Vopak Aktie

Hello, and welcome to the Royal Vopak Q2 2026 Results Update. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded.

I am pleased to present Dick Richelle, CEO of Vopak. Please go ahead with your meeting.

Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our Q2 2026 results analyst call. My name is Dick Richelle. I'm the CEO of Vopak, and I'm joined here by Michiel Gilsing, our CFO. We will guide you through our latest results.

Before we start, I'd like to refer to the disclaimer content of the forward-looking statement, which you are familiar with. I would like to remind you that we make forward-looking statements during the presentation, which involve certain risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, this disclaimer is applicable to the entire call, including the answers provided to questions during the Q&A session.

With that, let's move on to the presentation. Before diving into the results, I'd like to start off with a brief recap of our strategy, which is anchored by 3 integrated pillars: improve, grow and accelerate. The execution of our strategy has been strong. We have improved our financial and sustainability performance and invested in gas, industrial and energy transition infrastructure that supports evolving needs of our customers.

Let's move to our results. We delivered a strong first half of the year, driven by healthy sustained demand for our services, reflected in an occupancy rate of 91%. Proportional EBITDA grew by 5% compared to the first half of 2025. Our cash conversion remains solid at 74%, resulting in an operating cash return of 15.3% on a 12-month rolling basis.

We made good progress on our growth strategy. In the Netherlands, we secured the consolidation of the EemsEnergyTerminal beyond 2027. This is a vital step for enabling European energy security over the coming decade. We've also taken significant strategic steps in large-scale battery energy storage systems or BESS. We successfully acquired Green Energy Storage, a battery development company and reached a final investment decision on 2 utility-scale projects in the Netherlands with a combined capacity of 350 megawatts.

Now looking at our outlook. On the back of solid operational performance and the anticipated contributions from our growth projects, we're raising the outlook for full year 2026 for EBITDA and operating free cash flow. As always, this remains subject to ongoing market uncertainties and currency fluctuations. Last but not least, looking at our shareholder returns, we've introduced an interim dividend with the first payment of EUR 0.72 per share scheduled this September. Also, we've completed 45% of the EUR 100 million share buyback tranche, which is part of our multiyear share buyback program of up to EUR 500 million.

Now let's take a closer look at the breakdown of our results, specifically for the different terminal types we operate. The diversification of our portfolio across geographies and products has again proven to be a structural strength. In a market that is increasingly volatile, it enables us to meet our customers' evolving needs for energy security, affordability and sustainability.

We see an overall solid performance across the portfolio with higher results compared to the first half of 2025 when adjusting for the impact of currency translation and divestments. Our strong oil terminal performance was driven by robust activity in key oil hubs like Rotterdam, but also improved results from our oil distribution operations in South Africa. This more than offset the low activity levels we saw in Fujairah, which was impacted by the challenging geopolitical environment.

The chemicals segment benefited from the contribution of newly commissioned capacity in the U.S., combined with relatively stable autonomous performance. Supported by long-term contracts, gas and industrial terminals delivered a stable performance as well and achieved higher throughputs year-to-date. All in all, this has led to a proportional EBITDA of EUR 600 million and a healthy operating cash return of 15.3%.

Over the past few years, energy and manufacturing markets have faced multiple unprecedented shocks. This had and continues to have a profound impact on the balance between energy security, affordability and sustainability. Together with our partners, we provide the infrastructure that enables our customers to address these evolving needs.

To start with security, recent geopolitical conflicts and trade disruptions have made the need for national energy sovereignty incredibly clear. Good example of how we play into this is with our Gate LNG terminal in the Netherlands. This terminal provides Northwest Europe with the needed flexibility to import LNG, successfully replacing the historical reliance on single-source pipeline imports.

To give you a sense of scale, this terminal is capable of supplying roughly 1/3 of the Netherlands national gas consumption, which is primarily used for electricity generation and residential heating.

In addition to security of supply, energy affordability is paramount. Maintaining access to competitively priced power is vital for safeguarding both industries and households against volatile price shocks. Through our global network of strategically located terminals, we connect supply and demand in energy and manufacturing markets. By facilitating an efficient flow of products, we provide access to diverse competitively priced global supply sources, lowering the dependence on domestic or single-source production.

Our REEF LPG terminal in Canada currently under construction exemplifies this. This terminal leverages a significant geographic advantage, reducing LPG transit times from Canada's West Coast to Asia to just 10 days compared to 25 days or more from the U.S. Gulf Coast. By reducing the shipping times, the terminal contributes to lower cost for end consumers in Asia, a region where affordable energy is vital to sustaining economic growth and improving living standards.

Finally, there's an urgent systemic need to decarbonize, not just to meet national emission mandates, but also to provide energy independence from traditional energy sources. Our entry into battery energy storage systems will enable the ongoing electrification of the energy mix while securing the long-term resilience of the power grid.

To summarize, the infrastructure that we own and operate and the projects that we are developing continue to be highly relevant in the fast-evolving landscape of energy and manufacturing markets. With our diversified portfolio of strategically located terminals, we enable the secure, affordable and sustainable flow of products, meeting our customers' evolving needs.

Let's take a look at BESS. This quarter, we took significant steps in developing energy transition infrastructure with our investments in battery energy storage systems. BESS is today's fastest-growing power technology driven by the rising penetration of renewables in the energy mix. The ongoing addition of renewable energy sources creates a structural need for storage to stabilize power grids and to manage source intermittency.

As a result, BESS offers significant potential to deploy capital in line with our return ambitions while positioning our portfolio for another frontier of energy storage. With our investment in this space, we pursue a develop, own, operate strategy for utility-scale batteries connected to high-voltage grids. We will develop projects, which consists of acquiring the land, securing the grid connections and permits and designing the infrastructure.

From a commercial point of view, we're aiming to lock in the majority of the revenues through tolling agreements, which are comparable to the take-or-pay contracts in our existing business. For the remainder of the capacity, we will benefit from exposure to the market. We believe our core capabilities provide a competitive edge in the BESS market. And we have proven capabilities in infrastructure development, strong relationships with key stakeholders and experience in developing high CapEx projects. Taking this all into account, we view BESS as an exciting opportunity for future growth.

That brings me to the BESS investment commitments we've announced this quarter. We've committed EUR 371 million for the acquisition of Green Energy Storage and the development of 2 utility-scale projects in the Netherlands with a combined capacity of 350 megawatts. Through GES, we gain access to a proven BESS development platform and a robust pipeline of projects. We see this as a crucial step in the development of a BESS growth platform.

The subsequent projects that we've taken FID on in Veendam and Oosterhout in the Netherlands are expected to come into operation in 2028, after which they will deliver an attractive cash return that supports our long-term cash return ambition. These investments mark a significant strategic step that we are excited about.

Now let's take a look at all the developments in our network this quarter. Notwithstanding the volatility and uncertainty on the market during Q2, we continue to execute on our growth strategy.

In the Netherlands, we secured the continuation of EemsEnergyTerminal for the period 2028 to 2036. We made good progress on the construction of the fourth tank in the Gate terminal, which is expected to be commissioned at the end of Q3 this year. In South Africa, at our Durban terminal, we're expanding the capacity for the storage and handling of diesel. And in India, good progress has been made on the construction of the greenfield terminal for LPG and liquid products in JNPA Port in Mumbai.

In Canada, at REEF terminal, we're also making good progress with more than 90% of the onshore infrastructure now being complete. Due to adverse weather conditions and marine-related operating constraints, commissioning of the terminal is expected in Q1 2027. As a result of additional resources deployed to support jetty construction activities, the total project costs are now expected to be approximately CAD 1.5 billion. For Vopak, our investment is expected to remain unchanged at around EUR 462 million due to favorable foreign currency developments and applicable contractual terms. The project returns remain consistent with those mentioned at the time of the FID.

So far, we've committed a total of EUR 2.3 billion to investments in gas, industrial and other terminals as well as energy transition infrastructure. Around EUR 425 million of this EUR 2.3 billion has been committed since the beginning of 2026. We're well positioned to achieve our ambition of investing EUR 4 billion by 2030, supporting our long-term operating cash return ambition of 13% to 17%.

Looking ahead, we remain well positioned to achieve our long-term ambitions. We've shown strong business performance in the recent years, which we continued in the first half of 2026. The market indicators for storage demand remain firm, supporting the delivery of growth projects and the resilient performance of our existing business.

This is reflected in our long-term ambitions of operating cash return ambition between 13% to 17% on a rolling 12-month basis. In addition, we're well on track to invest EUR 4 billion growth CapEx through 2030. Also, during our full year results in February this year, we announced a shareholder distributions program of around EUR 1.7 billion through year-end 2030, consisting of progressive dividends and a multiyear share buyback program.

With that, I'd like to hand it over to Michiel to give more details on the Q2 2026 results. Michiel?

Thank you, Dick. Also from my side, good morning to all of you. And as Dick mentioned, we have had a strong performance in the first half year of 2026. We reported a healthy occupancy rate, increased our EBITDA and further improved our free cash flow generation. These results highlight the strength of our well-diversified portfolio, particularly in times of increased uncertainty and volatility. Simultaneously, we continue to invest in attractive and accretive growth projects while returning value to our shareholders.

Let's take a closer look at the performance of the portfolio. Our operating cash return on a 12-month rolling basis slightly increased to 15.3% compared to 15.2% in the first half of 2025. This reflects the structural ongoing trend of improved cash generation. Demand for our services remained strong, which is reflected in an occupancy rate of 91%. Our operating free cash flow decreased slightly compared to the first half of 2025. And as we will highlight throughout the presentation, this is primarily driven by adverse currency translation effects, divestment impact and specific material one-off recorded in the first half of 2025.

Moving to our business unit performance overview. Here, we can see the impact of currency translation and divestments on a year-on-year basis, which amounts to EUR 20 million. A large part of this growth can be explained by the strong EBITDA contribution of EUR 19 million from our growth projects, particularly in the U.S., China and India. Taking into account the EUR 22 million related to the one-off out of 2025, we arrive at an autonomous growth of approximately 5% for the whole portfolio.

The performance across the existing network was strong, primarily driven by strong oil markets, which benefited our Europoort oil hub terminal in the Netherlands and oil distribution terminal in South Africa, partly offset by the weaker performance in Asia and the Middle East due to geopolitical tensions. The performance of the other BUs is primarily driven by lower claims of our captive insurer.

We are continuously focused on generating predictable growing cash flows to create value for our shareholders. In the first half of 2026, we showed a further improvement in our EBITDA to cash conversion, which is now around 74%. This improvement was driven by decreased operating CapEx and IFRS 16 lease expenses compared to the first half of 2025. The 2.4% decrease in EBITDA was, therefore, partially offset by higher cash conversion, leading to a decrease in operating free cash flow of 1.6%.

If we subtract, from the operating free cash flow, the taxes and financing costs, we arrive at the proportional free cash flow, which would be available for shareholders. Based on the EUR 317 million of free cash flow generated in the first 6 months of this year and the existing market cap or actual market cap at the end of Q2, our free cash flow yield currently stands at around 12%. This yield is supporting our robust shareholder distributions in the period of increased growth investments.

A brief reminder on the capital allocation framework. Our capital allocation framework consists of 4 distinct pillars. Aiming to maintain a robust balance sheet is our first priority. Second priority, distribute value to shareholders via a progressive dividend; thirdly, invest in attractive growth opportunities; and last but not least, deliver additional shareholder value through a multiyear share buyback program of up to EUR 500 million through year-end 2030.

Moving on to our first priority of the capital allocation: the balance sheet. Our proportional leverage, which reflects the economic share of the joint venture debt increased to 2.87x, reflecting a ramp-up of our growth investments. If we exclude the impact of assets under construction, which do not contribute yet to our EBITDA, the proportional leverage of the running assets is at 2.17, which has remained stable over the last years.

Our ambition for the proportional leverage range is still between 2.5 and 3x. To facilitate the development of growth opportunities that enhance our operating cash return, Vopak's proportional leverage may temporarily fluctuate between 3 and 3.5x during the construction period, which can last 2 to 3 years in our business. This is all in line with our disciplined capital allocation framework.

Moving on to the second pillar of our capital allocation policy: our progressive dividend. As disclosed in our full year 2025 results, we are increasing the payment frequency of our dividends with the introduction of an interim dividend. We will pay out our first interim dividend of EUR 0.72 per share on 24th of September 2026. This amount of EUR 0.72 is equal to 40% of the prior year final dividend, which was EUR 1.80. This is all in line with our progressive dividend policy under which we intend to grow the dividend per share by at least 5% per year. The annual dividend growth rate over the last 5 years has been close to 10%.

The third priority of our capital allocation policy is investing in growth opportunities, which are a key part of our value creation. We have the ambition to invest EUR 4 billion on a proportional basis by 2030 to grow our base in gas and industrial terminals and to accelerate towards energy transition infrastructure. At this point, we have already committed around EUR 2.3 billion to growth investments since 2022, of which around EUR 650 million has been commissioned and is already contributing to our results. Around EUR 1.7 billion of growth projects are currently under construction with close to EUR 1 billion of them delivered -- will be delivered during 2026 and 2027.

In addition, for 2028 and beyond, another EUR 700 million of projects are expected to come into operation. These projects will be delivered in line with the provided CapEx-to-EBITDA multiple and will support our long-term operating cash return ambition of between 13% and 17%.

That brings me to the outlook for the full year 2026. As mentioned by Dick, the market indicators for storage remain firm, supporting the delivery of growth projects, and the resilient performance of our existing business are moving in the right direction.

This gives us the confidence to increase our full year 2026 outlook with proportional operating free cash flow projected at around EUR 820 million and proportional EBITDA expected to range between EUR 1.18 billion and EUR 1.22 billion.

Bringing it all together in this slide, we had a strong first half year of 2026 with solid cash generation and a portfolio that remains well positioned to cater for increased volatility in the market. In addition, we continue investing in attractive growth opportunities while returning value to our shareholders with the recent addition of an interim dividend payment.

And with that, I hand over back to Dick.

Thank you, Michiel. And with that, I'd like to ask the operator to please open the line for the questions and answers.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take the first question from the line of Jeremy Kincaid from Van Lanschot Kempen.

Three questions from me. First, on the Middle East, you didn't say too much about the financial impact from the ongoing war there. Obviously, you mentioned the oil market was performing quite strongly. So I was just wondering if you think -- net-net, do you think the Middle East situation is actually having a net positive impact to your business at the moment?

The second question is just on REEF. Does the additional CapEx spend on the [ GC ] come with additional revenue associated with that? And then thirdly, just on the guidance, could you maybe split out what's driving the upgrade to the guidance? I noticed you changed your FX assumptions. How much does that play a role?

Well, let me start with the first question on the Middle East. Yes. So net-net, the Middle East impact, well, it's a bit of a balance indeed between negative impacts, especially around the Middle East and in the Middle East. There are also some positive impacts, although it's sometimes very hard to see what is actually directly related to the Middle East or indirectly related to the Middle East. But our assessment of the second quarter was that the impact is maximum EUR 5 million negative for our results.

And I combine that a bit with your third question. Obviously, we continuously look at the developments in the Middle East. We update our outlooks effectively every month with all the business units involved. When the crisis started at the end of February, and we did the outlook in Q1, we were more negative on the potential impact of the conflict. I think that's the thing we have seen basically everywhere in the market because the recovery of certain markets have been stronger than maybe people expected at that time.

So overall, we see a lower impact over 2026 of the Middle East conflict. Secondly, we see a stronger performance of our existing assets independent from the Middle East. We still see growth coming in, in the second half of the year. And that combination has basically provided us with sufficient confidence to increase the guidance for the rest of the year, both for EBITDA as well as for free cash flow.

And then on the REEF side, well, it's -- effectively, we have a contractual arrangement in place with AltaGas, of which I can't disclose too much. But effectively, if you look at the CapEx overrun or CapEx increase, effectively, that's not leading to a lot of additional capital from our side. So effectively, we're basically investing the same amount as we announced during final investment decision. It also doesn't trigger any additional revenues.

What is quite clear in our mind is that the location has become more attractive. And so there's more expansion opportunities, especially with the Middle East conflict still existing, the opportunities for Canada to supply to Asia -- to the Asian market will be more favorable. And as a result, the position of Prince Rupert as an export location will be more beneficial going forward. So we hope that there is an opportunity for us to further expand the facility, that the volumes at the start will be relatively strong. And definitely, we should be able to make, let's say, the multiples we have given to the market at FID.

