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spk04: Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Green Rod Shipping Holdings LTD conference call on the first quarter 2022 financial results. We have with us Mr. Stephen Griffiths, Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Carl Ackerley, Chief Operating Officer of the company. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session at which time if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and wait for the automated message advising your line is open. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. We now pass the floor to one of your speakers today, Mr. Griffiths. Please go ahead.
spk02: Thank you, Operator. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining our call on the first quarter 2022 financial results. I'm also pleased to welcome Carl Ackerley to the call, who leads our commercial activities. Carl has spent over 10 years at Grinrod and plays an integral part of our chartering and operations. We look forward to his insights on the dry bulk market going forward. Let me please refer you to slide number two with the forward-looking statement disclaimer. On this call, we will make certain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our future financial and operating performance. These statements include information regarding future time charter contracts, outlooks for the dry bog markets, and other operating matters. These statements are based on the beliefs and expectations of management as of today. Our actual results may differ materially from our expectations. Investors should read carefully the risks and uncertainties described in this slide presentation and in yesterday's press release, as well as the risk factors included in our annual report. and our other filings with the SEC. We assume no obligation to revise or update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. In addition, during this call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. For additional disclosures relating to these non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliation to the most directly comparable gap measures, please see yesterday's press release and pages 23 to 25 of the slide deck, which is posted on our website and our filings with the SEC. Please turn to slide four for an overview of our first quarter 2022 financial results. After a transformational year in 2021 for Brynrod Shipping, in which we enjoyed record financial results for the full year overall, the company has enjoyed a historically strong start to 2022. For the first quarter of 2022, our gross profit, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted net income increased materially year over year, reaching $40.7 million, $50.2 million, and $29.8 million, or $1.60 per ordinary share, respectively. As of March 31, 2022, we had cash and equivalents of $106.5 million and restricted cash of $6.6 million, which was similar to the year end, despite the strong results, as there was a working capital increase due to the timing of certain receivables collected shortly after the quarter end. I will go into more detail on our financials later in this presentation. Please now turn to slide five to look at our recent developments. On April the 14th, 2022, we entered into a contract to sell the 2016 bulk medium range product tanker, Matupu, for $30 million. This will be full cost. In anticipation of the sale, we have exercised the purchase option for the Matupu under her existing finance arrangement at a cost of $25.4 million, following the expiration of the current spare boat charter under which the vessel operated. Delivery of the vessel to us is expected on or about May 30, 2022, before onward delivery to her new owners planned on or about June 1, 2022. On May 10, 2022, we exercised the purchase option on the chartered end 2015 built Supermax Gulf Carrier RVS Pioneer for an amount of $18 million, with delivery planned on or about June 18, 2022. The vessel will remain chartered in at her original contract rate until delivery term. Grinrod has four remaining purchase options, which you will find on slide 22 of this presentation, which reflects our chartering fleet updates and provides information on our long-term chartering vessels and associated purchase options. Also on May the 10th, 2022, we agreed to extend the long-term charter on the 2014 built Supermax bulk carrier, the RVS Crimson Creek, for a period of 11 to 13 months at a charter end rate of $26,276 per day, commencing May the 1st, 2022. On May the 24th, 2022, our board of directors declared an interim quarterly cash dividend of 47 cents per ordinary share, payable on or about June the 20th, 2022, to all shareholders of record as of June the 10th, 2022. As of May the 24th, 2022, there were 18,958,025 common shares of the company outstanding, excluding treasury shares. Now I will go over the financial highlights and performance for the first quarter of 2022. Turning to slide seven, the first quarter of 2022 was the strongest first quarter for charter rates in over a decade and lays a solid foundation for the rest of the year. In this context, revenue increased to $110.3 million in Q1 2022, compared to $68.4 million for the same period, 2021. gross profit increased to $40.7 million in Q1 2022 compared to $12.6 million for the same period 2021. Net profit attributable to owners of the company increased to $29 million or $1.55 per ordinary share in Q1 2022 from $2.2 million or $0.11 per ordinary share in Q1 2021. Turning to slide eight, we have placed a priority on building a strong balance sheet and have maintained a healthy cash position while repaying $7 million of our debt in the first quarter of 2022. This strategy has reduced our net debt to $126 million while leaving us well positioned to pursue our growth and capital return strategies. On slide nine, we