Ernst Russ Aktie

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to the first Deutsche Boerse Scale Summit. My name is [ Ingmar Gratenrade ], and I'm very pleased to welcome you on behalf of Deutsche Boerse. This new format brings together investors and high-growth scale issuers to enable a direct exchange on strategies, positioning and investment stories. Each presentation will last 20 minutes and will be followed by a 10-minute Q&A session. We warmly encourage you to actively participate in this discussion.

With that, I'm pleased to welcome Joseph Schuchmann, Co-CEO and Chief Operating Officer of Ernst Russ AG, who will guide us through their presentation. And with no further ado, I'd like to hand over to you, Mr. Schuchmann.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us here at the very first Scale Summit. A warm thank you goes to Deutsche Boerse and especially Jacqueline and team for organizing this event. My name is Joseph Schuchmann. I'm the Co-CEO and actually Chief Commercial Officer, not Operating Officer but that's fine, of Ernst Russ AG.

So what I'd like to do today is take the next 20 minutes to introduce you to our company: who we are, what it is we do and how we structure our business. We are a lean tonnage provider with a clear preference for long-term charter contracts. And we -- this is not correct. And that gives us clear preference for long-term charter contracts and gives us revenue visibility.

A significant share of what we'll earn in the next years ahead is already contracted today. Secondly, what have we been up to lately? Phase 1 of our transformation is almost completed. The modernization of our fleet is well underway, and our latest quarterly numbers really underscore that momentum. Thirdly, where are we headed? What do we see for the rest of the year and what is our long-term vision?

After the presentation, as mentioned, I'm happy to take questions. So let's dive in into what we are at Ernst Russ. What do we actually do? Ernst Russ is a tonnage provider. In plain terms, that means we are a shipowner. We supply vessels to freight companies who charter them from us, rent them from us, and they use them to move their customers' goods from A to B.

So we are a flexibility provider. We offer 2 kinds of flexibility. The first is operational flexibility, meaning our customers can scale their capacity up and down without owning the ships themselves. And the second is balance sheet flexibility because through long-term operating leases, they can grow without tying up their own capital. Our model, as you can see here, is deliberately clean. We concentrate on what we do best, which is investments, commercial management and ship financing.

And we outsource all the rest: crewing, maintenance, insurance, the day-to-day operation of the vessels. All that goes to a small group of trusted partners, and we sort of operate them in quality assurance. The way the money flows in this construct is quite simple. Our customers, the freight companies, pay us a daily charter rate for the use of our ship. And they, in turn, earn a freight rate from their own customers.

So if you want to take an example, if you ship a container with Hapag-Lloyd, you pay Hapag-Lloyd a freight rate for the transport of that container. And if we happen to have a ship with Hapag-Lloyd in charter, they pay us a daily charter rate for the use of that vessel. This is deliberate. So the charter rates are less volatile than the freight rate business, and that's why we think it's a good spot as well for the Deutsche Boerse to have exposure to the less volatile charter market.

Turning to the fleet that we have today. This is as of our most recent reporting at the end of March. Back then, we had 26 ships on the water. The second one of the new multipurpose vessels joined in April, so shortly after this reporting. And we have a further 6 vessels incoming in our acquisition pipeline. It's been a busy 3 months. Last quarter, we completed the acquisition, as I said, of 2 multipurpose vessels. This is deliberate in terms of diversification.

Both are on 7-year time charters. And since we've had one other multipurpose ship before, this is an expansion of that segment. And then a few months later -- a few weeks later, actually, we announced something that we are particularly excited about our entry into the chemical tanker segment with 4 intermediate tanker newbuildings. They're all secured on fixed charters of at least 5 years, and they will deliver end of this year, beginning of next year.

This is actually quite a good milestone for us because the tanker segment is historically least correlated to the container segment where, as you can see, we have our major exposure as of today. So this was fully in line with the diversification strategy. We don't only buy. This is important to understand. We are active portfolio managers. It's at the core of what we do.

So end of May, we announced the sale of one of our older container ships, the EF Emira, and that one disposal is really about 3 things in total. It brings down our container exposure a bit. As mentioned, we are quite heavily exposed to the container segment at the moment, and we are diversifying away from that. It renews our fleet. We are selling older tonnage and buying younger tonnage. So we try to actively manage the average age of our fleet.

And it was a joint venture ship, and selling joint venture ships or buying out joint venture partners has been something that we've been actively managing the last 1.5 years because our joint venture fleet really is not at the core of what we do going forward because our structure with our new capital market strategy needs to be a lot simpler than it was before, but more on that later.

This allowed us to raise our EBIT guidance as we did a few weeks ago. And taken together, these moves show that we are executing our growth strategy quite diligently. And we're actually doing this with a good deal of speed and more importantly, with discipline. So there's ships and prices that we sell at, and there are ships and prices where we buy at, and we are trying to do this in a very disciplined manner.

Considering all of our ships together, we are looking at a market value of around $586 million and an average age of 17 years. And we are obviously looking, as I mentioned before, to bring that down a bit, actively manage the average age of the fleet. Our average charter rate sits at $19,500, and our utilization is quite strong at 99.8%. So the utilization is the amount of time that we spend earning the hire and not using it for maintenance or other, let's say, extracurricular activities that we are doing where we're not earning any hire. So 99.8%, obviously, quite strong.

This is the predictability. So we have solid assets. They're fully employed and they're steadily generating cash, which is good for our shareholders. The markets we operate in, well, historically, as I said, mostly containers. This is a new slide that we've implemented from our diversification strategy. And what it shows is really interesting. As you know, the last 1.5 years were quite volatile in terms of geopolitics, in terms of fiscal policy, in terms of all kinds of things that influence international trade and shipping in general.

And you see that the 4 sectors that we operate in have fared quite differently under these circumstances, which is exactly the point of our diversification strategy, so that we are not dependent on one single sector. As you can see, the lower bars, the chemical tanker and the MPP Index, have been faring flattish or even down a bit. This is exactly why we have now entered these sectors because the underbuilt sectors that possibly haven't been performing just as well as the container bulkers for the last 1.5 years, but we see real structural momentum there for the next 5 to 10 years.

Shipping for the last 1.5 years has been very heavily influenced by geopolitics. The most important for us in terms of the financial impact it has is the closure of the Red Sea. This has various reasons that the Houthi rebels are shooting at ships. They mostly do that despite the Israeli and American forces. And the closure of the Red Sea has effectively led to most ships circumventing the Cape of Good Hope.

And as you can see, 10 million TEU have been rerouted. This is very significant numbers. And if ships need longer to get to where they need to go, this reduces capacity quite a lot. And if you reduce capacity, the prices usually go up as the international trade actually keeps growing. Recently, of course, there was a peace agreement. This situation, as we see it, is quite fluid, and it's not at all yet determined that we will go back to full normal.

Even if we do go back to full normal, a mess of this proportion usually needs quite a long time to figure out. So there will be congestion in the ports, there will be delays, there will be confusion, which is really the -- maybe the word for the last couple of years. People have not been really acting decisively and haven't been planning long term for their business because the world has become so volatile.

And if you do not plan long term and don't go for the most efficient mode of transport, this lack of efficiency usually reduces capacity and the reduction of capacity is really where our prices go up. So what we've done since we took over 1.5 years ago, we've tried to implement a very clear capital markets story. That's why we are here today.

And what our strategy is, is that we want a diversified portfolio. We want to increase the visibility of cash flows for our shareholders. And how we do that is we increase the backlog that we have contracted and we increase the length of the charter parties that we enter into. The Rome Express, as you see above, is our largest ship. We recently entered into a 7-year contract. Ronnie down there and her sister, Charlie. We also bought and now on a 7-year contract. And then these new 4 tankers will be on 5-year contracts, and we have 2 other newbuildings in the container space coming with 10-year contracts. So you see there is a clear path on what we're doing and the graphs here, I think, speak for themselves.

Coming to the financial KPIs. First quarter was quite on point. We will report the full half-year figures on the 25th of August. So headline figures for the first quarter: EUR 37.8 million of revenue. We did have EUR 40 million a year ago, and we do have to see that in context where we sold a number of ships last year. And now we are actually on a per ship basis on a better footing because our average charter rate has actually gone up.

Also, the 1-year comparison, as you see on the EBITDA and EBIT, needs some explanation. As we were selling these ships, we were taking one-off gains from vessel sales. And since then, we've been running on a smaller fleet, fewer trading days, so have actually been increasing our charter rate quite a bit. The underlying operating picture is quite strong in the first quarter.

Daily charter rates rose again by about 16% and earnings per share now stand at EUR 0.33. What we are particularly proud of or what is really important to understand about our company is the debt-to-equity ratio. As you see on the bottom, it's quite healthy. We actually did a bit of releveraging last year on one of the deals we did because we do understand that having virtually no debt is maybe also not the most favorable way to go.

But we will use this virtually debt-free portfolio that we have to fund new acquisitions. And as I said, we've already been doing that this year and last. This quarter has led us to increase our guidance on EBIT because, as I said, we've also been selling one ship, the EF Emira. The upward revision from EUR 34 million to EUR 44 million to now EUR 45 million to EUR 55 million. And this is for us, really, just a testament of that we are on the right path. We are actively managing the portfolio.

We are releveraging a bit. We're doing new projects. So quite happy with that. When you look at what we are actually trying to do here, Ernst Russ historically has not really been very active on the stock exchange. We are trying to revitalize a company that is in a very healthy state. Phase 1 of this was started about 1.5 years ago. And this is a phase -- transformation phase that we are now slowly exiting.

What have we done? We've sold a lot of older ships last year. We are continuing to sell older tonnage. We are actively managing the existing portfolio in terms of how many counterparts do we have, how strong are these counterparts, how long are the charter contracts. We are increasing our Investor Relations activities.

We've increased the number of analysts that follow us. We are actively now engaging in formats like these. And this is really -- we are actually seeing quite a lot of benefit on that already. So these enhanced capital market activities have been generating some attendance, and we are actually quite proud of that because shipping in Germany is quite a niche segment.

We have to reduce the complexity of our share. When we started, we had about 4 ships that Ernst Russ owned completely outright. And this has been increased quite a lot. When we have joint venture ships, we are really down to 3 parts of what we are able to do. Either there's a third party who is willing to buy the ship at a price that both joint venture partners feel is attractive, then we are selling the ship. We have done that last year.

Sometimes the joint venture partner, let's say, has a brighter future in mind for the ship than we do, and then they can sell us -- buy us out. And sometimes we buy them out if we see that we have contract coverage to match our ambitions. All of these 3 things we've done. And really, what this has done is it has increased the earnings per share power that we have in the company because we want shareholders to actually know what exactly it is they're owning, and we want them to see that quite clearly in a simplified structure.

Exiting this phase, we are now entering a phase called, or we call it disciplined growth. We've ordered some ships. We've done some new deals where we are further, as I said, reducing the number of old ships we have in the fleet. We're broadening our investor base. We have recently, or our largest shareholder has recently, placed some of its shares to reduce their shareholding from 75% to 72%.

This, I think, is something that we are aiming to do a lot more of over the coming years, where we actually increase the trading in the share, increase the liquidity and increase the free float. This all will be capped off by a more international, more -- or a structure that is aimed at higher markets. The IFRS reporting is being implemented, and we are really focusing on coming from this very unlevered state of a company to go lever the company a bit, but stay disciplined in the shipping industry, which is really what it's all about.