We will now take the next question from the line of Thijs Berkelder from ABN.

Thijs Berkelder, ABN AMRO ODDO BHF. Congrats with better-than-expected performance. Can you explain maybe the strong rise in the Dutch JV result? And can you explain what this means in terms of uptick for these terminals? And I guess these are the gas terminals, what it means for the uptick in proportional EBITDA reporting on these Dutch JVs?

Then the second question is on corporate costs. They are much lower than usual, probably due to lower usage of your captive insurance, but maybe also because of maybe a bit of accounting change in terms of bonus accruals. Explanation there also is welcome. And related to that, is there any impact already or expected for next year of the new pension system in the Netherlands?

Third question is on -- and that's simply a reporting question. I missed the slide on the breakdown of proportional EBITDA per product type. Can you provide us with the proportional EBITDA per product type in hard numbers, please? And I have a couple of other questions, but let's start here.

Let me start with the first question on the Dutch JVs. Yes, indeed, strong rise. One of the -- well, the main reason here is, obviously, we had quite some technical challenges, if you may recall, during 2025, at our terminal in Eemshaven, EemsEnergyTerminal. That was solved, effectively the technical challenge, beginning of this year. And as a result, you see quite a bit of an uptick in the results of that joint venture. So that is the main reason for, let's say, the better performance of the Dutch joint ventures.

On your second question, the corporate cost, indeed, less cost in the captive because we had less damages than we had last year. So that's quite a change. On the other hand, we're quite focused on making sure that we are efficient and effective as a company. So what you may have noticed that, over time, effectively, if you look at corporate cost, which is a combination of the global office as well as our global IT department, that cost has come down quite a bit as well. And the cash out of that has been reduced due to several measures.

If you go back to 2021, 2022, approximately 20% or even above 20% of our free cash flow were corporate costs. Now we're sort of at around 11%, 12%, with still an ambition to go below the 10%, on one hand, by making sure that the efficiency still is being driven. And on the other hand, obviously, we want to grow our free cash flow and create economies of scale with an efficient and effective global model. So that's on the second question.

On the third question, the new pension system is not going to have any impact on the results for next year. So that's neutral. There was already a strong disconnect between the pension fund and the company in terms of accounting impact. By the way, also nothing changed, what you said in the second question, on our bonus accruals. They are still the same as we apply them in previous years. And the last question on providing that information, we will do that after the call to you.

Yes. And coming back on the JV results in terms of proportional EBITDA, is there also a similar jump in proportional EBITDA for the Dutch gas terminals then because there you have the same technical challenges, which have been solved?

Should be, but let us check on the exact numbers, Thijs, and then we will provide it to you. I don't know...

Because that number, I think, is much stronger than previously guided in my view. Then coming back on Middle East effects, you shortly mentioned Fujairah. Can you really explain what is currently happening in Fujairah and India and the rest of Asia? Your aggregated occupancy rate for the region goes down to 88%, but probably Fujairah is well below that 88%. And maybe a view on the structural role of Fujairah going forward? It seems that with South Africa so strong now that part of the clients maybe now are using South Africa as a kind of intermediate hub instead of locations like Fujairah. And can you maybe make more explicit what is currently happening in the LPG flows into India?

Maybe a few things on, I think, first, Fujairah. First and foremost, our people and assets are safe. It has been quite a sensitive period during some moments in Q2. Let's not forget, first of all, that Fujairah is outside of the Strait of Hormuz but the current activity for products that are flowing into Fujairah that come from the Arabian Gulf, so have to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, is limited.

So actual activity levels are relatively low. And that is indeed one of the reasons for the drop in occupancy in Asia, Middle East. It's a large capacity. So indeed, that's where the [indiscernible]. It also has to do with the fact that during the first phase of the conflict, some capacity was damaged and had to be taken out of service. That's capacity that is also taken into account when you take a look at that lower occupancy. So I think that's roughly Fujairah.

Maybe to immediately add to that, how do we look at maybe the longer-term perspective of Fujairah and the role of South Africa. I believe with everything going on and if we talk to people in the region, the strategic importance of Fujairah, going forward, assuming that there is some sort of a normalization in the conflict, is going to be very, very important, because, as I said, it is located outside of the Strait of Hormuz, so both from a UAE perspective, but also from the Saudi point of view, it continues to be a highly attractive location to export and therefore, also use it as a trading location of all the products that are traded and produced in the Arabian Gulf.

We have land available and are in active discussions with multiple people on what could be done in the medium to long term with the land that we have available. And second of all, we have a jetty. So we have an own jetty in Fujairah that makes the location in the Port of Fujairah, our location also quite attractive. But that is, I think, for a later moment. For now, we just have to wait for the moment that things will stabilize before we can fully concentrate on that. And while it stabilizes, yes, we go through a bit of a rough period because it's obviously -- the activity level is just extremely low. So we need to continue with the efforts that we have to keep our people and the assets safe.

I think to your question about South Africa, we don't see yet an impact that, all of a sudden, South Africa is already playing kind of a hub function because of the fact that products are flowing by, and hence, it's being used as a staging point. We don't see that yet. What we have seen in South Africa is just a very strong fuel distribution market. So we were able to cater for quite some additional volumes and our spot business in South Africa has done really well in Q2. And again, too early to say what it will do in the longer term, but still healthy and hence, we're also investing in the expansion over there. But whether it's taking over as an alternative to Fujairah, I think that's not something that we foresee at this moment.

Then maybe on India and the impact of the conflict on India, India has been struggling to find the necessary LPG for the country, but have found ways to either get product -- minimal product out of the Middle East as well as source LPG from different locations. And that is still, first of all, having an impact on the results in Q2 because the activity levels have been lower than what we would have expected. And that continues to be like that, I think, for the remainder of this year, again, depending a bit on how the flows of the Middle East for LPG will recover. I hope that provides you with a bit of color.

Yes. One add-on remark on your statements on Fujairah. I think that Iranian leadership has defined Fujairah as inside the Strait of Hormuz regarding their [ ports ], but that's to be discussed upon with Oman probably. That has been my understanding.

I'm not into that part of the definition. I'm just referring to physically, geographically where it's located. And it's always good to remind everyone, it is on the east side of the Emirates. So it's, in that sense, outside of the Strait of Hormuz. That doesn't say anything about whether it can be reached with [indiscernible].

Thijs, on your EBITDA question for the joint ventures, it is a combination of EemsEnergy and also better results at the Gate terminal, but predominantly EemsEnergy, but also some positive impact of the Gate terminal.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take the next question from the line of Dirk Verbiesen from ING Equity Research.

Also on behalf of myself, congratulations on the strong performance in Q2 despite all the turbulence globally. Maybe on the comments you made in the report on the chemicals and oil, but particularly chemicals, the performance, it looks to have been quite strong. Is there -- do you see that as maybe a structural turn to the positive? Or is it more a consequence of all the disruptions globally that you may have seen a temporary lift in activity levels in the chemicals? Because if I understand correctly, that was kind of the weak spot over the past, let's say, quarters. That's my first question.

The second question on the contract renewal discussions also given the quite satisfactory level of occupancy despite all the disruptions here and there. And the third question I have is, yes, on the -- let's say, on the EBITDA run rate, and also appreciating your lift in the full year guidance now with EUR 305 million-or-so in Q2. What kind of assumptions do you foresee? Why would it drop below EUR 300 million and particularly because of the additions of this EUR 300 million in projects that come on stream somewhere in the second half? Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks to me that, given where you are now and the run rate going forward in the second half, it appears that, let's say, EUR 300 million should be some kind of a bottom level in EBITDA on a quarterly rate.

Maybe I'll take the first 2, and then Michiel will take your last question. On the chemical side, indeed, we've seen a bit of an uptick in Q2, and that's more on the temporary side and that is a structural fundamental change in that market. Because of a lot of the disruptions, we've seen a bit of spot inquiries in both Singapore as well as, to a certain extent, in Belgium. So that's what we see, but that's quite temporary, I would say.

I think the only location which is kind of benefiting in terms of activity level and therefore, ancillary revenues for us is the U.S. The U.S., no matter how you look at it from a petrochemical point of view, is and has been quite a competitive producer. So we see that in Deer Park mostly that, that was a relatively healthy performance. So I think that's on chemicals.

On the contract renewals, yes, it's a very -- I understand the question, with 91% occupancy, it's a very regional discussion. We see healthy opportunities for renewals in some products in, for instance, ARA, so in Europoort, for oil. We see it for some products in Asia as well in Singapore and in Pengerang. But it may not surprise you that if you then talk about potential contract renewals in Fujairah, we don't have the strongest hand over there to go through those discussions. So it's a bit of a mixed bag. But I think that's all been taken into account when we also talk about outlook.

So maybe with that, over to Michiel for the outlook and some of the assumptions there on the run rate.

Yes. Well, clearly, let's say, the EBITDA run rate has been quite strong in the first half year. In the second half, what we assumed effectively, obviously, we will add, let's say, some of the growth there, but the major impact there is Q4 when we bring the Gate Terminal Tank 4 on stream. So that's 1 quarter of additional growth. And we also factor in that the conflict in Iran -- between Iran and the U.S. in that region of the Middle East will take longer than expected. Yes, that is still obviously quite volatile. We don't know exactly where it ends. So we factored that into our outlook as well.

So if the conflict would be over quite soon, well, and the impact is far less than what we expect, then obviously, we will end at the higher end of the range. But if the conflict worsens and -- well, there is still a risk that the conflict worsens because also around the Suez Canal, there might be challenges going forward, yes, then there is still a risk that we end up at the lower end of the range. So that's how we looked at it from an outlook point of view.

We will now take the next question from the line of David Kerstens from Jefferies.

Two questions, please, on the growth projects. I think the run rate from the EBITDA contribution from growth projects increased to EUR 19 million in the first half. I think previously, I think your guidance included around EUR 35 million for the full year. Is that still a relevant number to use? Or has that now increased? And I think, Michiel, you highlighted the fourth tank of Gate LNG coming online in Q4. How do you see that contribution from growth projects for the full year guidance?

Then the second question on the battery energy storage investment of EUR 371 million. Is it fair to assume that, that amount is spent all today? And I was wondering if you can give an indication on what the EBITDA contribution and the returns will be? I think from your slides, you talk about less than 8x EBITDA from '28 and beyond, but maybe a bit more guidance on how we should model that investment.

The second question, the EUR 371 million, it's not all spent today. So it will be spent over time. So basically, we will be constructing the projects in the coming 1.5, close to 2 years. That's effectively happening. So that cash out goes partly in '26, mainly in '27 and then maybe the last part in '28. Then in '28, these projects are going to contribute. Multiples are indeed quite close to the 8x. So if you assume 8x, then it's a doable number for us. We have always given a range of 6 to 8x for, let's say, any energy transition investments. So that's where these investments are.

In terms of EBITDA, that will also be very close to the free cash flow multiple because operating CapEx for these sites will be relatively low. And then on the run rate, well, effectively, we had EUR 35 million. We expect a bit of a higher contribution of growth to EUR 45 million. So that's what we factor in now as growth contribution for the full year.

We will now take the next question from the line of Kristof Samoy from KBC Securities.

I have 3. I apologize beforehand if I repeat some questions because I had some -- I got kicked out of the call quite a few times. So my first one is on the strong second quarter performance and then the upwardly revised outlook for the year. I was just wondering what assumptions regarding the durations of the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict are baked into the up-guidance. And what events beside FX would you take into account or would you consider relevant in revising your outlook downwards?

And secondly, on REEF, you commented about a delay, amongst others, linked to adverse weather conditions. The in-service date is now foreseen in the second year half of 2027. I know you do not give guidance or outlook statements on '27 yet. But could you give a hint on what the impact could be on incremental free cash flow or proportional EBITDA versus 2026 guidance linked to this delay?

And then finally, on AVTL, on India and LPG, we see the proportional occupancy rates coming down in your reporting. Is the full impact there of the disturbed LPG flows already reflected in the numbers? Or can we still expect a deterioration going forward?

Kristof, I'll take a few and Michiel will take a few. I think first, our assumption on where the conflict -- how long the conflict will continue, as Michiel already indicated in the previous question, we expect on the outlook for the conflict to be around until the end of the year or at least not to be materially resolved by the end of the year, let's call it like that. And I think that's the way we've taken it into account.

Yes, I think the reason still why we, therefore, feel there's some uncertainty for the second half of the year is that the impact of lower activity levels will always take a little bit of time before it kicks in. And that's why we're a bit cautious, especially on the Fujairah side, for that second half of the year. I think that's one.

I think your second question or at least a subquestion on the first was, is there -- why would you revise that number downward? Yes, I think it's very hard to obviously exactly quantify what the outlook will -- what the impact of that Middle East will look like and how it can, all of a sudden, be substantially different from how we are calculating it today. But in that case, you have to look at, I would say, [ capacity damage ] that is higher than what we see today in a terminal like Fujairah, and I think much more supply chain impact directly for the flows that are currently substituting some of the product that is coming out of the Middle East.

I think we've taken a reasonable assumption in that. But obviously, it's such a volatile and uncertain situation. It's very hard to predict exactly how that will work. So I think we have a cushion, but we also haven't been in situations like this a lot of times before to really be able to assess exactly what the impact will be. So we need to be cautious a bit on that side.

Maybe on REEF on 2027. So effectively, what you -- well, we indeed don't give any outlook for '27 or beyond. But if you look at the CapEx investment we're going to make, then obviously, you can apply a certain multiple over that CapEx, which, by top of my head, we gave like 6.5 -- around 6.5x EBITDA. Please note that for this investment, let's say, the free cash flow might be higher than the EBITDA due to lease income, that is an accounting requirement. So effectively, free cash flow will exceed the EBITDA. So EBITDA plus, let's say, the lease income will make free cash flow. So that's at 6.5x.

If you take somewhat of a delay and with an expected relatively quick ramp-up of the volumes, that's at least what is expected. I would think that at least 3/4 of that cash flow I just mentioned should land in '27. So that's where we are today. Yes. So I hope that gives a bit more clear picture.

May I have a follow-up?

Yes.

Michiel, as a follow-up, I read in the press release an in-service date somewhere in the second year half, how do you then come up with 3 quarters of cash flow [indiscernible] in 2027?

There is some part of it, a smaller part, which will be commissioned in July, indeed. So there is an additional investment -- so the major investment goes into operation in Q1. And then there is a smaller investment, of which our share is around EUR 35 million that comes online in July. So you're right, yes.

And then maybe on India?

Yes. Maybe on India, I think your question was what is then the expectation for the second half of the year in terms of volumes in India. Yes, it's hard for us to make a comment on the India entity as it is a listed entity specifically. But if you take a look at where the flows are going, it's just quite erratic, I would almost say, for India. It takes some time for India to get necessary LPG volumes to replace the ones that they're missing from the Middle East. And that's what you see as an impact already, I think, in Q2.

And yes, I think as long as the conflict continues, we have to get used, for the remainder of the year, to that type of activity level in India when it gets to LPG. I think the other part of India, so chemicals and some of the oil products, continues to be quite healthy.

There are no further questions at this time. Please continue. Apologies. We've got one further question coming from the line of Thijs Berkelder from ABN.

Three add-on questions. Can you maybe explain what the potential impact is of the opening of the Impala oil terminal in the Port of Rotterdam? What kind of impact you expect for your oil product operations in the port? Secondly, can you give an update on the outages in Mexico? What is happening there? And third question is on how you published, for the first time, an interim dividend. What is the policy there being looked at in interim dividend, let's say, in percentage of full year dividend? Is there any read-through from interim dividend towards full year dividend?

Maybe on Impala first, Thijs. That terminal, the former HES terminal, is still in the process of being taken into operation and quite some work has been put in. We're trying to follow that closely where we can and obviously stay close to our customers to make sure that we secure the right type of customers at our location.

I think it's important to realize how strong the contract portfolio of the Europoort particularly is with 25% of the entire Europoort, in fact, industrial terminal capacity with a big refinery and everything associated to it. There's a big crude position as well, if you add the capacity at the MOT.

So we're comfortable with the position that we have and the position that we have been able to build over many years. But obviously, when a new competitor comes into play, which, by the way, is owned by a trader, -- so it's always a bit -- yes, it remains to be seen how attractive that will be also for other people to pick up capacity at the terminal that's owned by a trader, in this case, Trafigura. So let's see, but we are ready and need to be ready and alert for when it comes into operation.

I think the second one, outages in Mexico, I'm not sure particularly what you're referring to, but is that the outage that we have on the available capacity in Veracruz?

