Good morning. This is Catrien van Buttingha Wichers, Investor Relations, Fugro. Thank you for dialing into this call. We issued our Q1 Trading Update this morning. Our CEO, Mark Heine, CFO, Barbara Geelen, are here. We have a short presentation. It will take us about, I think, 15 minutes or so. Afterwards, there'll be room for your questions. Okay, Mark, I'd like to turn over to you. Yes, good morning to everyone. Welcome to the Quarter One Trading Update Call. And we have here a wonderful first slide on the board of our vessel, Fugro Pioneer. We'll say a few more words about our net zero roadmap a little bit later and our commitment to sustainability and reducing our CO2 footprint. But this vessel just sailed out a couple of weeks ago after having gone through a transformation to be ready for green methanol in the future. The engines still need to be replaced, but that sounds a bit silly, but that's a relatively straightforward exercise. But all the piping and also the storage capacity for methanol is all being changed and remade ready. This is going to be a test pilot setup for us, and this is all under a program in a consortium of Dutch companies that is also subsidized by the Dutch government to really work towards green vessels. So, I thought this is a good start of this call. So, next slide, please. So the year is clearly off to a good start, and obviously, I'm happy to report that we have another quarter of growth and further margin improvement. We're successful in capturing the significant growth there in offshore wind, especially the site characterization that is required there. The market continues to be buoyant for us, especially as a result of the energy transition that is obviously on the board for many countries around the globe. Governments are still demonstrating their commitments, especially in Europe, obviously, but also in the Americas and Asia to reduce their carbon reduction roadmaps or to reduce carbon emissions and to put the roadmaps for that on the board. And that is what we also have seen in the last few months, and there's obviously a lot of discussion around the offshore wind market where projects have been canceled or postponed because many operators have negotiated, renegotiated the electricity offtake prices, which is obviously very important to have economically viable projects there. And some will be postponed or canceled completely, and we have seen that also in our business, that some things are pushed out somewhat. But at the same time, I could say that the work is still continuing across the world for many offshore wind projects. Also, the revenues, where the growth were supported by the infrastructure and the water markets that have been growing as well in the first quarter. We should say, obviously, this is a typically low winter season, and therefore we are actually very pleased with the results of 8.8% EBIT margin that is primarily driven by a very robust performance in marine. And obviously, Barbara will come back on the details there a little bit later. I think it's also good to emphasize that we're in full motion on implementing our new strategy Towards Full Potential. For instance, we're adding the capacity that we've spoken about in the past, the geotechnical vessels, the Resolve and the Resilience will get underway during the course of this season, and will support us in the geotechnical work that we have on the board. But we also hired more than 500 people already in the first quarter to support the growth in our business. Next slide, please. I think it's good to remind you on our strategy Towards Full Potential. That's the roadmap that we have also presented in the Capital Markets Day in November last year, where we have three priorities, and the main value will come from the first priority, grow and transform our current business. That basically means, growing because there's opportunities in the various markets that we serve, energy, infra, and water markets, but also, transforming the business by introducing new technologies, doing things more remotely, but also autonomously, and various other technologies that we will introduce. And then also focusing on optimizing the business, looking at reducing our leakage, but also making the whole process from A to Z more efficient. So that's where the main value in 2027 will come from. But we also want to be prepared for the future thereafter, and that means that we're looking at expanding our existing expertise in developing segments. And there are some examples given here on the board. For instance, in the water market, coastal resilience, and ocean health. We also refer to that as climate and nature work that needs to be done. And you also see here the carbon capture and storage markets. There's a lot being said about the CCUS around the world. Some people really think it cannot, developments cannot be done without it, others putting it a little bit more on the back burner. But there are still a lot of activities around the world around the CCS in the upcoming years or maybe decade. And then the last but not least, also important to prepare for the future, we want to become slightly different company, having a different profile where we also focus more on generating revenues from recurring revenue models, for instance, around data platform solutions and geodata insights that we create for our customers. Next slide, please. And here we see the overview of the strategy canvas that we also presented in November. I think it's always good as a reminder there with the ultimate purpose of Fugro to create a safe and livable world. Very important. It resonates extremely well with our people as well. We really believe in it, that the geodata that we collect map the world, model the world, and start monitoring basically what is happening with the natural environment and the built environment. And it's important that we also now include the natural environment because we also want to protect