SFL Corporation Ltd. (NYSE:SFL) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Aksel Olesen: Not – I think we try to guide somewhat, don’t really like to be really too specific on quarter-by-quarter in advance. I think what you’ll see in Q3 is that you’ll see contribution from the Hercules in particular, as we guide the accounting for that rig will be according to service contracts we basically take that over the actually kind of start-up commencement of the drilling, just drilling periods, including mobilization, demobilization, also the costs. So that will also be a bit bumpy quarter-to-quarter going forward. Then in Q4, you’ll see basically the first car carriers contribution coming in same in Q1. So it can be kind of building up, I think, into Q1 and then Q2, you’ll see the full contribution from the rig and the car carriers. So it looks promising. Basically, I mean, everything is locked in. There’s no more spot contribution on the tankers somewhat on the dry up with that, that’s kind of marginal. But I think it looks solid.

Ole Hjertaker: And if we look at the charter rates on the drilling rig, I mean the first charter is around $375,000 or so per day. And then the recently announced charter is in excess of $500,000 and most of that goes straight to the bottom line. So that will have a good effect. But that, of course, is over time and well into next year.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. That all sounds great. So what it sounds like is the next quarter, there might be a modest jump, but this will steadily increase. And by the middle of next year, we might be looking a lot better. Is that right?

Aksel Olesen: I think instead we’ll be building up step by step.

Ole Hjertaker: And I think it’s fair to say that I think third quarter will be significantly up from the second quarter, because in the second quarter, we had that drilling rig out of service, so 0 revenues, but then with costs…

Unidentified Analyst: You have some costs you’re sitting on for the next quarter, right?

Ole Hjertaker: Yes. So we still have some costs into next quarter, but then we also have the revenues from the rig.

Unidentified Analyst: That’s what I’m saying is you have costs that you couldn’t book in this quarter, so you’re going to book them next quarter. So the revenues won’t be as good.

Aksel Olesen: It’s only 14 – approximately 14, 15 days from the second quarter that are being transferred into the third quarter. So not too much.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. That all sounds great. Okay. I have 1 request. And that is, I know when you do a deal, you don’t usually disclose the details, but what would be very helpful would be to know what the change in the cash position of the company is, once the deal has closed, or what the new cash position of the company is. So if you could consider giving that information out when you announce a deal, that would be helpful.

Aksel Olesen: Absolutely. I think what we do today is we do it on a quarterly basis. And I think one of our strengths as a company is to turn around quickly and close transactions. And sometimes we use cash on balance sheet just to close out the transaction and then in order to find optimal and the best possible price financing, we do the financing later. So that will be quite accurate actually to report that at closing. So I think we try to be very kind of open on the quarterly basis. And I think that’s, I think, what was feasible for a company like SFL.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Sounds very good. And what I just wanted to say is last time and last quarterly announcement or presentation, the sound was terrible and here on Zoom, it’s fine. So thank you very much for that and thank you for taking my questions. Bye-bye.

Ole Hjertaker: Thank you.

Trym Otto Sjølie: Thank you.

Marius Furuly: Thank you, Ole. Our next question comes from the line of Christian Wetherbee. Please unmute to ask your question.

Chris Wetherbee: Yes. Hey, thanks guys. Thanks for taking the question. So I actually had a question on the container side. So curious to get a sense of what you’re hearing from your customers just as it pertains to overall demand in the market. I know, obviously, charters are going to give you some insulation from fluctuations in the spot market. But just general thoughts on peak in terms of utilization of the vessels. And then anything that you can kind of think about in terms of that market. We’ve seen spot rates on some of the trans pack business begin to inflect a bit higher. Curious if there’s any discussion of potential stabilization in that business over a longer-term perspective? Or if you think this is a bit of a blip before we were to see more capacity come online out of the new building programs across the industry over the course of the next several quarters?

Trym Otto Sjølie: It’s kind of – it’s difficult to be very precise on what charters see, because – but in our discussions and from the utilization of our fleet, we see that the utilization is high. There is no waiting on newer ships, on the container side, all our charters are looking to invest in our ships together with us. And that has to do with the type of ships that we have as well. Of course, not all sizes are the same. But of course, in the sort of big theaters to large sources of 10,000 to 15,000 TEU ships seems to be really sort of the bread and butter of the lines. And so from our discussions, there is definitely no panic or any sort of big worry that we hear about. Things seem to be – they all seem to be looking forward, not any mix of rates, the box rates have fallen, that is an issue.