Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the MPC Container Ships Investor Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Constantin Baack. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you, moderator, and good morning, everyone. This is Constantin Baack. I'm CEO of MPC Container Ships, and I would like to welcome you to this company and market update webcast. We have issued a stock market announcement yesterday, including, an accompanying presentation for this conference call, both of which are available on the investor relations section of our website. Please be advised that the material provided and our discussion today contain forward-looking statements and indicative figures. Actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied by forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with our business. On that note, I would like to kick off the presentation, with slide number three, with an executive summary of some of the key market parameters, as well as the latest corporate developments. Let's start with the market. The container market has started even stronger in 2022 than it has ended in 2021. Various indices, such as the ConTex Index, are at historical highs. Furthermore, this is quite a shift over the past four to six weeks actually. We have seen more and more forward fixtures in the market. Vessels usually get extended 20-30 days prior to expiry of a charter. We are now looking at somewhere close to 300 days, which reflects a sharp increase from one month to more than nine months ahead of charter expiry. More on that phenomenon later on. Looking at MPCC, I can report that we have completed our balance sheet optimization in December 2021 and now look at more than 30 unencumbered vessels, providing a lot of flexibility. One more vessel from our 50/50 JV has been sold in the meantime, and we have furthermore, in the course of the past few weeks, concluded several additional multi-year time charters at attractive rates, in most cases, quite in advance of the actual charter expiry. Consequently, the revenue and EBITDA backlog has increased to $1.2 billion on the revenue side and more than $850 million in terms of EBITDA backlog. Finally, we have now completed the handover of the six vessels that we had agreed to sell end of last year, providing significant event distribution capacity or event-driven distribution capacity of around $150 million-$160 million, or roughly NOK 3 per share. More on that later on. As communicated last year, the emphasis is on capital allocation and will be placed on executing our distribution plan. We have hence convened an EGM for end of January in order to implement the distribution plan and obtain the authority from the shareholders to pay dividends in order to commence returning capital to investors shortly. Now, let me turn to slide five, where I would like to start with a market update. It is worth noting, as I mentioned earlier, that the year has indeed started stronger than the last year has ended, and that is fairly unique for this time of the year, to have a very strong and fairly active year. Starting with some key parameters, box rates, secondhand prices, and charter rates, as illustrated on this slide. In the top left, we illustrate the freight rates and freight volumes, which are at historical highs. In addition, the periods for freight contracts, which is not illustrated on that slide, but it's important to note, have become longer as well. Today, three-year contracts are being fixed at fixed prices, and previously, usually two and three were index-linked. This provides more visibility for our customers, the liners. Continuing with the S&P market and secondhand prices on the top right, you can see that the secondhand prices have also increased. This is the example of a 15-year-old, 2,800 TEU vessel, and here you can see that the market continues to rise on the back of improving parameters, including charter rates and periods. On that note, if you look at the bottom left, you can see the time charter rate index, ConTex, which is ConTex index and others are illustrating a similar picture. We look at very high levels. What you can see there is there was a slight bend in the curve in November, December last year. However, it is worth to note that all these indices in general only reflect short-term contracts, so six-12-month time charter contracts. Hence this kind of softening in the market that is basically indicated by this line must be put in context because it is somewhat misleading. The main reason for that is that the general structure of the charter market has changed and we are moving from a half-year to twelve-month spot market towards a forward market with longer periods. Hence, you know, the longer period market has actually continued to increase, as can be illustrated by some of the fixtures that we have concluded, and some of the fixtures that can be observed in the market. On that note, let me move to the next slide, where we have also illustrated some additional market parameters, which in our view are very important to consider and besides the kind of pure short-term spot index and charter rate index. Most participants mainly look at these indices, six to 12-month time charter rates, but we believe there are more market indicators that are important, in particular when predicting market development going forward. As I said, I argue that the market has seen somewhat of a structural change, and as such, other parameters need to be considered. Two parameters that we have looked at and shown regularly in our market sections over the last couple of quarters are the charter periods and redelivery spreads that you can see on the top right. The other one is the vessel forward availability, which you can see at the bottom left. In terms of top right, we have observed longer periods, as illustrated by the red line, and tighter redelivery spreads, as illustrated by the dark blue line. You can see that over the last 12-18 months, this has improved at least from an owner's perspective, significantly. In addition, the vessel forward availability, as shown at the bottom left, has come down quite dramatically, and