MPC Münchmeyer Petersen Capital Aktie

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to today's earnings call of the MPC Capital AG following the publication of the financial year figures of 2025. I'm delighted to welcome the CEO, Constantin Baack; and CFO, Dr. Philipp Lauenstein. So the gentlemen will speak shortly and 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 this, I hand over to MPC's Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Stefan Zenker. So the stage is yours.

Yes. Thank you, [ Sarah ]. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Stefan Zenker speaking, Head of IR at MPC Capital. Thank you for joining us today for the presentation of our full year results for 2025. And before we get started, please note that today's discussion may include forward-looking statements. For further details, please refer to the disclaimer in our presentation, which will be available on our website after the call.

Joining me are our CEO, Constantin Baack; and our CFO, Dr. Philipp Lauenstein. They will run you through our operational performance and financial results for the year 2025 and give an outlook for the financial year 2026. We will then open the line for Q&A.

And with that, let me hand over to Constantin. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you, [ Sarah ], and thank you, Stefan. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, I would like to warmly welcome you to our earnings call in connection with today's release of our 2025 annual report. Let me briefly outline the agenda for today's earnings call. I will start with a brief introduction, followed by a company update focusing on key financial and operational developments in 2025, and Philipp will then take you through the financials in somewhat more detail before I will provide a short outlook and we open the floor for questions.

If we move on, I would like to begin with a brief reflection on the year 2025. We continue to operate in a challenging global environment shaped by geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty, which impacts markets and supply chains. Against this backdrop, 2025 highlighted the strength of our business model and strategic focus. Real asset investments and services remained resilient. And as a specialized platform, we are well positioned. We strengthened our earnings base while laying the groundwork for future growth.

As a result, we delivered strong financial results driven by a significantly improved cost base and stable returns from our co-investment portfolio. The continued expansion of our maritime services and investment business further supported recurring management fees and sustainable investment income. Overall, this, as I said, underscores the resilience of our business model and our ability to navigate complex conditions. At year-end, as shown on this slide, assets under management reached EUR 5.4 billion across more than 400 assets, and we were involved in transactions with a total asset volume of around EUR 1.8 billion.

Now moving to the next slide, let me briefly step back and look at the broader environment we operate in. In today's complex and fast-moving world, it is essential for companies to continuously assess external developments and understand what they mean for their business. Looking at the current landscape, in particular, the macroeconomic environment remains challenging. We are seeing elevated geopolitical instability, continued volatility in capital markets and also an increasing regionalization of supply chains. These dynamics are reshaping global trade and investment patterns, and overall they require a high degree of adaptability.

Against this backdrop, MPC Capital continues to demonstrate a high level of resilience. So what does that mean in practice? Firstly, our business model remains robust. This is supported by our industrial profile and our broad yet diversified client base, which provides stability even in uncertain markets. Secondly, while volatility and market dislocations clearly create risks, they also open up attractive opportunities for new business development, and we are actively pursuing those. Thirdly, external factors such as U.S. dollar weakness are currently weighing on our reported revenues and earnings. And finally, in this environment, maintaining a strong balance sheet and a disciplined, proactive capital allocation and risk management remain a clear priority for us.

Overall, we have demonstrated over the past year and in recent years more broadly that we are well positioned in this environment, and we look ahead with confidence. Let me now turn to our performance for the financial year 2025. As I said earlier, overall, we are happy with the results, and we delivered what we think is a strong financial and operating performance despite the complex and challenging environment I just outlined.

Let me walk you through the key messages on this slide. Firstly, our business model continues to prove highly resilient. The impact from geopolitical volatility remains limited, supported by our diversified customer and asset base. At the same time, recurring revenues account for around 83% of total revenues, providing a high degree of stability and visibility. Our recurring management fees already exceed our operating costs, underscoring the high visibility and resilience of the business model and supporting our strategic direction.

Secondly, our service platform continues to grow. Assets under management increased by 6% year-on-year and management fees are up 3% even against the backdrop of a weaker U.S. dollar. Thirdly, we have achieved increased profitability. This is driven by a combination of cost discipline and continued income from co-investments, which is also reflected in a significant increase in earnings per share. And finally, we continue on a path of profitable growth. Based on our current momentum, we expect further growth in both revenues and earnings going forward as reflected in our financial year guidance for 2026.

Looking briefly at the KPIs on the right-hand side, total income remains at a strong level. EBT has increased year-on-year. Assets under management continue to grow and earnings per share, as I said earlier, show a strong increase of 38%. Overall, this performance underlines the strength and scalability of our platform and confirms that we are well positioned for continued growth.

Let me now turn to the company update section, starting with Slide 8, which illustrates our fully integrated owner-operator business model. In practice, this means combining investment expertise with operational capabilities to cover the entire value chain. Let's start with our investment business. We're active across 3 key areas. Firstly, project development, where we originate, structure and develop investment opportunities. Secondly, investment management, where we execute transactions and manage portfolios and assets on behalf of our clients. And thirdly, co-investments, where we selectively deploy our own balance sheet alongside partners, aligning interest and enhancing returns.

Looking at 2025, this part of the business has shown strong momentum. We are seeing significant newbuilding activity. We have successfully launched new investment platforms and we have achieved value realization in our Latin American energy portfolio. Complementing this, at the bottom left, our service business, which forms the operational backbone of our model. Here we also operate across 3 pillars. Commercial management, covering chartering and shipbroking activities. Technical management, providing full scope vessel operations. And ancillary services, including performance management and digital vessel IT solutions.

Also there in 2025, we have continued to expand across all these areas. We have grown both our commercial and technical management activities. We have realized cost synergies, as alluded to earlier, following the recent acquisitions, and we have further enhanced our service offering through the addition of performance management capabilities with BestShip. Overall, this integrated setup combining investment and operations is a key differentiator for MPC Capital. It allows us to generate recurring revenues, maintain close access to assets and clients and create value across the full asset life cycle.