Yes. Correct.

Yes. So currently, no indication that, that capacity will be picked up by new customers and the complexity sits also in the way Mexico runs their fuel deficit and fuel pricing. So it's very hard for importers in general to build an attractive economic case for importing and selling diesel or gasoline into Mexico because the prices are being kept relatively low and the international prices are relatively high. And that's the simple math that makes it just very hard already for existing operations, let alone if you try to get a new customer in.

So what we are doing is preparing part of the capacity to swap that into chemical and other part of the storage, which is quite successful because there's enough market demand, we expect, for that. But the remainder of the capacity, yes, we just have to be a bit patient to see if and when that market situation becomes attractive and customers will be willing to pick it up.

And then Michiel will talk about the interim dividend.

Yes. So the interim dividend, indeed, what I said is around 40% of previous dividend. So by purpose, we looked at several other companies on the market, which we deem comparable in terms of cash flows. And we thought that it's quite common practice to pay out 40%. We don't want to give any indication for the final dividend as a result of our interim dividend. The final dividend will still be in line with our policy, so at least a 5% increase, but that will be determined once we have the final year results. So for now, we take around 40% of the previous dividend as interim dividend.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Hello, and welcome to the Royal Vopak First Quarter 2026 Results Update. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded. I'm pleased to present, Fatjona Topciu, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead with your meeting.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q1 2026 Results Analyst Call. My name is Fatjona Topciu, Head of IR. Our CEO, Dick Richelle; and CFO, Michiel Gilsing, will guide you through our latest results. We will refer to the Q1 2026 analyst presentation, which you can follow on screen and download from our website. After the presentation, we will have the opportunity for Q&A. A replay of the webcast will be made available on our website as well.

Before we start, I would like to refer you to the disclaimer content of the forward-looking statements, which you are familiar with. I would like to remind you that we may make forward-looking statements during the presentation, which involve certain risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, this is applicable to the entire call, including the answers provided to questions during the Q&A.

And with that, I would like to hand over the call to Dick.

Thank you very much, Fatjona, and good morning to all of you joining us in the call this morning. I would like to start with the key highlights of the year so far. We've had a strong start of the year, where we saw a healthy demand for our services, which is reflected by our continuously high occupancy rate of 91%.

Our financial performance remains strong. Proportional EBITDA grew by 4.1% compared to Q1 2025, and that is the result adjusted for negative currency translation and divestment impact. Importantly, we were able to convert 76% of this EBITDA into operating free cash flow, resulting in an operating cash return of 16.6%. We also made good progress on executing our growth strategy. In West Canada, the construction of our REEF LPG project export terminal is progressing well. And in the Netherlands, approximately 90% of the 4th tank construction at Gate terminal has been completed. The project is on track to be commissioned within budget and on time at the end of Q3 2026.

In addition, we took an investment decision in the Netherlands to repurpose capacity at our Europoort terminal for the storage of pyrolysis oil and another FID in Spain to expand the capacity in Tarragona. Finally, despite the increased volatility in the market related to the Middle East conflict, we are confirming our full year 2026 outlook, subject to ongoing market uncertainties and currency exchange movements.

As per our current assessment, we anticipate the financial impact of the ongoing conflict will be absorbed by our strong underlying business performance and is within the range of our full year 2026 outlook. However, we do see that the uncertainty has increased, which is what I will talk about in more detail in the following slides.

First, look at the market dynamics. Before diving into the results, I'd like to provide some context on the conflict in the Middle East. It has caused a historic supply side shock across global energy and manufacturing markets. This presents a major challenge for some of our customers. Broadly speaking, supply-side substitution has not been sufficient to offset the loss of physical products normally sourced from the Gulf countries. This has triggered significant commodity price volatility and forced a redirection of energy flows, domestic and -- towards domestic and transportation sectors, further impacting industrial demand. As a result, we see cautious customer sentiment and increased uncertainty.

Let's take a closer look at how this impacts our business, starting off with our exposure to the region. We own and operate 4 storage terminals across the Middle East, with strategic locations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In terms of financial exposure, around 5% of our proportional EBITDA is generated by these terminals, and they represent around 4% of our capital employed. Our terminals in Saudi Arabia are linked to industrial clusters, while our Fujairah terminal in the Emirates located outside the Strait of Hormuz, functions as an oil hub.

The conflict has had severe impact on the industrial activity in the Gulf countries because of physical damage to the production facility and production halts. As a result of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Fujairah, despite its strategic location, faces reduced product flows. In terms of indirect exposure, to substitute for the loss of product volume from the Middle East, we see a rebalancing of trade routes emerging.

While our infrastructure facilities facilitate the rebalancing of global trade flows, throughput levels are impacted by reduced products in the market. We do see that this presents a major challenge for some of our customers impacting their business continuity. While with our well-diversified portfolio of terminals, we've proven to be resilient against geopolitical tensions as well as energy market volatility and disruptions in the past.

Our diversification is a structural strength, allowing our network to serve the evolving supply chain and energy security needs of our customers and partners. In addition, with the shift of our portfolio towards gas and industrial terminals, the duration of our contracts has increased significantly, reducing our exposure to short-term volatility. However, we are resilient, but we're not immune. The conflict in the Middle East introduces variables from shifts in global trade routes to heightened security risks and regional price shocks that we are not insulated from. We continue to monitor these developments to protect our operations and our customers' interest.

Now let's take a closer look at our results for the different terminal types we operate. We see an overall strong performance with higher results compared to Q1 of last year when adjusting for the impact of currency translation and divestments. It's important to highlight that Q1 results had limited impact from the Middle East conflict. We saw a strong performance of our chemicals and oil terminals, which was primarily driven by increased throughput combined with strong contribution from growth projects.

Our industrial terminals performed broadly stable year-on-year. However, due to the contribution of growth projects, we saw a slight increase compared to Q1 2025. For our gas terminals, we saw a slight decline year-over-year, which is primarily related to disruptive gas supply from the Middle East conflict. All in all, this has led to a proportional EBITDA of EUR 295 million and a strong operating cash return of 16.6%.

Notwithstanding the volatility and uncertainty on the market during Q1, we continued to execute on our growth strategy. In the United States, at our Deer Park terminal, we commissioned repurposed capacity for biofuels. And in Spain, our Terquimsa joint venture with FID to expand its capacity to address market needs as well as further solidify its leadership position.

Last but not least, we've taken a final investment decision to repurpose capacity at our Europoort terminal in the Netherlands for the storage of pyrolysis oil. This is an important step in our continued commitment to the energy transition and is strengthening and further integrating our industrial partnership at the Europoort.

Since 2022, we've committed around EUR 1.9 billion to grow our base in gas and industrial terminals and to accelerate the energy transition. Around EUR 650 million of this is already commissioned and is contributing to the financial results. Around EUR 1.3 billion is still under construction. We expect to commission around EUR 775 million near year-end related to mainly Gate, the 4th tank and the LPG export terminal in Canada.

In the period 2027, 2028, we expect to commission around EUR 325 million and around EUR 175 million in 2029 and beyond. This is based on the FIDs that we've taken so far. The already commissioned growth projects as well as the growth CapEx under construction will further reinforce our long-term stable return profile and diversify our revenues.

Looking ahead, we remain well positioned to achieve our long-term ambitions. We've shown strong business performance in recent years and the market indicators for storage demand remain firm, supporting the delivery of growth projects and the resilient performance of our existing business. This is reflected in our long-term ambition.

We have an operating cash return ambition for an annual range of between 13% to 17% and are well on track to invest EUR 4 billion growth CapEx through 2030. Also, as announced during our full year 2025 results, we are distributing around EUR 1.7 billion to our shareholders through year-end 2030 via a progressive dividend and a multiyear share buyback program.

With that, I'd like to hand it over to Michiel to give more details on the Q1 2026 results.

Thank you, Dick, and also from my side, good morning to all of you. As Dick mentioned already, we have had a very strong start of the year. We reported a healthy occupancy rate, increased our EBITDA and further improved our free cash flow generation. These results highlight the strength of our well-diversified portfolio, particularly in times of increased uncertainty and volatility. Simultaneously, we continue to invest in attractive and accretive growth projects while returning value to our shareholders.

Let's take a closer look at the performance of the portfolio. Our operating cash return was broadly stable at 16.6%, compared to the 16.8% in Q1 2025, driven primarily by the negative effect of currency translation in our free cash flow. On an autonomous basis, excluding currency and divestments, our proportional operating free cash flow per share increased 7.1% versus Q1 2025.

Demand for our services remained healthy, reflected in a proportional occupancy rate of 91%. Adjusted for currency movements and divestments, proportional EBITDA increased by 4.2% which we will detail further in the next slide.

Moving on to our business unit performance overview. Excluding negative currency exchange effects of EUR 15 million and EUR 2 million divestment impact, our proportional EBITDA increased by 4.2% compared to Q1 2025. A large part of this growth can be explained by the strong EBITDA contribution of EUR 9 million from our growth projects, particularly in the U.S. and India. The performance across the network was relatively stable as regional headwinds are balanced by robust activities at our major oil hubs in the Netherlands and Singapore.

We are continuously focused on generating predictable growing cash flows to create value for our shareholders. Compared to Q1 2025, we have seen our proportional operating free cash flow grow by 7.1%, adjusted for currency translation and divestment impact. This is primarily driven by the autonomous improvement of our proportional EBITDA and the reduced share count following our share buyback programs.

Moving from the cash flows to our financial position. Our proportional leverage, which reflects the economic share of our joint venture debt remained stable at 2.6x. If we exclude the impact of assets under construction, which do not contribute yet to the EBITDA, the proportional leverage is at 1.99x, which is the lowest level in over 5 years. Our ambition for the proportional leverage range is between 2.5 and 3x.

To facilitate the development of growth opportunities that enhance our operating cash return, Vopak's proportional leverage may temporarily fluctuate between 3 and 3.5 during the construction period, which can last 2 to 3 years. This is all in line with our disciplined capital allocation framework.

Our capital allocation framework consists of 4 distinct pillars aiming to maintain a robust balance sheet, distribute value to shareholders, invest in attractive growth projects and yearly evaluate the share buyback program. As announced during our full year results, we are distributing around EUR 1.7 billion to our shareholders through year-end 2030 via a progressive dividend and a multiyear share buyback program. In addition, we have the ambition to invest EUR 4 billion on a proportional basis by 2030 to grow our base in gas and industrial terminals and to accelerate towards energy transition infrastructure.

That brings me to the outlook for full year 2026. As mentioned by Dick, the market indicators for storage demand remain firm, supporting the delivery of growth projects and the resilient performance of our existing business. However, we do acknowledge that the market has become significantly more volatile following the conflict in the Middle East. For now, we expect that the financial impact of the ongoing situation is absorbed by our strong underlying business performance and growth project contribution. This gives us the confidence to reaffirm our full year 2026 outlook with the proportional operating free cash flow projected at around EUR 800 million and a proportional EBITDA expected to range between EUR 1.15 billion and EUR 1.2 billion.

Bringing it all together in this slide, we are off to a strong start of the year with solid cash generation. Our portfolio remains well positioned to cater for increased volatility in the market. And last but not least, we continue investing in attractive growth opportunities while returning value to our shareholders.

And with that, I hand over back to you, Dick.

Thank you, Michiel. And with that, I'd like to ask the operator to please open the line for questions and answers.

[Operator Instructions] And now we're going to take our first question, and that question comes from the line of Kristof Samoy from KBC Securities.

First of all, congratulations with the results. I have 2 questions to start with. If we look at the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, there are, let's say, 2 factors at play there, which impact your business. First of all, positively, you have the rush for energy molecules, so energy security. On the other hand, you have uncertainty, which impacts the FID process that you are undergoing for certain projects. So my first question would be, how is the process looking for Australia right now? Has FID become less likely? Or although more likely given the fact that Australia can simply import oil from its own -- from another region in their country.

And secondly, if you could comment on EemsEnergyTerminal and the potential extension there because we have seen the news that Exmar is progressing with the vessel conversion. And then the second question, we know that throughput rather than guaranteed offtake is more of a key driver for revenues in India. If we look at the drop in proportional occupancy rates in the Middle East and India, could we say that this drop is still mainly linked to the Middle East and that the drop linked to throughput in India has yet to be reflected in the numbers?

Kristof, thanks for the questions. Yes, maybe on your first question related to Australia and EET and then specifically on the timing of them, I think for Australia LNG project, the way we would look at it is and what we can see at this point in time, the need for that project is set by the local Victoria state for gas, and that's just for electricity generation. So that is a need that is almost independent of what happens in the rest of the world. They have a very strong need to find substitution for current gas supply offshore that is depleting. So there's no indication at this point in time that there is a fundamental change in -- that there is a fundamental change in the time line of that project. So we still expect to get back with more information towards the end of this year.

I think that's around VVET. So that's the Australia energy project and maybe to EET. So EemsEnergy, the extension over there process is still ongoing. Yes, we've seen Exmar making the announcement. We are not there yet to make any announcement. As you know, we run an open season on the recontracting of the capacity post the end of the current contract by fourth quarter next year. And that is a moment that we are still working through or a process that we are still working through.

And once we have news to share, we will come back to the market and share that. I think then maybe to the lower occupancy rate, it has more to do with the fact that the Fujairah capacity in the first quarter was lower in terms of also out-of-service capacity. Then had a direct impact of what's happening in India. I think still, if you look at Q1, it's a bit early to see the effect of any of the disruptions from the Middle East directly in our business in India. But indeed, the flows of LPG that flow to India have a lot to do with the source of origin, and that's the Middle East.

Okay. But for EemsEnergy, you do not experience a change of attitude with your partners in terms of the run-up to the FID being taken given everything that's going on in the Middle East.

No, I think many parties take for processing like this, a long-term approach. They know that the capacity is available in 2028. As you know, a lot of the flow that was coming from Qatar is taken out. That has a massive impact, but it is also expected to have a massive impact for, as they call it, a bit of extra supply that was expected to come in towards the end of this decade.

So you could almost argue that with all the repair and restoration that is going on, it pushes out that supply -- extra supply a little bit further out in time, and it doesn't necessarily have an immediate impact on, for instance, product that needs to leave the U.S. and needs to find a home in Europe. So I think it's a bit of a long answer to say, for now, we do not see a material different approach of potential customers towards EemsEnergy.

Now we're going to take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Thijs Berkelder from ODDO.

Congrats with the strong Q1 performance, especially in chemicals. Can you maybe further explain why chemicals was so strong? And related to that, can you explain what you now see happening in your Deer Park and European chemical operations given recent Middle East events? Second question relates to the strong performance in Rest of World. Can you explain where that is coming from?

Thanks for that. I think on the Chemical side, I would say, overall, Deer Park has done quite well in the first quarter, and the same goes for Vlaardingen specifically that actually participated and contributed quite strongly to the results in the first quarter. When it gets to the conflict and the impact of chemicals as such for our network, I think Deer Park, although we do not see it yet fundamentally, but Deer Park or the U.S. in general, you would expect that they will benefit a bit from the fact that the U.S. as a chemical producer has quite a competitive -- a strong competitive position in the current global landscape. So we expect that, that will result in at least continued healthy demand for our services, especially Deer Park. I think that's one.

So I would say strong performance there. I would say if you change that to Europe, particularly, I would say, Belgium, it's still hard to see, but quite a lot of the flows that are moving into Belgium are flows that come from the Middle East. It's a very strong market for Middle Eastern producers to sell product in Europe. That is subject to the disruptions as a result of the conflict. And what you see over there is, obviously, there's a lot of people that are trying to take positions, traders that try to take positions in that market to try to supply the demand for the end product that continues to be there. So it remains to be seen how that effect is going to balance out. Too early to tell in that sense for Belgium.

If you look at it overall for the rest of the portfolio, I think what we said, it's still healthy demand on the main oil hubs, in the first quarter, Singapore Strait, strong, Rotterdam, high occupancy, high activity, so pretty strong over there and fuel distribution, quite healthy across the board in the first quarter. So I think we are pleased if we look back at the first quarter. And I think as we said, the outlook for the rest of the year given everything that's going on is within the range of what we said already in the first -- in February when we announced the 2025 results.

We also had a few growth project contributions in the U.S. and India, which also helped on the Chemical side. So that has led to an increase versus Q4 2025 as well.

Yes. And rest of the world primarily driven by Belgium then?

