Imperial Petroleum Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Imperial Petroleum Q1 2025 results conference call and webcast. All participants will be in a listen-only mode during the conference with no question and answer session. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Speaker Mr. Harry Vafia, CEO of Imperial Petroleum. Please come ahead.

Good morning everybody and thank you all for joining us at our Q1 2025 conference call for Imperial Petroleum. I'm Harry Vafias, the CEO of the company. Joining me on the call is Mrs. Fenia Sakelais who will be discussing our financial performance. Before we commence our discussion, please read the Safe Harbor Disclaimer on slide 2. In essence, it's 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 risk in our sentences which would cause future results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. In addition, we'd like to clarify that during this call we will quote monetary amounts. These, unless explicitly stated, otherwise are all denominated in U.S. dollars. On slide 3, we're summarizing our key operational financial highlights for Q1 2025. The first quarter of this year was quite eventful with policies such as U.S. tariffs, sanctions on tankers involved in Russian oil, and .S.T. port fees on Chinese-built vessels. These terminal events along with ongoing geopolitical factors such as the Russian-Ukraine war brought volatility to the rates particularly for tankers. The quarter broader softness in day rates with the market picking up by March. Imperial Petroleum's performance followed the market conditions. We had quite a soft performance during the first couple of months of the year but we took advantage of the market upside during March, hence managed to produce yet one more profitable quarter. It's worth to note that our quarterly profitability is ongoing since the fourth quarter of 2021. In spite of market rates being evidently softed on the same period of last year, with average rates for Swissmax and product tankers being lowered by about 25%, in Q1 we generated revenues of 32.1 million and a net income of 11.3 million. What is satisfactory is that compared to the previous quarter, that is Q424, our performance marked a notable improvement as revenue generation increased by 5.9 million or 22.5%, while net income increased by 7.4 million, a rise equivalent to almost 190%. We remain profitable and debt-free. Our recurring profitability fuels our cash generation. We ended Q125 with an envious cash base of close to 227 million. The cash base of Imperial Petroleum Isolation is about three times higher than our current market cap. On slide four, we are providing a summary of our fleet employment. As mentioned, we have increased our time charter coverage. Seven out of our 13 ships are currently under time charter employment. In more detail, our three handy-sized dry bulk carriers are employed on short PCs while four of our product tankers are under time charter employment with expiration dates between May 25 and August 27. Let us briefly comment on tanker spot rates. Market conditions in Q1 were softer than the beginning of Q24. Steel rates were stronger than the second half of Q24. From Q224 onwards, crude oil demand was affected by the closing of East and West Arbitrars, while for products, reduced refinery runs contributed to normalizing earnings. During the first half of Q125, soft earnings continued due to the quieter activity in the Asian and Atlantic market. The effect of sanctions on tankers involved in Russian trade imposed in March 25 tightened the capacity and strengthened the day rates. On slide five, as we mentioned earlier, geopolitics governed the tanker market in the quarter. The tanker market was simply navigating and reacting towards the prevailing uncertainty. Q1 began with U.S. announcement of sanctions on 150 tankers involved in Russian and Iranian oil trade, raising sanctions fleet capacity to 9.5 percent of the global VLCC fleet, 8.5 percent of the Suezmax fleet, 12.5 percent of the Afromax fleet. These sanctions came into full effect in early March 25 and had a positive effect on rates. However, the trade tariffs announced within February, with the U.S. imposing a 25 percent tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports and 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports and the respective trading partners announcing retaliations, filled the market with uncertainty. The reason for this is that over the long term, any trade disruption is a negative development as it affects demand for goods, hence has a direct impact on the shipping market. Currently, the market is not seriously affected as within May, U.S. and China agree to roll back tariffs for an initial 90 days period. The announced U.S. port fees for Chinese-built ships, if implemented, will be excellent news for us as none of our 19 vessels is Chinese-built. A latest development that has positively affected the tanker market is the optic announcement to the group announced to return 500,000 barrels per day between April and May. This added production gave a positive boost to tanker rates. Given the above, the trade of dirty tankers was positively affected by the OFAC sanctions on Russian business. Overall expectation for the dirty tankers, short to medium term, are positive, mostly due to the OPEC unwinding production cuts, the sanctions on Russian and prohibition of the import of Russian crude and dirty products to Europe staying in place. On the clean product side, the weak Q424 continued in Q125. We saw a couple of small spikes in the spot market through Q125, but they were short lasting, with generally ample supply of ships, both east and west of Suez. The situation in the Red Sea Gulf of Aden with the Houthis targeting commercial ships was one of the main reasons that in first half 24 was so strong and for the clean product market. Now we're in a situation where Red Sea Gulf of Aden looks like it could open again following an announced ceasefire agreement between US and Houthis. Should this reopening occur, it should be a negative for the clean product tankers. Slide six, we touch upon the tanker fleet fundamentals, which look promising both for the Suez Maxx and product tankers. In both categories, aging fleet at ways the impact of current order book. In terms of age distribution, about 20% of the product tankers between 44 and 50,000 dead with capacity is above 20 years of age, while the order book for these ships for the remainder of 25 and year 26 is in the order of 8.3%. On Suez Maxx, between 155 and 162,000 dead with capacity, about 50% of ships are above 20 years of age, while the current order book up to the end of 26 is in the region of 12%. On slide seven, we are introducing Imperial Petroleum recent and upcoming dry bulk fleet additions. Imperial Petroleum will add up until the beginning of Q3 a total of seven ships, five Supra Maxxs and two Kammer Maxxs. With these additions, our fleet size will increase by 60%, both in terms of number of ships and dead with capacity. Following these deliveries, the fleet of Imperial Petroleum will count 19 ships, 10 bulk carriers and nine tankers with a total capacity of 1.2 million dead weight. Overall, dry bulk carriers have a less volatile market cycle than tankers and we believe these strategic additions will add the conservative element of diversification to our broader fleet. In terms of employment, these vessels are typically employed on short time charters, thus avoiding banker costs and minimizing idle time. We also have a lower daily operational cost than tankers. Currently, the market for Kammer Maxx and Panamax dry bulk vessels is soft, but well above breakeven levels. The one year time charter rates for March 25 for a Kammer Maxx vessel was about 14,000. Due to the sizable element of these acquisitions, we expect every $2,000 increase in daily PC rates for these newly added ships to contribute an additional $5 million to our annual operating cash flow. Total capital commitment for these ships is about $129 million and currently our cash stands at about $190 million as within April 25, we repaid about $40 million for the purchase of the vessels Neptune and Cleaning Imperial. Even though we'll have sufficient surplus following the payment of these dry bulk vessels, we do expect that our profitable operations will allow us to quickly accumulate cash at current levels. I'm now passing the floor to Miss Sekiladi to summarize our financial performance.