Now moving on, let me walk you through the key developments in our investment business in 2025. Starting with the newbuilding projects, we were involved in projects with a total volume of over USD 1 billion, all backed by mid- to long-term charters. And these will add to our assets under management over the coming years and generate additional fee income as they are delivered with further projects currently under negotiation. In our diversified maritime strategy, we launched a new investment platform raising USD 35 million at first close with a target of over USD 70 million for opportunistic investments across dry bulk, tanker, container and offshore assets. We also entered the chemical tanker segment together with investment partners through a sale-and-charter-back structure at the end of last year.

In offshore, we made a successful step into a new segment. Together with partners, we are developing up to 6 vessels with a total investment of around USD 150 million, and the first ship is expected to be delivered in Q2 this year. And finally, in energy, we continue to optimize the portfolio, including the sale of solar projects in Jamaica, Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala, while remaining asset manager for selected assets. Going forward, we see further growth opportunities, particularly in Europe. Overall, this reflects strong momentum across all areas of our investment business.

Let me turn to our maritime service business. The continued expansion of our platform is clearly translating into a growing and more stable recurring fee base. Starting with commercial management, we see strong performance in container chartering across both exclusive and competitive mandates, including multiyear forward fixtures and the number of vessels under management is at a 5-year high with increasing activity also in tanker chartering. In technical management, our platform is now well positioned across dry and wet vessels following recent M&A, integration is complete, synergies have been realized and the target structure is fully operational. At the same time, we are seeing strong momentum also in new third-party business.

And in performance management, we have expanded our capabilities through our 50% stake in BestShip. The platform is fully digitized, focused on energy efficiency as well as regulatory compliance and currently serves around 450 vessels across a broad client base. Overall, this underlines the continued growth of our maritime service activities and platform and its increasing contribution to our recurring earnings base.

And with that, I hand over to Philipp, who will present the financial highlights of 2025.

Thanks, Constantin, and good afternoon, everyone, from my side as well. Maybe in a nutshell, looking at our financial performance in 2025, the year was a very strong one for MPC Capital. We further strengthened our earnings profile while continuing to execute on our strategic priorities. And despite a continued volatile macro and geopolitical environment, we delivered stable revenues, improved profitability and further improved on the quality and resilience of our business model. This will be laying the ground for continued profitable growth going forward, as also reflected in the guidance that we have communicated this morning for the financial year 2026.

Looking at the P&L and our earnings in more detail. Group revenue for the financial year 2025 came in at EUR 43.1 million in total, which is broadly unchanged compared to the prior year. And there are 2 main points worth highlighting when it comes to total revenue. One is the composition and the quality of revenue, which continues to develop positively in 2025. Around 83% of total revenue are now derived from recurring management fees, which obviously underlines the visibility and stability of our revenue and income base. And secondly, Constantin mentioned this earlier, it's worth noting that total revenue in 2025 came in at the level of the prior year despite, I would say, significant headwinds from a weaker U.S. dollar.

To give you a sense of the size of the impact, there's a negative currency impact from the weaker U.S. dollar in the magnitude of a low to mid-single-digit million euro figure compared to 2024 in our 2025 revenues. Drilling down a little bit deeper, management fees increased, as I said, despite weaker dollar by 3% year-over-year, coming in at EUR 35.7 million, reflecting the continued growth in assets under management, which stepped up from EUR 5.1 billion to EUR 5.4 billion at the end of 2025. Transaction fees slightly increased to EUR 6.5 million compared to EUR 6.2 million in 2024, mainly supported by very good new business activities on the maritime side as well as a number of successful exits across segments.

And on the co-investment side, total co-investment income came in at roughly EUR 20 million in 2025 compared to EUR 29 million in the previous year. And as discussed on previous occasions, this reduction in co-investment income is mainly due to the fact that the prior year 2024 was influenced quite favorably by exceptionally high proceeds from our equity participation in container newbuilding projects, while in 2025 income from the co-investment portfolio was more driven by recurring yields and less exit driven.

Before turning to the bottom line, I think the cost structure is worth noting. As you may recall, 2024 included substantial one-offs from the integration from Zeaborn Ship Management. With those one-off effects behind us and synergies from the integration now being in full swing, our cost base developed basically exactly as planned throughout 2025, and the cost structure as reflected in the 2025 P&L now reflects a recurring and normalized level going forward. So also this improved cost base obviously has been a key contributor to a favorable development of profitability despite lower co-investment returns compared to the previous year.

Earnings before taxes came in at EUR 50 -- sorry, EUR 25.3 million on the lower end of our communicated guidance compared to EUR 24.5 million in the previous year. At the same time, net earnings rose by 38% to EUR 23.3 million, which corresponds to earnings per share of EUR 0.66. The disproportionate step-up in net earnings compared to EBT is mainly due to lower minority interests, which were mainly associated with co-investment returns in 2024 and lower tax expenses driving up net earnings per share compared to EBT.

Let me spend a moment also on the balance sheet and our financial position. Our financial position remains strong. Equity ratio further increased to 87% and liquidity stood at just above EUR 35 million at year-end, which is slightly above the prior year. This obviously underlines the robustness of our balance sheet and should ensure solid funding for both our operations and future co-investments going forward. I will be coming back to the dividend proposal in a moment, but as you will see from the dividend proposal, we continue to balance capital allocation combining shareholder returns and flexibility to capitalize on the growth opportunities that we see ahead of ourselves.

And our co-investment portfolio, as you well know, represents the largest assets on our balance sheet. Let me have a closer look on the composition and the components of our co-investment portfolio. As demonstrated over the past years and also reflected in the 2025 results, the co-investment portfolio has become a central pillar of our business model, of our balance sheet and of our earnings. Under German GAAP, our co-investments are recorded at historical acquisition costs. On a mark-to-market basis, the portfolio would be valued at EUR 135 million as year-end 2025, which would be roughly a 40% step-up in terms of hidden reserves compared to the book value, which sort of signals embedded earnings potential in the co-investment portfolio going forward.