Not necessarily. No, not Belgium, I would say. I think if any, Belgium is a bit under pressure first quarter. I think rest of the world, just healthy across the board, not a particular region, I would say that jumps out. As I said, oil stable and relatively strong and just a positive good start of the year. China, quite well. So nothing particular that jumps out, Thijs, in a extreme way.

Now, we're going to take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Philip Ngotho from Kepler Cheuvreux.

I have 3 questions, if I may. The first question is on China and North Asia. If I look at the consolidated numbers, I see the occupancy rates. It was already low last year, but it actually dropped further to 55%. So I assume it has to do with the Chinese terminals that are just generating or have low occupancy rate. I was wondering if you could share any -- because in the past, I think you also mentioned that the chemical market in China has been weak, and it seems that occupancy rate continues to drop further there. Do you have any -- what are the projections for those assets there?

And could we be thinking of anything if it remains structurally weak to -- that you might take some portfolio actions there? The other thing that I'm wondering about is what portions of earnings is really dependent on throughput levels rather than really take-or-pay contracts?

And the last question I have is if a client would declare force majeure and you have a take-or-pay contract with that client or client is impacted by force majeure and with the take-or-pay contract, what happens to that take-or-pay contract? Do you actually -- can you still incur revenues on that? Those are my 3 questions.

Philip, maybe start on the China side. Yes, if you look at the consolidated occupancy, effectively, that's only one terminal. So we have a portfolio of 8 terminals in China. So that doesn't give you a very representative picture of China. Dick already mentioned, the China results were actually quite good and slightly above our own expectations. Indeed, that terminal is the Zhangjiagang terminal, which then has a relatively low occupancy because it's in a very competitive market, and it's one of the distribution terminals. Most of the terminals we have in China are industrial terminals. So basically backed by long-term take-or-pay type of contracts. So you see that the overall portfolio is quite healthy. We don't have any immediate portfolio actions, we're going to take in China.

To the contrary, we commissioned last year a new terminal in China. So that is an add-on to our portfolio. We still see quite a few growth opportunities in industrial terminal locations. And overall, the returns in China, if you compare it to the rest of the portfolio is quite healthy, and we're quite capable of distributing our dividends from China back to the Netherlands. So that's maybe on the China side.

On the earnings side, yes, there is always a component of throughput income. So even in contracts which -- where people buy, let's say, effectively the capacity, we still have an opportunity that if throughputs are at a higher level than expected that we will charge additionally for excess throughputs. So approximately 10% of the earnings are throughput related in some locations, more throughput related than in others. For example, location like Belgium is much more activity related than in another location. And some of the locations like I just mentioned, some of the industrial or some of the gas contracts are very low in terms of throughput dynamics. So that's maybe only a portion of the earnings, which is throughput related.

And Dick, on the first, force majeure?

Yes. So force majeure, Philip, what we see happening is that some of our customers are declaring force majeure, but they are declaring it in all those cases towards their customers. So an inability sometimes to get product out of a region in order to deliver it to a customer that is further away that is not necessarily related to the type of services that they -- or obligations that they have towards us in the storage contract and arrangements that we have. So we obviously have to follow this case by case and understand very clearly what some of the situations of our customers are in this respect.

And as was indicated, I think, in the presentation already before, we need to kind of like be prepared for those discussions because if that customers are under serious stress and under duress, we have to sit down and understand what we can do to support them. But legally speaking, the force majeure, there's very clear guidelines of what and how that applies in the contract obligations and responsibilities between the storage provider and our customers.

Okay. Very clear. Just one follow-up. So far, have you had any clients where you already had to sit down and renegotiate terms? Or given that they were just faced with difficulties or challenges?

It's no comment on that. And the reason for saying it, I don't want to go into individual discussions and official, it's -- I think it's a bit of a gray area where there is -- obviously, there are customers that say we're under a lot of stress, can we talk versus how official that is and how official those negotiations are. I think this is part and partial of what we've seen in previous crises. We are confident that we can manage through that. We're close to our customers and see where and when we can support them while at the same time, respecting and safeguarding the interest of Vopak, which is we made investment in certain infrastructure to support our customers in good times and in bad times. So no details.

Now we'll go and take our next question. And the next question comes from the line of Quirijn Mulder from ING.

On the whole situation in the Middle East. Can you give me an idea about, let me say, the first panic in the first week of March compared to what the situation is now? Are the customers still scrambling for products and has its impact on your throughput in, let me say, mainly in the Far East? So can you give me a view on what's in reality happening and what is -- you take a cautious stance on the second quarter. And it looks like that, okay, the March was not the issue, but maybe April is more an issue than March. Can you give any feeling on what's the current situation for many customers and also the impact on your business?

Yes. Quirijn, thank you for that question. I think first and foremost, as we already said, key priority for us is to make sure that people are safe and have been safe throughout the course of the conflict. The noncritical staff we leave away from the facility. We take noncritical staff not with a permanent resident in that region, take them out and move them back to their countries of origin. That has all been done.

We monitor obviously the situation very closely, purely from a safety and security point of view and do whatever we can to support our partners and our people over there. I think that's in the first -- that's the first instance and first priority. If you look at it, what's happening at the moment, I think a few things to mention here. The amount of information that comes out of the region is limited. That's -- so what the exact damage is outside and far outside of the perimeter of the facilities that we operate is not publicly known, and it's also not always known to us.

I think the second element is if you look at it physically what's going on, people would like to remove product in a safe manner, if that's possible as soon as possible in some instances, as we particularly have seen in Fujairah, while at the same time, making sure that now that the cease fire is in place, increased activities are happening to make sure that as much as possible, business continues as possible, as usual, with demand for fuel oil, demand for some of the products that need to be moved in and out, and that is, I wouldn't say all back to normal of how it was before because that would be too strong a statement simply because the product is not always available.

The product that comes out of the region is hampered and is limited and restricted. But slowly but surely, as we speak now, things are -- people are trying to get back to normal and resume as much as possible, normal operations with a cautious view and a clear view on the uncertainty that's happening in the region, as you can imagine.

Yes. And that's in the region, but there's a ripple effect, let me say, elsewhere in the Far East. So let me say, the situation in Australia and Sydney, et cetera. And let me say, for example, in South Africa, as you mentioned, in Pakistan. Is there anything you can update us on that -- on the development there?

Yes. So we continue -- what you see, Quirijn, is that things literally move quite volatile and hectically kind of like almost from week to week. So let's take South Africa, maybe as an example, dependent very much on imports from the Middle East. So in the first weeks of the conflict, you see product on the water still finding a home in South Africa. So first 2 weeks, it was almost business as usual. Then you have a period where there's no new supply coming simply because the supply was choked coming out of the Middle East.

So then there's actually a bit of panic in the local market, what's happening and how can we supply new product. And then after a week, 2 weeks, you see that there's alternative supply coming into the market from different parts of the world. And for instance, West Africa is then becoming one of the suppliers of South Africa, which is then supporting. Over time, it obviously needs to work out what it does to total volumes once things start to settle down. But the challenge is it's never clear of when things really start to settle down. And I think that's what we are working through. So it's -- I think that's the best way to characterize it.

And I realize you maybe want to have maybe sustainable longer-term view of where this is trending to. That's simply too hard to say at this point in time, and we continue to support where possible. And I think if I can take it one notch up, the general confidence that we have in the fact that we operate these critical assets at strategic locations that support the primary needs in local economies continues to give us a lot of confidence on the medium- to longer-term outlook for our network, but we have to navigate through the current circumstances.

But I understand, let me say, if I look at the second quarter and especially in the month of April, then thus far -- okay, there's a lot of uncertainty, but it's not very concrete impact there, if I understand. There's not that you see, let me say, really impact from, let me say, the business happening on your -- the business happening on your business, in fact. Is that correct?

I think it's -- what we are saying is that with a lot of uncertainty and volatility in the market, we are certainly not immune for the supply shocks that are currently happening, Quirijn. This is not a relative easy exercise between brackets, easy exercise of rebalancing the remainder of the flows to the world.

There's simply also a shortage of product in some regions, and that will have effect on the flows that are coming through some of our terminals, while at the same time, there's, in some instances, a rush for a particular storage position for a particular product because product is trapped and you need to find an intermediate source of storage. So I think it's too early still to tell. We haven't closed April yet. It's way too early to tell what the impact then will be. The assessment that we made is the assessment for the full year 2026, which is reflected in our outlook. And there, we think that we are capable of absorbing the negative impact of the conflict in the outlook that we've already presented.

Yes. Because on outlook -- you may assume on the outlook that obviously -- well, the first quarter was relatively strong. So if you compare it to the outlook we have given, it's at the higher end of the outlook, if you would have 4 of these quarters, but then we still have some growth coming on stream and some positive currency exchange compared to Q1.

So yes -- and that will compensate for the potential impact of the conflict, what we feel could be the potential impact of the conflict today because it's very hard to make an assessment. We don't know, let's say, how long this is going to last, how severe this is going to be. But we feel that where we are today and what we know today, that those compensating factors are sufficient to absorb, let's say, the impact of the Middle East.

Now we're going to take our next question. And the question comes from the line of David Kerstens from Jefferies.

I have 2 questions also about the conflict in the Middle East. And maybe specifically on Fujairah, can you give an indication how occupancy trended in the month of March? And given that this is a hub location, do you see any impact from reduced product flows in Fujairah elsewhere, for example, going to Asia into Singapore, will there be a knock-on effect on occupancy levels there as well?

And Dick, I heard you say you will see global trade flows rebalancing, I think in response to the former question, you talked about new supply coming out of West Africa. And also, you have a very well-balanced portfolio. Does that mean that you also see terminals that are seeing positive effects from the current conflict in the Middle East?

Yes. So I think individual occupancy level for particular months, let's refrain a little bit from that or we want to refrain from that. I think VHFL, as we said, total occupancy has gone down quite a bit in -- towards the end of the first quarter. And we see that around 8% of that capacity in Fujairah is out of service simply as a result of some of the damage that we've seen in Fujairah. So that is something that we have to repair and get back into service.

The impact that, that has for the rest of the network, it's not necessarily that the immediate flows from Fujairah are moving to all other terminals throughout the network. So I think Singapore has its own dynamic, and it is impacted by the fact that there's products not flowing from the Middle East to Singapore, but that has different sources than to potentially repair that with. And we haven't seen up until now a big impact in, for instance, Singapore for the demand for oil storage.

If there are positive elements in the outlook for some of our terminals, I think we mentioned already the effect in Deer Park. We see increased -- quite some increased activity in the Europoort as well. But I think you have to also understand this particular case, it's very relatively straightforward sometimes to assess what is not going well and what the direct impact is, it will take time for us to assess where we see some of the upsides coming from. I think it's simply also harder to predict that at this point in time.

Now we'll go and take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Jeremy Kincaid from Van Lanschot Kempen.

I just have one question on your guidance. You obviously reconfirmed it today. But within that, there was -- it seems like there's some positives and negatives. On the negative side, clearly, there's the disruption from Strait of Hormuz. But on the positive side, you talked to FX. And I think the other key thing was some growth projects coming in. I assume this doesn't refer to the Europoort terminal or the Spanish development that you're working on because those seem to be -- will be operational in 2027. So can you just talk to what those growth projects are and what's changed from when you last gave the guidance?

Well, definitely that, in the growth projects are not these projects you mentioned indeed. So the growth project, the major one, which will come on stream this year is tank #4 here of the LNG import facility, the Gate terminal here in Rotterdam. So that is still within budget, but also within its original schedule. So we would be able to commission it on time. That is the latest outlook we can give. So that's going to be the major positive contribution.

There's a few other projects, but these are relatively smaller compared to the tank #4. Indeed, foreign exchange is a positive element. And then, effectively, what happened is the underlying business performed a bit better in Q1 than we expected. So as a result, if we wouldn't have had the Middle East impact, then obviously, there was -- there could have been a likelihood to basically adjust the outlook upward.

But yes, the Middle East conflict basically brings the outlook to the level we have given to the market for both free cash flow as well as the EBITDA. Free cash flow is still healthy. So if you look at where we were last year and where we anticipate to be this year, we should still be able to report a strong cash flow, and that's obviously the main driver for value creation. So yes, basically, I hope that answers the question, Jeremy.

Dear speakers, there are no further questions for today. Dear analysts, thank you very much for all your questions. And that does conclude our conference for today, and have a nice day.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Good day. Bye-bye.

Good day, and welcome to the Royal Vopak Full Year Results 2025 Update Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to hand you over to your speaker of today, Fatjona Topciu. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our full year 2025 results analyst call. My name is Fatjona Topciu, Head of IR. Our CEO, Dick Richelle; and CFO, Michiel Gilsing, will guide you through our latest results. We will refer to the full-year 2025 analyst presentation, which you can follow on screen and download from our website. After the presentation, we will have the opportunity for Q&A. A replay of the webcast will be made available on our website as well.

Before we start, I would like to refer to the disclaimer content of the forward-looking statements, which you are familiar with. I would like to remind you that we may make forward-looking statements during the presentation, which involve certain risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, this is applicable to the entire call, including the answers provided to questions during the Q&A.

And with that, I would like to hand over the call to Dick.

Thank you very much, Fatjona, and a very good morning to all of you joining us in the call today. I would like to start with the key highlights of the year. 2025 was another year of disciplined strategy execution and sustained momentum for Vopak. We delivered record financial results, executed our growth strategy and showed our commitment to create and distribute value to our shareholders. Demand for our services remains strong, which is reflected in a healthy occupancy rate of 91.4%.

Despite currency headwinds, we delivered a record level EBITDA in 2025. We further optimized the portfolio, divesting our terminals in Korea, in Barcelona and Venezuela, while establishing our footprint in Oman and completing the IPO of AVTL in India. We also made good progress on executing our growth strategy. Some of our largest projects like REEF LPG terminal in Canada and Gate 4th tank in the Netherlands are progressing well.

We have now committed around EUR 1.9 billion to growth projects since 2022 and are well positioned to reach our ambition of investing EUR 4 billion through 2030. We see this not as a target to spend, but rather as an opportunity to invest in attractive growth opportunities. Finally, we showed our commitment to distribute value to our shareholders. In line with our disciplined capital allocation priorities, we are announcing a shareholder distributions program of around EUR 1.7 billion through year-end 2030.

Before we dive deeper into the results, let's have a look at where we stand in the execution of our strategy. In 2022, we launched our improve, grow and accelerate strategy. And in the first phase, we significantly strengthened our foundation, applying strategic portfolio management while increasing the exposure to gas and industrial terminals that led to an improvement of the operating cash return from 10.2% in 2021 to 15.6% in 2025.

Our strengthened foundation positions us well to increase the pace of our investment commitments and growth CapEx in 2025. We are focused on executing our major projects, delivering them both on time and on budget. As these assets come online from 2027, we expect them to positively contribute to our return profile. And this will further accelerate our growth strategy execution as we look for continued ways to accelerate our investments in attractive growth projects.

As we execute our growth strategy, we remain committed to distribute value to our shareholders. Since 2021, we have distributed around EUR 1.2 billion in dividends and share buybacks. And in line with our disciplined capital allocation priorities, we're making a step change now by announcing a shareholder distributions program of around EUR 1.7 billion through year-end 2030.

Now back to our results. As mentioned, 2025 was a strong year in terms of strategy execution. We continue to improve the performance of our portfolio, generating a record level of operating free cash flow, leading to an operating cash return of 15.6%. In addition, we completed the IPO of AVTL in India, and we added additional investment commitments during 2025, of which the majority is allocated to grow our base in gas and industrial terminals.

With regards to the accelerate strategic pillar, the developments of new supply chains for CO2 and ammonia as hydrogen carrier are moving at a slower pace than we initially anticipated. At the same time, we're pleased with the investments in the Netherlands and Malaysia on low-carbon fuels and sustainable feedstock infrastructure as well as the early stages of battery developments.

Now let's look at our sustainability performance, where we have safety always as our top priority. And while these metrics demonstrate best-in-class performance, they fall short of our ultimate safety ambitions. Looking at the emissions, we're making good progress in achieving our long-term goals. With regards to diversity, despite our ongoing efforts, we've not yet realized the level of gender representation to which we aspire and are committed to improving this.

Looking at the financial performance for the different terminal types we operate, we see an overall strong performance with higher results compared to last year despite currency headwinds. LNG markets remained well supplied while global LPG trade was marginally higher than 2024. Mainly due to some planned out-of-service capacity and a positive one-off last year, 2024, the results of the gas segment went down year-on-year.

