James Fisher and Sons plc (FSJ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining James Fisher and Sons' 2024 Interim Results. Before we start today's presentation, I'll outline some of the logistics, including Q&A. We do have captions available on today's call, and these can be switched on and off within your Zoom settings, but please be aware they are automated and can sometimes contain errors. If you do have a question today, then please use the raise hand function during the Q&A section, where you'll be allowed to unmute and ask your question in person. Alternatively, you can click on the Q&A box and type your question. Finally, please note the disclaimer on Slide 2. And with that, I'll hand over to our Chief Executive, Jean Vernet. Jean, please go ahead.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our 2024 interim results earnings call. I am pleased to be joined by our Chief Financial Officer, Karen Hayzen-Smith, and together, we will provide an update on our business turnaround and a program to reduce our net debt in support of a stronger, more sustainable business. I will start by working through our 1H '24 business highlights aligned to our transformation strategy. Karen will then provide an overview of our financial results at group and division levels which are an outcome of the work we are doing on our turnaround. I will then provide a strategic update and a market outlook. So let's start with the highlights from our first half of the year. We are now about halfway through our business turnaround, and we are making progress through focus and simplification. Our first half performance was in line with expectations. While revenue was down 12.1% year-on-year, underlying operating profit was up by 20% and mainly due to the closure of Subtech Europe in December 2023 and the sale of associated noncore assets. This reflects our strategy to focus investment on the core business portfolio and target the value chain of our customers within attractive markets. I'm encouraged to see improvement towards operating profit and return on capital employed strategic hurdle rates. This is driven by strong capital discipline and good performance in well services, tankships and submarine rescue platforms, which [Audio Gap] cover in detail shortly. Importantly, we have taken steps to significantly reduce our net debt level for the sale of noncore businesses with an aggregate net cash proceed of GBP 100 million realized in 2024. These transactions move us closer to our targeted range of 1 to 1.5x net debt to EBITDA and provide the opportunity to refinance our revolving credit facility on more favorable terms and this is critical for the company's growth strategy. Our functional strengthening is progressing as well with a few -- with a full executive team now in place who drives forward our company priorities. We have made further improvements to our legal and financial foundations this year, together with a sustained drive to improve safety, supply chain integration and people programs. I will cover this later in the strategic section. For now, we have continued to improve cash management and collection. We've been methodical in allocating capital across the group, aligned with high-value markets such as bubble curtains, air compressors and dual-fuel tankers. We have also started the integration of supply chain and embarked on new product development that will tackle critical customer challenges. I will now hand over to Karen, who will walk us through more of this in our financial results.

