Earnings Labs

Hafnia Limited (HAFN)

Q1 2025 Earnings Call· Thu, May 15, 2025

$8.80

+2.44%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Hafnia's First Quarter 2025 Financial Results Presentation. We will begin shortly. You will be brought through today's presentation by Hafnia's CEO, Mikael Skov; CFO, Perry Van Echtelt; VP Commercial, Søren Winther; and EVP Head of Investor Relations, Thomas Andersen. They will be pleased to address any questions after the presentation. Should you have any questions, you can submit them via the chat function or use the raise hand function to be unmuted to ask your question verbally. Questions will be answered at the end of the presentation. You will receive further instructions as required. During this conference call, some statements may be considered forward-looking, reflecting management's current expectations. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond Hafnia's control that could cause actual results, performance or plans to differ significantly from those expressed or implied. Additionally, this conference call does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities. With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Hafnia's CEO, Mikael Skov.

Mikael Skov

Management

Thank you, and hello everyone. I'm Mikael Skov, CEO of Hafnia. Welcome to our earnings call for the first quarter of 2025, and thank you for joining us today. With me today are our CFO, Perry Van Echtelt; our VP of Commercial, Søren Winther; and our EVP and Head of Investor Relations, Thomas Andersen. Together, we will walk you through Hafnia's performance for the quarter. Today's presentation will cover four key areas. I'll begin with a review of our first quarter performance and key highlights, followed by an overview of Hafnia and our market position. Søren will then discuss recent commercial developments and share our outlook for the product tanker market. Perry will review our financial results and capital allocation strategy. I will then conclude with an update on our ongoing sustainability initiatives and provide closing remarks. Let's move to next slide, which is Slide number 2. Before proceeding, I want to direct your attention to our Safe Harbor statement. Today's presentation will include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from these statements. This call does not constitute an offer to buy or sell securities. Thank you for your attention. Let's start the presentation. Let me begin by outlining some of the key highlights from the quarter. We now go to Slide number 4. Despite a challenging market environment, Hafnia delivered solid financial results demonstrating the resilience of our business model and operational strategy. In the first quarter of 2025, we achieved a net profit of $63.2 million, a reflection of our operational strength, amidst ongoing uncertainty. Our first quarter results reflect approximately 500 off-hire days due to scheduled drydocking and repairs, yet we still generated TCE income of 218.8 million, underscoring the strength of our core operations, even during a maintenance intensive…

Perry Van Echtelt

Management

Thanks, Søren. As Søren mentioned, geopolitical instability impacted the product tanker market during the first quarter. Nevertheless, Hafnia has effectively navigated these challenges, achieving stable earnings that reflect our operational resilience. In Q1, we generated a TCE income of $218.8 million, and additionally, our commercial pool management and bunkering businesses continue to perform well, generating earnings of $7.9 million for the quarter. That brings our adjusted EBITDA to $125.1 million, ending the quarter with a net profit of $63.2 million. With these results, we achieved a return on equity of 11.1%, and a return on invested capital of 9.6%. We continue strengthening and optimizing our balance sheet. At the end of the quarter, we had a cash balance of $188 million, with total liquidity of approximately $500 million when we include undrawn facilities of over 300 million. We've hedged 56% of our interest rate exposure at a weighted average base rate of 1.83%, and our hedging strategy has played an important role in controlling our costs in a higher interest rate environment. The strong hedge position combined with continued deleveraging will help us managing our forward interest rate risks. If we move to the next page, our delivering efforts have enabled us to significantly reduce our net debt levels over the past two years, from $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2023 to $856 million at the end of Q1 this year, while at the same time maintaining a high level of dividend payouts. While challenging market conditions have resulted in a decline in vessel values of approximately 9% since Q4 2024, we've managed to maintain a healthy LTV ratio at 24.1% at the end of this quarter. Besides maintaining our strong financial position, we are focused on effectively controlling our cost levels to enhance our cash flows and…

