Basically you can see there that a big chunk of the vessels is going to reach the age of 20 years in the following years, which means a lot of potential to scrap, which means that utilization definitely has some support, even if demand, and we’ll speak about demand in a second, would stay relatively flat. So only positive things to say about the supply side. Going into the asset prices, the market reacts as it does when the supply-demand balance is tight. We are seeing very, very healthy second-hand prices for both Suezmaxes and VLCCs. If we have to say something negative, I would say that, the VLCC second-hand market has not gone up as the underlying sentiment would have it. It’s been underwhelming a little bit, but we’re expecting this to catch up as the year proceeds, if the fundamentals stay as they are.
On the next slide, we have a few graphs on demand. Again, even though demand is growing slowly, it’s the supply-demand balance which is still looking very, very healthy. It’s well publicized that the only new VLCC of the year has already been delivered, so there are no more Vs coming in 2024 and you can see on the slide that the order book for 2025 is indeed very low or non-existent, with a slight growth in demand in oil, this should tighten the balance of supply-demand further. I’m already at my concluding remarks, before we go and take some questions, obviously, for Ludovic and I, this is a Euronav Q4 earnings call, maybe the last one as a pure-play. If the transaction of CMB.TECH on Wednesday is ratified, is agreed by the shareholders, then obviously the next earnings call will zoom in a lot more on all the different divisions that we will have added.
But for now, we are open for questions.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] So the first person who can ask a question is Kristof Samoy. You may unmute and ask your question, please.
Kristof Samoy: Hello. Good afternoon, Alexander and Ludovic. I have the few questions, if I may. The upcoming SGM, the approval of the acquisition, is that by a simple majority vote that it needs to be approved or do we need a qualified majority? And then, secondly, best case scenario, when would we see the first consolidation of CMB.TECH if the transaction is approved? And then, secondly, regarding the sale of VLCCs to Frontline, the delivery is spread in fourth quarter and first quarter. Can you give more detail on how this impacts the cash flow statement in the fourth quarter and the first quarter? How many sell off vessels in the fourth quarter in your cash flow statements and how much repayment of borrowings you foresee linked to these sales in first quarter and fourth quarter of last year?
And then third question, if I may, on Tankers International. The VLCC vessels which have been sold to Frontline are no longer part of the pool. How do you see this for Tankers International? What’s the impact there? And yeah, how do you see the position of Euronav in Tankers International going forward? Thank you.
Alexander Saverys: Okay. Thank you, Kristof. I’ll take the last question and then I’ll hand over to Ludovic. So, on TI, as we’ve stated before, as far as we’re concerned, it’s business as usual. As you know, we’re a 50-50 shareholder together with INSW. The fleet has obviously reduced, but operations are still going as they were before, and actually, in recent weeks and months, we’ve even added new vessels to the pool from other third-party owners. For the other questions, I’ll hand over to Ludovic.
Ludovic Saverys: Yeah. Great. Kristof, thanks for the questions. On the SGM next week, it’s simple majority, i.e., CMB can vote as well. So, hence, there’s a high likelihood that transaction will go through. On the consolidation of CMB.TECH, we have — the simple answer is that you will see that in the Q1 figures, which obviously will be announced in May. We have put an illustrative balance sheet in the Capital Markets Day where the main point to be pointed out is that we do not take any good will, i.e., the vessels and underwater in CMB.TECH will be passed on at book value in a year and a half. But so, you will see a full consolidation in the Q1 set of results. On the sale of the VLCCs, 11 VLCCs have been sold to Frontline in Q4, with a capital gain of $323 million.
13 VLCCs will be sold to Frontline, i.e., 12 have been sold in Q1 and one is being — will be sold around mid-March with a total capital gain of $372 million for Q1. The total sales amount was $215 million. The exact detail on the net, the full proceeds in Q1, Q4, there, I have to come back to you on that. If you just take an arithmetic average on 11 of 24 vessels, it will be around $1.1 billion in Q4 and then $1.25 in Q1. There was no debt on the ships while being delivered to Frontline. That is because within a year and a half, we have refinanced all the remaining fleets that still remains today in our ownership. We’ve re-leveraged those vessels to 55% of fair market value and we’ve used excess cash out of that to take out the debt on the vessels being sold to Frontline, which means that the $2.35 billion came in as net cash proceeds.