that is obviously a result of the longer period fixtures, i.e., vessels being taken out of the market for prolonged periods. Now, if you look at the top left, I think this is somewhat of a new feature, and that has started basically. We have seen a step up in November in terms of forward fixing activity. Let me explain this chart. At the back, you can see the bar which illustrates the number of fixtures. You can see the line which illustrates the average forward date of a fixture. Forward means in advance of the actual charter expiry. Usually charter expiry, you get a redelivery notice roughly 30 days ahead of a charter expiry, and that's the point in time when a new charter is being negotiated. This has changed significantly over the last, I would say three to six weeks in particular. You see that spike in the dark line up to 279 days. We are now, you know, seeing charters which are being discussed basically for the whole year of 2022 already, not on all charter positions, but on many. This is a clear indicator that there's a scarcity of assets expected throughout the year of 2022 and ahead by the liners and other operators because they want to secure tonnage. This is a new phenomenon, and that spike in fixing activity, forward fixing activity is very important to note, and also assess when looking at the market outlook. Now, what does that mean for our very own activity over the last couple of weeks and months? Let's move to slide seven, where we provide an update on the most recent portfolio developments in the continuously strong container charter market environment. As you can see at the lower part, since our last update, mid-November 2021, we have fixed seven vessels between 1,300 and 3,500 TEU. All these fixtures are at fairly strong rates, actually above the last done of the respective vessel class, and also in strong periods, three years plus. On average, these fixtures were done somewhere between seven and nine months ahead of the actual charter expiry. A number of these fixtures are actually forward fixtures underlying the point that I made earlier, as an observation in the overall market and providing improved visibility, not just for 2022, but way beyond 2022, as we are concluding three-year charters, for example, on Q4 positions, meaning we cover, you know, the charters well into 2025 on that basis. In addition, we have been able to sell one more vessel. We have sold the JV vessel, which is held in our 50/50 JV with AS Patricia for $34.3 million. The handover is expected to take place still during the course of the first quarter. Finally, from a portfolio and operational standpoint, we have also handed over the six vessels that we had reported sold end of 2021. All of these vessels have been successfully handed over and have basically generated significant cash in our accounts. I'll get to the exact composition of that very position shortly. Now, let me look at the besides the portfolio development, let me look at some of the most recent corporate developments. As mentioned earlier, we have now completed the balance sheet optimization late last year. As a result, we have now simplified our balance sheet structure, yet with more than 30 unencumbered vessels and fairly flexible balance sheet structure on that basis, with very high discretion regarding capital allocation decisions. That has been a backbone and a key ingredient to preparing and now implementing our distribution plan, as we have communicated already end of last year. The focus or the emphasis of the company's capital allocation going forward will be on returning capital to investors. Consequently, last week we convened an EGM for end of January to implement and authorize a distribution plan consisting of two different pillars. One pillar are recurring quarterly distributions, which will be based on 75% of adjusted net profit and event-driven distributions, which are based on other proceeds, for example, vessel sales in form of dividend and or share buyback. I think very important that we want to commit to this distribution plan to be very clear and stringent and clear to the market in that respect. Therefore we are excited about the upcoming EGM and hopefully receive the authority by shareholders to implement and execute on that distribution plan. Finally, in terms of leverage strategy and growth, we will continue to deleverage through regular debt repayments and cash build-up. In terms of growth, we will look at disciplined growth to be always looking at, you know, accretion per share, make sure that we do the best for existing shareholders, and we will therefore pursue selective growth and only if it is accretive. For example, the Songa transaction that we have carried out last year, which we deem as being, as having already paid off and being highly accretive to existing shareholders. We would on an instance by instance carefully consider any growth steps, on that basis. Now let me move to the next slide where we provide some more details on vessel sales and, consequently event-driven distribution capacity. Please turn to slide nine. Let me run you through this bridge from left to right. The very left, the five vessels, of around $91 million were the vessels that we had already sold, and proceeds were received by the company at the time of last earnings call, second half of November. Since then, and as I mentioned earlier, we have handed over and received proceeds from those sales another six vessels, meaning another $163 million of gross sale proceeds have been received by the company until today. In addition, we have sold the AS Patricia, which is the third part of the bridge, $34 million, which again is still to be handed over to the new owners, expected in the course of Q1 this year. This brings the overall gross sales proceeds to $288 million for the 12 vessels. We would then obviously have to deduct the 50% joint venture portion for the sale of joint venture vessels as we have sold three joint venture vessels and some transaction costs, bringing us to net sales proceeds of roughly $230 million that we have received or will receive subject to the handover of AS Patricia. Part of those proceeds have been