Imperial Petroleum Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Imperial Petroleum third quarter and nine months financial and operating results conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Please be advised that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our speaker today, Harry Vatias, CEO of Imperial Petroleum. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us for our third quarter and nine months 24 conference call. I'm Harry Vafios, the CEO of Imperial Petroleum, and joining me today is Fenia Sakilaris, who will be discussing our financial performance. Before we commence our discussion, we'd like all of you to read the safe harbor disclaimer on slide two. In essence, it's made clear that this presentation may contain some forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. We raise the attention of our investors to the fact that such forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of Imperial Petroleum and are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause future results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. In addition, before we commence our discussion, we'd like to clarify that during this call, we will quote all monetary amounts unless explicitly stated all in U.S. dollars. Turning to slide three, we're summarizing operational and financial highlights for the third quarter, nine months, 24. The third quarter of this year was quite satisfactory in terms of profit, when taking into consideration that market deteriorated in comparison to the first half of this year. Indeed, prevailing rates for both product and Suezmax tankers declined in Q3-24, mostly driven by seasonal factors and geopolitical uncertainties, thus creating an unexciting market environment. Market weakness is evidenced by our low quarterly operational utilization of 65.6%, which was further burdened by a dry docking of a product anchor and a minor incidence of our product anchor, the Magic Wand. The vessel remained idle for the whole quarter. Within this market of declining rates, we did manage to end the quarter with close to $11 million of profit. Our daily time chart equivalent of 22,000 declined compared to the previous quarter by 37%. nevertheless remain at the same levels compared to the same period of last year. Actually, when excluding non-cash items, our profitability improved compared to Q3 2023 by $6.4 million, equivalent to a rise of 142%. What we deem as remarkable is our solid liquidity position as we ended the third quarter with about $200 million in cash while our operating cash flow for the nine months period of 24 amounted to $68 million. Our zero debt position lowers our break-even and assists us to maintain profitability even when the market weakens further. On slide 4, we are providing a summary of our current Flint employment. Almost half of our fleet is under time charter employment. As customarily, our 300-size bulk carriers are under short-time charters, while two of our product tankers are under time charter employment. up until January 25 and August 27, respectively. Overall, looking at the market, spot rates for product tankers have declined when compared to the first half of 24. The typical seasonal decline in rates was this year compounded by uncertainty over demand, refinery runs, US elections, and OPEC decisions. As of the end of Q3 24, market spot rates for product tankers were 57% lower than in Q2 24, while for Suez Max's spot rates declined compared to the previous quarter was in the order of 30%. We currently see a cautious upward trend in product tanker rates driven by increased cargo flows as we enter into the winter season. On slide 5, we're reviewing the tanker market. After the strong market witness in the first half of the year, tanker rates have slipped since the start of the third quarter due to seasonal factors. Indeed, global oil demand growth slowed in the third quarter relative to Q2-24, while global tanker ton-mile demand fell 4.8% this quarter. The third quarter of 24 was affected by various atypical factors, the most crucial of them being the slump in Chinese oil imports, which decreased 730,000 barrels per day due to the deterioration of the Chinese property crisis and the adoption of non-oil transport fuels. Moreover, we witnessed low Middle East crude exports due to the seasonally high domestic consumption in the region, along with reduced refinery runs. Also, the dark fleet has become larger and more efficient than last year. As a result, Russian premiums have gone down, and some of the largest mainstream owners previously involved in legal Russian business have reduced their Russian activities and returned to the normal market. This has put increased pressure also on the freights of the normal market. In Q4-24, we have not seen any material improvement in rates. However, expectations are that the seasonal effect and the end of the refinery maintenance season will eventually push the market up also this winter, but we don't expect to reach the same rates as last year. Going forward, OPEC has pledged to move forward with its voluntary cut unwind, which is anticipated that this would boost cargo flows by 3 million barrels per day in 2025, thus raising tanker rates. On slide six, we comment upon tanker market fundamentals. The tanker fleet is seeing a record low growth rate in 24 with escalating deliveries expected in 25 and 26. It's worth noting that the new building additions in the coming years are less than the long run average growth rate of about 6.5%. Both the Mars and Suez Maxis have an aging fleet. is expected that about 20% of the product tanker feed will be above 20 years of age by 26, while 15% of the Suez Maxis is above 15 years of age. Depending on how geopolitical tensions and supply cuts will affect the market in the long run, strong fundamentals create the expectation that the tanker upcycle might last for the forthcoming years as capacity remains constrained. In addition, taking into account the high new building prices, it's also expected that the new tanker's own orders will remain limited. On the dry bulk market, Q3-24 earnings for handy-sized bulkers remained fairly flat, mostly affected by the slowdown of the Chinese economy. Chinese steel production was weak in Q3-24, marking an 8% year-on-year decline. However, there was an 18% year-on-year growth in Chinese steel exports. Looking ahead, two primary risks to drive-back demand are the unwinding of extra ton miles and a Chinese economic slowdown potentially worsened by U.S. tariffs. I'll now pass the floor to Ms. Aguilar in order to summarize our financial performance.