provide our bank loans and other borrowings repayment profiles. at March 31st, 2022. We continue to have limited debt maturities until 2025, which, combined with a conservative amortization profile, provides us with balance sheet flexibility going forward. Overall, we maintain low leverage, and this is even lower when you take into consideration the market value of our fleet, which is comprised mainly of modern Japanese-built ecovessels. Let's turn to slide 10. We will now briefly discuss our dry bulk operational performance for the first quarter of 2022. Handy sized TCE per day was 22,201 for the three months ended March 31st, 2022, versus 12,053 per day for the same period, 2021. Supermax Ultramax TCE per day was $24,385 per day for the three months ended March 31, 2022, versus $13,259 per day for the same period, 2021. As of May 19, 2022, we have contracted approximately 1,310 operating days at an average TCE of $26,875 per day for our handy sizes, and approximately 1,568 operating days at an average TCE of 29,498 per day for our Supermax Ultramax. The average long-term chartering cost per day for the Supermax Ultramax fleet for the second quarter of 2022 is expected to be approximately $13,997 per day. Now turning to slide 11. the scale of the rise in the dry bulk freight rates is easily demonstrated versus our historical results. During the first quarter of 2022, approximately 90% of our fleet was predominantly trading either on index-linked cargo contracts, short-term time charter, or in the spot market, leaving our company well-positioned to take advantage of the strong freight rate environment. To put this into context, with every $1,000 change in TCE per day equated to approximately 10.8 million of TCE revenue during the full year 2021 for the core fleet. As you can see on the graph, the dry bulk environment in the second quarter 2022 is having a strong performance than the first quarter 2022 around levels we had in the second half of 2021. Now turning to slide 12, it shows the core fleet cash break-even analysis for the first quarter, 2022. Break-even per vessel per day was as follows. For long-term chartering, which includes a daily G&A allocation, on top of the charter rate, the cost was $14,890 per day. For our own fleet, it was $11,782 per day, and the combined average total for the core drywall fleet with $12,474 per day. The cash break-even rate per day includes operational expenses, net G&A, interest expense, and debt repayment. You can contrast these figures to the daily TCE rates in the previous slide to assess the robustness of our profitability. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Carl to discuss the Zybalt market.
spk01: Thanks, Steve. Thanks. Now, if you could please turn to slide 14 to look at the fundamentals of the dry bog sector and how they've been developing against the current market environment. The war in Ukraine has led to reduced growth expectations for cargo levels in 2022 due to the loss of nearly all Ukrainian seaborne exports and many Russian cargoes, particularly in the grain and fertilizer sectors. The demand hit is being partially offset by longer voyages as replacement cargoes are sourced from further afield. This is demonstrated by ton mile demand expectations that are still expected to increase by 1.6% in 2022, whilst actual tons are projected to only increase by 0.3%. Andy's sizes and supermaxes continue to be helped by congestion in the container sector, which is leading to unitized cargoes as well as other previously containerized cargoes, such as certain steels, scrap, grain, and bag cargoes, moving into bulk. There is also containerization of a small number of handy bulk carriers, particularly logger types, which can take containers on and under deck. Please turn to slide 15. As the slide depicts, grain trade is expected to contract in 2022 primarily due to the loss of Ukrainian export cargoes, whilst coal trade has been impacted as well due to some buyers avoiding Russian coal cargoes. There has also been increased domestic coal production in China, reducing the need for their imports. COVID lockdowns in China have also created uncertainty with factory production under pressure, though commodity pricing remains resilient. Regarding iron ore, Varley has stated they plan to increase exports in the second half of the year, as normally happens in Q3-Q4 after the summer rains. We are also expecting a big push from West Australia for June, prior to the Australian fiscal year end. Miner bulks are expected to remain resilient due to the aforementioned decontainerisation, as well as the emerging markets continuing to grow and require product. Turning to slide 16, the dry bulk order book continues to shrink to multi-decade lows. It is estimated to be at only approximately 6.6% of the fleet. This potential growth is quite favorable, especially considering approximately 22% of the dry bulk fleet is 15 years or older, and approximately 11% of the dry bulk fleet 20 years or older, measured by dead weight. Despite strong market conditions, new ordering remains constrained by uncertainty relating to cost, practicality in terms of trading patterns and new fuel availability, engine technology, and emissions regulations pertaining to EEXI and CII. For 2022 and 2023, supply growth is forecast to be 2.2% and 0.4% respectively on the handy size and supermax order books, which are the smallest in the dry bulk fleet. Turning to slide 17, while we saw handy-sized supermax spot TC rates decrease at the beginning of this year, we have recently been seeing the market strengthening. Looking at the chart on the right-hand side, handy-sized supermax asset prices have increased approximately 10% since the start of 2022. And as long as the market retains strength, we believe this trend should continue. I would now like to turn the call back over to Steve.