used to execute the refinancing, namely $66 million, which we deduct in this bridge, resulting in a total event-driven distribution potential and capacity of somewhere $150 million-$160 million. Again, one part that is still open is the handover of AS Patricia. That reflects roughly NOK 3 per share in terms of distribution capacity. Subject to EGM authority, we execute that handover and finally, once the EGM approval is given, also the BoG has to implement that the event-driven distribution potential is intended to be paid out to shareholders by way of extraordinary dividend within very short. This is our commitment to the distribution plan and the use of proceeds of the executed and the pending vessel sales according to our distribution plan. Now let me move forward to the next slide, where we now look at the earnings capacity and chartering activity and certainly charter and revenue backlog. We have shown a similar slide during the past quarters. Let me just run you through the overview on the top left, where you can see from left to right, first of all, the four quarters of 2022, and then annual columns 2022 to 2025, with the respective open days and fixed days. You see the as-assumed overall days available are roughly 22,000 based on our existing fleet. We have already fixed 82% of the days for 2022, 57% of the days 2023, and so on. The top circles, the red circles on top of each column represent the locked-in revenues per annum, showing that we have the fixed revenues of more than $450 million already secured for 2022, and $340 million for 2023, and so on. On the right-hand side in the comment section, so top right, you can see the respective time charter equivalent on those fixed days. As we continue to charter our vessels, we will be able to increase the TC equivalent on the basis of improving charter rates. That is at least our expectation. Now the more charters we fix, and I alluded to the forward fixing activity earlier, and at the bottom left you see the upcoming charter renewal. We have another 19 vessels up for charter renewals, and you can see that illustrated by quarter. As I mentioned, in a market where forward fixing has become the normality or the base case, so to say, you can assume that on a lot of these positions there are already ongoing dialogues with potential charterers. It's not just that you should look at Q1, but as we have shown in the fixtures that we have concluded recently, there are also ongoing discussions about forward fixing potential Q2, Q3, or even Q4 positions. On the basis of the current charter market, and at the bottom right you can see this is a three-year time charter by Clarksons, just as an example, these things tend to be outdated very quickly, but we wanted to show that as a reference nevertheless. As an example, on a 3,500 TEU container ship, the three-year charter here for Clarksons still says $47,500. We concluded the AS Nadia for $61,000 for the same period. You can see that we have been able to already generate a significant premium. Nevertheless, we applied both rates in order to reflect and represent the potential, the revenue potential for each of these upcoming charter renewals on the left-hand side, and you can see the gray circle, which represent the revenue potential for each of these fixtures based on the Clarksons reference rate. Again, especially for the slightly larger vessels, we believe there is a significant premium actually available in the market if you fix today, even on, particularly on forward fixtures. This is just meant to mention to be a guidance also to show what we have done on the next page, where we have, based on the fixed and open days from the previous page, run a few sensitivities to calculate certain indicative revenue, EBITDA and net profit figures, adjusted net profit for a vessel sale to Teflon. The basis for a potential recurring dividend going forward. That again is based on 75% of adjusted net profit. The top columns are shown on the basis of the previously illustrated Clarksons three-year time charter rates. Those would be calculated for our vessel basket, and you can see that at the bottom right of the top left chart. The blended TCE for our basket of vessels is roughly $36,300 per day. If that is applied on the open days, as illustrated on the previous page, you arrive at the respective revenues, EBITDA and net profit figures, which would in turn represent the potential for then 75% of these adjusted net profit dividend for the quarters moving forward. On the bottom of this page, we have then applied the 20-year historical average charter rate, which as you can see is for our basket around $14,000 today. That again translates into certain Adjusted EBITDA net profit figures. On that basis, on the back of the current revenue and EBITDA backlog, and of course subject to market conditions and development, for 2022, we expect a quarterly dividend or quarterly distribution capacity of around $50 million-$65 million, or roughly NOK 1 per share end quarter, and that can be expected to be distributed in the quarters ahead. This will, as I mentioned before, done on a quarterly basis, and then paid out as distribution to shareholders. We plan to commence this once the EGM has authorized the distribution end of January. We plan to commence this March 2022 based on Q4 2021 financial results, which are to be released end of February this year. This brings me to the end of the presentation, the run through market updates, our recent portfolio activities, as well as, you know, ahead of our upcoming EGM, the distribution plan and potential and capacity and what we envisage to do. On that note, I'm happy to hand back to you, operator, in case there are any questions through the line. Otherwise, we will look at the questions on the web. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, click on ask a question in the top right-hand corner of your screen. Once again, if you want to ask a question, click on ask a question in the top right-hand corner of your screen. Thank you. If there are no questions through the line moderator, I'm happy to take the first question here through the web. This is a question by Vegard Vesterfjell inquiring about the AS Nadia, so our 3,500 TEU vessel, which was fixed at $61,000 for three years. He says that as well about the new ConTex for vessels of the same size for 24 months. Are the indices misleading compared to the fixtures actually being concluded? Is the question. The answer to that is pretty easy. First of all, indices are usually always with a time lag, and of course in the bad markets, most certainly in markets of such a dynamic that we observe at present, they are lagging behind quite a bit. As I said, a two- and three-year market is a completely different ballgame. We have seen the last done fixture actually for a vessel of that nature was $44,000 for three years done in December last year. We now in January take $61,000 for two years, which is a very steep increase. To your point on indices, they obviously represent fixtures in the market, and as long as the fixture is not reported, the indices will remain on the basis of last done. We expect to see a step up in indices. We are actually in the process of preparing or considering to prepare our own index also for longer period fixtures because we believe this is more representative rather than a six to 12-month or even a 24-month ConTex Index. Yeah, to that point, things always lag behind and this is why there is such a gap between the index and what we actually conclude in the market. There's a question by Nagel, asking, "Is it likely to believe that the dividend paid out first quarter will be not full?" Again, as I have mentioned in the call, the clear intention is to distribute the liquidity from event-driven distribution capacity being roughly NOK 3 plus the quarterly recurring dividend of around NOK 1. It is a fair assumption that this is going to be paid out during the first quarter. Of course, we still have the EGM, so the authority needs to be brought into place by the general assembly, which will be held next Friday, 28th. I'm confident that we will get the approval on that basis, and then you can expect that this liquidity will be returned to investors. There's the next question. How do you see the implementation of IMO 2023 impacting the container market in general and MPCC in particular? The impact on the market in general, I think it is not just the IMO 2023 that has to be considered. It's obviously also other disruptions in the market in particular that will affect the market going forward. More specifically on IMO 2023, of course, with the implementation of, EEXI, CII, and other measures, we will see one thing, at least in my book, which is for certain a slightly on impact on speed in general. This will have an impact on capacity, just like the disruptions have at present. There might be investments needed to comply with the EEXI as a starter, and then subsequently, potentially also for CII. For MPCC, I mean, we have catered as good as possible for this in our charter parties, which is a very important ingredient, of course. At the same time we will carry out certain measures in terms of EEXI investments, which will be limited to engine power limitation measures, small investments at this point in time. We believe speeds will go down, but it will not have a significant impact, at least not for the next, let's say, one to three years going forward. There's another question by Lars Erik Hestnes-Lande. Do you see any recurring general market challenges 2024 and further regarding the escalating number of new builds? Or will this not touch the feeder segment? Of course, the order book has grown significantly. 2021 has been a record year in terms of new orders. The order book is still dominated by the very large ships. We see, at least in my view, an underbuilt smaller segment. I would expect more orders as we have actually seen over the last, let's say, couple of months also in the smaller sizes, which however are desperately needed. There will certainly be an increase in newbuilding deliveries coming to the market as of 2024, second half of 2023, 2024. Yet, looking at the growth and looking also at the age profile of the fleet, I think especially in the smaller sizes, the order book is actually needed, and we actually need even a few more vessels on that basis in order to cope with the expected volume. There will certainly be an impact from new build orders, but I do not expect that will completely adversely impact the market in particular in the smaller size. And there's another question by Albert Carstensen. When do you think the share buyback program will start? We have not started the share buyback program. The share buyback program is certainly one of the ingredients, and that's why we have also, as part of the EGM, asked for a renewal of our authority to that effect to be able to act if a share buyback is an attractive and accretive opportunity, which it certainly was during the course of last year. We have had to take certain steps, as I have alluded to, in terms of our balance sheet optimization, some chartering activity, et cetera, in order to put us into a position to then execute on our distribution plan. In the distribution plan, a potential share buyback is one ingredient. Yet for the, let's say, immediate step, as I've said earlier, we expect that a dividend is on the cards rather than a share buyback program. However, it always depends on share price and other parameters to define what is the more appropriate measure to create value for shareholders. Another question by Jørgen Lian. Can I know how do you see OpEx for the three years, three-year period? Of course, we have seen a bit of a development in OpEx, in particular related to crew costs, as a result of you know, basically also COVID to some extent. Crew travel costs have increased. Crew costs in general have increased, as it has been more demanding to actually make crew changes and also to cater for safety and other aspects of the crew, which is a very important key element on our agenda. Therefore, I do expect that we might see further increase in OpEx, let's say a few percent between 1% and 3% per annum is potentially on the cards. It's very difficult to foresee any significant jump in OpEx over the next three years, at