TORM plc (TRMDA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon and welcome. I'd like to welcome you all to the Annual General Meeting of TORM plc. I'm Jacob Meldgaard, and I am a Director of TORM. It is now midday and as we have a quorum, I now declare the meeting for open. Here in light of the coronavirus situation and the U.K. government's current guidance on social distancing and also restrictions on travel, public gatherings, shareholders have been asked not to attend today. And here, in line with guidance from the ICSA and the City of London Law Society on the conduct of meetings, the directors have decided that in order to facilitate the proper and orderly conduct of the meeting and, of course, to ensure the safety of the people attending to it, I am attending this meeting by video call. And Chris Everard is physically present at TORM's offices. This constitutes the required quorum for the meeting. Now due to the unusual nature of this meeting, it has further been agreed that we will dispense with the traditional formalities of the meeting and focus on the legal matters requiring our attention. A video conference call has been set up for this meeting. And as set out in the notice of the meeting, shareholders cannot legally attend the meeting virtually. However, it has been agreed that those persons on the conference call today can attend the meeting informally. This is, of course, to encourage shareholder participation and engagement in line with best practice during COVID-19. At the end of this meeting, there will be an opportunity for shareholders and other attendees to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] For the records, I will now like to confirm those persons who are present on the video conference call. And present from the Board today, we have myself, Jacob Meldgaard. I'm Executive Director of TORM, as mentioned. We have, in addition, Kate Owen and Nick Lindsay, our company secretaries. And we have Christopher Everard, General Manager. Before now starting the formal proceedings, I'll provide an overview of the company and its performance during the year from the post perspective. After a highly unusual year, I am very pleased that TORM can report a solid EBITDA of $272 million for the year and on the back of the strong performance has returned $71 million in dividends to our shareholders. It further pleases me that TORM has continued to forge the path to a greener future by committing to ambitious CO2 reduction targets. As for the rest of the world, TORM has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 and here into 2021. Looking at the product tanker market, the pandemic caused a sharp decline in demand for oil products and led to stock build at an unprecedented scale. With limited inventory capacity ashore, a significant share of the global fleet of product tankers became tied up in floating storage, and freight rates temporarily jumped to all-time high levels. The market was further heated by a prolonged oil output discussion between OPEC and Russia that led to a continued high level of oil supply. Continued efforts to contain the pandemic in the second half of the year stalled the otherwise recovering oil demand and kept trade flows at low levels, which has continued into 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic, TORM has fully maintained our operation at sea and ashore, thanks to the One TORM platform, but especially due to an extraordinary and very professional effort from our crew members. While crew changes remain an issue due to travel bans and quarantine in several countries around the world, TORM has observed a very positive development since the end of the second quarter. And at the end of 2020, the percentage of crew with overdue employment is back down at a normal pre-COVID-19 level. As such, the year 2020 presented many operational and commercial challenges, and I am pleased to note that TORM's integrated operational platform was a key factor for the company to successfully navigate the extraordinary market for product tankers over the year. Again, in 2020, TORM was able to deliver best-in-class commercial performance and with TORM's focus on optimal geographic positioning of the fleet and strategic priority of trading in the spot market, the fleet was well positioned to capture a sudden market strength in the second quarter of the year. For the full year 2020, TORM realized average time charter equivalents, TCE, earnings of USD 19,800 per day versus USD 16,526 per day in 2019. This was considerably above our profit before tax breakeven level and in the top range compared to industry peers. During the year, TORM continued to renew the fleet and took delivery of 4 vessels under our newbuilding program. We purchased 2 2010-built MR vessels and ordered 2 fuel-efficient, dual-fuel ready LR2 new builds. TORM also acted when the market for older product tankers turned out favorable especially towards the end of the second quarter, and we sold 8 vessels, which were built between 1997 and 2003. Here in connection with the release of the 2020 annual report, TORM finalized the transaction with Team Tankers for the purchase of 8 2007 to 2012 built MR vessels in a partly cash, partly share-based transaction. Six of these vessels have specialized cargo tank configurations and extended tank segregations that allow for enhanced trading flexibility through chemical trading options. All 8 vessels will be operating within the existing TORM platform, and the increased scale will lower our administrative cost per earning day by approximately USD 175 per day, thereby creating annual synergies of around $5 million. During the year, TORM performed a review of the key strategic choices, business model and also organization. The review substantiated that the integrated nature of the operating platform offers intrinsic added value across TORM and is a vital element of TORM's ability to outperform the product tanker market. In a year as extraordinary as 2020, it further pleases me to note that TORM has continued and even further intensified our integration of environmental measures. At TORM, the green agenda has been an integral part of the company since it signed up for the UN Global Compact in 2009. And to quantify our future ambitions, TORM has set targets to reduce our relative CO2 emissions by a minimum of 40% by 2030 compared to 2008. We will pursue the targets by continuing the behavioral