Star Bulk Carriers Corp.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Starbuck Carriers Conference call on the fourth quarter and year-end 2021 financial results. We have with us Mr. Petros Papas, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Hamish Norton, President, Mr. Nikos Reskos, Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Simo Spirou, and Mr. Christos Begleris, Co-Chief Financial Officers 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. Begleris. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. I'm Christos Begleris, co-chief financial officer of Starball Carriers, and I would like to welcome you to our conference call, regarding our financial results for the fourth quarter of 2021. Before we begin, I kindly ask you to take a moment to read the safe harbor statement on slide number two of our presentation. In today's presentation, we will go through our fourth quarter and full year results, cash evolution during the quarter, a walkthrough of our dividend policy, an overview of our balance sheet, and operational updates in the latest industry fundamentals before opening up for questions. Let us now turn to slide number three of the presentation for a summary of our fourth quarter 2021 highlights. The company reported a record performance for a second quarter in a row. Net income for the fourth quarter amounted to $300.2 million, and adjusted net income of $302.4 million, or $2.96 earnings per share. Adjusted EBITDA was $355.1 million for the quarter. On the bottom of the page, you can see the evolution of our adjusted net income and adjusted EBITDA performance. During the last eight quarters, our adjusted EBITDA has grown more than 10 times, illustrating the strong operating leverage Starbucks has on the improving dry bulk fundamentals. For the fourth quarter, as per our existing dividend policy formula, we declared a dividend per share of $2, payable on March 15, 2022. On the top right of the page, you will see our daily figures per vessel for the quarter. our time charter equivalent rate was $37,406 per vessel per day. Our combined daily OPEX and net cash GNA expenses per vessel per day amounted to $5,415 per day. Therefore, our TCE less OPEX and GNA is around $32,000. Looking at our chartering coverage, For Q1 2022, we have covered 80% of our fleet's available days at a daily rate of $26,100 per day. Slide 4 graphically illustrates the changes in the company's cash balance during the fourth quarter. We started the quarter with $371.7 million in cash. and generating meaningful positive cash flow from operating activities of $296.4 million due to the strong freight market. After including debt proceeds and repayments, capex payments for ballast water treatment system installments, buyback, and a third quarter dividend payment, we arrive at a cash balance of $473.3 million at the end of the quarter. Slide five has a walk-through of our dividend policy with an example of dividend calculation for the fourth quarter of 2021. As of December 31, we owned 128 vessels, and our total cash balance was $473.3 million. With a minimum cash balance per vessel of $2.1 million as of December 31, 2021, on February 16, 2022, Pursuant to our dividend policy, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $2 per share payable on or about March 15, 2022, to all shareholders of record as of March 2, 2022. The ex-dividend date is expected to be March 1, 2022. Please turn to slide 6, where we highlight the continued strength of our balance sheets. Our total cash today stands at $593.7 million. Meanwhile, our total debt stands at approximately $1.5 billion. Our working capital stands at approximately $128 million. Our full year 22 amortization is $207 million. We have five unlevered vessels and no debt maturities until the third quarter of 2023. Year to date, our company has distributed dividends of $4.25 per share. We have fixed 55% of floating interest rate exposure to LIBOR at an average rate of 45 basis points. In slide seven, we demonstrate the inherent operating leverage and cash flow potential of the company, and they use the free cash flow per share, as well as the potential cash flow yield. For example, with approximately 46,700 fleet available days per year, based on the current 2022 FFA curve, Starbucks would produce $6.4 of free cash flow and a yield of 24%. I will now pass the floor to our COO, Nikos Reskos, for an update on our operational performance. Nikos Reskos Thank you, Christos.

Please send a slide date. We provide an operational update. Operating expenses excluding non-recurring expenses were $4,310 for the 12-month ending in 2021. Netcast GMA expenses were $1,050 per vessel per day for the same period. Despite continued adverse COVID-related restrictions, which have a direct impact on OPEX, the combination of our in-house management and the skill of the group enable us to maintain very competitive costs, being the lowest cost operator amongst our peers, and continuing to rate amongst the top three of our listed peers in terms of right-ship rating. On the ESG front, Starbucks in 2021 has participated in a carbon disclosure project, the world's leading environmental disclosure platform, achieving the highest score amongst U.S.-listed dry dog companies. Starbuck will continue focusing on sustainability and integrating it in every process throughout the company. Slide 9 provides a fleet snapshot and some guidance around our future dry dog and balanced water system installation expenses for the next 12 months and the relevant total of high days. Our expected dry dog expense for the 12-month period is estimated at $30.3 million, for the dry docking of 31 vessels, with another 19.2 million towards our balanced water capex. In total, we expect to have approximately 787 off-hike days for the forward 12-month period. We anticipate that 97% of our fleet will be fitted with balanced water systems within the first half of 2022. The above numbers are based on current estimates around dry dock and retrofit planning vessel employment, and yard capacity. On the scrubber utilization front, Strava has by now accumulated 109,000 days of scrubber operating experience. With Hi-5 fuel spurts having stabilized at levels of around $200 per ton based on Singapore's stock market prices, where we bunker 60 percent of our total annualized volume, we expect to have recouped our scrubber investment in full by the end of the second quarter of 2022. With an estimated annual life consumption of 800,000 tons of HSFO across the fleet, for the remainder of 2022, not a conservative spot high-five differential of $150 per ton would be subsidizing our break-even by $2,600 per vessel per day. With 94% of our vessels cover-fitted, a continued increase in the high-five spread can be a significant value generator for our company. I will now pass the floor to our CEO, Petros Papas, for our market update and his closing remarks.