coastlines and make sure that people can live in a safe and good manner. Our values on the left, very important to us as well, and then on the right, I spoke about already the three markets, the three priorities, and also three enablers. And these enablers, and I think it's important to mention, are very important. We will continue to invest in those, and that's investing in people, technology, but also in the way we want to execute our work. Next slide, please. I promised already to come back on our net zero roadmap, and this is what is presented here on the board. We added here the SBTi logo because we just received the confirmation that our commitments that we made for our net zero on greenhouse gas emissions are now approved by SBTi Science Based Targets. That's quite important because that means that what we have on the board is now accredited, so to say, by the renowned and independent source Science Based Targets. And that means that also that our targets are in line with the 1.5-degree trajectory of the Paris Agreement, and that refers to all three scopes, so Scope 1, 2, and 3. So we have already committed in 2020 that we want to be net zero in 2035 on Scope 1 and 2. and, yeah, the majority, obviously, of the Scope 1 emissions relate to our vessels, and therefore you see the whole roadmap there on the vessels and what we're planning to do there. And that ranges from, obviously, contracting different vessels, but also the new vessels that we attracted are more fuel efficient. So that's important, but also installing hybrid solutions, so batteries on some of our vessels. And then last but not least, and most important thing, or two important things, is first and foremost the methanol conversion to go to green methanol. And that's where the pioneer, the Fugro Pioneer, comes in with this test setup to prove that this really works well, and then we can roll it out in the years to come on our other platforms. The other very important element is obviously the effort that we have to go to remote and uncrewed solutions, so platforms with no people on board. We have shown you many pictures, and obviously, we have already quite a few in the water. We now have our 18 m version of the USV also in the water, which is another step up compared to the ones that we already have operating. So, quite a few targets there, quite steep. I will spare you the details, but it's important for us to have now this accreditation of SBTi, because that proves that we're really committed and also delivering on what the world asks from companies like Fugro. With that, I close my part, and I hand over to Barbara for the finances of quarter one. Thanks, Mark, and good morning, everyone. This slide shows just the highlights, and I will make a couple of brief observations here and elaborate further when presenting the following slides. First, a few comments on growth. Revenue growth continues to be robust, although, as expected, lower than the previous two years, where growth was double-digit. Our backlog is also robust, higher than it was in December when it was 6.3%. We see a positive development there. We've also added two additional geotech vessels, which will be joining our fleet shortly, and that will allow us to continue to expand further. Overall, I would qualify the revenue and backlog developments as robust, which are supporting our 2024 outlook. Following on the margins, we had, of course, an exceptionally strong margin in the fourth quarter of last year. And, again, we can report a very solid margin of 8.8%, versus 5.4% in the quarter of last year. This is high in a typically low first quarter, as already highlighted by Mark, which is low season. You can also see that back in the utilization of the vessels. Then on cash flow on the right-hand side, operating cash flow increases by EUR 24 million to EUR 66 million for the first quarter. And as you can see in the table on the right-hand side down below, that is offset by higher working capital. And that was based on an exceptionally low level last year, when we ended the year, we can now see an increase, which I will show the bridge later. Then, on the next slide, please, we have a breakdown of the revenue per region in the top graph, and you can see there that all regions are contributing. In marine, revenue grew by 13.8%, enabled also by the expansion of the geotechnical fleet. And, as I already mentioned, the vessel utilization was 65% versus 68% in the comparable period last year. And this was also due to scheduled maintenance and lower utilization of the geophysical fleet, so we saw high activity on the geotechnical fleet. Then, while infrastructure revenue increased, if you look at the land development, the revenue on land declined by 3.5%. And this was mostly driven, as you can see in the bridge, by the Americas, and this was due to a lower number of nearshore LNG projects in the U.S. And if we look at the bottom in the EBIT bridge, for the margins, the margin expansion was driven by overall robust performance in marine, mostly in the North Sea and in geotech. This was fueled by excellent operations and execution of a number of larger contracts in March, and operational leverage. And I continue to say also because of the improved terms and conditions that we see in the markets, despite, which I do want to highlight, this still increasing cost levels. If we look at the land, the margin was lower, and this was mostly a result of, like, the revenue decline. And as I just mentioned, there were a lower number of nearshore LNG projects, which also contributed to that. Next slide, please. If we look at the free cash flow bridge, despite a 57% increase in cash flow from operations, which we are pleased about, the free cash flow declined to a EUR -58 million. You can see in the bridge here that this was largely driven by an increase in working capital, as just mentioned. And this was expected because of the low level at year-end. But also, if you