and technical optimizations, which has already enabled us to realize a 22% reduction as well as engaged in the development of next-generation fuel-efficient vessel designs with selected partners. Looking at our balance sheet, I am pleased that during 2020 we refinanced a total debt of USD 602 million, extended all material debt maturities to 2026 or later. Illustrating a further commitment to our CO2 emission reduction target, we have introduced a CO2 emission-linked price adjustment mechanism in one of our facilities. The refinancing underlines TORM's solid capital structure. During 2020, TORM made a total shareholder distribution of USD 71 million, covering earnings in the second half of 2019 and the first half of 2020. The majority of the payment was made in September 2020, when TORM paid an ordinary dividend of USD 63 million or USD 0.85 per share. In line with the company's distribution policy, the payment corresponded to 50% of net income for the 6-month period ending 30th of June 2020. Also in line with TORM's distribution policy, the Board of Directors recommends that no dividend be paid for the second half of 2020. Adding it all up, I am satisfied that our strong earnings in relation to the capital invested in TORM show that TORM is delivering industry-leading results for investors. For the full year, TORM achieved an adjusted return on invested capital, so-called ROIC, of 9.3% compared to 5.2% in 2019. Lastly, I would like to thank our seafarers and also our onshore staff for their hard work and the dedication they have shown every day throughout this challenging year. I'm confident that based on the One TORM mindset, the strong safety-first principles, TORM will continue to deliver on our promises to our customers and other stakeholders here in 2021 and obviously, for many years to come. Thank you very much on this. Now let me turn to the more formal proceeding. I would like to start the annual general meeting. The notice of meeting, together with the explanatory notes was issued on March 1, 2021. Accordingly, the requisite notice of the meeting has been given, and I therefore propose that the notice of the meeting should be taken as read. Thank you. To more accurately reflect the views of shareholders of the company, voting today will be done by way of a poll on each of the resolutions put to the meeting. And here, I am appointing Kate Owen, the company secretary, to act as scrutineer. Now due to the special nature of this meeting, no poll cards have been issued. And the proxy votes cast will reflect the final vote. And I hereby confirm that as Chairman of the annual general meeting, I will vote all proxies received as per proxy's instructions. And that in addition, I will vote in favor of all resolutions for the proxies I have discretion to do so. Here, I would like to ask you, Chris Everard, the General Manager here in TORM to confirm that as a corporate representative of OCM Njord Holding that you can also be voting in favor of all the resolutions to the extent that you are committed to do so.

I confirm I will do so.

Thank you very much, Chris. Now there were 3 options for each resolution: to vote for the proposed resolution, against the proposal solution or to withhold a vote. The vote withheld is not a vote in law and will not be counted in the calculation for the proportion of the votes for or against a resolution. The slides that will appear on your screen set out the votes, representing all of the proxies received and vote of OCM Njord Holdings. We will now proceed to vote on the resolutions, which I will formally propose to the meeting. The full text of each of the resolutions is set out in the notice of meeting, a copy of which you will have received. Resolutions 1 to 5 are proposed as ordinary resolutions. For each of those resolutions to be passed, more than half of the votes cast must be in favor of the resolution. Resolution 6 is proposed as a special resolution. For this resolution to be passed, at least 3/4 of the votes cast must be in favor of these resolutions. So let's turn to Resolution 1. And here, the first resolution is to receive and adopt the annual report and accounts for the year ending 31st December 2020. And I now propose that the annual report and accounts for the year ended 31st December 2020, be received and adopted. And I confirm that as set out in the summary, this resolution has been passed. Now come on to the next resolution, which is to seek approval of the Directors' remuneration report. I now propose that the Directors' remuneration report as set out in the annual report and accounts for the financial year ended 31st December 2020, be approved. And I confirm that as set out in the summary, this resolution has been passed. We now come on to the next resolution, which is to seek approval of the remuneration policy. And I propose that the remuneration policy as set out in the annual report and accounts for the financial year ended December 31, 2020, be approved. And here, again, I confirm that as set out in the summary, this resolution has been passed. The Board is recommending that Ernst & Young be reappointed as the auditors of the company until the conclusion of the next annual general meeting of the company and that the Directors be authorized to fix their remuneration. Resolution 4 deals with their appointment and Resolution 5 deals with the remuneration. So I now propose that Ernst & Young be appointed as auditors. In here, I can confirm that as set out in the summary, this resolution has been passed. Thank you. I propose now that the Directors be authorized to fix the auditor's remuneration. And here, again, on the Resolution 5, I confirm that as set out in this summary, the resolution has been passed. Resolution 6 is to seek approval of the updated Articles of Association. And here, I now propose that the updated Articles of Association be approved. And here, I can confirm that as set out in the summary, the resolution has been passed. That concludes the business of this meeting. The final results of meeting will be announced to the market through our regulatory information service, and it will be posted on our website as soon as practically possible. And here, I'll be happy to now answer any questions you may have. And here, on my screen at least, I am unable to identify any open questions. So with that, I thank you all for attending the annual general meeting for TORM 2020. Thank you.