On the rightmost slide -- chart, you can see a breakdown of our co-investment returns by type. And when I say by type, we distinguish between 2 categories. We have in our portfolio opportunistic investments, which typically generate limited ongoing return but are more driven by back-ended exit-driven returns. And then there are long-term strategic investments where the running yield is the primary driver of return on income. And as mentioned, co-investment income in 2024 was driven by significant exit proceeds, while in contrast, in 2025, the income contribution by our co-investment portfolio shifted more towards yields and less exit-driven returns, which is sort of a hint to a portfolio mix and earnings potential going forward.

Let me turn to capital allocation. Our approach to capital allocation remains disciplined and consistent, and this is clearly reflected also in the development of our dividends over the past years. As you can see from the chart, we have steadily increased the regular dividend per share. Those regular dividends marked in dark blue are the dividends paid in line with our dividend distribution policy, which states that up to 50% of consolidated net profits are paid out in dividends. In the prior years, we have complemented these regular dividends with so-called supplemental dividends, reflecting our view that the company was holding excess cash, which we decided to return to shareholders over the past years.

For the financial year 2025, we will propose to the AGM a dividend of, again, EUR 0.27 per share, which reflects a payout ratio of 41%, which in our view reflects the balanced -- again, balanced approach to capital allocation. On the one hand side, the dividend payout proposal is well within our target distribution range of up to 50% on net profit. And then on the other hand, we have decided against paying a supplemental dividend on top of the regular dividend this year, given that we see significant and value-enhancing growth potentials in our business. And Constantin will speak to this a little bit in a minute when touching upon the outlook.

As an important note, the dividend following approval by the AGM is again expected to be paid from the tax contribution account and therefore should be tax-free -- withholding tax-free for shareholders. And maybe just a final note on our approach to capital allocation. Average dividend yields since 2021 has been averaging around 6%, which we think is -- on a tax-free basis, which we think is an attractive and consistent way of returning capital to our shareholders.

And then to wrap up the financial updates, let me briefly touch upon the outlook for the current financial year 2026. Based on our positioning, high share of recurring revenues and very good visibility on ongoing transactions and co-investment returns, we do expect continued profitable growth throughout 2026. For the current financial year, we do forecast revenues to come in, in the range between EUR 45 million and EUR 50 million and earnings before taxes to be in the bracket of EUR 25 million to EUR 30 million. This outlook is, as I said, it's supported by, on the one hand, very good visibility and resilience of our existing business and a well-filled pipeline of opportunities and projects that we have lined up. And there's good visibility to land this guidance range.

And with this, I pass it back to Constantin for the outlook and summary.

Yes. Thank you, Philipp. Let me now continue with the outlook section. Let me take a step back and look at basically how our platform has developed and how this supports our future growth ambitions on this slide. As you can see on the left-hand side, our assets under management have grown significantly over the past decade from around EUR 1.7 billion in 2015 to EUR 5.4 billion today. This represents an average annual growth rate of around 12% per annum. And the key contributor to this growth has been our increasing exposure to what we call energy transition-related assets or more innovative assets, which have expanded at a faster pace and now represent a meaningful share of our overall AUM, as you can see in the lime-colored part of the columns.

This track record provides a strong foundation for the next phase of our development. And looking ahead, we aim to continue this growth trajectory, and our ambition is to further scale our platform and deliver sustainable profitable growth over the coming years. And we believe this is, in particular, supported by 3 key drivers. Firstly, we operate in what we characterize as structural growth markets. The energy and maritime sectors shaped by the energy transition as well as evolving market dynamics and supply security, require substantial long-term investments, driving sustained demand for capital and expertise in our sectors.

Secondly, our industrial or rather owner-operator approach is a clear differentiator. By combining investment and operational capabilities, we're able to serve investors, maritime clients and other partners in an integrated form and thereby capture value across the full life cycle of an asset. And thirdly, we are building all of this on a healthy and resilient base. Our strong balance sheet, as Philipp has alluded to, provides the flexibility and also the stability needed to support our growth ambitions. Overall, we believe the combination of track record, positioning and market dynamics and key drivers puts us in a strong position to continue expanding our platform going forward.

Before we now open the floor for questions, let me briefly summarize our outlook on the next slide as follows. Firstly, we will continue to expand our maritime service business. This remains a key priority and further strengthens the resilience of our business model. Secondly, we have strong visibility on growth through a backlog of more than USD 1 billion in contracted AUM, primarily linked to our newbuild projects generating long-term cash flows. Thirdly, we expect disproportionate earnings growth driven by the expansion of our recurring service fee base on the one hand and continued cost discipline on the other hand, both of which support our scalable platform.

In addition, all of this is underpinned by a rock-solid financial position, providing flexibility for growth while maintaining disciplined capital allocation. Overall, we are well positioned to continue delivering sustainable and profitable growth. And finally, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my colleagues across the entire group for their dedication and performance as well as to our partners and shareholders for their continued trust and support.

And with that, I would like to hand back to you, [ Sarah ], for the questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] We will start with Zafer.

I hope you can hear me. The first one, I would like to start with the income from the asset disposals. I know you touched upon that already, but given the fact that here the income was in 2025 materially lower than in 2024, how should we think about the sustainability of this income stream going forward? And would it be fair to assume that the level in 2024 was unusually strong rather than a normalized run rate? And also, would be helpful to know how is your visibility regarding the future asset disposal and probably also the pipeline for potential asset disposal? That would be my first question.

Thank you, Zafer, for the question. Well understood. First of all, 2024 was exceptional in terms of returns from co-investment disposals. We look at this more on a -- almost on a blended way. We expect certain returns from our co-investment portfolio. There's a sort of a hurdle rate of 15% IRR that we set ourselves. And looking at a -- I know this is a simplified way of putting this but looking at EUR 100 million co-investment portfolio in terms of book value, let's say, if EUR 15 million per annum total return, that is ongoing yield and exits, would be sort of the minimum co-investment return that we would expect. You saw that 2025 was EUR 20 million in total. So let's say, EUR 15 million to EUR 20 million in co-investment return per annum is something that we would be looking at on a normalized run rate level. Given the current size of the co-investment portfolio, which, as you know, we expect to grow over time.