spk02: Thanks, Carl. Finally, let's turn to slide 19 for our conclusions and strategies. Let's start with our achievements in 2021. As reported earlier, the first quarter was the strongest in over a decade with an over 12-fold increase year over year in our adjusted net income per share. while our commercial strategy continues to demonstrate its potential with material profits generated from both our long- and short-term chartering vessels, while we have opportunistically exercised the purchase options on the RVS pioneers at very attractive levels. On the corporate side, we continued our flexible dividend and capital return policy in the first quarter, which will result in a cash dividend of $0.47 per share. As for our peak performance today, as of May 19, 2022, our contracted days for the second quarter have been fixed at higher charter rates relative to Q1 2022 and those achieved during Q2 2021. Now looking ahead, the war in Ukraine and the impact of Russian sanctions is disrupting the grain trade and other commodity flows from that area. though shipping demand has remained strong due to replacement cargoes being sourced from longer distances thus increasing tonne miles. The smallest new building order book in decades continues to support market strength due to constriction in vessel supply growth as uncertainty over engine technology and emissions hampers new building orders, particularly in the smaller vessel segments. New building orders in other sectors, such as LNG and container shipping, has limited shipyard spare capacity, meaning that most new orders could not hit the water until mid-2024 at the earliest. To the extent that demand continues to grow, the lack of available supply growth combined with EEXI environmental regulations in 2023 is expected to lead to an attractive potential multi-year window for the dry bulk market. With this, I thank you all for joining our call today and look forward to reporting further progress on Grimlock shipping. With that, we'd like to open questions. Operator?
spk04: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question via the audio, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for the automated message advising your line is open. If you wish to cancel your request, you may press the star 2 key.
spk03: We have our first question.
spk04: We have our first question comes from the line of Christopher Robertson. Your line is open.
spk00: Hey, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. Hi, Dave. So just looking at the couple of vessels that have charter expiry this year where you have the purchase option, so those prices are well below or at least meaningfully below the current market price for a resale or secondhand ship of a similar age. So can you walk through – Do you plan on exercising those options, or do you have a time period where you can wait those out to see what happens, or how are you thinking about those?
spk02: Yeah, so we have five of our vessels that have got purchase options. You know, they are all significantly in the money. We just contracted one, which is delivering shortly by the end of May, and the plan with the other four is to exercise those options, you know, over the next 12 months. We know the opinion that we should do them all at once. And as cash comes in, you know, we will exercise those options. So, yeah, the plan is to do all of them within the next 12 months.
spk00: Okay. And then how are you thinking about the, I guess, the financing? You mentioned cash there. So would you perceive this as an all-cash purchase or would there be debt financing as well?
spk02: So the likelihood is, you know, on this first one, we haven't raised any debt. And the intention is to do the same with the others, but it obviously depends on the cash flow. You know, we're looking at reducing our debt overall, you know, across the fleet, and this is one way of doing it is rather paying down debt. It's taking some time without debt. But obviously, we would still have the capacity to raise the debt down the line if we needed to.
spk00: Right. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. Yeah, thanks for the color on that. That's all for me today. Thank you. Okay.
spk02: Thanks, Seth.
spk04: We have our next question comes from the line of Paul Frantz.
spk03: Your line is open. Yeah. Good morning, Stephen.
spk05: This is Paul Frantz from Alliance Global Partners. Oh, yeah. Good morning. I hope Martin's enjoying his retirement. Sure he is. Could we just walk through, you just talked about exercising the options. Is there still the potential that maybe the Windsor and the Crimson Creek, you know, that you might be able to, you know, bring those in even though they don't have purchase options?
spk02: Look, contractually, they're not purchase options attached. There will always be an option at the end of the charter to extend the charter rate, but if it's not contracted, it would be more at current market levels at the time. So I would say very unlikely that we'd be able to bring them into our core fleet at the end of the charter period or the option period as well.
spk05: Okay. And then you did extend out to Crimson Creek. You know, there was a big jump, about 10,000 a day on the next 11 to 13-month extension. Can you just talk about how we should interpret that? Is that a signal that you think the market's going to be relatively strong, or have you been able to lock in the other side of that trade and lock in a margin on the Crimson Creek?
spk02: Yeah, it's a bit of both on that, but I'll let Carl on to that.
spk01: Yeah, the original deal was the extension after the initial five years was on an index basis with a floor and a ceiling. When that ended at the beginning of May, we ended into discussions with Marabeni to see if they wanted to extend they did they were for a while thinking they may sell the ship but they decided they were happy to go another year we were given sort of like first opportunities as being the being the long-term incumbent and we have a very good relationship with them as far as the rate itself is concerned yeah we did do very well on the first 60-day voyage, which locked in a profit that justified taking it forward. And we also hedged a significant portion of the paper for the remainder of that charter after that first voyage.
spk05: And any sort of ballpark margin number?
spk02: But it is certainly above the levels of what we charted it in at.
spk05: Okay. And that sort of leads into my next question. You know, if I look at your flat, you know, if I assume that second quarter available days are going to be flat with the first quarter, you know, on the handy side, you have 91% locked in, and on the super side, it's close to 70%. you know, really solid for this visibility for the second quarter. Can you talk about, you know, visibility into the third quarter? Have you – do you have any, you know, any charters in place for the third quarter? I assume you do, but, you know, can you give us sort of the ballpark?