In the Industrial segment, growth is contributing and together with the one-off in the second quarter in 2025, we see a 15% increase, notwithstanding the uncertainty in the macro environment. Chemical markets were challenging for our customers in 2025, while our terminals continue to perform relatively stable despite some locations seeing lower occupancy rates.

Energy markets, which we serve with our oil terminals continue to see strong demand and performance is driven by increased throughputs, higher rates and contract indexation. All in all, this has led to an increased proportional EBITDA to EUR 1,184 million and a strong operating cash return of 15.6%.

Now let's move to the execution of our growth strategy. Since the start of our Improve, Grow and Accelerate strategy, we've committed a total of EUR 1.9 billion. Around EUR 550 million of this EUR 1.9 billion has been committed since the beginning of 2025. We're well positioned to achieve our ambition of investing EUR 4 billion by 2030, supporting our long-term operating cash return ambition of 13% to 17%. During 2025, we made good progress in expanding our capacity. The construction of our LPG export terminal in Western Canada and the 4th tank at our Gate terminal in the Netherlands are progressing as planned.

Also, we're expanding our capacity in Asia with multiple FIDs taken in China, India, Malaysia and Thailand. In the Latin America region, we're expanding our capacity in Brazil and in Colombia. As mentioned, we've realized strong momentum in executing our growth strategy. We've already commissioned around EUR 650 million, and these projects are contributing to our results.

Around EUR 1.3 billion is still under construction, and we expect to commission around EUR 775 million around year-end 2026, and that's related mainly to Gate 4th Tank and LPG in Canada. In the period '27, '28, we expect to commission around EUR 325 million and around EUR 175 million in 2029 and beyond. The already commissioned growth projects as well as the growth CapEx under construction will further reinforce our long-term stable return profile.

70% of our revenues are generated from contracts longer than 3 years, a 10% point increase from around 60% in 2021. Currently, around 40% of our EBITDA is generated by assets in gas and industrial. Looking ahead, we expect continued strong momentum. We've shown strong business performance in the recent years. The market indicators for storage demand remain firm, supporting the delivery of our growth projects and the resilient performance of our existing business.

We expect this momentum to continue, and this is reflected in our long-term ambitions. We've raised our long-term operating cash return ambition to an annual range of between 13% to 17% and are well on track to invest EUR 4 billion growth CapEx through 2030.

So let's wrap it up on this slide. We have an unparalleled global infrastructure portfolio, proven to be resilient in uncertain times. We expect a robust energy demand through 2030. And through our strategic locations and the critical link they provide will support further growth opportunities leading to long-term stable returns. With our ambition to allocate EUR 4 billion growth CapEx through 2030, of which EUR 1.3 billion currently under construction, we deliver clear tangible levers for growth. And last but not least, we have a strong focus on creating and distributing value to our shareholders through cash dividends and share buybacks.

With that, I'd like to hand it over to Michiel to give more details on the full year and fourth quarter numbers.

Thank you, Dick. And also from my side, good morning to all of you. As mentioned by Dick, 2025 was a strong year for Vopak with record results. We reported a record level of operating free cash flow, driven by our continued strong profitability and EBITDA to cash conversion. On a per share basis, proportional operating free cash flow increased by 7% to EUR 7.13. We reported a 68% increase in earnings per share, driven by higher net income and a lower share count.

Net income increased by EUR 228 million, mainly due to a dilution gain of EUR 113 million resulting from the listing of our AVTL joint venture and an impairment reversal of EUR 181 million in cash-generating unit of the Europoort terminal. These results highlight the strength of our well-diversified portfolio, particularly in times of increased uncertainty and volatility.

Simultaneously, we continue to ramp up our investments in attractive and accretive growth projects while returning value to our shareholders, which we will discuss in more detail later in the presentation.

Let's take a closer look at the performance of the portfolio. Our operating cash return improved to 15.6%, driven by an increased operating free cash flow of EUR 823 million and a slightly decreased capital employed. Demand for our services remained healthy. Adjusted for currency movements and divestments, the proportional EBITDA increased by 4.3%, which we will detail further in the next slide.

Moving on to our business unit performance overview. Excluding negative currency exchange effects of EUR 33 million and EUR 2 million divestment impact, the proportional EBITDA increased by 4.3% compared to 2024. A large part of this growth can be explained by the strong EBITDA contribution of EUR 20 million from our growth projects, particularly in China and the Netherlands. The results in our Asia and Middle East business unit were primarily driven by the results of a commercial resolution in the second quarter.

Across the remaining business units, the performance was relatively stable. We are continuously focused on generating predictable growing cash flows to create value for our shareholders. We achieved this by growing our revenues while improving our profitability and cash conversion. In 2025, we improved on both our EBITDA margin, reaching 58% and our cash conversion reaching 70%. Driven by revenue growth, increased profitability and increased cash conversion, we have grown our operating free cash flow by 49% since 2021.

As we have funded a fair share of our growth investments by divesting assets with lower cash generation abilities, the amount of capital employed has not significantly changed since then. The significant improvement in cash generation with a stable capital employed has led to a 5.4 percentage point increase in our operating cash return.

Let's take a closer look at the drivers of improvement with regards to our cash flow per share. We can clearly see that the increased profitability is the main driver of improvement since 2021, driven by strong contributions from our growth projects and the resilient performance of the existing assets, our proportional EBITDA increased by EUR 184 million. This has had a net impact of around EUR 1.50 per share. Also, our cash conversion has significantly improved, primarily driven by a decrease in operating CapEx of 28%. This has had a net impact of around EUR 0.70 per share.

Finally, we have executed 2 share buyback programs since 2021 with a total value of EUR 400 million, reducing our share count by around 8%. And adding these drivers together, we increased our proportional operating free cash flow per share by 62% since 2021. Shifting from proportional figures to consolidated figures, we get a good picture of the cash flow that became available for capital allocation on the holding level in 2025.

Our cash flow from operations, which includes a healthy upstreaming of dividends from our joint ventures remains strong, showing a 2% increase compared to 2024. After deducting operating CapEx and IFRS 16 lease payments from CFFO, we arrive at the consolidated operating free cash flow of EUR 691 million, an improvement of 5% versus 2024. Factoring in the taxes paid and the financing cost, we arrive at a levered free cash flow of EUR 506 million.

This represents the available cash before debt financing that we can strategically allocate to pay dividends, invest in growth or buy back our own shares. Our capital allocation framework consists of 4 distinct pillars, aiming to maintain a robust balance sheet, distribute value to shareholders, invest in attractive growth opportunities and yearly evaluate share buyback programs. In the next part of the presentation, I will highlight our key capital allocation achievements.

Starting at our first priority, the balance sheet. Proportional leverage, which reflects the economic share of the joint venture's debt decreased to 2.6x compared to the end of 2024 when it was at 2.67x. If we exclude the impact of assets under construction, which do not contribute yet to EBITDA, the proportional leverage is at 2.06, which is the lowest level in the last 5 years. Our ambition for the proportional leverage range is still between 2.5 and 3x.

To facilitate the development of growth opportunities that enhance our operating cash return, Vopak's proportional leverage may temporarily fluctuate between 3x and 3.5x during the construction period, which can last 2 to 3 years. Additionally, we maintain control of our financing expenses by limiting the exposure to volatility in interest rates. And we achieved this by borrowing predominantly at fixed rates.

As mentioned, we have the long-term ambition to generate reliable and attractive returns for our shareholders. This is why we have announced a shareholder distributions program of around EUR 1.7 billion through the year-end 2030. This program will enhance our dividend policy while introducing a multiyear share buyback program. With regards to the dividend, we have the ambition to grow our payments by 5% or more per year. Also, we will increase our dividend payment frequency to semiannual.

We propose a dividend per share of EUR 1.80 over 2025, representing a 50% increase compared to the payment made in 2021. To be clear, the proposed EUR 1.80 will still be paid in full in April of this year, subject to AGM approval. The first interim payment will be announced at the publication of our 2026 first half year results. Looking at the second component of the shareholder distribution program, the share buybacks, we have the ambition to buying back EUR 500 million through the year-end 2030, of which we expect to execute the first tranche of up to EUR 100 million over the next 12 months.

As shown in the graph on the right, we have distributed around EUR 1.2 billion in dividends and share buybacks in the last 5 years. The announced shareholder distribution program of around EUR 1.7 billion through the year-end 2030 marks a significant step change.

Moving on to the growth. Investing in growth opportunities is a key part of our capital allocation policy. We have the ambition to invest EUR 4 billion on a proportional basis by 2030 to grow our base in gas and industrial terminals and to accelerate towards energy transition infrastructure. At this point, we have already committed around EUR 1.9 billion to growth investments since 2022, of which EUR 650 million has been commissioned and is already contributing to our results.

Around EUR 1.3 billion of growth projects are currently underway with the majority of them being delivered by the end of 2026. Once these projects become operational, we expect them to further contribute to the increasing free cash flow of our portfolio. This is why we feel confident in raising our long-term ambition for the OCR to between 13% and 17%. We continue to see attractive growth opportunities in the market that we will pursue in order to grow the cash generation of the portfolio.

Our ambition remains unchanged to actively support our customers with infrastructure for the ongoing energy transition and to invest when opportunities arise at returns in line with our portfolio ambition.

Let's bring it together in this slide. Since 2021, we have made significant improvements. Our financial performance improved with a double-digit increase of revenue and EBITDA. On the back of increased cash conversion, this growth has boosted our cash generation. The operating free cash flow per share, our main KPI for assessing value creation has increased by 62%. It is, of course, equally important that this increased cash flow is allocated in a way that is creating long-term value for our shareholders.

And as you can see, that has been clearly the case. We decreased our leverage while significantly ramping up our growth investments. At the same time, we raised our dividend and reduced our share count. All in all, we're proud of the results that we have achieved. Before we move to the outlook 2026, let's take a brief moment to address our exposure to foreign exchange. If we look at the proportional EBITDA split by currency, we can see that 28% of our EBITDA is generated in euro, which means that for the remainder of the EBITDA, we face translation risk in our P&L.

To be a bit more specific, we show on this slide the sensitivity of our proportional EBITDA to changes in U.S. dollar, Sing dollar and Chinese renminbi on an annual basis. For example, a 0.10 change in euro to U.S. dollar has a full year impact on an annual EBITDA of around EUR 32 million. The translation impact that arises from recent currency volatility is something we take into account in our outlook for the remainder of the year. We have updated the currency rates at the end of the year. Based on these updated rates, we expect a negative foreign exchange impact of around EUR 20 million in 2026 compared to 2025.

Furthermore, taking into account the positive one-off in the first half year of 2025, we arrived at a rebased proportional EBITDA of around EUR 1.14 billion as a base for the outlook of 2026. For 2026, we expect EBITDA to be between EUR 1.15 billion and EUR 1.2 billion, reflecting an autonomous growth rate between 1% and 5%. We also expect a proportional operating free cash flow of around EUR 800 million for 2026. Operating free cash flow is a driver of value and distribution, and hence, we will start guiding on it.

For the longer term, our ambition remains unchanged with regards to our leverage and growth projects. As mentioned, we are raising our ambition for OCR to between 13% and 17%. For shareholder distributions, we have announced a shareholder distribution program of around EUR 1.7 billion through the year-end 2030. Bringing it all together in this slide, 2025 was a strong year for Vopak. We reported a record level of operating free cash flow driven by our continued strong profitability and cash conversion. We have realized a significant step change, increasing our proportional operating free cash flow per share by 62% and increasing our OCR from 10.2% to 15.6%. Simultaneously, we continue to ramp up our investments in attractive and accretive growth projects while returning value to our shareholders.

And with that, I hand it over back to you, Dick.

Thank you, Michiel. And with that, I'd like to ask the operator to please open the line for question and answers.

[Operator Instructions] And the first question is coming from Jeremy Kincaid from Van Lanschot Kempen...

Congrats on the results. Three questions from me. The first 2 on the share buyback. Firstly, has HAL indicated what it plans to do with regards to the share buyback? Secondly, you've obviously kept your long-term CapEx ambitions, but obviously, you've talked to some larger potential CapEx programs in the future like South Africa or Australia. I was just wondering if you could provide us a bit of an update on either of those projects and how they fit into the outlook given this new share buyback and shareholder distribution framework.

And then my third question is on REEF. There's been a couple of articles recently about a dispute with the First Nations community there. I was just hoping if you could provide an update and your thoughts on that dispute and whether it could impact your REEF development.

Thank you, Jeremy. First question, what we announced this morning is we do not have any agreement with any of the shareholders related to the share buyback program. That's been a standard language that we've used in the last 2 programs. So that's what we know for now. So no further news on the HAL position. But obviously, we know that if we were to have an agreement with HAL, that would have been noted in the press release. An agreement, meaning that they would like to sell as part of the share buyback program. That agreement is not in place. So I think that's one related to HAL.

Then the second one, the long-term CapEx outlook, I think we're pretty clear in the confidence that we have in our ability to execute our growth ambition of the EUR 4 billion. Australia and South Africa are developing, I would say, in line. So maybe first, a few things on Australia, where we moved into definitive phase to prepare for an FID hopefully in the later part of 2026. That means the FSRU is secured. That means that the permit application is submitted, that all the technical details related to the location and environmental impact assessment has all been done and is currently subject to review questions and further due process.

So we're well on track, I would say, for the Australia project. South Africa, I would say, in general, an environment that is a bit more complicated in terms of the permit process. It will take -- it's always hard to make the full estimate of how long that permit process is going to take. We're here dependent as well on power plant development in the area of Richards Bay, where we are planning the site. So we are still confident on the need for the country on our role that we can play on the location. But as you can see with these projects in an early development stage, it takes a bit of time to see how they will unfold.

I think whether -- there are obviously big projects in our portfolio, both especially, I would say, Australia, but also South Africa. At the same time, we can also see that the pipeline of projects that we have is a healthy pipeline and the development is healthy. And on that basis, we are indicating and guiding the market on our confidence that we have for the EUR 4 billion in 2030. I think that's hopefully giving you a bit of background on that long-term CapEx plan and where and why the confidence is.

And then towards your last question related to REEF and the news on some of the First Nations comments that have been made. We are obviously aware of what's happening. We are, at the moment, focusing on delivering the project, and that is going well. So the delivery of the project to be in service end of this year within the time line that we originally set and also within the budget that we originally set that is well underway. We continue dialogue with the relevant First Nations and all the relevant stakeholders. This is not only the First Nations, but it's local court, it's the federal government to engage in a very constructive manner to see how we can find a solution that works for everyone involved, while at the same time, also protecting our legal rights.

And those are linked to the fact that we are currently constructing the terminal in line with the contracts and the permits that we have. And it's based on a contract with our customer, AltaGas, who is also our partner in the development of the REEF terminal. So that's probably the best I can say for now on this.

And this question is coming from Thijs Berkelder from ABN...

Congrats on the cash return announcement. Happy to see those. First question, yes, maybe more geopolitical. Can you indicate what is currently happening at your terminals in Fujairah? Looking at the JV result in Q4, it was clearly higher and also your proportional occupancy in Middle East, Asia has jumped to 96%.

Secondly, can you maybe describe what 1 year with the Trump government. Can you describe what's the impact on your U.S. terminals business of the governmental change maybe? And thirdly, what grip can we have on the timing of, let's say, the new contracts for EemsEnergy? And what kind of costs are you assuming for EemsEnergy in '26?

Thanks, Thijs. Maybe first on VHFL -- on Fujairah, results overall continue to be healthy. The reason that the fourth quarter was significantly better than the third had to do with a contract that we started in the fourth quarter, in tanks that were empty in the third quarter. So that -- and it was quite a large capacity. It was planned to be taken up by the customer, but that was the reason that the results went up, but also occupancy-wise, it was sizable and therefore, had an immediate impact on the occupancy. I wouldn't say it's something that is linked to a structural change that happened from the third to the fourth quarter. You should look at it much more as a, I would almost say, a natural rollover from one party to another party that takes up capacity.

And sometimes it's a few months without occupancy and then it's picked up again by the customer. So this was more or less planned and has nothing to do with geopolitical developments in that area. In general, as you know, Fujairah is -- has a very strategic location outside of the Strait of Hormuz. And that's one of the reasons that it remains a very attractive location, and that's what we expect also going forward. Your second question, we could spend the rest of this call on probably, but not related to the Vopak position, but just in more generic terms.