Our portfolio approach with various counterparts, various segments and various lengths of contracts will deliver very attractive risk-adjusted returns. We are aiming, and this is now our vision to become a leading, listed European shipping platform. We are aiming to do this from Germany, and we are actually aiming to capitalize on the niche that we are in, in Germany because in essence, our P&L structure is very, very simple. Our ships have a charter rate.

And this -- the utilization they have is the number of days they are actually able to capitalize this charter rate. They have daily operating expenses, and that's the EBITDA. And if you just have a number of ships, you can multiply that with each ship and then you are right where you want to be as a shareholder. Just quickly, this is where you can meet us next. And I think now I'm 1 minute over time. So I'm happy to take some questions.

Great. Thank you very much for the presentation. [Operator Instructions] So we get to [ Mr. Samatora ]. What percentage of your fleet is already chartered for the next 12 months? And how sensitive is your EBIT to potential 10% to 20% decline in charter rates?

Thank you. Maybe I just go to -- no, actually, this slide. I need to close this. I can't see because the questions are in the way. Sorry. So as you see here, our guidance of the revenue is EUR 145 million to EUR 160 million. This is for the full year. Thereof, contracted is EUR 147 million. You could wonder why this gap is so wide. This is mostly due to the euro-U.S. dollar exchange rate. So basically, most of our contracts for this year have been already contracted and that revenue is basically locked in.

So now it's about the utilization on how much of that locked-in contract value we can actually get into our books. In terms of this year, so in terms of the next year, this is really the development you should be focusing about because this is the average length of contract. So this is the optimized charter durations. The chart here is really the important bit. We are continuously expanding that. And a 10% to 20% drop in charter rates obviously has an impact, but it will have a staggered impact as the contracts are running out.

If you go to our website, there is -- or our quarterly presentations, you will see the maximum dates of the fleet. So this is when the contracts are running out. So an impact of the charter rate market, let's say, will only come in as the ships come off charter. So this is why we are really increasing our long-term coverage to give investors more visibility so they can actually -- or they don't need to ask that question because they see for the coming years pretty much what's ahead. Hope that answers the question.

And we move on to a participant, Mr. Christian Bruns.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Yes, I have a question. There's a lot of talk currently about the Strait of Hormuz, of course. But if I understand that correctly, then it's the Red Sea, which is more important to your business. Are there any developments which change the situation there and could have an impact on charter rates in the next days or weeks?

So both are obviously connected because the Houthi rebels -- so they're obviously interconnected, right? Because the Houthi rebels are shooting drones at the ships in their support of -- well, let's call it, the cause of the -- I think it's called The Axis of Resistance, which obviously impacts America and Israel mostly because it's mostly them fighting this Axis of Resistance.

So if the Strait of Hormuz gets resolved, it's reasonable to assume that if there's a long-term solution to that conflict, then the Houthis will also stop firing at ships in the Red Sea and then people can go back through the Red Sea. And then long term, this will have a negative impact on freight and charter rates in the container space, especially.

But what we do have to say, and we're seeing this now in Hormuz as well, and we've been seeing this in the Red Sea for the last 2, 3 years. Somebody says it's open and then companies like ours or larger European companies, larger blue-chip companies, they need assurance that this is actually safe. So what usually happens then is a few, let's say, more risk-averse people, they go through.

And then over time, more and more people go through and then it becomes open. So there's not a day 1 where suddenly you have all the ships coming back. It's a gradual coming back. This will have an impact on freight and charter rates. But what then happens is you have all the ships, let's say, from Asia coming through the Suez and the Red Sea, then they will suddenly arrive at the same time as the ship going around at the Cape of Good Hope, you will have quite a lot of congestion because there's double amount of ships coming at the same time because the voyage length has been shortened.

And then you have another problem on your hands. So I think the state of inefficiency is historically very, very low today for the shipping industry. And we -- even if these things are resolved, don't really see that changing in the near future. But obviously, if a complete openness of the Red Sea is there tomorrow and everybody is going through, this will probably have a downwards revision on charter rates and freight rates.

This is exactly why we are extending long contracts and trying to diversify away from only having containers to also having tankers because, for example, the Strait of Hormuz opening would probably result in a restocking of tanker or oil and gas inventories worldwide, which would probably lead to a boom in charter and freight rates for the tankers. Sorry for the long answer.

And maybe a short question. Where do you see the size of your fleet in 2 to 3 years?

I think we've communicated this before. So I think for us, an optimal size would be, segment-wise, to have about 10, 15 ships in each segment. So let's say, 10 container ships, 10 bulkers, 10 tankers, 10 multipurpose ships, 10 whatever segment you might see, so 2 to 3 years, I would say 40 to 50 ships is a good aim. Of course, that will include new additions and also some disposals. So we would actually have to increase the size of the fleet as we are selling a bit more than what you would have in absolute numbers today.

Okay. Thank you very much. And due to the time running out in this format, we come to the end of this event. Everyone who still has a question, and we have some more in the chat, you are invited to send these questions directly to IR department of Ernst Russ. Thank you for the participation and the interest in the company. And a big thank you to you, Mr. Schuchmann, for the presentation and your time to answer the questions. I wish you all a very successful day. And with that, I hand over to you, Mr. Schuchmann, for some closing remarks.

Yes. Thank you. I think you're all very welcome to reach out. We have our contact, obviously, on our website, and we'll -- we are very happy to answer all your questions. We are, in general, I think, very happy to give a bit of an educational, let's say, push in terms of shipping in Germany. The last couple of years have really increased the visibility of our industry. And I think that's very, very important for our story, but also for Germany as a whole to really understand the global supply chain in its whole. So we're very happy for all of you to join, and we are very happy to answer all of your questions. Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to today's earnings call of the Ernst Russ AG following the publication of the first quarter results of 2026. I'm delighted to welcome Co-CEO and CFO, Dr. Christopher Eilers; as well as Co-CEO and CCO, Joseph Schuchmann. So the gentlemen will guide us through the presentation and the results, followed by a Q&A session where we will be happy to take your questions.

And having said that, Joseph, I hand over to you.

Thank you for the kind introduction, Sarah. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Ernst Russ AG earnings call for the first quarter 2026. My name, as Sarah said, is Joseph Schuchmann. I'm the Co-CEO and Chief Commercial Officer of Ernst Russ, and I'm joined today by our Co-CEO and CFO, Dr. Christopher Eilers.

We are pleased to have you with us today and look forward to sharing our first quarter results. This is our second earnings call after a home run earnings call last time with a record attendance, and we are providing an overview on our latest transactions, discussing our continued strategic progress, and we'll give you a clear view of the path ahead. As you know, we have a lot of strategic matters going on.

A few housekeeping notes before we begin. This call is being recorded. Please hold your questions or type them into the chat and then Sarah will moderate the Q&A session. And some bedside reading; this presentation includes forward-looking statements. So please take them as such.

Let me get into the agenda. I will start with an introduction to our business model. For those of you who are new to Ernst Russ, I will follow with a brief overview of the markets, our current fleet and the charter coverage. And then Christoph will take you through the financial results for the first quarter in greater detail. We'll then close with our strategic outlook and guidance for the full year 2026. Afterwards, Q&A, as I said.

So let's dive right in. For those of you who are new, a brief introduction. Ernst Russ AG is a tonnage provider. So we are a ship owner. We supply our shipping assets to freight companies who charter these vessels from us, rent them to service their customers who basically want to get their goods from A to B. So basically, we are a flexibility provider, and we offer 2 kinds of flexibility: a, operational flexibility, allowing our customers to scale up and down their operation, and we also offer balance sheet flexibility through long-term operating lease structures for those of our customers who look to grow long term without tying up too much capital.

Our model is deliberately clean. We focus on investments, commercial management and ship financing, and outsource crewing, maintenance, insurance, the actual operation of our vessel. We do that with a select group of trusted partners.

Maybe for, again, those of you who are new, the way it works is our customers pay us a daily charter rate for the use of our vessels and they, in turn, earn a freight rate for the freight services they offer. So for, let's say, one container, they get a certain freight rate from A to B or for one ton of grain, they get a certain freight rate from A to B, and they give us the charter rate in turn for the vessel.

If we look into the market, let's maybe walk through this as this is kind of new. We've updated this slide to showcase our strategic drive towards a more diverse fleet. The different shipping segments that we are invested in right now, container, chemical tankers, bulkers and multipurpose ships, they have some similarities, but they have largely uncorrelated charter rates.

We have now created for you some composite indexes that show these 4 relevant sectors and the different sizes that are relevant for Ernst Russ and the development over the last 12 months.

For the last 12 months, containership rates have remained firm. They've climbed 6.3 points and multipurpose rates have decreased by 1.5 points. Chemical tanker rates declined by 6 points and bulk carriers jumped 13.9 points. Please note, this is indexed based on the 12-month cycle. So the base of that is April 2025. And it shows how the different segments fare in a certain environment. And this is exactly the point of our diversification that in any given point in time, the segments will react differently to the market environment.

Of course, currently, our core segment is the container segment, and we are quite happy that the rates there have developed nicely. This is also relevant for you as shareholders as in the new segments, of course, we have contracted long-term charter parties. So the current environment is not necessarily the most relevant for us. And then on the existing fleet on the container ships, of course we have some recontracting going on. And there, the development, as you will see later in the numbers, does have an impact on our earnings.

On the geopolitical side, I mean, a lot has changed since the last time we talked. But in general, turmoil is still all around, maybe starting with the Red Sea that we've had for 2.5 years now. Red Sea and Gulf of Aden remain largely closed to most of commercial shipping.

If you look at containers in April 2026, 754 container ships with about 10 million TEU avoided the Suez Canal and sailed around of Good Hope. So the diversion around the Cape of Good Hope adds approximately 14 days to the voyage and that effectively squeezes the supply of ships because the longer you take, the more ships you need to transport the same amount of cargo. If the container lines gradually decide to return to the Red Sea, if the picture gets safer, then, of course, a softening in charter rates can be expected.

Then coming to the Persian Gulf, which is really, of course, the topic of the last 90 days. It's, first of all, important to say that we are currently not having any ships in the Gulf. So our direct operational impact to the Strait of Hormuz crisis is limited. Of course, the total impact on shipping industry and the global economy is vast.

So the total vessel transit through the strait has fallen by 91%; still some ships going through, but under very dangerous or sanctioned circumstances. To understand sort of the size of the Strait of Hormuz in commodity terms, 20% of the world's oil was flowing through pre-conflict, 37% of seaborne crude oil actually. So this crude oil that is actually shipped on ships, 37% of that. 19% of refined petroleum products, 4% of dry bulk, 3% of container trade, and there's now a lot of ships being stuck in the Gulf, which is also reducing capacity, of course, on the global fleet.

When you look at this picture, as I said, our investment rationale is to diversify across the segments exactly because they are impacted differently by these events. And paired with the long-term charter rates that we execute, we aim to generate stable cash flows. And this rationale, as we have communicated over the last 1.5 years, has not changed, and we argue it increasingly validates itself with what's going on in the world.

When we look at our fleet, this is as of end of quarter, so 31st of March, we had 26 ships on the water. You see one ship that has been joined the multipurpose ship; the second of the 2 that we bought has since joined. So now we have 27 ships on the water. And maybe also this is a good moment to go through the acquisitions that we have done in the last months.

So during Q1, we announced the acquisition of 2 multipurpose vessels. They are now in our fleet, Ronnie and Charlie. They are both on 7-year time charters. And this is -- we've had one multipurpose ship before. So as you know, this is an expansion of that diversified fleet. And the first vessel was handed over in Q1. That's why it's listed here as a vessel on water. And the second one is -- came over in April. So she is now in the fleet as well.