Thank you, Jean, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to be presenting today what I believe to be a solid set of results for the first 6 months of the year. I feel we have made good progress on our key priorities and in building our financial strength as a result of deleveraging. We have also improved cash management and profitability. I'll start with some of the headlines. And these show steady progress in the journey to meet our key performance targets. As I trail back in April, revenue in '24 was expected to reduce from business closures, which has resulted in an overall reduction of 12% compared with the prior year. However, if we adjust for those closures, sales would be more or less flat on the prior year. We have seen good growth in some product lines, offset by temporary decline in others. Operating profit was up 20% with a margin of 7.6%, which I'll discuss in more detail shortly. Net debt was just under GBP 145 million on a covenant basis when we take account of leases and payment guarantees to give a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 2.6 at 30th of June. In July, our net debt has, of course, reduced further towards our target range with the proceeds of RMSpumptools being used to pay down debt. And net debt is expected to be around GBP 65 million by the end of the year. Lastly, ROCE also increased to 7.5% and which is a 200 basis point uplift, reflecting our continued focus on profitability and tightening up on contract discipline as well as improvements in working capital. If we turn to the next slide and look at revenue in a bit more detail, and this slide shows the split of revenue from RMS separately from the other businesses in the period. As I said, revenue declined year-on-year due to the impact of the closure of Subtech Europe and lost revenue from the activities related to the Swordfish vessel, which was operating in the IRM part of the business, this vessel stopped being used in December '23. Excluding RMS, revenue was more or less flat year-on-year, although there was feeding movements, as I said, across the product lines. There was good revenue growth in the well services product line, which also includes bubble curtain, offset by a reduction in Fendercare revenue, mainly as a result of a quieter LNG market. Moving on to operating profit. We saw an increase in profit to GBP 16.8 million with a margin of 7.6%. This was due to the curtailing of the GBP 2.4 million losses in Subtech Europe which was offset by a GBP 0.9 million reduction in profit from activities in the Swordfish. We have also been reviewing our asset portfolio and sold assets in the life of field business which generated a gain of just over GBP 3 million. It is normal for the assets to be transacted in the business, but we have called this out given the higher normal gain on sale due to a combination of good market demand and a catch-up in the volume of sales. However, this upside was offset by losses in the subsea and decommissioning business. As we've highlighted previously, this market is challenging, and we are attempting to increase our penetration in this market and build a track record. There was a modest uptick in sales year-on-year, but this was insufficient to reduce the loss, and we continue to work on the turnaround plan. Corporate costs increased by just under GBP 2 million to GBP 6 million on the prior year, reflecting the increased investment in capabilities outlined at the '23 results but the costs are weighted to the first half due to expenditure on various improvement initiatives. As with the revenue slide, we have shown the RMS business separately to illustrate impact. As you're aware, RMS is a reasonably high-margin business. And excluding RMS, the operating margin would be just over 5%. And we also announced the disposal of Martek, which completed last week, which will have an impact in the second half. Given the disposals made this year and the fact we had a smaller business, we are currently focused on reviewing our overall cost base. We have made savings this year, and we'll continue to do so throughout the rest of the year and into '25. We will, however, balance these actions with a desire to build capabilities and ensure we have a platform for growth. Therefore, overall, we're expecting an uplift in profitability in the second half from increased revenue on the Mozambique contract, which will recover from its lower start from increased defense activities, which are in progress together with an uptick in Fendercare and, of course, lower costs. If we now turn to look across the various divisions, and I'll start with energy. Overall performance across the Energy division was solid, but with some variation. Although revenue was down around 18%, if we adjust for closures, revenue actually increased by 8%. Well services, as I said, put in another good performance in the first 6 months increasing revenue by over 14%. Revenue increased in the offshore wind construction part of the business, which now accounts for approximately 35% of revenue, which was up from 30% in '23. And we continue to see strong demand in both oil and gas and renewables and across in existing markets in the Middle East and Africa and in our newer markets of Taiwan and the U.S. In the renewables product line, revenue declined by GBP 4 million as a result of the completion of 2 larger projects last year. And inspection repair and maintenance experienced a reduction in revenue from GBP 33 million to just under GBP 26 million as a result of returning the Swordfish vessel. This accounted for a GBP 13 million drop, which was offset by growth in Brazil and in Africa, mainly due to the contract in Mozambique, revenue from which is expected to increase further in the second half. And RMS had a strong 6 months before being sold in early July. And lastly, as I outlined in the earlier slide, decommissioning has continued to be challenging, both in terms of customers delaying project time lines and in the execution of contracts in the year. And the turnaround is in progress with an aim to return this business to profitability. So if we move on to defense, revenue was fairly flat at GBP 37 million year-on-year with a small decline in operating profit. And the story in Defense is similar to the prior year with strong performance in the commercial diving activities and submarine rescue services, but with