Company: HLX
Filing Date: 2025-04-02
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001140361-25-011655
Chunk: 37

Company: HELIX ENERGY SOLUTIONS GROUP INC
Filing Date: 2025-04-02
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 37
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 positioning to continue capitalizing on the current market. Looking ahead, we expect to continue our strong performance, supported by new contracting in 2024 at improved rates that increased backlog, driven by increasing demand for our decommissioning services internationally and continued growth in the offshore renewables trenching market. We expect the demand for shallow water decommissioning services in the U.S. Gulf Coast to improve as oil and gas properties revert to former owners due to bankruptcies, who are expected to address their decommissioning obligations.

| 36 |     | 2025 Proxy Statement |     | Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. |

TABLE OF CONTENTS Compensation Discussion and Analysis

2024 Compensation Program Summary Base salaries for our NEOs in 2024 continued to reflect the individuals’ contributions to our organization and align with our compensation philosophy. For 2024, the base salary for each of our NEOs remained the same as they were for 2023. The significant majority of our 2024 STI program continued to be based on Adjusted EBITDA, as the Compensation Committee continued to view this financial performance metric as the Company’s most important near-term business driver reflective of utilization, rates and cost management. Further, in recognition of the continued importance of Sustainability among our stakeholders, the Compensation Committee, with input from management and its independent compensation consultant, continued to incorporate a balanced scorecard of Sustainability-related key performance indicators (“KPIs”) in the 2024 STI program. Our 2024 executive long-term incentive program continued to be significantly weighted towards our stock price performance. Half of the long-term incentive award was comprised of time-vesting restricted stock units (“RSUs”), the value of which depends on our absolute stock price. The other half of the award was comprised of cliff-vesting PSUs, the payout (if any) of which reflects not only the stock price at the time of payout but also the performance of the Company over a three-year performance period, as measured in equal parts by the Company’s (a) relative TSR compared to that of a performance peer group established using a defined and consistent methodology and (b) generation of Free Cash Flow compared to a pre-established benchmark. Consistent with the prior three years, for 2024 the Compensation Committee determined to grant RSUs and PSUs payable in either stock, cash or a combination thereof, as determined in the discretion of the Compensation Committee.

| Over the 2022-2024 Performance Period, Helix:           
 ✔Ranked thirdamong its 19