Vantage Corp Class A Ordinary Shares

Corp's first half fiscal 2026 earnings conference call. My name is Michelle and I will be your operator for today's call. Joining us for today's presentation is Vantage Corp's co-founder, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board, Andre DeRozaro. The press release announcing Vantage Corp's financial results and business developments in the earnings presentation that will accompany the company The company's conversation today are available on the investor section of the company's website at www.vantageshipbrokers.com. Certain statements in today's call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions and involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Factors that could cause such differences include, among others, those described under risk factors in our filings with the Security and Exchange Commission, including our most recent annual report on Form 20-F. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law. The financial information discussed today relates to our unaudited interim results for the six months ended September 30th, 2025. These interim results are subject to adjustments that may be identified during the completion of our audit for the full fiscal year. Accordingly, investors should exercise caution in relying on these interim figures, which may not be indicative of results for the full year or future period. During this call, we may also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. Finally, I would like to remind everyone that this call will be made available for replay via a link in the investor relations section of the company's website and on the earnings press release. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Vantage Corp's Chief Executive Officer, Andre DeRosea. Sir, please proceed.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to review Vantage Corp financial and operational results for six months ended September 30, 2025. For those of you following the earnings presentation, I will start from slide three. As a reminder, the earnings presentation can be found on our IR website or can be viewed via webcast. Since our IPO in June 2025, we've made significant strides in advancing our inorganic global expansion strategy. As some of you may have read in our shareholder letter issued July 2025, the primary objective of our public listing was to enable growth beyond the Singapore borders. This initiative of building a global footprint began as early as 2023, when we established a subsidiary in Dubai and formally entered the Middle East market. More on our progress in Dubai will be shared later during the call. Our global expansion strategy focuses on four key regions, strengthening our presence in Asia, expanding into the Middle East, and establishing footholds in North American and European markets. As you can see in slide four, we recently achieved a major milestone by completing the acquisition of PJ Marine Singapore earlier this month and signed two separate sale and purchase agreements in December 2025 to acquire PJ Marine Shanghai and Paging Marine Consulted. These combined transactions total approximately 3.6 million in an all-cash deal payable in two installments. bringing three established chip brokerage firms in Singapore, China, and Hong Kong under the Vantage umbrella. Based on physical 2024 results, these acquisitions are expected to add an additional $3.5 million in annual revenue with a combined net profit margin of roughly 22.3%. Most importantly, this acquisition provides a strategic and seamless entry into the China market, a region we believe holds substantial growth potential in the coming years. On slide five, taking a look at some of the industry trends and market data, China currently accounts for roughly 35% of the global petrochemical production capacity and is actively shifting towards greater domestic consumption while improving feedstock pipeline infrastructure. Despite broader market volatility, the petrochemical sector in China is expected to remain resilient. Additionally, China continues to dominate the global shipbuilding and commanding approximately 48% of the global new build orders in 2025. All three firms present many operational synergies that align seamlessly with the Vantage's business model. We believe inorganic growth is the most effective and efficient way to accelerate expansion into new regions, and these acquisitions will provide an established presence and network in China. Combined with their existing operational infrastructure, this gives us an immediate platform to accelerate our growth and establish a footfold in China. PJ Marine Shanghai and Pajun Marine are still going through the necessary closing steps. All parties remain eager and committed to closing this deal. and look forward to officially adding our new partners into the vantage fold and begin executing our strategy in China. As we move to slide six, I'd like to turn to some updates for our Dubai operations. Our primary focus over the last several months have been cost management. We've made meaningful improvements to the cost efficiency, which we believe have positioned Dubai business to deliver a strong net profit margins going forward. Following a revamp of our team, the new streamlined Dubai operations are already showing encouraging early results and look forward to sharing positive progress in the next reporting period. We also recently closed a new trade lane contract in Dubai that is expected to add meaningful results to our bottom line. Our focus looking ahead in Dubai will shift to strategic talent acquisition. As we look to scale our operations, expand our service offerings, and ultimately drive meaningful revenue and profitability. Attracting experienced talent with established client network and proven revenue generating capability will be critical. We will continue to prioritize targeted hiring and discipline staff growth of revenue generating employees while we maintain prudent cost management framework we've implemented last year. Now onto slide seven. In 2026, we will continue to pursue acquisition opportunities, particularly in Europe and North America. As I shared earlier, this is consistent with our vision of building operational hubs in the four key regions, Asia, Middle East, Europe, and North America. Establishing our presence in these key markets will provide comprehensive global coverage, enhance market access, and robust client support that ultimately positions Vantage as a truly international ship brokerage firm. We are currently in the early stage conversation with a handful of firms for potential acquisition opportunities, as well as target teams and individual talent acquisition opportunities in London, Geneva, Houston, Texas, amongst other regions. Our goal is not only to expand Vantage's capabilities and manpower, but also to strategically enter or expand in niche markets that we believe are underserved and offer a strong