performance impacted by the delay in larger contract wins. Though these pipeline opportunities are currently moving though through tendering processes, but they have not yet been awarded. Therefore, overall, we continue to experience high interest from customers in the development of our new products and an [Audio Gap] bidding activity levels across our global customer base. And lastly, if we turn to maritime transport, the division had a solid performance in tankships but Fendercare was impacted in the first 6 months by market conditions. In Tankships, revenue was up 2% year-on-year as a result of improved rates and good utilization. Rates in the spot market business, although they were down on the prior year, have held up well, and this accounts for about 20% of the business. And as we highlighted at the results in April, the LNG market has been slow following a period of high stock builds, coupled with milder winters, which has impacted revenue, which is down just under 17%. Brazil continues to be an important market for Fendercare with STS transfers achieving strong margins, albeit somewhat impacted by weather conditions. We have also experienced phasing delays in the Fender product business with several contracts being pushed back to the second half of the year and we are expecting an improved performance provided the LNG market ticks up in the second half. And lastly, the Cattedown business also had a strong first half with increased activities. I'll now turn to some of the other areas of the income statement. Finance charges were up from GBP 8.7 million to GBP 14 million as a result of the higher interest cost and fees in our bank facilities. The [Audio Gap] interest cost of GBP 9.4 million, deferred financing fees of GBP 2.2 million and GBP 1.8 million of lease interest. The tax expense on underlying profits from our continuing operations for the year is GBP 1.3 million, representing an underlying effective tax rate of 29.5% higher than 23% as a result of activities and higher tax jurisdictions. If we turn to the statutory reported figures, we have experienced several nonrecurring items during the year, but these have reduced significantly from the prior year. We continue to incur advisory costs related to managing our RCF facilities of GBP 2.5 million, which compared to the prior year is at a much lower run rate and these are expected to continue until our facilities are refinanced. Restructuring costs were GBP 0.4 million in the period related to the turnaround in management reorganizations, and the disposal of businesses and assets includes GBP 4.2 million of adviser fees in relation to the disposal of RMS, and we have also incurred additional costs that will be recognized in the second half. These costs are offset by a gain on the assets sold from the Subtech Europe closure. Turning to cash flow, and I'll just pick out a few points of note here. Working capital continues to be well managed, and we saw a net working capital inflow of GBP 12.2 million as a result of improved cash collections, including some advanced payments, the improved cash collection also reflected in DSO days, which dropped to 59 days. Net interest paid was GBP 8.1 million with an average interest cost of around 10.4%, the details of which I'd outlined earlier, namely the GBP 9.4 million of bank interest cost set off by interest income. CapEx including development expenditure was GBP 17.6 million. This included investment in further compressors to meet our continuing demand and deposits on the tankships rebuild program. Net disposal proceeds in the period of GBP 14.2 million related to the disposal of the Subtech Europe business and the Life of Field assets. This gave an overall net debt movement inflow of GBP 9.3 million, taking net debt to GBP 134.9 million, obviously before the debt reduction from the sale of RMS and Martek. As we outlined previously, deleveraging was our top priority, and we have continued to strengthen our balance sheet. Net debt for covenant purposes was just under GBP 145 million. As mentioned earlier, this gives a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 2.6x within our revised covenant levels. This is a drop in the prior year as we use cash from disposals to pay down debt, together with improved working capital inflows. Our committed facilities have also dropped due to repayments, bringing it to GBP 198 million at 30th of June. And the facility has now been reduced further from disposals. Therefore, overall, in H2, we are trending towards our target net debt range. As you're aware, our existing facilities mature in March '25, and we are well [Audio Gap] financing these on more favorable terms and with less restrictions. And we will, of course, update on this as we finalize in due course. So if we now turn to look at the full year guidance, we expect results to be in line with expectations with a strong second half. Our core markets are positive and holding up well. There are a few areas on watch such as the LNG market being subject to market conditions, as I outlined earlier, and of course, the phasing of defense contract wins. The refinancing is progressing well, and we expect a 150 basis point improvement on interest cost moving forward. And then just a few points of technical guidance to finish. '24 revenue should also be adjusted for about another GBP 20 million related to Subtech Europe, affiliate impact of GBP 40 million. RMS contributed GBP 22.8 million of revenue and GBP 6.7 million of EBITDA in the first half, and Martek contributed GBP 5.6 million of revenue and GBP 0.5 million EBITDA in H1. Capital and development expenditure is expected at the same levels as '23 at around GBP 30 million. And on tax, we continue to guide to an effective tax rate of around 29%. Therefore, overall, the first half was in line with our expectations. Profitability improved from various turnaround actions and following the disposal of RMS and paying down debt, we have strengthened the balance sheet. There is, of course, still room for improvement in performance from self-help and productivity initiatives, turning around underperforming businesses, which are not meeting our hurdle rates of 10% operating profit and 15% ROCE and building a platform to support growth. I will, of course, answer questions shortly, but I'll now hand back to Jean to take us through the rest of the presentation.