Let's stick maybe to the pure Vopak position. Zooming in, I would say, on the U.S., just to put it in perspective, our U.S. position currently is 8 terminals and roughly, give or take, 15% of our EBITDA. And that continues to be relatively stable going forward. You have to kind of dive into the detail of it. The role of the terminals is either industrial, Corpus Christi or the Via terminals, ex Dow sites. So that's 4 out of the 8, and that's long-term contracts, yes, with a bit of variability, but long-term contracts and relatively stable. Then we have Deer Park that has a strong position and also quite some industrial connectivity to the production sites around.

And a lot of what Deer Park is doing is actually local distribution in the U.S. There's not so much import happening over there. So yes, there's a bit of export that happens, but we haven't seen a big impact in 2025 on our Deer Park facility. And last but not least, we have a position on the West Coast, and that is supporting very specifically trade and bunker fuels with airports, or air travel in Los Angeles and the environment. So also there, we see a relatively normal demand for our services. So by and large, I would say, specifically to your question on what the impact of the Trump administration in the U.S. has been, this is the picture. I think if you look at it from a more broader perspective, obviously, the uncertainty that especially the tariffs are creating does not necessarily help create stability for investment and big investment decisions does not necessarily create a lot of stability around product flows around the world.

So we've seen changes, and we've commented on that also during 2025 that we sometimes see changes in product flows. But I think the strength of our global portfolio and the diversification of the portfolio means that sometimes you see a bit of a drop in one location being picked up at another location. So I would almost say, by and large, it has -- it did not have in the short term, a big impact on what we see. For the longer term, it's probably -- well, you see how our outlooks are for the investment program, but also the return profile of the company towards 2030 and the announcement we make today.

So we feel our position, strategic locations, diversified strong resilient network gives us confidence that the demand for our services will remain quite healthy in the coming period. Then your last comment on EET, a few things to mention over there. We indicated in '25 that we were working on that technical solution related to minimum send-out capacity of the terminal. That solution is now in place, still runs into the first quarter with minimum compensation to the impact of our customers, but then we run into a steady-state situation until '27. That's one.

And then second, we're currently going -- as we are indicating in the press release, we're currently going through the process of the renewal of the terminal in 2028, and that process is ongoing. And that's too early to comment on it, but we expect in the coming months to be able to indicate what the next steps are going to be. And that's -- we're just in the middle of all of that at the moment. So I hope that gives you a bit of sense, yes.

Yes. One add-on question on Asia and Middle East results. So the JV results and the proportional occupancy rates spiked because of what you described. But why is the proportional EBITDA then in Q4 down versus Q3? Is that something in Malaysia or so or India?

It's probably an element in Australia. It's a claim that we booked in Australia. That's the only thing I can probably indicate, Thijs. There's nothing fundamental. So it's more of a one-off element that we saw in Q4 in our oil terminal in Sydney coming up. But that has been.

How large was that claim?

Yes, that was quite sizable, so around EUR 2 million. And then we had in Darwin, we had the long-term contract came to an end in end of September. And then you see effectively, we have a drop in income in Darwin of around EUR 2 million as well. So those 2 together. So one is structural and the other one is more incidental.

[Operator Instructions] And the next question in the queue is coming from David Kerstens from Jefferies.

I've got 3 questions as well, please. Maybe first of all, you indicated the phasing of the commissioning. And I think you said that in 2026, you expect EUR 775 million of growth projects to be commissioned. What is baked into your guidance in terms of EBITDA contribution for 2026? And what do you expect this EUR 775 million will start contributing in 2027? And I think you said EUR 650 million has so far already been committed. What is the EBITDA contribution related to what's currently already operational?

And then my second question is on the oil storage market in the Port of Rotterdam. Can you explain what's happening there that triggered such a large reversal of the impairment? And is this only limited to the Port of Rotterdam? Or do you see the market conditions improving elsewhere as well?

And then finally, maybe also a follow-up on the HAL question. I think HAL so far has not participated in the share buyback program. And as a result, their stake has increased. Can you update us on the ownership percentage following the latest share buyback that you carried out in 2025, please?

Sure. Yes, on the phasing of growth CapEx, indeed, we don't disclose all the EBITDA contributions in terms of, let's say, exactly what has been contributed by which project, so not on an individual basis. We have given indications to the market on what gas infrastructure and infrastructure energy is going to contribute. So this 5x to 7x EBITDA then on new energy infrastructure, 6x to 8x, and on conversions of existing capacity, 4x to 6x.

So the EUR 650 million, which has been commissioned is contributing in line with those multiples. So -- but we don't disclose each and every project. So you could take an average and think EUR 650 million, well, divided by whatever you think would be the average. That's one. And then the contributions going forward, yes, obviously, we don't give any specific guidance, but at least what we do is we give guidance on the strength of, let's say, the cash flow of the company by also announcing, let's say, confidence in our shareholder distribution program.

So that means that these projects have to start contributing in line with, let's say, the expectations we have given to the market. Part of it indeed '26, but the bigger part of it in '27 because then the REEF project and the Gate project here in Rotterdam are going to contribute in full. So that is the guidance we're giving. And we're also giving guidance that by bringing these projects on stream, our cash return is not going to be diluted. So effectively, we've now upgraded the above 13% range to 13% to 17%. There's obviously always a bit of volatility in our existing business.

But with bringing growth projects on stream, we should be able to be in that bracket of 13% to 17%. So that's what you may expect from us. And you also know, let's say, which kind of capitals we are allocating to the growth CapEx. So -- so in other words, things could be worked backwards from a lot of numbers we have given to the market, but we don't give any specific indications on the projects. That's on the first question.

The second question, yes, the oil market in Rotterdam is much stronger than we thought a few years ago. And remember, when we took the impairment, it was the Russian invasion into Ukraine. The business was really down at that moment in time. We had quite a hard landing in the first half of 2022. Since then, we have recovered quite well in the Europoort. So we continuously look at the performance. We have updated our business plans for the Europoort, you see effectively in the coming years, we still expect strong results there.

In the long, long, longer run, so obviously, there will be an energy transition impact, but we still think that the Europoort is well positioned to also be a viable terminal in an energy transition world. So overall, we came to the conclusion there is no other way than that we should reverse this impairment. And effectively, that means that all impairments, the significant impairments we took in 2022, which were related to SPEC, the Botlek terminals and Europoort are all being reversed now because we had a book profit on the Botlek.

We reversed the SPEC one last year, and we reversed now the Europoort. So that's an indication that the business is relatively strong, and you see that back, obviously, in our cash flows of the company. And then the third question, yes, the ownership of HAL is presently at 52%. There is no -- as I said, there's no agreement, like Dick already mentioned, there's no agreement with anybody related to the upcoming EUR 100 million tranche. So you may expect that as a result of that, the HAL percentage will increase above the 52%. And then to be seen what will happen for the rest of the share buyback program because we will announce it tranche by tranche.

Okay. We're going to carry on with the next question in the queue. And this question is coming from Kristof Samoy from KBC.

Yes. Congrats on the results and the improved cash distribution policy. A few questions, if I may. Regarding alternative energies, the fact that you've been revising your cash distribution policy considerably, can we read into that, that we shouldn't expect any major FIDs there in the coming years? And then I had also a question on Antwerp. We saw the news that Maersk will not continue with it plans to open a green plastic factory in Antwerp. Does this have any impact on your business plan for Vopak Antwerp Energy? And then finally, on REEF, could you elaborate a little bit deeper into the court ruling that has been made? And was it a ruling in substance, and is there still now a court case running or is there potential to open up a new case?

Thanks, Kristof. Maybe first one on the alternatives. So on the Accelerate pillar, I think we made it very clear in the release today, and I can only reconfirm it now that for the overall program of EUR 4 billion that we announced, we are confident that we can execute that program and to realize that ambition between now and 2030. I think that's the first part. The second part is related then, and we are also vocal about that.

We see that in the -- our Accelerate bucket, so that's the infrastructure investments to support the energy transition that consists of 4 elements. It's low carbon fuels and feedstocks -- it's the CCS value chain and supply chain and it's the hydrogen supply chain, mainly with ammonia investment. And the fourth one is batteries. So if you take the second and the third, so CO2 and ammonia, we definitely -- well, we continue to see a slowdown in some of the developments over there and delay in some of the major decisions that we are dependent on to set up those supply chains.

At the same time, we are still confident that batteries as well as low carbon fuels and feedstocks give us sufficient opportunities to realize the ambition that we set for ourselves in the Accelerate bucket. So it's a bit of a long answer, but the conclusion is the fact that we come up with an increased share buyback program or a share buyback program over the period of time is independent of the developments that we see in a specific segment where we identified growth opportunities.

So confident with the overall growth portfolio and pipeline that we have and that we can execute that side-by-side the share buyback program that we announced today. I think that's the first part. And the second is related to Antwerp and Vioneo that is backed by A.P. Moller.So disappointing to see that they were not able to make a case for their big investment in Antwerp, disappointing for us, but I think even more so for Antwerp and to a bigger extent to Europe.

It's a product that is in need in Europe, green plastics. There's a whole lot of logic on why it would make sense to do it over there, but they couldn't make it work despite the fact that they put a lot of effort in it had a lot of discussion with all the relevant stakeholders, but they unfortunately could not make it work and now are potentially shifting the production to China, which is a pity to say the least.

I think for our plans in Antwerp, we had hoped that this would be a start in the Antwerp development, but we're not singly or single-handedly dependent only on the Vioneo development. We're happy with the developments on the land, making it ready for construction. We have a few other leads that we have been vocal about that we are following, and we're confident that, that location and the plans that we have will lead to an attractive development in the middle of the Port of Antwerp. So we will continue to inform you about the main steps there.

And then last but not least, on REEF, I think the court ruling has been an interim ruling to get something dismissed in the court and the court basically said, no, it's not going to be dismissed. So the court case will still be held as originally planned, and that will have its course in '26 and '27. So only if the court would have said we would dismiss the case, then the whole case would have been gone now. That is not the case. So the court has basically said, as originally planned, we will hear the case in '26, '27. It will take some time. I think that's a bit more detail on the court case itself.

Okay. And maybe as a follow-up, can you give us an update on Veracruz?

In what sense of the capacity over there?

Yes. And the reconversion plans.

Well, maybe a few things that we're still looking for parties to fill up the capacity in Veracruz. In 2025, second part of 2025, we've not been able to find that particular customer. We're working through getting the permits of making the change from the fuel distribution capacity to fill it up with chemicals. That is going according to plan, but will take some time in '26. I don't expect any capacity to be filled from the conversion in '26, and we continue to engage with a number of parties in this year to find someone that will occupy the tanks in -- for fuel distribution. There's definitely a logic for it, but it's not that easy. So we continue to push for that.

We're now going to the last question in the line, and this line is coming from Quirijn Mulder from ING.

So I have a couple of questions. My first question is about chemicals in China. You're now traveling on in this country for, I think, for 4 years now in the suffering from the chemical decrease or whatsoever, how you call it. So what are your plans with regard to Zhangjiagang for example, and your, or let me say, trading terminals? That's my first question.

And my second question is about Eemshaven. So you expect for Eemshaven to have somewhat better results in 2026 compared to 2025. And the open season was closed, as we understand, there is a consideration to expand the capacity with an FLNG conversion of an FLNG transport vessel into an FSRU. Can you maybe comment on that sort of message we have heard about this? And then my final question about the share buyback program. If I make a comparison with SBM, for example, they have also a program, but they have left some room depending on the growth and the developments there with regard to the cash flow. Is that something you have also taken into account into your program? Or you -- let me say you are saying this is EUR 500 million, that's it, we don't have any upside here left.

All right. Maybe Zhangjiagang, specifically, no big change indeed in the situation of the terminal, relatively low occupancy in Zhangjiagang. Remember, that's the only wholly owned terminal. So that's the one that is in the occupancy also coming up and therefore, is being flagged. In terms of pure result and result contribution, it's minimal because let's not forget our China business, all the other terminals is in joint venture and is ITL, so industrial terminals with long-term contracts have developed strongly. So we've divested a few of the relatively smaller distribution facilities in that area, we've now also divested, although not China, but South Korea, we've divested Ulsan terminal at the end of '25.

So the dependency on, as you call it, the distribution facilities has been reduced. And yes, we need to continue to look at Zhangjiagang and do everything that we have in our ability to make Zhangjiagang more attractive for the group. But again, it's not the one who has the main impact on our China business. I think the second question, EET, does it have better results expected to be in 2026? The answer is yes, probably because the MSO impact in '25 was there, and that is expected to be much less in 2026. The expansion and the fact that we've announced an agreement to change an LNG vessel and FSU into an FSRU basically allows us to -- for the expansion in -- or the expansion, I should say, in Eemshaven to basically have 2 FSRU vessels from the same FSRU owner and to actually adjust that second new vessel better to what the market services are that we want to offer.

So it's actually a bit of an upgrade of the terminal, and we're happy with that opportunity. And as I said earlier to one of the earlier questions, we're currently going through the motions of the results from the open season and follow-up discussions that we're having with customers. So more to follow in the course of '26. And on the [indiscernible], Michiel will comment.

Yes. On the share buyback, yes, we're confident that we can combine the share buyback, the dividend distributions with our growth ambition at the EUR 4 billion proportional CapEx, we would like to invest up to 2030. What we have tried to do is at least show that confidence by also announcing the shareholder distributions up to and including 2030 so that there is a good match. Yes, what there might always be reasons to change, let's say, the share buyback program, of course, but that wouldn't be the case if the EUR 4 billion is becoming the EUR 4 billion.

But it could, for example, be the case if we do a major acquisition, but then we still need to prove to the market that, that acquisition is better than buying back our own share. And similar, if we would go far beyond, let's say, the EUR 4 billion, if we find growth opportunities, which are reaching a next level, but then obviously, we also need to update the market on a revised growth plan going forward. And we don't see that yet. But yes, those might be reasons to change our share buyback program over time. But as long as we stick to the EUR 4 billion, we will also have -- we also are confident that we can execute the share buyback program.

However, if I look at what you said about your leverage at 3, 3.5x in periods of construction, if you look at 2026, then the construction of REEF is finished, and that means, of course, that you need something for 2027 quite big when you -- or '28 is quite big if you're going to reach that 3 to 3.5x in my view.

Yes. But if you would think about an Australia project, that's going to be a sizable project. So that will drive up the leverage again. And obviously, we will have -- this year, we will do an increased dividend, but we also do an interim dividend, which is also going to increase the leverage. Then obviously, you have a few more investments which we could take maybe on the energy transition infrastructure, maybe on the battery side. So there's definitely new investments coming into play. And there's always a bit of volatility, of course, in our existing business.

So it's not like -- of course, our cash flows are much more sustainable than what they were. But there's still volatility in the business, and that's what we also take into account. So yes, we still may reach, at a certain moment in time, somewhere between 3x and 3.5x for a certain time. And we gave an indication like up to maybe 2 or 3 years. But yes, that is to be seen still. That's also very much dependent on timing of growth -- big growth CapEx projects.

Okay. Thank you very much. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, and welcome to the Royal Vopak Third Quarter 2025 Update. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded.

I'm pleased to present Fatjona Topciu, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead with your meeting.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q3 2025 results analyst call. My name is Fatjona Topciu, Head of IR. Our CEO, Dick Richelle; and CFO, Michiel Gilsing, will guide you through our latest results. We will refer to the Q3 2025 analyst presentation, which you can follow on screen and download from our website. After the presentation, we will have the opportunity for Q&A. A replay of the webcast will be made available on our website as well.

Before we start, I would like to refer to the disclaimer content of the forward-looking statements, which you are familiar with. I would like to remind you that we may make forward-looking statements during the presentation, which involve certain risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, this is applicable to the entire call, including the answers provided to questions during the Q&A.

And with that, I would like to hand over the call to Dick.

Thank you very much, Fatjona, and good morning to all of you. Thanks for joining us in the call this morning.

Let's start with the key priorities of our strategy framework towards 2030. We continue to focus on improving the performance of our existing portfolio. This includes both our sustainability efforts and our financial results with an operating cash return target for the portfolio of above 13% throughout the cycle. As part of our grow and accelerate strategic pillars, we continue to invest in attractive opportunities in the market with a total proportional investment ambition of EUR 4 billion by 2030. Our Improve, Grow, Accelerate strategy underpins our well-diversified and resilient portfolio and provides a solid foundation to continuing to deliver value to all our stakeholders.