look at the graph below, in the bottom left, you can see that as a percentage of 12-month revenue, the working capital was 12.8%. So if you compare it to last year, it's slightly lower, but it's still a strong uptake versus year-end. And at the publication of the full-year results, we already guided for an increase to this. This increase of working capital, I can highlight two items, which was due to Asia-Pacific, in a number of projects, and the Middle East and India, because it was the Ramadan month of March, which did not help with mainly the collections. So we can pinpoint the developments in working capital, and I can assure you that we remain focused on it because it is an important driver of free cash flow. And we continue to focus on cash conversion and ensuring that we have matching cash flows at especially at project level because that's where it starts, for example, through milestone payments and prepayments from our customers. And if we move to the outlook, as you could have read in the press release, we are reiterating our outlook for the full year. The outlook is in line with our midterm guidance, as communicated in Towards Full Potential presentation. Just want to highlight a couple of things. What does that mean? That means that we expect continued revenue growth, primarily driven by the energy markets, EBIT margin within the midterm target range of 11%-15%. It's too early in the year still to be more specific, but we can reiterate that we have indicated at the Capital Markets Day that we will continue to invest in our transformation and in particularly our key strategy enablers, as just presented again in by Mark with the strategy canvas that we have. There's a clear plan and roadmap in place there. While we at the same time we're ensuring to maintain capacity growth to cater for future demand. And that means that we will continue to invest in competitive differentiation and a gradual shift towards asset lighter and low-carbon solutions. And again, highlighted very great examples by Mark, and this results in the level of CapEx of EUR 250 million for the year 2024. Of course, it is important to mention again, we are living in an uncertain world. We're carefully navigating the macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties. Having said that, we are well-positioned to benefit from the energy transition, still the infrastructure investments that will be coming, and the climate change adaptation that needs to happen. So, with that, I would like to open up for questions. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question at this time, please press the star or asterisk key followed by the digit one on your telephone. Please ensure that the mute function on your telephone is switched off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. If you find your question has already been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star two. So again, please press star one to ask a question. We will pause for a moment to allow everyone to signal. And our first question today comes from Luuk van Beek from Degroof Petercam. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning. I have three questions. So first of all, on the growth, you mainly offshore wind is the key driver, but I was wondering, the traditional energies were also recovering last year. Is that still continuing? So can you comment on the outlook for that activity? My second question is on the rising costs that you mentioned. Do you see any significant pushback from customers when you try to pass those on in new contracts? And finally, you hired quite some new employees, and you also have inflow of a couple of new vessels. But given well, the good market outlook, are you still comfortable with your capacity availability going forward, also in the medium term? Okay. Thank you very much, Luuk, for these questions. So we'll take them one by one. Traditional energy, so then you're talking obviously oil and gas. In actual fact, went down in the first quarter compared to last year. As you know, we have communicated about that before. We don't release the details anymore on a quarter-by-quarter basis because there's too much fluctuation, and then we get all sorts of speculation, which is not really helpful. So we do that twice a year now. But I can mention to you that traditional energy came down. The only region where it went up is Asia-Pacific. And the steep growth is really in wind at sea. And then also, the other two markets, infrastructure and water, grew. So that's the first one. Then maybe on the pressure on the rise of costs, maybe, Barbara, you want to say a few words about that? Yeah. It's generally across the board, we also see that still very much in the labor market, of course, and this is a trend that we see throughout. However, having said that, we do have catered for some of that in through escalation clauses in our contracts, so that's why I highlight again terms and conditions. Having said that, this remains a point of attention and also clear communication with the customers on that. Yeah. Basically, maybe to add there is, so we spoke about price increases versus volume growth, so price versus volume. I think, as we said, also end of last year or on the full-year results, we see obviously the price increases somewhat tapering off, because yeah, you at some point in time you reach the maximum there. But we can still recharge additional costs, so that is going in the right direction. And then you have a question around the new capacity, new employees, and also vessel capacity, if we can still serve the near future. So I think we take on as much as we can at the moment. We have a limitation in how fast you can grow, so we have said we can probably add two or three geotechnical assets per year max, also to get the right people trained up. And we should not really do more than that. Can the market handle more, maybe, but obviously, competition is also adding capacity, so