Thank you very much, Karen. As we go through our transformation journey, we are making good progress on the turnaround. In 2024, our overriding priority is to improve our financial position by significantly delevering the group. This has been achieved by completing the sale of RMS and paying down debt by about GBP 83 million in July 2023 -- 2024 sorry, taking us closer towards our target debt range. And as Karen mentioned earlier, the refinancing of our RCF is progressing well and will be completed in due course on improved terms. Our end markets remain supportive with a stable long-term customer base whose needs to drive a robust demand for our products and services as reflected by a healthy order book and pipeline. While there were challenges in the first half of the year, overall, we are moving in the right direction and our growth pillars around people, innovation and geographical reach will remain central to our long-term growth strategy. In assessing our portfolio, we seek greater cohesion and simplification while pruning out underperforming activities with little strategic prospects. The executive team is leading our company priorities and driving a business model that brings more productivity, standardization and resource sharing. The culture of accountability is part of our functional strengthening, in particular, for legal, finance and HR. At the same time, we continue to strengthen our business platform and standardized core processes such as PMO and supply chain. We also have started building up our capabilities around innovation and talent management. Through our turnaround, we have adopted a set of unified company objectives. And I'll now turn to the progress we have made so far this year. Safety is our #1 priority. Earlier this year, we implemented a company-wide training platform and a reporting tool with 89% of our employees now trained on our lifesaving rules. Following a strong [Audio Gap] for the year, we experienced some mixed performance in the second quarter and are now intensifying our efforts. Although we have more work to do, we are determined to deliver long-term cultural change across all our activities in safety. We significantly delivered our balance sheet and strengthened our financial, legal and compliance function. An end-to-end review of group policies and procedures is due to be completed by the end of 2024. While our investment committee is now well embedded and is a key element on our pathway to deliver a 10% operating margin. When it comes to people, a comprehensive job-leveling and career program is underway to build a strong and talented workforce. Attrition and gender diversity metrics help us pace our efforts in that regard. Employee engagement is also key in guiding our efforts to ensure empowerment and motivation of our people. We have launched additional activities, including senior level change management training to help everyone adapt at the level and speed required. Finally, supply chain integration is a critical path to our turnaround. Earlier this year, we launched 2 new initiatives that will strengthen the group's supply chain, reduce cost and increase efficiency. This is also critical to delivering our strategic targets which I'll move on to now. We have 4 tactical levers in achieving our 10% OP target. The first one is a self-help efficiency and cost saving program. The objective is to calibrate the SG&A quantum after divesting RMS while designing an effective organization to support future profitable growth, following a shared services model. Work is already underway through functions and divisions, which we'll update you at the full year. The second lever is to continue improving business unit performance. All business units are required to achieve or exceed our hurdle rates with specific plans in place for each underperforming unit. This is enhanced by the pulling of mobile assets' field personnel globally, particularly within energy. We also see cross-divisional collaboration opportunities within energy and Fendercare in Latin America or between defense and energy in Australia and Northeast Asia. The third lever will be triggered by the Defense division, which is working very hard to resume top line growth. While revenue was behind forecast in 1H '24, their pipeline is strong, and we expect healthy productivity once new contracts are awarded. Finally, again, supply chain integration was kick started this year and is critical to reducing our cost base, improving delivery and supporting future growth. We have already started in supply chain to engage with our top 60 suppliers who will form the core of our long-term partnership. Overall, we have a defined pathway to deliver our strategic targets while we strengthen the quality of our services across all businesses. Now let's turn to the market outlook. In energy, oil and gas and offshore wind demand are set to increase through the next decade. Oil and gas CapEx is forecast at about [ $610 billion ] in 2024 and set to remain at similar rates through 2028. Declining U.S. onshore activity and rig counts means that offshore well services will benefit from tailwinds. This positions us well for growth in our emerging markets of Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, where difficult access to renewable means there is an increasing demand for oil and gas. Offshore wind, installed capacity continues to grow exponentially with construction