When it comes to visibility on exits and pipeline, I can tell you that already in the first quarter we've seen a few exits from our maritime project business. So I do believe that 2025 -- sorry, in 2026, we will see a step-up in returns from the -- exit-driven returns from the co-investment portfolio. So there is good visibility, but as you will appreciate, the exit part of the co-investments, it is a little bit lumpy in nature. And therefore, I made the first point of we look at, let's say, a blended return potential of our co-investment portfolio over time, and this should be, as I said, in the ballpark figure of what we've seen in 2025.

Okay, perfect. That was very helpful. And the second question is a similar income stream, the income from equity investments, which we see in the financial result. Could you please remind us what is included here? And I mean, the obvious -- so the absolute figure in 2025 was rather small and below the prior year's level, but this line is still or can still be meaningful when it comes to reaching the upper end or the lower end of your EBT guidance. So therefore, a bit more background on this income stream would be helpful.

Yes. The income from equity investments, that is effectively income from co-investments, so that's included in the numbers I was mentioning on your first question. So the total income or total co-investment income comprises of basically our financial results as well as certain other operating income positions. Happy to provide you with some, let's say, reconciliation after the call, if that's helpful. But the income from equity investments, that's part of the co-investment income stream.

Okay, got it. Perfect. And then finally, on the EBT guidance, and here maybe you could help us to better understand the key building blocks of your guidance range. I think it's clear that the income related to MPC Container is very important or important contributor here. And if I'm not wrong, 2025 was a new record level related to the MPC Container. And against the potential backdrop of lower market expectations for dividends from MPC Container, how do you see the group delivering stable EBT in 2026 or even growing EBT in financial year 2026?

Yes. I think there are 2 components or 3 components. One, let's say, a decent increase in management fees and a good visibility on a quite significant step-up in transaction fees against a more or less stable cost base or virtually stable cost base. And total income from co-investments, I would expect to be on a, let's say, similar level compared to 2025. So just to repeat, management fees should be slightly above 2020 -- or should be above 2025, step-up in transaction fees, flat cost base and, let's say, similar level of co-investment returns.

Okay, fine. Maybe just a quick follow-up on the management fees. The increase or the slight increase you're expecting in 2026, is this based on normalized U.S. dollar FX development or is this also based on a higher asset under management?

That's growth driven. We expect basically the U.S. dollar to be -- for the current year to be more or less on the level of the past year, which reflects the current trading level, so to speak. So this should not be an FX-driven effect, but a business-driven effect.

So then we will move on with the questions from Christian Bruns.

Christian Bruns from Montega. My question is, could you give us an update on your expectation for future fleet renewals about the newbuilding activity there? And also about the timing of revenues from -- coming from your backlog, which is already above EUR 1 billion (sic) [ USD 1 billion ]. So the timing, which kind of revenues are to expect here in the years to come until delivery, this is my question.

Maybe, Philipp, I start with kind of a more general comment on the newbuilding activities and what we see, and then you can touch on the revenue part. First of all, last year has been a year where we were involved in many, many newbuilding projects for different clients, in fact. So for investment companies where we are also involved, but also for third-party clients.

So overall, we have a newbuilding, let's call it book, that we manage where we are involved, for example, on the part of construction supervision already during the phase where we are involved in structuring the transactions, and we will obviously be involved when the assets hit the water over the next couple of years. We will have a couple of newbuildings being delivered in the course of this year, in '27 and the vast majority in '28 and then some in '29. So there will be a fairly well-distributed inflow as far as assets under management and related fees are concerned over the next coming years.

Having said that, we are constantly looking at projects together with partners, and I would not rule out that we will continue to grow the newbuilding pipeline with our management approach. So I think this probably gives a bit of a general understanding of where we stand as far as this is concerned. At the moment, most of the newbuildings are related to the container sector. We have some of the offshore vessels also as newbuildings. And sector-wise, we might expand that together with partners in the future. But I mean, so far, it's predominantly containers and offshore. Maybe, Philipp, if you can talk a bit about the fee streams, et cetera.

Sure. The backlog of above $1 billion will be coming in, in form of assets under management over the next 2.5 to 3 years. During, let's call it, construction phase, we provide a number of services, structuring the project, building supervision, those things. So those are more transaction or one-off fees. And once the vessels hit the water, we'll be generating service fees from the technical and commercial management of the vessels.

So over the next 2.5 to 3 years, there will be substantial or significant fees from the building phase, more of a one-off nature. And then once vessels are delivered and turn into assets under management, then the recurring nature of management fees from the operational management of the vessels will come in.

The majority will then come in '28 and following years?

No, vessels will start to be delivered mid this year, and then this will be a continued buildup ramp-up over the next 2.5 to 3 years.

Okay, but I heard that -- listened that the vast majority of newbuilds hitting the water would be in '28 and '29. And afterwards, you'll generate revenues from chartering, is that right?

No, no, the vessels will hit the water in '28. The biggest block is '28, but it's fairly evenly distributed in '26, '27, '28 and some in '29.

Okay. Okay. And maybe if I may ask a second question on your energy transition platform. You said you will -- you are going to further scale this up with a focus on Europe, I understand. And is it also -- which kind of assets do you have in mind? Is that also battery parks or something like that? Or is it the type of assets similar to the ones you already invested in?

Type of vessels -- type of assets, sorry, will be similar onshore wind and solar PV. We do obviously have also in our Latin America portfolio some battery and storage exposure. But this will not be sort of the core of our activities on the energy transition platform. There is, from our perspective, also, let's say, a technology and business model and commercial questions are to be answered when it comes to battery. We're not sure if we are the ones to be in the front row of answering those questions, so there are sort of uncertainties that we are -- don't yet feel comfortable with. So the core of our activities will be, let's say, mainstream assets, i.e., onshore wind and solar PV.