A few weeks later, unfortunately not in Q1, but 15 days later, we announced our entry into the tanker segment. We agreed to acquire 4 intermediate tanker newbuildings. These are scheduled for handover between the fourth quarter of 2026 and the second quarter of 2027. They're all secured with fixed time charter of at least 5 years. And this is actually a very significant milestone because the multipurpose segment was, of course, an expansion in an existing segment, and our entry into this new segment is really significant for us.

We do have to say that we were managing, as Ernst Russ, tanker investments in the past. We've not done so in the past 5 years, and this is the first time that these tankers actually enter our balance sheet and are not in our fleet as an investment manager.

So we're very excited about this development. And this is, of course, fully in line with what we've stated, again with our diversified strategy, long-term charter contracts and very excited about that.

One further thing we announced last week is the sale of one of our older ships, EF Emira. She's 3 things. She is a container ship where, of course, we have most exposure. So if we want to have a true diversified fleet, that is an exposure that in relative terms will have to come down somewhat. She is an older vessel, which is good in relationship to -- we are buying younger vessels, selling older ships to renew our fleet. And she is a joint venture ship. And as we've also communicated, we aim to simplify our balance sheet and our earnings, basically structure for our shareholders, so you might better understand how the cash flows generated actually end up with you. So this disposal of this ship strikes sort of all of these 3 objectives.

As a result, we were able to raise our EBIT forecast, but Christopher will follow with that afterwards. I think taken together, these transactions demonstrate that we are executing our growth strategy. We're executing it on a significant amount of speed as we've basically been on this road for the last 1.5 years and quite a bit of discipline as well because as you see, the market environments are quite volatile, lots of things going on in the world, and you really need to stay disciplined in order to stay on your strategic path and not get carried away with the market.

Looking at this slide, this is new. This looks a bit different. That's a good sign. We now have 2 pages for our fleet overview because we had to dissect the container ships and the other fleet, which means we're growing, which is good. When we look at the container charter coverage, you can see that one ship there is marked as sold and that we only have 2 other ships remaining to be rechartered in this year. They will be up for recharter end of this year. And of course, when something is to be said about that, then we will communicate that clearly.

Our largest vessel, just to reiterate that, if you look at the minimum charter duration, for example, is chartered out until Q2 2033. So this obviously is a picture of this year's coverage. The page is too small to show the coverage all the way out to 2033. But if you do look on the right side, then you will have an idea of how long some of these charter parties last.

This is the new slide, excited about that. We have the extension of our exposure to multipurpose ships. Ronnie and Charlie joined the fleet also with charters until 2033. All new ships that we acquire are on very long-term charter parties. They will be earning stable cash flows for us in the years to come.

And the only exception that we have currently in the fleet is our Bulker Rubina, which was trading in a pool, is currently trading in the open market. And the earnings in that market are actually developing quite nicely. And while that development is going on, we are in the open market and we'll then contract something longer term when we see the opportunity to do so.

Considering all of our ships together, we now have a minimum charter duration of 34 months on average, which is an increase from last time. Our total charter backlog stands at EUR 620 million, which is also up from last time as this shows sort of the things that we've been doing: enhancing the fleet, positioning ourselves strategically. And again, we are actually quite pleased with the development.

These figures do include the vessels incoming and the charter agreements we've done in April and May. So they are as of today, while, of course, the financial results, as you will hear from Christopher, as of end of March.

So talking about end of March figures, I will now hand over to Christopher, and he will take you through the details of our financial results for Q1 2026. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Joseph. It's great to have all of you with us and also a very warm welcome from my side, and many thanks for joining us today. So I would like to start by focusing on the financial highlights for the first quarter of 2026.

So overall, we generated revenues of EUR 37.8 million compared to EUR 40.9 million in Q1 of last year. So the EBITDA for the quarter came in at EUR 20.5 million compared to EUR 48.1 million in the first quarter of '25. So this development is mainly due to the fact that we sold vessels at the beginning of last year, which resulted in fewer trading days of our fleet, but I will explain this in a little bit more detail in a moment.

So looking at our balance sheet, our equity ratio stands at 73.3% and our cash ratio at 195.3%. Also when going through the balance sheet details, we can reflect on that a little bit in more detail.

So overall, this resulted in earnings per share for the first quarter of EUR 0.33 per share. So from a longer term perspective, our 3-year average EBITDA, which you can see on the right side of the slide, also stands at 64.2% and our debt-to-equity ratio remains low at 22%. So overall, this reflects our conservative financial profile of our company and we, of course, continue to preserve that even while we are growing the fleet.

So now I would like to turn to the profit and loss account, and the main performance indicators in a little bit of more detail. And as already mentioned, revenues in the first quarter amounted to EUR 37.8 million compared to the EUR 40.9 million in the prior year period.

So the year-on-year decline is primarily attributable to 2 main factors. First of all, the weaker U.S. dollar against the euro as our charter revenues are denominated in U.S. dollar. On the second side, it is fewer trading days due to a smaller fleet. And both effects were partially offset by a strong increase in our average daily charter rate, which rose by USD 2,663 to USD 19,546, earnings per day or charter rate per day. So this reflects an increase of 15.8%. So as already Joseph has stated, we were also directly benefiting from the positive market development.

So turning to the operating income. The sharp decline is primarily driven by the absence of the prior year vessel sale gain for container ship, which was the [ MS Basel ], which we sold in the first quarter of last year.

Cost of materials declined by EUR 3.9 million to EUR 15.5 million, and this is, of course, also due to a smaller fleet side. And as you can see on this slide, personnel expenses ashore and other operating expenses remained broadly stable.

So taking all these factors together, bottom line, we arrived at an EBITDA of EUR 20.5 million compared to EUR 48.1 million in the first quarter of '25. The depreciation amounted to EUR 7.3 million, resulting in an EBIT of EUR 13.2 million for the first quarter of '26. So as Joseph said, also the first quarter this year, we are very happy with the results.

And on the next slide, I would like to continue to look below the EBIT figures. Our non-operating results of EUR 1.8 million in the first quarter of '26 is compared to minus EUR 3 million in the first quarter last year, which was primarily driven by the positive foreign exchange effects, reflecting the movement in the U.S. dollar-euro rate during the quarter. The financial result was EUR 0.5 million, broadly in line with prior year figures, and it reflects the interest earned out of our liquidity holdings.

So as a result of these developments, earnings before tax came in at EUR 15.5 million and the profit before minorities at EUR 15.3 million, demonstrating, I think, a very resilient earnings conversion from the operating to the bottom line level. So after deducting minority profit, participation of EUR 4.3 million. Ernst Russ as a group, we realized a profit after minorities of EUR 11 million in the first quarter of 2026. And this, as I already mentioned, translates into an earnings per share of EUR 0.33 for the first quarter.

So let us take a closer look to the balance sheet as of the 31st of March '26. So total assets increased from EUR 370.1 million at year-end to EUR 414.3 million at the end of Q1 '26. So the key driver on the asset side is the increase in the vessel assets to EUR 281 million, which has reflected the acquisition of the 2 multipurpose vessels, which Joseph already mentioned.

Correspondingly, the liquidity increased to EUR 120 million. On the next slide, we will look into that in a little bit more detail. On the other side of the balance sheet, the equity position grew to EUR 303 million, and the equity ratio stands at 73.3% or 78.6% on an adjusted basis if we add the liabilities to non-controlling interest.

So the interest-bearing liabilities increased from EUR 36 million to EUR 67.9 million, which is primarily reflected in the bridge financing we took for the acquisition of the 2 multipurpose vessels. So in summary, the balance sheet, in comparison also to the last year results, remains very robust, capitalized with ample financial headroom to continue and execute on our growth strategy, which Joseph already mentioned.

Next slide, I want to briefly walk you through the cash flow for the first quarter. So we started the year with a liquidity of EUR 114.3 million, and operating cash flow came in, in the first quarter, with EUR 17.4 million, which is broadly stable in comparison to the first quarter of '25, which resulted with an operating cash flow of EUR 17.6 million last year. And that reflects, of course, a strong cash generation from the fleet operations and from also the bridge increase of the market development itself.

So the cash flow from investing activities was minus EUR 43.6 million compared to a positive EUR 23.8 million in the first quarter of '25. The year-on-year swing, of course, is primarily explained with the acquisition of the 2 multipurpose vessels we have executed in the first quarter this year. And the prior year period included proceeds from the vessel sale, which then, of course, explains the difference in those 2 figures.

The cash flow from financing activities was positive with EUR 30.1 million compared to minus EUR 50.6 million (sic) [ EUR 50.9 million ] in the first quarter of last year. The inflow mainly reflects the bridge financing of EUR 33.8 million raised for the MPP acquisitions, and in addition, we recorded a positive exchange rate and valuation effect of EUR 2 million, driven by a stronger U.S. dollar against the euro at the reporting date.

So overall, liquidity increased by EUR 5.9 million to EUR 120 million at the end of the first quarter, which gives us, again, a solid foundation for our continued fleet expansion.

So after having a quick view on the past, let me now turn to our guidance for the full financial year '26. And as you might have read in the last week in our ad hoc announcement, we were able to raise our EBIT guidance for the full year. It is now in the range between EUR 45 million to EUR 55 million, whereas the previous guidance, as you can see on the slide, was in the range of EUR 34 million to EUR 44 million.

So as Joseph already explained, this upward revision results from the earlier-mentioned sale of the EF Emira and is further supported by the positive business performance so far this year. Let me point out that further vessel sales or new business are not anticipated or reflected in our updated guidance.

So for the revenue, we are maintaining our guidance range of EUR 145 million to EUR 160 million. And I would like to point out that already EUR 147.5 million of this is already contracted on our long-term charter approach. And of course, please note that this is still depends on future U.S. dollar-euro exchange rate development, which, of course, then is part of our range within the guidance.

In terms of the fleet utilization, we are targeting 97% for the full year, which is a conservative approach, taking into account that in the first quarter this year, the fleet utilization was 99.8%. But, of course, looking at the full year, we have to reflect scheduled dry dockings of the vessels, which will take place in '26.

So finally, our guidance is based on an assumed foreign exchange rate of USD 1.2 to euro compared to USD 1.13/euros in last year. So the relatively weaker U.S. dollar assumption reflects forward market expectation and this potential currency headwind is, of course, factored into our guidance range.

Overall, the guidance upgrade reflects a strong operational start to this year and a strategically well-timed vessel sale, we assume. So together, both factors strengthen our earnings position and our capacity to pursue further growth.

And that is more or less as of last time we showcased the strategic road map. So I would like to elaborate a little bit further. So what we call the transformation phase is our first phase, which is now complete or, let's say, nearly complete since we initiated our fleet modernization program, selling older tonnage to rejuvenate the fleet and by focusing on risk mitigation through diversified counterparties and long-term charter contracts. Of course, we will continue this going forward, as demonstrated most recently last week with the sale of Emira.

On the capital market side, we successfully grew research coverage over the last year from 1 to 4 analysts, significantly increased our participation in investors conference. So many of the viewers we have probably met in person, and we would like to continue doing so, and enhance our overall capital market activities on a general basis, meaning having the earning calls, having the quarterly reports, et cetera. So we also took decisive steps to reduce corporate complexity by streamlining our ownership structure and disposing of noncore subsidiaries.