set to add an additional 120 gigawatts by 2030, excluding China. Operations and maintenance is also forecast to grow by EUR 7.5 billion per year through 2029. When combined, these trends present significant potential in our core markets of Europe, Asia Pacific and North America, aligned with our geographical growth plans. Now in Defense, global investment spend is forecast to increase across all regions, especially for underwater capabilities and systems. The U.S. is by far the largest defense market with investment of GBP 2.6 trillion expected in cumulation between 2024 and 2033. And while Europe and Asia Pacific see significant acceleration in spend. Across regions, James Fisher's key strengths are aligned with next-generation submarines and special forces needs. We see continued potential both in our home markets and across new target regions underpinned by fast product development of novel first-to-market solutions. In maritime transport, global vessel supply is tightening, pointing out to a robust long-term demand for our tankship fleet. The economic crisis back in 2008, and the underinvestment in newbuild vessels since then mean there has been a limited supply of new vessels built since 2010. Investing in our fleet replacement program was the right decision for James Fisher. Now let's turn to our customer base. We have a robust, stable base of blue-chip customers. As you can see from the slides, our top 10 customers in each market stay with us as long-term partners. Customer engagement averages 14 years across all divisions with some customer relationships going beyond 40 years. It demonstrates that we are a trusted partner for our customers, and this is a testimony to the quality of our revenue. We will continue to serve our customer needs while benefiting from the synergies that exist between our 3 market verticals. On that note, let's turn to how we will deliver our growth strategy. As I mentioned on the market outlook slide, we see growth in both existing and new markets. The mission of the Energy division is to make a difference in its contribution to the energy transition by bringing innovative offshore wind solutions to solve industry problems and by demonstrating superior service quality. At the same time, we continue to serve oil and gas customers in becoming more efficient and more sustainable. We are now in offshore wind, the leading provider of Marine bubble curtain solutions in the U.S., and we see greater potential in our unique cable guardian service, which reduces costly downtime after cable failures. There is also a fertile ground for technologies in offshore wind that provide opportunities for our condition-based monitoring and digital solutions. This comes from our digital twin ring bundling technology that enables remote services and support, which could also be applied across our maritime transport division. In defense, subsea deterrence has become a dominant theme. Our defense business maintains its market-leading position in submarine rescue systems with greater potential in light of the AUKUS treaty. This is why we are expanding our programs in the U.K., Australia and the United States, while building a wider presence in the Indo-Pacific region. Our agility in supporting special forces, in providing mobility solution and live support diving systems is being recognized across partner nations. At the same time, a market leadership in deepwater diving allows us to accompany the changing needs across saturation diving and hyperbaric rescue services. In maritime transport, we are the leading European provider of coastal shipping services for petroleum products, and we have been testing other regional markets with similar high safety and quality requirements, in particular in the Caribbeans. While our ship-to-ship transfer business has seen some seasonal impact this year, the demand for both oil and LNG service remains. Our focus is on maintaining our market position while targeting growth in several regions, including Asia and Latin America. Let's turn to our geographical reach in the next slide. Today, we operate in over 25 countries worldwide, and our strategy remains centered on targeted growth areas. Across all divisions, we see this is centered around the U.K. and Europe, North and Latin America, Asia and India. This will allow us to drive greater business synergies while pulling our mobile assets and field operators globally in a service delivery model aligned to our core customer markets. In conclusion, results for the first half were in line with expectation, with further progress on our turnaround strategy. The sale of RMSpumptools and Martek has moved us towards a more adequate capital structure in the net debt over EBITDA range of 1 to 1.5x, allowing us to seek improved terms for our refinancing later this year. This provides us with a stable funding to support our strategic journey. We are focused on delivering our 2024 company's priorities, particularly exceptional safety and supply chain integration. Across all 3 divisions, we continue to see supportive end markets with a long-term customer base that is positioning us for the future. Our framework for continued delivery is based on 3 pillars: our people, innovation and targeted geographical growth, and these will drive the second phase of our turnaround. We have concluded our half year '24 presentation, and we will now take questions. Back to you, Matt.