Mikael Skov

Management

Thank you. We're now on Slide 21. Moving on, I would like to provide insight into Hafnia's sustainability strategy and goals. As an established market leader, we recognize our responsibility in shaping a more sustainable maritime future. We actively drive the integration of sustainability principles across our operations to create a positive impact on our communities and stakeholders. Through collaboration with industry peers, regulators, international bodies, and constant engagement with stakeholders, we aim to develop long-term solutions that will effectively address the challenges facing the maritime sector. This approach enables us to not only future-proof our business, but also contribute meaningfully to the world. Slide 22. Next, we understand the importance of adapting to the dynamic global landscape, and we're actively pursuing initiatives to future-proof ourselves. We have embarked on several key strategic initiatives that we believe will play a key role in defining the maritime future. As mentioned earlier, we will soon commence operations at Seascale Energy, which, leveraging the combined strength of both Hafnia and Cargill, will transform marine fuel procurement services and benefit customers worldwide. By aligning our strategic investments with strong industry partnerships, we reinforce our position at the forefront of maritime innovation. Slide 23. Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Hafnia is operating from a position of strength. Despite navigating macro headwinds and vessel maintenance in Q1, Hafnia delivered $63.2 million in net profit while maintaining our 80% dividend payout ratio. Market fundamentals remain strong with constrained fleet supply and rebounding spot rates, offsetting geopolitical uncertainties. Our proven operational excellence and strategic investments position us to create sustainable long-term value while returning significant capital to shareholders. We remain optimistic about Hafnia's ability to capitalize on the positive trajectory of the market. This concludes our presentation. With that, I would now like to open the call for questions.

Operator

Operator

We will begin our Q&A session now. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question we have from Omar Nokta. Omar, please, can you take yourself off mute?

Omar Nokta

Analyst

All right, thank you. Hi, Mikael and team. Thanks for the update. You know, clearly, things have improved here recently. We can see that in the spot market. We see that in your bookings. And 2Q is looking a bit more positive. But I wanted to ask about the LR2s. Even though it's a relatively smaller part of your fleet, it's looking much stronger. You showed a pool average of about 53,000 for the week of May 5, which I think really stands out. Can you just give a sense of how you're trading those shifts and what's caused such a big move? Søren Winther: I guess I can take that one, Michael. You can say on the LR2s, we trade them predominantly in the Eastern hemisphere at the moment in the CPP segments and not much in the dirty trade as it is. And the $53,000 that you are seeing is a combination of good front haul legs on the tonnage. However, the market is stronger, especially in the Middle East where the function of refinery turnaround is coming to an end in the region and especially in China as we go through now. Combined with higher refinery margins due to falling crude value or flat price, now has put the LR2 market somewhere between 35,000 and 37,000 on a round-trip basis in the Eastern region. So 53,000 is a little bit high and elevated because of shorter balance decks.

Omar Nokta

Analyst

Okay, thank you. I appreciate that insight. And then maybe just a follow-up, kind of maybe a bigger picture. The Hafnia fleet is static here with no changes really since last quarter. And static, obviously, is not a bad thing. You have a significant critical mass. The JVs have been an area of growth here, but the core fleet, I guess, itself hasn't changed. Do you expect to keep things like this? Any further aim to add or sell ships or fine-tune by selling older and replacing with newer?

Mikael Skov

Management

Yes, thank you for that question, Omar. No, I mean, as you say, we were pretty active in building up the fleet back in '21, beginning of '22. And we've kind of been focusing really on harvesting on that for the last two years and as you know returning capital to shareholders rather than buying new ships. So I think our view has kind of always been the same that if there were attractive deals out there, we would look at them. But we have more been focusing on selling older tonnage during the last two years because we felt prices were attractive and as far as we're concerned, that's probably still the view right now that we're happy with what we've got. We think we have an average age of 9.1 years. We'll probably still look to offload some of the older ships as just as a normal fleet renewal. And then we'll be open if there are attractive deals. But I don't think you're going to see us here in the short term being active in buying assets as such as straight cash buys. That's not the idea. The idea is to continue to utilize what we have of a strong fleet and earning power and then return capital to shareholders.

Omar Nokta

Analyst

That sounds great. Okay. Thank you, Mikael. Thanks, team.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, Omar. I'll move on to Frode. Frode, can I ask you to please unmute yourself? Frode Mørkedal: Yes. Thank you, guys. [Indiscernible]

Operator

Operator

Frode, can you repeat your question? I think we lost you in the first part. Frode Mørkedal: I talked about the Q1 dividend decision and the fact that you left out buybacks from the return calculation was a nice surprise. I guess I had two questions on that. First, how are you thinking about buybacks in general as a capital return tool? And then second, can we take this as a sign that you will focus more on dividends going forward?