[Operator Instructions] In the meantime, we received a question in our chat. So by now, this will be the last question. So please feel invited, ladies and gentlemen, if there are still topics you would like to discuss, just let us know. And the question is from [ Mr. Leipold ], and he wants to know, what is the average tax rate for the coming years?

It's 10% to 15% is a good number to work with going forward. Just for -- as a background, this is mainly due -- the comparative low tax rate is mainly due to the tax-efficient structuring of our co-investments. Also, especially in the maritime segment, there are tax efficient and tax incentive schemes on the investments. So 10% to 15% is a good number to work with going forward.

And in the meantime, we received a further virtual hand from [ Manfred Pionke ].

Back to '25. Your guidance has been EUR 25 million to EUR 30 million EBT. In the end, it was this EUR 25 million, so the lower border, let's say. Looking -- on this business here, you had the advantage to succeed the year before of '24, we see cost savings and fall away of the acquisition costs of -- you'd have in '24. So what -- and knowing you as normally guiding quite conservatively. So what went wrong in '25? We heard about the U.S. dollar, which around cost you EUR 4 million in sales. But what else?

Thank you for your question, [ Mr. Pionke ]. The U.S. dollar is, I would say, the significant contributor to coming in at the lower end of the guidance range. I would not subscribe to the analysis that things went wrong. I think it has been a good and strong year, but yes, it's the lower part of the guidance range, both in terms of revenue and EBT. So the main driver is the weaker dollar, which at least we did not anticipate to develop in that way in the course of the year. Second factor is that -- but this is more of a minor one, a very low million euro contributor that there are 1 or 2 exits of projects that could have materialized in the last year, slipped into the current year and are therefore part of this year's guidance. But as you rightly said, the weaker U.S. dollar is the predominant driver of a lower revenue and EBT.

And then we received a further question in our chat. So the question is, can we expect disposals of noncore assets in near future, non-maritime, non-energy-related assets?

There are, in fact, very limited noncore assets. Effectively, it's just one real estate holding in one real estate project being a residual asset holding from the Dutch real estate business we sold in 2022. My expectation is that this divestment or the project will be completed and therefore the position will be divested by 2027, 2028. It's a development project. It's a sizable one. We do not perform any services anymore. We just hold the position. It looks very promising and my expectation is it will be about 2 years down the road until we see cash from that project, but it is really just one participation that is not in the -- in our core asset segments.

And as no further questions comes in, I think everything appears to be answered so far. So thank you, everyone, for joining and showing interest. And also, thank you to you, Constantin and Philipp, for your time today and the insights from your last year. I wish you all a lovely remaining day and hand back again to Constantin for some final remarks.

Yes. Thank you, [ Sarah ]. And also from my side, thanks to all of you for your time and continued interest. As we have alluded to during our presentation, we remain focused on disciplined execution of our strategy and delivering sustainable growth. We feel we're on a good track for the past few years, and we also confidently look ahead to 2026 in order to continue to create long-term value for all our shareholders and stakeholders. So thanks again for all your support, and we look forward to providing the next update in the course of this year. All the best, and bye-bye.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to today's earnings call of the MPC Capital AG following the publication of the first half year figures of 2025. I am delighted to welcome the CEO, Constantin Baack; and CFO, Dr. Philipp Lauenstein, who will speak in a moment and guide us through the presentation and the results.

After the presentation, we will move on to a Q&A session in which you will have the possibility to place your questions directly to the management. And with this, I hand over to MPC's Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, Stefan Zenker. Stefan, the stage is yours.

Yes. Thank you, Judith. And ladies and gentlemen, good morning. This is Stefan Zenker speaking, Head of IR at MPC Capital. A very warm welcome also from my side to the presentation of our half year interim financial report 2025.

And as always, please be reminded that certain information and statements shared in this presentation and the related documents may constitute forward-looking statements under the securities laws. Therefore, please read the disclaimer attached to this presentation carefully.

With me today are our CEO, Constantin Baack; and our CFO, Dr. Philipp Lauenstein, and both will provide you with an update on our operating activities in the first half of the year as well as our key financials. After that, we are happy to take your questions. I may now hand over to Constantin Baack. The floor is yours.

Yes. Thank you, Stefan. Thank you, Judith. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. This is Constantin Baack speaking. I would like you to warmly welcome you to our earnings call in connection with today's release of our Q2 2025 figures.

Before we begin today's presentation, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the second quarter and the first half of 2025. We continue to operate in a challenging global environment shaped by persistent geopolitical tension and ongoing economic uncertainty. These external factors have had a significant influence on global markets and supply chains.

Despite this backdrop, we are very pleased to report strong results for both the second quarter and the first half of the year. These outcomes underscore MPC Capital's resilience and our ability to navigate complex macroeconomic and geopolitical dynamics effectively.

Our strategic agility has enabled us to capitalize on market volatility, unlocking value through new initiatives, targeted acquisitions and a transaction volume of around EUR 1 billion during the 6 months this year. The continued expansion of our maritime service business and co-investment portfolio has further reinforced our foundation, contributing to stable recurring management fees and sustainable investment income.

Notably, during the first half of 2025, our operating costs were fully covered by management fees. This milestone highlights the strength of our business model and the soundness of our strategic direction. And with that said, let me kick off by outlining the agenda for today's earnings call. If we can please move to the next slide.

I will begin with a company update, highlighting the key financial and operating milestones for the past quarter and the year-to-date. Philipp will then walk us through a more detailed analysis of the financial highlights. And to close the presentation, I will share our outlook for the rest of the year and beyond, including the strategic actions we are taking to build on our current momentum before we then open the floor for a Q&A session.

Moving on to the next slide. Today, one more, please. So I would like to start the company update by applying a somewhat wider lens as it is also important to reflect the world around us and synchronize it with MPC Capital. What does the current environment geopolitically and macroeconomically look like? And what does it mean for us at MPC Capital and our activities.

Looking at the broad environment we're operating in, we see that there's global instability that continues to shape the economic and business landscape. Geopolitical tensions, regional disruptions and policy unpredictability are contributing to a level of uncertainty that is challenging long-term planning and certainly also market confidence.