Hello. Let us discuss our financial performance in Q3-24 compared to the same period of last year. As mentioned earlier on, we marked a sound profitability amidst an unfavorable and uncertain market environment. Looking at our income statement for Q3'24 on slide seven, revenues came in at 33 million in Q3'24 compared to 29.4 million, a 12.2% increase compared to Q3'23 due to an increase of our avalanche fleet by 1.3 vessels and better performance of our product anchor as three of our product anchors underwent a docking in the third quarter of 2023 thus incurring significant idle time due to technical reasons. As mentioned earlier on this quarter, our idle time was hindered by the dry docking of one of our product tankers along with a minor incident of another product tanker, both events adding to idle time and undermining revenue. Voyage costs amounted to 13 million, increased by 0.4 million compared to the same period of last year due to expenses incurred in connection with the EU emission allowances in order to meet our obligation arising from the CO2 emissions as a result of the new EU regulations entered into force starting from January 1st, 2024. Running costs amounted to 7.2 million, increased by 1.1 million due to the increase of our fleet. EBITDA for the third quarter of 2024 came in at 12.2 million, while net income at 10.1 million, corresponding to an EPS of 29 cents. On an adjusting basis that is excluding non-cash item, our adjusted net income for the period was 10.9 million, marking a 142% increase compared to Q3-23. For 9 months, EBITDA came in at 52.8 million and adjusted net income excluding non-cash items at 15.6 million. Moving on to slide 8, let us take a look at our balance sheet for the 9 months of 2024. We enjoyed high liquidity. As of September 30, 2024, our cash, including time deposits, were in the order of 200 million. The majority of available cash is currently placed under time deposits, yielding interest income. For the 9-1-24 period, income from time deposits amounted to about 4.5 million, 2.1 million earned only in Q3-24. We also enjoy a flexible capital structure governed by high liquidity, zero debt, minimum liabilities, place us in an advantageous position to weather any market conditions. Proceeding to slide 9, we provide a snapshot of our strong fundamentals, such as dynamic profitability, as our net profit margin is in excess of 30%. We have a robust cash flow generation. In the nine months of 2024, we generated close to 68 million of operating cash flow. Going forward, the key considerations are the future of geopolitical tensions and the impact they will have on the tanker and broader shipping market overall. Concluding our presentation with slide 10, we summarize yet once more Imperial Petroleum's strengths. We feel that our strong financial performance in recurring profitable quarters is a solid proof of our argumentation as to why we believe Imperial Petroleum is worth investing in. At this stage, our CEO, Mr. Hari Vafias, will summarize our concluding remarks for the period examined.

In spite of an unexciting and seasonally weak quarter, Imperial Petroleum was yet again profitable. Our adjusted net income this quarter was up 141% compared to Q3 23 and our cost increased by about 60% compared to the end of the same quarter last year. Since the beginning of the year, we have generated a net profit of close to 46 million with a fleet of only 10 vessels. Apart from our ongoing profitability, our financial strength is shown by our cash of about $200 million in conjunction with zero leverage. Market was volatile and weak during Q3, and it still remains unknown how future geopolitical tensions will affect the tanker and broader shipping markets overall. We would like to thank you for joining us today at our conference call and for your interest and trust in our company, and we look forward to having you with us again at our next conference call for our fourth quarter results. Thank you very much.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.