So now as Joseph has said, we are in the disciplined growth phase. Here, we would focus on the fleet strategy on a diversified yield generation with strong emphasis on risk mitigation. And since our last earnings call, we were able to demonstrate significant progress by entering the tanker segment, acquiring the 4 newbuildings with a long-term employment. And also, we took over the 2 MPP vessels with also a secured long-term charter.

So on the capital market side, we are actively working to broaden our investor base and increase the liquidity of our shares. And further, on the, let's say, structural side, financing side, we are in the process of establishing IFRS reporting, which is an important step for us to also being -- or that our financials are more accessible to international investors. And of course, from the balance sheet perspective, we remain disciplined when it comes to the approach of our loan-to-value levels when it comes of financing of our projects.

So looking further ahead, our broad vision, we are trying to achieve is reflected in the third phase to become a leading listed European shipping platform with a risk-diversified portfolio approach designed to deliver long-term stability, resilience and, of course, attractive risk-adjusted returns. So we are well aware that a clearly defined dividend strategy and an uplifting to the regulated market will be essential to achieve this. And we believe that this strategic road map provides a clear and compelling path forward, and we look forward to updating you on our continued progress in the quarter ahead so that you can really see the development and the efforts we take into account.

So before we open the floor for the questions, let me just quickly draw your attention to our financial calendar of the remainder of this year. Key upcoming dates include our virtual Annual General Meeting next week on the 4th of June, the virtual Scale Summit on the 23rd of June and the mwb inspired conference in Frankfurt on the 24th of June. And our next earnings call will take place on the 25th of August, right after we publish our half year report.

So we look forward to stay in close dialogue with all of you and the capital markets community as itself throughout this year and hope to see you not only virtually but also in person in the various events, which I mentioned. So coming to an end of the remarks, Joseph and I are happy to take all of your questions. And first of all, thank you very much for your general interest in Ernst Russ and your continued attention.

So now back to Sarah to moderate the Q&A session.

Thank you so much, Christopher and Joseph, for your presentation. So ladies and gentlemen, we're now happy to take your questions that you may have. [Operator Instructions]

And then we will start with the first virtual hand from Mr. Wissler. So Mr. Wissler.

Congrats on the good results and how you transformed your fleet and the fleet structure in such a short time. Joseph, you mentioned the multiyear fixed charters for your acquisition pipeline. Particularly for the tankers, could you provide us some context regarding the counterparties? Are these Tier 1 charters? And also could you confirm that the charters agreed lock in the current historically strong tanker market for the entire fixed term?

Yes. So on the counterpart, that is a commercial matter that we can't disclose as of now because these ships haven't been delivered. I'm sure there will become a time where we will be able to say so, but not currently. I think it's always important for you to understand certainly when the rates are this high in the tanker market, the asset values also rise and you always need to take the charter rates in comparison to what you're paying for the ship. So these rates that we have concluded there are historically very strong. But of course, also historically, the asset prices are rather high.

I do have to say that these ships and the size they are in, they are not -- this is not the very large crude carriers earning $700,000 a day that you see in the Financial Times that are running through the Strait of Hormuz as at great risk. This is ice class ships for industrial transportation, mostly in the North Atlantic and the Great Lakes region and North Europe. And as they have 5-year plus charter parties, this is much more of a long-term rate that reflects the asset price, but doesn't reflect necessarily the very volatile spot market. I hope that sort of covers it.

Yes, perfect. Understandable that you can't disclose the counterparty at this point in time. But maybe if you look at the MPPs, they come with a 7-year fixed charters, if I'm not mistaken. But maybe you can give us some idea how you hedge against counterparty risk?

Well, our structure in the fleet is a risk -- is a hedge in itself, right? We diversify across counterparties. And then we classify different counterparties in different groups relating to their financial strength. Are they investment grade? Are they not investment grade, but a very, very solid counterpart? And how does that relate to the really the entire fleet, right? So we don't want all ships in one segment with one counterparty. We don't want too many ships with counterparties that are not investment grade, and that's how we balance that risk.

And maybe one last question, if I may. Christopher, you've shown us the cash flow development in Q1. How should we read the cash outflow from your acquisition pipeline in the next couple of quarters?

Well, as Joseph said, we are opportunistically looking at projects. As Joseph said, currently, we have to be very disciplined, having a market condition of rather higher purchase prices. So we need to identify long-term charters who are willing to compensate on that with a long-term charter in place.

So as of now, we cannot really anticipate until year-end how many investments we will do. Nevertheless, of course, we have -- despite for the MPPs, we have the tankers we will take over the first end of this year, most probably beginning of next year. And of course, we are looking at opportunities and want to follow up. But the projects themselves must really make sense also in relation to the risk and return profile, which, of course, depends on the quality of the counterparties, on the quality of the length of duration, et cetera. So there is no concrete number we can share as of now because, as you know, it depends on are we buying a smaller container vessel versus a very large bulk carrier or even in the extreme, an LNG carrier. So this is, we have to figure out and map out once the opportunities arise.

Just I think you were referring to the existing acquisition pipeline, meaning the tankers and how that will financially impact us for the coming year, right?

Correct. Yes, whether we should expect the outflow in 2026 in the next couple of quarters or rather in these current...

So on the tankers, especially, these will be delivered end of this year, beginning of next year. Of course, there's always a timing element to that. Will it be in 2026 or 2027? We have paid the deposits for these tankers. And until then -- so until end of year, you will have maximum the outflow of one ship of these tankers. And that's only the equity portion on top of the deposit because we will finance these ships, of course. So for this year, as it stands right now, the impact is fairly limited, I would say.

And then we have another virtual hand in the queue from Mr. [indiscernible].

I have also a couple of questions. First is on the phasing of dockings this year. I mean you had, I think, no docking in the first quarter. And otherwise, I would say it was a very clean quarter. So if I multiple your EPS for the Q1, could be a good idea to arrive at an EPS without disposal -- without the result from the disposal. So the phasing of docking, I think, is important because this was, of course, a fully utilized quarter. And therefore, could you give us an idea of when the dockings will take place in the course of the year?

So we have in Q2, we have -- well, basically, we have a docking in every quarter now. And depending on the -- I think we have in total 5 dockings this year. So we have 1 in Q2, I think 2 or 3 in Q3 and then in Q4.

So Q3 will be then a little bit burdened by the dockings. Okay. And then I have another question on the bridge financing for the 2 MPP ships, EUR 33.8 million. Do you plan to replace this bridge financing? And could you update us on this?

So we use the bridge financing, especially to being fast on the -- let's say, on being able to purchase those vessels. So the bridge financing will be substituted by a long-term traditional mortgage-backed financing. We have already looked into the market, have already offers on hand. So that is something we are working on.

So it will take place this year, I assume.

Most probably yes.

And then maybe another question on, you have 2 remaining ships where the charter runs out in the current year in Q4, a similar ship like as you have already sold, so the EF Emira and I think a smaller ship Ido. And could you update us, do you plan to renew contracts? Or could there also be another divestments?

So in general, we -- I think we have communicated this. In general, every time a ship comes open for charter, we look at both scenarios, right? That's a very fluid decision-making process because the market changes every day. We will certainly look at those ships in that matter, see to renew or see to do something else with them. I do have to say, if you look at the EF Emira that we sold last week, that she had a 2-year charter contract attached that we had fixed earlier.

So it's not only the vessels that are trading with a renewal coming up that you can sell, right? So we do look at our entire fleet every day and we evaluate it every day. I hope you understand that these are quite sensitive commercial matters and that we cannot comment, and I think there was a question in the chat as well on the EF Emira, if that's the next candidate. We don't comment on that because commenting on that would be very detrimental to our commercial decision-making. But any ship that we have, we always evaluate is there somebody who's willing to pay a price that is higher than the price that we believe in? Or is it a ship that we plan with long term?

And maybe a last question on the charter rates because they went up stronger than I expected. I mean, there was not so many changes in your portfolio. I think there was, of course, the 2 MPPs and one of them came already -- was already transferred in Q1. And then I think there was a bulker, Rubina, which were now trades at SPOT. Are these the changes which drove your charter rates upwards?

Well, we have also renewed ships, right? If you compare this slide -- one second, I'll just give it out for you. If you compare this slide to the one we did last, there's more changes than just the Emira being sold. So multiple ships have been fixed and the charter rates, as we say, have developed quite nicely over the past 3 months even. And so that's the reason behind it.

And just to also say, sometimes we will report a fixture, let's say, as a backlog increase in, let's say, last quarterly reporting for Q3 or Q4. And then this fixture has been done in advance, right? So for example, if there's a ship open next year, we sometimes get approached by our customers or by a third party to renew that contract already in advance. And that's the same decision-making process that we have for all ships. If we deem that price to be accretive to shareholders, then we execute. And if we don't, we don't. But then, of course, these ships only get into that new charter in a year's time.

But it's only actual charters, so the tankers are not included here.

No.

In the charter rating, yes, of course.

And then we will move on with the questions from Nikolas Demeter.

I just have a question about the guidance -- update of the guidance and the guidance range. It assumes that the EUR 11 million, which we are higher now in this guidance range, is mostly about the sale. So I just want to ask you about more detail maybe. Is it around EUR 10 million about the sale? Or is it even more?

And also because we have also fixed now more charter rate, how is your opinion for the rest of the year? What can go wrong? Actually, it seems to be really visible and it seems also to be a good alignment. It feels like that we could go more to the upper half of the range. I just wanted to hear your opinion about that.

Maybe, Christopher, you take the this one, and I will say what can go wrong.

I mean, as you said, Nikolas, we are very confident looking on the revenue for the remaining of this year since the guidance is EUR 145 million to EUR 160 million, whereof already EUR 147.5 million is contracted, right? Of course, the factor which we cannot really anticipate is the development of the U.S. dollar-euro exchange, which is also one of the main reasons why we are communicating a broader range. And of course, since we sold the vessel, a certain portion of the revenue is not part of it anymore, but also on the cost side, but the main effect is on the book gain within the EBIT upgrade when it comes to the guidance. What can go wrong until end of year, contracts are in place. I do not see anything tremendously happening. But Joseph, you might have.

No. I mean, in our business model, this will increasingly be the case, right? With our new focus on long-term charters, you will increasingly see a variety of years and even several years ahead to be basically locked in at the rates that we contract because that is our communicated strategy to have multiyear cash flows. Of course, then we have staggered ships coming open over every year, and they can increase or decrease the earnings capability.

This year, we do have 2 ships open, so they might have a positive or negative impact to our guidance. Euro-dollar, as Christopher said, I mean, we've been asked this question quite a lot, why we used to guide last year also in even wider ranges, why is the range so wide? Because we are a euro-listed stock and a dollar-denominated business. So that has a huge impact.

And so we don't see a lot of trouble ahead. We have the dry dockings and then you might have a 5-day earlier release of the vessel or a 5-day overrun or a 10-day overrun. These things are -- these are machines that are on operation 24/7 for 5 years in a row. So there is things that can go off target. But in terms of financials, usually these things are fairly stable.

And now I have also a question about the tankers. It feels like they come quite early, like already coming at the end of 2026, beginning of 2027. So I was wondering how the capacities for building these ships are actually in the market. Is it that you have some reservation slots there or about special contacts? Or is it kind of easy to build a new?

No. So it is very similar to real estate. Sometimes you buy a plot and then you build a house yourself. And sometimes there is a project developer who you buy the finished house from. In this case or in the case of our 2 containership newbuildings, we started from scratch with our charterer and develop these ships and went to the yard and ordered them themselves, and we will build them themselves with quality partners and we'll do the entire value chain. In this instance, with the tankers, somebody was already building these ships and they are due for delivery, and we bought them with delivery when they come. So it's basically a turnkey solution.

