SFL Corporation Ltd. (NYSE:SFL) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 17, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Marius Furuly - Vice President, Finance & Investor Relations

Ole Hjertaker - Chief Executive Officer

Trym Otto Sjølie - Chief Operating Officer

Aksel Olesen - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Richard Diamond - Castlewood Capital

Climent Molins - Value Investor's Edge

Chris Wetherbee - Citi

Marius Furuly

Welcome to SFL’s Second Quarter 2023 Conference Call. My name is Marius Furuly, and I’m Vice President for Investor Relations in SFL. We have a new format for the conference call this time using Zoom. And I hope this will be both as informative as usual and easier to navigate afterwards for you.

Our CEO, Ole Hjertaker, will start the call by briefly going through the highlights of the quarter. Following that, our Chief Operating Officer, Trym Sjølie, will comment on vessel performance matters before our CFO, Aksel Olesen, will take us through the financials. The call will be concluded by opening up for questions and I will explain the procedure to do this before the Q&A session.

Before we begin our presentation, I would like to note that this conference call will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as expects, anticipates, intends, estimates or similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These statements are based on our current plans and expectations and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future activities and results of operations to be materially different from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, conditions in the shipping, offshore and credit markets. You should therefore not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Please refer to our filings within the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more detailed discussion of risks and uncertainties, which may have a direct bearing on our operating results and our financial condition.

Then I will leave the word over to our CEO, Ole Hjertaker, with highlights for the second quarter.

Ole Hjertaker

Thank you, Marius. The total charter revenues were $174 million in the quarter, which were down from the previous quarter, primarily due to the sale of 4 spot traded tankers earlier this year. Over the last 10 years, we have changed the business model from a maritime leasing company to maritime infrastructure with long-term time charters to end users. Only around 9% of our charter revenues were from 7 bulkers and the container vessels employed on short-term charters and in the spot market.