Mikael Skov

Management

Thank you for that, Frode. And yes, so basically what we have decided is that we are maintaining our dividend policy. And as far as share buybacks are concerned, then that will be more on an ad hoc basis. I think I've said before, we always discuss the two. And I think the last time we felt that the disconnect between NAV and the share price was significant. Therefore, we wanted to do a share buyback, but we both realized that particularly in these turbulent times, it's important for investors in general to have clarity. So that's why we've kind of decided that we'll stick to our dividend policy. And if we do any share buybacks, it will be in addition to that, not as a deduction. Frode Mørkedal: Okay. That's good. A second on the market, I guess. This chart you had on Page 8 is interesting, where you showed the tom days versus the chopper rates, right? So it's a pretty big disconnect there right now. And I think you mentioned that sentiment is one of the reasons why rates are lowered and the demand. So maybe you can elaborate on that if you can, and basically how you reconcile that difference? That's the question. Søren Winther: Yes, you can say the difference is a little bit difficult to reconcile. What you can you can surely say is that you're sitting about, what is it, 4% lower than the pinnacle of all markets in April last year, in terms of oil and water, which indicates a fundamental strength in the supply demand balance, given that the net addition of debt weight to the CPP market over 2025 has been limited to none, right? I think we are in a situation where charters feel more comfortable. There's not this feeling of fix today to avoid disappointment tomorrow. In that sense, you also have an owner's sphere, if you like, that is quite happy just to earn somewhere in the 30s on an LR1 and mid-high 30s on an LR2, which creates a little bit of lead to the market, which literally is the sentiment. It also tells a story about that you don't need a lot of outside factors or geopolitical intention or anything on top of this before you have a strong chance of a spike in the market. But on a general note, if you look at the spot desk here on a daily basis, you are sitting now with a position list in the Middle East that is as tight as it was in April last year. You're just not seeing the same TT, and that is what we call sentiment. Frode Mørkedal: Okay, that's good. That's at least hopeful. Thank you. Søren Winther: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, Frode. Kristoffer, may I ask you to unmute yourself?

Kristoffer Barth Skeie

Analyst

Yes. Hello, and thank you guys for taking my question. Good presentation, and it seems like really good bookings on the LR2s and MRs, especially compared to pairs. In terms of where do you see the market heading now, can you comment a bit on this OPEC plus reversal? I guess this will have an impact on the product space as well. So, do you have any view on sort of how that will impact product loadings out of the Middle East over the summer months? Søren Winther: Yes, I think there is a two-tier thing, really. Another million barrels as announced by OPEC plus really in the middle of this summer is first and foremost obviously positive on the crude tanker side, which for us means if you look at the LR2 segment deliveries this year, you are looking at 20 new deliveries and 25 ships have actually gone into the dirty trade. And the expectation would be for this trend on the equivalent side of the LR2s to go into dirty trade still, especially now that you have more volume coming on that trade. Principally, we like when the market is pushed from the top, i.e. the UFCs down to the sewers, down to the airfares, and so on and so forth, because it gives a little bit more longevity typically in the sustainable market. At the same time, when you have OPEC plus pumping out another million barrels, it also needs to be refined. And refinery margins typically go up when flat price goes down, which we are also seeing currently. That creates more trade volume, more arbitrage trades. So, fundamentally, we are more positive on the structural side for the balance on the basis of this news that is really just a week old, right?

Kristoffer Barth Skeie

Analyst

Sure, thanks. And just a quick one on pool earnings. Obviously, it's a bit more difficult to track what these handy are earning now. Can you give some flavor on what you're seeing now, especially on the handy? Søren Winther: Yes, on the handy, hang on, hang on, sorry. Just give me a split second before you caught me in my not-call market. At the moment, you're looking similar to the MRCO and the low 20s for handy. More confined market, if you like, right? I mean, it's obviously very condensed to a little bit of dirty trade in the Far East, but mainly Mediterranean and Europe.

Kristoffer Barth Skeie

Analyst

Sure. Great, that's all. Søren Winther: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, Kristoffer. I don't see any more raised hands. Just quickly checking the chat and the Q&A box. I don't see anything there either. So, we have then come to the end of today's presentation. So, thank you to everyone for attending Hafnia's first quarter financial results conference call. You can find more information available online at www.hafnia.com.