So the difference, of course, is that the building risk that you enter into -- what we have entered into in our container ships, the delay possibilities, technical risks, et cetera, in this instance, it is not with us, but with the seller. And on the container ships, we are the actual project owner. So we run the full value chain of that project. I hope that sort of explains it with the real estate.

Yes, that makes sense. And maybe one last question about nonstrategic minorities like the joint ventures in your capacities. Are there any left could be reduced? Or are these remaining joint ventures are strategic...

Most of what we have left is strategic. And nonetheless, as you see with EF Emira last week, we do steer it in a certain direction, right? So most of the ships that are left on the fleet, I'll just show you, it's maybe easier. So you see here these 3 joint ventures. The Joint Venture 1, as you see, is the largest and fairly strategic. As you see, we could develop new buildings into that. But within that joint venture, we are also trying to renew the fleet, trying to see if we can take care of good markets. And on general, joint ventures in the future of our company will play a smaller role.

The Joint Venture 3 is also a strategic one where we see some value. Nonetheless, this is a bit similar to our own fleet where we assess this every day, what's the strategic value, what is possibly the value of getting out or buying our partner out as we've done last year. And this is not in this slide, but in general, from our investor presentation, you see that the value of these joint venture ships relative to the total value of our fleet and our company is getting increasingly small. So for the shareholders to understand our business, if we arrive at a, let's say, 10% share of the fleet that is in joint venture hands, it might be more valuable for the shareholders to have the strategic joint venture than it has a value to be simplified and easily to understand the cash flows, if that sort of answers your question.

Thank you so much. And then we've covered all the questions from the audio line, and we'll move over to the chat. We have a couple of questions in the chat as well. The first one is from Mr. [indiscernible]. Is there a timeline for when the uplifting to the regular market is scheduled?

Yes, that's for Christopher.

Yes. There is no exact deadline because, first of all, we have to do our homework on our side. As mentioned, we started the implementation of IFRS reporting. And before we can think of an uplifting to the regular market, we need to have 2 years of audited financial statements in place, which derives the timeline to a certain extent, but that is more or less within the next 2 to 3 years, that would be something we would like to pursue. But as of now, we cannot communicate an exact timing.

And the second question from Mr. [indiscernible] is, are further sales by the major shareholders planned?

Well, if I may take that as well. We, as the Board of Ernst Russ, of course, our strategic focus is of increasing the liquidity in the share to increase the free float. So we see that as a strategic aspect. But of course, in the end of the day, it's a decision of the major shareholder, which we cannot anticipate as of now. But of course, we would like to see that development going further.

And then we have a couple of questions from Mr. [indiscernible] His first question is concerning the market value of your fleet for clarification, is the vessel Charlie excluded and the sold vessels still included in newbuild acquisition pipeline excluded?

That is correct. Yes.

How much of the market value is attributable to minority interest? Does this include the net financial position? Can you provide the net financial position adjusted for minority interest as of 31st of March?

Yes. So when we're looking at the market value of the joint venture fleet, it is roughly USD 188 million, whereof around $92 million belongs to our joint venture partners, and the rest is the fully Ernst Russ owned fleet.

So does the next question -- I can read this here in the chat. So the interest-bearing financial liabilities are fully on the Ernst Russ balance sheet. So yes.

Next question. On your charter backlog, can you provide a clean figure excluding your newbuild acquisition pipeline? So it would be EUR 363 million of newbuilding acquisition pipeline.

Last short question, last short answer. And this answer concludes our call for today. And so thank you, everyone, for joining and for showing interest. It was a pleasure to be your host today. Thank you, Christopher and Joseph, for your presentation and the time you took. And for some final remarks, I would like to hand back to you, Christopher.

Thank you very much. And also from our side, once again, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very, very much for taking the time today and to your general interest in Ernst Russ AG. And we hope to have provided you with a clear picture of the first quarter strong performance results and a clear view of where we are heading for the remaining time of this year, and we look forward to continue this dialogue with you throughout this year and to, once again, see you virtually or in person in the upcoming events.

And if you have further questions, which we were not able to address today, do not hesitate to reach out to us at any point in time or our Investor Relations team. So we really appreciate this open dialogue we are now establishing. So thank you, everyone, and wishing everyone a wonderful sunny day; at least in Hamburg, it's sunny. So many thanks.

Thank you. Bye.

Bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, we warmly welcome you to the Full Year 2025 Earnings Call of the Ernst Russ AG. Please note that this call is being recorded. I am pleased to welcome Ernst Russ Co-CEO and CFO, Dr. Christopher Eilers; as well as Co-CEO and CCO, Joseph Schuchmann, who will guide us through the presentation shortly. After the presentation, we will move on to a Q&A session.

And with having said this, I'm handing over to you, Joseph.

Thank you for the kind introduction, Ingmar. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Ernst Russ AG Earnings Call for the fiscal year 2025. This is -- I'm not sure, if our first ever earnings call, but certainly for the last 10 or 15 years, the first ever earnings call. My name is Joseph Schuchmann. I'm the Co-CEO and Chief Commercial Officer of Ernst Russ AG and I'm joined today by my colleague, Dr. Christopher Eilers, who is also Co-CEO and CFO. So we run the company together. We're pleased to have you with us today, and we look forward to sharing our full year results, providing an update on our strategic progress, giving you an outlook on what lies ahead in 2026.

As Ingmar mentioned, a few housekeeping notes. This call is being recorded. So we kindly ask you to hold your questions until after the presentation. And Ingmar will then moderate the Q&A session. First, some bedside reading for all of you. This presentation includes forward-looking statements. So please take them as such.

Let me briefly walk you through today's agenda. I will start with an introduction to our business model and market update, followed by an overview of our fleet. Christopher will then take you through our financial results for the full year in more detail, and then we'll close with a strategic outlook and as I said, the Q&A in the end.

So without further ado, let's dive in. Let me start with a brief overview, especially for those of you who are new to our company and new to our business model. What does Ernst Russ actually do? Ernst Russ is a so-called tonnage provider, an asset provider, which means we provide shipping assets to freight companies. So these freight companies can perform their services to their customers. In principle, a shipping freight company, example, Hapag-Lloyd or Maersk offers their customers a transportation network and in order to operate this network, they utilize both ships that they own and ships that they charter in from third-party providers such as Ernst Russ.

So in essence, we are flexibility providers, and we provide 2 kinds of flexibility. We provide operational flexibility and balance sheet flexibility. Operational flexibility as in our customers might have a certain seasonality in their service or they want to grow a footprint in a certain area for a certain period of time. So they use the assets of companies such as ours for a temporary period of time to scale up their business or down their business as per their operational needs for capacity.

The other kind of flexibility we offer is balance sheet flexibility. So if companies want to grow without committing capital on their balance sheet, they can structure long-term operating leases with us for their ships. The way we currently operate this structure is fairly lean. As you see in this graph, we outsource most of the operational management of our ships to subcontractors. So we're basically an asset holding company working with best-in-class partners that we have long-standing relationships with and that provide the day-to-day maintenance, the crews, the insurance, et cetera. In-house, we focus on the investments, the commercial management and the financing of the ship. And for the services we have subcontracted, we do the quality assurance to make sure our interest as an owner are protected.

For chartering out our ships, we receive a daily charter rate from our clients for the time they use our ships and their service. They themselves get paid in a freight rate per unit. And this is an important distinction to make for those of you who are not from the shipping industry, they get paid a freight rate for their freight services, and we get a charter rate for the right to use our ship. Currently, our fleet is primarily focused on the container sector. So just a brief rundown on the market environment we faced in 2025. We have 2 main themes. On the one hand, we have scarcity on the supply side, and we have lots of volatility and disruption on the demand side, which is, in any case, underlined by a healthy growth in container trade globally. Most prominently on the supply side and for the last couple of weeks also for the demand side, we have the Red Sea and in general, the Middle East disruptions due to the ongoing wars that lead to extended rerouting of the fleet, limiting supply through these inefficiencies and longer routes.

On the demand side, we have lots of -- or we had lots of volatility in terms -- in 2025 in terms of trading volumes as the administration in the United States, the new administration has had a significant impact on the global transport of good. The volatility in volumes due to this has also led to less efficiency and shifting trade patterns, increasing rates on certain routes while decreasing rates on other routes. So more volatility, but in general, a healthy development, a positive development in freight rates and charter rates for our ships. We do see this continuing in 2026 as the disruptions don't really end. And we do have to note that a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz can also, of course, have a negative impact on global economy. And of course, shipping as such, is somewhat dependent on the global economy thriving and global trade growing. So we do look at this cautiously and monitor this every day.

When you look at the current portfolio, our current fleet, we have 25 ships on the water with a market value of approximately USD 543 million. Last year, we ordered an additional 2 containership newbuildings. These are ordered backed by a 10-year charter to one of our existing clients and joint venture partners. In general, we intend to increase our exposure in non-container segments to diversify our cash flows further. As of now, our containership portfolio is complemented by one bulk carrier and one multipurpose ship. Recently, we communicated that we had entered into agreements to purchase 2 additional multipurpose ships on backed by a 7-year charter, and these will increase our exposure to this segment because we feel there is a fundamental value in that exposure. These will be taken over in the upcoming weeks so these will appear on our balance sheet shortly.

When you look at the contractual relationships our ships have and the contract coverage for the fleet, we do note that we distinguish between the Ernst Russ's wholly owned fleet, which you see in this graph where the ownership says Ernst Russ and the joint venture ships that we operate with joint venture partners. In terms of value, just as a note, the majority of our fleet in terms of value is in the Ernst Russ fleet. So these are more valuable in terms of market value. When it comes to contract coverage, as you see for 2026, we're very well booked in terms of value adjusted. This is even higher, as Christopher will allude to later in his forecast. And just to mention this, the 2 additional ships I just mentioned on the multipurpose side, as they're not yet taken over, they don't appear in this forecast.

One further thing that I would like to highlight before I pass to my colleague on the financial matters is that we also recently communicated that our largest ship, the Rome Express, we recently renegotiated an extension of her existing contract, and it now runs until Q2 2033. This really showcases a focus that we had in 2025, which was on strong counterparts, long-term coverage and good cash flow visibility for our shareholders.

When talking about cash flow visibility and cash flows, I would hand over to my colleague, Christopher, and thank you very much. I'll be back later.

Well, thank you very much, Joseph. And also from my side, a warm welcome to everyone, and many thanks for taking the time to join us on our earnings call today. I would like to start by highlighting main figures of the last financial year 2025. Since earlier today, we published our financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year ending on the 31st of December last year. So the corresponding stock exchange announcement and the accompanying presentation are available in our Investors section of our website, so you can look into the detailed numbers also after this call.

So let us start with the highlights. Overall, we generated revenues of EUR 158 million compared to EUR 172 million in 2024. This development is due to the fact that we sold some vessels in 2025, resulting in fewer trading days. I will explain in a little bit more detail in a moment when we're going into the deep dive of the numbers. So we ended the year with an EBITDA of EUR 126 million, which is significantly higher compared to EUR 93 million in 2024. So this represents an EBITDA margin of nearly 80%. So the improvement shows a very strong result and of course, is mainly driven by vessel sales.