We further see that capital market volatility has intensified in response. Beyond inflation and interest rate dynamics, factors such as trade disputes, tariffs and geopolitical shifts are driving fluctuations in investor sentiment and also asset valuations.

This calls for increased agility and resilience in financial strategy. We also see that the green agenda once a clear global priority is facing growing challenges. Economic pressures and shifting political focus have slowed progress in areas like energy transition and climate policy.

While long-term commitments remain, short-term execution is becoming more and more fragmented even across regions. Despite these headwinds, we remain focused on navigating this environment with discipline, adaptability and also long-term perspective. So what does this mean for us at MPC Capital? Despite the obvious challenges, we continue to be well positioned, and we can look ahead with confidence.

Our strong visibility into revenues and earnings on the one hand, enables us to remain resilient and largely decoupled from short and midterm macroeconomic challenges. This gives us a solid foundation even when external conditions are uncertain.

We recognize that market volatility and dislocations present risks, but they also open up new opportunities for business development, and we believe we can turn these challenges into growth prospects. The energy transition is still very much alive even as the U.S. steps back from part of the green agenda globally.

Our firm view is this shift hasn't stopped and it will not. Europe, especially Germany, is driving forward with energy independence. This is fueling a broader industrial transformation where digital technologies and green innovation are reshaping traditional sectors.

To support this change, there's a growing need for investment in real assets, creating strong opportunities in today's market. And furthermore, we continue to prioritize the expansion of our recurring management fee base, which we have done successfully over the past years. This focus helps us build more stable and predictable revenue streams for the future.

And as I said earlier, currently, our management fees cover our operating costs, which is a good starting point. Maintaining a robust balance sheet and practicing proactive risk management are key priorities. These efforts ensure we are well prepared to navigate risks and seize opportunities as they arise.

Moving on to the next slide, please. And as also mentioned earlier, looking at Q2 2025, we are very pleased to report a strong operational and financial performance on the back of continuous growth across the business, which is also reflected when looking at our main KPIs on the right-hand side of the slide.

And let me summarize the key highlights of the first half of 2025. We continue to expand our asset base, achieving 10% year-on-year growth in assets under management. Our pipeline remains strong, and we have around USD 800 million in contracted AUM, which will flow into our assets under management over the next years, setting us up for further growth.

Our maritime service platform is also expanding with recurring management fees up 5% year-on-year, and this steady growth in recurring income streams strengthens our business foundation. Co-investment income is down 40% year-on-year for the first half of 2025, and this is mainly due to strong exit-related returns that we were able to realize last year.

Despite this, our co-investment activities continue to generate high-quality income. Overall, our business model remains resilient. We have seen limited impact from geopolitical challenges and MPC Capital is fully on track to meet our 2025 guidance. Philipp will talk to that in a bit more detail later on.

At the same time, we continue to operate on a very healthy balance sheet with an equity ratio of 84%. Let me now provide some additional insights on the next slide as we continue to execute our refined strategy in 2025. Maritime service expansion is the first headline, and that is that we have, over the past years, been building a comprehensive 360 degrees maritime service business that is encompassing not only technical management, also commercial management and a wide range of ancillary services around the ships.

Our growth has been both organic and inorganic. Today, our maritime services team compromises approximately 200 employees, supporting hundreds of vessels across more than 50 industrial clients. Alongside our investment management activities, maritime services have become a cornerstone of our operations. This is a stable, resilient business with a well-diversified client base, and we are committed to expand this further.

What have we achieved? Zeaborn integration is the first topic that I would like to talk to in the first half of 2025. We have successfully completed the integration of Zeaborn and the target structure is now fully operational, and that is reflected in both the revenues that we generate and also the cost side, and we have already onboarded new third-party clients and vessels in this year.

We have taken out a strategic investment in BestShip. Also in the first half of 2025, we have expanded our service portfolio by acquiring 50% stake in BestShip, which is a performance management firm operating a fully digitized IT platform that enhances the energy efficiency of commercial vessels and currently serves over 450 ships.

We believe this is a very important additional step forward, creating further services and fee streams in terms of ancillary services provided to ships. We also saw a strong momentum in the investment business throughout the first half of 2025. We have grown our established investment platforms, but we have also executed new business initiatives, for example, establishing our new offshore service vessel platform.

During the last quarter, I explained that we have been working on a variety of transactions related to the renewal and decarbonization of the global fleet. And we had, for example, taken delivery and assumed the management of one of our first few dual-fuel methanol container vessels, highlighting our innovation and developing projects also based on new fuel concepts.

In recent months, in the investment and project business, we continue to focus on contracting newbuild projects in shipping. In the first half of 2025, we initiated large-scale newbuilding projects with a total investment volume of approximately USD 800 million for partners and investors. This will contribute visibly to the AUM growth upon delivery of the vessels in the coming years.

In this context, the key milestone was the order for the first vessels of our new offshore service platform. Together with French infrastructure investor, Eurazeo and the family office in Europe, we built and operate up to 6 specialized service vessels for offshore wind farms and the planned investment volume for this first offshore project is up to USD 150 million.

In the Energy Infrastructure segment, we continue to optimize our Latin American portfolio alongside the sale of a 51-megawatt PV plant in Jamaica, the construction of a 65-megawatt PV park in Guatemala was successfully completed.

At the same time, we're increasingly focusing on Europe as a strategic growth market with very interesting energy dynamics. The following slide now, if we move on, illustrates our AUM development during the first half of 2025. We have seen additions of EUR 0.4 billion in AUM from left to right, basically.

We have seen some revaluation effects of around EUR 0.3 billion, and we have done some exits of around EUR 0.5 billion during the first half of 2025. On a net basis, we have seen EUR 0.2 billion in AUM growth or an increase year-on-year compared with 30th of June last year of 10%.

Energy transition-related AUM make up around 1/3 of total AUM. And as I mentioned earlier, during the first half of the year, we have executed transactions of around EUR 1 billion. And given the newbuilding order book, I think what is a very strong argument is that we see a good visibility or we have a good visibility on further AUM growth in the coming years.