least from today's perspective. I would assume a kind of inflation-related increase, and certainly with regards to crew costs in particular, in an environment where we are still surrounded with COVID and the implications of COVID on our operations. There is one more question by Ray Gruner. Any ongoing negotiations regarding further vessel sales in the current hot secondhand market? Yeah, on that point, I would like to comment as follows. The question always is, can you generate more value by chartering out vessels or by selling vessels? I think the last year has been a very good indicator to that effect, because we have, for example, ourselves been an active buyer of vessels. Last year, we bought 12 vessels and we sold 12 vessels. I mentioned that during the last earnings call already. The market is so dynamic that you need to decide on this case by case. When we did the Songa acquisition and concluded, or at least agreed to it at the end of May last year, we were fairly confident that the charter value of these vessels was higher than the secondhand value, and hence we bought the ships. It turned out that in hindsight was the right decision, and we were able to arbitrage between obtaining very attractive charters that would ensure that we paid for the acquisition of that very fleet. We had a gap of charter value and asset prices. Now in Q3, Q4, we have seen that trend reverse. We have actually seen that, you know, the market was pricing assets very accurately. On the back of that, we have been an active seller of certain ships because the proceeds in an S&P transaction as a seller were basically in our view more attractive than chartering out these vessels. That has somewhat reversed. At the moment, I would argue on most of the cases chartering out these vessels is the better value at this point in time. However, the market is so dynamic that that gap between charter value and asset value or secondhand realizable value might close again. Therefore, we believe we need to be very switched on in taking the right decision on behalf of the company and for shareholders, and take the decision to either charter our vessels or sell vessels very selectively. What does that do with your question? That means we are of course considering sales. If a charter, just as an example, the 3,500-cube vessel that we've just chartered out for three years at $61,000, this is the price we would have in all likelihood not been able to achieve in the S&P market in terms of the locked in EBITDA plus growth value, and hence we decided to go ahead and charter it out. Selectively, case by case is the way to go about it. We will be very cautious and prudent in taking these decisions. One more question by Paul Matting. Can you comment on ship sale of AS Patricia, sold for $34.3 million compared to my estimate of $40 million. Can you comment on JV? Three out of eight vessels, will we see more ship sales from the JV? Paul, to your question, of course, the question is when was the sale concluded? What was the discussion at that point in time? Obviously this was a sale of a vessel that is still on an existing charter, which might give a bit of a hint on the potential buyer. Existing charters have obviously to be factored into that equation and also the point in time when that deal was concluded. You can probably today sell a spot vessel of similar specifications at a shade below $40. I wouldn't disagree. We need to find a buyer, and every ship is different. We believe that this was a fair price given the charter options that were available at that point in time. Of course, in a JV, you also find common ground usually with your JV partner. That is basically in reply to your next question, on the JV where three out of eight vessels were sold. This was also linked to the respective charter position and charter expiry and the ability to actually execute on sales on that basis. We have now, and you can see that from the seven vessels that we have communicated, fixed as part of this presentation, three of these vessels, the Carpathia, Cimbria and Cardonia are actually JV vessels, which are now fixed on three-year charters well into 2025 actually, for all three vessels. That means that all of the remaining JV vessels are actually fixed out for a longer period and are hence very unlikely sale candidates, going forward. There is a question by Albert Carstensen. What is happening with the pool ships? Is this dissolved? Yes, we decided to dissolve the pool, which was a pool that we had with one third party owner. So it was a two-owner pool, focused on a certain region in Thailand segment with 1,300-1,500 TEU pool. We decided to dissolve that, since each of these vessels were earning very attractive rates. We believe that, you know, a pool in this market environment is not necessarily beneficial to both parties. As a result of that, the pool has been dissolved, and that is also now illustrated if you look at the appendix of the presentation that we have concluded, or we have now shown the individual rates and no pool rates anymore. That gives you an insight as to the rates that we have concluded for the vessels accordingly. At least on the web, this is the what has been the last question raised so far. Moderator, back to you just to see whether there are any further questions through the telephone line. Otherwise, we'll wait one more minute and see whether there are further questions coming in. Are there any questions through the line, moderator? Thank you, sir. Still no further question on the phone line. Please continue. Okay. Since there are no further questions also through the web, I would like to thank everyone for their interest and for their participation. We are certainly looking forward to the upcoming AGM and to hopefully receiving, you know, the authority and to commence with returning capital to investors. It's fair to say that we are indeed in an exciting container shipping market environment, and we are looking forward to 2022 and beyond. Again, thanks for your participation. Thank you, moderator. Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you all for participating. You may all disconnect. Speaker, please stand by.