Hello, welcome to the Qatar Navigation Milaha Conference Call. I would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded. Thank you. I'd now like to welcome Bobby Sarkar to begin the conference. Bobby, over to you. Thank you. Hi. Hello, everyone. This is Bobby Sarkar, Head of Research at QNB Financial Services. I wanna welcome everyone to Milaha's second quarter 2023 financial results conference call. On this call from Milaha management, we have Akram Iswaisi, who's the Executive Vice President in Finance and Investments, and Sami Shtayyeh, who's a VP in Financial Planning and Analysis. We will conduct this conference with management first reviewing the company's results, followed by a Q&A. I would like to now turn the call over to Akram. Akram, please go ahead. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone for joining Milaha's H1 2023 earnings call, and your interest in the company. We are very pleased to report another quarter of solid financial results. In fact, this past second quarter had the highest profits of any Q2, going back to 2015. This is a testament to the efforts we've put in over the years into building a strong foundation for future growth. We'll follow the same lines as previous calls. I'll be starting with our consolidated financial results, and then we'll go through our various segments before turning it over to Sami to go over our outlook for the rest of the year, and then we will end the call with Q&As. The key highlights of our financial results. Milaha's operating revenues came in at QAR 1.5 billion for the first quarter of 2023, compared with QAR 1.7 billion for the same period in 2022, or a decrease of 15%. Operating profits came in at QAR 344 million for the first half of 2023, compared with QAR 310 million for the same period in 2022, or an increase of 11%. Net profit for the first half of 2023 was QAR 648 million, compared to QAR 641 million for the same period in 2022, for an increase of 1%. Our earnings per share was QAR 0.57 for the first half of 2023, compared with QAR 0.56 for the same period in 2022. Let's, let's jump on to the segments. maritime and logistics. The large decline in container shipping rates continues to drag down results in the maritime and logistics segment when compared to the previous year. Overall, revenues dropped by QAR 245 billion, versus the same period last year, with QAR 260 million... QAR 262 million of that coming from container shipping, due to reduced rates and volumes. We had offsets. We had decreases, and we had increases, but the majority of the decreases were coming from container shipping rates. Higher revenue from our logistics units, tied to some spillover work from the World Cup, along with increased, along with increased project cargo, only slightly offset the large container shipping drop. Expenses came down by QAR 113 million, with most of that tied to the drop in container shipping volumes. Overall, we ended the year with net profit down QAR 152 million or 84% versus 2022. Moving on to offshore. Milaha Offshore continues to steadily grow, with operating revenues increasing by 11% or QAR 63 million versus the same period in 2022. Increased utilization of key assets, along with additional diving and construction-related projects, more than offset a drop in third-party chartered and vessel income. Lower chartering costs, related to drop in revenue and a one-off provision reversal drove a QAR 31 million decrease in expenses versus the same period in 2022. The net income result was year-over-year growth of QAR 99 million, or 344%. Gas and Petrochem recorded a 19% increase in revenue, with our FSO that became operational in the middle of 2022, offsetting lost revenue from the sale of our gas, our gas carrier, which was sold last year. Overall, expenses came down by QAR 16 million from the gas carrier divestment, along with the non-recurrence of mobilization-related costs incurred last year for the FSO. At the non-operating level, income decreased by QAR 15 million as a result of lower income from our associates, and net profit for the segment ended up QAR 20 million or 6% higher versus the same period in 2022. Our trading segment, we were able to reduce bottom-line losses by QAR 6 million versus the same period in 2022 by increasing sales of higher-margin goods and services, including marine-related ship chandlery products. Lastly, capital revenues stood by 15% of QAR 47 billion, with QAR 64 million of Qatar Quarries sales, for our Qatar Quarries sales, more than offsetting higher overall investments and real estate income. Overall expenses came down by QAR 79 million, driven primarily by around QAR 60 million from lower Qatar Quarries's cost of goods sold due to the drop in revenue, along with a QAR 16 million reduction in bad debt provisions. All of which resulted in overall net profit growth of QAR 35 million, or 27%, versus the same period in 2022. That wraps up the segments, and I will now turn it over to Sammy to discuss outlook for the rest of the year. Thank you, Akram. Starting with maritime and logistics. On the container shipping side, H1 has already reflected the large rate drop, and we expect that to hold the rest of the year. In logistics, we expect a subdued second half. In offshore, on the support vessels and services side, we expect to see continued growth, particularly longer term, with all the expansion work in Qatar's oil and gas industry. In Gas and Petrochem, overall, we expect limited volatility due to the long-term nature of contracts we have in most business units. Our VLGC joint venture is the exception, where performance is difficult to predict due to volatile spot prices. In trading, we will continue to focus on profitable growth and margin improvement. Lastly, capital, where we will continue to focus on yield enhancement. With that, the operator will now open up for questions. Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press the star followed by the one on your telephone. That is star one to ask a question. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press the star followed by the one on your telephone. Our first question comes from the line of Nikhil Patani from CBQ. Please go ahead. Hi, good afternoon, sorry, good morning, gentlemen. I've not been able to hear your, you know, presentation, but there's a couple of questions which I'd like to know in terms of your divisions. First, in terms of your maritime logistics, you know, what we are seeing is there is a downfall in your joint ventures, you know, revenues. I just wanted to know, what is the reason behind it, as compared to the run rate of around QAR 40 million. That is it. Secondly, in terms of your, again, maritime, you did mention that there is going to be an uptick, you know, in the second half of 2023. Do you see the same thing happening in second half? Because you did mention now that the outlook could be a little subdued in 2000... The second half of 2023. Again, one more question in terms of your overall, your, you know, offshore. I mean, you did mention that there are significant contracts, you know, in the pipeline. Do you see the continued, you know, growth going up in terms of vessel chartering in the second half? Thank you. Okay. Could you just repeat that first question? Because I didn't hear you clearly. Yeah. This is