And with that said, I would like to hand over to Philipp, who will present some of the financial highlights of Q1 and Q2 2025.

Thanks, Constantin, and good morning, everyone, also from my side. Turning to the financial update, maybe prior to digging into the details in a nutshell, the half year results for this year clearly demonstrate that MPC Capital continues to deliver on our strategic as well as on our financial agenda.

This is despite the obvious complex macro environment. Our operations continue to perform well and strong. Our balance sheet remains extremely robust. And as mentioned by Constantin, we have been laying a solid groundwork to continue our profitable growth path going forward.

So let's start the review of the half year with some more details of the P&L. Group revenues for the first half of 2025 came in at EUR 21.6 million, slightly above the prior year's EUR 21.2 million. Having said this, the revenue mix between transaction and fees and recurring management fees continues to shift in favor of recurring management fees, which reflects obviously the buildup of our asset under management base and accordingly, the recurring nature and quality of our revenue base increases further.

Management fees are up 5% year-over-year to EUR 18 million in 2025. The first half of 2025, obviously driven by growth in AUM, which are up 10% over the past 12 months, which is broadly in line with the run rate AUM growth we've seen over the past years.

Transaction fees amounted to EUR 3.1 million, a shade below the value of the same period of 2024. Activity levels have been solid, in particular, in the maritime business, where transactions included both asset disposals and acquisitions. And importantly, and as already mentioned by Constantin, we have executed on a number of vessel newbuilding deals in the first half of 2025 in the volume of $0.75 billion, which are not reflected in our half year financials. The project volume will contribute to AUM growth, management fees and transaction fees over the coming 2 to 3 years as the vessels are being constructed and delivered.

Turning to co-investment income. Co-investment income came in, in total of EUR 10.4 million compared to EUR 17.2 million in the first half of 2024. As discussed also at previous occasions, the prior year period has been strongly influenced by exceptionally high proceeds from container newbuilding projects.

And in contrast, the first half of this year was mainly driven by running yields from our existing portfolio. I'll dig into this in a minute a little bit more. But this development and the lower co-investment returns was fully in line with our expectations and also baked into our full year guidance accordingly.

Before turning to the bottom line, let me have a word on cost structure. You will recall that 2024 included significant one-off expenses in relation to the acquisition and integration of Zeaborn Ship Management into our technical ship management platform.

With those one-off expenses behind us, our cost base developed exactly as planned in the first half of 2025 and the cost structure now reflects a more normalized level for the periods also going forward. Importantly, as mentioned, recurring management fees today are essentially covered by our operating cash costs, which is a key milestone, which we already highlighted in Q1, and we are happy to see this development continuing in the second quarter of 2025.

Turning to the bottom line. Earnings before taxes came in fully in line with our expectations at EUR 12.8 million compared to EUR 16.5 million in the prior year period. As noted, this delta is mainly attributed to the lower co-investment proceeds. However, turning to -- and looking at net earnings and earnings per share, our net results post taxes and post minority interest is up substantially by about 15% compared to the first half of 2024.

This is mainly on the back of lower minority interest included in the earnings before taxes. That minority interest was mainly associated to co-investment returns in the first half of 2024 and lower tax expenses. So despite a lower earnings before taxes figure, we were able to increase substantially by 15% our net earnings in the first half of 2024.

Let me spend a moment on the balance sheet and financial position. Our equity ratio increased further to about 84% at midyear compared to 81% at the year-end 2024. This again underlines a very healthy structure of our balance sheet, giving us substantial flexibility to develop the business further.

Cash balance stood at about EUR 23 million as of end of June 2025 and the decline compared to the year-end figure of 2024 is mainly due to the dividend payment done in June, investments in our service platform and co-investments as well as temporary working capital effects.

And during the remainder of this year, we expect liquidity position to increase again. But in any case, we see liquidity to be strong and sufficient to support our growth ambitions going forward.

Looking at our co-investment portfolio. As you know, the co-investment portfolio is the main asset on our balance sheet. Therefore, we want to drill a little deeper into this aspect of the balance sheet. As demonstrated over the past years and as again, clearly reflected in our half year financials, our co-investment portfolio has evolved into a key component of our balance sheet and remains a significant and visible source of income for our overall business model.

We have been mentioning that according to German accounting standards, our co-investments are recorded at historical acquisition costs. On a mark-to-market basis, the portfolio is valued at around EUR 127 million as of end of June 2025, which is about a 40% markup on the book value recorded on our balance sheet.

And this implicit hidden reserves obviously underscore both the performance of our portfolio and the embedded earnings potential from the portfolio for the coming years. Drilling a little bit into co-investment returns. On the graph on the rightmost side, you see the breakdown of our co-investment returns for the first half of 2025 and 2024 by type of return.

As a reminder, in general, we distinguish between 2 categories of co-investments. Firstly, more opportunistic investments, which typically generate limited running yield, but deliver more back-ended returns upon exit. And secondly, long-term strategic investments where running yield is the main driver of returns and exits play a less prominent role.

And as you can see from the chart and as touched upon in the course of the presentation, 2024 was dominated by one-off exit proceeds from co-investments. And in contrast to the first half of 2025, the income contribution has shifted towards recurring yields from our portfolio.

This shift is partly structural, reflecting the buildup of our more strategic and long-term co-investment portfolio. But at the same time, obviously, opportunistic and exit-driven strategies will continue to be a part of our strategy and our portfolio mix when it comes to co-investments.

To wrap up the financial update, let me have a word on guidance, and let me reiterate our guidance for the full year. Based on a strong first half performance and a very good visibility on both revenues and earnings for the remainder of the year, we are happy to confirm our guidance.

We continue to expect group revenues to come in between EUR 43 million and EUR 47 million for this year and expect earnings before taxes to come in between EUR 25 million and EUR 30 million. Importantly, achieving this guidance, both in terms of revenues and EBIT will not depend on, let's say, extraordinary transactions or exits.

