our activity level in Mexico and U.

S.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: Okay. Then there are a few questions around our fleet. First to you, Jermaine, what kind of a loan to value could you expect to take on to R and D boats?

Jan Verne, CFO, Valenius Willemsen: Sorry, come again. 16 to 17. Yes, 17

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: depending on the profile of the terms and also of our eagerness to gear up the fleet, but we have significant room to increase gearing our fleet and we are approaching a very low leverage in the company.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: Yes. And then on to fleet planning. First of all, are we planning to sell some of our ships during the coming years? And there’s also a question around our two remaining options. So are we going to push those into 2027 or even further?

Well,

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: in terms of selling vessels, there are no plans of selling vessels now. But of course, if we have sea vessels that are no longer fit in our operations, we would consider selling vessels, but there will not be a major sell off in ’twenty five, I would assume. When it comes to the newbuilding options, we have said that we are done with ordering vessels for delivery up to 2028 and beyond that we have not made any comments, but for now we are done with our newbuilding program and fleet renewal up until 2028.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: Okay. Then some additional questions around what kind of commitment do we have for our customers in terms of volumes? That’s kind of a big question among the investors. How would you say that? Do we have anything?

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: I would I mean, I think I would phrase it a bit general and saying that there is industrial optionality, but not market optionality, meaning that we have a contract with the customer. If they’re moving the cargo, they have to move it with us. On some lanes, even we have full exclusivity. We’re the only one moving cargo for our customers. But there is industrial optionality in the sense that if somebody if a company realizes that due to tariffs, we’re not moving product from China to Europe, but we’re moving it to somewhere else and maybe the volumes are down and we’re going to postpone it into next year, we are flexible with that.

That’s part of being a long term partner with this industry. Remember that we have done business with the same companies for decades, meaning that as long as the product moves, we will carry it under our contracts. If it doesn’t move, we try to find good solutions with our customers.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: Then on dividends, what does it take to or what financial position does support extraordinary dividends?

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: We have said that we are in a comfortable financial situation, meaning that we do not need to increase our cash position. So as long as we are able as Jarmon said to free cash up to ASR level and we’re comfortable with the cash position in ASR level, we are in a position to pay dividends on our policy and also extraordinary dividends. But we are comfortable with the financial position we have today and do not see a need for a principal increase or cash position.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: Okay. Then I guess we can open up for some questions from the audience if there are any. Do we have any questions?

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: I think they’re exhausted.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: They’re exhausted. Let’s see if there are some more questions here. I think we’ve covered it, more or less addressed most of it. Let’s just make a double check here. I think a lot of people are asking the same questions as we said around contracts.

Yes. What does it take to renegotiate? Are people going to are our customers going to renegotiate? How firm are they? And that’s kind of the whole gist of a lot of the time.

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: And we cannot speculate if companies will renegotiate. That happens. People go companies come back and ask for favors. In general, we have good terms in our contracts. We have low standing agreement with our customers and we don’t give away things unless we get something back normally.

So in general, we consider our book of business to be very solid.

Moderator/Facilitator, Valenius Willemsen: All right. Unless there are more questions, I think we’re close enough reaching Leanne. So thank you for taking part today. If you have media questions, you can talk to Ita, otherwise give us a call. And on that, have a very good day.

Thank you.

Lasse, CEO, Valenius Willemsen: Thank you.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.