Thank you Harry and good morning to all. Year 2025 commenced positively for Imperial Petroleum. Q125 was yet another profitable quarter, significantly improved compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. As our revenue generation increased by 22 percent while our earning income by 190 percent. Within Q125, we witnessed improved performance from most of our product anchors, plus we did add the product anchor cleaning period in January 2025. As discussed, market in the first quarter of 2025 was eventful in terms of geopolitics, sanctions, and trade disruptions. The quarter commenced at a low pace but gradually gained a full momentum. Looking at our income statement for Q125 on slide 8, revenues came in at $32.1 million in Q125, marking a 22 percent decline compared to revenues generated the same period of 2024. This decline stems from lower market rates. Indicatively, we mentioned that during Q124, average spot rates for product and Swiss max tankers were 25 percent and 24 percent higher than average rates in Q125. Moreover, during Q125, revenue generation was not evenly apportioned across the period, as about 55 percent of revenues were generated within March when market gained momentum. Voyage costs amounted to $10.5 million, $3.1 million lower when compared to Q124. This decrease in voyage expenses attributed to increased time charter activity, leading to a spot days by 16 percent and thus decreased banker consumption and lower port expenses. Running costs amounted to $7 million, increased by $1.1 million due to the increase of our fleet by an average of two vessels between the two periods. EBITDA for the first quarter of 2025 came in at $14.7 million, while net income at $11.3 million corresponding to a basic earnings per share of $0.32. Moving on to slide 9, let us take a look at our balance sheet for the three months of 2025. We enjoy a hefty cap space of close to $227 million and a debt-free balance sheet. Within this quarter, we managed to increase our available cash by 10 percent, while we marked a 9 percent increase in fleet book value as a result of our fleet expansion. Proceeding to slide 10, we provide the summary of our liquidity, profitability, and market considerations going forward. Our strong liquidity is undisputed, both in terms of cash and on our balance sheet and solid operating cash flow generation. Our available cash have been smartly utilized to assist income from non-core operations. In a single quarter, we generated $2.2 million of income from time deposits. Our daily TC earnings per fleet voyage day stand in the order of $20,500 per day, while daily cash flow break even per vessel is in the order of $9,000. Given that Imperial Petroleum is a debt-free company, it is evident that there is plenty of room for profit generation. In terms of market consideration, a focal point is the duration and steps pertaining to trade war, as well as OPEC plus further output increases, if any. Concluding our presentation with slide 11, we summarize yet once more our company's strong points, placing emphasis that we operate a quality-built fleet of tankers and drive-back vessels and have managed to demonstrate recurring profitability since the fourth quarter of 2021. At this stage, our CO, Mr. Harry Vafias, will summarize our concluding remarks for the period examined.

Another year has commenced with a positive momentum for Imperial Petroleum. We are happy, as we consider 11.3 million of net income generated in Q1, a very good result given the eventful but softish market. This is a busy period for our company, but at the same time exciting as we're taking on delivery of another six drive-back ships. Within the short life of Imperial Petroleum, we are expanding our fleet from four vessels to 19 by the second quarter of 25, and our goal of growing fast and transforming a small company to a medium-sized company was achieved. We feel confident that the diversified, quality, non-Chinese fleet we have created will pay off. Imperial Petroleum enjoys fast growth, recurring profits, zero bank debt, and liquidity as of March 31st of in excess of $220 million. In our view, ticks all the boxes that define a successful operation. Thank you for joining us at our call today and for your interest and trust in our company, and we look forward to having you with us again at our next call for our Q2 results. Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you and have a good day.