[Operator Instructions] Our first raised hand comes from Thomas Rands. I'm afraid we can't hear Thomas at the moment, but we do have another raised hand from Alex Paterson.

Can you hear me okay?

We can hear you, Alex.

Excellent. I was just going to ask, can you say regarding [Audio Gap] is it possible to give a bit of a road map to improvement? What kind of things are you hoping for in terms of market? It sounds like you'd quite like a cold winter. But are there any other things that would help there? And also, is there much self-help left that you can do? And then similarly, on defense, I wonder if you can talk a bit more about the contract pipeline, what possible things might happen, what kind of things are going on in that side?

All right. So in terms of road map for improvement on the energy side, so on the oil and gas side, we continue to see the well service offshore market demand being strong. I mean I know that you've seen in the macro news that the oil price is very volatile, but the continued energy demand, geopolitical tension, offset by some fear of a downturn in the U.S. All these come at play, but overall, we see this market being sustained. And we are well positioned from the different bases -- the basins, offshore basins where this is taking place. In terms of the offshore wind, this is secular, as I said, exponential growth in my prepared remarks. When you just look at the level of investment commitment from countries around the world, and in the aftermarket, again, what we serve in terms of needs are where the customer face challenges, namely the places where things are not perfect, things are breaking down, are deteriorating and are raising costs for our customers. So we specifically serve those needs. And we see this continuing over the next many years. So I'm very encouraged by the prospects around the energy sector, which is overall driven by a macro increase in demand, whether it comes from renewable or from fossil fuels. Defense in terms for us of order book, we are very active on all fronts. We have quite a rich series of activities going on in parallel both on the OEM side, so new contracts, new product delivery as well as the renewal of long-term service contracts. As you know, Alex, some of the timing of these awards are beyond our control. But I think we are quite well positioned to land some of them in the near term, in the short to near term. In terms of what can we do to your other questions, generally speaking, in terms of self-help, it's really the continuation of our approach that we've adopted over the past 1.5 years, which is concentrate on the places where we are underperforming. I think I made it clear before and we have demonstrated that when we see no hope of reaching our hurdle rates for particular business units, we will either monetize or divest the unit. But for some of them, it's just a matter of fixing the issues and investing in the future, right? So we have very specific plans for each one of them. And then we have a long series of things we are working on to be more efficient as a group across the various divisions, the various business units. As you know, we come from a very fragmented organization to a more integrated organization and that is a journey, right? And we are kind of in the middle of it. And I expect accumulated effect to not just calibrate the cost to our current size of revenue but also in a way that allows us to flex growth in the future, right. Anything to add? You want to take this one?

We're going to try and go back to Thomas Rands.

Can you hear me this time?

We can.

The first one is just on the RCF kind of timing. I appreciate it's commercially sensitive to talk about kind of when it's coming. We were all hoping it was maybe going to come today. But just a high-level question around the complexity of the discussions and knowing that in the past, the previous or the current deal has, I think, 6 banks on the syndicate, is that something you were looking to reduce to kind of reduce the overall complexity in the new scheme? And is that part of the kind of the reason why it's taking a while to kind of get over the line [Technical Difficulty]. I can take them individually or I can fire them all off. How would you like to take it?

I'll take that one now, and then we can go to your other questions, Tom. So yes, as we've said, the refinancing is very advanced in our discussions. We only disposed of RMSpumptools at the beginning of July. And that obviously, as we said, gave us the base to start the various discussions with the banks and those have been ongoing. In terms of our banking group, as we go into the new RCF that may change slightly. We had socialized before that some of our banks may have wanted to exit, some wanted to exit just because they're exiting, for example, the U.K. market, for instance. So there will be a slight change in our banking group. As we've also said, we're negotiating the terms of the RCF. The one that we're in currently has a number of restrictions given the level of debt that we had. So we're expecting to see improvements in our terms to get back on track to what would be a more normalized RCF. So we'll be updating on that in due course, Tom, but well advanced.

Second question, apologies if this was asked by Alex because I had to cut off and redial in. On Defense, I believe there's a new kind of a management team coming on in there and it feels like you're more confident of the kind of the tendering pipeline quality going forward. Can you give us any more kind of color on those management changes, how involved have you been, Jean, in the kind of the tendering kind of discussions and the technical kind of innovation that you've been working on to help kind of assure us that, that pipeline has a high probability of conversion even if the timing is a little uncertain?