Moving to the key highlights for the first 9 months of this year. Let's first start on the improved side. Year-to-date, demand for our services remained healthy across the entire portfolio, and that resulted in a proportional occupancy rate of 91% with continued high satisfaction from our customers. We reported strong financial performance, growing our proportional EBITDA to EUR 902 million and an operating cash return of 16.2%. At the same time, our proportional operating free cash flow per share increased by 4.3% year-on-year to EUR 5.56, demonstrating our strong cash generation.

Supported by a resilient portfolio and business performance offsetting around EUR 30 million of negative currency translation impact compared to last year, we confirm our full year proportional EBITDA outlook in the range of EUR 1.17 billion to EUR 1.2 billion.

We're making good progress in growing our gas and industrial footprint. We invest in additional throughput capacity at the REEF terminal in West Canada, while at the same time, we're making good progress in the terminal constructing together with our partner, AltaGas. In China, we're strengthening our industrial position with the expansion of 2 industrial terminals in Caojing and in Haiteng. We're expanding LNG infrastructure in Colombia at SPEC terminal.

And in India, our joint venture, AVTL, announced the development of a greenfield LPG import terminal in Mumbai, including a bottling plant and storage for liquid products as well. AVTL also acquired 75% of LPG Hindustan terminal in Haldia. We're pleased to see the developments at multiple locations in the fast-growing Indian market. So far, since we announced our ambition to grow in gas and industrial terminals globally, we've committed EUR 1.6 billion.

So now let's move to accelerate investments for the energy transition infrastructure. In Oman, we signed a joint venture agreement with OQ to develop and operate energy storage and terminal infrastructure. With our partner, we look forward to developing infrastructure at the strategic location of Duqm and jointly supporting sustainable industrial growth.

The investment in Malaysia related to low carbon fuels is progressing, and we look forward to start construction early 2026. So far, since we announced our growth program for Accelerate, we've committed EUR 256 million in energy transition infrastructure.

Now looking at our financial performance for the different terminal types we operate. We see an overall strong performance with higher results compared to the same period last year. Gas markets were stable with our terminals being supported by long-term contracts, mainly due to some planned out-of-service capacity, a positive one-off last year and the temporary challenges at EemsEnergyTerminal, the results of the gas segment went down on a year-to-year basis. In the Industrial segment, growth is contributing. And together with the one-off in the second quarter, we see 15% increase in this attractive and strategic segment on a year-to-year basis.

Chemical markets remain weak, while our terminals continue to perform relatively stable despite some locations seeing lower occupancy rates. Energy markets, which we serve with our oil terminals continue to see strong demand, especially in the hubs like Rotterdam and Singapore. All in all, this has led to an increased proportional EBITDA of EUR 902 million and a strong operating cash return of 16.2% for the first 9 months of 2025.

To mention some highlights in our strategic pillar of improve, we are pleased to see an expansion commissioned at our inland Lesedi terminal in South Africa, where we increased our terminal capacity by 40%, supporting the region with distribution of clean petroleum fuels. In Spain, our joint venture divested the Barcelona terminal, which was storing petroleum, chemical and vegetable oil products.

And in a continued effort to improve our sustainability performance, we invest in a sustainable heating system at our Vlissingen terminal in the Netherlands, significantly reducing the emissions and decreasing operating costs.

Now let's move to the growth investments to start with an update on this year's proportional growth CapEx spend. Year-to-date, we spent EUR 447 million on growth, and we expect this number to be around EUR 700 million for the full year, a significant increase from 2024. This figure reflects our share of investments, but not our equity contribution. Since the start of our Improve, Grow and Accelerate strategy, we've committed a total of EUR 1.9 billion. EUR 502 million of this EUR 1.9 billion has been committed since the beginning of this year. We're well underway to invest EUR 4 billion towards 2030, which we aim to allocate in opportunities that meet our investment criteria.

On this slide, we highlight the investment commitments that we've taken during the third quarter. We're investing around the world with a total proportional investment commitment of EUR 188 million only this quarter. We're progressing on our LPG terminal in Canada and building a new terminal in India. In Colombia, LNG regasification capacity is expanded at SPEC terminal. And in China, our leading industrial position is strengthened with expansions in Caojing and Haiteng. All these investments around the world will do together with partners.

Now let's take a closer look at the REEF terminal in West Canada. Construction work is progressing well, and the project is on track to be commissioned at the end of 2026 within budget. We're investing an additional EUR 34 million to increase the throughput capacity of the terminal, leveraging the common infrastructure of the terminal such as the constructed jetty. This additional throughput capacity will become available in the second half of 2027. In the meantime, we will continue to investigate together with our partner, AltaGas, potential optimizations of the terminal and a next phase of expansions.

In Colombia, our SPEC terminal plays an important role in ensuring local energy security. With an investment of EUR 25 million, the regasification capacity will be expanded by 33%. This additional capacity will diversify SPEC business offering to new industrial customers and get connected to the country's gas grid. This investment is backed by long-term contracts and will deliver attractive operating cash returns upon completion.

We're delivering on growth with multiple expansions at existing and new locations, and our capability to deliver will ensure project execution in the coming -- in the years to come, with multiple key investments coming online that will support future growth. We're on track to have both REEF and the fourth tank at Gate commissioned by the end of 2026. And further down the line, multiple expansions and new terminals will follow, supporting long-term stable and growing returns.

To wrap it up, we presented strong results this quarter, supported by a healthy demand for infrastructure and leading to an operating cash return of 16.2% year-to-date. We continue to deliver growth with our key growth projects on track and new expansions announced. And we're pleased to confirm our outlook despite a negative currency translation effect of EUR 30 million.

With that, I'd like to hand it over to Michiel to give more details on the year-to-date and third quarter numbers.

Thank you, Dick. And also from my side, good morning to all of you. In the third quarter, we saw continued strong performance from our resilient portfolio. Our proportional operating free cash flow per share has increased by 4.3% year-on-year, driven by continued high demand for our storage infrastructure, increased EBITDA and our share buyback programs. These results highlight the strength of our well-diversified portfolio, particularly in times of increased uncertainty and volatility. Simultaneously, we continue to ramp up our investments in attractive and accretive growth projects while returning value to our shareholders.

Let's take a closer look at the performance of the portfolio during the third quarter of this year. I would like to start with a reminder that in the second quarter of this year, we reported a one-off EUR 22 million, which was related to a commercial resolution in our Asia and Middle East business unit. This needs to be considered when comparing the third quarter with the second quarter results on a proportional revenue and EBITDA level.

The proportional occupancy in Q3 was 90.3%. This decrease compared to Q2 is mainly related to a temporary impact caused by the timing of some contract renewal. We recorded proportional revenues of EUR 467 million during Q3. Excluding the one-off, on an autonomous basis, the lower occupancy was offset by improved pricing, leading to an increase in revenues. Proportional EBITDA in Q3 decreased to EUR 287 million, again caused by the one-off in Q2. On an autonomous basis, EBITDA increased by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter, indicating strong performance of our existing operating assets. And finally, our cash flow generation remains strong, which we will highlight in detail later in this presentation.

As mentioned, the translation effect of foreign currencies remains a headwind to our results. If we look at the proportional EBITDA split by currency, we can see that 27% of our EBITDA is generated in euro, which means that for the remainder of the EBITDA, we face translation risks in our P&L. Comparing our results on a constant currency basis, we can clearly see that our results this year have been strong. Also, it provides additional context for our Q3 performance. Excluding one-off in the second quarter, our performance in Q3 was in line with Q2 and above Q1.

Back to our global network. This slide provides a more detailed breakdown of the proportional EBITDA generated by our business units in the different regions. Excluding negative currency exchange effects of EUR 18 million and EUR 2 million divestment impact, proportional EBITDA increased by 3.2% versus year-to-date 2024. A large part of this growth can be explained by the strong contribution of EUR 17 million from our growth projects, particularly in China and the Netherlands. Additionally, we saw particularly strong performance from our Asia and Middle East business unit, which is primarily driven by the result of a commercial resolution in the second quarter.

Across the remaining business units, the performance was relatively stable with some weakness in the Netherlands related to the out-of-service capacity and the temporary challenges in EemsEnergyTerminal, for which we are pleased that a technical solution has been identified and is expected to be completed by early next year, while the terminal remains fully operational.

Moving on to the cash flow generation. We are continuously focused on generating predictable growing cash flows to create shareholder value for our shareholders. We achieved this by growing our revenues while maintaining high EBITDA margins and strong EBITDA to cash conversion. Despite a strong currency headwind, we saw slightly higher proportional revenues year-on-year.

Since costs were stable, our proportional EBITDA margin improved by 20 basis points. The cash conversion of our portfolio, which indicates the portion of EBITDA that is converted into proportional cash flow slightly decreased to 71.4% due to an increase of operating CapEx. The proportional operating free cash flow per share increased by 4.3%, driven primarily by the reduced share count following our share buyback programs in '24 and '25. Finally, we realized a stable operating cash flow return of 16.2%, well above our long-term target of 13%. Q4 is characterized by higher operating CapEx spend, hence, operating cash return for the full year is expected to be in line with the prior year.

Moving on from proportional figures to consolidated figures. We get a good picture of the cash flow that becomes available for capital allocation at the holding level. Our cash flow from operations, which includes upstream dividends from our joint ventures remains strong, showing a 2% year-on-year increase. After deducting operating CapEx and IFRS 16 lease payments from the CFFO, we arrive at a consolidated operating free cash flow of EUR 557 million, equivalent to EUR 4.82 per share. Factoring in the increase in net debt and all finance and tax-related cash flows, we arrive at free cash flow of EUR 618 million. This represents the available cash that we can strategically allocate to pay dividend, to invest in growth or to buy back our own shares.

In the first 9 months of the year, we have used roughly half of our available cash flow to distribute value to shareholders. As we have completed our share buyback program for the year and paid our annual dividend, cash available in the fourth quarter will be primarily used for growth investments. This all in line with our long-term capital allocation policy that aims to deliver value to our shareholders while pursuing growth opportunities at the same time.

Our capital allocation framework consists of 4 distinct pillars, aiming to maintain a robust balance sheet, distribute value to shareholders, invest in attractive growth opportunities and yearly evaluate share buyback programs. In the next part of the presentation, I will briefly highlight the developments on our key capital allocation achievements.

Starting at our first priority, the balance sheet. Proportional leverage, which reflects the economic share of the joint venture debt versus the part of the EBITDA of the joint ventures decreased slightly to 2.56x compared to the end of 2024 when it was at 2.67x. If we exclude the impact of assets under construction, which do not contribute yet to the EBITDA, proportional leverage is at 2.12x, which is the lowest level in the last 5 years. Our ambition for the proportional leverage range is between 2.5 and 3x.

To facilitate the development of growth opportunities that enhance cash return, Vopak's proportional leverage may temporarily fluctuate between 3 and 3.5 during the construction period, which can last 2 to 3 years. Additionally, we maintain control of our financing expenses by limiting the exposure to volatility in interest rates. We achieved this by borrowing predominantly at fixed rates, around 80%.

As mentioned, we have the long-term ambition to generate reliable and attractive returns for our shareholders. This is why we increased our dividend per share by 6.7% to EUR 1.60 in 2025, adding to our long track record of annual dividend distributions. On top of that, we updated our capital allocation policy to include share buyback programs. Over the last 2 years, we have successfully completed 2 programs with a total value of EUR 400 million and as a result, decreasing our share count by 8.3%. Considering both the dividends paid and the share buyback programs, we have offered an average shareholder yield of 8.1% in the period '24, '25.

Investing in growth opportunities is an important part of our capital allocation policy. As highlighted during our recent Capital Markets Day in March, we have the ambition to invest EUR 4 billion on a proportional basis by 2030 to grow our base in gas and industrial terminals and to accelerate towards energy and transition infrastructure. At this point, we have already committed around EUR 1.9 billion to growth investments since 2022, of which EUR 526 million has been commissioned and is contributing to our results.

And as you can see in the graph, we are ramping up our investments significantly this year with expected proportional growth CapEx of around EUR 700 million. We continue to see attractive growth opportunities in the market that we will pursue in order to grow the cash generation of our portfolio. Our ambition remains unchanged to actively support our customers with infrastructure for the ongoing energy transition and to invest when opportunities arise at returns in line with our portfolio ambition. We see this as an opportunity to invest rather than a target to spend.

In India, our joint venture, AVTL, announced an investment in a greenfield terminal at the JPNA port in Mumbai. This terminal with capacity for LPG storage, a bottling plant and capacity for liquid storage is a strategic investment serving the fast-developing Hinterland. The investment, of which EUR 70 million is Vopak's share is funded by the proceeds from the listing and is expected to be commissioned in phases starting mid-2026. Also, AVTL acquired 75% of the Hindustan LPG terminal for a total amount of EUR 100 million, which is equal to a proportional investment of EUR 42 million for Vopak.

Upon the closing of the transaction, our share in this terminal will effectively rise to 31.67% from the 24% we own currently. On the Vopak holding level, we expect a cash in of EUR 32 million following the closing of the transaction. The acquisition will allow AVTL to expand its business at the Haldia location in LPG storage. For Vopak, this is another showcase on how we create and unlock value for our shareholders while optimizing our joint venture structure and controlling the cash flow at the holding level.

That brings me to the full year outlook of 2025. We confirm our financial outlook with a proportional EBITDA range of EUR 1.17 billion to EUR 1.2 billion, subject to market uncertainty and currency exchange movements. We expect proportional operating CapEx of below EUR 300 million and proportional growth CapEx of around EUR 700 million for 2025.

For the longer term, our ambition remains unchanged. We aim to invest EUR 4 billion proportional growth CapEx in industrial, gas and energy transition infrastructure by 2030, while generating at least 13% operating cash return from the portfolio. Our ambition, as mentioned, for the proportional leverage range is between 2.5 and 3x.

Bringing it all together in this slide, we had a strong Q3 performance and delivered on our financial performance with a healthy occupancy rate and a record high proportional EBITDA for the first 9 months of the year. With regards to our growth ambition, we are well on track to invest EUR 4 billion proportional growth CapEx by 2030. We remain committed to capture opportunities to grow in industrial and gas terminals and accelerate towards infrastructure for the energy transition.

Our well-diversified portfolio caters for uncertainty and volatility in the market. As a result of that, we are confirming our outlook. These factors, combined with a strong capital allocation framework create value to our shareholders, leading to an increase of free cash flow per share of 4.3% compared to last year.

This concludes my remarks in the presentation, and I would like to hand back to Dick for the Q&A.

Thank you, Michiel. With that, I'd like to ask the operator to please open the line for question and answers.

[Operator Instructions] And now we're going to take our first question, and it comes from the line of Kristof Samoy from KBC Securities.

I will start with 2. Can you elaborate a little bit on the contract renewals that you commented on during the presentation and the impact it had on occupancy rates and how you see that picking up again in the fourth quarter?

And then as a general remark, it's more of a, let's say, a strategic question. What's the impact that you see on your industry of the potential for a Power of Siberia Gas Line 2? And what could the potential impact be on your ongoing business development activities? These are my first 2 questions.

Can you maybe before we answer, maybe repeat the second question? We couldn't quite hear it. The impact of what?

The Power of Siberia, the gas pipeline between Russia and China.

Okay. Yes. Okay. Well, maybe if I start with the contract renewals, that's basically in Fujairah and in Rotterdam. So it's oil storage, where we are like rolling over a contract from one party to the other. So it's a temporary occupancy consequence, as you see. And we have -- we're in the process now of rolling it over to new contracts. So that should happen in Q4 and the beginning of 2026. So fundamentally, it's not something that we're concerned about.

Then maybe to the impact of the power line or the LNG connection between Russia and China. I think the way we look at it is if you consider of the main infrastructure that we have on LNG today in Western Europe, that's basically Gate and EemsEnergyTerminal. They are already fully dependent on the LNG imports that are coming from countries other than coming from Russia. So I don't think that has a big impact. I think we look still very comfortable and positive towards the medium- to long-term outlook for that infrastructure. And with what's happening between Russia directly and China is not having a major impact or not expected to have any impact on our plans for LNG in the different parts.

As you can see in Colombia, as you can see with the plans that we have and the developments going on in Australia, in Pakistan, they're all kind of like individual market dynamics that we understand well and have no impact from the developments that you're describing.

Now we take our next question -- and it comes from the line of David Kerstens from Jefferies.

I've got 2 questions, please. I think you highlighted in the press release that the -- or in the presentation that the impact of the lower occupancy was offset by better pricing and higher throughput revenues. Can you indicate where in the portfolio you see this higher pricing and where throughput revenue increases?