spk02: Again, you know, we really just talked to Q2. We have said that, you know, we run pretty much – spots on 90% of the fleets. At this stage, there's not much cover into Q3, but we just stick to reporting on the figures available for Q2.
spk05: Okay. When I look at your cash levels relative to the purchase options, you can more than cover the purchase options with the cash that you currently have on the balance sheet. You shouldn't assume, but you know, looking at your second quarter cover and looking what, you know, rates might be into the third quarter and maybe even into the fourth quarter, you're going to continue to build cash. Any thoughts on, you know, the dividend policy? And, you know, you did this sort of looks like at the low end or the, you know, the minimum on the, you know, the formula. Any thoughts on the dividend going forward? Yeah.
spk02: Look, I think for now, you know, we're happy to stay with, you know, at the 30%. If you look at all the purchase options, the cost of those is $108 million, you know, and we have got, you know, that's about the balance now, but obviously we've got a cash covenant of $50 million. So, yeah, for now, I think it's a way, you know, before we start looking at potentially increasing the dividends, a dividend of 30%.
spk05: And just to clarify, Stephen, your intention is to exercise those options over the next year, but you do have more flexibility if you wanted to spread it out further, don't you?
spk02: Absolutely. So those, you know, the purchase options go all the way through from now, staggered up to 2025, 2026. I think there's one in there, 2026. So yes, we have got options. We don't have to do them now. but our view is, you know, you get them on without finance, it brings the daily cash costs down. As I say, we are a bit, you know, top-ish compared to our peers at $1,200, $1,500. So, you know, we are looking at ways to bring that down.
spk05: Okay, and if I could just squeeze in last one, or actually I have two more if you don't mind. One is that, you know, so you're potentially going to exercise the options you know, the asset market is really strong. As you say, the options are well in the market or well in the money. What about selling some of your older assets potentially? Absolutely.
spk02: Yep. So we've got five ships, handies that let's say are, you know, on the old side slightly older than the profile that we would like. So again, you know, we'd be looking to sell those And again, over the same timeframe, probably over the next year, not all at one go.
spk05: Okay, great. That's helpful. And then if I could just talk about costs. Others are talking about whether it's crew costs or other costs. Can you just talk about what you're seeing on the cost structure side? And it didn't look like you're looking out at much of a change, but can you just sort of Give us a little additional color on the cost side.
spk02: So the cost, I mean, we'd like to reduce the figure of 12,500 per day that we currently ran for 2-1. You know, we've got charter costs at the moment that will be slightly higher over the next year with this recent extension of the Crimson Creek. You know, but the conversion of these ships, as we've discussed, to own, it'll certainly lower our daily cost. And even more so if there's no financing attached. You know, OPEX as well at the moment is still an issue, continues to include some high stock repatriation costs arriving from COVID issues. We've got expensive flats, hotel quarantines. You know, we're working on reducing this, but it's difficult at the moment in the current circumstances. And there's elements of OPEX that have been hit by inflation as well. You know, on top of what we discussed with taking these ships on, these ships on without financing, we are looking to prepay some of our debts as well, which will also reduce the daily cash costs. The G&A at the moment increased some increased staff-related incentive costs as a result of the improved bottom line, but these are variable costs which will reduce significantly if the market changes. So that's really how we look. We're not confident in the exact figure on it, but I think with the plans that we've got for the rest of the year, we're looking to see a reduction in that figure.
spk05: Okay. And if I could just ask one more, you know, the wait era is over. The repos era has started. Is this, can you just talk about management succession, you know, how deep your team is and sort of what the plans are going from the management side, if anything? over the rest of the year and looking into 2023?
spk02: So look, so firstly, I mean, I worked alongside Martin for 12 years. You know, Carl has been in charge since 2010, just recently been appointed a COO. You know, we've got a good management team that's largely been together for about 10 years. And, you know, I believe we can continue to move from strength to strength in the years to come. You know, as far as succession in terms of my position, I don't think I'm at this stage.
spk05: I'm sorry, you sort of broke up on that, Stephen.
spk02: No, no, I'm saying, well, which part didn't you hear?
spk05: Oh, no, it's a very, just the last, your last comment, sorry.
spk02: Yeah, I just, you know, in terms of, I guess the question was along the lines of how long am I going to remain interim? You know, I don't have any comments on that at the moment.
spk05: Okay, great. Yeah, I didn't really know how to ask that question, and I appreciate your answer. Thank you so much, and great start. Yeah, thanks, Pat. Thank you.
spk04: Once again, I would like to remind everyone, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone.
spk03: We have no further questions at this time.
spk04: Mr. Griffiths, you may continue.
spk02: Thanks, everyone, for joining the call. That's really all I've got to say. Thanks a lot.
spk04: That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect. Have a great day.
spk03: Thank you.
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