So looking at our balance sheet, our equity ratio stands at 79% as of year-end, and our cash ratio is at 192%, reflecting a very strong liquidity position. So all the above-mentioned development resulted in an earnings per share for 2025 of EUR 2.18. So summarizing the recent years on the right side of the slide, our average 3 years EBITDA ratio stands at 63%, and our debt-to-equity ratio remains low at just 12%. So we see a development over the last years, and that showcases our robust and conservative financial profile of our company.

So on the next slide, I would like to move on and walk you through the main highlights of our P&L and the main performance indicators in a little bit of more detail. So as already mentioned, revenue for last year was EUR 158 million and therefore, roughly EUR 14 million less than in the previous year. The decline is primarily attributable to lower trading days in detail, 843 days less year-over-year, which is the result of a smaller average fleet size. However, this effect was partially offset by a higher average daily charter rates, which increased by USD 678 per day in comparison to last year. So as already Joseph has said, we see or have seen a strong market last year as well. So the strong development of the other operating income of nearly EUR 60 million in comparison to nearly EUR 20 million in '24 is the result of 2 major effects. So firstly, EUR 42 million is the result from the gains from the vessel disposal I just mentioned, and secondly, around EUR 10 million is the reimbursement from insurance.

The cost of materials totaled at EUR 74 million and includes the 3 main drivers for our shipping operational expenses, which is crewing at nearly EUR 30 million, maintenance of EUR 21.3 million and the insurance coverage of our vessels with EUR 7 million for the financial year '25. So the decline of cost of materials is once again mainly driven by the reduction of the fleet in 2025 and in comparison to '24, the additional costs which occurred in '24 in relation to the grounding of our vessel Lodur. So the personnel expenses on group level increased slightly, in particular due to the new setup of the Executive Board, including Joseph and myself. And on the other hand, the reduction in the average employee capacity from 30 to 28 FTEs had an opposite effect.

So taking all the mentioned aspects into account, the net result bottom line resulted in an EBITDA of EUR 126 million and an EBIT of EUR 96 million, which are both significantly above prior year and in line with our guided forecast. So moving on to the next slide. I would like to take a look into the development of the figures below the EBITDA -- the EBIT. So our nonoperating result of minus EUR 10 million of last year is primarily driven by the foreign exchange effects due to the U.S. dollar-euro development. In 2024, we experienced the opposite effect, resulting in the positive nonoperating result of EUR 2.8 million. So in '25, the financial result was EUR 8.7 million compared to only EUR 3 million in '24. The financial results includes the interest earned on our fixed term and overnight deposits as well as gains from the disposal of nonstrategic affiliated companies since it's part of our strategy to reduce the complexity of our corporate structure, which I will allude to a little bit later throughout the strategy.

So as a result of the developments mentioned, earnings before tax rose from EUR 73 million to EUR 95 million and the profit before minorities increased by EUR 28 million to nearly EUR 100 million of last year. So if we subtract the minority interest of EUR 26 million, Ernst Russ Group realizes a profit after minorities of EUR 73 million in last year compared to EUR 42 million in 2024. So as a result, we ended the financial year with earnings per share, as mentioned, of EUR 2.18. So of course, many of you might ask which is this effect on the dividend this year. So on the 4th of June, the Executive and the Supervisory Board will propose to the Annual General Meeting a dividend payment of EUR 0.25 per share for the fiscal year 2025.

So on the next slide, I would like to briefly summarize the key performance indicators year-over-year comparing the last 2 years. So EBITDA improved significantly by 35% from EUR 93 million to EUR 126 million and the EBIT from EUR 68 million to EUR 96 million. So as already said, the EBITDA margin for last year stands at nearly 80%. So it is important to note that this development '25 versus '24, the EBIT in '25 includes EUR 43 million in vessel sales gains, whereas in '24, it was only roughly EUR 2 million. So excluding the sales of the vessels, the underlying operational EBIT for '25 would be roughly EUR 53 million, which, of course, is still a very strong improvement year-over-year.

So as the trading days declined from 10,338 to 9,495 in '24, we see the direct effect on the decline of the revenue. The OpEx improvement from EUR 70 million to EUR 60 million is, of course, the outcome once again of a smaller fleet and further disciplined cost management. Overall, last year, we completed 16 new charter fixtures during the year, which resulted in an increase of the average charter rate per day by 4% from USD 17,457 to USD 18,135. On the cost side, whereas the average OpEx per day decreased slightly from USD 7,080 to USD 6,918 and we were able to improve the utilization of our fleet from 69 to 97 -- sorry, from 96% to 97.7%. And this optimization of the core KPIs reflects once again our excellent operational result for the group of last year.

So let's take a detailed look at our balance sheet as of the 31st of December last year. So total assets increased year-over-year from EUR 355 million to EUR 370 million, which is mainly driven by the slight increase in vessel values; in total, EUR 241 million and adding the payment for the first installment for our 2 newbuildings to the shipyard and the reduction of nonstrategic JV structures, we increased the ownership in certain vessels, which had a direct effect on the increase of total assets. The liquidity of the group increased from EUR 110 million to slightly to EUR 114 million last year. And on the other side of the balance sheet, we see that the equity position grew from EUR 266 million to EUR 290 million, largely driven by the strong net income for the financial year. And therefore, the equity ratio stands at 79%. And if we would subtract the liabilities to noncontrolling interest, the equity ratio would increase to 84.2%.

So looking at the interest-bearing liabilities, they increased from EUR 15.8 million to EUR 36 million, while the liabilities to noncontrolling interest decreased from EUR 41 million to EUR 18 million as we continue to streamline our ownership structure. So the balance sheet overall leaves us with an almost no securitized debt and a cash ratio of 192% which forms, of course, a very strong basis for our continued growth strategy, which we will share in a little bit more time.

So cash flows. On the next slide, as said, we wanted to briefly walk you through the cash flow straightforward. We started the year with EUR 110 million of liquidity, which was uplifted by our very strong operating cash flow of EUR 89 million and which is underpinned by our high EBITDA. So the cash flow from investing activities amounts to nearly EUR 24 million, which includes the mentioned proceeds from vessel sales of EUR 61 million on the one hand side. And on the other hand side, we partially offset by investments in the Shipping segment of around EUR 45 million, which includes the mentioned newbuilding installments to the shipyards and the increase of our stakes in existing nonstrategic joint venture investments.

So the cash flow from financing activities was minus EUR 96 million, reflecting the dividend payments to both shareholders and mainly also to minority partners. And further, the cash flow from financing includes the full repayment of a loan. So after subtracting the already mentioned exchange rate effect and valuation effect of minus EUR 11.2 million, we ended the year '25 with a very strong liquidity position, once again of EUR 114 million.

So after reviewing the development of the past, let us take a look into the future and the forecast for the financial year '26. So for the revenues, we are guiding a range of EUR 145 million to EUR 160 million. And in this context, it's importantly to note that already EUR 138.6 million of these revenues is already contracted as per today, which, of course, gives us a high degree of visibility and confidence in our numbers from the outset. So in order to set this in a little bit more context, in 2025, revenue came in at EUR 158 million, and the overall revenue backlog was EUR 448 million at end of last year.

On the profitability side, we expect an EBIT in the range of EUR 34 million to EUR 44 million. So please allow me to be transparent on this matter. The 2025 EBIT of EUR 69 million included the vessel sales, which, of course, has a special effect on the results. And in our forecast, we do not anticipate vessel sales so that the underlying trajectory is solid and in line with our expectations. In terms of the fleet utilization, we are targeting 97%, which is more or less in line with the strong 97.7% we achieved in '25, but it reflects the planned off-hire for scheduled dry dockings, for example, which take place in our fleet in '26. So finally, our guidance is based on an assumed foreign exchange rate of USD 1.2 to euro compared to USD 1.13 in 2025. So the stronger dollar assumptions reflects current market conditions and market expectations, and this potential currency headwind is already factored into our range.

So overall, we started the year 2026 with a high share of contracted revenue, a fully utilized fleet and a clear strategic direction. And since I already mentioned several times the clear strategic direction, please allow me to share our -- or use this opportunity today to give you a somewhat more detailed outlook of our strategic thinking. As you can see on this slide, our strategy is based on 3 distinct phases, each building on the progress of the previous one and showcase a strong dependency throughout the journey in between those phases. So in Phase 1, we call it transformation phase, which we started last year, we formed the basis for everything which now follows. So we initiated our fleet modernization program, selling older tonnage to rejuvenate our fleet while still focusing on risk mitigation through diversified counterparties and long-term charter contracts.

So on the capital markets side, we significantly increased our Investor Relations activities, growing our research coverage from 1 to 4 analysts and stepping up our participation in investor conferences. I think Joseph and myself, we tried to attend as many as we can last year and we'll continue to do so this year. And further, we took the decisive step to reduce the complexity in our corporate structure by reducing the nonstrategic minorities in the fleet and disposing noncore subsidiaries further. So building on this phase, we are now shifting into the next phase, which we call disciplined growth phase. Here, our fleet focus is on a diversified yield generation with a strong emphasis on risk mitigation, reflecting in our order of the 2 newbuildings in last year with a 10-year charter contract and the acquisition of 2 secondhand MPP vessels beginning of this year, as Joseph already has mentioned, which starts operations with already a 7-year charter attached.

On the capital market side, we are actively working on broadening our investor base to increase the liquidity of the share with a larger free float remains, of course, one of our long-term key objectives. So we strongly want to strengthen and intensify our Investor Relations measures by continuing these earning calls and offer them on a regular basis alongside our quarterly reporting. So what we already initiated is the implementation of IFRS reporting this year, which will, of course, take some time, but it makes the reporting more favorable also for international investors. And our financial setup is of equal priority, of course, since we really focus on a disciplined approach to our balance sheet management, and we want to maintain a sustainable loan-to-value level. So looking even ahead, the vision of Phase 3 in our strategic road map is the overall goal to become the leading listed European shipping platform.

This means that a risk-diversified portfolio approach designed to ensure long-term stability, resilience and attractive risk-adjusted returns, combined with a clear dividend policy and an uplisting to the regulated market. So we also aspire, of course, to establish transparent and straightforward financial statement logic, where our earnings are simply defined as charter rates times trading days minus OpEx equals the EBITDA. So it can be as simple as that. So we are trying to achieve this goal over the next phases. And we strongly believe that this strategic road map provides a very clear and compelling path forward. And of course, we are looking forward updating you on our progress in the coming quarters.

So before we open the floor for the questions, let me draw your attention to our financial calendar for '26. As I already said, we are now trying to be present as much as possible. So the key upcoming dates include the Metzler Small Cap Days in Frankfurt on the 14th of April this year. The MKK, the Munich Capital Market Conference on the 22nd of April, and we will publish our Q1 report and our next earnings calls on the 28th of May and our General Meeting on the 4th of June. It will take place on the 4th of June and the publication of the half year report and earnings calls will take place on the 25th of August. So we look very much forward to staying in close dialogue with the capital markets community, meaning, of course, you throughout the year and hope to see some of you in-person during our many capital market conferences.

And coming to an end of our presentation, we would like to thank everyone for the continued attention and the general interest in Ernst Russ. And Joseph and I are now more than happy to answer all your questions, and we will now hand over to Ingmar to moderate the Q&A session.

Yes. Thank you very much, Christopher. Thank you, Joseph, for the presentation. And ladies and gentlemen, now it's your turn. We are opening the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]. We have already a participant raising his hand and you are able to speak now and place your question, Mr. [indiscernible].

My first question is about the outlook for 2026. Maybe you can give some more flavor maybe also about your outlook about the charter rates. You said they are right now looking quite good. Do you expect them -- how long do you expect them to be quite well? And you also mentioned about the economic outlook. Do you think the charter rates will be influenced then next year already this year? And also maybe about the EBIT. We see right now higher average charter rates which means there will be probably some dry docks this year. Maybe you can also mention this.