we continuously look at that, and we don't want to overflood the market with too much capacity because that will have price pressure again. So we're carefully monitoring this. I think, we're quite good in handling new employees, so we have also a more sophisticated training roadmap on the board, I would say, we're expanding on that side because we want to be able to handle these large sums of additional people to train them up well and to embed them perfectly well in the organization. So, that that's running, I think, quite well. So, we continue to expand on equipment. It's not only vessels, huh? We do a lot more than that. We invest in smaller equipment, also on the land side, on the USVs. So, I think there's quite a lot that we do. But there's a maximum to what you can handle as an organization also in the growth. I think we keep it well in balance. So I hope I answered your questions. Yes, that is clear. Thank you. Thank you. Up next, we have a question from Thijs Berkelder from ABN AMRO. Please go ahead. Yeah. Good morning. Congratulations with strong Q1 performance. First question is on order backlog. Europe and Asia-Pacific very strong in my view. Americas weak, probably, like you explained, because of slowdown LNG projects as well as in offshore wind. The Middle East, India also weak. Can you maybe give a bit more explanation there? Second question is on in your press release, you're saying that the conversion of the Fugro Resilience and Resolve to geotechnical vessels is nearing completion. Can you maybe specify the expected timing of the delivery? And in the same sentence, you state further boosting our earnings capacity. Can you maybe roughly quantify what the expected boost in earnings capacity is? Okay. Thank you very much, Thijs. So first on the order backlog, so, maybe a little bit more color, and I think you have received already some color indeed, in the Americas. We saw steep growth there, in 2022. No, sorry, in 2023, mixing up the years here. Sorry. In 2023, early 2023, on the LNG in the Americas. Now, there is a ban on exporting LNG now in the U.S., so that has stopped. So there are no new developments. We do expect, by the way, that ban will be lifted again in the future. Now, it's not only LNG because we also saw a flurry of nearshore activities that also normally are reported into our land business. That and that's maybe also good for everybody to take note of. That's also part of our land business, that the nearshore activities in the Americas also came down somewhat, and that is a combination of LNG and wind developments. And then in general, in the Americas, you see a postponement of a number of, or delay, I would say, a number of offshore wind developments. And that has to do with the fact that the renegotiation on all these energy prices is ongoing, and that means that majority of them have been closed out already again, and they have been sorted out. There's still a few negotiations ongoing. However, it means that all these projects are now delayed by 6-12 months. So we see the activities that we initially saw probably kicking in partly this year now being moved towards 2025. So that is something that is also visible in our backlog. Now, if you talk about the Middle East, then we have communicated end of last year or on the full-year results also that, yeah, obviously, the situation in Gaza has affected two of our projects. One of the projects would start in quarter four and would run into quarter one. The other project would start off in quarter one and would run for a couple of months. Those projects have been taken out of our backlog, so that has an effect on the backlog as well. And then last but not least, we also read about the developments in Saudi Arabia. There have been some postponements, well, not postponements. They actually canceled one project for us in Saudi Arabia related to their reduction in the long term, or not to increase their production in the long term, so to say. We do expect that project to potentially come back on the board, but this is now postponed. You also have probably picked up now recently in the news, although that is not necessarily in our backlog yet, that also some projects are changing. If you talk about NEOM, for instance, the Line is, NEOM is a lot bigger than only the Line. The Line is now largely canceled. That's city developments, but there are still many other projects that we now yeah rerouting the money to. So we'll probably see some replacement work, albeit some of the work will stop there as well. So that is basically what we have to say on the details there, Americas, Middle East. And then your next question was on the conversion of the Resolve and the Resilience. I hand over to Barbara for that. Yes. So we will have both vessels; we have them planned to be in the water, actually working for our customers in Q2. Resolve, I expect, more towards the end of Q2. We're readying these vessels, so that will be out of capacity, and they can go straight to work. And therefore, we've also made that comment in the press release. Okay. Thank you. And then you had another question around boosting earnings. There are multiple things that we can say on that because we're on the strategy side. I think, looking at multiple things that we're doing, you know, in the pillar one or the priority number one. We're also specifically looking at efficiency gains. And that plays a role there in trying to really make our operation more efficient. Last year, we managed to reduce, for instance, our leakage by 1%. And I think there's still some ways to go. And 1% leakage on the turnover generates an additional EUR 20 million bottom line. So we have initiatives like that in our strategy as well, around efficiency gains. So it's not only growth that can help driving the earnings and the operational leverage. It's also the efficiency gains that we try to look for in various programs that we have running. And then last but not least, we also feel that different technologies can help us, yeah, trying to increase the earnings capacity as well as the conversion into cash, obviously. So there are multiple things on the board, and if you all summarize them, then you can categorize them as boosting earnings. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. And we're now moving to a question from Kristof Samoy from KBC Securities. Please go ahead. Good morning. Congratulations with a good set of figures. Yeah, a lot of issues have been touched upon already, but just to make sure, in terms of backlog for marine, do you see fundamental shift in the components, traditional oil and gas versus renewable, compared to fourth quarter? Then, secondly, on fleet expansion, the Scout and Voyager, they will be refurbished as well. Can you disclose the timing of those works, when they will go into dry dock, when they will stop commercial operations, and then will be redeployed commercially? And finally, just on a general note, do you have a preference for a certain alternative marine fuel for the future, or are you rather fuel agnostic? Thank you. Okay. Very good. Thank you very much for those questions. Maybe first on the backlog and if we see major shifts compared to quarter four. I think what is important to say is, obviously, you always compare to the previous year. So, yeah, you compare quarter one now with quarter one of last year. If we go back and look at quarter four, I think the trend that we have seen is, in general, in the mid to longer term continuing. We do see traditional energy coming back on the board, but not everywhere in the world. So, you see, obviously, in Europe, a much more ambition to grow faster on the wind projects. And they have also significantly less opportunities for new oil or gas developments, and primarily gas is the transition there. So you see less new work coming up in the traditional energy in Europe- Africa. Or Africa is a different story again because that comes back on the board. But as I said, Asia-Pacific is the one that also in the first quarter grows with traditional energy. But we see also around the world in the Americas, for instance, and in the Middle East, that these projects come back on the board. That is not. That's not just a short-term thing. These energy companies are definitely going to invest again in replacing because it's a lot of replacement as well, the current production capacity that they have, because they want to stay at a certain level. So, in that sense, no major shift in our backlog, other than the trend that we see, further growth in wind and also, yeah, traditional energy coming back on the board, is simply happening. If we talk about the Scout and the Voyager, Barbara, you want to say a few words about that? Yeah. As we communicated before, we have a conversion plan. This was also one of the reasons why we actually unwound the sale and lease-back transaction from earlier years in Q3 last year. We are now readying and planning for this conversion. Now, you can imagine, these are very important vessels. That's why we also took that decision. Having said that, we're very busy. So what we're now looking at is making sure that we approach it in such a way that we can use the vessels for as long as we can in this buoyant market. We are more looking at, you know, end of 2024, 2025, and maybe we even may slot it in a little bit later. So we're maintaining flexibility, including cooperation with the business to ensure that we have, you know, the shortest time in dock, and at the same time, ensure reliability of the vessels. Yeah. And I just want to add one thing there as well, as I said it to my own people as well. We have maybe two quarters in a row, very good performance on our vessels, in quarter one, quarter four. And I warn them because when they have so many vessels in the water, my experience is that some will break down, unfortunately. So I also want to give that pre-warning. Don't be surprised that we come into the market and say, "Well, we have a problem with one of our vessels or so." So this is just normal. So, I'm sure everybody will jump all over us if this is happening, but this is just because we do a lot of work, and as Barbara says, we're very busy. We get the max out of our assets that we maintain extremely well. But where we work with vessels, there will always be problems one day. So I just want to give that general comment as well. And then the last question, you need to repeat for me because I didn't really follow that 100%. Sorry. No, no. You started your presentation with a picture of your new vessel, which is methanol propelled. What's your view on the future marine fuels for your vessels? Do you think methanol will be the ultimate winner? Is the best going forward, or what do you think of ammonia? What's the view of Fugro on alternative marine fuels? Yeah. Okay. Very good question. Okay. So basically, yeah, I think there are multiple fuels that will replace the diesel engines moving forward. And in a way, the verdict is still out what will be the winner, and I think there will be not one winner. And the thing is that you will also see ammonia solutions. You will see LNG solutions, and probably also hydrogen in the longer term as well. But it depends a lot on what type of vessel you have. By the way, as a correction, this is not a new vessel, so it's the Fugro Pioneer, probably from the top of my head, maybe seven or eight years old. And we just transformed the current setup. We have four engines on board, diesel engines, and they transform it into electric. So it's a diesel-electric setup, so it's also not burning the heavy diesels, as we know in the past. So it is already a very efficient vessel, but two of these engines will be replaced with methanol. And then we can start, yeah, experimenting, what will happen if we run on one or on one engine, two engines, maybe go from one to the other. So that's what we're going to do. The beauty of methanol for Fugro. This is a 53 m vessel, and you need roughly the same storage capacity for the fuel too, and you have a little bit less efficiency there, so you can do probably a little bit less than with diesel, but largely the same storage capacity. If you go to LNG, we have no space for LNG on that vessel. If you go to ammonia or hydrogen, then you need to cool down things. You need to have safety measures. And these vessels are too complex and too sophisticated to actually run on these fuels. So is there one winner? No. It will be all between those 3-4 fuels in the future. And some vessels will run very efficiently on LNG, and others will probably use methanol in the future. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. And from Kepler, we have André Mulder with our next question. Please go ahead. Good morning. Three questions. So first, you said that the impact of price increases is slowing a bit. At the peak, I believe it was 70/30 in terms of price and volumes. Can you give an indication what it currently is and what you see as normal? Yeah. So I don't have the exact number there, André, because we try to monitor this as best as we can. It's not a very straightforward thing. We said 70/30 indeed at some point in time, mid-March last year. And then towards the end of the year, we saw volume becoming more important. We actually communicated around the full year that probably this year volume will be the majority. So it probably will be, roughly around, the other side. So 70/30 is the right number, but then the other way around. But I just do an estimate there. Yep. Okay. On the geotech fleet, can you give us what the capacity was of that fleet at the end of 2023? And taking all the ends into account, where do we end? Yeah. So it's always a bit complex to exactly see the capacity there. But what I roughly say is that this year, we'll have for the full year. So last year, we had the second part of the year, we had two additional assets for geotech. Now, I refer always to this year, we'll have the full year, two additional assets, maybe one additional, a lease asset as well, to compare the numbers. It's difficult because one goes out halfway of the year. The other one comes in in the third quarter. So it's not so I would go with the following: two additional geotech assets for the full year this year. You only had two additional ones last the second half of last year. And then for 2025, we will have another two additional geotech assets. So we have the feeling that we're moving towards 15 and then eventually to 17, moving forward. Now, 17 is not yet on the board, but 15 is including the two that we have acquired, so the two that we have acquired in December, and that brings us to 15 geotech assets. We do see the need probably in the mid to longer term to probably add one or two more, and those can be leased. We already communicated about that in the Capital Markets Day that we will add one, two, three. So with these additional two, one was already on lease, as you know, so that is one extra, so you could expect one or two more. And then we get to 17. And lock. Okay. Then, the last question on the projects that have been taken out of the backlog. Can you give any indication what the impact has been? No. It's difficult to give an exact indication, but the projects that we had in Gaza, or not in Gaza, but close to Gaza and in Egypt, I think altogether, we're talking about EUR 20+ million, roughly, those projects together. And in Saudi Arabia, I refer to the offshore work that is postponed that we had in original. And I think it is probably, but that's not for the first quarter, but that was for 2024. That could be also roughly EUR 20 million-30 million for that project. And that was in the marine or in the land backlog? No, that's the marine element. That's the marine. Right. Okay. Thanks very much. Thank you. And up next, we have Jeremy Kincaid from Van Lanschot Kempen. Please go ahead. Good morning, all. I just have one question, actually two questions. I'm just trying to get a better understanding of how the EBITDA margin might evolve over the course of the year. So firstly, on the cost side, you know, you're talking about continued cost pressure, which surprised me slightly. Obviously, inflation's coming down. The amount of employee turnover was pretty healthy, and also energy costs are slightly lower. So I was just wondering if we could get a little bit more color around which costs you're seeing the key pressure. Yeah. So I'll hand over to Barbara. But one thing from my side, on that is I think what is important to note is that some of the cost, that has in, basically already factored into the price last year, because we expected the, for instance, personnel costs, to increase, are actually only hitting us right now. So and that is also something that you see in general if you talk, or you read the newspaper on, personnel, yeah, prices or not personnel prices, but, salary prices, increases and so on, are not in line with inflation, because it's still catching up from the previous high inflation period. So you see costs still increasing, but it's with a, basically, with a lag from the past where the inflation was very high last year and the year before, and you now see actually still people pushing through these additional costs. So it is a little bit counterintuitive in that sense because, indeed, the inflation has come down, but the costs are still continue to be high. Now, most of it is already factored in into our pricing last year, and therefore, we had a really good result because we didn't really have all these costs already. But that can erode a little bit the margin, moving forward, if you haven't factored in everything. But maybe Barbara has anything else to add? Well, I would maybe one point, Mark, is to add that we have been growing our asset base to adjust to growth as well. And that also you see in the OpEx bill from a maintenance