And then also the second question, I think the contribution from growth projects on proportional EBITDA increased to EUR 17 million year-to-date, I think, versus EUR 9 million in the first half of the year. How do you expect this figure to develop for the remainder of the year and for 2026 and 2027, given that the project pipeline is now nicely building up. And I think in the past, you used to give a rough ballpark number what you expect from growth projects on EBITDA. Those are my 2 questions.

Yes. Thanks, David. I'll take the first one, and I'll leave Michiel to do the second one. So on the first one on the better pricing and throughput, that's mainly in the main oil terminals. We see that we still have quite a bit of an opportunity to do our pricing quite well. If you look at particular throughput levels, we've seen some additional throughput in the Vlissingen terminal because we've added actually more capacity in Vlissingen. And you also see that AVTL has seen a bit more throughput in this last quarter.

So by and large, I think positive developments in that area. But I think the main one that stands out, although not to be exaggerated, but I think the one that stands out is still some power that we have on the oil side in the hub locations, mainly.

Pricing power, yes.

Yes.

Now we're going to take our next question.

Next question is on the proportional EBITDA contribution of growth projects. So indeed, the first 3 quarters were around EUR 17 million. So for the last quarter, you may expect another close to EUR 10 million contribution.

And now we're going to take the question from Jeremy Kincaid from Van Lanschot Kempen.

I have 2 questions. Firstly, on Australia, you obviously announced that you've entered into an exclusive agreement with Seapeak. I was just wondering if you could provide an update on the potential time line going forward for that project. And in particular, I know regulatory approvals are important there. So an update on the time line would be helpful.

And then secondly, Michiel, you said that the Asian and Middle East business was stronger this quarter due to a commercial resolution. Are you able to provide a little bit of color as to what that was?

Sure. Jeremy, maybe on Australia, to start off with, the project is developing well, as we indicate. We have a really good team in place and everything lined up to actually move forward with the permit application that is being prepared at this moment. That is, as you rightfully indicate, a lengthy and a very -- I wouldn't say lengthy, but a diligent process in that part of Australia, and we go through that. So the time line, but that obviously is subject to how the permit process is developing. The time line we expect towards the end of 2026 to have more clarity on this and to be able to hopefully move forward with the project at that time.

But as I said, that depends a bit on how some of the developments on the permit are moving ahead. I think the attractiveness of the project for us is because of the location that we found for our import facility. We get good support both from the government and from all the interested parties in Australia. So we have good hopes that this project will move forward. But obviously, we have to move diligently through the approval and the permitting processes, which is happening at this moment. So happy to continue to update you in the following quarters.

Yes. Jeremy, on the commercial resolution, effectively, that took place in Q2. So it was announced in Q2 as well. So it wasn't in Q3, but it had to do with the commercial settlement of a significant contract we have in that region in Malaysia. And as a result, we had a one-off gain of EUR 22 million. So that's effectively what happened. I can't give you all the details of this, but it's a one-off. It's a good commercial settlement, and it impacted Q2 positively. But as a result, Q3 looks weaker than Q2.

Now we are going to take our next question and it comes from the line of Berkelder from AAOB.

Thijs Berkelder, ABN AMRO ODDO BHF. I have a question on your growth CapEx. You're guiding for EUR 700 million proportional growth CapEx. What is the guidance on consolidated growth CapEx just for the modeling?

The second question is on leverage. Looking at your share price, it also is clear to you probably that European investors simply want to eliminate their own economy and prefer share buybacks far over long-term strong growth CapEx plans. So looking at your leverage being at the low end of the range, what are you expecting for year-end? And is it logical to assume that the new share buyback announcement will come in?

Finally, apart from Australia, can you maybe give an update on your growth projects in South Africa, in EemsEnergy and in battery storage Netherlands?

Yes, on the -- let me start with the second question because the first question, I don't know by the top of my head, to be honest. So we need to see whether we can find a number and whether we're able to disclose it. Then on the leverage and the share buyback, yes, obviously, we prefer to grow the company because we think that the EBITDA multiples, which we can realize on the growth projects are still quite attractive. Obviously, if you look at the trading multiple of the company is historically quite low at the moment.

So that still makes it attractive to do share buybacks, but growth is still prioritized over share buybacks. But definitely, we will -- like we have done in the last 2 years, yes, we will always have a positive look at the share buyback if there is room to do it. We're going through our budget process in the coming months, update our long-term financials, see what the available room is. Obviously, a lower leverage helps us there. So that's the guidance I can give at the moment, Thijs.

And on the consolidated growth CapEx, it is going to be somewhere around EUR 300 million to EUR 350 million.

And then maybe, Thijs, on the last question, so update on South Africa, on Eems, on batteries. In terms of projects South Africa LNG fundamentals still continue to look very attractive. I think time lines is something that have to be watched given the fact that in order to build a power plant that the LNG would support or would basically supply into needs to get also the permit and we've seen that there's some delay on the permit process of the power plant. So that's what we continue to follow. Again, fundamentals still look attractive. The role that we can play looks very attractive. We need to work through these topics. I think that's on South Africa.

On Eems, as we say, happy that we have the compressors identified and being put into motion to have 2026 onwards, at least the technical challenge, the temporary technical challenge solved as we indicated. And I think we're going through the renewal process for Eems at the end of 2027, and that's an ongoing process.

And the third one was on batteries for the Netherlands. As we've indicated before, we have a few -- 2 to be specific battery positions that we are currently developing. That's in the Netherlands. We also have a few in Belgium, and we're developing all of them individually in the course of our normal project development funnel, expecting the first investment, if everything moves in the right direction, somewhere in the course of 2026. That's the idea.

So we continue to develop this field. There are opportunities, the role that we can play. We're actually confirming the attractiveness. And let's see how the development cycle plays out and how big this can become for us.

Maybe one additional question on growth CapEx. Are you also looking at acquisitive investments such as New Fortress has assets for sale. Is Vopak interested there? Or are you in talks on other acquisitive moves?

If we were, this would probably not be the right moment to share that with you. We're always looking at a lot of opportunities, Thijs. There's a lot of people that there that we get from people that have great ideas on what potentially could be done. And I think as long as it makes strategic sense for us as a company, we will definitely consider those and that could be in, I would say, the so-called more traditional space of our business, and it could also be in a little bit more adventurous pieces. But that could also, for instance, be on the battery space. We continue to keep our eyes wide open and make the right moves as we think we can get there.

And the question comes from the line of Dirk Verbiesen from ING.

I also have some questions. Maybe I'll start on the, let's say, the cost restructuring program, the ongoing program. What are your expectations for Q4? And is this, let's say, a program to counter maybe inflationary pressures on an ongoing basis? Or should we see some benefits structurally visible in EBITDA, let's say, as from 2026? That's my first question.

Second question I have is on Eems. And the announcement on Exmar and the floating gasification facility. Let's say, what is the -- maybe to get an idea on the size and scale of your commitments in this future prospect. Maybe you can share some there. And then on Oman, it is positioned in Accelerate as a potential project. But I also read that there are traditional energy flows as well. So maybe some clarification there on what the actual mix may look like and also in terms of timing on firm commitments, FIDs and so on from your side?

Yes. Let me start with the first question and then hand it over to Dick for EemsEnergy and the Oman question. Yes, on the cost restructuring, indeed, we have quite a bit of a cost focus, didn't start this year, but already 1.5 years ago, we took out one layer in the organization. So we have reduced the number of layers in the company. So basically, every business unit, which originally reported to the division and then the division to the Executive Board, every business unit now reports to either Dick or myself. So that is a benefit where we like to control, let's say, the support functions of the business.

Presently, we're in the process of looking at the global office, and we expect -- while you can -- we see it already in the monthly results that the cost is coming down of the global office, and that's going to continue in 2026. So those will be structural benefits, and we're also looking at our IT organization because we have commissioned most of our own systems on terminals where we would like to commission it. So IT department goes into a different phase. That's where we carefully look at the cash out of IT, which should also lead to structural benefits and more from 2026 because that program still has to be sort of designed.

And then we have all kind of business initiatives to indeed keep the cost under control, energy management, making sure that we are smart in operating CapEx, carefully look at the way we build our projects, so to really look at each and every angle to improve the business. Part of that is maybe to cope with inflation pressure. But for us, it is really to continuously focus on areas where we can still improve the cash flow performance of the company. That's the most important thing.

And then in a structural manner because the markets are quite good. The results have gone up quite a bit from a cash flow point of view over the last 3, 4 years, adding EUR 250 million cash flow to where we were in 2021. But we obviously want to make sure that we also run the company in a very efficient and effective manner. And thereby, we see still opportunities to increase our free cash flow while we are running at a high occupancy level.

And maybe, Dirk, on the other 2 questions, maybe first one on Eems, Indeed, so the current setup in Eems is we have 2 FSRUs. One is the one owned by Exmar and then the other one through a bit of a difficult structure, but in the end, owned by also New Fortress Energy. And that's the one that we're going to now replace in the renewal process. So after 2027, we will replace that FSRU with an FSRU from Exmar. The commitment that we have today is that we work together with Exmar on the renewal process, so the permit renewal and the customer contract renewal.

That's a process that we currently go through. And that is a process that obviously, in terms of commitment, the individual commitment, we would not disclose what the individual commitment is to Exmar, but we have exclusivity on the right FSRUs to make sure that we can go through this process and make sure that we get the renewal done and then have the 2 Exmar FSRUs in place in Eems. So that's the process that we currently go through, and that's why we've announced to have that -- to reach that agreement with Exmar. I think that's one.

And then the other question you asked was on Oman. And that's a joint venture that we signed with OQ. It's in the Port of Duqm and Duqm has a few attractive parts. And I think the fundamental attractiveness of Duqm sits in the fact that the renewable energy is very competitive over there simply because of the climatological circumstances of that part of Oman. So hence, the concentration of the country to produce green ammonia for exports is really focused on that part of Duqm instead of allowing all the individual producers of the potential green hydrogen, green ammonia to build their own infrastructure. The Omani government has basically said, let's bring one specialist in and make sure that we share the infrastructure in the export port of Duqm.

So that's the overall plan. In the meantime, and in the initial phases of the development over there, we expect that there's, for example, a huge potential for also LPG exports in the country and specifically through the port of Duqm. So that's the reason why for now, we've classified it as a fundamental long-term investment under the Accelerate. Yes, if the first investments come in and sit in LPG, we would probably reclassify part of that investment. But I think the key message here is it's a new country. I think the role that we as Vopak can play is really a very good role, and it's an attractive country for us to be in, and we expect quite a bit from that in the future. So excited about it.

Okay. That's very helpful. Maybe on the restructuring efforts you are implementing, is there another expectation for Q4 of a few million? And how long will this program last as an exception that you can apply it as an exceptional charge?

Yes. In exceptional, something still may happen in Q4 because the program is indeed ongoing. And as I said, more to come. The impact in Q4 will be -- the positive impact of lower cost will be a bit in line with what we have seen in Q3. And then obviously, any further benefits of this program are going to be included in the outlook of next year for '26. But definitely, we aim, as I said, not to be only to see an impact in '26, but also definitely beyond '26.

[Operator Instructions] And the question comes from the line of Kristof Samoy from KBC Securities.

Yes. I have 2 further questions. First of all, I still need to do some number crunching on the operational cash returns. But can you maybe detail already a little bit what is the reason of the drop in the OCR quarter-on-quarter? And then secondly, what about the Vopak Energy Park in Antwerp? How is this project progressing? And is there any material change following the outcome of the IMO meeting, which was not very favorable in terms of alternative marine fuels?

Yes. Thank you, Kristof. Let me tackle the one on the OCR, and then I hand it over to Dick for the Antwerp major development. Yes, by nature, but that maybe sounds a bit strange. But by nature, you see within Vopak always the cash return of the first quarter is the highest, and then it sort of gradually goes down during the year. And the reason for that is that most of the operating CapEx is effectively spent in Q4. So the pattern most of the time is like we spend around 10% of our operating CapEx in the first quarter and then 20% in the second, 30% in the third and 40% in the fourth. And that has to do with budget approvals with people need to design it and then start to really come on speed in the second half of the year.

And as a result, if you deduct the operating CapEx from the cash flow generated by the business, effectively, if the business is relatively stable, you will notice that the cash per quarter effectively goes a bit down versus the capital employed, which is relatively stable. And as a result, the OCR gradually goes down from Q1 to ultimately Q4. And then on average, we think that it's going to land somewhere around 15% for the year.

Maybe Kristof, on the energy park in Antwerp, continued exciting development. How excited can you be for a land that is empty? Well, that's exactly why we are excited for it because all the infrastructure that was on the land has been demolished successfully over the past period. We're now in the phase of the necessary cleanup and that soil cleanup that is currently going on with a massive project, which is going according to plan and in line, obviously, with all the obligations that we have assumed when we acquired the site, and that goes well. I think that's on the pure progress on where the land is developing.

Then on the commercial side and the development side of the land, there's a few angles that we take. There's an opportunity to host a green plastics producer over there that uses methanol as a feedstock. And that project is developing well. So we would host basically the plant on our site and build the necessary storage and infrastructure capacity needed to go to and from the plant. That's together with Vioneo. So that's one. And we're looking at ammonia and CO2 developments that look attractive, but depends a bit on the regulatory framework on how fast these developments would allow people to commit for it. I think the location continues to be very attractive for us. The outlook continues to be for us very attractive and interesting.

And then specifically on the IMO, yes, that will take probably a little bit more time for people to get sufficient clarity on what needs to happen over there. The fact that we potentially would have a methanol import opportunity to support the plant. I was just speaking about, gives us the opportunity, obviously, to expand in further methanol storage in Antwerp at this particular site. So I think, by and large, good progress on the pure development of the land and then the commercial opportunities are for us also attractive. Batteries, by the way, is also an opportunity that we see over there. There's land available, good power connection available, and we will definitely pursue all the options that we have to really turn this into Vopak Energy Park in Antwerp. So I hope that helps.

Now we're going to take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Thijs Berkelder from ODDO BHF.

Question on cash in the fourth quarter related to some items. Did you already receive the shareholder loans from the Indian JV back? And how much was that? Then you're indicating you will receive EUR 32 million back related to Hindustan LPG. What is roughly the proceeds from the divestment of Barcelona? And did you make any divestments yet in the Vopak Venture entities?

Yes. On the shareholder loan, so the application has gone to the authorities to get approval, but that's a bit of -- as I mentioned before, it's a bit of a longer process than you would hope for. But that amount is going to be around EUR 40 million. So we hope that, that is still going to be approved by the year-end, but I can't guarantee that, to be honest. So with the Haldia sales and dividend, which we will still get out of Haldia, we expect that shareholder loan plus Haldia is going to be around EUR 75 million cash in for the holding. The Barcelona cash in was relatively small because a lot of that money has been used to also repay some of the debt. So we will get some additional money, but it's lower than -- it's only a few million there.

And on the Vopak Ventures, yes, good that you mentioned it, Thijs, because effectively, we have been able to reduce the portfolio already quite a bit. So some cash has come in, but it's somewhere between EUR 5 million and EUR 10 million. So the portfolio is relatively small at the moment. So basically, we have decided the likelihood that we can sell the portfolio in one lot is pretty low because of the size of the portfolio. So basically, we're going to -- what we're going to do going forward is step by step, we will reduce the portfolio to a lower amount. And in the fourth quarter, we will also look at, okay, what's still the value of the portfolio versus what we think we can still realize and then we will update the market on that as well.

And it means a potential impairment of EUR 10 million or so?

That could happen, but too early to tell because we need to go through the process. That's a Q4 process. But yes, I don't have any guidance on that yet, but I will update as soon as I have that.

Now we will take our next question and the question comes from the line of Dirk Verbiesen from ING.

Yes. One follow-up, if I may. The remarks about the technical challenges in Eems and the solution or let's say, the problems have been identified. Is that -- is there a -- has that changed in a way that now a solution is found? Or is it more the same, let's say, tone of voice from Q2? Or have there been any developments there?

No same tone of voice, Dirk. What we've indicated is a temporary technical challenge. The solution for that challenge has been identified before Q3, and that sits in the acquisition of the procurement of additional compressor capacity. And that capacity is not typically something you buy off the shelf. That takes a little bit of time before they get in, and they are expected to be in service at the end of this year. And therefore, we expect to go back to a different and a normal type operation in -- as from 2026. So more or less in line. I think what we're more specific about now is probably the time line on when we expect it to be done, but all according to at least the plan that we have.

Dear speakers, there are no further questions for today. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.