Yes. Maybe I just take that regarding the market. As I said, in general, we are cautiously optimistic. Why cautiously? Every single day these weeks is a surprise, lots of volatility, lots of misleading information coming from multiple participants, obviously, in particular, from the White House. Maybe it makes sense to take a step back and look at what this volatility and the disruptions mean. The current environment -- 3 weeks ago, the environment was in container shipping and for the last 2.5 years, I think, heavily dominated by the rerouting around the Red Sea, in which I'm not sure if everybody is aware, but the Houthi rebels are shooting at ships in the Red Sea, which means basically the majority of the container fleet, at least and most of shipping in general, stays away and circumvents the continent of Africa, which means longer routes, less -- so sucking in capacity on the longer routes and then higher prices for freight and charter rates.

Conversely, that situation was somewhat normalizing at the beginning of this year, end of last year. There was early signs that some of the bigger container carriers were continuing Red Sea transits. And that obviously would have an impact -- a negative impact on charter rates and freight rates. The new crisis now for the last 3 weeks has put that on hold. And hence, that sort of positive effect on freight rates and charter rates should continue for longer now. That being said, when you look at this new crisis, it has a lot more possibility of impacting the global economy as such. And if Europe, for example, as an economy is facing a prolonged downturn, then that obviously has an impact on global trade. And on the long run, we are simply also a function of global trade.

Anyhow, since we are in the feeder space, we don't see a very big order book coming in and the underlying trade globally despite these crisis has been very healthy in 2025. So we are cautiously optimistic. We are -- the last fixtures we have done, the last elongations we have done on charter rates have been higher than anticipated. And we do see that for the foreseeable future to continue that we fixed at very healthy levels, but it's really touch and go in terms of macroeconomic activity. So we prefer not to give any sentiment on how long that will actually last because that's really not in our hands.

I think -- I'm not sure what the second part of the question was. Maybe you can rephrase that.

Yes. Thank you for the first part. The second part was about the maybe dry docks, which will be in this year for the ships. I think there will be some more than last year, if I...

Yes, exactly. So there's 5 dry docks scheduled for this year. That is obviously more than last year. And also, we do have to take into account our ship sales last year, and we do consolidate the results, right? So I think I already saw in one of the other questions, earnings per share as we have bought into some of the ships that we operate in joint ventures and bought out our joint venture partners, that is then earnings per share, whereas previously, that was also only in the consolidated results. Maybe I hope that answers the question.

Yes. Maybe I can continue with another question. And now it's about the expansion strategy and also maybe some sellings for renewal of the fleet. Is there a specific segment where you have right now an eye on the last 2 ships were at the multipurpose segment? Do you feel there will be more opportunities in this segment? Do you think there are right now other segments which are more favorable?

In general, yes, we do see potential in the multipurpose segment. That's why we invested in it recently. The multipurpose segment, just as the feeder containership segments face a prolonged scarcity of capacity. The fleet is older on average than it has been historically. The order book is lower than it has been historically. So we do see very good opportunities there. That being said, in general, in shipping, we are currently in a rather high point of any cycle.

So the asset prices are somewhat inflated. So we are very selective when it comes to investment opportunities because despite our solid financial position, we intend to make the right investments for the long run. And if that means selecting more decisively, then that may be the case. And maybe just to add, in other sectors, yes, there's certain sectors that we are -- we're looking at every sector, and there's definitely opportunities. And when the time comes, let's say, we will also inform shareholders about this. But obviously, there's -- this is a very liquid market, lots of things happening every day. So we are quite selective on how we approach this investment process.

Great. And you also said right now, some prices are inflated, so there could be also then a chance to sell some older assets, right?

Yes, absolutely. I think that's what we've done last year. I think for those of you who have attended some of the investor conferences that we attended, we've been always very clear, especially when it comes to our joint venture fleet that at any given point in time, we are assessing the rechartering or the sale of a ship. And if the expected cash flow from the charter is higher than a sale, then we continue with the ship. And if the sales price exceeds our assumptions for the future, then we are not very sentimental about letting go of assets as we showed last year.

When you look at our joint venture fleet because I think that was also a question I saw pop up, maybe then I'll just take it there. We are assessing that in a continuous matter. And there's always 3 options when it comes to the joint venture fleet. It's either selling the vessel outright, which we've done last year, for example, EF Elena. There's us buying out our joint venture partner and there's them buying us out. All 3 things we've done last year. But as you can imagine, the process of that with the partner is an iterative process and the planning of that is somewhat not always straightforward. So we do try to take this on a selective basis.

Yes. Great. Appreciate it. I have one last question maybe about a recent charter agreement with [ Fati. ] When I compare it with other agreements, they were quite long and now we have a more short-term contract. Is it about diversification of the duration of the contract? Or what's your thoughts about that?

I'm not sure what [ Fati ] is.

I thought -- was it -- I think one of your container ships.

You mean, Faith?

Faith, yes.

Yes. So I think when you look at the fixture we have done for Rome Express, our largest ship, as I mentioned, that is a larger ship and the larger ships tend to have longer contracts than the smaller ones. And we do try to focus on longer-term commitments, but sometimes for the longer-term charters, there is a heavy discount on what you are able to get. So we are balancing this in terms of what is most profitable for our company and what is most sensible for us to secure cash flows. So this balance, we do try to do on every deal. And in the case of Faith that you just mentioned, this is -- this was the charter that was available. And could we have done longer or shorter? Yes. probably, but this was basically the sweet spot that we chose.

And we move on to Mr. Thomas Wissler.

Congrats to the great numbers. I just have a couple of questions. One has already been asked regarding the dry dockings in 2026. Can you maybe just give us some numbers what the P&L impact might be in 2026? And can you also maybe remind us how many dry dockings you had in 2025?

Yes. Maybe the financial impact, Christopher will take. From the top of my head, I think we had 3 dry dockings or 2 in 2025, but I can look that up and give it to you in a moment.

So I think for -- if I may add, I think for '26, there are 5 dry dockings planned. And by end of last year, we received dry docking budgets from our technical management. So they are reflected in the forecast numbers when we're looking at the budgets, which are already reflected in the cost of materials for this year.

Can you give us an idea how much you roughly have to pay for dry docking on average?

I mean, it depends on the age of the individual vessel and of course, on the size of the vessels and all the maintenance work which has been done before. So it's very difficult to mention the exact number per vessel because it's a huge difference if you're looking at the Rome Express being 13,000 TEU, whereas our smaller vessels have 800. So that really depends.

Maybe I can add to that. There is obviously also when you have a ship in China, that dry docking is cheaper than when you have a ship in Europe, for example, if you want just a broad number, dry docking for a smaller ship will probably start at around 1 million, and it will go up to about 3 million for bigger ships, so this is the range. And then depending on the age and the maintenance and the location of the actual dry dock, that is sort of a range that you can expect. In that detail, we don't really guide on that when it comes to ship per ship, but we can certainly look into that for the future if we can increase visibility for both our analysts and shareholders.

That already helps. Maybe one follow-up question, given that you have the slide open for your forecast 2026, you are forecasting your U.S. dollar-euro exchange rate of $1.20. Am I right to assume that this is a conservative approach on the one hand? And are you hedging your foreign exchange exposure to some extent?

So what we do normally in our budgeting process is that we approach several European international banks and aggregate their average expectation for the upcoming year. So we came to the conclusion that we budget the forecast with USD 1.2 per euro. Of course, the beginning of the year was below that. Nevertheless, some market participants also expect or guide USD 1.25 per euro. So we will see during the course of this year how this development is going. Of course, the geopolitical situation has a special effect, which we do not anticipate at the beginning of this year. So I think we are, as of now, happy with this guidance. And we, as a company, of course, we purchased the vessels in U.S. dollar. So all the income is in U.S. dollar or the majority of the income is in U.S. dollar. The cost is in U.S. dollar. So what we, for example, do is that at a specific point in time, we shift U.S. dollar portion into euro, for example, to pay out the dividend, that is like part of the policy. Nevertheless, the balance sheet as a whole is not hedged against the development of the exchange risk.

And maybe if I may, one last follow-up question. You mentioned or at least we can see in your P&L that you have made significant improvements in buying out your minority shareholders. If I look at your strategic road map, Phase 2 does not show any further minority buyout activities. Am I right to assume that this has been finalized? Or are you approaching that going forward with the remaining minority shareholders?

Well, as mentioned, we take this up very selectively. As Christopher mentioned, these phases, this is a structural approach. These phases are interlinked. We do have the majority in terms of value of our fleet now in whole control. So we do see a significant step made. I think we've communicated this last year that the -- there is minorities or joint venture partners that we deem strategic. If you look at our one joint venture that we also developed the newbuildings with, these are joint ventures we want to continue. There is a few joint ventures. I will not comment on the details that we are always assessing in terms of viability of that strategic list, and we will continue to do that.

So if you want sort of a percentage on how much are we done on that, probably somewhere between 85% and 90%. And we do assess the situation continuously, and we will buy out further minorities or let ourselves be bought out if we do see or conclude on a price point that we deem attractive for our shareholders, right? Because this is always the balance that we need to strike. We are not buying out joint venture partners at top dollar prices only to buy out minorities, and we are not letting ourselves be bought out at lower price points simply to be bought out. We do balance that in terms of what is best for Ernst Russ shareholders as a whole.

Makes completely sense. And maybe just a quick follow-up question. Insurance coverage, do you see any development given the tension in the Middle East?

Well, in general, you do have to dissect the different insurances that we have. We have sort of hull and machinery insurance for the physical asset. We have P&I insurance for damages to others. And things that are related to the Middle East would be covered below war insurance. We currently do not have any ships in the area. So we currently do not pay war insurance. That being said, if a ship transits an area in which war insurance is needed, this is something that is usually a cost that is in relation to our charter as they go -- they direct the vessels operationally. So the impact -- to answer your question, so the impact, no. But in general, obviously, the insurance market as a whole, the maritime insurance market is interlinked globally as well. So there's always implications on one thing or another happening. But yes, the short answer is no.

Well, thank you very much, Mr. Wissler, for placing your question. And we move on to Mr. [indiscernible].

Yes. Just a question on the average remaining duration of the charter contracts, it has increased to 26 months, which is according to my understanding, largely related to the new ships, which are not yet delivered. How do you see or how did the duration develop including the active fleet? And how many contracts need to be prolonged in the current business year?

Okay. Maybe I'll take that. Yes, the newbuildings are included, but it's not only driven by that. It is also driven, as I mentioned, by the prolongation of the charter for our largest vessel, which goes to 2033. I mean when you look at this graph that we're showing here, the majority of our fleet is due in 2027 and 2028, which I would then assume an average that suggests 26 months, and then you have ships coming open in the next, let's say, 2.5 years, that is exactly what the average duration shows. So just 2 ships don't materially change the average. Obviously, they have an impact because it's a 10-year charter. The 2 ships that we have just acquired that will be handed over soon with 7-year charters will also have an impact. So that basically to that question. In terms of new charters this year, if you look at this graph, I can count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 this year, which is -- that's why we are showing this graph. And as I mentioned earlier in the market comments, that is how we feel about the market, cautiously optimistic.

Well, yes. Thank you. And we move on to Mr. [indiscernible].