perspective. So, that is also something that you can take into consideration when thinking about the EBITDA margin. And what I would also say is that, as I presented in the Capital Markets Day, it's good to remind ourselves that we are investing in people, in technology. So, that also, you know, not everything is, for example, capitalized what we do in innovation, clearly. So, that is what you see happening as well. Sure. And then a second question, just on margins. Could you provide some color around what the margins are on your, you know, the revenues from your geotechnical vessels? Is it materially different from the rest of the activities in the marine division? Yeah. So, I'm going to disappoint you there because we're not going to release those details. We have just the normal overall margin that we'll communicate on, region by region. So this is the way that we feel that this is best to communicate to the outside world. And I do understand, obviously, that you would like to see all those differences, but we're not releasing those. Okay. Understood. Thanks for your time. Thank you. Thank you, Jeremy. And our next question now comes from Quirijn Mulder from ING. Please go ahead. Yeah. Good morning, everyone. A couple of questions. And there may be a remark on the Pioneer. I think the vessel is 10 years old because it was just before the downturn, acquired. But fine. I think I have a couple of questions. First of all, if I look at the earnings growth in the first quarter 2024, it looked to me that marine EMEA was maybe responsible for more than 80% of the increase. Is that correct or not? And then my second question for Barbara on the working capital. So was it, so the relationship is the last quarter of 2023. Wasn't it that you had some prepayments or whatsoever that had an impact on this quarter at the end because you had to do work and, yeah, you didn't get paid because they had paid already before? My third question is with regard to the breakdown in terms of renewables against oil and gas. Is it correct that renewables was in the first quarter relatively high compared to last year? So maybe in the direction of, I would say 40% in the first quarter given that oil was needed sometime to start it. And then my final question is, with regard to the preparation for the season, did you hire extra capacity in terms of vessels outside the geotechnical ones? Yeah. That's why my question. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you very much. So start with the last element. So, obviously, we're ramping up now for the season. And what we see, and we spoke about that already, that Americas is slowing down on the marine side somewhat because of postponement of these wind projects that have been somewhat delayed. So we see less requirement in high demand for vessel capacity in the Americas. However, to the contrary, we see a high demand in Europe, as well as Asia- Pacific. So we're also moving actually an asset now from the Americas to Europe again. But Europe is obviously ramping up for the season. So they're now contracting additional capacity, short-term leases, and so on. So that's just in the midst of it. So in that sense, yes, we will attract, but that's more short-term. We might look at the midterm, geotech. As you know, if we need additional geotech capacity, then we need to do that for a few years, because one season that doesn't pay off for the modifications that we have to put for geotech. So, that is basically on the capacity side. Then I'll work my way back a little bit on your questions there. Renewables, you asked, is it correct that it's high? And I think you're moving in the right direction, Quirijn. Let me put it like that. So, indeed, renewables grew very steeply in the first quarter compared to last year first quarter. And then I hand over to Barbara for the question around prepayments and working capital there. Yeah. So, the step of the working capital and of EUR 91 million was. You relate that to the prepayments that we've already received? I think the biggest, of course, we are pushing for prepayments as well as we can. We'll book them. Has that a major impact on the working capital in Q1? I think I would like to answer that question a little bit different in terms of that it's mostly driven by also the low year-end, as you rightfully point out and as I pointed out, but also due to the Ramadan in the Middle East month. That was in March. That was from a timing perspective not great for the collections. Some projects in Asia. So that is more driving the working capital than the prepayments. Then on your question on the earnings, if Europe- Africa is then responsible, I communicated about. I explained the bridge, where you can see that clearly the growth in marine is strongest in revenue in Europe- Africa, but all the other regions have also contributed to the EBIT. So I think 80% is a little bit on the high end. All the regions contributed in marine. Yeah. And it's good to emphasize again that also for us, actually, three out of the four regions performed well compared to what we initially expected, so to say. So that's maybe good to say. And the Middle East stayed behind somewhat due to the things that we already mentioned before. Okay. My final question on the order book of the Far East increased by 24%. And you said that's oil and gas. Is that not wind? No, no. I didn't say it's oil and gas. I said the two things Quirijn. I said, oil and gas, the only region that grew on oil and gas in quarter one is Asia- Pacific. So that's one thing. Secondly, Asia- Pacific is growing in oil and gas and wind. You have seen us announcing the Inpex project in Indonesia, which is a large project for the region there. So that has impact on their backlog growth. And that is obviously a gas project. So in that sense, gas and CCS, by the way, is a combination of gas and CCS. And that is obviously having an impact on the backlog. But they also have wind projects in Japan and in other countries popping up now. So in actual fact, the region there, Asia- Pacific, is growing quite rapidly, and will continue to pick up, yeah, the buoyant activity of the wind and also the traditional energy market. Okay. So this 24% increase in the order take intake is wind and oil and gas related, including Abadi? That's what I understood. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And our final question for today comes from Thomas Martin from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Hi. Good morning. Just three questions. Firstly, so in the first quarter, you've got revenues growth, and you've got strong margins, and you've noted broad trends of sort of slowing pricing growth. On the revenue side, are clients undertaking more activity in offshore wind in the first quarter of the year given the overall increased activity levels across the industry? And do you think, you know, is this a trend that is, is, continuing into the future, or are there any one-off drivers this year? Secondly, on the margin side, I think you pointed to some project closeouts in the first quarter and noted that, obviously, you've had strong execution, presumably in a period where you might perhaps include some contingency for poor weather in the first quarter. So is there an element of kind of windfall margin contribution during the fourth quarter during the first quarter from this? And, you know, was weather overall helpful to you in the first quarter? I mean, final quick clarification, I guess. You know, presumably, we're looking at a sort of flatter quarter-on-quarter margin profile this year than prior years. You know, historically, you would have a weak Q1 in particular and, you know, great strength in the summer. Do you think that that profile relative profile is going to be flatter this year than prior years or not? Okay. Thank you very much for the questions. So the first question is around activity from the clients still growing in their demand. If this is over time stopping? I cannot basically confirm that because I think that what we see currently is that there's still a very high demand and ambition, so to say, from governments to grow renewables projects. And yes, it is an immature market in that sense. And yes, it will have a lot of hurdles, and it will go up and down. But it's still continuing. And we have also communicated a number of times before that we believe that it is actually not realistic what these governments put on the board. We cannot, as an industry, deliver to their expectations. So the expectation and the ambition of the governments is quite a bit higher than what the industry, including the operators, can actually deliver. So even if it comes down somewhat, I think the activities will be still high. So that is what I can say. So it might come down. You might see some projects canceled, but I still think there is a lot on the board and a lot happening. And then again, that's the beauty of Fugro. If it doesn't happen on the renewable side, it might happen on a gas project because the world needs energy. So that's one thing maybe to say. And then you asked a question around the quarter one in particular that we were efficient in executing some of the projects and the closeouts. I think it's fair to say that we have been very efficient in executing some of the projects. And that means that, obviously, that helps us in closing out these projects earlier. In actual fact, we had a vessel that closed out a project so much earlier that it was on standby thereafter. It's not a problem because we got paid for the work. But it does mean that we don't have any risk in the field anymore. So then you have a good project result. Correct. So that has an effect. We cannot say that there was overly good weather in the first quarter or so and that that had a fantastic effect on the first quarter. But efficient execution on some projects, in particular on the geotech side, has helped us there, in particular in Europe- Africa, but also in the other regions. And then I think the margin, if it's flattening or will be flatter this year, I don't necessarily see a reason to think that you will not see a pattern that we normally show with higher returns in the high season and lower returns in the off-season being quarter one, quarter four, where quarter one is normally the lowest. And we have had a good quarter one. That doesn't mean that this can always be like this, but it is a good start of the year. I think we can assume that at least the next two quarters are busy quarters for Fugro. Great. Thanks. Could I just follow up on one thing? On offshore wind, are you seeing any increased appetite from customers to actually try and book more of that activity in the first quarter of the year? Given the market's overall tighter lots of activity, are people, you know, deliberately trying to creep into the Q1, Q4 areas with volume with more volume for you? Yeah. I mean, clients are obviously trying to get capacity for their projects. So we do see a move where clients try to book capacity further in advance. I think clients are not very keen to do certain type of work. For instance, geophysical work where you collect data with sound, it is difficult if you have very rough sea because you will not get the high-quality data that you require. Geotechnical work can sometimes continue if it's not too bad. So that's what we also have seen now in the first quarter, that we did more geotechnical work than the year before in the first quarter. But we had low activity on the geophysical vessels. So I think clients will still be very careful. Having said that, I think they're also keen to have the capacity. So we have also a slightly different conversation with clients where they book further in advance capacity, but ideally for the good season. Okay. Then that will end the session of questions. So thank you very much for all the questions and for attending. And we wish you all a good day.