regarding your maritime logistics division. We are seeing there is a slight downfall in your JVs, you know, results from an average run rate of around QAR 30, QAR 40, it has come down to around QAR 18. Is that right? What is the reason behind it? You know, what do you see it going forward in 2023, second half? Thank you. Okay. You know, in terms of the JV on MNL, there was, you know, a slight drop in our QTerminals results, and that's driven primarily by the slowdown in port activities in Q1 and slightly in Q2 of this year. You're seeing that across the board, across, you know, various other logistics players, as well as our container business and our logistics business. In general, Q1 and Q2, there is some drop in volume, but we were able to compensate for that in our, you know, project logistics work, because we've been doing some additional project logistics work. This is part of the increase in terms of that JV. That's the second question as well? I'm sorry. Repeat that again. Well, so the, again, I mean, second half, do you see, you know, the same trend continuing in terms of, you know, other divisions, logistics, for example, supporting it much more than your, you know, your results from your joint agreements? It will be nullified, whatever, you know, downturn that you see it in joint ventures, their overall profit. Listen. will likely Yeah, listen. Again, in terms of cargo, there is, well, there's a drop across the board. You see that everywhere. In the Q1, you know, there was excess inventory, you know, in, in warehouses across the country, and that inventory now is being consumed. You should see the second half of the year looking much better in terms of, in terms of cargo flow. That's, you know, we're optimistic that that picture will look much better the second half of the year. Again, you know, again, there was a significant amount of cargo and volume moving in the second half of last year, some of that spillover effect, you see that in Q1 of 2023. We suspect that second half of the year, much of that inventory will be consumed or absorbed, and there should be more movement the second half of the year. Okay. Okay, fine. I mean, regarding your other businesses, you know, we see that, you know, vessel chartering business under Offshore has done well, I mean, comparatively over the last one or two quarters. What do you see the trend in second half of 2023? Anything else, I mean, in terms of, say, any abnormal losses, you know, gains which could be seen going forward in second half? I mean, I think the results for the first half speak for themselves. We're in a very positive trend. It's a good trajectory, and that will continue for the rest of the year. There's nothing else to add to that. Okay, okay. Now, okay, lastly, on your trading division, I mean, what we are seeing is, you know, to a certain extent, in terms of your overall revenue movement has been quite good. Suppose you look at the GP levels, you know, we have seen a sharp drop. I mean, operating supplies and expenses have gone up quite considerably, I mean, compared to the first quarter. Any reason behind this? The first quarter was an abnormal one. I mean, what do you say on this? for what? Oh, for trading? Yeah, for trading. Well, I mean, listen, this is a spot business, so there is, again, a lot of movement month to month, quarter to quarter. I'm not sure what is your question. I mean, this business here is, is, is tied to... I mean, the, the marine and industrial products business has been growing. As I mentioned in previous calls, we are growing our ship chandlery business. That continues to grow. In terms of this business, I, I don't see a significant- I mean, you're talking about bunker. Our bunker volume dropped, but that also is correlated. If you look at delta in the revenue versus the delta in operating expenses, they're very much aligned. As you see a drop in bunker volume, we do see a drop in bunker cost of sales. Overall, in terms of this business. You know, again, it's not profitable. Again, because we are focused on higher margin products, as I mentioned earlier, we are pushing more higher products and services. You know, we are pushing more ship chandlery activities. So to grow on, you know, again, as, as, and I mentioned on the previous calls, you know, we, you know, we see potential for building up a ship chandlery supply chain in the country, and we continue to focus on that and be able to serve vessels, vessel owners in Qatar and the region. That's one of the areas we're focused on. I think hopefully that answers your question on trading. Yeah. I mean, you've mentioned, okay, finally, I can understand that you want to go for higher yield, you know, higher returns. I mean, that belies in second quarter because overall, you've increased your bunker sales. I believe the, I mean, the yields and, you know, margins have been negative, the way it looks like, because it has been pulled down very drastically on your EPM levels. We wanted to know whether are you going to be again concentrating on the same thing of, you know, forcefully going into bunker sales further? Am I right on saying that, you know, margins have been very squeezed hard in second quarter for bunker? I mean, bunker margins are very, very thin. This is an ancillary business that we provide to our customers. If you look at our approach, the way we're approaching it. Again, don't get fixated on bunker by itself. We provide a lot of different services and products to our customers. When I come to my customer, I provide ship chandlery, I provide bunkering, I provide a lot of different services. I have to increase. It's a platform approach. You will make thin margins on certain products, but you will try to increase them on others, and that's the strategy that we're following. If I serve vessel owners, vessel owners have a need for spare parts, for rope, for water, for, you know, for bunker. The approach that we take is a platform approach, and that's the approach that we're following. Don't get fixated on bunker by itself, because again, at the end of the day, it's a thin margin product, and we are using this as a, as an enabler to be able to serve our clients. I cannot just serve my clients with just water, spare parts. I need to provide a platform to serve my clients, who is ultimately vessel owners, right? That's the approach that you gotta, you gotta consider, and that's what you gotta look at. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jagdish Thambi from Avillent Global Research. Please go ahead with your question. Hi, good morning. Thank you for the result. Yeah. I think my most of the questions are answered, so, I mean, I'm pretty satisfied with the answer that you have given. Okay. Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question today, please press star followed by the one on your telephone. That's star one to ask a question. There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Bobby Sarkar. Okay, thank you. If there are no further questions, we can end the call for today. I want to thank Akram and Sammy for taking the time to go over the presentation and answer our questions. We will pick this up next quarter. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, everyone. Appreciate it. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.