Yes, I have a silly question or 2 silly questions, please. Thank you, firstly, for the good presentation. I just want to ask you if you also see opportunities in LNG tanker or oil tanker, for example, because I'm not an expert in this one. I'm happy to talk to you guys because I recently just heard there's a deficit in the market for especially LNG tankers. And the second one is the dividend. So I really appreciate the strong results and the strong balance sheet. It's really great in my opinion. And that's why is the dividend -- I'd like to ask why is the dividend not, let's say, higher, for example, EUR 0.30 or EUR 0.35, I think, would still be very conservative in my opinion. So that's my question.

Thank you. Taking the first one, I think the second one, Christopher can take regarding LNG carriers and tankers. Yes, there is a forecasted shortage of LNG ships globally. If you look at FID for LNG export projects for the next 5 to 10 years, certainly a shortage of LNG tankers. Most of these projects are covered by long-term charters, 10- to 15-year charters. We are certainly interested in the LNG space. As we communicated, we are -- our strategic goal is to become a diversified company across various segments. You do have to take into account that one of these LNG carriers cost $250 million approximately in newbuilding. And it is a market that has high barriers of entry.

So any entering into that market will -- or requires quite substantial involvement for a prolonged period of time. And we're certainly not excluding that in our midterm future, but it is quite -- in German, I think you're German, you would say it's the thickest bread. So we are, of course, looking at that, but it remains to be seen if that can be achieved. Just as a side note to that, the reason why all these ships are on such long charters is, of course, first, the security of the projects and the export, but also the unwillingness of owners such as ourselves to commit to a $250 million ship. And usually, you don't order 1 ship, but you order 2, 3, 4, 5 ships. Usually, people are not willing to enter that amount of CapEx without securing long-term cash flows first. If you look at the size of our company, obviously, any $250 million investment on a pure speculative basis would be also in light of our strategy, be a bit out of step. So that's how we look at LNG. Tankers in general, certainly a topic for us.

When you look at -- what you're probably looking at is the current market environment when it comes to the Middle East, obviously, huge volatility and very strong earnings. When you look at our business model and our strategy of having long-term charters, then a seasonal spike or crisis-induced spike like we have today doesn't always have the impact on the long-term charter rates that it needs. So currently, most tankers are priced at a level that is reasoned with the current spot prices. So you can earn in the spot market very high earnings today. So the asset price is quite high. But on the long-term earnings, these do not reflect that price to the same extent. So this disconnect is something that we spend a lot of time on, and we're looking at it extensively.

And then the second question for the dividend, I think my colleague will take.

Well, first of all, thank you for the question. And I totally understand the question concerning the dividend, looking at our strong balance sheet and the great operational result of last year. As I mentioned, we are in this transformation phase, and we mainly focus on shifting the portfolio. So we strongly focus on investing into new projects with long-term charters. So that the portfolio shifts into long-term secured cash flow to more like a yield play approach where the revenue visibility is far more on the longer-term side, which allows us at that point in time to really implement and established a long-term dividend policy. So therefore, the focus this year is to use the market opportunities which come up to really shift the portfolio. Therefore, we focus on that kind of dividend payout, and it was a slight increase to last year.

Okay. Thank you very much. And we now move on to some questions in our chat box. And maybe there is one concerning in which categories of vessels is further diversification of the fleet likely.

I think we've touched upon this. We assess our investment opportunities purely on the basis of that opportunity. We've touched upon tankers. We've touched upon LNG carriers. We do have a bulk carrier in our fleet. We have multipurpose, which we just extended. We are looking at most major segments in shipping. When it comes to a portfolio approach, obviously, there are segments that are less correlated than others. For example, the -- there's -- on the MPP or multipurpose sector, there is a strong overlap with some bulk carrier trades. So maybe the diversification effect there is not as large as, for example, between tankers and container ships. And on bulkers and container ships or bulkers and tankers. So we do look at that, and we look at the whole picture of our fleet. And now the increase in exposure in the multipurpose segment is a very good diversification to our other strategy and investment in tankers would be as well. So we are monitoring every segment daily, let's say.

Okay. Thank you very much. And there is a question from Mr.[ Gilbert ]. What are your basic assumptions for like-for-like the EBIT decline? EBIT adjusted by the EUR 42.9 million one-off was EUR 53.5 million. Are you guiding now midpoint, EUR 39 million, which is a sharp decline.

Yes. So if I may add, as I already mentioned, of course, in the guidance for this year, we do not include any possible vessel sales, which had a huge effect in our last year's numbers. So if -- and as Joseph said, we come to a conclusion looking at the renewals of our fleet that it makes more sense to sell them rather to charter them on long term, that, of course, has or would have a direct effect on the EBIT for this year.

And maybe just to add to this, obviously, a disposal in assets last year impacts the earnings capacity in this year and also the EBIT capacity. So any sale of a vessel is simply a sort of pulled forward cash flow to a one-off payment that you would have for the coming years. Sorry to interrupt.

No worries. And we move on and back to a participant raising his hand. Mr. [indiscernible].

Yes, I'm struggling with the technology. Sorry for that. But you're copying now, are you?

Yes.

Thanks a lot for being allowed to ask some questions. Very top line, if I may. I was very familiar with the industry and concentratedly invested until kind of the century rally caused by basically the only Chinese stupidity during the last 50 years in '21 and exited them. So basically catching up. First top line question. From your shareholder perspective, it's roughly EUR 60 million Free Float, the rest is owned by Döhle. They run 300 vessels, 100 of them belong to them. That is what I understand. EUR 60 million is roughly what you need for 2 or 3 boxes in equity. So from my point of view, there would be 2 strategic options, either to take the whole thing private because why bother for kind of 2% to 3% of the fleet to have a public company or to basically float way more than 1 in 4 shares. So which direction is the major shareholder going as of your knowledge? That is the first thing. Maybe you want to answer that and I continue afterwards? Or do you want me to continue?

No. Christopher?

Yes. I fully agree on how a possible positioning of the main shareholders could look like. We are very confident because Joseph and myself were hired to bring the Ernst Russ AG into the next phase. So it's more the understanding that, of course, to make the share more liquid and to increase the free flow that the main shareholders needs to dilute at some point in time. So therefore, the full focus is on establishing Ernst Russ into or bringing it into the future and being a relevant player on the German stock exchange market. So we have the full backing from the Döhle family to develop Ernst Russ into the future.

Okay. Second question relating basically to the discount. For not a fund manager, but for judicial persons, so kind of be it retail or family office, whatever, of course, the tax transparent structure is way more attractive for shipping because basically, you pay 0.2% instead of 26.38% if you take a nontransparent structure like you or Hapag or whatever a listed company. So that would have kind of to be offset by a discount. So I mean, I understand that the value of the ships is always mitigated by the charters and so it's hard to say. But can you give some rough ballpark figure about the market capitalization related to the net asset value of the ships considering the charters and the debt thereon just a rough ballpark figure. Is it -- am I looking at like 1/4 or 1/3? Or what am I looking at?

So when we're looking at the numbers, and we openly discussed this also in the last year's capital market conferences, there is a valuation gap between the market value of our vessels amounting up to roughly USD 560 million end of last year and the current trading of the share. So when you're looking at the peer group being traded in the Norwegian Stock Exchange market or in the United States, you always see that there is a certain discount to net asset value trading. Of course, it's our ambition to close this valuation gap for our existing shareholders. And we believe that by shifting the portfolio into the long-term secured cash flow games, we can uplift the share price on that end. When you're looking, for example, at the Norwegian player who follows a similar business model, you see that they are trading closer to NAV.

Okay. So you're going to close that gap to MPC Container, I suppose you're talking about.

I think for us, since we are not only focusing on one segment play, it is, of course, a risk-diversified approach to the shipping exposure. And since the company itself has not been active in the capital markets over the last years, we are now changing this, trying to educate also on the logic of our business model of the main KPIs and therefore, try to also close the valuation gap by exactly using this forums, for example, to share those ideas.

Okay. So considering education, which you just mentioned, do you think it's kind of dangerous to put more emphasis on the fact that you don't pay corporate tax basically?

I think when we talk about education, we're talking about education in terms of our business model and the way we operate. I think our P&L and balance sheet, our financial reporting can do the education on the financial and tax part quite well. So we don't really see an issue in that regard. We will continue to educate. I think this as our first earnings call, it looks to be quite extensively visited. The questions seem to be rather extensive as well. So we do see an interest in explaining what we do, explaining our business model and the financials will speak for themselves.

Okay. Well, still, I might add that from the point of view of an individual investor, the model is attractive in terms of risk diversification because the only kind of backside or the only drawdown of [indiscernible] is you can't offset losses. So if you have a mixed portfolio like yours, that's a clear advantage. And I'm not sure everyone understands that yet.

Okay. So final question. I mean, with that century boom in '21, '22, a lot of especially large boxes have been ordered and they are basically coming into the market this year finally. So what trickling down effect from a presumed large drop in the charter rate of the large vessels do you see to your segment? I see you have no ships there that are not chartered out for a long time. So you don't have a problem in the segment. I understand that. But can you -- do you have different scenarios like a high case or a low case or a mid-case about that trickling down effect?

Yes. I think -- I mean, the reason we are focused on the feeder segment is, first of all, the -- as you mentioned, the order book is largely skewed towards the larger sizes and the smaller sizes, especially when it comes to sub-3,000 TEU, where our main focus is, are largely protected by physical restraints. I think when you look at -- when you zoom out and look at container trade globally, we do see besides the sort of headline supply/demand that is impacted by the incoming supply of large ships. We do see a fragmentation in global trade. We see a move towards more of a hub-and-spoke system on the larger lines. All these structurally require feeder ships.

The feeder fleet is significantly older than the large fleet, which makes sense because the large fleet has only started being built in around 2008, '09, '10. So the maximum age for any very large vessel can only be 17 years. And that's why we feel fairly confident on the medium and short-term prospects for feeder ships. The trickling down effect to what we believe is more in a sense that 8,000 TEU ships become regional or intra-regional feeder ships, for example, from India to Southeast Asia. These ships get larger. And then the old Panamax ships, which is sort of the 4,500, 4,000 TEU ships, which we also have one. It's actually this picture right here, the [indiscernible]. They are almost becoming feeder vessels. But below that, you are really protected by barriers. If you look at the ships we ordered, they will trade between Iceland and Rotterdam and the Icelandic ports simply cannot take vessels a lot larger. So there's a physical restraint to the trickling down effect. I hope that sort of answers your question.

Yes, very helpful.

Excuse me, just to intervene Mr. [indiscernible] because we have already run out of time, and there have been some questions in our chat with I'll be forwarding to the IR team of Ernst Russ. And so therefore, we come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you for your interest in Ernst Russ. And thank you, Christopher and Joseph for the presentation and taking the time to answer all the questions. Some remaining questions, I will forward to the IR team. And if there are any remaining questions from the participants, please feel free to contact Ernst Russ as well. And having said this, I wish you all a lucky and successful remaining week and hand over to Christopher for some final remarks.

Yes. Thank you very much, Ingmar. And once again, dear ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your time, Joseph and myself. We really enjoy this dialogue and feel it's very fruitful to have these discussions. And as Ingmar said, all the questions we were not able to answer as of now, we will provide the answers written directly to you. And as a sum up, we hope that we have given you a clear picture of last year's performance, but also very importantly, a clear vision of the future. And we continue -- we look forward to continue the dialogue in our earnings calls in several of the capital market conferences where we hope to see you in person. And if you also have any further questions which you didn't put out today, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.

So yes, thank you very much and wishing everyone a great day.

Thank you, guys.