Yes. So as I mentioned to Alex before, for defense, we have a series of things going on in parallel, covering our various activities in defense from submarine rescue to mobility solution and rebreathers and the like. So there is a diversity of things going on in parallel, both addressing the sale of new products, I mean, OEM sales as well as renewal of service contracts. So the diversity and the breadth of what's going on gives me comfort. I would say, in addition to this, that some of those opportunities are well advanced. We are in single bidder positions so I would say the timing is determined by the pace of the customer more than anything. In terms of management change, so I would say it's -- first of all, I'd like to give kudos to the team, past and current of JFD, this is a very long-term type of business, complex sales, very intricate and more than a question of individual change, it's a question of building a team with complementary skills so I think with -- since Rob Hales has been in the leadership, we have gradually cemented the capabilities of the team, supplemented by JFS Group talents that we brought in. And I would say that JFD's success is a combination of quite experienced sales and commercial teams maybe having a method, which is more systematic now and a method of engagement. But this is supplemented also by additional skills across [Audio Gap] in terms of new product development with the advent of our Chief Technology Officer, who started at the beginning of the year. And across the board, operational expertise crossing from engineering, manufacturing, supply chain. And as we are looking for acceleration in these markets and quantum as we go to larger markets such as the United States, our ability to scale on big orders is going to be critical for our future. So I think across all those expertise, the JFD team is preparing itself to what's coming.

And just the third question, if I may, sorry to hog the mic. I see the Mozambique project is kind of coming back and you mentioned it is generating revenues in the second half. Given the history of the Mozambique project and the disruption it's seen in the past. How are you managing the risks there with the client given historic disruption on this project? And also what the upside in the future because historically, it was always talked about, this was an initial beachhead effectively. And then those other opportunities beyond. But is that something you're still interested in?

Right. So I would say that over the history, the major risk in that country has been a security risk with the insurgencies out there more than anything. And after multiple security review from both client and ourselves, the client determined that it was the right time to kickstart again this project across all their supply chain. We we started together with them again. We are a critical path to what they need. I guess what we have made sure is that we would put quite senior talent on our side to make sure that this contract was kicked off again on the right foot. And reflecting all the improvements we've made around PMO, supply chain, project management that has been kind of our priority since 2023. What makes me comfortable and confident that we are doing the right thing is so far, these deliveries on this contract have been on time. We have suffered from delay from the overall project from the customer side. This is -- this explains a little bit some of the movement from H1 to H2. But overall, when it comes to project management and our delivery performance, it has been as expected. Now in terms of the future, as I said, over my strategic section earlier, we will continue to be involved in businesses where we can really make a difference, right? So our selection of projects and allocation of capital and resources will be made on the basis of do we bring something unique to the customer where we can bring value that we can monetize. This is really around that. So I'm not going to comment on this or that particular project, but in the case of Mozambique, it's clear that the quality of our service and what we have delivered so far has been to the satisfaction of the customer.

Great. I have a third one, but I will let someone else ask questions. And maybe come back to me if that's possible.

Our next raised hand is from Gert Zonneveld.

Can you hear me?

We can, yes.

Good. Just a few questions from me, if that's okay. Firstly, in terms of the disposals of noncore businesses and asset sales, do you anticipate any further disposals in the near term? Secondly -- I'll just give you the 3 questions in a row, I guess, and then you can answer them one to one. Secondly, regarding the path forward to meeting your underlying operating profit margin of 10%, could you maybe elaborate a little bit on the potential time line in terms of achieving this target? And finally, you recently signed contracts for new -- for 4 new product tankers to be delivered, I think in '26. Do you anticipate any more orders to be placed in the next 12 months as part of your rebuild program? And furthermore, sort of presumably these new tankers command a rate premium over the ones they are replacing? Maybe if you could give us an indication of whether that's the case or not.

Yes. All right. So let me take the first question. When we started this 1.5 years ago, I made very clear that anything which would not be marine engineering service, which is our core focus was a candidate for divestitures. And I think by and large, we have achieved this. Along the way, we have also looked at people -- business units, which are underperforming with little prospect to have a -- reach the hurdle rates because of the supply and demand or type of markets we were in, which was more commoditized. And this we have either monetized or discontinued so I would say that as we go forward, we will increase the pace of our expectation in terms of reaching our hurdle rate. So the scrutiny is intensifying but the second thing we are looking at is really the fit, the fit of the portfolio so that we can really allocate our resources where we have the best chance of not just winning, but also scaling to a different level, right? So as normal as in any other company, we will constantly look at the portfolio and look at what we're investing in, what we are maybe harvesting and what we are pruning out. But this is as much as I can comment on this. I try to lay out the direction of our future around service expertise, service delivery through our people. Differentiation, being bold on the technology side and global reach, right? And also trying to point out that there are convergences between some of our verticals between defense and energy, for example, or between transport and defense. So we will really encourage in everything we do on our portfolio the -- building stronger synergies. On the -- maybe I'll take -- why don't you take the second question, the time line. Yes.