long-term growth potential. Ship broking at its core is a people-driven business. Our people have always been the foundation of our success. and bringing in the right talent remains critical for expanding our capabilities and driving sustainable long-term growth. By centering our growth strategy around acquisitions, we can identify companies and talent that not only add immediate accretive financial value, but also enable us to create greater and lasting value together. By partnering with firms, and adding talent that offer clear operational synergies and strong growth potential. We aim to accelerate our presence in key markets, strengthening infrastructures, and scale revenues beyond current levels. Combining the strengths of each business and personnel will allow us to unlock synergies, diversify our portfolio, and position Vantage for continued expansion. Let's move to slide eight. Moving to a cloud-based operational control program, OpsWiz, and our IT business, we are pleased to announce a new strategic step for this business to unlock its full potential. After extensive internal evaluations, we concluded the best way to accelerate growth for this business is to spin it off into a separate entity. Our plan is to incorporate a private limited company in Singapore transferring three dedicated staff along with the IP and inherent value of OpsBiz into this new entity. Initially, the shareholders will include our subsidiary, Vantage BVI Corporation, myself and another partner. This decision is rooted in two key strategic objectives. First, it allows the IT business to operate with greater autonomy, enabling faster innovation and development without being constrained by priorities of our ship brokerage operations. Second, it creates a clearer financial structure for Vantage by segregating the IT-related costs from our core business, which we believe will enhance transparency and improve the bottom line performance. OpsBiz currently does not generate material revenue, so we do not foresee any impact to our top-line results. However, we see strong potential in this platform to evolve into a scalable solution for operational control and efficiency within this industry. By spinning out the IT business, we can attract specialized talent, explore partnerships, and potentially raise external capital in the future. all of which would accelerate the growth trajectory. We recently completed the valuation process of OpsWiz, and while the timeline remains fluid, our goal is to complete the spinoff before February 2026. We believe this move positions both Vantage and the IT business for long-term success, creating two focused entities that can pursue their respective growth strategies without compromise. Now, as we move on to slide 10, I'd like to walk you through our financial results for the six months ended in September 30th, 2025. Revenues for this period were 8.5 million compared to 10.4 million in the same period last year. The year-on-year decline reflects a broader market pressures driven by external factors, including tariffs imposed by President Trump and the July 2025 sanctions, which introduced uncertainty across global trade and dampened overall demand. Taking a closer look at our revenues, our sports revenues declined by 22.4% for the six-month period. However, the majority of the decline was attributed to the departure of a senior DPP broker, which resulted in the loss of a DPP contract. We view this as a one-time event and won't be consistent pattern going forward. We have already hired a new BPP broker to offset the recent loss and we plan to hire two more additional brokers and return the BPP business to a normalized performance going forward. Strategic talent acquisition will remain a key focus here, particularly within larger ship segments And we expect this to contribute to the increased revenues going forward. As you can see on slide 11, these results were partially offset by term contracts, which we have begun to prioritize our growth on. Term contracts provide us with a more stable and predictable revenue stream, regardless of market volatility, compared to our previous heavily weighted reliance on spot fixtures. which are typically one-off and non-recurring contracts. During the period, term contracts increased 8.9% year over year, reflecting positive outcome in our change in the revenue mix strategy. Encouragingly, volume of total fixing has remained resilient despite broader market uncertainty, and the time charter activity has grown. Looking ahead, our recent acquisitions and entry into the China market will further strengthen our project's revenue stream and create additional opportunities to support the top-line growth. Moving to slide 12, gross profit margins while down year-over-year still remain strong at 57.8% during the six months of 2025 period, compared to 68.6% in the same period last year. The decline was primarily driven by current market conditions, which resulted in leaner commission structures. However, this was partially mitigated by an increased focus on cost management. Net income for the period was approximately $1.5 million compared to $4.7 million last year. The decline was primarily driven by both lower revenue and higher operating costs associated with post-IPO structural adjustments, partially offset by ongoing cost management initiatives. These costs were not comparable to the same period last year. As we were not publicly listed at that time, accordingly, a year-on-year comparison doesn't fully reflect the underlying cost profile. We expect operating expenses to stabilize at approximately current levels going forward. While we remain focused on managing costs as a publicly listed company, We are committed to maintain profitability just as we've been consistently doing for the last 13 years. As of September 30th, 2025, net cash was approximately 11.7 million. The increase during the six-month period was primarily driven by the net IPO proceeds. We anticipate this figure will decrease by the next reporting cycle following the completion of the three acquisitions. As a reminder, these three acquisitions represent a total consideration of approximately $3.6 million to be settled entirely in cash across two installments, the first upon completion and the second on the first anniversary of the completion date. Let's move on to slide 13. Despite navigating through a challenging market condition, our forward book has grown to $1.2 million for the six-month period ended in September 30, 2025, compared to $760,000 in the same period last year. This increase was primarily due to the focus on term contracts over spot fixtures, allowing us to have more stable stream of income and greater visibility of future income. Revenue per head for the six month fiscal 2025 period was approximately 140,000 compared to 197,000 in the same period last year. The slight reduction was primarily due to the increase in non-broking IT headcount, coupled with additional several new