The first half year results demonstrate that our revenue base is increasingly driven by recurring management fees, which are complemented by steady transaction fees and strong yields from our co-investment portfolio. And this provides us with very strong visibility both for the remainder of the year as well as for growth and profitability in the years thereafter.

And with that, I'll pass back to Constantin for an outlook and a wrap-up.

Yes. Thanks, Philipp. Let me continue now with the outlook section on the next slide, please, which basically shows that over the past decade, we have built a strong foundation of AUM. It shows the AUM development over the last 10 years that together with our strategic positioning, in our view, provides an excellent platform for further profitable growth.

And as shown in the graph, we have increased at an average annual rate of around 12% with energy transition-related AUM growing at an even faster pace. And looking ahead to the next 5 to 10 years, we aim to sustain this momentum, targeting annual growth of around 10% to 15%.

And this ambition is basically underpinned by 3 key factors shown on the right-hand side. Firstly, it is structural growth markets. We are confident in achieving our targets because we do operate in markets characterized by structural growth, specifically those requiring substantial investment in capital-intensive maritime and energy infrastructure.

Secondly, our refined strategy. We have a proven track record over the past 10 years with a strong execution capability and a robust pipeline that we believe will continue to position us well to benefit from favorable supply and demand dynamics in maritime and energy infrastructure sector.

And our refined strategy enables us to capitalize on these opportunities as we have shown again in the first half of this year, where we have been able not only to transact on EUR 1 billion in transactions, but also to line up a tangible visible pipeline of AUM that will over time, come into our management.

And thirdly, but definitely not least, and Philipp alluded to that, a healthy base because we will do all this from a balanced and resilient balance sheet that gives us not only flexibility, but also stability that we need in order to support our growth ambitions.

If we then continue to the next slide and before we open the floor for questions, allow me to briefly wrap up today's session and share our outlook once again in a focused form. We are -- and I did mention that in my initial words, we are navigating in a period of considerable geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty.

But despite these challenges, we have not just delivered good results, but I'm also confident that we, at MPC Capital, are very well positioned for what lies ahead. Our platform is robust, and we're active in structurally attractive markets as we firmly believe markets that continue to benefit from long-term megatrends.

And this is a very important basis for both investment demand in maritime and energy infrastructure and also the evolving investor requirements around funding and capital allocation. Our strategy remains clear. We are committed to reinforcing our position as a focused and leading infrastructure investment manager and operator across the maritime transport and energy sectors.

More specifically, we have high visibility on top line growth, our growth in AUM and earnings is progressing in line with our refined strategic direction. And we look at a very strong pipeline of projects that we have already executed upon and that we will continue to execute in the second half of 2025 and beyond.

This is being done from a solid financial foundation, providing us the flexibility, as I said, and we will continue to maintain a very disciplined capital allocation strategy. And finally, as reflected in our 2025 financial guidance, we anticipate that we will be able to translate that into further profitable growth, and we remain focused and confident as we advance on our journey.

And with that said, back to you, Judith for the Q&A.

Yes. Thank you very much for your presentation, Constantin and Philipp, and congratulations on your growing performance. Ladies and gentlemen, it is your turn now as we move on to the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]

And we have one hand up from Christoph Hoffmann. You should be able to speak now.

Three questions from my side today. So firstly, on the cost cuttings you mentioned, are you already at the sustainable level? Or should we, yes, expect more cost savings in terms of personnel and other costs?

And then secondly, your biggest co-investment is in MPC Container Ships, obviously. And they lowered the payout ratio significantly. So can you please share your thoughts on how this will affect MPC Capital in the short and also in the midterm? And then lastly, the operating cash flow were quite low in the first half of the year. So what can we expect in the second half? That would be it.

Yes. Thanks, Christoph, for the questions. I'll take it piece by piece. On the cost structure, you mentioned cost cutting. I would not call it cost cutting. We've, as mentioned, seen integration-related one-off expenses in the prior year, both in the first and in the second half of 2024.

Those -- the integration measures related to Zeaborn are completed. So therefore, you can -- looking at our cost structure, assume that maybe with, let's say, certain efficiency improvements here and there, this more or less represents the recurring and normalized cost structure.

On MPCC and the dividend, you're right. The capital allocation policy and dividend policy has been adjusted towards retaining more cash in the company. This is basically reflected and anticipated in our full year guidance for this year.

We will be seeing slightly lower dividend payments in the second half, but this is expected and reflected in our full year guidance. On operating cash flow, you're right, on the low side for the first half. I mentioned certain working capital effects. You will see that if you look at the balance sheet, we have quite a significant step-up in receivables building up working capital. These are basically transaction fees related to transactions closed in the first half of the year, where the cash will only be collected in the second half. So you will see a significant step-up in operating cash flow and cash position, therefore, in the second half of 2025.

[Operator Instructions] And it seems like there are -- there is one more question. Could you please explain the decrease of the payments to the minority shareholders?

Sure. The minority shareholders or minority interest included in the 2024 financials were mainly co-investors of ours in co-investments that we controlled and did. So the payments were basically returns on co-investments, which we realized and passed on to minority shareholders. Those co-investments were completed, and therefore, there are no minority interest included in our 2025 financials.

Thank you very much. And in the meantime, we have received no further questions. We, therefore, come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you for your interest in the MPC Capital AG. Should further questions arise at a later time, please feel invited to place your questions to Stefan from Investor Relations. Thank you, Constantin, Philipp and Stefan, for your presentation and the time you took to answer the questions.

It was a pleasure to be your host today. I wish you all a lovely day around the world and successful business. With this, I hand over again to Constantin for some final remarks.

Yes. Thank you, Judith, and thank you, everyone, for your interest. As we mentioned throughout the presentation, we believe we are well on track with our refined strategy. We see a very positive -- we have a positive outlook not only for the second half of this year, but also beyond.

And we look forward to your continued support, and we are excited about what lies ahead. And on that note, thank you very much. Thanks for hosting us, Judith, and all the best. Take good care. Bye-bye.