Sure. Thanks, Gert. So on the time line, you'll have seen that there are various levers, as Jean outlined, and they're working under different time lines. So you will see that some of the self-help we have been doing, and we'll continue to undertake that through '24 and then to '25. The supply chain has been kicked off, and that started in '24. And again, I would see that going into '25. The defense rebound, again, as we said, there's a good pipeline there, and that should start to tick up as those contracts come into play. And also on the underperforming business area, as we said, we've been reviewing the whole portfolio across the group and determining the actions that need to be taken. So really, from a time line perspective, it's all work in progress across the 4 levers, and we would be expecting to see the improvements come through as part of our turnaround journey.

And then on the last point around tankship, so we have several factors going on there. One is the age of the fleet. As you know, Gert, in Northwest Europe, the ships have a 20-year life expectancy and then we have to change them. So there is that part of the equation. And yes, we will continue to review and replace and modernize our fleet as needed. But then there is another consideration, which is requirement for being much more efficient, much cleaner, zero carbon emission or much lower carbon emission so as we invest in those new vessels, we expect significant change around cost management, efficiency of -- costs, when I mentioned cost, I mean OpEx efficiency of vessels and a lower carbon footprint, also equipping those vessels with a bunch of technology, which help us have a much closer management and monitoring of those assets. And then the other consideration is in the particular markets we are in, as I said during my remarks, there is a disconnect between supply and demand, although demand in the space we are in is flattish. The number of supply vessels is rapidly declining. This is an industry fact. And so it's a good market to be in, right? So these are the different economic consideration we are looking at. We have extremely good rating from our customers, relationship of trust built over many, many decades. And with that in mind, like any other investment we're doing, we're taking into account how this capital investment or commitment, how do they meet or exceed our hurdle rates. So yes, some part of this equation is cyclical, as you pointed out. Vessels are hot commodities those days. So we take that into account. And we are not going to run after every rabbit if it doesn't make sense, right? So I think this is where -- the combination of a good understanding of the strategic merit of this market for us with our investment committee guidelines is where we make our decisions.

Tom, we do have time for another question, if you do have another one, please.

Just a quick question on bubble curtains. Just thinking obviously, you've got good contract wins in North America, and you've talked previously around opportunities in Asia and potentially in Europe as well. Just wondering, kind of given the unique proposition you have and you've invested in, in the new fleet of contractors as well last year and this year. How much visibility do you have to kind of bouncing from North America to Asia to Europe to utilize those assets as efficiently as possible and drive kind of the growth in that high margin or higher-margin business, please?

Yes. So great question. So we manage those fleet of compressors globally. When I say pulling of assets, that's what I mean. We look at these markets globally, they are mobile and we ship them from one place to the other as needed, right? So that makes them more -- very efficient. A dimension that is accretive to this is our teams are very successful in the quality of their service. So they are learning a lot as they go. And because we have an excellent track record in saving days for our customers, this increase the available time for our assets. So we get from our assets some pretty impressive utilization rates. And the way I'm thinking about this investment is 2 ways. First of all, these compressors have a great life ahead of us -- ahead of them to serve the offshore wind market in their current application. But they also can always be, along the way, repurposed to serve other markets like oil and gas, right? So they could be repurposed if at any point in time, this bubble curtain market was to shift. And then finally, and that's the beauty of James Fisher, our people are super innovative. And we can see some other applications which we might want to share when we do an Investor Day, of this very technology of bubble curtain to a completely different application in the marine environment. So just on the offshore wind current application, the payback we have on those assets is quite attractive. But we have ways to derisk even further these assets in other markets.

We have no more raised hands. So thank you, everyone, for joining. This now concludes today's session, and we hope you have a lovely day. Thank you.

Thank you very much, everyone, for your time.

Thank you.