brokers. Currently, our IT business is not generating meaningful revenue, which naturally impacts overall metrics as we invest more into this business. This is precisely why we are spinning out the IT business, which benefits both the ship broking and IT segments. By bifurcating the two, we manage costs more efficiently while we simultaneously access a broader and more robust pool of developers. The recent hiring of new brokers should be viewed as a strategic investment for future growth. We expect these investments to be generating meaningful returns over time, driving future revenue and profit growth. At present, we are focused on laying a solid foundation for sustainable long-term performance. It is important to note that it will take some time before revenue per head returns to normal levels. To accelerate this, talent acquisition, particularly targeting established brokers that can contribute immediately and meaningfully, will play a key role. This strategy is further supported by recent and upcoming acquisitions that enhance our capabilities. The China expansion is especially significant in this context. By entering this new market, we not only gain access to the petrochemicals market, but also the S&P market, with the latter representing higher value opportunities. This positions us to capture a greater revenue potential and strengthens the overall growth trajectory of the business. To provide some additional insight into the current market condition, the headwinds we are currently facing can be grouped into three areas outlined in slide 14. First, the market remains oversupplied with fleet supply increasing faster than demand. which has driven freight rates lower and reduced the number of high-value fixtures. This dynamic compresses earnings of shipbrokers' firms. Vantage deal flow has increased for the reporting period to offset the impact, with petrochemicals and term deals increasing by 26% and 200% respectively during the six-month period ended September 30, 2025. compared to the six-month period ended March 31st, 2025. Second, cargo flows have declined amid an industry-wide effort to switch to cleaner energy. While this shift to cleaner energy does lower general seaborne demand on fossil fuels, Vantage also focuses on broking renewable energy, particularly biofuels and vegetable oils. Our diversification across five key tanker market divisions remain core strengths, giving us flexibility to prove that depending on market conditions and emerging market trends. Although lower fossil fuel demand may affect results in the short term, we believe the growing demand for renewable energy will create significant opportunities over time. Lastly, as we previously discussed, geopolitical volatility, sanctions, and war risks continue to disrupt global shipping operations. These factors lead to route diversions, reduced market accessibility, higher operational risks, and fragmented trade flows. For example, the US tariffs have resulted in shorter supply chains and lower town miles as Asia replaced U.S. imports with Middle Eastern origin. Volatility in the product prices, especially prices are in backwardation, have also reduced the appetite for inventory price risk, resulting in reduced demand for floating storage as well as smaller quantities being traded. The resulting unpredictability has also impacted ship broker worldwide. Vantage's strong presence in Asia and Middle East has placed us well to weather the headwinds as trade flows become more regionalized. Now moving to slide 15. While we continue to navigate through the challenging market conditions, we have established clear objectives for 2026 that are designed to position Vantage Corp for sustainable long-term growth. First is the continued focus on global expansion into established strongholds to mitigate changes in trade flows from geopolitical volatility. We intend to pursue this through inorganic means, including targeted acquisitions of brokerage firms and talent acquisition of established and experienced brokers. In addition, we plan to deepen our regional footprint through strategic investments and in high potential markets such as China and Dubai, where we see significant opportunities for sustained growth and long-term returns. Second is the execution of a new strategy to prioritize term contracts to build a robust forward order book. Despite the broader market volatility, the revenue decline experienced during the six-month period was partially offset by the shift towards this strategy. In 2026, while some market volatility is expected to persist, continued growth in our forward order book will support sustainable, predictable revenue growth. Over the longer term, we will continue to expand our service capabilities across new energy sectors, including biofuels, vegetable oils, petrochemicals. We are particularly excited to see growth in the petrochemical space in China through our recent acquisitions. In addition, we will continue to evaluate adjacent sectors that are complementary to the oil tanker ship broking market we currently serve. This includes sectors including gas shipping, such as LPG, dry bulk shipping, and additional areas like FFAs, carbon, and paper trading. Lastly, with the IT spinoff, we will be able to strategically enhance the growth of our ship broking and IT business, manage more costs efficiently, accessing a wider talent pool to grow the IT business further. Our team remains dedicated to delivering on these strategic priorities through 2026. As discussed throughout today's call, while market conditions had a modest impact on financial results, the fundamentals of Vantage Corp's business and operations continue to remain strong. Over the past six months, we have continued to advance our strategic priority on global expansion, implemented adjustments to navigate the market volatility, and laid the groundwork to achieve our 2026 objectives. These efforts position us for long-term sustainable and profitable growth in the many years to come. As a further sign of confidence in our business and our belief that Vantage shares remain undervalued relative to the fundamentals and growth prospects, we have now executed more than half of our share repurchase program. We will continue to repurchase shares opportunistically in the open market, reinforcing our commitment to aligning our interests with those of our shareholders. We remain confident in our strategy, our people, the opportunities that lie before us. We look forward to executing our 2026 objectives and continuing to deliver value to our shareholders. This concludes our prepared remarks. We appreciate everybody taking the time to join me today. If there are any questions you may have, please contact our IR team. Their details can be found at the bottom of our earnings press release. Thank you again and have a great rest of your day.

Thank you for joining us today for Vantage Corps' first half fiscal 2026 conference call. You may now disconnect.