Star Bulk Carriers Corp.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Star Bowl Carriers Conference Call on the third quarter 2023 financial results. We have with us Mr. Petros Papas, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Hamish Norton, President, Mr. Simos Spirou, Mr. Christos Meglaris, Co-Chief Financial Officers, Mr. Nikos Raskos, Chief Operating Officer, and This is Harris Plakotonaki, Chief Strategy Officer of the company. At this time, all participants are on original mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session, at which point, if you wish to ask your question, please press star one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. We now pass the floor to one of your speakers today, Mr. Spirou, please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. I'm Simo Spirou, Co-Chief Financial Officer of Starboard Carriers, and I would like to welcome you to our conference call for our financial results for the third quarter of 2023. 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 Q3 results, financing and share buybacks, and update on fleet and operations, the latest on the ESG front, and our views on industry fundamentals, before opening up for questions. Let us now turn to slide number three of the presentation for a summary of our third quarter 2023 highlights. Net income for the third quarter amounted to 44 million, or 46 cents per share, and adjusted net income of 33 million, or 34 cents adjusted earnings per share. Adjusted EBITDA was 84 million for the quarter. For the third quarter, as per our existing dividend policy, we declare the dividend per share of 22 cents, with record date as of December 5th, 2023. Since 2021, dividend distributions and share buybacks exceed $1 billion, or $10.7 per share. Our total cost today stands at 268 million pro forma for the delivery of our four remaining sold vessels and share buyback from Oak Tree. Meanwhile, our total debt stands at approximately 1.26 billion. On the top right of the page, you will see our daily figures per vessel for the quarter. Our time charter equivalent rate was $15,068 per vessel per day. Our combined daily operating expenses and net cash G&A expenses per vessel per day amounted to $4,851. Therefore, our TCE less OPEX, less G&A is approximately $9,200 per day per vessel. Looking towards fleet renewal, we have agreed to sell five of our vessels with an average age of 15.6 years. During the nine months of 2023, we have sold 12 vessels and received insurance proceeds from one vessel which had a combined average age of 12.4 years. Total gross proceeds from these sales were $272.5 million. This additional cost has been used for share buyback at a discount to NAV. On October 2023, we entered into two firm and two optional seed building contracts for the construction of up to four 82,000 deadweight ton Kamsar Maxx new building vessels with delivery dates in Q4 2025 and Q2-Q3 2026. Slide 4 illustrates a summary of the recently announced strategic repurchase that was agreed with Oak Tree Capital. We believe we have utilized a variety of tools to drive shareholder value, and we expect these transactions to be accretive to NAV per share, EPS, and DPS. As of today, we have agreed to repurchase 20 million shares at an average price of $19 per share from affiliates of Oak Free Capital. Given that the shares repurchased have been mostly financed by vessel sales at attractive prices, we are creating significant shareholder value as the implied NAV from these historical sales is higher than current NAV. During this quarter, we have issued and sold 678,282 common shares under our effective ATM offering program at an average price of $19.81 per share, resulting in gross proceeds of $13.43 million and locking a favorable arbitrage. As of the date of this release, we have 93,861,792 shares outstanding, or 83,861,792 as adjusted for the closing of the second block repurchased by Oaktree. At the bottom of the page, you will see an illustration of our share repurchase and the sources of financing that allowed us to complete the buyback. I will now pass the floor to our COO, Nikos Reskos, to talk about our operational performance and update us on our fleet renewal efforts. Thank you, Simo.

Please turn to slide five, where we provide an operational update. Operating expenses excluding non-recurring expenses was at $4,851 for Q3 2023. Net cash GMA expenses were $1,024 per vessel per day, for the same period. In addition, we continue to raise at the top amongst our listed peers in terms of right ship safety score. Slide six provides a fleet update and some guidance around our future dry dock and vessel efficiency upgrade expenses and the relevant total of higher days. Our expected dry dock expense for the next quarter in 2024 is estimated at 39.7 million for the dry docking of 33 vessels with another $8.6 million towards our vessel upgrade capex. In total, we expect to have approximately 1,000 off-hired days for the same period. In line with the EXI and CII regulations, we will continue investing in upgrading our fleet with the latest operational technologies available, aimed at improving our fuel consumption and reducing our environmental footprint, further enhancing the commercial attractiveness of the starboard fleet. Regarding our energy-saving devices program, we have completed and tested retrofits on 26 vessels, with seven more vessels to be retrofitted by the end of this year. The above numbers are based on current estimates around dry dock and retrofit planning, vessel employment, and yard capacity. During the third quarter, we have progressed further with onboard testing of carbon capture technology, with a capability to retain up to 30% in net CO2 emissions. We will continue working on carbon capture technology with our industrial partners, aiming in developing our cost-effective solution, which can be selectively retrofitted in the future on vessels of our fleet. We are actively working on a demand supply and bunkering of carbon-neutral fuels, together with safety consideration and vessel design developments. Let me turn to slide seven. that has an update around a recent new building order. We have decided to take further steps towards our Camsomax fleet renewal, having designed and subsequently ordered two latest generation Echo Camsomax vessels with deliveries in Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, including options. The vessels are to be built in China to a high specification, fitted with the latest fuel-efficient engine coming into production in 2024, a shock generator reducing the energy requirements while at sea, and alternate marine power provisions aimed at offering our charters the optionality to connect to a land-based power grid to support the vessel's entire loading and discharging operations. The above measures ensure best-in-class fuel consumptions and emissions. On the sales front, we continue disposing of vessels opportunistically, having agreed to sell five vessels at historically attractive prices reducing our average fleet age and improving overall fleet efficiency. I will now pass the floor to our Chief Strategy Officer, Charis Plakatonaki, for an ESG update.